Monday, October 29, 2012

Hurricane Sandy - What Worse Could Happen Next?

Its about 1125, as I write, and the wind outside is starting to howl and I mean that most literally. The trees are whipping frantically and I just heard what I suspect was the house creaking, only once so far but it is a brick house and isn't supposed to creak. Still, this is nothing compared to what they say is headed this way but of course, what is headed this way is nothing compared to what they get in places like Florida. I was there right after Hurricane Andrew and can attest to that. 

Yet, it is going to get worse, maybe much worse. I just read that they now expect/figure/guess that NYC and Long Island area will bear the brunt of the wrath of Hurricane Sandy. They are even talking about an 11 foot wall of water hitting us or at least areas along the shore. My sister-in-law lives in Freeport (which I believe was evacuated) and if that wall of water hits her house, well - all I can hope is that she has good insurance because she is only a few feet above sea level. We are inland but still on Long Island and only about 6 miles from the city border, if that far, so I expect it to be pretty bad here too but nowhere nearly as bad as on the coast. Still, it kind of makes me wish I had covered my windows. Oh well... 

In the not too distant future, like within an hour of two, I think I will hit the Vodka - just to keep up my courage - you understand. Right about that same time, I am going to start playing with knives in a carving kit that I have never before used. I am going to try to make something of a pumpkin for Halloween. If nothing else, I can make a Jack-o-lantern and put a candle in it that we can use if the power fails. Speaking of that, I am pretty amazed that it has not gone out already. My bet would be there are toppled trees somewhere nearby by this time. Sooner or later, one will take a fall and take out the power lines along with it. We lost power for a couple or few days last year after that Hurricane, what was it called, I think it was Hurricane Irene. I have already been unable to access my favorite firearms forum. It is local here on Long Island and I expect that the connection problems are due to the storm. Little things getting buggered up already, I imagine it will only get worse as the storm progresses.

Whoa! Rain just started pounding the east facing side of my house and I do mean pounding. Getting worse by the moment. Oh shit, now what? That was one heck of a loud thudding crashing noise and the house seemed o shake a little, the floor under me sure did anyway and the floor of which I write is the cement floor in the basement. What the heck was that, I can just see it through one of the basement windows if I crane my neck enough? It’s a , a, a – a friggin spaceship, like a flying saucer sort of, it's landed,, or crashed, in the back yard and some aliens are getting out with blasters in their hands and they are saying something. I can just make it out over the howling of the high and wild winds, it’s: “People of earth, we come in peace”.

Oh shit,  I had thought the hurricane was going to be today’s big problem…excuse while I grab my AK47 and my .45 to take care of pressing business…

Back to reality - air raid sirens are going off - I suppose they have nothing to do with an alien invasion  from outer space but they usually do mean impending imminent danger. There go the smaller sirens, sounds like fire trucks headed somewhere. This may prove to be a long day. Stay dry and out of the wind my friends and neighbors but most of all stay safe.

Later 4 U,
Glenn B.

Obama & Benghazi

Hat tip to Jim Mc for this one.

All the best,

Prepping Reassurance

I went to Costco and to Home Depot, yesterday, to do some shopping. Well maybe there was also another reason because I sure did that too. I watched the morons buying or trying to buy batteries, flashlights, duct tape, sand,  and whatever else they needed for an emergency caused by the coming hurricane here in my area. Of course, they were all doing this at just about the last possible moment. It was kind of fun watching the almost panic stricken hordes look for D-cell batteries when there were none in either store to be had. 

At least the brand of bier is right even if
I am not sure it is Oktoberfest bier!
I tried to buy a case of water because my wife said we needed one, they were sold out of that too. I only realized, after I got home, that she had probably wanted it because the storm was coming. I mean, when I saw she had two cases already, it made me think she wanted t be prepared like all those other folks at Home Depot and Costco, at the last minute. Besides that water though, I have about 3 other cases of it already in stock. So instead of buying more water, that Costco did not have anyway, I bought a case of diet Iced Tea and a case of H&B Oktoberfest bier.We are set on liquids for at least three to 5 days.  

It was also fun watching folks try to pick out flashlights from the measly selection at Home Depot. In two visits to HD, one yesterday and one today (yesterday, I forgot I needed a cement mixing basin - I will use it to house some tortoises - so I went back there today), I must have seen at least 50 people walking through the store with flashlights they were buying. Now I can understand maybe needing batteries because you are low or the ones you have are old and you just forgot to buy new ones but were those folks for real - they were buying flashlights! Many had two or three in tow to the checkout. That makes me think they didn't have any to begin with. Tell me, are people really that stupid and ill prepared when it comes to potential emergencies!

Well anyway, we should be pretty good. We don't have a generator, so if the power goes out we will make due somehow. Perhaps, cook all the food in the fridge first, then whatever is in the freezer, then go for the caned stuff and finally eat the tortoises and the dogs if it comes to that. Of course, I will have to drink all the bier before it gets warm, I suppose that would only be right.

My trips to Homer's and Costco turned out to be very reassuring to me in that I am more certain than ever, after watching those idiots in a battery and flashlight buying frenzy, that my having prepared ahead of time was a good thing and thus I will continue to prep as time goes by. I am a product of The Cold War in that regard.

All the best,
Glenn B

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Typical Liberal Dork Voters - And A Couple Who Exhibited Some Intelligence

Check out this video in which a Man On The Street type reporter/interviewer asks several Obama supporters what they think of several of Mitt Romney's policies. Of course, they hated them, thought they were terrible and that they were unconstitutional. The thing was though, they were actually Obama's policies - already put into action by the president. There sure are, in my opinion, a lot of assholes about to vote and some of them are seen in this video. 

Now, I am not calling them assholes because they believed the guy conducting the interviews, he deceived them and anyone can do that to someone. I think them to be assholes because not one of them was able to say outright "Hey, wait a minute, isn't that an Obama policy". Truthfully, I never heard of one of those policies, heard another three and pretty much had forgotten about them but knew right off, as soon as I heard them again, that they had been strongly pushed for by Obama. So, I guess I am calling them assholes because not one of them had even an inkling that any of the mentioned policies were those of the president when even a guy, with muddled middle aged memory, like me knew about them.  

Well, it is not just because of that. I am also only calling some of them assholes. I say only some of them because at least a couple of these Obama supporters said that they would have to think about it and reconsider their support for Obama once they had been told they were really Obama's policies and not those of Romney. (My hat goes off to them, imagine that someone going to actually think about for whom they should vote based on that candidate's record.) Yet, a few still insisted they would support Obama even though they, just moments before, had slammed the policies when they thought they were those of Romney! Watch for the responses of some of them once the truth is revealed - especially watch and listen to the blond who was standing next to the girl in the "bitch" shirt. Listen to how she reacts. It would be absolutely unbelievable except for one thing she says in there that explains it all: "I'm a liberal". She also said she could list a million reasons that she still will vote for Obama but note she only mentions one -Obamacare. I guess she is just another blood sucking leech who wants to gorge herself on the lifeblood of those who actually work for a living and who pay for their benefits and privileges but she wants it for free.  

As for those who still insisted on supporting Obama - I think they are liberals and that they are the scourge of the world. 

A hat tip to Peter Q for this one.

All the best,
Glenn B

Russian Tortoise News - Bad Or Good Depending On Your View

I attended the monthly meeting of the Long IslandHerpetological Society today. It was slated as a show n' tell for tortoises and turtles, so I brought in my Hermann's Tortoises (all 5 of them) and my lone Redfoot Tortoise. The club president, who is also a professional reptile breeder/dealer, brought in a couple of Russian Tortoises. Those available here, in the USA, are mainly wild caught in Uzbekistan although they are native to: Afghanistan, Northern Pakistan, Northern and Eastern Iran, North Western China and the former Soviet territory Kazakhstan. They make great pets, as they are pretty small but hardy tortoises and are easy to keep. I have been thinking of getting myself a few of them, probably a sexed trio 1.2 (1 male and 2 females), with a breeding project in mind. They are also relatively inexpensive and can be found at prices under $100 each, some as low as $50 each and even some up for free adoption.

Well, Vin R told us, at the meeting, that the number of legal imports have been falling each year and are way down. This due to import regulations. He believes that the price on them (and most other tortoises and turtles) will probably rise markedly in the next year or two. That could be bad news for some – like exporters and importers,. It also could be good news for others – like captive breeders. I hope to have a trio before things get out of hand with pricing.

I have been actively searching for some of them just recently. I also have been thinking of getting a trio of captive bred Chinese Box Turtles and a captive bred adult male Hermann’s Tortoise (to replace mine that went missing this past spring). All of these species are very desirable to me because they are resilient chelonia (turtles and tortoises), are on the small side, and straightforward and fairly easy to keep and do not require a fortune to maintain but could potentially provide a small return on an investment in them. Hopefully enough to help support my hobby. I have already made an inquiry on a possible sexed trio, 1.2, of Russian Tortoises. I am pretty sure they are captive bred even without the seller mentioning that because their carapaces (upper shells) are in almost pristine condition which is very rare for a wild caught Russian Tortoise. In fact, I made an offer on them. Time, and an answer from the seller, will tell if I am soon to have three new residents in my herp collection.

All the best,
Glenn B




All the best,
Glenn B

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Hey Hollywood - Get The Gun Thing Right In Those Zombie Flicks Already!

Yeah, I know, Zombie movies are works of science fiction.  Still though, you would think at least one screenwriter or on-set technical guy would try to get it right when it came to the firearms that the human wanna-be survivors use to try to fight off the always ravenous zombie hordes. They pretty much get other weapons right – it is just the guns and gun accessories on which they always seem to screw up.

The humans who are fighting for their lives usually use whatever they can lay their hands on for weaponry. So, in any really good zombies movies, you are apt to see people wielding rocks, clubs, bats, pipes, hammers, sledge hammers, hatchets, axes, knives, swords, machetes, spears, spear guns, bows and arrows, crossbows and bolts (they shoot bolts, an arrow specifically for a crossbow), power saws like chainsaws, revolvers, pistols, shotguns, rifles, machineguns, hand grenades, grenade launchers, rocket propelled grenades, mines, mortars, bombs all the way up to nuclear weapons. Heck they even use their cars and trucks as weapons. The most frequently used weapons in zombie movies seem to be firearms, bows and edged weapons. I would have to give the nod, as the most used weapon, to firearms.
In recent years (like the last 5 to 10 maybe even 15 years or so) zombies have been portrayed with attributes they never had early on in zombie stories and films. They used to move slowly and were clumsy. Now some of them move fast and are agile. They used to be mindless but now some seem to have vestigial intelligence. The used to wander aimlessly but now sometimes seem to group with purpose. They used to have very limited sensory perception but now too many of them can smell live humans and are attracted to the scent, hear gunshots and other noises, are attracted to those sounds, seemingly can live for extremely extended periods without eating, have super strength regardless of the fact that they are almost always presented as being partially rotted but never rot away to non-functionality, are often missing body parts but have super strength often have eaten in way too long to maintain an semblance of stamina yet, they seem to go on forever. I don’t have a bone to pick (no pun intended but it was funny) with any of that because I know they are works of science fiction. Yet, the screenwriters, technicians, special effects crews, costume designers, directors and all the rest of the crews go out of their way to make many of these movies look as real as they can get. They try to make the zombies themselves as real as real can be and that is some feat when dealing with what are supposed to be such a farfetched set of horrific characters as postmortem, living again, people munching, disease ridden, soulless, rotting remains of walking corpses!

If they can get them to be so convincingly realistic that ammunition manufacturers currently market real, shootable and lethal, anti-zombie ammunition, why is it that they cannot realistically do the same with the choice of weapons, chosen by those who are fighting these ultra-realistic sci-fi fantasyland reanimated dead sacks of pus? This applies to all weapons that the human characters choose to use, to combat these undead postmortem antagonists, but mostly to guns. Remember that gunshots supposedly attract zombies, shooting a gun is akin to ringing the dinner bell. They show up by the scores and every one of them is hungry. Now, the humans learn this quickly, at least that is so in most recently produced zombies movies and series. So they use other methods like crossbows, bows and arrows, edged weapons, clubs or whatever else does not make a loud noise to kill one of these heinous freaks of nature – that is when the script calls for using a quiet weapon to fit in with the gunshot equals dinner bell theme. Of course, there are exceptions. Whenever they, the screenwriters, story tellers, directors or whomever, want to use a gun because it looks cooler to do-in a zombie with by blasting its head, instead of using a another weapon, in any given they just go right ahead and do it and all of a sudden there must be no other zombies for miles because that gunshot dinner bell doesn’t attract them. In other words, bang, bang, bang and the zombie or three are dead and no other zombies come out of the woodwork looking as if they are in withdrawal since their last flesh fix. I guess what I am getting at is that one minute the gunshot is the dinner bell, the next minute the zombies seem to be totally deaf or not within miles; it just is not consistent.

Now, there would be a way to shoot all the zombies you wanted to shoot without ever attracting any due to the sound of gunfire and yes I do mean by shooting them with guns. Yet, I have never, not once, seen that method of shooting used in a zombie movie. Actually, it is not so much a method of shooting as it is the use of a firearms accessory. I simply do not understand, when these movies show almost every type of gun, known to mankind, being used as zombies stoppers, why are none of them ever suppressed (as in why do none of them have silencers on them)??? Are the movie making types so far removed from reality (yes I know this is science fiction) to not know about silencers. Perhaps that is it but I tend to doubt it, there are just too many spy movies, cop flicks, and other films out there portraying shooters whose guns wear silencers on their muzzles, for them not to know about them. So if they know about them, why not make use of them, in the movies. Are they just that friggin dumb or is there another reason? Maybe it would make too much sense, much more than some guy with a crossbow, who seems to have an endless supply of bolts that miraculously appear to almost always be in sufficient number every time they are needed. Bolts and larger arrows take up a lot of room and are heavier in comparison to bullets. Think you could carry a full complement of arrows in the quiver of your compound bow or crossbow and also have another 500 of them in your backpack? On the other hand, several fully loaded magazines, and a spare 500 rounds of subsonic .22LR rounds, could be carried easily on your person even if you were lugging other gear. A few more bricks (a 500 round box of 22LR ammo) could be left in your vehicle or stashed away.  A guy could even reasonably carry at least 10 to 20 fully loaded mags of 9mm ammo at all times with at least a couple hundred extra rounds of it in his pack or vehicle. Both of these calibers are easily suppressed. Silencers can be commercially manufactured, or high end homemade ones could easily be made in a do it yourselfer’s machine shop, and other less desirable but fully functional ones can be made, within an hour, from PVC pipe. Then there are the really improvised ones that you can make in only minutes from things like soda bottles or cans and duct tape.

How cool would it be to see a troop of survivors who have equipped there handguns with suppressors! Pretty cool, or so I think, but then I suppose we would miss all those arrows to the dome, swords hacking off heads, pokes into eyeballs with metal pipes or spears and all those other spectacularly gory ways to achieve zombicide that we see so often. Perhaps though, it would be pretty neat to show at least one character who is a firearms aficionado among the survivors. Not one who is a cop or correction officer or Marine or hunter but an out and out gun guru who knows his guns, how to accessorize them and how to shoot on target and tactically. What the heck is wrong with all of you Hollywood types that you have not gotten this figured out yet? Give us a character portrayed as an honest to goodness uber gun nut firearms enthusiast that actually knows something about guns, how to accessorize them to maximize their potential as a stealthy but lethal weapons, and who knows what he is doing when it comes to getting the lead downrange for the best desired effect without ringing that darned dinner bell! While you are at it, why not arm him with a suppressed Heckler &; Koch MP-5, with red-dot sight and a light and maybe a suppressed Beretta 92FS.

Oh yeah, one more thing. Once you get a real gun guy worked in, one who knows how to suppress his weapons; you may also want to think about optics. Something along the lines of a 4-12x44 variable power scope atop a bolt action rifle in .308 or maybe a big high end scope sitting atop a Barrett in .50 caliber. You know, something that can reach out and touch someone (or somezombie) from a distance - "because long distance is the next best thing"! Picture it like this, the group takes the high ground, scopes out an area they want to enter, see some flesh eating zomboids in the distance and have their sharpshooter take aim and whack a dozen of them, with his high power and scoped rifle, before they move into the area. Sure you are gonna make sure there are more zombie surprises waiting for them on which they can use swords, bats, axes, crossbows and close in guns - even silenced ones.

Accessorized and practical guns like that, in the hands of a character who portrays a firearms loving all American, NRA life member, who knows his or her guns and accessories in and out, would sure add some reality oriented zing to the shooting scenes and to zombie movies in general. Just think of  the counterbalance he would provide against the usual characters, portrayed as cops, correction officers, government agents, military types, security guards, and hunters, that are all too often portrayed as the ones who know guns and how to handle them in zombie flicks. In other words, for once, why not give us your average American gun owner and the guns and accessories he can and probably does own in a free state! 

Oh yeah, if you are in need of a firearms instructor and weapons consultant, I am available. 

All the best,
Glenn B

Friday, October 26, 2012

Firearms Accessories - Lost And Found Again










All the best,
Glenn B








All the best,
Glenn B

Remington Store Offering 20% Off Prices, Even Sale Prices


All the best,

Thursday, October 25, 2012




All the best,
Glenn B

NYPD Cop Shot - He Kills One Of The Alleged Bad Guys







All the best,
Glenn B


Brand New Leather Jacket


All the best,
Glenn B

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

My Black Cloud Seems Inheritable




Well, I've had all that I wanted,
of a lot of things I had
and a lot more than I needed,
of some things that turned out bad.


All the best,
Glenn B

Police Officer and Lone Driver Reportedly Both Shot Dead By Same Thug










All the best,
Glenn B





All the best,
Glenn B

Cornered Cat - Scratching Post


All the best,
Glenn B

Bernie Marcus Speaks Politics



All the best,
Glenn B

Monday, October 22, 2012

Are You Watching The Presidential Debate?

I am not watching it. I had better things to do than watch one guy for whom I am sure to vote and another for whom I would not vote if he was holding a gun to my head. It is not that I am not interested in politics - really, I think you all know I am a voter, and actively comment on politics frequently. It is just that I had my Glock 26 on the coffee table and was afraid if I saw that useless lying (not that I abhor liars, I have told my share of lies, I just cannot stand incessant liars) piece of peckerwood, I might shoot my television in a fit of Americanism. (No that was not a direct, nor even an indirect or veiled, threat against the president. It was just a threat against my TV should I watch the debate and hear him spewing lie after lie after lie and decide I can listen no more).

Instead of watching the debate, I have been smoking a pork tenderloin - actually 4 of them - on my BBQ grill. I have been at that for about 4 hours now, maybe another 1/2 hour or hour to go. In that time, I also had a salad. Merely some very plain green leaf lettuce, some grated Locatelli Romano cheese and Paul Newman's olive oil and vinegar dressing. I don't often use bottled stuff but had this on hand and since I had already had a cup of wine in me, and was on a second, I decided that I might not get the mixture quite right should I stir up my own. Funny though, imbibing the spirits did not deter me from smoking the pork. In fact, it inspired me to grill a can of spam (yes without the can and sliced into 6 or so pieces). Well, I guess the wne isnpired me some but so too did the aroma of the smoking pork. I think the wine just had me settle for Spam. I also toasted a sesame seed roll on the grill. Then I smooshed the spam in the left over salad dressing, sopped up whatever was left with the toasted roll, and wolfed it all down while on the 2nd and 3rd cups of wine.

The pork tenderloin is still out there smoking. I took it off the grill a little while ago and had a piece and realized it was not yet done quite enough. That was maybe 10 minutes ago. Back into the grill it went and I added more wet wood to the smoker box. I had been using Hickory but ran out; now I am about to begin using Cherry wood (it is soaking right now as the last of the hickory is going up in smoke).

A brief digression - but related : Next time I see a tree cut down and in pieces somewhere,  I am going to see if I can lift a good sized hunk of it into the tree trunk of my car. I cannot see paying $4.98 for small bag of wood chips when I can get wood for free. One piece of a tree trunk could last me at least a  season or maybe even a couple of years for smoking purposes.

It is past time to refill my cup with the last of that bottle of wine; I cannot remember the last time I drank a whole bottle of wine. It is Louis Jadot, Beaujolais-Villages, 2010 - one of the few products of France that I enjoy. Cheap stuff, table wine, but excellent as far as I am concerned. Probably what the people of France were drinking the night the revolution commenced. It is much better than most fairly expensive varieties of wine that I have ever tasted . Expensive wine is relative to one's income I suppose. For me, really expensive wine, that I would ever pay for, would be in the $75 to $125 per bottle range and this stuff was only $7.99 a bottle. I highly recommend it if  you like red wine.

More importantly, it is time to go and check the pork tenderloins again. I would hate to ruin them at this point, especially since I am looking forward to devouring half of one for breakfast tomorrow morning - probably one of the two really spicy ones I made with a dry rub of my own spur of the moment concoction and with a little BBQ sauce added the last time I checked them. The other two are virtually spiceless, a good amount of salt and that was it, that is until I rubbed the almost negligible leavings of the BBQ sauce from the brush onto them after I had slathered the other two pieces with some sauce. 

Gotta run.

All the best,
Glenn B

I Would Hvae Expected A Bigger Crowd... attend a speech by Sandra Fluke than the ten (10) people who showed up to listen to her in northern Nevada. Why? Because I would guess that there would have been a number of men hoping they could score with her but certainly not to actually listen to anything she had to say in her speech. As you may recall, she was the bimbo woman who supported handing out free contraceptive means under the Obamacare act. If you used her figures for the cost of one woman, in one year, needing so much money for contraception and then figured out how many condoms that money would buy, well let me just say the term that Rush Limbaugh used for her comes to my mind as maybe having nailed her it perfectly.

Regardless of only ten folks coming to see  her and listen to her, a Reno newspaper reportedly dedicated a 500 or so word article to her speech. (I actually think the article was more about Romney in a round about way.)


All the best,
Glenn B

Sunday, October 21, 2012



A Lot of Variety On One Table
Crested Gecko (source Wikipedia)
My Female Hermann's Tortoise
from a few years back.
Blue Poison Dart Frogs (source Wikipedia)

Ann and Rich M. at the LIHS table.





 All the best,
Glenn B