You’d think people would learn

and prepare for when Momma Nature deals harshly with the infrastructure which makes their lives comfortable.

I mean, seriously. If you need electricity  to keep your home from freezing, have a spare method besides a fragile electric grid which can be damaged by ice and snow and wind. If you need electricity to keep your food from spoiling, same advice. You can get a generator for less than $500. That is likely about  the cost of the contents of your freezer and fridge. And what will it cost if you have to have your home fixed because your pipes freeze? (yeah,  insurance will (maybe) cover it, but you are still out the deductible.) End result, cheaper and less hassle to have the genny and a few gallons of gas. Personally I am thinking of buying one of these so that Midwest Chick can have some power until I get home and start the Lister diesel generator. I already stock both gas and diesel in fairly large quantity.

Which brings me to:

IF YOU KNOW that a significant storm is coming (and who in the US could fail to be aware of the fact, as the east coast based media trumpeted the fact for several days) FILL UP your gas tanks on your vehicle. Fill up your gas cans too. BEFORE the storm hits. Before the electricity that operates the gas pumps fails. Bother to prepare. Bother to think farther ahead than your next bowel movement.

For gods sake people, stop being sheep. Learn to take care of yourself (and your family), even if just for a few days. I’m not saying you should be prepared for the “Zombie Apocalypse” (but if you were, then you’d not have any issues with a mere power outage), but a little thought and preparation will take you a long way.If you have an all electric house, then you might want to plan for some other way to heat it, like a Kerosene heater or something, and maybe have some alternate method of cooking food, like a Coleman stove. 

Must be a “blue” thing. Seems like the less “blue” a state is, the more they are able to deal with things and the more they have preps to deal with issues like the above linked storm.

Have you checked your preps for the winter? Car stuff? Storm and blizzard preps? Power outage preps?

I have. I’m good for (no kidding) power outages of 40+ days, if I stretch it, more like 75.  I got food for longer than that. I don’t expect you to have that kind of prep, but you SHOULD have some, say a week’s worth or more. If you have them, then ya oughta check ’em.

If you haven’t checked ’em, you should. Srsly

So what is the difference

Between those “occupy ______” folks who want to take your hard earned earnings, those goods which you purchased with your hours of hard work (and the position in your related field of endeavor which you worked hard to earn, be via hard work post school or just plain hard work and perhaps ability, or a combination thereof) and the folks who would redistribute your wealth into their pockets via the threat of force…say a mugger or a house theif or a carjacker or whatever?

Both would take your hard earned…(and by hard earned, I mean earned with hours of your life)..possessions for their own, without giving any value in return. They both want, essentially, something for nothing. And they would take your possessions (and therefore steal hours of your life) with no remorse, only because you have it and they don’t, and they think that It Isn’t Fair! that you have so much and they have less……

Come to think of it, it is only a matter of degree between them and our current president and his crop of sycophantic followers (and fellow liberal socialists democrats, but I am being redundant) and the “Occupy xxxyxxxxyy” folks.

Except, of course, that the folks in power want to give your money away to others of their choosing….(with an appropriate cut) in order to Do Good. (or their definition of Good).

Anywhere there was real civilization, they’d be incarcerated (and branded) as thieves, and treated accordingly.

Happy

Halloween
All Hallows Eve
Samhain
All Saints Eve
Last harvest/Blood harvest
Ancestor night
Feast of the Dead



Ah, WTF….eat yer candy this evening after having yer parents check it *.

Or whatever.

*( The poisoned or boobytrapped candy is actually only Urban Legend. There have never been verified reports of actual poisoned candy handed out on this holiday) But You Can’t Be Too Careful.

On the way to the

gunshow in Nappanee:

Text from people in car 15 miles ahead:

“slow down coming into Walkerton
Speed Racer just got pulled over for speeding.”

We did, and arrived just as he got his warning ticket..

The Town Policeman was decent, and acted as a “peace officer” rather than an asshole cop. All he wanted was to keep his citizens safe, not to generate revenue or to measure his dick against someone else’s.

He was, apparently, impressed with the amount of firepower worn by the occupants of the scofflaw vehicle.

If you haven’t been to the Nappannee gun show, you should try to make the one in the spring of 2012.

Besides, the restaurant nearby has Bacon by the pound…per person. I ate my $8.99 worth (it’s a buffet). Watched Og eat his share too.

Almost bought an Argentine contract 1911 from 1932, but the seller and I were unable to find a consensus on value. Was tempted by several Garands, but found no joy.

Spent the rest of the day with Brigid and friends. Food, (and more food) (did I mention food?) adult beverages, and great conversation. You should be so lucky. Sometimes you just gotta stop and smell the bacon roses.

Dangerous

This idea is dangerous. Seriously dangerous…

While I, (and no doubt every other person who will read this today) would like to be able to carry any time, anywhere, in any state, THIS is very dangerous. Are we willing to support this even though it undermines the very Constitution which we revere and which we hold up as a sacred document? One whose second amendment we regularly quote in order to protect our rights to carry? Is the 10th any less important?

Once we begin chopping away at parts of that document which is what separates this country from all others, we erode the foundation of what makes this country great. Want to change the Constitution? No problem. Do it the right way. Hold a Constitutional Convention, get enough states to vote for it, and DO IT THE RIGHT WAY.

The 10th amendment is in the Constitution for a reason. And if we pre-empt this for concealed carry, what is to prevent us from preempting in for other, more nefarious reasons?

Look: this is, at best, an end run around the Constitution….Legislation which will end up being, in the near future, the thin end of the wedge..and one which is supported by a significant group…Gun owners. But what happens next? What other things will this enable the feds to force states to swallow? Yeah, Roe V Wade was a wedge too…and this will be another. One that opens up cracks which we really don’t want to have opened up any farther. There are (currently) limits to the power of the federal Government. Put in place for a reason.

What if, soon, we decide that other licenses shall cross state lines? Doctors and layers and such, maybe no big deal…Cosmetologists and such, who cares, really….Prostitutes? (hey, I really don’t care, but many folks would). After all, they are licensed in Nevada, so why can’t she (or he?) ply their trade in Atlanta? (I mean, openly…maybe advertise and such).

Look, I think that California and Illinois and their ilk are way stupid, and folks who live there are dumb to do so because of their laws. I chose where I live based upon many things, and CCW was/is one of them. But if the people of the state choose to live where the laws are what they are, and don’t elect folks to change their laws, then they like their state enough to live where the laws are the way that they like them. And the Feds don’t get a say.

Otherwise, eventually, there will be no states, just one happy federal government run giant state. Federal folks making decisions for all of us, no local control.

And I really don’t want to see how THAT would turn out.

While we may be headed that way already, I don’t want to do anything to facilitate that day. Especially not when they are going to get us gun owners to aid and abet their precedent setting legislation.

Just say no. Say it loudly. Call your Reps and congressmen (and women) and tell ’em “NO”.

I’d leave ’em

As smoking piles of rubble. No bases for us? No bases for you, either.

All of ’em. Nothing useful, nothing but scorched earth.

But then again, I get like that when people act like Maliki is acting.

Ungrateful bastards.

Update on the Helicopter ride

So in answer to the question of why the ‘copter waited for 45 minutes or so last Sunday AM, here is the scoop.

So some kid got a ‘copter ride early Sunday morning for broken legs. Maybe very badly broken legs, but broken legs nonetheless. Even with a broken back, they transported one of the victims to a local hospital by ambulance.

Again: I am not a doctor.Nor am I an EMT. (although, last Halloween I did go to a party as Dr Feelgood…)

But I fail to see how any of the injuries from a drunken car crash, especially broken legs and ankles, is a reason for a whirlybird ride.

But whether the helo ride was justified or not, there is no way that the 44 minute wait was a good idea.  

I always was under the impression that a ‘copter ride was for circumstances where every second counts….like when you had a 4″ pipe through your abdomen and were bleeding to death internally….and the ‘copter brought you to the waiting surgical team…or when your melon was so badly injured that you needed a neurosurgeon as soon as possible so it didn’t explode or something like that…Not mangled legs.

Or am I missing something here?

And what kind of friends sit outside the car while you lay trapped inside?