- Fred over at Guns and Coffee is heading out on deployment. He’s opening a new blog to chronicle his time away from home. Go on over and wish him luck.
- Joe Huffman has a great discussion that reminds me of something I wrote a while back: Sometimes you have to be at the bottom of a well to see the light.
- Brigid has an excellent post on the insanity of gun free zones and anti-gun cities.
- OldNFO has a run-in with a “clinical hoplophobe”, a term that will be going into my toolbag.
- LawDog observed insectoid union organizing. If the insects are getting their union together, we are so boned.
- Via Peter, I hear that Michael is offering up a program for us to fund some of his excellent holsters for deployed troops. I’m in. Who’s with me?
- Borepatch brings us our semi-regular helping of doom. If you need me, I’ll be down stairs unplugging my cable modem.
Blogs Roundup
Posted by daddybear71 on July 23, 2012
https://daddybearsden.com/2012/07/23/blogs-roundup-15/
Thoughts on the Day
- 3 hours of sleep, no coffee, and being out and about on a very hot and muggy day makes for a sleepy DaddyBear.
- Took Girlie Bear to the rifle range at one of the local state parks. It’s nice to have multiple ranges within easy driving distance.
- Since the last time we were out there, the state has made it a 100 yard only range. Before, users were allowed to move the target stands out to 25, 50, 75, and 100 yards, but the pipes for the other distances have been filled in with cement.
- This turned out to be a good thing. Since consistently hitting a 100 yard target with the .22 is still difficult for her, I was able to get Girlie Bear to stop worrying about accuracy and concentrate on fundamentals.
- By the time we left, her gun handling and trigger control had greatly improved, and she was even hitting the target about 50% of the time.
- Next time, I’ll bring a more powerful rifle so that she can practice for deer season.
- It’s convenient, and it’s free, but shooting through steel tubes isn’t the most comfortable thing to do if you’re taller than the average Kentuckian.
- To the jerks who used the metal sign at the range as a target for their rifles, you assholes are the reason we can’t have nice things. I hope you all experience a critical failure of something big and boomish in the near future.
- One wouldn’t think that finding an unpainted cement lawn gnome would be this difficult.
- Dinner tonight was roasted chicken, roasted potatoes and onions, and spicy roasted corn on the cob, all done on the grill.
- It was too hot and I was too tired to heat up the house.
- To the twit in the red Cadillac pick-up who parked the darn thing broadside to two lanes of on-coming traffic so she could make a left turn out of her subdivision, you’re going to miss that finger when I bite it off.
Posted by daddybear71 on July 23, 2012
https://daddybearsden.com/2012/07/23/thoughts-on-the-day-39/
Today’s Earworm
I’m a little tired, and I need something with a good beat.
Posted by daddybear71 on July 23, 2012
https://daddybearsden.com/2012/07/23/todays-earworm-189/
Rest In Peace
Sally Ride
First American Woman in Space
May 26 1951 – July 23, 2012
Posted by daddybear71 on July 23, 2012
https://daddybearsden.com/2012/07/23/rest-in-peace/
30 Days of Marcus Aurelius – Day 19
Nothing happens to anybody which he is not fitted by nature to bear. — Meditations, Book V
My Take – Once, during the worst crisis our little family has had to endure, Irish Woman quipped that the Lord never gives you anything you can’t handle. I didn’t believe her at the time, but we endured, we healed, and we have since thrived. When the worst happens to you, you have to remember that you really do have the strength to survive it. Maybe you won’t come through it unscathed, but you can come through it, if only to look at your end with your head high and with peace in your soul.
Posted by daddybear71 on July 23, 2012
https://daddybearsden.com/2012/07/23/30-days-of-marcus-aurelius-day-19/
Thoughts on the Weekend
- We go to the farm to buy produce to supplement what we get from our own garden. Boo goes to the farm to feed produce from our garden to the animals in the petting zoo. It’s the circle of life.
- Food prep tally for the weekend – 2 bushels of tomatoes and 2 bushels of corn, along with several onions, jalapenos, bell peppers, cloves of garlic, and my own special blend of 11 herbs and spice made 13 quarts of spaghetti sauce, 13 quarts of chili base, and 16 quarts of frozen corn.
- Next up – tomatoes from our own garden. I’m thinking salsa.
- One bushel of tomatoes, chopped into 16 pieces apiece, will fit into a 16 quart turkey roaster.
- Apparently, we are slowly buying up the available supply of quart sized mason jars in Louisville.
- Now I get to build shelves to hold them all.
- Singing “Where is Thumbkin” with a child who has a speech impediment can cause some rather comedic results.
- It did, however, turn in to a good lesson on how to say “TH” properly.
- Taking your child to a birthday party with his school friends will do a lot to raise your opinion of your child’s behavior.
- Parental pride note of the day – Girlie Bear asked if she could read my copy of The Hobbit this afternoon, and it looks like she’s already 1/3 of the way through it.
- Heartbreaking moment of the weekend – Walking through SuperHumongousMart this afternoon, I heard a woman say to her daughter “You only have to go for another year and then you can drop out.” as they were shopping for school supplies.
- Things you don’t want to hear #2371992 – “Boo, why is your shirt in the toilet?”
Posted by daddybear71 on July 22, 2012
https://daddybearsden.com/2012/07/22/thoughts-on-the-weekend-14/
30 Days of Marcus Aurelius – Day 18
It is royal to do good and be abused. — Meditations, Book VII
My Take – If I get a hard time over doing the right thing, then I don’t listen to the criticism. Conversely, when I am promised reward for doing wrong, I try to decline. Recently, there was a news report about a firefighter who took a little heat because he took off his oxygen mask and gave it to a woman he was pulling out of a burning house. Did he do right or wrong? To him, he did right, because to him his own safety was subordinate to the life of the person he was helping. Now, I’m not a firefighter or anything like that, but I fully invite criticism of my correct steps along with my incorrect ones. If I do get in trouble for doing the right thing, it says more about the person doing the criticizing than it does about me.
Posted by daddybear71 on July 22, 2012
https://daddybearsden.com/2012/07/22/30-days-of-marcus-aurelius-day-18/
A Tale of Two Shootings
Two shootings have been in the national news this week.
In one, a private citizen took responsibility for his own safety and the safety of those around him. Where others were confused or cowered, he stood up and drove off two miscreants intent on robbery and mayhem. He delivered aimed and deliberate shots at threats until they stopped being a threat.
In the other, a whackjob planned and executed an ambush of innocent men and women for no apparent rational reason other than the fact that it was in his power to do so. He fired indiscriminately into a dark theater with no thought as to the suffering he was causing, and destroyed the lives of many.
In both instances, a gun was the tool used to achieve a goal. The gentleman in Florida used that tool to protect innocent life, including his own. In Colorado, guns were used to bring harm to the innocent.
The difference between the incidents was that the person with the gun was a good example of a human being in one, and was a waste of protein in the other.
When we choose to own and carry a gun, we assume a responsibility that, to be honest, frightens me sometimes. By saying “I am responsible for me and mine”, I am stating that if push comes to shove, I am willing to bring violence in a rather explosive manner upon anyone who either harms us or makes me believe that they are about to. I also have the responsibility to never make a mistake with that tool. There are no do-overs, no excuses, and no repayment for the harm a mistake can make. I do not fear my guns, but I do respect the obligation using them places upon me.
The trash who shot up the theater in Aurora completely shirked his responsibility as a gun owner and as a human being. He caused pain and suffering among his victims and their families that will linger for a lifetime, and he has reinvigorated the anti-gun debate for months to come. Some will use this as a cudgel to beat down gun-rights advocates, others will use it to wave a bloody shirt for a very long time. Some sick individuals will even begin to think that violence against the innocent and undefended is a perfectly fine way to spend an evening.
Either we own guns to defend life, or we own guns to take it. As gun owners, we have to decide which side of the argument we want to fall on. Pick your side. I’ll be over here ready to defend what is dear to me.
Posted by daddybear71 on July 22, 2012
https://daddybearsden.com/2012/07/22/a-tale-of-two-shootings/
Thought for the Day
There are few things more frustrating that proofreading a long post and realizing that you missed the point entirely and have to either abandon it or start over.
Posted by daddybear71 on July 21, 2012
https://daddybearsden.com/2012/07/21/thought-for-the-day-159/
Help!
I’m in a room with 7 large blowup jumpy playsets and about 20 4 year olds who have had way too much ice cream and cake. Please alcohol and evac.
Posted by daddybear71 on July 21, 2012
https://daddybearsden.com/2012/07/21/help/
DaddyBear
DaddyBear’s Den 