Rantings Diversified

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One Day of Blog Silence
April 30th 2007
Comments are closed today

No time to blog today. There are roads that need ridden,corners that need carved, slowpokes that need passed and speed limits that need ignored. It’s a beautiful warm sunny day and I’m off to ride my motor-sickle. We might take the back roads down to Philly and stop at Pat’s Steaks or maybe we’ll just ride up to Centrailia. We’ll figure it out. Gotta’ go!

UPDATE 1955hrs
I rode the 25 miles up to my bud Jims house. It’s all highway. I learned something today. A cafe bike is not one to buy if you are going to ride highways all day. How boring. All I wanted to do was carve a corner or use all the gears the factory gave me. This highway cruising thing is not my cup of tea. Holding a constant 80MPH is pretty boring if you ask me. I have clip-ons and good tight suspension for a reason. If I wanted to cruise I would have bought a Harley. Then I could be unique, like everyone else. So we finally get to the back road and don’t you know it. Jim’s son Jimmy’s bike breaks down about 5 miles into it. Jim and I ride back to his place and get his Transporter and the bike trailer and drive back to where Jimmy broke down, load it up and drove home. I then drove the 25 miles home and never got to carve a single corner. Oh well, a bad day riding is a whole lot better than a cold, rainy day spent at home wishing you were riding.

“Safety Briefing”
To be delivered to all competitors at center line before commencing with the match.

Competitors, you shall consider this your safety briefing.

There will be no accidents on this firing line.

Safety first, safety last, safety always

All firearms shall be pointed down range at all times while on this firing line.

All commands come from center line.

You will obey all commands from center line

You shall not handle any firearm or ammunition while anyone is downrange

This means while ANYONE is downrange you shall not handle nor load your clips or mags while on the firing line.

You shall be given a 3-minute preparation period before each stage
During this time you may disengage your safety, remove OBI’s, insert UNLOADED magazines and dry fire.  You may NOT fire live ammunition during this period.

When the command to cease-fire is given you shall clear your firearm
remove your clip or magazine, put you safety ON and insert your open bolt indicator

Only when all competitors comply with this command shall the line be considered safe

Open bolt indicators and safeties are required on all firearms on both the firing line and the ready area.

You may remove these only upon command from center line

Ear protection is required on this firing line

Eye protection is strongly recommended

There are line officers all along this firing line

Any and all question are to be directed to them

They are happy to help you!

If you experience a stoppage or malfunction while on the firing line please cease firing, raise your hand, and do not attempt to clear it yourself

If you experience a stoppage or malfunction while on the firing line please cease firing and raise your hand and a line officer shall assist you right off

Your score is not as important as the life beside you

The smoking lamp is lit only in the ready area and on the catwalk in the pits.  This is provided you field strip your butts and place the trash in the provided receptacles.  If you chew tobacco or seeds, you will not spit on the catwalk.  Please spit on the ground.
There will be no smoking on the firing line.  This includes score keepers.

There are 4 things to remember:
1) All commands come from center line
2) The line officers are here to help you, please just raise your hand
3) There will be NO accidents on this firing line.
4) Safety first, safety last, safety always

A bunch of folks think it’s silly or just even downright weird.
I don’t
Ok, so I know it’s a hillbilly, redneck, hick kinda’ thing but fuck those assholes in Yew Nork, Lost Angeles and Chic-ago!!
If I want to keep loaded guns in my house I shall do as I damn well please.
There are no rugrat-lits here and even if there were they would be taught better.
Oh, I know you will say stupid things like, well you know someone could break into your house and blahblahblahblahblahyakyakayakyak…….Shut the fuck up, you dickhead!! You don’t know where they are and come to think of it the theoretical bad guys don’t either. So if and when a theoretical bad guy ever decides to enter my house without permission, at 0230, then he can chase me about the house but…….(and there is always a but) he might find himself in a bit of a pickle when I stop in a particular room and remove either a .45ACP, .45 Colt, .38Special or a 9X18Mak from where it lives and stick it in his face. Of course I want to think I would then slowly say something incredibly scary and suave ala James Bond, Sean Connery style.
Maybe I’d say…..”Now! What was it you came here for again?”.
Aw Man, I get sooooo much jazz in my dreams!!!
Ha!
In reality if someone entered my house at 0230 uninvited, I would be just going to bed and then of course I would have more than enough time to grab my M1911 and the extra mags and walk out into the front room and confront the ne’er-do-well with my trusty piece of steel.
Twice in my life I have had to resort to walking with steel.
The first time, I was walking down 2nd street in the ‘burg. I was heading from downtown to the Mid-town tavern. I had just passed State street and a bunch of guys near North street crossed the street to my side. “FUCK!!!!!!!, this is NOT happening”, I thought to myself. I kept walking. The group of young black guys came up to me and some of them ended up behind me. One of the punks asked if I would loan him 5 dollars. I kept walking and said a resounding, NO. From behind I heard someone say, “Fuck this just take his fucking money!”. At this point they were all behind me. I did a quick threat scan and turned around. I took my right hand and pushed back my jacket and rested it on the Rosewood handle of my .44Spl revolver. About a split second later there was nobody around for a block and a half. These scumbags came out of nowhere and retreated back there merely at the sight of an armed citizen. My revolver never came out of its holster.
Ok, so now yous’ guys’ are all saying, “eek”, or, ”eww”, or something similar. Here is a funny story to chill yins.
I was at a used clothing store owned by a friend of a friend and I was trying on some Israeli army boots. Really cool tan suede 12 inch boots with laces and buckles, big ass honkin’, stompin’ soles and everything. Well I was hunkered down tieing and strapping these uber-cool boots and the little 20-something girl waiting on me said to me. “Uh…excuse me Sir, but your gun just fell on the floor!”. Hahahahaha! I was carrying my Makarov in a, “small of the back” holster and being the big, fat, disgusting fat-body that I am it fell out of it’s holster as I was squatted down there. Needless to say I have never worn a SOTB holster since.
Personally I don’t care what you think of gun ownership. I am very good with one, be it a pistol or rifle.
NRA Life Member
GOA Life Member
PAR&P Annual Member
WVR&P Annual Member
NRA Certified Rifle Instructor
NRA Certified Range Safety Officer
NRA Sport Shooting, Center Fire Pistol Expert
U.S. Army Small Arms Firing School ‘99, ‘00, ‘01, ‘02, ‘04
NRA Certified High Power Rifle Expert
Secretary, Harrisburg Hunters’ and Anglers’ Assoc. ’98, ‘99, ‘00
NRA Certified Conventional Pistol Expert
NRA Certified Long Range Rifle Expert
1999 VA State Champion, Marksman, Highpower Rifle
1999 National Matches, High Power Rifle, Marksman class, 4th place
1999 National Matches, Nevada Trophy, 4th Place
1999 National Matches, Rumbold Cup, Sharpshooter Team, 2nd Place
1999 National Matches, Navy Cup, 1st Place
1999 National Matches, Service Rifle Championship, 4th Place
2002 VA State Championship, Expert, Highpower Rifle
2002 National Matches, Scott Trophy, 4th Place
2004 National Matches, Captain, Rumbold Cup, Expert Team, 3rd Place

This one is pretty good. It nailed my accent, or lack thereof. I grew up right inbetween the Philly and Midlands accent regions so I gots a bit of both.

What American accent do you have?
Created by Xavier on Memegen.net

Mid-Atlantic. This is what everyone calls a Philadelphia accent although it’s also the accent of south Jersey, Baltimore, and Wilmington. Well, everyone that lives near there, that is. Outsiders can tell you talk differently from them even though they can’t tell what your accent is.

Midland. The Midland (please don’t confuse with “Midwest”) itself is the neutral zone between the North and South. But just because you have a Midland accent doesn’t mean you’re from there. Since it is considered a neutral, default, “non-regional” accent you could easily be from someplace without its own accent, like Florida, or a big city in the South like Dallas, Houston, or Atlanta.

Take this quiz now – it’s easy!

“http://www.memegen.net/view/show/2313″

I received this in an email. I don’t know if this is true but it’s a pretty good read, if ya’ ask me.
I hope enjoy it as much as I did.

To Kill an American
You probably missed this in the rush of news, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper, an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American.
So an Australian dentist wrote an editorial the following day to let everyone know what an American is. So they
would know when they found one. (Good one, mate!!!!)
An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian, Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani or Afghan.
An American may also be a Comanche, Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as native Americans.
An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan. The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them chooses.
An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.
An American lives in the most prosperous land in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the God given right of each person to the pursuit of happiness.
An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need, never asking a thing in return.
When Afghanistan was over-run by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country!
As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan. Americans welcome the best of everything…the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best services. But they also welcome the least.
The national symbol of America, The Statue of Liberty, welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed. These in fact are the people who built America.
Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of September 11, 2001 earning a better life for their families. It’s been told World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 different countries, cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the terrorists.
So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and
other blood-thirsty tyrants in the world. But, in doing so you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.

You can click on the picture to embiggyalize it.
I can’t believe that in this country there are no laws against poultry drinking and driving!

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One Day Blog Silence
On April 30th 2007, the Blogosphere will hold a
One-Day Blog Silence in honor of the victims at Virginia Tech.
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April 20
20th of April
20 April
The 110th or the 111th day of year
Depending on the year
I got nothing
I mean serious full on block-O-matic
Grandad wrote about his father
And
That got me thinking about my Dad
Thousands of memories like a super ball bouncing
Nothing comes to the fingers
Maybe I’ll talk about Nana
She came from County Mayo…….
Nothing……
Soon I’ll do it
So
I’m gonna’ leave yous’ guys’ with
Some more completely
Useless facts and figures
Today is 20 April, 2007
And you can find me on my Triumph
In the wind

Birthdays
121 Marcus Aurelius 16th Roman emperor (161-80), philosopher
1889 Adolf Hitler Braunau Austria, dictator of Nazi Germany (1936-45)
1893 Joan Miró Spain, painter/sculptor (Dog Barking at the Moon)
1920 John Paul Stevens Chicago IL, 103rd Supreme Court Justice (1975- )
1940 George Takei Los Angeles CA, actor (Sulu-Star Trek, Green Berets)
1941 Ryan O’Neal Los Angeles CA, actor (Peyton Place, Paper Moon, Love Story)
1949 Jessica Lange Cloquet MN, actress (King Kong, Tootsie)
1961 Don “Hitman” Mattingly Evansville IN, New York Yankee 1st baseman (MVP 1985)

Stuff that happened on this date
295 8th recorded perihelion passage of Halley’s Comet
1505 Jews are expelled from Orange Burgundy by Philibert of Luxembourg
1653 Cromwell routes English parliament to house
1657 Battle in Santa Cruz Bay, Tenerife English fleet under Robert Blake sinks Spanish silver fleet
1702 Comet C/1702 H1 approaches within 0.0437 astronomical units (AUs) of Earth
1770 Captain Cook arrives in New South Wales
1775 British begin siege of Boston
1777 New York adopts new constitution as an independent state
1792 France declares war on Austria, Prussia & Sardinia
1799 Napoleon issues a decree calling for establishing Jerusalem for Jews
1809 Napoleon I defeats Austria at Battle of Abensberg, Bavaria
1836 Territory of Wisconsin created
1841 1st detective story (Poe’s “Murders in the Rue Morgue”) published
1853 Harriet Tubman starts Underground Railroad
1861 Battle of Norfolk VA
1861 Colonel Robert E Lee resigns from Union army
1871 3rd Enforcement Act (President can suspend writ of habeas corpus)
1879 1st mobile home (horse drawn) used in a journey from London & Cyprus
1898 US Assay Office in Deadwood SD opens
1902 Marie & Pierre Curie isolate radioactive element radium
1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition opens in St Louis
1910 Cleveland Indians Addie Joss 2nd no-hitter, beats Chicago, 1-0
1910 Halley’s Comet passes 29th recorded perihelion at 87.9 million km
1912 Fenway Park officially opens, Boston Red Sox beat New York Highlanders 7-6 in 11
1912 Tiger Stadium in Detroit opens, Tigers beat Cleveland Indians 6-5
1914 33 killed by soldiers during mine strike in Ludlow CO
1916 1st National League game at Weeghman Park (Wrigley Field) in Chicago opens, Chicago Cubs beat Cincinnati Reds 7-6
1917 Pravda (Lenin names Russia “Free land of world”)
1919 Polish Army captures Vilno, Lithuania from Soviet Army
1920 Tornadoes kill 219 in Alabama & Mississippi
1920 Phillies manager Gravvy Cravath puts himself in as pinch hitter, his 3-run homer and beats New York Giants 3-0
1926 1st check sent by radio facsimile transmission across the Atlantic
1939 New York World’s Fair opens
1939 Ted Williams’ 1st hit (off of Yankee Red Ruffing) a double
1940 1st electron microscope demonstrated (RCA), Philadelphia PA
1941 100 German bombers attack Athens
1941 Dodgers start to wear liners in their caps
1943 Boston Braves manager Casey Stengel is struck by a taxi, fractures a leg
1944 NFL legalizes coaching from the bench
1945 Soviet troops enter Berlin
1945 US 7th Army & allied forces capture Nuremberg & Stuttgart in Germany
1945 Cleveland Browns organization formed by Arthur “Mickey” McBride
1946 1st televised baseball broadcast , St Louis Cardinals vs Chicago Cubs
1950 Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium opens – Orioles of International League
1951 US performs atmospheric nuclear test at Enwetak Atoll
1957 Yankee Bill Skowron becomes 3rd player to hit a ball out of Fenway Park
1961 American Harold Graham makes 1st rocket belt flight
1964 86% of black students boycott Cleveland schools
1967 US planes bomb Haiphong for 1st time during the Vietnam War
1967 US Surveyor 3 lands on Moon
1967 New York Mets’ Tom Seaver’s 1st victory, beats Chicago Cubs, 6-1
1967 USSR performs nuclear test at Eastern Kazakhstan/Semipalitinsk USSR
1968 Pierre Elliott Trudeau sworn-in as Canada’s PM
1971 US Supreme Court upholds use of busing to achieve racial desegregation
1972 Apollo 16’s Young & Duke land on Moon with Boeing Lunar Rover #2
1974 Paul McCartney releases “Band on the Run”
1976 George Harrison sings the lumberjack song with Monty Python
1977 Woody Allen’s film “Annie Hall” premieres
1980 Cubans begin to arrive in US from Mariel boatlift
1982 Atlanta Braves become 1st team to win 1st 12 games of the season
1983 President Ronald Reagan signs a $165 billion bail-out for Social Security
1984 Russian offensive in Panshirvallei Afghánistán
1986 Michael Jordan sets NBA playoff record with 63 points in a game
1986 Vladimir Horowitz performs in his Russian homeland
1987 US deports Karl Linnas, charged with nazi war crimes, to USSR
1988 Baltimore Orioles set worst record to start a season 0-14 (will go 0-21)
1988 New York Yankees homerun 9,999 (Dave Winfield) 10,000 (Claudell Washington) 10,001 (Jack Clark)
1988 US accuses Renamo of killing 100,000 Mozambiquians
1988 My son Jimmy is born
1990 8 2/3 inning perfect game pitched by Brian Holman of the Oakland A’s is spoiled by a home run hit by Ken Philips
1990 Pete Rose pleads guilty to hiding $300,000 in income
1993 Uranus passes Neptune (this occurs once every 171 years)
1994 Serbian army bombs hospital in Goradze Bosnia, 47 killed
1996 Chicago Bulls win record 72 games in a season
1997 1st baseball game in Hawaii, St Louis Cardinals beat San Diego Padres in doubleheader
1997 Chicago Cubs beat New York Mets ending National League worst opening, lost 14 straight games
1997 Mark McGwire, is 4th to homerun on Tiger Field left field roof (others are Frank Howard, Harmon Killibrew, & Cecil Fielder)
1999 Columbine

This city has no port nor industry to speak of
the great mass of the proletariat meets
twice a day on the south bridge
or I-81
nameless and faceless
in a hurry to get in front of you
fat, clutching their union cards and cell phones
with fading memories
like that old daguerreotype
they have to make dinner and get to Wal-Mart before
lawandorderamericanidolcsisvuhouse comes on
TV
the revolution will come and it’ll be watched on
CNNMSNBCCBSABCNBCTNTFNN and A&E
It will come in little bits and pieces
one man here and another there
it’ll be the talk of the day
in the cubicles
they are really just horse stalls
I watch them waiting to be turned out
It’s just well-fair with a bus ride
a trade of independence for beneficence