I wonder if he gets tired of being wrong all the time...

I can't remember when I haven't had a subscription to a dead-tree newspaper. So this morning, as I dalied before getting to my chores, I ran across this column by Paul Krugman where he posits that America is losing jobs to Canada because of their superior healthcare. Of course, Krugman being Krugman, he misses a couple of salient points...

• The number of Canadians who are fleeing their country precisely because of their less-than-acceptable standards of healthcare.
• He claims that there will be no effect to Canadian taxpayers because "all Canadians get government-provided health insurance in any case". This is like saying that healthcare is as free as the air. It's just there for anyone to enjoy, and costs nothing. Absurd on it's face.
• If Canadian state healthcare is so superior, and corporations are deciding where to place their new jobs because of this, why are we not hearing of Canadians complaining of the hoards of Americans "voting with their feet" and illegally coming across the Canadian border to take these new jobs?

And, with unintended, yet perfect irony, the editors of the Arizona Republic place this article above the fold on the front page of this very same issue.

Update: Heh. (h/t: Cracker Barrel Philosopher)

The Gloves Come Off

In preface, I offer condolences to the family of the man killed by the Brit's the other day.

With that said, everything he did suggests that the police acted correctly by taking direct and decisive action against him. As it turns out, he wasn't who they had reasonable belief to believe he was, which is unfortunate. However, had he turned out to be one of the loose bombers the police were looking for, and they'd allowed him to set off another bomb, then there would certainly be cries of "Police Incompetence". This case of mistaken identity is an unfortunate byproduct of his behavior's resemblance to that of the "Asians" who have lately taken to blowing up British mass transit.

Of course, as usual, Froggy is right about all this.

Update: Just to remind everyone of the importance of differentiating between this guy's behavior and his skin coloring, I offer three words: John. Walker. Lyndh.

Range Report

So, my one and only commenter (so far) asked recently for a Range Report. So here goes...

This weekend I accomplished a number of things.

1. I was actually home.
2. The weekend on which I was actually home coincided with my ranges' monthly IDPA match.
3. I was able to secure a Kitchen Pass for said match.
4. Additionally, two of the three Spawn-of-Azlibertarian™ expressed an interest in shooting with Dear Old Dad, and we had yet another trip to the range.

As to the details related to this weekend of shooting...

For the IDPA match, although at this writing the results haven't been released yet, I'm sure they will show that I basically sucked. The theme this month was distance, which is my nemesis. There were a couple of targets at 3-5 yards, but the vast majority were in the 25-30 yard range. Humbling to say the least. However, one of the guys in my group had serious problems with his gun. He's usually one of the better scorers, but was cursed this month with bad mag's, and bad ammo (reloads--of course). [Note to self: Perhaps I should rethink that dream of someday procuring a Dillon RL 550B.] He finally switched out his entire setup to a more reliable gun. My stuff worked just the way you'd want it--aside from the operator errors. The guys who do all the legwork for this match (bless their hearts) aren't usually all that creative in their scenarios, but this month they did have one very cool stage--a You're-Michael-Durant-in-Your-Just-Shot-Down-Helicopter Blackhawk Down stage. I imagine lots of ranges with active practical shooting groups have tons of props for use on their stages. However, how many of them have a real helicopter from which to do something like this? Cool. Very cool.

Although I always enjoy IDPA, my Sunday morning outing with the kids was probably more pleasant. Daughter#1 has fallen in love with my Browning Hi-Power, and wanted to shoot this. I also brought along my Glock23C, HK USP Compact, AR-15, and Mossy 590. I had intended to put a few slugs through the Mossy, and brought 2 5-round boxes, but as it turns out, I'd loaded the slugs into the Sidesaddle and Sling and left them at home as part of my "Home Load". The 10 rounds I'd brought consisted of 2 slugs and 8 buckshot rounds. So my son and I each shot off one of the slugs and I shot off 3 of the buckshot rounds. Son-of-Azlibertarian has generally shyed away from pistols, as he's much more proficient with rifles, but did seem to enjoy all three pistols this time. We all did pretty well with the pistols, and with the AR-15 (Iron sights) were each able to stay reasonably on the paper at 100 yards and regularly get hits on the 300-yard metal plate. Good times had by all.

As an aside, Daughter#1 will be an RA at ASU this year. She kept the targets we used, and we joked about her using them as room decorations. We'll see if (a)ASU let's her put these up and (b)she actually goes through with this.

Oh. How I wish it were so.

Anyone else see something wrong here?

Who's Who Here?

Bill channels Jeff.

To Replace Sandra Day O'Connor, President Bush should nominate...

...Sarah Connor

[Note the similarities in names. Cool. Huh.]

Words Well Spoken...

...Unlike any other country, America came into the world with a message for mankind -- that all are created equal, and all are meant to be free. There is no America race; there's only an American creed: We believe in the dignity and rights of every person. We believe in equal justice, limited government, and in the rule of law. We believe in personal responsibility, and tolerance toward others....

I caught a few moments of this speech yesterday as I had it on in the background on FNC. You can read the rest of it here. As much as I have disagreed with the man, it is hard to find much wrong with his foreign policy and anything wrong with his views on the impact of democracy on world peace.

Does it get any better than...

...Standing with your family in your freshly mowed front yard watching the fireworks show put on by the church down the street?

Happy Fourth, everyone.

W ain't all that stupid...

I've said more than once that Pres. Bush has been a foreign policy Master. The War on Terror must be fought. The Iraqi Theater in that war, and the installation of democracy in a region not used to such form of government have been strategic moves of immense scale.

And here, Joe Katzman at Winds of Change shows that Bush is thinking beyond this War on Terror and perhaps forging an alliance in our potential Next War.

BTW, this level of deep thinking is one reason why the Main Stream Media is failing so badly. They simply miss this sort of thing, or--when they do cover it--offer it up in such shallow coverage as to miss the importance of our moves.

Hey--My First Gun Post

I've been shooting IDPA for about a year and a half now. I have always intended to go once a month, but in practice, am only able to get to a match every-other month or so. It is admittedly somewhat anal, but I do a little statistical analysis of the results I get back. Now--there are some among the crowd that I normally shoot with who are very good (Rob Leatham occasionally shows up).

So, I am quite happy to report that I have improved to where I am almost average.

Whew...

Has it been two weeks already?

As you can see, I haven't put up much lately, and when I have, there hasn't been much behind it. I have been super-busy in May and June....Went to recurrent and flew nearly a full month in May, and had a giant month in June. I wanted to fly some overtime in late June, but for the first time that I can remember, 100 hours per calendar month became a concern. And, I'm still trying to be a good husband and father, not to mention home-owner, so there's been little time to sit down and ponder about things in the world.

Some items I've been thinking about, but haven't had time to write on...

• The Supreme Court's atrocious Kelo decision.
• Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement, her legacy, her replacement, and the politics surrounding all of it.
• President Bush and how we're doing in Iraq.
• Iran's new President and what we're going to do about Iran.

Anyway, perhaps I'll get to these. However, it is a holiday weekend, I'm at home with the family, I've got a ton of chores to do, and my youngest turns 16 very soon (Yikes!). Off to breakfast and my chores before it gets too hot.

Update: I found a compelling and deep analysis of the Kelo decision over at hubris. I'm pondering a purchase at Amazon. [A movie, BTW, made quite near where we live.]