Jeff Cooper's Birthday

I'm a big fan of Jeff Cooper. He taught us The Modern Technique, and was a skilled writer. My favorite book of his is "To Ride, Shoot Straight, And Speak The Truth", although I have most of his other books. And I have the DVD of his life story, "Jeff Cooper, A Man In Full", which is quite entertaining.
Lt. Col. Cooper would have been 90 years old today.

Very Bad News From A Close Friend -Update-

A few weeks ago I posted about my best buddy's brother who was shot during an armed robbery in that "Brady Paradise" otherwise known as Chicago.

He died today.

My friend's brother wasn't quite as big a sportsman or shooter as his older brothers were, but he did know his way around guns enough that if he would have been able to own one, it might have saved his life, or at least made the robber flee.

He fully complied with the criminal that shot him, and yet he was shot anyway.

So much for going unarmed, and "Give them what they want" as a means of providing for your own "safety".

My thoughts and prayers are with my friend and his family today.

R.I.P. Domino May 1996~May 2010

Today was one of the saddest days I've had in a long time.
Our old dog Domino had to be taken on her last ride to the vet tonight.
She was a few days short of 14 years old, and was just plain tuckered out. The last couple of times I had to take her in, the vet told us it was getting to be her time, and we should get ready for it. She had gone deaf about a year ago, and was diagnosed with progressive congestive heart failure and pulmonary edema a couple of years ago. Her lungs kept getting full of fluid, and the meds we were giving her just weren't working anymore. Over the weekend we think she had a stroke, as she was having trouble walking, her tail was always between her legs, and her left eye was pointed up and fixed, while her right eye was normal. Even our young dog Diamond knew something wasn't right, as she was being very protective of Domino, and was licking her face a lot. Last night she started gasping for breath, and was wandering around all confused. She seemed better this morning, and was enjoying the sunshine outdoors while I was doing yard work, but by the time my wife got home from work, she had taken a turn for the worse, and was gasping, wheezing, and "gurgling". These were the extreme symptoms the vet told us would be very evident when it was her time, so we called him, and he said to bring her in. He has a separate room for this, and we went in there and got her up on the table. He gave her the shot, and I held her until she passed on very quietly. We said our goodbyes to her, and came home in tears. This was especially hard on my wife, as she'd raised Domino from a pup, along with Domino's mother, who we had to have put to sleep a couple of years ago.
Goodbye, my friend. I hope to see you on the other side.

Citizen / Soldier

I have to admit the first time I saw this at the theater, it brought a tear to my eye. 3 Doors Down has been a band I've enjoyed listening to since they hit it big with "Kryptonite".
The video for "Citizen/Soldier" was shot mostly at Camp Roberts, using active Guard members as the actors.
God bless and protect all our military personnel.
Enjoy!

Please Sign The "I Support Arizona" Petition

Minstrel had this on his blog, so h/t!
Please Sign The "I Support The New Arizona Immigration Law".
'Nuff said!

L.A. Times QOTW

This one really busted me up, but I'm laughing tears of sorrow because it's so true.

Quote of the Week - L.A. Times

"Frankly, I don't know what it is about California , but we seem to have a strange urge to elect really obnoxious women to high office. I'm not bragging, you understand, but no other state, including Maine , even comes close. When it comes to sending left-wing dingbats to Washington , we're number one. There's no getting around the fact that the last time anyone saw the likes of Barbara Boxer, Dianne Feinstein, and Nancy Pelosi, they were stirring a cauldron when the curtain went up on 'Macbeth'. The three of them are like jackasses who happen to possess the gift of blab. You don't know if you should condemn them for their stupidity or simply marvel at their ability to form words."

--Columnist: Burt Prelutsky , LA Times

And here's a link to his blog.

Maybe we have a least a *little* sanity left out here on The Left Coast!

They Live.....

I was going through our collection of DVD's to cull the herd a bit, and came across "They Live", one of my personal faves. I know Roddy Piper has been is a bunch of movies, but this is one moviedom's all-time great quotes.

Enjoy!

My Dogs........

This has probably been around quite a while, but it made me chuckle, so I though I'd pass it on.


This morning I went to sign my dogs up for welfare. At first the lady said, "Dogs are not eligible to draw welfare". So I explained to her that my dogs are mixed in color, unemployed, lazy, can't speak English and have no clue who their daddies are. They expect me to feed them, provide them with housing and medical care, and feel guilty because they are dogs.

So she looked in her policy book to see what it takes to qualify. My dogs get their first checks Friday.

Miami Vice

"Miami Vice" is one of my favorite TV programs. It was really ahead of its time, and set new standards for TV production with its innovative blending of video action and popular music.
I've been wanting to buy the complete boxed set for sometime now since I saw it at Best Buy, but the $150 price put me off a bit. Well, by carefully shopping around, I found the complete set, new in the shrink-wrap, for $55, plus $4 for shipping. Since I have a lot of 'couch time' these days (well, not really, but some people *think* I do), I opened the set and started watching.
The second disk of Season One has an episode called "Calderone's Return, Part II" with an opening sequence that just blew me away. In case you don't remember who Calderone is, he's "The Columbian" who was responsible for the death of Tubbs' older brother back in New York, and is the major player in the drug trade in Southern Florida. They track him down in the Bahamas, and Sonny and Rico take off in Sonny's Cris Craft Stinger 390X to do a little surveillance on him, and maybe get him extradited back to the US. This also the episode where their Captain, Lou Rodriguez (played by Gregory Sierra) dies, to be replaced by Marty Castillo (Edward James Olmos) in the next episode.
Enjoy the opening sequence, it's masterfully done!
The complete, uncut-for-editing song from Russ Ballard is available here.

Very Bad News From A Close Friend

My best buddy from my college days just emailed me. His youngest brother had gone back to Chicago to visit with his daughter and another of the brothers. Saturday night they went out to dinner and had a great time.
On his way back to his hotel room, he was robbed at gunpoint, and then shot in the stomach even though he fully complied with the robber.
The bullet passed through his colon and is lodged in his hip. He's in the ICU, where they're keeping him heavily sedated so he doesn't move around much and damage the repair job they did.
So much for Chicago gun laws, and "Give them what they want" keeping the citizens safe, eh?
We've all read and heard stories like this, but this is the first time it's hit this close to me.

One Six Right

My buddy The Wandering Minstrel has a post about the Aeronca Champ, or as we used to call them, "Air Knockers". In my younger days as a Junior Birdman I had in ride in a Champ, and I still remember it. Never got a ride in a J3 Cub, but maybe one of these days......
Anyway, in remembering the Champ, my mind wandered back to one of my favorite films, called "One Six Right". It's the story of General Aviation, and specifically, the Van Nuys Airport, which is the busiest General Aviation airport in the world.
Now General Aviation airports run the gamut from little out-of-the-way grass strips, to bustling hubs of activity like Van Nuys, and they're wonderful things. They're usually places you can just go and hang out if you love airplanes like I do, although the biggest of them can resemble a full-fledged airport like LAX, ORD, or JFK, with all the attendant security that makes big airports a little harder to just go hang out at.
But back to the film......
"One Six Right" is more a love story than a documentary, written, directed, and produced by a guy who loves aviation, and the thrill of flying. It was originally shot in High Definition, and has been shown on PBS stations, and some of the larger cable networks, and the videography is just absolutely stunning, along with some beautifully done original music. The interviews are great, too, and you'll see some rather famous people talking about their love of flying. And all woven in with these is the history of Van Nuys Airport, from the bean field it stated as to the bustling giant it is today.
It's been released in DVD and HD-DVD formats, but no Blu-Ray. The DVD version is available from Netflix, and the streaming version is available on HULU.
If you love aviation, it's one of those "Must See" movies, especially in High Definition if you can find a showing.