Dear God, Mr. Biden... just shut UP!!!

H/T to firearms trainer extraordinaire Hsoi

After my rant earlier last week, Biden opened his cake-hole again and tried to give self defense advice on the use of a Shotgun.  Here are his words:

"...because you want to keep someone away from your house, just fire the shotgun through the door."

Can that moron give any worse advice?  His advice violates 2 of the 4 Rules, and is a FELONY.

Derp a Shotgun through the derpy door!

Also:

In the same Field and Stream interview, Biden also said that anyone who needs a “clip” (actually a magazine) with 30 rounds in it is a “danger” to themselves.

My 4 year old knows the difference between Clip and Magazine.  The man that is one heartbeat away from leading the 'free' world does not... and thinks he can give advice on self defense.

Texas lawmaker wants a Tax Holiday on guns and ammo

Texas lawmaker wants tax holiday for guns, ammo sales.

(Clickity-read)

"Texans love their independence -- and their guns.

State Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, is proposing to give Texans more of both.
Leach has filed the "Texas Gun Ownership Reinforcement Act," a bill to create a new tax-free holiday where consumers won't be charged taxes on guns, ammunition or hunting supplies one day out of the year:
Texas Independence Day, March 2."

Texas... Gotta love it :)

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/27/3256402/texas-lawmaker-wants-tax-holiday.html#storylink=cp 

Why doesn't Chewbacca get a medal?

It was a big day on Saturday in the That Guy household.  That Kid had finally earned the viewing of the Original Star Wars movie ("A New Hope," or "Episode IV" if you want to acknowledge that crap that Lucasarts put out a few years ago).

Now, That Kid is going to be turning 5 in a few months.  He is a bit younger than I was when I saw the movie in theaters.  But, after seeing some of the junk that they put out as 'kids movies' these days I decided that this would be OK.

He freaking loved it.  I had to skip a couple of things (Obi-on cutting off a dude's hand in the cantina for example) just to make it less PG and more G.  Unfortunately, the only version of the movie you can find now is the new "Greedo Shot First" version with unneeded CGI and the added scene with Jabba the Hut.  Sad, but in my son's mind, that is going to be the 'right' version of the movie.  Sad...  But, back to the story.

Leading up to this, That Kid was CONSTANTLY asking questions about who was in the movie, what they did, and I fed the excitement a lot by showing him snippets of the movie off of starwars.com.  he knew that R2D2 was Luke's co-pilot, and Chewbacca was Han Solo's co-pilot.

Then at the end of the movie, after the Death Star is destroyed, there is the medal presentation to Han and Luke.  That Kid watches, then turns and look st me and asks:

"Why didn't Chewbacca get a medal?"

That is a darn good question, Kid.  He was up in the Millennium Falcon, risking his life, was probably flying while Han fired the shots that knocked Vader off of Luke's tail.  But he has to stand back, not even up on the Dias with the droids, three steps down and away from the group.  Strange I never noticed that, but it took a 4 year old to point out the lesson.

History always remembers the Quarterbacks, and not the Linemen that make the spectacular plays possible.

For Unca' Joe Effing Biden

If you have not been paying attention, our national shame, Joe Biden, went out and opened his slobbering cake-hole and stuck his whole foot in his mouth.

"Oh, " you say, "It must be a day that ends in 'y'"

Right.  Except Ol' Slo-Mo Joe went out and in one statement where he was a patronizing sexist pig towards women, advocated breaking THREE of the sacred 'Four Rules', and told us to commit what would be a felony in all 50 states.

That has to be a record, even for one as adept in screwing things up.  What did he say?  Here, listen to that smarmy sphincter say it himself:

So, let's break that down:
"You little women don't need no AR-15.  It's just to complicated with all them switches, triggers, dials and stuff.  You need something simple because you are just too mentally incapable of understanding the complex workings of a 60 year old design..."
"Make sure to fire wildly at strange noises with no idea what the target or backstop is."
"The best idea is to make sure an aggressor knows that now your gun is empty."

Mr Biden, please keep your advice to things you actually know, like hairplugs and creepily fondling women in public.  Let the adults talk about adult issues like self defense.

Flashlight Blog

On Sunday, the family and I were at Costco, because... well, we are Caucasian and it was Sunday.  It's required.  Right next to the door was a display with a two pack of "Tactical" flashlights that lured me in.  The key things hat looped me in were:
Standard Batteries (C Cell)- Included
500 Lumens
$27

So, I picked them up.  Details listed on the pack said they were 500 lumens, 3x C Cell, 900 foot beam throw, and 7 hour run time.  So, while That Wife and That kid were in line at the Costco food court getting a drink, I cut open the godawful clamshell packaging (whoever designed that stuff can DIAF.  Hate it) and loaded the batteries in one of the lights.

I did the standard thing us morons do with a new light and shined it in my eyes.  Suddenly, I heard my ancestors asking me to walk into the light and join them. I may have screamed a little bit right there between the cages of empty cardboard boxes and the line for $2 pizza-and-a-drink.

As I told 45er later, this thing is holy-shit-good-lord-my-eyes-why-did-I-look-in-the-beam bright. And it's "zoomable" from flood to spot.  But here is the odd thing: Flood is a nice, round, (bright) even coverage, cold white LED beam.  Spot is an intense SQUARE beam.  You can actually see detail of thin wires on the LED in the projected beam.

Size- This is not a pocket light.  It is about the size of a good pistol suppressor.

Here 'tis with my EDC light- a much abused Streamlight PT2AA

How bright is it?  Well, everyone knows how hard it is to take pics of flashlight performance.  But we try to do it anyway.  This morning, while walking Tucker the Rat Terrorist, I took some pics.

At one point there is a clearing where there is about a 60-70 yard straight shot to a tree in the creekbed.  This is in the predawn dark, while backlighted by a sodium arc streetlamp:

What tree?

And here it is with the spotlight zoomed in

Oh... THAT tree.

slightly better pic of the tree

 As you can see, there is the interesting "square beam"

For comparison, here is the same view with the Streamlight PT2AA at 120 Lumens

Now as to the flood beam.  Here is a trailhead under the same circumstance- pre-dawn, overcast, backlit by streetlamp

And here it is with the flood beam

...and with the spot beam

All in all, this is a seriously freaking bright flashlight.  But what will it be used for?  Well, I miked the body diameter, and it looks like a 30mm scope ring would make this rail mountable.  Stay tuned, This may be one HELL of a pig light very soon.

EDIT:
Quick trip to the local Empty Shelf Emporium (i.e. gun store), and here is the new Pig Light:

Here, piggy, piggy....

I'll mount it on the AR-10 tonight.

Not to keep picking on Illinois...

But I consider it an honor when a Chicago Politician calls me corrupt:

Chicago police chief: Second Amendment supporters guilty of corruption

Seriously.  If someone who is as corrupt as anyone in a position of power in Chicago calls ME corrupt- that means I am on the side of angels.  

H/T to Bitter

Fitting mugshot

If you are going to get busted smoking pot under the bleachers... make sure you look high as shit in your mugshot:

"Dude, wait.... what?"

Ill. high school teacher busted for smoking pot under the school bleachers at wrestling tournament by off-duty cop who smelled strong scent of weed

(BTW, NY Daily News has the worst headline writers)

Read This

Seriously:

Michael Z. Williamson

Salt Dome Red Snapper

A few days ago, I was at home, and That Wife texts me:

"Bought a whole red snapper.  Start researching how to cook it"

He does not look happy about this

I have never cooked a whole fish before, but I've watched enough Food Network to be dangerous.

So, after Googling it a while, and That Wife saying 'no' to the en papillote idea, I decided to go nuts and try a technique I had seen and never tried- Salt Dome. 

So, after looking up a bunch of recipes and burning an offering to Alton Brown, I went for it.

Preheated the oven to 450

Mixed 2 pounds of Kosher salt with 1/4 cup of water and made a dry paste.

Grabbed a disposable aluminum baking pan (In case we screwed it up, we could just throw the whole thing out and order chinese), and put down a thin layer of the salt paste

Put slices of lemon inside the body cavity of the fish, and cut off the dorsal, pectoral, and anal fins with kitchen shears

Covered the fish with the rest of the salt paste.

 Threw it in the oven and cooked it for about 40 minutes. Of course, with the fish completely encased, when it came out, it was a leap of faith that it was "done" since I could not use the instant read Thermometer

So, we cracked open the dome.

Looks... like a fish!

It turned out delicious.  Soft, moist, and with a great flavor.  Not salty at all (except a small part where the salt got inside the body cavity- be careful with that.), and not fishy.  the salt dome hardens into a rock, and traps in the steam, and just steams the fish to completion. 

Try this if you get a chance.  The disposable pan made clean up a breeze- just throw the whole thing out.