Expiration Date

"In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of Government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other."   Benjamin Franklin to the Federal Convention, Sept. 17, 1787

h/t Mark Levin

Welcome to More Taxes

In addition to stealing about $500 billion from Medicare, which is already staggering as it is, here is a brief breakdown of what Obamacare was predicted to cost in 2010 and what it now predicted to cost.  Costs will, of course, keep spiraling upward.

Add to that little tidbits like an excise tax on medical equipment (including walkers, pacemakers, wheelchairs, etc.) and I still am a bit puzzled as to how this makes good healthcare affordable. The best comment I've seen on the stupidity of the economics of this was posted by Moogie yesterday:

Oh, by the way...

What got declared Constitutional today, in addition to the other immoralities in it, also includes eventually gathering all of our medical records into a central database.  Currently, the patient is considered the owner of their medical records, the doctor the custodian.   Let me see, who would I rather own my records, me or a bloated, inefficient bureaucracy?  Decisions, decisions.

Today's Decision

In the end, what the Supreme Court says today will tell us not about justice or right but only about how hard we are going to have to fight going forward on this particular issue.  If the Court were infallible then Plessy v Ferguson and Dred Scott would never have happened.

Much is wrong in our culture and our government.  Obamacare is just one facet of it.  There is a much, much bigger battle that needs to be waged to take back the rights that have been eroded and to destroy the nanny state mentality that is leading us down the path to becoming Europe. 

Blankness

Except to say that the birds at the feeder are pretty...

Getting Loaded

No, not this kind of loaded:

This kind:

I have some suggestions for Lee, the primary one being to give more detail in the setup instructions.  Not all parts are visible in the little photos and as a consequence it's not always clear what to do with them until after stumbling about for a bit.  Also, it would be nice if these were mentioned/shown somewhere:

They came in the little baggie.  I have no idea what to do with them...

Entertainment value:  Well, the press has a nice little catch basin and tube for the primers as they are knocked out.  The problem is that there is a much bigger groove on the opposite side that encourages the primers to pop out on that side instead.  I think 5 out of 100 actually went where they were supposed to.

Annoyance value:  The nice wood knob handle for the end of the press lever lasted about 5 cartridges.  After that it got tossed onto the table because I was tired of it coming off in my hand.

I've got 50 .30 carbine and 50 9mm cartridges de-primed and ready for the next step.  I went through and measured each one quickly and found that while the 9 mm shells are within the tolerances given in the Lyman book, the .30 carbine shells are too long:

And what they've given me to deal with it seems to be this:

Which they show being used by hand to grind down the casings to tolerance.  Um, maybe someone with much stronger hands than me.  I just managed to ding it a little.    I may be ordering .30 carbine until ML gets a little free time and can come over and demonstrate for me.

Next adventure this weekend is the rest of the steps with the 9 mm, since they are sized correctly.  There's the whole figuring out and measuring gunpowder thing yet to come. 

No No No!

This is NOT a baby, it's a fetus, and therefore not human. 

So doctors absolutely did not operate to remove a tumor from the mouth of Lyna Gonzales at 17 weeks gestation.  The child Lyna Gonzales did not exist until the moment of her birth - up until then she was just a choice.  They removed a tumor from an animal who could equally have been cut into pieces and sucked into a garbage bucket.

Lucky Planned Parenthood didn't get hold of the case - Lyna is the wrong sex.

Full story here.

He Has Definitely Evolved

h/t Townhall.com

Another Senator In La-La Land

Missouri Senator McCaskill says that the Senate has passed a budget.  She says it with a lot of detail.

Well, you passed the Budget Control Act, but the Senate hasn't passed a budget since April 29, 2009.  Pelosi makes nonsense excuses for not passing a budget when the Democrats controlled both houses:  "Republicans would have  filibustered it", knowing full well that a budget resolution can't be filibustered.  And Harry Reid says they won't bring one forward this year.  So.... you lying or you ignorant?

Executive privilege...

...my rear end.

h/t Evaluation

Taxing

Since the evil George Bush's tax cuts for the rich are set to expire, The Heritage Foundation has kindly listed the details of exactly what will expire (and transpire). I've bolded and italiced the specific Bush tax cuts so everybody can see how they are for the rich and just left the others in standard font - there are a lot of other tax cuts and credits due to disappear at the same time.

39.6 percent rate is cut to 35 percent; 36 percent to 33 percent; 31 percent to 28 percent;   28 percent to 25 percent; 10 percent bracket created.

Capital gains rate is cut from 20 percent to 15 percent; dividends from 39.6 percent to 15 percent.

Personal exemption phase-out and limitation of itemized deductions

Child tax credit increased from $500/child to $1,000.

Brackets doubled for all married filers; standard deduction doubled for married filers.

Increase in joint returns beginning and ending income level for phase-out by $5,000 indexed after 2008.

Coverdell Education Savings Accounts, annual contribution limit expanded to $2,000 and other expansions.

Employer-provided educational assistance, which extends the exclusion for undergraduate courses and graduate level courses.

Student loan interest deduction:  the 60-month rule eliminated as well as the disallowance for voluntary payments; increased phase-out ranges to $50,000-$65,000 single/$100,000–$130,000 joint.

Taxation of scholarships - this eliminates the tax on awards under the National Health Service Corps Scholarship program and F. Edward Hebert Armed Forces Health Professions Scholarship and Financial Assistance Program.

Tax treatment of bonds for school construction - increased arbitrage rebate exception for governmental bonds used to finance qualified school construction from $10 million to $15 million; issuance of tax-exempt private activity bonds for qualified education facilities with annual state volume caps, the greater of $10 per resident or $5 million.

Dependent care tax credit - increased the credit rate to 35 percent, increased the eligible expenses to $3,000 for one child and $6,000 for two or more children and increased the start of the phase-out to $15,000 of adjusted gross income (AGI).

Adoption credit - increased the expense limit and the exclusion to $10,000 for both non-special needs and special needs adoptions, made the credit independent of expenses for special needs adoptions, extended the credit and the exclusion, increased the phase-out start point to $150,000, and allow the credit to apply to the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT).

Employer-provided child care credit - 25 percent for child care expenditures and 10 percent for child care resource.

Alaska Native Settlement Trusts  - allowed electing Alaska Native Settlement Trusts to tax income to the trust, not the beneficiaries.

Payroll Tax - employees’ portion of Social Security payroll tax was reduced from 6.2 percent to 4.2 percent.

Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) - patch raised income threshold over which taxpayers are subject to AMT so it did not impact middle-income taxpayers.

American Opportunity Credit - a refundable tax credit for higher education expenses

Expanded Child Tax Credit -  reduced the earnings threshold for the refundable portion of the child tax credit to $3,000.

Expanded EITC - inncreased the credit’s percentage and increase in joint returns beginning and ending income level for phase-out by $5,000 indexed after 2008.

Incentives for biodiesel and renewable diesel - income tax credits given for producing biodiesel mixture, biodiesel, and agri-biodiesel.

Credit for refined coal facilities, which gave a $6.27/ton income tax credit for the production of refined coal.

Credit for construction of energy-efficient new homes - gave up to $2,000 credit for contractors constructing energy-efficient new homes.

Incentives for alternative fuel and alternative fuel mixtures - gave $0.50/gallon for selling alternative fuels and $0.50/gallon for producing an alternative fuel mixture.

Suspension of limitation on percentage depletion for oil and gas marginal wells - allows owners of wells to deduct more than 100 percent of their net income from a marginal well for depletion.

Grants for specified energy property in lieu of tax credits - taxpayers could elect to receive a grant instead of a credit for property put in place to produce renewable electricity.

Provisions related to alcohol used as fuel - income and excise tax credits for the production and purchase of ethanol.

Credit for energy-efficient appliances - income tax credit for producers of energy-efficient dishwashers ($45–$75/unit), clothes washers ($75–$250/unit), and refrigerators ($50–$200/unit).

Credit for improving the energy efficiency of a home 30 percent credit for the purchase of energy-efficiency improvements to a home’s envelope, including insulation, exterior windows, and roofing materials.

Alternative fuel vehicle refueling property - a 30 percent income tax credit for the cost of installing clean-fuel vehicle refueling property to be used in a business or at a home.

$250 deduction for teacher classroom expenses, which allowed educators can deduct up to $250 for books, supplies, computer equipment and other materials used in the classroom.

Deduction for state and local sales taxes - taxpayers could choose to deduct their state and local sales taxes instead of their state income taxes—mostly used by taxpayers living in states without an income tax.

Contribution of capital gain real property made for conservation purposes - removed the limitation on deductions for income, estate, and gift taxes for charitable contributions of appreciated property for the purpose of conservation.

Deduction for qualified tuition and related expenses - deduction for higher education tuition and expenses.

Tax-free distributions from IRAs to charities - withdrawals from traditional IRAs are usually taxable because the taxpayer did not pay tax on the income before contributing it to the IRA. This provision allowed taxpayers to deduct charitable donations made with funds from their IRAs the same had they made the donation before putting their income in an IRA.

Look-thru for certain regulated investment company stock in determining gross estate for nonresidents -
allowed estates of nonresidents who pass away to remove from their estates the portion of assets held outside the U.S. within regulated investment corporations.

Parity for exclusion from income for employer provided mass transit and parking benefits -employers could provide up to $120/month to employees tax free for mass transit and bicycling costs and $230/
month for parking. As part of the stimulus, the exclusion from income for mass transit was raised to equal the parking exclusion ($230/month).

Refunds disregarded in the administration of federal programs and federally assisted programs - refundable tax credits were not considered in a person’s income when applying for welfare programs.
 
Research and experimentation credit - a 20 percent credit for research expenses.

Indian employment tax credit - a credit for employers that hire an enrolled member of an Indian tribe or the spouse of an enrolled member of an Indian tribe.

New markets tax credit - a credit for equity investment in a corporation whose mission is providing investment capital for low-income communities.

Railroad track maintenance credit 50 percent credit for railroad track maintenance costs.
Mine rescue team training credit - a credit for amount paid to mine rescue team employees.

Employer wage credit for activated military reservists -a credit of 20 percent for employers of the amount above their employees’ military earnings they pay them while they are on active duty.

15-year straight-line cost recovery for qualified leasehold, restaurant, and retail improvements and new restaurants - allows businesses to deduct from income investment in restaurant and retail properties over 15 years rather than the 39 years under standard depreciation rules.

Seven-year recovery period for certain motorsports racing track facilities -allows motorsports entertainment complexes to deduct from income investment in property over seven years rather than the 39 years under standard depreciation rules.

Accelerated depreciation for business property on an Indian reservation - allows businesses on Indian reservations to deduct from income investments in property (not related to gaming) faster than under standard depreciation schedules.

Enhanced charitable deduction for contributions of food inventory - extends to all businesses that donate food from inventory to charitable organizations a deduction greater than the business’s cost for the items donated.

Enhanced charitable deduction for contributions of book inventories to public schools - extends charitable deduction of books from inventory to include public schools.

Enhanced charitable deduction for corporate contributions of computer inventory for educational purposes - allows businesses that donate computers to charitable organizations a deduction greater than their cost for the computer items donated.

Election to expense mine safety equipment - allows businesses to immediately expense 50 percent of the cost of mine safety equipment.

Special expensing rules for certain film and television productions - allows taxpayers to deduct the cost of film and television production immediately rather than over a number of years.

Expensing of environmental remediation costs - provides immediate expensing for environmental remediation expenditures.

Deduction allowable with respect to income attributable to domestic production activities in Puerto Rico -
extends the domestic manufacturing production credit to income earned from sales in Puerto Rico.

Modify tax treatment of certain payments to controlling exempt organizations - pertains to the tax treatment of non-taxable businesses. Income unrelated to an exempt organization’s mission is generally taxable. Interest, rents, royalties, and annuities are usually excluded, however, unless they are paid by a
controlled subsidiary (taxable or non-taxable). This provision alters that to make such payments taxable only to the extent the payment exceeds what the payment would have been had it been between two unrelated businesses.

Treatment of certain dividends of regulated investment companies - foreigners holding investments in the U.S. through regulated investment companies (RIC) are exempt from tax on dividends earned through the RIC from interest and short-term capital gains.

Extend the treatment of RICs as “qualified investment entities” - provision insures that foreigners holding investments in the U.S. through RICs are exempt from tax on real property interests held in RICs.

Exception under subpart F for active financing income - exempts from current tax active foreign-source income earned from banking, financing, insurance, or other similar business that would otherwise qualify for immediate tax under subpart F income rules.

Look-thru treatment for payments between related controlled foreign corporations under foreign personal holding company rules - exempts from current tax dividends, interest, rents, and royalties received by one controlled foreign corporationfrom another controlled foreign corporation.

Basis adjustment to stock of S corporations making charitable contributions of property - allows shareholders of S corporations to reduce their share value by the adjusted basis of property donated to a
charity rather than the property’s fair market value.

Empowerment zone tax incentives - employment tax credit, accelerated depreciation, tax-exempt bond financing, and deferral or exclusion of capital gains tax for businesses that operate in federally designated empowerment zones.

Tax incentives for investment in the District of Columbia - employment tax credit, accelerated depreciation, tax-exempt bond financing, and deferral or exclusion of capital gains tax for businesses that operate in federally designated areas of the District of Columbia.

So this is what will disappear from U.S. wallets, in MILLIONS:

Bush tax cuts $165,750
Payroll tax cut $124,636
Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) patch $118,750
Tax cuts from 2009 stimulus $20,876
Tax extenders $20,465
Death tax at 35 percent with $5 million exemption $13,000
100 percent expensing for business investment $7,695

In addition, these tax policies will begin on January 1, 2012:

Tax hikes in Obamacare $22,750

Total = $494,000.  Remember, that's in MILLIONS.

That means a whopping increase in taxes, shown by average here:

Lots more detail out at Heritage Foundation's web site, including breakdowns within states.

I have a dream...

Oath

US Constitution, Article II, Section 1
 
Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath or affirmation: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

The reality of Barack Obama, who took that oath:

"Bugger the laws of this country."

Words From History

Otherwise Engaged...

So suddenly I have an unexpected project that I need to finish by Saturday night.  The best I may be able to do for a few days will snarky cartoons.

h/t townhall.com

Lots of ideas...

...and no time to research or write right now.  So in honor of the recent outbreak of zombie attacks I'll just leave you with this.

h/t to Whole Reason

For want of a shoe...

Old NFO, Murphy's Law, and Broken Andy have done a great job of describing Gun Show Sunday.  All those tables of shooty goodness, but I really needed to not buy another gun right now.  So I looked and drooled, but held myself to reloading stuff, as well as oddbits like a rifle case and a better range bag.

I was home by 3ish, and it was hotter'n hades, so I thought it would be a good afternoon to put the pieces of the reloading kit together and get to work on some of the brass I've dragged home.  The basic kit comes with all sorts of pieces, some of which don't seem to appear in the not-very-detailed instructions.

But what the kit doesn't come with with would be the three bolts needed to fasten it to the bench. And in all the screws and bolts I've accumulated in the garage, not a single one was of the needed size.  Well, fudge.  It's Sunday.  It's hot.  I don't feel like running to the Home Depot.  Book, deck, and beer appeals much more.

Today was range day.  I am not allowed to carry credit hours at work beyond a pay period but I can pick up enough to give me time for a good range session followed by lunch each week.  Murphy's Law insisted on driving for some reason, and we got there by 10ish.  Of course I forgot my camera - I would have liked a pic of the Enfield in action.  It's a handsome rifle with lovely dark wood.  All else was good - I seemed to have the pistols nailed today, have finally started to get the hang of the speed loaders, and shooting steel is definitely more fun than shooting paper.  Confirmed that the M-1 is shooting high and I need to aim slightly below the target - since aiming at the lower edge of the target means I can actually SEE the target I'm OK with that.

Burgers and beer at the Tap House afterwards.  Then back to work - the only down side to the day.

Oh, and I ran out this evening and got the bolts.  Hopefully I'll get everything set up tomorrow.

Gack!

To all those who have responded to my blog posts - thank you for putting up with the word verification that I didn't know was on.  Gack gack gack!  It should be off now.  If not, let me know.

Marriage, Society, and Religious Freedom

Marriage is based on the fullness of the human person, of which sexuality is an irreducible part.  Each person’s identity is inseparable from the reality of their body; each of us is a body-person.  That is a deeply personal reality and it means that loving as a human person means loving as a man or a woman.  The body and gender are not inconsequential, nor are they just tools to use towards pleasure. They are essential aspects of being human and of loving as a human person. 

The full physical communion that is marriage is also not just about legal sex, or the right to put someone’s name on a benefits package.  It is about a full and complete self-giving that looks to the generation that comes from that total self-giving.  It is about creating a stable environment for the children that will continue the human race – an environment where they learn what it means to be fully human. 

This is why states define marriage – marriage is intrinsically tied to the common good, and has a great social value.  Marriage is a public as well as a personal relationship.   A lifelong, faithful, and fruitful union between a husband and wife serves the good of the spouses, the good of the children who come from their union, and the good of society by ensuring that reproduction happens in a socially responsible way.   It is a microcosm of the ideal of the greater society when the family, in its loving interdependence, rejects selfish individualism, and seeks the common good. That the ideal is often not reached cannot be argued.  But neither can it be argued that society should not strive for the ideal.

Changing the legal definition of marriage causes thousands of changes.  The term “marriage” exists in family law, employment law, trusts and estates, healthcare law, tax law, property law, and many others.  These laws affect religious institutions: churches, religiously-affiliated schools, hospitals, and families.  Because of that, the re-defining of marriage by the State results in enormous conflict between the law and religious institutions and families, with the State apply sanctions for refusal to comply. Some of the areas affected:

1)       Compelled association – the government forces religious institutions to retain as leaders, employees, or members those who are in legalized same-sex “marriages”, or obligates wedding related businesses to provide services to those same-sex couples.

2)      Compelled provision of special services – the government forces religious institutions to extend the same benefits to same sex “married” couples as to heterosexual married couples.

3)      Punishment for speech – preaching, political action, or conversation reflecting moral opposition becomes actionable harassment, discrimination, or hate speech.

4)      Exclusion from accreditation and licensure – those who adhere to the traditional definition of marriage are excluded from participation in highly regulated professions as licenses are revoked and accreditation is lost.

5)      Exclusion from government funding, religious accommodations, and other benefits – those that adhere to the traditional definition of marriage are excluded from government grants and contracts to provide social services.

These threats have already started to come to pass:  the extension of married student housing to same-sex “married” couples (a Catholic college in MA); the extension of spousal employment benefits to same-sex “domestic partners” (Catholic Charities in Portland, ME); the loss of funding and licenses to provide adoptions for refusal to place with same-sex couples (Catholic Charities in Massachusetts and DC); the imposition of tax penalties for preaching about marriage amendments (Montana); the loss of state tax exempt status for a religiously-affiliated camp (New Jersey); the conviction for discrimination of professional photographers who refused, on religious grounds, to photograph a "commitment ceremony"(New Mexico). 

Canada legalized homosexual marriage in 2005, and there have now been more than legal 200 cases against opponents of same-sex marriage.  Calgary Bishop Fred Henry, for instance, was charged with human rights violations for sending a letter to the churches in his charge that simply restated the Church’s position on traditional marriage.  There are bills being put forth that would make it illegal for teachers in private, religious schools to criticize homosexual marriage.

Changing the definition of marriage has huge ramifications for society, not the least the ramifications to religious liberty in the United States.

I have freely drawn from and tried to condense from the much better written document "Frequently Asked Questions About the Defense of Marriage", published at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishop's website   and from Jeffery Kuhner's Thursday commentary "State Sanctioned Anti-Christianity" from yesterday's Washington Times.

Question

The Rev. Keith Ratcliff, head of the Iowa NAACP, has quit the organization because of the NAACP's support for gay marriage.  I suspect this is going on more than reported.  And I'm sure that the bigotry accusations have already started.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20120607/NEWS/306070077/Gay-marriage-foe-leaves-Iowa-civil-rights-group

Rev. Ratcliff understands a core issue - authority for the definition of right and wrong either comes from something greater than ourselves, or, if that something does not exist or is not considered relevant, it comes from individuals.  That so many think it comes from themselves is part of the "Everybody has their own truth" argument, which, although containing a huge logical fallacy, is very popular now.

In the case of gay marriage, the definition of marriage long held by most of Western culture has been that it is one man, one woman.  That is now being set aside for a new definition:  one man, one woman; one man, one man; one woman, one woman.  Okay, old definition set aside for a new one.

So when do we set aside the new definition in favor of legalization of polygamy, of one man, two women, or vice versa?  If it is discrimination to deny marriage to any couple who says that they are in love, how can it be possible to deny multiples who say they are in love?

Finally!

A well dressed Wal-Mart shopper:

h/t to Charlie G.

R.I.P.

Ray Bradbury: August 22, 1920 — June 6, 2012

You sent my heart and mind soaring.  May you spend eternity sitting on the front porch of the boyhood home you wrote so eloquently of , looking up at the night sky with wonder, a glass of dandelion wine in your hand.

Get out the duct tape!

Or maybe not.  The convoluted nonsense that passes as thought amongst pro-aborts doesn't really surprise anymore, so it's not really as necessary as it once was to have to apply emergency duct tape to prevent one's head from exploding. 

We established some time ago that whether or not a child is wanted is what determines whether what a woman is carrying in her womb is or is not human.  Warm fuzzy feeling = human.  Not warm fuzzy = not human.  Recently, it was made clear that the sex of the child carried is one of the sub-criteria that determines  humanity.  Such things would be laughable if the end result of this wasn't so disastrous for the child being chopped to pieces and sucked into the garbage.  After all, as a juror I would have to determine guilt beyond a shadow of a doubt in order to convict. No pro-abort can prove that what is being aborted is not a human being - and the conviction of not human carries the death penalty.   But it's real scary to not be a part of the "I'm scared to step out 'cause choice sounds so good" crowd, so many will still go galloping after deadly absurdity.  You don't need real facts in order to hold a position - just ask Al Gore.

But sometimes the mental twistedness of "choice" reaches new heights, as it did in Spain recently.   Try to kill a child, manage to NOT chop it into pieces and suck it out, child gets born, and now the abortionist gets socked with a lawsuit.   Poor guy.  He thought he killed the damned thing.  And there it is, somehow having morphed into a human being - the one who lived, er, got away.  And I assume that their socialized medicine will also pay for the mental health care the accidentally-alive child will need when they get old enough to find all this out.

The consequences of socialist medicine are rearing their ugly head in Spain. Spain recently fully legalized abortion in 2010 under a socialist government. Shortly thereafter, a Spanish woman, 7 weeks pregnant, decided to have a “vacuum aspiration” abortion, a surgical procedure where the baby is literally sucked up out of the womb into a jar. The procedure went well according to the surgeon, who even had the patient come back for a follow-up ultra-sound two weeks later and confirmed the “success” of the surgery.

Only one problem: the patient felt pregnancy symptoms 3 month later and was quite surprised to hear from her OBGYN that she was 5 months pregnant.

The extremely generous and competent abortion clinic decided to reimburse its patient for the failed surgery and graciously offered another abortion free of charge -- past the 22-week legal limit. The patient decided to keep the child instead, and sued the clinic.

This week, the Spanish legal system awarded the patient 150,000 Euros in moral damages, and sentenced the clinic to pay her a monthly 1,000 Euros child support for helping raise the child. Where is the father? Who knows? But, of course, the clinic is paid by the state, not by the patient. Welcome to the world of socialized, liberal medicine, where you – the taxpayer -- can now be forced to pay full alimony, not for a doctor killing a patient, but for failing to kill an unborn child.

 Um, would somebody please remind me why I'm an evil conservative because I oppose this? 

Heidi Huffman, a non human who is supposed to be dead

Gotta get me one of these!

Well, OK, I can't buy any more guns for a while.  But this, or something like, has moved to high on the list for the future.  Murphy's Law's SUV repair bill today probably cost him nearly as much as one of these would, but while waiting for the auto shop's phone call we went out and played for a while.  I checked this time - the range is only 10 minutes from town.   And it's really hysterical to be the driver when you have an A-type driving personality as a passenger.

As usual, I did most of the playing and he did the training.  ML brought his Marlin 1894 in .357 magnum and a 1911.  I brought the M-1, the little .38, and my 9 mm.   The aiming problem with the .38 is resolved and that aiming correctness just needs to be repeated regularly, with some single handed and moving added each time.  Still working on getting the sighting just right with the Glock - when shooting the spinner I sometimes hit the one below the one I'm aiming at, which tells me that I'm tilting the gun instead of keeping everything straight at the wrists.  ML showed me some one-hand drills - there comes that moment when you are standing there with an empty gun and thinking "Um...now how do I get a new magazine in there with one hand?"  That's interesting - I now know, at least in theory, how to chamber a round using the back sight of the Glock and my holster.  That's not something one normally thinks about.

Moved to 100 yard range, put a magazine in the M-1.  Chamber round.  Aim. Click.  Huh?  Eject round.  Magazine falls out.  Oh.  Gotta make sure I hear and feel that seating "click" when I put in a magazine.

Some straight up target practice with the rifles and then some runnin' through the jungle.  My oh my that gets the heart rate up!  ML went first.  I watched carefully, waiting for him to fall into a hole so I'd know not to go to that particular spot.  No such luck - would have been entertaining if he had.  I managed to put 10 out of 20 on my target.  Found that fairly satisfying considering I was jumping in and out of briers and poison ivy and switching magazines in the middle.  I at least had the benefit of a magazine.  Reloading the Marlin on the run looked like a serious challenge.

There was another shooter on the 50 yard line when we got there.  And he seemed to take forever for each shot.  I realize that aiming carefully is important, but Yeesh!  I can't see how he was having any fun doing it that way.  I also realize that there's a good chance that I'll never need any of the fancier skills ML is teaching me.  But it adds to the challenge of shooting.  And folks take CPR classes on the off chance they might need them one day.  I figure this is the same - I hope I'll never need it.  And it's a lot more fun than a CPR course.

Now I need to put my poison ivy exposed jeans in the wash - carefully.

Go Read

Go read over at Musings Over a Pint.

And anybody who thinks that this administration and its lackeys wouldn't stoop to using first police and then military force to get what it wants from dissenting churches is out of their minds.

Organization

My daughter sent me this.  I've only got three furballs, but sometimes I worry her.