Lazy blog entry 4

I make no claim to the following piece's authorship, in fact, I don't know who the author is or I would give him much-deserved recognition. But don't let that stop you from reading and enjoying these forty very clever bon mots to the gun control crowd, especially if you are familiar with the disinformation (aka outright lies) they put out. I really enjoy numbers 7, 8, 12, 18, 23, 32, and 34 (you have to be a part of the shooting sports to fully appreciate this one).


40 Reasons Guns Should Be Banned

Recent events show us the need for re-familiarization with the following 40 reasons guns should be banned:

1. Banning guns works, which is why New York, DC, Detroit & Chicago cops need guns.

2. Washington DC's low murder rate of 69 per 100,000 is due to strict gun control, and Indianapolis' high murder rate of 9 per 100,000 is due to the lack of gun control.

3. Statistics showing high murder rates justify gun control but statistics showing increasing murder rates after gun control are "just statistics."

4. The Brady Bill and the Assault Weapons Ban, both of which went into effect in 1994 are responsible for the decrease in violent crime rates, which have been declining since 1991.

5. We must get rid of guns because a deranged lunatic may go on a shooting spree at any time and anyone who would own a gun out of fear of such a lunatic is paranoid.

6. The more helpless you are the safer you are from criminals.

7. An intruder will be incapacitated by tear gas or oven spray, but if shot with a .357 Magnum will get angry and kill you.

8. A woman raped and strangled is morally superior to a woman with a smoking gun and a dead rapist at her feet.

9. When confronted by violent criminals, you should "put up no defense - give them what they want, or run" (Handgun Control Inc. Chairman Pete Shields, Guns Don't Die - People Do, 1981, p. 125).

10. The New England Journal of Medicine is filled with expert advice about guns; just like Guns & Ammo has some excellent treatises on heart surgery.

11. One should consult an automotive engineer for safer seat belts, a civil engineer for a better bridge, a surgeon for internal medicine, a computer programmer for hard drive problems, and Sarah Brady for firearms expertise.

12. The 2nd Amendment, ratified in 1787, refers to the National Guard, which was created 130 years later, in 1917.

13. The National Guard, federally funded, with bases on federal land, using federally-owned weapons, vehicles, buildings and uniforms, punishing trespassers under federal law, is a "state" militia.

14. These phrases: "right of the people peaceably to assemble," "right of the people to be secure in their homes," "enumerations herein of certain rights shall not be construed to disparage others retained by the people," and "The powers not delegated herein are reserved to the states respectively, and to the people" all refer to individuals, but "the right of the people to keep and bear arms" refers to the state.

15. "The Constitution is strong and will never change." But we should ban and seize all guns thereby violating the 2nd, 4th, and 5th Amendments to that Constitution.

16. Rifles and handguns aren't necessary to national defense! Of course, the army has hundreds of thousands of them.

17. Private citizens shouldn't have handguns, because they aren't "military weapons'', but private citizens shouldn't have "assault rifles'', because they are military weapons.

18. In spite of waiting periods, background checks, fingerprinting, government forms, etc., guns today are too readily available, which is responsible for recent school shootings. In the 1940's, 1950's and 1960's, anyone could buy guns at hardware stores, army surplus stores, gas stations, variety stores, Sears mail order, no waiting, no background check, no fingerprints, no government forms and there were no school shootings.

19. The NRA's attempt to run a "don't touch" campaign about kids handling guns is propaganda, but the anti-gun lobby's attempt to run a "don't touch" campaign is responsible social activity.

20. Guns are so complex that special training is necessary to use them properly, and so simple to use that they make murder easy.

21. A handgun, with up to 4 controls, is far too complex for the typical adult to learn to use, as opposed to an automobile that only has 20.

22. Women are just as intelligent and capable as men but a woman with a gun is "an accident waiting to happen" and gun makers' advertisements aimed at women are "preying on their fears."

23. Ordinary people in the presence of guns turn into slaughtering butchers but revert to normal when the weapon is removed.

24. Guns cause violence, which is why there are so many mass killings at gun shows.

25. A majority of the population supports gun control, just like a majority of the population supported owning slaves.

26. Any self-loading small arm can legitimately be considered to be a "weapon of mass destruction" or an "assault weapon."

27. Most people can't be trusted, so we should have laws against guns, which most people will abide by because they can be trusted.

28. The right of Internet pornographers to exist cannot be questioned because it is constitutionally protected by the Bill of Rights, but the use of handguns for self defense is not really protected by the Bill of Rights.

29. Free speech entitles one to own newspapers, transmitters, computers, and typewriters, but self- defense only justifies bare hands.

30. The ACLU is good because it uncompromisingly defends certain parts of the Constitution, and the NRA is bad, because it defends other parts of the Constitution.

31. Charlton Heston, a movie actor as president of the NRA is a cheap lunatic who should be ignored, but Michael Douglas, a movie actor as a representative of Handgun Control, Inc. is an ambassador for peace who is entitled to an audience at the UN arms control summit.

32. Police operate with backup within groups, which is why they need larger capacity pistol magazines than do "civilians" who must face criminals alone and therefore need less ammunition.

33. We should ban "Saturday Night Specials" and other inexpensive guns because it's not fair that poor people have access to guns too.

34. Police officers have some special Jedi-like mastery over handguns that private citizens can never hope to obtain.

35. Private citizens don't need a gun for self- protection because the police are there to protect them even though the Supreme Court says the police are not responsible for their protection.

36. Citizens don't need to carry a gun for personal protection but police chiefs, who are desk-bound administrators who work in a building filled with cops, need a gun.

37. "Assault weapons" have no purpose other than to kill large numbers of people. The police need assault weapons. You do not.

38. When Microsoft pressures its distributors to give Microsoft preferential promotion, that's bad; but when the Federal government pressures cities to buy guns only from Smith & Wesson, that's good.

39. Trigger locks do not interfere with the ability to use a gun for defensive purposes, which is why you see police officers with one on their duty weapon.

40. Handgun Control, Inc., says they want to "keep guns out of the wrong hands." Guess what? You have the wrong hands.


Take care.
DAL357

The Unquiet Grave

Recently, I became aware of an anonymous old folk poem that I like, so what better place for it to end up but on my blog? Truthfully, I am not much of student of poetry, prose being my preferred passion. This, no doubt, has to do with how little effort I put into reading poetry, but it probably also to do with the fact that I am somewhat of a literalist and many subtle allusions and metaphors pass right by me unnoticed.

Or maybe I'm just a bonehead. No matter what the reason, I think you'll enjoy the following piece of literature. One thing I've noticed in my small experience with poetry is it often benefits from being read aloud, and this offering is no exception.


The Unquiet Grave

The Wind doth blow today, my love,
And a few small drops of rain;
I never had but one true-love,
In cold grave she was lain.

I'll do as much for my true-love,
As any young man may;
I'll sit and mourn all at her grave
For a twelvemonth and a day.

The twelvemonth and a day being up,
The dead began to speak:
'Oh who sits weeping on my grave,
And will not let me sleep?

'Tis I, my love, sits on your grave,
And will not let you sleep;
For I crave one kiss of your clay-cold lips,
And that is all I seek.

You crave one kiss of my clay-cold lips;
But my breath smells earthly strong;
If you have one kiss of my clay-cold lips,
Your time will not be long.

'Tis down in younder garden green,
Love, where we used to walk,
The finest flower that ere was seen
Is withered to a stalk.

The stalk is withered dry, my love,
So will our hearts decay;
So make yourself content, my love,
Till God calls you away.


To all but the dimmest bulb, this poem needs no intermediary to help make sense of it, which may be one of the reasons I like it so.

Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Take care.
DAL357

Notes from the Hunting Journal--11/18/07

11-18-07: I took another stab at deer hunting. This outing proved that once again that the journey is often at least as interesting as the arrival.

Since John A. had taken his deer last weekend, he wasn’t hunting, but his son, who accompanied us for the first time this season, was with him. We checked in at Range Control on Ft. Carson, a bothersome formality, and chose the area we wanted to hunt. The area John took his deer in the previous week was closed to hunting on this weekend. This bit of news miffed me since I could have sworn that the recorded phone message I listened to that states which areas are open on a given weekend said that area was open. We chose an alternate area, one just across the road from the desired area, completed the sign-in process, and were on our way.

Driving to your hunting area on Ft. Carson before the sun’s come up is good training should you ever think you might go blind. The downrange road rules for Ft. Carson do not allow white lights to be used because they interfere with the night vision equipment soldiers may be using. In other words, no headlights allowed. Only amber lights are permitted, and unless you have some amber-tinted fog lights, this means you must drive using your parking lights. This makes for a slow, and sometimes disorienting, ride.

Luckily, the area we wanted to hunt wasn’t too far from Range Control, so it didn’t take us long. By the time we arrived, geared up, and started hunting, it was light enough to see. I moved to a spot next to a large, leafless bush on the edge of a plateau where below the land fell away about 70 feet to a maze of draws and opened into a large semi-circular, bowl-like area approximately one-half mile across. From this spot, I glassed the entire area slowly with my Pentax 10x43 binoculars, seeing two other hunters on the opposite rim of the plateau. After at least 20 minutes of glassing, I spotted a lone doe to my left. I glanced back to see if the other hunters had noticed her, but they couldn’t see her from their angle. Turning the binos back to the doe, I couldn’t find her again. Damn! I had looked away for less than a minute and now the deer had disappeared. Disappointed, I glassed the area again and, finally, claimed sight of the doe again--as well as two sister doe. They slowly meandered up a hill and there I saw, standing next to an evergreen tree, a buck. Once they were all in the same area, they went down into a small depression and didn’t reappear. During the entire time I watched them, the deer were much too far out of range, at least 500 yards, to take an accurate (read ethical) shot. I left to find John and son, making a mental note to search that depression later. I never did.

After meeting up with John, who was closer than I thought, we decided to see what lay in the opposite direction we had been looking. Our plan of attack was decided upon and we were off. The plan was simple: John and his son, Matt, walked on the sides of some rather large hills while I paralleled them on the road. We were all walking downhill, off of the plateau. The distance between us was 150-200 yards. We kept in contact via John’s two-way radios, which didn’t work about as often as they did.

After traveling a few minutes, I left the road and walked back onto the grass a short distance and did a little glassing. On the road quite a ways below, I saw four doe cross the pavement and melt into a draw. Glassing some more I noticed, at the foot of a hill far ahead of John and Matt, a group of six doe feeding; again, they were too far for a shot. I called John on the radio and told him to get to a spot where he could see them, which he did, and I further said I was going to walk below them and then double back and move the herd in his direction. He said okay and I was off.

Returning to the road, I walked past the feeding ungulates, who took notice of me but did not run. The fact that I was a good distance from them probably helped, as did the fact that they see human activity in the form of soldiers in the area all the time. Passing the herd until we could no longer see each other, I left the road and used small draws to shield my approach. As I neared, I went into a dry creek bed that ran along the foot of the hill and John radioed me that the deer had moved into that same creek bed. I told him to watch for them but not to shoot until they were far above where I was in the creek bed. I walked about 100 yards more up the creek bed and then the deer spooked and started moving back up the hill in John and Matt’s direction. One doe split off from the herd and, less than 75 yards away, stopped to look back at me. I could have ended my season then and there, but for the fact that John and company were in the background. Granted, from where I stood they were to the left of the deer and quite a bit higher on the hill, but it still didn’t seem safe. I did call John and said I was going to take the shot, but he didn’t respond and I thought better of it and let the chance pass.

Matt, on the other hand, took his chance at one of the deer--and missed. Personally, I think they were still too far from the deer and I wish they had gotten closer before making a stand, but so be it. Repeated calls to John on the radio inquiring whether or not Matt connected went unanswered. While making my way towards them, I heard Matt fire three more shots, but not in the direction the of the herd I moved. He saw another deer back towards the road. After he began firing, I guess the deer didn’t stick around, ‘cause I never saw it. Oh well, at least my stalk had worked and I was quite proud of that. I actually felt like a hunter.

We met back at the road and followed it to the vehicles. There, we decided to go down into the bowl-like area where I had seen the first deer of the morning. John and Matt took up a spot a few hundred yards below the plateau’s rim and I said I’d walk in their direction from above and try to scare something up. (I enjoy doing this, by the way, so it wasn’t as if I drew a short straw or anything.) Once I got to the point I where wanted to start my sweep, however, I realized I really didn’t have all that much energy left to perform a strenuous hike (I had forgotten to bring my lunch, and a bowl of early-morning oatmeal only gets you so far), so I called John and told him. Since Matt had to be at work at noon and it was already after 11:00 a.m., we decided to call it a day.

On the way back to them I met a couple of hunters driving in a truck. They stopped to chat and declared they were looking only for bucks. One offered information, however, that there were quite a few doe in a creek bed below. The hunters continued on and spoke to John when they caught up to him and apparently told him the same thing. We decided to quickly check out the creek bed and walked along a dirt road (more, really, of a vehicle-blazed trail) that ran closely alongside it. After a few minutes, with John and son ahead of me, they stopped suddenly. I strained to see what they were looking at and saw a buck trying to make it up an eroded hill on the other side of the creek. It was too steep, so he went a little farther up the creek, found a better spot, and quickly moved out of sight over the crest. I remember telling Matt not to shoot while it was still in sight because it was a buck, but he said there was a doe also. At this point I finally saw it moving up the same hill and I told Matt to shoot, but he said it was my turn.

Thank goodness I hadn’t forgotten my homemade shooting sticks this time (see photo above), because they served their purpose handily. As the deer was making its way up the steep hill, I dropped to one knee, placed my rifle on the sticks, took a quick aim, flipped off the safety, made a clicking noise so the deer, that had just crested the hill, would stop (I read that sometimes it works--it did this time), and touched off the 100-yard shot. As I was coming out of the .30-06’s recoil, I saw the tail of the deer flip up as it ran out of sight. I thought I had missed it, but John said it looked like it shook after I fired. Ethics dictated that we must check it out, so we started across the dry creek bed and up the hill.

I can honestly say that that hill worked out my thighs like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. No squats have ever given me such cramps. I actually had to stop a time or two on the way up, not because I was winded, but because my thighs cramped so badly that I thought I might topple down the hill. My legs HURT! Thankfully, shortly after reaching the top of the hill and walking on flat ground again, the cramps left. May the never return.

After a quick search of the area, Matt saw where the doe had fallen. The shot had caught her low in the chest, through the heart. Had the bullet’s path been two inches lower, it would have passed harmlessly under the deer altogether. I give a lot of credit to the shooting sticks for helping me make the kill. After a quick field dressing, John took my keys and went to get my truck while Matt and I dragged the doe towards the road, a chore made easier, but still not particularly easy, because the deer was a whitetail and not a mule deer. (28 years earlier, I had bagged a mule deer doe and it took four people to drag her up a short hill; she was quite a bit more robust than the whitetail I had just taken, or the one John had taken the week before that.) After loading her in the truck, John contacted the game processor, who said they couldn’t take the deer before 4:00 p.m. At that point it was about 12:30 p.m. We covered her with a tarp and drove back to Range Control to check out and parted ways.

On the way home, I stopped to buy a couple of bags of ice, as the butchers suggested, to place in the deer to keep it cool until they could get to it. I also called my brother Donald and nephew Michael to ask if they could help me handle the deer while I hosed it out. They arrived at my home shortly after I did and were invaluable in their assistance. After hosing out and drying the deer, I put the bags of ice in the body cavity, recovered it with the tarp and parked the truck with the deer in the bed in the garage. It was a fairly warm day for November, but the carcass stayed cool, always vital when handling edible game.

After a quick shower and meal, I relaxed with my wife and son for a while and then took the deer in for processing. I dropped the carcass off and told them how my wife and I wanted the meat cut, and then enjoyed a hot chocolate at Starbucks while reading Dostoyevsky’s
“The Brothers Karamazov.”

Just over an hour after leaving the deer, they called my cell phone and said it was ready for pick up. The total cost for processing was $103, which included $25 for skinning. I took the meat home and, to my surprise, it all fit in the freezer.

The next day I took the head in to the Department of Wildlife so that they could check it for Chronic Wasting Disease. For the area where I took the deer, this check was free, although it’s not free in all areas of the state. The man said it would be about 10-15 business days before the results were back, so we are now waiting for the yea or nay. In the meantime, I vacuum sealed all of the individual meat packets so that they will last longer and not incur freezer burn. We are not big red meat eaters, so we will likely consume the meat slowly over the next 6-12 months, in between meals of chicken and fish.

All in all I am happy with the results. I am curious to see if the meat from a whitetail deer tastes any different from a mule deer. Once again, the same ol’ Winchester model 670 .30-06 that I’ve had since I was just shy of my 19th birthday helped me bring home the meat. To say that I am really fond of this sub-MOA rifle would be an understatement. By the way, this is the first time I used one of my handloads (165 gr. Hornady bullet #3045, 48.5 grains of Varget powder, CCI 200 primer, Remington case) to take a big-game animal. I can’t wait to enjoy the fruits of my labor.

Take care.
DAL357

"A date that will live in infamy."

By the way, lest we forget, exactly 66 years ago today the United States was attacked by Japan. Yes, there's more to that event than meets the eye, but for now let us pause to remember not the politics behind the scenes, but those Americans who lost their lives on that fateful, tragic day nearly a lifetime ago.

Take care.
DAL357

The dental patient.

Not that this is an absolute sign or revelation that societal collapse is imminent--a horse that’s been flogged past the point of death for countless generations--but the following little anecdote is another mile-marker on the road to a nasty, brutish, low-class society, a pit whose bottom we must surely be nearing, for I cannot believe that it’s all that much deeper.

Earlier this week, while dropping off a ballet ticket for my wife to one of her friends, I was blindsided once again, per usual, by coarse behavior. My wife’s friend works at a dental office and I went to the front desk and asked to speak to her. While waiting, a young female patient was on the phone at the other end of the short counter apparently trying to cajole a ride from the party on the other end of the connection. The other party must have shown some reluctance to grant this request because the young female patient said, without any hint of hesitancy or shame, that the other party had better give her a ride, or “I’ll f--k you up.” Then she concluded the conversation and went to sit down in the waiting area.

Not only I heard this exchange--the receptionist heard it too. She glanced at me with a kind of resigned, embarrassed, what-can-you-do look. Judging from the clientele (lots of baggy, sports team-emblazoned sweat clothes filled with pudgy figures built from processed foods) I noticed in the rather spacious waiting area (perhaps I should say holding area) when I walked in, I doubt this is the first time she heard this type of crude talk, or the last.

Now, here is where the disclaimer should come that says I am not a prude, snob, or elitist and that I, too, have used that type of language (although not in a public setting). But, you know what?, I don’t believe I’ll do that. Why? Because I am better than those people, at least in terms of public manners and comportment. Thank God I had parents who raised me to be polite to others and mindful of my surroundings, and who taught me that the world does not revolve around me. And thank God that I spent my formative years in a time when self-control and self-censorship was seen as the hallmark of a decent, normal, unexceptional, person.

How did I escape this? I was not exposed to any great degree to the effluence pumped out by Hollywood rump-humpers and money-maddened music-industry morons. There was still a measure of decorum within these areas of entertainment, at least outwardly, although even then it was beginning to crumble.

More than anything else, I feel sorry for the people exposed to all sorts of crass, vile language/behavior the entertainment industry uses to make a buck. These poor folks, raised on garbage pumped directly into their homes by parents who were, in turn, raised the same way, have no concept of what passes for polite public discourse.

All of which brings me to another point. I wish I could say this behavior is limited to a certain socio-economic class, but, alas, it isn’t. It has seeped out and soaked practically every stratum of society, although it usually doesn’t manifest itself as openly in the "higher" classes as the example I gave earlier.

Thanks, entertainment moguls, for taking the low road to make a buck, and in the process coarsening a society and making it unfit human habitation. Thank you for helping to destroy the long evolution of everyday civil behavior built over centuries. Thank you for children who now carry baggage they were never meant to lug via your graphic images, situations/stories, and language; their childhood has been stolen from them and, once gone, it can never be replaced. You have so very much to be proud of.

Take care.
DAL357

Notes from the Hunting Journal--11/11/07

11-11-07: John A. and I went out again, this time to a different area, XX, which was open this day to hunting with high-velocity rifles. (I should explain that there are certain areas at certain times on Ft. Carson that are closed, closed for all but low-velocity guns [muzzleloaders, shotguns], or open to all types of guns, including high-velocity cartridges. All of this seems due to the training or non-training of army personnel that goes on in a given area.)

Not too long, perhaps one hour, after we started hunting the area, I sat down near the crest of a hill to glass the area below. Within a few minutes, I saw a doe in a small clearing about 400 yards to my left foraging down a hill. In a seated position, I put the crosshairs on her, but the rest was too unsteady, so I decided to go prone. Whenever the deer looked in my direction as I was getting into position, I froze. After finally going prone, with my rifle resting on my blaze orange-colored backpack, I was ready to shoot, but the deer by that time had moved to a less-than-optimal stance, which was okay since I didn’t feel that confident about taking a shot at that distance anyway. She eventually disappeared behind a tree and I never saw her again.

About this time, while I was watching to see if more deer would appear in the area I had seen the other one, I heard a shot to my right. I didn’t know it at the time, but it was John bagging a deer. As soon as I looked over to the direction the shot came from, I saw two deer run over the summit of a hill across the small valley that was below my perch. I glassed the area and saw nothing.

By this time John, who had fired at his deer from a kneeling position about 200-250 yards away, had made it to his deer. This scared three more of the animals still in the immediate vicinity into moving and I saw them clearly. Grabbing my rifle, I assumed a seated position, but again found it too unsteady for the distance (at least 350 yards). Since I couldn’t go prone due to the direction of the deer, which were straight across from the face of my hill, and due to the grade of my hill, I was at a loss for a course of action. Thinking quickly, I grabbed my backpack, laid it across my knees/lap, and laid back against the hill. This was still a less-than-ideal setup, but it’s all I had time for. In retrospect, I should have just passed on the whole situation, but I didn’t. I fired at the creatures, and missed, not once, but five times (I believe I was shooting under them due to the distance). They actually stayed around so long after I started shooting because their attention was focused on John. After serving as shooting gallery targets for a while, they decided to vacate the area, and did so quickly. I then began to walk over to John.

On my was to John, I saw still more deer. Three of ‘em, to be exact, about 150 yards away. As soon as I saw them, I went into the kneeling position and my left knee landed squarely on a cactus. Ouch! I moved a bit forward and once again kneeled, waiting for my breathing to return to normal so I could take a shot. Of course, by the time I did, they were already moving behind a scrub oak bush. "When they come out," I thought, "I’ll take one," but they never did reappear. They took the back exit and went down a draw behind the bush. Oh well. I continued on to John, my knee smarting with what would turn out to be seven cactus thorns stuck in it.

When I got to John, he already had his deer open and had the innards halfway out. He said he was getting tired, and that he needed help. After pulling on some vinyl gloves he gave me, I cut the connecting tissue while he pulled the guts out. I then retrieved a folding saw from my pack and cut the pelvic bone to finish the process. We dragged the deer uphill about 60 yards to a rough dirt road, and I went to fetch my truck. By the time I returned, John had already called the game processor and set up a time for us to drop his deer off. We loaded the deer in the truck, I snapped a few photos, and we were off.

The lessons I either learned or that were reinforced on this outing are as follows. 1) Never, obviously, kneel on, or in any other way touch, a cactus. 2) Bring the shooting sticks you took the trouble to make (this alone might have helped bag me a deer). 3) Don’t forget your gear. (I forgot my hunting gear belt which included my knife, compass, water bottle, and earplugs, among other things. I could really have used those earplugs on this trip because firing five rounds from a muzzle-braked .30-06 is LOUD. My left ear is still ringing.) 4) Practice at distances farther than 100 yards from positions other than at the shooting bench. Learn the bullet drop for your particular load and either commit it to memory or, better yet, tape it to the stock of your gun.

Even though I did not bag a deer this time, the good thing is the season is long and we’ve found an area with abundant game. I’m reasonably sure I’ll get another chance at venison soon.

Take care.
DAL357

Notes from the Hunting Journal--10/27/07

10-27-07: Went deer hunting on Ft. Carson for the first time of the post’s long season (it runs until Jan. 31) with John A. Although the area we went to had some sign (tracks and scat), we failed to see anything.

John and I devised a strategy to try to flush out some deer. John stayed in one spot, on the hillside of a draw, while I walked through the draw to flush any deer that might be there toward him. A decent plan, but the problem was in its execution.

I got somewhat lost and didn’t see John again for two hours. I lost sight of my direction beacon, the mountains to the west, and I wandered aimlessly. While I eventually used my compass to try to help me, I distrusted it since I thought I knew approximately where I was, a dumb mistake some people make, or so I’ve read. Finally, realizing I was getting nowhere fast, and knowing that the road I came in on was to the east, I decided to quit screwing around and follow the compass east. I did this and within 15 minutes was back on the road.

When I reached the road, however, the truck was nowhere in sight. I called John on the two-way FRS radio I had and he recognized the spot I described as being about half a mile(!) south of the vehicle. He came and picked me up and we had a quick snack and decided to call it a day, as it was around 11 a.m. On our way back, in an area that was closed that particular day to hunting, we saw two doe lying within a stone’s throw of the road peacefully watching us as we passed by.

Take care.
DAL357

One man's creativity.

One of the fascinating things I've found in my years on the 'Net is the creativity of people out there. Below is a link to a site where a man shows, step-by-step, how he built his own little travel trailer. It looks pretty darn good, and he did it for under $1,000. I've seen similar factory-built rigs going for close to ten grand! Take a look and enjoy one man's creative energy.
http://www.crocodiletear.com/

Take care.
DAL357

A sacred trust

Perhaps it's too much to ask for people to care for borrowed library materials while in their custody and return them in decent shape? I've noticed the shabby shape many materials are in when I check them out, with CDs and DVDs often being the worst. I can understand normal wear and tear, but some of this stuff looks like wanton neglect or destruction. From audio book CDs that appear to have been used as hockey pucks to books that look as if they've been used as doorstops or chock blocks for automobile tires, it's a sad state of affairs.

When I was in early elementary school, over forty years ago now, it was drilled into me to NEVER write in a book and to treat books with the utmost respect. Apparently, many people never got this message. To this day I've never forgotten these lessons and even with the books I own I feel like a vandal if I make notes in them. I always strive to do no further damage to any library material I borrow; I wish everyone had this attitude.

I don't know if this happens everywhere, but it sure does in my neck of the woods.

To me, when one borrows library materials, one enters into an almost sacred trust. Apparently, however, I am in the minority on this point.

Take care.
DAL357

Putting the HOly back into Christmas

The sheer absurdity of this, if true, something never for certain when reading news stories, leaves no room for comment; it speaks volumes for itself.


Santas warned 'ho ho ho' offensive to women
Wed Nov 14, 9:45 PM ET

Santas in Australia's largest city have been told not to use Father Christmas's traditional "ho ho ho" greeting because it may be offensive to women, it was reported Thursday.

Sydney's Santa Clauses have instead been instructed to say "ha ha ha" instead, the Daily Telegraph reported.

One disgruntled Santa told the newspaper a recruitment firm warned him not to use "ho ho ho" because it could frighten children and was too close to "ho," a US slang term for prostitute.

"Gimme a break," said Julie Gale, who runs the campaign against sexualising children called Kids Free 2B Kids.

"We are talking about little kids who do not understand that "ho, ho, ho" has any other connotation and nor should they," she told the Telegraph.

"Leave Santa alone."

A local spokesman for the US-based Westaff recruitment firm said it was "misleading" to say the company had banned Santa's traditional greeting and it was being left up to the discretion of the individual Santa himself.
Copyright © 2007 Agence France Presse.


Take care.
DAL357

Which came first, the cell phone or the moron?

A good number of surprises fall into most peoples' lives, some good, some bad, some in between. Often, these surprises seem to occur in certain areas (finance, love, etc.) over and over to certain people, usually because they are ignorant or weak in these areas. My big area of surprise due to ignorance happens to be in technology. At one point in my life, at least 20 years ago, I was fairly up on the latest inventions/gadgets in the marketplace; that is no longer true.

Take, for instance, something I just became aware of: cell phone jammers. Until I heard a blurb on the radio about them just minutes ago, I knew nothing about them. After a quick check on the 'Net, I now know that they work, but that they are illegal to use in the U.S. Okay, fine, I doubt that I ever would have bought one anyway, but the fact that there is even a need for this type of device brings me to the point of this piece (of course there's one!).

Simply put, these devices exist because there are so GD many self-centered, ignorant, and oblivious people who haven't a clue about common courtesy and how to act in public. If these clueless cacklers were ever exposed to lessons in civility, they quickly forgot them. The cell phone jammer must have been invented as a defense against the virus that has infected much of the population of this country--moronism. I've learned from listening to umpteen one-sided cell phone conversations, most of them in inappropriate settings (restaurants, stores, break rooms, workplaces, etc.), that people rarely have anything to say that couldn't have waited for a more apropos time/place, and that they speak as if they are sure all around them want to hear every detail.

We truly are, as Jeff Cooper once said, in the age of the common (low-class) man. Those few folks who do seem to have a modicum of decorum are no longer looked at as examples to emulate, but as objects to ridicule. More's the pity.

Take care.
DAL357

Empty oaths, etc.

An oath that every military man and woman takes is one that swears to uphold and defend the U.S. Constitution (not the actual physical document, but the ideals embodied within). If I recall correctly, this is true of law enforcement officers as well. But I just gotta ask this: How can anyone take an oath to uphold and defend something they know nothing about?

During my short enlistment in the U.S. Army, I took that oath in perfunctory fashion along with everyone else, but it wasn't until years later, I'm ashamed to say, that I actually read the wonderful, government-fettering document itself. Making people swear allegiance to a document of ideals they haven't actually been required to read themselves causes the entire process to become about as useful as a Marine's ceremonial sword on a modern battlefield, and a whole lot less meaningful.

Where will these people, who risk life and limb, get exposure to the U.S. Constitution? They certainly won't get it in public schools, which are government run and apparently loath to teach that the true power in this country resides with the people, not the politicians. About the only way they will learn about what the U.S. Constitution is, why it was written, and why it is as vital today to America as the day it was penned, is through self-motivated learning. This is about as likely to happen as elementary school children clamoring for less free time and more homework. Yes, there will be those few motivated individuals with enough intellectual curiosity to pursue the mystery, but if most are ever to learn of it at all, they'll need exposure at the K-12 level. I won't hold my breath waiting for this to happen.

*****

Now to veer off on a tangent that is not wholly unrelated, why, in God's name, do we need a professional, standing military at all? A professional military is just too tempting a thing for politicians and bureaucrats, not the most balanced people on earth, to play with. Many, of course, will say that the world is a dangerous place today and that we need a standing military for protection. Granted, the world is a dangerous place filled with liars, cheats, cutthroats, poseurs, and megalomaniacal dictators/politicians. But those who know their history realize it's always been that way, and it always will be.

If the U.S. would come out with a policy, freely stated to the rest of the world, that America spiritually--NOT monetarily/militarily--supports true liberty for all people in the world who are intelligent and motivated enough to secure it for themselves, it would once again set the standard for the rest of the thinking world to want to emulate. A small, professional cadre of--at most--100,000 soldiers/sailors/airmen, backed by many millions of citizens who could volunteer* and become soldiers within 90 days, would let the world know we really love peace-- as opposed to just mouthing that we do--but that we'll fight to defend ourselves if pushed.

America, for all its might and good intentions, simply cannot change the world for the better through force. By taking this avenue, what will change, and has changed, is America itself. To support this huge imposition of American hegemony throughout the world, a gargantuan governmental infrastructure has had to develop. This behemoth has gained its own momentum and routinely tramples on and ignores liberties that just a generation or two ago would have been unthinkable, and I'm talking about here, at home, not in some far-flung backwater. The U.S. Constitution, that blueprint for liberty, may as well not even exist for as much as it's been obsereved over the past 100 years.

*****

How do we get back to a government that resides within the limits of the ostensible supreme law of the land, the U.S. Constitution? People obviously have to be taught about the document and read it for themselves in the historical context in which it was written. Until a majority of the population implicitly understands what the U.S. Constitution is and why it alone can guarantee lasting liberty, America will continue its ever-quickening slide into totalitarianism.

As I mentioned before, I am not too optimistic about this happening. Asking government-run schools to include this subject in its basic curriculum is essentially asking government to commit suicide. Demanding that this be done may help, but I am dubious about even this. Long ago, when America was another country (and, no, I don't think everything was great in the "good ol' days"), a subject called civics, which taught how the American government worked and its constraints, was a basic requirement in many American schools. It was considered vital to the perpetuation of American ideals and liberty to pass this information on to the next generation. Somewhere along the line this fell out of fashion, and we've become a poorer nation for it ever since.


*This is an essential idea. A draft would be, and is, antithetical, to the notion of liberty. When a citizen volunteers to go into combat to defend his interests, it means he believes his rational self interests and, by extension, his country wherein his rational self interests are exercised, are endangered by the threat. Woe betide an enemy who threatens any man's rational self interests; those who fight with righteous conviction are greater than the sum of their parts. No government needs to coerce a man to defend his rational self interests. The only time a government need resort to coercion of a rational man is when the aims of the government and that man are in direct opposition. In other words, when the man sees no danger to his rational self interests in what the government is calling a threat.

Take care.
DAL357

Who'd a thunk it?

Below is a news story that I just recently became aware of, although it's apparently been out for a few months.

If the findings stand up to further scrutinizing and testing, then this is just another nail in the coffin of the alternative sexual acts and/or lifestyles crowd.

One other thing it is, if proven true, is yet another example of one of the many, MANY lies that modern men and women are fed in all areas of life.

Think about it. Everything from eating nutritious, life-sustaining food, to fiscal responsibility, to the simple, wonderful act of (non-sodomal) sex between a man and a woman (preferably...and preferably married to each other, not to mention monogamously) has been subverted and perverted from its original intent to make a buck off of the manipulation of those basic human needs/desires.

Take, for example, sex. The purveyors of porn are out there to make money; the damage they do does not concern them, and perhaps they are right. After all, in a free society folks can choose to use porn or not. But that does not mean that porn is a harmless diversion.

The true damage that porn does is not that it will cause some individuals with a marginal grasp on sanity to commit horrid acts, although I've no doubt that does happen. No, the true damage porn performs is much more subtle and far-reaching. Simply put, pornography raises expectations to a degree that's all out of proportion to reality, especially in those most susceptible and likely to view it--the young. But porn's damage is not only limited to that group. Even middle-age adults are negatively influenced by porn. When viewed by these groups, they begin to think they are missing something in life and start to look at their own sex lives with a jaundiced eye, which can and does undermine otherwise perfectly good relationships. They may begin to think that if the sex they are getting isn't constant, hot, ever-better, and always over-the-top, just like in porn, perhaps who they are with isn't the right person for them. Instead of viewing sex as just a part of life and a committed relationship, they overrate it and make it the measure of life itself, and few even realize they are doing this, at least until it's too late.

Meanwhile, the porn purveyors keep raking in millions whilst spreading discontent, not to mention disease (see below) across the world.

They say that with age comes wisdom. I've got the age part, now I think I'm getting the wisdom.

*****
Oral sex linked to throat cancer

A virus contracted through oral sex is the cause of some throat cancers, say US scientists.


HPV infection was found to be a much stronger risk factor than tobacco or alcohol use, the Johns Hopkins University study of 300 people found.

The New England Journal of Medicine study said the risk was almost nine times higher for people who reported oral sex with more than six partners.


But experts said a larger study was needed to confirm the findings.

HPV infection is the cause of the majority of cervical cancers, and 80% of sexually active women can expect to have an HPV infection at some point in their lives.


The Johns Hopkins study took blood and saliva from 100 men and women newly diagnosed with oropharyngeal cancer which affects the throat, tonsils and back of the tongue.

They also asked questions about sex practices and other risk factors for the disease, such as family history.


Those who had evidence of prior oral HPV infection had a 32-fold increased risk of throat cancer.

HPV16 - one of the most common cancer-causing strains of the virus - was present in the tumours of 72% of cancer patients in the study.


Risk factors

There was no added risk for people infected with HPV who also smoked and drank alcohol, suggesting the virus itself is driving the risk of the cancer.


Oral sex was said to be the main mode of transmission of HPV but the researchers said mouth-to-mouth transmission, for example through kissing, could not be ruled out.

Most HPV infections clear with little or no symptoms but a small percentage of people who acquired high-risk strains may develop a cancer, the researchers added.


Study author Dr Gypsyamber D'Souza said: "It is important for health care providers to know that people without the traditional risk factors of tobacco and alcohol use can nevertheless be at risk of oropharyngeal cancer."

Co-researcher Dr Maura Gillison said previous research by the team had suggested there was a strong link.


But she added: "People should be reassured that oropharyngeal cancer is relatively uncommon and the overwhelming majority of people with an oral HPV infection probably will not get throat cancer."

A vaccine which protects against cervical cancer caused by HPV strains 6, 11, 16 and 18, and also against genital warts is available and the researchers said the study provided a rationale for vaccinating both girls and boys.


But whether the vaccine would protect against oral HPV infection is not yet known.

Dr Julie Sharp, science information officer at Cancer Research UK, said: "There is conflicting evidence about the role of HPV, and this rare type of mouth cancer.

"As this was a small study, further research is needed to confirm these observations."


"We know that after age, the main causes of mouth cancer are smoking or chewing tobacco or betel nut, and drinking too much alcohol."


Story from BBC NEWS:http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/health/6639461.stm
Published: 2007/05/10 07:40:47 GMT
© BBC MMVII
*****

Take care.
DAL357

A bit of joy.

As often happens, most people tend to focus on the negative, to the exclusion of the positive, parts of life, sometimes until it is too late. Look around and you will see that the world is full of folks that take this tact on life. I, too, have often found myself in this rut so, without further delay, I am going on record to say that, all in all, my life is pretty darned good. I have a good wife who loves me and shows it, and together we have a fantastic, smart little boy who is the center of our lives. Below is a photo of him in his ballet class performing warm-up/stretching exercises.

Could my life be better? There is room for improvement, I cannot lie, but, on balance, I am happy with my family. I only hope those of you who read this can, either now or in the future, say the same.

The world is a nutty, often nonsensical place to live; always has been, always will be. If you let it get you down and to the point where you can't appreciate what you have, then you no longer run your own life, others do. If you watch and listen carefully, you'll see that it's astounding how many people are vying for the their turn at running your life. From retailers who proffer the latest fashion or gadget and say you are hopelessly out of date without one, to real estate trends that push mini-mansions as the abode to aspire to, to politicians who imply/say that you have no right to your own life as long as someone else is miserable (usually through their own poor choices), practically EVERYONE wants to push you this or that way.

To rise above this is not an easy thing to do, and too many never get the perspective to do so. Chronological maturity helps, but it is no guarantee. From my own experience, I have found that disconnecting from pop culture is a major step in the proper direction. This includes extremely selective television/movie viewing; a refusal to read most periodicals, which are little more than (sometimes not-so-) cleverly disguised pitches for their advertisers; and being more of a participant and less of a spectator in/of life.

Be all that as it may, look at the photo below and remember when life's joys were simple, encompassing, and satisfying.

Take care.
DAL357

Lazy blog entry 3

I saw this elsewhere on the 'Net and I like it so much I decided to post it here. Give it a read and see what you think. By the way, as far as I know, it's authored by someone with the handle of 45nut.


What I Learned From the TV and Movies

1. Large, loft-style apartments in New York City are well within the price range of most people--whether they are employed or not.
2. At least one of a pair of identical twins is born evil.
3. Should you decide to defuse a bomb, don't worry which wire to cut.You will always choose the right one.
4. Most laptop computers are powerful enough to override the communications system of any invading alien society.
5. It does not matter if you are heavily outnumbered in a fight involving martial arts -- your enemies will wait patiently to attack you one by one by dancing around in a threatening manner until you have knocked out their predecessors.
6. When you turn out the light to go to bed, everything in your bedroom will still be clearly visible, just slightly bluish.
7. If you are blonde and pretty, it is possible to become a world expert on nuclear fission at the age of 22.
8. Honest and hard working policemen are traditionally gunned down three days before their retirement.
9. Rather than wasting bullets, megalomaniacs prefer to kill their archenemies using complicated machinery involving fuses, pulley systems, deadly gasses, lasers, and man-eating sharks, which will allow their captives at least 20 minutes to escape.
10. During all police investigations, it will be necessary to visit a strip club at least once.
11. All beds have special L-shaped cover sheets that reach up to the armpit level on a woman but only to waist level on the man lying beside her.
12. All grocery shopping bags contain at least one stick of French bread.
13. It's easy for anyone to land a plane providing there is someone in the control tower to talk you down.
14. Once applied, lipstick will never rub off--even while scuba diving.
15. You're very likely to survive any battle in any war unless you make the mistake of showing someone a picture of your sweetheart back home.
16. Should you wish to pass yourself off as a German or Russian officer, it will not be necessary to speak the language. A German or Russian accent will do. (It used to be an English accent for the German).
17. The Eiffel Tower can be seen from any window in Paris.
18. A man will show no pain while taking the most ferocious beating but will wince when a woman tries to clean his wounds.
19. If a large pane of glass is visible, someone will be thrown through it before long.
20. If staying in a haunted house, women should investigate any strange noises in their most revealing underwear.
21. Word processors never display a cursor on screen but will always say: Enter Password Now.
22. Even when driving down a perfectly straight road, it is necessary to turn the steering wheel vigorously from left to right every few moments.
23. All bombs are fitted with electronic timing devices with large red readouts so you know exactly when they're going to go off.
24. A detective can only solve a case once he has been suspended from duty.
25. If you decide to start dancing in the street, everyone you meet will know all the steps.
26. Police departments give their officers personality tests to make sure they are deliberately assigned a partner who is their total opposite.
27. When they are alone, all foreign military officers prefer to speak to each other in English.


As you may or may not know, I love it when Hollywoodies are exposed for the fools and idiots they are, hence my main motivation for posting the above material. I wouldn't revel so much if they had a different attitude, one that didn't condescend to everyone outside of the business, but they do. No doubt you can come up with a few of your own things you have learned from Hollywood.

Take care.
DAL357

Get outta that closet!

I submit that any man who finds this attractive ought to just come on out of the closet right now and admit that he's a homosexual. Look, there's no sense in trying to hide behind the facade that you like women who look like this, 'cause about the only thing that makes this creature a female is a lack of male reproductive organs. For once in your deceitful, miserable life, be honest, you crazy homosexual. :>)

Take care.

DAL357

Get a clue!

I recently read a news blurb about Newt Gingrich deciding not to run for president in 2008; this is probably a wise decision, reached, no doubt, for two reasons: Newt is unelectable, and second, and most important, because he and his handlers know that no Republican has a chance of winning in '08.

Do the Republicans as a party really think they will win? Didn't the Congressional elections of '06 show them anything? The tide has turned towards the socialist Democrats, as opposed to the socialist Republicans, and only the party of the elephant hasn't gotten the word. I guess they'll get the word on the first Wednesday after the first Tuesday in November 2008.

Lest anyone construe this blog post as an endorsement for the Democrats, I assure you nothing could be further from the truth. I detest the Democrats' stance on essentially everything, and I am no fan of the pale Democrats, aka the Republicans, save for one issue: gun control (actually, I am not even a fan of them on that issue, but at least they are not actively seeking to destroy private gun ownership...yet). But I have to call it as I see it and the current Republican offerings--save for Ron Paul (a Libertarian cleverly disguised as a Republican), who has almost as little chance of being elected as I do--is so sad as to be, well, sad.

Get ready, America and the world, for a Democrat in the White House as well as a Congress controlled by the same party. Get ready to fork it over for the downtrodden and oppressed, and you damn well better smile while you're doing it.

Take care.
DAL357

Intro to IHMSA

Here's a shooting sport I just happened to stumble upon in 2005, and am I ever glad I did. As far as I'm concerned, it's the most fun I've ever had with a gun, save for rabbit hunting when the bunnies are plentiful. The sport is called International Handgun Metallic Silhouette Association, IHMSA (pronounced "m-sah") for short, and it is a blast. Believe me, if it wasn't fun I wouldn't be in my third season of it. Below, you'll find a link to a video on YouTube giving you an idea of what I'm talking about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xtsxt7xgbpc

Here the link to the organization's website.

http://ihmsa.org/

I can't speak about all chapters, but I know the one that holds the matches I attend allows a person to shoot their first match for free (matches thereafter are $5 or $6 per discipline entered). But be careful, once you try it, you'll likely be hooked.

Take care.

DAL357

God's Gift to the Hunting World

Enough of this egghead-type commentary for now. Let’s move on to a fun subject. That’s right, it’s time to talk about guns and hunting. Yeeeehaaaa!

Okay, I’ll lay it on the line. I am an unabashed admirer and promoter of the .30-06. Not that other calibers don’t exist that beat the old warhorse on this or that ballistic point, but few, if any, offer the versatility of this 101-year-old package, and this is doubly true if one handloads most or all of his own ammunition.

Rather than reinvent the wheel, I prefer to let the following link to an excellent article explain why the .30-06 is such a good choice as a big-game caliber for both the beginner and the experienced shooter/hunter.

http://www.beartoothbullets.com/tech_notes/archive_tech_notes.htm/30

Take care.
DAL357

Enhancing nature?

WOW! I just finished my umpteenth viewing of “Bob,” the sophomoric shill for a natural male “enhancement” product, and I’ve only been viewing television for just over an hour.* What gives? Is there a real need for this concoction? Have we suddenly become a country of non-functioning male protuberances? Judging by the ubiquitous nature of these advertisements, we must have.

I submit that, no, we are likely just as virile in this area as we have ever been. So what’s different? Delayed maturity or prolonged adolescence. Choose your term, they both mean the same thing.

For humans, sex can be a lifelong activity, although there is nothing stating that it must be. The frequency of sex, however, does change over time as humans age due to common physical changes. Sex is just one part of human existence, and it is as subject to the immutable effects of aging as eyesight. This fact is inescapable. But, thanks to a society that worships youth and holds it up to be the highest ideal, this idea is abhorrent.

Enter the marketers, who have recognized this pathology in the Western world and, of course, developed a potion for it. Never mind that what they are offering in this case, as in many others, is decidedly unnatural. As long as a 35-year-old male is able to keep going all night (which is really what making love is all about, isn’t it?), or a 55-year-old male is able to even get started, well, that’s all that counts.

I guess I can’t really blame the marketers for trying to make a buck off of the collective stupidity of the American public. Many multimillionaires have been created from this cash crop, and it’s not some recent phenomenon. P.T. Barnum once said something to the effect that no one ever went broke banking on the stupidity of the American public. How else can one explain the short-lived popularity of that 1970s icon, the pet rock, which made its inventor rich?

Getting back to the prolonged adolescence thing, what can really be expected from a post-literate people who are bombarded 24/7 with images of youth as the be-all and end-all? Look at all of the expense and bother people go through in the elusive quest to capture and maintain a youthful appearance, always losing in the end, and in the interim often looking like buffoons.

Does this mean one should let oneself go? Not at all. A person should always do the best with what they have, but their efforts should be executed within the context of their age. This is what’s missing today, mainly because of the lockstep march of all forms of media in promoting youth, that small segment of a natural lifespan, as all that matters. As a consequence, many people have no idea how they should behave past the age of 27.

More’s the pity.

*****
On a side note, it’s been said that there is no such thing as a perpetual motion machine, but I think I’ve discovered the closest thing to one as mankind is ever likely to find. Think about this: We are bathed in the message all of our lives that youthful beauty is where it’s at, which causes us to chase after and secure it by any means necessary, no matter the cost or hardship, which in turn shows the marketers that this is where our interests lie, which causes them to continue proffering these images as the ultimate ideal. What a system. What a scam.

Take care.
DAL357

*The fact that these commercials are on television at all, especially at hours of the day when children can be exposed to them, is a subject worthy of a treatise in and of itself. I may speak to this one day, but for now suffice it to say that children have had enough of their childhood stolen by foolish, selfish adults. They do NOT need to be exposed to this type of product.

Obfuscation deluxe.

Let us lay our cards on the table. I believe in the application of the death penalty where it is warranted. What would warrant this drastic action? The premeditated taking of life in a situation other than self-defense. It should not be used to punish rape, as heinous as that crime is, nor attempted murder, unless the victim is left in a permanent vegetative state, nor manslaughter. But it should be used.

One argument you'll often hear against the death penalty is that it doesn't reduce crime. Whether or not it does is immaterial. This take on the death penalty is used to confuse the issue, to bring in a specious argument that drops the context of each individual case. It is not the purpose of the death penalty to reduce murder in general; its purpose is to mete out the harshest of punishments for the highest of all crimes. The death penalty's purpose is to apply justice to that particular individual in that particular case. If it serves as a cautionary tale to others, so be it.

I could go on about this, but you get the idea of where I stand on this issue, especially on the issue of the death penalty as a non-deterrent.

Take care.
DAL357

Happy day of your birth, etc.

First things first. A big HAPPY BIRTHDAY! to my brother Donald. See, 44 ain't so bad.

Here's a link to a humorous little flash cartoon about the differences between men and women. It's cute, not too saccharine, and my kid likes it. Take a gander.
http://www.bozzetto.com/flash/fem_male.htm

Take care.
DAL357

Of rice bowls and men.

Here's an idea whose time has come. Actually, I think it's long overdue, but at least it's here now. Long may it flourish and spread.

What is this idea? Store-based health clinics. Read the link below for the details, but in a nutshell these clinics are nothing less than a free-market reaction to insanely high medical costs. As you might expect, the traditional medical establishment (read monopoly) does not like it one darn bit. Then again, who does like their rice bowl being dipped into?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070811/ap_on_he_me/store_based_health_clinics_1;_ylt=AqGX.Gb8L9586QN74qrBNr4E1vAI

A few quotes, and my comments on those quotes, follow.


“But concerns are rising in the medical industry that these operations remain largely unregulated and are prone to conflicts of interest. Some physicians are also concerned that the clinics could disrupt the continuity of care and result in serious underlying health conditions going undetected.”

Yeah, sure. No doubt these “concerned” physicians are offering their services for free to the indigent, and at a greatly reduced rate to the uninsured, to insure a “continuity of care.” About all they’re concerned about is the threat to their monopoly on health care they’ve enjoyed, aided and abetted by their monopoly enforcer, the U.S. Government, for the last century. We’ll see if the government comes to their aid again.

Honestly, I am thinking that big G may let doctors sink or swim this time, not because they care about competition reducing insane health care costs, but because it takes the heat off of them and the perceived need for universal health care, a losing proposition from the start. Actually, I can see the U.S. Government using this to their advantage (but, in the long run, not to ours) and subsidizing the cost of these quick-care clinics for the poor and uninsured. In time, this will lead to inflated prices due to the middle man, in this case Uncle Sam, shielding the true costs of these services from the concerned individual, just like insurance companies do with individuals today. It's human nature not to be too concerned with costs when some anonymous person or organization is footing the bill.

By the way, how many is “some physicians?” One in five, six in a hundred, twelve in a thousand? I strongly suspect the number is either pretty low, or it is pure conjecture, otherwise the reporter would have given real numbers. If you didn’t catch that, you need to read news stories with a more jaundiced eye .

*****

“In June, the American Medical Association urged state and federal agencies to look into whether pharmacy chain-owned clinics urge patients to get their prescriptions filled on site. That followed buyouts of miniclinics by two big-name pharmacy operators: Walgreen bought Conshohocken, Pa.-based Take Care Health Systems in June, and CVS acquired Minneapolis-based MinuteClinic last year.

Dr. Peter Carmel, a trustee on the AMA board, said "the path of abuse is wide open," and the clinics need to be better regulated.”

Oh, this is rich! The AMA, monopoly-monger extraordinaire, given the mutual back scratching that goes on in doctors’ offices between doctors and the pharmaceutical representatives who constantly push their products via free samples and lavish perks, is one to talk. And all a physician has to do to continue these little gifts is to push whatever products the pharma. rep. suggests. This, of course, is okay, or so one is lead to believe by the AMA’s silence on this suspect practice.

Doubtless Dr. Peter Carmel is speaking from experience about wide open paths of abuse, mainly because his profession practically wrote the book on them.

*****

“AMA also wants to ban the practice of health insurance companies waiving or lowering co-payments for clinic patients, which it calls a conflict of interest.”

I’ll bet they do, and who do you think will do the banning? Why, the muscle behind the monopoly, the FedGov, of course. (As an aside, in a free market no monopoly can exist for long without government coercion.) Whose “interest” are they talking about? It certainly isn’t the consumer/patient's interests. Listen closely to the following economics lesson: the less money one has to shell out for the same service offered at a higher price elsewhere is a good thing, not a bad thing (at least for the consumer).

Consumer choice, aka competition in business parlance, helps keep prices far closer to actual value/worth than any mandated price control could ever hope to. In other words, if the government really wants to do something to control medical costs (or costs in any field), they will embrace competitive endeavors, not eschew them, by keeping their hands off. The only thing the government should be doing is insuring that the public does not fall victim to shoddy or fraudulent practices.

*****

“The AMA denies that its criticism of these clinics is being driven by economic interests, though there's no doubt that primary physicians could lose some business as their insured patients go elsewhere for minor ailments.”

Does the AMA actually believe that any thinking individual is going to buy this? Of course it’s about “economic interests,” that’s what all associations and unions, at heart, are about, and as long as there is a free market for consumer choice, that’s cool. The problem occurs when they seek government intervention to stifle competition so as to artificially keep prices high through a lack of choice.

*****

Wouldn't it be great if I could have one tenth of one percent of the money that's going to be thrown around in the attempt to smother this innovative and consumer/patient-friendly idea in its cradle? I could buy a small island and live the rest of my days in leisure.

Take care.
DAL357

Peeping nation

If there's one thing that identifies the modern American in general, it's his use of television, and movies to a lesser extent, as a replacement for life. No place is this more evident than in the near-sacred worship of television sports, the effect of which has helped make many Americans little more than voyeurs, not to mention repositories for excess calories. Those who never watch televised sporting events, however, should not feel smug.

Why? Read on.

Television, be it sports or any other type of programming, offers only the illusion of life, in neat, little edited pieces precisely calculated to keep eyes glued to the screen and minds anticipating the what will happen next. In small doses this is not necessarily harmful, and it can even be mentally invigorating. The problem comes when television viewing is no longer a simple garnish but a daily, four-course meal. After a while on this type of diet, television seems to be more interesting and full than real life. Once a person has reached this point, and it is more common than one might think, while they are not beyond redemption, they are on the precipice of being so.

The only known antidote is a period of abstinence, say, one week to start, although a month would be better. During this period, one should feel his way out into the world again to experience its wonders. Take interesting walks; visit new places; try several hobbies involving use of the mind as well as the hands and find which one likes best; or, and I know this is going to be anathema to many people under 50, and a few over that milestone, read a book (there, I said it) on a subject that piques your interest.

After your period of self-imposed exile, you may selectively begin to watch a favorite event or program, but as soon as this presentation is over, the television goes off. No channel surfing allowed. The key to your reemergence into the real world is selectivity (along with a fair degree of self discipline, of course). Then, as mentioned above, go do something visceral and tactile.

Excessive television viewing (anything more than 8-10 hours a week, tops) is not a character flaw, but a learned bad habit. Bad habits can be unlearned. One can do this, but it may take a supreme effort, depending upon how deeply the habit is ingrained, which is directly proportional to how long it has been allowed to metastasize. It is worth the effort.

Just as an aside, I've seen people who do little in their free time but sit and watch television; they are almost always unhappy. How could they not be? Television is flat and flavorless compared to other activities, worthy of only the smallest amount of our time, attention, and precious life.

One last point about television. Television is not, as Neil Postman said, [begin paraphrase] a serious medium for discourse on any worthy subject. After all the hype has been burned away, television is nothing more than a medium of visual entertainment [end paraphrase]. Asking television to be a vehicle for serious, in-depth discourse on anything is like asking a Yugo to do the job of a semi-truck; it just ain't gonna work. Television, by its very nature, demands superficial thought; it is not the province of hashing out a reasoned, balanced conclusion. This is where the medium of print--and its handmaiden, private and public verbal discussion--far outshines television, as it always will.

Take care.
DAL357

Lazy blog entry 2

I found this on another blog and I believe it to be worth passing on.


1. COWS
2. THE CONSTITUTION
3. THE TEN COMMANDMENTS

COWS - Is it just me, or does anyone else find it amazing that our government can track a cow born in Canada almost three years ago, right to the stall where she sleeps, to the state of Washington? And, they tracked her calves to their stalls. But they are unable to locate 11 million illegal aliens wandering around our country. Maybe we should give them all a cow.

THE CONSTITUTION - They keep talking about drafting a Constitution for Iraq. Why don’t we just give them ours? It was written by a lot of really smart guys, it’s worked for over 200 years and we’re not using it anymore. [emphasis mine]

TEN COMMANDMENTS - The real reason we can’t have the Ten Commandments in a courthouse – You cannot post, “Thou Shalt Not Steal,” “Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery” and “Thou Shall Not Lie,” in a building full of lawyers, judges and politicians – it creates a hostile work environment.


Take care,
DAL357

Lazy blog entry 1

Here are some thought-provoking pieces, at least for those that think about this stuff, that say it better than I could.

The first is a link to an article pertaining to what is commonly toted by those who carry a firearm for self defense. http://www.policeone.com/police-products/duty-gear/holsters/articles/1240834/

Yup, no doubt about it, the five-shot .38 Spl. snubby is, if you're going to carry a gun for self defense, THE gun to own. It's simple to operate, lightweight, and has adequate stopping power.

"But," you may ask, "why would I need to carry a gun for self defense?" You keep a fire extinguisher in the house, but you don't really expect a fire, right? Yet you keep that fire extinguisher because life is unpredictable and you just never know. Here's a story where an upstanding citizen was possibly saved from harm because he had a gun.


Senior: Man I shot robbed me
12:00 AM CDT on Sunday, July 1, 2007
By JAY PARSONS / The Dallas Morning News jparsons@dallasnews.com

An elderly man shot a 31-year-old man who he said had robbed him at gunpoint late Friday night in northeast Dallas.

Charlie Andrew Myers III of Dallas was recovering Saturday from gunshot wounds in the throat and shoulder at Baylor University Medical Center.

Amor Kerboua, 79, was driving into the parking lot of his apartment in the 6400 block of Melody Lane, near Northwest Highway and Skillman Street, when a man police identified as Mr. Myers approached him, according to a police report. Mr. Myers put a handgun in Mr. Kerboua's face and demanded money, police said.

Thinking it was a joke, Mr. Kerboua pushed the gun away, but Mr. Myers pointed it at his face again. Mr. Kerboua opened his back door and handed Mr. Myers a cup containing $242.50. Mr. Myers then pointed the gun at Mr. Kerboua's stomach and told him, "I'm going to shoot you, [expletive]," according to the police report.

Mr. Kerboua then drew a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson handgun from his front pocket and shot Mr. Myers in the throat. Mr. Myers fell to the ground but kept his handgun pointed at Mr. Kerboua, who then fired two more times into Mr. Myers' shoulder, police said.

Investigators released Mr. Kerboua, who has a concealed handgun permit, after concluding that he had shot in self-defense. Reached Saturday, Mr. Kerboua declined to comment.

Mr. Myers was expected to face charges after his release from intensive care.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/DN-robberyshoot_01met.ART.North.Edition1.43b8c05.html


This is just one example of the good things that can come from legal concealed carry. A search on the 'Net will yield many more.

Take care,
DAL357

Amusing Ourselves to Death

Recently, I finished a book that, although published over 20 years ago, contains seeds of wisdom that still ring true today (is that an example of a mixed metaphor...can seeds ring true?). Here's a bit of info/opinion about it.

Let's face it, most Americans are intellectually lazy/inept, and more apt to recite sport statistics or the details of the latest Hollywood celebrity tryst than they are to know/care about issues that actually affect them directly. I just finished a book entitled "Amusing Ourselves to Death," by Neil Postman, that, in essence, blames the constant barrage of useless information we subject ourselves to when we watch/listen to the "news" for part of the mess we are in as a nation. This never-ending stream of info bites, so decontextualized as to mean nothing, serves to deaden intelligent discourse rather than to enhance it. Worse, t.v./radio news struts about as serious media, and too many folks treat it as such, but the mediums of television, and, to a lesser extent, radio, will never lend themselves to serious discourse because they are entertainment outlets that demand a constant flow of new images/talk. Just imagine, writes Postman, a television show that captures people thinking deeply about issues before pontificating: there would be long periods of contemplative silence, something television and radio abhors, and it would be about as exciting as watching paint dry. That is why these media can never come close to, much less replace, print as a means of exposition. Print, says Postman, is the only real way to honestly and intelligently deal with weighty issues, and the queue of trivial information that fill up most every news show is a hindrance to clear thinking.

This book was published in 1986, and some of the television show references are dated, but the main ideas are still fresh and vital. By the way, Postman, contrary to other critics of television, says mindless entertainment, such as The A Team, is what television does best and is far less harmful than the "serious" news shows. It's one of the more important books of social commentary I have read, and it's certainly worth a look. Plus, at fewer than 200 pages, it is a quick, though meaty, read. Your local library should have a copy.

Take care.
DAL357

Travel trailer giganticus.

During my aforementioned short trip to southern Colorado, a thought on a commonality occurred to me. Let's examine this thought together.

To no surprise to anyone who is even barely conscious, travel trailers abound on the highways in summer. This is hardly a new phenomenon. I remember seeing pictures of travel trailers from the 1930s, and they probably existed even earlier. They can be a great comfort when experiencing the outdoors. I'm not a tent snob who rails against travel trailers; someday, in fact, I hope to own one, albeit a very compact one, and that is the point of this post.

How large does a travel trailer need to be to enjoy nature? Apparently, as big as possible. Now, I can see needing a travel trailer of 20' or more for a family with lots of kids (4+), something more and more rare in today's self-centered America, or for retirees who live in their trailers for extended periods to chase warm weather during the winter, but for the average vacation or long-weekend tripper, what the heck?!?! If you go to the forest, or a KOA campground, does the wheeled equivalent of your house need follow behind you? The point of a vacation is NOT to spend time in your temporary quarters, but to be outside of them as much as possible, enjoying a new environment and partaking in different activities. Other than as a place to eat, sleep, perform ablutions, and seek shelter from inclement weather, a travel trailer is a lousy place to spend an outing.

I strongly suspect that one of the reasons for the proliferation of whale-size travel trailers is simply because people don't stop to think about what they need, not what the marketers insist they need through subtle advertising. This is a problem common to practically all consumerism in America, not just travel trailers. Heck, look at what's happened to the size of houses over the last 20 years. They've gotten so large that they contain whole areas a family may not visit for days. The point is not that people shouldn't have the choice to purchase these products, but that they are not critically examining their true needs. Bigger is not necessarily better; what best fits individual needs, convention be damned, is better.

Another reason, of course, is that old human desire of emblazoned status. The bigger, longer, or fancier his (fill in the blank) is, the more that person believes himself to be esteemed, and, unfortunately, he's probably correct.

I could go on speaking in generalities, but, instead, I'll speak to this issue from the point of view of my needs in the realm of travel trailers.

Since our family consists only of father, mother, son, and family dog (we married late and started a family late, so more children, although not unwanted, are an unlikely event--does that make us self-centered?), we can get by with either a medium-size tent trailer or a 15' travel trailer. Some of our camping will be of the boondocking variety and the rest will be at a campground, so an on board toilet/shower would be useful, but we could make do without this convenience, at least for short trips. In the kitchen, some type of stove is necessary, but a microwave is not, especially since we don't even have one at home; an oven will not be needed; a small sink/faucet set up completes the kitchen necessities. Other necessaries include a dining table, AC power hookup, beds, the ability to add air conditioning (this is especially useful when staying in humid areas of the country), and an overall light weight and compact, maneuverable size. So, with these needs in mind, plus our philosophy that vacations/outings are about getting away from the (temporary or permanent) abode, we now have a pretty good idea of what we need in a trailer. See how easy that was?

Thanks for reading this far as I take American consumer behavior to task, otherwise known as pissing into the wind.


Take care,
DAL357

It's been a while.

As my many reader (that's not a typo) have no doubt noticed, it's been a while since my last post. That's due to a couple of reasons. One, my ability to connect to the 'Net did not exist for nearly the last week due to a Qwest-purchased DSL modem that is no longer under warranty that failed. Qwest was happy to replace the modem, for SIXTY! bucks, but at least the new modem is twice as fast as the old one, so I suppose I shouldn't complain too much. Two, I refuse to live for a blog, as so many others seem to do. I'll post when I feel like it, but cyberspace doesn't rule my life, and I feel sad for those who allow it to. Pahnyahtnah (Russian for understood)?

On Monday, June 25, I went to help a friend realize his dream in southern Colorado. This friend, whom I'll call Roger, bought some land outside of La Veta and is building a house on it. While building it, he's been living in a rented cabin with all of his worldly possessions. I went to help him move some of his heavier goods (furniture, large, free-standing power tools, etc.). When I left on Wednesday, we had moved the majority of the items that required the attention of more than one person into his partially-completed home. Mission accomplished.

Redoubtable Roger's Retreat

I also went to the area to do a little solo camping, but the weather was uncooperative, a not-too-unusual occurrence in Colorado, so that didn't happen. Maybe it's just me, but I don't enjoy heavy rain while camping.

One bright spot, though, aside from the friendly visit, was seeing my first bear in the wild. While taking a scenic drive through the area mountains and valleys, I spotted a wide, black form about 150 yards to my right in a field. I quickly pulled over and, sure enough, it was a bear. I snatched the camera and snapped a photo and then traded the camera for my binocular. What appeared to be an ink-black black bear from a distance turned out to be a dark-brown black bear with a wide arse and body (I mean female-Wal-mart-shopper wide) and a tan muzzle. The bear was on the very edge of the field, near the forest line, and he only stayed exposed for perhaps a minute, then he waddled into the woods. Although I've never seen a black bear in the flesh, save the zoo, I've seen enough hunting photos of harvested black bears to know that this was a large, mature bear. I count myself lucky to have seen this animal.

See the bear? I took the photo and I can't, but he's there, somewhere, right of center.

Take care,
DAL357

The right way, and the WNBR way

If you've kept up on current events--something not quite as essential for being an intelligent being as conventional wisdom demands (too much information can actually clutter clear thinking, but that's an issue for another place and time)--no doubt the World Naked Bike Ride day http://www.worldnakedbikeride.org/ has caught your attention. I suspect that this is just a cheap stunt designed to draw attention to this organization's causes: the lack of bike-friendly roads, cities, and facilities, and, more ominously, the environmental degradation, they claim, caused by the automobile.

Let's take a look at the first cause. Yes, I have to agree that bicycles get the short shrift in most Western countries. Why? Because they are less efficient than automobiles in most cases, short trips through crowded streets excepted. The majority has spoken, and what they've chosen, right or wrong, is the car. That doesn't mean there isn't a place for bikes, and cities should recognize that for certain areas they can be a viable alternative to autos, and plan new streets/facilities accordingly.

The second cause, really, is a separate issue that doesn't belong anywhere in the organization's platform. If they are serious about getting better amenities for bicyclists in the Western world, pulling this dead-whale issue will only hurt and marginalize their quest. Those who might have looked with interest and sympathy at WNBR's concerns are going to be non-plussed by the environmental component of their agenda. Cars are here to stay, like it or not, so get over it.

But, in the end, this organization isn't actually serious about much of anything. If they were, a silly stunt like a worldwide naked bike ride day, which occurred on June 9, 2007, would not have happened. Serious people don't effect change like this, they use the political process. Sure, that takes years, lots of money, patience, and intelligence, but it's the only real way to do things, short of brute force. All WNBR has done with this act is categorize themselves as fringe wackos and alienate the very people they need on their side, the majority. Biking is a good idea in some instances, especially in the more densely populated areas, but with a yahoo organization like this speaking for biking, don't look for bikes, bikers, and biking to get the recognition and amenities they might deserve otherwise.

Take care,
DAL357

A Rifleman's Poem

A Rifleman's Poem: If You Do Your Part, I'll Finish What You Start


All of you shooters
Please gather 'round
'cause there's much more to shooting
Than just fury and sound


Yes, it's been said
And it is no lie
That some rounds shoot flatter
And faster they fly


But in the hands of a man
Who knows how to shoot
He hits what he aims at
All else is moot


Don't think the ballistics
Of any rifle can
Compensate for skill
In a poorly-trained man


An accurate rifle
A precise scope
Are wasted on the man
Who does not know his dope


Perfect practice is key
To gaining the skill
Of using one shot
To make a clean kill


A bolt-action rifle
Of, say, thirty-ought-six
Can teach a smart shooter
All kinds of tricks


But first he must learn
What it can and can't do
And his limitations
When his scope he looks through


Take care of your rifle
Treat it like your pet
And when its time comes to serve you
It won't forget


Listen to your rifle
You'll hear a refrain
And after every shot
You'll hear it again


"If you do your part,
I'll finish what you start."
If you want to shoot well
Learn this by heart


DAL357
Copyright 2003




Take care,
DAL357