They’re BA-ACK!

♫…and like a good neighbor OWS is there!♫

Taken yesterday (Wednesday, May 1) in Manhattan’s Union Square, note the signs praising North Korean dictator Kim Il Sung.

Oh!  It was MAY DAY.  Celebrate the millions killed by communism!  I forgot…

Vladimir was correct – “useful idiots”…

h/t/ Weasel Zippers, NRO

Guns & Ammo Brings It!

(click to embiggen)

I am SO GLAD to reside in the Free State of Arizona! – Guffaw

h/t Facebook

February 23rd – 24th, this year…

(for my Jewish friends)  is the celebration of PURIM!

Miss Cellania links us to BuzzFeed Food and

32 Crazy Hamantaschen For Purim

Marked by costume parties and copious drinking (who knew that Jewish folk got crazy?), Purim is a raucous Jewish holiday that celebrates a foiled plot to kill all of the Jews in ancient Persia.Go to the link above and see all the delicious Jewish cookies!  (NO, not Elizabeth Banks) along with a history of the holiday and many recipes!TWO of the highlights…(well, three —–> )Try this Reese’s-esque cookie interpretation.

Gluten-allergic folks can celebrate not only Uncle Mordechai’s heroic rescuing of the Jews, but also this rice and coconut flour variant on the classic shortbread Hamantaschen dough.

Great.  Just like Brigid’s food posts, I’m craving some.  Hoist on my own petar’.  Sigh.

You don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy!  L’Chaim!

Molly is 30, Today.

Today, my daughter is 30.  The same age I was when she was born.

By age 30, I was married, beginning my own PI business, and scared to death about the prospect of fatherhood.  Then she arrived and made it easy

Here it is 30 years hence, and by all-that-is-holy she should have been married, and had children.  She aspired to be a veterinarian.  I never had the privilege of walking her down the aisle or holding a grandbaby.  Or proudly watching her get her degree.  Or even her diploma.

She was taken from us in 1985.  In a stupid car accident.

So she’ll always be age 12 in my heart.  Or just born.

Molly & Dad

Happy Birthday, Molly!  I Love You.

How Time Flies…

January 26, 2013…

January 26 has always been a weird day.

• My Mother passed away on this date when I was in primary school.  I’ve very few memories of her.
• My nephew Brian was born on January 26, 1966.  Guess that makes you almost OLD, huh bud!
• And I left my last employer on this date in 2009, admitted to the hospital, as I was having difficulty breathing.

Turned out to be diffuse large cell lymphoma.  I spent the next six months enduring chemotherapy, weird pain, weakness and hair loss.  And weekly doctor visits.  It looked for a while that I wasn’t gonna be around to write this blog nonsense.

But, here I am .   I’ve been more than fortunate.

People sometimes gasp when I recount certain chapters in my life.  My leg disability at age 12, loss of my daughter, and being a cancer survivor.  While I’ve had my moments, it’s nothing compared to Brigid’s brother and his battle against lymphoma.  Or CoolChange (c)(c) watching over his beloved wife, now in hospice.  They need all your good thoughts, and prayers, if that’s what you do.

And if you donate blood, please continue to do so.  Or start.  And mark that organ donor spot on your driver’s license.  It’s the least we can do.

Sad PS – Rick (CoolChange) announced in his blog today that his beloved wife passed @ 5:55 yesterday.

God Bless John Moses Browning!

One of the most prolific and innovative inventors in history, JOHN MOSES BROWNING was born on this date in 1855.

The next time you rack your semiautomatic pistol, remember the slide mechanism was invented by Mr. Browning.  Otherwise, we’d be stuck with Georg Luger’s toggle top!  Seen many of those designs, lately?

Every time I first touch off my one remaining prized 1911, I try to intone, “God Bless John Moses Browning!”

For a succinct biography of the man, please go to 1911.org

Gun Appreciation Day

Today has been designated the first national Gun Appreciation Day!

On 01.19.13 got to your local gun store, gun range or gun show with your Constitution, American Flags and ‘Hands Off My Guns’ sign to send a loud and clear message to Congress and President Obama.

Most of the media coverage I’ve seen on the Internet of this event has been negative, e.g. why the coincidental day with MLK Day, after all, he was shot?

Maybe MADD should have a similar day recognizing when Senator Ted Kennedy drove off a bridge with Mary Jo Kopechne?  Isn’t that the same logic?  Perhaps we should ban booze?  Oh wait, that was done, and ended poorly.

Regardless, go to the website and sign the petition, in an effort to reach 50 million Americans.  Please.  Then go celebrate your rights.

And be careful out there!

Guffaw

Munch…Bacon…I see a connection here!

Detective Munch from Law and Order is TV’s Kevin Bacon!

The characters from nearly all of your favorite TV shows, from The Simpsons to Lost to Seinfeld, can be traced back to Detective Munch of Law & Order: SVU. He knows everyone.

Go to the link above and see.

Detective Munch

h/t Sean Curry of BuzzFeed

Happy New Year 1950!

…okay, so I was off by a few years…OKAY 63!

Happy New Year Lovers of the United States and Individual Freedom EVERYWHERE!

Thanks for bothering to continue to stop by.  I’m still in amazement.

Guffaw in AZ

Misty

The Smallest Minority shares with us a tale…

Old Aviators and Old Airplanes….

This is a good little story about a vivid memory of a P-51 and its pilot, by a fellow who was 12 years old in Canada in 1967. It was to take to the air. They said it had flown in during the night from some U.S. Airport, the pilot had been tired.

It is a tale as described above, told with heart, and with truth.  Kevin’s friend Dave further states:

I know we still retain the possibility to be again what we once were, but I’m afraid that entropy will win in the end.  The culture of a nation reflects the philosophy of that nation, and ours is no longer that of John Locke and Adam Smith, but rather Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Immanuel Kant and Karl Marx, when it isn’t just “…a junk heap of unwarranted conclusions, false generalizations, undefined contradictions, undigested slogans, unidentified wishes, doubts and fears, thrown together by chance, but integrated by your subconscious into a kind of mongrel philosophy and fused into a single, solid weight: self doubt, like a ball and chain in the place where your mind’s wings should have grown” as Ayn Rand put it.

Please visit the TSM link above and read the whole essay.  And perhaps get a little misty, as did I.

Thanks, Kevin (and his friend Dave)!