So yesterday I had a business acquaintance ask me what I was doing Saturday (today) morning…

I replied that I was teaching an NRA course at my local range.

“I hear you can make a LOT of money doing that” he said.

“Nope, we do it for a very low price…the cost of the course materials only… and the instructors work for free.”

“Why waste a Saturday if you don’t get paid?” he asked.

I left as soon as I could. Not worth the time to explain to him that by teaching others for only the cost of the materials, I am paying back all those people who took the time 20-30-40 years ago to teach me, and set my feet on the path I walk today.

He’d not understand that I still owe a debt to some of those people….many of whom are dead of old age by now …So all I can do is pay it forward….continue the legacy. Honor their time by investing my own in the future.

He’ll not understand. And that is why he and I will never be friends.

*ETA: 24 new shooters and 3 old men who showed up looking for entertainment.  Class was 50 50 men and women, more or less. Several mother/daughter groups.

About half will take more training, most learned that firearms aren’t evil, bad,or dangerous all by themselves.I think everyone enjoyed themselves. A fair percentage will end up owning a firearm.

 24 “New Shooter Grins”…. I got paid. And I paid it forward.

Yeah…. another wasted Saturday.

I’ll point this out.

Seems that some people are getting the message. It isn’t whites doing it to blacks. It is blacks doing it to whites and blacks, but especially whites.

Why isn’t this a hate crime? Targeting someone because of the color of their skin. If a white person targets a black or hispanic or asian due to their race, then it is a race crime. As it should be. But if it is a black person on a white person, somehow the hate/race crime part is overlooked. Why is that?

Ignoring the issue doesn’t make it go away.

Read….Follow the link.

If the RNC and their folks want to undo Obamacare, then they REALLY need to consider using this:

The Who – Won’t Get Fooled Again by jpierrev

In a commercial for each of their people who will be running against a Democrat in every race.

With a bit of creative work and editing and the proper voice over message, the signature line “We wont get fooled again!” could be used over and over and over to totally destroy the credibility of the democrats when it comes to promises made about Obamacare.

Spend the money …….drive the message home that they lied to their constituents and that they didn’t have the health and welfare of those who vote for them (and whom they are supposed to represent) at heart, but rather Party politics and loyalty.

Play it loudly and often. “We Wont Get Fooled Again!”

Soon, people will remember the message every time the song is played on the radio. It’ll play better than “hope and Change” if you do it right.

The WHO is a band that crosses a generation. Nearly everyone has heard them, and they are all potential voters.

Hey, It’s gotta work better that the past few RNC attempts.

That the bad weather around here spared my area….my family and friends and such.

Power outages and tree limbs were the extent of any damage for anyone I know.

And for that, I am thankful.

Say a prayer for those folks in the Midwest who lost homes. Be thankful for the fact that yours is intact.

If the Prez is willing to Ignore laws that are voted on in a Constitutional manner by both houses and signed into law by him, then why should any of the rest of us bother to obey ANY law?

I mean, why bother to obey speed limits? Follow the rules of the EPA?

Why should we pay taxes?

Few, if any of us like any of these laws either. They are (nearly) as unpopular as Obamacare is. If he can tell us (illegally) to ignore the Obamacare Insurance laws, then why can’t we ignore any other unpopular laws?

The IRS is above that…right? Non political and all that…..?

I find it interesting that the bastards think they can get away with this.

Harassing those who helped Scott Walker break the Unions

That procrastination sometimes pays off.

Having had a (somewhat painful) pinched nerve in my neck, I had been putting of vacuuming the leaves from the many trees in my yard off of my lawn. Generally I have to do it several times as the leaves inconveniently fail to fall all at once.This year I haven’t even tried to start the vacuum, much less moved a single leaf yet. They were getting…..thick.

However, the 7+ MPH winds (with gusts above that!!!) seem to have dislodged the last of the leaves from the trees very well.

Plus the wind was strong enough that a significant portion of them, even though wet, moved to my useless waste of oxygen neighbors yard.

Procrastinate!!! (later)

That any time someone criticizes a person of color who is in a position of power that it is always racism?

Currently, Oprah Winfrey claims that “There’s a level of disrespect for the office that occurs. And that occurs in some cases and maybe even many cases because he’s African American. There’s no question about that and it’s the kind of thing nobody ever says but everybody’s thinking it.”

(video HERE)

This sort of excuse-making happens all the time. Anyone who criticizes the performance or decisions  of a “Person of Color” , be they in a leadership position in either government or private business, must, by definition, be a racist.

Yet when white people in similar positions are criticized, no matter the race of the person doing the criticism, it is merely facing reality…

The implication is, of course, that black people cannot be racist….which does not fit with my observations in this society. If anything, I have found that most black people cannot look beyond the color of skin. A higher percentage of caucasians, if anything, look past the skin color and see instead the person beneath, and judge accordingly. This is not to say that all do…sadly, more than enough see only a black man. Nor do all black men see only white skin.

This is not an either-or thing. Rather, there are shades, as it were, of gray…Some on both sides are racist, others are less so. Few of us are not at all racist.

But to excuse all criticism as racist is disingenuous To disregard all criticism as racist is to make excuses rather than face reality that your performance may be lacking. IF you make excuses, you cannot improve.

Thus we have Oprah making excuses for the failure of Obama on so many levels.  It could not be that he is simply not up to the job. But there are many who will not (or cannot?) face this, but instead make excuses. It must , therefore, be racism. I find that sad.

The sad part is that there are so many capable folks who happen to be darker than me who are extraordinarily capable…who could have advanced the view of black people as capable. But they are not (nor likely wish to be) President.  They have better things to do with their lives.

Until today, I didn’t know that I was a racist.

See, I got this call where this woman asked if I would participate in a telephone survey. I said that I really didn’t have the time, but she was persistant. She told me that it wouldn’t take much time at all and would really help her out as she had a quota.

“All I gotta do is axe you 10 questions” She said

“ASK” I replied.

Long pause.

“What” she said

“ASK. Ay Ess Kay”. I replied. “Not axe….An axe is what you chop trees down with…You can’t axe a question. You ASK them”.

She got silent for a minute, then another voice came on the line. Her supervisor.

Who told me that my “Mocking” of the first girls use of words was racist.

I hung up .

Apparently I am supposed to feel bad. Or something.