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Today’s Earworm

Happy New Year!

Listening to this concert every New Year’s Day is one of my traditions.

Hope everyone is having a good and relatively pain free morning!

Someone is about to have a bad day

Reports are still sketchy, but it appears that a servicemember has been caught with military grade explosives at the airport in Midland, Texas.  I see three things as possibilities for this:

  1. This is an American jihadi ala Nidal Hasan who was stupid enough to try to take his bomb in his carry-on
  2. This is a soldier coming home on leave with a little something to show the people back home
  3. This is a soldier PCS’ing to a nearby base who has a little something extra 
I’ve seen both numbers 2 and 3 myself.  One goober at Fort Hood once got caught trying to take a couple of mortar rounds home.  I’ve also seen people coming home from the Mid-East get caught with AK’s and such disassembled and in their baggage.  
Either way, on New Year’s Eve, someone’s chain of command is getting some really unwanted phone calls.  
“Hi, First Sergeant X?  This is Sergeant Y from the Midland-Odessa Police Department.  Do you have a Private First Class Slipinschitz in your unit?”
“Yes, is there something wrong?”
“Yes, we caught him trying to board a plane at our airport with some military explosives, and he is in our custody at this time.”
“…….OK, let me get your phone number and I’ll get back to you.”
“Thanks, and 3.2..1.. Happy New Year!  Have a nice drive to Midland, First Sergeant.”

Thought for the Day

There are fewer things in life more enjoyable than stumbling upon the recent mug shot and police report for an ex-girlfriend from years ago who treated you like something off the bottom of her shoe.

Today’s Earworm

Remember, 12 hours from bottle to throttle!

Looking Back

On the whole, this has been a good year for us.  Irish Woman and I are still gainfully employed, and everyone is in good health.  Knock wood, but no major catastrophes have hit our little family.  The kids continue to do well.

I’ve met a lot of wonderful people this year, both in the real world and on the web.  I may not speak to all of y’all every day, but I read what you write and it gives me new perspectives on the world.

Thanks for putting up with my bad jokes and rants.  I promise more of the same for the new year.

30 Days of Heinlein – Day 28

Everything in excess! To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites. Moderation is for monks. – Time Enough For Love


My Take – I hope that I won’t be seeing any of you on “Girls Gone Wild” videos after tonight.   But tonight of all nights is a good night to let your hair down, forget the diet, and enjoy life as much as you can.  


I will be spending it, along with my beautiful wife, chaperoning a teenage girl sleepover.  I’m such a hedonist.


Have a fun and safe New Year’s Eve!

News Roundup

  • From the “Mother of the Year” Department – A female genetic provider in New York left her seven year old on the street with a stranger, went into a store with her two year old daughter, used the child as a lookout as she shoplifted, then tried to use the two-year-old in her stroller as a battering ram to escape when she was caught.  Wow, two days in a row, and I have two women who endanger their children so they can behave badly.  I hope I haven’t discovered a meme.
  • From the “Well, Duh” Department – Authorities in Virginia are criticizing a television show in which they are portrayed attempting to find and arrest people brewing illegal whiskey.  What?  You mean a television producer might lie, cheat, steal, and run over puppies in order to make a show that he can sell to a cable television network?  Did these guys actually think that rural law enforcement would be shown in a light more flattering than Roscoe P. Coltrane?  And color me unsurprised that said producer would dramatize those parts of his show about illegal activity that were, you know, actually illegal.  TV producers might tend towards the slimy side of the population, but they’re not normally stupid.
  • From the “Nothing Can Go Wrong Here” Department – A couple busloads of high school students caught a break the other night when police in rural Nevada let them give up their illicit alcohol and marijuana rather than be arrested.  The police admit that arresting the entire group would have been difficult due to a lack of facilities to hold them, but I’m sure there’s an unused high school gym somewhere they could have used.  The kicker here:  the ‘chaperones’ for the group were themselves under 20.  So you’ve got high schoolers being minded by 19 and 20 year olds on a trip two states over from their parents.  Yeah, that’s a big bag of fail waiting to happen.  Someone’s daddy needs a dope slap.
  • From the “Domesticated Barbarian” Department – Retailers are coming to grips with the reality that men are doing their fair share of grocery shopping and other household tasks.  Wow, only took them 30 years to figure that out.  Personally, I’ve been doing about half of the cleaning, shopping, and child rearing for oh, about 20 years now.  I have never had a problem finding what I need.  I’m a little insulted that they think it’s necessary to make aisles just for men to find the things on their list.  Heck, you give me a grocery list, 30 minutes, and an ATM card, and I’ll stock the pantry and have time to drive through Wendy’s to get a milk shake for Boo because he behaved.

Today’s Chuckle – AR vs. AK

I lurve me some Dr. Seuss.  Larry Correia found this and posted it on FaceBook, and I very quickly stole it for your reading pleasure.

Range Report

Who has two thumbs and the best wife on earth?   This guy!

This fact was demonstrated today by my ability to sign into my range as a member, which my darling wife bought as my Christmas present.  This was after being urged to go shooting this morning, and being told that since my range is primarily for pistols, then I should get more pistols.  Also got told that she got me the membership for a reason, and she expects me to use it.  This from a woman that in 2003 wasn’t entirely convinced it was a good thing when I got back into shooting, and is still lukewarm to the idea of her going shooting with any regularity.  Yeah, she’s a keeper.

Started out with the Remington R1 again.  It’s still shooting to the left a bit.  I changed my point of aim a tad and got the rounds into the center of the target.  I need to get a set of calipers and do a comparison between the clearances on this gun and my Rock Island 1911.  I field-stripped the R1 last night, and it is tight.  I could take the RIA down with my bare hands, but I had to use the included plastic wrench to rotate the bushing and push in the slide lock pin on the R1.

The CZ-82 came next.  I pushed the target out to 30 feet, and while my group opened up a bit from where it was at 21, I was still on the 10 inch splatter target I was using.  I seriously need to stock up on ammunition for this on.  I have one box of brass cased target ammunition left, and one box of defense rounds.  I do have a case of TulAmmo for it in the basement, but this range doesn’t allow steel cased ammunition. I’ll use that stuff for outdoor shooting and start stocking up on 9mm Makarov when I have the extra pennies.

I also shot the S&W Model 13, but with .38’s.  I’m working more on my trigger pull than anything else with this one.  I was able to do a much better job of staying on target with double action shooting this time.  This is another one where I need to start loading up on ammunition.  I’m not as low on .38 or .357 as I am on 9mm Mak, but I’ve got less than I’m comfortable with.

Last came the S&W 22A1.  I need to get more magazines for this one.  I go through the two I have pretty fast, and it would be nice to load up four or five before going to the range.  I had some trouble with this one today.  I was shooting Winchester High Velocity from a box of 500 bullets, and had several stovepipes and a couple of duds.  I shot Remington ammunition last time out with no problem, so I may switch back to that or try the Federal bulk stuff and leave the Winchester for the other .22’s.

I also noticed that the range is going to start having their Wednesday shooting leagues starting up in January.  I think I’ll sign up for that and see what happens.  It’s not IDPA or ISPSA, but it’s an excuse to get out and shoot more often.

I brought up the idea of reloading in order to save a bit of money (I know, I know) in ammunition, but Irish Woman is still not OK with the idea, so I’ll let that go for now.  She’s come a long way when it comes to guns, so I’m not going to push too hard.

30 Days of Heinlein – Day 27

There is no safety this side of the grave. – Stranger in a Strange Land


My Take:


Stay aware of your surroundings and what’s going on around you.  Carry and be able to effectively use your guns.  Never assume that “it doesn’t happen here”.