Or, maybe, Cirque du Insane?

How about a break from politics and firearms to look at this beautiful Santana hibiscus currently showing on the patio?

Click image to see the full-sized version.

The most transparent administration has magically created or saved jobs in phantom congressional districts all over the nation. Their sleight of hand, however, has been detected by some investigative agencies.

$6.4 Billion Stimulus Goes to Phantom Districts

Just how big is the stimulus package? Well for one, it has doubled the size of the House of Representatives, according to recovery.gov, which says that funds were distributed to 440 congressional districts that do not exist.

According to data retrieved from recovery.gov, nearly $6.4 billion was used to “create or save” just under 30,000 jobs in these phantom congressional districts–almost $225,000 per job. The web site operates on an $84 million budget and is tasked with monitoring the distribution of the $787 billion stimulus package passed by Congress–which, for the record, counts 435 members–in early 2009.

The site’s monitors, however, are not too savvy about America’s political or geographic landscape. More than $2 million was given to the 99th District of North Dakota, a state which has only one congressional district. In order to qualify for 99 districts, North Dakota would have to have a population of about 60 million people, almost 24 million more people than California.

Vice President Biden must be proud to be in charge of such a magical effort. What was the number of that website again?

I found the Wreckovery logo at Michelle Malkin’s website a while back.

As if the Senate doesn’t already stink . . .

Hat tip - The Patriot Post

Damsel and I decided to stay home from the range today. We wanted to watch football (we have the DirecTV NFL SuperFan package in HD). We also wanted to relax and prepare our Sunday dinner without the shooting and cleaning sessions. We’re going to move the shooting to another weekday, now that I’m retired.

For dinner, we grilled up a prime rib cut an inch-and-a-half thick. We also had a couple of twice-baked stuffed potatoes and steamed broccoli on the side. What a great meal - we had to walk it off afterward like we do most Sunday dinners.

Not to brag, but I nailed the grilling of the rib on the barbecue. We prepared the roast by rubbing it with olive oil and coarse black pepper. I then took it to a very hot grill and seared it on both sides. After browning over the high temperature, I backed the fire off and roasted the meat for about a half hour, turning it halfway through. I took it off of the grill when the internal temperature got up to 130°F. It was nice and pink when we cut into it. Damsel and I split this one cut and still had leftovers for a steak salad later this week.

Please stop drooling on your keyboard. For a closer drool, click on the image above.

Can you guess which panel below was imaged by a $500+ Canon Digital Rebel Xsi and which was imaged with a $2.99 Kodak disposable camera?

Near the end of September, the company I worked for threw a retirement luncheon for me. The lady who organized the event brought a bunch of throw-away cameras to be handed out to folks who attended so they could take some candid photos of the party. I grabbed one of them that the boss used to get some shots, so I could get them printed out.

There were about 13 shots left in the camera, so I took it to the Botanic Garden to finish the roll off. I snapped a shot of the Koi pond roughly at the same time that Damsel was shooting it. You can see the result.

The drugstore film possessor offered a Photo CD for a couple of bucks extra, so I went for it since all of our recent media is digital. I got the pix today and they were a disaster. Both the prints and on the CD. It looked like they scanned in the prints after using the grainiest possible print media.

Bottom line: you get what you pay for.

Ramirez, of course . . .

Last month, we went to Arizona, partly for a vacation and partly to look around the areas we visited for possible relocation. Our trip took us from the Phoenix area eastward toward Globe and then southward toward Willcox. From there, we drove to Tombstone, up through the Tuscon area and back toward Phoenix. Of course, we stayed at RV parks along the way.

This place, Marana, Arizona, came under consideration for a couple of reasons. We camped here for two nights just because there were so many vacation spots to visit in the area; Saguaro National Park and the Pima Air Museum, just to name a couple, but there are more. While we camped there, we found that we liked the area, the scenery, the climate and the people we met while we were there. Damsel likes the Wal-Mart just down Interstate 10 from here. I-10 is just a couple of blocks away from where we stayed, so getting to Phoenix or Tucson would be easy commutes, since Marana is between the two cities - albeit Marana is closer to Tucson.

We will probably return to our areas of interest in the dead of winter 2010 in order to scrutinize the climate at that time of year. We will post more about that later. Click on Damsel’s photo to enlarge.

There are many veterans who deserve credit for keeping our nation safe and free by putting themselves in harm’s way. Not all such “harm’s way” scenarios require combat or the battlefield. Sailors who work on the dangerous decks of aircraft carriers, Soldiers who prepare ordinance and test weaponry, Marines who carry out firefighting missions, Airmen who crew patrol and transport aircraft and Guardsmen who patrol our coasts in aircraft and on the sea.

Special thanks go out to combat veterans as well as those who have risked their lives in training and support roles. God bless them all.

It’s been about a year now, that ammunition has been scarce here in California, and, indeed, the entire nation. In particular, handgun calibers are not only difficult to find, but when you do find them, they’re expensive.

We have tried to stockpile enough ammo to be able to take any of our guns to the range. We’re not hoarding the ammo, but keep enough on hand that when a particular caliber is unavailable, we can still shoot some, and restock the pile when the caliber again becomes a available.

The last few months, there has been a greater availability, mostly at our shooting range, but not so much at retail outdoor and sporting stores in the area. Again, the range has some but you pay about 50% more than over a year ago.

In the image (click to enlarge), top left shelf, we have handgun calibers .45 ACP, .357 magnum, .38 special and 9mm. Below that, we store magazines and holsters. The bottom two shelves are where we keep the shotgun ammo, 12 and 20 gauge.