New Year, first day at the range...

So after coffee and breakfast I put the rifle in the Caravan and drove to the range and took point sixteen on Range 15. My goal was to become better with my Marlin 795 LTR.  Knowledge can go along way to making a shooter a rifleman with what he brought to shoot.

I started with Federals and wasn't happy, so I switched to Federal Champions, which seemed to work better. I was having some issues with the ejection not completing before feeding another round. So I looked hard at the ejector and put some leverage on it to bend it slightly to where I thought it should be. Suddenly I had a real semi-automatic rifle. I made some sight adjustments, D12 L4, then shot another target then D8, then shot another target and then R1. And I had not used the sling yet.

Finally, I moved the shooting bench, laid a mat down, and slung up and shot two five round magazines.



I am such an old fellow, still I was happy enough. To bring it all back home. Until the next time, I sure do need more practice, come on weather, just about ten degrees better and we will be rocking. I know I am old by the number of AR platforms on the rifle side of the range. So out of touch. And the communist rifles and bullets.

Ah, I have arrived at that old eccentric great uncle of wars no longer remembered...

A young lady I once knew, told me she had a great uncle that had fought in the Boxer Rebellion, now I knew, in 1966, there was no way a great uncle of such a beautiful young lady could have fought in the Boxer Rebellion. That was way back in the 19th Century, forever ago.  If he had been a young eighteen years old, adding another sixty-six years meant he had to be at least eighty-four. Yep, and he probably was, gosh I wish I could have talked to him. I keep forgetting my grand parents were all born in the 19th Century. Time barriers are so artificial, and mostly it is because we are so central to our lives that the past is to laugh about, or wonder upon.


The eccentric part I always thought was great, mind a little twisted by age or whatever, always not in sync with the latest trends and news and cultural waves, a funny old fellow to laugh at. I have been waking to the soft lights and glitter of the Christmas Tree in the living room, and it welcomes me warmly every morning, I am beyond the gifts just want the warm goodness waiting me in the darkness. I like it so much I toy with the idea I should just leave it up, I know there is another Christmas down the road of time, eleven months - no one visits - no one will notice if I wait until the blinds are drawn to light the tree, it will then be waiting for me, every morning. Christmas spirit all year, and that can't be bad, can it? Eccentric old man, there was a Paladin episode (see I really can remember things not too many talk about now) where an old man was defending his little spread from a bully and big rancher and called on Paladin to defend him. Have Gun Will Travel. He would have trouble taking his guns to town today, but that was then, and Paladin showed up and defended the old fool in court, explaining away all the eccentric behaviors as a fine relationship with the shortening of his remaining life and the joy of small things.

Cold outside, will roll the sleeping bag up, and take the rifle to the range. Pictures and report to follow. I was watching The Man from Snowy River and My Fair Lady yesterday. Got tired of Hollywood violence.

You know I don't think Hollywood and political correctness will win wars...

The Marines want a few good men, and many more really good women to become the few the proud the Marines. And they have some problems, with the women meeting the men's standards - mainly because they aren't men. Even reducing the standards and calling them the same, hasn't worked -- kind of taking forty high school folks, gender unknown, and throwing them together with a Hollywood Marine for eleven weeks and calling them Marines. That won't work the same as being in Boot Camp with real Drill Instructors, rifles and a program to find the few the proud the Marines. Then you can put them on a bus to go visit Fayetteville and tell those paratroopers who is the the best.

So anyway, some blogger wrote about it, and why women shouldn't be stuffed into combat roles to prove points, gender equalization and stupidity. Not real bad for a non-combat fellow, but except for proving that stupid people can't have any really great ideas, he had no experience in the real reasons why it doesn't work.

Basically biological. When I as a young man saw a female human I immediately started thinking about having sexual relations. Biological, doesn't matter about rules, laws, good sense or my higher mental capacity - females were to have sexual relations with... it is natural. When I see other men, they were to fight against to allow me to have all the females. That is biology, human reproductive biology.

Because this is so animal and we are supposed to be human I will have to allow my brain and higher thinking powers to come into the seeking sexual relations.  First I only want the most desirable, conditioned by cultural norms, although when things get really extreme almost any female would do...But I am still only a thinking animal, running on basic biologic functions.

Add a higher spiritual level and I want to have a woman as a partner in life to bear my children and raise them and make a home... which is a very high standard. The motivation, much of it biological and thinking human male, of such a creature, family and home almost guarantees that I will put my life on the line to protect that, all that I love. Even not having my own, still I will put my life on the line to protect that idea. I will never do it for money, for a country, for my fears, for my friends like I will for that fine dream of family.

To do it well, I will gather with other warriors, and train, and sing, and dance and boast and train and dance and sing and boast and train and dance and sing and boast and put on the war paint and go into the darkness after leaving our nice on the bunk until we come back. Then we meet the enemy and start killing, and killing, and dying, and killing and getting tired and killing and dying, and getting so tired and killing and dying more and continuously. Then peace. Or just a hot meal, or a full day of rest, or a hot shower that looks and feels like heaven - you remember hot showers don't you?

I remember standing watch outside a shower in Saudi Arabia while a female soldier took one, a hot shower, she didn't like being dirty. I would never have stood watch outside of a male soldier taking a shower. Hollywood would have written me into the shower, but Earl wouldn't have gone there. Earl doesn't have romances with his warriors, if you aren't going to do something with love - you really aren't going to do it well, are you?

I can tell you all the reasons that I don't want females in the combat roles - but mainly it is because our civilization will have lost by the time we have to put them there to protect our civilization. I think women should decide why they can't compete directly with the males on the field of battle, I have an idea that you couldn't even get enough female drone operators to manage all our drone operations. Just like you can't get enough women engineers. But you all keep trying.

I do think universal military training would be good for every young person in high school, and I do KNOW that there are positions in the military that women fill very well, often even better than men. But I haven't figured our how General Custer or Crazy Horse would have done as well as the modern warriors of the Marines with women infantry, cavalry at the Little Big Horn.

What I need women for is to make me civilized, what I need enemies for is to make me stronger, what I need God for is to make me my best for His purpose and his kingdom. Which is never stuck on the battlefield, God leaves no one stuck on the battlefield. Governments do, because they don't care and have no love of anything except the boss. So God isn't demanding females in combat, He didn't design them that way. Thank the Lord, Amen!

Hello, New Year, what's up?

I spent part of the first day of the New Year looking at making my Marlin 795LTR better, according to another shooter on the RWVA forum. He provided pictures and advice. I looked at the pictures and the advice and took my rifle apart to work on it, and looked again at my rifle. But I only did some minor filing to remove a little metal. I saw some advantage in polishing the magazine well, and might do that later. But I think most of his claims aren't real, but they make him happy. In the end I didn't do all he recommended, but I worked my magazines in and out of the well, made sure that I understand the sequence designed into the rifle by their engineers, why the pieces fit the way they do. I will be checking various types of 22LR this weekend, just to see what it likes best. Cleanliness and best ammunition are always big factors in rifle functioning on Appleseeds, the other one is the shooter's familiarity with the rifle, everything I have done with this rifle is good, seems well designed - but inexpensive, which isn't a problem as long as it is safe and built to last a bit. Like my M1, as I get familiar with it, and little stuff I find along the way, it will be a better rifle for me. I expect the Marlin will be also.

I will be trying to be a better Earl all this year. The most difficult thing so far was getting rid of the cough and congestion, which I think is gone as of today. One step at a time, and before 364 days have past, it will be an other New Year. See you then.

Restless night, and striking too close to home...

1:35 AM, and I am awake, not coughing dried out and going for a cup of coffee. My wife has girl K-Pop groups dancing and singing on the television. Better than infommercials by a bunch. She is sleeping  in the family room because I am restless and coughing periodically, likely because I don't know how to turn the cough off, there seems to be no mucus.

My wife found strange cars at the street entrance and behind my Caravan on our drive when she returned home yesterday evening she drove off and reported it to the old homeowners President, who had suffered two home break-ins this holiday season. No one has been caught, but the story on the street is that the folks renting the home two houses East of ours are the ones responsible. Warned now I can expect that today or tomorrow they will be moving out and on. Also that they might come back in January to strike some likely homes again. Leases normally end with the month and the year, even the ones supported by the State housing for poor folks.

Well, I have some Credit Unioning to do tomorrow, depositing rolled coins checking account balances. This is the end of the year and it has been a good one, not great but better than I need, but employment is a higher priority than wildly spending the future. Since Blogger keeps telling me I am logged on from somewhere else, the Chinese or former communist computer hackers might have my stuff. Oh, my!

Wounded Knee to be remembered, today...

I am still wandering the American Revolution as I try to recover my health, and both are slowly getting to a better state. I was reminded that Wounded Knee was today. Long ago, but a government that had parts that didn't care for all the people, since it still defines people as us and them. If you really think, that however the media is reporting what the two major political parties are doing is just, effective and necessary - then you are part of the same problem - George the Third or the Indian Department. Government is not a moral institution, it is an institution.

I wandered and found a blog post about a Libertarian that had to join the Democratic Party because the Libertarians were all clowns or nuts, I figured out quickly that he wasn't afraid of being a clown or a nut, he did join another political party, but he didn't want to feel like he was hurting the helpless... the idea that everyman should be free to be whatever clown or nut they want to be is true libertarian, not a political party, wasn't on his menu. Free to succeed or fail, Henry Ford, Walt Disney, Wright Brothers... no better examples of why governments can't control outcomes and shouldn't try.

One blog post wrote about instead of goals work on systems. Duh, you still want to make the shot perfect, but you actually work on the system to make that happen. I understood it immediately, that is how I do my Mathematics, I want an answer so I build a system to find it, I invent algebra once or twice a month to figure out the correct solution for a problem, when I worked in gunnery I memorized the systems, but when I got away from it, I built systems to find the solution, more time to do so.

The reason most people succeed or fail is that they tried and succeeded or didn't. The reason more people don't grow up nor old is they aren't trying, no growth without stimulation, mentally, physically or spiritually. Keep on trying, you haven't made that perfect shot yet, or if you have you may not own it, but you can.

Okay, I think it is time to join the continuing Revolution!

I am, and of course you are, although we may not both be the same (you are unique, and I am special) but I am accepting my responsibility to be part of the revolution. I am so tired of fighting the forces of evil, of corruption, of status quo, keeping it the same... so tired. Change like time is a constant, maybe nothing major but this not only isn't the best of my time on earth, I could make it even better. I don't think everyone understands that. I know that you do, but those others? There are people in positions of power, that keep you stuck in your rut, make sure they never fix the pot hole that is tearing your automobile up, make sure you must have something to feel accepted and one with everyone else. Bad people.

So, I don't need a King, a President, or a Captain to command my ship... I really don't. All the rules and wisdom I need to study has been written. Really, it isn't going to change that much. There hasn't been any human evolution since about fifty thousand years ago, and technical improvements and breeding and education haven't changed the human beings at all. Once medicine is developed with the ability to prevent deaths for certain illness, there will be deaths due to unknown illness, until we find the reason and a cure or preventative. In the end, we all die right here, or where we are at the moment of expiration - which we cannot predict unless we cause it.

I am going to work on those things that work in my life and I will assist those that want or need my help when asked if I have the ability or will or call to do so. Otherwise, I am getting off this train of current culture, lack of values, lack of morals, lack of faith (don't believe in God nor your fellow Men?) and for sure with the little time I have remaining I think I need to get off of the entertainment addiction to fill all the blank spots in my life. Like a telephone, internet or radio background noise - where did the need for constant stimulation come from? People once had lives, places to be, people to meet, people to love, adventures every time they left the cave - now they drive out of the garage and on down the road to where 'everyone knows', 'everyone says' and 'everyone does'. Boring.

Look at me. I will not be ruled.  I am in no state to be governed.  I will be represented by people the voters in my community elect.  I know they could be bought by special interest groups, be polished to look so much better than they really are, I know they will make sure they get paid every day they represent me - no matter how badly they do their job.  But they are only my representative, for what ever office they were elected to, and they will give more loyalty to the political party than to me the voter and citizen - because they aren't as smart as I am. And all the others in government service - are only civil servants, they should know that they should be proud of that, they are filling a function and a need. But they are only servants. They aren't going to make railroads run, they may stop them, they may fail to inspect something properly and cause a problem, but they don't start businesses - they normally stifle progress and profit, constantly slowing what they can control down... government would only release power by not regulating, restricting, or restructuring. And what we need to be in rebellion about is government bothering us constantly. The revolution can only be won when everyone gets older wiser and more responsible for their actions as part of the community - the world community.

I am only Earl, and the government won't worry about me, because my acts of rebellion and revolution are not going to affect it - there are too many people not joining me, or those others that are following a different path, a different drummer, a better way. As long as it seems I am getting along with the crowd, they won't notice that I am not smoking, drinking, chasing wild women (anyone this old likes the ladies to have better sense), I spent years in Europe. Asia and Americas, not drinking and still being politely social. If they think you are one way, they don't look to see you aren't, smile folks, especially if you are carrying a gun. Everyone knows that people with....  You will get what you expect or a gentle reminder that some of us aren't as smart as you and your friends are.  Have a wonderful life, beginning with today, for tomorrow will be an adventure.