Obama and the Virus

Our Commander-in-Chief is waging a strange new kind of war, using soldiers to fight a virus (What with? Carbines?) in Liberia, while at the same time allowing people with the "enemy" virus into the country.

Thomas Sowell, writing in the National Review, makes the case for Obama being a traitor to his people and his country. Here's the introduction:

"The Ebola outbreak in West Africa is both a danger in itself and a wake-up call for Americans — about President Obama, about the institutions of this country, and, most important, about ourselves.

"There was a time when an outbreak of a deadly disease overseas would bring virtually unanimous agreement that our top priority should be to keep it overseas. Yet Barack Obama has refused to bar entry to the United States by people from countries where the Ebola epidemic rages, as Britain has done.

"The reason? Refusing to let people with Ebola enter the United States would conflict with the goal of fighting the disease. In other words, the safety of the American people takes second place to the goal of helping people overseas.

"As if to emphasize his priorities, President Obama has ordered thousands of American troops to go into Ebola-stricken Liberia, disregarding the dangers to those troops and to other Americans when the troops return.

"What does this say about Obama?"

Good question. You can read the whole thing here.

Cheers,

LSP

Zeroing in the Ruger American .17HMR

Don't get me wrong, I like open sights, especially the bright fiber optic front sight that comes with the Ruger American rimfire series. Still, I wanted to scope this beast up, on a budget, so I mounted a cheap but clear Hawke Optics 4x40 onto the ready-to-go grooves on top of the receiver.

By some strange quirk of providence, the act of mounting the scope seemed to count as boresighting too and the rifle wasn't too off from the get-go at 25 yards.

Using a tool box as a rest, for tip-top ultimate accuracy, I moved out to 50 yards and shot away at a silhouette until the little .17 HMR (Hornady, 17 grain) zingers were hitting pretty much where I wanted them to. Then I fell back to 100 yards and repeated the process. I used Chuck Hawks as a guide for zeroing at 145 yards. Here's what he has to say:

"A better way to zero a .17 HMR rifle is to put the 17 grain bullet 1.5" high at 100 yards, for a zero range of 145 yards. It would then hit about 0.9" high at 50 yards, 0.3" low at 150 yards, and 5.5" low at 200 yards. The maximum point blank range (+/- 1.5") of the cartridge would be about 165 yards, at which range the bullet retains about 90 ft. lbs.of energy, enough to remain effective on the smaller varmints."

I was impressed by the accuracy of the gun and the round and it obviously shot better than I do, but did it pass the Arizona Ice Tea test at 100 yards? Sure it did.

I enjoyed that so much that I think I'll have to do it all over again. Soon.

Shoot straight,

LSP

Joe Biden, Apocalyptic Visionary or Malfunctioning Android?

The Vice President of the United States of America and the second most powerful man on the planet is at it again.

Power

Speaking in Joplin, Missouri, Biden, affectionately known as "Ole Salt 'n Peppa," or "Teeth," reassured a local high school that the 161,000 people who died there in a freak tornado didn't die in vain.

Corrupts

Fact-checkers wasted no time. Joplin's tornado victims numbered 161, not the number mentioned by Teeth. Was Salt 'n Peppa in a visionary trance? Like some kind of 161k Rapture? Or were his AI circuits simply malfunctioning?

Absolutely

Apocalyptic harbinger of the Eschaton or a dud android?

You, the reader, be the judge,

LSP

Lepanto and Our Lady of Victory

Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Victory, commemorating the decisive defeat of the Muslim navy at Lepanto, on October 7, 1571.

A massive Turkish fleet under the command of Ali Pasha had set sail on the Mediterranean with the intent of invading Italy and conquering Rome. However, in a rare example of European Christian unity, a combined Catholic fleet was raised and placed under the command of Don John of Austria. This fleet met the Turks off Lepanto and routed them, in what some have described as the largest naval engagement to that point since Actium.

Here's an excerpt from Chesterton's Lepanto:

The North is full of tangled things and texts and aching eyes
And dead is all the innocence of anger and surprise,
And Christian killeth Christian in a narrow dusty room,
And Christian dreadeth Christ that hath a newer face of doom,
And Christian hateth Mary that God kissed in Galilee,
But Don John of Austria is riding to the sea.
Don John calling through the blast and the eclipse
Crying with the trumpet, with the trumpet of his lips
But Don John of Austria is riding to the sea,
Trumpet that sayeth ha!
Domino gloria!
Don John of Austria
Is shouting to the ships.

The Christian victory is ascribed to the excellence of the Spanish marines, Don John's leadership and the powerful intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Victory.

We've forgotten Lepanto today, mostly. I'd argue that things would be rather different if the Jihad had landed in Italy in 1571.

I will celebrate this victory.

LSP

ANew Day, A New Gun

I've been after a "hot rimfire" for a while. So after a well-deserved breakfast of Huevos Rancheros, I spun down to Gebo's "Great Service, Low Prices" (all true here) and got one. A Ruger American .17 HMR (Hornady Magnum Rimfire).

I know. I like wood and steel and this gun's black plastic and steel but the price was right, well under "retail," and the build seemed far superior to other rifles I checked out in the same caliber and price range. Solid and substantial, as opposed to tinny and flimsy. 

The Ruger American comes with a folding-leaf rear sight and a green fiber-optic Williams front sight, that sits on top of its match-crowned, free-floating 22"barrel. The receiver is drilled and tapped for bases and has two grooves machined into it for 1/8" rings. It also has a sturdy 9 round rotary magazine, 10/22-style; a pleasant change from the tinny, flimsy, offerings of competitors. Take note, Savage and Marlin. 

I won't go into this rifle's unique-to-Ruger bedding but suffice to say, it incorporates many of the features you'll find in the American's higher caliber iterations. A lot of quality put into the humble rimfire. And I almost forgot, it comes with an adjustable trigger. It weighs 6 lbs. The rifle, not the trigger.

But did it work? Sure it did, and then some, taking down a steel turkey time and again at 100 yards, with it's bright-as-you-like front sight, smoothly working bolt and crisp trigger. How heavy is the trigger, out of the box? I'd say appx. 4 Ilbs and that's adjustable up to 5 and down to 3. How's the finish? Just fine, what you'd expect from Ruger. But what about the black plastic? Deal with it, it's waterproof. How much does it cost? Stop whining and anyway, not much. Would you recommend it to your friends? I most definitely would.

Is this rifle a "game changer"? Some reviewers think so and that remains to be seen. In the meanwhile, I'd say a lot of quality for very little money.

Get a Ruger American 17 HMR, if you like. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

LSP

Sunday Shoot

Sunday evening seemed like a good time to drive out to a friend's ranch and shoot some dove, which is exactly what me and GWB tried to do.

We set up in a favorable treeline and waited for the birds to fly. We had high hopes, shotguns, a Mojo decoy and we'd seen plenty of dove while driving in.

An hour later it was getting near dark, a very beautiful twilight, to be sure, but no birds. So we fell back to the pickup, unloaded the guns and reached into the Yeti for a couple of cold ones. The lack of action was a disappointment but not by much, it was just good to get out in the field and enjoy that time when night is setting in over the fields.

Then, just as the first sip of the right stuff went down, two dove shot over. "Did you see that?" I asked GWB. "Unh hunh," he answered perceptively. Two more flew over, then a small wave, followed by a larger one and on and on. Just a lot of dove and well within range.

Kindly Old LSP

"I guess we know where to find the birds," I uttered with rare rhetorical insight. "Oh yeah," replied the parser of post-structuralist word games, "right above the beer concession."

I was tempted to do a quick reload and have at it but no, we had had our chance, and the birds had theirs.

God bless,

LSP

Mission Accomplished

Here in LSPland you wake up on a Saturday morning to the din of the chickens, say your prayers and wonder, "What next"? There's a few options, you can ride, shoot, fish, and all of these are good, but I didn't go down any of those routes. 

Karen's Was Established in 2006

No, I wanted bean and brisket burritos from Karen's Authentic Mexican Food, in Itasca.

So I climbed in the truck and went out and got those burritos. Were they good?

Oh yeah.

LSP

Why America's Not Ready For Ebola

Because nothing says 'safety precautions' like rolled-up sleeves on a HazMat suit...

Thanks, ZeroHedge, for that.

And while we're at it, how's our "boots on the ground" war on Ebola doing, as ISIS savages close in on Baghdad?

According to one military source, "The 5.56 caliber round is comparatively small. Ideally suited to engaging a small but deadly virus."

Stock food and water, buy ammo, learn to ride. If you haven't done these things already.

That's my advice and I'm sticking to it.

LSP

Virgin Annunciate

It's pretty fast-paced here in the Newsroom; sometimes we even have to chase articles down by texting. That's what I had to do with Red and the conversation went something like this:

"So where's my article?"

"Why don't you check your inbox."

"OK."

"And DON'T MESS with the content."

"At the risk of offending one of my ritures, maybe you should include God in this. How about that?"

"Sent... add to last para."

"Good. Now go back to shopping at Macy's and getting blind at the bar."

When he's not cranking off rounds in abandoned burn-outs in Detroit, Red's taken to writing art reviews. Here's the second half of his latest, on Fra Angelico's Virgin Annunciate, at the Detroit Institute of Art:

"So often in depictions of the Annunciation, Mary appears surprised or concerned, sometimes shocked, and often reverent. In this depiction she appears positively calm, and if we look closer there is much more. Eyes almost nearly closed, one might assume she is on the verge of quiet tears, contemplative and still, contemplative of so much in that one great moment of realization that she is stilled even of breath, immobile, hands, tilt of the head, posture, all indicting total surrender. A closer examination still and we realize she is flushed, deeply taken by the moment. Although the angel too has rose in his cheeks, it is mere complexion by comparison: Mary has made a great realization of the world, and in it her understanding is universal and she is in communion with it.

"What is our reward for the inspection of such beauty, beyond the basic pleasures of aesthetic appreciation, as fine as they are? We too are in a communion. The communion of an artistic ideal, an aesthetic vista, the universal notion that we are not alone even in those singular moments as a viewer, a viewer in this case observing someone receiving the most unusual news imaginable. That the artist can speak to us over the course of time is indicative. It conveys the notion that we are allowed communion with someone else’s understanding and insight, both aesthetic and spiritual. 

"This is empathy, empathic response at its most fleeting possibly, but possibly its most rewarding, freeing us for a moment from the often too lonely state that our individualistic nature forces upon us, letting us bask in a greater understanding, a greater corporate whole. Reminding us that, even as Mary in her acceptance is contrite, we too can take faith in a singular moment, that contrite moment of spiritual observance when we gaze on such things, one that reminds us that there is a world out there and that we’re in it, that time matters. A faith, of sorts, in something larger than ourselves. And if, all the while, with that empathy rising in us, we see Mary as perhaps in a state of some sort of heavenly ecstasy, perhaps we too are allowed a small glimmer of that ecstasy in ourselves. 

"Thematic tableaux occasionally call out to us for direct interpretation. This is, after all The Annunciation, and the scrutiny we apply to it might not always be formal but also contextual, heightening our response still. Mary’s ecstatic state may be indicative of the fact that she is aware of the very immediate and even intimate presence of God, not just surrounding us in the real world or in the Heavens but much closer. She knows that everything is about to change. 

"And what is a portrait but the capture of an instant? In this case, the instant that sits as a fulcrum between two great epochs, and one which brings her face to face with God’s intent. All the salvation, all the fear, the tremulous concern, the quiet shame and the heartfelt wonder at what we’ve beheld. 

"Through the magnificence of this artist’s work, and if only fleetingly, we’re brought there with her."

Thanks Red, nice work. I like that painting too.

LSP

Washed Away In The Flood

It doesn't rain much in Texas, but when it does, it does. I had to pull off the road tonight on the way to Mass.

Kursk

It was like the Battle of Kursk. But in the air.

Made it safely back to the Compound. They're out there, now, looting, but I don't care. I'm armed.

Armed To The Teeth And Then Some

Speaking of which, we've sent the Army to Africa to "fight Ebola." So what are they going to do? Shoot at it with M4s?

Smart people have been prepping in Dallas,

LSP

Timothy Leary Runs For Presiding Bishop!

As shocking in death as he was in life, '60's counter-culture icon, Timothy Leary, has told a stunned world that he will be making a bid for the sought-after position of Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church.

Pegasus Launched Leary

Leary announced his intention to run in the hotly contested race from space, where his cremated remains, or "cremains", orbit the planet every 90 minutes. This  makes the psychedelic psychiatrist a serious contender in the race to control the dwindling but rich off-world denomination.

Goof-Off

Widely seen as a dark horse, runner-up, Leary could well surprise the current slate  of candidates for the Episcopal Church's most important job.

Criminal

The bets are on.

LSP

He's Back

We thought it was over and heaved a long sigh of relief but no, Piers Morgan, known as the "most hated man in journalism," is back. And attacking his old buddy, "Barack."

Will the torture never stop?

LSP