All Systems Go

Am I silly to get such thrills out of little things? Today a package arrived from Midwayusa, and I’m beside myself.

A while back, I bought a .17 HMR rifle. But I couldn’t use it. The 42mm objective on the scope, combined with the thickness of the varmint barrel, made it necessary to get extra-high scope rings, which were not available locally. I had to order the damn things. So my rifle, ammunition, bag, and sling have been sitting on the bedroom floor.

Today the box arrived. I put the rings on, and everything lines up fine. I have 500 rounds, waiting to be shot. I can’t wait. But I will. Because it’s windy today. Tomorrow should be better. The wind won’t mess up my rifle shooting all that much, because the targets are supported by two legs. On the pistol side, the wind will make the targets rock and twist; the targets are mounted on a single pole.

I didn’t lap the scope rings. I’m not sure I need to, and I didn’t feel like dropping 30 bucks on a tool of questionable value.

I chose Weaver Grand Slam rings, because they have levers that don’t fall off when you fool with the scope. The regular rings have parts you can lose. I had a hell of a time getting these rings to work, because I wrongly assumed they worked on some kind of cam action, with a limited swing on the levers. In fact, each lever turns a screw, so you have to turn it many times to back it out and open the rings for mounting.

I also got Eezox. Not sure what to do with it.

Since this is a rimfire, I assumed I needed minimal eye relief. Tell me if I’m wrong, before I poke a hole in my forehead. I mounted the scope as far back as I could get it.

This was a glorious purchase. Scope and all, it’s cheaper than a nice pistol.

Let me know if that sling looks right. There were no instructions.

Be Careful About Throwing Them Away

A reader sent me a blog link today. It’s about a lady who took her four-year-old daughter to see John McCain and Sarah Palin. Her daughter has Down’s Syndrome.

It occurred to me, as I read the entry, that they may be an unexpected benefit to a Sarah Palin Vice Presidency. It may change people’s attitudes toward kids with Down’s Syndrome and other problems.

It’s not something that should be milked for political advantage, but it seems inevitable, should John McCain win. We’ll be seeing Trig Palin on the news over and over, surrounded by a loving family. He’s already a Youtube hit; everyone has seen the short clip of his sister, grooming his hair.

The prospect of having a handicapped kid scares people. I assume. Surely that’s the reason so many handicapped babies are aborted. The thought has certainly scared me. I hope the abortions are not the result of a sick desire to have “perfect” children to show off, although maybe I’m naive. I believe many couples and single women see ominous prenatal test results and choose abortion, simply because they think raising a handicapped child will be too hard for them.

That attitude will necessarily be eroded by the spectacle of a warm, loving family with a child who has Down’s Syndrome. I don’t know how many people the message will reach, but I’m sure a large number of pregnant women will be influenced, and that they’ll take the healthier path, confronting the problem instead of running from it.

As a nation, we aren’t all that familiar with Down’s Syndrome. Sometimes we see ridiculous movies and TV shows which stupidly portray retarded people as the smartest folks around, but saying those efforts teach us about Down’s Syndrome is like saying G.I. Jane taught us about the Navy Seals. A real-life example will have much more impact.

People whose children have physical problems seem fairly united in their perceptions. For the most part, they tell us their experiences have been fulfilling and surprising. That makes sense. We were put here to face challenges like this. God didn’t create us to have “show families,” the way some people have show dogs and show horses. We are supposed to have problems, and the hope is that by facing them with faith and principle, we can turn them into blessings. This is something I find hard to remember, at times when it can serve me best. I don’t blame other people for forgetting. But it’s still true.

Man’s way of making life perfect is quick and futile. God’s way is slow, subtle, and lasting. You could say God’s approach is nuanced, if you wanted to start a fight.

We always say a child is a gift from God; presumably a child with a special challenge is a special gift. Maybe each of those medical waste bags the abortion industry has filled represents a gift that has been rejected. It’s an awful thing to consider.

Maybe the seeming imperfection of the Palin family is a gift to our nation, which we should study carefully before we turn it down.

In the sidebar to your left, you will find a link to Care-Net.

THINK

Regarding the election…I think it would be wise if commentators, when discussing the Republican VP choice, would stop saying McCain “tapped” Sarah Palin.

Didn’t the Dalai Obama say They Were Harmless?

Fausta thinks we may be on the verge of another Cold War. I’m glad I went on Ebay and bought those electric boxers.

Correction

A reader informs me that it’s not actually cold during a Cold War. Apparently it’s just an expression.

Suspicions Confirmed

I have wonderful news.

At last, science has an explanation for liberalism.

First Amendment Unimportant to Liberals

Moxie lives in California, the land of tolerance. See how Californians express their tolerance for a McCain banner on private property.

Better still: if you leave the banner up so people can see what happened, the city tries to force you to remove it.

More

While you’re there, read about the shocking sliming of B. Hussein.

Who Gets Custody of Joe Biden?

Ben Smith at Politico points out something interesting. Barack Obama just kicked the press out of bed and took his money off the dresser.

In his bizarre, whiny, faux-patriotic response (see Otter’s courtroom scene in Animal House), Obama began to criticize the press for paying attention to his pig/lipstick/smelly fish gaffe. He began ranting about how “the news media” were going after the story, and he compared it to catnip. He said America (stand, place hand over heart) was the true victim.

What Smith omits from his quote is Obama’s feeble effort to make it look like he’s not really criticizing the press. Obama expressly went after the press, but then after the words “This is what they want to spend two of the last 55 days talking about,” he tried to turn it around, claiming “they” meant McCain’s people.

Let’s be honest. He did swerve toward McCain at the end. But that was only after he made it very clear he was trying to run down the press.

What will happen now? If there is one thing the press hates as much or more than a Republican candidate, it’s being told how to do its job. Barack Obama can’t handle criticism, but compared to the press, he’s gracious. The press has a long memory and a short fuse. And it is nearly impossible to beat them, once the bombs start flying.

How can this man be so ungrateful? The press sent three news anchors on his ridiculous jaunt to Europe. They put Sarah Palin on a magazine cover over the words “Babies Lies & Scandal,” one week after putting him and his wife behind “Michelle Obama: Why Barack Loves Her.” They ignored the first half of McCain’s campaign. They continue to ignore Obama’s confessed-terrorist buddy, Bill Ayres. They sat on the Edwards scandal because they thought he might be Obama’s running mate. They practically groped Obama at the debates. They made an icky homoerotic remark about tingling legs. They uncritically published lie after lie about Sarah Palin, even as untrained bloggers with day jobs were disproving the rumors. How can he risk alienating an utterly corrupt journalistic establishment, which fawns over him as if he pooped diamonds and cancer vaccines?

The press loves him so much, they’ve had to discipline themselves. The cable pseudopod of NBC, the farthest-left, least self-aware network, actually became embarrassed by Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews and removed them from their anchor posts. You can’t buy friends like that. They are irreplaceable.

How does he think he got where he is? He’s a junior senator with 143 days of work behind him and no major accomplishments. Before that, he was a state senator with no major accomplishments. Before that, he was a political machine flunky. He’s not even a real lawyer; he has never had a practice. He thinks he jumped to the top of Mount Everest, and now he’s throwing rocks at the Sherpas who carried him.

The most likely thing is that the press will bite its collective tongue and suffer the insults until he’s elected. But maybe they won’t. They brought Gary Hart down, after he dared them to prove he was an adulterer. They might give the Precious a dose of the same bitter medicine.

To paraphrase Dean Vernon Wormer, maybe it’s time someone put his foot down. And that foot is the press.

The Voice of Class

Barack Obama’s mouth is like Pandora’s box. A helpful aide should glue it shut, while there is still someone Obama hasn’t offended.

Yesterday, we learned that Obama used the old “lipstick on a pig” joke, which appeared to be a reference to Sarah Palin, who made a famous and very recent joke in which she said lipstick was the only difference between pit bulls and she and her fellow “hockey moms.” He compounded the error by making an ill-advised reference to a smelly piece of fish.

Today, Obama gave us his official response. And it was a beauty. He said–smirking–that this was a “made-up controversy” of the type of which the public was tired. There was no apology. There was no acknowledgment that anyone could have taken legitimate offense.

He made his remarks at a high school. How appropriate.

There is about a two percent chance his pig remark was not aimed at Palin, so he could be excused if he claimed he wasn’t referring to her. But a mature man would have apologized, anyway. He should have said, “I can see how people would misunderstand. I am sorry if it appeared that I was insulting Governor Palin, and I did not mean it that way.” Instead, we saw the now-familiar, highly insensitive face of the Chosen One, dismissively chiding blasphemers and implying that those who claim they were offended are lying. And he ignored the PUMAs, who have nothing to do with the McCain campaign, and who are more angry than anyone.

Before the PUMAs arrived on the scene, I did not realize how badly Obama’s arrogance and contempt offend people. Since they started creating blogs and message boards, my eyes have been opened. They complain about sexism, disrespect, and bullying. They see Obama as a spoiled child who becomes indignant when criticized, and who feels entitled to a cushy ride into the White House, as if it were somehow his birthright. The more I read and the more I watch, the more I see what they’re talking about.

Here are two examples of what they perceive as crass Obama behavior.

At a rally in Iowa, Obama’s people played a rap song as background music. The refrain? “99 Problems but a bitch ain’t one.” Look it up. I’m not joking. Using rap music, in and of itself, is evidence that contempt for women doesn’t bother you. Rap’s history of vile sexism is indisputable. Using that song at a rally, while you’re trying to beat a powerful female opponent, is just plain over the top. And a song that crude and antisocial is inappropriate at a rally, no matter what the circumstances are.

We know campaigns fret a great deal about the music they use. They choose it with care, they think about the message, and they worry about how the public will take it. They even pay for rights. Right now, the McCain campaign is involved in a kerfuffle with 80s band Heart, because the campaign bought the right to use “Barracuda” to promote Sarah Palin. Obama’s people can claim they didn’t think about the rap lyrics, or that they didn’t know the song would be played, but the obvious and reasonable presumption is that they reviewed it and approved of it. Did Obama apologize? I see no record of it.

In April, in Raleigh, North Carolina, a bruised and petulant Barack Obama discussed the spanking Hillary Clinton had given him at a televised debate. While making childish remarks, he raised his right hand to his cheek, pulled back his index and ring fingers, and brushed his cheek beneath his right eye. Any high school student can tell you what this means. It’s a way to give someone the finger, while pretending not to. It’s an ancient and widely used insult. Every teacher has seen it a thousand times. You can see it in the movie “Aliens.” The character Sergeant Apone uses it in response to a stupid question from a private.

Now, maybe Obama’s cheek itched. Maybe the supporters, who sat behind him on the stage and broke up with laughter as he made the gesture, were laughing about something else. But the L.A. Times–not known for its hostility to Obama–thought there was enough doubt to justify running an item on one of its blogs. And again, if there was an apology, it’s not very obvious in Google searches.

This is the guy who thinks diplomacy is his great strength. He’s going to sweet-talk our enemies until they make peace with us. If he can’t be tactful and respectful in a political campaign, how are we supposed to believe he can charm the Iranians and North Koreans? So far, his efforts at charm have been limited to convincing slum dwellers that the government owes them more stuff. That’s not a job that requires a Clarence Darrow.

I won’t complain. Every time he stiffens his neck and refuses to be gracious, he moves votes into the McCain column.

Sun Tzu said, “If your opponent is quick to anger, seek to irritate him.” Maybe that’s the recipe for a McCain win. Call Obama on his disdain and narcissism, and wait for him to respond like an angry adolescent. He simply can’t take the heat. He treats criticism aimed at him the way jihadis treat criticism of Mohammed; it’s as if you’re criticizing someone he worships. Remember how upset he got when Maureen Dowd talked about his ears? If George Bush (or any other prominent Republican politician) were that sensitive, he would have killed himself by now. He makes John McCain seem almost serene, and that’s saying something.

It’s no wonder the PUMAs call Obama “the Precious.”

Maybe we should start calling him “Radar,” “Dumbo,” and “Jughead,” just to see if he throws a fit.

I’m glad Obama is working so hard to help us win. I don’t think we could pull it off without him.

This is Too Easy

If there is one thing female Clinton voters love, it’s seeing women compared to pigs and pieces of smelly old fish.

HOW MUCH IS KARL ROVE PAYING THIS MAN?

I realize it’s possible to twist a speaker’s words and get a result the speaker did not intend. But you would have to be stupid to make remarks like this and not realize how they would be taken.

More

In case you live in a bunker, let me give you the particulars. He uttered the ancient “lipstick on a pig” crack, clearly referring to Sarah Palin, and then he said something about old fish stinking even after you wrap it in newspaper.

More

Here’s comforting proof, for the Golden Child, that REPUBLICANS ARE CRAZY WHEN THEY CLAIM HILLARY VOTERS WILL VOTE FOR SARAH PALIN.

Let me extend my hand to the PUMAs in peace. Look, you got screwed. We got screwed. None of us got what we wanted. Let’s all agree that regardless of McCain’s failure to totally satisfy, he’s better than the Dalai Obama. And he’ll put a woman in the White House.

More

Here’s a very typical comment of one of those Hillary supporters who definitely won’t be abandoning Obama for McCain. About Obama, she says: “He’s such an awful disgusting arrogant bile-filled trail of cat sick.”

More

Here is the official, solitary talking point the Obama flaks are uttering on cue: “Obama didn’t call Sarah Palin a pig.”

That is true.

He just IMPLIED it as hard as he could.

Was it unintentional? Maybe. If he’s high on PCP.

Refreshing

Here are two sides of the same interesting coin.

First, Christians are facing growing persecution in the Muslim world. Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein of The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews just wrote an op-ed about it in The New York Daily News.

Highlights:

* “Just this month, a Pakistani court upheld the kidnapping, conversion and ‘marriage’ to older Muslim men of two Christian sisters, aged 10 and 13.”

* “Although they comprise less than 4% of Iraq’s population, Iraqi Christians now account for 40% of its refugees.”

* “Thirty years ago, Lebanon was 60% Christian; today it is barely 25%. And the growing political power of Iran-backed Hezbollah is encouraging further departures.”

Evangelist Brother Andrew encourages ex-Muslim converts to stay in Muslim lands and work to strengthen the church and proselytize. That is hard advice to follow, in times when persecution is increasing. Would I stay in a country where I knew there was a good chance that I or my loved ones would be killed? Would I do that, to help the church? Not a chance. Sorry to say it. No way. Barring a supernatural experience proving to my satisfaction that God wanted me there, I would be looking for the fastest way out. I’ve read horror story after horror story. Maybe some day I’ll be committed enough to risk imprisonment, torture, maiming, and execution. At the moment, I am not feeling it. I could never advise another human being to stay. How could I ask someone else to face a risk I won’t face? I have nothing but admiration for people who put their lives on the line in this manner.

Here’s the other side of the coin. A Coptic priest named Zakaria Botros has become a celebrity in Muslim countries. He has a 90-minute television show aimed at Muslims, and he is converting them at a very high rate. So high, there is a bounty on his head. It is rumored to be as high as sixty million dollars.

You would think the figure would be certain; for a bounty to work, it has to be publicized clearly. But I have no reason to doubt that it’s real.

Father Botros is Egyptian, but he lives in the US. That makes sense. If he were in Egypt, he’d be dead. Egypt is not a safe place for Christians, and I’m sure that applies very heavily to Christians who proselytize via television.

He believes a thousand Muslims convert via his phone banks each month, and because the lines are jammed, he believes the actual conversion figure is much higher. And he has websites.

It looks like television and the Internet are highly effective. And considerably safer than face-to-face evangelism.

What’s the conclusion? Hard to say. I feel sure God never intended evangelism to be completely safe, or that it be performed purely by automated means. We’re expected to risk suffering, to some degree. And a TV set is no substitute for a church and a flesh-and-blood pastor. But should Christians risk their lives unnecessarily? Is that required, and is it even effective, compared with TV and the web? And if you decide both types of outreach are needed, how do you balance them? How many people should stay behind in Muslim countries and face violence and oppression?

You won’t get an answer from me. I don’t have a clue.

Here’s something very strange about this blog post. There are two links in the above text. One goes to a story about Muslim oppression of Christians, and the story was penned by an active Orthodox Rabbi who chairs an organization which steers Christian donations to Jewish needs. The other goes to a blog entry about a Christian priest who proselytizes Muslims, and whose life has been credibly threatened by them, and the story was written by a Messianic Jew, Joel Rosenberg. My head is spinning.

Assuming Father Botros checks out, I can’t imagine a better place to send donations. Think about it. You can directly sponsor a Christian outreach to Muslims. What could be better than that? When you drop a bomb on a jihadist, you reduce the enemy’s numbers by one, and our numbers remain steady, and a person dies in ignorance. When you convert a Muslim, the number of our potential enemies is reduced by one, the number of our allies is increased by one, and a person is rescued from darkness.

Please tell me Father Zakarias doesn’t have a yacht and an air-conditioned dog house with a jacuzzi.

Sky Falls – Gore Would be Pleased

AUGGGGHHH.

They said there was a 70% chance of rain today. Apparently the other 30% is behind us, because we are getting HAMMERED.

And not in the good way.

Why do they call them “feeder bands”? We’re not getting fed. We’re getting watered.

Whoops, it’s over.

Call me Lord of the Scope Rings

I am so tired of Hurricane Ike. Apart from the pain it has caused in the Caribbean, it managed to take a path that has kept it nearly the same distance from me for several days. Today the sky is sort of a light grey, and we’re getting lots of annoying wind gusts. By tomorrow morning, we should finally be free from the hurricane influence. And not a moment too soon.

I’m glad it’s getting weak. I hope it finds its way to a nice piece of empty jungle. Let Gaia take it in the face; it’s her storm, anyway.

I got splendid news RE the .17 HMR rifle. My scope rings should be here on Thursday. If that happens, Friday is RANGE DAY. I can’t wait to shoot again. I haven’t been to the range in maybe a month. It’s killing me. And this will be a special day, because for the first time, I’ll be shooting a rifle in which I have total confidence. Will I shoot badly? Maybe. But at least I’ll know what’s causing all the problems.

I decided to get Weaver extra-high rings with levers on them. The levers tighten the rings onto the bases. I chose these over the ones will little knobs that come off. Why? A commenter at Midway said the knobs have a tendency to get away from you. So if you take one off while you’re outdoors, you risk losing it in grass or whatever. The levers don’t look all that great, but at least they won’t fall off.

I have a feeling Weaver won’t sell you a new knob. That’s another consideration.

I also ordered Pachmayrs for the Smith & Wesson 27-2. Jim recommended them. He has been a tremendous help. The wooden grips that come with the gun are very comfortable, for about three shots. After that, you notice that your middle finger is completely filling the space between the grip and the trigger guard. After a while, you get tired of having the steel hammered backward into your flesh. Bad design. Jim recommended the smaller version of the Gripper grip, but I decided to try the big version first, because it has a closed backstrap. It’s supposed to cushion the recoil better, and I don’t like really small grips. My 686 Plus has a tiny grip, and it feels weird.

My dad still hasn’t collected on his Father’s Day gift, which was a concealed carry course. I’ll have to drag him to the class. He wants to go, but he keeps forgetting. He keeps talking about M1 rifles. It would be funny if we started shooting together.

I ordered some Eezox, on recommendations from readers. I might as well mention something which is sure to start a fight. I looked at some rust preventative tests online. Eezox wasn’t the top performer. One product that fared very well is Outers Metal Seal. It’s not easy to find. Break-Free CLP also did very well.

I’m hoping Eezox or something like it will put a halt to the rust on the exposed areas of my ammunition press.

Geez, I still have to take about a hundred .357 rounds apart and try to figure out what’s wrong with them. I tried to shoot some at the range, and they sort of fell out of the barrel, instead of flying true.

I still can’t get the ManCamp boys to go to the range.

While I was at ManCamp on Sunday, Val produced an interesting item. He thought it was some kind of deer rifle. It came from an abandoned house. It was a bolt-action gun with a huge bore. I looked at the bore and wondered what kind of rifle looked like that. Something was wrong. Sure enough, near the breech, I found some very rusty stamping: “.410 Bore.” It’s a single-shot, bolt-action shotgun. Crazy. Someone carved a date into the butt. Something-something-38. I managed to read the word “Stevens” through the crud.

Strange gun. But it was free, so who cares?

I can’t even guess what a gun like that is for.

Let me know when UPS gets here. I am itching to shoot.

It’s Below His Pay Grade

I think I should explain why I’m so irritated with the “Jesus was a community organizer” lie.

It’s not that I object to mixing religion with politics. If anything, I think we should do more of that. We should consider how political platforms comport with our religions when we vote, and when we see problems, we should point them out to others. The IRS ban on mentioning politics from tax-exempt pulpits seems ridiculous to me. To conjure an example at random, if a priest wants to tell his flock to vote against a candidate who supports convenience abortion, he should be able to do it without fear of a big tax penalty. Convenience abortion is a legitimate religious issue; the fact that it has political aspects doesn’t change that.

The ban is obviously an anti-conservative policy. Conservatives are more religious than liberals. There are more conservatives than liberals in churches every week. Even if the intent of the ban is politically neutral, the effect isn’t.

We have to be careful about inappropriate and unrealistic reliance on government to advance religious aims. But our votes have to jibe with our beliefs, as nearly as possible.

The reason I don’t like the community organizer lie, apart from the fact that I generally dislike lies, is that it’s a disgusting and hypocritical effort to portray Jesus as sympathetic to Democrat policies, which He would obviously find repugnant. This is the party that supports nearly every known type of sexual immorality. They support convenience abortion, largely because it’s a necessary adjunct to their support for sexual immorality. They support recreational drug use. They support socialism, which is the single biggest enemy Jesus ever faced; socialist governments overtly oppose Christianity. Liberal Democrats even attempt to supplant God by claiming Man can bring about his own age of peace and prosperity. They’re forcing Christianity out of public buildings, including schools. And they don’t even imitate Jesus’s attitude toward others. They give less to charity than conservatives do. Finally, they support those who oppose Jesus’s people, the Jews, and His nation, Israel.

The GOP may not be a Christian party, but we’re not nearly as hostile to Christianity as the Democrats.

When the Democrats claim Jesus, it’s as if the Republicans were claiming Matthew Shepard. It’s absurd and offensive. This is reflected in a recent news story. A Catholic bishop has asked Nancy Pelosi to come to a meeting and explain why she should be allowed to receive communion, given her support for unrestricted abortion.

“Community organization” is not a Christian tool. It’s a tool of radical politicians. Under other names, it’s a tool of corrupt but non-radical political machines. There is nothing spiritual about it. You may disagree. If you think Ho Chi Minh and Boss Tweed were clergymen.

Claiming Jesus as a liberal agitator appears to be an egregious example of taking the Lord’s name in vain. It would be bad to claim Him while engaged in a spiritually neutral enterprise. But claiming His support while endorsing abortion, sex outside of marriage, and humanism…that’s just crazy. And like sliming Sarah Palin with disproven lies, it is an offensive tactic likely to backfire.

Fire up the Machinery

This is too good not to share.

More than once, I have made it clear that Jesus was anything but a community organizer, i.e. political machine stooge. Here’s a great comment from reader Ed:

I mentioned yesterday in Sunday School, when a reference was made to Jesus as a teacher, that he was not a community organizer. My pastor was in the back and said, “No. He was a maverick”.

I suggested a shirt design to Aaron. Don’t know if he will be interested in marketing this one, as an Orthodox Jew:

“Hitler was a community organizer. Jesus was a maverick.”

It’s funny; if you use Castro, Che, Lenin, Marx, Stalin, Ho Chi Minh, or Pol Pot instead of Hitler, it doesn’t work. Liberals think those guys are heroes.

It’s nearly true, if you use Osama bin Laden.

The Almighty Costcolio Wants it ALL

I need a Costco intervention. I made a run today, and I could probably list ten types of too-big-items-I-never-needed-in-the-first-place I almost bought.

The platter of prosciutto and mozzarella in little bite-size rolls…I still want to go back and get it.

I made a decent score, with some reluctance. The prices on beef were good today, so I went against policy and bought a loaf of New York strips. Usually I buy rib eyes, but I find that Costco rib eyes usually have a big island of solid fat in the middle, which adversely affects the bargain. The beef is good, but that wad of fat is somewhat annoying. So we’ll see how strips taste, after a week of aging. At $5.29 per pound, they would have to be awful for this to be a bad deal.

I need to start buying pork loins. They’re huge and cheap, and what is a pork loin? A loaf of tasty boneless chops.

I found a wonderful item. Kirkland Champagne. From France. REAL Champagne, supposedly. It’s $25 per bottle. I didn’t buy it, but I felt the pull. Wine Spectator gave it a 90. How bad could it be? My favorite Champagne, at prices ordinary humans can afford, is Bollinger Brut. I wonder how it rates on the Wine Spectator scale. I’m still waiting for Kirkland beer. They say it’s on the way.

I bought Costco gas for the first time. Not a fantastic deal, at $3.94 for premium. But at least it was convenient.

My biggest problem with Costco is my South Florida location. Florida Power and Light is the worst power company on earth, and only a fool would rely on a deep freeze here. You can count on losing your power for several hours once or twice a year, with or without hurricanes. If you can’t freeze a lot of food, Costco doesn’t work optimally. Sad. I freeze a few things, but I can’t do what I would really like to do.

I got a crazy idea today. I decided I was going to satisfy a lifelong curiosity. I was going to buy one or more S.W. “Red” Smith products and try them. You’ve seen this stuff, sitting on the counter at convenience stores. Big jars of red mystery fluid, containing eggs or sausages or pigs’ feet. My mom used to love those pigs’ feet.

I have never been brave enough to try that stuff, but curiosity is killing me, and think what a conversation piece one of those jars would be. But it turns out Costco doesn’t sell them. I had Costco confused with Gordon Food Service.

Some day.

The Smith factory is about 20 miles from me, believe it or not. So if I gave them a bad review, they might drive down here and pound me.

I bought red potatoes. They were so cheap that even if I have to throw out two-thirds of them, they’re still a good deal.

It’s too bad the local Costco doesn’t sell ground chuck, which is my favorite type of ground beef. I’d get ten pounds, mix garlic and salt in, and freeze some third-of-a-pound patties. Burgers just aren’t as good, when the salt and seasonings are only on the outside. Before making patties, I could also let the meat sit in the fridge until it got a little brown. Let’s face it. Slightly funky burgers are better than fresh ones.

Here is an informative quote from a story about the Smith company, which belongs to people named Foster:

Complying with USDA regulations for all meat businesses, the Fosters recently hired a lab to test the shelf stability of their sausage by having a piece injected with listeria, a bacteria that sometimes grows in meat and dairy products and can be fatal to humans.

”After a particular amount of time soaking in our solution, it actually killed the listeria,” Jonathan Foster said. “It’s the perfect hurricane food . . . depending on your taste.”

Maybe I don’t need a freezer. Maybe I need a big barrel of vinegar.

The company is now run by two brothers. Here’s a ringing endorsement:

”If you didn’t grow up eating them, say as a child, you probably won’t become a customer,” Jonathan Foster said, adding emphatically that pigs feet are not an ethnic food, but a regional delicacy favored in the southeastern United States.

In fact, the brothers themselves haven’t sampled the product.

”We keep telling each other that late one Saturday night we might dare each other to do it,” Foster said.

Good God, boys. You have to do better than that. Maybe I should run up there and talk to these guys.

Talk me out of going to Gordon Food Service.