Sunday, November 30, 2014

Remington Recalling Some 887 Shotguns

Read about it here: http://887recall.remington.com/pdfs/Press-Release.pdf

Check if yours is part of the recall here: http://887recall.remington.com/

Hopefully yours is not one of them but if it is, get it fixed.

All the best,
GB

Saturday, November 29, 2014

Coast PX25 Flashlight

The Coast PX25 LED flashlight is far superior to any other small flashlight I have ever used and it has an excellent price for a high quality light. I purchased one at Home Depot when I needed a flashlight fast; had never heard of the company but took a chance. Well, I had it for about 3.5 - 4 years until I lost it recently and am using a backup light I had around - one that I used to think was excelent - that was until I bought the Coast PX25. The old and reliable backup is good but is actually far inferior to the PX25.


The Coast PX25 has an aluminum body, gives off 208 lumens, has a claimed 6 hour 15 minute runtime, a bull's eye spot beam with a 128 meter (419 feet) beam distance (also a nice amount of light out to the side of the beam, so it is good for navigating around in the dark), is impact and water resistant, weighs 4.2 ounces, is 4.7 inches in length, uses three (3) AAA batteries (batteries are included), has a rubber covered end-cap on/off switch. They come with a lifetime warranty too. If I recall correctly, it also comes with a nylon belt case but don't hold me to that.

My impressions were (I say were because I lost mine recently): It is a very bright light and the batteries lasted a long, long time (and I can attest to over 4.5 hours run time before I changed batteries (did not have to do so but changed them to be on the safe side). A strong point of this light is that it has a momentary on/off option which is essential in tactical situations, it also has the typical click on/off for continual operation. It is obviously shock resistant as I dropped mine several times with no ill effects and is also definitely water resistant as I dropped mine at least once into a puddle that completely enveloped it with water and it kept working perfectly. It is an excellent size for on the belt or in the pocket carry (also note that in the few years I owned mine I think it inadvertently only got clicked on once while carried in my pocket). The fact that it uses three AAA batteries means batteries are easy to find and inexpensive to purchase. The PX25 sells for about $40 apiece and I think that is a bargain.

All else I can say is that since I lost mine not too long ago, a Coast PX25 LED flashlight is on my wish list for Christmas this year (hint, hint).

For more info on it or other Coast flashlights, see: http://www.coastportland.com/

All the best,
Glenn B

Thursday, November 27, 2014

What Else To Do On Thanksgiving Except Buy Ammo

I just ordered 500 rounds of CCI, 40 grain, JHP 22WMR rounds from Palmetto State Armory. It is a Christmas present sort of - from me to me and my son. With that order, added to what we have on hand, we should have enough to last us a year or two. Brendan can go through it like termites through rotted wood or a hungry kid with a sweet tooth through a basket of jelly beans.

Not a bad deal considering today's prices for this ammo. It was about .28 cents per round or $13.99 per box of 50. With shipping included it worked out to about .30 cents per round. I have not seen a better price online in a long time. Of course this comes with PSA's slow arsed shipping; it probably will not ship for at least two weeks but we are in no hurry.

See: http://palmettostatearmory.com/index.php/ammunition/rimfire-ammunition/22-magnum/22-wmr-jhp-40gr-small-game.html

All the best,
Glenn B

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all. Be thankful for the good things in your life even if the good things. That includes being thankful that any misfortune you may have suffered was not any worse. There are very few of us who do not have something for which we can give thanks.

Hopefully, at least today, you will have a full belly, be sated by good drink and have of good folk with whom to share your thanks and each other's company.

All the best,
Glenn B

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Blog Roll Update


New blog added to the blog roll: dad's deadpool blog
It is over on the right sidebar, under the header:

TAKE A SHOT WITH THESE SHOOTIST BLOGGERS, NOT AT THEM

All the best,
GB

Fergusson - I Won't Say Much About It...

...but I will say quite a bit of something about what is important in as much as I think what I have to say could truly fix the whole problem for so called underprivileged America. This goes for anyone, of any race, but I primarily will address Black America here in relation to Fergusson.

Al Sharpton and every bleeding heart liberal are, pretty much, saying that Michael Brown did not get justice and that they will seek it through a federal investigation and through a civil lawsuit.  The truth is, I think, he did get justice and got exactly what he deserved. With all due respect to his parents, my guess is that you allowed him to grow up to become a thug and that if you had not done so - this would never have happened. Instead of maybe cursing and damning the rest of America (as racists) and blaming cops during your son's lifetime while he was growing up, for all the ills of the black community - maybe you should have been putting a leather belt or size 12 up side his ass and a wooden spoon upside his head whenever he did wrong as a juvenile - they work wonders so long as you do not overdo it. Maybe you should have restricted him to staying home instead of roaming the streets. Maybe you should have sent him to summer camp for the summers instead of allowing him to hang out with bad friends. Then the proper lifestyle grooming, love, respect and encouragement probably would have been all that it would have taken to get and keep him on the right track. 

Had you been there at every PTA meeting and gone to his school every time he screwed up therein, had you encouraged good attendance and hard study, had you gone to school plays or musical events to see him in them, had you at least tried to help him with his homework, had you encouraged him not only to learn but convinced him just how important was a good education, had you been severe in making sure he played and lived by moral and ethical life rules, had you pushed him to get a good job, had you stressed personal pride in his achievements as a good citizen, had you been shining examples of exemplary citizens by doing what good parents do - working hard and voting and doing things for the community all while lovingly caring for their children with the goal that their kids will have it better than did the parents, had you stressed to him that there is hope and that your lives (as people of color) had improved since your childhoods instead of whining and moaning about being an oppressed people - well maybe he would have turned out to have been a very different Michael Brown.

There is always a chance that no matter what you did - he would have turned out to have been someone not of which to be proud. Then again, maybe he would have been a successful and good citizen and run one of the business in Fergusson instead of committing a violent crime in one of them. Maybe it would have been a business that would have been the pride of the community instead of the way the ones there are being burned down by self-oppressing  hooligans who say they support the likes of him and who say they want respect but who act like savages. To me, the acts of Michael Brown, in his last moments on earth were little more than those of a vicious thug. Perhaps you cannot see that because of your love for your son - but most of America sees it that way (including many black Americans). Sure, you loved him anyway but do you seriously mean to tell the rest of America that you loved the way the turned out, that you loved him being a thug.

That does not merely go for the parents of Michael Brown - that goes for the parents of every piece of shit out there rioting, everyone who would play the system to be supported by it without deserving one bit of support. The parents of the rioters - did I just call your kids shit - yes I did! You know, my mom used to call me 'shit on ice' and 'a lump on a log' and even much worse at times. That was when she thought I had done something bad as a kid. It hurt and it made me mad then and continued to hurt and make me mad right up until today whenever I thought about it. Today, I realized it also had another effect, a desirable effect. I am not so mad any more because I just realized that - even though it came with my mom's demented angry psychotic sort of parenting, which was in part a result of how she and we children were treated by her truly cruel and psychotic husband (our father) - even through her anger, the message was there to shape up or wind up being a piece of shit.

I shaped up without even realizing that was, at least in some small part, the message she was delivering. Thanks mom for doing your psychotic best to assure I turned out being on the right side of the tracks. I may not have turned out as good as I could have (especially as a parent or husband but I am a big improvement in both regards over each of my parents) but I never became a disrespectful, thieving, criminal thug who would violently attack and rob a store owner. Nor did I become a thug who would attack a police officer who was justly doing his duty - and that is a very good thing.

Grow up black America, at least the part of black America that thinks the likes of Al Sharpton are the epitome of your race - he is, as I see him, a blabbermouth and a pot stirring charlatan. If you truly want R E S P E C T (that is how it is spelled Mr. President) then go out and study hard, then get a job and work hard to deserve respect because it is deserved and not a free entitlement. I and the rest of America understand that there likely will always be racism, so what! You need to understand and tolerate it too - it is there and will not go away in total. Nothing is perfect and racial equality will never be so. Racism, it is an evil we tolerate because it is here and impossible to wipe out and it is a person's right to have that opinion of others (but not to exercise it in jobs, education, health care and such). However, we do not need to (and in fact most of us do not) agree with it nor do we condone it in any way shape or form - if most of us had done so, the klan would be in vogue and Hitler would have conquered the world. We also know racism works both ways and people of all races are prejudicial. Your self oppression is an example of it - you blame white people on the whole. Yet, we have come a long way baby, white people, in great numbers helped vote in the first black president.

We have a black president. We have had several African American cabinet members. That included two black Secretaries of State, black Secretary of Housing & Urban Development and black Secretary of Education and those were under George W. Bush alone. There have been other African American Secretaries, all the way back since LBJ was president. There have been many African American federal judges, including Justices of the Supreme Court. There are 2,792,736 federal employees (as of March 2012 - source). There are hundreds of thousands of people of color (an odd term as being acceptable considering colored is considered a despicable term - think about it) in federal employment. Likewise, there are many, many, many African Americans in state, county and local government positions throughout the nation. In the private sector it is likewise and there are many black senior executives in the private sector.

Are there still many blacks in poverty and or in jail, a seemingly disparate number? Sure there are but that is not necessarily a product of whites against black racism; in fact, a lot of that is due to the fact that black Americans still see themselves as oppressed and will not allow themselves to be anything other than oppressed. Many of the oppressors are the African American race baiters in your own community. In fact, you are - to a great extent - oppressing yourselves along with lots of help from those people who make money off of that feeling of inferiority - those charlatans who race bait at every opportunity. You know whom I mean.

You need to understand, as did the grand jury (after seeing and hearing ALL of the evidence) in Fergusson, MO, that when someone does something illegal like robs a convenience store, then illegally threatens a person with serious bodily harm or death - that other person has ever right to fight back including using deadly force to do so. To say that the current case in question was a racist cop shooting an innocent black youth, or is the racist system oppressing blacks, is absolutely preposterous. Doing so keeps you oppressed by your own hand. Yes, it does happen all to often that an innocent is killed and that race may have been, at least in part, the motivating factor. It may have recently happened in New York City but it did not happen in Fergusson - unless it was the fact that the African American youth hated and attacked the cop because the cop was white and that the black youth turned out as he did because his own community refuses to accept that they have been accepted. No, not perfectly so, but as I said, racial equality is there, to a great extent it is acceptable among most Americans and so is R E S P E C T. That is, at least, if you are willing to work for the latter and work at giving the same.

In fact, and it cannot be disputed, America has changed. Racial equality really is there if you are willing to accept the fact that you have to work hard - not so much for it - but for respect from those of us who do work hard at supporting this great nation. Stop making believe that every one who is white or Asian or maybe even most non-black Hispanics in America hate you and are out to get you. Those of you who refuse to grow up, and out of the stereotype that you have of yourselves as an oppressed people, are in the great part acting like spoiled brats who want everything for nothing and who whine and moan at every opportunity that no one respects you. That is not how it works - or should work - at least if you truly want respect as being equal.

Sadly, the results of your continuing to believe yourselves as oppressed by other races, as opposed to really being oppressed but being played for fools by the likes of Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and others, are all to often the Michael Browns of the world. They are, in my opinion, good for nothing low lives and often get what they deserve no matter how much their moms may love them. Don't blame the rest of America for that - don't play the race card and thus perpetuate racism - blame yourselves for letting your kids grow up to emulate trash - be it white trash or black trash - thugs are thugs. Then become good parents who bring up children who are good citizens and who become productive members of society. I am not saying that there are not a large number of blacks that are not good parents, I am saying there are too many who are not solely because they perpetuate racism instead of self improvement and responsibility.

Just to reiterate one point - the above it not aimed at all Black America. It is aimed at the leeches, the thieves, the thugs, the race baiting charlatans, the racists, the agitators, the radicals and the rioters who would keep you in chains to the benefit of themselves at the cost of your suffering. It is aimed at parents too, who would allow their children to become such. It is suited to people of all races but particularly, in light of Fergusson, to African Americans who would allow their kids to turn into criminals.

To those Black Americans who are out there working hard - not only at jobs but at bringing up their kids the right way - to become contributing citizens of the greatest nation on earth - I salute you. Who knows, if you get it just right, then someday one of your children may become the president of the United States of America and a Libertarian or Conservative one at that. Better still - your child may become a president who actually deserved to have been elected based upon his or her merits such as: hard work, truly suitable experience for the job, ethical and moral core beliefs and skill sets rather than on a ton of political balderdash.

All the best,
Glenn 
 

Sunday, November 23, 2014

What Caliber...





...is it, do you think? I figure at least a 38D but I digress. 

Later,
GB

As China Prepares For WWIII...

...by actually dredging up and building an island that is believed will be able to support an airfield and a harbor capable of accommodating warships - what is it that we are doing. We are twiddling our thumbs telling them that we wish they would not do it or at least that is what the commander in chief is doing. Reportedly our government opposes China doing so and we have urged other countries not to do likewise (source). So, as we allow China to prepare to wage war (and there is no other logical reason for them to be island building) we tell our allies in the region not to prepare to defend themselves by doing likewise. I seem to remember that something like this (this being the wearing of blinders by world leaders especially the president of the United States of America) happened, oh say about 75 years ago give or take a couple of years, and look at what came of it back then. Yep, back then they all wanted to believe that all was well in the world, that all the drum beating in Europe by the Germans and all the same in Asia by the Japanese were regional problems and had little to nothing to do with us. How wrong they were then, let's hope they are not wrong now.

All the best,
Glenn B

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Officer Down - Tallahassee Cop Fatally Shot Responding To A House Fire

Cops get bum raps all too often that are based upon the actions of the bad apples in the barrel. Yep, there are a lot of bad, corrupt cops and even some purely evil ones but there are probably many more good cops out there than bad. Those who actually remember that their job is to serve the public.
 
A fine example of cops like that, those who remember it is their chosen profession to serve us, are the officers (and firemen) who responded to a house fire in Tallahassee, FL today. They did not respond to shoot any dogs, they did not respond to beat someone up, they did not respond to steal anything or to accept a bribe, they did not respond to violate anyone's rights, they apparently did not respond in military garb with military weaponry. They were on duty and were performing that duty with pride, integrity and guts while trying to save lives if necessary. At least one who lived nearby to the burning home and who was apparently off duty also responded.
 
When the first on duty officer arrived he was fatally shot down in cold blood, allegedly by the owner of the burning home. The guy then allegedly picks up the officer's firearm, reportedly walks down the block and shoots another on duty officer with the first officers gun (that officer was wounded but his body armor protected him from death or a serious injury). By that point fire engines that had responded were backing away hurriedly.
 
Sometime after the officers were shot, the gunman was shot and killed by whom I am imagining was an off duty officer based on what was reported in a Fox News article. According to that article: "The gunman, who was not immediately identified, was shot to death by a Tallahassee police officer who lived nearby. The officer heard the initial shooting, grabbed his gun and ran toward the house..."

I am guessing that since it was a Saturday that maybe the off duty officer had to drop a paint brush, or the sponge with which he was washing his car, or the tongs with which he was turning some hotdogs on the grill, or the beer he had been about to enjoy, or the baseball bat he was using to hit a few balls to his son as he too responded. Even though he was responding for a the same reason as the on duty officers - to save lives -  he had heard the shots and knew he was running into a shootout and was not responding to a 911 call about a house fire. Think about that before the next time you condemn all cops - yep, many of them truly are the good guys.
 
The whole thing seems as if it must have been a preplanned ambush designed to target the cops and maybe was also a suicide by cop. Whatever it was and however it unfolded, to me it seems the work of a madman or maybe even a terrorist.
 
My condolences go out to the family, loved ones and friends of the fallen officer.
 
My congratulations for a job well done go to the apparent off duty officer who responded to and ended the rampage.
 
All the best,
Glenn B

Recoil...

...can have wonderful effects. 
 
 





All the best,
Glenn B

Joe Biden Was Kind Of Right About Women & Shotguns

 
All the best,
GB

"Criminals Are Made, Not Born" - The Deadliest School Killing In U.S. History

It was not Columbine with 13 dead, it was not Sandy Hook at 27 dead nor was it even Virginia Tech with 32 dead although that may be the record high fatalities for school shootings (source of those numbers).

Nope, the deadliest school massacre in the USA took place way back in 1927 in Bath Township, Michigan. On May 8, 1927, Andrew Kehoe detonated dynamite and pyrotol in the Bath Consolidated School that killed 38 (36 children and two teachers). He then detonated another explosion in his truck, in which he was parked near the school, killing another 5 people including himself. Prior to that he had destroyed his house and farm buildings killing two horses while at it. Prior to all that carnage he also had killed his wife. The death toll was yet increased, about three months later, when another child died as a result of injuries from the blast.

The death toll of his rampage was: Mrs. Kehoe his wife - 1, children and teachers who died that day in the school - 38, other innocents who were killed when Kehoe detonated the explosives in his truck - 4, Kehoe himself when the truck went up - 1, and another child who died later as a result of injuries sustained in the school bombing - 1. So the total of those actually killed due to the actual school bombing alone was 39 and the total number of victims killed in all by Kehoe was 44, add to that Kehoe himself and the overall death toll was 45.

I imagine you could argue that Kehoe killed 44 people at the school since when he detonated the explosives in his truck he was outside the school at the scene of that crime. If you want to be a purest and consider only those who were killed that had been inside the school, then counting only those 39 killed as a result of the school bombing alone - it is still the worst school massacre in U.S. history.

To read more about it and to learn about the quote in the title of this post, go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_School_bombings

All the best,
Glenn B
 

No Hunting Today

I was going to head upstate to get in some deer and maybe some bear hunting but that's not about to happen with the gout gouging away at my big toe. It's gotten a lot better since last night but is still very painful especially with each step I take. If I get lucky, maybe I can go tomorrow. I figure I'll know by late this afternoon if it seems like it is getting well enough for me to head up north maybe as early as tonight. That way I will be able to get in a full day afield tomorrow.

All the best,
Glenn B

Friday, November 21, 2014

A Gout Flare Up Can Be Excrutiating...

...and the one I am going though right now qualifies. I can barely walk and despite taking medication to reduce the flare-up, it has steadily gotten worse as the day has progressed. I have not had a flare-up in just over a year; that was much worse and in one of my knees, this one is in one of my big toes. OUCH mother f'er is all I can say right now but if it keeps progressing as it has been since last night and all through today, I will be screaming in agony before too long. The flare-ups never used to be anywhere near this bad; that one in my knee last year and another not all that long before it were the worst by far and were truly terrible. Before that all of the bouts were mild. Have no clue why it suddenly got so much worse. Luckily it is not a frequent malady for me.

Right now I am already feeling the first twinges of it in my ankle and knee - both on the same side as the inflamed toe. The Colcrys I have taken has done nothing of which I am aware and neither has the aspirin. Oh well, it's going to be a rough night.

All the best,
GB

As A Response To Obama's...

... executive order regarding immigration, come Monday morning, the entire workforce of the United States Border Patrol should walk off the job and stay off until that executive order is cancelled and, I think until, Obama placed in handcuffs, booked for treason and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. He has allowed, in my opinion, an invading force to defeat us. If the Border Patrol Agents were fired by that pompous sack of shit in the White House, I would be willing to bet my pension that they would be rehired by no latter than January by way of a bill put to, through and passed by Congress.

All the best,
Glenn B

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Sometimes

Slowly, steadily and stealthily our not so great hunter made his way through the woods. Then he heard a sort of a low pitched hollow and muffled sounding snap, more of a cross between a snap and a thud really. The aging hunter paused for a minute of two and then continued on a bit further until again pausing. He had been making his way through the woods for about an hour covering barely a half mile in that time. The woods were chilled with a fresh mottling of snow over the multitude of leaves that lay strewn about the forest floor on that late Saturday morning. The hunt was invigorating ad about o become exciting. As the hunter waited and listened he rested a bit too, his pack was heavy and he pushed it up against and leaned it against a tree. He was hunting alone and had in the pack what he would need in case of an emergency, like breaking a leg out there alone. He doubted it would happen but always liked the motto of the Boy Scouts - "be prepared".

Thinking that the noise he had heard was likely a buck that had stepped on an old rotted branch, he bided his time and kept scanning for sign of it. After about 5 minutes or so, he took out a doe bleat call let go with two bleats. Another 5 minutes or so gone by of scanning through the trees and brush and downfalls and the hunter blew one time into his buck call. His call was answered almost immediately but not by what he had expected.

As he stood there, just letting the buck call come away from his lips, suddenly there was another noise. It was a bit disconcerting to say the least. The sound was a low pitched, not very loud yet plainly audible, guttural woof. It was immediately followed by a second or two long exhalation of air. Excitement ran up his spine, he was now on full alert and brought his rifle to the ready. He scanned front, left, front again, right, then slowly turned in the opposite direction and looked behind him out around the tree on which he had been leaning. He knew there were likely only two things that might go woof in the forest and there was one of them, the one he hoped to see. It was a male black bear and all of about 225 to 250 pounds, not 30 yards from him. The young bruin, probably about two or three years old, was climbing over a downfall of a double trunked tree and its larger limbs. As he looked at it, the bear looked at him as if making eye contact and it turned from more or less broadside, moving from the hunter's right to left, to head directly at him.

The hunter slowly brought his rifle, an old Marlin 336 topped with a Tasco Varmint scope, an he took aim. Wisely, the scope was set at 2.5 power so it provided a wide field of view and the bear was found in the crosshairs as soon as it came up to his eye. He well knew he did not prefer to have to take this shot, one that would have to be aimed precisely at the bear's spine, in the neck or between the shoulder blades, and he much preferred a broadside shot. He also realized that since the bear had closed the distance between them to only 20 to 25 yards, it was just about now or never; he sure did not want the bear any closer than that. Just as he was debating what to do, finger pressure already building on the trigger, the bear stopped dead still. It put its head down and extended it out front a bit as its nose was busy sniffing in the thrilled hunter's direction - but the bear was not alarmed. The other thing it did at that moment was to stop. That was all the hunter needed and his trigger finger found itself smoothly moving rearward until the sounds of the bears sniffing were drowned out by the thunderous burst of the 200 grain .35 Remington round.

The bear was obviously hit, it arched its back, stood that way for a moment, then spazzed and jerked and twitched. It was doing the dance of death and that was almost immediately followed by its forlegs shooting out to each side and the bear collapsing in a motionless heap like a sack of potatoes falling off of a truck in Brooklyn.  Once it hit the ground, it was almost out of sight behind limbs of the deadfall. The deer hunter just about yelled yippee but restrained himself and immediately but slowly lowered the rifle to get a good look, with both eyes, at the spot where the bear had gone down. Just as he lowered the scope, he caught a glimpse of something else out of the corner of his right eye. There, about 20 to 25 yards away, was another bear. It was very different looking than the first, this one most likely a sow of about 175 to 200 pounds. While the first bear was mostly jet black in the face and along its flanks and back, this one had a lot of brown mixed in with the black, streaks of it. It stood there mesmerized for just a second. Then the rifle came back up defensively, not to shoot unless necessary, and that second bear wheeled around about 140 degrees and bounded off into the forest as if the Hound of the Baskervilles was hot on its heels. As it made its escape, it let out a wailing sort of a scream and just kept running. In all, the hunter was distracted for maybe two or three seconds watching that bear.

The intrepid hunter turned back toward the bear he had undoubtedly just shot. It was nowhere to be seen but that was no cause for alarm, it probably had just flattened out a bit more after its collapse and after breathing its last breath. The hunter waited, keeping his eyes on the spot, only letting thm stray momentarily now and then to look to see if the other bear was returning. It did not and the hunter, after about 5 to 10 minutes approached the spot where the bruin had fallen into the leaf liter. He did not approach head on but in a semi circular path to his left o come in from the side and not from where the bear had last seen him. God damn it, the bear was not there. He must have looked at the wrong spot. he looked around, here there and everywhere but there was no bear. There was not even a drop of blood nor hair of bear! There was however a spot where the leaves had been kicke dup and around and where the damp soil under those leaves had its surface scraped away as if something had writhed around there for a moment.

The hunter was the responsible sort and searched for sign of that bear for the next 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Starting at ground zero and going around in ever widening circles out to between 75 to 100 yards from the center, and then repeating that several times, he did not discover any other sign of the bear an found no evidence it had been shot even though he had seen it do the dance of death. There was no air, no blood, no guts, no bone fragments, not even any noticeable footprints. He searched behind every tree, under every deadfall, and even scanned the tree tops to see if it had climbed a tree. In fact, he zigzagged at points to look up the trees from all sides and angles. That bear had either been beamed to the Enterprise by Scotty or it had gotten up, at some point, and slowly walked away and got lost in the woods never to be seen again by the now very disappointed and befuddled hunter. The trail of the other bear was so obvious that even a myopic could have easily followed it. I have seen where bears have walked in front of me in the woods before and an say, they barely dent the leaves when they are walking softly and you would need the ears of a wood elf to hear them. This one seemed to have the stealth bit down. Maybe it even had a phony dance of death routine all worked out in case some bumbling woodsman hunter type took aim and missed, just to fool him long enough to make its getaway.

Of course, there is a more logical explanation. The shot did not miss the bear but probably missed its mark. It is very likely that almost precisely as the shot was fired, the bear coincidently raised its head from the lowered sniffing position in which it had been when the hunter decided to shoot. The shot then would have, if not in all probability then with a good amount of it, struck the bear in its head. At that angle, there is a decent chance that the bullet was deflected off of the skull. That could have resulted in the bear being badly stunned causing it t do what sure looked like the dance of death with all the spazzing and twitching resulting in it collapsing. As the hunter was distracted, for just those couple to few seconds by the other bear, the bruin he thought he shot sneaked off and disappeared into the depths of the forest as only a black bear can do.

Now there was a chance the bear was fatally injured and that the hunter had missed the sign or the bear did not lose any blood until further from the spot where it had been shot. So, a few hours later, the hunter passed through that area of the woods again and looked in an even wider circle for signs such as blood, hair a trail in the snow mottled leaves (on which there was enough snow to give good sign of blood but still little enough snow to leave plenty of places for the bear to step without leaving a track in the snow). Anyway, nothing was to be found except maybe a possible track of two but nothing that could be followed and mind you the hunter had lots of experience trailing both men an beast by the foot tracks they left behind. Damn, it was frustrating.

Since I was that hunter, I can attest it was a thrilling and disheartening experience all in one. Even though the experience assured me that I certainly do 'still hunt' properly and that I have not lost my touch at doing so. Had I been plodding along, or just still hunting improperly, I never would have gotten that close to those bears let alone even seen them. I also figure I was using my deer calls properly. Had I not been doing so, those bears would either have attacked me or taken off. The fact is, they had no idea I was a human, they though I was a deer. That is evident by the fact that one of them woofed at me - the woof being a sign that a bear is afraid and it is making a threat to beware of it - but that right after my buck call those bears resumed whatever it was they had been doing abnd they walked toward and very near to me. Now I considered that they may have thought I was a deer and decided to hunt me and while that could have been so, I doubt it. Still it is possible that is what they had been doing. The reason though that I have doubt is because I discovered two rotted logs that had obviously just been ripped apart, literally half to shreds. There were what looked like tooth and claw marks in both of these logs. My guess is the bears had been chomping them apart searching for grubs. Woodpeckers, in the late fall, voraciously go at still standing tree trunks that are very similar in consistency to those rotted but downed logs so my guess is that is what the bears had been doing. There ground cover was also pretty disturbed around the logs only further supporting that hypothesis. So, I am thinking I my have spooked the bears a bit, but that since I had been doing it right, they wound up thinking I was a deer and came back to either feast on me (the deer) or the grubs. Remember that noise I heard that I thought was a deer stepping on a rotted log - my guess now is that it was the bears ripping apart those logs for grubs.

Next day, did a couple of things relative to that bear. I picked up the rusted remains of a bucket I knew was in the woods on my way back out to hunt. It amounted to half of the bucket and was perfect for my purpose. I set it up on a deadfall, with a good rise behind it for a back stop. I stepped of 25 giant steps from it. Note that, the day before, I had measured the distance to the bruin as 30 giant steps from me to to where I first saw it and 25 steps from where I took the shot; in addition the second bear was about 24 giant steps from me when I saw it. When I got 25 giant steps away from the rusted remains of the bucket, I set up just like I had when I shot the bear, with a tree as support on my left side to steady the Marlin. I fired one sot, it essentially hit dead center of the bucket. Thus I was assured I had not knocked my scope out of alignment. I wanted to make sure not to soothe a bruised ego in case I had missed but to make certain I could still trust the rifle scope was sighted in properly for that days hunt. After that, I again passed by the spot again where I had shot (or thought I had shot) the bear and spent some more time searching for it. Nothing.

I guess I should mention not even one hair of a deer was seen throughout (two other hunters who hunt there frequently with success told me they were quite surprised not to have seen any deer either). I did see a hen turkey while I searched for sign of the bear. She was about 35 yards out and seemed unconcerned about my presence. I also saw a few squirrels in passing, a woodpecker and some neat chickadee sized birds that I have yet to identify. They flittered s close to me as to be amazing, that despite he fact I was wearing a blaze orange hat and jacket. I guess that in all, regardless of me being an old somewhat fat city and burbs slicker, I melded pretty well with the woods. Still could get that darned bear or a deer though. Hopefully, this coming weekend when Brendan is with me on the hunt, our luck will be better than was mine at hunting or his at the tables in Atlantic City, where he and his buddies spent opening day of hunting season losing money.

In closing, let me say that I finally came to the conclusion: Sometimes the bear gets you and sometimes you get the bear but sometimes it's a toss up and you have no clue as to who got whom. This time though, I am pretty sure the bear got me or at least got the better of me.

All the best,
Glenn B

Friday, November 14, 2014

Finally Loaded And Ready To Shoot...

...up toward the hopeful hunting grounds. As usual though, I expect myself to only be hopeful because I will likely fall asleep under a tree and have the deer come by and laugh at me as I snore and leave me a pile of fresh droppings. That has been about as close as I have gotten in recent years to bagging one of them. It beats working anyhow, anyway and on any day.

One thing about leaving this late, there should be less traffic than during the earlier rush hours while passing through NYC. If not less there, then almost definitely less on the roads north of the city and that is a good thing.

Wish me luck ;>)

All the best,
Glenn B

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Golly Gee Wilikers Did I Forget Something?

I wish I would have held off on that IPA and tekillya before packing my hunting gear. I can only hope that I got it all packed and will not be missing something like ammo when I go to load up on Saturday. Oh well, I suppose I can double check once I am at my motel tomorrow. Time to hit the hay soon, within half an hour or hour at most, planning on being up at 5 and leaving by 6 for my drive to Binghamton, NY.

Mind you, no booze while on hunting days or even the night before. So ,it was tonight or not at all before my hunting trip.

All the best,
GB

Stone Anniversary IPA and Sauza Silver Tequila (ta-kill-ya)

Just cracked open the second one of these Stone (18th) Anniversary IPAs (India Pale Ale) that I have enjoyed in the past week. It's a 1 pint 6 fluid ounce bottle of hoppy goodness is all I can say. Amazingly enough, I picked this stuff up at Costco where they now sell what the yuppies like to call craft beers. Was there a taste of yuppy nuttiness to it - I am not about to say because dear Lord, I hope some aging fat yuppy slob at the brewery did not dunk his balls in it. Really though it was excellent and it does not need all those hippy marketing bullshit connoisseur connotations to say so. I like to call an ale or beer what it really is and I call this one a damned good IPA. None of that hints of nutmeg (or nuts) shit for me - this stuff tasted like and reeked of hops. 

It is brewed in Escondido in San Diego County, CA and I have to say that it is about time that something better than wetbacks and something almost as good as Pacific Beach comes out of there. Don't get me wrong, I am not slamming PB, it was a great place where I met some really great people and had lots of fun there years and years and ages ago (thank you Cookie S for sharing Paradise and thank you Jo M {now Jo R} for that introduction to a bit of Paradise). But yes, I am slamming California for all the wets that enter the USA through there and that CA welcomes. I digress, back to the IPA.

This IPA is 8.5% alcohol which means that it contains 1.87 fluid ounces of 100% alcohol by my somewhat confused reckoning. That is enough, on some days, to give me a slight buzz. Two of these ales most definitely take the edge off of whatever and three make me happy for sure. Now tonight, I only drank half of the one I had in the fridge. Don't fault me for it - since I shared the other with my sole male heir and offspring. At least the sole one to whom I will admit having had a part in bringing into this world. (There are not others, as far as I am concerned, even if my sperm accidentally did the deed as unbeknownst to me.) He is heading to Atlantic City to win money tomorrow night (much to my disappointment) and I am heading tomorrow morning or whenever I awaken (alone, and also much to my disappointment) to hunt for and hopefully kill a deer in upstate NY. So, I figured sharing it (the sole ale in the fridge) would be a nice gesture to wish us both luck. He liked it and I liked it.

It really was excellent and as I seem to recall it did not cost all that much compared to other craft ales offered by Costco. I usually buy a couple or few more expensive ones, mixed in with a couple or few less expensive ones, and last time when I bought these was no exception. I cannot recall the price per bottle but is was substantially less than the $8.99 (per bottle) that I paid, per bottle, for the two bottles of Ommegang Three Philosophers that I got at the same time. The Ommegang Three Philosophers is something like 9.5% alcohol and contains 1 pint 9 fluid ounces (it is also made in NY and is one of the good things made here despite their support for Obummer).


The only other thing (yeah right) I have to comment about is that it was too bad I only had one for tonight. My son has to work tomorrow, so half of one was good for him and almost good for me. Well, maybe not at all for me. Me, I am heading out to the hunting grounds whenever I awaken in the morn. I could not give a shit about how drunk I get tonight, or aboutwhen I wake up tomorrow. So, I wish I had another. Then again, maybe that is not really so. If I had another on hand, I would have had been required to drink that too.

Considering I am now drinking Sauza Tequila Silver I am not sure that would have been wise. What can I say, ONE HALF OF AN ALE WAS NOT ENOUGH so I added tequila to the mix! Now that the ale has disappeared, I am scoffing down some clear nectar of the Aztec gods, Sauza Tequila Silver. It is not their supposed best, not by far, as a liter cost me and would cost you only about 16 bucks and is on the cheaper side. In fact, it is probably their crappiest tequila (if crappy tequila is possible and after 4 years in the Border Patrol I know that is or not possible, at least as far as I am concerned) but I like it. It reminds me much of what I used to drink when I was in those family bars in Mexicali and I drank an awful lot of it (Sauza Conmemorativo and Sauza Silver) and loved it too! I am loving it right now - no salt with it - just wedges of lemon and lime to suck down with it.

What can I say but yummy and I will sleep almost well tonight while I dream of my son making a killing at the tables in AC and me making a killing in the woods of NY.

If you read this and are an animal rights activist, an anti gambler or an anti-boozer - TOUGH SHIT. Man, I hope I did not forget to pack anything, before about an hour or so ago, like ammo or guns because if I did, well the hunt is over before my anticipated hangover will be finished.
 
All the best,
Glenn B

Pig Is The Word That Comes To Mind

In my 32 years as a law enforcement officer, I am proud to say that I never once took any actions like the cop discussed in the article and seen in the video that accompanies it. The cop apparently has a partner or another cop search a vehicle illegally after allegedly threatening and then slapping the owner or operator (source) to get the keys from him. More than once, during my career, I reported similar such behavior to my superiors. It was just intolerable from my view. As law enforcement officers we were not hired to harass the public nor to violate their rights. We were hired to enforce the law but only to do so in a legal manner. We were, at least on the jobs I held, sworn to uphold and defend the Constitution. There was a great deal of trust with which we were endowed. Too bad that trust is not always upheld.

The officer in question, in my opinion, violates that trust badly and by my guess probably has done so before. The worst thing is that he reportedly stated, after his arrest, that he would never have done it had he known he was being video recorded but he would have done it just the same again in the absence of someone making a video (radio news think it was 10010WINS or 880WCBS)! My guess is that he has done it so many times before that he thinks, in some perverted and twisted Bizarro World sort of mentality, it was the right thing to do and that he has done it before. If my guess is correct, then he probably also has thought that perjuring himself was also the right thing to do because it seems almost certain to me he would not have admitted similar previous behavior in court but would have lied to cover his illegal treatment of the accused and his illegal search of a vehicle (or whatever other illegal actions he took).

The result of any such illegal actions in such hypothetical cases, should he have been believed over the accused in any criminal prosecution, could well have been that someone was convicted based on what may have been the officer's own violations of the law and regulations. That would not be the end result though. The end result will probably be multifaceted. Anyone who has ever been convicted upon his testimony and upon evidence he collected most likely will have a valid cause for appeal of their convictions if not for an outright overturning of their cases. It may be discovered that innocent people wound up in jail and they may be freed but it may also wind up that those actually guilty of crimes will walk because his actions have tainted his evidence and testimony both forward and backward in time. The officer also may wind up in jail, well that is if he is ever charged with higher crimes than official misconduct and harassment. How it is that he was only charged with those instead of with Civil Rights violations, assault (or similar charge for allegedly striking the man), illegal search and seizure (illegal seizure even if nothing taken from the car as he seized the keys)! It is all sickening.

The same will consequences may well befall his partner(s). In this alleged instance, it seems he threw the cars keys, that he seemingly had just illegally obtained, to his partner telling his partner to search the vehicle. I sure did not hear the partner protest in the audio to that video - did you? It is possible that the partner reported the incident but I have heard nothing about that, so it could be that his partner is just as guilty as is he may be should he be proven guilty of an criminal charges.

Yes, I am treading lightly here, I will not outright call him or his partner(s) guilty because I like to let even accused cops have their days in court just like with any offender I ever arrested. My opinion though is another thing. Right now, based on the reports and the video, I think he is guilty of more than one offens and the only word that his actions bring to my mind is the word pig. I don't mean that to stand for pride, integrity or guts, because in my esteem he has none of them.

Sadly, this type of incident seems to be becoming more and more prevalent among police departments and other law enforcement agencies throughout the United States (or maybe it is just that the video recording of them is more prevalent). It has got to stop. This is not like an officer violating some sort of victimless crime. He was not caught on video smoking joint nor having a cocktail on duty. He did not have sex with his girlfriend in his patrol car. He did not speed in his personal vehicle and have that overlooked by a brother officer. What he seemingly did was commit a blatant couple of crimes (quite possibly both felonies) in the performance of his official duties, one of them allegedly violent, that violated the rights of a citizen. The officer was arrested but reportedly before his arrest he resigned. It's not the old days when Officer Bubba Bodinkus could do something like that and then if caught just resign and forget about it because after his resignation it would be swept under the carpet. I believe that officers who commit such offenses need to be prosecuted to highest extent if the law and hopefully that will be done in this case if all of the evidence warrants it.

All the best,
Glenn B

 

New Camo Design Just In Time For Hunting Season


Later,
GB

November 13th - Important Historical Date



Great show, lots of laughs.

Hat tip to Ed S for reminding me of this.

All the best,
Glenn B

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Lest It Gets Too Late...

...for me to post this today:

I hope all of our veterans had a great day today and will have a pleasant remainder of it tonight. What more can I say than thank you for your service, you honor us by having served.

All the best,
Glenn B

Machinegun Butt - Japanese Gun Culture Is Weird...

...or maybe it is just that the weirdos in Japan make it seem that way. Heck, do they even have a gun culture over there? Whatever, they sure do make some weird videos but then what must they think of us if they get to see an episode of Ru Pal's Drag Race. If it came right down to it, I'd take the weird Japanese videos over Ru Pauls's crap any day. But I digress, so without further BS, here is the video in question:



And I always had thought that Californians were weird...

All the best,
GB

Dead Down Wind Dryer Sheets Product Review

I spent some time today almost giving my wife a coronary washing my hunting clothes, getting other hunting stuff ready to go afield with me this weekend and kind of cleaning the basement. When drying the wash, I threw four dryer sheets in with the clothes. Those dryer sheets are the topic of this review. They were Dead Down Wind Dryer Sheets with 3D Broad Spectrum Odor Control.
 
They come 15 sheets to the pack. The package has a pull tab front opening allowing you, I suppose, to grab the top sheet and pull it out leaving the other ones remaining in the package which you can then reseal. Damned things are wet, or at least damp, and when I tried to pull out one, at least three more came with it, they were all stuck together. I just chucked all four of em into the dryer with my clothes. I dried my hunting clothes on high heat for about 70 minutes.

When I took the clothes out of the dryer, I will admit there was little odor. Maybe that is somewhat because of the dryer sheets but they already did not have any noticeable aroma because I had washed them in a scent free, odor removing detergent. As opposed to what it says on the package though, that the sheets have "3D ANTI-STATIC GUARD" I found my camo hunting pants stuck to themselves and some socks and stuck to one another. Hell, the pants are Tru-Spec cotton/poly BDUs, they do not cling when I forget to throw in a normal dryer sheet so why in Hades did they stick to one another after using these dryer sheets and using four of them at that. What is even more compelling of a question is why did two of the four dryer sheets stick to the pants and another two stick to my Under-Armor shirt that was in essence glued to itself and giving off snaps of static electricity, as I pulled them apart, as were the Under-Armor pants! It sure seems to me like these dryer sheets, with there so called 3D anti-static guard were more like static generators and clothing magnets than they were dryer sheets; mind you all other things I used for this load of laundry were the same as I have used before - same scent free detergent, same water source, same washer, same dryer, same heat level, etc.. So, I figure it is the fault of the dryer sheets. I, for one, don't need to be walking around in the woods come Saturday gong snap, crackle and pop and getting static electricity shocks as I do so, so I am going to maybe put them back in the dryer with a sheet of Kirkland brand dryer sheet; then I'll air them out for a day or two.

As for price, these darned things cost me $7.99 a pack and were allegedly on sale when I bought them. That was for a mere 15 dryer sheets. I am guessing that the relatively very high price, say as compared to Costco's brand of Kirkland dryer sheets, was due to the fact that they come in a small plastic like envelope of a package that is hunter orange in color and that packaging is geared toward hunters and sold with other hunting supplies. I guess they think we hunters are all rich or maybe just stupid enough to buy those dryer sheets (yes they got me once but will not again).

Bear in mind, those were the results I got, the results you get using the DDW dryer sheets may vary. Thus I will not recommend you don't buy them - you spend your money on whatever you want to buy. As for me though, I will predict that next year: I will use either another brand of hunter's scent free dryer sheets (I have used another brand in the past that was great, could not find it this year though) or  the Kirkland dryer sheets. If I use the scented dryer sheets, I will dry the clothes with them, then hang my hunting clothes outside on a line to air out for a couple of days before I go hunting. Even if I forget to hang them outside, the deer probably would love the aroma they have. Instead of spending any more money on this product - next year, I'll save the money I would have wasted on the Dead Down Wind Dryer Sheets and maybe buy a bottle of doe in estrus pee with it. Dead Down Wind dryer sheets, in my opinion based on my experience, are not worth a pile of weeks old deer shit in the woods.

All the best,
Glenn B

Crossbows Legal Hunting Implements In NYS

Leave it to those sneaky bureaucrats in NY State to drastically change the hunting regulations and not have the information readily available, in a personal email to me, before I bought my hunting licenses!

The drastic change, which is a very good one, is that NYS now allows crossbows as legal big game and small game hunting instruments. Had I known sooner, I could have been out in the field hunting weeks ago because the crossbow season is effectively much earlier than rifle season if you have a muzzleloader stamp. Yes, get that, if you have a muzzleloader stamp you can use the crossbow in that season, otherwise you can use it in early bear or in the regular rifle season for big game and more. It is all new, you can check it out here: http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/68802.html.

I was thinking of getting back into bow hunting, but a crossbow appeals to me more than a regular bow. I am starting to lean that way and have been checking out crossbow kits online. It seems if you want to assure you are getting a quality crossbow, it will cost at least $650 or so with some exceptions. I have been looking at the exceptions. Those I have in mind so far are:

Arrow Precision Inferno Hellfire II: http://shop.arrow-precision.com/p/inferno-hellfire-ii-precision-crossbow-full-camo-w-rope-cocker?pp=12

Excalibur Axiom SMF: http://www.excaliburcrossbow.com/catalog/crossbow/axiom_crossbow_kit

Parker Enforcer 160: http://parkerbows.com/crossbows.html?action=detail&detailsku=1101

SA Sports Empire Beowulf: http://www.sa-sports.com/products/crossbows/empire-Beowulf

These can be had for less than $500 each and the SA Sports Beowulf can even be found for under $400 (I am giving this one some serious consideration). If any of my readers have any feedback on these or on other crossbows at less than $500, or on any other models from these same companies, please leave a comment about them.

Thanks,
Glenn B

Sunday, November 9, 2014

Dogs - Ya Love Em But Hate What They Get Into

We have five dogs in our house although today, for most of the day, we will be minus one. There I sat, on my duff this morning, loading my 7 day pill box with my meds for the week and the urge hit me to run. It hit bad too so what could I do but get up and run to the throne. Just made it. Got the dirty deed done and went back to the pill box and there was Abby, one of our three Chihuahuas, looking all sorts of guilty and heading for the stairs. The pill box was on the floor and a few pills were strewn about, all the others had vanished.

That meant only one thing - she had to go to the emergency vet. On first glance, I figured that while I was indisposed, she had scoffed down 4 to 5 each of: Synthroid 100 mcg, hydrochlorothiazide 25 mg, Nexium 40 mg and Vitamin D3 1,000 units. Right to the vet we went - well about 15 minutes after it happened and after I had searched online for an emergency vet nearby because I could not remember the address of the one we used last.

The wife got home as I was searching and she had the address somewhere and gave it to me and then Abby and I were off. At the vet they had me call Pet Poison Control (a $65.00 call) who then would not tell me what to do but would only speak to the vet. The vet said she needed to go on intravenous for fluids because of the hydrochlorothiazide and that all of the other things were not to worry about. While that was going on, somewhere in there I called the better half and had had look for pills on the floor, she found none. I also had her count each type of pill of those that remained once I had realized Abby had eaten some. My estimate was pretty close on what she had sucked down because she had eaten 5 of the hydrochlorothiazide and four of each of the others. So now she is under observation and getting fluids via an IV and it is only going to cost me about $700 (plus the $65 for the call to Pet Poison Control).

I love the dog but I hate the fact that she is an absolutely opportunistic porker and will eat anything. I also kicked myself in the ass for having left the pills where she could reach them. I am usually very good about not doing that but nature's call got the better of me today.

Hopefully she will be as good as new when I pick her up tonight and she will not still be whizzing due to eating the 5 water pills. I am also hopeful she won't have the runs from the Nexium she ate which wound up being one pill less than we had thought; when I got home I found one still on the floor. As per the doc and some things I read online, there is very little to no concern over the Synthroid she ate. I had that pegged for the worst of what she ate but it does not effect dogs as much as humans and they require much larger doses proportionately to humans. So, it takes a lot for them to OD. The hydrochlorothiazide though is another story an they wanted to assure to keep her fluids up and her electrolyte levels normal to avoid problems caused by this water pill. As for me, they said there was nothing they could do.

Oh well, live and learn at least for me - I am sure Abby will have learned nothing and her stomach will rule as usual.

All the best,
Glenn B

 

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Do You Remember The Phrase: Bush Lied - Soldiers Died...

...it was all about Bush sending troops to Iraq to topple the tyrannical dictator Salaam Hussein and end his claimed use and possession of chemical weapons. Do you also remember that the leftists and the mud slinging media ranted on and on and on about how there really were NO weapons of mass destruction discovered in Iraq. They blamed Bush, Chenney, Rumsfeld, Rice, the CIA, the NSA, the military, the Republican Party in general, and they probably even blamed Superman, the Lone Ranger, Popeye and Mighty Mouse.

Heck, even one of the members of the GWB administration, Colin Powell, said that the Intelligence community and high level administration officials had misled him to get him to recommend the invasion of Iraq! He condemned them for it too. There were literally hundreds of news stories and probably thousands of leftists' blog posts assailing Bush and his minion as having lied when they said that Sadaam Hussein actually had weapons of mass destruction. The leftists and libturds pounded away at GWB and it seemed that the attacks on Bush, over it, would never end. Even many on the right took umbrage and blamed Bush for a war they said he never should have started. The accusations kept coming, like the cannon fire on the charging Light Brigrade, from the left and from the right and from the front - and it came even years after Bush left office.

Well, they (his accusers) were all wrong. Bush it seems did indeed lie, but it was not the lie of which he was accused. For some fucked up reason the Bush administration never disclosed that it had indeed found them (those chemical weapons of mass destruction) but instead denied that any had been found. I can make no sense of it but the Pentagon has finally admitted that the weapons were there and that military personnel (as in OUR military personnel) were exposed to them. In fact, they are saying that over 600 of our brave fighting men and women are believed to have been exposed and were virtually ignored when it came to treatment (source).
 


Photographs of the progression of wounds inflicted on SPC
Richard T. Beasley as reported by the New York Times. (source)

Less than one month ago, it was reported that the New York Times found only 17 soldiers who been exposed to chemical weapons in Iraq (source) but the government admitted the number was slightly higher than that - get that - they said slightly higher! To get to 600, you need to multiply 17 by 35. Yes, that is an increase by 35 fold more than reported only 3 or 4 weeks ago (how much will that increase a few weeks from now let alone say 20 years from now when it is declassified).You will note that the Times article reporting that original number of 17 also downplays the weapons repeatedly mentioning that they were degraded or abandoned from an earlier time (the 1980s). The injuries suffered by our troops due to those weapons seems though to call that degradation into question; yet it was all kept secret. If you want to read about some of the reported injuries, directly from reports in the field and in great detail, go here:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/14/world/middleeast/iraq-chemical-weapons-medical-records.html

Amazingly, the largest cache reported (to date) discovered was one of 2,400 rockets containing a nerve agent. Why in hell didn't they tell us, why didn't they at least treat the soldiers, why order the secrecy when they found what they were looking for no matter how old? What they have now admitted they found was substantial, it amounted to 5,000 weapons containing chemical or biological weapons that were discovered in Iraq from 2003 through and including 2011. Sadly, 621 of our troops are believed to have been exposed to it (not to mention any Iraqis or other allies so exposed) and that number is expected to rise as the Pentagon is now accepting reports from others who believe they were exposed. If they are admitting this much now, how much more will come out, say in 20 years, when the documentation about it is declassified! How many more of our soldiers (or of our allies) will we learn were actually exposed to this stuff; how many will come down with cancer or other diseases caused by those agents years or even decades from now. Think about this too - how many fully active weapons of mass destruction (chemical or biological) might have also been found that they are still covering up as opposed to the ones they are currently admitting, the ones they are saying were old and degraded.

Now mind you, while the most of this seemingly took place under GWB, this didn't just happen during his term in office. Do the math and you will see that once again, the current Nincompoop In Charge (Obama) followed the lead of the previous NIC (GWB) and also failed to disclose this to us concurrently with those weapons being found. He then continued to cover it up for a few more years after the last reported discovery of any of them. Why it came out now is anyone's guess. This is Agent Orange all over again and I for one thought it would never happen again! It is a disgrace, it is un-American, it is something you would expect to hear about happening in Cuba, North Korea, China or Russia - not here. But when do we hear about it - the article is dated two days after Election Day! If We The People lose all faith in our government because of this - would it be any wonder why!

A hat tip to Jay G of MA-rooned for his blog post about this.

All the best,
Glenn B

Great Men Come & Go - We Use Their Inventions & Never Know...

...who they were or anything about them. One such man just passed on a few days ago and I thought I would take this moment to share a bit about his life with you. Why? Well you see, chances are good, probably even excellent, that you own or have used or have benefitted from more than just one thing that he created but there is one special thing among all of his inventions that is a household icon in America. It is something that should have made him famous or at least made his name a household name but my bet is that you probably never heard of him before and that is a shame because we all to often do not give credit where credit is due while we enjoy the fruits of another person's labors. We tend to praise the heathens in Hollywood or airheads in sports, or the glamour girls and guys in magazines more so than those who really make a meaningful contribution to our lives.


This man made more than one of those contributions but there is one with which almost every one of us should be familiar - he invented ceramic glass. "What was that?" you say. Let me say it another way - he invented Corning Ware. No, he is not famous for it, nor did he get rich off of it, but even if he invented it by accident, he benefitted us all if only in a way we take for granted possibly on every day of our lives.


I know that my family has had corning ware in the house since at least the early 1960s - my mom used it frequently - she loved it. It was certainly an improvement over its predecessors and since she cooked a lot - we used Corning Ware a lot. She used it to cook and to store foods just as I would guess most people do. My family still uses it today, my wife has a few of their casserole dishes in the kitchen cabinets and you would be able to find one in our fridge after just about any meal has been ended with leftovers remaining. 


By the way, just in case you were wondering, the man's name was S. Donald Stookey. He passed away last Tuesday at age 99. Imagine that, he was on this earth for 99 years and you probably never heard his name before he died even though he invented something as popular as Corning Ware that you have probably used much more than once. He also held 60 other patents some of which were for inventions that improved things like eyeglasses, sunglasses, missile nose cones, color television screens (photosensitive glass), computers and communications. "He received the National Medal of Technology from President Ronald Reagan in 1987. In 2010, at age 94, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame" (source). I think he maybe was the Edison of our times, at least when it came to glass.

He was also an avid outdoorsman who fished and hunted with his sons. While you may not think that is even worth mentioning I do for a few reasons. The first is that I know the bond is created between a father and son who fish and hunt together, the second is that America would be a better place if more of us enjoyed those pastimes and the third is that they could have based an episode of Survivor or a similar show on him. You see, he survived a plane crash, in the Arctic, into freezing water with no chance of rescue.  But he made it. He seems to have been quite the man - yet how many of us ever heard of him before? I will admit that I had heard of him before but it surely wasn't much.

If you'd like to read a bit more about him, go to these links:

http://www.stargazette.com/story/news/local/2014/11/06/corningware-inventor-dies/18600265/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._Donald_Stookey

I never met the man but I guess in a way I knew him, still know him, and so do all of us if we have ever used or will use anything that one of his inventions introduced into or improved in our lives. He will be missed if only for the fact that he will no longer be making our lives easier and better by way of any new inventions.


Perhaps, maybe just now and sometime again, when you eat something that was cooked, served or stored in a Corning Ware dish - you will think of him. I am sure I will find myself doing so more than once. My heart felt condolences to his family and loved ones.

A hat tip to New Jovian Thunderbolt for his post where I originally learned about Mr. Stookey's passing.

All the best,
Glenn B