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.

Met another hero today: James Megellas

I was not thrilled to be working on Saturday again, having been at it all week, but once again, I found that my job does not suck. I got to meet another real hero today: James Megallas stopped by the store today with his beautiful and gracious wife. He was over on Fort Campbell visiting the troops, and luckily came by the shop with a few of the 101st Screaming Eagles.

He's a very unassuming, very friendly man. Like many of the heroes of the Second World War, one does not expect the smiling gentleman that just shook their hand to have done what the record shows they've done. James Megallas is currently being reviewed via legislation to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. He'd already earned The Distinguished Service Cross, two Silver Stars, two Bronze Stars and two Purple Hearts, Presidential Citation w/cluster, Belgium Fouragere, 6 Campaign Stars, and Master Parachutist for his WWII service. In short, Mr. Megallas is a stud...although I'm sure he'd dispute that.

Once again, I'm fortunate to meet a hero, and in my world, a celebrity of enormous stature. Kinda makes the temper tantrums of more public celebrities seem all the more childish and petty than ever before.

Diagnostic target and The Great Seal.

Here's the diagnostic target I mentioned in a previous post. If I could solve all these problems in my shooting, I'd be pretty good. LOL! The Seal I made a long time ago and found it in a picture folder while looking for the target. I figured it might as well get posted somewhere. See how much more enriched the whole world is because of that? Yeah. Me neither.

A poor performance

Finally shot a match today, for the first time since I shot the IDPA Classifier. And I didn't do very well, which was dismaying, but not wholly unexpected. I finished 6th out of 12, which to me isn't as good as it might seem.

That basically put me last in the group of experienced shooters. Many of the other six were either dealing with a handicap, such as the older man that had a severely broken ankle earlier in his life that hindered his movement and made it difficult or impossible for him to kneel. There was a young lady that had only been shooting for a couple of years. I should finish in front of that group, and should have finished further up than I did...but I didn't.

I found that, once again, mashing the trigger and trying to go faster don't work well together. I dropped some points that I shouldn't have. I caught myself looking at the target instead of the sights a couple times. I missed a relatively easy head shot on the second of three targets, and pretty much center punched the other two. I dropped one point on the hardest stage and felt like I should have gotten that one, too. That's where the points were missing, but it was all my fault. The one I have a hard time living with was the head shot I missed. 5 down on an easy target. I hit the target, but managed to put it outside the perforations. Yeah, it's a talent.

I mentioned expecting a less than stellar performance, and to a degree I did expect it. I was shooting a new Glock 17 with new sights. I'm not dead certain the sights are adjusted to where they need to be, but they worked good on the pepper popper that I hammered with about five rounds. The trigger in that gun is quite a bit different than my MnP, which I shot my Classifier with. It was the new gun and I wanted to run it, so I did, expecting that I might not shoot as good as I might have.

I also ran a new Safariland ALS that was tighter than my MnP ALS is. I didn't practice much with it, and had to borrow my mag pouches, too, as my Blade Tech double mag pouch has come up missing. All that new gear meant that I was going to struggle a little, and in the end, I struggled about as much as I expected to. If there had been mag changes in this match, I would have made up a lot of ground, as some of the malfunctions I saw were not handled expertly. Oddly enough, the ones I saw were with 1911's, with at least one of them being a Kimber. That doesn't mean that Tactical Tupperware shooters wouldn't have had trouble. Its a skill that has to be practiced.

It all comes down to this: you will not rise to the occasion. You will revert to the level of your training.

Figures: cats are easily offended

This is a funny comic for how obvious it is. How many people have you come across that are exactly like Bucky? And how many of them, like Bucky, are bed wetting liberal? lol!

My job does not suck: Mini Scout

Once again, my job does not suck, and I got a look at a prototype of the new Mini Scout light that Surefire has been messing with. There are five of these in existence, so I didn't get to keep this one, but I did get to hang it on my rifle and run around the store a little bit. I switched the tailcap to the Z71 cap that I have on my full sized Scout (that sounds funny to me) and lemme tell ya, I fell in love. Dunno how far out this bad boy is, but this thing is the HEAT!!!

Its a single 123a battery, and currently about a hundred lumens for about 80 minutes. Those are not final specs; IIRC the target is 120-ish lumens for about an hour continuous.

July 4th: don't lose perspective of what really happened

I really wanted to add this yesterday, but like a true American patriot, I spent pretty much the whole day shooting. That which was not spent shooting was spent eating a drinking with friends, most of whom are in the Service.

I copied this from Glenn Beck's e-mail newsletter. Glenn is almost as conservative as I, but doesn't claim the GOP as his end-all, be-all party. He's just an American in that sense. He's also a historian, and loves to dig into the culture and truth of historical accounts and matters. I thought he wrote this succinctly and more directly than I could, given the over-fed status I have this weekend. He does a really nice job of explaining what exactly was at stake for the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Let us NEVER forget what the Founding Fathers actually risked to make this nation a reality.

July 3, 2009

Hello America,

Here it is, another Fourth of July. Traditionally, this is a day to gather with friends, maybe fire up the barbeque and play with kids until the sun sets and the fireworks start. But in thinking back on the meaning behind this day, we must never forget that our nation was baptized in the blaze of a very different kind of "fireworks." Yes, this is a day of rest and relaxation, as well it should be, but this year…I'd like to ask you a favor. At some point during the day, I hope you'll take time to think and reflect on what it is we're truly celebrating on the 4th of July -- our Independence Day. Of course the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4th, 1776 but it's so much more than that. On this day, 233 short years ago, a small group of men dedicated themselves to a higher purpose, an ideal they believed in so greatly, they signed their name to its expression and in doing so put their very lives at risk.

Never has a simple act of signing one's name carried such weight, such a profound commitment. By signing the Declaration of Independence, 56 men stood in direct defiance of the British government. They became marked men, and willingly so. As I was doing some research on the significance of July 4th, I came across some interesting facts about these men. Today as we all enjoy the freedom our forefathers guaranteed us, join me in honoring the extraordinary sacrifice of 56 extraordinary Americans.

Of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence:

Five were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes burned to the ground. Two lost sons serving in the Revolutionary Army, and two more had sons captured. Nine fought and died in the Revolutionary War.

If you ever feel like your lone voice can never be heard, that the political system isn't set up for "regular" Americans to change the course of history, remember: The signers were flesh and blood, mortal men with a divinely-inspired aim.

Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists, eleven were merchants, and nine were farmers and large plantation owners. They were well educated, smart enough to know that by signing the Declaration of Independence, they were signing their own death warrants. They did it anyway, and God bless them for it.

As we enjoy our liberty on this 4th of July, or any day of any month, we must never take that liberty for granted. Too many have given too much. In the words of the Signers themselves, "For the support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

Their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor -- I think that's a price paid worth a few minutes of reflection, don't you? But let's not be solemn in that reflection. I say rejoice and share this information with your friends and family, especially your kids. The Signers asked for nothing in return for their pledge, but I say that we show our thanks with a pledge of our own: To remember, to be grateful, and to carry on in their spirit. America is the greatest country this world has ever and will ever know, and it will stay that way so long as "we the people" remember that just like in 1776.

It's US that surrounds them, and we'll never back down.

Happy Independence Day, and God bless America.

Glenn

How many of us would have the fortitude to do the same thing in those circumstances? I think more of us than one might initially think.

Sign of the times from Moderately Confused

This would be funnier if it wasn't so accurate.

Supply and Demand

I read this post on the Down Range blog by Chris Hodgdon of Hodgdon Powder Company. As most people who's tinfoil hats aren't on too tight, the reason for the shortage is simply high demand. Some folks seem to think it's unusual that powder would be in short supply, but all I can do when I hear that is to throw down my best Spock Eye Brow Move. Why wouldn't gun powder be unavailable when primers, brass and bullets are in the same category? Reloading equipment is hard to find too, for exactly the same reason. There's simply more demand than we've seen in...well...ever. The amount of buying going on is unprecedented, even in comparison to the Clinton years of the original AWB.

Back before the current ownership of my employer took over, Lightfighter Tactical had to deal with these issues. Basically, at the height of the gear buying frenzy in the early years of the GWOT, nylon stuff was in the same boat that ammo and components are now. I can't count the number of times somebody with no background at all in economics suggested that "well, just order some extras" to solve the availability problem. Here's the thing: if one is backordered, what good does it do to order two or three? They're all back ordered; they're not gonna get here till they get here. Same thing with ammo. It just isn't on the shelf to be ordered.

What we're going to see, though, is a slow down in purchasing, which has already started. There's also going to be a swelling of stuff on the secondary market as those that got in on the Hysterical Gun Buying Frenzy of 2008/2009 find that they can't cover the AmEx bill as it comes due. Guns and ammo will be there, and I'm sure accessories from the high end to the low end will be trickling into that market as well.

I think we're going to see an increase in the number of consumers in the primary market, though. Perhaps a better way to put it would be to say that not all the members of that market will leave it as they realize that the predictions of doom and gloom aren't coming true...until after the mid term elections. A lot of people that didn't intend to become shooters, who just wanted a gun for the home, or just because they feared that the government was going to stomp their rights and tell them they couldn't have something (have no illusions; that's where this administration is moving towards) are going to become avid shooters. They're going to find out what we know: shooting is fun, and training to become as proficient as you can is necessary.

That doesn't mean that the ammo shortage makes any of that easier, but Mr. Hodgdon is right: the supply will eventually meet demand. Markets work, as long as they don't get meddled with. It sucks now, but ammo will be available sooner or later. I'd prefer sooner, as I shoot just about every weekend.

I think we're going to find some friends where we didn't necessarily have them before. The unprecedented spending and hardcore liberalism of the current administration are forcing people to be concerned. While they don't shoot or want to own a gun, they realize that we stand together to protect ALL our rights, or we will hang separately.

Wisdom

Saw this posted on my forum and had to save it:

"It reminds me of the phrase 'don't confuse enthusiasm with capability'."

Robot Chicken: What took so long to notice that?

Like a few hundred other people, I've been watching Robot Chicken for quite a while now...or at least as much as a couple season's worth can equal a while. I can't believe it didn't dawn on me earlier, but I had a revelation. I had that revelation a while ago, but I have to sorta present tensify it to make it a bloggable conflagration, both for the sake of the revelation and for the sake of creating a few new words.

The end credits music for Robot Chicken is a chicken bawk version of the same tune that the Dead movies (Day of the Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Road Trip of the Dead, Weekend in Bora Bora of the Dead, and like that) used. Turns out it's called "The Gonk", and was originally penned by Herbert Chappell. See? You learned something today.

Gun Related Must Have: AK Ice Tray

Found this brousing the AAC blog, and wanted to memorialize it here for both my readers. This is just plain cool: it's an ice tray that shapes the ice into 7.62X39 cartridges. Now if only they did 'em in 6.8 SPC...