MatthewMaynard.net

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• Here’s a hint for criminals in today’s ultra-watched society: {{link http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/1103043blinddate1.html avoid cameras, especially those for national TV shows}}.

• It’s 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, its dark, and we’re wearing sunglasses. {{link http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,135242,00.html Hit it}}.
• {{link http://www.sondrak.com/archive/003856.html apt}}.
• Today’s “shoot me, please” flash episode brought to you by {{link http://badexample.mu.nu/archives/055338.php Bad Example}}: {{link http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/llama.php The Llama Song}}
• {{link http://www.rhodyco.com/farside04.html I did not do this on my birthday}}
• {{link http://www.brainyencyclopedia.com/encyclopedia/n/no/november_28.html John Stewart? Ed Harris? Paul Shaffer? ANNA NICOLE SMITH???}}

Quote: Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity. – Frank William Leahy, football coach (1908-1973)

I’d like to ask that of the Commissar, unless someone can provide me a definition. He’s got another show trial going, and everyone involved is up on more bravo sierra charges.

It occurs to me that he has not, to my knowledge, ever linked to comic books like That Godless Communism or poor, disillusioned Pavlik Morozov. Little wonder, since the truth found within these links deflates the senseless claims of the Bourgeois Proletariats! Long Live Capitalism!

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Previous lion stories on MM.Net

{{link http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index.php?page=local&story_id=112704a6_mountainlion State biologist kills lion on Catalinas trail}}
{{link http://www.kold.com/Global/story.asp?S=2618922 KOLD coverage}} (local CBS)

Some friendly advice from the Tucson Citizen (with commentary):

• Walk or hike in groups and make noise to reduce the chance of surprising a lion. Keep children close (and your firearms closer).

• Don’t run if you encounter a mountain lion. It may trigger the cat’s instinct to chase and attack. Instead, face the lion and try to appear as large and intimidating as possible and slowly back away (and the best way to appear threatening is to aim your sidearm at the cat).
• If the lion acts aggressively, throw objects at it to scare it off (like 185-230 grains of copper-jacketed lead).
• If a lion attacks, fight back with whatever is available. People have successfully fought off lions with rocks, sticks, tools, caps, jackets and even bare fists (and most successfully of all, hot lead).

The only bad thing about this is that the animal’s pelt will likey be destroyed. It should become a rug in the home of the biologist who shot it. Also unfortunate is the possibility that people will think the threat is gone and will still go out into nature unprepared for its assaults against them.

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Fusillade

• noun – A discharge from a number of firearms, fired simultaneously or in rapid succession.

• noun – A rapid outburst or barrage: a fusillade of insults.
• transitive verb -To attack with a fusillade.

Usage: The bullets whined and whistled, my companions fell, and death was in the air, but at last we made them give way, only to receive a mighty fusillade from a third regiment, flanking us on the left and right, and firing as they went. – John Ritland, The John Ritland Memoirs

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In case you’re wondering, I received a Home Depot gift certificate, a grill, a DVD of It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, The Hornblower Companion by C.S. Forester, and The Naval War of 1812, by Theodore Roosevelt. Thank you all.

Working backwards through the weekend, Jen & I went shooting on Saturday, working towards our {{link http://www.nrahq.org/education/training/marksmanship/Handgun.asp Pistol Qualification NRA rating}}. We both earned four targets towards the Pro Marksman rating (ten are needed). It would have been more, but I wasn’t reading the requirements as closely as I should have been. Oh well. Ammo is relatively cheap.

We went to the UA-ASU football game this weekend, which was exciting, for once in the season. Mike Stoops gets to keep his job because the Cats defeated the Devils, which knocked them out of one particular bowl game opportunity, so I’m told. We saw the marching band perform their Talking Heads show for the last time, which was enjoyable. Erin (Jen’s sister) and Marybeth (my sister) are in the band, as well as a guy we know from church. An excellent show, all around.

Thanksgiving was perfect, in every sense of the word. We frosted the turkey in butter and roasted it in the oven. It came out marvelously. Next year, we fry. The potatoes were garlicy, just the way I like them, and the pumpkin pie was excellent. Jennifer introduced me to her family’s Thanksgiving comfort food, cream cheeze+walnuts+green jello. I didn’t partake, given my vehement hatred of cream cheeze. The football game (Dallas vs. Chicago) was a bonus, given how the Cowboys have been doing as of late.

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I love {{link http://www.lileks.com/bleats/archive/04/1104/112904.html Lileks}}. Who else can write the “word” griswalded and have instant comprehension?

For those of you reading some Internet Archive in the vast, far-off future, who have no instant comprehension, let me elaborate.

Read more…

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Over the course of the past seven days, I’ve broken four dishes – 2 plates, 1 coffee mug, and one glass.

Jennifer says I’m not allowed in the kitchen anymore. I agree.

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And now, the management of MM.net presents {{link http://blog.gleeson.us/sean/2004/11/17/chat_with_the_autorantic_virtual_moonbat my chat with the autorantic virtual moonbat}}, courtesy of the {{link http://acepilots.com/mt/archives/001546.html Commissar}}. Color coded for your convenience.

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When I said yesterday that “plenty of precedent” existed for recommending Sgt. Peralta for a Medal of Honor, I wasn’t kidding. By searching the Center for Mililtary History site for the word “grenade”, I found the following list of troops who did just that.

141 men, all who jumped on grenades in order to save their comrades. Peralta and Dunham are in good company.

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Fedora Tip to Blackfive, for his linking to the Seattle Times story about Marine Sgt. Rafael Peralta, who, in the battle for Fallujah, performed the same deed as Corporal Dunham, but without the helmet.

Guys who jump on grenades are simply amazing in their selflessness. As yet there is no news of a Medal of Honor recommendation for Sergeant Peralta, but there is plenty of precedent for one. As for other Medal of Honor recommendations, there is no news regarding Corporal Dunham’s recommendation, nor for SFC Paul Smith. Apparently, some Nameless Brit has been (perhaps) recommended for one.

To emphasize the gravity of one of these awards, I refer you to a quote from this article:

In fact, according to Library of Congress defense expert David F. Burrelli, it must be “the type of deed which, if he had not done it, would not subject him to any justified criticism.”

Semper Fidelis: truer words were never spoken about Sergeant Peralta.