Darwin award winner

His "buddies" probably drank the beer he asked them to hold.

Via It Ain't Holy Water

Had to get to the mountains before the snow flies.

Since the 16 year old was bent that she missed the trip we took to the Sierras two weeks ago, we made some time this Saturday to get back up there before the winter closes the country down.

Back to Monitor Pass, then off on dirt roads until we came to a spot where we could stop and shoot safely for a bit.

A little photography time didn't hurt either.

Interestingly, although it is deer season, and there were multiple pickups parked where the pavement ended, we saw and heard no one the whole time.  I don't know where the hunters went, but it wasn't where we were.  

Part of the fun is to burn some powder, shoot cans and pinecones, and generally have a good time.

Here the youngest strikes a pose.  Nobody better break into her apartment!

                                                        Where the sky meets the earth.

 Our route ran along the edge of where the land fell away steeply to the east, toward the Slinkard and Antelope Valleys.  It went quite suddenly from rolling meadows and rocky hills to steep mountainsides plunging down to the east.  It seemed the sky scraped along the top of the ridge, the clouds combed by the stiff pine trees.

At the edge of the falloff, you could see Slinkard, and then the Antelope Valley down below.  Soon there will be a pile of snow here, and no one will be back until the spring, but today it was an airy and awesome place to spend an hour or two.

The Aspens were significantly more colorful than two weeks ago, but there were still large swaths that were predominately green.

All in all, a good time.  The kids got to get out with their dad, we saw some new country, and had a great time taking pictures and pushing some ammo out the tubes.  I hope we get the chance to score another trip or two this fall.

Saturday Open Road

Working super late tonight.

The Friday Open Road is going to likely be the Saturday Open Road, but while you're waiting, cruise on over to the Friday Flyby, and check out the stone cold killer, Manfred Von Richthofen.

What is Ted Cruz doing, and if it's nothing, then why all the unhappiness and vitriol?

A commenter over at Belmont Club nails the real reasons, I think:


I'm all for Texas - heck it's home to part of the Canadian River - but I don't think the Ted Cruz incident is about a last stand. Nor do I think it is circumscribed or defined by the Obamacare fustercluck.

What we have here is the opening salvo against the ruling political classes. I think that Ted Cruz is using Obamacare as the reason for lobbing the first verbal grenades over the stockade wall into the massed political classes inside the fort - many of whom inhabit the Republican Party.

I think this is the long overdue start of a necessary upheaval in the American political establishment. What course it will take and how it will play out is impossible to know. 

That uncertainty of outcome is exactly what is needed - the living, risky real world meets the tired, moribund old world of deals, cronies, fixes, dynasties, power cartels and endless manipulations to ensure no surprises.

The English longbow was the very first voter's veto because it allowed a peasant to knock the Lord of the Manor off his horse and because it could be done from far enough away to give the peasant a chance to escape by running like hell for the nearest woods. 

The feudal system is no more in Western countries. We use words now instead of the longbow. Words will be sufficient to upset the modern ruling classes. I think it is time to open the windows so that fresh air blows in. Time to put the best dinnerware safely away in the cupboard, send the kids over to Grandma's house and let the war of words begin.

Maybe Americans are embarking on a most interesting Cruz.

Hot words lead to longbows, especially when our elite rulers feel their power slipping away.  I'm stringing my bow right now.

Check out this latest in brilliant government thinking. Remember, people just like this control your healthcare now.

Via Moonbattery and The Star Tribune

Talk turned to trash at the Hennepin County Government Center this week when surprised employees discovered their standard-size garbage cans replaced by tiny new ones.

“I wasn’t sure whether it was a toy or a marketing tool,” said Mark Thompson, Hennepin County District Court administrator, of the diminutive cans, which appeared in offices and courtrooms Monday morning.

The recycled-plastic, quart-size containers are neither. Designed to encourage less trash-making and more recycling, they limit what employees can toss before they have to dump the collection into a bigger can down the hall. On the side of each can is written, “This is all the GARBAGE I make!”

Not only do the miniature trash cans save the planet, but they also decrease the burden on our soon to be nationalized healthcare system by forcing the bureaucrats to get more exercise.

Employees are told to empty the cans at a centrally located receptacle on their floor. “This short walk will help the county save money, stay healthy and protect the environment,” said an informational flier given to workers.

Just felt like reposting this, for kicks and as a reminder.

A reminder of the lying bastage, protected by the lying media,  currently squatting in the White House.

The world misses the old America

Go on missing us, world.  We won't be back for three and a half years, and if Hillary wins, not ever.

Peggy Noonan (who, by the way, supported the current occupant of the Oval Office) writes an interesting article.  

A quote:

  "A scorching assessment of the president as foreign-policy actor came from a former senior U.S. diplomat, a low-key and sophisticated man who spent the week at many U.N.-related functions. “World leaders are very negative about Obama,” he said. They are “disappointed, feeling he’s not really in charge. . . . The Western Europeans don’t pay that much attention to him anymore.”

The diplomat was one of more than a dozen U.S. foreign-policy hands who met this week with the new president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani. What did he think of the American president? “He didn’t mention Obama, not once,” said the former envoy, who added: “We have to accept the fact that the president is rather insignificant at the moment, and rely on our diplomats.” John Kerry, he said, is doing a good job.

Had he ever seen an American president treated as if he were so insignificant? “I really never have. It’s unusual.” What does he make of the president’s strategy: “He doesn’t know what to do so he stays out of it [and] hopes for the best.” The diplomat added: “Slim hope.”

Smile - show your teeth!

It's Friday!

My kind of woman

Tough and no nonsense.

Asteroid, or the third stage of the Saturn V rocket from Apollo 12?

J002E3 is a object that was discovered in Earth orbit in 2002. It was initially thought to be an asteroid, but turns out that it was probably the S-IVB third stage of Apollo 12.

It was off in a heliocentric orbit for 31 years, made a brief 6-orbit visit home, and now it's off galavanting around the sun again. May get captured temporarily again in 2040.

Oh my!

Dreamscape.

Cabin Porn

Near Glaumbær, Iceland

Air plane porn

Mmm-mmm-mmm!

A story that will warm your heart and wet your cheeks.

Twelve years ago, Donna Gregory was helping her then-husband go through his deceased grandparents’ home in Arnold, Missouri, when she came across a box in their bedroom closet labelled “War Department.” Inside she found a collection of documents, clippings and medals belonging to Army private first class John Farrell Eddington, including his Bronze Star, Purple Heart, draft card, dog tags, high school diploma and a letter from the War Department notifying the family that Private Eddington was killed in action in Italy on June 27, 1944. He was 25 years old.

In the box along with 16 letters he had written to his wife, Helen, there was one particularly moving letter Eddington had written to his infant daughter Peggy three weeks after she was born on February 5th, 1944. He was still training in Texas when he wrote the letter, but before he even got a chance to meet his beloved baby girl, John was deployed overseas. He died four months later, never having held little Peggy in his arms.

Touched and fascinated by the history and emotion inside the box, especially in the letter to baby Peggy, Donna Gregory took it home to St. Louis and researched the soldier off and on for the next dozen years

She enlisted the help of friends and random Facebook people who read about the story and the crowdsourced effort worked. She found Peggy’s grandson, then she found her son, and then she found Peggy, now Peggy Eddington-Smith of Dayton, Nevada. Donna called Peggy and told her she had her father’s mementos and most poignantly, the letter he wrote her before he died.

Peggy was shocked. She knew almost nothing about her father other than that he had died in World War II. Her mother had been so devastated by John’s death that she couldn’t bear to speak of him. Helen never remarried because, as she put it the few times she spoke of him, she had once found the perfect man and would never again find the perfect man.

On Saturday, September 21st, Donna Gregory arrived at the Dayton Intermediate School gym. In a ceremony attended by Peggy Eddington-Smith, her family, members of Veterans of Foreign Wars who had fought in World War II, local dignitaries and residents, Peggy received her father’s Purple Heart, Bronze Star, personal documents, replicas of his dog tags, gold star flags and the letters. Donna read the very special letter John Eddington wrote to Peggy aloud before giving it to her.

Read the rest for the amazing finale.  What a story!