'Miss Manners' offers advice on lunatic femnist slur 'Ma'am'

I love Miss Manners. I read her column on etiquette weekly online and even have one of her books. This is an age which seems to have lost its moorings spiritually, with common sense and with just plain politeness and Miss Manners reminds us what it means to follow the rules of courtesy.

Today she addresses the recent controversy when Sen. Barbara Boxer (Leftwingnut-California) got her panties all in a wad because an Army Brigadier General testifying in Congress dared to address her high-and-mightiness with the feminist slur word "Ma'am." How dare he!?

Dear Miss Manners:

What do you think about Sen. Barbara Boxer being addressed as "ma'am" rather than as "Senator" by a U.S. brigadier general during a Senate hearing? Was this really a breach of protocol?

Let us not go looking for insults -- or assume stupidity, which it would be for anyone to insult a senator at a senatorial hearing.

Miss Manners assures you that "ma'am" is, like its masculine equivalent, "sir," a highly respectful form suitable for addressing any female, including a president, a monarch and your own mother.

Amen, sister, amen. Maybe Miss Manners oughta be our first female President.

Krauthammer: 'Cheney is winning' on terrorist torture issue

Dr. Charles Krauthammer takes a look at the Cheney vs. Obama scrum and concludes "Cheney is winning" on the issue of torture on terrorists, citing the dramatic turnaround of the 9-11 terrorist leader who is now leading CIA seminars on the inner workings of Al-Qaeda terrorism plans.

Obama and Congress invent new dance: 'The Slide'

David Brooks is the sole conservative on the Noo Yawk Times editorial staff. Which means his conservative credentials are roughly as suspect as the virtue of a piano player in a whore house.

But when Brooks points out what he calls "The Obama Slide," and he ain't talking about a new dance, it's sorta like a Jeff Foxworthy sign that you might be a redneck. When Brooks says Obama might be in trouble, you can bet your sweet bippy BHO is wading into deep doo-doo.

By force of circumstances and by design, the president has promoted one policy after another that increases spending and centralizes power in Washington.

The result is the Obama slide, the most important feature of the current moment. The number of Americans who trust President Obama to make the right decisions has fallen by roughly 17 percentage points. Obama’s job approval is down to about 50 percent. All presidents fall from their honeymoon highs, but in the history of polling, no newly elected American president has fallen this far this fast.

Anxiety is now pervasive. Trust in government rose when Obama took office. It has fallen back to historic lows. Fifty-nine percent of Americans now think the country is headed in the wrong direction.

That's the bad news for the Obama White House. Then Brooks notes that the political outlook for the leftwingnut Democrat leadership in Congress is even worse.

The public’s view of Congress, which ticked upward for a time, has plummeted. Charlie Cook, who knows as much about Congressional elections as anyone in the country, wrote recently that Democratic fortunes have “slipped completely out of control.” He and the experts he surveyed believe there is just as much chance that the Democrats could lose more than 20 House seats in the next elections as less than 20.

There are also warning signs in the Senate. A recent poll shows Harry Reid, the majority leader, trailing the Republican Danny Tarkanian, a possible 2010 opponent, by 49 percent to 38 percent. When your majority leader is down to a 38 percent base in his home state, that’s not good.

The public has soured on Obama’s policy proposals. Voters often have only a fuzzy sense of what each individual proposal actually does, but more and more have a growing conviction that if the president is proposing it, it must involve big spending, big government and a fundamental departure from the traditional American approach.

Sorta reminds me of the old adage of giving a fool enough rope to hang himself. The leftwingnut Democrats (AKA "Progressive Moderates") have taken power and in their moment in the spotlight have demonstrated they are roughly as progressive and moderate as Attila the Hun.

I for one can't wait for 2010 for voters' revenge on Congress and in 2012 for a new President.

Dick Cheney's 'voice in the wilderness' speaks out on Obama

Thank God for Dick Cheney. As one of my journalism betters, James Kilpatrick, said, "Sometimes you've got to call a spade a damned shovel." And Dick Cheney is virtually the sole voice from the right speaking up and saying what President Obama is doing is dangerous for our nation.

Two 'rookie' females dominate men in NRA pistol classes

You can learn a lot when you're supposed to be the teacher. I've learned that from many years, 30+ and counting, as a Sunday School teacher. My students have taught me at least as much if not more than I have taught them about the Bible and about life as a Christian.

And after my first two classes as an NRA Basic Pistol instructor, I've learned the most from the two students who supposedly knew the least about shooting a pistol.

In my first class, I didn't get any photos because I was busy teaching but my prize student was a woman named Janet, who shall hereinafter be referred to as Annie O. the 1st. She had virtually no experience with handguns, just a bit of back-yard shooting with her husband Jim with her Kimber .45 ACP pistol and Charter .327 Magnum revolver.

I just stole a photo off her facebook page she took of her very first target with a Springfield XDM 9mm, shot at 7 yards. She just bought this pistol and fired it for the first time. That's her husband Jim holding the target.

In my first Basic Pistol class, Annie the 1st shot my two .22LR pistols, Walther P22 and S&W 22A-1, both very well, hitting what she aimed at consistently. Then she moved on up to my Steyr M9-A1 9mm and my Sig P229 .357 Sig and did exactly the same. She finished off with my S&W 14-3 .38 Special target revolver.

In addition to me, two other men were shooting the 14-3, a fairly heavy 6"-barrel revolver, with .38 Special +P ammo, which is quite loud. So Annie the 1st said she didn't want to shoot it. But at the end of the range session, she changed her mind and guess what? She shot it as well or better than any of us men.

And yesterday, I had my second NRA Basic Pistol class with three men students, all with varying levels of handgun experience. One had worked in law enforcement, one had Army experience, the third had been shooting for years.

And the one female student in the class was Lori, who hereinafter shall be called Annie O. II. She had almost no experience with handguns. She had shot her husband's .38 Special snubnose and didn't like it.

The first photo shows Annie II shooting an M16 at the bench under the watchful eye of my buddy Leon. He's rangemaster for my NRA classes, a retired Air Force sergeant and long-time 4-H shooting instructor. Guess who shot closest to the bullseye with Leon's M16?

If you said anybody but Annie II, you guessed wrong. Same for everything else Annie II shot from among the handguns, she shot them all and shot them well. The second photo is Annie II shooting my S&W 22A-1 sitting at the bench and third is her shooting standing. The old fat guy in the red t-shirt and gray hair watching in both those photos is me.

Like Annie the 1st, Annie II watched and listened to the men shooting the S&W 14-3 with .38 Special +Ps and said at first she didn't want to shoot it. Then Leon talked her into shooting his M16 and she loved it. So she decided she'd try the 14-3. By then the men were shooting at a full-size silhouette target at 100 feet. Up until then, Annie II's longest shooting range with a handgun was 50 feet.

She sat down with the 14-3 at 100 feet and nailed that blueman target better than all the men!

Some people got it and some people don't. Two women shooters who just happened to be the first two women students I had as an instructor have been the best shooters I've had so far.

Annie the 1st could do something I couldn't from the get-go, which is shoot with both eyes open. I've never been able to train myself to do that, but she could do it naturally and did it very well.

And Annie II is another natural-born talent with firearms. Don't say women can't shoot guns.

Federal guvmint has a plan to end telemarketers phone calls

You're relaxing at home, eating dinner, reading, watching TV, maybe in the bedroom with your sweetie makin' some whoopee, and the phone rings. If you pick it up (which the wife and I seldom do) you will hear nothing. "Hello." No answer. If you're thick enough to wait for someone to respond for a minute or so, finally some furrin' voice from India or Outer Uzbekistan sez in an undecipherable accent over the noise of a boiler room, "May I please speak to John Q. Public?"

I am tempted to shout "Hell no!" and hang up but I usually just say no and hang up. You're the victim of computer-generated telephone calls, which is usually from one of your own credit card companies, who do not have to pay attention to the federal do-not-call lists you have joined.

Well there's good news and bad news for us harassed victims of telemarketers' "robo-calls."

Americans tired of having their dinners interrupted by phone calls touting car warranties or vacation packages will soon get some relief.

The Federal Trade Commission said Thursday it is banning many types of prerecorded telemarketing solicitations, known as robo-calls. Currently, consumers must specifically join a do-not-call list to avoid them. Starting Sept. 1, telemarketers will first need written permission from the customer to make such calls.

"American consumers have made it crystal clear that few things annoy them more than the billions of commercial telemarketing robo-calls they receive every year," said Jon Leibowitz, chairman of the FTC.

Violators will face penalties of up to $16,000 per call.

That's the good news. Now for the bad news.

Don't expect phone solicitations to disappear completely, though.

Calls that are not trying to sell goods and services to consumers will be exempt, such as those that provide information such as flight cancellations and delivery notices and those from debt collectors.

Other calls not covered include those from politicians, charities that contact consumers directly, banks, insurers and phone companies, as well as surveys and certain health-care messages such as prescription notifications. The FTC said those do not fall under its jurisdiction.

And calls made by humans rather than automated systems will still be allowed, unless the phone number is on the National Do Not Call Registry.

...The ban is part of a series of amendments to the FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule that were announced a year ago.

Because the ban has been known, telemarketers already have been phasing out robo-calls, said Tim Searcy, chief executive of the American Teleservices Association, a trade group whose members include telemarketers. He said the public will not see much of a change.

Searcy also said the ban will do little to stop calls touting illegal scams.

People who get an unauthorized call can file complaints with the commission online or by calling 877-382-4357 (877-FTC-HELP).

So the federal guvmint has yet another program that will help us out. Except it won't work. So what else is new? Ronald Reagan's truism is proven again. He said the most feared words in the English language are "I'm from the federal government and I'm here to help."

And this federal guvmint that can't stop telemarketers from calling up at suppertime from Outer Uzbekistan is going to "reform" our healthcare and "fix" our economy by taking over the big banks, the auto industry and another part of private enterprise they choose to control?

God save us, because Obama, Pelosi, Reid and the powers that be in Washington surely will not.

How to find the way to Heartbreak Hotel on Lonely Avenue

One of technology's marvels that I haven't used yet is a GPS device and I really oughta get one. I can get lost in a paper sack. But suppose you had one in your car and it said in a raspy voice:

"Left at the next street. No, right. You know what? Just go straight."

Huh? That raspy voice that doesn't seem to know which direction is home might be Bob Dylan's. The voice of the '60s who's still rocking along today said in his BBC satellite radio show that two auto manufacturer's have asked him to record the voices for their in-vehicle GPS systems.

If he takes either company up on their offers, that might inspire me to buy a new vehicle so I can hear Dylan tell me "no direction home" or "there must be some way out of here" or "how many roads . . . ."

But Dylan says it's doubtful he'll do it.

"I probably shouldn't do it because whichever way I go, I always end up at one place -- on Lonely Avenue. Luckily, I'm not totally alone. Ray Charles beat me there."

Isn't Lonely Avenue where Heartbreak Hotel is? No, it's down at the end of Lonely Street. I need a GPS system to keep me from turning on Lonely Avenue instead of Lonely Street.

Take your friend 'Wildey' with you when trouble calls

Remember when Charles Bronson sent for his friend "Wildey" to clean up a gang of punks? It was one of those Death Wish movies, but I've never actually seen one of the hand cannons used in that movie. Well at least I know what it looks like now.

J&G Sales has got a used one up for sale, the Wildey Hunter .45 Winchester Magnum.

Wildey Hunter semi auto pistol chambered for 45 Winchester Magnum. Has a 10 in. stainless steel barrel. This is a gas operated double action semi auto pistol that features a ventilated ribbed barrel, adjustable sight, and smooth wooden grips. The matte stainless steel finish shows a few nicks and rubs, but in overall very good condition.

And it's only $1,169.95. You go ahead. I'll back you up while you shoot. Way back behind you.

This monster may be sorta like the famous French military rifle offered for sale in a Paris newspaper right after World War II, advertised as: "Never fired, dropped once."

God deserves a standing ovation for the Grand Canyon

One of God's most beautiful works of creation is the Grand Canyon and I have yet to see it with these soon-to-be 62-year-old eyeballs. Maybe I'll see it before I shuffle off this mortal coil, but until then I can enjoy this stunning photo I stole from a travel article in the Noo Yawk Times.

My next .22 pistol may be a Glock/AA/Walther/ISSC

My next .22 semi-auto? Maybe so. I handled one of these at the gun shop today and took photos that I'll post on gunbroker.com in an auction page. It's a Glock-clone called the ISSC M22 .22LR semi-auto pistol that looks a whole lot like an Advantage Arms .22LR conversion kit on a Glock 19 compact 9mm black polymer frame.

And it not only looks like a Glock, it has the familiar slide-removal levers of the Glock. And the trigger has a Glock-like safety lever in the middle. Unlike the Glock, it's single-action-only with an external hammer, vs. double-action-only and striker-fired, but that's the chief differences.

'Net rumor has it the parts are actually made by Glock. Who knows? According to the manufacturer and importer, it has a Walther stainless-steel match barrel, which I guess makes it a Glock/ISSC/Advantage Arms/Walther. Whatever it is, it appears to be a solidly made .22 pistol that handles exactly like a Glock, which will make for good training for us Glock owners.

I've got two Glocks at present, both 10mm. My "bump in the night pistol" is the full-size G20, nearly stock except for a 3.5-lb. trigger and a stainless-steel Big Taco Sta-Tite guide rod with captured recoil spring assembly. And my subcompact G29 is heavily customized and one of my favorite carry pistols. It's a genuine pocket rocket, packing 10 rds. of 10mm projectiles.

The M22 has a 4" barrel, which sorta fills a niche for me as I have a S&W 22A-1 with a 5.5" barrel and have been thinking about adding a shorter barrel for practice and plinking. I can also use the M22 for the NRA Basic Pistol classes I'm offering. For students who don't have their own handgun, I will provide a .22 pistol and ammo for the course.

The ISSC M22 can handle standard velocity .22LR ammo as well as high velocity with an extra recoil spring included with the pistol. And it's got ambi safety-decocker levers, which is a must for me, being a southpaw. Even the price is right. We're selling the M22s for a mere $370.

It's made in Austria by ISSC Handels Gmbh and imported by Austrian Sporting Arms of Ware, MA, which says:

ISSC fits a Walther match barrel to bar stock steel components for endurance and precision. The M22’s Aluminum slide tops 390 Newton in hardness. The result is certified accuracy and rapid action cycling.

The M22 is the ideal range pistol. The M22 brings you handling and performance that is closer to the modern defensive handgun than any other rimfire pistol. Designed for inexpensive high velocity 22LR ammunition the accurate rapid fire performance of the M22 offers the shooter an economical shortcut for modern pistol practice.

YOUR M22 PROVIDES

• Easy to load ten-round magazines


• Single action trigger offers precision with every shot


• Accessory rail lets you train with lights and lasers


• High visibility adjustable rear sight.


• Handles like your carry gun.

Austrian manufacturer ISSC Handels Gmbh adds:

Made in Austria and combining advanced technology with foward-looking innovation, ISSC M22 delivers performance at the highest level.

The M22 exceeds all requirements for modern pistols:
- Match bull barrel and match trigger delivers highest accuracy.
- Unmatched safety with 5 different safeties working independent of each other.
- Weaver rail for light and laser systems.
- Precise handling due to perfectly-contoured grip.
- Adjustable rear sight for target shooting.
- Design and manufacturing quality of Austraian-made firearms.

Here's the manufacturer's video, not terribly informative but featuring a good-looking chick shooting the M22 with a catchy upbeat tune playing to the "bang, bang, bang" of .22s popping.


Here's a video review comparing the ISSC M-22 to the Glock 19 9mm Pistol for pistolbuyersguide.com by www.GunWebsites.com:

Michael Yon gets the boot from British troops for report

"...having children is good training for combat."

Just one line in Michael Yon's latest dispatch from Aghanistan, where he was embedded with British troops until he filed his last report. They unembedded him. Musta been something he said.

Yon is the Ernie Pyle of our time and his dispatches tell you what war is really like. Not for the squeamish, as this former Green Beret gives you the whole truth, blood, guts and all.

The consequences of government action are always messy

Why is government like a baby? It has a big appetite on one end that makes a lot of fuss about keeping it fed and a big mess on the other end where the result of what it consumes comes out.

Revolver Day: S&W K-38, Ruger LCR and 2 Charter .327 Magnums

Something new vs. something old. Which one wins? Usually it's the new and improved and supposedly better. But sometimes it ain't.

Case in point is the latest and greatest .38 Special revolver, the Ruger LCR with Crimson Trace Laser Grips, which went to the range with me today along with a pair of Charter Arms .327 Magnums, both equipped with CT Laser Grips. All needed zeroing and it's a dirty job but somebody's got to do it. That would be me.

The pair of Charter .327 Magnums is one owned by me that just got back from some work at the factory and I needed to verify zero hadn't changed. It had not. The other is one owned by a friend of mine who has not zeroed the laser grips yet, so I volunteered to handle that chore.

I really like the .327 Federal Magnum cartridge, the NRA Ammo of the Year. It has ballistics that are almost identical to .357 Magnum, but without the punishing recoil in a lightweight revolver. The Charter .327 is one of the new breed that IMHO is better than a standard .38 snubby. Six shots vs. 5, better ballistics than .38 Special or even .38 +P. What's not to like?

And then there's a new wrinkle in .38 snubbies. The friend with the other Charter also bought a new Ruger LCR, which stands for Lightweight Compact Revolver. The friend, let's call her Annie Oakley, is a great natural shooter who just took my first NRA Basic Pistol Class. She was previously untrained with handguns, but you'd never know it.

So I also volunteered to zero her new Ruger LCR, which she purchased last week at the gun store where I work.

The LCR is the world's first polymer-grip revolver, with an aluminum frame, steel 5-shot cylinder and steel-lined 1.875" barrel. It came from the factory with the Crimson Trace Laser Grips installed, unlike the two Charter magnums, which had their CT grips installed at the gun shop where I work.

So I expected the Ruger lasergrips to be at least close to zero. Wrong.

The first two shots I fired with the LCR laser were almost in the same hole, but several inches and high and a bit left. (First yellow target, two holes high and left.) So I checked the iron sights. Bam, bam, two holes on each side of the bull. (Same yellow target, holes at bull)

Nothing wrong with those iron sights. So I did the zero the easy way, aligning the zero with the iron sights, then firing a group of five. (Orange target.) Not bad. I'm not all that great at firing a double-action trigger, but this one is pretty good. Better than the average Smith & Wesson double-action .38 snubby, which heretofore has been the standard by which other .38 snubbies are measured.

There's a new snubby in town and it has a pretty good trigger, maybe a great one for somebody who actually knows how to shoot a DA snubby, and that ain't me.

I proved that by setting up a 11x17" little redman target at 21 feet and standing on my hind legs the way you're supposed to shoot a snubby. The five holes in the 8 and 9 rings are .38s from the DA snubby Ruger LCR.

That kinda ticked me off, shooting so lousy at Tueller Drill distance.

So I loaded up my S&W 14-3, which back before Smith got stupid and used model numbers to identify their pistols was known as the K-38 Target Masterpiece. Now which says excellence to you, Model 14-3 or K-38 Target Masterpiece? I rest my case.

Anyway, I loaded up the K-38 and fired a dozen double-action rounds or so at the little redman's head. That lovely Target Masterpiece has such a sweet, smooth double-action trigger that even I can shoot it well. Just because something's "new" don't necessarily mean it's improved.

Now I gotta find me an old Smith snubby that ain't "new and improved" and has a great trigger like my K-38.

I also spent a good part of my range time today zeroing the Bomar sight on my K-38. The last set of targets is the K-38 zeroed up at 50 feet, at left, and then a pair of cylinder loads shot at 100 feet, in the target at right.

Lordy, they really don't make 'em like this K-38 Target Masterpiece anymore. It makes an old fart like me look like I can really shoot, double-action or single-action.

Tax revenues from gun industry reflect record sales

In case you've been in an alternate universe or don't have any gun-nut buddies, it's not new news that there is one part of the economy that's been doing very well under the administration of gun-grabber Obama.

Guns and ammo have been selling like hotcakes since a month or two before the fall election when it became obvious to gun owners that John McCain and Sarah Palin were going to lose to Obama.

The panic has subsided in the last month or so to just brisk business, but the numbers being reported are now indicating how big the guns and ammo buying surge has been since the election of Guns & Ammo Salesman of the Year, President Barack Hussein Obama.

The monthly newsletter from gunbroker.com includes this report.

Gun Sales Push Excise Taxes to New Highs

NEWTOWN, Conn. – During a time period of great economic uncertainty, firearm and ammunition sales have continued to increase throughout the country.

According to the most recent Firearms and Ammunition Excise Tax Collection Report, released earlier today by the Department of the Treasury, firearm and ammunition manufacturers paid more than $109.8 million in the first calendar quarter of 2009; up 43% over the same time period reported in 2008.

This dramatic increase follows a 31.3 percent increase in excise taxes from the previous quarter (4Q, 2008) and eight straight months of increased FBI background checks – another strong indicator of firearm sales.

A third reliable source, the National Sporting Goods Association (NSGA), reported that in 2008, "Hunting and Firearms" equipment was the only category to grow double digits and only one of seven categories that exhibited growth. NSGA's forecast for 2009 shows "Hunting and Firearms" as one of only two categories to exhibit growth.

Manufacturers of firearms and ammunition pay a federal excise tax -- a major source of wildlife conservation funding -- on all firearms and ammunition manufactured (11% on long guns and ammunition and 10% on handguns).

This latest excise tax report which covers the time period of January 1, 2009 through March 31, 2009, shows that $33.0 million was collected in taxes for pistols and revolvers, $38.9 million for long guns and $37.8 million for ammunition. Compared to the same quarter in 2008, collections were up 65.5% for handguns, 42.9% for ammunition and 28.3% for long guns.

Translation to Sales

Using the latest collections as an indicator of sales, a projection of $1.03 billion was generated in the first quarter (calendar year) of 2009. Please keep in mind that although excise taxes are one of the best indicators of industry performance, they only report what the manufacturers paid in taxes and do NOT reflect retail mark-up and final retail sales.

Pistols and revolvers: $33,043,554.83 / .10 = $330,435,548.30 = $330.4 million for handguns

Long guns: $38,979,972.16 / .11 = $354,363,383.27 = $354.3 million for long guns

Ammunition: $37,846,038.52 / .11 = $344,054,895.64 = $344.0 million for ammunition

Total estimation for the quarter: $1.028 billion.

Now is that ironic or what, that the one segment of the economy that Obama, Nancy Pelosi and the other gun-grabbers want to shut down completely is the one area doing really well?

As the D.A. on Law & Order once said, "Sometimes life is a funny old dog."

Strange exchange with woman in the gun shop: "Illegal guns?"

Short but very strange conversation with a woman in the gun shop as she and her three small to medium-sized kids waited for her husband to get his check cashed:

Woman: Do you sell illegal guns?

Me: Huh? (I'm fairly deaf and I wasn't sure I heard her right.)

Woman: Do you sell illegal guns?

Me: Uh, ma'am, that would be illegal.

Woman: Oh.

It took me a day to digest that conversation, but tonight as I chatted with my wife, I told her about the strange exchange and it dawned on me what I think was going on. This woman was apparently used to seeing guns bought and sold that were illegal (translation stolen) and therefore were always cheaper than "legal" guns, which is hopefully all we sell at the shop.

We do occasionally get calls from law enforcement tracking a stolen firearm that was sold at our shop and I've only been in this business since January so I haven't seen a stolen firearm get sold to us yet, but I'm sure it happens. We have no way of checking whether a gun is stolen when we purchase it. There is no national database of stolen firearms accessible to us, so when someone sells or pawns a gun we pretty much have to take them at their word that they own it legally.

And if a stolen gun does get purchased by our shop and law-enforcement later finds we have it, guess what happens? They take the gun and we're out whatever we paid for it. So if there was a way to check whether a gun is stolen, we'd do it. We do require an ID to either sell or pawn a gun, so if it turns out to be stolen, we can at least point law enforcement to the culprit.

If I was writing up a list if FASQs (Frequently Asked Stupid Questions) for the shop and for our gunbroker.com customers, that strange exchange would be right at the top of the list.

Here's a few other email FASQs from some of our gun show and gunbroker customers:

Q: How many rounds have been fired in this (used) gun?

A: The previous owner said "very few." (So far nobody has sold us a used gun yet and said, "I shot the hell out of it.")

Q: I bought a 9mm pistol at the gun show and when I asked for a box of ammo, you sold me a box of 9mm Luger. (I can't make this stuff up. That question came from a man who signed himself as a Lt. Col. in the CAP, which is a civilian organization, the Civil Air Patrol. He's a real Lt. Col. like a Kentucky auctioneer is a real Colonel.)

A: 9mm Luger is the same as 9x19, regular 9mm ammo.

Q: Is this gun new or used? If it's been fired, how many times? (This question is always asked about a new firearm listed on gunbroker. So I use quotes around the red and boldface text from the auction listing page first and then elaborate in case that isn't perfectly clear.)

A: "Item Condition Factory New", "New In Box:" Brand new in the box straight from the factory to the distributor to us. We didn't fire it. It may have been test-fired at the factory, but since the factory doesn't provide a fired cartridge casing for this model, I don't know for sure about that. I do know it's been in the factory box unfired since we got it.

But it don't matter how stupid the question is, the customer is always right and we always answer all questions politely. Stupid people buy guns, too. Now ain't that a scary thought?

K-38 Target Masterpiece is greatness in steel and walnut

I have beheld greatness, held it in my hands and shot it. And lo and behold, I bow at the altar of Smith & Wesson.

At the gun shop where I work, they have a counter full of classic handguns, Smith & Wessons mostly, and I liberated one of the unsung stars of that collection for a test run at the range Saturday. It really needed no test run, being a classic Smith, but if any doubt remained as to whether I'd be plunking down cash on the counter come Monday, all doubts disappeared with the first six shots.

I stood at 100 feet and lined up on a paper plate on a post, took aim offhand and let fly six shots. I figured if I hit the plate at all, it would be a good start. All six rounds of .38 Special +Ps went into the pie plate. I tacked up a bullseye target over the plate and three friends and I proceeded to burn up a box of 50 CCI JHPs. And the barrel was barely warm when the ammo was long gone. That target in the photo is the last six shots fired rapid fire offhand at 50 feet.

I forgot my real camera and I had to make do with my cellphone camera, so the real beauty of this S&W Model 14-3 doesn't shine through in the second photo. More to come later.

It's not a beauty queen, like some classic Smiths are that have been babied and pampered and spent their days resting in a gun safe with nary a blemish on their blue steel and walnut. This old warrior was made sometime between 1957 and 1981, when the Model 14 ceased production, and I strongly suspect it attended and maybe even won many of a bullseye competition during its working life.

It was sold to us in its present condition, most of the bluing gone but still sound as a hammer. (Sound as a dollar doesn't measure up to the standards of this classic Smith.) The cylinder locks up tighter than Dick's hatband and even when in the unlocked position with the hammer down, there is less wobble in it that almost every brand-spanking-new Smith I've ever handled.

It's got a Bomar target rear sight, Patridge front sight and Magna target grips that fill your hand. But that's not the good part. The double-action trigger is so smooth it's to die for, just to stroke it through its appointed path. And the single-action trigger? Well you cock it, you point it at the target and you think "Shoot!" and away she goes. Maybe 2 lbs., probably less. My digital trigger-weight gauge went Tango Uniform, so I can't verify that.

I can say this. Two fellow gun nuts of my generation handled this old Smith before we got to the range and both of them tried to buy it off me before we ever fired the first shot.

And both of them said the first single-action shot snuck up on them when they fired it off. I've got a Smith 29 with a 1 lb. 4 oz. single-action trigger, so I was ready for a light release. The Smith 14-3 isn't that light, but it isn't awfully far from it either.

Back in the pre-1957 days before S&W pistols got numbers, this Model 14 was called the K-38 Target Masterpiece and from the year of its manufacture in 1946, it dominated the bulls-eye target competition scene. In the postwar years up through the 60s, if you showed up at a bullseye match without a K-38, you might as well have stayed home.

It's indeed a target masterpiece in steel and walnut and I shall be proud to call it my own.

The Age of Nefarious plays to adoring fans at Portsmouth Town Hall

Doug Giles has solved one of the mysteries of the universe, where President Obama came up with that ridiculous comment comparing his healthcare "reform" plans to the U.S. Post Office? No, his speechwriters weren't smoking dope the night before. That was Obama's ad lib when the teleprompter went Tango Uniform during the middle of his speech at the Portsmouth Town Hall, which supposedly was a gathering of just a random bunch of folks off the street who just coincidentally all happened to absolutely adore their Obamessiah.

The only problem with the Portsmouth town hall is that it was more artificially stacked with Obama lap dogs than Pam Anderson’s ta-tas are with boat caulk. Of course the meeting was upbeat and thumping . . . it was contrived. A Cyclops could see that. Look, as a knuckle-dragging heterosexual who lives in a God-blessed testosterone fog, I don’t mind fake when it comes to breasts. But when it comes to being conned by a Boob and his stacked crowd, well . . . I gotta admit . . . that makes me want to spit...

The only shiny moment for me, aside from him outright lying about AARP’s endorsement and the nineteen other bald-faced lies (see KeithHennessey.com) during Tuesday’s masturbatory meeting was when Obama went rogue and strayed from the teleprompter, comparing his health care plan to the efficient U. S. Postal Service. That’s the same post office that just delivered a letter I wrote to my dad twenty-one years ago.

Yes, Virginia, when I saw the ‘prompter mechanically collapse into the stage and realized B-HO was about to go off script, I thought, “Yee-frickin’-haw. What’s he gonna say, Lord? Is he going to insult an upstanding white cop? Is he gonna channel Michelle and call America a mean nation?” Nope, he compared his health care bill to a crappy postal system. Obamacare is going postal.

You see, agnostics and atheists, there may be a God after all—and Barack be not his name.

To experience my feelings put to music, check out my new music video The Age of Nefarious:

Anti-Christian Lawyer's Union files criminal charges for prayer

I think I'll try to find me a lawyer to sue the Anti-Christian Lawyer's Union, AKA ACLU, for criminal stupidity. There's a case in Florida that about 16 steps over the line into true insanity.

Students, teachers and local pastors are protesting over a court case involving a northern Florida school principal and an athletic director who are facing criminal charges and up to six months in jail over their offer of a mealtime prayer.

There have been yard signs, T-shirts and a mass student protest during graduation ceremonies this spring on behalf of Pace High School Principal Frank Lay and school athletic director Robert Freeman, who will go on trial Sept. 17 at a federal district court in Pensacola for breaching the conditions of a lawsuit settlement reached last year with the American Civil Liberties Union.

"I have been defending religious freedom issues for 22 years, and I've never had to defend somebody who has been charged criminally for praying," said Mathew Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, the Orlando-based legal group that is defending the two school officials...

The criminal charges, which carry up to a $5,000 fine and a six-month jail term, originated with a Jan. 28 incident in which Mr. Lay, a deacon at a local Baptist church, asked Mr. Freeman to offer mealtime prayers at a lunch for school employees and booster-club members who had helped with a school field-house project.

Mr. Staver said no students were present at the event, which was held on school property but after school hours.

"He wasn't thinking he was violating an order," he said. "Neither did the athletic director. He was asked to pray and so he did."

The ACLU is way the hell over the line in this case and I pray God will send down a lightning bolt and char their frickin' hind ends. God deliver us from such insanity in the land of the free.

Redneck racists from coast to coast rise up with pitchforks!

Don't you just love it when the stuffed shirts and skirts in Washington, D.C., get their knickers all wadded up in their cracks? I sure do. And I love the spontaneous uprisings going on now coast to coast as Congresspersons and Senators get an earful from the voting public who are shouting "We're mad as hell and we're not gonna take it anymore!"

Obamacare is sinking fast and you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind's blowing. If the Blue Dog Democrats and RINO's have enough brains to rub two rocks together, they're getting the message loud and clear they better back off backing the Obamessiah's plan for Uncle Sam to decide when, where and how much healthcare the paying public is entitled to get.

Can you imagine what great healthcare we'll get when the government provides us the same wonderful service it does for the U.S. Mail? Here's a question for ya, why do they call postal clerks "civil servants" when they're barely civil at best and don't give any service worth writing home about?

Obama had one of those "Oops!" moments in a speech about his healthcare plan that was supposed to be reassuring when he used the post office as an example of how government programs don't work as well as private enterprise.

In Washington, that's what's known as a gaffe, when a politician has a slip of the tongue and actually tells the truth.

So we don't have to worry about government taking over our private healthcare programs because the post office can't compete with FedEx and UPS? But even though the federal guvmint can't deliver the mail on time we're supposed to trust these came "civil servants" with our life and death healthcare choices? What exactly was your point, Mr. President? I suspect the only real point Obama has is the one on top of his pointy little liberal leftwingnut noggin.

Wesley Pruden, as usual, 'splains why the Congresspersons are so clueless about the rage they're hearing from voters, from whom they're usually entirely isolated from in their D.C. "bubble."

The rage at the town halls is particularly irksome because congressmen are not accustomed to anyone talking back to them. They live in the bubble where aides and flunkies tend every need, pop every pimple and hide every hickey, even accompanying members to the members-only dining room to cut their roast beef and dab a napkin at their mouths if need be.

When their constituents raise concerns about what's in the thousand pages of the House health care legislation -- the working version of Obamacare, which few members have read, but aides are even now stumbling over the words of two or more syllables -- the reaction is often irritation bordering on anger, anger crossing over into rage: The elderly and the soon to be elderly are foolish to be concerned about legislation mandating "voluntary" conversations about when and how the elderly should die.

President Obama jokes that these are concerns about "pulling the plug on Grandma," but it's no joke for Grandma. Grandma remembers how Mr. Obama so easily denounced his own white grandma as a racist bigot in his explanation of why and how he chose the Rev. Jeremiah Wright to tutor his family in the moral teachings of the church.

Mr. Obama's acolytes on the Op-Ed pages and the television screens, right on cue, pile on: Only wingnuts, hicks and rednecks could imagine Official U.S. Government bureaucrats guilty of arrogance and hubris. Curiously, these acolytes easily imagine the worst kind of wickedness in other departments of big government. (See Iraq, war in; Bush, George W.)

And while I'm on the topic of enraged rednecks, have you heard the latest accusation as so why all us rednecks (from coast to coast, north and south) are up in arms? We're all racists, saith Kathleen Parker, the token Southern columnist on many liberal newspapers.

I quit reading Parker some time ago when she joined the Obamessiah's court jesters, but Ann Coulter brings us up to date on Kathleen's latest screed in defense of her beloved Obamessiah.

But Kathleen Parker has leapt into the fray to explain that the opposition to Obama's agenda is pure Southern racism. And she's from the South, so it must be true!

As she put it on Chris Matthews' "Hardball": "One word, Chris -- one word. 'Confederacy.' I mean, you know, the South is very -- I live there, OK? I want to make that clear, too, because I'm not bashing Southerners."

No, she was certainly not bashing Southerners. This she made clear in her Washington Post column calling for the Republican Party to "drive a stake through the heart of old Dixie."

Read Ann's latest to get the full details. Short version. Parker was born in Winter Haven, Fla. (AKA Yankee retirement mecca) and now has a pad in South Carolina she visits when she's not in Washington, D.C. at her real home. So she's a genuine Southerner and an expert on racism, right? And I'm a genuine rocket surgeon because I rented a room at a Holiday Inn Express for the night.

Pau Ferro takes a back seat to Sig P229 Elite wood grips

Is there anything more pleasant than an unexpected gift? When I ordered a Sig P229 SAS Gen2 .357 Sig pistol from Sig Sauer back in February, the Sig factory rep promised the boss lady at the gun shop he would see if he could find me a set of the nice wood grips they used on the Generation 1 SAS model that were phased out for Generation 2.

That's the promised grips on the Sig Gen1 in the top photo, stolen from the Sig site where it's no longer to be found.

So when my new Sig 229 SAS Gen2 arrived May 1, it had black composite grips on it, as shown in the second photo. Nice and functional but not nearly as sexy as those SAS Gen1 grips.

So I figured maybe they'd arrive in a week or two. I waited. Then I waited some more.

After a month, my patience ran out. I've never been long on patience so a month is probably close to a record for me actually waiting for something.

So I googled wood grips for Sig P229s and found a nice set of Hogue Pau Ferro grips. Who is Pau Ferro, you may ask, and why can't he spell Paul?

Actually, Pau Ferro ain't a he, it's a Bolivian hardwood and quite a beautiful one at that.

My new Hogue Pau Ferro grips arrived in late June, I installed them, tested them at the range and was happy as a pig in deep mud.

And then, lo and behold, as King James often says, today that pleasant unexpected surprise arrived.

A package from Sig for me was thrown in with an order of various accessories, the long-promised but now forgotten Sig P229 Elite grips, as the package billed them.

The Sig Elite series is an all-stainless steel line of their various models and the grips are exactly the same as the former SAS Gen1 grips I so admired.

So today, I removed the Pau Ferro grips and installed the new Elite grips. Ain't they prettier than a speckled pup?

Now I gotta get me another P229 so I can have something to put my Pau Ferro grips on. And it just so happens that we have a CPO, which is Sig lingo for Certified Previously Owned, Sig P229 .357 Sig which someone traded in at a recent gun show. It's all Nitron black with a rail, vs. the 2-tone slicked-up Sig-Anti-Snag SAS, but I bet those Pau Ferro grips will dress it right up.

I shall ascribe to the wisdom of Clint Smith, the famed gunwriter and chief shootist of Thunder Ranch, who says if you have a pistol you really like, get two of them. Then if the one you carry has to go out of action for any reason, you've got a backup ready to step up to the plate.

Sounds like a perfectly good reason to get another P229 .357 Sig pistol to me.

And another little unexpected surprise also popped up last week. We have so many long guns at the gun shop that the boss marked a bunch of them down and set them out on racks out front to move them out of there.

And lo and behold again, there's a little Marlin .22LR semi-auto carbine that's the twin brother of one I had years ago. I shot the whee out that little Marlin when I was living on a farm and appointed myself the designated slayer of snapping turtles in a big pond in a pasture out in my front yard.

When I moved off the farm, I gave that little Marlin .22LR to my son and it's still being shot by him and his two grandsons. And here was another just like it, marked down to $85! As they used to say at the tobacco warehouses, "Sold American!" I bought myself an early birthday present.

Haven't been to the range lately, but I'll be there Saturday teaching my first NRA Basic Pistol Class, so the little Marlin is going along for the ride and its baptism by fire. It's gonna be fun.