Sometimes things just don't go your way

Have you ever decided not to do some type of recreational activity simply because you didn't want to spend the money, then because you stayed at home ended up having to spend 5 times the amount that you would have spent? That happened to me on Sunday. I really enjoy shooting sporting clays, this is a shotgun sport that many call "golf with guns" (more on that in a latter post). Sunday I had one of my buddies try to get me to go with him to a Bird In Hand in Plains, GA. I told him I was going to skip because I didn't have the ammo and didn't want to spend the money on the round, buy ammunition and gas, so I thought I would do good and save that $75 and stay at home.

Wrong decision.

I drove my "Golf Cart" (this is one of the converted types with mud tires, lift kit and hydraulic dump bed I use for maintenance chores around my place) over to my neighbors house to check on them. While I was there one of the kids asked if he could take my cart out to check his deer feeders. I didn't see any harm and said sure.

Wrong Decison again

About 1 and half hours later the kid walked back to the house saying he couldn't get the cart started. I thought maybe he ran it out of gas, so we walked back to my house so that we could get my tractor to tow the buggy back to the house if I couldn't get it started.

Wrong Decision again

We went out to where the buggy was sitting, I was relieved to see it wasn't buried in the mud. I tried to start the cart, and it wouldn't even turn over, I thought it must be a loose wire or something, I have had that happen in the past while traveling through wooded areas. I tried to lift the hydraulic dump bed to get to the engine area and the switch did not respond, I also noticed it was stuck in the down position. I said fine and lifted the seat up to get to the battery and electrical connections and I was horrified to see a lot of wires burned beyond recognition. It appeared that either he had his leg sitting on the down switch to the dump bed and he didn't know that the loud whine the hydraulics were making meant something was wrong so he kept driving, after all he had to check those deer feeders. (To my knowledge he has never killed a deer there, he tends to go out and get too wasted to actually go hunting the next morning.) I held my temper and hooked the 3 point hitch lift bar of the tractor to a tow chain connected the cart so that we could tow it back home and I could see how much damage was done.

Wrong Decision yet again

When I turned the tractor and started pulling the cart I heard a loud pop, no it wasn't the chain and there was not a bloody corpse of the boy behind me, but the lift arm of the tractor was now lying in the mud behind me. Because in my haste and frustration I forgot to put the pin in the sway bar and the lift arm broke in half. I then hooked the chain to the frame of the tractor and pulled it back to my house.

Now after trying to save $75 I am faced with $230 worth of broken tractor parts and if I am lucky probably $300 - $500 worth of damage to my cart.

So saving $75 just cost me $800. Moral of the story is if you get a chance to go do your favorite hobby go play. It may just save you a grand and make you feel a hell a lot better than allowing a kid to tear up your tools that you have to replace!

Constitutional Two Faces

Is it not ironic that the same people who rightfully protested President Bush's flagrant disregard of our constitutional privacy laws will willing stand by and even suggest that the new administration enact laws that are so strict that our 2nd Amendment rights are in jeopardy.

Some of those proposed laws are listed below:

• A 400% TAX on ammunition (the price of ammo is already sky rocketing; 6 years ago a single box of 25 shells used for shooting skeet was a little more than $3.00, today that same brand of Winchester AA 12 ga. 8 shot is almost $10 and with the tax it would be $14.00)
• Banning semi-automatic shotguns like those used in hunting, skeet or sporting clays
• Serialization of ammunition and the requirement of individuals to destroy or expend any non serialized ammo by 2012 making the owning of non serialized ammunition a felony.
  
• Banning the personal reloading of ammunition (this combined with the proposed tax would effectively kill shooting sports. A competition shooter can easily shot 200 to 400 rounds of ammo per competition and 50 to 100 rounds per week in practicing. Reloads can cost as little as $3.50 per box of 25 compared to $14.00 with the tax; 200 rounds of reloaded ammo now can cost as little as $28 but with the proposed laws it would cost as much $112 putting the price of shooting competitively out of reach for normal citizens)
• Banning the use of lead in ammunition (this proposal goes to the floor in Washington state on January 26th) (This would also drive the cost of reloading through the roof!)
  
• Installation of a firing pin microstamp that ties ammunition to a certain gun (this is already performed in crime scenes with the use of rifling marks on recovered bullets; this is only requested to drive up the cost of owning a weapon)
• Registration of all firearms to include shotguns and hunting rifles, this also requires individuals to register with the FBI any firearm that is willed or given to them by family members this is currently illegal under federal law
  
• Creation of a national database that will include a photo, fingerprint, address and phone number of anyone owning a firearm. Same as above this is illegal under federal law.
• Make it a felony offense not to report a stolen, misplaced or lost firearm within 72 hours.
  
• Permanent reinstatement of the Brady Bill against weapons considered to be an assault weapon, take it from a former soldier; any weapon, including a common kitchen knife can be considered an assault weapon if someone wants to kill you.
  
• Making the owning of a weapon with a multiple ammunition feeder (i.e. magazines) a felony offense (almost all pistols fall into this category)
• Repealing the newly created law that allows a state's Right to Carry permit for individuals valid in National Parks
• Requirement to make weapons "Child Proof", by appealing to people's sympathy for children, they are attempting to make it almost impossible to make a gun. Can we do the same for cars or alcohol?
• Enacting laws that provide mandatory felony sentences to owners of guns who have their weapons stolen and used in a crime; specifically parents. Does this mean that a parent whose child willingly disobeys their parent and takes the parent's vehicle out and injures someone will be held to those same standards? If we can do this, can we also enforce those same sentences on parents when their children act violently toward teachers or join violent gangs and intentionally harm others during illegal acts?
• Limiting Right to Carry permits only to individuals who could prove that they are in risk of violent abuse or death.

UK Attempts Ban on Hunting

The UK is starting to see a surge in citizens protesting for the right to protect themselves and retain the right to legally hunt.

See this video entitled "The British called - They want their guns back!"  documenting the historical protest. This is something that Americans need to do (stage demonstrations for retaining our rights) now that we have an administration in Washington that wants to bend the 2nd Ammendment to their will.

Britain Unarmed and Unsafe

Britain has not only taken away individuals to own pistols but they have also passed laws that force imprisonment for defending ones self on your own property by use of a firearm; even if faced with a criminal intending death or dismemberment to you or your family.

One example of how they have used this law is to prosecuting an elderly man to life in prison after he shot 2 burglars (killing 1 and wounding the 2nd) who broke into his home in the middle of the night brandishing knives and willing to kill him. These were life criminals with over 50 arrests (some for violent crimes) between the two of them. Not only did they imprison the elderly man for defending his wife, but they also supplied the wounded man with a state sponsored lawyer that submitted a law suit against the elderly man's estate for "Pain and Suffering".

The criminals have taken note of the unarmed society and violent crime has since raised over 140%. With the violence already in place in the United States, a similar act in the US could make this country no safer than it is to live in South Africa. we can not stop drug trafficing today, if a gun ban was in place, those same routes used for drugs also allow for illegal trafficking of weapons. So violent gangs would still have access to the same weapons that they have now. The difference being is the law abiding citizens could not defend themselves legally and the criminals in this country would have a field day. With a possible depression on the horizon, crime will rise and it will be even more important for us as US Citizens to be able to defend ourselves for own safety.

Former UK Police Officer comments about 2nd Ammendment challenges

This was an interesting comment pertaining to the "Unarmed and Unsafe" article written by a Connecticut newspaper regarding Britain's rising violent crime rate since disarming citizens of their pistols.

" I find myself in total agreement with this article.As a former UK Police Officer,a member of the NRA and now a US resident,i saw at first hand the gradual suppression of gun ownership that led to a total handgun ban in the UK .This was compounded by the liberal lawmakers Blair and co who made a criminal of anyone who used a weapon for self defence.The result was an explosion in armed crime ,that led to even more panic laws such as a ban on replica and deactivated weapons.The crime rate continued to climb.The US agenda of the Brady campaign and the democratic party is all to familiar to me .Lets hope that The gun owners of the US are not so easily duped.If they are then the British Nightmare is also the US Future."
Steve Challis
Lexington Ky

Thomas Jefferson

I received an email with a quote wrongly attributed to Thomas Jefferson saying; "A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have. " it turned out President Ford said this in 1974. While researching this I did run across a lot of good quotes by Jefferson. After reading some of Jefferson's writings, I wonder how someone could question the intent of the Right To Bear Arms in the constitution. Jefferson specifically states that the main reason the people must retain their right to bear arms is to protect themselves from Tyranny in government. He confirms his belief in God while he also cautions the public to be religiously tolerant because of historical abuses by the church.

* No freeman shall be debarred the use of arms [within his own lands].
o Draft Constitution for Virginia (June 1776) This quote often appears with the parenthetical omitted and with the spurious extension, "The strongest reason for the people to retain their right to keep and bear arms is as a last resort to protect themselves against tyranny in government".

* Whensoever hostile aggressions...require a resort to war, we must meet our duty and convince the world that we are just friends and brave enemies.
o Letter to Andrew Jackson (December 3, 1806).

* Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle.
o Letter to John Norvell (June 11, 1807).

* And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.
o Letter to William Stevens Smith (November 13, 1787), quoted in Padover's Jefferson On Democracy

Power Corrupts

There are those in America today who have come to depend absolutely on government for their security. And when government fails they seek to rectify that failure in the form of granting government more power. So, as government has failed to control crime and violence with the means given it by the Constitution, they seek to give it more power at the expense of the Constitution. But in doing so, in their willingness to give up their arms in the name of safety, they are really giving up their protection from what has always been the chief source of despotism — government. Lord Acton said power corrupts. Surely then, if this is true, the more power we give the government the more corrupt it will become. And if we give it the power to confiscate our arms we also give up the ultimate means to combat that corrupt power. In doing so we can only assure that we will eventually be totally subject to it. When dictators come to power, the first thing they do is take away the people's weapons. It makes it so much easier for the secret police to operate, it makes it so much easier to force the will of the ruler upon the ruled.

• Ronald Reagan
• Column published in Guns and Ammo (1975-09-01)

Useful VBScript pages

These scripts are links to the ActiveXperts Network Manager support pages. (I know nothing about their product but the scripts on their support site are superb!)

Scripts to manage Text Files

Checking the Size of a File Before Reading It
Creating and Naming a Text File
Creating a Text File
Generating a File Name
Reading a Text File Character by Character
Reading a Text File into an Array
Reading a Text File from the Bottom Up
Writing Data to a Text File

Plain Text Scripting

Read a Comma Separated Values Log
Read a Fixed Width Column Log

Event Log Scripting

Add WMI Data to an Event Log Entry
Back Up and Clear an Event Log
Back Up and Clear Large Event Logs
Create a Custom Event Log
Copy Event Log Events to a Database
Copy the Previous Day’s Event Log Events to a Database
Create Unique File Names for Event Log Backups
List All Events from an Event Log
List All Stop Events
List Events For a Specific Day From An Event Log
List Events From a Specific Event Log
List Event Log Properties
List Events Using an Asynchronous Query
List Specific Events from an Event Log
List System Event Log Properties
List Security Log Properties
Modify Event Log Properties
Monitor Event Logs in Real Time
Write to a Custom Event Log Using EventCreate
Write Events to the Local Event Log
Write Events to a Remote Event Log

10 Silver Stars in 1 Battle

Good story about US Special Forces battling it out with Afghani rebels. It is a little sad that the reporter felt the need to put in the story that the soldiers used the lifeless body of an orphan as cover from bullets.

Beer For My Horses

I just watched the CMT movie "Beer For My Horses", it was pretty entertaining. This movie will not win any awards, but if you enjoy the comedy of Rodney Carrington and the stories told through the music of Toby Keith then you will enjoy the movie. It is worth watching just to see some of the characters played by some great musicians like Ted Nugent, Willie Nelson, Mac Davis, Mel Tellis and David Allen Coe. Then they have a lot of grade A actors like Barry Corbin and Tom Skeret.

This is a "B" grade movie but definitely worth the time, if for nothing more than the blooper reels, make sure you watch the bloopers. With the exception of the bathroom choir the bloopers are funnier than any scene in the movie.