Artist Of The Week

Cory Morrow

 Because I said so.

This Monday Sucks More Than Usual

I just found out that George Carlin passed yesterday from a heart attack. I didn’t always agree with him, but damn he was funny.

The Worlds Worst Book

I was in town a few weeks ago and stopped by the local Barnes and Noble (the one that doesn’t carry any books by Ted Nugent, WTF.) I purchased a copy of The World’s Worst Weapons from the bargain bin.

The cover had a picture of a propeller driven armored car. I had visions of backward firing guns and exploding bullets. I thought that it would be an entertaining bathroom book. What the author ( if he can be called that) covered instead was a list of poorly to well designed modern weapons that can be accessed through any afternoon internet search, along with a few true duds.

The author, Martin J. Dougherty, is listed on the book jacket as specializing in military and defence topics. I would say that anyone who lists the AK47, Makarov pistol, and M-60 machine gun among the worlds worst weapons only specializes in being a lazy uninformed armchair commando. The list of poorly designed armored vehicles and tanks comes much closer to including the worlds worst weapons, but still includes several successful examples such as the U.S. M-113 armored personnel carrier and the Nazi Tiger Tank.

The author even admits that many of the weapons listed were just overly expensive, complex, or in the wrong caliber. I am not a published author, but even I would not title a book the worlds worst weapons and then include weapons that I freely admit are not really the worst. I admit that the M-16 is not perfect, but it is far from one of the worlds worst weapons. The M-16A2 and the M-60 kept me in one piece for three years.

I did not include a link to the author or book because I thought that the book did not deserve one.

Stink Free, Sort Of

Finally got the little stinker after lubing the trap. He or she ( I didn’t get close enough to look) was in the trap on Wednesday morning. I hated to do it. They aren’t really a threat, but we just can’t deal with the smell anymore. 

I grabbed the rope that was tied to the trap handle and pulled the trap away from the house behind a barn. I used a Rossi pump .22 that a friend of mine who lives in a sketchy neighborhood left for safekeeping. (More on that later.) Afterwards, I put the trap with the skunk still inside in the back of my pickup. I didn’t dare leave it around the house, because the dogs would just roll around in the scent. I took it to work and put it in the dumpster on a day that turned out to be 102 degrees. It really stunk up the area around my office. I couldn’t help but smile every time someone commented on the smell that we have been living with for a week. It was kind of my own sick practical joke.

This was the seventh skunk that I have killed on our place since 2004. I will relate the tale of the other six as soon as I have time. 

Quote Of The Day

If it would lower my gas prices ten cents a gallon, I’d club a baby seal with a manatee!  Screw the environmentalists.   

Shamelessly stolen from  Monster Hunter Nation. The rest of the article is even better.

Still Stinky

I dug out my old box trap and threw a handful of dog food in it yesterday evening expecting to have a skunk in a box this morning. What I had instead was a completely empty trap, including the food. So I applied a little Rem Oil to the hinges and am trying again. This skunk is really starting to get on my nerves. Usually I take a live and let live attitude, but I am tired of coming home to a stinky house and stinky dog.

I Have Been Remiss

Cowboy Blob and The Real Gun Guys have been generous enough to add me to their blog rolls. Please vist these sites as they are awesome. Yeah, I said awesome.

Distraction

The Munchkin Wrangler was right about the time sucking ability of the interwebz, as I am sure y’all are already aware. I started on today’s posts a good two hours before I actually typed anything due to the fact that I just had to check a couple of sites before I posted.

Since things are so busy at work and home lately, I will (try to) stick to posting just personal happenings or thoughts until I can be trusted to surf without neglect of posting. I will post on news (propaganda) through limited site viewing.

 

I Am A Lucky Man

I had a birthday recently. I didn’t do much, had a couple beers and watched some teevee. My wife, God bless her soul, decided that was no way to have a birthday.

I woke up on Saturday with no concrete plans, but to make up for my recent lack of posting. I had given some thought to going to the range or working in the shop, but nothing too serious. About 10 my wife’s phone began to ring. She wasn’t sure where it was, and just to be obnoxious I got to it first. Usually the only people who call on Saturday mornings are our parents. It was my best friend. I asked him what he was doing and he said he was driving down a highway that comes close to our home. I then asked him where he was headed and he told me that he was coming to our house. He didn’t beat around the bush or try to deny what he was doing. Turns out that my wonderful wife had been planning a surprise birthday party for the last two weeks. About 45 minutes later another friend of mine pulled in the drive. When they both got there we headed into the big town to meet two more of my friends for lunch at a great local restaurant (Hooters). We then proceeded back to the compound for home made sangria,  redneck cocktails (cold beer), and some good Texas tunes. I threw some burgers, venison sausage, and bacon wrapped jalapenos on the grill about 7:30. It was around 10:30pm by the time we got done eating and visiting.

Keep in mind that we had all of the outside lights on and there was unusually heavy movement around the yard.

 The two friends that we met in town are both firemen. One of them had restrained himself to non alcoholic beverages, and about 10:30 they decided that they should probably head home. I volunteered to help them load up their Jeep. Our dogs accompanied us out of the house and through the fence. One friend and Samson realized that there was something in one of our garbage bags at about the same time. Samson, being the good dog that he is, went to investigate. It was a skunk. Samson and the friend that was first out of the door got a nice coating of stink on them.  By the time that I could grab a .22 and light the skunk was gone. We bathed the Samson twice that night and once the next day. Poor dog.

I am really starting to get used to the smell.

The other two friends grew up in the country and did not seem to mind the smell. They spent the night and left late on Sunday. My best friend stayed until after the end of the NASCAR race. The wife and I were pretty much worn out by the time every one left, hence the lack of posting this weekend.

Here are the lessons that I learned this weekend:

1. I am a very lucky man.

2. My wife will never be able to secretly cheat on me with my best friend.

3. Always let someone else precede you outside if there is a skunk in the area.

Artist Of The Week

Bleu Edmondson

Pure West Texas and a genuinely friendly guy.

I know that I post that too much about artists being nice or friendly, but I don’t care how good a musician you are if you are an ass, you suck.

I’ve Had It With The Yellowstream

You can always tell when things are going well in Iraq and Afghanistan by the fact that there is zero mention of what is happening by the corporate news media. They are so biased that they don’t even give coverage to the entertainers who are gracious and grateful enough to visit our men and women who are in harms way. 

What they do provide coverage for is any bad news, as evidenced by the fact that the prison break in Afghanistan generated more press coverage than any positive news since we became involved. Even the supposed right wing Fox News provides only negative news from our involvement in the middle east.

The thing that really pisses me off is the fact that the death of Tim Russert gets better press coverage than Memorial Day. What kind of country have we created when one mediocre reporter gets more recognition than the men and women who died defending our country?

I am sick and tired of seeing the sacrifices and triumphs of our soldiers reduced to mere statistics, while bad news receives more media attention than the fact that more people were killed in Detroit last month than soldiers in Iraq.

 What kind of nation have we become when the presentation of the Congressional Medal of Honor gets less coverage than the heart attack of a reporter?

The Gestapo Won

Forget everything you think you know about the history of WWII. We may have ended the open warfare in Europe, but the Gestapo are the true victors. They are quietly erasing the evidence of Allied victory in France. However, that pales in comparison to their victory in what used to be England. The serfs are now no longer able to even decide if they will wear a hat or not. All they need to achieve total victory is the death of anyone with a memory of the horror of the holocaust, and the Diary of Ann Frank will not long after be considered a work of fiction.

Thanks to View From The Porch and The Agitator for the links.

Drawing A Blank

I had what I thought were a couple of good ideas for a post while I was mowing the yard this evening. However, now that I am actually trying to post I seem to be having the same problem as Lawdog.

 We had a bit of Friday the 13th going on in payroll. Our accountant decided that instead of scheduling our checks to direct deposit today, like he was supposed to, he would schedule it for Monday. This wasn’t really a big deal for me, but sucked for the folks who have auto bill pay.

Life Stinks

Or at least my dog does.

Two dogs own us. A white and black spotted Staffordshire Terrier and a Chocolate Lab. I let them out to relieve themselves about 1:15 this morning. Brody, the Lab, does his business and comes back in. Samson, the Staffordshire, decides to get sprayed in the face by a skunk that has wondered into the yard. I didn’t realize it until he was already inside rubbing his face on the floor. Poor thing looked like he had been pepper sprayed. His eyes were all red and watery. The skunk must have been pretty close to the house, because about the time I realize what has happened and put him back out the smell starts to permeate the other side of the house.

So at 1:30 this morning my wife was bathing the dog and I was walking around outside wearing nothing but shorts and flip flops, carrying a spotlight and Beretta U22. The wife had better luck with the dog than I did finding the skunk. By the time I decided that I wasn’t going to find the polecat and we got the house somewhat clean and deodorized it was 3:30. We were not our best at work today, but now I can look forward to hunting the skunk this weekend.

This is just the latest episode in our ongoing adventures with redneck hating skunks. I won’t go into the whole story now, but will say that I am starting to get used to the smell.

Not Safe For Work, Small Children, Or Pacifist A-Holes

This is a Patriots Journey post.

I would like to preface this post by stating that I don’t include as many facts and figures in this blog as I would prefer. This is partly due to time constraints on my schedule, and partly due to how I earned my nickname.

I finally had a little spare time to spend with the Mrs this evening, because I neglected to mow the yard. We watched the “Why we fight” episode of Band of Brothers that I recorded recently from the History Channel. This was not my first viewing of the series, but for some reason it really struck a chord with me. Anyone who has seen this episode should understand where I am coming from. If you haven’t seen it, then I would encourage you to rent or purchase the whole series.

Rant begins here.