Ugly Gun Sunday

A counterpoint to Xavier's Smith & Wesson barbecue gun. While I actually wouldn't call this gun ugly, since the artwork is well executed, I would call it odd.



This post will mark the last (temporarily) ugly gun post here for an indefinate period. Xavier has graciously agreed to continue finding outstanding examples of bad taste, and post them for the rest of us to appreciate. Thanks Xavier!



Posting will resume when I have access to the internet and the Army security systems allow access.

Last Day At Work

In which the pantheon of radiology gods crapped all over me. As our major exam physicians are on vacation, we've reduced staffing for the week, rotating days off. Except that the person I was supposed to work with today was practicing her dinosaur calls in the bathroom all night, so I was called in the early morning for the purpose of being told to get my butt in ASAP as there were patients waiting, and no tech. Followed by a dog pile of unscheduled exams tacked on by various doctors wanting the exams done Right Now, cause its Friday, and they don't want to be here late. Followed by the Amazing Surprise Patient who showed up at the desk for an exam that nobody in his doctor's office bothered to mention to us last week when they told him to show up. Followed by the lice-infested patient. Followed by the last-minute abscess drain that the floor had known about for the last six hours. Followed by the working around the moderately controlled schizophrenia symptoms for a catheter placement. Followed by getting to be on-call tonight, and maybe tomorrow, depending on tonight's retch factor for the originally scheduled tech.

Sixteen hours on sitting in a plane bound for Egypt isn't looking all that bad tonight.

And what kind of man puts a toupee on his monkey?

Is Anyone Actually Surprised By This?

I'm somewhat suprised it took this long. In a nation that's currently the most pro-jihad area outside Saudi, I thought she'd be dead in less than a week after getting off the plane. I don't expect to see another female head of state in Pakistan in my lifetime. More photos over at Free Market Fairy Tales.

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had as pleasant a Christmas as I've had. Lots of positive family interaction, way too much food, the better part of a Sam Adam's winter sampler twelve-pack, cards from friends & family, and some very thoughtful gifts. Which, speaking of cards, apparently some people are offended when Christmas cards mention the Christian faith. So upset they feel the need to bring it up on their nationally televised kitchen gossip chat show.
What happened to all that love and understanding for everyone that comes with being a dedicated multi-culturist? Gotta love that insightful, well-reasoned statement: "Don't you think it's interesting the President of all the people is sending out a religious Christmas card?" I'm really looking forward to the outrage when she gets an Easter card mentioning the Resurrection. "Can you believe this? What's the President doing dragging religion into a celebration of the Easter Bunny?"

(disclosure note: I'm personally an atheist, albeit one who bases his ethical practices on my Protestant roots, and apparently appreciates the role of Christianity in Western culture more than a number of people who are nominally Christians. And given my choice, I prefer Christians; they've overwhelmingly moved past killing people for different beliefs a long time ago, and most of the atheists I've met seem to be sour, left-leaning individuals.)

Hat tip to MsUnderestimated.

Sunday Ugly Gun Post

The very first Thompson-Center Contender......OK, so maybe not. For those less acquainted with old military hardware, we have a bobbed Mosin-Nagant in what appears to be a hand-sawn stock made from an old 2x6. I'd think its safe to assume the chambering is still 7.62 x 54, which would give an impressive muzzle flash and some wicked recoil on firing.

Just One More Wafer Thin Mint......

There's a reason why you can find a higher percentage of fat people on the hospital staff than the general population. Odd (if any) times for meals, picking what's available immediately, eating late at home after a double shift, and above all, having obscene amounts of starch/refined sugar/fat laden foods at hand. Today, in a department staffed with eight people, the following was sitting behind our nursing desk: cinnamon rolls, meat & cheese tray, assorted chocolates, a 12 x 18 inch roasting pan of home made cookies/sweets/sugar-coated stuff, and four different types of cheesecake. At the rate we're going, I expect to find a hog on a spit back there by Monday.

One More For The Road: Model 1895 Nagant

Another impulse buy. If I'm within 60 miles of a gunshow, I might as well just pull money out of the ATM and go first thing. I managed to restrain myself until Sunday afternoon for this one, but when I actually had to run an errand where I was within a quarter mile of the show, I couldn't resist any longer. This particular revolver was made in 1931, and has been nicely government refinished. It took me a bit to figure out the ejection system on this piece, as most of my revolvers were made after the 1950s, and are considerably more user friendly. Unfortunately I won't have time to order up factory ammo for it before I leave, and given the prices, I'll probably end up using cast bullet handloads when I get home. Something to look forward to, and a way to burnish the reputation at the gun club as "that guy who shoots that weird foreign crap".

I Hate Winter

I got a phone call at work from The Wife today that we had water coming leaking in part of the flat roof on our addition. That was at 11:30 in the morning. When I got home at 11:00 PM from work, I got to squeeze through a second story window to see what was going on. Which was four inches of snow on top of three to eight inches of ice. Couldn't break it with the shovel, couldn't break it with a sledge hammer. Tomorrow, we'll see what happens with the fifty pounds of ice melt on it.

Sunday Ugly Gun Post

I think the wood on this one is just odd. It looks like the owner couldn't decide if he wanted some type of early benchrest rifle, or wanted a hunting rifle with sling swivels and express sights, so he did both. I'd guess this was somewhat uncomfortable to carry in the field for any length of time.

Moonbat Spotting

Found parked next to my gas-guzzling, environmentally unfriendly Jeep:




Not seen in this photo: The Prius hybrid logo on the side of the vehicle. I didn't wait around to see if the owner had Birkenstocks, hemp clothing, and a ponytail.

Ugly Gun Sunday

This is what happens when you think aesthetics is something they give you during surgery.

Getting Short....

to getting back in uniform for an extended period. During last weekend's drill my departure date was updated to a nearer date. I'll be in at least three different states before heading overseas, then over to another desert. Fortunately, they actually issued me two sets of uniforms and various basic gear. Unfortunately, I still have no field gear, including cold weather equipment, so I have to cross my fingers and hope the state is on the ball before I go. Otherwise, I'll be running around in a mixed lot of obsolete gear every time the temp drops below sixty degrees.

Since time is so short, I've been going through a list of tasks "suggested" by the wife, including having the garage completely squared away. Which is how I've spent most of today, except for finally changing the oil in the bike; it's not too bad draining the old oil once the engine is warmed up, but at nine degrees above zero, pouring the new oil is sloooooooooow when it's left in the garage. Once I park it for storage, that's it until spring 2009. A year without riding. Yay.

Sunday Ugly Gun Post

Sorry I'm late....Guard drill in a town much further away than usual combined with freezing rain this weekend screwed the schedule. Anyhoo....

1950s kitsch stock styling combined with 1980s survivalist supressor combined with 1990s massively oversized scope equals.....three decades of bad taste.

Yum....

Harp Irish lager for $6.79 for a six pack at the local grocery tonight. Smooth alcoholic goodness, taking me back to college in Iowa City, where there was a small Irish pub a mere six blocks from my abode. Serving Irish and English brews, a long, dark hardwood bar almost the length of the bar, and (horrors! the liability risk!) a genuine dartboard with no electronics where score was kept on a chalkboard, and you brought your own darts or didn't play.

Urp

How better to start the day than walking through the door to the vascular lab, having a greenish pregnant co-worker run up to you, and beg you to gear up so she can go hurl?

Ugly Gun Sunday

Hat tip to View From The Porch for this one. This one gets noticed not just for the inherently horrible choice of pink, but for the poorly thought out barrel. If that abomination of taste is ever used defensively, good luck explaining to the jury why you felt the need to have that engraved on the barrel. Maybe for your next gun, you could get something with a longer barrel. One that "Judge, Jury, & Executioner" could fit on.

Having A Badge Doesn't Mean You're A Peace Officer

See why over at Xavier's.

And by the by, the deputy in question is, in my opinion, a shit-stain upon the honor of decent peace officers. And I say that as someone who held a reserve badge and put down a fair number of critters while wearing it.

I'm Old.

As in, I've started wearing my bifocals today. This is definitely going to take time to get used to. I'm planning on getting out to the range this weekend also, so that should be interesting. Given that I've been taught that the front sight should be the object in sharp focus, I expect it shouldn't be a problem, and possibly better as my prescription had changed a bit.

Other than that, in a few hours I'll be riding The Wife's bike back from the shop for winter storage at home. If I'm lucky, the temperature will be in the low forties for the ride. Cagers get some interesting expressions on their faces when a bike goes flying past them in November around here. Fortunately I have enough leather to outfit a German S&M club, so I should be able to keep the cold out.

Laws Are For The Little People

Proposal seeks banning immigrant raids in D.M.

A proposal to prohibit local law enforcement officials from conducting raids on illegal immigrants in Des Moines was presented to at least one City Council member recently.Councilwoman Christine Hensley said Sunday that she spoke about six weeks ago with representatives of two immigration-rights groups that presented a plan that would block local city departments - including the police - from conducting raids on immigrants or inquiring about a person's immigration status.
Aspects of the proposal, brought up Sunday at an immigration forum, are similar to a national trend of "sanctuary cities.""They're looking at ordinances that have been passed in other parts of the country that would address that ," Hensley said. "It's really important to emphasize it's in the very, very beginning stages of discussion."Hensley said the impetus for the ordinance is illegal immigrants who fear raids and do not come to work, incurring costs on their employers.
"What I suggested to them is there has to be a lot of discussion about it and whether or not there's really a problem," she said.Details on the plan and its chances of becoming an ordinance are unknown.Alex Orozco, executive director of the Iowa-based Network Against Human Trafficking who is one of the people who met with Hensley, said Sunday he is trying to set up a meeting with Des Moines Mayor Frank Cownie before the end of the year.Orozco would not name the other immigration-rights group involved in the proposal.
Orozco declined to elaborate on specifics of the proposal except to say that "the ordinance would make it harder to conduct raids" and "all the city departments would be involved."Hensley said she didn't have more details about the plan.Councilmen Tom Vlassis, Bob Mahaffey and Michael Kiernan each said they had not heard of the plan.Cownie, Councilmen Brian Meyer and Chris Coleman could not be reached for comment.Orozco said media coverage of the plan while it is still in the preliminary stages would hurt its chances of passage. "We don't want anybody with hard feelings about this issue to get mad when we haven't even finalized it," he said.
Orozco had made a reference to the proposal earlier Sunday at an immigration forum at Plymouth Congregational Church in Des Moines.Even without all the details, some aspects of the proposal appear to mimic a nationwide trend: so-called "sanctuary cities" that direct local police not to look for violations of immigration law.The term "sanctuary city" has come under scrutiny, said Tim Counts, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, adding that there is no legal definition.
Counts said that as far as he knew, any city ordinance would not interfere with federal agents conducting raids.Nearly 70 cities, counties, and states have enacted sanctuary policies, according to a preliminary count by the National Immigration Law Center, but the Congressional Research Service in 2006 put the number at 32 cities and counties, according to a Sept. 25 article in the Christian Science Monitor.A major raid in Iowa came last Dec. 12 when immigration agents swept through Swift & Co. meatpacking plants in Marshalltown and five other cities nationwide, arresting about 1,200 workers - one-tenth of Swift's work force - on immigration or identity-theft charges.
The raids prompted a September federal civil-rights lawsuit filed in Texas against both the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement by some of the workers detained.In August 2000, Des Moines police detained 49 illegal immigrants in a raid on a south-side bar that they said was the result of a six-week police investigation of drugs allegedly being sold at the establishment.



Des Moines Register.

Lovely. An alliance of open-borders leftists and bottom-line business men urging that the city cease enforcing the law for the reasons of:

A: "It's wrong to discriminate against someone because they're not a citizen"
B: "Hey, you're screwing with my cheap labor"

Controlled immigration is well and good. The uncontrolled influx of low/no skills workers isn't.

What really pisses me off here is that the municipal government, responsible for enforcing the laws, is being asked to simply disregard it. I guess that's what happens when you know the general population will be extremely pissed, and there's not a chance in hell you're going to get the law changed through the legislature.

In the same vein of disregarding the law, I hereby suggest the asshats pushing this be deported ASAP after being stripped of their citizenship without due process. I mean, it's just some unimportant little laws.

Ugly Gun Sunday

Why?

What A Fine Day

Achieving a horrible benchmark in my life, today I put in the order for my first pair of bifocals. On the suckitude meter, this ranks way up there. Adding to this, I had to get into my footlocker of old Iraq crap to find my heavy-duty knee brace after nearly getting dropped to the floor walking through my kitchen. There's nothing like the completely unexpected sensation of someone trying to remove your kneecap with a prybar to get your attention. Given past experience, this means two to four weeks of random intense pain until something settles back into the correct alignment. Who would've thought wandering through a frozen snow-covered marsh / compass course getting ready for a desert deployment might result in an injury? What are the odds?

Getting old sucks balls.

I'm Shocked!

I got a phone call from my unit today. The order the supply sergeant put into the system for my issue of uniforms disappeared. Years ago this would have pissed me off, but now I'd be surprised if something hadn't gotten screwed up. One of the things about the military is that it's consistent in it's operations.

Another drill weekend as the only person in BDUs.

To (Not So) Old Comrades On Veterans Day

Another example of the post-WWII "sporterizing" era. The rifle is a late-war Arisaka, from looking at the buttstock. While the standard Arisaka did have the two-piece buttstock, the late war "last ditch" models also had wooden buttplates to conserve metal, along with other cost cutting measures. Several of which dangerously reduced the safety margin of what was originally an exceptionally strong action. What we have here is the Japanese equivalent of a low-number Springfield '03 that's been turned into someone's deer rifle. Hopefully this is one old rifle that stays in a closet and never gets shot again.

The Clock Is Ticking

Seven more weeks, and the uniform goes on full-time again. In the meantime, spend as much time with The Wife as possible. Way back in basic training, seven weeks was an eternity. Now, it seems like tomorrow.

I'll Pretend I Didn't Hear That

At the end of a procedure today, I had to help gently restrain a patient who'd been given concious sedation. He'd come out of it enough to be awake and move, but not realize he was on a table less than two feet wide. After two attempts to roll onto his back, which he would have been, just three feet lower than where he started, I reached across his pelvis to grab the opposite edge of the table. To help keep him in a safe postion, I also had my arm pressing over his lower abdomen, since most patients will stop trying to move with a little reminder. But not today. Today, I hear: "Mmmmmmmm. That feels good......".

NOT what I want to hear from a sixty year old man.

Sure, I've Got Sympathy....

just not any for someone dumb enough to annually shut down circulation in a limb because you won't quit smoking.

No, I won't rant about people who do smoke. One, I like cigars; two, I think it's generally the individual's own business what they do with their body.

BUT:

IF you've had portions of your arteries replaced because of abdominal aneurysm from chain smoking since your teens, and decide to keep chain smoking once your healed up;

AND you clot off the graft soon afterwards, requiring lysis and angioplasty to save your limb, then keep chain smoking;

AND you have to have your graft surgically revised when you clot it off again, then keep chain smoking after you're out of the hospital;

AND you come back three more times in less than five years for the same problems for the same reason;

AND your symptoms recur at 0700 in the AM, but you wait until 1900 hrs to show up in the ER;

You're wasting my time.

Ugly Gun Sunday

comes early this weekend, courtesy of the National Guard. In other words, computer access will be limited.

Keeping with the gold theme, this week we have the National Socialist Pimp Luger. How better to show your favorite white supremacist buddies your exceptional aesthetic taste than by displaying an uber-masculine death's head emblazoned Luger? Sure it's pricey, but doesn't your inner Sturmbahnfuhrer deserve the best?
.

The Pictorial Definition of Irony

Central Planning & Clothing Supply

This weekend drill will be my fourth since getting back in the Guard. It will also be the fourth time I've worn the same set of now apparently unauthorized BDUs to drill. If it's like the last time, I'll have a number of lieutenants telling me that I'm not allowed to wear them anymore. And like last time, I'll have to tell that I haven't been issued any uniforms yet. Or any equipment of any sort. In four months. Because there isn't any money for issuing uniforms.

This is somewhat of a problem, as I will be sent off to Texas for nearly a month in January, and none of our drills after this one are at our armory. I foresee a call from supply the day before heading off to Texas, requesting that I drive down to the armory (three hours one way) to sign for my uniforms. Which wouldn't be a big deal, if I had a desk job. Unfortunately, acutely ill people show up when they need too at the hospital, and randomly requesting days off without notice doesn't gain you any love from the supervisors.

I'm going to look strange running around a medical clinic in the Sinai wearing a Ramones t-shirt, olive drab fatigue pants covered in paint splatter, and hiking boots when that one pair of BDUs finally wears out.

Sweet, Sweet Relief

Few things relieve stress as much 60+ rounds through the L1A1 at silhouettes. 200 yards will definitely let you know if the sights are on. In my case, they weren't, unless you're getting kickbacks from on ortho surgeon who does hip replacements. On the other hand, at least I'm consistent from shot to shot.

Next time around, I'll remember to take the spotting scope so I can actually see where I'm hitting before I'm out of ammo.

Ugly Gun Sunday

This is what happens when your marketing focus group is comprised of pimps, middle-eastern dictators, and Goldmember devotees.

Damn Old People

The Wife took Friday off to start her garage sale. As advertised, it would start at 0900. When I left to go to work before 0800, it looked like a Romero film around my driveway, if zombies were capable of operating cars. When I opened the garage door to take a cycle out of the garage, it started a wave of elderly flesh shuffling towards our property. Fortunately The Wife, who can switch into full Gunny Hartmann mode when necessary, repelled the geriatric bargain hunters before they could breach household perimeter, at least until 0900. Apparently the day went well, as I didn't see any blood stains when I came home from work.

Speaking of which, work has done it's best to kick my ass all week, so I'm hoping to get out and shoot for the first time in over a month tomorrow. I'm leaning towards loading up all the my rifles in 7.62 x 51 and consuming a large amount of ammo. I'd love to go just shoot some steel at 200 yards, but since that's "plinking" with non-paper targets, it's forbidden, bad, and evil. And some of our members wonder why it's hard to attract younger shooters. After all, everyone knows that what teenagers really want is to sit at a bench so they can fire five rounds over the course of an hour, then whip out the ol' micrometer to measure the group size. Or so I'm told. Shooting anything besides bullseye targets will just encourage immoral behavior and perverse thoughts, blah blah blah.

Someday, I'd like to buy a quarter acre right next to our range, and hang steel in rows from ten yards on out. Maybe when I win the lottery.

Weekend Carnival

The Wife has a garage sale coming up this weekend. Which to me, means a weekend of people tramping onto my property, scoping out what isn't nailed down, but is pawnable. On the upside, you do get to observe some interesting individuals that you'd usually have to pay an admission fee to see.

Found this tracking back some links to Gunboards (I think). This one's a little different in that the creator had a trashed Mosin, lots of plastic rifle accessories not in use, a fair bit of free time, and a burning desire to see how much of an ugly rifle he could create. I'd say he accomplished his objective. It's ugly.

Great Advertising.......

doesn't always precede a great film. The wife and I have a passion for horror films, and are always looking for the rare horror film with a decent budget, good acting, high production values, and an outstanding splatter factor. 30 Days of Night has all of that, but seemed rather slow after a promising start. It was worth the money and time, but I wouldn't feel I was losing out if I didn't see it again.

I believe there's a recently released DVD called "Black Sheep" about vicious, flesh-eating sheep that recently came out. Sound like my kind of film.

I'm A Bad Person

I've recently been subjected to a mandatory "cultural sensitivity" class. One of the highlights was a scale of "Diversity Appreciation" which caused a spike in my blood pressure. Spike one occurred when reading the highest rating: culturally enlightened. This was defined as being fluent in two languages, with deep respect and admiration for another culture. Spike two occurred on reading the lowest rating: culturally incompetent - not fluent in any other languages, suspicious of other cultures.

Man, that's subtle. I'd hate to be culturally incompetent, I mean, people might think I'm not nice or something.

Maybe that's why they gave us a paper to to fill in with our names and answers to the questions asked during the indoctrination presentation. Especially "Where do you fall on the scale?". It's amazing how hard it can be to read cursive after too much coffee. It looks a lot like a random scribble. Hell, I'm surrounded by doctors, it'll look normal in that environment.

I've been out in a couple of different cultures over the years. When I develop a deep respect and admiration for political repression, poverty, and corruption, I'll move. Until then, I'll stay a suspicious, nationalistic, gun-owning American.

Range Fire AAR

Last weekend's range fire was interesting for a few different reasons. First, it was one week after my optometrist told me I could now wear bifocals. Which would probably explain why the front sight was fuzzy pretty much the whole time I fired. Not good.

Secondly, I had a little time to kill, so I wandered over to what's apparently some kind of bone yard for old vehicles. Most of the following vehicles I've at least seen before, even if it was in a museum. But the only rocket launcher truck I've encountered before was a Chinese manufactured model at Camp Anaconda, parked in a unit motorpool destined for a display pad back in the States. And the tracked vehicles with soft covers I haven't seen anywhere else.

Last, an example of why commanders like to keep their troops busy: When you're waiting to have the barracks inspected for permission to leave the post, and you have a couple hours of down time, a platoons worth of bored young males and and a fully charged taser are a bad combination. And after a good twenty of them have voluntarily submitted to a demonstration, not be willing to do so will lower your standing in their eyes. So, I now know what a taser feels like. Twice.

If anyone would like to experience that sensation, but doesn't have access to the real thing, I'd suggest mounting a steak knife blade on a electric reciprocating saw set to high, and having it held firmly against the soft tissue of your choice. I managed to make it about two seconds, although two troops actually made it the full five seconds to the automatic shut off.

I hope like hell these guys don't get too bored during the Sinai deployment, or it could be a long, painful year.

I've Been Waiting A Long Time For This

My son had a varsity choir concert tonight, in conjunction with a number of other vocal groups from his high school. It's held at the local community college auditorium, which is very nice for a town our size. The fall concert is very well attended, with few seats available if you arrive close to the starting time.

Which should indicate to attendees that the event is important to those present, and demands a level of audience decorum higher than say, watching the local bar band playing out at the county fairgrounds. If your kids aren't old enough to walk on their own, don't bring them to a two hour choral concert where the rest of us can here them babbling and crying through all the performances. If you're a teenager there to watch your friends, and you don't want to stay through all the various groups, fine. But try leaving in between performances, not just after all the performers are ready to begin and focused on the conductor.

Which brings me to a behavior I admire: when the conductor stops what he's doing and watches the two shining examples of today's youth start to amble up the stairs. The ambling lasted about ten steps until people started laughing at them. Then they picked up the pace. Guess there's something about several hundred people staring at you and letting you know they think you're an idiot to get you moving.

Magical Thinking

Sadly, I personally know people who would completely miss the satire in that.

H/T to Free Market Fairy Tales.

Ugly Gun Sunday

Um......No. No No No No.

Long Guard Weekend

I have three days of range fire coming up, and it's a couple hours away from home, so no posting until late Sunday night.

A Tip Of The Hat...

To Xavier, for noting my unfortunate obsession with mutilated, abused, and just plain ugly firearms. You, sir, have a large number of readers. And a fine appreciation of the practical work of art that is the Smith & Wesson revolver.