The Wandering Minstrel

Occasionally, we pass by Tip’s Cadillac in Torrance CA. Tip’s does restoration and sales of used cars, Cadillacs in particular, but most other GM cars too. Today, this clean 1954 Chevrolet Bel Air hardtop coupe was in the lot. It’s a little too customized for my taste (I like original equipment) but it sure was clean and purdy. The Better Half took this (clickable) image today.

The IWB holster came in the mail today for “Little Boy,” my Glock 26 9mm pistol. I have a matching holster for “Fat Man,” with the exception of leather color.

Clickable image - Little Boy in the new Don Hume H715-M leather holster for Glock 26

I originally ordered both in saddle brown but Don Hume Customer Service advised they would be back ordered and would take 4-6 weeks to get here. Customer service also advised that they had black leather in stock for only the Glock 30. I changed the order to black so I could get delivery in time for the next excursion to our new town in Arizona. It arrived in plenty of time to get the holster broken in and ready for the trip early this month.

Now that the holster for Little Boy is here, I have plenty of time to get the leather and spring clip broken in and can consider using either the Glock 26 or the Glock 30 on the next trip. Or both.

We’re going to have to get a safe for the new house. Since we’re going to have guns in both houses we can’t simply move the one we have in California. When we eventually sell the old house, the safe which is built into a closet will stay as a selling feature.

Clickable image - Bighorn 26 gun fire safe

I got an ad in the mail today that listed one of these Bighorn Safes. The price and features seemed reasonable, so I went on-line to have a look.

According to GunSafes.com:

Features:

* 480 lbs.
* 4 sided door bolt protection
* UL® Residential Security Container
* Color: Durable baked on powder coat semi-gloss copper vein
* Commercial grade UL Listed electric lock
* Deluxe 5 spoke vault style handle
* Oversized hinges with decorative hinge caps
* Easy to remove shipping feet (no troublesome wood pallet)

Security Features:

* Heavy bodied construction – 480 lbs.
* 1.5” thick door
* UL Listed electronic lock
* 3 layer armored hard plate to protect the lock
* Spring loaded re-locker keeps safe secure if lock is tampered with or removed
* 10 total locking door bolts, 1.25″ diameter, 3 sides active, 1 side dead bolt

Fire Protection:

* 30 minute/1200 degree fire rating
* Expandable door seal – helps keep out smoke and heat
* Fully lined, no uncovered hot spot areas like internal hinge designs

Interior:

* Thick, quality automotive grade upholstery
* Holds up to 26 long guns
* Adjustable shelving
* Predrilled for anchoring to the floor
* Predrilled for dehumidifier
* External hinge door, fully opening provides greater access than internal hinged designs

This is an archive video from one year ago. It shows a nearly sawed-off silhouette target at seven yards out on the trolley. I had five rounds loaded in the Remington 870 security shotgun.

It only took four rounds to administer the coup de grâce to the remaining lower section of the target; I aimed the fifth round to hit the silhouette on the chin, which it did.

That was a year ago, tomorrow. We’re badly out of practice, having not gone to the range since June. We let our membership expire in California and have not yet joined the Sportsman’s Club in Wickenburg. After we finish building and furnishing the new house, we will pay our dues and revert to our once a week session at the new range.

This is the seventh of a series of ten articles intended to dispel misinformation generated by illegal aliens and open-borders liberals about SB 1070, the new immigration law in Arizona. The open borders crowd and the mainstream media also seem to believe these myths.

MYTH: S.B. 1070 uses German Nazi and Russian Communist techniques that compelled people to turn each other in.

FACT: S.B. 1070 does not have any provision requiring or allowing people to inform on another person’s immigration status and turn them in to the police. Such a report would not qualify as “reasonable suspicion” for law enforcement to determine a person’s immigration status. As acknowledged by the Los Angeles Times (April 20, 2010), this claim is unfounded because S.B. 1070 “would not require people to report suspected illegal immigrants to authorities.”

When the left wants to demonize law-abiding people for anything they disagree with, they invariably drag out the “goose-stepping moron” card and put it into play. When they have no reasonable argument, they resort to ad hominem attacks.

I posted about the Friends of the NRA banquet last Saturday Night. There was a photo in that post of one of the NRA vehicles that had a sign on the tailgate with the words seen here.

Having finished the chores early today, I decided to animate the sign I saw last week. I threw this Flash™ animation together as a rough draft to the sidebar project. I’m still brainstorming the effects I would like to use. In its final state, the widget will be about half the size seen here, will have the text placement and alignment cleaned up, and will probably have some different animation effects.

This Flash™ animation, like all animations on this site, is displayed using an HTML embedded in JavaScript embedded in PHP technique. This is necessary to circumvent a weirdness in Internet Explorer which “protects” you from my animations by asking your permission to view them (Friggin’ Microsoft Nannyware).

The graphic below came from the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s 2009 Crime Statistics. It all looks encouraging but keep in mind this is the National average.

I wouldn’t count on these trends to be evident in places like Chicago and Detroit and other gun-grabbing communities. The trends otherwise show good correlation to the gun and ammunition sales boom since November of 2008. The Obamination and the Democrats would like to take credit for the stats below, but we know what’s responsible: More Guns, Less Crime.

In July, we posted about this billboard along the side of US 60 in Wickenburg, AZ. The Wickenburg Ford dealer who sponsored the sign says that his political statement has resulted in generating more business for his dealership.

We have discussed replacing our SUV with a Ford or Lincoln from this dealership which is walking distance from our new house.

Clickable image courtesy of The Better Half

The Wickenburg Sun carried an article about the sign and its effects in today’s edition:

It wasn’t intended to generate business, but Jones Ford owner and general manager Brian Jones has been surprised by the responses his dealership has received from the quasi-political statement on a billboard clearly visible at the southeast end of town.

“We have received lots of calls thanking us for the billboard,” Jones noted. “One man who was driving through Wickenburg from Phoenix called to tell us that he really liked the billboard; that he will only buy Fords in the future; and that he plans to only buy them from us.”

The billboard and the property on which it stands, located adjacent to Big O Tires and across the highway from Bromm Auto Group, is owned by the Jones family. On the south side of the sign (visible to traffic coming into town from the Phoenix area), it simply states: “Dear Ford, Thank You For Not Taking The Bailout!”