Something to keep you cool this summer

The Greatest Generation

This came through my network of e-mail forwarding intelligence gatherers. This gentleman appears to have it right. The 73 year old veteran was at a gathering where Ted "Ossifer, I'm not as think as you drunk I am" Kennedy and Hillary "I don't want socialized medicine, I just want your tax money to pay for it" Klinton were addressing Veterans of Foreign Wars.

Josh is down! Josh is down!

Well, I'm having a hard time these days, just getting through the hours till bedtime. My boy Josh, the South Park Pundit, has had some administrative issues, and his blog is offline right now.

Josh and I go back a ways; we used to work together at The Edge several years ago. Good times. He's one of those rare curious types who has a voracious appetite for information and learning, which means we got along right off the bat. Its all about the nomenclature, baby! He's young, but he's got a good, strong analytical mind, which is rare anymore. He's usually got something good to read up on posted on his brog, and most of the time I at least get a grin out of it, if not a real, live LOL.

Keep an eye out for his blog once he's back online. He's gotten his account settled up; matter of fact, he got it squared away several days ago. That means that rant that's coming is going to be epic. Keep an eye on it; it'll be worth it!

Its grillin' season!

I picked myself up a small gas grill over the weekend (I know you purists say its all about the charcoal, but its a pain in the ass and I like the heat control of gas much better) and have started back to grilling. When I was in San Diego, I grilled regularly. How could I not? Its grill weather 359 days a year there. That kind of great weather means friends getting together all the time, and gettin' some meat on the Wagon Queen Family Grillster was a required event. Lemme tell ya: my friends can cook and party like pros. I have to coin a phrase: gargantuan awesomeicality. I miss it. Bad. Even with the new grill, I still miss it. Bad. Bad as in lots. Lots and lots. Good times.

So I got this new little grill that's perfect for a couple steaks. Being out of practice, I forgot to grab the garlic bread. I don't remember the brand; its Mama-soemthinerother. Wrap it in foil, throw it on the grill for a few minutes, and mack deeply of its buttery garlic gargantuan awesomeicality. That'll be for next time. Now, being a new toy, I was getting out of control in what I wanted to do with it. After a while, I decided that it really wouldn't pay to spend $30 on dinner without having draft brews to go with it. Being devoid of a keg, I finally realized that I would be better served by going simple. I'm very, very glad I did.

Part of going simple is getting your hands into the work; getting dirty, so to speak. For a decent piece of steak, all you really need is some fresh ground sea salt (I used garlic sea salt for this, but I like using cloves of garlic from time to time, too), some fresh ground pepper, and a good extree viriginical olive oil; I very much prefer the first press EVOO's. They're worth the slight extra cost. Give the steak a good coat of EVOO, being sure to get the edges of the steak, too. Give it a bit of a rub to work the oil into the meat a little. Bust out the salt and pepper, and give it a good coat; you'll end up with a bit of a crust if your grill is hot enough. Once nice thing about the oil is that you don't have to oil the grill grate. You'll get minimal sticking, as well as great flavor.

Fire up your grill while the oil and seasoning gets happy on your steak and soaks in a little. Get the grill hot, and place your steak in the middle. Close the lid. Let it sear for a minute. Literally a minute; don't go much more than that or you'll rough up your meat, and so far its done nothing bad to you. Flip it over, and let it sear another minute. Now, here's where I really prefer gas: turn the heat down to between medium and low, depending on your grill. That's hard to do with charkle brickits; ya gotta wait 'em out. So you've got that thing on low heat. Don't leave it on more than a couple minutes or you're over cook it. Take that bad boy off the grill with tongs. Don't go pokin' holes in the steak with the fork; that's counter-meatative. Trust me on this: the less damage you do to the meat, the better it is. The best part of grill tongs is that they're nice and wide (most of the time; if yours aren't, invest in some quality tools!) so that you can pick the steak up in one go and set it on the plate. The less you bend it, the more juice it'll hold in. That's important. If you don't, the steak police will come beat you with tongs and barbecue sauce brushes. Don't risk it.

Let the steak rest. That means leave it on the plate and leave it be. Resist the temptation to molest your meat. Now's the time for the side dishes. I made two side dishes: salty buttered corn and Haji's Heart Stopping Baked Tater. Take a good sized spud and wash it good. Dirt is not tasty, so be rid of it. Take a knife and score it end to end. Make a couple X's on the ends, too. Now its time to get messy again. Take either butter or margarine (your choice; I actually prefer margarine, believe it or not) and rub that bad boy with it. The tater, foo'. Get a good coat on it, and dust that beastie with garlic salt. You can either wrap it in foil and grill or bake it, or throw it in the microwave. Both ways work; the micro is faster. If you bake it or grill it, add some onions in the foil with it. If you do it in the micro, put it in a micro-safe bowl. You'll see why shortly.

OK, so the tater is done cookin'. Throw it in a bowl, slice that thing up and spread it out. Add a good bit of butter, and top it with a handful of sharp cheddar. Other cheeses work, but the charp cheddar is my favorite. Throw it back in the micro and melt the cheese. Take it back out, and throw a fat blob of sour cream on top. Try not to faint from its gargantuan awesomeicality.

The corn is easy, but damn tasty. Cook it, drain it, butter it, salt the heck out of it. Try not to faint from its gargantuan awesomeicality. I'm tellin' ya, its simple but its so money and it don't even know it.

Like I said, its really, really simple, but simple is key here. Simple is not just good; its great. Now that grillin' season is here, I think I'm gonna have a lot more to add here. And I realize this post is useless without pics. ;)

Nazis? I hate Illinois Nazis!

So I'm watching The History Channel, AKA the War and Destruction Channel, AKA Among the Very Best Channels on TV, when The Secret History of the KKK comes on. Like everything on THC, production value was excellent, and it was very well done. I'm sure the snotzie's didn't like it, but it seemed to me that it was a solid depiction of the events of history. Sure, it had an anti-hate slant to it, but that's OK with me. It made more sense that way. I used to watch that encephalitic moron Tom Metzker's cable access show "Race and Reason" back in the day. That seems to be about the best the neo nazis can do, which was equal parts comedy, relief, and dismay for me. I'd have loved to see some choice bits of "Race and Reason" to have made it into the History Channel; anything that helps the skinhead movement look as ridiculous as they are is a good thing.

The show brought up a couple questions in my mind, though. First and foremost, how is it that the snotzies were called the National Socialist German Workers' Party, and yet their ideology was anti-communist? I can see them hating Russians, I guess, but communism is just socialism without the intellectual honesty. There is no way to get to commie-ism without going through the Democratic Party...I mean...socialism. The Third Reich was clearly a socialist state, with a dicktaster...uh...dictator as its head. And yet the snotzis proclaimed that communism was not their friend. Current snotzies look at Hitler's administration at a model. Its no wonder it only worked one time in one particular place in the world: even the snotzies didn't have a grasp on what their ideology really was. Nice job picking your role models, guys. Great choice.

The second question that came to mind is this: what happens when you get your way? Say we end up segregated, Whites over here, Blacks over there, Hispanics over there someplace, and the Orientals happily living where they already do for the most part. The Orientals may have it right: islands have that whole beach thing going on, and I suspect that rum would be available ;). So there's this perfect separation of races; Cletus doesn't have to have niggers, kikes, zipperheads, or anyone other than his airian brothers in his neighborhood. The perfect race utopia, right? I guess so; since I'm white and I'll be living there, theoretically, I'm gonna need somebody to sweep the streets, wash my truck when I don't want to, and fill all those undesirable positions that are shown on Dirty Jobs. See where this is going yet? My education, skills, and talents will put me further up the ladder than ol' Cletus will be, and he'll be in the same position he always was.

Lemme spell it out for the thicker ones amongst us: your hate is nothing but a crutch. You complain about the Jews taking over everything and suppressing you, the proud white man that can only get a job where he has his name on his shirt. You complain about the black man getting preferential treatment through affirmative action and getting ahead of you. All you've done is let your hate get in the way of your progress. Ever wonder why the depictions of race haters are generally done with teeth missing, bad haircuts, and stained T-shirts? Because there's truth to it. Sure, you have that "uniform" of the tight jeans and suspenders that we all suspect was borrowed from Steve Urkel. Its obvious that there's not an educated person among you.

So you have hate. How has any of that made your life better? How has the quality of your life improved from this? What's been made better by all this? You spend so much time whining about other races not giving you your due that you've become exactly the same as generations of people on welfare. You spend all your time worrying about everybody else when you should be worrying about making yourself better. And ya know what? It works exactly the same with haters from every other race, too. You'll never amount to much of anything believing what you do. You'll never get over, never have more than you do. That's sad; you're so worried about somebody else that you're sacrificing your life to it.

What's worst of all? For most haters, nothing will change. That being said, I guess that gives me license to use you guys as a source of comedy whenever it suits my purposes.

The NRA

I've been a member of the NRA for quite a long time, probably more than 20 years. In that time, I've seen a lot of both good and bad happen to gun owners. Clinton's gun ban, as well as the town of Kennesaw GA passing an ordinance that every home must have a gun in it. We all know that nothing happened to the crime rate while my AR was illegal. Care to take a guess at what the crime rate in Kennesaw has been since that ordinance was passed?

In that time, and in light of current pending legislation where the NRA and the Dumbocrats have agreed in principle, I wonder if the NRA is the best choice to invest in the defense of our gun rights. The Assault Weapon Ban was passed on their watch. Lots of other minor things have happened in the past 20+ years as well, and that fact has many gun owners, especially the ones who take the purpose of the 2nd Amendmentseriously, wondering if the NRA has their best interests at heart. They wonder if the NRA is worth the investment in defense of own rights. They wonder if the NRA is looking out for them, since they don't shoot an expensive side by side shotgun or a blued steel and walnut Pre-64 Winchester Model 70 in .30-06 or .270. It has appeared in the past that the shooters of military-style weapons, which are what the 2nd Amendment was meant specifically for, are sacrificial lambs in terms of legislative politics. I'm not sure that's true.

Let's face it: up until gun owners got out and voted the bums out, and really made the Dumbocrats bleed about a dozen years ago, the NRA was fighting a defensive fight. They took the offensive from time to time, but most of their time and money got spent fighting the restrictions that the legislature that the Dumbocrats controlled for about 30 years came up with. It was rare that there was pro gun legislation to get behind, and by the time it got through the process, there were so many other riders attached that most of the time they couldn't continue to back the law.

The NRA is the big dog of the gun lobby. There are over 3 million members, which gives the NRA quite a lot of political clout. Now that some of the most anti-gun legislators have been voted out, primarily by gun owners, the rest of congress and the senate are listening to what the NRA lobbyists have to say. They may not do what gun owners want all the time, but they may refrain from doing what we don't want them to do. Out of respect or fear...who cares. Get 'em doing what we want.

So the question now is, does the NRA have all gun owner's rights equally in mind? I'm not sure I'm completely sold on the NRA being the standard bearer for all weapons equally. I can't point to anything off the top of my head that makes me say that, but its a gun feeling that I can't shake. Perhaps its because the hunting arms are easier to defend, or at least they were. Now that the hunting groups are coming under increased fire as well, things may be evening out. That said, now that the NRA can go on the offensive on occasion, so they should have the chance to try to get some good black rifle legislation passed. I'll back 'em all the way and back if they make that happen.

Are they the best choice for defending your rights with your hard earned ducats? I'd like to examine that a little bit. The implied question here is "are there better choices to give your money to?". Wow...I finally get to use something I learned in College: opportunity cost. Since you do not have unlimited funds to spread evenly amongst all the possible choices, you as the individual donator (donateist?) must choose where your funds are going to be spent. That's opportunity cost: doing one thing with your money means the opportunity cost of that action is that you can't use that same money somewhere else. There are lots of other gun groups to join, in national, state, and local forms. Here's the thing, though: none of them come close to rivaling the NRA in membership. There may be a couple of them that have a few million members, but the NRA is the beast. They're also one of the oldest, if not the oldest, which means they have their lobbying efforts down to a science.

If you have the funds to join several groups, then by all means, do so. If you're a gun owner and you're not doing something to defend your rights, then you're being a tick on the rest of the gun owners that are. I'm not saying you must be a member, but with membership fees at a paltry $35 a year, there's not much reason not to join up. As long as the NRA is the big dog on the porch, I see little reason to avoid being a member. While other groups will surely be working hard to preserve your rights, being a member of the biggest organization going really makes the most sense and puts the most effort out.

I have worked for a couple companies that have made a similar mistake: they have a disagreement with a vendor, and decide to drop them. The question that doesn't get answered is "Great. Now what? What are we going to replace the hole you just put in the inventory with?" Ya gotta bring something in, because you just caused a headache for yourself. If you haven't, you probably didn't need to carry that line in the first place. That's not the case here: ya gotta replace the nothing with something. I suppose the bottom line is, if you're a gun owner, join the NRA. If you can't do that for whatever reason, give your support to another group. Now is the time for gun owners to stand tall. Things are not likely to get better without a lot of work, but they can get worse in a heart beat. Do something.

Sometimes I miss the old days

Sometimes there's a reason to feel nostalgic. In many ways, technology and the like are far better now than they've ever been. Advancements have been made in many of my favorite areas: food, beer, electronics (can't afford it, but I think its cool), gear, and firearms, among others. There's even a Coke Zero now, and it doesn't taste like ass. There are cars out there now that can be had new for $15,000 (I know it won't have much on it, but it'll have wheels and a seat) that can go 30 miles on a tank of gas. The art of the carne asada burrito with sour cream and cheese added has been perfected for less than a fiver. Not here, mind you, because Messican food doesn't exist here, but they have 'em in California. I've had 'em, I know its true. 'Course, here we've mastered the $15 half rack of ribs to go. Its not the same, but it must do. The gas piston AR can be had for about what a high end DI gun goes for (I know, HK uppers sell for between $2500 and $5000, but since they'll never sell them on the civi market it doesn't count).

All these advancements were shown to pale in comparison to one Ol' Skoo' way of doing things: the epic summer blockbuster at a single screen theater. I remember seeing Hunt for Red October at a BIG single screen theatre in La Mesa. That place is a Good Guys stereo store now, and it hurts to see it. That old theatre had the ginormous screen, the Voice of the Theatre audio system...it was a great experience. The seats were like the first class seats on a cross country flight. I don't think they had cup holders-its been a while-but the seats were thick, wide and had legroom in spades. I will grant that stadium seating is pretty cool, but the seats are smaller, closer together, and its easier to hear the bung hole behind you on his stupid cell phone.

Back in the day, that screen was about a story tall. If you were in the front row, the screen was so large that all you saw was Sean Connery's nostrils. Not even the plural; just one, really. I'd have loved to see POTC: The End of the World on that screen. I saw it last weekend at our local theatre. Its a nice place; well cared for, nicely decorated, fairly comfortable, and supremely expensive. But its just not the same with that little screen. The sound is probably even better, but it all pales in comparison to that huge single screen. What a pity.

The fact is movies have gotten so expensive to make that single screen theatres are just not efficient enough anymore. That's why there's a 4567-plex theatre in the malls now, with chairs smaller than a bucket and screens the size of a piece of paper turned sideways. The ticket is $15 and a bag of popcorn and a drink is $157...plus tax. And, because of those exorbitant costs, we end up with stuff like The Hills Have Eyes 2. That means that the summer blockbuster and the single screen theatre will never happen again. That is, unfortunately, technology costing us one of the greater experiences that used to be available. And that truely is a pity.

Dragon Skin: more marketing than fact

I've been skeptical of Dragon Skin armor for quite some time, mainly, that only one company was doing it. Armor has been around long enough that pretty much everything has been tried, excepting new materials that haven't been invented yet. What that means, basically, is that if Dragon Skin worked like TV like Future Weapons (which should be called Current Weapons, but that's another post) shows claim it does, there would be other companies making a similar product. What about patents, I hear you say? Have you looked into how much money Armor Holdings brings in per year? If this stuff worked, they'd own DS. Believe me, they have enough capital to buy any armor company in the world. Matter of fact, I would wager that the ones you've heard of are Armor Holdings companies.

Of course you don't believe me because you've called DS "The Greatest Thing in Armor Since Excalibur Was Forged" on a forum somewhere, and this is your Scared Cow...uh...Sacred Cow. Now that the testing info is coming out, you don't have to believe me. Believe an expert instead!

Flexible Rifle Resistant Armor Vs. Monolith Hard Plate Inserts


There is a raging debate as to which is superior against high powered rifle rounds, the flexible Dragon Skin (DS) body armor, or

the Interceptor Body Armor (IBA). There have been claims that the military has purposely failed DS because they didn't invent it,

and there are also numerous videos on the Pinnacle Armor web site and other places as well demonstrating the amazing performance of DS.

The debate has heated to the point where a major news media show "NBC Dateline" has seen fit to get involved , and that has caused Congress to call for a hearing on the matter all to make sure that our troops are getting the best equipment available especially as it relates to life saving equipment.

This is a very complicated subject and for the most part it boils down to testing to determine superior performance, but what kind of testing and how should it be performed to ascertain side by side comparative data? We have seen the demonstrations on Pinnacle's website, some video clips on the Army testing, and we have seen NBC's Dateline arrange what appeared to be independent testing. So what does it all mean?

In our view not a lot has been determined other than the DS Level 4 armor hasn't passed First Article Testing required by the Army.

We have constructed an analysis of the various tests people have seen, and why they are not conclusive in determining which armor system is best for the Army.

Beginning with Pinnacle Armor's website please draw your attention to the video titled, The History Channel Test Lab. It's located in the lower left corner of the page.

Dragon Skin Videos

When you view this video there are two separate tests. Referring to the first one where the Fresno Police take their shots against Dragon Skin using 7.62mm x 39mm ammunition allegedly brought in from Iraq. There were no identifying marks on the ammunition to prove they were armor piercing, no shrapnel recovered to prove it either, just a mention that it was steel cased and that it was real military ammunition. The ammunition was then referred to as military ball rounds, which indicates a soft core of lead. Nevertheless even if it was a mild steel core 7.62mm x 39mm rifle round with a steel jacket it would be representative of one of the most common threats, and it travels at about 2300 Ft./Sec., and represents some of the easiest military rifle rounds to defeat. With a full coverage DS vest it's easy to stop that many rounds, and I would say that with equal coverage using a hard plate version the performance would be relatively similar and at a lighter weight. The rest of the test involves 9mm ammunition being fired into ceramic rubble, previously defeated rounds, and the final backing material representative of a typical soft armor vest . Plus the test was conducted on a moving fixture at only a 90 degree angle to the target (this is important as we will show later in this analysis). This test really looks impressive, but in reality it's not, it's typical of today's armor, with the only real advantages being flexibility, and increased square area of coverage without gaps, which we agree are great features, but at a weight penalty that may or may not be acceptable to the various end users that would consider DS.

The second part of the test discusses the biggest threat to American troops called IED's, and the havoc these threats have caused in Iraq. The Hollywood stunt fabricators were called in to devise a method of creating a "realistic" IED threat using a fabricated air gun, launching manufactured shrapnel at about 900 Ft./Sec.. This was the worst test of all. The manufacturer was quoted by the narrator as not knowing what would happen, when in fact it was a known commodity the whole time. Any ballistic expert would have no problem predicting that steel shrapnel traveling at 900 Ft./Sec. would never get through a level 3 or 4 DS armor or hard plate armor like the IBA system, and in no way was the air gun even close to representing what a real IED can do in the battle field. Some of these IED's in fact have been known to penetrate Abram's tanks as quoted by numerous sources within the military.

The problem here is that these "testing shows" are designed to show Dragon Skin off in a positively amazing light to those who don't know the facts about ballistic testing.

In the video titled Discovery Channel Future Weapons the narrator and the hairless man firing the weapons made numerous comments about how awesome the AK-47 was, and how much punch it possesses, but in fact again there is no actual qualification of the round. Even if it were an API version (the worst of the AK-47 threats), which travels around 2500 - 2600 Ft./Sec. it doesn't matter, clearly plate technology is on par if the sizes were the same at a fraction of the cost. Once again the only real advantage proven is the flexibility and square area coverage, which we all agree is a fantastic thing, but says nothing as to whether or not it's a superior body armor. Another suspect issue is the distance at which they fire the rifles rounds, in almost every instance that we can see it's from about 20 feet. Typically it takes a rifle round nearly 50 feet to achieve a true spin, and up until that point it tends to wobble, and this very much plays into showing off performance you wont see at the ballistic testing laboratory.

There is also one video running around that shows off the newest level 5 plate, and a demostration that is supposed to show how it compares to steel plate and level 3 or 4 ceramic hard plates. There is no direct comparison of a level 5 Dragon Skin flexible insert and a Level 5 hard ceramic insert.

This is the theme in all the videos; moving test fixtures, unqualified rounds, distances that are an advantage to the armor performing better, comparative testing for fragments and other threats that really aren't comparative. No one is saying that DS isn't a great idea, and in the level 3 threat DS has probably proven all it needs to in order to be adopted by the police, SWAT, and "special ops" missions, but what about the big Army?


Military Testing

Go here to see video footage of Dragon Skin being tested in a real laboratory with a stationary test fixture with armor clearly being

tested in the areas where the Interceptor Body Armor would be tested against the APM2, the Army's projectile of choice. There were reportedly

many penetrations on various environmentally conditioned vest units. Clearly the video showed Mr. Murray Neal witnessing a clean hole in DS right in front of him with no excuses.

The Pinnacle Armor representative was probably afforded the opportunity to examine the bullet before it was hand loaded. The military tests differently than the NIJ for police body armor and for good reason, armor and other types of military equipment are subjected to grueling conditions in the field, and need to be either easily repaired or maintained and/or proven not to be susceptible to failure under the toughest conditions. This part of the market development can't be faked or jazzed up by movie or TV guys, this is real, and the laboratory only touched the surface of some of the weaknesses of the current model of DS with respect to facing level 4 threats.

Let me explain what I mean. The NIJ has developed a whole different test protocol for testing scalar armor. The reason is simple, the tiles pivot and move as armor bends around the body, and are adhered into place with adhesive coated fabrics. The tiles tend to open a bit as it makes the bend around the body, and this has led the NIJ to test at high angles of incidence. Soft body armor is tested twice on each panel at a 30 degree angle, and scalar armor in order to pass the standard must defeat additional rounds at extreme angles i.e. 30, 45, and even 60 degrees. They also are allowed to position the armor so you don't impact an area where the tiles overlap. This NIJ protocol should include a curvolinear clay filled torso box so that the armor is tested in the manner that it is worn, and precise positioning so the weakest point is impacted on every shot. Scalar armor systems are only as strong as the weakest link.

The Level 3 threat is typically less problematic than the level 4 APM2, and that's why we have seen a level 3 pass and a First Article Test (FAT) failure. The Army knows the weak spots, and they are going to test them. Review the illustration below to see our point:




Ray Segment "A" represents the path of a bullet at a test laboratory that is perpendicular to the backing box. The Dragon Skin armor is sitting flat, and we are illustrating a side view of how each tile is overlapped, and the fact that these tiles do not sit flat. They are angled against the 90 degree strike represented in ray segment "A". This angle gives a great advantage to the armor.

Ray segment "B" represents the corrected angle of attack with respect to the angle the tile actually sits when flat as depicted by angle "C".

Angle D is a reference point depicting a 90 degree angle to the backing box and parallel to ray segment "A".

Understanding the above pictorial representation lends an understanding of why you don't test this type of armor flat, and why you don't shoot at a 90 degree angle with respect to the backing box if you want to see how the armor performs at a true 0 degree obliquity at the weakest point.

When you flex the armor around the body the tile angles are exacerbated, and thus the importance of determining real 90 degree angles with respect to the test specifications is paramount. This means that you must adjust the backing box so that the tile is at the true angle of incidence called for in the specification with respect to the test barrel, and aimed at the exact weakest spots on every shot. Failure to do this will eliminate the possibility of evaluating a scalar armor design's efficacy. The Army wants to know this, and they will test scalar like this, it's that simple. If it can't pass at the weakest point, or after tough environmental conditioning tests that the Army requires then why should it be adopted as the best the armor for the Army?

NBC Testing

We have reviewed the date line testing in Germany, and could not see any testing that addressed the issues above with respect to how the tiles sit on a flat block of clay. It all appeared to be 90 degrees to the test box. To do a side by side test you would mount the interceptor body armor and then swivel the clay box to a 30 degree angle on every shot, but honestly since it is DS that has the weak points, all shots should have hit the weakest point, and at the best angle to create real 90 degree perpendicular shots with respect to the tile instead of the test box. So in effect this was not side by side testing unless they did some of the shot sequences as described above, but didn't actually show them on the broadcast.

The Bottom Line

At the end of the day this isn't a debate for the military and Congress to resolve, nor is it a an issue of which is better IBA or DS.

IBA in it's current form has passed First Article Testing, DS hasn't.

DS costs about 1800.00 dollars to manufacturer and is on sale for 5000.00 USD. If DS passes First Article Testing there are other consideration; Second Article Testing, weight, competitive bidding, and setting a manufacturer up to meet strict defense contractor QC guidelines and specifications. This takes a lot of time, and in the interim the question has been posed, "are the troops receiving inferior body armor"? They are receiving armor that has passed very tough testing, is serviceable in the field, and saves lives, and has passed (FAT). I agree that DS and other armors in the pipeline will replace IBA, as IBA is definitely coming to the end of it's generational life, but if we had adopted DS when Mr. Neal thought it was ready, we wouldn't be looking at some of the improvements he has made as a direct result of failures, and I would imagine that there will be more improvements as well before this controversy is decided.

One more point that I think is worthy of consideration. Hypothetically if a group of contractors collaborated and came up with a plane that met Air Force standards according to them, and if Congress bought them and delivered them to the Air Force, and they were told this is your airplane for the next ten years to defend this country without consulted or allowing the Air Force to test the plane during development, what do you think the Air Force would say, of course this wouldn't happen. So why should the Army have no say in what they are going to adopt as their infantry armor concept for the next 10 - 20 years. It is unrealistic to say the Army shouldn't have a big voice in what is going to be worn by the troops they train. The "video shows" and media hype has really undermined the effort to develop and procure new armor for our soldiers, and has caused a loss of confidence for the purpose of one manufacturer to try and land the richest body armor tender in military history, and that's very sad.

We are in the process of arranging testing of some of our designs with the military this summer and the one thing I want to leave all the readers with is a simple fact, "we are not a body armor manufacturer"; we sell components and arrange manufacturing, we are consultants, and intellectual property developers. So in theory Pinnacle Armor could actual be a customer of ours, although I doubt that the circumstances would come about to cause this to happen, but in theory any manufacturer of armor is potentially our customer for our new flexible rifle resistant armor. So although we have a look of a competitor, we are more about , consulting, and material & component sales. We are not as biased on this issue as some people involved.

Congress needs to look proactive or they lose votes, and an office that pays very well, NBC needs to sell advertising, Pinnacle wants to win the most lucrative military body armor contract ever tendered, and me, well I just want to make a good living doing what I have been doing since 1983, designing and developing armor systems and successfully bringing new concepts to market. The manufacturing part is no longer in our purview, but I did it for 12 years and invented the whole concept behind Dragon Skin, and that's a fact all backed by records you can't fake.

I invite anyone who has questions to contact me at your convenience.

Allan D. Bain

More articles regarding the politics of Dragon Skin can be found here.

The problem with Frankenguns: why parts guns fail under hard use

I recently had an online conversation with a very experienced shooter regarding his thoughts as to why "parts guns" fail in tactical carbine classes. This individual shoots 2-5 classes a year on his own dime. That doesn't count SWAT training, instructor classes, patrol rifle classes, in services, and other training he gets from his job in law enforcement. He shoots A LOT, under pressure. I trust his opinion. Here's the gist of what he theorized is the reason that parts guns, and factory guns from "tier two" manufacturers ( the commercial AR's on the market that are widely distributed) fail in hard use.

There are people all over the net arguing that their Bushmaster/Rock River/DPMS/stripped lower parts gun is "just as good" as the Kool Aid Brands. Here's why they're not: Mil Spec doesn't just mean parts interchangeability. It means "as spec'd by the government". Only suppliers to the government (Colt, LMT and FN) get a very expensive document called the Technical Data Package (TDP). These are the exact blue prints for a given model. What is suspected to happen with other brands is that they have obtained a gun that they believe to be in spec, and they reverse engineer the rifle to make their version. They're not making the guns off of the TDP; if they were, there'd be no such thing as a commercial spec receiver extension (buffer tube).

Its entirely possible for a rifle that's been built from parts from many different sources to run like a champ. That's unusual, in terms of hard use. A rifle may be able to shoot five thousand rounds per year with no problems. However, take that same rifle and subject it to a five day carbine course where you may shoot a thousand rounds a day, and you're subjecting it to much, much more stress. This is where rifles fail, and the parts breakage can't be narrowed to just one part or set of parts. Everything has been seen to break in classes if you've seen enough of them. This is exactly what the more high volume trainers will tell you; they've been saying it in classes, interviews, and magazine articles for years. For whatever reason, shooters have not been listening. They keep saying "My Brand Whatever rifle is every bit as good as" or "just as good as" or "the same thing cheaper as" the true Mil Spec guns are. The simple fact is, there is no proof for this. How many times do you need to see different pictures of "Brand Whatever" bolts that are broken before its enough? How many spring sets or pins or hammers or gas tubes and carrier keys coming loose have to be shown before the truth becomes obvious?

Here's the bottom line: if you really want a gun to stand up and run, you increase your chances DRAMATICALLY by going with a true Mil Spec gun. Sure, a Colt is hard to find and expensive. They seem to run at least $1200. LMT's are typically a bit more...but oh, so worth it. If I had an LMT to put up against Schwaggie, the difference would be striking. Cycle the bolt on an LMT. Then do the same thing to a commercial AR. You'll feel a very, very big difference in smoothness. Why is that? Blueprints. Yeah, it matters.

Happy Birthday, Duke!

Today would have been John Wayne's 100th birthday. A century later, he's still got unbelievable charisma and staying power. I'm still a huge, huge fan. The man was one of the originators of cool. The embodiment of the warrior spirit. A man's man. Would that I could have met him. There's not much about John Wayne that hasn't already been said, so I won't blather on about it with stuff that's already been covered. I will quote a line from one of my favorite Duke movies, The Quiet Man. I love this line because it encompasses how the Duke lived his life, standing up for what he believed in. As Sean Thornton, former boxer who killed a man in the ring, who's moved back to his ancestral home in Ireland:

'If you say "three," mister, you'll never hear the man count "ten." '

Update on Jim Zumbo

Pat Rogers posted an AAR re: his latest tactical carbine operator's course over on the Lightfighter forum. This was the class that Jim Zumbo is going to do an article for SWAT Magazine on. Pat had this to say about him:

This class had in it Jim Zumbo, whose comments on 16Feb set off a firestorm in the gun world.
I’ll let Jim state what he saw/ learned in the Aug SWAT.
My observations were that he was not the elitist/ pompous person that he was made out to be. He was genuine, sincere and humbled. He accepted the challenge to attend the course and did so in grand style.
He is a shooter, no doubt about that. He is not a fighter, and most of what we teach was alien to his lifestyle.
He never complained, never quit and maintained a terrific sense of humor. Jim shot one of my SLR’s with an Aimpoint as well as one of my 1911’s- another gun that he was unfamiliar with.
He learned a lot. He spoke candidly with the shooters, and they did the same.
His view on Wed was surely different then his view on Monday.
I’ll allow him to speak further about this in his article, and won’t entertain any questions about him, his performance or any other related subject.
I will say that I- we- had a great time, learned a lot, and hopefully see a way to unite the factions, sub factions and individuals that are destroying what we love from within.
There is an enemy out there, but it isn’t among us who own and use guns legally.

I'd like to offer my congradulations to Pat, Jim, and SWAT Magazine for making this happen. I'm really looking forward to getting Jim's take on something he's not familiar with. Should be very enlightening, and I expect I'll learn some useful things from that article.

Pat went on to say this:

I'm also looking forward to his story.
We can continue to mutilate his corpse, or have him as a friend in the fight against the socialists.
Having him with us denies his use to Brady bunch, and that is a very good thing.
It was a fun class - especially after we broke out the MK18, MP5, G18 and M249....

Now we know Jim's been "ruined" for life! There's nothing like a belt fed machine gun to make a pre-64 model 70 look less interesting. ;)

I for one, welcome Jim Zumbo into the realm of shooters as well as hunters, and I'm glad he's on our side.

Some great pics

These photos were taken by a friend of mine, Brad Nelson. These knives are both going to find their way to Ebay, hopefully bringing in a good sum of money. Both are moderately rare, and one is signed by Chuck Buck, the man who took Buck Knives from a well known American company to a really well known international company. These are going away to fund a tanto to be made by my friend Bill Harsey. Anyway! Check out these slick photos:

One of my all time favorite bass players

This is a clip of a solo by Billy Sheehan when touring with Mr. Big. Previous gigs include Talas and the David Lee Roth band with Steve Vai. Billy can also be heard with Niacin, which is a very different jazz group. He's with Dennis Chambers and a keyboard player who's name I can't remember. Its good stuff. Check it out; its not very much like this!

Terry Bozzio and Chad Wackermann

Here's something a little different for ya. Terry Bozzio played with Frank Zappa at age 18, and was in Missing Persons in the '80's. He's one of the best drummers you never heard of. Chad Wackermann's bio also reads like a who's who. Copied from his website: "He has also recorded 6 albums and toured with guitar legend Allan Holdsworth, played on the 'One Voice' album and video with Barbra Streisand, and recorded albums and toured with artists as diverse as Steve Vai, Andy Summers, Men At Work, Ed Mann, Albert Lee, Colin Hay, Dweezil Zappa and Tom Grant.

Chad has also toured with James Taylor, John Patitucci , Joe Sample, Banned From Utopia and The World Drummers Ensemble (Bill Bruford, Luis Conte, Dou Dou Ndiaye Rose and Chad Wackerman) and most recently toured the USA with another ex Zappa drummer - Terry Bozzio.

What's so hard about making a good show?

I'm flabbergasted at how quickly shows come and go on TV these days. Smith, which had a ginormous push before it went to air, only lasted something like five episodes. It had Ray Liota in it, and a pretty interesting story line. Its gone. There have been shows that were on and off TV so fast that I never saw them. Its amazing. It probably also explains why there's so much junk on TV. Ya can't spend that much money on a show and not have it hit, which explains the continual march of new reality shows (which are nothing of the sort) that get run out every time its the season for new shows.

I miss some programs that should have lasted and didn't. The problem is, in some cases, that the producers of said shows are too PC to take any criticism, even if the show was a great big fat hit. Case in point: Combat Missions. The only "reality" show I ever watched, and I never missed an episode. I watched the re-runs. If it was on, I was in front of the TV for it. The premise was to get martial professionals from several different jobs and have them compete. There were Special Forces, SeALs, Marine Force Recon, big city SWAT dudes, and even a guy from the CIA's Operations Directorate. They had tactical problems to solve, were given time to formulate a plan, and then the teams would execute the plan. At the time, it was a great big fat hit for USA Networks, and the producer of Slurvivor, Mark What'sisface. However, since 9/11, ol' Mark seems to think that nobody wants to see this kind of stuff. Oh, how wrong you are, Mark. It could be the feel good story hit of the year; hell, the decade. But he's afraid to do it again, and instead we're stuck with Dancing with the Has-Beens, and American Idle, and controversies about Mangina's (or whatever his name is) hair.

I was thinking recently about some of my favorite shows that aren't with us anymore. Sadly, there aren't that many that were just great and didn't catch on. There were a few:
The first season of Soldier of Fortune, Inc. That show was great. Actual weapons handling, actual tactics used, strong characters for the most part, and decent story lines. What it lacked was a sizable enough budget to pull it off as it shoulda been. It couldn't find an audience because of its weird time slots, and they screwed it all up in the second season. The concept was awesome, though. Even in the second season, with Dennis Rodman on the show, I never missed one. Firefly was obviously ahead of its time, and there are still a heck of a lot of viewers out there that want it back. That the movie ever got made speaks volumes regarding its popularity.

There is no new Miami Vice. There is no new Tour of Duty. There is no new SWAT, although they made a mildly entertaining movie loosely based on the characters from the series. I guess the bottom line is that its just to expensive to give the people what they want. By all means, lets run another cheap piece of crap "reality" show out there. Who cares if nobody is watching Big Brother. Its cheap. We'll keep making them.

Is this just a conspiracy to keep action off of TV?

What would happen if Carrie Underwood really did

Carrie Underwood has this real catchy tune out called "before he cheats". I kinda like the song; the hook is strong and her performance on that track is very solid, and emotionally powerful. The thing is, and this is what drives the people that work with me a little nutty, is that I pay attention to lyrics. In "Big Black Horse and a Cherry Tree", by KT Tunstall, I was the one who realized that the horse was the one who was doing the proposing, which freaked out my coworkers and caused them to dislike what we've come to call "the woo-hoo song". Besides how goofy the lyrics are, hearing it five times a day, 40 + hours a week is too much anyway.

So, when Officer Timmy came over to the shop today, I asked him what Carrie would be looking at for charges if she were to do what was claimed in the chorus. So you don't have to go look it up, being the kind and benevolent dictator of this blog that I am, I'm going to quote it for you:

That I dug my key into the side of his pretty little souped up 4 wheel drive,
carved my name into his leather seats...
I took a Louisville slugger to both headlights,
slashed a hole in all 4 tires...

Turns out that in Kentucky, that's called Felony Criminal Mischief. OT said that's what's typically charged when stuff like vandalism of more than a thousand dollars is involved. What you're looking at is five years in Federal Pound You in the Ass Prison. Typically, what happens is the charge will get plead down, and would normally end up with a couple years probation, and she'd have to either pay the deductible and and difference in the coverage to get the truck repaired, or she'd have to go out of pocket for the whole thing. If she fought it and lost, she'd be looking at max penalties, because her response was so far out of proportion to what he did to her.

I'm not in any way advocating cheating on your significant other. Doing that makes you pretty much a dirtbag, and there's no two ways about it, whether you cheat on her, or she cheats on you. If you're gonna cheat on 'em, just man up and break up with the chick. Sure its difficult, but it beats having to deal with a bunny boiler. I know some dudes on the Intarweb-not to name Wild Mustang's name, though-that have been there. Its endlessly entertaining for us, but its unnecessarily...griefy for you, and her.

Still, we all know what really happened in the story that the song presents: she goes to jail overnight (at least; that's assuming somebody makes bail for her) he knows she's gone for at least the night, and he ends up doing the horizontal mambo with her best friend and her other best friend, while her other best friend mans the video camera. We all know Carrie's best friend in this scenario is a hose beast who couldn't be trusted to stay out of anybody's pants. I'm sure she's a bleached blonde, too. We know how they are.

Leave the truck alone and just leave. How hard is that?

Non News Non Stories are abound tonight

OK, so its not exactly the hottest of the non-news regarding the VT shooter, but this story is the just about the height of the idiocy. Talk about trying to make something out of nothing. I suppose that blame must be laid somewhere other than with the dirtbag loser geek that committed the crime.

Wow, ten round magazines for his Walther P22. That's preposterous! Those are only for killing people. They have no sporting purpose whatsoever! They can carry those hollow point cop killer bullets, too! I gotta get me some rolly-eye emoticons if I'm gonna keep writing that sort of stuff. I guess I just wanted to stay in the same theme as the major papers have.

The only problem is, those magazines (at least the Chic Trib didn't call 'em "clips" for a change) are legal just about everywhere, including California. They're against EBay's policy, too, which is retarded...but that will have to wait as its a separate topic of its own. Bottom line is, this is a non-story.

The news is clearly looking everywhere other than where the blame truly lies. By omission, they're blaming both the EBay seller and EBay themselves. They're blaming his upbringing. They're blaming his personality; his taciturnity. Don't worry about not knowing that word, I had to go look it up, too. It means quietness, introversion. More specifically, it means being taciturn to the point of being a jerk; only volunteering the bare minimum of information (which will usually have to be pried out of the subject through repeated questioning) and being difficult to communicate with.

I'm somewhat of an introvert. I don't have much trouble talking to people I don't know, but I don't go looking for people to meet, either. Even so, one must learn to have at least a little bit of socialization skills to get by in the world anymore. I mean, this kid went from a country where family communication is paramount, and then went to a huge university. How can ya not at least come out of the shell a little bit? I'll call it like I see it: he's a jerk.

Here's the bottom line here: Dude was an ass. He did this. It all ends with him. Its all on his shoulders. The students there apparently made it easy for him, but its still all on him. Let's quit trying to blame everyone and everything else and put that blame where it belongs.

One last point, since I probably won't be on this subject again unless I get disgustipated and post about that. One of my friends, who's an SF Weapons Sergeant, made a good point yesterday. If I saw this skinny little twit come into a classroom, line everyone up and then shooting that first person, I'd have reacted like my bro. His comment was "...I'd be thinkin' 'what have I got to loose?' and get up and throw a fist at that punk" he then went on to pantomime pummeling him with fists and then giving him the boots and a good monkey stomping. Some of these kids at VT talked about "waiting to die, I guess". I can't even fathom that kind of thinking. I have a gun with me most days. It would be pretty clear that this guy had no training. The body count was so high not because he was so skilled, but because so many allowed it to happen. Unbelievable.

Maybe this will cause people to take their own safety seriously. Wow! You could get expelled for having the tools to defend yourself? Yeah, that sure pales in comparison to getting dead. I'm sure VT is the only school to go to, as well. Am I advocating the ignoring of school policy? Not as much as I am advocating being thoughtful about your own well being. I'd rather there would have been one guy there who chose to ignore policy and save the lives of a couple dozen people, including himself. Or herself.

Where Hollywood is blowing it

Hollywood, as we all seem to know, is somewhat out of touch with America. Both TV and film hardly ever get it right. The thing that kills me, though, is that its so clear what they should be doing that I can't believe they haven't latched on to it. They even employ professionals to assist with making movies, and they don't bother to ask "hey, what do ya think?" They'd get the right answer for free, and they can't even grasp it. New words can be coined: dufusism, doltocracy, moronicality quotient.

Over There could have been a big hit show. It had the production value, semi-interesting characters, and current story lines...sort of. The Unit may or may not be picked up for another season, but there are some other reasons for that besides half the story lines. At any rate, it got picked up for a second season, where Over There didn't.

Why is that? There's a fundemental difference between these to shows. OT showed soldiers in bad places, doing bad things, and making questionable moral decisions. In other words, they didn't paint soldiers in a particularly good light. The Unit may not be picked up long term, but I believe one of the main reasons the show got a full season purchase is that it depicts America's top warriors doing great things as American soldiers. The holes in the show are aggravating and don't have to be there, but that's a production problem that's a little outside the scope of this missive.

If Hollywood wanted to find another huge hit, they need to do two things: first, realize what is so great about "300": honor, integrity, self sacrifice, and the warrior spirit, among other great qualities. People connect with those ideals. They understand being part of something bigger than themselves. Secondly, they need to understand that America is ripe for a new "war" movie, but one with a different focus. We're ready for a film that paints American soldiers in a positive light, and shows the great heroism and power of the American fighting man. I even have just the story for them.

ODA 555, The Triple Nickle. Everyone on that team that I've met has been a great guy; they're all stand up dudes. Funny, professional, serious. The Triple Nickle was the first ODA into Afghanistan after 9/11. It was the Triple Nickle, with CIA team Jawbreaker, that finally broke the Northern Alliance free and pushed the Taliban out of power. Who wouldn't want to see a big budget action movie about that piece of history? How awesome would that be? Completely mind blowing, is how that'd be! And they wouldn't have to write up some goofy improbable story, like the hokey love story angle that ruined Pearl Harbor. All they have to do is relay what really happened. America would love it. Of course, the same Islamic whackos that set fire to things over comics and protested "300" so vigorously would hate it, which is as good a reason as we need.

My job puts me in contact with America's heroes every day. I have come to know and love them. They're amazing people. John Wayne said about Special Forces in Viet Nam "Somebody needs to tell their story". That time has come again. These men deserve it, and America needs to at least have an idea of what they did. These heroes deserve a proper treatment with no crap added in. And it'll make billions.

Tough going in these parts

Having just watched the very good Casino Royale, I decided that Daniel Craig as Bond has some definate Piratical qualities. If we could get him away from Martini's, we might find even more of the Pirate Soul in that character. What he really needs is the Sonny Crockett of the Miami Vice movie pirate-ness; i.e. an affinity for rum.

Of course, I'm dying to see POTC: The End of the World, which comes out soon. I'm definitely feeling the Inner Pirate these days, after spending the first weekend in April in Vegas (see some of the fun that ensued in the previous post here). Most of the Monday that wasn't spent in bed was spent poolside in a cabana at The Molded Nugget...I mean...the Golden Oldie...I mean...the Golden Crunchlet. Its that one place downtown. They spent a sizable sum of money renovating the place, and its not the dump I remember from a few years back. The pool is pretty slick. The best part of that pool, though, was the bottle of rum that is no longer with us, because of that facilitator named Coke. Coke tries to be all smooth and mild mannered. Coke is supposed to be the can you can take home to meet yer significant other's family with. That sick bastard is wearing an aluminum veneer, though. He's all about egging on the other bottles. Coke's just sitting in the fridge, acting like he's not doing anything wrong, and all of a sudden, the Captain Morgan's bottle is empty, and most of the Coke's gone, too. He's a sneaky little cheat, that guy. Don't let him tell you any different.

After having watched Casino Royale, and not particularly wanting to sit home all day-I did get a lot of work done around here, but still-I decided that I was in need of some rum. The problem is, the one really big spirits dealer I know if is an 1/8th of a tank of gas away, and at current prices on a Saturday evening, it didn't seem like a good bet. I went to the next biggest one, which happens to be up the street just a little bit. Turns out their selection of rum is pretty weak. I knew I didn't want Malibu, and it was kinda downhill from there. I ended up bringing home a bottle of The Captain, Spiced. If you don't know who the Captain is, you're probably too young to be reading my blog. Shoo.

I have also rediscovered juice of late, and have a particular fondness for Dole's strawberry, pineapple and tactical banana blend. Turns out it works nicely with about half a glass of the Cap'n, and the other half of the glass being Dole's. Over ice, because even though its been raining today, its somewhat warm, and I wanted a Caribbean vibe anyway.

Still, I feel sort of let down by what I found at the store. The prices weren't even that great. Normally, I'd hit up the Intarweb and have some stuff shipped to me, but because there are dry counties here, places won't ship to K-tucky. Poop. There are some rather exotic rums I want to get my hands on...as well as some less exotic ones. Several have been recommended to me, the one most often so is Castillo. Supposedly better than the Cap'n, and about half the price. Good mixer, and probably better for that. Not as much a sipping rum; its very closely related to Bacardi. The Big B is a good mixer, but I find it harsh for sippin' purposes. But then, I'd rather shoot Jack than sip it, and it's allegedly *takes hat off and holds it over heart* Tennessee Sippin' Whiskey. I still like it, but others are smoother and more drinkable. That's important to me; proving how tough I am by imbibing has never been my way. Probably because I saw the Hero to Zero Effect so many times while working as a bouncer back in the day. I don't drink for effect anymore; those days are long gone. Even though I do have a whiskey story to go with my tehkillya story, I can still drink whiskey. I hardly ever touch Brother Cuervo's offerings. Ever. Been there, done that, got the bus driving license.

So I suppose the quest is on for more education in the rum arena. If you have any suggestions off the beaten path, I'd be interested in hearing them.

The Best Friends in the World

I have come to a conclusion: the best friends in the world are those with automatic weapons. I spent my weekend (April Fool's Day, oddly enough) with a bunch of people I had only "met" online, most of whom I didn't know before getting to the range. Under normal circumstances, that might be troubling, but these guys are Megaforce. Trust them with your life, maybe your money, not your wife. Well, even the wife is safe with these folks.

What started as a simple PM to one of the moderators on the forum I administrate turned into a get together of Las Vegas Lightfighters (known both coloquially and warmly as LF'ers) and all their toys. My friends have the best toys.

Present at the shoot were:

• A civilian owned Knights Armament SR15 M4. I know; I didn't believe it till I saw it, either

• LFT15 Carbine serial #1

• Various M4's of the suppressed and unsuppressed varieties

• A very cool .45 ACP MAC-10

• A couple of Steyr AUG's, one in 9mm. That gun on full auto was FUN!

• HK-53, knicknamed Black Sex after having shot her. Even more FUN than the AUG

• An M60, MG42, RPD and an M1919 machine gun

There were more, such as an M1A with a Crane stock on it, a big fat pile of handguns, and enough ammo to make Sarah Brady cry. Twice. It was the bestest day in the world. There's video to prove it:

Politics

Went looking for surveys again, and found a political one. The results are here:

Another badass quiz from eSPIN-the-Bottle... What Are Your Politics? MY RESULT:Righty Hey, Nascar dad! Or Nascar mom, or Nascar kid, or whoever. You like Republicans, and you might like Nascar, and that’s why you’re reading this. Republicans are great, because they have good family values, a strong sense of tradition, and they're usually pretty snappy dressers. Seriously, khakis? You can never go wrong with khakis. Take This Quiz!

That I ended up "righty" isn't much of a revelation. Usually I score so far right that I score into the Nazi zone. I find that interesting, because they were socialists, which I definitely DON'T agree with. What was mildly interesting was that only 10% of the over 15000 teens that took that quiz scored as "righty". The rest were "lefty".

Kids, you need to know this now, because you'll find it out later. Instead of feeling lied to and betrayed later, feel it now so you can get over it: social programs don't work. They keep people subjugated to the government and effectively halt personal growth and achievement. On top of that, the money they're giving away to people who are not working is taking money away from your means to support your family. The Government is the worst possible way to redistribute wealth. As a matter of fact, they're the worst possible mechanism to achieve a whole litany of goals. Since your lefty enablers did such a bang up job of separating church and state (and getting it entirely wrong, by the way), the best mechanism for it, the church, isn't allowed to do so. So, we get a nice, fat, happy, self perpetuating bureaucracy in their place, with layer after layer of waste in the way of actually helping people who need it, and keeping people who could work from working. Oh, yes it does happen. Why do I have to be responsible monetarily for some jerk who decided to destroy his life instead of maximizing it? Why can't I be the one being supported by the government, i.e. draining working people's tax dollars away from more useful pursuits? The answer to that is: I wasn't raised to be a lazy-assed leech.

I know its hard to hear. You're young, you're still idyllic. Your eyes are not yet open to the reality of how hard life can be. As you age, you'll find I'm right. I'm just saving you some time now.

The Penguins are Lying!

I read this over on Risawn's blog. This is a review of Happy Feet, that just came out on DVD. She has an interesting perspective, check it out.

Who's smokin' dah rock at Quizno's?

I hate it when companies put bad commercials in heavy rotation. Geico's metrosexual homo cavemen has taken me to about the limit of my patience. If I see one more variation of the whiney punk ass caveman bitching about how bad his life is, I'm gonna club something. I'd prefer a caveman to take the cudgel to, but I might look elsewhere. Like the people in the new Quizno's commercial.

I've tried the new garlic prime rib sandwich. Its OK. Not the best ever, but OK. The commercial for it is making me crazy, though. Why? Cuz they have some fat ass gamer dweeb saying "Prime rib is the OOber meat". He sounds like he's saying prime rib is the Goober Meat. Go back to playing Worlds of Warcraft and leave the productive members of society alone, dude.

Then there's the skinny hose beast that says "Its not lackin' any meat. And that's what a woman really wants" followed by what is clearly and without equivocation the most irritating laugh ever. Worse than Rachel Ray. Where's my Blackthorne Stick? That woman should be seen and not heard...and not seen would be even better. The sandwich could be the best thing since Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, and the sandwich would still not be good enough to cover the stupid, irritating, gratingly moronic, recklessly aggravating commercial that advertises it.

Quizno's, you've done it again. You've given me reason to avoid your latest product. Geico did that a long time ago; good thing their prices did it even before the excessively stupid caveman commercials were aired.

Yes, I like adjectives.

Why you must see 300

Have you not seen "300" yet? Is there something wrong with you? There must be; this is a must see film. Think of the best movie you've ever seen. This one's better than that. Here's some reasons why you have to, in no particular order:

1. Its not a historical documentary; its based on a graphic novel. As such, the visual aspect of the movie is unlike anything else you've seen.
2. Its not The Grapes of Wrath. Even the simple amongst you are capable of following the story.
3. Spartan women are hot, tough, and not to be trifled with.
4. The one liners from this film warrant watching it several times. In IMAX if possible.
5. This movie has all the best things about the fighting spirit: honor, integrity, patriotism, truth, justice, and living by the warrior's code. If you don't understand these things, you're a liberal. Move to Cuba. Do it now.
6. Action. Lots of it.
7. Spartan women.
8. Its long enough that you get your money's worth without your butt falling asleep or having to sit so long you have to get up to take a leak.
9. Goosebumps. This has much to do with the display of the warrior spirit. If this doesn't get to you, you're sheeple. Move your candy ass to Cuba.
10. All your friends have seen it. You're not on the same page with your friends. They're talking about it, and you have no idea what they're talking about. You might as well move to Cuba.
    

Don't be a bozo. Go see this movie, or move to the aforementioned worker's paradise. Those are your choices.

So, so, so bad!!!

So I'm sitting here in front of my puter, running Open Office and being thrilled with all the financial formula calculators it has. Yes, I am doing the homework I was putting off doing in the previous post. I've got the "metal" channel on cable running through my "surround" system (better than nothin', but its about as cobbled together as it could be).

I notice this totally non-sensical sound coming through my speakers. Clearly, its some earnestly sincere hard rockin' types going at it as hard as they can. I turn around, read the screen, and do a literal LOL. The name of the band is, get this: Dying Fetus. No, really! That's their name. No! I'm serious!

The music, such as it was, sounds like stuff that was cutting edge speed metal in about 1990. The vocals reminded me quite a lot of my best belches, with vigorous performance and sustain. I could probably record my famous "Weekends Were Made For Michelob" belch with these guys, and it'd fit right into their song list. Come to think of it, that might yield their only hit.

If Dying Fetus is one of your favorite bands, I'm sorry...that your taste in music is so, so bad. I like loud, aggro heavy metal. Its just that these guys are going to remain obscure until they break up and do those jobs with the names on their shirts full time. That is as it should be.