Weekend Menaces

I'm not sure why it's been coming to everybody's attention this week, but a lot of people who belong in jail have been out menacing the public instead.

Most recently we have this guy in Maine, who the guards just happened to let out of maximum security prison. Understandable mistake, I do it myself all the time.

Yesterday, Rudy Garcia escaped while being transported in Hidalgo County, in deep South Texas, causing a school to be locked down. At about the same time, Michael Jones escaped and was found in South Carolina. A few days ago a guy escaped from a facility in Philadelphia. A couple days before that 21 year old James Fannin escaped in Missouri, but was captured soon afterward.

Violent offender Arcade Comeaux Jr.is still on the loose in the Houston area. That's two in Texas, no wonder we're so ready to execute, they can't escape if they're dead. But hey, at least we have fences around our prisons.

Maurice Clemmons, who belonged in jail for life, was roaming free and crazy, allowing him to murder four Seattle peace officers. Not only did idiot pretend conservative Mike Huckabee pardon him nine years ago, but he was released from jail in Washington just a few days before the murders, despite pending felony charges.

I'm going to load up a few more PMAGs, order a few more Wilson 1911 magazines, and spend some time practicing emptying both of them this weekend. The world is a dangerous place.

Friday Night Music

Since it snowed this week, I feel like listening to Tom Russell singing the Townes Van Zandt classic, "Snowin' on Raton"

Picking your battles..

..does not mean picking a fight with a man who did his best to single handedly take down the Third Reich. And the North Koreans. And the North Vietnamese.

Col. Van T. Barfoot is a recipient of the Medal of Honor. The official citation on his Medal of Honor reads:

Sgt. Barfoot's extraordinary heroism, demonstration of magnificent valor, and aggressive determination in the face of pointblank fire are a perpetual inspiration to his fellow soldiers

The nine member board of his homeowners association sent a law firm to tell him he couldn't fly a flag from his flagpole. They have no rule against flagpoles, they just don't think his looks good.

Col. Barfoot is 90 years old, and so the pocket tyrants thought they had a shot at exerting some influence. My guess is, if the Nazis weren't enough to stop him in his twenties, then a few self important accountants and under stimulated housewives can't get it done now.

Back in the day...

Great Britain would have sailed in, hung some locals, and planted the Union Jack over an insult like this one.

If North Korea had imprisoned some Americans during Teddy By-God Roosevelt's time, he'd have seen it as a good reason for an excursion, and the Rough Riders would have charged up DMZ Hill. In 2009, there was so much indecision that Carbon Credit Boy offered Slick Willy some frequent flier miles and a chance to renew mile high club membership if he would please go over there and have dinner and get his picture taken with a tin pot, vodka soaked tyrant.

I think my stomach is about to be upset.

Who was that masked man?

I didn't even know they had cows in Massachusetts. Apparently yankees don't know that you're always better off when you put some bailing wire around the trailer door latch, just in case. Anyway, I also didn't know that they had cowboys in Massachusetts, but there was one handy when they needed him.

Fighting the Good Fight, One Zombie at a Time

Keep Texas Zombie Free is back. Go give him some encouragement. Both of you.

Yeah, that was a good idea.

I think I'm going to completely rip off somebody else's book idea to make money. I think I'll pick a book that somebody clever and snarky wrote. And I think I'll pick a book that gained much of it's reputation by word of mouth over the internet. Then I'll try to sell my drivel over that very same internet and hope none of those people notice. To make it even more fun, I think I'll plagiarise an author who is familiar with machine guns.
Oh wait, somebody beat me to it.

Weekend Menaces

As I've always suspected, Australia is a dangerous place, and I'm not talking about dingos stealing babies. I'm talking about marsupials. I knew they had pouches, didn't know they were amphibious.

Earlier this week a kangaroo tried to drown a man and his dog.

But the marsupials have menaces of their own, in a man-bites-dog turn on the first story, a few months ago a man saved a kangaroo from sharks.

Last year a snake was filmed trying to swallow a wallaby whole. What's more menacing than something that menaces a menace? Having the menace on the same continent. There's kangaroo roaming New York state.

I don't really know what it takes to stop a rampaging marsupial, but if they get any closer I'm betting a .45-70 will be enough.

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everybody eats well and stays safe.

Narrow Horizons

This man was able to come up with names for 36 different firearms. I'm impressed that he was able to do so, but a little disappointed at the narrow scope of his collection. No 1911, no bolt guns, no lever guns, no revolvers. A strong preference for commie and German stuff. This is a man who probably has the day of the week written on the tag of his underwear.

For the record, I've only named one of mine, and I can't even pronounce it.

Hat tip to Sharp as a Marble

Cool

This new Kel-Tec PMR-30? The 30 shot .22 magnum pistol? The one everybody has been mentioning? Painfully ugly or not, I want one. If it turns out to be reliable and semi-accurate, I want two or three more. Even though it's not a big heavy bullet of the type I usually speak of, I'm a big fan of the .22WMR.

Sunday Headlines

Is any Kennedy Ready For a Senate Seat?

The answer is the same as it's been for five decades. Ready to inflate their own egos and sense of importance? Sure, they're Kennedys. Ready to help the nation? No.

Bishop bars Patrick Kennedy from Communion over abortion

As if he is able to set foot on holy ground.

British hostages say pirates will kill them

Wait, surely this can't be true. Pirates killing somebody? Unheard of.

How screwed up can people be?

There have been a lot of stories in the news lately that upset me. People doing horrible things to children. People allowing horrible things to happen to their own children. People who just plain need to be taken out back and shot, even though it is too good for them, just because it's the fastest way to stop them from breathing the same air as good people. Even kids so screwed up that they deserve to meet the same fate as adults for the things they've done.

What the hell is wrong with people? How can anybody hurt a helpless child that way? How come nobody stopped it? Some of these crimes could not have happened without somebody ignoring what was going on. How are those guilty bystanders able to live with themselves?

This stuff makes me sick to my stomach. I have a young niece. I have friends with kids. I have young cousins. I would shoot somebody, run them over with my truck, pull them to pieces with my bare hands, whatever it took, to keep a kid safe from such evil. I'm not the only one who feels this way. I'm guessing there are many others out there who agree. So how does this happen? What kind of defect to these people have, and why was there nobody willing to protect those poor kids?

Seriously

As part of my ongoing quest to identify menaces, I found out that Peruvian gangs kidnap and murder people for their fat. No fooling. Apparently it's been sort of a boogie man myth for centuries, but now with a basis in fact.

There's a lot to learn from this, not the least of which is to stay the hell away from third world jungles. Mostly though, keep a means to defend yourself handy, practice with it, and be prepared to use it. Because you do not want your bodily remains going into a lotion bottle.

Weekend Menaces

Joe Namath's dogs have now been officially declared menaces, by law.

Pirates are still in the news, still needing to be shot. I wonder how much being a pirate gaurd pays?

Friday Night Music

How about if this week I let Ray Wyle Hubbard tell it like it is? Here he is with "Screw You, We're From Texas"

Good Week

First, young Davey Crocket shot the bear in Idaho. Now the security team of the Maersk Alabama has repelled an attack by Somali pirates. If the ship sounds familiar, it's because the same ship was taken seven months ago. It seems the ship's owners have learned a few things since then. Who'd have ever thought guns might help with that? Not this guy:

However, Roger Middleton, a piracy expert at the London-based think tank Chatham House, said the international maritime community was still "solidly against" armed guards aboard vessels at sea, but that American ships have taken a different line than the rest of the international community.

"Shipping companies are still pretty much overwhelmingly opposed to the idea of armed guards," Middleton said. "Lots of private security companies employee people who don't have maritime experience. Also, there's the idea that it's the responsibility of states and navies to provide security. I would think it's a step backward if we start privatizing security of the shipping trade."

Basically, guns are bad, only the government should protect us. I know this guy isn't my countryman, and there is a reason for that. Still, his statement ticks me off on more than one level. Why the hell am I or any other American supposed to care what the hell the international community thinks about anything? I don't care what they think about guns. I've got a whole mess of 'em, with more on the way. I don't care what they think about global warming. Next time we have a real cold morning, I'm going to go out and start both of my three quarter ton diesel pick-ups and let them both warm up, just in case I decide to drive the other one that day. I may take a long shower while they warm up, because this is still a free country and I can do whatever the hell I can afford. I don't really give a flip what they think about anything, right up until they decide to impose what they think upon me. Then we're back to that first issue.

Expecting the states and navies to provide security? I'm real proud of the job our Navy did retaking the Alabama the first time around. The training that those sharpshooters went through was one rare instance of my tax dollars being spent on something I approve. But it's a big damn ocean out there, and there are only so many destroyers to go around. Fighting pirates on the high seas is like trying to hold the wind up with a sail. Stephen By-God Decatur demonstrated how to shut pirates down a couple hundred years ago. You've got to root them out like a wisteria vine, or else the vines just keep growing wherever you're not. The navy's hands are tied until one of those states that Middleton is so proud of decides to let them take care of things. Self defense is a fundamental human right. It can not wait on the convenience of a government. If the international maritime community doesn't believe that then that's just too bad.