The Wandering Minstrel

With 9×19 parabellum ammo missing from the shelves for several weeks, it was a pleasure to take “Little Boy” to the range today. The range indicated that 9mm ammo would be available, so away we went.

Clickable image - Glock 26 “Little Boy”

I sure love this little gun. The brag sheet at USGLOCK.COM lists the stats for G26:

The Glock 26 uses a 9×19 cartridge. It is a highly concealable, personal defense handgun. Often referred to as the “Baby Glock,” the Glock 26 has created a true and practical semi-automatic pistol alternative to the standard five-shot snub-nose revolver.

· Caliber: 9 x 19 mm
· Action: Safe Action System
· Length: 6.29 inch / 160 mm slide
· Height: 4.17 inch / 106 mm
· Width: 1.18 inch / 30 mm
· Length: 5.67 inch / 144 mm between sights
· Barrel Length: 3.46 inch / 88 mm
· Barrel Rifling: Right, Hexagonal
· Length of Twist: 9.84 inch / 250 mm
· Magazine Capacity: 10 / 12 Subject to local laws and regs.
· Gun Weight: 19.75 oz / 560 g empty without magazine.
· Magazine Weight: 1.98 oz / 56 g empty
· Magazine Weight: 6.35 oz / 180 g Full. Approximate subject to ammunition type.
· Trigger Pull: 5.5 lbs / 2.5 kg
· Trigger Travel: .5 inch / 12.5 mm
· Number of Safeties: 3

Just point and click. This Remington 870 Express 12 Gauge will be going with me to the range in the morning for target practice.

Anybody else get one of these? It’s called “The American Community Survey” and it landed in my in basket this afternoon. Click on the image to enlarge.

Briefly, it asks questions about mental health, the number of bathrooms in your home, what language you speak and read, and a couple dozen pages filled with more “none of your fuckin’ business” questions.

I got a similar mailing a few weeks ago and shit-canned it, after shredding, of course.

According to Wikipedia

The American Community Survey (ACS) is a project of the U.S. Census Bureau that replaces the long form in the decennial census. It is an ongoing statistical survey, and thus more current than information obtained by the long form. Many Americans found filling out the long form to be burdensome and intrusive, and its unpopularity was a factor in the declining response rate to the decennial census. In 1995, the Bureau began a process to change the means of demographic, housing, social, and economic information from the census long form to the ACS. Testing began in 1996, and the ACS program began producing test data in 2000, 2001, and 2002. The full program is expected to be implemented by 2010.

Wikipedia goes on to make the following claim (emphasis mine):

The Department of Commerce claims that those who receive a survey form are required to provide answers to a long list of questions about themselves and their families, including their profession, how much money they earn, their source of health insurance, their preferred mode of transportation to and from work, and the amount of money they pay for housing and utilities. Those who decline to answer these questions may receive follow-up phone calls and/or visits to their homes from Census Bureau personnel, and are threatened with prosecution and fines. No person has ever been charged with a crime for refusing to answer the ACS survey, which several US Representatives have challenged as unauthorized by the census act and violative of the Right to Financial Privacy Act.

I’m not sure how I want to handle this. One thing is for sure I would sign a petition against this crap - like this one: Stop the ACS Petition.

Yesterday morning, my countdown to retirement counter ticked through a pretty good poker hand - five fours . . .

 
I won’t miss working, the traffic, the politics, the crime rate or teh stoopids in my native state, California, but I will miss the seashore and the family. But then, I can always come and visit them a couple of times a year.

Oh yeah - I almost forgot (NOT) - I won’t miss the worst gun laws in the US.

This is why the storage compartment at the rear of most vehicles in the U.S. is called a trunk. There was a time when an actual piece of luggage rode on the back of Model A Fords and other vehicles of that era.

The trunk is inherited from horse-drawn carriages and coaches, many of which were similarly equipped. Trunks have been securing cargo for hundreds of years.

I looked at some pictures on line of other nicely restored Model A Fords. From what I can see, this looks like the original equipment or a precise replica.

The Better Half snapped this picture from the passenger side of the truck the other day. Clickable Image.

. . . I’d be working to get R. Ted Cruz elected as Texas Attorney General. When Cruz was Texas Solicitor General, he organized the Solicitors General from 31 States in filing an amicus brief in the D.C. vs Heller case. The 31 states filed a brief explaining that “the individual right to keep and bear arms is protected by the United States Constitution and the constitutions of forty-four states.” The 31 amici states also noted that “the District of Columbia’s categorical gun ban is markedly out of step with the judgment of the legislatures of the fifty states, all of which protect the right of private citizens to own handguns.” (Some, more than others, I might add.)

Mark Hemingway wrote an article about Ted Cruz in National Review. The following is excerpted from “Cruz Control (PDF):”

Cruz Control
A Republican star rises in Texas

At only 38, Cruz has accrued a list of legal honors and accomplishments that would be impressive for a man twice his age. He recently spent five and a half years as solicitor general of Texas; both the youngest and longest-serving solicitor general in state history, he won the Best Brief Award from the National Association of Attorneys General for five consecutive years. Cruz clerked for former Supreme Court chief justice William Rehnquist. He became so close to Rehnquist that he was a pallbearer at the chief justice’s funeral, and Rehnquist in turn had an indelible impact on Cruz: His legal career has been defined by his advocacy of federalism.

Cruz has written over 70 briefs, and presented eight oral arguments, to the Supreme Court. Aside from impressive oral presentations, Cruz is renowned in legal circles for his preparedness. In 2005, when Cruz defended Texas’s congressional-redistricting plan before the Court, Justice Stevens actually complimented him from the bench on the quality of his brief. (Such compliments are unusual.) After he won the case, the Democratic opposing counsel were so impressed they inquired about the possibility of Cruz’s joining their firm after his tenure as solicitor general. More recently, Cruz played a role in winning District of Columbia v. Heller, the landmark Second Amendment case.

Hemmingway goes on to say:

Cruz hasn’t even made it through his first primary election yet, so it’s perhaps premature to predict how far he will go in politics. But, in keeping with his own political vision, it’s probably safe to say that Cruz is a conservative with a lot of opportunities ahead of him.

I hope you gunnies in Texas are behind this guy . . .

UPDATE: Welcome 2A Roundup readers. Be sure to visit Columbia Conservative Examiner when you’re done here.

The range where I shoot is also a gun dealer. Lately, their gun case has been really bare, just like many other gun stores in the area. When I go shooting on Sunday, I always look at the few weapons for sale in the gun case. This time, I noticed a new item in the case - a genuine Obamination-approved weapon system!

I stared at the sleek black frame on this awesome weapon. I longed to put my hand on the molded pistol grip and draw back on the main cartridge chamber, point it downrange and fire a round at one of my ’special’ targets. Unfortunately, the price tag on this thing of beauty was a little steep, so I merely gazed at it for a few moments before snapping this photo for posterity.

Satire aside, this would probably be classified as something too dangerous and evil for the average citizen to own, given the nannies in charge these days. And good on the boys at the range for making us laugh at the sad but true attitudes in Washington and Sacramento.

Today, I took “Fat Man” to the range (my Glock 30 compact .45 ACP pistol). This is the target (7 yards) after expending the first 10-round magazine. Not too shabby for having missed target practice last weekend, even if I do say so myself.