SUDS Training

Texas is mostly about cavalry, but that doesn't mean we're afraid to get our feet wet, especially at the SUDS (Soapy Underwater Distraction Squad) course in Glen Rose.

Land Nav

Recruits go through a grueling selection process consisting of swimming, navigation and rock climbing on the Paluxy river.

Climbing

They can wash out at any time, or they can push through and complete the course. That choice is up to them, they have to want to do it. It's not easy, especially with the lure of fossilized human footprints reflecting the light of creation. 

Learning to Swim

Don't be surprised if SUDS candidates fall asleep, exhausted, on the transport back to base. After all, they've earned it.

EndEx

So check out the Dinosaur State Park at Glen Rose. Big fun.

Cheers,

LSP

Girls Love Glocks

I took the Glock out for a quick spin at the range today, along with a Beretta PX4 Storm. Which gun shot better?

Pistols

Good question. My best shots were with the Beretta, but the best groups were with the Glock, and it seemed to me that the workmanlike Austrian performed better when firing multiple shots at speed. Less recoil means more control and greater accuracy? Maybe, and on balance, I'd say the Glock 21 does shoot more easily than the PX4. It also has 13 rounds in its magazine, as opposed to 9 or 10, so perhaps it's a good thing that the pistol appears to lend itself to shooting fast.

So what's the verdict?

It's early days yet and I'm getting used to the Glock, but right away I can tell it's a superior gun. It's simple, fast shooting and all business.

Girls Love, Love Glocks

Is it tactical? Yes. Do women like them? Of course, they love, love them. Are they accurate? Don't be ridiculous, of course they are, X Ring accurate and then some. How much do they cost? Not too much, about the price of a a couple of weekends in Dallas, or a Saturday in London.

All Business

So, go out and get a Glock 21. It's a great gun at a good price. You can read the specs online, somewhere.

Shoot straight,

LSP

Go Out And Get A Glock

Long story short. I stopped sitting on the fence like some kind of pathetic CofE agnostic, and bought a Glock, a Glock 21 Gen 4. Why? Because it just seemed right. 

Well Done, Chaps.

Waco's helpful, friendly, enjoyable, and "don't talk down to customers" Fun Guns provided the weapon at a better price than the big box stores, like Cabela's. Thanks, Fun Guns, always a pleasure to do business.

Panzers Roll! On the Moon

The pistol comes in a neat, Liebstandarte on the Moon, plastic box, advertising the brand, Glock. You open it up, like it's Christmas, and sure enough, there's a Glock with three thirteen round magazines, several alternate backstraps, a cleaning brush, and a lock. Just as advertised. There's a manual, too, and lots of gun safety flyers. Well done Glock, every gun is a loaded gun.

It's All In The Box

Out of the box, the pistol fits the hand like, well, like a Glock. But listen up, a Gen 4 Glock, which seems to have better ergonomics, at least for me, than previous iterations. Unsurprisingly, the gun strips down easily enough, a right miracle of Austrian engineering simplicity, and has an enormous recoil spring.

Enormous Great Austrian Spring

Apparently there's mixed opinions about this, but Hickock45 doesn't think it's an issue and I'd imagine it makes for easier shooting.

Anschluss

We'll find out tomorrow, when the pistol gets range tested against the PX4 Storm. Same caliber, different pistols. Who will win, Austria, or Italy? Maybe, in the end, Texas will win, but that's a given. Obviously.

Shoot straight,

LSP

Whatever, Hippy. Gun Rights.

A few years ago I told an English friend that I enjoyed shooting and supported the 2nd Amendment, unlike, say, the repellent Piers Morgan. My pal looked at me like I was a crazed snake-handling fascist redneck, who had gone native in a bad way.

Hated NWO Shill

"That's so backward," sneered my buddy as he sipped green tea out of a biodegradable cup, made out of re-purposed, sustainable  hemp mash. "Whatever, hippy," I replied, toying with a razor sharp kukri, "I'd rather be judged by 12 than carried by 6, and while we're at it, what're you going to do when ISIS shuts down the Tower Hamlets Trans Theater Collective? Go whining to the Sharia Police? Yeah, good idea."

This Store Didn't Get Looted

But seriously, why do you think people are arming up and stockpiling ammo? Why are people looking at off-grid solutions, and laying in food? 

This Store Did

Because cities like Detroit, St. Louis, Chicago, New York, and Baltimore, to name just a few, aren't a few steps away from breakdown? Or because a financial system based on infinite debt and accordingly infinite growth, is somehow viable? Or maybe you feel safe in a society that has lost its ethical moorings to such an extent that it actively funds an organization that sells baby parts.

Crazed Looter

In the meanwhile, the FBI has seized Hillary's private server. Maybe she'll go down, like the video producer she framed. Maybe, and maybe the IRS will get disbanded. Don't hold your breath.

Gun rights,

LSP

#Blacklivesmatter

Presented without comment.

LSP

CHL Texas

It took a couple of months to process, but my CHL came through the other day. This has encouraged me to get another pistol, a Gen 4 Glock 21.

Austin

One security systems consultant commented, "Texans should be afraid, very afraid." Well, maybe, but only in Austin, and they're mostly not Texans anyway.

A Glock 21

What is it they say? "The right to self-defense and to the means of defending oneself is a basic natural right that grows out of the right to life."

Gun Rights,

LSP

Get Out And Shoot

Some people think that Texas is quite hot in August and perhaps it is, but that doesn't mean you can't go out and shoot, which is what we did.

There was skeet.

And more skeet.

And then some more.

Until the shotgun needed some surgery. Gun fixed, we shot some more of the clay opposition, then turned to the ARs and blasted away.

Green terrs down, the shoot concluded with a bit of pistol action, and that was fun too.

So don't be a pathetic lib, get out and shoot, even if it is 150 degrees in the shade.

Congrats to the kids, they shot like champs.

Gun rights,

LSP

Ride On

I took the Team out for a ride near Waco, where the Colonel has a squadron of Arabians. They were a little tricky to catch at first but came around soon enough to the lure of feed in a bucket.

It was good to be back in the saddle again and the kids had a fine time galloping about. I took the youngest on a short trail ride through some woods on the acreage, where we saw a snake eat a mouse.

In the meanwhile, the eldest charged about and managed to jump over a pile of brush. Stay on the horse, I thought, and sure enough he did.

After a couple of hours we took the horses back to the barn and hosed them down. They liked that, and no wonder, it was pushing 109 degrees. 

Great fun and big thanks to Mr. and Mrs. E. I've resolved to ride more often, good for mind, body and spirit.

Your Beacon of Tolerance,

LSP

Thank Christ For The Bomb

70 years ago today we unleashed nuclear heck on Japan, after that the Rising Sun didn't look so bright.

Call me an eccentric man, but maybe it's a good thing we got there first, as opposed to the Fuhrer, or Stalin, or the Emperor himself.

Some compare Texas in August to an oven. For goodness sake, it's only heat.

Riding tomorrow.

LSP

Camille Paglia Rips Liberal Media and Celebrity Atheists

Have you noticed the liberal media's virtual blackout on the Planned Parenthood baby parts scandal? Sure you have, and so has the notoriously pro-choice, atheist lesbian, Camille Paglia. Here she is:

Now let me give you a recent example of the persisting insularity of liberal thought in the media. When the first secret Planned Parenthood video was released in mid-July, anyone who looks only at liberal media was kept totally in the dark about it, even after the second video was released. But the videos were being run nonstop all over conservative talk shows on radio and television. It was a huge and disturbing story, but there was total silence in the liberal media. That kind of censorship was shockingly unprofessional. The liberal major media were trying to bury the story by ignoring it. Now I am a former member of Planned Parenthood and a strong supporter of unconstrained reproductive rights. But I was horrified and disgusted by those videos and immediately felt there were serious breaches of medical ethics in the conduct of Planned Parenthood officials. But here's my point: it is everyone's obligation, whatever your political views, to look at both liberal and conservative news sources every single day. You need a full range of viewpoints to understand what is going on in the world.

Paglia's no less scathing about celebrity atheists, like Richard Dawkins:

I regard them as adolescents. I say in the introduction to my last book, "Glittering Images", that "Sneering at religion is juvenile, symptomatic of a stunted imagination." It exposes a state of perpetual adolescence that has something to do with their parents-- they're still sneering at dad in some way. ... I'm speaking here as an atheist. I don't believe there is a God, but I respect every religion deeply. All the great world religions contain a complex system of beliefs regarding the nature of the universe and human life that is far more profound than anything that liberalism has produced. We have a whole generation of young people who are clinging to politics and to politicized visions of sexuality for their belief system. They see nothing but politics, but politics is tiny. Politics applies only to society.There is a huge metaphysical realm out there that involves the eternal principles of life and death. The great tragic texts, including the plays of Aeschylus and Sophocles, no longer have the central status they once had in education, because we have steadily moved away from the heritage of western civilization.

"It exposes a state of perpetual adolescence." You know, like, let's stick it to the Man! 

Well said, Camille.

LSP

Hillary and Huma

Hillary Clinton wants to be President. Good luck, America.

She also wants Huma, as her "Body Woman."

They have secret servers and private emails.

But you can't blame Huma.

She's with the revolting Weiner. Remember him?

Maybe he never existed, just like Benghazi.

Your pal,

LSP

Is This the Church of England?

Look, I'm not saying that this plucky little purple plush unicorn is for sure the Church of England, it might be the Diocese of Southwark, or the Bishop of Gloucester. Perhaps it's the diminutive ACoC (Anglican Church of Canada), or even the cash rich but numbers starved Episcopal Church itself. Maybe it's the Anglican Communion Office. Who knows.

You, the reader, be the judge.

LSP

Pool Monkey

Sometimes it makes sense to go to the Verandah Club pool and relax. You can swim up to the bar and order food.

I understand their Lion Burgers are especially good. Two, please. 

In other news, some safaris are offering discounts on life-size monkey trophies. Some people think they'd make good money safes.

"So where's the money?" 

"In the monkey."

Cheers, 

LSP

Kulture

I took a break from ordering lion brisket burritos and went to the Meadows Museum, in Dallas. The Infanta Margarita featured largely. Beautiful.

The recruits thought some  Picasso sketches highly amusing. "Do you think he was drunk?" they asked. "I should imagine he was," I replied.

Note the Chains.

There's an outdoor sculpture exhibition at the Meadows, which reminds me of a young man who took apart a piece of metal in Hackney, thinking it was scrap, and then sold the pieces; a blowtorch was involved. Saying that, I like the wavy bronze installation in front of the place. Neat.

Rock On

At the end of the day we relaxed on the porch and watched the sprinkler, pretending it was raining. And that was just fine.

Is it Raining?!?

If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill it.

LSP