Neanderpundit

come from far afield.

On the way to the range today, Partner (Easily the smartest person I know) and I are humming the Burl Ives song I tortured you all with last week.

“Great. Two functional brain cells working and they have this damned song caught in a loop”

“Actually,” I said, “I think all the other shit is still there. All those hooky bubblegum songs. All that crazy shit they tried to pump into our heads in high school. I think the loudest one just cows the others”

“Like the lobster who got the rubberband off his claw” he responds.

And in a flash I’m taken back, almost twenty years, to a double date we were on (I think. he thinks it was just us boys). We sat in the waiting area with a couple women whose locks we fully intended to pick later that selfsame evening, and watched as a rather large lobster who had managed to slip the rubberband off one claw had cowed the other lobsters in the tank- it sat in the middle, king of it’s domain, while the other lobs kept to the ends and corners of the tank lest they lose extremities.

yes, I thought, that’s a goddamned powerful metaphor for not only the way your brain catches a thought, or an earworm, but also how one person slips the rubberband off his claw and tries to take over the show.

I specifically asked for that lobster, and I ate his ass.

You may think your a big shit now, but sooner or later, something bigger is gonna come along and eat your ass, and their digestive system will turn you into shit.

I have actual hope for this country now.

Not the kind of thing you think about, but I’m actually watching a piece of good TV, and it’s on TNT of all places.

it’s called “Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story”.

if you don’t know who Ben Carson is, he’s not a character from a spaghetti western. he’s a neurosurgeon. He came from poverty and squalor. He had something in his favor, though: He had a mother who cared enough not to let him become filth. She required that he learn, that he respect, and that he knew the Creator. This is what Opportunity is like, people. It doesn’t come from other people, it doesn’t come from government programs. It comes from within, and it comes because people care enough to take no less than your best from you.

Cuba Gooding stars as Ben Carson. He’s been excellent in other movies that share this theme- Tuskeegee Airmen. Men of Honor.

Do yourself a favor, and, if you can, watch this movie. It’s TNT so they’ll replay it. It’s a damned fine film. These people are my heroes. People who get past prejudice and hatred not by fighting but by proving their ability.

hat tip, by the way, Pascal. Who turned me on to this, though I knew of Ben Carson years before.

This morning, there was a good solid carpet of snow on the entire yard. Tonight, brown grass.

Today? Was Range Day.

Enough firepower and lead was loaded into the back of the Exploder that it caused it to squat like a lowrider. Enough lead was sent downrange that the exploder stood much taller at the end of the day.

We shot the K31. We shot partner’s Krag. His springfield. His m1d sniper Garand. His regular Garand. His new Sig 220. His 1911. My 380. My 45 colt. A whole passel of 22s, in auto, revolver, rifles. En bloc clips flew. 22 cases slipped up my shirt and burned my wrists. Damned nice people shared stories and looked at our guns, we looked a theirs, we shot theirs, they shot ours.

A good time was had by all. Reinforces the idea that gunnies are the nicest folks on earth. Ran into one of the guys who was in the utah Concealed Carry course. No nicer day has been had by anyone this week. Evar.

Damn, I feeel fine.