A Little Gratitude Here

Via Instapundit, I have been gently reminded (again) that we do in fact live in wondrous times:




Tomorrow, please honor those that gave all but always remember:

"It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived."

George S. Patton

I live in a culture where the concept of heroism has been sufficiently corrupted so that not merely incompetent, corrupt (or both) men and women but even outright evil individuals and groups have risen to positions of national power.

In spite of that, we still do live in wondrous times. The fight isn't over until the your ashes are in the wind. Never, ever give up.

Return

We had a blast.

Mom sat in this guy's chair.

I sat in on the welcome aboard part of the tour and actually traded some "we had to do this" stories about construction with two Boeing engineers; if I remember correctly the younger of the two gentleman was the program manager for the SGANT system being installed on the ISS as we spoke.

Mom spoke with THREE astronauts. She has pictures to prove it, too!

I got to touch a moon rock. Still get shivers thinking about that.

Three thousand miles.

Mount Up!

Mrs. Utah has a slot at the NASA tweet up at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, Wednesday May 18th. They offered up one hundred seats and have over six hundred thousand followers. She won one! She's been following NASA since the sixties and this is the second to last shuttle mission; this is real bucket list stuff.

This was all so sudden that I didn't think I'd be able to swing (or afford) the time to go with her, but my boss got wind of what was up and kicked my ass off the job all next week. "Go with her, you moron, because we open the next project in June and we'll be back on fifty-five hour weeks, minimum."

And I was way too conservative on withholding last year, so Uncle Joe got to hold way too much of my money. The refund arrives in our account Tuesday so it's

ROAD TRIP!!!

time.

We will stop in Waco to visit my brother, and then on to Houston where we will be staying with one of Val's friends. I'm going to meet up with an hold high school buddy, too. When we last met, the Knack was bleeding edge.

Where does the time go?

We leave tomorrow at 0430. Y'all have a fine week.

Update

Just ducky.

Attitude Check

Happy as a clam.

Check

I believe that the timing of the Goldman Sachs suit is near the end of - and possibly the climax - of a decades - long list of actions planned, and now executed, by Leftist agents intent on destroying the Republic.

Destroy the national economy by accumulating debt four or five times greater than the annual GDP, compounded by unbelievably onerous taxation spiced with a shotgun blast of mandates, regulations, new entitlements, and oh by the way destroy the currency while they are at it...

Check.

Destroy the populations faith in free markets by regulating them out of existence over decades of incremental nationalization.

Then blame business for the collapse. Show trials to follow. Followed (immediately, as we have seen in the last couple of days) by even more onerous government siezure of control.

Check.

Destroy the faith of the citizenry in the representative republic form of government.

Well, if Obama, Reid, and Pelosi don't alarm you, you probably don't pay attention anyway...

Check.

Destroy the moral, ethical, and scholarly foundations of what a citizen should be, aiming instead, via public education, to create classes of victims conveniently manipulated as needed by whatever Leftist faction floats to the top of the current political cycle.

Go ask Bill Ayers what a Weatherman would do if he could end up writing curricula for public schools. Bring a camera; he'll be happy to talk to you.




Being right is supposed to bring ... joy? Satisfaction? Not here, not now.

Correspondence

To whom it may concern -

Today marks the last time I open a newspaper that I asked to be delivered to my doorstep only to be insulted. And then insulted again.

Our subscription is in the name (of my wife). Cancel it. We will be calling on Monday during business hours to confirm this change.

I used to open up those random copies of City Weekly I found blowing through the streets of Salt Lake just to read the breathless, trapped behind the lines editorials in the front of their cage liner. The casual hate and self righteousness was always good, too.

Your paper makes the vaporing of those overgrown dorm room communists look like journalism.

I'll have to go back to using junk mail circulars for fireplace tinder and drop cloths for painting/hobby projects. The average intelligence of individuals and grasp of current events by the occupants of this house will be vastly improved by the absence of your product from our home.

Sincerely,

A.R. Jones
Orem, Utah

(Edited slightly)

*UPDATE*

"This message is a confirmation that we have received your transaction request. Your request will be completed within two days. Thank you for the opportunity to be of service to you.

Customer Service Department
Newspaper Agency Company"

In Other Venues

Mr. Cobb asks a question I have addressed repeatedly over the last few years:

"I want to know the financial meltdown scenario that makes domestic politics turn violent.

What do you think? Why is nobody thinking the unthinkable?"

See Van Der Luen's Sidelines for more comment.

The socialists are way, way past being out of other peoples' money.

Now we just wait.

It's Official!

Worst.President.EVER.

The way a strategic deterrent works is that you publish the rules and then follow them. Simple rules. Known consequences. The dead certainty that actions will bring crushing retaliation.

Say goodbye to all that. I believe that this president has never won a fist fight. He might have scuttled the odd career or assassinated a character or two on his way up the thug life ladder in Chi. But the President of the United States has just telegraphed to the world that he thinks that "smart" or worse, "clever", counts for something on the field he's just stepped upon.

Simple. Known. Accepted. Well, we'll see how high the pile is, I guess.

At least now I understand now why Joe Biden is the vice president. Barak Obama picked the Senator from Delaware because Obama valued his keen intellect.

Somewhere, Jimmy Carter is weeping quiet tears of gratitude. He's off the hook.

Will the Democratic congressional caucus be able to fill a bridge table after 2012? If the world was fair - no, not a chance... but the only way out for the Dems is to be ready to impeach Obama at the drop of a hat, and then drop it themselves. And that's not going to happen - not with O being the second black president and all.

Not that the Republicans have anything going for them. But not being a Democrat might just be the most important quality a candidate or incumbent can have going into 2010 and beyond.

I've sold my old burb to the recycler, FedExed oldest Goddesses' long board to the East Coast, and repaired a niggling bolt issue on a good friend's Mosin Nagant M44.

Have a fine evening.

Batching It

Mrs. TmjUtah and the Last Goddess are on the road to Cabo!

My youngest daughter pulled almost 4.0 the last two years of high school and has been taking college courses this last year as well.

Mrs. Utah and I decided that special effort and results demanded recognition and reward beyond a nice dinner out or a reasonably used economy car... so the Goddess is cruising the Mexican Riviera for seven days, and Mom gets to get out of the house during the last snows of the winter.

Me? I get to finish my garages. The one spanning Block 75 just off Temple Square in Salt Lake, and the modest cinder block affair off the back of the Home of the Team here in south Orem.

I have BIG PLANS... but to name them would kill them. Look for an update in these spaces.

Off to the vet to get our allergy cat shot (with her SERUM. Geeze. Happens every Saturday, folks.)

I'm still looking for a buyer for my old 'Burb; want a parts price (it runs) and then I'll change that gelt right into Mosins or bulk ammo.

On the road....

21 March 2010

You may have woken up this morning to enjoy your rights and privileges as a citizen of the world's most successful and powerful republic. Make no mistake about it: your status is not what it was when you were enjoying your waffles and coffee. Citizen? Not really; your ability to pursue your happiness, your responsibility for your own freedom, has been denied by The State.

Subjects? Serfs? I'm not sure what we are now.

Citizens were understood to have rights inherent and inviolable; rights granted by a creator. Government was to be an expression of the people, established to execute those activities generally beyond the scope of the individual. Government was defined by the Constitution, and its duties enumerated.

And all other powers reserved to the states, or the people.

That's over now. We have arrived at that moment where the government that promises to give everyone everything they desire gets down to the business of taking everything we have. Don't know if we are subjects. Merely wards of the state? But we're not citizens. Not in the eyes of the Democratic executive and legislative office holders who earlier this evening nationalized our health care sector.

Oh, and the financing of higher education.

There are judicial challenges on the horizon, for sure... but I've got two words for you: Eric. Holder.

Welcome to the Coup.

I don't feel fine. Not at all.

Eve of Destruction

Professor Reynolds unleashes the ultimate weapon:

HEH.

Here is some required reading from Jeff Goldstein.

Neoneocon brings us news from Mr. York. Silver linings, perhaps?





I expect this weekend to bring the death of the Republic. Hyperbole?

Government now owns our core manufacturing, banking, and insurance entities and regulates the rest to a standstill. The last four decades of government subsidy of various sectors of pharma and health have been the prime mover in the spiralling costs of both. Nationalizing health care (and at the same time financing for higher education; you were not supposed to notice) makes Uncle Sugar your undisputed master... not your representative, nor anything resembling a shield of individual freedoms.

You may think you will have electoral options come 2010. Have you considered how fast this congress and president may move to provide amnesty for the millions of illegal aliens residing in the country? The natural result of such a move would be to invite a flood of yet more illegal aliens banking on the hope that the government might extend that amnesty to them, too. This is exactly what happened the last time an amnesty was tried, back in the eighties.

That legislation had amnesty with an assurance of increased enforcement of border security. That worked out well, didn't it?

Nothing like millions of unskilled workers to take the sting out of twenty percent unemployment numbers, I always say. Especially in the cities.

When the flood comes you must swim across the current to get to shore. Then go from there.

I've got nothing else to say, except for "good luck".

Range Day

0900 Saturday, 13 March, Lee Kay Hunter Education Center.

Testing .30'06 in my Remington 700 and Garand, shooting at least two Mosin-Nagant 91/30's for groups using four different surplus ammo lots, various pistols, with a special guest appearance by the EBR*.

If you are in the area, drop me a line at TangoMikeJuliet@gmail.com. Right now it looks like Mrs. Utah, a couple of coworkers, and me. Youngest Goddess is going to pass the word to some of her Fine Young Men and I may end up hosting a few of them, too. That doesn't mean much of anything, except I'll probably pack up my K98 8mm carbine(Russian Capture) and a hat full of that robust Turkish machine gun ammo on top of everything else...

Have a fine weekend, where ever you are.


(*EVIIIIIL Black Rifle)

Pretty Full Weekend

Work is NOT going to be ten hours a day, five days plus Saturdays. We'll just get the amount of production in we would have in that amount of time but no man goes over forty until further notice. Without overtime I miss several hundred dollars a week. That stings more than a wee bit.

I previously mentioned that I was having trouble with my reloading hardware. A pleasurable and profitable half hour spent in the august presence of Mr. Lamont Christensen, proprietor of Christensen Reloading Supply gave me the good scoop on how to get my equipment back on line, as well as providing some seriously useful data on loads for some of my favorite calibers. In exchange for his time and counsel I went ahead and purchased a hundred .310 diameter 180gr soft point bullets for building my Mosin target loads.

On Friday night Mrs. Utah and I ran out the last 200 rounds of 9mm Parabellum that was left on the table when the Dillon went down last week. Saturday and today I washed about five loads of laundry, decluttered and cleaned up our dining room and long bar, and in between those tasks went ahead and ran out a small lot of .30 caliber tracers and a test lot of twenty .30-'06 150 gr Sierra FMJBTSP deer loads. I noticed that the stock on my Remington 700 has warped a tiny bit and that it now fails the dollar bill test. So there's another weapon in the safe that needs a tweak...

Have a fine week.

Blink

Just a note to say that content will continue to be nonexistent.

I am buttoning up my part of a city block's worth of underground parking plus six floors of a tower...

... and I am back on a five tens schedule - at the very least. There will be some Saturday work, too, to get this baby put to bed.

Random thoughts:

1. The Democrat caucus in DC is acting in a suicidal manner. Good. I hope they get the help they so desperately need. Sometimes stepping off that ledge takes a little push. I've got a shower curtain rod they can tie off on, and a whole closet of out of style ties and dress belts.

Hell, I'll hang an extra rod down stairs if they don't mind forming a line.

2. After fifteen years of faithful service, my Dillon XL650 progressive reloading machine has developed a bind of some sort. Cursory inspection and a tiny bit of web research indicate that the arm pivot bushings need to be greased, but I really won't have a moment to spare to get it done for the next few weeks.

It was quite jarring to realize that the equipment had gone down. At the time the fault manifested I was actually in process of trying to find an empty ammo can to store the 9mm I had just finished loading up. I keep the ready ammo in Dillon Blue boxes, with the overflow living in .30 cal cans. I'm plumb full up. So I guess not having the reloader is not THAT big a deal. Still, it grates. These are interesting times.

I will probably tear it down Sunday...

Manspace

I spent the morning down in my reloading/ gun maintenance/ technical library/ art gallery/ leather crafting/ model building/ and gun safe room. Ten by fifteen feet with no external windows. Twelve feet of bench space is evenly split between the masonite topped half upon which there are two permanently affixed loading presses, and on the other half that I use for cleaning, leather work, and model building which is covered by outdoor carpet.



Wow. How cool is it to have all that in one place? Two places, really, since I store the bulk components and SHTF ammo in cans in the sub basement.

We really do live in wondrous times. I'm not ready for the future. But I'm prepared for it. That will have to do.

I wonder...

A poor read indeed, but I made it through the transcript of the State of the Union speech.

I am incapable of listening to the man any more. I thought that the Clintons were offensive but the revulsion induced from being lied to by that happy duo of grifters pales in comparison to the clumsy dishonesty, hubris, and arrogance that is The Won.

In one future to unfold there could be a Democrat desertion from the field; a wholesale retirement or even abandonment of seats from both the senate and the house.

Obama is clinical. He's already killed the Democrats. He's lining up the country for a head shot next.

The first man with black skin elected president, and he ran as a Democrat.

There's no way in Hell they will clean their own mess, our Democrat friends.

They'll bail. And in the midst of the rubble of our once great nation, as the pundits dissect the sad fate of The Won, the Democrats will begin to whisper how racist it was of the Republicans to take down that articulate and clean black man...

Buckle up.

What Next:?

"Charismatic authority, on the other hand, is part of the expression of schismatic tendencies in society. In contrast to legal or traditional authority, charismatic authority is the antithesis of routine activities and represents the desire for disruption and change of the prevailing social order. It is a necessary part of the dialectic between the human need for structure and the equally human need for variation and innovation in society. Charismatic authority is different from rational or traditional authority in that it spawns not from established orders or traditions, but rather from the special trust the charismatic leader induces in his followers, the peculiar powers he exhibits, and the unique qualities he possesses. According to Weber, it is difficult for charismatic leaders to maintain their authority because followers must continue to legitimize this authority. There is a need for the charismatic leader to constantly exhibit leadership performance to his followers to reinforce the legitimacy of his authority."

I don't think Mr. Obama has the capacity to change what he is. Buckle up.

Spring Is Right Around The Corner

... and there is certainly a glimmer of something good happening out there.

Seriously, though - we had almost TEN MINUTES this afternoon of full on blue sky sunshine. Out on the P1 deck it was almost warm enough to ditch a layer or maybe even go shirtsleeves. Ten minutes. It was fleeting.

Snow tomorrow. But today was a good day.

EXTRA EXTRA - Oldest Goddess living in New Hampshire just texted:

"Oh, and I'm watching MacGyver and he just said 'I hate it when that happens" and made me think of you. Lol, as do his nifty pocket knife skills."

Okay. GREAT day.

Me Too

Greg Mankiw, writing in the Gotham Litter Liner, musing about inflation:

"Second, the Fed could easily overestimate the economy’s potential growth. In light of the large fiscal imbalance over which Mr. Obama is presiding, it’s a good bet he will end up raising taxes for most Americans in coming years. Higher tax rates mean reduced work incentives and lower potential output. If the Fed fails to account for this change, it could try to promote more growth than the economy can sustain, causing inflation to rise."

It's a good read. He ends where I have been for the last while - that we are in uncharted territory here.

History teaches that demand and supply will always meet. I believe we are in a Monopoly Money economy already.

Who will kick the board, and when?

(via Instapundit)