Hodgepodge Archives - Page 5 of 5 - Bullets First

Northwestern honors troops with best uniform ever

Sure, there are more meaningful ways to honor the troops then simply changing your uniform for one game, but if you are going to do it, it doesn’t get much better than Northwestern University’s attempt. From the top of the head to the tips of the toes these uniforms bash you in the face with American Pride. And seriously, even though we, as a country, have had a rough go of things recently, maybe it’s time for a little more American pride and exceptionalism and a little less apologizing for being who we are. This is America dang it, ass kickin’ name takin’ world shapin superpower…for a little while longer at least. And it is nice that every now and again we give a little nod of appreciation to the soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen who have fought and sacrificed for us. This uniform will be...

The Great Parenting Scam That Is Halloween Candy Checking

It has been quite a few years, decades now, since I have gone trick or treating around my hometown. But even as a young child, my age in single digits, I always had a sinking feeling that my fathers “candy check” at the end of the night had less to do with poison and more to do with the “parental cut” that parents seem to take from their child’s haul. Now, don’t get me wrong, my father would toss out any suspicious looking candies that may have had their wrapper resealed or opened. He tossed out all the fruit as a precaution because fruit is a really easy way to transmit something harmful if a person had ill intent. And really, FRUIT, it’s Halloween people, be healthy the other 364. But even with the cursory expelling of suspicious items he still would thumb his way through my upturned pillow...

Sports teams should stop lying about where they are

Is it really too much to ask that a sports team accurately represent where they are. Growing up in New York I always had a problem with the New Jersey Giants and the New Jersey Jets trying to pass themselves off as New York’s team. If you can’t or don’t want to pony up the money to play in the city then you really shouldn’t have the right to falsely identify with them. And yes, while the Giants and the Titans (original name of the Jets) started out playing in New York City, the title of New York does not transfer in perpetuity. I’m pretty sure the New York Baseball Giants and the Brooklyn Dodgers wouldn’t get a pass if they were going to try and continue to milk New York. This annoyance was brought up again because of an interview that Joe Montana recently gave that enlightened me...

“News of the Strange” – Squirrel Shootouts and Water Assaults

In a pair of head scratching stories involving guns a police officer in TN goes full on Robocop to handle a squirrel and in FL a 19 year old women gets arrested for an unprovoked water gun attack on her boyfriend. In the first story Officer Overkill Jody Putman was in a Dollar Store in Mountain Tennessee when the employers noticed that a squirrel was inside the store. Putman leapt into immediate action and deployed his pepper spray on the furry little interloper. When that failed he responded by pulling out his sidearm to dispense woodland justice to the trespasser. So in a scene reminiscent of a slapstick comedy, people were fleeing the store hacking and coughing from the contact with the spray while Putman is firing live rounds at a little squirrel. Putman then tried to cover up his involvement in the great squirrel hunt of 2013 by refusing to file a...

When gun control “logic” seeps into other aspects of life

See if this sounds familiar; an individual does something stupid or illegal with a gun that is not representative of responsible, law abiding gun owners in general. A knee jerk reaction by a skittish “we need to act” political body forces some nonsensical, worthless and ultimately pointless gun control legislation that does nothing more than infringe and harass people who would never abuse their right in the first place. Welcome to New York. Not too surprising that this knee jerk, micromanaging, Big Brother-esque nanny state mentality with gun control colors other aspects of the lives of its denizens. Case in point, right outside of Albany is Green Island, NY. Green Island, following the lead of the controllers at the Capitol decided to deal with a persons ability to have pets. Because of a single person who happened to have 10 pets in one apartment (though no mention as to...

The ballistics of SHARK WEEK

In celebration of Shark Week, I thought I would take a look at the ballistic reality of finding yourself in a Jaws like scenario and having to shoot your way out of it. First of all I understand how ridiculous the notion of a realistic “Jaws like scenario” is, so I don’t mean a giant shark is eating your boat and its drunken captain. But hey, maybe you’re on a boat and some friends are swimming and the dorsal fin comes and makes like its hungry. Have you ever heard that sharks are bulletproof? Bulletproof might be a bit of a stretch, but they are definitely bullet resistant because they come with their own body armor in the form of…well…their body. Sharks are entirely covered by placoid scales, also called dermal denticles. These scales are structurally homologous with vertebrate teeth (“denticle” translates to “small tooth”), having a central pulp cavity supplied with blood vessels, surrounded by a conical layer of dentine,...

A touch of perspective for this Sunday morning

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Happy Birthday America

I was initially going to use this time in order to remind us all of everything that we have lost in the past 237 years. The loss of privacy, the loss of working without our labor being taxed, the loss of freedoms as they were chipped away at etc. But this is not the day for such things. Today is a day to celebrate all that America is. Even with terrible governance, big brother tracking our every move and a cowardly court system, America is still great. In the movie, “Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay” Harold and Kumar run across a fictionalized George W Bush. The boys tell Bush that they don’t think they can believe in their government anymore. To this Bush replies: Trust the government? Heck, I’m in the government and I don’t even trust it. You don’t have to believe in your government to...

Happy Father’s Day

Let us take the day to honor, thank and overall appreciate all the sacrifices that our fathers and their fathers before them made in order for us to grow up happy and free. It’s not always easy to raise a child and father’s rarely get the propaganda spin that mothers do. So, think fondly on this day of all the lessons your father has taught you, the discipline he instilled in you, the knowledge he imparted on you and all the punishments he whipped into you in order to make it all stick when you forgot :o) Being a father isn’t about being a best friend. It’s about being a provider, a teacher, a disciplinarian, a mentor, a judge, a pair of strong arms to hold you up when you fall, and yes…a friend. But first and foremost, your father. Thank him for being that today. And if...

Weekend Hodgepodge – Mummies

When I was growing up there were two distinct sects of monsters. The old “classic” monsters who including Dracula vampires, Frankenstein monsters, Werewolves and Mummies. These classics found their origins and mythos in oral tradition going back centuries as well as codified in literary works by Brahm Stroker and Mary Shelley. In the past 50 years or so there has been the avant guarde of modern monsters which consist of vampires that twinkle in the sun or are more animal than man, werewolves that can control their transformation and have little to do with the moon, zombies brought on by virus instead of magic and killer cyborgs that have become more technical machine than biological abomination. (There are also the second tier pulp fiction monsters such as the Thing from the Black Lagoon, Mr. Hyde, The Blob and the like but I’ll focus on the varsity squad) I don’t want to...

Monthly Meme Roundup

With December upon us, here’s a rundown of all the meme’s I have created for GOA’s facebook page for November. I know its a fanciful painting, yet I somehow like to imagine that this is a proper representation of Teddy Roosevelt (even if the gun was after his time). This quote by Sam Adams ties into the picture below. Just because someone is an American doesn’t mean they will necessarily ACT like an American. It was true even in the Revolutionary War era…it’s even more true today. If the choice is between Freedom and Safety, I will choose freedom. Danger is one of the prices a free man must pay. Servants and slaves pass the buck of their own survival and security to their masters. Yeah…I quoted myself....

Weekend Hodgepodge – Men Who Built America

This past Tuesday, after the Presidential debate I had the good fortune to turn to the History Channel and catch the premiere episode of their new mini series “Men Who Built America”. Now, before you get the idea that I am going to start praising Romney for being a business man and bash Obama for claiming that business owners didn’t build their own success and can only succeed with government interference, I’m not. This isn’t about the current election. Its about the change in business in the past 100+ years. I have a feeling that these men, Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Carnegie, Ford and Morgan probably wouldn’t have been able to have the same success in today’s market as they were back then. Why? Because we have grown soft as a people. We have grown complacent as entrepreneurs and we have grown so risk averse that we feel like we should be bailed out if we fail....

Weekend Hodgepodge – Cigar Rights of America

I enjoy a fine cigar every now and again. With that being said I find it very interesting the parallels between the right to keep and bear arms and the right, yes I said right, to enjoy a fine cigar. I like to put cigar smoking in that whole pursuit of happiness thing. To wit: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. How I choose to pursue my happiness should be be my own business and so long as it isn’t hurting another person directly so should it stay. So yes, you want to ban me from smoking a stogie in the new born wing at the hospital, fine. You want to ban me from being able to smoke one on my 100 acre ranch? To hell...

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