The Combat Mindset

A naked man breaks into an 88-year old woman's home and attacks her, shoving her face into a chair.

So what does she do?

Grabs him right in the jimmies and gives 'em a good crank.

You GO, girl!

And the perp's name is Michael G. Dick. You can't make this stuff up.

It Ain't Just A River In Egypt

Illinois governor (for the time being) Rod Blagojevich still insists he has done absolutely nothing wrong.

Of course, since Illinois always has been at the top of the corruption hit parade, maybe Blago just can't tell the difference any more.

I was born and raised in Chicago. There is absolutely no way anyone can become a major-league politician in Illinois without buying his/her way into the machine. And everything else is tied up in the mess as well.

When I was growing up, my father worked as an accountant at the main post office. I remember the arguments at home over his refusal to pay off the appropriate politicians in order to get a promotion or raise. That was the only way you could advance in those days.

Much later, a friend worked at the Lincoln Park Zoo. All the upper-level positions there were also political gimme jobs. She told me about a new manager with no animal-behavior qualifications at all who ordered all the toys be taken away from the baby apes in the zoo nursery. According to him, they were animals, not children, and didn't need anything to amuse themselves.

Apes being highly creative, though, they solved their boredom problem by fingerpainting every reachable surface. With, ahem, natural materials.

My friend said Mr. Expert should have been required to clean up the mess himself. With a toothbrush. Preferably his.

So how can people believe that Barack Obama is the only non-corrupt politician to ever come out of that cesspool?

What are the odds?

Moving Forward

As we face a new year with legislatures reconvening, we can count on seeing more bills designed to deprive us of our Second Amendment rights. Those in office who prefer to rule unarmed subject instead of serve self-reliant citizens will be encouraged in their vile purpose by the
coronation and ascensionelection and inauguration of Barack Obama, whose citizen-disarmament record is beyond question.

At least by anyone who is actually paying attention.

So I remind you here of Dr. Suzanna Gratia-Hupp's courageous testimony before the Texas legislature after she survived the massacre at the Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas on October 16, 1991. Both her parents were killed in that incident.

Dr. Hupp became an outspoken opponent of citizen disarmament/criminal empowerment and successfully ran for a seat in the Texas House of Representatives. She held that seat from 1996 to 2006, when she chose not to run for reelection.

May we all share her courage and determination for the fight to come.

Roberta X Nails It

Roberta X cuts to the chase on the Nanny State. Read the WHOLE THING.

The Product Of Incrementalism

I offer this essay as written by its original author.

Where We're Headed
By Robert A. Waters

You're sound asleep when you hear a thump outside your bedroom door. Half-awake, and nearly paralyzed with fear, you hear muffled whispers.

At least two people have broken into your house and are moving your way. With your heart pumping, you reach down beside your bed and pick up your shotgun. You rack a shell into the chamber, then inch toward the door and open it. In the darkness, you make out two shadows. One holds something that looks like a crowbar. When the intruder brandishes it as if to strike, you raise the shotgun and fire. The blast knocks both thugs to the floor. One writhes and screams while the second man crawls to the front door and lurches outside. As you pick up the telephone to call police, you know you're in trouble.

In your country, most guns were outlawed years before, and the few that are privately owned are so stringently regulated as to make them useless. Yours was never registered. Police arrive and inform you that the second burglar has died. They arrest you for First Degree Murder and Illegal Possession of a Firearm. When you talk to your attorney, he tells you not to worry: authorities will probably plea the case down to manslaughter. "What kind of sentence will I get?" you ask. "Only ten-to-twelve years," he replies, as if that's nothing. "Behave yourself, and you'll be out in seven."

The next day, the shooting is the lead story in the local newspaper. Somehow, you're portrayed as an eccentric vigilante while the two men you shot are represented as choirboys. Their friends and relatives can't find an unkind word to say about them. Buried deep down in the article, authorities acknowledge that both "victims" have been arrested numerous times.

But the next day's headline says it all: "Lovable Rogue Son Didn't Deserve to Die."

The thieves have been transformed from career criminals into Robin Hood-type pranksters. As the days wear on, the story takes wings. The national media picks it up, then the international media. The surviving burglar has become a folk hero. Your attorney says the thief is preparing to sue you, and he'll probably win. The media publishes reports that your home has been burglarized several times in the past and that you've been critical of local police for their lack of effort in apprehending the suspects. After the last break-in, you told your neighbor that you would be prepared next time. The District Attorney uses this to allege that you were lying in wait for the burglars. A few months later, you go to trial. The charges haven't been reduced, as your lawyer had so confidently predicted. When you take the stand, your anger at the injustice of it all works against you.

Prosecutors paint a picture of you as a mean, vengeful man. It doesn't take long for the jury to convict you of all charges. The judge sentences you to life in prison.

This case really happened. On August 22, 1999, Tony Martin of Emneth, Norfolk, England, killed one burglar and wounded a second. In April, 2000, he was convicted and is now serving a life term.

How did it become a crime to defend one's own life in the once great British Empire?

It started with the Pistols Act of 1903. This seemingly reasonable law forbade selling pistols to minors or felons and established that handgun sales were to be made only to those who had a license. The Firearms Act of 1920 expanded licensing to include not only handguns but all firearms except shotguns. Later laws passed in 1953 and 1967 outlawed the carrying of any weapon by private citizens and mandated the registration of all shotguns. Momentum for total handgun confiscation began in earnest after the Hungerford mass shooting in 1987. Michael Ryan, a mentally disturbed Man with a Kalashnikov rifle, walked down the streets shooting everyone he saw. When the smoke cleared, 17 people were dead. The British public, already de-sensitized by eighty years of "gun control," demanded even tougher restrictions. (The seizure of all privately owned handguns was the objective even though Ryan used a rifle.) Nine years later, at Dunblane, Scotland , Thomas Hamilton used a semi-automatic weapon to murder 16 children and a teacher at a public school. For many years, the media had portrayed all gun owners as mentally unstable, or worse, criminals. Now the press had a real kook with which to beat up law-abiding gun owners. Day after day, week after week, the media gave up all pretense of objectivity and demanded a total ban on all handguns.

The Dunblane Inquiry, a few months later, sealed the fate of the few sidearms still owned by private citizens. During the years in which the British government incrementally took Away most gun rights, the notion that a citizen had the right to armed self-defense came to be seen as vigilantism. Authorities refused to grant gun licenses to people who were threatened, claiming that self-defense was no longer considered a reason to own a gun. Citizens who shot burglars or robbers or rapists were charged while the real criminals were released. Indeed, after the Martin shooting, a police spokesman was quoted as saying, "We cannot have people take the law into their own hands." All of Martin's neighbors had been robbed numerous times, and several elderly people were severely injured in beatings by young thugs who had no fear of the consequences. Martin himself, a collector of antiques, had seen most of his collection trashed or stolen by burglars. When the Dunblane Inquiry ended, citizens who owned handguns were given three months to turn them over to local authorities. Being good British subjects, most people obeyed the law. The few who didn't were visited by police and threatened with ten-year prison sentences if they didn't comply. Police later bragged that they'd taken nearly 200,000 handguns from private citizens. How did the authorities know who had handguns? The guns had been registered and licensed. Kinda like cars. Sound familiar?

WAKE UP AMERICA , THIS IS WHY OUR FOUNDING FATHERS PUT THE SECOND AMENDMENT IN OUR CONSTITUTION.

I don't know when this was originally written. Tony Martin received an early release from prison after serving four years on July 28, 2003. At the time he returned home, there was still a contract out on his life and police presence was required for his safety.

Whatever the details, the lesson here is about incrementalism. Rick Disney, the gun list member who brought this to my attention also posted:

Something similar happened in Australia several years ago and some of you will remember the incident. Some crazy killed a bunch of kids at a school in Tasmania and the politicians went wild. Naturally, it's good press to blame the gun and not the killer and that's what they went for. It took several years but they finally outlawed guns in all of Australia.

I've told some of you about another incident. Anita and I stayed at a bed & breakfast in Scotland several years ago and had a chance to chat with the lady who ran the place. In short, we learned that the police have the right to come to your home at any time and demand to see and inspect any hunting firearms you may own. You can't refuse them entry. No handguns, of course.

And yes, it can happen here. Remember the word "incremental." The liberal-socialists will slowly work on their goal of no guns for private citizens. Tax ammo so high no one can afford it. Require that bullets be marked individually so they can be traced if involved in a crime. (Now being worked on in California.) Require "safety" features so only the owner can be "recognized" by the gun and shoot it. Put judges in positions to work with a "flexible and living" Constitution.

I'm betting we'll see some of this sooner rather than later from the dangerous people who will be in Congress and the White House for the next several years.

Never think that America's voters have any sense. They have proven that the majority have no clue of what is going on.

More On Eric Holder

Change, huh? Then how come all the names Obama's picking are right out of the Clinton playbook?

From Jim Meyers's article in Newsmax:

Holder also played a key role in the snatching of 6-year-old Cuban Elian Gonzalez from his Miami relatives’ home in April 2000, according to the Web site. Gonzalez was to be sent to Cuba where his father lived. 

...

Holder has already come under fire due to his involvement in the Mark Rich pardon in the final hours of the Clinton presidency.

Billionaire Rich renounced his U.S. citizenship and moved to Switzerland to avoid prosecution for racketeering, wire fraud, tax fraud, tax evasion, and illegal trades with Iran in violation of the U.S. embargo following the 1979-80 hostage
crisis.

Seventeen years later, Rich wanted a pardon, and he retained Jack Quinn, former counsel to the president, to lobby his old boss.

Holder had originally recommended Quinn to one of Rich's advisers, political analyst Dick Morris reported. And he gave substantive advice to Quinn along the way.

Once the pardon was granted, Holder sent his congratulations to Quinn.

Obama's Proposed Federal Ban On Concealed Carry

Via Breda, we have a post by New Jovian Thunderbolt on the implications of a federal ban on concealed carry.

"So three types of politicians support the federal ban, those acting purely on politics and damn the truth, those that adhere to an erroneous irrational political philosophy, and tyrants. None of these motivations is truly defensible except perhaps the first. And that purely political calculation goes away when the voting public is informed about the issue.

"And hence the purpose of this post."

And the purpose of my link.

Are We Surprised?

Barack Obama has nominated Eric Holder for attorney general.

From Alan Gottlieb in the Second Amendment Foundation's press release:

The nomination of Eric Holder for the post of attorney general of the United States sends an “alarming signal” to gun owners about how the Barack Obama administration will view individual gun rights, as affirmed this year by the Supreme Court, the Second Amendment Foundation said today.

"Eric Holder signed an amicus brief in the Heller case that supported the District of Columbia’s handgun ban, and also argued that the Second Amendment does not protect an individual right," noted SAF founder Alan Gottlieb. "He has supported national handgun licensing and mandatory trigger locks. As deputy attorney general under Janet Reno, he lobbied Congress to pass legislation that would have curtailed legitimate gun shows.

"This is not the record of a man who will come to office as the nation’s top law enforcement officer with the rights and concerns of gun owners in mind," he observed.

Holder’s nomination, like the appointment of anti-gun Illinois Congressman Rahm Emanuel as White House Chief of Staff, tells American gun owners that Obama’s campaign claims supporting the Second Amendment were "empty rhetoric," Gottlieb stated.

During his campaign, Obama claimed to be a centrist, claimed to work "across the aisle," and claimed to support gun rights. He claimed his previous record did not reflect the path going forward he planned to take.

So far, everything he has actually done since the election is consistent with his radical-leftist record and not with the lies promises he made to the subjects citizens who elected him to rule serve this country.

Some of us are not one bit surprised. But then we were paying attention.

How Obama Got Elected

By now, it should be painfully obvious that 52% of American voters were not paying attention earlier this month. The truth was out there, but they could not be bothered to see beyond what filmmaker John Ziegler calls "media malpractice."

His new website is providing insight into exactly what level of ingnorance was involved:

"On November 4th, 2008 millions of Americans were shocked that a man of Barack Obama's limited experience, extreme liberal positions and radical political alliances could be elected President of the United States. For many of these Americans, the explanation was rather simple... the news media, completely enamored with Obama, simply refused to do their job."

His upcoming film, Media Malpractice... How Obama Got Elected, should prove very interesting indeed. Dare we hope the people who really need to watch it actually do?

Horsemanship Is Horsemanship

More than a few riders in the various equestrian disciplines can be very, shall we say, condescending toward folks in other disciplines. So I was delighted to find, from Germany, a video of a pas de deux with a dressage rider on a Warmblood and a stock-seat rider on a reining Quarter Horse.

And then they switch horses.

Just awesome.

National Ammo Day

Wednesday, November 19 is National Ammo Day.

Kim du Toit explains it the best.

Small But Mighty

Rhennie

(P's Raising Cain - AY's Dana)

July 9, 1997 - November 12, 2008

About ten and a half years ago, a local racing Greyhound breeder called me about a puppy who needed a home. The puppy had been less than half normal size at birth, and the breeders had gone to extraordinary lengths to keep her alive even though they knew she could never race. Now, at ten months of age, it was obvious the little dog was going to stay too small and fragile to stay on the Greyhound farm. I agreed to take her.

About the size of a tall Whippet and weighing less than twenty-five pounds when her littermates grew to weigh in the eighties, she was a very large dog in a tiny package. So the name that suited her the best, of Celtic origin, was "Rhennie" meaning "Small but mighty."

Dwarfism is essentially undocumented in the racing Greyhound since most breeders cull them at birth. She had structural abnormalities but never let them slow her down. We had doubts about how long she might survive, but she had her own ideas.

Life with Rhennie was never boring. When she was younger, she loved to chase feet, trying to grab your ankles with her front paws. Her bone structure was abnormal, and she once snapped a front leg like a carrot just stepping out of the back seat of the car. She was too fragile for a conventional cast so external fixation was recommended. Nothing a board-certified orthopedic surgeon and about $1,600 couldn't fix.

She ran around the house for four months with a tinkertoy on her leg, healed flawlessly, and I never let her go up or down anything remotely resembling a step under her own power ever again.

Rhennie remained oblivious to her congenital defects, helping herself to anything I was foolish enough to try to eat while sitting on the couch, and sleeping on my feet every night. She would only play with raw food, but loved Merrick's many flavors of gourmet canned dog diets. She ate from two to four cans a day without ever gaining an ounce. We joked at the vet's office that if they could bottle her metabolism and sell it, they'd be millionaires.

Her spinal structure was never normal, and over the last few months she developed a severely calcified disc in her lower back. Medication kept her hindquarters more or less working, but last weekend she got much worse. The verdict at the vet on Monday was a probable stroke.

I took her home and we spent Tuesday on the couch together, wrapped up in a comforter, watching DVD's: Rhennie's very favorite activity. She had all her favorite foods, roast chicken, poached salmon, boiled shrimp. When she needed her litter box, I carried her over and held her until she was done. It was increasingly difficult to move her at all without pain.

Then Wednesday morning, I wrapped her in Godiva's blanket from Circle Of Grey and took her in to the vet so she could be free of the body that had become a prison.

Goddess-speed, Rhennie, until we meet again.

The Dog Who Caught The Car

From a wonderful comment on LawDog's blog post, STRATFOR Weighs In.

"Obama is like the dog that caught the car. Now what does he do?"

Based on Strategic Forecasting's meticulous Geopolitical Intelligence Report, he ought to have his hands very full for a good long time. Especially if Biden's prediction comes true, and the less-upstanding folks in certain regions decide to find out just how tough he really is.

Kind of makes you wonder why people like Hamas, Libyan President Moammar Qaddafi, and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are really so glad to see him get elected.

This would seem to play into the speculation he'll leave his gun-banning agenda for his "second term." Since his campaign was long on charisma and short on substance, this whole "second term" thing sounds a lot like even more hubris.

And lots of Traditions see hubris as one of the surest ways to earn a big smackdown from the Powers That Be.

Journalistic Integrity

While it's an undeserved compliment to call my blogging
"journalism," unlike the MSM I take the "integrity" part seriously. So when an astute reader (thanks, Rio Arriba!) pointed out a quote I had posted was not authentic, I removed the post containing the quote.

The anti-gun folks can lie all they want to do their dirty work. They pretty much have to, since the truth about guns doesn't fit their citizen-disarmament agenda at all. But we need to take the high road, stay with the truth, and discredit those lies every chance we get.

I pledge to verify my sources before posting in the future. Thank you.

The Duties Of The President

From that pesky Constitution that Obama seems to treat with such disdain:

Section 2. The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.

He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law: but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.

The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session.

Section 3. He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in case of disagreement between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper; he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers; he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the United States.

That right there defines what the President is actually authorized to do. Please note the absence of any mention of "redistributing wealth," creating a "civilian national security force," or renewing, expanding, and making permanent the 1994 "assault weapons ban."

The Legislative Branch, consisting of the Senate and House of Representatives, is responsible for imposing such egregious abuses of the public trust. That's why I'm already hammering my Congresscritters with hardcopy documentation of the expectations of a (more or less) free people. How about you?

That's why we must always remember the next section:

Section 4. The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.

Another Winner From Oleg Volk

And on Samhain, no less.

Copyright © Oleg Volk

EDITED TO ADD: No, strictly speaking, Samhain is not Halloween. Samhain occurs at the cross-quarter day when the sun is at 15 degrees in Scorpio. It is a Greater Sabbat (or solar-cycle holy day), some say the greatest. It is our New Year, marking the beginning of winter in the old European agricultural calendar. It is the last Sabbat of the Waning Year. Yule, occurring on the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, is the quarter day when the sun is at 0 degrees in Capricorn. It is the first Sabbat of the Waxing Year. In the Craft, all endings contain within them a beginning, and all beginnings contain within them an ending.

At Samhain, the veil between the worlds is the thinnest. We remember and honor the Ancestors, the Old Ones, the Mighty Dead, and the Beloved Dead. As a celebration of the last harvest, it is when we examine what we are reaping from our choices in life. What is good, we keep. What is not good, we send into the fire, the Cauldron of transformation. We can then use the energy and resources freed by renouncing our destructive habits and behaviors, our foolish choices, to make our lives and our world better.

We Got What We Deserved

The wind howled all Election Day and on into the night. When I went to vote, it tore the door out of my hand. The smiling pollworkers said, "It's been doing that all day."

There was power in the air, and I have a hunch that exactly what needed to happen, happened.

Was it what we wanted? No. But it was what we deserved.

On another gun blog this morning, I saw someone post a comment that he would never bother voting again.

We did it to ourselves and got what we deserved.

According to this morning's news, overall Republican turnout was only 32%, an all time low.

We did it to ourselves and got what we deserved.

Didn't vote because the Republican party fielded a lame candidate? Whose fault was that lame candidate? Somebody elses? Sounds like abdication of personal responsibility to me, and that's a Democratic Party tactic.

We did it to ourselves and got what we deserved.

Voted for some third-party candidate with no chance whatsoever as a "statement?"

We did it to ourselves and got what we deserved.

This morning when I came in from doing outside chores, one of my dogs had knocked a book, "Acheron" by Sherrilyn Kenyon, onto the couch. When I picked it up, it fell open to a page where one of the characters says, "Sometimes things have to go wrong in order to go right."

We who know there are no coincidences, and pay attention to what happens around us, listen to the subtle messages.

Had McCain been elected, it would have been too easy to forget he was actually a RINO and fall back into apathy. Now we must get off our collective posteriors and do something. If we don't, if we repeat the mistakes of history, then we will lose our black rifles and AKM's and ability to defend ourselves effectively from violent crime. We will end up with Chicago-style gun control and crime non-control, and will be expected to roll over and die for it. We will end up with socialized medicine and all the waste and intrusiveness it entails.

A quote from Dr. Ignatius Piazza's Front Sight blog post, "The Life Cycle Of A Nation:"

About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years earlier:

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government.

"A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.

"From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.

"The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years.

"During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence:

"1. from bondage to spiritual faith;
"2. from spiritual faith to great courage;
"3. from courage to liberty;
"4. from liberty to abundance;
"5. from abundance to complacency;
"6. from complacency to apathy;
"7. from apathy to dependence;
"8. from dependence back into bondage."

So WHERE are we, citizens of the United States in the historically proven Life Cycle of Nations?

Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the 2000 Presidential election:

Number of States won by Democrats: 19, Republicans: 29
Square miles of land won by Democrats: 580,000, Republicans: 2,427,000
Population of counties won by Democrats: 127 million, Republicans: 143 million
Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by Democrats: 13.2, Republicans: 2.1

Professor Olson adds: "In aggregate, the map of the territory Republicans won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of this great country. Democrat territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off various forms of government welfare . . . "

Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the complacency and apathy phase of Professor Tyler’s definition of democracy, with some forty percent of the nation’s population already having reached the "governmental dependency" phase.

Personally, I think Professor Olson is being generous here putting us at Step 6. I'd put us more at 7 headed for 8. You want to see Step 8 in all its glory, look at the bubble-wrapped, nanny-state, socialist nightmare that is formerly-Great Britain.

We have two years to work toward breaking the back of the Democratic majority in Congress. Two years after that, we need to revitalize the Republican party so a truly viable candidate ensures Obama will be a one-term President. While it's a pleasant fantasy to expect people like Peggy The Moocher to turn on their great savior when he does not in point of fact make all their nasty bills go away with a snap of his fingers, we cannot afford to depend on it.

Alexis de Tocqueville said, "In a democracy, the people get the government they deserve." Well, we got it, folks. If we don't like it, we have to fix it ourselves.

Buttprints In The Sand

One night I had a wondrous dream,
One set of footprints there was seen,
The footprints of the Goddess they were,
But mine were not along the shore.

But then some stranger prints appeared,
and I asked Her, "What have we here?
These prints are large and round and neat,
But much too big to be from feet."

"My child," She said in somber tones,
"For miles I carried you alone.
"I challenged you to walk in faith,
"But you refused and made me wait.

"You would not learn, you would not grow,
"The walk of faith, you would not know,
"So I got tired, I got fed up,
"And there I dropped you on your butt.

"Because in life, there comes a time,
"When one must fight, and one must climb,
"When one must rise and take a stand,
"Or leave their buttprints in the sand."

Author Unknown

The Pagan version of the "Footprints" poem reflects the importance of personal responsibility in most of our Traditions. If our situation sucks, we probably made a significant contribution to the suckage, and it's up to us to fix it. "For if you find not that which you seek within yourself, you will never find it without."

So now that we've allowed a Democratic majority in Congress and put a Marxist in the White House, are we going to just sit there in the sand?

Into The Cauldron

It's Election Day today.

I drove past my polling place this morning long before it was due to open. The parking lot was already full. Hopefully I won't have to wait for hours to vote this evening.

I've been lucky to avoid the annoying political phone calls and personal attacks experienced by others. The only sign I have up at home is the one that says "No Trespassing" next to the locked gate. Maybe the gun photos and "keeper" targets in my office act as Obamabot repellant.

There are indications here and there that common sense may be reasserting. I received an e-mail the other day from an acquaintance who had been a vocal Obama supporter from the beginning. Now he's exhorting everyone in his address book to vote against Obama.

No matter how this election turns out, the results will be far from the ideals upon which this country was founded. Self-reliance, responsibility, and initiative have been replaced by narcissism, entitlement, and dependency. As society fosters and rewards infantile characteristics, other infantile behaviors come along for the ride. Just read any Democratic Party forum to see sterling examples of so-called adults acting like ill-mannered children.

Reports of voter intimidation and fraud are coming in already. The Obama campaign seems to use a playbook co-written by Richard J. Daley (aka King Richard the First -- hizzoner's son Richie is King Richard the Second) and Robert Mugabe. The ACORNs aren't falling far from the tree.

We who work on the quantum edge of tilting the scales of probability with our Will understand the Law of Unintended Consequences better than anyone. Whatever the outcome of this election, may the major parties' unintended consequences include the awakening of the American people to what depths this country has descended.

In my Tradition, the Cauldron is chaos, the place of all possibilities, that which comes after the end and before the beginning. It is where destruction is transformed to creation. May the power of the Cauldron help transform this mess into the best possible outcome.

For the greatest good of all.

In accordance with free will.

So mote it be.

P.S. -- My pre-ordered copy of Laurell K. Hamilton's new Merry Gentry book, "Swallowing Darkness," was just delivered a day early. Gotta love those "little coincidences." Now I know what I'll be doing tonight instead of subjecting myself to more political blather.

My Plan For E-Day

The polls won't be open yet when I leave for work in the morning, and I work too far from home to run back and vote in the middle of the day. That leaves voting on the way home.

I could have voted early, but there's something about the ritual of going inside the teensy tinker-toy booth with the totally inadequate privacy curtain, clutching your paper ballot and fat kindergarten pencil here in low-tech Nebraska.

Then I'm going home and watching DVD's for the rest of the evening. The Witchblade Complete Series set should keep me from any more political spew for quite a few hours. Or maybe read the latest Jim Butcher/Dresden Files book to make it into electronic format. Anything but broadcast television on election night.

Plenty of time to find out how screwed we are the next morning.

I agree with Kevin Baker at The Smallest Minority that we have a choice here between disaster and catastrophe. There may well be no candidate running who deserves to win, but there is certainly one who stands out as spectacularly deserving to lose.

I don't know whether stuff like this makes me glad I don't drink, or sorry.

POST SCRIPT: Dr. Ignatius Piazza of Front Sight Firearms Training Institute hits one out of the park with his blog post "The Life Cycle Of A Nation." I offer it here as a last call to DO SOMETHING with what we have to work with this time around.

Stalin's Heir

As we come down to the wire in this election cycle, Doc Russia presents a comprehensive analysis of Obama's rise to power.

An excerpt:

The recent incident where Biden was questioned as to how whether Obama was a marxist in light of his views of "spreading the wealth" crystallizes this belief. First, Biden could not illuminate the differences between Obama and Marx because, IMHO, there is no substantial difference. So, he pretends affront by answering with the rhetorical question "is this a joke?" Then, perhaps more tellingly, the incident comes complete circle in Stalinist format by the network subsequently being shut out of the loop, and even such tenuous examples of speaking truth to power are punished.

Here's a video discussing that interview and its consequences:

Any more, it looks like YouTube and the blogosphere are the only places to find the truth. At least until the Obama machine destroys the First Amendment along with the Second. After all, Obama says the Constitution reflects the fundamental flaw of this country that continues to this day.

It's still not too late, folks. Doc Russia, like Ly Chho, knows communism when he sees it coming. VOTE!

Make Way For The Obama Gestapo

Their jobs will be so much easier after he takes our guns away.

Guess what. We already have a "civilian" defense force consisting of every armed citizen. It's defined in the Second Amendment. But since Obama's on record repeatedly working toward citizen disarmament, I'm guessing this is an intended end-run around those pesky Posse Comitatus and Insurrection Acts. You know, the ones that prevent bringing the full force of the military to bear against American citizens at home.

Wolverines!

Woman Shoots Returning Rapist

A 57-year old woman in Missouri shot and killed a man who returned to her home to rape her a second time.

The first time she was attacked, she tried to escape when she heard glass break in the basement. The man caught her, punched her in the face, forced her into a bedroom, and raped her.

The second attempt occurred less than a week after the first. The rapist broke in through the same basement window as before and shut off power to her home. She tried to call 911 but the phone was dependent on house current and wouldn't work. So she got a shotgun and waited.

When he broke through the basement door she shot him in the chest.

Updated to add news video:

So let's review here. The Authorities say we should run away from danger instead of defend ourselves. Okay, she tried that the first time. It didn't work.

They say we should call 911. She tried that the second time. It didn't work.

They say the police will take care of everything. Obviously the rapist hadn't been arrested when he came back, so that didn't work either.

What did work was a shotgun applied at center mass. Pretty much guaranteed to work.

The county prosecutor, Morley Swingle, said, "I will not be filing any sort of charge against this 57-year-old woman, who was clearly justified under the law in shooting this intruder in her home." Missouri law allows you to own firearms and defend yourself with them. But in Illinois, Barack Obama voted against Senate Bill 2165 which stated:

Amends the Criminal Code of 1961. Provides that it is an affirmative defense to a violation of a municipal ordinance that prohibits, regulates, or restricts the private ownership of firearms if the individual who is charged with the violation used the firearm in an act of self-defense or defense of another. Effective immediately.

Let me repeat: Obama feels actually defending your life is not an acceptable reason to violate a municipal defenseless-victim order.

Not to mention he believes said defenseless-victim orders to be appropriate and constitutional.

In summary, we have an example of truly effective defense that could only have been better if the victim had been able to use it the first time. We have obvious failures of more politically-correct "defenses." And we have a Presidential candidate who favors stacking the deck so this woman would have been forced to suffer violation a second time from the same piece of ambulatory human feces.

But what's one more kind of rape to the socialist agenda?

Disarm The Proletariat

So they can't resist when you go to redistribute their wealth?

In Obama's own words, his support for a "ban on concealed carry laws."

Pretty much what you'd expect from someone who voted to uphold the criminal prosecution of people who use firearms in self-defense (Illinois Senate, SB 2165, March 25, 2004, vote 20 and May 25, 2004, vote 3).

PAY ATTENTION! VOTE!

Quote Of The (Election) Day

From Socialist Party of America presidential candidate Norman Thomas:

"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but under the name of liberalism, they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program until one day America will be a socialist nation without ever knowing how it happened."

The question now is, will enough of the worshippers of the Obamessiah wake up from their dreams of suckling the government teat for the rest of their miserable lives in time to postpone prevent this happening?

More NRA Election Videos

Just in case your local media outlets aren't showing both sides of the issues before the election.

"The Comprehensive Argument Against Barack Obama"

Guy Benson and Mary Katharine Ham refer to themselves as "young conservative journalists." In collaboration with Ed Morrissey, they have compiled a most impressive synopsis of what they describe as "a number of Obama’s positions, statements, and associations about which he has been less than honest."

That's putting it mildly.

They admit they haven't hit everything. My own favorite of his abysmal position on guns is not included. But that's okay. They've hit just about every other reason to vote against him next month.

And I especially love this quote:

"In fact, if Obama wins on November 4th—and serves one full term in the Oval Office — the Presidency of the United States would be the longest consecutively held full-time job he has ever held without seeking another."

Read, and watch, the whole thing.

No Passport, No Phone, No Privacy

In formerly-Great Britain, everyone who buys a mobile telephone will be forced to register their identity on a national database under government plans to extend massively the powers of state surveillance.

Phone buyers would have to present a passport or other official form of identification at the point of purchase. Privacy campaigners fear it marks the latest government move to create a surveillance society.

CREATE a surveillance society?? As of two years ago, Britain already had 4.2 MILLION CCTV cameras watching their suspects' citizens' every move. That's one camera for every 14 people in the whole freakin' country. It's estimated that every single person in Britain is photographed at least 300 times every single day.

Too late.

From An Illinois Lobbyist About Obama

Richard Pearson is the executive director of the Illinois State Rifle Association. He has been active in firearms rights for over forty years, and has been the ISRA's chief lobbyist in Illinois for the past fifteen.

Here is an excerpt from his open letter to the gun owners of America:

I lobbied Barack Obama extensively while he was an Illinois State Senator. As a result of that experience, I know Obama’s attitudes toward guns and gun owners better than anyone. The truth be told, in all my years in the Capitol I have never met a legislator who harbors more contempt for the law-abiding firearm owner than Barack Obama.

Read the whole thing.

Fear-Mongering At Its Finest

As if I needed to be any more disgusted with the media, there are now pundits claiming the current economic situation "is another Great Depression."

Or "becoming another Great Depression."

Or "as bad as the Great Depression."

Or whatever.

My parents lived through the real Great Depression. This ain't it. Not even close.

Nobody could have said it any better than Stingray at Atomic Nerds. Read the whole delightful rant thing.

More Obama Blue Smoke And Mirrors

Via Gundoctor, we find this article in the Wall Street Journal:

For the Obama Democrats, a tax cut is no longer letting you keep more of what you earn. In their lexicon, a tax cut includes tens of billions of dollars in government handouts that are disguised by the phrase "tax credit."

Catch is, you don't have to pay any taxes to get these tax credits.

The Tax Foundation estimates that under the Obama plan 63 million Americans, or 44% of all tax filers, would have no income tax liability and most of those would get a check from the IRS each year. The Heritage Foundation's Center for Data Analysis estimates that by 2011, under the Obama plan, an additional 10 million filers would pay zero taxes while cashing checks from the IRS.

The total annual expenditures on refundable "tax credits" would rise over the next 10 years by $647 billion to $1.054 trillion, according to the Tax Policy Center. This means that the tax-credit welfare state would soon cost four times actual cash welfare. By redefining such income payments as "tax credits," the Obama campaign also redefines them away as a tax share of GDP. Presto, the federal tax burden looks much smaller than it really is.

Let me repeat, 44% of all Americans would PAY NO INCOME TAX AT ALL AND RECEIVE A CHECK FROM THE IRS EVERY YEAR.

And where does the money for such generosity, FOUR TIMES the cost of the current welfare system, come from?

THE OTHER 56% OF US.

Just reminding folks there are LOTS of reasons besides gun rights to keep Obama out of the White* House.

* Given the DNC and the Obama campaign's predilection to call everything a racial slur, I want to go on record as saying this is not racist.

Betting Your Life On 911

From the Local6 News website in Orlando:

A Central Florida woman whose 17-year-old daughter was killed in a murder-suicide apparently committed by her ex-boyfriend said the teen was told by police to stop calling for help or she'd be arrested.

Further in the article:

Hall's mother, Sherry, said her daughter was concerned about Coffner and informed police.

In fact, Hall said her daughter called police so much that on Jan. 15 they threatened her.

"The police officer said if you call us one more time on him, I'm going to arrest you both," Sherry Hall said. "So, the day she died, she knew she couldn't talk to police. So, she handled it herself."

The local PD has so far not responded to inquiries.

I'll just bet they haven't.

Florida has some of the best personal defense laws in the country. They have no duty-to-retreat, and protect defenders from civil suits by their assailants (or the assailants' survivors). Handgun permits are shall-issue, although they are on the expensive side and can take 90 days to process through the system.

But it's too late to start that slow ball rolling when the police are already telling you to stop bothering them with your violent-ex-boyfriend problems.

Another consideration is how long help will take to arrive even if they do send it.

According to statistics published by the US Department of Justice, in 2005, the most recent year with full data available, police nationwide responded to "crimes of violence" within 5 minutes only 28.9% of the time. If you narrow things down to just "aggravated assault," it improves slightly to 30.5%.

29.7% of the "aggravated assault" calls were handled in from 6 to 10 minutes.

34.8% were handled in from 11 minutes to 1 hour.

The solution is not to wait until you're facing death to prepare to prevent it.

We need to be able to address the Bad Thing ourselves if and when it happens. Violent criminal actors overwhelmingly avoid police presence when they commit their crimes. But that means we must have the tools, skills, and will to do so effectively. Otherwise, we're just live bait.

From Someone Who Knows Communism When She Sees It

Kevin Baker at Smallest Minority relates a question asked by Ly Chho at the NRA press conference announcing their endorsement of McCain/Palin.

Mrs. Chho's parents are Chinese and she was born in Cambodia. She was raised and educated in Taiwan, and has been a naturalized American citizen for fourteen years. She is a new NRA member.

Her question at the press conference?

"I am a new NRA member. I have been a citizen for only fourteen years. I believe in the Constitution and the Second Amendment, and when I see Obama, I see Communism, and I am afraid. I believe he is going to win the election. Do you have any plans in place if this happens?"

Seems to me the best answer is to see that as many people as possible don't vote for the Obamessiah. When I hear folks talk about voting for candidates who don't have a snowball's chance of getting elected just to make a point, I'm reminded of the votes for Nader that may have been a factor in Gore losing out to Bush in 2000.

Is McCain an ideal choice? No. Prior to his selection of Sarah Palin as VP, I viewed him as the less disgusting of the two Democrats running. His insistence that a non-existent "gun show loophole" is a danger to public safety and must be "closed" is ridiculous.

But he beats the hell out of the prospect of living under the thumb of Dear Leader.

Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

Ever wonder where all those in-the-tank-for-Obama poll results come from?

Classical Values explains The Numbers Game.

UPDATE: Steven M. Warshawsky at American Thinker has more on the lies spin polls.

Obama's Plan To Destroy The Second Amendment

Courtesy of Michael Bane and David Hardy, we have a exposé of Barack Obama's effort while director of the Joyce Foundation to destroy the Second Amendment through judicial obliteration.

Of course, Joe Biden's Beretta is safe . . .

When Seconds Count

Even being right outside the police station may not save you.

From John Lott, a woman in Florida was murdered in the parking lot of a police station while on the phone with 911.

An armed stalker confronts a woman in her home. She gets in her car and drives off to draw him away from her children. The stalker follows in his car. She drives to a police station while on the phone with 911. The first 911 center her cell phone reaches isn't the right one for her jurisdicition, so her call is transfered. When she reaches the police station, an iron gate blocks her access. She is shot and killed right outside the police station. The stalker then kills himself.

The 911 center never dispatched the call.

In a situation like that, I'd be calling 1911 first. Then I'd call 911 after the tango was down.

"The Main Source Of Arms In The Criminal World"

The Russian military has lost over 215,000 guns from arsenals all over their country.

Russian interior ministry official Sergei Fedkin is quoted as saying, “Experts believe the main source of arms in the criminal world is military bases and, above all, the defence ministry.”

Wow, you mean they don't all come from law-abiding gun owners and gun stores in American states with low Brady Bunch scores?

Sure explains how criminals worldwide get their hands on military-grade weapons that are impossible or nearly-so for law-abiding citizens to own.

From Anti-Gun To Pro-Gun

The Smallest Minority points us to a new blog, Political Write, from a woman who writes about "Anti Gun Rights to Pro Gun Rights -- My Conversion."

In her comments. there's a link to Jack Burton's "An Open Letter to Those Who Wonder Why Citizens Would Want to Carry Guns in Public" and "Answers for those who think that 'gun control' is the best for America."

Keep up the good work, and welcome to the blogroll, Political Write.

WHAT Gun Show Loophole?

From David Hardy, a joint University of Michigan - University of Maryland study that found "Gun shows do not increase homicides or suicides."

Here's the whole report in .PDF format.

We've known this all along.

Those Who Ignore The Past

May be doomed to repeat it.

Yuri Bezmenov

Uploaded by onmyway02

Courtesy of Breda.

More NRA Ads

Any bets on whether Obama and the DNC will object to these, too? UPDATE: Looks like they do!

UPDATE: Not from the NRA, but needs to be seen. Vomit alert on this one.

The Ads Obama Wants Banned

Here are the NRA ads the Democratic National Committee and Barack Obama's campaign want banned:

NOTHING IN THESE ADS IS FALSE.

From Another Gun Blog:

In 1804 Thomas Jefferson wrote,

"....man may be governed by reason and truth. Our first object should therefore be, to leave open to him all the avenues to truth. The most effectual hitherto found, is the freedom of the press. It is, therefore, the first shut up by those who fear the investigation of their actions."

BONUS: ricketyclick summarizes the breadth and depth of Obama's MSM-aided-and-abetted censorship and hypocrisy.

He Had No Gun . . .

. . . But that didn't stop a 64-year-old father from killing the home invader who came to rape his daughter.

The criminal was naked in his daughter's bedroom with condoms, latex gloves, rope, and a knife.

How many rapists are serial rapists? All of them.

How many pedophiles are serial pedophiles? All of them.

Remember:

YOU ARE THE WEAPON. YOUR PISTOL IS JUST A TOOL.

Why Stop At The Second Amendment . . .

. . . When you can destroy the First as well?

The Democratic National Committee is trying to get people send e-mails from their website to get the NRA's ads off the air.

You know, the ads that tell the TRUTH about Obama's position on guns and gun ownership?

And in Missouri, Democrat sheriffs and prosecutors are forming "Truth Squads" to go after anyone they feel is making "false" statements against Obama during his campaign.

UPDATE: Missouri Governor Matt Blunt issues a statement on "plans by U.S. Senator Barack Obama to use Missouri law enforcement to threaten and intimidate his critics."

False statements? Like pointing out his ACTUAL VOTING RECORD on guns?

Sounds doubleplusungood to me.

WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

The Economic Crisis In A Nutshell

WATCH THE WHOLE THING!!!!

Hijacking The High Road

Xavier reports on Oleg Volk's problems with his firearms forum, The High Road.

Posts from Oleg on his LiveJournal blog here and here.

More from another THR moderator.

As a professional geek maintaining registrations for many web domains, I deal with the possibility of domain hijacking all the time. Getting them back is never easy or pretty, and can be expensive. And regardless of whether or not the reader agrees with the core premises of The High Road, domain theft is exactly that: THEFT. A crime.

If you can help Oleg out, it would be greatly appreciated.

Election Reminders Again

Lest any of us forget before November . . .

Barack Obama's campaign website has just been updated with his support for repeal of the Tiahrt Amendment and a permanent "Assault Weapons Ban."

John Lott and the National Review among others point out the truth about FactCheck.org's baldfaced lies assertions that the NRA's analysis of Barack Obama's position on guns is flawed.

UPDATE: Obama's campaign is trying to force the NRA to stop reporting the truth about his position on guns.

More on Obama's attack on the First Amendment.

Protein Wisdom points out the naked emperor of media bias.

Another National Review article reminds us that it's not "easy access to guns" that results in paroled recidivist violent felons killing police officers, but the lenient justice system that turned them loose.

And John Lott reminds us of the Democrats' role in creating the current financial mess, and that the even the New York Times saw it coming ten years ago.

Pay attention. See through the smoke and mirrors. VOTE.

Oh Noes!

This morning, the liberal media was wringing its hands over Sarah Palin's firing of the Wasilla police chief while she was mayor.

One of her reasons was he opposed the legislation, ultimately approved and signed in 2003, that allowed concealed carry in Alaska without begging for it from your betters a permit.

This just keeps getting better.

BONUS: Asia Times Online columnist "Spengler" deconstructs Obama.

UPDATE: Clayton Cramer deconstructs the so-called "Troopergate" scandal.

Sarah Palin -- YEAH!!

Now THIS is my idea of a Vice-President!

Just when I thought the future of this country was seriously sunk, John McCain selected Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate.

My kind of Hope and Change.

Democrapic Convention Overload

The nightly ad-nauseam TV coverage of the Democraptic National Convention is doing wonders for my backlog of odd jobs around the house and unread books. That's because I'd rather clean gunk out of the sink trap than watch it.

The litany of entitlements they are offering the Kool-Aid drinkers Democratic faithful needs only a chorus chanting "GIMME! GIMME! GIMME!" in the background. This country has been called the Land of Opportunity, the Land of the Free, not the Land of The Free Lunch. In America, I can have anything I am willing to work for and earn. I can also turn my life into a world-class Charlie Foxtrot if I so choose by make bad decisions. In other words, I am free to succeed and I am free to fail, according to the choices I make in life. And I own the consequences of my successes and failures.

In other words, had I been stupid and/or greedy enough to buy a house I couldn't afford, it would be my responsibility to clean up the mess, not the .gov's.

That's not what the speakers at the DNC seem to believe. In the finest tradition of the Total Abdication Of Personal Responsibility Democratic Party, they promise foreclosure bailouts and universal health care without explaining just how they will pay for such largesse.

Oh, that's right, they won't have to pay for them. We will.

UPDATE: D. Martyn Lloyd-Morgan fact-checks the Obamessiah.

As a side note, a Cuban immigrant recently wrote a letter to his local newspaper remembering where he's heard similar promises of hope and change before.

Another of the highlights(?) was announcing Joe Biden as Obama's running mate. In case anyone out there who owns guns has been under a rock for the past year or so, Obama getting elected would be very, very bad for gun owners. I therefore offer the following as a reminder of what Biden thinks of us:

Courage Amid Cowardice

Graham Showell, 32, from Birmingham, and Bruce Wright, 30, from Essex, England, are doing something very courageous in the middle of nanny-state Britain. They have put up a website called Britain Needs Guns: The Best Solution To Rising Violent Crime.

They offer pages of annotated facts debunking common gun myths in Britain. When reading about comparative rates of violent crime in the US and UK, I realized I had no idea things over there were THAT bad.

Anyone who thinks disarming law-abiding citizens reduces or eliminates crime needs to read their entire site.

Fun With Machine Guns

Yesterday, August 16, I went to the Fun & Freedom Machine Gun Shoot in Kearney, Nebraska.

David Hineline, a friend from the Nebraska CCW forum and FFL from South Sioux City, came down for the event with LOTS of cool toys.

I tried his MP5SD, but found the stock length to be a bit of a reach. Yes, I really am that short and dumpy. If I follow the genetic predisposition of my family's female side, I'll eventually end up looking like R2D2 in drag.

The select-fire M16 carbine in 9mm had an adjustable stock, which worked out much better.

There were many historical weapons there. I missed the chance to photograph a gentleman in Revolutionary War period costume. These two participants had uniforms and equipment from the Viet Nam era.

There is no such thing as an ex-Marine.

Fifty-caliber single-shot rifle. There was so much to see, and everyone was so busy, that I'm afraid I didn't get the particulars on all the guns there.

Belt-fed machine gun.

Exploding Tannerite has got to be the ultimate in reactive targets.

I have to comment on the children I saw at this event. There were lots of them, from about four years old on up. Without exception, they were all well-behaved and well spoken. They displayed maturity, self-discipline, and responsibility. I have seen this over and over at shooting events.

This young man attentively listened to the instructions he was given for safely shooting the .50 rifle while his friend looked on from behind the line.

His friend wisely supplemented his earplugs during the shot.

The nanny-statists would have us believe guns are a bad influence on children. But responsible gun owners raise their children to be responsible individuals. Seeing these admirable young people gives me hope not only for the future of gun ownership in this country but for the future of the country itself.

More Than Just Swimming And Gymnastics

There's a lot more to the Olympics than the events you see every night on the news. Fortunately for those of us who enjoy things like Shooting and Equestrian, NBC has a huge amount of video available for viewing online.

By the way, the Equestrian events are the only ones where men and women compete together against each other. Having a thousand-pound horse as a partner really levels the playing field.

Range Report For My New Wilson

Keep your pink revolvers. To me, a ladies' gun looks like this:

Yep, it's my new Wilson Combat. The gun fits like it was made for me. Oh, wait, it was.

And it shoots like this:

The first shots on the above target were eight rounds of 165 gr +P Pow'RBall, followed by 32 rounds of Blazer Brass 230 gr FMJ. Of the hardball, two friends -- both instructors, one an ERU operator -- each fired eight rounds. The group off to the right are check shots. I shot the rest. Distances were three, five, and seven yards.

The second target was all mine, a five-shot group, slow fire, offhand, Blazer Brass 230 gr FMJ, at ten yards.

A target I didn't keep was one full magazine dumped as fast as I could fire, point-shooting high-COM on an IDPA target at five yards. I could still cover the group with my hand.

Another friend put a full eight-round magazine into the head-shot A zone on an IPSC target as fast as he could pull the trigger at five yards.

I ordered both slim Diamondwood grips and standard-thickness G10's. On all of my other 1911-pattern guns, the slim grips work better with my hands. But on this one, the aggressive G10 grips are perfect. The slight difference they make for carry concealability is more than offset by the Ed Brown bobtail. This gun is easier to conceal than my CCO-size Kimber.

On a scale of one to ten, this gun's an eleven. Too bad I'm only a two, but it gives me a goal to strive for.

IT'S HERE! IT'S HERE!

IT'S HERE IT'S HERE OH WOW IT'S FINALLY HERE IT'S GORGEOUS OH WOW IT'S REALLY HERE . . .

There. I'm okay now.

Yes, my custom built Wilson Combat 1911 finally arrived. Yes, it is absolutely wonderful.

One hundred and seven days from ordering to delivery. All black Armor-Tuff. Smooth, not stippled as they usually do, Ed Brown bobtail. Single-side tactical safety. Tritium night sights. Two sets of Wilson logo grips, one in aggressive G10, one in smooth slim Dymondwood for carry. Not a MIM part to be found anywhere. People can say all they want that Wilsons aren't "true" custom guns like a Nowlin or Clark Custom. This is a true custom gun.

Excuse me while I go breathe into a paper bag.

It came with a quality control checklist with every production step initialed by master gunsmiths, another sheet with all of their names including who shot the test target, two instructional videos, and paper documentation for everything from the Armor-Tuff finish to ammunition selection.

The care-and-feeding manual is very emphatic about not cleaning the gun until 300 to 500 rounds have been shot. Anyone who knows what a clean-gun fanatic I am will wonder how I'll handle that little detail.

Must . . . resist . . . urge . . . to . . . clean . . . gun . . .

AAAAAGHHH!

I was tempted to shoot it right away, but being tired at the end of a rotten work day is hardly the way to do it justice. Better to wait until the weekend and do it right. In the mean time, I can watch both DVD's that came with it, read the manuals and documentation about fifty times, and field strip and reassemble it over and over again. With a heavy bushingless barrel and a full-length two-piece guide rod, it's about like trying to take a Browning Hi-Power apart and put it back together without using the safety in the takedown notch to hold the slide. Oh, joy.

The test target, benchrested at 15 yards, is a sub-1" five shot group. Off a Ransom Rest, the gun is guaranteed to shoot 1" groups at 25 yards. I believe it. Nothing like "being worthy of your gun" as an incentive to improve your shooting skills.

So the range report will follow shortly, hopefully with a few more "keeper" targets for my office wall. Stay tuned . . .

With Experience Comes Wisdom

Kittens aren't the only dangerous, vet-dismembering monsters among us. Twenty-odd years ago, when I first got involved with Greyhound adoption and brought dogs from the track to my local vet clinic for heartworm tests and rabies vaccinations, the vet there said it was a bad idea.

Greyhounds are vicious, he said. Greyhounds aren't suitable to be pets, he said. Greyhounds are killed after they're finished racing for a reason, he said. Of course, I ignored him.

Fast-forward a few years. By now, I've brought a few hundred Greyhounds through his doors. When I arrived with three new dogs in tow, the client ahead of me had brought in a Cocker Spaniel puppy for a nail trim. A puppy-mill Cocker Spaniel puppy, recently bought from a shopping mall pet shop.

The vet ushered the lady and her little dog into an examining room, closing the door while my Greyhounds and I stayed in the waiting area. Interesting noises soon followed.

They included much banging and crashing, barking and screaming, assorted bad language, and a call for the assistant -- who normally was only needed on farm visits to help with cattle. The reinforcements arrived, and the noises were repeated. Finally the door opened.

Puppy-mill Cocker was by now blowing enraged spit bubbles out the side of a gauze muzzle and had his nails trimmed, all right. The saucer-eyed owner was cowering in the corner. The walls, floor, and table in the examining room were liberally splattered with blood and, ah, other things. One whiff confirmed the puppy had let go with bladder, bowels, and anal glands. I was truly impressed by the amount of ick that could come out of so small a dog.

The blood was the vet's. He excused himself to wash up and bandage his arms. The assistant was left to clean up the mess.

After Cujo Junior was gone, the vet came over to draw blood and vaccinate my three brand new racetrack rejects. As usual, they stood perfectly calm, wagging their tails, through the whole thing.

And the vet said, "I wish they all were Greyhounds."

I just smiled.

Just Give Them What They Want

And the criminals won't hurt you.

That's what police departments and elected officials tell you to do when confronted by violence.

Linda Susan Raulerson, live bait a clerk in a convenience store, gave the criminal what he wanted, and he killed her anyway.

I am not willing to bet my life that the scumbag who wants to rob me will immediately turn into an honorable person as soon as I turn over the goods. And what if the criminal wants your body or your child?

I don't think so.

I don't want a criminal to think attacking me is a safe bet. I want him to think if he attacks me, it may be the last thing he ever does. Or if he attacks any law-abiding citizen, because any one of us may be armed, trained, and willing to defend ourselves.

Remember, The Authorities who tell us to just surrender meekly either carry guns themselves or have armed bodyguards.

Kitten, Part II

There was just no way I could keep the by-now-$250 kitten.

An active kitten in a house full of large sighthounds would have the life expectancy of a mayfly. And responsible people willing to take a kitten are nowhere to be found, at least by me.

So I had to give up and call Merlin's Refuge.

Merlin's Refuge is a true no-kill alternative for unwanted animals in the eastern Nebraska/western Iowa area. My vet, Dr. Michael Bosilevac at Best Care Pet Hospital, works with them, and they are the real deal. Check them out and hit the tip jar if you can.