From Ron Paul:
When one gets in bed with government, one must expect the diseases it spreads.
Author: hsoi
Situational Awareness
I was reading this article and one line in there reminded me of something I saw the other day.
Out with the family, finishing up dinner. I’m waiting for my kiddos to finish up, so I’m doing a bit of people watching in the restaurant. Our table was situated by the main route to the exit doors, so of course I get to watch lots of the people going in and out of the restaurant. One group that struck me was a family, Mom & Dad leading the way, then the kids following up behind… each with their iPod ear buds in, their noses buried down in the iPod’s watching some video, and the kids playing bumper cars with the tables and chairs as they make their way to the door.
I had a Sony Walkman when I was kid. It was a great companion during my morning paper route deliveries, blasting ZZ Top’s Eliminator and throwing the papers up on the porches with an arm circle like Rev. Billy and Dusty Hill did in their videos. Do my kids have iPod’s? Nope. Not just a matter of hearing damage (which I suffer from due to years of loud music and early years of neglecting things like ear plugs), but a matter of being unaware of your surroundings.
I’ve experienced it many times. People walking around with their eyes pointed at the ground or just oblivious to what’s going on around them. Couple that with things that either deaden or overtake your senses (e.g. your vision distracted by a book or a video, your hearing dominated by the music that comes out of the iPod). Furthermore, if you’re listening to music or watching/reading something, you’re mentally engaged in that and not other things. So you can see, there are many layers that add up to a rather unaware state of being.
I realize it’s your business if you choose to tune out the world. But if you do choose to do so, don’t be surprised if you’re viewed as a ripe target for someone willing to take advantage of you… and your first post-situation thought is “they caught me by surprise… I wasn’t aware of them until they were on top of me”. Be pro-active, don’t let it happen to you, stay aware of your situation. And teach your kids the same.
Where’s the change?
I have to agree. Where is the change? There are lots of broken promises sure, but that’s not change… that’s pretty par for the course.
Robbie seems to be starting a nice tally of the broken promises.
Quantifying trillion
JR helps us quantify just how much a trillion is. Gah.
Update: Via Tam, another quantification of trillions.
The first pig with lipstick
John Longenecker talks about the very first pig with lipstick on it.
Sunday Metal – Corrosion of Conformity
I don’t know why, but Sunday and Metal seem to be going together these days. So I might as well throw my horns up and into the ring.
Corrosion of Conformity is one of my favorite bands. For music, lyrics, and overall attitude and outlook, few stand up with COC. Their Deliverance album is only surpassed by In The Arms Of God, which I think is one of the best albums ever (one of my desert island discs, and tops in my iTunes rotation) — Pepper’s scream at the end of the song “In the Arms of God” always gives me goosebumps. Always. The song is that powerful.
Songs like: Vote With a Bullet, Albatross, Clean My Wounds, Señor Limpio, Wiseblood, Drowning In a Daydream, The Door, Diablo Blvd., Who’s Got the Fire, 13 Angels, Paranoid Opioid, Rise River Rise, The Backslider, In the Arms of God, and so many more.
While I’m down with Down, I hope Pepper doesn’t forget COC.
“Vote With a Bullet” from COC’s Blind album. At the time COC had a different (new) lineup. Pepper was actually a “backup” guy back then, but had this as a one-off on the Blind album. Call it the start of a great era in the history of COC.
As they wrote in the liner notes of their Live album, “to all the free thinkers and beer drinkers… this one is for you.”
Range Report
Went to the range with my buddy, foo.c. Apart from the cold wind cutting through us (and blowing uprange, right into our eyes), a nice day at the range.
One thing I love about gun-folk is how friendly most are. On the rifle range there were only 2 shooters: myself (foo.c was spotting, then we’d switch off) and another gentleman. Foo.c pointed out the other guy was shooting an SKS then a Mosin-Nagant. We stopped our shooting to watch the other gentleman fire his Mosin-Nagant, and the wicked fireball that came out the barrel with each shot. It was a thing of beauty, and we could only imagine how cool that would look at night. 🙂
The gentleman noticed we were talking about his rifle, so we all got to talking. He took an interest in my M1A Scout Squad, asking questions, and I think I may have convinced him to buy his own. He then let us shoot his Mosin, and I gotta tell you… that was fun. Never shot one before, kicked more than I expected, but boy it left me giggling. I’ve gotta get me one of those for myself.
On the downside, I just don’t like XS Sights. I put a set of XS Big Dot 24/7 Express sights on my Springfield XD-9 Service model. I did this because I wear glasses, and if something went bump in the night and I didn’t have my specs on, I’d still like some way to see the front sight. So I thought I’d try out the XS Sights to see if they would help. Well, my eyesight is so poor that without my glasses on I still can’t see the big front dot. Still tho I thought I’d give ’em a whirl. And over the months I’ve had them and used them I’ve discovered I just don’t like them. Yes they are very fast to acquire, and they certainly work for their purpose: as a defensive “fighting gun” sights they ought to hit the bad guy where it counts. But I just don’t like how they line up. If I want even a small degree of accuracy, it’s tough to get. Today I was just shooting 6″ paper plates at about 10 yards, the big dot front sight covered the plate completely, but even then I couldn’t hit the plate (I was constantly hitting high). The way to use these sights is to put the big dot over what you want to hit and press the trigger. So that’s what I was doing, and I wasn’t hitting what I wanted to hit (tho I was grouping ok). Now sure, if this was a bad guy and I put the big dot over center mass, it’d be effective enough. But sometimes I want a little more accuracy, and I just don’t get that out of these sights. Sure, you can compensate, but the way the sights work, it’s just tough for me to get that.
Don’t get me wrong. I think the sights are really cool and very good for their intended purpose. I know there are people out there that swear by them and I wouldn’t tell them they were wrong. But for me, these just don’t work. Recently I tried out a set of Dawson Precision fixed sights: a 0.100″ red fiber optic front with a fixed all-black rear sight. That worked out great for me: fast to acquire (the fiber optic front vs. the all-black rear), and where I would aim the bullet would go no matter the distance: I had no problem hitting a small 6″ popper “on the shoulder” of a no-shoot at about 25 yards. I just can’t “point and click” and do that with the XS Sights. The XS might work for you and I certainly think they’re good for what they are, but they just are not right for me.
So, time for me to ship my XD-9 off to Springer Precision for new sights and some other work.
Kids and cooking
My daugther just came up to my office with some bread in hand. And not just any bread. It’s a recipe she found herself. She made it, baked it, everything. I’m having a Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (never had one before, very hoppy), and the taste of that in my mouth, the fresh-baked bread… and it just needs something like apricot or peach preserves. Mmmmm.
If you don’t know how to cook, you should learn. If you do know how to cook, you should teach someone else how to cook. If you know how to cook and have kids, you should teach them how to cook. You don’t have to be a gourmet, just as long as you like and eat what you cook. With kids it teaches so many things: chemistry, safety, following directions, creativity, self-sufficiency. When you cook together, it’s great time spent together. So much goes into worrying about building up a kid’s self-esteem… teach them how to cook, watch that self-esteem grow. Don’t believe me? Try it.
Name me one success
I find it fascinating that people turn to government (local, city, state, federal especially) thinking it will solve their problems. Number 3 on Anthony G. Martin’s list of 10 Conservative Principles notes that usually government is the problem.
So I’ve been curious. Can someone name for me something the government (and for purposes here I’m talking US Federal Government) has done that has been good? That has been run efficiently, has been properly accountable, has done a better job than the private sector, has left the majority of people as “satisified customers”. I’m honestly looking to find something the Feds have done that one could say was great. If you know of something, please add a comment and some evidence to support it.
They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. So, when you have failed government program after failed government program (e.g. FEMA), why do folks keep turning back to government expecting success?
10 Key Conservative Principles
Today’s popular definition of “conservative” means little more than “that group of people/notions that stand opposite to what the ‘liberals’ stand for”. And even then I’m not sure how often they’re actually opposing.
Anthony G. Martin has a nice summary of 10 Key Conservative Principles.
