October 2008

House Democrats Push Climate Tax

While the financial fires are distracting everyone from ‘business as usual’ in Washington, House Democrats Push Climate Tax While Negotiating Fiscal Bailout. Never mind the man behind the curtain, Dorothy . . .

From Senator Jim Inhofe’s EPS blog:

During a week where Americans were focused on perhaps the greatest economic challenges this country has faced in over a generation, House Democrats released a set of principles on October 2nd that outline an aggressive plan to cap greenhouse gas emissions. The plan could be even more economically restrictive than the failed Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act, which would have cost $6.7 trillion dollars, according to the bill’s own sponsors. That $6.7 trillion cost would have been passed on to families and workers across the country in the form of higher gas prices, higher electricity and heating/cooling bills, more expensive consumer goods, and higher workplace costs.

As we learned during this past summer’s debate on the failed Lieberman-Warner global warming cap-and-trade bill and with the recent victory on offshore drilling, the appetite of the American people to unlock America’s affordable energy resources is very strong. When it comes to being in touch with Americans, the House Democrats need a reality check. The current financial crisis only reinforces the public’s wariness about any climate bill that attempts to increase the costs of energy and jeopardizes jobs.

There is much more, including links to some very interesting information at the EPS Blog.

Lane Victory

lane-victory.jpgAt the conclusion of our romantic excursion to Catalina Island, we passed the Lane Victory berth which is next door to the Catalina Terminal in San Pedro. We took a day cruise on the Lane, which is a National Historic Landmark; the cruise left San Pedro and steamed across the Catalina Channel and back. Unfortunately, I lost the photographic record when I had a disk crash. We’ll make it a point to take the cruise again so we can get more pictures. Damsel snapped this photo of the superstructure as we passed the Lane. Click for big.

Wikipedia has this historic account of the Lane Victory:

SS Lane Victory is a Second World War Victory ship which is preserved as a museum ship in the San Pedro area of Los Angeles, California. As a rare surviving Victory ship, it is a U.S. National Historic Landmark.

She was named after Lane College, which was established as a high school for black youths in 1882 by Isaac Lane, a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Jackson, Tennessee. The school grew into a prominent liberal arts college.

The Lane Victory was built by the California Shipbuilding Corporation in Los Angeles, California and launched on May 31, 1945. On her first voyage, June 27, 1945, Lane Victory carried supplies in the Pacific. She was operated by the American President Lines.

In 1950 the Lane Victory was used to evacuate Korean civilians and U.N. personnel at Wonsan, North Korea during the Korean War. The ship also saw duty during the Vietnam War. In 1970, she was placed in the reserve fleet. Because of her excellent condition, the Maritime Administration decided to set aside the Lane Victory for preservation.

View from the Wrigley Memorial

When we hiked up Avalon Canyon to the Wrigley Memorial, we climbed up the stairs to the top deck and enjoyed the view looking back toward Avalon. It wasn’t a nice sunny day, but the cloud cover kept us cool during the hike and while climbing the stairs. The view down the canyon is very pleasant to see, even on a mostly cloudy day.

You can read more about the Memorial in this post.

Click on the image below for larger view.

canyon-on-monument.jpg

OPSEC – Protect Your Personal Information

I recently got a briefing on Operational Security. The reason for the briefing is to periodically review some of the things that we should consider in our responsibility to keep information safe from unwanted disclosure.

One of the first slides the Operations Security Manager put up on the screen was that of the rear window of an SUV where someone had proudly placed a stick-figure representation of their family, complete with names.

The OSM said “How would you like it if someone who had noticed you and your little kids getting out of the vehicle and going into the store? How would you like it if that person were to entice one of your kids away by calling them by name? ‘Psst, Susie – your mom wants you to come over here with me.’ Sounds frightening, doesn’t it?”

This reminded me of the article Damsel posted on this topic last year which I re-post here.


Wouldn’t it be nice to have your beautiful family depicted in the rear window of your SUV or mini-van? With Dad, Mom, and all the kids’ names? You’ve seen those rear-window decals around.

But I’d think twice before listing my family members’ names for all to see (maybe some sicko predator would like to know your kids’ names). So this is my solution to listing our family members that I want folks to know about . . .

the-gun-family

Permission given to copy and use this graphic with link credit to capnbob.us

Trio of Orchids

Looking through some of the photos I took last month at the Orchid Show, I found this one of these three very delicate and beautiful blooms. Click to enlarge.

trio-orchids.jpg

Range Report for 10/05/2008

We haven’t been shooting for a couple of weeks, so today was especially enjoyable. Our gunography consisted of my Glocks (G26 and G30 ) and Damsel’s “Girls,” the Warthog, the S&W 908s and her S&W 686. I also took my ancient Ithaca single-shot 20 gauge shotgun, our 12 gauge security gun and Damsel’s 20 gauge, the latter two being versions of Remington’s 870 series.

We have come to the conclusion that the sights need to be adjusted on the revolver; everything else seemed to hit where we aimed (more or less) but the revolver consistently shot below the target.

The Warthog performed flawlessly for the first 49 rounds. The very last round in the last magazine stuck on its way into the chamber. After clearing the round and re-inserting into the mag, she fired fine. On inspecting, it appeared that the friction spot on top of the barrel was a little dry, possibly contributing to the misfeed.

The Glocks both worked like “Glockwork” for a total of fifty rounds each. I lost count of the .357 rounds through the 686, but it was probably somewhere around fifty as well. The other S&W pistol saw a similar number of rounds and worked just fine.

The old Ithaca only got five rounds of 20 gauge since that was all I brought for it. The Remingtons each saw twenty-five rounds.

Canyonlands Panorama

These bizarre towers sculpted by nature are in South Canyonlands National Park. This canyon is the trailhead for the hike to the confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers, just about five miles from this Southern Utah location. At the far right extremity of this panorama, you can see the Damsel as she prepares to set up for her next photographic masterpiece.

canyonlands-south.jpg

Click to view in the image viewer full-size.