McGyver's Tactical Knife?

I saw a new Swiss Army Knife (SAK) in the pages of the most recent Field and Stream that looked like a pretty significant departure from their usual offerings.
It's called the One Hand Sentinel and it looks almost more like a Spyderco-style knife than a SAK. It is an upgrade to their standard Sentinel knife.

I still have my original Recruit from when I was a kid and am excited they came out with a new offering that maintains the original concept, while more in the style of a tactical folder.

Looks like they are going for around $20-25 on eBay - not bad at all for a cool knife and tweezers!

Here are the specs.

Update on Paintball this Weekend

Quick update here. Based on the response I have received from everyone about playing this weekend, we are going to go ahead and cancel the game.

Everyone have a fine Halloween and make sure to use your markers as nature intended - to defend your farms and homesteads from the hordes of semi-undead teenagers assailing your home and hearth with bags of flaming poo.

"Happy Halloween, ladies"
The Kurgan, Highlander

In honor of the upcoming election . . .



Check out Part 2 here.

Ban Guns and the Loonies Will Find Something Else

I saw this little tidbit on Drudge today and it again drives home the proven fact that banning guns doesn't make people safer, it makes law-abiding citizens less able to defend themselves:

Six dead in South Korea fish knife frenzy

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- A financially strapped South Korean man went on an arson and stabbing rampage in Seoul on Monday, leaving six people dead and seven others wounded, police said.

The 31-year-old suspect, identified only by his surname, Jeong, first set fire to his room in a low-cost lodging facility in southern Seoul and then stabbed other residents with a sashimi knife while fleeing the fire, police said.

Five people were stabbed to death and another died after jumping out of a window to escape the blaze, police said.

Seven others were wounded, including four seriously, and the death toll could rise, according to police.

The suspect, arrested at the scene, told police he did not want to live because "everybody looks down on me," Kim Kap-shik, chief detective at Seoul's Gangnam Police Station, told reporters.

Yonhap news agency and other media reported that Jeong has been convicted of crimes eight times in the past. Police were not immediately available to confirm Jeong's criminal record.

More.

Once again a career criminal with a history of mental illness goes off and engages in violence against the citizenry. That is so bizarre. And unpredictable.

If they'd had a way to defend themselves, then someone wouldn't have had to jump out of a window to get away from the attacker. On second thought, anyone who jumps out of a multiple-story window to avoid a knife attack may not be the most tactically minded person in an emergency situation.

Britain has a law now banning "assault knives" as the number of people using knives and swords in crimes has exploded. Taking away guns didn't make England safer (ask the Home Guard veterans about this, if anyone over there is still alive that remembers) , but instead forced criminals to find a new way to conduct their nefarious deeds. The citizens - now unarmed - are left to their own devices and must rely on random chance to not become the victims of crime.

Banning guns does nothing to reduce crime. Reduction in crime comes from taking a long look at what causes the problem (unemployment, ridiculous drug laws, disenfranchisement with society, a lack of opportunity or hugs/love from parents) - versus trying to stop it by taking away people's rights.

We have enough laws, statutes, provisions, and acts to restrict us in every aspect of our lives from now until The Judgment. What we need is to punish the hell out of folks who use guns in a crime - mandatory sentences - and get these violent ne'er-do-wells off of the streets and away from giving gun haters the ammunition they need for their ultimate goal of banning private firearms ownership.

Paintball this weekend - Orion Valley

We will be playing this Saturday, October 18th in the Valley. Thanks to all that came out last weekend and helped get the land into shape. We have a good primary bunker and plenty of barricades to hide behind for at least a few scenarios.

Bring plenty of water/gatorade, etc. The weather has been nice and cool in the mornings, but we'll be going up and down a lot of hills. We'll also be having lunch at the Texas 46 after the game, so we can extend our discussions, etc.

If you had planned on bringing on someone as a guest this weekend, just remember that they should be there no earlier than 9:45am

Please note, this is a new location and directions will be posted to the forums, under the "Orion Raiders Paintball" section.

Look forward to seeing everyone there!

Enough on politics . . .


Here is a picture of Ranch Style Beans - the official food staple of all Orion Woods Brigade events.

More on everyone's favorite "Husband Pleasin'" bean.

You Don't Agree With Me - You Must Be A Racist!

Ah, the good old days.

I remember back in my college days when I would get involved in debates/yelling matches on the West Mall at UT. It was the standard post-high school goodness - you remember these times - you had just left mommy and daddy's house and you claimed you knew everything.

Years later - 10 years into my career and knee deep in families, mortgages and 'real life' action - now I claim I know nothing. :)

Anyway, back in those days, being a young, semi-conservative Christian at a very liberal school, I was assured by my erudite college mates, homeless folks, and other questionable adults who for some reason had the ability to spend all day arguing with kids (still trying to figure out what job that was) - that all of the beliefs that I held dearly were wrong.

The Bible was wrong. Gun ownership was wrong. The right to self-defense was wrong. The Civil War was all about slavery and had nothing to do with the long-running battle over states rights vs. federal rights. For God sakes, even being a "real man" was wrong. Everything I stood for. Challenged, crapped on, spat on - because my rules for living came from a 2000 year-old-book* - not from whatever the latest word was from Hollywood celebs and the MTV-culture set.

The arguments were pointless. It was two perspectives with such a wide delta between them that there was no way we would reach common ground. My basis for belief was scorned (even though most of these folks would also claim to support 1st amendment rights - but not for all beliefs, apparently), but because I wouldn't accept their perspective as dogma, I was stupid.

Here is how a typical "debate" went down:

Angry Man #1: "There is no Jesus."

Me: "Yes, there is"

Angry Man #1: "How can you believe such mythology?"

Me: "Because of faith, and the Bible"

Angry Man #1: "The Bible is wrong. And bad."

Me: "I don't agree with that."

Angry Man #1: "Then you are STUPID!"

That was it - I was stupid. College scores, SAT scores, IQ tests - useless in the face of my inability to turn my back on my beliefs and my God.

But at least back then, I was only called "stupid."

Now, I would be considered racist for not agreeing with the liberal intelligentsia.

Because surely, if I don't agree with the supposition, that in this time - certainly the greatest moral, political, ideological and economic crisis this country has ever faced - if I don't buy their hype and support their ridiculous policies, then it is not because their candidate is unqualified, it is not because I happen to not agree with his politics or his charisma, it is because I am racist.

Calling me racist is an unacceptable lie that denies the legitimacy of my right to take part in the political process - and makes them look like fools in the process.

Please go back to just calling me stupid for not thinking the way you do.

* BTW - Christianity is based on the concept of freewill - the only major religion to do so. Freewill also happens to be the entire basis of Western Culture and democracy.

And just like that . . . the commies won!

As an ardent supporter of a free market economy, I - like many other Americans (98% of emails to the White House over the past week or so - according to some sources) - have been appalled by the lack of perspective in some of the government bailout nightmares that have been taking place in the last few weeks.

Some of the recent policies are so socialist in their application that they are making FDR look like an ardent conservative.

Here's the latest piece of hogwash to cross the radars:

US government may take part ownership in banks

WASHINGTON (AP) - News that the Bush administration is considering taking part ownership in a number of U.S. banks helped restore a relative calm over global financial markets Thursday.

The aim of such a move would be to thaw the lending freeze that threatens to push the world's economy into recession. It comes after rampant fear about the global economy sent investors scurrying on Tuesday for safety in U.S. government securities despite an orchestrated round of rate cuts by the world's central banks.

Investors also were hoping that selling, which gave the Dow its ninth straight day of losses, was overdone. Wall Street began the day higher, but then slid after declines in some blue chip names like General Motors Corp. weighed on the markets.

An administration official, who spoke late Tuesday on condition of anonymity because no decision has been made, said the $700 billion rescue package passed by Congress last week allows the Treasury Department to inject fresh capital into financial institutions and get ownership shares in return.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told reporters that Treasury was moving quickly to implement the $700 billion rescue effort and he specifically mentioned reviewing ways to bolster the capital of banks.

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D93N27U01

Not to be conspiratorial here, but what the hell is going on?

I don't know where we lost our way (but I think it may have happened sometime in the 1960s), but we are not the country we were when we set-off to defeat fascist nationalism in Europe during the 1940s.

Let's take a look and see where we are in the process:

10 Planks of the Communist Manifesto

(My emphasis in bold)

1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.

2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.

3. Abolition of all right of inheritance

4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels

5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.

6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.

7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.

8. Equal liability of all to labour. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.

9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equable distribution of the population over the country.

10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labour in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, &c., &c.

From wikipedia.

I am not smart enough to know exactly what the hell items 7, 8, and 9 mean, but I can tell there is a general movement in this country to change the culture of America - from the cradle of the industrial revolution and the envy of the world, to the a shadow of its past greatness - where the political focus has moved from being a beacon of light for the rest of the world - to being a giant hand-out machine to everyone who thinks they need to have a suck at the big government tit.

What a world we live in where the Russians are the capitalists and the Americans are becoming the communists!

Some of my more left-leaning friends would have you believe that communism is the most equitable system of government . . . it just has never worked in modern, non-nomadic societies because it hasn't been hasn't been their whiny, disenfranchised version of it.