Geico Fires The Gunny

Geico Actor: I Was Fired Because I’m a Conservative

Who isn’t familiar with that hilarious Geico commercial featuring a drill sergeant-esque therapist telling his “jackwagon” patient to take a trip to “mamby-pamby land” and get a hefty dose of self-confidence? It’s surely good for a laugh … or two. But the actor featured in the ad isn’t laughing today, after he says the insurance company fired him due to his conservative political leaning. “Yeah, I got fired,” R. Lee Ermey told TMZ. “Geico fired me because I had uh, I wasn’t too kind [...] about the administration. [...] If you’re a conservative in this town, you’d better watch out.”

Just remember this when you buy insurance. The little green gecko and the squealing pig are apparently not very open minded when it comes to conservative political views.

Easy Day

According to regs, we have to all be certified by an accredited outfit in order to operate our articulating boom cranes - or what we call 'em - knuckle boom cranes. This is the obstacle course I will have to negotiate tomorrow. We will be timed as well. Notice the tennis balls? Knock one off - deduction. Knock a pylon out of place - deduction. Knock one clear over, another deduction. See the chain dragging along underneath the test cylinder? That must be in contact with the ground at all times until the far end of the course.

You can see the circle to the right - the cylinder is parked there at the start of the test. We must navigate though the zig zag area - keep in mind that the boom describes an arc moving naturally, so at certain points we must extend the boom while turning the turntable, or retract it at the same time. Screw up and get to swinging? You start knocking balls off. When we get the cylinder to the far end, the chain must cross the red line on the ground, then we lift up, clearing all the obstacles and the hurdle (red and white striped pole), then drop the chain into the circle, and then the cylinder, all within the circle's bounds. We have four minutes.

Then we reverse the course - pick it up, clear the hurdle, drop the chain on the far end of the line, and run through the obstacle course, and park it in the circle to the right. In four minutes. We then have ninety seconds to pick up the weight and drop it into the circle away from the zig zag further back and slightly to the right - once again, without knocking over any balls or pylons, and staying within the circle.

My first and only practice run had me knocking over two balls through the first leg, plus knocking over the hurdle, then knocking over another couple balls on the way back and going over about four or five seconds. I have a problem with depth perception sometimes, plus I got the shakes - I'd had some pretty low blood sugar. I think I had a passing score anyways, but I'd sure as hell like to do better!

I feel for some of the guys there - some are completely inexperienced and have never touched the controls of a crane before. When we first stepped out on the course, a bunch of our go getter types ran through the course in a big hurry without any deductions, but after they were gone, the instructors remeasured everything and moved the pylons in by over a foot, so it's a hell of a lot tighter than what they had to do! Guess it'll be a shocker tomorrow!

Oh, and maybe you can tell we make steel tanks by looking off in the distance a tad.

Don't Do It

In light of recent and past events at my former abode, namely the place burning down and the earlier burglary  where I lost the best guns I had, I have decided to issue a declaration. It seems that making businesses and public places gun free zones is considered a valid strategy to prevent criminals from breaking laws, so therefore I am adopting their tactics for use for myself.

From Hereon, I Declare My Current (and Any Future Domiciles) Abode To Be A Robbery And Fire Free Zone.

I expect this measure will be as fully successful for me as it has for those who have preceded me in using this grand and highly effective idea. Perhaps I can find some who will join me in a zenlike gathering of like minded individuals to, as a group, think positive thoughts to help universal karma make it so.

Just Stay In NYC, Dude

In today's online edition of the NYT, a Mark Bittman:

 is an Opinion columnist and the Times magazine’s food columnist; his Minimalist column ran in the Dining section of The Times for more than 13 years. In 2009, Mr. Bittman, who has been urging Americans to change the way we eat for decades, published “Food Matters,” which explored the crucial connections among food, health and the environment. His most recent book is “The Food Matters Cookbook”; he is also the author of  “How to Cook Everything” and “How to Cook Everything Vegetarian,” among others. Mr. Bittman’s television series include “Bittman Takes on America’s Chefs,” “The Best Recipes in the World,” “Spain: On the Road Again” and an upcoming series based on his Minimalist column. His Web site ismarkbittman.com.

As you can imagine, he and I probably do not agree on a lot of issues. Particularly when he starts prosthelytizing about how us farmers is doin' all rong. He outlays several ideas for food policy reform, which include increasing the minimum wage for farm workers - and for farmers.

Nice. How do we apply? Since the average farmer is self employed, does that mean the .gov is gonna step in and cover the rest? Most farmers would be damn glad to average out minimum wage for the hours they put in - does this mean Uncle Sam is paying overtime?

He then proposes that spending on food stamps should increase - and they should be worth more for healthy food, oh, like a farmer's market. Bittman likes farmer's markets. Bet that'll go over big with the inner city foodstamp crowd - Sorry, ma'am, but you can't buy those Pringles with your food stamps. You're gonna have to buy some arugula.

Of course you just know the inner city Democrat congresscritters are gonna support something like this as well.

Then, he points his infinite wisdom at the Midwest farmer:

We need not only to attack the nonsensical and wasteful system that pays for corn and soybeans to be grown to create junk food and ethanol, but to support local and national legislation that encourages the birth of new small-and-medium farms. We need to encourage both new and established farms to grow a variety of fruits and vegetables, to raise animals in sensible ways and, using a combination of modern and time-tested techniques, treat those animals well and use their products sensibly.

As I've said before, we are not equipped with the necessary resources to convert to truck gardens out here in flyover country, and the land we use for beef production is largely useless for anything else. But he's not done:

In short, we need more real farmers, not businessmen riding on half-million-dollar combines. And if you haven’t seen a real farmer, go visit a one- or two-acre intensive garden; it’s a mind-blowing thing, how much can be grown in a relatively small space. Then imagine thousands of 10-, 20- and 100-acre farms planted similarly: the vegetables sold regionally, the pigs fed from scraps, the compost fertilizing the soil, the cattle at pasture, the milk making cheese ….

So, we're not real farmers out here, riding around on those half million dollar combines. Excuse me, just how in the wide wide world of sports does he expect small grains to be harvested? Since he's wanting to get rid of corn and soybeans, that leaves wheat and grain sorghum. Still gonna have to harvest that. And, as I've said before, where is the water to do all this coming from? How about the extra fertilizer? How about the extra labor that we'll no doubt be paying minimum wage for (and actually, we do pay minimum or better for farm labor around here or you won't get anyone to sit in a GPS guided tractor all summer).

But it's all there in his Birkenstock fevered dream - the small acreages, the pigs being fed by scraps, the cattle at pasture (hate to tell him, but they already are), the milk making cheese from cows that do not exist, since the average grazing cow out here is beef oriented. Sure, we've got dairies, but the cattle in there are bred for high production methods, not hippie granola farms.

The naysayers will yell, “this mode of farming will not produce enough corn and soy to feed our junk food and cheeseburger habit,” and that’s exactly the point. It would produce enough food so that we can all eat well. It’d produce enough food so we can slow the hysteria about our inability to feed the expected 9 billion earthlings. After all, we’re not doing such a great job of feeding the current 7 billion. Why? Largely because too many resources go into producing junk food and animal products.

Actually, we are doing a good job of feeding our country - there is literally no one starving in the United States. We cannot control the starvation in the rest of the world no matter how hard we try - those pics of African children dying? Talk to the local warlords who hijack the food shipments we send. Please explain to me how this grand idea will take care of corrupt governments bent on destroying segments of their populations.

And perhaps, insulated in your metropolitan paradise, you have not noticed that we are in a drought out here? Once again, we do not have the groundwater to sustain vegetable production, nor the necessary rainfall. 

And while we're at it, stay the hell out of my menu choices. I don't mess with yours and expect the same from you, whether you like it or not. Apparently, you are leaning towards a vegetarian diet - which is fine for people who are prepared for it and know about the shortcomings. Which is funny to me - if you don't wanna die from a vegan diet, it's a damn good idea to take industrially produced vitamin supplements. Not exactly the natural utopia that is paraded before us.

He concludes with:

But to get these beautiful veggies, we need real farmers who grow real food, and the will to reform a broken food system. And for that, we need not only to celebrate farmers, but also to advocate for them.

I'm all for that, but I'd prefer someone who is on my side and is informed, thank you very much.

Curiosity

My admirers.

Yesterday, I dropped a tank off at a dairy. You can see it to the left. While I was busy putting the tank there, I had a fascinated audience. I stepped up to 'em a couple times, and the heifer to the right was the least scared of me - she thought my gloved hand was worth tasting. They were all so near tame is wasn't funny.

I have no idea what they were doing there - I don't think it was a sick pen, because they all seemed pretty healthy. One was coughing a little, but in a dusty environment, that is normal. I heard it all the time out on the farm. They all had horn nubbins, so maybe they were scheduled for some "trimming."

How could I resist trying to pet 'em? Just look at how cute that baldy is with her head poking through the gap in the gate!!!

Still Sad

There is not a day that goes by that I don't get pretty damn misty about Rooster. I can let go of the other things - as I've said before, it was just stuff. Certainly, it's stuff I miss, but not enough to get emotional about. Rooster? Another matter entirely. Most of the time, I cannot bring him up as a subject in conversation, or I will start bawling. The other day, a coworker I had not seen in a while asked me about him, and that set me off.

Dammit.

I managed my parents' deaths by realizing their days were done, and frankly, they needed to move on. Same with a lot of other relatives. I've had some acquaintances taken too soon, as have we all, but they didn't have this effect on me.

I'm probably failing in my duty as a Christian by not attending church very often. I do pray every day. This event has tested my faith in a big way, though. I realize a cat is not much in the larger scheme of things, and I'm not even a blip on the main radar screen. I tell you that when I stand large before The Lord, I will be asking him about this even if it means I go straight to hell. I need to know what possible reason He saw fit to destroy an innocent life.

And I know there are millions of innocent lives destroyed every day under His watch. Compared to that, a cat is pretty mild. It is still a crime in my eyes anyways - just a matter of degree. I also understand the concept of free will, but I fail to see how my free will had anything to do with a cat burning in a fire. He lived in the abode with me - where else would he be? My free will had him shut in the house to keep him from becoming coyote chow. He is the one who brought the drought, high temperatures, high winds and setting up the conditions where a fire would be more likely. Not me and my free will.

How could I possibly have prepared for this eventuality? What if an old Russian satellite fell from the sky and wiped the place out? What if the earth opened up and swallowed the entire farm? I never worried about that sort of thing, and still don't.

Because it's out of my control. Like this was. Still does not matter.

If I should manage to not piss off the Lord too much and end up in heaven, my little buddy had better be there, or we're gonna have words over that, too.

I am not ready to take on another cat, for sure.

Flushing The Camera (Phone)

Yeah, it's been a day or several since I last posted. Been busy and tahrd.

This is a Farmer's Oil truck I had not seen before. They are an old school organization that believes that show trucks should represent them. The company trucks are all dolled out, and there are several owner operators with custom rigs - one is the son, who has his own show truck on the road and on the blog Bucket List. They primarily haul liquids and bulk products, so you'll see them with anhydrous ammonia and pneumatic trailers - all of which are just as shiny and slick as their tractors. That tractor is a Pete flat top (with a window in the back), stretched wheelbase, and black with everything else (and there is a ton of "everything else") shined to the max. Old school.

I say old school because most trucking outfits are definitely not that way anymore. Back in the day, National Carriers had a rather rigid set of requirements for the equipment that leased to them, mostly relating to appearance, cleanliness and level of polish. Coors used to use a company out of Akron, CO that ran nothing but fast, good looking Peterbilts and KWs. Certain cow hauling outfits - the same way. Nowadays, you run what ya brung, and they aren't too picky. Time sensitive shippers want reliable equipment, but don't necessarily care what that equipment looks like. Others don't care at all, as long as it's shipped cheaply.

I have no idea what it was, but it was damn heavy. I've seen heavier - with several pusher tractors behind the load, but this was pretty impressive and I was able to get a few shots of it.

Garden City (KS) has become a hub of the wind generator shipping industry. One company has set up a railhead to drop all the parts off in this yard on US50 on the east side of the city. There are all kinds of heavy haulers and escorts staying in Garden in motels. If you read this and travel through here, you might keep that in mind - don't expect to just walk into a motel and get a room.

That shot was to the west, now we're looking down the street that bisects their "yard." You can see the cranes used for unloading the rail cars and loading the trailers to the left and some more further to the south.

The actual spur - two parallel tracks - with loaded and unloaded tower section cars. It's kinda funny, really, seeing all the wind power stuff moving on the roads - there is still stuff coming from the Gulf and also from the Great Lakes. These loads are all meeting each other on the road - Brand X headed south meets Y going north and has to wait for these guys headed east at the light.

I've always been fascinated by the Michigan trains - this one is just a single trailer. This rig is just using a three axle tractor just like I drive, but most are four. I have no idea how they manage to turn these things. The many axled tractors with dump beds pulling a many axled pup trailer are pretty impressive. Think about it - they can dump the back trailer no problem, but they have to unhook to dump the front part, unless they can spread it out and keep the trailer from getting hung up. Most of those guys are doing short hauls and have to do that lots of times each day. Freight had better be good, is all I gotta say about that.

I stopped in so see an old pal at Ingalls Feed Yard in Ingalls KS the other day. This would be the nerve center of the grain division - handling the incoming grain for the feed mill, plus weighing all the other trucks hauling feed ingredients or "used feed" going outbound for fertilizer, plus grain moving in and out of the onsite grain elevator.

The job requires a guard dog as well, as you can see.

This would be the crotchety old proprietor of the joint, probing a load of corn for a sample to determine if it's suitable for the feed mill to process.

Every grain elevator worth it's salt has one of these dishes - hooked to the DTN network for live streaming market information.

A look at the scales in use - the codger's holdout is the one with the view.

IFY is one of the pioneers in steam flaking grain for cattle feed. You'll notice there is a backup generator, plus a generator to back up the backup. Keeping this thing running is critical.

Some of the several loadout chutes for cattle - different areas of the feedlot have them to keep from having to move cattle very far. There is a whole series of sorting and holding pens behind those chutes. Cattle wagons back up to them, lining up their doors so cattle can run up or down those ramps in or out of the trailer.

A crane that unloaded me at a dairy near Brush, CO. The tank is to be used for flush water, and it really is an unusual design since it has no top. They told me that the flush water is recycled quite a bit, so it's corrosive and eats tank tops out in a few years. So, no top means no damage to the top. This thing was made of some fairly thick steel compared to our average garden variety steel tank.

The dairy barn for this tank. There were more on the site. Those unusually shaped chunks of metal are galvanized clips designed to hold the tank down by the flange at the bottom and a bolt going into the concrete the tank mounts to. You can see our little cubbyholes for this trailer - since we don't carry headache racks, there has to be someplace to put dunnage. This trailer is one of our oldest and has been through a partial rebuilt - the entire nose has been replaced. Back in the day, it had a crane mounted, and the truck hooked up with hydraulic quick links. All that stuff has been cut away and a more conventional deck has been installed.

This is a biggun. It was parked at the motel in Sterling, CO I stopped at Thursday night. I saw it there when I came into town, and it was there in the morning when I left. It looks like they parked it there the way they did to help prevent theft. It would take a while to move the boom back over the dolly, hook it all up, and pick up all the pads and such.

This kinda gives y'all a scale of how big it really is. I'd bet Jess or KurtP know for sure - but I'm guessing this is in the 130 to 150 ton range.

These things are limited to how much they can lift by their counterweights. Right now it has the main one and that's it. But you can see the hydraulics - they can pick up more.

See the two pins in that open area just above the second axle from the front? That is where extra weights are stacked so the attachment can pick them up. Just so happens that's where it all lines up - use the crane to pick up a weight, drop in on the pins, rotate the crane so the counterweight attachment  can hook up.

The dolly - this supports the boom while in transit and can also hold extra weights. Some cranes use a flatbed truck to haul the extra weights and other goodies needed.

Most cranes use a bunch of those plywood pads, but these guys have gone above and beyond with these large metal ones as well. Those pegs are set up so a setup of four cables on the hook can handle 'em with ease. Also, looking at the main foot, you'll see a slider with two pins. When the job is done, they pull the pins and kick the foot to the inside - otherwise the foot would hang outside the already wide crane. This tucks 'em underneath, and there is a place for the pins to hold it in the transport position.

Wish I'd thought of turning this pic before uploading it - but if you click for bigger, you'll see that this is a 525/80R25 sized tire. Not something you're gonna find at The Tire Rack.

I've always liked this idea but have never been around much equipment to see if it really works. The idea is that after a wheel is mounted, you place the pointers so you can easily tell if a nut works loose. All it takes is a quick glance rather than having to actually check with a torque wrench.

And this is the business end. Of course the big block will lift more - the single line is used mostly for fetching a manlift and such to hook and unhook from heights well beyond ladder range. They can use it to "tail" or "tailboard" our tanks as well. Here is a series of pics showing two cranes, one "tailing."

They put the tank on the ground in order to install a ladder while it was much closer to the ground. Unhook crane number two, crane one swings it over in place and sets it, and number two lifts a guy to unhook the rigging. Easy peasy.

So, that's pretty much it for today. Hope ya enjoy!

Dent In The Day

Yep, that will do it.

I heard a muted pop and figured I had a blowout. I had my compadre run beside me on both sides and look things over (we were on I70, so we could do that), but he couldn't see this because while this was an outside dual drive tire, that was inside. So, off we went until we parked for a while at a truck stop before going on. That's when my compadre found the thing while I was inside.  The thing even held air, and even had quite a bit when it was broken down. Ended up having to buy some sort of reconditioned and regrooved tire. Woo hoo. A rim protector and placeholder, In My Humble Opinion. Yes ossifer, that's a tahr raht thar.

This didn't come off "my" truck, either - mine doesn't have recaps. It also doesn't have an A/C compressor, and has been sitting until one ships in. I hope when I get back tomorrow I can move back in to my ride. I hate jumping from truck to truck - invariably I forget to get something I need from my truck and bring it - but I don't need to unload all my crap and move it over. That would take some time, for sure.

My Niece

Some years back, I was visiting a married couple I'd been friends with for years. Their first child, a daughter, was about two or three. I've always enjoyed little kids and will play with 'em at the drop of a hat, and that night was no different. Alleah and I were getting along famously - hide and seek, playing dead, peekabo and so on. Time wore on, and it was time for me to leave.

This upset Alleah greatly. She started crying, and said: "Don't go, Uncle Jeff!"

This even shocked her parents. She had never called anyone that before, and they had no idea she understood what it meant. But, I tell you what, it meant I was her Uncle from then on. How could I refuse that task? We had a sort of a bond from then on.

I kept up with her as she grew up, and as we got older, I'd kid her about what she'd said. She never backed away. I'd encourage her and tried to give sage advice when I felt it was necessary. It really wasn't - her parents did a wonderful job of raising her without my input!

She was a cutie as a little girl, and as a teenager, she was turning into a very beautiful woman. She also developed a very strong personality - she had no fear of arguing a point, plus she was logical and consistent in her beliefs. As a former debater, I was extremely proud of her for the way she self organized and cut right to the heart of issues.

She was, and still is, a fierce defender of her family and friends. Woe be unto anyone who crossed her younger brother, for instance. Loyalty and honor mean something to this young lady.

She was very active in high school - athletics, cheerleading and so on. Until her wreck. She was coming home on a back road that has a wicked set of ninety degree turns, and she found the first one about O dark thirty one night, and failed to negotiate the turn. It's been a long time ago, and I'm murky on the specific details, but I'm thinking she was tossed from the car, and missing one or both shoes, and of course no phone or flashlight available. She had to walk to the nearest farmhouse, and I'm thinking there were two - one she could reach going south, the other north - and maybe she even had to go to one first and no one was there. So she had to walk back past the wreck. She was also suffering from a broken vertebrae in her neck, if I recall correctly. At any rate, she did manage to find someone and wake them up so she could get some help.

I made a point to stop in and see her after that - she was lying on her parents' couch. Obviously, she was in pain, but I could see that physical pain was only part of what she was feeling. Kids live in an egocentric world where they're gonna live forever. Alleah just found out that frankly, the universe didn't give a damn about her. That's a pretty big shock for a young teenager, and it shone through her eyes plain as day. Like it or not, she did a lot of growing up right then and there. The injury prevented her from any more high school athletics or cheerleading, but she picked up on the lesson of the value of life tuit suite. Sharp kid, that.

Did I say she was good looking? Actually, she is flippin' hawt! She worked part time for a car dealership where I was employed, so I got to see her frequently then. She was walking out to her car, leaving, one day and a whole passel of bored, horny young salesmen were watching her butt. And saying shit. Now, I appreciated the geometry and artistry of the wiggle in her walk, but dammit, she was my niece! I chewed some ass that day. They could look, but there had better be no touching, or they'd have to come through me. I was surprised at my reaction, actually.

She has been a success in school as well. Double major in college, and graduate school after. Good job, too. Like I said, she has a head on her shoulders, and knows how to use it.

Remember how I said she was a fierce defender of her family? Well, when ol' Uncle Jeffro had a problem, she jumped right in with both feet to help her hopeless ol' Unka out. She was a big donor for one of the savings accounts (her dad set one of them up), giving up the money she was saving for a new car. Damnit, girl!

She was also tireless working Facebook and helping with some other fundraising efforts. Have y'all ever heard of flocking with yard flamingos for fundraising? She helped start some of that - there were plenty of other people who got that going and worked on it, but she was right in there. I also understand there is a Pampered Chef party that I will be the "hostess" for, so I can get some free stuff. A lot of people have done a lot of work for all those efforts, but Alleah has been right in the middle of it all.

Which is kinda hard to see how she has had the time, considering how busy she's been. Tomorrow, my niece is getting married in Wichita. Hell of a good guy, too. So, Uncle Jeff and his Cuzzin Tom are headed to the Air Capital to see her off on a new adventure. She's had to take instruction in the Catholic faith. Heh.

I got her a St. Jude* medal on a rosary.

I wish her and her guy nothing but the best, and if there is ever anything I can do, I'm there!

*Patron Saint of Lost Causes

Yep, I Suppose He's Right

Ted Rall thinks we are a war loving tribe.

Okay, I'll give him that.

Here's a song of my people:


link

Oh, yeah, baybee!

Oh, Man....

Yesterday morning - as in O Dark Thirty (5 AM), I left for work and figured on dropping by the ol' PO to check on my "new" box - I hadn't been there since Thursday. So, I drive up, hop out laboriously forced the creaking bod out of the personal transportation device, and hobbled up to the steps.

Where there was the cutest medium sized gray kitten just sitting there on the top step. Well, I am a sucker, so I petted the little devil. I was really surprised that it wasn't afraid of me and did not run away - that's been my experience with "city" cats. They've had too many people mess with 'em and don't trust many people.

But not this little turd. Friendly as hell. Clearly this was someone's pet, but it was looking a little thin. And after all, why would someone's kitten be out and about at five freaking AM?

"I'm sorry, boss, but I'm gonna be about a half day late to work. Yeah, I found this destitute kitten, and I've gotta get some food, water dishes, and a kitty litter box for it. Yeah, I know the customer has a crane scheduled for my approximate arrival time. Okay, thanks, be in as soon as I can."

Yeah, that's gonna work.

I'm not sure I even want another cat right away, and I run into the poster child for a friendly, needy kitten. Crying as I left.

Shit.

Today's Groaner

If sex with 3 people is called a threesome and sex with 2 people is a twosome, 

I Tell Ya Whut

These puppies are good!

Yannow how "store bought" tomatoes all taste like acidic cardboard? These? Not so much. NatureSweet sells three varieties - Cherry, Sunbursts and the above pictured Cherubs. The Cherry tomatoes are tangy, but the flavor isn't as sharp as the Cherubs - my favorite. The Sunbursts are sweeter and milder.

They also ain't cheap - the El Marto Del Wal and the local Kroger owned outlet Dillons both sell these things for $3.78, and my local store here just started carrying them for $4.00 even. However, after I got hooked on these and the store I was at was out a couple times, I have tried some of the competition. Green Giant and Del Monte do NOT hold a candle to these - they are the epitome of bleh. Even the generic "Organic" stuff is disappointing. So, ya gets whats ya pays fer.

I generally buy four packages, and as a rule, only three make it home.

Very Well Said

Dave Koppel in the Denver Post:

Should Congress revise our nation's gun laws? No

State gun laws do the job

By David B. Kopel

snip
Today, guns are the most stringently regulated consumer product in the United States, the only product for which every single purchase from a store requires permission from the FBI or its state counterpart, such as the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. In 2000, Colorado went even further, enacting special rules for background checks at gun shows. The post-Columbine laws that aim to keep guns out of the wrong hands are complemented by new laws that protect the self-defense rights of the law-abiding: repealing an old law which had authorized the governor to ban gun sales during an emergency (when guns would be needed most); preventing localities from interfering with the transportation of guns in automobiles; limiting localities' power to enact anti-gun laws; and forbidding suits against firearms manufacturers because of gun misuse by criminals.

The most important reform was the 2003 Concealed Carry Act. The act provides for issuance of handgun carry permits to adults who pass a 10-point fingerprint background check and a safety training class. The law affirms a sheriff's discretion to deny a permit to someone who has a clean record but whose documented conduct shows that he would be a danger to himself or others.

The act has thwarted at least one massacre, when in December 2007, a man attacked the New Life megachurch in Colorado Springs. Church volunteer security guard Jeanne Assam was lawfully carrying a licensed handgun, and she quickly shot the attacker. According to pastor Brady Boyd, "she probably saved over 100 lives."

As "they" say, go and read the whole thing. While I ultimately disagree with the validity of many of the gun laws he considers positive, he does have a point.