Merry Christmas!

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Watching CSI

They're calling the FN P90 a "super gun " and the ammo isn't available in the States.

Some things never change.

OMG it's so powerful it can " zipper" a guy, meaning it can cut you in HALF! OMG!!!1!

Good lord....

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Why is it...

... that when people talk about Tim Tebow's NFL career, they say "All he does in win" when in fact, he doesn't have a winning record?

Tim, put your pride on hold and go play a position you can excel in, because QB ain't it.

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Titan Thoughts

APOLOGIES for the lack of posting, I have an explanatory post in mind for the near future. Short version is I rarely get on a real computer these days.

Anyhow, my Jekyll and Hyde Titans are trying real hard to get their stuff together,  but so far, no good.

On defense,  it's simple: we can't stop the run. All our problems stem from that. Our secondary has to worry about the run so much, they get burned on passing plays.

Of course, teams run against us so much because we're not scoring points. They don't have to pass.

So the queztion is, why aren't we scoring points when our veteran QB is having his best start ever and our 2000 yard running back is healthy?

1. Coaching. I don' t think the team has completely bought in to the new regime. 

2. No good wide receivers.  Our only good one is hurt. The Titan WR curse is alive and well.

3. I really think Chris Johnson has pissed off the O line. Why else can Ringer break off long runs and Johnson can't?

At any rate, we should be able to win today,  as the Colts "suck for Luck".

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9-11-11

109 Minutes

By Brad Todd
Guest column
(Sept. 16, 2001)

It's been, of course, impossible to get past IT.

Even in a country with the attention span of a gnat, we're all still glued to the tube. The 24-hour news channels have heretofore proven they can make anything boring in short order, but this one drips with emotion so thick even they can't wring it dry.

Yep. We're as stuck on it as we were Tuesday morning.

Grocery store checkout banter is still single-subject. I understand it's the only topic at the manicurist's shop, too. I think even children sense how big IT is. The ones who walk by my front door don't have their normal sing-song cadence. There's no screeching. No laughter. They know something's not right.

What is IT?

Something besides the grief, I think -- although the grief is tormenting.

Something deeper than the shock -- although the shock is overwhelming.

No, I think it's the gut-level fear that for the first time in my generation, we were whipped.

Whipped by our own complacency. Our own comfort. Our own insistence on putting convenience ahead of precaution. Our own arrogance that let us forget that the world is a dangerous place.

And the outcropping of that fear is an angst about the new order. How long before we're not behind again? How much time must we spend off the top of the world? Out of control of our own lives?

This, of course, is the angst that people in most of the rest of the world feel every day. And if we look deep inside, we can probably acknowledge that for all our egalitarian pontifications, this is not the kind of equality and fraternal kinship in which we really believe.

I finally admitted this fear to myself three days after the attack. I wasn't particularly proud of it. It seemed like a shallow thing to fret over when such real suffering was all around me -- my house sits just three miles from the Pentagon, after all.

But there it was.

And the aftertaste of the bitter pill of my character flaw was the sad realization that such angst was Osama's primary objective. Buildings and airplanes and, yes, even 6,000 lives, were just the collateral damage. Despite the metaphoric value of last week's bricks and mortar targets, the real core of the Western economy isn't a skyscraper or a government building. It's the can-do swagger of the American worker. And bin Laden's soldiers cut deep into that swagger.

So he won.

Or did he?

I thought so ... until Friday night.

Friday night I watched a Jane Pauley interview with the family of Jeremy Glick. Jeremy Glick was a 31-year-old who flew as a passenger on commercial airplanes for a living. I describe him that way because right now I'm fairly convinced I'm just a 31 year old who flies planes as a passenger for a living...the other parts of my job having become less noticeable this week.

As the interview unfolded, I realized something I didn't know before: Jeremy Glick and the people on United Flight 93, bound from Newark to San Francisco, knew what was happening on the ground.

At 8:48 a.m. Mohammed Atta took a jet headlong into the north tower of the World Trade Center. Eighteen minutes later and accomplice did the same to the south tower.

When Jeremy Glick called his wife, his first question was an attempt to confirm something another passenger had heard on his spousal call: was the World Trade Center story true?

Lizzy Glick paused, thought for a minute, swallowed hard, and told him the truth. Yes, they had. Moments later, still on the line with her husband, Lizzy Glick saw that another plane had run into the Pentagon. She passed that information on as well to her husband, who relayed it to the other passengers.

Jeremy Glick then told her that the passengers were about to take a vote and decide if they should rush the hijackers and attempt to foul up whatever evil plans they had.

He put down the phone and a commotion was heard by those on the other end of the line. Then nothing. A dead line. An aborted missile launch against the town where I live.

That was 10:37 a.m. on Tuesday, September 11... just 109 minutes after Mohammed Atta rammed the first plane into the north tower of the World Trade Center.

Just 109 minutes after a new form of terrorism -- the most deadly yet invented -- came into use, it was rendered, if not obsolete, at least decidedly less effective.

Deconstructed, unengineered, thwarted, and put into the dust bin of history. By Americans. In 109 minutes.

And in retrospect, they did it in the most American of ways. They used a credit card to rent a fancy cell phone to get information just minutes old, courtesy of the ubiquitous 24-hour news phenomenon. Then they took a vote. When the vote called for sacrifice to protect country and others, there apparently wasn't a shortage of volunteers. Their action was swift. It was decisive. And it was effective.

United Flight 93 did not hit a building. It did not kill anyone on the ground. It did not terrorize a city, despite the best drawn plans of the world's most innovative madmen. Why? Because it had informed Americans on board who'd had 109 minutes to come up with a counteraction.

And the next time a hijacker full of hate pulls the same stunt with a single knife, he'll get the same treatment and meet the same result as those on United Flight 93. Dead, yes. Murderous, yes. But successful? No.

So I think the answer I come to is "yes, but at least not for long."

They did whip us. And maybe those of us who've demanded to be let on airplanes at the last minute fed a culture of convenience that made it possible.

But they only had us on the mat for 109 minutes.

Brad Todd is a political consultant who lives in Alexandria, Virginia.


Never, ever forget.. Continue Reading

Common Usage

Watching "Bulletproof" on AMC, and they're doing the notes thing during the movie.

So,  the "prop note" said "He's using a suppressed Beretta 92. Suppressed simply means it has a silencer."

LOL

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CMP Update

via email:

CMP SCRAP AUCTION.  The CMP has accumulated quantities of several types of scrap materials. For various reasons these materials are not practical to sell individually and will be sold in “lots”, each of which will contain a quantity of similar items. For more details, please see the CMP Scrap Auction webpage at http://www.odcmp.com/Sales/scrap.htm.

CMP SALES AT THE WESTERN CMP GAMES.  The CMP South staff from Anniston, Alabama will be at the Western CMP Games in Phoenix, Arizona, with a supply of government surplus of M1 Garand rifles.  These rifles will be on display Saturday, 15 October through Tuesday, 18 October.  Anyone may inspect these rifles and select one or more to purchase from the CMP regardless of whether they are entered in the competition.   Individuals interested in purchasing rifles who are not firing in the match are welcome to come to Ben Avery Shooting Facility during the daily rifle sales.  Case lots of .30-06 M2 ball ammunition will also be available for purchase at the range.

A short one this time around. Continue Reading

CJ Gets Paid

Holdout running back Chris Johnson and the Tennessee Titans agreed to a four-year, $53 million extension with $30 million guaranteed on Thursday, a league source told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter.

About time.

Now, I'm ready for some football!. Continue Reading

Headline of the Day

Entire Town Powerless After Pissed-Off Old Man Shoots Transformer


Now, THAT'S journalism!

No, it wasn't me. Continue Reading

Good News

CNN is reporting that Kenneth Melson has lost his job position as "head" of the ATF:

Kenneth Melson, the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who came under criticism for the "Fast and Furious" operation involving illegal weapons sales, is being reassigned to the Justice Department as a senior adviser on forensic issues, the department announced Tuesday.

This is good news on many fronts: someone who needed to lose his position has, the ATF has more egg on its' face, CNN is reporting on it, and I put up a gun post!

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A Boy Named Suh

Brady sacked five times, but not by Suh:

Officially, Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh did not register a sack on Tom Brady in Saturday's 34-10 exhibition victory over New England at Ford Field.

Unofficially, Suh and the Lions' defense harassed the bejesus out of Brady.

This is another great line:

I'm mostly amused that defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh's national reputation has already elevated to the hide-the-women-and-children level.

Roffle.

Having been born in Detroit, I've been a closet Lions fan forever. Even when Barry Sanders was playing for them, I never thought they'd go all the way. Now? Yes, I can dare to dream. Continue Reading

You Gotta be Kidding Me

So, the Gibson guitar factories here in TN got themselves raided the other day. Why?

According to Gibson:

“The Federal Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. has suggested that the use of wood from India that is not finished by Indian workers is illegal, not because of U.S. law, but because it is the Justice Department’s interpretation of a law in India. (If the same wood from the same tree was finished by Indian workers, the material would be legal.) This action was taken without the support and consent of the government in India.”

Remember that, gun lovers. Our government will raid you if you violate the law of another country.

Not good.

Thanks to Instapundit for the pointer, and for the link yesterday. I really should blog more.
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Blogging from Droid

I'm a doing it.

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West Memphis Three Going Free?

Looks that way.

I wasn't here for this, so all I know is what I've heard from Johnny Depp and the Dixie Chicks.

And, in my opinion, it wasn't much.

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Unicorns Don't Fart Rainbows

They fart tax dollars.

They must, because I don't have any more to give, and it has to come from somewhere.

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