Slap On A Strap On!

Holster that is...... check this out, sign it, live it, love it! A petition for the real world!

To: Texas State Legislature and Texas Governor Rick Perry

We hold that all citizens who may lawfully purchase a handgun be allowed to carry openly in public in the State of Texas except for those places prohibited by law. We also call for state preemption of all handgun laws concerning open carry in Texas.

1. Every individual has the right and responsibility to defend their self against unjustified threats of death or serious bodily injury.

2. The Constitution of the United States guarantees the right of individuals to keep and bear arms.

3. Criminals are not deterred by rules, regulations, and laws forbidding the possession of weapons. A man bent on mass murder will not be stopped by a rule forbidding him to have a gun.

4. It is well known that the requirement to conceal a handgun for the purpose of protecting self, friends, and family can be difficult especially in Texas with our extreme heat since a person will usually have to wear a jacket to properly conceal a handgun and to avoid "printing."

5. The requirement to conceal a handgun can make it difficult to draw the weapon should the life of the carrier or the life of someone else be in danger.

6. A criminal will not open carry a weapon because he does not want to draw attention to himself. We believe that a citizen openly carrying a handgun lawfully will be a deterrent for crime.

7. Ten states including Arizona, Alaska, Idaho, Kentucky, Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota, Virginia, Vermont, and Wyoming all allow open carry of handguns without a license. Twelve states including Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Utah, and Tennessee allow open carry of handguns with a license. In fact, Texas is one of only SIX states in the entire United States that completely bans open carry of handguns.

8. In these states, Open carry is very common and it does not alarm law enforcement or other citizens.

For the foregoing reasons, we residents of the State of Texas affirm and assert that all citizens who may lawfully purchase a handgun be allowed to carry openly in public in the State of Texas except for those places prohibited by law. We also call for state preemption of all handgun laws concerning open carry in Texas.

Sincerely,

The undersigned

Sign this puppy for your own self at OpenCarry.org

---------- Now I'm not saying that *I* would openly carry as I'd be worried if they saw it they could take it from me easier, but we by-God ought to have to right to decide for our ownselves if we want it displayed or not.

Now I know it's called the Texas CONCEALED Handgun license, but one could easily drop the "concealed" part and just say you've earned the right to have a handgun license because you are not a criminal. Then if you got it you could flaunt it!

Hit, Run, Yawn - Burn In Hell Hopefully

What is wrong with people?

What is this world coming to?

----------

HARTFORD, Conn. -- In a frightening event caught on video, an elderly
Connecticut man was struck by a car and was left lying in the street.
What's worse is that vehicles continued to drive past the man, with
no one stopping to help.

Surveillance video shows 78-year-old Angel Torres being struck by a
car in Hartford. The video shows that no one walking by on the
sidewalk, or driving past on the street, tried to help the victim.
However, Hartford Police Chief Daryl Roberts appeared at a news
conference on Thursday in which they said four people dialed 911
within a minute of the accident.

Police arrived to the scene shortly after the hit-and-run while
responding to an unrelated call. The man was taken to Hartford
Hospital for treatment.

The video has been enhanced by the Connecticut State Police Forensic
Science Laboratory. An older model tan Toyota may have been chased by
a blue or black older model Honda. Police say the cars ran a red
light and crossed a center line before hitting the man.

Police are asking for the public's help in solving the crime.
Torres remains in critical condition and is paralyzed from the neck
down.

The chilling scene - captured on video by a streetlight surveillance
camera - has touched off a round of soul-searching in Hartford, with
the capital city's biggest newspaper blaring "SO INHUMANE" on the
front page and the police chief lamenting: "We no longer have a moral
compass."

Pedestrians gawk but appear to do nothing. One driver stops briefly
but then pulls back into traffic. A man on a scooter slowly circles
the victim before zipping away.

The hit-and-run took place in daylight last Friday at about 5:45 p.m.
in a working-class neighborhood close to downtown in this city of
125,000.

In the video, Torres, a retired fork-lift operator, walks in the two-
way street just blocks from the state Capitol after buying milk at a
grocery. A tan Toyota and a dark Honda that is apparently chasing it
veer across the center line, and Torres is struck by the Honda. Both
cars then dart down a side street.

Nine cars pass Torres as a few people stare from the sidewalk. Some
approach Torres, but most stay put until a police cruiser responding
to an unrelated call arrives on the scene after about a minute and a
half.

"Like a dog they left him there," said a disgusted Jose Cordero, 37,
who was with friends Thursday not far from where Torres was struck.
Robert Luna, who works at a store nearby, said: "Nobody did nothing."
One witness, Bryant Hayre, told the Courant he didn't feel
comfortable helping Torres, who he said was bleeding and conscious.
The accident - and bystanders' apparent callousness - dominated
morning radio talk shows.

"It was one of the most despicable things I've seen by one human
being to another," the Rev. Henry Brown, a community activist, said
in an interview. "I don't understand the mind-set anymore. It's kind
of mind-boggling. We're supposed to help each other. You see somebody
fall, you want to offer a helping hand."

The victim's son, Angel Arce, begged the public for help in finding
the driver. "My father is fighting for his life," he said.
The hit-and-run is the second violent crime to shock Hartford this
week. On Monday, former Deputy Mayor Nicholas Carbone, 71, was beaten
and robbed while walking to breakfast. He remains hospitalized and
faces brain surgery.

"There was a time they would have helped that man across the street.
Now they mug and assault him," police chief said. "Anything goes."


Video on YouTube

Democratic Controlled Congress - BAD

...and a Democrat in the White House will only compound the situation. I could of sworn we were supposed to have a system of checks and balances.

I've been going around saying pretty much that and what this guy says on his blog BitsBlog..... he is spot on!

Who is to blame? Here you are... When Democrats took over the Congress, gas was slightly more than $2 per gallon, food costs were low and supplies were plentiful, the housing market was booming. Since then, our food and fuel are both double the price and in shortages, taxes are up, housing is tight, as is credit. -Bithead

Those drinking the Democratic KoolAid are so in love with the word "change" that they are really going to be disgruntled when they figured out that there will NEVER be change so long as the political train keeps rolling through Washington. The name of the game is blame....pin it on the other party and hope the people don't figure out that it's all crap.

God Can Spam!

Or maybe that should be God! Canned Spam!

Anyway, I saw this article and went to this site and was just stunned.

Ok, so I'm easily stunned, I'll give you that, but commmmme oooonnnnnn..... God has an email account?

What some folks won't do for a buck. Or, better yet, 40 bucks.

Oh, well, there's one born every minute they say so I'm sure they'll have more customers than God has angels, but I'm going to put MY 40 bucks in my gas tank...that should be a year's supply for moi.

Obama Is A Post Turtle

While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75 year old Texas rancher, whose hand was caught in a gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man. Eventually the topic got around to Obama and his bid to be our President.

The old rancher said, 'Well, ya know, Obama is a 'post turtle'.'

Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a 'post turtle' was. The old rancher said, 'When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a 'post turtle'.'

The old rancher saw a puzzled look on the doctor's face, so he continued to explain. 'You know he didn't get up there by himself, he doesn't belong up there, he doesn't know what to do while he is up there, and you just wonder what kind of a dumb ass put him up there to begin with.'


Stolen from:
http://deathby1000papercuts.blogspot.com/2008/04/old-country-doctor-post-turtles.html

Graphic from: http://marklevinfan.com/?p=2261

Must Have Prgm For .ORF Olympus RAW Files

I hate messing with RAW files, but I can see the benefits of shooting in RAW and so I went outside today and took some RAW pictures. When I got ready to convert them however the Olympus Master 2 software that came with my e500 camera is a can 'o crap.

I tried using Photoshop 7, but it won't work with .ORF files *OR* I don't know how to convert them with it. Same thing IMHO. I wasn't wanting to spend all afternoon putzing around trying to figure it out.

So after diligently searching for awhile I can up with a winner! It's called FastStone Image Viewer 3.5 and it is more than just an image viewer. It worked quickly and well to convert the RAW Olympus .ORF files into .jpg ones or pretty much whatever kind of file you need.

It's also absolutely FREE and contains no adware or spyware or underware! However I did send the asked for donation because I thought that highly of it and I'm blogging about it because I like to say so when I like something that works as advertised!

I've....uh...come a long way from my Commodore daze!

Here's one of the ones I took today and jazzed up with FastStone...