Some Long Overdue Blogroll Maintenance

Okay, its been.. I dunno a couple of months since I went through the old blogroll..

Additions:
http://smokeonthewater.typepad.com (Jim is a good guy, and a good writer, I've jsut been reading him off of Kims site for the last two years ... plus he lives on a boat, which is cool, if cramped)
http://www.sgtpundit.blogspot.com (Another one of the good guys)
http://aarons.cc (I kept reading him off others blogrolls)
http://www.coldfury.com (same)
http://lt-smash.us (the indepundit, same thing)
http://triggerfinger.org (Yeah them too)
http://rivrdog.typepad.com (a fine ranter indeed)

Removals:

http://averytooley.com/stereo/ (he pretty much stopped posting, which is too bad)
http://moxie.nu/blog.php (again, she stopped posting)
http://revealedtruth.blogspot.com (yet another who stopped posting)
http://www.blueeyedinfidel.com/ (starting to be a broken record here)
http://www.nataliesolent.blogspot.com/ (still posting, but just "I'm Alive" posts)
http://timblair.net/ (stopped posting anything except Aussie politics and making fun of liberal newspapers)

I know I meant to add more, because of some of the great stuff I've read the past few days, but I jsut plain forgot the rest. Time to look through logs...

Israelis have guts

Apparently pig guts...

Laughing my ass off over here.


Swine: Secret Weapon Against Islamic Terror?
01:00 Feb 13, '04 / 21 Shevat 5764

A suggestion that has been made repeatedly since the start of the Oslo War is about to be adopted by Israel’s police force. According to a report by Maariv, the plan calls for the insertion of bags of pig fat in public buses and other central locations in the hope that it will deter Islamic terrorist suicide bombers aiming for martyrdom from detonating themselves there.

The suggestion is based on the fact that Islam regards the pig as an unclean animal and Muslim law bars any Moslem who touches a pig before dying access to heaven. One of the basic motives for Islamic suicide terrorists is the assurance that as a ‘shahid’ or martyr, their place in paradise is guaranteed as they die in ‘holy martyrdom’ for the sake of Islam.

...

Abdel Malek Dahamshe said, "The ethical inferiority and lowliness that the settlers have reached is intolerable. This is an act of first-degree desecration of God's name." MK Tzvi Hendel responded, "If these primitive murderers stuff their brains with nonsense about Paradise and who-knows-how-many virgins waiting only for them, then they certainly believe in the other nonsense that being buried with pigskin blocks their way to Paradise."

To all those who deride me for my pig fat statement, apparently the Israelis are taking it seriously.

Now I'm not a big fan of Israel politically, because Israel is a poor ally and a poorer friend (they actively run intelligence and paramilitary operations against the US, and have been doing so since 1949). Israelis on the other hand... I love them. They live under CONSTANT THREAT OF ANNIHILATION, and they respond with nothing but balls.

You should visit Haifa, or Tel Aviv some day, and see just how alive those cities are.

Any other place in the world under such threat, the people keep their heads down, and they move quickly from building to building, they cringe at loud noises... I've seen it, and it's ... the word tragic is so overused, and so cheapened by such that I hesitate to use it, but it is appropriate here.

Israel is a different kind of place entirely. People party, and have fun, and enjoy life; while almost every day they read of, and often see horrific violence. They live their lives, not as if there were no threat, because everyone in Israel is VERY alert, but as if that threat didn't matter. They don't let the terrorists stop them from living their lives.

Every day you see beautiful girls in street clothes, some dressed up to go to the clubs; carrying M16 variants and SMGs (it's still mostly UZIs, or at least it was 4 years ago the last time I visited). Some may find that jarring, but to me it's reassuring; it says something about the human spirit.

If you ever have any doubt as to Isreali resolve, I have one word for you: Masada

These people will not be defeated. They may in the end be destroyed, but they will never be defeated.

H/T: Aarons rantblog

And the nominees for best supporting justice are....

John Roberts Jr. ???

Okay, he wasnt on anyones list, and hes never made a ruling in a case I've followed, so I really dont know who he is... and thats the problem.

Of course I wouldn't expect that I would know a lot of federal judges names, and the ones I do it's usually because they are asshats of the first order, but I was really hoping Bush would use this nomination to get a hard fight going.

Basically he hasnt ruled on any cases I was following, or considered important.. or at least if hen has I didnt remember it.

Fellow infidel JohnOC says "Well look at it this way, if you haven't heard of him, it means that he's not one of the ones that Dems have gone out of their way to smear"... which is a good and a bad thing really...

Look I dont really like Bush all that much, but he's a hell of a lot better than anything the dems have had on offer since... ummmm.... I'm thinking real hard here...

My biggest wish for this term, outisde of the GWOT; was that Bush would get to pick two, maybe three supremes (I figured Rhenquist and Kennedy at least. O'Connor wasnt a surprise, but I wasnt sure, The rumors about Ginsberg were completely unexpected to me, I thought she'd wait for a liberal president.), and a hell of a lot of federal judges in general; to maybe take back our constitution somewhat from the lawyers.

Well, it looks like we've got the stupid party backing down all over the place. They hold all the cards, and they dont want to use them for some reason. I dont know what it is... maybe some party hacks are holding them hostage for something...

I want my country back. I want to see 90% of the judicial legacy of the 60's and 70s (everything but straight up civil rights stuff basically) wiped off the map; and we arent going to do it by picking judges that don't piss liberals off..

Honestly, why arent the republicans using this as an opportunity to make the dems look like screaming loonies? That way when it comes time to replace Rhenquist, the Dems have lost all their good face, and political capital fighting the nobody...

Personally, I would have put up someone incredibly qualified, and demographically correct, but who the democrats would be absolutely guarnateed to Bork. There is nothing that could have made them look worse, thus clearing the way for whoever Bush wants for the chief slot... (personal wish, promote Scalia, and replace him with someone even more constructionist).

Okay Sgt. Pundit said it perfectly right here:

"I'm more than a little uneasy about this choice, and besides, I wanted to see Bill Frist and Harry Reid slugging it out on the Senate floor for my own personal amusement. Alas, Roberts will likely be confirmed with only minor opposition, and there lies the problem, if the Dems don't absolutely seeth at the prospect of the President's nominee being confirmed, then chances are the nominee is not the right judge for the job."

Exactly...

The false narrative

Have I mentioned that Victor Davis Hanson is a frikken genius, and that I read his stuff pretty much every chance I get... NO, well he is, and this is yet another example of why:

Our Wars Over the War

...Why does this false narrative, then, persist — other than that it had a certain political utility in the 2002 and 2004 elections?

In a word, this version of events brings spiritual calm for millions of troubled though affluent and blessed Westerners. There are three sacraments to their postmodern thinking, besides the primordial fear that so often leads to appeasement.

Our first hindrance is moral equivalence. For the hard Left there is no absolute right and wrong since amorality is defined arbitrarily and only by those in power.

Taking back Fallujah from beheaders and terrorists is no different from bombing the London subway since civilians may die in either case. The deliberate rather than accidental targeting of noncombatants makes little difference, especially since the underdog in Fallujah is not to be judged by the same standard as the overdogs in London and New York. A half-dozen roughed up prisoners in Guantanamo are the same as the Nazi death camps or the Gulag.

Our second shackle is utopian pacifism — ‘war never solved anything’ and ‘violence only begets violence.’ Thus it makes no sense to resort to violence, since reason and conflict resolution can convince even a bin Laden to come to the table. That most evil has ended tragically and most good has resumed through armed struggle — whether in Germany, Japan, and Italy or Panama, Belgrade, and Kabul — is irrelevant. Apparently on some past day, sophisticated Westerners, in their infinite wisdom and morality, transcended age-old human nature, and as a reward were given a pass from the smelly, dirty old world of the past six millennia.

The third restraint is multiculturalism, or the idea that all social practices are of equal merit. Who are we to generalize that the regimes and fundamentalist sects of the Middle East result in economic backwardness, intolerance of religious and ethnic minorities, gender apartheid, racism, homophobia, and patriarchy? Being different from the West is never being worse.

These tenets in various forms are not merely found in the womb of the universities, but filter down into our popular culture, grade schools, and national political discourse — and make it hard to fight a war against stealthy enemies who proclaim constant and shifting grievances. If at times these doctrines are proven bankrupt by the evidence it matters little, because such beliefs are near religious in nature — a secular creed that will brook no empirical challenge.

These articles of faith apparently fill a deep psychological need for millions of Westerners, guilty over their privilege, free to do anything without constraints or repercussions, and convinced that their own culture has made them spectacularly rich and leisured only at the expense of others.

So it is not true to say that Western civilization is at war against Dark Age Islamism. Properly speaking, only about half of the West is involved, the shrinking segment that still sees human nature as unchanging and history as therefore replete with a rich heritage of tragic lessons.

I havent read sluggy in years

But this one seems to fit some of what we've been talking about lately (H/T Toad):

Bedisde Manner

Well, I'll be snug in bed, with these by my bedside:

That's just what's in reach; there's other fun stuff around the house. Remember, it's not whether you're paranoid, it's whether you're paranoid enough.

Funny enough, other than moving the AR from my office to the bedside, and having more than one reload for everything, thats pretty much my normal bedroom accompaniment so to speak.

Oh, and yes, it's real, it's live, and some of you will recognize exactly what type it is.

Repost - Faimly history, and a plan of action

Theres a song thats important in my familys history. It's a song about fighting against usurpers, and invaders, and those who would take what is yours and kill your families. I posted it a few weeks ago, now I feel like posting it again:

Follow Me Up To Carlow (Fast Irish March)

Lift MacCahir Og your face
Brooding o'er the old disgrace
That black FitzWilliam stormed your place,
Drove you to the Fern
Grey said victory was sure
Soon the firebrand he'd secure;
Until he met at Glenmalure
With Feagh MacHugh O'Byrne.

Curse and swear Lord Kildare,
Feagh will do what Feagh will dare
Now FitzWilliam, have a care
Fallen is your star, low.
Up with halberd out with sword
On we'll go for by the lord
Feagh MacHugh has given the word,
Follow me up to Carlow.

From Tassagart to Clonmore,
There flows a stream of Saxon gore
Oh, great is Rory Oge O'More,
At sending loons to Hades.
White is sick and Lane is fled,
Now for black FitzWilliam's head
We'll send it over, dripping red,
To Liza and her ladies.

Curse and swear Lord Kildare,
Feagh will do what Feagh will dare
Now FitzWilliam, have a care
Fallen is your star, low.
Up with halberd out with sword
On we'll go for by the lord
Feagh MacHugh has given the word,
Follow me up to Carlow.

See the swords of Glen Imayle,
Flashing o'er the English pale
See all the children of the Gael,
Beneath O'Byrne's banners
Rooster of the fighting stock,
Would you let a Saxon cock
Crow out upon an Irish rock,
Fly up and teach him manners.

Curse and swear Lord Kildare,
Feagh will do what Feagh will dare
Now FitzWilliam, have a care
Fallen is your star, low.
Up with halberd out with sword
On we'll go for by the lord
Feagh MacHugh has given the word,
Feagh MacHugh has given the word,
Feagh MacHugh has given the word,
Follow me up to Carlow!

I dunno about you, but this sounds like a pretty good plan of action to me:

March of Cambreath

[chorus]
Axes flash, broad sword swing
Shining armors piercing ring
Horses run with a polished shield
Fight those bastards 'til they yield

[chorus 2]
Midnight mare and blood red roan
Fight to keep this land your own
Sound the horn and call the cry
How many of them can we make die?

Follow orders as you're told
Make their yellow blood run cold
Fight until you die or drop
A force like ours is hard to stop

Close your mind to stress and pain
Fight 'til you're no longer sane
Let not one damn cur pass by
How many of them can we make die?

Guard your women, children well
Send these bastards back to hell
We'll teach them the ways of war
And they won't come here anymore

Use your shield and use your head
Fight 'til everyone is dead
Raise the flag up to the sky
How many of them can we make die?

[bridge]

Dawn has broke the time has come
Move your feet to the marching drum
We'll win the war and pay the toll
We'll fight as one in heart and soul

[chorus 2]

[chorus]

[chorus 2]

How many of them can we make die?
How many of them can we make die?

Thats the "March of Cambreath" from Heather Alexander, and is another fast Irish march like "Follow Me Up to Carlow".

How many of them can we make die... That's an interesting question isn't it? It's the question asked by a man in a last stand, against the hordes; fighting for everything he holds dear. He knows he's going to die, HE'S JUST GONNA TAKE EVERY LAST MOTHERFUCKER WITH HIM.

Sometimes there are fights you can't win; That doesn't mean you don't have to fight them. That doesn't mean you dont have to die in the process. Sometimes you have to go out, there's nothing that says you have to come back.

The question remains:

HOW MANY OF THEM CAN WE MAKE DIE!

And yea though I walk through the valley in the shadow of death
I shall fear no evil
For I am the meanest motherfucker in the valley

Oh and who would the action plan be used ag'in? Well, let's just use your imagination then shall we; I'm sure you can come up with a worthy answer.

Well now, arent these interesting

Found in my logs:

My home page http://www.chrisbyrne.com in arabic

My blog http://anarchangel.blogspot.com in arabic

Let me just reprint what I said below about those who would harm me and mine.. in arabic

ضرّر إلى أيّ [وهو] ي أو منجم لغم

يلفّ أنا يتلقّى فقط كلّي رصاصات في خنزير دهن. أنا أذهب أن يبدأ [كرينغ] حول قطعات من خنزير لحمة مع ي ؛ وسيدفعهم أنا داخل أجراحك ، بعد ذلك [فورس فيد] هم إلى أنت. بعد ذلك سيقطع أنا ك ديك وكرات باتّجاه آخر وسيدفعهم نزولا إلى حلقك.

أنا بثقل سلّحت دائما ، قد [بووب-تربّد] أنا سيارتي ومنزلي ، وأنا أنتظر ل أنت. إن أنت تأتي بعد ي أو يلغم ، سيموت أنت ، وأنا سأجعل يلعن يوقن أنت لن يرى جنة لكلّ أبديّ أنت [موثرفوكرس] شرّيرة إن أنت تحاول أن يتمّ أيّ شيء إلى ي ، إلى صديقاتي ، إلى أيّ شخص أنا عناية حوالي ؛ أنا سأقتل أنت. سيدافعبنفسي أنا لن ببساطة ، أنا سأقتل أنت ، وبينما أنت يكون تصبغ أنا [بيسّ] على أنت..

I should note, that when literally translated, that is HORRIBLY bad:

Harmed to any [and airs] me or astrologer of mining

I wrap up receives only complete bullets in pig fat. I goes to starts [[krynG]] around pieces of pig meat with me me; Will enforce payment them I inside wounds your, afterwards [[fwrs] so hand] their to you. Afterwards I as cock will cut up cock and attacks in last direction will and enforce payment them fall to flew you.

I heavily [sllHt] always, already [[bwwb] - [trbbd]] I is cars and sent down my, and I wait for you you. Indeed you resulted after me or mines, you will die, and I will make curses you ascertain be soft paradise sees for each eternal you [[mwthrfwkrs]] [shrryrt] indeed you tries to is complete anything to me, to my friends, to any person I care of obstacles; I will kill you. [sydaafe'bnfsy] I be soft simply, I will kill you, and while you is I dye [[byss]] on you.

And people wonder why I love Maiden

"Die with your boots on"

Another prophet of disaster
Who says the ship is lost
Another prophet of disaster
Leaving you to count the cost
Taunting us with visions
Afflicting us with fear
Predicting war for millions
In the hope that one appears

No point asking when it is
No point asking who’s to go
No point asking what’s the game
No point asking who’s to blame
’cos if you’re gonna die, if you’re gonna die
’cos if you’re gonna die, if you’re gonna die

If you’re gonna die, die with your boots on
If you’re gonna try, just stick around
Gonna cry, just move along
If you’re gonna die, you’re gonna die

In 13 the beast is rising
The frenchman did surmise
Through earthquakes and starvation
The warlord will arise
Terror, death, destruction
Pour from the eastern sands
But the truth of all predictions
Is always in your hands

If you’re gonna die, die with your boots on
If you’re gonna try, just stick around
Gonna cry, just move along
If you’re gonna die, you’re gonna die

"The Trooper"

You’ll take my life but I’ll take yours too
You’ll fire you musket but I’ll run you through
So when your waiting for the next attack
You’d better stand there’s no turning back

The bugle sounds as the charge begins
But on this battlefield no one wins
The smell of arcrid smoke and horses breath
As you plunge into a certain death

The horse he sweats with fear we break to run
The mighty roar of the russian guns
And as we race towards the human wall
The screams of pain as my comrades fall

We hurdle bodies that lay on the ground
And the russians fire another round
We get so near yet so far away
We won’t live to fight another day

We get so close near enough to fight
When a russian gets me in his sights
He pulls the trigger and I feel the blow
A burst of rounds take my horse below

And as I lay there gazing at the sky
My body’s numb and my throat is dry
And as I lay forgotten and alone
Without a tear I draw my parting groan

Recipes for REAL men - Volume 7 - It may not be kosher...

but it's just damned good...

Okay this one is a quicky. It's probably my favorite sandwhich in the world, and I jsut finished eating one (actually two) and I thought I'd share it with you.

This is the kind of sandwhich they'd charge you $12.25 for at Katz's... except you can't get this one in a real deli, because the mere suggstion of it might cause an excited utterance in yiddish.

Ingredients:

4 large sourdough bulkie rolls (it's like a more pillowy kaiser roll)
2lbs of extra lean black pepper pastrami (sliced tissue thin)
8 pieces (4" square or larger) of VERY thinly sliced extra extra sharp cheddar cheese
8 oz prepared yellow mustard
8 oz cream cheese (solid, not whipped. More or less to taste)
8oz of sauerkraut (optional)

Preparation:

fill a 2qt sauce pan half way with warm water, and add the mustard to it. Bring to a low roll.

Crumble the pastrami into the simmering mustard water, avoiding clumping. Stir thoroughly to distribute evenly.

Before cutting the rolls, lightly toast the outside, on both sides. Dont brown the roll, just get it lightly crispy and warm.

Spread a thin coating of cream cheese evenly across all the rolls, then spread more mustard (whatever kind you prefer) over the cream cheese.

Boil the pastrami just until it starts to curl slightly. Don't drain it, just pull the meat for each sandwhich out with a fork and spoon, or tongs, and let drip for a few seconds (to avoid soaking the bread). Heap evenly onto the bottoms of the rolls, then while still steaming hot put the cheese on top, and cover with the top of the roll.

If you are going to add kraut, do it before you add the cheese, and then stick it under a broiler for 20 seconds or so to melt the cheese over the kraut.

Serve with a side of salt and vinegar potato chips, and two half sour garlic and dill pickle halves (or clausens deli style if you dont have a source for real deli pickles nearby).

If you cant get decent pastrami at your local supermarket, Costco has some not bad stuff from Sabra, but it's a bit salty so you have to blanch it for a few seconds in plain water before boiling in the mustard water... unless you LIKE your pastrami that sour, which actually isnt a bad thing if you are using sweet mustard, and a creamier cheese.

And be sure to check out:

Recipes for REAL Men, Volume 12 - Lard Ass Wings
Recipes for REAL Men, Volume 11 - Bacon Double Macaroni and Cheese
Recipes for REAL Men, Volume 10 - It's the meat stupid
Recipes for REAL Men, Volume 9 - Labor Day Potatos
Recipes for REAL men, Volume 8 - It's a pork fat thing
Recipes for REAL men, Volume 7 - It may not be Kosher...
Recipes for REAL men, Volume 6 - Andouille Guiness Chili
Recipes for REAL men, Volume 5 - Eazza the Ultimate Pizza
Recipes for REAL men, Volume 4 - Two Pound Meat Sauce
Recipes for REAL men, Volume 3 - Highbrow Hash
Recipes for REAL men, Volume 2 - MuscleCarbonara
Recipes for REAL men, Volume 1 - More Beef than Stew

Pain, Relief, and Addiction

Some of you know my history with physical pain, some don't. Anyway I'm feeling something that I want to talk about, and I want to give some context, but without some disclaimers this is going to come off as one massive pity party.

I'm in a lot of pain, pretty much all the time.

I've had severe headaches ever since I was a little kid. They come on fast and hard, and they start hurting so bad they make me sweat buckets. They used to make me pass out, but through martial arts techniques (concentration and meditation) I learned how to control them and function through them. Now they still hurt, but most of the time I just make the pain not matter.

From a very young age, I started growing very quickly in large spurts. I was 4' before I was 5 years old; I reached 5 feet from 8-9, and I stopped growing at 13, at 6'2" (about a foot taller than the average for 13). I also have a ridiculously heavy bone structure (my orthopedist used to call me the "Cro-Magnon". That rapid growth gave me permanent stretch marks, and godawful apin while I was in a spurt. I used to rock back and forth all ngiht long just aching... It's hard to describe but lets just say it isn't pleasant.

I have had chronic insomnia since I was a little kid as well (I started getting acid reflux and severe heartburn around the same time). I dont know if you know this, but severe sleep deprivation HURTS; and it hurts a lot. Your entire body jsut starts hurting one system at a time as it tells you that it needs to heal itself.

As a teenager and into my early twenties I had a series of severe injuries to my ankles, knees, wrists, fingers, and back. They ranged from falling out of a helicopter (bad one that) to rolling down a flight of stairs, a number of very bad fights, and three opposing football players deliberately going for my knees and ankles (I broke my left ankle, and both pinkie fingers in that game. Then I taped them up and kept plaing. We won). I've been stabbed, sliced, bitten, dragged, hit by cars, hit by bats, chemically sprayed, shot with less lethal projectiles, hit by a large number of other martial artists, hit by wooden swords, hit by lightning, and shot.

The knee injuries and ankle are in particular pretty bad, and I get constant moderate pain from both, along with my wrists and finger. All of thsoe injuries are also arthritic, which jsut makes it worse.

Since my late teens I've suffered from Ulcerative Colitis; but we never firgured out thats what it was til after I got out of the AF, and saw the right specialists. Ulcerative colitis can be unbelievably painful; and it's pretty damned disgusting to talk about., so let me jsut say, it's something you really never want to have, unless you enjoy spending hours at a time in the bathroom wishing you were dead.

Anyway, all that together, and I'm between a pain 3 and a 5 all the time (thank god not as bad as my mother, who is at a 7 or 8 most of the time).

When you have a lot of pain, al the time, it becomes part of the background noise. You dont even notice it unless somethign aggravates it. Between developing the tolerance, and the martial arts training, and just general cussedness... well I've got the mind over matter thing going.

Some of you may not have experienced that...

"Pain dont hurt"
"Huah Sergeant"
"I SAID PAIN DONT HURT"
"HUAH Sergeant!!!"
"Mind over matter trainee, if you don't mind, it don't matter"
"HUAH Sergeant!!!

Aaaaaany way...

My wisdom teeth were pulled about 5 hours ago. I have a ridiculously high tolerance for pain medication to go along with the high pain tolerance, and they had to give me 8 topical novocaine swabs (double dose), then 10 shots of Lidocaine to numb me up (about 2.5 times normal). The doctor had to stop three times while pulling to give me more, and still he could only give me enough to just get them out. I could still feel everything he was doing.

Honestly, it wasnt that bad. I've felt a lot worse in my time, and I'm glad to be rid of them.

As part of the normal routine, he gave me a scrip for percocet. The irritating thing is, even after seeing how resistant I was to pain meds, and after I talked to him about it, and knowing how much I weigh, he only gave me 12 5/525s (5mg of Oxycodone, and 525mg of acetomenophine).

That aint gonna do shit.

The swelling hasn't even really started, the real pain is going to start tomorrow; but I need 15mg of Oxycodone just to have any effect at all because of my bodymass and my drug tolerance.

I've taken 4 of them at this point, for 20mg of Oxycodone, 2100mg of Acetomenophine, AND I'm taking 2000mg of Ibuprofen, and 2200mg of Naprosyn (to hold down the swelling and inflamation, and they are working great). They are tearing up my stomach even more than usual, but they are doing the job. I cant take any more of the percs for at least another 4 hours, and it would be better to wait six to eight, because 4mg of acetaminophen is enough to cause liver damage.

Here's the thing about painkillers and me. They don't do much for the thing they are supposed to be tartgeting, which is breakthrough pain; but they do something else... that background pain...

It's gone

That level 3-5 pain is pretty much gone. I mean there are twinges in my joints if I move funny, but NOTHING like what I'm used to.

When you are used to a lot of pain all the time, and then it's gone... I can't even describe to you that kind of relief.

Imagine never, ever, being comfortable, ever.

Not just a little uncomfortable some of the time, imagine laying down on a bed of small sharp rocks, or walking barefoot across rough gravel; now take that feeling, and thats what I feel all the time.

Now take that pain away.

I'm really not describing it well... maybe I can relate it to something pleasureable that a "normal" healthy person might experience in their day to day life.

Okay, so you are walking around in your normal eveyr day life, and you get your day to day aches, paines, stresses, bumps etc...

Now imagine getting an expert massage while you are in a perfect jacuzzi.

That's what the difference feels like to me. See I can never, ever relax. Theres always this pain and tension; and now it's gone.

But that feeling only lasts for about an hour or so, and then gradually the pain goes back to what it was, until the painkillers have completely worn off.

I can understand how people can become addicted to painkillers. Never mind the opiate addiction, just having the ability to feel comfortable for a few hours.. well if you are in severe pain all the time, for months on end, the prospect of some relief of that is far more addictive than any opiate could ever be.

It's a CARNIVAL!!!!

The 22nd Carnival Of Cordite is up at babboon pirates (what a name eh)

http://baboonpirates.blogspot.com/2005/07/carnival-of-cordite-22.html

I went a little nuts because I missed last weeks and submitted like 4 things.

Missed my 50k mark, but got my 200k mark

Today... errr yesterday now since it's exactly midnight... I hit 200,000 unique visitors to my combined main website and blog (the Japanese flood pushed me over sometime in the afternoon).

Of course thats counting the close to 150k visitors I had from the 10+ years I've had my personal web site (12 actually, but 10+ on my own domain. Before that it was on my colleges site).

For just the blog itself, it looks like sometime around Monday I went over the 50k mark for unique visitors. Thats since February 14th 2005, so call it 5 months. I knew I was getting close, but I wasnt keeping an eye out, and I missed it.

Darn.

Also some time in the next week I should hit 100k page views on the blog. I have no clue about the main page.

I'm averageing something like 400 or so uniqe visitors per day, and two page views per visitor, so hey, that's something.

Now if NZ bears statistics wouldnt jump around so much every day (272 links to 154 in 1 day???).

Oral Surgery

My wisdom teeth are being removed tomorrow morning.

I went in today for my scheduled appointment, (I made it last week before being fired) my first in like 6 years (since the Air Force), and other than needing a cleaning rather badly and needing a debridement because I have six years of buildup, I'm OK. I have literally zero cavities (I've only ever had one in my life, when I was six, and I had supernumerary teeth, so I've never had an adult cavity).

Oh and of course the wisdom teeth. I've needed to get them done for years, they have decayed from the inside out, and are really rather painful, but they arent impacted or abcessed, and they fully erupted... so basically it wasnt critical until now. Anyway, I asked them to schedule me as soon as possible so I could get in before I have to go on COBRA. A $300 co-pay is a hell of a lot better than a $2000 full pay, and GOD do I need them done.

So if I'm a little loopy (... OK loopier than usual) tomorrow, that's the Vicodin talking.

Japanese flood

For some reason I'm getting flooded by hits from Japan on my main web site, www.chrisbyrne.com

The only thing I can think of is that it has to do with a mailing list I'm on where we were discussing japan (and not in a positive way), but no-one has emailed me, left a comment etc...

Isn't it though?

A strange coincidence, and coming out in the open

Huh, I started thinking about this earlier today and I realized, I wrote this letter to Kim DuToit a year ago almost to the day:

I was just fired a few minutes ago. Officially I was “terminated without cause”, and that for future employment inquiries they will report that I “decided to leave”. Unofficially I learned that the decision had been made by “senior management” to fire me about three months ago, but that they had kept me on to finish up my projects.

Coincidentally, about three months ago I was at a social function with my boss’s boss when he took me aside and said to me “Is that a gun?”—I was, as usual, carrying my Kahr K9, and he had seen the gun under my shirt—“Would you mind taking that out to your car? I really don’t like guns and I don’t think it’s appropriate for you to have one here”.

I said “Sure, no problem, but let me just say this...”, then I explained to him that I was carrying a weapon legally, that I never carried while at work or with clients, that this was not a work function, but that even if it was the company had no firearms policy which they should if they want to restrict gun possession around the company. I told him that I always carried outside of work when it was legal for me to do so, but that I had no problem taking my gun back to the car if it made him more comfortable.

The next week a new supplement was issued to our employee handbook that prohibited possession of all firearms at company facilities, offices, events, functions, company-related functions or events, company-sponsored functions or events, or any organized gathering of employees, clients, customer business partners or vendors.

It also made very clear that any violation of this policy would result in immediate termination.

Well when I received this I politely refused to sign it as it violated several state and Federal laws (right to privacy, right to freely associate etc...). I told my boss this, and the head of HR, and I suggested what needed to be changed to be legal. I also informed them that pursuant to state law if they wanted to ban firearms from the building they had to post a sign at all entrances saying such. All of this was offered to be helpful, not in any way adversarial. I have no problem complying with a company policy as long as it’s legal. The policy had apparently been dashed off boilerplate and hadn’t been vetted by the lawyers. They issued a new policy the next week which was worded differently and didn’t try and restrict out-of-work functions as much, but was still pretty restrictive. Unfortunately I can’t share it with you due to a non-disclosure agreement, but even with the new language I doubt if it would stand up in court, but I just didn’t want to fight it any more. They still haven’t put up the signs.

A few days later my boss told me on the sly that his boss was looking for a reason to fire me. He also let me know that his boss was going to make him give me a poor performance review; his quote “I hate to do this, but there’s nothing I can do, and you need to start watching your back a bit more”. Finally I was reprimanded for my “unprofessional behavior” in carrying a gun around my co-workers.

Please don’t misunderstand me, my boss is great. He’s been behind me 100%, very supportive, and really one of the best bosses I’ve ever had, but when the Number Two guy in the company decides you have to go, that’s just the way it is.

So anyway a few weeks ago my major project ended, but I was already booked in on two more projects. Well let me just say I aced them. The sales guys for both projects, and the customers raved. My boss gave me some really positive feedback and we talked about the great opportunities I had just created with the two previously very difficult clients. Then he told me that he had to give me an official warning for poor performance because I had been lax in some of my paperwork, and that I had taken too much comp time for all of the uncompensated mandatory overtime I was doing. We talked about how this was going to affect my bonus, and what we could do to improve things in the future.

That was a week ago. Today at 3pm we reviewed the projects again in preparation for wrap-up meetings. Again I got some great feedback on my performance and for creating these great new opportunities, and then my boss’s boss came in and said “I’m sorry, we’re going to have to let you go”.

He in fact wanted to have me escorted off the premises immediately. He actually looked frightened of me and left the room quickly. My boss said he would stay with me while I copied my personal files and cleaned out my stuff. We talked for a good hour about what had happened. He confessed to me, again off the record, unofficial etc… that his boss has been afraid of me for months, and when the decision had been made etc… He said that his boss was honestly afraid I would pull out a gun and shoot him.

At this point I was understandably not happy, but I was pretty calm. My boss apologized for the bullshit, and said that he felt like he had let me down.

So basically I was fired for being a gun enthusiast employed by a GFW.

I think I’ll be spending a lot of time at the range this weekend.

That was on July 15th 2004; now one year later, if not to the day, to the week... Weird huh. At the time I asked Kim not to reveal who I was, but I feel fine in coming forward now to say it was me.

That is twice I was fired for my political views and actions in 12 months.

Leadership

The biggest thing missing from the debate last year about presidential candidates was an asessment of their leadership skills, and natural abilities.

Now we are all talking about 2008, and there doesn't seem to be anyone really generating any real interest.

Sure character, intelligence, integrity, and honor are critically important (and Kerry failed on all but one), but none of them tell you much about a persons ability to lead.

Some folks are just natural leaders. People will follow them, and not know why. Natural leaders tend to generate intense passion and loyalty in their supporters, and intense hatred in their opponents.

Some others aren’t actually great natural leaders, but sociopaths who project leadership, which some are duped by, and then use that projection to manipulate the dupes. This is known as the “cult of personality” effect and can be illustrated in cult leaders and politicians like Bill Clinton, Fidel Castro, Hitler, Stalin etc…

There are people who are good leaders solely out of competence. They are just the best person for the job at the time.

Finally there are those who, whatever else they have or don't have; are good leaders because they have overwhelming character, resolve, and purpose. They are on a mission from god, or a holy quest, or a personal crusade and they are gonna take you with them.

To be truly great (or truly monstrous), you need to have at least two of these things behind you. We haven't had a president like that in a loooong time. Maybe Roosevelt, maybe not. Honestly since Lincoln I dont think there’s been a truly great leader as president, only some near greats.

Look at the last 50 or so years:

Bush has some natural leadership ability, but not much skill, and it’s stymied by his other faults.

Cinton was a sociopath plain and simple.

Bush senior was a good administrator, and competent, but not much of a leader.

Reagan was a natural leader, and had great moral character, but he wasnt quite there. Maybe as a younger man he would have been truly great as a natural leader.

Carter, a genius but he had no bottom and almost no natural leadership.

Ford, a joke. A scrub president selected because everyone thought he was too nice and too dumb to lie.

Nixon, a paranoid sociopath.

LBJ, a consumate politican, but no leadership ability at all. He was a great schemer, a great manipulator, a very intelligent man, but not a leader.

The best natural leader we’ve had in the White House in the last 50 years was clearly JFK. Sure the man had a hell of a lot of faults, but he inspired people to follow him. People still have an amazing passionate loyalty and affection for him today (of course this has MANY reasons, most of which are more myth than reality, but still). Unfortunately he had little else going for him. He wasn't very smart, or very competent, and he didnt have a great cause, other than his truly great love for America (which shouldn't be underestimated, but isn't enough for a successful presidency). Basically if he hadnt been shot he would have been well loved, but not done very much.

You would think Eisenhower was a great leader, but actually his subordinates didn't like him very much. What he was was a brilliant delegator, a solid desicison maker, and very good at bringing different elements of his commands together. Of course it was his brilliant delegation that brought us Fidel Castro, the Bay of Pigs, The Cuban Missle crisis, the Viet Nam war etc…

Everyone hated Truman as a boss. He was a nasty bastard, but he was good at his job, and he made tough decisions and mostly stuck to them. He was a very good postwar president, and a good practical leader, but not a natural leader.

You have to go back to Roosevelt before you get a truly great leader, and even then the guy started some things in America that may eventually end in our downfall so I’m not sure if he qualifies.

Of all the possible presidential candidates out there, with any chance in hell of being NOMINATED never mind elected; I can only think of three that I can picture voting for: Ron Paul, George Allen, and Condaleeza Rice.

Honeslty people, I'm not seeing the leadership there either...

So as I’ve asked all too many times before, who and where are our great leaders? I don’t see any coming up right now, and we’re gonna need’em real frikken soon.

Well, I Honestly Can't Deny It...

http://www.space.net.au/~dpwyrm/interactive/kooks/kook.html

Kook report: 73

You are undoubtedly odd. You worry your family, and you no longer have any normal friends. When you go on holiday, you chose places like Transylvania, the Sonora desert, McMurdo Sound and the Amazonian rain-forest. You mutter and mumble to yourself in times of stress, and you try not to open your wardrobe too often, in case something comes through...

Actually I rather think McMurdo would kick ass. I have a friend who went on an Antarctic Cruise, and I would have loved that.

There is no spoon folks.

I'm not an addict...

JRonus: Can anyone give any insight on .44 magnums? I want it primarily for target shooting and occasional hunting.
Thanks

Toad: Well I don’t have any recent experience so I’m not going to be any help (I prefer automatics and I’m a recoil wuss). But for an adjustable sight double action pistol on the basis of purty I like the Colt Anaconda. Here is a used one from GusAmerica. I’m kind of curious now myself about what the revolver fans like?

http://www.gunsamerica.com/guns/976577363.htm

I tried out the Anaconda, and honestly I didnt care for it. It never seemed to me to be up to the (admintedly very high) standard of the python, and it jsut didnt feel as god as a Model 29.

If I could afford one, I’d have a Dan Wesson, AND a model 29 sitting in my range bag. Unfortunately I can’t; for one thing, neither of the originals are made anymore, and the owners dont really like to sell them for less than a small fortune.

For me, the 629 just doesnt feel the same… and really it isnt, because they are made very differently; from different steel.. but maybe it’s close enough. Dan Wesson may be making the .44’s again (I heard maybe yes, maybe no. now with the CZ thing, who knows), but not to anywhere near the same standard they had in the 70s…

See heres the thing, I want DA revolvers in .357, .44, and .45lc ... plus .454 casull… and maybe one of the little tiny titanium/scandium .357 for pants pocket stuff (almsot as small as a KelTec, a little thicker, and 4 times the power… yeah I’ll take that).

So the .44 is way down the list, which is too bad.

Oh and I need to buy a replacement SIG and Glock first (I sold mine to Dustin), then maybe add a P220 (you can never have too many .45s...) hell, a model 10 or a model 25 wouldnt be out of the question either (again, you can never have too many .45s), one of those mech-tech carbine conversions… and maybe a S&W-1911sc (commander length, scandium frame, 28oz, external extractor, perfect trigger… yeah, I need one of those)....


Oh and a heavy barrel 24" upper for my AR... and... and...

Yeah, I’m not an addict; addicts go to meetings.