It was "reported" on Lightfighter.net. ATS Tactical Gear's forum, that there may be a way for Jim Zumbo to get back into AR shooter's good graces. You'll probably recall that ol' Jim Z posted on his blog words to the effect of "AR's and AK's are terrorist guns, and terrorists are the only ones that use them." He lost his blog, connection with Outdoor Life, endorsements with Remington, and basically destroyed his career with some poorly chosen words. Did he deserve it? Yeah. However, several influential people have said "that's enough", and are moving towards mitigating any further vilification of Zumbo.
To that end, Denny Hansen and SWAT Magazine have gotten together with Pat Rogers and arranged to have Jim take the Carbine Operator's Course, and write an article to be published in SWAT magazine. This is due to happen soon, so the article will probably be out in a few months.
Since Zumbo comes from a hunting background and not a shooting one, apparently, his perspective on this class should be interesting. Being a firearms hunter, I would think that he would at least understand that shooting is fun, so he should have a fun, and very enlightening, experience in this class.
Kudos to all involved here: Denny Hansen, Pat Rogers, SWAT magazine, and Ted Nugent, who apparently was the conduit to contact Jim Zumbo. I think you're gonna get a kick out of this class, Jim.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Saturday, February 24, 2007
'nother new survey
Here's another one of those wacky surveys for your reading pleasure!
| Odd Facts about ME | |
| DO YOU SNORE?: | probably? |
| LOVER OR A FIGHTER?: | I love fighting |
| WHAT'S YOUR WORST FEAR?: | I don't know |
| AS A KID, WERE YOU A LEGO BUILDER?: | Of course! All great minds were |
| WHAT DO YOU THINK OF "REALITY TV"?: | If it doesn't have guns or fighting, its useless |
| DO YOU CHEW ON YOUR STRAWS?: | No. They have no taste. |
| WERE YOU A CUTE BABY?: | There's no such thing as a cute baby. They all look like aliens |
| HOW IS THE SINGLE LIFE FOR YOU?: | I guess it works; its what I have |
| WHAT COLOR IS YOUR KEYBOARD?: | black |
| DO YOU SING IN THE SHOWER?: | No. |
| HAVE YOU EVER BUNGEE JUMPED?: | Not yet |
| ANY SECRET TALENTS?: | My talents are well known. Especially Belch Oration |
| WHAT'S YOUR IDEAL VACATION SPOT?: | Anyplace away from work |
| HAVE YOU EATEN SUSHI?: | I love sushi, especially the less common stuff |
| HAVE YOU SEEN THE MOVIE "DONNIE DARKO"?: | only a piece in the middle |
| DO YOU GIVE A DARN ABOUT THE OZONE?: | I like it as a propellant |
| HOW MANY LICKS DOES IT TAKE TO GET TO THE CENTER OF A TOOTSIE POP?: | I ate tootsie pops |
| CAN YOU SING THE ALPHABET BACKWARDS?: | I can't even say the alphabet backwards. Why would I want to? |
| HAVE YOU EVER BEEN ON AN AIRPLANE?: | Yeah, outside of takeoffs and landings, they're boring |
| ARE SPEEDO'S HOT?: | Only on fat Euros |
| WHAT'S YOUR STAND ON HUNTING?: | Can't grill it till ya kill it. |
| IS MARRIAGE IN YOUR FUTURE?: | Probably |
| DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING?: | Only I can read it |
| WHAT ARE YOU ALLERGIC TO?: | Never been diagnosed |
| WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU SAID, "I LOVE YOU": | Said that to my Mom a couple days ago |
| IS TUPAC STILL ALIVE?: | Thank God, no |
| DO YOU CRY AT WEDDINGS?: | Only if the reception sucks and they do that stupid Hokey Pokey song |
| HOW DO YOU LIKE YOUR EGGS?: | eaten. Generally prepared scrambled |
| ARE BLONDES DUMB?: | My sister the valedictorian would lead me to say no. |
| WHERE DOES THE OTHER SOCK END UP?: | the trash |
| WHAT TIME IS IT?: | Time for the next question |
| DO YOU HAVE A NICKNAME?: | Of course. Far more people know my nickname than my real one |
| IS MCDONALD'S DISGUSTING?: | No, it just sucks outside of sausage Mcmuffins with egg and the McGriddle |
| WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU WERE IN A CAR?: | Several months. Everyone I know has trucks or SUV's |
| DO YOU PREFER BATHS OR SHOWERS?: | Baths take too long. |
| IS SANTA CLAUSE REAL?: | As long as I get what I want |
| ARE YOU AFRAID OF THE DARK?: | No. |
| WHAT ARE YOU ADDICTED TO?: | I don't have any addictions other than brunettes with brown eyes |
| CRUNCHY OR CREAMY PEANUT BUTTER?: | Crunchy. Creamy is boring |
| HAVE YOU EVER RIDDEN IN AN AMBULANCE?: | I don't think so |
| HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU BRUSHED YOUR TEETH TODAY?: | Once so far |
| IS DRUG FREE THE WAY TO BE?: | Take a look at Britney and Courtney Love. Its pretty obvious that it is. |
| ARE YOU WEARING SOCKS?: | Not at the moment |
| HAVE YOU EVER HITCH HIKED?: | I think so |
| WHAT COLOR ARE YOUR EYES?: | The color of food stains: hazel |
| WHEN'S THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED?: | This morning. |
| DO YOU LIKE YOUR LIFE?: | There are things I would change |
| WHOSE LIFE IS BETTER?: | Doesn't matter. I have this one |
| ARE YOU PSYCHIC?: | No, psychotic |
| HAVE YOU READ "CATCHER IN THE RYE"?: | I don't believe I have |
| DO YOU PLAY ANY INSTRUMENTS?: | Not currently. I used to |
| CAN YOU SKATEBOARD?: | Probably not |
| DO YOU LIKE CAMPING?: | Yeah. Playing in the dirt is cool |
| DO U SNORT WHEN U LAUGH?: | No. That denotes a lack of control of the sense of humor |
| DO YOU BELIEVE IN MAGIC?: | Believe in it? I believe that Magicians are illusionists, if that counts |
| IS A DOG A MAN'S BEST FRIEND?: | Hell yeah! Dogs rule |
| YOU BELIEVE IN DIVORCE?: | Its required from time to time. Its not a first choice for me |
| CAN YOU DO THE MOONWALK?: | No |
| DOES YOUR MOM KNOW YOU HAVE A MYSPACE?: | My mom doesn't care |
| WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE?: | Tuna sandwich and a Coke. |
| DO YOU WEAR NAILPOLISH?: | Hell no |
| DO YOU LIKE SOMEONE RIGHT NOW?: | Nobody I can do anything about |
| WHAT'S THE MOST ANNOYING TV COMMERCIAL?: | They all suck. |
| DO YOU SHOP AT AMERICAN EAGLE?: | Not currently. Can't remember the last time I bought clothes |
| FAVORITE BAND AT THE MOMENT?: | That's a tough one. Demon Hunter, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones and POD are in regular rotation |
| Take this survey | Find more surveys | MySpace Surveys Bzoink - The Original Survey Site | |
Career killing statements and the 1st Amendment
By now I'm sure most shooters have heard about the career suicide that Jim Zumbo commited on his blog about a week ago. I've known about Zumbo for years. I'm no particular fan, but I've read a lot of stories written by him over the last long time, and while I can't really recall any of them, I didn't hate them, either. He's an experienced hunter that's been a lot of places I'd like to go hunt. He's one of the Charmed Ones: guys that get to hunt and be outdoors for a living. Its not a great way to get rich, but its a heck of a good life, and not an easy career to get into. There aren't a whole bunch of people that can have those jobs. They're somewhat rare in terms of the entire population.
Because they're rare opportunities, and are high profile gigs, words from people in positions like that carry a lot of weight. When Zumbo or any other well known writer puts his name on a product and declares it the Next Big Thing, they are essentially making it the Next Big Thing. The weight of what a major writer, or actor, musician or just about anyone else in the public eye of their particular industry, says carries way more weight than anything I have to say. I doubt anyone reading what I write has their mind changed even a little bit. Someone can read what Zumbo said and base their next major investment, perhaps thousands of dollars, on his words. I don't have that kind of power.
Zumbo's self destruction was inevitable, and is exactly what should have happened, given what he said. Personally, I wanna see that happen to anyone in his position that shares his views. Dave Petzal, you're next. When you take a large portion of the shooting populace, and the entire Coalition Military Forces, and tell them that owning an AR or AK makes them a terrorist, you deserve to have your position of influence taken away. That's the same thing that happened to the Dixie Chicks, too: open mouth, insert foot (or feet, in their case), have paydays taken away. That is the way of it.
The funny thing to me, though, is that as soon as that happens, the hue and cry of "Censorship!" comes out. Allegedly, ol' Jimmy Zumbo was being censored for his comments. The Chicklets were censored because country radio wouldn't play their songs. Here's a newsflash for ya: having a First Amendment guarrantee of free speech does NOT, I say again, does NOT (underlined, and with exclamation points!) give you a pass on paying the consequences of your statements. Words have meanings. When those that supply your paychecks and free stuff (the general public, ultimately) get mad about something stupid, idiotic, thoughtless, moronic, untrue, ignorant, and/or inflammatory that comes out of your pie hole, you get to pay the bill for it. They call your sponsors, your label, your employer, and demand your head. They can do that. Its a simple matter of the populace saying "I don't like that guy. If he's associated with you, I don't want to give you any money for what you produce", and the producer feeling the pinch. That's not censorship, that's cause and effect.
Jimmy, I still don't think you understand how badly you screwed the pooch. You might have saved the job if you'd done a real appology, but you didn't. Same thing happened to the Chicklets: they didn't really apologize, either (and even if they'd done more of one, nobody in country music was gonna believe it anyway) and they paid the price. They still sold platinum, but not to the level they had before, and not to the fans that got them where they are. Eventually, I think it will be seen that they too have crucified their careers. They can have a last single called "Would You Like Fries With That, Baby?"
When you're in the public view, you better understand your audience. All it takes is one thoughtless idea to be laid bare, and all you've worked for is over. Jim Zumbo has been a writer and outdoors celebrity for something like 40 years. That's all over now, because he didn't understand. The real shame is that he probably still doesn't understand, and hates black rifle shooters even more now to boot.
Don't mess with Joe Sixpack. He'll hammer you to the backyard shed just to watch you squirm when you deserve it. You will pay a price for the things you say. How far you fall depends on how high you've been lifted up.
Because they're rare opportunities, and are high profile gigs, words from people in positions like that carry a lot of weight. When Zumbo or any other well known writer puts his name on a product and declares it the Next Big Thing, they are essentially making it the Next Big Thing. The weight of what a major writer, or actor, musician or just about anyone else in the public eye of their particular industry, says carries way more weight than anything I have to say. I doubt anyone reading what I write has their mind changed even a little bit. Someone can read what Zumbo said and base their next major investment, perhaps thousands of dollars, on his words. I don't have that kind of power.
Zumbo's self destruction was inevitable, and is exactly what should have happened, given what he said. Personally, I wanna see that happen to anyone in his position that shares his views. Dave Petzal, you're next. When you take a large portion of the shooting populace, and the entire Coalition Military Forces, and tell them that owning an AR or AK makes them a terrorist, you deserve to have your position of influence taken away. That's the same thing that happened to the Dixie Chicks, too: open mouth, insert foot (or feet, in their case), have paydays taken away. That is the way of it.
The funny thing to me, though, is that as soon as that happens, the hue and cry of "Censorship!" comes out. Allegedly, ol' Jimmy Zumbo was being censored for his comments. The Chicklets were censored because country radio wouldn't play their songs. Here's a newsflash for ya: having a First Amendment guarrantee of free speech does NOT, I say again, does NOT (underlined, and with exclamation points!) give you a pass on paying the consequences of your statements. Words have meanings. When those that supply your paychecks and free stuff (the general public, ultimately) get mad about something stupid, idiotic, thoughtless, moronic, untrue, ignorant, and/or inflammatory that comes out of your pie hole, you get to pay the bill for it. They call your sponsors, your label, your employer, and demand your head. They can do that. Its a simple matter of the populace saying "I don't like that guy. If he's associated with you, I don't want to give you any money for what you produce", and the producer feeling the pinch. That's not censorship, that's cause and effect.
Jimmy, I still don't think you understand how badly you screwed the pooch. You might have saved the job if you'd done a real appology, but you didn't. Same thing happened to the Chicklets: they didn't really apologize, either (and even if they'd done more of one, nobody in country music was gonna believe it anyway) and they paid the price. They still sold platinum, but not to the level they had before, and not to the fans that got them where they are. Eventually, I think it will be seen that they too have crucified their careers. They can have a last single called "Would You Like Fries With That, Baby?"
When you're in the public view, you better understand your audience. All it takes is one thoughtless idea to be laid bare, and all you've worked for is over. Jim Zumbo has been a writer and outdoors celebrity for something like 40 years. That's all over now, because he didn't understand. The real shame is that he probably still doesn't understand, and hates black rifle shooters even more now to boot.
Don't mess with Joe Sixpack. He'll hammer you to the backyard shed just to watch you squirm when you deserve it. You will pay a price for the things you say. How far you fall depends on how high you've been lifted up.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Starting over again
I've finally reached the end of my rope. The limit of my patience. The whatever of my whatever. I can't stand fighting with Windows any more. It appears that my ol' Dell has a dialer or something similar in a directory somewhere that I can't find. I'm rather tired of spending money to get programs to fix the things that are wrong with Windows. The bloated carcass of XP is no longer my problem. I believe I've found something better.
My boy Josh turned me on to Linux and Madtux.com. Seems like he never ever ever has trouble with his computer, and I wanted what he has. He pointed me in the right direction, answered about a hundred stupid questions, and I'm sure he agonized during the time that I was waiting for the tax overpayment money to show up. "Please! Just let him get the damn check so he'll shut up!" LOL. I got it all hooked up yesterday, and I couldn't be happier so far.
This is what I ended up buying. I wanted to add 10 terrabites more memory and the 806 million gig hard drive, but I just stuck with the base package. It comes pre-loaded with Freespire from Linspire, which already has an office suite and just about everything else that I had on my old rig. This is a nice machine! I haven't even come close to exploring the capabilities of this system yet. I'm stoked.
My boy Josh turned me on to Linux and Madtux.com. Seems like he never ever ever has trouble with his computer, and I wanted what he has. He pointed me in the right direction, answered about a hundred stupid questions, and I'm sure he agonized during the time that I was waiting for the tax overpayment money to show up. "Please! Just let him get the damn check so he'll shut up!" LOL. I got it all hooked up yesterday, and I couldn't be happier so far.
This is what I ended up buying. I wanted to add 10 terrabites more memory and the 806 million gig hard drive, but I just stuck with the base package. It comes pre-loaded with Freespire from Linspire, which already has an office suite and just about everything else that I had on my old rig. This is a nice machine! I haven't even come close to exploring the capabilities of this system yet. I'm stoked.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Joes vs Pros...vs Pros...Joes...whatever.
Typically, this wouldn't really be my cuppa tea. Mmmmmm...tea...Oh, wait. Distracted. Pros vs. Joes! That's it. OK!
The best part is seeing people run smack and have to pay for it. I love that part. Ya know you're gonna be competing against somebody who got paid to do it, and you're gonna run smack about it? Nice going. Always a good idea to piss off a guy who played a sport at a top level for a decade. More than one, actually. I love the viewing of the audition tapes. Today they were makin' fun of Spudd Webb, before shooting three pointers against him. They tried to keep up with Andre Reed, too. That was pretty funny. I absolutely loved seeing the All Sport Equivalent of Softball Guy in an octagon with Randy Couture. He's not even a submission fighter, but he put on a decent clinic of lock holds.
Just because you may be a decent D League Softball Guy doesn't mean you can compete against even the Usta Be guys. How 'bout a little introspection so I don't have to blog about how embarassed you were on national (OK, cable, but with national distribution) TV. If I cared enough, I'd get all the losers pics together and post 'em up, but that would not be all that interesting to the 20 people who read my blog.
The best part is seeing people run smack and have to pay for it. I love that part. Ya know you're gonna be competing against somebody who got paid to do it, and you're gonna run smack about it? Nice going. Always a good idea to piss off a guy who played a sport at a top level for a decade. More than one, actually. I love the viewing of the audition tapes. Today they were makin' fun of Spudd Webb, before shooting three pointers against him. They tried to keep up with Andre Reed, too. That was pretty funny. I absolutely loved seeing the All Sport Equivalent of Softball Guy in an octagon with Randy Couture. He's not even a submission fighter, but he put on a decent clinic of lock holds.
Just because you may be a decent D League Softball Guy doesn't mean you can compete against even the Usta Be guys. How 'bout a little introspection so I don't have to blog about how embarassed you were on national (OK, cable, but with national distribution) TV. If I cared enough, I'd get all the losers pics together and post 'em up, but that would not be all that interesting to the 20 people who read my blog.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
AR15 Parts: Daniel Defense
I have to cop to having a bit of a bias towards Daniel Defense, Inc. Their VP of Contract and Military Sales used to work for the same company I do, and let me live in his home for far longer than he probably should have. He's one of my favorite people in the world...and he married so far over his head, his nose musta bled for at least a week to ten days.
So why am I blogging about Daniel Defense? Two reasons: first, they're making some of the very best AR15 parts out there. Secondly, they're on the verge of pretty well dominating the market, and I like telling shooters about the Next Big Thing.
Some of you, I'm sure, are saying something along the lines of "I've never heard of 'em, and they're gonna dominate the market?" Here's why: the Army has decided that they needed a new M203 rail. Long story short, Daniel Defense won that contract. Now, with contracts come headaches; ya gotta make all those parts that they're contracted for! However, knowing my bro, and having met the head of the company, they're gonna pull it off, and they're going to have a whole lot more working capital. We're looking at the start of something amazing happening.
They already make the best rail in the business. Nobody makes a lighter rail. But, for being the lightest parts going, they're also rock solid and perfectly dimensioned.
They make more than rails: offset flashlight mounts, a great rear sling point called the EZ CAR Mount. The beauty of it is that it bolts directly over the buffer tube with no modifications to the rifle necessary. This mount is very popular with the soldiers at Fort Campbell; we've sold hundreds of 'em. Another great product from DD is the upper receiver they make. Theirs stacks up against anyone else's on the market. Great quality.
After several conversations and e-mails, I've gained some insight into Daniel Defense's vision for the future. Let's just say "its comprehensive". They are going to be making every significant part for AR's that there are, and maybe even some that haven't been made yet.
If you're looking for a rail, Daniel Defense is the way to go. They are flat out the best there is. Keep an eye on this company, though: they're going to be on top of the heap soon. You'll be able to tell all yer shootin' buds that "Yeah, I've been using them for years. I've been into DD since back in the day."
So why am I blogging about Daniel Defense? Two reasons: first, they're making some of the very best AR15 parts out there. Secondly, they're on the verge of pretty well dominating the market, and I like telling shooters about the Next Big Thing.
Some of you, I'm sure, are saying something along the lines of "I've never heard of 'em, and they're gonna dominate the market?" Here's why: the Army has decided that they needed a new M203 rail. Long story short, Daniel Defense won that contract. Now, with contracts come headaches; ya gotta make all those parts that they're contracted for! However, knowing my bro, and having met the head of the company, they're gonna pull it off, and they're going to have a whole lot more working capital. We're looking at the start of something amazing happening.
They already make the best rail in the business. Nobody makes a lighter rail. But, for being the lightest parts going, they're also rock solid and perfectly dimensioned.
They make more than rails: offset flashlight mounts, a great rear sling point called the EZ CAR Mount. The beauty of it is that it bolts directly over the buffer tube with no modifications to the rifle necessary. This mount is very popular with the soldiers at Fort Campbell; we've sold hundreds of 'em. Another great product from DD is the upper receiver they make. Theirs stacks up against anyone else's on the market. Great quality.
After several conversations and e-mails, I've gained some insight into Daniel Defense's vision for the future. Let's just say "its comprehensive". They are going to be making every significant part for AR's that there are, and maybe even some that haven't been made yet.
If you're looking for a rail, Daniel Defense is the way to go. They are flat out the best there is. Keep an eye on this company, though: they're going to be on top of the heap soon. You'll be able to tell all yer shootin' buds that "Yeah, I've been using them for years. I've been into DD since back in the day."
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Why Hillary Won't Be the Democratic Nominee
I got this forwarded to a friend of mine, The Scott Valley Girl. This article was written by Tony Blankley, January 24, 2006. I found it to be well reasoned and insightful, and on top of that, right on the money. Basically, Mr. Blankley wrote a erudite and enlightened piece that says what I've been saying for years: Hillary Clinton is a lousy candidate who cares about personal power, who will do anything to get it and keep it. She cares no more about dialoging with America as I care about talking to her on any subject...which is to say, "not at all, ever."
Hillary: a time for chatting
By Tony Blankley
January 24, 2007
Cato the Elder, the great Roman senator, stood for the proposition "Carthago delenda est" -- we should destroy Carthage. Thomas Jefferson ran for president to protect the yeoman farmers from Hamiltonian big government. James Polk promised to steal Texas from the Mexicans. Abe Lincoln stood to preserve the Union. FDR promised to defeat the Great Depression with bold experimentation. Ike would end the Korean War. Ronald Reagan promised to build up our military strength, defeat Soviet communism and cut taxes and spending.
And last weekend Hillary Rodham Clinton presented herself for election to the presidency of the United States with the timeless, clarion call: "So let's talk. Let's chat, let's start a dialogue about your ideas and mine, because the conversation in Washington has been just a little one-sided lately, don't you think?"
The junior senator from the Empire State may not be leading with her strength with the theme of "a time for chatting." Of all the politicians who have strode, minced, ambled or marched across the stage of American politics over the years, Hillary may be the one least likely to induce the desire to be chatted up by.
I can imagine wanting to chat with Bill Richardson (in fact I have -- he's good company). Hillary's husband is obviously a world-class chatter -- among other things. Harry Truman would be a ball to chat with -- presumably over a few bourbons. One could have gossiped with FDR over martinis and cigarettes for hours. Even Barack Obama looks like an amiable conversationalist. We could compare our dope-smoking days, or the merits of different south sea beaches -- if that isn't the same topic.
But whether with politicians or the gent or lady at the next bar stool, the essence of chatting is lightness and spontaneity. And, while Hillary Millhouse Rodham Clinton may have many sterling qualities -- lightness and spontaneity are so not among them that she ought to consider firing the staffer who suggested that "let's chat" line.
She is about as spontaneous as the old Soviet Politburo. One has the sense that she has been planning this moment since about 1957. And she only compounded the problem with that closing observation that "conversation in Washington has been a little one-sided lately, don't you think?"
Can you imagine Hillary having a sincere, two-sided conversation with you -- a total stranger? She would have that huge painted-on smile aimed at your eyes, while her eyes would be looking over your shoulder to her handler with the exasperated "get me out of here" look.
And who can blame her. No politicians wants to chat with the public about the issues. Does anyone think that Hillary wants to get a total, ignorant stranger's view on health-care policy, when she has spent years perfecting a comprehensive governmental structure to deliver health care according to strict Swedish principles of governance?
One can picture her having to listen to some simple-minded suggestion about health care while thinking to herself (once again with that painful-to-look-at smile she forces on to her cold lips) "unless this clown can deliver a seven-figure campaign contribution, why is he wasting his breath?"
I am harping on this preposterous chatting gambit because it is part of an emerging pattern. In her first campaign for senator in 2000, she launched it with a "listening tour" of her newly adopted state. There was something both unctuous and condescending and also evasive about it. It was a calculated strategy of false intimacy.
Now, in this second stage of her plan to rule the world she has escalated from listening to chatting. And in her first "chat" with her public she presented herself in a tableau surrounded with a rainbow of other people's children in an attempt -- I suppose -- to relate to all those housefrauen of whom she was, of late -- so contemptuous.
She, who famously was not going to hang around the house and bake cookies, now can't get enough of such false images. Not to be seen was her actual daughter, now working for a hedge fund (if ever a child has found a profession in keeping with the family instinct, a hedge fund for the Clintons is it).
What makes all this vacuous and phony imagery so curious is that Hillary is a serious and powerfully directed person. She has strong, informed and considered policies on many of the great issues of our day. While a conservative will not usually agree with them, I have respect for her seriousness of purpose.
But the compulsion to false self-presentation is a disqualifying character trait for the presidency. And unlike her husband, she lacks the lightness and dexterity to hide that fatal flaw.
Hillary: a time for chatting
By Tony Blankley
January 24, 2007
Cato the Elder, the great Roman senator, stood for the proposition "Carthago delenda est" -- we should destroy Carthage. Thomas Jefferson ran for president to protect the yeoman farmers from Hamiltonian big government. James Polk promised to steal Texas from the Mexicans. Abe Lincoln stood to preserve the Union. FDR promised to defeat the Great Depression with bold experimentation. Ike would end the Korean War. Ronald Reagan promised to build up our military strength, defeat Soviet communism and cut taxes and spending.
And last weekend Hillary Rodham Clinton presented herself for election to the presidency of the United States with the timeless, clarion call: "So let's talk. Let's chat, let's start a dialogue about your ideas and mine, because the conversation in Washington has been just a little one-sided lately, don't you think?"
The junior senator from the Empire State may not be leading with her strength with the theme of "a time for chatting." Of all the politicians who have strode, minced, ambled or marched across the stage of American politics over the years, Hillary may be the one least likely to induce the desire to be chatted up by.
I can imagine wanting to chat with Bill Richardson (in fact I have -- he's good company). Hillary's husband is obviously a world-class chatter -- among other things. Harry Truman would be a ball to chat with -- presumably over a few bourbons. One could have gossiped with FDR over martinis and cigarettes for hours. Even Barack Obama looks like an amiable conversationalist. We could compare our dope-smoking days, or the merits of different south sea beaches -- if that isn't the same topic.
But whether with politicians or the gent or lady at the next bar stool, the essence of chatting is lightness and spontaneity. And, while Hillary Millhouse Rodham Clinton may have many sterling qualities -- lightness and spontaneity are so not among them that she ought to consider firing the staffer who suggested that "let's chat" line.
She is about as spontaneous as the old Soviet Politburo. One has the sense that she has been planning this moment since about 1957. And she only compounded the problem with that closing observation that "conversation in Washington has been a little one-sided lately, don't you think?"
Can you imagine Hillary having a sincere, two-sided conversation with you -- a total stranger? She would have that huge painted-on smile aimed at your eyes, while her eyes would be looking over your shoulder to her handler with the exasperated "get me out of here" look.
And who can blame her. No politicians wants to chat with the public about the issues. Does anyone think that Hillary wants to get a total, ignorant stranger's view on health-care policy, when she has spent years perfecting a comprehensive governmental structure to deliver health care according to strict Swedish principles of governance?
One can picture her having to listen to some simple-minded suggestion about health care while thinking to herself (once again with that painful-to-look-at smile she forces on to her cold lips) "unless this clown can deliver a seven-figure campaign contribution, why is he wasting his breath?"
I am harping on this preposterous chatting gambit because it is part of an emerging pattern. In her first campaign for senator in 2000, she launched it with a "listening tour" of her newly adopted state. There was something both unctuous and condescending and also evasive about it. It was a calculated strategy of false intimacy.
Now, in this second stage of her plan to rule the world she has escalated from listening to chatting. And in her first "chat" with her public she presented herself in a tableau surrounded with a rainbow of other people's children in an attempt -- I suppose -- to relate to all those housefrauen of whom she was, of late -- so contemptuous.
She, who famously was not going to hang around the house and bake cookies, now can't get enough of such false images. Not to be seen was her actual daughter, now working for a hedge fund (if ever a child has found a profession in keeping with the family instinct, a hedge fund for the Clintons is it).
What makes all this vacuous and phony imagery so curious is that Hillary is a serious and powerfully directed person. She has strong, informed and considered policies on many of the great issues of our day. While a conservative will not usually agree with them, I have respect for her seriousness of purpose.
But the compulsion to false self-presentation is a disqualifying character trait for the presidency. And unlike her husband, she lacks the lightness and dexterity to hide that fatal flaw.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
What now for Terrell Owens?
This is an interesting time for football fans. I suppose that, since there's no football this weekend, changes are what must be the entertainment of the day. Now that Bill Parcells has called it quits, the news seem to care an aweful lot about what TO has to say about it. What I wanna know is, what's Jerry Jones gonna do now? He's the one who figured that a known PITA in TO would be able to be kept in check with the known hardness of Parcells. I never got the feeling that Coach was all that thrilled to have TO anyway, and now that they may end of with less of a disciplinarian at head coach in Big D, things could go the way of the past several seasons of TO in a hurry.
Owens is known more for his antics than his performance level these days. I've never seen TO drop as many easy passes that the rest of the top receivers in the League wouldn't as he did in the 06-07 season. He became totally mediocre. Unintimidating. Unspectacular. Unimpressive. Maybe we should change his name from TO to UN. UN is still a talented receiver, but is he worth the effort anymore? He's not great now. He's not at the top of the game. He's not playing like Mushin Muhammed anymore, who seems to be rising to the challenge of a championship season. If the game's on the line, who ya gonna go to? Chances are, UN isn't at the top of your list anymore.
Here's the bottom line now. UN has become-or perhaps 'was the prototype for'-David Boston. Talented, but a big pain in the tuckus to deal with. And much like Boston, he had a chance to "fix" his career. Boston decided to be a jerk instead of a professional in San Diego, and is a nobody now. UN thinks so much of himself, apparently, that even when he spends most of a season under the radar, he can't do it as a matter of course. He appears to be UNable to just be a quiet professional. Do we hear of these kinds of antics from Reggie Wayne? The aforementioned Muhammed? TJ Houshmandzadeh (I hadda put that name in here!)? Keenan McCardell? A huge list of others? No, we hear it from two.
Ocho Cinco is almost as full of antics as UN is. And while he may lead his team in stats, he doesn't lead the league, especially in the most important catagory: wins and championships. Here's probably the lesson to be learned here: take your stupid little games elsewhere. They're only mildly entertaining for a short while, and they get old fast. Especially when your team isn't winning a championship. There's a lot of room in the league for expressionism, but celebrating first downs and basic tackles is getting old. Its what you're supposed to do as a pro football player on every play. Its time to take a page from Antonio Gates and LT: act like you've done it before. That's the definition of professionalism.
Its time for UN to go. He's more work than he's worth anymore. Its time that the league to start realizing that some guys just aren't worth the trouble and quit hiring them, especially for the stupid money they keep throwing at them. If they were to do that, since this is a copycat league, their problems would be reduced. If a player knows he can't be a jerk, he won't be. Or he won't be working.
Owens is known more for his antics than his performance level these days. I've never seen TO drop as many easy passes that the rest of the top receivers in the League wouldn't as he did in the 06-07 season. He became totally mediocre. Unintimidating. Unspectacular. Unimpressive. Maybe we should change his name from TO to UN. UN is still a talented receiver, but is he worth the effort anymore? He's not great now. He's not at the top of the game. He's not playing like Mushin Muhammed anymore, who seems to be rising to the challenge of a championship season. If the game's on the line, who ya gonna go to? Chances are, UN isn't at the top of your list anymore.
Here's the bottom line now. UN has become-or perhaps 'was the prototype for'-David Boston. Talented, but a big pain in the tuckus to deal with. And much like Boston, he had a chance to "fix" his career. Boston decided to be a jerk instead of a professional in San Diego, and is a nobody now. UN thinks so much of himself, apparently, that even when he spends most of a season under the radar, he can't do it as a matter of course. He appears to be UNable to just be a quiet professional. Do we hear of these kinds of antics from Reggie Wayne? The aforementioned Muhammed? TJ Houshmandzadeh (I hadda put that name in here!)? Keenan McCardell? A huge list of others? No, we hear it from two.
Ocho Cinco is almost as full of antics as UN is. And while he may lead his team in stats, he doesn't lead the league, especially in the most important catagory: wins and championships. Here's probably the lesson to be learned here: take your stupid little games elsewhere. They're only mildly entertaining for a short while, and they get old fast. Especially when your team isn't winning a championship. There's a lot of room in the league for expressionism, but celebrating first downs and basic tackles is getting old. Its what you're supposed to do as a pro football player on every play. Its time to take a page from Antonio Gates and LT: act like you've done it before. That's the definition of professionalism.
Its time for UN to go. He's more work than he's worth anymore. Its time that the league to start realizing that some guys just aren't worth the trouble and quit hiring them, especially for the stupid money they keep throwing at them. If they were to do that, since this is a copycat league, their problems would be reduced. If a player knows he can't be a jerk, he won't be. Or he won't be working.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
There is no Pal in Paypal
I'm no particular fan of Ebay. Their arbitrary rules are rediculous and they are not applied evenly. Even though Ebay has a lot of different catagorie that they're making a lot of money off of, they have absolutely zero SME's working there. SME's are Subject Matter Experts; the people that should be turned to to be an authority on whatever the particular topic is. Because Ebay cares more about raising fees and making money than they do about making their system run optimally and making money, users get screwed by Ebay all the time, in the form of cancelled auctions. That's not exactly news. "Ebay sucks" has been a common refrain sung by thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of members and former members. We can add Paypal to the inneptitude that is the Ebay Corporation.
Last year, I went to use my Paypal debit card at Brownells.com for a lower parts kit group buy I was doing for some friends. The transaction was declined, no reason given. I went to log into my Paypal account, and was met by a message saying that Paypal, in its myopic, finite wisdom, had limited my account access. And with Paypal's awesome customer service, I didn't get any kind of message from them regarding this new situation. I wasn't supposed to be able to take the money out of my account, but for whatever reason I was able to, and found another way to make the transactions happen.
The reason given for the restriction was that "some items on your website are in violation of Paypal's terms of use policy and must be removed". That wouldn't seem to be that big a deal, except that I haven't had a retail website online since 2001, which my partners and I shut down in 2002. At the time of the account restriction, I had no online commerce, in any form, anywhere on the Intarweb.
I tried sending e-mails to their alleged "customer service" department regarding the lack of a website with which I could violate their policies, which all went unanswered. After a while I went ahead and created another account. Being the high quality, high security organization that they are, the new account was created immediately and is still working.
I was finally able to track down a phone number for the alleged "customer service" department. That was no easy task. The number's on their site, but they're not putting it anywhere easy to find. After a couple of calls, because their business hours are only mildly convenient to those in the Pacific Time Zone, I was able to get through. All I could get out of them was that the account was restricted, the restriction couldn't (or wouldn't, which I think is more accurate) be lifted, and I had to wait at least six months before I could close the account. That was the best part: I had an account that I couldn't use and couldn't close, which had personal and financial information on it. I was thrilled with that. I told them how much they sucked, and waited the six months. I tried logging in to delete the account, but was still unable to. Eventually, Paypal got around to deleting the account and all the information therein, in their own sweet, retarded time. Again, no contact was ever forthcoming by Paypal.
I get more bogus messages from Paypal frauds than I ever do from Paypal, and I've been a customer for something like six years. They care so much about the people they make money off of that they have a track record of service second to...well, everyone else in customer service, in any field, anywhere, ever. I'm hoping that there's somebody out there that wants to take care of people for money that will step up and give a beat down to Ebay and Paypal. Its clear that neither of those companies gives a rat's a$$ about their customers.
Ebay and Paypal: you both SUCK.
Last year, I went to use my Paypal debit card at Brownells.com for a lower parts kit group buy I was doing for some friends. The transaction was declined, no reason given. I went to log into my Paypal account, and was met by a message saying that Paypal, in its myopic, finite wisdom, had limited my account access. And with Paypal's awesome customer service, I didn't get any kind of message from them regarding this new situation. I wasn't supposed to be able to take the money out of my account, but for whatever reason I was able to, and found another way to make the transactions happen.
The reason given for the restriction was that "some items on your website are in violation of Paypal's terms of use policy and must be removed". That wouldn't seem to be that big a deal, except that I haven't had a retail website online since 2001, which my partners and I shut down in 2002. At the time of the account restriction, I had no online commerce, in any form, anywhere on the Intarweb.
I tried sending e-mails to their alleged "customer service" department regarding the lack of a website with which I could violate their policies, which all went unanswered. After a while I went ahead and created another account. Being the high quality, high security organization that they are, the new account was created immediately and is still working.
I was finally able to track down a phone number for the alleged "customer service" department. That was no easy task. The number's on their site, but they're not putting it anywhere easy to find. After a couple of calls, because their business hours are only mildly convenient to those in the Pacific Time Zone, I was able to get through. All I could get out of them was that the account was restricted, the restriction couldn't (or wouldn't, which I think is more accurate) be lifted, and I had to wait at least six months before I could close the account. That was the best part: I had an account that I couldn't use and couldn't close, which had personal and financial information on it. I was thrilled with that. I told them how much they sucked, and waited the six months. I tried logging in to delete the account, but was still unable to. Eventually, Paypal got around to deleting the account and all the information therein, in their own sweet, retarded time. Again, no contact was ever forthcoming by Paypal.
I get more bogus messages from Paypal frauds than I ever do from Paypal, and I've been a customer for something like six years. They care so much about the people they make money off of that they have a track record of service second to...well, everyone else in customer service, in any field, anywhere, ever. I'm hoping that there's somebody out there that wants to take care of people for money that will step up and give a beat down to Ebay and Paypal. Its clear that neither of those companies gives a rat's a$$ about their customers.
Ebay and Paypal: you both SUCK.
Saturday, January 20, 2007
It has begun
In the interest of giving news that nobody cares about, I have decided to give both of you who read my blog an update on the aforementioned trials and tribulations associated with my ongoing education. I received word yesterday that the two classes I needed from SDCC are going to be available to me in a distance learning format. That means that I'm going to be able to take Corporate Finance, Origins, and Philosophy here, while getting my degree from there. I also arranged for one of the last pieces of the enrollment puzzle for Hopkinsville Community College to be taken care of. I needed a letter of "good standing", which means I don't owe SDCC any back payments or tuition, which should have gone out yesterday. Additionally, I confirmed the classes at Hoptown that I needed to take. So, six classes and some sending of transcripts, and I'm done. Finished. Conferred and Degreed. And beginning the repayment of my loans. Ick.
C'mon, overpayment of tax!
I was slightly disgustipated that my W2 wasn't ready on the 1st of January. Actually, I wasn't exactly disgustipated, just a little bummed. I decided that today was the day to use "disgustipated" in a sentence. At any rate, my taxes were done within several hours of me getting that W2, and would have been done sooner, except that I didn't think it would be a good idea to be filling out tax forms at my desk when I had a stack of dump pouches on my desk that needed to be inspected.
Overpayment of tax is something I'm not really a fan of. Make no mistake: your "income tax return" isn't a discount, refund, or any kind of gift from the government. Its your money. It was always your money. What you've done is to loan that money to the government, interest free, for a year. That's money that could have been in your check, because you earned it, and wasn't. Getting "money back" isn't a great thing. Generally, I end up oweing a check to the IRS, but this time around, I didn't adjust my witholding to break even or owe. I decided that this wasn't the year for that, and as a consequence, I'm getting a sizable sum of my money sent back to me. What's sizable? This time, about eight bills. That's too much to let them keep, but its pretty well already spent, anyway.
At least I'm not going to throw it away on useless stuff. A few hundo of it is going to Madtux to replace my current desktop computer. I have had it with Windows. Its become a giant, lumbering slug of an OS, and I'm tired of fighting with it. I'm sick of it getting ill all the time. I'm sick of my system being attacked and finding weird stuff hidden in places I can't find. I appear to have a dialer in one of my registries that I can't find, and its dogging my system big time. I'm willing to try just about anything to be able to work and play better on a 'puter, so I'm taking my friend Josh's advice and getting a Linux system. It'll do all I need it to, without the annoying too-hip-to-stand-himself-much-less-for-me-to-stand-him Mac guy, and the idiot Windows guy who's clearly the Assistant Manager at Burger-Ama. Are you noticing that I'm developing an unhealthy dislike for stupid commercials? Maybe I need to give up on finishing my Business Management batchelor's and get a master's in advertising.
Nah.
The other thing I'm spending my money that the government horked from me on is a case of ammo for Schwaggie, my AR. I have about 250 rounds of good ammo left, and that's just not gonna go very far. With all the changes I've made to her of late, adding a Troy rear Battlesight and a Comp M2 Aimpoint, its probably going to take a little bit of time to zero her again. That does raise the question of what to do with the former carry handle, though. Hmmm...
There may be a splurge in there, too, since I feel I MUST HAVE a new buttstock. As I stated here earlier, I added the CAA Stock Saddle to the carbine, and so far have been relatively pleased with it. However, because I work with a large number of gun whores, my rifle's not as cool as theirs. I already know I can shoot; that's not the issue. The issue is that my rifle isn't as cool lookin' as it might be, and as we all know, "its not how you feel, its how you look...nobody cares how you feel". At least in terms of rifles.
Where's the rest going? Into savings. Sometimes being responsible sucks, but I gotta do what I gotta do.
Overpayment of tax is something I'm not really a fan of. Make no mistake: your "income tax return" isn't a discount, refund, or any kind of gift from the government. Its your money. It was always your money. What you've done is to loan that money to the government, interest free, for a year. That's money that could have been in your check, because you earned it, and wasn't. Getting "money back" isn't a great thing. Generally, I end up oweing a check to the IRS, but this time around, I didn't adjust my witholding to break even or owe. I decided that this wasn't the year for that, and as a consequence, I'm getting a sizable sum of my money sent back to me. What's sizable? This time, about eight bills. That's too much to let them keep, but its pretty well already spent, anyway.
At least I'm not going to throw it away on useless stuff. A few hundo of it is going to Madtux to replace my current desktop computer. I have had it with Windows. Its become a giant, lumbering slug of an OS, and I'm tired of fighting with it. I'm sick of it getting ill all the time. I'm sick of my system being attacked and finding weird stuff hidden in places I can't find. I appear to have a dialer in one of my registries that I can't find, and its dogging my system big time. I'm willing to try just about anything to be able to work and play better on a 'puter, so I'm taking my friend Josh's advice and getting a Linux system. It'll do all I need it to, without the annoying too-hip-to-stand-himself-much-less-for-me-to-stand-him Mac guy, and the idiot Windows guy who's clearly the Assistant Manager at Burger-Ama. Are you noticing that I'm developing an unhealthy dislike for stupid commercials? Maybe I need to give up on finishing my Business Management batchelor's and get a master's in advertising.
Nah.
The other thing I'm spending my money that the government horked from me on is a case of ammo for Schwaggie, my AR. I have about 250 rounds of good ammo left, and that's just not gonna go very far. With all the changes I've made to her of late, adding a Troy rear Battlesight and a Comp M2 Aimpoint, its probably going to take a little bit of time to zero her again. That does raise the question of what to do with the former carry handle, though. Hmmm...
There may be a splurge in there, too, since I feel I MUST HAVE a new buttstock. As I stated here earlier, I added the CAA Stock Saddle to the carbine, and so far have been relatively pleased with it. However, because I work with a large number of gun whores, my rifle's not as cool as theirs. I already know I can shoot; that's not the issue. The issue is that my rifle isn't as cool lookin' as it might be, and as we all know, "its not how you feel, its how you look...nobody cares how you feel". At least in terms of rifles.
Where's the rest going? Into savings. Sometimes being responsible sucks, but I gotta do what I gotta do.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
SHOT show
I was in Orlando this past week from Wednesday very late night through Sunday morning. Why would I be in Orlando? Two reasons: get the heck out of Kentucky for a little while, and to attend SHOT show.
SHOT stands for Shooting Hunting and Outdoor Trade show. Basically, any company worth its salt that is at all connected to any of those fields is there. This is the first big chance for retailers and wholesalers to get a look at new stuff and place orders. I generally call it "Disneyland with Triggers". There's everything from the junk Hi Point guns to sets of four Perazzi shotguns that go for $300,000. Yeah, you read that right.
I found a couple cool new things there. The Magpul Masada rifle is cool as all get out, and when it finally becomes available I will have one. That'll probably take a couple years yet, but I can wait. I also came across a cool new cleaning kit at the KG Gunkote booth. Its made by Lanigan Performance Products and even if it only works marginally well, at least it makes cleaning the bore more fun than it is with a brush. Basically whatcha got here is a CO2 powered propellant unit that shoots a felt plug down the bore of the gun to clean fouling out. If nothing else, its just plain fun to shoot those plugs around the homestead. It only runs about $35. I couldn't find the manufacturer at the show, and I didn't wanna pay the retail price at KG, so I'm gonna look into picking one of these up through work. What can I say? I'm poor.
There were a few other cool products, but that really meant very little to me at this show. The highlights for me were the people I met. I spent about an hour with the coolest guy in the world, custom knifemaker Bill Harsey. We talked knives, guns and watches, and I couldn't have had a more enjoyable time. That man has forgotten more about knives than I will ever know. He also introduced me to some pretty high speed guys. Mr. Harsey is very well known and liked, and has earned his title of Knifemaker to the Quiet Professionals. He's also a huge, huge man.
In addition to Mr. Harsey, I also got to meet several moderators and members of the forum I am an administrator of, Lightfighter.net. I went to the Gemtech/SWAT/TR party, and within a short time, I was laughing my head off with a bunch of lifelong friends I had just met. Then a SWAT cop who goes by the screen name Hetzer busted out the artillery shell-shaped vodka bottle. Note to self: don't be so agreeable to take a shot from a glass that looks like a projectile. I only had a few, but one of my other new friends had several, and that's the kind of thing that lives with ya for a while. Overall, it was great, great fun. It wouldn't have been possible without the internet. As much as I dislike some aspects of the 'net, it has done an amazing job of bringing people together.
SHOT is in Vegas next year, and ATS should have a rather sizable booth there. I expect I'll be working the show, so stop by and introduce yourself.
SHOT stands for Shooting Hunting and Outdoor Trade show. Basically, any company worth its salt that is at all connected to any of those fields is there. This is the first big chance for retailers and wholesalers to get a look at new stuff and place orders. I generally call it "Disneyland with Triggers". There's everything from the junk Hi Point guns to sets of four Perazzi shotguns that go for $300,000. Yeah, you read that right.
I found a couple cool new things there. The Magpul Masada rifle is cool as all get out, and when it finally becomes available I will have one. That'll probably take a couple years yet, but I can wait. I also came across a cool new cleaning kit at the KG Gunkote booth. Its made by Lanigan Performance Products and even if it only works marginally well, at least it makes cleaning the bore more fun than it is with a brush. Basically whatcha got here is a CO2 powered propellant unit that shoots a felt plug down the bore of the gun to clean fouling out. If nothing else, its just plain fun to shoot those plugs around the homestead. It only runs about $35. I couldn't find the manufacturer at the show, and I didn't wanna pay the retail price at KG, so I'm gonna look into picking one of these up through work. What can I say? I'm poor.
There were a few other cool products, but that really meant very little to me at this show. The highlights for me were the people I met. I spent about an hour with the coolest guy in the world, custom knifemaker Bill Harsey. We talked knives, guns and watches, and I couldn't have had a more enjoyable time. That man has forgotten more about knives than I will ever know. He also introduced me to some pretty high speed guys. Mr. Harsey is very well known and liked, and has earned his title of Knifemaker to the Quiet Professionals. He's also a huge, huge man.
In addition to Mr. Harsey, I also got to meet several moderators and members of the forum I am an administrator of, Lightfighter.net. I went to the Gemtech/SWAT/TR party, and within a short time, I was laughing my head off with a bunch of lifelong friends I had just met. Then a SWAT cop who goes by the screen name Hetzer busted out the artillery shell-shaped vodka bottle. Note to self: don't be so agreeable to take a shot from a glass that looks like a projectile. I only had a few, but one of my other new friends had several, and that's the kind of thing that lives with ya for a while. Overall, it was great, great fun. It wouldn't have been possible without the internet. As much as I dislike some aspects of the 'net, it has done an amazing job of bringing people together.
SHOT is in Vegas next year, and ATS should have a rather sizable booth there. I expect I'll be working the show, so stop by and introduce yourself.
Saturday, January 06, 2007
Another couple quizzes
| I am.... | |
| I am.....: | therefore, I think. |
| I am not...: | short |
| I love...: | family. And guns. And families with guns. |
| I like.....: | eating |
| I hate....: | as little as I can |
| I envy....: | nothing |
| I fear....: | not fearing things |
| I crave....: | peanut butter and chocolate ice cream |
| I miss....: | San Diego |
| I adore.....: | my M4gery |
| I listen.....: | intently |
| I do....: | but not frequently |
| I do not.....: | all the time |
| I admire....: | Soldiers. |
| I feel....: | at the end of my fingertips |
| I will talk to you if.....: | you have cash |
| I will not talk to you if......: | I'm being yelled at |
| I read.....: | constantly, typically three books at a time |
| I am most excited about......: | getting out of town for a few days |
| I use....: | stuff |
| I never use.....: | bad stuff if I can help it |
| I hope for.....: | conservative government |
| I depend on....: | myself |
| I drink......: | too much soda |
| I'm OCD about...: | being a slob |
| I have a passion for....: | God |
| I dont understand.....: | why people vote liberal |
| I watch.....: | people do stupid things |
| I care about....: | friends |
| I do not care about...: | things that I don't care about |
| My name is.....: | Haji |
| And I AM......: | still Haji |
| Take this survey | Find more surveys Bzoink - The Original Survey Site | |
And another:
| Fun Fun Randomness | |
| Have you ever been to a different country?: | Yes, several places in Europe, Mexico, and Texas |
| Are you a vegetarian?: | Oh, hell no! I'm not happy if nothing dies for me to eat. |
| Do you play a musical instrument?: | Not currently. I'm a former bass player, and played the trombone and baritone in HS |
| Are you double jointed?: | I don't smoke that stuff |
| Can you whistle?: | yeah, but I can't do that coach's whistle without fingers |
| Do you have any special talents?: | belch talking. I'm getting better at belch singing, too. |
| Have you ever cried in front of others?: | Yup. You can do that at funerals |
| Do you shower daily?: | Yup |
| Name one bad habit of yours:: | I'd say procrastination, but I gotta think about that and come back to it later. |
| What friend of your boyfriend/girlfriend do you find the most attractive?: | Ain't gots either one |
| Is chubby cute?: | occasionally |
| Have you ever been hospitalized?: | Yeah, I was born in one. Other than that...just the E-Room |
| Ever done something real bad?: | Not especially, except that I went to see Titanic in a theatre |
| Ever got caught doing something bad?: | Not really, but the MP's brought me home once when I was a kid |
| Rate your dancing skills 1-10:: | What's less than 1? |
| Are you single?: | perpetually |
| If not, what's your significant other's name?: | Rosy |
| What's your sign?: | STOP |
| What's your middle name?: | Scott |
| What's your favorite flower?: | Roses of several different varieties |
| Who do you idolize?: | Jesus |
| If you could speak a foreign language, which would it be?: | I already speak Gibberish. |
| Smell your shirt, what does it smell like?: | cotton |
| What kind of deoderant do you use?: | Degree |
| What's your best physical feature?: | My height, perhaps my food stain-colored eyes |
| What's your favorite physical feature in the opposite sex?: | I'm smitten with brown eyes and dark hair |
| Are you afraid of the dark?: | Nope, but I also carry a Surefire light |
| Day/Night?: | Preference? I don't have one |
| Sun/Rain?: | I'd rather not get rained on |
| Cold/Hot?: | its easier to get warm than it is to get cool |
| Dog/Cat?: | Cats suck. |
| Sneeze/Cough?: | I'd rather not do either one |
| Favorite Super Nintendo game:: | None. I'm not a gamer |
| Favorite board game:: | Pictionary, Monopoly, or Trivial Persuit |
| Favorite arcade game:: | Galaga, because its at the laundromat I use |
| When was the last time you shagged?: | waiting till I get married |
| Rate it on a scale of 1-10:: | really can't, can I? |
| Does anything hurt on your body right now? If yes, what?:: | no, not really |
| Sleeping position:: | reclined |
| Children?: | No, thanks |
| Least favorite food:: | brussell sprouts. They're nasty. |
| Most desirable place to visit:: | I wanna go back to Nawlins |
| Have you ever peed the bed?: | My own? No. I may have at a party or two, but they weren't mine |
| Do you enjoy reality tv?: | Not since Combat Missions ended. The Ultimate Fighter isn't that much a reality show, and I watch it constantly |
| Do you believe in a higher power?: | Oh, yes. I know God personally |
| Are you supersticious?: | nope. |
| Believe in ghosts?: | nope. |
| Ever seen a ghost?: | nope. |
| Watch porn?: | Try to avoid it. It doesn't help me |
| What's your favorite horror film?: | I'm not that much a horror fan, so its either the Blade trilogy, Shaun of the Dead, or Underworld |
| What's the best book you've ever read?: | The Bible, followed by the Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Masters of Chaos |
| Lactose Intolerant?: | Not even a little |
| If you could put one thing in your mouth right now, what would it be?: | I don't want anything in my mouth right now |
| Least favorite word:: | liberal, entitlement, and socialism all share the top spot |
| Worst teacher:: | Whoever it was that taught my Personnel Management class |
| Best kisser:: | Me |
| Most embarrassing moment:: | Right now. I can't think of one. |
| Do you bite your nails?: | once in a while |
| Most desired length of hair on opposite sex?: | I love long hair, but short hair is cool too, and so is medium length hair. |
| Are you bilingual?: | Not fluently |
| Do you work hard for your money?: | Like I have a choice? Noone else does what I do |
| Do you own a plant?: | not currently |
| Do you own a fish?: | not currently |
| What is on your feet right now?: | leather |
| When was the last time you showered?: | 1:00 pm this afternoon. |
| Have you ever cheated on a loved one?: | Nope |
| Ever ratted someone out?: | Several |
| Who was the last person you yelled at?: | I told one of our seamstresses that she was on crack, but I didn't really yell it |
| Who was the last person you hit?: | I only remember slugging Josh in the temple several years ago |
| Who was the last person you kissed?: | Mom, I think |
| Are you wearing underwear?: | yup |
| If so..what kind?: | Hanes |
| Do you like bananas?: | yes |
| Can you sing?: | I can carry a tune, but I'm not into it |
| What's your future child's name going to be?: | Titan Enormo |
| Are you racist?: | Racist? No. Biased? I think so |
| Are you a homophobe?: | Definately |
| What's your favorite kind of animal?: | predators |
| Have you ever been bitten by a spider?: | Yup |
| Ever had a tic stuck to you?: | yup |
| Have you ever cried for no reason?: | Nope |
| Do you have piercings?: | Still have the holes in my earlobes, but I don't wear anything in 'em anymore |
| Do you have tattoos?: | Nope. Can't think of anything I want to have forever |
| How long is your hair?: | Right now, about 3" |
| How long are you..okay how tall are you?: | 6' 6" |
| What do you do for a living?: | QC manager for a tactical gear manufacturer |
| Where's the prettiest place you've ever been?: | Lots of 'em, but there's a jungle in Hawaii I'd like to get back to |
| Is Shakira hot?: | Can't sing, but her body control is amazing. She's pretty hot for being so short |
| Do you want someone's boyfriend/girlfriend?: | Not if they don't. |
| Do you have the hots for a co-worker?: | Nope. All my coworkers are grandmothers. |
| Take this survey | Find more surveys Bzoink - The Original Survey Site | |
Toys I need: Leitner Wise AR15 piston driven uppers
Recently I packed up some ATS Equipment Co. gear for Leitner-Wise Rifle Co. to use in a photo shoot. I have no idea when any of that will be in print; that deal was set up by my boss, who's quite good at that. Today we got the gear back, along with a converted Colt upper receiver that belongs to my boss. That upper was supposed to go to South Carolina, but ended up getting shipped to the same address as the other stuff, which turned out to be a cool thing. Its also a bad thing; now I need one of these things, too!
The system is elegantly simple. Instead of running gas directly into the receiver, it runs into a gas piston. The gas never goes any further than the end of the piston. The gas drives the piston into a replaced carrier key that has no hole in it. There's a stout little spring to push the piston back into position for the next round. It really doesn't take up any more room, in practical terms, than the direct impingement system does. My boss had his converted on his 10.5" SBR, which uses a Noveske barrel. It uses LW's rail, which is another elegantly simple system. It looks to me like it'd fit under a standard rail, but LW's allows access to the bolt parts by way of two captured thumb screws (can't lose 'em; good attention to detail there) and some cross bolts on each side of the rail that the top cover locks into. The attachment to the receiver is quite similar to the Samson/Troy rail design. Strong and simple is good!
A complete built upper is a considerable amount of money in terms of my economy, but is definately not out of line for the type of work that is done. They also do conversions, which the upper I've been messing with today is. They're well worth the cost, based solely on the quality of manufacturing. Of course, this one isn't mine, so I have only a little experience with it. My boss Stephen, though, has quite a lot of experience with them, and has had nothing but good things to say about LW guns. He's an experienced combat veteran, and a serious shooter. I trust his experience and opinions. This is definately something I'm going to need.
The system is elegantly simple. Instead of running gas directly into the receiver, it runs into a gas piston. The gas never goes any further than the end of the piston. The gas drives the piston into a replaced carrier key that has no hole in it. There's a stout little spring to push the piston back into position for the next round. It really doesn't take up any more room, in practical terms, than the direct impingement system does. My boss had his converted on his 10.5" SBR, which uses a Noveske barrel. It uses LW's rail, which is another elegantly simple system. It looks to me like it'd fit under a standard rail, but LW's allows access to the bolt parts by way of two captured thumb screws (can't lose 'em; good attention to detail there) and some cross bolts on each side of the rail that the top cover locks into. The attachment to the receiver is quite similar to the Samson/Troy rail design. Strong and simple is good!
A complete built upper is a considerable amount of money in terms of my economy, but is definately not out of line for the type of work that is done. They also do conversions, which the upper I've been messing with today is. They're well worth the cost, based solely on the quality of manufacturing. Of course, this one isn't mine, so I have only a little experience with it. My boss Stephen, though, has quite a lot of experience with them, and has had nothing but good things to say about LW guns. He's an experienced combat veteran, and a serious shooter. I trust his experience and opinions. This is definately something I'm going to need.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Al just doesn't get it
Al Davis has fired Art Shell as head coach. That's another coach out in Oakland, and the number is so high now that I suspect no coach that takes that lousy job plans to be there more than two years, and one is more realistic. Raiduh Fan is looking in the wrong direction if they think the coach is the problem.
The Raiduhs have a long and glorious history of hiring dirt bags and malcontents. Character matters, and the Raiduhs have very little of it. Randy Moss is their big play guy, and he's known to give up on plays. They spent tons of money on Robert Gallery, and the record that the Raiduhs set for sacks ran over him most of the time. Tatoos and long hair don't make for a good offensive lineman, I guess.
They've continued their long, long history of being the most penalized team in the league. They've got an ingrained culture of cheating, which is what penalties really are, that is always there regardless of who the coach is. That makes me wonder: why is it that regardless of who the coach is, they still commit a rediculous number of stupid, stupid penalties every single game? The answer should be obvious enough for the coaches who are in contention for the job to say, "I have the job? No, that's OK. I'm good."
Its pretty clear that the reason that they go through coaches like poop through a goose, and the reason they've got such a nice long history of cheating and penalties is Alice. It appears that Davis can't stay out of the operations of the team. There's no other reason that penalty yards should mount year after year after year, regardless of who's coaching, unless Alice encourages it. You want this team to win? No you don't. If you did, you'd leave the coaching to the team and quit hiring dirt bags.
Here's the bottom line: as long as Al Davis owns the Raiders, they're gonna suck. I'm good with that. Must be a lot of fun to be a Raider organization employee watching the Chargers dominate the AFC. Sucks to be you, boys.
The Raiduhs have a long and glorious history of hiring dirt bags and malcontents. Character matters, and the Raiduhs have very little of it. Randy Moss is their big play guy, and he's known to give up on plays. They spent tons of money on Robert Gallery, and the record that the Raiduhs set for sacks ran over him most of the time. Tatoos and long hair don't make for a good offensive lineman, I guess.
They've continued their long, long history of being the most penalized team in the league. They've got an ingrained culture of cheating, which is what penalties really are, that is always there regardless of who the coach is. That makes me wonder: why is it that regardless of who the coach is, they still commit a rediculous number of stupid, stupid penalties every single game? The answer should be obvious enough for the coaches who are in contention for the job to say, "I have the job? No, that's OK. I'm good."
Its pretty clear that the reason that they go through coaches like poop through a goose, and the reason they've got such a nice long history of cheating and penalties is Alice. It appears that Davis can't stay out of the operations of the team. There's no other reason that penalty yards should mount year after year after year, regardless of who's coaching, unless Alice encourages it. You want this team to win? No you don't. If you did, you'd leave the coaching to the team and quit hiring dirt bags.
Here's the bottom line: as long as Al Davis owns the Raiders, they're gonna suck. I'm good with that. Must be a lot of fun to be a Raider organization employee watching the Chargers dominate the AFC. Sucks to be you, boys.
I like stupid survey posts
I decided that since I should be working right now (not really, I took my break late, but still...) I needed to add a short survey found rather randomly through Google. I did this because everybody does it on their blogs, and I didn't want to be left out of the cool kids clique. So here goes:
4 Jobs I've Had in My Life...
1. QC Manager
2. Showroom Operations Manager
3. PIMP (Product Information Manager for Personnel)
4. Movie Theatre Assistant Manager (and usher)
4 Movies I Could Watch Over and Over...(and do!)
1. Stripes
2. Caddyshack
3. The Buccaneer
4. Rio Bravo/El Dorado (almost the same movie, but I love 'em both equally)
4 Places I've lived...
1. Oak Grove, Kentucky
2. San Diego CA
3. Camarillo, CA
4. Brooklyn, NY
4 TV Shows I Love to Watch...
1. The Ultimate Fighter
2. Jericho
3. Modern Marvels
4. Biker Build Off
4 Places I've Been on Vacation...
1. New Orleans, LA
2. Miami, FL
3. Oahu, Hawaii
4. Agua Dulce, CA
4 Websites I Visit Daily...
1. South Park Pundit.com
2. Lightfighter.net
3. Zombie Hunters.com
4. Yahoo.com
4 of My Favorite Foods...
1. Carne Asada Burrito with sour cream and cheese added
2. Rolled Tacos with sour cream and cheese added
3. Carne Asada Nachos with Sour Cream and Cheese Added
4. Pulled pork and ribs, wet.
There ya have it! This is at least mildly entertaining, so as long as I can find short ones, I'll keep doing this.
4 Jobs I've Had in My Life...
1. QC Manager
2. Showroom Operations Manager
3. PIMP (Product Information Manager for Personnel)
4. Movie Theatre Assistant Manager (and usher)
4 Movies I Could Watch Over and Over...(and do!)
1. Stripes
2. Caddyshack
3. The Buccaneer
4. Rio Bravo/El Dorado (almost the same movie, but I love 'em both equally)
4 Places I've lived...
1. Oak Grove, Kentucky
2. San Diego CA
3. Camarillo, CA
4. Brooklyn, NY
4 TV Shows I Love to Watch...
1. The Ultimate Fighter
2. Jericho
3. Modern Marvels
4. Biker Build Off
4 Places I've Been on Vacation...
1. New Orleans, LA
2. Miami, FL
3. Oahu, Hawaii
4. Agua Dulce, CA
4 Websites I Visit Daily...
1. South Park Pundit.com
2. Lightfighter.net
3. Zombie Hunters.com
4. Yahoo.com
4 of My Favorite Foods...
1. Carne Asada Burrito with sour cream and cheese added
2. Rolled Tacos with sour cream and cheese added
3. Carne Asada Nachos with Sour Cream and Cheese Added
4. Pulled pork and ribs, wet.
There ya have it! This is at least mildly entertaining, so as long as I can find short ones, I'll keep doing this.
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Nother year!
New Year's is the time of resolutions, which I don't believe in. If you need to make a change in your life, make it. Don't put it off until January the 1st just because that's the start of a new calendar year. It doesn't mean anything more than you need to buy another $12 pile of card stock (hopefully with cool pictures) to keep track of dates on. I end up using whatever calendar I can get for free, which means they're generally tacticool. I'd spend my own money to have a cool high speed calendar full of cool guys with cool guns. Listen up, calendar makers: you're missing out on money here.
I try to keep resolutions that are on my list of things to do anyway, so I'm never disapointed with missing out on getting one done. Why resolve something I know I'm not gonna do? Maybe I suck, but I'm honest with myself. To quote Yoda, that modern primitive philosophizer, "Do. Or do not. There is no 'try'."
So what's on my list of things to do this year? That's pretty easy. Interestingly-to me at least-they generally have to do with education and learning. Some of 'em are just things I wanna get to and have been working at for a while, some are going to be rather major undertakings. At any rate, here's a bit of a list in no particular order for next year...actually, tomorrow:
- Finish my degree. I'm six classes away, and started working on making things happen on this front about a month ago. I will be finished in '07. Might as well; I gotta start paying back those damn student loans anyway.
- Get some education on my M4gery. I can shoot; that's not the issue. I wanna really know how to run the carbine, in all aspects of its use. I don't have a lot of experience shooting at distance with a rifle that isn't a bolt action. I wanna learn how to do all kinds of stuff I won't use, such as the continuation of my low light and room clearing education. I already have a tacticool job. I need the skills to back it up and continue to enhance my Intarweb Celebrity. Sorry, can't find the "rolling eyes" emoticon.
- Get back to Cali for a visit or two. The family is still there and I still have the majority of my friends there.
- Get to work on the writing of the book. I don't wanna give the concept away on the net and have somebody swoop in and steal it. I'm enlisting an English major friend of mine, and a buddy of mine who's a combat medic. It has to do with the Mobile Undead. I think you could gather that's what all the rambling on my blog about zombies and gear has been about. It may not be finished next year, but it will be underway.
- Learn something else I didn't expect to. I don't expect it, so I don't know what that's gonna be, but I'm gonna learn something.
- I'm gonna try to continue a couple things I'm already working on: I'm going to continue to try to eradicate profanity from my vocabulary. Swearing doesn't do anything to get my point across better, and it doesn't bring me closer to God. I'm also going to work harder on not making fun of people. This is very difficult for me. Some people are just begging to be made fun of, and they serve up opportunities like softballs to the outside edge of the plate. Resisting the easy is the hard part. If I can do that, I'll move on to resisting the more difficult. The difficult ones are usually the harder ones, believe it or not, because a good clever put down is art. But, since it doesn't help anyone else, I'm trying to stop that. Now my friends are using their "rolling eyes" emoticons.
Friday, December 29, 2006
Reincarnation? Are you serious about that?
For whatever reason, the grandmothers I work with seem to universally believe in reincarnation. They buy into it wholesale, and in addition, they believe in ghosts, too. Now, we're talking about working females who are between 40 and 60 years old, and are as previously mentioned, are all grandmothers. They're totally serious about believing in reincarnation.
This all started with the comment (don't ask me how; I don't recall) that if you get a child relaxed enough and ask them who they were before, they'll tell you. I don't recall ever once believing that I was someone other than who I am right now. They say its because of cultural conditioning, but if its true, why wouldn't it be culturally accepted? I know the answer to that, but I'm gonna drop some thoughts for you to ponder before the answer becomes exceedingly clear. This could get outrageously long; I'm going to try to restrain myself from throwing it all out there and losing you two minutes in by giving the highlights.
It would appear that everyone that believes in reincarnation believes that they were famous in a previous life. That makes sense; why would you not want to be someone famous or important if you're going to believe in past lives? How many people could have been Hannibal? Napoleon? The Mayor of York? A queen in ancient Egypt? If more than one person claims this simultaneously, then we have proof that this is a spurious belief. If we take the population of Los Angeles, for example, and figure the per capita numbers of celebrities in that town, we'll still have too many of the population of the city that would have claimed to be famous in past lives. There simply aren't enough famous or important people, as a percentage of the available population, for reincarnation to be viable.
As a corollary to the previous thought, some people believe that their previous lives occured very, very long ago. One of my coworkers claimed to have been an important or wealthy Egyptian from the time of the Pharoahs. Since lives were shorter then, what happened between the 40 years of life then and the life being lived now? Once you died, your soul or escence or whatever makes someone a person must have been doing something. Something becoming nothing doesn't happen much in nature. If someone is reincarnated, clearly there are rules. There are laws that govern what happens. Do you become a lesser life form for some reason? Do you become an ameoba for a while before you become a person again? Where's the reason in that? If you're taking up a certain amount of energy now, why would you take up less after a life? You'd have to to be something less than you are now. By the same token, if you were more, say, a 300 year old tree hundreds of feet tall, why would you come back as less energy? It just doesn't make sense. Your soul would have to be somewhere in the meantime, and there's no explanation of that.
Here's another incongruity: the number of people on the planet is increasing. In a July 2006 estimate, the CIA figures that there are 6,525,170,264 people in the world. That's more people than have ever been here before, and the number is rising. If people are being recycled through reincarnation, why are there more now than there were at the beginning of recorded time? The world hasn't gotten bigger or smaller. Its the same size planet as its always been. So where did all these n00bs come from? Other planets that they've been hanging out on while waiting to get back in the game here on Earth? That can't be, either, and that's my last point.
OK, consider this idea for a moment: you die, you're reincarnated as someone else, somewhere else. You're Phil, the new guy who accidentally turned cows inside out in South Park. You used to be Pharaoh Seti the First, and now you're Phil. Never mind that you went from being human to E.T. for a minute. Riddle me this, Batman: how'd you get there? Are you seeing where I'm going with this yet? Clearly, if this were the case, there would be laws that govern the logisitics of how this happens. It couldn't happen randomly. How much of what happens in nature is truely random? Not very much; remember cause and effect from your biology classes? So there's laws set forth to determine how all this happens. If you believe in reincarnation, you're probably about to be really upset with what must be the truth of all this.
In order for there to be laws, even laws that govern the rules of reincarnation that is total hooey, there must be an authority to set forth those laws. As stated previously, you can't just pop around and reincarnate as Tom Cruise (clearly he's an alien). Something determines who or what you become, so you don't end up with 50 people being Tom at once. As there are laws that govern nature, there is conspicuous evidence that all this has been managed and ordered to make it work. How did that happen? Couldn't just be a Big Bang that set this complicated system in motion. I don't buy that stupid theory anyway; its beyond rediculous. Its even more rediculous in terms of reincarnation. So here it is: for this to work at all, there has to be a supreme being. Even the goofy theory of reincarnation would require God to work. Reconsider your belief system, and get right with God.
That popping sound in your ears just now? That was your mind being blown.
This all started with the comment (don't ask me how; I don't recall) that if you get a child relaxed enough and ask them who they were before, they'll tell you. I don't recall ever once believing that I was someone other than who I am right now. They say its because of cultural conditioning, but if its true, why wouldn't it be culturally accepted? I know the answer to that, but I'm gonna drop some thoughts for you to ponder before the answer becomes exceedingly clear. This could get outrageously long; I'm going to try to restrain myself from throwing it all out there and losing you two minutes in by giving the highlights.
It would appear that everyone that believes in reincarnation believes that they were famous in a previous life. That makes sense; why would you not want to be someone famous or important if you're going to believe in past lives? How many people could have been Hannibal? Napoleon? The Mayor of York? A queen in ancient Egypt? If more than one person claims this simultaneously, then we have proof that this is a spurious belief. If we take the population of Los Angeles, for example, and figure the per capita numbers of celebrities in that town, we'll still have too many of the population of the city that would have claimed to be famous in past lives. There simply aren't enough famous or important people, as a percentage of the available population, for reincarnation to be viable.
As a corollary to the previous thought, some people believe that their previous lives occured very, very long ago. One of my coworkers claimed to have been an important or wealthy Egyptian from the time of the Pharoahs. Since lives were shorter then, what happened between the 40 years of life then and the life being lived now? Once you died, your soul or escence or whatever makes someone a person must have been doing something. Something becoming nothing doesn't happen much in nature. If someone is reincarnated, clearly there are rules. There are laws that govern what happens. Do you become a lesser life form for some reason? Do you become an ameoba for a while before you become a person again? Where's the reason in that? If you're taking up a certain amount of energy now, why would you take up less after a life? You'd have to to be something less than you are now. By the same token, if you were more, say, a 300 year old tree hundreds of feet tall, why would you come back as less energy? It just doesn't make sense. Your soul would have to be somewhere in the meantime, and there's no explanation of that.
Here's another incongruity: the number of people on the planet is increasing. In a July 2006 estimate, the CIA figures that there are 6,525,170,264 people in the world. That's more people than have ever been here before, and the number is rising. If people are being recycled through reincarnation, why are there more now than there were at the beginning of recorded time? The world hasn't gotten bigger or smaller. Its the same size planet as its always been. So where did all these n00bs come from? Other planets that they've been hanging out on while waiting to get back in the game here on Earth? That can't be, either, and that's my last point.
OK, consider this idea for a moment: you die, you're reincarnated as someone else, somewhere else. You're Phil, the new guy who accidentally turned cows inside out in South Park. You used to be Pharaoh Seti the First, and now you're Phil. Never mind that you went from being human to E.T. for a minute. Riddle me this, Batman: how'd you get there? Are you seeing where I'm going with this yet? Clearly, if this were the case, there would be laws that govern the logisitics of how this happens. It couldn't happen randomly. How much of what happens in nature is truely random? Not very much; remember cause and effect from your biology classes? So there's laws set forth to determine how all this happens. If you believe in reincarnation, you're probably about to be really upset with what must be the truth of all this.
In order for there to be laws, even laws that govern the rules of reincarnation that is total hooey, there must be an authority to set forth those laws. As stated previously, you can't just pop around and reincarnate as Tom Cruise (clearly he's an alien). Something determines who or what you become, so you don't end up with 50 people being Tom at once. As there are laws that govern nature, there is conspicuous evidence that all this has been managed and ordered to make it work. How did that happen? Couldn't just be a Big Bang that set this complicated system in motion. I don't buy that stupid theory anyway; its beyond rediculous. Its even more rediculous in terms of reincarnation. So here it is: for this to work at all, there has to be a supreme being. Even the goofy theory of reincarnation would require God to work. Reconsider your belief system, and get right with God.
That popping sound in your ears just now? That was your mind being blown.
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Cingular is offensive
I have yet another rant. Cingular has started running this stupid commercial for their MP3 phones. Now, a phone that plays MP3's is kinda cool. The technology is pretty amazing and that somebody decided the world should revolve around your phone is visionary.
The problem is that Cingular apparently will allow anyone to get one of their phones. They have two college dudes who clearly use too much cannabis playing one of the greatest rock tracks of all time. Rock the Casbah is the best song on a very good record. Combat Rock is a great record from first track to last. The song is a seminal piece of music. These two pot heads should be old that they must have heard the song for years.
No, you morons. Joe's not singing "Stock the Cat Box." Why would you think that? Does that fit in at all with any of the lyrics? I know most popular music doesn't always make much sense, but Rock the Casbah does. They're pretty easy to hear. They're reasonably clear, for a rock song. That's what's so retarded. They're screwing up lyrics that most people in their age group know, understand, and can speak coherently about. I was going to say "eloquently", but further reflection prompted me to correct the error of my ways.
Ever wonder how they could get that song so, so wrong...when its on their phone? Didn't they have to download it? Didn't they have to have a source for it? Wouldn't that mean it'd be damn near impossible to get the song to the phone without knowing what its called? How could you download a song without having its title? Since the title is the same as the words in the chorus, it would take a heck of large bong load to screw that one up. And these idiots were getting in a car. They're clearly too messed up to drive. Those fools will kill someone.
Thanks for letting another college educated, talentless hack choose your ad campaign. Think about this: that was probably the best idea they had. Consider what might have been.
The problem is that Cingular apparently will allow anyone to get one of their phones. They have two college dudes who clearly use too much cannabis playing one of the greatest rock tracks of all time. Rock the Casbah is the best song on a very good record. Combat Rock is a great record from first track to last. The song is a seminal piece of music. These two pot heads should be old that they must have heard the song for years.
No, you morons. Joe's not singing "Stock the Cat Box." Why would you think that? Does that fit in at all with any of the lyrics? I know most popular music doesn't always make much sense, but Rock the Casbah does. They're pretty easy to hear. They're reasonably clear, for a rock song. That's what's so retarded. They're screwing up lyrics that most people in their age group know, understand, and can speak coherently about. I was going to say "eloquently", but further reflection prompted me to correct the error of my ways.
Ever wonder how they could get that song so, so wrong...when its on their phone? Didn't they have to download it? Didn't they have to have a source for it? Wouldn't that mean it'd be damn near impossible to get the song to the phone without knowing what its called? How could you download a song without having its title? Since the title is the same as the words in the chorus, it would take a heck of large bong load to screw that one up. And these idiots were getting in a car. They're clearly too messed up to drive. Those fools will kill someone.
Thanks for letting another college educated, talentless hack choose your ad campaign. Think about this: that was probably the best idea they had. Consider what might have been.
Friday, December 22, 2006
Air America Bankrupt? Bwaaaahhaaaaahaaaa!!!!!
This apparently happened all the way to September, but I found a blurb about it yesterday on the Yahoo news links: Air America is going under.
Now, if your first thought is "what the hell is Air America", first I'd have to nod sagely and then point that out as one of their many problems. Its tough to be very concerned about it when the whole network was completely forgettable anyway. Wow! They have Al Franken! ...uh...who? Isn't he that guy that had to coattail Rush Limbaugh to get any notice at all for his books, even putting El Rushbo's name on the cover? In the damn title? Yeah, there's a personality. I'm told he was a comedian, but other than having a goofy lookin' face, I can't think of anything funny he came up with. On top of that, he's far more hateful than I appear to be in my writings. He's one of those venomous lefties. He wrote a book that about 10 people read called "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot." Yeah, seriously.
So Air America is failing or has failed or something along those lines. The EIB Network it ain't, that's for sure. It would appear that the lefties are going to, or already have (and its been totally ignored) claim that the failure is due to station mismanagement, rather than the truth. The truth is, according to the facts, nobody is listening to them. They're not making money because companies (remember the "Tim Robbins" explanation of what Corporations do in Team America: World Police? I'll find that and add it in at the end here) aren't advertising and creating advertising revenue. Companies don't advertise where there money is not getting a return. Hello, Air America! Nobody's listening! No money for you!
Mismanagement is relatively easy to fix. Lack of listeners isn't. That's why its easy to blame the lack of performance on the management. You've lost millions; its time to come to grips with the fact that your format isn't appealing. The old Liberal crutch of "its all about feelings" isn't working when that feeling is simply "We hate Bush". It doesn't work. We hated Clinton and didn't whine about it the way you clowns are.
Sure, America is changing again, but citizens here in general are trying to find a centrist point of view, and that's certainly not the left. They may have elected a very inefectual Democrat congress (which may end up split down the center again), but they don't want leftist vitreol. Maybe they're finally figuring out what those of us on the right have always known: people can fend for themselves. The government doesn't need to be all up in our business. Sure doesn't bode well for the left.
So your big attempt at fighting back against Rush, Hannity, Hitchcock, Savage, and the long list of others has failed. I'm not sorry to say that I'm not surprised. The left has no idea what makes talk radio work, and they paid a big, big price for it. HAHAAAAAHAAAAAHAAAAAHAAAAAA!!!!
Now, if your first thought is "what the hell is Air America", first I'd have to nod sagely and then point that out as one of their many problems. Its tough to be very concerned about it when the whole network was completely forgettable anyway. Wow! They have Al Franken! ...uh...who? Isn't he that guy that had to coattail Rush Limbaugh to get any notice at all for his books, even putting El Rushbo's name on the cover? In the damn title? Yeah, there's a personality. I'm told he was a comedian, but other than having a goofy lookin' face, I can't think of anything funny he came up with. On top of that, he's far more hateful than I appear to be in my writings. He's one of those venomous lefties. He wrote a book that about 10 people read called "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot." Yeah, seriously.
So Air America is failing or has failed or something along those lines. The EIB Network it ain't, that's for sure. It would appear that the lefties are going to, or already have (and its been totally ignored) claim that the failure is due to station mismanagement, rather than the truth. The truth is, according to the facts, nobody is listening to them. They're not making money because companies (remember the "Tim Robbins" explanation of what Corporations do in Team America: World Police? I'll find that and add it in at the end here) aren't advertising and creating advertising revenue. Companies don't advertise where there money is not getting a return. Hello, Air America! Nobody's listening! No money for you!
Mismanagement is relatively easy to fix. Lack of listeners isn't. That's why its easy to blame the lack of performance on the management. You've lost millions; its time to come to grips with the fact that your format isn't appealing. The old Liberal crutch of "its all about feelings" isn't working when that feeling is simply "We hate Bush". It doesn't work. We hated Clinton and didn't whine about it the way you clowns are.
Sure, America is changing again, but citizens here in general are trying to find a centrist point of view, and that's certainly not the left. They may have elected a very inefectual Democrat congress (which may end up split down the center again), but they don't want leftist vitreol. Maybe they're finally figuring out what those of us on the right have always known: people can fend for themselves. The government doesn't need to be all up in our business. Sure doesn't bode well for the left.
So your big attempt at fighting back against Rush, Hannity, Hitchcock, Savage, and the long list of others has failed. I'm not sorry to say that I'm not surprised. The left has no idea what makes talk radio work, and they paid a big, big price for it. HAHAAAAAHAAAAAHAAAAAHAAAAAA!!!!
Thursday, December 21, 2006
New Parts for the EBR!
I swapped some .40 S&W ammo that I got for free for three packs of Magpul Gen II Followers and a couple three packs of Old Skool Magpuls in that cool tan color. Now I have something like 14 mags with the new followers and a few left to replace. The two mags on top of the pyramid in the pic are HK steel M4 mags. Gifts from a connected customer.
Also new (and part of the swap) is the Troy Battlesight. I recently got the Aimpoint M2 from a friend of mine. Its pretty much a pre-swap item. I'm gonna have to hook him up with something good, but his AR is better set than mine is. He gave up the Aimpoint because he has an Eotech on his rifle.
Last piece that's gonna be added is a fold down front sight. I'm thinking PRi, but I think I'll wait until after SHOT show to see what I'm gonna put on it. I still want to replace the buttstock with a Vltor Modstock, but I don't have to have that...I just want it real bad!
Also new (and part of the swap) is the Troy Battlesight. I recently got the Aimpoint M2 from a friend of mine. Its pretty much a pre-swap item. I'm gonna have to hook him up with something good, but his AR is better set than mine is. He gave up the Aimpoint because he has an Eotech on his rifle.
Last piece that's gonna be added is a fold down front sight. I'm thinking PRi, but I think I'll wait until after SHOT show to see what I'm gonna put on it. I still want to replace the buttstock with a Vltor Modstock, but I don't have to have that...I just want it real bad!
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Gone Already?
I was discussing the current shows on TV with some friends recently. We found an unfortunate trend: it does no good to get involved in a show anymore. A program gets cancelled so fast that there's no time to decide if its worth getting hooked. I was starting to get into 3 lbs, and its cancelled already. There was a huge buzz and push for Smith, and it lasted for, what, five or six weeks? If a show doesn't hit right away-and I mean in the first airing and a couple weeks after-its gone, replaced with another stupid game show or "reality" TV.
I'm not sure what it is people want to watch these days. Many of the people I work with (its a unique demographic: they're all older married ladies with grand kids) are big fans of shows like Dancing with the Stars. They really care about who won. Apparently, they're rather representative of what people want to see these days.
Now, I can't quite figure out if that's because people really prefer those shows, or a few of them have become hits and the studios find them less expensive and easy to produce, and now its all they're making so we're stuck with 'em. When Survivor was introduced, it was unique, and drew a lot of viewers because of it. Now, they've done just about everything they can do with it, and in my mind it jumped the shark a couple seasons ago. I don't think it'll go away anytime soon though, because its relatively cheap to make and can still draw enough of an audience to sell advertising on it. I can't stand any of the alleged "reality" shows. They're vapid and intellectually vacant. They're not funny, and they're not compelling. They're not comedy, drama or action. I fear that we're stuck with 'em because the low production cost makes them irresistible to the networks. That's the reason game shows have made a resurgence. If it wasn't for the dramatic music, nobody would care about which case the contestant picked.
The other sad aspect of TV shows these days is that the high cost has pretty well killed off originality. 3 Lbs was another medical show. Smith was a cop drama from the opposite direction that people apparently didn't like. Jericho is kind of a version of The Day After that was released 20 years ago. Of the new crop, its unfortunately the best of the bunch.
I guess the bottom line is that until we demand more of the networks, this is what we get. It would appear that there's some of this going on now. A perusal of one of the forums I am a member of revealed this topic as a top five list. Most of those members responding didn't list network shows in most of their lists. A few did, and they were generally the same shows: Jericho, The Unit, and...uh...I guess that was about it. The rest were cable shows. Oddly, or perhaps not, is that most of those shows were semi-reality shows, like Miami Ink and American Chopper. The rest were premium channel shows, like the Sopranos and the like.
It would appear that network TV shows are going the way of the newspaper...or perhaps more accurately, network TV news. There are a fraction of the news shows now than there were several years ago. The reason for that is that more news is available faster on the Intarweb. Could it be that there's going to be yet another revolution that will have us watching our little monitors instead of our large TV's? That will be interesting to see.
I'm not sure what it is people want to watch these days. Many of the people I work with (its a unique demographic: they're all older married ladies with grand kids) are big fans of shows like Dancing with the Stars. They really care about who won. Apparently, they're rather representative of what people want to see these days.
Now, I can't quite figure out if that's because people really prefer those shows, or a few of them have become hits and the studios find them less expensive and easy to produce, and now its all they're making so we're stuck with 'em. When Survivor was introduced, it was unique, and drew a lot of viewers because of it. Now, they've done just about everything they can do with it, and in my mind it jumped the shark a couple seasons ago. I don't think it'll go away anytime soon though, because its relatively cheap to make and can still draw enough of an audience to sell advertising on it. I can't stand any of the alleged "reality" shows. They're vapid and intellectually vacant. They're not funny, and they're not compelling. They're not comedy, drama or action. I fear that we're stuck with 'em because the low production cost makes them irresistible to the networks. That's the reason game shows have made a resurgence. If it wasn't for the dramatic music, nobody would care about which case the contestant picked.
The other sad aspect of TV shows these days is that the high cost has pretty well killed off originality. 3 Lbs was another medical show. Smith was a cop drama from the opposite direction that people apparently didn't like. Jericho is kind of a version of The Day After that was released 20 years ago. Of the new crop, its unfortunately the best of the bunch.
I guess the bottom line is that until we demand more of the networks, this is what we get. It would appear that there's some of this going on now. A perusal of one of the forums I am a member of revealed this topic as a top five list. Most of those members responding didn't list network shows in most of their lists. A few did, and they were generally the same shows: Jericho, The Unit, and...uh...I guess that was about it. The rest were cable shows. Oddly, or perhaps not, is that most of those shows were semi-reality shows, like Miami Ink and American Chopper. The rest were premium channel shows, like the Sopranos and the like.
It would appear that network TV shows are going the way of the newspaper...or perhaps more accurately, network TV news. There are a fraction of the news shows now than there were several years ago. The reason for that is that more news is available faster on the Intarweb. Could it be that there's going to be yet another revolution that will have us watching our little monitors instead of our large TV's? That will be interesting to see.
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Thanks for giving us crappy bowl games, BCS.
Unbelieveable. Florida vs. Ohio St. for the national championship? Are you kidding? Just give the trophy to OSU. The Gators stand no chance whatsoever of beating the Buckeyes. They're gonna get pounded, badly. Nice going, BCS.
Michigan plays USC in the Rose Bowl? At least USC is gonna get their ass kicked at home in front of their fair weather fans. Michigan is clearly the second best team in the country, and they have to play #5 instead of playing LSU, which would be a much better game. C'mon, let's get serious: Michigan lost only to OSU, who was ranked #1 at the time, by a field goal. Florida lost to Auburn. USC lost to two unranked teams, the second being UCLA when they had a chance to cement their position. SC is gonna get chewed up big time by Michigan, just like the Gators are gonna get mud stomped by OSU. If there was anything else to do during that holiday week, I wouldn't bother watching, but since its the end of the foo'bah season, I'm going to have to...cursing that worthless BCS abortion the whole time.
Michigan plays USC in the Rose Bowl? At least USC is gonna get their ass kicked at home in front of their fair weather fans. Michigan is clearly the second best team in the country, and they have to play #5 instead of playing LSU, which would be a much better game. C'mon, let's get serious: Michigan lost only to OSU, who was ranked #1 at the time, by a field goal. Florida lost to Auburn. USC lost to two unranked teams, the second being UCLA when they had a chance to cement their position. SC is gonna get chewed up big time by Michigan, just like the Gators are gonna get mud stomped by OSU. If there was anything else to do during that holiday week, I wouldn't bother watching, but since its the end of the foo'bah season, I'm going to have to...cursing that worthless BCS abortion the whole time.
Saturday, December 02, 2006
These are a few of my favorite things
Somehow I've become known for my negative opinions on things like movies, guns, music, fake boobs, and various other things. I think I've figured out why that is. If something sucks, I'll say so in a nanosecond. Generally, if I like it, I won't talk about it all that much. There's just so much worthless crap in the world that I don't have enough time to comment on everything good that counteracts the garbage.
That being the case, I thought it might be fun to list some of my favorites, rather than all that stuff that I dislike. Now, this list is totally variable. My favorites are always subject to change, and the lists may vary in length, as well. I should also admit that I infuriate some liberal tree hugger with my opinions. They're dual purpose like that, which I appreciate. These may be in numerical order, but chances are they're not exactly in a set order. I may explain why I love 'em, I may not. Several of these are timeless enough to not require explanation.
Favorite Movies, Comedies:
That being the case, I thought it might be fun to list some of my favorites, rather than all that stuff that I dislike. Now, this list is totally variable. My favorites are always subject to change, and the lists may vary in length, as well. I should also admit that I infuriate some liberal tree hugger with my opinions. They're dual purpose like that, which I appreciate. These may be in numerical order, but chances are they're not exactly in a set order. I may explain why I love 'em, I may not. Several of these are timeless enough to not require explanation.
Favorite Movies, Comedies:
- Caddyshack. One of the two movies that changed my life...or at least my sense of humor
- Stripes. This is the other one
- Ghostbusters. Are you seeing a trend here yet?
- Strange Brew
- Team America: World Police
- Pirates of the Carribean. Might as well make this all of them, even if the last one's not out yet.
- Heat. This one's worth watching just for the epic gunfight outside the bank
- The Ghost and The Darkness. The only movie to give me the same tingly sensation that bear hunting did.
- Bad Boys II. A lot of profanity, but such a well constructed buddy flick that I can't help but love it
- The Buccaneer. I wish this one was released on DVD. Its one of the greatest pirate/freedom type flicks of all time. I love this movie!
- Traffic. Had some goofy parts to it, but unlike Syriana, it made some sense and managed to tie the ends up pretty cleanly.
- Gladiator. It has epicality.
- 13th Warrior. I'm not generally an Antonio Banderas fan, but he was good in this one. This is one of those movies that I throw in to watch over and over again when nothing else sounds good.
- Rio Bravo. Its John Wayne. All John Wayne movies rule.
- El Dorado. Essentially the same story as Rio Bravo, but I still dig it the most. John Wayne for president, post humously.
- Silverado. The best blending of comedy and drama in just about any genre. It both trancends and defines the western.
- Tombstone. This movie caused an epic road trip to the town. Good times.
- The Fifth Element. I love this movie. Its got everything, including Milla.
- I, Robot. Between the effects and the story, its pretty engrossing. enjoyable fun.
- Serenity. I'm not a huge fan of the series; I didn't see most of it. The movie's good fun, though, and the dialogue is unique.
- Underworld. Stylish, and with Kate Beckinsale in leather. Don't get no better...except with a sequel
- Underworld The Sequel.
- Shaun of the Dead. I'm not a huge zombie movie fan, but this one's unique and funny.
- Predator. So much to love about this flick, it can't be listed here. Just not enough space. Get to de choppah!
- In Harm's Way. This star-studded epic really does deserve a top spot
- Three Kings. Sort of a war movie. Wierd and quirky.
- Band of Brothers. A series rather than one film, but its awesome.
- Blackhawk Down. Not a documentary, but a decent representation, according to those who were there, of the events in Somalia.
- The Patriot. Good flick to make you feel good about being an American.
- Master and Commander. Sort of a war movie, but different enough to earn a spot.
- Hamburger Hill. Good performances from several actors that you know now but probably didn't know then.
- The Quiet Man. John Wayne in Scotland as an American getting back to his roots. Quite good.
- Braveheart. Long, but entertaining
- Blade series. Sort of horror, but mostly action. Entertaining.
- Hollow Man. The effects are amazing.
- Hatari. Yeah, its another Duke epic, but even with the love story and song(they always did that back in the day) its a great story.
- The well known Steven Segal movies of the 80's and 90's (Marked for Death, Under Siege, etc). They're my guilty pleasure.
- Miracle. I remember this when it was happening. Its such a perfect snapshot of that time in history. Go rent or buy it, its great
- Lords of Dogtown, and Dogtown and Z-Boys. These both document events that happened in my youth. In a way, I was a part of this history, although not with them.
- Riding Giants. Another Stacy Peralta documentary. I learned a lot from this movie, and it was very entertaining. I didn't ever surf (I was heavy into Boogie Boards and body surfing, but never surfed, oddly enough) but this one kept me all the way through.
- Red Hot Chili Peppers. They still bring the funk, even when Flea isn't slapping.
- Demon Hunter. Really heavy, but musical
- Old Van Halen: never got tired of it. Everything they did with DLR was pretty great. Everything else was not worth owning
- Bela Fleck and the Flecktones: Really funky jazz, with an unusual mix of instrumentation.
- Mighty Mighty Bosstones. How can ya not like a band that has a song called "Haji"?
- U2 up until Rattle and Hum. Their facination with heroin references turned me off, but I love all the stuff before this.
- Stevie Ray Vaughn. He left us too soon.
- Living Colour. No better description than "unique".
- Parliament Funkadelic: Just started getting back into this band. They bring the funk, but keep it ultra smooth.
- Testament. Underrated, and fantastic. Far better than their contemporaries
- Anthrax with John Bush. I know a lotta people like the old stuff, but they weren't anywhere near as good with Joey Belladonna. Armored Saint was a great band because of Bush.
- Evanesence. There's something both soaring and haunting about Amy Lee's voice, and the band can keep up with her. I think I have a secret crush on the hot goth-ish chick.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
It has begun!
As of last night, the merchandise that manufacturing has in stock...or had, I suppose, since its all over in the website's inventory now...went online. This is the beginning of the introduction of 20-30 items that will comprise the ATS gear line.
The reason we decided not to do a Blackhawk or an Eagle is that we realize that some items are just not cost effective for us to produce. We took a hard look at how things happen for other companies, and came to the conclusion that its not the right way for us. Several companies make a huge number of products, for every possible need. They're also hamstrung by that same inventory. They get an order in for a few Reverse Faced Quad Widgets that haven't been cutting edge and in high demand for a couple of years, and they have to go back and make that thing. Since they can't do just the three, they do 25 to make it worth making the run. Then they have 22 of them collecting dust for several months to several years because nobody else wants them. Its not a good plan for us; we're too small to absorb an overstock like that.
Manufacturing is balancing the production of a line of goods with a limited amount of resources. You either have too little materials, too little time in the week, or too few employees or machinery. A balance to achieve the best results must occur, or you fail...and not just at teh Intrenets. This is true of every manufacturer. I can't think of a single one that has everything it needs in the quantity that they need at the time they need it. Some have become very good at it, with the Just In Time method of getting materials, but JIT is hard on vendors, too. Every time you're dependent on an outside vendor, even if its another wing of your organization, bad things can happen. Not that they always do, but it appears that business has a proclivity towards chaos.
At any rate, ATS Brand Equipment is now available, and we're damn proud of it. We've got some unique ideas and products that nobody else has done, so far as I know. Ya like that disclaimer? ;) I think we're going to find a large chunk of the industry because what we have is cool. It'll probably be knocked off soon enough, and versions of it will appear in a couple other company's lines, but then we'll know we've "made it". Then all we have to do is work harder to keep us on top.
The reason we decided not to do a Blackhawk or an Eagle is that we realize that some items are just not cost effective for us to produce. We took a hard look at how things happen for other companies, and came to the conclusion that its not the right way for us. Several companies make a huge number of products, for every possible need. They're also hamstrung by that same inventory. They get an order in for a few Reverse Faced Quad Widgets that haven't been cutting edge and in high demand for a couple of years, and they have to go back and make that thing. Since they can't do just the three, they do 25 to make it worth making the run. Then they have 22 of them collecting dust for several months to several years because nobody else wants them. Its not a good plan for us; we're too small to absorb an overstock like that.
Manufacturing is balancing the production of a line of goods with a limited amount of resources. You either have too little materials, too little time in the week, or too few employees or machinery. A balance to achieve the best results must occur, or you fail...and not just at teh Intrenets. This is true of every manufacturer. I can't think of a single one that has everything it needs in the quantity that they need at the time they need it. Some have become very good at it, with the Just In Time method of getting materials, but JIT is hard on vendors, too. Every time you're dependent on an outside vendor, even if its another wing of your organization, bad things can happen. Not that they always do, but it appears that business has a proclivity towards chaos.
At any rate, ATS Brand Equipment is now available, and we're damn proud of it. We've got some unique ideas and products that nobody else has done, so far as I know. Ya like that disclaimer? ;) I think we're going to find a large chunk of the industry because what we have is cool. It'll probably be knocked off soon enough, and versions of it will appear in a couple other company's lines, but then we'll know we've "made it". Then all we have to do is work harder to keep us on top.
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