A Day At The Range

Had a fun morning turning money into smoke and noise, made even better by the fact it was someone else's gun and ammo and by outshooting him in the match!

Topped off the day with some recoil therapy with my own Civilian Marksmanship Program M-1 Garand, a rifle a dozen years older than me, firing mil-surp ammo almost as old as me.

Hopefully with practice I'll improve my shooting skills to be able to use the rifle to its full potential.

And yes, I did hear the PING of freedom!

Travels with Harley

(with apologies to John Steinbeck)

I rode to Durham NC for the Motorcycle Riders Foundation's 2012 Meeting Of The Minds.

2613 miles on a 1990 Harley-Davidson Electra Glide Ultra Classic.

My daily commute is 20 miles, so this was the equivalent of 130 days of commuting, most of it at 65 MPH or more.

Some thoughts from the road:

My seat is approximately 47 years old.  The bike's seat is approximately 22 years old.  Before the next long trip one of them is going to be changed.  I'm betting on the bike seat.

I don't mind when my Harley marks its territory, but when it does it on my jeans it becomes a problem. The rocker box gaskets I planned to do this winter during chrome polishing season suddenly moved up in priority.

As I was riding down I-64 in eastern Kentucky, I wondered why the on-ramps were always on curves. Later it occurred to me that it was because there weren't enough straight sections of I-64 to accommodate the on-ramps!

Speed limit signs in the Durham NC area are apparently suggestions, or perhaps recommended minimums.

Indiana has found a way to keep roads from buckling in summer heat: generous expansion joints.  Unfortunately, the rest of the year, when the roads contract, there are corresponding gaps.  At 70 MPH on a motorcycle, it feels like riding over a 2x4 every 15 feet or so.

I knew I was back in Iowa when I started seeing evidence of road-killed deer and started meeting wind generator blades and tower sections on trucks heading east on I-80.

Speaking of wind generators, I have deduced the reason for locating them along I-80.  There's never any shortage of energy to drive them!

Speaking further of wind generators, maybe it's me but it seems a waste to have wind generator parts meeting each other on the Interstate.  Seriously...instead of trucking a blade from west to east at the same time a blade is being trucked from east to west, why not arrange to use the parts in the west on the project in the west and vice-versa?

It was a great trip, and a great conference, and I can't wait to do it again!

Mud Wrestling With A Pig

I was all set to comment on a posting from a Facebook friend. Had a nice long rebuttal to some questionable statements on the post, just about ready to hit "Enter" and commit it to the Internet forever and decided to delete the whole thing.

A couple of famous quotes crossed my mind. 

One is attributed to Mark Twain:

"Never argue with a fool; onlookers may not be able to tell the difference."

The other is attributed to George Carlin:

"Never argue with an idiot; they drag you down to their level and beat you with experience."

It's not likely that anything I post is going to change this person's mind, and I have no desire to get into an electronic pissing match over the topic.

Suffice it to say if he's right, life will go on merrily and I will gladly say I was wrong.

Unfortunately, if I'm right, we're screwed, and I seriously doubt he will even realize, let alone admit, he was wrong.

Happy Monday!

Why Is This An Issue?

Regardless of the viewpoints of those offering opinions in the abortion "debate" (myself included), it can be said with relative certainty* that the mothers of all involved, at some point, chose to carry their pregnancies to term.  As far as I can tell, commentors on all sides came from (perhaps briefly) pro-life mothers.

That this issue remains so important in national level politics amazes me.  After all these years, that conservatives choose this issue as a keystone for their campaigns shows that Einstein's definition of insanity (continuing to do the same things and expecting different outcomes) is still valid.  That 'conservatives' can demand that government be less intrusive in peoples' lives at the same time demanding that the State have dominion over reproduction continues to vex me.

Romney, Ryan, Akin, et al: Stop letting the left use this as a 'gotcha!' issue!  Express a PERSONAL opinion if you must, but stop promising to use the power of the office to which you aspire to force everyone to comply with your opinion.

Get out of every woman's womb and focus on those issues with which the office is charged by the US Constitution!

* I'm pretty sure most pro-abortion supporters survived childbirth, though I wonder about a few, especially those who find themselves being interviewed for broadcast and/or publication.

Can't We Do Better Than This?

Larry Pratt, of Gun Owners of America, was interviewed in the first hour of The Jim Bohannon Show last night.

If he's the public persona of GOA it's no wonder the organization doesn't get a lot of traction in the 2nd Amendment rights universe.

Recoil Therapy, Garand Style!

I had an opportunity to shoot in my local rifle and pistol club's John C. Garand match this morning.

I managed to not embarrass myself against more experienced shooters and I managed to put 35 rounds thru an M1 Garand with my thumb intact!

Guess it's time to get serious about ordering a CMP Garand.

Spending a couple of hours handling and shooting an M1 Garand has increased my level of respect for the men who carried these rifles in World War II and Korea. The Garand is NOT a lightweight rifle. The rifle and a battle load of ammunition certainly added to a soldier's burden!

Ugh.

Apparently one of the few things my immediate family shares, besides our last name, is the bugs they bring home from work and school.

Thank you EVER so much, family...