Judge strikes down Texas strip club fee

"3/28/2008 - A state district judge has ruled that Texas may not collect a $5-per-customer strip club fee that went into effect in January. Judge Scott Jenkins wrote in an opinion Friday that the fee, while furthering laudable goals, violates First Amendment free speech rights so it's invalid. The Texas Legislature created the fee last year to pay for sexual assault prevention programs and health insurance for low-income Texans. The Texas Entertainment Association Inc., which is a group of topless clubs, and Karpod Inc., the owner of an Amarillo club, sued the state over the fee. Attorneys for the state could appeal the ruling."

Help the topless: report_on_discrimination_of_topless_women

Easter Supper

• Hone shooting and stalking skills
• Locate, stalk, miss, stalk again, kill, skin, gut, clean, and cut wild boar into meal-sized portions
• Clean & cube 1/2 backstrap; give scraps to spoiled dogs
• Thoroughly cook boar in olive or peanut oil with g-salt & g-pepper
• Add can Bush's beans, rotel tomatoes, hominy, more garlic, & simmer 1/2 hr
• Plop over biscuits or indian fry bread, eat like king, blame farts on dog

Black Hog Down

Here's Reap and I with our feral hogs. We bellycrawled to 30 yards from a group of them. He brainshot his with a 32-cal flintlock. They jumped up but were confused to what had just happened and were oblivious to where we were. One gave me a broadside and I put an arrow through her, and a huge crimson spot immediately appeared. Reap's hog was down but still kicking, so he reloaded and we approached it. Then it got back to it's feet & things got real exciting. He shoots from 5 feet away and misses it completely. The shot spooked a BIG hog that we didn't see about 10 feet away behind a log. It leaps to it's feet and took off before I could get an arrow off. We were now 10 feet from a mad, wounded hog w/o a loaded firearm ... Think Mark Sullivan w/o his double rifle. It takes a couple minutes for Reap to reload so I put an arrow through it's vitals. Blood & air gushed out like the aftermath of a good texican dinner and the boar quickly went down for good. Then we bloodtrailed mine about 50 yards to where she expired.

Robin Hood

Heard the 2nd arrow hit the first & thought I just nicked another one and broke the knock.

Ruined a perfectly good carbon arrow ($10-sniffle).

Going feral hawg-hunting this weekend, should be fun.

Troubles at Walmart

Good read reinforcing the importance of a heightened level of awareness. (link)

Plan B: Cower into the fetal position and hope for the best.

Salt Lake

Wicked and I were in Salt Lake City last week for some much needed R&R. I generally take about one weekend day off every other week so I got 9 consecutive days w/o any work contact. (Really needed that!) I got 6 days of boarding in at 5 resorts, she did 5 days. Show was better than average this year so boarding was very good. The Beams watched Shadow while I was gone and I'm sure they spoiled the crap out of him because he pouted after we left.

One day we hit the hunter's convention at the Salt Palace. I was somewhat concerned that Wicked would be bored to death but there enough stuffed kitties and guns to keep her attention. This convention was geared more towards N. America and taxidermy while the Dallas show was more for world-wide hunting. There was a cute pink gun that Brownie might like (to match his Wrangler).

There were a several furriers and one had a gorgeous men's coat that really cought my eye. It was made from about 5 different kinds of critters, maybe a little overboard there... They guy told me it was designed for Kid Rock (no I'm not a big fan) and they made several variations of it. $8K (yikes!). This are a couple of pix I found:




Before I left I talked to a couple of hearing aid vendors. If anyone has experience with these, I'd be interested in their thoughts. Need to know about things like feedback, reliability, comfort, battery life, maintenance, background noise, features you want/don't want, etc.

Safari

Hit the Hunter's Convention hosted by the Dallas Safari Club last weekend. My goal was to book a safari in S. Africa or Namibia. Spent Friday night jamming with an old bud, each showing the other different riffs.

The show was awesome. Craig Poddington was there but I didn't get the chance to vist with him. Fondled lotsa nice hunting-related equipment. Looked through some $1700 binoculars - you really DO get what you pay for. Many furriers had their gorgous garments - nothing man-made approaches real fur.

I met with a bunch of PHs and it was hard choosing which one to go with as they all lived to hunt and had great operations. There were a couple of times where I'd be walking around and someone would stop me and say they saw me talking to so-and-so and recommend them to me. Saturday afternoon I finally pulled the trigger & handed a check to an outfit in Namibia. I'll be there for 10 days in late October trying to poke critters that bite back with sharp sticks. Hope to return with a few trophies, many pictures, and a few lies about the ones that got away.

Another random public massacre

A mall in Omaha, NE. My condolences to the families of those he killed or injured.

Rick, a fellow bowhunter and BB from Nebraska, was talking to a group of well-doers about it yesterday. They were wondering why a good boy turned bad, blaming McDonalds for firing him, blaming guns, maybe if someone hadn't made fun of him back when he was 12, how could this happen in a gun-free zone, et al. Rick said, "My solution would have been to shoot the perp as soon as he started firing and make Christmas not suck for 5 families."

Late Thanksgiving double from Spike & Co.

We had a cold, windy snap around Thanksgiving. Deer were hunkered down for the most part. The day afterwards I went out about 4PM. The wind was down to a small breeze and it was from the right direction. Not 5 minutes after I was in stealth-mode Spike showed up. He was in a hurry and I was afraid he'd run right by me so I bleated, he stopped, and gave me the shot I was waiting for.

Since it was so early I tagged him & continued hunting. About 45 minutes later this other one came in from the opposite direction and gave me a broadside. He took off hard but made it only about 30 yards before expiring midstride.

Below are the two post-Thanksgiving gifts. Since it was so cool I left them hanging overnight after gutting & skinning; not often we can do that in TX. Spent another 7 hours Saturday processing both into meal-sized portions & I've still got another hour worth of work left tonight; gotta grind and wrap everything. I figure about 4 1/2 hours per animal from the time they're on the ground to the time they're in the freezer. That's about 1 1/2 football games each if you're into that sort of thing.

Spike

Tues AM I was in a tree again. Cold breeze, great hunting weather. The spike showed up on my lefthand side, which is the natural shooting side for a right-hander. I drew & let down 3 times without him giving me a ethical shot. On the 4th draw he was quartering away so I let the arrow loose from just under 25 yards. Damned if he didn't jump the string, again. Clean miss. Bowhunting is frustrating sometimes.

Good stuff: Got a cool package from RainBlow yesterday (thanks!), should have the new Glock this week, work project is looking good, NV stock is supposed to be mid-50's early 08, oil broke $95/bbl.

Archery Season Ends (almost)

Today was the 30th day and I haven't put a sharp stick through anything. One more week left and then I have to compete with the rifle hunters. This morning I actually came close, missed a spike at 25yds. I normally shoot baseball-size groups at that distance and I shot right over him. Buck fever sux but I hope it never goes away.

Wicked Itch turned 50 today. Here the home-defense tool I built for her B-day:


The specs are an 870 express mag, 12ga, 18.5" bbl, collapseable stock, 3-rail forearm with a light.

Almost got a buck last night...

A 1 1/2 year old 4-pt ran out in front of me about 5 miles from home. Someone else probably nailed him after me. Haven't even seen any deer yet from the stand. It's been so damn warm I'm sweating profusely and the rain and yotes have them scattered all over hell. Great sunset last night though.

Had brunch with Wicked's family Sunday at Green Pastures. It was her mom's b-day. They put on an awesome spread. Lotsa good deadstuff. Almost ate some snails by accident; it looked like spinach dip. The frog legs were good but they don't make you run trail any faster. A couple hours later at the hash my nose let me down. I righted when I should have lefted and went about a mile out of my way. The trail was short so I couldn't make up the time and was DFL for the first time in prolly a year yesterday.

New Rules:

New Rule: Stop giving me that pop-up ad for classmates.com! Maybe here's a reason I don't talk to people for 25 years. Because you don't particularly like them!? Besides, I already know what the captain of the football team is doing these days--mowing my lawn.
New Rule: Don't eat anything that's served to you out a window unless you're a seagull. People are acting all shocked that a human finger was found in a bowl of Wendy's chili. Hey, it cost less than a dollar. What did you expect it to contain?? Trout?
New Rule: Ladies, leave your eyebrows alone. Here's how much men care about your eyebrows: do you have two of them? Okay, we're done.
New Rule: There's no such thing as flavored water. There's a whole aisle of this crap at the supermarket, water, but without that watery taste. Sorry, but flavored water is called a soft drink. You want flavored water? Pour some scotch over ice and let it melt. That's your flavored water.
New Rule: Stop screwing with old people. Target is introducing a redesigned pill bottle that's square, with a bigger label. And the top is now the bottom. And by the time grandpa figures out how to open it, his ass will be in the morgue. Congratulations, Target, you just solved the Social Security crisis.
New Rule: The more complicated the Starbucks order, the bigger the asshole. If you walk into a Starbucks and order a "decaf grande half-soy, half-low fat, iced vanilla, double-shot, gingerbread cappuccino, extra dry, light ice, with one sweet-n'-Low, and one NutraSweet," ooh, you're a huge asshole.
New Rule: I'm not the cashier! By the time I look up from sliding my card, entering my PIN number, pressing "Enter," verifying the amount, deciding no, I don't want cash back, and pressing "Enter" again, the kid who is supposed to be ringing me up is standing there eating my Almond Joy.
New Rule: Just because your tattoo has Chinese characters in it doesn't make you spiritual. It's right above the crack of your ass. And it translates to "beef with broccoli." The last time you did anything spiritual, you were praying to God you weren't pregnant. You're not spiritual. You're just stoned.
New Rule: Competitive eating isn't a sport. It's one of the seven deadly sins. ESPN recently televised the U.S. Open of Competitive Eating, because watching those athletes at the poker table was just too damned exciting. What's next, competitive farting??? Oh wait!? They're already doing that. It's called "The Howard Stern Show."
New Rule: I don't need a bigger mega M&Ms. If I'm extra hungry for M&Ms, I'll go nuts and eat two.
New Rule: No more gift registries. You know, it used to be just for weddings. Now it's for babies and new homes and graduations from rehab. Picking out the stuff you want and having other people buy it for you isn't gift giving, it's the white people version of looting.
New Rule: and this one is long overdue: No more bathroom attendants. After I zip up, some guy is offering me a towel and a mint like I just had sex with George Michael. I can't even tell if he's supposed to be there, or just some freak with a fetish. I don't want to be on your web cam, dude. I just want to wash my hands.
New Rule: When I ask how old your toddler is, I don't need to know in months. "27 Months." "He's two," will do just fine. He's not a cheese. And I didn't really care in the first place.
New Rule: If you ever hope to be a credible adult and want a job that pays better than minimum wage, then for God's sake don't pierce or tattoo every available piece of flesh. If so, then plan your future around saying, "Do you want fries with that?"

Another Hillary Story

Hillary Clinton, the lead Presidential Democratic Party candidate is for banning all guns in America. She is considered by those who have dealt with her as a little more than just a little self-righteous.

At a recent rural elementary school meeting in north Florida she asked the kids audience for total quiet. Then, in the silence, she started to slowly clap her hands, once every few seconds. Holding the audience in total silence, she said into the microphone, "Every time I clap my hands, a child in America dies from gun violence."

A young voice with a proud southern accent from the front of the crowd pierced the quiet! .... "Well, just stop clappin, ya evil bitch!"

Irrefutable Facts

Blatently plagerized from http://www.wacotrib.com/opin/content/news/opinion/stories/nugent/08262007_wac_nugent.html

• Water is wet. Venison is food. Tobacco use kills more Americans than anything. Drinking and driving is self-inflicted terrorism.
• God gave us life and the right to defend it from those who would take it from us.
• Tofu production kills more living things than any other activity on earth.
• Paul McCartney took too much acid.
• Trapping bans don't work. Hunting bans don't work. Gun bans don't work. Gun-free zones are a recipe for innocent slaughter.
• Guns are harmless, inanimate objects. Blaming guns for murders is like blaming a spoon for making Rosie Odonnel a bloated whale.
• Pathetic people not willing to defend themselves cannot dictate such soulless policy upon those of us who know we must.
• American education fails to teach many children to read, write, spell, balance a checkbook or talk.
• The Internal Revenue Service is horrendously wasteful, unaccountable and unconstitutional.
• Dope destroys lives. Meth users are American terrorists.
• The No. 1 threat to a black American's life is a black American.
• Kids that don't do chores are a liability to family and America.
• People who don't care about their health don't deserve health care.
• Good is superior to evil. Smart is better than dumb. Activism is the duty of anyone claiming to be part of an experiment in self-government. A work ethic is far superior to laziness.
• Barbecued dead animals are perfect, natural and delicious.
• Love conquers hate. Patience teaches much more than immediate gratification. Clean is better than dirty.
• War is the answer against terror and evil. In WWII, America was the good guy, the Japanese and Nazis were the bad guys. You cannot negotiate with evil.
• The war on poverty is a joke. Those who live in poverty in the US choose to do so.
• Trees produce wood for many quality and proper uses.
• There are more deer, bear, mountain lion, geese, wild hogs and wild turkey in North America than at any time in recorded history.
• Child molesters cannot be fixed.
• The government gets more profit from gasoline taxes than the oil corporations do per gallon.
• It's better to have a gun and not need it than to need a gun and not have it.
• People who can't speak clear English or mumble and carry themselves badly will have a hard time achieving the American Dream.
• Hippies stink.
• People who litter are rude pigs.

Sunday

Had tyrannosaurus dump (sorry no pix), went to a gun-show a week early (oops), FRB'd a 10-mile hash, dashed to my 6:30 softball game (we won), returned in time for circle, went to work and killed a water-moccasin w/bare hands. Does all this make it okay for me to whine about my big toe?

Bohemian Rhapsody revisited

I found another youtube video of a guy (Edgar Cruz) playing this here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHSmjrjpoaI. So I'm trying to learn it again. Last time around I was trying to compose it from the piano sheet music and there's some stuff that just ain't possible on a guitar. You can only hack so much stuff out until it sound like crap. I found his sheet music so I've got something more to start with this time.

He uses some unfamiliar chords, so if nothing else I'll know them afterwards. The other cool thing he does is use artificial harmonics to hit the high notes. I've seen a video of Freddie playing it on a piano and he does a crossover (left over right) to hit the high note. The harmonics Edgar uses is a variation on the 12th fret natural harmonic. You fret whatever note you want, touch the string lightly 12 frets up from where you're fretting it, and pluck it. The result is an octive higher than the fretted note.

Here's another video of him doing Dream On: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoQ8tdzJ_Y8. Impressive work but damn this guy needs to spend some practice time with a metronome.

More Backstraps!

I noticed a doe bed down behind the house this morning. She took off when we opened the door. After Cindy left I noticed the fawn about 10 yards from where mom was bedding. This is almost a month after we saw the first ones. Guess this was the 2nd rutt and mom didn't get any the first go-round. I was mowing later and jumped another one. He ran accross the driveway onto the neighbor's place, at least 50 yards away from where he was hiding. Hope it's maw finds it.

Fred's response to Michael Moore's debate challenge

Gotta love this guy: http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=611

Fresh Backstraps!

Found this little guy just north of the house this morning. They're actually fawning a little early this year, maybe they're dropping early because the abundant feed from all the rain we've had. I had to shrink the pics for blogger but if you click on them a little better version will open up.

BTW, if you ever find a newborn fawn and want to make sure it's mother will never take care of it so it slowly starves, here's what you do: