4 Lbs Boston Butt

1.5 cups Orange Juice (no pulp)
0.25 Cup Key Lime Juice
0.25 Cup EV Olive Oil
0.25 Cup Rum (not spiced)
4 TBSP Dark Brown Sugar
2 TBSP Minced Garlic
1 TBSP Kosher Salt
Greens from one bunch Cilantro (chopped)

In the Crock Pot low heat for 8 hours

Enjoy

I finally got around to seeing the Jurassic World last night.  I know, I know, it came out 4 months ago, but I have a baby so the only way I get to enjoy a movie with the wife when it gets to On Demand.

It was enjoyable, not as good as the Jurassic Park, better than Jurassic Park III, on par with The Lost World: Jurassic Park.

Having seen all four movies now, and knowing that the studio had consulted with paleontologists and biologists, I wish they had consulted with a couple of gun guys and maybe a professional safari guide too.

I get that having a bunch of bad ass, ex-military, Blackwater types for security is really cool looking but I don’t think that hunting terrorists (which I haven’t done) employees the same techniques as hunting dangerous game (which I have done).  It’s not like lion or Nyati (Cape Buffalo) use IED’s.  Also, when what you are hunting is 50 feet long and weights 6 tons, I don’t think belt fed 5.56 has enough stopping power.  The Raptor-Whisperer (Chris Pratt) did have something big bore, but I just don’t think .45-70 really cuts it.

They did this in every movie.  Muldoon, the game warden in Jurassic Park, was packing a SPAS-12 shotgun, and the dinosaur capture crew from The Lost World was carrying a mix of HK G3’s, M-16’s, etc.  The ONLY character who brings enough gun was Roland the professional hunter from The Lost World who was packing a double gun in 600 NE.  And he never gets to torch it off.

I can see the advantage of a .308 semi auto against Velociraptor.  Of course, when hunting something that can hunt you back, there is no such thing as “too much knockdown power.”  Since Velociraptor are pack hunters and human size, I think a semi auto .308 with a 20-25 round mag would make up in volume of fire for what it lacks in single hit knockdown.

Anything bigger than that though – which is most of the non-human population of the park – it’s time to break out the big guns.  Nothing less than .375 H&H at and ABSOLUTE MINIMUM.  I’m partial to the .500 Jeffery since ammo and brass are relatively easy to find.  Other calibers in the family of Dino-stoppers that come to mind as being available in factory bolt guns: .460 Weatherby, .505 Gibbs, .458 Lott.  Then there are the other proprietary cartridges for stopping a charging elephant.  The .500 A-Square, .600 Overkill, .585 Nyati, and .577 T-Rex.

The later three I’d steer clear of.  Too much recoil to be controllable by all but the most experienced shooters and they lack penetration.  The British discovered that smaller diameter, faster bullets penetrated better on dangerous game.  The 4 bore and 8 bore gave way to the .700 and .600 Nitro, which were eclipsed by the .500 NE 3 inch and .470 NE.

If I had to bring something into play that required more than the 6,800 ft-lbs of energy that the Jeffery had, I’m going full bore 50 BMG.  Some of the lighter ones are pushing 20-21 lbs, which is heavy but doable (you’re not humping it around in the filed all day).  Also a 647 Barnes Triple Shock loaded to 2,900 FPS will carry 12,000 ft-lbs of energy at the muzzle.  That should stop a T-Rex.

Maybe I’m over analyzing this.  But how many people need to get eaten over 2 years on two Islands and the city of San Diego before they get their act together.  Seriously?  For a lot less than the cost of some Blackwater-esque mercenary company, I bed they can get a couple of redneck hunters who would mop up a rampaging dinosaur problem for nothing more than the cost of the guns, ammo, and taxidermy rights, and they would fare a whole lot better.

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, SC (WBTV) -Deputies estimate that they’ve seized between 7,000 and 10,000 stolen guns from a house and warehouse near Pageland. Deputies have arrested Brent Nicholson in connection to the stolen goods.Chesterfield County Sheriff Jay Brooks says the seized guns, ammunition, and hundreds of other items were all found on a single property off of Highway 9 outside of Pageland city limits.

Brooks says the guns alone filled one tractor trailer and ammunition filled another.

Source: Neighbor speaks on man arrested after 7,000+ stolen guns found n – WBTV 3 News, Weather, Sports, and Traffic for Charlotte, NC

Here is the kicker:

When asked what Nicholson was doing with so many guns, Brooks said, “(he) looks like a gun hoarder to be honest with you.” Deputies have found no evidence that he ever sold any of the guns.

“You know he just had 7,000 guns,” Brooks said. “99.9 percent are hunting rifles and shot guns.”

The way I see it, all the Gun Control groups plus PETA and any other Animal Rights organizations should get together and cover this guy with awards. Not only he kept “dangerous” weapons off the hands of their legal but crazy gun owners, he targeted guns that were intended to kill and maim Bambi and all those poor forest creatures that have as much right as anybody to live.

Brent Nicholson should be true face of Gun Sense.

She was a nasty one. Most South Floridians had a bad feeling about this sucker and prepared, even though some idiot on TV assured that it would reach our side as a weakened category one. It turned out to be an almost category three but for five miles an hour.

The blue roofs…mine was one.

and the obligatory repairs

The local trees did not fare well.

According to Wikipedia:

Hurricane Wilma caused widespread destruction of critical infrastructure, including power, water and sewer systems. Florida Power and Light, the largest electricity utility in the state, reported more than 3,241,000 customers had lost power, equivalent to approximately 6,000,000 people, with most residents getting power restored in 8–15 days. Running water was restored for most residents within 2 days.

We were without power a bit longer, but we never lost water service. Where I used to work was one of the last areas where power was restored last and it took a month. The only saving grace was the weather was beautiful right after the hurricane: the highs were never above the low 80s dropping at night to the low 70s ,very low humidity, breezy and not a drop of rain.

I wanted to post pics of the massive looting in the aftermath of Wilma, but I remembered that there was not much to be even a statistical blip. Some careless people lost their generators to burglars, but the crap you saw in New Orleans does not happen in Florida, a state where the signs that go “You Loot, We Shoot” plus accompanying firearms and ammo are part of the hurricane kit in every home.

I might be exaggerating just a bit about the sign being part of the hurricane kit.

It’s surprisingly easy to imagine a society where gun ownership is looked down upon, if not scorned outright. This already happened with smoking, at least partly as a result of a public education campaign aimed at young people, and it happened when polite society finally came down against people flying the Confederate flag after the Charleston church shootings this year. Sometimes, when legislative action is difficult or downright impossible, a cultural approach works to curtail dangerous behaviors.In short, we can make gun ownership uncool

Source: What If We Made Gun Culture Uncool Like We Did Cigarettes?

Let’s begin with the obvious: The campaign to make gun ownership look not only uncool but retrograde has been going on for the past 30 years. Your side has almost unlimited access to major media outlets and Hollywood production companies that allow you to cast gun owners as dangerous, nasty, racist uncool,despicable….you get the idea.

Yet, after those many years, your side has failed miserably to achieve the goal of exorcise us from the American Culture. Why is that?

Because guns are fun. Gun owners are fun people. We have a ball when we get together to shoot our guns and even more when we bring new people into the culture.

You see? The Gun Control sub-culture is sad and angry. You offer nothing other than loud complaining and name calling and after a while, it gets tiresome and irritates the hell of the regular Joes and Janes. You take somebody to protest guns for the first time and they go home at the end of the day tired and feeling angry. That may work once or twice, but save some emotional masochist, regular folks decide that they had enough soon and seek more pleasurable alternatives.

When we take somebody shooting for the first time, they feel like they are being initiated in a strange and curious world that they only have some nasty reference (from you) about. But after we teaching them the fundamentals of shooting, rules of safety and how to act, they see it is nothing more than developing another skill like driving or rock climbing or wood carving. But the real magic is when they are finally facing the target downrange, they bring the gun up, probably with some trepidation and almost fear, press the trigger and hit that target.

They smile.

They smile because they conquered a new milestone. They smile because they tamed something maybe a couple of hours ago they thought they would never do. They smile because even when they had been bombarded by propaganda about how they would die if they ever touched a gun, they are still alive.

And they smile because it is darn fun.

And it is right there when our side wins. Even if that person never shoots a gun again, whatever crap is that your side has been pushing against us gets identified as lies. And nobody likes or trust a liar.

And if you do not believe me? Check the face of one of the biggest advocates of Gun Control in this country in this picture:
That would not happen to be a smile in the face of Senator Chuck Schummer, would it?

And  That  Is  Why  We  Win.

 I don’t like secret votes, especially when they’re cast by elected officials.In a story published yesterday, Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gaultieri addressed a recent vote that the Florida Sheriffs Association conducted of its members to garner their positions on Senate Bill 300, the “Open Carry” legislation.
Most sheriff’s use taxpayer funds to pay their FSA dues, and the organization itself receives public funds. Therefore, every document associated with the secret vote should be open to public inspection.

Source: UPDATED: Let’s see how Florida Sheriffs voted on open carry legislation – The Gun Writer

I am not a lawyer, nor portray one in the TV Tubes, but apparently there seems to be a clear violation of the Sunshine Laws if they cannot produce records.

It is understandable that they would like to remain under the shade of anonymity since most of the Sheriffs are elected and Gun Owners are a ornery and voting bunch.

I am a huge fan of Mike Rowe, the host of Dirty Jobs and Somebody’s Got To Do It.  I love his TED talk, it is 20 minutes of your life well spent.  I am a supporter of the MikeRoweWORKS Foundation and his advocacy for vocational and craftsmanship education.  Recently he did an episode of Somebody’s Got To Do It at Demolition Ranch, which was pretty cool.  But this post is not about that.

I have made reference to the pathetic opinion piece 27 Ways to Be a Modern Man from the NYT before.  Well Mike Rowe did a fisking of it that was, needless to say, beautiful.  There were two, inarguable points he made that stuck out at me:

A Man’s Man prefers his gas tank full, his weapon loaded, his pantry stocked, and his checkbook balanced.

and

A Man’s Man owns at least one firearm. He knows how to use it, clean it, and store it properly. He understands it’s importance, and sees it for what it is – a tool that can protect him and his family.

Mike Rowe gets it.

On the Book of Face, some NYT Modern Man took umbrage with Mr. Rowe’s assertions.

“I recently viewed a poster for the NRA on Facebook with your image with a statement I can only assume you made. “A man’s man owns a firearm.” Why you would say something so boldly sexist, and bigoted? Implying that a man who chooses NOT to own a weapon is what? Less than a man, a WOMAN, a neuter?

I am a U.S. ARMY VETERAN who has trained on various weapons, knows how to maintain, store and use multiple firearms. Now as a civilian, I CHOOSE NOT TO OWN A WEAPON. Can you clarify what you meant in that “man’s man” statement and explain what a man such a myself is, if not a man’s man?

E.K. Billie
Veteran, conscientious citizen, and a man who chooses not to own a firearm.”

I’m going to take a little diversion here.  There is something I need to get off my chest, an opinion, that is … controversial.  Perhaps to the point of heresy.  I am tired of the post 9/11/Iraq/Afghanistan veteran hero worship.  I will be the first to admit that my military service never got past ROTC and some National Guard Training.  I was never deployed.  I am not a veteran.  As a civilian, however, I was a part time instructor in math for airmen at Ellsworth.  I also did research for DARPA (the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) and worked with soldiers and airmen on these projects.

There are many people who enlisted because of a sense of duty or patriotism.  There are also a lot of people who enlisted because they were stuck in Podunk, USA or didn’t/couldn’t get into college and their lives were going no where and thought that a 4 year term of service and some job training would be the way to do something other than flip burgers for the rest of their life.  They saw the military as just another job, be it counting bombs in the arsenal or maintaining aircraft flight records or doing whatever.  Their 9 to 5 was done in a blouse that said ARMY or USAF instead of one with the Golden Arches on it.  These people may technically be veterans, but they are not heroes, and I really don’t give their opinions much value, especially when it is used as an appeal to authority to take away my gun rights.

I don’t know anything about Mr. E.K. Billie’s service record.  He could have been a bad ass door kicker.  But since he doesn’t mention that, there is an equally likely chance that “I am a U.S. ARMY VETERAN who has trained on various weapons, knows how to maintain, store and use multiple firearms” means that he spend 4 years at a base NOT in an active combat zone signing weapons in and out of the arsenal.  Either way, the implication that Mr. E.K. Billie asserts is that he is a manly man, He-man, alpha wolf, weapons expert who chooses to be disarmed as a civilian.  Then he busts out with the “Why you would say something so boldly sexist, and bigoted?” which really sounds a lot more like some SJW type whining than manly man, alpha wolf type behavior.  

Mike Rowe’s response to Mr. E.K. Billie was that that his (Rowe’s) comment was tongue in cheek.  No.  It wasn’t.  It was spot on.  Mr. E.K. Billie is the who doesn’t get it.  He supposedly had the intestinal fortitude to, presumably, stand armed at a wall to defend his nation, but can’t muster up the same resolve at home with his family.  That is not what a man’s man does.  A man’s man protects his own.

And no, Mr. E.K. Billie, not owning a gun doesn’t make you a woman.  There a are plenty. of. women who get it more than you do.  But if you wan’t a label to describe your position, I’ll give you one: emotional eunuch.