Emerson, Lake and Palmer doing their version of Aaron Copland’s Hoedown.

A nice way to start the weekend 🙂

And yes, I am that old.

I have a sad confession to make: I am reading Atlas Shrugged for the first time in my life. I started a couple of days ago and it is a slow going but mostly because the font is so damn small. I also found out that one of her other books was turned into a movie which happen to be one of my favorites in the “Nobody liked it but me.” category: The Fountainhead.

I am barely in Part One Section VI but I do know what the book is about. What it strikes me as sadly funny is that I keep finding parallels between the “Socially Conscious”  jackasses in the book attacking the Achievers and the “Right Conscious” jackasses badmouthing the NRA for not thinking about them about DISCLOSE.  The language is sometimes identical and their attitudes are 100% identical. That is some scary shit right there Bubba.

If you are capable and willing to read other stuff other than GOA press release, i would ask you very politely to get your copy of Atlas Shrugged, they have them cheap in EBay. The way I see it, you may open your horizons (that is polite for “removing the crap between wedged your ears”) and maybe help with your outlook on the world (which is polite for saying “Stop Whining and move your ass into action.”)

PS: My God! I have become Rob!

So reading Home on the Range earlier today, I noticed a widget displaying a list of books with their respective covers. It is from a website called Library Thing and since I like books a tad myself, I joined. It has a nice little set up to add the books of your collection…. but I realized it is not fast and flexible enough if you happen to have more books than ammo!
I decided to only add the books I really really really liked and not every darn book I own. Plus about half my books are still warehoused south of the Caribbean and I can’t recall all of them from memory.

I do seem to love to get myself in tight spots. This crap is gonna take forever.

Update: 101 books in… That’s for today. This is gonna take a long frigging time.

You know it is not going to be a good show when you are sipping your morning caffeine intake while watching the DVR play and you fall asleep before the second set of commercials.  This is a version of Survivor with guns, and equally boring. About the only saving grace is that the range is in a beautiful country, you have some great practitioners of the Arms and there seems to be a variety of weapons to shoot with all the ammo you want… which came handy for one of the teams.

I do not know any of the shooters personally, but I am sure they are better persons than portrayed. The Survivor-Type format is designed to show the worst in people and I am damn sure none of them are like that. We Are Shooters, we are not whinny little idiots who scheme and plot to kick the “dangerous” one off the island. They should get rid of those stupid team blue versus team red rules and just have everybody against everybody using a bunch of weapons from all ages and let them rip. Whomever wins, gets more points that the others and the one who gets the most points, wins! So frigging simple.

And for the “human” side, get out some good chili, some beers and let them talk after the match is over. Let them jokes, tell stories, get serious, get silly and share experiences.  You have done it, I have done it and it is sometimes the best part of a shooting day. Regular people WILL GET IT. That will make for great TV even though it may end up rated TV-M.

So Google is being investigated in Germany, Great Britain, Australia and I don’t know where else due to privacy concerns. I am not saying that Google is innocent but isn’t kinda hypocritical that nations that have thousands of cameras per square mile, check you up and down any second they like to and even have government squads to check for unregistered, untaxed TV sets should complain loudly about privacy that they do not give to their subjects and citizens.

Then again it is like the old bumpersticker:

That might be it.

I am taking a little break after spending a better part of my waking hours today filling 17 pages to apply for a Florida’s Slot Machine Individual Occupational License and Professional or Business Employee Supplemental Information. If you want to work in any casino in Florida in any capacity (may it be as owner,  a blackjack dealer or sweeping the sidewalks) you must get this license. The amount of information required by the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation is so intrusive it is ticking me off royally but I got to think that about half the people in our current administration in DC wouldn’t be able to apply for this license at all. Florida demands info for proof of citizenship as in a Birth Certificate to IRS records to having never been in an police investigation, fraud, dishonorable discharge, any civil, criminal or investigative procedure, Grand Jury investigations, pardons, local or state code violations, etc.

Geez…. To think I am more prepared to be Czar or Secretary of something than the Hope & Change Gang.

I finished Jim Cirillo’s Tales of the Stakeout Squad last night. I was expecting a book full of tales of heroism and deeds of super humans. What I got was a deep class on the reality of a gun fight. Don’t misunderstand me, you do get great stories and a glimpse in the head and spirit of a great man (He is another character I will miss never meeting like the late Col. Cooper) but I was not expecting the eye opening information Jim Cirillo’s stories would provide. His work with the Stake Out Squad is just amazing: The selection of the personnel, the weapons they chose, the selection of the locales, shot placement, ammunition and the care for innocent bystanders is just amazing.  Of course kudos have to go to Paul Kirchner who interviewed and collected hours of Cirillo’s bon mots and accounts.

So get the book, read it, read it again and then read it once more. The experiences of a gunfighter  and certified good guy can only serve us well and we will honor him by learning from him. There is a quote in the book from Cirillo that says: ” In teaching a student how to shoot, that’s where I shine.” He still does through this book and I could not think of a better memorial to his life.