Memorial Day Weekend

This weekend was a busy one filled with chores and cleaning.
I finished finishing the acacia boards from the tree in my parents front yard, and now the roll-around stereo trollys are on their second legs.  It's a vast improvement from the Circa 1980's hideous black particle-board shelves. That was like looking into the abyss - so (only twenty years late) now we have a bright, woodsy outlook.

The WWII planes went away, up to Livermore (*cough* hey David! *cough), then out to the great California "Midwest":

June
6/1 - 6/3	Stockton, CA (B-17, B-24 & P-51)
	Airport: Stockton Metropolitan Airport
	Location: TBD
-
6/3 - 6/6	Sacramento, CA (B-17, B-24 & P-51)
	Airport: McClellan Air Park
	Location: Ramp on Freedom Park Drive
-
6/6 - 6/8	Santa Rosa, CA (B-17, B-24 & P-51)
	Airport: Sonoma County Airport
	Location: Sonoma Jet Center
-
6/8 - 6/10	Vacaville, CA (B-17, B-24 & P-51)
	Airport: Nut Tree Airport
	Location: Mountain West
-
6/10 - 6/12	Concord, CA (B-17, B-24 & P-51)
	Airport: Buchanan Field
	Location: GA Transient Ramp  And then to the NorthWet
-
6/13 - 6/15	Klamath Falls, OR (B-17, B-24 & P-51)
	Airport: Klamath Falls Airport
	Location: General Aviation Ram

And while Bloggers were having a shooty-good time back East unloading their guns with a limitless supply of FREE munition, I whiled-away the evening watching a TV show about the struggle on June 6th at Pointe du Hoc, some 67 years ago, where a Gleaves Class destroyer with the family-name of a friend of ours stood-to with great assistance.
I was re-loading Garand clips (not magazines, oh noes!) from a CMP stash of Greek ammo that had arrived a few months ago. Head-stamps on the .30-06 loads range from Camelot to Carter, and later. 1962 to 1978, and it gave me pause to think that after all our guardianship-by-Garand and the events of Pointe du Hoc, to look at Greece today - an utter socialist shambles, sinking fast.
Intermixed was/is a small quantity of Lake City '75 that I separate out, it will surely shoot to a different point-of-aim and belongs together in its own M1 clips.
Hope you had a good weekend, welcome Summer!

Memorial Day Remembrance

1911 - 2011


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Cutting Edge 1944

The symphony is back...and I love it.

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Congress of Racial Equality Supports NRA/CRPA Foundation Lawsuit

UPDATE: The brief was filed by Stephen P. Halbrook (who's book, The Founders' Second Amendment is a critically significant piece of 2nd Amendment scholarship that you should buy and read. Also his, "Securing Civil Rights" is a good read.) :-)

An Amicus Brief was filed by the Congress of Racial Equality in the NRA/CRPA Foundation supported lawsuit challenging San Diego County's restrictive CCW policies, in the case of is Peruta v. San Diego.

On Monday, May 23, 2011, the CRPA Foundation and a number of San Diego residents filed their opening brief in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in their appeal seeking to overturn a U.S. district court ruling from December 10, 2010 that upheld San Diego Sheriff William Gore’s restrictive and unfair policies in issuing permits to carry concealed firearms. The case is Peruta v. San Diego.

The CORE brief emphasizes how the right to "bear arms" does not stop at one’s doorstep, and gives a historical analysis of the Fourteenth Amendment, discussing how discretionary firearms licensing laws were an incident of slavery.

In a nutshell, the district court held that rather than needing a CCW to defend oneself, since California law allows unloaded open carry of handguns one can carry unloaded and openly, and then act pursuant to a California law that requires you to wait until you are about to be attacked, then load your firearm (see Cal. Pen. Code section 12031(j)). Because of the time needed to get an unloaded firearm ready to be used for self-defense, unloaded carry is not an effective way to exercise your fundamental, individual constitutional right to be ready and able to defend yourself under the Second Amendment. Plaintiffs are asking the Ninth Circuit to overrule the district court’s decision. (See opening appellate brief here).

Mexistan-Pakxico Gun-Shows

The borders and security of the country to the Left of India often resemble those to the south of the US. One wonders that the Taliban isn't more readily identified as as Narcottrafficante organization since they do indeed deal in the movement of the most powerful narcotics, not just pot and cocaine. But that's up to the Media, who like to distinguish between the Bold Revolucionarios down South and the camel humpers in the distant East.
So, for fun and for revenge on Bin-Dunked, the Taliban/Zeta-Narcos attacked a downtown Pakistan naval air base and destroyed or badly damaged two newly US-supplied P-3C Orion maritime surveillance aircraft.
The confluence of conflicting security interests is what strikes me the most. In Mexico various factions of the Army are considered un-trustworthy or in actual connivance with the Narcos/Zetas and the Navy is sometimes called-out (in?) to deal with dangerous situations. In this case it was the Pakistan Navy that was attacked while the Army was...where?
Just six Narcoterrorists armed with grenades, rockets, and automatic weapons, "stormed" the airbase late on Sunday night, using ladders and cutting the wire to get into the facility, exploiting a blind spot left uncovered by the base’s security cameras near a drainage trench. - and held off Mexistani Pakistani security forces for more than 16 hours, killing 12 naval personnel and injuring 14 - and it's believed two of the bad-guys got away alive.
Resistance was... Covering his ass was... the navy chief said the "response time" by naval commandos was three minutes, and they fought back well in the face of "highly trained assailants who had had sophisticated weapons like RPG launchers." Oh yeh, those sophisticated RPGs, like those you can buy at gun-shows in the US...?

Six Americans and 11 Chinese aviation engineers were on the base but were escorted out unharmed, Mr Malik added...
Alberto Rodriguez, a spokesman for the US Embassy, said the Americans were working as contractors to help support the P-3C aircraft, but did not report to the embassy or consulate. Four of them were part of a Lockheed Martin contract engineering and technical support team, he added.

But...Chinese re-fitting a P-3 Orion???

Tornado is an AirQuake, an upsdown Tsunami

I'm trying to come to grips with something that can tear, "a path a mile wide and four miles long destroying homes and businesses."
An earthquake strikes unseen and from below in a fitful shaking, wrenching, slip-fold of the earth's crust as it flexes its skin while asleep.
But this un-angelic Wind of Hell spawns in descent, spinning from angry turbulent clouds that roil across the surface, and mows a swath of destruction like an upside-down airborne tsunami casting houses and people aside.
My prayers go out to the folks of Joplin.

Friday Propeller

The The Collings Foundation airplanes are back at Moffett this weekend (and the rest of the upcoming week), so here's a Maui propeller.

The end game, exposed

From one of my favorite GunBloggers, pantsless Robb Allen of the ParaJarrettBlackwaterBloggers (how I file my bookmarks):

The end game, exposed

Gun banners

Continuing my ‘Link to Sean’ theme, something I’ve always believed has had yet more proof thrown on the stack. This is from a book from a ‘big time’ gun controller, Josh Horrowitz

Recognize Insurrectionism as a threat to the entire progressive movement. Too many political progressives assume that the gun rights movement can be co-opted or simply ignored. Progressives fail to understand that the Insurrectionist idea is part and parcel of a broader reactionary worldview. Unless progressives recognize that the Insurrectionist premise of the modern gun rights movement is fundamentally hostile to the progressive project and its values, the "conservative" movement will use gun rights as a building block for organizing and propagandizing.

Why is the gun movement fundamentally hostile? Easy. Gun ownership is one of the major signs of independence, especially self-defense guns. By carrying a weapon upon your person or in your home, you signify that you are willing to stand up for yourself, that you do not intend to rely on the state to provide for your protection. Hunters show they do not need to rely on the USDA certifying their meats or the heavy taxation and regulations placed on the food supply. And self reliance is the death knell for ‘progressivism’, which demands that you bow before the all powerful state so that everyone can share in the misery.

And that ain’t going to happen.

This is why the Coalition to Stop Gun Ownership Violence has to resort to personal attacks and ‘outing’ gun bloggers (which, slathered in schadenfreude, has gotten them kicked off of Twitter) . It’s why they delete comments that do not tow the party line and are the prime reason the term ‘Reasoned Discourse’ is an oxymoron. Unless the comment contains threats, illegal material, blatant racism, or spam, they stay here. I don’t even have the mechanics behind the scene to moderate comments. I do this because I know the truth and that my beliefs can stand up to anything the anti’s can try to throw at me.

It’s cliché but it’s true; It’s not about guns, it’s about control. And the progressive mindset seeks to enslave you to an all powerful state, for your own good as you are too stupid to do it yourself. It is rather difficult to corral people into the boxcars though when they can shoot your ass.
posted @ 5/19/2011 9:56:05 AM 

As friend GunBlogger  Say Uncle observed:

self reliance is the death knell for ‘progressivism’

I’d like to believe that independent people are not viewed as a threat to progressive ideals. But, as Josh Horowitz indicates, even they don’t pretend that’s the case any more.)

Another friend Gunbloggger Kevin Baker commented there: A long time ago, someone using the handle “Ironbear” put it this way:

This is a conflict of ideologies…

The heart of the conflict is between those to whom personal liberty is important, and those to whom liberty is not only inconsequential, but to whom personal liberty is a deadly threat.

You said it yourself some time back: If you fuck with me bad enough, I’ll kill your ass.

That’s the ultimate statement of the sovereign individual, the anti-collectivist, the “reactionary.” AND THEY KNOW IT.

Your personal liberty is a deadly threat to them. Rob’s right, it is rather difficult to corral people into the boxcars when they can shoot your ass.

From my standpoint, the thing is, "Progressives" are the only ones committed to a late 19th Century Ideology, so they are the real reactionaries.

Observations on the Governator Hoochie-Mama

Observation Basis Point, START: A friend/an acquaintance from the old Usenet newsreader days of rec.motorcycles.dirt - when we all got online after a weekend dirt-riding or Enduro racing and swapped moto-lies for the rest of the week - used-to be a Cop. Then (when I first got to know him) he was a PI, then finally during this recent conflict he was back in the Army training Iraqi Cops in the Sand.
Anyhow, his PI stories of tracking-down small-town East-Coast loved-lost-badly were one reason he joined the Iraqi-Cop-Training gig - he got seriously fed-up with the Human Element.
And the basis behind that was that the guys who cheated on their wives were usually successful businessmen with enough money for hookers - but with very lovely, pretty, spouses that most men would be proud to stand next-to. So why go off and do the nasty? And why, invariably, when he'd tracked down said Nasty Jexxzebel Luv-Thief, was she often a fat pig? UPDATE: Oops, that's a judgment call.
Simply this: the often constant and frequent attention from Jexxzebel (usually someone close but un-suspected in the guy's orbit) led to immediate and quick gratification - and secondly the He-hubris. Gettin' away with it.
That's what I see in this deal, besides the years of sadness and pain that a few seconds of moist, intangible, physical excitement deliver. But Arnold, sheesh man... He really strayed from the Hollywood Crowd of willing participants and hit on Teh Help. Not like John Edwards who was his own fantasy Barbie...

View From the Fish House

The shoreline at Mama's Fish House always has an incredible view onto brilliant water.

The light and contrast is incandescent and clear, and there is no smog for three-thousand miles to dilute the vision.

Musical Curmudgeonhood

Borepatch's #1 kid likes Linkin Park, Kewl for Kidz! say I, but as a non-parent I don't have the lead-in for that...
So....Huh?
Just Saturday, sitting in the "Cabo-Wabo-Something" - the Sammy Hagar bar at the Kahului, Maui airport enjoying a stiff Tropical Itch, I noticed I was eyelessly watching a silent slide-show of his legendary Sammy-ness on a 72-inch screen. Who?
It was like a kaleidoscope - visual excitement without being brain-engaging. I made a small note then, that I was barely acquainted with his work (he was the other big-hair blond-guy in Van Halen, right?) and recognized ZERO of the other obviously famous faces his mug was up next-to, plastered on-screen... Sheesh. Did I miss something? Obviously. And not-having kids, too.
Upon reflection it seems my musical-world interaction stopped or tapered-off severely sometime in the early 80's - or branched so differentially and I simply stepped-off the pop-culture wheel somewhere after DeVo and New Wave - that whoever is common and known today is really a mystery to me. I seem to have achieved the fateful Nirvana of musical curmudgeon-hood. Is it because I entirely missed MTV? Cable TV?
I've *heard* of Linkin Park from the Noise-Machines, radio and TV or such, but never-ever listened to them. I've also heard (and even watched some episodes-of) South Park.
I think/I guess if they came on the radio I might change the channel as quickly as I changed anything on AM Radio that was mass-produced Bubblegum during the late 60's/early 70's. The music seems to strain towards Emo and wants to give me a slight headache, and I would be hard-pressed to recognize that there are lyrics involved.
*sigh* I am doomed.
It's not that I appreciate something like Dixiland Jazz more - or even at all - nooo! Gaah! Can't stand it... Slack-key is ok, but in small doses. Music with a capital-M just doesn't do much to steer me around anymore and my mosh-pit days are a dim memory, not well-lit or too much enjoyed.
Since this is a long and worthless comment I will reproduce it on my own blog, thanks Ted, for the inspiration!

Best Entertainment?

I got nominated too. Brian at Lucky Gunner ammo company said I was in. Ok, now what? :-)

UPDATE: To be clear, I am unable to attend the Great LuckyGunner MemorialDay GunBlogger MachinegunFest, since it's held clear across-country and I am without ticket-funds (among other things) - but I wish them well, and every good happiness and congeniality!

NRA and CRPA files against LAPD

Since they act like they're above the law we have to bring them down to reality: NRA/CRPAF Lawsuit Filed to Force LAPD to Comply with Court Ordered CCW Permitting Process.

Under Penal Code § 12050, et seq., the LAPD has an obligation to process applications for CCWs, and to issue CCWs if the applicant has "good cause." For many years, the City and the LAPD had a policy of not making applications available, never finding good cause to exist, and effectively prohibiting the issuance of any CCWs.

That kind of BS has to stop. It's flat-out illegal and discriminitory.

Under Penal Code § 12050, et seq., the LAPD has an obligation to process applications for CCWs, and to issue CCWs if the applicant has "good cause." For many years, the City and the LAPD had a policy of not making applications available, never finding good cause to exist, and effectively prohibiting the issuance of any CCWs.

And so the battle continues.

The LAPD has repeatedly failed to honor its legal obligations under the settlements. The LAPD no longer makes CCW applications and a written copy of the CCW policy and appeal process available at all station houses. And the LAPD is ignoring the recommendations of the Citizens Advisory Review Panel and has instead enacted a de facto policy of again issuing no CCWs, despite whatever showing of good cause the applicants might make.

Bring on the lawfare.

Internet Free Content

What is it?  It's yummy.  It's no-internet, it's pre-television, it's antediluvian radio...

Happy Moms