Haiku for a cold clear Kentucky night

Golden haloed moon
Burning, a disc of yellow
On a blued steel plate

Is there life after blogging?

Has it really been that long since I posted anything here?

Yes, I guess it has been. Lots of reasons for that. I've changed jobs. I've succumbed to my annual bout of seasonal affective disorder. I've been so bummed out over losing Fooss that just seeing his photo on the blog reminds me again of the need to write his obituary and throws me for a loop. I've been busy with the dogs I still have, and fostering a new dog who went to her new home this week. I've been posting on Facebook, the fast and easy way to keep up in a very superficial fashion with your friends. I'm caught up in the politics of firearms here in Kentucky again, with the legislative session opening now and lots of work to do to get a special bill passed in this session. Add that to all the usual demands of life and critters and house maintenance and the business of living every day and it seems to leave precious little time for a blog. And there are so many blogs already out there - what would this one add to the world?

All kinds of excuses and reasons.

But I also have had to ask myself, am still asking myself, what do I want to do with this blog?

I realized after starting it that I'm more private a person than I thought I was. I'm not interested in the comments that people want to make about it, or me. I'm not interested in sharing my most intimate moments or thoughts. Some things aren't meant to be shared with the world at large, at least not in my world. I have thoughts that would likely cause problems if I were simply to blurt them out on a blog, opinions about people and work and the world that are too strong to put online.

So what's it for? Jeff Cooper said that was the salient question to ask about a firearm, or any tool. What's it for? What do you want to do with it?

I'm sure that I still want to write on this site, and I have some debts to pay, such as that long overdue ammunition report and Fooss's tribute. So there will be things on here in future. But the long range plan is still very uncertain. That's life.

The Pit Bull, America's nanny dog!

For decades, Americans knew the pit bull not as a fighter, but as the loyal and loving companion of their children.

What a shame that assholes who abuse them have changed the world's perception of this wonderful breed.

When my daughter was a toddler, I had a roommate who had a handsome pit bull named Ted. I would say "Ted!" and he would look at me. I would point to Julia and say "Watch her!" and he looked at her, then back at me and you could almost see him nod and say "Gotcha!". Then he followed her around, never more than two steps away and inspecting everything that she picked up or got near. When he was with her in the yard I knew that nothing that walked on the North American continent could touch or harm that child. Ted would not allow it. He would have died to protect her.

Take a look at this web page and see what pit bulls really are all about. This is where they should be again, in our homes and caring for our precious children!

Do your part. Speak out to stop breed-specific legislation and stop the senseless slaughter of dogs whose only crime is to be "that breed" - a pit bull, the child's companion!

Why was Bin Laden's house so tacky?

Amid all the huffing and puffing in the aftermath of the SEAL team 6 raid that killed Bin Laden (Go SEALs!) there were several comments about the relative scuzziness of the compound that supposedly cost $1,000,000 to build.

Obviously the commentators had never spent any time in the Arab or eastern Asian countries or they'd know more about this.

I worked over two years in Saudi Arabia back in the late '80s and saw some very expensive houses that had pretty much the same appearance that Bin Laden's house did. The stucco over the concrete block was patched or peeling, there was no grass or landscaping in the yards and the overall appearance was of dilapidation and disrepair. Quite simply, that's very normal in those places.

The Saudis didn't do much for external appearances anywhere that I could see. Part of that was the climate and the difficulty of keeping plants watered and thriving in that desert environment. But a lot of it was cultural. The Saudis and Pakistanis and their brethren simply don't have the same aesthetic sensibilities about their living quarters that Westerners do. That sounds pretty xenophobic or racist, but it's true. I saw homes that had to have cost hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of dollars, that were pretty ragged on the outside and very poorly maintained on the inside. I also spoke with Americans who had worked inside the big palaces of the royal family in Saudi Arabia who told me about finding towels that were gray and grungy, not washed properly at all, and of a general level of slovenliness in the homes. The elderly members of the royals who'd never spent time in the West were especially unconcerned with the condition of their personal spaces, unless it was something that the hired domestic help was taking care of for them.

What to blame for this? Could it be that it hasn't been long enough since these tribes moved into what we could consider 'modern' housing from the tents and rude huts that are still the norm in large parts of their countries? That's my guess. They just haven't developed the same sense of housecleaning and appearance that most Americans take for granted.

So I have no doubt that the Bin Laden compound was very expensive to build, and was then allowed to fall apart like so many of the other homes that I saw when I worked in Riyadh. As anyone who's watched American TV can tell you, having money doesn't give you good taste, and it's the same in the Middle East with their homes.

Speaking of ammunition testing ...

.... Reminds me of this anecdote from many years ago.

When I got home from the Army in 1979 I got a KSP surplus M65 S&W from my Dad for a carry/home gun, then when I could I got a box of the hot-shit .357 125gr loads from Federal that were supposed to be the end-all of defensive ammunition and were KSP issue at the time. It was popularly referred to as the KSP 'death ray' for the stopping stats they were racking up with it.
Brought 'em home to the farm we lived on, loaded up the revolver and in the waning twilight touched off the first one.
WHAM! and a fireball six feet in diameter and I was looking around for the 155mm howitzer that someone had towed onto the farm and fired at the same time I did the .357. Not finding it, I proceeded to commence again and WHAM! Holy Crap! It was my revolver!!!
I fired the remaining four rounds, observed that accuracy with the gun was pretty dismal, that every cow on the farm was running somewhere - anywhere! - in the fields below and was pondering the utility of that round for personal carry when the air was turned blue around me by the stream of imprecations in French being hurled at me by the petite dame in the doorway of the farmhouse. I wasn't able to pick out much of the high-velocity Gallic content but the tone and volume of it, the words of English and German interspersed into it and the tearful enraged delivery made it plain that she was most unhappy with my taking artillery practice with that damned gun and that damned ungodly ammunition without warning her goddammit!
Since the consensus opinion of the household was that that gun with that ammo (apparently loaded before the advent of flash suppressants in the stuff) was far too unpleasant to shoot and still be able to concentrate on the task at hand, it was forthwith traded for a GI-stye 1911 built by my Dad on an Essex frame and stoked with hardball. Nothing sexy about it, but it worked, was easy to shoot and didn't require EPA certification or sunscreen.
Kinda missed those fireballs at night, though. Kept the cows on their toes.

Ammunition testing

Awhile back I was contacted to do some ammo testing for an online vendor.

The gent who runs Bulk Ammo emailed me and asked if I'd be interested in trying out some of the stuff they sell and putting the testing results on my blog. Sure! What red-blooded guy guy wouldn't jump at that? So he shipped several boxes of ammo to me and I got ready to go to the range on my day off.

Then the rains came. Oh Lord, did they come. The road to the range entrance was washed out - twice! And I refuse to try to staple soggy targets, so the whole thing was on hold.

But yesterday we endeavored to persevere and made it out to the range. We had on hand several handguns in different configurations to try out the Magtech ammunition that we'd received, which is loaded with both all-copper bullets and a more conventional JHP in both .38 Special and .45 ACP. Then last night I went out to a friend's to get some photos of the muzzle flash.

So the basic data for the report is in hand and when I get back from working this week I'll get it and the photos we took posted up here on the blog for you guys to check out. But for now, the bottom line is that this stuff is very good, and I'd use it!

There's a special place in hell for someone....

Specifically, the person who did this to this poor dog -

Watch these videos here and here to see an appalling, unbelievable example of cruelty.

Words fail me.

Pray for this poor pup, please, and pass on his story so that he can continue to get the help he needs.

Do you like to eat?

Of course you do!

I've been spending more time on Facebook lately, mostly for the immediacy of the information and the feedback that I get from friends so quickly. That means neglecting the blog, which I'm going to start using for longer think pieces in addition to some ammunition testing that I'm going to be doing for an online sales company.

One site that I got from a FB correspondent is this one from Pioneer Woman - she has several topics on her page, but this one about cooking is great! It's like having another Brigid (but not quite and without the insightful writing you get at Home on the Range and without the guns and......)

Worth a look if you like to cook!

Haiku

Like a yellow ghost

Over forms of sleeping dogs

tiny Yoshi glides

Veterans Day

My thanks to all of you who served our nation in the Armed Forces, especially to those who served in combat or time of war. And I'd like to acknowledge our great debt to my father's generation. Thank you, Tech Sergeant Shelby Riggs, for your combat service in the US Army in World War 2 in the fields and hedgerows of Europe, and your time as a POW at the war's end. Our nation's character is built of the fiber and toughness of these men and women.

France is already there, and we're heading that way

Belmont Club » Gone With The Wind

Europe's Guilty Conscience by Pascal Bruckner, City Journal Summer 2010

Europe's Guilty Conscience by Pascal Bruckner, City Journal Summer 2010

Five Signs Your Party Is Doomed

Five Signs Your Party Is Doomed

Long time, no postee...

It's been a busy summer. I'm working 50+ hours a week, all of it on nights and all of it 12 hour shifts, picking up overtime. It means a lot of time away from the house and the dogs, and precious little for the chore of blogging.

Lots has changed here. We have a new dog living with us as a foster child who was pulled from a pound where he was slated for death, now named Rudy - Rudy the Red, Rudy the Rude Boy - a young brash lively (and how!) bird dog mix of some sort who never slows down and never stops checking out things. He managed to get himself into something that tore a hole in his chest a couple of weeks ago and cost me $400 for that, but he's healing well and we'll be trying to find a home for him. I like him, but he's just too lively for this group and for me with all that I have going on right now and I don't have the time for him that I should. He deserves someone who's going to take him out and run him ragged and put him to bed at night worn out and dreaming of critters to pursue.

And at the end of May we lost Fooss, my grand old man of a dog. After ten wonderful years with this special handsome beast , he reached the end of his run. I still haven't put up a tribute to him because the wound is too deep, too painful and I don't want to skimp on his story, of what a great friend he was and how much he taught me about dogs and love and devotion. It'll come, but when I slow down enough to do him justice and I can stand to open that wound again.

Things change - life goes on, sometimes bittersweet, sometimes happy, often deeply sad - but there's no choice about it. Work to do, critters to care for, causes to defend - and more to say about it all in the weeks ahead, when I get my breath.

If you're interested I'm posting now on FaceBook, more often than here because it's easy to post blurbs and URLs. The blog is for more thoughtful things.

Bis spater.

Note to myself ....

.... put feather pillows where TeeTee the young girl mastiff won't find them.

Something simply beautiful

Amazing what dedication and love can do with a dog

This little guy had aggression and fear problems so his owner spent a lot of time teaching him tricks so she could get him to focus on those and turn him away from his aggression. She certainly did a great job with him, he has quite a repertoire now!

Helmet-cam video of Dutch commandos storming a cargo ship

They are NOT messin' 'round and those are NOT blanks they're shootin'!

This is the only way to deal with hijackers and pirates - SURRENDER OR DIE!

Demo of pic thumbnail for a friend

A fellow Raven is helping a friend who's putting some of her art on a new blog and wants to see how to make thumbnails that open to larger images.

So as a demo, click on the thumbnail below to open the full sized file. This is a photo of two of my big girls chewing on bones. The file is 1.7MB and is opened via this small thumbnail -

On The Rocks - Bad Romance - 4/23/10

Great version of the Lady Gaga song - these guys are da bomb!