Soldiers Christmas.

‘Twas the night before Christmas, he lived all alone,
In a one bedroom house made of plaster and stone.
I had come down the chimney with presents to give,
And to see just who in this dwelling did live.
I looked all around, a strange sight to see,
No tinsel, no presents, not even a tree.
No stockings on the mantle, just boots filled with sand,
On the wall hung pictures of far distant lands.
With medals and badges, awards of every kind,
A sobering thought came alive in my mind.
For this house was different; it was dark and dreary,
It was the home of a soldier, I could see that most clearly.
The soldier lay sleeping, silent, alone,
Curled up on the floor in this one bedroom home.
His face was so gentle, the room in such disorder,
Not at all how I pictured a United States Soldier.
Was this the hero of whom I’d just read?
Curled up on a poncho, the floor for a bed?
Then I realized the families that I saw this night,
Owed their lives to soldiers who were willing to fight.
In the morning ’round the world, children would play,
And grown-ups would celebrate a bright Christmas day.
But they all enjoyed freedom each month of the year,
Because of the soldiers, like the one lying here.
I couldn’t help but wonder how many lay alone,
On a cold Christmas Eve in lands far from home.
The very thought brought a tear to my eye,
I dropped to one knee and started to cry.
The soldier awakened and I heard a rough voice,
“Santa don’t cry, for this life is my choice”.
I fight for freedom, I don’t ask for more,
My life is my God, my country, my corps.”
The soldier rolled over and drifted to sleep,
But I couldn’t control it, I continued to weep.
I kept watch for hours, so silent and still,
As both of us shivered from the cold night’s chill.
I didn’t want to leave him, on that cold, dark night,
This guardian of honor, so willing to fight.
Then the soldier rolled over, with a voice soft and pure,
he whispered, “Carry on Santa … It’s Christmas Day … All is secure”.
One look at my watch, and I knew he was right,
Merry Christmas my friend … may God bless you this night.

  “Merry Christmas, My Friend” was written by a marine,
 Lance Corporal James M. Schmidt in 1986 

Merry Christmas my friends, God bless and have a happy new year.

Merry Christmas

Trans-Siberian Orchestra Christmas video.

Duck Dynasty, Maybe I'm Cynical

I like Phil Robinson of Duck Dynasty and support his right to free speech. I am sick and tired of the left wing bed wetters spouting any kind of garbage and getting a pass. With that in mind I wonder why A&E would suspend Phil from the show, A&E is a business and what trumps religious beliefs and gay rights and everything else is money. Bottom line is they will sacrifice anything for it, money is king to them. So I wonder if this is a fabricated event, I believe Phil is an upstanding man and would not support a plot like this but I wonder if A&E orchestrated the interview with GQ to lure him into saying this and then suspend him to create this uproar. A&E could not pay for this kind of publicity for the show, every news network is covering it and it is a major hot topic of the week. I wonder if in a few days A&E will apologize and reinstate him in the show. It doesn't make sense that A&E would purposely tick off  their viewers because considering that left wing, gay right groups and such don't even watch the show. On the other hand if Phil is brought back many new viewers will tune in to find out what all the hype is about. I don't know maybe I am cynical.

Slacking Off

I have really been taking a break lately. I try and read around the blogs every day or so but with family in town it has kept me busy. Someone did send me an idea for redneck spaghetti which I thought was cute and I would share it

Looks like something the kids would get a kick out of. Actually I don't see why you could not use a better grade of sausage also.


I think I need to get in a range day.

Black Friday Ammo Sale

One of the local gun stores has advertised a big  black Friday sale.
Included in the sales flier was this ad.

I guess ammo supplies are starting to come back a little.

Happy Thanksgiving

I am thankful today for family and freedom, hope everyone has a good day.

Say What ???

The other day it was cold and wet and I had put on a pot of coffee. I flipped on the TV and searched my normal channels and stumbled across a History Channel piece on the history of the KKK.
 Now I have never been a member of the KKK and don't plan to be however being from the South I had kind of a morbid curiosity and  I was interested to see what they said. They covered how the Klan was active in politics and backed many candidates especially during the 50's and early 60's and some of the politicians would join the Klan to get elected although they failed to mention they were all Democrats. As the program was winding down the commentator said the Klan today has lost most of it's members and is no longer as powerful as it once was and they have mostly discarded their white robes for more normal dress and they have morphed into the current Patriot Movement.......Say What ???, I couldn't believe they actually said that, but after that one brief statement they did not elaborate and moved on. Now if in fact they had proof of that they would have explored it but they did not so it was just thrown out.
Now I have long realized the news media is biased and slanted toward more liberal views but if you think there is not a concentrated effort to brand those of us who stand for liberty, freedom and the Constitution then either you are a closet liberal or don't have the common sense God gave a tree stump.  Who would have thought those of us who believe in our founding documents and principles would be branded as such, wake up America.

Friends, Firearms, Fun

This last Saturday some friends and myself met at the farm for a few hours of work and shooting therapy. I was eager to try out the new target I had received from Grizzly Targets.

I have never been a fan of paper targets, sure they have a purpose for sighting in and some competition but they lack real world feel.
Grizzly calls this new target the  AR500 Trifecta Reactive Target. From past experience this steel is tough and won't be destroyed by any normal hunting or hand gun round. We have shot it with almost everything short of a 50 BMG with very little sign of damage so under normal shooting it will last longer than your gun.


One of the things I liked about the 3 different target surfaces was it allows you to transition between aim points like you may encounter in real world shooting, like a follow up shots or multiple targets. The little stickers are more for display as they disintegrate after one shot but it would be fairly effective to spray paint the targets with high visibility paint for easier acquisition at a distance. 

We shot it with a verity of weapons including a great number of 22 rounds. The 22 LR won't make it totally retract down but it does move enough there is no doubt you had a solid hit. The 38 special and 44 special were a blast to practice with.
Another beauty of the target is it is easy to move around so it can be placed in close for hand gun practice or even out past a hundred yards for practice with a scoped rifle. 

Senior has his newest holster system to try out it involves a quick release so it can be reattached to another mounting point, ask him to explain it more if interested.





After a few hours of 'abuse' the target was noticeably used  but in no way damaged.

Interesting side note, I like to reload and I cast a lot of my own bullets like the 38 specials shown in the first picture, due to the nature of this target all the energy is taken from the bullet by the target and a great number of the lead bullets will lay at the base of the target which I just pick up and return to my lead smelting pot to reuse, I call it "Gunners Going Green" that should make the anti gun people and liberals feel all warm an fuzzy.

Supporting the Resistance.

With all the talk about health care and government wanting to control every aspect of our lives it is interesting that I received an email about "Supporting the Resistance" I decided to write my own idea of this.
First of all and make no mistake, money drives the greed machine we know as the government this is the exact reason they tax, add user fees, license and regulate every aspect of our lives so it makes sense to cut off any unnecessary funds from them so I have listed ways I plan to work this out.
Don't borrow money, the government collects fees on banks, credit card companies and in general large corporations pay big chunks of corporate tax so by cutting down on their business we cut down on government revenue.
Support local business. Large companies pay big tax bills and small companies not so much and some small shops will give a discount for cash.  When possible buy used items, this cuts down on import items as well and keeps money in the local economy so it goes without saying private sales are totally tax free and cut the government out of any share.  Bartering is another excellent way to not only cut off government funding but save a lot of money as well. Another little known fact, if you buy a car for example from a private individual you will pay tax on the price when you apply for the tag and title however if you barter or trade for the vehicle there is no tax, in our state for example when you apply for the title you simply put "trade" where the form asks for the price paid and the tax is zero, in fact I have never had it questioned it is none of their business what you trade. Craigslist has a whole section devoted to items for barter or trade.
Growing a garden is another good way to cut down on government funding and also gives you barter items not to mention the health benefits. Speaking of health we have decided not to participate in the health care exchanges, my wife is one who can't keep her plan, and we won't pay a penalty either (I won't give away that secret because I don't want to hurt this venue) you can do the research for yourself . I am sure you may have other ways to cut down on government funding if you do please share.
I am just a little voice in the wilderness but I will do my part to starve the beast and it goes without saying less money to the government means more in my pocket, how can you argue with that.

Have you ever,

had one of those weeks when you feel like you have been drug thought a hedge backwards and generally just feel like a waste?
 Not to mention Blogger keeps cutting me off.

Back Again

It seems I have been on the run for the last month or so, I just got back again after 3 more days away.
While I was traveling I heard about the shooting at LAX. Initial reports from those in the terminal said while they were running away from the shooting that TSA agents were passing them and yelling for them to keep running.
Doesn't that give you a warm fuzzy feeling about flying.

For what it's worth.....

I refrain from trying to cause trouble but at times I stumble into some interesting info that falls into the 'for what it's worth' category that I feel I have to share even if for no other reason than it's 'interesting' Many times certain areas of the country get categorized as hicks, hillbilly's, inbred, backwards, uneducated and so on, so in light of that what do you think is one difference between these two groups of states. The first group were blue states during the last election and the second group were red states during the last election. Now keep in mind the blue states listed here are generally considered enlightened and educated. Well believe it or not the all of the blue States in the first group allow first cousins to marry while it is prohibited in the list of red states. I know, useless information but just saying......you can't make this stuff up and I'm not making any assumptions but I did the research myself so check for yourself.  In case you think I'm picking on anyone I will tell you I live in one of the blue states. If you are like me I bet you are surprised by a few of these on either side.
Blue States 2012 Red States 2012 California Colorado Connecticut District of Columbia Florida Hawaii Maryland Massachusetts New Jersey New Mexico New York Rhode Island Vermont Arkansas Idaho Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska North Dakota Ohio South Dakota Texas West Virginia Wyoming

Typical

I finally arrived back home after a week in the mountains, I am glad the cool weather seems to be here.
True to fashion today is Halloween and Google chooses to honor it on their home page even though it is strictly an  American tradition. I guess I should be glad they are setting a precedent and I am sure they will also honor Thanksgiving and Christmas (both Christian holidays) in the same way.
Life is good.

Traveling

I will be traveling for a few days so I don't know how often I will be able to check in . I do enjoy getting around to all the blogs and reading even though I don't always comment it is interesting to see what everyone else is up to. Hopefully I will have more to post later.
Stay safe.

Punish the Hero

I saw this story this morning about  Kristopher Oswald a 30 year old man in Michigan who was fired from his job at Walmart after he assisted a woman who was being attacked in the parking
 lot. As the story goes he was taking his break in his car when he heard a woman screaming. He thought it might be people horsing around but he investigated anyway and when he tried to pull the attacker off the woman other assailants attacked him from behind and and he defended himself and the woman. For his efforts he was fired for violation of company policy.
 Kristopher Oswald said he was trying to do the right thing and the last thing he thought would happen is that he would be fired.
 What is totally disgusting is Walmart is more concerned about the rights and welfare of thugs and attackers than their shoppers and employees, if this was not the case he would have been named employee of the month, promoted or given a bonus however this sends a clear message to the dregs of society that Walmart is a place ripe for picking. It also illustrates how sick, twisted and perverted our society has become, this would not have happened 50 years ago but we are so much better now, so more enlightened so more caring, nothing is anybody's fault anymore the law-breakers are the real victims and if we try and prevent their evil deeds we are trying to shove our moral values onto them.
Kristopher says he doesn't know what to put on an employee application now, how will he explain the reason behind his firing. Well if I could give him advice I would say use it to your advantage, you now have press coverage and there are employers who are eager to find someone like you who has a backbone and courage, you might just discover this is the best boost you could get in your job search.