Today was a special day for a few reasons, and putting those reasons together gave me and my good buddy W a chance to do something that all good Texans must do at some point:
Visit the Spoetzl Brewery in Shiner, Texas. Makers of Shiner Bock and other Shiner-brand beers.
Via SaysUncle I read that Chicago’s Mayor Richard Daley has the luxury of armed guards.
A third escapee, a convicted murderer, had the misfortune early Monday of stumbling upon a Chicago police officer who was guarding Mayor Richard Daley’s vacation home that is about a block from Lake Michigan.
The officer, Michael Smith, chased the suspect on foot and handcuffed him at gunpoint.
In a statement, Smith said he had just checked his BlackBerry for a physical description and photos of the three escapees from Indiana State Prison about 10 miles away.
Shortly after, Smith, who was sitting in a car while guarding Daley’s home, said he looked in the rearview mirror and spotted two disheveled men.
Gosh, isn’t that just dandy? The Chicago Mayor — notorious for his anti-gun stance — has people that guard his house. And those guards, they have guns. To boot, Mayor Daley doesn’t have to pay these guards out of his own pocket: the taxpayers do that. Boy, that must be nice!
So let’s see: he doesn’t want Chicago citizens to have guns, he does what he can to make it difficult or impossible for the citizens of Chicago to be able to protect themselves and their homes (let alone their vacation homes!), but he has them for himself. And it’s most evident that guns can be used by good people for good things.
Mayor Daley, you’re quite the hypocrite. Unfortunately I don’t see you doing anything to resolve that.
I think the post-election gun frenzy is showing signs of abating. Talking with lots of people and reading posts from others around the country and they’re seemingly in agreement.
For instance, I stopped by GT Distributors yesterday. They have a showroom in Austin, and this was the first time I’ve been there (neat place). No problem getting guns. In fact, they had a lot of AR’s up on the walls at pre-election prices. I saw some M1A’s that were still a bit on the pricey side, but not as bad as things have been.
Ammo is around, but like most stores they’re restricting quantity purchases. But that means at least you can get some ammo. And prices weren’t too ridiculous.
I think things are getting better, but it’s still going to take some time.
My sincere hope? For all those people that opted to rush out and stockpile, now that you’ve got so much ammo? Go shoot it. Sign up for training, learn how to use the stuff you hoarded so it doesn’t just sit and rot (or at least store it well).
If anyone wants to get me a birthday or Christmas present, a gift card from GT would be great! 🙂
Matthew has a good article about blocking. Filled with stick-figure illustration goodness, complete with eyebrows and expressions!
I take small odds with one bit:
It is impossible to know what exactly our opponents are going to do. Furthermore, it is wasted mental energy trying to figure it out. If you are constantly trying to analyze and asses the intentions of your opponent, you give him/her the opportunity to dictate the essence of the fight. You will always be a half step behind. Eventually it will catch up to you and you will get overrun.
Generally speaking I do agree with what he’s saying. If you are nothing but preoccupied with your opponent, you’ll always be behind the curve and always get smacked.
But is it impossible to know what they are going to do? And is it a total waste to try to figure it out? I would disagree with this. Most fighters will have preferences. They will move in particular ways, have particular rhythms, have favorite techniques to do. If you do pay attention, you can start to figure out what they do, what they like to do, perhaps even what they don’t do. So you throw a jab and they always pull their head back. Great. Now you can try following that left jab with a left hook: feint the jab, they pull back, land the hook.
That said, be aware that the same is going to be done to you. A good fighter is going to pay attention to what you do, you need to be aware of what you do and mix it up to keep them guessing. Matthew’s article is very good towards the physical end of blocking and not getting hit, but we cannot ignore the mental aspect of it as well. No, you cannot predict the future, you cannot know out of thin air what your opponent will do, but if you do pay attention to your opponent, you can watch for behavioral patterns and take advantage of them… it’s about as close to predicting the future as you can get.
Joe provides us with a little photo essay on what happens when you don’t properly store your ammo.
Updated: So how should you store your ammo?
There are many ways to approach this, depending what you’re after and your goals are (e.g. do you want to store it to last 50 years, or just long enough until you get to the range)? Hit Google and search on the topic and you’ll find a lot of information on the topic.
But the key factor is keeping it cool and dry, emphasis on the dry part. Moisture, humidity, these things aren’t good for ammo. I’d also add that keeping the storage environment as stable as possible helps too. Take Joe’s example. That ammo was being kept in a trailer, which is going to get wicked hot, then wicked cold, lots of moisture and humidity to deal with.
If you can find it, look for military surplus ammo storage cans. These cans were designed to… you guessed it… store ammo. As long as they are clean and in good shape and the rubber seals are good, put your ammo inside, maybe some desiccant (depending what you’re after), add ammo, then lock the box up and leave it alone. I also add a label on the outside of the can to say what’s inside… better than cracking the seal to figure it out, since all cans look the same. For those in the Austin area, I have found that John’s Guns in Bastrop is a great place to buy cans; they’ve always got a lot in stock, in good shape, and reasonable prices (nice folks too).
Wired Magazine had a photo collection of some nifty rifle accessories.
I like the cup holder. It’s tactically refreshing!
I think this Buckmark with the suppressor and TacSol barrel is pretty sweet too.
Given my recent snub nose revolver endeavors, while I’m not seeking out snub stuff, when I come across something snub related I do give it a read.
Matthew, from Straight Forward in a Crooked World, talks about .38 Special revolvers, how he came around to the .38 snub nose revolver, how the snub has its faults but how he still loves it so.
So the makers of Pez are suing a guy with the world’s biggest Pez dispenser world’s biggest dispenser of Pez.
Talk about your bad P.R. move.
The guy builds this dispenser and runs a museum dedicated to Pez (which happened by accident, out of just love for the product and collecting it). This is nothing but good for the Pez company as ultimately all those profits go back to Pez. It gets people to love the product, support it, keep it alive, keep buying it… and I’m sure they buy a lot of it in the museum’s gift shop. And the Pez company is hurt how?
Yes, strictly speaking I could see trademark issues or other branding issues. Yes there are strict legal issues here. But the Pez company had a choice here: embrace what the guy does because ultimately it supports them, or treat him like a criminal and let your actions come back to bite you in the ass. In the end, Pez is only hurting themselves.
So yeah… sue your fans, treat your customers like criminals. Seems Pez is taking lessons from the RIAA and MPAA, and unfortunately a growing number of industries.
… of course, I’d rather not see about that, but given the way things are going these days I get the feeling that Sotomayor is going to be confirmed for SCOTUS.
So when pressed about Heller, she reluctantly admits that yes RKBA is an individual right (contrary to her previous words, actions, and beliefs).
Then I hear she’s not going to let her personal views affect how she would rule on cases.
Sotomayor said flatly to Alabama’s Sen. Jeff Sessions: “I do not permit my sympathies, personal views or prejudices influence the outcome of my cases.”
I’ll believe it when I see it, but frankly I’d rather not have any chance to see it in the first place.
Updated: Bitter has some coverage.
John Stossel makes a good point:
during [President Obama’s] trip to Africa, he said: “No business wants to invest in a place where the government skims 20 percent off the top”.
But of course the American government skims off much more than 20%. Federal taxes alone are roughly that, and when you add in state and local levies, plus the burden of regulation, government in America eats at least 40% of GDP.
If African governments’ skimming off 20% is a bad thing, why is America’s 40% okay, and why is the President trying to make government bigger?
Stuff From Hsoi 