Light Blogging…

Posted on by March 6, 2013
 Light blogging and light commenting for the next couple of weeks, on the road again…


I’ll put up what I can, when I can. Good folks on the sidebar, please enjoy their writing!
Posted in OTR

Lord Woodhouselee Quote…

Posted on by March 6, 2013
And another one from the Mil-email channels…


A friend sent this to me. Interesting what you discover when you take the time to read about the past and contemplate our history… 

Oh that’s right we don’t need to read ’cause big government will take care of ALL our needs!

I think I’ll continue to read-

Another thought…

While I was an XO on a submarine in Norfolk VA I had to review a case of a young married sailor who was struggling to pay his bills.  When he and the Chief of the Boat came into my stateroom to review and finish the administrative action I had to take, he told me, “XO, my wife and I qualify for food stamps, but we won’t use them. It’s too damn humiliating for us and we’ll make do without ’em.”  I reviewed the budget that had been worked up by his senior enlisted leadership and signed off on it.  I thought about his comment for a minute and then said to him, come back in three months show me you’re taking care of the payments as laid out and I’ll pull the page 13 entry out of your service record.  He said, “Sir, I’ll see you in 3 month to get that page 13 from you.”  After he left the COB said, ” us chiefs have already decided he won’t fail and we’ll make sure that between us and our wives he and his wife have what they need.”  I closed the man’s service record and stuck the page 13 in my desk drawer.  Three months later I handed him back the paper work that had never left my desk.  Six months later we got him Command Advanced to 2nd Class.  Last month while I was visiting COMSUBPAC in Hawaii, a Master Chief stuck his head into the office I was in….seems that young struggling sailor turned out alright without going on food stamps.  Hum…

Enjoy the reading below.

Cheers,

XXX

I thought it might be of interest to some, so I share this quote that has been attributed to Lord Woodhouselee. Alexander Fraser Tytler (Lord Woodhouselee) 1747-1813 was a Scottish born British lawyer and writer.
It is frightening how timely these words written hundreds of years ago appear today:

A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

•From bondage to spiritual faith;

•From spiritual faith to great courage;

•From courage to liberty;

•From liberty to abundance;

•From abundance to complacency;

•From complacency to apathy;

•From apathy to dependence;

•From dependence back into bondage.

If you do not see the similarity in sequence to our current situation, you have not been watching.

Some tax facts for you.  The data is from 2009, the most recent set of complete data for the US Federal government.

In 2009, the top-earning 5 percent of taxpayers (AGI equal to or greater than $154,643), paid far more than the lower 95 percent. The top 5 percent earned 31.7 percent of the nation’s adjusted gross income, but paid approximately 58.7 percent of federal individual income taxes.

According to the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) 51 percent of all households, which includes filers and non-filers, had either zero, or negative income tax liability for tax year 2009.  The Committee also found that 30 percent of tax filers actually made money off the income tax system for the 2009 tax year.  In other words, people received more back from the IRS than they paid in.

Over the last three years, the number of Americans on food stamps has skyrocketed by two-thirds and stands at a record-high 46 million citizens, or one out of every seven people in the United States.  Despite the historic rise in food stamp use, however, the Obama Administration believes not enough people are receiving food stamps who should be and is offering $75,000 grants to groups who devise “effective strategies” to “increase program participation” among those who have yet to sign up.

Obama has argued that food stamps are an effective form of economic stimulus that puts “people to work” because each time food stamps are used at a grocery store “someone’s got to stock it, shelve it, package it, process it, ship it–all of those are jobs.”  I don’t agree.

In another election year move the Obama administration has redefined the meaning of “poverty”.  For most Americans the word “poverty” suggests near destitution: an inability to provide nutritious food, clothing, and reasonable shelter for one’s family.  Under Obama, poverty can mean a family of four in New York earning $90,000 per year – with healthcare.


Fewer people paying taxes.  A greater number of people receiving more and increasing services for no work.  A welfare system with unlimited benefits that is producing its 6th (or greater) generation, including 42-year old Great Grandmothers (that is not a misprint).  A Congress trying to usher in tens of millions of illegal immigrants as US citizens because it would be “fair”.

I do not know if our future is the unavoidable. I like to think we still control our destiny. But this is certain, if we do not change our direction the words of Lord Woodhouselee will ring true. 


My story is a bit different, I was stationed in the Bay Area in the late 80’s and only had about 10 military folks working for me directly.  This was before they re-aligned Basic Allowance for Subsistance (BAS) and the Variable Housing Allowance (VHA) to accurately reflect local area costs…

I had an E-5 ($1000/mo base pay) and an E-6 ($1200/mo base pay) (both married with young children) come to me separately for counselling due to them not being able to afford to rent any thing approaching a decent place to live, as the base had very little enlisted housing and most of that was sub-standard…

Both were eligible in California to draw food stamps, and I told them to do that to start with.  I also called a friend  and asked his wife (who was a Realtor) if she could find affordable quarters these families could rent.  She did find a big house that they could share and be within their BAS/BHA, but it was an hour drive away.  I talked to both of them and they did ended up deciding to share the house until both families were able to transfer out three years later… and they both collected food stamps until they transferred.  Both ended up completing careers, one as an E-8, the other as an E-9.

The National Anthem…

Posted on by March 6, 2013

From the Mil-email that came over the transom last night…

“So, with all the kindness I can muster, I give this one piece of advice to the next pop star who is asked to sing the national anthem at a sporting event: save the vocal gymnastics and the physical gyrations for your concerts. Just sing this song the way you were taught to sing it in kindergarten — straight up, no styling. Sing it with the constant awareness that there are soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines watching you from bases and outposts all over the world. Don’t make them cringe with your self-centered ego gratification. Sing it as if you are standing before a row of 86-year-old WWII vets wearing their Purple Hearts, Silver Stars and flag pins on their cardigans and you want them to be proud of you for honoring them and the country they love — not because you want them to think you are a superstar musician. They could see that from the costumes, the makeup and the entourages. Sing “The Star Spangled Banner” with the courtesy and humility that tells the audience that it is about America , not you.”


If you agree, please pass this on. The entertainers need to get the message!

Buyer Beware, in two parts…

Posted on by March 6, 2013
Part 1-

As the value of ‘old’ guns goes up, so do the counterfeits become more and more prevalent…


At gun shows you may make the find of a lifetime, or get badly burned…



There are companies out there (especially in Italy apparently), making fakes of old/famous guns that are appropriately “aged” or distressed to make them appear something they are not.  

Spent about half the day this weekend on the phone with a friend as he tried to buy what was ‘advertised’ as an M-1 Garand NM Type 2, but the seller had ‘forgotten’ to bring the DMP paperwork for the rifle.  He knew I had one, so he was calling for assistance and I was frantically searching the net for verification (and this was one of those shows were no cameras are allowed). Luckily, I was finally able to get in touch with a REAL expert on NM rifles, and got him in a conference call with my friend. 

He ended up not buying the rifle, as there were just a few too many ‘oddities’ that didn’t match up, and every oddity had an ‘explanation’ to go with it…

By the way, here is an excellent reference article, even without pictures on the M-1 NM rifles.

http://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/national-match-m1/

This brought to mind the number of fake M-1C/D sniper rifles and the fake 03-A3 sniper rifles that are appearing.  I’m sorry, but $7000 for a rifle without documentation is just patently ridiculous, and some are obvious fakes, others however, would take a good gunsmith or a professional weapons appraiser to catch the errors/omission/fakery.   

If you’re serious about buying a rifle like that, or a ‘real’ WWII unrestored 1911A1, or a real Winchester 73 or 86, or a Trench Gun, or a Gen 1 Colt SAA; you are better off going to a real auction house or having an expert on hand to verify the weapon is what the seller says it is…

At least going through an auction house, you do have a better chance of getting papers that prove the provenance of the weapon, and most of them have a provision for examination by an expert/gunsmith.


Part 2-


This from Guns and Ammo on line, a new ‘Peacock’ investigation, focusing on face to face sales based on internet sales (note they didn’t try to buy via an auction or gunbroker or others that I could tell; and they didn’t go into the ‘hood’ and do a random stop on a corner to ask “Sumdood” if he had a gun for sale.  And the obligatory sob story at the end.  Video HERE.  Note the ‘set up’ by the buyer, and the hidden camera pursuit/confrontation?


 (why does Bloomberg’s straw buyer program come to mind?)


I really wonder if this is about guns,  or ‘barter’ which is becoming more and more prevalent (and no taxes are collected).  How could you possibly regulate something like FTF unless you have a gun registry, and require proof of ownership a periodically?  Every 6 months is an investigator going to show up and check your safe? You DO comply with the storage requirements, right???


How about just enforcing the laws on the books? Or is that too hard???


Sigh…


h/t JP

Another YGTBSM Moment # 575…

Posted on by March 6, 2013
We all know by now California is pretty desperate for money, and LA has to pay for all those illegals they are harboring, but THIS is just unbelievable…


$100 to $1000 fine and up to 6 months in jail, for throwing a frisbee or a football on the beach; unless you’re in a ‘designated’ area or have a special permit??? 


 Or for digging a hole deeper than 18 inches??? Same fine and time in jail…  And the same for throwing or moving or displacing or defacing any rock… 


Now they have already outlawed smoking on the beaches, but at 37 pages for the Ordinance, one really has to wonder why they just don’t clean up the whole thing (oh yeah, and they struck the prohibition for being drunk on the beach)… Fence the beaches off, and be done with it…


I’m betting the tourists are going to bear the brunt of this… And the illegals will be given a pass as usual in LA…


Yep the PRC is collapsing of it’s own stupidity. I say just give the whole damn thing back to Mexico, and let them deal with it… Put a new border fence up the length of the state and shoot anyone that tries to cross the border!

An Article Worth Reading…

Posted on by March 6, 2013
Folks with insight into the ‘status’ of the war have frequently said the truth was not getting out in the MSM.


HERE is an article from the Armed Forces Journal, written by a troop commander in this month’s Journal. I excerpted the first paragraph below: 

Truth, lies and Afghanistan
How military leaders have let us down
BY LT. COL. DANIEL L. DAVIS
I spent last year in Afghanistan, visiting and talking with U.S. troops and their Afghan partners. My duties with the Army’s Rapid Equipping Force took me into every significant area where our soldiers engage the enemy. Over the course of 12 months, I covered more than 9,000 miles and talked, traveled and patrolled with troops in Kandahar, Kunar, Ghazni, Khost, Paktika, Kunduz, Balkh, Nangarhar and other provinces.
What I saw bore no resemblance to rosy official statements by U.S. military leaders about conditions on the ground.

And he’s not some desk jockey, without a clue…
My arrival in country in late 2010 marked the start of my fourth combat deployment, and my second in Afghanistan. A Regular Army officer in the Armor Branch, I served in Operation Desert Storm, in Afghanistan in 2005-06 and in Iraq in 2008-09. In the middle of my career, I spent eight years in the U.S. Army Reserve and held a number of civilian jobs — among them, legislative correspondent for defense and foreign affairs for Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.

I tend to believe HIS report over what I see coming out of the Pentagon, the Administration and the MSM.  I would also bet his ass is in hot water for this, and he’ll retire as a LT.Col.

The truly sad part of this is the administration’s push, through Paneta to pull troops as soon as possible, without regard for the true situation and the facts that those few troops that WILL be left as ‘trainers’ will become targets on day one of the pullout.  It’s obvious this administration is even worse than the Kennedy and Johnson administrations with McNamara and his whiz kids trying to run a war from DC.  This time around, they’ve ignored/fired/minimized the folks that REALLY knew what was going on.

Your thoughts and comments?

Eagle Scouts…

Posted on by March 6, 2013



100 years ago this year, the FIRST Eagle Scout completed the required merit badges and interview August 21, 1912. Arthur R. Eldred of Oceanside, New York, became the first young man in America to earn the Eagle Scout award, which is pictured above.


I got mine in 1967 at age 16, and Order of the Arrow in 1968; I’ve never regretted the time or effort required, and I STILL use those life lessons learned in Scouting…


Anthony Thomas of Minnesota became the 2,000,000th Eagle Scout in 2009, and today there have been a total of 2,043,375 Eagles awarded…


As you probably know if you read MArooned, Jay and his son are active in Scouting and his son is ‘advancing’ from Cub Scouts this year.


What you may not know, is there are currently 62,226,396 Cub Scouts and 52,077,933 Boy Scouts registered with the BSA this year for a total of 114,304,329 kids in Scouting and 33,364,261 adult volunteers!


And since I’m on a roll (yeah, I know, shaddap)…


Two major artists have been closely identified with Scouting for many years, they are Norman Rockwell, who did 51 paintings about Scouting and Joseph Csatari, who has carried on the tradition with 24 paintings.  All of them can be viewed HERE.


This was the first one Norman Rockwell did in 1925…


Another little ‘oddity’ is that 181 of the Astronaut corps has been Scouts.


There is an organization called the National Eagle Scout Association that welcomes all Eagle Scouts and continues to support Scouting!


And honestly, THIS is the best thing I could come up with to post today, as NOTHING in the news was positive…


I’m curious, how many of y’all were Scouts (Boy or Girl)???

Training Guns…

Posted on by March 6, 2013

Have you, or are you looking at .22 caliber pistols for training? With the cost of ammo these days, and the crowds at the more popular ranges, we have less ‘time’ to adequately train ourselves or maintain
currency with our carry pistols.


Another thing a ‘trainer’ does for you is it will show you any flaws in your shooting, especially in the flinch reaction, and also lack of grip continuity. Also, it allows you to concentrate on sight picture, trigger press, and back on target; rather than recoil mitigation and trying to remember everything else too.


Both Smith & Wesson and Colt have built fine .22 cal revolvers that support most of their lines of more powerful revolvers. Taurus seems to only build one .22 revolver and it’s in a compact size, but it’s the same grip angle, etc.


When you move into the semi- auto category, you have roughly the same sets of choices by manufacturer, everything from Sig’s almost perfect matches of .22 cal pistols to their larger caliber ones;
to the 1911 slide replacements (and a REAL Colt one can run $600!!!), to slide replacements for Glock, and many others.


One specific one I’d like to address is the Ruger MkIII, 22/45. Ruger came out with this pistol to mimic the 1911 grip angle precisely, and the controls are in ‘similar’ places to the actual 1911. HERE is the link



At roughly $340, I spent the $$ to pick one up, as I really didn’t want to start changing slides out on my 1911s (and didn’t have the $600 for a real Colt one). I took it a step further though, in that I also wanted to match the trigger pull, and the sight picture (white dot front, plain rear notch), so I spent an additional $130 for a Volquartsen trigger and a new front sight. Volquartsen link HERE.


For rifles, you have similar options, but they are much more varied, and just about every manufacturer makes a .22 rifle. Of note, is the proliferation of .22s in the AR platform, and the colors…


My original .22 trainer was an old break-top Stevens single shot .22, which is still sitting in the safe at home, I wore that thing slap out… it’s beyond a hair trigger these days 🙂



And my grandson is getting a Marlin Model 39A…


Saw a PINK tiger striped S&W M&P .22 trainer the other day… sigh…


Edit- Peter said this in comments and it’s a point I had neglected…
I’ve used .22 training weapons for years, both for myself and friends, and to train disabled shooters.


Edit2- Keads has a post up HERE on his training weapons! Worth the read!

Heroes’ Welcome???

Posted on by March 6, 2013

So New York can’t have a parade for the Military returning from Iraq/Afghanistan, but today…


They have a parade for the New York Giants, and call them ‘heroes’ for winning the Super Bowl???


And in the last 20 years, there have only been 10 parades, ALL for sports teams…


WTF???

How available IS your carry pistol???

Posted on by March 6, 2013

It’s winter, you’re bundled up; coat, sweater, gloves… AND suddenly you need to get to your carry pistol.


Can you?


Why am I asking?


Look at the last couple of months of attacks on females/elderly, and think about this from a slightly different point of view…


How do we dress? Inside out, right? Shirt, pants, belt, all the stuff that hangs off the belt (including that carry pistol); next comes that new loose knit sweater (don’t wanna be printing, don’t ya know), over than we put on the jacket, then the gloves.


When we get to work we reverse the process to some extent, right? But ONLY when we get back home do we actually get all the way down to the carry pistol and by then the gloves, jacket and sweater are off.


Did you check that the new sweater doesn’t hang up on any protrusions on the pistol? Did you check that you can actually sweep the jacket back to get TO the sweater to get to the pistol? And those nice warm gloves, can you even get your finger IN the trigger guard without discharging the pistol?


I found out this last weekend the nicky neat new Isotoner gloves I just bought (that were all nice and warm) would NOT allow me to access the trigger with ANY feel whatsoever!!!


They went in the emergency bag in the truck…sigh…


We also discussed (and tried) accessing the pistols through various layers of clothes, and it did prove interesting.


Being an old fart, I’ve actually gone back through my wardrobe (especially sweaters and jackets) to make sure ALL of them will sweep/not snag on my carry pistols. I’ve also (with an UNLOADED) gun practiced drawing in front of the mirror to see if there are any possible hang ups.


Another point, you can shoot maybe one round from inside a coat pocket, depending on what you carry. If you have a revolver with a shrouded hammer, you ‘can’ get all the rounds off, but I’ll guarantee it’s gonna get a ‘tad’ warm in that pocket, and your accuracy will suffer (but then again, a snubby fired from a pocket is basically a belly gun anyway)…


Just a thought or two for y’all to ponder…