2006 Multigun Nationals on ShootingGallery.tv

UPDATE: Sunday, July 30, 2006

The match is completed. USPSA members can find the results on the MEMBERS website.

Division Winners:

Limited Ted Puente (23 competitors)
Open Michael Voigt (46 competitors)
Tactical Taran Butler (77 competitors)

Total 142 competitors


Photos from the MG-Nats can be found here. Includes videos from stages 1 and 2; more to be added as soon as I can get them edited down from 15MB to 2MB or 4MB formats.

Congratulations to all competitors.

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The 2006 USPSA Multigun National Championship is being hosted by the Albany Rifle and Pistol Club .. 20 minutes from my front door in Corvallis, Oregon.

If you're going to put a National IPSC USPSA match that close to my home, you need to post armed guards to keep me from trying to participate.

I don't shoot Multigun (or 3-gun) for a variety of reasons, so I showed up the first day of the match as an Unofficial Volunteer. "Tell me what needs to be done, I'll do it" sort of thing, y'know?

I've just spent an entire day working as the Match Gofer. You know, gofer coffee, go fer lunch ... that sort of thing.

Turns out, I have a talent for it. I think I could spend the rest of my life working as a Gofer. Give up my day job. Spend all of my time working as the Unofficial USPSA Gofer. Yeah, works for me.

Until someone mentioned that, y'know, I don't get PAID for this job.

Okay, so maybe I'll keep my day job. Applications Systems Analyst work may be boring in comparison, and I'll be able to maintain my Farmer's Tan sitting in front of a computer, but the rent gets paid and I get to eat regular.

Still, there's nothing like running around a gravel-decked shooting range to make you re-evaluate your Career Decisions.


I've spent some time on the Machael Bane Shooting Gallery dot TV website talking about the night-before, and the RO Match stages of the match.

It's all background, you understand. Not much there about the match results, although I hope to get some videos after the Real Match (sorry, ROs) starts. Carl Schmidt wants some good photos, and I'll make an effort to catch some "Stuff That Doesn't Look Like A Pistol Match" type photos and videos. I'm not 'tasked' to do anything much, so I get to roam around the ARPC range and take photos, when there's something happening.

I'll keep this toward the top of the Blog, so it's obvious to everyone.

Take a minute or two, and go read the verifiably Geek Length Posts available so far.

And check back here again, to see the Next Exciting Chapter.

Nobel Peace Prize - "What is it good for?"

In an article which has somehow disappeared from The Australian (I'm glad I copied the page; too bad I lost the URL), a former Nobel Peace Prize winner declared "I could kill Bush".

The declaration was issued to a group of Australian school children ... who "clapped and cheered".

Although the original URL is no longer operative, here is the pertinent text of the article:

Peace prize winner 'could kill' Bush
Annabelle McDonald
25 July 2006

NOBEL peace laureate Betty Williams displayed a flash of her feisty Irish spirit yesterday, lashing out at US President George W.Bush during a speech to hundreds of schoolchildren.

Campaigning on the rights of young people at the Earth Dialogues forum, being held in Brisbane, Ms Williams spoke passionately about the deaths of innocent children during wartime, particularly in the Middle East, and lambasted Mr Bush.

"I have a very hard time with this word 'non-violence', because I don't believe that I am non-violent," said Ms Williams, 64.


"Right now, I would love to kill George Bush." Her young audience at the Brisbane City Hall clapped and cheered.

"I don't know how I ever got a Nobel Peace Prize, because when I see children die the anger in me is just beyond belief. It's our duty as human beings, whatever age we are, to become the protectors of human life."

Ms Williams was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 30 years ago, when she circulated a petition to end violence in Northern Ireland after witnessing British soldiers shoot dead an IRA member who was driving a car. He veered on to the footpath, killing two children from one family instantly and fatally injuring a third.

Frankly, we don't know how she ever got the Nobel Peace Prize either. Clearly her sentiments are not peaceful, and we wonder what the attendant children are learning in their Australian school, that they "clapped and cheered" when they were presented with the prospect of murdering a Head of State. One would think that they had been educated in Denver!

Her comments were paralleled by Suburban Islamic cleric Abdul Nacer Benbrika, who was also reported in The Australian as:

(wanting) to kill 1000 Australians to "please Allah" and had the support of a blond recruit who had pledged violent jihad during a meeting with Osama bin Laden.

A Melbourne court heard yesterday that a witness would reveal that Shane Kent, 29, received weapons and explosives training at the Taliban-run al-Faruq training camp for foreign jihadis in Afghanistan.

And at a meeting with bin Laden in that country, Mr Kent, from Meadow Heights in Melbourne's north, allegedly committed himself to violent jihad. The alleged Melbourne terror cell's spiritual leader, Mr Benbrika embraced Mr Kent as part of his clique, the court heard, saying: "He's good, and he doesn't talk too much."

You can't help wondering if Betty Williams read this article, and whether she noticed the similarity in bloodthirsty sentiments between herself and Abdul Nacer Benbrika.

[sigh]

If we could only see ourselves as others see us, would we change?

Oh. Well, of course I wouldn't.

On a Wing and a Prayer -- and 2 out of 3 wheels

Here's a film showing an F111 Ardvaark landing with no wheels ... no fire, and minimum of sparks. No injuries, and a lot of luck.

This lends some inadvertent legitimacy to this article, which suggests that "It's A Sin To Fly"*

*(But it's an Amazing Grace to land!)