Obama Either Outright Lies or Just Gets Something Wrong Once Again

Is it that President Obama finds it difficult to tell the truth or is it that he is just ever so friggin stupid as he can not discern what is fiction and what is fact. Once again he tries to slam a member of the opposing party, this time, of all people President Rutherford B. Hayes. Why on earth he would say something negative about Hayes, who was president from 1877 to 1881 is beyond the scope of reason as I see it. I wonder, does he think he is going to score points against the Republican Party and his political opponents running for the Republican nomination by giving out misinformation about a past president long dead or does he really think he was going to forward his energy agenda by spreading baseless rumors. 

What President Obama reportedly said was:

"One of my predecessors, President Rutherford B. Hayes, reportedly said about the telephone: 'It's a great invention but who would ever want to use one?'"  

"That's why he's not on Mount Rushmore."

 (See: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/03/15/obama-mocks-gop-predecessor-as-technophobe-and-unfairly-president-hayes-expert/?test=latestnews?test=latestnews#ixzz1pITkHRgU)

Well, first off, even I knew that the statement attributed to Hayes about not using telephone was a bogus one. I have known that since I was a schoolboy many years ago. The fact of the matter is that President Hayes was the first president to have a telephone installed in the White House. So, it seems the statement attributed to President Hayes by President Obama is just one of those silly rumors that spreads like wildfire once it gets going and as wildfires are often started by fools misusing fire, this rumor is still being spread but by a fool using his mouth in lieu of a match. 

You would think our president, as smart as he is supposed to be in that he was supposedly Harvard educated, would know better than to attribute a negative trait, such as being a technophobe, to a man who actually embraced modern technology of his day as did President Hayes. Then again, I wonder, what does President Obama care about the truth unless it serves his purpose at the moment. It just boggles my mind how dependent upon falsehoods he seems to be in his efforts to score political points.

I also wonder: Does this current President expect to have his likeness carved onto Mount Rushmore someday because he is overly dependent upon modern technology such as the teleprompter. Heavens help to assure us that it just does not happen.

All the best,
Glenn B

NY State Pistol License

I stopped by my local county police department today to be fingerprinted.  It was, I thought, just another step in the ongoing process of applying for my pistol license. From what I had understood, the process would take about another 2 weeks after today. So, you can imagine my surprise when, after I was printed, I was handed the pistol license by the officer who was handling my application. I would display a copy of it here but something tells me it may be illegal or at least against the licensing rules to do so, even though a public document. I figure, why chance getting it revoked now that I just got it!

Of course, once my LEOSA identification card is issued, I will not need a state permit as per federal law. The thing is, it is next to impossible to find other than a police department to perform the required annual qualification for LEOSA and they demand you have a pistol permit when you go to their ranges. (Disquieting, how here in NYS, they disregard federal law since the whole purpose of LEOSA was to overcome the need for a state license or permit.) I applied for a pistol license to keep them happy and to assure my trouble free possession of my handguns. Of course, I will continue to help keep up the fight to overcome pistol licensing/permit laws as I have done for many years now through my membership in the NRA and the NYSR&PA as well as through my blog, my vote and by way of letters/emails to my elected representatives and so on. For now at least, it seems obtaining a pistol license was a necessary evil inconvenience.

As for actually going through the process of getting the license, it was quicker for me than it likely would be for someone who was not a retired LEO. It seems the main reason for that is not 'professional courtesy' as some might think but rather due to the fact that as a federal agent I had been subjected to repeated full field background investigations a regular intervals. I think that cut out the need for a complete background investigation by the county or state for my application. Yet, they did take my fingerprints for a reason. They will have them checked, just as they checked criminal data bases to see if I had a criminal record. It took me a total of about one month to have the license/permit issued to me. The time immediately prior to today that I had to go to the pistol license division, I spoke to another guy who was waiting on line with me. He told me that the total time it took him to get his license was just under 2 months. I had always thought it took at least 6 months but maybe I was thinking of NY City and not my county which is not in NYC. Two months may not seem a long wait but I still feel it is too long. Then again, I don't think a license should be necessary at all.

I'll just mention a bit more on the application process in general. The officers and other personnel, assigned to the pistol license division, were always professional and courteous. I don't mean just when dealing with retired LEOs like me either. I do mean when dealing with anyone whom I saw that had business with them. That was pretty refreshing to say the least. I have heard horror stories from people who have applied for pistol permits in New York City, including retired LEOs. Sometimes it almost seemed as if they were treated like the enemy by NYPD personnel simply because they had applied for a permit. My county's pistol licensing personnel were nothing short of top notch and a pleasure with whom to do business.

All the best,
Glenn B

Has The President Made A Phone Call or Apologized About This

President Obama is ready to stick his nose where it does not belong on a moment's notice. Take for example the time the cop arrested the professor and he had them for beers. Also look to his recent phone call to Ms. Fluke to sooth her shattered nerves after Rush Limbaugh lambasted her and called her nasty names. Of course, he has appologized around the world for ever so many things that required no apology and that in essence had nothing or little to do with him, so much so as to make one think he has a psychological problem with being an American.

I am willing to bet thT he has not placed a phone call to the head of the Lake County Florida, Democratic Party Headquarters. Why would he want to call her, well maybe to make the point that he respects America enough to let her know she never should have flown the flag that she flew in front of said headquarters. Why not, well because it was a disgraceful sign of disrespect for the American flag as I seee it. See: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/politics/os-barack-obama-flag-face-20120313,0,6097169.story

Now you may be wondering why would he apologize over this incident to the lady who flew the flag. Well, it is not her to whom he should apologize, he should be down on his knees apologizing to the American people that they who lead his political party have become so depraved as to place his likeness in the Union of that flag or at least on a flag that strongly resembles Old Glory. If he has owed an apology for the actions of Americans, as he often seems compelled to do around the world over something an American Ciizen has done, well he owes We The People a bigtime apology right now over this most disgraceful display of apparent disrespect for our flag.

All the best,
Glenn B

The Arsenal Firearms AF2011-A1, This Pistol Could Turn Me Into A .45 Guy

Wow, I have to say, this pistol looks like fun. The sad thing is it is probably only affordable by spoiled rich folks and guys like me will never have a chance to own and shoot one.



It sure can get the lead downrange.

All the best,
Glenn B

The Outrage Over Afghanistan Shootings - Hypocritical To Say The Least

So, a U.S. soldier goes out and in an apparent berserk rage, he shoots 14 or 16 civilians (video), over half of them woman and children. He did so, reportedly, under cover of night, as they slept. He is, in my view, undoubtedly a coward, possibly a heinous criminal and or also possibly a friggin psycho (if he is a psycho he may not necessarily be a criminal but you can just about bet he will b e convicted because he apparently has been convicted by some in the Obama Administration already). Heck, I may have convicted him myself at least for being a coward at any rate but then again if he was a psycho maybe he was not cowardly, just deranged. I will though, as I would for anyone, give him his day in court and believe him innocent until proven guilty even under military rule.

What gets me about this whole incident is the response of politicians and their stooges; how so many are coming out an calling it such things as: heartbreaking (Obama), a calamity, terrible and awful (H. Clinton), an act of terrorism, a crime, inexcusable and unforgivable (reportedly the stooge who heads the Afghan government said that), an outrage and on and on. Yet, those same people were never once reported to have said the same things about the killings of U.S. Servicemen after the accidental burning of those bogus religious books at the U.S. military base recently. I never heard President Obama once say he was outraged at the killings of U.S. military personnel by Afghan forces although I did hear him apologize big time to the Afghan and Muslim world for an accidental burning of mere pieces of paper. I also Hillary Clinton sounding as if she was totally gobstruck and aghast over the shootings of Afghan civilians but I sure do not remember her saying how terrible it was that our servicemen were being killed by our Afghan allies over said accidental book burning. It upsets me to know that the leader we put in  charge of Afghanistan is an asshole about this latest situation but it absolutely galls me no end that our Secretary of State and our President are two of the biggest spineless apologists on the face of the earth. No matter what happens, if our people are the ones doing the killing or the ones getting killed, it seems our government's current administration is kissing Islamic ass over in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sure, this shooting incident was a terrible thing, it truly was an outrage, it deserves to be given more attention than apologies and it is possibly inexcusable unless the guy is totally bonkers. It was reported on Fox TV News, earlier this evening, that the suspected shooter was reported to have had a traumatic brain injury from one of his 3 tours in Iraq but was found by military medical personnel to be fit for duty. Then he was sent to Afghanistan for his first tour there (but 4th tour in a combat zone altogether). Now, if the man was crazy, because of a brain injury, do you think that maybe his actions were possibly excusable on medical and psychiatric grounds? I think so but Karzai apparently does not agree and he is calling for a total U.S. pullout from Afghanistan immediately. His buddies, you know them as the Taliban (although President Obama used to pronounce it the Tally-Bahn) agree with him and are also calling for death to Americans. They are the terrorists responsible for shielding al-Qaeda and for enslaving the population of Afghanistan prior to us invading and saving the Afghans from them. They are the scum of the earth and of course they want us out of Afghanistan and want to retaliate against Americans around the world (or so I also heard that last reported on the evening news tonight). It simply amazes me how friggin hypocritical are these people who chop off heads of non-believers who oppose them and who stone rape victims to death if raped by devious and horrible perverted men. Of course, the men do not get punishment nearly as bad if punished at all.

You know, if I was Supreme Ruler, I would let them have what they want regarding our immediate pullout. Every U.S. troop would be out of there by the end of the month BUT every bit of U.S. Aide would disappear along with the troops. Let the Taliban have that sand trap back, let the people there get pillaged and plundered by the Taliban. Let's just leave it at that.

Let me get back to the shooting. If the U.S. soldier is found guilty, I think hanging would be too good for him. I don't give much of a rat's arse about the woman, funny how the Taliban is all concerned about women suddenly, but the guy killed young children. I heard one child was around 2 years old. About the only thing I could see that would excuse his behavior would be mental illness, severe mental illness. Something tells me though he will be found fit for trial, he will stand trial, will be found guilty and will go to jail for life. How else would the Obama Administration handle it, even if the suspect was crazy as a loon.

All the best,
Glenn B

AK-47 Repair Update

On February 15, I dropped my Romanian WASR AK-47 off at an FFL dealer for transfer to Century Arms for examination and possible repair. The darned thing had been firing in semi-auto and in burst fire and or full auto. I hoped they would find the problem and repair it free of charge even though I bought it last Spring and only notified them of the problem last month. After calling them they said 'send it in through and FFL dealer licensee'. I called them about a week or so ago and they told me they had it and it would not be before about March 21 before they got it sent back to me. I had a nice surprise today when the FFL licensee, Volko Supply of Garden City Park, NY, called me to say they had received it back and I could pick it up. I picked it up from them this afternoon and have to give them a hat tip for being pleasant to deal with and for getting their part of the job, the FFL transfer and arranging shipping with UPS, done right and at a reasonable FFL transfer fee. Very nice people, I dealt mainly with Victor!

It seems that at Century Arms, they did some repairs to my AK and luckily the repairs were free of charge. I guess they handled it as a warranty repair. According to a sheet in the box with the AK, they changed the trigger, the sear and the gas piston too. What seemed significant to me about the things they changed, other than that the trigger and sear were probably causing it to go into burst and auto fire mode, was that they changed components from two very different areas of the rifle. In other words, it seems they did not go to only the most likely culprit as the cause of the malfunction (the trigger group), find a problem there, fix that and then assume all else was okay. They evidently checked out the rest of the rifle before sending it back and found what I am guessing was another unrelated problem and fixed it too. Thus, they checked the gas piston and replaced it for whatever reason. I do not think that if the trigger and sear were the problem that the gas piston also would have been involved in that same problem (but then again I am no gunschmid). When I think of it,  I do not recall that there was anything that appeared wrong with the gas piston when I cleaned the AK awile back. If if there was something wrong - well, I am glad they apparently took the extra time and effort to check out the whole gun and repair or replace whatever needed fixing or replacement. That was a nice touch. After that, they test fired it by running 30 rounds through it. They also, according to the info sheet, cleaned it and polished it among other things.

I have not had the chance to take it to the range. That may be awhile but I am hoping to get the chance this weekend. I guess a range trip or three with it should indicate if the problem has been solved.

I am pretty impressed that it took less than a month for the total turnaround from the day I sent it out until picking it up today. In all that was the better part of 27 days total but only 18 days if you exclude weekends and the one holiday that fell in that time frame. Take off shipping time, at least a day or two each way, and that makes it either 14 or 16 days. That really is not too shabby considering that they thought they would only get it back to me around March 21st.  If they got it fixed properly then I will definitely have to give the folks at Century Arms a call to thank them not only for fixing it but for getting it done pretty quickly too.

All he best,
Glenn B

Don't Fuck With The Catholics

Read this: http://spectator.org/archives/2012/03/09/obama-the-apostate. I certainly could  not say it any better. I, for one, hope the Catholic Church will cling to its guns and bibles, so to speak, over the issue of what is funded under health care insurance that they or their hospitals and other medical facilities must provide, to their employees, under U.S.law. Obama, the demoncrat, has me reconsidering whether or not I should become a practicing Catholic again and he certainly has me leaning in that direction. If nothing else, I will surely support their cause, and the cause of other religions, in this debate because I am sick and tired of the absolute disregard for the Constitution that this administration has shown and continues to show.

All the best,
Glenn B

Semi-Annual Night of Temporal Confusion

I woke up this morning at about 7:30  depending on which clock you looked at. Darned Clocks - Some Have Gone All Screwy but waking up at 7:30 was not bad considering that I only got to bed about midnight last night. Actually got a fairly good night's sleep too. The day started okay for me until I looked at the clock on the FIOS box. It didn't have the same time as the one on the wall. Then checked upstairs. The FIOS set top box also said it was an hour later than indicated by the wall clock in the basement. The thing is, upstairs, the wall clock agreed with the FIOS set top boxes. I figured the wall clock in the basement either stopped or slowed down because of old batteries. Then I saw the clock on the radio in the kitchen. It said it was the same time as shown by the wall clock in the basement. Man - this was getting screwy. Then it hit me, last night must have been the semi-annual night of temporal confusion. It is indeed a confusing night, at least at closing time at bars, when a typical question, at least that one night each year is: "What do you mean we had to close an hour ago officer". Yep, last night was the semi-annual night of temporal confusion alright - the one when many of us wonder 'do we set the clocks back an hour or move em ahead'. Spring ahead - Fall back - simple as that! Getting used to it all is another thing, well for some anyway.

It really does not bother me all that much. Some docs and shrinks say it is terrible for our circadian rhythm. Not for me because I am not in a hurry because of it. When I worked, if I had to get up an hour earlier, so what. I just made sure to hit the sack an hour earlier the night before. Otherwise I just went to work late. That usually worked and worked well. With the seeming additional daylight hours we get each spring, I simply feel better during each stint of daylight savings time. It should be permanent as far as I am concerned. Getting light a bit later and staying light a bit later each day is great. The only thing that sucks about DST is that it ends in the Fall.

That Fall back night is the one that makes me feel miserable even though we supposedly get an extra hour to sleep. It is the one after which you start getting up in the morning with the sun up earlier but going down earlier too. It makes for a melancholy mood is all I can say, especially for folks who like to get up late but then wind up having their days cut short by lack of light. I bet that writers like Edgar A. Poe did some of their best work in the winter.

Me, I am going to enjoy the longer days. It will probably help to perk me up nicely, well that and the warmer weather that should be here soon.

All the best,
GB

Fox Networks Group - National Anti-Guns and Ammo Advertising Policy

My esteem of FOX Networks Group (as in the parent company of Fox News and Fox News Online) has plummeted. It used to be that Fox was my favorite source of the news, both online and on television, and that was a recently as about a half hour ago. That has now changed.

I just learned that Fox has an anti-firearms and ammunition advertising policy regarding its national networks. My source was this page at the National Shooting Sports Foundation website: http://www.nssfblog.com/fox-confirms-anti-gunhunting-policy/. The policy was plainly spelled out, in a letter to the NSSF, dated March 1, 2012, from Mr. Scott Grogin, Senior Vice President, Communications of the Fox Networks Group. You can read the letter here but if you do, make sure to read the whole letter as the first part of the last paragraph may make it seem as if Fox allows such advertising on their national networks. In fact, as spelled out in the letter, that policy prohibits such advetising on their national broadcast and cable networks.

To say that learning about that policy was a disappointment to me is an understatement to say the least. After learning about the policy, I sent off an email to Mr. Scott Grogin, expressing my displeasure with the policy. My letter is not likely to have an effect for the good unless it is also supported by thousands of letters from people who hold similar views as mine. That view, as I expressed it to Mr. Grogin, is that Fox's anti-firearms advertising policy amounts to main stream media bias and I cannot support a network like Fox by way of my continued preference of Fox as my go to source for online and television news media. If they receive enough similar letters, and they think they will lose enough viewers, you can bet they will change that policy. So, I am asking for my readers to write to Mr. Grogin expressing disappointment in that Fox policy. Mr. Grogin's email is: scott.grogin@fox.com, or you can also write to Fox at the address found on the NSSF webpage liked to above.

All the best,
Glenn B

TGIS - Yep Thank God It's Saturday!

What do you mean that it's Friday and not Saturday? Maybe in your world it is Friday today but in mine it is Saturday. As a matter of fact, every day from now on will be Saturday for me, such is life in retirement. For a while there, every day of my retirement was just another sick leave day but now, I can say without a doubt, every day being Saturday is going to be much more fun.

All the best,
GB

Interesting Firearms Article

Here is a link to an article about firearms and crime. Pretty interesting stuff, well written piece and apparently well researched too.

All the best,
GB

RESOLVED - The Best Word In The English Language

There is not a better word in the whole of the English language as far as I am concerned, not even one that comes close to the word RESOLVED.

Resolved was the word my oncologist used today when he told me the results of my PET and CT Scans. It referred to the medical problem that I had, the cancer that was in my right tonsil and in the lymph nodes on the right side of my neck. Resolved = Cured, Resolved = Healthy, Resolved = CANCER FREE.

Perhaps, no not perhaps but rather most definitely, there are two words, when combined, that are better than the word resolved and that is in any language. Two words that have all the power in the world to say what I am feeling and need to say right now:

THANK YOU

Thanks to each and every one of you who sent me well wishes, who said prayers for me, who thought of me a lot, or even just once, with the hope that I would recover. If not for all of you and others such as my friends, loved ones and especially my family - and, of course, for the doctors, technicians, nurses and countless others in the medical professions, I would not have pulled through this. I wanted to hug the doc today but figured neither him nor my wife, who was with me at the time, might have been comfortable with that. So, he had to settle for a hand shake and a heart felt thank you.

Let me get back to you guys though, my readers, because you were really wonderful. Some of you I have met, many others I have never met and am unlikely to ever meet; yet, you were pulling for me. You kept my spirits up when everything should have had them dragging through the mud and when I was being dragged down by the muck and the mire it was often a nice word from one of you that pulled me back up again. Resolved - to all of you I owe thanks that I made it through until today when I heard that word.

Thank you,
Glenn B

I Cannot Tell A Lie - Well Not About This Nugget Anyway!

It seems someone found a chicken 'nugget' that looked a bit like George Washington's profile that is on the quarter dollar. Instead of looking at it and getting a laugh out of it before wolfing it down with some honey mustard sauce, what did she do with it? She put it into the freezer, where it sat for three years. Then recently, she put it up for sale on eBay. That alone would seem like crazy behavior to me, not seeing the image of Washington in the chicken nugget as the resemblance is there, but to think it would have enough value so that someone would want to buy it from you. Well perhaps, crazy is as crazy does. Yet, the craziest thing of all is, in my opinion, that someone reportedly bought the darned thing and paid $8,100.00 for it. Yep, you read it right, they paid in the high 4 figures for it. Start looking more closely at your chicken nuggets, they just may be worth much more than their weight in gold. It simply amazes me as to on what people will waste their money.

All the best,
Glenn B

Big Day Tomorrow At High Noon

Tomorrow, at High Noon, I go to see the chemo oncologist and I find out if they got it all out of me or not. The it being the cancer. I am hopeful but I am also pretty anxious. My feelings are not as bad I had thought they would be considering all things. I would bet though that there will not be much sleep for me tonight, I just don't see that in my stars for this particular night.

All the best,
Glenn B

The Problems With Press Checks

 
Press Checks are, in my opinion, mostly a waste of time and effort. Yet, many firearms instructors teach them as being very important aspect of shooting that give the shooter an edge in being ready for combat. They do so because, by their reasoning, if you see a shell casing in the chamber, you know your gun is loaded and combat ready. That reasoning is flawed and I will show you why I think it such. Before I continue, I will say it outright, this is a very long piece, about 9 typed pages of size 12 Times New Roman font. Yet, I think it worth the read, so read it at your leisure. I may go on to edit it, to make it shorter, but for now I am including a lot of detailed examples of what I have witnessed going wrong, either directly or indirectly, completely or partially, because of shooters doing Press Checks.

Law enforcement academy students, law enforcement officers on the job, private training school students and folks taught firearms instruction by friends are often taught to do Press Checks. They are taught to do them to assure their weapons are fully loaded and combat ready. Throughout the many years that I was, and am again, a certified firearms instructor, I have witnessed some of the problems associated with Press Checks and also foresaw some other problems arising out of that practice. The potential for disaster, either directly or indirectly, partially or fully, caused by a shooter performing a Press Check, was also there. The problems that I witnessed, and other potential problems I can imagine, have convinced me that Press Checks are little more than a reassuring waste of time and effort, a dangerous one at that.

Think about it. What does a Press Check accomplish? It allows you to peer into the action of your semi-automatic pistol, rifle or shotgun (pump guns too) - mostly done on pistols though - to see if there is a round loaded in the chamber. (I will keep this limited to pistols for the remainder of this post)? How do you accomplish that? You keep the weapon pointed in a relatively safe direction, finger off of the trigger and retract the slide slightly while turning or bringing in close the pistol so you can peer into the chamber. What is there that is required to do this beyond yourself and the pistol? If done in good lighting, well that light is about the only other requirement. In poor of virtually no light, you would need to supply a light source. Do you really want to light up yourself and your pistol in a low light situation? Do you really want to ruin your night vision in a low light situation before you get off at least one shot if it comes to the legally justified need to do so? I think not. So, are Press Checks then only worth doing under good lighting conditions at best? You would think so; yet, I have seen instructors teach shooters to do them with a flashlight held in between the shooter's teeth or under their arms to illuminate the pistol. Count me out on that.

Even in good lighting, is a Press Check ever really worth it? Say that you are home, up in your bedroom you hear glass breaking somewhere in the house, then glass crunching as if underfoot. You turn to your spouse and say "Call 911, tell them our house is has been broken into and an intruder is in our home". As you do so, you grab hold of your pistol. As you go to secure the bedroom door (only you and your wife are legitimately in the home and you do not have children) you have a thought: "Is there one in the chamber"! You are uncertain, maybe your pistol does not have a chamber loaded indicator, you were trained by a firearm's instructor, in your a home defense course, to always do a Press Check before using your pistol to be sure it is ready to go. He seemed like a great instructor, he worked for a legitimate firearm's instructional outfit, he was a member of several well known gun rights groups, everyone in the class was impressed by his seemingly professional demeanor and his extensive subject knowledge. Do you do what he taught you, what you have practiced now for the past year since taking the course? Do you do a Press Check or not. Me, I would opt out.

The reason I would not do a Press Check, even if uncertain as to whether or not my pistol was loaded, would be because I believe a Press Check only accomplishes one thing other than letting you know a round is in the chamber. That one other thing is that it makes you feel good. You feel good because you think your pistol is combat ready but you may be in for the shock of your life if you wind up in a situation where you need to actually defend yourself with your pistol. Think about it (I will probably tell you to use the little gray cells again and again). What could be wrong, after all you just did the Press Check, so you know your pistol is loaded and combat ready - right? Of course, you know I am going to answer "WRONG"! While your pistol may indeed be ready, the truth is that all you may have accomplished by performing a Press Check would have been to have falsely reassured yourself that your weapon was ready to go if needed. How can that be? Let me give you some examples that may seem far fetched but that I know for a fact, after having experienced them first hand, do happen. By the way, when I say I experienced them first hand, I mean I was there and observed them. These things did not happen to me because I usually shy away from doing Press Checks.

Here is what I have witnessed, while at the range, observing other shooters doing Press Checks doing Press Checks:

A shooter is loading during a low light shooting course. He has pistol and flashlight out. He turns the light on and places light between teeth. He then goes to do a Press Check and drops his light which rolls around on ground until it stops, precisely pointed right back at him and it lights him up better than the Las Vegas Strip on a moonless night.

Another shooter, also in low light training scenario, takes his light and places it under his arm, does the Press Check or tries but does not have the light under the correct arm and has to twist pistol around to be able to see into chamber - the pistol is now pointed at the shooter next to him. The guy attempting the Press Check is also lit up more than enough to make a good target.

A shooter, in daylight, is finished shooting for the day. He has finished cleaning his pistol and goes up to the line to load for the street. He took out a mag, inserted it into the mag well by way of a combat load - eyes toward a perceived target. He then did a seemingly perfect Press Check and the pistol sure looked loaded to him but not to me. In fact, despite him thinking it was loaded for the street, or that it was in a combat ready condition, I was sure it was not loaded with one in the chamber. The shooter then removed the mag and loaded a round into the mag to top it off to make up for the one he thought he just chambered. There was not a live round in the chamber even though he did a Press Check and saw a brass colored casing in there. You see, the shooters that day had been doing malfunction clearing drills. That meant that each shooter had loaded three snap caps into each of their magazines, one snap cap between two live rounds and two other snap caps together in succession between live rounds in each mag. This assured that on one malfunction they could tap, rack, reengage, but on the other they would have to tap, rack, reengage (in this case, while at the range, they would still see a threat and would fire but this time the gun would not go off because there had been two dummy rounds back to back). In the even of two misfires in a row, they had been instructed to do an additional set of moves consisting of essentially stripping the mag, racking two or three times while visually inspecting to see the chamber was empty if possible, then inserting a new mag and reengaging.

Now with the shooter in question, we will never know why but he wound up with at least one snap cap in the magazine from which he was loading for the street. Maybe he never finished going through three magazines during the drill or maybe had a fourth also loaded with snap caps or maybe he emptied and cleaned his mags, after the course of fire, and when reloading them somehow put a dummy round into one of his magazines. The result was the same no matter the cause, at least one dummy round, a snap cap with brass base, was loaded in that magazine. That magazine just so happened to be the magazine with which he had just loaded the pistol and I got to see it all just because I had been intently watching him because he was a bit of a problem shooter as far as I was concerned.

This is what I saw. As he loaded, I saw the mag come up, and just as it was about to enter the mag well, I saw a flash of red at the top of that magazine. Not a flash as a muzzle blast, just a quick view of the color red and then he loaded. To me, it meant only one thing, he had just put a snap cap into the chamber, had done a Press Check and was incorrectly assured that his pistol was ready to be used against an armed assailant if need be. I asked him if he was satisfied that his pistol was loaded and he told me he had done a Press Check and he was certain of it being loaded. I asked him if he would mind going over Press Check technique for me. He stepped up to the line and demonstrated the Press Check for me. Then I asked him to do one more thing. I assured the line was safe, made the line hot, and told him to draw and fire a single round for me. He tried it. There was a click, no bang. He hesitated only for a moment, and he did a perfect tap, rack and reload. He never noticed that the round ejecting was a snap cap and he tried to fire again. It went click again, no bang. The next round had been the second of the pair of dummies that he had placed back to back. I called a cease fire. He cleared his weapon and had a slightly befuddled look on his face. He asked me what had went wrong and I told him to look for the two rounds he had just ejected from the pistol. All he could find were the two snap caps. He was embarrassed and that was because the light had come on, he knew what had happened. Because of that mistake and the embarrassment, he listened to my differing opinion of Press Checks and decided to try and then go with an alternative to Press Checks. I don't think I ever saw him do a Press Check again.

Another shooter, an experienced and usually very competent tactical shooter, was at the range one day and loaded up with a combat load from behind cover during a combat course of fire. Guess what he did next - he did a Press Check. So did she, and her, and that other guy and him too, all on different days over the years. I have seen it numerous times at the range. Think about the outcome of doing it at the range. Maybe, someday, you are in actual combat, you have been defending yourself by shooting at someone who has been trying to shoot you, you run dry, you are behind cover, you combat reload, always looking toward the threat, then you take the time to take your eyes off of the threat, pull the slide a bit out of battery and look into the chamber to see if it is loaded. Yep, it only took a split second. but think again about what you just did and what could happen in a real life situation like that because you did a Press Check. You look up and do not see your assailant! Where did he go? Had you only kept your eyes on him and scanning for additional threats you would have seen him run over to the other guy who has a shotgun and now you are being double timed by assailants who are in an unknown hiding spot. Think it cannot or will not or has not happened, think again.

Why did the shooter, who just combat loaded during simulated combat do a Press Check? Was it because he realized he was at the range and he was following range procedure that he had learned at his academy or at a private training course? Is it that he would only do it at the range and never do it in a real life combat situation? The truth is that, during a real life encounter, shooters almost invariably resort to things they learned too do in training; that happens about 85% of the time. You can very safely bet that he, or you, would revert to prior training and if it was to do a Press Check to make sure your pistol was loaded, well there you have it, there is a good chance you would do it on the street just as you did in training and just as this shooter did during simulated combat.

This was not limited to one shooter. I have seen at least 15 to 20 different shooters do this repeatedly during simulated combat training. Sometimes they would do it and every now and then they would not. Even after being reminded not to do it by an instructor on the line during a given firing exercise, by the time they ran dry again and were reloading during the same exercise, some of them did it again. That was just moments after being told not to do it again. Why did it happen again? Were they dumb, hard headed stubborn fools, or was it because they had been trained to do it and old habits die hard? If you chose the last choice, there is hope for you.

What else can a Press Check accomplish for a shooter? I have seen shooters do Press Checks between courses of fire during a qualification. They reload on the line, do a Press Check by very carefully pulling back on the slide so as not to unseat the loaded round then allow the slide to creep back forward. What is wrong with that picture? They have been shooting, the gun is fouled, maybe it was fouled before they even came to the range (a check for clean guns has been performed by ranger personnel at the range where we shot in recent years but some dirty chambers can get through even today especially if fouled with copper). They have pulled the slide out of battery and possibly pulled the round back out of the chamber just a tad. They allow the slide to go forward and holster up. They draw to fire at the next step in the course of fire. Most of the pistols fire but now and then one does not. It goes click - not bang. They tap, rack, reengage. It goes bang but that took a split second or three and a bad guy (if this was on the street) could have been firing back during that time.

Why did the gun not fire? Probably because the round was unseated during the Press Check, pulled out of battery, and never completely went back into battery. This can happen because of fouling in the chamber. Even though the pistol will go fully into battery, placing a round fully into the chamber, when the slide is allowed to slingshot closed, the fact is there may not have been enough force to put the slide back into battery after a Press Check. This can be caused by built up copper from copper jacketed ammo that was not properly cleaned out of the chamber, it can be caused by excessive unburned powder, it can be caused by brass shaved off of the shell casings. These things all happen at the range so they can happen in the field too. If you then do a Press Check, with a gun fouled like that, you may be in for trouble. Even a push on the back of the slide, either with your thumb or the heel of your off hand may not be enough to reseat a round that was pulled back just enough to cause it to come out of battery. This is one of the reasons you are taught to slingshot a pistol slide and not to ride it forward. Well, there is no way to slingshot it during a Press Check.

Yet another shooter, this one a gal, loaded on the line. She then proceeded to do a Press Check. I am not quite sure how it happened but while doing the Press Check, she somehow managed to hit the mag release button and while the mag did not fall out, it did drop down enough to be useless unless first reseated properly. She did not notice it either. I did but sometimes you have to let the shooters learn by making mistakes so I said nothing at that point. She was firing a pistol with a magazine disconnect safety, I think it was a S&W 6906 if memory from over 20 years ago serves me right. With that type of safety, if the mag was not seated properly or was out of the pistol, the gun would not fire. She holstered up and thought she was ready to go after having been reassured by the Press Check. For the next step in the course, she drew, fired - well she tried to fire. She made a decent recovery with tap, rack and reengage but wasted time after having been assured that the Press Check meant her gun was loaded and would fire.

Now take this another step, take it into your home - that same scenario that I spoke about at the beginning of this article. You pick up a gun to defend yourself and loved one. You are not sure it is loaded or have a momentary doubt. You decide to do a Press Check. There is one in the chamber. You know your pistol is ready to fire because you do not have a magazine disconnect safety and you do not even own a snap cap to mistakenly load into your weapon. Your pistol will fire with only a round in the chamber whether or not a magazine is in the gun. Do you see where this is going? Think about the situation in which you find yourself, use those little gray cells

Your house has been broken into by someone unknown. There is definitely an intruder in your home. Your spouse is calling 911 and is speaking to the 911 operator. You have armed yourself. You have secured the bedroom door. You have taken the best cover and or concealment you can find. Your heart is racing somewhat so are your thoughts. Adrenalin has pumped into your system, you are pumped. Your body has readied it self for the possibility of mortal combat in defense of your spouse and yourself. You are pretty calm, but you are also pretty scared - you have the strangest comical thought at a moment like this - you hope your sphincter factor is strong. As I said, your thoughts are racing you push that thought away and have another - that you are prepared for this. Yes, you have trained for this - you think you know what you need to do and it is all based upon your training. Then you realize that somehow your senses, in some regards, seemingly have dulled. In others they seem heightened. How could that be that some senses seem dulled and others heightened. You see everything clearly but have tunnel vision, your eyes locked on the bedroom door. You listen intently but some noises like your radio in the bedroom and your wife talking to the 911 operator seem miles away as you intently hear another piece of glass crunch loudly underfoot somewhere in your home.

You have a strong firm grip on your pistol, you are pumped up and feeling good even though you are scared. Suddenly something seems to be terribly wrong. You look around, your wife is still on the phone, the door is still secure, you still hear the bad guy walking through your home but there is something else wrong - you just know it. What else is wrong? You think - my gun is not fully loaded but you have no idea why you think that. Then you have a thought that calms you again. Didn't you just feel so uncertain about whether or not your gun was loaded that you did a Press Check. Seeing the shell casing in there gave you the reassurance you needed so you try to stop worrying but something you cannot pinpoint is nagging you.

No time to think about it now though. Your bedroom door is hit and hit hard, it gives way, the intruder confronts you and as he does so another intruder, never heard by you until that moment, smashes in your bedroom window from outside. One has a pistol, the other a shotgun. You come up and fire at one, he goes down immediately. You turn and point the gun at the other, who is still a threat, and you fire but it only goes click. You mind is racing at about a thousand miles a second. You think: "Why did it just go click and nothing more".  You pull the trigger again and it goes click again. You hear yourself screaming inside your head: "Tap, rack, reengage". You revert to training, you now tap, rack and just as you are about to reengage it hits you, you know what happened, you know what is wrong and you feel helpless unlike anything you have ever felt before. Heaven help you now because your gun will not. You just realized that when you tapped, there was no feel of a magazine in the mag well. Your gun is empty. That was what had been bothering you; you must have subconsciously realized the weight was wrong for it to have been fully loaded but it never reached you consciously. Sometime, maybe when you first picked up the pistol, or when you maneuvered it to do the Press Check, you somehow hit the mag release and the magazine fell out and you never realized it in your altered state of perception; believe me - your perception does change and markedly so.

Luckily for you, the second bad guy saw your gun pointing at him after you shot his buddy. He turned to flee as soon as you pointed it at him. Then he heard something you did not, the distant wail of sirens and that sealed it, he was outta there and so was the third bad guy, the one whom you never saw, the one still rummaging through your living room. If that is not how it turns out, then how else would it unfold once you realized your gun was gun was empty. Maybe that your loved ones would miss you dearly.

Do you think things like this cannot happen - then think again and again and again and again - use those little gray cells. Bad stuff happens. I have seen all these malfunctions or accidents at the range, all related to the false sense of security that a Press Check instills, all either partially or completely, directly or indirectly, caused by Press checks. They happen with inexperienced shooters as well as with experienced shooters. The one coomon link between them all has been the Press Check. Thank goodness they all happened at the range and not in a real life do or die situation as just described. When they happen at the range, we can learn from them and correct bad habits before something bad happens to us in a real life bad situation. When they happen to us in a do or die setting it is all to often that we wind up the loser.

So what is there that you can do to avoid using Press Checks and at the same time be pretty much assured that you have at least one in the chamber of a weapon that you want to have at combat ready. It is pretty simple although I cannot guarantee it is foolproof; fools just have a way of screwing things up badly and even competent folks can have the brain fart now and again. The potential for calamity is always with us. Still, my method, is one that works. Note, I don't call it my method because I claim to have created it; I did not. I call it my method because I use it. It is a method of making your weapon combat ready that was taught long before the Press Check was even a thought that passed through someones head. While it is a method to assure a weapon is combat ready, aspects of it also can be used, at least to some extent, even if you do not keep your weapon loaded at all times.

In a moment I will describe the method that I use when I want to assure my pistol is loaded to be combat ready. Before I go further, please note: I said to be combat ready! You need to realize that keeping a weapon at combat ready may be totally against all reason dependent upon certain circumstances. Some of those circumstances can be if you have children, or mentally incompetent adults, in the house, or if you have been drinking or are the influence of narcotics or other mind altering drugs. The decision is yours to make on when to keep your firearm combat ready. I will not discuss that here in this piece. It is your responsibility, not mine, to determine when you can safely have a loaded weapon at the ready. One last note, by at the ready or by combat ready, I mean a fully loaded weapon ready to be picked up or drawn and fired in a moment if need be. In the case of a double action only, like a SIG DAK, or double/single action semi-auto, such as a Beretta 92 series pistol, that means with the hammer uncocked, without the hammer drop being engaged, with the gun fully loaded and otherwise ready to go. In the case of a pistol like a Glock, with the pistol fully loaded. In the case of single action automatics like a Colt 1911, it can either mean with the gun fully loaded and hammer down or also mean with the pistol loaded, hammer cocked, safety engaged. It does not mean with the gun cocked without the safety engaged.)

Okay, now that I said that last, when I want to load my pistol, well ahead of any potential self defense situation, to be combat ready, I make sure to completely inspect the pistol to make sure it is clean and functioning properly. I also inspect my magazines likewise. Then I inspect my ammunition to make sure there are no obvious defects and that only the proper rounds for the pistol I am loading are nearby. I then load my magazines, each to full capacity. I load from a box of ammunition without dumping the rounds onto a table. I do this to assure I can easily count how many rounds are missing from the box when I am done loading the magazines. If three magazines would take a total of 45 rounds, then 45 rounds had best be missing from a full box of 50 for the mags all to have been loaded fully. I then physically and visually inspect the magazines to make sure each is loaded all the way. I give them a physical double check by trying to get an additional round into each of them. (This does not always work with new mags with very stiff springs or if a bullet is somehow loaded vertically instead of seated horizontally above the follower.) Then I look at the numbered holes on the mag to make sure a cartridge can be seen through each hole. If for any reason, I do not think the magazine was fully loaded, I empty it and reload it. Then I load my pistol from one of the full magazines with no empty or partially magazines nearby. Note, I said from one of them because I virtually always have more than one magazine available in case a reload is needed. I insert the mag with enough force to seat it properly and I listen for the click of it engaging the magazine catch.Then I slingshot the slide to assure it moves forward with full force to properly seat the first round. I then holster up and take out the magazine while the pistol is holstered, or I can take out the mag from pistol in hand, then holster it or put it down on a table. Remember, the mag I am now taking back out of the pistol just had been fully loaded a moment before. I now replace the missing cartridge, the one that went into the chamber, by placing another round into the magazine. I then load that magazine back into the pistol again with enough force to seat it. The magazine is now again fully loaded and the pistol is fully loaded too, including one in the chamber. If I am distracted, for any reason, I do it all over again to make sure it has been done right since my life or the lives of my loved ones may depend upon it.

As for doing a Press Check, I do not need to do one because if the magazine was fully loaded when I first loaded one into the chamber then, by simple logical reasoning, if the mag could take another round, one must have certainly been loaded into the chamber to allow for the free space now in that magazine. Unless I somehow unloaded the pistol along the way - it is definitely loaded with one in the chamber at this point and is fully loaded once I replenish the magazine and replace it in the pistol. I try not to be quite that foolish. Yet, people, both firearms instructors and shooters who are not instructors, argue with me that my method does not assure the chamber of the gun is loaded and only a Press Check will do so. I can only tell them this: "Get it, the gun was empty, the mag was full, you loaded one into the chamber from the full mag, you took out the mag without unloading the cartridge from the chamber, and were able to top off the mag with one round meaning that the room created in the mag was created by a round leaving it and going into the chamber, so when you top off the mag and put it back into the pistol, the pistol is fully loaded. Why on earth would you ever need to do a Press Check if you reliably made your firearm combat ready in that manner every time you made it combat ready?

Now if you want to tell me, "Well, I keep my gun unloaded in my night stand, with a fully loaded mag in there next to it, or I keep it up on shelf like that, or even in my safe like that, so how will I know if my gun's chamber is loaded after I get to it and attempt to load it unless I do a Press Check". You will not, at least you will not until you attempt to fire it, check the loaded chamber indicator, or do a Press Check. Remember though, I said even in such a situation you can partially follow my method. How - by keeping the magazines that are next to the gun fully loaded.

Also bear in mind that I just wrote about your senses being heightened and some being dulled. I spoke about you body being pumped full of adrenalin, about you being pumped, excited, scared, ready to go. I did not speak about fine motor skills versus gross motor skills. A gross motor skill would be akin to you slingshotting the slide when reloading as opposed to the fine motor skill required for you to hit the slide release with your thumb to allow it the slide to go forward. Doing a Press Check requires fine motor skills. Fine motor skills are often decreased markedly, to the point of failure, during a very stressful situation. Gross motor skills usually prevail throughout. When you try to pull back the slide, just enough to take a peek, while doing a Press Check, during something like a home intrusion, you may be so pumped up and excited that you perform a gross motor skill rather than the fine motor skill required to do the Press Check. The outcome is you rack the slide, extract and eject the round in the chamber and are now a bullet down. Again, think about what, where, when, why and how you are apt to do something. Do you really want to do a Press Check then, in the face of a potential threat to your life when you are shot full of adrenalin and may not be able to do it properly? Do you want to do one at any time if any of problems mentioned above can be the result?

For me, I just see no need for a Press Check once I have loaded my weapon to be combat ready when done the way I do it. Your situation may be different. You may not keep the gun loaded because of young kids in the house, or because grandpa lives with you and he has mild dementia, or whatever, I am just giving my take on it and I think Press Checks are little more than foolish reassurance at best. Of course, most of my pistols, if not all, that I would choose to have at combat ready have a loaded chamber indicator which negates the need to ever do a Press Check. When it comes right down to it, you need to decide for yourself, are Press Checks worth the potential risks they can incur. Now you have been made aware of some of the potential problems that can be directly or indirectly, fully or partially, caused by Press Checks. Are you still willing to perform them? The decision is yours to make.

All the best,
Glenn B

Nasty Leftists Showing Disrespect For Breitbart and His Family

As for the loony libs celebrating at Breitbart’s death, well I guess, his memory is getting some of what he gave. I am not saying it is good on either side but he did reportedly did in essence call, or Tweet that, Ted Kennedy was a pile of human sh--; and that was supposedly on the day that Kennedy died. That was less than respectful - it was , in my opinion, disgustingly tasteless at such a time. That being especially so when you consider that the family of the deceased probably saw what you said (or in this particular case, what you tweeted).

I do not necessarily disagree with Breitbart on that point about Kennedy. In fact, I probably tend to agree with it but it is just that I would not Tweet it, or in my case Blog it, almost immediately after an opponent's death. I think that doing so showed little of the ethics we should hold dear if we are truly conservatives. One of those would be respect for the family of the deceased even if you did not like or even hated the deceased.

I am not surprised that Mr. Breitbart was hated, for saying such things, by those disrespectful types on the left who somehow, beyond my comprehension, also adored Kennedy. What with human nature being what it is, it seems to me to be expected for them to curse Breitbart's memory now that he has passed on what with how he sometimes reportedly spoke very disrespectfully of others.

Don't get me wrong. I am not excusing the current mudslinging by the leftists. I find it appalling to my ethics even though I most certainly have not been a saint with regard to such matters. I do try though to show respect to the families of the fallen, at least close to the time of their loved one's passing, with no regard to political agenda. That is not out of respect for the deceased but out of my upbringing, out of my ethics out of my beliefs that such is due to them, to the families as they are not the target.

As for the name calling right now, I just expect it to happen. Why? What goes around comes around is all I am trying to say, whether it is right or wrong. Mr. Breitbart reportedly dished it out in no uncertain terms and often with apparent vehemence and now his memory is getting much of the same from his opposition. It happens, I don't let it bother me. I imagine though it may bother Mr. Breitbart's family, especially his children at this time. I will remember Mr. Breitbart as a true American Patriot, they should remember him that way too and should know that millions of us on the right admired and respected him as such. I imagine that is true of even some of his opponents on the left, they maybe did not agree with him but they respected him for his patriotism. I hope his family can find some small comfort in that thought.

My condolences to his family and loved ones. They are in my thoughts and well wishes.

All the best,
Glenn B

Breitbart Gone

They are not saying much except that Andrew Breitbart has passed away of natural causes early this morning in Los Angeles. I imagine more will be posted on the news sites as the story develops. He will be missed, we have lost a truly outstanding American Patriot.

See: http://www.breitbart.tv/in-memoriam-andrew-breitbart-1969-2012/

Also see: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/03/01/andrew-breitbart-dies-natural-causes-website-reports/, (Update at about 11:15: The story at Fox has been updated, since I first saw it, to say that Breitbart collapsed while walking near his home around midnight. It goes on to indicate that he had previous heart problems but does not go as far as stating that heart problems caused his death.)

and http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/03/01/andrew-breitbart-well-known-conservative-blogger-dead-at-43/?hpt=hp_t3

With regret,
Glenn B

Comments Require Word Verification

As far as I recall, I usually had word verification turned off for those wanting to leave a comment. Someone else, on another blog, made a remark lately that had me check to see if word verification had been turned on for my blog by Blogger or Google. I was surprised to see it had been turned on by someone. Who knows, maybe I did it.

Well, a few days ago, I turned it off. Within only two days, I received 17 spam comments relative to everything from hot sex sites, to dating services, to what appeared to be communist propaganda. While it was turned off, I also had an attempted attack on my computer. Luckily, Norton caught it and dealt with it right away. Now, I am not certain that the attempted attack or should I say the repelled attack was caused in any way by me shutting down the word verification but it seems odd to me that it came just at that time.

Another thing I noticed is a marked increase in spam emails I have begun to receive. his began the same day I turned off the word verification on my blog. I can only guess that when the bots send out spam they also collect your email address from your blog if you have it linked there (and I do have it linked so readers can contact me).

I have since turned back on word verification. I have not received any further spam blog comments since having turned the word verification back on. I also have received fewer spam emails today. So, as much of a pain in the neck it may be to have to read those crooked and often blurry letters to verify that you are not some type of an automated program looking to leave spam, it is a necessary evil as far as I am concerned. 

All the best,
Glenn B

Wednesday Already...

...and I am as pooped as if I just worked an 80 hour week. Of course, I am retired, not working at all, so why the fatigue! I have not been sleeping all that well, in fact about as poorly as I have done ever. All related to the Big C in one way or another, mostly due I suppose to the effects from radiation therapy.  I get so dry after only 15 minutes to a half hour that I keep waking up that often to drink something. Drinking something while you are supposed to be sleeping only goes to more waking-up, this time to get rid of all the fluids. It is a never ending cycle and I figure I wake up at least 20 times a night for one reason or another, either the drink/wizz cycle or because the furnace turned on, or because I am freezing and need to get another blanket (intolerance for cold seems to be a side effect of the cancer treatments) or because someone up early for school or work just slammed the door on his or her way out or because one of the dogs, usually Pepe, is licking my face or doing the I need to go out dance on my chest, or because I have to yank the CPAP mask off of my face because it is annoying (I have both obstructive and Central Nervous Sleep Apneas so really do need the darned thing) or because my arthritis is acting up and I am in pain from laying on one side too long in one of the few spurts of more than an hour that I m asleep, or because the edema on my neck has ballooned making it a bit uncomfortable to breath, or....

"Holy shit" was my thought and my out loud murmuring to myself this morning when I looked into a mirror to check on the edema right after I crawled out of bed. It was bigger than yesterday, now in two distinct bulges on my neck instead of one but that did not cause me to say what I said. What got me to say it was he fact that there was a huge bag under my left eye and the makings of one under my right. Man, if I don't get a few good nights worth of sleep soon I may just age from the mid-fifties to mid-eighties overnight! Crap, I look somewhere halfway between now. I am going to see a doc today, a new Internist - she is not newly a doc, just will be a new one for me. I have not seen a regular GP or Internist since I was diagnosed with the cancer last August or maybe in September. Decided why would I want to go to the same office where the doc, whom I think was responsible for me getting such a bad case of cancer, is located. Hell, she just turned me off on internists altogether. Still, I need to get a complete check-up and the cancer docs want me to get checked for a couple of specific things that they will not check on, so I am off to a new doctor this afternoon. My daughter goes to this doc and says she is a good one, I hope so.

I am hoping she can help me find a suitable way to get a good nights sleep at least a few times a week, if not every night. By suitable way, I mean as in without me drinking a few shots each night or something like that, I would hate to add becoming an alcoholic to my list of woes. I also mean without me taking sleeping pills if at all possible. I was going to ask the new doc for sleeping pills until I heard of the recent study that concluded that even users who only occasionally take sleeping medications have a significantly higher death rate than those who do not take them and that those who take more sleeping pills have an even higher death rate. I have to wonder, is that because of the sleeping pills or because they are not sleeping well in the first place? Now that I just had that thought, maybe I will ask for some sleeping pills after all. If they kill me at least there will be a good chance I'll die peacefully, in my sleep (only kidding, I think). Another finding was that there was up to a 35% increase in cancer diagnosis for those taking sleeping pills even though their risk factors were no greater than the control group who did not take the sleeping meds. Nope, maybe I had best avoid them after all.

I am pretty sure that this recent bout of me not sleeping all that well will be over soon, just another turn in the revolving door of the cancer experience. I had been sleeping pretty well for awhile, hopefully that will soon be the case again.

By the way, keep your fingers crossed for me, this coming Monday is Pet Scan and CT Scan day and my next visit with one of the cancer doc's and his staff is next Wednesday. I am hoping that they do not call me on the phone on Tuesday, that is how I got the bad news the first time round and just feel a phone call from them would be almost sure to bring bad news. Likewise, I am hoping that come Wednesday, they are all smiling from ear to ear when they see me because they have only good news for me. I have been scared before, maybe even worse than this, but I can tell you, it is some scary stuff all this waiting and wondering. It is hope inspiring too and I am trying my best to go with hope right now.

Enough of my rambling on this subject, I have places to go and things to do and interesting people to meet.

All the best,
Glenn  B

New Blog Added To The Blog Roll

I don't know what took me so long, I have been meaning to add this blog to the blog roll for a few weeks now but kept forgetting. Anyway, here it is An NC Gun Blog by Sean S. It is listed over on the right side of my page. In case the above link did not work, here is the address: http://ncguns.blogspot.com/.

All the best,
Glenn B

Rangeward No!

I actually got to the range early this afternoon, maybe around 1:30 or so. Walked in and saw three oher guys who had just walked in ahead of me leaving almost as soon as they got there. There were at least a dozen, maybe 15 folks waiting inside to shoot. One of the range guys told me I would have at least an hour wait so I just said "See ya next time" and I drove to my brother and sister-in-law's house for a visit. Maybe this coming weekend, I'll give the range another try. Never saw it crowded like that before, not even a team day. Oh well....

All the best,
Glenn B

Rangeward Ho! It's Beyond Time To Get Mine Arse To The Rifle & Pistol Range

Hell, I have not been to the range since, I guess, October or maybe it was September, and that was for work not all that long before I retired. I cannot remember when I last went to the range for leisurely shoot. Maybe I went sometime over the past few months but I sure cannot recall. I don't think I have been to the range since last summer for a fun shoot of any sort but then don't hold me to that because the memory is a little foggy about the events of the past several months since I was diagnosed with the big C. I know I have kept on saying I need to get my butt to the range and I have meant to have gone a few times but each time I have had the urge it seems that either fatigue slammed me down hard or that something else needed to get done and I just could not make it.

Well, today is going to be a bit different. My wife and son are both at work and thus the two cars are not here right now. My wife ought to be home within the half hour and I should be showered, shaved, dressed, with rifle case in hand by just about that time. Yeah, I know, its already 1249 on a Sunday morning and I am not showered up yet - I mean hey, it is Sunday after all so give a fella a break.

I have to make this quick so I can get ready by the time she, who must be adored, gets home. So, let me just say, I plan to grab the Marlin 25MN, maybe the Mossberg M44 U.S. and a few hundred rounds of ammo for each and get my butt to the local county indoor range for some fun. If I am really feeling up to it, after that, I may go to visit my brother who is in worse health shape than me. Saw my mom on Friday for the first time since Christmas and that was nice but I digress. I am off to get ready, and soon thereafter will be rangeward bound!

All the best,
Glenn B

More Apologies Over Afghanistan - A Must Wach Video

I saw this video over at The Feral Irishman. He saw it somewhere else. I lifted it from his site, well actually got the embed code from YouTube, almost as soon as I finished watching it, so I could embed it here. Please take the time to watch it, it is truly worth the few minutes it will take out of your day. Do not start watching it and then shut it down only part way through - watch it all the way. This video is destined for Internet fame!



All the best,
Glenn B

Good Old Boy Shoots Body Armor While Wearing It - OUCH

A report in MailOnline was emailed to me by a friend, the report also contained the video which is also on YouTube. It was just recently entered into YouTube, so seemingly it is fresh material for you to behold. When it comes to nuts, I imagine we have no shortage of them. Then again, I seem to remember when, many years ago, the head of a body armor company used to shoot himself while wearing his company's vests. If I recall correctly, that was the president or CEO of Second Chance Body Armor and as I recall he used to shoot himself while wearing various models of Second Chance body armor and I think he used a .44 magnum revolver to do so. If that was not the ultimate endorsement of one's product then nothing was!

The guy in the video uses a Glock in 10mm shooting a Hornady round or so he says. I would not recommend anyone try this, in fact I strongly recommend against it. There are just some things in which I think you need to have faith and that body armor, in good condition, from a reliable manufacturer, will work for the threat level for which it is made, is one of them - or so say I. I have had enough pain in my life and don't need what this guy put himself through so I am not about to emulate him.



Considering how much it seemingly pained him after the shot, you have to wonder why he does not lift the vest to see what if any damage was done to his body. Well, at least I have to wonder. Then again, what did it say on the label on the vest - Vikingsson (or something like that). Tough like a Viking - maybe so. Brainless like an arsehat - I would bet so!

Hat tip to Deb H. for the heads-up on this one.

All the best,
Glenn B

Self Perception Versus A Liberal's Image Of Me

You guess which is self perception and which the Liberal's image of me! Except for the 'veteran' one comes pretty damned close.

Hat tip to Richie M for sending me this one in an email!

All tbe best,

Glenn B