Canadians crash out of Spelling Bee

It seems the Canadians will have to be satisfied with merely murdering English.

'Seven up, seven down,' said Pam Penny of Ancaster, Ontario. 'Very disappointing. Especially for Canadians to go down on French words.'

An unfortunate choice of words, n'est-ce pas?

Countries agree to cluster bomb ban

Apparently, a group of countries that don't have cluster bombs have decided to ban them. Here's what these geniuses came up with:

The countries agreed never to use cluster munitions or the explosive bomblets they contain, and they also agreed never to develop, acquire, retain or transfer cluster munitions, according to the official treaty document.

Just one teensy, tiny problem:

Some of the biggest makers and users of cluster bombs cited by human rights groups -- such the United States, Russia, China and Israel -- were not involved in the talks and did not sign the accord. Organizers expressed hope that those nations would nevertheless be pressured into compliance.

Hmmm...give up one of the best area denial munitions ever devised? Listen, we're just gonna have to, um, you know, pass.

Good luck on that whole "pressure" thing, too. Speaking of, there's nothing quite like a good thermobaric bomb, unless it's a whole cluster of 'em!

Indiana Jones…..

Let’s start by saying there are spoilers below!!!

I saw this movie yesterday and came away somewhat disappointed. On one hand, it was a fun action flick with a (partial) cast of familiar characters that I have enjoyed for the last 20 something years or so either on the big screen or at home.

On the other, I found the film to be completely predictable - I knew within a few minutes of meeting “Mutt” that Indy was his father. I knew once they cut open the mummy in the storehouse at the beginning of the movie that aliens were going to be involved; a theme that was only re-enforced throughout the film with the drawings and then the appearance of the crystal skull. Granted, in the other 3 films, you knew Indy would triumph at the end, but you had no idea how he would pull it off to win. In this one, there was no drama or suspense, you knew what was going to happen and just waited for the last scene in the church.

I think that in the first 3 films, you are along for the ride with Indy. It’s almost like you were there with him on the car chases and airplane rides and fist fights. In this film, you weren’t along for the ride, you were just an interested observer - and there’s nothing wrong with that, it just seems that in comparison, I preferred the style of the first 3.

The hand of George Lucas was all over this movie as well - from the opening scene, which evoked memories of American Graffiti to Harrison Ford stating “I’ve got a bad feeling about this”, which was in all 6 of the Star Wars movies and I don’t recall it being present in any of the previous 3 Indy movies. (JR has some interesting Lucas observations as well which I’ll let him add in the comments section if he’s so inclined). It’s not that I don’t like Lucas, on the contrary, I have enjoyed the Star Wars movies more than just about any other series of movies I can think of - it’s just that I don’t recall his hand being all over the previous 3 Indy movies as it was in this one; it just had a different “feel” to it is all I’m trying to say.

Perhaps my biggest issue with the flick was the ending. In all 3 of the previous movies, you are left with the message that there is a greater good. A God, a greater power than man. That good will always triumph over evil thanks to the hand of God and God’s guidance. In this flick, God has been replaced by ET. There is no greater good, no divine intervention, but instead, a flying saucer. And for that, I’m rather disappointed.

This is not to say I didn’t enjoy the movie, because I did. It’s just not what I expected out of an Indy movie.

There were plenty of giggles for me throughout the film - starting from when Indy knocks open the crate containing the Ark and running fairly nonstop throughout. Indy - named after the family dog if you recall - has a son who has chosen the name Mutt; another name for a dog. Indy yelling “this is intolerable!” during the escape from the Commie’s jungle camp; echoing his own father’s words from the 3rd film. Indy’s refusal to grab the snake to get out of the quicksand, hearkening back to his dislike of snakes in the first film. I’m about 90% sure that when interrupted in class, Indy gave his students the same reading assignment he gave his class when he was interrupted in Raiders; I’ll have to put in the DVD to be sure. All that was missing was one of his star struck female students writing “Love You” on her eyelids. You also see the same disdain for government agents in this flick as in the first. And, like the first 3 films, there’s clearly a “bad” guy, in this case, the Soviet Union and I didn’t detect any kind of moral equivalency given to the USSR and the USA, which I was happy to see. And finally, Indy’s patented method of throwing folks out of trucks continued in this film as well.

All in all, this wasn’t a bad film, it just didn’t meet up with my expectations.

I’d give it a B+.

Doin' it in the dark

Robert Porter, MD of the Double Tap Championship has to be one of the most creative stage designers in the world. The theme for this year's Double Tap Championship was "Survivor, Double Tap". As part of that theme, he BUILT a cave out of one of his berms.

At today's monthly Double Tap USPSA match, we got to shoot in the cave again. If anything, it was darker this time as there weren't any "tiki" torches lit up. Running from a clear bright Texas day into pretty much dark as night cave and trying to find the sight was, well, entertaining to say the least. And when you have to reload a gun in the dark, that's a whole different experience as well.

Regardless, I present you, shootin' in the dark at the DTR.

Memorial Day

Call me old fashioned or behind the times. But to me, one of the most wonderful sounds in the whole world is the sound of an American flag flying in the wind.

To the warrior who flew this flag in battle, thank you.

For the rest of you - ya'll be safe out there this Memorial Day weekend and remember the reason for the holiday.

Climate change spreads across solar system!

You can imagine how shocked I was when I tuned into my daily astronomical image only to discover that big oil has somehow managed to exploit Jupiter's oil and gas deposits.

That's right folks, climate change is taking place on Jupiter as we speak!

Jupiter's recent outbreak of red spots is likely related to large scale climate change as the gas giant planet is getting warmer near the equator.

Look forward to the Democrat controlled Congress to pass legislation immediately to mitigate this horrible problem.

YouTube - Pork and Beans - Weezer

I know - I'm not much for posting YouTube or Weezer videos, but this is a great music video. It pokes fun at a host of Internet memes, and even features the afro ninja guy (you'll know who I'm talking about). Yes, even Miss Teen USA South Carolina is featured (you know, "such as, the Iraq").
It's greatness, and a kick-ass commentary on the silly state of the web. If you don't recognize some of them, well - you don't spend nearly enough time on the Internets...

Senator talks about a variety of issues

I was fortunate today to participate in a conference call with Senator John Cornyn and a group of other bloggers.

It was pretty neat, actually. When I think of the United States Government, accessible is not one of the first things that comes to my mind. That is, until today.

Senator Cornyn came online and gave a brief opening remark that brought us up to date as to what was going on in the Senate today. He spent some time explaining why he voted against the war funding bill today, stating that he didn't agree with the additional spending for things like extending unemployment insurance and home heating oil subsidies. In addition, the Senator said he believed the President would veto the bill in which case they were wasting time trying to get funding for the troops on the front lines.

I was glad to see the Senator point out that Queen Bee (my words, not the Senator's) Pelosi's plan to relieve the pain at the pump is failing miserably. Senator Cornyn also discussed the lack of drilling that's allowed offshore, thanks to a 1982 moratorium on offshore drilling that Congress passed. In other words, it was refreshing to see a US Senator who understands that OPEC is not the problem, but that our own government is the problem.

After that, the floor was opened up for questions and the Senator handled a wide variety of questions that ranged from the GI Bill to ethanol subsidies to a question from me about gun control. He handled all of the questions quite well and as far as I could tell on my end of the phone, did so without having to consult his staff and was able to discuss at length each question without searching in vain for a cogent thought.

When asked, Senator Cornyn spoke of his love for hunting and that he was an avid supporter of gun rights for both recreational purposes and self defense. I was pleased to see the Senator make the distinction that most politicians don't seem to understand. My right to self defense is a human right and it has nothing to do with my right to hunt - and from what I could tell, that was what the Senator believes as well. Cornyn did mention that he believes the Supreme Court will rule to overturn the DC gun ban, which we have been watching closely here at the Tattler. Let's hope he's right!

I informed the Senator that I was frankly nervous about the upcoming election because each of the 3 candidates left in the race have varying levels of anti-gun beliefs and the writing on the wall says that the Democrat's numbers in both the House and the Senate are likely to grow.

While Senator Cornyn seemed confident in John McCain's defense of the 2nd amendment, I remain unconvinced. From McCain's own website (emphasis mine):

Background Checks at Gun Shows

At a time when some were trying to shut down gun shows in the name of fighting crime, John McCain tried to preserve gun shows by standardizing sales procedures. Federal law requires licensed firearm sellers at gun shows to do an instant criminal background check on purchasers while private firearm sellers at gun shows do not have to conduct such a check. John McCain introduced legislation that would require an instant criminal background check for all sales at gun shows and believes that such checks must be conducted quickly to ensure that unnecessary delays do not effectively block transactions.

Here's the problem with background checks at gun shows. If background checks are required of person to person sales at gun shows, there is nothing that says background checks are required of ALL transactions, whether it's at a gun show or not. For example, if JR and I wanted to swap out guns (which we've done once or twice, by the way), we would have to get Uncle Sam's permission to do so. There would be a record of that transaction. And absolutely NOTHING will get gun owners more hopped up than the thought of a national database over who has guns and who does not. As the saying goes, once they have the list, they know whose door to knock on. Don't think it can happen? Ask your buddies in Australia.

So, needless to say, I have a huge problem with McCain's position.

The call ended with another question on ethanol subsidies. Senator Cornyn pointed out the same thing that we've talked about here on the Tattler for awhile now that ethanol is less efficient than gasoline - 28% - and is creating scarcities in other crops. The Senator pointed out that in fact, thanks to the Democrat led Congress:

Energy legislation signed into law last year requires an annual increase in the amount of ethanol produced domestically, from 4.7 billion gallons in 2007, to 9 billion this year, increasing to 15 billion in 2015 and then 36 billion gallons by 2022.

So, you think it's bad now? Just wait.

All in all, the impression I got after the call was that Senator Cornyn is a pretty down to earth guy, knows the issues, and is willing to talk to us "normal" folk; something you can't say about all of our elected officials.

U.S. Senator John Cornyn

Hey, look at us being all political.

Bloggers for Cornyn

May 21, 2008

Today we added four new supportive "Bloggers for Cornyn" to our growing blogroll.

BeldarBlog, Lone Star Diary, Kevin Tracy, and Texican Tattler are worth reading daily and serve as great additions to our list.

Another blogger, Panhandle Poet, looks into a recent Op-Ed by the Senator.

If you have a blog and would like to join us online then please shoot an e-mail to vincent@johncornyn.com

Obama, the idiot

One of my favorite daily reads, Michelle Malkin absolutely rips the Obamamessiah a new one today.

Do you ever notice how when a conservative says something stupid, like Dan Qualye misspelling potato, the press harps on it for years. Hell, they still make fun of Qualye for that slip up. But when a liberal does or says something stupid (like when Algore got lost in the woods on a campaign stop and the Secret Service had to go in and find him; or when Algore failed to recognize the busts of Washington, Jefferson, Adams - you know, the founding fathers), the press either doesn't report it, or buries it on page D32.

Well, Malkin points out many of the Obamamessiah's "mis-statements" and frankly, it's damn funny:

Last May, he claimed that Kansas tornadoes killed a whopping 10,000 people: “In case you missed it, this week, there was a tragedy in Kansas. Ten thousand people died — an entire town destroyed.” The actual death toll: 12.

Earlier this month in Oregon, he redrew the map of the United States: “Over the last 15 months, we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in 57 states? I think one left to go.”

Last March, on the anniversary of the Bloody Sunday march in Selma, Alabama, he claimed his parents united as a direct result of the civil rights movement:

“There was something stirring across the country because of what happened in Selma, Alabama, because some folks are willing to march across a bridge. So they got together and Barack Obama Jr. was born.”

Obama was born in 1961. The Selma march took place in 1965. His spokesman, Bill Burton, later explained that Obama was “speaking metaphorically about the civil rights movement as a whole.”

Wow. What a moron. And this guy is supposed to be the savior of the Democrat Party?

This is what happens

when liberals rule the world.

Do what we want, or we'll sue. Going back to at least when Algore lost the 2000 elections, the Democrat mantra has been "agree with me, or I'll sue your ass."

Now they're after OPEC.

The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved legislation on Tuesday allowing the Justice Department to sue OPEC members for limiting oil supplies and working together to set crude prices....

In addition to completely ignoring the concept of supply and demand, this measure shows just how out of touch with reality the libbys are.

You want to lower oil and gas prices? The answer is easy. For starters:

- allow us to harvest the oil and gas that can be found within our own boundaries;
- stop the ridiculous ethanol subsidies that do nothing but create an inferior product that gets worse gas mileage than traditional gas and costs more;
- allow us to build more refineries;
- get rid of the insanity of letting the individual states determine what variety of gas they sell. I recall seeing that there are a few dozen different blends of gasoline that different states mandate.

All of this presupposes that we tell the eco-nazis to kiss off. We can mine oil and gas safely with today's technologies - for example, did you know that over 1000 oil wells were completely destroyed during Katrina - yet not a single one released any pollutants into the environment? Do these things and we become energy independent. Throw some nuclear plants into the mix and viola - you have a country that is not dependent on foreign governments for its energy needs.

Or you can do what the idiots in Congress have done and sue 'em. Let's see how far that gets us.

Scarier and scarier

The Obamamessiah is really starting to scare the crap out of me.

At a recent pep rally, the Obamamessiah stated:

We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK....

So, what's that mean to you and me?? Well, to me it says that the nanny state is going to hit full force in an Obama Presidency. Drive too big of a car - I'd bet there will be extra taxes in it for you for wasting energy. Spend too much on that steak dinner at the grocery store? There will be a penalty on it in the form of a consumption tax perhaps, or even a limit to how much you can buy at the store or restaraunt. And we've all heard stories about how the state of California is working on technology that will allow the state to see what your thermostat is set on and adjust it from a central control if you get too cool or too hot. In other words, a government that will control nearly every aspect of your life.

I'm still not at all thrilled over the prospect of a McLame presidency. But I'm beginning to think that just about anything is going to be better than Obama's vision of a nanny state...

Can't wait

for this to come out next week!

Give 'em a piece of your mind

You know, it's quite clear that the Republicans running things aren't listening. If they were, they would have figured out that their ass kicking in the '06 elections had little to nothing to do with Bush and the war, and nearly everything to do with a Republican party that is outspending the liberals, that is preaching to us about the bogus global warming/climate change hoax, that won't let us mine our own minerals, and won't defend our borders.

Here's an opportunity for you to give the Republican leadership a piece of your mind. Go here and leave a comment. Tell 'em you don't support the direction the party is taking and they had damn well do something about it.

Pass it on.

How you know when you hurt a liberal

Well, for starters, when they start crying and whining. I realize that's hard to differentiate between the regular behavior of liberals, but if you pay attention, you can tell when you've caught them right between the eyes.

"Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. "We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is—the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."

This, dear readers, is what is known as historical fact. Yes, I know, highly inconvenient for today's liberal, but nevertheless, it's fact. Ask that great President, Jimmy Carter, what talk got him in trying to negotiate the release of the American hostages from Iran.

What did talk get Chamberlain? You can't talk with dictators. They are neither inclined or willing to listen to anything you might have to say. I realize that this may seem obvious to the bulk of our readers, all 2 of 'em. But still, it has to be said.

And to show you that the truth REALLY does hurt, listen to the whining here, here, and here.

Biden says

“This is bullshit, this is malarkey. This is outrageous, for the president of the United States to go to a foreign country, to sit in the Knesset ... and make this kind of ridiculous statement.”

Queen bee Pelosi says that Bush's comments were 'beneath the dignity of the office' of President. The Hildabeast says:

President Bush’s comparison of any Democrat to Nazi appeasers is both offensive and outrageous on the face of it, especially in light of his failures in foreign policy.

Now where were these same spineless asshats when the worst President in the history of the United States, Jimmy Carter, made his little trip to Palestine not so long ago?? Carter met with Hamas. Carter placed a wreath on the grave of the first well known modern day terrorist, Yasser Arafat and not one of these scumbags said anything about it. Maybe that's what Bush was talking about?

Regardless, the President is right about terrorism, the liberals are wrong. C'est la vie.

That stuff will get you killed on the streets!

Great write-up from Mike Seeklander of USSA, breaking down why competitive shooting is good training for combat applications.

Why listen to me? Consider my background. Competitive experience: I am a card holding GM in USPSA, Master in IDPA, and a Master in the NRA classification system. I have done well in pretty much every major match and have more than 10 years competing against the best shooters on the practical shooting circuit. Combative experience: I am a former Marine with combat experience (if Desert Shield/Storm counts as combat!). I have local and federal law enforcement experience, including more than 10 years as a full time instructor or lead instructor a portion of which I was in charge of the Federal Air Marshal (FAM) firearm-training program during the FAM buildup after 9/11. I have had the privilege of working with some of the best Military and Law Enforcement Instructors in the United States, and I credit all that I submit to you in this article to folks I have worked with and learned from. What should this mean to you? It means I have done my homework in both arenas and can hopefully offer some insight into how “practical shooting” translates to quality training for combative purposes.

If you're one of those Tactical Tommy-types that doesn't believe that getting the gun out of the holster and putting rounds downrange isn't a tactic, click on the link above and read on. It's a PDF document.

Great tits cope well with warming

Well, tell me something I didn't know.

A little shooting fun

Here's some vids from today's match at Johnson County. Started a bit chilly, but warmed up to a pretty nice day on the range.

NPS taking public comments

If you spend any amount of time in National Parks like I do, you'll take advantage of the comment period offered by the NPS now.

SUMMARY: The Department of the Interior, through the National Park
Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service, proposes to amend
regulations presently codified in 36 CFR part 2 and 50 CFR part 27,
which provide guidance and controls for the possession and
transportation of firearms in national park areas and national wildlife
refuges. The proposed amendments would update the regulations to
reflect current state laws authorizing the possession of concealed
firearms, while maintaining the existing regulatory provisions that
ensure visitor safety and resource protection such as the prohibitions
on poaching and limitations on hunting and target practice.

Please take advantage of this opportunity and let the NPS know that you support this consideration.

Exploding Whale

Unintended consequences....