Political Correctness

The following is the winning entry from an annual contest calling for the most appropriate definition of a contemporary term.

This year's term: Political Correctness.

"Political Correctness is a doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical liberal minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end."

Carrying a concealed deadly weapon

Kentucky requires you to take a course by a state certified instructor before you can qualify for a permit to carry a concealed weapon ($75), then pay the local Sheriff $20 and the State Police $40. The State Police are the issuing agency. If you pass the classes the instructor sends the appropriate information to the State Police. Within 90 days they have to either issue a certificate of qualification, or prove you are not qualified to receive a CCW permit. Once you have the certificate you take it to the local Sheriff along with a recent color photo of a specified size and they issue a wallet sized concealed carry permit that you must have on you any time you are carrying a concealed weapon.

The classes are about eight hours long, include classroom instructions, reviewing copies of all the pertinent laws, a two hour movie (that contains about 20 minutes instruction that is repeated several times (yawn), a test, filling out affidavits, etc. Then you must qualify with your gun of choice at a controlled shooting range. Not really difficult if you have any proficiency with your handgun. It requires you to put X number of bullets into a man sized target at a distance of just 21 feet (7 yards). You flunk if you get less than 11 bullets out of 20 in the target. I took the class Saturday along with 14 others and aced the shooting with 20 rounds in the heart area, and everyone in the class put 20 out of 20 in the target. Hard to miss at that range, but it's about average for the distance you would have to shoot if you encountered a bad guy.

The shooting range was outside and it was raining lightly, sprinkling, raining a bit harder, or some form of wetness falling on us the whole time we were there. It took a couple of hours to run everyone through the target shooting and I had enough good sense in the morning to anticipate such conditions, taking an umbrella along.

After the range qualification part we returned to the instruction room and were required to break down and clean our weapons. Since this is something I do after each use there was no problem for me. It was interesting how many people there had never known guns should be cleaned. Some of the guns were several decades old, had been used extensively, but had never been cleaned. One of the guns used had been taken from a German during the Second World War by the fellow's grandfather. I think the German was the last person to clean it. It's a real testimony to the manufacturer the thing was still working flawlessly, because it required industrial strength cleaning.

That was my eight hour day. Now I wait for the certificate so I can have the Sheriff's department issue my CCW permit. I don't really need the permit as I'm quite comfortable wearing a fully exposed weapon in a holster, but often in cold weather my coat will hide it from sight. In such cases it becomes a concealed weapon, so I hike up the right side of my coat and tuck it behind the gun. Carrying it in the car is another place it will come in handy. The only place I can legally carry it in the car loaded and ready for action, is the glove compartment (I never carry gloves in there anyway). On the Blazer there is a hard molded pocket in the drivers door that would make it much more accessible if I carried it there, and with a CCW permit I can legally do that. Of course I will now have to shop for a smaller gun that will conceal easily on my body. And an ankle holster. And a shoulder holster. Maybe an inside the waistband holster.

One other thing is, the exposed weapon strapped to you side tends to make gun fearing people uncomfortable on the street, in stores and restaurants, and the like. When it's concealed they can proceed in their blissful ignorance. Most of the states I might be traveling into or through recognize the Kentucky CCW as valid in their state too. They include Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, Wyoming.

You will notice one neighboring state that does not recognize the Kentucky CCW, Illinois. They are one of only two states that will not issue a concealed carry permit. Must be that Chicago influence.

Secrets of the Culinary Arts.

A hickory smoked steak is cooked over flaming hickory wood.
A charcoal broiled steak is cooked over flaming charcoal.
A chicken fried steak is cooked over a flaming chicken.

The Crapper Caper

British police said Friday they were hunting a man who stole a urinal from a pub toilet.

It was a bad law anyway

"...after 9/11, President Bush issued a "finding" which makes exceptions from the murder ban for known terrorist leaders if capture is impractical."

"That makes Ford's executive order 11905, the ban on political assassinations, which was updated by subsequent presidents, not very operative any more."

GOOD!

Spyware

For several years my wife and I have run AdAware© by Lavasoft (a free download) on our computers every few days. As we're surfing the web various web sites put little spyware programs in your computer that report back on your web surfing habits. After a while these can become so plentiful they compete with you for Internet time, slowing your computer down. A couple of years ago we visited our daughter in Indiana and found her computer was almost unusable in trying to access anything on the Internet. I downloaded AdAware© and ran it on her computer. It found 1,868 spyware programs all running in the background. When we deleted these her computer picked right back up to it's normal speed. Now they run this program every few days on their computers. Just thought I'd pass this piece of information on in case anyone out there is having spyware slowdown problems.

My Sister

One of the spelling words I was studying was "psychiatry". I was commenting on how it started with a "P" but sounded like it started with an "S". Dad looked up from reading the paper and said, "Yes, the 'P' is silent as in swimming". Think about it.

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Mom and dad were friends with another couple from the years they used to double-date before any of them were married. That friendship continued for the rest of their lives. The other couple had a daughter just a couple of months before I was born, and she and I played together when we were both in diapers, and often played together as kids. We started first grade together and graduated highschool together in our small town school. Two different years our families rented adjoining cabins on a lake for a week's vacation, and one year took a few days vacation traveling around southern Indiana together. Because of the closeness of our families she and I were at times linked romantically in the minds of our fellow students to the extent of placing a humorous story about our future marriage in the year book.

After we were both grown, married to other people and had kids, my wife and I were in business together with her and her husband for a while. The four of us went on business/holiday trips together and were around each other a lot. One day I was in her home, just the two of us, and I realized she felt a bit awkward about that. So we talked it out. I told her since I had three brothers and no sisters, she'd always been that sister. She was just too close over our whole lives for there to be a romantic interest to me. I said it would seem like incest. She was comfortable with that, and we've been brother and sister ever since.

We have rarely seen each other since I moved from Indiana in '79 and her and her husband have also moved out of that state, but we correspond on occasion. She always signs her notes "sis", and I sign "bro Richard".

I guess historically there is a poor track record for a man and woman just being friends, and it is therefore suspect in everyone's minds. It's a shame as I've known a lot of really super ladies I would have enjoyed as friends. I suppose it's possible in the anonymity a big city, but in a smaller community you know the gossip would be running rampant within the hour of your being seen together.

But I have a wonderful sister.

Happy New Year Everyone !!

We had to make another fast round trip to Indiana (4 hours each way) to retrieve our granddaughter so she can be back in school the 2nd. We drove up on the 31st, had dinner in one of our favorite watering holes from our years living in that area, spent New Years Eve at our daughters with a few libations. We live in a dry county, but they don't. They'd purchased a bottle of Dewar's Scotch Whiskey just for old dad so I had a couple on the rocks. Then I had a couple straight up. Then I quit. I figured a couple more straight up and I would no longer be straight up myself.

We had good roads with no delays either way but drove the Blazer just in case. It has 4 wheel drive if we should need it because of snow.

Along the Interstate between Elizabethtown and Louisville on a road that runs parallel, there's a neat looking farm with a large sign on the gate. "Used Cows For Sale". For some reason that just cracks me up. What in the world is a "used cow"? Does that mean they've already been bred, milked? Maybe they've already carved a few steaks off their butts.