Light Blogging

Much to do for the next few days. Be back to normal as soon as.

In the meantime, if you are not familiar with Skippy's list, here are 213 things Skippy is no longer allowed to do in the ARMY. When you are done with that, here's some other things submitted by his readers. If you're a veteran, this is funny stuff, although if you were Skippy's squad leader, you were probably thinking very unkind thoughts about his antics. In keeping with his request, I'll only post one short group, you'll have to hit the links for the rest. He claims these were all things he was genuinely ordered to do (or not do).

32. Not allowed to let sock puppets take command of my post.
33. Not allowed to chew gum at formation, unless I brought enough for everybody.
34. (Next day) Not allowed to chew gum at formation even if I *did* bring enough for everybody.
35. Not allowed to sing “High Speed Dirt” by Megadeth during airborne operations. ("See the earth below/Soon to make a crater/Blue sky, black death, I’m off to meet my maker/")
--Skippy

Condition White

It's Marine Week in St. Louis. Lots of displays of weapons and vehicles. Lots of Marines, a couple of which managed to get robbed by two men who approached them on the street. The mayor is asking how it happened.

The answer is simple. The Marines had been drinking. They were not alert. They were not considering the risk. When approached, they were, in short, behind the OODA loop. The police understand this loop. If you stay in front, you control the situation. In this case, the Marines got sized up, attacked, and robbed, and were never really in the fight.

I see it all the time, people on the phone, wearing a headset radio, or just oblivious to their surroundings. The attacker picks his location, stalks his victim, and strikes suddenly. Substitute a couple of criminals and a jogger and this video will explain it. The zebra realizes the danger too late, runs too late, and starts kicking too late.

Thus we live our days in Condition White, which may or may not have anything to do with our danger, since quite frequently we are in deadly danger and do not realize it.
--Col. Jeff Cooper

The N.Y Times Weighs in on the 4th Amendment

The New York Times posts an article about the series of recent court decisions in 4th Amendment cases. It's not very often I agree with the opinion pages of the Times, but this one is worth reading.

Uncontrolled search and seizure is one of the first and most effective weapons in the arsenal of every arbitrary government. Among deprivations of rights, none is so effective in cowing a population, crushing the spirit of the individual and putting terror in every heart.
--Justice Robert H. Jackson, chief United States prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials

Made in America

There's a store in Elma, N.Y. called the Made in America Store. It's a nice idea, they only sell things 100% made in America. It was featured on NPR this week.

My first thought was that when I was a kid, everything was made in America. Now it's so unusual that there's a specialty store dedicated to it.

When more and more people are thrown out of work, unemployment results.
--Calvin Coolidge

First Day of Summer

There was a creek that fed the pond, some woods to explore, a couple of friends, and the whole summer to fill up until school began in September.

If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older.
--Tom Stoppard

Picture embed from http://pixdaus.com/

The World Is Not Your Ashtray

In keeping with Miasmi's series on driver's behavior, the world is not your ashtray. I see it almost every day. I'm sitting in a line of cars at a light and the driver in front of me is smoking. The window is open and when they aren't puffing, they are holding the cigarette out the window. That's the giveaway.

They flick the ashes out the window, and then, as they finish it, they flick the cigarette out the window too. It's only a minor crime, just littering, but it displays a contempt for law and the common courtesy that is the glue that holds a society together.

If I was making laws, people who were cited for throwing a cigarette out of their car would have to eat a cigarette butt in addition to any currently imposed fines. Having pro-environmental bumper stickers on your car while littering would be considered an aggravating circumstance and punishments would be doubled for hypocrisy.

Let every individual and institution now think and act as a responsible trustee of Earth.
--John McConnell

Clarence Clemons Passed

H/T to Marooned for the news.

Driving Green

Miasmi has the beginning of a series about driving posted. Almost everyone knows the feeling of being stuck behind a driver at a green light while they text, chat, pick at their belly button, only to have them wake up and lurch through the light as it turns yellow, leaving a line of cars behind to sit through the light cycle again. This is not the green thing to do. Fuel is being wasted, carbon is being spewed. Only a Gaea hating, inconsiderate, non-coexisting, Neanderthal would do such a thing. Drive accordingly. And visit Miasmi for further automotive advice as it becomes available.

If you want to read, check your Facebook status, tweet, or text — take public transportation. Join a carpool. Get a designated driver. You shouldn’t be behind the wheel.
--Miasmi

A Father's Day Story

You've been around him your whole life, think you've heard all the stories. Then he surprises you.

I went home to visit last weekend, had a good time, did all the things on the home project list. Yesterday I called to say, "Happy Father's Day." We both happened to be watching baseball, and he told me a story I had never heard.

I knew he was an altar boy all the way through high school, but hadn't heard the rest of this. Someone the parish priest knew in Boston would send enough tickets every year for the priest and all the altar boys to go to a baseball game in Boston. They would take the train in from New Hampshire and go to a game at Fenway. It was just after WWII, the players were all back from the war, and baseball was the national pastime.

One of those years, after the game, they all got to go to dinner with the team. My dad said that somewhere in his stuff is a picture of him and one of the other altar boys with Ted Williams.

We talked some more about baseball, about the times he went to Boston with his dad when he was very young, or later going with just a group of friends, but it left me wondering what other stories he has tucked away, and just how much anyone knows about their dad's life story.

My father used to play with my brother and me in the yard. Mother would come out and say, "You're tearing up the grass". "We're not raising grass," Dad would reply, "We're raising boys".
--Harmon Killebrew

Limited Kinetic Operation

It's good to remember that engaging in a limited kinetic operation leads to kinetically disassembled buildings and people. When the Nazis did it to the British, it was war. If it was being done to us, we would think it was a war. Pretending it's not a war seems to be working for the White House, though. What if Pr. Bush had tried to claim he was not in a war when U.S. aircraft were engaged in bombing strikes? Would the press have gone along with him? Why does Pr. Obama get a pass? Is there any free press left or have all of them slurped the kool-aid?

I'm not saying we shouldn't be taking out Libya, or Yemen, or Iraq. I'm saying Congress should declare war, we should have some goals, and that replacing one dictatorship with another isn't one of them. Figure out what victory is, achieve it, and impose a lasting peace. What we're doing now is just wearing out our troops and equipment with no end in sight.

And a free press? Willing to study and understand the politics both at home and abroad? They could have a role to play in framing the national discussion, instead of just keeping us up to date on Anthony Wiener. The first thing they could investigate is what ties all our enemies together and what the enemy goals are.

Freedom of the press, or, to be more precise, the benefit of freedom of the press, belongs to everyone - to the citizen as well as the publisher... The crux is not the publisher's freedom to print; it is, rather, the citizen's right to know. --Arthur Sulzburger

Fast and Furiously Trying to Backpedal

The BATF's Fast and Furious program to arm the cartels in Mexico has made the mainstream press. The Wall Street Journal is reporting on some of the details and concludes with the news that the acting head of the BATF will likely be forced to resign. They are also reporting this from a President desperate to wash his hands of this debacle.

White House spokesman Jay Carney, in response to questions Friday, said, "I can tell you that, as the president has already said, he did not know about or authorize this operation."

Well, that's nice. I'm going to let President Truman and Winston Churchill reply.

The price of greatness is responsibility.
--Winston Churchill

Inside the Perimeter

So the man arrested at the Pentagon today? You guessed it. Had to hunt for it, though, it was almost like it wasn't important, or most reporters didn't want to bring it up.

Pisses me off that he took the oath and wore the uniform of an United States Marine. He stood up and said the words just like every recruit. His allegiance was elsewhere. If he is guilty, this is treason.

When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.
--African Proverb

Change at Parris Island

Parris Island is getting a new Base Commander. For the first time, it will be a female. Brig. Gen. Loretta Reynolds takes command today. She has a lot of experience, including the being the first female Marine to command a base in a combat zone.

There's one thing I'd bet money on as this change takes place. The only thing the recruits will notice is a different name to memorize in their chain-of-command.

Sir! The Commanding General for Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island is Brigadier General Loretta Reynolds! Sir!
--Many unnamed recruits, later today, tomorrow, and in the weeks to come.

You Might Think It Was Intentional

The National Review has an article about recession and depression. It's mostly a review of the actions of the White House and Congress over the last few years. Here's just one part of his plan.

Seventh, gorge the beast. Try to get annual federal deficits up to the $1.3–$1.5 trillion range. Reagan tried to “starve the beast” — that is, to lower federal spending by lowering taxes. Why not do the inverse and borrow so much money, pile up so much debt, that even fiscal hawks will concede that higher taxes are necessary? It is a win/win/win/win/win proposition: Bigger deficits mean more federal spending, which means more federal employees, who will find more regulations to impose, which will cost employers more money and require higher taxes.
--Victor Davis Hanson

What Holds Things Together?

18 signs the society is collapsing is a depressing compilation of recent news events that point to the conclusion that things are coming apart.

Civilization is a agreement that we all trust one another to behave in ways that are not dangerous. So that even if I don't know you I don't automatically assume you are a threat when I pass you on a sidewalk. If we lose that, it's chaos.

The Constitution of the United States is an agreement that was entered into to protect us from our government. It was meant to constrain the federal government, protecting the powers of the states and the rights of individuals. If we lose that, we are either slaves or anarchists.

Money is just green paper that we all agree has value. There's nothing backing it up. If those dollars are no longer trusted, we fall all the way back to a barter economy. What happens when you present money and the other person refuses it, wanting to trade goods and services directly? How does it affect things when we can no longer agree what money is worth? When a wheelbarrow of money won't buy a wheelbarrow of corn?

What holds things together are all the underlying agreements that make up a society. If the large majority of people stop believing, stop trusting, and stop participating, what remains?

The true test of civilization is, not the census, nor the size of the cities, nor the crops, but the kind of man that the country turns out.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

Blogroll Change

Usually when a blog I follow stops updating I delete it from the blogroll. This time, I can't just do that. John Myers, who blogged at God, Guns, and Grits, passed away after a 6 month battle with cancer. His last post is a range report. He was a lot of things, a Christian, a veteran, a photographer, and a gunnie. He taught concealed carry classes and blogged about guns a lot. Working your way back through his archives from the last couple of years is a treat.

Way back at the beginning of his blog he put up a post asking the question, Will see our lost pets in heaven? Now he knows the answer and I hope he was right. Here's his obituary from the Southern Pines Pilot. His blog is as he left it, so I suspect that no one had his passwords. I don't know how long it will stay up, but if you're looking for some good gun blogging, he was prolific.

Joy is the serious business of heaven.
--C.S. Lewis

Flag Day

Flag Day is June 14th. When I got up this morning, I put out the flag. Here's the picture I took knowing it would go up on the blog.


This is a good day to learn about the Flag Code, the law that governs the use and display of the flag. As a quote, here's one section of the Flag Code, on respect for the flag. Items d, g, and i seem to be ignored or forgotten all the time. Oh, and happy birthday to Mrs. Borepatch.

No disrespect should be shown to the flag of the United States of America; the flag should not be dipped to any person or thing. Regimental colors, State flags, and organization or institutional flags are to be dipped as a mark of honor.

(a) The flag should never be displayed with the union down, except as a signal of dire distress in instances of extreme danger to life or property.
(b) The flag should never touch anything beneath it, such as the ground, the floor, water, or merchandise.
(c) The flag should never be carried flat or horizontally, but always aloft and free.
(d) The flag should never be used as wearing apparel, bedding, or drapery. It should never be festooned, drawn back, nor up, in folds, but always allowed to fall free. Bunting of blue, white, and red, always arranged with the blue above, the white in the middle, and the red below, should be used for covering a speaker's desk, draping the front of the platform, and for decoration in general.
(e) The flag should never be fastened, displayed, used, or stored in such a manner as to permit it to be easily torn, soiled, or damaged in any way.
(f) The flag should never be used as a covering for a ceiling.
(g) The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature.
(h) The flag should never be used as a receptacle for receiving, holding, carrying, or delivering anything.
(i) The flag should never be used for advertising purposes in any manner whatsoever. It should not be embroidered on such articles as cushions or handkerchiefs and the like, printed or otherwise impressed on paper napkins or boxes or anything that is designed for temporary use and discard. Advertising signs should not be fastened to a staff or halyard from which the flag is flown.
(j) No part of the flag should ever be used as a costume or athletic uniform. However, a flag patch may be affixed to the uniform of military personnel, firemen, policemen, and members of patriotic organizations. The flag represents a living country and is itself considered a living thing. Therefore, the lapel flag pin being a replica, should be worn on the left lapel near the heart.
(k) The flag, when it is in such condition that it is no longer a fitting emblem for display, should be destroyed in a dignified way, preferably by burning.
--U.S. Flag Code §ection 176

How I Became a Gun Nut, Part IV

Jennifer asked the question, "But whether I’ve met you or not, I want to know your story. The vast majority of my readers are firearms enthusiasts of some stripe. How did that happen? How did you become gunnies?"

This is part IV, the answer I think she was really looking for. Because my childhood experiences, my time in the Marines, and the years where I had no time and no money were all prelude. Once I joined the gun club, the transformation was complete.

It wasn't just the guns and associated stuff, although accumulating that took several years. It was more the changes in me. I took the concealed carry class, got a permit, bought an appropriate weapon, started carrying when and where the law allows. I joined the NRA. Took the Range Safety Officer class. Started volunteering at Ladies Day and Youth Day at the club.

I started reloading. Nothing fancy, it was supposed to be a way to save money on the cost of ammo, but reloading is where you really learn a lot about firearms and ammunition. I picked up a lot of history and trivia, although I know how much there is to know and how impossible it is to do more than scratch the surface.

I became more aware of the war on guns, the Brady Campaign, the Assault Weapons Ban, and what appears to be an organized movement to dismantle the Bill of Rights. My politics had taken a big jump on the morning of September 11th, 2001. Understanding more of the role of the Bill of Rights in the history of America brought more changes.

The pleasure of this hobby, the people I have met and become friends with, the challenges it continues to present every time I look down the sights, and the opportunity to teach and share these skills with new shooters are all part of who I am.

If you think America is moribund and there is no hope, find an active gun club. Go to a Garand Match, a 3-Gun Match, or an Appleseed shoot. Talk to the people you meet. You're going to meet honest, friendly, patriotic Americans. We aren't nuts of any type, gun or otherwise. We're people with a sense of history, honor, and integrity.

The great body of our citizens shoot less as times goes on. We should encourage rifle practice among schoolboys, and indeed among all classes, as well as in the military services by every means in our power. Thus, and not otherwise, may we be able to assist in preserving peace in the world... The first step – in the direction of preparation to avert war if possible, and to be fit for war if it should come – is to teach men to shoot!
--Theodore Roosevelt, in his last message to Congress.

How I Became a Gun Nut, Part III

Jennifer asked the question, "But whether I’ve met you or not, I want to know your story. The vast majority of my readers are firearms enthusiasts of some stripe. How did that happen? How did you become gunnies?"

This is Part III of my answer. After the Marine Corps, married with young children, there was neither time or money for too much shooting. I had one gun, a Browning Auto-5, and a few times a year I would get to shoot sporting clays. When the Boy Scouts went to the range, I was always there as a leader and would look for opportunities to get some trigger time after the Scouts had finished. But it was sporadic at best.

Fast forward some years and the older kids had moved on and my youngest son had lost interest in Scouting. Looking for an activity he would enjoy, I joined the local gun club. I bought an AR-15, thinking rifle shooting would be my primary activity. An old friend loaned me a bolt action .22. Since I already had the shotgun, I felt well equipped for shooting sports.

This is the point where the latent infection I had been carrying since childhood kicked in. My son and I would go out on week-ends, hook up with some of more knowledgeable shooters, get some coaching, work on shooting for practice. He and I started shooting Garand matches.

I got pushed to try a action pistol match. Okay... I borrowed a pistol and a holster and gave it a try. Bought a Glock the next week. Then I bought a 1911. Bought a safe to store them in. It became our shared activity. A little here, a little there, because you don't just need the weapons, you need ammo, magazines, range bags, cleaning supplies, a spotting scope, it grew into a full blown hobby.

My club is mostly rifle/pistol. Not too much shotgun, but we do have one trap range and that still feels like where this started. So there is some of that, too. My son is in the Marine Corps himself now, and gone on deployment. I try to keep things in balance, but I get to the range several times a month. It's easier in the summer because you can shoot until dark.

I'll wrap this up with one more post and some observations tomorrow.

All you need for happiness is a good gun, a good horse, and a good wife.
--Daniel Boone

How I Became a Gun Nut, Part II

Jennifer asked the question, "But whether I’ve met you or not, I want to know your story. The vast majority of my readers are firearms enthusiasts of some stripe. How did that happen? How did you become gunnies?"

This is Part II of my answer. I joined the Marines in 1977. Sometime around the middle of September we went to the rifle range for two weeks. Back in the early days of this blog when I had no readers I wrote about the rifle range. No one has ever read that post, so I will quote it here because I don't think I can say it any better. I enjoyed everything about my time at the range, learned much that I still use.

I had no experience with rifle shooting to compare to the ruthless perfection I was exposed to in the Marine Corps. Here's my memory of those days.

Marine rifle training is rigorous. There is a tradition, "Every Marine a Rifleman". Basic proficiency with the service rifle is systematically taught, and before a recruit can graduate and be called a Marine, he must be a rifleman.

Reveille was 0445, florescent light filling the barracks and signaling the beginning of another day. No need for trash can bouncing or hollering. That was weeks ago, when we were new. Now, like trained animals, turning on the overhead lights is all it takes to bring us up out of the racks to the position of attention.

Chow and PT take an hour. By 0600 we are in uniform with our rifles marching out to the rifle range. In the late summer at Parris Island those early hours are the best part of the day. The sun comes up through the live oak trees, moisture sparkling on the spanish moss. The dampness in the grass begins to evaporate, and the heat of the day, though on it's way, has not yet arrived.

The platoon takes it's place, preparing to shoot off-hand (standing) at 200 yards. Each pair of recruits with a shooting coach, the Drill Instructors pacing along behind the line. There is a history here, deep traditions and institutional memory merging, the experiences of today blending back to all the men who came here before, shot on on these ranges, and passed on.

The recruits get into position, setting their slings, checking the adjustments on their sights. Another group of recruits has taken positions behind the berm where the targets are mounted. When everyone is safely in position, the red range flag is raised. In a tower behind the shooting line, the range officer surveys the line. In a practiced voice he rolls off the range commands that I can still hear so clearly.

Is the line ready? The line is ready. Ready on the right, ready on the left. All ready on the firing line. With a magazine and one round, lock and load. Commence fire.

There is the sound of bolts closing, and then, as the targets appear, the first crack of rifle fire. There is a rhythm and pattern that everyone involved becomes familiar with. The minutes pass, and then come the commands, rolling out again.

Cease fire, cease fire. Unload, clear and lock. Set your weapons on safe.

The marksmanship instructors check the line, double checking each rifle. It is time to move back, another hundred yards. The sun is fully up now, the temperature rising through the 90s. There is more to do at 300 yards, and then at 500. Iron sights with an M-16 at 500 yards. Two weeks ago, it seemed impossible. Today, some recruit will shoot a perfect score at that distance.

The deadliest weapon in the world is a Marine and his rifle!
--General Pershing, US Army

How I Became a Gun Nut, Part I

Jennifer asked the question, "But whether I’ve met you or not, I want to know your story. The vast majority of my readers are firearms enthusiasts of some stripe. How did that happen? How did you become gunnies?"

It was my grandfather that got me started. My mother's father. He hunted. He shot trap. He had a glass gun case in his office with a few of his favorite rifles and shotguns. Very early, maybe the summer I turned 5, he started me with a .22 in the field behind the house. Tin cans, because what kid doesn't like a reactive target?

By the time I was 8 we were shooting clay pigeons in that field, him throwing them with an old wood handled hand thrower and me with an old side by side 12 gauge with a cut down stock. I must have broke enough of them to satisfy him, because he took me to his club that summer and let me start shooting trap at the Wednesday night shoots.

He took me deer hunting when I was older, although I never even saw a deer when we were out together.

He took me to the town dump a few times, which in those days was a true dump in an old sand pit. We took the .22 and a couple of his heavier rifles and went to shoot rats and other targets of opportunity. I didn't know anything about surplus rifles at the time, but I remember one of his rifles well enough to know now that he was using a Garand. Ping!

But mostly what we did together was shoot trap. It is one of my fondest memories of my growing up. Cool New Hampshire evenings, the lights over the line shining out toward a dark line of tall pines, bringing up the gun and calling for the bird, the satisfaction of a solid hit as the bird disappeared. Seeing my grandfather with his friends, the thick New England accents as they joked and talked. The smell of the powder drifting off the line.

It was how this journey began for me. Let's call this part one of four.

Put the bead on the bird and pull the trigger!
--My grandfather, summer 1964 (and 65, 66, 67, ...)

Also At The Museum

There was a ceremony at the Marine Corps Museum yesterday awarding the Navy Cross to two Marines, Capt. Ademola Fabayo and Staff Sgt. Juan Rodriguez-Chavez, for actions under fire in Kunar Province, Afghanistan.

Never saw so many Marine officers and senior NCOs in one place before. Uniforms perfect, they were gathering to honor two of their own. I only took one picture. I took it because I had never seen a Sgt. Major of the Marine Corps before.

We can't all be heroes, because somebody has to sit on the curb and applaud when they go by.
--Will Rogers

I Shook Hands With a Hero Today

Traveling up I-95, I stopped at the Museum of the Marine Corps.


I met an Iwo Jima veteran who was acting as a tour guide in the WWII section. There was no one else in the area and we sat on a bench surrounded by pictures and talked for 15 minutes. He joined the Marine Corps out of South Carolina in 1943 at the age of 17. His first day in combat was on the black sand of Iwo Jima, sent ashore as one of the reinforcements in the center of the beach. He was there for 28 days.

He asked if I was a Marine and I said yes. We found out that his grandson and my son are in the same province in Afghanistan. We spoke of time and change and feeling old. Another group of people came through and he stood to greet them. It was time to go and we parted with a handshake.

Among the Americans who served on Iwo, uncommon valor was a common virtue.
--Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz

Studebaker

Just a typical ad from 1945.


Studebaker closed it's last U.S. manufacturing plant in 1963. The South Bend plant sat empty for decades, the floor of the foundry building filled with unused engines left over from WWII.

The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.
--Leslie Poles Hartley

Standing with Breda

Breda put up a post detailing her distaste for what she called "Gunbunnies" at a recent shoot. Whether I fully agree with her on this topic is now immaterial. In what I expect was a response to that post, another blogger put up a post with a title that Breda found offensive. She asked him to change the title or take it down. So far, no response. Here's her post on the topic.

My reading of the Bill of Rights would be that you do have the right to say offensive things. You also have responsibilities for what you choose to say and you own the the consequences of your words, too. A direct appeal to the vendors that are advertising on the sidebars of this post might get a response. It might not. We don't have any control over the actions of others. In this case, what we control is what blogs we visit, our own blogrolls, and who we choose to buy products from.

Responsibility is the price of greatness.
--Winston Churchill

Found at the Library

Last night after work I went to the library. I was specifically looking for more information about D-Day and went to see what books they had. I found a couple and checked them out, hoping to get a better understanding of the events of that day.

By the doors the librarians maintain a stand of used books and magazines. Some come from the library and some are donated, but books are a dollar and magazines are 10 cents. On the shelves were 48 National Geographics, the earliest one was 1938, the latest in 1945. 10 cents apiece. I bought them all.

When I got home, I picked one at random. March 1945. Looked at the ads, read the articles. It isn't just the subject matter, it's the point of view. The writers were patriotic, servicemen were heroes, America was the greatest country in history, victory was coming.



I remember that country. I lived there when I was a boy.

History, history! We fools, what do we know or care?
--William Carlos Williams

Next Challenge

I don't what it's going to be, but I know for certain there will only be one category. Apparently that's all I can handle.

Normandy, Omaha Beach

First wave at Omaha Beach, from the Atlantic Magazine. This ought to be viral, read by millions today. Edge, give this link to your intern.

In everything that has been written about Omaha until now, there is less blood and iron than in the original field notes covering any battalion landing in the first wave. Doubt it? Then let's follow along with Able and Baker companies, 116th Infantry, 29th Division.
--S. L. A. Marshall

.22 Challenge Update

Ye Old Furt left me the following message:

You may want to double check the iron sights rating.

I went back through my email and the very first target I received was the one posted below. I assumed (once again, a very bad thing to do) that he was using a scoped rifle, although I had no reason to think so. I am waiting for a reply to my email verifying the sights on his Marlin 60 are irons. If so, Mr. B. has been edged out in the iron sights and this will be the winning target in the iron sight category.


My apologies to everyone, especially to YeOldFurt, Pickdog and Mr. B.
Update: YeOldFurt wins the iron sights. I fail at keeping up with submitted targets by category. Final (I hope) results now posted in the sidebar.
Update 2: *sigh* Got an email from Pickdog. His target was shot with iron sights, I made the same assumption I made with YeOldFurt. Wrong again I was. This fail just grows. One thing I learned is why the form for Garand Matches has so much information on it. Pickdog posted a 14. Just keep pointing out your targets. My embarrassment grows.

Anthony Weiner Says, "The Picture Was of Me and I Sent It"

Well, no shit. How stupid did he think the rest of the planet was? It was a vaguely crass thing to send. It was colossally, question his fitness to hold public office, dumb to think he could lie his way out of it. The tears were a nice touch, though.

I always thought that if people got a chance to tune in to my message, hear what I have to say, that I was going to do well.
--Anthony Weiner

June 6th

For as long as there are people to remember, June 6th will be associated with the Allied landings at Normandy. We look back at it as history and the outcome seems foregone. It was not. It was a terrible risk and it could have failed.

As it turned out, the Allies prevailed. Still, that day filled cemeteries with the bodies of young men. The only thing we can do is remember.

Every man who set foot on Omaha Beach that day was a hero.
--Gen. Omar Bradley

Closing Out the .22 Challenge

And challenging it was. Humbling, even. I sure shoot better in my memory than I do when I'm standing there with a rifle in my hands watching the the crosshairs dance around and wondering how this got so hard all of a sudden.

I got a couple of submissions yesterday. Pickdog posted a 14. His hits on the lower left target are impressive.


Murphy's Law sent in a target where he posted a 9 with a 2 shot handicap, having only 23 rounds left when he started shooting.



And now without further ado (insert drumroll) our winner, in both the scoped and iron sights,
is Mr. B. who blogs at In the Middle of the Right. He posted a 23 with a 10-22 and a 3X9 scope, and his target is a thing of beauty.


He also posted a 10 with a J.C. Higgins and iron sights. I went back through all the submissions and I think that wins the irons, too. If you shot better than a 10 and were not using a scope, I missed that fact, so email me or leave a comment and I will apologize and update.

This concludes the first RAoP e-postal match. The comment I saw repeated over and over was "Hey, it was great practice to get out there with a .22 and shoot offhand, even if I didn't post a great target." That captures my feelings about this as well. My best score being a 12, this taught me I need to get to the range more, and get off the bench. I bought a brick of Wolf Target Match .22 ammo yesterday, and I intend to use it in the coming weeks.

There will be another challenge soon, and comments to this post are open to receive your suggestions for what it should be. Remember that we want the broadest possible participation, and that some people have limited or restrictive ranges. Thanks again to Lucky Gunner for offering free targets on their site.

Pick up a rifle and you change instantly from a subject to a citizen.
--Jeff Cooper

Report from an ER Doc in Joplin

Here's a post by a doctor on duty in Joplin at the hospital that took a direct hit from the F5 tornado. This is training put to use in a situation that could not have been imagined. Hat Tip to Dr. Grumpy.

...immediately, and thankfully, my years of training in emergency procedures kicked in. There was no power, but our mental generators were up and running, and on high test adrenaline. We had no cell phone service in the first hour, so we were not even able to call for help...
--Dr. Kevin Kikta, St. John’s Regional Medical Center, Joplin, MO

.22 Challenge Update and the Value of Practice

Six and Lu sent me their targets, posting an 8 and a 2. Since they posted them, here's a link to their pictures and the write-up. I agree, the only way this would have been better would have been to have had everyone together for an afternoon.

Almost everyone has commented that the need for more shooting practice is what they learned from this challenge. Shooting offhand is hard and the results are so dismal that we don't do much of it. But the chance to shoot our .22s, to face small targets, to make multiple attempts over a month, and to do so in a competitive, but friendly atmosphere has improved my shooting.

Now my personal best was a 12. Not going to win our little match with that. But I went to a Garand Match this morning. It's a truism that you have to shoot high scores in the prone and rapid strings, but you win and lose a Garand Match on the offhand string. Mine was better than usual. I attribute it to the practice with the .22 rifle.

Thanks to all of you for participating, and remember you have one more day to get out and shoot this match. I'll announce the winner on Monday.

One hundred misses per minute is not firepower. One hit per minute is.
--Jeff Cooper

Mitt Romney, SORC

Mitt Romney has declared his candidacy of the Republican nomination. Fine. I declare my opposition to that candidacy. Romney will be more politics as usual. Romney will be for big government. Romney will tweak Obamacare and call it all better. Romney will reach across the aisle and give the Democrats what they want in the name of bipartisanship. Romney's the one that set up the national model for socialized communist health care in Massachusetts. Romney's record on the 2nd Amendment will not pass muster.

It would be better to let the Democrats win again and work to elect a 3rd party candidate, even if we lose, than to go further down the path with the Same Old Republican Crap. SORC™ is my own acronyn for what we have had to choose from in the last several elections. It got us Dole, Bush Jr., and McCain. Honestly, they may have slowed the rate of decline, but that's not enough anymore.

If you're willing to vote for SORC™, on the grounds that it's better than Obama, you're willing to say that it's okay to run the country off the economic cliff as long as we don't go too fast. I'm not willing to do that. Better to refuse to support them, to leave them wondering how they were beaten so badly, and to at least race on down the road to ruin with the Democrats at the wheel.

Are right and wrong convertible terms, dependent upon popular opinion?
--William Lloyd Garrison

Here's One Problem Dagney Didn't Face

We are experiencing an economic collapse so severe that the scrap price of metal is high enough to make this worthwhile. It does not bode well for our national infrastructure.

Every wave, regardless of how high and forceful it crests, must eventually collapse within itself.
--Stefan Zweig

We Need Statesmen

We Need statesmen. We need leaders. We need people with the vision to lead us out of a financial disaster. We don't have any. It is entertaining, though. Watching Anthony Weiner (D, N.Y.) try to dance away from reality is something to do while the counter runs out.

The apparently pressing questions of the day:

1. How many pictures of erections does Rep. Weiner have on his phone? If he's not sure if the picture is of him or not, who might it be?

2. Did he send the picture? If not, how did his system get hacked? Is there any actual evidence that he was pranked? If so, what is Twitter doing to prevent further intrusions?

3. Did he perhaps intend to send it, but sent it to the wrong person?

4. How many other women has he sent pictures to? have been the victim of this hacker?

5. Has he ever heard of Occam's Razor?

The most damning indictment of America is that the current members of Congress were elected.

Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.
--Mark Twain

Reagan's 1964 Speech

I read this speech last night. Here's a link to the text. If you have a few minutes, here it is in video format.



Here's a few highlights from a speech made over 45 years ago.

Not too long ago, two friends of mine were talking to a Cuban refugee, a businessman who had escaped from Castro, and in the midst of his story one of my friends turned to the other and said, "We don't know how lucky we are." And the Cuban stopped and said, "How lucky you are? I had someplace to escape to." And in that sentence he told us the entire story. If we lose freedom here, there's no place to escape to. This is the last stand on earth.

We have so many people who can't see a fat man standing beside a thin one without coming to the conclusion the fat man got that way by taking advantage of the thin one. So they're going to solve all the problems of human misery through government and government planning. Well, now, if government planning and welfare had the answer—and they've had almost 30 years of it—shouldn't we expect government to read the score to us once in a while? Shouldn't they be telling us about the decline each year in the number of people needing help? The reduction in the need for public housing?

No government ever voluntarily reduces itself in size. So governments' programs, once launched, never disappear. Actually, a government bureau is the nearest thing to eternal life we'll ever see on this earth.

You and I know and do not believe that life is so dear and peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery. If nothing in life is worth dying for, when did this begin—just in the face of this enemy? Or should Moses have told the children of Israel to live in slavery under the pharaohs? Should Christ have refused the cross? Should the patriots at Concord Bridge have thrown down their guns and refused to fire the shot heard 'round the world? The martyrs of history were not fools, and our honored dead who gave their lives to stop the advance of the Nazis didn't die in vain. Where, then, is the road to peace? Well it's a simple answer after all. You and I have the courage to say to our enemies, "There is a price we will not pay." "There is a point beyond which they must not advance."

You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We'll preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we'll sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness.
--Ronald Reagan