Into the swing of things…

Back in September, a couple months before Grace was born I found out about an IDPA affiliated club that meets in Huntsville. I knew that before the baby was born and for the first couple of months after would be a bad time to get involved in anything new. I signed up for the email list, but held off attending any of the shoots.

Eventually, they generated enough interest in new shooters that they decided to do a new shooter’s orientation class last Tuesday night. I attended as did a few guys I work with, and we all had a good time. Last night was a scheduled shoot (first and third Tuesday of each month), and was my first match. According to the score sheet, I came in last place in my division. I’m not too worried about that because this was my first time out, and I made my share of rookie mistakes. Most importantly, I had a good time, and didn’t accidentally shoot anyone.

The division that I chose was Custom Defensive Pistol, which means pretty much any .45 ACP pistol but mostly 1911s.

There are a couple other options for practical pistol competition, most notably IPSC/USPSA in which Nathan competes. I’m not going to turn it down out of hand, but IDPA seems more my style. For one thing, IDPA is fairly restrictive about what modifications you may and may not make to your pistol. This makes it more production-friendly. Meaning, my normal carry rig will do just fine. I don’t have to worry about going out and buying $3000 worth of tricked-out, match-only hardware to be competitive. The only things you really need to compete are:

• A pistol or revolver of at least 9×19mm calibre
• A good holster
• Two spare magazines
• A magazine carrier
• A good belt
• A cover garment of some sort
• Proper PPE (earplugs and safety glasses)
• The $10 – $15 match fee

I might add that the satisfactory Springfield Armory XD comes with most of what you need in the box. This piece in most calibers qualifies for Enhanced Service Pistol division, and I think that in .45 ACP it might qualify for CDP division. I might also add that starting this year, Springfield has added the option of a thumb safety to the XD. The XD’s trigger is better than most, but still not quite up to 1911 standards.

I had most of that stuff already, so it was easy for me. Also, since I reload, I can keep things fairly cheap. Some things to make it easier on myself are fairly cheap to come by:

• Redding Powder Dispenser for faster reloading: $100 or less
• Extra magazines: $16 – $35 each, depending on what you get
• Better front sight, with fiber insert: About $40 plus installation
• Range bag to cart all this stuff around in: $25
• More bullets/powder/primers to load: $160 or less per thousand

You get the point. Nothing outrageous that’s going to keep my kid from going to college.

The down side? Well, there were a couple of people who took it all too seriously. In their defense, most of the ones who did really knew how to shoot. So I guess they were justified… Except that one guy plagued with the “California Twitch.”

Quoth Jeff Cooper:

We are amused to see the prevalence of the “California Twitch” on the range. This manoeuver, executed by the shooter after firing and before making safe, involves pointing to the right and the left of the target while wearing a fearsome scowl. It serves no purpose except to show that the shooter has been to a school which picked up his mannerism in the confusion. Once acquired, the “California Twitch” is almost impossible to eradicate, something like a tattoo.

I’m not one to make fun of people more experienced than I, but man you look silly doing that.

The only other bad thing that I can think of is that I’ve never been too fond of .40 S&W as a cartridge. Particularly not at an indoor range. The damn thing is just too loud for me (and remember that I’m a drummer). As loud as the .40 S&W is, its little brother is worse. TWO people insisted on shooting short-barreled pieces in caliber .357 SIG. This mean little thing was designed to get close to .357 Magnum ballistics from an auto loader. I don’t understand why we need it, since everything I’ve seen shows that .40 S&W will throw a heaver bullet the same speed or faster… and .357 SIG is just a .40 S&W case necked-down to .357 caliber… We don’t need it, but we have it. And it. Is. LOUD! I had ear muffs on top of plugs, and it was still way too loud from even 25 yards away.

The nice thing about having nine months

before your baby is born, is that you have that nine months (presuming you noticed fairly early in the process) to figure out exactly what kind of parent you’re planning to be. Life is unpredictable to be sure, things may change, but we need a good philosophic base from which to start.

We’ve said before that the concept of responsibility involves two parts; One, you stand up and take the consequences when you foul-up and two, do everything in your power not to foul-up in the first place. We think that this principle also applies to parenting. If our child grows up to be a brat or a bum, we are to blame. Therefore it is our responsibility to ensure our child doesn’t become a brat or a bum in the first place.

We offer the following attempt to distill the wisdom we’ve collected over the years into a small proverbia.

1. No one owes you anything. Everything that you have is a blessing from God and from your parents. We will provide you what you need to survive, but you must work for that which you want.
2. Thou shalt use common sense. This is the ability to look beyond the first step of any situation in order to avoid disaster at step two, three, or twenty-eight hundred. If you can predict disaster somewhere along the line, you should probably avoid all the steps leading up to it.
3. Learn from the mistakes of others.
4. Thou shalt not live in fear of any man, woman, child, or beast. When we are with you, understand that we are equipped with the knowledge and wisdom to protect you and the physical means to destroy those who would seek to do you harm. When we are not by your side, you must use the tools that we have given you, knowing that when we return, we will exact a heavy price on those who would attempt to harm you.
5. Do not seek to provoke any man, woman, child, or beast.
6. Never allow any man, woman, child, or beast to cause harm to you or anyone unable to defend themselves. If you can walk away, then walk. If you can’t walk, then run. If you can’t run, then it is honorable to fight.
7. Seek excellence in all that you do. Understand that you must win the competition with yourself to succeed.
8. Be curious. We are blessed with a big world. Never cease learning about it. Like Kipling’s mongoose, “Run and find out!” We never pretend to know everything, but it is our job to teach you that which you need to know in order to survive and succeed. That is our motivation in all that we teach you. You can trust that what we tell you is true to the best of our knowledge. Other people in this world may have other agendas. Trust, but verify.
9. Do not waste your time on people of little worth. This is as true of actors and singers as it is for the brat that calls you names at school. Your time is too precious to involve yourself with them.
10. It is good to have friends who are your age, but know that they don’t understand life any more than you do. They may think they do, or act like they do, but they don’t. It is a grown-up world. Enjoy your childhood, but know that one of the goals of growing up is to be able to relate to other adults. Remember that grown-ups can teach you things that you need to know because old people know stuff.
11. Be honorable: Thou shalt shoot straight and speak nothing but the truth.
12. Respect yourself, and be respectful towards others. Do not keep company with those who do not respect you.
13. Choose friends that are worth your loyalty, and be loyal to them. Be a good friend. Sometimes, this means asking an adult for help when your friends get into a bad situation. They may get angry at you for doing that. If they stay angry, they are not worth your loyalty. A friend is someone who cares how your life turns out.
14. Be tough. Life is difficult. It is dishonorable to retreat in the face of adversity. There will be adversity. Being tough means that sometimes, you will have to ask for help when you are embarrassed or afraid to do so. Other times, it means that you have to do things on your own that would be easier to ask someone else to do for you. Never give up.
15. The value of your life is not measured by your possessions, but rather that which you share.
16. Live well. We each are blessed with only one life on this world. Make the most of it. Enjoy time with your family and with your friends. Work hard to succeed, but don’t work too much. Every hour you spend working is one hour you will never get back.

Home Front

On the home front, all is good. We have much to be thankful for. We have the prospects of a new job that promises a substantial increase in the standard of living. Previously, the Mrs.’s term of service with Huntsville City Schools came to an end. With a child on the way, neither of us thought it very sporting to start a new school term that everyone concerned knew she would never finish. We’d planned from the outset that once she had the baby, she’d stay home. We both felt and thought that would be the best plan for all concerned (in this case, all concerned are Mommy, Daddy, and Baby).

With approximately one third of our income drying up in a couple month’s time, we realized that we needed to do some belt-tightening, and we have done. Amy is now driving me to work most days, under the pretense that it is cheaper by about $30 -$40 at current prices to fill the car twice in a week than to fill the car once and the truck once. Also, I am brown-bagging lunch more often than not, and this leads to further savings. Since we reload our ammunition, we can save quite a bit, and still get to shoot fairly often. We’re waiting on a batch of Hornady 123 grain, .310″ diameter spire-point bullets to arrive. These will allow quite cost-effective plinking loads for the No. 4 Enfield.

Last week, we found out that my uncle, Greg, had started work on the same NASA contract on which I work. He has taken up with a very challenging group; the Russia Services Group, which will require bi-annual trips to Moscow. Greg is flexible, and perhaps a good deal more hardy than we. There is an amount you could pay us to travel to Moscow, but it ranks in the mid seven-digits. Per day. In dollars, not rubles. We wish him well, but there is no need to wish him success. He is after all a Steele, and due to the heartiness of our constitutions, we achieve what we set out to accomplish. Perhaps it is not a testament to our constitutions, but rather us being too thick to completely understand and comprehend the nature of failure.

The weather is mostly dry. Too dry for our tastes, but it is not without benefit. The fauna do not enjoy it, nor the flora. It is quite dusty and asthmatic, but the pollen and other allergens are down to a most manageable level. Our local water authority has just imposed strict lawn-watering rations, and we are not at all upset about this. I have only had to mow the lawn four times this year, and I’m quite happy about the prospect of keeping with that rate for the rest of the year.

Amy and I have been taking afternoon walks three days per week, and are delighted to report that wildlife is flourishing in our bedroom community, despite the drought. Eastern cottontail rabbits are plentiful in our neighborhood, though we have only two rather scrawny ones. We’ve also seen the requisite squirrels, one chipmunk, many various birds, and a spotted fawn. Odin the cat has taken a particular fancy toward chasing the sprinkler, getting thoroughly soaked in the process. He still doesn’t care for being bathed, but will chase the sprinkler for hours. Several times, when we haven’t had the sprinkler on, he’s resorted to running towards whichever neighbor has the closest running sprinkler. We also have taught him to chase a frizbee. Unfortunately, he hasn’t quite worked out what to do once he’s caught the thing except wait for one of us to throw it again. Freya the cat will have none of it. She is more interested in the rabbits.

Most importantly, Amy and I went to the doctor today, and they confirmed that the Tot of Steele is in fact a daughter. Mother and child are both quite healthy at this point, and everything looks normal. We could not be more happy, but I suspect we will be once Amy has hatched-out. The doctor gave us permission to go right out and procure a new shotgun and large-bore handgun to protect the Tot of Steele’s honor. We are already well-provisioned here, but doctor’s orders are doctor’s orders. We’d hate to disobey them. Perhaps a nice Beretta 12-bore O/U. The wife asked if a .45 wasn’t already enough, to which we replied “Not when a .50 is available! Only the best to protect my daughter!

We’re going to Atlanta next week for an SAP training class (ADM 100), so possibly we will have some travel log postings.

The Whitney Wolverine

Slow down!!! That pistol looks like it is doing 120 MPH just sitting there!

This is the little-know but well-loved Whitney Wolverine, chambered in caliber .22 Long Rifle. It was produced from 1956 until 1957, when my dad was just a pup.

The bottom picture shows a modern reproduction by Olympic Arms, this one in a polymer frame instead of the original Aluminum. It retails for about $280, which is just about in line with the Ruger 22/45. The Ruger for some reason just doesn’t look as fast.

Currently, Samson Manufacturing owns the original production equipment, and will be bringing these babies back from the dead just as soon as they clear the BATF hurdles.

Modern as Tomorrow. Sign me up! Apparently, originals are Curio and Relic eligible.

Anyone else notice that picture of Eli Whitney on the 1950’s advert? You’ll remember from Alabama History that Mr. Whitney invented the Cotton Gin.

Many Alabama students will remember their 4th grade history books had a picture of a black man in the section about Mr. Whitney. I can only guess today that the picture was un-captioned or that any caption that was there was meant to mislead us into thinking that Mr. Whitney was black slave from the south. I can’t even begin to guess as to why they would have done so… Imagine my surprise when I learned as an adult that Eli Whitney was a white man from Massachusetts.

Eli Whitney’s race is completely irrelevant, but the story-line we were sold was that he invented the cotton gin to improve the lives of slaves who would otherwise would have had to perform all of the cotton-seeding operations manually.

It is but enough to make me wonder what else they lied to me about, either directly or through omission.

F.E.A.R.

Conservative commentators have often noted that the political left in America have a strange love affair with fear. They fear death, they fear life, they fear that someone might get hurt. They fear that drinking coffee or eating eggs will kill you, and they fear that we’re destroying the planet. Fear of being offended. Fear of being judged. The list goes on so far that we could be here all day and not name a tenth of the things the left is afraid of.

It does not escape me that when the left tries to insult us, they label us as either being afraid of something or as “fear-mongers.” Take for example the epithets “homophobic” and “islamophobic.” If I understand correctly (and I do), a phobia is an irrational fear of something.

Regardless of the name-calling, I can assure those on the left that I fear no evil. What have I to be irrationally afraid of? People can do as they wish, until they step on me to do it. They don’t live their lives to please me, nor do I live to please them. The only harm done is perhaps a wounding of pride or a pang of conscience, but there’s no more damage done than there is to me when the leftist tells me that I’m afraid of gays or Muslims.

The pioneer spirit is what made America great. We’ve torn that down, and replaced it with a nation of hand-wringing ninnyhammers, afraid of the merest sunburn. It’s time to sort that out. We need to grow a national back-bone. We start that process by toughening up individually. We’ve become too sensitive, like a tooth that is offended by cold. Life is too short to allow other people the power to offend you. Simply ignore it and move on.

“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist
in nature, nor do children of humans as a whole experience it.
Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure.
Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”

-Hellen Keller

Kipling

The only thing that I was taught about Rudyard Kipling’s writings in school was the poem “White Man’s Burden.” It was explained to us that Mr. Kipling was a racist, as was the standard in his day, and that we should be ashamed that men such as he ever breathed air. That was the end of the Kipling discussion.

This is but another of the many fold proofs that I have succeeded in life thus far in spite of my public education. Well, today we have much more sensible views on race. I believe that Dr. King was right when he said that we should judge people on the content of their character, not the color of their skin. I took him at his word on that, and I live it. Note that Dr. King’s words in this case are in direct opposition to the non-judgmental left who think it wrong to judge anyone at all, under any circumstance.

I do judge men on the content of their character. I also judge their worth largely on what they can teach me. I never met Jeff Cooper, but I’ve read his words. They told me all that I need know of his character, and they have taught me much. One of the many things that I have learned is that the English language is a wonderful tool, rather like the M1911. Like the M1911, English is not perfect, but one skilled in its employment can perform amazing feats. The love of the English language often lead Col. Cooper to discuss the many books this gentleman had read as exemplars of our tongue.

Col. Cooper seemed to enjoy Mr. Kipling’s work, though he (Cooper) confessed to enjoying Kipling’s poetry more than Kipling’s prose. I’ve never been terribly opposed to poetry, having written some awful examples in my younger years, but I think I like the prose better. That may have something to do with the fact that I’ve mostly read his children’s stories to date. The fact is, Kipling’s children’s stories contain more depth and substance than much of today’s “grown-up” sophistry.

Much of his work is available for free at www.gutenberg.org. I recommend his “Jungle Books,” “Puck of Pook’s Hill,” and his “American Notes.” These are all excellent, and it is high time that we stop pretending that enjoying them makes racists of us. The absolute worst that can happen is that we read, enjoy, and end up making ourselves be better company for ourselves.

Calling Things What They Are

The War on Terror.
The War Against Militant Islam.
The Current Struggle in the Middle East.

We didn’t start this war, so I don’t think it fair that we should name it. These names shift the focus away from the aggressors, and may make the implication that this is “our” war. It is not.

The battles in which we are currently engaged are responses to the Jihad declared against us. I do not think that the correct term for “retaliation to Jihad” is “crusade,” no matter how easy it may be to so name it. I propose that we call this conflict by the same name that our enemies call it; the Jihad. Doing so shifts ownership of the blame for this whole affair back to the Jihadis that started it.

Redactor’s Law of Multitasking

1. Any device that was designed to perform more than two functions will not perform any of those functions well, and will almost invariably perform all of the functions it was designed to do very poorly indeed.
2. A device may be used or adapted to perform an unlimited number of functions, provided that:
   • It was not designed to perform more than two different functions.
   • The adapted functionality comes as a shock or surprise to the device’s original inventor.

An Open Letter,

To the old-timer who sat in front of me during the Vox Angelica performance in Huntsville last Friday night. For the purpose of his identification, this gentleman was tall, wore a yellow sweater-vest, his glasses were on a lanyard, he has a daughter called “Summer,” and was talking to a couple who seemed to be in town from Alaska. During the intermission, he spoke with another gentleman who seemed to be French. He looked and comported himself like a common socialist academic.

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your tutelage. Were it not for your excellent commentary, both during the performance and intermission, my wife and I would have had the poor taste to enjoy the performance. The trouble is that neither of us normally ingest very much choral music of the sort performed that night. In fact, the only reason we had attended in the first place was that one of the performers is a colleague of my wife.

We were noticeably confused, through our lack of education and refinement, by what sounded to us to be an excellent presentation of Modern English carols. We did not even understand, in our ignorance, that we were supposed to execrate the concept of the Modern English carol. Now that we have been exposed to them, we may condemn them with our noses held high! Though they sounded quite nice, we were not fooled!

We also were not fooled by the enjoyment portrayed by the performers. They are performers after all, and their seeming satisfaction with a job well-done was no doubt some sort of subtle subplot designed to draw attention away from that fetid heap of a concert.

When the performance was over, we though it was not a second too soon. We, like you, were wroth with the audience for having the pluck to applaud, let alone stand. However, on the matter of the standing ovation, I pointed out to my wife that it was more likely a function of being able to get out of those horrid pews than to show any affection to the performers.

My wife and I had never attended a Vox Angelica performance before. With any luck, we shall seek you out at next year’s performance as well, so as to continue the lesson of putting one’s head up one’s arse in public settings that you taught so well this time around.

Sincerely,

The Editor

After considerable consideration,

I declaim that the purpose of management is to defeat productivity.

A day that lives in infamy.

In a few hours time, December 7th 2006 will fall upon Pearl Harbor. 2471 Americans died in that attack, but America came to life. The Nips visited us with violence, and we returned it with a portion a good deal larger than they could enjoy. The attack was an act of war, and we responded with appropriate righteous fury. We take this time to remember and honor our grandfathers and great grandfathers who were slaughtered that day. We do not look back in mourning of our dead, but in anger at the cowardly act by our enemy.

It is interesting to note that during the time of the Pearl Harbor attack, Hawaii was not a US state, but was a US territory.

We call into contrast the reaction to the attack on the second USS Cole (DDG 67) in Aden, Yemen on October 12, 2000. 17 sailors were killed, and 39 others were injured. America sniffled, whimpered, then lost interest and got bored with the whole affair. President Clinton derided it as an “act of terrorism” when it was, in fact, an act of war. Neither the Clinton administration nor the Bush administration after it did much in the way of vengeance with respect to the Cole and her sailors.

This is emblematic of America’s current turmoil. The followers of the false prophet (may pieces of swine be cast unto him) have declared war on us. The Cole attack was an opening salvo of that war. Six years later, we are having debates about wether or not we are “just” to fight the enemy. Half of the country still believes that they have seen the enemy, and it is we.

Whilst we debate, our real enemies laugh and plot. The glittering monuments to colossal heathenism that laid the plan to destroy the USS Cole escaped a Yemeni prison in February of this year. They are still at large.

Our righteous fury and our desire to face and defeat the enemy have become flaccid with the fusillade of erectile disfunction advertisements in our electronic and print media.

The aphorism that “Old people know stuff” is true. Our grandfathers and great grandfathers knew how to fight. They knew when to fight. It is rumored that the Nips did not invade mainland America because they knew that there would be “a rifle behind every blade of grass.” This implied a skilled and committed man behind the trigger of each rifle.

The followers of the false prophet (may pieces of swine be cast unto him) follow the pattern of destroying the lives of uninvolved people to force political change. Their goal is nothing less than global sharia. If you think the NSA “warrantless wiretap” program is bad, you just wait.

As bad as it is now, I think that we still have time. We are only losing this war because it is boring and we are not interested in admitting that it exists. It is time to come alive. It may be a bad war, but hey, it is the only one we’ve got!

As for my blade of grass, it is currently covered by a 1944 Mosin Nagant M44 Carbine. This is an extremely unattractive piece, of Russian manufacture. It was built by slave labor in the Izhevsk Arsenal. It is powerful, reliable, accurate enough, and currently very cheap in the US market. Very good examples of this piece may be had for as little as $80, and surplus Soviet bloc ammunition for it is ridiculously cheap in bulk at less than 10 cents per round.

To my fellow citizens, I issue the challenge to regain that proud fighting spirit of our forefathers. In 2007, plant a flagpole in your yard. Fly “Old Glory” at the top, fly Gadsden’s Flag below, and let any follower of the false prophet (may pieces of swine be cast upon him) that your blade of grass is covered.

The new title…

Perhaps you will notice that I’ve changed the title of this web log from “My Spot for Venting About Stupid Things No One Cares About” to “The Daft Musings Hall.”

This is largely due to my extensive work with the French Resistance, and the fact that my Series 5 “Allo, Allo” discs have finally arrived… Not that it is hard for me to resist the French, you will understand.

That got me thinking again about the fine broadcasts performed by Mr. Crosby during WWII at the Kraft Music Hall. In deference to that, I’m happy to bring you “The Daft Musings Hall.”

Listening to these recordings makes one thing abundantly clear in my mind. Something has gone terribly wrong in this country over the last 60 years. We will always have struggles as a nation. Today, we fight the same fascist enemy with a different face. We didn’t want to fight then, as we don’t want to fight now. But then, we knew what we had to do, and we did it. And our countrymen, even the entertainers, WANTED us to win!

Today, we are engaged in battle. Many people in this country don’t understand why. Many have forgotten or ignored more than 30 years of attacks and aggression by people who hate us because we are free and successful. Many don’t even believe it is real. Many more people in this country think that we deserve it, or that we caused it, or that we had it coming… precisely because we are free and successful.

Perhaps the biggest failure of the greatest generation was that they were too successful at providing better lives for their children. We have become too soft. Baby-boomers grew up in a more comfortable world than their parents. The next generation grew up with less hardship, still. My generation, with even less. We demand air-conditioning, padded chairs, and perpetual entertainment from TV, iPods, computer games, and the internet. It has gotten to the point that we’re unable to discern right from wrong, because “right and wrong” are anachronistic abstract concepts that have long since been washed out of the common fabric of our nation.

We are being taught from our youngest years to “open” our minds. We are taught that the only true wrong that a person can commit is to be “judgmental.” Political Correctness is eroding our language, as Mr. Eric Blair predicted. Worse still, many people confuse simple crassitude with being Politically Incorrect… Another example of the erosion our language. Our institutions of higher learning are producing astounding numbers of people who think they are smarter than they actually are. I think that it is attributable to my proposition that once you’ve both removed high standards and made people feel guilty about judging anything, you’ve lost the ability to discern brilliance and the flicker of thought from banal platitudes.

I’m not going to pretend that I know how to solve these problems. I like my iPod and my air-conditioning. The only thing that I can do is to point-out the problems I see, and try to identify them explicitly. The first rule of trouble-shooting is that you identify the problem, then cut it in half. I’m not even sure how to do that in this case, but I will at least offer-up the following positive affirmations:

1. It is good and acceptable to turn off your television. You probably won’t die from it.
2. Read a book. You’ll increase your chances of stumbling upon an actual thought.
3. It is good and acceptable to be critical of people who do the wrong things.
4. It is good and acceptable to be proud of your country.
5. It is good and acceptable to want your country to succeed.
6. It is bad and unacceptable to feel guilty over being successful and free.
7. Our way of life is good. Even if we are too soft. It deserves to be protected from those who would destroy it.
8. Spreading success and freedom throughout the world is NOT fascist, nor is it imperialist. If you think that it is, you’ve been watching too much television.