Five Hundred Bucks for a Calendar
The cell phone search is going poorly.
I ran over to Radio Shack, because it seemed like they had the best prices. The techno-toddlers over there told me that any AT&T Blackberry I buy will come with a $20 monthly charge. So $480, for grown-ups who know how to multiply by 24 months. Uh…NO. Let’s not do that.
They said what I really need is a Samsung Blackjack II. So now I am looking that up.
Or maybe the Epix.
Geez.
Choice Equals Pain
Technology is giving me ulcers again.
My old LG phone has not been right since I put it in the washing machine. I would like a new phone that has a decent camera, a comfortable texting keypad, and PDA features to help me keep track of things I’m supposed to do. I’d like to be able to plan things on my PC and then shoot the data into the phone so it can remind me to water plants, go to the dermatologist, pay bills, and so on.
That’s about it. I think playing music on phones is pathetic. I’m not all that interested in video. I can’t see myself watching TV shows or movies on a tiny screen I have to hold in my hand. I just want a small object that will place calls, take photos, and be responsible so I don’t have to.
Man, are the choices confusing. First of all, AT&T (the only network that functions on my block, so please don’t make my ulcers worse by suggesting other carriers) has a limited selection of phones here. I can buy other ones on Ebay, but I’m worried that AT&T will somehow find out I’m not using a phone they offer, and they’ll shut down my service and have me put in a concentration camp. Assuming the phones work, the options are so confusing, I have no idea what to buy.
I can get a Blackberry 8100 for a reasonable price, but it’s bulky. I can get a Sony W760a, but it seems heavy on music and other BS I don’t want. I can get an LG Vu, but I worry about texting on a touch screen. And there are tons of other phones I haven’t even looked at. And every “top ten” list has ten different phones on it.
The Iphone can be had for a fairly low price, but I think I may have to pay extra for service. And it’s Apple, so if I buy it, I’ll start craving organic food and boys.
I can feel my hair falling out. I may give up and buy a Bic pen and a pad.
Cheese and Peppermint Bark?
Sadly, Costco was amply stocked with delicious Costco shredded mozzarella today, so I had to bring some home. I already had some inadequate Publix cheese, which didn’t have enough fat. I am thinking I’ll combine them. The Costco cheese is way richer than a part-skim cheese has any right to be, so the Publix cheese should balance it well.
I could not resist an impulse buy: a gallon can of Italian tomatoes. I have low expectations, but at least my curiosity will be satisfied.
Okay, I had a second impulse buy. A two-pound tub of peppermint bark. I made it past the ones by the baked goods, but they had a second wave by the produce, and that was all it took to break me.
It’s not bad at all.
I got my father to go, for the first time. He was impressed by the meat, the wine, and the inexpensive vats of Jack Daniel’s.
Election of Nut Stimulates Gun Boom
I’ve been planning to get myself an M1 carbine, because I think it would be a fun and interesting home-defense weapon. But now I’m wondering if I should buy something foreign instead.
I don’t know much about executive orders, but people who do are voicing concern that Obama will use executive orders to remove many types of ammunition and guns from commerce. Instantly. In January. They are especially worried about cheap foreign ammunition and military-style weapons.
Obama hates guns, and he wants to take them away from us. He weasels about it, and he even lies about it. Nonetheless, it’s true. His history proves it. He’s a big-city sissy, he has probably never fired a gun in his life, and he thinks guns are evil, in and of themselves. One particularly scary thing about his weasel language is that he loves using the word “sportsmen.” This is liberal gun-grabber code for “I have no respect for the rights of people who buy guns for self-defense.” It’s his way of telling us he’ll go after self-defense weapons first. Your AK. Your AR15. Your 1911. Then he’ll let us cool down, and THEN he’ll come for our hunting weapons. Our shotguns and deer rifles.
The gun-haters among us don’t like sporting guns much. But they truly, TRULY hate self-defense guns. And there are a lot of Americans who will stand up for hunters, yet who will abandon people who own guns strictly for self-defense. This is what the Obama regime is counting on. Politically, it’s much easier to take away a Bushmaster than a squirrel gun. So Obama says he sympathizes with “sportsmen.” And Americans who aren’t bright or attentive assume he is referring to all gun owners. It’s a sleazy tactic. It’s obvious to smart people. But most Americans are not geniuses; they can’t see it.
I don’t know how brave he’ll be in January. Maybe he’s not crazy enough to fulfill expectations. But he probably is. The Clintons were. And George Bush’s dad dealt us a crippling blow, even though he was supposedly a Republican.
If Obama does what he really wants to do, AK-based guns are going to get very hard to find. They’re already harder to find than they used to be. We used to have lots of good, inexpensive rifles to choose from. Then the government choked off the supply. Now a nice AK with a milled receiver costs a thousand dollars. We’re not talking about a gorgeous, tightly assembled technological marvel. We’re talking about the world’s favorite peasant rifle. Something that should cost five hundred bucks, tops. Next year, the price may shoot up to two thousand, and after that, we would be limited to buying used.
So I’m wondering if I should get an AK and let the M1 wait. I don’t have any AKs. A folding job would be very handy around the house, under certain circumstances.
The AK market is incredibly confusing, for a person like me. I don’t know much about guns. I’m fairly sure I want a rifle with a milled receiver. People say they’re more accurate and more pleasant to shoot, and that they last longer. There aren’t many alternatives at a reasonable price. In fact, I only know of one. The Golani, which is a Galil assembled from parts. It’s supposed to be a great gun, but there are problems. First of all, there are a lot of complaints about the receivers deforming. These parts are American-made, and many people say they don’t compare to the originals. Second, people claim the parts used to make these guns are used, and that they come from places like Guatemala. That sounds bad. Finally, the cheap ones are assembled by Century Arms, and there are disturbing photos on the web showing mashed parts and bad ejectors built up with welded material. You can build one yourself, but you’re still stuck with the US receiver, unless you shell out for an IMI. And I believe you need a bunch of exotic tools, like a hydraulic press.
The Bulgarians still make a few nice guns. They make an AK with a folding stock. There is a pre-ban version, and there’s a post-ban version. The difference? No idea. The manufacturer’s site doesn’t make it clear. You’ll pay a minimum of a thousand dollars.
You can get a VEPR from Robinson Arms. This may be the best option. They’re supposed to be superb. If arms laws loosen up (conceivable), the foreign weapons will drop in value, but the VEPR probably won’t, since it’s a limited-run custom piece. But they only sell big long jobs you wouldn’t want to use against a burglar. Can they be modified to be more handy? Search me.
I’d like to have something that holds 30 rounds, can be shot accurately with the stock folded, and goes “bang” every time. It has to hit man-sized targets easily at distances under a hundred feet, without the sights. It can’t recoil so much it’s hard to keep on target. I think the M1 carbine may fill the bill, and I’m pretty sure the AK does, too. Arsenal makes something called an SAS-M7 that looks really good.
I wonder if the Obama policy stooges realize they are stimulating people to build “home arsenals.” Were it not for the artificial inflation and shortages caused by our stupid, heavy-handed gun laws, I would have little motivation to stock up on things. If I get an AK, I’ll want a thousand rounds of ammunition, minimum, from the word “go.” It’s cheap now; it may be expensive next year. I’d be a fool to wait. If the laws were reasonably, I wouldn’t be interested in the gun OR the ammunition right now.
If I do the shopping I need to do over the coming month, I’ll probably end up with 3,000 or more rounds of ammunition lying around, in various calibers. I don’t want that. I would much rather keep smaller quantities. But I have to face reality. Small amounts of ammunition are costly, and ammunition prices and availability can’t be trusted right now, so the smart move is to buy big.
I know the gun-haters don’t realize this is how “home arsenals” develop. They think they’re spawned by a kook mentality; by a desire to be ready to hold off the police for hours. That’s only true of a tiny percentage of gun owners. I can’t imagine a plausible self-defense scenario that would require me to have more than 50 rounds on hand. If gun laws made sense, gun owners would buy less stuff. Right now, gun vendors are paying off their mortgages and retiring, thanks to the great genius, Obama.
Advice from gun nuts appreciated.
Avoid This Country
Here is the piece I wrote yesterday morning.
Rachel Lucas says she’s moving to England, even though there is no Mexican food there.
To quote one of America’s great thinkers, “That’s insane. You’re stupid.”
I have never been to England, unless sitting on a runway counts, but I hear they have excellent food there. Of course, I am referring to food cooked by foreigners. And for once, by “foreigners,” I am not referring to the English themselves.
I know it’s confusing.
The regular English food sounds suitable for coercing confessions out of terrorists. Even worse than the comfy chair, plus the stuffed cushions.
By the way, they’ve been using the comfy chair at Gitmo for quite some time. I’m so glad they’re shutting that hellhole down. Here’s a transcript of a torture video. I know it’s real, because I found it on Dan Rather’s Myspace page:
Blackwater Dude: [poke, poke, poke] Out with it, Achmed. Who is the leader of Al Qaeda in Basra?
Achmed: Son of a Zionist goat. May the prophet–peace be upon him–micturate on your favorite Koran.
Second Blackwater Dude: Have you got all the stuffing up one end?
Achmed’s Wife: Have you got anything without spam in it?
Achmed: It’s not halal.
Dick Cheney and Scooter Libby: SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM…[Cheney shoots Blackwater Dude in the face]
Cheney: Sorry!
Blackwater Dude: ‘Tis but a scratch.
Waitress: BLOODY REPUBLICANS!
I’ve seen TV shows about the British navy, in which the food and drink are criticized as inhumane. The thing the shows’ writers never seem to realize is that the food back on shore wasn’t noticeably different. And as a bonus, British sailors were drunk all day, every day. Look it up. The navy gave them free beer and rum. They were too blown away to know what they were doing.
I realize you could say the same thing about Britons in general, but the ones on land had a choice.
Historians say Britons had to be forced into the navy, but I very much doubt it. If they offered recruits free beer today, they would have to use water cannons to repel the waves of shrieking, hysterical applicants.
I used to watch Horatio Hornblower DVDs and marvel at the bravery of the sailors. Cannonballs would come flying into their ships, ripping off arms and legs, and the sailors stayed at their posts, shooting back and calling the French fairies. But bravery had nothing to do with it. They were plastered. Get me drunk enough, and I’ll fight the French, too. Well, okay, I see how ridiculous that looks. Replace “French” with a nationality that fights back.
In the old days, sailors had to store their water in barrels. A few days after the barrels were filled, algae and bacteria turned the water into slime. Even the British won’t drink that. The brilliant solution to this problem was to fill the barrels with beer instead. It lasted much longer. So if you were a sailor, and you were thirsty from climbing up and down the rigging and flirting with other sailors, your only option was a large serving of beer. Imagine how far gone you would be at the end of a busy day. A stint in the navy would be like climbing into a portal and experiencing the Seventies as Dennis Hopper. Or like going to a typical American college.
I don’t understand why the British would avoid Mexican food. It’s not like eating Mexican food requires especially healthy teeth.
If I were Rachel, I just flat wouldn’t go. Not until I located some Mexican joints or confirmed that I could fix my own, using ingredients from English grocery stores. And I’d be scouting out places that serve Indian food. It’s not an ideal substitute, but it comes closer than toad in the hole.
Go Read the Paper
I wrote a big long post about the lack of Mexican food in England, and then I realized it wasn’t good Sunday material, so I had to save it as a draft.
Dang it.
Now I can’t think well enough to write a second long post, because Marv is behind me yelling, “Can I rub your snout?” over and over.
I paid for this bird. That’s the bizarre thing. I wasn’t forced to accept it as part of a plea bargain. I took perfectly good money and exchanged it for this creature.
Today, my sister and I will be going to Rich Wilkerson’s church. I hope it will be like last week’s visit. I physically felt the presence of God there. That’s a hard experience to turn down. I think any atheist or agnostic who claims to be open-minded should visit a church like this one. If you can experience this and continue to claim there is no god, you are beyond reach. I believe most people who claim there is no evidence of the existence of God are very determined not to look for it. You can find it if you try.
Intermission
I have a database problem which is interfering with comments. Working on it.
Who Needs Tanks When You Have Cheap Sedans?
What on earth is going on in China?
A while back I ordered a Chinese car charger for my cell phone. I don’t recall the price, but it was something like one cent. Seriously. And the shipping was very cheap. The product arrived, and it worked great. I can’t figure out how the seller managed to make the sale worth his time.
Earlier this week, I ordered a nice green laser sight from Hong Kong. Total cost, with rechargeable battery and mount: about $40. That’s less than half the cost of lasers American companies sell. Is the quality as high? People who have bought the laser seem to love it; that’s all I can tell you.
Today I remembered that I needed a charger for the laser battery. I found one. Cost? Two dollars. With FOUR batteries included. I’m not kidding. For a total of about ten bucks, they’re shipping it from Hong Kong.
I’ve used Chinese batteries in my cameras, with Chinese chargers. They work great. They’re probably made in the same factories where my Canon batteries were made.
Here’s something that makes Chinese bargains even more interesting. They’re going to sell cars here. I know that. I don’t have to check; it’s obvious. Common sense.
Okay, I’ll check.
Yes, it’s happening. As of 2007, a company called Chery was planning to open up shop here. I assume they’ve done it already.
Right now, Chinese cars are junk. On the other hand, they cost under ten grand. That covers a multitude of sins. Industry people say it will be five or ten years before they improve. Yeah, right. The same nation that has quickly improved its tools and other industrial products dramatically will need five years to do the same thing with cars. Do you believe that? Even if it’s true, five years isn’t a long time.
And here we are, seriously entertaining the notion of taking money away from responsible Americans and giving it to relatively unskilled auto workers who bring home about $72 per hour, working so slowly their effective rate is actually about $144. Brilliant. We are supposed to pump more money into three failed companies, with no expectation that they will stop paying their workers five times the market value of their labor. Please explain. Do you make $144 per hour? Some of you do, but many of you don’t. I’m sure many of you make about a tenth of that. How do you feel about paying taxes on your market-value wage, so someone else can earn several times as much, doing something of equal or lesser value? Would you lend money to your neighbor to keep his convenience store afloat, if he insisted on paying the clerk four hundred dollars a day?
The Japanese used to make bad cars. They improved. The Koreans make good cars. The Chinese are going to make good cars, too, and they’re going to be dirt cheap. And it’s going to happen right when our bloated car industry is supposed to start paying off on our giant welfare check. Am I the only person who sees a problem here? Would you invest in a failing Burger King, if you knew the Chinese were going to open a similar restaurant next door, charging half as much for the same food?
No.
The UAW needs to get a grip. Their wages are going to plummet, with or without a bailout. That is a certainty. They can’t compete with the Japanese, and when the Chinese show up in force, they’re going to be annihilated. They should be working with the carmakers to increase efficiency and get wages in line with revenues. The free punch and pie are things of the past. The fifty-year-long frat party is OVER.
I still tend to think America is washed up, as the world’s preeminent nation. We aborted our babies, we sanctioned every type of sexual sin, we took drugs, we turned VD into an honor, we accorded evil religions the same dignity as Judaism and Christianity, and we helped Israel commit suicide. We quit taking God seriously, and we forgot where all that lovely money came from. I think we’re all done. Get used to second-tier status.
We can’t seem to absorb the truth. Americans are not superior. We are not the master race. We are not invincible. Without God’s protection, poverty and socialism can happen here. Our enemies can win. We can be invaded and conquered. The UAW thinks it’s 1950, and we’re still in a postwar boom, with the highest standard of living in the world. In all likelihood, we are in a contraction that will not end until life here is about like it is in Italy. We are living under a self-inflicted curse, just like the Jews who were carried off to Babylon.
I am not an economist, but it sure seems like bad times are here to stay. A gigantic amount of American wealth–trillions of dollars–has ceased to exist. People are going to spend less. They’re going to have less to invest in a recovery. Even companies that are managed well are going to suffer, because consumers will have less money to pay for their products and services. Companies that sell to other companies will see lower demand, because their customers will go out of business or experience dramatic slowdowns. Someone tell me…doesn’t this guarantee deflation? It’s already happening to oil and other commodities.
In my mind, it spells “depression.” Demand for everything is down. Capital is gone. Most Americans have almost no savings; no one seems to be talking about this. Many Americans have negative net worths. When waves of layoffs start–and they will–the millions of people who have low net worths and heavy debt loads, and who rent their homes, will spill into the street in a flash. Am I wrong? If you live from hand to mouth, and you have a $15,000 Visa balance, and you have no equity in your home, where are you supposed to live the month after you get fired? Don’t buy a car now; it would be like buying a house in 2007. Six months from now, you may be able to take your pick, from hundreds of low-mileage repos.
Wow, a question just occurred to me. Tens of millions of Americans have no assets and too much debt. If layoffs start, won’t it cause a second credit crisis as bad as the one caused by our socialist mortgage mess? The same banks that are now eating bad mortgages will have to eat credit card balances. All I can say is, thank God for the FDIC.
Not everyone agrees with me. Supposedly, evangelist Perry Stone thinks we can turn it around. He knows more than I do. I hope he’s right. I trust him more than the “experts” on cable TV. Here’s a question I asked my dad the other day. How many of them are now saying, “This is exactly what I predicted!”? Very damn few. This crash cut their legs out from under them. And the eternal pessimists don’t count; they forecast disaster regardless of the circumstances. Very few of these geniuses saw this coming. They are utterly clueless. False prophets. If you watch the financial channels, you should know this already. When the market is strong for a week, they talk about the wonderful boom which is going to last for years. When it falls for a week, they talk about the bear market that has just begun. I’m not kidding. I’ve watched these people for years. Here’s something to remember. A lot of these characters are not great investors. Many of them handle other people’s money, which means they get paid whether or not their predictions come true.
I’m checking out my theories, and it looks like some gurus are already voicing these concerns.
I know this: it’s always the right time to turn back to God. We shut off the valve that supplied our prosperity. Every individual can reopen it with respect to himself.
Where is my Honorary Doctorate?
I keep inhaling psalms. I finally got past 37, which was a horror to memorize. Since then, luckily, I have been drawn to shorter psalms. This morning, I had to make a list so that when I went through my memorized psalms to firm them up, I would not forget any. I think this is complete: 1, 2, 3, 4, 23, 34, 37, 63, 101. Number 15 will be under control tomorrow.
This stuff works. Lessons from the psalms keep popping into my head during the day.
Psalm 15 is a tough one to swallow. Apparently, in order to be acceptable to God, you have to satisfy these conditions: “He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour.” Oh, man. What is there left for me to write about? I can’t backbite and reproach? There goes my hobby. I may sell my keyboard.
I came across this today, in Psalm 41:
“Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the LORD will deliver him in time of trouble.
The LORD will preserve him, and keep him alive; and he shall be blessed upon the earth: and thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies.
The LORD will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness.
Non-Christians talk a lot about karma. They say you suffer for your bad deeds, and that you are eventually rewarded for your good deeds. Some people say this proves Jesus and Buddha are interchangeable, because it sounds sort of like what Jesus said. They’re a hundred percent wrong. This is not the way Christianity works. We hope to be rewarded for our good deeds, but we beg–and expect–to be spared punishment for our bad deeds. In fact, Jesus bore a great deal of our punishment. But to a great extent, we do reap what we sow. More and more, I realize that you can’t expect good things to happen to you, unless you, yourself, do good things. And the good things you do should be similar in nature to the good things you want done for you. Many ministers say these things, and I think they’re right.
Jews apparently believe this, too. I was talking to Aaron about it. They believe you apply the principle in prayer. Instead of just asking for things, you search your heart and your memory, to see if you have anything of which to repent. You look to your own history and heart to see if you have brought misfortune on yourself. And if you want a certain type of blessing, you try to give it to others. For example, if you need healing, you might make a gift to a charity that provides medical services.
If you think about it, this must explain the Golden Rule. If you do unto others as you would have them do unto you, presumably, you are sowing good seed. You are laying the groundwork for God to treat you well. If you show mercy, you get it. If you show generosity, you will receive it. Generally, I mean. No Christian gets through life without some mistreatment.
Before Jesus, the Jews were already saying, “That which is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor.” I believe some modern Jews say this is the same as the Golden Rule, which says, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” But is it? Under the first rule, it’s wrong to harm people. The second obligates you to help people, proactively. It’s a greater requirement. In Luke 10, The priest who passed by on the other side (supposedly to avoid becoming ceremonially unclean) satisfied the first rule, but not the second, which the Good Samaritan obeyed.
According to Luke 10, the Jews didn’t stop at the first rule; they also said we were to love our neighbors as ourselves. This combines the two rules. Ordinarily, you don’t want to harm yourself, and you also want to help yourself.
The above lines from Psalm 41 are consistent with this principle. I would say they amount to a promise, and you can find the same promise expressed differently elsewhere in both testaments.
I am thinking about this a lot these days. I am getting pretty old, and I have not done much for humanity. And I have done stupid things, which I thought were just, which probably invited problems into my life.
I think we are supposed to be like tubes through which God pumps his blessings into the world. After all, the Bible calls him “the many-breasted God.” Maybe we all need to make a more conscious effort to be empathetic.
Last night, it occurred to me that the church was losing opportunities by failing to be empathetic. For example, we have terrible problems with PETA these days. These people have gone completely nuts, persecuting and even injuring human beings because of the way we treat animals. The Bible tells us to be kind to animals, yet we abuse them very badly on our farms, and the church doesn’t say a word about it. PETA, with its extremism and links to anti-Christian leftism, is probably our punishment. We opened the door, by ignoring the need. And we’re headed in the same direction, with the Nigerian “child witch” nonsense. The church caused the problem, the church is not fixing it, and the world is starting to notice the little abandoned children who wander around in the open, looking for food in ditches.
I don’t know how I ended up here; I only intended to say how happy I was that the memorization was going well.
Time to Put Salt on the Leeches
What a weird time we live in. I went back to college as an adult; it wasn’t all that long ago. Nonetheless, at that time, you had to be a pretty weird character to own a laser, other than the tiny ones found in CD and laserdisc players. Now you can buy a wide variety of the crazy things, for cheap. And you’re not limited to red ruby lasers, either.
I just picked up a laser for the M1 carbine I am determined to buy. It’s green, and it’s powerful. I paid about $30. I could have gone with a fancy-shmancy $300 job from a big-name company, but I wanted to see what a $30 laser was like. It has windage and elevation adjustments, and the battery is rechargeable. It might be okay. If not, it’s a fun toy to have.
Naturally, it’s Chinese. It’s sort of odd; the Chinese are our enemies, yet they supply us with a lot of great gun-related hardware, which we will use to slaughter them if we are ever invaded. And of course, they send us all those tasty melamine snacks with lead icing.
Although I am not naive enough to think the Chinese are not dangerous, it’s wonderful to see them learning about capitalism. They have lived in squalor ever since China has existed; I am told that this is the reason they like communism. It stinks, but it’s better than anything they had under their emperors. They’re getting a taste of prosperity now, and where capitalism goes, freedom follows. You can’t have a free market in a stable totalitarian state. At least I don’t think you can. If the government runs everything, they stick their noses into every trade, and business goes to hell.
Maybe increased freedom will lead to a more powerful church. On the other hand, many people react to prosperity by saying, “Never mind, ‘God.’ I can handle my own problems just fine.”
Speaking of heavy-handed government, Kim du Toit and I are on the same page RE the Big Three bailout. Like he says, the dire forecasts are wrong. Probably. Spoiled execs and hack union bosses with no marketable skills tell us millions of jobs will be lost. No, they won’t. They’ll just be moved to companies that aren’t run by incompetents or bled dry by socialist unions. We will still need cars. Auto workers will still need jobs. Other people in the industry will still need jobs. They’ll get them. Those jobs will be provided by a big Three deloused and purged by bankruptcy proceedings, or they’ll be provided by whoever buys their assets.
Do we really think American car production will cease instantly? Do we seriously believe foreign companies will immediately take up the slack, in plants on their own soil? I find those notions hard to swallow. I find it hard to believe that foreign companies could ramp up production that quickly. I’m sure their factories already work 24-hour schedules. Isn’t it more likely that they (or American investors) will look to the idle workers, factories, and suppliers that are already here? If we’re going to shovel out $25 billion, or whatever the figure is, why not shovel it out to new companies that will do things right? Let’s give them loans and tax credits and give the UAW the big kiss-off. Unions were never supposed to guarantee professional wages for laborers. They were supposed to prevent true oppression. The UAW is like a tick swollen up to the size of your fist, and it needs to go. If the Big Three go bankrupt, the idiotic contracts they negotiated with the UAW will vanish instantly. Even Benny Hinn can’t manage a healing that dramatic.
It’s not just okay for the Big Three to be abandoned. It’s something we need to do for America. You can’t pay relatively unskilled laborers $140,000 a year to do their simple jobs badly. Not in a capitalist system. I can’t believe we’re even considering perpetuating it. A bailout will teach bad management and incredibly spoiled workers that their abominable practices are just fine, and that there is no need to change. We bailed out Chrysler, and look at the good it did. There was no reform. Here they are with their hands out again. Oh yeah, that worked.
You don’t give a dog biscuits for crapping in the house.
I thought the bailout was guaranteed, but apparently, Bush will be in office long enough to force these people into bankruptcy. Obama and his band of Bolsheviks won’t be running the country soon enough to force this garbage down our throats. That’s what I hear. I hope it’s true. It would be fantastic to see these companies dewormed, at last. Think how great it would be to see America make good cars again, profitably, using workers who actually have a future. As for union bosses and superfluous management people who will be trimmed out of the system, they can always get student loans and learn how to do something useful. You, too, can learn to drive the big rigs.
Either we’re capitalists, or we’re not. If we’re capitalists, then we do not use tax money to prop up utterly corrupt businesses. And the bigger a business is, the more harmful a bailout is.
People in the industry will suffer during the restructuring. That’s bad. But it’s exactly what is supposed to happen when people in a capitalist system insist on being irresponsible. If you’re getting $72 per hour, based on eight hours when you actually work four, doing minimally skilled labor, how can you expect it to last forever? How can you fail to set money aside for your future? You have only yourself to blame. You have to learn from this. You have to change.
The answer is to grit your teeth, tighten your belt, endure the lean times, and be part of the reform process. In the end, car people will have secure jobs with realistic wages and safe pensions.
Many law school graduates earn $20 per hour, even when times are good. These are generally people with big loans to pay, and they’ve spent seven years in college. How can anyone have the sand to claim a guy who turns the same bolt three hundred times a day is worth seven times as much?
I hate to see anyone lose a job, but you reap what you sow, and the unions and for decades, the union and the car execs have sown and fertilized the seeds of their own destruction. It’s wrong to help them, when we allow responsible, hard-working individuals to go bankrupt every day. It’s wrong, and it will only bring more misery the next time they want a bailout. The Chrysler mess led to this. What kind of financial holocaust will this much-bigger bailout lead to?
These loafers and parasites tell us the Big Three are too big to fail. They’re wrong. It’s America that’s too big to fail. And a Big Three bailout will help destroy her.
Soon We’ll be Lucky if We’re Allowed to Own Rape Whistles
I hit the gun range today and had a lot of fun. I’m pretty sure I spotted a Jewish person. That gave me hope for his race.
I shot the Romak III badly, although not as badly as I shot it before the trigger replacement. The new pull is very light, but it’s also extremely long, and I think that messes me up.
At least it cycled.
I tried the hint about focusing on the reticle markings instead of the target. It made no difference with the Romak, but it may have helped with the K31, which I shot well. Funny thing; focusing on the reticle somehow makes you feel like the rear part of the scope is about to poke you in the eye. It’s unnerving.
I went to two gun stores to ask about Auto-Ordnance M1 carbines, but they were no help. The guy at Bass Pro had no idea what an M1 carbine was. I think the Miami Bass Pro is kind of a farce. When I went in today, I noticed two things. No pistols, and no defensive long guns. I am not completely sure about the long guns, but I’m 95% sure. I think this is the biggest pansy Pro Bass store in the US. They need to shape up. At least they sell ammunition for pistols.
I found a high-powered green laser on Ebay, cheap. That will be a fun toy, IF I can find the gun.
No target photos to post. My phone came back to life after its visit to Maytag World, but it’s only firing on three cylinders, so I can’t take pictures.
Lots of people at the range. People know our socialist, anti-gun President-Elect and his goons are going to come for our guns if they can, so they’re going nuts on gun buys and range time. Very sad. Where was the fear back in October, when it could have saved America from this horrible mistake?
I’m thinking it might be fun to get a better stock for the K31. The one that came with it is crap; no two ways about it. The grip is too thick. It’s heavy. And the butt has points on it that turn my shoulder into hamburger.
I still haven’t gotten it to shoot to the POA.
Great day. Enjoy your guns while you can; I am extremely conscious of the fact that in five or ten years, I may have no guns and no place to shoot them. In anticipation of leftist fascism, I already treasure the memory of the America that was.
Help
I must visit the range, but before I go, I present a request from reader R:
My niece’s grandson was born 5 weeks prematurely with breathing difficulties he is overcoming, but also a worse diagnosis of polycystic kidney disease. Please pray they can help him and for comfort to his parents and grandparents.
Hi-Tech for WWII Plinker
I am enjoying a tall glass of Red Rose tea, flavored with a magnificent Persian lime I grew myself. Don’t let anybody tell you store limes are as good as yard limes. Store limes are dry, and they’re not ripe.
I just checked Drudge. Apparently, the Obamas are starting a workout plan. Even though The Bums Won (to contradict the big Lebowski), they need to remember something. George Bush is a fitness nut who could mash pencil-necked B. Hussein like a pimple. Our President can beat up your President-Elect. I say that with all warmth and graciousfulness. And of course, hope.
This day is beginning well. For one thing, it was 53 degrees this morning. It’s funny how your attitude toward cool weather changes when you start working with tools and taking care of your yard. Sweat and the sun become your enemies. Perhaps the good Lord is preparing me emotionally for a move north, which I hope to make eventually. Yes, I will need help, adjusting to those frigid below-75 days I’ll have to endure in May, halfway up the state.
I think I’m going to go through with my M1 carbine plan. It’s an interesting experiment, and it may turn out to be a good home defense strategy, and it’s just plain fun. I’ll tell everyone how it works out. I’m also looking at M96 Mausers and M39 Finnish Mosins. Not sure why every gun name begins with “M.” I’d like to find an unissued Mosin, but I’m not sure where they come from or what the deal is. Are they really pre-WWII guns that somehow ended up in boxes, unopened, or are they just old guns with new stocks? I guess every M39 is old, in a way, because they’re remanufactured. But you know what I mean.
I’m going to slap a front grip on the M1, with a laser and light, just to see if it’s any good. I wonder how much the accuracy will suffer. I don’t think it will matter, because I plan to learn to shoot this thing without the sights.
A lot of people think you have to use sights to shoot, but that isn’t true. Sure, if you want pinpoint accuracy, sights matter. But when I was a kid, I used to shoot BB guns and air guns all the time without sights, and I had no problem hitting what I aimed at. And my grandfather once shot a rifled slug from the hip and took out a grouse in a distant tree; my dad saw it, and he still talks about it.
There is a famous video of a police officer being gunned down by a drunk veteran with an M1 carbine. If you watch it, you’ll notice the drunk did not use the sights. Yet he had no problem putting round after round exactly where he wanted. His shot placement was flawless. If he had used the sights, the officer might have had the time to kill him. To belabor the point, choosing not to use the sights made him more lethal, not less.
Navy SEALS practice shooting without sights. I don’t know what better recommendation you could want. Read Richard Marcinko’s book.
Besides…laser.
I don’t know anything about laser sights. I’m reading up. Evidently, you can get a very powerful green laser now for $43. I don’t understand much of the technical stuff, which is sad, because I took a semester of advanced optics in college, and I built temperature and current controllers for C02 lasers. I remember terms like “beam waist,” but that’s about it.
Licensed to Cruffle
Here is horrible news. I am about to begin cruffling. The BATF pestered me to fix my application, so I sent a check, and the paper arrived today.
This is bad. There are so many things I want, which I didn’t get because of the hassle of picking them up from a dealer.
I can get an M1 carbine. I can get another K31. An M1 Garand. An M39. An M96. A Sherman tank. My own aircraft carrier.
I think that’s about it.
One thing is for sure. I won’t be ordering anything by cell phone. That is because I have the cleanest cell phone in Miami. This is because I just repeated my old trick: putting the cell phone through the washing machine.
Some people buy new cell phones when they get tired of their old ones. Some people wait until new features come out. For me, the trigger is soap suds coming out of the keypad.
I can’t believe I did this again. I do it every two years.
It’s not that big a deal. I recently realized I needed PDA capabilities. I can’t keep track of when I fertilized what. Or when I should clean the dust out of my room. I have lots of stuff like that, getting on my nerves. The more organized my life becomes, the less I know when I’m supposed to do things.
The old phone might work when it dries out.
I wish I had an interest in Eastern bloc pistols, because there are a whole bunch of them that are C&R eligible.
Hopefully you’ll see me soon on the news, posing with my kitchen table “home arsenal.”