A few minutes ago, things in my house wobbled and swayed for 30 seconds or so.
Wind? No.
Strange.
As it turns out, a 5.8 magnitude earthquake struck Virginia, north of Richmond. While the news reports it as being felt as far as North Carolina and Ohio, I can attest that we felt it down here on the Piedmont Plateau as well.
I’m telling you, allowing this to happen is yet another failure of this Congress and White House.
I was incorrect in a previous article, and I’d like to post a correction. Steve Perry, the beloved singer from arena rock band Journey, is not running for the Republican Presidential nomination. I regret the misunderstanding and assure the readership that swift punishment will be meted out. There will be demerits.
As it turns out, the actual candidate is Rick Perry, shown here displaying some truly wretched muzzle and trigger discipline:
Way to set an example, Rick.
The Brady Campaign wasted no time putting the shot to good use, issuing a press release on the matter.
The Republican primary campaign has hardly begun and already it is being dominated by extremists. None as scary as Rick Perry who brazenly carries weapons – concealed and revealed. Even on the campaign trail!
Only an egotistical extremist would carry a loaded weapon into a crowd – encouraging others to do so. Is this where America is headed?
Continued...
Tonight’s Republican Presidential debate in Ames was, of course, little more than glossy dinner theater wrapped in the flannel shawl of politics. Heck, it was run by Fox News. Nevertheless, it gave us some clue as to the intentions and character of our possible nominees. Some of it came as a surprise.
In short, Ron Paul rocked the house. We’re talking Hendrix at Woodstock, folks. All the man needed was a bottle of Zippo fluid and a Fender Strat.
The most interesting dynamic was the running academic debate between him and Rick Santorum on constitutional limits. I disagree with Paul vehemently on his blanket hostility to the 14th Amendment, but I sure wouldn’t have to debate it with the guy in person. Though he comes across as a little nervy, Paul is capable of delivering complex concepts in layman’s terms, and doing so with real fire. The crowd responded to him, in approval and not, more vocally than they did for any of the other candidates.
Arizona Senator Lori Klein justified pointing a loaded gun at a reporter by claiming, “I just didn’t have my hand on the trigger.” I wasn’t aware that made it acceptable. I’ll have to run it past the folks I shoot with and see how they react.
Evidently, Ms. Klein bought the Ruger LCP to supplement her “.40 caliber revolver.” Though she mentions the usual politician backstory of childhood hunting trips with dad, she does not mention any contemporary training, nor does she seem to understand the gravity of carrying a pistol.
She is fond of the Ruger because it’s “so cute.” I’m sure cleaning up blood and settling lawsuits diminishes the “cute” factor by quite a bit. She needs to leave her guns at home until such a time as she can get some sort of training. Until then, she’s a dangerous liability to everyone around her.
~ “God that thing is ugly,” Huyler said when they first saw it, riding across from the wreck of the Winter Storm in the tiny shuttle with the ship’s black-skinned, gray-suited avatar. “And these people are supposed to be decadent aesthetes?”
~ “There is a theory that they are ashamed of their weaponry. As long as it looks inelegant, rough and disproportionate they can pretend that it is not really theirs, or not really a part of their civilization, or only temporarily so, because everything else they make is so subtly refined.”
Look to Windward is (chronologically) the second novel of Iain M. Banks’ Culture series. In his mythology, the Culture is a post-scarcity society, facilitated by artificial intelligences and near-perfect manufacturing technologies. The human lifespan averages four centuries, and the people want for nothing. The political structure is a benign anarchy, with policy decisions made largely through direct (and instantaneous) democracy. Continued...
For nearly 70 years the music business and the record business were one and the same. If an act wanted to be successful, they’d need to sign with a major label at some point. That meant a record contract.
Never mind that the contract meant signing away massive amounts of control (and potential revenue) to a corporation driven by fickle trends in exchange for promotion: that was the only way to go. The labels knew it. Everyone knew it. It was accepted wisdom.
Artists lived under a modern-day feudal relationship with the labels. If one was commercially viable and could turn out a few decent songs, they had a chance at making it. Of course, it was the record company who ultimately profited the most. Artists could expect to get a decent percentage of the revenue from live performances (as long as the label promoted them well enough to fill seats), but the label received most of the profits from the actual records sold. Continued...
Howard Camping is predicting that the world will end on Saturday, May 21st. Apparently, the End of Days will be preceded by an earthquake in the Pacific Rim at 6:00 PM.
So, true believers, feel free to get in touch with me. I’ll set up a dedicated PayPal account, and you can deposit all the money you won’t be needing as of Sunday there. I guarantee I can put it to better use than charlatans like Camping would.
Before we get all gunched up over silly numerological ramblings, let’s remember Matthew 24:36:
But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
It’s not curtains until the Big Man Upstairs says so, and it doesn’t seem like he’s going to be making reservations.
Camping’s made this prediction before. In 1994 alone, he predicted that the end was coming on September 27th, September 29th, and October 2nd. Continued...
Just in time for the 11:00 news (but a bit early for the 2012 election), the President announced that Osama bin Laden has been killed. Navy SEALs stormed a mansion in Abbottabad, Pakistan early Sunday morning and bin Laden fell in the ensuing firefight.
It only took 10 years and two wars costing over $2 trillion. While I’m glad he’s out of the picture, I have few illusions that this is much more than a symbolic victory.
Abbottabad isn’t some remote cave in the mountains. It’s a wealthy, metropolitan city with football stadiums situated near the Silk Road. Bin Laden was living well there, and he had people protecting him. Those people have money, power, and access to government resources. Even more were willing to turn a blind eye and keep their mouths shut. They will carry on without him. Expect violence in the coming weeks as his lieutenants fight with one another to fill the vacuum. Continued...
First off, mixed news from Colt. They’re bringing back the New Frontier, but it appears they’ve “modernized” it a bit.
Maybe it’s just a typo. Still, I imagine a few folks out there are punching their monitors and spewing down the gun forums with the Fanboy Firehose of Indignation.
For April Fool’s Day, I propose an advertisement promising a reintroduction of the All American.
A second source of vitriol comes in the form of yet another Chuck Schumer gun bill. This one is called the “Fix Gun Checks Act of 2011.” So far, he’s only managed to con Kirsten Gillebrand and John Kerry into cosponsoring it. It’s going to the Senate Judiciary committee, where I’ve little doubt Grassley and Coburn will eviscerate it like two-week starved hyenas.
Really, why would he even bother in this climate? The only explanation (beyond utter barking madness) I can surmise is that the President wants him to be the errand-boy for a dry run on gun control proposals. Continued...
Luna was a good friend for 17 years. She’d been through a lot with me, but her health began to fail as of late.
Towards the end, she could scarcely walk, and I wasn’t sure if she could recognize me. It was time.
Heck of a snowfall today, and not something Dante gets to see as often as he’d like.
Would you look at that handsome devil? How can this guy possibly be single?
A few months back, I spoke with a reporter from the Financial Times of England. The interview went well, but as always, I was a bit misquoted. Though the errors were not significant, and they did not distort my intent, they can be illustrative.
Ms. Fifield was a joy to speak with. She has her reservations on widespread gun ownership, but she was open and honest about them, and much to my delight, she was a great listener. She’s also one of the few people I’ve met who can still take notes in shorthand. We spoke at great length about the history, context, and implications of the 2nd Amendment.
As you can see from the article, she had a great deal of ground to cover, and the fact that she took trouble to get all the technical terminology correct shows marvelous attention to detail. Continued...
The 7th Circuit’s decision in McDonald v. Chicago has been reversed by the Supreme Court and remanded for further proceedings. That means we won.
To some extent, that is.
The ruling [pdf] was a narrow 5-4 decision, and the 2nd Amendment has been incorporated against the states through the Due Process clause of the 14th.
We get incorporation, but Slaughterhouse stands.
My order from El Paso Saddlery arrived Friday, and here’s their Tom Threepersons holster for the 3″ Model 65:
I was pleasantly surprised by their turnaround time: just over four weeks.
In other news, Leonard Embody, Cassidy Nicosia and Kurk Kirby have a new compatriot in David Walters.
New rule: if you’re irresponsible enough to forget your weapon and leave it at the range, we’re going to use it to stage goofy pictures. I really wanted to do a parody of the final frame of Black Dynamite, but asking employees to curl up around my legs could constitute grounds for a lawsuit in some quarters.
If you haven’t seen the movie, you should. Heck, if Sandra Bullock can get an Oscar for whatever it is she did, Michael Jai White deserves one for pulling off lines like this with a straight face:
Doctor Wu, your knack for biological scientific transmogrification is only matched by your zest for Kung-Fu treachery!
I’ve been using that one all week, regardless of context. I get odd looks sometimes.
The gun is a Kel-Tec PLR-16. It was left in a faux Pelican case with a bunch of spare magazines and several hundred rounds of Wolf ammunition. Continued...
A young man commited suicide on the range last Thursday. He fired 49 rounds, then turned the 50th on himself.
I reached him within seconds, but he showed no vital signs whatsoever. He left behind two notes, one of which he appeared to have been holding while he shot himself, and another in his wallet. He waited until the area to his left was clear and aimed the weapon in such a way that nobody was downrange from the bullet.
We all expect suicidal people to give some sort of sign before they do something like this. As I’ve learned over the last few days, this isn’t the case. I’d spoken to this person on two occasions at length, and he always appeared amiable and content. He seemed to enjoy shooting and was showing improvement over time.
Many suicidal people become somewhat serene once they’ve made the decision. I have no idea what led this man to take his own life, but he must have made up his mind well before we met. Continued...
Let’s get two things out of the way.
First, there is no ammunition ban, tax or other restriction being enacted this week. I know my stuff. Please stop yelling at me.
Second, if you wear sweatpants, please, for the love of God, consider underwear.
New Ahrends stocks for one of the S&W Combat Magnums. The wood is Cordia.
A few days ago, I spoke to a friend who’s a lawyer friendly to the LGBT cause in Atlanta, and the scuttlebutt is that there’s an amicus curiae brief in favor of the appellants in McDonald v Chicago. We’re going to be keeping some strange…ahem…bedfellows on this one.
Which means two things. First off, I need to get a good shave and iron a shirt if I’m to hang with that crowd!
Second, people from all political sectors are going to be interested in the outcome. This case is about an entire doctrine of Constitutional interpretation; the 2nd Amendment is only a vehicle.
All of which means we’ve got to be accepting and open-minded when dealing with our new allies. This is a chance to truly “mainstream” the 2nd Amendment in the pantheon of civil rights, not just in the courts, but in public opinion. Continued...
This is not the actual person, but it’s pretty close. Don’t call me with stuff like this at 10:15 on a Saturday morning. I haven’t had my coffee yet.
Creepy Stranger: “You ever shot a Desert Eagle?”
Me: “Yep.”
Creepy Stranger: “That’s bad ass, ain’t it?”
Me: “It’s…um…different. Can I help you with something?”
Creepy Stranger: “You know, I carried one when I was in Desert Storm, or as we called it, ‘Desert Joke.’ I was in the first chopper that touched down.”
Me: “Folks who served there might not appreciate…”
Creepy Stranger: “I can say what I want. I was Special Force.
First off, the gun porn:
New Ahrends cocobolo stocks on one of my L-Frames. In recent years, Smith & Wesson retired their square-butt frames and standardized on round butts across the board. This is a disappointment, as the square butt feels and shoots better for me. Fortunately, Mr. Ahrends makes a conversion stock that emulates the traditional grip contour.
Yes, it’s my summer carry gun. I have little trouble concealing it. Take note: hiding a handgun isn’t as hard as you’d think.
This is the Fender American Standard Jazz Bass, 2008 model.
Leo Fender introduced the Jazz Bass in 1960, following the success of the Precision Bass. The Precision was the first mass-production, solid-body electric, and it had made quite a name for itself. Engineers and producers spent the latter 1950’s coming to terms with this odd but effective new instrument, and by the end of the decade, it had made appearances in almost every popular genre.
Crap. I dodged the bullet last year, and it’s catching up with me now. Of course, everyone I know who got that silly flu shot has it, too. So I guess I showed them. Erik: 1, Modern Medical Science: zip.
Excuse me while my sinuses drain.
There. I figured I’d share a tea recipe that really helps with some of the symptoms, along with a brief pseudoscientific explanation as to how.
Ingredients:
Put the spices in a pot and bring to a quick boil. Let it simmer for at least five minutes. Longer is fine. Add the tea and allow to simmer for two more minutes. Add 1/2 a shot glass of milk and bring to a boil. Strain and drink.
Don’t worry if the whole concoction smells like wet dog, it tastes better. Continued...
It was an 11-hour drive home today, on which I had plenty of time to think. My father’s body has been cremated by now, and his wife has the ashes. He had a farm in Tennessee to which he’d planned to retire in a few weeks. She’ll see that he gets there.
I should be feeling some kind of closure, but my thoughts can’t collect themselves.
My father had been fighting kidney and liver cancer for some time. The chemotherapy suppressed his immune system, and he incurred a rare infection on Friday that killed him the following day.
He thought he’d broken his leg. He didn’t know he was going to die. Perhaps that’s for the best. I just don’t know. His passing was quiet and without struggle.
I didn’t have a chance to speak to him one last time. I was unable to tell him what I never had: that I had forgiven him for the past, that I’d learned to see good parts of him in myself, and that I loved him.
So, I’m here in Virginia (which looks like a breathtaking Lionel train set from the highway), seeing family I haven’t in decades and trying to get to sleep so I can see his body before it’s laid to rest tomorrow. I know it won’t be him I’ll be seeing; it’ll be a product of the undertaker’s work. Continued...
First, the good news. Neil Gaiman reads this site, which is really quite a compliment, since the man is one of my favorite authors.
He’s worked in several genres, but I first came across his work when he was collaborating with Dave McKean in the classic Sandman series. The two did several books together, my favorite being the strange and moving Mr. Punch. He collaborated with Terry Pratchett in Good Omens, and he’s written several great novels, including American Gods.
William Gibson, one of the defining authors of the “cyberpunk” movement and author of the classic Neuromancer, also reads here.
I’m also referenced on this very odd site. I’m not sure what’s going on, but the idea that ninjas may be acting on an extraterrestrial level certainly gives me pause.
I think it was Sartre who once wrote something along the lines of, “walking away in disgust is not the same thing as surrender.” Or maybe it was Camus. I’m pretty sure it was one of those Existentialists. Or maybe Absurdists. Probably just a little crazy, too.
In any case, insanity is defined as the practice of repeating the same action over and over again, expecting different results. That’s kind of my relation with Internet Explorer.
Well, I’ve got the 360 back. It took Microsoft a bit longer than expected, but three weeks isn’t bad. Of course, I had the misfortune of having it malfunction just before they acknowledged the prevalence of the problem and extended the warranty to three years. As a result, mine was only one unit being returned in a deluge of others, so this was to be expected.
Still, three weeks or so isn’t too bad of a wait considering I was dealing with what amounts to a massive corporate recall.
…and they said it couldn’t happen here.
I’ve long considered manned space travel a dead-end. I suppose it comes from the fact that the Challenger disaster had burned itself into my memory as a child. I remember being stunned by the images coming back from the Voyagers at Jupiter and Saturn and getting my mind around the fact that those were whole other worlds. We could go such fascinating places with machines, but getting humans off the planet was obviously a costly, dangerous and futile proposition.
I could bolster that argument with the tragedies of Apollo 13, Skylab and recently, the shuttle Columbia. And for many years, I did.
Left to right: Luna, Dante and Rashid.
Well, it’s official: Pluto is no longer classified as a sovereign planet. Lots of people who don’t get out much are arguing and foaming over the mouth right about now over an issue that really boils down to one thing: semantics.
The whole question is really a matter of opinion rather than science.
Folks who call Pluto a planet do so because
They’re not wrong. However, there are many cogent arguments against it:
Continued...
I got on the bus early with Gmail, and I’ve still got a ton of invites left. If you want one, let me know.
Lori’s got some more pictures up on her site. Some are from a Christmas/New Year’s celebration (they do celebrate Christmas as well as other holidays) in Dushanbe, and there are a couple of pages of their vacation in Turkey.
On my way home from work last night, I got rear-ended. In my new Jeep. Just over a month old. Dammit.
The other party was driving a red Honda, either a Prelude or an Accord, Georgia tag 1794 ANW. If you see him, feel free to call Cherokee County Police at (678) 493-4140.
At first, he fled, then stopped and offered to “take care of me.” I responded that I would only settle for his license and insurance, and that yes, I was involving the police. At this point, he got threatening, and I had to retreat.
I’ve filed a report, and hopefully they’ll catch the imbecile. Funny thing is, I’m not as angry about this as I could be. I guess a part of me really has grown up at some point–I’m really more concerned about getting his insurance to pay for the damage. Most of it’s cosmetic, but he ran up underneath my back bumper, nailing the tailpipe, which in turn pushed into the muffler, killing it. Continued...
Well, it finally happened; my little sister went and got married. What’s better is that she couldn’t have picked a nicer guy. They were married in a Baha’i ceremony with myself, my mother, the groom’s family and many friends present. .
The bride is my sister, Lori. Her husband is the tall dark stranger Vargha Dahna. You can see the pictures here
These images are reduced in size for bandwidth considerations. I have print-resolution versions available. Let me know if you want one.
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Continued...
Finally, we get winter in Georgia. Over the course of six hours yesterday, it dropped from 71 to 33 degrees. My body finally feels like it’s November. I’m sure my Danish friends would say it feels like August, but hey, at least it’s tolerable.
Well, this is the new site layout. I’ve chosen to go the PHP route because it’s just more efficient in the long run. All the older material is archived on the right. There are still a few bugs to work out, and I need to make the interface more consistent, but hey, it’s Thanksgiving here in the States, so it’ll probably be awhile. Until then…
NP:Dinosaur Act, Low.
Been working on cobbling together some themes for Xfce, and by extension, GTK2. So far, so good, though the syntax is a real rat’s nest. I may attempt to write a graphical editor ala wmakerconf for it once I get the internals all figured out. In the meantime, I’ve got a few posted on the main theme page. Below is my current desktop, running Setiview and GLmatrix.
NP:Wolf, Chris Clark
At about 5:35 a.m., I was driving home from the office, when the driver of an 18-wheeler fell asleep at the wheel and spun out of control. At an estimated 85-90 miles per hour. By a miraculous combination of airbag technology, Divine Providence, and just plain inattentiveness, I walked away. It was even on the news here and here. The driver of the semi died on impact. Nobody else was seriously injured, least of all me. It’s miraculous considering that a 300-pound block of concrete landed on my hood at 75 miles an hour.
This was my car:
The truck was travelling southbound (I was going northbound). It started in the far right lane, and at the curve of the South Loop, it just kept going straight, crossing five lanes and hitting the concrete dividing wall. The cab split into three pieces on impact, and the trailer went off on its own course. Continued...