On Time One Day Late

We here at the Team have a traditional Independence Day routine.

1. Burn meat in front of the house, feed friends and neighbors.
2. Haul the Team cannon down the block to Cherry Hill Park and burn some powder.
3. Shoot off fireworks in the culdesac.

Yesterday went a little differently.

Mrs. Tmj took a friend's daughter and her friend to Stadium of Fire. And at fifteen minutes shy of midnight, our friend's oldest daughter gave birth to a beautiful baby girl.



My suggestion of "Independence" for a middle name was ... gracefully... declined.

A fine time was had by all.

I have since woken up with a hellish summer cold. Mrs. Tmj, with the use of hooks and elephants, dragged me from bed so that I could make my second Weight Watchers weigh in to log a loss 8.6 pounds since beginning the program two weeks ago.

Forty two point four to go.

Happy Birthday, America. We love you!

Squeak Free

Mr. Reynolds notes that Obama is executing his long expected pivot toward the center where the war in Iraq is concerned.

"You could see this one coming."

I must point out that the move is practically soundless as a result of being lubricated by all those crushed hopes and dreams of O!zombies and progressives who thought they had found a leader they could trust.

New boss/old boss, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera...

Friend Of The Armed Citizen?

I just got my latest unsolicited bleg from the NRA. I've never seen one like this before.

I open the CD mailer and lo and behold I have in my hands disc one of the "Personal Firearm Defense" DVD series, presented by the American Rifleman Collection. This episode covers "combat focus shooting and home defense tips".

Also included in the box is a nice silver coin with a nice George Washington quote on one side and the NRA seal on the reverse.

The promotional material says the disc is "MINE TO KEEP"... which is true, even before the "IF YOU SEND $12.95" which is in the same sentence.

I didn't ask for it. They mailed it to me; they could have mailed it to "occupant", and if it wasn't solicited from here, it's mine when it hits my mailbox. That's the law, Festus.

However, I believe that the NRA needs every cent it can get to do the good work it does so well, especially since they have this obvious gaping wound in their fundraising model that is comprised of phone banks and now this poorly executed attempt to burden members with what appears to me to be an onion skin's thickness away from an outright scam.

I kept the coin because it's not worth sending back - not because they said I could. The DVD goes, unwatched, back in the provided postage paid return envelope, with a nasty gram for whatever boiler room employee opens it.

Then I sent an email to the NRA directing them here.

UPDATE:

Text of message I sent:

"I just returned the Personal Firearm Defense DVD I didn't ask be sent to me. I am highly irritated.

I wrote about it at

(Linky)

I declined your recent invitation to become a Life Member with a substantial discount off the going rate because I have been using my annual memberships as a way to contribute.

Is there a contact address I can write to where I will stop receiving blegs every other week? I recently contributed fifty dollars over the phone and now regard the decision as a mistake, especially if it puts my name in the hopper for more phone calls and even more straight- to- recycling blegs."

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It kind of writes itself, doesn't it?

UPDATE: Mr. Lileks weighs in on Tuesday's Bleat:

"There’s only one sensible response: we have to shut down Las Vegas. Yes, I know, they get their power from hydro, but juice is fungible; the power that goes to light up Vegas could be used to take oil-fired plants off the grid. Closing down Vegas would reduce Nevada’s carbon footprint in other ways: a quarter of all tourists come from California, and I’d wager they drive."

File under: "Can't make this stuff up".

Tidy Tidy

Colonoscopy GOOD. Some tissue off to biopsy just in case.

Doctor's advice: Eat more fiber. Chillax. BRING A BOOK.

Since I was going to be travelling immediately after leaving the hospital on Thursday, they gave me a sedative that didn't have as long a recovery time as the usual stuff.

I was up about twenty five minutes after the procedure and on the road a half hour after that. But I remember NOTHING but a few sentences said by the doc during his post and then back to complete awareness halfway through eating a BK breakfast sandwich, northbound on I15 heading to the airport.

Very laid back weekend. Spent Saturday cooking ribs (whilst having my prejudice against propane soundly thrashed) and helping put up the steel siding on my brother-in-law's barn. Ribs turned out decadent, barn is tight, and I got to watch other people get hammered.

SWEET weekend.

I have the Yugo in pieces out in the garage. There's a few decades' worth of cosmoline trapped in the stock so I'm letting the hundred degree heat sweat it out. I just wipe it down morning and night. The metal parts either in the parts washer or are laying on newspaper slathered in CLP, waiting for the wood to be ready. I shot this rifle over our Christmas visit so I know it is a fair specimen mechanically. The finish shows white on parts of the receiver and barrel, the bore is pretty dark but with distinct rifling, and the handguard has a hairline crack that I'll repair once I've gotten most of the oil out of the wood.

Should be a nice little project rifle, and that's a fact.

No work these past two days. I'm supposed to have a little map tomorrow.

Active Voice

A few posts before this one, I mentioned that I've got a medical issue going on.

Beginning last Saturday I experienced some symptoms that resulted in a visit with my GP. He decided that the best course of action, based on symptoms, his exam, my medical history, and my age, was that I undergo a colonoscopy exam as soon as possible.

That happens tomorrow. I am in the process of preparing for the appointment as I type this, fortified with the bottomless water cup at my side and having ensured that the bathroom door down the hall is open.

My doctor has rendered no diagnosis one way or the other. I feel fine, and the original symptoms have since substantially abated.

Looking back, my previous post was too clever by half. The reality is that my first inclination was to go with a butt joke angle and what I ended up with was instead just tepid and confusing.

I am humbled by the good wishes and concern I have received expressed by both friends and ... friends I just met. Thank you.

The procedure happens tomorrow morning. Afterward Mrs. Tmj will haul my tranquilized ass carcass to the airport, from where we will make our way to the environs of Pasadena, Maryland and the home of our in laws. There we will hook up with the goddesses, who went out there last week, and enjoy a relaxing weekend by the pool.

I get to bring home my present from last Christmas! We have to check it inside a locked hard side case, and also undergo a preflight inspection by TSA, as well.

Have a great weekend.

Local Primary *UPDATED*

Voters in the 3d Congressional District in Utah gave Chris Cannon his walking papers last night.

The morning radio news delivered the pronouncement that the Utah voters wanted a "more conservative" representative.

That's not quite accurate.

We want a conservative representative who gets the job done, and after six terms it was pretty clear that that wasn't going to happen. With the future in the hands of practically unassailable Democrat majorities in both houses we desperately need new voices not tied to the class of Republicans who squandered their mandate in favor of getting along with the opposition and the media.

Back when I was a Republican delegate I had the opportunity to observe, and speak directly with, Rep. Cannon at several different events. The moment that sticks in my mind was when he was questioned about the then - pending immigration amnesty and he interrupted the questioner with the words "We can't deport twelve million people!".

That's not the solution to the problem, and his obvious inability to see that is what compelled me to consider voting against him in that primary. His primary challenger at the time turned out to be an even worse choice than Cannon, so I ended up voting for him as a "lesser of two evils" choice.

Not again.

Thanks for your service, sir.

UPDATE: At 0740, Kelly Patterson of the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy at BYU was interviewed by KSL radio, and opined that Cannon fell primarily to a growing national anti-incumbent sentiment. First I've heard that it's national. It should be.

Dead Pool

1. How long does the energy supply deficit go ignored before the costs of feed, food, transport, critical fertilizers, asphalt, and the resultant cascade of retail profit loss go on before the argument gets away from blogs and pundits?

We're looking at a wholly avoidable catastrophe here. It is spectacularly crystal clear that nobody in any position of responsibility on any side is willing to stand up and point out that the cliff is probably behind us by now...

2. Will the Israelis use nukes or not when they go to Iran? I am out of the loop on their capabilities to project conventional power. I think that any IDF air operation will demand at least our cooperation if not our tangible support via tanker and reconnaissance assets.

I still believe that the US is going to do the job. Whether in July or after the election, I don't know. The longer time goes by, the less difference in outcome I see between Obama or McCain. Marxism or hubris, take your pick.

3. Is it possible for a political movement to get trapped in an orgasmic state? In my opinion the Dems' proposals to nationalize refining and the statement by the NASA Soros stooge Hansen that oil execs are guilty of "crimes against humanity" and should be prosecuted as such are strong evidence to support such a judgement.

Speak It, Brother!

I have no clue who Spengler is, but I've read and been impressed by his stuff for years:

"A religious leader must say, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," while a head of state must follow the maxim, "Do unto others before they do unto you." What divides the president and the pope is not so much their conflicting positions, but rather a difference in the existential vantage point from which each must respond to the great events of the world."

A very intriguing article on Bush, the Pope, and just how and why they have taken the paths they did. Well worth a read.



On a personal note, here at the Team HQ I've had some possibly unpleasant news of the medical kind. We were scheduled to do a runaway weekend to Maryland to hang with the in laws but I have to be at the hospital at 0830 Thursday for an unpleasant test that requires anesthesia. I have been assured they will fold in the mirrors before they park the bus, but even then the prospect of sitting in an airline seat for four hours later that day is a little daunting. Mrs. Tmj may be traveling alone after bringing me home.

I never turn down a prayer. Thanks.