Well,

anyone who didn't see THIS coming, you must have voted for the messiah.

US President Barack Obama's offer to talk to Iran shows that America's policy of "domination" has failed, the government spokesman said on Saturday.
"This request means Western ideology has become passive, that capitalist thought and the system of domination have failed," Gholam Hossein Elham was quoted as saying by the Mehr news agency.

Welcome to Jimmy Carter, part deux, my friends!

Springsteen calls Wal-Mart deal a mistake

Continuing a theme of suck ass halftime shows, this year's halftime sing-in is by what has to be one of the worst "big names" I've ever heard in my life.

It's completely insane to me that Springsteen is as popular as he is, for as long as he's been popular. I think the guy sucks. Bad. In my entire life, I can't remember being able to listen to one complete song of his at any time, even when I've been drunk.

During the half time at the Super Bowl party over at Sgt. Dave's, you can rest assured that we're leaving the house and going outside to partake in some cigars and bourbon, 'cause we're sure as hell not going to sit inside and listen to some left wing, pompous piece of crap like Bruce Springsteen.

And now that Bruce has surely made millions off his deal with Wal-Mart, he's bashing that deal, according to the article, because he's a "long time supporter of worker's rights and Wal-Mart has faced criticism for its labor practices."

Is that called having your cake and eating it too? I wonder if Bruce will be sending the money back?

Regardless, just another arrogant, pompous entertainer who I won't be supporting - not just because of his idiotic political views, but also because his music sucks.

New Camera

Ok, I'm experimenting with taking pics of the stars.... I've got a trip out west planned soon and want to capture the milky way, which of course we don't get out here in DFW.

Here's an image I snapped tonight from my front yard.



Camera used is a Canon G10, set on "P" and auto, used a tripod of course.

Any of you camera guys out there (Robert, hint, hint...) got any advice?

I've got no desire to do the realllllllll long exposures that create trails across the image. I just want a nice, crisp image of the milky way and the landscape at night if I can catch a mountain or two in the way.

What the hell?

For the first time in years, the Republicans in the House grew some cojones and stood up to out of control spending. I'm hoping this is the first step in a long road of opposition to out of control government. I only wish they would have started 6-7 years ago, in which case we wouldn't be in the mess we're in today; both politically and economically.

I got one, too!

Springfield XD M in .40. Picked it up last weekend, ran a few rounds through it. I'll update again after it sees some action at a match. I put the larger backstrap on the grip (they're interchangeable), and it feels pretty good. The ergonomics of the gun aren't perfect, but it's nice enough. I think the trigger reset is a little long, but maybe I can find someone who does trigger jobs for these guns, now that they're so popular. It seemed to be pretty accurate, but I need to black out those white dots on the rear site, for sure.

A nation of

pussies. Clint Eastwood, in a recent interview, stated that.

We live in more of a pussy generation now, where everybody's become used to saying, "Well, how do we handle it psychologically?" In those days, you just punched the bully back and duked it out. Even if the guy was older and could push you around, at least you were respected for fighting back, and you'd be left alone from then on.

Well, proving Eastwood right, a local girls basketball coach, whose team won 100-0 recently, got fired.

Back when I was a kid, the coach who lost 100-0 would have been fired for being an incompetent idiot. The team would have been broken up, starters benched and the school would be doing everything it could to make sure that kind of ass whipping wouldn't happen again.

But not in today's society where winning is to be punished and losing is to be idolized. It's not the job of the winning team to back off. It's the job of the losing team to stop them. Plain and simple. This "pussy" behavior has polluted our society to the extent that the vast bulk of our fellow citizens are sheep, afraid of their own shadow. A number of these characters walk the halls of Congress, staying with the herd and hoping that the predators don't find them.

It's disgusting, it really is. What lessons are we teaching when we fire the winning coach; and the losing team, and how they handled the stress of losing is the story du jur?

I remember many moons ago sitting in one of my classes at college that was supposed to be teaching me how to teach kids. The teacher was going on and on about making games for your class.

You must be careful when you create a game. You must take steps to create a game where there are not any winners. Because where there are winners, there are losers. And children cannot handle the stress of losing without serious emotional consequences.

I will remember those words until the day I die because I think that was the first day that I realized that I was a conservative. The first day that I realized the jibber jabber that I was learning in school was just that. Crap.

20 something years later, that nutjub of a teacher is getting her way, and it makes me want to puke.

Tax cheat in charge of IRS

Well, ain't that grand? If you or I, peons that we are, neglected to not only pay our taxes, but report income - it's quite clear. We'd (the peons) would be in a lot of trouble.

But hey, in the new era of go along to get along, we now have a tax cheat (not to mention someone who has had an illegal nanny on his staff...) running the Treasury Department.

Sad to say, my favorite Senator voted in favor of the tax cheat, which I find rather dissapointing.

For the good, though, at least not all of the Republicans in the Senate are kissing the messiah's butt:

A Cult of Personality

is what we've got here folks, plain and simple. From everyone's favorite web encylopedia:

A cult of personality or personality cult arises when a country's leader uses mass media to create a heroic public image through unquestioning flattery and praise. Cults of personality are often found in dictatorships.

A cult of personality is similar to general hero worship, except that it is created specifically for political leaders.

Tell me that's not what we have going on in these United States of America.

I got to listen to the welcoming presentation for Hillary Clinton, Madame Secretary of State, this morning while I was stuck in traffic on my way to work. Frankly, I nearly vomited listening to the happy little drones welcoming in the new Queen. A bit of searching (not much, really) and I was able to find the complete video of the entire sordid affair.



Kindly note the rock star groupies that await the new Secretary from the start of the video to about 3:45 in. Dignified, indeed.

At 4:50 on the video, I am shocked to learn that the State Department is busy combating terrorism (great!), poverty (well, OK, someone's gotta do it I suppose), climate change (WHAT? The Department of State is busy combatting an unproven THEORY? WHAT?) and HIV/AIDS (crikey). That's right folks - the Department of State is hard at work combating the evil that is..... global warming. Is that disgusting, or is it just me? To hell with combating dictatorships across the world. To hell with fighting radical islam - a religion that abuses it's women and maintains control through intimidation and execution. To hell with stopping the flow of illegal immigrants flooding across our borders. No sir, Skippy!! We're fighting global warming!!

If you can make it through the rest of the video, you'll notice something that's missing. And frankly, I didn't notice it myself till about 7:10 in the video. At that point, the camera pans through and over the crowd of admirers (quite large, actually) and the viewer gets a glimpse of an impressive lobby, with flags from around the world proudly on display. And then it hit me.

At no point in the video do you see an American flag. Anywhere. Not on the make shift stage Madame Secretary is standing on. Not in the lobby or atrium. Not in front of the building when Madame Secretary steps out of her Caddy. It struck me as quite odd, actually. Now, I'm not saying that there was not an American flag to be found in the building. I'd really like to think that there is. But from what I saw on the video feed, no American flag.

Madame Secretary herself goes on to state:

And as you probably already know, we are expecting the President and the Vice President to be here in the State Department this afternoon. (Applause.)

Cult of Personality, indeed. Hero worship anyone? Now everyone behave, or you'll get sent to the Principal's office!

Among the many conversations that I've had with the President and with the Vice President, over years, but certainly much more astutely and in a concentrated way in the last weeks, we want to send a clear and unequivocal message: This is a team, and you are the members of that team.... We are not any longer going to tolerate the kind of divisiveness that has paralyzed and undermined our ability to get things done for America.

Now, I'm sure that Madame Secretary is not referring to her own ability to sow discord and divisiveness, right? She was a stalwart supporter of the last President, all on the same team, right? I'm sure she would never say that she and her party and their allies in the media would ever sow, what was it she said, this kind of divisiveness?

Frankly, only 2 days in to this obomination of a Presidency and I'm disgusted already. I gotta find some of that purple cool aide they're drinking at State because at this rate, my head will truly explode before the mid term elections.

You can find the entire text of Madame Secretary's speech, as well as the embedded video above here.

Barack and Michelle Obama do WHAT together?

T.M.I.

He's at it already

Obama has post his "Urban Policy" to the White House web site. Scroll on down to Crime and Law Enforcement.

Address Gun Violence in Cities: Obama and Biden would repeal the Tiahrt Amendment, which restricts the ability of local law enforcement to access important gun trace information, and give police officers across the nation the tools they need to solve gun crimes and fight the illegal arms trade. Obama and Biden also favor commonsense measures that respect the Second Amendment rights of gun owners, while keeping guns away from children and from criminals. They support closing the gun show loophole and making guns in this country childproof. They also support making the expired federal Assault Weapons Ban permanent.

It was nice while it lasted.

New police chief's head left at station

I hear there's a job opening in Ciudad Juarez. Aye, Chihuahua, indeed.

The city, which lies just across the border from El Paso, Texas, in the state of Chihuahua, has one of the highest homicide rates in Mexico. El Universal reported that Martin Castro Martinez was one of 15 people killed execution-style in 24 hours.

I read this week that Mexico is one of the countries that our military believes is poised for collapse. The drug cartels have pretty much taken over in many areas of Mexico, and gangs are striking with impunity against their rivals, including the military and police.

That's not good.

We are poor

little lambs. Who have lost... our way. Baaaaa baaaaa baaaaa.

Abandoning any pretense of balance, MSNBC's Inauguration coverage will be quad-anchored by four left-wingers: the network's three night time hosts -- Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow -- plus regular analyst Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post. has finaPlugging the team at the end of the 7 PM EST Hardball on Monday night, Matthews trumpeted how "this is one of the great opportunities in journalism to cover history in the face" and declared "it's going to be the honor of our lifetimes."

Is there anything President-elect Barack Obama's very aura cannot make better? Apparently, he has eliminated road rage -- and even honking. ABC's David Muir, over video of stuck traffic followed by the sound of singing, in a Monday World News story on the crowds coming to Washington, DC: "So many of the streets are closed those that are open are clogged. But there were no car horns, no shouting. Instead, the San Francisco Boys and Girls choruses practicing for their Inaugural moment on the steps of the Capitol."

On Monday's Good Morning America, co-host Robin Roberts chose to tout only Democratic politicians in a piece honoring the civil rights movement and those "warriors" who made Barack Obama's election as president possible. Not a single Republican was mentioned or featured in the segment. Roberts began by announcing, "And on this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we thought it would be appropriate to look back at all the warriors, black and white, who made this moment where we are today possible." All the warriors? The piece went on to feature clips from eight Democratic politicians: Harry Truman, Hubert Humphrey, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Robert Kennedy, Barbara Jordan and Barack Obama, in addition to a number of non-political civil rights pioneers. Republican Abraham Lincoln went unmentioned, so did New York Governor Thomas Dewey who signed one of the nation's earliest civil rights laws in 1944 and President Ronald Reagan who made Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a federal holiday in 1983.

There's more here.

Big John

Kudos to Senator Cornyn. He's fighting the rising tide of the Obama machine.

The confirmation of Hillary Rodham Clinton to be secretary of state will be held up for at least a day due to the objection of a single senator. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said he wanted "a full and open debate and an up-or-down vote on Sen. Clinton's nomination.

While I'm sure Clinton will get the nod from the Senate eventually, it's nice to see that there's at least one Senator out there with the cojones to stand up to Obama and those that blindy support him - including a multitude of Republican Senators who are afraid of their own shadow.

On the first day of what's going to be a very, very long 4 years; Cornyn has made me proud to be a Texan.

The Obama Love-in continues....

While reading this article, titled Americans giving Obama extraordinary support: polls and trying hard not to throw up all over my keyboard, this little play on words caught my attention:

Of those surveyed, 79 percent were optimistic about the next four years under Obama, the highest level of goodwill attained by any of the past five incoming presidents.

Followed by:

Most Americans told The Times that they did not expect real progress in improving the economy, reforming the health care system or ending the war in Iraq -- three of the central promises of the Obama campaign for at least two years.

So, 79 percent of "us" are optimistic about his 1st term, but most of us don't think Obama is going to deliver on 3 of his "central promises"? Sorry, but that doesn't sound like extraordinary support. But maybe that's just me.

STI to make ARs

I need another AR like I need a hole in the head but then again....

What you missed at the SHOT show

Well

that didn't take long.

H.R.45
Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009 (Introduced in House)

Purposes- The purposes of this Act and the amendments made by this Act are--

(1) to protect the public against the unreasonable risk of injury and death associated with the unrecorded sale or transfer of qualifying firearms to criminals and youth;

(2) to ensure that owners of qualifying firearms are knowledgeable in the safe use, handling, and storage of those firearms;

(3) to restrict the availability of qualifying firearms to criminals, youth, and other persons prohibited by Federal law from receiving firearms; and

(4) to facilitate the tracing of qualifying firearms used in crime by Federal and State law enforcement agencies.

Amendment to Title 18, United States Code- Section 921(a) of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

`(36) The term `qualifying firearm'--

`(A) means--

`(i) any handgun; or

`(ii) any semiautomatic firearm that can accept any detachable ammunition feeding device

Section 922 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

`(aa) Firearm Licensing Requirement-

`(1) IN GENERAL- It shall be unlawful for any person other than a licensed importer, licensed manufacturer, licensed dealer, or licensed collector to possess a qualifying firearm on or after the applicable date, unless that person has been issued a firearm license--

`(A) under title I of Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009, which license has not been invalidated or revoked under that title; or

`(B) pursuant to a State firearm licensing and record of sale system certified under section 602 of Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009, which license has not been invalidated or revoked under State law.

Section 922 of title 18, United States Code, as amended by section 101 of this Act, is amended by adding at the end the following:

`(bb) Unauthorized Sale or Transfer of a Qualifying Firearm- It shall be unlawful for any person to sell, deliver, or otherwise transfer a qualifying firearm to, or for, any person who is not a licensed importer, licensed manufacturer, licensed dealer, or licensed collector, or to receive a qualifying firearm from a person who is not a licensed importer, licensed manufacturer, licensed dealer, or licensed collector, unless, at the time and place of the transfer or receipt--

`(1) the transferee presents to a licensed dealer a valid firearm license issued to the transferee--

`(A) under title I of Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009; or

`(B) pursuant to a State firearm licensing and record of sale system certified under section 602 of Blair Holt's Firearm Licensing and Record of Sale Act of 2009 established by the State in which the transfer or receipt occurs;

Section 922 of title 18, United States Code, as amended by sections 101 and 201 of this Act, is amended by adding at the end the following:

`(cc) Universal Background Check Requirement-

`(1) REQUIREMENT- Except as provided in paragraph (2), it shall be unlawful for any person other than a licensed importer, licensed manufacturer, licensed dealer, or licensed collector to sell, deliver, or otherwise transfer a firearm to any person other than such a licensee, unless the transfer is processed through a licensed dealer in accordance with subsection (t).

So. If you want to own a handgun, or a rifle with a detachable magazine, you have to sign up for a Federal License to own said weapon.

And if you were to purchase a firearm from a friend or acquaintance, and didn't present your new Federal license, and a licensed dealer was involved in the transaction.

Just what, exactly, that has to do with reducing crime is beyond me because as you know and I know, criminals don't fill out paperwork.

Needless to say, call your Congress people. Let them know this is unacceptable. The Messiah isn't even President yet and 2009 is only a few weeks old and we're getting hit with firearm registration already. Get used to it folks, it's gonna be a long four years.

CHANGE

we can believe in, right? Isn't that what we were promised during the election?

Well, how's the old saying go? The more things change, the more they stay the same? Or, to quote the Talking Heads, same as it ever was? Or maybe even The Who - we won't get fooled again, right?

The Chosen One hasn't even taken office yet and already his Cabinet smacks of the same ole, same ole issues that Washington politics seem doomed to repeat.

First, his choice for Commerce Secretary bows out. Seems there might just be some improper business that was conducted in New Mexico under his watch. I mean *ahem* some alleged improper business.

Next, we find out that the Messiah's choice to head the Treasury Department has a minor issue of not reporting income to the IRS and owing $34,000 in back taxes. And, oh yes, I had an illegal immigrant as a nanny too. No biggie, though, as it's apparently an "honest" mistake. Riiiiiiight. How long would MY jail term be if I made an honest mistake like that?

And now we're treated to the spectacle of the Secretary of State designee dancing around the issue of foreign countries donating money to hubby's foundation. I'm sure, no, I'm outright 100% positive that no foreign country would seek to receive favorable treatment from the United States of America by donating money to the various Clinton initiatives. After all, Senator Clinton herself states:

that under the agreement, foreign government pledges will be submitted to the State Department for review. She said it was unprecedented for a former president to agree to the disclosure her husband has, and that she was confident the current arrangement would avoid even the appearance of conflicts of interest.

Am I the only one who notices that having the State Department (which Hillary will be in charge of, by the way), review donations for possible conflicts of interest is somewhat like having the fox guard the hen house?

Change we can believe in?

Heh.

Look

what showed up in the mail today:







Range report to follow shortly....

And people ask

why I refuse to ever travel to California or do business with a company based in the People's Republic of California.

Read this list for a good start as to why.