Update: By “park in a snow bank”, I really mean “leave in snow bank once car becomes stuck”.

ALEXANDRIA, La. – An Alexandria man was recovering after accidentally shooting himself while showing his girlfriend how to handle a pistol on Saturday in the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant.

Police said the 21-year-old man told investigators he forgot he had just reloaded the gun, and squeezed the trigger while putting the gun into the driver’s door panel. The bullet went through his inner left thigh.

Police said the man repeatedly told investigators he was ex-military and knows how to handle a gun, and was very embarrassed by the incident.

Umm, yeah. It just seems to me that “the parking lot of a fast-food restaurant” isn’t the most appropriate place to demonstrate how to handle a pistol. But then, that would require common sense, which — admittedly — we men tend to lose when there’s an attractive woman in the vicinity.

DENVER – A gun belonging to the pilot of a US Airways plane went off as the aircraft was on approach to land in North Carolina over the weekend, the first time a weapon issued under a federal program to arm pilots was fired, authorities said Monday.
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The “accidental discharge” Saturday aboard Flight 1536 from Denver to Charlotte did not endanger the aircraft or the 124 passengers, two pilots and three flight attendants aboard, said Greg Alter of the Federal Air Marshal Service.

I’d be interested in finding out how this pilot fired his weapon. I should point out that a gun doesn’t “just go off”. Someone fires it by pulling the trigger. Incidents where a gun is fired unintentionally are more properly called negligent discharges since they result from an act of negligence.

This quote at the end of the story pisses me off, since it comes from an “aviation expert” who really should know better:

“If that bullet had compromised the shell of the airplane, i.e., gone through a window, the airplane could have gone down,” he said.

Explosive decompression due to gunfire is a myth. Obviously this guy needs to watch fewer movies and more MythBusters.

As for the negligent discharge, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the democratic Congress use it as an excuse to strip pilots of their ability to defend themselves and the passengers.

Update: More here, including photos.

But, as of now, entering Fuck Cal Poly into Google returns my very own humble site at position #1. The offending post? Cal Poly Band by the Numbers of course!

All I can say is, “heh”.

The link Google provides is actually wrong, since I renamed Other Pages to About, but whatever — it’s still funny. (This will work itself out the next time Google crawls my site.)

Conventional wisdom is hardening around the proposition that Fred Dalton Thompson is too lazy, ill-prepared, tired, old, lackluster, inexperienced, inconsistent and bald to make a successful run for President.

Of course, conventional wisdom rarely gets anything right. When it does, it’s only by accident.

In this case conventional wisdom is not just wrong but comically so. Thompson will win the Republican nomination for two reasons. First, he’s a very impressive candidate. Second, there’s no realistic alternative. He will win the general election for the same two reasons.

The author then goes on to compare Thompson to his Republican and Democratic rivals. He also asserts that Thompson is the best candidate to return the Republican Party to the ideals preached by Reagan. I don’t agree with the entire article (particularly “[Roe v Wade] is a travesty, which puts [Guliani] squarely on the wrong side of the culture war”), but it’s an interesting take on an interesting candidate. Go read.

Update, Feb 2008: Maybe conventional wisdom was right after all. Bummer.

The scene: Marsh St. in SLO is a 3 lane, one-way street. I’m in the left lane, about to pass a Chevy Malibu in the center lane. Without signalling, slowing, or looking, the Malibu turned left across my lane, presumably to turn into the bank driveway to the left. I began to swerve, but it was too late: I struck the Malibu’s front driver-side door. It happened so fast, I did not have enough time to fully react. The impact sent me into that bank driveway, where I brought the bike to a “panic” stop on the sidewalk. The bike didn’t go down — whew!

Damage to me: a minor bruise on my right knee. My knee armor absorbed most of the blow from the Malibu’s door. (This is why we wear armored gear.)

Damage to the bike: The right control pod was rotated up about 20-30 degrees, with a bent brake lever. (Apparently my hand wasn’t on the brake at the moment of impact, or I would have four broken fingers.) The handlebar was bent, and the front end was knocked out of alignment. The right highway peg was slightly bent. The windshield popped off, but I was able to reattach it. Total repair was about $300, which is being covered by the Malibu’s insurance.

Damage to the Malibu: a deep gouge at the bottom of the door from my highway peg. Another deep gouge at the top of the door from my handlebar and brake lever. At least two big dents at the center of the door, probably from my tire and my knee. Oh, and a cracked window. Heh, I guess I made an impression on that car.

I guess I got lucky in this collision, since I got bounced up a driveway rather than into a curb or a parked car. It could have been much worse. OTOH, if I had been at that location 2 seconds sooner or later, the Malibu would have missed me. The Malibu just happened to make her move just as I passed through her “kill zone”.

What really helped however was emergency braking. I’ve spent time this summer practicing the “panic stop” MSF drill. After the collision, I stopped the bike automatically, without even thinking about it. That braking practice really paid off! Now I just need to practice reading driver’s minds a bit better.

I put this page of pics together for the insurance people, mostly because my camera is digital. Click on the numbers (pic names) to see the pics.

If I had realized at the time that the car was at least somewhat special, I probably would have treated the old girl with more respect. Instead, I cut off the vinyl top with a boxcutter when it began to peel, utilized a belt sander to blast away rust, and Ace Hardware spraypaint to patch up the resulting bare metal. I’m sure the engine wasn’t making anywhere close to the 200 HP/330 lb-ft. it was rated for, as the duct from the ram-air scoop to the air cleaner was missing. As a final indignity, I sold the car to my cousin, who didn’t bother to register it; he drove it unregistered for two years until it was impounded by Modesto PD. The fine to get the car back was greater than the car’s value.

Pages dedicated to the 1975 Pontiac Grand Prix are here and here.

I somehow managed to jam my left thumb while going for a loose ball during the basketball game this morning. On my ride home this evening, shooting pain helped me identify the following actions which require my left thumb:

• Pulling the helmet strap tight
• Stretching the cargo net
• Opening my helmet visor
• Pulling in the clutch lever
• Turning the fuel petcock
• Operating my turn signals
• Operating the choke
• Blowing the horn at stupid cagers
• Loosening my helmet strap
• Taking my right glove off

Fortunately, I type spaces with my right thumb, so I can bitch about my boo-boo without undo difficulty. Lucky you.