While looking at some winter vacation pictures as I was eating my lunch today, I ran across several images I took at Grand Canyon last month. I stitched them together to form this panoramic image of the canyon seen from Lookout Point on the South Rim of Grand Canyon. Lookout Studio, with all the icicles, is on the right. Just left of center, you can see the tower atop the El Tovar Hotel. This is much different than summer conditions at the Canyon.

Click on the image and scroll to view this panorama full sized.

I didn’t stay up late enough to hear the monologue, but thanks to the Patriot Post, we are able to enjoy Jay Leno’s takes on the changing of the guard:

You know a lot of celebrities in Washington for the inauguration. Isn’t that unbelievable? So many celebrities are out of town, over in Malibu, they had to close the Promises Rehab Center for a week.

Good luck trying to find a place to stay. Given how hard it is to get a room in Washington, even Bill and Hillary had to double up.

Barack Obama plans to issue an executive order on his first full day in office, directing the closing of Guantanamo Bay. He said he needs the money for new prisons to hold Democratic mayors and governors.

Incoming press secretary Robert Gibbs said President-elect Barack Obama will allow gays to serve openly in the military. So the days of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” are over. Actually, that’s not quite true. Congress will continue to use the phrase when referring to the bailout money. “Don’t Ask Us What We Did With It, We’re Not Going To Tell You Where It Went.”

At his confirmation hearing, Attorney General Nominee Eric Holder said as far as he is concerned, waterboarding is torture. And Treasury secretary nominee Tim Geithner said, “So is paying taxes.”

President Bush said he is leaving Washington with his head held high, because it is the best way to spot shoes that are coming at you.

Gun control looms as a major domestic issue, now that President Barack Obama has assumed the position. The President has been openly against private gun ownership during his entire political career. His choice of anti-gunners Rahm Emanuel, Hillary Clinton, Tom Daschle and (worst of all) Eric Holder to become cabinet-level officials adds credence to the possibility that guns are a target (seems backwards, doesn’t it?) of the new administration.

Most of us, however, think that “gun control,” as a national issue, is less about guns and more about control. Leftists have been relentless in trying to disarm Americans, not only here in the USA, but everywhere in the world where socialism and totalitarianism thrive. The United Nations has been especially antagonistic toward guns with constant pressure to sign international accords to disarm.

We’re bracing ourselves for the perfect storm against the Second Amendment.

I had to work today, otherwise I might have been tempted to head to the range as Liberty Sphere suggested, to practice the kind of gun control you can believe in . . .

Two to the heart, one to the head silhouette target practice - August 2008.

UPDATE: Robb Allen speaks French? Nice Mozambique!

The images above show some of the muzzle blasts from Sunday’s trip to the range. Top left: Glock 26 9mm. Top right: Warthog .45ACP. Bottom left: Remington 870 12 gauge. Bottom right: S&W686 .38 special.

Here’s a reprise from a post I did last February on the visible component of muzzle flash:

• Muzzle glow - Muzzle glow is a reddish glow that is visible before the bullet leaves the barrel. Muzzle glow is created by superheated gases that have leaked past the projectile and have exited the barrel.
• Primary flashes - The primary flash is caused by propellant gases exiting the firearm behind the bullet. Although amongst the brightest of the flashes, the heat of the primary flash dissipates quickly and thus is no longer visible.
• Intermediate flashes - The intermediate flash is caused by shock waves created by the high speeds of the escaping gases and projectile, and appears as a reddish disc shape in front of the muzzle.
• Secondary flashes - Secondary flash appears farthest from the muzzle as a large white or yellow flame. Secondary flash is caused by the mixture of fuel-rich gases and oxygen in the atmosphere surrounding the muzzle.
• Sparks - Following the dissipation of the muzzle flash, partially unburnt powder or other heated materials can be ejected from the muzzle and appear as sparks.

We got to the range today just as they were opening; we wanted to finish our outing so we could get home to watch the NFC Championship Game. When we got to the range, it seemed that others had the same idea, because there were more shooters than usual for opening time. Nonetheless, we got a booth and set up for handgun practice.

We shot close to the usual number of rounds except I forgot to bring the second box of 9mm ammo; we did without them, however, since we had plenty of .38 special and shot the revolver more than usual.

We had two anomalies - I should say “I” since Damsel’s shooting went without a flaw. One anomaly I had was a failure to feed when I was shooting Damsel’s Warthog. A little lube fixed the problem and all was normal after that. The second problem was a .45 round didn’t fire in the Glock 30. I ejected the magazine and the unspent round and saw that there was a dimple in the primer. When I reloaded the dimpled round back into the magazine, It fired normally. Damsel took a close up of the spent cartridge. You can see that the primer has two strikes on it. The .45 ammo I used in the Glock today was commercial reloads - we get a dud once in a great while.

Scientists don’t yet know enough to say with certainty what the source of the Martian methane is, but this artist’s concept video depicts several possibilities. In this video, conjecture is offered for several possibilities. First, meteoric debris reacting with atmospheric particles possibly generating methane, next comet and meteor impacts creating chemical reactions resulting in methane production. Third, subsurface water, carbon dioxide and the planet’s internal heat combine to release methane, and, finally, living microbes actively producing methane as a waste product.

Whatever the process is, there is clear evidence that Mars is ‘farting’ methane.

The little eschevaria in a hanging basket in the patio has started to bloom in January. It’s a little early this year, but the temperatures here in Southern California have been warmer than normal this week, but last week, they were quite cold. It’s environmental ‘business as usual’ in California, as it has been for years. Click image 4 big.

Al Gore’s “scientific consensus” is starting to disintegrate. Statements to the effect of “the matter is already settled” are getting more and more difficult for many in the scientific community to endorse. 2008 is in the record books as overall being much cooler than the “experts” predicted.

Many who once embraced the possibility of anthropogenic global warming have recanted their positions. I’m guessing that they were in the bag for the alarmists, but now need to save their credibility when it is becoming obvious that we’re not headed into a global meltdown.

Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK), recently delivered a report and a speech to the Senate, where he profiled the growing dissent among the scientific community; the Senator presented a groundbreaking minority report of more than 650 scientists dissenting from climate Fears.

Below the fold is an excerpt from Inhofe’s “Consensus in Freefall” speech; go down the page to the quotations from scientists formerly “in the bag:”

Continue reading » A Chorus of AGW Skeptics

Our friend GlennB has an eyewitness account.

Anti-gun Democrats just can’t wait to unleash the greatest barrage of harassment to legitimate gun ownership in the history of the US Congress. At the center of today’s anti-gun attitude is one Bobby Rush, a U.S. Representative from Illinois. He seems to be in a rush to deny gun ownership. Like Barack Obama, who once told John Lott that he didn’t think anyone should own a gun, Rush has adopted the same position and has taken the first steps toward the goal of eliminating all guns from private citizens.

According to David Codrea, of Guns Magazine, “This is nothing less than a declaration of war on American gun owners.”

World Net Daily reveals that this legislation would require that legitimate gun owners would have to comply with these ridiculous measures:

Among the more controversial provisions of the bill are requirements that all handgun owners submit to the federal government a photo, thumb print and mental heath records. Further, the bill would order the attorney general to establish a database of every handgun sale, transfer and owner’s address in America.

Rush thinks that just because some thug jumps on a Chicago bus and shoots and kills Blair Holt, a passenger on the bus, that ALL gun owners must be punished by having to obtain a Federal “Blair Holt” gun license.

Somebody ought to look at Bobby Rush’s mental health records.

Liberty Sphere has a run down of this and a bunch of other Second Amendment issues on the Round-Up.