Barb and her sister Nancy made it back from D.C. 20 minutes early last night and we went out to dinner at Outback (in part because of this).  Despite being tired from the travel and time difference they were very upbeat and talk about how wonderful the hospital (except for the food), volunteers, doctors, and therapists were.  They told me stories of Jason and others in the hospital how nearly everyone was so upbeat even though many of them had lost a great deal--arms, legs, eyes, brain injuries.  The helicopter pilot that lost her arm and both legs "tooling around in a wheelchair wearing a t-shirt that said, "It's a good thing my husband is a butt man."  Barb and Nancy were sorry for the losses but said they were being well taken care of and they all seemed proud of what they had contributed.  Barb said I really needed to go visit Jason and meet these heroes.  I want to but even as they were telling me of all our soldiers and how well they were doing the tears welled up.  It made me very sad.  I'm not sure I could do anything but cry if I went to visit.  I think we are doing the right thing in Iraq, but the losses make me very uncomfortable.  Although I sometimes say, "Too much sand, not enough glass"  I don't mean it.  I know that of the available options to us we are almost for certain going down the correct path.

Barb, Nancy, and I went to the Uncle Bonsai concert last night and enjoyed it.  I wanted to hear more of their old songs but they had new material and I hadn't really heard all of the stuff that has been out for a while.  I never listened to anything but a little bit of their "Doug" album.  After hearing a couple of the songs last night I listened to the entire album this morning.  Some of the songs were sad and it probably affected me more than usual because of the stories from Walter Reed.

When we got back from the concert I did a very quick check of my email and I found out Bob Coval died yesterday.  We knew it was coming (low bandwidth version here) but still a great sadness swept over me.  Since I've been over here this last week I had been thinking about Bob frequently.  I should visit him or at least find out when he died.  I didn't really want to know though.  Now I know.

This morning Nancy announced it was 6:00 AM and they needed to leave right away.  One short night is all I got with Barb before she headed home again.  They need to leave early because I-90 is one lane in both directions in parts of Snoqualmie pass because of rock slide.  The state transportation department is saying there could be long delays over this holiday week.  Five hours was mentioned but that could be for next Sunday night when the really heavy traffic occurs.  I'm hoping to go home on Wednesday night.  I didn't even try to get an airplane ticket because they sell out a couple months in advance over Thanksgiving.  That means I need to try and get over the pass at a high traffic time.  And over course coming back Sunday night will be hell.  It might be that the return trip will be best done via Portland.  It's normally a nine hour drive but that will be better than 10 or 12 hour drive over the traffic clogged pass (which is normally a five hour drive).

I was at my first IDPA match Saturday until just before I went to the airport to pick up Barb and Nancy.  The match went pretty well.  Lots of rules to process on a continuous basis after the buzzer goes off.  It's not like IPSC where you often get to "shoot them as you see them."  Gaming is still present just less obvious.  Thanks to Wendell for arranging a group of us to attend together.  Robin, Sean, and I had dinner at his place with Hobbit Friday night.  Robin and I were in pain from laughing at the S&W (Sean and Wendell, not Smith and Wesson) rendition of Whale.avi (S&W were far better than the real thing).  Then we all were in the same squad for the match on Saturday.  It was most pleasant company for both Friday evening and Saturday.

So... I'm alone here in front of my computer thinking about Bob, Jason and our other heroes that have lost so much, Barb leaving after spending just a few hours, and I will have some long drives to visit home over Thanksgiving.  I think it will be best if I get out and do my National Ammo Day purchases.  I wanted to do it yesterday but the IDPA match and spending time with Barb were higher priorities.  Anything to get out and moving will be better than here.

I'll be back with something more upbeat later.

If you had to choose between saving The Lying Bastard of Pennsylvania Avenue from drowning in a vat of steaming bubbling pig shit and taking a Pulitzer Prize winning photograph...

 ...what f-stop would you use?

Inquiring minds want to know

Ward Dorrity
Friday, December 04, 1998 2:49 PM
SOC Constitutional Infringement Issues
Microsoft Public Folder
[Check the date.--Joe]

A attorney who in specializes in self-defense told me that of the 300 clients who said something to the police before talking to him, only two managed to NOT hurt their case.  Those two didn't help their case, they just didn't hurt it any.  If you are involved in a shooting, call the police, physically cooperate with them, but don't say anything except you want to call your attorney.

Greg Hamilton
Self Defense Instructor
Nov. 19, 1995

If the vote was 44,000 to 38,000 would you say the voters were "evenly divided" on the issue?  How about 44 to 38?  I haven't done the statisical tests on the significance of a sample size of 82 but my gut feel is you can't justifiably call that "evenly divided".  Yet that is what this newspaper article does:

The issue of handgun control is a controversial one, with many people saying curbs on sales of handguns will reduce crime, while others feel it’s important to protect Americans’ constitutional right to own firearms.

Visitors to the Star Courier’s Web site were evenly divided on the question last week.

The online poll asked whether people favored tougher restrictions on buying handguns in Illinois.

Of the 82 who voted, 44, or 54 percent, said “no” and 38 said “yes.”

I think I see some spin being placed on the outcome.  Either that or the Star Couier Staff need to retake 1st and 2nd grade math.

I had the most vivid dream this morning.  It was the most detailed dream I can ever recall having.  The conversation with my dad as we walked alone the fence was detailed and I could "hear" the tone in my fathers voice and the heavier breathing as we walked through the deep snow.  The trail in the snow had footprints that were both fresh and old.  The sounds of our feet on the cold, dry snow was accurate.  The dog we found caught in the barbed wire gate that had fallen down was whimpering and scared.  It did a realistic "happy dance" running in circles and licking me after I freed it.  Then I noticed the reason the gate had fallen down.  The ground had bulged up and hot water was pouring out of the cracks in the earth.  The bulge had tipped the gate post over enough the gate fell to the ground.  A river of hot steaming water washed across the road north of the old blacksmith shop and down through woods toward the old well.  The little meadow in the woods that always had less snow that other areas now was green with growing grass even though it was the middle of winter and other areas had five to six feet of snow.  The smell was like that of the hot springs Barb and I visited at Yellowstone National Park this summer.  We had a geothermal vent a couple hundred feet from my brother's back door.

I woke up as I realized the impact this could have on the farm.  Best case was my brothers and parents had a source of cheap heat for the shop and their homes.  But if this was a precursor to a Mt. St. Helen's scale eruption the entire farm would be gone.  Orofino could be at the bottom of a lake formed by the backed up river just two miles from the farm.  Lewiston and Clarkston, 35 miles down river, could be scoured clean from the valley floor as the ash and earthen formed natural dam gave way and a wall of water rushed down the narrow valley.

I'll be visiting my parents for Thanksgiving.  I'll need to walk down through the pasture to dispel the images from my mind.

... we may indicate three minimum requirements that must be fulfilled before any belief can claim the status of knowledge:  (a) a belief must be base on evidence; (b) a belief must be internally consistent (i.e. not self-contradictory); (c) a belief cannot contradict previously validated knowledge with which it is to be integrated.  If a belief fails to meet any or all of these criteria, it cannot properly be designated as knowledge.

George H. Smith
From: Atheism: the Case Against God
[Gun control advocates, socialists, and other anti-freedom advocates would do well to understand the difference between belief and knowledge as outlined by Smith above.--Joe]

I wonder if Monica and Bill have heard the news:

US researchers studying the effects of human papilloma virus (HPV), a leading cause of cervical cancer in women, have found a connection between the virus and instances of mouth tumours.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University compared 1,670 patients who had oral cancers to 1,732 healthy people and HPV was found in a small number of the cancer patients. Those infected carried HPV16, the most common strain of the virus, which in Britain is estimated to infect one fifth of women between 18 and 25.

The study showed that people with mouth tumours containing the HPV16 strain were three times more likely to have had oral sex than those whose tumours did not contain the virus. 

Raphael Viscidi, a virologist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine said that the study is very decisive. "This is a major study in terms of its size," he says. "I think this will convince people."

While the US researchers said there was no need for people to alter their behaviour, this was not the line taken by the head of a similar study in Sweden.

Dentist and researcher Kerstin Rosenquist headed a smaller study conducted at the Malmoe University Faculty of Odontology in southern Sweden that showed the same connection between HPV and oral sex. Rosenquist found that 36% of the cancer patients were carriers of HPV while only 1% of the control group had the virus.

She said, "You should avoid having oral sex."

"In recent years (oral cancer) has been on the rise among young individuals and we don't know why. But one could speculate that this virus (HPV) is one of the factors," Rosenquist said.

There is a very promising vaccine that should soon reduce the risk some.

Sean sent me this link early this morning.  We then chatted about where to find an old washing machine (he has an old one but isn't ready for it to be deconstructed yet) and a place to try a similar experiment of our own.  I suggested a dump--we might find the desired object(s) and wouldn't have to clean up afterward.  Sean said it was a good idea and maybe we would get lucky and ignite the methane escaping from the rotting organic matter in the dump.  That was when I realized it wasn't such a good idea.  It would be impossible to determine the minimum safe distance from which to view the deconstruction of the home appliance(s).  If the entire landfill went up in one fireball.... well... it would be thrilling until it came back down on top of us.

They cost about $2.00 each and from the video I'm guessing they are equivalent to a few ounces of "Boomerite".  Nice packaging.

The economic egalitarianism of the liberal ideology implies ... the reduction of Westerners to hunger and poverty.

James Burnham
Suicide of the West
1964

Gun Guys claim Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito is:

Known consortion with practically criminal organizations, including the NRA.

When the truth is that it is the people in groups like the VPC and Gun Guys actually are criminals.

If it were only true that Alito has a NRA membership.

If you stop to think, men should be the ones riding sidesaddle.

You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.

Aristophanes
[When reading this I immediately thought of the two Senators from New York.--Joe]

It has been said that if you build a better mouse trap the world will beat a path to your door.  I'm not so sure that is true but no matter.  The more sexually aware of you will know the Sybian has been around for several years and gets a lot of praise.  I've talked with several women that have tried it.  Awesome reviews.  It would be more than a little intimating if you thought the primary reason your woman hung around was for the orgasms.  But then you knew that already.

But what I'll bet you didn't know is that in Moscow, Idaho there is a guy building prototypes of a better machine.  Cheaper and more natural in action.  Same great results.  I know three woman that have tested one or more of the prototypes and gave them very positive, if somewhat incoherent (oh, oh, oh, oh my god...), reviews.  I haven't checked with him on his machines for a year or more not and should do that.  It's not exactly a mouse trap, in fact it is sort of the opposite of a mouse trap.  But I wish him luck in his endeavor.  I just wish I could help out in his research.  Surely he needs some good photographs taken or something...

Q: What should you do if a pit bull is humping your leg?
A: Fake an orgasm.

This so reminds me of the government trying to "help".  You certainly don't want to resist their "help".  That will only make things worse.

Ry sent me an instant message today with a link.  The plans to take the UK another step closer to a police state have been leaked to the press:

A "24x7 national vehicle movement database" that logs everything on the UK's roads and retains the data for at least two years is now being built, according to an Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) strategy document leaked to the Sunday Times. The system, which will use Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR), and will be overseen from a control centre in Hendon, London, is a sort of 'Gatso 2' network, extending. enhancing and linking existing CCTV, ANPR and speedcam systems and databases.

Which possibly explains why the sorcerer's apprentices in ACPO's tech section don't seem to have needed any kind of Parliamentary approval to begin the deployment of what promises to be one the most pervasive surveillance systems on earth.

The control centre is intended to go live in April of next year, and is intended to be processing 50 million number plates a day by year end. ACPO national ANPR co-ordinator John Dean told the Sunday Times that fixed ANPR cameras already exist "at strategic points" on every motorway in the UK, and that the intention was to have "good nationwide coverage within the next 12 months." According to ACPO roads policing head Meredydd Hughes, ANPR systems are planned every 400 yards along motorways, and a trial on the M42 near Birmingham will first be used to enforce variable speed limits, then to 'tackle more serious crime.'

My new friend who wants to put the chips in everyone's head would do well to watch this and see where it leads.  A lot of us will be watching.  There are lots of changes going on in the U.K.  This is a scary time to have friends or family there.

Steve at random thoughts is from England and has some questions about why we have such an intense interest on being able to carry concealed.  In one link (I don't have time for this until tonight) this is my answer.

Be gentle.  He is a friend of mine.

Update: Steve and I had lunch together today.  After chatting about "old times" and catching each other up on the people we both knew, the beauty of Montana, traveling with kids, how he met his wife, and a few other odds and ends he asked what I thought of his post.  "No", I told him, "You didn't sound a like a liberal gun hater.  You were thoughtful and asked a good question."  Then I went about trying to answer his questions.  I explained that with all the studies that have been done they are unable to show any benefit from gun control.  There are between 1.5 and 3 million defensive uses of guns each year with only about 10 thousand crimes committed with guns.  Criminals, who violate the laws against murder, rape, and assault, will be less affected by any gun control efforts than the "good guys" that will be deprived of the tools to defend themselves.  And putting the onus on the gun controller I ask them my One Question.

Steve listened careful, understood what I was saying, but didn't commit himself one way or the other.  That's fine with me.  I enjoyed the time with him and that's what was important.

To walk into the lobby of a hotel, to see a wedding procession and to take your spouse with you into that wedding and blow yourself up — these people are insane.

King Abdullah of Jordan
November 13, 2005
From http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,251-1871428_1,00.html
[Or they are showing their dedication--their willingness to die for their cause.  This atrocity reminds me there is some symmetry in this conflict.--Joe]

Now that Analog Kid has posted the results I'll explain how I was going to "game" the October postal rifle match Analog Kid called "The Black Death".  Because you can shoot the target as many times as you want what I was going to do was put up ten targets at 200 yards.  Then:

1. Take one shot at each of the smallest, 0.5", squares.  With no wind I can connect with a 0.5" square at 200 yards about 48% of the time as predicted by Modern Ballistics.  With 10 shots I should hit five of them.
2. On the five targets I hit the 0.5" square on I would shoot at the 0.75" inch square.  The odds of touching a 0.75" square is predicted to be 63%.  With five shots I should hit three of them.
3. On the three targets I hit the 0.75" square I would shoot at the 1.0" target.  The odds of touching a 1.0" square is predicted to be 75%.  With three shots I should hit two of them.
4. On the two targets I hit the 1.0 target I would shoot at the 1.25" target.  The odds of touching a 1.25" square is predicted to be 83%.  With two shots I should hit one of them.
5. On that target I would shoot the rest of the squares with the odds of 90%, 96%, 99%, 99.8%, and 99.99% of hitting the 1.5", 2.0", 2.5", 3.0", and 3.5" targets.  The odds of connecting on all of them is predicted to be 85%.

So...with 25 shots I have an 85% chance of creating a clean target at 200 yards.  With 50 shots I have a 98% chance of doing it.

Unfortunately I procrastinated too much and didn't make time to get out to the range until it was raining and almost dark.

Lots of little things went wrong but it went fairly well overall.

I got through big stack of paperwork in orientation without a hitch and arrived at the work-site one minute early.  The guy that walked in the door just ahead of me used to run the Tuesday night handgun league at one of the shooting ranges.  We probably haven't seen each other in five years or so.  I chatted a bit with him as he picked up a temporary badge and I checked in with the receptionist.

The guy I was supposed to report to didn't answer the phone and the receptionist sent him an email.  About 20 minutes later another guy I used to work with at Chromium Communications and one of my firearms students showed up to have a meeting with people at my new employer.  We chatted for about five minutes and the receptionist made attempts to find someone else to come out and greet me.  The guy I was supposed to meet finally showed up about 30 minutes late with the excuse that his phone was turned off or something.  Whatever... it doesn't matter.  Just lead me to my office and computer.  Oh, the computer that has been on order for me for two weeks still isn't here.  We had to scrounge for one.

I had a domain account and password but when I tried to set up my email the Outlook Exchange server said the account didn't exist.  Checking with other people revealed some servers recognized me and others didn't.  It probably will just take some time for the email alias to propagate to all the servers.  It still hadn't made it to my server by 17:30 when I left for the day.

As various programs were installing I started reading up on C# and wrote my first "Hello world!" program in it.  That will be the dominate language in this new job.  It's past time I learned it and it's great they are paying me to do so.

Probably the most amazing thing to me is that just a few months ago both Ry and I were living in Moscow 300 miles from where we now work and now we are working so close to each other that we can easily walk to lunch together.  And there was no "intervention" by him to get me my job or vice versus.

Gun Guys put up this post about a lawsuit that may be dismissed because of the recent law passed by Congress on frivolous anti-gun legal actions.  I've read the post three times now and still can't make sense of it.  The facts are that a lawsuit was in the works blaming the manufacture, the dealer, a gun show operator, and "others" for the shooting of one Daniel Williams.  The gun used by the "mutant" shooter was illegally purchased at the gun show by one James Nigel Bostic. The Gun Guys say:

James Nigel Bostic is a criminal, and his criminal negligence costed Williams and many other victims of violence many things, physically and financially. Williams was a star high school basketball player, and lost a scholarship because of the shooting. Because of Bostic’s criminal actions (Buffalo News documented his straw purchases in a previous article), Daniel Williams’ life is forever changed.

And yet, because of the gun immunity bill (now the gun immunity law, passed by Congress under the gun industry’s lobbying), James Nigel Bostic will likely never see a day in court with Daniel Williams.

...

Because of this law, hundreds if not thousands of illegal dealers like Bostic will never see their day in court.

What they don't mention is that in the source article for their posting is that Bostic is in prison because of his illegal purchases.

So Bostic broke the law, went to jail for it and Gun Guys are whining that he won't have a day in court for his crime?

I guess the post doesn't have to make sense to their audience--it just has to arrive at the conclusion that makes them feel good.

[For my kids in school.]

10. You can usually find someone to do it with.
9. If you get tired, you can stop, save your place, and pick up where you left off.
8. You can finish early without feelings of guilt or shame.
7. When you open a book, you don't have to worry about who else has opened it.
6. A little coffee and you can do it all night.
5. If you don't finish a chapter, you won't gain a reputation as a "book teaser".
4. You can do it, eat and watch TV all at the same time.
3. You don't get embarassed if your parents interrupt you in the middle.
2. You don't have to put your beer down to do it.

and the number one reason is .....

1. If you aren't sure what you're doing, you can always ask your roommate for help!

I was talking with a new friend the other night--"Solving the worlds problems".  And his solution was two fold; 1) Sterilize everyone at birth, 2) Put a chip, with a GPS and radio transmitter, in everyone's skull at birth.

His thinking on item 1) was that after people really wanted kids then they would be able to get the sterilization reversed (we are talking utopia here, not the reality that many sterilizations can't be reversed).  With only wanted kids the quality of the childhood environment would go up drastically and crime, child abuse, gangs, drug use, etc. would drastically reduce and our looming exhaustion of natural resources would be relieved.  On item 2) it was his belief that this would almost completely solve all crime where the criminal planned/hoped to escape.  His biggest concern was how to deal with all the police, prosecutors, judges, lawyers, and prison personal that would be put out of work by his grand plan.

I think I bruised my jaw from it hitting the floor so hard.  Apart from all the unsurmountable technical problems, with both 1) and 2), his ideas fail my Jews in the Attic Test in the most spectacle fashion I have ever seen.  I outlined the test and said his ideas would usher in a police state and result in the deaths of millions.  His response was that he would get rid of religion too so there wouldn't be any need to hide "Jews in the Attic".

Yup.  There really are people like that out there.  I tell you...just don't get weirded out when someone starts talking and they will tell you the most "interesting" things.

He's a nice guy and I like him.  He's very entertaining--but I don't want him voting.

Neglect of an effective birth control policy is a never failing source of poverty which, in turn, is the parent of revolution and crime.

Aristotle
[This topic was brought up yesterday by someone I was talking to.  More details on the proposed solution later.--Joe]

This was surprisingly tough.  The area of the targets is proportional to the square of the diameter.  Those small dots are tough to hit.  Click on the picture for the hires version.  If you put an overlay on the bullets near the 40 point dots on the upper right and the lower right the bullet did intersect the spot.

I started my collection of quotes and things in '84. I now have over 8000 of them.  A lot are jokes and "fortune cookie" type things.  And a lot are quotes of dead presidents and politicians, that sort of thing.  But also I have collected quotes of some of the more interesting people I know.  If you ask the right question at the right time it's amazing what people will tell you.

I know a guy that, even though a multi-millionaire, considered himself failing in his quest for more money.  I asked him what he would consider rich, in his terms.  He told me:

I will consider myself rich when I'm standing on the moon with the sunlight reflecting of my visor as I'm looking at my initials carved into the soil. They will be big enough and deep enough that when people on the earth look up they can see I was there.

That was just his start.  He also wants to be immortal and be the first man to set foot on Mars.

Barb says that I seem to attract "interesting" (my word, not hers--she uses "different", "strange" and "weird" a lot) people.  What is amazing to me is how people will open up to you and tell you things if you let them.  Just don't get all weird on them if they start talking about things that are a little "different".  For example, Susie:

I was driving around late one night and turned around in a motel parking lot. These two truck drivers asked me to have coffee with them ... it was the first time I ever had sex with two men at the same time.  It was like being plugged into an electric circuit -- I knew then I could never be in a sexually monogamous relationship again.

Susie
Member of a swingers club.
December 9, 1997

I'm going to branch out into the more "interesting" side of human sexuality here from time to time.  There are some people that read this blog (or might) that about now are probably getting a little "concerned" about the quotes I might attribute to them.  Stay calm.  If I decide to use some of your "interesting" material that you probably would prefer remain private I'll strip out all the identifying material before publishing it.

Mostly cats with one porn shot.

All the advances that mankind has made over his environment have been done using a formal system whereby man has hypothesized, "If I observe A then I can conclude B" and thereafter presenting the hypothesis and the formal system to the scrutiny of others.

Dave Smead
[I include political environment in this line of thought.  Anti-freedom bigots apparently use some other failed system.--Joe]

Almost two months ago Ben tagged me with this post and said:

5) I’m passing this meme on to:

Kirk at Limpidity, as he hasn't posted or emailed in awhile;

AnalogKid at RandomNuclearStrikes, as he is one of my favorites nowadays;

and Joe Huffman. I just can't see him having a big Styx collection that he rocks out to on Saturday nights.

No Styx at all.  But at this minute on this Saturday night I'm listening to Ten Years After, A Space in Time.  A few minutes ago it was Uncle Bonsai, The Inessential Uncle Bonsai.

I didn't really mean to wait this long before responding.  I had to think about it some.  Since we had our first kid, 21 years and nearly five months ago we pretty much stopped listening to music.  When the kid(s) were awake music would have just added to the din.  When they were quiet (asleep) we were so grateful for the quiet we just enjoyed the silence.  When driving alone I usually have some talk radio station on.  Music?  Hmmm... maybe when I'm cleaning house or something.

I'm in my new digs in the Seattle area now and feeling a little sad and alone.  I bought some decent speakers for my computer for the first time and after listening to some Boomershoot sounds put on some music to test them out.  It sounds good.  It helps bring the mood up a bit.  On the drive over I played music in the most geeky way I could think: I played Elvis, The Ventures, and Uncle Bonsai on the laptop computer running off the inverter, the laptop sound output went into a small FM transmitter which I either played into the FM receiver in my new cell-phone and headphones or through the car radio.  The laptop also had Microsoft Streets and Trips with the GPS unit running to track my speed, altitude, and of the course exact position.  Then there was the walkie-talkie on my arm to communicate chat with Barb and her sister in the Jeep.  They came over to catch a cheap flight to the D.C. area to visit Jason.

So... anyway on to the music meme (and Van Halen on the computer):

1) How much music do I have?

Probably 100 albums total.  About an even split between CD's, cassette tapes (I used to see lots of eight tracks but never had one myself), and vinyl albums.  I haven't listened to vinyl since Kim (or was it Xenia?) broke the needle on the turntable when she was just a toddler.  James broke it too and we replaced it only to have it destroyed again by one of his sisters.

2) What was the last CD I bought?

Probably the complete collection of Uncle Bonsai a few months ago.  I'm not sure.  I had a couple of their albums on a pirated cassette and really wanted it legit and in good quality.

3) What am I listening to right now?

You Really Got Me, Van Halen.

4) Five songs I listen to that mean a lot to me?

N/A is probably the best answer.  Music doesn't doesn't really have "meaning" for me.  It's a pleasant distraction from boredom.  If pressed for something more than that I would say That's What You Get for Loving Me, by Gordon Lightfoot.  I don't listen to it very often, maybe once every couple of years.  But over 30 years ago Barb and I were listening to Gordon Lightfoot in the car while parked overlooking Orofino and the Clearwater valley.  I decided I would kiss her for the first time when the next song came on.  That was the song.  Then there was Having My Baby (You're) that played on the radio immediately after another milestone in our relationship.  I can't remember the last time I listened to that.

5) I’m passing this meme on to:

Whoever wants it.

Apparently there was a repeat of the Evening Magazine episode on Boomershoot.  I just received several queries about the next event.  Get your entries in early this year!

Labia majora, n:  The curly gates.

I have my own reloading press and have reload 9mm, .40 S&W, .223, 30.06, and 300 Win Mag.  These days it's mostly .40 S&W and I probably average few hundred rounds a month.  My guess is I'm on the low to mid range in terms of home reloaders.  Ry points out someone on the high end.

People who falsify history don't rescue freedom, they jeopardize it.

Vaclav Havel
President of Czechoslovakia
[In similar words, President Bush in a speech yesterday said, While it's perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began. -- Joe]