Transformation Complete

Eleven months ago we started the process when we had the porches enclosed and the exterior walls removed to extend our living space a bit, particularly in the kitchen & dining room area. We went back and forth with contractors, two of which screwed the pooch on us before we finally hit pay dirt with a woman contractor who can work most men into the ground. Here's a few "Before & After" shots.

Our Soldier Girl is being redeployed to Afghanistan in three weeks. She was up for Christmas and returned to Ft. Bragg last night. We had a going away party for her in the new digs. Almost thirty people in this:

It's Not About Guns, It's About Control

A great read from the AmericanThinker:

I carried a gun in New York City for more than a decade -- back when there were thousands of murders a year and the Bronx led the nation in killings. On at least four occasions, that gun saved my life, and in a couple of instances, the lives of people who were with me at the time.

For 13 years I had a New York City full carry permit.

For a number of years I concealed and carried a gun in my son's grammar school as well.

I don't think the world would be a better place without me, and it is indisputable that my Beretta 92FC is responsible for my presence today.

[...]The Bronx in the 1980s was like Beirut -- a dated reference, I know, but I am of a certain age. Thousands of murders a year, and the NYPD, the finest police force in the world, had been relegated by political considerations to being outgunned and undermanned. The only time you saw them was when they were either issuing you a ticket or drawing a chalk outline around your body.

Michael Bloomberg longs for those days.

Read the entire article. Mr. Gensert has an excellent point to make. In 1990 there were 2,262 homicides in NYC, in one Bronx precinct alone (the 48th) there were 137 murders. As of Sunday, December 23rd, there were 414 murders in all of NYC - 2012 is on track to be the lowest number of murders in 50 years. NYC has made dramatic progress is reducing murders, but their gun control policies did not play a role.

Merry Christmas MkII

From across the Pond: May we all find peace.

Merry Christmas

May all Seek Him and His favor.