Gun Free Zone

Trump needs a VP that can help him win and with his presidency, so let’s check the choices.

Vivek Ramaswamy: As the joke goes around, he is slated to run the White House’s 7/11, but I don’t see him pulling votes in.

Ron DeSantis: Any Democrat leader not too stupid would fear DeSantis as VP. He pretty much made mincemeat of the Democratic Party of Florida. Injected some spine to the legislature (Needs more) and is much better than Trump when it comes to destroy a Lefty Media attacking him. This comes handy for Trump because the Dems would rather have him as a bamboozled GOP version of Biden than actually remove him as President and make De Santis POTUS. DeSantis as VP will lower the risk of removing Trump from office.

Nicky Haley: The female John McCain by the gushing coming out of CNN. Need I say more? That means Democrats will pursue even harder lawsuits and indictments against Trump.

So, my prediction is: Trump will select Nicky Haley as VP. 

PS: Also selecting DeSantis may help bring people like me to the voting booth rather than stay at home. Maybe enough votes to overcome the margin of cheating.

B.L.U.F.
Mexico sued S&W and other manufacturers. They claim that but for those evil gun makers, the cartels would not have guns.

The district court said, “PLCAA applies. Get the out of my courtroom”.

Mexico appealed, the First Circuit says the case can go on. The price of your firearms just went up, again.
(1400 words)

The first pages of the opinion issued by the First Circuit court tell us that The People have lost another round. It takes nearly 30 pages to find out why, though.

The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) was put in place by a bipartisan congress to stop those anti-gunners that were filing nuisance suits against entities in the firearms’ industry. FFLs and manufacturers, primarily.

Since the PLCAA passed, those same anti-gunners have been trying to find a way around it. On the media front, they make the false claim that “only the gun industry can’t be sued”. This has never been true.

The arms industry is the only industry where people attempt to hold the manufacturer responsible for the acts of a third party. The standard example would be a wife suing Ford because her husband was killed by a drunk driver driving a Ford F-150.

Or worse, suing because her husband was that drunk driver and was killed in a traffic incident which he caused.

It doesn’t make sense. The argument is based on two shaky, and false, foundations: 1) There is no need for guns, 2) If they didn’t make guns, nobody would be killed.

I’m reminded of this quote:

Because the horror of Communism, Stalinism, is not that bad people do bad things — they always do. It’s that good people do horrible things thinking they are doing something great.”

[Six Questions for Slavoj Žižek, Harper’s Magazine, November 11, 2011]

And I’m not sure those who wish to disarm us are “good people”. They do horrible things, though.
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On Saturday, I found I needed a couple of items. Both were produced in China. I placed my order on Saturday evening, and they showed up yesterday by noon.

In the ’70s, my mother would have all of our gifts for her parents wrapped and boxed and ready to ship by early November. We would go to the Greyhound bus depot to ship them to Wisconsin from wherever we were in the country. In general, we could get packages by the Post Office in a couple of weeks.

In the ’60s, you could send a letter to a mail order location and “allow four to six weeks for delivery”.

Earlier, it took longer. The time it took to transport goods was much longer than people think.

We had stage coaches and riders to carry packages and mail before then.

But if you needed to move goods, the way to do it was by sea.

As a sailor, you would sign aboard. The ship would load with goods. The ship would sail to its destination. There it would put in for repairs. You could sign aboard for the return trip or stay.

In the ’70s, I read Two Years Before the Mast. It tells one such story. From the time Richard Dana left Boston in 1934 to California, it was two years before he returned. He published his memoir in 1840, describing his voyages.

Whenever I hear this song, I am taken back to that voyage in my mind’s eye. Fighting to keep a ship afloat in foul weather.

Or the NSFW version:

Seriously, Trumpkins, listen. Regular boring conservatives like me have already said we'll vote for Trump in the general now that we're stuck with him because of your hubris. It doesn't help for you to keep barking at me about how I should deny reality and blow smoke up peoples'…

— Larry Correia (@monsterhunter45) January 22, 2024

In its entirety:

Seriously, Trumpkins, listen. Regular boring conservatives like me have already said we’ll vote for Trump in the general now that we’re stuck with him because of your hubris. It doesn’t help for you to keep barking at me about how I should deny reality and blow smoke up peoples’ asses about how awesome your guy was and will be. 

Sorry, I’m not a revisionist history ass kisser with memory issues like you guys. It doesn’t do you any good to yell at people who actually paid attention to this shit while it was happening. Besides, I think they’re our employees, not our fucking monarchs, so all this one way loyalty shit you keep going off about makes me want to barf. 

But people like me ain’t your problem. Every R in America could go full Trump Train and we’re still gonna get fucking trounced in the general unless you somehow convince purple swing state Americans in the suburbs that Trump is all that great stuff MAGA believes about him. Which the last few elections have demonstrated they clearly don’t, they kinda hate his guts, and that’s even before he’s a convicted felon, so good luck with that. 

Meanwhile, the rest of us who actually believe in archaic shit like “principles” have been getting mooed at all day to UNITE by a bunch of fucking herd animals, because apparently now we’re all supposed to shut off our fucking brains off and piss away our dignity and buy in on Laura Loomer’s latest batshit fucking crazy conspiracy theory about the Atlantic using numerology to call for assassinations or the Cobra Weather Dominator or some shit, or we are traitors who hate America. 

Anyways good luck convincing those swing state soccer moms! I’m just gonna be over here stockpiling more canned food and ammo awaiting the apocalypse. Then in November I’ll vote for Trump, and when we get fucking rolled because we were dumb enough to walk into the democrat’s obvious trap, I’ll try to resist the urge to say I told you so. 

I’d love to be wrong, and in the off chance Trump wins, I’ll congratulate you for your prescient wisdom, and look forward to four years of Trump hiring more incompetent swampy ass kissers, while keeping my fingers crossed for more decent SCOTUS appointments. 

So you get off my fucking back now. 🙂

I got into it on X on my opinion on red dot optics on pistols.

I thought I’d take the time to lay out my complete opinion, based on my experience as a shooter, pistol instructor, and engineer in the arms industry.

I am not anti red dot.

I’m not somr boomer Fudd who thinks they are some fad.  Red dots are here and they are only getting more prevalent.

I just have some reservations and qualifications about red dots, especially on defensive pistols.

My reservations and qualifications break down into two categories: equipment failues and user failures.

For equipment failures, it’s pretty simple.

Red dots are more complex pieces of machinery. They are larger, contain electronic components, and experience more stress. They are more delicate.

We experience many more warranty claims on pistol optics than iron sights.

I’m not saying irons sights are indestructible. They too, experience failures.  I’ve seen irons come loose from dovetails, fiber optic and tritium vials fall out or stop working.

But, in my experience, a set of quality iron sights, properly fit into a dovetail, is about the most robust sight possible.

On a defensive pistol, I want robustness.

If you insist on putting a red dot on a defensive pistol, having a set of backup irons that can be co-witnesses is important.  This is true for rifles as well.

For user failures, I’ve seen a few different things.

First and foremost, are the people who treat dots as a magic pill.  They shoot for shit and believe that by adding a dot, they will become better shooters.

It doesn’t work.  Usually, their fundamental problem is that their trigger control sucks, not their sight alignment.

I’ve seen people adjust their red dots to compensate for hitting a foot low-left at some prescribed distance.

We get warrant service requests from people who maxed out the travel on their dot trying to compensate for flinching.

When I was at Thunder Ranch, everyone with dots started by checking dot zero, and we had one guy who did that. Rob Latham zeroed his dot for him and he had to do a lot of trigger discipline drills.

Second, guys who put a dot on their micro compact carry gun, then continue to drill at three, five, and maybe seven yards.

The advantage to a dot it better accuracy at distance, but these guys generally can’t shoot well, so don’t push themselves outside of their comfort zone.

These guys are not taking advantage of the capabilities of a dot. For them it’s a waste of money.

Third, is the toxic aspect of gun culture.

We’ve all experienced it.

“If you don’t have [latest thing], and you need to use your gun in a defensive situation, just just going to fucking die.”

Latest thing being:

• Newest plastic fantastic
• Laser sights
• Kydex holster/carry position
• Red dot
• NODs
• Next industry toy the IG influencers get

You tell someone you carry a snub nose 38 or a 380 in a belly band, and they will launch into a tirade how if your carry gun isn’t their favorite high capacity wonder-nine with an extended mag, ported barrel, red dot, and weapon light, in a $200 appendix carry hybrid holster, you might as well just shoot yourself because you’ll never win a gun fight with the guy mugging you.

Right now, the debate online isn’t, “is the shotgun still a worthwhile self defense weapon compared to the AR,” but, “how obsolete is the shotgun as a home defense gun and how fast will you die with one in your hands when someone kicks in your door.”

These people have latched onto pistol dots, which is how you end up with a guy running a pistol with a dot no further than five yards.

Lastly, and this is the most dangerous, people who learned to shoot on dot who do not practice with their irons.

I’m starting to see this with pistol.

This has been an issue with rifles for a while, to the point where it affected the military.

Soldiers were being trained on optics because it’s easier. But those soldiers would go to non-combat units where they were not issued optics. Then, they had no capability to shoot with iron sights and would fail qualification, or worse, be in a fire fight with a weapon they didn’t know how to use.

Iron sights are not going away anytime soon, but I’m afraid proficiency with irons will.

At the last match I was at, out of thirty shooters, 28 were carry optics.

As Clint Smith says, be a student of weaponscraft. Don’t be limited because you let a valuable skill atrophy in favor of a new toy.

If you want to run optics on your pistol, I wont stop you.

But understand their limitations, maximize their advantages, and make sure you develop and maintain proficiency for when you have to rely on irons.

I was a DeSantis supporter.

I never had one Trump supporter ask me why I supported DeSantis over Trump, but I’ll tell you.

I think DeSantis had a better track record of conservative victories in Florida than Trump did as president.

DeSantis had a better response to COVID.

DeSantis had a better fiscal policy than Trunp did.  Trump spent almost $2 trillion on the CARES Act, paying people to stay home during COVID.

Trump said a lot, but DeSantis did a lot, and I value that.

On a more subjective level, I just didn’t like how Trump behaved. I was disgusted by the Little Marco and DeSanctimonious nicknames. I don’t like the petty insults. I think it’s childish.

I was disgusted by the DeSantis wears heels or shoe lifts conspiracy theory. It was reminiscent of the Trump hands thing from 2016.  It was a near literal duck measuring contest. That’s not how a president should be picked.

Lastly, I didn’t like his habit of criticizing former staffers and anyone he didn’t think was sufficiently personally obsequious to him as disloyal.  It’s bad behavior for a boss to publicly castigate a subordinate.  And it reminded me of the Soviet trait of leaders who failed blaming their failures on traitors and having their nearest subordinates shot for treason.

Miguel pointed something out to me, that I agree with.

J Edgar Hoover had this thing of taking on any agent or friend who was getting more fame than he did. Many good agents like Purvis were suddenly sent to shitty posts for doing stuff that made them Press darlings.

Trump is equally petty with the people on his own side and even those who supported him.

With DeSantis dropping out, Trump is going to be the nominee.

What worries me, legitimately worries me, is what Trunp is going to do as president.

He has run on a campaign of retribution.

But, if you look at what he said, it seems that he’s more interested in getting retribution against Republicans who he thinks were disloyal to him than getting retribution against democrats.

I’m worried that President Trump 2.0 will go on a rampage of personal vendetta against Republicans and cause so much chaos that nothing gets done and 2028 gets handed to the Democrats on a platter.

There is precedent for my believing this. Look at what Trump’s biggest supporter in Congress, Matt Gaetz, did in the House to McCarthy.

Now add in the fact that “disloyal” and “traitor” are was Trumo and his supporters call DeSantis and his supporters.

I would hope to see Trump supports have magnanimity in their victory, but that didn’t happen.

The overwhelming social media has been mockery, humiliation, and belittling.

When you ask for unity, they attack.

Then they get you with the emotional blackmail, “What else are you going to do, vote for Biden? Let Biden win?”

Usually, it’s both. Mockery and emotional blackmail.

I’m a human being with dignity.

I should want to vote against Biden.

I want to vote against Biden.

I do not want to be humiliated into giving up my dignity by voting for Trump while Trump supporters shit on me for being a loser and a traitor who supported a loser and a traitor.

That is struggle session type bullshit.

When you point that out, they tell you that they don’t want or need your vote.

Do these people have any idea how elections work?

I know many people who are so disgusted with the Toxicity of Trump and his supporters they will stay home on election day.

I’ve seen that sentiment repeated many, many times on social media.

I will go to vote for Trump with alacrity once I hear:

“DeSantis supporters, we’re sorry about the nasty nicknames. We’re sorry about the shoe lift bullshit.  We’re sorry about calling you disloyal RINOs. What we did was wrong. Let’s unite against Biden.”

But they can’t do that.

All thru can do is double down on their derision.

And you know what?

I’m not about to give up my dignity and self respect for any politician.

And of your argument is, “so you’ll let Biden win,” that falls on deaf ears. If you can’t win without emotional blackmail, you don’t deserve to win.

So let me ask, do Trumpers want to lose?

Because right now they are doing their damnedest to make sure every DeSantis and Halley supporter just says home on election day.

B.L.U.F.
Filler. Yapping about medicine and my kids having a tough time after oral surgery.
(550 words)

It has been a long weekend for us, here at the house.

On Friday, the kids finally got in to see the oral surgeon. A few hours later, they no longer had wisdom teeth.

My youngest has been having a hard time of it. They gave them a total of 5 does of Oxy and 600 mg Ibuprofen.

They were able to eat some soup today. The broccoli in it was too hard, so we had to put it in the blender.

My youngest son only had 3 wisdom teeth to remove. He’s been doing much better than his sibling.

I am so proud of him. He got up this morning, decided he wanted scrambled eggs. He made them himself and made extra for his sibling and made sure they ate some protein.

He spent most of the day on his computer playing games with his friends, yelling and laughing. I think he over did it as he looked a bit sore today.

So what is it about modern medicine? Well, first and foremost, it is freaking amazing.

While both kids are sore, there was no pain while their teeth were extracted.

They have antibiotics and pain meds for recovery. The odds of something bad happening is nil.

We saved up the money to cover the parts of the surgery that insurance didn’t cover. It was still something that we could do.

My wife has had 4 knee replacements. We are not bankrupt from medical bills.

I know that there are people who are not as fortunate as us.

On the other hand, I have a hard time with the people who say that they cannot afford health care.

I have a friend who has not had insurance in years. When her appendix burst, it was handled on an emergency basis. They took care of her. They didn’t worry about money until afterward.

When they learned she had no insurance, they got her to the finance people, and they basically paid for that surgery from their uninsured patients fund.

While they were taking pictures of her appendix before starting the surgery, another organ photo bombed the x-rays. The radiologist, with an abundance of caution, said it could be cancer, and she had to have it inspected.

That was another expensive procedure, as they had to take x-rays from the inside. Again, it cost her very little.

Years ago, I watched a show where a couple was trying to live as “poor folk”. The man got a job and the woman stayed at home, I think. She was prone to UTIs. She got a UTI. She knew it was a UTI.

Instead of scheduling an appointment to see a doctor or going to an urgent care clinic, they decided to go to the Emergency room.

They reported that it cost hundreds of dollars just to get antibiotics.

I’ve been there too. A friend without insurance got an infection. $100 at the urgent care clinic and they walked out with a bottle of antibiotics after the doctor reviewed her symptoms.

There are options. Make plans if you need to.

(It was a babble or pictures of ice and snow while telling Miguel that he should be happy he lives in the warm country)