First 5K

I ran my first 5K this morning. The local hospital hosted it as a fundraiser for Relay for Life so, as you can imagine, I was in.

I finished 2nd in my age group ... and yes, the fact that there were 2 of us had something to do with that. My time was 28:47.

Miss Fluffy finished first in her age group, and it was her first 5K, too!

Head over to the Munchkin Wrangler...

... and check out his post "why the gun is civilization" - it's a good read.

h/t to Tam

Nerd TV

Miss Fluffy and I have been watching "Liberty! The American Revolution" on DVD.

Normally, I'd automatically dismiss anything from PBS as socialist propaganda, but this series is pretty good. I recommend it.

I make no apologies for being a nerd when it comes to what I watch on TV. I'd be perfectly happy if the History Channel, Discovery and CNN were the only channels I could get.

Technically, it's a "weekend"...

... but I've got so much to do, it hardly counts. I have 2 exams on Monday (on Excel in my computer class & over several chapters in Psych nursing ... *blech*) I've also got busywork to do in preparation for maternity/childbearing clinicals next Thursday (filling out expected norms of baby & mom ... could anything interest me less? Probably not...) and - last but not least - assessments to write up after terminating my visits with my psych patient (a paranoid schizophrenic - yay!).

My instructors keep telling me that the second semester is the toughest. OK. I believe it. Enough already.

On a brighter note, I'm having some work done on my latest acquisition at Coal Creek Armory. I'm just waiting for 'em to call, and after a drive to Knox Vegas, it'll be mine. Mine! MINE!!!! Hahahahahaha! (Well, I'm on a payment plan, but it'll be in my hot little hands nonetheless...)

Pics will be up shortly.

Are you prepared or paranoid?

Mrs. du Toit has some helpful introspective guidance on the matter.

How prepared is prepared enough and at what point does someone cross the line from being a responsible gun owner to some sort of stereotype. Are you prepared or paranoid to the extent of being delusional?

This part made me think the hardest:

There is always a danger in training and practicing something that there comes a point where you want to make use of it. You want to find some reason to justify all the time and energy. So rather than preparing to defend yourself against a mugger, you start patrolling dangerous neighborhoods at night, looking for a situation where you will find a return on your investment. That’s the danger of over training and over preparedness. Yes, you can be too prepared and that is where the line is: When you go searching for trouble or cause it (even unconsciously).

For those of us who live on farms in meth country with too-small-undermanned-and-underfunded-law-enforcement-agencies, it's a bit more complex than just patrolling a dangerous neighborhood looking for trouble. When the "dangerous neighborhood" is YOUR neighborhood, what might otherwise be considered paranoia becomes - to some extent -necessary. It's possible to be looking for trouble and hoping that you don't find any...

Food for thought.

First one of 2007

I've been averaging about 2 groundhogs a year since moving up here to KY. I got this one about 30 minutes ago:
















That's one big rodent!



There are several "big" holes around our barns that the groundhogs tend to frequent. All of 'em have seen activity in the past week, so there'll be more where this one came from...

Corruption + bias =

Ever heard of Craig Callaway? CNN will tell you about him, and about how he's been convicted in federal court of taking bribes. Read the entire article. Did I miss something, or is there not one word about his political affiliation?

I'm going to go out on a limb here say that, had this jerk been a Republican, he'd have been described in the article right off the bat as Republican City Council President Craig Callaway. Instead, though, the article uses virtually every single euphamism imaginable in order to avoid the word Democrat: "head of a political crew"; "public official"; "one of the most powerful political forces in the city". Read the whole article again. You'll notice the word "Democrat" isn't mentioned once.

The article also failed to mention how, back in 2004, he'd been asked to step away from the Kerry/Edwards campaign because of ... wait for it ...

... corruption charges.

"But Alpineman," you're thinking, "aren't Republicans the ones who are corrupt?"

The MSM would have you think so, wouldn't they?

I bet this guy has cash wrapped in tin foil hidden in his freezer, too. Oh wait ... that was some other corrupt Democrat whose story was also swiftly swept under the rug by the MSM.

Oh, and who was it from the Clinton administration who was caught stealing and destroying documents from the National Archives? What was his name?

Oh, yeah -- Sandy Berger.

Um, wait a minute -- wasn't he also asked to step away from the Kerry/Edwards campaign?

Funny how the MSM fails to beat the drum for weeks at a time when it's a Democrat caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

Corruption can be found on both sides of the aisle, folks - at every political level ... but the MSM can be counted on to ignore that when it comes to corrupt Democrats.

Yeah, Republican = corruption. Right.

Where's the Tylenol?

Might as well wiegh in...

... on Friday's overturning of DC's longstanding handgun ban.

Actually, why don't I let a couple of my favorite gunbloggers do it for me?

Via Tam:

"Judicial activism", my left foot. Cry me a river. Suffer, beeotches.

And does LawDog see this as a harbinger of bad, bad things?:

...little Sarah One-Note screamed about "blood in the streets!" when Texas passed it's CHL law.

No blood.

She screamed about "blood in the streets!" when Missouri passed it's CCW law.

No blood.

Louisiana CCW? "Blood in the streets!"

No blood.

Heh. Couldn't have said it better myself.