Her eyes had the look, acquired in open country, of being set for great distances.
Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, International Collectors Library Edition, vol. 1, p. 227.
That’s also what happens to you when you spend three days at Boomershoot shooting at distant targets.
So yeah, yesterday I received the emails I knew would arrive sooner than later, telling me that during my grand 4.5 hours of training for the new job, Tits McGhee forgot to tell me a few moderately important things.
I’ll be there this weekend. Possibly both days.
Time for some pup
If Washington Legislators would even talk about doing this
Idaho Senate votes to require proof of residency
After much debate, the Idaho Senate has voted 29-6 for legislation requiring people 18 or older to provide proof of legal residence in the country before receiving any kind of state benefit, with some exceptions including for emergency health care.
Sen. John McGee, R-Caldwell, the bill’s sponsor, said, “It is undeniable that illegal aliens are receiving taxpayer supported benefits in Idaho, and taxpayers should not be saddled with any of those costs, whether it’s $1 million, $1,000 or $1.â€
Which is one of the reasons I’m looking in their general direction for employment and housing.
Just after I read about Lawrence, Kansas getting ready to ban firearms in 200 feet of “drinking establishments”, I find this tale about a teacher near the state capital who bought a pistol for protection against her domestically violent significant other and accidentally left it in her purse and was subsequently arrested and had her teaching license yanked.
The story doesn’t say if she had a (worthless) protection order against the unspecified voilent relate, or a Concealed Pistol License, or how she was caught with the pistol on school grounds. But if I were a wife beater who knew my victim was at a school; I would wait until they were there to attack them, since schools are “Gun Free Zones” and usually filled with half sized humans.
Which is why the idea of a “Gun Free Zone” is such and idiotic one.
Back in April of 2005 I received a “blood-bruise-purple” notification in the mail from the friendly folks at the Washington Dept of (Vehicle) Licensing telling me that the plates on my general purpose truck were going to be “retired”.
No, not like a ball player’s jersey number, more like, the taxpayers of Washington State payed for a study to be done on license plates which told the WA DOL that the relectiveness of the plates is only good for a certain length of time. So now every eight years, vehicle owners have to file for new plates.
If you guessed that this involves a moderately sized fee, then swing by the store and get yourself a candy bar, because you are correct.
I said, quite literally “Screw that, I’m getting custom plates” and then proceeded to order myself a set of these Law Enforcement Memorial Plates
While it is an extra $30 extra per year, they are fully transferable to any other vehicle I own or will own, the $30 goes to a great cause and not into the Governoress’ coffers, are a neat conversation piece (especially at traffic stops) and I never have to turn them in for a new set (along with the moderate fee).
Grimm is approaching his 30th Birthday and I was considering getting him some special plates as well when his plates came up for renewal at the end of next month.
As luck would have it, yesterday I received a notification in the mail reminding me on what date his tabs are due.
And it was fucking purple.
So here’s the plan: Collector Vehicle Plates
It is an extra one-time $35 fee and that is it. No renewal ever.
As a 3/4-Ton, 4WD truck, I was getting bent over the tailgate for “Weight Fees” here in Washington. But not after this April 30th.
There is currently one big, caucasian-skin toned middle finger facing our state capital (OK, so I’m typing with it this very second). And it will face that direction every single time I turn his engine over and put him in drive.
In Washington, vehicles 25 years and older do not have to pass an emissions test, so I was already clear of that. Which is good because his exhaust consists of headers, straight pipes to a pair of GlassPacks and then a 90-degree bend to out in front of the rear wheels on the passenger side. No CAT. No O2 sensor. Just one big bent stainless middle finger pointed at Mother Gaia.
I remember the first time I drove Grimm around town. As I came to a stop in the left-hand turn lane, a soccer mom with a Kerry/Edwards and GreenPeace stickers on her PT Cruiser in the non-turn lane rolled up her window. Ahh, the memories.
I laid the track for the Off Topic Express to get to this Destination Station: When (not if, When) the leftards in Washington get rid of the 25yrs and older exemption for the Hose-Up-The-Tailpipe test, I’ll already be out of the pool and they can kiss my ass.
Cuz Grimm will be getting a big-block in the future. I figure that if I’m only getting 9mpg with a small block, how much more painful can it be with an extra 109 cubic inches?
Another plus with these plates is that they only need to be displayed at the rear of the vehicle, which means “kickass winch bumper”.
The quals do also specify that I may not “carry a load” with it, but once the trailer is hooked to the rear of the truck, you can’t see the plates (only on the back, remember), so neener. Besides that, even the smallest of the local car shows have some guy with his 40 Ford pick em up truck hauling a mini trailer. If he is allowed, then so am I.
Thank you WA DOL. You were actually quite helpful this year.
So I finally shot Uncle-in-law Bud’s T/C Contender in 7-30 Waters this past weekend. 
Why did it take so long? The difficulty was in finding some loaded factory cartridges for me to shoot. There used to be a couple of factory loads; now it seems there’s just one — Federal’s Premium load with a BTSP (boat-tail soft-point) bullet. I finally ordered some from Sportsmans’ Guide. When they arrived I looked a bit askance at the flattened lead tip. Great for hunting, but would it deliver in the accuracy department?
As Merle rightly pointed out in the comments to this post, I erroneously referred to the 7-30 Waters as a wildcat cartridge back when I first talked about the gun. The cartridge was developed by Ken Waters (hence the name), but it’s been factory fodder for a long time. However, the most accurate results seem to be from folks who’ve tinkered around and developed their own pet loads, most especially in the T/C Contender — although a couple of years back I ran into a fellow at the Castro Valley range who was shooting an AR with a 7-30 Waters upper! He said it was “wicked accurate.”Â
I, however, don’t reload.
So it was with some trepidation that I set everything up for my first trigger squeezes. Would the gun like the factory ammo? If not, I was screwed….
Ravenwood is feeling a bit apart from the hoi polloi in the wallet and is considering hiring on a maid service for the “Empire de Ravenwood”.
However, like you and I, he is well rounded in both his selection and placement of firearms about his abode.
So, he is asking for suggestions on that topic.
My only suggestion would be to skip the maid and get married to a gun-totin’ woman. Best free clean house I’ve ever had.
(I’m kidding honey. Seriously, I’m just kidding. Babe, put that thing down. Remember guns aren’t toys. Look, I’m doing the laundry.)
And I see that she doesn’t like it one bit.
Speaker Pelosi Leaves S.F. Protesters Hanging
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi brushed past peace activists Monday who camped outside her home overnight to demand that Congress stop funding the war in Iraq.
The small group confronted Pelosi and asked for a meeting at about 6:30 a.m. as she hurried to a waiting vehicle without stopping to speak. “My home is my home,” Pelosi curtly told the protesters before being driven away.
The activists gathered outside the speaker’s Pacific Heights home were the remaining few of a group that marched Sunday across the Golden Gate Bridge to meet with the Democrat.
I’m sure most of y’all remember when these wierdos did the same thing to Rumsfeld and Cheney back in 2004/2005. Camping out on the front side of their private residences in a very lame attempt to force them to talk these quislings.
And of course, there is the greatest camp-out-quisling of all, Momma Moonbat Sheehan.
To this day I would bet you a paycheck that Pelosi was chuckling about it at the time, privately of course. I don’t think that there is much wonder as to how she feels about it now that she is wearing those shoes.
Actually, I guess now they’re probably pumps.
Which is always a good thing (I’m referring to Dirtcrashr’s range report linked below by David)
Mugwug of the MoralFlexibility blog went to the range with a-soon-to-not-be-his CZ52 (which was one of the things I was looking for at the gun show this weekend), as well as with a S&W Model 14 he recently required (that looks exactly like the one I own, down to the custom wood grip panels).
If you scroll all the way to the bottom, he’s got some video of the VZ52 flamethrower. Muy Kewl!
Why, he’s almost as good as that Chuck Norris fella. IMAO has Fun Facts about Fred here.
My favorite:
Fred Thompson can know both the exact position and momentum of a particle. Furthermore, he knows Schroedinger’s cat is dead because he personally strangled it.
h/t: Cowboy Blob.
