Happy Birthday, Marine Corps

On this day in 1775, the United States Marine Corps was founded by a resolution of the Second Continental Congress. At the time, only two battalions of Marines were formed. Today, the United States Marine Corps is one of the toughest forces of the United States Military. They are the tip of the spear.

Happy Birthday, USMC!

Mustaches for Men's Health (MoVember)

So I signed up with a few guys to grow a mustache during the month of November to raise money for prostate and testicular cancer.

I'm not really a mustache guy (or any facial hair for that matter) but this is for a good cause. In any event, if you want to see our progress, you can check out our team site here. If you want to donate a few bucks to the charity, that would be appreciated. To those of you who have already donated, we really appreciate it. At some point, my wife may start donating money to get me to shave.

If you're interested in joining MoVember, it's not too late. Here's a good video on how to grow a 'stache from Ron Swanson:

Review of Backwoods Quail Club

Last weekend, I went to the Backwoods Quail Club in Hemingway, South Carolina to shoot round of 100 sporting clays. I live in Columbia, so the drive to Hemingway is about an hour and a half – each way. When I arrived, the first thing you can’t help but see is the giant sign proclaiming the club to be the site of the 2013 US Open Sporting Clays Championships. So right there, you get the idea that it must be a pretty good place if they decided to have the host a major event.

On the way in, you drive past two skeet fields, a five stand, and another warm-up area. The skeet is lighted, so even after the sun goes down, you can still break some clays. (This is probably pretty handy now that it gets dark early.)

The sporting clays consisted of two courses - orange or green. We decided to go with green for no particular reason. The two courses are essentially together along a main road. Some stations are orange and some are green, but they’re all along the same path. This is a shot looking down the path. You can see shooting stations on either side. The lift in the distance has a trap on top of it that throws a bird upwards. I'm not sure what it's simulating, but it's a long shot.

The first station was supposed to be a fairly simple crossing report pair, but one trap didn’t work at all. It was not a good start for a place that was supposed to be hosting a national event. The next few stations were good and worked with no problems. On the 5th station we encountered this: 

Why yes, that is a trampoline. What is a trampoline doing at a sporting clays station? Well that’s exactly what I was wondering. After looking at the setup for a minute, it appeared to me that the trap was angled to throw the clay into the trampoline. Could that be it? Are these guys really bouncing clays off trampolines?

Yep. And it was pretty cool.

The course featured a variety of shots that went from fairly easy to very challenging. There were several stations with screaming fast crossers. I’m talking so fast you don’t have time to even really look at the bird – you just swing your gun and shoot instinctively. One station combined the fast crosser with a slow incomer that you had to wait on first, so it was more about tempo than anything else. You had to wait…wait…wait on the first, and then as soon as you hit it, the second bird crossed back the other way going fast. Really fun stuff.

Towards the end, the best station of the day presented itself. (Orange #13, I think.) It was a beautiful little pond with two outgoing birds: the first one went out away from you at a little bit of an angle, skimming a yard or two off the surface of the water. The second bird went high, heading for the tree-line. Shooting those as a true pair was fun. The best part about the low bird was watching all the pieces break and skip across the pond.

Overall, Backwoods Quail Club was a great place to break some sporting clays. The shots presented were interesting and moderately challenging. I ended up with a 71 out of 100.

I would recommend it to anyone interested in seeing some of what the low country offers for sporting clays. The clubhouse wasn’t fancy, but it was well stocked with gear, snacks, and drinks. The place is laid back and comfortable. Inside and outside of the clubhouse:

Front:

 I will definitely be going back. The only downside is that it’s 110 miles from Columbia.

I'm Eliminating Things That Suck

If you're coming here for politics (or other things that suck), you best go elsewhere. I'm shifting into blogging about stuff that's actually fun. So from now on, you'll be seeing more of this:

Browning Citori at Rest: Backwoods Quail Club

 Life is just too damn short.

2012 Electoral Map; My Prediction

I've looked at the polls and I've decided that I'm going to go with my gut on a few picks. First I think that that Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia go red. Florida is the state that Romney really needs, and he'll get it earlier in the night than most people think. North Carolina is red. 2008 was sooooo 2008. It's red again this year, along with Virginia.

New Hampshire goes red because Romney is in solid shape there. I wouldn't have expected this a month ago, but I'm cautiously optimistic for New Hampshire. Colorado goes red, because it's razor thin in the polling, and it's been moving Romney's way in the last month.

So, to count electoral votes at this point, I've got Romney 261, Obama 223. The remaining states are Iowa, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Since Romney needs 9, Iowa becomes irrelevant.

Romney wins one of the remaining three, or Obama wins all three, and it's game over. I know that lots of really optimistic GOP folks are saying Pennsylvania is going red this year, but I'm not buying. PA is blue. Just to go for the unexpected, I'm going to say that Obama gets Ohio and Romney pulls a surprise and takes the Badger state to go over the top.

Final Score: Romney 271; Obama 267.

Here's my map. Am I crazy? Or crazy like a fox?

Sunday Reading: WWII Posters and the Brooklyn Bridge

If you've seen my Twitter icon, it references this WWII propaganda poster that the British used. I decided to go with it while reading Churchill's epic memoirs of WWII. Seriously, it's a lot of reading, but it's good (if you like that sort of thing).

I've put my own little spin on it, but here's an interesting read on some of the other related posters and how the same ethos is applicable today.

On a related note, I've started an old book (new to me). It's David McCullough's "The Great Bridge". It's the story of the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, which I thought was somewhat topical, given recent events. I'm still not through with Churchill's memoirs, but I'll double-fist it for awhile.

National Deviled Egg Day

Happy Friday, y'all.

Did you know it is National Deviled Egg Day? Yep, there's actually a day for the best way to eat eggs.

In other news, this is the last weekend before Armageddon the Presidential Election. Enjoy this weekend with your friends from the other side of the aisle. Next weekend is reserved for gloating. I'll be using this bye-week to go break some clay discs into small pieces. I haven't done a sporting clays review in awhile, so I'll try to get some good pictures and do a review of somewhere I haven't done yet.

This weekend is brought to you by a young Queen Elizabeth.

HRH Princess Elizabeth in the Auxiliary Territorial Service, April 1945

Obama Cuts Through Red Tape

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, President Obama has repeatedly said that he wants his administration to cut through the “red tape” and inefficiency of government regulations and rules in an effort to more efficiently bring relief to the devastated Northeast.

“We are here for you,” Obama said in Brigantine, N.J. “We are not going to tolerate red tape. We are not going to tolerate bureaucracy.” 

Does anyone else find this kind of funny that Obama is repudiating government regulations? Let me see if I can figure this out.

We have a government, with rules and regulations in place. Ok, check. Now we have natural disasters, which occur from time to time. We don’t always know exactly when a natural disaster will occur, but we know that eventually, we will have one. Apparently, these rules and regulations don’t allow for efficient disaster relief, so the President has simply told his administration: Hey y'all, just ignore the rules. The normal course of government is too damn inefficient. Just deregulate as you go on an ad-hoc basis to get things done.

This strikes me as really funny when it comes from a President who is committed to enlarging the Federal Government and increasing regulation. If we’re just going to suspend the rules and regulations when it suits us (and apparently the President can just ignore these regulations when it suits him) why not just get rid of these inefficient rules entirely? It’s almost like the government is the problem, and getting it out of the way is the answer.

Sportsmanship

It showed up yesterday.

It's horrible to see bad things happen to good people. In addition to being an All-American football player, Marcus Lattimore is an All-American nice guy. He worked so hard to get back from last year's knee injury, which makes this injury seem so much worse. The guy just can't catch a break. I was at the game, and it felt like the entire game came to a stop, and no one cared about the score. Lots of things are more important than football, and this moment illustrated it.

The most important thing in recovering from an injury is never to lose heart. I don't know if that's true, but I'd like to believe it.

Gone Fishin'

Have a good weekend.

Maybe This Blog is a Bad Idea

Hmmm. I like this blog, but maybe it's not worth the risk.

Post Debate Thoughts

Don't worry, unlike some celebrities, there are no curse words here. (I used all mine up last Saturday anyway.) The debates were pretty interesting when viewed in the context of each other. The final debate was most interesting as to what the candidates thought about the state of the race.

First a little recap. In the first debate, Romney came out hard, attacking, playing the prosecutor. At the same time, Obama thought he could just show up, recite his stump speech and win. Alas, it was not to be.

The first debate showed two things. One, Romney wasn't the evil guy that all the attack ads made him out to be. He actually had a plan for the future, and he could explain it. Two, Obama just didn't have the fire that he did four years ago. He was just "checking the box" of the debate, and his plan is to continue with "investing" in roads, bridges, and the same stuff he's been saying for four years. Romney ate his lunch, and everyone knew it. Well, almost everyone.

I think that Obama was playing a prevent defense too early. He knew he had a good lead in some important swing states, and he was simply going to show up, recite his stump speech, not make any major errors, and keep the election on it's current trajectory. As John Madden once said, "All a prevent defense does is prevent you from winning." That's exactly what happened. Romney scored touchdowns, and Obama wasn't even trying to play offense.

The second debate was what everyone thought the first debate was going to be. Both candidates came out of the gate hard, challenged each other, and at one point, I actually thought they were going to start hitting each other with the cordless microphones. Obama to his credit, responded well, showing that he still wanted the job. The energy debate centered on who was more in favor of drilling, which must have driven the environmentalists insane. In any event, basically a tie. However, the damage had been done in the first debate. The people who tuned in for the first debate had formed their impression. Relevant quote for this debate: "You never get a second chance to make a first impression."

The final debate was on foreign policy. Or at least it was supposed to be. At a few points in the debate, both candidates decided that they were just going to talk about domestic policy. Bob Sheiffer decided that he wasn't going to interrupt and get them back on the topic of foreign policy (or maybe he fell asleep) and the candidates talked about domestic policy for at least 10 minutes each in a 90 minute debate. Oh well, when the economy and domestic policy is as important as it is this election cycle, there aren't many votes to be had going into detail about foreign policy. Just kill the bad guys, which both candidates are in favor of.

Very differently than before, though, Romney came across as not the prosecutor, but the calm guy who was reasonable. He wasn't going to be the "Cowboy" President, unlike that last Republican in the White House. Romney agreed with Obama more in 90 minutes than he did in the entire campaign. Romney didn't attack Obama when given chances. On the contrary, Obama attacked Romney. All I can take away from this is that Obama thought he was behind (which he is) and Romney thought he was ahead (which he is). It was just the flip side of the first debate. The question is, does Romney's prevent defense work at this point, or does the Romney momentum fade too soon?

Ultimately: Most people voted for Obama last time. Why? Remember where we were four years ago? The outgoing Republican incumbent was toxic, and Obama was such a great story. It was a great combination that created a tidal wave of support. The landscape today couldn't be more different. The economy has been mired in the doldrums for four years, and the inspirational candidate from four years ago isn't here. This version of Obama is petty and condescending.

People desperately want the economy to get better, and they have a binary choice: Government continues to try and solve the problem, or government gets out of the way. We'll know in a few weeks. It's going to get more intense before then, so brace yourself - especially if you live in a swing state.

Tweets from Celebrities on the Final Debate

At some point (hopefully tonight) I'll get a chance to give my post-debate thoughts. In the meantime, and for comparison, here are some Tweets from celebrities on the Final Debate. [Note: Sarah Silverman's is not exactly safe for work.]

The Rules of Bacon

Report from the Carolina/LSU Game

Last weekend, I took my first trip to LSU. We drove the whole way because airline tickets were only slightly less expensive than hiring a private jet. Seriously, don’t even get me started on air-travel, but I digress. I had heard all sort of stories about how horrible LSU fans were. I had heard they threw AA batteries down on opposing fans from above, threw pee-filled water-ballons, and were generally rowdy, rude drunks. I wasn't really worried about a confrontation, but I was slightly apprehensive that I would face a bunch of rude folks who would spoil a great tailgate and game.

I tailgated over by the law school and walked all over campus. Everywhere I went, people were nice, polite, and after a "tiger bait" chant, which was not really in a mean spirit, I had great conversations with folks. LSU fans were generous with their food, were knowledgeable about the game, and were really polite. One student even gave me a koozie right off his beer because he wanted me to keep it as a souvenir. Off his own beer.

I walked all over the parade grounds, went to the student union, and over to The Chimes before heading to the stadium, so I got a good cross-section of the fans. Young, old, everyone. They couldn’t have been nicer. Now granted, I wasn’t out there talking a bunch of trash. Mostly, when I would ask advice on where to go, the LSU folks really wanted me to feel at home and have a great time. One little old lady (who was drinking a Bloody Mary the size of a small car) kept telling me “You’re in the Old South now, dear. You’re our guest.” It was certainly borne out. Everyone was great.

As for the game experience – the stadium was loud. Wow. I was sitting way up in the cheap seats and I had to scream to Mrs. Permanent Press (sitting right next to me) to discuss the plays. I cannot imagine how loud it must have been down lower where the sound would concentrate. That stadium came alive that night, and the energy went right to the LSU players.

I wish that we could have stopped LSU's first down running more, but we couldn't. That was the difference in the game (overall), and that's how it usually goes in the SEC. If you win the battle in the trenches, you win. That's what happened. Sometimes you just have to tip your cap to the other team.

If any LSU fans make the trip to Columbia next time, I'll be sure to check back here and offer my thoughts on where to go and what to do. Heck, I may even give an LSU fan my ol' Gamecock Koozie. Maybe.

Thanks to all the great LSU fans for making my first trip to Tiger Stadium a great one.

The view from my seats.

SC District Court Approves Voter ID Law

The law goes into effect after the election, so no big deal. I actually think that's a pretty good compromise. If you can't get your ID by 2016, you're not trying. Heck, you still don't need an ID anyway.

If you read the opinion, you realize that you still don't actually need an ID to vote. If you sign an affidavit that you have a "reasonable impediment" to obtaining an ID, you still get to cast a provisional ballot. As long as the affidavit is true, you get to vote. Funny, you never hear that in all the rhetoric surrounding this issue.

The law sounds pretty darn reasonable when you get beyond sound-bites actually get into the details.

Full text here.

Early Weekend Open Thread

Mrs. Permanent Press and I are hitting the road for Baton Rouge, LA to see the Gamecocks take on the Tigers on Saturday night and see the best of Baton Rouge. Posts will resume on Monday, but twitter will be active.

Holland and Holland Range Rover

This Range Rover has a custom-integrated gun cabinet,a console/fridge, and a liquor cabinet. It's everything that a growing boy needs.

You can drool over more pictures and details here.

Obama Thought He Won the First Debate

If you watched the first presidential debate between President Obama and Mr. Romney (and you weren't totally in denial) it was clear that Mr. Romney got the better of President Obama. And when I say "clear", I mean, 72% to 20%. That's a Clemson vs. West Virginia in the Orange Bowl kind of win. Which leads into this: When Obama walked off the stage after the debate, he thought he had won.

Here's my take: If the President didn't prepare for the debate, slacked off playing golf because he thought he was going to win, that's one thing. It's overconfidence, and it can be forgiven. It's easy to see why he thought he was going to win. Everyone around him for the last four years has been telling him how great he is, how awesome he is, how he's the smartest guy around. So it's understandable that this happened:

'President Obama made it clear he wanted to be doing anything else - anything - but debate prep,' the Democrat said. 'He kept breaking off whenever he got the opportunity and never really focused on the event.

 But here's the thing that is more problematic than laziness/overconfidence:

 Obama believed he had actually won.

It's one thing to not study for the test because you think you're going to ace it. It's one thing not to practice hard before a big football game because you're playing a school from a lower division. However, if you flunk the test and lose the football game, you have a much bigger problem than laziness/overconfidence - you're out of touch with reality and/or you're so incompetent that you don't even recognize what competence looks like.

I don't want a lazy president, but hey, it happens. What I really don't want is a president who can't tell when he's just gotten his butt kicked.

Surprise Welcome Home to Military Family at UGA/USC Game

Caution: This video contains dust, pollen, and other eye irritants.