"First They Came For...."

Here's an 'update' to the famous "First They Came..." quotation.

Shamelessly borrowed from Ninety Miles from Tyranny.

The "Bill and Hillary" Kitchen Set

From a friend of mine.

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Quiet Week.....

Not much going on. I've been going to bed pretty early this week to try and get plenty of rest while the antibiotics do their magic on my sinus infection.

It's working so far, as I'm able to breathe, and I'm not coughing all night long. The persistent headache I had has gone away, and my low fever (101*) has dropped back to "normal", which for me is about 97.9*.

Morale at work is pretty low, and I've moved all my personal stuff out of my office area on the ship.

Since there's NO CHANCE we'll be going out for at least a year, I figured why keep the stuff on board.

The manager I'm more or less permanently "om loan" to told us this morning at the O-dark-thirty daily meeting that the "voluntary layoff" was directed at a few specific people they're trying to get to leave "quietly". He didn't mention what group they're in, but I have my suspicions about which one it is.

And Saturday is another "NRA First Steps - Pistol" class that I'll be helping my friend with.

ALL of his "First Steps" classes are booked solid through the end of March, and he told me all the April classes are getting filled in, too.

I just hope we can scrounge up enough 22LR to keep the students equipped!

A Big "Uh-OH!" at Work

I stayed home today as I'm still under the weather, and had a doctor's appointment. They've now got me on two antibiotics to try and knock out this sinus infection that's been plaguing me for several weeks now.

And my doctor had some 3D imaging done of my head (yeah, yeah, I already know it's empty) to see if he needs to get an Ear, Nose, and Throat specialist involved. Hopefully the course of antibiotics will knock it out, and I'll start feeling better.

On the work-front, I received an email from a fellow employee. Seems there was an all-hands meeting today, and the company is offering "voluntary layoffs", where if you agree, you'll get 4 weeks pay, and a kick for your COBRA medical.

Offer good only until 5pm Wednesday, so hurry now over to the HR Department and sign up!

I haven't decided what to do, as I have a Worker's Compensation claim in-process, and my sweet wife is worried that any final amount will be decided by my future earnings potential, and if I'm not working, I might not get the amount the lawyer says we'll get.

I suppose I should talk to him about it......

NRA "First Steps - Pistol" AAR

Gee....I'm using the term "AAR". Never thought I'd get here......

Got to the range today about 1030, and was greeted by the lead instructor, three other volunteer instructors, and twenty anxious students.

Some of them had fired guns before, some had not, and a few were "scared" of guns, but thought they'd be better off knowing actual facts about them, rather than relying on the the lamestream media is reporting.

The classroom part starts with The Four Rules, and then gets into the basic parts of a gun ("Frame", "Barrel", "Grip", and "Action"), and then discusses ammo.

Then grip and stance are taught, moving on to sight picture, followed by a short break.

After the break, we finish up the classroom training by reviewing what was taught, checking stance and grip for each student, and answering numerous questions.

You can tell these are very interested people by the questions they asked, and by their attitude.

While the lead was finishing up in the classroom, the other instructors and I went out into the range area, set up a table, hung targets, and loaded magazines.

The pistols in use were Ruger Mark-II's, slightly modified with dots of white-out applied to the sights. A couple of years ago when my sweet wife took the course, she complained that she couldn't get a sight picture because she couldn't see the sights!

The lead took my suggestion to use white-out, and nobody has complained since then.

The first segment was 20 rounds onto a piece of paper, just to get the students used to handling the pistols, inserting/extracting magazines, and manipulating the controls on the gun.

After questions were asked and answered, stance and grip checked again, we went to 20 rounds on a standard NRA "Slow Fire" target.

As the students fired at their first target, we watched them for things like jerking the trigger, and as always, stance and grip.

The last segment was 10 rounds at a fresh target, this time "scored".

Three of the students scored 98, so we had a 3 round shoot-off to determine the "Best Shot of the Class", who won a nice baseball cap.

So.....we started with 20 students, and turned them in to 20 graduates, with a certificate, patch, rocker, and wallet card.

The class was 100% safe, none of the guns spontaneously "went off by itself", no blood was spilled, and everybody had a great time.

And the next 5 Saturdays are booked solid, so I imagine I'll be spending a whole lot of time helping my friend teach new shooters the basics.

Helping Teach an NRA "Basic Pistol" Class on Saturday

One of my instructor friends dropped me an email tonight wondering if I was free tomorrow to help him with an NRA Basic Pistol class.

Of course I said I'd be happy to help him!

Even when I'm "teaching", I learn things from the students, and some of their questions are a bit amusing, to say the least.

We all had to start *somewhere*, so I NEVER look down on them, call a question "stupid", or demean then in any way. I KNOW I asked my share of "stupid" questions when I was getting started in any variety of my pursuits, and I always say a little silent prayer for all the people who mentored me that aren't with us any more.

The question turned to ammo for the class, and seeing as I have a small stockpile of 22LR out in the garage, I offered to bring some, as his ammo orders are constantly having their delivery dates pushed back. He asked me how much I wanted for it, and I told him I'd look up what the going rate was, and we'd work something out.

HOLY SMOKES........!!!!!

A box of 500 Wolf 22LR "Extra Match" grade was going for EIGHTY DOLLARS when it was last available, and the 500 round box of Fiocchi Biathlon Super Match SM340 was ONE-HUNDRED BUCKS when it was last available.

I bought this back in July of 2009, and I sure don't remember what I paid for it, so "negotiations" tomorrow should be pretty interesting, to say the least!

A Reply TO Feinstein

No, not from me. I'm not quick-witted enough to come up with something so sharp..

SO....I "borrowed" it from Tam.

Hope she doesn't mind......

I don't normally engage in the silliness of referring to politicians as "Kommisar" or "Reichsfuhrer" or any of that. It's simplistic and I can do better than that, but sometimes someone makes it gets really, really hard to not go there...

"The mothers, the women, the men of America have to make a decision as to whether their personal pleasure is more important than the general welfare," - Sen. Dianne Feinstein, (NSDAP-CA)

You listen to me, you meddling harpy, you jumped-up refugee from a zoning board: You don't get to pick and choose which of my constitutional rights are "personal pleasures" and further, while your job does entail a certain amount of promoting the general welfare, you don't get to compel whatever definition du jour of the "general welfare" you please.

My personal welfare, and the welfare of millions of my fellow Americans, is generally promoted by the possession of effective weapons of self-defense: trying to take them away would be very harmful to the general welfare and practically the opposite of ensuring domestic tranquility. Stop.

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Radio Weirdness

Well....I'm sitting here scratching my head......

My radio club runs a "Net" on Thursday nights, where we all gather around a local 2 Meter repeater, do the roll call, club officer check-ins, and swap information about upcoming events.

It's kind of like gathering around a radio-based cracker barrel, and a good way to keep in touch with friends and other club members between meetings.

Last Thursday night I tried repeatedly to respond to my call, but nothing happened.

Being a well prepared Ham, I grabbed one of my HT's (walkie-talkie to the non-hams here), and proceeded to check-in to the net.

Tonight I figured I should look into what the problems could be.

I swept the antenna with my analyzer from 144 to 148MHz, and all was well.

I connected the output of the radio to my power meter and a dummy load, and read 25 Watts output. I could also hear my audio just fine on an auxiliary receiver..

The CTCSS tone was properly set, and the "encode" function was enabled.

So, after a net for different group ended tonight, I keyed-up and called the repeater owner.

The radio sounds fine, and was "full quieting" into the repeater.

So at this point, I don't have a clue about what caused the problem last week.

Things have been running pretty smooth here lately on both the radio and computer ends of things, so maybe Murphy decided it was time to pay a house call.....

Mini Blog Meet

I *finally* got to meet some of my fellow bloggers in person, and have lunch with them.

What a GREAT day it was.

Old_NFO had contacted me a week or so ago, and was curious if I was going to be in town this week.

Since I was, we proceeded to 'synchronize watches.......NOW!', and agreed to meet down the road at a P.F. Chang's that was located somewhat centrally to all parties involved.

He had arranged for LL and Opus #6 to meet us there, and so we say down to a nice lunch of Kung Pao chicken, Mongolian beef, and some shrimp dish.

I kind of quarantined myself off to the edge of the table as I'm still recovering from the damn cold/flu/whatever that I thought I'd gotten over when I was out on the last launch campaign.

Before, during, and after lunch we discussed many things, and it was great to finally meet some of the people I've met 'electronically' since I entered the blog-o-verse.

And speaking of the last launch, the company is saying they still want to remain in business, and is proceeding full-speed ahead with the Failure Review Boards.

They pretty much know what happened, but as to the path they'll take to ensure it doesn't happen again, I'm not sure.

The previous launch vehicle we lost (NSS-8) was determined to have a "piece of welding slag" (the dreaded "FOD Monster") in one of the liquid oxygen supply lines of the first stage, and when the slag broke loose, it jammed between the impeller and housing of the main turbopump, causing the pump to fail in a most spectacular manner, with the resulting loss of the vehicle and payload, and significant damage to the launch platform.

The results of that FRB were to require more rigorous inspection of the welds, and a better cleaning procedure to ensure no loose bits were floating around in the plumbing. This time around they have several different scenarios to figure out as to why the hydraulic pump spun down to zero RPM. Could be many things, and we'll just have to wait and see.

Lawyers, Guns, and Money

Couldn't think of anything else to call this.

I'm going to see a lawyer tomorrow concerning the settlement I've been offered over the injury I had last August.

No guns, but the will be a lawyer involved, and hopefully some money.

In the meantime, enjoy Warren. He left us far too soon.






Well, I went home with a waitress
The way I always do
How was I to know
She was with the Russians, too

I was gambling in Havana
I took a little risk
Send lawyers, guns and money
Dad, get me out of this

 I'm an innocent bystander
Somehow I got stuck
Between the rock and the hard place
And I'm down on my luck
 Yes I'm down on my luck
Well I'm down on my luck

Now I'm hiding in Honduras
I'm a desperate man
Send lawyers, guns and money
The shit has hit the fan
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Reply From Feinstein

Some time ago I paid for one of those "Fax Blast" solicitations from one of the gun rights groups I get email from.

I don't recall which one, but for a reasonable fee, they send faxes to all the members of both Houses, and your state representatives.

I always figured they get ignored, except by the person who has to keep the fax machine supplied with paper, but this time I received a form-letter reply from Senator Feinstein.

Here's the reply, copied and pasted from her email, and you'll find it typical of hoplophobes in that she attacks the inanimate object, rather than the underlying causes of the person using it to commit crimes.

No mention of trying to help the sick, unbalanced, deranged or terminally angry person who commits the crime, but rather another cry to get rid of the Evil Black Rifles....again.

Dear  Mr. xxxxxx :

 

Thank you for contacting me to share your opposition to assault weapons legislation.  I respect your opinion on this important issue and welcome the opportunity to provide my point of view. 

 

Mass shootings are a serious problem in our country, and I have watched this problem get worse and worse over the 40 years I have been in public life.  From the 1966 shooting rampage at the University of Texas that killed 14 people and wounded 32 others, to the Newtown massacre that killed 20 children and 6 school teachers and faculty, I have seen more and more of these killings.  I have had families tell me that they no longer feel safe in a mall, in a movie theater, in their business, and in other public places, because these deadly weapons are so readily available.  These assault weapons too often fall into the hands of grievance killers, juveniles, gangs, and the deranged. 

 

I recognize that the Second Amendment provides an individual right to bear arms, but I do not believe that right is unlimited or that it precludes taking action to prevent mass shootings.  Indeed, in the same Supreme Court decision that recognized the individual right to bear arms , District of Columbia v. Heller , the Court also held that this right, like other constitutional rights, is not unlimited.  That is why assault weapons bans have consistently been upheld in the courts, both  before and after the  Heller decision.   I believe regulation of these weapons is appropriate. 

 

Once again, thank you for your letter.  Although we may disagree, I appreciate hearing from you and will be mindful of your thoughts as the debate on this issue continues.  If you have any additional comments or questions, please do not hesitate to contact my Washington, D.C. office at (202) 224-3841.

Sincerely yours,


  Dianne Feinstein
         United States Senator  

At least it only wasted electrons, and not a sheet of paper in my fax machine.

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