The Wandering Minstrel

Juries in my community used to be drawn from the registered voters list. What has this got to do with the DMV? Well, the jury commissioner switched to drawing from DMV records when people who didn’t want to serve stopped registering to vote. A jury room supervisor once told me the selection process changed because the commissioner figured out that people who did not want to be called for jury service would give up voting, but not driving.

I just got my notice that I have to renew my license. When I looked carefully at the form I am to complete for my renewal, I saw the little box below . . .

Now, the same politicians that support giving driving privileges to illegal aliens have made it this much easier for them to vote when they apply for a driver’s license or for a state ID card.

My solution for the problem is to take the DMV (and other bureaucracies) out of the hands of politicians and engage competitive bids to administer licensing. Let the efficiency of good commercial practices replace the surly civil service. Maybe then, there wouldn’t be people waiting in lines extending out the door and halfway around the building. You know, like the lines that there will be at your doctor’s office when health care is administered by the government.

Off to the gunSmith&Wesson shop to fix a shallow firing pin problem. It has been gone for a week now. ‘They’ say that S&W does a pretty fast turn-around and that it should be back in a week or two.

I miss my nice .357 magnum revolver and I look at this pin-up of it every day. Click on the thumbnail for a closer look.

Hedley Lamarr, aka Harvey Korman passed from among us today.

We all fondly remember Blazing Saddles, I’m sure . . .

“My mind is aglow with whirling transient nodes of thought careening through a cosmic vapor. My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thoughts cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives.”

– Hedley Lamarr

“Golly, Mr. Lamarr, you use your tongue purdier than a two-dollar whore!”

– Taggart

We will miss you Harvey. Now go do that voodoo that you do so well.

Jerry Patterson explains why the right to carry guns is needed in National Parks like Big Bend in Texas:

On a recent hike in Big Bend, I found two expended 9mm shell casings, along with a discarded pack of Mexican cigarettes. The Texas Department of Public Safety ballistics lab confirmed two different weapons fired these casings. How could this be? There are no guns in Big Bend, because that’s the rule, right?

Tell that to the rafters who were ambushed and killed several years ago in an area adjacent to the Big Bend known as Colorado Canyon. Tell that to the woman whose body, suffering from blunt force trauma to the head, was found floating in five feet of water at Amistad National Recreation Area.

In 2006, the most recent year available for statistics, the National Park Service says there were 116,588 reported offenses in national parks. That includes 11 killings, 35 rapes or attempted rapes, 61 robberies, 16 kidnappings and 261 aggravated assaults

Read the original article in which Patterson explains how the the National Parks’ carry ban is unconstitutional

Hat tip NRA-ILA

Well the motorcycles, shotguns and me - the T-shirt was probably made in China.

I actually had a pretty good day at the range yesterday. In both of these targets, I got 9 out of 10 rounds into a reasonable group. But then there’s that pesky wayward 10th bullet that seems to have a mind of its own. The wayward round missed the pistol target altogether. On the silhouette target, 9 head shots and one ‘to whom it may concern’ round. In real-life, I probably would have dropped the neighbor’s cat. And probably wouldn’t care.

Memorial Day weekend brings out Rolling Thunder to the Nation’s Capital. Just like last year, thousands of motorcycles descended into Washington to honor our veterans. They were there in a show of patriotic pride as a counter to the anti-war demonstrations planned by the far-left. Rolling Thunder is also the organization that protects fallen soldiers’ families and friends when these crazy anti-war people decide to demonstrate at a funeral.

Kudos to the Rolling Thunder.

And speaking of them, I sure do like their Rolling Thunder Special Edition Smith & Wesson .45 caliber ACP Pistol . . .

I know, I said I would be posting about firearms this time. I lied. Unless you consider an urge to shoot the gas pump a firearms blog. Yeah, that’s it. That’s the ticket.

At any rate, upon filling the 50 liter tank on my exotic domestic land vessel, a recent record $75 fill-up got shattered today by a new high.

I blame the Democrats (and some Republicans) in Congress. I blame the green tree huggers. I blame the idiots who oppose our energy independence for a variety of far-fetched excuses why the U.S. is to blame for everything.

Bullshit.

Drill ANWR. Drill offshore. And put up the windmills offshore from Massachusetts now that Teddy won’t have to look at them.