Put the following into a crock pot:

1 12 ounce bottle of beer
1 finely chopped white onion
2 chopped stocks of celery
1 can low-salt beef broth
1 pound beef stew meat
2 cans crushed tomatoes
1 handful dried mushrooms
6 potatoes, cut into bite sized chunks
Worcestershire sauce
Canadian Steak Seasoning to taste (dried garlic, course ground black pepper, course salt)
1 bag baby carrots
1 chopped bell pepper, deseeded
1 chopped serrano pepper, deseeded

Mix all ingredients together and set the crockpot to high and let sit through a work day. 

Serve with a crusty whole wheat bread.

This was one of the first things I learned to cook.  I’ve adjusted the recipe a bit as I’ve gotten older.  It’s easy, tastes good, and it’s really cheap to make a lot of it.  The perfect thing for when you know you’re on a budget and won’t have a lot of time in the evening.

For the past several years, we’ve watched a low-level civil war hit northern Mexico.   The Mexican army and police have been shooting at the drug gangs, the drug gangs shoot at each other, and sometimes the army and police shoot drug gangs at the behest of other drug gangs.  For the most part, we’ve been spectators.

That changed on Tuesday. Seven shots from the Mexican side of the border hit city hall in El Paso Texas.  Odds are they were stray rounds, but they were just as deadly as aimed fire.  Luckily only the building was hit, but the rounds penetrated to the interior, and it was only good fortune that kept someone from getting hit.  It could just as easily have gone into a neighborhood, or a shopping center, or a playground.

Mexican and Central American gangs are terrorizing our cities and rural areas.  Meth, cocaine, and marijuana are easier to get than beer in our schools.  The crime and social issues that come from the drugs and influx of illegal aliens are bringing our social safety net to its knees.

It’s time for a new approach with our troubled neighbor to the south.

First, we need to let the Mexican government know that we are tired of their internal problems causing issues along our border and throughout our country.  They have to step on the neck of the narco-gangsters and keep pushing until they stop wiggling.  Failure to get control of this situation risks reaction by our country to lock down the border not just in the hinterlands, but also at ports of entry to restrict the trade of the traffickers.  Shutting off the tap of Mexican goods coming into our country and American dollars flowing into Mexico would probably go a long way to focus the attention of the Mexican government. 

Next, we need to militarize the border, both in the back country and in urban areas such as El Paso, San Diego, and Nogales.  We survey 200 feet back from the actual border, put up triple strand of concertina wire, and then put in a mix of pressure detonated CS gas mines and command detonated anti-personnel mines between the border and the fence.  We put guard towers at least every half mile along the border, and garrison them with both Border Patrol agents and Army MP’s.  The Border Patrol agents are there to arrest anyone who makes it to the concertina and tries to enter the country but surrenders peacefully when challenged.  The MP is there to assist the Border Patrol agent in subduing or neutralizing anyone who resists.  To make this legal, we make the land along the border to a depth of 1/2 mile a military reservation, including in Indian reservations that butt up to the border.  One of the problems we have currently is that those who want to cross the border are sometimes more heavily armed than the law enforcement officers who encounter them.  We can fix that by arming the MP’s with patrol rifles, their vehicles with M-2 .50 machine guns, and putting M240 7.62mm machine guns in the towers.  Somewhere in that mix is enough firepower to give them at least parity with the criminals who want to enter our country.

The local commander of these posts would have the authority to order his troops to return fire across the border if rounds come over into American territory.

In addition to these guard posts, there should be manned and unmanned surveillance aircraft watching the border 24 hours a day.  Stationary blimps should be used to provide round-the-clock monitoring of the borderlands.  

Those who put their hands in the air when they’re caught crossing the border get to spend 5 years in prison, then are deported.  If you’re caught again, you get 15 years then deportation.

Next, we need to shut off the supply of jobs for the people who are coming here to work.  We have to make employing illegal aliens expensive enough that US companies will start paying attention to our immigration laws.  If a company is caught employing illegal aliens in any way, they lose the ability to do business with the federal government.  If they are growing, processing, or shipping food, their product is not allowed to be purchased for military rations or commissaries, school lunch programs, or food stamp programs.  If the company is in the manufacturing business, the government won’t buy those products or products from companies who do business with companies that hire illegal aliens.  If a construction company gets busted, then it cannot work on any project that is financed using any federal dollars.

Then we come to narcotics.    

We need to change our approach to illegal drugs.  We need to either legalize their use by adults, same as we do with tobacco and alcohol, or we need to get serious with discouraging their use and helping those who need help quitting.

If we legalize, we can regulate their manufacture, processing, and sale.  We take away the profit motive for smuggling narcotics when are legally available at the local liquor store.  It’s cheaper to declare importation of a legal substance through a port of entry at Nogales than it is to pay someone to smuggle it in on the back of a mule through the Chiricahuas.

If we want to shut down use of illegal drugs through enforcement and treatment, we have to crack down on the parts of our society that import, process, transport, and sell this poison to our citizens.  If you’re caught smuggling drugs into our country, you get to spend the rest of your life behind bars.  If you’re caught processing or transporting drugs, then you get to spend 10 to 15 years at hard labor.  For a second offense, you get to join the smugglers getting old in prison.  If you’re caught dealing, you get to spend whatever remains of your life turning large rocks into little rocks. 

If you’re caught using drugs, then you get two chances at treatment to help you stop using.  After that, you go to jail for 5 years.  4th offense gets you 10 years.  5th offense gets you life.  By that time, we have to realize that you’ve had too many chances to get your act together and you’re too stupid to be allowed to walk the streets.

These penalties are for citizens.  If you’re an illegal and you get caught smuggling, processing, transporting, dealing, or using you get 25 years at hard labor, followed by deportation. Don’t come into our home, do business in poison, and then expect a slap on the wrist.

And this isn’t just for those who come across the Mexican border.  If you come in via Canada and break our laws, you pay the same penalty.  If necessary, we can militarize the Canadian border too.

As for those who are in the country illegally already, they get two months to get out.  If they have children who were born here and are citizens, the parents can either leave with them and the children can return when they reach 18 if they wish, or the children can be put in our foster care system and the parents can leave.  Either way, illegal aliens have to get out of our country. 

Illegal aliens who are identified in the country after the deadline get to spend 5 years in jail the first time they are caught and 15 years the second time.  Either way, they lose the ability to apply to return legally.  If you break into my house, you don’t get to ask nicely to come in through the front door.

As for the so-called “sanctuary cities”, any state, county, or municipality that refuses to turn over illegals caught in their area loses all support from the federal government.   If there’s a base near the city or in the state, then the personnel on that base will be restricted from spending money off base.  All federal funding for schools, research, roads, or whatever gets cut off until the removal of illegal aliens becomes a part of day-to-day business in a “sanctuary” city. 

Will this ever happen?  Probably not.  A lot of this flies in the face of several parts of our constitution, and gives federalism a kick to the crotch.  Additionally, we’d have to abrogate the NAFTA treaty and probably several other treaties, including treaties with Native American nations who have reservations along the border.  We’d also have to provide a clear path for legal immigration to not only show that we do not reject citizens of other country who want to come here and be a productive member of our society, but also to allow for the healthy benefits that legal immigration brings to our country. 

This is an extreme solution, but I believe it would fix the problem of illegal immigration and drug smuggling.  What problems it would either exascerbate or cause remains to be seen.

DaddyBear:  Boss?
Boss:  Yes?
DaddyBear:  I missed the meeting you wanted me to attend because I was working on something at my desk and completely forgot.  Are you in the meeting?
Boss:  It’s already over.
DaddyBear:  Well, I guess I’m the idiot for this here village today.
Boss:  Not just today.

It’s good to be loved.

For those of you who read gun blogs, and haven’t been under a rock or in a coma these past few weeks, you already know that M.D. Creekmore of The Survivalist Blog is giving away 1000 rounds of 9mm ammunition, which was provided by Lucky Gunner.  Entry requires mention of the sites involved on a blog, so this is my entry.

In all seriousness, I read Survivalist Blog all the time.  It’s a great source of good, down-to-earth preparedness information.  I’ve bought ammunition from Lucky Gunner on a few occasions, and I’ve been very happy with their prices, shipping times, and customer service.

So, if you’re looking for good ammunition or good reading, mosey on over to Lucky Gunner or Survivalist Blog.

A Turkish report on the flotilla incident posits that at least 31 rounds were fired in the fight aboard the ships of the “peace” flotilla that was boarded by Israeli commandos.  You remember that, don’t you?  That’s the one where the peaceful Islamic protesters were trying to peacefully bring peaceful supplies like chocolate puppies and cashmere underwear for peaceful purposes to the peaceful people of Gaza.  These peaceful do-gooders greeted the Israeli commandos who fast-roped down to their deck with a peaceful round of lead pipes and fists and whatever was loose to be used as a peace-club.

Apparently when you physically threaten a highly trained and armed Israeli commando, you might get a little shot.

The Turks are complaining that a lot of the dead peaceful Turkish citizens were shot in the head, showing “show Israeli forces were shooting to kill.”.

No fooling?  I’d say the commando was trying to put down a clear and present threat to him and his mission and chose to shoot at the one part of the human body that if targeted properly will stop a threat in its tracks.

Here’s a message to the Turkish and Palestinian people who are shocked at this:

Look, skeezix, there is no such thing as shooting to wound, or a warning shot.  Pulling a trigger means you are employing “deadly force”.  Deadly, for those of you who need an explanation, means “meant to kill”.  If you and a bunch of your khat-chewing, camel-hustling cousins decide to physically assault a commando, his response is going to be to try to kill you. He’s not going to try to disable you, he’s not going to try to scare you off.  He’s going to try to put several small holes in your vital organs and blood pathways in order to make you stop trying to kill or hurt him.

If these “peaceful” protesters were in fact trying to be peaceful and make a political point about the legality of the Israeli blockade of Gaza, then they should take a page from Gandhi and MLK.  When the Israeli helicopters and ships show up to stop your little boats and keep you from getting to Gaza with dual use products, stop your engines, turn on the video cameras and satellite up-links, and sit down on the deck.  Force the Israelis to either let you go on or they can be the bad guys in front of the cameras and the whole world.

Don’t meet a boarding party with weapons and fists and then cry that some of y’all got ventilated.

The less excuse you give a man with a gun to shoot you, the less shot you will get.

Meeting Leader:  So basically, next Tuesday we will re-do the steps on the network and the servers we took yesterday and last night, and see if the problem happens again.
DaddyBear:  So basically, we’re going to crash the plane again and see if it bursts into flame again this time.
Guy Next to DaddyBear:  Snort
DaddyBear:  I’m going to go round up another 156 passengers.
Guy Next to DaddyBear:  Dude, that’s too dark to say out loud.

I was listening to a podcast from a history website on my drive back from camp on Sunday, and the narrator discussed U.S. Army Sergeant Alvin York.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with Sergeant York, he was an American doughboy in World War I.  He originally attempted to declare himself unfit for combat duty because of his religious beliefs against war, but was eventually convinced that it was OK to fight for your country and was shipped to France as part of the American Expeditionary Force.

During the Meuse-Argonne battle, then Corporal York was sent forward along with 15 other members of his unit.  The squad of American infantry came under attack by German machine guns while trying to secure some prisoners, killing 6 and wounding 3 Americans.  York reacted superbly.  Using his rifle, he started killing off German machine-gunners who were firing from prepared positions on a ridge.  Eventually, he was rushed by a group of 8 German soldiers.  Using his head and his pistol, he shot the group one at a time from back to front so that the soldiers wouldn’t know they were taking fire and stop their rush to shoot him.  Eventually York and the rest of his squad of 13 men took 132 prisoners that day, with a loss of 6 dead and 3 wounded.

York was promoted to Sergeant, and eventually received the Medal of Honor, our nation’s highest military award.

As an NCO, I studied Sergeant York’s leadership and coolness under fire.  His marksmanship, ability to think and react correctly in a stressful situation, and leadership have made him a legend.

As the narrator was describing the battle, I visualized what Sergeant York was doing.  From the prone unsupported position with a bolt action rifle, he was making head shots at enemy soldiers from distances between 50 and 200 yards.  When he was rushed, probably when his rifle had run dry and needed reloading, he drew his pistol and shot 8 moving targets in such a way that the targets didn’t know they were taking accurate fire and stop to shoot him.

Then it occurred to me that this might make a fun and challenging shooting scenario at the range.

Basically, the shooter will be equipped with a World War I era bolt action rifle with open sights, such as a M1903, M1917, Enfield SMLE, Mosin Nagant, or Mauser, and a base-model M1911 .45 caliber pistol with fixed sights.  The shooter is also given 40 rounds of ammunition in 5 round stripper clips for the rifle and 8 rounds of ammunition for the pistol.

Purists will say that York was equipped with a M1917 and a M1911, so a true recreation would have the shooter having only these.  Since M1917 rifles and original 1911’s are pretty thin on the ground and are old enough to be collector’s pieces, I’ll open it up to whatever period rifle the shooter is comfortable with and just use the simplest 1911 that can be found.

The shooter would begin by standing at the firing line, with his weapon loaded and held at the ready.  At the sound of the starting horn, the shooter would drop to the prone unsupported position for the rifle part of the stage. 40 Pop-up targets the size and shape of human heads pop up randomly at 50, 100, 150, and 200 meter distances.  There will be two targets at each distance, for a total of 8 targets.  Each target would pop up 5 times.  This will force the shooter to engage multiple targets at once, and will force the shooter to look at more places for targets.  The targets will pop up for 5 seconds each, with five targets at different ranges popping up at once.  There will be a 5 second pause to reload after every group of five targets. 1 point is scored for each hit on a target

After the rifle targets are finished, there is a 5 to 10 second delay.  At the end of the delay, 8 irregulary spaced man-shaped targets come at the shooter in a staggered formation.  The shooter then draws the 1911.  The shooter must pick out the rearmost target and shoot it with the 1911, then move forward to the next closest target, and so on until all 8 targets are shot in the head or center mass, or a target gets to a predetermined distance from the shooter, probably 2 to 3 feet, bayonet range.  1 point is given for each target that is hit center mass or in the head.

To me it seems pretty challenging, and would be quite a bit of fun to do.

What do you guys think?

Update – I forgot to mention this at first, but thanks to the guys at the GunBlogger Conspiracy for helping me round out this idea!

If you’ve ever read or listened to a story done by a reporter embedded with a military unit, then you have Ernie Pyle to thank.  If you’re a history buff, and ever want to see how things went at the level of the lowly grunt and the other gang of heroes, then either have already read or should read the collected works of Ernie Pyle.

Ernie Pyle was sent to the front lines to report from the sharp end of the stick.  He did that, in spades.  He was himself killed in combat in the Pacific.

His home in Indiana has been turned into a museum dedicated to this true American hero.  Bayou Renaissance Man has pointed out that even though this truly worthy cause only needs a few thousand dollars a year to operate, it’s in financial trouble during these tight times. 

What I’m asking all of you  to do a couple of things:

1. If you have it, please consider making a small donation to the Ernie Pyle Home in Dana, Indiana.  It won’t take but a few dollars from each of us to make a big difference.
2. Spread the word on this.  If you have a blog, write about it.  Send a letter to the editor of your local paper.  Journalists know who Ernie Pyle is, and if we get their attention, they might get the word of this outside of the blogosphere.
3. Finally, if you’re close to Dana, Indiana, please visit the Ernie Pyle Home.  The more visitors something like this gets, the easier it will be for them to apply for aid from private organizations that provide support to things such as this.

Since West Virginia is already full to the brim of “Robert Byrd Memorial” whatevers, what will the honorable citizens of that state do to actually memorialize their late senator, Robert Byrd? 

Leave your suggestions in the comments, and I’ll pick the best ones tomorrow and post them here.

Say what you will about Byrd, he had a good work ethic, although he mostly didn’t work towards something I can support:

Byrd, who never lost an election, cast more than 18,540 roll call votes — more than any other senator in U.S. history. He had a 98 percent attendance record in his more than five decades of service in the Senate, according to his Web site. 

Want to bet he rarely, if ever, voted “Present”, unlike a certain former senator from Illinois we are all familiar with.