Disabled UK soldiers jeered at a public awimming pool.

I have no words.


"Injured soldiers who lost their limbs fighting for their country have been driven from a swimming pool training session by jeering members of the public."


"The men, injured during tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, were taking part in a rehabilitation session at a leisure centre, when two women demanded they be removed from the pool. They claimed that the soldiers "hadn't paid" and might scare the children."

Cafe Cubano



I've been drinking a lot of Cafe Bustelo lately. It makes a good, strong cup of coffee, but the stuff is a little harsh. If you were an espresso drinker with a very refined palate, Bustelo would not be up to spec. I'm an espresso drinker with a very pedestrian palate, so the bitter doesn't irritate me. In fact, I take it with milk and sugar, so I'm happy to have the flavor carry through.



Cafe Bustelo is considered to be the poor-man's specialty coffee. Perhaps. I'll try to do an actual review:



Grind: Espresso (read fine)



Roast: Dark (Spanish)



Acidity: High. Certainly this coffee is acidic for a dark roast. Dark roastes beans have a stronger flavor, but since some of the acid has been roasted away, I've found they are easier on your stomach.



Comments: This is a milk and sugar coffee. The slogan on the can, "for the Hispanic taste" is honest. it's made for people who like their coffee sweetened. It would probably make a good Thai coffee. Certainly Cafe Bustelo is not a connoisseur's coffee. It is a proletarian, "good enough" beverage. Coffee snobs irritate me anyway. Expensive does not mean good, and vice versa. Everyone should remember Mikhail Kalashnikov's admonition, "Good enough is best". Take a pound of coffee that's good enough, and learn how to brew it. This will take you a long way.





Peace.

Gratuitous endorsement

I recently discovered The Backwoodsman magazine. I was bored at a truck stop so I went over to the magazine rack and bought The Backwoodsman. The articles contain practical info on survival, simple living, hunting, camping, etc. There's a strong focus on DIY, so every page isn't trying to sell you something. Certainly, they have advertising, but it's not concealed in what is supposed to be a serious article.

Here's a random assortment of article titles:

Big Knives of the Frontier, Forts and Western Waterways of Early America, Remanufacturing Cartridges, Making the Powhatan Plank Saw, A Simple Fire Drill, Woods Runner Cabin, Practical Deer Gear, Arguments for the Long Knives

I think I'm going to subscribe to this thing. It's not so much that I need ideas for projects, because I really don't. I've got incomplete projects stacked up all around me. I'm also not in desperate need of the info. I have an entire bookcase of outdoor lore. I'm just thrilled that there's finally a magazine for the more homespun outdoorsman.

Peace!

The Utne Reader and Zombie Squad

I'm not into zombie films or any other horror media, but Zombie Squad is a lot of fun. It's an actual organization located in St. Louis, MO. When they're not out battling the shambling hordes of the walking dead, they help out by running blood drives, stocking food shelves, and educating people about disaster preparedness.

I was shocked to find Zombie Squad had attracted the attention of the Utne Reader, my favorite lefty publication. I do not use the term favorite sarcastically. I really enjoy the articles. Granted, I disagree with almost every viewpoint expressed, but the columns and articles make me think. I find the magazine enjoyable; I encourage you to give it a try. In this age of attention deficit journalism, the Utne is a breath of fresh air, even for a right-wing gun nut like me.

Peace.

Been out in the great outdoors...

It's a bad thing that blogging has been a little sparse, but I've got a freezer full of deer and other "organic meats". Wow, If I describe it that way, it sounds almost liberal. What I'm saying is that I've been productive, in a way.

This last weekend, two of my closest college friends came over with their dogs and we spent 2 glorious days knocking pheasants out of the sky. I often speak of hunting as an over-rated activity, and I'm commonly annoyed with the hunter archetype, but hunting upland birds with good dogs is a vigorous, almost aristocratic exercise.

I'm in favor of it, and I'm gonna do it again today after work.

Peace.

Myths of 21st Century Warfare


I'm not a military man, so I usually refrain from commenting on military matters. I will pass along informed bits when I see fit, though.

Here's a few clips:

Myth No. 1: War doesn't change anything. This campus slogan contradicts all of human history. Over thousands of years, war has been the last resort - and all too frequently the first resort - of tribes, religions, dynasties, empires, states and demagogues driven by grievance, greed or a heartless quest for glory. No one believes that war is a good thing, but it is sometimes necessary. We need not agree in our politics or on the manner in which a given war is prosecuted, but we can't pretend that if only we laid down our arms all others would do the same.

Myth No. 2: Victory is impossible today. Victory is always possible, if our nation is willing to do what it takes to win. But victory is, indeed, impossible if U.S. troops are placed under impossible restrictions, if their leaders refuse to act boldly, if every target must be approved by lawyers, and if the American people are disheartened by a constant barrage of negativity from the media. We don't need generals who pop up behind microphones to apologize for every mistake our soldiers make. We need generals who win.

Myth No. 3: Insurgencies can never be defeated. Historically, fewer than one in 20 major insurgencies succeeded. Virtually no minor ones survived. In the mid-20th century, insurgencies scored more wins than previously had been the case, but that was because the European colonial powers against which they rebelled had already decided to rid themselves of their imperial possessions. Even so, more insurgencies were defeated than not, from the Philippines to Kenya to Greece. In the entire 18th century, our war of independence was the only insurgency that defeated a major foreign power and drove it out for good.


There you have it. More ammo for arguing with hippies.

Peace.

I know I'm old.



1) I text message in longhand. This is to say I text full words and complete sentences. AOL-speak with it's juvenile abbreviations are a minor source of irritation to me. Adults who text in this way are a larger source of irritation.


2) I prefer the fountain pen to the keyboard. I write in cursive, the Palmer method specifically. It irritates me when young people cannot read cursive. It irritates me more when I have to wait for them while they print out something. This happens at the bank.


3) I don't own any scoped rifles. I think iron sights are fine for target work and big game out to 300 yards. It's weird when people 10 years my senior are surprised when they see me at the 200 yard line shooting targets without a scope. Irons should be fine out to about 600 yards and every crusty old dude should know it.


4) Television is irritating.



But not that old


1) I look for heirloom vegetables and locally-produced meat.


2) I consider eating fast food to be not only unhealthy, but a sign of moral weakness.


3) I seek out local music and independent film.

4) I don't shoot trap or skeet. Too much rifle and pistol stuff to get into.

5) I don't care how long the screenwriters go on strike.

6) I'm no longer surprised when the mainstream media gets scooped or exposed by a blogger.



Peace.

Spirituality for the masses

I don't want anyone to infer from my last post that I'm a spiritual man. I most certainly am not. I hear people all over say, "I'm not religious, but I'm deeply spiritual." This statement tells me 2 things about people. First off, they haven't the discipline to conform to a mainstream religious structure. Second, they are either too vain or insecure to fathom that they themselves will someday come to an end.

I am neither religious nor spiritual. In fact, I feel I have no spiritual attributes whatsoever. I am just a corporeal being, who will someday cease to exist, permanently and entirely. Game over. I am not disturbed by this. I do not find it depressing, but natural. What I find disturbing are the masses of people too weak of conviction to join a church, mandir or temple, but still need affirmation.

America has traded the Dalai Lama for Stewart Smalley and this does not bode well.

Why do illiterates subscribe to magazines?

Last Wednesday was nice. I went to the range to spend some quality time with my .22. After which I went out for coffee. While relaxing at my table I decided to peruse one of my Yoga Journal magazines that have been piling up.

One letter to the editor was a scathing indictment of the American educational system. Allow me to sarcastically paraphrase:

Dear Yoga Journal,

Could you include a regular piece on celebrities who practice yoga? This would be inspirational. My role models have always been celebrities. My mommy was on drugs and never taught me that only idiots care about vapid pop culture trash.



WTF are people thinking? Some maleducated soul wasn't getting enough celebrity gossip from that rack at the grocery store, so she wrote in to Yoga Journal begging for MORE! Lets deconstruct this multi-storied layer cake of idiocy.

1) Yoga is about detachment. In Sanskrit, the word maya is used to describe material things and other minutia that distract us from the spiritual. I can't think of a more pointless distraction than celebrities. When's the last time you heard some enlightened person talk about Lindsay Lohan?

2) Celebrities are often the most materialistic, social climbing flakes in the world. Interest in them, should be a very guilty pleasure.

3) Yoga, like other Eastern disciplines, should improve the practitioner. Why would we want to read about people who, by and large, are not improved by their yoga practice? Yoga Journal has all manner of articles about people who've changed their lives, overcome obstacles, and helped others. This is why most of us buy the magazine. Motivation.


Either people are getting dumber, or I'm becoming less able to cope with them.

Peace.

Whatever will I do?

So the screenwriters have been on strike for a couple days now. What is the viewing public to do? How 'bout getting out of the house and hanging out with the three-dimensional people? That's right, everybody get a life. Most TV is crap anyway, which is why I don't get cable or network. I rent the occasional DVD. Das ist alles.

What are these people thinking? They're not important anymore. The general quality of programming is so poor most people I know could take it or leave it, with or without a strike. In the bad old days before Internet and video games, TV really had us over a barrel. Now, we'll just go do Other Stuff.

I honestly can't figure out how the major networks remain solvent. The quality of their product has not kept pace with it's competition. Who watches stuff like Big Brother, and why?

Anyway, the Writers Guild can write, or not. Apathy. Grips. Me.

Of arms and humanity



An old hippy once asked me, "How does a gun uplift the human spirit?" Indeed, this was an attempt to put me off my game and make me stumble. He figured I'd falter and admit guns in society were, at best, a necessary evil. No dice, my stinky friend. I answered thus, channeling Jeff Cooper:



Personal weapons raised humanity from the muck. A personal weapon allows a person dominance over her environment. An armed man or woman is no longer prey. The weak mammal that once had to flee for cover can now stand her ground. Stronger animals that once threatened her life are now just another source of protein.



Modern humans are not so removed from this scene. The threats and perils come in different forms, but they remain. The man or woman who is small, weak, elderly or infirm need not fear, because anyone with eyes can be a marksman. A marksman with a pistol is the dominant force within his or her 25 meter radius. Thus an individual without the physical attributes necessary for fist-fighting can be formidable in self-defense.



While the pistol is an excellent weapon of defense, the rifle is the greatest of all personal arms. The simple, cheap and obsolete service rifle of yesteryear can reach out at least 500 yards. Surplussed out and sold for less than $200, the rifleman on a tight budget can be suitably armed. Modern sporting rifles perform even better.



How do firearms uplift the spirit? Providing the weak and the singular tactical parity with the strong and the many is probably a good start.



Peace

I'm sure The KKK and the White Aryan Resistance have race politics as well...

This one comes via Kim Du Toit.



After his election victory in Louisiana on October 20, Bobby Jindal will take office in January as the first Indian American governor in the history of the USA. Although many in India look to him in pride, Ashish Kumar Sen wonders if such feelings are justified: “‘Bobby is a conservative Republican, and most Indian Americans aren’t, so there are a lot of mixed feelings about him,’ says Toby Chaudhuri, IALI [Indian American Leadership Initiative] spokesman. ‘It is hard to accept him when you scratch the surface. He has proved Indian Americans can achieve great things, but he doesn’t represent our community.’” And his diverse conversions don’t exactly encourage confidence: “He started life as Piyush but took the name Bobby from a character on the TV show The Brady Bunch. His conversion to Catholicism is just another example of what critics perceive as a shrewd move to further his political ambition. Joe Melookaran, former White House commissioner on Asian American and Pacific Islanders, admits that ‘being a Catholic made it a little easier’ for Jindal.”



Mr. Chaudhuri:

1) If you want to live in a country where race plays a central role in politics, move to Guyana. If you want to stay here in the promised land, grow up. This ethno-sectarian nonsense has no place in the melting pot. Some of us here take this melting pot thing seriously and envision a colorblind society. You atavistic morons are standing in the way.



2) Evidently I have more respect for your "community" than you do. Bobby Jindal (like many others who trace their ancestry to the Subcontinent) is an educated man, quite capable of formulating his own politics. Said politics have nothing to do with ethnicity. Expecting someone to be a liberal because he's Indian is just as racist as assuming he works at a Kwikee Mart. This conservative understands that.


3) Americans of South Asian descent do really well in this country without being nurtured by the nanny-state. Socialism will simply hold "your community" back. Think about it, Toby; Indians in America left a socialist economy in favor of capitalism. Is there any reason why you want to replicate what your parents decided to quit?


Namaste.