Bulletin

Oldest Goddess, on the cusp of graduating high school in less than a week:

"Dad, I interviewed for a job and got it!"

Tmj:

"Very good. They know that you can't start until after we get back from Maryland, right? Which eatery did you decide to interview with?"

OG - looking me in the eye:

"Victoria's Secret."

Tmj:

OG:

"The one in the University Mall."

Tmj:

"Well, you could pick up some underwear for me if you get a discount, right?"



Point dad.

Life is flying by, isn't it?

Decorum

I grew up in Texas, then spent some time in the Corps.

One residual effect common to both of those experiences was an appreciation for rules of good behavior.

When the fecal matter is well and truly impacting the oscillating air movement device, there is absolutely nothing improper about bitching about the situation.

Carp, complain, lay blame... just as long as you are moving in a positive direction, moving toward a solution or at least an improvement in the status quo.

Weather. Fiscal problems. Arterial bleeding. When men (and I'm sorry to say that almost all my situational anecdotes for this subject do not feature women) find themselves ass deep in bad news, whether alone or in a group, there are two positive signs to watch for:

1. Somebody bitches about the problem... but in doing so defines it in relation to his or the group's obvious first step toward a solution.

2. The lone victim of adverse circumstance puts aside the urge to complain and gets on with dealing with the situation OR a leader steps from the group and takes ownership of the problem and initiates the solution.

It's an amazing thing to watch people stop being individuals and consciously work toward a greater, common goal. I have swung a hammer alongside Jimmy Carter in his capacity as an officer for Habitat for Humanity. Most of the houses I helped build I thought were executed quite well; some of the later ones... well, that's why I stopped participating after our first few years in Utah. Way back in the mists of time I held on to my piece of the rope as a battalion landing team of Marines pulled a 15,000 lb howitzer up a slope, through head-high cactus, in a torrential, after midnight rain, and back onto a road on San Clemente Island. I've talked across the body of an accident victim we weren't going to be able to save, about kite flying, with a teenage girl.

She kept on saying, "I didn't want this", but she never stopped doing the right thing.

I wish I saw more of that.

But tonight, I need to apologize for indulging in whining when the time for that is long, long past. I see the light coming, yadda yadda yadda.... or maybe, more accurately, the darkness falling...

So tonight, I light a candle and bend to the task of getting ready.

No promises on content or regularity of posting, but I will try to keep the most ballistic flights of hyperbole off this blog.

You have a fine one. And get to work. There is much we must do.

Excitable Andy?

Nope, not Sully. Me. Here's where my head is at today; the following is a comment left on Belmont Club:

Our future?

Collapse.

Social and economic.

I am as depressed as I have ever, ever been.

I'm sitting here at my desk with the McCain campaign's latest missive open in front of me:

"Make no mistake: If the Democrats succeed in gaining total control fo Washington in November, they will instantly move to raise your taxes, expand the federal government, socialize medicine, appoint liberal judges and retreat from Iraq." *break* "As someone who has done so much in the past for our Party, we need your financial support at this crucial time to strengthen our Republican Party's efforts to regain control of Congress and win the White house in November."

Well, hell, Senator; just what have you done for my country?

Thanks for serving in Vietnam, and upholding the highest standards of the U.S. Navy. But as an elected politician, you've authored legislation that strikes a deep and bloody blow at freedom of speech. Your "Republican" credentials are at best asterisked. You are lined up solidly with the Democrats on the most important issue of our time - the AGW scam.

It won't matter how many Iraqis and other brown people die after November; our collapsed economy will probably not leave much room to report on stuff like that.

Mr. McCain, I say now that I will vote against Barak Obama, for the good of the nation.

But every time you open your gob about "cap and trade" I am forced to reexamine what exactly it is that makes you any less harmful than Obama will be.

Good day to you sir.

A. R. Jones
Orem, Utah

P.S. The impact of fuel and other petrochemical products' costs are moving into areas that will start impacting the economy in direct and catastrophic fashion very soon.

All that federal pork in highway bills is going to look pretty silly when it comes time to pay for all the asphalt they've scheduled to place this year. The cost will be DOUBLE if not more than was budgeted.

Gas at $4.00 a gallon today in central Utah; possibly .30 higher in a week.

Watch the markets. It's going to be one of the three stooges (regarding Clinton's "suspension" of her campaign - I saw no stake; she's waiting for a stumble and will be on the floor in Denver, make no mistake about it) in November and the ONLY certainty is that the federal government is measuring corporations, the middle class, and investors for castration.

I can't be expected to vote for the Republicans when their actions are indistinguishable from the Democrats.

Just damn.

Have a fine weekend. I'm unplugging from the grid.

Yah, just a bit over the top. I know just enough about history to be terrified of the likely paths we are about to stumble down. I fear for my country.

I fear for my family.

As I said, off the grid. Later.

Hudna

Curious.


"The advisers said Clinton has made a strategic decision to not formally end her campaign, giving her leverage to negotiate with Obama on various matters including a possible vice presidential nomination for her."

No way the veep slot is even in the room, much less on the table. And this isn't about who gets to socialize healthcare.

Mr. Obama, I think you are in a bad place.

Manly Pursuits For The Weekend

Shooting at Lee Kay?

Nah. The High Command dumped a mission folder on me as I tied on my boots this morning. My mission, which has nothing of the taint of "if you choose to accept it", is actually a string of intermediate objectives like this:

1. Mow the back lawn.

2. Plant the flowers that Mom will bring home in the front beds, and pick yer own for the brick box off the dining room.(Mom is down hard with a summer cold. I did the shopping today -- no flowers.)

3. Coordinate with the West neighbor on completing reconstruction of the W'ly fence line, which still needs pickets.

4. Clean out the right bay of the garage. (Not as clean as I want it, but cubic is precious.)

5. Estimate and purchase sufficient OSB, 15/32 CDL, and 1"x6" sufficient to re-skin the garage addition.

There's more that needs doing ... but that's enough for today.

Shooting TOMORROW at Lee Kay.

Arrrrghhhhh

Enough. I'm going shooting tomorrow morning at Lee Kay. I will be there when they open at nine.

Have a fine weekend.

Oops

What a fine day this has been.

We had guests over to share baby back ribs off the coals and a sitdown to watch the directors cut of Independence Day.

The movie was carried on the Encore channel. They are having a big Memorial Day event and, after the last of the ID credits, rolled one of their extended commercials (I guess it might better be called a trailer) for it.

Well, near the end of the segment the narrator was paying respect to the men and women who over the years have done the muddy, cold, and bloody to preserve our freedoms. As he is speaking, you watch a montage of stills of U.S. servicemen and women from across the wars. Soldiers in Africa. Pilots in their Mae Wests standing in front of a Hellcat. Marines running up a beach. Sailors anxiously scanning the skies from behind the sights of their Bofors guns.

And a tired, unshaven Wermacht machine gunner looking into the camera from beneath his frost covered coal-scuttle helmet, MG-42 hitched over his shoulder. That photo may have been originally published in Signal, the German Army magazine, and most likely taken on the Russian Front.


Now to be fair, it was a tight shot and most folks probably won't look past the exhaustion and pain on the man's face. It is a striking photograph. And the chances that the person who put together the trailer is historically inclined are slight. This is not the picture in question, but it could have come off the same roll.

Oops.

Context Please?

The following vid appears to confirm what a lot of conservative folks thought about the 2006 elections:



I would really like to know where this happened, and what the occasion was. It's a real privilege to see an old hand laying out the tools of the trade, just the same.

Oh, and this is the first video link from Three Rounds Brisk.

We live in wondrous times.

UPDATE: Here's the playah:

"In the 11th Congressional District, Congressman Kanjorski is best known for his efforts to harness federal resources to stimulate economic development and support job creation. He has advanced vital projects such as the $250 million Wyoming Valley Levee Raising Project to protect residents from flooding and the $48 million renovation of the VA Medical Center in Wilkes-Barre. Congressman Kanjorski has also continued to increase flood protection throughout Northeastern Pennsylvania by helping to secure federal funding for multiple flood control projects."

He was a trial lawyer before he hit the big time.

We... the Democrats..." and "Now anybody who was a good student of government knew that wasn't true".

Damn. Honesty is just busting out all over, isn't it?

UPDATE II: Just another defender of American exceptionalism and free markets.

Free Translation Service

UPDATE: What she said:

""My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. You know I just, I don't understand it," she said, dismissing the idea of abandoning the race."

Which meant:

"I'd climb right over his cooling body if that's what it would take."

Every once in a while a little honesty creeps into these campaigns. Refreshing, ain't it?

All joking aside, she's right, and not merely in the event of violence. Obama is a train wreck looking for a downed bridge and time is Hillary's friend. Even if she's just pushing her car on the shoulder, she'll still be on the track if Obama takes himself out.

It occurs to me that of the two, I can more accurately predict what Mrs. Clinton might do in a given situation than what Mr. McCain would choose to do. That's unsettling.

We all knew that Mr. Clinton was a liar and womanizer, as well as being light in the political accomplishments column, long before the '92 primary race was decided. The media brought their own kneepads and lined up to service him; being anointed the "Comeback Kid" for not losing badly in early primaries eventually helped land him in the White House. Here in 2008 the hummers are being enjoyed by Mr. Obama, but he looks worse the longer he stumps, which was not a failing of Mr. Clinton.

Everything goes back to Watergate. The denizens of the media want to be anything but objective. They decide which they hold: either the crown or the axe, then set out to fulfill the chosen Narrative for their targets... er, candidates.

Hillary is being ignored in the hope that she will just go away. If that situation isn't a statement attesting to the ignorance of our political punditry and journalism corps I don't know what is.

Madame Senator is pretty tough, in a grasping, mean sort of way. She's a long leg up on the media in that she understands what power really is, and that it's nothing the most conceited, self important talking head or columnist ever get close to.

In fairness, the Junior Senator from the great state of New York is in fact a lot tougher than I ever gave her credit for. Because of that Mr.Obama isn't near out of the woods yet, even with all the favors he's getting from the Best and Brightest.

We live in interesting times.

(UPDATE: Hasty edit for clarity and a flailing attempt to use proper grammar.)

Milestones

I have found in the federal government, for most of my forty-seven years, the most to dislike about this great nation of ours.

I've never been disappointed to be an American. Far, far from it. Embarrassed now and again, of course, by specific acts of specific people that reflected poorly on our community BUT I always remember that freedom means "free to screw up".

So what is the Congress of these United States up to these days? Well...:

"The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation on Tuesday allowing the Justice Department to sue OPEC members for limiting oil supplies and working together to set crude prices, but the White House threatened to veto the measure.

The bill would subject OPEC oil producers, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela, to the same antitrust laws that U.S. companies must follow."

Yes, we already knew that there exists a statesmanship vacuum in our hallowed halls. I don't think anybody realized until just now that there is a Special Olympics training camp where the U.S. Congress used to be.

Our legislative branch won't pull the trigger on a soon to be nuclear Iran, and can barely be bothered to acknowledge that the war they did support is almost won, in spite of their apathy, inattention, bad faith, or treason (match the names with the labels; there's plenty in each class). They will shatter the world food market in exchange for farmer/agrigiant money. They won't allow parents school choice, but they will fund charter schools cum madrassas run by Islamic fundamentalists. They won't develop domestic hydrocarbons, they won't permit refineries for the ones we do have, they won't permit nuclear technology, and they think the answer is to SUE nations who we BUY stuff from at world market value.

And with what are they going to threaten the people we BUY oil from? That we will screw with the refining and payment at our end of the pipeline.

There is a silver lining, if only a sickeningly faint glimmer: maybe these feckless bastards and bitches may finally realize that lawyers really aren't "all that" when the real world is the arena. You know, where nations bump ugly.

We are represented by fucking idiots.

And that makes us...?

UPDATE: NO!.

(Update via American Digest) (Link Corrected)

Great News

I have tested positive for Lyme antibodies. But not to a level sufficient to call me infected. I guess it's a clinical thing.

Woot! Oh to not hurt any more; how sweet it would be.

Two weeks of antibiotics, and retest.

I didn't work today, and am on call for tomorrow.

Weekend Snapshot

We got our pander payment yesterday. I purchased two hundred fifty rounds of .223 in 55gr soft point. It's official:

I now have enough ammunition.

And if you knew me, that statement would make your jaw drop. But it's true, just the same.

Today: Yardwork. Tomatoes to be planted. Flower bed to be cleaned out. Lawns are already mowed, next comes fertilizer spikes around the drip line of our mighty, late spring budding, Catawba tree. Weed n' feed the lawn, use Life Begone herbicide on the dirt back drive and the edges of the concrete drives and garage foundation. Paint the vehicle gate on the back fence. Also, helping the One True Love finish details with the near-complete living room remodel on a by-request basis.

I hope to go pistol shooting at Orem Rec Center later today.

Ongoing blogblather: here, here,here, here, and most important of all, here.

Things to look forward to:

Hanging shelf standards where the bookshelves used to live, at the landing on top of the stairs leading from our living room to the basement.

Finding out how the Lyme disease test comes out. I fear I studied for that exam. But it will be nice to have some idea why my major joints don't want to get with the program.

I worked three days last week.

Hope your weekend is going great, and that the coming week brings you good luck and great joy.

Storm Warning

My employment as a land surveyor is tied to construction activity.

I may have more time for yard work, home maintenance, and yes, blogging, in the near future.

I won't be alone.

No Surprises

Obama picks up a key endorsement:

""We like Mr. Obama and we hope he will win the election." Why? "He has a vision to change America."

They like Carter, too, back then and today.

(via Instapundit)


Aside: WE ARE OUTTA HERE... until Monday. Y'all have a fine one. And if you need to blow shit up, make sure the neighbors are cool with it, okay?

Gunners!

It's cannon shooting time.

We'll be on the road Thursday for a weekend with our southern California friends at a location just north of Edwards Air Force Base and east of Feinstein's Folly. We are going to an area the locals graciously revealed and authorized us to use after the state fish cops got around to chasing us out of the original cannon shooting venue (Homestead I) that had been the scene of continuous, biannual cannon shooting parties since the mid-1970's. To my knowledge, this last October (Cali was on fire. All of it.) marked the first interruption of the biannual ritual in cannon party history.

(The actual facilities of the state Park are minuscule, but it exists solely because the boundaries were drawn to screw locals out of long-existing prospecting, off road vehicle use, and shooting venues having nothing to do with the canyon itself. It was done as a pander to environmentalists in the same fashion that Clinton screwed Utah with Grand Staircase)There were no facilities the first four years the area was designated as a park, and then it was merely fenced.)



If you live in the SoCal or southern Nevada area and are interested in an opportunity to participate in a three (and maybe more) tube cannon shooting weekend, contact me by email. There will be at least one bowling ball mortar on the firing line, too.

Since we will be in California, I will not be bringing exotic weapons. However, I am bringing a fair spread of my milsurps and enough ammo for all comers to get a good taste o' the boomy goodness. There are two cannon gongs (300 and 500 yds) and a generous number of targets, such as suspended steel gas cylinders, plates, and three foot harrow discs scattered out to 500 yards as well. The shooting area itself is not as extensive as the old line at Homestead I, but the impact and backstop areas are actually better since there is now way for anybody on or in a vehicle to blunder into the danger or beaten zones.

On Saturday night there will be Mrs. Tmj's camp spaghetti, along with campfire garlic bread... and ...AND... Utah State Fair blue ribbon recipe Dutch oven cobbler. This is all dry camping, no facilities and especially NO WATER. A vehicle with decent ground clearance OR a lot of driver patience is required to access the site.

Have a fine day.

Because I'm Mean

31

The questions asked to determine your score are actually quite pertinent.

I never employed an opponent's body as a weapon, but once used a foe's head to block a punch from the next guy on the dance card.

Where did all those years go?

(via American Digest.)

Flame ON!

Wow. Here's an excerpt from a "Dear Camille" letter:

"The men you always see under her are to a person passive-aggressive, sadistic, mean, little, petty beta-male pieces of work who would not naturally succeed in a common male-type hierarchy. By that I mean an environment that values straightforward achievement rather than the darker political arts."

I could have written that.

Ms. Paglia responds, including this:

"I agree that the male staff who Hillary attracts are slick, geeky weasels or rancid, asexual cream puffs. "

I could have written that, too. Not as well as her, of course.

Who would want Sidney Blumenthal or Sandy Berger on their team? Hell, in their carpool?

The circus continues!

(via Drudge)

On a related note ("flames") I am involved in a contentious exchange here.

Back On My Head

Back in late February, my company approached me about our winter staffing, specifically what was going to happen with my project.

Short story: We needed to cut back due to the extreme weather. Their idea: lay off at least one man, with my immediate assistant seeing his hours cut back at least a day a week for as long as the nasty weather held.

My idea: we put those two in that situation, after training them up with me for one and two years respectively, and buddy, they'll find a job that doesn't require them to be up at five and at the office by a quarter to seven, then out in single digit weather eight or ten hours a day.

So I took a leave, left my second man in charge, and as far as I know the company kept both of them busy. It's a slightly Pyhrric victory, since my longest-tenured man is leaving on his LDS mission later this month... but it was worth it.

I spent March remodeling our living room and being a Mr. Mom. Tomorrow, I go back.

I already feel as if I never left. I am not so sure that is a good thing.

Onward!

Thank Goodness (Updated 4/7)

...that Hillary is coming to save us from that filthy corporate lucre.


"The considerable crossover between the couple's decades of political fundraising and their personal profit also extended at times to the former president's charity work and his presidential library, though many records related to those remain secret. What is clear is that numerous financial patrons -- individuals as well as large corporations -- repeatedly emerge in the Clintons' circle."


What part of "scam" don't people understand?

I can sort of maybe kinda sympathize a little bit with Michelle Obama. Right now, I'm embarrassed to be an American. Surely we can do better than the three clowns and their attendant cast of blowers and flappers that comprise our political cream -
can't we?

UPDATE: Related.

Click

Today I am forty seven years old.

I am speechless.

You have a fine one.

FRIDAY!!!!!

Fridayyy! Off to Wendover, Utah/Nevada for the opening event of Mrs. Tmj's SCCA Solo racing season. Maybe some riflery in the desert.

I'm STILL pulling gunge out of the retired PU I mentioned here.

And talk about time - I put yet another notch on the stick come Sunday. They go by like pickets seen from an express train, don't they?

I have to finish installing the new baseboards in the new living room before then, make a dump run, AND do a roundtripper up to Mrs. Tmj's work in West Valley City to drop off her phone before she takes off at two to head directly to Wendover.

I just got a Big5 gift card from my sis in law. Ah, enablers! I love her so.

I will be around Happy Valley until this evening. Youngest Goddess has a dance recital at seven that I will tape (even if it's digital recording) and then will proceed west on I-80 to join the OTL in Wendover.

Have a fabjous weekend!

Why I Blog

Mainly, because I find essays like this:

"I encounter an enormous and growing number of people who have no frame of reference to the whole world, and everybody and everything in it, except that which they learned from watching entertainment. But unlike the elderly I mentioned, they are not using the TV to remind them of a world they have already participated in. They are deriving their reality from the flickering screen. Every single thing they say or do is filtered almost entirely through the lens of movies, teleplays, and magazines -paper or virtual- things that use reality as a veneer, if that, and simply to lend verisimilitude to wholly fictitious inventions."

... and am able to pass them on.

Well, I would, if I had any traffic.

RTWT.

(via American Digest)

Required Reading

Mr. J.R. Dunn chronicles the origins and history of the bastard stepchildren of classical liberalism:

"Instead of joining the Whigs and Know-Nothings in historical oblivion, liberalism surrendered to its internal rebels, the Democratic Party's left wing, indistinguishable in beliefs and intent from any hardcore socialist party on the international scene. In 1972, they ran one of their own, George McGovern who in 1948 had served as delegate for communist front-man Henry Wallace) for the presidency. "

In my opinion, the elections of 2008 will be the crucible that breaks what is left of the Democrat Party. There's no "there" there, and hasn't been since the eighties. The party convention will be in Denver in the fall. This convention is where their SUPER Delegates will fatally alienate either the Black Democrats, the White Female Democrats, or The Jewish American Democrats, or some combination of the three.

The Party requires all three of those groups to be nationally competitive. They have parsed their victim and identity politics so finely that it is now become impossible to successfully pander locally... which is why their last successful president was smart enough to run just above and outside the Party playbook. Clinton was not a Democrat so much as he was a charismatic, media attractive operator who wasn't a Republican. The Democrats didn't so much as gain a leader as they submitted to a pimp. They've gone the sixteen years since rolling for the Arkansas grifters pretending to be the class of the game, but it's awfully hard to hide the bruises any more.

I think there's a kind of delicious irony there.

Well, they are fresh out of players who can make the act work. While the Super Delegates go about the business of destroying the Party inside the convention center, the Base will be outside destroying any chance that the Party will be competitive in the general elections this November.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATES:

Rumblings from within the beast.

And Karl keeps knocking the ball out of the park at Protein Wisdom.

Trivialities

I went shooting with our veterinarian on March eleventh. I brought my SMLE No.4Mk1 and my most recent Mosin acquisition, a second arsenal refurbished model 91/30 retired PU - type sniper.

I cleaned both rifles after the outing, following procedures used when corrosive ammunition has been fired. I put the rifles back on the rack with damp bores, put the bolts in the safe, and went about my business.

Two days later I returned, wiped down all the metal with a cloth dampened lightly with CLP, and ran patches through the bores of both rifles. The SMLE patch had just a tinge of gray (I clean vigorously the first time, then expect the CLP I leave in the bore to loosen what I missed the first time.

The patch I ran through the Mosin was a lot darker, and showed a tinge of green mixed with the gray. Seeing green indicates that some of the gilding (jacket material) is still stuck in the grooves. I thought "No biggie", ran a brush soaked in Hoppes Lead and Copper through the bore and let it sit overnight.

Okay. It is now two weeks later, and I punch the Mosin in the morning and in the evening, and I'm still bringing out crud. It's as if there are strata of carbon, gilding, and lead packed into spectacularly deep grooves. The cleaning rod swivels like a barber pole going down the bore; a much more positive feel than my other C&R milsurps.

I checked my other retired PU and the two Mosins closest to it on the rack, and upon close examination it appears that it, too, has very deep grooves compared to the "stock" 91/30's.

I'll have to fly this by the folks over at The Gun Thing, but not tonight.

See, I told you it was trivial...

Here They Come!

If you are a fan of old movies, or merely of an age where you grew up watching a lot of matinées, you recognize the pedigree of the post title.

In every movie featuring hordes of hostile aliens/barbarians/tribesmen, there comes a moment where some helpful defender peers over the barricade at the charging host and shouts "Here they come!" for the benefit of any cast member who may have stepped into the outhouse, or for those in the audience who may have become distracted by their date.

I have previously opined here and here that the Black Democrat demographic will rebel at any move on the part of the SUPER Delegates to cross the popular vote results of the Democrat Primary process. Or what is perceived to be the "popular" vote; under DNC rules as they exist right now, only God and Stephen Hawking have a clue what the true value of that quantity is.

I love it when a plan comes together; to celebrate, I am linking to Talk Left where the opposition muses possible action in response to exactly such a move by the SUPER Delegates. (There is a link to KoS on that page. I don't link to those people.)

Big Tent Democrat writes:

"Here Markos and I agree. If Obama is the pledged delegate leader and the popular vote leader (as me, Kos and a cast of a thousand bloggers, NBC, etc, expect), then any action by the super delegates to subvert such a result would be outrageous and wrong, imo of course (his italics in original)."

The real meat is in the comments. I won't quote any of them, you need to read for yourself. It's an exquisite study in what happens when your politics are ruled by identity and expediency. There are some assumptions repeatedly put into play that ... make me giggle. Suffice it to say there are a lot of very unhappy campers, and their default tactic is to throw a tantrum and break stuff when they don't get their way.

It ain't pretty, but then neither is sausage making and we need both breakfast and a government, so there you go. I'm glad I don't live in Denver.

Have a great day! Oh, and here they come!

(via Instapundit)

Beautiful Things

The MEU I was deployed in made a training call/port visit in SW Australia in 1986. We heloed into Lancelin National Park for a week of live fire and maneuver with the RAA, then spent a week split between the city of Perth and the much smaller Freemantle.

We had arrived off Freemantle after getting everybody back on board from Lancellin. There is a passage through the reefs that allows large ships safe anchorage in all but the worst of weathers. I was on the USS Tarawa, an LHA, at the time. The morning we were supposed to begin liberty in Freemantle, I woke up before dawn and stepped outside to enjoy a smoke on the catwalk that ran the length of the ship, beneath the flight deck.

It was cloudless, with absolutely no wind. The sky was such a pure, dark gray blue that it was impossible to see the horizon. I could look down in the rapidly growing light (in the South Pacific, sunrise is like a leisurely flash bulb) and actually see details on the bottom some hundred feet below.

It was dead quiet but for the hum of ship’s alt power;.I think we only had half our steam up, and that only for emergencies. I could hear the creak of the anchor chain riding through its port fifty feet forward.

I had never seen anything so beautiful in my life, nor as peaceful. Not until the hundreds of dolphins all rose up, all around the ship, softly blew, and then rolled back beneath the water.

Haven’t seen anything to top that yet.

Observation

Get these ladies a tray of sandwiches, stat!

(via Instapundit)

Friday!

I've been on unpaid leave for a month. Spring is undeniably here. My hypothyroid meds seem to be working as far as the mental issues go... but geeze I'm huge.

My youngest daughter is off to Denver for a WinterGuard competition. there is a darnfine chance her team will place well or win their class.

My wife is wasting, I tell you wasting away before our very eyes... using Weight Watchers! I am very proud of her.

Oldest daughter is working hard to cover past shortcomings so that she can graduate with her class, and I am proud of her, as well, for all the hours and brainsweat she's put in these last months.

This last little bit of time has been spent remodeling our living room. The carpet went in just yesterday. We have installed a floor joist section to bring the entire room to a single level, patched a ton of age cracks and wear blemishes on the existing drywall, and installed a new front entry and storm door. The horizontal shades are on the way, and painting should be complete by the end of the weekend - complete enough to get the (refinished) oak furniture back in place.

I am a lucky man. I hope that your week wraps up on a high note, and your weekend is filled with friends, joy, and love.

Wishes

The following is a comment I put up on this post on Protein Wisdom:


I’d like to claim my ancestors fought to overturn slavery, but as near as the family memory can tell, my great-great-great grandparents on my father’s side were slaughtering settlers in the northern great plains while the Federals were distracted by General Bragg. They later took an extended vacation in Canada, crossing the border there about forty eight hours ahead of General Crook’s flying columns.

… and my European ancestors didn’t arrive until at least the 1870’s.

So, tell me, where’s my stain, Senator?

I love America. It’s my home, and it doesn’t matter what color I am or who my grandparents were - the sky is the limit. And as near as I can tell, Senator Obama is just another hack politician willing to shaft as many well- meaning but ill informed people as he has to to get the power he wants. His speech was designed to cast anyone who questions his candidacy as a racist and as an opportunity for the MSM to surrender to his narrative.

Oh, and to maybe kill Andrew Sullivan via a masturbation- induced seizure. There’s a mean streak in the Senator, make no mistake.

The founders would be pretty sad at what we’ve been reduced to putting up for candidates. Jefferson and Adams would both claim vindication for their views on the pitfalls inherent in representative government.

****

I still believe Obama will get the nod. With this speech, he's got the media cowed to an extreme that has to have the Clintons foaming at the mouth. Teh Uniter is just about nigh on untouchable now.

The next step is to formally coopt the Jackson and Sharpton factions and put the word out who the new boss is.

It's sad to watch so many well-meaning people set them selves up for such disappointment. We've already had a Carter and were smart enough to dodge McGovern. Obama brings the worst of Leftist cant and identity politics to this race, and has now compounded the potential for social upheaval by equating valid disagreement on policy differences with racism.

Black Liberation Theology

The most important blog post you will read this year is right here:

"Accordingly, I have endeavored to research these theologies. I do not pretend to be an expert in theology. Nor do I pretend to be an expert in hermeneutics, a field that turns out to be directly relevant to these issues. Our esteemed host, Jeff Goldstein, is far more knowledgable in that field. However, I think I can say that I now know more about them — and Obama’s attitude toward them — than any number of Obama critics or defenders in the establishment media. What follows is some of what I have learned to date about liberation theology (about which I already had some knowledge), Black Liberation Theology, Obama’s church and Obama’s attitude toward his church and its theology."

The post is by Karl, a guest poster at Jeff Goldstein's Protein Wisdom. His essay is a comprehensive and scholarly examination of the antecedents to, and current iteration of, the Black Liberation Theology, as well as commentary on Senator Obama's speech from earlier today.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: I get a bit exercised here, and here.

The Speech

This is a hip-shoot, first impression post. There may be more later but most likely I'll weigh in on Protein Wisdom when Dan or Karl get around to posting on Obama's speech.

***


More Justice?

The default position of liberation theology is that there is NO justice.


The Candidate has just announced strong disagreement with Mr. Wright's political views; it is hard to credit this statement in light of the fact that Mr. Obama has repeatedly invoked Mr. Wright's guidance as a cornerstone of his beliefs in the past,
"the past" being up until a week ago when MSM noticed teh Hate.

Strong philosophical disagreement is not what you look for in paid campaign staff.

Not buying what I'm hearing. It's not aimed at me, it's aimed at the Democrat base.

He can't even see he's already got the primary situation locked up and is insulting the intelligence of the national electorate on a wager they will forget by November.

Explain to me again why this man is thought to be the "all that" of the future of politics?

UPDATE:

I found this by Victor Davis Hanson. Mr. Hanson sees serious problems with Senator Obama's spirituality/philosophy and relationship with the truth, as well.

And Then There Was One

Sen. Hillary Clinton (Surrender, NY), speaking in a campaign appearance, formally checked out of the running for nomination as the Democratic candidate for president in 2008:

"She accused McCain of joining President George W. Bush in pushing a "stay the course" policy that would keep U.S. troops in Iraq for 100 years.

"They both want to keep us tied to another country's civil war, a war we cannot win," she said. "That in a nutshell is the Bush/McCain Iraq policy. Don't learn from your mistakes, repeat them."

She then trots out a hack promise to begin withdrawing sixty days after her coronation... swearing in. A serious contender wouldn't make a promise like that.

Not that "promise" really means anything here. Consider the source and all that.

Madame Senator has decided that losing the 2008 presidential election due to a vacuum where the Black Democrat vote used to be isn't worth it - especially if she's the reason they stay home. That would end her access to power quite abruptly.

There's still going to be some squeeze left in her Senate gig, especially during a McCain administration. She doesn't have to preside over a war her party is morally and spiritually incapable of winning, and she gives the Democrat party the crucial out they are so desperately seeking: they can point at Obama's blowout defeat and say "See, he had his chance!".

Now I can get back to watching my stock portfolio collapse. But at least the carpet, paint, and shades will all be in our living room by the end of the week!

On The Occassion of Mr. Obama's Big Move

The following was submitted as a comment on this post over at Protein Wisdom:



Tonight is Obama's Sixty Minutes Moment.

Remember 1991, Bill and Hill sitting down to chat with CBS... to clear up those allegations of infidelity with Gennifer Flowers?

If you had ever bought a used car or aluminum siding in your entire life, once you had seen that interview you knew three things about the Clintons:

1. Neither of them, given a choice, will tell the truth on the first go around.

2. Bill Clinton was an awesome liar.

3. Hillary Clinton wasn't so much a wife as she was an associate in the firm of Clinton & Clinton.

They went on to serve two terms in the White House, you know. And Hillary got REelected to the Senate in New York, a state she'd never held residence in.

Tonight we've got Obama publishing to HuffPo and KoS about his minister... who, truth be told, could probably become a paid contributor to either of those venues and die a rich man. Obama is defining the moment, and neatly writing out the mere possibility that his church of twenty years could have had anything to do with his most deeply held principles and convictions. And mainstream media, anxious to avoid that nasty "racist" label, is letting the nutroots blogs carry the narrative forward.

The Chi Trib has published Obama's most damning confessional on a Friday evening, behind the cover of the Wright flap. The interview, which was granted at Obama's request, puts the two ugliest objective threats to his candidacy into play at the time of his choosing for both the primary (which he has all but nailed down) and almost nine months before the general election.

I'd be willing to bet that somewhere on his bookshelf or computer, he's got the entire suite of Bill's & Hill's damage control filmography in one neatly organized package.

In a country that wants so much to believe in a leader, the worst hacks have figured out that lying well, even brilliantly, is one proven path to success.

If Obama pulls this twofer off this weekend, forever forward his supporters accept he's an unreconstructed campus communist steeped in grievance cult bigotry, and further a bought and paid for Chi town hack who owes his office not to the good people of Illinois but instead to the backrooms of the Cook county Democrat machine. They will have his measure... but they will follow because he says now what they want to believe.

Hillary! will recognize the coup for what it is, and will bow out in time to finish out her string as a senior senator; think of a Ted Kennedy with bigger ankles and a more grating voice.

Big weekend coming up here. Come Monday we might not have an economy, but we may well know who is the Democrat nominee for president.

*UPDATED* fixed the first link.

Candy Time In The Caves

Buying votes before the collapse, using borrowed money.

Bailouts for greedy lenders and mortgagees who knew better.

The barn is on fire, the horses gone, so smother it with Federal money.

And finally, an indisputable victory for al Qaeda.



We wasted our fucking time here in Utah, paying our debts, supporting our troops, hoping for some sort of leadership to carry us forward against Islamic terror.

I wonder what our cash and investments will be worth a week from now?

Just So You Know

I'm listening to Rush Limbaugh as I enjoy my morning coffee break. He's just finished playing three excerpts from Rev. Wright's sermons.

Funny thing; back in my youth I spent years of Sundays in Southern Baptist congregations, those cesspits of hate (/sarcasm), and I never heard a pastor say "Goddamn" or "nigger" from the pulpit, much less say both words repeatedly. Nor did I get political analysis and explicit direction on who to vote for regarding contemporary presidential elections.

I never listened to a sermon by a pastor who hated America.

I've seen hucksters like Mr. (not near Reverend) Wright, though. Some wore sheets, some had different messages. They were all small and bitter men.

Barrack Hussein Obama is less Hope and Change than he is Subterfuge and Hate.

Paint Obama white, make him a man of the right, and he wouldn't even have been allowed on the stage at a Chamber of Commerce debate.

It is my earnest hope that Hillary! and Obama make the most of the next six weeks to chew on each other. It will be an education that not even the MSM will be able to ignore or rationalize.

Pretty sad stuff.

Some Are More Equal Than Others

``White-collar practice in New York is substantially dominated by former prosecutors for good reason,'' said Daniel Richman, an ex-prosecutor in the same office and now a Columbia Law School professor. ``So much of white-collar lawyering is understanding where the government is coming from and explaining to them that what your client did may have been illegal but nonetheless ought not to be pursued by the government.''

You ever wonder why there is no perception of majesty in the law?

Well, there you go.

Health In A Hand Basket

Why am I so tired??? The only thing worse than the tired is the hurt, which feels like my entire body was at the end of a monumental towel snap.

Mrs. TmjUtah says I can't get mono from having my butt pinched. I can't lay this at her feet. It can't be high priced call girls. Not only am I hopelessly romantic, and cheap, I am not the governor of an east coast liberal bastion state.

Seriously, though: one of my good friends and two of my daughter's beaus are out front skinning the new floor in the living room because I cannot pick up a hammer.

Doc says the thyroid issues are "under control"... this as I contemplate going up a trouser size.

You know, they only grow so much cotton in Mississippi in any given year. Adding fuel surcharges to extra size premiums, it looks like I'll be paying a hundred bucks a pair of jeans or dungarees for factory store extras if this keeps up.

It could be worse. I could be Eliot Spitzer. Amen.

Makes Sense To Me

Pursuant to this:

"Governor Spitzer, who made his career by specializing in not just the prosecution, but the ruin, of other men, is himself almost certainly ruined," the paper said.

Commenter "Paul", weighing in on Gerard Van der Luen's post on Mr. Spitzer's situation, struck hard and true:

"Why shouldn't Democrat women be doormants? Blacks are for the Democrat party. Jews love the the Arafat loving Democrat party. Industrial Union workers love the industry hateing Democrat party. It is a party of,and for (sic) losers."

What of the millions of voters flushed down drains at clinics these last thirty odd years, too? They are losers - undeniably victims of the the "meMeME" meme and generation(s) so ennobled by the Left. They never even got a chance to be Democrat. Philosophies built around human sacrifice don't leave much in the way of lasting legacies. Especially ones that don't even pretend obeisance to any deity beyond self.

I wonder what form Mr. Spitzer will use to make himself the victim here? The act has become compulsory for public figures who cross beyond the pale.

Nihilism. It's the other politics, I guess.

Ain't NO Sheriff In That Town

I am laying in a shipping container of pop corn kernels and ordering a pony tanker trailer full of evil hydrogenated palm oil in which to pop said corn. I will take any advice offered on which digital TV recorder is best to buy because I intend to capture the moments on live TV (sure to occur
with increasing frequency as the months and months pass between now and November) when Obamajama or Hillary! get real, tough questions that are simply impossible to answer in a coherent manner for both the moonbat Left and normal Americans.

Neither Dem can afford to lose any delegates from here on out. The fringe base rules the primaries and will decide who wins… in the white hot glare of media just waiting for the next gaffe.

Rove, you … what Dan said!

Rack Report

At Gunnies in Orem, a 1943 Izhevsk production M91/30 retired sniper (follow the link and scroll down to the "Ex sniper" section).

Metal fit and finish is very good, with a very good trigger that takes up short and breaks clean around four pounds. Bore is brighter than I am used to seeing with clean rifling and no discernible pitting. Counterbore shows faint traces of the original chamfer after rearsenal recrowning; there is no deep counterbore as I found on my last purchase. The screw/pin holes for the PU mount on the left side of the receiver are filled cleanly. They are invisible from outside and the bluing job on the receiver is excellent.

There is a struck-through seven digit number on the left side of the barrel ring. The alpha /numeric serial stamped on the receiver matches the bolt and butt plate, while the bottom metal matches but shows a lined - out number as well.

Wood is typical post-war Mosin, with more dings than I usually see BUT with a bunch of cartouches that I haven't seen before, either.

Sweet for $84.99, including a bayonet, two-pocket ammo pouch, cleaning tools, combo tool, and solvent/oil bottle.

Giant Passing

"I am, I fully grant, a phenomenon, but not because of any speed in composition," he wrote in The New York Times Book Review in 1986. "I asked myself the other day, `Who else, on so many issues, has been so right so much of the time?' I couldn't think of anyone."

William F. Buckley Jr. 1925 - 2008.

I am riven.

Reformation? Maybe The Pile Won't Be So High.

Important news on important work going on in Turkey, where Islamic clergy/scholars are examining the Hadith of Islam.

The Hadith is a collection of thousands of sayings reputed to come from the Prophet Muhammad.

***

"You can find messages which say 'that is what the Prophet ordered us to do'. But you can show historically how they came into being, as influences from other cultures, that were then projected onto Islamic tradition."


The argument is that Islamic tradition has been gradually hijacked by various - often conservative - cultures, seeking to use the religion for various forms of social control.

This work is being conducted by direction of the Turkish government, which has wisely decided that contemporary Islamism, if allowed to fester, won't leave the followers of the prophet much of a future.


(via Protein Wisdom)

Al, You Are No Robert Preston

There's not going to be any parade, either.

Just Die

You bastard.

Mrs. TmjUtah

... knows all about this.

I'm a lucky, lucky guy.

Happy Valentines Day, my love!

Can't Make This Stuff Up

Mother Sheehan stands up for... the Muslim Brotherhood.

Required Reading

Here.


Cusp time.

Comment on Althouse

I put the following comment up on Professor Althouse's blog:

I had a kind of waking dream where Hillary! heaves her cankles up on a raised dais in front of a huge, darkened arena and begins to speak to the nervous, standing room only crowd:

"I have heard it said that many of you have felt, at times, that I or the DNC don't really think your issues are important beyond what we have to say to benefit from your votes. Nothing could be further from the truth! In spite of scurrilous claims on talk radio, and in spite of the fact that it fell to Republican administrations to appoint African-Americans to prominent cabinet positions, or that the Democrat party of New York purportedly coerced an eminently qualified African-American to not run for the Senate seat I now hold,

(She raises her voice to the verge of her well known screech because a growing, enthusiastic roar from the next hall over makes it increasingly diffucult for her to be heard)

it is VITAL that you understand that YOUR interests are at stake as you go to vote for ME in your capacity as super delegates!...."

A voice from the hall interrupts:

"Madam senator? The Democrat super delegates and black folks are next door. We are the conservative minority of the Republican party. John McCain was supposed to be here to explain why we are supposed to vote for him, but we just found out he's next door promising open-ended welfare benefits, restrictions on talk radio, and socialized health care."


It's a funny old world, aint' it?

(updated for comedic impact and minor grammatical tweaking)

A Message From The Fringe

Posted as a comment to this post over at neo-neocon:

The Dems don’t have a problem recognizing their enemy. They are called “Republicans”. Granted, the caricature of racist, homophobic, jeebus screechers is not quite accurate, but it’s worked to galvanize the Best and Brightest toward larger turnouts than the hapless Republicans.

Let them have their presidency. Let them have the power they crave. Give them everything the nutroots crave.

Give them the house. And the senate.

And by all means, they can nominate a couple of judges. Who was that attorney convicted a few years back for passing communications for the blind sheik? That one! She’s the face and heart of the progressive movement. Give them control over the last non-electoral, half-assed obstacle to totalitarianism that exists.

Give them power.

I’ve gotten three phone calls this evening. One from a national polling outfit, asking if they could get my opinion on the primary races; I shut them off with “I will not cast a vote for John McCain.” The second was the Utah County Republicans asking if I was intending to caucus this year, and if I had any interest in being a delegate again. I told them that as a newly registered Independent I wasn’t eligible. The third was from the Leavitt campaign. I declined the invitation to a barbeque, on the same principle.

In a representative republic that wasn’t populated by zero attention span historical illiterates who can’t balance a checkbook or compute compound interest, the vast bulk of our elected federal government would be building desks down in Georgia someplace.

Muslims would be pretty scarce in the civilized world, too, but that subject will be coming up time after time in the next few years, so it can wait.

Michael, Senator McCain will lose to either Dem candidate, and it won’t even be close. There’s no reason for it to be close; the Dems are on fire to surrender to their new overlords and the Republicans aren’t going to make much of an effort to vote for their own liberal Democrat.

You want a metric you can follow? You might watch the stock market. Smart money is already moving for cover at a pretty brisk pace.

Myself, I’m going to watch military retention, by quarter. You want to know where the SMART and EXPOSED people think things are headed? Watch those numbers.

I’d shed a tear if I had any left. All power is ultimately responsibility. We do not have, in either party, viable leadership that will acknowledge that reality. It’s all a game to them.

Have a fine one, and we’ll see how that “fringe” stuff works out in November.

From My Office

Westward bound, down Provo Canyon, in the evening.

It DOES Mean Something

The following was originally posted as a comment at Protein Wisdom. This comment, along with the original post put up by Mr.Dan Collins and updated by Mr. Jeff Goldstein is my answer to Mr. Totten:


I’ve been trying to articulate my rejection of McCain across several different forums… but I can’t do better than what the two of you (Collins and Goldstein - ed.) have done with this post.

In the blur of the last few days I saw a commenter elsewhere say “you vote the lesser of two evils long enough, one day you end up knowing you are voting for evil” or something very similar….

Back when I was in the service one of the institutional things you heard a lot was a variation on “It ain’t nuthin’… ain’t nuthin’ but a thang”…don’t mean nuthin’”.

You score orders to the school you’ve been trying to get in to for literally your entire enlistment… and they get canked because you need to go to the desert and shoot at sand dunes. Again.

The battery works three six-day weeks getting everything ready for the Inspector General’s inspection. You lay everything out, every man falls in, perfectly uniformed, every piece of equipment the unit owns is parked, laid out with all it’s gear… and the IG team is two hours late, time enough for the southern California June rainstorm to turn the whole thing into a “count noses and call it good” farce.

Your best friend, who left the Corps but came back in after exchanging letters with you, gets his ass buried in a building in Beirut. And your government runs away.

I voted for George W. Bush, twice. At first I believed that at his worst he would bring ethics and some sort of adult normalcy back to at least a small part of the freak show the last eight years had reduced Washington to. I was impressed with his tactical political skills; anyone who could defeat the Clinton’s heir and their media was defacto nobody’s fool. The opening stages of our response to 9/11 were heartening, as well. The second term was an easy call to make, given the other option.

I believe that the pursuit of the ideals of American representative democracy is the first best hope for the survival of mankind. Our system, when it is faithfully adhered to by all citizen parties, replaces the impulse to kill for personal gain with the higher faith that compromise and cooperation are more profitable for everyone in the long run.

We are a sad and vicious crew. We still don’t think much past our next meal - not much past the next piece of ass for males between the ages of fifteen and twenty five - or whatever the next distraction is. We thirst for entertainment today; yesterday, we thirsted for a better life and worked hard to get it.

Looking at the crew before us - Obama, Clinton, McCain… I am reminded of the era of Praetorian Emperors of Rome. They, too, were chosen by the insulated elite of their time. The Guard was not so much military as it was the remaining functional, effective power in the empire.

The Praetorians selected their caesers based on the ineterests of the Praetorians. But the press releases always emphasized “for the good of Rome”.

I’m done with the Republicans. I could have voted for Romney based on his demonstrated high ethics and superb business accomplishments. I also believe he would be at least as effective as Bush has been in fighting the war we are able to fight in this atmosphere of lotus eaters and hacks. The continued successful prosecution of the war, especially under ANY Republican administration, will demand an executive impervious to childish and bad-faithed nay saying by political opponents and one iron-willed in carrying the fight to the enemy where ever and when ever he is found.

The GWOT is going to end one of three ways:

1. The West surrenders incrementally over the course of the next three generations, and the world returns to a kind of Ottoman Empire blur until the oil runs out.

2. Europe wakes up and world war four shifts into high gear. Trains are involved.

3. The United States continues democratization as long as we can afford to, and the budding democratic republics in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the moderate emirates, generate a sect of Islam that serves as that religion’s Reformation.

There’s fourth option, but I am not going to go there. If we go to a hot war with China, option four becomes a sideshow to the real fight.

And ladies and gentlemen, make no mistake about it: it will be financial/civic collapse that destroys this country before any bearded child killer plops a Koran on the desk in the oval office. And McCain, Obama, and Clinton, and the majority of the parasites infesting that swamp near Baltimore are contributors, not remedies, to the coming collapse.

John McCain isn’t going to meet in the middle with any Democrats. He’s going to slip them the club handshake and get busy getting on with the business of managing the peasants so that they can’t hurt themselves or, more importantly, incumbent office holders. That means nurturing victim classes, legislating curbs on that pesky political speech stuff, erasing those meaningless lines on the map and those pages in the dusty old history books that used to tell us who we were. The pages that used to tell us how we got here, and what the road looked like.

That’s all done with. We get what’s good for us - as decided by those oh so more qualified to dole it out.

That’s John McCain’s way, and if you can find the difference between Mr. Changeyman and Ms. Rodham -Borgia, you go right ahead and do so. The differences will be tactics; the end strategy, and results, will be the same.

I’m not voting for a Republican candidate whose entire resume is a democratic platform primer.

I cast my vote for Gov. Romney in Utah’s primary today.

I do not expect to cast a vote for the office of president in November, and am prepared to not have a candidate for the foreseeable future.

This refusal to choose where there is no choice is not a futile gesture. It does mean something. At the very least, my hand is not pulling the rope tied to the noose around my neck.

Incoming

A few days back I followed an Instapundit link to a post by Mr.Bill Quick where he laid out his case for not voting for John McCain should he end up the Republican candidate. I contributed a comment that laid out very bluntly my own decision to neither support nor cast a vote for McCain should he be the nominee. neo-neocon weighed in with her opinion that the conservatives were jumping the shark. Mr. Gerard Vanderluen cranked out an essay (under the subhead "Useful Idiots") here , where I had yet another opportunity to disagree with someone I admire and am proud to have on my modest blogroll, as well. In the meantime, neo wrote another post wherein Mr. Michael J. Totten, in the comments, called me out based on a discussion we had on his forum during the last presidential election.



Work and responsibilities prevent an immediate response. I need to research and see how much crow, if any, I need to order, and then attempt to come up with an essay worth anyone's time to read.

Have a fine one, all. I hope to have something by this evening but it may be late.

Oh, and if you are in a state conducting its primary today, get out there and VOTE! I already did.

Winter Work

Tragedy at 7000 feet!


(Photo copyright: J. Redford 2008)

On the Rack

At Gunnies in Orem, a Mosin-Nagant Model 91/30 retired PU sniper. Tula, 1943. Clear markings on receiver including prominent "C h" stamp. Matching numbers, bottom metal has matching number stamped next to lined - out original number.

Overall condition is fair. Typical wartime stock. Metal to wood fit is fair. PU mount holes in receiver have been filled with studs and welded. Crappy bluing job here - metal shows discoloration from heat. Bore is dark with well defined lands and grooves. Trigger and sear show very little wear, no hammering. The muzzle was recrowned during the rearsenal process, but some evidence of a sniper counterbore still shows.

At $84.00 it is probably worth a look. Comes with all the typical CAI goodies - sling, bayonet, oiler/solvent can, cleaning kit, one double ammo pouch, and combo tool.

Local Rack Report (UPDATED)

(Corrections to date and price added)

On the used rack at Gunnies, 400 S. State street in Orem:

M91/30 Mosin-Nagant rifle. Hex receiver, Izhevsk manufacture, dated 1928. It looks like it was originally a Dragoon model - the receiver is date stamped 1928 (Correct date 1925). Markings are grossly similar to this picture. Rifle is rearsenaled. There are no noticeable overstamps. The rearsenal mark is the bisected diamond stamp, and it was applied clear of the original markings. All visible numbers match. I get on okay with the staff here, but didn't want to push it by asking permission to take a look at the tang stamp. Metal fit and finish is good +, with minimum black paint touchup.

(If anyone knows which country used which rearsenal stamp, I'd like to hear it. I've been all over the Mosin boards and sites and just haven't seen any information on that subject.)

Overall appearance is good +. Wood-to-metal fit is remarkably good. It is the best I have seen (and I'm a ROOKIE) on a Soviet example and almost as good as the better Finns I have handled. The wood itself has the traditional gad-fugly arsenal shellac covering some nondescript cartouches. There are no discernible repairs and only a couple of very minor dings. The muzzle crown could have been executed better. Bore is clean and dark with strong rifling. I have come to regard this as common with the current wave of Mosins moving through here.

This is a sweet rifle. It would make a fine addition to somebody's collection, especially if they just wanted one Mosin.

Asking $128.00. (Correct price $149.00)

Unsolicited Advice

I put the following up on the Gun Thing Forum in response to the question "how do I improve my offhand shooting?":



1. Stand easy, weak side shoulder facing the target. A line drawn across your back should point at the target. This is your starting point. Later, as you find your own natural point of aim, you may modify this.

2. Feet slightly more than shoulder width apart. Some folks like their feet parallel. Others go toe in, or toe out. But the key is to not force a too wide stance. Back straight, and keep it as straight as you can when the rifle is in your shoulder. You will be moving; an exaggerated sway-back won't help. Offhand is the weakest position because it requires more balance vice bone-to - to bone support.

3. Take a breath. Let it out.

4. Inhale as you bring the rifle up. Keep the muzzle high, something like thirty or forty degrees above flat, and pointed a little right (right handed shooter) a bit from the target. Drop the butt down into your shoulder , into the the pocket formed by keeping your elbow and right arm as high from your body as possible; try for parallel to the deck but higher is better. You will "roll" the rifle into your shoulder and the at same time acquire your cheek weld.

5. Find your sights FIRST. Establish your natural cheek weld - the position of your cheek against the stock that puts your eye effortlessly behind your properly aligned sights. By standing 90 degrees to the direction of fire, you may rest your weak arm against your body as you rest the rifle across your palm. I said REST. Any pressure in your fingers, any torsion on your wrist - will only lessen your chance of a good shot. This will only be achieved with practice, which is a damn good reason for putting a fifty - foot air rifle bull on the wall of your basement or garage for practice. You will leave the mechanical safety engaged, by the way, until your sights are aligned with the target.

6. Concentrate on your front sight tip. Doing this will center it in the aperture of the rear sight ; if you are shooting buckhorn sights you will be less precise, elevation wise - especially if your eyes are getting old like mine.

7. You've got the rifle in your shoulder. The sights are aligned. You've inhaled just a little beyond the point of natural breathing. Stop breathing. Look over your front sight. Your rifle is pointed at a rough Natural Point of Aim (NPA). If you do nothing else now but concentrate on your sights and squeeze, you will hit what is on the tip of your front sight post.

8. Still holding your breath, it's time to move your NPA to as close as you can get to being on the bull. This is my favorite line in coaching offhand:

Aim with your feet.

You've achieved a natural, balanced posture by this point. All that remains is to make the most minor of corrections, closest to the ground, to put your aim on the frame. I generally have to move my trailing foot an inch forward or back to get on target, but if you find yourself uncomfortably off-line, go ahead and move both feet, making sure that your final position doesn't sacrifice your balanced, relaxed NPA stance. You will breathe normally during this exercise - but always stop halfway on the exhale when checking your NPA.

9. You are standing. You are unsupported. Your NPA is on the paper. Stop breathing, observe your front sight. Move your front arm in or out for elevation, move your feet for windage. The conventional wisdom here is to arrive at a situation where your sights track the width of the target in a "lazy eight" pattern. Imagine an eight drawn laying on its side, with the left and right extremities just touching the edges of the target (or even shorter, between the edge of the paper and the bullseye) , with the amplitude of the eight equal or less than the diameter of the bull, with the waist of the eight centered on the bull.

10. You feel like you've got a solid sight picture now (sight alignment = correct rear sight/front sight relation. Sight picture = sight alignment + target correctly on front post) and are ready to get down to business. Inhale. Hold half of it. Close your eyes. Hold it. Open your eyes. If you are off the target, aim with your feet.

11. Safety off. BREATHE IN. Sight picture good. Manageable racetrack. RELAX - breath halfway out and hold. Feel for wind on your cheek. AIM - frontsightontarget frontsightontarget frontsightontarget STOP frontsighton SQUEEZE slacknoslack frontsighton BOOM.

Recoil. Keep your cheek on the stock. Roll back into your NPA. Follow through - do not come off the target until you have a good sight picture. Safety ON. Rifle down to rest, and have a seat on your stool.

12. Mark your call (what you saw when the round left your rifle) in your range book. Look up to see white disk in front of bullseye, marking your "x". Repeat the process. Collect your trophy.

Disclaimer: I haven't shot a formal match since the nineties, and that was merely silhouette shooting with my old M1; it was the day that that barrel died, as a matter of fact. Today I do shoot offhand at milk jugs or steel plates with modest success at ranges between three and six hundred yards.

Don't spend a lot of time practicing offhand live. It becomes a race between getting frustrated and getting tired, and both states will end useful expenditure of ammo. Find out how many rounds you will be required to shoot in a match, then limit your live fire training to twice that amount per range visit. You get more value out of dry fire training for offhand than for any other position.

******

There. If you ever have to make THE SHOT, now you know how.

Snowy as all get out today. That means I get to stay home and clean house. Have a fine day!

Range Report 19 January 2008

Yes, Virginia, it was a cold one. I arrived at Lee Kay around 0915 to find that there were already twenty or thirty cars in the lot. It turned out that Hunter Education students would be shooting their qualification exams all day long.

Last Tuesday I had commitments from four folks to show up and shoot. I couldn't confirm anyone last night and ended up shooting solo this morning. Mrs. Tmj Does Not Do Teh Cold and the goddesses have been spooling up for THE BIG DANCE all week. One of my coworkers called me at 1130 to let me know he'd slept through his alarm, but I was almost packed up by then. Coaching strangers is all well and good but once in a while it does no harm to confirm the friends' and neighbors' suspicions....

I ended up breaking in the two newest Mosins: Model 91/59 built on a 1937 Izhvesk and the 1943 retired Tula PU sniper.

Temperature at 0930 was 24f, light overcast, with light wind coming mostly from behind, or blowing west, since the firing line runs generally north - south. I decided to shoot for zero at 25 yards using a fore stock rest from a seated position. I had intended to move over to the hundred/two hundred yard ranges if things looked promising but I ended up coaching some kids practicing for their Hunter Safety shoot.

If you don't have a headspace gage or access to a smith who does, it is necessary to treat "new" milsurps gingerly. Since both these weapons are new (to me) I opened the ball for each by loading one round of my crappiest old combloc ammo (Russian/Barnul brass case light ball, 1951 production) then bracing the wrist of the stock between two sandbags. I then fired a blind round while crouched beneath the table. It's clunky and looks funny, but then again so does walking around with an improperly - fit bolt sticking out of your forehead. In the field I'd normally just lash the rifle to a spare tire and fire it with a string.

This is the final target for the 91/59:



I was mighty pleased with this one. The ammunition used here was Albanian light ball, and I've been happy with it in all my Russkis. The trigger has reasonable travel and breaks very clean and light for a Mosin.

The Tula retired PU doesn't have a great trigger, but then this is RUSSIAN rifle. GOOD is just fine:



I had a case failure the second round after the "sandbag proof" round. Nothing spectacular - just some gas venting back around the bolt. Most of the ammo I shoot in these is from the nineteen fifties so some slop is going to happen. I puttered around on one target to warm the barrel, then shot the final target (shown above) using eighties manufacture Czech light ball (silver tip). The wind had come up a bit but at twenty five yards it would really have to howl to make a huge difference. It was cold...



... but that's when Mosins are at their best. That's four groups of three on the target: The dime group was aimed at six o'clock on the orange dot with rear sight set for 500 yards. The quarter group was aimed at the same point with 100 yards set on the rear sight. The other two groups were shot offhand and kind of hung out a bit wider and more right.

I am saving pennies for a repro PU mount/scope combo. The PU is going into the gunsmith next week for a formal headspace check and I am getting the bolts turned down on both rifles. The 91/59 will move into my pickup as soon as the bolt is done.

Not a bad day. Got home just before noon, cleaned up and put away, and here I am. I hope yours was good, too.

Range Date

Heading out to Lee Kay tomorrow at 9 a.m. for a few hours of shooting.

I'll have two Mosin variants, a Bushmaster carbine, and some miscelleneous pistols to work on. I always bring extra ammo for guests.

Stop by and say hi if you are in the area. I'll be the stumpy individual with the four-wheeled shooting cart on the seventy yard range.

It's going to be true well digger weather. Perfect for shooting Mosins!

Quickly, Now...

Christmas was in Maryland this year, at Mrs.Tmj's sister's new house. Sweetest line of the morning, upon my oldest goddess' entrance to the room wearing her new azure blue cowl neck sweater:

(from Uncle Lee)"Set phasers for stunning!"

Mrs. Tmj joined Weight Watchers at her work and has so far achieved ten percent of her weight loss goal as of this past Friday. That's a significant number all by itself but when measured by the fact she did it through both the Thanksgiving and Christmas feasting seasons it's downright amazing. When our extended family gets together, we cook like Al Capone sold hooch. She got a four-sensor scale for Christmas.

The goddesses are both as tall as I am now... depending on what shoes they happen to be wearing and whether or not I'm in boots. They got - well hell, they got everything they asked for EXCEPT a car. What part of "goddess" don't you understand?

I am in pain. The thyroid meds, however, so seem to have positively effected the mental aspect of the problem. I still feel half a step back and the pain sucks. And if I get any bigger I will have to buy my next belt buckle at the commercial plate window at the DMV.

Silly high point of the year so far:

Thursday last I found a true retired sniper Mosin-Nagant 91/30 on the rack at the Big5 right here in Orem. CH stamp on the receiver, all matching numbers*, two filled holes below the wood line on the left side of the receiver where the scope mount used to be bolted, and a dark but clean bore with a 30 degree counterbore at the muzzle. The stock has some intriguing cartouches buried under the gunky red arsenal shellac.

I am going to shoot it for groups at fifty and a hundred yards this weekend. If I can get under three inches at a hundred yards (using Czech light ball ammo of eighties manufacture)I will proceed to clean it up and hang a reproduction PU mount and scope on it.

Politics? Well, there are no fit candidates on the Left side. It is entertaining in a sick and twisted way to watch the Dems feeding on each other, though.

I could vote for Giuliani, Romney, or Thompson with a mostly clear conscience. Leaning toward Thompson but really don't have a dog in the race yet.

If John McCain or Huckabee should end up being the Republican candidate or even on the ticket I will not cast a vote for president in the 2008 general election. If it even looks like that situation may arise I will execute our plan to convert the bulk of our retirement from funds to commodities or physical assets.

Our country used to be stinking rich. Rich enough to afford excesses like campus communists, Democrat majorities in Washington, and creatures as simply bad as the Clintons or as feckless as the current Republicans. No more. Not nearly; what with Dubai bailing out CitiBank and our other leading financial institutions reaping the harvest of thirty years of unsolicited credit card debt and stupid mortgage loans, we are getting ready for some bumpy times.

Oh, and then there's the eighth century boys slavering over the possibilities presented by our candidate choices... feh.

I've never been more grateful to be living in Utah. There's no state in the Union better prepared to survive a shitstorm than here... even if our current political leadership is casting dangerously nanny-ish at the moment.


* There are three distinct sets of numbers on the receiver ring. The earliest markings are so faint as to be illegible but the size of the script resembles what I've seen on barrels from the 1920's. The second set of marks are the Tula numbers dated 1943. The last set is composed of two Cyrillic letters followed by three digits and is common (stamped, not electro penciled) to all the metal parts on the rifle.

OY!

In the face of a mountain of very necessary chores... I elect instead to head up to Lee Kay and break in the latest Mosin - a 91/59.

I can Christmas shop on the way back.

Here are two recent comments in other places: Belmont Club and Protein Wisdom.

Not Sure If I Agree

with this:

"To the perverse jihadis who constitute large numbers of Muslims, the existence of the female sex is threatening, hence women are treated as little more than cattle, with fewer rights than some lower animals. Why do Western feminists keep their mouths shut? Because many are themselves leftist utopian perverts, who also cannot tolerate the existence of two sexes and secretly long to submit to the appealing sadism of the jihadis."

But the article is interesting and worth a read.

(hat tip:Castle Arrgghhh!)

What It Comes Down To.

I've been kicking around ideas for an essay on what I am looking for from the next election cycle.

What are the issues that must be addressed, in my opinion, by the next gaggle of elected office holders?

Sovereignty.

Solvency.

Security.

Sovereignty covers but is not limited to our relationship with multinational organizations (for instance, the Hudson Mafia), our various trade agreements, and immigration.

I think that education belongs under "sovereignty", too, since we need to rectify the choice of covering U.S. History as an indictment rather than a celebration.

Solvency covers un- or underfunded benefits and mandates with Social Security at the top of the list. Attention to sane tax policy with explicit acknowledgement that Keynesian tax systems are well and truly dead, and ending estate taxes.

Security... well, crap, the best I can come up with off the cuff is that we should shoot Islamist terrorists in the head when we find them and that it wouldn't be a bad thing if elected democrats stopped aiding the enemy from the floors of the house and senate.

I realize this missive is short on nuance. But the three issues stand for what I'm concerned about.

Gift Opportunity

If you lived in central Utah, you could head over to the American Fork Big 5 and check out the two nicest Mosin Nagant 91/30's I've ever seen. Perhaps you know somebody who is of good moral character; someone manly and disgustingly free of vice or human failings Why don't you get him hooked on old Russian rifles?

The world can always use another Cruffler!

About the rifles: The first is a pre-war assembled Tula with all matching numbers, a straight, very clean stock with pronounced figuring for birch. The cartouches indicate it may have finished service in Bulgaria. The crown appears to be original and not rearsenalled.

The bore is... perfect. Not "clean with service wear" but absolutely crisp, bright, and clean.

The second rifle has just as clean a bore and it, too, appears to have its original crown. It is a 1943 manufacture featuring the round, low wall receiver and was produced at Izhvesk. The serial is six numbers, vice the more usual two Cyrillic characters followed by four numbers. The wartime production stock has two repairs - one on the left side of the receiver with the second at the forward edge of the magazine well. IMO the first repair suggests that the stock, at least, was once a part of a sniper rig. The wood is clean and well figured, and remarkable free of dings. The stock repairs are so well executed as to almost disappear under the arsenal shellac treatment.

And here's the kicker: the second rifle's bolt and trigger are about what my Remington 700BDL was like before I slicked it up. If you have spent much time around Mosins, you would know that the bolts are kind of hit and miss at best.

Hmmmm. I already own four 91/30's. As I type this we are waiting for the rain to turn to snow. The met boys say six to eight inches by tomorrow and the streets of Utah County are filled with Christmas shopping zombies.

Oy. The OTL doesn't know rifle beyond "Bang OUCH"... but she knows art when she sees it.

Wish me luck.

Not Quite, Pilgrim...

Geeze. Let us start at the beginning:

"Sen. Hillary Clinton has a trust problem. Polls in Iowa and New Hampshire show that voters give her very low marks for being trustworthy and honest. The media and her opponents have built and reinforced the charge."

I never supported the Hope grifters, but I didn't become an opponent until after they proved themselves inveterate liars. They aren't just liars, they are both pathological liars. Hillary "Everest" Clinton, I did not inhale, billing records, the Sixty Minutes CYA (that was the incident that cemented Bill's commitment to Hill's presidential ambitions, IMO), and the totality of the eight year long shameless manipulation of the Executive branch of government into a codependency enabling tool for two very, very flawed people and their posse...

"It's not that voters and her opponents think Clinton's experienced and competent, and they don't like or trust her. It's that they think she's experienced and competent and that's why they don't like or trust her."


The bar is pretty low here. Being her husband's pimp and the backdoor connection for political corruption in the Arkansas governor's office are about the only two things she's ever done that actually showed initiative or commitment on her part. She failed to socialize healthcare.

The Republicans pushed through welfare reform, and sizable chunks of the Contract with America.

"Is there evidence proving that Hillary Clinton can't be trusted? To quote one of the great presidential debate responses: "No."".

Huh?

You must read the entire article. Paragraph by paragraph it is a paean to Madam Hillary, Smartest Feminist To Ever Stride The Earth. I kept on looking for "It was my sophmore summer at a small midwestern college, and I had never been so lonely..."

"What's a woman running for president to do? Pull the gender card out of the deck and hold it up high. Most people are unaware of their bias or don't want to recognize or acknowledge it. "

Hillary, you go ahead and lay that one down. I've got bad news: Edwards already has you beat on that front.

The only woman you remind most men of is their first wife.

I'm Not Cynical - It's Clinical!

Early last week I had blood drawn for a scad of "geeze, that bastards getting older" tests, as a part of a general physical exam.

The doc told me at the time that he strongly doubted any issues of clinical depression but he didn't want to venture any further opinion with some labs. Turns out he was right on the depression side, and his eyeball/handson diagnosis that he declined to share was pretty good, too.

I've got a thyroid issue. Probably hereditary, but easily identified and easily treated through a one - a - day medication.

I wasn't able to pick up the scrip but the OTL did. Whenever we start a new pharm we always get feedback from our pharmacist. When she asked about this stuff, that gentleman warned her to warn me that I should brace myself for change:

Within a week, my weight should stabilize and begin to decrease.

Within a week, my sleep patterns will begin to return to something more normal than they are now.

Within a week I should notice a decrease in lethargy and perhaps improvement in mental acuity.



Wow. Each of those boons would be cool by themselves. I am praying most for release from the lethargy, with winter coming on and all.

What a fine day this is. I hope that yours is going well, too.