How Stimulus Works....

Not mine but not sure of the source.

It is a slow day in the small Minnesota town of Marshall, and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody is living on credit.

A rich tourist visiting the area drives through town, stops at the motel, lays a $100 bill on the desk and says he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs before selecting one for the night.

1. As soon as he walks upstairs, the motel owner grabs the bill and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.

2. The butcher takes the $100 and runs down the street to retire his debt to the pig farmer.

3. The pig farmer takes the $100 and heads off to pay his bill to his supplier, the Farmer's Co-op.

4. The guy at the Farmer's Co-op takes the $100 and runs to pay his debt to the local prostitute, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer her "services" on credit.

5. The hooker rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill with the motel owner.

6. The motel proprietor then places the $100 back on the counter so the rich traveler will not suspect anything.

At that moment the traveler comes down the stairs, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, picks up the $100 bill and leaves town.

No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now out of debt and looks to the future with a lot more optimism.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how Stimulus works.

4 Months Late

To anyone who cares, I apologize. The past four months have been the craziest on record. Where do I start? I started a new job, which has really cut down my daily internet time. Spent some time in NC after my Grandmother died. She was 96 years old and lived a good life, and I am supremely blessed to have been her grandson. I then spent more time in NC with my Mom, who is going through some health issues, but looks to be better know. Several family birthdays, Thanksgiving, and a 18 month old daughter have taken more out of me that I care to share.

Anyway, on to the show. It is really strange getting back on the Interweb after a long hiatus. Checking in on my usual forum haunts, there have been some nasty in-fighting and other heated discussions that I missed. My Dark Side wants to revive some of the these old posts and get things going again, but I will relax and let it all go. Just have to wait for the next round.

I am having a great time on the new job. I get to play with locks all day. Locks on doors and safes are like toys to me. I get to play with these mechanical puzzles and enjoy my job so much.

With the past four months I have hardly been shooting at all. I missed the last two local IDPA matches, and one has a multi-gun side match. AARGH!!

But anyway I am back....

Home for 48 Hours

So I am home for just about 48 hours and then off again. Well not really 48 hours. I landing on Monday night at 5:10, and my plane departs tonight at 5:30. So taking into account the hour and a half drive home and the drive to the back to the aiport, well it just sucks. I really got to spend about 14 or 15 hours with the wife and about 7 or 8 hours with my daughter.

Traveling away from the family just sucks. Last week my daughter was taking 2 or 3 steps before falling down, I go away for 5 days and when I come home she is walking all the way across the living room. Missing these moments really gets to me.

Anyway, the pity party is over. I did have a blast at DefCon 18. Got me some great swag, and even found the first DefCon skateboard deck, in the Twitter Hunt. On the link I found the third deck pictured. I am not a skateboarder, nor will I ever be, but that deck will be hung up like a trophy. The other item I brought home, that I love, is Deviant Ollam's book "Practical Lock Picking", head over the Amazon and pick it up. I even got it signed and personalized from Deviant himself. This book is a great asset for people interested in locks, from the absolute novice to the "expert". I fall into the middle of these two classes, I know just enough to be dangerous.

The classes and presentations were outstanding, and I learned a lot. One thing I learned was never steal a hackers computer. This had to be the funniest presentation ever. Overall I had a blast.

Now on to filling out a travel voucher and prep work for my visit to Spain. It has been 12 or 13 years since I visited a Spanish speaking country, and I hope my cerveza ordering skills will be up to the task.

I will see my 2 faithful readers once I get back.

Going to be slow here for a couple of weeks.

Since today is Friday, and I never really get online on the weekends, then I am going to be in Vegas for DefCon (WOOT!!!!!), and when I get back from Vegas I am off to Spain for a 10 day work trip, this may be my last post until mid-August. Although I may send in a post or two from Vegas, via my iPhone even though the formatting is always screwed up, about the activities and presentations at DefCon.

I am so looking foward to DefCon. I spent last night packing up my practice locks, my lockpicks, and some other odds and ends. I will probably be spending every minute, that I am not in a presentation, in the Lockpicking Village.

I hope the 2 or 3 readers, I think I have, will still be here when I get back. Take care.

New Job??

Well I may be changing jobs soon. Got a phone call from a guy asking if I was still interested in a position I had applied for a while back. Honestly I had forgotten that I had even applied for it. So after a little talk about the duties, I said yes.

A little back story. I love my current job, but as part of the BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure), the entire headquarters of my agency is moving from downtown D.C. to Quantico VA. Now I live in upper Maryland, about 5 minutes from the PA stateline, and I love where I live. It is a drive each day to D.C., but being that far removed from the city suits me fine, beside living in the country and having my own personal shooting range is great.

Since I am not going to move, or drive 95 miles each way to Quantico, I have been looking for a position that would keep me in D.C. or in Maryland somewhere. So "if" the future job pans out, I will be a little closer than I am now.

The job seems to be an easy one, sitting at a desk, answering trouble calls, and I would travel about 25% of the amount I have traveled for the past 9 years. In my former life as a Marine and the deployments I made, I missed a lot of my oldest daughter, who is almost 16, early years. I do not what to miss that with my younger daughter.

I retweeted a post the other day that sums up how I feel about family and why I want this new job.

"A truly rich man is one whose children run into their arms when their hands are empty"

Busy

To the one or two people who may visit my blog, just know that I am still here. Work and Family have kept me busy, especially my 1 year old daughter.

Just know that I will posting more soon.

Off to to visit my Civil Rights

Well I am about to start packing the car and get on the road. Going to
take a 5 day weekend and visit family down in the home state of N.C.

It always puts a smile on my face when a cross the state line out of
Maryland. Because I know that now I am a true citizen and have the
right to self preservation. Driving through Virginia and into N.C.,
with a loaded weapon on my hip, just fills right. It always amazes me
that Virginia and N.C. grants a visitor more rights and personal
freedom, than a "subject" of Maryland.

IDPA Multi-Gun Announcement

From IDPA Headquarters

The last announcement we have for you is also a big one. IDPA is very pleased to announce IDPA Defensive Multi Gun. IDPA was created around the defensive use of a handgun. However, we realize there are a lot of rifles and shotguns placed in closets, trunks, bedsides, etc. as defensive tools as well. In an effort to include the use of these tools, IDPA Defensive Multi Gun (DMG) was created. DMG was not created to replace existing IDPA matches. It is simply another format that clubs can use in addition to their regular IDPA matches. IDPA DMG is a stand alone match format that could be run after regular club matches or on different weekends for an extra challenge and fun. It is designed to be adaptable to the club's capabilities and you can incorporate any combination of pistols, shotguns and rifles.

There are 4 divisions for DMG. There is an iron sight and optic sight division for major caliber rifles and there are iron sight and optic sight divisions for pistol caliber carbines only. We feel that the pistol caliber divisions will bring out a whole new level of challenge and fun to an already exciting format.

Should be Fun!

Quote of The Day - Dangerous Citizens

From "Another Gun Blog"

Quote of The Day - Dangerous Citizens

It is sobering to reflect that one of the best ways to get yourself a reputation as a dangerous citizen these days is to go about repeating the very phrases which our founding fathers used in the struggle for independence.

- Charles Austin Beard

Best Gunfight Video Ever!

This video is more realistic than most Hollywood filmed gunfights.

Cardboard Gunfight

QOTD

"Freedom bestows on us the priceless gift of opportunity - if we neglect our opportunities we shall certainly lose our freedom." Dwight David Eisenhower
Happy 4th of July

Armed versus Unarmed

Every violent encounter has two things in common. A police car and ambulance will show up, and someone will be transported in one of them.

Being Armed means you get to influence if who gets a ride. Being unarmed, someone else makes that decision.

Possible First living Medal of Honor recipient since the Vietnam War

h/t to Bring the Heat

A lot has been said about the lack of living Medal of Honor recipeints in the War on Terror. There has been speculation on the DoD and others setting the bar to high. But hopefully this is not the first or the last award of our nations highest honor, for actions during the War on Terror.

SSG Sal Giunta, a paratrooper w/ the 173rd Airborne, is likely to be the first living Medal of Honor recipient since the Vietnam War. He earned this by charging a group of Taliban who were trying to make off with a wounded comrade in the Korengal Valley of Afghanistan. His actions broke the Taliban’s attack and allowed him to regain control of SGT Josh Brennan.

SSG Giunta was a member of Battle Company and the exploits of some of his compatriots in that unit are vividly chronicled in Sebastian Junger’s book “War” and the documentary “Restrepo” (in theaters now) he made with Tim Hetherington.

It has been far too long since we have awarded the Medal of Honor to someone who survived, and SSG Giunta is a wonderful addition to the ranks of those who have earned our country’s highest honor. There are a number of others under consideration for this decoration and hopefully this is a sign that more of these brave warriors will be recognized. We have heard this was approved by the White House and they are only waiting to set a date for the ceremony.

Bring your Gun to Work.

h/t to Alphecca

From WMUR

NOTTINGHAM, N.H. --

If you're a town employee in Nottingham, you can now bring your gun to work.

Town selectmen voted on the new policy last week, but it's still the subject of intense debate.

No other town in Rockingham County allows employees to carry guns at work, but Nottingham town leaders said it's a matter of constitutional rights.

"You don't want the employees to feel like second-class citizens," said Town Manager Charles Brown. "All regular citizens can do that, if permitted, so why shouldn't an employee be able to do that?"

Not knowing his other politics, I would probably vote for Mr. Brown in any election. Any politician who admits to there being a "Second Class" of citizens, probably understands what personal freedom means.

Best Hippy Quote Ever!!

Tam posted a description of some hippies going down to the California shore and holding hands to make a statement on the offshore oil drilling. The "Hands Across the Sand" group is an anti-offshore drilling group.

Anyway, the post contains one of the greatest explanations of the entire environmental hippy movement.

In sum total, what you people did was drive someplace where there wasn't a problem, complain about something you don't fully understand, get in the way of people who may actually be performing a function, and then do nothing, en masse, except hope that someone else notices your little snit and makes it all better.

My god, if there's a more perfect metaphor for the modern progressive movement, I've never seen it.

I love it.

WOOT!!! for Gunnies

Just found this site. If you are familiar with WOOT, this site is similar but with items for the gun lover in all of us. For those not familiar with the WOOT website and concept, then go over and check it out. The site posts a daily deal on some sort of kit, usually with some sort of pretty good discount.

http://www.ballisticreload.com/

Never Forget

One year ago today,  4 of our Nation's Finest fell  in Iraq, in the service of this great country. May they never be forgotten. 

Sgt. 1st Class Edward C. Kramer
Sgt. Roger L. Adams Jr.
Sgt. Juan C. Baldeosingh
Spc. Robert L. Bittiker
1st Plt, A Co. 120th Combined Arms Battalion
North Carolina Army National Guard.


God Bless You and Your Families.

Only the Police deter D.C. crime

According to the Chief of Police for Washington DC, Cathy Lanier,"Police, not private guns, deter D.C. crime". She is basically stating that in the two years since the Heller Decision, only about 900 handguns have been registered in DC, but crime is down significantly.

Hmm, if I was a criminal I would be asking this question.

Is this house one of the 900?

 

Gun Control Victory!!!!

Wait, What??? WTF Over.

Paul Helmke, President of the Brady Center and Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, issued the following statement:
"We are pleased that the Court reaffirmed its language in District of Columbia v. Heller that the Second Amendment......does not prevent our elected representatives from enacting common-sense gun laws to protect our communities from gun violence. We are reassured that the Court has rejected, once again, the gun lobby argument that its ‘any gun, for anybody, anywhere’ agenda is protected by the Constitution. The Court again recognized that the Second Amendment allows for reasonable restrictions on firearms, including who can have them and under what conditions, where they can be taken, and what types of firearms are available.

The Brady Campaign got fed a Dog crap sandwich with the Heller decision and are now claiming the McDonald ruling is the mayo and makes it taste so much better.

Seems the Violence Policy Center gets it.

It is a victory only for the gun lobby and America's fading firearms industry.

"The chief foundations of all states... are good laws and good arms. And as there cannot be good laws where there are not good arms... where there are good arms there must be good laws."

Machiavelli

Ultimate AR Upper Receiver

Most of the time I hate Hollywood Gun and Propmasters, but every once in a while they come up with something I really would like to see.

Is it a 6.5 Grendel? Nope. How about a .458 SOCOM? Wrong again. OMG is it an evil shooting down the Space Shuttle 50 caliber death ray? Sorry, game over.


There is only one AR accessory the elite fighting forces of the free world need to destroy the evil Decepticons......


The 84mm Upper Receiver. Is there a ATF tax stamp for that? Well you only get one shot anyway.

I do have a couple of questions. Is that a LaRue Mount? And are those bayonets? Hey with Hollywood they could be door breacher stand-off devices.

A Marine

A Solitary Marine holds a salute for 4 1/2 hours during the Rolling Thunder Rally.

Just watch the video. Nothing else can be said.

Justice, 25 Years Later

h/t to Debbie Schlussel

This past weekend, a terrorist who should have been dead along time ago finally meet his end. A brief history lesson on Mohammad Ali Hamadi for those who are not aware.

Hamadi was one of the Hijackers of TWA flight 847, in June of 1985.



During the hijacking, Hamadi, and his comrades, discovered a U.S. Navy diver, Robert Stethem. They beat and tortured him, shot him in the head, and threw his body from the aircraft onto runway.



A couple of years later, Hamadi was captured, smuggling explosives, by the then West Germans and sentenced to life imprisonment for the hijacking and murder of Petty Officer Stethem.

In 2005 the story got strange, as Hamadi is suddenly paroled by the German Goverment and released in Lebanon, coincidentally just 3 days before Susanne Osthoff, a German hostage in Iraq is released. (Smells like a load of crap to me.)

New York Times, dated December 21, 2005

"Hamadi's release, which took place Thursday, came only a couple of days before a German archaeologist, Susanne Osthoff, was freed by a group that took her hostage in Iraq three weeks ago, but German officials denied any connection between the two cases."


After his release, the U.S. asks Lebanon to extradite Hamadi and the FBI places him on the on the Most Wanted Terrorists List

Well it seems that Hamadi was killed in a Predator UAV strike in Pakistan this past weekend.

Mohammed Ali Hamadi died when a missile fired by a CIA-operated unmanned drone aircraft destroyed a compound in North Waziristan, a known hub of al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, on Saturday.

"Altogether 16 militants died in the drone attack and 11 of them were foreigners," said a Pakistani intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The term foreigner is used to refer to al- Qaeda associated operatives of Arab and Central Asian origin.

"We have identified those who were killed and among them is Mohammad Ali Hamadi," added the official. Another intelligence official who also sought anonymity verified the death of Hamadi. However, there was no government official available who could confirm the killing on record."

So today, I say to Petty Officer Stethem, God Bless You and Your Family. Rest in Peace Brother, I will not forget you.

Don Hamilton (@shadow11612)

I have come to a conclusion. Gun haters despise guns, but i believe they hate gun owners even more, and that is the true basis of the hate.

Sent with Twitter for iPhone

Test post. Posting via SMS message to see how it works. Been working on the road and no internet access, except through the iPhone.

What is Wrong with Chicago?

While everyone waits in anticipation of the Supreme Court's ruling on McDonald v. Chicago case, with most believing the Court will strike down Chicago's handgun ban, Chicago's political elite and the Chicago media are looking at what laws should be passed.

"If the ban is overturned, we will see a lot of common-sense approaches in the city aimed at protecting first responders," Daley said. "We have to have some type of registry. If a first responder goes to an apartment, they need to know if that individual has a gun."

City official are supposed to be looking at other large city and state's firearm laws to determine what laws they would enact.

Yeah, the strict gun control of California, Washington D.C., and New York City really seem to be working. Less guns, more crime right?? I mean if the proposed laws actually worked then Chicago should be the safest city in the U.S.

When does common sense come into play. A majority of shootings happen in "Gun Free" zones, with Chicago being the largest of these zones. Just this past weekend, 54 people were shot and 10 died. This is impossible. It can not happen. This is a "Gun Free" zone. There are laws against guns. But I guess if the criminals did not heed the law against murder, attempted murder, assault, robbery, or rape then breaking one more law is not going to stop them.

I mean come on, some gangbanger who decides to kill a rival banger, steals a gun or buys a gun illegally, who is probably a felon already so simply possessing a firearm is illegal, is going to suddenly realize that the Chicago gun laws are the one law he will not ignore.

The Chicago political machine is trying to "fix" stupid, and it cannot be done.

I will end this with a quote to describe Mayor Daley...

"Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish." Euripides

New You Tube Channel

Eric Shelton, the host of one of my favorite podcasts, "The Handgun Podcast" from the Gun Rights Radio Network, has updated his Youtube Channel to HD. You can check it out at http://www.youtube.com/user/handgunpodcast.

(Eric, knife was not so deep, as I posted about you before the GunDudes.)

Another Free Giveaway – 1,000 Rounds of 9mm

M.D. Creekmore at The Survivalist Blog – a survival blog dedicated to helping others prepare for and survive disaster – with articles on bug out bag contents, survival knife choices and a wealth of other survival information is giving away a 1,000 round case of 9mm – 124 Grain FMJ (a $200 value – donated by LuckyGunner)! To enter, you just have to post about it on your blog. This is my entry. Visit The Survivalist Blog for the details.

Why?

Well why not? I have been thinking about starting a blog for awhile now. I just joined Twitter this past weekend and figured why not.

For those who may read this, let me state that I am not a fan of the English language. I speak Johnston County, North Carolina. So I will, even with spell check, misspell and butcher the English language. And now living in the socialist utopia of Marylandistan, my language skills have completely gone haywire.

Second, I have never claimed to be politically correct. I am who I am, and I do not fit the mold of any political, social, or economic class or party. I am a firm believer in the following (and I have not a clue who to attribute it too.)

"Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege."

What I am going to post? I am going to post my thoughts on everyday things. I am going to post and link to other blog posts that make me laugh, cry, and just piss me off. I am going write things that you may agree with or that will make you want to punch me in the mouth. I will offer my biased opinion on all matter of topics, so get over it.

I am going to post when I feel like it, or when I have something to say. I travel quite a bit, so it may be slow sometimes. Other times I may post several times a day.

Just to give you a hint of what I will post about. I am a shooter. I love to shoot. I have many guns, and I do know how to use them. To all of you, even the gun-haters, thank you. Your tax money was well spent teaching me to shoot, and instilling in me the love of all things that go boom.

I may post about current events. I may post about obscure news. I will talk about our fallen Heroes. The men and women of this country's military cannot be praised enough.

Who am I? A little of my personal history, starting with the privilege of serving 12 years with some of the finest people, you will ever meet, in the finest fighting force that has ever the graced this planet, the United States Marine Corps. And since my Marine Corps service, I work for an agency of the DoD, and have been here for 9 years now.

On that note I will finish this post with a tribute to 4 of our Nation's Finest who fell on June 29th, 2009 in Iraq, in the service of this great country. May they never be forgotten.

Sgt. 1st Class Edward C. Kramer
Sgt. Roger L. Adams Jr.
Sgt. Juan C. Baldeosingh
Spc. Robert L. Bittiker
1st Plt, A Co. 120th Combined Arms Battalion
North Carolina Army National Guard.


God Bless You and Your Families.