As we roll into the last few days of the Christmas rush The GeekWithA.45 posts a note about gift cards that I am in complete agreement with. Go check it out:

“Public Service Message:
Just Say No To Gift Cards.”

I shamefully apologize in advance to my parents for getting them gift cards for Christmas.

Over the weekend four friends and I spent an afternoon out in the beautiful Southern California desert doing some shooting. It’s been quite a while since I had the chance to get in some trigger time, and as usual… I was not happy with my performance. Just like any other sport or activity, to keep your skills you need practice, so I’m hoping that next year brings more free time for us to get out and have some fun rebuilding our skills (or at least rebuilding mine). A usual day involves as much different shooting as we can pack into about eight hours. Short range pistol practice, medium and long range shooting with rifles, and if we remember to buy clay pigeons, some trap shooting. Saturday we were short on time so we primarily focused on some short range practice followed by a quick round robin match with the pistols on steel plates. Our usual match involves two shooters going head to head in an attempt to knock down three 8” square steel plates at about 40 feet before their opponent. Each shooter competes against all others once, the champion being the person who scores the most wins. It’s not only fun, but really helps us learn about the difficulties of shooting under pressure. Hearing your opponent knock down a few plates can make you speed up your process, which in turn affects accuracy. Ultimately, calmer heads prevail. A lesson I will be sure to remember next time. All in all I can't complain. Even when I don't shoot as well as I think I should, you can't beat a nice day in the desert with good friends.

On our local AM 600 radio this morning the discussion was about the recent shooting in Colorado where the CCW holder stopped a criminal with a gun. The host had Paul Helmke as a guest, who is the president of the Brady Campaign. There was the usual trite bit about how the Brady group wants "sensible gun control", and typical misinformation about (so called) "assault weapons", and once again confusion in calling the feeding device on an AK clone a "clip" instead of the proper term "magazine" (if they could get this right it at least would bolster their credibility), but there was one line that really took the cake. This is a direct quote from the interview:

"Basically we don't have any gun control laws in this country."

Is this guy from another planet or just high as a kite? According to the Brookings Institute, the US has approximately “300 major state and federal laws and an unknown but shrinking number of local laws.” This is hardly the none proclaimed by the head of the Brady campaign. But honesty has never been their best policy.

Beginning four or five years ago I began in earnest boycotting Chinese made goods. In the beginning it was probably more related to nationalism than anything else, but as the years passed, many other good reasons have arisen. I think my initial reaction to the flood of Chinese made products that have overtaken the shelves in every type of store was that I wanted “quality” American made goods, the inference being that if it was made in China, it was made poorly. In many cases that has been true, but not always, and many people look at the cost/benefit and decide it’s worth it to buy Chinese. A power saw for example, can be bought at a fraction of what it would cost to buy an American made counterpart, and if the product breaks or wears out, it can be replaced cheaply. I have heard people say things like, “at that price, I would be dumb not to buy it.” Perhaps. The economic one is as rational an argument as any.

As time passed I began to realize there were more important implications to avoiding Chinese wares other than just quality. As a functioning Communist nation there are fundamental ethical issues in doing business with companies that support, (or are forced to support) a communist regime, as well as companies that are not regulated by labor laws preventing things like child or slave labor. Engaging in commerce with communist China ultimately supports a political philosophy that is the antithesis to our capitalism and it supports other like-nations such as North Korea, which is a threat to world stability and a self-proclaimed enemy of the United States. Then we have the overwhelming volume of counterfeit goods that come out of China, also an ethical issue. And most recently, the numerous occurrences of what I will call “tainted” goods coming from Chinese manufacture, most notably the poisoned pet food, and lead-painted toys that were exhaustively reported on by the main-stream media. (This makes me wonder how long it will be before we see poisoned human consumables coming from China.)
All these things I consider enough reason to avoid China goods, but beyond that, we have evidence of espionage that should make any American wonder what the Chinese governments ultimate motive is in trading with the US.

At times it has been difficult to do, (and has been amazingly difficult to convince family and friends not to buy me any Chinese made products as gifts), it may sometimes be unavoidable, but I do my best not to support a country that exists as an example opposite to freedom, and considers the U.S. its enemy. There are still too many options out there that work as an alternative, and I still get a sense of pride when I buy a product that was made in the U.S.A.

"New hoodies worry police"

And the classic quote from the article:
"The trouble in society is not just crime but the fear of crime, and this new jacket is enough to give anyone a shiver down their spine," said Brian Paddick, a former senior officer at the Metropolitan police and now a London mayoral candidate.

A shiver down their spine from a jacket?? It's sad what they have become...