My Christmas Post

My friends know what a sucker I am for the whole holiday spirit. That being the case, I have to share my favorite holiday videos. Its all about the classics.

And a couple new ones: Lil Wayne, and the Peter Griffin re-work of this classic original posted above.

1911's: I've had enough.

I went to an IDPA Classifier match today, intending to get classified with my 1911 in the CDP division. I had my bro Jay ship it out to me (there wasn't enough room in the truck to bring everything here, so it was staying in his safe for a while) for the purpose of competing with it.

I attempted to compete with it today, and shot well with it. The problem is that the dang thing wouldn't run consistently. I had at least four failures to go into battery, and all those malfunctions caused me to take too much time to classify.

Chances are it needs new springs, and perhaps some new magazines. But that's the problem with a hundred year old design. Get a Glock and shoot the recoil spring to death in it, and it'll still run. That'll be true of several new gun designs: they're just engineered from the ground up to have fewer parts and to run with minimal maintenance. That's definitely not the 1911.

The 1911 still has some characteristics that are outstanding: they're typically very accurate guns that are easy to shoot well. A tuned single action trigger in one is an amazing thing. They're only an inch wide, so they're easy to conceal...although a steel 1911 is a heavy beast by the end of the day.

They have other downsides, too: they're magazine finicky, and as Ken Hackathorn has stated, they're "the king of feedway stoppages". Add to that their limited magazine capacity, and I think I'm pretty much done with the 1911. The upside isn't outweighing the downside. I'm beginning the process of considering what to do with the gun. It may end up traded or sold for an MnP .45 or perhaps a Glock 21 or 30. I miss my old 30.

Underrated: favorite movies with a twist

I've been fascinated by how much money movies make for a while now. Part of it is the phenomena of the flop, a movie that had a huge budget but proved not to be a blockbuster. The other is what I like to call the hidden gem or the small budget hit, which is a movie that isn't expected to do a lot at the box office, but turns out to be a huge, huge hit. I can think of several like that: Black Hawk Down and 300 jump to mind. I think those got huge because Hollyweird accidentally made a movie that most people can relate to, as opposed to the dreck they usually serve up with their left wing messages and agendas. That's a post for another time, I think.

What I have been interested in lately are movies that may or may not have been hits at the time, but have been forgotten or pushed to the back because of new material and holiday movies coming to the theater. Some of my favorite movies are classics, or huge blockbuster hits that are older now and neglected. Still others are films that were never big hits, but turned out to be great little movies. TNT calls some of these The New Classics, but some are just classic in and of themselves, regardless of when they were issued.

Since you know already that I'm working towards a list, here it is! I decided that only choosing five total would be more work than I want to put in on a day off, I decided to choose some categories. These may or may not be in order.

Older Action Movies. These can be war movies, gangster flicks, or anything else that pretty much has guns as a central theme. lol!

1. Black Hawk Down. It was a huge hit, but it's such a great demonstration of the American spirit that I have to include it. It should not be forgotten.

2. Hatari. Even though it's not a Western, this is one of my top six John Wayne movies. Red Buttons and many of the character actors that are seen in John Wayne movies are here, and the story is flat out fun.

3. The Big Hit. It's the quirky movie on the action list. Its about hit men, but its part comedy, quasi-love story, and revenge flick all in one.

4. The Buccaneer: Probably my all time favorite movie that doesn't star John Wayne. The cast is epic, the story huge and sweeping, encompassing both a pirate story and a story of the founding of America. What's not to like?

5. The Longest Day. There just aren't that many stars in a movie anymore; it's too expensive. This film is huge, epic and has more stars than fit on the Hollywood Walk of Stars.

Comedies. These had a profound effect on my sense of humor, and I still find them hilarious. Many of these were hits, but they should be considered must-see flicks.

1. Stripes. Deep and profound effect on my sense of humor. While it lacks heavily in realism, it makes up for that in just plain funny.

2. Ghostbusters. The first was funniest. The ending of the second was bad. It is said that there will be a third, with the original cast having singed on to do it.

3. Strange Brew. I think most people don't get Bob and Doug McKenzie, but I still find this movie funny. I have a couple of the McFarland Toys Bob and Doug playsets, too. They're awesome.

4. The Hangover. This one's way over the top and not for everyone. If you're not easily offended, though, it's a terribly funny movie.

5. Ski School. The second one sucked. This one had a particular spirit about it that was pretty dang good. With a "b" movie like this, it's easy to go over the top and ruin the suspension of disbelief, but they minimized that with this flick. It just makes me laugh.

Others. These are movies that I dig but can't fit in just one category. There's cop stories, actioners, sci-fi, and..."other".

1. The Fifth Element. Its not just that I'm a Milla fan. This is a great story with some innovative tricks thrown in. Its funny, it's action packed, it's just plain entertaining.

2. Shaun of the Dead. It's a zombie movie with greatness involved. It's a new classic.

3. In Bruges. It's all kinds of quirky. Not everyone will love it, but if you're kind of into the Guy Ritchie thing, you might dig this.

4. Public Enemies. This didn't do quite as well as it should have. Fantastic cast, and it's different. Normally, a film like this is either from the cop's or robber's POV. This one goes pretty much right up the middle. If you didn't see it, you should have. It releases to DVD in about a week or so.

5. Appaloosa. You have to ignore Renee Zellwegger in this one. Its not about her anyway. This is a great cowboy story of The Reckoning.

6. The Proposition. Another off the beaten path Southern Hemisphere Western. This one's set in Australia. Its a story of choices and family. Powerful and intricate.

7.Bad Boys II. Its a guilty pleasure, and I like it better than the first. I hope they can get together to make a third.

8. Zombieland. Again, not a perfect movie (there will be a LOT more zombies walking around), but very entertaining, and one of the greatest cameos EVER. Like the girl said, "He just gets me". If you don't know what I'm referring to, you have GOT to see this one.

9. The Ghost and the Darkness. Well cast, memorably performed, and classical in subject matter. This one was a moderate hit, but I fell in love with it from the first showing. I got the same rush from the suspenseful moments as I did when I thought I had jumped a black bear while hunting.

These kinds of posts are always changing and variable, because there's always movies I can't remember at the time I'm doing this. I'll have to start taking notes and keeping track of ideas. I'm just not quite there with this list. I'll revisit this later.

Left 4 Dead 2: the song from the commerical

Funny how different a whole song is from the bit used in the commercial. Here's the video that predates the commercial...or they would have used game footage. I would have.

This consecutive music video thing wasn't planned and I don't think it's a trend...yet...I just wanted a record of this song. I like heavy, bluesy rock.

Remember the Classics: Hadji Girl

I know this song is a few years old now, but I believe in remembering the Classics.

The Latest 419 Scam: A New Twist

I haven't gotten one of these in a while, which I thought was unusual. Maybe they know that the messages interest me and are trying to formulate new angles to keep me entertained. This one is different in that there's a link in it to what I presume is a news article (I didn't click it) and there's also a PDF that came with this that I didn't open. The article I presume to be regarding the death by accident of the account holder in the message. That's the twist, and I haven't seen one of these before. Interesting.

Good Day,

It's my pleasure to contact you over this transaction and I hope for your assistance on this
Matter.

I discovered a dormant account in my office as a group director with a bank here in London; presently the account is dormant and there is no claim since Nine years from now, and the rightful owner Mr. John Koffie died in a plane accident as shown on the link below.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/859479.stm

It will be of my interest to transfer this money worth Twenty Four Million United States Dollars in an account offshore. If you can assist me in getting this money transferred out of London then invest with it and also establish partnership.

Email me if you think you can handle such amount and kindly remember that this is very confidential.

I wait to hear from you.

Regards

Charles Vanzandt.

It is unlikely that Charles is related to the Van Zandts of Lynyrd Skynyrd fame.

Hand to Hand Death: Combat MMA

Where did it all go? Did I even have a weekend?

I don't know where my time off went. It was there on Friday, right about 6:00 p.m., and now it appears to have been absconded with. There was the promise of hours away from work, and now we'll have to check with accounting to see if there's nefarious activity afoot here.

Some of this time is accounted for: there was a reasonable amount of sleep, and some time preparing food. Part of Saturday was consumed by shooting an IDPA match-finishing 5th out of 9-and a little more time was spent at Zaxby's with Taylor, solving all the problems with the government and the armed forces. If all of Sunday had been taken away, that much of Saturday was just about enough. State of Play was viewed, and ultimately found wanting. Of course it was; it's a Hollyweird movie.

Oddly enough, the missing time was continued on to Sunday. An hour and 15 minutes was spent at church, another 40 to 45 minutes were consumed at Wally World. Some small part of the day was used keeping tabs on Football and NASCAR. A full hour and a half was frittered away at the Laundromat. The rest of the time, though...appears to have defected. It has been reported as AWOL until further notice.

Here it is, 8:30 p.m. on Sunday evening, while The Prisoner continues to make little sense and I miss Mad Men already, and I can't quite figure out where my whole weekend went, even though it was completely devoid of alcohol or medication. Weird.

Religion of peace? Ft. Hood is making me rethink my opinion

The events at Fort Hood this week have been very much in the fore of my mind. There was at least one LF forum member that was reported to be in that area, so the situation hit closer to home. Thankfully, he's been heard from since and was not involved. However, the reaction from the leaders of Islam are making me rethink what I thought about Muslims.

I used to believe, or at least want to believe, that there was a difference between Islam and Militant Islam. I don't know a lot of Muslims; being a Christian I don't have a lot of contact with them in my daily life, and certainly not in my spiritual life. So, what I know of Islam has been gleaned through my own limited research and what I have observed of it through the news.

Islam is called the Religion of Peace. That sounds great on the surface, but if the definition of peace I have been told is accurate, that becomes very troubling. According to what I've found, "peace", in terms of the Muslim definition of the word, means "the world under Islamic rule". Till then, there is no peace. We're certainly in the midst of that right now.

Because Islam doesn't come out against, and denounce as being against the teachings of Islam, fanatics like the murderer in Texas-I refuse to publish that waste of skin's name-makes me think they're in favor of it. Because they decry only Islam being painted in a bad light and not acts of murder and terrorism, I'm coming to the conclusion that there's no difference between Militant Islam and the rest of Islam. It appears they may be one and the same. I need to do more research, but as the Magic 8 Ball would say, "signs point to yes".

It's fun to make fun of gummint

Got this in my e-mail from my friend Nick. Pretty good for an e-mail joke.

A cowboy named Bud was overseeing his herd in a remote mountainous pasture in California when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced out of a dust cloud towards him.

The driver, a young man in a Armani suit, Gucci shoes, RayBan sunglasses and YSL tie, leans out the window and asks the cowboy, 'If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, Will you give me a calf?'

Bud looks at the man, obviously a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answers, 'Sure, Why not?'

The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell notebook computer,connects it to his Cingular RAZR V3 cell phone, and surfs to a NASA page on the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resoluti on photo.

The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg , Germany .

Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot that the image has been processed and the data stored. He then accesses a MS-SQL database through an ODBC connected Excel spreadsheet with email on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, receives a response.

Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-Tech Miniaturized HP LaserJet printer and finally turns to the cowboy and says, 'You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves.'

'That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves,' says Bud..

He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on amused as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car.

Then Bud says to the young man, 'Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?'

The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, 'Okay, why not?'
This is hilarious, you gotta read it.

'You're a Congressman for the U.S. Government', says Bud.

'Wow! That's correct,' says the yuppie, 'but how did you guess that?'

'No guessing required.' answered the cowboy. 'You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew,to a question I never asked. You tried to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don't know a thing about cows...this is a
herd of sheep. . .


Now give me back my dog.

Cool photo Men at Work

I love this pic. My friend Jim snapped this while his team was doing assault training at their bad ass facility in Flo'da. Its the moment before things get really exciting. He got a lot of great pics from that event, and some even better training, but this one's my favorite.

Interesting comment on Iran and the American military

One of my Facebook Homies posted a link to a short article about what's going on in Afghanistan of late, which was mostly a photographic essay. Typically, comments on such an article such as this are not worth reading, because the staggering ignorance does nothing but raise one's blood pressure. However, amongst the stupid comments and the attempts to set the stupid comments straight, there was one posted by Mohammad, which said,

"I wish that U.S.A send some of their troops in my country ( Iran ) too,beacase i think that we really need them too.same as Afghanistan and Iraq, Iran need those army too,Anshalh we going to have them im Iran too.God bless us."

Could it be that what we've been told about how the world hates America in the media isn't entirely accurate? I know this is one comment, from one single allegedly Iranian person, but it is interesting, and it does make one think, at least just a little bit.

My friend the Renaissance Chick

This poem was written by my friend the Renaissance Chick, Renee. Her blog, Random Thoughts from a Life in Progress, doesn't get updated as often as I'd like, so I thought I'd see if we can peer pressure her into writing more by allowing both readers of my blog to read it. I know there are some warrior types that read my screed occasionally, so this is of interest to them/you.

This poem is as yet untitled, but I dubbed it the Ballad of the Ass Kicker today. Perhaps The Embattled is better. I dunno; I'll keep working on it. Sometimes I come up with a winner. I'm the guy that can get you one or two, maybe three or as many as four words on a crossword puzzle.

Because I want a copy of it, and in case you didn't click the link above, here's the poem.

I am Romans, Vikings, Vandals
Mongolians on the plain
My march is long
My heart is strong
The tongue I speak is strange

I wear sandals, armor, helmet
Carry carbine, mace and shield
I’ve bayonet
Or Spectre’s threat
Upon the battlefield

I march for king and sovereign
For fiefdom and for pharaoh
Reap what’s sewn
I crack your bones
And feast upon your marrow

For age and age before me
And age after I’m gone
You’ll speak of me
My victory
And recount what I've done.

Bleh

It's been dull here for the past several weeks. Outside of the match I shot yesterday-and did poorly in-not much is going on. I'm in a real creative rut at the moment, at least in terms of writing. I haven't even seen a movie in a couple weeks, although Pandorum was fun. When the big excitement is that I got a haircut today, it's pretty easy to tell who's not out living life on the edge right now. LOL!

I have a couple ideas to explore, but I need to get them oriented correctly first. My typical stream of unconsciousness style of writing doesn't work very well for that.

Norv Turner needs to go.

The Luciousness

I gotta get this done real quick before my connection takes a dump again. It's been down more often than it's been up this week.

Just got this bad boy back from a little custom work by my friend Jimmy Adams. Jimmy's a hell of a good shot, and a supremely cool dude. Unfortunately, he PCS'd recently, so I can't get him to do more work on this thing unless I bring it to him. I do have some friends relatively close to where he is now...hmmmmm....

Somewhere along the line I was given a Wolff competition spring kit, which my bro Jonny threw in there for me, as well as installing the extended slide stop. The spring kit knocks about a pound off the pull weight. I added the Warren Sevigny FO Competition sights (Glocks are a piece of cake to swap sights on) and extended magazine release. I think the mag release is a bit on the long side, so I think I'll take a file to it and shorten it to the same length as the Tango Down Vickers release that's in my 19. It's just about the perfect length.

Jimmy did the grip texturing, and textured the underside of the trigger guard, while flattening "the hump" where the finger undercut was and rounding the front of it. This is my IDPA competition gun, and I may run it in some USPSA matches somewhere down the line. Currently, I'm only shooting matches at Rattlenake Ridge in Indian Mound, TN, but I may decide to do more of that in the future.

The rest of my competition stuff consists of an Aker leather gun belt that I've had for about five years, a Blade-Tech double magazine pouch, a Safariland 5188 Concealment holster, and the ever popular South Sea Rhythm and Blues Tiki Lounge Hawaiian-style button up shirt. Helpful hint: tape a couple quarters to each side of the shirt, to the inside of the placket, so when you sweep the cover garment out of the way, it'll actually go. You wanna put 'em on both sides, so you can reach both holster and reloads. To the photos!

Check your ammo!

Just about the time ya don't see anything weird happening with ammo, something really odd pops up. I found this round out of a hundred pack of Winchester White Box that I just got at our local Mega Mart. I've never seen this before, but if ya shoot long enough, pretty much everything will show up. The long and the short of it is: check your ammo!

Killer grub the bachelor way!

Man, dinner was GOOD tonight! And, it was simple to boot. I generally don't use a stove; I do the grill and microwave instead, because...I dunno. I guess if I don't use the stove, there's less stove to clean. We'll go with that.

I found a new product at the market yesterday: Dole has a bag of red skin new potatoes (I just call 'em newpas for short) that can be microwaved and steams right in the bag. I wanna shake the hand of the guy that came up with that idea. Takes about nine minutes to nuke 'em.

Newpas are best when they're salty and buttery, but I wanted a little bit more. So, while I nuked the newpas, I rough chopped some dill and rosemary. Then, I tossed that in a bowl, dumped some butter in it, and added some chopped garlic. That went into the micro to melt together, and I sea-salted and fresh ground peppered the potatoes, which I quartered. I put them in a big bowl, and then poured the mixed herby-butter conglomeration over 'em. I tossed em, and went to turn the chicken over on the grill.

The chicken I got from Wal Mart in the frozen stuff aisle. Its a boneless chicken breast stuffed with cheese and bacon. It's supposed to be baked, but I find that it cooks pretty darn fast on the grill, so that's how I do 'em. Get the grill hot, then turn it down to med-low. Then it's just a matter of not burning it to a crisp.

Add to this a VERY big glass of Arizona Sweet Tea, and...WAH LAH! (yes, I know)Easy, instant-ish mackin' bachelor food! I'm gonna bust out a piece of chocolate creme pie later, after COPS (AKA Boys on the Hood, or The Guy With No Shirt Goes To Jail).

Why pacifism is crap doctrine

Every once in a while, even bet wetting liberals stumble on the truth. Found this cartoon in my e-mail this morning, and realized that this is why pacifism and isolationism don't work and will get you a beat down. Basically, there are people in the world that aren't down with it. Because of that, when it comes to what Clauswitz called "friction", they don't back down. Friction means somebody's gonna lose. I don't agree with it being me, mine or us.

I don't know the artist's politics, so I don't know if he's a bed wetting liberal or an arch conservative. The cartoon is illustrative, though.

A rough weekend.

I haven't felt a whole lot like blogging these last couple days. Found out that a couple of good dudes, one a soldier, one a contractor, were killed over the weekend. One was Javahed, a Lightfighter forum plank owner. He helped shape the community there with his sense of humor and expert information on a variety of matters. The other was one of our regulars at ATS, SSG Shane Angell of 3rd batt, 5th SFG. My friend M4 Guru posted this on LF:

Official word from our CoC after all notifications had occured.


quote:
It is with a heavy heart and deep sense of loss that I report to you we have lost a fellow 3rd Battalion Soldier. SSG Shane Angell, 26, ODA 5*** died of injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident at approximately 3:30 PM, 11 SEP 2009 on Hwy 100 (Franklin Road) about six miles east of Russellville, KY. Shane is survived by his wife, Ashley, daughter Skylie, Mother and Father, SGM (Ret) Glenn Angell, 3rd Battalion, 5th SFG(A). I ask that you keep the entire Angell family in your thoughts and prayers
__________________


Shane was a good guy with a lot of potential. We had just returned from OIF which adds to the tragedy.

It's one thing to lose one in the line of duty. It sucks bad, but chances are those that did it will get paid back. When it happens after a deployment, it just goes to show how fragile life really is. Prayers out for the family. This is the part of my job, both with the company and as an admin on the forum, that I can really do without.

More "My Job Does Not Suck" Ernest Langdon

So I'm at work today, talking about guns and shooting with Jimmy and Matt, and a guy comes in and looks around the store a bit. I treat him like everybody else, asking if he needs any help or is after something particular. We're not very good at the high pressure sales here.

I go on to help a couple other people, sell some parts kits and a Glock 19 (always a fine choice), and once I'm clear Matt says, "Hey Haji, this is Earnest Langdon", and introduces me to The Man. We kept the poor guy in the store for at least an hour (and probably more), talking about guns, shooting, equipment...all that interests me and keeps me working here.

We even got a lesson in things to work on to get better, which was very in depth and supremely helpful. I hope I can put it into action. I wish he was still doing classes regularly, because he knows so much about shooting and all that goes into it, such as neural networks, physiology, and where speed really comes from. On top of all that, he's a hell of nice guy. Why did he stay and talk so long? Because most of our competitors here don't shoot. In contrast, that's pretty much all we do or think about when we're not here.

That was a fun weekend!

Three days off is a great thing. I feel much more rested and ready to get back at it, and had the most fun in a weekend than I've had in a while.

Friday was uneventful, and Saturday broke bright and sunny. I went to the range for a couple hours, and did some work with the timer-AKA the Devil Box, AKA the Brain Scrambler-and some longer distance shooting than I typically do. Overall, I was quite pleased with the results. I went home and did more relaxing than anything else; I also spent the weekend trying to kick the cold symptoms that didn't quite get to full power, but also wouldn't go away.

I had to hit Wally World that evening and replenish my stocks of meds. I hardly ever take medication of any sort, so even small containers go past their expiration date sooner than I use them up. I tossed a bunch of expired stuff and replaced it with another $30 or so of new stuff. New, full potency meds seem to have helped a heck of a lot.

Saturday, I met Joe and Gene at the shop, and we proceeded first to Sonic, then on to an IDPA club match at Rattlesnake Ridge. Joe and Gene had never shot an IDPA style match before, and really seemed to enjoy it. I had a blast with them there. My friend Alan finished first, Matt got fourth and I took fifth, out of about 10. I'm not trying to make finishing in the middle a habit, but I did it again. I shot my MnP because my Glock hasn't been working as I want it to.

My G17 is having some sight issues that I can't quite figure out just yet. I put the Sevigny Competition Fiber Optic sights (FO only on the front) from Warren Tactical on it right before I shot the last match, where I was disappointed with my accuracy, as I dropped at least a point on every stage. Holding dead on the bull at ten yards, I get these very pleasing, small groups that end up in one slightly ragged hole...about an inch to the left of my point of aim. I found that the front sight blade is slighly tilted to the left, but it appears that somebody either lost or took home the front sight wrench from work. I'm going to remove and re-attach the front sight and see what I can find out from there. None of my other guns have done that, so I'm hoping it's a simple anomaly that I can get fixed up quick. I may contact Warren and see what's up. I can run that G17 just a little faster than I can my MnP, and the MnP has a non-IDPA legal CTC grip on it. For a club match, they don't much care as long as it's turned off, but sanctioned IDPA matches are more strict about exacting adherence to the rule book.

I went to bed a little later than I should have, but I fell asleep on the couch for a while yesterday evening, too. Fighting the cold was apparently not finished, as it put me out after I went to the evening Church service. I took a couple Simply Sleep in order to sack out undisturbed, and it worked well. I didn't wake up until after 9:30, which is a lot later than I usually do. Did some chores, did some research on the Intardweb, and went to see Halloween II with Matt this afternoon. It was OK, but very predictable. Not really Rob Zombie's best work, but it didn't suck, either. At any rate, it was fun to get away and watch a movie for the first time in several weeks.

I got some good rest, had a lot of fun, and still haven't beaten this cold completely. I'm gonna go to bed soon!

One of the coolest shirts ever

Saw this on TV on the Travel Channel, on a show called Steak Paradise. There's a steak house in north Texas that serves a 72 oz. slab of cow. If you can eat it and the side salad, potato and some other side dish, you can get it free...if you survive, I guess. One of the guys that tried-and failed, even with a really valiant effort-had this slogan on his shirt. I had to go seek it out, because this is truly one of the coolest shirts in the history of ever.


This ranks second to my "PETA: People for the Eating of Tasty Animals" shirt, which offended a clerk at 7/11 so much that she didn't say a single word to me during the entire transaction of the purchase of a Super Big Gulp, and scowled at me through most of it once she read the shirt. Yeah, that was a great moment.

I still find it somewhat...I dunno...bemusing, I suppose...that there are people out there who allow their day to be affected by what someone wears. I see some slacker with no job in a Che shirt or "I wanna stick it to the rich with Obama, even though they're the ones who employ people" sticker on a vehicle, I simply think "What a poor, misguided person that is" shortened to one word ("idiot"), and go on merrily thinking about shooting and how great it is not to be represented by a Kennedy. Yet, those who worry about what other people wear instead of really doing anything about what concerns them so, can have their day ruined by a shirt slogan. What an odd way to live a life.

If you wondered what to get me for Christmas, this shirt would be a great idea.

What's happened to style?

Where has style gone? I was watching SportsCenter the other night, probably the very good NFL Today show, and I couldn't believe what was seeing. It looked to me as if the current state of style was the worst of all available eras. It hurts my eyes and my heart.


One thing I will always love about Abbott and Costello, besides that they're still funny all these years later, is the clothes. That was a more civil time, when men wore hats that weren't baseball caps, pocket squares were not only stylish but required equipment, and suits looked good. I've always been a fan of that era. It wasn't extreme in color or tailoring, didn't have any extra junk that didn't need to be there, and still had variety. Burberry coats. Double breasted and single breasted suits (although I prefer notched collars to peaked collars, I'd still rock the right peaked collar), narrower ties, and no four in hand or Windsor knots with spread collar shirts. Simple, classic colors and simple, classic tailoring.

Giant knots and spread collars look like ass. Always have, always will. I don't care for that knot or that style of collar under any circumstances, but together they're hideous. I still favor single overhand knots in ties, and it took me a long time to warm up to the trend towards wider ties.

In terms of fashion, it's a lot easier to look good traditionally than it is to look good with flash. Sure, you can get the trendiest suit out there, which will probably be too bright and too shiny, and you'll look fly for a while. Just don't let anybody take pictures of it. Many a torturous moment has been caused by the simple act of breaking out the photo album. One reason I really enjoy Mad Men, besides that it's a great show with great characters doing great-or at least interesting-things, is that the clothes are so awesome.

In searching for this pic (well, a pic like this one):

I came across this article in today's Daily Mail Online, a British online magazine. I had no idea I'd find this, but at least it gives me some hope. I gotta admit, even though it's trendy as can be, I like the current big band swing music. In some ways, I'm hopelessly retro and nostalgic. I very much disagree that the gun isn't required anymore, though.

Health Care...Reform? Suuuuuure it is.

The health care debate is raging right now, and will probably rage even louder as the details are disclosed. It seems that its not as popular right now as it was during the election. What, it's not really completely free? It's going to be crushingly expensive? The gummint's gonna run it so choice will go away? Can it be?

Well...yeah. That's pretty much what can be expected of a gummint run program. Here's the thing: gummint is the least efficient, most expensive way to do ANYTHING. The Post Office, which has a practical monopoly on printed correspondence, loses money every year. Cash For Clunkers ran out of money in about a week. That procurement of cash was supposed to last six more months, and they couldn't even go one month, much less six.

Every time the gummint gets involved in running businesses, the lean efficiency required by the marketplace goes away. Would the industry (such as it was) in the USSR survive if the Politburo hadn't decreed that it would? Of course not. Inefficiency causes businesses to fail, meaning they close their doors and all their employees are out of work. They hemorrhage money, which only gummints can get away with...for a short time. Remember, the USSR eventually failed, too.

Here's the juice: whatever they tell you it'll cost, it'll cost much, much more than that. If they tell us its going to cost $70 trillion, it'll cost $170 trillion (I just pulled these numbers out of thin air). This is shown throughout our history, so there's no reason to think they got the math right with this project. We, the American taxpayer, are on the hook for that. That means those of us that work will have to pay for it. The rich (defined as those that earn $100,000 to $150,000 yearly, according to President Obama's election rhetoric) already pay 3/4 of the tax bill yearly. They can't pay more than they already do and be expected to still live in this country. That means everybody loses their options, their out of pocket costs skyrocket, and their quality of care plummets.

Consider this: right now, being a doctor pays well. It should; consider how much it costs in time and money to become a doctor. That means that the profession draws the best and brightest. If the gummint runs the system, do you really think the best and brightest will still be drawn to the profession? Of course not. They'll go find a field that will reward their investment, as it should be. If you want a second rate doctor, go ahead and sign for this mess. If I have to have a major surgery, I want the best and brightest working on me. That's not the time to find out he's not the best available. That's what you get from socialized, government run programs. I want no part of it. EVER.

Commemorating

A friend of mine had these made up for members of the LF community that have been killed in action. They include Travis Patriquin (look for a book soon on the man), Danish serviceman Christian Raaschou, and the teammate of my friend M4Guru, SSG Justin Whiting. I can't call Justin a friend, but I had met him and talked with him on several occasions. Like all of these gentlemen, he was taken too early in his life, but gave his life for a cause he believed in.

All of these, and more in the service, are better men than we deserve. I fear that we will, once again, leave the job unfinished and do the famous cut and run in the Middle East. I can't believe we're looking at doing that AGAIN. What a waste.