Top 10 Mall Ninja Guns

I saw a post over at Tam's place that really cracked me up. It's a piece that includes a link over to the LonelyMachines site where the origins of the term "Mall Ninja" are explained. It cracked me up so hard, that I checked Wikipedia for the term, and *surprise*, they had no listing for it. I knew what it meant from hanging around various forums and blogs, but thought Wikipedia might have a listing.
A Google Search fared much better, and led me to this page with the "Top 10 Mall Ninja Guns".

Now in Days of Old, I did some security consulting for people that thought their offices were being bugged, and as a result of that, I got hooked up with a PPO who wanted me to be his "Tactical Stealth Electronics" operations guy. The owner of this place had this brilliant idea to have a one-stop "Security Mall" where you could hire a Private Investigator (an active-duty LAPD guy, no less!), go to school and get your Guard Card (LONG story on that!), hire his security officers, and pretty much "Take Care of ALL Your Security Needs Under One Roof!". Well, I hung around for a while, made some decent bucks sweeping offices, and got to know a bunch of security guards. Back then, they weren't called "Mall Ninjas", but rather "Cowboys", which considering who the term was applied to, I thought insulted real cowboys!
Some of these guys were freakin' NUTS! There are VERY strict rules for running a PPO (Private Patrol Operator) in Kalifornia, and they cover vehicle types and paint schemes, officer uniforms and badging, and a host of other rules and regulations. To make a long story short, the PPO MUST ensure that his patrol officers CANNOT be mistaken for a Duly-Sworn Peace Officer, a.k.a., a REAL Cop.
This is where the "Cowboy" part comes in. Some of these guys went out of their way to look, and act, like real police. One guy bought a used Kawasaki "Police Special" from the CHP, and bought the correct style pants, boots, shirts, and helmet. He looked scary good, and after being told THREE times by the owner of the place to "Knock it off, or we'll BOTH get in trouble!", he got fired.
Same thing with a "Motor Unit" guy who'd bought himself a used Crown Victoria from the CHP, and outfitted it with all the gear the CHP had, except for the light bar. He had all yellow lenses in his, but again, same thing happened. Repeatedly warned, then canned.
Anyway, I heard one of the line managers mutter something one day, and I asked him what he said. "Goddamn COWBOYS!", and then explained the whole situation to me.
It's funny, but a lot of people seem to want to be police, but either can't or won't make the effort to actually do what it takes to be one.
I see the same thing among Amateur Radio operators who get involved with EMCOMMS, too. Some of these guys just have to have the same style vest, pants and shirt that the real first responders wear, and when they get told they can't, get all hissy about it. Some of these guys even have official looking badges, fer Pete's sake!
Maybe someday the term "Radio Ninja" will enter the popular lexicon, but for now all we have is Mall Ninja.

Pouring Lead Shot

Into my Lead Sled shot bags, that is.

Some things I learned, that I *should* have known.

1) #9 lead shot is tiny!
It came streaming out of the 25lb sack like sugar on steroids.
I couldn't control it, and wound up with 10 pounds in the Caldwell bag before I could stop it, and wound up with a handful scattered all over the place.

2) It doesn't pour back out of the Caldwell sack as easily as it went in.
Another handful or two all over the place.

3) If you do this, make sure you have a BIG pan underneath to catch all the shot you will spill.
I tried using the big styrofoam box our latest order from Omaha Steaks came in, and it was barely big enough.

4) Even if you use a scale to weigh the bags as you pour the shot in, the first bag will be heavier than the last (see #1).

5) Next time, buy "BB" size shot as it's much easier to handle!

TSA Now Grabbing Your Gold and Silver....

Man, this is right out of the "Enemies: Foreign and Domestic" book.
Bob Bullard, anyone?

TSA Thugs In Action

Radio Update!

Well, I'm having excellent results parting out my big Kenwood TS-950SDX station.
So far I've sold the SP-950 speaker, the SM-230 Station Monitor, the DRU-2 Digital Recording Unit, the VS-2 Voice Synthesizer, a couple of 'official' Kenwood Service Manuals, and Inrad Roofing Filter. This gives me almost $1300 in the "FTdx-5000MP" fund, and I haven't sold the radio yet, which should bring about $1800.
I also have an ICom IC-970 VHF/UHF multi-mode radio that's going on the block and should bring in about $1500. Throw in some Handi-Talkies I just sold, and a couple of receivers that went out of here last week, and I'm at over $5k. This puts me withing 'striking distance' of the $5900 cost of the new radio, and cleans out some radios I don't use, neatens up the shack quite a bit, and meets the agreement I made with the YF to "Get Rid Of The Ones You Don't Use Anymore And I Don't Have A Problem With You Getting A New One".
Oh, and she got a new washer and dryer out of the deal, too.
Of course, you NEVER buy your wife a new washer and dryer as a "gift", but rather as "Something We NEED".
Togetherness, 'ya know?

Lead Sled is Here....

Put it together tonight, and realized you can't work a lever action rifle while it's in the rest.

One of these days I'll learn to read a bit more before I buy things......
Now, I *suppose* as long as I carefully put the rifle back in position after I take a shot and work the action, it won't really matter, but it kind of bugs me that I didn't research this a bit more.

Hmmmmmm....maybe it's time to buy a nice 308 bolt-action rifle?

Any recommendations?

November 2012 Can't Get Here Soon Enough....

From on of my friends.

If any other of our presidents
had doubled the National Debt, which
had taken more than two centuries
to accumulate, in one year,
would you have approved?

If any other of our presidents
had then proposed to Double
the debt again within 10 years,
would you have approved?

If any other of our presidents
had criticized a State Law that
he admitted he never even read,
would you think that he is
just an ignorant hothead?

If any other of our presidents
joined the country of Mexico and sued a
state in the United States to force that State
to continue to allow Illegal Immigration,
would you question his patriotism
and wonder whose side he was on?

If any other of our presidents
had pronounced the Marine Corps
as if it were the Marine Corpse,
would you think him an idiot?

If any other of our presidents
had put 87,000 workers out of work
by arbitrarily placing a moratorium on
offshore oil drilling on companies that have
one of the best safety records of any industry
because one foreign company had an accident,
would you have agreed?

If any other of our presidents
had used a forged document as the
basis of the moratorium that would render
87,000 American workers unemployed,
would you support him?

If any other of our presidents
had been the first President to need a
teleprompter installed to be able to get through
a press conference, would you have laughed and

said this is more proof of how inept he is on

his own and is really controlled by smarter

men behind the scenes, just like a simple puppet?

If any other of our presidents invited a

rap artist who celebrated killing cops to the

White House, would you have approved?

If any other of our presidents
had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars
of your tax money to take his First Lady to a

play in NYC, would you have approved?

If any other of our presidents
had reduced your retirement plan holdings
of GM stock by 90% and given the
unions a majority stake in GM,
would you have approved?

If any other of our presidents
had made a joke at the expense
of the Special Olympics,
would you have approved?

If any other of our presidents
had given Gordon Brown a set of inexpensive
and incorrectly formatted DVDs

when Gordon Brown had given him a

thoughtful and historically significant gift,

would you have approved?

If any other of our presidents
had given the Queen of England an
IPod containing videos of his speeches,
would you have thought it to be a
proud moment for America ?

If any other of our presidents
had bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia,
would you have approved?

If any other of our presidents
had visited Austria and made reference
to the nonexistent "Austrian language,"
would you have brushed it off
as a minor slip?

If any other of our presidents
had filled his Cabinet and circle of
Advisers with people who cannot seem
to keep current on their Income Taxes,
would you have approved?

If any other of our presidents
had stated that there were 57 states in
the United States, wouldn't you have had
second thoughts about his capabilities?

If any other of our presidents
would have flown all the way to Denmark
to make a five-minute speech about how the

Olympics would benefit him walking out his

front door in his home town, would you not

have thought he was a self-important, conceited, egotistical jerk?

If any other of our presidents
had been so Spanish illiterate as to refer to
"Cinco de Cuatro" in front of the Mexican

ambassador when it was "The 5th of May" (Cinco de Mayo)

and then continue to flub it when he tried again,

wouldn't you have winced in embarrassment?

If any other of our presidents
had burned 9,000 gallons of jet fuel
to go plant a single tree on Earth Day,
would you have concluded he's a hypocrite?

If any other of our presidents'
Administrations had okayed Air Force One
flying low over millions of people followed by
a jet fighter in downtown Manhattan causing
widespread panic, would you have wondered
whether they actually understood what happened on 9-11?

If any other of our presidents
had failed to send relief aid to flood victims
throughout the Midwest, with more people killed
or made homeless than in New Orleans,

wouldn't you want it made into a major ongoing

political issue with claims of outright racism and incompetence?

If any other of our presidents
had created the positions of 32 Czars
who report directly to him, bypassing
the House and Senate on much of
what is happening in America ,
would you have approved?

If any other of our presidents
had ordered the firing of the CEO
of a major corporation, even though he
had no constitutional authority to do so,
would you have approved?


So, tell me again,
what is it about Obama that
makes him so brilliant and impressive?
Is it the fact he knows all 57 states?

Can't think of anything?
Then you'd better start worrying.
He's done all these things in 30 months --
and you have less than 17 months
to come up with an answer.

Every statement and action in this email
is factual and correctly attributable
to Barack Hussein Obama.
Every bumble is a matter of record
and completely verifiable.

And, all this was done in just 2 (?) years!!?
Somebody was sure working hard!!!

Visiting "Strangers".....

Hmmm....I seem to be getting a lot of hits from Arlington and Fairfax, Virginia.

Did I make "The Big Time"?

Great Afternoon at the Range

It's like the old saying about fishing, "The worst day fishing is better than the best day at work", although I don't think I'd care to have a "Bad Day at the Range"! The last Bad Day I had was a couple of years ago when my wife hit the target support with my 45, and the round came straight back and smacked my in the upper lip!
OUCH!
Anyway....I had a great time this afternoon with my son. I went through about 150 rounds of 45ACP, and he went through about 100 rounds of 40S&W, putting a small dent in the 500 rounds I bought him for his birthday present.
And we BOTH realized we simply MUST get to the range more than "every couple of months"!
I took me a full magazine to get back into the rhythm I usually have, and out of my first 8 shots, 4 were outside the black! They were all within the "Dinner plate at 7 yds" credo, but I'm capable of much better than that.
It took my son a few shots to get back to his usual skill level, but then he wasn't doing rapid double-taps from low ready!
After my first magazine fiasco, I went back to the basics: good grip, good sight alignment, surprise break, and DON'T JERK THE TRIGGER! I showed him some tips about sight alignment, and I think he understands the "Front Sight...PRESS!" mental attitude for defensive shooting better now. We talked about the surprise break, the "thin glass rod" concept, and I explained to him about how being aware of the trigger reset movement will get him to know and understand his pistol better.
By the end of the two hours we were both doing better than when we walked in, and had a great time.
We're going to head up to Angeles Shooting Range in two weeks, after his 17HMR ammo gets here, along with the sabot slugs I want to try in my rebarreled and scoped Remington 1100, my "Goblin Gettin' Zombie Zapper". I also ordered a Caldwell Lead Sled Plus from Midway, and a couple of bags of lead shot to anchor it down. Learning to sight-in from a bench rest is a new thing to me, and I've written down, and printed out, some guidelines on how to do it.

Range Time!!

Heading to the indoor range Thursday after work with my son. I got him 500 rds of 40S&W for his Sig P226, and three spare magazines for his birthday, and we're gonna go turn some money into smoke and noise!
I also got him 500 rds of 17HMR for his Savage 93R17-FXP rifle (the one he regularly embarrasses me with!), but we have to hold off on going up to Angeles Shooting Range for a week or so until I can schedule a day off from work. I'm anxious to get up there to try the new rifled barrel, scope, and recoil pad I installed on my Remington 1100. I have a selection of slugs I want to try with it and see how they shoot with a rifled as opposed to smoothbore barrel.
Which reminds me....the "Box-O-Truth" did an article on slugs and buckshot through smooth and rifled barrels, and he shot some of the sabot slugs that are out there. They're about FOUR BUCKS a round ( ! ), so I probably won't order too many to start with.
I also want to try some of the Hornady LEVERevolution polymer-tipped rounds in my Marlin 336 30-30 rifle.
Looks like I'd better get that order in to Cabela's, Midway, or Sportsman's Guide tonight!

Boston's Gun Bible

I'll take one of my (in)famous SWAGs and say that 99% of the people who drop by here know about this book, and have probably read it.
I bought it a while back, thumbed through it, thought "This looks pretty good...", and promptly put it on my book shelf.
Well, I started reading it today, and it's even better than I thought, as it covers so much territory. A lot of it's been covered in numerous other books, and a lot of it echoes what my Instructors have said in the training classes I've taken, so I won't go over it. One of the first things that really grabbed me was a quote in the front of the book from Heraclitus on the Warrior Spirit.
It goes:

Of every One-Hundred men, Ten shouldn't even be there.
Eighty are nothing but targets.
Nine are real fighters...
We are lucky to have them, as they make the battle.
Ah, but the One, the One of them who is a Warrior,
He will bring the others back....

Pretty stout stuff!

I don't think I'm in that "Top Ten", but it gives me strength to know that at least I'm a *bit* more aware of things than most of the sheeple who blindly go through life in Condition White.

Cain vs Obama

As usual, Ramirez nails it!