Public Service Announcements

1. World War Z. Huge disappointment. Only 1/3 of a story, and even that wasn’t very good. Lacks beginning and end. Brad Pitt delivered one of his most plasticized performances ever. Not even a vessel for good special effects. Save your money, don’t waste your time. Look out for the surely upcoming sequel(s) and prequel and avoid at all cost.

2. Bacon flavored pretzel chunks. WTF?

The Road To Hell – The Fall Of The American Empire

The more I think about it, the more I think America is going in the wrong direction, possibly heading for the proverbial drain. This is not a partisan statement. We’ve been on the wrong track for many decades. Some things have, to be sure, improved significantly. I would for instance rather be a black person in 2013 than in 1913 (that bit still has a ways to go, but at least pseudo dictator Michael Bloomberg of New York  got spanked by federal judge Shira Scheindlin over his fascist, racist and glaringly unconstitutional Stop & Frisk program). But other things have taken a dramatically degenerate turn. What’s worse is that it most likely can’t be fixed because our only choices are bad and really bad. We are in the process of giving up nationhood in favor of business incorporationhood. Think Citizens United.

“It must be fun to watch a President [or Congressman, or Senator, or Supreme Court Justice] run, just ask the man who owns [or owns a share] in one.”
~ Steppenwolf from the song Monster.

I’m pretty sure somewhere in our DNA there is a self-destruct gene; it’s just waiting for the right circumstances to kick in and we’ll all go down in a conflagration of thermonuclear war, or release a zombie bug, or devolve over time to render us hairy, knuckle dragging man-like creatures, or we’ll all be employed as greeters at Wal-Mart. I don’t know which would be the worse fate.

If you don’t wake up tomorrow you may take it as confirmation that you died in the apocalypse that took place when you were sleeping. We are like bacteria in a petri dish that flourish as long as it receives nourishment, but eventuality suffocates in its own waste.

Beretta PX4 Storm .40 Smith & Wesson Full Size

Just got back from the range where  I shot my Glock 19 and compared the factory barrel to the Storm Lake match grade barrel I had purchased. Why did I buy an aftermarket barrel for my pistol? I can’t give you a rational answer. It was shiny (stainless), supposed to be more accurate and I had $150 I didn’t know what to do with.

The Storm Lake barrel is a noticeably tighter fit in the slide, but looking at the targets I shot, I can’t really tell much of a difference. Maybe the Storm Lake groupings were a little tighter, maybe it was just coincidence. If you like to shoot but are on a tight budget, spend your money on ammo. Not a bad word about Storm Lake, but for the average weekend warrior it’s not gonna kill zombies any deader.

beretta-px4-storm-full-size

After I had used all my ammo I returned to the front counter for a look at the rentals, and spotted a Beretta PX4 Storm full size in .40 S&W. I had previously owned a PX4 compact in 9mm that I got rid of due to idiocy (mine) and bad advice (others), so I was curious to try it out now that I have a bit more mileage as a shooter. I bought a box of Federal American Eagle .40 S&W and returned to my lane gun in hand.

It’s a pretty big piece of hardware, but not excessively heavy; I would guess about 30 oz. I had never shot .40 before and was prepared for some snappiness, but it wasn’t bad at all. The gun was a dream to shoot, in my hands much more accurate than the Glock 19 or my Springfield Armory XDM 3.8 Compact 9mm. I mean seriously. I made ragged holes in the center of the target just like I see YouTube professionals do. The only thing I didn’t like was the safety/decocker tabs (amidextrous) that made racking the slide a bit awkward. It also adds some considerable width to the slide, but this gun wasn’t designed for concealed carry anyway. The trigger was OK, but not super tight and crisp like the custom PRP trigger for my XDM, but adequate enough not to need any kind of tinkering (why don’t all guns have really nice triggers out of the box?). We’ll see what Santa brings me this year. Anyway, it’s on my list of must-have guns.