Sleepless in Midland

The gun show must go on - 2/2/13

As anyone who follows gun news would have guessed, the gun show in Midland, Texas, today was jam packed with customers. A lot of money was changing hands, and it surely must have been a good day for the vendors.

[Note to gun controllers: Each gun transaction I witnessed involved the ATF forms and procedures.]

It was scheduled to open at 9:00 am, and that's when I arrived in order to beat the crowd. No such luck. There was a long line of people there with the same idea. I was in the door by 9:30, so it wasn't a terribly long wait.

There was an interesting lesson in capitalism on display as we waited in line. The show sponsor walked along the line and offered to sell weekend passes which would allow the buyer to bypass the line and go directly inside, plus come back again on Sunday. Those passes were $15, while the regular entry fee for each day was $5. Wait your turn and pay the regular price or pay a premium and jump the line.

Collectivists would say "that's unfair," because only the rich could pay that premium. Nonsense. That's a free market at work. "Fair" does not factor into the equation. Anyone with the money and inclination should be able to do what he/she wants so long as it doesn't take anything away from someone else.

On that particular morning most of us in line were too cheap to take the offer, but a few did.

Groundhog day not complete without seeing Groundhog Day

Just watched the last half hour of "Groundhog Day" on AMC and was glad to see that Phil broke the curse in the final minutes once again. It was touch and go there for a while.

Spoiler alert. If you haven't seen the movie ignore the preceding paragraph.

If you enjoyed the movie be sure to listen to this commentary from Stephen Tobolowsky, the brilliant character actor who dominated the scenes in which his character appeared. "Phil? Phil Conners? It's Ned! Ned Reyerson!

Tobolowsky reveals, for example, that Bill Murray refused to leave his dressing room on the day of shooting the final bedroom scene because he didn't know what to wear. Recall that this scene was the morning when Phil wakes up to a new day with Rita in bed beside him. Harold Ramis asked the crew what they thought, and one young person who was working her first show business job said Phil and Rita should be wearing the clothes they were wearing in the scene the night before. And that's what they wore.

With friends like that ...

Two pals were watching a game on TV. One of them got the hiccups. The other one decided to scare the hiccups out of him. So he got his gun and shot the guy dead. Hiccups stopped. From Elpasotimes.com:

Myers told police he thought the weapon had dummy rounds and was trying to scare his friend so his hiccups would stop.

A military tribunal sentenced the shooter to 3.5 years for involuntary manslaughter.

With friends like that -- all together now -- who needs enemies?

Addendum:  Memo to gun controllers: they were soldiers at Ft. Hood, so don't get all knee jerky.