Vacation

It’s Sunday, so once again I’m going to rest and give the day to God. No Nowlive show. I don’t know when I’ll get back to Nowlive, if ever.

I’ve noticed a few things about keeping the “sabbath” (I’ll bet there’s a better term for a Christian’s Sunday observation). The Jews are right when they say it’s something you look forward to.

When I was a kid, I thought it was a day of punishment and misery; you put on an uncomfortable suit and sit on a hard bench and listen to a boring guy talk about how rotten you are, until you think your head will explode. Then you go home, and you find out about all the fun bad things your friends have been doing all morning without you. I wrote a screenplay in which one of the characters says his mother told him God would take him to heaven as long as he allowed God to “rurn” all his Sundays.

I don’t see it that way any more. If you’re a believer, you presumably have moments when you feel God’s presence, or moments when your faith is confirmed, and they’re very enjoyable. You miss those sensations when they’re not with you. They give you strength and encouragement, and they reassure you that the choice you have made is right. During the week, earthly concerns tend to make those moments happen farther apart. You have too many other things to worry about. So by the time Sunday rolls around, you are very anxious to revive the sensations.

Also, Sunday is the only day when you really know what you’re doing. During the rest of the week, you have a variety of things to worry about, and things come up unexpectedly. On Sunday, you rest, you pray, you read the Bible, you watch religious programming, you spend time with your family, maybe you do good deeds, and that’s about it. It’s a relief to have that other stuff off your back, and to know that what you’re doing is correct and profitable.

When Jews compare the sabbath to a vacation or a holiday or an oasis, they’re right on target. You should try it. If you believe in God, you can’t believe it’s a net loss. Surely He will repay you more than you’re giving up.

Anyway, I’m off to enjoy the day. Hope your day goes as well as mine.

More

If you like beginning your Sunday with an offering, you may be happy to learn that World Vision now has eightfold matching donations set up for malaria prevention and treatment.

The .38 Super Curse Continues

Give me some brass opinions.

I’m eventually going to need more .38 Super brass; I only have maybe 500 cases. And I can forget about scrounging it at the range. No one shoots this caliber. I’m considering “once-fired” brass, which supposedly comes from police ranges. The prices are attractive, and it ought to be as good as my own recovered brass.

Is this a great idea or a recipe for misery?

Scary Nemesis of Brave Islamist Warriors Now Able to Sit up and Eat

Leah Friedman continues to improve. Prayers still needed.

Hope the death threats from the extreme regions of the Religion of Peace have stopped.

I Proved It

It looks like reloading is going to work out okay. I drove all over town and learned that shopping for reloading supplies in Miami is a complete waste of time. It looks like there are only two shops here that have anything, and they don’t have what I need. So I’m buying almost everything online, with huge hazmat fees. But it’s still better than paying for factory ammunition.

I had to pay TWO hazmat fees, believe it or not. No one stocks all the stuff I need, so after exhaustive Googling, I gave up and ordered from two vendors. I also ordered bullets from Laser-Cast.

It appears that I will be able to put together 40 boxes of very good ammunition for .45 and .38 Super for around $8.60 per box. That’s an average. Don’t make me break it down. It does not include the gigantic investment in tooling, but that will be partly offset by around three hundred dollars’ worth of free bullets from Hornady.

The tool costs are mostly behind me, and I don’t plan to spend a lot more. So the $600 or so net expense will eventually be defrayed to some extent. I’ll kill about $350 of it on the first batch. I think. It’s hard to find decent .45 ammunition for under $15, and .38 Super might as well be bricks of cocaine. I got lucky and got a good price on my first 600 rounds, but ever since then, I’ve been seeing crap prices. And we never have gun shows any more! What’s up with that?

I hope my figures are right. Once again, I have to state how amazingly confusing addition and subtraction can be, to a person who had no trouble with advanced calculus.

If this hobby still sounds expensive, compare it to golf, which is possibly the most worthless thing you can do with your life. A few years back, I heard my cousins say they were willing to pay over a hundred bucks each in greens’ fees alone, for one day of golf. WHAT? To knock a ball around on a giant lawn and come home with nothing to show for it? Not even a useful skill? Count me out. Fishing is even worse, if you do it right. Begin by spending $35,000 on a used boat in okay condition…well, that makes the point, right there. Once you’re that far in the hole, there is no point in discussing the other expenses, like gear and fuel. You can fish well, or you can buy a second home or commercial property as an investment. That about sums it up. I know freshwater is cheaper.

Of course, now I face the predicted temptation: shoot as much as possible, because THAT WAY I’LL SAVE MORE MONEY! I don’t care. I think shooting 200 rounds of pistol ammunition a week will be great practice and well worth the effort.

It was Starting to Scare me by Making Sense

Today I’m going to drag my behind to Bass Pro Shop and see if they have any reloading stuff I can use. Their online catalog is sad, but they may have better stuff at the actual store. I’ll also see if there’s anything in the Miami phone book, but my hopes are very low. I truly do not want to pay $40 in hazmat fees to get powder and primers, but I suspect I have little choice.

I’m still confused about what I want to do. My original plan was to simulate the feel of defensive loads. However, a lot of people say lower-powered loads are more accurate. And you can learn more about shooting from accurate loads than crazy ones.

Complicating the issue still further, it occurs to me that most people can’t shoot. That applies to reloaders as well as the rest of us. Suddenly, I have no faith in forum posts saying one load is more accurate than another. Judging from what I’ve seen at the range, over 95% of shooters–even regular shooters with tactical accessories and camo pajamas–can’t keep their shots in a four-inch circle at 7 yards. You have to shoot better than that–or use something like a Ransom rest–before you have any right to say what is or is not accurate. Maybe when they say lower powered loads are more accurate, what they really mean is, they just aren’t good enough to shoot loads that are loud or produce a lot of recoil.

I shoot pistols pretty well, and I wouldn’t claim to know which loads are most accurate. In fact, now that I think about it, I don’t think anyone shoots a pistol that well.

Yesterday I was reading up on the Glock 26’s accuracy, after the fantastic results I got with it at the range. And I saw people on the web, talking about how the Glock and the comparable Kel-Tec were equally accurate, and that was when it hit me: they may mean they shoot pie-sized patterns with both. “Accurate” may mean “suitable for hitting fat burglars at close range.” For a person who shoots like that, any difference in inherent accuracy would get lost in the noise.

I’m going to stick with my plan. Around 1200 fps for .38 Super, 800-900 for the .45, and 1300-1400 for the .357. Maybe 1000-1100 for the 9mm. My best wild guess is that ammunition consistency will mean a hell of a lot more than muzzle velocity.

The goal here isn’t tiny groups by any means possible. If that was the point, I’d buy a .22 target pistol and use match ammunition. The goal is to learn to shoot, so I can do well with whatever happens to be available at the time. My assumption is that you don’t learn to shoot by pampering yourself.

I may also get an airgun, if I can find a pistol that shoots really well at 7 yards and costs almost nothing.

Pistol Improvement; Rifles Still Depressing

I had a fine and dandy day at the range. The Good Lord was with me. Although I am starting to suspect He does not want me to shoot rifles.

I decided to give the Nylon 66 and scope one more chance. Last week I found that trying to make myself comfortable at the bench improved my shooting with the K31, so I thought it might work with the .22. But I think it’s futile. The zero was way off from the second I started shooting, and I never managed to get consistent. Here’s a target, from 50 yards. It’s silly to even put it up, because in addition to my inability to get the gun and scope to work, I fiddled with the windage and elevation while I shot, so even if things had gone well, the target would be a mess. Not sure if this is the first or second target.

I got out the K31 and produced this questionable result at 50 yards. Not all that bad, but it didn’t make me happy. I got so exasperated with the uncomfortable bench, I got up and twisted it sideways to give my left elbow something to sit on.

I was fairly happy with my result at 100 yards, although you can see the scope needs to be shimmed or something. I was aiming at the black dot.

Okay, so I still have a lot of work to do with the rifles. Time for pistols. I realized I never shot my tiny Glock 26, even though I carry it for self-protection. So I decided today was the day. I dug out some steel-cased Wolf ammunition, and here are my first 25 shots, at 7 yards. This is with a three-inch barrel and a short grip. If you can look at this and say Glocks won’t shoot, you’re a fool.

I was really happy with that. So I shot 25 more.

That is one fine carry piece. I can’t shoot any better with a full-size 1911, and this thing holds eleven rounds, and it’s super-reliable.

I felt it was time to shoot the .38 Super. It was getting late, so I put all 50 shots on one target. I’m thrilled with these results. Naturally, the last ten shots managed to open the hole considerably, but I’m still very happy with the way I shot.

Finally, I dragged out the SW1911 and shot 25 rounds. Things went very well. I’m improving.

I felt like it was time to try 50 feet again, so I went back and shot 50 rounds. Even though there are a lot of flyers, I was happy with this target, because I learned a lot while I was shooting it.

In the past, I always assumed the size of my patterns would increase linearly with distance, but that’s not what happens. It’s worse. Maybe that’s because the inaccuracies of cheap ammunition don’t increase linearly. I suppose anything that makes a bullet shoot more of a curve would give deviations that increased above a linear rate with distance. And maybe it’s even more complicated than that. Whatever the explanation, I’ve been shooting more than twice as badly at 50 feet than 21 feet. Today I realized part of the problem comes from the weak fingers of my right hand. If I don’t squeeze tightly with those fingers, I get more flyers. Maybe this is why I did so well with the Glock 26. I can’t put my pinky on the grip, so it has no negative effect. I now suspect that the best way to pull a pistol trigger is to lead with the weakest finger on the grip. Start squeezing with the pinky or ring finger, not the index finger.

I’m looking forward to my next range visit so I can check it out. And hopefully I’ll have nice, consistent reloads by then, so I won’t have to wonder about the vagaries of the ammunition.

I’m fairly sure my struggles with the rifles are improving my pistol shooting.

I’m thinking I should go ahead and buy a for-real, brand-new accurate rifle instead of farting around with milsurps. The K31 is accurate, but scoping it makes it uncomfortable to shoot, because the scope is way off to the right. Maybe I should drop a few hundred bucks on a Savage, learn to shoot like a serious person, and THEN fart around with milsurps.

In any case, I had a blast today.

Artists Now Scarier Than Serial Killers

I have been busy dealing with an HVAC guy. Until I get it together, check out Moxie’s new pro-abortion art project.

Warning: the images are horrifying.

Forty Bucks for Nothing

It looks like I can buy 1000 124-grain Laser-Cast bullets and load the damn things with Accurate No. 7 powder. However, to do that, I have to use slightly more than a pound of powder. So in other words, TWO pounds. This is supposed to be really swell .38 Super powder. I can use something called Ramshot True Blue and only buy a pound, but .38 Super nerds don’t get nearly as sweaty about it.

Here’s something fun. You have to pay a $20 hazmat fee per box, and that goes for primers and powder, and you can’t put the primers in the same box as the powder. Arrgh. Remind me again how cheap this hobby is. I’m going to be paying forty bucks right off the top, for absolutely nothing. Clearly, the only way to keep from getting utterly reamed is to order for as many calibers as I can. So I guess I better come up with loads for .45, .357, and .38 Super.

At least I got .38 Super figured out. The others ought to be easier, since they’re relatively normal calibers.

Reloading is Hard

Reloading has me more confused than ever.

A commenter said I shouldn’t use lead bullets at .38 Super and .357 speeds because of leading problems. But Oregon Trail guarantees no leading from their Laser-Cast bullets. Unfortunately, they provide no load data whatsoever. They refer customers to websites full of highly questionable data provided by random individuals.

On the one hand, everyone screams not to use data that isn’t published. On the other, Oregon Trail sends people to reference sites compiled by God knows who.

Also, their 9mm bullets are .356″ in diameter, which is supposed to be right for a .38 Super. Hornady recommends its own 9mm bullets for .38 Super reloading. But Oregon Trail has bullets labeled “.38 Super” which are not the same as their 9mm jobs.

So I guess I’m going to have to call them and look stupid. I’ll have to ask if I can use their 124-grain 9mm bullets for .38 Super reloads. And then I have to find reload data I can trust.

Good Lord. I’m not trying to prove Fermat’s last theorem. I just want to make .38 Super ammunition that will move at around 1250 fps. And it’s impossible.

Don’t Forget to Write

I got a call from a friend to whom I was very close in college. We hadn’t talked in years. He said my sophomore roommate was trying to put together a contact list for a bunch of us who shared a floor my freshman year. And the friend relaying this information wanted to come to Florida and charter a boat and take me and my father fishing.

Does that seem appropriate to you? It occurs to me that once you’ve been out of touch with someone for years, unless it’s someone very special, that person shouldn’t call you up and demand that you participate in a weekend of fishing, as if you were still tight. A person like that isn’t really a friend any more. He’s an acquaintance. And you wouldn’t call a mere acquaintance up and expect him to act like a pal. You wouldn’t ask to borrow money. You wouldn’t expect him to be an usher at your wedding. You wouldn’t ask him to be the godfather of your child. Dinner, maybe. Or lunch. Talk about old times. That’s about it. Say hi, fight over the check, and part for another ten years.

He was saying I should crash class reunions, even though he and I both graduated apart from our freshman class. Crash reunions? Hell, I’d hide if I spotted most of those people. My family was a mess when I was in college. I went through hell. Those guys would just remind me and make me feel all those sensations over again.

I gave him my contact information via email, but I told him not to give it to anyone else, and that there was no way I would participate in an email list or reunions. And I explained that I didn’t enjoy reliving college. I was polite, but he hasn’t responded, and I’m not going to follow up. Now I’m the bad guy, I guess, but it doesn’t matter, because things weren’t going anywhere anyway.

I belonged to a group of six close friends when I was in college. I guess we thought we’d be friends for life. Out of the six, the two I still treasure are Aaron and old gay Dave. One other is okay, but I can’t say I miss him much. The others, I chose to allow to drift away. One I just don’t like or respect any more, and the other wore me out by disappointing me too many times. I won’t say which one called.

I drop people right and left. No warning. Poof, you’re gone. I’ve always been that way. I try to treat people very well, and when I realize I’m not going to be repaid to any real extent, I just close up. Or if I realize a person is an incorrigible bad influence. And I am especially bad about dropping people who tell me what to do. That’s degrading, especially when it comes from a younger friend or a friend who knows I’m smarter than he is. People shouldn’t be like chickens, always trying to establish a pecking order. Friends should be equals. I don’t do well with competitive friends. If you’re insecure, spring for therapy. Don’t abuse me to inflate your ego; buy yourself some Tony Robbins tapes and watch Stuart Smalley.

A friend isn’t a tool. A friend isn’t something you use to achieve goals that benefit you. A friend is someone you like and respect, even if there is nothing he can do for you, and whom you try to help however you can. You take pleasure in the good things that happen to your friends, even if good things aren’t happening to you. You only criticize friends when you feel you absolutely have to. A friend improves you and helps you succeed and enjoy life. If you disagree with this stuff, you have no idea what friendship is. You probably have no real friends. You may be a psychopath. At best, you’re underdeveloped, and you need to grow up.

Maybe I should work harder to keep friends and change them. Maybe that’s one of my shortcomings as a friend. But I think you can tell when a person is willing to change and when he’s not. And now that I think about it, I know I’ve talked to friends many times about issues we’ve had. I should be better about going to them first instead of complaining to other people, though.

On balance, I think I’m right about letting friends go. No one has more than four or five friends. Regardless of what they think. The rest are just extras. Nice to have around, but not to be relied upon.

I feel like a friend ought to be able to tell when I’m no longer excited about the relationship. If I never call you back, or I never take you up on your invitations, you say we should do this or that and I always change the subject instead of answering, or you find yourself carrying the entire weight of the friendship, you ought to realize things have changed. Am I wrong? Sometimes you have to end romantic relationships very explicitly, maybe in some cases with tear gas and a bean bag gun, but I’ve usually found that friends don’t have to be told when things have frozen over.

I don’t want to spend the weekend with this guy and his kids. I don’t want him spending $1500 on a fishing trip for me. There is no way I’d spend that kind of money on him. I’d spring for dinner, sure. But I hope he doesn’t expect me to show up or send presents when his kids get married. I’m sorry to say it, but I wouldn’t pay for an airline ticket to go to his funeral. If it was across town, sure. But fly? No way.

Dinner would be fine. I’m really glad he’s doing well; he has earned it, and he has a family to support. It would be nice to hear from him every couple of years. But this is like appearing on someone’s doorstep after twenty years and yelling “ROAD TRIP!” Like everything will be fine if we just start texting each other every day. The lack of communication isn’t the problem. The problem is, I’ve changed.

Asymmetrical relationships are so uncomfortable.

Gun-Grabbing Liberals Create Fake NRA

Moxie just showed me a story in which the American Hunters and Shooters Organization endorsed known gun-grabber Barack Obama.

THIS IS A TINY, BOGUS ORGANIZATION CREATED BY GUN-CONTROL NUTS. DO NOT LISTEN TO THEIR B.S.

Read:

AHSA was created with the specific intent to provide political cover for anti-gun politicians by allowing them to claim support from a “sportsmen’s” group. In truth, the anti-gun credentials of AHSA’s leadership is well documented. For instance, AHSA president Ray Schoenke has a long history of giving political donations to some of the most anti-gun politicians, including Al Gore, John Kerry, Barbara Boxer, Bill Clinton, Dianne Feinstein and Ted Kennedy. In 2000, Schoenke donated $5,000 to Handgun Control, Inc. (now the Brady Campaign) and the Ray and Holly Schoenke Foundation also made donations to the Brady Campaign. AHSA Board member John Rosenthal remains the leader of Stop Handgun Violence, the Massachusetts anti-gun group. And one of the leading organizers of AHSA is Bob Ricker, who has been a paid expert witness against gun manufacturers in a number of reckless lawsuits. (For more information, see Anti-Gunners Don Camo As Elections Loom.)

And:

AHSA supported Bloomberg’s effort to repeal the law that protects confidential law enforcement data from disclosure that threatens the privacy of gun owners and the safety of law enforcement officers—all so that Bloomberg could use the information in reckless lawsuits against the firearms industry . . .

More at the NRA site.

What a disgusting bunch of lying pigs. This is like Catholic priests forming an anti-abortion group and calling it the Coalition for Abortion Rights.

Pass the word. Don’t let these frauds get away with what they’re doing.

HELP

I have realized it will take a solar year for Hornady to get my free bullets to me, mostly because I screwed up the application process, so I am trying to figure out what I should order from someone else to tide me over. Help me out.

My three favorite handgun calibers are .38 Super, .45 ACP, and .357 Magnum. So that’s what I’m looking at right now. Going by the Speer book, it appears that I can get what I want from all three with a single powder identified as “Blue Dot.” Is there any reason I should avoid this stuff? I know nothing about it. I want a fairly hot .38 Super load, a typical .45 load, and a hot .357 load, at 125, 230, and 125 grains, respectively. Blue Dot appears to fill the bill. But some people on the web say Blue Dot is too slow for a .45. And dirty.

Also, do I have to find different tables if I use lead bullets? The stuff in the book is mostly jacketed. I would assume that for pistol velocities, the weight is important and the jacketing isn’t. I don’t think a lead bullet will screw up at 1300 fps.

It appears that Hornady wants me to use 9mm bullets that are .355″ in diameter, but the .38 Super is really .356″, and Laser Cast sells .356″ 124-grain 9mm lead bullets, which ought to be perfect. Is that correct, or will the gun blow up and kill me and everyone near me? My research suggests to me that you don’t want a bullet too much smaller than the barrel. If these will work, I can use the same bullets for the 9mm and the .38 Super.

They also have .358″ rounds for the .357.

The book doesn’t tell me what primers to use. What’s up with that? Am I supposed to guess? Oh, wait. I found it. CCI 500 for the smaller calibers; CCI 300 for the .45.

Here is what I want. For the .38 Super, I want 125 grains and 1200-1300 fps. For the .357, 125 grains and 1300-1400. For the .45, 230 and 850-1000. Those are figures typical of good defense loads, so they’re what I want to get used to. I want good accuracy, but I don’t want to water the loads down to the point where shooting isn’t realistic. Or maybe I could make a certain number of wimpy loads for accuracy and make the rest normal, to keep me used to the recoil.

It seems like it’s taking an eternity just to get to the point where I know what ingredients to use. I have to start gathering stuff and get to work, or I’ll never get anywhere. Reading will only get me so far.

More advice I need: I have been trying to get used to concealed carry, with the Glock 26. At first I kept a round in the chamber, but then I got nervous and removed it. Since then, I have been acutely aware that if I needed to use the gun in a hurry, especially with one hand, I would be screwed. I know cops carry Glocks ready to fire. If you’re attacked in your car, you may have to use your left hand to shut the window or shield yourself. You may be unable to use it to rack the slide. Then you die from being too cautious. What’s your opinion?

I’m inclined to go back to keeping a round chambered. You would really have to work at it to shoot yourself. When you carry, you are constantly aware of the danger, so you don’t make stupid mistakes. Unless you’re a vice cop giving a lecture in front of a classroom full of kids. But enough mean references to famous Youtube videos.

Actually, some people do make stupid mistakes. I remember going into a store to buy shoes and finding a gun pouch on a bench next to me, where some genius had left it. But I’m really good about treating the gun with respect. Mostly because I dread the embarrassment of shooting myself. Not the pain. Not the injury itself. The embarrassment.

I can’t believe people carry 1911s cocked with rounds in the chambers. Seems like the 1911 safety would be very easy to bump into the “fire” position. I guess you have to have a super-safe holster.

Give me your handloading info, so I can load at least one cartridge before I die.

I See, I Buy

I had another fine experience at Costco today. Rib eyes were selling for $5.59 again, so I had to buy. They’re aging in the beer cooler now. Picked up some pork tenderloin as well.

They have really good Mexican blackberries, and what person from Kentucky could pass a blackberry up? So I nabbed those. Plus really cheap grape tomatoes. I think supermarket grape tomatoes are a little better, but I only eat the damn things for my health, so I don’t care. I bought a jar of assorted nuts for my gall bladder, and those were very good, too. And I got navel oranges. I have to eat fruit once in a while, and navels are easy to deal with.

I saw one item which I did not fully appreciate until I got home. A gigantic Crescent tool set. It had all sorts of stuff in it. Like 118 pieces. I know Crescent is a brand not known to explode immediately when you try to use them, so I figured it had to be worth the $29 price. But I didn’t think I needed them. Then after I got home, I realized: for $29 plus $5 for a Home Depot toolbox, I could have had a pretty decent emergency kit for the car trunk.

They also had Stanley tripod flashlights on sale, so I had to have one.

I managed to resist the truly stupid items this time. That’s always a challenge. And they were out of kosher Coke.

I would love to make a blackberry cobbler. That would be fantastic. I haven’t had that in years. I can’t believe my grandmother has been gone for half a decade.

They also had Pinch for $24 a fifth, but I didn’t buy any.

I think I’m starting to get the hang of Costco.

We are Going to Have to Develop a Taste for It

It’s Winn-Dixie weekly ad day again. My joy is without limit. Let’s see.

Skirt steak, $4.99 a pound! Not bad!

Winn-Dixie sausage, two for $4.00! They make really nice breakfast sausage. No boar taint.

Boston Butt, $1.49. Ground chuck, $1.99. Wings, $1.79. I only wish they’d put rib roasts on sale again.

Al Gore has worked his magic for a second day in a row. It is a bone-chilling 60 degrees here, or at least it was when I checked. I am loving this global warming. I hope the cold weather, which indisputably proves that the planet is warming up, continues into May.

The other day I was web-surfing, and I saw some information about Edgar Cayce, the “sleeping prophet.” This guy used to lie down and say things he claimed were supernaturally inspired. My mother thought he was fascinating. On a web site touting his predictions, it said that in 1934, he foresaw that Hitler would rise to power! Wow! Incredible! Then I checked, and guess when Hitler became Chancellor of Germany? Uh…1933. So it looks like you can be a great psychic, just by predicting stuff that already happened. Al Gore is even worse. He predicts the opposite of what actually happens, and once it starts to become clear that he’s wrong, he continues to predict it.

Al, please…predict a sharp increase in oil prices. Predict defeat in Iraq. Predict that Keith Olbermann won’t retire.

I’m really hoping this weather will score me some more tomatoes. If I could get Brandywines, my life would be complete.

Speaking of crops, have you noticed the increasing furor over the ethanol scam? This is one of those great unifying scams, because the perpetrators are both conservative and liberal. Liberals started it, and conservatives realized the public was hopelessly brainwashed, so they went along with it. And now the liberal press is raising hell, because it’s starving people. Unfortunately, being liberal, confused journalists are now starting to tell us that the answer isn’t more energy. It’s not more refining capacity, responsible drilling efforts, and plentiful, clean, safe, cheap nuclear power. Oh, no. The answer is to give up meat, because livestock eat grain.

So instead of progress, in the form of more energy, lower energy prices, and increased industry and commmerce–the only things that can save us–the left wants us to eat an unhealthy diet which conforms to their bizarre and unpopular prejudices. In other words, leftism caused the energy problem, by denying us oil and nuclear power and coal and God knows what else, and they caused starvation by pushing ethanol, and now instead of taking responsibility and admitting their ideas are backward and wrong, they are using the situation to promote another backward and wrong leftist idea. So far, we are being starved by environmentalism, and we are expected to suffer more, in the name of animal rights. I’m wondering…when do we reach the point where this can somehow be used to promote Wicca and gay marriage? The hook has to be in there somewhere.

Toplessness. Maybe our problems can be solved by public toplessness. By women ill-suited to the practice. Liberals resorted to this to end the war in Iraq, so I guess it will also end the grain crisis.

The world is down to a three-month supply of grain right now. I sure hope our harvests are good until we reach the inevitable conclusion that ethanol is a sick joke.

I Just Love That Religion of Peace

God bless Florida Power and Light. They do a real service, making other utilities look so good. My power went out today–first time in maybe three weeks–and I got to spend a good long time living without technology.

Fortunately, due to the incredible progress of global warming, it’s fifteen degrees below the average temperature here, so I was able to use the power outage as an excuse to open doors and windows and let fresh air in. Generally when you open a door or window in Miami, the cockroaches and mosquitoes stampede through your house like Vikings in a Bank of America commercial. But I have poisoned everything near me, and the cool, dry air isn’t to the bugs’ liking, so I was safe.

I had a pile of administrative things to do today, like convincing the Florida DMV once again that I really do have insurance. They forget once a year, minimum. And I didn’t know until this weekend that I was going to file a tax extension, and the juice went out at about the time I planned to print the form out and mail it, so I ended up in a line of fools at the Post Office, trying to get my postmark. And I did other crap even more boring than all this.

I want to thank the Religion of Peace once again, for one of its many blessings. There used to be a mailbox on every corner. Ever wonder what happened to them? The government took the damn things away to minimize the likelihood that Muslims would put bombs in them. Do I know this for a fact? No, but I’m not stupid, either. The boxes started disappearing after 911, and it cost the government a lot of money to do it, so it’s pretty clear what the reason was. It’s like the thick cast iron public trash receptacles in Israel, or the crazy trash containers they have in airports now. Thank you Muslims, for these wonderful advances.

In other news, you will be glad to know that Marv is finally accepting his new ceramic perch, after a week of pretending to hate it. I figured he needed a new perch higher in his cage, because he kept sitting on a steel ring intended to hold a food dish. It looked uncomfortable, but he sat there all the time, and finally I realized it was higher than his regular perch.

I bought him a “calcium perch,” which is some sort of calcium-based material dyed red. And for a week, he sat directly UNDER it. On the uncomfortable steel ring. But last night I realized things were working out, because one side of his head was pink. He had clearly been mashing his head against the perch, which indicates acceptance. He was probably trying to make the perch pet him. He does that with my computer mouse.

I thought it might be a black eye. African greys are among the few birds that fall down, and Marv was beating the hell out of his toys yesterday, and every so often he manages to give himself a shiner doing this. But it turned out to be perch dye.

Have you ever seen a bird fall down? Marv does it all the time. He’ll be hanging by his feet from a bird toy, screaming and cursing, and you’ll turn your head away, and suddenly you’ll hear a noise like “BUNG!”

That’s Marv, hitting the heavy wire poop grate. It rings for quite some time after he smacks it. He gets up and walks around, muttering “Are you okay?” He learned that from me. When he flies into a wall or dives into the toilet, I pick him up and ask him if he’s okay. He seems to appreciate it.

“I love your head,” Marv says. He’s upset because Maynard is walking around on me while I type. Maynard was whining for attention, and I ignored him, and when I looked toward his cage, he was sitting on the perch, looking at me while petting himself on the head. Cheap trick. It got him some out time.

Mike is supposedly in town this week on business. I haven’t heard from him. I hope he drops by for pizza and a trip to the range. If not, I’m going anyway.

I better put Maynard away before Marv loses his voice.