A Little Pistol Refresher

Graphics Show 10 Things Not Everyone Thinks About When Shooting a Pistol:

Took the Wing to the health club today so spring must really be here! Time to get back to the range and knock the rust off -- BRAS! ... No, not those ... "Breath, Relax, Aim, SQUEEZE" (not "slap, pull, etc ..)

Excellent summary -- finger on trigger position, grip, sight alignment, FRONT SIGHT.

Fire Away!



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Vanquishing The Trump Monster

Bill Maher Mocks Michelle Fields: "Oh My God It's Like The Zapruder Film If Nothing Had Happened" | Video | RealClearPolitics:

It seems that the arrest of the Trump campaign manager, his comment on there needing to be a "penalty" for women murdering their babies, poor "inside party politics delegate ground game" and then just "Wisconsin" has been enough to do Trump in -- lots of slightly premature sighs of relief from especially the Republican Establishment and magazines like National Review.

 It remains to be seen how many Democrats will cross over to vote for him in NY and CA. My guess is that number is more a function of the D's that want to vote for Bernie, so not being willing to cross over and vote for Trump who they see as the weakest R candidate.

The fact that the arrest was "Trumped up" is obvious to anyone that took the time to look at the tape:

"That tape was released by Donald Trump and the campaign. It was from our ballroom at Trump Jupiter. We wanted people to be able to see the tape because after the event she said she almost fell down. This is also a reporter who has said she's been abused by the NYPD and groped by a war hero, Allen West," Dean said. 

"She has a history, like Brian Williams, of inserting herself into the news," Dean also said.
Maher defended Lewandowski and said the video shows he should not have been charged with misdemeanor battery.

"If you cut in line at a bathroom at the nightclub and somebody did that to you, would it be an assault charge?" Maher rhetorically posed.

I was unaware that this reporter had previously made similar accusations, but it is not surprising. The bottom line is that in aggregate with the abortion penalty comments and the fact that D's in WI were excited to vote for BS so didn't cross over, it appears to have mortally wounded Trumpzilla.

I find Cruz to be the much better candidate and presidential prospect, so this is fine with me. I DON'T trust the Republican establishment, and would be unsurprised to see them attempt to sneak Kasich in, which in my book would be a WORSE disaster for both the party and the nation.

This election makes clear that there between 30-60% of the country that is angry and feels disenfranchised. My sense is that the BS voters are primarily the young and current government dependents who want a "bigger cut" taken from the productive. The Trump voters are largely those hanging on by their fingernails just about the welfare / government dependency level and have the character to not want to go there. They see the corruption and cronyism between big government, elite media, big business and Wall Street as having destroyed their livelihoods and self-respect, which for them was work based.

I think the Trumpkins are right, I just don't think that Trump would be able to deliver on his promises. What this election year has made obvious however is that the "national good feeling" presented by the TP controlled media in the dregs of the BO regime was an illusion. Somewhere around half -- or possibly over half of the electorate is PISSED. Most of them are pretty unclear of exactly why, but raw emotion never really needed much for a basis.

There very likely may be much more to happen!

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White Spiritual Crisis

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/433920/white-working-class-deaths-spiritual-crisis

A good article detailing the fact that poverty levels in America in the "good old days" of say "the '50's", were HIGHER than they are now, and then spending on the LOWER level of poverty is much higher than it was then. However, less educated whites are dying in droves.

The problem is NOT material, it is spiritual.

This is a textbook illustration of the spiritual and moral crisis – the loss of core values – that has slowly poisoned American culture over the decades. Marriages take work. Restless spirits have to be tempered with self-control. To declare these obvious truths isn’t cruel. Indeed, to relieve people of responsibility for their actions is to treat them like children. It’s the “soft bigotry of low expectations.”

The basic answer is the same old answer as is all of history -- God, Family, Community, all of which have been heavily damaged and in many cases destroyed for many individuals by "The Party".  One place I cover this is here.

Furiously Happy Suicide

http://thefederalist.com/2016/04/08/why-some-people-commit-suicide-without-warning/

I'm doing a "combination", yes, I know the title is odd ... so was the book!

I read the book "Furiously Happy" by Jenny Lawson a while back and was torn about how to review it. I know WAY more about suicide than I would like to from experiences that are WAY too personal as well as reading a good deal about it as a result of those experiences.

Here are some things from Furiously Happy that spoke to me:

I feel successful 3-4 days a month. The other days I feel like I'm barely accomplishing the minimum or that I'm a loser. I have imposter syndrome so that even when I get compliments they are difficult to take and I feel like I'm a bigger fraud than before" ....  

.... "I'm hoping that by writing this and posting this it will make me face this head-on and make some changes in forcing myself to change the way I see success, or in forcing myself to get shit done and stop feeling such dread anxiety every day." ... 

Life passes. Then comes the depression. That feeling that you'll never be right again. That fear that these outbreaks will become more familiar, or worse, never go away. You're so tired from fighting that your start to listen to all the little lies your brain tells you. The ones that say that you're a drain to your family. The ones that say that it's all in your head. The ones that say that if you were stronger or better this wouldn't be happening to you. The ones that say that there is a reason your body is trying to kill you, and that you should just stop all the injections and steroids and drugs and therapies.  

Last month, as Victor drove me home so I could rest, I told him that sometimes I feel like his life would be easier without me. He paused a moment in thought and then said, "It might be easier. But it wouldn't be better"  

I remind myself of that sentence on days when the darkness seems like it will never end. But I know it will pass. I know that tomorrow things will seem a little brighter. I know that next week I'll look back on this sentence and think, "I should stop listening to my brain when it's trying to kill me".  

Mostly the book was not my cup of tea -- too madcap and Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), lots of disjointed but semi-related thoughts and activities that seemed just "too much" for me. My guess is that much of it might appeal to women more than men (PROOF that I'm a sexist!)

Oh, I DID like her names for her cats "Hunter S Thomcat" (Hunter S Thompson), and "Ferris Mewler". I also liked her discussion of "how many spoons" relative to energy. If each thing you do takes a "spoon", how many are you going to have for that day? One of the major questions for people that have depression issues for sure is "how many spoons today"? Complicated with "what is depression and what is just laziness". As I get older, there is also the question of "What is just being older"?

My Dad always had a TON more spoons than nearly anyone, while my Mom had "less than average". My wife generally has like "more than my Dad in his younger years" and I'd like to think that when things are going OK for me I'm maybe "average" to just possibly a tiny tweak above for a 59 year old guy.  The issue is often HOW DO WE FEEL about our "spoon allotment"? As in the quotes above ... and in the quotes below from the article, are we able to "come to peace" with the "spoon allotment", or do we just continually beat ourselves with "gotta do more, get better, I'm lazy,  etc"?

I especially like her "my brain is trying to kill me". Most people with anxiety and depression have brains that "don't shut off well" -- they have a very hard time "compartmentalizing" ("Just quit thinking about it!"). My personal brain model is SUPERB at running many, many, many scenarios on LOTS of things, most of which run toward the negative, but not all. This can be superb in doing design or writing, although it can also very easily cause personal "analysis paralysis" where a "combinatorial explosion" of thought stops all progress. Or writing / blogging for "a few minutes" becomes HOURS.

From the Federalist article, which purports to be about people with "absolutely no mental illness" here is the core meat ...

Adaptability seems to be the outstanding difference in the link between perfectionism and suicide. As was mentioned earlier, four defining characteristics emerged from Kiamanesh’s research: 1) success-driven personality, 2) fear of failure, 3) keeping up false appearances, and 4) rigidity.

The author does a summary of sorts in this paragraph.

While knowing the four features of maladaptive perfectionism is not a guarantee you’ll stop someone in time, it is a start. Hopefully it will at the very least increase your awareness. We all have perfectionists in our lives, and though I’m not advocating we interrogate them with our newfound knowledge, I am saying we should start paying attention for signs of unhealthy expectations, rigidness, fear of failure, etc.

At this point I feel duty bound to point out that she is all wrong about the Hemingway suicide ... if you care, you can see that here.  I think the four characteristics are useful, but I'm not sure I buy the "no mental illness" -- it is kind of like physically "perfectly healthy", or possibly even MORE rare than that! The human brain is the most complex thing in the universe that we know of -- by definition it would seem to be at "the limits of possible". A top fuel dragster is ALWAYS running on the razor edge of complete destruction. The fact they do runs WITHOUT blowing up is miraculous.

Our brains were not built for the modern world -- by design or by chance. The fact that there is WAY too much mental illness, suicide, unhappiness, loneliness, etc is actually EASY to understand -- the miracle is that there isn't MORE. (and sadly, with the decline of religion, loss of close families and communities, lack of even any interest in meaning or philosophy of life, etc, all those bad brain problems ARE getting worse!).

To the extent that any of this can be simplified, my current advice would be to read "Happiness Is a Serious Problem" -- it covers these issues extremely well.  If you are VERY low on time, read "Man's Search For Meaning" -- it gives the underlying philosophy very well, and next to the life described in a Concentration Camp, maybe we don't really have it as bad as we think.

My short and stolen wisdom in the interim:

• Acknowledge and seek a "higher power". IMHO, Christ is the only one that REALLY matters ... but if you feel he is a step too far, just accept that there is a power beyond yourself! 
• Be grateful for any "spoons" you have -- just the energy to draw breath if need be. 
• As hard as it is when times are bad, ANYTHING is better to ruminate on than yourself! 
• REACH OUT ... or at least "get out". Go sit in a coffee shop or a bar rather than your place alone if things are really bad. Even being AROUND people is worth something. 
• MOVE!!! For me, exercise is critical ... I'm still big and fat, but moving around makes me FEEL a lot better. 
• Get a cat -- or a dog I suppose, if that is the kind of person you REALLY are ;-) 

The US Education Cartel Centennial

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/433744/education-research-radical-politics?utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&utm_content=570a79ea04d3014e2a25a9de&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook

One of the MANY areas that I'm aware of severe problems in, but unable to spend the time to really go in depth is the sorry state of education in the US. I have to admit that given the level of union / "The Party" (D-TP) control, the only viable alternatives seem to be private schools and home schooling to keep some TINY semblance of a few minds that have had a background for critical thought, values and independence. Here is a post that covers how hard the left fights even the TINY amount of choice there is in education today.

The linked article covers the travesty of 20K education "researchers" of the "American Education Researchers Association" (AERA) descending on Washington for their century conference. As the linked article states:

In fact, AERA has a long history of scholarship that seems more interested in promoting personal political agendas than in actually researching education.

Right. The article is worthy of a read if you are not familiar with some of the tripe that counts as "research" for this group of propagandists, here is a sample:

More than a decade ago, we started occasionally highlighting some of the work on display at AERA’s annual fête. Many of the scholarly offerings were so sad they were funny. Over the years, we flagged such priceless gems as “Cyber-Sista Cipher: Black Female Students’ Color Consciousness and Counterstories as Hush Harbor in and for Universities” and “The Formation of the Subjectivity of Mail-Order Brides in Taiwan and Their Educational Strategies Toward Their Children.” If that is not the American academy at its finest and most relevant, it’s hard to know what would be.

I have a post that covers ONLY the fact that our schools are completely wired for the WRONG ECONOMY. Yet another area we are in terrible shape!

Sex Scandal Selectivity or Horse Head?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/congress.htm

The attention to Dennis Hastert -- EX House Speaker since January 2007 is rather impressive. I find it VERY sad that he apparently abused four boys back when he was a High School wrestling coach in Illinois 40 years ago.

The linked article is by a guy named Ken Rudin who is on MPR every Monday to talk about politics -- it is from '98 as the Washington Post was doing it's duty as a wholly owned subsidiary of "The Party" (D) in defense of Democrat Slick Willie walking the halls of power with his pants around his knees.  I find the following video to be a great remembrance ... "I Let An Intern Go Down on Me". We naturally don't hear much about Slick, since he was and is a "Good Guy", certified wonderful by TP as well as his "hell, have you seen my wife?" currently running for POTUS!

Certainly the loss of standards in our nation is one of the few truly "Bi-Partisan" efforts, and I use the term "Bi" very mindfully, but the "standards" for defending reprehensible behavior are FAR from bi-partisan.

I find the following from the linked article to be especially expositive:

Reps. Dan Crane (R-Ill.) and Gerry Studds (D-Mass.)
The House ethics committee on July 14, 1983, announced that Crane and Studds had sexual relationships with teenage congressional pages – Crane with a 17-year-old female in 1980, Studds with a 17-year-old male in 1973. Both admitted the charges that same day, and Studds acknowledged he was gay. The committee voted to reprimand the two, but a back-bench Georgia Republican named Newt Gingrich argued that they should be expelled. The full House voted on July 20 instead to censure the two, the first time that ever happened for sexual misconduct. Crane, married and the father of six, was tearful in his apology to the House, while Studds refused to apologize. Crane's conservative district voted him out in 1984, while the voters in Studds's more liberal district were more forgiving. Studds won reelection in 1984 with 56 percent of the vote, and continued to win until he retired in 1996.

Remember, this column is from 1998, and the WHOLE PURPOSE of the article is to exonerate Bill Clinton of paying any price for multiple acts in the workplace that would have gotten teenagers dismissed from McDonalds! The "standard" of TP for exoneration of their own is conveniently "others have done it" -- certainly a HIGH "moral standard".  US corporations are hard hearted enough to not want to pay even minimum wage for employees to have even "consensual" sex in the workplace, and if the sex involves a managerial employee it is ESPECIALLY prohibited by Federal Statute. Strangely, this holds even if "others have done it" -- if that was the "standard", Cain would have gotten all future murderers off.

Note that Gerry Studds, a Democrat has sexual relations with a 17 year old male, BUT, he was a Democrat! (admitted Gay even!) hey, NO PROBLEM! The Democrats in his district were happy to keep electing him until he retired!

Sure, **I** find sex with a 17 year old male as "worse" than sex with a 17 year old female, but I'm smart enough to know that to the extent that "liberals" have anything called "morals" at all, it ought to be "equivalent" ... or "something". From what I can see, the biggest determinant of "morality" is the location of an "R" or a "D" next to your name.

Hell, in the current "moral climate", how would one even IMAGINE such a thing as "morality"? Yes, yes, I understand, Hastert was an "R", so therefore he is subject to the awful charge of "hypocrisy" because he claims some "morals" -- where the D's are clear that they don't have any stupid "moral standards" at all!

That is the world today -- we need to feel some sense of "moral outrage" over Hastert (which I do), but feel none over Slick Willie ... which I also do, but am obviously in error on.

What concerns me at a deeper level is if Hastert is intended to be the "horse head in the bed" letting anyone who dares oppose TP know that "YOU ARE VULNERABLE"!

Why should they waste the time going after Denny Hastert? He has been out of power since 2007! Unless, THE POINT is that TP has got the goods on ANYONE that dares oppose them. Given the Internet, the NSA, FBI, CIA, IRS, EPA, etc, it is nearly certain you are actually guilty of a bunch of felonies -- and if you aren't, how hard is it to create an internet trail indicating that you are selling explosives, secrets, child porn, drugs, etc ?

Maybe the REAL message of Hastert is from the TP Godfather.

Trump On "Colored People's Time"

Oh, wait ... it was NY Mayor de Blasio making an "innocent joke", so "no harm, no foul" ... it is at the 8:50 mark or so if you REALLY need to watch it. OMG, there is a good chance that this Tele-tubby will actually be the president of what USED to be a country that some of us cared about?

I'm imagining the media would have treated this the same if it was somebody endorsing Trump or Cruz, right? Hey, we may as well believe in fairy tales since we live in an insane asylum!

NY Times off by Trillion Trillion

The Times Was Told There Would Be No Math | Power Line:



One might think that before you type in a "Trillion Trillion" and then your editor maybe even proofreads your article (hopefully after MORE than "a few", because one would WANT an excuse!), you MIGHT pause at such a number! Compared to 561, we are talking BIG error!



But if you did, you would not be the "paper of record", the brilliant "Gray Lady"!

An article on March 20 about wave piloting in the Marshall Islands misstated the number of possible paths that could be navigated without instruments among the 34 islands and atolls of the Marshall Islands. It is 561, not a trillion trillion.

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NPR Supports Prayer in Schools!

How one Minnesota school district handles a rising immigrant population | PBS NewsHour:

It is quite touching to see the lengths that the left is capable of in order to provide strong support for the MUSLIM religion in the public school system.

In St. Cloud’s middle and high schools, the district allows prayer time for students, including Muslim students, as federal law requires. The rooms used for prayer are open to all students to observe their beliefs and are used for other purposes throughout the school day. Districtwide, school lunch menus provide pork-free options for students, ... 

At the bottom of the article there is this disclaimer ...

CLARIFICATION: This story has been updated to describe the uses of the private rooms the St. Cloud district has set aside for student prayer.

All of us that have been alive the past 20 years or so have seen ANY organization that REMOTELY can be identified as having ANY sort of moral values not in complete lockstep with the State Religion of Secular Humanism to be COMPLETELY BANISHED from public school property. Boy Scouts, Christian Church prayer groups, etc,

All of a sudden, Muslims -- who believe in stoning gays, cutting the hands off thieves and treating women as property are considered VERY important.

It doesn't stop at special rooms and times for prayer -- no, it includes special foot washing stations,  which although MPR likes to chortle about every now and then, the media has a tendency to say not much at all about.

As we all know, it is ALL ABOUT CHRIST! Our secular state doesn't really hate "religion" at all -- in fact, it loves it's own PC Secular Humanism so much that to go against it is increasingly a CRIME, as in "hat crime", worthy of prosecution under the law. It is no wonder that they find Sharia Law to be exceedingly reasonable!

What needs to be SCRUPULOUSLY avoided in the public schools and square is CHRISTIANITY! Islam is obviously to be understood, tolerated, and even catered to!


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The Hollowness of BS, The GE Example

Against BS, GE edition | Power Line:

Those of us who never had any illusions about BS being anything but a vacuous windbag have no potential to be "DISillusioned", because we were never  "illusioned". BS made a mistake and did an actual interview with the New York Daily News, who asked actual questions like "Name 3 companies that exemplify corporate greed at it's worst", he could only come up with "GE", a 125 year old US company whose CEO was a big BO supporter! He couldn't name any others.

He also failed to name any laws that the big Wall Street Bankers had broken -- since he always complains that "none of them went to prison". BS is a socialist for goodness sake! In a proper socialist banana republic, the dictator just says "off with their heads"! He doesn't need no stinkin reason!

All of it is worth reading and even following some links -- BS is even MORE clueless than I would have actually imagined. I would have actually expected him to have some semi-reasonable answers to such questions! What is more, he has never visited a major GE plant in Vermont, nor did he have any clue of GE jobs or economic impact in the state he purports to represent! Here is a quote from GE CEO Immelt ... perhaps he needs to reassess which political party he supports if he wants to stay in business. "The Party" HATES actual profit making, product and job producing business!

It’s easy to make hollow campaign promises and take cheap shots in speeches and during editorial board sessions, but U.S. companies have to deliver for their employees, customers and shareholders every day. GE operates in the real world. We’re in the business of building real things and generating real growth for a nation that needs it now more than ever. I’m proud of all that we do, and how it all figures into “the moral fabric” of America is so plain to me.

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BO Democracy At Steak, $33,400

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/obama-democracy-at-stake-in-november-elections/2016/04/08/5459ffb8-fd6e-11e5-813a-90ab563f0dde_story.html

President Barack Obama says a functioning American democracy is what’s at stake in November’s elections.

Hmm, so after his dictatorial stenchfulness set the bar for refusing to negotiate with the opposing party in congress by refusing to even ENTER into any form or negotiation, preferring to declare their positions "extreme" and dare them to "shut down the government", since he had the media on his side, he now thinks it is "dangerous" to elect anyone that isn't a "compromiser".

How quaint!

He says it’s important to elect leaders who believe compromise isn’t a dirty word, who listen to those who disagree and respect other people’s views.

Yea, right! How many times have we seen the wagging finger schooling us poor unwashed masses on what it is we have "wrong" or "extreme" now, and his "biggest failing" is in explaining everything to the idiots that are the American people?

At least we don't have to listen to Professor Skid Mark very much longer -- although I'm sure he will be regaling all sorts of foreign despots, criminals and terrorists for MUCH more a plate as he builds his post-dictatorship pot of gold to probably a billion or more. Most of it hidden in foundations, trusts and off-shore shell corporations.

Actors Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Julia Roberts and Gwyneth Paltrow were among the approximately 100 people there, along with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat. Tickets cost $33,400 per couple.

Slick Willie Makes BLM Headlines

Bill Clinton confronts protesters who say his crime reforms hurt blacks | Reuters:

Perhaps Psychology Today will run an article on Slick Willie -- he pretty much torpedoed Hildebeast's '08 candidacy by basically saying that "BO was an other Jessie Jackson ... wouldn't even be a factor at all if he wasn't black". The "not a factor if not black" is true of course, as is the fact that Hildebeast would be a real laugher if not female, but Slick sure as hell ought to know that "The Party"has NOTHING to do with "truth"!  (it's coin is POWER)

Hildebeast DESPERATELY needs black votes, and the official story is that ONLY black lives matter, and the VAST number of blacks in prison, arrested, etc are only because of RACISM!

Maybe Slick has not been listening to NPR enough? He needs to get his narratives straight!


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Hildebeast Calls Baby Human

Inevitable, Eventual, Irritable - WSJ:

I've been on the road a lot so didn't get to this. The MSM has of course not covered the fact that Hildebeast slipped up and called a baby an "unborn person" or "child" -- it SIMPLY ISN'T DONE!

I'm guessing she is quite jealous of the "sense of humanity" that she sees around her, and sometimes feels sad that she sold her soul to become Satan's minion.

Mrs. Clinton even stumbled trumpily over the abortion question. She “ran afoul of both the pro-life and pro-choice sides of the abortion debate Sunday when she said constitutional rights do not apply to an ‘unborn person’ or ’child,’ ” the Washington Times reports, adding: “Describing the [unborn child] as a ‘person’ or ’child’ has long been anathema to the pro-choice movement, which argues the terms misleadingly imply a sense of humanity.”

At least no one will ever accuse Mrs. Clinton of implying a sense of humanity.

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Species Neutral Bathrooms?

Transgender woman Eva Tiamat Medusa removes ears and nose to become 'dragon lady' | Daily Mail Online:

Former male became female, now becoming "Dragon" and prefers to be referred to as "it" because it no longer identifies as human.

When "progressives" say that "progress" will continue, they are SERIOUS!


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‘C’ Is for Corruption

‘C’ Is for Corruption - WSJ:

... and as the article points out at the end, also for CLINTON, which is really just a synonym for corruption. The article covers what we need to know about the "Panama Papers".

The central summary paragraph is here:

"But nobody can be surprised by any of this. And nobody should look away from the central lesson of the scandal, though they’re trying. To wit, the story here isn’t about tax evaders and offshore accounts, deplorable as they may be. It’s about public policies and incentives that make a career in politics an expedient route to personal enrichment. "

The Clintons established the rule in the US that another "C" ... Character was not something required in a president.

In a world with no moral standard and a general agreement that "truth is relative", it is hard to even fully understand what someone means by "corruption". Slick and Hildebeast have amassed at least many 10's and probably hundreds of millions after leaving office by various "fees, honorariums, kickbacks,  retainers, etc". Certainly the BIG payoff will come if she gets the White House.

Everyone knows that BO will be doing the same. When you are a member of "The Party" (TP-D) in the US, the current situation is a lot more like Putin in Russia than it is for Iceland's President who had to resign. Looking at the history and current Clinton operation, it is clear they are completely above the standards of "normal Americans" as is BO.

The article is a good read -- essentially, the Clinton  / BO consortium proves that the US is pretty much "Brazil" at this point relative to corruption.

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