The .44 Magnum.

Even though the Model 29 Smith & Wesson .44 Magnum (the "Dirty Harry" revolver) was officially released in 1957, their production was so slow that I saw my first one only in 1963.  And the circumstances surrounding that event are worth retelling.

You may know that I was a gunsmith, starting my training at the age of 13.  So by the time I was 18 I was a seasoned hunter and target shooter and collector.  I was at a shooting range one day competing in the NRA's 1,000 yard, 1903-A3 .30-'06, Springfield, Ohio, Open Sight Nationals.  That's where you take an old WW1 battle rifle and, using only open, "iron" sights (no scopes), you shoot at a man-sized target 1,000 yards away.  That's three-fifths of a mile!  And yes, we actually hit it every now and again.

But this day was different.  That day while I was competing there was a conversation a few yards away.  One that I couldn't help overhearing.  It turns out a fellow down the line had just been presented with a Model 29 S&W.  The biggest and baddest and heaviest weapon one could carry.  3 and 1/2 pounds of man-sized revolver.  If you ran out of bullets you beat the guy to death.  I'd never even seen one so I was distracted a bit.  In fact, I removed my ear coverings so as to catch the conversation between the two men.  

The recipient of this wonderful present ($1,000, 60 years ago!) wasn't an experienced shooter, he said.  His friend was trying to explain to him what he'd been given.  While the guy was loading it up with .44 Magnum rounds.  Bringing the weight of this monster to a full 4 pounds.  And just like that, he aimed it at a target.  While holding the revolver with both hands, only about a foot in front of his eyes.  As in, up close and really personal.  As opposed to held out arm-straight, with all body parts tensed up real good.  

And for many, eyes closed, head turned and flinched up real good.

While I was computing all of this, I finally realized this guy was about to screw up badly.  He was about to fire off this cannon within a foot of his kisser. 

I started to yell, "Don't Pull That Trigger!," I got out "Don't..." as he pulled the trigger.   

Uh Oh!  

I should start by saying the .44 Mag was the most powerful handgun available anywhere at the time.  It shot a 245-grain lead bullet at about 1,400 feet per second.  Look at your middle finger back two wrinkles, and you'll get an idea of the size of the round.  And as with Newton's Third Law, the recoil from this brute is a bitch!  As that heavy bullet leaves the barrel, the gun simultaneously punishes the owner with a tremendous kick.  

Held properly, as in at the end of an outstretched arm, it will kick your hand upon firing more than a foot and a half into the air, and twist your hand counter-clockwise a full 60 degrees.  It was a joke back then that it was better to be in front of one of these than behind it.  While trying to aim and shoot.  Most sort of aimed and then closed their eyes.  In short, it is a most unpleasant gun to shoot.  Nor is it pleasant to be on the receiving end.  Put simply, it will shoot completely through a car.  Even hiding behind a car's engine block does not guarantee one safety.  

It will also bruise your hand before you can fire its 6-rounds.    

In this instance, the revolver fired, assaulting the new owner with its ferocious kick.  A kick which smacked him right between the eyes.  Burying its steel notch rear sight deep into his forehead.  Right between the eyes, breaking his nose and splitting his upper lip.  Resulting in his legs kicking forward, and his body reeling backwards.  Knocking him clean out.  

For a split-second his entire body was airborne.  And then he fell with a "Whump!"

I stopped shooting and ran to his aid.  He was knocked out cold.  His forehead was an awful shade of reddish purple by the time I arrived.  He had rivulets of blood running down each side of his nose.  Which by then had swollen to about double in size and turned a bright shade of blue.  His eyes were swollen shut as well.  He was really messed up. 

There was a medical team on site and they tended to his injuries.  After a minute or so he came to, and was aided in standing.  By then his face was blown up to about twice it's normal size.  He was led to the ambulance and taken away.  I never learned what became of him, but I really should have followed him to the hospital.  I'll bet I could have bought that gun on the cheap... 

Who, Exactly, do They Work For?

The U. S. Gubmint leases more than 14,000 buildings.

(!)  

The New Administration just provided lessors of its intent to break 7,500 of those leases.

That's because, according to that same Gubmint, only 7% of that office space is currently occupied.  Empty.  Vacant.  Silent.  Nobody home.

Most of the 93% "working" remotely have done so since the Chinese Wuhan Coronavirus Outbreak occured.  That was 4 years ago.  One wonders how many of those 2,700,000 employees toiling away at home are still working?  Or being supervised?  Or even still alive?

Maybe they're watching Jerry Spring reruns, while eating bon bons and sucking back Pabst Blue Ribbon.  And stroking a key every now and again to try and fool the algorythm.  

That's exactly what the New Administation has been asking.  Where are all those nice folks who were sent home a few years ago.  By an Administration that apparently didn't give a sh*t about getting a $Dollars' worth of work out of the Taxpayers' employees for a $Dollars' worth of pay.  

And then nobody bothered to ask them to return.  Back to the office.  Nobody overseeing their acitivities.  Their output.  Their contribution to the Organization.  That would be Us.  The U.S.  Seems to me there's a whole lot of Chiefs in D.C., and a whole lot of Indians, but dammm few Braves to make sure the trains run on time.

Those nearly 3 Million Federal Employees make (earn?) an average salary of $106,000 a Year.  Did you know that?  Don't know about you, but I'm wondering just how many of these "remote" workers have at least one other job?  Wouldn't you like to know that also?  

After all, it's your Tax Money!

Yet again, the outcry from these Federal Workers has been cacophanous!  They've been crying their eyes out on the Clinton News Network and what's left of MSPMS.  Too think!  "I'm being asked to spend a minute providing 5 bullet points of what I did last week!  Five!  By a miserable billionaire!  And then send them back by email!  Or get fired!  That's insulting!  I have a Master's Degree from Columbia!  Who do they think they are?"  

I'm guessing none of these nice folks has ever had a private sector job.  Where you have to justify your contribution to the organization Every Single Day.  Justify your very existence or get shown the door.  You get fired.  Canned.  Dumped.  Excised.  Culled from the herd.  Removed from the scene.  

With extreme prejudice.

I must admit, I've been fired a couple of times.  Because I wasn't performing.  But it steeled my spine.  And forced me to become so valuable to my employers that they fought to keep me.  And I learned enough to venture out on my own.  And made a success of it.  Seems to me a rather large number of those "Swamp Dwellers" could use a good firing.  Or maybe just cushion the blow by one of those "Reduction in Force" memos.  

Just imagine if we were operating on a Balanced Budget.  And where everyone hired must be justified or not happen.  And every Department and Secretariat operating on Zero-Based Budgeting.  Every year you start back at zero and they have to justify every expense they seek.  No more of that last year's budget plus an automatic 17% bump for "inflation."

You should know that our Gubmint rakes in about $4.6 TRILLION DOLLARS every year from income taxes.  An all-time record, BTW.  Yet, it spends more than $1.5 TRILLION DOLLARS more than that!  That's why we're nearly $37 TRILLION DOLLARS in debt! 

When Elon Musk (over)paid $44,000,000,000 for Twitter, he immediately fired 80% of its staff.  And you'll notice "X," the old Twitter, is humming along quite nicely.  I doubt such draconian cuts would prove necessary in D.C.  But I'm betting we could get along without at least 25% of the Federal Gubmint's workforce.  After all, they're not coming to work anyway!  

Oh yeah, and free them from the burden of having to reply to their Boss...

Here's a question on my way out the Digital Door, do they work for us, or do we work for them?

"Viewer Discretion is Advised"

I'd like to ask you a question.

I'd like to know if you're as infuriated as am I, and insulted, when you see those infernal "Viewer Discretion is Advised" taglines streaming across the bottom of your TV screen? 

You turned on the TV, you grabbed your remote, you picked the channel, and you selected the program.  After presumably learning what it's all about.  So I would think you'd need no "warning" about its contents about to spew forth.  Or fifth, even (yuk, yuk).   

Usually preceded by, 

"Foul language, sexual situations, pedophilia, Conservatism, gunfire, pictures of happy families, the hunting of innocent animals, war, loud noises, blood spurting, and the mentioning of God or illegal Aliens." 

As if to say, "We know you're a lily-livered pu*sy, so you might want to cover your miserable, overprivileged eyes and stick your fingers in your ears, at what we're about to show you.  Or else you might wind up terminally offended.  And want to go protest somewhere.  Or throw paint on old Masters.  Or glue your hands to the highway.  Or assume the prenatal position and suck your thumb." 

Cop shows.  And firefighter/1st Responder shows.  And doctor shows.  And military shows.  And reality shows.  And every other kind of show you might realistically see.  If they screen it, they've added that disclaimer.  Written by some $800 an hour lawyer.  A warning so if that if you, the viewer, get somehow shocked and/or offended, it won't be their fault.  So you won't be able to sue.  Hopefully.  

Maybe.   

But since lawyers are now ubiquitous, I mean, every family's got one (what, you don't?), he/she/it can file a lawsuit for a filing fee of $100.00.  And since you don't have to pay little Johnnie, or Suzie, or Sky, the family lawyer, you can ride it out with a smile on your face.  They'll likely settle a "nuisance" lawsuit for $100 Grand or so, enabling you and Johnnie or Suzie or Sky to splurge at the local steak house.  And cause an entire 'nother round of those infernal "warnings" to be visited upon our friends and neighbors before the program can start.

Remember the fat old babe who poured her MickeyD's coffee in her lap?  And scorched her no-longer-needed nether region?  She got a $Million.  Back when a $Million was a $Million.

All this started back in 1994 when "Home Box Office" was forced by the Gubmint to come up with advisories to protect our little kiddos.  That's where the "G, R and X" came from.  It was meant for cable channels, but gravitated to broadcast shortly thereafter.  And soon it was on just about every dammm program they offered.  Don't know about you, but I don't need anyone telling me what to be offended about.  Frankly, if you'd lived my life, it would take one Hell of a lot to offend you.  

I think those infernal warnings should be limited to graphic violence.  Violence so eggregious it would shock the conscience of Americans.  Like car crashes with bits of arms and legs flying in all directions.    

And kidnappings and rapes and mass murders and dismemberments with a Skil saw.  Which occurs almost always in those Big Blue Cities.  Controlled by Democrats, almost exclusively.*  For decades!  And almost any other thing that might trigger some poor soul teetering on the edge of reality out there in TV land!  Or it just might make one "uncomfortable!"  That watchword of the 21st Century.  And lots of other stuff that could warrant me using an exclamation point "!"  

And you know how I just luuuuv to use those "!'s!"

Back to that old lady who snagged the $1 Million over a dropped cup of hot coffee in her unproductive area?   Well, my area's unproductive also and I'm tired of sitting here watching my $money lose its value through Bidenflation.  So I'm going to the local MickeyD's and ordering one of those $8 coffees.  I'll bring my lawyer with me.  'Cause we have more lawyers now than there are guests at Rykers Island, doncha' know.  So why not bring them along, just in case?  I mean, they have nothing to do after law school except study for the Bar exam, right?  And even after they pass, if they do, they'll be driving part-time for Uber to make ends meet.  I'll keep you informed as to how the lawsuit's going.

I saw a rerun of "Saving Private Ryan" on one of the cable channels recently, which prompted this spleen venting.  It was made before the word "woke" was a word.  But now it comes with a viewer "warning."  About what?  War?  Blood?  Guts?  Isn't that kind of what it's all about?  Especially now, in this, the 80th Anniversary of the D-Day landing?  Seems to me we need another war to get our priorities straight.  

When, exactly, did we shed our  masculinity?  Our bravery?  Our sense of patriotism?  Do we really need to be warned about life?  And all this begs the question:  Just who, exactly, decides which shows to tag?  And were they bullied on the playground as a kid?  Getting wet willies and their BVD's pulled all up real tight in the crotch, doncha' know?

I'm guessing the Russians and the Chinese are laughing their commie as*es off...    

*    34 out of 40 of our Biggest and Bluest cities' mayors are Democrats.  Only 6 are Republicans.  Makes my point. 

  

There are Now Three Kinds of People.

"There's two kinds of people in this world.  There's my kind, and that other kind."

Sorry, that's an old joke.  But it's actually become a reality, what with our dramatic political polarization.  Except now, there's not two kinds of people; there are three. 

A recent poll was conducted among 1,063 adults who were self-identified registered voters.  They were asked if they agree with POTUS Trump's new Executive Order naming only two kinds of humans.  The "Males," and the "Females."  Just like it was when we were in high school.  And just like it was when Benjamin Franklin was in high school.

But apparently not like it's been taught in the high schools of Democrats.  The results to this poll were rather shocking.  97% of Republicans agreed with this poll (I'm wondering about the other 3%).  59% of Independents agreed with this poll.  77% of Democrats disagreed with this poll.  In fact, only 14% of Democrats were old enough to have taken biology in high school, and thus agreed with this poll.  

Shocking?  I'd say "Yes."

This is the "Whatever makes you happy" generation.  The Democrats firmly believe that if you view yourself as a female, yet born as a male, you're a female.  It gets worse.  Wisconsin's Governor Tony Evers actually signed new legislation declaring mothers as "Inseminated Persons."  And fathers as "spouses."  Whether they're married or not.

Are they friggin' nuts?  I'm afraid so.

It seems that Democrats are on a collision course with reality.  They still haven't gotten The Word.  They still don't know why the Great Unwashed voted them out and Trump's Team in.  I fear it will result in a number of Blue States forcing major league legal wars over the $hundreds of millions of dollars to-be-withheld by the Feds from the states for failing to prevent men from competing in womens' sports.  Doing so is a failure to protect Title IX rules and regs.  And a giant Middle Finger to our women.

Trump called Maine's Gov on the carpet yesterday about allowing a man to win their womens' pole vault championship.  She told him she'll violate his Order.  He told her he'll withhold their $250,000,000 a year in Federal tax sharing funds.  Legal fights a'brewing.  

Remember the old saying, you never want to pick a fight with a newspaper, because they buy ink by the barrel.  In this case, might not want to pick a fight with the Feds.  They print money by the ton.

So we now have Three Kinds of People:

     -  Males

     -  Females

     -  And males looking to displace women from their rightful place in our society.  To take away their places in organized sports.  To steal their legitimate Rights under Title IX.  To grab their scholarships and their sponsorships and their fame.  And the Democrats are applauding their efforts.

This would be funny if it wasn't so tragic.

"Scouting America"

Did you notice the press release a couple of days back?  The one where we're notified it's the 115th Anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America?

Which then went on to announce it had formally changed its name to "Scouting America?"

Thank God this didn't happen 7 decades ago!

Why the new name?  Because whereas the Boy Scouts of America when I was a Scout only catered to males, little boys looking to join together and learn how to grow up to be men, the new iteration welcomes girls.  And gays.  And lesbians.  And "Two-Spirits," whatever they are.  Not only as "Scouts," but as their leaders.  The Scoutmasters may now be a transgender, gay or lesbian.  Or maybe all three.  This new Organization's leadership made these changes in order to be more "inclusive."  

Inclusive?  Did anyone call for Boy Scout inclusiveness?  Except those who mirror the values of downtown San Francisco?

Just so you know how I view this, I joined the Cub Scouts at the age of 8.  I became a Tenderfoot at 10.  And then a Boy Scout at 12.  I rose throught the ranks to Eagle Scout at the age of 17.  Fewer than 4% of Scouts attain this ranking.  

And then an Explorer Scout the next year.  And then on to Asst. Scoutmaster and Scoutmaster.  I have 34 Merit Badges and a God and Country Award with two Oak Leaf Clusters.  In short, I was, and am, a dedicated Scout.  And it helped make me a man.  Like millions and millions of other boys.  Who are likely all now devistated.

The Scout Motto is (was?) "Be Prepared."  And I was, and am.  With thanks to the Scouts.

No doubt the $2.3 Billion Dollar judgment a team of lawyers pried out of the Scouts laid the foundation for all of this.  It seems a number of homosexual Scout leaders used their positions over the decades to harm young boys.  They should be found guilty, and were.  But in the process it gutted Scout treasuries.  All around the world.  Plus, the bad publicity resulted in their going from a membership of 2 million Scouts, to just over a million.  Harming dues and finances, and fundraising activities.  

But to go looking under every rock for new dues-payers is just plain idiotic!

If revenue is their goal, why not add in plumbers, and retired airline pilots, and librarians, and any other pedophiles with $dues money?

I wonder how many $Millions that used to be in the wills of life-long Scouts will now go elsewhere?  I was certainly poised to send some there way.  

But no longer.

I'm wondering also how much more fun I'd have had if such a decision had been made when I was a Scout?  I must tell you I'd have enjoyed it much more!  MUCH MORE!  My hormones were raging back then, and I would have enjoyed a captive audience as an outlet.  Instead of learning how to tie knots and build fires and camp in the wilderness, I'd have been trying to get in Little Suzie's skivvies.  And Sandra's.  And Gwendolyn's.  All day, every day.  Had I a choice back then I'd have much rather "camped" with Little Suzie than smelly Harold.  

It would have  been like Studio 54 in the Woods!  I wonder how quickly I'd have been sent to the Gray Bar Hotel?

If you'd like an incandescent example of "WOKE," this is surely it.  I am sorry to say it, but I expect this effort will fail.  I certainly hope it fails.  BTW, there's still a "Girl Scouts of America."  Where girls who want to learn what Scouting can teach, have joined for decades.  Except for those whose interests lie outside those stated.  Maybe they'll be trying to get in little boy's shorts!  

Isn't this just the dummmest damm thing you've ever heard of?   

"The 5 Stages of Grief"

At a Democrat rally on Tuesday a bunch of angry politicians paraded one at a time to the microphone to yell "Fu*k Trump!"

One at a time.  A couple of dozen of them.  Until freshman Congressperson Maxine Dexter (D-OR) came to the microphone.  She stated, with embarassment, 

"We've got to Fu*k Trump!"

Clearly, this was the first time she'd ever uttered such a word, and never before in front of the entire Country.  After her red-faced display, the rally sort of fizzled out and dispersed.

And so it is when dealing with "The Five Stages of Grief."    They are:

     -  Denial

     -  Anger

     -  Bargaining

     -  Depression

     -  Acceptance

The Democrats were so beat up in the recent Election, they're out of gas and rudderless.  And without the Presidency, the Senate or the House, they're left to just scream and shout into the wind.  To the already converted.  They stamp their little Gucci-clad feet and whimper.  "It's not fair!"  "They can't do this to us!"  

"Musk's trying to steal our identities!"  

If you look at the above list you can self-determine which of these Stages the Dems now find themselves.  With Trump shoveling Executive Orders at them through a firehose, and Musk finding $Billions of waste, the Public has indicated they're all for this sort of Governance.  Trump has never been so popular.  An entire generation has awaited these activities, and they're applauding with glee!  

In short, If I were a Democrat, I'd likely have to become a monk.

They denied reality for a few weeks.  Strained, licking their wounds, in shock.

Now they're relegated to Anger.  Screaming into any available microphone about how unfair it all is!  Anything that will cause their friends in the "Corporate Media" to attend.  And write.  And report.  Their brand of politics.  

Not the majority's, theirs...

My sainted wife Elaine and I ran a Mobile Acute Hemodialysis, Hemoperfusion and Therapeutic Apherisis Service for nearly 40 years.  In fact, we invented the Sub-Specialty, aiding patients whose kidneys had failed.  We were their 1st line of lifesaving in a crisis.  We served more than 40 Los Angeles and Orange County, California hospitals.  We treated more than 10,000 patients over our careers.  And since they were near death by the time we were called in, about 20% of them ultimately died.  And so we witnessed the passing of thousands of folks just like you and me.  

We were able to aid both our patients and their families with the writings of Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, M.D.'s book.  In fact, it was designed for kidney patients on the verge of passing.  And I had to go through it myself with my wife's untimely death.  Thus, I'm very familiar with the process.  Unfortunately.

The Democrats are now comparing President Trump to Hitler.  And it's only been a month.  Where do you go from Hitler?  The Devil?  Where?

So Trump is trying to end the War in Europe, seal up our intentionally pourous Border, end the unfair trade practices against America using reciprocal tariffs, open up our gas and oil production to lower our prices and our inflation rate, stop making pennies than cost a nickel, rejigger our costly relationship with Europe, face down China, and force the very first audit of a Government that's now nearly $37,000,000,000,000 (with a "T") in debt.  

And the Democrats are having to defend the opposite of everything Trump's doing.  Making both them and their fading Party yesterday's news.

I'm keeping score where they are on the Stages here at Fortress Chuckmeister.  You can do the same.  Stay in touch, Fellow Patriots!  Let's enjoy the ride while it lasts!   

      

A Little Bit of History...

In the beginning...

God created the Earth and the firmament, and the animals and the fishes in the sea, and like that.  All in less than a week.

Bravo!

And then shortly after The Flood, and the Famous Garden, and Adam and Eve, God ordered us humans to populate the Earth.  We did.  And soonafter some of those humans started fighting one another, Big Time.  So guns were invented.  And the very next day whomever was in charge at the time decided to cough up a bunch of gnarly new gun control measures.  To keep us humans from protecting ourselves.  And it's been that way ever since.

(How's that for crunching up history?)

For instance, Dodge City, Kansas' Marshal required every dusty cowpoke to check their weapons upon entering town.  That was back in 1850.  It was about that time Concealed Carry became popular.

We Americans did just fine without somebody telling us how to buy and own and store and carry and use guns.  In fact, were it not for our individual firearm ownership, we would not have won the Revolutionary War.  

We did just fine until the pansies amongst us decided they needed a Federal Bureau to control the Troglodytes' guns.  That gave birth to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on July 1, 1972.  The ATF has been piling new and "improved" rules and regs to confound us gun owners ever since.  

BTW, do they think every gun owner drinks and smokes and blows sh*t up?

Then, the Blue State governors added their own controls to gun ownership.  Believing, I assume, that it's far easier to govern the unwashed masses if they can't fight back.  That's why China, and Cuba, and North Korea, and nearly every other country on Earth has done it.  That's because a disarmed society is a subservient society. 

Except, if you really want to kill somebody a knife works just as well.  That's why gun-free London, England now has an average of 35 stabbings per day.*

Here's another example.  Taxifornia's own BoyGuv ("Hairgod") Newsom has shat out some 128 anti-gun Executive Orders.  So far.  

Making it much more expensive, and inconvenient, and difficult to buy, use, store and own a firearm.  

Remember that part of the 2nd Amendment that goes, "...the Rights of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed?"  Democrats are very big on infringing.  Really good at it, too!  They've certainly had a lot of practice.

So here's some 3-Michelin Star food for thought.  There's a town in Georgia named Kennesaw.  Its city council decided back in 1985 to require all its households to be armed.  With a gun.  And homes couldn't change hands without proof the new owner was armed.  And knew how to use it.  Kennesaw is a suburb of Atlanta.  Just northwest.  Crime was a big problem prior.  Murders every other day.  That's why they came up with this audacious plan.  It paid off.  There's not been a murder since.  I wonder why other towns don't follow suit?  I wonder why other states don't follow suit?  

Like I've often stated, "An armed society is a polite society." 

*   Right Jon?