Friday Night Music

For some reason, I can't ever find decent videos of whatever my current Aaron Watson song may be. So I'll go with one of my first favorite Aaron Watson songs instead. Here he is, with "Reckless"

There's a lesson here, someplace

Out in Arizona, one group of jackasses has legally taken up arms to deter the crimes of various foreign jackasses. This marks the first instance of Mexican nationals crossing into our county to see the donkey show.

The Constitution supports the right of American citizens to bare arms. It also supports their right to think whatever jackassery they want to believe. And, it supports the rights of the media to fasten upon whatever negative aspects they can find on the side they don't like, and paint everybody with the same brush.

And of course, they'll take any opportunity they can find to misinterpret gun laws.

The patrols have been occurring on public land, and militia members have no real restrictions on their weaponry because of Arizona's loose gun laws.

This amounts to the same thing as all the registered guns you hear about on cop shows. Verbal chicanery to make people believe in nonexistent laws. Arizona does have favorable carry laws, but there's nothing legal there that isn't legal in any other free state. Just because D.C., wait, I mean Chicago, err, places that have enacted unconstitutional laws don't allow things doesn't make Arizona's laws "loose". Unless you're comparing them to the gun laws in, say, Nazi Germany or China.

New Shooty Goodness

I bought a barely used Colt Gold Cup today. Unfortunately, I have to go out of town early tomorrow morning for work and won't have a chance to shoot it until my return. Range report and pictures to follow.

Friday Night Music

This week, how about Brad Hines singing "Please Don't Push Me Down Again"?

MHV

Larry Correia is a literary genius. His breakout debut novel, Monster Hunter International was made of cool. His follow up, Monster Hunter Vendetta , doesn't let up on the cool, ratchets up the action, and manages to add even more heart.

Since it isn't out in stores yet, just as an e-arc, I don't want to give anything away, but I liked it. A lot.

Friday Night Music

The greatst song ever written, in the history of the world, about cock fighting. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Joe Ely singing Tom Russel's "Gallo del Ciello"

Week in Rearview

Hurricane Alex dropped some pretty heavy rains on my part of the world, and a lot of mud resulted. We had a Link-Belt 8670 parked on a job site that that was turned into soup. We left it to dry, but last night more storms were coming, so we had to get it to solid ground before things got worse. Even though this wasn't taken in a mirror, and even though I was in my brother's truck, this counts as a week in rearview post.


These are the ruts. It sunk to the outrigger beams, which it turns out do a pretty good job of scraping mud flat.

Eh

I recently read my dad's latest copy of American Rifleman and saw an article on some new offerings from Taurus.

First off, I have to admit that I think the circuit judge is kind of neat. Couldn't tell you why though. I think the super long cylinder looks out of proportion on a revolver, but not so bad on a long gun. If it was in 20 or 12 gauge I'd be all over it, and am still curious anyway, despite having absolutely no need for a .410. Not because I think it is in any way better than a pump, but because of a Louis Lamour book I read a long time ago where the hero had an old Colt's revolving shotgun. SO anyway, I think Taurus probably has a product here that will continue the succes they are having with the judge line.

Next, also on the non-negative side of things, the ranch hand is a mare's leg. Which I want to have one of these days, even though it combines the drawbacks of both a rifle and a handgun. It's cool. As I asked before, who has ever been cooler than Steve McQueen?

That's the end of the good. Taurus/Rossi, sensing the demand of an untapped market, has decided to bring us...a Marlin 336 and a NEF Handi-rifle. Seriously. A Winchester 94 might make sense. Winchester stopped making them. But a Marlin? They're still in the business of making those new. Pawn shop gun racks are full of them. It's not hard to find the genuine article. I'll admit, there are improvements that can be made to the basic marlin product, but does anybody really think Taurus/Rossi/Brastec/WhoCares is really going to do it? Assuming they aren't, I don't get this at all. And a handi-rifle? I bought mine for something like a hundred and thirty bucks and am pretty happy with the bang for the buck there. Is there really so much demand that the folks at NEF can't meet it? Isn't NEF owned by Marlin these days? Does this make sense to anybody?

How's a Marine General supposed to talk?

Marines are supposed to be ready to fight.

"Actually, it's a lot of fun to fight. You know, it's a hell of a hoot. ... It's fun to shoot some people."

Marines are supposed to protect the weak.

He directed that sentiment toward "guys" in Afghanistan "who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil."

"You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them,"

Like Clint Smith said on 60 minutes, "Some people need shooting." As much as it may suprise people in Chicago and New York, a man who has been succesful in the Marine Corp, and succesful in the business of war, is probably going to agree to that sentiment. If he didn't, he'd have become an accountant. And I've never heard of anybody commenting that the accountants have landed. When you need to figure your taxes, that's when you need an accountant. When you need to fix a leeky pipe, you need a plumber. When you need to win a war, that's when you need a warrior.

And for the record, Marine Generals are supposed to talk like Chesty Puller.

"We're surrounded. That simplifies the problem."