The Whines of a Crochety Bookman

It is time for change: Stolen from the New York Times

2011-12-03T12:02:00.000-07:00

Police Officers Find That Dissent on Drug Laws May Come With a Price

Tyler Hicks/The New York Times

United States Customs and Border Protection agents waiting to inspect cars at Nogales, Ariz., an area where marijuana smuggling has been active.

By MARC LACEY

Published: December 2, 2011

PHOENIX — Border Patrol agents pursue smugglers one moment and sit around in boredom the next. It was during one of the lulls that Bryan Gonzalez, a young agent, made some comments to a colleague that cost him his career.

Looking for signs of smugglers near Nogales, Ariz., alongside the fence that now marks part of the nation's border with Mexico.

Stationed in Deming, N.M., Mr. Gonzalez was in his green-and-white Border Patrol vehicle just a few feet from the international boundary when he pulled up next to a fellow agent to chat about the frustrations of the job. If marijuana were legalized, Mr. Gonzalez acknowledges saying, the drug-related violence across the border in Mexico would cease. He then brought up an organization called Law Enforcement Against Prohibition that favors ending the war on drugs.
Those remarks, along with others expressing sympathy for illegal immigrants from Mexico, were passed along to the Border Patrol headquarters in Washington. After an investigation, a termination letter arrived that said Mr. Gonzalez held “personal views that were contrary to core characteristics of Border Patrol Agents, which are patriotism, dedication and esprit de corps.”
After his dismissal, Mr. Gonzalez joined a group even more exclusive than the Border Patrol: law enforcement officials who have lost their jobs for questioning the war on drugs and are fighting back in the courts.
In Arizona, Joe Miller, a probation officer in Mohave County, near the California border, filed suit last month in Federal District Court after he was dismissed for adding his name to a letter by Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, which is based in Medford, Mass., and known as LEAP, expressing support for the decriminalization of marijuana.
“More and more members of the law enforcement community are speaking out against failed drug policies, and they don’t give up their right to share their insight and engage in this important debate simply because they receive government paychecks,” said Daniel Pochoda, the legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, which is handling the Miller case.
Mr. Miller was one of 32 members of LEAP who signed the letter, which expressed support for a California ballot measure that failed last year that would have permitted recreational marijuana use. Most of the signers were retired members of law enforcement agencies, who can speak their minds without fear of action by their bosses. But Mr. Miller and a handful of others who were still on the job — including the district attorney for Humboldt County in California and the Oakland city attorney — signed, too.
LEAP has seen its membership increase significantly from the time it was founded in 2002 by five disillusioned officers. It now has an e-mail list of 48,000, and its members include 145 judges, prosecutors, police officers, prison guards and other law enforcement officials, most of them retired, who speak on the group’s behalf.
“No one wants to be fired and have to fight for their job in court,” said Neill Franklin, a retired police officer who is LEAP’s executive director. “So most officers are reluctant to sign on board. But we do have some brave souls.”
Mr. Miller was accused of not making clear that he was speaking for himself and not the probation department while advocating the decriminalization of cannabis. His lawsuit, though, points out that the letter he signed said at the bottom, “All agency affiliations are listed for identification purposes only.”
He was also accused of dishonesty for denying that he had given approval for his name to appear on the LEAP letter. In the lawsuit, Mr. Miller said that his wife had given approval without his knowledge, using his e-mail address, but that he had later supported her.
Kip Anderson, the court administrator for the Superior Court in Mohave County, said there was no desire to limit Mr. Miller’s political views.
“This isn’t about legalization,” Mr. Anderson said. “We’re not taking a stand on that. We just didn’t want people to think he was speaking on behalf of the probation department.”
Mr. Miller, who is also a retired police officer and Marine, lost an appeal of his dismissal before a hearing officer. But when his application for unemployment benefits was turned down, he appealed that and won. An administrative law judge found that Mr. Miller had not been dishonest with his bosses and that the disclaimer on the letter was sufficient.
In the case of Mr. Gonzalez, the fired Border Patrol agent, he had not joined LEAP but had expressed sympathy with the group’s cause. “It didn’t make sense to me why marijuana is illegal,” he said. “To see that thousands of people are dying, some of whom I know, makes you want to look for a change.”

Since his firing, Mr. Gonzalez, who filed suit in federal court in Texas in January, has worked as a construction worker, a bouncer and a yard worker. He has also gone back to school, where he is considering a law degree.

Joe Miller lost his job as a probation officer in Arizona.

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“I don’t want to work at a place that says I can’t think,” said Mr. Gonzalez, who grew up in El Paso, just across the border from Ciudad Juárez, which has experienced some of the worst bloodshed in Mexico.
The Justice Department, which is defending the Border Patrol, has sought to have the case thrown out. Mr. Gonzalez lost a discrimination complaint filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which sided with his supervisors’ view that they had lost trust that he would uphold the law.
Those challenging their dismissals are buoyed by the case of Jonathan Wender, who was fired as a police sergeant in Mountlake Terrace, Wash., in 2005, partly as a result of his support for the decriminalization of marijuana. Mr. Wender won a settlement of $815,000 as well as his old job back. But he retired from the department and took up teaching at the University of Washington, where one of his courses is “Drugs and Society.”
Among those not yet ready to publicly urge the legalization of drugs is a veteran Texas police officer who quietly supports LEAP and spoke on the condition that he not be identified. “We all know the drug war is a bad joke,” he said in a telephone interview. “But we also know that you’ll never get promoted if you’re seen as soft on drugs.”
Mr. Franklin, the LEAP official, said it was natural that those on the front lines of enforcing drug laws would have strong views on them, either way. It was the death of a colleague at the hands of a drug dealer in 2000 that prompted Mr. Franklin, a veteran officer, to begin questioning the nation’s drug policies. Some of his colleagues, though, hit the streets even more aggressively, he said.
Mr. Franklin said he got calls all the time from colleagues skeptical about the drug laws as they are written but unwilling to speak out — yet.
“I was speaking to a guy with the Maryland State Police this past Saturday, and he’s about to retire in January and he’s still reluctant to join us until he leaves,” Mr. Franklin said. “He wants to have a good last couple of months, without any hassle.”

"Memento mori"
(Me)

Please Forgive Me, CNN

2011-09-12T17:55:00.000-06:00

But I had to pass this on:

The death and life of a great American bookstore

By Todd Leopold, CNN

September 12, 2011 12:47 p.m. EDT

Ann Arbor, Michigan (CNN)

-- The End.
It seems wrong to begin a story like that, doesn't it? Particularly a story about a bookstore. It should begin "In the beginning," or "Once upon a time," or "It was love at first sight."
Especially "It was love at first sight."
After 40 years in business, Borders No. 1, the company's original Ann Arbor store, is scheduled to close on Monday. By late August, posters on the windows declared, "NOTHING HELD BACK!" -- and that meant the fixtures and furniture as well. The goods -- books, but also games and puzzles and teddy bears and throw rugs -- gave off the sour tang of a picked-over flea market.
A lonely security guard stood watch; he was added just recently, an employee said, after a shoplifting incident.
Borders Rewards customers have been receiving e-mails for some time now, ever since the chain declared bankruptcy and announced it was closing its 399 remaining stores. A month ago it was "30 to 50 percent off!" Now it's "60 to 80 percent off!"
There was recently a sign taped to No. 1's front door. It said, "Now Hiring: Apply Online at Borders.com." It was serious -- the liquidators needed to hire part-time help -- but it seemed like a sick joke.
What happened to the love?
"Borders used to be chockablock with books," said Jonathan Marwil, a University of Michigan history professor and author of a history of Ann Arbor. "It has increasingly looked less like a bookstore than a bowling alley, with its wide-open spaces. Now they're selling children's dolls on the front counter. It's really pretty grim."
It was a place where employees were devoted to their jobs. They prided themselves on their knowledge of their assigned sections -- and everybody else's. It was a gathering place and community center, just up the street from the university's main campus.
"We worked when we didn't have to work because we didn't know we were working. We would go into the store when it was closed to do more work," said Sharon Gambin, who arrived for the 1982 holiday season and went on to hold several positions during a three-decade career. "That's how much we loved what we did."
It's an odd thing to mourn for a store. Mourn for the employees who have lost their jobs, yes, but the store? Just another box on the roadside. Hundreds more like it. Move it along, capitalism.
Woolworth is long gone; few were saddened at its passing. Circuit City went belly up; silence. Great downtown department stores have vanished, changed names, disappeared to that Great Retailer in the Sky. (Jacobson's, the upscale department store that once occupied Borders' East Liberty Street storefront, is but one example.) With rare exceptions -- the late Atlanta newspaper columnist Celestine Sibley once wrote a valentine, "Dear Store," to the city's now-defunct retailer, Rich's -- the public yawns.
They'll probably soon forget about Borders as well. To most of the country, it's just another big-box chain, another in a series of disappearing strip-mall storefronts. Indeed, there's an irony in its demise, for as Borders is blamed for killing off some local independents, now it has been done in by Amazon and the Internet. The circle may go 'round again: Former customers may turn to independents, if their towns have them. Or, if they rule out their local chain, maybe they'll just go back to browsing on Amazon.
A shame, because when done right, there's something about a bookstore.
It's a library, a gathering spot, a refuge, a journey. Often it's small, maybe an 800-square-foot storefront jammed into a city street. Or it's idiosyncratic: an old house or converted barn, a rambling lobby or strip-mall space. It may not even be in your neighborhood, but that's where you go.
At its best, it's crowded: sometimes with people, always with books -- books stacked to the ceiling. Books lined up in bookcases. Books spread out on tables, highlighted on platforms, displayed in twirling, 5-foot-high wire racks.
Don't know what you're looking for? That's part of the adventure. A bookstore is governed by serendipity. You walk in and the world falls away. There's no rush. It's just you and the books, these pockets of words and paper that somehow transport you to a different place.
The best bookstores have a certain feel, a certain comfort to them. They're stately but not forbidding. The employees are a mix of the young and the eccentric, college students and lifers. The front of the store features their recommendations, a little offbeat, a little intriguing. If you're looking for something specific, they know where to find it; if you don't know what you're looking for, they can be your Virgil and Beatrice, guiding you through the world.
It is a place with a soul.
For much of its 40-year history, that was Borders. Though it was a chain, with hundreds of locations around the world, during its best years it maintained the feel of a great, expansive local bookstore, the 800-foot space multiplied by 10 or 20 (and much better organized). The choices were manifold, the employees passionate, the adventure always beginning.
In some towns and cities, Borders was it.
"I find in books a comfort and a companionship, a refuge from an urgently insistent world," wrote Ann Miller in the Longmont (Colorado) Weekly about the closing of that town's Borders, its only new-book bookstore. "I am worried about the folding of bookstores like Borders and the lost opportunity for browsing. ... There was no better place for grazing the written word and for meeting the best of friends."
Joe Gable, who managed Store No. 1 from the mid-'70s to the mid-'90s, puts it more simply.
"My goal," he said, "had always been to make the Ann Arbor Borders the best bookstore in America."
'Google-y' questions
Joe Gable came for love, too.

Joe Gable, right, set the tone for Borders. Robert Teicher, left, was the chain's longtime fiction buyer.

He was a doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin trying to finish his dissertation on European history. He had a girlfriend. She was attending Michigan. Gable moved to Ann Arbor.
"I figured I'd work in the bookstore while I did the research. So I got a job at Borders clerking for $2.50 an hour," he recalled. His suffer-no-fools demeanor gets edgy when discussing Borders' later problems, but it softens when talking about the early days. "I had worked for a used bookstore in Madison while I was a graduate student, and I'd always loved books and the book business. And it just happened that the book business got really interesting and (Borders) evolved. ..."
By the time Gable arrived, Borders had been in business three years. Tom and Louis Borders, the brothers behind the name, both had U of M connections -- Tom had done graduate work there, Louis undergraduate studies. They opened a bookstore, the story goes, after spending $500 on a collection of books at an estate sale. (Tom is now an investor based on Austin, Texas; Louis, who founded the dot-com firm Webvan, is based in northern California. Tom declined a request for an interview; Louis didn't return phone messages.)
Ann Arbor, the kind of college town that describes itself as "six square miles surrounded by reality," was a scruffier place then, but in the 1970s -- as today -- it was one of the best-read cities in America. After short stays in other downtown locations and a change in focus from used books to new books, the brothers moved to a two-story, 10,000-square-foot storefront -- a former men's clothing store that dated back to the 19th century -- at 303 S. State Street.
Ten-thousand square feet. To sell books. It was an astonishing amount of space. "We're talking about 1974," said Benita "Be" Kaimowitz, who began work at Borders in 1975 and eventually trained the store's personnel. "There were no big bookstores." Kaimowitz, who moved to Ann Arbor in 1970, said she "went down there and just parked myself, and waited to get an interview."
Gable arrived just before the move.
"He had a vision of what a bookstore should and actually could be," said Jeanne Joesten, who joined Borders in 1986 and has held several positions over the years.
As manager, he kept the book-loving staff on their toes, highlighted some of the more obscure corners in the store's 100,000-title stock, went through the previous day's sales. He unpacked boxes and oversaw displays. He arrived early and stayed late.
"I saw this man every single morning sweeping the walk," said Gambin.
The Borders brothers had a feel for business. In the era before personal computers, Borders kept track of every single title on three-inch-square punch cards. Inventory was deep and rich. The inventory approach, an innovation of Louis Borders, led to a separate business, Book Inventory Systems, which the company supplied to other major independent book vendors. Tom Borders oversaw the store.
But it was Gable who reveled in books.
That often meant bucking the tide, not difficult in a countercultural college town that had been a center for the antiwar movement. Borders' employees, a crew of well-educated individuals who had to pass a qualifying test, were assigned specific sections and empowered to oversee them. Everybody cleaned the store; everybody pitched in on customer service.
Take the quiz: Could you have worked at Borders?
And everyone took pride in their knowledge of literature, science, publishing and, well, knowledge.
"Pre-Google, there was a spot near the front of the store where I could stand and say out loud almost any Google-y type question, and somebody within earshot would know the answer," said Kaimowitz.
The store's staffers included Steve Adams, the king of the sci-fi section; Sven Birkerts, who went on to become a well-known essayist; and poet Keith Taylor, who now runs the creative writing program at Michigan.
The store was richly stocked with works from small presses and university publishers, and often sold more of those titles than it did best-sellers.
"We used the term 'a world-class inventory' and didn't throw that around lightly," said Robert Teicher, the company's longtime fiction buyer. Gable prized merchandising displays dependent on several copies of a specific title, not just one or two. "We not only bought them, but bought them to be displayed," Teicher said. "So they would send us two copies, and Joe would get on the phone and say, 'I need seven copies. Or 10 copies. I need to display this thing.' "
They sold, too, he added.
"We were book people," he said.
iReport: Are there deals at Borders?
Falling in the river
Sharon Gambin had been a high school guidance counselor and, thanks to budget crunches, was pink-slipped twice in short order. While awaiting a new assignment, she applied at Borders.
As a child she'd fantasized about working in a bookstore -- about owning a bookstore. She once tried to talk her father into funding a bookstore. "Just craziness," she said.
"For me to get hired was like -- the thrill. Never realizing that what was happening for me personally was, how shall I say it? I fell in the river and I got swept up. As they say, I never looked back. It was a great match."
The store, she said, had its idiosyncrasies.
The receiving room was in the basement and there was no elevator, so books were stacked atop one another and carried upstairs. Nobody wore nametags. Gable gave pride of place to store recommendations over The New York Times best-sellers all the chain stores pushed. You could smoke, and everybody did. "There were ashtrays everywhere," said Gambin.

Be Kaimowitz, shown with partner Ed Vandenberg, "parked herself" at Borders to get an interview.

And the staff? "Each of us was weirder than the other," said Kaimowitz.
It could be a hothouse atmosphere; Teicher can think of at least five marriages that came out of the Ann Arbor store, including his own to Gambin. There were countless relationships, too, and stolen kisses in the basement.
The employees were proud of Borders' success. They shared in the profit of the store. They had a "funky little handbook" that specified Borders would be closed seven holidays a year so employees could spend time with their families.
"We'd have Christmas parties -- Joe would go around on Christmas Eve with an envelope, come up to you and shake your hand and say 'Thank you for your hard work,' " Gambin said. "On New Year's Eve he'd bring a bottle of champagne -- he'd say, 'Gambin, go to the liquor store next door and get some champagne' -- we'd lock the door and we'd have a toast."
Ann Arbor loved it back.
"Suddenly there were thousands of serious readers in town," staffer-turned-essayist Birkerts wrote in his book, "The Gutenberg Elegies." "They thronged the aisles of the store, asked questions, placed orders. The books had an aura, an excitement about them."
When the university wanted to show off the town, it took visitors to two places: Zingerman's, a legendary deli, and Borders. Locals knew they could find obscure philosophy texts and up-to-date computer science manuals, and they shared their love with the staff.
Jeanne Joesten remembers one couple, a pair of graduate students, who wanted the complete, multivolume edition of the Oxford English Dictionary as a wedding gift. They suggested putting the OED in a wedding registry, so friends could buy it for them a volume or two at a time.
"I went to Joe with the request and he grumbled, saying 'We're going to get stuck with (an incomplete set),' but he finally said, 'It's your baby.' So I did a memo to the staff and we set it up. And customers would come in and say, 'I want to buy volume H-L of the OED' and we'd sell it to them."
'Slowly, then all at once'
By the mid-1980s, the Borders brothers were eyeing expansion. The second Borders was in Birmingham, Michigan, in Detroit's northern suburbs, about an hour's drive from Ann Arbor. Before picking the spot, Tom and Louis engaged in a study. "They spent like a year there. They'd stand on a corner of Southfield and 13½ (Mile Road), clocking cars," recalled Teicher.
If the brothers were nervous about a second store, their worries faded quickly: "We spent years trying to catch up, business was so strong," said Teicher. "That was the power and the strength and the charm of Borders. Nobody in the Detroit metro area had seen that. They used to come to Ann Arbor to buy their books."
Pretty soon the budding chain opened a third store, in Atlanta, and a fourth store, in Indianapolis. By 1992, when the Borders brothers sold the chain to Kmart for about $125 million, Borders had 21 stores.
Some analysts have called the sale the first step in Borders' decline. Teicher doesn't agree.
"The sale to Kmart was completely transparent. The product of that was deeper pockets," he said. "We accelerated the store openings, which was always fun. ... Kmart had nothing to do with the decline of Borders. There was a synergy there that was positive."
The problems began three years later, he said, when Kmart spun off the Borders division -- which now included another Kmart book retailer, Waldenbooks -- and the company went public.
"When you become a public company, you have certain obligations, and in my opinion, when those responsibilities and obligations are not managed correctly, (they) lead to what we have now."
But during the '90s, the future looked rosy. Borders grew and grew, second only to Barnes & Noble. There was a Borders in Singapore. There was a Borders in the World Trade Center. The stock price flew high. At its peak there were more than 1,200 Borders and Waldenbooks stores, employing more than 30,000 people. Where did it go wrong?
Ask someone for the reason Borders went under and they'll give you a list. There was the Kmart deal and aftermath. There was the Borders Rewards program, which was offered free to customers, giving them little incentive to use it -- unlike B&N's plan, which charged a fee. Others point to the decision to sell CDs, which backfired when the music technology changed to downloads.
In fact, new technology began haunting the once-cutting-edge store. In 1998, Borders created a website but three years later handed its online business to Amazon; by the time Borders decided to reclaim its web presence in 2008, it had fallen far behind its competitors. Borders also was late to e-book readers, finally partnering with a Canadian company for its Kobo reader -- well after Amazon's Kindle and B&N's Nook took over the market.
Then there were misguided investments, overbuilding, personnel turnover. As Hemingway once wrote about a man going broke, it happened "slowly, then all at once."
"When Borders expanded, they brought in executives from supermarkets and department stores (all of whom insisted they were readers), and the result was a shuffle of titles and more downsizing against a backdrop of financial engineering, which only seemed to make matters worse," Public Affairs founder Peter Osnos wrote in The Atlantic.
For Gable, who moved to corporate in 1996 as a senior project manager and still witheringly refers to the executives as "the grocery guys," it was one frustration after another. At one point, he said, Borders spent millions renovating stores and then decided to create a model for the "store of the future," with different fixtures and carpeting -- none of which, according to Gable, could be retrofitted to Borders' 500 stores.
"They spend millions developing this stupid ('store of the future') and then six months later they pull the plug on it," he said. "So picture the money just pouring out. Then they get a new guy in. I say, 'What do we need?' (He says,) 'We need a new idea for a store.' 'Well, what could that possibly be?' 'Let's call it "the concept store." ' Let's have more consultants, and let's develop totally different fixtures -- metal fixtures -- and let's have a different layout, this time instead of a racetrack, people will find things by bumping into them!"
In other words, another "store of the future."
Meanwhile, the core of Borders' business, the focus on customer service and selection, had fallen by the wayside.
"You see the devolution here," said Teicher.
"Not only did they not pay attention to the selection," Gable noted, "they continued to downgrade the selection by emphasizing in its place things that were nonbook items. The point was that Borders was completely indistinguishable from B&N and the competition. The books that you could buy at Borders you could buy at Costco -- cheaper."
The customers, he said, knew it. Locals had always been sensitive about even the smallest changes -- Gambin remembers the horrified reaction when the Ann Arbor store switched from paper to plastic bags -- but the changes in philosophy were too much.
"A woman came up to me on the street a number of years after I left the (first) store, and she said, 'I have something to confess to you,' " Gable said. " 'You know I was a loyal Borders customer for over 20 years. I wouldn't even think of going anyplace else. I will never again go to Borders. ... It used to be I was able to find what I want, and if I couldn't find it myself someone would help find it for me. Now I go in there, and not only do they have this (nonbook) stuff, but nobody knows if you have the book or not.'
"The problem with the new guys," Gable concluded, "is they tried to take the book business, which is complex and boring, and make it simple and sexy."
'The treasure hunt'
The book business has never been easy. For a long time it was a relatively low-profit gentleman's game. Independents have often struggled; until the megastore trend, chains generally stocked a limited number of titles and focused on best-sellers. (Today's megastores still focus on the big names, giving The New York Times' best-seller list more play than Joe Gable would have liked.) It has remained a niche business. Even Amazon.com, which looms large over the industry, quickly started diversifying away from the book sales it was founded on; its recent commerce has been largely driven by electronics and general merchandise.

New York's 84-year-old Strand Bookstore has adapted to the times.

Fred Bass, president of New York's venerable Strand Bookstore, the used-book emporium founded in 1927, knows the challenges. When the Strand opened, it was among dozens of bookshops along Manhattan's Fourth Avenue, known as "Book Row." Now, in its location nearby at 828 Broadway, it's the only one left.
The Strand has survived by being creative. It has a thriving market in art books and advance editions. It has a strong presence on the Internet. During Borders' liquidation, the Strand reached out to Borders Rewards customers, honoring their discounts. After years coping with rent hikes and changing demographics, the store bought the building.
Bass still works the floor, a stocky man wearing a protective back brace and bold name tag, ready to answer questions from customers. That personal touch is the key, says his daughter and store manager, Nancy Bass Wyden.
"People want the tactile experience. They want the treasure hunt," she said.
"You try to keep some of the mystique of the old bookstore, but adapt," added Bass.
Indeed, bookstores today are dealing with challenges from technology and distribution, much like the music and newspaper businesses. They face competition from e-books, retailers such as Target and Walmart, and a variety of entertainment options unheard-of when the first Borders opened in 1971.
"Part of the problem is the activity of buying a book has become deculturalized. I can walk 10 minutes down the road from my office and buy the latest hardcover James Patterson book at (the supermarket) Stop & Shop," said publishing industry analyst Michael Norris of Simba Information. "Over the past 10 or so years, there are about 1,000 fewer chain bookstores, but 1,000 more Walmarts and Targets. And the Walmarts and Targets have no stake in the future of books."
Bookstore: A love story
For those who know No. 1, its demise is a knife to the heart.
Sharon Gambin, who had risen to No. 1's human resources manager and had the company catechism down pat, recalls a key incident with emotion.
"A few years ago, my heart was broken," she recalled. "They hired a man, who was a Borders GM, and gave him, the poor soul, the task of making Store 1 like every other store in the system."
Her voice breaks. "From that time, I went through a period of (asking), 'What am I doing?' "

Brian McDonald, left, and Joshua Fireman have been coming to the Ann Arbor Borders since they were children.

No. 1 is breathing its last. As August drifted into September, there were still plenty of books -- indeed, more now that the store was in liquidation than there were a few months ago -- but the titles are a strange mix. Some two dozen copies of Hilary Duff's "Elixir," a young adult novel, lined one shelf. Other bookcases included a guide to Ibsen, a Holocaust memoir, several copies of a Denis Leary rant and countless romance novels.
Brian McDonald and Joshua Fireman, two U of M undergraduates, went through the sci-fi section with equal parts glee and sadness. They weren't born when Borders was founded, weren't alive when it started expanding, yet they knew it as well as any old-timer.
"I remember coming here from elementary school," says McDonald, an area native.
"It's sad," agrees Fireman, who also grew up in southeast Michigan. "I'm buying as many books while I can."
Ann Arbor will survive. Downtown is thriving, an eclectic and walkable mix of shops and restaurants. Thanks to the university, a highly regarded hospital system and proximity to metro Detroit's auto and engineering firms, the city remains a sturdy blend of small business owners, free spirits and intellectuals. It has generally weathered the worst of Michigan's economic downturn, and a prime 40,000-square-foot spot is sure to have takers.
"We'll bounce back OK," said Diane Keller, president of the local chamber of commerce.
Still, she can't help but lament Borders' closing: "It was a warm place to go. It felt like your Borders."
"I think there is a sense of loss," said Marwil, the U of M history professor and author. "Given what's happening to the whole book trade, I don't think there has been quite the investment emotionally. If Borders had collapsed in 1998 there would have been a real sense of grieving. This is like the shoe dropping. And Borders had lost a quality of individuality. But still ... you can't help but feel twinges of what was."
Soon, Borders will join other names -- Booksellers in Cleveland, Oxford in Atlanta, Kroch's in Chicago, Scribner's in New York -- as ex-bookstores, their storefronts left as empty as desanctified churches. There is still a market for distinctive, customer-centric bookstores -- Ann Arbor has Nicola's about two miles from downtown -- but they're harder to come by nowadays.
"I think that the national chain store model will have some kind of future, but in order to be successful they can't have a cookie-cutter approach for their retail locations," said industry analyst Norris. "There has to be something for local books and local authors other than a 2-foot-by-2-foot card table on the second floor. The stores should have a personality."
Gable has wiped his hands of it. He's been gone now for three years. He recently stopped by No. 1 and left feeling "bitter and angry." "The loss to book lovers is probably irreparable," he told CNN in an e-mail.
Gambin prefers to remember better times and a wealth of colleagues. It wasn't so long ago, she says, that the growing company was still filled with people who had roots at No. 1, friends who had started in the basement and had suddenly found themselves on top of the world.
More recently, she says, she tried to focus on the "books and the people" -- she repeats the phrase twice, like a mantra -- "so I could transcend the rest of the crap."
"But I grieved for many years and was angry for many years," she said.
And then came the day a year or two ago when she thought she couldn't do it anymore. She got a part-time job at a local college. Still, she couldn't leave Borders behind, working part-time. She's remained during the liquidation, helping out to the end.
Gambin is 64 now. She has spent almost half her life at Borders. She struggles to put a career, a business, a love in context.
"You're married to something and one day you wake up and it's a different person or something's different about them, and you keep hoping the good parts are going to come back," she said.
So let's try this again.

Once upon a time ...

"Memento mori"
(Me)

9/11 Thoughts, from my Facebook page

2011-09-12T10:30:00.000-06:00

No jokes today.

I feel like the America I grew up in received a mortal blow on 9/11/01. It wasn't killed instantly, but is dying, and too much of the freedom I cherished is gone.

The America I grew up in did not encourage neighbors to spy on neighbors, professional thugs did not grope or embarrass or harass travelers, photographers were not arrested and knitting needles were allowed in government offices.

I am still proud of my country, but I am not happy with it.

One added thought. I believe that part of reaching maturity is accepting the fact that there is really no such thing as physical security. No contrivance, no legislation, no training, no person, no environment, no institution, can keep you from harm. No amount of planning, worrying, and devising by you or anyone else will keep you safe. You are going to get hurt and you are going to die, but in the meantime you should just go out and LIVE.

The atmosphere of fear that engendered the Patriot Act and all the other restrictions on our liberty should not exist in a society of mature individuals.

"Memento mori"
(Me)

You get what you pay for

2011-09-05T09:51:00.000-06:00

You can order the print here.

"Memento mori"

(Me)

Borders Advice: Unofficial

2011-07-19T16:08:00.002-06:00

To all those store employees still left. I am sorry you will be losing your jobs. Be ready for the first week or so of the liquidation to suck. It will be crazy as the vultures will be coming in for the awesome sale of 20% off. It will be crazy and out of control. They will break stuff and yell at you over having to mark the barcode on the books. the store will get destroyed. also watch out for weights and measures. so make sure you keep things together that are the higher discounts. If you have an upstairs portion, move everything downstairs as fast as possible (ignore the liquidators on this). block off your restrooms to the public as you will no longer be serving food. Make sarcastic sale signs (it will help with store morale). Break stuff. sit around, get rid of trash that won't be sold as fast as you can. Condense, condense, condense. And if you happen to be at a store where you all get along really well, enjoy your time together, and have as much fun as possible. as shelves become empty, take the top two down and put them on the bottom. and to be honest during the first weekend, take recovery to the back and sort it so sections stay together better. But don't be afraid to have some sections just be a " hell if I know section." just keep the discount %'s together.

"Memento mori"
(Me)

A Wal-mart government?

2011-07-18T12:59:00.000-06:00

1. Americans spend $36,000,000 at Wal-mart every hour of every day.

2. This works out to $20,928 profit every minute!

3. Wal-mart sells more from January 1 to st. Patrick's day (march 17th) than Target sells all year.

4. Wal-mart is bigger than Home Depot + Kroger + Target + Sears + Costco + K- Mart combined.

5. Wal-mart employs 1.6 Million people, is the world's largest private employer, and most speak English.

6. Wal-mart is the largest company in the history of the world.

7. Wal-mart now sells more food than Kroger and Safeway combined, and keep in mind they did this in only fifteen years.

8. During this same period, 31 big supermarket chains sought bankruptcy.

9. Wal-mart now sells more food than any other store in the world.

10. Wal-mart has approx 3,900 stores of which 2,906 are super centers; this is 1,000 more than it had five years ago.

11. This year 7.2 Billion different purchasing experiences will occur at wal-mart stores. (Earth's population is approximately 6.5 Billion.)

12. 90% Of all Americans live within fifteen miles of a wal-mart.

13. Wal-mart has gross sales that total more than the total revenue of all but six of the countries in the world.

You may think that I am complaining, but I am really laying the ground work for suggesting to our government that maybe we should hire the guys who run Wal-mart to fix the economy.

A.. The u.S. Postal service was established in 1775. You have had 234 years to get it right and it is broke.

B.. Social security was established in 1935. You have had 74 years to get it right and it is broke.

C.. Fannie mae was established in 1938. You have had 71 years to get it right and it is broke.

D.. War on poverty started in 1964. You have had 45 years to get it right; $1 trillion of our money is confiscated each year and transferred to "the poor" and they only want more.

E.. Medicare and medicaid were established in 1965. You have had 44 years to get it right and they are broke.

F.. Freddie Mac was established in 1970. You have had 39 years to get it right and it is broke.

G.. The Department of Energy was created in 1977 to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. It has ballooned to 16,000 employees with a budget of $24 billion a year and we import more oil than ever before. You had 32 years to get it right and it is an abysmal failure.

You want Americans to believe you can be trusted with a government-run health care system ??

"Memento mori"
(Me)

I Love Bicycles: Part Two

2011-06-06T13:32:00.000-06:00

After the divorce, Bec started bugging me for a new bike, something called a "mountain bike." I'd seen a few around and wasn't impressed with the bulky frames and strange looking tires but I let her drag me back to Wheaton's for a sales pitch, close inspection and test ride.

The first thing I noticed was that they weighed a lot less than my old steel-framed 3-speed. The second thing was that more gears meant easier peddling, and the knobbed tires didn't slide around in gravel like the narrow "English" tires on my old bike.

So I gave in to progress -- and Bec's whining -- and bought a Trek 750 for her. Then I bought one for myself.Why be a Luddite??

We took them back to the store and she took off on a ride while I dug out a spray can of flat black paint. Bec liked how pretty her bike was but all I could think of was what a shining target for a thief mine was. Flat black over the whole bike cured that, and it rode and handled just as well as it ever did.

Bec and the folks at the bike shop were appalled, but I was happy. I have always valued performance over appearances and I was less paranoid this my now-ugly transportation parked in front of the store.

When Bec's bike was stolen even though it was padlocked and mine wasn't, I felt justified.I may have even rubbed in the value of obscurity and my smart decision and how wise I had been.

Unfortunately Mr. Murphy heard me, and decided to walk up and bit me in the butt. My bike was black, ugly and locked up so it didn't get stolen, but the tires/.rims/etc disappeared from it one dark night.

After I looked at the price of replacement parts and looked at the wear, tear, and souvenirs of crashes on the frame of my 750, I went back to the bike shop and got an 850. And painted it black again. And was quite happy with what I'd done till the deputy sheriff interrogated me about the possible possession of stolen property. Somehow a brand new bike with a fresh coat of black paint struck him as suspicious.

Luckily this was one of the few times that I could find a receipt when I needed to.

TBC "Memento mori" (Me)

I Love Bicycles

2011-06-05T13:57:00.005-06:00

Though they have had their drawbacks.

When I was little it seemed like everyone but me had a bicycle. I wanted one too! A bike heated my preschool dreams like a hotrod did a teenager's imaginings. I drooled over bikes and dropped hints till the folks finally took me up to Wheaton's in Kalispell to buy one.

The day of finally getting one was like all the Christmases I'd ever known rolled into one. The bike I got was not exactly what I wanted -- I wanted a horn! -- but was shiny and pretty and MINE! I could live without the horn. It was a size to fit ME, and the seat and handlebars were properly set up for ME! IT WAS MINE!

I wanted to ride it home from the store, but Mom and Dad both said "NO!" I kept pestering in the hope that once we got to Four Corners and off of the highway they'd relent. No such luck. I had to wait till I got home. Once we were there and the bike was finally unloaded, reality reared its ugly head -- sort of like what happens when you finally marry the gorgeous woman of your dreams.

If the events had been set to music there would have been a lot of percussion instruments involved, accompanied by cymbals. CRASH! CRASH! CRASH! CRASH! CRASH! BOOM! I could no more balance myself on that horizontal-loving machine than I could fly.

Dad watched me for a few tries, then took the bike himself. He said he'd never been on one before, but away he went, perfection in motion. He handed it back with a "There, that's how it's done" and walked off. He wasn't much help.

I swallowed pride and asked for training wheels but he shot that idea down, saying no one ever learned to ride a bike using them. I had to learn the hard way, and it was hard on me, my clothes, and my not-so-shiny-now bicycle. And on Mom. Not only did she have to wash the bloody clothes and sew the torn pants and shirts, she had to listen to me complain. (Dad was totally wrong, by the way. My daughter was given training wheels on her first bike and learned to ride quite well. When I took them off at her request, she almost flew down the driveway.)

Carol Olson , a neighbor girl some years older than I, took pity on me and spent a good chunk of her summer pushing me around, running with the bike and launching me on my wobbly way to gravel rash. I never did have a triumphant break-through in my balancing abilities -- I only managed to slowly increase the distances I made between launches and topples until it suddenly dawned on me that I wasn't falling over any more. Dad wasn't impressed.

The bicycle was my main mode of transport for the two mile trip between school and home, and after I got into high school I still rode it from the house to Riedel's where I met the bus.

In the stateside Navy, I put some miles on the haze gray bike the boat had. I used it to haul 4 or 6 35mm movies back and forth when we were in a port that had the ancient USN equivalent of a video rental unit. Ships were allowed X number of movies at a time and it was the task of the junior Electrician (me) to trade them in and get new ones. Since I never watch movies and was clueless about what was good or bad in what I picked out I got regularly bitched at but wasn't relieved of the duty.

In case you are wondering where I am going with this, I am about to explain the scar in my eyebrow . . .

So, I am peddling though the shipyard in Long Beach on that balloon-tired gray junker of a bike with two heavy 35mm multi-reel movies swinging off of each side of the handlebars. I am paralleling the track for a crane that sits in a groove in the concrete roadway. A USN pickup pulls up alongside me and I pull over to give it room. The front bike tire drops into the track groove and wedges between the iron track and the concrete. The tire stops, the bike doesn't. Result: Faceplant and slide on the concrete, because the last part of you that detaches from the bike is your grip on the handlebars and having your arms stretched back and anchoring you pretty much guarantees your face hits first.

The pickup didn't stop. I unwedged the bike, gathered the films and wobbled the rest of the way back to the boat. And was met with "What the H*** did you do? Are the movies okay? Go get patched up after you put them away and secure the bike. Oh, and is the bike okay?" This might give you an insight into the mind of a career Navy Chief, btw.

It was the Electronics Technician that taped my eyebrow back into place. We were too small to have a Corpsman on board.

My next phase of biking was after I was married, and the wife and I bought matching J.C. Penney bikes, green three-speeds, in Nampa where I was finishing up college. They were transportation to class and work for me, and came back to Kalispell with us.

Flash forward to Bec riding a bike. I went for a ramble with her and took my black lab along on a lengthy rope. That I tied to the handlebars. Yeah, not so smart . . . That idea worked fine and we had a good head of steam built up when the dog spotted something up the neighbor's driveway and took off at right angles to my course. I was left floating along wondering my bike went. It followed the dog. No face plant, but skinned elbows, ribs and knees and fatally wounded dignity. Yeah, Bec hadn't thought putting the dog on that rope was a good idea.

--------------------------

I still love bicycles and still ride, but with more caution and less speed. These days I pamper myself with a nice 2nd or 3rd hand mountain bike with full suspension, a nice benefit on bumpy streets. I am training my dog to trot alongside the bike when I ride, but she is not fastened to the handle bars and is not on a long leash. I have learned a little over the years, and it has been DAYS since I last crashed because I tried to do something stupid.

TBC "Memento mori" (Me)

NC

2011-06-02T11:41:00.001-06:00

"Memento mori" (Me)

Married Life

2011-05-17T10:24:00.001-06:00

Herman by Jim Unger	Official Site/Archives \| Unsubscribe

"Memento mori" (Me)

The Veto: Schweitzer is Clueless

2011-05-13T10:59:00.001-06:00

Montana Governor Vetoes Permitless Carry Bill

On May 10, Governor Brian Schweitzer vetoed House Bill 271, the permitless carry bill introduced by state Representative Krayton Kerns (R-48). You can read the Governor’s veto letter here. HB 271 would have allowed any law-abiding individual who is eligible to possess a handgun under state or federal law to discreetly carry a firearm for self-protection within city limits in Montana without obtaining a concealed weapon permit.

In his letter, the Governor states, “Obviously, this bill would greatly imperil the work and safety of Montana 's lawmen, including sheriffs and highway patrolmen.” However, this letter seems to ignore current law in Montana as well as the provisions of HB 271.

For the last twenty years, Montana law has allowed any law-abiding citizen who can legally possess a handgun to carry it concealed, without a permit, anywhere outside city limits. So, no carry permit is currently required for law-abiding citizens in over 99% of the state, the area of Montana where sheriffs and highway patrolmen have primary jurisdiction. There is twenty years of empirical data that shows the exact opposite of what the Governor claims.

Law-abiding Montana firearm owners know what is obvious: that it makes no sense to allow them to carry concealed without a permit on one side of the city limit line but not on the other! Law-abiding citizens do not suddenly turn into criminals when they cross the arbitrary boundary into a city. Law-abiding Montana firearm owners also understand that it makes no sense to allow them to carry a firearm openly within city limits but require them to obtain a permit simply so they can put on a coat.

The Governor also wrote that HB 271 would “dismantle many reasonable Montana laws and regulations which ensure that permit-holders are not unduly burdened” and “void our state’s reciprocity agreements with more than thirty states that recognize concealed permits; and it would void our laws that allow Montana permit-holders to forgo the background check required for a firearm purchase.” This is factually incorrect since HB 271 made absolutely no change to the concealed weapon permit system. It simply added twelve words to one section of law that provides exceptions to the prohibition on concealed carry.

Please contact Governor Schweitzer today and express your disappointment at his veto of House Bill 271 and the misinformation on which the veto was based! The Governor can be contacted by calling (406) 444-3111. You can also send him an e-mail message at brianschweitzer@mt.gov or leave a comment for Governor Schweitzer online by clicking here.

"Memento mori" (Me)

The Rules.

2011-05-06T13:43:00.000-06:00

Stolen from Boingboing "Memento mori" (Me)

Obama, and Bush's Tactics

2011-05-05T13:08:00.002-06:00

Stolen from the Washington Examiner, worth reading.

The vindication of former President Bush?

By: Christopher Taylor 05/05/11 12:33 PM

President Bush was reviled and hated at an almost unbelievable level while in office, with almost no accusation or conspiracy theory untried or unbelieved by the left. Every single action the man took was considered evil and horrible, every single event was an excuse to shower bitterness and spite toward the man and all he did. President Obama's career and political campaign for eight years was largely shaped by how he acted toward President George W. Bush. Now all that has changed.

In one event, on May Day, the entire case against President Bush was demolished by one of his greatest critics: President Obama.

Lets start with the invasion of Iraq, which was solidly opposed by the Democratic Party by 2004 when they realized they needed a tool to attack the president with for the elections. It was in Iraq, because of the US presence there, that a courier was captured, a courier that gave us key information that led to the location of Osama Bin Laden. Bush's decision to invade Iraq turned out to not be a distraction after all, but they key to getting Bin Laden.

Guantanamo Bay, long decried by the left as a haven of human rights violations and extralegal activity, a place President Obama swore repeatedly to close down (and has not) was the location where information critical to the location and killing of Osama Bin Laden was uncovered. Instead of being a blight on America and the source of Osama's popularity, Gitmo became his doom.

Other secret prisons, held up as proof of the sinister, awful nature of the Bush administration, were the site of other information needed to find Osama Bin Laden.

For years, the left argued that the Bush administration and no other administration has ever used torture to get information from terrorists and terrorist suspects. They argued this was ineffective, and further that it was evil and something that America should never use. Several leading figures, including Leon Panetta, have noted that it was the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" long called "torture" by the left that got us information to find and kill Osama Bin Laden - techniques still in use by the Obama administration. Direct, targeted killings by military drones, bombs, and soldiers was condemned by the left during the Bush administration, but with a single stroke, the Obama administration reporting the use this tactic to end Osama Bin Laden showed the validity of the tactic. Not only that, but the Obama administration has long argued that this tactic is perfectly legal. Tho were previously attacked as "Dick Cheney's Assassination Squad." The left's A List talking heads such as Seymore Hersh, Keith Olbermann, Stephen Colbert, and Jon Stewart, among others all specifically attacked this team as an extra-legal tool used by the sinister Vice President Cheney to carry out a personal agenda. Now we find out that it was this very team which moved into place and carried out the mission against Osama Bin Laden. Patriotism, previously mocked and attacked as being crass, manipulative, and even a tool of the political opportunist is suddenly popular again on the left. When Osama Bin Laden was announced dead, the celebrations and patriotism began, with flag waving and chants of "USA! USA!" heard outside the White House. President Obama's passive "lead from behind" method of downplaying and reducing US leadership in the world was a direct reversal of President Bush. Bush was called a "cowboy" and reckless, and the bold, open view of America as a leader in the world was despised. Now, however, the USA is seen to lead by taking out Osama Bin Laden personally, striking into the heart of another nation to carry out a mission in a unilateral manner without any UN approval or world-wide permission.

The truth is, the Bush administration's tireless efforts to fight terrorism worldwide in the face of unbelievable opposition and pressure by the left was so effective and so right that now, even hard left former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) had to recently thank President Bush.

This was a long process that started years ago under the Bush administration, and was carried out using the same techniques with the tools and areas established by the Bush team by the Obama administration. Two presidencies in a row worked to bring about the death of Obama, resulting in justice for the man who attacked America twice on its own soil.

President Bush told America we needed to be ready for "patient justice" before we could finally see Osama Bin Laden taken in. And President Obama, one of the Bush administration's most strident and vocal opponents, used the very tools, techniques, and tactics that he attacked previously and very publicly to accomplish it all, vindicating former President Bush and six years of the War on Terror before Obama took office.

"Memento mori" (Me)

Local Action Needed: Important Ammunition Bill on Governor’s Desk

2011-05-02T17:28:00.001-06:00

Montana: Important Ammunition Bill on Governor’s Desk

Monday, May 02, 2011

House Bill 159, sponsored by state Representative Cary Smith (R-55), is legislation to restrict the authority of the Department of Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) and the FWP Commission to regulate firearms and ammunition. HB 159 is currently awaiting action by Governor Brian Schweitzer.

The need for this bill became evident in 2010 when FWP proposed regulatory changes for the 2010-2011 hunting season. Absent one shred of scientific evidence in support of their suggested change, FWP proposed that lead shot be prohibited for all upland game bird hunting on Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) throughout the state. A review of the “Hunting Season/Quota Change Supporting Information” document prepared by FWP was shocking in that it provided absolutely NO support for this recommended policy change.

In fact, it contained multiple points indicating a lack of objective biological or scientific support for this proposed change. Consider this quote from the FWP “support” document with respect to the requirement that even very low density grouse hunters would be prohibited from using lead shot on WMAs: “Lead presence and accumulation under extremely low levels of lead shot shell use has not been established as a significant environmental concern.” Or this comment which clearly shows the politicization of the issue: “…this proposal is as much or more about programmatic message and general intent as it is about specific resource protection or management need.” FWP should be all about managing and protecting the resource, not sending “programmatic messages”!

Their own language would indicate that this proposal was nothing more than a political and symbolic gesture. This is of concern to the NRA because it is consistent with what we are seeing with other states moving in the direction of broader restrictions on the use of lead ammunition for hunting. The passage of House Bill 159 would remove this purely political, potential outcome by restricting the authority of FWP to regulate this aspect of game management.

Please contact Governor Schweitzer today and respectfully urge him to sign House Bill 159 into law! The Governor can be contacted by calling (406) 444-3111 or by e-mail at brianschweitzer@mt.gov.

TBC "Memento mori" (Me)

The Story of My Life

2011-04-27T12:51:00.000-06:00

(Me) (Home)

Stolen from Holycoast.com

2011-04-25T16:45:00.002-06:00

Here's a thought. Most of us with computers also have some form of printer. Get yourself some Avery Labels (the 30 to a page mailing labels are about the right size) and simply print out a page full of them that look like this:

That's all you need to say. The sticker is small enough that you should be able to stick it on the pump near the purchase amount and it won't be terribly obvious to someone watching. However, everyone that uses that pump will see it and be reminded why they're paying the ridiculous prices they're paying.

"Memento mori"
(Me)

Yum, Bacon!

2011-04-18T15:46:00.000-06:00

Cologne or perfume?

"Memento mori"
(Me)

I am a PLUGGER!

2011-04-15T11:14:00.001-06:00

"Memento mori"
(Me)

Hoping this passes . . .

2011-04-07T14:29:00.000-06:00

Montana: Permitless Carry Bill to be Voted on by Full House & Senate

Thursday, April 07, 2011

Please contact your state Senator and Representative Immediately!

NRA-supported House Bill 271, sponsored by state Representative Krayton Kerns (R-58), passed out of the Conference Committee this morning and anti-gun Senate amendments were stripped out of the bill. In fact, HB 271 was made better than it was as introduced! The current language simply says that the prohibition on concealed carry does not apply to “a person who is eligible to possess a handgun under state or federal law.”

Existing law allows any person who can legally own and possess a firearm to carry it openly, either loaded or unloaded, anywhere in the state, including within city limits. Additionally, law-abiding citizens are authorized to carry firearms concealed, without a permit, anywhere outside city limits. Law-abiding citizens do not suddenly turn into criminals when they cross the arbitrary boundary into a city. It makes no sense to allow them to carry concealed without a permit on one side of the line but not the other!

HB 271 now goes before the full House and Senate for a vote to concur. Please contact your state Representative and Senator IMMEDIATELY and respectfully urge them to support House Bill 271. Please send an e-mail AND follow-up with a phone call. Legislators can be reached via e-mail by clicking here, or via phone by dialing (406) 444-4800. If you need help identifying your state Representative or Senator, please click here.

"Memento mori"
(Me)

Strong Words & Truth

2011-03-31T10:47:00.002-06:00

Washington, Mar 30 - Rep. Young Refuses Humane Society Award

Alaskan Congressman Don Young refused an award this evening from The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and the Humane Society Legislative Fund that would have honored his work for animals in 2010. While capitalizing on the good work of local humane societies that shelter, spay, and neuter animals, the HSUS does not own, operate, or directly control a single animal shelter in our country, despite a budget of well over $100 million.

“HSUS are hypocrites, plain and simple, and I will not join them by accepting this award,” said Rep. Young. “Local animal shelters and humane societies do excellent work by caring for neglected and homeless animals, and through their spaying and neutering programs. This organization, however, has absolutely nothing to do with animal welfare. Instead they prey on the emotions of big-hearted Americans. They flash images of abused animals on our television screens to raise money that will eventually go to pay their salaries and pensions, not to helping better the lives of these animals. They run anti-hunting and anti-trapping campaigns and are of the same cloth as PETA and other extremist organizations. I can only guess that I was to receive this award due to my support of the Wildlife Without Borders program, which develops wildlife management and conservation efforts to maintain global species diversity. That program is true conservation; what this group wants is preservation. To accept this award would be supporting their manipulative ways and misguided agenda, and I want no part of that.”

"Memento mori"

(Me)

HB271

2011-03-30T18:03:00.000-06:00

HOUSE BILL NO. 271

INTRODUCED BY K. KERNS, HINKLE, HARRIS, VANCE, MILLER, HOWARD, RANDALL, INGRAHAM, WAGNER, WITTICH, YATES, KENNEDY, HALE, SKEES, FLYNN, HENDRICK, BLYTON, BLASDEL, TAYLOR, C. SMITH, REGIER, WARBURTON, G. BENNETT, HANSEN, LONEY, READ, MCGILLVRAY, KNOX, O'NEIL, GREEF, BRODEHL, MCNIVEN, SALOMON, K. PETERSON, SKATTUM, C. VINCENT

A BILL FOR AN ACT ENTITLED: "AN ACT REVISING THE LAW RELATED TO THE OFFENSE OF CARRYING A CONCEALED WEAPON; PROVIDING THAT THE LAW DOES NOT APPLY TO A PERSON WHO IS ELIGIBLE UNDER CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES TO APPLY FOR OBTAIN A PERMIT TO CARRY A CONCEALED WEAPON; AND AMENDING SECTION 45-8-317, MCA."

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MONTANA:

Section 1. Section 45-8-317, MCA, is amended to read:

"45-8-317. Exceptions. (1) Section 45-8-316 does not apply to:

(a) any peace officer of the state of Montana or of another state who has the power to make arrests;

(b) any officer of the United States government authorized to carry a concealed weapon;

(d) a person summoned to the aid of any of the persons named in subsections (1)(a) through (1)(c);

(e) a civil officer or the officer's deputy engaged in the discharge of official business;

(f) a probation and parole officer authorized to carry a firearm under 46-23-1002;

(g) a person eligible to apply for OBTAIN or issued a permit under 45-8-321, or a person with a permit recognized under 45-8-329, OR A PERSON ELIGIBLE TO OBTAIN A PERMIT UNDER 45-8-321 WHO HAS COMPLETED A COURSE AS REQUIRED UNDER 45-8-321(3)(B) OR (3)(C) AND HAS IN THE PERSON'S POSSESSION EVIDENCE OF COMPLETION OF THE COURSE;

(h) an agent of the department of justice or a criminal investigator in a county attorney's office;

(i) a person who is outside the official boundaries of a city or town or the confines of a logging, lumbering, mining, or railroad camp or who is lawfully engaged in hunting, fishing, trapping, camping, hiking, backpacking, farming, ranching, or other outdoor activity in which weapons are often carried for recreation or protection; or

(j) the carrying of arms on one's own premises or at one's home or place of business.

(2) With regard to a person issued a permit under 45-8-321, the provisions of 45-8-328 do not apply to this section."

"Memento mori"
(Me)

Where it all began

2011-03-30T11:35:00.001-06:00

"Memento mori"
(Me)

Truth!

2011-03-21T10:02:00.002-06:00

"Memento mori"

(Me)

JJ: I Lose Track of Time

2011-03-15T16:08:00.000-06:00

It's March 15th. I meant to post this on the 11th.

Dad died three years ago on the 11th. Mom died five years ago on the 12th. It does not seem like it has been that long.

I miss them both. I miss the sights and sounds and smells and memories of Home. Home, where Mom was, warm and full of love . . .

I think of them a lot, especially Dad. I wish with all my heart that he & I could have been closer, but it seemed like we always existed in two different worlds and we had nothing to really talk about, no real common ground or interests.

I wish that I had been able to grant his last request of me, that I move in with him, but I thought, and still think, that it would not have worked. I was not willing to pay the price, to radically change my life, to give up autonomy and be a submissive adolescent again. Two of us under one roof, with each of us used to being our own boss, would have led to a lot of bad feelings on both our parts.

But I still blame myself for not trying. He was so lonely after Mom died . . .

TBC

"Memento mori"

(Me)

From One of My Favorite Blogs

2011-03-06T20:48:00.000-07:00

Unshelved. If you like books or libraries, stop in and look at their daily comic strip. They do NOT usually resemble this one!

"Memento mori"
(Me)

The Grizzwells

2011-03-03T13:44:00.002-07:00

TBC
"Memento mori"
(Me)

TWIMC

2011-03-01T11:55:00.002-07:00

Passing this on:

I was eating lunch today with my 12 year old grandson when his mom asked him

"What is tomorrow?" He said "It's President's Day"

She asked "What does that mean?" .... I was waiting for something profound...

He said "President's Day is when Obama steps out of the White House and if he sees his shadow, we have 2 more years of unemployment."

I almost snorted my iced tea.

"Memento mori"

(Me)

Right!

2011-02-28T21:29:00.002-07:00

"The Librarian in Black, Sarah Houghton-Jan, has posted this call for basic e-book user's rights. She's released it into the public domain and is encouraging people to spread it as far and wide as possible. Enough of anti-user DRM and licensing!"

Every eBook user should have the following rights:
* the right to use eBooks under guidelines that favor access over proprietary limitations
* the right to access eBooks on any technological platform, including the hardware and software the user chooses
* the right to annotate, quote passages, print, and share eBook content within the spirit of fair use and copyright
* the right of the first-sale doctrine extended to digital content, allowing the eBook owner the right to retain, archive, share, and re-sell purchased eBooks
I believe in the free market of information and ideas.
I believe that authors, writers, and publishers can flourish when their works are readily available on the widest range of media. I believe that authors, writers, and publishers can thrive when readers are given the maximum amount of freedom to access, annotate, and share with other readers, helping this content find new audiences and markets. I believe that eBook purchasers should enjoy the rights of the first-sale doctrine because eBooks are part of the greater cultural cornerstone of literacy, education, and information access.

"Memento mori"

(Me)

?

2011-02-28T01:16:00.000-07:00

"Memento mori"
(Me)

Stolen from the Vietnam and All Veterans of Florida State Coalition website

2011-02-25T14:25:00.003-07:00

FACT VS FICTION.....THE VIETNAM VETERAN

The stereotypes are wrong. Let's look at the facts, starting with who actually served in Vietnam.

The image of those who fought in Vietnam is one of poorly educated, reluctant draftees -- predominantly poor whites and minorities. But in reality, only one-third of Vietnam-era veterans entered the military through the draft, far lower than the 66 percent drafted in World War II.

It was the best-educated and most egalitarian military force in America's history -- and with the advent of the all-volunteer military, is likely to remain so. In WWII, only 45 percent of the troops had a high school diploma. During the Vietnam War, almost 80 percent of those who enlisted had high school diplomas, and the percentage was higher for draftees -- even though, at the time, only 65 percent of military-age males had a high school diploma.

Throughout the Vietnam era, the median education level of the enlisted man was about 13 years. Proportionately, three times as many college graduates served in Vietnam than in WWII.

Another common assumption: The war in Vietnam was fought by youngsters wet behind the ears, who died as teenagers barely old enough to shave. In fact, more 52-year-olds (22) died in Vietnam than 17-year-olds (12). An analysis of data from the Department of Defense shows the average age of men killed in Vietnam was 22.8 years, or almost 23 years old.

Though the notion persists that those who died in Vietnam were mostly members of a minority group, it's not true. About 5 percent of KIAs were Hispanic and 12.5 percent were black -- making both minorities slightly under-represented in their proportion of draft-age males in the national population.
A common negative image of the soldier in Vietnam is that he smoked pot and injected heroin to dull the horrors of combat. However, except for the last couple of years of the war, drug usage among GIs in Vietnam was lower than for U.S. troops stationed elsewhere.
When drug rates started to rise in 1971 and 1972, almost 90 percent of the men who served in Vietnam had already come and gone. A study after the war by the VA showed drug usage of veterans and non-veterans to be about the same. And marijuana -- not heroin -- was the drug used in 75 percent of the cases. Of those addicted, 88 percent kicked the habit within three years of returning.

Posterboy of Anti-War Movement:

The anti-war movement paraded Vietnam servicemen who had deserted their units as "proof" that it was an immoral war. But of the 5,000 men who deserted for various causes during the Vietnam War period, only 5 percent did so while attached to units in Vietnam.

Only 24 deserters attributed their action to the desire to "avoid hazardous duty." Some 97 percent of Vietnam veterans received honorable discharges, exactly the same rate for the military in the 10 years prior to the war.

After the war ended, reports began to circulate of veterans so depraved from their war experiences that they turned to crime, with estimates of the number of incarcerated Vietnam veterans as high as one-quarter of the prison population. But most of these accounts were based on self-reporting by criminals. In every major study of Vietnam veterans where military records were verified, an insignificant number of prisoners were found to be actual Vietnam veterans.

A corollary to the prison myth is the belief that substantial numbers of Vietnam veterans are unemployed. A study by the Labor Department in 1994 showed an unemployment rate of 3 percent for Vietnam veterans -- lower than that of Vietnam-era veterans who served outside the Vietnam theater (5 percent), and for all male veterans (4.9 percent).

The same is true for the nonsense that Vietnam vets have high rates of suicide, often heard as the "fact" that more veterans had died by their own hand than in combat. But that's a myth, too. A 1988 study by the Centers for Disease Control found Vietnam veterans had suicide rates well within the 1.7 percent norm of the general population.

Societal Success:

In fact, Vietnam veterans are as successful or more successful than men their own age who did not go to war. Disproportionate numbers of Vietnam veterans serve in Congress, for instance. Vice President Al Gore is a Vietnam veteran, as is enormously popular Colin Powell.

They run Fortune 500 corporations (Frederick Smith of Federal Express), write screenplays (Bill Broyles formerly of Newsweek) and report the evening news (ABC correspondent Jack Smith).

Actor Dennis Franz, who plays a detective on TV's NYPD Blue, is a Vietnam vet, as are large numbers of real law enforcement agents, prosecutors and attorneys. No facet of American life has been untouched by the positive contributions of Vietnam veterans.

While stereotypes may persist in Hollywood and the media, America's finest increasingly run the country.

Vietnam Warriors:

A Statistical Profile In Uniform and In Country Vietnam Vets: 9.7% of their generation.
9,087,000 military personnel served on active duty during the Vietnam era (Aug. 5, 1964-May 7, 1975)
8,744,000 GIs were on active duty during the war (Aug. 5, 1964-March 28, 1973).
3,403,100 (including 514,300 offshore) personnel served in the Southeast Asia Theater (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, flight crews based in Thailand, and sailors in adjacent South China Sea waters).
2,594,000 personnel served within the borders of South Vietnam (Jan. 1, 1965- March 28, 1973).
Another 50,000 men served in Vietnam between 1960 and 1964.
Of the 2.6 million, between 1-1.6 million (40-60%) either fought in combat, provided close support or were at least fairly regularly exposed to enemy attack.
7,484 women (6,250 or 83.5% were nurses) served in Vietnam.
Peak troop strength in Vietnam: 543,482 (April 30, 1969).

Casualties

Hostile deaths: 47,378
Non-hostile deaths: 10,800
Total: 58,202 (includes men formerly classified as MIA and Mayaguez casualties). Men who have subsequently died of wounds account for the changing total.

8 nurses died -- 1 was KIA.

Married men killed: 17,539

61% of the men killed were 21 or younger

Highest state death rate: West Virginia- 84.1 (national average 58.9 for every 100,000 males in 1970).

Wounded: 303,704 -- 153,329 hospitalized + 150,375 injured requiring no hospital care.

Severely disabled: 75,000 -- 23,214 100% disabled; 5,283 lost limbs; 1,081 sustained multiple amputations.

Amputation or crippling wounds to the lower extremities were 300% higher than in WWII and 70% higher than in Korea. Multiple amputations occurred at the rate of 18.4% compared to 5.7% in WWII.

Missing in Action: 2,338.

POWs: 766 (114 died in captivity).

Draftees vs. Volunteers:

25% (648,500) of total forces in country were draftees. (66% of U.S. armed forces members were drafted during WWII.)

Draftees accounted for 30.4% (17,725) of combat deaths in Vietnam.

Reservists killed: 5,977.

National Guard: 6,140 served; 101 died.

Total draftees (1965-73): 1,728,344.

Actually served in Vietnam: 38%

Marine Corps draft: 42,633.

Last man drafted: June 30, 1973.

Race and Ethnic Background

88.4% of the men who actually served in Vietnam were Caucasian; 10.6% (275,000) were black; 1% belonged to other races.

86.3% of the men who died in Vietnam were Caucasian (includes Hispanics);

12.5% (7,241) were black; 1.2% belonged to other races.

170,000 Hispanics served in Vietnam; 3,070 (5.2% of total) died there.

70% of enlisted men killed were of Northwest European descent.

86.8% of the men who were killed as a result of hostile action were Caucasian; 12.1% (5,711) were black; 1.1% belonged to other races.

14.6% (1,530) of non-combat deaths were among blacks.

34% of blacks who enlisted volunteered for the combat arms.

Overall, blacks suffered 12.5% of the deaths in Vietnam at a time when the percentage of blacks of military age was 13.5% of the total population.

Religion of Dead:

Protestant -- 64.4%; Catholic -- 28.9%; other/none --6.7%.

Socio-Economic Status

76% of the men sent to Vietnam were from lower middle/working class backgrounds.

Three-fourths had family incomes above the poverty level; 50% were from middle income backgrounds.

Some 23% of Vietnam vets had fathers with professional, managerial or technical occupations.

79% of the men who served in Vietnam had a high school education or better when they entered the military service.
(63% of Korean War vets and only 45% of WWII vets had completed high school upon separation.)

Deaths by region per 100,000 of population: South-31; West-29.9; Midwest-28.4; Northeast-23.5.

Winning & Losing

82% of veterans who saw heavy combat strongly believe the war was lost because of lack of political will.

Nearly 75% of the public agrees it was a failure of political will, not of arms.

Honorable Service

97% of Vietnam-era veterans were honorably discharged.

91% of actual Vietnam War veterans and 90% of those who saw heavy combat are proud to have served their country.

66% of Vietnam vets say they would serve again if called upon.

87% of the public now holds Vietnam veterans in high esteem.

"Memento mori"
(Me)

Ahah!

2011-02-23T11:45:00.000-07:00

So THIS is what goes on in here at night! Shame on me -- I've been blaming the customers all these years . . .

"Memento mori"
(Me)

To Whom It May Concern:

2011-02-19T10:53:00.001-07:00

When I set this blog up, I added the names of a few folks I thought might enjoy reading it on a regular basis and they get my posts via email.

If you want to opt out of this, send me a message. If you want to get this via email whenever I put up a new post just hit the "Follow" button in the top menu and follow directions.

Iwant to say "Thank you" to the folks that do read this. I hope it brings you useful information or at least makes you smile once in a while.

Jim

(Me)

Anguished English App

2011-02-14T20:34:00.001-07:00

QFT:

WE FOUND THE TOP PAID ANDROID APPLICATIONS

There have been so many smashing giveaway Android apps; since would we select to squeeze an app? There have been copiousness of reasons to select the paid app instead of the giveaway app. The greatest reason is which giveaway applications have been not customarily as endless as the paid versions which have been available. Many giveaway apps which we come opposite have been only hearing versions of the paid app which will shortly be released. Choosing the tip paid Android applications can be the large challenge. There have been so many paid apps which selecting the many appropriate can be hard! How can we discuss it which apps will give we the many appropriate understanding for the income we spend? Read this essay to find out which paid apps have been value investing in. By the way, if you’re meddlesome in voice over IP service, we should check out VOIPo. They have been awesome.

The Power Manager paid focus is the necessity. This focus helps enlarge the reason up of your battery as great as helps we conduct your phone’s energy usage. If the energy upon your phone is regulating low, the phone will rapt you. You will be means to shift the settings upon your phone in sequence to preserve each bit of battery energy probable prior to hooking it up to the phone charger. For visit dungeon phone users, this paid Android app is the necessity.

In the universe of affordable as great as accessible applications there is Discover Pro. This is the record pity app which allows we to share files in between phones regulating the wifi tie (whether or not both phones have been Android models) as great as promulgation files from the phone to your computer. This is incredibly beneficial for slicing behind upon e-mailing time as great as it frees we up during work as great as home-you have been no longer trustworthy to the mechanism if we wish to share files! This app sends as great as receives some-more than request files. You can additionally send your pics as great as alternative files!

Lots of gamers demand which gaming apps shouldn’t price the cent.

For reduction than the single dollar (at the time of this writing) we can have the garland of fun with the Air Hockey app for Android phones. Few diversion apps out there have been means to reason the courtesy of the chairman playing. Think about it though: who doesn’t similar to to fool around Air Hockey? The Air Hockey focus is, essentially, the many renouned paid app for games in the Android Market. It competence even be the many renouned app of all, paid or free! It’s reduction than the dollar. Why not try it out?

It is some-more fun to fool around around with applications when we own the intelligent phone. It competence even be since we motionless to buy your Android phone! Of course, selecting which of the tip paid Android applications is many value your income can be the bit daunting. This is substantially since we wish to have fun though you’re fearful we won’t have great investments. After all, we do not wish to dump income upon an app which we won’t make use of really most or which isn’t matched to you! Before we go, do not dont think about to demeanour during the minute VOIPo reviews.

"Memento mori"
(Me)

Still More of the Programs I use

2011-02-12T21:48:00.000-07:00

Mathcad has been around since 1986. I'm still using the Millenium version, Mathcad 2000, though it is updated regularly and is now at version 15.

Mathcad is oriented around a worksheet, in which equations and expressions are displayed graphically. Basic math, algebra, trigonometry, calculus expressions and matrices in floating 2D & 3D tables, formulae and solutions all show on the worksheet like they would in a textbook. It combines a computational engine using conventional math notation with a full-featured word processor and graphing tools.

Some of the capabilities of Mathcad are:
    * Solving differential equations, with several possible numerical methods
    * Graphing functions in two or three dimensions
    * Symbolic calculations including solving systems of equations
    * Vector and matrix operations including eigenvalues and eigenvectors
    * Curve fitting
    * Finding roots of polynomials and functions
    * Statistical functions and probability distributions
    * Calculations in which units are bound to quantities

This is yet another program whose powers I barely tap. I like it because the worksheets are as simple as using a sheet of paper to solve problems. You can put down notes as well as numbers and formulas.

Converber is one of those beautiful little freeware utilities that only does one job, but does it exceedingly well: unit conversions. It handles a LOT of different units -- 1324 various units of measure in 38 categories -- and is updated and expanded regularly.

Syncback has saved me from myself many times. It is available in different versions, with the simplest released as freeware.

It lets me quickly and easily backup and synchronize my files to: the same drive, a different drive or medium (CDRW, CompactFlash, etc), an FTP server or a Network, or compress them into a Zip archive.

I use it to completely back up every changed file on my drive C to drive F every night. These drives are separate hard drives so I get a measure of protection against hard drive crashes, but the biggest thing I get is protection from my inadvertent deletions, overwritings, erasures and scrambled files.

It makes the difference between "My God, what am I gonna do now?" and "Well crap, now I gotta copy that file back from F to C!" I use the paid version as it even copies in-use system files.

Hide-it! will allow you to completely hide programs on your desktop.

HideIt displays all currently running programs in its list box. Clicking on any of these will immediately hide the program and then mark it as hidden. To bring the program back, just click on it again and it will reappear.

There are paid and free versions of this. I use the freeware version as I don't need too many bells and whistle. I mostly use it when I get a rude installation program that hogs the whole desktop, refuses to be minimized, and seems to take forever to run. Hiding these pigs frees up the desktop and also keeps me from inadvertently pushing the wrong button and cancelling them.

"Memento mori"
(Me)

More Programs I Value

2011-02-12T14:22:00.000-07:00

Well, here goes on part two.

PSPad is my choice of a Notepad replacement. It is the universal freeware editor. There is no complex install process, the program is ready to work immediately, without requiring customization. It is typical of a lot of the programs I use -- it has many more features than I usually need, but is capable of doing anything I ask of it. It is sort of like a V-8 engine, offering power when it is needed.

· work on several documents at the same time (MDI)
· Save desktop session to later reopen all open files
· FTP client - you can edit files directly from the web
· macro recorder to record, save and load macros -- for those reptitious editing tasks
· search and replace in files, including multiple files
· text difference with color-coded differences highlighted
· templates (HTML tags, scripts, code templates...)
· installation contains templates for HTML, PHP, Pascal, JScript, VBScript, MySQL, MS-Dos, Perl,...
· syntax highlighting auto set by file type
· user-defined highlighters for exotic environments
· auto correction
· inteligent internal HTML preview using IE and Mozilla
· full HEX editor
· call external programs, different for each environment
· external compiler with catch command output, log window, log parser for each environment for "IDE" effect
· color syntax highlight printing and print preview
· integrated TiDy library for formatting and checking HTML code, conversion to CSS, XML, XHTML
· integrated free version of top CSS editor TopStyle Lite
· export with highlight to RTF, HTML, TeX format into file or clipboard
· column block select, bookmarks, line numbers, ...
· reformat and compress HTML code, tags char case change
· line sorting with ability to sort on defined column, with option to drop duplicates
· ASCII chart with HTML entities
· Code explorer for Pascal, INI, HTML, XML, PHP, and more in future
· spell checker
· internal web browser with APACHE support
· matching bracket highlighting

Clipmate is another overpowered program I bought and always use. It extends the Windows clipboard and increases its usefulness. It has repaid the $35 it cost many times over for me.

# ClipMate Remembers everything that you cut or copy to the clipboard.
# It works with all Windows programs that work with the clipboard.
# Searchable database can hold THOUSANDS of clips, in Text, RTF, HTML, and Bitmap format.
# "Shortcuts" place commonly-used clips within easy reach for quick re-use.
# PowerPaste™ feature helps you quickly paste a series of clips, or break apart complex data by comma, linebreak, etc.. It's like a bulldozer for your data!
# Integration with XP and Vista taskbars for easy access, and visibility of the "top clip".
# Powerful re-formatting, editing, case conversion, and even a spellchecker!
# Easy to use! Just double-click on a clip in the clipboard history list (ClipList), and it's pasted right where you were working! Or, just drag/drop data right from ClipMate into the target.
# Use the "Portable" version to take ClipMate with you on any USB stick, including "U3 Smart" drives.
# For $34.95, our Single-User license covers you on two computers, or one computer and a USB stick. Our "Household" license covers up to 5 computers used in the same household for only $79.95, and multi-user licenses are available as well.
# Printing - Of course, you can print clips too! The new "paper-saver" feature in v7.3 lets you print several small clips (text or graphic) on a page, if they'll fit.
# Sharing - Sometimes you need to share data with a team or workgroup, or just "yourself" at another computer. ClipMate covers all the bases, with support for "live" multi-user databases, or distribution of clips and updates via XML files.
# Screen capture by desktop, window, or "area", with support for multiple monitors.
# Sometimes you just want to paste without all of the formatting that often accompanies clipboard data. Have you ever re-typed data from a web page because you didn't want to contaminate your document with tables and styles from some web page? If you press the Win+W key, ClipMate will "filter" the clipboard to be plain-text. It's fantastic!

CorelDraw Graphice Suite is on version 15 now, and I have been using it since version 3. I usually only tap a tiny bit of its incredible power but I use it for everything graphic -- signs, poster, labels, custom art work . . .

This versatile graphic design software has it all—vector illustration, page layout, photo editing, tracing, Web graphics and animation in one tightly integrated suite. It has way too many features for me to list.

Winamp is the best of the free Windows media players, and is available for Android phones too..

It is more than just a player. It's your window to the multimedia world. From MP3s to streaming video, Winamp is the one place you go to feed your audio/video habit.

Here are just some of the hot, new things you can do with the latest version of Winamp:

Winamp can use both Modern and Classic skins, so you can be both hip and retro at the same time.
Winamp gives you easy and organized access to your favorite media. That's what you call mass media.
Winamp can play a huge variety of audio and video formats right out of the box... err... out of the installation.
You get access to hundreds of free audio and video channels in the Media Library. This ain't your father's library.
Winamp can burn your music to Audio CDs. Burn baby burn!
Winamp makes it easy to create and manage your favorite songs through playlists. Yes, you can be your own DJ.
Winamp allows you to extend its functionality through the use of "plug-ins" Its like the Mr. Potato Head® of music.
Winamp can manage all of your portable media players and devices. Plug in, turn on, tune in, drop out...
Winamp allows you to alter the sound of your music through a built-in Equalizer. An audio receiver right on your computer.
Winamp allows you to watch visual effects that are driven from your music with Visualizations. From flaming fireballs to screaming strobe effects, it's all there.

Some sweet treats you get only with Winamp Pro:

Rip and burn your Audio CDs at 48x
Rip your CDs to MP3s
Rip your CDs to High Bitrate aacPlus
Convert other formats to MP3 and High Bitrate aacPlus
Play MPEG-4 video formats straight out-of-the-box

Icon Restorer will backup and restore icons position on desktop (and wallpaper) separately for every screen resolution. If you have a cluttered desktop with lots of shortcuts like I do, this is a time saver.

This comes in both free and paid versions.

"Memento mori"
(Me)

I Lost Control Today

2011-02-11T13:57:00.002-07:00

"Memento mori"
(Me)

For Jekka

2011-02-11T13:41:00.004-07:00

A Cowboy's Guide to Life

Life's tough......It's even tougher if you're stupid. --- John Wayne

Don't interfere with something that ain't botherin' you none.

The easiest way to eat crow is while it's still warm. The colder it gets, the harder it is to swaller.

If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop diggin'.

If it don't seem like it's worth the effort, it probably ain't.

The biggest troublemaker you'll probably ever have to deal with watches you shave his face in the mirror every morning.

Never ask a barber if you need a haircut.

Keep skunks and bankers and lawyers at a distance.

Your fences need to be horse-high, pig-tight, and bull-strong.

Life is simpler when you plow around the stump.

A bumble bee is considerably faster than a John Deere tractor.

Words that soak into your ears are whispered...not yelled.

Meanness don't jes' happen overnight.

Forgive your enemies. It messes up their heads.

Do not corner something that you know is meaner than you.

It don't take a very big person to carry a grudge.

You cannot unsay a cruel word.

Every path has a few puddles.

When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.

The best sermons are lived, not preached.

Most of the stuff people worry about ain't never gonna happen, anyway.

Don't judge folks by their relatives.

Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.

Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll enjoy it a second time.

Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance.

Sometimes you get, and sometimes you get got.

If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try orderin' somebody else's dog around.

Don't worry about bitin' off more'n you can chew; your mouth is probably a whole lot bigger'n you think.

Generally, you ain't learnin' nothing when your mouth's a-jawin'.

If you ridin' ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then to make sure it's still there with ya.

Good judgement comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgement.

Lettin' the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier than puttin' it back.

The quickest way to double your money is to fold it over and put it back into your pocket.

Never miss a good chance to shut up.

Don't squat with your spurs on.

Always drink upstream from the herd.

There's two theories to arguin' with a woman. Neither one works.

There's three kinds of men: the one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation and the rest of them have to tinkle on the electric fence for themselves.

Never kick a cowchip on a hot day.

Never slap a man who's chewin' tobacco.

When you give a lesson in meanness to a critter or a person, don't be surprised if they learn their lesson.

When you're throwin' your weight around, be ready to have it thrown around by somebody else.

After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring. - A hunter came along and shot him. The moral: When you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut.

Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. Do the next indicated right thing.

Leave the rest to God.

(Me)

Subject: Unbaked Yeast Rolls and dogs

2011-02-11T09:33:00.002-07:00

Subject: Unbaked Yeast Rolls and dogs

Those of you who have animals will probably appreciate this the most. It
is a story that is hilarious in itself and the person who wrote it is a
good writer and made the story even better. Enjoy...
We have a fox terrier by the name of Jasper. He came to us in the
summer of 2001 from the fox terrier rescue program. For those of you
who are unfamiliar with this type of adoption, imagine taking in a 10
year old child about whom you know nothing and committing to doing your
best to be a good parent.

Like a child, the dog came with his own idiosyncrasies. He will only
sleep on the bed, on top of the covers, nuzzled as close to my face as
he can get without actually performing a French kiss on me.

Lest you think this is a bad case of 'no discipline,' I should tell you
that Perry and I tried every means to break him of this habit, including
locking him in a separate bedroom for several nights. The new door cost
over $200. But I digress.

Five weeks ago we began remodeling our house. Although the cost of the
project is downright obnoxious, it was 20 years overdue AND it got me
out of cooking Thanksgiving for family, extended family, and a lot of
friends that I like more than family most of the time.

I was assigned the task of preparing 124 of my famous yeast dinner rolls
for the two Thanksgiving feasts we did attend.

I am still cursing the electrician for getting the new oven hooked up so
quickly. It was the only appliance in the whole darn house that worked,
thus the assignment.

I made the decision to cook the rolls on Wed evening to reheat Thurs am.
Since the kitchen was freshly painted, you can imagine the odor. Not
wanting the rolls to smell like Sherwin Williams #586, I put the rolls
on baking sheets and set them in the living room to rise for a few
hours. Perry and I decided to go out to eat, returning in about an
hour. The rolls were ready to go in the oven.

It was 8:30 PM. When I went to the living room to retrieve the pans,
much to my shock, one whole pan of 12 rolls was empty. I called out to
Jasper and my worst nightmare became a reality. He literally wobbled
over to me. He looked like a combination of the Pillsbury dough boy and
the Michelin Tire man wrapped up in fur. He groaned when he walked. I
swear even his cheeks were bloated.

I ran to the phone and called our vet. After a few seconds of
uproarious laughter, he told me the dog would probably be okay; however,
I needed to give him Pepto Bismol every 2 hours for the rest of the
night. God only knows why I thought a dog would like Pepto Bismol any
more than my kids did when they were sick. Suffice it to say that by
the time we went to bed the dog was black, white and pink. He was so
bloated we had to lift him onto the bed for the night.

We arose at 7:30 and as we always do first thing, put the dog out to
relieve himself. Well, the dog was as drunk as a sailor on his first
leave. He was running into walls, falling flat on his butt and most of
the time when he was walking, his front half was going one direction and
the other half was either dragging the grass or headed 90 degrees in
another direction.

He couldn't lift his leg to pee, so he would just walk and pee at the
same time. When he ran down the small incline in our back yard he
couldn't stop himself and nearly ended up running into the fence.

His pupils were dilated and he was as dizzy as a loon. I endured
another few seconds of laughter from the vet (second call within 12
hours) before he explained that the yeast had fermented in his belly and
that he was indeed drunk.

He assured me that, not unlike most binges we humans go through, it
would wear off after about 4 or 5 hours, and to keep giving him Pepto
Bismol.

Afraid to leave him by himself in the house, Perry and I loaded him up
and took him with us to my sister's house for the first Thanksgiving
meal of the day.

My sister lives outside of Muskogee on a ranch, (10 to 15 minute drive).
Rolls firmly secured in the trunk (124 less 12) and drunk dog leaning
from the back seat onto the console of the car between Perry and I, we
took off.

Now I know you probably don't believe that dogs burp, but believe me
when I say that after eating a tray of risen unbaked yeast rolls, DOGS
WILL BURP. These burps were pure Old Charter. They would have matched
or beat any smell in a drunk tank at the police station. But that's not
the worst of it.

Now he was beginning to fart and they smelled like baked rolls. God
strike me dead if I am not telling the truth! We endured this for the
entire trip to Karen's, thankful she didn't live any further away than
she did.

Once Jasper was firmly placed in my sister's garage with the door
locked, we finally sat down to enjoy our first Thanksgiving meal of the
day. The dog was the topic of conversation all morning long and
everyone made trips to the garage to witness my drunken dog, each
returning with a tale of Jasper's latest endeavor to walk without
running into something. Of course, as the old adage goes, 'what goes in
must come out' and Jasper was no exception.

Granted if it had been me that had eaten 12 risen, unbaked yeast rolls,
you might as well have put a concrete block up my behind, but alas a
dog's digestive system is quite different from yours or mine. I
discovered this was a mixed blessing when we prepared to leave Karen's
house. Having discovered his 'packages' on the garage floor, we loaded
him up in the car so we could hose down the floor.

This was another naive decision on our part. The blast of water from
the hose hit the poop on the floor and the poop on the floor withstood
the blast from the hose. It was like Portland cement beginning to set
up and cure.

We finally tried to remove it with a shovel. I (obviously no one else
was going to offer their services) had to get on my hands and knees with
a coarse brush to get the remnants off of the floor. And as if this
wasn't degrading enough, the darn dog in his drunken state had walked
through the poop and left paw prints all over the garage floor that had
to be brushed too.

Well, by this time the dog was sobering up nicely so we took him home
and dropped him off before we left for our second Thanksgiving dinner at
Perry's sister's house.

I am happy to report that as of today (Monday) the dog is back to normal
both in size and temperament. He has had a bath and is no longer
tricolor. None the worse for wear I presume. I am also happy to report
that just this evening I found 2 risen unbaked yeast rolls hidden inside
my closet door.

It appears he must have come to his senses after eating 10 of them but
decided hiding 2 of them for later would not be a bad idea. Now, I'm
doing research on the computer as to: 'How to clean unbaked dough from
the carpet.'

And now...how was your day?

"Memento mori"
(Me)

The Programs I Value

2011-02-10T02:44:00.000-07:00

When I am loading programs into a computer, I install them in order of usefulness and importance. I know I have mentioned these before, but

The first one that goes in is Ztree, probably the most versatile and powerful file manger. It doesn't do drag-n-drop, but it excels at everything else.

A few advantages of ZTreeWin/ZTreeBold:

    * No 640K memory barrier...log unlimited disks & files!
    * Supports long file and directory names
    * Graft, Prune and Duplicate entire branches with ease
    * Copy, Move, Delete, Rename, Time-stamp one or thousands of files in a single operation
    * Display Windows Module information for selected files
    * Disk Washing function with DoD Sanitize option
    * Create Shortcuts to selected files and directories
    * Simultaneously log ALL files on ALL drives, allowing you search for text or locate particular files
    * Flexible support of external archiving utilities to allow the management of ARJ, CAB, LHA, JAR, RAR and ZIP archives, to name a few
    * Compare branches, directories or single files down to the binary level to locate differences
    * Powerful internal file viewer with Hex editing ability
    * Supports integration of any third-party editor and file viewers
    * Can be run from floppy disk or USB flash-drive without installation

The second is Everything, the best file-finder ever.

"Everything" is an administrative tool that locates files and folders by filename instantly for Windows.
Unlike Windows search "Everything" initially displays every file and folder on your computer (hence the name "Everything"). You type in a search filter to limit what files and folders are displayed. Files can then be opened or deleted.

The third is JPSoft's Take Command, a combination of Windows File Explorer and the old DOS command line, but on steroids.

The ease of use of Windows File Explorer merged with the power of the command line - manipulate files at the command line and graphically see the results.
Run sessions in multiple tabbed windows (including TCC, CMD, bash and PowerShell)
Fully customizable - 25 startup tabs, up to 20 toolbar tabs with 50 toolbar buttons each, look and feel, etc
Find text in any tab window (Optional) Common command input window for all tab windows.
Integrated graphical IDE with tabbed edit windows and debugger with singlestepping, breakpoints, syntax coloring, tooltips, bookmarks, tabbed variable and watch windows.
Enhanced command line editor with history, filename completion and cut & paste.
Fast - 20-200% faster output display than the standard Windows console window.
Built-in screen scrollback buffer lets you review or print output from past commands at any time.
Enhanced Directory Navigation lets you quickly browse and change directories.
Built-in file viewer includes scrolling, search, and print capabilities .
Complete scripting language - massive superset of CMD with 174 commands, 277 functions and 174 system variables.
Complete flow of control structures including, IF-Then-Else, DO Loops, Switch, subroutines, batch libraries, etc.
Direct access to FTP, TFTP and HTTP (including SSL and SSH) directories and files in all file-handling commands.
Redefine commands through aliasing, create new commands and functions for your regular tasks, even assign frequently used commands to a single keystroke.
Select or exclude files by date, time, size, and extended wildcards or regular expressions for extraordinary flexibility in file management.

MyDefrag comes next.

MyDefrag is a disk defragmenter and optimizer. It is freeware, no time limit, fully functional, no advertisements. Fast, low overhead, with many optimization strategies, can handle floppies, USB disks, memory sticks, and anything else that looks like a disk to Windows. Included are a set of easy to use scripts for endusers, a scripting engine for demanding users, a screensaver, and a combined Windows plus commandline version that can be scheduled by the Windows task scheduler or for use from administrator scripts.

Irfanview is my default multimedia file viewer. It supports MANY formats

IrfanView is a very fast, small, compact and innovative FREEWARE (for non-commercial use) graphic viewer for Windows 9x, ME, NT, 2000, XP, 2003 , 2008, Vista, Windows 7.

Features:
# Thumbnail/preview option
# Paint option - to draw lines, circles, arrows, straighten image etc.
# Toolbar skins option
# Slideshow (save slideshow as EXE/SCR or burn it to CD)
# Show EXIF/IPTC/Comment text in Slideshow/Fullscreen etc.
# Support for Adobe Photoshop Filters
# Fast directory view (moving through directory)
# Batch conversion (with image processing)
# Multipage TIF editing
# File search
# Email option
# Multimedia player
# Print option
# Support for embedded color profiles in JPG/TIF
# Change color depth
# Scan (batch scan) support
# Cut/crop
# IPTC editing
# Effects (Sharpen, Blur, Adobe 8BF, Filter Factory, Filters Unlimited, etc.)
# Screen Capturing
# Extract icons from EXE/DLL/ICLs
# Lossless JPG rotation
# Unicode support
# Many hotkeys
# Many command line options
# Many PlugIns
# Only one EXE-File, no DLLs, no Shareware messages like "I Agree" or "Evaluation expired"
# No registry changes without user action/permission!
# and much much more

There are other programs I use and cherish, but these little utilities are the cream of the crop and go on ANY computer I use.

"Memento mori"

(Me)

Old, but good

2011-02-09T12:56:00.000-07:00

Which reminds me of the alcohol-fueled story of Dad and some neighboring farmers trying to catch a deer from a pickup.
----------------------

I had this idea that I could rope a deer, put it in a stall, feed it up on corn for a couple of weeks, then kill it and eat it. The first step in this adventure was getting a deer. I figured that, since they congregate at my cattle feeder and do not seem to have much fear of me when we are there (a bold one will sometimes come right up and sniff at the bags of feed while I am in the back of the truck not 4 feet away), it should not be difficult to rope one, get up to it and toss a bag over its head (to calm it down) then hog tie it and transport it home.

I filled the cattle feeder then hid down at the end with my rope. The cattle, having seen the roping thing before, stayed well back. They were not having any of it. After about 20 minutes, my deer showed up-- 3 of them. I picked out a likely looking one, stepped out from the end of the feeder, and threw my rope. The deer just stood there and stared at me. I wrapped the rope around my waist and twisted the end so I would have a good hold..

The deer still just stood and stared at me, but you could tell it was mildly concerned about the whole rope situation. I took a step towards it, it took a step away. I put a little tension on the rope .., and then received an education. The first thing that I learned is that, while a deer may just stand there looking at you funny while you rope it, they are spurred to action when you start pulling on that rope.

That deer EXPLODED. The second thing I learned is that pound for pound, a deer is a LOT stronger than a cow or a colt. A cow or a colt in that weight range I could fight down with a rope and with some dignity. A deer-- no Chance. That thing ran and bucked and twisted and pulled. There was no controlling it and certainly no getting close to it. As it jerked me off my feet and started dragging me across the ground, it occurred to me that having a deer on a rope was not nearly as good an idea as I had originally imagined.. The only upside is that they do not have as much stamina as many other animals.

A brief 10 minutes later, it was tired and not nearly as quick to jerk me off my feet and drag me when I managed to get up. It took me a few minutes to realize this, since I was mostly blinded by the blood flowing out of the big gash in my head. At that point, I had lost my taste for corn-fed venison. I just wanted to get that devil creature off the end of that rope.

I figured if I just let it go with the rope hanging around its neck, it would likely die slow and painfully somewhere. At the time, there was no love at all between me and that deer. At that moment, I hated the thing, and I would venture a guess that the feeling was mutual. Despite the gash in my head and the several large knots where I had cleverly arrested the deer's momentum by bracing my head against various large rocks as it dragged me across the ground, I could still think clearly enough to recognize that there was a small chance that I shared some tiny amount of responsibility for the situation we were in. I didn't want the deer to have to suffer a slow death, so I managed to get it lined back up in between my truck and the feeder - a little trap I had set before hand...kind of like a squeeze chute. I got it to back in there and I started moving up so I could get my rope back.

Did you know that deer bite?

They do! I never in a million years would have thought that a deer would bite somebody, so I was very surprised when ..... I reached up there to grab that rope and the deer grabbed hold of my wrist. Now, when a deer bites you, it is not like being bit by a horse where they just bite you and slide off to then let go. A deer bites you and shakes its head--almost like a pit bull. They bite HARD and it hurts.

The proper thing to do when a deer bites you is probably to freeze and draw back slowly. I tried screaming and shaking instead. My method was ineffective.

It seems like the deer was biting and shaking for several minutes, but it was likely only several seconds. I, being smarter than a deer (though you may be questioning that claim by now), tricked it. While I kept it busy tearing the tendons out of my right arm, I reached up with my left hand and pulled that rope loose.

That was when I got my final lesson in deer behavior for the day.

Deer will strike at you with their front feet. They rear right up on their back feet and strike right about head and shoulder level, and their hooves are surprisingly sharp... I learned a long time ago that, when an animal -like a horse --strikes at you with their hooves and you can't get away easily, the best thing to do is try to make a loud noise and make an aggressive move towards the animal. This will usually cause them to back down a bit so you can escape.

This was not a horse. This was a deer, so obviously, such trickery would not work. In the course of a millisecond, I devised a different strategy. I screamed like a woman and tried to turn and run. The reason I had always been told NOT to try to turn and run from a horse that paws at you is that there is a good chance that it will hit you in the back of the head. Deer may not be so different from horses after all, besides being twice as strong and 3 times as evil, because the second I turned to run, it hit me right in the back of the head and knocked me down.

Now, when a deer paws at you and knocks you down, it does not immediately leave. I suspect it does not recognize that the danger has passed. What they do instead is paw your back and jump up and down on you while you are laying there crying like a little girl and covering your head.

I finally managed to crawl under the truck and the deer went away. So now I know why when people go deer hunting they bring a rifle with a scope......to sort of even the odds!!

All these events are true so help me God... An Educated Farmer

Been there, done that!

2011-02-05T12:36:00.002-07:00

"Memento mori"
(Me)

I remember these!

2011-02-03T13:54:00.000-07:00

Historical Thursday: X-Ray Shoe Fitting

from There, I Fixed It - Redneck Repairs by Not-So-Handy Andy

12 people liked this

Did you ever buy a pair of shoes and later realize that they just didn’t fit right? Have you ever imagined what your little toes look like getting shoved together like uncomfortable boyfriends at a Justin Bieber concert? Well hop in your time machine, set it to 1927 and your wish will come true. Because back in the day, shoe shopping wasn’t really shoe shopping unless you blasted your feet with some x-rays.

Shoe-fitting fluoroscopes, also creepily known as pedoscopes, consisted of an x-ray emitting tube with a fluorescent screen above it. One would stick their feet into the gap between them in order to see a real-time image of what the shape of the shoe does to their bone structure. They would try on multiple shoes until they found one that both felt and looked the best. The three tubes on top were viewing pieces, used for the customer, the salesman, and whoever else wanted to have a gander.

The machine was invented after multitudes of soldiers returned from the Great War with foot problems. Jacob Low, a doctor in Boston, decided to look into the matter. He realized that many soldiers wore ill-fitting boots during their service, which caused severe damage after months of daily use. After filing for a patent in 1919, the device was ready to be sold around the country in 1927.
The United States quickly fell in love with the machine, and most shoe stores from coast to coast began to market its use as a key selling point. They were used both to entice children into being less complainy during shopping trips, and also a way to add ‘science’ to the magic of shoe sales.

But we must remember that the 1920s was a simpler time, and the full side effects of radiation exposure were not widely known until famous scientists started to die painful deaths in the 30s and 40s. After finally realizing that overexposure to radiation is, in fact, fatal, the government decided to step in. Unfortunately, this wasn’t until 1950 when there were over 10,000 X-Ray shoe fitting machines around that country. It wasn’t until 1960 that they disappeared from the market.
Pictures and Information courtesy of: Wisconsin History and Wikipedia.

"Memento mori"
(Me)

Looking at Egypt

2011-01-30T13:32:00.000-07:00

And thinking "Could that happen here?"

Yeah, really, something similar could. Armed citizen groups could be defending their homes against looters and their persons against muggers and rapists, just like in Cairo. The airport and highways could be jammed. All communications might be shut down, either by the government for its own protection or by Mother Nature.

All it would take is something massive enough to overwhelm local authorities. You know, like a Yellowstone earthquake. A volcano on the order of Krakatoa would give us a nuclear winter that would stretch our food supply to the breaking point.

A solar flare could do the job too, one like the Carrington flare of 1859. That flare was visible to the naked eye, produced stunning auroras down as far as Cuba and Hawaii, and set telegraph wires on fire. If one struck now, imagine all our power lines flaring and burning and then try to imagine the government coping with it.

And yes, the sun and its sunspots have been behaving more erratically these last few months than ever before in modern times.

I don't preach anarchy, but I think we should be prepared for it. I think having a small stockpile of of food and necessities and some means of self defense on hand might be very, very wise before we get our day on the BBC.

"Memento mori"

(Me)

Seriously, a new comic book!

2011-01-21T12:33:00.002-07:00

\

"Memento mori"
(Me)

FYI

2011-01-18T18:55:00.002-07:00

Rep. McCarthy's Magazine Ban--Worse Than First Imagined

from SurvivalBlog.com by James Wesley, Rawles

Here is some ~~moron~~ more on Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy's recently-introduced magazine ban legislation. I studied the bill's wording and I learned:

The bill defines large capacity ammunition feeding devices as “a magazine, belt, drum, feed strip, or similar device that has a capacity of, or that can be readily restored or converted to accept, more than 10 rounds of ammunition” (This is nearly the same as the now defunct 1994 law, but it does not exempt tubular or otherwise non-detachable magazines.)
For Post-Enactment Devices: Prohibits the transfer, possession, or import of a large capacity ammunition feeding device manufactured after the date of enactment of the bill .
For Pre-Enactment Devices: Prohibits the transfer or import (but not possession) of large capacity ammunition feeding devices manufactured before the date of enactment of the bill. This is a huge difference from the 1994 ban, which allowed the transfer of any "pre-ban" magazines or belts, under a grandfather clause.
As Sebastian at the Snowflakes in H*ll blog pointed out, the ban includes any magazine that holds more than 10 cartridges, even if it is a fixed tubular magazine. (The only exception is for .22 rimfire.) So this effectively bans transfers of even pre-1898 antique Henry, Model 1866, Model 1873, and Model 1892 Winchester rifles (and replicas) with long magazines! Ditto for Colt Lightning rifles and many other pump and lever-action guns. And ditto for Astra Broomhandle Mauser pistols with integral 12 or 20 round magazines. All these guns would be "frozen" from any transfer until the death of their owner, whereupon the guns would become contraband.
It also includes fixed tubular magazines on shotguns. It is noteworthy that many shotguns with ostensibly "7 round" or "8 round" tubular magazines actually have 12+ round magazines if you use the stubby Mini 12 gauge shells. (And remember, it will be the notorious "shoelace squad" BATFE that will be enforcing the law, so any guesses on how they will define the magazine capacity of your shotgun?)
It includes belts and links as "large capacity ammunition feeding devices". It also requires that any magazines or links produced after the ban goes into effect must have a serial number marked. (Yes, marked on each magazine, belt, and link.) For disintegrating belt links (those ubiquitous little black steel tabs) this would create a manufacturing nightmare for military contractors! Could you imagine stamping or engraving a unique serial number on each of the hundreds of millions of links that are produced each year? How would you fit that many digits on the curved surface of a 3/4-inch long 5.56mm M249 SAW link? Micro-stamping, perhaps?
Unlike the 1994-to-2004 Federal ban, there is no 10-year "sunset" clause. This law will be permanent!
The term "Transfer" is not adequately defined. Let's say you were to allow someone in your family or a friend shoot your rifle or pistol with an 11+ round magazine. Then that could be construed as a felony "transfer", even if you are present during the target shooting session.
The absurdity of this bill can best be seen when you consider that it will also control the magazines, belts, and links used for registered Class 3 full-auto guns. Who would ever want to buy a $7,000+ registered machinegun if the only magazines and belts available for purchase are limited to 10 round capacity? (The guns themselves could still be transferred with a $200 Federal tax, but the magazines, and belts could only be transferred if they held 10 rounds or less. And to be legal, any belts assembled from links after the bill is enacted would be limited to 10-round length. That is absolutely ludicrous.)
The "transfer" portion of this law opens up innumerable opportunities for inadvertent law-breaking. What about a soldier who accidentally brings home an M16 magazine in his TA-50 dufflebag? What about someone who bids on buying the entire contents of a storage space with a lapsed contract? If they bring home a box that includes just one 11+ round magazine, then they will have committed a felony with huge fines and a possible 10 year prison sentence.
There is no exception in the law for magazines belonging to retiring servicemen or peace officers.
There is no exception in the law for sales of replacement parts to keep magazines in repair. So if a magazine gets dented or breaks, then it becomes permanently useless.
Most importantly: There is no exception in the law for passing down magazines, belts, or links within a family, as gifts or bequests. Once you die, then your 11+ round magazines will become contraband, and any subsequent possessor could be charged with a felony. Your heirs might as well tuck your magazines in your casket.

Please contact your congresscritters and insist that this ill-conceived bill be vigorously opposed!

"Memento mori"

(Me)

Christmas on the Isthmus

2010-12-25T14:18:00.000-07:00

Written by Barry Stinson, an old shipmate, about shipmates:

Isthmus - a relatively narrow strip of land with water on both sides connecting two larger land areas…sounds like the perfect site for a Patrol Gunboat.

It was Christmas on the isthmus,
The day dawned bright and clear.
The skipper said, “For crew morale
I’ll ration out some beer.
We’ll grill some steaks and chicken
And take the Whaler out.
We’ll have some fun on Christmas,
That’s what it’s all about.”

“Stew” brewed up some bug juice
To take out to the bash,
And spiked it with two bottles
Of his favorite sour mash.
Murphy drank a sample
And found it rather thin.
He added six more bottles
Of vodka, plus some gin.

Max topped it off with rotgut
He’d hidden in his shoe,
Took a taste, smiled and said,
“I guess this batch will do.”
The beer was gone in record time,
They started on the juice.
In ten or twenty minutes,
Things started to get loose.

Dietz was chugging every cup
He found within his reach.
Peters got buck naked
And chased nurses down the beach.
Gino crooned his favorite tune,
“Arrivederci, Roma.”
While Nosnits took one final drink
And slipped into a coma.

Pickard drank with speed and grace,
Pot was pissing red,
Corrigan went swimming
With his skivvies on his head.
Handcock didn’t seem insane
Like his shipmates looked to be
Till he was caught “romancing”
A eucalyptus tree.

Inman pounded bug juice
Till his sense of balance failed,
Then spoke of past sex partners
In lascivious detail.
The Base C.O. came by and said,
“A double, if you please.”
Before too long he was observed
Walking on his knees.

It was Christmas on the isthmus,
The sun was going down.
The crew had gone through all the juice,
Surprised that no one drowned.
Upon arriving back on board
The skipper announced, “Men,
How about for New Year’s Eve,
We do it all again?”

"Memento mori"
(Me)

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-24T18:01:00.000-07:00

I hope that all of you have a great day, full of love and happiness.

This seems like a good time to say "Thank you" for all the friendship and caring and blessings you have showered me with this past year. I feel undeserving.

To all of you, May the rest of your year and all of the ones to come be good ones!

"Memento mori"

(Me)

The Navy's Alternative Fuel

2010-12-20T16:12:00.000-07:00

The U. S. S.. Constitution (Old Ironsides), as a combat vessel, carried 48,600 gallons of fresh water for her crew of 475 officers and men. This was sufficient to last six months of sustained operations at sea. She carried no evaporators (i.e. fresh water distillers).

However, let it be noted that according to her ship's log, "On July 27, 1798, the U.S.S. Constitution sailed from Boston with a full complement of 475 officers and men, 48,600 gallons of fresh water, 7,400 cannon shot, 11,600 pounds of black powder and 79,400 gallons of rum."

Her mission: "To destroy and harass English shipping."

Making Jamaica on 6 October, she took on 826 pounds of flour and 68,300 gallons of rum.

Then she headed for the Azores , arriving there 12 November. She provisioned with 550 pounds of beef and 64,300 gallons of Portuguese wine.

On 18 November, she set sail for England . In the ensuing days she defeated five British men-of-war and captured and scuttled 12 English merchant ships, salvaging only the rum aboard each.

By 26 January, her powder and shot were exhausted. Nevertheless, although unarmed she made a night raid up the Firth of Clyde in Scotland . Her landing party captured a whisky distillery and transferred 40,000 gallons of single malt Scotch aboard by dawn. Then she headed home.

The U. S. S. Constitution arrived in Boston on 20 February 1799, with no cannon shot, no food, no powder, no rum, no wine, no whisky, and 38,600 gallons of water.

GO NAVY!

"Memento mori"
(Me)

QFT

2010-12-20T11:33:00.002-07:00

"Memento mori"

(Me)

An oldy, but still good for a repost

2010-12-16T09:43:00.000-07:00

Marine Corps Rules:
1. Be courteous to everyone, friendly to no one.
2. Decide to be aggressive enough, quickly enough.
3. Have a plan.
4. Have a back-up plan, because the first one probably won't work.
5. Be polite. Be professional. But, have a plan to kill everyone you meet.
6. Do not attend a gunfight with a handgun whose caliber does not start with a '4.'
7. Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice. Ammo is cheap. Life is expensive.
8. Move away from your attacker. Distance is your friend. (Lateral & diagonal preferred.)
9. Use cover or concealment as much as possible.
10. Flank your adversary when possible. Protect yours.
11. Always cheat; always win. The only unfair fight is the one you lose.
12. In ten years no body will remember the details of caliber, stance, or tactics. They will only remember who lived.
13. If you are not shooting, you should be communicating your intention to shoot.

Navy SEAL's Rules:
1. Look very cool in sunglasses.
2. Kill every living thing within view.
3. Adjust Speedo.
4. Check hair in mirror.

US Army Rangers Rules:
1. Walk in 50 miles wearing 75 pound rucksack while starving.
2. Locate individuals requir ing killing.
3. Request permission via radio from 'Higher' to perform killing.
4. Curse bitterly when mission is aborted.
5. Walk out 50 miles wearing a 75 pound rucksack while starving.

US Army Rules:
1. Curse bitterly when receiving operational order.
2. Make sure there is extra ammo and extra coffee.
3. Curse bitterly.
4. Curse bitterly.
5. Do not listen to 2nd LTs; it can get you killed.
6. Curse bitterly.

US Air Force Rules:
1. Have a cocktail.
2. Adjust temperature on air-conditioner.
3. See what's on HBO.
4. Ask 'What is a gunfight?'
5. Request more funding from Congress with a 'killer' Power Point presentation.
6. Wine & dine ''key' Congressmen, invite DOD & defense industry executives.
7. Receive funding, set up new command and assemble assets.
8. Declare the assets 'strategic' and never deploy them operationally.
9. Hurry to make 13:45 tee-time.
10. Make sure the base is as far as possible from the conflict but close enough to have tax exemption.

US Navy Rules:
1. Go to Sea.
2. Drink Coffee.
3 . Deploy Marines

"Memento mori"

(Me)

At the risk of being Heretical . . .

2010-12-09T17:52:00.000-07:00

Digitized books -- eBooks -- have two advantages over conventional books.

Obviously, one is storage space. Something the size of a conventional paperback can hold thousands of eBooks.

The second, and to me the very biggest advantage, is the availability of some truly rare or impossible to find out of print books. Google Books, Amazon, Borders & Project Gutenberg list millions of books that were written before 1928 and are thus not under copyright. They are free to download and enjoy.

I hunted through these sites and found hundreds of books on early-day Montana and the west, Asian/African hunting and exploring, and some oddball topics that I had only dreamed of reading because of their scarcity and cost. I pulled dozens of them onto my cell phone for late-night entertainment, along with a bunch of the classics that I have always wanted to read and never did. And maybe never will, but the price was right.

Note: My cell phone has a screen that is roughly 2.25" by 3.75" and is quite readable -- more so than some of the paperbacks I get in.

Sure, the eBooks are truly ephemeral and don't give any of the pride of ownership or satisfaction that owning a hardbound original copy does, but at least I get to read them without straining either my wallet or my shelves.

I will always prefer reading a "real" book but these are not a bad alternative for me.

"Memento mori"

(Me)

Identifying a Meth Lab

2010-11-29T14:50:00.000-07:00

(Me)

PSA for Flyers

2010-11-28T12:01:00.000-07:00

The kicker is in the last sentence:

The TSA blog:

"If you are taking pictures at or near the checkpoint, don't be surprised if someone (TSA, airport police, or a curious passenger) asks you what you're up to. We don't prohibit public, passengers or press from photographing, videotaping, or filming at screening locations. You can take pictures at our checkpoints as long as you're not interfering with the screening process or slowing things down.

"We also ask that you do not film or take pictures of our monitors. However, while the TSA does not prohibit photographs at screening locations, local laws, state statutes, or local ordinances might. Your best bet is to call ahead and see what that specific airport's policy is."

Smith advises about what you can do if threatened with arrest: "If you are flying and decide to turn on your phone to take video of TSA checkpoints, that is legal as long as you do not film the TSA's monitors, or interfere with or slow down the screening process. However, if you do videotape TSA checkpoints, then you should have the TSA public affairs (TSA's Office of Strategic Communications) number plugged into your phone: 571-227-2829.

"Another important phone number to have with you is the TSA's Office of Civil Rights at 571-227-1917. It all depends where you are and if the police or TSA agents know the law."

"Memento mori"

(Me)

This says it all

2010-11-24T17:41:00.000-07:00

Thos excerpt was taken from "Surviving in Argentina", the best survival blog I have found, written by someone who has lived through political unrest and upheaval and some very tough times.

This was written in response to someone who wants to leave the U.S.A. and relocate in Central/South America because of the probable/possible hard times we will be facing here soon.

--------------------

It's understandable that given the current economic situation world wide, people want to leave their country looking for greener pastures as you said.

I’ve talked a bit before about relocating, try using the search function here and look up “Uruguay”. Its probably the only Latin American country that doesn’t feel 3^rd worldly. Chile is solid but you have a serious problem with earthquakes. Brazil has some nice parts but the social difference between rich and poor is terrible there and that’s a can of worms you don’t want to open. Then you have Uruguay. Uruguay is cheap to live in because of the currency exchange rate but there’s a feeling about the people there of dignity and education, you don’t get that in the rest of Latin America. The current president of Uruguay wasn’t much of my liking but I recently heard him talk about not artificially protecting the country’s industry like Argentina did, letting the free market find its own way and wanting to turn Uruguay into a country that exports technology and knowledge to the neighboring countries. Uruguay is the only country in south America where every single kid in school was issued a laptop. I’d prefer it to Panama.

Back to leaving USA, I see why a lot of people are considering it right now. Things aren’t looking good and they won’t BE good for a long time. The crisis will go on, maybe get worse, but is it going to be better in other places? What are you giving up for that cheap exchange rate? In most countries (Uruguay being one of the few exceptions in the world) you’re giving up security, and you’re getting yourself involved in a society Americans know very little about: Societies where there’s extreme poverty and a small, powerful elite.

Places like Panama, they are corrupt beyond what Americans are used to. Everyone is used to corrupt politicians, but not everyone is used to bribing cops and official authorities as an everyday fact of live.

And its not just about security. I simply do not like walking around the streets of a city and having people begging on the floor every 3 yards. Some people dig that, I don’t. I’ve read Doug Casey mentioning how people would work almost for food here in Argentina as if that were a bonus to a location. I suppose people have different opinions of what quality of life means.

I did a bit of research on Panama and it sounds good in many ways: cheap exchange rate, good gun laws, you can carry and own a broad variety of firearms. Small with excellent tropical climate… yet its still a 3^rd world country and those of us that have lived in one for some time know what it means. Rest assured that for every American wanting to leave USA, there’s 100 that want to move in, often people that come from those same countries Americans consider relocating too.

Finally, its simply not home for you, and it will never be. Do you really want to live in a place you just don’t fit? Some lefty tree-hugging liberal may love living in Colombia, the province of Chaco here in Argentina or some other rat hole, but a conservative American wont. Your friends are right, you’ll always be a second class citizen. They’ll smile at you, most people will be nice, mostly those you do business with (no surprise there) but you’ll always be the rich gringo (even if you’re not rich ) that thinks he owns the world. If there’s ever a problem and they have to back someone up, you’ll always be in second place. Finally, you already have friends in USA, you wont be making good ones in Latin America any time soon. Not knowing Spanish will just make all of this worse, huge dissadvantage. Think about that before making a decision.

In America you can wake up every morning not worrying about a noise you’re not used to being someone trying to break into your house. You can walk or drive to the closest dinner without watching over your back every 10 seconds. You have the right to carry a firearm for self defense and if you ever use your gun in such a way, some filthy judge wont be asking you for some exorbitant bribe or even worse, throwing you in jail.

You have stores of every type, whatever hobby you have, you’ll find everything you need. That simply doesn’t happen in other countries. You like books? Even a small US city has huge book stores like nothing you’ll ever find in Latin America. You want to drive a car you like? You wont have to pay 5 times the price you pay for it in USA like you do in most 3^rd world countries. Big brother is all over the world and in most other countries you don’t even have the right to privacy you have in USA. It just doesn’t compute in people’s head that a government sticking its nose into your business isn’t right. Big brother is accepted in the 3^rd world with opened arms, it always has. Don’t think you’re getting free of that by moving elsewhere.

I understand downsizing, maybe moving to a cheaper state, but leaving USA? Not really, not unless some mayor event forces you out of it and what’s happening now occurs all over the world to a greater or lesser degree. All in all, USA is a good place to be in during this storm.

You have taxes in other countries as well, and even worse, in 3^rd world countries you have corruption that will bite you when you least expect it. Give me taxes over corruption any day, specially when those taxes aren’t being entirely stolen and going to the president’s pocket like it occur in 3^rd world countries.

In spite of everything wrong with it, America is still a bastion of freedom. Anyone doubting that just hasn’t spent enough time in other places and sure hasn’t suffered 3^rd world countries.

I agree with your wife, I think you should stay in USA. Maybe make a few changes but stay in America unless you’re 100% sure of what you want to do.

If you want my advice, this is it: Stay in America, you’re already in the best country in the world, don’t give that up. You already have contacts, gear and friends in your location. You know the country and how it works. If you’re not happy with your current location, try moving somewhere else, preferably close to friends. Those are priceless. Weather you stay or move, get involved in your community, see how you can help out, try looking at it from a different angle. This helps a lot. It sure has helped me. Just as an example, I’m trying to find a place so that an acquaintance of mine can give self defense lessons. I’ve been asking around my neighborhood, local gyms and such. I’m helping him out by finding him a place for the classes and maybe a few more students, and I’m benefiting from it too by having a good place to train near by. He’s also a police officer and I know he would gladly help if I ever need it. I also offered to review the security of my kids school. Don’t underestimate the power of getting involved and talking to people. Your community is one of your most important assets, even if when the chips are down 9 out of 10 people wont be there, there’s still that one guy you can count on.

Hope that helped some.

Take care,

--------------

"Memento mori"

(Me)

Robert Graves, once more

2010-11-24T11:59:00.000-07:00

His war years ended on, to me, an odd note.

Injured, shell shocked, and back home in England, Graves fell in love and married a woman who
"... ascribed all the wrong in the world to male domination and narrow-mindedness, and would not see my experience in the war as anything comparable with the sufferings that millions of working-class married women went through without complaint."

Somehow I can't compare the image of housewife drudgery, nasty as it was, with what he went through. Watching friends die needlessly, living in filth, and wading through reeking mud intermixed with rotten flesh and blood doesn't quite compare.

I don't know if her views helped him to put the war into perspective, but the marriage did not last very long.

"Memento mori"

(Me)

Travel Security

2010-11-24T11:30:00.000-07:00

"The real difference between the Israeli and American approach is the target. Israel tries to identify and stop the terrorist while the U.S. targets the bomb or other weapon. This approach does not change whether there is a left or right wing Prime Minister in power because the government realizes for Israel, the fight against terrorism is a fight for its very survival. Thus her government and citizenry have a view of preventing terrorism that is unencumbered by the political correctness which restrains efforts in the United States."

Read the whole thing.

Political correctness is the most devastating and insidious disease to ever hit this country.

"Memento mori"

(Me)

More of Robert Graves

2010-11-21T12:15:00.001-07:00

I am convinced that WWI was the worst for suffering. Many of the casualties resulted from an officer in the rear lines looking up from his tea and crumpets, glancing at a map, and saying "I say, old chap, run up and tell the men in seventh I want them to make an assault on the lines at 1100 today." The men would obey, run headlong into entrenched machine guns and sometimes suffer 90% casualties.

It was the result of modern weaponry being used together with out-of-date tactics. The figures speak for themselves: Great Britain sent in 9 million men, 3.1 million were killed, wounded, or MIA. For Germany, there were 7.1 million casualties out of 11 million. France suffered a 73% casualty rate.

There were 6.8 million civilian casualties. The full toll of the war was 37 million casualties.

----------

    * “…We had no mental picture of what the trenches would be like, and were almost as ignorant as a young soldier who joined us a week or two later…” (Robert Graves, 1957, pg. 83 of Penguin Edition).

    * “…Apart from wounds, gas, and the accidents of war, the life of the trench soldier could not be called unealthy while his ductless glands still functioned well…” (pg. 144).

    * “…At Fricourt, the trenches were cut in chalk, which we found more tolerable in wet weather than La Bassée clay…” (pg. 160).

    * “…The trenches were wide and tumble-down, too shallow in many places, and without sufficient traverses…We busied ourselves raising the frontline parapet and building traverses to limit the damage of the trench-mortar shells that fell continually. Every night not only the companies in the front line, but both support companies, kept hard at work all the time…” (pg. 160).

    * “…Dr Dunn came up through the barrage with a stretcher-party, dressed my wound, and got me down to the old German dressing-station at the north end of Mametz Wood. I remember being put on the stretcher, and winking at the stretcher-bearer sergeant…They laid my stretcher in a corner of the dressing-station, where i remained unconscious for more than twenty-four hours…” (pg. 181).

    * “…Suddenly I saw a group bending over a man lying at the bottom of the trench. He was making a snoring noise mixed with animals groans. At my feet lay the cap he had worn, splashed with his brains. I had never seen human brains before…One can joke with a badly-wounded man and congratulate him on being out of it. One can disregard a dead man. But even a miner can’t make a joke that sounds like a joke over a man who takes three hours to die, after the top part of his head has been taken off by a bullet fired at twenty yards’ range.” (pg. 98).

    * “…I passed by the bloated and stinking corpse of a German with his back propped against a tree. He had a green face, spectacles, close-shaven hair; black blood was dripping from the nose and beard. I came across two other unforgettable corpses: a man of the South Wales Borderers and one of the Lehr Regiment had succeeded in bayoneting each other simultaneously.” (pg. 175).

    * “…The first dead body I came upon was Samson’s, hit in seventeen places. I found that he had forced his knuckles into his mouth to stop himself crying out and attracting any more men to their death. (pg. 133).

    * “…Many of the craters contained the corpses of men who had been wounded and crept in there to die. Some were skeletons, picked clean by the rats…” (pg. 117).

    * “…Every night we went out to fetch in the dead of the other battalions…After the first day or two the corpses swelled and stank. I vomited more than once while superintending the carrying. Those we could not get in from the German wire continued to sweel until the wall of the stomach collapsed, either naturally or when punctured by a bullet; a disgusting smell would float across. The colour of the dead faces changed from white to yellow-grey, to red, to purple, to green, to black, to slimy…” (pg. 137).

    * “…I shook the sleeper by the arm and noticed suddenly the hole in the back of his head. He had taken off the boot and sock to pull the trigger of his rifle with one toe; the muzzle was in his mouth. ‘Why did he do it?’ I asked. ‘He went through the last push, sir, and that sent him a bit queer; on top of that he got bad news from Limerick about his girl and another chap.’…” (pg. 89).

    * “…We crawled through our own wire entanglements and along a dry ditch; ripping our clothes on more barbed-wire, glaring into the darkness until it began turning round and round. Once I snatched my fingers in horror from where I had planted them on the slimy body of an old corpse. We nudged each other with rapidly beating hearts at the slightest noise or suspicion: crawling, watching, crawling, shamming dead under the blinding light of enemy flares, and again crawling, watching, crawling…” (pg. 110).

    * “…The gas-men…managed to discharge one or two cylinders; the gas went whistling out, formed a thick cloud a few yards’ off in No Man’s Land, and then gradually spread back into our trenches. The Germans, who have been expecting gas, immediately put on their gas-helmets: semi-rigid ones, better than ours…Then their batteries opened on our lines. The confusion in the front trench must have been horrible; direct hits broke several of the gas-cylinders, the trench filled with gas, the gas company stampeded…” (pg. 128).

    * “… ‘Who’s the poor bastard, Dai?’ the guide asked the leading stretcher-bearer. ‘Sergeant Gallagher,’ Dai answered. ‘He thought he saw a Fritz in No Man’s Land near our wire, so the silly booger takes one of them new issue percussion bombs and shots it at ‘im. Silly booger aims too low, it hits the top of the parapet and bursts back. Deoul! Man, it breaks his silly f---ing jaw and blows a grat lump from his silly f---ing face, whatever. Poor silly booger! Not worth sweating to get him back! He’s put paid to, whatever.’ The wounded man had a sandbag over his face. He died before they got him to the dressing-station…” (pg. 85).

    * “…I heard a sudden crash. A sergeant…had been giving a little unofficial instruction before the proper instuctor arrived. He picked up a n° 1 percussion grenade and said: ‘Now lads, you’ve got to be careful here! Remember that if you touch anything while you’re swinging this chap, it’ll go off.’ To illustrate the point, he rapped the grenade against the table edge. It killed him and the man next to him and wounded twelve others more or less severely…” (pg. 159).

    * “…Those were early days of trench warfare, the days of the jam-tin bomb and the gas-pipe trench-mortar: still innocent of Lewis or Stokes guns, steel helmets, telescopic rifle-sights, gas-shells, pill-boxes, tanks, well-organized trench-raids, or any of the later refinements of trench warfare…” (pg. 82).

    * “…My best way of lasting through to the end of the war would be to get wounded. The best time to get wounded would be at night and in the open, with rifle fire more or less unaimed and my whole body exposed…” (Graves, Penguin Books 1957, pg. 111).

    * “…An eight-inch shell burst three paces behind me. I heard the explosion, and felt as though I had been punched rather hard between the shoulder-blades, but without any pain. I took the punch merely for the shock of the explosion; but blood trickled into my eye and, turning faint, I called to Moodie: ‘I’ve been hit.’ Then I fell…” (Graves, Penguin Books 1957, pg. 181).

    * “…Henry, according to Hill, had dragged five wounded man into a shell-hole and thrown up a sort of parapet with his hands and the bowie-knife which he carried…” (pg. 134).

    * “…He jumped quickly over the parapet, then strolled across No Man’s Land, waving a handkerchief; the Germans fired to frighten him, but since he persisted they let him come up close. Baxter continued towards them and, when he got to the Middlesex man, stopped and pointed to show the Germans what he was at. There he dressed the man’s wounds, gave him a drink of rum and some biscuit that he had with him, and promised to be back again at nightfall. He did come back, with a stretcher-party, and the man eventually recovered…” (pg. 138).

    * “…I had a fearful nightmare: of somebody handling me secretly, choosing the place to drive a knife into me. Finally, he gripped me in the small of my back. I woke up with a start, shouting, punched at the assassin’s hand – and found I had killed a mouse which had run down my neck for fear of the shells…” (pg. 177).

    * “…I saw a sniper killed once at Cuinchy, who had been firing all day from a shell-hole between the lines. He wore a sort of cape made of imitation grass, his face was painted green and brown, and his rifle was also green-fringed…” (pg. 113).

    * “…By atrocities we meant, specifically, rape, mutilation, and torture – not summary shootings of suspected spies, francs-tireurs, or disobedient local officials. If the atrocity-list had to include the accidental-on-purpose bombing or machine-gunning of civilians from the air, the Allies were now committing as many atrocities as the Germans…” (pg. 153).

    * “…I was still mentally and nervously organized for war. Shells used to come bursting on my bed at midnight…Strangers in daytime would assume the faces of friends who had been killed. When strong enough to climb the hill behind Harlech and revisit my favourite country, I could not help seeing it as a prospective battlefield…” (pg. 235).

    * “…England looked strange to us returned soldiers…The civilians talked a foreign language; and it was newspaper language. I found serious conversation with my parents all but impossible…” (pg. 188).

    * Alluding to Siegfried Sassoon: “…He wrote that often when he went for a walk he saw corpses lying about on the pavements…” (pg. 211)

---------
"Memento mori"

(Me)

Politics

2010-11-20T08:12:00.002-07:00

One of these four men is going to jail for three years for not paying his taxes.

(The other three are politicians.)

"Memento mori"
(Me)

"Goodby to all That"

2010-11-19T15:28:00.002-07:00

Robert Graves' book should be read by everyone interested in military history. It is a far cry from his "I, Claudius" and gives an excellent picture of the "glory" of war.

Excerpts:

"Two young miners, in another company, disliked their sargeant, who had a down on them and gave them all the most dirty and dangerous jobs. When they were in billets he crimed them for things they hadn't done; so they decided to kill him. Later, they reported at battalion Orderly Room and asked to see the Adjutant. This was irregular, because a private is forbidden to address an officer without an N.C.O of his own company acting as a go-between. The Adjutant happened to see them and asked: 'Well, what is it you want?'

Smartly slapping the small-of-the-butt of their sloped rifles, they said: 'We've come to report, Sir, that we're very sorry, but we've shot our company sargeant major.'

The Adjutant said: 'Good heavens, how did that happen?'

'It was an accident, Sir.'

'What do you mean, you damn fools? Did you mistake him for a spy?'

'No, Sir, we mistook him for our platoon sargeant.'

So they were both court-martialled and shot by a firing squad of their own company against the wall of a convent in Bethune. Their last words were the Battalion rallying-cry: 'Stick it, the Welsh!'"

“To get a ‘cushy’ one is all the old hands think about. A bloke in the Camerons wanted a ‘cushy’ bad! Fed up and far from home he was. He puts his finger over the top and gets his trigger finger taken off and two more besides. “I’m off to bonny Scotland!” he says laughing. But on the way down to the dressing station, he forgets to stoop low where an old sniper is working. He gets it through the head.”

A bloke in the Munsters once wanted a cushy, so he waves his hand above the parapet to catch Fritz’s attention.

Nothing doing. He waves his arms about for a couple of minutes. Nothing doing, not a shot. He puts his elbows on the fire-step, hoists his body upside-down and waves his legs about till he gets blood to the head. Not a shot did old Fritz fire.

“Oh,” says the Munster man, “I don’t believe there’s a damned square-head there. Where’s the German Army to?” He has a peek over the top -crack! he gets it in the head. Finee.

"Memento mori"

(Me)

November 19th, National Ammo Day

2010-11-19T13:08:00.003-07:00

Shoot 1000 rounds of ammo with friends and family.
You can celebrate National Ammo Day by purchasing 100 rounds (or reload equivalent) on November 19 (or the bookend weekends). Follow all applicable laws. If you do not own a gun, you can buy for a NFP group.

"Memento mori"

(Me)

JJ: The Weather Brings Back Memories

2010-11-16T11:55:00.001-07:00

The weather, and a chat with Becky Olson.

Becky was the proprietor of Junglerama, a day car center across the street in part of the Beauty School building. Back in the Dark Ages Becca used to drop Alex, the infant Grandson, off with me at the store on her way to work. I'd keep him for a while and then carry him across the street to leave at Junglerama for the rest of the day.

One dark morning , in one of those moments of colossal stupidity that have punctuated my life, I paid no attention to the drop in temperature that was making the rain coat EVERYTHING with a layer of black ice. By the time I got across the bank lot to the sidewalk I knew there was a problem. When I watched a parked car slide out of a lot and onto the street with a wide-eyed driver standing on the brake pedal with both feet I knew I was in trouble.

Did I go back? Oh, heavens no! I kept going.

I was right on the centerline when my feet decided flying was better than skating. I had one split second, midair, to decide protecting AJ was more important than cushioning myself. I wrapped both arms around him and twisted so he'd be on top, and the one rational thought that crossed my mind was "This is gonna hurt!"

I was right.

When I managed to start breathing again, I'd slid the rest of the way across the street on my back and Alex was flashing an "OOOOO! Let's do that again!" grin.

Junglerama was closed. As was almost everything else. I was one of the few out competing for the Darwin Award that morning

The trip back to the store took quite a while, partly because I was a lot more cautious and partly because everything between the top of my head and the soles of my feet ached. We made it safely though.

And I need to make a belated confession. Keeping Alex undamaged was selfish -- I KNEW how much trouble I'd be in if he'd gotten hurt.

TBC

"Memento mori"

(Me)

JJ: My Name is Jim. I am a Hoarder: Addenda

2010-11-07T03:07:00.042-07:00

My hoarding isn't just confined to things I an touch or carry. I am a digital hoarder too. Which is why I needed more than one (big) hard drive in my computer.

Pictures:
Back in 1993, when I installed Windows 3.11, I decided I needed some desktop wallpaper and started salvaging pictures and artwork from around the net. The total accumulation of JPG files now hovers around 10,000. Yes, they are all "G" rated.

They are supplemented by a few thousand photos I have taken.

The wallpaper is randomly selected by a batch file I wrote and is new with each reboot or on demand.

Fonts:
About the same time I decided I needed more Windows fonts for the work I was doing. I get by nowadays with only around 1700 fonts installed -- at one time there were many more but I weeded them out. I have Corel Draw to thank for most of these.

Books:
Here is where it gets scary! I only keep around 9,000 books in pdf form on my hard drives -- the rest are on DVD. Multiple DVD's, that is. Maybe one percent of these are novels, the rest are reference books with a few magazines like Make and Rifle and Handloader and National Geographic and the Gun Digest and the Encyclopedia Britannica thrown in. There are also a load of TXT files in the computer, numbering in the thousands. I tend to do a lot of copy/paste to retain information from the net for my own use.

(Believe it or not, I am not really a fan of digital books in general, but I love the fast and accurate search that Ebooks offer on a computer. The almost-instant data results make scanning woodpulp indices and cross references seem like a stone age activity.)

Music:
Nope. Never been into music. I have a couple of old tunes my Mom liked and a couple of newer things I enjoy that total up to less than a dozen songs in the computer.

Movies:
ZERO on my computer, but I have a hundred or so on DVD sitting in a box. They were received as gifts, picked up in trades or picked up second hand. (Errr, sorry for the lack of PC -- they are "Pre-owned.") They are all action/adventure. I have watched maybe a dozen of them, the rest are for the day I ever get so bored a movie sounds good.

TBC

"Memento mori"

(Me)

JJ: My Name is Jim. I am a Hoarder.

2010-11-06T13:32:00.001-06:00

Not quite like the extremists featured on prime time television, though, my madness is a little more specialized. I don't hoard EVERYTHING, and there might be a kinda-maybe-possibly rationale to what drives me.

My Mom was a hoarder, as were a lot of folks that went through the 1930's. She saved containers like margarine tubs and jelly glasses and reused them in her kitchen. She salvaged buttons and zippers from used-up old clothes and used them for minor repair on work shirts and pants that would otherwise have to be thrown away. She saved little but useful things like wire ties and bottle caps and rubber bands.

Grampa Handcock was a machinist for the Great Northern RR and had a small shop with a lathe setup of his own, loaded with books, tools and hoarded scrap metal he'd saved or salvaged.

The farmers I grew up around were hoarders. They all had workshops of some sort lined with boxes and cans of well-used parts scavenged from old machinery and most had a pile of rusty iron scrap out back. Repairing or replacing a part on a machine didn't involve a trip to the KM's hardware department or Sander's Implement until after the supply of used materials on hand had been dug through. Usually the excavation brought up something that could be made to work and the only expense was time, and time was usually more available than money.

By nature or nurture, Hoarding is in my blood: I accumulate things.

I am a sucker for the rusty cans of nuts, bolts, screws, and God-alone-knows-what-else that end up on thrift shop shelves. Sturdy old knives, same thing. Oddball tools, too, particularly the ones whose function I don't have a clue of. Weird hammers. Left-over parts from other people's projects. Lumber scraps. Whatever.

I snatch lost washers and nuts and bolts and tools out of the street the way some folks dive for dropped change at the McDonald's drive-through. I dismantle old adding machines and other appliances for the springs and bolts and levers and brackets and machine screws that hold them together. I save them. I hoard them.

I specialize in eclecticism & I like to fix things.

Everything I save is something I think might eventually be of use or value to me. I used to go through the ~~junk drawers~~ treasure troves and weed things out every year or so, and then get slammed by Murphy: Within a matter of days after I dumped stuff, I needed what I'd just pitched. Now, I just find new places to stash things and hope I can remember where.

Unfortunately some of the best examples of USING the parts I've saved are showcased on "ThereIFixedIt."

I accumulate books too, mostly semi-technical things on about every how-to subject from Programming in Basic to repairing radios and building emergency snow shelters.

A random sampling from my shelves: Spoken Vietnamese. Making and Using Stone Age Tools. Zen Archery. Pistolsmithing. Astronomy Made Easy. Ancient History. Basic Math. Canoeing. The History of Islam. The Marijuana Handbook. The Whole Earth Catalog. The Machinist's Handbook. Mexico On Five Dollars A Day. Motor Home Repair.

I have better luck weeding my books. I got through them very few months, first to weed out the duplicate titles (and triplicates, and quadruplicates. No, I don't keep track of the books I have, and yes, I have a very bad memory.) Once every couple of years I pull out different books with duplicate information, keeping the better of them, but this is a last-ditch resort when I am totally out of shelf -- and floor, and table -- space for them.

Once in a while I go through the library with a more practical eye to sort out the things I am sure I will never read or use. A few books I find while doing so always make we wonder what I'd been smoking the day I'd saved them. "An In-Depth Study of Confucianism?" "Using the Electron Microscope?" "The Complete Guide to Cadillacs?" WTF!!!!

Yes, my name is Jim, and I am a Hoarder. No, I don't want to change.

But I wish I could remember every item I have cached and where it is . . .

TBC

"Memento mori"

(Me)

A Thought on Guns

2010-11-06T11:53:00.000-06:00

“The intensity of passion on this issue suggests to me that we are experiencing a sort of low-grade war going on between two alternative views of what America is and ought to be. On the one side are those who take bourgeois Europe as a model of a civilized society: a society just, equitable, and democratic; but well ordered, with the lines of authority clearly drawn, and with decisions made rationally and correctly by intelligent men for the entire nation. To such people, hunting is atavistic, personal violence is shameful, and uncontrolled gun ownership is a blot upon civilization.

“On the other side is a group people who do not tend to be especially articulate or literate, and whose world view is rarely expressed in print. Their model is that of the independent frontiersman who takes care of himself and his family with no interference from the state. They are conservative in the sense that they cling to America’s unique pre-modern tradition—a non-feudal society with a sort of medieval liberty at large for everyman. To these people, ‘sociological’ is an epithet. Life is tough and competitive. Manhood means responsibility and caring for your own.”

“That really kind of spells it out,” Reynolds says. “It is a division between two very different views not only of American society, but also life itself.”

From an article called “The Great American Gun War,” published in The Public Interest in 1976 and written by researcher Barry Bruce-Briggs, via Glenn Reynolds

"Memento mori"

(Me)

I Love my Job!

2010-10-28T12:37:00.000-06:00

Ken stopped in and gave me an autographed copy of his book today. He is a regular visitor and a great guy to swap stories with.

Ken Nowicki – Guide/Outfit Manager
Nowicki knows the hunting business. He authored "Home of the Bighorn", a book on Alberta Bighorn sheep and has written over 200 articles in the hook and bullet press. Presently he is Editor Emeritus for Big Game Adventures and a regular correspondent with Hunting Report. First licensed as a Class "A" guide in Alberta in the 1970's, he has worked in the NWT and BC as well. His personal collection is extensive with trophies from across North America and Australia and New Zealand. Nowicki was recently elected a Director of the Foundation For North American Wild Sheep. Check out the January 08 story about Nowicki's bucks in Successful Hunter magazine.

"Memento mori"

(Me)

You might be a survivalist if…

2010-10-26T13:45:00.000-06:00

You might be a survivalist if…

1.) You built a log cabin with your pocket knife.

2.) You carry more than one survival kit…just in case.

3.) You can reload your ammo with a multi-tool.

4.) You have a flashlight on your keychain and your shotgun.

5.) You know a dozen ways to start a fire and still carry a Bic lighter.

6.) You don’t consider calling 911 a survival option.

7.) You never consider yourself lost, even if you don’t know where you are…yet.

8.) You filter and purify the water from a public fountain before drinking it.

9.) You have a wardrobe with only one color…camouflage.

10.) You like to practice building a shelter during thunderstorms.

11.) You prefer reading material that has survival in the main title.

12.) You have more home security measures than most prisons.

13.) You prefer wild game suppers when dining out.

14.) You have a dozen can openers but like to open your cans without one.

15.) You have a first aid kit with only two band-aids and a package of aspirin.

16.) You can’t wait for the sun to go down so you can test your new flashlight.

17.) You have considered using the neighbors’ pets as pistol targets and an emergency food source.

18.) You have an observation post in the backyard disguised as a tree house for your kids.

19.) You have an emergency cash fund bigger than your bank account.

20.) You serve MRE’s to your relatives when they visit.

21.) You carry a compass when you go to the shopping mall with the wife…so she doesn’t get lost.

22.) You have almost as many knives in your collection as your wife has in her kitchen.

23.) You have more ammunition in your gun safe than most stores have on their shelves.

24.) You have more plants in your yard with big, ugly thorns than flowers.

25.) You constantly check the water quality of the pools in your neighborhood for drinking purposes.

And lastly, you read Riverwalker’s blog, Stealth Survival.

"Memento mori"

(Me)

JJ: All Falls

2010-10-24T19:26:00.000-06:00

I took Zena for a sunset walk in Woodland Park last evening. It made me nostalgic.

The water and the leaves on the ground and the ducks in the twilight brought back a lot of memories of my late teen years in Lower Valley. I spent many hours traipsing with a dog and a gun along the banks of the creek and ponds and sloughs there when I was young. Golden hours.

There was a quiet magic in the air then, with the muted colors and sounds as the day turned into darkness, that peaceful time when the creatures of daylight turned the land over to the night prowlers. There was suspense, never knowing what the next bend in the trail would show. It seemed like smells and sounds were sharper then. I felt more alive then.

I miss the valley I grew up in. It is lost in the shadows of the past.

Oh, the trees and wildlife and waters are still there, but the nature of the valley has changed. It is civilized now. There are far fewer places for the hunter to really enjoy a solitary craft and the attitude of the people has changed. "No Hunting" and "No Trespassing" signs are on nearly every fence that I was free to crawl through back when I was young.

Fields that used to be stubble are filled with neat yards and modern homes and fences. Woods I used to stalk through are gone, replaced by housing developments.

For the first time in my life, I did not buy a hunting license this year when I could have.

I guess I am getting old. There are too many closed roads, too many ignorant hunters, too many 4x4 drivers who have no business being off of the pavement, too little game. There is too little enjoyment for me.

I can't hike back into the back country like I used to, and almost every time I venture into the woods towards a favorite spot I find that the USFS, in its infinite wisdom, has gated off the only access. Every year my choices are more limited.

And I am tired of being forced into the ditch by folks in their new SUVs who are afraid to pull over because they might scratch it, or kids who figure it is everyone else's duty to get out of their way. Neither of which, by the way, stop to help you get back out of the ditch they ran you into.

And there is not as much game right now, between habitat loss and weather and wolves and F&W mismanagement. I hate to deplete the population even more.

I will miss hunting this fall, but yet I am content with my decision. Yeah, I guess I'm old now. I am a misfit in this modern world.

TBC

"Memento mori"

(Me)

John Nosler

2010-10-20T18:53:00.002-06:00

Nosler Founder Passes Away

Bend, Ore-October, 2010-At the age of 97, John Amos Nosler, the tall, stately and beloved founder of Nosler, Inc., passed away of natural causes at his home on October 10, 2010. He leaves a legacy that will be remembered, not only by his family, but by hunters and shooters around the world.

Born on April 4, 1913 in Brawley California, John was one of America's true success stories. He founded his bullet company in 1948, and was considered to be one of the great generational icons whose designs literally created the premium bullet category and influenced ammunition and bullet manufacturers worldwide.

After experiencing a bullet failure on the hide of a mud-caked bull moose, John began a pursuit of the product design that would become his life's work. Armed with perseverance, discipline and determination, he created a concept that was uniquely different-he called it the Partition bullet, because of the barrier that separated the bullet into two sections. One year later, John and a friend traveled back to British Columbia loaded with his new Partition bullets. The results were two moose with two shots, and the rest is history.

In recognition of his contribution to the shooting sports industry, John was the unanimous choice for the inaugural 2007 NRA Golden Bullseye Pioneer Award. The award was the highlight of a long and fruitful career. Even though he officially retired in 1988 when his son and daughter-in-law, Bob and Joan Nosler purchased the company, John still managed to come to the office on a daily basis. He always had a smile on his face, and enjoyed passing out candy to employees as he made his rounds in the plant. There was always a twinkle in his eye when talking about new ideas for products, new machinery, solving a problem and of course hunting. Only when his health started to decline did his visits become less frequent.

Today, John's son Bob Nosler still presides over the company as president and CEO. Other family officers include Bob's son John R. Nosler, who serves as the company's vice president and general manager, along with Bob's wife Joan who also serves as a vice president. Other family members in the business include John's granddaughters and their husbands, Jill (Nosler) Bailey and Jeff Bailey, and Christie (Nosler) Darcy and Mike Darcy.

John Nosler always envisioned his company to be a family business. Today, the second and third generations share the responsibilities for guiding the business and, while the fourth generation is still quite young, it is large enough that prospects for continued family ownership and management look very good.

In lieu of sending flowers, the Nosler family encourages a donation to the National Rifle Association Foundation-John A. Nosler Endowment.

Checks may be submitted to: (make sure John A. Nosler's name is in the Memo)
The NRA Foundation, Inc./ John A. Nosler Endowment
11250 Waples Mill Road
Fairfax, VA 22030

-or-

Call in: 1-800-672-3888

"Memento mori"

(Me)

USMC Rifle Creed

2010-10-07T10:11:00.001-06:00

The Creed of a US Marine

This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

My rifle is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life.

My rifle, without me, is useless. Without my rifle, I am useless. I must fire my rifle true. I must shoot straighter than my enemy who is trying to kill me. I must shoot him before he shoots me. I WILL...

My rifle and myself know that what counts in this war is not the rounds we fire, the noise of our burst, nor the smoke we make. We know that it is the hits that count. WE WILL HIT...

My rifle is human, even as I, because it is my life. Thus, I will learn it as a brother. I will learn its weaknesses, its strength, its parts, its accessories, its sights and its barrel. I will ever guard it against the ravages of weather and damage as I will ever guard my legs, my arms, my eyes and my heart against damage. I will keep my rifle clean and ready. We will become part of each other. WE WILL...

Before God, I swear this creed. My rifle and myself are the defenders of my country. We are the masters of our enemy. WE ARE THE SAVIORS OF MY LIFE.

So be it, until victory is America's and there is no enemy, but peace!

----------
Then there is this version. I won't post the details, but I will bet some of my readers will know what I mean.

“This is my rifle, this is my gun, this is for war and this is for fun!”

"Memento mori"

(Me)

Another Classmate Gone

2010-10-06T16:25:00.000-06:00

Arthur Gene Art Williams, 64

On Oct. 3, 2010, Art passed from this world to the other side, leaving his friends and family. He was born on Dec. 16, 1945, in Salt Lake City to Clyde Oliver Williams and Mary Elizabeth (Buck) Williams. Early in 1946 he moved to Creston, where his dad had lived and worked for several years prior to his entering the U.S. Army in 1935, where he served his country proudly until his discharge in 1945. Arthur liked the country life and was joined by his sister Mary Kathleen in 1947.

They remained in Creston until his parents built a home in Kalispell around 1949-50. He attended Cornelius Hedges School until 1955 when his dad built a home on the northeast side of town. He attended Edgerton School from the fourth through sixth grades, and junior high school at the old Central School and Linderman. In 1964, he graduated from Flathead County High School and went to work with the Forest Service. When winter came he worked for Lee Rothweiler at Lee s Glass Shop, and later for Jackson Machine Shop.

Art enlisted in the U.S. Navy, and on Jan. 30, 1966, he shipped out for boot camp in San Diego, followed by Damage Control Class A school at Treasure Island, San Francisco, and Petroleum Handlers School in San Pedro, Calif. He was assigned to a fleet gasoline oiler (USS Patapsco AOG-1) stationed in Honolulu and serving the troops up and down the Vietnam coast.

Upon his discharge he remained in Honolulu. Art worked several jobs, his favorite " taxi and limousine driver " as well as being an auto parts wholesale distribution warehouse man. He enjoyed the Islands, and the music of Hawaii became a big part of his life. He also loved the foods available and experiencing the various ethnic lifestyles.

In 1985, Art returned to Kalispell to care for his mom. He worked at Buffalo Hills Golf Course for several years, Semitool for a while, then an independent contractor for transfer of rental vehicles. He worked at Evergreen School District as a custodian for several years, and retired a few years after his mom passed on. He was most recently employed by the Kalispell Eagles as custodian until his health began to fail.

In 1992 Art joined the Moose Lodge and served the lodge through the offices, attaining governor in 2000. His greatest honor was going to Chicago in 2000 to represent Kalispell as lodge governor at the 112th annual International Convention. Meeting with others and sharing ideas for the betterment of the lodge, as well as the camaraderie of his fellow members was a great thrill. In September of 2003, Art proudly and humbly accepted and was conferred the Fellowship Degree.

With his passing, he leaves numerous friends he has made over the years; his sister, Kathy McKerrow, and her family, in Floweree; and his loving companion for the past few years, Kawika, his cat. A special thank you to Dr. Welch and the staff at Kalispell Regional Medical Center for the care and compassion Art received.

Art requests any memorials be made to the Kalispell Moose Lodge No. 1922, P.O. Box 5286, Kalispell, MT 59903; or to the charity of your choice. Memorial services will be held at a later date. Contact the Kalispell Moose Lodge for additional information

"Memento mori"
(Me)

A Real Aimbot

2010-10-03T18:33:00.000-06:00

Self-Aiming Sniper Rifles Coming Next Year

By Rebecca Boyle

Published October 01, 2010

| Popular Science

A sniper crouches near an open window and zooms in on his target, who sits a half-mile away. He peers through a scope and holds his breath, preparing to squeeze the trigger. But it’s windy outside, and he can't afford a miss. What to do?

Clearly, he needs a self-aiming gun. Fortunately, one should be available next year.

Using the One-Shot system, under development by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), a new electro-optical system will calculate the ballistics for him, telling him where to aim and ensuring a perfect shot -- no matter the weather conditions.

Lockheed Martin won a $6.9 million contract this week for the second phase of DARPA’s One-Shot system, which will provide direct observations of a target, measure every variable that influences a bullet’s flight, and calculate the aim offset in a sniper’s rifle scope.

During the project’s first phase, which started in 2007, Lockheed developed a down-range system that measured average crosswind; range to target; spotter scope position; air temperature, pressure, and humidity; and more, according to Military Aerospace. Using all those variables, the company calculated the ballistics for a .308 bullet at ranges as far as 3,600 feet.

While that’s impressive, the system was too heavy and unwieldy, and it couldn’t be used with standard rifle scopes. The phase-two design will be more compact and able to operate in real time and over longer distances.

It will measure atmospheric conditions, account for the weapon’s maximum effective range and include GPS coordinates. It’s also supposed to communicate with the rifle scope, informing the gun itself of the aim point offset and expected crosswind.

Lockheed is supposed to deliver 15 field-testable prototypes by next October.

"Memento mori"
(Me)

Charley thoughts

2010-10-02T14:36:00.000-06:00

Charley Kuder. Gunsmith. Woodworker/stockmaker extraordinary. Book lover. Knifemaker. Outdoorsman. Musician. Veteran. Motorcyclist. Leather worker. Jack of all trades and master of most. Neighbor. Friend.

I miss him.

He was a friend for nearly thirty years, was my upstairs neighbor for eighteen , made near-daily visits down to visit and get reading material, was a part of my little family. I trusted him, I would have entrusted my life to him without a qualm.

He was my "go-to" guy, the man who knew so much more than I did on so many interesting subjects. "Hmmm, I'll hafta ask Charley about this" was my first thought on any odd tools or weapons or mechanisms I stumbled on. When I found something that puzzled him, I was always surprised -- and pleased!

He was the fix-it man, the magician that could turn mangled wood and steel back into useful, beautiful objects.Yeah, he fixed my toys when I broke them.

He was my advice giver, and kept me from making some ignorant choices and guided me into smart ones.

He was my book reviewer. When a new book would come in that looked interesting I'd give it to Charley. If he liked it, it was a pretty sure bet that I would. When I got in a book by an author we both liked, it was a toss-up who would read it first, me or him.

He was the music man, spending hours picking and playing on his guitar.

He was the hunter that loved roaming the woods, pack on back and gun in hand.

He was dead honest and dealt in black and white: you always knew how you stood with him. There were no white lies or uncomfortable pleasantries when he was around, if he did not like you, you knew it.

The last few years were hard for him. He had to give up his wood working, his shooting, and finally his guitar playing as arthritis crippled his hands. He still read voraciously but "wet" macular degeneration was taking away a lot of the pleasure and he knew that one day soon he would have to give up that last love.

He died at home, in the "little cave" he loved, sitting in his easy chair. A bag of brownies his mother had given him that day was in his lap, cradled in his hands. His head was back, his eyes closed, his mouth open. He dozed off and never woke up.

I miss him, but yet I am glad that he went when did, where he did, the way he did. He left before living would become unbearable, and was at peace when he went on that last great mysterious adventure everyone finally faces.

I was honored to be his friend.

"Memento mori"

(Me)

Please sign!

2010-09-27T10:55:00.001-06:00

Aaron sez, "Does Hollywood know how to be evil or what? Just as the President is denouncing Iran and China for censoring the Internet, the MPAA is rushing through a bill to create an Internet blacklist here at home. American ISPs would be required to block any domains that host too much copyright or trademark infringement. The bill is so careless and vague even YouTube could get banned, and that's even before other government agencies get their hands on this technique. (WikiLeaks, anyone?) Can you sign our urgent petition to stop the bill?"

This is the kind of heavy-handed censorship you'd expect from a dictatorship, where one man can decide what web sites you're not allowed to visit. But the Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to pass the bill this week -- and Senators say they haven't heard much in the way of objections! That's why we need you to sign our urgent petition to Congress demanding they oppose the Internet blacklist. PETITION TO THE SENATE: Censoring the Internet is something we'd expect from China or Iran, not the U.S. Senate. You need to stop this Internet blacklist in its tracks and oppose S. 3804.

Stop the Internet blacklist!
"Memento mori"
(Me)

Western Americana: New stuff in

2010-09-24T11:24:00.000-06:00

Stout: Montana Its Story and Biography A History of Aboriginal and Territorial Montana and Three Decades of Statehood
The American Historical Society, Chicago, 1921. Three volume set. Information on Custer and the Little Big Horn battlefield. Herd 2178, Six-Guns 2149, "Has a long chapter on the outla...ws and vigilantes of Montana." $300.

Idaho: A Guide in Word and Picture
WPA, Caxton Printers, 1937
Signed by Vardis Fisher, the State Director of the WPA in Idaho, who wrote most of the book but whose name was omitted from this first printing ... Very rare: This was the first American Guide published by the WPA and most of this printing was destroyed in a warehouse fire in January, 1937. Torn DJ, mild warping in some of the pages, overall very good plus. $500.00

Raymer: Montana: The Land and the People. Three Volume set.
The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 1930. Hardcover. First Edition. Three volume set. 634, 842, 863pp. Quarto [26.5 cm] Dark blue pebbled cloth. Blind stamped borders to boards. Blind stamped bands to backstrips. Titles gilt stamped on backstrips. All edges marbled. Marbled endsheets and pastedowns. Very good Minor sunning to heads of boards. Light rubbing to corners. Index included in volume one. Black and white illustrations throughout. Volume one contains histories of the native tribes of Montana, Lewis and Clark, Yellowstone, the Fur Trade in Montana, the gold rush boom, railroads, Custer, copper mining and the beginning of the twentieth century. Volumes two and three offer biographical sketches of the prominent and leading men (and women) that made Montana. $400

"Memento mori"

(Me)

I Lost a Good Friend Today

2010-09-13T13:59:00.001-06:00

His mother & I found his body this morning, sitting peacefully in his easy chair with his head back and a bag of brownies in his lap.

I will miss him for a long, long time.

Rest in peace, Charley.

"Memento mori"

(Me)

If you don't read Ferfal, you should

2010-09-13T10:18:00.000-06:00

This is an excerpt from his latest post:

Apparently a famous local gun and knife writer (who’s name shall not be revealed) was involved in a kidnapping.

He was surprised along with his wife when leaving a farm (remember me calling BS on country=safe city=hellhole? Examples such as this are why) Two armed men got into the vehicle, forcing him and his wife in the back seat. Sometimes bad guys are clever sometimes they are this stupid. So the gun writer had of course taken a gun with him, but since he’s more of the target shooting and hunting type he had his gun unloaded and carried it in a case. He quietly opened the case, loaded a magazine and loaded the gun, the bad guys didn’t notice him until he had the gun pointed at them.

Now here’s where the story gets interesting and there’s a lesson to be learned. I know this man, have read his material and have great respect for him. When I met him face to face, I could see that he’s well educated, kind and polite. I don’t know him that well but based on the few times I’ve seen him he might be just too kind, the type of person that writes about guns and knives, knows well how they operate and could write excellent books about them, but did he seem like the type of guy that would shoot someone (even in self defense) without a second of doubt? I can’t say he seemed to be that type of person, and that’s exactly what happened here. Later when the district attorney asked why didn’t he just shoot the bad guy in the back of the head, he would say he didn’t think it was what a gentleman would have done. I totally picture him saying just that.

So he’s had the gun, clearly couldn’t do what he knew perfectly well he should be doing, (shoot to kill) and did what every instructed gun owner knows you should never do (shoot to wound). He alerted the bad guy, and then shot him in the stomach. The car goes off the road, the bad guys pull him out of the car and while on the floor they shoot him in the face. The bad guy that wasn’t shot escapes, leaving his wounded buddy in the car. The wife pulls the wounded kidnapper out of the car, manages to get his husband inside and takes him to the hospital. The older woman breaks her wrist in the process, but still manages to take him to the ER room. The writer is lucky, the projectile went through his face and exited through the back of the head but miraculously he recovered without permanent damage. This is why you should have already come to a decision before finding yourself in a situation where you have a firearm, but you lack the determination to use it as you’re supposed to.

FerFAL
"Memento mori"
(Me)

Heinlein: Starship Troopers

2010-09-12T17:51:00.000-06:00

Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" is one of the books I reread every couple of years, and I have a feeling that the ideas I got from reading it in my late teens were influential in the rest of my life.

I must not have been the only one so influenced, half a century after its publication Starship Troopers is on the reading lists of the United States Marine Corps and the United States Navy OCS programs.

These next couple of paragraphs are excerpted from Wikipedia.

-----

The overall theme of the book is that social responsibility requires being prepared to make individual sacrifice. Heinlein's Terran Federation is a limited democracy with aspects of a meritocracy based on willingness to sacrifice in the common interest. Suffrage (the right to vote) belongs only to those willing to serve their society by two years of volunteer Federal Service — "the franchise is today limited to discharged veterans", instead of anyone "...who is 18 years old and has a body temperature near 37 °C".

The Federation is required to find a place for anyone who desires to serve, regardless of his skill or aptitude (this also includes dangerous non-military work such as serving as experimental medical test subjects).

-----

The key concept that comes out of this? No one can stop anyone from pursuing happiness, but life and liberty are said to exist only if they are deliberately sought and paid for. According to the novel, the U.S.A. collapsed because "people had been led to believe that they could simply vote for whatever they wanted... and get it, without toil, without sweat, without tears."

Looking at our government, looking at what people expect and demand from it, looking at who we vote into office, I am afraid that this is exactly the way America is going to end. Everyone wants life's amenities handed to them and no on is willing to take responsibility for his own actions.

Bottom line: I don't think that people who are not willing to sacrifice for this country should have any voice in running it.

"Memento mori"

(Me)

And We Survived . . .

2010-09-12T10:48:00.000-06:00

My Mom used to cut chicken, chop eggs and spread mayo on the same cutting board with the same knife and no bleach, but we didn't seem to get food poisoning.

My Mom used to defrost hamburger on the counter and I used to eat it raw sometimes, too. Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper in a brown paper bag, not in ice pack coolers, but I can't remember getting e. Coli.
Almost all of us would have rather gone swimming in the lake instead of a pristine pool (talk about boring), no beach closures then.

The term cell phone would have conjured up a phone in a jail cell, and a pager was the school PA system.

We all took gym, not PE...and risked permanent injury with a pair of high top Ked's (only worn in gym) instead of having cross-training athletic shoes with air cushion soles and built in light reflectors. I can't recall any injuries but they must have happened because they tell us how much safer we are now. Flunking gym was not an option... even for stupid kids! I guess PE must be much harder than gym.

Speaking of school, we all said prayers and sang the national anthem, and staying in detention after school caught all sorts of negative attention.

We must have had horribly damaged psyches. What an archaic health system we had then. Remember school nurses? Ours wore a hat and everything.

I thought that I was supposed to accomplish something before I was allowed to be proud of myself.

I just can't recall how bored we were without computers, Play Station, Nintendo, X-box or 270 digital TV cable stations.

Oh yeah... and where was the Benadryl and sterilization kit when I got that bee sting? I could have been killed!

We played 'king of the hill' on piles of gravel left on vacant construction sites, and when we got hurt, Mom pulled out the 48-cent bottle of mercurochrome (kids liked it better because it didn't sting like iodine did) and then we got our butt spanked.

Now it's a trip to the emergency room, followed by a 10-day dose of a $49 bottle of antibiotics, and then Mom calls the attorney to sue the contractor for leaving a horribly vicious pile of gravel where it was such a threat.

We didn't act up at the neighbor's house either, because if we did we got our butt spanked there and then we got our butt spanked again when we got home.

I recall Donny Reynolds from next door coming over and doing his tricks on the front stoop, just before he fell off.

Little did his Mom know that she could have owned our house.

Instead, she picked him up and swatted him for being such a goof. It was a neighborhood run amuck.

To top it off, not a single person I knew had ever been told that they were from a dysfunctional family.

How could we possibly have known that?

We needed to get into group therapy and anger management classes.

We were obviously so duped by so many societal ills, that we didn't even notice that the entire country wasn't taking Prozac!

How did we ever survive?

"Memento mori"
(Me)

Smile

2010-09-05T09:31:00.002-06:00

"Memento mori"

(Me)

Sigh . . .

2010-08-31T10:56:00.000-06:00

   Barack Obama just invited the United Nations to join his ongoing fight against Arizona and dozens of other states attempting to enforce the immigration laws that he refuses to enforce.

     Unfortunately, you read that right. On August 20, the United States, for the first time ever, submitted a 29-page “Universal Periodic Review" (UPR) to the UN Human Rights Council, which outlines a laundry list of human rights abuses allegedly committed by the United States.

     Contained within that laundry list of so-called abuses is a direct condemnation of S.B. 1070, legislation enacted by the state of Arizona (and supported by an overwhelming majority of the American people), which seeks to do the job that the federal government has refused to do... secure the border.

     Specifically, the Obama Administration wrote in the report: "A recent Arizona law, S.B. 1070, has generated significant attention and debate at home and around the world. The issue is being addressed in a court action that argues that the federal government has the authority to set and enforce immigration law. That action is ongoing; parts of the law are currently enjoined."

     The submission of this UPR is the first step in a United Nations review process which will culminate with the issuance of a plan of action, approximately 90 days from now, from a panel of UN bureaucrats from France, Japan and Cameroon.

     At that point, the United States would be expected to "voluntarily" comply with the panel's recommendations, but as the UN Human Rights Council states on its website: “The Human Rights Council will decide on the measures it would need to take in case of persistent non-cooperation by a State..."

     In short, Barack Obama has upped the ante. Not content with simply filing a frivolous federal suit against the people of Arizona, Obama has transformed his amnesty feud with the American people into an international human rights cause and effectively placed the people of Arizona (and other states that are considering similar border security bills) under the jurisdiction of a gang of America-hating United Nations bureaucrats.

"Memento mori"

(Me)

FYI: Obama and Guns

2010-08-18T11:17:00.002-06:00

Obama bans over 100,000 rifles

David Kopel • August 18, 2010 12:09 am

According to The Korea Times, the Obama administration has blocked efforts by the South Korean government to sell over a hundred thousand surplus M1 Garand and Carbine rifles into the United States market. These self-loading were rifles introduced in 1926 and 1941. As rifles, they are especially well-suited to community defense in an emergency, as in the cases of community defense following Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Along with AR-15 type rifles, the M1 rifles are the quintessential firearms of responsible citizenship, precisely the type of firearms which civic responsibility organizations such as the Appleseed Project teach people how to use.
According to a South Korean official, “The U.S. insisted that imports of the aging rifles could cause problems such as firearm accidents. It was also worried the weapons could be smuggled to terrorists, gangs or other people with bad intentions.”
Regarding the second objection, any firearm lawfully imported into the United States would eventually be sold by a Federal Firearm Licensee who, pursuant to the background check system imposed by Congress (and endorsed by the NRA) would have to contact federal or state law enforcement to verify that the gun buyer is not prohibited from possessing firearms. Accordingly, the risk that the South Korean surplus guns might fall into the hands of gangsters or other bad people is exactly the same as with the sale of any other retail firearm in the United States. Notably, neither the M1 Garand nor the M1 carbine are concealable, and the M1 Garand is long, heavy, and bulky. Accordingly, the criminal utility of such guns is relatively low.
The second Obama administration objection is accidents. But in fact, increasing gun density in the United States has been associated with steeply declining rates of gun accidents. In 1948 there were .36 guns per person. (That is, about one gun for every three Americans.) By 2004, there was nearly one gun for every American. In 1948, there were 1.6 fatal gun accidents per 100,000 persons. By 2004, the rate had fallen by 86%, so that there were .22 fatal accidents per 100,000 persons. (For underlying data, see Appendix B of my amicus brief in Heller.)
Legally, it is indisputable that the guns are importable. Being over 50 years old, the rifles are automatically “Curios and Relics” according to federal law. 27 CFR section 478.11. Accordingly, they are by statutory definition importable. 18 USC section 925 (e)(1). Notwithstanding the law, the Obama administration has the ability to pressure the South Korean government to block the sale of the guns.
President Obama was elected on the promise that he supported individual Second Amendment rights. His administration’s thwarting of the import of these American-made rifles is not consistent with that promise.

"Memento mori"

(Me)

Literary Humor

2010-08-18T08:39:00.002-06:00

"Memento mori"

(Me)

Facebook by the Numbers

2010-08-17T08:00:00.000-06:00

"Memento mori"
(Me)

Aren't you glad you voted Democratic?

2010-08-16T15:25:00.000-06:00

In just six months, on January 1, 2011, the largest tax hikes in the history of America will take effect.

They will hit families and small businesses in three great waves.

On January 1, 2011, here’s what happens... (read it to the end, so you see all three waves)...


First Wave:

Expiration of 2001 and 2003 Tax Relief

In 2001 and 2003, the GOP Congress enacted several tax cuts for investors, small business owners, and families.

These will all expire on January 1, 2011.

Personal income tax rates will rise.

The top income tax rate will rise from 35 to 39.6 percent (this is also the rate at which two-thirds of small business profits are taxed).

The lowest rate will rise from 10 to 15 percent.

All the rates in between will also rise.


Itemized deductions and personal exemptions will again phase out, which has the same mathematical effect as highermarginal tax rates.

The full list of marginal rate hikes is below:

The 10% bracket rises to an expanded 15%
The 25% bracket rises to 28%
The 28% bracket rises to 31%
The 33% bracket rises to 36%
The 35% bracket rises to 39.6%

Higher taxes on marriage and family.

The "marriage penalty" (narrower tax brackets for married couples) will return from the first dollar of income.

The child tax credit will be cut in half from $1000 to $500 per child.

The standard deduction will no longer be doubled for married couples relative to the single level.

The dependent care and adoption tax credits will be cut.

The return of the Death Tax.

This year only, there is no death tax. (It’s a quirk!) For those dying on or after January 1, 2011, there is a 55 percent
top death tax rate on estates over $1 million. A person leaving behind two homes, a business, a retirement account, could easily pass along a death tax bill to their loved ones. Think of the farmers who don’t make much money, but their land, which they purchased years ago with after-tax dollars, is now worth a lot of money. Their children will have to sell the farm, which may be their livelihood, just to pay the estate tax if they don’t have the cash sitting around to pay the tax. Think about your own family’s assets. Maybe your family owns real estate, or a business that doesn’t make much money, but the building and equipment are worth $1 million. Upon their death, you can inherit the $1 million business tax free, but if they own a home, stock, cash worth $500K on top of the $1 million business, then you will owe the government $275,000 cash! That’s 55% of the value of the assets over $1 million! Do you have that kind of cash sitting around waiting to pay the estate tax?

Higher tax rates on savers and investors.

The capital gains tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 20 percent in 2011.

The dividends tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 39.6 percent in 2011.

These rates will rise another 3.8 percent in 2013.

Second Wave:

Obamacare

There are over twenty new or higher taxes in Obamacare. Several will first go into effect on January 1, 2011. They include:

The "Medicine Cabinet Tax"

Thanks to Obamacare, Americans will no longer be able to use health savings account (HSA), flexible spending account (FSA), or health reimbursement (HRA) pre-tax dollars to purchase non-prescription, over-the-counter medicines (except insulin).

The "Special Needs Kids Tax"

This provision of Obamacare imposes a cap on flexible spending accounts (FSAs) of $2500 (Currently, there is no federal government limit). There is one group of FSA owners for whom this new cap will be particularly cruel and onerous: parents of special needs children.

There are thousands of families with special needs children in the United States, and many of them use FSAs to pay for special needs education.

Tuition rates at one leading school that teaches special needs children in Washington , D.C. ( National Child Research Center ) can easily exceed $14,000 per year.

Under tax rules, FSA dollars can not be used to pay for this type of special needs education.

The HSA (Health Savings Account) Withdrawal Tax Hike.

This provision of Obamacare increases the additional tax on non-medical early withdrawals from an HSA from 10 to 20 percent, disadvantaging them relative to IRAsand other tax-advantaged accounts, which remain at 10 percent.

Third Wave:

The Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) and Employer Tax Hikes

When Americans prepare to file their tax returns in January of 2011, they'll be in for a nasty surprise-the AMT won't be held harmless, and many tax relief provisions will have expired.

The major items include:

The AMT will ensnare over 28 million families, up from 4 million last year.

According to the left-leaning Tax Policy Center, Congress' failure to index the AMT will lead to an explosion of AMT taxpaying families-rising from 4 million last year to 28.5 million. These families will have to calculate their tax burdens twice, and pay taxes at the higher level. The AMT was created in 1969 to ensnare a handful of taxpayers.

Small business expensing will be slashed and 50% expensing will disappear.

Small businesses can normally expense (rather than slowly-deduct, or "depreciate") equipment purchases up to $250,000.

This will be cut all the way down to $25,000. Larger businesses can currently expense half of their purchases of equipment.

In January of 2011, all of it will have to be "depreciated."

Taxes will be raised on all types of businesses.

There are literally scores of tax hikes on business that will take place. The biggest is the loss of the "research and experimentation tax credit," but there are many, many others. Combining high marginal tax rates with the loss of this tax relief will cost jobs.

Tax Benefits for Education and Teaching Reduced.

The deduction for tuition and fees will not be available.

Tax credits for education will be limited.

Teachers will no longer be able to deduct classroom expenses.

Coverdell Education Savings Accounts will be cut.

Employer-provided educational assistance is curtailed.

The student loan interest deduction will be disallowed for hundreds of thousands of families.

Charitable Contributions from IRAs no longer allowed.

Under current law, a retired person with an IRA can contribute up to $100,000 per year directly to a charity from their IRA.

This contribution also counts toward an annual "required minimum distribution." This ability will no longer be there.

PDF Version Read more: ; http://www.atr.org/six-months-untilbr-largest-tax-hikes-a5171##ixzz0sY8waPq1

And worse yet?

Now, your insurance will be INCOME on your W2's!

One of the surprises we'll find come next year, is what follows - - a little "surprise" that 99% of us had no idea was included in the "new and improved" healthcare legislation . . . the dupes, er, dopes, who backed this administration will be astonished!

Starting in 2011, (next year folks), your W-2 tax form sent by your employer will be increased to show the value of whatever health insurance you are given by the company. It does not matter if that's a private concern or governmental body of some sort.

If you're retired? So what... your gross will go up by the amount of insurance you get.

You will be required to pay taxes on a large sum of money that you have never seen. Take your tax form you just finished and see what $15,000 or $20,000 additional gross does to your tax debt. That's what you'll pay next year.

For many, it also puts you into a new higher bracket so it's even worse.

This is how the government is going to buy insurance for the15% that don't have insurance and it's only part of the tax increases.

Not believing this??? Here is a research of the summaries.....

On page 25 of 29: TITLE IX REVENUE PROVISIONS- SUBTITLE A: REVENUE OFFSET PROVISIONS-(sec. 9001,
as modified by sec. 10901) Sec.9002 "requires employers to include in the W-2 form of each employee the aggregate cost of applicable employer sponsored group health coverage that is excludable from the employees gross income."

- Joan Pryde is the senior tax editor for the Kiplinger letters.
- Go to Kiplingers and read about 13 tax changes that could affect you. Number 3 is what is above.

"Memento mori"

(Me)

JJ: Survival

2010-08-13T05:38:00.063-06:00

Predictions of the end of the world as we know it, now referred to as "TEOTWAWKI," have been around for most of my life. Life in the 1950s, when I was in grade school, was spent under the very real threat of nuclear war. Fallout shelters were the latest fashion and it was not just the Mormons that stockpiled food an other essentials.

The interest in survival has been increasing over the last ten years since Bin Laden killed America as we knew it and our tough economy and Socialistic government have a lot of people thinking more of just "Living" instead of "Living in Luxury." Survival items are highlighted at sales from Costco and Walmart and the Net is loaded with sites overflowing with discussions and advice on everything from buying gold to knapping flint.

I've always tried to be prepared for a degree of disaster and usually have a knife, compass and fire starter of some sort in my pockets, along with a cell phone. This probably seems silly until you read the accounts of survivors who have been trapped in their homes or work places by a fire or earthquake and owed their lives to having some simple tools. New Orleans and Port-Au-Prince come to mind.

I usually have a couple of days worth of food around, and camping gear and reference books squirreled away. I try to keep the gas tank on the truck close to full, and I suppose I could do a "get out of Dodge" fairly quickly if I needed to. I could get by for a day or two in case of a Katrina or man-caused calamity but I am less motivated nowadays.

Let me be honest here: I have no real desire to live in a post-apocalyptic world. I am both bone lazy and old, and a hunter/gatherer society might be exciting for a while but in the long term it is going to be grittier than I'd care to put up with.

At this point, I could live comfortably for a few days and do fairly well for a few weeks if the weather cooperated at all, but if civilization and some of its amenities didn't rumble back into life in a month or two I just as soon not bother.

TBC

"Memento mori"

(Me)