The Wandering Minstrel

Since our first post back in November of 2007, we have enjoyed a steadily increasing number of hits. The steepest increase came in the first half of this year. Then, in August, something strange happened. There was a major leap from less than 3k visits per month to over 4k, but then the hits per month leveled out.

Analysis of the logs reveals that the readership has been increasing from direct requests or referrals from other Gun Bloggers, but the preponderance of referrals suddenly came from Google and other image searches. I guess that’s good, since our stuff is being seen by those outside the pro-gun community.

Thanks and Happy New Year to the readers of The Wandering Minstrel. Special thanks to Anthony at The Liberty Sphere and David at The War on Guns, for sending some of their readers this direction. Also, thanks to the regulars and the Gun Bloggers - you know who you are - for stopping by from time to time and for the blogroll links.

Best wishes for a happy 2010!

Whether you hunt or not, California gun owners and enthusiasts should get involved in this issue. The phony environmental assholes don’t want to save any freaking critters - they want to prohibit guns. Period. What really tweaks me is that hunters and sportsmen are probably better stewards of the environment than either CBD or the Sierra Club.

Via the NRA/ILA:

Hunting Threatened In Mojave National Preserve

The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), in concert with the Sierra Club and other anti-hunting organizations, has filed a petition with the California Fish and Game Commission to ban most hunting in the Mojave National Preserve, including rabbit and varmint hunting. What hunting remains (resident game birds, deer, and bighorn sheep) would be restricted. The “Petition for Rulemaking Regarding Hunting in the Mojave National Preserve” blames hunters for the declining population of the desert tortoise, a threatened species under the state’s Endangered Species Act. CBD filed a similar petition in 2003, but the Commission did not act on it. The Commission will likely consider the CBD’s petition next week and could schedule a hearing on it early next year.

The petition contains the flimsiest of evidence that hunting in the Preserve is the cause or even a contributing factor of the decline in the tortoise population. Contrarily, statistics confirm that vehicular traffic and increased tourism within the designated critical habitat of the tortoise have increased substantially since 1994 when the Preserve was established. Those activities are believed to be the leading causes of tortoise mortality. Further, there is sufficient research to suggest that predation by ravens and coyotes is also taking its toll on this protected species. The objective of the petition is not to protect and enhance the tortoise population; rather it is an attempt by this coalition of anti-hunting organizations to permanently ban hunting from the Mojave National Preserve. CBD was behind the ban imposed on the use of lead ammunition for hunting big game within the range of the California condor. Earlier this year, CBD attempted unsuccessfully to extend that ban to all game species.

Please take a few minutes to write a letter requesting that the Commission deny the petition and address and mail it to:

John Carlson, Jr., Executive Director

California Fish and Game Commission

1416 Ninth Street, Room 1320

Sacramento, CA 95814

fgc@fgc.ca.gov

Hunters are continually being harassed with restrictions on hunting and access to hunting areas for reasons not based on science. Please do not let CBD impose their pseudo science on those who hunt in the Mojave National Preserve.

Californians interested in stopping the thinly veiled attempts at gun grabbing, should either write a letter or email the link above.

NRO’s Mark Krikorian catches up on last week’s news:

Your Tired, Your Poor, et al

• America’s first case of “extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis” (XXDR TB) has surfaced — “a 19-year-old Peruvian visiting to study English.” A TB doctor warns against crimethink: “It’s not a foreign problem, you can’t keep these TB patients out.” Actually, this guy could very easily have been kept out. And this: “His treatment cost Florida taxpayers an estimated $500,000.” And finally: “The last time doctors saw him, he was walking out of the sanitarium into south Florida’s soupy heat.” Think he went home once his visa expired? Me neither.
• An illegal alien in Florida murdered a co-worker for speaking English instead of Spanish. An argument for 287(g) if there ever was one: “Escalante provided four different names to detectives before he was identified through fingerprints at the jail.”
• A “university” in California was selling student visas to enable people to come to the U.S. The school’s founder has been arrested but, for some reason, the “students” aren’t being prosecuted, though ICE assures us they’ll be deported. Yeah, and I’ll respect you in the morning.
• Under a new one-year pilot program, temporary workers leaving from two points in Arizona will now have to register their departure to make sure they don’t overstay and become illegal aliens. Oh, you thought they had to do that already? Ha ha ha ha!

The last Monday Night Football game for the regular NFL season is currently in progress. While watching football is a lot of fun for us, we recently discovered the pregame feature called “C’mon, Man.” Chris Berman and the guys run selected clips from the weekend games where punts are shanked, field goals are missed and a variety of other events that are worthy of exclaiming “C’mon, man” when you see the often funny on-and-off-field screw-ups.

The Better Half and I will watch the games (we watch the Red Zone HD channel) and try to guess which of the muffs or fumbles will get selected. Tonight’s selection by the ESPN crew included at least two of the candidates we thought they might select from yesterday’s games.

Even though this is the last MNF, ESPN’s Pro Bowl pregame show is supposed to feature the “C’mon, Man-of-the-year” The event is scheduled to take place in Dolphin Stadium on January 31, 2010 - the first time since 1980 that the game will NOT be played in Honolulu. C’MON, MAN!

Found on the internet while looking for something completely unrelated:

That’s a couple of budding, young rocket scientists, right there.

I got nothin’ today. Still recovering from a great Christmas. Here - read this . . .

Update: 15:31 - relaxing after Christmas dinner. As Holiday Cheermeister, it was my honor to carve the roast beast. All I can say to you vegan and vegetarians out there is, you poor bastards . . .

Clickable image.

We’ve been reading David Codrea’s Second Amendment New Year’s Resolutions over the past several days. Today’s update to the list is “buy a gun.” We fully intend to do that this year, but being on a fixed income in retirement, we have to carefully allocate our funds.

So, I sat down at the computer and used a spreadsheet to plan a budget for the coming year. I analyzed our income from the several sources available, our expenses for the recurrent necessities of life and the potential to allocate funds to recreational things such as vacations and firearms (purchasing guns and ammo plus target range fees). In order to visualize those things, I plotted some graphs of income allocation, basic recurring expenses, cash flow and surplus (if any) cash.

The good news is that we will likely have the cash to acquire a few of the little things in life that give us pleasure. We’re not exactly in the lap of luxury, but we’ll be OK. Until the Obamination cuts us off, that is.

Merry Christmas from the Better Half and Minstrel!