Carnival Reminder

Don't forget that this week's Carnival of Cordite is back at Gullyborg's. Deadline is Friday. You'd think that in all my copious spare time, I could whip something up. We'll see.

Gracie on Blue

Fiction from Right Thinking Girl

Heaven: A Roadmap

Death was a wake up call for me. I had never given much thought to the meaning of my life or what happened afterward until that night in September when one minute I was alive and the next I was lying on the floor of a Starbucks in downtown Washington DC with a bullet in my head. I was only aware of a searing, savage heat, the sensation of my head actually opening like a cantaloupe, and gravity, which exerted its authority over me so quickly that even before I was aware that my brain was spilling out of the cradle of my head, I was aware that I was falling. There was pure white light, a lot of it, because the neurons in what remained of my brain were misfiring. When people ask me now what death was like, I always say it was a "splitting." There was my physical brain trying to comprehend what was happening and my heart still gamely pumping blood. Then there was my soul, which was literally already gone. It was there - around, I guess you could say- because I still recall looking down at myself, at this destroyed girl with a quarter of her head missing, and thinking that something truly profound was happening to me.

Read the whole thing.

Barely Sitting Down

I was barely sitting down when I heard a voice from the other stall saying: "Hi, how are you?"

I'm not the type to start a conversation in the men's restroom but I don't know what got into me, so I answered, somewhat embarrassed, "Doin' just fine!"

And the other guy says: "So what are you up to?"
What kind of question is that? At that point, I'm thinking this is too bizarre so I say: "Uhhh, I'm like you, just traveling!"

At this point I am just trying to get out as fast as I can when I hear another question. "Can I come over?"

Ok, this question is just too weird for me but I figured I could just be polite and end the conversation. I tell him, "No..I'm a little busy right now!!!"

Then I hear the guy say nervously... "Listen, I'll have to call you back. There's an idiot in the other stall who keeps answering all my questions.

h/t to Suzanne.

Next on the Brady Agenda

Howitzer Control, Incorporated.

There are some big questions today for UDOT as to how an avalanche control shell landed in the backyard of a Pleasant Grove home.

The military shell exploded just feet from the home, causing thousands of dollars in damage.

But it wasn't until late last night when authorities determined what it really was.

It was a 105mm howitzer shell that landed in the Connors backyard in Pleasant Grove.

There is a big hole in the ground where the shell impacted, but the shrapnel went in all directions and ripped right through the house and as far away as across the street.

Liberty Meadows Uncensored

Click the pic for Liberty Meadows Uncensored!

Thanks to Jay.Mac at Cryptic Subterranean, I had to spend all morning catching up on Frank Cho's deliciously perverted comic "Liberty Meadows." I thought he'd ended the series a few years ago when he started paying less attention to the funny animal characters at the Meadows and more attention to the total hotness of Brandy and Jen. They're still running the strip at Creators.com, but I don't know if it's new material. I guess my afternoon and evening are spoken for, then. Frank Cho has certainly grown as an artist, but as a comic, he's stuck on luscious, scantily clad vixens (not that there's anything wrong with that)...so it's only natural that he's made the jump out of the comic strip and into comic books. Oy, check out Shanna the She-Devil!

Carny's Up!

No, not Wilson! The Carnival of Cordite #6 is up at Gullyborg's blog!

Back in the Saddle, but the Horse is up on Blocks

So I donned my virtually authentic cowboy outfit, packed a bag with the requested other change of clothes, and headed off to Old Tucson Studios on two hours of sleep. I got there half an hour before the 6 a.m. cast call and tried to doze in the Ranger Hotel. No way. Several vehicles parked together briefly and left, a few more just cruised the parking and left without stopping. Drug dealers? Maybe. A parking lot out in the middle of nowhere, in pre-dawn darkness, should be a good candidate for a meet. Wonder if they thought I was a cop.

Anyway, 6 a.m. rolled around and no vehicles, no building lights, no open gates. I was beginning to doubt my recollection of the call time (but I was right). At 6:35, I decided I could race home, check the Email again, and get back by 8:00 (a good garble for 6:00). After re-checking both the Tucson Film Office site and the producer's Email, I crawled into bed pissed. Even now, there's no explanation from the producer by Email or by phone (I must have sounded angry on voice mail). I hope his feature is a critical flop.

Update: Okay, the producer Emailed back and said they were there from 5 to 9 a.m. and hoped I wasn't discouraged from participating in future events. Well, maybe if they'd turn on some damned lights next time. Signs would help. A map gif, perhaps.

Oh, well. So much for my movie cowboy career.

Five Questions from Countertop

1. This first one is a multipart one. You claim to be Cowboy Bob, but yet there have been many before you. These include real horse riding dudes, trick roper rodeo dudes, aspiring country music stars, rodeo riding wrasslers, and of course, the aforementioned Cowboy Bob Weir.


Is Cowboy Bob your SASS registered name? If not, what is? How do you compare to each of these other Cowboy Bob's and do you possess any of the skills they have, at anything close to their level of skill? If you can't sing a Cowboy song as good as Bob Weir, can you play a cowboy song on an instrument? If so, which one (instrument) and what is your favorite cowboy song (Dead and otherwise)? After considering the competition, are you still certain your the biggest and best and legitimate claimant to the Title Cowboy Bob??

For one thing, I'm Cowboy Blob, but don't worry, lots of folks make that mistake. "I'm not a real cowboy, but I play one in the movies." I already had the nickname "Blob" (endowed by flight members with no imagination for someone with no personality named Bob) and added the Cowboy when I moved to Arizona. I'm not a member of SASS, but I'd like to try Cowboy Action Shooting sometime. I'm pretty heavily into IPSC 3-Gun at the moment, but maybe I can work it into my schedule some day. I have no cowboy skills at all: I refuse to sing if there is another human being within earshot, I don't play an instrument, and I haven't ridden a horse since I was seven years old (it decided to bolt for the barn ignoring any input from me--very terrifying)...my favorite cowboy song is the Theme to Rawhide, the old TV show. By the way, I have a extra's casting call for a short movie in about five hours. I should get some sleep.

2. Ferrets, explain them. Do they ever smell good? How many do you have? What are their (its) names? How long do they live for? Are they carnivores? omnivores? vegetarians?

Ferrets, nature's carpet sharks, are entertaining pets that combine the crankiness of a cat with the curiosity of a two-year-old. Properly descented ferrets don't smell at all...just change their bedding and litterbox often. Mine are Lenny and Squiggy, two males. They live 7-to-9 years, but are susceptible to tumors and cancers that often shorten their lives. They live on a high-fat protein diet. Kitten chow is a viable substitute for purpose-made ferret chow. Some ferrets like fruit as a treat; Squiggy is the only ferret I've ever had that did not like raisins.

3. You say there is little you can't fix with $700 and a thirty ought six. What exactly have you fixed with $700 and a thirty ought six and is there anything you don't think that combination will fix?

I didn't say it, the great Jeff Cooper did. Although it won't fix my broken garbage disposal, the combination of cash and kinetic energy is a powerful deterrent against many of life's problems. I prefer a Visa card and a 12 gauge, but that combination is a tad less poetic.

4. You were in the military at some point. When and in what branch of the service? What did you do and did you blow things up? What was the biggest thing you ever blew up?

I was in the Air Force from 1979 to 2002, spending most of my time as a Cryptologic Linguist (Korean) in Air Intelligence. I never blew anything up, but I was almost blown up in a 1986 explosion of a jet fuel tank next to my building. I evacuated from the building on the fire side (it was downhill and upwind from me) and gazed into the depths of hell for a second before beating feet to safety. I was also an analysis operator aboard the EC-130 comms jammer where I got to shutdown Red Force radio traffic at Nellis' Red Flag until the "bad guys" scampered off to protected frequencies.

5. Arizona. . . . .about as bad-ass-pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps-freedom-rules-cowboy-kind-of-state as you can find. Please explain John McCain? What has happened to him and how have the good folks in Arizona reacted? I think his head exploded and his mind disappeared after his stellar run in the 2000 primary. Is that correct, or has he always been a liberal loony? Any chance of the citizenry rising up on removing him from office? And can we really ever trust any elected official from a state that is sometimes an hour ahead and sometimes an hour behind, but for some reason insists on messing with everyone's clocks? What is the reason for the weird time thing going on in Arizona and how does it impact your TiVo scheduling?

As much as I admire McCain for his past experiences and accomplishments, I didn't vote for him in the last election. I tossed my vote away on the Libertarian guy. I think he's trying too hard to apeal to both sides of the aisle and ends up pissing off both. I don't think he'll ever be President...I wish he'd come back to AZ, have a beer with us, and go into show biz, where he belongs.

Personally, I love continuous Mountain Standard Time...we never have to touch our clocks! We get the first month of Monday Night Football right around dinner time! Daylight Savings Time? We've got more daylight than we know what to do with! We look forward to sundown in the summer!

Thanks for playing Cowboy Bob - and while its actually slightly more than 5 questions, they are all at least somewhat related. If anyone else out there wants to give it a try, let me know. I still have a few more of these I am obligated to do.

Five Questions for Vulture 6

Vulture 6 jumped on the 5 Questions grenade!

1. Multi-part question: Marilyn Monroe or Grace Kelly? Sandra Bullock or Marisa Tomei? Nicole Kidman or a slice of pepperoni and sausage pizza and a Heineken?

2. What was the crowning achievement of your professional career?

3. What was your low point?

4. You're going to spend six months on the International Space Station as an amateur mission specialist. Besides members of your family or close friends, pick three non-astronauts to join you.

5. It's your stage...every broadcast, cable, and satellite TV network in the world has the feed from a camera/mike in your living room for two minutes. What do you say?

Head over to Vultures Row for the answers when he has them up.

Same questions for Jerry the Geek!

Email from a Pen Pal Down There

These questions about South Africa were posted on a South African Tourism Website and were answered by the website owner:

Q: Does it ever get windy in South Africa? I have never seen it raining on TV, so how do the plants grow? (UK)
A: We import all plants fully grown and then just sit around watching them die.

Q: Will I be able to see elephants in the street? (USA)
A: Depends how much you've been drinking.

Q: I want to walk from Durban to Cape Town - can I follow the railroad tracks? (Sweden)
A: Sure, it's only two thousand kilometers, take lots of water...

Q: Is it safe to run around in the bushes in South Africa? (Sweden)
A: So it's true what they say about Swedes...?

Q: Are there any ATMs (cash machines) in South Africa? Can you send me a list of them in JHB, Cape Town, Knysna and Jeffrey's Bay?(UK)
A: ....and what did your last slave die of?

Q: Can you give me some information about Koala Bear racing in South Africa? (USA)
A: Aus-tra-lia is that big island in the middle of the Pacific.

A-fri-ca is the big triangle shaped continent south of Europe which does not...oh forget it. Sure, the Koala Bear racing is every Tuesday night in Hillbrow. Come naked.

Q: Which direction is north in South Africa? (USA)
A: Face south and then turn 90 degrees. Contact us when you get here and we'll send the rest of the directions.

Q: Can I bring cutlery into South Africa? (UK)
A: Why? Just use your fingers like we do.

Q: Can you send me the Vienna Boys' Choir schedule? (USA)
A: Aus-tri-a is that quaint little country bordering Ger-man-y, which is... oh forget it. Sure, the Vienna Boys Choir plays every Tuesday night in Hillbrow, straight after the Koala Bear races. Come naked.

Q: Do you have perfume in South Africa? (France)
A: No, WE don't stink.

Q: I have developed a new product that is the fountain of youth. Can you tell me where I can sell it in South Africa? (USA)
A: Anywhere significant numbers of Americans gather.

Q: Can you tell me the regions in South Africa where the female population is smaller than the male population? (Italy)
A: Yes. Gay nightclubs.

Q: Do you celebrate Christmas in South Africa? (France)
A: Only at Christmas

Q: Are there killer bees in South Africa? (Germany)
A: Not yet, but for you, we'll import them.

Q: Are there supermarkets in Cape Town and is milk available all year round?(Germany)
A: No, we are a peaceful civilization of vegan hunter-gatherers. Milk is illegal.

Q: Please send a list of all doctors in South Africa who can dispense rattlesnake serum. (USA)
A: Rattlesnakes live in A-me-ri-ca, which is where YOU come from. All South African snakes are perfectly harmless, can be safely handled and make good pets.

Q: I was in South Africa in 1969, and I want to contact the girl I dated while I was staying in Hillbrow. Can you help? (USA)
A: Yes, and you will still have to pay her by the hour.

Q: Will I be able to speak English most places I go? (USA)
A: Yes, but you'll have to learn it first.

Chuckle from Email

George W. Bush not only smiles and waves nicely, always knows the right thing to say, too!

Bush and the Queen at London Heathrow, a 300-foot long red carpet is stretched out to Air Force One and Mr. Bush strides to a warm but dignified handshake from Queen Elizabeth II.

They ride in a silver 1934 Bentley limousine to the edge of central London where they board an open 17th century coach hitched to six magnificent white matching horses.

As they ride toward Buckingham Palace, each looking sideways and waving to the thousands of cheering Britons lining the streets, all is going well.

But suddenly the right rear horse lets fly with the most horrendous, earth-rending, eye-smarting blast of gastronomic flatulence ever heard in the British Empire, including Bermuda, Tortola and other islands.

It shakes the coach.

Uncomfortable, but under control, the two dignitaries of state do their best to ignore the whole incident, but then the Queen decides that's ridiculous.

She turns to Mr. Bush and explains, "Mr. President, please accept my regrets. I'm sure you understand that there are some things that even a Queen cannot control."

George W. Bush, ever the gentleman, replies, "Your Majesty, please don't give the matter another thought. You know, if you hadn't said something, I would have thought it was one of the horses."

Five Question Meme

This has been going around the blogger block for a week or so and now Countertop is working up a set for me. Who wants to be my guinea pig?

For the first volunteer, I'll craft five questions you can post on your blog and respond to your heart's content. You have your choice of questions requiring a written response or a photo post (I like pictures).

Cowboy Blob Rides Again

I've got another movie extra job at Old Tucson Studios Thursday! I think this one's a student film, but at least it pays. Not that that really matters to me, but it's nice...I've got guns to feed! Pictures forthcoming if I remember to bring the camera and if the production folks aren't dicks about cameras on the set.

Weasel Goodness

Mistress Lisa gives Coco a snuggle while I'm off defending the Republic. One of the things that kept me sane and motivated while I was off serving my country.

Mmmm...biker chicks and fluffy ferrets. What a country!

Range Reports

This weekend, Jon invited me up for a gaming weekend with the extended family and a range session at Ben Avery. I decided to bring some guns out of the safe that I haven't shot much, or not at all since I've owned them. The first of which was a rusty Remington 870 pump gun that I'd converted to a home defense/riotgun by dropping the wooden furniture for composites, a sidesaddle shellholder, and the ribbed barrel for a rifle-sighted slug barrel. The slugs flew true and made Jon envious of my sighting system, but he's willing to stick to his bead sight.




Jon trooped out his ex-stepkids, Celeste (top) and Piter to practice with his brother's 9-mm carbine. They'd both dabbled in our match league's games using a Mech-Tech pistol caliber carbine, but that didn't prove robust enough to stand up to a full day of match use. Once they've mastered the carbine, I imagine they'll graduate to one of Jon's Glocks or other pistols in the IPSC game.


I also brought along my second SKS, a green Parkerized gun bedded on a green composite stock that I hadn't fired since I bought it in the early 90s. Would you believe I bought it because it resembled a toy gun I lusted after as a kid but never got? I picked it up at a Maryland gun show, but never got around to shooting it until today. I brought along several boxes of 10-year-old Serbian 7.62X39 and multiple stripper clips...after determining that I'll need to knock the front sight over quite a bit, we perforated many paper plates with the Chinese Redux.


My next bring-along was a Colt Enhanced .45 that I'd bought at the same time I'd bought the frame for what is now my Ed Cameron project gun. Damn those Maryland waiting periods...they always forced me to pick up impulse buys at the end of the waiting period! Piter quickly picked up the funky dot sight system and nailed the plates, but Celeste got lost somehow and drew a blank. Personally, I think Pete (who is bigger I am I now) is ready for the real-man pistols.



Okay, the NAA .22LR...at 10 yards, most of the shots struck low on a 50-yard slow fire NRA target...half of them "keyholing" by striking the target sideways. Hey, that's better than hollowpoints! Jon gave me five hollowpoints to keep in reserve. I know better than to aim it at a target as far as that now...it's a point-blank defense weapon.

Now, I've got to tap the SKS front sight over a tad, get Ed Cameron to replace the sights on my Colt with some Novaks, and keep my little NAA clean and loaded with hollow-points. Life is good and America's youth is carrying the torch. Boo-yah!

Factory v. Handloads for Self Defense?

Oh, the cool stuff I get from the Cactus League mailing list. This from Iron Mike:

On the "liability" issue of carry ammo choices, i.e. store bought or handloaded. This discussion carried over into the choices of targets we practice shooting at, and the ridiculous inferences some civil (or trial) attorneys could attempt using while trying to sway a panel of jurors. Whether the jury sits on a civil case or is a grand jury, deciding to prosecute or not, the following reasoning might be useful in your defense. FYI
L. Mike


"There is a difference between preparation and planning. That is why they are two separate words with different meanings.

Just because I prepare to shoot at a human being by shooting at humanoid targets does not mean I plan to shoot at a human being.

"Always be Prepared." How often was that drilled into us in Boy Scouts.

As I prepare to go to sea with my vessel, I prepare it for the worst. I do plan to NOT be out there in the worst, but would it not be folly to be unprepared for it. In fact, I PLAN to not be there in the worst.

As a rock climber, I have no intention of falling, but I rig up to be prepared for it.

Thru preparation, I have confidence. Thru confident preparation my chances of survival are greater.

If I am not prepared, I am sure to die.
I have no INTENT to die, therefore I prepare.

Kevin "PRAIRIE BUCK" VanCleemput

Personally, I'd never pack handloads for self defense, but that is really only because I'm not a very good handloader. Even if I got good at it, I'd still pack premium store-bought defensive ammo and save my reloads for practice and competition. The only exception would be if I was packing my own .45 ACP with FMJ. It's still a good stopper and externally it won't alarm a juror as being unnecessarily destructive. Any handhold you can deny a hostile lawyer is a good move.

Gag Me With a Cigar

Via CaliValleyGirl, check out this JibJabesque Flash animation:



Time to get back to my Flash work myself, it seems.

2005 Superstition Mountain Mystery 3-Gun

In case you've been wondering where I've been and why I haven't been posting lately, I've been "competing" in the Dillon Precision SMM3G Match in Mesa AZ, a three-day match which has become perhaps the largest in the country.

Hosted at the Rio Salado Sportsmen's Club Range (Dan Furbee, match director), the match consisted of 10 stages requiring mastery of pistol, riotgun, combat rifle, and combinations of these.



Dan Furbee's minions crafted stages with a great deal of imagination, including real and simulated helicopter bodies, bunkers, armored personnel carriers, buildings, and a spacious junker Ford LTD. The funniest was Stage One "Invasion of Privacy" (above) where the shooter begins lying on his back on a "bed" gripping the handcuffs on the bedpost. At the start signal, the shooter gets out of bed, grabs his shotgun and engages four slug targets, leaves the building and engages 16 "clay" targets with birdshot. My starting position is designed to get my fat old body off the bed in one motion, instead of two. Yes, that is a dollar bill stuck in the mannequin's bra. A shooter learned on the first day that actually locking the cuff to his wrist was bad for his stage time, since it took them close to an hour to locate a key.



The coolest prop was the helicopter body you had to capture with your riotgun, clear more targets from the rear window, then move to the front and whack the rest of the bad guys with your pistol. It would have been more fun using the machinegun. but the astute observers among you would note that it's a .30 machinegun with belt of .50 BMG ammo stuck in it.



I was a bit slow clearing the steel reactive targets because I was using a 20 gauge shotgun and, well it's not true when they say you don't need to aim with a shotgun. That's my little gat in the middle of the second picture. Next year, I'm going back to 12 gauge! The long "space guns" were used by those in "open class." The manly Remington pump (front) was the choice of one of our "Heavy Metal" class contestants.



Parking was convenient to most of the stages, but for stages involving all three weapons, it was nice to have a wagon to haul guns and equipment. That's my John Deere-green garden wagon on the middle. Others ranged from the little Red Flyer wagon to the ATV-drawn trailer brought by some folks from San Angelo TX.



Wagons are nice, but what made the match experience so great was being on a great squad. Squad 13 was the most helpful and energetic group I've ever squadded with. After each shooter was cleared, we'd swarm out and reset, retape, or re-clay about a target and a half each on average. It was the only time I'm manned a squad that liked each other enough to hang around for a squad portrait. It included some cops and a machinist (lifetime Marine) from CA, some out-of-state semi-pros and good ole boys, and a few of us locals.



Dan Furbee (right) and Bob Lamarca (Assistant Match Director, center) hosted the Shooters' Banquet Saturday night, an enjoyable event with a great buffet and raffle. I didn't eat much because match nerves and dehydration had been wrecking havoc on my gag reflex, but I sampled some great food and had a beer. First off, they held the ticket raffle for a #12 of 25 commemorative Ruger 10/22, which was won by Debbie Ferns, author of "Babes with Bullets," and a denizen of the Pima Pistol Club in Catalina where I used to shoot once in a while.

The dinner ticket raffle shelled out everything from a Springfield XD to knives, very nice shooting glasses, to SMM3G 2004 caps from last year. I was surprised to win the Second Prize, a North American Arms .22 LR mini-revolver. Score! Now, if my .45 doesn't come back from Ed Cameron in time for Buy a Gun Day (April 15th), I'll count this little baby! Hey, ACE, I've got an LFR!



Final match day was Sunday and it wasn't much different from the rest, I made mistakes, I was slow, and I was having the time of my life! My shooting buddy Jon was leaning forward in his game, trying to catch the leading shooter in the Military subcategory. I didn't lean forward until the last stage, which naturally turned out to be my worst stage. I'm not a lean-forward type of shooter and probably never will be without a lot of practice and athletic training...and losing a lot of weight...and learning to plan and memorize moves through complicated stages.

Naaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!



After the match, they set up the sumptuous prize tables for Tactical (shown above), Open (the Space Guns), and Heavy Metal (.30 rifle, .44 or bigger pistol, and 12 gauge). Down at the far end of the Tactical prize table, I snapped a shot of what would probably be the only thing left by the time I walked the line:



Well, it turned out that I was right. I turned out to place 9th from the bottom of 180 Tactical shooters...but I've been 10th from the bottom twice before, so no surprise. What is cool is that eight shooters in my class sucked worse that I did!



Jon placed 70th and still managed to bring home some nice schwag. Although he selected some Dillon reloading accessories, since Dillon is a local vendor for us, he can cash it in for other fine Dillon products. He'll probably use it to get enough 1911 .45 magazine holders since he's got a Major Jones to try Heavy Metal next year! They did have a nice prize table:


If my Ed Cameron .45 comes out soon enough to get some good practice in, I might join him, but I'm going to have to sell off some of the collection to get a decent .308 battle rifle (Springfield M1A would be nice). Even though one guy shot the match with a Garand (don't know how well he did, but I heard the old guy was deadly on the long range stages), mine is just a range toy and I'm not risking my thumb to get really good with it at the fast pace required for high round count stages.

By the way, my own prizes weren't too shabby, considering my low standing: 200 moly-coated .40 Billy Bullets (for whenever I get back into reloading), a box of 50 Armscor .40 S&W rounds (my caliber when shooting my Glock), a pair of mini-binoculars, a 10th Anniversary SMM3G travel mug, a certificate for a MattBurkett.com training video ($60 value), a Hornady Hodgdon Powder baseball cap, a Bushmaster T-shirt (my baby!) and Bushie sticker for my range box, a combo .45 bushing wrench/stabbing dagger (heh!), a reloading manual, and a signed Jake Plummer rookie card(!) from Pinnacle Press.

By the way, this is not an advertisement for the SMM3G. The match filled up in less than three weeks of registration. I do not want to miss out on next year's match because dozens of extra people decided to flood this one. What I'd like is for folks out here to learn what it takes to make a great 3-gun match and make more of them! What say you, 3-gun clubbers out there? Don't disappoint me! Put on a good match and I'll patronize your community's hotels and restaurants, enrich your club with match fees and raffles, and sing your praises on my blog!

Go forth and multiply!

This is my entry to the Carnival of Cordite this week.

Weasel in yer Drawers

Where is it?

Time for another contest! What's at stake? Another homespun month-long Blog Ad on my sidebar...just ask Jeremy how much extra traffic he's gotten from that alluring piece of art!

Task: name the national capital that is the site of this picture. I will only accept the first two (2) guesses from any address (there being a limited number of national capitals), so choose carefully. Address your intel reports to cowboyblob--at---yahoo-dot--com.

Update: Only one person has been willing to throw out a first guess, so far. No hints forthcoming...try a map and Google.

Update: No takers, folks?

Hint: This landmark appears on the first page for the city in Google Images.

Flash: Brett Payne of Grandpa's War nailed the contest just moments after I posted the reminder. The landmark is in Windhoek, Namibia.

What is it?

Time for another contest! Tell me the nomenclature of the thingee pictured, and you'll win a Blog Ad on my sidebar! (If you don't have a blog, I'll think of something.) Email your guesses to me at cowboyblob--at--yahoo-dot-com. Again, I'll accept only two guesses from any address; my reason for this is that I'm really not looking for guesses. You're at a computer with an internet connection--if you don't know the answer off the top of your head, there are plenty of places you can look for the information using the visual cues in the photo. If you're one of the rare people who know the answer right away, good for you! I want to give the rest of my visitors a chance to win, too.

My previous contest is still open. Bueller? Bueller?

Who's got Big Balls?

Lonetreeontheprairie answers AC/DC's musical question.

"How, then, do human beings rate in this regard? The testicles of Homo sapiens are, relatively speaking, larger than those of gorillas but smaller than those of the champion chimpanzees. The most likely interpretation? Human beings are less certain of sexual monopoly than are gorillas, but are not as promiscuous as chimps. Another way of putting it: We are (somewhat) biologically primed to form mateships, but at the same time, adultery is no stranger in our evolutionary past. "

hmmmmmm, randy little buggers........ and I've never seen one buy a lady a drink.......

Go read the whole thing.

Whatever Happened to Bush?

No, not the political dynasty from Crawford, Kennebunkport, and Tallahassee, the rock band from the 90s...you know, the guys who did "Everything Zen," "I Don't Wanna Come Down From This Cloud," "Swallowed," and "Glycerine." Man, it must have sucked to have a really great rock band, titled perhaps in tribute to their fondness for shrubbery or maybe the dry lubricant on a woman's body...only to have your world rocked by having a couple of conservative presidents with the same name take office and forever alienating you from your fanbase! Now, if only Condi Fiftycent, with running mate Rudy Snoopdog, could win the ticket in 2008!

Those Marines

Some great Marine stories here.

H/t to Flight Pundit.

And for you fellows airheads, try this quiz.

I averaged 21 out of 24 for all quizzes.

H/t to Mr. Smithereen

And from Blackfive, a story from an Airhead among Marines.

Five-Digit Visits! 10K!

From the comments at Vultures Row comes a Central Time Zone surfer and my 10,000th visitor! In honor of this landmark, I'll blogroll them and place a one month Blog Ad for their site on my sidebar. Thanks for visiting!

Holy Cow

If Letterman isn't kneeling before the temple of Dan Rather tonight and kissing his ass, I don't know anything. Maybe I need to find something else to tide me over until Craig Ferguson comes on.

21st Century Lindburgh

A Class By Itself

In those states where it is legal, to purchase a machine gun (rifle caliber) or sub-machinegun (pistol caliber), you just need the affadavit and signature of the local chief law enforcement officer, a photograph, fingerprints, $200 for the tax stamp, and the patience to wait six months for the FBI to complete their background investigation...not to mention the thousands of dollars of the gun's purchase price. It doesn't matter if you've already done most of this to get your concealed carry permit. It doesn't matter if you've done all this previously for a different weapon. You've got to jump through the hoops. These Class III firearms (also included: silenced weapons, sawed-off shotguns, etc.) , are heavily regulated, and the only weapons that really fall into the category of assault weapons. A criminal can not jump through these hoops to posess these weapons, the FBI won't let them. No crime has been committed by a legally owned Class III weapon in 50 years--except once by a law enforcement officer who didn't have to jump through these hoops. Still think cops should be the only ones with guns?

Collectors of Class III weapons are tax-paying, law-abiding citizens. Some have made a business of sharing the joy of shooting full auto. Drop by the Knob Creek Gun Range in Kentucky during their April or October Machine Gun Shoots and you'll see lots of hobbyists enjoy the wonders of rock and roll. These people are middle-to-upper class, economically, and know that shooting is fun and the more fun, the better (they're also patronizing local businesses--good for the ecomony!). I've never rented a gun at a commercial range, but if I did, it would be have to be full-auto. Thompson or MP-5, I'm thinking.

The thugs who illegally convert semi-autos to full-auto or smuggle machine guns into the country are already criminals by those acts and are up to no good with them. The low-lifes who tried to pull off the North Hollywood Bank Robberies are a good example. Put scum like that in the ground or behind bars.

Don't forget to check out the Carnival of Cordite Friday!

I've Been Everywhere, Man

Bold the states you've been to, underline the states you've lived in and italicize the state you're in now...

Alabama / Alaska / Arizona / Arkansas / California / Colorado / Connecticut / Delaware / Florida / Georgia / Hawaii / Idaho / Illinois / Indiana / Iowa / Kansas / Kentucky / Louisiana / Maine / Maryland / Massachusetts / Michigan / Minnesota / Mississippi / Missouri / Montana / Nebraska / Nevada / New Hampshire / New Jersey / New Mexico / New York / North Carolina / North Dakota / Ohio / Oklahoma / Oregon / Pennsylvania / Rhode Island / South Carolina / South Dakota / Tennessee / Texas / Utah / Vermont / Virginia / Washington / West Virginia / Wisconsin / Wyoming / Washington D.C. /

Seen this meme everywhere, too!