When, in the course of human events...

Birthday

2012-02-02T00:00:00.000-06:00

Hence the alias.

I are 47.

Whisker twitch...

Submission

2012-01-30T18:15:00.002-06:00

I think what people fail to see in this country is that an uprising of any significance whatsoever will cause the leaches in the uppermost reaches of power to backpedal like there is no tomorrow. They are still afraid of the people. The people fail to grasp this. God help us when they are no longer afraid.

Starbucks Buycott

2012-01-28T12:01:00.004-06:00

I'm sure that if you follow any gunnie type sites or news at all you've heard recently about one anti-gun rights extremist organization planning to boycott Starbucks on February 14th, Valentines day. People who are seeking attention and have lost all legitimate means to get any tend to resort to extreme tactics to get it. This is, unfortunately, quite common. One of our own, Sebastian over at Shall Not Be Questioned, decided we needed to counter this little tantrum that the antis decided to have. The Groundhogs have decided to join in with gusto! I just sent this letter to Starbucks and plan to be there on the 14th to raise a cup 'o joe to say "Thanks" to them for just not playing the anti's game.

Hello,

I am a gun owner and have a Texas Concealed Handgun License. I carry my firearm whenever possible. Businesses that post the Texas legal "handguns prohibited" sign generally do not get my business. Starbucks does not post these signs and I will continue to patronize you as long as this remains so. A while back, Starbucks was "attacked" by one or some anti-gun activist groups for simply following state laws. Several days ago I found out about their intended boycott of your establishments set for Valentines day. I wanted to make sure you know that a very large number of rational, law abiding, permit holding, and likely gun carrying individuals plan to come into your stores and support your business that day simply by buying your products. Lots of us love coffee and we vastly outnumber the anti-gun rights extremists. I am one of them and plan to purchase my favorite Caramel Macchiato drink that you cleverly got me hooked on coffee with several years back! I will also thank your staff for simply not banning people like me.

I would also like to tell you how much I regret that your business has been placed in the middle of our battleground. You are in the business to sell coffee and should not have to choose sides in political or social fights. Those who oppose our constitutional right to bear arms have lost enormous amounts of support over the last several years as well as losing most of the battles they fought. They tend to go for maximum attention tactics at this point. Unfortunately that put Starbucks right in their cross-hairs (if you'll forgive the pun). The gun community is huge, tight-nit, and active. When we respond it is usually much louder and with much larger numbers. I sincerely hope your sales are off the charts on the 14th of February and I just wanted to let you know I'm going to do my bit to help that out. My wife, who is licensed just as I am, is going to join me in this effort. Thank you for not bowing to extremists.

Sincerely,

Groundhog

I highly encourage you to participate on the 14th and contact Starbucks and let them know you like them.

Pink Guns

2012-01-25T17:46:00.002-06:00

Just saw this article on Fox News a couple of hours ago. A, how should we say, overly excited woman "defends" herself with a pink pistol. This is all wrong in so many ways but here's my money quote:

“He thought it was a Barbie gun," Greenwald told police, referring to Nolan LeBlanc, 17, a South Side High School football star who lives across the street. "I wanted to show him that it was loaded.”

I'm thinking this might be an excellent reason to not have your go to gun dressed up in pretty colors.

SOPA Buzz Killers

2012-01-23T17:35:00.000-06:00

At least 2 blogs I follow have recently done the buzz kill thing on the whole SOPA kerfuffle. The screed basically goes a bit like this one:

First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak out because I was Protestant.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

Attributed to pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984)

Just change the words to your favorite constitutional amendment, right, or word it in such a way as to show how everybody else in the whole galaxy sat around and did nothing while all our freedoms were being trampled. As if that had only just started a year or two ago. It's a nice self rightous screed. If you word it right you can come off as humble because you'll include yourself in there. I have only one thing to say about that:

What if THIS is the movement that starts it all?

And there you go poo pooing it all to hell...

Why Is Ron Paul Considered Nutty?

2012-01-20T20:35:00.000-06:00

Every single one of the Republican candidates for president have espoused some views that seem rather "nutty". They've all been ~~reported salaciously~~ well vetted by the ~~leftist propagandists~~ media. Here's the thing. The puppet masters know that every single one of those other candidates would have rolled over on nearly anything they needed to in order to retain or grow power and keep the status quo going. Naturally the more risky candidates have been marginalized or neutralized first. We are, after all, seeking the weakest possible Republican candidate. They have to be "electable" you see.

I think they claim that about Ron Paul because they actually think he'll try to implement things he believes in. One of those things being that pesky U.S. Constitution that so many of us have taken an oath to protect and defend. I believe that it scares the absolute crap out of them that he might actually get elected. Because they could not control him.

I don't agree with some of his views but I do think that of all the candidates out there he is literally the only one who gives a flying rip about the Constitution. Of what's left in the field, I think he's the only one I could with clear conscience actually vote for currently. Do I think it would make any difference if he got elected? Not a lot (though you never really know). I think he'd break the strongest and turn the hardest to keep America from going over what appears to be the inevitable cliff we are hurtling toward. What success he would have I don't know. I can tell you one thing though. If he is not the Republican candidate, I will find myself for the first time in my life not being able to vote for either of the two "sides".

There is no "lesser evil" this time. At some point you get to "Gosh, looks like it's evil or evil lite this time!" Participation in that is a sham. I know, it's been a sham for a long time but in the past there was at least a small ray of hope. Maybe it was just an air of "hopiness".

Personally, I doubt he'll end up the nominee. I think he'll hang on to the bitter end though and fight it out. My America is about gone though and, and... then what? What the hell do people do who live through the destruction of their country? I do not see any good or clear choices ahead.

Horrible Night, So I Lit A Candle

2012-01-08T15:24:00.000-06:00

Last night was rough. Mrs. Groundhog has a cracked tooth and it's infected. We're both dealing with lovely South Texas Mountain Cedar allergies on top of that. All in all we both felt pretty horrible last night, enough so to miss church and I hate doing that. The extra sleep helped a whole lot though. Enough that I might be able to handle Monday half way decently. But then, I though about... GUN VIOLENCE!

It's been about 8 years since my family experienced GUN VIOLENCE! It took us a couple more years of chewing on the problem before we decided the world was truly enough of a violent place that we ought to be able to defend ourselves as we went about living. Yeah, I know. Seems like we're a little slow. The reality of it though is it takes some people time to process a weighty thing like daily carrying around something that would normally only be used to defend ones self with lethal force (assuming your not at the range for all the other fun uses they have!). It's intimidating and takes some time to get used to. Also, you need to deal with the mental preparedness of using it and the results of that use. If you aren't willing to defend your life then you might as well not carry. Your mileage may vary.

We took the plunge and got licensed to carry. I'm of the opinion that you should not need any sort of government permission to exercise that right but that's another post. We've renewed once since then and not had nearly enough range time (or fun) to suit us. Getting into the gun culture introduced me to a number of gun bloggers who regularly fight for our 2nd amendment right and bring the light of clarity focusing brightly on the misinformation and distortions that the anti gun rights activists promote in their efforts to ~~confiscate every gun in civilian hands~~ stop GUN VIOLENCE! Apparently no other kind of violence really matters to them. Their latest nation wide effort to stop GUN VIOLENCE! was to have people all over the country light a candle. Yup, light a candle to stop GUN VIOLENCE!

So, this guy Weer'd comes up with a better idea. He suggests we do our own version of lighting a candle and take a picture of it with our daily carry guns. Sorta show what can really prevent GUN VIOLENCE! along with a pretty candle. In this household we like to double our pleasure and our odds so we both carry to prevent GUN VIOLENCE! or any other kind for that matter. In keeping with my fellow gun bloggers I proudly present our picture of our daily carry guns!

Mr. and Mrs. Groudhog's daily carry. Her Glock 17 on the left, my XD9 on the right. Thoroughly range tested...

Hats off to Weer'd for coming up with this nifty idea. One small bit of explanation. I capitalized and italicized GUN VIOLENCE! everywhere I used it and followed it with an exclamation point. This is how the anti gun rights people make it sound whenever they are railing against gun ownership by common citizens. It is akin to a group of researchers who want to stamp out only one kind of cancer and refusing to even acknowledge the existence of other kinds lest their arguments fall to pieces and their funding get cut. Fortunately, they are having exactly those kind of results and their followers are few.

I'll tell you what my picture personally represents. The lit candles are a memorial to all who have suffered CRIMINAL violence. The guns represent the best tool we have to prevent and combat CRIMINAL violence. It gives us a fighting chance against it. They stop force with FORCE. The holsters represent daily vigilance. The tools do no good if left at home or locked up in a safe. It's a mindset, an attitude and an action that gives the Groundhogs a confident edge.

Oh, the extra magazines? Surely you realize that 70 rounds gives you a much better chance against the zombie hordes when you're trying to fight your way back to your rifle (that you never should have put down in the first place you big dummy!)!

Iowa 2012

2012-01-04T13:09:00.000-06:00

The first ballots have been cast. The winner picked by the majority is probably the worst possible Republican candidate we could hope to have. Mitt Romney. Should Iowa turn out to be predictive, it will not matter one wit who wins the presidency in 2012. We will truly be headed into the dark ages of these United States. We are clear on where President Obama is taking us. The constitution has been effectively declared null and void. Almost ALL of our state representatives have signed off on that. Do you not think that for one moment many wishywashy democrats would not hesitate to vote for Mitt? He's simply a "democrat lite". They'd have no concern that any of their long term agenda would be in jeopardy should he win.

The only ray of sunlight I saw out of that is that Ron Paul did as well as he did. I'm personally pretty skeptical of Mr. Paul, however, I believe he's the ONLY candidate that gives one flying rip about the U.S. constitution and rule of law. What if he won? Took the whole thing even? I have no clue. Congress can shut down someone they don't want to work with and even remove them but they have to be fairly united to do so. My best guess would be lots of grid lock. Even if we ended up with a Republican majority in both houses I don't think we could do much more than apply more break pressure to this out of control train we're on.

I think 2012 is going to be a fascinating year. That's all I can really predict at the moment. The "Hogdar ™" is picking up a couple of not unexpected signals at this point. The preppers are doing the following depending on how far along they are. Checking the gasket on the bunker door and getting ready to close it, checking the tire pressure on the bug out vehicle, or scrambling like mad to get to one of those two points. The "patriots" are currently all about trying to get people to understand that they'll happily start killing without attempting to worry about things like moral high ground and such. Yet they just sit there, yelling all the louder while submitting just like we all do. And of course, the MSM spews its regular vomit of incoherency, indecency, and left wing drivel. All in all the signals are pretty painful to watch.

Yeah, the first few days of 2012 don't appear to be going in any kind of positive direction at this point. I suppose that if there is a point of optimism it's that directions can and do change. I wish I could be more optimistic than that.

Random Observation

2012-01-02T11:47:00.001-06:00

The Groundhogs are now living in a house built in 1973. Today you would call it "retro". Just a note to the designers of the future. Don't EVER design a kitchen in the shape of a triangle! Don't. Srsly...

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T19:30:00.003-06:00

Seriously, I hope we all have a happy new year this year. We could really, really use it. Sadly, I think that if everything DOESN'T go to crap this year it pretty much means it qualifies.

It's Just Wrong...

2011-12-28T17:38:00.002-06:00

To be smelling fresh cut grass on DECEMBER TWENTY FRIGGIN EIGHTH!!!!!!!!!!11111elevenelevendy!!!

AND!! To have to sweat in my own home in the middle of winter!!!

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T11:31:00.001-06:00

Here's wishing my tiny little corner of the bloggosphere

A Very

Merry Christmas!

from a cute furry little Groundhog...

Milk Starts Civil War?

2011-12-21T19:38:00.001-06:00

Wouldn't it be incredible if something as simple as raw milk started a second American civil war? Not exactly likely but you never know...

http://www.etruth.com/article/20111218/NEWS01/712189916

Jumper In The Fog

2011-12-13T18:58:00.000-06:00

I woke up earlier than I wanted to this morning. Still, I ended up running a bit late to work. Pretty much the story of my life there. Me and time don't get along real well. They said it would be foggy this morning and it sure 'nuff was. I was not looking forward to the trip to work. My morning commute is different now that the house is sold. I have a couple of routes I can take so I took the shorter one. Given the fog, the likelihood of a wreck was significantly increased. Right after I swapped one highway for another I saw the sea of break lights. I contemplated getting on the access road for a minute but as I got closer I could see the flashing lights. They weren't that far ahead so I figured the delay wouldn't be too bad. In fact, it looked like traffic was moving in both lanes, they probably had the wreck off to the side already or it wasn't serious and everyone had pulled over.

The closer I got to the "accident" site things started to get a little strange. It appeared that the "scene" was pretty close to an overpass. Then I saw a police car down on the access road and the officer got out and seemed to be concentrating on something down there. Getting a bit closer I saw several officers on the bridge. A bunch of them kept looking over the edge. As I got closer I started looking for guard rail damage. Somebody must have gone over the edge. No damage, no skid marks. Then they stopped traffic for another cop on the opposite side so he could cross. No wreckers, no ambulance. I'm on the bridge and almost to the officers but don't see any damage or skid marks or busted up vehicles of any kind.

Then I saw her. There were about 6 officers surrounding her. One was DPS. He was talking to her in a very animated fashion. Lots of hand action. She had blond hair. Long, wavy blond hair. She was whipping her head from side to side, trying to see the officers on either side of her. I think she was wearing something blue but I am not as certain of that. I saw her face and hair. I was less than 10 feet from her as I passed. She was sitting on the edge of the bridge about to jump. The officers were trying to talk her down and the guy below was stopping traffic.

There was nothing I could do.

Except pray. So I did.

I felt like complete crap after that. Just driving away from something that serious seemed so wrong. I know there wasn't anything of benefit I could have offered there that wasn't already being done but it still just seemed wrong somehow. I kept praying. It was all I could do. Once I got to work I told one coworker the story and started hitting the net for any news of the event. There was none. No local stations were reporting it. I didn't eat much today. Seeing something like that takes something out of you. Not knowing the ending was maddening. I even emailed one of the news stations asking about it but heard nothing. Since most of the day has gone by and no report has surfaced I assume she was talked down. I would find it hard to comprehend that had she jumped no report would have come from it whether she had lived through it or not. I guess it has to be a slow news day to report an averted suicide. I suspect that DPS officer didn't think it was a slow day. I sure didn't.

I hope they got her help. I hope her reasons for thinking nothing was worth living for could be worked through. Seeing someone a decision away from death shocks the system. Makes you ask some questions and puts things in a different perspective. I suppose for myself it confirmed in me the great value of life. Then time marched on...

Gypsies, Kinda...

2011-12-03T13:09:00.001-06:00

As of Wednesday, the Groundhog family wearily settled into our 'rent' house. We get to leave again sometime in the next 18 months baring unplanned events of some kind. I am soooo sore. I hurt everywhere. Still...
It took us 12 days, though we didn't do big hauling but for about 4 of them. It took 4 pickups, 3 trailers, one Suburban, 2 10x30' storage units,and 9 friends (you know, the true kind that will help you hide bodies and stuff). Oh. My. Lord...
We WILL be getting rid of a TON of stuff before we do this again. Current house looks like a storage unit too. The bedrooms are almost in shape, the rest, not so much but it's coming along. Nobody died or got seriously injured, though I have a number of bruises. I could seriously use a week off about now. At least the holidays slow us down a bit. Besides that, I gotta save my leave for something coming up in about 6 months that I'll tell you about in another post.

From a prepping perspective this whole event was kind of interesting. We've been unable to do much anything about prepping for the last year due to finances. Now we'll actually be able to do some things that will help us in that regard. Got lots of money priorities to sort out though. The Hogdar ™ has of late been picking up much "end of all things" fear out there. Financial people freak out pretty good, and probably for good reason although their timelines are probably way too compressed. When we took the stock dump of 2008 a lot of people lost a lot of money very quickly. It took many more months for companies to lay people off and get the Great Recession rolling along nicely. I'm of the opinion that a financial collapse could certainly occur quickly but it's effects tend to take quite a bit of time to work through the economy. Other than Iran and the Myan calendar thing, there doesn't seem to be too many big outside threats to the USA. Our internal anxiety is rather high but I don't see anything obviously threatening until we get near election time. The Occupy protests were pretty pathetic. The TEA party went back to work a long time ago. Our politicians are the usual crop of horribleness. And we're going to keep borrowing money until the economy explodes. This could go on for some time actually. For that I'm rather grateful as it gives me sorely needed time to stock up on stuff and deal with a few other issues. I hope to get much more active in prepping this coming year.

Where are we going? No idea. I do believe it's going to be a bumpy, if not wild, ride.

Counter Whatever...

2011-11-25T09:02:00.001-06:00

Dag nabbit! Seems the TEA Party (which could have really gotten some mileage out of this Occupy Whatever stuff but didn't) is having a counter "buy in" day. So, to show solidarity with them and because I was told I had to 'cause the plumber is coming tomorrow to the new house, I'll buy the faucet that the plumber is coming to install today.

Man, I may be ready for that political career after all. Tell me that wasn't a totally awesome waffle...

Occupy Whatever...

2011-11-25T08:15:00.001-06:00

In solidarity with sum dood at an Occupy Whatever event somewhere, I hearby promise not to shop at any of the eeeeebil corporate retailers today, Black Friday. Mostly 'cause I'm broke. Oh, and I'm moving so I don't have time. Also, I'm not nuts enough to go to the store today. I have however, drooled a bit over some of the online adds, but like I said, I'm broke.

So there, did my part. Woot...

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-24T11:05:00.001-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving to my little pixel of the bloggosphere!

I've been both super busy and so disgusted with events that I honestly just have not wanted to post any sort of social commentary out here. It can pretty much be summed up by saying "Things are tough, they'll probably get tougher before they get better, and far to many people are idiots." There, you got my social commentary :)

In other news though.... Casa de Groundhog has finally sold! Sorta... I got the best deal I figure I could get for the situation. Not perfect but not bad. Had to do owner financing for 16 months for a guy and his family. Always a bit risky. BUT! We are going to get to live rent free during that time! So, should things not go as planned, we just resume payments out of our pocket (technically we'll be paying the whole time and just getting reembursed).

So yeah, the Groundhogs have been uber busy packing and moving. Not only have to pack here but had to pack our new location and put it all in storage. I guess it's not totally free :)

We have an almost unending list of things to be thankful to God for this, and every year. That is always on my mind in what is my favorite holiday. I hope yours is blessed and you all burst buttons after you feast today!

Stay tuned, my blogpodge will continue...

Say Goodnight Gracie?

2011-10-29T18:40:00.002-05:00

One of the guys I like to read on the blog lines is Rev. Paul over at http://www.mooseintheyard.com/. He's recently got a case of the "I don't feel it anymore" blues and put the blog on ice. I must admit that of late I've felt similarly mostly because I've just not felt like writing much. I've decided thought that I'll stay "active" since I never know when the writing bug will bite me. Maybe I'll go a month between posts. Oh well, it's just how I'm rolling at the moment. I sure do hope Paul gets back in the game at some point as I enjoy his writing even when it's just a sentence or two. I might get more prolific in the coming months though. A personal journey for me is likely about to begin that will deserve chronicling. Once that starts, if it starts, I'll most certainly blog about it. Stay tuned.

Our Lil' VP

2011-10-21T19:08:00.002-05:00

Frankly I'm disappointed. Every. Single. Time. Our vice president has something stupid the media reports it. OK, so Joe is a doofus. I get that. But surely, SURELY every once in a great while he says something good, something that sounds intelligent. Right? RIGHT?

OK, here's a dare to all 3 of my readers (you know you're out there). If you can find just ONE profound quote from our ~~one heartbeat away from being dear leader~~ vice president, I will...

I will...

Well crap, I guess I'll post it and try to say something profound about it!

Thought For Today

2011-10-13T18:10:00.001-05:00

I'm fairly sure that followers of socialism and people who get involved in bar fights put about the same level of thought into the consequences.

Sex That Will Blow Your Mind?

2011-10-11T21:22:00.001-05:00

Disclaimer - PG-13ish

OK, you just gotta read this. It leads to a thousand different comments just full of snark. And yet, it's strangely interesting.

http://www.livescience.com/16488-sex-mind-blowing-amnesia.html

Oh God, Oh God,... who the hell are you????

Capcha Be Gone!

2011-10-02T19:00:00.001-05:00

I've recently become aware that everyone (except people who like meetings) apparently hates the capcha word verification feature on the comments. So, for those of you who have commented here and struggled through the anguish that the capcha caused, my most humble apologies! I believe I've rid the site of that particular evil and let me tell you it wasn't easy! If you're using "blogger in draft" you have to turn that off, sign out, close your browser, and then come back in to the old interface to do it. Ugh...

Without Lawyers and Cops...

2011-09-30T20:13:00.000-05:00

I think we'd shoot more people that needed shootin'. So which system is worse?

Irony

2011-09-30T18:33:00.000-05:00

That gun banners think the NRA is a vast conspiracy out to get them. Get them from what exactly? All we (and yes I'm an NRA member) really want is for law abiding people who want to choose to be armed to be able to be. What a completely nutty conspiracy! And yet, they're good enough at it that we have to have not just one organization with MILLIONS of paying members but many of them. And a whole slew of people that fight them for free. Just to keep a right that the founding fathers didn't even think really needed to be stated due to its basic and obvious nature.