First Clinton crony appointments, then GITMO, now this...

Linky

Has it occurred to anyone, that if Obama does end up being a reasonably successful president, it will only be by adopting policies he slammed McCain for?

Barack Obama and the Strategy of Manufactured Crisis

Interesting article putting a lot of what we already know together, with a special focus on the Cloward-Piven Strategy of Orchestrated Crisis.

One Nation, Under Obama: Hussein Worshipper Creates Creepy Salute

Kind of reminds me of the marching hammers sign from The Wall.

Socialist fanaticism at its finest.

Link

That 10% lead Obama supposedly has... Does that include the convicted felons, illegal aliens and dead people?

Obama's NAFTA Rhetoric

Obama tells Ohio voters one thing, while his campaign privately admits to Canada's US ambassador that this was simply "political positioning."

pwned.

Link

I've got 'em... Who needs 'em?

I'm not a master carpenter... But I can do a passable job. Now that I'll be working from home 4 days a week for the foreseeable future, I've decided to kick my home wiring project I've been putting off into high gear. This involves some carpentry, as I'm running cable between floors through a wall and into an attic space over a single-floor wing of the house.

My attic is hot as balls... It was 112 degrees F in there this afternoon, so I waited until a little later on to work on what I'm doing in there. The previous owner did a piss poor job of putting down flooring in there for storage, and as I've been ripping it up to get to where I need to run wires, I decided to redo it the right way. Before I can do that, though, I've framed out a "box" made from 2x6s between the ceiling joists that dams off the insulation and will support a trap door in the floor providing access to the cable run. Like I said, I'm not a master carpenter, but I've done a decent job making this thing square and level, considering I'm attaching it to joists that are not themselves square and level, and it was still 95 degrees in there when I was working on it tonight. On either side of the box, I've toenailed in a couple of 2x4s to support the plywood floor on the edges. This took some practice, but I think I got the hang of it. It was still tough trying to do this between lapped joists which were less than 13" apart. One of them, while level end-to-end, ended up being twisted a little out of level vertically as I was nailing it in. It looked straight when I was nailing it in, but I guess my eyes were deceiving me. I can't very well fix this without ripping the whole thing apart, so it'll have to stay. It probably would be close enough for government work, anyway. ;)

I like screwing better than nailing... For the parts that I had no choice but to use nails on, I used nails. Everywhere else I used sturdy #12 wood screws.

I've got the Oblongs theme song stuck in my head... I could hear it from the TV in the living room below, when I was working in the attic. Nick had Adult Swim on for awhile before she had to get ready for work.

We made the same mistake twice... Since it's about that season, we uncovered the pool today. The water didn't look all that bad at all... That is, until we let all the leaves and debris and crap sitting on top of the cover slide into the pool as we pulled it off! It's a good thing Nick fished the dead bird out before we did that, I guess. This is the second year in a row we've allowed that to happen, though. Now the water's all dark and murky. I was able to get out most of the leaves with the net, but it's still pretty cloudy.

I guess we drained the pool last year a little more than we did the previous year... I had the hose running for over 6 hours, and it's only about halfway to where it needs to be. I finally had to just turn it off so I don't end up with a flooded yard in the morning.

I'm beat... But at least I don't have to commute to work tomorrow, suckers! :P

I just labeled my magazines in Russian. There's a practical reason for this. I label my magazines, so that if one is causing problems, such as FTFs or not locking the slide back when empty, I know which one needs to be looked at. In fact, I have extra magazine springs on the way, because I'm sure some will need replacing. I thought labelling them in Russian was kind of a neat idea, since it's a Russian design and all. I hope I got the words right. ;)

Any Russian speakers out there care to tell me how I did?

I just couldn't help myself... They say variety is the spice of life, and I just had to have another (slightly different) Makarov.

It turns out the guy that was trying to buy the Bulgarian Mak at my local gun shop was denied purchase because he failed the background check. Since the thing was relatively cheap, I decided I could use another. The cool thing about this one, is it was manufactured in 1988, just before the fall of communism in the region. It's got the brown plastic grips with the "commie" star, and the original style, rounded trigger guard. The guy that sold it to me said he'd much rather I had it than the slimeball that came in before. Turns out, he really didn't even know much about it, or how it works.

What I hadn't realized before, is that the price included the paperwork/background check, and it came with four magazines and the cleaning rod the other was missing, so it was a very reasonable deal.

So here they are, the twins (fraternal). I'm going to detail strip the new one tonight and give it a good cleaning, in case the previous owner used ammo with corrosive primers.

Speaking of the Maks, I finally had a chance to try out the special edition one last night, which prompted my impulse buy. ;) I really like the feel of the weapon, and how it shoots. The DA trigger pull is very long, but I know that's a safety feature. It'll take getting used to.

Here's a target from last night. As you can see, there were a couple of flyers, but one of 'em was from the first DA shot. I still managed to make a decent grouping at 5 yards. I was high and left, which according to the corrective target, means anticipating recoil or no follow thru. It's not the sights, it's me, and I need to work on that. When I "remembered the basics," I was making shot after shot in the bullseye, but that target was too shredded to post here. The slide also failed to lock back a couple of times, but since the slide stop is not worn, I've attributed this to a worn-out magazine spring, not the gun. I have some replacement springs on the way.

Got myself a Bulgarian Makarov for me birthday today. It turns out that the one I had my eye on at the store down the road was bought last night. The guy told me the person who bought it had a hold put on their NCIS check, so there was a chance it wouldn't go through and I could have it. Unfortunately, that meant a 15-day wait, and I didn't wanna, since it's my B-Day! ;)

I called around and found a better deal from a shop in Philly. I got the pistol, 3 magazines, a case, a holster and a box of ammo, for probably what I would have spent for just the gun and two mags at the other place. Here they are all lined up for your viewing enjoyment. The one I got already had the rubber grips on it, like I wanted, too.

Now I need to buy some ammo for it. I was gonna buy bulk surplus ammo online, dirt cheap.

The idea behind getting this one, besides having fun shooting it, was for summer carry in an IWB holster. The one it's in in that shot is just an Uncle Mike's, but I might end up getting something better (like in leather) down the road.

I haven't fired it yet, but I'll be sure to share my experience when I do!

Well, today's my Birthday. Had dinner and cake with my parents, and gots me some presents, but it took some prompting to get my fiancée to wish me a "Happy Birthday." :\

I wonder if we'll even do anything special today... Probably not. I might just splurge and get myself that Bulgarian Makarov I saw at the gun store down the road. Maybe that little bugger will cheer me up.

I had some fun tonight. :D I figured I'd go to the range, since I haven't been there in over a month. That, and I needed to do something to get my mind off everything that's been going on lately.

I found out that:

1. I could still hit the broad side of a barn.
2. Uzis are really cool. The guy in the lane next to me was blasting away in bursts of full auto fire.
3. I really like Springfield XDs (who'da thunk?)
4. My self control is pretty good, since I didn't buy an XD, or the SIG or Makarov I was looking at.

Here's a neat picture of an empty ammo box I shot up. I thought it was interesting how the shots that hit the edge of the box did that. Of course, I wouldn't have expected any different from something travelling between 1000 and 1200 FPS. ;)

As you can see from the powder residue around the muzzle in this picture, I had tons of fun tonight! :)

Oh, and... the XD-9 I tried out was really nice. I may just have to get one someday.