Maybe he's not dead yet...

English Man: I'm not dead.

Dead Collector: 'Ere, he says he's not dead.
European Citizen: Yes he is.
English Man: I'm not.
Dead Collector: He isn't.
European Citizen: Well, he will be soon, he's very ill.
English Man: I'm getting better.

European Citizen: No you're not, you'll be stone dead in a moment.

Yesterday i wrote of the death of the English Man; replaced by eurocentric not-men, and welfare babies...

Perhaps I was too hasty, perhaps not; but I say this, I am heartened by these responses from my readers, expecially from Tim and Steve of "An Englishmans Castle" (a very fine blog in it's own right, and a semi-regular read for me; usually off of Kims).

I've been a bit light on the original content here the last few days, with a lot of cutting and pasting of others thoughts, but they are such worthy thoughts how can I not share them here:

Tim:

Don't worry the real English are still here - your great choice of poems actually point out that it is an age old story of Lions lead by Donkeys, the sophisticates believe that Tommy is too unsophisticated and that civilised people don't fight, it can all be negotiated away.

The lion sleeps, but one day....

Jon:

The lion sleeps deep, Tim, in fact rather too deeply. I hope he wakes up before this country of mine is too far gone. I don't want any other.

Steve:

Hi Chris, Sorry you have been insulted by some guy who is not an Englishman. He is probably some foreign geezer trying to wind you up or a scum-bag lefty or an Arab. The real English are still here but a bit thin on the ground! Soldiers only go where they are told and do their duty, which any right thinking person who lives in the real world must understand even if they don’t agree with the politics. The scum bag who insulted you American patriots would not even be here without America’s help during WW2 , when Hitler and Nazi Germany had to be stood up to. (You was a little late in that one but we forgive you) Anyway pacifism does not work, it’s only a temporary stay of the inevitable!

No one agrees with naked aggression but nations and people have to stand up and be counted when attacked, as America was on that terrible day in September four years ago. We could do with a few soldiers on our borders in the UK which are non-existent. The indigenous Brits are leaving our towns and cities like never before over 200,000 per year from London alone over the last few decades.

In England today we the English are very much on the political defence, in our culture and history. The lefties have infiltrated the highest echelons of government and the civil service. Even the BBC is bias against the English. I wrote a piece on the Englishman’s castle blog describing our blight its in the achieves on Tim’s blog dated around May 2nd 2005. It’s called a ‘Nation of Ostriches’ I think it cover very well the sentiments that many true English people feel about how our country is being run down, and overtaken by foreigners, and they not even armed!

God Bless America and England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales
A Christian Blessing of course!

Chris Byrne (me):

Actually Steve, I recognize that all Englishmen are not yet "New Internationalists" or "Transnational Progressivists", but I look around and all I see are more and more boys and girls (I hesitate to call them mean and women) sucking from the tit of the nanny state; and abdicating all their responsibility.

In the process they don't seem to notice, or even care, that they are trading away their freedom; and it frightens me.

For gods sakes; who would ever have thought that the Scots would become welfare babies?

Who is left to bring England back?

Terry W:

I'm pleased to report the Englishman is alive and well, and as honourable as ever. The trouble is we are few in number, and it's all a bit disconcerting to be outnumbered by faux-patriotic chavs and bleeding-heart, self-loathing Londoners.

We're all down the pub at the moment, mulling over what to do, or sitting at home reading the papers, letting the anger build. I've heard that lions tend to be rather touchy when woken from a long slumber, so keep your eyes peeled.

Steve:

Hi Chris, that is the 64,000 dollar question, we do need somebody to pull us as a nation out of this smothering Nanny State mire. But any political big hitters as just not there or they are too scared to put there views in any line of fire.

Just two small examples of state intervention in the last year, that you and other Americans may not be aware of! Hunting with dogs has been banned a tradition that has gone on for centuries. I have no strong views either way as long as they are not infringing on my postage stamp garden. You would think that farmers and country people would know what’s best for them, not the state.

A second issue, the Sparks (electricians) in the UK has just been criminalized from carrying out their trade, since January 1st 2005. A dictate from Europe with the conniving of Tony Blair’s government states that Sparks must now join trade organisations or have town councils surveyors come out and test every single electrical installation!! Sparks with 20, 30 plus years experience have to now put up with this Bollocks.

Electricians who have undertaken an indentured 5 year City & Guilds JIB journeyman apprenticeship count for nothing in the new know it all state. Many will carry on breaking the new bull-shit law. A competent electrician before Jan 1st 2005 Many with decades of experience, so what has changed!

A member of Parliament, a Jenny Tonge the liberal member for Richmond helped push for this. Her daughter was electrocuted by a Fitted Kichen company’s dodgy wiring of a socket a couple of years back. It was not even an electrician who carried out the job! So now the whole of the domestic industry has to suffer. Those who will benefit are the overlords of these new licenses which is a personal interference day to day sparks work. The cost will be around £1000 per year with on the site inspections. Before this a UK qualified spark had complete autonomy over his work. He could issue completion certificates if required. The cost will be passed on to the consumer and it will be like working in a big brother state. Around ten people are electrocuted a year in Britain but no all in the home, some road workers make this toll. We have hundreds in not thousands killed and injured on our roads are we now all to get an individual driving instructors to make our future journeys!

As for the welfare state it’s a good idea for a safety net for those who have contributed in with their national health stamps, and can’t afford to go private. But the whole third world and Eastern Europe are taking advantage of the National Health Service. We are plagued with Health tourists who come here under the pretence of a vacation or to study and they are wiping the floor with the free service their get which puts the indigenous Brit further back on the waiting list say nothing of the mass immigration and asylum that is going on!

PS incidentally Jenny Tonge the Member of Parliament is the same one from a year or two back who said she could understand why Palestinians go out strapped up with their suicide bombings!!!!!! Some fucking Member of Parliament don’t you think.

I am unfortunately aware of both the RIDICULOUSLY ASININE new home improvement and maintenance regulations (and theya re actually worse than Steve is pointing out, thats just one pebble on the mountain), and the even more ridiculously asinine Jenny Tonge.

I swear to you, I never thought that one could ever watch "Yes Minister", and think "If only we were that good".

Memorial for the Mariner

I realize, I've said so much about soldiers this memorial day, but nothing about sailors.

"Lord take me up in your hand and protect me, for my boat is so small, and your ocean is so large"

I'm a sailor myself actually. I grew up on the New England coast, and spent most of my life within shouting distance of water until the great migration out west. I used to run hobie cats in spec races; I built a one-design with some friends. All small stuff really, but I've been well out of sight of land in a small boat. It's hard to understand the feeling or describe it unless you've been there.

They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters; These see the works of the LORD, and his wonders in the deep. For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof. They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end. Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses. He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.

Psalms, 107:23-30

Let me say right now, the mercheant marine fleet deserves jsut as much a memorial this day as any man who ever wore his nations uniform. All throughout history it was the merchies who took the heaviest casualties, and they never recieved the recognition or honor that is due them. Maybe I'm biased because I grew up in New England which has borne that burden more heavily than most other places in America, but I think it's shameful that more don't know of the sacrifices they made for our freedom.

Sea Fever --John Masefield

I MUST down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face and a grey dawn breaking.

I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must down to the seas again to the vagrant gypsy life.
To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

Some men must go, they must explore, they must sail, they must be free.. call it corny or sentimentalist or childish if you like... it isn't really, you just don't understand, and if you don't it can't be explained.

Home Is the Sailor --A.E. Housman

Home is the sailor, home from sea:
Her far-borne canvas furled
The ship pours shining on the quay
The plunder of the world.

Home is the hunter from the hill:
Fast in the boundless snare
All flesh lies taken at his will
And every fowl of air.

'Tis evening on the moorland free,
The starlit wave is still:
Home is the sailor from the sea,
The hunter from the hill.

And they all come home again once more, unless they have given that final sacrifice.

In Memoriam - The English Man

Some UK "world citizen" idiot left a nasty comment on the post "What it really means"

"Why do you Americans have to fall for this sentimentalist jingoistic bullshit" or some such words; I dont remember, I deleted him immediately (note, disagreement, debate, and discussion are allowed in my comments, assholes and insults are not).

There was a time when English Men, Europeans, and Canadians understood what it seems only Americans still do: Although war is never to be desired, nor is it ever the "right" thing to do, sometimes it is the least wrong thing to do, sometimes it is necessary.

Englishmen (and one Canadian) knew this so well in fact, they wrote some of the greatest words ever expressed in our language:

In Flanders Fields
by Lt. Col. John McCrae, M.D. (1872-1918)
Canadian Army

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Memorial day is not only a U.S. holiday; it is a holiday for all the men (and women) who died fighting for what is right in this world.

It saddens me that there are now so few English Men left. How many in England would now understand these words:

"To Lucasta, going to the wars"

Richard Lovelace

TELL me not, Sweet, I am unkind,
That from the nunnery
Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind
To war and arms I fly.

True, a new mistress now I chase,
The first foe in the field;
And with a stronger faith embrace

A sword, a horse, a shield.

Yet this inconstancy is such
As thou too shalt adore;
I could not love thee, Dear, so much,
Loved I not Honour more.

"Loved I not honour more"... I can imagine a few marines, royal or American saying that... but the run of the mill Englishman?

Or this... a ballad to how the spirit, and valor of men can overcome ... the charge is one of the biggest military blunders of all time; an accident really, but it broke the crimean war wide open.

"Charge of the Light Brigade"
Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!
"Charge for the guns!" he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

"Forward, the Light Brigade!"
Was there a man dismay'd?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Someone had blunder'd:
Their's not to make reply,
Their's not to reason why,
Their's but to do and die:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell
Rode the six hundred.

Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air,
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wonder'd:
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reel'd from the sabre stroke
Shatter'd and sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not
Not the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death
Back from the mouth of Hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.

When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wondered.
Honor the charge they made,
Honor the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred.

Is the English Man so truly dead? Does the union jack no longer mean anything? This is coming from an Irish Man, (Irish father, American mother, part Irish raised part American), to whom the jack is a symbol of opression; but to you English is it no longer a symbol of pride? Is it just some piece of Kitschery to be worn on shirts and painted on mini-coopers, or draped around the shoulders of overpaid footballers? Have you forgotten Kipling entireley?

The English Flag

Above the portico a flag-staff, bearing the Union Jack,
remained fluttering in the flames for some time, but ultimately
when it fell the crowds rent the air with shouts,
and seemed to see significance in the incident. -- DAILY PAPERS.

Winds of the World, give answer! They are whimpering to and fro --
And what should they know of England who only England know? --
The poor little street-bred people that vapour and fume and brag,
They are lifting their heads in the stillness to yelp at the English Flag!

Must we borrow a clout from the Boer -- to plaster anew with dirt?
An Irish liar's bandage, or an English coward's shirt?
We may not speak of England; her Flag's to sell or share.
What is the Flag of England? Winds of the World, declare!

The North Wind blew: -- "From Bergen my steel-shod vanguards go;
I chase your lazy whalers home from the Disko floe;
By the great North Lights above me I work the will of God,
And the liner splits on the ice-field or the Dogger fills with cod.

"I barred my gates with iron, I shuttered my doors with flame,
Because to force my ramparts your nutshell navies came;
I took the sun from their presence, I cut them down with my blast,
And they died, but the Flag of England blew free ere the spirit passed.

"The lean white bear hath seen it in the long, long Arctic night,
The musk-ox knows the standard that flouts the Northern Light:
What is the Flag of England? Ye have but my bergs to dare,
Ye have but my drifts to conquer. Go forth, for it is there!"

The South Wind sighed: -- "From the Virgins my mid-sea course was ta'en
Over a thousand islands lost in an idle main,
Where the sea-egg flames on the coral and the long-backed breakers croon
Their endless ocean legends to the lazy, locked lagoon.

"Strayed amid lonely islets, mazed amid outer keys,
I waked the palms to laughter -- I tossed the scud in the breeze --
Never was isle so little, never was sea so lone,
But over the scud and the palm-trees an English flag was flown.

"I have wrenched it free from the halliard to hang for a wisp on the Horn;
I have chased it north to the Lizard -- ribboned and rolled and torn;
I have spread its fold o'er the dying, adrift in a hopeless sea;
I have hurled it swift on the slaver, and seen the slave set free.

"My basking sunfish know it, and wheeling albatross,
Where the lone wave fills with fire beneath the Southern Cross.
What is the Flag of England? Ye have but my reefs to dare,
Ye have but my seas to furrow. Go forth, for it is there!"

The East Wind roared: -- "From the Kuriles, the Bitter Seas, I come,
And me men call the Home-Wind, for I bring the English home.
Look -- look well to your shipping! By the breath of my mad typhoon
I swept your close-packed Praya and beached your best at Kowloon!

"The reeling junks behind me and the racing seas before,
I raped your richest roadstead -- I plundered Singapore!
I set my hand on the Hoogli; as a hooded snake she rose,
And I flung your stoutest steamers to roost with the startled crows.

"Never the lotus closes, never the wild-fowl wake,
But a soul goes out on the East Wind that died for England's sake --
Man or woman or suckling, mother or bride or maid --
Because on the bones of the English the English Flag is stayed.

"The desert-dust hath dimmed it, the flying wild-ass knows,
The scared white leopard winds it across the taintless snows.
What is the Flag of England? Ye have but my sun to dare,
Ye have but my sands to travel. Go forth, for it is there!"

The West Wind called: -- "In squadrons the thoughtless galleons fly
That bear the wheat and cattle lest street-bred people die.
They make my might their porter, they make my house their path,
Till I loose my neck from their rudder and whelm them all in my wrath.

"I draw the gliding fog-bank as a snake is drawn from the hole,
They bellow one to the other, the frighted ship-bells toll,
For day is a drifting terror till I raise the shroud with my breath,
And they see strange bows above them and the two go locked to death.

"But whether in calm or wrack-wreath, whether by dark or day,
I heave them whole to the conger or rip their plates away,
First of the scattered legions, under a shrieking sky,
Dipping between the rollers, the English Flag goes by.

"The dead dumb fog hath wrapped it -- the frozen dews have kissed --
The naked stars have seen it, a fellow-star in the mist.
What is the Flag of England? Ye have but my breath to dare,
Ye have but my waves to conquer. Go forth, for it is there!"

"CLEARED"

Finally, what I think are the greatest words ever written about what it means to be a soldier; but what to the "modern european" English not-a-man, must seem to be nothing but jingositic sentimentalist claptrap:

Henry V; Act four: Scene 3

Willia Shakespeare

This day is called the feast of Crispin.

He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named, and rouse him at the name of Crispin.

He that shall live this day, and see old age, will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours, and say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispin:'

Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars, and say 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'

Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot, but he'll remember with advantages what feats he did that day:

Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words,
Harry the king,
Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot,
Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.

This story shall the good man teach his son;

And Crispin Crispin shall ne'er go by, from this day to the ending of the world, but we in it shall be remember'd;
We few,
we happy few,
we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother;
be he ne'er so vile,this day shall gentle his condition:

And gentlemen in England now a-bed shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap

whiles any speaks that fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

It is Crispins day, and you are no gentlemen, nor men at all; you are not my brothers; you have not outlived the day. You have died; and gone quietly into your graves in doing so.

If you do not understand why these words are great.. if you do not understand why this day matters so, your manhoods ARE cheap; and you should indeed hold them so...

No, you cannot, for you have sold them, and sold them cheap; so you may pretend the world is no longer a rough place.

You are nothing but Quislings, cowering in your corners, praying for the bad men to go away, because they make you feel uncomfortable. Harry is dead, Horatius is gone, John Bull is but a parody; a memory of "the bad old days".

... Perhaps one more set of words from an English Man would be appropriate here

People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.
-- Eric Arthur Blair, known as George Orwell

My REAL order is...

A 5 shot mocha latte, but this is cute... You're a Cappucinno!

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What it really means

Want to see a grown man or woman cry? Read this and then Look in a mirror.

"Arlington"
-- Trace Adkins

never thought that this is where I’d settle down
I thought I’d die an old man back in my hometown
They gave me this plot of land
Me and some other men
For a job well done
There’s a big white house, sits on a hill, just up the road

The man inside, he cried the day they brought me home
They folded up a flag
And told my mom and dad
‘We’re proud of your son’

And I’m proud to be on this peaceful piece of property
I’m on sacred ground, and I’m in the best of company
I’m thankful for those thankful for the things I’ve done
I can rest in peace, I’m one of the chosen ones

I made it to Arlington

I remember Daddy brought me here when I was eight
We searched all day to find out where my granddad lay
When we finally found that cross
He said ‘Son, this is what it costs
To keep us free’
Now here I am, a thousand stones away from him
He recognized me on the first day I came in

And it gave me a chill
When he clicked his heels
And saluted me

And I’m proud to be on this peaceful piece of property
I’m on sacred ground, and I’m in the best of company
I’m thankful for those thankful for the things I’ve done
I can rest in peace, I’m one of the chosen ones
I made it to Arlington

And every time I hear twenty-one guns
I know they brought another hero home to us

We’re thankful for those thankful for the things we’ve done
We can rest in peace, ‘cause we are the chosen ones
We made it to Arlington

Yeah, dust to dust
Don’t cry for us

We made it to Arlington

If you don't tear up to this, what the hell is wrong with you.

That is what memorial day is really about. It's not beer and barbeques and a day off work; it's about duty, honor, and sacrifice. Please remember that this weekend.

Layeth the Smacketh Down

As I've mentioned several times before, I'm the moderator of the Nation of Riflemen Forums at KimDutoit.com.

Generally speaking this is a pretty easy gig, and I get great joy in being able to help out my fellow RKBA, and freedom loving friends have a good forum experience.

But sometimes, the assholes show up; of one stripe or another.

Suprisingly enough we don't get a lot of Gun Fearing Weenies (GFW); or shrill liberal idiots. The biggest problem wehave is with fntasy gunners. You know; counterstrike warriors who spout off about how great this or that is, meanwhile the only gun they've ever held had "airsoft" on the box.

Sometimes though, we just get total assholes. Such was the case this evening. The background here, this guy was kicked off yesterday for REPEATEDLY being an asshole over the course of about three weeks:

OldStyle (posting under the fraudulent account Bluejay): Hi, oldstyle here. I know I was kicked off but I don't care. i am actually 52 years old and have been a gunsmith for 21 years. I am also a collector of antique firarms I have 32 antique handguns and 39 antique rifles plus 11 antique shotguns and 19 modern guns. I know that Kim Du Toit is the host and I don't care his post was very inacurate. I live in America, in America it is OK to disagree with someone. I disagree with every democrat that is elected in this country. I would tell Bill Clinton he and his bitch Hillary are wrong to their face. So I don't care what you say.

I dunno about you, but somehow I doubt he's really 52 and a 21 year gunsmith; but stranger things have happened.

Chris Byrne: Great, you get to disagree all you want. You dont get to be rude, or an asshole unless Kim or I say so.

Hell, you may even be right; in that the Astra does have collector value as an unusual firearms design. I don't care. You were rude, and an asshole. Being rude and an asshole is against our rules. You were banned.

This isn't America, this is KimDutoitland. More to the point, this is private property and by willfully accessing this site after being banned you have done so without authorization, and in violation of our terms of service.

Yes geographically, this is America; and in America that is a felony. Look it up if you like. Start with a search of the name Kevin Mitnick.

Why you would even want to do this; and why at 52 you are so emotionally stunted as to find this necessary I'll never know, but I'm going to ban you again.

If you post under any other name or sign up with any other email address I'll call up your ISP admin and have them drop you as a system cracker; they'll do it in a hot minute because ISP's are cowards desperately afraid of lawsuits, and I have logs of everything you've done here.

Or you can jsut apologize for being a rude asshole and join the rest of us in our spirited but civil discussions. I'll even re-instate your other account if you like with the original name.

Otherwise go away, and don't come back.

Ok so I was harsh, but I think fair here. offered another chance; I even conceded he very well may have had a point... some people the "anonymity" of the internet makes them think they canbe as rude as they want to be.

But the internet isn't actually anonymous; at least not without significant skill and effort. 30 minutes later I'm going through some membership information and I see the asshole has tried to sign up twice more with different names... thats fucking it, time for the smackdown:

Chris Byrne: Ok, that's it. I was giving this asshole another chance, and I find out he tried to register under yet another name...

"Sirs,

A user of your internet access services, identifying himself first as
"oldstyle", with the email address xxxxxxx@gbronline.com and then
as "bluejay" has repeatedly accessed, or attempted to access, our web
based forum systems after being banned; in violation of our terms of
service.

I informed the individual that I would contact their ISP's abuse and
security co-ordinator if they attempted to access our systems again.
After being warned against this behavior, the individual then attempted
to access our systems again using another fraudulent account.

This user was accessing our systems from the IP address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
(a melbourne IT registered netblock) as of 1:31am US central standard
time (CST), Friday, May 27th, 2005. His last prior unauthorized access
was from xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx on 05/25/05 at 11:54 pm CST."

Remember folks, sysadmins know how to deal with this sort of bullshit. We are friendly people here, very tolerant of other folks opinons; and we are all for giving people second chances.

Lord knows I can be the biggest asshole of them all.

What will NOT be tolerated is violating our rules, or terms of service.

I'm an IT operations manager, who up til a few weeks ago was a security consultant. I do this sort of shit for a living. You do NOT fuck with my friends.

Who'da Thunk it?

Too bad the only truely increadible, mind blowing oral sex I recieved was from a girl who turned out to be a slut. Whooda thunk it? --Dustin

Dustin is a friend of mine who's been through some rough family shit, and some rough women shit, in the last couple months; but I've heard this "complaint" often.

I hate to do this to you man, but you're full of shit on this one. The girls you have been dealing with werent sluts; they were tramps, and theres an important difference.

What's wrong with sluts? Absolutely nothing; unless you are one of those prissy moralists who think that sex is wrong outside of marriage (leaving aside religious faith); or one of those women who feel that sluts are a threat to them (and arent you little miss insecure).

Now I make a distinction between a woman who likes sex, and has similar sexual morals as a man does (a slut); and a woman who fucks around because shes trying to get revenge on something (her family, her father, herself), or because she has no self esteem (a tramp).

The first is a great thing, the others are something you want to stay as far away from as possible.

But let's get back to that first one. So long as you know that's what you're getting in to, and she doesnt lie about it to you, or her other partners, sluts are great.

You both get to have great sex, and so long as neither of you give a shit about what the other is doing, it can go on as long as you want.

Friends with benefits, fuckbuddies, whatever you want to call it. Throughout most of my life I've generally had a couple around, who would just call me up some time "Hey Chris, you busy, can I come over", and we'd have amazing sex, and talk for a while, have some fun, probably some more amazing sex, and then she'd leave (or vice versa).

That's fucking great; and there is no reason anyone should feel guilt or shame over that.

Of course this assumes you are both being smart, using protection, and assuming she has relatively good judgement. And guess what, if shes the good slut, rahter than the crazy tramp type; she will almsot certainly take good care of herself, and choose her partners better than YOU have.

Sluts are the ones who will do interesting, wild, crazy things with you; like wear a schoolgirl uniform with stockings and heels for you, then bend over the hood and take it from behind in the stadium parking lot while the football game is going on... "HE... COULD... GO... ALL... THE... WAAAAAYYYY!!!!!!!"

My girlfriend will kill me for writing this, but she's a slut. The GOOD kind. She loves sex, she's good at it, she doesn't feel guilty about it. For most of the almost year we've been off and on together we werent exclusive, and we could, and would have sex with others. It's only recently that we've stopped that and are just seeing each other now. I don't know how that will work out, but I feel no pressure to try and force things to work. If they do, great, if not, then we still love each other and care about each other, and are friends, and may even keep having great sex with each other.

Can someone tell me how this is a bad thing?

And guess what again; sluts make good marriage prospects. No seriously. Drop that moralistic bullshit and think about it. Sluts don't cheat, because they don't have to. They know they have all the other options, and they've chosen this one. If she's a good slut, you've both been completely honest with each other; you aren't settling down for the sex; you KNOW this is the time, this is the one, and this is the way.

Not only that, but they are far less likely to have that semi-pathological drive towards marriage some women seem to get upon hitting 27 or so years old (it doubles at 30, and doubles again at 35). I have never seen a good slut say to the man she loves "You have to marry me or I'm leaving you".

All in all, I love sluts; and I wish there were more of them. No matter what people seem to think, there are a hell of a lot more tramps than most will ever know or admit to (some just hide it well), and a hell of a lot fewer sluts.

Go. Read. Now

The Geek with a .45 knocked one out of the park yesterday.

I smiled, and dialed up the Bill of Rights, pointing to my favorite clause.

"BD, you're not in Somalia anymore. Sitting in closets and trunks all across America are 295 million firearms; personal, private property owned by 80 million Americans. Literally, we have enough private guns to arm everybody, from infants to 100 year olds. That is the TRUE arsenal of freedom.

If it gets as bad as you think it might, everyone will show up, and we'll outnumber them 40 to 1. They don't have a chance.

Let's not be so optimistic though. Let's assume that not everyone shows up for that party. Let's say that, oh, maybe 10% think it's worth getting out of bed for. Don't you think that 800,000 heavily armed, pissed off Americans might inspire a government dedicated to evil to be...circumspect?"

I looked at BD, while it sunk in. He had a distant look in his eyes, as he reread the Second Amendment. I don't know what he was thinking. Perhaps he was wondering if he would have had to flee his homeland if it weren't so easy for relatively small, undisciplined gangs of armed thugs to run things. "80 million Americans have guns? Really? This is true? Enough for everybody?"

I nodded. "Yup."

His eyes snapped to mine, the faraway look replaced by awe and hope.

"Your Constitution....it is....like no other. It is....awesome. It is...." Words failed him, and he gestured helplessly.

I have had a few of those moments myself, and it is both an honor, and a privilige to awaken someone to the true meaning of freedom, and the right to keep and bear arms.

Oral Sex, Pizza, and Documentation

1. "Oral sex is like pizza: When it's good, it's GREAT; and when it's bad, it's still pretty damned good"

2. "Documentation is like oral sex: When it's good, it's GREAT; and when it's bad, it's still pretty damned good"

That is unfortunately not true, for any of those three items.

Bad pizza is just plain disgusting. Unfortunately there isn't a hell fo a lot of good pizza around here in AZ. NYPD, and Oreganos are both decent (NYPD is a lot like Boston style neapolitan or sicilian... kind of like what Papa Ginos would be if it werent a chain pizza place); but there isn't any really GREAT pizza here.

Unfortunately throughout most of America, all you can get is bad pizza. Pizza slut, spaminos, and little pukers are NOT real pizza; and no matter how much you like them, they arent GOOD pizza.

Bad oral sex sucks.

Forgive the HORRIBLE pun, but I couldnt resist. Bad oral sex does indeed suck, and not in the good way. Good oral sex can be fucking incredible. It can be among the most pleasureable of experiences.

The problem? Most people aren't any good at oral sex. Most men have no clue about women ANYWAY, never mind about going down; but what gets me is most women...

I swear to you most women seem to think that just because their mouth is on your dick, it's going to be the greatest thing in the world.

As the recipient of vast quantities of bad head, let me jsut say this isn't so. Sure there are a few guys who are so pathetically grateful to be getting their cock sucked that a gentle lick and blow will do the job for them; but anyone over the age of 21, and under the age of 45-65 (depending on vigourousness).. at least if they are unmarried for much of that time anyway... will know better.

Nothing makes me lose my wood quicker than bad oral sex. It jsut throws me right off the mood entirely. Not only that, but if you try and tell women what to do, most of the time they get all bitchy about it like "don't look a gift horse in the mouth".

Even if you can find someone who kinows what they are doing, it takes me a looong fucking time to cum,and you have to be doing the right thing that whole time, or I jsut won't. Sure I'll really enjoy myself, and it will feel great, but I'm just not gonna get off that way.

Dont get offended if I don't cum ladies, hell I have a hard time getting my SELF off.

I'm lucky in that my GF is both very good with her mouth, and very much enjoys giving pleasure. This is a point we are both TOTALLY in agreement on BTW.

Now back to men... most of us are hopeless when it comes to oral sex. "Uhhhhh, thats the clit right, and I just lick that and she cums right".

Oh yeah, that works. Really it does.

First of all, most women will not get off with jsut clitoral stimulation; and again, if you dont do it jsut right, she "resets" (jsut like some guys do); so you could be doing great, and then one wrong lick, or fingernail etc.. and thats it; she aint cuming for a while.

For both women and men, let me say... patience, creativity, and stamina. And when you find something that makes your partner feel very good, keep doing that until your partner tells you different. Partners, you need to give feedback, or you are going to continue to get bad oral sex...

And finally documentation.

Bad documentation is worse than bad oral sex. Bad oral sex jsut ruins the mood; bad documentation can ruin your whole year.

We have an undocumented code problem, and an undocumented process problem, and an undocumented policy problem and an...

I think you get the piture.

The only thing worse than no documentation is bad documentation, because with no documentation you KNOW you are flying blind and you take the apropriate precautions. With BAD documentation, especially with incorrect docs, the docs themselves make you screw up; and then make it that much harder to fgure out and fix the problem.

Of course documentation IS like good oral sex and good pizza in one way; I'll do a hell of a lot for any of them.

WTF???

I am at a loss for words.....

Bolivian Marching Powder

Lorenzo over at Mercutio club remninded me of this little piece of literary narration from Jay McInernys "Bright Lights, Big city", a book I actually liked from I think '84.

"IT'S 6 AM, DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOU ARE???

You are not the kind of guy who would be at a place like this at this time of the morning. But here you are, and you cannot say that the terrain is entirely unfamiliar, although the details are fuzzy.

You are at a nightclub talking to a girl with a shaved head. The club is either Heartbreak or the Lizard Lounge. All might come clear if you could just slip into the bathroom and do a little more Bolivian Marching Powder.

Then again, it might not.

A small voice inside you insists that this epidemic lack of clarity is the result of too much of that already. The night has already turned on that imperceptible pivot where two A.M. changes to six A.M. You know this moment has come and gone, but you are not yet willing to concede that you have crossed the line beyond which all is gratuitous damage and the palsy of unraveled nerve endings. Somewhere back there you could have cut your losses, but you rode past that moment on a comet trail of white powder and now you are trying to hang on to the rush. Your brain at this moment is composed of brigades of tiny Bolivian soldiers. They are tired and muddy from their long march through the night. There are holes in their boots and they are hungry. They need to be fed. They need the Bolivian Marching Powder."

I have an interesting (well not really, but at least less than banal) connection to the guy who wrote it actually. My aunt Allison used to date the guys brother (or maybe it was his cousin, I cant remember it was 1986); and they kind of viewed themselves as "southern royalty" though actually they were originally from Chicago I think...

Anyway, I always liked that little bit; at one point I could remember it all by heart, though that time has long passed. Thankfully we have the miracle that is Google these modern days.

Although I've never been a coke user, I have been in that exact state of mind. 6 am, all night long with god knows how many women; kissing, touching, dancing, sweating... maybe that last one wasn't a woman, but she sure looked like it; and damn could she dance...

Yeah, I've been there.

Do I miss that shit... eh.... sometimes yeah.

When I was in Ireland, after I split with my wife, and after the Lisa affair I went a bit nuts. I had weeks and weeks where I wasnt working, and I'd jsut go out to goth and metal places and just freak all night friday saturday sunday... sleeping on the floor in some girls house while her boyfriend is off in cork or summat...

But it was fun. So much fun it was work. So much work it was exhausting. Then it wasn't fun any more.

Yeah... I've been there; and it didnt take any bolivian marching powder to get me there.

Meme Tag

Okay so Eric tagged me with this meme, on a subject near and dear to my heart. I read more than is entirely healthy (I have to do something when I'm supposed to be sleeping); and I tend to go through books like I do caffeinated beverages (note for the uninformed, that's a HELL of a lot).

So here goes:

1. Total Number of Books I've Owned:

hmm... Ever, at any one time, or right now.

Ever is a pretty big number; probably something over 5000.

At any one time is 2400, proabably 1/3 hard cover, and 2/3 paperback (and half -2/3 Sci-Fi at any rate).

Right now is about 300

2. Last Book I Bought:

I bought 11 books the other day at B&N (but STILL haven been able to find Silent America or "Old Mans War" in a store. I'll just bite the bullet and order from Amazon). I don't have the full list handy, but there was some David Weber, Eric Flint, John Ringo, Simon R. Green, and the piece de resistance, Thomas Sowells "Black Rednecks and White Liberals".

That one ought to be an interesting read

3. Last Book I Read:

The last book I finished was David Webers "We Few", the latest in the Roger McClintock series (I think they are officially calling it the Star Empire series or something like that).

I'm currently reading Jim Butchers "Dead Beat", the latest in the Harry Dresden Chronicles.

4. Five Books That Mean A lot to Me:

Oh wow this one is tough... theres so damn many... I'mna have to cheat and list some series or compilations. I'm a big reader of series, and you cant really separate some of thes series from each other.

1. Ok I can't pick out any particular Heinlein book, I know it's cheating but his entire body of work needs to be listed.

2. David Eddings extended series The Belgariad, Mallorean, Elenium, and Tamuli. Tehcnically speaking it's 19 books, set in two different settings, but really they are actually just one continuous really long novel in several parts. They are my favorite Fantasy books of all time.

Some of the best dialogue and humor of any books I've ever rad, of ANY genre; never mind genre fiction.

Some people piss and moan because they are repetitive; but if you havent figured out by the end of the second series that THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO BE THAT WAY, IT'S PART OF THE STORY... well you are just not going to like them.

3. The Tom Clancy Ryanverse novels; because they show that some people really do still give a damn, and still know how to get things done.

4. The collected works of Mark Twain. I would say without question the greatest American writer of all time.

5. The collected works of William Shakespeare; especially Henry V, and "Much Ado About Nothing"

5. Tag Five People to continue this meme on their blog:

I don't do unsolicited chains, but anyone who reads me and WANTS to do this, trackback and I'll link it up.

The Political compass

Ok, so in general I dont care for the political compass; because their questions are pretty clearly libertarian biased, but I was suggesting my very liberal girlfriend (for some reason it always seems to work out that way with me and women) take it and see where she comes out on it.

It had been quite a while since I took it, and I was thinking about it, and realized I've become a bit more of an absolutist over the post few years.

So anyway I took it again, and heres where I came out

The Political Compass

Economic Left/Right: 4.13
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.13

Nope, guess not. Not a one there in my whole QUADRANT.

I'm really more of a fan of the Pournelle Axes

The statism axis indicates what you feel the proper role of the state is, especially as regards the individual. The rationalism axis measures ... well essentially how much you believe in your fellow mans inherent niceness, reasonability, logicalness, and lack of sin or evil. Pournelle labled it rationality vs irrationality, which isnt the greatest description, but he qualified it by saying he intended it to be an indicator of the attitude towards "planned social progress", and whether it can exist at all, whether it can be imposed from the outside etc...

Basically I look at it as whether or not an informed populace can be trusted to make good choices given apropriate options and resources; and without governmental or media interference.

Generally speaking, conservatives are more trusting of the state than libertarians, and less trusting of our fellow man. Funny enough, so are liberals, but in a different direction. Conservatives trust you with your money but not your genitals, and liberals trust you with you genitals, but not your money.

Frankly I'd like a government that stays out of my bedroom, AND out of my wallet; but since that would require a mass rising in armed revolution and a wholesale slaughter of the political classes, and the media; I don't think it will happen any time soon.

On this chart I would fall in at about a 2, 4 (about the same as say Jerry Doyle, maybe a little left of Tammy Bruce or Laura Ingraham), meaning that I dont particularly trust the state very much, though a bit more than Ayn Rand, and I don't particularly trust my fellow man very much, but a bit more than say, Sylvia Plath (god knows why they still force the shit down peoples throats); and I DO believe in the free excercise of choice and will... tempered with responsibility and consequence.

I'm guessing that the GF will be somewhere in between a 3,3 and a 4,4 on the pournelle chart (about my mirror image), and I'd guess that on the political compass she'll be about the mirror image of me as well, at a -4,3

Like a Norman Rockwell painting...

...Used to be a compliment. Over the past 20 years it's become one of those faux ironic sneers of the urban elite.

These are the people who've never SEEN the woods, outside of media depictions (yet will tell you exactly what to do with YOUR land).

These are the people who found "The Blair Witch Project" scary (only someone who's never been in the woods would).

I grew up in New England, mostly about 100 miles from Rockwells home; and he used the environment I grew up in as his model. Now of course I was growing up 30+ years later, but let me tell you something about New England... no matter what happens politically or socially, New England doesn't change. That's a Massachusetts state trooper by the way, and the uniforms are still the same. Hell, as a little kid I had that same haircut til I was 10.

I love Norman Rockwell. Growing up, my garandmother had a bunch of limited edition prints, sculptures, and even spoons (she was a tchotchke person). My grandfather had a few prints around as well. I was always stricken by the emotion and sentiment... the pure communication contained in his work.

Some lefties (Ironic since Rockwell was one himself a HUGE Roosevelt supporter) seem to think that the Rockwell paintings were just rose colored projections of an America that never was... They couldn't be more wrong.

Restoring my faith in the essential nature of humanity

Yet further proof that the world is full of stupid people:

http://www.thekcrachannel.com/news/4512146/detail.html

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- A home in Sacramento's south Natomas neighborhood is surrounded by sheet metal, and neighbors are calling it an eyesore.

The D'Souza family lives in the home on Timberwood Court, and claims the aluminium pieces are necessary to protect them from unknown neighbors who have been bombarding them with radio waves and making them sick.

"(It's) a shield to protect against radiation, because microwave radiation is reflected off of aluminium, so it's a protective measure," resident Sarah D'Souza said.

The D'Souzas said the bombardment began after the first anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and that the radio waves have caused them health problems ranging from headaches to lupus.

Sacramento Code Enforcement officials have gotten involved and ordered the family to remove the metal by Monday or face a misdemeanor citation.

"Eleven years in Sacramento and few other years in Southern California and this is the first time I've ever seen (anything like this). The inside of the house is also covered with foil and the beds are covered with a foil-like material as well," Sacramento Code Enforcement spokesman Josh Pino said.

The D'Souzas said they will comply with the order and remove the sheet metal, but they also plan to gather evidence to show city officials what they believe is a problem with radiation.

What really gets me though? It's the entire family.... I mean I can understand one paranoid delusional, but the whole family???

I honestly don't know whether to laugh, cry, or just shit myself with the utter californianess of it all.

Amazingly enough, this one came from Kim

Who normally HATES blogger type things (though he really likes blogger type people).

Your Political Profile

Overall: 70% Conservative, 30% Liberal

Social Issues: 75% Conservative, 25% Liberal

Personal Responsibility: 50% Conservative, 50% Liberal

Fiscal Issues: 100% Conservative, 0% Liberal

Ethics: 25% Conservative, 75% Liberal

Defense and Crime: 100% Conservative, 0% Liberal

Okay, that's reasonably accurate; though how exactly they come up with an ethics category out of what questions they ask I'll never know... oh and anyone who knows me knows I'm 100% on personal responsibility, but the way they wrote the questions...

This one is from Kim too, and is really more his style. After all, he came out as a badger, which is... very apropriate; especially if you've ever read "The Fox and the Hedgehog".

Which is funny, because my last name actually means "Son of the Raven". There were a few questions where I could have gone either way, so I went back and did it again, and it came up this:

Funny thing, I went back and did it a third time (because a lot of the questions are pretty ambiguous), and ended up here:

Wellllll.... honestly, if you took ALL the aspects above, and smashed them together, that's be pretty close to me. So I guess I've got Multiple Animal Personality Disorder???????

UPDATE: If at some point during your reading of this, you didn't think "If we build this giant Badger...", then you might be reading the wrong website.

Wittnessing the birth...

Honesty.. a rare comodity in politics or journalism...

This guy is expressing what I think MANY liberals know in their hearts.

Some selected quotations for your enjoyment (and if you're anything like me, you WILL enjoy it):

Solid opening

I'm leaving the left -- more precisely, the American cultural left and what it has become during our time together.

I choose this day for my departure because I can no longer abide the simpering voices of self-styled progressives -- people who once championed solidarity with oppressed populations everywhere -- reciting all the ways Iraq's democratic experiment might yet implode.

My estrangement hasn't happened overnight. Out of the corner of my eye I watched what was coming for more than three decades, yet refused to truly see. Now it's all too obvious. Leading voices in America's "peace" movement are actually cheering against self-determination for a long-suffering Third World country because they hate George W. Bush more than they love freedom.

How many on the left (except maybe Christopher Hitchens) have admitted this?

A turning point came at a dinner party on the day Ronald Reagan famously described the Soviet Union as the pre-eminent source of evil in the modern world. The general tenor of the evening was that Reagan's use of the word "evil" had moved the world closer to annihilation. There was a palpable sense that we might not make it to dessert.

When I casually offered that the surviving relatives of the more than 20 million people murdered on orders of Joseph Stalin might not find "evil'" too strong a word, the room took on a collective bemused smile of the sort you might expect if someone had casually mentioned taking up child molestation for sport.

My progressive companions had a point. It was rude to bring a word like "gulag" to the dinner table.

Ahhh crediting Reagan, and realizing the shallowness of the limousine left.. yes, yes, I can feel the changes in you already my son... come to the dark side... use your frustration, your disgust...

These days the postmodern left demands that government and private institutions guarantee equality of outcomes. Any racial or gender "disparities" are to be considered evidence of culpable bias, regardless of factors such as personal motivation, training, and skill. This goal is neither liberal nor progressive; but it is what the left has chosen. In a very real sense it may be the last card held by a movement increasingly ensnared in resentful questing for group-specific rights and the subordination of citizenship to group identity. There's a word for this: pathetic.

You know, if he keeps thinking this clearly he'll never be allowed back into a university again. After all, he might corrupt young indoctrinated minds with something completely foreign to them: Thought

In the name of "diversity," the University of Arizona has forbidden discrimination based on "individual style." The University of Connecticut has banned "inappropriately directed laughter." Brown University, sensing unacceptable gray areas, warns that harassment "may be intentional or unintentional and still constitute harassment." (Yes, we're talking "subconscious harassment" here. We're watching your thoughts ...).

Wait, it gets better. When actor Bill Cosby called on black parents to explain to their kids why they are not likely to get into medical school speaking English like "Why you ain't" and "Where you is," Jesse Jackson countered that the time was not yet right to "level the playing field." Why not? Because "drunk people can't do that ... illiterate people can't do that."

When self-styled pragmatic feminist Camille Paglia mocked young coeds who believe "I should be able to get drunk at a fraternity party and go upstairs to a guy's room without anything happening," Susan Estrich spoke up for gender- focused feminists who "would argue that so long as women are powerless relative to men, viewing 'yes' as a sign of true consent is misguided."

Has someone been force feeding this guy Ann Coulter, Neil Boortz, Laurah Ingraham, and Michael Reagan?

Hell he's definitely banned for life from any university campus... in fact I'd guess he'd be arrested for heresey if he ever goes to San Francisco again.

America must now focus on creating healthy, self-actualizing individuals committed to taking responsibility for their lives, developing their talents, honing their skills and intellects, fostering emotional and moral intelligence, all in all contributing to the advancement of the human condition.

At the heart of authentic liberalism lies the recognition, in the words of John Gardner, "that the ever renewing society will be a free society (whose] capacity for renewal depends on the individuals who make it up." A continuously renewing society, Gardner believed, is one that seeks to "foster innovative, versatile, and self-renewing men and women and give them room to breathe."

Eric Cowperthwaite has some words about this, in his essay "Why I am a Liberal". You see, the author IS still a Liberal; but Americas "progressive left" never really was.

He's just now realized this...

Leftists who no longer speak of the duties of citizens, but only of the rights of clients, cannot be expected to grasp the importance (not least to our survival) of fostering in the Middle East the crucial developmental advances that gave rise to our own capacity for pluralism, self-reflection, and equality. A left averse to making common cause with competent, self- determining individuals -- people who guide their lives on the basis of received values, everyday moral understandings, traditional wisdom, and plain common sense -- is a faction that deserves the marginalization it has pursued with such tenacity for so many years.

All of which is why I have come to believe, and gladly join with others who have discovered for themselves, that the single most important thing a genuinely liberal person can do now is walk away from the house the left has built. The renewal of any tradition that deserves the name "progressive" becomes more likely with each step in a better direction.

My friends, what you are witnessing is the birth of a libertarian.

HT: Lucianne

I think NZ Bear finally got things fixed

Because I'm finally listed as a Large Mammal, with 216 links.

My link count has been WILDLY fluctuating for weeks, from 56 one day to 96 the next day; 72 yesterday, and 216 today.

I think the 216 is accurate, because I'm a member of the Alliance of Free Blogs, and I've got 125 unique links in technorati.

Anyone else in the alliance see their link counts go crazy lately? Anyone NOT in the alliance see anything?

No AC, 115 here...

Just fucking shoot me now.

My AC is completely dead; and has been for a couple months, but at least the weather has been semi tolerable (with lots of fan action, and me at work for most of the hot day anyway).

I told the complex and my landlady about it when it first went, but I didnt press. THen a couple weeks back it started getting VERY hot, so I asked the complex. THey said they'd check out the roof vents, and the feed line setc.. and get back to me. They did that last week. I've been leaving messags for my landlady ever since.

Her cousin called me a few days ago and said "let me get some estimates"... well she finally got back to me last night to say "Ok could you find someone to fix it yourself? I've been too busy to get any estimates" ... why that didnt happen WEEKS ago I don't know, but anyway...

So the guy comes out this morning, sees that the AC breaker is tripped, has me flip it over and turn on cool; nothing. He hits the roof (third floor vaulted cieling condo) and comes back down a few minutes later "Oh yeah, the whole things dead. Condenser burst, and the compressors siezed up, with a shorted motor. Almost looks like the thing got hit by lightning" which is entirely possible actually, the last time it was working was during a big series of storms.

It's expected that tomorrow will be at or above the all time record for the date of 113; which means in my neighborhood we'll probably see over 120...

GAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

UPDATE: So I'm stuck in an all day "emloyee orientation", which is fun since I've been in the company for a month as of this week; and I get a call from my landlady:

"Chreees, Chrees, can you hear me, this is ginger" - yes my landlady sounds a lot like Margaret Chos mother.

"Chreees, the air conditioning people jsut called, they are there with the air conditioner and they need you to let them in. I am heading over there now can you come down here?"

Now understand, they told me they would CALL me today to setup a time for tomorrow afteroon or wednesday, so this was somewhat unexpected (though not really unwelcome). So I blast down here fom work (its only 15 minutes with no traffic), and they are getting the crane setup to lift the new unit into place etc...

Anyway, 1 hour later, I've got cooling; or at least the start of it. It'll take a few hours to really get cooled down; but at least I'll beable to sleep tonight.

Lock up your daughters...

And liberals take cover; cuz the craziest blue beanie sumbitch I know is cocked, locekd, and ready to rock (with an M240 no less).

Thats right....

Commence with the screaming and the running and the hair pulling and the FREUNDLAVEN!!!!

Objects of lust , Volume One - Custom Auto Pistols

Let's talk about some objects of great lust... at least from a firearms perspective anyway; the female variety I leave to others (my google search results are odd enough as they are already).

In volume one I want to talk about some ATTAINABLE itmes in the Custom Auto Pistol world. It's a realistic wishlist if you will. Nothing plated in solid gold, nothing super collectable, just good lustworthy shooters; I won't buy a gun I don't plan on shooting every week, or at least every few months (for say a hunting rifle, or a superthumenblitzenboomer).

Note I say volume one, more will be forthcoming.

So what prompted this was the recent 1911/.45 auto discussions. They have me thinking once again about Yost, Wilson, Les Baer, and Ed Brown (among others).

People look at the list of modifications to my carry 1911 and they ask me "Why in the hell would you do all that to a perfectly good gun" or worse "See, the 1911 isn't all that great. You yourself had to make all those changes to make it right"...

That's not it at all guys. A truly custom handgun is at the same time, a work of art, and a piece of engineering and craftsamanship perfection.

A custom buildup from a great smith (like those mentioned), will be EXACTLY what you want, and it willshoot exactly the way you want. Everything will be just right. Tolerance and gaps will all match up perfectly, finished will have no nicks and blemishes, sharp edges will be properly crisp and rounded edges will be properly smoothed...

I know it sounds like I'm nitpicking, but you really need to feel the difference between a custom piece, and a factory pice to understand. Even the semi-custom items like the production Wilsons, Baers, and Browns, are GREAT, but they arent quite perfect; because there are tolerances involved in production. With a custom piece, the only tolerances are the mechanical limits, and what you are willing to pay for

An aside on that subject:

I knew a guy with a LARGE custom and historical gun collection (as in probably a couple million dollars worth). He showed me a model 29 in deep blue, that I literally could not see the sideplate join on. There was seemingly no seam in the barrel to frame join. The crane to frame gap was almost invisible. The hard parts were color case hardened in the most beautiful pattern. The finish iteself looked like polished blue hematite with little brownish, silverish, and goldish reflections.

It was the most perfect revolver I've ever seen. This is the gun that GOD must use when he sees a pesky asshole he wants to strike down from heaven.

He said it cost him $2500 in the late '70s (god knows what it would cost today). He had hired a master smith who was retired from S&W by Bangor Punta to do it for him, it took the guy almsot a year to get it back to him, and the guy had died a few months later. He also said that it was worth every penny.

Now, I already own a Wilson buildup; I bought it for myself as my 21st birthday present. This was before the semi-production Wilsons were readily available, and it was $2700, from my frame and slide (which were $800 to begin with). It is the PERFECT Gov't length 1911 as far as I'm concerned. Everything is exactly right, exactly as I want it, and completely perfect.

Unfortunately, it's in a storage unit in Milpitas, California; and has been since 2001.

A side note:

This is along with my top end of the mid range (onkyo, denon, KLH, Boston) home theater system, most of my knives and swords (between 50 and 100k worth, including a full meiji era daisho, and a 16th century spanish longsword), another 30 grand worth of computer equipment (Sun, Intel, SGI, nokia, cisco, and a couple of macs), all my tools (full modeling and small piece machining setup, plus some furniture making gear), a full two bedroom condos worth of furniture, some of it specially made for my size and injuries (god do I miss that superking bed with the special belgian bad back mattress. Never slept better in my life), a lot of personal items and photos etc.., a few hundred DVD's, a few thousand CD's, and my two remaining guitars (a '94 Strat' ultra plus in special edition beryillium ble, only 300 made; and a takamine shellback with internal fishman preamp).

I packed up everything and put it all into storage prior to heading out for Ireland; when I was going to bring everything over. Then my marriage broke up, and I decided to just leave everything where it was for a while, and I started paying the storage fees ($170 a month).

Unfortunately I have a feeling they are NO LONGER in a storage unit in California, because I wasn't invoiced for the unit last year; and I've been trying to get them on the phone ever since to no result. I've just had higher priorities than dealing with it... and honestly I think I'm trying to avoid the concrete proof that whatevers left of my personal sacred items are now gone, along with everything that went in the fire, the flood, the marriage dissolution, and multiple transcontinental and intercontinental moves.

Anyway enough with my vent...

So, what do I REALLY want when it comes to handguns?

1. Full house Yost 1* elite pistol package:

But I want mine in stainless, commander length, bull barrel, wedge mainspring housing, external extractor and short trigger, on a Caspian Ti frame (10rd), with a Black-T finish.

Yosts buildups are 100% custom, he really on lists the packages as guidelines, and his work is as good, or better, than anyone in the business. I may not agree with Col Cooper on everything(on lots of things, but not everything), but for the last aslmost 20 years, whenever you heard him braggin on the gunsmith team at Gunsite, it was Ted he was braggin on (until a couple years ago when he went out on his own).

Oh, and he'll build'em in 10mm as well

Price: about $2500 as ordered

Availability: 18 months to two years
Possiblity: Almost certain. I WILL order one of these some time in the next few years

Oh and while I'm ordering from Yost-Bonitz Customs, I might just order one of these as well...

But for the BHP, I'm leaning more towards this:

Much as I think Ted Yost is the best 1911 guy around, Wayne Novak is the acknowledged god of BHPs. There are a few guys in England, and one guy in Ireland who does some F'ING INCREDIBLE work (I've fired a couple, and I wanted to steal them); but they only work for the military. Getting someone who REALLY knows what they are doing with a BHP is well nigh impossible anymore (this was not the case in the '60s and '70s when there were probably better BHP smiths around than 1911 guys); and Novak is really the only guy I know of, who I would trust to build a great pistol.

NOTE: Reader Randy suggest Bill Lathrop, master gunsmith of Cylinder and Slide as well. I have heard great things about their full house buildups, but I've never known anyone who had one, or had a chance to shoot one so I can't make any recommendations. That said, their custom smithing packages are VERY nice, with a great reputation; and unlike many other smithing shops with good reps, they will do serious work on almost any type of high quality pistol, not jsut specializing in one(usually the 1911). I HAVE tried a couple of C&S 1911s and a C&S SAA, and both were damn near flawless. The only negative I've ever heard on C&S from a technical standpoint, is that the Safety Fast Shooting system (a hammer down single action conversion for 1911s and BHPs) is an iffy prospect.

I'm a huge fan of the Browning HiPower; John Browning considered it his best handgun work, correcting the problems the 1911 had (See Unc, I KNOW the 1911 has problems, I just think they are all fixable, and when fixed it IS the greatest handgun of all time); and he and Dieudonne Saive deserve a huge vote of thanks for making the GOOD high capacity handgun a practical reality (in 1935 no less).

If we are going with a custom buildup anyway, I want a forged stainless frame and slide, and the full 1 of 100 Special Ops Package with Black-T finish

But here's the kicker, since it's on a new forged frame and slide, I want it built up for .357 sig instead of 9mm or .40.

Now if only someone would build it in .45acp (or even better, 10mm).

Price: about $3000 as ordered
Availability: Two years plus
Possiblity: Incredibly tempting, but probably not any time soon. A stock BHP with a little tweaking is almost as good without the two plus year wait

Back to 1911's, and thinking of carry pieces specifically, I'm intrigued by this:

It's the Ed Brown KobraCarrY (no I have no idea whats up with the spelling and caps, thats just how they do it).

Eds Kobra guns all have a scalloping treatment he calls "snakeskin", that looks like it will have a nice grip to it. I've tried other scalloped guns, and some were good, some not. Scalloping tends to either be too sharp, or not enough; but if you can get it right, I think its a better surface than sharp serrations.

The Ed Brown Bobtail system is a great idea for carry guns. What they do is cut the mainspring housing and rear of the frame into a reverse angle from the middle of the mainspring hosuing, to the back of the magwell; then smoothly radius the cut. This greatly decreases both the printing tendency of 1911s (the sharp butt prints handily), and the snag tendency as well. Plus, it's very confortable, and can improve your grip. I've held and fired an Ed Brown Bobtail gov't length gun, and I think it might make a great carry piece in commander length.

And of course I'd like it in Black-T with all the toher things I like on my ideal 1911's

Actually, although I generally dont recommend going below 4" in barrel length, I think I'd like to see a 3.5" bobtail version with a full frame, as pretty much the ultimate concealment 1911. The Springer and Kimber ultracompacts and ultracarrys have reliability problems because they are so short; the slide cycle time and lockup gemotry are right on the edge. With a custom gun however, I think we can get a 3.5" gun to be completely reliable; as is required for a carry piece.

Price: about $2500 as ordered
Availability: 30-90 days (this is the advantage of the production line customs)
Possiblity: There's a fair chance of it, but if I buy the Yost and I'm as happy with it as I think I will be, then theres really no reason for it

I've been thinking really hard about buying arace gun. Nothing TOO fancy, I'm not looking for heavy optics or anything; but I think I'd like to give USPSA a shot.

To that end, I've been thinking about one of these two guns:

The STI Edge

Or the STI Eagle

Unquestionably the Edge is the better competitive piece for USPSA, but I'm not so sure I want to get quite so racy...

On the other hand, the eagle actually seems like a relatively practical gun. IN fact the bushinged version is even IDPA legal.

Of course the whole point of this IS to have a race gun,... plus, honestly, although I said I didnt want to have any optics, I'd really love to try out one of these:

Above: the DOCTER red dot, mounted on a 1911

This is the smallest, lightest etc... red dot there is; and I'd really love to play with one. Well if I'm gonna have optics anyway, why not go for the big magwell, full race etc...

I dunno, it's just something to think about.

Price: about $2000 as ordered (for either) +$400 for the docter and mount
Availability: 30-90 days

Possiblity: Hmmmmmm... if I get into USPA, and realy like it, VERY likely

Finally, I really want to replace my Wilson. What I'm thinking, is one of the supergrades:

But man, I can't decide on which one. THey're all so good....

Price: $2000 - $3500 depending on exact model and options
Availability: 1 year or so (highly variable, some as short as 30 days some as long as 2 years)
Possiblity: Eventually, almost certain.; in the next two years... probably not.

Alright so whats with nothing other than the 1911s and BHPs? Don't I like toher guns? Hell yeah I do; but there really isnt much call for full on custom work on other guns. I've seen some mildly customized SIG's that I like; and I'd surely love a CGR Glock, or a fully worked over USP Tactical; but I'm not lusting over any of them. As great guns as they are, honestly, they jsut arent all that interesting to write about or speculate over.

Of course when I do my STOCK autopistol list, that'll be a different story entirely.

Now... A note on the possibilities of purchasing ANY of the above; especially to those of you who think that spending $3000 on a gun is just "an obscene waste of money" or those who would say something like "You're lucky you don't have kids".

I'm unmarried, under 30, I have no kids, I have almost no debt (and what I DO have is certainly being paid off first) and a decent inheritence coming to me from my grandfathers estate when my Nana passes (high six figure to low seven figure after taxes, depending on how long she lives) God knows I don't want her to die; and as mean as she is she'll probably live to 100 (her mother is alive at 97), I'm jsut talking about numbers.

When I'm working, I make good money; and I'm working right now. I make full 401k contribution wth matching (6% of my pay matched for 12%, in a fund with 13% annualized right now), I get full medical dental, and optical.

My rent is only $650 a month, and my other bills only total up to about $1000 a month.

My main expense right now is my mother, who is extremely ill, and is unlikely to live out the year (they give her about a 1 in 5 shot of surviving the brain surgeries she needs). When she passes her insurance will pay off her house etc.. plus she has a TON of insurance besides (about 2 million beyond her debts) which then goes to me and my brother.

When I wasnt working for several months (mostly because of my mother). I DIDN'T buy anything like this. In fact after I went through my savings paying her bills and mine, I SOLD a bunch of my stuff to help me keep us going. I finally got down to the point where the only things I had left to sell were very personally important to me.

Hell, I'm STILL BROKE right now. I've just had my first full paycheck, and it's going to pay bills. What's left over (along with the next two paychecks) is split between saving for 3 months worth of bills in reserve, and going to pay off the few thousand dollars (less than 5k) in debt that I've incurred over the past few months. Oh and to those folks who gave me, or loaned me money; thank you, god bless you. I can't tell you how much it helped me so much to get through those last two months.

Only when that debt is paid off will I start buying anything; and the first step will be car repairs. After that I need to buy some new furniture, to replace the bed and sofa that both broke while I was broke. Then I will put away at least $5k more for bills and emergencies, maybe 10k (I had 7k last time and it was gone too quickly).

Only after that is done will I start looking to buy anything high end again; but you can bet I am going to do so, and I'm going to enjoy it (and I'm going to start flying, and performance driving again).

I live in a half decent condo in a nice neighborhood; I have a girlfriend who isnt' expensive to maintain; and I don't live extravagantly.

What I spend my money one is my toys, my friends, and my hobbies. DVD's, music, video games, and the gear to play them on; Guns, and gun stuff; Watches; Car stuff etc...

It's guys like me who buy Porsches and Breitlings and Ducatis, and custom guns; because we can.

I earned this shit, and you are damn right I'm going to enjoy it. If that offends your moral sensibilites, good for you; now go away before I bitchslap you with my $3000 watch.

Honestly I'd rather have a great wife, and great kids. I would do ANYTHING to have a mother who isn't dying. Unfortunately I don't have any of those things; I have to find and take my pleasure in life where I can, and this gives me pleasure.

Having an Episode

Well, I just saw Episode Three...

Lets just say I wasn't disappointed. Unfortunately that's because my expectations were extraordinarily low.

It wasn't so much a BAD movie, it just wasn't any good really.

How do I dislike thee let me count the ways

1. Hayden Christiansen must be the illigitimate child of Al Gore
2. David Prowse is almost 6'7"' tall, Hayden Christiansen isn't
3. Darth Vader should not remind one of Peter Boyle in "Young Frankenstein"
4. Did I mention that Christiansen has the personality and flair of dry wheat toast with mayonaise... or perhaps wheatabix crackers
5. Ewan Macgregor is a great actor... When he's allowed to say more than five words in a row
6. Ewan Macgregor is a great actor... When he has more than two facial expressions
7. Lightsabers are supposed to have light reflections
8. Objects are supposed to have shadows
9. Huge star system spanning space battles shouldn't look like B roll for Star Trek TNG
10. Did I mention that the Halo 2 trailer/cutscenses have better special effects... no really
11. One is not supposed to cringe painfully when the main character speaks with his love interest
12. That whole animated block of wood thing (no really, it's that bad)

13. Natalie Portman is a good actress (and a staggeringly beautiful woman)... in every movie but this one
14. Plot anyone...???
15. Oh and story...???
16. Buddha lite...???
    
17. Character developement...???
18. Deus Ex Machina...???
19. Even kicking ass, yoda looks like a muppet and the dialogue....
    
20. "If you're not with me, you are my enemy!"...."NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!"

Okay so it's not ALL bad. There were a lot of funny moments (some intentional, some not), some fairly kick ass action, and the effects that don't look fake look frikken kickass.

Although the entire CONCEPT of general grevious is incredibly stupid, it was actually "played" quite well, and the ObiWan/Grevious fight is very kick ass.

I WANT one of those naboo space yachts man

Oh and the almost universally bad acting has one major exception; Ian McDiarmid. He completely controlled every scene he was in, and his dialoge delivery was letter perfect. Tone, facial expression, everything. THis guy REALLY makes you FEEL the emperor, as both completely evil, and coldly logical, and even slightly sympathetic... but not... It's kind of hard to explain. Honestly his performance alone is at least worth a DVD rental.

Is the movie worth watching? Sure, even if you aren't a Star Wars fan, it's at least good fun. If you ARE a Star Wars fan however, (unless you are a fringefan) if you are a real trufan, then this can't help but be dissapointing. He could have done so much more, so much better...

Go watch Revelations, it's actually a better movie. Or play KOTOR 2; it's a better movie than the movie is, and it's a frikken game.

UPDATE: Ok I have just got to put this one in:

21. What the fuck? Wookies do not look, act,e tc... like that in ANY other part of the starwars universe, and that IS NOT FUCKING KASHYKK

The Ultimate 1911

So, in last weeks installment I asked what is the SECOND best .45 auto, because as we all should know by now, the best of all time is the John Browning 1911 and it's variants.

Well now I want to talk about your IDEAL carry 1911 (race guns and show pieces I'll leave for another day).

NOTE: The reason I don't call it a Colt 1911, is because the 1911 isn't and never was colt exclusive product. Hell Colt hasn't made a real 1911 in more than a decade (almost two in fact), and never made most of them anyway, it always irritates me when people call it a colt .45 when it could be from any one of dozens of manufacturers; most of whom actually LIKE the fact that civilians own their guns.

I've gone through what my carry 1911 is before, in the post on my champion, a Yost Customized Springfield Champion.

Let me tell you, I LOVE this gun, BUT it's not the "ideal" 1911.

Now everyones ideal 1911 is different. Some people like a governmentlength barrel and slide (5" barrel), some like a longslide (add an inch or more), some like the officers ACP sized (3.5" barrel, shortened frame)... Me, I'm a commander guy (4" barrel full frame), but length is only a small part of the equations.

Just to simplify, lets break down what my ideal 1911 would be

1. Titanium alloy frame with integral speed mag well (smooth flare)
2. Stainless steel slide
3. Commander configuration
4. Cone bull barrel with a fully ramped and fully supported chamber
5. External extractor and extended ejector
6. Thinned extended gas pedal style ambidextrous safety
7. Thinned extended slide stop release
8. Slightly enlarged mag release
9. Checkered wedge mainspring housing
10. Deep cut, but low profile/low snag speed bump grip safety
10. Yost ignition system firing group
11. Ultrashort ultralight adjustable trigger
12. Triplex captured recoil spring setup with guide rod (set for .45 super)
13. Ultra light hammer spring, and mainspring set (Wolff makes a very reliable one that is still ultralight)
14. Novak low mount tritium night combat sights with a bigdot style front sight and v notch rear
15. Bead blasted
16. Walter Birdsongs black-t finish over the whole gun
17. NP3 internal coating
18. Thinner, but just as grippy and textured Hogue finger groove grips (I love some of the sculpted wood ones, but this is my ideal CARRY piece, not a show piece)
19. Hex head grip screws, and guide rod head - torx head are less likely to strip, but harder to find in the field

That's quite a list eh? Funny thing is, it aint done yet. I'm saving the best for lest, because I know this one is going to be controversial.

20. Stagger stack frame (like the USP compact) with a 10rd capacity.

I love the feel of my original frame, but as Yost and others have shown (Detonics for example) you CAN thin a 1911 design significantly without a problem. Conversely it would be pretty easy to move the 1911 into a 10rd stagger stack frame size without increasinggrip circumference TOO much; the only problem would be getting magazines from anyone but ParaOrdnance (and man would I love an LDA).

But we aren't talking about practical, we're talking about ideal. I would like that extra couple of rounds without having a mag sticking out the bottom too far, remember this IS a carry gun.

As to why the choices, I think all of them are pretty self evident... (I am gonna get soooo much shit for that statement)

Now heres the fun part: except for the 10rd frame, and some of the little details, S&W already makes a performance center SW1911 SC that is almost exactly what I described (down to including lots of Wilson parts).

Yeah, I damn sure DO want one.

So, whats YOUR ideal 1911?

UPDATE: The heartless libertarian notes that his Ideal 1911 has two differences from mine.

One, it isn't double stack. Well, neither is mine really. The stagger necessary to go to 10rds instead of 8 isnt really all that much. it's not like going to the thickness of a p14.45 (a true double stack).

Two, he wants his in 10mm.

Ok, so do I actually; I just wanted to be fair and consistent with last weeks article because I limited THAT to .45 ACP as well.

Given the choice of any plausible caliber that doesn't require a resize of the basic platform, I would also choose 10mm; but at least with a properly prepared .45, I get the .45 super option.

There are reasons why

We all (all being the RKBA, and Freedom oriented blogs) damn near worship Bill Whittle

Stay with me -- our fist stop is not our destination, but it is a necessary one. So let me first take you on that original journey, and show you how events in Iraq can show us how to fight and win a much wider and deeper conflict, right here at home.

Now to hear some fellers tell it, the entire idea of “Unlawful Combatants” came to Sith mastermind Darth Rover in a vision, and he instructed his familiars Chimpy McBushitler and Torture Master Rumsfeld to use it as an excuse to begin the unjustified savagery that is such an essential part of the American character.

Absent from this worldview is…well…just about everything.

Y'all need to go read "Sanctuary part 1" and "Sanctuary part 2" pretty much right now.

Go. Read. Be Enlightened.

Oh and buy his book, really... now... sooner if possible.

Uninspired and exhausted

Pretty much describes me the last few days.

My usual vituperous and/or sparklingly witty ejaculations have ben notably lacking lately.

Honestly, the last time I worked this hard was on Uncles Dime. I've been doing 10 and 12 hour days, then going home and doing some more.

I admit it,I'm a workaholic; and honestly I really enjoy this stuff; but at the moment it's leaving me with very little to say.

I really WANT to write something about REAL ID. Specifically it's an evil powergrab not illegal immigration solution. I should know, I'm a security guy, and I used to work for Imaging Technology corporation; at one time the leading provider of identification and access control systems for the US government. Every single reputable security professional I know of feels the same way I do.

I have probably 3000 words to write on the subject; but the inspiration and motivation aint there right now.

I've also got a bunch of gun stuff I want tow write, or finish writing.. again, nothings coming.

Right now the list of pieces I've started and am working on looks a little like this:

The IDEAL 1911 (to finish by midnight for the carnival of cordite)
Specious Currency
Identitfy theft
WHats so fun about drugs and drunkenness
Majority, Minority, and Consent
Private Morals, Public Laws
The infantry company in the attack (I've been promising that one for a while)
Repect!
Food Freaks
Favorites (TV Shows, Music, Movies, Books, Guns)
Yet more recipes for real men
Sleep Deprivation
The Most Dangerous Words in the English Language
Anarchy is Stupid
The Code Culture
The War on Boys
Laws and Taxes
More on management, customer service and support

Rules for managing tech support - Volume 1

1. Tech support analysts are not your personal contact. You dont call Joe, you call the help desk and WE help you.

2. Yes, that means you

3. Yes, even if you really like Joe, and you dont really like Bob very much

4. No we mean it

5. Don't make me call your manager

Guys, I promise...

I can hold my liquor better than this

I'm in the middle of fighting for raises for my people. I've got a firm commitment that we'll be able to do something, but we're still working out the details etc...

To my guys, if you're reading this; I'm figthing for it, and I'm getting results. Like I said, kicking ass and taking names... but gently.

Fucking Finally

So, I happen to think the Dodge Magnum, and the Chrysler 300 are unnatractive, but this...

Yeah, it's not a '69 charger, but it looks pretty good to me; at least if you look at the right pictures. I DO wish they had gone with something close to the '98 concept, which had clear lineage to the original charger; this one looks more like a BOSS Mustang than a charger.

But it's got some BALLS baby...

And with prices starting at $22k, and peaking out at $32,500 for the limited edition Daytona R/T (mechanically identical to the SRT8 which is only $29k); with a 6.2 liter 425hp hemi, and a 0-60 of right at 5 seconds... well yeah, I think I can do something with that.

Oh and theres a police package too; and I DEFINITELY think that's a good thing.

First the new Mustang, now the Charger... I WANT MY CAMARO BACK DAMNIT

It COULD be true...

Yeargh...

There may or may not be another post today. I've had a sinus infection creeping up on me the last week (I could feel it coming on); and it finally hit with a ve ngance last night.

You know that block of wood being stabbed by hot awls feeling?

I've taken a half day off work (too many meetings to miss in the afternoon); and I'm jsut trying to relax, drink too much fruit jiuce, and let the miracles that are oxymetazoline and pseudoephedrine HCL do their work.

Yes I know, when the backlash hits from the phed and the metazoline, the blockage will be even worse. I need to get at least SOME work done today, and the only way that's happening is with meds.

You know what's really frightening though? I've probably been more efficient in the last two or so hours working from home than I would be all day at the office.

Fighting words

Among the previously unreported cases, sources tell NEWSWEEK: interrogators, in an attempt to rattle suspects, flushed a Qur'an down a toilet

...

KABUL, Afghanistan - Shouting “Death to America,” demonstrators angry over the alleged desecration of the Quran at Guantanamo Bay smashed car and shop windows and stoned a passing convoy of U.S. soldiers Wednesday in eastern Afghanistan. Police opened fire on the protesters, killing four and injuring at least 71. . . .

Mobs also attacked the Pakistani consulate along with the offices of two U.N. agencies and a Swedish relief organization. No foreigners were reported hurt and witnesses said police and government troops had restored order by early afternoon. . . .

Demonstrations began Tuesday, when protesters burned an effigy of President Bush over a report in Newsweek magazine that interrogators at the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, placed Qurans on toilets to rattle suspects, and in at least one case “flushed a holy book down the toilet.”

Only it wasn't true.

In fact, it wasn't even close to true; but it was just another one of those stories that are "too good to fact check"...

Only this time people died.

Incitement to riot is a crime in most states; negating any first amendment protections that one might claim. The first amendment dosent protect this statement if newsweek knew, or should have known, that their story would cause, or had a substantial likliehood of causing harm; unless they had absolute proof it was factual.

Since they obviously did not,( they made no attempt to check the story) and in fact I'd be willing to bet there are memos floating around saying "Hmmm, I bet this pisses the ragheads off right good"; then newsweek could in theory be in deep shit over this. Certainly they SHOULD be in deep shit.

Of course the liklihood that this will occur is ... miniscule

Almost universally, "professional journalists" believe themselves to be above the law. They have no qualms publishing rumor as truth; inuendo and lies as fact and "reasoned opinion". They have written the laws and so called ethical standards to the point that it is basically impossible to sue them; unless you can prove deliberate malice and deception.

Well I don't know about you, but I've been sensing a hell of a lot of mailce; and I think the deception is self evident.

Worse still, major publications; since the late 60's in fact; have had no qualms about publishing classified information. Information that if I as a private citizen even spoke about to the wrong people would result in my imprisonment.

Recently they have been pushing hard for creating or strengthening"journalist shield" laws, which currently exist in about 2/3 of all states, but not federally. These laws would give journalists almsot total immunity against prosecution because of their stories; as well as the absolute right to refuse to produce witnesses, documents, or sources; even if those sources commited felonies in giving journalists information.

Effectively they have made themselves into a special protected upperclass, and yet they seek to deny those same protections to bloggers, who they almost universally decry as "out of control, biased, and unprofessional".

The next time I see a movie review that turns into an anti-Bush diatribe, try to tell me again how professional and unbiased you are?

You've had your chance to speak, and you've laid out fightin' words; now it's time for the peoples response...

107.9 should be the last radio station on the FM dial

Not the observed temperature in my parking lot on May 15th.

The official temperature in PHX today was I believe 100, but I swear to you they take that offical temp from what must be the coldest spot, in what we accurately but not very creatively call "The Valley of the Sun". I typically see temperatures from 5 to 10 degrees hotter than what the weather channel and/or national weather service officially report.

Honestly, I carp about living in Phoenix (Scottsdale actually), but it's really quite a pleasant place to live.. 'cept for about four months a year (mid May through mid September).

I have only three gripes

1. It's too damned hot
2. Theres no frikken water (Tempe town lake and the salt river don't count. I grew up on the ocean, and lived in lakes summers)
3. It's kinda boring and all the same (my GF is a native Phoenician and insists this is untrue)

The first two are kinda related, and simply a natural consequence of the location and environment. Thats why god made air conditioning, and low low weekend airfares.

The last is something else entirely, and is a consequence of the explosive growth of the area.

As of 2005 the estimated population of the Phoenix Metropolitan area is 4.2 million (4.9 million if you include the illegals - and no, I'm not kidding). In 1980 it was about 1.1 million, in 1990 about 2.2 million, in 2000 about 3.4 million... I think you get the picture.

It's actually so rare to meet a native, that most peoples first question upon meeting is "So where did you move in from, and how long have you been here?"; followed by a shock "Oh that's rare" if one IS a native (like my GF, who is quite proud of that fact thankyouverymuch).

NOTE: the first time I visited Phoenix was in 1987, and I've only lived here off and on since 1993

Phoenix used to be a lot more interesting. There were quirky local places that had been here forever; and it was really still a western town. Even as late as 1993 when I first moved to Arizona, there were more family owned businesses than chain stores; though that was changing rapidly as new highway construction came in.

Then the California real estate market went into it's late 80s-90's rollercoaster, and all the Californicators started moving in, literally in the millions. The new growth and expansion was so fast that local busineses never had time to move in, or build clientelle; everything was purchased and built up by national franchisees looking for the fast buck on cheap land.

And so we have become latte land, 380 miles due east.

Coloradans, Nevadans, New Mexicans, and god help me Utahans (is that right?) have the exact same complaint by the way. The residents of Clark Country nevada (home of Vegas) probably have it worst of anyone, with their permanent population quadrupling in the last 10 years.

School districts can't build schools fast enough, doctors and hospitals cant move in fast enough etc... the entire region is bursting at the seams from people trying to escape the high taxes and costs of living of California, the upper midwest, and the northeast; and to some extent they are bringing their most unwelcome liberal/socialist politics with them (though they are generally soundly defeated, they did manage to elect a governor in a moment of weakness; our last two Republican governors were indicted criminals).

By the time I moved out of AZ "for good" in 1997, phoenix was already pointing the way to what it is today; and the process was essentially complete by the time my mother moved down here in '99.

So what is it today?

Basically, it's a 47 mile across (on the diagonal) unbroken strip of shopping malls, parking lots, chain stores, apartment complexes, and 1 or 1.5 storey "southwestern style" houses as far as the eye can see.

And the most frightening bit to me?

People like it that way...

My Marriage

Some of you may know I lived with a mentally ill wife.

When I met her, she seemed quirky and cute, but certainly not mentally ill... or at least no more than anyone else these days. She was 5'2 and 160 pounds, a fair bit of that chest (back problems galore). She was a very beautiful, energetic, passionate woman and I loved her very much.

She was also mentally, verbally, and emotionally abused by her father and stepfather for her entire life. She was raped several times as a teenager, and had been betrayed in relationships several times. As a young teen she had become an alcoholic; but by the time I had met her she was sober for two years.

Over the course of our relationship, her mental health and stability deteriorated, and she started gaining weight.

After two years together we married; really not because I wanted to marry, but because she was so insecure that we needed to be married for her to continue in our relationship. I truly loved her, and I wanted to ease her mind; so hoping to improve our lives I married her.

It is without a doubt the biggest mistake I have ever made in my life.

There was this funny thing: because all we had was a magistrates signature on a paper she refused to say we were married. She would say we were engaged, and sometimes she would act like she was "available" to people online. Actually that's where she lived most of her life, online. She had so many problems with reality, that she just lived in her online world, for 18 or 20 hours a day. She'd sleep for 20 hours, and get back online and retreat into her fantasy online world where she could be whoever she wanted.

This is how she saw herself:

Let me tell you, at one point she really was that beautiful, and somewhere in her head she still was; but on the other side all she could see was fat and ugly and that difference made her even more emotionally unstable.

She was an amazing artist. She used to do freelance work for comic books, role playing games, magazines... but she never once took a real payment for any of it. She always said she was trying to; but on the other hand she quite literally said "Every time I try and sell my art, or even think about selling it or getting paid for it I feel like a whore".

From the moment we were married my wifes downhill slide accelerated. She became EXTREMELY dependant, both emotionally and physically. She began having panic attacks, and demonstrating what I now know to be rapid cycling bi-polar disorder. Soon she developed agoraphobia, which became panophobic acute anxiety disorder (the intense and uncontrollable fear of everything).

This entire time I was trying to help her myself, trying to get her to get outside help, trying anything and everything I could. She kept withdrawing further and further from life, and gaining more weight.

When our relationship started her sex drive matched mine, VERY HIGH. But over time the weight gain, the hormonal problems, the emotional issues, the panic attacks, and several miscarriages made her sex drive non-existent. When she DID want sex, I wasnt able to get any pleasure out of it because of these problems... I can't explain it to you really; it had nothing to do with her weight gain (though that certainly made things physically more difficult), it was the emotional pain, and the distance...

I just didnt know what to do. I cheated on her, several times. I couldnt go without sex, and I was angry with her, and I didn't want to hurt her, but she hurt me so much sometimes I jsut didnt care...

Eventually she told me she wanted to move to California, and that would help make her happy; so I found a job at a California startup.

Instead of helping, it made things far worse. Within a few months she wouldnt leave the apartment without me. I bought her a new jeep, and she never drove it without me. When she did drive it she was prone to panic attacks; once having an attack while in the fast lane on the highway when she simply froze right in the middle of driving, nearly killing us.

The startup went out of business, and I had several opportunities, including one in San Francisco, one in Texas, and one in Ireland. I decided I had to make the decision best for me, and I told her I wanted to move to Ireland. She was initially very supportive of the idea, but she became more and more fearful; and had more and more panic attacks.

She would start to cry, and her eyes would glaze over, she would stop speaking, and just have these little gasps and shoulder spasms; she wouldnt respond to anything, nosies, speech, nothing; it was like she wasnt even in the same world as you. If you stepped in fron of her she'd walk right around you, but still like you werent there. If you physically stopped her all shed do would be try to move the way she was going, but she'd still never acknowledge you were there. Then shed get in the shower turn it on full blast lukewarm, and lay in the tub with the shower going and cry for hours....

And she just wouldn't get help. She refused to even acknowledge there was a problem.

The woman I met at 5'2" and 160lbs was over 300lbs by now. She couldnt find clothes that fit at all, and she would barely move from the bed to the shower to the computer; anything more would set her off into a panic attack.

I went to Ireland ahead of our moving over there to find us a place to live, and I asked her to pack up the apartment so we could get moving as soon as I came back.

I would call her every day, and she alwasy said that things were going great; that she was getting things packed up etc...

When I came back, I walked in the door, and I found my wife laying on the floor surrounded by delivery food containers, and filth... I jsut couldnt believe what I saw.. it was worse than when I left. The smell was... I cant even describe it.

I asked her what was wrong, what was going on, what happened, what did you do?????

She was sobbing, and she said that she hadnt moved in days; that the entire time I was gone she had done nothing but sit in the middle of the floor and cry all day.

At that moment I decided I couldn't take her to Ireland unless she got help. I got her cleaned up, and together we packed up the apartment (took about two days); put most everything but our personal stuff in storage, and loaded up the jeep to drive to her mothers in Kentucky.

While at her mothers house, I told her that I wanted her to get treatment; that I would go to Ireland, and arrange treatment for her there so I could bring her over, but that if she didnt get help that I couldn't live with her anymore.

I called her every day in Ireland, and she told me she was going to a therapist; but it wasn't true. I talked to ehr mother who was very concerned about her mental health. Finally after a month I told her that was it; she either got help or it was over...

She screamed out "I AM NOT CRAZY!!!!!!!!!" and just started wailing.

I just said "Im sorry, I can't do this anymore, I love you, goodbye".

I arranged for an anullment (there were some technicalities that made it easy, thank god) and that was it. I gave her everything from our marriage and all the money I had left that wasn't stuck into my new business in Ireland.

I havent seen my ex-wife since the day I left for Ireland.

Linguistic profiles

Your Linguistic Profile:

45% Yankee

40% General American English

10% Dixie

5% Upper Midwestern

0% Midwestern

I once took the 500 or so question test this one was cribbed from, and it identified me as mostly a southerner. I use a lot of words interchangably, lifted from many areas of the country, and the world. For examle, I tend to say Arse as well as Ass, and Shite as well as Shit (living in Ireland). Actually a lot of Irish and english expressions found their way into my personal lexicon.

For things that I am very certain, or in complete agreement with I will often use the term "absolutely", which was both a thing in the Air Force, and an Irish/English thing.

My family used to call carbonated sweet beverages tonics (a new englandism, especially Boston), a water fountain a bubbler, and the days of the week were "Satdee, Sundee, Mondee, Tuesdee, Wensdee, Thursdee and Fridee".

Somehow I managed to avoid developing a strong Boston accent; in fact generally I don't have one at all, sounding more southern or southwestern most of the time (another remnant of the Air Force) unless I've been spending a lot of time with Bostonian friends and family lately. My brother Rob on the other hand... well I usually describe him as sounding like an extra from "Good Will Hunting"...

Actually that's something that really irritated me. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck (who I actually knew when I was a kid through an accelerated learning program that we were both a part of called ACE. He was a senior when I was a freshman, and we met when I was in Jr. High, and he did "The Second Voyage of the Mimi") both grew up in and around Boston (Caimbridge mostly)both graduated high school there, and did some college there. They both DO still have slight Boston accents, that come out most when they are speaking quickly or with great feeling, and they CERTIANLY know how a Boston accent should sound; so why were their accents in good will hunting so HORRIBLY bad?

The only genuine Boston accent in that movie was from the loosah with the white affro who was always stealing food; who I BELIEVE was played by Bens younger brother Casey.

I wanta heah Ben Affleck oaddah a lahge regulah from Dunkins, and sound like he knows whaddies sane deammit.

Yeah, we really shuah do talk like theat. If theyah from tha Naweth Shawer, like Reveah tha axint is wicked gay; and every freaking other word is freakin pissah oah oawsum.

Shaws has TWO syllables; I sweah.

The SECOND best .45 auto???

I'll wager at least half the people reading this will agree with me when I say that the Browning designed Colt model of 1911 (and it's variants and clones) is the greatest handgun of all time. I'll go one better and say that 75% of you would agree with me if I limited it to pistols only.

But what's the second best? Specifically what's the second best in the 1911s main caliber, .45acp?

I mean it's a pretty limited field; there aren't really all that many truly spectacular pistols out there to choose from; and there are even fewer in .45 (at least excluding all the many 1911's).

On my best list would be the following

H&K USP (and derivatives)
SIG P220
Glock 21, 30, 36
CZ75 derivatives in .45 (CZ97, Tanfoglio, Baby eagle/Jericho)

Honestly... I think that's about it. Sure there are some GOOD .45's (Taurus, Ruger, Smith) but GREAT ones (and no "another 1911" doesn't count, and yes Detonics, ParaOrds, Kimbers, 1991s, Springfields, and even the argentine phillipine et al clones count as 1911s) ?

If they made a BHP (Browning HiPower/P35) in .45 ACP it would certainly be on that list, but they don't (at least not as far as I know, and if they do someone point me to one so I can buy it now before some idiot decides to take it out of production. Oh and make sure you tell Kim DuToit so he can grab one too).

I suspect that when Kahr makes the Target/Tactical version of the P45, the T45 (some time next year most likely) it will end up on that list as well; but again, it's not here yet. Oh and yes, when they release it I will be buying one immediately.

I'm willing to listen to other suggestions, but that's really all that come sto mind for the great ones.

Of course that still leaves a list of four guns; which is the second best? Or which is the best of the second best or... ahhh fuckit.

Lets talk about each one.

CZ and Variants in .45 (I'm using a baby eagle here as the prototype, but any of the others will do).

Summary: The CZ and variants are great guns. Inspired by the Browning Hi-Power, in the late 60's into early 70's designers at Czecka Zabrovka (CZ) created an excellent double action high capacity stagger stack frame; releasing it in 1975 as the 9mm CZ75.

It took 22 years for a .45 version to appear (other than from Tanfoglio, who has had spotty quality, but who now manufactures frames for IMI's jericho); but when it did as the CZ97 it was an instant hit.

In the late 80's Israel was moving away from the Browning Hi Powers (and a hodgepodge of other weapons) they had been using as sidearms; and in israeli fashion wanted to build their own. They chose the CZ75 for inspiration, and created the "Jericho" line of pistols for use as issue sidearms for police and military. Initially available in 9MM, and .41AE (a propietary caliber which failed); in 2002 they added .45 to the lineup and they have seen sales in the U.S. explode, imported by Magnum Research under the name "Baby Eagle", a reference to the IMI/Magnum research Desert Eagle.

The pictures don't do the pistol justice; looking somewhat ungainly. In person, though it is a somewhat thick pistol (as are all doublestacks - this one is a compact 10rd); it is well balanced, and feel good and solid in the hand. It is also quite attractive; and it conceals well; though it is actually the same length and height as a compact 1911, and somewhat thicker.

Pros: Well made, accurate, reliable, low cost and very good value for the money at $499

Cons: Poor finish, heavy (almsot 40 oz unloaded), somewhat bulky.

Rating: Fifth - It's a great gun, and a great value; in fact I want one; but it just doesn't measure up to the others.

Glocks in .45 (including the 21, 30, and 36)

I went into Glocks extensively (and the G21 specifically) in my post "How to make a Glock not suck". but lets talk in more general terms here.

Glocks are the most popular single brand of pistol in America. Certainly 1911's are the most popular TYPE of pistol by an order of magnitude, but they are made by dozens of manufacturers, and there are several major competitors in every segment so it's certain that Glock is the single best selling brand.

Like all the other pistols here, all Glocks use essentially the same design, with some reinforcements for the larger and/or higher pressure calibers.

Up until a few weeks ago I owned a G21, and a G19 and both were excellent pistols; currently being enjoyed by two of my readers. When the cashflow returns, I will purchase another Glock (most likely a G32 or G23, though possibly a G19; as an alternative concealment piece to my Kahr K9), if for no other reason then if I ever have to give somebody a gun in an emergency, chances are they'll know how to operate a Glock.

The only problems I really have with Glocks are their bulk, and their triggers. I talk about fixing the Glock trigger in the article linked above, so that no problem; but the G21 is a VERY bulky gun, and the G30 is no better. Recently glock introduced the single stack subcompact G36, which is an excellent pistol, but it is far too small for anything other than a backup piece.

In "Getting down to specifics" I had this to say about Glocks:

...if Glock made a single stack (or narrow double stack), commander sized .45, capable of handling .45 super, with an 8-10 round capacity (like the USP compact), I would say it was a great choice as a new military sidearm, and I'd buy it for myself in a heartbeat.

My opinion hasn't changed. I still want them to make a G21, and a G23 sized single stack .45; and I'd buy both in a second. I think theres a LOT of folks out there who'd line up for the same.

Oh and if they did one in 10mm I'd buy that one too, and I know a guy in Alaska who'd be fighting me for the right to be first in line.

Pros: Well made (though often rough always functional), accurate, EXTREMELY reliable, 10rd capacity (in the G21)

Cons: Rough finish (but tough), heavy, VERY bulky, and slightly unweildy, plastic, ugly, beloved by scumbags.

Rating: Fourth - They are great guns, which I wouldn't hesitate to buy. They are still the among lowest cost of the great guns, but but they have been getting more and more expensive for the past few years relative to other options; even when used. Combine that with the trigger, and the bulkiness, and I just think the others are better guns. Of course if they made that single stack commander sized, it might be a different story.

SIGs in .45 (including the 220, and 245)

I must confess, I love SIGs. I just sold my P229 in .357SIG a few months ago, and I miss it every time I go to shoot. They feel good in the hand, they are reliable, and they are VERY accurate. Of course they are also somewhat expensive, and somewhat thick in the grip so....

The SIG p220 is one of the best balanced .45's there is. It is a stagger stack design (like the HK USP Compact which has the same capacity) with an 8 round capacity; and it is available in half a dozen configurations. There is also a compact version, the P245; which I find uncomfortable (the grip is too short for me), but that is well liked for concealed carry. Of course 245 length, with a 229 size grip... well that would be nice. I think I'd end up carrying it every day.

Pick up a P220, with the stock hard plastic panels replaced with hogues; and see how it points.
Present it from the holster, and see how it moves.
Shoot it, at any range up to 25 yards, with any ammo.

Trust me, you'll buy it.

Pros: Extremely well made, great fit and finish, great balance, very accurate, very reliable

Cons: Very expensive (USED examples can run $700), slightly thick with some snagging edges.

Rating: Third - This was a tough decision. I would never feel inadequately armed with a large caliber SIG; I think for me it really comes down to carryability. The P220 is jsut a little bit more bulk than I want to carry concealed. The P229 is almost prefect sized (though still a bit thick), and I carried mine regularly, but there is no SIG .45 in that size. If there were I think I would rate it highest of this group.

HK USP series in .45 (including variants and Compact)

I own one, I love it, it's the best non-custom gun I've ever owned, and that's really saying something.

The HK USP series is possibly the ultimate evolution of the Browning tilting linkless barrel design (which began with the BHP); and is available in every size and configuration from the 9mm compact, all the way up to the USP Expert .45 and Mk23; which are competition ready out of the box.

Since I've used more compact examples of the other guns in this series as examples when possible; and since I actually OWN one, I'm going to talk about the USP compact.

The first time I fired my USP compact; I was prepared to be disapointed. I had fired the Mk23 before and found it do be an excellent pistol, but very bulky, and ridiculously expensive (at $2500).

My mind started being changed the second I picked it up. You see an unloaded aluminum framed commander length 1911 (the closest comparable variant) weighs 34 oz, the USP compact weighs 24.

The USP compact has a very comfortable grip, surprisingly thin in width and circumference, and with VERY comfortable and accessible controls; which can be made fully ambidextrous. To my hand, with the hooked floorplate mag in place, the formation of a shooting grip and natural point is completely automatic. There doesnt seem to be any other way to hold the gun.

The gun is quite thin, but still somewhat bulkier than a 1911, with a taller and slightly thicker slide. It is also shorter than a commander, in both length, and height.

Finally, just fire the gun and you'll see why I love it.

This gun is INCREDIBLY accurate out of the box; completely reliable (I have never once had a misfire that wasn't from bad ammo, even during the break-in), and completely PACKABLE.

I have three daily carry guns, my Kahr K9, my USP compact, and my Yost custom Sprinfield Champion. The K9 is basically invisible with almost any clothing; and in fact is even difficult to see when carried openly unless you know what you're looking for. The 1911 requires very deliberate clothing selection to conceal properly; though this isn't difficult at all. The USP compact fits nicely in between the two, with only the sharp edge of the mag floorplate, or butt providing a slight printing tendency; and at 10oz lighter than the champion, it is far more handy to carry all the time.

I have only three issues with the gun: First, it's a plastic frame. I generally prefer steel or aluminum frames; and a compact plastic frame makes recoil control with the +p's I shoot a bit more difficult.

Second, they are INCREDIBLY expensive ($900-2500 depending on model and options).

Finally, I have a problem with HK themselves.

Although all HK firearms have a lifetime warranty, HK has the WORST customer service of any reputable company in this business. Their service and warranty are the absolute best... if you are a law enforcement, military, or large corporate customer; everyone else gets screwed over.

Pros: Incredibly accurate, very well made, very reliable, very comfortable, light and concealable, can handle .45 super, lifetime warranty

Cons: INCREDIBLY expensive, HK customer dis-service

Rating: Second - This result may have been different if SIG or Glock made single stack commander length .45s; but as it is, the HK is the best gun. Now if it were just made by a company that didnt hate their civilian customers, and for a few hundred dollars less...

A Righteous Rant

The bastidge is in TOP form here, I would have said something meself, but I think I'll jsut let him speak for me... http://thebastidge.blogspot.com/2005/05/lance-this-boil.html

Oh, and the .45 I'm about to go blast off with; that'll do some talking too.

Larrys links appear to be broken at the moment, but if you jsut look at the writing archive of the assholes personal site; I think you'll get the idea.

Heres the official "Forsake The Troops" web site as well.

Our underlying problem is this: the military is a lifestyle these morons chose. What idiot risks their life for a country? It's what they chose. Hopefully, they knew in their hearts this is abusing taxpayers' money, and they enlisted anyway. So...Forsake our Troops! Let 'em die in combat-- we don't need their ilk in this country!

So tell me, at what point does protest becomes sedition? Perhaps we should let Mr. Crook live in a country without troops like our to protect him. We could start a betting pool as to how long he'd last - First dibs on 5 minutes

The Breakup of the United States?

A commenter on the NoR forum posts this question:

Obviously as much as i love the US; it will eventually Cease to be as we know it. Any ideas as to how it might?

I have always said that America is too large, and with too many diverse interests to long remain united in its current form. In fact this breakup could very well have occurred were it not for World War 1, the subesquent depression, and then Roosevelt mangling the constitution. I think what Roosevelt did to our liberties, and to our goverment was heinous, but it MAY have been the only thing that kept us from breaking up... I just don't know. The fact that we've made it since 1912 with all of the continent intact amazes me.

My personal thought is that there are two major reasons for this. Firstly America is highly mobile, both geographically and socially. This has kept a critical mass of regionalized sentiment from forming in any particular area, except perhaps Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and the Dakotas (and where would they go, Canada?).

There are at least 4 distinct regional agglomerations (really more like 8 when you go deeper), plus certain individual, pairings, or trios of states; or sometimes areas of states (Coastal California, Eastern Oregon, and eastern Washington for example); which have a strong political and ideological unity; but they don't have a strongly and uniformly regionalized sentiment or outlook on politics (despite what the media would have us believe).

Even Texas and "the south" as a generic entity do not have enough strongly regional sentiment to cause the fracture even though their political interests would clearly indicate the incidence of such a fracture.

UPDATE (section added):

I should point out, this lack of strong regional or local identification is a relatively recent thing, especially in the south. Prior to the Civil war; especially in the south; it was common for individuals to consider their state citizenship first, and national citizenship only second. This was in fact one of the great issues of the civil war.

Soon after the civil war, this self identification began changing. Significantly this change was rapid in industrialized areas, where the mobility of labor and capitol was becoming a defining characteristics throughout the late 18th and 19th centuries.

In rural and agrarian areas this was most strongly resisted; and in fact up until the early part of the 20th century it was still common for farmers and ranchers to identify themselves first as locals, then as state citizens, then as regional residents (The west, the south etc...). This regional identification didnt significantly weaken among these groups until World War I and then the great depression; which exposed more rural residents to the rest of America (and the world), and which forced many farm relocations into urban areas.

Which brings up the second factor; except in extreme cases, economics trumps politics. Although it may be in regions political interests to separate; it is clearly AGAINST those areas economic interests to do so. Trade routes, and trade partners throughout the country keep the entire country strongly interconnected economically. Kansas grains need to get to New York Grocery stores; and east coast ports to be shipped overseas; and vice versa.

It is entirely possible that in the event of a total governmental collapse (which would either be precipitated by, or precipitate a total economic collapse); an event I do not necessarily expect in my lifetime, but would be completely unsurprised should it occur; that the country would fragment into those approximate political divisions I referenced before. With no strong national government and no compelling economic reasons to maintain unity; the political and ideological reasons for separation gain far more weight.

Joss Whedon is my master

Ok, so color me optimistic. After reading a few dozen reviews on "Revenge of the Sith", I'm ... hopeful.

That said, I've never really put Star Wars at the top of my Sci-Fi pantheon. Lucas may be using Campbellian myth structure in his storytelling; but I'm not buying it.

Do I like the Star Wars movies? Yes I do. I even like the books (especially Stackpoles; great writer; but they are nowhere near my favorite.

I can't find the links right now but there are two weekly standard pieces I'm thinking ov; maybe by Matt labash.. anyway dissecting the themes of the starwars films and coming to the basic conclusion that the way Lucas is telling the stories the Jedi are jsut as bad as the empire.

It seems that so many Sci-fi writers, directors, creators in general are enamored greatly of what political philosophers (and writers of all stripes) know as "the perfect man".

In perfect man philosophy, the people are ruled by a pwerful government controlled by "the perfect man" or men in the case of the Jedi. THese men are kind, and wise, and not self interested etc...

Only what happens when the perfect man gets a bellyache?

I've never sympathised with the rebel alliance, because they are really fighting to restore a rule by elites; just of a different kind than the empire.

Well that, and they are all whiny little bitches.

No, really I'm not

But take the test; the questions and answers are frikken hilarious.

I am: 94% Republican.

"You're the perfect sycophant of the Republican elite. Tom DeLay and Karl Rove would be utterly proud of you."

Are You A Republican?

Ayup, that's me

When my personal website stops narfing this should work.

Or am I the only one?

Ya ever wonder how Iggy pop feels about having his biggest hit "Lust for life" used in so many commercials for really boring, bland stuff?

I mean read these lyrics:

Lust for Life
Iggy Pop and David Bowie

Here comes johnny yen again
With the liquor and drugs
And the flesh machine
He’s gonna do another strip tease.
Hey man, where’d ya get that lotion?
I’ve been hurting since I’ve bought the gimmick
About something called love
Yeah, something called love.
Well, that’s like hypnotizing chickens.

Well, I’m just a modern guy
Of course, I’ve had it in the ear before.
I have a lust for life
’cause of a lust for life.

I’m worth a million in prizes
With my torture film
Drive a gto
Wear a uniform
All on a government loan.
I’m worth a million in prizes
Yeah, I’m through with sleeping on the sidewalk
No more beating my brains
No more beating my brains
With liquor and drugs
With liquor and drugs.

Well, I’m just a modern guy
Of course, I’ve had it in my ear before
Well, I’ve a lust for life (lust for life)
’cause of a lust for life (lust for life, oooo)
I got a lust for life (oooo)
Got a lust for life (oooo)
Oh, a lust for life (oooo)
Oh, a lust for life (oooo)
A lust for life (oooo)
I got a lust for life (oooo)
Got a lust for life.

Well, I’m just a modern guy
Of course, I’ve had it in my ear before
Well, I’ve a lust for life
’cause I’ve a lust for life.

Here comes johnny yen again
With the liquor and drugs
And the flesh machine
He’s gonna do another strip tease.
Hey man, where’d ya get that lotion?
Your skin starts itching once you buy the gimmick
About something called love
Love, love, love
Well, that’s like hypnotizing chickens.

Well, I’m just a modern guy
Of course, I’ve had it in the ear before
And I’ve a lust for life (lust for life)
’cause I’ve a lust for life (lust for life)
Got a lust for life
Yeah, a lust for life
I got a lust for life
A lust for life
Got a lust for life
Yeah a lust for life
I got a lust for life
Lust for life
Lust for life
Lust for life
Lust for life
Lust for life

I mean thinking about it; that's some fucked up shit. The song itself is actually about a suburban kid who cant stand real life, so he shoots a lot of fucking heroin and peddles his flesh to the rough trade on the street to buy more; while fantazising about the "finer things" in life.

And it's also the jingle for Disney cruise lines.

Oh, and speaking of Bowie: do you take perverse pleasure in the thought that David Bowies real name; is Davey Jones?

Small Accomplishments

So I just finished off 5 loads of laundry (maybe 1/4 of all my clothers... nah, more like 1/6th. I have WAY more clothing than most straight men); and it gave me an entirely disproportionate sense of satisfaction.

Have you ever noticed that?

Sometimes doing relatively small simple things, makes you feel far better than it should. Like washing the dishes. or the car, or taking out the trash. Little everyday things that arent really accomplishments at all...

I suppose doing them is a reminder that big complicated things like life, are really made up of little simple things, like separating colors from whites.

I wouldn't know ANYTHING about this at all

Peer to Peer

I use P2P programs like BeareShare (a gnutella client) and Bit Torrent all the time to download software, music, movies, books... really anything that can be consumed as digital media.

As more and more content can be and is distributed and consumed digitally, this act desperately frightens the producers of said content; many of whom are powerful and wealthy corporations with great political influence. They have used this influence to have legislation enacted such as the Digital Millenium Copyright Act and the digtial media broadcast copy protection flag.

Straight up, the DMCA is unconstitutional prior restraint; and essentially negates fair use of copyrighted materials through a technicality.

Then it makes any attempt to circumvent that technicality; even for legitimate purposes; a federal felony.

Basically the content distributors are dictating to you exactly how and when you can use the content that you have paid for. You think you bought the movie when you bought the DVD; but actually you didn't. The distributor still owns that copy of the movie; all you've purchased is the right to watch that movie in the way HE decides.

If more people understood this, there would be ZERO support for this sort of legislation; but most people don't even know what the DMCA IS never mind what it does, or what the implications of it are. In fact, when I explain the DMCA to people for the first time, their almost universal reaction is "Oh my god; how can they do that, this is America. That's unconstitutional"

Yes, yes it is.

The FCC has mandated that in late 2006 all television broadcasts in the united states be digital. As I mentioned above digital content distribution (such as broadcasting) scares the hell out of the content producers, because everything digital can easily be stored, copied, edited, and redistributed with minimal effort, equipment, or technical knowledge.

To alleviate that fear they lobbied for what is colloquially known as the broadcast flag; and that ALL NEW COMMUNICATIONS DEVICES CAPABLE OF PLAYING DIGITAL MEDIA MUST UNDERSTAND AND OBEY IT.

The broadcast flag is a digital signature that will ensure that only specially licensed players will be able to read the digital information being broadcast, and that it cannot be copied or redistributed.

If you dont really understand the significance of that, let me explain it further. The movie companies want to make sure you can only play their movies, on players that you have to pay them a license fee for; and if they decide they dont want you to watch the movie any more, they can just shut it off with the flag.

What if the government decides you can't watch a movie about ruby rigde, or waco (or for the liberals.. I s'pose a few of you read me... about the government lying about the war etc...)?

What if Michael jacksons lawyers sue to get every piece of negative information about him flagged as non viewable?

Sure the intent of the legislation is not to censorship... or at least the public intent... but you don't prepare for the enemies intentions, you prepare for their capabilites; and in this case you do everything you can to prevent them from acquiring this heinous capability.

"But we'll jsut fid a way around it, like we did with those video games", yes we will; and then everyone who does that will be a felon; because the DMCA makes it a FELONY to "get around" copy protection and use restrictions EVEN IF IT IS YOUR LEGAL RIGHT TO USE THE MATERIAL IN WAYS THE TECNICAL RESTRICTION WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO DO.

"But that's unconstitutional and un American"

Yes, yes it is.

Well, in a remarkable example of the judicial restraint of government that was intended in our constitution; and has so frequently been ignored or dengirated in the last 50 or so years; a few days ago a federal circuit court struck down the broadcast flag as an unconstitutional overreach of the FCC's regulatory authority.

I expect from this that there will be attempts to introduce new legislation mandating the flag rather than trying to mandate it through FCC regulations, but honestly I think this means the broadcast flag is dead. They'll jsut have to sneak this stuff in some other way.

...That is if we can get the major new media organizations; all of whom are owned and controlled by the same five megacorps that are pressing for the broadcast flag and the DMCA in the first place; to report on it, and its significance.

Now, back to peer to peer; the distribution technology that engenders this rampant fear on the part of the content distributors.

Peerp to Peer is a generic term for any system that lets me directly connect to any other system, without using a centeralized middle man; known as a server. I'm a peer, the other users computer is a peer; thus Peer to Per, or P2P.

The first REALLY popular P2P system was Napster in the mid 90's; which at it's peak had something like a dozen million users (the nubmers vary wildly and none are accurate). I can't begin to describe to you how this made the content distributors shti themselves.

Well, what do corps do when they don't like something?

That's right, they sue.

The last few years have seen thousands and thousands of lawsuites from the content producers trying every means possible to shut down P2P. Heres the thing thoug; it's completely unconstitutional to do so, becuse P2P itself is just antoher technology. IUt is only the ACT or exchanging copyrighted materials that is illegal; and even then it is only illegal if you dont intend a fair use of the materials. In some cases copying a video or song and giving it to your friends IS fair use; and there is no way the content producers can prove that what most P2P users do ISN'T fair use.

So instead of even trying to prove illegal use; they jsut sue and sue and sue and hope that something sticks, or the weight of legal bills causes the people doign the sahring to collapse.

They are fighting a losing battle, and they know it;n which is why they keep trying for legislation such as the DMCA, and regulation such as the broadcast flag; but they don't seem to understand you can't sue your potential customer base into buying from you.

The whole thing WILL collapse eventually, and new means of content creation and distribution will need to be developed. There's no way around it; and the content distributors jsut havent seen that yet.

But that doesnt address the moral issues around P2P; jsut the technical constitutional ones.

A commenter on the NoR made this comment with regard to P2P:

"p2p software should absolutely be legal for legitimate pruposes.

Illegal downloading is a much more complex issue for me."

It's not complicated at all; it's like fucking the easy girl with no self esteem, that lives down the street from you when you're in Jr. High; you know it's wrong, but you like it and you don't want to stop.

P2P is not complex to me at all:

If what you are downloading for IS or SHOULD BE fair use (without the influence of unconstitutional restraint), you are 100% justified; otherwise you are stealing.

Banning P2P software because it could be misused is just like baning guns because they could be misused THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE.

(though interstingly, most of the people who want to ban guns, are people who want to see MORE p2p. Probably because P2P is very socialist and anti corporate in it's nature; and most gun banners are socialist in THEIR nature.)

That said, I steal software, and entertainment (music, movies, books) online for my personal use all the time. I would never do so for a client, or for work; but for my personal use I have simply decided that I don't care that I'm stealing it.

The only thing I salve my conscience with, is that I wouldn't have bought it anyway, and there was no copying cost to the producer; so I'm not actually depriving people of income. Besides, it's not like the ACTUAL producer of the stuff I'm stealing is seeing very much from the product, it all goes to distributors and record companies and movie comanies etc... AND if I do like something enough that I would have bought it anyway, I usually do buy it.

Yeah that's bullshit.

Oh it's all true enough factually; but those FACTS are still not justification for stealing the final product. They are jsut rationalizations.

Information does not want to be free. When you produce something that people want; you deserve to, and have the right to; charge what the market will bear for your product. This give you the incentive to produce more, and better works; and gives others the incentive to do the same. From this we all benefit greatly, and THIS is the true purpose of copyright.

If I don't like how much you are charging, that doesn't give me the right to steal it.

It's jsut that I've decided that I don't care that it's stealing; I do it anyway.

I'm goin to hell for that; AND YOU'RE ALLLLLL COMING WITH ME.

Reasons why Buffy Doesnt Suck

Ok so from the multiplicity of tests below, I have thoroughly proven my geekdom; but up until recently I never really like Buffy The Vampire Slayer (the series. The movie was a fluffy surrealistic pillow of fun). Or rather, I liked it; but I didn't have the almost universal geekish devotion to it.

I've always been a big Angel fan, but Buffy just never did it for me. I think a major reason for that was when Buffy premiered I was rather busy doing other things, and I didn't regularly watch TV during it's first couple of seasons. By the time I WAS regularly watching TV again, it was the middle of the series run, and I just hate starting in the middle of something. Angel on the other hand I got to watch much of the first couple seasons of; and I got into it fairly solidly.

Anyway the point is I never watched much Buffy.

Then I was mostly unemployed for several months...

Daytime TV REALLY sucks...

Buffy and Angel are played at least three times each on my local cablesystem every day (as opposed to Law and order, which is I believe playing in at least one of it's forms every hour or every day, sometimes several episodes at once)...

I think you can see where I'm going with this: I started watching Buffy out of sheer boredom.

As I said above, generally speaking I can't get into a serialized show, unless I can watch it in series order, and thankfully TNT decided to do jsut that; so I pretty much watched Buffy through the fifth and part of the sixth season; but for some reason the 7th season hasn't played in local syndication here yet (It's been three years, that's usually enough time so maybe I just missed it). I also missed the last few episodes of the sixth season before they restarted from day one again.

I had pretty much always planned on buying the full Buffy and Angel series on DVD eventually (along with a bunch of others. I LOVE TV series on DVD; best thing to happen to TV EVER. I'm not even going to START watching 24 until it's been cancelled, then I'm going to watch it all at once); but I was surfing t'other day looking for one of the buffy video games to steal; and I decided to download season six and seven instead (I couldn't find the game).

Anyway; theres a few reasons why Buffy has thoroughly grown on me, including lines like these:

Dawn and Anya are talking, neither has a real costume but Anya is wearing a striped pants set with the "Farrah Flip" hair-do...

Dawn: So what are you s'posed to be?
Anya: An Angel
Dawn: Oh. Sooo shouldn't you have wings?

Anya: Oh no, this is a special kind of Angel called a "Charlie". We don't have wings; we just skate around with perfect hair, fighting crime.

And then a few lines later Anya is speaking to Tara, who is Willows lesbian lover...

Anya: So how about you, ever played "shiver me timbers"
Tara: Umm, I'm not really much for the timber

Little lines like that just make me crack up. Anya has some of the best lines of the show, with the troika (Warren, Andrew, and Johnathan - the super geeky supervillian trio A.K.A the three stooges) coming in a close second.

I mean the dance of capitalist superiority alone is just...

A few minutes later in the same episode Giles watches Xander and Anya getting into a more than appropriately intense public display of affection, when he takes his glasses off and starts cleaning them

Buffy: Hey wait a second, is that why you're always cleaning your glasses? So you don't have to see what they're doing?
Giles (sotto voce): Tell no-one

And this is all in the first 10 minutes of one single episode.

Then, I watched the Buffy musical episode "Once more with feeling" and DAMN... I mean it just floored me. No I'm serious. It was one of the best pieces of storytelling I've ever seen in my life; easily equal to any hollywood or broadway musical. Hell even the music was good (which is not the case with all musicals).

Oh, and I'm speaking from the point of view of someone who loves musicals, and pop-opera like Gilbert and Sullivan. "The Music Man" is one of my favorite pieces of entertainment of all time (and Robert Preston never got 1/10th the recognition he deserved BTW); and I have been known to pop out with a random line from "The Mikado", Pinnafore, or Penzance (because I AM the very model of a modern major general).

I can't wait for Serenity to come out.

Impure Thoughts and too much time on my hands

Here is the result of your 1500 Point Purity Test.

You answered "yes" to 1219 of 1500 questions, making you 18.7% sexually pure (81.3% sexually corrupt); that is, you are 18.7% pure in the sex domain. Your Weirdness Factor (AKA Uniqueness Factor) is 61%, based on a comparison of your test results with 97847 other submissions for this test.

The average purity for this test is 76.6%. The first submission for this test was received March 4, 1996.

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Here is the result of your Renaissance Purity Test.

You answered "yes" to 122 of 152 questions, making you 19.7% FaireFolk pure (80.3% FaireFolk corrupt).
According to the scoring guide, your renaissance experience level is: A RenRat

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Here is the result of your WOD Purity Test.

You answered "yes" to 90 of 100 questions, making you 10.0% wod pure (90.0% wod corrupt).

---

Here is the result of your Headbanger Purity Test.

You answered "yes" to 76 of 100 questions, making you 24.0% headbanger pure (76.0% headbanger corrupt).

---

Here is the result of your Pyromania Purity Test.

You answered "yes" to 73 of 100 questions, making you 27.0% pyro pure (73.0% pyro corrupt); that is, you are 27.0% pure in the pyro domain (you have 73.0% pyromaniac in you).

---

Here is the result of your Internet Purity Test Purity Test.

You answered "yes" to 43 of 62 questions, making you 30.6% Internet pure (69.4% Internet corrupt); that is, you are 30.6% pure in the Internet domain (you have 69.4% Internet in you).

---

Here is the result of your HHGttG Purity Test.

You answered "yes" to 24 of 30 questions, making you 20.0% hhgttg pure (80.0% hhgttg corrupt).

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Here is the result of your Jock Purity Test.

You answered "yes" to 79 of 98 questions, making you 19.4% jock pure (80.6% jock corrupt); that is, you are 19.4% pure in the jock domain (you have 80.6% jock in you).
Your Weirdness Factor (AKA Uniqueness Factor) is 49%, based on a comparison of your test results with 90586 other submissions for this test.

The average purity for this test is 60.6%.
The first submission for this test was received March 4, 1996.

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Here is the result of your 500 Point Nerdity Purity Test.

You answered "yes" to 428 of 500 questions, making you 14.4% nerd pure (85.6% nerd corrupt); that is, you are 14.4% pure in the nerd domain (you have 85.6% nerd in you).
According to the scoring guide, your nerd experience level is: Hoping to invent Warp Field Theory
Your Weirdness Factor (AKA Uniqueness Factor) is 53%, based on a comparison of your test results with 29463 other submissions for this test.

The average purity for this test is 62.5%.

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Dont shit where you eat

I'm not really brtual; but the rest, well...

Smartass You are 85% Rational, 71% Extroverted, 57% Brutal, and 71% Arrogant.

You are the Smartass! You are rational, extroverted, brutal, and arrogant. You probably consider people who are emotional and gentle to be big pussies who are obviously in lesser stature than you. You have many flaws, despite your seeming intelligence and cool-headedness. For instance, you aren't very nice. In fact, you're probably an asshole. And you are conceited and self-centered. Not only that, but you are very loud and vocal about all this, seeing as how you are extroverted. There is no better way to describe you than as a "smartass", I'm afraid. Perhaps just "ass" would do, too. But that's a little less literary and descriptive. At any rate, your main personality defect is the fact that you are self-centered, mean, uncaring, and brutally logical. To put it less negatively: 1. You are more RATIONAL than intuitive. 2. You are more EXTROVERTED than introverted. 3. You are more BRUTAL than gentle. 4. You are more ARROGANT than humble. Compatibility: Your exact opposite is the Emo Kid. Other personalities you would probably get along with are the Capitalist Pig, the Braggart, and the Sociopath. * * If you scored near fifty percent for a certain trait (42%-58%), you could very well go either way. For example, someone with 42% Extroversion is slightly leaning towards being an introvert, but is close enough to being an extrovert to be classified that way as well. Below is a list of the other personality types so that you can determine which other possible categories you may fill if you scored near fifty percent for certain traits. The other personality types: The Emo Kid: Intuitive, Introverted, Gentle, Humble. The Starving Artist: Intuitive, Introverted, Gentle, Arrogant. The Bitch-Slap: Intuitive, Introverted, Brutal, Humble. The Brute: Intuitive, Introverted, Brutal, Arrogant. The Hippie: Intuitive, Extroverted, Gentle, Humble. The Televangelist: Intuitive, Extroverted, Gentle, Arrogant. The Schoolyard Bully: Intuitive, Extroverted, Brutal, Humble. The Class Clown: Intuitive, Extroverted, Brutal, Arrogant. The Robot: Rational, Introverted, Gentle, Humble. The Haughty Intellectual: Rational, Introverted, Gentle, Arrogant. The Spiteful Loner: Rational, Introverted, Brutal, Humble. The Sociopath: Rational, Introverted, Brutal, Arrogant. The Hand-Raiser: Rational, Extroverted, Gentle, Humble. The Braggart: Rational, Extroverted, Gentle, Arrogant. The Capitalist Pig: Rational, Extroverted, Brutal, Humble. The Smartass: Rational, Extroverted, Brutal, Arrogant.

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 74% on Rationality You scored higher than 78% on Extroversion You scored higher than 69% on Brutality You scored higher than 82% on Arrogance

Link: The Personality Defect Test written by saint_gasoline on Ok Cupid

HT:http://mercutioclub.hautefort.com

Oh et pour mes amis francophone et francophile; Bonjour, et bienvenue.

Quand j'avais 16 ans J'ai parlé français très bien; mais il a été presque 15 ans depuis que je l'ai employé. J'espère que le babelfish n'a pas fait trop d'erreurs. J'ai regardé ce que j'ai écrit et n'ai pas tout à fait confiance, et la traduction des bablefish était très différente (et je ne lui fais pas confiance non plus) ; ainsi je l'ai employée. Maintenant Je parle Francais tres peu, et tres mal; mais mais je vous apprécie faisant tout l'effort de lire ma page.

Managing Cynicism

So, we had our first team meeting yesterday; and my team is long on cynicism, and short on hope, and motivation.

Of course I knew I was going in to a tough situation when I took the job; in fact that's in part WHY I took the job. I don't like the easy things, I like the hard ones (don't go there).

Anyway, I knew I was going to be introducing this group to their first real on site management and I wanted to explain some important concepts and philosophy; so I presented this.

More Geek Tests

I scored out at 76.92308% - Dysfunctional Geek

+ Geekish Tendencies................................=09%
++ Geek.............................................=15%
+++ Total Geek......................................=25%
++++ Major Geek.....................................=35%
+++++ Super Geek....................................=45%
++++++ Extreme Geek.................................=55%
+++++++ Geek God....................................=65%
+++++++! Dysfunctional Geek.........................=75%

http://www.innergeek.us/

Why don't guys understand....

Ok, I'm rather obviously a male of the speices; but I was raised by women (no fight club references folks), I have lots of female friends etc...

I also have lots of male friends; mostly of the geek variety; and for some reason none of them understand how to get laid.

They all seem to think that they have to be perfect, or theres some secret, or that it's even in any way diffuclt.

If all you want is a good fuck, there is nothing easier in this world. It's finding someone you actually want to stay with that's difficult.

Heres a hint guys: if you are doing it right, women like sex more than you do; and want it just as much (though generally not as frequently unless you meet that special girl).

There are only a few pre-requisites to getting laid:

1. Bathe
2. Don't live with your parents
3. Have a job

or alternatively if you are in a band you can just ignore all three.

Hell if you live in a college town the only thing you need is a dick and a heartbeat.

The demographics are already slanted in your favor; especially when you take into account the number of gay men in college towns (far higher then the gen pop, trust me
Women bitch about it constantly actually; take a listen some time.).

Actually that's not exactly true; you need a dick, a heartbeat, and the confidence to go after a woman without caring if you get rejected or not; because you will be, at least half the time; even if you look like Brad Pitt and are dipped in chocolate and strawberries.

That's really all there is to it; no secret, nothing all that hard about it. A little confidence, a little personal hygeine, and a little persistence.

Of course, I won't guarantee you'll like who you wake up next to in the morning; but at least it will get you laid.

Here IS a secret; the more you are getting laid, the easier it is to get laid more.

No, I'm serious. It's like women have fuckdar or something; and they are instantly more attracted to a guy who is getting some.

Oh and the best way to get women to hit on you? Get a girlfriend; or even better, get married.

I have never been hit on so much in my life as when I was wearing a wedding ring. It's like women looked at it as a challenge or something. Especially college girls, and young professional women away from home. Oh and women vacationing alone, or with other young friends.

Oh and you ladies may already know this, but geeks make way better lovers. Patience, creativity, persistence, and the desire to please; what a combo.

Building the "All Rounder"

Wow.. it's been almost two weeks since I wrote anything about guns or shooting, and I'm having withdrawal pains. The only solution is to dive back in to my drug of choice...

NOTE: Just an aside, my readership PLUNGES when I don't write anything about guns for a few days. On a gun day I see 350-500 hits, on a non-gun day I see 250-350; notwithstanding my carnival submissions.

So now that I am once again gainfully employed; my fancy has turned back to acquiring more guns (as any young mans should).

Of course I have a few people I need to pay back first; a few bills to pay, and I want to sock away at least three months worth of rent and bills (about 5 grand) before I start buying anything; and doncha know, that leads me right up into the run up to deer season.

Hmmmmmm.

I mentioned before; I don't really have a hunting rifle right now; In fact I haven't been hunting in something like 8 years (since I started my wild startup to startup migration cycle through the northeast, California, new york, Ireland, etc...).

I dunno about you guys; but a little dish of venison tips and wild rice, maybe some smoked venison sausage... oh and venison jerky... well that all sounds pretty damned good to me about now.

Hell I even like venison burgers; the trick is to mix them up with a beaten egg and some black pepper, then wrap them in bacon like you would a fillet.

Hmm, bacon wrapped Venison fillet...

Okay yeah; I'ma goin huntin this year.

Of course that means I need to build myself a rifle; and I'm not looking for some deer specialty gun. You know me; if it aint versatile, I'm not really all that enthusiastic.

I want an all'rounder. A gun that will reach out for medium game to say... 400 yards or thereabouts, and punch pretty little holes in paper to 600 yards or so.

It can't break the bank, even with accessories; and it has to be light and packable, even with optics, and a bipod.

NOTE: I used to hate built in bipods on rifles; but the Harrises made me a convert. A stable platform, light enough, flexible enough but rigid enough, and I can always take it off quickly if I want to.

Okay so I mentioned in my "logic of chambering selection" posts that I wanted this in my mountain rifle, and at the risk (well, the certainty really) of repeating myself; I've identified some prospects.

• Remington 700 Mountain Rifle -$833
  
• Remington 700 Titanium - $1272
  
• Winchester Model 70 Featherweight - $806
  
• Weatherby Vanguard SubMOA - $919
  

No-one loves a 700 more than I do (and a LOT of people really don't like them at all); and the more I look at that 700 titanium, the more I drool...

Only 5.5lbs for the LONG action model (the short is a few oz lighter), pillar bedded composite stock, weather resistant.. it's exactly what I'm looking for. I love a good piece of wood and a deep blue finish on a gun as much as any man; but not if I'm going to be carrying it up the side of a mountain in god knows what kind of weather.

The only problem is, it's $350-$450 more than my other choices, just to save 2 lbs. Yes I know, on a long hike 2lbs is quite a bit, but is it worth $400 ? Not only that, but titanium is a bitch to work with, so if I ever need any work done on the gun...

I dunno...

I'm leaning more and more to the Weatherby. I've always loved the Weatherby look; and even though the vanguard line are made in Japan, they SubMOA line is guaranteed to do just that, shoot sub-MOA groups.

Honestly, I think this gun is damned gorgeous:

And it's got all the feature out of the box that I would take any of the other rifles to the smith for. I love the Weatherby bolts, triggers... I just love the guns period.

I'm not sure if I want the stainless, or the matte black; but either way, I love the rifles.

If I could choose any factory bolt action rifle (not including factory customs like Jarret etc...), it would almost certainly be a Weatherby Mark V Deluxe :

They even make it in a lightweight version here:

The only problem being the fine wood example above is around $2500 and even the lightweight composite starts at $1700, and they go up from there; add in the price of the glass....

Yeah, that aint hapnin any time soon.

If you really want to fantasize a little, Weatherby has a "Build your own Weatherby custom shop rifle" feature. It's fun, and guaranteed to tempt you into emptying your wallet - my dream rifle ended up over 8 grand, and that was without engraving.

So that brings us to chambering, and here's where things get fuzzy. My wallet says .308, my heart says .270 (my favorite all'round chambering), and my head says "7mm will hurt and cost more, but give you more options on game and range".

You can see more of my ramblings about cartridge selection in "Magnum Opus" and "More on the Logic of Chambering Selection"; but at the moment I'm still thinking .308 because I have another .308 already, and I'll be reloading for it.

For glass I'm thinking Leupold; but Burris also offers some strong options. I'd love to buy a Zeiss or a Swarovski, but the scopes I'm looking at run $2000 and more from them, so it's American made for me. That's not to say Leupold and Burris don't make some great scopes, they certainly do; but the clarity and brightness of the Swarovskis is really something else.

Leupolds full hunting line is pretty extensive; they really cover any kind of glass you could conceivably need.

Now lets remember my priorities here; I want to take game at 400 or so yards, and I want to do it in uneven lighting and weather conditions. Also, my eyes aren't the greatest.

To me that means a 40mm or larger objective (light gathering) and say a 3-9 variable or something similar. I know a lot of folks like a 6x through 9x fixed, because it's simpler, more rugged, and brighter; but I like the variables.

My first thought was something like the Rifleman 3-9x50:

But I was flipping through the product line and noticed this:

It's a VX-III 3.5-10x50 illuminated reticle, with range estimation - $730

Let me tell you, if you are ever shooting in near dark conditions, or at darkened targets (especially if they have bright surroundings), an illuminated reticle is amazing. Yes it's an additional level of complexity for things to break, but the extra capability it provides is, I think, worth the risk (and the not inconsiderable extra cost - about $200 more than the plain model).

Okay so, $920 for the rifle, and $730 for the scope; at least at MSRP anyway. I know the Weatherby is selling around $700, and the scope is actually selling around $650 on the street.

That's still $1350, and toss in a Harris bipod and a decent sling for another $150 or thereabouts, and that's a fairly hefty sum; but for that money I get a rifle that's going to do exactly what I want, and look damn good doing it.

Now... what did I do with my dehydrator and my jerky marinade recipes.....

H2G2

DON'T Panic

But defeninitely go see hitchhikers.

I've been meaning to publish this for a few days, but let me jsut say now; if you love the books, you'll love this movie. If you havent read them, you probably wont get half the jokes and references; but it's still funnny.

I was rpepared for a disapointment (as I am ANY time a Sci-Fi classic is amde into a movie - witness starship troopers), especially after the guardian and telegraph both said "I'ts an ok movie, but not very funny"...

WHAT WERE THEY SMOKING...

It was flipping brilliant.

Okay I wish there were more of the book stuff; and there were a few niggling changes... oh and Sam Rockwell doing a "Thats our Bush" parody for two hours was irritating as fuck; but it was GREAT. I can't wait for the special edition DVD.

I was really skeptical about Mos Def as Ford Prefect; after all a redheaded white guy is a bit of a stretch for a black rapper; but he brought it off PERFECT... actually he reminded me a little bit of Danny John-Jules (which is a good thing).

Tell me, is it wrong to lust after Zooey Deschanel? I mean I already did from other things, but especially now. I really dig the cute, quirky, kooky girls (my first big movie crush was on Jordan from Real Genius; who my girlfriend actually reminds me a lot of) and she certainly qualifies on all counts.

Oh, one thing about both the books and the movies. If Ford thought the dominant form of life in the '70's was the car; I wonder what he'd think of the M4 motorway today.

Back from another day at the salt mines

And actually, I'm feeling good.

I had way too many meetings today; most of them on teh phone (as usual being that most of the company is in other states), and including one at 8am this mornign that my schedule said was at 10.. yeah it was at 10, in Minneapolis.

Then after work I wnet out with one of my staff, and a coupld of the programmers and admins; they're always the ones that REALLY know whats going on in a company. If yo want to know whats really happening in a hospital, ask the nurses, if you want to know whats really going on in a company, aski the admins.

Of course the fact that after a while I was the only guy there, surrounded by four moderately good looking to damn hot women didnt hurt either, but see "dont shit where you eat" below.

I went through one bogus sexual harassment charge before; I am SOOOO not up for another one (I had a sexual relationship with a co-worker, and when we went up for the same promotion she used some saved personal chat logs to say I secually harassed her).

Not that I would expect that of anyone or even that it would have gone there at all; but once bitten twice shy yaknow.

Anyway there was a healthy amount of bitching, and a healthy amount of drinking getting done; which always produces an interesting atmosphere. It was a semi going away party for one of the admins (who reminded me VERY strongly of Meghan Mulally from Will and grace, and that's a good thing) so a lot of bitching was done, and that's healthy (and funny).

I'm a pretty brutally honest guy when it comes to work; and I appreciate the same, and there was certainly some honesty flowing all around.

Also one of the admins seems to be a female version of me, only VERY skinny (like 5'10 and 105lbs), so that was interesting. A surprising amount of shared experience and interest.

I lvoe finding poepl I like to hand out with at work. It can sometimes make things awkward, but it's usually worth it.

Oh and if any of my cow-orkers are reading now, once again, HI GUYS.

Overall I'm pretty happy with the new gig; I jsut need to find the cutting torch so I can get these handcuffs off and turn it on HR and Finance.

So I ended up with 3 beers, and two tequila shooters, and now I feel like getting a biuzz one; so it's whiskey time for me (to my co-workers, no that wasnt a buzz, I'm like that normally. You should see me buzzed).

Bye bye kids, have fun storming the castle.

UPDATE: Yaknow, sometimes I hate my genetic heritage. I have such a high damned alcohol tolerance that getting above a light buzz means damn near killing myself. I've just finished a half bottle of white rum and I'mn STILL not beyond lightly buzzed (I decided against the whiskey).

Oh well, at least I don't get hangovers (never; yes I am one of those lucky bastards)

From One recovering catholic to all y'all

I wodner if Francis Poretto knows about this comic strip?

For all you nintendo lovers out there

Pissing myself over this one:

http://www.bonusstages.com/personal/mariofinish.html

HT: Dave Dembinski

I find your lack of faith... disturbing

More tests

Your Geek Profile:

Academic Geekiness: Highest

Gamer Geekiness: Highest

Geekiness in Love: Highest

Movie Geekiness: Highest

SciFi Geekiness: Highest

General Geekiness: High

Internet Geekiness: High

Music Geekiness: High

Fashion Geekiness: Low

Ehhhhh, I still like these thing. They're jsut cute; though the people who amke them are all obviously pretty ridiculously biased.

They also need to use WAY more questions. For example, I bathe therefore my fashion geekiness is low; yet my logo shirt collection alone PROVES that I have both earned money as a geek, and totally slacked off as one.

Hail Eris, hail discorida; Kallisti!

Eh, Close Enough

You Are 33 Years Old

33 Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

HT:Warbs

Turning the corner - Part 1

Okay folks, I present a work in progress. I want to show you how my thought processes on my longer pieces works for jsut a bit.

So this is what I'm starting off with; for a psot called turning the corner. I've been mulling it over in my head for a few days, and some semi-random thoughts have come together and strung themselves into a little bit of something.

So here are my notes ready to e filled out and connected:

Winston Churchill/CLEMENT ATLEE
WW2 Destroys britain
Run home to mommy/blanket/coccon/security/self delusion
EUGENE CERNAN
SPACEHSIP ONE
Obstructionsit FAA
HONOR HARRINGTON REPUBLIC OF HAVEN
PEOPLE WELFARE STATE DEPENDANT/POLITICAISN/VOTE
MIDDLE CLASS DESTRUCTION
GOVERNMENT CAN'T HELP ONLY REDUCE THE HURT IT ALREADY DOES

Talking with UK friends
Fleeing the UK
U.S. last best hope

http://www.suntimes.com/output/steyn/cst-edt-steyn01.html

Forget about Amazon...

The best feature of amazon.com is their wish lsits. I have friend who have NO clue how to buy gifts without it.

Well, let me tell you; Cabellas has to be my favorite store of all time. I could literally furnish my entire life except my car, my computer, and my food from Cabellas.

Well they've got a wishlist function now. I have no idea how long it's been there; but I jsut noticed it tonight, and I've been building my wishlist ever since (link may be funky, but hit the wishlist link and you can search for me as Chris Byrne in Scottsdale AZ).

I've got about 250 grand worth of shit on my list already ... no I'm not kidding. I could buy the whole damn catalog three times over.

Note: some of that is because there are some extremely LARGE items on the list

See I've got this half acre of land up in the white mountains that I've been wanting to do something with for a while...

Feeling Dilbertish

I think this will be the first Dilbert cartoon I put up on my wall at work; perhaps with the subheading "Don't let this be you" tacked on under it.

Hmm, perfect listening at work?

Oh, I should mention I'm a libertarian; and I've got two VERY strong conservatives, one moderate conservative, three liberals (one ultra lib, one soccermom-lib, one "other" liberal) and an "I uhno".

We are in an IT office.

Yeah, I'm livin the dream.

Go, Read, Now...

If you havent read Firehand over at the elmtree forge lately; shame on you. At the risk of using a bad pun, he's been on fire the last couple weeks. http://elmtreeforge.blogspot.com/