Dear Senator McCain,

My friend, we are friends aren’t we? You’ve used the phrase “my friends” again and again during your recent Presidential campaign. Since we’re friends, I’ll just call you John. Please let me start again, taking our friendship into consideration.

Dear John,

Thank you for your service to our country. I could never truly fathom the depths of hell you went through during your time as a P.O.W. Your story of perseverance in the face of adversity is compelling.

Following your return to civilian life, I’ve had my differences with your positions on quite a few matters. I’ve had my differences with others too, including the New York Times’ assertion that you are the Maverick ™ Senator from Arizona, as well as the belief held by some, that you are uniquely more qualified to make my decisions than I am.

Dear John, as a candidate for President, you refused to run negative ads about your Democratic opponents. Strangely, your campaign staff had no problem running a negative whisper campaign against your own running mate, Governor Sarah Palin. I know I was slow to get in line behind you until Governor Palin was selected, but I was thoroughly flummoxed by a campaign strategy that had your staff trashing your running mate. Perhaps, someday, you can help me understand the brilliance of this strategy.

Strangely, you’ve had no qualms about running attack ads against fellow Republicans. In fact, you’ve run attack ads against Republicans who aren’t even running for office. Just the other day, one of your commercials claimed that local radio personality and former Arizona Representative J.D. Hayworth wasn’t a “real conservative”, while noting how much government overspending occurred under his watch. Unfortunately, that spending was under your watch too, and even larger amounts have been spent after Mr. Hayworth returned to Arizona, while you’ve remained in D.C.

Dear John, while we’re talking about negative campaigns, I see that you’ve developed a set of … radio ads that declare you are leading the fight against a President on a “far left crusade” out to destroy the United States of America. One could assume that this fight would be against; big spending bailouts, damaging reforms done in the name of health care, illegal immigration to insure the safety and job security of Americans, dependence on foreign oil, and a crippling Cap-and-Trade tax scheme to “solve” Global Warming. Unfortunately, these left-of-center positions are actually your Presidential campaign planks, positions you just happen share with President Obama. It is difficult for a mere citizen to see how you could possibly win this fight against your own positions.

Dear John, your stance on border enforcement issues highlights your representation of Arizona. Your prior amnesty based stance included a distasteful belief that those who want effective immigration enforcement reform and detest living with the devastating consequences of a porous, insecure, open border, aren’t as enlightened you are. Your aristocratic view shows just how Maverick ™ you really are. While you’ve lived in Washington, my hometown of Phoenix has become the second most likely place in the world to be kidnapped. I know you don’t want your constituents to appear xenophobic or receive special earmarks recovering the costs of an ineffective Federal border policy, but people are still suffering due to D.C. inaction.

Dear John, you’ve talked about how you were, “elected to change Washington” and “let Washington change” you. Admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery, my friend. You have had over 25 years to change Washington. The “change” thing hasn’t worked out so well. I believe it’s time for you to take a term off from office, relax and spend some quality time in Arizona while you try to undo the changes Washington has made to you. I think a long vacation in Arizona is a change that would do you well.

Respectfully,
An Average Arizona Voter

I am addicted to reading about Vox’s adorable puppies, Tango and Cash, and I promised her that I would return the favor by posting about our four-legged family members.

These are our wonderful, amazing German Shepherds.  They are super smart, and if you’re not careful, they will have you trained to do what they want in record time.  I learned this the hard way when I became a member of the pack about six years ago.

They like things to be orderly, and there is a procedure for just about everything (they are German, after all).

She is a white German Shepherd, and is most definitely the Alpha dog around here.

He is a Super-Sized East German Shepherd of the working variety.  He’s a 125 pound clown, and about the size of a small pony.  Despite his intimidating size and powerful bark, he wouldn’t hurt a fly carpenter bee butterfly non-insect being.

Before these guys, I had always been a cat (and iguana) owner.  I had no idea how much joy an animal could bring in to my life until I became a dog owner.  I am loved, protected and cherished in a way that I never imagined – the more I love and care for them, the more they love me right back.

I’m still an big lover of all animals, but you’re just not going to get the same affection and attention from an iguana.

Yep, that’s my purple 10/22. She’s a beaut, ain’t she?

This was my first gun, and I’ve loved my Ruger 10/22 from the minute I took it out of the box.  I had no plans to make any modifications to it when I bought it (I figured it was more important to learn how to shoot it first).

My plans changed when we visited the Tactical Solutions booth at the NRA Annual Meeting in May, and I immediately fell in love with their impressive selection of add-ons for the 10/22.  I suddenly found myself becoming very emotionally attached to the idea of turning my modest 10/22 into a purple race gun.  The guys and gals at Tactical Solutions took great care of me, and I ended up ordering a Predator Raptor stock in purple haze, an anodized purple extended magazine release, and an anodized purple threaded barrel.  Why threaded?  Because I plan to do my part to save the environment from the evils of noise pollution by adding a suppressor in the future.

I found out a few days later that the purple raptor stock wouldn’t be in for a few months, and Tactical Solutions was great about letting me cancel that part of the order so I could try to find one in stock somewhere else.  I think we made it up to them by ordering another barrel and mag release in silver for Capitalist Pig’s mother.

DM Firearms came through for me on the purple raptor stock – they didn’t have the purple in stock, so they called the factory, located one, and had it shipped to them so I could pick it up at their location in Phoenix.  Thanks guys, you rock!

So, how does it shoot?

Fantastic! I meant to hit the 5 and 6. No, really, I did. I was trying out a different brand of ammo, and I needed something else to aim at. Anyway, I think the 10/22 is a great rifle, and with the changes we made, it’s an absolute pleasure to shoot.

Update – Thanks to Sebastian at Snowflakes in Hell for his post on my Purple Menace, and how it would be classified as an evil assault rifle under Mayor Bloomberg’s lack of common sense gun laws.  I uploaded two new pictures (see below) that include my high-capacity, 30 round magazine and a close-up of the threaded barrel.

Click on the thumbnails for the full image.

According to a new Rasmussen poll:

Fifty-eight percent (58%) of U.S. voters say waterboarding and other aggressive interrogation techniques should be used to gain information from the terrorist who attempted to bomb an airliner on Christmas Day.

… just 30% oppose the use of such techniques, and another 12% are not sure.

We would like to add our vote in favor of waterboarding the knickerbomber, and we don’t care if they even try to get information out of him.

Do you think there is a better alternative?

Here’s video of President Obama’s December 1, 2009 speech at West Point about U.S. war strategy in Afghanistan.

Whoops! That’s not it! We’ve accidentally posted a sanitized version of General Patton’s speech to the Third Army on the eve of the Allied invasion of France during World War II. Patton’s speech was meant to motivate U.S. troops that were going to be under fire.

Here’s President Obama’s reasons we should pull out of Afghanistan, undermining the command of General Stanley McChrystal’s leadership defense of his politically motivated reduction of requested troop strength strategy for pulling out of Afghanistan when the crippled strategy fails is finished.

As stated by the President, “as a country, we’re not as young and perhaps not as innocent as we were when Roosevelt was president”.

I’m sure that General George S. Patton would not agree with the C.I.C.’s assessment.

I am still searching for the right words to describe the Babes With Bullets Ladies Action Shooting Camp I just completed.  The word Phenomenal comes to mind, but a single word doesn’t seem to do it justice.  This class was worth every penny and then some.

The instructors, Kay Clark Miculek, Lisa Munson, Annette Aysen, Deb Keehart, and camp founder Deb Ferns were all incredible, and worked with all 20 of us to significantly improve our shooting, regardless of skill level. There were Women there that had never touched a gun, and Women that had been shooting and competing for years.  Everyone got a great deal out of the class and no one felt left out.

Anyone that can get a group of 20 females to simmer down and pay attention for two and a half days deserves an award just for that accomplishment, in my book.

Within the first 24 hours of the class I went from having very limited pistol experience (less than 10 times at the range shooting bullseye) to comfortably and confidently drawing a 9mm handgun from a holster, loading and making ready (inserting a loaded magazine, engaging the slide to put a round in the chamber and returning the pistol to the holster) and drawing and firing at the desired target.  The next 24 hours brought me to shooting (and hitting) 8 inch steel plates, shooting while moving and actually shooting through a practical pistol match stage.  By the end of the course, I had competed in and completed a 3 stage practical pistol match.  I don’t have the results from the match back, but I am very satisfied with my performance.

If you had told me last week that I would be able to do all of the above in a matter of a few days, I would have told you to seek professional mental health assistance.

I would also like to give a quick shout out to Mother Nature and thank her for blowing over the entire third stage as I was shooting it so I could get a second chance to run it.

I have to give a big THANK YOU in to Lisa, Annette, Debbie and Kay for taking the time to work with me one-on-one to get rid of my bad habits.  Somehow, I had already developed a slight flinch and a bit of a trigger slap.  Each of these wonderful instructors took me aside and gave me tips on how to break these habits.  I was able to take each piece of information that the ladies gave me and put it all together  – which has almost eliminated both issues.  They even taught me some exercises that I can do at home to ensure that I am rid of these bad habits for good.

If you are female and thinking about taking this class, DO IT.  If you have never touched a gun and want to learn, TAKE THIS CLASS.  If you shoot all the time and want to get better, SIGN UP FOR THIS CLASS.

Here, I’ll make it easy for you – Here’s the link to the BABES WITH BULLETS 2010 LADIES ACTION SHOOTING CAMPS

Oh, and you better hurry – these classes fill up very quickly!

I am extremely excited and a bit anxious this morning.

In just a few hours  I will be driving down to The Old Pueblo to take part in a three day Ladies Action Shooting Camp put on by Babes with Bullets.

I’ll be getting practical pistol training from the top Women shooters in the country – Deb Ferns (founder of BWB), Kay Clark Miculek, Lisa Munson, Annette Aysen, and Deb Keehart.  Words can’t describe how fortunate I feel to be getting instruction from these amazing Women.

This is what I’ll be doing:

See ya in a few days.