If I Had a Son

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Why hasn't the New Rodian Panther Party put a bounty on Han's head?  Where are the Rodian versions of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton?  Why hasn't a politician stood up and made a speech on the floor of the Galactic Senate in a brown vest?

Congressional Black Caucus and Trayvon Martin

Black Caucus Seeks New Gun, Race Rules Post-Trayvon
Once again, Democrats are following the dictum, "Never let a crisis go to waste," in order to impose more unnecessary regulation on ordinary Americans.  As usual in any supposedly racial incident, the usual group of race-baiters in Congress, notably my own Congressman, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver III, is leading the charge, abetted by the nutjob Congresswoman from Houston, Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee.  I penned a nice letter to my Congressman this morning in the wake of this article.  I expect to see a form letter in lieu of an actual reply within a few days.  Here's what I had to say to Cleaver:

I see that in response to the shooting of Trayvon Martin in self-defense by the man he was attacking, the Congressional Black Caucus is doing the typical Democrat thing--pass unnecessary laws, unrelated to the actual incident, that would have made no difference if they had been in effect.  The facts are that George Zimmerman was being attacked by a 6'2" tall 170-pound football player--in other words, he was being attacked by someone almost exactly the same size as me, a 49-year old military veteran. Of course, Democrats typically believe it is much better that a victim die than for a potential victim to defend himself or herself.

In response to charges of racism, might I add that one of the most racist organizations in the country, by its very existence, is the Congressional Black Caucus.  Also, you could do a great service for race relations by telling the not-so-reverends Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson to keep their mouths shut once in a while.  Without racism, they have no reason to exist, which is why they (and the CBC) have a vested interest in keeping racism alive and well for as long as possible.

Here's a quote from the article that exemplifies the Democrat mindset:

And [Rep.] Wilson, who represents the district where Martin lived, is working on legislation to create a national commission "to study race-based injustices, health disparities and economic disparities affecting African American men and boys," in the words of the congresswoman. 

Of course!  We need another commission!  We don't have nearly enough people sucking off the government teat, and certainly not enough agencies dealing with the subjects she mentions.  There are already departments in nearly every federal agency to "study" that type of thing.

I've been sending every dollar I can possibly spare to Jacob Turk's campaign.  Turk is running against Cleaver, and I hope he is successful this year.

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Carbonite Drops Sponsorship of Rush Limbaugh

I see that Carbonite's CEO has dropped its sponsorship of Rush Limbaugh's radio show because he didn't like Rush calling a slut a slut. Maybe that was a bit too much, and he should have called her what she really is...a lying sack of Shiite.  Here's more from Redstate.com:

Carbonite drops Rush but not Ed Schulz

I just sent an e-mail to Carbonite.  The only address I could find was legal@carbonite.com, so that's the one I used.  Here's what I had to say.

Your CEO's two-faced decision to drop advertising on the Rush Limbaugh show, while still continuing to advertise on the demented Ed Schulz's show, makes me glad I've never used Carbonite, and now never will.  My company uses and recommends a competitor's product, for which I am eternally grateful.  Obviously, he has never listened to the things Ed Schulz has said about conservative women such as Laura Ingraham.  David Friend mentioned having daughters the same age as Ms. Fluke.  Are they also 30-year-old lying "activitists" who enrolled in a Jesuit university under false pretenses so they could complain about not getting free stuff?  I highly doubt it.

Everyone should send these douche bags an e-mail. 

Upside-Down Land

I'm borrowing this from The Feral Irishman.

You know you live in Upside-down Land if...

• A Muslim officer crying "Allah Akbar" while shooting up an army base is considered to have committed "Workplace Violence" while an American citizen boasting a Ron Paul bumper sticker is classified as a "Domestic Terrorist".
You know you live in Upside-down Land if...
• Your government believes that the best way to eradicate trillions of dollars of debt is to spend more money.
You know you live in Upside-down Land if...
• A seven year old boy can be thrown out of school for calling his teacher "cute" but hosting a sexual exploration class on a college campus is perfectly acceptable.
You know you live in Upside-down Land if...
• The Supreme Court of the United States can rule that lower courts cannot display the 10 Commandments in their courtroom, while sitting in front of a display of the 10 Commandments.
You know you live in Upside-down Land if..
• Children are forcibly removed from parents who appropriately discipline them while children of "underprivileged" drug addicts are left to rot in filth infested cesspools.
You know you live in Upside-down Land if...
• Working class Americans pay for their own health care (and the health care of everyone else) while unmarried women are free to have child after child on the "State's" dime while never being held responsible for their own choices.
You know you live in Upside-down Land if...
• Hard work and success are rewarded with higher taxes and government intrusion, while slothful, lazy behavior is rewarded with EBT cards, WIC checks, Medicaid and subsidized housing.
You know you live in Upside-down Land if...
• The government's plan for getting people back to work is to provide 99 weeks of unemployment checks (to not work).
You know you live in Upside-down Land if...
• Being self-sufficient is considered a threat to the government.
You know you live in Upside-down Land if...
• Politicians think that stripping away the amendments to the constitution is really protecting the rights of the people.
You know you live in Upside-down Land if..
• The rights of the State come before the rights of the individual.
You know you live in Upside-down Land if...
• Parents believe the State is responsible for providing for their children.
You know you live in Upside-down Land if...
• You can write a post like this just by reading the news headlines.
You know you live in Upside-down Land if...
• You pay your mortgage faithfully, denying yourself the newest big screen TV while your neighbor defaults on his mortgage (while buying iphones, TV's and new cars) and the government forgives his debt and reduces his mortgage (with your tax dollars).
You know you live in Upside-down Land if...
• Your government can add anything they want to your kid's water (fluoride, chlorine, etc.) but you are not allowed to give them raw milk.
You know you live in Upside-down Land if...
• Being stripped of the ability to defend yourself makes you "safe".
You know you live in Upside-down Land if...
• You have to have your parents signature to go on a field trip but not to get an abortion.
You know you live in Upside-down Land if...
• You can get arrested for expired tags on your car but not for being in the country illegally.
You know you live in Upside-down Land if...
• Using the "N" word is considered "hate speech" but writing and signing songs about raping women and killing cops is considered "art".
Unfortunately, this list could go on and on. Our world has been turned upside-down. We are in distress. Where do we go from here?

Obama to Increase Electric Car Subsidies

More WTF??? from our acting President.

Obama to Increase Electric Car Subsidies (at American Thinker)

Chevy Volts are already more expensive than most people can afford, even with the subsidy, so the only people who buy them are fairly wealthy people.  Subsidizing these cars means that we taxpayers get to help rich people buy them by paying part of the cost for them.  We were paying $7,500 of each car sold; now we get to pay $10,000. So how many of my friends and relatives want to chip in and donate $10,000 to help a wealthy person buy a car?  I know I don't, but Obama wants you to.  He must be completely ignorant of the fact that this money for subsidies comes either from our pockets, or it must be borrowed (usually from China) and left to our children and grandchildren to repay.

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Deer Hunting Newbie

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I, at the age of 49 and almost a half, finally went deer hunting.  I've wanted to for a long time, but circumstances, lack of knowledge, and lack of a place to hunt all conspired against me.  Having gotten lots of target practice and sighted in my cheap Tasco 2-9x40 scope on my inexpensive Savage Axis .308 at the range to which Billy Bob belongs, I was ready to try my skill against the giant forest rats that are the bane of my motorcycling existence.

A friend from my church took me hunting this past weekend at his 40-acre farm in Winston, MO.  We were in the tree stand by 5:30 a.m. Friday morning.  My friend Joe said that from his experience, the best circumstances for seeing deer are when the temperature is cold, the wind is calm or light, and the sky is overcast.  Well, the sky turned clear, the wind was blowing so hard (25-35 mph, with gusts to 45 mph), and the temperature eventually warmed up so much that we gave up after half a day, without ever seeing anything. 

We went back Saturday morning.  I took the tree stand, and the other Joe staked out a spot on the ground on the other end of the property.  A ridge runs through the middle of the property, so we couldn't see (or accidentally shoot) each other.  It started out a little warm and clear, but much calmer wind-wise, and I did see three deer that morning. They came from my left about 50 yards away, but my line of sight was blocked by some of the limbs from the tree that the stand was in, and they disappeared over the ridge that runs through the middle of the property before I could get a shot.  I spent the rest of the day in the stand, and the wind finally started to die down as the temperature plummeted that evening.  One certainly learns patience when hunting deer.

Just as it was getting almost too late, I saw what I thought was a deer on the ridge maybe 40 or 50 yards out, but without my glasses in the dim light, I couldn't really tell if it was a deer or not.  The LASIK I had on my right eye gives me great distance vision, but my left eye is uncorrected for reading.  That all works fine when there's plenty of light--the brain seems to know which eyeball is best for the circumstances--but once the lights get low, it all gets confused.  Normally, in those circumstances, I wear glasses that correct the left eye so all is equal.

I brought the rifle up to get a look through the scope from my good right eye, and the deer was gone.  I looked around without the scope, and saw it again, a pretty big doe, now standing only 30 or 40 feet away directly to my left, beside a cedar or juniper shrub.  I raised the rifle again, leaning around a big tree limb, got a good sight picture, and started to squeeze the trigger...but the safety was on.  I took the safety off, but it had moved again, and I couldn't see it anywhere! 

I suspected it had gone behind the bush, so I waiting with my eye on the scope and my finger on the trigger, and sure enough, it came about halfway out past the bush.  I adjusted my grip and it looked right up at me.  I was afraid it was going to bolt so I probably shot a bit prematurely.  I hit it a little too far forward, just ahead of the left front shoulder, and it went down.  I scrambled down the ladder and went over to the bush, and...no deer!  No blood, nothing!  The deer had been on the edge of a slope down into a draw, facing down slope, when I shot it, so I thought it might have fallen down into the draw.  I texted the other Joe and let him know, as I went searching.

He came over and we looked and looked.  By then it was dark, and getting damned cold, so he went and got his truck with a spotlight on it.  I was starting to believe I'd missed and what I thought was the deer falling, was really the deer scrambling down into the ravine, since we couldn't find any blood anywhere.  After despairing that I'd missed a shot of a stationary deer from only 30 feet away, my friend found it about 100 feet away on the other side of the draw, dead, by a fence.  I had hit it with a Hornady SST bullet just ahead of the left leg, and it went through and impacted against (and pretty much demolished) the right shoulder, without exiting. 

We field-dressed it and took it to my house, where I hung it from a tree in my back yard.  From the fuss and fury that my wife directed at me, you'd have thought it was her mother hanging back there!  The other Joe came back yesterday and took it to his house, where he does that kind of thing every year.  Tomorrow night, I'm going over there to help him process it and get some of the meat.  My wife doesn't even want it in the house!  She might have grown up on a farm, but she has become one of those people who think meat grows in little styrofoam packages at a grocery store.  That's okay, plenty of people I know want some venison, including Billy Bob, for whom I'm reserving some steaks.

So that was my first deer, on the second day of my first-ever deer hunting trip. I may go back Sunday.  I've already bought a nice set of knives for field-dressing a deer.  Now I want a meat grinder, sausage stuffer, jerky gun, and dehydrator.  And another deer--but I won't be bringing it home next time.

Music for your Saturday - Remake of "Oh, Donna"

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