Man, I Thought This Was Cool . . .

¶ . . . A tip of the hat to Jerry The Geek for the 411 on putting up the USPSA Classification Check. When I saw that on his site, I knew I was in the right spot . . . ! Yeah!

Vile Bill Explained . . .

¶ . . . Seems as some wonder what's up with the the "Vile" in my moniker! Six years ago after I built a computer and was making the real "move" into the Internet world, I chose this handle. I was in one of my Wild West frames of mind, apparently. Well, "Wild Bill" was taken, obviously, and "Bloody Bill (Anderson)" was a ruthless cutthroat. I don't mind saying, I think it makes for a rather interesting nom de guerre/plume, if you will. If I ever decide to take up Cowboy Action Shooting, I've got a ready-made alias! As far as I have been able to check, nobody has claimed it yet. As a matter of fact, Marc at Lay Lines suggests I oughta just register it anyway: A SASS membership costs only 45 bucks the first year ($35 thereafter), plus they have a cool Monthly Journal.

This Is An Outrage . . . !!

¶ . . . Thanks to Bastion-of-Patriotism-Blog COUNTERCOLUMN, I got the heads-up on one of the most outrageous thumbs-in-the-eye to American Vets, past and present, and the United States as a whole, that I have EVER had the sickening displeasure to witness: the refusal of San Francisco, by an 8-3 City Council vote, to forbid mooring of the famed dreadnought USS Iowa in the Bay, ". . .citing local opposition to the Iraq war and the military’s stance on gays, among other things." What other things? Like the expense for the ideal of a strong national defense would be better spent on supporting freeloading, welfare sponging, "money for nothin' and your checks for free" bums? Even Arch Gun-Grabber Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) appeared to be somewhat piqued by the snub, calling it a "very petty decision." I don't believe that even down here in L.A. such a slam could ever occur!!

. . . Kudos to the City of Stockton, CA, for stepping up to the plate and offering her a home . . .

. . . Read the story here.

Gratitude . . .

¶ . . . I gotta address a couple of the fine folks that have recognized my still fledgling (though I started it a year and a half ago!) blog. To Jerry at Cogito Ergo Geek and Marc at Lay Lines, big time thanks for the encouragement. More proof that IPSC/USPSA Gunslingers are some of the finest folks I’ve ever met. Correspondence over the past week has given me the prod to be more diligent in writing. For all the great stuff I get from the Gunblogs (Milblogs, too!) I owe them some reading. Thanks to the whole of the community for the blogroll feature; it really made a lot of great sites easy to discover . . .
. . . Anyway, I’ll try and give a perspective from a new guy’s point of view. Club presidents and everyone alike, check out (shameless plug here!) my previous post on how my discovery of USPSA and a lightning-fast response from a Section Coordinator hooked me up with the Southwest Pistol League and rocked my world!! Jerry the Geek’s 08/18 post has a great “sermon” on attracting new shooters.
. . . Get Some!!

Strength In Time Of Doubt . . .

¶ . . . My post of 31 July was one possibly out of despair (the worst plague of mankind) and assuredly one of doubt. However,the passage "The Real Target" in this post,"Thirty-Seven Marines" has bolstered my civilian resolve. God bless the 25th Marines and all Coalition Forces. And thank you Blackfive for a small prayer answered in a large way.

H. Salt, Esq., A Rare SoKal Pleasure . . .

¶ . . . One of the few pleasures I enjoy by being an unfortunate resident of Southern Kalifornia is the presence of H. Salt, Esq. Fish & Chips. It has largely remained the same as I remember as a youth. Back then there was a local franchise on Lincoln in Venice. My dear ol' Ma and Pa, recently relocated to Nevada, are unable to any longer savor the fine fare, as it is a SoKal phenomenon only. . .
. . . There was one exception, however, in the West Valley. One of the fine delights of H. Salt is their excellent Tartar sauce. Not with this curmudgeonly dude. He had packets, surely bought in bulk, and dispensed with grudging paucity. Another of his fine attributes was his penchant for serving one customer at a time, and I do mean one. The next order would not be taken until the previous one was cooked, wrapped and served. One might imagine how this might be problematic on Ash Wednesday, when there was an especially big run on fish dinners. As one would expect, this continued for the duration of the Lenten period. Good news: that cat's no longer there. Bad news: neither is the store! Fortunately, albeit a long trek to NoHo, there are some fine folks there who run a clean and efficient franchise.