I’m outta here. Be safe out there.

Quite a year for the second amendment.

Learn the difference between “it’s” (it is) and “its” (possessive, belonging to it). (See penalties here and here, just within the last few days.)

That is all.

Seriously, thanks for letting me blog here from time to time, and I hope everyone here has a great new year!

So I’m in the process of a (protracted) kitchen remodel. The big thing is that I’ve turned an old external-storage-room-cum-pantry into a utility room, and moved the washer and dryer from the kitchen into that room. This leaves a large open space in the kitchen where the washer and dryer used to be. My intention is to put additional cabinetry there for storage, but because of the washer and dryer, the space is already plumbed with hot and cold water as well as a drain (all currently capped, since they’re not in use). It seems a shame to waste that plumbing. This plumbing is a little less than four feet away from the kitchen sink, but it independent of that. I’ve got a slab foundation, with no basement or crawl space, so plumbing is rather like gold in my house.

So my question to the bloggy masses is this: What to do with that plumbing? My ideas so far are these:

1. Install a small bar sink
2. Move the dishwasher there, and attach it to that plumbing
3. Clean it up, but leave the washer/dryer hookup there, in case for some bizarre reason some future homeowner might want to move the washer and dryer back.
4. Hell with it, just cover over the whole mess with sheetrock and call it good
5. Something else, that I just haven’t thought of yet

Thoughts?

UPDATED: Lookie here, a picture!

You can see the space we’re talking about in the picture. The old washer/dryer plumbing is all the way to the left (partially blocked by plywood), just inside the doorway to the dining room (which, for what it’s worth, is small: 10′x11′). The distance from the edge of the existing sink to the edge of the opening for the w/d plumbing is 44″. Everything in that space can be moved/replaced/whatever (except for the Champagne of Bottled Beers, which my wife and I shall consume forthwith).

Yes, I know the kitchen is filthy, and yes I know that the floor is hideous. (Although I did do the dishes shortly after taking the picture.) It’s my full intention to do a gut remodel when finances allow. At this point, we’re just in the ideas & preliminary design phase.

Oh, and speaking of things not to be wasted, you’ll note the power outlet there — it’s a dedicated 110V outlet for the washer. Obscured from view by the microwave is a dedicated 220V outlet that had been used by the dryer. Be a shame to waste those power drops, too, although I have no earthly idea what I might do with them.

Seen at Rusty’s:

Shelter Closing! Many Free dogs available to good GOOD homes. 10 are scheduled to be PTS [put to sleep - ed] Monday. Various breeds, some are fully vetted, spayed or neutered. Save a life, adopt one! You can see a list of dogs on petfinders.

Death to who?

Don’t make fun of the Pope. Or presume you know chili.

Thought you’d want to know.

Update: Also to avoid:

How to make martinis.

Tequila sucks.

And BBQ.

After I got my suppressor, I decided I needed to set up the 10/22 so I could use the suppressor on it as well. So, I took it to Coal Creek Armory and had Gunsmith Bob cut the Ruger factory barrel to 16.25 inches and thread it. How did it turn out? Like so:

From Gun Porn

And without the suppressor:

From Gun Porn

Bob and the folks at CCA do good work. I highly recommend them. I haven’t shot the rifle yet. Looking forward to it.

Ahh, gun nuttery: $300 sight, $300 suppressor, and $200 dollar tax stamp to put on a $150 gun.

Or Is Lenny Bruce not afraid?

Have you noticed it’s kinda end of the worldy out there lately? Let’s sum up:

Supervolcanos might kill us all.

We have pirates.

I haven’t checked but there’s probably some object in space headed toward us with a one in some big number chance of hitting us (there always is, look it up).

A war in Israel.

A potential war between nuclear powers Pakistan and India. And much like giant space objects, there’s always a one in some big number chance of that happening.

The press reports that economically ZOMFG we’re all gonna die.

Big business in the toilet. Staples of our economy going tits up.

Bailouts in which our leaders think they can print money and get us out of it.

Some Russian is predicting the collapse of the USA from civil war. For the record, no way Tennessee is going with the European Union. We’re going with Texas or else there would be an intrastate civil war.

Out going president who, depending on who you talk to, is the savior of the free world or the anti-Christ.

Incoming president who, depending on who you talk to, is the savior of the free world or the anti-Christ.

I’m sure there’s more I’m leaving out. But the times, they are interesting. I mean, I don’t see like full fledged end of the world happening. But we’ve been on edge over less.

At least everyone seems pretty calm about all of it. Probably because everyone is buying guns.

And some desperation. Seems the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership is suing to prevent the new park handgun carry rules from going into effect. David Hardy notes the Brady Camp probably doesn’t have much of a case.

Update: As usual with the Brady folks, these claims are patently false.

Apparently, I am late to discover it’s brilliance. This made me laugh outloud and is a good way to annoy hippies.

One year in 40 seconds. Neat.

Paper claims a reduction in gun crime and increase in confiscated arms. Problem is a few paragraphs later, the numbers show the opposite.

Seems to be a recurring trend: Confiscated arms paraded around by arresting officers are actually airsoft guns.

If you missed something important over the holidays related to guns, you can find it here.

All together now: Aaaawwww.

Don’t threaten martial arts experts.

Indeed: The demonization of ordinary firearms for the next “assault weapon” ban is picking up steam with the help of the ATF.

The Other Biased Washington Paper:

Republican Party officials say they will try next month to pass a resolution accusing President Bush and congressional Republican leaders of embracing “socialism,” underscoring deep dissension within the party at the end of Mr. Bush’s administration.

Good job. And with only about 20 days left to go in his term. Good job.

First, bacon is not a vegetable. I’m pretty sure about that. Secondly, if it has beans in it, then it is chili with beans. Chili has no beans. I am definitely sure about that.

How violence in the Middle East is usually covered in the back section of the newspapers or on the sidebars of major media websites until Israel starts shooting back?

A few people (at least four, including my wife) say that sometimes the site doesn’t load properly. In comments here, the problem is described as:

you may want to keep in mind that your site won’t format properly on any of my 3 computers.

The page crunches up to the right hand margin.

And:

your site does not work. first their is no place on the main page for a response, and the full page does not appear. at times your site shifts all the printed content to the right side of the screen, and sometimes only 1/2 of the site is in view. dont know what is going on but i can’t get your site to display properly.

I have never been able to replicate the problem on any computer or browser combination I have. Can someone grab a screen capture if this occurs for them? That way, I can get my wonderful gun blog web designer* to fix it.

* Seriously, he does good work and you should use him too.

Update: Received four screenies so far. All look the same. Checking into it.

Update: So far, it seems to be an Internet Explorer 6 problem.

If you’re going to rob someone, don’t drop your gun. It might fall apart.

The Washington Post been one of the perpetuators of the myth that you bitter-clingers have nothing to worry about because Obama really does like the second amendment and has now for like at least 8 months. Nevermind all that stuff he did before, he didn’t mean any of it. So, calm down you dumb, cousin-humping rednecks.

Now, they’re sticking to that story. You see, the economic downturn accounts for all those increases in gun sales. Not that the man who is president-elect has a history of being anti-gun and is nominating anti-gun cabinet members. Nope, economic downturn. All those people are spending that money they don’t have on guns due to that. But at the end, the article points out:

Sales of guns and ammunition are up 8 to 10 percent this year, according to state and federal records, fueled in part by fears that the incoming Democratic administration might tighten restrictions on gun sales. But some new gun owners — crowding instruction classes and local ranges — are also worried about rising crime, according to Nan Sanders, a retiree and shooting instructor from Vienna.

Sanders’s group, Piedmont NRA Instructors, held a class in Chantilly recently on personal protection in the home and had more than a dozen students, about twice as many as usual. There were so many inquiries about a basic pistol class last month, “we had to turn people away,” she said.

Jack, a communications professional, said she will be taking a gun safety class next month. She and her husband, Jay, a Realtor, decided to buy a firearm after a recent conversation around the dining room table. They talked about some of the recent high-profile incidents, of how “unbelievable” it all is, how fast everything is changing, how scary it is not knowing when it will stop or turn around.

Ya know, that probably should have been the opener. I mean, unless you’re like carrying water for the Obama administration or something.

Bad enough when the police get the wrong address and bust through your door in their ninja gear. But it’s gotta be more bizarre when it’s firemen:

Deputy Fire Chief Greg Robbins said he directed firefighters Friday to what he thought was a vacant, city-owned home in the 800 block of Second Street to run training drills.

Instead the crew broke down the door at the home of Mike and Cathy Grosse, causing $1,000 in damage.

Oops.

Ya know, Santa checks his list twice.

NYC Councilman and state senate-elect Hiram Monserrate is an anti-gun activist. He also has the nasty habit of beating his girlfriend in the face with a glass bottle, which required 20 stitches, and trying to run over a tow truck driver who was repossessing his car. He says he slipped when he hit his girlfriend. He also has a history of violence and mental health issues that resulted in police seizing his guns. But he doesn’t want you armed. After all, you may be just like him.

And this man will be a state senator.

You may have heard that in Roane County there was a toxic spill of ash after a TVA dike broke. Read about it here. And a lot of stuff here.

Anyway, Cathy’s friend went to check it out and was physically detained and interrogated. Then why are they saying it’s all perfectly safe?

A look at light 40 loads.

Looks like some Republicans are set to delay the nomination of Holder to AG.

Accidents at intersections in Houston doubled after the installation of red light cameras. But Mayor Bill White argued that the cameras’ presence prevented even more collisions and that the study proves the monitoring program is keeping drivers safe. That may be one of the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.

The Ten Ring is four.

A flowchart on understanding flowcharts.

I guess it’s going well since their site is inaccessible. And a bit from the Independent Institute. You can get a copy here.

Various anti-gun groups said that assault weapons were the reason for the increase in police deaths during the 1990s. There was a ban. The ban has since expired but police deaths from gun fire are down 40%.

Meanwhile, other demographics have an increase in gun violence.

Particularly when the product was sold to a guy with his own TV show.

Apparently, Cannon Safes doesn’t grasp what is meant by lifetime warranty.

If you rob a place using an airsoft pistol, guys with real guns may be a problem.

There are plenty of reasons not to like Packers GM Ted Thompson, but unlike many of my fellow green-and-gold bleeders, I don’t think letting Favre go was one of them. Favre’s perennial will-he-or-won’t-he retirement drama had become a huge distraction, and the team was going to have to find a new QB, whether it was in 2008, 2009, or 2010. With Rodgers in his fourth year, now was the ideal time to see whether or not he’s good enough to be the starter. The numbers should speak for themselves:

Rushing:

Belied by the Jets’ 9-7 season versus the Packers’ 6-10 season, Rodgers had a better year than Favre in every Statistical category except fumbles lost (3 against Favre’s 2, though Favre fumbled more times) and completion percentage. All told, Rodgers was responsible for nine more touchdowns than Favre — six more passing touchdowns, and three more rushing touchdowns — while throwing nine fewer interceptions. In fantasy football terms, you did 90 points better if you had Rodgers on your team than if you had Favre.

Now the stigma attached to Rodgers is that there were several games where the offense had the ball late in the game with a chance to tie or win, and they didn’t get it done. And there’s some validity to that. But in most of those cases, they never would have been in that situation if not for terrible defense and special teams. As it is, the Packers were fifth in the league in scoring, at 26.2 points per game (Jets: 9th, 25.3), despite being 17th in the league in rushing, at 112.8 yards per game (Jets: 9th, 125.3), and despite having the most penalized team in the league in terms of yards, 984 yards on 110 penalties, an astounding 61.5 yards per game in penalties (Jets: third best in the league, just 569 yards on 77 penalties, 35.6 YPG). The Packers were also 5th in the league on third down, converting 44.2% of the time (Jets: 14th, 41.1%).

Meanwhile, the Packers’ defense was 26th in the league against the run, allowing an average of 131.6 rush yards per game (Jets: 7th, 94.9), and 23rd in the league in points allowed, at 23.8 (Jets: 18th, 22.3). If the defense hadn’t scored an NFL-best 7 defensive touchdowns (Jets, T-3rd, 5), a lot of those games would have been a lot worse.

Special teams, however, is where it gets really ugly: the Packers tied the Ravens for worst in the league in return yardage, 20.1 yards per return (Jets: T-14th, 23.1); they were 27th in punting average, at 41.4 yards (Jets: 23rd, 42.9); and 28th in punts downed inside the 20, at 15 (Jets, 27th, 16).

Looking at the numbers and the particulars of the two teams, it’s clear that the Packers have many problems, but the QB position isn’t one of them. The Jets finished with a better record than the Packers, but they were statistically better in almost every category except QB play, where the Packers were clearly superior.

So enough ragging on Rodgers and pining for Favre already. Rodgers played exceptionally well, especially for a first-year starter on — let’s face it — a bad team.

In December, a first for me. I have exceeded my monthly bandwidth transfer limit of 40,000 MB. If this keeps up, I may have to upgrade my webhosting service.

And, because Les said it worked, I added the Share This plug in so you guys who are into Facebook, Stumble Upon and Digg can share the posts here with a click. I don’t use any of those services but, hey, you might.

30 lobbyists for every member of congress.

Seems to be a trend for the anti-gunners. Someone staged a gun buyback. But had it turned into a giveback because organizers were hoping to collect $5,000 to $10,000 in donations, but the money never materialized.