Why isn't the Government taking border security seriously?  Didn't Bush say his job was to protect America?

Friday, 9-30-05: I've been following this story about Ronnie Earle and his quasi legal-political attack against Tom Delay. I've read this documents and listened to the pundits and have read every source I can to try to see both sides to this. The more I read about Mr. Earle, the more I tend to dislike the man. Trying to get to the source of his motivation for this legal action, I find only the most ignoble of reasons. The most telling source for his motivations is this. Mr. Earle is out to try to stumble Delay and cause as much disruption as he can, but at the same time his is trying to get his name out there. This cat has a political agenda, and he has other political goals. Namely self promotion. Why else would a prosecutor talk about the case he is prosecuting to the public? Here is what should happen to Mr. Earle... he should be disbarred with prejudice from practicing law in any state. Second, the people of Texas need to make damned sure that this clown does not get re-elected to his office or any other office. This guy is pretty much a shining example about what is truly fucked up about this country's legal and political system. Follow up action should also be Texas legislation to define the requirements for filling indictments. I am part Texan... I grew up in Texas as a little kid and lived little town called Plano. If this cat doesn't get his case tossed out and then himself disbarred – I will forever be ashamed of the Lone Star state. Ronnie Earle... what a shitstain.

Okay guys... I do not need anymore emails about Frank Miller writing Robocop 2&3! I get it now! LOL. Man, you Frank Miller fans are tenacious! Please remember, I reviewed the guns seen on screen – not the ones in the bloody books! I don't read the books! And IMBD is wrong when it said that all the guns are Springfields... if you watch the DVD carefully, and step the frames, you can clearly read the Colt markings on one of the 1911s in the movie. I believe I pointed that out. The other guns are most likely indeed all Springfields. I really do not think that RR went to the trouble of taking a Springfield and putting Colt roll markings on it. It is not a detail worthy of the time and effort to do that... even digitally in post production. Let's be glad that it didn't say “Sword 9MM”. Speaking of Swords... I'm not concerned about the swords used by the hooker being from Kill Bill. QT being an assistant director, such a thing doesn't surprise me. RR and QT are best friends. This isn't a Swords Of article. I'm not a sword aficionado. I know the basic types of swords and their uses, I even know how to swing them (the pointy end goes in the other guy) but I am not an expert in the subject of identity and history... I'll leave that up to someone else to write. 

Forgive my lateness in updating a certain link, but The Nation of Riflemen is now linked where it should be.

This post right here, makes me want more than anything to get another revolver... had it been in 3 inches, I would probably have had to sell something dear to me to go get this piece.

Tuesday, 9-27-05: The Guns of Sin City is posted.  If you are interested in the guns used in that movie, read about them here.

Monday, 9-26-05:  Cabela's is one hell of a store. They have a mountain inside, an airplane hanging from the ceiling, an area better than the local natural history museum, a 40,000 gallon aquarium filled with all the game fish native to Utah... and a restaurant where you can get an Elk sandwich. It's one seriously amazing place. They sell boats too... outside, they had a very nice 22 foot unit that I was very impressed with. The selection of binoculars alone – just to pick one sort of item out of everything under the sun that they have there – is jaw dropping. I was thinking about getting a set of optics, but once presented with such as astonishing array of choices, I forgot all about picking just one. The whole store is freaking amazing. Those that gathered with me to take this place all in had all been there before... they had already done the whole “I've died and gone to heaven” thing. I was caught right up in it. I think I made a mistake saying “meet me there”. The place is massive. The parking lot... there are several parking lots. Out front is just one of them. I underestimated the joint... the pictures on the web do not do these stores justice.

After shopping and forgetting to actually buy anything (to my wife's great relief) those that had gathered went to Doug's Shooting Sports to pop some rounds. Doug's is a small establishment on Redwood Road that unless you know where it is, you will miss it. You go in to a small store that was somewhat better than I remembered it. They actually had all the lights working this time and they got rid of the “dank” feeling. Downstairs is the range that I had not been to since the first time there... I forgot how tiny it was. Last time I was there, the targets were on stands. This time, they had a target system to run the paper targets out past the firing line and to bring them back to change. The system was running on strings. Electric switches and motors... but strings. The weight of the target hangers caused the string to sag badly out at 15 yards. So much so that the bullets fired at the targets would strike the floor well before the back plate. Eventually such bullet strikes are going to eat away the concrete floor to the point that some bullets are going to come back at the firing line. I don't think Doug's is a safe place to frequent. The ventilation seemed okay, but the whole string thing is just stupid. Not only did the targets sag, but they would swing and bounce making for an interesting time shooting at a 3 inch black circle that was moving about. Some might consider this fun, but when you are trying to dial in the laser sight in a set of Crimson Trace grips – it's really really freaking annoying. Sure I got the job done, but it was more difficult than it should have been. 8 bucks for the privilege of shooting there. Not. Worth. It. The people behind the counter at Doug's, a couple new faces, but three that I recognized from my last time there. I loved how the young fellow that handed me a couple pistols to look at would do some mock tactical sighting exercise that he probably watched from some Chuck Taylor video... I don't know what he was playing at or who he was trying to impress... but at least this is a step up from the employees shooting BB guns at each other. At least they are pretending to have some training now. This place is generally regarded as one of the worst gunshops in the state of Utah. And with The Utah Shooting Academy (AF Gun Range) being suddenly closed with little warning... it would seem to be a blight for the Utah Gun Owners... Cabella's for as wonderful a store as it is... is not a place I would want to buy my guns from. Partially for the same reasons I don't buy guns from Wal-Mart, and partially because their prices are the full MSRP sticker prices. Not over the top, but you can buy them a lot cheaper elsewhere. I mention this because of some good news. The Horde's good friends over at FBMG is going to be opening up a store in the next couple of months... soon... very soon... and they are looking at the Draper area for their location. This is very good news indeed. Not only will it give serious shooters a great place, but you will be able to actually talk to people behind the counter that really know what they are talking about. One guy a champion 3-Gun competitor, another guy a Spec Ops veteran... both guys who live to help other shooters, not just sell them gear, but really help them out. Now if they could just set up even a single shooting lane at the store... oh man... what a place that would be!

Lest I forget... I must announce the newest official member of The Horde: Young Master Landon. A strapping lad belonging to our good friend Matt, who was not shy at all in firing every handgun he could. He had a hard time with the CZ P-01 because of the heavy trigger, but proved himself worthy with an XD sub-compact and scored a very nice X ring hit. He shot better than a lot of the police officers I know. Hope for the future still glows like a burning ember in the cold wet ashes.

About the time we were finishing up our shooting, a fellow started asking us a lot of questions about handguns and such. Interestingly, he seemed to ask educated questions... like he knew the answers and just wanted to hear our responses. If the questions were sincere, I hope we were of help... but I had the sneaking suspicion that this might have been the works of college student study, or a journalist student's pet project.

After the shooting, we ventured to a Chinese buffet and ate our fill in the company of Corriea and his family and a couple of his friends... good guys all. Dave, one of Larry's friends is one of the guys at Vector Arms, the makers of some damn fine Uzis and other assorted goodies. He mentioned an HK-53 pistol, and this caused my brain to do a backflip. The food was good, but the time all too brief. We wanted to catch a movie... we decided on what has got to be one of the oddest movies I have ever seen that didn't have Christopher Walken in it. The Brothers Grimm. During the movie, I had a little guy in back of my mind that kept holding up a little sign with the letters “WTF” on it. Seeing the small roll played by Monica Bellilucci, made it all worth while.

During the meal, it was asked how I can live out here in the middle of nowhere... Considering my friends all live on the Wasatch Front, and everything that I enjoy is out there. But for everything that the Wasatch Front has... it's missing some things. Lapoint has become my home, more so than anywhere else on the planet. I can not explain it, I will not even try... but the peace that I have here will not be found elsewhere. In the spring time perhaps, I will host a Gathering for all of The Horde who wants to come... to come here to Lapoint... We will do some off roading, and shooting (with no range fees) and some BBQ and Dutch Oven cooking. We will watch some very bad B grade horror movies... perhaps even turning the sound off and doing our own dialogs. Introduce those who are interested to Linux, maybe... if you want... It will be a good weekend. There is even a little place not too far from here called Paradise where there is camping and fishing if you like too. Give me some time first before we put this togther... I want to finish getting my shop all set up.

Guys, I had a great day Saturday – thank you. The drive home took over 3 hours. Normally I can do it in 2.5, or even 2 flat if I am pushing it... but well... let's just put it this way; I want to thank the fellow driving a grey SUV for blinking his tail lights for me. It may have saved my life. A guy some 300 yards head of me blinked is tail lights in rapid succession out in the middle of no where. I lifted off the gas and started to slow, covering the brake peddle... and then I saw the deer in the road. I was able to brake and swerve missing a huge Boon and Crocket grade buck that Cabella's would have been proud to put on display... less than an inch. Had the fellow in the SUV not blinked his lights – warning me - that buck would have come right through my windshield.

Friday, 9,23,05: Okay, so I was talking with some buddies about cars... and we started talking and trying to put into order who owns who in the automotive industry. After some research, it turns out rather surprising as to who is who and who owns parts of who. For example, did you know that Saab is owned lock stock and barrel by GM? I didn't. Pretty much damn near every car company out there has ties to one degree or another with each other. If not strategically, then with share holdings and investments. It's well known that Mazda and Ford are in bed, and General Motors is in bed with most everyone else... but VW owning Lamborghini was a surprise. But they don't own Lambo outright... they own over 99% of Audi, which owns 100% of Lambo. Interesting, that.
They are saying that Katrina is the worst natural disaster in the USA, ever. They say this new hurricane bearing down on Texas is going to be only somewhat less destructive, but horrible as all get out in its ownright. This is of course the talking heads in the media of course. I'm not so sure that these disasters rate as quite that bad. We've had a much much worse disaster to the USA... one that has been brewing for the last 30 years and only recently are we beginning to see just how much damage we've taken because of it. I don't think anyone can calculate the damage in financial figures... if it could be translated into figures. I'm talking about DEMOCRATS. They have devastated the Military more so than any of our Wars in our country's history. Remember when we had a 600 ship Navy? Remember when we used to have Battleships? Remember when we used to build tanks? (I was about to say "remember when our troops didn't have to fire .22's in war?" but that's not the Democrat's fault - I'm holding the Air Force guilty for that one... but that's another rant.) This new storm pounding Texas... knocking over 25% of our nation's oil refineries off line... this is going to devastate the whole national economy. Thirty years. It's been thirty years according to reports, since the last time we build a new refinery. We are building new Super Wal-Marts at a break neck pace, but we've not built a new oil refinery for thirty years. That means our newest refinery is thirty years old! Just how efficient can a thirty year old facility be? I'm sure they are doing the best they can. Have you taken a look at how much red tape there is to even start planning on building a new refinery? Check this out. When I first hooked up with my Bride, we had out here in the Uintah Basin... just outside of Roosevelt, Utah... we had an oil refinery. Ten years ago they knocked it down. The site is still there, in ruins. Scrap laying around... big fence around the area. It's just off Hwy 40 west of Roosevelt if you want to do a fly by. What people would be giving to have that refinery cranking out the unleaded right now! From what I have been told, the EPA shut it down because of pressure from environmentalists who argued that the refinery wasn't even needed anyway. 25% of our refineries taken down by one bloody storm, and our refinery isn't needed? We need every refinery that we can get. I'm especially pissed off at this, because we are getting gouged here in Utah. I'm paying 3 bucks a gallon... but our unleaded is coming down from CANADA and not up from Texas. Just WTF does Canadian Mid-Grade have to do with the Gulf Coast? Overnight our prices jump like Cyprus Hill was in the house.... don't tell me we are not getting gouged - do not even try to tell me that... I'll stab you in the mouth with an oil well drill bit. Don't think I'm not kidding, I've got 20 of them. Seriously. I could tap my own well right here in my yard, and probably hit some of that Texas Tea right here. Wouldn't do me any good though. Because I don't have a refinery. Our energy crisis is a monster built by the DNC. We have all the resources in North America... but the Democrats have seen to it that they are all untouchable. Assholes. They have driven the greatest nation on the planet to it's knees. Something that was unable to be done by all of our Nations enemies. It happened from within... slowly. Like a pack of ninjas... stabbing us in the back.
Further Linux Thoughts. My favorite distros: Linspire, Ubuntu, Fedora Core, Mandriva, SUSE. There are other great distros out there, but these are my favorites... they install faster and easier than any Windows... they find most device drivers with no problems... and they come nicely bundled with everything that the average PC user is likely to need. More software is always available and there are more Open Source software options out there than there are Windows. Uunless you are talking about games you can buy at Wal-Mart, but really... do you really want to drop fifty bucks for a bloody game? Linux offers you just as many games that you can download and install yourself. You just have to take the time to learn how to do it. I was working on a computer today, just for fun I decided to install Linux on it. No data to save, and the customer wanted to have it reformatted anyways. So I throw in a Ubuntu disk. The 5.04 Hoary Hedgehog release. It took like maybe 12 minute to format, install, and set up. 15 minutes total time I was checking my email on this older PC... it was fast. It had all the drivers installed... graphics, sound and LAN... worked great. Saved a couple emails to my USB thumb drive... opened up a photo with GIMP... the machine was awesome. Worked wonderfully and had speed that was surprisingly fast. Loved it. Then with a sigh, I put in the Windows ME (that's what the customer wanted, no, I'm not kidding) disk and rebooted. An hour later I was at the Desktop looking at the Device Manager. Windows didn't find a damn thing. Graphics, SM Bus Controller, Sound, various unidentified PCI devices, and the USB didn't work... Took another hour to get everything working... and it was slow. So slow, that I had to put in another stick of RAM just to set up the anti-virus and anti-spyware applications. Windows just flat ruined that system. I don't know if I mentioned this other Linux box... Slackware linux on an old Celeron 700 with only 128 megs of RAM. The thing is faster than it has any right to be... faster than a Windows box with 256 megs of RAM and a Celeron 2.2ghz chip... a lot faster. Anyways, I'm telling ya, it will be worth your while to explore Linux. If you think Linux is scary... just wait till you see Windows Vista. Seriously... take a look at Linspire if you are timid about Linux. Linspire holds your hand and pats you on the head and tells you everything will be okay. As far as jumping to a new Operating System goes, switching to Linspire is about as painless as it can get. Yeah, I'm pimping Linux over here... because I'm sick and tired of dealing with all of these damn viruses and spyware. I'm going insane with this crap. It's just out of control. My machine here that I'm typing this on right now, right at this moment... this is a Linspire box right here. Linspire 5.0, fully installed to the whole HD, and registered online. I'm typing this while listening to some ZZ Top. Sharp Dressed Man is the song playing. I also watched a couple video clips that were saved in .wmv format. Played great. Bangles, Walk Like An Egyptian... that short girl with the dark hair and big eyes... damn... she's still fine. The 80's were not all bad! Linspire is letting me pretty much do whatever I want to do. The other Linux distros out there... the ones I mentioned. Yeah, they can all do everything I need too. And the others don't cost a penny. Linspire is fifty bucks, but its money well spent. Why am I running a version of Linux that is fifty bucks instead of Fedora or something? Well, at work, we build systems with Linspire on them and we sell Linspire. We give away Ubuntu... but people buy Linspire. For that reason, I want to make sure I am as familiar with Linspire as possible. Anyone comes in with a system or question about how to do something, I want to be able to help them. Having said all of this - I do not touch the Command Line. I know the power of the command line, I've seen it in action. You can do everything there and more... but I'm not touching it. I'm going to be picking up a book about it this weekend... but I'm not touching it if I don't absolutely have to.
A real good novel to read, if you want to read a real good novel... is by Marcus Wynne. I don't know Marcus, but he has got to be one of The Horde. His book is called "No Other Option" and it is awesome. Hard core Gun Nut novel. Let's put it this way, Custom Browning High Powers. For those of The Horde with taste and class, this should raise your eyebrows and garner some amount of attention. Story line is fairly Hollywood, but Marcus writes it in a way that keeps our attention. SpecOps operator gets not right in the head and goes nuts... gets thrown into prison... breaks out. Enter the hero, old friend from the same unit. He's got to hunt the rogue agent... because he has (dramatic pause) No Other Option! The plot sounds thin, but it's done well. The characters are interesting and get some good development. The dialog is good. And the arsenal of weapons that get play time is impressive. If you get stuck in an airport terminal, or in traffic on a Texas freeway (sorry) this is a good book to have with you to make the time pass.
Another good book I just read is called... uh... well, it doesn't have a title yet. I just read through the raw first "proof of concept" version... its still needing to be fleshed out... some tweaks... some dropped plot line branches need to be explored... but its good. I enjoyed reading it a lot. It's a ghost story. The author is a soldier in the Virginia Army National Guard, serving in Iraq, in the worst hell hole second only to Falluja... but a place troops in Falluja say "at least I'm not there". One of my brothers... Zack. This is his book #3 of 4 he is writing. In his down time he is pounding the keys of his little laptop like crazy. I'm still working on mine, I've got 4 that I'm tinkering with... but Zack is possessed. Damn, I am proud of my little brother. When this ghost story gets done, it should be made into a movie. If I was to pick the director, I'm thinking Kurt Wimmer. (Directed Equilibrium) For the style and dialog... you need someone that can capture the subtlety and sub-lingual exchanges... yet still be able to grab you by the ball and swing you around the room.
Kim Du Toit's website has been a monument of clear conservative pro-gun thought. No, I do not know what is up with him, but he has taken down his site for good. His last posts indicated the need for full time dedication to other efforts. A blog such has his can be hugely distracting... this is probably what spawned his decision to kill it of completely rather than just stop posting. I've considered the same thing myself, especially since I have no internet connection from home anymore. But I shall carry on. It is with great reluctance that I must now consider deleting the link to Kim's site. But guys, it's not like he has died or anything. He is still there, taking his trips and doing his thing and turning great gobs of money into noise. A blog is not something you make money at, not unless you sell out like a souless bastard... and if you sell out you are no longer worth reading. So blogs that are making money, are not worth reading? Did I say that? No, some are well worth reading. MM, Powerline, MadOgre... these are the ones you want to keep bookmarked. :)
Saturday is Cabella's Day. 2:00 to 3:00 (maybe longer as I am told it is a huge store) I shall be worshiping at this shrine of the Rugged Individual. After that, what friends gather... we shall proceed with the shooting, the eating, the movie watching, and the brewing of sinister and diabolical plans to take over the world. If you see a blue Contour SE in the parking lot, then I'm still there. If it's after 3, and such car is no longer there, then I'm gone. I look like the guy in the photo up there in the upper right. I've got glasses and a bushy goatee... I hunch and walk with a limp... friggin Igore over here. If you are there at the same time, say hi. If you want to hang out, groovy. The idea for going down to the AF Gun Range is dead. I have been told that the place is now shut down for good. This is too bad. The joint was in a horrible location to do a business that needs walk in customers. Alternate locations for shooting will be decided upon later. Someone bring a digital camera, I gotta get some photos taken for a gun review! Looks like the Taurus 24/7 will not make it in time, so I'm going to need a hand with some other ideas for an article. I still don't know what happened to my camera. Damn thing is just GONE. Wish I could have been out there last weekend, gun show and all...
Oh, one last item. I want to say "Howdy" to my cousin and his cute wife who just might be reading this... Big George and Jodie. Hey, what's up? Tell Bobo that he can type out an email pecking at the keys one at a time with any booger picking finger he wants... and if he does, Jodie, I'll send you another keyboard. Let me know next time you are out in the Utah direction. For those just reading this, man... earlier this summer when Josh and Zack came out to Utah on leave, Bobo and Jodie came out to Utah to visit too. Family reunion thing. We all went out to this Chinese buffet joint for dinner. It was a gas. We had the whole table laughing and carrying on... with Bobo doing "Stupid Human Tricks" like sucking red jello through a straw, through his nose. It was disgusting and funny as hell. I think we all laughed more than we ate... and we ate a lot. Cept for the crawfish which had gone off.

Tuesday, 9-20-05:  Real quick update: I've been slammed at work, but I've got lots to talk about once I have some time to really sit down.

There is a knife that I am quite curious about. The Gerber-Emerson Alliance. I love the Emerson designs, super rugged, but not some much so that you feel like your holding a tent peg like some knives I know of. (cough cough Buck Strider cough) Looking around for a price on these, I'm seeing a pretty wide variance. 170 to 190 usually... but I found one over here for only 131. That price puts it right there next that sweet spot price range. There is a chance - perhaps - that this knife could finally retire the Horde's Champion knife, the mighty Kershaw/Onion Boa. As luck would have it, this site that has the good Gerber prices, has a sister site for Kershaws. I'm going to put links in the Weapons Section for these two sites tomorrow. I need to do a whole new knife page... but that will be down the road. Man, I've got to do something about this Boa. Its turned me off of everything else, and there are a lot of fine knives out there that are worthy of carry... but the Boa keeps booting them back out of my pocket. Full review as soon as I can on this Gerber. Bookmark that site too... Dennis the owner of these two sites is a straight up fellow and one of The Horde^tm.

Coming Articles: Knife review on this Alliance. (Knife is on the way) Movie Gun article on SIN CITY. (working on that one tonight) Multi Tool Battle: Gerber vs Leatherman. (Gerber tool is on the way)

I'm going to finally hit this new Cabela's here in Utah... I'm going there this Saturday and I'll be there at about 3:00. Some friends are gathering there, anyone is welcome to come hang out with us. After checking out the holy grounds of Cabela's, we are going to do some shooting and eat some good food and check things out from there. Maybe shooting at the Utah Shooting Academy there just off the freeway (used to be call the AF Gun Range) and eating... well... where ever everyone wants to go.

The Car: This little Contour SE is still doing great. I absolutely love it. The 5 speed and the V6 is the combination that I've been wanting for some time in a car. It's small, but looks decent and has a nice streamlined shape... the leather seats feels good... driving it on my 24 mile commute is bliss. I've been getting emails about “should have gots”. No one as suggested a Should Have Got option that was found last saturday when I was looking. Guys, let me remind you – I'm in Vernal, Utah. Most maps don't even show Vernal (let along Lapoint where I live) and if you want to see it, you have to hit Google Earth or be ready for a really long and boring road trip. But the drive from Vernal to Lapoint is awesome. My point is that unless its a Ford Truck, we just might not have any for sale out here. I was LUCKY to grab a car as nice as this Contour. And I'm happy with it. The SE was one of those cars I've had on my “I'd like to get one” list.

Anyways, check tomorrow... I've got some stuff I want to address in more detail.

Monday, 9-19-05: New Car: Ford Contour SE. 2.5 liter V6, 5 speed manual, leather interior. Feels like its still brand new. Not the fastest or sharpest of the sports sedans out there, but it is pretty fast and pretty sharp. Great condition, very low miles, and my payments are only a hundred bucks a month on it. Not bad. Heading out to SLC this coming weekend, and I'll be getting over 30MPG while doing it. This is a very nice car, and the nicest I've had in a long while. Small car, but the trunk is cavernous. Nice room inside. Comfortable. No complaints about it, but I would like to upgrade the AM-FM-Cassette to a CD/XM unit... but that's nothing I need to worry about. So there you have it, Ogre finally bowed to the God's of Finance and I now have a car I didn't just pay outright cash for. Now, about the car its self... I love driving it. The sport suspension is tight and with the wide tires and 4 wheel disk brakes... twisty roads are nothing but fun.

Anyways, I'm tickled with it. And like I said, this weekend I'm going to SLC. So Steve, Larry, Matt, Carl... – We've got some shooting to do. Hopefully this Taurus 24/7 will get here and we shall try to find any and all faults with it... I could use your opinions. I am craving a Sonic breakfast burrito! I think I'll buy like 10 of them to bring back with me, stick them in the freezer.

My father picked up a new ride himself, a new Chevy Cobalt. He is in love with. He didn't buy the SS version... the one I would have picked... but he his well pleased with his choice. I've driven a couple Cobalts, and they are fine cars.

Friday, 9-16-05:  The one consolation for living out here in the middle of nowhere... the sky. The stars are absolutely breathtaking. Without the excess light radiation dimming out the majority of the stars, the whole night sky is so vibrant with all the stars... it's just amazing. But even better, before the stars come out to play, the sunsets... the sunsets are pure glory. Tonight the sky was clear of any clouds, but the sunset was still amazing. There was just enough of a haze on the horizon to really activate the sunset into a huge bright orange blaze that cast the red rocks with an ethereal light that painted everything in soft pastel colors. It was gorgeous, and unlike any sunset I've ever seen before. Still miss my broadband connection.

Cindy Sheehan is back in the news, and she couldn't have said a more ludicrous thing to do it. Troops need to pull out of occupied New Orleans. Now wait a second here. I thought the Liberals were all pissed because the troops didn't get there fast enough... now, just like Iraq, before the job is finished, they want the troops gone? Is it just me or are Liberals just flat out psychotic? Or maybe Cindy Sheehan is just a flipping lunatic? Or is the answer “C” and it's all the above? I'm filling in “C” with my #2 pencil on this question.

Automotive Options: I'm thinking about pulling the trigger on a 1997 Chevy Cavalier Z24. From what I gather, they are generally reliable, and economical for a pseudo-sport. But driving the thing? First off, the shifter is absolutely horrible. Notchy and vague at the same time, feels rougher than it should be. Clutch is too light, like a Honda with no fluid in the lines. Brakes are weak too. I'd have to replace the pads, have the rotors turned, and install braided stainless lines to the front disks. The engine is great. Solid, sounds great, and it pulls the car along well enough for "around 30MPG". But man, what a tinny feeling POS. I remember driving in my first car that my Dad gave me... a VW 412... it felt more solid. That's back when the only other VW option was a Van and a Bug. I'm impressed with the Chevy Cobalts... they feel like real cars. This Cavalier feels like joke. But it's the only 1/2 decent ride available around here within reach. I need a car, but this isn't a car I'd ever select if other options were available. I could opt for a Contour, but it's only an Auto, and I don't want that. Aargh.

Taurus should have that 24/7 pistol out here any time now... I'm still looking forward to abusing testing that one.

Wednesday, 9-14-05:  Fedora Core 4 is not without it’s limitations. For one, a decoder for MP3s is not included, just as DVD decoders are missing. These can downloaded and compiled of course, if you know how to do that sort of thing. But in attempting to install MP3 player “XMMS”, I noticed sound system irregularities popping up. Such as distortion in the audio CDs that I ripped. Very odd. For a Distro with such a vaunted reputation for excellence as Fedora, this is flat out unacceptable. No, it’s not hardware, because with pretty much all other distros I’ve tried on this board with integrated audio, sound has not been an issue. Not once, not ever. Doing a search online, I find that I am not the only one to find these oddities. Everything else about Fedora 4 has been groovy. I really like it a lot. So much so that I think I am going to keep it and just use this box for work. Well, maybe not. Not yet at least. There are some new distros coming out that I want to try out before I seal the case shut on this one. SUSE 10 for example, as well as the newest slackware. And I dont think I’ve given Gentoo a fair shake on this box... Well, before make this box a dedicated platform, I think I’ll wait to throw in a bigger HD anyways. This one is a 40 gig IBM, and I pretty much hate them. 9 out of 10 hard drives that fail and cause data loss for customers have been these IBM hard drives. I don’t trust them. That’s why I’ve no problem blowing this one out and trying different OS’s all the time; because I don’t feel like anything on it is permanent. Anything I save is actually saved onto my 512 Meg USB jump drive. (Lexar, btw, the best one out there... these things can go through the washer and drier and still work. Mine has!)

The automobile situation. I am about ready to break down and finance a set of wheels. I have a huge aversion to taking on a car note, and just thinking about it makes me sick to the stomach. I’m not kidding, physically ill. Anyways, so I took a few minutes to wander a couple car lots. I spotted one possibility that wouldn’t be too bad. A ‘98 Ford Contour with not bad mileage at all... but I’m going to get this car fully checked out – like any car – before I pull the trigger on it. The Contour is sold in Europe as the Mondeo, where it does very well and has a good track record. Decent fuel economy, which has become important lately, and decent get up and go for a car that could never be considered a performance ride thanks to a two liter engine tuned to a well programmed transmission. Ugh... this car just goes against my grain, but it beats all hell out of any Ford Focus. I guess I’m trying to convince myself that it’s not that bad. I don’t think I’m doing so well. Too bad the new Chevy Cobalts are outside what I want to spend (as close to nothing as possible) for something economical. If I was going to finance 23 grand instead of only 5 to 7, Id find something that would actually give me a return on the investment... like a classic Mustang. You can still find them in various states of restoration for reasonable amounts of coin... but a Mustang here and now would be a bad move. For one, winter is going to be coming along shortly again and a rear wheel drive muscle car for my daily driver would be suicidal. Most of my drive into work is on a two lane highway that is not exactly plowed when it snows. So I’ll be battling the road, big trucks, and lots of curves. If it can’t be all wheel drive, it’s got to be front wheel drive. What I wouldn’t give for an Audi Quattro right now! Yeah, don’t even talk to me about Subaru's. My long time readers will remember my last Sube, which earned the ignoble title “That Fucking Subaru ^tm”. In all fairness, Id still have that car if it wasn’t for the automatic transmission... It’s all about the Stick Shift. Manual. Automatics are for trucks or girls... I’ll not have another one in a car. Ever. I don’t care if it’s a Maybach... Give me one for free and I’d still have to ask, “Can I get it in a Stick?” If not, I’d just sell it. Maybe buy a Skyline with the proceeds. And a new house. And another rig. And fix up my Bronco... and some guns... anyways. I dislike automatics. The only sissy-stick that has any potential are the shiftless continual transmissions that are supposedly always in the right gear. I don’t know about that, the one I tried was always in the wrong gear it seemed, but the potential is there. Evidently Nissan has got these sorted but I’ve not tried one of those. Not many Nissan dealerships out here in Dinosaur Land. We have a bunch of used lots, a Ford dealership, and a Cadillac joint. You are pretty much catering to the oil barons out here. Not a lot of options. It’s mainly trucks here. If you don't like that, you can drive out to SLC for something different.

Forgive my lack of “important” postings here... but all the news is all about how screwed up New Orleans and George Bush is. I’m done with those subjects. Yet I still wonder how since Bush developed Godlike powers of weather control and slammed cat 5 Katrina into the poor black folk, that no one has stepped up with any real leadership except Bush. No, no... don’t get me started. Its like spinning your wheels in the mud after you have already sunk down to the door handles. It’s a wonder how the rest of the world is no longer news worthy... unless of course they are sending aid to the Katrina victims. Reports have it that the black folks relocated to Utah are pissed because there are not enough black folks here in Utah. This is interesting because I thought the only people here in Utah were just “people”. I guess I am not humanitarian enough to be bothered with sorting by color. Just using the label “black” has been repugnant to me. I say this not out of any nod to political correctness – which all of you know I care nothing for. But to me, color makes no difference. Race means nothing. To me, its all about individual character and actions. Here is my basic philosophy – I dislike everyone as a whole and in general. But individuals are alright... certain ones. Ones that come into my circle, into The Horde. Everyone else just sucks equally unless you are Democrat and then you suck more equally than others. I’ve had too many good relationships with every ethnic group to allow any racism or hatred based on Faith, Sex, Sexual Preference, Land of Origin, or Pigmentation of Skin. Such things are ignorant and below contemptible. Yet Racism seems to have resurfaced much like the bodies that used to be in the New Orleans graves. Jesse Jackson and his group... and this other guy who said that the levy broke because of a 25 foot deep crater in some scheme to get rid of the black folks. Evidently the category 5 hurricane had nothing to do with it now. Wow. Racism is great! It’s a better “high” than being Liberal! Sheesh. The shear magnitude of the number of asshats coming out of the wood work... like worms coming out out of the grass after a rain. Yes, the CIA bombed the levy and caused the hurricane as a cover up... which conveniently down graded to pass gently over Florida so it could amp up to kill them thar black folks in New Orleans because the Crack and Aids isn’t killing them fast enough. They figured it out! Yesseriebob. The CIA might as well give it up now. The cat is out of the bag. Do these people have any idea how retarded they sound? Evidently not. Ugh! Here I am going on about it again!

Here is some good news. Looks like my brothers will be coming home from Iraq in just a matter of weeks now. Rumor has it their unit will be rotated out in November. Let me back up and explain this to any new readers – I have two younger brothers serving in Iraq right now. My little brothers... my heroes. They have been doing some of the worst and probably the most dangerous duty in Iraq... potentially physically dangerous – and politically dangerous. Straight up, if they fucked up – it would be live on CNN in a matter of minutes. Yet they have done their duty FLAWLESSLY. One of these days, I’ll post the whole story for you guys, because some of it is unbelievable. But for the safety of my Bro’s and their team mates, I’ll wait until they are knocking back Cold Ones with me. I hope they are home before Christmas, safe and sound. Because, Santa, that’s all I’m asking for. I love my brothers, more than I can say. All of my brothers.. I’ll leave it at that.

This is the type of email that I wish I didn't have to post: "Hey Ogre, Today I have lost a very dear friend. The same friend that had bought the rifle you and I were talking about. He had apparently shot himself with his own handgun. The magazine was removed but a bullet was still in the chamber. He was 23 years old. There are very few people that I call friend, and even fewer that I call brother. This one was my brother. His name is Kyle. All indications are that this was accidental. Many of us who knew him and had even spent the most recent time with him saw no indications of any suicidal intentions. Being part of a law enforcement family I can attest to the shit happens factor. I have seen firearm accidents and have heard of many others. Sometimes even the safest people still have accidents. George, pass this on to all your readers. There is no such thing as too much gun safety. - Cold Emotions"

The 4 Rules of Firearms Safety:

1.  Handle all firearms as if they were loaded.

2.  Never point the gun at anything you're not willing to destroy.

3.  Keep your finger off the trigger and out of the trigger guard until you have made the decision to fire the weapon.

4.  Know your target, and know what is beyond the target.

Tuesday, 9-13-05: I’m sitting here running Fedora Core 4 on my Linux box... (note: this was written last night) which had up to this point been a Linspire 5.0 box. The install was easy; I booted to the Fedora 4 DVD disk, followed the wizard and answered a few simple questions, name, favorite color, air speed velocity of an unladen swallow, and Fedora pretty much just installed its self. No long CD Key’s to type in, no product activation... it was a fire and forget install. Seriously, I set the install and went downstairs to hang out with some guests. Came back upstairs, and Fedora was running nicely. Video, network, audio, everything was installed and working properly. I bet if I had a printer plugged in, it would have installed that as well. I think I shall leave it Fedora for awhile, because I’m finding it to be a better Linux distro for a couple reasons. First off, it’s faster. On the same box with the same hardware specs and no changes, Fedora 4 is flat out faster. Not as fast as Gentoo, but it will do nicely. The other thing that I’m liking about Fedora 4, is the software packages that it comes with... OpenOffice 2.0 Beta, Gimp 2.2, and a whole bunch of others... Sure other Linux distros come with these as well, but Fedora 4 takes the time to get the latest versions. It’s a nice touch. Much like Ubuntu, it comes native with the Gnome desktop which I am learning a deeper appreciation for. Not as flashy as KDE, but solid and trouble free. Linspire’s Lsongs can sometimes be a tad glitchy when your reading and ripping audio CDs for some reason. This has not been a problem with Fedora 4. To sum it up, Fedora 4 does everything you need a computer 4 – ahem – for. Even things you don’t need a PC for, such as waisting time; Fedora 4 comes with an impressive array of idle hands applications... games. At first I wasn’t all that impressed, and then I installed the additional RPM for KDE and it filled the menu out nicely. “Kolf” (KDE-Golf) is evil... that’s all I’m saying about that one. Just in the last week, I think our shop has given away and or sold over a dozen Linux CD’s (Sold one of the Linspire packages) and one computer system that we had on display with Linspire. Customer took one look at that and wouldn’t leave the shop without it. We’ve not had these customers, normally “frequent flyers” come back with their normal “spyware pooched my Winbox” problems. This is a good thing. Linux just flat works. Now, we have had, “How do you do this” kind of calls, but with Linspire and all the support you get with it... those calls have been rather few. Ubuntu has a lot of support as well, with a fully active online user support group in the form of discussion forums. So does Fedora as I understand. This is a good thing because the support and the answers to questions are what is going to turn Linux into a full blown main stream OS option for Joe Sixpack. I think it is now. The bundled apps, online support, cross compatibility with Windows files... On my USB thumbdrive, I have some OpenOffice documents that I had saved, plugged it into this here Fedora Box... seconds later I was editing those documents. Presto. Icon on the desktop and everything. Very nice. Windows doesn’t even do that, you have to hit “Start” then “My Computer” and look for the new drive. Linux is awesome. I’ve actually yet to see a new distro that could not replace Windows for the common user. All the new stuff is awesome... exactly the way the new Windows Vista isn't. The only thing that Linux is missing is a solid contender against FrontPage, but that’s my personal opinion... I still dislike Nvu, and wish it was better. Or really, I wish someone clever would crack and port FrontPage 2003 over to Linux and wrap it up into a nice RPM package. But that’s just me. And I don’t even really need FrontPage, it’s just that I’ve grown so used to it. I can roll with Dreamweaver just fine, but I’m much more comfy with the way FrontPage works.

What doesn't work is my mini-van, the silly turbocharged Plymouth Voyager. Coming in to work today, I only got about ½ way before I heard a train wreck coming from under my hood, then the oil light popped on and the overheat light.... then the engine died... and that's about it. I was rolling along at a steady 55, listening to some classic rock on the radio, and thinking about what I wanted to eat for breakfast. This little event bothered me a great deal. So now the van is sitting on the side of the road quietly smoldering. The downside if it is that I have over a half tank of gas in it... which is worth more by far than the van its self. I'm not sure what I'm going to do for a vehicle now.

Monday, 9-12-05:  I've decided that I want to become a Democrat. No, seriously. If I was to become a Democrat, I'd get a lot of benefits. First off, if I was to cry – I would get full media attention. If I was to make totally false statements, I'd get a pass. If I was to commit a crime, or make some mistake... it wouldn't be my fault. It would be someone else's fault, most likely the President's. On top of all this, I'd be eligible for entitlements. All you have to do is lease off a portion to the devil, which is no problem because you don't believe he's real anyways. Then you just check your brain into a lock-box. That's all there is to it. No wonder there are so many Democrats! It's a great gig! You have no personal responsibility and nothing to worry about.

I read on Fark.com that Ann Hathaway has a new movie coming out called Havoc... I love Ann Hathaway... gorgeous. Have to see this flick... evidently she is naughty in this one. Woof!

Hordeman Chase sent us a screencap from the new BSG series... it clearly shows a Firefly class spaceship cruising by. Now, BSG is of course “Battlestar Galactica” and Firefly space ships are of course from Firefly. This is undoubtedly a tip of the hat to the excellent series.

Now on to some more troubling news. Gun confiscations are going on in New Orleans. If you look at my Firearms news ticker there on the right side (scroll down a bit) there are a number of articles about this. Here is my take. This is totally unacceptable and unconstitutional. As always, it's the good guys that are giving up their guns... the bad guys of course are dodging this. The guns being confiscated are being grabbed and tossed into a bin. There is no receipt of property, no names or tags... these people are not going to be getting these guns back. This is theft. This sets the honest citizens up to be prey to the predators. But in this case, it looks like the predators are the local government officials. Remember the Mayor who blamed Bush while hanging out in a nice big hotel in Philly. This is the biggest tragedy of the Hurricane, because the victim is the US Constitution. 9-11 has nothing on this. This matter has angered me a great deal.  I am seething.  These people who have lost so much, then get this pulled on them.  Are these people no longer citizens of the United States?  Just because of a storm, they loose the constitutional protections granted to them and every other citizen by the Bill of Rights?   This is an atrocity.

Speaking of Constitutions, we are watching with great interest the constitutional creation process going on in Iraq.  Many people seem to be impatient with this.  They want the constitution to be done "now".  I remind these people that our Declaration of Independence, signed in 1776, took a long time to come together.  The actual Constitution wasn't (completely to include the Bill of Rights) ratified until 1791.  Patience, people, patience.  It takes some time to form a more perfect union.  We wish Iraq and her peoples the best of luck in this.

Thursday 9-8-05: You ever have any news that actually makes you rub your hands together and chuckle wickedly like a villain from an old black and white melodrama? Well that was me yesterday afternoon. Taurus is going to be sending me out one of their new 24-7 pistols in 9MM. I also have on tap a large supply of hot police duty 9MM ammunition. This is important because Taurus has made me look like an idiot in the past. When the Millennium series first came out I totally fell in love with it. I liked the way it looked, felt, shot, and it was just an impressive little package. I spouted off about it, and while I didn't buy one, others did including a good friend of mine. Everyone pretty much loved these little Taurus guns... until around the 600 round mark. Everyone one of them starting around 600 rounds fired started to develop some slight problems. Slight being defined as fractures in the frames of the .45 caliber versions and the shearing of the pins holding the frame and the sub-frame together... yeah, slight problems. Well, I'm going to damn well make sure that this doesn't happen again. This 24-7 pistol is going to be going through a virtual pistol boot-camp. I'm going to drag it though the mud and drive it to the very limits that humanity will allow... minimum of 1,000 rounds. If these new Taurus guns have a weakness – I'm going to find it and then I'm going to let you know what it is.

Speaking of gun reviews... The Ruger P345. I've not yet sent it back. (Ruger gave me 160 days, so I'm going to take some advantage of that) I have to admit that some fondness has grown over this Ruger. More rounds fired, more mileage put on it... It's functioned flawlessly and has not let me down. I think Ruger has a fine handgun in the P345, but what I said about it before still stands... I want to see a Compact version of this gun more suitable for CCW carry.

Gas prices are just insane... went up another 10 cents a gallon overnight. Freak. Between what it costs in gas and what I'm making... I think if I was to just stay home, I'd break even. This is insane. 50 bucks to fill up my 17 gallon fuel tank. I mean, hell, earlier this year this is what it cost to fill up my Bronco! As I was standing at the gas pump this morning, I was remembering a wonderful little motorcycle that I desperately want – but of course is not something I or anyone else can actually buy. The Marine's version of the Kawasaki KLR-650 Diesel. They have 8 gallon fuel tanks and get 80 miles to the gallon or more... gives you at least an 640 mile range between refills. I would give my left nut for one of those bikes. But you or I can not buy one... not at any price. Company making the engines (F1 Engineering) can't sell them to civilians. Screw! Not that I could buy one anyways right now... I'm freaking broke – like I said, I had to gas up today. Wife had to gas up her van yesterday. That's a hundred bucks when it used to be 50. I'm not the only one feeling the bite on this. I'm looking at prices of other things now... everything is starting to go up because of this.

Wed, 9-7-05: I'm impressed... at the shear magnitude of Liberal stupidity being displayed on the news outlets everywhere in regard to the situation in New Orleans and of course the other areas hit by the hurricane. Seeing this great void of honesty... it reminds me of when I first overlooked The Grand Canyon. Not one “reporter” has yet to question the Mayor of NO as to why he took no action with the assets that he had under his authority. No one as asked why they didn't order the evacuation of NO even though they knew it was coming and they knew it was going to be more than the city could take. Funny how the reporters and the people looking to blame Bush for all this are all saying Bush has done nothing and they should send in troops... well, all weekend I've been watching and listening to this, and yet while they say these things... I'm seeing the Blackhawk helicopters flitting about like bees going from rooftop to rooftop rescuing people left and right. Yet according the reporters and such sniveling people, these choppers are not there and none of this is happening. This is my last comment about this situation. I think you all know my mind on this.

Did you hear about the 6 year old hero? Read this. To Liberals, a hero is just a weird kinds sandwich.  But I think all my readers will recognize a little hero when they see this. Let's talk about something else now.

Remember the movie “Transporter”? It was a stupid movie that I enjoyed for some reason. But this new sequel... this has got to be one of the least appealing movie posters ever. The action poses are way too comic bookish and stupid. The guy has a stupid look on his face and is holding his guns just wrong. The girl? Yech. I'm not sure what she's holding or doing or supposed to look like, but if the idea is to look like something out of a retarded video game, she's spot on. What are these two doing?  Are they dancing?  Is there any reason to go see this movie? Not really... but if you wait till it comes out as a rental, it does have some cool cars I am told. It also has a probably sighting of a CZ-100. Not many movies have the CZ-100 in them, so this makes it something to rent, but watch it alone. Don't subject anyone else to this garbage.

Letter To The Editor: “Ogre: I’m glad to hear you moved into a home with more room and I hope you and the family live many happy years there. Regarding your recent post on defending home and loved ones because no one else can be depended on, really struck a chord with me. I’ve read your observations for quite awhile and I don’t own any firearms, and after the events in New Orleans I’m left to wonder what the heck I’m going to do if events repeat themselves here. It would be foolish to think it could NEVER happen to me. A heavy duty flashlight between the scumbag and my wife doesn’t console me. I’ll keep this short. My wife is on the fence about the gun thing, and instantly things popped in her mind about kids (we don’t have any yet) pulling it out of the closet and playing cowboys and Indians. How do you keep the guns secure but easily accessible if you need it in the middle of the night? Do you recommend any gun retailers or one stop sources for the first time buyer? Thanks a million, I know your busy and won’t expect a reply. For the benefit of your wisdom I though it was worth the attempt. Regards, Jim”

You have some good questions James. If the Better Half is iffy about guns, then let's not bother looking at handguns... And if you've never had a gun before a handgun would be unwise. You should look at some shotguns. The shotgun is a very versatile weapon/tool, and its one that is much easier to deal with and make hits with in the middle of the night when you are groggy and startled. Which one? I don't know. I'm not you... different shotguns feel different to different people. I like the Mossberg 590's personally when it comes to pump action, and Berettas when it comes to autoloaders. I suggest looking at pump actions because they are rugged and almost fool proof. Now, the hard part... where to keep it. Well, locked in the safe with a Gun Lock on it will make it totally useless and pointless. You wont be able to get it into action when you need it. And you don't want to leave it under the bed if you have young ones about. What you should do - I don't know. But let me give you an idea. Put them up high. Horizontal along the top of the closet so it is unseen should you look it. Make a little shelf there, and don't let anyone else one know its there besides your wife. Hidden and inaccessible to small folk... yet ready to rock in 5 seconds or less. I think your wife might find this arrangement acceptable, because such a thing is a benefit to her too, especially whenever you are not home late at night. Hope this helps.

Friday, 9-2-05: PM: Guys, check this out. You've heard me talking about Linspire, a really slick, full featured Linux OS distribution. Well, Linspire is giving away the OS for free until September 6^th. They normally charge 50 bucks for the OS... and at 50 bucks its worth the money... but free is a much better price! JUMP on this chance to get Linspire and try it out for yourself. I love Linspire. If you are a dyed in the wool Windows user who has been thinking about trying out Linux, here is a free chance to try out one of the better distros out there.

We see that Kim DuToit is taking a blogging break. One thing is for certain, guys like Kim and I and other gun-bloggers... we have a biological need to just blow our stacks once in awhile and let fly some full caliber opinions. He will be back with a good rant every so often. So check in on his site every so often so you don't miss anything.

Couple questions about how my silly turbocharged van is running. Well, it's running very well and thankfully getting an average of 24 miles per gallon. Which is a good thing because I live about 24 from my work. Also, the van can run for about 20 miles before I start overheating. This means that by the time I pull into work or into my driveway, I'm boiling over, and I've got superheated water spewing out of the overflow. This weekend I am going to try something... I'm going to try swapping the radiator with the one I got in my Cherokee. Yeah, I still have it, but it's pretty much just a parts rig now. Sad, that. The vans rad acts funny and sometimes the overflow res doesnt suck the fluid back into system when the overpressure eases up... and sometimes it doesn't ease up and after sitting for 10 hours it might still be holding that 16PSI. I'm not sure the heating issue is engine so much as a rad that is malfunctioning. The prior owner said that this coolant loss thing (the reason for the overheating) started when they swapped the rad to the supposed oversized unit it has now. So if they had dropped in a bad radiator, this could be the problem. I hope. If this isn't it (oh, and I'm going to swap the thermostat to) then the issue is a cracked head. But I've never seen a blown gasket or cracked head that resulted in the loss of coolant, that didn't result in coolant being found in the oil. Some people have said they've heard of it, but when pressed, they never have actually seen it either. Especially when you pull the plugs and the plugs are dry. And in a mini van that can do a 6 second run from 0 to 60MPH, if it was sucking coolant, I'd get a hit in performance or mileage, wouldn't I? I don't know... it's a head scratcher. This van is worth fixing if it's not a cracked block. If it is, then this van isn't worth a thing. Especially since I feel really ghey driving it. I don't car if it can do sub-12's on the quarter mile... its still a mini-van. Not that mine is running 12's... probably 15's but still. Since I can't drive it out of town, and even if I could I couldn't afford the 3 bucks a gallon gas. Yeah, prices jumped here too. Damn the Liberals and their obstructionist energy policies!

Concealed Carry Magazine is lining up some manufacturers to send me out some guns to review. Give us a bit, and we'll be back on that track! I'm looking for a gun to review before the September 30^th deadline.

AM: Email from reader: “I'm sure you will addressing this soon: Why aren't they shooting looters in New Orleans? I saw a clip on one of the news networks a minute ago where a cop is pointing a shotgun at a looter. Why didn't he pull the f***ing trigger? There comes a point, when everything else has gone to hell in a handbasket, where order must be enforced--even if it means the application of deadly force. This limp-wristed handling of these thugs in the midst of the apocalypse is appalling.  These thugs are roaming the streets and even the cops are barricading themselves in the stations, leaving the public on their own. If they'd come down like the hammer of Thor on these parasites, maybe things would be calmer. This, sir, is why I am armed to the teeth. It's true that when it finally hits the fan, you are going to be responsible for your own (and your family's) safety. The government can't (or in this case, won't) do it for you. I'm disgusted.”

Many feel the same as you do. In fact, just today the Governor bragged that they are sending in battle experienced guardsmen who know how to shoot to kill, and that they probably will. What's more disgusting than the looters, is the Political Looters who are trying to use this disaster as a chance to snipe at the administration, to point fingers, and to blame Bush for everything. First off, crisis response is a local issue at the first level, and state at the upper level. When it gets to the Federal level it is expected that the State and the Local levels have some support structures in place. For the Feds to be responsible for local level first responder missions would require the entire nation to be under martial law before hand. My point is that no one should be pointing any fingers. This isn't a time for political posturing, it is a time to get to work and help out. This will get sorted out and everything will be brought back to stability if not normality. Patience is also required.

Funny how many of the people who are so anti-gun are now when they are threatened, are calling for good guys with guns to come help out. Had this area not been so anti-gun to begin with, their would have been good guys with guns all around them. What few good guys with guns that were there to start with have been so overwhelmed, they have been turning in their badges. I'm not talking about just cops here... a wise Sheriff should have immediately called for all the CCW Permit Holders to step up. Of course, you have to be in an area that does try to put off holding CCW permits. But in a State like Utah for example. Should the Law have a problem they have a huge resource of people ready to step up and help out... good solid folks who by getting the permits in the first place, are documented “Good Guys”. Ignoring this reserve force and waiting for the Feds to step in with Military forces... That's not how The West was Won if you get my drift.

This computer shop I work at, on display we have a very cool system... black and silver case, black keyboard and mouse... very handsome. But even cooler is the Linspire OS on it. Very slick. Sound, Graphics, LAN and internet... all work great... no problems. Gimp, Open Office, Mozilla... Without having to buy any other software suite, it comes with everything you need to enjoy the internet and get some work done.  So much for the overly expensive Microsoft software.

Wednesday, 8-31-05:  One of The Horde's more astute members has sent us something that did not come up on my radar yet. Police controversy in Falls Church, Virginia over their issued SIG P220 pistols. Now as The Horde knows, when it comes to double action, .45ACP caliber, automatic handguns, the P220 is at the top of the list. (Followed by the CZ-97 and the Beretta Cougar) The SIG is so good, that it has been dubbed “The Thinking Man's .45” by many gun writers. I don't know if I would go that far over it, but it is a personal favorite of mine and of many of The Horde. BTW, my teeth hurt I want the compact version, the P245, so badly! Anyways, this article also mentions that Henrico County has dropped the P220. This article makes the P220 sound as if they are substandard arms. In reality, these guys are complaining about having to drive BMW M5's. The issue of the reliability is probably because these guys in Falls Church have not had the weapons serviced. Recoil springs and magazine springs need to be changed out every so often... just like the oil in the M5 needs to be changed or pretty soon its going to have reliability issues too. They also said in the article that they didn't yet have the chance to test fire the reserve P220's yet. The reserve guns are nothing but brand new guns that were purchased with the issue guns and these guns were set aside to replace the active duty guns should problems come up. And the article makes this out to be a bad thing? That's crazy. How many times do you get a zero mile new car as a replacement for your used car when you take it in for service? I think these new SIGs will prove to be perfectly reliable as long as the Officers are using new magazines with them. If they are using the old mags in the new guns, they could possibly get the same problems. Also if these old pistols are just flat worn out, then these new “reserve” pistols should be just fine, and again... like trading in your old car for a new one. The SIG is more than outstanding, but like everything else, they have to be taken care of and can eventually wear out. Now, as I understood it, Henrico County was getting a special version of the P220, one with hardened feed ramps to prevent the stress fractures that can develop there over time. (I had a conversation with one of Henrico's armorers about this some 8 years ago) Why they dropped the P220 is an interesting question, and I am curious as to what they switched to. One reason that they probably switched was that they have been running the P220 forever and they just wanted to freshen up the image or wanted a different caliber. For you of The Horde who owns a SIG P220, take it out of the gun vault, give it some love, clean it, inspect it, maybe put in some fresh springs... and you can feel confident that you still have what is hands down one of the finest handguns ever built.

It must be just freaking awesome to be President Bush... to have the power to control the weather! Wow! No wonder the Liberals hate Bush – He's GOD! In all seriousness, it is truly arrogant to think that mankind has much influence over the weather... to look for blame over this hurricane is just asinine. Its no one's fault... it's the weather. It happens. Hurricanes are naturally occurring storms that have been happening since before the Vikings discovered America. If you want to blame anyone for New Orleans being flooded out, blame the people who built the place in an area that is below sea level. This is all very small minded though, and I do not like it... this disaster is bigger than 9-11.

Funny thing... this is the first thing that has happened since the war has started that justifies in my mind any reason for oil prices to rise. It seems all year people have been using any reason whatsoever to jack up gas prices... the trading has been a comedy of horrors over oil futures. Death of Saudi Royalty, Back Street Boys has a new album... everything lately has been meaning higher oil prices all year. But this storm has actually taken out some of our refineries... meaning an actual logical reason for higher gas prices at the pump.

Now I am going to lay some blame here. If it wasn't for the jackass environmental wackos and the Democrats in their pockets, we would have plenty of domestic energy resources on tap. This goes back decades. The gas shortages in the 70's were one of the symptoms of this problem because even back then we had put our dependency on OPEC. And since then, the situation has only grown worse, as many of the refineries we had have been forced to shut down from sanctions, legislation, or because of EPA mandates. And other reasons of course include the cost of domestic production verses just importing it. Yada yada yada. Here where I live, the Uintah Basin of Utah... this is oil country. Every major oil company has a stake set out here someplace. We have tons of oil and some of the oil guys have made some rather impressive estimates about potential production capacity. The only problem is that we don't have any refineries anywhere near here, so even though we are pumping it out like made just a few miles from here, I'm paying 2.50 a gallon for the cheap stuff. Premium is about 3 bucks a gallon here. I don't blame Bush for this situation, and I don't see how he is supposed to help it either. But I do blame the Liberals for this. If they would just shut the hell up and leave us alone, we could not only be burning cheap gas, but we could be enjoying it out riding on trails in our SUVs and ATVs in peace!

Tuesday, 8-30-05: Email from the Horde's Department of Dissenting Opinion: “Mad...Mad Ogre....There are protestors for every President. A mother doesn't agree with the war...and has lost her son. She should be allowed to express that however she wants, and that should be respected. Even if you disagree with her. Just let her do her thing. She isn't hurting anyone...this is how she is grieving and getting support. Some people may find her going about this the wrong way...that very well may be...but its the wrong way for 'them' to go about it. This might be the right way for 'her' to go about it. She isn't hurting anyone...this isn't making the enemy stronger...this country is founded on these kinds of expressions. This is where I think yourself and many others lose track of this freedom. People CAN do this...and just because you disagree with them...doesn't mean you have to belittle them. Disagree with them... fine...but their thoughts...and expressions should be respected if its not hurting someone. Express your thoughts on why she is wrong...fine...but there isn't any reason to call names...or be mean spirited. All that does is fuel the fires that have long been burning. Respect those that have differing thoughts...and I think you'd be surprised at the reduction in turmoil. - Noel”

Noel, my friend... I agree and disagree with you. Yes, she should be allowed to speak her mind. I never said otherwise. However I am not obligated to respect her, nor does she have a right to be heard. Her freedom of speech does not obligate me to listen. She isn't the only one that has suffered a loss, but her disconnects from her first meeting with Bush, and her asinine comments that she has made are nothing more than spiteful and hateful. This woman is a full blown loon. Yeah, I can belittle her and people like her because I have my right to free speech as well. Her whole act is a joke and I'm just calling a spade a spade. Or in this case, a lunatic. Her son is lost, but this hasn't been about her son for a long time.

And yes, she is hurting people. The protesters that she has gathered and her "Movement" when they protested in front of the VA hospital... You bet they hurt people... maybe not physically, but can you imagine how the soldiers inside that hospital felt? Her and her kind are causing a lot of pain to people who wont complain about it... who wont say a word about it... but it does hurt them. And she is hurting her son. His sacrifice for something bigger than himself (or his mother) is being used as a doormat for protesting an unpopular president.

Now let's look at who she is helping. Who is benefiting from Cindy Sheehan's protest? Her son? Most people don't even remember his name now. (hint: Camp Casey. I have to point that out as it has been forgotten who her son was... not that he was any more special that anyone else that has gone over to Iraq) The DNC? You bet. Anything that takes a bite out of the Administration is a feather in the DNC's cap. The Palestinians? Well all this is just Bush's way of helping the Jews according to Cindy. (If that actually makes any sense to anyone, let me know.) The terrorists, or according to Cindy, the “Freedom Fighters”. No, her son wasn't a Freedom Fighter, but the guys that killed him are. WTF? How does that work?

This brings me to something else I wanted to mention yesterday... another peeve I have about the Liberals comments on Iraq. They have repeatedly said that Bush has destroyed the Iraqi national infrastructure. This is very untrue and anyone who watched the actual “war” part of this situation where were did the whole “Shock and Awe” bit... and then the following attacks when our tanks rolled all the way into Baghdad... American and other Coalition Forces took great pains to avoid as much infrastructure damage as possible. And as soon as that phase was over, Halliburton rolled in and started repairing everything. Including infrastructure that was left to rust before we ever got there.

A little story about the Guard unit here where I am at. One of the jobs they did, as Combat Engineers, was to rebuild the zoo in Baghdad. The zoo was in a long state of disrepair... decades of neglect. Just think about this as a little bit of infrastructure. We didn't get a bomb near it. We never touched it. But American Combat Engineers fixed it up. Cleaned it up. And now, Iraq has a real zoo again.

We don't even need to go into all the actual utilities such as power and water that were restored to areas that hadn't had it in 15 years... or ever before... that now do thanks to Bush. How's that for infrastructure? How about all the schools we've built? How about the schools that we have built that allow girls to come in as students and learn too? How about that for infrastructure? You want to talk about infrastructure? I got your infrastructure right here. Iraq hardly had any infrastructure before we kicked out Saddam... now they got it, real and solid, and if it wasn't for the terrorists and the Liberal Media, people would realize that we are not just completing a regime change – but we are building a whole new democratic Iraq from scratch; and we are doing it live in real time for all to see if they can get past the anti-Bush and anti-American BS the media and Cindy Sheehan is spewing.

Yeah, Iraq has some growing pains. It's not easy forging a new nation. It took us a long time too. It never starts out perfect, because there are a lot of decisions to be made. Hard choices. But this is actually a good thing. Because the people in Iraq now have something that they never had before since Saddam first came to power. Choice. That's what Cindy Sheehan's son died for. And that is as noble a cause as anyone could ever hope to die for.  For Freedom.  Casey and all the US and Coalition soldiers in Iraq... they are all Freedom Fighters.

The only question about it, is if the people of Iraq actually deserve it.

BTW, I can't help it... but Cindy Sheehan reminds me of a paunchy Sterling Holloway.

Monday, 8-29-05: I am so sick and tired of these Anti-Bush jackholes out there. They are chanting that “Bush Lied” crap again because of this brainless wench down in Crawford. Listen to me carefully for a second: Bush did not lie.

Fact: UN Weapons Inspectors cataloged massive amounts of WMDs.

Fact: UN Weapons Inspectors upon doing their inspections, found a full 20% of previously cataloged WMDs to be missing and unaccounted for.

That missing 20% of Saddam's stockpile is a large amount of hurt waiting to happen. Just because the US Military has not been able find a warehouse full of boxes marked “WMD” doesn't mean that Saddam never had WMDs. As noted in the above facts, UN Weapons inspectors documented and cataloged the whole lot of them. The UN mandates against Saddam required Saddam to prove that these WMDs were actually destroyed or to turn them over. The mandate was not for Bush to find them.

Another liberal battle cry I'm tired of: “Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11.”

Fact: The airline fuselage that terrorists and hijackers practiced doing their hijacks on... was in Iraq.

Fact: High level Al Queda terrorists ran to Iraq when the fecal matter hit the fan.

Fact: Saddam was on all the terror watch lists since the first Gulf War.

Fact: The CIA has documented several meetings between Al Queda officers and officials from Saddam's regime before 9-11 and before the war. No, Saddam wasn't directly involved, but his regime was and that means as Captain of his ship – that he was by his position. And he even stated publicly several times that he wanted to rain fire down on America.

Taking Saddam out was a righteous move. It needed to be done not just to protect America, but to insure stability in the middle east, which has drastic and disproportional economic influence in the USA and the global economy. No thanks to the Liberals in America which have prevented every move to develop our energy resources thus making us dependent on middle east oil thus forcing our hand!

Bush did the right thing in pulling the trigger on Iraq. It had to be done, and Bush did it. That's all there is to it.

However – Bush is really dropping the ball and pretty much missing the boat when it comes to securing our borders. All the Department of Homeland Security bullcrap going on at the airports mean nothing if the bad guys can just across the border and come into the USA just as easy as Boy Scout hike. The southern border is an absolute joke that has a very high price. The massive influx of illegal aliens is costing the US Taxpayer far more than the cost of the war in Iraq. And this isn't just Bush's fault. It's all on the Congress and the Senate too. The whole Government. They are not just allowing this to happen, but it is as if they want it to happen. Cindy Sheehan is just a distraction from this. (and what a load of BS that is!) What has the Government been focusing on lately? Baseball players hitting the juice. I am so glad that the Government is doing everything it can to clean up Baseball. It's not right that any one player smashes out too many home run hits... that could make watching the games interesting! We can't have that. If Baseball became too popular again, it could reduce the popularity of World Cup Soccer in the US!

Last Fact of the Day: Without secure borders, there is no Homeland Security outside of the Second Amendment.  Buy a gun, buy lots of ammo for it, and buy some range time and practice.  Everyone who can legally own a gun should own a handgun, a rifle, and a shotgun, in serious calibers...and a .22 of some sort.  So that's a minimum of 4 guns.  If you don't have these... you are coming up short.  If you have all the guns you need, then help your family members get guns.  After family, then your friends.  Because THAT is Homeland Security.

To all our friends in the path of this hurricane, you are in our thoughts and prayers...

For you computer geeks out there: OpenOffice.org now has the version 2.0 Beta 2 out now... and its goood!  Check it out here. I was just talking to my bro in Iraq about this stuff earlier today.  Open Office is awesome... I do all my writing with it.  All my spreadsheets (admittedly I do few of them as I don't need much if it) All my office work is done with Open Office.  I like it better than MS Office, even better than 2003.  Of course that is just opinion.  It's also free to use, and MS Office is not, in fact it is quite spendy.  WordPerfect 12 isn't as much, but I don't like it at all.  Free OO.o is the way to go.  Now if there was just an WYSIWYG HTML editor that was both free and better than FrontPage and available cross-platform... and that isn't NVU - then I'd be extremely happy.  (I tried NVU and find it to have potential, but currently is still in the sucks category)

We have a report from Steve in SLC that the place to go is the new Cabela's store near Point of the Mountain.  It sounds just outstanding and will have to be the Objective Rally Point on the next mission that takes me out in that Area of Operation.  When that is, I do not know... but I do know that it will involve shooting and eating with old friends long missed.  If the mission profile was to go something like "Meet up at Cabela's and spend some money, go shooting, eat something good, and then catch a good movie"... then I would be contented.

Canada has good looking girls?  I thought they were all chubby, flannel wearing hosers.  I stand corrected.

Monday, 8-22-05: This week is starting out just completely f'd up. First day of school and the bus for my oldest son is a no show. Him and every other student in Lapoint going to the same school is stranded. So I go to jump into the Turbo Van to take him to school... and it's dead. I call my wife out to move her van over to jump mine... and her van is dead too. The Bronco of course fired right up, and so did Mrs Ogre's old Cherokee. Unfortunately neither of those would make it into town or are legal to drive anymore. So we got both vans jumped and running, get my boy to class 30 minutes late, and I'm now at work. Here at work, nothing is working right, and I get a call to go over to the city's justice court... so I hope into the shop's van – and it's DOA too. I swear this is no way to start out the week.

But we received good news via email from our old friend, Matt. This made my day. Check it out:

“Hey George, Just wanted to share a couple of thoughts with you that I think you will relate too. I just completed my first weekend as a newly anointed CCW carrier and for me it was an awakening. I often wondered what I would feel as I started to carry a weapon on me at all times. I am actually surprised at what happened. All weekend long I felt my field of view get wider. For example, at Liberty Park with my kids on Saturday, not only was I keeping my eye on my 4 kids but I found myself watching out for all the other kids playing around me. I was paying attention to the adult\child interactions going on everywhere and assessing them to make sure things looked good. The same thing happened at the Children's Museum, and at the restaurant, and at the 7-11. I noticed that wherever I went, I paid attention, I interacted more, I cared more. And people also noticed. I had good conversations with strangers, I felt respected more and it's not because they knew I had a weapon on me, it was because I respected them and cared for them a little more and they felt it. I have always known that I am one of the good guys. That if push came to shove, I would side with right and do all I could to make sure right won. But now I KNOW that I am one of the good guys and if the unthinkable happens, I have a little more power to make sure right comes out on top. So how do I feel after my first couple of days on sentry duty? I feel quietly confident that I have made a good decision and that my family and those around me are just a little safer than they were before and that is worth everything in the fucked up world we live in today.”

I couldn't have said it better myself. But I think all of The Horde will agree that when you said you cared more, it is not because you are packing heat and caring for your family... but because you care, you are packing the heat to protect your family. This is why we carry... and now you fully understand. As Ben Kenobi said “You've taken your first steps into a larger world.”

Saturday, 8-20-05: We read in the news that a Ranch in AZ has been turned over to illegal aliens. This is infuriating. Between the illegal aliens plundering the south west like the vikings plundered europe in the 9^th and 10^th centuries, and Governments willingness to totally go along with it... and our giving away all our tech jobs... This is just getting insane. America is being given away right out from under our feet. This is outrageous. I'm not defending this guy for pistol whipping anyone, because that's not right either. But giving the home he was trying to defend to the guy he was defending it from? Asinine. Don't look at it like this guy is being punished. Take a look at this situation from the other side of the coin. These Mexicans are being rewarded for breaking American law. That's what is so outrageous. This is showing them that they can break the law here in the USA, pitch a fit about it, and be awarded the American Dream. Hell, if it was the other way around, I might just drive my ass down to Mexico and get hooked up with a nice villa. The borders must be closed. This bullshit must not be allowed to continue.

China: I'm reading through a book called “SSN” by Tom Clancy. It's a dramatized tour of a submarine and how it operates... set in a fictional but most likely very probable war with China over some island. It's an interesting read, but not one I can take too seriously. The reason? Clancy is hugely overconfident and has China as nothing more than a source of targets of opportunity for the heroic American subs. Clancy is right about our subs being so very good and that they outclass the Chinese boats. That is true. But evidently Clancy hasn't given any thought to the idea that maybe China's military could take this into account and come up with some tactics and strategies to help counter balance the technology, nor are is there any thought that maybe China's stuff is getting better and better every year. You look at China's Navy and you see mostly Ex-Soviet shapes, sure. But what you are not seeing is the massive refitting that has been done and is being done to every boat they can put on the water. New systems that can be every bit as good our systems. China isn't a backwater 3^rd world nation. Yeah, it has it's poor areas that are stuck in centuries past... but hey, we have those areas too... we call them “Appalachia”. China has a high tech manufacturing infrastructure that can rival anything in the US. That's why we buy our stuff from there... that and they do it much cheaper because they only have to pay a worker 5 bucks a day. You would have to be very silly or Liberal to think that China can make all our electronics, routers, switches, computers, and everything... but that they can't put them into a military platform. We can not afford to underestimate China's military potential. In this book, SSN, Clancy has one Sub sinking like 5 Chinese subs and a frigate before he mentions the Captain drinking a cup of coffee. It's not going to be like that, Tom. China is a real threat that has to be taken seriously. The situation is just as bad as the borders, and I'm still waiting to see what the Government is going to do about it. China has threatened many times now to use Nukes on us. That would suck a bit more than a couple buildings catching 747's.

TGI-FRIDAY!  8-19-05: As promised, the S&W 640 article and the overdue Springfield Ultra Compact articles are posted.   For those in Dade County, Floriduh - these articles have been published in Concealed Carry Magazine.  And of course, if you are not a subscriber of CCM, then you are wrong.

Thursday, 8-18-05: Israel and the Palestinian situation... this is a very old and very complicated situation there in Israel, probably more so than any other geo-political situation. Israel has to be very cautious in everything it does, and they've had to be cautious since the very beginning. As a result they have also developed a strong reputation for not playing around when it comes matters of national security. Given this background, I am very curious as to just how they think that this path of appeasement – giving in to the terrorists – is going to help them out in anyway. The Palestinians want the Gaza, so the IDF is evicting thousands of people. Their own defense force is being used to displace them... Insult to injury.

The IDF should be setting up a perimeter defense and protecting the Jewish settlements in Gaza! Giving in to the Palestinians in hopes that they will stop popping off suicide bombers is foolish. All it does is show the enemy that terrorism works, and that if they keep it up they will get what they want. This validates and justified all the suicide bombers, all the pain and suffering that they caused... and gives motivational support to groups doing the same in Iraq and other places.

This isn't going to work in Israel... this isn't going to stop the terroristic actions of the fanatical Palestinians... do you know why? Because it doesn't resolve the core reasons for the terroristic actions – the seething Palestinian hatred for all things and all persons Jewish... the systematic indoctrination of hatred of young Palestinian children starting even before they go to school and reinforced daily as part of their studies. And Israel just rolled over for it. Pathetic. Just bloody pathetic.

I don't pretend to have any answers for Israel... but I do know that one thing is for sure – giving in to the enemy is no way to attain peace. Appeasement has never worked in the history of this globe, and it never will.

Speaking of pathetic... Israel's rolling over is almost as pathetic as Microsoft's new OS, “Vista”. A new OS that is just as buggy and insecure as the old one which is pretty much a digital model of the US-Mexico border. Sure, the new Vista OS will be more like the Canadian-US border... just as insecure and buggy, but it will be more quiet about it. An out of control bloated 3.2 gig install of XP Pro that's missing MSCONFIG. Brilliant. In all seriousness, if you want to upgrade your XP to an OS that is more secure and stable... its called Linux.

Speaking of even more pathetic... Cindy Sheehan, the mom of a fallen soldier who said George Bush is a good and honest man, and now says he isn't while trampling her Son's memory by using his death as a political protest poster... yeah, that wench... She represents a great deal of what is wrong with America. I'll say no more about her, other than to say that she sickens me. If we were to pull everyone out now, then her son's sacrifice, and what he believed in and what he believed risking it all for... it would all be for nothing. If she wants her son's death to mean something – then we have got to finish the job. And yes, with everyone a US Soldier kills – every insurgent/terrorist that is sent to an early meeting with Allah – we are one more step closer to making Iraq truly free.

Monday, 8-15-05:  Afternoon: I've posted my Ruger P345 review here.  Again, this was supposed to have been published in CCM Magazine, but because they had already run a review on it, they have declined to publish it.  They offered to pay for the article per my normal rate, which was nice of them... but I declined that. They do not need to pay for an article they are not going to print.  So, you members of The Horde get to read it now.  The S&W 640 and Springfield Ultra Compact articles will be posted shortly as well.

AM: I'm typing this from my Dell Dimension 8300 running Windows Vista Beta 1. Since I'm at home in Lapoint and have no internet access, I'm pretty much looking at the OS as it comes “in the box” so to speak. I'm pleased that many of my XP applications are working just fine Especially “Open Office” which is the most important application for me at this time. I'm very disappointed that Longhorn doesn't support Sound Blaster Live I would think that the OS should be bundled with the drivers for the leading sound card on the market... but this is the Beta 1, so I will cut it some slack for that. After all, it found the Radeon 9600XT 256 DDR (best damned graphics card you can get for a hundred bucks!) driver with no problem. I installed another sound card to try out, a Sound Blaster Audigy, and still had no luck with the OS automatically hooking me up with the drivers. I tried this with Linspire Linux and while Linspire didn't like the “Live!” Card, the Audigy was found with no problem. The install was very easy. You boot to the CD, answer a couple questions, and the rest of the install is totally hands free, you can really just walk away. It's actually a good idea to do that because the install time is pretty long. Set the install, then go get a Cold One. Take a walk or something... go test drive a car... anything. Take your time. Don't worry about the computer, it will most likely be there waiting for you. What I don't like about the install, is that there is no estimated time of completion given. You have no idea how long the install is going to take. Plan on about an hour. This is the second install I've watched today, on two very different machines. Oh, by the way, I'm the 3^rd guy in the Uintah Basin to install Vista... 1^st guy in Lapoint to be sure. Feather in my cap? I don't think so. The install for this beta release – Build 5112 – is installed off a DVD and is a whopping 3 gigs of hard drive space. I'll admit the OS pretty snappy for such a bloated piece of work that can't even find a bloody Sound Blaster audio driver. Things pop up fast, even my beloved Open Office. The visual look of Vista isn't as groovy as we were led to believe it would be from screenshots off Slashdot. The color scheme is pretty much a dark grey and black affair that will please any Goth. When a new window pops up it does so with a nice fade in effect that seems very fancy, but not necessary or even very appealing. When you close a window, it does the same thing. Is this all worth the upgrade? I don't think so. Stability is pathetic. In installing Mozilla Firefox and Sunbird, I've had two crashes... well... not so much crashes as spontaneous reboots. I'm not going to blame Mozilla for this... that's an OS issue. Everything else is pretty much laid out like Windows XP, so if you are unfortunate enough to have had to learn XP, then you will feel right at home in Vista... but it might feel to some that the Pimp My Ride crew has worked over your XP. Here is my take on Vista so far. Considering the system requirements and the 3 gig install, If you already have a computer that is running XP just fine... then don't worry about Vista. As Officer Barbrady says, “Nothing to see here, move along.” But if some time in the future you are looking for a new PC and Vista is an OS option, then maybe you might give it a consideration. Especially considering that Vista is more optimized for 64 bit system (or so it seems) you will want to make sure you are getting a powerful 64 bit machine with a minimum of 512 megs RAM... better a Gig... and a solid graphics card. If you want the Vista “look” without the calories, then download a Windows Theme and you pretty much have the best Vista features. The new File System and Display engine are still buggy in this beta version.... which brings me to some desires for the final commercial release. First, have every device driver on the planet ready to roll... or at least for the device most likely to be encountered... like anything for Sound Blaster or Sound Max. 2. Stabilize the damn thing. Add in some games that are not the same ones Windows have come with since 98 SE. BTW, whatever happened to Free Ski? Note to Microsoft: Give us something that is actually compelling enough to want to upgrade. I remember ME vividly... Vista had damn well better not be another ME. I don't want to see another Windows OS for the desktop coming out anytime soon. I also don't want to see a bunch of Windows Updates for Vista.... Patch it up completely before you ship ship this. If you can't patch it up – hold off on the shipping. Don't even set a ship date. Take your time and do it right.

Monday, 8-8-05: It's been some time, so let me tell you whats been going on. Well, I'll sum it up. I've been busy. Work has been quite busy, and finishing up an article for CCM, which has been turned down because they realized that they ran a review six months ago of the gun they wanted me to review. Oops. It happens. I'm not upset at this. This means it gets posted here on MadOgre.com shortly. This is especially not very bothersome because magazine articles require a handful of good photos that I just wasn't able to get done. I hate doing the photo thing because, well, I'm not a photographer and it feels like I'm taking the same bloody pictures over and over again and it's all rather boring. The most interesting things about my magazine article photos have all been the backgrounds. I think next time, I'll just take some cool scenic pictures and just photoshop the pistol into the photo, floating in mid air with the caption underneath “I want to believe”. Family matters have been a priority and this included a family reunion for my mother in law's estranged extended family. This was at Lava Hot Springs, or LHS as I'll call it for the time being. LHS is a very small town in Idaho that wants to be a miniature Steamboat Springs, Colorado. But it's more of the red neck NASCAR version. Less snootiness, more beer bellies. I probably fit right in, but the thought makes me shudder. Very small town as I said. Through the middle of which wanders a slow and shallow little river/stream/creek which you float down on inflatable tubes.... repeatedly... endlessly. People think they are having fun doing this, so much so that it is good business renting out those inflatable tubes. There are a couple places to eat in LHS, one of which is called the Wagon Wheel. You enter it and find that it is of course very busy and the waitress (emphasis on “wait”) tells you to take a seat and it's going to be “awhile”. Evidently “awhile” means 1.5 Hours according to my watch. This wouldn't be so bad considering she is johny on the spot with drinks while you wait in air conditioned bliss after being outside in the scorching freaking Idaho summer sun all damned day. After 1.5 hours she brings out the food. Now, if you, like me, ordered the steak... you will be rewarded with a very sad little steak the size of Gorbachev's birth mark. On the side will be a half a spoon full of mushily (not a word, but it fits here) cooked carrots and some cold french fries that you didn't order. The scone that was supposed to have come with your meal and is documented on the bill is MIA like Johny Kerry from his shipmates after getting a scratch. This is Idaho. Idaho is not known for it's great eating establishments, but I did have the expectation that they would at least know how to serve up a fricken steak. Even the most inept and drunken NASCAR fanatic can manage to do a steak if you give him enough lighter fluid... and the results would have been far superior to what was served to me at the Wagon Wheel in Lava Hot Springs, Idaho. After waiting for an hour and a half for this meal which cost about 10 bucks, I was exceedingly and visibly disappointed. I ate the steak in 3 bites, chewed it with a quite and increasing fury. All of this would not have been so bad had I not been in the company of 5 boys who were getting more and more bored, hungry, and tired. Every time were were about to get up and leave, the Wait-ress would swoop in with salads or drinks or crackers or “just a minutes”. We should have bailed out, I felt in my bones we should have bailed... but this does serve a purpose... DO NOT, under pain of hunger and good taste, step through the doors of the “Wagon Wheel” in Lava Hot Springs, Idaho. Complaint was made to management and a good discount of the bill given, but the damage was already done. We went to the Taco Time right by the freeway and had some real food... some ½ pound tacos... only then was everyone happy and satisfied.

New addition to the Manufacturer Roster. Lighting Rifles. These cats make some very fine cowboy action rifles... pump action with a tight short stroke. They look absolutely blessed... I want one.

The Turbo Mini Van is fast and handles very well for a mini van. But it looses coolant like crazy. No leaks. But the coolant empties after about 40 miles. No, there are no fluids in the oil other than the engine oil, so the coolant isn't going into the engine block. This is why the van was so cheap, they wanted to get rid of it! In perfect condition, the blue book is just shy of 600 bucks. With this problem, the vehicle is far from perfect. Not that I'm complaining, I'm just point out the facts regarding this weird thing... a van... from the factory... with a turbo. Gas mileage has been excellent, but the 8.50 for a jug of coolant offsets the fuel savings – a lot. I've overheated it twice already. Now, if this engine didn't have this coolant issue, this van would probably last for a decade or more of Ogre Family usage. Only 116K miles, and for an 89, that's not bad at all. But now we all know why. The previous owners couldn't take it out of town! Everything on the engine looks fine, but I am pretty sure the coolant is leaking into the pistons and going out the tail pipe. Needless to say, fixing this isn't going to be worth it. After paying tax, tags, title and insurance, I'm about ready to see what I can do about trading it off or something. Will this make it to SLC? I don't think so. It would overheat before I got out of the Uintah Basin.

The American Brain Drain. There is a tangible drain to talent pool in America. Looking at art and design, we can tell that it started a long time ago. Not just with art and design, but in other matters as well, such as movies and books, but that's another rant for another day. Looking at art and design, the most obvious form is in our automobiles. Sometime in the late 50's, the drain plug was pulled on creative automotive design. Cars became about as visually interesting as dishwashers rather quickly and the situation has only been getting worse. What modern cars today get kudos for being great designs are only throwback “retro” designs bringing up memories of when these cars were actually cool. This is why there is such a demand for old classic cars... the older the better. I've seen dozens of flatbeds rolling down the highway with old cars on them destined for restoration. I've seen several car carriers with brand new cars on them... and each one with one car being something from 1974 or earlier. Our own local Ford dealership has all the new rides... but in the one corner parking place reserved only for the dealership's crown jewels, is a old car fully restored and shiny. If you are going to go to that dealership to drop a chunk of change on a new ride – you would be a fool to overlook that old restoration. Our cars today are getting further and further from what made cars great back in the day. Example, the new Dodge Charger. Take a look at the new Dukes of Hazzard movie and ignore Jessica Simpson's magnificent ass for a minute and look at the orange car with the numbers on the side. That's a Dodge Charger. A Classic muscle car. Now take a look at the new Dodge Charger which is a giant rolling turd with a hemi engine under the hood. Sad. For those out there that may have purchased a new Dodge Charger or its sister car, the Dodge Magnum... well... you have my condolences. The only area where automotive design is actually getting better... Motorcycles. They are getting better by leaps and bounds every year. Not just in performance, but in the looks too. The new bikes are sexier than the older ones... Wait a second... I started this section of ranting calling it the American Brain Drain. American bikes are championed by Harley Davidson, which hasn't had any real solid improvements in the last 20 years, and still uses 20 year old technology... the new “V-Rod” bike is an attempt at making a modern roadster... but it falls flat on it's face. At the local HD dealership they had to drain all the oil out of it to keep the new bike from dripping a bigass slippery puddle all over the show room floor. Yeah, thats some advancements right there. Well, one thing is for sure about these POS V-Rods... they remain pure Harley Davidson. Thank heavens American Motorcycles now have another options, the Victory brand bikes. They are made with the help of HD, but at least they are actually up to date and they sound better.... and they don't leave an oil slick behind them. The Victory Vegas is one hell of a nice bike. Not that I'd buy one. For me, my money would be in a new Honda, but that's another rant for another day.

Speaking of Ford. You want to buy something brand new and affordable? Well then you have got to check out the new Chevy Cobalt SS Supercharged. What does this have to do with Ford? Well, if you were dumb enough to buy a Ford Focus, this Cobalt will make you want to go back to the Ford Dealership and slap your salesman. My Dad told me to look into the Cobalt SS Supercharged, and I did. He was right of course. My Dad knows two things very very well... one is cars, and the other is CIA wet work in East Germany. The Cobalt feels like a real and much larger car when you get in it and shut the door. It feels solid. Driving it, it feels even better. Scary that the chassis is basically a Saturn, but Chevy has actually built a car out of it. Now as much as I admire my father's knowledge of all things internal combusting... we have divergent opinions on what constitutes performance. You see, my Pops likes razor sharp handling and balance... to him a car should be like a throwing knife used to take out Russian border guards. He also likes a spirited but very stingy small 4 cylinder engine. To me, I'd rather like that nice handling wrapped around big fat high output engine that gushes Horse Power like a Democrat spews bullshit. Personally, I think the new Cobalt SS Supercharged is a nice little car. Perhaps a much better option than the Neon SRT thing. However it has in my opinion one glaring fault that is unforgivable. It is very much underpowered. The engine cranks out a max of 205 horses. Some time in the future there will be an option for a 230 HP version, so I would advice to wait for that if you are eyeing one of these wee little beasties. Also, you will want to opt for the package that includes Recaro seats, because, well, the standard seats are only somewhat better than office furniture cubical farm chairs.

The little computer shop I work at is getting a new vehicle for service calls. After considering all options, the shop owner is getting very close to pulling the trigger on a Jeep Liberty. Admittedly the Liberty would look with the company logo on the sides... and in bright red, it will be attention getting. We need a little eco-rig that has all wheel drive ability, is reasonably fuel efficient, and will make people look twice. The Liberty would do this well. For all you Off-Road Warriors, I have to confess... I like the Liberty. Jeep purists berate the Liberty because of it's IFS front end because it is not a solid axle like all the Jeeps great of the past. These same fellows scoff IFS as unworthy of the rocks and mud it rolls over... but rolls over IFS can do. Let me point your attention in the direction of Iraq and all the HUMVEES in service over there. The Hummer as it is known to cake eating civilians is the ultimate off road vehicle bar none. Yeah, it's big, but it has a big job to do. It replaced the old Jeep because the old Jeeps were just plain too damn small. No one has yet ever complained about a Humvee being too small. Some might complain about it not having enough armor, but give me a break here... it's a freaking overgrown Jeep and only a moron with a severe case dumbass would think it could replace an APC on a mission (Hello Joint Chiefs! Rummy!) The Hummer has IFS. Independent Front Suspension. And this gives the rig a big advantage when off roading when it comes to ground clearance over rocky terrain. I know this first hand because I've driven them many times doing things my Dad would disowned (or assassinated) me for had he witnessed it. The Liberty has the same set up under the front end, but not nearly as ground clearing and assaulting. I think the Liberty does just fine in 90% of all off road situations. Yeah, they made it be comfy driving on the road too, but you guys have to admit your daily driving trail rigs are on pavement more than they are on dirt, so give it a rest.

Speaking of Hummers and confessions, while I still and forever will hate the H2 with all my Hummer “H1” loving heart... uh... How do I say this? I like the H3. HOLD on! Hold your horses! Let me explain it before you get that rope up over a tree branch! I think this medium sized platform is a good thing... but the strange little weak 5 cylinder engine has got to go. It needs a real truck engine in there, a V-6 at least, optimal would be a small block V-8 cranking out some real power! But everything else in the H3 is just right. Size, Capacities, all that jazz. Of course it could use a set of bigger tires and a 4 inch lift, but then again everything four wheel drive does. Fit a real engine into an H3 and I deem it Horde Worthy. To get to this opinion you have to get past the name Hummer and look at the vehicle on its own individual merit. Forget the sins of the H2 father, and be glad that this is a real SUV built on a real truck chassis and not a granola eating car that thinks it wants to go on a hike.

Thursday, 8-4-05: Two things I'm so very grateful for. First, I'm thankful that we have celebrities like Joan Collins who are so smart, and so wise and are so concerned about everyone else. Her little rant about England self destructing is probably one of the funniest things I've read in some time. Her references to history are just hilarious. “The whole scene evoked the image of hordes of inebriated Vikings sacking devastated towns. Even during the day, feral mobs roamed the cities with absolute disregard for anyone else's property or well-being. Traditional virtues of male chivalry and female propriety were very far from view.” Oh come on! Talk about day time drama here! Everyone knows that the viking invasions are what started the beginnings of feudalism and only after another several hundred years did the concept of chivalry even start to form. Sheesh, even my 11 year old knows that. The other thing that just makes me all tingly with joy in my heart... Astronauts using the shuttle as a political platform to preach environmentalism. This Astro-Chick is pretty good... she can see erosion and problems from space! That's impressive. Because you can't even see most large cities from space unless it's after nightfall. Don't believe me, download and check out Google Earth and see for yourself. In order see anything, you have to zoom in pretty far. If the shuttle is going to be used as a platform to preach from – I'm of the opinion that we shouldn't have to pay for via taxes. DNC can sponsor it now for all I care. If I was the Emporer, I'd seriously take ½ NASA's budget and put it into other programs. The other ½, I'd award to private contractors, businesses... maybe just give a chunk to Rutan because his junk is so cool. He'll get us to Mars well before NASA ever does.

You knew it was only a matter of time... before the ACLU sued someone over the subway searches in NYC. They didn't disappoint. They sued. Who's side is the ACLU on? Don't answer that... we all know.

The new mini-van. Let me tell ya... I've never owned my own mini-van before. And I don't ever want to own one again. This unit is a 4 cylinder '89 Plymouth Voyager... with a turbo. The gas mileage looks good, and its actually very quick... its even comfortable to drive around in. Cruises at 75 with a slight vibration that's probably just a tire balance issue. The only real issue this thing has is that it looses coolant. Looks like there is a slight leak in the rad or a hose. After you drive it for awhile you can smell hot coolant, but you can't see where it's coming from. No big deal for an around town ride. Ultimately, hey, it's wheels. Beats walking and I'm grateful for that! Brutus? He's retired now. Off the insurance and everything. I would love to turn it into a trail rig, but then I'd have to have another huge rig to tow it out to the off road area. I'm torn. I don't know what I'm going to do with it. Besides, I still have a Jeep XJ to build into a trail rig. Anyone need an FSB to work on or for parts? Will trade for a motorcycle.

Wednesday, 8-3-05: Kim DuToit asks an interesting question on his blog. “If I could have only one more handgun in my safe for the rest of my life, which one would I get?” Man... that's a tough one. This doesn't have to be a do everything handgun... I've got others... but one last fling... one last indulgence... what would it be? After pondering this question for some time now, I'm thinking a Korth. I mean, hell, if it's the last one ever, let's go all out. The Korth pistol is an interesting unit. The lines are both elegant and clunky at the same time. While I'm sure it's made to the highest quality standards, I can not help but to be reminded of a certain Monty Python sketch. Then again, maybe these pistols are like the Maybachs. Super spendy and insane on many levels, but ultimately probably worth it if you have the means. I will probably never know.

Monday, 8-1-05: I'm pleased that the IRA has decided to throw down their arms. Of course in order to stay alive, they had to. Really they had no choice. Considering the global War On Terror going on, a group of terrorists like the IRA would be not much more of a speed bump if the Coalition of the Willing decided to clean up Northern Ireland. Of course having said that, let me say this. I agree with the goals of the IRA. If you are not familiar with the IRA, they have been fighting for years and years to unite Ireland. You see, Ireland is divided. You have Ireland, which is under Irish rule; and then you have Northern Ireland which is under British rule. They have been fighting a very harsh, but very quite little war, and hopefully now they are done with the violence. Of course, they have said this before. While they are not nearly as bad as the Palestinians are when it comes to dishing out random violence... the IRA has a history of being pretty brutal. I'm not aware of them blowing up children though. Claiming they are seeking political and diplomatic solutions and resolutions to their issues... I would hope that the British will take everything into consideration and really ask themselves, “what's the downside to a united Ireland?” United or not, they of course remain in the “UK”. But I'm not British. This is only my opinion and I may be wrong. If anyone in the UK has a take on this, I'd like to hear it.

Planet X. The newly discovered but long time hypothesized planet now officially exists. Question: What to name it? I have a suggestion. In keeping with the tradition of using Mythology as the source for the solar system's naming convention, Freya. Of course this isn't a Greek Mythological name... it's Norse, and for an outer rim planet so far from the sun, I think it especially fitting. She is the Goddess of beauty and sensuality. Of course, Skadi might be even more suitable, she is the Norse Goddess of Winter. And she's a Frost Giant, so you don't want to argue with her... but Freya is an easier name to remember. Just my suggestion.

While talking about space, I have to say I am laughing at NASA right now. Evidently they are talking about trimming some dangling fabric. Do they call Martha Stuart about this one or The Fab Five?.

I promised to give a summary about my Select Comfort bed. After sleeping on it for some time now, I've come to a conclusion. It's fricken awesome. Seriously. I love it. Sleeping on anything else is annoying now. Best bed ever. Don't even bother with those foam mattresses... they hold too much heat in so you are sweating like a pig, and you sink in so deep you can't roll over... Other nice beds are heavy. Select Comfort all the way. I'm not buying anything else ever again.

Brutus again. For those in Florida, Brutus is my beloved 1984 Ford Bronco. The engine has some very serious issues and the rig is basically not drivable. I've found a couple engine options. For $500 I can drop in another 351 out of another 84 Bronco. Straight in swap. Or even better, I could drop in a '92 460. While the engine is only 500, I'd have to locate a C6 transmission that would mate with this Big Block V-8. The 351 is the top of the “Small Block” range of engines when it comes to Ford. I'm not worried about fuel consumption... It couldn't get any worse. And the 460 with a 4 barrel carb could possibly do better thanks to the smaller primaries and being able to pull off a stop while staying in lower RPMs.

Helen Thomas might kill herself if she sees Dick run. Run, Dick, run! Not that she has that long to go anyways. She looks like she is what, 90? Why is she still allowed into the White House? She is one of the nastiest women I've ever heard of. It would be funny for Dick to give her a call. “I'm running, biatch.” Truthfully, I'm not exactly wanting to see a President Dick. I don't like Cheney all that much. He's just an unpleasant fellow. Too much of an elitist like all the rest. I'd still like to see a Ted Nugent in the White House.... someone who stands for freedom, has no political back ground, and has no political debt. I'd also like to see Helen Thomas flat out barred from the White House... she is a waste of everyone's time and only asks the most juvenile of questions.

WTF is this BS!?! I am so sick of the Southern Border issues. When will the Government take this issue seriously? I say we empty dugout on this. Send all the Marines who are not already busy kicking someone's ass, and send them down to the Border and let them kick everyone's ass. Any crossing – they stop it. Put up signs in Spanish. “Fuerza Mortal Será utilizada!” Lethal Force Will Be Used. Sniper training. Land Mine Warfare. Predator Drone Live Fire training... Experimental weapons testing... tactical nukes... Xenomorphs... I don't care. Screw them. Time for the Minutemen to go back to work, but this time armed to the teeth.

Kudos to Bush for finally showing he has the stones to appoint Bolton, who likes the UN about as much as I do. Now lets see if Bolton has stones.

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