Hate it.

I hate painting.  I hate every moment of it.  I hate prepping.  I hate edging. I hate rolling.  I particularly hate having to put on two coats.

And because the family is spending Christmas here this year I decided to finally, finally, paint the one room left in the house that was still the original off white bland that the rest of the house was when I bought it.  So my weekend was spent remembering why that bathroom wasn't done yet.

Yep.  I hate painting.

And what about that whole freedom of speech thing?

The blood-boiler of a headline is "Criticism of Islam Could Soon be a Crime in America".  Ms Clinton is to get a visit from the head of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) this month.  On the agenda - how the US can implement the OIC agenda to criminalize criticism of Islam.  This would be the same OIC that adopted the Cairo Declaration +20 years ago, said Cairo Declaration exempting Muslim countries from compliance with the UN Universal Declaration on Human Rights.  Not surprising - rights aren't a big concern in the dream of an Islamic Caliphate ruled under shariah law.

As Salmon Rushdie found out, "slander" is a big deal in shariah.  And since the OIC views anything a Muslim doesn't like to hear as slander and therefore as Islamophobia, it wants the U.N. to "...adopt an international resolution to counter Islamophobia" and to "call upon all States to enact laws to counter it, including deterrent punishments."

Let's see now:  on Nov. 5, 2009, one Major Hasan, who had been in regular contact with terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki, yelled "ALLAHU AKHBAR" as he slaughtered 13 and wounded 32 at Ft. Hood, TX.  The administration has classified that event as "workplace violence".  Think the head of the OIC will have a warm welcome when he knocks on Hillary's door?

Victim of "work place violence" at Ft. Hood

The article aptly closes:

A phobia is an irrational fear. It is not irrational to give warning of an ideology resolutely committed to eradication of free belief, expression, speech, and even thought. It is suicidal for a free society willingly to collaborate with those, like the Muslim Brotherhood and the OIC, which are determined to destroy Western civilization from within—and have told us so, repeatedly, consistently, and publicly. Further, collaboration in such an anti-freedom campaign represents abrogation of the professional oath of office of every federal official who has sworn to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” Silencing those who would warn of impending catastrophe only ensures victory to the enemy and loss of our most rare and precious inheritance: the American love of liberty.

I'm sorry, but if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then I'm going to call it a duck, no matter what some p.c. nimnul declares.

The full article can be read here.

Heeeere's your sign....

The headline - "Thieves Pawned Camera  with their Photos".  Story is here.

I remain firm in my belief that there should be added penalties for stupid.  In other words, when these pics are identified, the perps should get a penalty for robbery, and then a penalty for being stupid enough to take pictures of themselves with a stolen camera and then pawning it without erasing the memory.  That's worth at least an extra 30 days.

Brrrrrrr in the Middle East

As Vacationer in Chief gets ready to go off on another vacay - Rome burns while Nero fiddles comes to mind - the Arab Spring that we knew wouldn't be has gotten rather chilly.

 

 

New Addict

In honor of kx59's discovery of Firefly, but from a female perspective of appreciation of the show's many merits:

We Occupied

I'm slow, I know...

Saturday's blog shoot was a hoot, enjoyed myself thoroughly.  Many thanks to Murphy's Law for arranging it, for manufacturing ammo for my Arisaka and getting the spring it needed to make it a five shot again.  Bet that old gun's going BANG for the first time in +60 years would have made Dad happy.  And thanks to everyone for letting me test out various guns and shoot up your ammo. 

It was great meeting folks that have only existed electronically up until now - hope we can do it again and get even more folks together.  Peacemaker is a great range, with the added plus of glorious views of the mountains.  And we could not have ordered better weather.

Despite the number of guns I handled (and how tired my hands and arms got doing it), Saturday actually allowed me to narrow things down a bit.  I always practice with the S&W Airlite because that's the one I've got right now and I need to be used to it.  I always take my Browning 1922 because it's fun to shoot, though I need more magazines because I spend more time reloading the one I have than I do shooting. But the baby Kahr and Glock that Old NFO brought, and the middle size Glock that ML brought suited me particularly well.  And an M-1 carbine is so at the top of my rifle want list. 

I think I finally understand what "in the pocket" feels like - no bruises this time.  But my little arms and hands were tired by the end of the shoot.  And somehow I started the day with the total delusion that I was going to spend a whole day outside in crisp, cool air shooting, eat, then come home and work on the house.  Yeah.  No.  I came home and crawled in the shower, put my p.j.s on, and fired up Netflix.  Started a documentary about the history of the Greeks and realized that I had no ability to absorb it so switched over to an old George Burns movie. 

So Occupy Peacemaker (or Occupy Right to Keep and Bear Arms, as the sign said) was a success in my book - a lot of fun, some learning, and money going off to a good cause.  See everybody at the next one!

When in doubt, punt. Gun, that is.

So Kead's question as to what I was interested in trying got me to thinking about my leg-stretch stop at Gander Mountain just north of Richmond on my way home Sunday afternoon.  I wandered around a while and of course I had to go back and see what they have that goes "Bang!"  The first two guns I saw sure got my attention, but a gentleman was standing right there being an actual customer, so I didn't get to read their labels. They were the honkin'est biggest revolvers I've ever seen.  So big that I thought "I'd probably never be able to fire them but they'd make a heck of a club."  I swear the barrels looked 2 ft long.  Then yesterday I mused on the fact that there are calibers that would probably knock me on my butt, and wandering around Youtube turned up this:

Explaining that my shoulder is bruised because of a shotgun - not embarrassing.  That my nose is bruised because of a pistol - yeah that would be embarrassing.

Then my mind took a trip on the way-back machine.  Thirty-five or so years ago I read James Michner's Chesapeake.  Loved it, but I never knew what the heck a punt gun was until I went to the museum in St. Michael's, MD. Ah.  A punt gun is a cannon disguised as a shotgun:

I'm thinking that's probably too big for me even tied down on a boat.