This is a really ballsy troll.

Hopefully this works


An EPIC troll

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Never get involved with crazy.

This was right about the time I got out of the service and was digging in with the tipi in the mountains.

I went out with this girl a couple of times and it didn't take me long to decide to eject. She was a mess. Everything was a major drama scene, she over reacted to everything under the sun and had a jealousy streak a mile wide.

I moved the tipi and avoided her but she had the nose of a bloodhound and the intelligence net that would have made the CIA proud. I couldn't go anywhere with her showing up and creating a scene.

If I even nodded at another woman in front of her there would be a horror show as she would attack the hapless female. It was really, really bad.

Somewhere along the line someone introduced me to a real rough and tumble woman that probably could have easily run a whorehouse in and oil/commercial fishing town. I made it a point to buy her a beer when I saw her and it paid off when the nutcase showed up looking for me and found me sitting there next to her.

Of course, the nutcase attacked the rough and tumble broad in an instant took second place in the brief bout.

After that she steered clear of me.

I learned a lot from that, the biggest lesson being steer clear of crazy women.





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The law of three retreats

should actually be enacted and be able to be used as an affirmative defense in any number of things, including domestic issues.

I have seen this happen several times before over the years. Once a guy retreated from a guy that wanted to fight him. When his tormentor chased him down he retreated to another place and again was followed. The third place he was followed to he decided to end the game then and there and knocked the living daylights out of his tormentor.

Of course, the loser decided to drag the law into it but the officers got the full story and told the loser that it was just too damned bad and that he had earned his beating. I suppose if it happened today it would have had a different ending.

I also once saw a woman follow a man from place to place screeching at him and really carrying on. It was downtown and the hapless guy had gone from place to place trying to lose the woman. He had actually gone to several places, a lot more than three and finally decided that enough is enough and when she walked into the next place he simply knocked her silly in front of God and everybody.

Many of us knew what had gone on and were actually quite amused when she hit the ground.

Truth is, I judge everyone evenly and hold everyone to the same level of conduct, man, women or older child. It's three strikes and you're out pretty much.

When someone has decided either not to fight or has broken off contact then leave them be. If you follow them repeatedly and get your head handed to you that's just too damned bad. You have taken the fight to someone.

I do believe that if The Law of Three Retreats was enacted then there would be a whole lot less violence in this world, domestic and other.

Women often do this to men and when they get whacked they get outraged and file charges for domestic violence. Other times the loser files after he brings the fight to the other person and loses.

With a three retreat law this would no longer be an option because it would be obvious that someone was bringing the fight to the other person.

It would also make it so the troublemaker has to accept responsibility for starting things.

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When I was a youngster my kid brother would irk me to the point where I would smack him. Then he would run to dad and I'd catch hell.

It didn't take long for Dad to figure out what the deal was and the next time I clobbered my brother he was told that it was his problem. You can bet he stopped pestering me after that.




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The Professionals

I remember my father making a comment when the son of a teacher got shot in Vietnam in about 1964. He was wounded and survived.

He was a West Pointer and I mentioned it to my father and dad commented that West Pointers were professionals and although it was unfortunate it wasn't the same as some kid that had gotten drafted.

I was young at the time and it wasn't until later when I recalled the incident. I do believe at the time the death of the kid up the street was still on his mind. The kid up the street had been killed in a Jeep accident in Korea. He had been drafted.

As an aside here, I wonder how many GIs have been killed in Jeep accidents. They have had a bad habit of flipping for years.

You have to remember that the West Pointer that got hit had spent four years in college at government expense. He had gotten the full ride at West Point and now it was his turn to pay the country back.

In the same category falls the enlisted guy that signs on for a second hitch, hence putting him/herself on career status. He/she has already had a hitch in to learn the ropes and understand the deal. 

You are putting your life on the line in return for certain benefits and you have a very realistic chance of getting injured or killed in action. For a careerist it is a calculated risk. They are eligible for a decent retirement after 20 years which isn't a bad deal for someone willing to take the chance.

Still, you have to remember that a careerist has opted to take the chance and really can't complain too much if they  
get hurt along the way. 

The old saw rings true here. "You knew the job was hazardous when you applied."





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I suppose I will catch hell for yesterday's post

because people will say I hate the LGBTQ community which is bull$hit. I don't hate them. Sorry 'bout that.

Yesterday's post was a simple case of looking at things economically. I know a young guy that beat cancer and tried to join the military and was refused. It's because a relapse of cancer would be expensive for the government to treat, plain and simple.

Transgenders require hormone therapy and a lot of other things and tend to be undeployable for periods of time. This is not some prejudicial crap, this is plain and simple fact.

It may surprise you to know that the military has a budget and pretty much has figured out how much it costs to field a single person. A transgender would likely be well over the average expense and in a case of what you get for what it costs it makes little sense to accept them into the military.

No real prejudice here, just a case of financial responsibility. 



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I just read where Donald Trump has banned transgenders from military service

and if you give it any thought it is probably a wise decision.

I am NOT going to slight transgenders here except to say that they are too high maintenance for the taxpayer to support. I am not going to get into it and start in on moral/religious/whatever judgements and I am not advocating anything bad happen to these people.

I am just saying that transgenders in the military is simply not cost efficient. 

I have said before that I am really no fan of women in the Rangers, SEALs or other physically demanding military units for pretty much the same reason, money.

Looking at a SEAL school where the male dropout/washout rate is well over 80% means that women going through the course will likely be well under a 1-2% passing rate and financially, looking at the cost/benefit ratio it's simply bad business.

In principle I have to say that I would support ANYONE going through these schools but practically speaking it's not good business.

We should be thinking like business people these days.





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From what I saw today I can see where the Constitution is headed.

It is about to be torn up and thrown away by the left.

I can see where the Second Amendment will likely be repealed inside of the next few years, either outright or de facto, probably the latter.

I have to think this one out a bit to figure out which way to head, although one thing is certain. I'm back to Sandy Hook mode.

Most of my scary stuff I sold off after Sandy Hook to young veteran men with families and made damned good and sure the wife was on board. I didn't do this for a profit. I did it because I saw the possibility of a ban.

In addition to that I made it a point to steer a lot of people in the direction of arming themselves and helped them as best I could.

After the Florida night club shooting I offered the LGBTQ  community defensive handgun lessons. I wound up teaching two lesbians and talked a transgender out of getting a gun. 

The latter was a real basket case emotionally and would have been a danger to everyone concerned. She was a mess and likely would have shot someone over an insult or something. I did talk her out of getting a shootin' iron.

Anyway, I wonder what to do with my personal stuff. Like I said, most of the truly scary stuff is long gone and put where I think it will wind up doing the most long term good.

I am thinking of selling some more of my stuff off to young veterans if they can use the stuff I have. Where this country is headed they are sure going to be able to use it.

One of the things I see is a real rash of stupidity running through the country now, especially among the young people.

They want to disarm everyone which is a joke because the forces of evil will not play by the same rules. Truth is they would help make all of us safer if they decided to take advantage of their Constitutional rights and arm themselves appropriately. A gun is only a tool.

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I see where a PA school system is putting a pail of river rock in each classroom as a way of dealing with and active shooter.

They figure the kids could send a barrage of rocks up and rattle the shooter and either get him to leave or possibly rattle him enough so he can be rushed.

Most people are incredulous over this and think it is a stupid idea. I suppose in a way they are right because anyone knows the only defense against an armed bad guy is an armed good guy.

The teachers union has cowered out of permitting individual teachers to be armed, preferring to herd the kids up and wring their hands as the kids get chopped up. 

Like it or not, I think I'll go along with the school putting a bucket of rocks in each classroom. It ain't much, it ain't and armed guard or an armed teacher but it is simply a step in the right direction and an admission that the union teachers that run the union run charter schools are not going to get anywhere wringing their hands.

I'd take my chances with a classroom of 40 kids throwing rocks at a shooter long before I'd allow myself to be herded up by a passive hand wringing unarmed school marm.

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I also saw where the Di Blasio, the mayor of NYC took all of the cops out of the schools.

It sure looks like he's setting the city school system up for a shooting or bombing. 

Then again, who gives a damn? Those NYC schoolkids for the most part are either immigrant's or working stiff's kids. Nobody really give a damn about them. The rich all have their kids in private schools so it's no problem if about 4 or 500 of them get killed.

After all, the deaths of these kids are all for 'the cause'. The big shots that want to see us disarmed could care less. They would love to see a pack of school kids killed so as to create a terrible outrage in the country and get the Second Amendment destroyed.

88888888888888888888

I have told a number of anti RKBA types that if they really believed in what they were doing they would put up a sign on their front doors proudly proclaiming to be living in a gun free home.

Let's see how that works out.

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The problem with trying to primary someone out is the party.

Let's take a look at Senator/Representative/Dogcatcher Whatshis face. He's the jerk that's been in office a while and has screwed up every free lunch put in front of him by asking for change.

The opposition party looks like they are going to have a candidate that is totally unsuitable so voting for this clown is out of the question. 

The ideal situation is to replace Whatshisface with a suitable, electable candidate. The way to go is primary Whatshisface out.

Of course, Whatshisface is a darling of the party because like a lot of elected officials he has sold his constituency out and done just what the nice party bosses want him to do. This guarantees him party support come next election. The party will throw a lot of money his way to insure re-election.

In short, expect to see yet ANOTHER election where we are forced to choose between the lesser of two evils.  

Trying to primary these jerks out of office is next to impossible and even if the people of the state uprose and did primary the jerk out then you can certainly bet your boots that the party will do everything possible to make damned good and well that the candidate We, the People put up lost. We saw that when GOPe supported Hillary in the last election.

We saw a lot of that with President Trump when virtually the entire establishment Republican party tried to block the wishes of the rank and file. We see it with our representatives and senators and it's damned hard to get rid of a party hack.

I do think that a lot of us ought to re register periodically. Before the primary we register R to get out licks in there and immediately after the primary we re register L (Libertarian) to let the party know they can kiss our butts.











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Looks like the Omnibus bill went through and we got screwed.

There is no funding in it for a wall.

Trump will sign this the minute it hits his desk.

Sounds to me he wants to be a one term president.





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I am growing more and more disgusted with things as I get older

which seems to be the case with a lot of my generation.

I just saw today where Hillary is running around overseas flapping her gums about how Donald Trump is this and that. It is getting old and I am tired of it.

Get over it Hillary, YOU LOST.

She's pretty lucky Donald Trump is a nice guy because I'm not. I'd have half the entire Department of Justice sitting on her doorstep if I were in Trump's shoes. She'd be wearing an orange jumpsuit long before now if I were POTUS.

FWIW the other half of the DOJ would be on ex-president Obama's porch. He's no prize, either.







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Public schools have gotten progressively worse since my day

and they sucked back then. Just not quite as much.

I have heard them referred to as 'union run charter schools' and I do believe the moniker is pretty accurate.

I just read where some teachers are trying to organize little kids to march in support of gun control. 

If that's not out and out illegal, it should be. It's also unethical as hell and any teacher involved in this type of thing should be fired and have their teaching credentials revoked for life. It's just plain wrong to use little kids as tools to achieve a political goal.

I have seen education drop off over the years and schools have reduced themselves from public places of learning to union run charter schools for the left.

Back in my day we were considered a capitalist society but we did study how other governments worked or didn't work. I learned that the most efficient system was a dictatorship. What the Big Boss says goes. It is efficient if nothing else.

I also learned that a pure democracy leaves a lot of people at the mercy of the majority and the cure for this is a constitutional republic with a strong bill of rights.

I was in school when the beginnings of socialism were being preached and had to deal with liberal teachers even back then. I noted that even then the teachers unions had been infiltrated and were starting to become demanding. Of course, the way the hidden muckety mucks in the unions got support of the rank and file is by making them richer.

Back in the day teaching was one of the few jobs with a decent pension. People taught not so much for the weekly or monthly paycheck. It was considerably lower than they could have made in the private sector. People taught because they knew it was a pension for life. Generally the pension started when a teacher just plain got too old to teach anymore. In my day I had a couple of teachers in their 70s.

Times have changed and it looks like retirement in one's mid fifties is becoming common in places. The unions have negotiated that along with paychecks that in many cases are well over what the private sector offers.

Of course, teachers don't really want to lose these benefits.

The education we get from these so-called educators is getting worse and worse as time goes on and the students seem to be getting brainwashed with leftist bullshit more and more as time goes on.

When I asked a group of seniors what they learned in school about the Constitution and got confused looks I needed to know nothing more. Those kids were not getting an education. They were being victimized by a union run charter school.

I think it's time for people to pull their kids out of the public schools and either enroll them in private schools or home school them. Parents should now be screaming at their state and local politicians for vouchers to aid with tuition.

While I am generally a rugged individualist about a lot of things I would have no problem with a state or local voucher system or even a federal tax break for parents enrolling their kids privately. 

When the people that are supposed to be teaching kids stop teaching and start brainwashing them it is time for the public educational system to be given a choice: Start educating kids fairly or be eliminated.

Of course, the parents have to get their head out of their collective asses and stand up to these union run charter school schoolmarms and let them know that their kids are not attending school to be used as pawns for political gain. The parents should also demand they get a fair and useful education instead of a leftist brainwashing. Parents should be demanding alternatives to the brainwashing of the union run charter schools we have now.

As far as the unions go, it won't take too much to break them. You don't give them the opportunity to strike. You simply lock them out and replace them come the next contract negotiation. If you have to, you simply eliminate the existing school system and reopen under a new name with a new set of rules. The Mayberry School System simply becomes the School System of Mayberry.

Of course, if a parent is on the ball they'd elect for a voucher to send their kids to private school or even maybe just home school. That would also likely have a marked effect of the unions.

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My kid sister had the right idea about 15 years ago with her son.

She sat him down and offered to send him to a Catholic school run by Jesuits with a no bullshit you gotta apply yourself and behave promise she got out of him.

I just texted him and asked if he thinks he got a decent education from the (nonunion) Jesuits and he replied that he definitely did.

Why am I not surprised?








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The weather has not broken enough yet to start running

guerrilla portable with my portable military ham rig.

I think this will be an active ham radio spring and summer as I think I am going to get out and lose some weight this summer.

When I am out and about running portable most people either leave me alone or are politely curious. I'm good to the politely curious as I should be. One meets pleasantries with pleasantries. It really is that simple.

Kids are curious also and I will generally spend time showing a kid around the rig and even let him talk to another ham if I am lucky to make contact with one.

The police are generally curious for a second or so until they hear the magic words 'ham radio' and then they either drive off or if they are technically minded they ask a few questions. I had one swing by the house with his kid because his kid was interested in ham radio.

I heard later the kid got licensed and I do believe I made a QSO with him on the 2 meter band afterwards. The cop was from another town over and I have not seen him since shortly after the kid licensed.

My favorite cop incident was with a Connecticut state trooper in a rest area.

Some jerk charged up like a self-appointed sheriff and demanded to know what I was doing. My Pavlovian answer was that he didn't have a need to know. He walked away and out came his cell phone. I knew he was calling some form of police. I stayed put and waited until the officer showed and told the cop exactly what happened and the annoyed cop looked at the guy that called.

When the cop was returning to his car to leave the self-appointed sheriff asked the cop what was going on. The cop replied, "You don't have a need to know!"




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I do believe that the government ought to get out of the school business.

As time passes I keep seeing that government seems to be more and more incompetent at almost everything they do.

I am looking back at the school system I went through on the 50s and 60s the education I got was pretty sad, all things considered. Songwriter Paul Simon wrote "When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school, it's a wonder I can think at all."

Back then there were still a couple of teachers there that worked not at teaching a student what to think, but how to think. I was lucky to have these few Old School teachers but they were the minority. By the 60s the educational system was already on the downhill slide as far as politicalization of the school is concerned.

It seems as of late that a lot of federal agencies have been weaponized by the existing government. The IRS is supposed to be a fair non political organization as is the FBI, BATFE, the DOJ and several other organizations.

All of these are supposed to enforce the various federal laws without any political leanings yet for the past several years they seem to have become the muscle for whoever is in office. For that matter, many of the people in the various organizations have been left behind as moles of a sort from previous administrations. This is just plain wrong. 

Government agencies are supposed to serve the people without any type of political bent. They are supposed to be entirely non political.

Same holds true of schools but even back in the 60s the educators were liberal and were starting to push the liberal views down the throats of the students. I can say based on what I see it has gotten an awful lot worse. At least back in the 60s the educators at least tried and play lip service to the basics and we did learn about the basis of government and the Constitution.

These days the schools are getting more and more socialistic. They are not supposed to be political at all but seem to be going further and further left by the week. 

That's not what they are supposed to be doing.

When you add the tenure system and the powerful teacher's union along with the NEA and you have a politically based organization running the schools.

The truth is we would be better off dissolving the Department of Education and simply privatizing education. It would keep the government out of education and that is almost always a VERY good thing. If not totally privatizing education then it ought to be brought down to a local or county level, but by no means higher than a state level.

Heavy privatization would tend to make parents pay more attention to what their children are learning and it would also give the schools the right to throw out any kids that didn't behave which is something that should have been happening all along. 

I do believe that if we took this route and either pushed schooling down to a local level or privatized it entirely that a lot would happen.

First of all the kids would start getting a decent education. It would not take too long for competition to make that happen. Privatization means competition and competition generally means both improvement and lower prices.

Another thing would probably happen, too. A lot fewer teenagers would be getting knocked up because they would start being held responsible for getting their kids educated.









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Say what you will but rest assured that I am not the Lone Ranger here.

 Congress has out served its usefulness to me and I am not really going to pay a whole lot of attention to them in the future other than to see what I have to be careful about.

Things have gotten out of hand years ago when they allowed Homeland Security to basically guy the First Amendment and with a possibility of gun, ammo and accessory bans in the offing I do believe I will simply ignore Congress and hope they go away.

It's a simple process, really. One simply goes about his business discreetly. 

Sometimes I think that it is time to tar and feather a few congress critters just to give them a gentle reminder that they are supposed to guard and enhance our rights instead of take them from us. 

I use the First and Second Amendments as a gauge of the nation's health and things are starting to look unhealthy.

Truth is I have always ignored Congress since Day One and simply have tried to live responsibly.

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I wonder just how devastated David Hogg really is.....

Hogg is a survivor of the Marjory Stoneham Douglas high school shooting in Florida and has stepped up as some sort of a student leader type. He's part of a new student organization named 'Never Again MSD'

Of course he did survive the shooting and he may very well be devastated by the experience. I would probably be pretty shook up about it, myself.

Still, I wonder how he REALLY feels. He's spoken out and organized and seems to be in the spotlight but I can't help wonder if he is a true believer or just an opportunist that has decided to use the shooting as his way of getting his fifteen minutes of fame.

He may very well think that the shooting is the best thing that has ever happened in his life. On the other hand he may well be devastated. Then again it may be a little of both.

A lot of people that read this will be appalled at how I could think such a thing. It's easy. I've seen enough of that kind of two-faced crap in my lifetime.

Hogg needed this violence to gain his national attention the same way Al Sharpton and David Duke need racism to continue their lifestyles.

Had the shooting never happened nobody would even know who David Hogg is. If racism disappeared overnight then Sharpton and Duke would be fighting over a job at the car wash. 

I am not saying anything either way about Hogg as far as how his feelings go. What I am saying is that instead of instantly taking a knee jerk reaction support of him I want to know what he is thinking first.

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I caught a bit of hell on Facebook because I pointed out that the kids that recently marched for gun control were probably eating Tide pods a week earlier.

My shipmate, a fairly astute guy, commented that if you asked half of the marchers what they were marching about they would have answered, "I dunno...I guess it's somethin' about guns."

Some of the walkout protests reported violence and/or vandalism. Some of the students that supported the 2nd Amendment were mistreated by school authorities, Others reported that they were being encouraged by their teachers, a possibly illegal but clearly unethical thing to do.

Back in the days of the college protests against the Vietnam war the protesters consisted of maybe a handful of true believers, a bigger group of semi-believers and a boat load of people that hopped on the bandwagon to be cool.

The truth of the matter is not too many of the college kids were going to wind up in Vietnam as grunts in the mud. Many had parents with money and pull that could afford college and maybe a job with a deferment when they graduated.

Some kids did owe Uncle Sam some time for using ROTC scholarships. There were generally working class kids but generally those that took a Navy ROTC class wound up sleeping in warm bunks, with some exceptions. A handful did commission in the army and Marines and were assigned platoons in Vietnam but not a very large percentage and the truth is they were all volunteers.

Still, Vietnam for the most part was a rich man's war and a poor man's fight. Most of the college kids that were griping were not going to go to Vietnam anyway.  Half of college students were female and draft exempt. As for the male half, there were rich parents with connections for an awful lot of these students. Most of them didn't have to protest as they already has ways figured out to avoid military service. The thinnest book in the library could very well be the list of people that served in Vietnam named Taft, Rockefeller, Kennedy, Cabot, Lodge or Roosevelt.

Yet any number of young people managed to get their names in the papers and achieve notoriety and/or fame by joining the antiwar movement. Is Hogg using the shooting to get his fifteen minutes of fame? No telling either way. Personally I think he very well may be but that's just my instinct.

Let's look at the high school shooting statistics in real life. While a mass shooting is a terrible thing, the reality is that the odds of being killed in a school shooting are about 1/2,273,000. To put this in context the chances of anyone (including students) getting killed by lightning is about 1/700,000. A kid is three times more likely to be struck by lightning than killed in a school shooting. 

The scary part about it is that it's loud, violent happens fast and is unexpected and captures the media attention for days until something as scary or scarier happens. The media will come up with controversial solutions and carry on that something ought to be done but deep down inside the media doesn't want to stop another school shooting. They need things like that to keep the viewer's attention. That way they can keep their advertising rates up and get top dollar from advertisers.

Say what you will, but follow the money.







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Time goes on and on

and I have very mixed feelings about that. There are times I wish I could speed it up or slow it down.

I was watching a movie about an earlier America and was reminded of how we did quite a lot with simple tools, hard work and sweat.

I had a job of Old School work as a young man in a concrete pipe factory and it served me well in both making money and getting in shape for going into the army. It started at 0600 and the day finished at 1630, a ten hour day and a fifty hour work. Sometimes it was a sixty hour week if we worked a Saturday.

I really wish we could start the younger people out with something like that in this day and age. A job like that for a while gives a person a different perspective and makes him aware that he can do more than he gives himself credit for.



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I think this post may be a rerun but so what.

A while ago someone asked me what I would do if I saw some kind of a mass shooter and I was armed. They got quite a shock.

I told them it depends on where I was at the time. If I was in, say Oklahoma I’d take the shot without a second’s thought about it. Oklahomans would probably be grateful and not penalize me. Then again Oklahoma is pretty conservative and understands these things.

If I was in Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland or California I would stay hidden and not get involved at all. These states have made their beds and can now lie in them.

In some of the in between states I would grab my cell phone and let the police know what was going on and let them call it. If I got the OK I would fire, if not I wouldn’t. Of course, it’s pretty doubtful the police would give me the OK to shoot because many departments do not like non police officers to help because the Chief thinks it makes the department look bad.

It sounds terrible and cowardly that I am picky about where I would put my neck out for kids but there’s another side to this.

Let’s say a non-policeman steps in and drops a mass murderer and saves a bunch of lives. Depending on where this happens he is still in hot water of some sort or another.

I would imagine most Oklahoma departments would thank you and either buy you a beer or simply send you on your way.

On the other hand, the political clime in somewhere else would net you different results. I suppose this even breaks down in states. In Gunnison, Colorado would probably investigate me and send me on my way. On the other hand, Boulder would probably haul me in and charge me with something and it would probably cost me a fortune to beat the rap.

Now facing a court trial in Boulder would not only be wrong and fearful but it would be expensive, too. Yet you can bet pretty good money that you’d be damned lucky to have the parents of the kids you saved run a crummy bake sale to help pay for your legal expenses.

No, I am not going to stick my neck out for someone else’s kids in this day, age and political clime unless one of the kids is related to me.

When no good deed goes unpunished, good deeds generally stop happening.

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I am sitting here watching the foolishness of the young

a bunch of them ditched school yesterday as some kind of protest to congress to make them safer at school is what they claim.

The grownups behind the protest want guns banned. As usual they are using the kids to do the dirty work.

I have said this before and I'll say it again. You NEVER give up a constitutional right. You will never get it back under any circumstances without huge amounts of bloodshed.

I also firmly believe that anyone that would give up their rights for a little temporary safety deserves neither.

Instead of protesting gun laws why didn't they just eat Tide pods like they usually do when they skip school.


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Posting from a kindle

Which sucks as there is no real keyboard.

Missed yesterday because I was out of internet range.

Sucks, sucks, sucks.


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I look back and I am lucky to be alive

When I hung the DC-3 up I looked at the Beaver hanging next to it and recalled a couple of close calls in small planes.

One was the time we took a slug of water and lost power just before we landed out in a bush camp. The pilot managed to force the water through the system with the wobble pump and we regained power just as the floats were tickling the treetops.

The other time was when a completely unexpected wind gust hit is broadside during takeoff. We had begun our takeoff run into the wind per SOP but the wind shifted 90 degrees out of nowhere and lifted the port wing and dipped the starboard wing to within an inch or two of the water. A couple inches more and we would have cartwheeled. Water creates an awful lot of drag and it doesn't take much.

What's interesting is I spoke with the pilot I flew with both times and he's alive, healthy and retired in his 70s now.

I guess looking back on it I made a good choice flying with him. After all, I'm alive.





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I will have my DC-3 model up in a couple of hours.

It'll be hung up in my man cave/room and that will be the end of my collection of favorite airplanes unless I can find a C-130 in 1/48th scale for a reasonable price.

The DC-3 will be hung with a Grumman Goose, a DeHavilland Beaver and a P51 Mustang. The latter was a fairly simple kit someone handed me. While the Mustang is a totally cool airplane, it wasn't really a part of the original idea. I just wanted bush planes I have actually flown around in.

I have an uncompleted Super Cub I was going to put up but the parts are too small for my clumsy, shaky old fingers. We'll see what happens to that one.  

It's morning and we are on Daylight Savings Time now.

The lower ends of the deer are turning brown and it won't be long before they are that gorgeous brown again.





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One of the things I will not tolerate is rude.

In many ways it is a shame that a pocket pistol isn't more common than it is. 

Back between about 1880 and 1920 a large percentage of men carried pocket pistols and as a result society was a lot more polite.

You can say what you will but there were a lot fewer shootings than you would believe, too. That's because people behaved themselves because they didn't want to start trouble that they knew they couldn't get away with.

There is a lot to be said about this.

For a short period of time the police used to enforce the various assault and battery laws a little differently. If someone did something rude and got socked for their troubles the police generally figured the troublemaker had it coming and simply ignored it.

Something to be said for that, too.

Now the problem with things is that there is no consequences for rudeness. Therefore people are rude because they can get away with it.

How many times do we hear some troublemaker screeching that he'll call the police if someone hits him after he's called someone foul names or something to that effect.

A few years back I heard a young teenager calling his father some kind of an unclean oral copulater. I looked at the father and he explained the boy would call child services on him if he did anything about it.

I told the boy that if he talked to me that way I'd knock him senseless and there wasn't a damned thing either he or his father could do because I was getting on a plane for Alaska in a couple of hours.

I wouldn't be writing about this if the kid hadn't lipped off to me and gotten a damned good Old School smackdown. I'm not much of a pugilist according to the rules laid out by Marquis of Queensbury. I cheated. He got a pretty good cuffing and he was so surprised he hit the floor.

Looking back on this I do believe I very well may have saved the young man's life. He discovered there were consequences for rude behavior.

Actually in this day and age a lot of people get away with rude behavior simply because nobody even calls them up on it anymore.  We've probably been ground down too much. we're afraid to speak up.

I don't believe that in most instances a punch or a gunshot is necessary to change someone's behavior. Just being brought up short will do it for the most part.

On the other hand there are still enough people out there that are not going to give it a rest until they suffer some sort of physical pain. 

Many of these are woman that hide behind their sex. I had a hippie chick refuse to leave my property once. Just as I was reaching for a heavy object I had a change of heart and reached for the phone and called the police. The cop didn't cart her off but he did give her a summons. It cost her money. Close enough. 


Whatever. Still, it really is the duty of us all to do what we can to try and make society civil again.


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I will never wear a Foreign Legion T-shirt again in Pittsburgh,

It causes too many questions.

A couple of people that asked me why I joined.

Of course, I could not resist the golden opportunity to be a smart ass. 

"Back when I was about eight or nine I was at my Aunt Pat's castle hiding in this suit of armor and I saw some A-rab* buy this jewel called the Blue Water from her..."




*An A-rab is a Hollywood creation and is not to be mistaken for Arabs who are real life human beings.







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Nick, Al, Thaxter and Larry

were guys I knew as a kid. 

Nick and Al were a pair of bachelors of sorts One was a widower and the other had never married. They ran a body shop. 

Thaxter ran a mechanic shop and Larry was a barber.

As small boys we were expected  to entertain ourselves. A part of what we did was watch tradesman.

Today's insurance regulations probably prohibit what we did but back in the day we watched Nick, Al and Thaxter fix cars and occasionally we would watch Larry cut hair.

The rules were that we stayed out from under foot and cleared out when things got hectic...except at the barbershop. When the barbershop was busy we were still welcome. 

We watched Nick and Al replace fenders and repair dents and got to watch Thaxter do brake and muffler jobs and maybe do a tuneup here and there.

All of these guys were true craftsmen and were pretty proud of their skills. On a slow day tuneup Thaxter would take the time to show us what he was doing and why. By the time I was about ten I could take a glance at a set of points and knew if they were serviceable or burned. I understood how to replace a fender or take a minor dent out of a door and knew I didn't want to cut hair for a living.

Most of these guys considered letting kids watch as a part of their job so long as we played by the rules and stayed out of the way. 

Today kids don't have mentors like that and besides they expect to be entertained by outside sources. They don't seem to know how to entertain themselves and learn stuff.

On the other hand, things have gotten hectic and insurance regulations prohibit kids from learning by watching tradesmen these days.






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One of the things I have noticed about a number of immigrants

depends on what their circumstances were back where they came from.

If they came from somewhere that was in chaos then the first thing they  would often buy is a rifle of some sort, generally but not always an AR-15 or an AK 47.

One man I met that had suffered in the Balkans during the Bosnian mess a while back said that the most important possession he had at the time was his AK47. Any time he left home it was with him and he attributed it to his very survival even thought he never shot it at anyone.

The very fact that he had it kept him from being robbed when he went out to buy food and medicine for his family. Anyone that tried to conduct business unarmed was often robbed.

He isn't the first immigrant that I have met that is like that. Most people that have survived a chaotic situation such as a revolution or a genocide will agree with him. Being armed was a necessity for their very survival.

It is interesting that immigrants like that support the Second Amendment.

It's also interesting to note that most of these people will not obey any laws to turn anything in.

I can't say I blame anyone that goes this route, especially if they have a family.






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Why do people insist on going where they are not wanted?

A while ago I was reading where some woman moved to WY from PA and instantly started demanding changes. She wass some kind of pastor if I recall.

A flaming liberal moved to the most conservative state in the union and demanded that everyone there live by HER standards.

I don't know about you, but I certainly would not move to, say, California and for an example, demand they change to a limited government policy.

Yet that is exactly what this woman did. She moved to Wyoming and started complaining to her state representative and suggested that if she didn't get her way she was going to leave. 

Of course, the answer she got from her state representative was not too much to her liking. He politely told her that Wyoming was a conservative place and suggested she find a place where she's be happy. By all means, leave if you're not happy here.

Needless to say, she got all indignant and raised hell over the state official's response.

Here's the report of the incident

The part that I consider to be odd is why someone that feels that way would move to such a place in the first place. It's like a Klansman at a BLM meeting or vice versa.

On the other hand she sounds like another one of those annoying people that come charging in somewhere and start telling other people how to live.

The locals simply should have run her out of town on a rail.





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An interesting day ahead

There is some kind of recall on my pickup and I have to take it in for an inspection.

If it fails I am out of a truck for about 2 months while they replace the frame. It sucks but what it is, it is.

Back on '09 I had my 2000 Tacoma inspected and it went bust. Toyota outright bought my truck back and gave me 150% of the retail value, irregardless of mileage.

Now they are going to replace the frame.

It is interesting to note that my '09 is worth $25-3500 at auction and about $3500-4500 as a trade-in. It's a base truck.

I have no clue what it is going to cost Toyota to replace the frame if it needs it but I believe it is more than the truck is worth, especially when you add everything up. They have to give me a loaner vehicle.

We'll see what happens.

Adios. Off I go.



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It's your body but I still don't understand ink

I do not have any tattoos. My choice.

Some people do, their choice. Even thought I have none I will support your right to decorate yourself any way you want.

I think I have some kind of mob guy mentality as far as ink goes. As a general rule most mob guys don't get inked because it is a thing that can be used for identification. Every wanted poster I have ever seen has a spot listing "Distinguishing scars and marks". 

Back in the day you would occasionally see something like 'mermaid tattoo on right bicep' or something listed.

Being a distinguishing mark was enough reason for mob guys to stay un-inked. Maybe I have mob guy mentality. Who knows? I have never really thought it over.

I have simply decided that I have not yet found something I want on my body permanently. I suppose if I find something I can't live with I'll head down to the tattoo parlor but don't expect it to happen in the near future.






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I am an American and therefore I am a criminal

of some sort or another.

The real reason I am not in jail is because I live pretty responsibly. I cause as little harm as I can to everyone else. I simply go about my business in a reasonable manner.

I seldom if ever look at my speedometer while driving in residential neighborhoods and have never been stopped because I keep my speed safe and reasonable. As a general rule, I don't even look at speed limit signs in residential plans because I drive slow enough to be able to stop instantly. 

I don't do this because of some dopey sign, I do it because it is the right thing to do. I don't want to hurt anybody. In fact, when I see a ball of any sort go into the street I stop instantly because there is a pretty good chance some kid will be chasing it.

I am not involved with the use or sale of narcotics simply because I think it is a stupid thing to do. I have better things to do with my life and money. If you do use illegal drugs, please do not even think of dragging me into your weird little world. If you try you will not get very far.

I own no machine guns, grenade launchers, tanks, cannons or bazookas simply because I have no real use for them. They are expensive and I have no place to responsibly use them. 

I suppose if I was rich enough to have a couple hundred square miles I might consider it, but probably not. I'm not a machine gun, tank or cannon kind of guy. I'd probably buy a P-51 Mustang and learn to fly it.

It's certainly not the law that keeps me from doing things, it's my personal desire to live in a civilized and responsible manner. The laws enacted buy the various forms of state, federal and local government really don't mean a whole lot to me. I just pay the taxes I have to and quietly live responsibly.

I'm certainly not alone. There are millions and millions of Americans that live that way.  

What makes me laugh is that so many congress people think they are some kind of a ruling class and that we will blindly obey them. 

Of course, they play their games, and we play ours.





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mainly gun control after the Florida school shooting.

How far they will get is beyond me and immaterial. I'm not going to address that here. What I am going to address is the likelihood of the law being obeyed.

If there is some kind of a confiscation of ARs you can bet the government isn't going to see a whole lot of them turned in. Of course, the government might get maybe 2 or 300,000 of them and brag to the public that the whole program is a success but it will be a boldfaced lie about the program being successful when you consider there are more than 30 million of them in circulation.

The last time this subject came up I heard any number of police officers mentioning that they were getting ready to hide theirs. Others said that if they were ordered to collect firearms from people they would just knock on the door and say, "I don't see any guns here." and walk off.

Of course you are going to have Officer Bucky Eager Beaver running around making a big to-do but it's pretty likely the other officers will have a quiet word with him, depending on the department.

Turn-ins don't work and neither do registrations as has been evidenced is a few states. People don't like laws like that and generally either refuse to obey them outright or pay a lip service to them that insults the meanest intelligence.

It will be what it is, a big joke.

Laws only work when people obey them and there are an awful lot of laws that nobody really pays any attention to. I suppose the most common is speeding but if you look at the drug laws they are flouted by people in huge numbers. After all, if people obeyed them there would not be any drug problem.

The truth is that people really only obey the laws they feel are just and they either sidestep or ignore those they don't like. When you have a law that a lot of police officers don't like then they are really not all that interested in enforcing it.


Of course, this generally leads to other things. Prohibition is the example that probably comes to mind. The small handful of honest federal revenue officers that tried to enforce prohibition were really not too successful. The other cops, either because of bribes or the fact that they liked to drink alcoholic beverages tipped off the bootleggers.

Many policemen are firearm enthusiasts and would tend to overlook possession of illegal firearms. Others are not too interested in taking them away because some people tend to get emotional over the issue and all it takes is one to inflict casualties. Cops run enough risks as it is and a lot of them wold not get too interested in risking their hides to enforce a law many would regard as unconstitutional. 

As far as confiscations go, they would most likely be ruled unconstitutional as the Constitution specifies that property can not be arbitrarily confiscated without due compensation. 

In short, bans and confiscations are really not a very good idea.

That would require Congress to raise one hell of a lot of money to pay for so many firearms. I'm not too sure the non firearm owning public would like to hear that. I KNOW that firearm owners would not like it. Most people forget about things like that until they find out that it is the way the system works.

In short, bans and confiscations are really not a very good idea.


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I'll be damned if I know where it came from but

my wife handed me a 1/48 scale P-51D Mustang kit. I think she found it in some stuff she got while cleaning out someone's house.

I think it was one of those deals of 'take what you want and the rest goes to Goodwill' deals. She snagged the kit and asked me if I wanted it. I had to think twice because I originally wanted to avoid warplanes. My room is graced with a DeHavilland  Beaver and a Grumman Goose. These are airplanes I actually flew in when I was in Alaska. There's also an unbuilt DC kit I was getting to. I have flown in a DC-3 before, too.

Anyway, the kit had all sorts of things I really didn't want. The model is designed to sit on a desktop of some sort. It comes with landing gear and a couple of exposed access ports.

I wanted to set it up in the flying configuration and support it from the ceiling with light monofiliment fish line. I got lucky. All of the access port and landing gear covers fit properly. I do believe Revell actually thought ahead and figured someone like me would want to display it as a flyer.

The Mustang will probably be hung up later today.

In other news, elk  backstrap and eggs for breakfast.





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