A Venerable Libra Among Us...

I just got through reading a few articles in my new copy of the American Rifleman. I usually glance at them when I receive them, read the Armed Citizen section (gotta love those dirtbags falling to armed citizens) ; and maybe I read an article. Tonight I read two articles, plus the Armed Citizen. The articles were both very interesting, one about the Model 1903 rifle and how it changed from a 30-03 to 30-06 chambering, the other about the 30-06 cartridge itself. I will have to get me a rifle in this cartridge one of these days. It will probably be used, and old, but somethiung that is neat and fun nonetheless; maybe a Winchester 1895. Of course, brand new, in the box, would be very nice.

One thing both of these articles did was to wake me up to the fact that this year marks the 100th anniversary of the adoption of the 30-06 cartridge. One of them also brought to light that the 30-06 was first adopted on October 15, 1906. I am not all that up on astrology, but I believe that makes the cartridge a Libra; something I share in common with it. If luucky, maybe I will receive a rifle chambered for it on my birthday. If there is anyone out there who likes my blog and has lots of money, you can feel free to bestow such a gift upon me. I will humbly and thankfully accept it. Then I'll do a write up on it and on your benevolence.

All the best,
Glenn B

Another Hitler In The Making - Maybe

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran said Tuesday it was ready for
"serious negotiations" on its nuclear program, but a semi-official news agency reported the government was unwilling to abandon nuclear enrichment — the
key U.S. demand.

The above quote was from FoxNes.com @ http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,209722,00.html

If it is true that Iran has once again snubbed its nose at the United Nations resolutions to stop Iran from enriching uranium, then something needs to be done, and it maybe something drastic. Iran is mirroring, more and more each week, the activities of the Third Reich shortly before the outbreak of hostilities that led to WWII.

Just as there were accords and pacts in place prior to the outbreak of WWII, there are resolutions now. The restrictions prior to WWII were geared at preventing Germany from building up its armed forces, those today at preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power capable of creating its own nuclear weapons. Back in the 1930's, Adolph Hitler thumbed his nose at the rest of the European continent, and at most of the rest of the world. He blatantly spewed out his speeches of hatred geared toward the destruction of misfits, the criminally insane, and physically and mentally handicapped people; this led into his ravings against the Russians, his wish to conquer Russia, and of course to his ranting diatribes against the Jews. Of course this culminated in his attempt to rid the world of Jews, his attempt to successfully conquer Russia and his attempts to conquer the world and create a master race.

Does anyone truly believe that the president of Iran is much different than Adolph Hitler was in the 1930's. Many of the same types of behavior are evident in his speeches and his behavior. The United States is seen as the great Satan, the Jews are seen as worthy only of utter destruction, the holocaust has been said not to have taken place, and the race to achieve nuclear power status and to be capable of creating nuclear weapons goes on unabated. No one is doing anything serious to stop this threat, just as no one did anything to stop Hitler before he unleashed blitzkrieg and the holocaust on Europe. Are we going to wait until it is too late again. Do we have to see countless millions of people suffer and die because a madman wants to wipe a people from the face of the earth?

This time we will not have allies in France, they have already capitulated to the Muslim nations by offering to send only 200 troops (100 combatant and 100 non-combatant) to Lebanon to enforce the ceasefire. We will probably not have allies in Spain, they have capitulated to the terrorists after the Madrid bombings and pulled out of Iraq. We may not have one of our historically staunchest allies in great Britain, as many of the people of that nation have turned their backs to us. We certainly will not have many other nation members of the Untied Nations supporting us, they turned their backs on us and greeted terrorism with open arms long ago.

Who will stand by us? I hope England, but as I said this is not certain. Italy almost positively. Poland, Denmark, Australia, South Korea, Japan, New Zealand, some other European nations, and maybe Russia. Of course Israel will be at our side, but sadly will in all likelihood be the first target should Iran ever fire off nukes.

We need to take action now. We need to forget about outdated rules of engagement in Iraq and get serious at killing the opposition. We need to regroup troops in Afghanistan. We need to institute a major military recruitment drive. We need to stockpile munitions for our air force and navy and ground troops. We need to be ready should war break out with Iran; and we need to be ready to perform surgical pre-emptive strikes to neutralize Iran and any nuclear ability before it is too late. We need this done with lots of planning, so it works out right and does not turn into a quagmire. Then we need to act, again before it is too late and we wind up with hundreds of millions dead because we ignored another madman who seems on the verge of being quite capable to create havoc in the world.

How can we do this, by writing to our elected officials and letting them know we want action, and we want it now. Start by asking that we pull out of the U.N. and that we make sure to strengthen our alliances with those nations in NATO, and with outr allies in the Eastern hemisphere. Do something before it is again to late to prevent tens, maybe hundreds, of millions of deaths.

Best regards,

Glenn B

I'm Out On Sick Leave But I'm Not Sick...

...and yet I am not playing hooky from work. I had to take my son to the doctor today, an orthopedic surgeon to be exact. This past Saturday evening my son punched something, let's just say for the sake of this piece, that it was a punching bag. He hurt his hand and wrist while at it, as a matter of fact he walked in the door and told me he thought he had broken his hand. I looked, felt, prodded, and squeezed. He did not go ouch too much, no swelling, no bruising, so on the ice it went. It stayed the same until last night, Monday evening when it began to swell. Oh well, a call to the pediatrician who told us to see an orthopedic surgeon who specialized in hands. Brendan was seen by the OS today. First order of business was an x-ray, then about a 2 hour wait to see the doc. Doc asked what happened, and Brendan told him about hitting a heavy bag. Funny how the doc immediately joked that a broken hand on a Saturday night was usually the result of a fight! Brendan's eyes opened in surprise at that, but the doc insisted he was only joking. The OS said he did not see any fractures, but since it was the hand and the wrist that was hurting and swollen, off to a radiologist for a CT Scan. After about a total of 4 hours at doctors, good news - no breaks.

As it turned out, the OS told us if not broken he can shoot next week, but it probably will hurt quite a bit. Hopefully he will need only one shot. If we are lucky Brendan will still be able to shoot straight on his upcoming hunting trip to Maine this coming weekend. By now he has already figured out that you have to think before you do some things, punching something is one of those things to which you have to put some thought, at least just a bit of thought anyhow. He is 16, maybe it will sink in. He is missing a week of work that he did not have to miss, and he will miss the money sorely, maybe more so than his hand hurts. He has also been grounded to avoid any other unfortunate decisions on his part that may lead to another such accident. In addition he is wearing a wrist brace, and will be for a couple to a few weeks. Luckily it can come off for the hunt.

Life goes on.