Author: hsoi

To clean or not to clean

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

I was reading the February 2011 issue of The Blue Press. Someone had written in that was up in hackles about people not cleaning their guns. He couldn’t understand why someone would want to brag about never (or hardly ever) cleaning their guns. He asserted that if you don’t clean your guns your lazy or don’t care.

I beg to differ.

It’s good to know your gun can run despite being very dirty; that you can give it that level of abuse and it still runs. If your gun craps out after 50 rounds, would you trust your life to that gun? If you know you’ve put 2000+ rounds through it without a cleaning and it doesn’t hiccup, at least to me that instills a level of confidence in the gun that it can run even in less than ideal conditions. Life isn’t full of ideal situations, and I like to know my gear will run regardless.

Is it that we’re lazy or don’t care? Perhaps for some. For me, I’m not religious about cleaning my guns because I have only so much time in a day and too many other things taking priority. I know my gun will run dirty, so do I really need to agonize over ensuring it’s sparkling clean after every range trip? How about when I take a weekend-long shooting class where we’ll put 1000-2000 rounds down range? When the days are that long, it’s nice to know I can reholster my carry gun and know it will still work for me while I travel home, sleep, and drive back the next day. Sorry, but in a case like that, spending a little time with my family, taking care of chores around the house, and tending to other matters (like sleep) tend to win out over cleaning my gun before the next day’s class. I know the gun will run. And honestly, if I can discover it won’t run, if I can discover its limits, I’d rather know that when things are calm than when the fur is flying.

I’m not saying to never clean your guns. After hunting season I clean my hunting rifle and prep it for storage, figuring it probably won’t be pulled out again until next Fall. After a good training session I will give my handguns at least a quick boresnake, wipedown, and oiling. I don’t think it’s wise to never clean your gun, because a dry gun is going to wear, a dirty gun is going to have build-up that will eventually cause a problem. But I just don’t feel a need to worship at the altar of the spotless and shiny gun. I buy guns that are rugged and dependable, so if I miss a cleaning, I don’t sweat it. To me, it’s about finding a reasonable balance.

To each their own tho. And hey… if you’ve got a lot of time on your hands, you’re welcome to come clean my guns. 🙂

Pain as a (positive) motivator

/ hsoi

And another from John Farnham, on Pain.

This hit me for two reasons.

First, I’ve hit a point in my life where I need some serious change. The pain of staying where I am is now outweighing the pain of changing. It may flux, the level of pain may change, I may revert back. Who knows, but I hope not. I hope my motivation to move forward will continue.

The only way any of us ever move forward and improve our lives, is when the pain associated with our current lot exceeds the pain of moving on. It’s a universal formula, and it applies to all of us. Life is motion. Stagnation is always associated with wretchedness and mental illness. For the sake of our own mental health, we have to move on, no matter how painful it is!

John’s writing just hit home with me on that personal level. It is what’s going on for me: the pain to stay is greater than the pain to go.

Second, the real focus of John’s writing is about panhandlers. Personally I don’t have anything to do with them. Wife is more compassionate than I about this, and she is right: we don’t know their story, they could truly need help. But when I see the same guys on the same street corner day after week after month, I’m just not convinced they really care to change, that they really are down on their luck. You offer them a job, they don’t want it. Food they might take; money, or booze or pot they will take. Sorry. I bust my hump at multiple jobs to earn my money and you want me to just give it to you so you can flush it and your life down the toilet? I won’t have any part in that.

John makes a perfect point:

Yes, he claims to be miserable, hungry, homeless, et al. Yet, regardless of what you do, or don’t do, he’ll surely be back on that same street corner, with the same hand-scribbled sign, next week, and the week after, in perpetuity. As miserable as he claims to be, the pain of self-improvement perpetually exceeds the pain of staying where he is.

So, in giving him cash, or even food, you are “easing his pain,” and thus assuring that he will never change. There is only one thing he really lacks, and that’s ambition, and well-meaning enablers virtually insure that ambition never rears its ugly head!

Pain is firmly attached to all our lives, and pain is a relentless headmaster. Thus, in forestalling anyone from the full enjoyment of the logical consequences of their own carelessness, stupidity, vanity, sloth, naivety, and bad habits, we ultimately do them, and society, no good service. “Giving ” cash to someone who has done nothing to earn it, is ultimately destructive of their mental health. In fact, you’re doing little more than supporting a drug habit!

This Civilization already has far too many healthy, able-bodied, yet sleazy and willfully-unproductive cowards. Preventing them from ever growing up, from ever squarely confronting their own shortcomings and moving forward, is ultimately a crime against humanity!

Rangemaster March 2011 Newsletter

/ hsoi

The Rangemaster March 2011 Newsletter is now available.

As always, the newsletter is full of excellent information. One article discusses the “Concealed Carry Presentation”, discussing the finer-points of drawing and presenting a concealed handgun. Well-written and if you carry a gun you’d do well to read it.

A more important article is one where Tom Givens discusses how folks trying to ban guns, large capacity magazines, and so on are missing the mark. No matter what side of the debate you’re on — but especially if you are anti-gun — you should read it. Tom Givens is an authority on the matter, invested in facts and data, not emotion. If you really want truth on this matter, talk to Tom. But Tom doesn’t shy away from giving his opinion either:

In backward, primitive Third World countries, poor, ignorant, uneducated people think evil spirits live in rocks and trees. We make fun of them and call them savages. In this country, certain people think evil spirits live in guns or magazines for them. We call them anti-gun activists. A more rational thinker sees very little difference in these two views.

SB 766 – Scheduled for public hearing

/ hsoi

SB 766 is now scheduled for public hearing on March 7, 2011.

Support this bill. Our shooting ranges need protection. The protection offered here certainly doesn’t excuse true problems, negligence, etc.. It does help to protect against frivolous lawsuits and witch hunts.

Let the dogs deal with it

/ hsoi

Another one from John Farnham, about bears.

Bears are not much different from most others predators. They know they need to eat, and they know how to get food.

[…]

Human predators are similar, just less honest and a good deal less respectable. They function outside our normal economic system, but, like bears, they know what they need, and they know how to get it. To them, you have no value outside what they can forcibly extract from you, with minimal effort and risk.

The concluding advice?

 

“… and when a bear comes… keep as many sheep as you can between the bear and you. Then, let the dogs deal with it!”

 

 

But you know, that only works if there are dogs around to deal with it. When we accept the myth that the police will be there to save us, I ask you right this moment, where is the nearest person that can save you? Where is the nearest police officer, this very moment? You know tho, one person that is right here right now is you yourself. Think about that.

Furthermore, when we attempt to use the law of the land to prohibit sheepdogs from existing and doing their thing, we’ll have fewer and fewer dogs to keep us safe. You may be unwilling to protect your own life, and in doing so you put the job of preserving your life into the hands of others. Don’t restrict and abridge those willing to help you, else you put the job of preserving your life into the hands of the predators… and they don’t see you as something to protect, only as prey.

 

KR Training website fixed

/ hsoi

The following note comes from KR Training. Reposting here to help spread the word:

 

If you attempted to enroll in a KR Training course in the last week using a yahoo, gmail, hotmail, AOL, or other webmail email address, and you did not get a “registration received” email from me, please re-register online here:

http://www.krtraining.com/signup.php

Godaddy.com (where the KR Training site is hosted) recently changed a server policy to block submission of all online forms with a “from” address associated with many popular email services. This was done as an anti-spam measure.  They did not inform customers of this change, which made it appear to customers that their registrations were going through, but no email was being sent to me with the registration information.

The online form has been fixed to eliminate this issue, so you can use your gmail, yahoo, etc. addresses on our form and they will reach me.

I apologize for this inconvenience and thank you for your continued business.

regards,

Karl

You’re on your own, and always have been

/ hsoi

Whenever I talk about the fallacy of “gun free zones” being equated with “safe”, I point out where shootings do and do not tend to occur. Where do they tend to happen? Places where the law-abiding citizen cannot protect themselves, like schools or places that like to post “no guns” or “weapons prohibited” signs (e.g. Westroads Mall in Omaha). I then point out that shootings tend to not happen at places where you know everyone is armed, like NRA meetings, gun shops, and police stations.

Well, I guess I need to revise my statement. John Farnham tells of a Detroit police station that got shot up.

In the case of the Detroit Precinct Station, all legitimate residents were carrying guns, so the armed invader enjoyed only an abbreviated tenure before he was shot to death by officers who courageously and unhesitatingly responded in kind, but with more skill and precision. Had they all be unarmed, as would be the case with denizens of most schools and churches, the criminal’s deadly spree would have gone on and on!

The fact that those DPD Officers were routinely armed and ready, even in the “office,” saved many innocent lives.

You can’t stop crazy — and going into a police station to shoot the place up is a definition of crazy (he wanted “death by cop” for certain). But consider what happened. It was cut short only because of the ability to swiftly respond. Imagine if swift reaction wasn’t able to happen, how much more havoc could have ensued. Look at the big mass murders say at Virginia Tech or Westroads or other such places… lots of people died because no one was able to swiftly respond.

You’re on your own, and always have been. For the clueless and unprepared, it is only luck that has protected them thus far.

HB 253 – oppose

/ hsoi

I hadn’t heard about Texas HB 253 until yesterday. An email forwarded to me from another homeschooling family contained a message from the Texas Home School Coalition about HB253.

Here’s a blog posting from Tim Lambert, head of THSC, about HB253.

I’m not a member of THSC but I am a member of HSLDA. Why haven’t they commented on this? Given HB 253 is having a public hearing today, I phoned HSLDA. Due to the volume of calls they had been receiving, they re-reviewed it and consequently coming out opposed to HB 253. eAlert and website posting with details are forthcoming.

Anyways, homeschoolers… time to get to contacting folks and get this bill opposed. When you read the text of the bill, it sounds “reasonable” on the surface, but the potential impacts of it are scary for parental rights and autonomy.

Pay Yourself First

/ hsoi / 2 Comments

I first learned of the concept from the Motley Fool guys: Pay Yourself First. I try to do that as much as I can with finances, but I realized that I haven’t been doing it enough with the rest of my life.

For instance, I wake up and immediately the mindset starts into “going to work”. If I’m going to do anything for myself, it tends to be something done at night after work, and many times I’m too drained or tired to put effort into it. Consequently, my own projects suffer.

Well, I’m trying to “pay myself first” in other areas. Let’s see how it goes. Wake up, do my own thing for a few hours. Yes, I still have to portion things right to give proper time to the day job. But since there’s no way I’ll neglect that work well, hopefully this will now mean other things won’t get neglected or ignored from lack of time or energy. Hopefully this will pay off for me.

I really want it to pay off for me. I’ve got a bunch of irons in the fire and I want to ensure they get forged to completion. There are also some new things I want to do, and I can’t do them until I clear off my plate.

So close, yet so far.

/ hsoi

I’m filling out form CHL-90, necessary for the renewal of my Texas CHL Instructor certification.

The form asks for my driver license ID number, and then says I need to provide a color photocopy of the driver license.

Why?

This is Texas Department of Public Safety. You’d think they had access to this information.

Yes yes OK, someone from out of state makes it necessary. But why should a Texas resident with a Texas drivers license getting a Texas CHL Instructor certification renewal, all being matters handled by the same department…. why is this necessary?

Plus with the rest of the renewal process is all electronic forms. So, why can’t form CHL-90 also be electronic? Sure, if we have to submit copies of things (e.g. NRA/TCLEOSE certifications) couldn’t we then mail them in, or better, scan them and upload JPEG’s or PDF’s of those documents?

*sigh*

It’s an improvement in the process for sure, but there’s still room to improve.