Royal Scottish Dragoon Guards - Caledonia feat. Steve Balsamo

I don't know if you can see
The changes that have come over me
In these last few days I've been afraid
That I might drift away
I've been telling old stories, singing songs
That make me think about where I've come from
That's the reason why I seem
So far away today

Let me tell you that I love you
That I think about you all the time
Caledonia, you're calling me, now I'm going home
But if I should become a stranger
Know that it would make me more than sad
Caledonia's been everything I've ever had

Now I have moved and I've kept on moving
Proved the points that I needed proving
Lost the friends that I needed losing
Found others on the way
Kissed the ladies and left them crying
Stolen dreams, yes, there's no denying
I have traveled hard, sometimes with conscience flying
Somewhere with the wind

Let me tell you that I love you
That I think about you all the time
Caledonia, you're calling me, now I'm going home
But if I should become a stranger
Know that it would make me more than sad
Caledonia's been everything I've ever had

Now I'm sitting here before the fire
The empty room, the forest choir
The flames have cooled, don't get any higher
They've withered, now they've gone
But I'm steady thinking, my way is clear
And I know what I will do tomorrow
When hands have shaken, the kisses float
Then I will disappear

Let me tell you that I love you
That I think about you all the time
Caledonia, you're calling me, now I'm going home
But if I should become a stranger
Know that it would make me more than sad
Caledonia's been everything I've ever had

Caledonia's been everything I've ever had

-----------------------------------------
This was an instore play at the store where I work - only heard about a third's worth of the songs due to the instore radio. Brought the CD home a couple of days ago, and really discovered a new depth to it.

I don't know why it's reminding me of the topic that it does. It seems to be about a traveler (I think a soldier) that's settled in Caledonia, and then decides he needs to leave, despite how much he loves being there.

Well crap, that's why it reminds me of the topic.

In the next few weeks, I'm going to trade something that I absolutely love doing (and have done well for 2 years) for something that I absolutely hate doing. I'm probably going to lose a lot of my friends, and I know I'm going to lose a lot of money doing it, but it needs to be done. God willing, it will be temporary, but I have no idea. It is going to open up a bunch of possibilities for me, professionally and personally, but the idea of voluntarily giving up what I will be scares the hell out of me.

I took the first step towards this trade last night, and then the second major step this morning.

It's starting to seem real now.

12 Gauge Fun

Got my first shotgun (an auto) not so very long ago, and took it out to the range for a try.

Scared the hell out of me. I actually crossed myself before pulling the trigger on the first round of high-brass.

First off was five rounds of target load #8 bird. Failed to cycle, so I cycled the next four with the charging handle. Ran like 7 rounds of #4 field loads next. Much more recoil, but I managed it.

Then it was time for 5 rounds of 2 3/4 #4 buck. The gun seriously jumped, but it was controllable. I wasn't shooting for accuracy or sighting in or anything, just function testing. I held the gun a little tighter, fired off another round from the rest, then stood and ran the next 3 from standing off-hand.

Two Brenneke KO slugs were next. Felt about the same as the buck, maybe more vertical movement on the recoil. Then two Winchester SuperX slugs. More fields loads, more buck, finished up hand-cycling 5 rounds of birdshot.

The guys at the range were great. 2 of them, looked like they were from Benjamin Martin's militia in The Patriot. Real rough looking. They let me fire off 3 shots from a scoped H&R .243 single shot. I have to own one of those. Then they let me shoot a cylinder through a single action .357. Beautiful gun, great trigger. I did decently well with it at 25 yards too. I can't imagine going into combat with one, like people used to.

Packed up, headed home, and cleaned the shotgun out. Very dirty, so I'm glad they provided a wire bore-brush with the gun.

I have to get out and try tinkering with the gas system to get it to take the birdshot. Probably do that tomorrow.

I've figured out a .30 spam can holds 134 rounds of 2 3/4 shotgun shells, so I've got to buy up enough to fill a box each with slugs, birdshot (field or target, tomorrow will decide) and #4 buck. Probably order 2000 rds of 9mm tomorrow too. I'm going to do another one of my late night ammo stockpiling sessions next Saturday. Not only is it a way to celebrate Patriot's Day, but it's also prom night for a lot of highschools in the area.

When everyone else is out doing stuff with the opposite gender, Vincent watches war movies and boxes up ammunition. It's kind of a tradition.

Spring Is Here

The snow piles at the base of the drive way are shrinking, and the average temperature for the last few days has been in the fifties. I just looked at the thermometer, and it says sixty.

I love this time of year, and I love going running even more. I'm still coughing though, so no running for me. Dang it.

New Gun

I'm not going to say much about it because it's not something "registered," but I got a new gun today. It fills me with awe.

It will soon to be turned into something horrifying to liberals.

Now I've gotta go get some ammunition for it. Er. Some MORE ammunition.

Jericho

Watched the end of Jericho this week. There is not a big enough container to hold the amount of awesome that was this show.

First we start with the episode title: Patriots And Tyrants. An allusion to Thomas Jefferson's declaration that the tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants, it's natural fertilizer. ie a little revolution is good from time to time.

The episode itself starts with the most amazing declaration ever heard on TV, even more amazing than the line from Jake that I have on my bulletin board ("Every able-bodied person needs a gun. Sixteen years of age or older. Line up.").

Gray Anderson's aid:"X amount of time, a thousand person vote, and boom, the Second Amendment's gone."
Gray Anderson:"Yeah, it's a lot easier to pacify a country when its citizens can't shoot back."
Aid:"This isn't a stero manual, this is my country we're talking about"

Or something very similar.

Jake and Hawkins sneak into Cheyenne (the home of the new government) and steal a nuclear bomb, which they smuggle to the embassy of the Independent Republic Of Texas. From there, they fly it to Texas, where the Texas Air National Guard shoots down two fighter jets bent on making sure the bomb doesn't make it out of ASA airspace.

The episode ends (for Jake and Hawkins) with the promise of a Third American Revolution. The only thing that could've possibly been cooler would've been meeting the Texas President on the ground and finding out he's played by Fred Thompson. I think I would've had a heart attack if that had happened.

Meanwhile in Jericho, Major Beck disobeys his orders, releases the revolutionaries, and declares war on Cheyenne. The episode ends (for Jericho) with all the main characters looking up at the Gadsden flag and wondering about the coming war.

Scifi has already picked up the first season, and will probably get the second. If they order a third, I WILL buy all the tiers of cable necessary to get the Scifi channel. This show's worth $50 a month to me.

I can't imagine a more awesome show.

Sick

For only the second time in 4 years, I called off sick on Thursday last.

I had a fever of 103.5, could barely stand, and fine motor control was shot with the shakes, so bad I could barely call in. I did nothing but lie on my bed for 9 hours, finally getting up somewhere around 11pm. I went through, like, 4 t-shirts.

Finally burned the fever off on Sunday, and I'm now stuck with a cough and a stuffed up head.

I feel like hell.

See You In Another Life, Little Deity

One of our pets was a finch named Raven. We got her...God only knows when. Got her with 3 other finches, which all passed at times between then and now. We placed Raven's age at 9-10, which is pretty extraordinary for a finch. I think average life expectancy on one of those critters is like 3-5 years.

So, Raven outlived her expiration date by 3 sisters and 5-7 years. Pretty impressive. We used to joke that she the reason she was so longlived was that she was God, come down to visit.

We would say she died on Easter, but prefer to say she ascended into Heaven.

See you in another life, Little Deity.

50 Years Of Math

1. Teaching Math In 1950's
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit?


2. Teaching Math In 1960's
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100 His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or $80. What is his profit?


3. Teaching Math In 1970's
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80. Did he make a profit?


4. Teaching Math In 1980's
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20. Your assignment: Underline the number 20.


5. Teaching Math In 1990's
A logger cuts down a beautiful forest because he is selfish and inconsiderate and cares nothing for the habitat of animals or the preservation of our woodlands. He does this so he can make a profit of $20. What do you think of this way of making a living? Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did the birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut down their homes? (There are no wrong answers, and if you feel like crying, it's ok. )


6. Teaching Math In 2007
Un hachero vende una carretada de maderapara $100. El costo de la producciones es $80. Cuanto dinero ha hecho?

Life Of Vincent

If there is a reason for being, some reason we've been put on this earth, I think I just completed one of my tasks.

Went to Gander Mtn the other day to look for ammunition (I've got a couple of coupons, otherwise I would've bought online) and I'm checking pistols on my way out. This construction worker looking guy has been ignored by the clerks, and he squats down next to the glass case, ogles a USP Compact 9mm, and says something to the effect of "I wonder if it's worth it." Said Teutonic handgun is around $900.

I say "Yes, it is."

He says "Do you know handguns?"

And we were off. For about 45 minutes, I did a better job of answering his questions than the store clerk did. He was looking for a handgun (9mm or 45ACP for home defense), because he was somewhat handicapped, and wanted to protect his girlfriend and their new baby. Kept him from making some major mistakes (he wanted to buy a used Hi-Point off his cousin for $200), and pointed him towards some quality cheap handguns (CD Browning Hi-Power and a Taurus PT92). Just listened to what he had to say, and gave him back answers that made him think about what he wanted.

He thanked me multiple times for my time and help, and I was happy for the rest of the day.

Something I Don't Get

What is it with my generation's obsession with not just drinking, not just getting drunk, but with getting absolutely and irredeemably hammered?

An on-again-off-again friend of mine turned 21 today, and my hand to God, the biggest thing in her universe is being able to buy her own alcohol. Never mind that she's been drinking HEAVILY with her mother's supervision for the last 2 years.

My best friend from highschool, guy was practically my brother, he's an alcoholic. Brilliant kid, school should give him a fast-track to a million dollar job I kid you not, and he nearly got kicked out his first semester for binge drinking. He's in debt up to his eyeballs because he can't hold a job due to his habit and spends all his money (not just spare, but freaking ALL) on liquor. His seventeen year old brother is heading down the same path.

A girl I grew up with, an on-again-off-again friend that I might not see for months at a time and then hang out with for days on end...just lost sports honors that would've gotten her a free ride scholarship...because she got busted for hosting an under-age drinking party. Best girls basketball player in the damn state and she burned a scholarship just like that.

I've got a coworker who constantly shows up for work hungover and inconveniences the rest of us by calling of "sick" because he drank himself into a stupor and tried to get rid of the hangover with dope and Vicoden.

W. T. F! Seriously. Why do people do this? There has GOT to be something I'm missing here, some piece of the puzzle I can't see. I'm not talking about having a drink after work. Or to relax. Or with dinner. I can see and understand that. I'm talking about pursuing with a fanatical single-mindedness a state of complete and utter intoxication. Day, after day, after day, and making that the centerpiece of your interactions with the rest of your species. Why would a person do that? I don't get it.

My brother said it best when we were talking about it today. "Put a whole bunch of people in the same social setting, provide enough alcohol that everybody gets completely hammered, and then pray that magically nothing bad happens. Where does that get fun?" I can understand alcohol's use as a social lubricant, I really can. I cannot understand making complete intoxication your life's purpose - literally LIVING for this drinking party or that.

And then I think of all the follow-up problems associated with binge-drinking, like drunk driving, alcohol poisoning, reduced and impaired judgement in hooking up...How is it my generation grew up (and I use that term in the loosest possible sense) with a lack of regard for consequences and responsibility?

I feel I'm not articulating my misunderstanding well. Like I'm not perfectly explaining to an obstinate toddler why you can't put a Poptart in the VCR - I don't understand how others can think any other way.

To put it simply, I don't understand why my generation binge-drinks, why they enjoy it. Someone please explain it to me.

So It Begins...

Running season officially started today. 45 degrees, little wind, sunny and beautiful. Ran one mile, after not having run all winter. Pretty dang good if you ask me. I'm not going to start out running little .5 mile sprints this year, I'm going to build up some distance right off the bat.

California Bans Homeschooling

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=58137


Parents of 166,000 students
could face criminal charges
'Breathtaking' decision on homeschooling
now moving to California Supreme Court

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: March 05, 2008
9:11 pm Eastern


By Bob Unruh
© 2008 WorldNetDaily


A "breathtaking" ruling from a California appeals court that could subject the parents of 166,000 students in the state to criminal sanctions will be taken to the state Supreme Court.

The announcement comes today from the Pacific Justice Institute, whose president, Brad Dacus, described the impact of the decision as "stunning."

"The scope of this decision by the appellate court is breathtaking," he said. "It not only attacks traditional homeschooling, but also calls into question homeschooling through charter schools and teaching children at home via independent study through public and private school."

"If not reversed, the parents of the more than 166,000 students currently receiving an education at home will be subject to criminal sanctions," he said.

WND broke the story of the ruling against Phillip and Mary Long of Los Angeles.
The decision from the 2nd Appellate Court in Los Angeles granted a special petition brought by lawyers appointed to represent the two youngest children after the family's homeschooling was brought to the attention of child advocates. The lawyers appointed by the state were unhappy with a lower court's ruling that allowed the family to continue homeschooling and challenged it on appeal.

Justice H. Walt Croskey, whose opinion was joined by two other judges, then ordered: "Parents who fail to [comply with school enrollment laws] may be subject to a criminal complaint against them, found guilty of an infraction and subject to imposition of fines or an order to complete a parent education and counseling program."

The determination reversed a decision from Superior Court Judge Stephen Marpet, who ruled "parents have a constitutional right to school their children in their own home."

As WND has reported, the Longs had their children enrolled in Sunland Christian School, a private homeschooling program.

But Croskey, without hearing arguments from the school, opined that the situation was a "ruse of enrolling [children] in a private school and then letting them stay home and be taught by a non-credentialed parent."

Officials with the school said they asked Pacific Justice to work on the Supreme Court appeal because the organization "has been in full compliance with the requirements of the law for more than 23 years."

"We've never been given an opportunity to represent our case in the Court of Appeal," Terry Neven, the president of the school, said. "Consequently, we are excited that PJI will represent us before the California Supreme Court so that the rights of homeschooling families are preserved."

The ruling, on which WND previously reported, also issued a further warning of potential penalties for parents, this time in civil court.

It said under a section titled "Consequences of Parental Denial of a Legal Education" that "parents are subject to being ordered to enroll their children in an appropriate school or education program and provide proof of enrollment to the court, and willful failure to comply with such an order may be punished by a fine for civil contempt."

The school's website notes it offers a homeschool/independent study program that is accredited. It began in Los Angeles in 1986 with 24 students and now serves more than 3,000 families.

"While SCS is a Christian program, we enroll any family desiring assistance in teaching their own children at home. All we ask is that each family respect our values," the school said.

"The future of homeschooling (both public and private) in California requires the reversal of this decision," Neven said.

WND also has reported on concerns expressed by Roy Hanson, chief of the Private and Home Educators of California, about the way the ruling was issued.

"Normally in a dependency court action, they simply make a ruling that will affect that family. It accomplishes the same thing, meaning they would force [the family] to place their minor children into school," he said.

Such rulings on a variety of issues always are "done in the best interests of the child" and are not unusual, he said.

But in this case, the court said went much further, essentially concluding the state provided no circumstance that allowed parents to school their own children at home.

Specifically, the appeals court affirmed, the trial court had found that "keeping the children at home deprived them of situations where (1) they could interact with people outside the family, (2) there are people who could provide help if something is amiss in the children's lives, and (3) they could develop emotionally in a broader world than the parents' 'cloistered' setting."

Further, the appeals ruling said, California law requires "persons between the ages of six and 18" to be in school, "the public full-time day school," with exemptions allowed only for those in a "private full-time day school" or those "instructed by a tutor who holds a valid state teaching credential for the grade being taught."

For homeschoolers in California, Hanson said, "there may be everywhere from concern to panic, just based on not knowing what the [ultimate] results will be."

The Home School Legal Defense Association, the world's premiere international advocacy organization for homeschoolers, emphasized that the ruling made no changes in California law regarding homeschooling.

While the decision from the appeals court "has caused much concern among California homeschoolers," the HSLDA said, there are no immediate changes any homeschoolers need to address.

The Longs earlier told WND they also are considering an appeal to the state Supreme Court because of the impact of the order for their family, as well as the precedent that could be construed.

They have disputed with local officials over homeschooling and other issues for years, they said. In at least two previous decisions, courts affirmed their right to homeschool, they said.

The current case was brought by two attorneys who had been appointed by the state to represent the family's minor children in a dependency case stemming from accusations of abuse that resulted from the parents' decision to impose discipline on their children with spankings. The case actually had been closed out by the court as resolved when the lawyers filed their special appeal.

Phillip Long has told WND he objects to the pro-homosexual, pro-bisexual, pro-transgender agenda of California's public schools, on which WND previously has reported.

"We just don't want them teaching our children," he told WND. "They teach things that are totally contrary to what we believe. They put questions in our children's minds we don't feel they're ready for.

"When they are much more mature, they can deal with these issues, alternative lifestyles, and such, or whether they came from primordial slop. At the present time it's my job to teach them the correct way of thinking," he said.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Absolutely infuriating.

I don't like kids. I can see where some people might, but I don't. But if I had some that I were homeschooling, and the state came to me and said "We're arresting you for educating your children at home," I think I'd be tempted towards a certain response. If I lost in court, I'm almost certain that's the response I'd choose.

Barak Huessein Obama News

I don't have a link to it, but apparently the Obamanation is proposing to cap business owners salaries at 50 times what the lowest paid employee makes.

Lets say I make $10,000 per year. Many draw less than that due to lack of experience. That means that "Massive Bookstore Chain Owner" only gets $500,000, on which he has to pay taxes. That's roughly 1/5th of what "Massive Bookstore Chain Store Manager" makes in a year.

This is a ****ing travesty. Is $500,000 a lot of money? You bet. Should it be any of the government's business to regulate how much that business owner can make? Not just no, but HELL NO.

You know, let's just go over to the dark side. Elect Obama, he can ritualistically shred the US Constitution at his inauguration, declare the US to be another Socialist state like The Benighted Kingdom, and we can just get it over with.

I'm sick to death of this thousand cuts crap.

Bring it on.

Not A Lot Going On

...right now. Working, a lot. I've got lots of school. What free time I have, I spend plotting world domination and writing. Actually, just writing. Not a lot going on to blog about here. No political character has unveiled their new 5 year plan, though I'm expecting that from Clinton and Osama pretty soon.

Life is just a drag right now.

Vote Cthulu 2008!

Why vote for a lesser evil?

Seriously though, I voted for Ron Paul in the primary. It does no good, I know. And I'll still end up voting for that rat-b*st*rd McCain in November. But I've voted for the only worthwhile candidate while I could, and I feel good about that.

seaQuest DSV

I'm most of the way through Season 2. So far we've had aliens, time travel, giant alligators, Atlantean ghosts, aliens again, evil psychics, Greek gods, vampire demons...coming up we'll have more psychics, and aliens yet again.

This TV show is killing my braincells, and yet I can't look away. I REMEMBER this stuff! I watch it and I smile.

So cool.

The Brave One

This movie has it all. It joins such greats as Red Dawn, The Patriot, Shooter, and Uprising in the category of movies that should be shown, four times a year, to every child in public school, so long as we allow public schools to continue their malicious and unconstitutional existence.

Jodie Foster plays Erica Bain, who's engaged to Sayid from Lost. She's beaten near to death and he's killed in a spurt of random violence while walking their dog in central park.

Upon waking up, she's shaken. DUH. On impulse she goes to a gun store to buy a gun. This being the high-crime, gun-free utopia of The People's Republic of New York, the harried gun shop owner tells her to apply for a license and come back in thirty days. When she says "I won't live thirty days" he tells her "That's the law."

You have no idea how hard I clapped for that part. All the subtlety of a sledgehammer.

She's eventually sold a Kahr K9 by a guy who overheard the conversation, and she starts carrying it.

The second time she's the victim of random violence, she's a little better prepared. She terminates the man who kills the convenience store clerk who's store she's shopping in, moments before he could attack here.

Let's just think about this for a minute. We've got a woman, who was denied a gun by the government of New York, buying a gun AND carrying it illegally, defending her life successfully.

How DID this movie get made? Seriously. What bed-wetting liberal Hollywood producer was smoking crack when he greenlit this movie, and how can I send him some more crack to smoke? I want to see more of these types of movies.

Erica Bain then starts haunting the bad parts of the city, killing the people who try to take advantage of a petite, middle aged female, who's walking through the bad parts of New York alone.

Eventually she finds the scum who murdered Sayid and took her dog, and after some really, really good one-liners, kills all three of them, with the assistance of the cop who's been hunting the "vigilante" who's been stalking the city.

Along the way we have some soft girl-rock introspective moments, and a whole lot of Dennis LeHane style grit and angst as Erica goes from average Jane to someone who's not incredibly bother by taking out the trash, figuratively. One of the cool things that this movie doesn't delve into is her motives. Yes, she's hunting the city. Why? She obvious is distraught over the handful of notches on her gun's grip, why does she keep going back.

No easy answers, just lots of good old-fashioned American justice, and a couple really touching scenes with a dog.

Last year it was Shooter, which featured Mark Wahlberg beating up cops and shooting U.S. senators with the incredibly manly 1911. This year it's Jodie Foster illegally carrying a concealed weapon and being applauded for it. At long last, there's a part of this country that I don't fear for quite as much. Maybe Hollywood is finally pulling their head out of their nethers and taking a peek around.

Kane And Lynch: Dead Men

If Michael Mann made a computer game, this would be it. Hardboiled characters, blood, awesome weapon selection, gritty story...and that's just the demo.

If I weren't committing all my resources to preparing for Hillary 'Antichrist' Clinton or Barak Huessein Osama to usurp the White House, I'd own both this and Crysis.

Lyrics Double Header: Johnny Cash - What Is Truth

The old man turned off the radio
Said, "Where did all of the old songs go
Kids sure play funny music these days
They play it in the strangest ways"
Said, "it looks to me like they've all gone wild
It was peaceful back when I was a child"
Well, man, could it be that the girls and boys
Are trying to be heard above your noise?
And the lonely voice of youth cries
"What Is Truth?"

A little boy of three sittin' on the floor
Looks up and says, "Daddy, what is war?"
"son, that's when people fight and die"
The little boy of three says "Daddy, why?"
A young man of seventeen in Sunday school
Being taught the golden rule
And by the time another year has gone around
It may be his turn to lay his life down
Can you blame the voice of youth for asking
"What Is Truth?"

A young man sittin' on the witness stand
The man with the book says "Raise your hand"
"Repeat after me, I solemnly swear"
The man looked down at his long hair
And although the young man solemnly swore
Nobody seems to hear anymore
And it didn't really matter if the truth was there
It was the cut of his clothes and the length of his hair
And the lonely voice of youth cries
"What Is Truth?"

The young girl dancing to the latest beat
Has found new ways to move her feet
The young man speaking in the city square
Is trying to tell somebody that he cares
Yeah, the ones that you're calling wild
Are going to be the leaders in a little while
This old world's wakin' to a new born day
And I solemnly swear that it'll be their way
You better help the voice of youth find
"What Is Truth?"
------------------------------------------------
My brother made a mixtape when he was six. I remember sitting on the duplex living room floor picking out songs with him. We put it together from my dad's old records, big records from cardboard boxes, singles from plastic cases. That tape persisted for the longest time, I think the last time he played that he was fifteen or so. Tape's been a part of my life for the longest time, and this was, I think, the second song.

The reason I post this tonight is because I'm wrestling with a question very close to the premise of the song. Not "What is truth?" but "What is our duty to the truth?" Do we have an obligation to tell the truth, a duty to be exercised at all times? Is it worth destroying relationships for? When a person is unredeemable, does telling the truth even matter? Can a person ever be unredeemable? What is truth worth, at what point is the human cost not worth it?

And when I close my laptop and sit here, staring off into the darkness, I'll remember sitting on the living room floor with my brother. And I'll hear Johnny Cash saying "What is truth?"

Lyrics Double Header: Johnny Cash - Hurt

I hurt myself today
To see if I still feel
I focus on the pain
The only thing that's real
The needle tears a hole
The old familiar sting
Try to kill it all away
But I remember everything

What have I become?
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end
You could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you Hurt

I wear this crown of thorns
Upon my liar's chair
Full of broken thoughts
I cannot repair
Beneath the stain of time
The feeling disappears
You are someone else
I am still right here

What have I become?
My sweetest friend
Everyone I know
Goes away in the end
You could have it all
My empire of dirt
I will let you down
I will make you Hurt

If I could start again
A million miles away
I would keep myself
I would find a way
-----------------------------------------
Yeah, I know, it's not Johnny Cash, it's Nine Inch Nails. Yeah, I don't care. I only listen to the Johnny Cash version.

The music video is touching. It shows him eating and drinking, alone, surrounded by wealth, remembering his life on the road, and more importantly, his wife (who'd recently passed away).
It's desolate and sad and it really is the picture of a man at the very end of his life. Very sad. I think, watching it now, that he would've given everything he had, and everything he'd ever been, to have his wife back again.

The way the song is played, it's completely haunting. Just that guitar, the piano, and his voice, all building to this crescendo at the end. It's relentless, just keeps driving. Meanwhile, the video goes into overdrive showing scenes from his life interspersed with scenes of crucifixition. Strange, but it works.

Sitting Here

My laptop says the time is 2:44am on February 1st.

I've just finished watching 3 horrible hours of seaQuest DSV Season 2. That show takes me back in time. Very few things can inspire wonder in me, and though the crabby old man in me winces at the worse-than-Red Dawn dialogue, the 7-year-old little boy in me is filled with wonder. I watch it and I feel like a little kid again, sitting on the floor in our old duplex, the angled fall sun fighting through the plants in the front window, hoping that my parents will let me finish an episode before bed. It's a nice feeling.

The reason I'm watching seaQuest at 3 in the morning is licking herself in the kennel next to my knee. One of our rats had surgery yesterday, and my mom watches here during the day, I watch her at night. I figure the next time I'll sleep overnight is probably Sunday or Monday night. I'll nap 2-3 hours at a time once or twice a day until little rat can be left unattended for more than 15 minutes.

I'm about 6 hours from being legally intoxicated due to lack of sleep. Four days of this to go. Welcome to Hell.

Another Safe

Bought another safe two days ago. Put it in my closet. After an unfortunate incident involving some out of control rage by a certain family member, all extra guns got locked up downstairs. I keep a 9mm in my desk for carry and for my nightstand gun, and various other family members do the same, but all the serious hardware is downstairs.

Ever since, it's bugged me that I don't have anything close at hand for serious social situations.

Now I do. Plus I now have a place to put my other safe (the one filled with investment info and precious metals). One of the best Benjamins I ever spent.

Thompson Is Out

It's been a while since I've blogged - life's what happens when you're busy making plans - but I wanted to say something about this.

It is absolutely insane to me that Clinton, McCain, Edwards, Guiliani, Obama, Romney, or Huckabee will be our next president. They. ALL. SUCK.

Thompson was the last great electable conservative, and he betrayed his conservative principles by dropping out, by not DOING MORE. When a republic is at stake, there's NOTHING you don't do to save it.

Looking at that list of candidates, I'm reminded of the tagline from the horrible movie Alien Vs Predator.

Whoever wins...we lose.

God's Gift To Shooters

Took my 2 newest rifles, Barak Huessein Osama and Rudy Guiliani out to the range on Wednesday. Never had fired them before, and I had a new piece of equipment I wanted to test while I was out there, a pair of Radians electronic earmuffs. The amplify the sounds around you and deaden gunfire, or so I'd been told when I got them as a Christmas gift.

I was scared to fire the rifles with the earmuffs on. I've had a 25-06 go off pretty much right next to my ear w/o hearing protection, and I really didn't wanna hear a 30cal amplified. I manned up and pulled the trigger. I can't imagine how I shot without them. They fade out the gunshot, and it ends up sounding like a video game. Awesome device. I never want to go shooting without them again. They are God's Gift To Shooters.

Oh yeah and, the rifles shot minute-of-paperplate at 25 yards. Next week, 50 yards!

Death Sentence

It's the movie The Punisher should've been.

Very simple plot too. Happy family man Kevin Bacon's son is brutally murdered in a gang initiation rite. Kevin Bacon then commences kicking @$$.

Actually a little more complex than that. He kills the first of the gang somewhat accidentally. They come looking for him, and he kills the next one very intentionally, in a rather terrific brawl that involves seatbelts, a car door, and a hockey stick.

They come looking for him again and kill the rest of his family.

Kevin Bacon says "Screw this law and order crap," loads up on rather mediocre weapons, and whacks the remaining 9 gangbangers in an abandoned mental institution.

Why you'd go into that situation with a revolver, a 1911 (OK, maybe if you were a diehard 1911 fan), and a SIDE BY SIDE SHOTGUN is completely beyond me. Bacon handles the guns fairly well, and it's rather educational to watch someone who's obviously not well trained blunder his way through a fight against a bunch of guys who hold their guns sideways. Shotguns are employed on both sides to great effect - but blowing people 12 feet backwards...completely unrealistic.

The best part of the movie is watching Kevin Bacon morph from an ordinary guy into someone who really doesn't care. About anything. Law, right, wrong...there's a point at the end where we expect much hand-wringing and liberal-lesson-imparting to occur, and it just...doesn't. It's an emotionally AND physically brutal movie, and I like that. I'm putting it on my must own list.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra

I saw one of their last '07 shows recently.

Much more relaxed than they usually do before Christmas. They'd break off in the middle of a Christmas song to let Clark and Pitrelli dual guitars, and the theatrics during Old City Bar were comical rather than dramatic. Far less professional, but they really looked like they were having a good time. That band enjoys what they do.

The second half of the show they just let loose. Started off with Proud Mary and detoured all over their discography.

I thought it was cool that they worked in some of their less-well-known songs into the Christmas half of the show. Siberian Sleigh Ride, Wish Liszt, a whole bunch of others that rarely get played. I do so wish they'd do a Christmas Attic concert.

Well worth the $75 per seat fee. Probably worth double that.

3:10 To Yuma

Christian Bale once again shows why he's the best actor around. The last scene he has with his wife, where he explains why he's going is perfect. I'd love to see him do a movie with Michael Mann.

It's basically a reverse of The Fugitive, set in the Olde West. Outlaw is being escorted to jail, his crew tries to break him out.

Russell Crowe plays the main baddie, a man of few words who seems to see to the heart of everyone around him. He has a strange purity - he knows he's evil, and he's content with that.

Christian Bale plays a one-legged farmer who hires on to help escort Crowe to the 3:10 to Yuma train, which will take him away to be hanged. The "reveal" for why he joins up with the posse comes later in the movie, and is rather...wrenching.

Violent and appropriately bloody, with a dragged out gunfight at the end that wants to be Open Range but just isn't.

I Am Legend

Saw it recently. Decent movie. I like how they portrayed Will Smith as slowly going crazy. The atmosphere was well done, giving the impression that he really was the last man on earth...and the tension of night kept viewers on their toes.

The ending felt like a cop-out though.

And I take much pride in the fact that I'm fairly better armed than Robert Neville.

New Year's Eve

Didn't think anything would come of it this year. Sure, I'd tried to set up a bowling meet with some people from work. Didn't get much of a confirmation from anyone, and none at all from one in particular.

Got to the lanes late, thought all my friends woulda packed up and ambled on home. Nope. Everybody who'd said they might come, and then some.

Bowled the second best out of my group. Listened to horrible rap dreck, and 5 good songs, most of which came from the 80s. Made ascerbic comments on the state of society with my best friend. Watched a bunch of gangstas freak-dance next to us, and made ascerbic comments about them. Nearly puked on a cheese curd.

One of the best times of my life.

Then I get home.

It appears the other shoe is falling.

Every silver lining needs a cloud to appear behind.

But I still had one hell of a good time. Thanks guys. At the risk of sounding cliched, y'all saved my life last night. I thought I was alone in this, and then I come to find I got friends and more of 'em than I expected. I'm eternally grateful.

Jericho

Forget for a moment that it's produced by the Commie Broadcasting System, and that many of the situations the characters find themselves in are completely unrealistic, and that the end of the world would look much bleaker and the people much less well-coiffed than they appear.

This is dang good TV.

This show contains everything that is good about America.

~Resisting the trampling of civil liberties
~Self-reliance
~Good people pitching in to help one another
~A community led by strong men
~Preparedness
~The positive portrayal of firearms ownership

Hawkins's daughter asked him what he had a competition 1911 for and his reply was "Shooting." He then told her that it was high time she learned. She asked why, and he said "So you can defend yourself." Then there's the line I have written on my white board, about 2 feet away from where I sit right now "Every able-bodied person needs a gun. Sixteen years of age or older. Line up."

The fact that they portray the heads of the community as strong, human men is incredible as well. I thought males had been reduced to bumbling, out-of-touch, insensitive, lecherous lugs or out-of-control grown-up adolescents on TV. Gray Anderson, Johnston Green, Stanley, Jake Green...they think and act logically, and with a strong sense of character.

It's no wonder this show was canceled. This was anathema to everything offered on TV at the time. For all it's flaws, this is dang good programming.

The Kingdom

Got this movie for Christmas. I'd seen it twice in 2 days beforehand.

This may be one of the most important movies of the past five years. It opens with an absolutely stomach churning scene of Jihadists gunning down and blowing up innocent civilians in rather graphic fashion. Stuff like this needs to be thrown in people's faces on a daily basis - all we hear is the "it's OUR fault" chorus.

The scenes of the actual investigation are pretty boring, but again, what stands out is the repeated slamming home of the point that the Islamic culture, and especially the culture of the Islamofascists is as different from ours as night and day.

It "ends" on kind of a downer...they get a small cell, .gov calls it a victory and recalls them...and then on the way to the airport they're attacked. More bashing people over the head that Islamofascists are evil pigs - in the middle of a gunfight they take time out to try and behead Jason Bateman on film.

The real ending is much better. Jamie Foxx kicking some Islamofascist behind with a G3. And then an underfolding AK. Jennifer Garner greasing a guy with a folding knife. Everything a good movie needs, except perhaps a ten minute monologue on the evils of Communism and Hillary Clinton.

The End Of The Lightbulb As We Know It

http://www.usnews.com/articles/business/economy/2007/12/19/faq-the-end-of-the-light-bulb-as-we-know-it.html

Congress banned regular lightbulbs. As of 2014, you won't be able to choose, in a supposedly free market, what kind of lightbulbs you want to buy.

The reason we have to put up with this crap now is because we didn't line the people who started it in the 20s, 30s, and 40s up against a wall and shoot them.

It's not just lightbulbs. It's freedom to choose in an unrestricted market. I want my America back, dammit.

The Deer Hunter

Got The Deer Hunter from the library the other day. I've always heard what a fantastic movie it is, and figured I needed to see it.

De Niro did a decent job with the material he was given. Overall though, the movie sucked. They spent too much effort trying to make it "real life" that they completely forgot there was supposed to be a fantastic epic in there somewhere. It could've been a great movie, but everybody (excepting De Niro) phones in their performances, and there's very little drama in the writing.

Plus it was way, way too long. Exactly 3 hours. You could've cut the first 45 minutes and not missed a thing.

Too bad, this movie had a lot going for it on paper.

Frustration

I feel like I'm getting stabbed in the back at work. Often I'm the closing employee, which means I'm responsible for the department from 3 until 11pm, which encompasses our busiest time.

Saturday, 2 people called off sick, leaving me the only person in the department from 7:30 until close. This is the second to last Saturday before Christmas. It was BUSY. Instead of sending me a cashier to work the register, or someone who actually knows my department, they sent me a woman who's never even BEEN in my department as a customer, much less an employee. And then they pull her out, randomly.

Yesterday, the second to last Sunday before Christmas, the manager walks into the department, sees that we're between rushes and says "*redacted*, you can go home, we need to save on hours." This was at 3.

*Redacted* was supposed to be there until 6. Ok, so one quarter of our employees goes home. From 4 until 6 we did 60% of our business. We had 2 people from other departments working with us for 45 minutes, and we still weren't able to do effective customer service.

Because I am a man, I dealt with it. Didn't like it, but I did my best.

On a brighter note, I'm thinking about buying a stock of Nyquil, and handing it out free - with a measuring cup - to any parent with a child under ten, when they enter my department. It would cut down on my stress level.

Ammo Prices On The Drop

Dunhams dropped 7.62x39 to $4.19. Gander Mtn. dropped it to $4.99. Fleet Farm dropped 5.56x45 to $3.99.

It's not $2.50 per 20 like I saw 2 years ago, but it's not $7.99 per 20 like I saw 3 months ago.

Makes me happy, it does.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra - The Snow Came Down

A railway station
On a long forgotten line
No destination
But it always leaves on time
He buys his ticket
As the train prepares to leave
Don't want to miss it
On this night Christmas Eve

He stared into the night
No expectations
He watched the world go by
Without a sound
He saw the city lights
Arrive and fade away
While all that night
All that night
The Snow Came Down

No conversation
As the snow fell from the sky
His consolation
That the world is well disguised

He stared into the night
No expectations
He watched the world go by
Without a sound
He saw the city lights
Arrive and fade away
While all that night
All that night
The Snow Came Down

He stared into the night
No expectations
But in his heart he wanted to believe
That somehow someone would be waiting there
Upon this Christmas Eve

And when his train it pulled into that station
He saw there was a single pair of tracks
Within the snow and leading to that Station door
And he followed those steps back
And on this night of our salvation
Where dreams that have been lost
Can there be found
They walked away together
On that Christmas Eve
While all that night
All that night
The Snow Came Down
--------------------------------------------------
The song is about a lonely rich man who's been set up to meet his old girlfriend at a trainstation. He doesn't know this, he just knows to be there at a certain time. His train arrives at he sees her footprints in the snow, and they are reunited on Christmas Eve.

I love this song. The anguish with which the singer describes the man's journey is heart-wrenching. The instrumentation is incredible, little musical...I can only describe them as bookmarks...are hidden throughout the song, little repetitions that are so cool to find. And the writing is superb - I love how the end of the song is just the chorus rewritten multiple times. TSO has always had a way with words, going back to their Savatage days. They're some of the best wordsmiths in music.

December 10th has a very special meaning for me. Something that changed my life - sort of - happened on December 10th 2 years ago. This very day, 2 years ago. I've written it up, maybe someday I'll get around to telling y'all about it.

Last year, I believe it was on this date (but if it wasn't, I beg your forgiveness, I suck at remembering dates), a similar scene happened with me as described in the song. Falling snow, Christmas music, waiting to see Her.

Unlike the song though, She wasn't there.

I Love My Job

You know that scene in The 3 Musketeers where Porthos knocks a guy out with a Bolo from like a hundred yards away and then says "God, I love my job"?

Yeah. It's like that.

Moron in class today gives us a presentation on how we should have socialized healthcare. Then plays some of Sicko for us, which was entertaining only for the scene of Hillary being burned in effigy. You heard my "YES!" throughout the class.

Teacher asks at the end if we have any questions for the speaker.

I raise my hand.

"Vincent?"

"Please explain to me why it is you think you're entitled to have the government take my money?"

Stammers about socialized police forces, fire departments, prison systems.

"I can't incarcerate Steven Avery and Brendan Dassey in my home. I pay the government to remove them from society because we don't want to be around them. I can pay for my own healthcare. Why should I be forced to pay for yours?"

"I'll be forced to pay for yours as well, you'll be taking my money too."

"I don't want your money. I want MY money. I earned it. It's not yours."

Teacher breaks up the argument.

I figure he has a 5% chance of figuring out he's an imbecile. That's 5 percentage points more than he had this morning.

CSI: Miami...or...

...this crap kills brain cells faster than alcohol or asphyxiation.

Plot is thus: A private security firm filled w/ Blackwater types uses a prototype caseless rifle to kill three weapons smugglers. The head of the firm is then killed by his lieutenant and the previous head of the firm, and they sell this rifle to...unknown highest bidders.

The caseless rifle is actually based on real technology. It fires bullets electronically, and the weapon degrades during use. Not on TV. It's the size of a dog kennel, but at the beginning, it's employed by one person against three men in rapid succession. It "vaporizes" people...which was actually a funny animation. One moment they're here, the next they're jumping into a transition into a red stain.

The CSI team is able to track the firm's head's killer as he remotely erases the man's laptop. Looks like something from Star Trek.

Then there's the requisite showdown between Caine and the evildoer...Caine shows up right in time for the bad guy to make some ridiculously lame announcement about a suitable demonstration of the weapons power. Caine swerves his H2 and the back end explodes - it should've been shorn right off. The weapon is used again, and this time the Hummer is completely incinerated...Caine has escaped, and is now standing before this dog-kennel sized cannon. The badguy makes a lame quip about its power, and Caine shoots him in the head, then one-hit-kills a few other badguys at about fifty feet while holding his Sig 229 one-handed.

He then makes his own lame quip about using just one bullet, and the screen fades to black.

Watching CSI:Miami is like an intellectual I Am Legend. You feel like the last smart person on the planet. I've seen drooling Down-Syndrome patients with an insatiable lust for mashed potatoes who could pen better fiction.

I need to go watch some House clips on Youtube, get this bad taste out of my mouth.

The Greatest TV Quote Ever

Hello, sick people and their loved ones! In the interest of saving time and avoiding a lot of boring chitchat later, I'm Doctor Gregory House; you can call me "Greg." I'm one of three doctors staffing this clinic this morning.

This ray of sunshine is Doctor Lisa Cuddy. Doctor Cuddy runs this whole hospital, so unfortunately she's much too busy to deal with you. I am a bored... certified diagnostician with a double specialty of infectious disease and nephrology. I am also the only doctor currently employed at this hospital who is forced to be here against his will.

That is true, isn't it?

But not to worry, because for most of you, this job could be done by a monkey with a bottle of Motrin. Speaking of which, if you're particularly annoying, you may see me reach for this: this is Vicodin. It's mine! You can't have any! And no, I do not have a pain management problem, I have a pain problem... but who knows? Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm too stoned to tell. So, who wants me?

And who would rather wait for one of the other two guys?

Okay, well, I'll be in Exam Room One if you change your mind.

Edwards: Garnish Wages If Needed to Cover All

Edwards: Garnish Wages If Needed to Cover All

ABC News' Teddy Davis Reports: Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards is hoping to stand-out from rivals on health care by portraying the plan of rival Barack Obama as leaving 15 million uninsured and portraying Hillary Clinton as lacking the candor needed to get to universal coverage.

"Barack Obama's plan leaves out 15 million people," said Edwards. "The truth is that some people will choose not to buy insurance even though it's affordable, knowing that the rest of us will pay for their emergency room visits."Listen to this moron. Some people will CHOOSE NOT TO BUY INSURANCE. Paying for their emergency room visits is just the same as paying for their insurance. And who is he to say that people shouldn't be able to REFUSE insurance if they don't want it?

"But it is just as bad to say that everyone will have insurance without a plan to get there," he continued. "Hillary Clinton says her plan will cover everyone through a 'mandate' but does not provide even the most rudimentary idea much less a detailed plan of how this 'mandate' would work."

Like Clinton (and unlike Obama), Edwards' health-care plan would require every American to have health insurance. Require insurance. We're not talking about "giving" everyone insurance (which will ultimately be the same thing) we're now just coming out and saying "Every American is going to have insurance at gunpoint." Does it make me a bad man to want to drag Edwards into the street and kick him?

But unlike Clinton, Edwards is now detailing how he would enforce his mandate.
Under the Edwards plan, when Americans file their income taxes, they would be required to submit a letter from an insurance provider confirming coverage for themselves and their dependents. Once again, the IRS gets involved. Remember, they were only supposed to tax the upper 1-5%. Guess not anymore!

If someone did not submit proof of coverage, the Internal Revenue Service would notify a newly established regional or state-based health-care agency (which Edwards has dubbed a Health Care Market). Market. Market! A place where people buy and sell things. A market isn't a damned government agency you dip**** with delusions of adequacy!

Those regional agencies would then evaluate whether the uninsured individual was eligible for Medicare (which covers those over 65), Medicaid (which covers the indigent), or S-CHIP (the State Children's Health Insurance Program which targets the working poor).

If the individual was not eligible for either of those existing public programs, the regional-health care agency would enroll the individual into the lowest cost health-care plan available in that area. The lowest-cost option could be a new Medicare-like public option or a private insurance plan. Well thank God private insurance companies aren't going to be put out of business.

The newly covered individual would not only have access to health benefits but would also be responsible for making monthly payments with the help of a tax credit.Let me get this straight. They're going to put a gun to his head and take his money, force him to pay for insurance upon threat of going to jail, and then they're going to give him a tax break. In what kind of crazy, screwed up moonbat world does that even begin to approach making sense?

The exact size of the financial obligation would vary according to a person's income (lower-income Americans would receive larger tax credits). Yet more punish the industrious economics. The nerve of those fellows...working!...and expecting to keep the fruit of their labor. I seriously question their compassion.

If a person did not meet his or her monthly financial obligation for a set period of time (perhaps a year, perhaps longer) the Edwards plan would empower the federal government to garnish an individual's wages for purposes of collecting "back premiums with interest and collection costs."More gunplay by the feds. If a person doesn't want health care and refuses to play ball, the federal government is simply going to rip their money away, reaching into their future paychecks to take payments for health care they didn't receive. And just how IN THE HELL is that going to affect their ability to pay for healthcare and other necessities in the present?

The process, according to the Edwards campaign, would resemble the process used to collect money from Americans who are delinquent on federal student loans or child support payments.
The Edwards campaign has not put a dollar figure on the amount that would be garnished from wages because the cost of the lowest-priced plan in that region could vary and is not yet known.

While raising the specter of wage garnishment could expose Edwards to the criticism that he favors a bigger, more intrusive government, he is hoping that Democrats will reward him for offering a plan that is bolder than Obama's and more candid than Clinton's.Reward him for proposing theft. For those who didn't catch it the first time, he thinks they'll reward him for THEFT! Man walks into my place of work, mouthing off about what he wants to steal, I'm going to call the POLICE!

"To get fundamental change in our health care system, we need a fundamental change in our politics," said Edwards. "That starts with being clear and direct about what we are going to do and how we are going to do it."Sure is a fundamental change you arrogant ****, and it's not a change for the better.

I read this and for some reason I think of Neil McCauly and Waingro in a hotel room. It's like a Rorshach ink-blot test.

...And They're Home!

The Barak Huessein Osama and Rudy Guiliani Commemorative Assault Rifles followed me home tonight. I broke them down (I love being able to do adjustments with a hammer!) and they're sitting in pieces on my workbench waiting for me to come downstairs tomorrow with a CD player and clean them for 5 hours.

Lessee here, assault rifle cleaning music...it'll either be:

~Scott Stapp
~Creed
~Nickelback/Hinder
~Theory Of A Deadman

Only in a free country do you have to make such choices.

Layaway Is A Wonderful Thing

The Rudy Guiliani and Barak Huessein Obama Commemorative Assault Rifles are sitting in the Dunham's lockup, awaiting the Black Friday morning sale. They are of a type I already own multiple examples of, and I look forward to ripping them apart and putting them back together, modifying them into even more awesome, liberal-scaring weapons.

Why not the Hillary Clinton Commmemorative Assault Rifle, you ask, when Hillary is a so much bigger threat to my way of life?

The Hillary Clinton Commemorative Battle-Rifle will be purchased on the next election day. I figure the bigger the b*tch, the bigger the rifle, the better the symbolism. It will be a JLD PTR-91, in the .308 caliber. I plan on buying 2000 rounds and a metric ton of magazines between here and there. My present EBRs are not slouches in the caliber department, but the big G3 clone is a terrifyingly powerful hitter at close and long ranges. It is specifically designed to excel in battle with military troops. That is the reason it was conceived, and the reason its existance has continued in the years since World War 2. I will train with it, and I will become proficient with it, and in doing so, I will demonstrate to the world that I am not a subject, I am a citizen. I am an American.

Somebody Please...

remind me that when I see the light at the end of the tunnel, it's usually a train, and it usually runs my *** over.

I seem to be in the process of forgetting that. Of losing my objectivity. That ain't a good thing.

Presidential Candidate News

Ron Paul raised 4.3 mil on Guy Fawkes day. Most of any candidate in one day, ever. 225k per hour, roughly.

Fred Thompson wants to raise a million man fighting force. Makes me nervous. Is also looking for donors to be on a Second Amendment advisory committee. Makes me happy.

Hillary Clinton is taking flak for planting people to ask easy questions in the crowd, and dodging tough questions. Also, it appears that pesky gay rumor has gone away, even if the source of said rumor hasn't (the woman's still on the Clinton team). Dang. Anything to torpedo her, true or false.

Just When You Think You've Hit Bottom

...someone throws you a shovel.

The nightly news just ran a piece on the horrors of a new drug, known on "the street" as Jimson Weed, or just plain Jimson. Seems one kid in our little township picked a random plant in the woods, dried it, and smoked it. And now it's a crisis!

How you can say the words "the street" and Jimson Weed in the same sentence without giggling hysterically is beyond me, but the newscaster did just that.

And for crying out loud, carpet's got more chemicals in it than Jimson Weed...you can probably get high smoking carpet fibers! Or the new trend in prisons...fermenting sewage. What are we going to do, make forgetting to flush a felony?

God forbid someone wants to chemically alter their conciousness. And God forbid a parent takes some responsibility for snookums's stupidity instead of expecting the government to waltz in and ban Jimson Weed.

Criminal

I committed a crime tonight.

My mom's studying to become a photographer. This week the assignment was night shots. So, she wants to get downtown pictures. River shots.

Downtown. At night. Walking around with a $1500 camera. Not smart.

I carried my dad's Walther PPK/S for the hour and a half we were downtown. Small gun, inside the waistband holster, t-shirt, hooded sweatshirt, and leather corsair jacket. I could've carried my big Sig 45 and nobody would've noticed.

It's weird. I just broke the law. On the list of crimes, it isn't a traffic violation. I feel no guilt. Nothing. I'd do it again, and I probably will. I do not respect this law, and the only consideration I will give it is how I can thwart it and not get caught.

I guess this is what Ayn Rand meant when she said you can't rule free men.

I'll break the law again, if I feel the benefits outweigh the risks.

Crysis - I Love This Game!

Just what it says. I've been playing the demo for the past 2 days, and I dig it.

Far Cry was the epitome of awesome. But it looked cartoony. And a lot of the action was cartoony. It was fun as all get-out, but it wasn't realistic.

Crysis is like Far Cry crossed with Half-Life 2. You get Far Cry with realism.

The environment is beautiful, the day-change is subtle but amazing. I love the draw-distance, and being able to shred trees is fun. Reloading an empty rifle nets you a mag's worth of ammo, but reload halfway through a mag, and you get a mag+1, just like in real life. Using a vehicle as a bomb is cool, and the ability to destroy your enviroment is quite unique.

I've got 2 complaints only.
1.I realize it forces me to go for the headshot, but nobody's body armor stands up to 10 7.62x39 slugs. My bullets should do more damage.
2.The powersuit (or whatever) feels like a gimmick. And unless it's upgradable, it is. Cloak and speed don't last for nothing, and I can't detect anything that armor does. Strength is useful only for mega jumps, and the incredibly satisflying upclose enemy grab.

Other than those 2 points, the game is perfect. Congrats, Crytek, you just got $60 of mine.

House Passes Thought-Crime Bill

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-1955

Scary. Just plain scary. We now know for absolutely-damn-certain that the Founding Fathers would be rotting in gaol were they here today.

And then people wonder why I want an arsenal to match Venezuala's, and cash & handguns buried around the nation...

House Passes Thought-Crime Bill

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h110-1955

Scary. Just plain scary. We now know for absolutely-damn-certain that the Founding Fathers would be rotting in gaol were they here today.

And then people wonder why I want an arsenal to match Venezuala's, and cash & handguns buried around the nation...

USPC Update

I've been carrying my USPC in an Uncle Mike's Sidekick since Sunday (I think). Carries beautifully, and I don't have to worry about the darn thing falling down my pants leg. I'd tell y'all where I've gone with it, but that'd be copping to a misdemeanor. :-)

Rod Stewart - No Holding Back

I'm probably dating myself here, but I VIVIDLY remember when the album this next song is from (Vagabond Heart) came out. That were a LONG time ago.

A friend of mine called up
Said "I finally had some luck
Could I have a minute of your time
I met a girl last night
And try as I might
I can't get her off of my mind
She walked through the room and right then I knew
I finally found somebody for me
But to tell you the trut
I don't know what to do
Should I go ahead or wait and see"

I said "Give it all you got
No Holding Back
Let a light in your soul
Ain't it better to lose in love
Than to never love at all
Than to never love at all"

Now I'm the kind of guy
Who's normally quite shy
On romance I don't know a thing
But when she led me to the floor
I'd never danced before
Suddenly my feet had wings
I know that she wants me
I want her too
But I'm so confused I can't think straight
I feel so alive but on the other side
Should I go ahead or should I wait

I said "Give it all you got
No Holding Back
Let a light in your soul
Ain't it better to lose in love
Than to never love at all
Ain't it better to lose in love
Than to never love at all
Than to never love at all"

So when the music starts to flow from your hearts
Like the coming of an early spring
When the river starts to flow
Between you soul to soul
May no man ever come between
Die in her arms if she wants you to
Be thankful for each passing day
When your eyes collide
Let your spirits fly
And pray to God it's here to stay

And I said "Give it all you got
No Holding Back
Let a light in your soul
Ain't it better to lose in love
Than to never love at all
Give it all you got
No Holding Back
Let a light in your soul
Ain't it better to lose in love
Than to never love at all
Than to never love at all
Than to never, never love at all
Ain't it better to lose in love
Than never love at all
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Short answer is no. Looks like we've got time for the long answer. Hell no.

My State Surrenders To Socialism

Late this evening, after a partisan battle over the state budget that lasted more than a third of a year, my state inched ever closer to socialism.

The tax on cigarettes got bumped up an extra buck, and we've now got socialized medicine for all children and disadvantaged people. Plus 30mil for anti-smoking programs.

No idea how we're going to pay for a billion plus dollar socialist medical program. No damn clue.

And people think I'm joking when I say that I'm not going to get out of this state ASAP.

North American Currency

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0710/08/lkl.01.html

I won't fisk it, but the transcript says that the Mexican President and our President consider the "Amero" (a unified North American Currency) to be a long term goal.

I'm starting to think that the Second Amendment isn't the most trampled part of the Constitution. It's A1S8. We get to own some guns, but they ignore that sucker completely.

Clinton Proposes 401(k)s, Matching Funds

Clinton Proposes 401(k)s, Matching Funds Oct 9 12:49 PM US/Eastern
By NEDRA PICKLER
Associated Press Writer

WEBSTER CITY, Iowa (AP) - Every citizen could get a 401(k) retirement account and up to $1,000 in annual matching funds from the government under a plan offered Tuesday by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton. Article 1, Section 8 lists all the things government can spend money on. Passing this would be felony treason.

At a cost of $20 billion-$25 billion a year, the plan is Clinton's largest domestic proposal other than her plan for universal health insurance. The New York senator said it would be paid for by taxing estates worth more than $7 million per couple and would help narrow the gap between the rich and those who don't have enough savings for retirement. More "punish the rich" economics. $25 billion a year, paid for by taxing people who make more than $7 million. Income tax was only supposed to be paid for by 1% of the population, remember? This is yet another reason to die penniless...having spent all your money on gold, the hiding place of which is known to your children.

At the same time, Clinton said she has given up another idea for a savings incentive—giving every baby born in the United States a $5,000 account to one day pay for college or a first home. Stake out one vampire, and another one rises. This is like playing Whackamole with dumb*ss legislation.

She made that suggestion last month before the Congressional Black Caucus, saying it was just an idea and not a policy proposal. The idea was criticized by Republicans, and she told The Wall Street Journal in an interview published Tuesday that it's off the table.

The campaign of her Democratic rival John Edwards suggested it was an example of Clinton setting her positions by polls. "Apparently, new polling data seems to have pressured the Clinton campaign to throw out the baby bond with the bathwater," said Edwards spokesman Chris Kofinis. John Edwards seems to think that printing up money to issue every child in this country roughly $19 grand at age 18 is a good idea. Brilliant idea, you moron. Ever hear of the national debt? Devaluing currency?

As for the retirement accounts, Clinton said during a campaign stop in small-town central Iowa, "They will begin to bring down this inequality that is eating away at our social contract." She said, "This is a major commitment to how I believe we can begin to right the balance again."
She said that for every $7 million estate that gets taxed, at least 5,000 families would receive the matching funds. There isn't supposed to BE a "balance." Nothing's promised here. You work for success, for prosperity, it isn't handed to you.

Clinton said she wants to create "American Retirement Accounts" in which everyone could put up to $5,000 annually in a 401(k) plan. The federal government would provide a tax cut to match 100 percent of the first $1,000 for anyone who makes less than $60,000 a year and 50 percent of the first $1,000 for those who make $60,000-$100,000. So despite this plan to give everyone retirement accounts, those who take care of themselves shoulder even more of a tax burden. What happens to those making more than $100k? They get nothing?

She said she would encourage employers to have direct deposit from paychecks into the accounts.
The federal and state governments already reach into my paycheck before I even get it and take about 20-30%. Then in April, I have to pay in even more. The thought of an employer being forced to take even more is simply repulsive.

Clinton said less than half the families in the United States have retirement savings accounts and those who have them aren't saving enough. She said she often meets people working even into their early 80s because they don't have enough savings.

"We don't have much of a nest egg to fall back on," she said.
Who is this "WE." She does, and I sure will. It is NOT the job of the government to redistribute the wealth of the industrious or the just plain lucky to take care of others.

Although the money would be intended mainly for retirement, she said people should also be able to use the savings to buy a house or pay for college and the government should consider letting workers use a portion for hard times like an illness or accident. So...people will be able to get this money prior to retirement? Will government have to approve each and every use for it? If not, how do we keep people from using it to buy platinum grills and coke?

Clinton said the accounts should not be used to replace any part of Social Security and that she is committed to addressing the long-term challenges of that program. Social Security payouts on a 1=1 scale AND government mandated 401ks. And somewhere I got the silly notion that buying votes was illegal...

"We have to fight and finally bury the idea of privatizing Social Security," she said. Let's not privatise it. Let's stake the damn thing out like a vampire. The system is completely untenable.

Life Of Vincent

Last night was Homecoming Night for the majority of local schools. As such, we had a groups of people moving the store in funny clothes. The guys are dressed like crap mostly, the girls to the nines.

Last night across this city, hundreds if not thousands of kids around my age were out celebrating. Opposite genders on each others arm, if not in love with each other, then very much in like, dressed in expensive finery, partying, enjoying being alive young animals.

Kinda gnaws on me. Not only did I never do that, I'm out of school now and not in a school where such things occur. I'm not ever gonna know what that's like.

Instead of being "out" I sat in the basement and loaded rifle rounds (1500 of them, to be precise) into 30cal spam cans from 11pm til 1am, while watching Saving Private Ryan.

If I hadn't been melancholy enough, my funk only deepened around 1am when I'm stacking the boxes in the workroom. I look at this big pile of boxes, 45ACP on the left, thousands upon thousands of rifle rounds on the right, and the thought flashes through my head: "Who will I be when I open these boxes?"

I buy what I shoot. I've got 2000rds per rifle right now, soon to be decreased to 1000 per with the addition of 3 new rifles. This is purely backstock. I have no intention of shooting any of it. It's there just to have. From now on, I'll buy a K or 2 per year, shoot that. I have no plans for shooting any of the stuff I have packed away.

Which means those boxes won't be opened for years.

Who will I be when I open those boxes and load up guns from the contents?

Will I be moving them into a house of my own? Will I be selling off that ammuntion for extra money? God forbid, will I be handing it over to someone? The next time I open those boxes, will it be under duress?

Each and every round is packed by hand, alternating every other round, stacked one upon another. The pile of boxes in the workroom is representative of hours and hours of my time. I'm 21 now. When will I be handling those rounds next?

Why will I be handling those rounds next?

Shooty Goodness

Took the new USPC 9mm out to the range today. I've decided to christen it the "Jim Doyle" model, because it's my concealed weapon of choice.

So, Doyle and I went out to the range. The first 30 rounds were seated, resting slow-fire, with the grip steadied on a sandbag, taking my time at 15 yards. I'd never shot the gun before, and I had a feeling it was going to frustrate me - I'm a passable pistol shot to begin with, and with a 3 1/2 inch barrel, I just KNEW I was going to be all over the place.

The first 30 rounds netted 27 on an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper, and the majority of them close in to the middle, in a circle about the size of a new roll of duct tape. Definitely minute of chest, and almost certainly minute of dead.

Then came 20 rounds offhand standing. I think I got about 13 out of 20 there. Low, but still on the paper, and getting higher as I adjusted to the sights. I know there's a trick to those sights...perhaps the dot covers the target as opposed to being centered under it. There's something about H&K sights.

Next I did a magazine of doubletaps, 5 of them to be exact. Still minute of chest, but not great. Netted a good group when I fired three rounds as fast as possible to finish the trip out.

I love this gun. The paddle mag release isn't nearly as bad as I thought, and it's more accurate than I am. Seriously, I usually don't do that good with full-sized guns, and this carry pistol is a full inch and 3/4 shorter. The recoil is a bit snappy for a 9mm, with a good deal of upward motion, but definitely controllable.

Lovin' it. As a matter of fact, it's on my hip right now.

Hillary Proposes Giving Every Baby $5000

www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=3668781&page=1

Clinton Floats $5,000 Baby Bond
Proposal Would Create Nest Egg for Future Costs of College or Buying a Home

Clinton's Friday remarks to the Congressional Black Caucus were not the first time that she has voiced her support for the concept of using the power of compound interest to close the country's asset gap.

While speaking to the centrist Democratic Leadership Council in 2006, she discussed the idea of giving every child born in America $500.Has Hillary even READ the Constitution?

Today was, however, the first time that she has floated the idea of giving every child born in America the larger sum of $5,000.Where is this money going to come from, exactly? Where does she think she can get off redistributing tax money in this way? With welfare, at least the redistribution is "based" on some supposed "need." This is just theft.

Asked if she had now settled on a larger "baby bond," Clinton campaign spokesman Phil Singer said, "It's not a formal policy proposal but an idea under consideration."

Presuming that approximately 4 million children are born in the United States each year, a $500 "baby bond" would only cost roughly $2 billion per year. A $5,000 "baby bond" would cost the government $20 billion per year.Again, where is the money coming from? Maybe we can tax the rich more! I know, I know! Like the income tax, which was only supposed to be applied to 1% of the population!

The idea floated by Clinton was rebuked Friday by the Republican National Committee, which called it a "budget busting baby fund," and by Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani who called it evidence that Clinton is running a campaign "based on pandering."Finally, Rudy opens his mouth and something comes out besides fecal matter. Call the Times.

The idea, however, has strong support from those who believe that economic disparities in the United States must be addressed by focusing on assets and not solely wages.Yes, the economic disparities must be addressed by taking the assets of some people at gunpoint and giving them to everyone else. Brilliant idea.

The vice president of a Washington, D.C., think tank at the forefront of pushing the "baby bond" concept welcomed Clinton's Friday remarks.

"I'm pleased that Sen. Clinton keeps talking about 'baby bonds,' whether $500 or $5,000 at birth," said Ray Boshara, the vice president of the New America Foundation. Boshara, who has worked with Clinton's policy staff on the concept, did not see the different dollar figure floated by Clinton on Friday as reflecting a definite policy change. Rather, he saw it as an affirmation of her excitement with the concept and expects her to continue to work out the details when she develops a formal proposal.

"I think Sen. Clinton is very, very excited about accounts at birth and hasn't settled on the right combination between initial deposits and matching deposits until 18," said Boshara. "She and her staff told me in the next several months we'll work on the details. . . . When we work out the details, we'll figure out the best way to get to around $20,000 at 18 --that's what matters."
---------------------------------------------------------------------
A few thoughts:

1.It is a measure of just how badly Bush & Co. have ruined the Republican party that we're actually staring down the barrel of mandatory government health care and mandatory redistribution of wealth on this scale. It's like watching two cars play chicken and wondering if someone's going to be smart enough to get the hell out of the way. I'm astounded and dismayed that not only are my countrymen so ****ing dumb that the majority of them are taking this in stride, and many of them think its a good idea.

2.Will the parents of rich kids receive $5000 dollars for their little snookums, or will there be a scale of income, with more prosperous families receiving less? That is the only way this could possibly get any worse?

3.Will they be checking citizenship before handing over my money? If not, is this a desparate ploy to pull in the criminal alien anchor-baby vote?

4.Will the money be given as a lump sum check to be invested as the parents see fit, or will it be socked away in government managed accounts? If the former, what will we do about the millions of urban parents who spend it on "rims" and gold chains and crack? If the latter, what will the mechanics be for accessing that money, either by the parents or the child?

5.There's no point in even bringing up constitutional issues here. This bitch is so far past any understanding or respect for our highest law I believe there's a good chance she'll get struck by lightening if she ever hits the "Defend the Constitution" bit of Oath Of Office. God forbid that she does.

Life Of Vincent

Last Wednesday, we took one of our pet rats to the vet to have a tumor removed. Rats are much beloved by the medical research community because they get all sorts of strange and unexplainable tumors. Little Abbie got a big one.

Our vet charged us $120 for the tumor removal (which was about the same size she was), antibiotics and pain meds, and a stay at the vet's house overnight. The vet is a GREAT person.

Abbie was doing fine, and we decided to try introducing her back into the same cage as her sister Lilly. They got along well, Lilly didn't try to take Abbie's stitches out, and everything seemed great.

Then, we got complacent. We left the two of them together too long, and at about 3pm on Saturday, Lilly chewed all of Abbie's external stitches open. It was still stitched up internally, but open on the outside.

We immediately separated them, and tried to stop Abbie's leaking. She wasn't bleeding so much as leaking bloody fluid. But she still had a hole the length of her leg in her side, and that's not a good thing. We couldn't get the leaking to stop, so at 11pm, we took her to an all-night vet clinic.

$252 and 5 hours later, we brought her home. She wasn't leaking, but she was drugged to the point where every few minutes we had to run her face to make her blink, and she'd drop her head into her rat litter (pelletized paper shreds that make up the "carpet" in all our rate cages) and get her nose stuffed up and have trouble breathing, which she was too drugged to correct.

At about 8am yesterday I lay down to get some sleep. About 9:30am, my mom woke me up to tell me Abbie was trying to pull her stitches out. From about 9:30am to 3pm, I did nothing except sit on the couch with this rat and try to annoy her enough that she wasn't concentrating on her stitches. From about 9:30am to 3pm, my mom freaked out.

My dad got home sometime around 3pm, and Abbie immediately took a liking to him. (She's never shown any affection to anyone except me and mom). He lined a laundry basket with a towel, put her in there, and watched TV all afternoon. She spent all that time curled up next to his hand, apparently thinking it was her sister. He got her to eat and drink when no one else could...dad saved her life yesterday.

He sat with her until two in the morning, when he got me and had me take over. I slept from maybe 10pm until 2am this morning. I took Abbie downstairs and watched an entire disc of The Black Donnellys. At 5:15am, I got my mom up to take over for me, since that's near to the time she gets up anyway. From 5:45am to about 8:30am, I slept.

This evening I will have gone nearly 76 hours on nearly 8 hours of sleep. One more day like this, and I will have matched my personal insomniatic best. Oh yeah and, in that time, I also wrote two papers and annoyed at least 2 European liberals who want to invade Iran.

I cannot wait for tonight. When school gets out at 6:30pm, I'm going home, opening a Coke, and watching Prison Break, Kville, and CSI:Miami straight through.

By the way, have you ever tried to flirt when you're running on 4 hours of sleep in 48? It sucks, and I'm bad at it to start with

Light Posting

The reason for the light posting is that to use a metaphor, all the bills came due at once. I've working, looking after recovering-from-surgery rat, writing, and staying out of the way of the counter-fitters, carpenters, and other people necessary to facillitate the installation of our new stove.

Fitting with the general theme of this house, nothing is up to code, requiring much MacGyvering of the installation.

I'm hoping to get back to some Tales From Retail and Random Reflections in the near future though

Fall Is Here

It's safe to say that cold temperatures have joined us. In the span of 3 days, the temperature has dropped from mid eighties to mid fifties, and at night the wind is biting. The sky is overcast, and everything looks gray. I don't look forward to this and worse for the next nine months.

The USP is HOME!

Picked up my USP Compact 9mm last night. Great little gun. Fits my hand perfectly, points like my finger, and I love the safety setup on it. It probably won't be replacing my Sig220 as my nightstand gun, but it definitely joined it.

I've carried it concealed since I got up this morning. As long as I'm on my property, I'm not doing anything illegal, and I figure this is great training for when(if) I do get a CCW license. I'm getting used to it being on my hip all the time, getting used to not checking it every five seconds.

I'm not surprised to announce that I don't feel any different. I thought carrying a gun would make you feel different. It doesn't, anymore than my Spyderco did.

Bon Jovi - Walk Like A Man

He said 'sit down son, we gotta talk'
I said 'it’s my life, I’m gonna do what I want
I’m not gonna crawl, I'm gonna walk
Walk right out that door'

He said 'I used to be a lot like you
Theres nothing you’ve done that I didn’t do'
I laughed and said 'Dad I’m bullet proof
We’ve been through this before'

I couldn’t believe it
There was a tear in my old man’s eye
When I was leaving
He tried to say goodbye
He said

Stand tall when you stumble
Stay proud when you’re humbled
The lessons you learn won't be the ones you plan
Every step up that mountain
Will be more than worth counting
But when you walk through the valley
May you Walk Like A Man

I’ve seen a couple of miles on a gravel road
Been taught a couple things that I didn’t know
Now I even got a kid of my own
Starting to sound a lot like me
I learned a little thing called sacrifice
Given up on dreams, lost a couple fights
All anybody wants is a better life
And something to believe

Stand tall when you stumble
Stay proud when you’re humbled
The lessons you learn won't be the ones you plan
Every step up that mountain
Will be more than worth counting
But when you walk through the valley
May you Walk Like A Man

(guitar solo)

I couldn’t believe it
When the tears came to my eyes
It isn’t easy
Standing on the other side

I said 'sit down son, we gotta talk
Hey it’s your life, you’re gonna do what you want
I won't say crawl before you walk
Cause I heard my old man in my mind saying'

Stand tall when you stumble
Stay proud when you’re humbled
The lessons you learn won't be the ones you plan
Every step up that mountain
Will be more than worth counting
But when you walk through the valley
May you Walk Like A Man
And when you go on without me
Walk Like A Man

Walk on

(guitar solo)

-----------------------------------------------------
Fantastic song. In an age where fathers (and men) are denigrated and derided as outmoded, stupid, lustful, and out of touch, and honor is no longer considered to be worthy of a second's thought, it's nice to hear a song about a meaningful father/son relationship that imparts some profound wisdom.

Reminds me of my dad. He told me on a car trip once:"Don't worry about making people happy. What other's think of you doesn't matter. Your mom and I, not so much. Anybody else, not at all. What matters is what you think of yourself."

May we all have the courage to walk like men.

Found Elsewhere On The Internet: The Liberal World-view

There is no right or wrong, just the inability to get along. Therefore you must either agree with me or be accused of causing an argument.

It takes two to make a fight, so stop fighting me.

If you don’t have anything nice to say about me, you must refrain from criticizing anything I choose to do to you.

If anything I do to you makes you angry, it proves you are a hateful person.

If you cannot accept what I do to you, it means you are closed-minded.

If you don’t give me what I want, it proves you are materialistic and selfish.

Great Quotes

"When a man spends his own money to buy something for himself, he is very careful about how much he spends and how he spends it. When a man spends his own money to buy something for someone else, he is still very careful about how much he spends, but somewhat less what he spends it on. When a man spends someone else's money to buy somethingfor himself, he is very careful about what he buys, but doesn't care at all how much he spends. And when a man spends someone else's money on someone else, he doesn't care how much he spends or what he spends it on. And that's government for you." --Economist and Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman

It is an ironclad law of economics that if you want more of something, subsidize it; if you want less of something, tax it. But liberals were shocked and bewildered to discover that when they subsidized illegitimacy, they got more of it. --- Ann Coulter

...And Rudy Does Too!

"Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do and how you do it." - Rudy Giuliani

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Can anyone read this and not be scared? Here is a man, who according to all polls stands an excellent chance of being our next president - saying that war is peace, freedom is slavery, the whole ******* Orwellian doublespeak dictionary.

Note to the world: 1984 WAS NOT an instruction manual.

John Edwards Likes Using Force

This:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070902/ap_on_el_pr/edwards_2

TIPTON, Iowa - Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said on Sunday that his universal health care proposal would require that Americans go to the doctor for preventive care.

Require? As in, threaten someone with death or jail if they don't comply? That kind of require?

"It requires that everybody be covered. It requires that everybody get preventive care," he told a crowd sitting in lawn chairs in front of the Cedar County Courthouse. "If you are going to be in the system, you can't choose not to go to the doctor for 20 years. You have to go in and be checked and make sure that you are OK."

If you can read this paragraph and not want to drag this man into the and kick him, you're not a real American.

He noted, for example, that women would be required to have regular mammograms in an effort to find and treat "the first trace of problem." Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, announced earlier this year that her breast cancer had returned and spread.

Edwards said his mandatory health care plan would cover preventive, chronic and long-term health care. The plan would include mental health care as well as dental and vision coverage for all Americans.

...and what do you think Democrat-endorsed, government-run-and-required psychologists will say when you answer that you own guns and don't really trust or like the government?

"The whole idea is a continuum of care, basically from birth to death," he said.

The former North Carolina senator said all presidential candidates talking about health care "ought to be asked one question: Does your plan cover every single American?"

"Because if it doesn't they should be made to explain what child, what woman, what man in America is not worthy of health care," he said. "Because in my view, everybody is worth health care."

Edwards said his plan would cost up to $120 billion a year, a cost he proposes covering by ending President Bush's tax cuts to people who make more than $200,000 per year.

$120,000,000,000 as an estimate? He's going to pay for this by wiping out the tax cuts that have rejuvinated our economy? What's he going to do when his plan runs double what he "proposes."

Edwards, who has been criticized by some for calling on Americans to be willing to give up their SUVs while driving one, acknowledged Sunday that he owns a Ford Escape hybrid SUV, purchased within the year, and a Chrysler Pacificia, which he said he has had for years.

"I think all of us have to move, have to make progress," he said. "I'm not holyier-than-thou about this. ... I'm like a lot of Americans, I see how serious this issue is and I want to address it myself and I want to help lead the nation in the right direction."

He said he would not buy another SUV in the future.

The Ford Escape, the first hybrid SUV on the market, gets an estimated 36 mpg in the city and 31 mpg on the highway.

Brings to mind this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozambique_Drill

News

In the intervening time, I've:

-Worked a lot.
-Got a 100% on a writing assignment.
-Bought a USP Compact 9mm.
-Done a lot of writing.
-Watched Fred Thompson declare his candidacy. This is the first time I've ever been excited about a presidential candidate. We can only hope he wins.

Living For

I'm sick of living for someone else. It seems like what I want to do always takes a backseat to what is right, what is financially responsible, what is common sense, what is good, what I should do.

I wanted to buy a PTR-91...but instead I'll dump that money into stuff I should buy.
I wanted to take a year between school and college and just work...but I went to college.
I wanted to take this semester off and just work...but I'm going to school.
I wanted to ask a girl out...but I didn't, to preserve our friendship.
I want to ask another girl to go see The Kingdom...but I won't, because it'd be messy whether or not it worked.

I'm sick of always doing the right thing, the good thing, the common sense thing. I can't seem to behave like my brother, and do whatever I want, whenever I want, damn the torpedoes. But somehow, I just can't cut loose of doing the right thing, all the time. I'm sick of my own inability to let go.

I think this next line's from Lost:

"It's ok for some people, Jack. But not for you."

Grrr...It's 11:45 at night, and I'm depressed about all of this. And I know it, and it's influencing what I right. I'll feel differently in the morning. Actually I won't, I just won't admit it.