Today

Pragmatic
Give me a good reason to learn or do something, and I'll do it. For example, money is the reason I work. My programming teacher tells me "Yes, DOS is old, but the tech guys here say it should be a job requirement because they use it so much," so I do my hardest to learn DOS and command line scripts. Same teacher says VBS is used a lot, gives examples, and now I'm trying my hardest to learn VBS. Someone give me a reason to learn Oct and Hex without a calculator - OTHER THAN there's 18 or so weeks in the semester and the teacher can't just let us listen to rock 'n roll for 3 hours. Please. I'm begging you, give me a reason.

I think I've just stumbled on to an aspect of human nature here, one that guarantees why communism *hack, spit* and its variants don't work. This aspect is: Give me a good reason to learn or do something, and I'll do it. Or maybe I'm just reading too much into this.

Victim Disarmament defeated, soundly, in Brazil
Brazilians rejected, 64% to 36%, UK-like gun control over the weekend. What's most important about this is that they did it without legal standing. They have no Second Amendment enumerating their human right to own weapons of military significance. Instead, a majority of the country believes it is a fundamental human right to be able to protect oneself from criminals, government, and various other lowly critters. Victim Disarmament activists the world over are wringing their hands and lamenting how Brazil can reject such "progressive" legislation and blaming the usual scapegoat - the NRA. I'm not a big fan of the NRA - they seem to hold the view that some victim disarmament is acceptable with "acceptable" defined as "already being law." The AWB is the exception, of course, not the rule. But somehow, the NRA is always the big bad wolf whenever victim disarmament is soundly thrashed. As though 4 million Americans paid their dues to help Brazil...yeah right. The Brazilians may have taken a page or three from the NRA's playbook, may have even gotten some council from them, but *News Flash* the NRA ain't that big. On the flip side, no one complains when victim disarmament activists start spreading the doctrine of Hitler, Mao, and Stalin from their countries. I think at this point, Kim du Toit would probably go do a happy dance with an AK and a few 20 rounders.

Work
On the work-front, the managers have put me (past tense) in charge of training Christmas hires and new recruits, and they seem to like the job I've been doing. I think I train the final 2 this week. Not only that, but as a low level manager, I've been left in charge of the store alone twice now. I'm still awestruck by their trust in me, and am doing my level best not to screw that up. I appreciate this more than they can possibly know.

I'm currently trying to arrange a trip to a haunted house with 2 of my friends from work. I hope that works out.

Buy a hundred rounds...
Whenever there's government news that makes me nervous, I like to say "buy a hundred rounds." I wish I could follow through on this, but unfortunately, I'd be broke in about a week. I have, on one occasion, done something similar, though much more drastic. I'll cover that anniversary next week. If everybody followed this course of action, we'd be absolutely rolling in ammo - and that is A Good Thing, to quote Martha Stewart. Anyway, two items of interest: 1. I've heard rumblings that in the event of a bird-flu epidemic (pandemic, whatever you want to call it) government will be mandating the killing of all pet birds. I've got a copy of the BOR up, and that looks like it violates...one, two, three amendments. A triple header of tyranny. Not a big thing to a lot of people, but to bird owners...I think they'll be losing a couple stormtroopers over that one. Second item on the list is a Red Curtain Of Blood moment (as Kim du Toit would say). I'm listening to NPR this morning (ok, that was a mistake, I'll admit) and the guest is talking about the military's "last gasp" recruitment campaign, unveiled or starting recently. He says if the military continues to fail to meet recruitment goals, there's going to be serious talk about a draft. *vision tinges subtley red* That violates 4 amendments in the BOR, and at least 2 other "standard" amendments, nevermind eviscerating the intent this country was founded under and making the Union null and void due to a breach of contract.

"In this country, [a draught from the militia] ever was the most unpopular and impracticable thing that could be attempted. Our people, even under the monarchical government, had learnt to consider it as the last of all oppressions." --Thomas Jefferson to John Adams

'stead of buying a hundred rounds, I think I'm gonna go buy a dozen or so standard capacity Beretta magazines.

Star Wars, coming soon...
Star Wars:Episode III:Revenge Of The Sith is out on DVD November 1st. I've got my copy preordered, and I'm going back and reading the (most excellent) book over again. If only Matthew Stover had written the screenplay... It may not compare to TESB, or ROTJ, but it's the best new movie I've seen all year, and far and away better than Episodes I, II, and IV.

Stuff to buy
I averaged it out, and I buy one gun every 11 months. This is the average amout of time it takes for me to scrape up enough money, research the decision, and break out of the "paralysis by analysis" loop I'm so intimately familiar with. I've already listed my possible choices, but over the weekend, I found one more: the S&W Model 60. A beautiful little holdout gun if ever I saw one. Absolutely perfect trigger (it's double action is nearly better than my Beretta's single action), good capacity for the size and caliber (5 rounds of .357mag in a tiny package), and it looks good too. Price is a little steep, I could just about pick up another Beretta, or an XD9 Service for that price, but it's ok. Unfortunately, yet another monkey has been thrown into my wrench, so to speak. Too many options, so little time (and money).