Springfield XD45 Compact

Just to get off the political stuff for a while, I thought I would mention that Springfield has come out with the carry pistol I want (yes, there are some good things about Michigan - like "shall issue" CCW). It is the XD45 Compact.



The big problem with concealed carry is the "concealed" part. I like to carry inside-the-waistband (IWB), so what I have to conceal is the grip. The XD45C takes the standard 4-inch service model and shortens the grip. The standard capacity for this pistol is 10+1, but it will also take the full-sized magazine with a spacer. So you carry the gun with the 10-rounder and have a 13 rounder as a backup, total 24 rounds. Right now, with my 1911 I have to carry 2 extra mags, which gives me 25 rounds (8+1+8+8).



I have about 2000 rounds of experience with the XD, in 9mm and .40 S and I really liked the gun. It was dead reliable and felt good in my hand. I'm a .45 guy though, so when Springfield brought out the XD45 I was really excited!



So now, it's "save your pennies" mode for me - I really want that XD.

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What do you think she'll do?

Article from The Detroit News
reporting on our esteemed Governess and her budget report.

She was also heard on WJR radio on The Paul W. Smith Show discussing these numbers. Here is a summation of her comments, with some interjections by, well, me:

Well, we have a lot of job losses, and the automakers aren't doing very good, and our sales tax receipts are down because people aren't buying as much, so we have this big budget shortfall of between one and three billion dollars.

So, state income is down because so many are out of work and aren't spending as much. OK, I'm with you so far. So, madam Governess, what are you proposing to solve this dilemma?

I have no problem making cuts - I've had to do that before and I'll do it again.

Good, good. Now we're getting somewhere. What next?

Tax increases are also on the table. We may have to do that to pay for all these government services people need.

I knew it was too good to be true! You almost had it going! But instead, you revert to your socialist ideology, well-proven to lead to an exacerbation of the kinds of problems facing Michigan. Government is the solution to every problem, if only you'll give it more of your money - yeah, that's the ticket! The ticket to economic and social oblivion!

I'd just like to ask you this, madam Governess: All those laid-off autoworkers you're so concerned about, those hard working people that have been given their pink slip and aren't able to find any work in Michigan because of the continuing single-state recession - where are they supposed to get the money to pay your income tax hike? What about those other hard-working folks who still have a job but are just getting by as it is now. What are they going to do to pay your tax? There aren't enough rich people for you to soak anymore - they have all left for other states that don't tax them as heavily as Michigan does.

Michigan, you voted for this woman and now you are reaping what you have sown. Hope you like it.

It's all those Jews that are the problem...yeah, that's it!

From The Los Angeles Times, December 13, 2006, quoting Dhimmi Carter:

The former president also asserted that pro-Israel lobbyists have stifled open debate in this country on the Israeli-Palestinian situation. "It's impossible for any candidate for Congress to make a statement like 'I favor balanced support of Israel and Palestine' " (Link to article)

'Scuse me, Dhimmi, but hasn't President W made those kinds of statements ever since 2000? Isn't this what "The Roadmap" has all been about?

It is good that you only got one term to screw up this country, Mr. Former President and current disgrace. Here's what one of your former employees said about the book (from the same article)

Across the country, one of the leading critics of Carter's book is Kenneth W. Stein, a professor of Middle Eastern history and political science at Emory University. The book prompted Stein's resignation last week from his position as a fellow with the Carter Center in Atlanta.

Stein, who was associated with the center for 23 years and once was its executive director, said in a letter that the book was "replete with factual errors, copied materials not cited, superficialities, glaring omissions and simply invented segments."

Not that I give credence to anyone who works at the Carter Center, still, the fact that the guy resigned says a lot to me about this book and the man who wrote it.

Dhimmi - apparently you haven't been reading your Bible like you claim you do. This conflict has been going on for several millenia, and there's a reason for it. Do you think you can go in and wave your magic Nobel Peace Prize and all of a sudden they will all smack themselves on the forehead and say "Gee - you're right. I can't believe I've never seen it before. Of course we'll stop killing each other - that's so, so, *violent*. Thank you Uncle Jimmy."

I'm no Einstein, but even I can figure it out. But apparently you're smarter than everyone else, ever, President Dhimmi.

Deer Season 2006

Well I guess I have recovered from the 2-week firearm deer season here in Michigan. This year, as for the last 2 or 3 years, the weather decided to be in the 30's at night and 50's during the day, which slowed all the deer down and made them all layabouts!

I stopped going out in the mornings since the deer seem to not move around in the morning on the land that I hunt. In the 7 years I have hunted there I have only seen 2 deer in the morning, both at the same time going to a bait pile. So it just isn't worth it to get up at oh-dark-thirty when I won't see anything anyway!

Maybe one of these years I'll swipe my father-in-law's .480 Ruger revolver and go lookin' for them instead of waiting for them to come to me.

Nevertheless, it is worth it for me to go out every year, if for no other reason than to escape Sodom on the Red Cedar for a time and remember that there is another world outside my basement office. When I go back, I can feel the life being sucked out of me.

Yes I did get one, a little one that I would have passed up if there had been even one more in the field. But the wife wanted venison in the freezer. And who am I to argue.

Flashbacks

"Our strong inclination would be to avoid tax hikes. That's pretty universal. That shows the pragmatism of the Democratic Party. Even the most liberal people said 'No,we shouldn't go for tax hikes.' So we are going to try to avoid it." ---Chuck Schumer

I'm having a flashback to Bill "I tried harder than I ever tried in my life" Clinton.

Hey Chuckie - do you honestly expect us to believe this? Do you honestly think we believe you and your fellow Democrats have the least shred of integrity? (let alone pragmatism).

Dear reader, you are a fool if you believe anything a democrat says. Remember the old axiom about what a politician is doing when he is moving his lips!

Post-Election 2006

Still formulating complete thoughts on the election results. Here are a couple of short takes that are still in the developmental stage.

1. Will Republicans get the message of these elections? Conservative principles are what got you into office in the first place, and when you abandoned them, you lost.
2. We don't always get the government we want, but we always get the government we deserve. Here in Michigan, we are last or nearly last in every meaningful economic category, yet we elected a liberal democrat to a second term. A liberal democrat who has done nothing to improve anything here in her first term. I was willing to give her a little bit of a pass for the first half of her administration, as the State budget was not constructed for the economic downturn she got when she took over. All she could really do was cut, and she did. But she had no realistic plan, and she still doesn't - just more socialist utopian drivel that has been proven not to work. Good luck with that, madam Governess. It won't work here any better than it does in France. Or Canada where you came from.
   
3. The educational state of the American electorate is sinking fast. We don't understand basic economics and we don't understand history. Therefore, we make stupid choices. Neither one is difficult to grasp, yet it seems to be beyond many of those who actually vote. God help the USA - he's the only one who can, now.

Michigan Ballot Proposals

I couldn't do any better than my friend "The Shekel" on his blog.

I completely agree with his assessments.

Additionally, Proposal 3 (which would establish a dove hunting season in Michigan) is being used as a vehicle by radical animal-rights groups to gain a foothold in Michigan with the stated goal of eliminating all hunting here.

Unlike The Shekel, I am a hunter and I would like to pass on this heritage to my kids. I came to it late, but I enjoy it immensely (even when I don't see any game!) These nutballs with their strange ideas about the order of nature constitute a very small minority of the population, yet they get big backing from Hollywood leftists to try to spread this, well, bravo sierra. (You haven't heard Harrison Ford sitting in New York but hearing the zebras?)

I make note here of the difference between an environmentalist and a conservationist. An environmentalist elevates nature above all else, including humanity. They give "rights" to creatures who are not intellegent, who cannot reason, and whose sole purpose is to be a part of the food chain. That is - to be eaten.

A conservationist recognizes that one must protect the natural resources we have been given, and that a part of this is to preserve the hunting and fishing heritage of our country. This does not mean that a conservationist is for all-out hunting whenever the mood strikes without bag limits. Indeed, a conservationist is appalled, for instance, at the buffalo hunts of the late 19th century, which were examples of waste and over-hunting.

So the choice is clear: continue to preserve a great American tradition and a moral, responsible caretaking of our wildlife, or the introduction of irresponsibility and a completely false view of nature and our place in it.

So vote Yes on 3, preserve a great heritage, and kick the neo-communists out of town.

Fed-up conservatives disloyal?

As the Sean Hannity's and Rush Limbaugh's of the world would have you believe, if you are conservative and are not voting republican you are somehow "cut-and-run republicans" who don't care a whit about the future of the country, because of all the evils that are going to happen with Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House.

I have bought into this line myself in the past, most recently at the last Presidential election. I voted for W for one reason: Supreme Court Justices. So now I have a couple more conservative justices on the court. I also have a government that is more intrusive into my private affairs than ever before without due process of law (namely the so-called "PATRIOT Act"), a government that while under the "control" of Republicans has increased the deficit and debt to levels that Howard Dean would never in his wildest dreams thought possible, and generally made the future bleak for everyone in the country regardless of their political bent. I have to say I don't think it was worth it.

And they have the gall to call themselves Conservative?

So now I fall back on the philosophy of Ronald Reagan as he related to the Soviets: Trust but Verify. (Does anyone see the irony in that statement?) Or perhaps a modification of the old saw "Fool me once, shame on you", only for me the ending phrase will be "Fool me twice and I'll never vote for you or your party again"

So for all you true conservatives, consider how many times you have been ignored once these neo-con's bagged your vote. Consider how many times the issues that mean the most to you have been either ignored or actively opposed. Then consider how much loyalty you owe these people.