Nom de plume: Rivrdog

USAG Holder claims the "Right of Kings" for Feds

This may be the definitive word for this Administration: States have no powers, even within their own borders, and their Laws are ALWAYS inferior to Federal law (and edicts made without benefit of law, it seems).

Couple of observations: first, this is the exact position of the Federal Government which started the Civil War. Note that the "State's Rights" position this time has a tad more MORAL basis. Second, there has been a sea change in the attitude of the Feds which brings on this statement of Holder's: he would NEVER have made this statement seven months ago.

The Imperial Presidency has just been declared.

You can either bow your back like a good imperial subject and put up with the Imperial Presidency and all the corruption which goes with it, or you can grab your ruck and rifle, then leave your home for the last time.

Did I miss any choices?

Review - Bear Grylls fixed blade survival knife

I'm not a rabid fan of the Bear Grylls reality shows, but I've watched enough of them to know that Bear is not bee-essing me when he talks about survival equipment. I'm fairly hard to bee-ess on this subject, having been to USAF Land Survival School up at Colville, WA for two weeks in the late Fall, back in the 1980s. At the School, students are put through as close to actual survival conditions as can be arranged without physically killing and wounding them (it was rumored that in the Navy version of Survival School, they actually could wound you as long as it was a recoverable-to-duty wound).

Your #1 survival tool is your brain, always. Not your gun, not your knife, not how much paracord you have, it's what's between your ears, because that gray matter contains the knowledge, the applications, and the will to survive in a hostile setting with minimum equipment. The brain has to be there, the brain has to be tuned up and the brain has to keep you going through the adversity.

If the brain is there for you, the next most important thing in wilderness survival is your knife. In the School, we were given only what would have been with us on our silk letdown from the crippled bird to our present situation in the deep woods hard by the Canadian border. We made everything from the materials that a successful ejection and parachute landing would have given us. Those idems were our "peter pocket" knife, a 2.25" blade switchblade with a cord-cutting blade as well, the parachute, the parachute harness and back-carrier (with it's huge supply of paracord), the survival manual, small pen-knife and fish hooks in the chute carrier. That, plus the clothes on our backs, was what we had. We spent days learning to make that gear into a comfortable tent, make weapons, use those weapons, find food and catch/kill it, and prepare it. Then we spent 3 days trekking across the Cascades 25 miles while an OpFor force of PJs (same training as SEALs) looked for us. If you didn't successfully evade the PJs and make it to your destination, you failed the course and started over. Yours truly made it, and so did my entire class, all 32 of them under my command, with only one "capture point" (we were each allowed two points, the third busted you). I had this excellent record of my command because God gave it to me: there were 4 USAF Combat Air Controllers (PJ training) assigned to take the course for some reason, and I assigned them as scouts on the trek. They easily detected all the ambushes and kept us out of them.

None of us had a decent knife, though, and the PJs told us that such a good knife made all the difference. Most of them carried a USMC Ka-Bar fighting knife in their kit, but we didn't/couldn't have them in the School.

I picked this Bear Grylls knife because it is big enough to kill with, stout enough to do all the things Bear teaches us to do with a knife, but small enough to carry as something less than extra burden when you're moving, which you do, most of the time, in a survival situtation. It comes with a good Kytel sheath which is adjustable for belt carry through 90 degrees: you can carry it streamlined with your belt or 90 degrees to the belt. Minor fiddling with a hex wrench to do this. The knife also comes with a small, folded survival guide. It does not appear to printed on waterproof paper like the on in the USAF parachutes is. The knife has a thick blade, a Bear Grylls necessity. You want to be able to hammer with a hardwood club or baton on the back of the knife to cut heavy stuff, and your thin-bladed folders can't take that abuse, which is why you have a thick-bladed sheath knife with a stout ridged back of the blade like this knife.

My photos of the knife:

As packaged. Belt loop is on the other side.

Out of sheath with ruler for size comparison:

The mini-manual of survival which comes with the knife (no, I haven't read it yet)

Golf pencil for comparison of size:

For $35, it's a good addition to my survival vest. YOU have a grab-and-go survival vest don't you? The purpose of that vest is to have all your WALKING S.H.T.F. stuff in one place. That vest has shelter, first-aid, food and a firearm as the basic necessities, and other stuff as you want to burden yourself. I also carry one of these knife sharpeners (best in the West!), plenty of paracord and fire starting materials.

Enerco (Mr. Heater) Big Buddy Ka-boom, UPDATED

If you are a regular reader, this might seem like "deja-vu all over again". Second one of these MH-18B heaters to kaboom on me. The first one was on a recall list, so Mr. Heater replaced it gratis. This replacement just kaboomed after 3 years service.

The sequence of events:

My son and I went out to the shop building to fetch a tool for him, and we were going to putter around a bit, but it was cold, so I lit off the Big Buddy heater. I noted that the pilot flame was about 4 to 5 times as big as usual, and when I valved in the ceramic panels from the Pilot setting, there was considerable excess flame as they began to glow. I shut down the unit at it's valve, but didn't close the tank valve. We went back into the house.

About 45 minutes later, I went back out to the shop by myself, shut off the tank valve as I noted a propane smell present. I aired out the shop for a few minutes, then opened the tank valve and lit the pilot again. The pilot flame was again way too big, indicating excess propane operating pressure. I shut off the tank valve again and was letting the pilot flame burn itself out when there was a loud "POP" noise, and flames began to issue from the top of the heater's cabinet. I immediately shut off the heater valve. Not good, these flames, but they weren't huge flames as with the previous Kaboom, either, so I tried for about ten good huffs to blow them out with mouth blowing. I almost got them out, but then the cabinet started to smolder, so I reached for the fire-extinguisher. Just as I was about to set off the messy powder to snuff the fire, it exhausted it's fuel supply and went out. I now have another kaboomed Mr. Heater Big Buddy.

I've since spent several hours online trying to get to the bottom of this. Since the first 2004 recall, there haven't been any others. I fired off a technical complaint to Enerco. We'll see what that brings. In the meanwhile, I'm down to my one-panel Portable Buddy heater, plus a smaller one, total of about 12,000 BTU, about 2/3 of what the Big Buddy would give me. Add that to 1500 watts (6K BTU) of electric heat available, and that should be good for heating the shop building unless it gets below 20 or so.

I've sworn by these heaters, even through the last Kaboom, but now, I'm not so sure. I think I'll look around for something different. Maybe a second one-panel Buddy. I think that Primus makes one, too, and that would be good Nordic hardware.

*****************************************************************************

UPDATE: 011513 0800 PST: Your blogger just successfully concluded negotiation with Enerco to take back the kaboomed Mr. Heater Big Buddy unit and replace it gratis, including shipping both ways. The Customer Service rep and I both agree that the most likely point of failure was the rubber diaphragm in the Gas Regulator.

I also just found out that Enerco seems to have bought the Primus (Swedish) name, as Enerco is selling at least the Portable Buddy heater with the added name of Primus on it.

Useful tech equipment - the "Driveway Alarm"

I have a house containing guns and sharps, guns well secured but ammo not, and had two mobile children over for Xmas who might be in danger from the sharps (bayonet collection, mostly), so I made the upstairs off-limits, and put one of these handy-dandy alarms in place at the head of the stairs (sensor unit), with the receiver unit/alarm box down in the living area.

It worked well. I have been using a model of these out on my property perimeter to secure the M-35A2 bug-out truck, and that first one just turned up it's toes after 2.5 years service in the rain, freezes and baking sun in summer.

Two years-plus service is okay for the price I get these for. Note: at "Hardly Freight", they are half of the Shack's price, and sometimes on sale for less. If you are going to use multiple ones, you have to make sure to buy them on different channels, but I noticed that the new ones don't list the channel, hmmmmmm. My old one was marked "Channel 5".

Their function is to protect everything in front of the motion-detecting sender. It has very good detection sensitivity, it alarms on my cat when the Orange Terror struts the hallway between his various napping positions and his scratch box in the upstairs laundry room. Outdoors, it will alarm on a man working seventy feet away in the neighbor's yard, then send the signal to the box inside my house 105 feet from the sensor, through a cedar-board fence and a box hedge. The alarm is a loud tone which can be subdued to a less-loud tone. It will get your attention, and my old ears can hear the soft tone a half-house away while inside.

Seems to me that this would make a useful travel system. In a sedan, you could set it up on the package deck facing forward, and if anyone got into your car, it would sound off in your room, assuming you could park within 400 feet line-of-sight distance of your room.

Good stuff, but not stealthy. If you have it set on loud, and the thief it detects is nearby, the thief will hear the warning. I suppose a savvy e-builder could mod it to have a silent alarm somehow, but that's a challenge, as it has a sealed chassis which would not then be sealed anymore.

For SHTF preps, this alarm uses both AAA and AA cells, which should be in your kit in the rechargeable variety, right next to your solar charger, right? 

Battened down, aye

Big winter storm comin' right at us. Baro pressure down to 975 KpA and falling. Severe Weather alert bleeped on my phone, winds to about 60 mph expected here. Two-three feet of snow expected in the Cascades, several more feet by the end of the week. Blizzard conditions above 2,000 feet.

Storm prep accomplished. Generator run accomplished. All flashlights positioned. Furnace run to heat-soak house accomplished. Battery-inverter power supplies, tested and positioned. Hot meal eaten. Crate of candles, checked, and it's Christmas, so there are candles everywhere anyway.

Schloss Rivrdog is ready for the blow.

 

Slug-day Saturday

Yep, still in jammies, but that's how bloggers get noticed, right? It worked for a couple of blogger-babes, anyway. 

I was dressed long enough to answer the doorbell at 0900...couple of Boy Scouts collecting canned food for a food bank they run. You should have seen the look on their faces when I admitted them to my prepper's pantry, telling them they didn't have enough bags to haul away what I was about to give them...they went away VERY happy, and so did I. No, I didn't add it up, it was probably $50 or so worth of food, but I couldn't get THAT kind of Happy Ending if I'd just paid the best whore in town for a night's worth of her talent. I am SO delighted to be able to help out this beleagured outfit.

Now, I'm watching the Georgia-Alabama game. It was tough getting through all the SEC-love being spouted by the sportz-blatherers before the game, but now the matter is being settled on the gridiron, as it should be. It will be further settled in Miami for the BCS Championship, where the upstart Snappers wait for the winner of this game. If Notre Dame wins that game, it will probably be the end of the BCS, and I agree with President Obama, that would be good riddance to bad rubbish.

Drink of the day is Starbuck's Dark French Roast laced with Colonel Lee.

Just confirmed a rumor I heard about the .410-ga shotgun, which I now have an example of, the Savage Model 24D. The survival-gun secret to the over/under .22/.410 is to have some way to reload the .410s. I just found that system: a hand priming tool, a 16-penny nail and a pencil. Yep, I just confirmed that .444 Marlin hulls are just the right size to fit the .410 chamber. The .444 Marlin is a long straight case that is about 1/8" short of a loaded 3" .410 round. There are some Brit cases from the old black-powder/early-Cordite days of Dangerous Game rifles that also work, but the cases are rare, and the .444 Marlin is still available. My TEOTWAWKI kit will have my RCBS hand-priming tool, .444 hulls, primers, powder, shot, wads, pencil and maybe some slugs (if and when I figure out the best boolit to load). The non-digital scale is already in there. I have to figure out if the hulls will need re-sizing, but I doubt it for the shot loads.In fact, my test hulls were fired under factory loads in a levergun, and they fit unsized even as they show a slight base-bulge. Since the shotgun load won't generate but a third or less of the pressure of a heavy rifle load, I doubt that there will be any sizing issue at all.

Here's an "Uncle Cliffy" warning. Preparing for the FearSome Cliff: #1: Pay your house payment and any loans due for 12-31/01-01 early. If the "cliff" causes a collapse, you don't want your obligations to get lost in the confusion. There are sharks out there planning right now how to profit from such a collapse.

It's almost half-time in the tied game, so it's time to think about sommething to put in the skillet for lunch. Later, maybe.

The Sunday Edition of "Local Yokel News"

Yokel = Bumpkin, prole, Joe Sixpack

Yokel Weather: Sucks. Sucks a big root. Rain now through the next week, big storms off the coast, edging closer. Coast will have hurricane-force winds, maybe Cat 2 gusts on the headlands, in next 24 hours. Here in the valley, we'll get 35-45 mph gusts, coming with some trees still leafed out, and over soggy ground that will be loathe to hold those trees vertical (had 1"+ rain overnight). That's for starters. Then the stormy weather changes over to the Pineapple Express (when they made the film of that name, the weather geeks changed the name of the PacNorWest monsoon phenomena to "Atmospheric River"), so the accumulated mountain snow will melt, the Cascade Mountains will get maybe two feet of rain, and the rivers will fill up and overflow. Yep, that sucks, but it happens in these parts. My genset is freshly tested, I have enough fuel on hand for 1/3 of-the-day running for a month, the M35A2 High Mobility vehicle is ready, it can take 30" standing or flowing water in normal ops, and the Stihl chainsaw is also ready for action. Plenty of food on hand. Emergency gas fireplace heating unless the NatGas goes away, then I can emergency-heat my survival shelter with propane for about 2 weeks before I have to put up a wood stove in there...yep, Yokels are ready. Guns are clean, too....

Yokel Sports: We have a first-class college football team in these parts, the Oregon Ducks. They are NOT un-defeated any more. For the second time in three years, Stanford came up here and edged out the Local Yokel squad in overtime. Seems that Stanford had a plan for the Ducks' (former) #1 rushing offense: mobile linebackers, large, fast guys who could string out the running plays "East and West" and shut them down for no gain. Those same defensive smarties turned Oregon's barely-adequate O-Line into mush, and their penetration to the frosh quarterback pretty much stymied any hope of the excellent Duck passing game saving the failed rushing game. This frosh QB is good, an accurate passer and the second-best rusher on the squad, but #8 Mariota always had at least 7 seconds to unload before, and last night he never had 4. Most NFL QBs can't handle that level of pressure, so how is a frosh college QB supposed to do it? The failure of the Kicker to score on his opportunity in OT was the capstone of this bad night. Alejandro Maldonado missed, doinked it, and the Stanford kicker was true. Game ended 17-14. Now the BCS hopes are shattered, and your Yokel has to sit around and watch the Notre Dame Snappers lord it over everyone for a couple weeks before they get their nod to play for the Championship. With any luck, the Ducks will still play for the Rose Bowl, assuming that they get by an energized Oregon State next week and then beat UCLA (to my lights, as good or better than Stanford) the following week for the PAC-12 championship. If the Ducks don't win the PAC-12, they probably get some mid-level bowl like the Holiday. Also, if they don't win, Coach Kelly probably migrates to the NFL, where his endurance-busting style of offense might work for a few years until all other coaches beat their men into that good of shape.

Yokel War News: Folks, the world is REALLY close to the entire Middle East going up in a ball of flame, possibly nuclear flame. Islamist Egypt edges closer to invasion of Israel, and Hezbollah, aided by the Islamist "Rebel Alliance" fighting Baby Assad in Syria, is ready to send a few battalions in over that border. Iranian medium-range heavy battlefield (un-guided bombardment) missiles rain down and test Israel's Iron Dome missile defense shield, and the best our Prexy can do is, again, fly off somewhere, casting parting words over his shoulder, "You go, Israel, take care of yourself". Well, the IDF will take care of Israel, and unlike the USA, would consider using it's nuclear weapons to do so. The US military HAS made plenty of preparations in case this war goes general over there, mostly Navy preparations in case the Mad Mullahs try to close the Strait of Hormuz. I could get much more detailed, but my source would prefer me not to, so I won't. Just know that we are REALLY close to general war in the Sandy Regions. If it's gonna happen, it will happen in the next five days, so, if it doesn't, we will really have something to Thank God for this year!

 

Wednesday WTF,O

That stands for pilot lingo, "What the f**k, over" The "over" is from the earliest days of radio, when, to transmit voice, you were on such a narrow bandwidth that you couldn't transmit duplex (both halves of the conversation at once), so a switch had to be thrown "over" (it was usually a large bat-handle switch on the front of the transmitter cabinet) to end the transmitter's broadcast and change the antenna to receive mode. The word "over" was added to the end of each voice transmission so that the receiving party would know that it was his/her turn to transmit. The military probably still uses this protocol, although most forms of radio-telephony are now full duplex.

WTF #1: Do you get the feeling that the whole planet is going to Hell in a Handbasket just now? We just re-elected a President who cares not for the Constitution he's sworn to uphold, and a Congress which won't follow THEIR oaths of office, either. We seem to have a military whose Generals seem more concerned about the press and fit of uniforms and how those unis dazzle the babes than their prowess in battle. Europe applies band-aids to their trashed economies, economies beaten down into the dirt by the excessive expense of Socialism, but the EU citizens don't get it, and riot over every little cut to the largess of their Socialist regimes. Now Israel has slouched into full war with Hamas, which will likely bring in Hezbollah in the next few days, and the IDF will have to defend the Jewish State on all it's borders. But, back on Wall Street, the Day Traders make their lightning trades, advancing their portfolios a penny here and a penny there, and thinking that they are singlehandedly holding the American Dream together. People, we are exactly one RCH away from global chaos, driven mostly by fear, OVER.

WTF #2: The "fiscal cliff". This story rates not only a WTF, Over, it rates a resounding "Whoop Factor Nine". Game of farging chicken. Means exactly ZERO, because neither party wants to address the central idea at the root of the "Fiscal Cliff" issue: the size of Government itself. The current (minority) flavor of Righty politix is "center-right", meaning that government excess, both fiscal and power, can be tolerated with minor objection only. The current (majority) flavor of Lefty politix is that Government is never big enough or powerful enough, so it's NEVER excessive to increase it's size or power. It all costs money, that Government, and there is only so much of it to go around, and not enough to actually PAY for all that Government, so we get a deficit (debt) building up, sometimes less and sometimes more, but always building. Okay, there is a perception that the cost of Government has built up from "of serious concern" to the "dire copnsequence" level, to finally the "Fiscal Cliff". It's all perception, people. There is no bright line, that when crossed, the economy fails. Instead, there's a progression: the higher the debt-to-revenue ratio, the more the costs of Government rise, and when the rate of rise approaches vertical, then an end will come, but we're a long way from vertical, people. Look, I'm not sayin' don't fix this mess, but I am saying that 010113 at 0001 EST, there is not a "Fiscal Cliff" to fall over, unless the boneheaded Day Traders of Wall Street declare one (and some are trying that, even as I write). If everyone just does their job: the President managing the Administration the best he can, and the Congress producing and passing a budget the best they can, we'll get by. We may not be the perfect Jeffersonian Model of a Government, but we'll get by, OVER.

WTF #3: The Lemming Factor. Reading the above WTF,Os, you get the idea that it is fear that drives us these days. You would be right, to a degree. The preppers prepare out of fear (I am one of those who evaluate common fears as to their potential effect on ME, and prepare accordingly). The Press sells soap because of fear (righty and lefty press). Fear causes more fear, but what is all of this fear but momentary discomfort? Enter the Lemming Effect. That's when the fear makes you run in the direction the herd/flock/school is running, just to be doing something about your fear. Someone at the head of the herd/flock/school gets lost (lack of good Navigator, heh!), runs over a Cliff (Fiscal or real), and un-necessary carnage results (and the Zombies waiting at the bottom of the cliff get fed!). That's the Lemming Factor. My take on the Lemming/Cliff paradox is all about not running when the herd/flock/school runs, but standing still to wait until the group passes, just to see what or who is driving them. If they are being driven, I have choices: I can join the running group, I can challenge the drivers, I can hide from the drivers. I have CHOICES, and so do you, OVER.

 

Waking up from dreams...

When I wake up from dreams, sometimes the dream is mostly forgotton even before I look at the clock to see what time of the night it is.

Sometimes, I remember every detail.

Last night, I had an "every detail remembered" dream. I awoke from it at 0334.

The dream's starting details went like this: In the future, but not far, as most of the details were current. Probably next Spring, since the weather was warm again. Obama had won his Second Term, and I was on the run. I have no idea of WHY I was on the run, but I had a memory, in the dream, of just how I did it: External events had crossed a bright line (unknown which events), and I had loaded light SHTF gear out, and was on the run. I had evidently ditched my personal vehicle and bought a beater to replace it. I had visited a few people I knew, and asked them not to report my visit even if it meant being in conflict with the authorities, which were decidedly hostile. In the background of this dream, it seemed to have been something I had written on this blog which generated a friendly visit from a local cop, who was friendly enough to tell me that the Eff Bee Eye had asked the locals to stop by and have a chat with me. I had told the cop I had nothing to talk about that concerned either his PD or the Eff Bee Eye, he had left without incident, and I was out of the house 5 minutes later. I drove by a pre-determined route to a perdetermined location at a friend's house, from where I used a landline phone to arrange the purchase of a car off of Craigslist, then that friend drove me over to pick it up. I was driving the new undercover ride to meet aanother friend who I had been told was also on the run when I woke up from the dream. It seemed that like-minded folks were all on the run.

What reality! The car was a dark red late-90's Nissan Altima, and it had been a Washington car for the illegal alien who had owned it, and still had the Washington plates in the trunk in addition to it's Oregon plates. My gear consisted of a couple changes of work clothing (Carhartts) and my work boots. I had a couple days food, my Vorgrimmler battle rifle which now sported an original scope (I don't have one of those right yet), and a Glock pistol, and I had a sleeping bag. Nothing in the dream indicated any further plans.

So, what do I take from that dream? I take that there was some sort of crackdown on political dissent in Obama's second term. I take that I should equip my Vorgrimmler rifle with one of it's original scopes (those were made by Zeiss, and are hard to find). I take that I had evidently thought enough of the danger to myself from the gummint to make plans to evade arrest, and those plans had worked for the short time I had put them into effect. I guess I should think about that sort of planning now.

At the point where I awoke, I suppose the dream could have taken almost any turn afterward, but the significant thing to take from it was that there was a definable threat to my freedom, I had recognized that threat, prepared for that threat, and had acted on that threat when it was revealed to be real.

Pretty much what any thinking person would do, right?

Thurdsay thoughts

Not thuds today, just musings from the ball of yarn that is my curmudgeonly mind...

Thought the first: City Administration Karma. Last night, I went to my first ever Neighborhood Association meeting (Kelley Creek Neighborhood Association). There were 40 or so of my neighbas there. Various items were discussed, including our sparse public transport schedule (3 buses all day long), stormwater management (which I steered into a discussion of coyote control, since they live and breed in the stormwater control project, aka, Kelley Creek), and a nice talk by the Chief of Police, to whom we directed a Standing-O, which he deserved for commanding the resolution of the recent Barista Murder case. Then some yadda-yadda about Citeh progress on, well, progressive things. Over all, it was worthwhile to go to the Middle School and sit through it, and guess what happened this ayem at first light? The Citeh swept my streets! This happens only infrequently, there IS a moderate rainstorm forecast for this weekend, and I would have had to go out to shovel bushels of heavy, wet leaves out of my 350' of street gutters, so this just saved me a bunch of work. Ta-Daaaah!

Thought the Second: The Sandy Effect. The upcoming election might have a "Sandy Effect" to it. No, not a Sandy Crowley effect, that was disgusting enough, but a Hurricane Sandy effect. Hurricane Sandy, a sometimes-Category Two blow, is headed North from Cuba right now. It's barely a hurricane after crossing the spine of the Cuban Sierra Madre, but it will re-intensify over the warm Gulf Stream. Overnight, the Eurpoean Model of weather-guessing has been verified, and the Euro Model puts Hurricane Sandy ashore, early next week, somewhere near New Jersey. It is currently forecast to track slightly inland of New Yawk Citeh, pulling the maximum storm surge it generates up the Hudson and East Rivers. There is a potential HUGE mess for the Mid-Atlantic and North East Coast from this storm, any that's not all. WAIT, THERE'S MORE! The storm will then convert to extra-tropical, be reinforced by a very strong Continental Polar air mass, and pound New England as "Perfect Storm II". It looks like the entire Eastern Seaboard from DeeCee north will be in a major hurricane/storm-recovery mode on Election Day. This means that Hurricane Sandy has a huge potential to affect the outcome of US History, even though the 'Cane will probably be no more than a Category-1 when it makes landfall. I suppose it's superfluous to remind readers that the Sandy Effect, should it happen, kills off votes in Blue States almost exclusively. Soooo...will the Won try some sort of emergency decree advancing or retarding the Election in affected states? Stay tuned, this will be interesting, verrrry interesting, as Sgt Schultz would say on Hogan's Heroes...

Thought the Third: I have decided to treat myself to a late Birthday Present. After studiously avoiding the Poodleshooter Caliber (5.56 NATO) and it's associated Stoner rifles for all these years I've been a gunny, I am now going to embrace it. but, I'm going all weird on the gunny world and I will still reject the Stoners. I'm ordering a Remington 7615P Patrol Rifle, a manually-operated (slide or pump action) carbine. It DOES take AR magazines, though. This purchase is in line with my survivalist thinking which says to have firearms chambered in the most popular calibers. I still don't think much of the .223/5.56 as a caliber with which to do battle, but I WILL be able to feed and shoot my rifle on the modern apocalyptic battlefield, should that ever happen. Also, as a non-EBR, the rifle might survive the first wave of confiscations which will hit the EBRs, should the Won get serious about disarming these younighty-states.

Thought the Fourth: The World Series. The Giant's Pablo Sandoval swats his way into the history books, only the fourth player ever to pound three home runs in a game during the Series. I watched Junior Griffey hit 5 in a game at the Kingdome in Seattle many years ago, but it wasn't the Series. Am I the only one who wonders why a guy who looks completely non-athletic could perform this feat? Did MLB think of making him take a doping test? Hmmmmm.

Thought the Fifth: Progressive Generals. When you make General or Admiral, there's politics involved. If you could ask my Dad, he'd confirm that, since he came up for Admiral after working for CNO ADM Hyman Rickover on the USS Nautilus project in the early-mid Fifties, and Rickover opposed his nomination in Congress, primarily for ego reasons ("I won't have another Admiral on my staff"). But, since politics has to be played, and the Progressives do have the majority of political power right now, there are bound to be Progressive General Officers. I do find it hard, however, to call a Progressive General officer a Republican, though, so as for YOU, General Powell, you are flying a false flag, SIR!