The 2013 TSM Year in Review

Last year I almost didn't do this post.  This year, I forgot about it until about 11PM, so it goes up today.  Next year...?

January:

I did not post all that much in January, just 39 pieces and only one long one - a fisking of an op-ed by Dr. James J. Magee, Professor of Political Science and International Relations for the University of Delaware. I may not have a doctorate, but I know more history and law than the good Professor apparently does.

I got my first new gun of the year by trading in an old one: my '94 Winchester rifle for a '92 Winchester carbine clone made by Rossi. It was a good trade.  The Rossi is very handy as opposed to the 24" barreled '94.

February:

I was a little more prolific in February, but then Tucson got SNOWPOCALYPSED!  Dr. Benjamin Carson appeared on the political scene and rapidly became an un-person.  The LAPD went completely insane when one of their own went rogue, and they decided to shoot at anything... well, ANYTHING.  Apparently the LAPD has been using these targets in their firearms training.

The nice ladies they shot up are OK.  None of the cops involved suffered disciplinary action of any kind.

Joe Biden advised people - women especially - that they don't need "assault rifles," they need double-barreled shotguns!  Which he then advised them to use in an illegal manner.  Way to go, Joe.

March:

I cranked it up in March.  One Quote of the Day has particular application to a much more recent one.  I got my second new (to me) gun of the year (one gun a month!  Yea!!!)  And I first noticed that all of the .22 ammo was gone.  I had my first disagreement with 9th Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski.  Hey, nobody's perfect.  Magpul announced that, in the wake of Colorado's anti-gun legislation, they would be leaving the state.  It took them a while to get their ducks in a row, but they're following through with it.

I got ANOTHER gun (two in one month!!)  But I sold my .308 700-5R to finance the purchase.

In perhaps the most important post of that month (or possibly the year), the question of the reliability of the UK's homicide statistics was raised.  That question has still not been answered to my satisfaction.

And, finally, as the implementation of Obamacare bore down upon us, I reviewed the predictions made about it before, during, and immediately after its passage.

We were wrong.  It was worse.

April:

I started April off with a bang with Burying Them Won't Save Them.  It was not an April Fool's post.  I discovered that it wasn't just .22 ammo you couldn't get - I couldn't find .300 Win Mag brass either.  A post I really liked:  What Takes 55,000 Hp Just to Run the Fuel Pump?  I spent two weeks in Houston for training, and then got to spend the following weekend at the NRA convention.  April's überpost Gun Control was written after it became apparent that no new federal gun-control legislation was going to be passed in 2013.

I still need to get this T-shirt.

May:

I cranked out more posts in May (52) than any other month.  I got to meet a bunch of bloggers for the first time at the NRA convention and associated dinners.  And the enthusiasm of the gun-control crowd at the convention was awe-inspiring.  (I actually said "Awwwwww.")  The media, of course, has not let up its constant drumbeat.  They breathlessly informed us that, despite skyrocketing gun sales since 2008, in fact there are fewer gun owners now than some arbitrary number of years ago.  I fisked, but this meme still has legs today.

The blog turned ten.  That's what, seventy in Internet years?

The media, in the guise of the Chicago Tribune, showed its first cracks in covering up for Obama.  I wrote about it.  Even Piers Morgan gave pause. 

May's überpost was Government v3.0, Confidence and Preference Cascades wherein I discussed the idea that we're on the cusp of a transformation equivalent to the Industrial Revolution as far as .gov is concerned.  I was not sanguine about the possibility (and remain so).

June:

June posting started off with a bang, literally.  The IRS scandal was making waves (though the media has done as much as possible to ignore it.)  The New York Times took up the "overreach" meme, as further cracks in the Obama media armor opened.

The post with possibly the highest number of comments for the year was I Don't Like Your Face, Obama.  Either One of Them.  Not a lot of words, but three videos.  252 comments.  The Usual Suspect was involved.

I got my Arizona CCW renewed.  114 days after submitting the application.  They're a little busy, even though Arizona is now a Constitutional Carry state and you don't need a permit unless you want reciprocity with other states.

I got a new T-shirt.  It inspired a post.

July:

The big news for July was the overturning of Chicago's ban on concealed carry:  And Then There Were None.

A couple of young men took the law into their own hands took Robert Peel's Seventh Principal at face value and saved a young child from a predator.  Stuff like this should get wider coverage.

George Zimmerman was found not guilty by a jury of his peers in a court of law after being tried in the press.  Iowahawk got a QotD on the topic as well.

And, after six years here and uncounted comment threads 100 responses or longer, our lone perpetual Leftist was voted off the island.  It was a very close thing.  Apparently he still visits frequently, but has made it quite clear I'm not wanted in his comments.  Fair enough.

But that's OK, a post very shortly afterward drew over 100 comments without him.

August:

I was kinda busy in August.  Lots of Quotes of the Day, not much original content.

Not my content, but worth the read:  I Love My People.

And I discovered the webcomic Failure to Fire.  Definitely NSFW, but fun, nonetheless.

September:

The Gun Blogger Rendezvous, of course!  Drove up this year in my 2002 F-250 diesel, 13 hours and 40 minutes door-to-door.  Sure could carry a lot more people and their stuff than the 'Stang.  Fuel costs, though...  STILL haven't won a gun there, but I did get TWO Crimson trace lasers.  (Haven't sent in the certificate for the second one yet.)

Before the Rendezvous, though, I introduced my readers to Dr. Grover Furr, Stalin denialist.

Good news from Colorado.  After passing gun control legislation, two State Senators lost their seats in a recall election.  Think THAT got politician's attention nationwide?

Dilbert's mom came out as a Tea Partier.

There was another rampage shooting, this time at the Navy Yard in D.C.  The media was its usual self, with layers of fact-checkers and editorial oversight.  Oddly, when the perpetrator turned out not to be a middle-aged white male member of the Tea Party who used a shotgun instead of an "assault rifle," they lost interest.  Instead, they brought out the drums made from the skins of dead children.

The Pima County Sheriff's Department got a slap on the wrist for killing veteran José Guerena in 2011 for the crime of having a scummy brother.  No officers were disciplined, not even for the Keystone Kops routine they performed in front of Guerena's home as they killed him.

And we all prepared for a .gov shutdown!

October:

As Obamacare implementation loomed ever closer and the healthcare.gov website fired up, those cracks in the façade we were seeing started to widen.

A .gov shutdown?  I guess dead kids aren't really that important when politics are involved!

I got another gun!  (Traded in for it, too.) What is that now, four for the year?

With the .gov shutdown in full swing, the Obama administration, through the mechanism of the National Park Service, cranked up the pettiness to eleven.  The media, of course, paid little attention.  Cracks in the façade, yes, but lots of spackle to cover 'em up.  Bill Whittle, however, was paying attention.

The Republicans surrendered, of course, but they just play the game badly - not realizing that the old rules no longer apply.

The For the CHIIIILLLLDREN! drumbeat was taken up again.  Spackle over the cracks, distract, obfuscate.  Still, the Obamacare debacle pushed those cracks wider.  "It's like peeling an onion of fail," said Instapundit.

November:

In November, I received an email from someone who claimed to be an Obamacare insider.  I see no reason to doubt their story.

More and more people began feeling the bite of the "Affordable" "Care" Act.

I got my last new gun of the year, a Lew Horton custom .44 Magnum, circa 2001.  Five guns this year, but only two additions to my collection arsenal.

In desperation over the disastrous implementation of his signature legislation, Obama keeps making law up on the fly. Eleven state Attorney's General have sent a letter to HHS head Sebelius declaring his actions illegal.  But that doesn't matter - they're all Republicans.  Which makes this QotD more telling.

The Chicago Tribune doubled-down on its position first expressed in May.  I was starting to have some glimmer of hope.  Nah, not really.

And, in November, the Democrats finally detonated the "nuclear option" in the Senate, after railing against it most eloquently (and accurately) in 2005.  I called them on their hypocrisy.

Former Enron adviser Paul Krugman compared Obamacare with Benghazi.  He said it, I didn't.

And, finally, December:

It was a light month for posting, as I've been VERY busy.  The only real post of note that month was about a legal decision in the 9th Circus with ANOTHER outstanding dissent by Chief Judge Alex Kozinski.  Too bad his best work seems to be in dissent of poor decisions.

And another calendar year slips by.  Amazing how they seem to do that faster and faster each year.  Five more months, and this blog will be eleven years old.  I'm not sure at this point how much longer I'll keep it up.  It's time-consuming as hell, and I find I am repeating and repeating and repeating what I've said years before.  I don't know. We'll see what comes.

Anyway, a happy new year to you all, and let's hope 2014 turns out to be better than any of us have any right to expect.