USA INC and TN INC

If the government was a company... USA INC.

In a hole - trillions in debt.
Continuing to dig - negative cash flow.

And entitlements are the back hoe in this process to get us even deeper in dept.

"Conclusion – Publicly traded companies with similar financial trends would be pressed by
shareholders to pursue a turnaround. The good news: USA Inc.’s underlying asset base and
entrepreneurial culture are strong. The financial trends can shift toward a positive direction,
but both ‘management’ and ‘shareholders’ will need collective focus, willpower, commitment,
and sacrifice."

If this was a business, I think we'd see a change in leadership. The Tea Party has already facilitated some changes in middle management, but let's replace the CEO when his contract is up.

And closer to home... As a former business man, I would hope that Governor Haslam will take a pragmatic approach to the budget.

"“The time is right to go on a rigorous diet that consumes less and exerts more energy.”

“State government does a lot of good things. We have worked hard to try and continue funding many of those things. The reality is that there are a lot of things I would like to do, that each member of the Legislature would like to do, but that we simply cannot afford.”

Link to original USA INC PDF at Business Week.

Free Gun Storage!

FREE! FREE! FREE!

That's right! Free gun storage!*

Are you tired of having to store your own guns? Sick of having the option to defend yourself? Don't like the convenience of ready access to your own weapons?

Well then, the UT Police Department has a deal for you! They will happily store those pesky guns for you. It is a great way to "own" guns without really having access to them.

*Some restrictions, especially to your Second Amendment rights, may apply.

Sarcasm aside, given the current laws, this is a nice service.

Gun Show & Gun Safety

I went to the gun show at the 640 Expo aka Knoxville Expo Center. It drives me crazy that people don't think the four rules apply in the magical dimension of the gun show.

As always, Volunteer Ordnance Works (Cleveland, TN) had a good selection of higher-end handguns. I noticed the Knoxville Tactical booth for the first time. Their orange and white 550 paracord should be popular.

It amazes me that the prices on new guns vary so much. Who is buying the Glock 19 for $600(ish) when it is $550(ish) two tables over?

It is a shame that you aren't allowed to take pictures inside the show. Add the guns and it would look something like this.

For me it is my RSS Reader

... and with that I am going to bed.

Help me identify these guns.

When my grandfather passed away, we inherited these guns. At the time, neither my Dad, my brother, or I had interest in them. We ended up giving them to a cousin. Can anyone help identify them? Click the picture for a larger view. I'll e-mail my cousin to verify, but I thought it would be fun to see if someone could tell me what they were.

People are Good

People are good, but we can't trust them with a gun. So...

If People = Good then
 Trust = True then
  Private_Gun_Ownership = True else
   Trust = False then
    People = Evil then
     Private_Gun_Ownership = True

I think I just broke my computer.

Via Snarky Bytes

Lent

For the record, I'm giving up soft drinks and tea for Lent. I don't drink a ton, so this is more about discipline than sacrifice this year.

A Dance with Dragons

I actually went to the book signing in Lexington when A Feast for Crows came out. I think that was when I was in high school - okay, maybe not quite that long ago.

"Big news. The end is in sight, at long long last, and we're close enough so that my editors and publishers at Bantam Spectra have set an actual publication date. A DANCE WITH DRAGONS will be in your favorite bookstore on TUESDAY, JULY 12, 2011."

He references A Storm of Swords for an estimated length, so probably about 1000 pages. Every year I hope it will come out before I go to the beach, but no luck. I've been reading the Wikipedia summaries as a refresher. If I had the time, I might re-read the books. Unfortunately, I still have 800 pages or so left in Atlas Shrugged before I start anything.

Previously:
George R. R. Martin - A Song of Ice and Fire
Game of Thrones coming to HBO

Top Shot 2 Challenges

I'd pay good money for someone to provide a place where I could try my hand at the Top Shot challenges. Even tonight's 100 plate team speed challenge with 1911s would be easy to setup, but it looked like a ton of fun.

I'd also like to try the high speed, low drag (as one the competitors called it) Razorcat Racing Gun from the Quick Fire Faceoff.

Updated - found the link and image to the Razorcat.

Bullets & BBQ Knoxville Blogger Event

On Saturday, I enjoyed meeting several of the Knoxville area bloggers at Coal Creek Armory for friendly fire and some eats afterwards. It was really nice for me because I've just started this hobby (both the blogging and the guns), whereas some of these folks have been doing it for years. It was an interesting experience in that I had never met them in person before, but I felt like I already knew them through their blogs.

Attendees and their reports (in bold):
Les Jones - Notes from the Blogger Gun Bash
Linoge (plus Better Half joined for lunch) - After Action Report
Lissa
Liston Matthews (dropped by at lunch)
Rich
Michael J. Mollenhour (also joined at lunch)

The gathering also let me try out a few different guns and let others shoot mine. As you see in the post above Les liked my Kel-Tec. He didn't mention it in the post, but he was not a fan of the trigger on the CZ 75 SP-01. We also thought we had a problem with my P22, but it actually was working as intended - you can pull the trigger and the hammer will fall while the safety is on, but there is a block that keeps it from actually firing.

I shot a couple of wheel guns, which was a new experience for me. Les and Linoge told me the models I'm sure, but I didn't catch them in the heat of battle. I also shot Rich's Bersa 380. We had a couple of problems with that one. I had a failure to feed while I was trying it out. A neigbor of mine also happened to be in the lane next to us, so I got to try out the S&W Bodyguard 380. I wanted to fall in love with it, but I didn't. He said it was hard for him to shoot accurately and I was way low and left with it - even with the laser (which probably needed to be adjusted since it had come back from S&W). He had another buddy shooting high right. I'd like to blame the gun, but that's some odd data.

The highlights for me were Linoge's PPS and Les' Browning Buckmark. I shot my Kel-Tec PF-9 pretty well that day, but I'm still looking for an alternative. I really liked the PPS - it is a good size and the manual of arms is very similar to the P22 that I like. This meet-up may end up costing me some money if I decide I need one of those. And thanks to the Buckmark, I now know what a really good trigger is like. Les had some work done to the .22 and it has really paid off. That thing was smooth as silk. The fiber optic sights were a nice upgrade as well.

Thanks to everyone that showed up and shared guns, ammos, and stories.