The Last Centurion was the best piece of military fiction I’ve read in a long time.

John Ringo put out this book last year. It’s based in the not too distant future, and takes place against a societal collapse caused by a virulent flu outbreak along with climate caused famine.

It’s a narrative told from the point of the main character, a young infantry officer who’s left pretty much stranded in the Middle East when the rest of the military heads back to the U.S. to help with the disaster.

It’s a page turner, and I highly recommend it. One note – Democrats and left-leaning environmentalists might be a bit cautious about reading. The character has not much nice to say about some Democratic politicians.

Izmash, the Russian company that makes AK-47’s, among other things, is in deep financial doodoo, and may go into bankruptcy.

I have a Mosin that was made by it’s predecessor Soviet factory in the ’30’s, and it’s rock solid.

If Izmash goes out of business, it would be a loss to people who want good, solid firearms and not pay through the nose for them.

Apparently they’re losing money because the Russian government has curtailed weapons spending, and they are having to compete with all of those countries that the USSR licensed their designs to back during the Cold War.

Rumors are also saying that their executive management is pretty incompetent.

But I have to ask:

If you can’t make a profit making guns in this market, just how messed up a business person are you?

OK, I was 8 and 8 again this week.

That makes me 16 and 16 for the season so far. Batting .500 isn’t too bad, but I’m glad I’m not betting money on this.

Any questions?

Actually, that’s an aye aye lemur, which comes from Madagascar to scare the bejeezus out of people who are drinking cheap whiskey into going back on the wagon.

Cracked has a great article about the scariest looking creatures in the world. Enjoy.

Or are place kickers in the NFL missing a lot of chip shots so far this season?

Well, it looks like the President realized he makes a better candidate than president, because he’s been putting himself on a campaign footing to get his health reform package pushed through Congress.

He’s been making a lot of speeches, lots of TV time, and he’s even going to be on Letterman tomorrow night.

Would Kennedy and Johnson have gone on Johnny Carson to get their civil rights bills, which also had a lot of opposition at the time, pushed through?

Hey, President Obama, you already got the job. Quit campaigning. Start meeting with the people who oppose you and see if you can get this thing taken care of. This isn’t a direct democracy. Start working with our other elected representatives and get off my television.

and I’m not talking about the weather.

In the midst of continuously telling the Irish Woman to sit down and stop trying to cook and clean now that she’s home, Baby Bear started running a fever.

I controlled it for a day or so with Tylenol and Motrin, but when it didn’t subside by this afternoon, we decided he needed to see a doctor. I bundled him up and took him down to the weekend urgent care clinic. Turns out he has tonsilitis. So he’s on anti-biotics.

I picked up Girlie Bear from her mom’s this evening, and she was running a 102.5 degree fever. She had a headache and her nose was all stuffed up. Got her some Motrin at her mom’s and brought her home. Hopefully her fever will break during the night and she’ll get over it without a trip to the MD. She has basketball tryouts tomorrow, so I guess that’s not in the cards if she stays sick.

So in the last week, I’ve gotten slightly ill from my flu shot, Irish Woman has been in and out of the hospital with gall bladder surgery, Baby Bear got sick, and now Girlie Bear is feeling woozy. Either there’s a lot of karma being made up for here, or this is going to be a bad winter health wise.

Here they are, just under the wire:

Houston at Tennessee – Tennessee

New Orleans at Philadelphia – New Orleans

Arizona at Jacksonville – Arizona

Oakland at Kansas City – Kansas City (Sorry Raider nation, but we suck this year)

Cinci at Green Bay – Packers

Minnesota at Detroit – Minnesota. It’s nice that Detroit lets the high school kids come out and play football on Sunday afternoons, though.

Saint Louis at Washington – Redskins

New England at New York Jets – New York

Carolina at Atlanta – Carolina

Tampa Bay at Buffalo – Tampa Bay. It’s not cold enough yet for Tampa to not be able to play well up north.

Seattle at San Fransisco – Seattle

Baltimore at San Diego – San Diego

Pittsburg at Chicago – Steelers

Cleveland at Denver – Denver

New York Giants at Dallas – New York. Dallas Sux

Indianapolis at Miami – Indi

Let’s hope I do better this week.

If you, as a teenager, decide to purchase a Sony PSP, even though your father told you not to, please don’t act surprised when iris impounded when you get in trouble.

However, taking advantage of being left alone in the house due to a family emergency to retrieve said PSP by rummaging through your fathers closet will tend to bring even more dire consequences down upon your head.

Ouch.

I was 7 and 8 this weekend, so if you add the Thursday night game that I got right, I’m running 8 and 8 on the season.

I’m going to have to do better than that.