Thinking of moving?

If so, Pennsylvania might be a good place to move to, based on this legislation.

h/t to Karl at The Market-Ticker

Christmas in May

A couple years ago, I picked up an M1 Garand in fair condition for a decent price. I actually bought it from an Athabascan fellow at a gun show. He said, "She looks kinda beat up, but she's a shooter." He wasn't wrong; . I took it to the range and ran three clips of crappy Russian ammo through it. Learned my lesson the hard way: don't use crappy Russian ammo in this workhorse. I ended up with a case separation on shot number 24.

My brother-in-law's dad (whose sole purpose in life seems to be to collect two or more of every single World War II battle rifle) took a look at it and got me the name of a gunsmith who could take care of it for me. Then he took the stock back home with him and refinished it. He loves WWII guns that much.

Synchronicity... again...

Several years ago, we made the decision to begin, bit by bit, to prep a bit. We're hardly what you'd call "preppers" but we realized after 9/11 that Alaska is in a pretty precarious spot if anything big were ever to happen. So, we decided that, as our first order of business, we should acquire at least enough MREs to feed the family for a week in an emergency. I did a bit of research and finally settled on ordering a couple cases of Wornick Eversafe MREs from Long Life Food Depot. That was late August of 2005. I placed the order, but not before Hurricane Katrina hit. My order took a couple months to be fulfilled.

Rock on, Wyoming

Welcome to the elite sisterhood of states (Vermont, Alaska, Arizona, and now Wyoming) that officially recognize the right of their citizens to be armed without a permission slip: Wyoming adopts constitutional carry law.

For the record...

There was a post on FriendFace ButtFace FaceBook some time ago that contained a bunch of misinformation half-truths lies. To set the record straight:

1. The integrated circuit was conceived in Britain by Geoffrey W.A. Dummer. The Intel 4004 was developed by Federico Faggin and Ted Hoff of Intel, and Masatoshi Shima of Busicom. It was released November 15, 1971.
2. Windows NT was developed between 1989 and 1993 by Dave Cutler et al of DEC.
3. The first paper on firewall technology was published by DEC in 1988. Packet filtering was developed by Bill Cheswick and Steve Bellovin of Bell Labs. Third-generation firewalls were developed in 1989-1990 at Bell Labs by Dave Presetto, Janardan Sharma, Kshitij Nigam.
4. Cellular technology was invented by Bell Labs. Sweden had the first small cellular network in 1956. The USSR had one in 1958. The first public cellular phone network was in Finland in 1971. The modern cell phone was invented by Motorola in 1973; Martin Cooper made the first call on April 3, 1973.

Oh Idaho, how I love thee

Two district chairmen of the Idaho Republican Party have proposed a resolution that seeks to nullify the illegal Gun Control Act of 1986.

h/t David Codrea over at The War on Guns

The GCA 1986 established the FFL system we have in place now, making it illegal to sell mail-order guns. I've heard that back in the good old days, you could order a Tommy Gun from Sears.

Idaho is on my (very short) list of states I would be willing to move to if I ever had to leave home Alaska.

In which I opine on the superiority of stocks...

First off, let me state that my philosophy of saving is quite abnormal. I don't believe in amassing a large fortune. If fortunes are given, one must carefully consider what the Scriptures and the Fathers say about wealth: how difficult it is for the wealthy to enter the kingdom of heaven (the Master); that one's excess belongs to the poor (Chrysostom); and that riches are fleeting (James). That said, one must manage one's wealth carefully, as it is a gift of God. My first responsibility is to my family, and in order to provide for them, saving is a necessity... living paycheck-to-paycheck won't pay for a roof replacement, and going into debt (aka slavery) for the same should be my last option. In addition, in my case, I must manage my children's money for them while they are still young. Therefore, it behooves me to carefully consider what constitutes a good investment versus a bad investment.

There are a number of things one can do with one's money. Here is my opinion of each.