South Bay Tea Party Update

We're having an event!

Dear Tea Party Patriot,

I am writing this letter to let you know we at a crossroads in South Bay and America. The time to stop this Socialism is before the bills are passed. Right now Government Health is stalled in the House because of the Blue Dog Democrats. Cap and Trade has not passed the Senate because of the Blue Dogs.

Our Jane Harman is the wealthiest person in Congress and one of the key leaders of the Blue Dog Democrat collation. We have a unique opportunity to influence all of America because of our influence in this Congressional District.

We need to build membership in the SouthBayTeaParty. We need to spread our vision to our neighbors and we need to restore hope to many who do not believe that this is a battle that can be won.

I need you to step up and buy 4 to 8 or even 10 tickets as soon as you read this email, for yourself and your friends and neighbors. The discount code for 25% off is “TeaParty0830-25”. Even if you are not able to attend, buy 4 and give them away to people you think would benefit from what will be a very uplifting experience.

Go to www.DontTellMeItCantBeDone.com to purchase your tickets.

Why did I choose to sponsor this event? Because I met with several of my friends that did not attend our Tea Party event on April 15^th and they were discouraged and hopeless when it came to the future of our country. So I scheduled this event for my friends and your friends to help them restore their hope for the future a vision for how to take back America. So Don’t Tell Me It Can’t Be Done, we can take back America, push back the tide of Socialism, and restore Liberty and Freedom to our country.

Steve Amerson’s inspiring live singing with, live grand piano and a 26 foot HD screen for the video back drop is only the beginning. I am still working on getting a well know personality to come, but no guarantees. Either way we will hear some dynamic and thought provoking presentations and some short speeches from candidates from next year’s election.

No matter what happens this is a time to decide to stand with us. I for one would rather be the man in the arena then stay seated in the stands… go today to www.DontTellMeItCantBeDone.com and act. We will not get a second chance.

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
-Theodore Roosevelt April 23, 1910-

In the Arena for America,

Gary Aven
www.SouthBayTeaParty.com
www.DontTellMeItCantBeDone.com

ARRRRGH! Kernel Updates...BLECH!

I'm a Linux user. I have been since 1995, and although I keep a couple of Windoze boxen around because of hardware compatibility issues (Audio/Video capture and editing, and Ham Radio stuff), I greatly prefer Linux for my daily driver. No viruses, spyware, trojans, etc. Part of maintaining *ANY* computers system is to keep the system patched and updated. The latest updates for my OpenSUSE 11.1 installation included a kernel update. The "kernel" is the heart and soul of the Operating System, and as patches become available, I apply them. Well....this one BROKE the video subsystem, and I'm going bonkers trying to get it to run like it used to. It works well enough to be usable, but it's not quite "right" if you know what I mean, and if you run Linux, you know what I mean! Since I use an NVidia GeForce video card, and NVidia does NOT "Open Source" their drivers, I'm used to having to recompile the kernel module so everything interfaces properly, I can run my Dell 2405 flat screen at it's native resolution, 3D acceleration is enabled, etc. Somehow the NVidia driver and the compiled module aren't talking the same language as the new kernel is. I can't get the screen resolution back up to 1920x1200, 3D isn't working (more an annoyance, as I don't game on this box), and it doesn't automagically pick up what monitor I'm using from the EDID that the monitor outputs when it's gets queried. In short, I'm stuck in "Frame Buffer Graphics" which is NOT optimum.
Major Payne, here!
I could probably fix this by swapping out the GeForce 9400GT card I have in here for the GeForce 8800GTS I pulled out, which is a better supported card, but it draws a lot more power, generates a lot more heat, and is really overkill for what I use this machine for.
Or I can wait for the next kernel update, or NVidia driver update, which should hopefully fix this problem.
And on top of this minor annoyance, I'm trying to move all my "junque" over to the girlfriend's place, we just got a new puppy, and it's been too damn hot to work in her/our garage to clean it up so I'll be able to store my junque until we can get everything sorted out.
Not a fun weekend here.......

3000 Visits!

Wow, I just looked at the Sitemeter stats, and I see I've gone slightly over 3000 visits.
I doubt if I'll ever generate the site traffic that most of the people on my blogroll do, but then I never thought I'd hit 3000 in 6 months, either.
I started the blog as my own little 2nd Amendment page, but in looking back I see that it's more of a random "Jim's World" kind of thing. I'm a pretty "Constitutionalist" (is that word?) kind of guy, and even though I'm registered as a Republican, I really don't feel much affiliation with them any more. I'll take Mike Church's viewpoint and say that I'm an American first, a conservative second, and a "Small 'r' republican" third. Our government has gotten bigger and bigger over the years I've been on this rock we call Earth, and it troubles me greatly. They're sticking their nose into places it doesn't belong, and they don't have the Constitutional authority to do so. Besides the 2nd Amendment being under constant attack, now they're going after the 1st Amendment with things like the "Fairness Doctrine" (what doublespeak!), trying to slip "Hate Crime" legislation into totally unrelated bills, and other things I've read but can't remember right now.
Really disgusting. It's enough to make me want to "Go Galt", and help stop the motor of the world.
I won't even go into the nuttiness of things out here in the People's Republik of Kalifornia, as it's just as bizzare, and even more disgusting. Last I read, Kalifornia was home to 32% of all the people in the United States that were on welfare. Stunning, just stunning.
Oh, well....I've rambled on here enough. Thanks to everybody who stops by, and maybe one of these days I'll come up with one of those 'Killer Posts' that I admire so much in the blogs I read.

Private Healthcare Destruction.

H/T to Anthony at the Columbia Conservative Examiner for this.
http://blog.flecksoflife.com/2009/07/19/the-first-400-pages-of-the-hc-monstrosity/

Apollo 11 Anniversary

Happy 40th to the crew of Apollo 11!
God, I can't believe it was FOURTY YEARS ago that we landed on the Moon. I was between high-school and College that summer, still not really sure what I wanted to do for a living, except that it would involve Electronics, and probably Radio. That particular Sunday I was rehearsing for a community theater production that I had a part in. Yes, some Geeks have at least a *small* artistic streak in them, and I'm one of them. I wasn't on stage much at that rehearsal, so I'd brought my little Sony B&W TV-500U "Micro TV" with me to watch the landing. I'll NEVER forget "Four forward, kickin' up a little dust", and then Armstrong's announcement that they were down safe.
I erupted into a cheer like my team had just won the Homecoming Game!
A few minutes later, a couple of the artsy-fartsy types came in and asked me what I was being so loud about, and I told them we were down safe on the Moon! Wow, talk about instant Absolute Zero in the room....I couldn't believe the disgust and derision these supposedly "educated" people began heaping on me, NASA, the space program, and anybody who didn't want to just give all that "wasted" money to the poor.
Liberals were pretty annoying even back then, but I was so excited I didn't care much, and just wrote it off to their never having had Real Jobs out in the Real World.
I could bore you with facts and figures about the Saturn rocket, but I won't. If you're interested, just click on over to Ken Rockwell's site, where he does a MUCH better job at this stuff than I do.
And congrats again to our Astronauts, the army of contractors, and the people at NASA who made all this possible back when our country had the will and the backbone to do great things.

"Old Fort MacArthur Days" Pictures

This is the first time I've tried the direct-to-blog function at Photobucket. Seems to work OK, and it looks a little nicer than just sticking all the pix into one blog window.
I see that I forgot to rotate a few. I'll get the actual Photobucket files 'cleaned up' a bit later so you don't have to crane your neck to look at some of them.
The "Old Fort MacArthur Days and Artillery Show" is quite a production. Looks like it's doubled in size from the last time I went, two years ago.
Enjoy!

"Old Fort MacArthur Days"

Went to one of my favorite events out here....the 24th annual "Old Fort MacArthur Days and Artillery Show" at Fort Mac.
It's quite a show, with re-enactors covering everything from Roman Centurions, through Medieval, Spanish-American, US Civil, WWI, WWII, and the Viet Nam wars.
Tons of period-accurate equipment, from spinning wheels to forges and blacksmiths pounding out their wares.
Oh, and Live Fire exercises for most of the weaponry.
I'll get some pix posted tomorrow, after I sort through the bazillion shots I took.

Item Not As Described

No, it's not a piece of junk I bought on eBay, it's a funny website.
A.K.A. "The Worst of Craigslist".
http://itemnotasdescribed.com/

City of Carson Passes Ammo Sale Restrictions

Carson is not one of my favorite cities in this area. This just takes it down one more notch.
http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/ci_12789303

For those that don't know anything about Carson, it's Wikipedia to the rescue:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carson,_Ca

Unfortunately the Wikipedia doesn't go into the continuing problems in the city, but Google is just a click away:
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=carson+corruption&aq=f&oq=&aqi=&fp=yFkC8AqhLZU

Not much new.....

Still recovering from:
Field Day
Independence Day
AND
The announcement at work that the company my employer subs to declared Chapter 11 on June 22nd.
We all think it's circling the drain, but Upper Management has declared things to be "Business as usual while we undergo the restructuring".
Yeah, right....

Ammo Shortage Easing?

I just checked Midway and Cabela's for my favorite flavors (45ACP and 357), and for the first time, I don't see most items listed as "Backordered". The prices seem to have come down a bit, too.
I'm headed over the range in a few minutes to renew my membership, and I'll ask them if they see any increase in supply.
Time to stock up *deep* this time! I *miss* going to the range weekly......

BACK FROM THE RANGE....

Rangemaster Fred said he thinks it's easing up, too, but the big news was that he's now able to get guns! He had his display case about back to 'normal', and mentioned that he'd had a couple of his distributors call him and say they were well stocked on popular handguns again. He hadn't heard from them for several months, and they called him!
Let's just hope this "Light at the end of the tunnel" isn't the headlight on an approaching train....

And on another positive note, the range will be installing a new bullet trap in the next month or so! While the trap will be rated for high-powered rifles, they're only going to upgrade three of the lanes, as the roof can't support the weight of the rifle-rated baffles over all 20 lanes.
Now that I'll have a close place to shoot one, looks like I'll finally be able to buy something in 308 caliber!