Looking Good

Gabrielle Giffords has released her first photos after she was shot in Tuscon. She looks great, still the left temporal and frontal lobes are big deals in speech and memory, so I wonder where she’s at cognitively. I’m glad to see she’s doing so well and apparently very happy, and I wish her further recovery after this horrible event.

In my own life my wife had a good chunk of her brain removed, and she’s now seizure-free, and looks just about the same as she did before surgery, except for some of her hair is a little bit shorter than the rest, but you wouldn’t notice it from looking at her.

A world of miracles we live in! More here.

Posted in Epilepsy, Family and Friends, Politics | Leave a comment

Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time

…to stay up until midnight tinkering with the RSS blogroll and chatting on IRC when I had to be at work bright and early today.

Wow, maybe I had a lapse in judgement. 😉

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“Gun Death” BBQ

This “Gun Death?” story was already covered by Southtexaspistolero but he asked if I’d pass it along, and of course I’ll oblige.

A San Antonio man who’d recently been released from prison when he abruptly ended a Mother’s Day barbecue by (fatally — ed.) whacking a neighbor in the neck with a weightlifting bar is headed back to the penitentiary….

Because he had been to prison four times before, including a trip as recently as 2008, Murphy faced a sentence of between 25 years and life.

Again when violent people are allowed to walk among us it doesn’t matter WHAT tools they get, they will be violent!

Thanks for the story!

Posted in Bad Justice | Leave a comment

RSS GO!

There we have RSS Sidebar now! Again if you’re not there drop me your feed. I’ll also go and start hunting down various other blogs!

Hopefully we’ll all be seeing more traffic, and I’ll be a little better about keeping up with your blog.

Also note that RSS feeds work best if they are in Atom or Feedburner format.

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“Gun Death” More Bars

No Guns in bars! BAD THINGS CAN HAPPEN!

According to the criminal complaint, Schmitz came out of Schooner’s Tavern at about 12:30 on Sunday morning to have a cigarette with a group of people, but then that group got into a fight with another group across the street after a woman threw a glass in McDonald’s face.

Witnesses told police Schmitz was trying to pull people off a woman on the ground when he held his hand to his shirt and said, “You stabbed me.”

According to another witness, McDonald then said, “Yes, I did.”

Again no guns were used so the anti-freedom types will point out that a great tragedy was averted! Remember only “Gun Deaths” count!

h/t Maddmedic

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Play Me Out: I Ain’t Afraid of No Ghosts

Got a pair for this evening:

And there’s this one:

And of course we can’t discuss the Ghostbusters Theme without discussing the legal controversy around it.

Certainly very similar in sound to this song, still do you think they’re close enough to constitute IP theft? Hard to say for me…what do you think?

Posted in Music | Leave a comment

Gross Negligence

Stories like these make me sick!

Police affidavit: Gun fired accidentally

Oh what happened?

According to the affidavit, Halloran told police that just before the shooting, “Andrew Holland texted her to say he was coming over to hang out with her and Ryan (Ouimet). Andrew Holland showed up and they smoked marijuana and listened to music for a half hour or so. Ryan (Ouimet) then removed the gun from a drawer and held it.”

Halloran, who rents the apartment at 117 High St., told police that Ouimet was putting the cartridge into the gun and popping it out repeatedly, and Holland was doing the same, according to the affidavit.

Halloran told police that Ouimet was tossing the gun between his hands when it fired, according to the affidavit.

Ouimet told police that he was holding the gun and dancing to music just before the shooting. He went to change the song, turned, and the gun went off and hit Holland in the chest, according to the affidavit.

“Accidentally” If you’re doing this bullshit you’re going to be very LUCKY to not shoot something you don’t want.

-If you are going to get intoxicated, don’t carry or handle a gun. Use your judgement, but if the intoxicant you choose happens to be an illegal drug, DON’T! I don’t agree with the war on drugs, and I strongly believe on the second Amendment, but mixing illegal drugs and guns is a REALLY bad idea.

-As Tam Says “Stop Touching That!” every gun owner will need to handle loaded guns at some time, unless you are at a gun range or an area with a proper backstop and safety, its best to keep this handling to the barest of minimums. Don’t fiddle with a loaded gun, don’t handle a loaded gun, and keep the amount of times you arm and disarm throughout your day to the barest of minimums. If you DO have to traverse a “Gun-Free Zone” or otherwise choose to disarm, pick a holster that can easily be removed from your body without handling the gun and handle only the holster not the gun inside.

-Do NOT chamber and re-chamber ammunition just for fun. Every time you do that you run a risk of bullet setback. I’m pretty anal about this. I don’t unload my gun unless I need to, and I store it with a round in the chamber in my gun safe. Tho if I empty the gun, I will not chamber a new round until just before the gun is placed in a holster. I also won’t rechamber the same round more than 3x (and generally that 3rd time is at the firing range to “Burn off” old ammo). Also cambering and ejecting a round are two times when a round might go off from odd handling or a mechanical issue. Minimize this time!

-When you are handling firearms that’s what you’re doing right then. As in that’s the ONLY thing you are doing. If there is music or TV on, you are not listening to, or watching it. If there are people around you your only awareness of them should be what direction is “Safe” and not to muzzle them. Handle your gun safely and get it into a holster or into storage, or cleared ASAP. Don’t be dancing to music or fiddling with the stereo with a live gun in your hand!

-Follow the 4 Rules at all times, gun loaded or unloaded. Also note Uncle’s 5th Rule: Never catch a dropped gun! This includes the tomfoolery of tossing a gun from hand-to-hand!

Doing any of these dumb things can cause bad things to happen, doing them all together is a recipe for disaster.

He faces as much as 30 years in prison on the manslaughter charge

GOOD! I hope he gets every day of that, this is NOT somebody who I trust with a gun, or a car, or even a sharp stick! Why this jerk will likely lose his right to keep and bear arms, but retain his right to drive or buy power tools et al, is one of those stupid ideas in American Culture, that somehow a gun is different from any other dangerous tool!

Posted in Guns, Safety | Leave a comment

You RSS: I want it!

All this talk on “Sharing the Road”, I REALLY need to get my sidebar links up so I can start pitching better traffic towards the good people who I constantly read. I’ll do my best to hunt down the RSS feeds for the blogs that have them right in the open, but I may not be able to find yours.

I’d prefer to go the route of an RSS sidebar rather than just a low-tech blogroll because I really have no interest in playing favorites, playing alphabet, and the number of blogger’s I’ve met in person is so colossally huge, and irrelevant as there are a ton of bloggers I’ve had HUGE correspondences with who I’ve never met in person.

So if you have an RSS feed for your blog (no comment feeds, please) post it in the comments and I’ll get it up on the sidebar sometime in the VERY near future!

**Update** the Bar is up, but it appears to not like anything that isn’t in Atom or feedburner format. Take note.

Posted in Blogging | Leave a comment

Podcasts

Last night we had an awesome. Vicious Circle, I was hoping for a few new guests, but I guess they couldn’t make it. It was a good time, and I think you’ll enjoy!

Also I’m about an hour into episode 150 of the Handgun Podcast This is being billed as Eric’s final episode, as he’s starting a contractor job that may deploy him overseas.

I must say it is sofar one of the best episodes ever. I wish Eric the best, and safe travels, and hope to be hearing from him again.

He’s a great asset to the cause!

Give him a listen!

**UPDATE**: Looks like JP over at Eyes Never Closed is starting a Podcast. I love JP’s stuff and I’ll be damned surprised if his podcast isn’t totally worth a listen! Keep your eyes peeled here for when the podcast goes live.

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“Gun Death” Bar Fight

They say we shouldn’t allow guns in bars because of the bad things that could happen.

Kelley Sharp, the bar’s owner, said the stabbing occurred in the parking lot and involved three strangers who came in and “were causing fights” with the bar’s regulars. The bartender kicked out the three men, he said. Foster then was fatally stabbed. Foster, he said, was a “good patron” who helped protect the bar when necessary.

Good thing nobody had a gun, otherwise a “Gun Death” might have occurred, and of course we know for those who hate freedom “Gun Death” is the only death that counts.

h/t Maddmedic

Posted in Gun Death? | Leave a comment