Not much going on here.  This time of the year isn't all that good for me.  Working in the heat so much makes me very tired, and I spend most of my weekends just resting and recovering.  This post is just to create some activity on the blog.

I finally put up the gate today, using my dad's old brace & bit to drill holes for the hinge bolts so I wouldn't have to go and buy a drill bit of the right size just to make the holes.  I was surprised at how easy it was to drill holes manually, no power drill, but I wouldn't want to do it all day.

The newest batch of Bayou Night from Cornell & Diehl seems different.  Maybe he used a different kind of latakia, or maybe I've been sticking with non-latakia blends so much that I've become more sensitive to it.  It's still good, but the latakia seems much more prominent than usual.

I ripped a bunch of CDs today, and yet again went and looked up some lyrics for one of my favorite songs.

I try to get nearer,
But as it gets clearer
There's something appears in the way,
It's a plank in me eye,

With a camel
Who's trying to get through it,
Am I doing it?
Can I have it all now?

I pull out the plank and say
"Thank you for yanking me back
To the fact that there's
Always something to distract."

But sometimes it's hard
To know if I'm doing it right.
Can I have it all?
Can I have it all now?
We can't have it all.

Kate Bush is one of my favorite musicians, and this song has always haunted me since I first heard it.


I really like the newest incarnation of the Doctor.  I'm sure some of the old-school fans don't like the introduction of the sexual tension in the newest version, one-sided though it is.  But hey, he's been alone for 900 years so he deserves a little walk on the wild side.


I always thought he should have tried to make a move on Leela, but then maybe he decided it was too dangerous.  Yesterday my son was running around with some little toy of his, making "bzzzt bzzzt" noises.  I asked him what he was doing.  "It's my sonic screwdriver!"  Heh heh.  I've created a new Whovian.  Leela, pictured above, is actually blue-eyed.  They originally thought that she wouldn't look "savage" enough with blue eyes, so she had to wear brown contacts, like in the photo above.  They bothered her so much that they later wrote an excuse into the story to make her eyes change color, so she could quit wearing the contacts.

Today I whipped up a couple of new items for my languishing Cafe Press shop.  Both caps.  The link is in the left sidebar.

War On Guns is back in action.  David Codrea has escaped the PRK and is now in Ohio.

I've noticed a few new links on my referrals via StatCounter, and that I've even made it into a new blogroll or two.  So thank you to everyone who thinks this blog is worth reading, especially Syd of Front Sight, Press and his list of gun blogs.  Also a special thanks to Jared McLaughlin of Fire Like This for a little bit of an ego boost.

There has been a spate of alleged crypto-critter sightings in the area of Basra, Iraq.  The creature is supposed to attack people at night.  Cryptomundo covered it here, and later followed up here.  It's called "Garta," or "the muncher," and conspiracy theories are abounding through the area that U.S. or British troops have concocted this creature in their super-secret crypto-critter laboratories, only to release them around Iraq and cause general terror and mayhem.

(Cough).

However, the good people of Iraq can rest easy.  Major Mike Shearer (a U.K. military spokesman), has stated (with what must certainly be the quote of the week):

We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area.

Well. Isn't that a relief.

Second Amendment Foundation Press Release:

The founder of the Second Amendment Foundation today said he will supply Brady Campaign President Paul Helmke with documentation on the “text book case” from Missouri that helped convince that state’s legislature to pass a “Stand-Your-Ground” law to protect citizens from criminal or civil prosecution when they shoot in self-defense.

In a series of debates with SAF founder Alan Gottlieb last week, Helmke told MSNBC viewers that he has been unable to identify anybody who has ever been sued and suffered financially for shooting in self-defense.

“Helmke is sadly uninformed, and we’re going to educate him,” Gottlieb said. “The case of a Carroll County man who was charged in December 1992 for shooting a burglar and subsequently acquitted, but then was sued almost immediately in civil court for $250,000 by the burglar’s family, is exactly the kind of outrage this law, and similar statutes in other states, is designed to prevent.”

Helmke is not sadly uninformed, in my opinion. He is a liar.  This is just another of his lies.