"Area 51" Vets Talk

Fascinating article in the Seattle Times about a group of "Old Farts" (like me!) talking about their activities at Area 51.
Go check it out, it's a good read!
Actually, I qualify as an "Old Crow", and if you know what that means I'm sure I'll hear from you!

Major Earthquake in Baja, California

I was coming in from the garage, and the YF asked me if I felt it. The house was still moving, and continued to do so for several minutes.
According to the USGS, it was a 6.9 in Baja. That's a pretty big belt, and to feel it in Long Beach for *several minutes* means things must have gotten really rattled in San Diego.
Hope everybody is OK down there.
USGS wbsite

Investigation reveals numerous bogus claims on Obama resume

This could be one of the most interesting stories of the year.
I wonder how long it will take the lamestream media to try and defuse it?
We still haven't seen a REAL birth certificate.
He still won't release his school records and transcripts.
We have a fraud and liar in the White House, doing more real damage to the United States than the former USSR ever did.
Conservative Examiner

Long Lines

No, not a a grocery store. The term "Long Lines" is (was?) used in telecommunications to designate Long Haul Paths, which are those paths not associated with Local Exchanges, and they were handled by Interexchange Carriers. Now reading and watching all the Science Fiction stories, movies, and TV shows that I did, I was always fascinated with big dish antennas and the equipment that went with them. My Mom used to take my sister and I swimming at Dad's bosses house, and we always drove right by Andrew Corporation in Orland Park, Illinois. The antenna range that Andrew had was right along the highway we took, and I always used to stare at those big antennas and wonder who they were talking to with those big "SciFi" dishes. When I was 10 years old or so, about the time I got seriously interested in radio and other forms of communications, my Dad introduced me to a friend of his who worked for the AT&T Long Lines department. I'd also been to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry that summer, and saw an exhibit sponsored by Western Electric called "The Wonder of Waveguide", and it fascinated me. So, getting a chance to meet somebody who actually worked with all that neat stuff was quite a treat for an inquisitive 10 year old! I decided then and there that when I "grew up" (still waiting for that to happen...) I was going to work for AT&T Long Lines. The Long Lines department was spun off in 1984 to become AT&T Long Distance, and eventually became AT&T Communications, slowly going to fiber optic, and shutting down all their C-Band Terrestrial Microwave activity. I never got to work for them, but the fascination of all things radio, and in particular VHF/UHF/Microwaves stayed with me all my life. One of the links I have in my huge collection is a glimpse at what the AT&T Long Lines System was all about. These guys handled everything, including military and Presidential secure links. I'm sure if you're my age +/- a few years, you've seen the huge microwave towers out in the country, and the antennas on top of large buildings in major metropolitan areas. A lot of that communications traffic has since moved to satellites, as you can put up a VSAT station, and have more bandwidth for less cost, than you could in the old "Leased Line" days.
Anywhoo...without further fanfare, I present you with a link to a magical place......

The Microwave Radio and Coaxial Cable Networks of the Bell System

Enjoy the trip back through time....I know I do!

The Uncyclopedia

Got this from a friend. it's a hoot, like a "Wacky Wikipedia". Go check it out!
The Uncyclopedia

Radio Contest Results

Well, first of all, I didn't operate anywhere near the alloted 36 out of the possible 48 hours, from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon. The YF (that's wife in ham-speak) had an event at the school where she works, so we went out to dinner, and then to the event. I didn't feel like getting started at 10PM Friday night when we got home, so all I did was tune around a bit to see how much activity there was. Saturday morning I got started, and decided to run my FlexRadio Systems rig exclusively, along with the logging program that I recently installed. I stumbled around figuring out the logging program, lost the first half-dozen contacts I made when I hit a wrong button on the logger, and then decided I'd better RTFM. Finally got serious around noon, and started cranking out contacts on the 15 Meter (21.000MHz~21.450MHz) band. I use a method called "Hunt And Pounce", where I'll start at one end of the band, work my way up (or down) in frequency, and work all the stations I can contact. Contests like this don't give you a chance to sit and talk to people, but rather encourage making as many contacts as fast as you can. You give out a signal report and contact number, receive the same back from the station you're talking to, and move on to the next contact. A really good operator at a powerhouse station can sit on one frequency and bang out contacts at better than 200 per hour! When I'm doing 20~30 per hour I feel like I'm doing pretty good considering my modest station. I operated about 6 hours on Saturday, took a break for dinner, watched a movie with the YF, and then hit the hay. I got back on Sunday for about another 4 hours. I only made 116 contacts, with 100 different multipliers, for a total score of 20,800. Some of the station I worked had over 6,000 contacts, so I'm sure their score will be astronomical. I mostly used this contest to get used to operating my FLEX-5000A under fire, and left it on all weekend. I have to say this thing has the absolute BEST receiver I've ever used under crowded band conditions. The adjustable filters are nothing short of amazing, and to be able to hear a signal barely above the noise (S2), sandwiched between two extremely loud signals (S9+30), and to be able to make the interference just go away, is staggering. My other Big Rig is a Kenwood TS-950SDX with an INRAD Roofing Filter kit, and INRAD 1.8kHz crystal filters in both the 8.83MHz and 455kHz IF stages, and outstanding combination in what was, and still is, Kenwood's top-of-the-line Amateur Radio transceiver.
Yeah, I know it's time I could be spending at the range keeping my skills really sharp, but hey, activities like this help keep my "Signal Corps" skills sharp, and it sure beats sitting on the couch drinking beer and watching ESPN all weekend!

2010 Elections In Jeporady?

And I don't mean the game show!
There's an excellent "Open Letter To America" to read over at our friends the JPFO's website. I'm hesitant to just copy and paste it, so please follow the link and read the letter.
H/T to Fuzzy's Dad.

Obama's Business Experience

...Is absolutely ZERO, or maybe even less. In the news of several large corporations taking huge writedowns due to the passage of ObamaCare and their loss of tax breaks, here's a good article to read about Teh One and his cronies reaction to it.
Obama In Rude Denial

Radio Contest This Weekend!

I'll be busy, so see you later.....

The FED Wants Your 401(k), Too!

Man, I'm *seriously* considering buying a few mattresses to stuff my money into!
http://www.aei.org/article/101672

Unions Want to Take Over Your 401(k)

Oh, boy.....
Found a link to this article at The Market Ticker. And it's not just any union, it's the scum sucking SEIU, one of the Obummer's bed pals.
Pretty damn scary.

I think it's getting to be "The Time".

Our oldest dog hasn't been doing too well the last couple of days. She's almost 14 years old, went deaf about 8 months ago, has an enlarged heart and fluid buildup in her lungs, and gets small fatty tumors. She's been pretty listless the last few days, and she has a bloody mucus discharge from her nose that just started. She was pretty quiet yesterday, but as soon as I got the leash out after dinner, she perked right up, tail wagging, ears up, jumping around like a pup, and we went for a nice long walk. Well, with her it's more of a nice long SNIFF anymore, as we'll walk about 30~40 feet, and then something on the ground or in the parkway requires her attention for a a minute or two, and then off we go again.
This afternoon she was shivering, so I covered her up on the couch, and she napped. I got the leash out after dinner, and she didn't want to go, so I'm worried we might (or maybe should....it's wrong to let them suffer) have to take her on her last trip to the vet tomorrow.
Bummer.......

Oh, The Humanity......Wikipedia GLOBAL Outage

Wikipedia is down due to some servers in their European Data Center overheating and shutting down.
They transferred the data traffic to the USA, but it's going to take the DNS servers a while to catch up.

Civil War Has Started......

Well, at least Dennis Prager thinks so, and he has seven actions we need to take.
#1 Know and teach America's core values
#2 Recognize we are fighting the LEFT, and not LIBERALS
#3 Start referring to the Democratic Party as the Social Democratic Party.
#4 Work tirelessly to repeal the bill
#5 Our motto should be The Bigger The Government, The Smaller The Citizen
#6 Do not let other matters distract
#7 Acknowledge we are in a non-violent Civil War

REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER!

My buddy Old NFO says this should be our rallying cry.
I agree!
I'm looking into getting some nice bumper stickers made with this printed on them. Let me know if you're interested.

Help Repeal Obamacare

Don't know how much this will help, but we have to start somewhere.
I think today will be known as "The Great Democrat Cliff Dive day", as they *ALL* just cut their own throats.

Please sign the pledge!
http://senateconservatives.com/repeal

Dear Granddaughter....

I know, this, or a variation of it, has been around for a while. I just thought it was appropriate in light of what The Gubmint is planning on passing today.

John G. is 63 years old and owns a small business. He's a life-long
Republican and sees his dream of retiring next year has all but
evaporated. With the stock market crashing and new taxes coming his way, John assumes now that he will work to his dying day.

John has a granddaughter. Ashley is a recent college grad. She drives a
flashy hybrid car, wears all the latest fashions, and loves to go out to
nightclubs and restaurants. Ashley campaigned hard for Barack Obama. After
the election she made sure her grandfather (and all other Republican
family members) received a big I told-you-so earful on how the world is going to
be a much better place now that her party is taking over.

Having lost both roommates, Ashley recently ran short of cash and cannot
pay the rent (again) on her 3 bedroom townhouse. Like she has done many times in the past, she e-mailed her grandfather asking for some financial help.

Here is his reply:

Sweetheart,

I received your request for assistance.

Ashley, you know I love you dearly and I 'm sympathetic to your financial
plight. Unfortunately, times have changed. With the election of President
Obama, your grandmother and I have had to set forth a bold new economic plan
of our own..."The Ashley Economic Empowerment Plan." Let me explain.

Your grandmother and I are life-long, wage-earning tax payers. We have lived
a comfortable life, as you know, but we have never had the fancier things
like European vacations, luxury cars, etc. We have worked hard and were
looking forward to retiring soon. But the plan has changed. Your President and his Congress are raising our personal and business taxes significantly. He says it is so he can give our hard earned money to other people. Do you know what this means, Ashley? It means less for us, and we must cut back on many business and personal expenses. You know the wonderful receptionist who worked in my office for more than 23 years, the one who always gave you candy when you came over to visit? I had to let her go last week. I can't afford to pay her salary and all of the government mandated taxes that go with having employees. Your grandmother will now work 4 days a week to answer phones, take orders, and handle the books. We will be closed on Fridays and will lose even more income to the local Wal-Mart.

I'm also very sorry to report that your cousin, Frank will no longer be working summers in the warehouse. I called him at school this morning. He already knows about it, and he's upset because he will have to give up skydiving and his yearly trip to Greenland to survey the polar bears.

That's just the business side of things. Some personal economic effects of
Obama's new taxation policies include none other than you. You know very
well that over the years your grandmother and I have given you thousands of
dollars in cash, tuition assistance, food, housing, clothing, gifts, etc., etc. But by your vote, you have chosen to help others -- not at your expense -- but at our expense.

If you need money now sweetheart, I recommend you call 202-456-1111. That is the direct phone number for the White House. You yourself told me how foolish it is to vote Republican. You said Mr. Obama is going to be the
People's President, and is going to help every American live a better life..

Based on everything you've told me, along with all the promises we heard
during the campaign, I'm sure Mr. Obama will be happy to transfer some
stimulus money into your bank account. Have him call me for the account
number which I memorized years ago...

Perhaps you can now understand what I've been saying all my life: those who
vote for a president should consider the impact on the nation as a whole,
and not be just concerned with what they can get for themselves. What
Obama supporters don't seem to realize is all of the money he is redistributing
to illegal aliens and non-taxpaying Americans (the so-called "less fortunate")
comes from tax-paying families. There is no government money.
It is money taken from one group, distributed to another, minus a "handling fee."

Remember how you told me, "Only the richest of the rich will be affected"?

Well guess what, Honey? Because we own a business, your grandmother and I
are now considered to be the richest of the rich. On paper, it might look that way, but in the real world, we are far from it.

As you said while campaigning for Obama, some people will have to carry more
of the burden so all of America can prosper. You understand what that means,
right? It means that raising taxes on productive people results in them having less money; less money for everything, including granddaughters.

I'm sorry, Ashley, but the well has run dry. The free lunches are over. I have no money to give you now. So, congratulations on your choice for "change." For future reference, I encourage you to try and add up the total value of the gifts and cash you have received from us, just since you went off to college, and compare it to what you expect to get from Mr. Obama over the next 4 (or 8) years. I have not kept track of it, Ashley. It has all truly been the gift of our hearts.

Remember, we love you dearly.... but from now on you'll need to call the
number mentioned above. Your "Savior" has the money we would have given to
you. Just try and get it from him.

Good luck, Sweetheart.

Love,
Grandpa

RATS! Traffic Accident

Well, I wasn't in traffic, but it's still kinda-sorta my fault. I stopped for gas today, and pulled into the pump to fuel my Jeep. There was a guy in front of me, so I took the pump behind him, and fueled up. Wrote down the mileage, gallons, and price like I always do, LOOKED BEHIND ME since the other guy was still in front, and started to back up. Heard a BEEEEP-BEEEEEP! and then *crunch*.
Oh, shit.
Got out of the Jeep, and there was a 2008 Honda Civic _right_ behind me that I backed into. He wanted to know why I backed up, and I pointed to the guy in front of me who was still filling his car. Considering the Jeep is about twice as tall as his Civic, and he must have been _right on_ my bumper, I simply could NOT see him out the back window.
My trailer hitch punched in his grill and scraped the paint off his bumper, but no damage to those expen$ive headlights. His car must have been a re-paint, as the paint came off his bumper in big strips, which doesn't happen with the flexible OEM paint.
We both have the same insurance company, so it should be interesting to see how this plays out....

Auto Work, Part II

Well, that was relatively painless! The OEM plugs were put in DRY, so I was very careful to pull them with a cold engine, but still, the SQUEAK! as they came loose made me shiver. I know there's some controversy on using anti-seize compound on the plug threads, but I was always taught that a steel bolt into an aluminum casting should NEVER be put in dry, or you run the risk of pulling the aluminum threads out the next time you remove the steel bolt, especially if it's been hot/cold cycled, like a spark plug in an aluminum head. One old hot rod book I had said even a drop of engine oil from the dipstick was better than putting them in dry!
And speaking of dipsticks, when I first opened the hood, I noticed hers was missing! She just had the oil and filter changed last week at the local Jiffy Lube, so she's going to go back there Monday after work and give them Hell about it. They're either going to replace it, or reimburse us for a new one from the Nissan dealer. There wasn't any oil around the top of the tube, and it's doubtful if much dirt would get in there, so I think it's OK to drive the car until we get it replaced.
The belt change took all of 15 minutes, which is one of the things I like about serpentine belts. Loosen the tensioner, remove the belt, and slip the new one on. Easy as cake!
And since there was a layer of blue-green crud on the negative battery post, I pulled the terminal, scrubbed it, greased it, and put it back on all nice and clean. The positive one looked great, and has neat little plastic cover that snaps over it.
All in all, a pleasant Sunday afternoon out in the driveway doing something I enjoy.

Happy Birthday Linux!

Today, in 1994, Linus Torvalds released v 1.0.0 of the Linux Kernel. And the rest, as they say, is history.
No word what Bill Gates was doing......

Automotive Work Today

Not much, really. Have to change the spark plugs and serpentine belts on the YF's car. No points or cap/rotor, as her Nissan Sentra has the "Coil On Plug" design, so all I (should!) have to do is carefully remove the coil assembly, remove the old plugs, put the new ones in, and put the coil back on. She got the dreaded "Check Engine" light the other day, so I put my OBD-II scanner on the connector, and it read out "Cylinder #3 Misfire". Hmmmmm.....47,000 miles on the original plugs, so probably time to change them even though the Service Manual says they're good for 105,000 miles ( !!!! ). Cleared the fault code, and it's been running happily ever since. On the other hand, I could probably just give it an "Italian Tune-Up" and it would be good for a while, BUT...she's big on replacing consumable parts if there's the slightest doubt they might be bad, and *I'm* big on "Happy Wife, Happy Life", so I'll swap them out.
The serpentine belts might take a little longer. When she got her oil changed last week the guy was like "OMG!!! You NEED your belts changed NOW!!!!", so she called me. Rather than pay the oil change place $85 to install new belts, I told her to decline the "service", and bring the car home. Were the belts *that* bad? NO....glazed a bit, but no cracks or missing ribs on the drive side.
Got 4 new plugs, and both belts, for $54 at the Autozone down the street, so today I get to play mechanic.
Hmmm...where'd I put my silicone dielectric grease?

The Founders Warned, And We Didn't Listen!

Excellent piece by Brannon Howse!

This is quite a good read over at American Thinker. For those of us that tried to find out more about HRH Obama before the election, it confirms what little we could find, and expands deeper upon it.
Great read, link courtesy of The Liberty Sphere and Sipsey Steet Irregulars.

Barack Obama and the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis

CBS Poll on His Royal Highness' Performance

Wow....and this is from his lap-dog lamestream media!

America Under Socialism

From our good friends the Sipsey Street Irregulars comes this.
Read the whole thing. It's amazingly prophetic.
Reagan warned us of this years ago in his speeches.

Choose Freedom Over The Nanny State!!!

You just have to go watch this.
http://www.pjtv.com/video/Afterburner_with_Bill_Whittle/Flying_Solo%3A_Choose_Freedom_Over_the_Nanny_State/3207/

Obama At The Bat

Shamelessly copied from Obama Cartoons with a tip 'o the hat to Texas Fred, and with all due respect to Ernest Thayer.

Hello Radio.......

WELL.....I was having great fun in the ARRL International DX Contest this weekend running my Kenwood TS-950SDX, and then the YF turned on the TV. A few minutes later she came in saying I was coming in over the surround-sound speakers. Since I had just changed bands from 15 Meters (21 MHz) to 20 Meters (14 MHz), I thought maybe something was more sensitive to the different frequency in use. I went back on 15, and had her go listen while I sent a "test" transmission.
No dice!
I come in *equally* well on both bands, and don't bother the video one bit. Since the home theater setup is fed from a Verizon FiOS cable box with HDMI for the video (I disabled the HDMI audio pass-through in the Onkyo receiver), and a TOSLink optical cable for the audio, I've now got to figure out where the RF is leaking in to the system.
My computer speakers in the shack don't pick anything up, her computer speakers don't pick anything, and her son's computer speakers and stereo don't pick anything up. And I've asked the neighbors on both sides if I ever bother their TV's, and they've said no.
The Onkyo receiver is the likely culprit at this time, as the AC line cord is only two conductors, so the receiver really isn't grounded. Luckily it has a *real* ground connection on the back panel, so I'll try tying that to one of the other pieces of gear in the home theater setup that has a ground connection.
In the meantime, I'm going to fire up my FlexRadio Systems 5000A, and see if the problem goes away. The Kenwood runs a solid 150 Watts output, and the Flex is set for 100 Watts max.
Sometimes you just have to back off the power a wee bit, and the RFI will go away.

McDonald v. Chicago

Turk Turon has been standing on the steps getting great photos, and is keeping a running blog on this important case.
Drop on by his place, and see the latest!

Three Per Cent

Most of the visitors to my little place in the blogosphere undoubtedly know about "The Three Per Cent".
If you don't, I'd like to ask you to read this piece written by a man I truly admire.
One term Mike brought up was "Gramscian". which I'd never heard, and being a good teacher, he suggested we look it up ourselves.
So, I did, and leaned that it comes from the name "Antonio Gramsci", an Italian philosopher and political Scientist. Now since I was schooled in the Hard Sciences (Physics and Engineering), I tend to chuckle a bit when I see the term "Political Science". It's too much like "Jumbo Shrimp" for me not to laugh, but I went ahead and read his bio anyway.
Very interesting stuff there. In particular, he's the guy that came up with the term "Cultural Hegemony", which is basically a fancy term used to describe the dominance of one social group over another, in this case, a "Ruling Class".
Now when I read this, it just about knocked me over. It's exactly what I've been feeling from the "candidates" the Left has been pushing on us for years. It first struck me when I listened to John Kerry give one of his speeches. It was quite clear to me that the man was talking down to his audience, and I, for one, deeply resented it. There are other things I despise about John Kerry, but his tone of voice and demeanor on the podium struck me like a ton of bricks. Al Gore kinda sounded the same to me when he was on his "Global Warming" stump, but he can also pull off the "Fatherly" bit better than Kerry ever could.
But I digress.....
One other thing that I found interesting as I looked up Gramsci and followed the links, was that they all have Marxism in common. And considering the friends and acquaintances of our "President", it looks like the USA has finally got a bona fide "Ruling Class" leader. One who cares not for the people who voted him in, but only for his own agenda.

God bless, Mike, and keep up the Good Fight by writing these pieces that get the rest of us to THINK, and in inspiring those of us who truly believe in the Republic of our Founders.

Light posting for a while....

Not that I'm a posting maniac, but the YF (see below) and I have been rather sick. I started with a bad sore throat the week before the wedding, which degenerated into a really bad cold and cough, which I still have, but at least I don't wake up every two hours coughing at night. She started with the sore throat a couple of days ago, and has been home from work the last two days.
I keep kidding her about who she sleeps with!
"YF" is a Ham Radio term for "Wife". If a Ham is going out with a girl, she becomes his "YL", or "Young Lady". If they got married, she then became his "XYL", or "Ex Young Lady". Even when I first got into Amateur Radio back in 1964, I thought it was kind of rude, and sometime in the 1970's Hams apparently saw the light, and came up with "YF".

I'll Take "More Things That Go BOOM" for $2000, Alex

As usual, Blunt Object has some good posts about the continuing travails of the guy who writes "Things I Won't Work With".
Dioxygen Diflouride??
Geez.....I don't even want to be in the same county with that stuff, let alone *work* with it.

Quote of the Day

Shamelessly ripped off from the Geekwitha45, who found it elsewhere.

“The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the presidency. It will be easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails us. Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president.”

Secure Data Deletion.....

Gonna Be Busy....

As some of you may remember, I'm going to marry my sweetie this Sunday, Valentine's Day. SO....I'm going to be pretty busy the next week or so. My sister, whom I haven't seen in almost 20 years, is coming out from Chicago with her husband, which means starting tomorrow, I have some serious house cleaning duties to take care of. Not that I shirk off my share of them, but I've been doing some part-time design work for a little local company, which means I've been getting my CAD and printed circuit board design skills "back online" during last week or so. And I've just GOTTA get my Jeep emptied out and washed!
Not doing much for our honeymoon but spending the night on the Queen Mary, and then escorting my sister and her husband around to see some of the sights while they're here. My sister used PriceLine with the "Name Your Price" option, and not knowing the area or checking with us first, wound up booking a hotel in one of the WORST parts of Long Beach. OUCH! Normally using the "Name Your Price" option means you're stuck with whatever you bought, but she was able to talk her way out of that hotel, and into a much nicer one that's actually closer to us, and only had to pay a $25 cancellation fee.
Oh, well....time to get the computer/radio room cleaned up, and then start on the house while the gf is at work tomorrow. Her coworkers threw her a surprise wedding shower today, and we received a beautiful cake-cutting knife and cake serving thingamajig for use at the reception.
Talk to (at?) you all later....

Superbowl....

meh....I *hate* football. No other sport can take a sixty-minute game, and stretch it out to over four hours.
Ridiculous.
There, I feel better.

Alfonzo Rachel Is Funny, And RIGHT!

In case you don't know, he's the guy that does the outstanding "Zonation" videos. He's not only entertaining to watch, but spot-on about how the left marginalizes people and issues to suit their own agenda.
I found quite a few of his videos posted over at "Big Hollywood", so go kill some time, listen to the man, and enjoy yourself.

I Passed

Two days, 17 hours of classroom and range work, and I'm now an "NRA Certified Basic Pistol Instructor".
The course was in two parts, the "Basic Instructor Training", and the "Pistol Instructor Training".
A lot of the instruction was geared towards teaching us how to teach. We did a lot of presenting to each other, and proper SAFE gun handling was stressed. MUCH emphasis on the NRA "Three Rules" (ALWAYS keep the gun pointed is a safe direction, ALWAYS keep your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot, and ALWAYS keep the gun unloaded until ready to use), and I was surprised they didn't have rule #1 as "Treat ALL guns as loaded", which is the first rule stressed in other training I've had at the range. Our first presentation was to take a bagged pistol out of the instructors large bag, open it up, and make sure it was unloaded, explaining all our steps to the class as we went along. The first student drew a Springfield XD pistol and did it perfectly. I was next, and drew a cap and ball pistol, something I've never even *seen* in-the-flesh before, let alone handled. Talk about having a "DUH!" moment! I was able to pretty much figure it out (no percussion caps installed=no bang!), and explained that to the students. I had no idea how to remove the cylinder (HINT: You have to push the "Wedge Pin" on this particular gun, a 44 caliber Colt Navy Model, through the frame...NOT easy to do!), and fumbled my way to explaining that you could use the loading rod to check if there was any ball/charge in the chambers of the cylinder. The instructor laughed and said I did OK. The next guy drew a flintlock, and we all had a good laugh while learning about safeing older pistols that we had no experience with. He stressed the CONCEPT of how a firearm works is important to remember, and that you just might have somebody bring you "Grandpas Old Gun", and it's vitally important you can handle it safely.
The training was fast paced, as there's a lot of info to cover in the 17 hours, and the instructor, who I've trained with before, was excellent.
Another element of the training I didn't expect was the emphasis on how to run the more mundane aspects of teaching a course, like promotion, budgeting, emergency/first aid preparedness, and all the little details involved in record keeping.
All in all, an excellent course, and I should receive my credentials in about 60 days.

Top Ten Corrupt Politicans In 2009

Gee, wonder how many of the same names will be here next year? And how many will get reelected after what I hope will be The First Great November Reckoning.
In alphabetical order:

Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT)
Senator John Ensign (R-NV)
Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)
Secretary of Treasury Timothy Geithner
Attorney General Eric Holder
Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL)/ Senator Roland Burris (D-IL)
President Barack Obama
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) and the rest of the PMA Seven
Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY)

Read what these wonderful elected "servants" did to make it on this illustrious list over at Judicial Watch.

State of the Union Address

I didn't watch it and didn't listen to it, but my future stepson had it on for a while in the other room. Just from the tone of HRH Obama's voice, it sounded like a cross between a high-school pep rally, and one of Teh One's campaign speeches.
After about 30 minutes, he changed the channel to something else, and came out of his room.
What he said stunned me:
"He just doesn't sound like a President".
WOW! This from a 26 year old guy who dropped out of high school, and works his rear end off in a warehouse for about $12/hour.
I don't think he voted (never asked him), but some of his contemporaries did, and they voted for Teh One. I could write this off as typical young people not understanding what was at stake (Hey, I supported McGovern {for a while} back when I was young!), but they way they talked about Obama was so full of the 'unicorns and rainbows' BS that I'm going to have to start educating these young people about Our Constitution, Economics, and TANSTAAFL.
I'll be interested in seeing how our "State Owned" media spins this tomorrow.....

State Of The Union BINGO Card

I'm going to be busy tonight (have to wash my hair or something...), so I won't be able to watch HRH Obama spew his tripe.
In the meantime, I can probably come up with about 90% of what he's going to say using this neat little tool.

Have fun!

AMERICA RISING!

Got this from a friend of mine.
You gotta watch it!

Air America Goes Belly Up

Hmmmm....maybe if you build it, they WON'T come?
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/air-america-to-cease-broadcasting-immediately/

The Lies of Obama.....MUST READ....

Found a link to this from one of the Conservative forums I frequent. Since I haven't seen it yet in the blogosphere, I thought I'd pass it along here.
Interesting read.....
http://frontpagemag.com/2010/01/21/lies-of-obama/

BROWN WINS!

YAY!
Now we have to start booting out all the stinking liberal commies in Kalifronia.
Pelosi can go first, then Boxer and Feinstein......

More Rain.....

We've gotten over 1.3" of rain since midnight, and had about that much yesterday. Had some lightning and thunder around noon, and tornado warnings were posted.
Our backyard looks like a small lake!
I think I might run out to Harbor Freight and see if they have any pumps left. If we get much more, I'm going to have to pump the backyard out into the street!

MAJOR Rain On The Way For SoCal

The NWS has put out the warnings that starting sometime today, a series of major winter storms will come roaring through Southern California. Looks like six solid days of rain coming here. We've pretty much battened down the hatches here, but I should probably build some kind of dam in front of the garage door. I put new weather stripping on it, but if we get several INCHES of rain over the next few days, I'm not sure if it will keep the water out.
I have to drop the mast my weather station is mounted on this morning.....one of the wind cups broke/fell off the anemometer the other day. As a result, it doesn't start spinning until there's quite a breeze blowing, so my wind speeds are all whacked out. The replacement parts arrived last Wednesday, so out comes the ladder and wrenches before it starts raining this afternoon. Probably be one of my "30 Minute" jobs that'll wind up taking me two hours!

**********UPDATE**********

Installing the new wind cups on the anemometer was a "breeze". Dropping the mast wasn't bad at all this time, as I rolled out my little service cart to set it on, and it took maybe 5 minutes to swap out the broken part. I used some husky spring clamps from Harbor Freight to hold the mast in place while I got the bolts started, which was much better than the last time I did, when I realized I needed six hands to hold the mast, get the bolts started, and tighten them enough so the wall brackets would grab it.
Then I put new extra thick weatherstripping on our West-facing garage door, only to see that it STILL had a 1-1/2" gap on one side, and a 3/4" gap on the other. Either the door was never hung properly when it was installed, or things have settled a whole bunch since it was. After a bit of head scratching, it dawned on me that I had a bunch of nearly indestructible thick rubber pads for use with non-penetrating roof mounts. The GF and I laid out the pads to match the gap, and when we closed the door, the new weatherstrip fit snugly all across the width of the door. And she wonders why I keep all this stuff around! Packed some old towels in the gaps between the garage door and the frame, and went up on the garage roof to wrap a big plastic bag around the ventilator turbine.
Programmed my Uniden scanner to the local NWS channels, made sure all our rechargeable batteries are good-to-go, charged all the batteries in my HT's, and filled up my 5-gallon can with gas and some Sta-Bil in case we need to use my Honda EU2000i generator.
We're battened down pretty well for SoCal.

**********UPDATE_2**********

We've received over 1-1/4" of rain since midnight. The backyard looks like a lake, the rubber pads and towels are holding back the rain from going into the garage, and the dogs have to be seriously 'coerced' into going outside. My weather station is running fine, and the house is nice and dry and warm inside. Maybe the dogs know better than I do!

Stolen Elections in 2010?

Well, I certainly wouldn't put it past Teh One. He is, after all, from Chicago, where the Original Mayor Daley's battle cry was "Vote Early and Vote Often!".
I've seen this mentioned elsewhere, but here's a link to WND for a better story.

Online Petition To Repeal California's Ammunition Bill

As you might know, The Governator recently signed a bill requiring all kinds of arcane hoops to jump through when you go to buy ammo out here in the People's Republik of Kalifornia.
Courtesy of my buddy The Wandering Minstrel, I was clued in to an online petition to get the bill repealed.
If you live in Kalifornia, go here and sign the petition.
Please.....

Sick Dog....

No, not *me*!
Had to take the older of our two dogs to the vet yesterday. She's 13 1/2, which is really getting up there for an American Staffordshire Terrier, a.k.a., "Pit Bull". She's gone deaf in the last 9 months or so, and her vision isn't quite what it used to be, be she still loves taking her evening walks with me. And despite the bad rap that the media gives Pit Bulls, they're really very good dogs. Very loyal and loving, as long as you rear them like you're supposed to rear *any* dog. It burns me the way some people treat their dogs, but that's a subject for another day. Yesterday morning she started hacking up all kinds of crud (looked like melted ice-cream), and she was very lethargic and wouldn't eat. The girlfriend and I were starting to think maybe it's "time". All our Internet Expert Veterinary friends said she had "kennel cough", but after looking it up myself, I doubted it. Well, the REAL Vet took her temp (I never knew a dog's normal temp was around 101), listened to her with his stethoscope, and gave me the news. He said "Her heart sounds terrible, and her lungs sound terrible." We've known for the last couple of years that she's got an enlarged heart, and has fluid retention problems. He suggested another round of blood tests and chest X-ray, but rather than OK it right there, I said I'd take her back home, and talk to my girlfriend about what we wanted to do. In the meantime, her gave her a shot of diuretic to help her pass out the fluid, and warned me to be sure and have her home within 30 minutes because she was going to be going to the bathroom big time.
Well, this morning she was like a puppy. No wheezing, and very active. Had a nice 45 minute walk tonight, and the term "Miracle Drug" comes to mind. She's still pushing 14 years old, but for now we're happy to have our "old" Domino back. I just don't want to think about the next time we have to take her in........