Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Rumors of My Demise Have Been Exagerated

Hello everyone!
 
I'm using the email version of Blogger as the geniuses at Home Office have contracted a new internet service provider that has blocked all Blogs!
 
Not only that, but I am shuttling about several bases, covering for other Site Managers on leave. In addition I am soon to be posted to a new base that I have affectionately named "Skull Mountain" When I can convince the powers that be, that TROC is not a subversive blog, I'll post pictures and you shall see why I gave it that moniker.
 
Hopefully, you are all having a great summer with lots of fun and frolic. You all just keep that up, and pitch a couple of cold ones back for me! Enjoy your families and your friends too.

Best regards,
Albert A Rasch
Somewhere in Afghanistan
Standing Ready when the Wolves Growl at the Door...


The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles
The Range Reviews: Tactical




Monday, July 4, 2011

TROC Presents, The Declaration of Independence

Albert A Rasch and
The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles
$g&m f9bd 45kd q!?5.

My Dearest Friends,

On this, the most solemn and most joyous of days, I wish to you, one and all, peace, prosperity, and freedom!


The Unanimous Declaration of the Thirteen United States of America

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Prose Credit: Thomas Jefferson Founding Father

Read it my friends; read it with your children. Ponder what was meant and think about where we are going.

Best to you my fellow Americans!
Albert A Rasch


The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles


Albert Rasch,HunterThough he spends most of his time writing and keeping the world safe for democracy, Patriot and hunter Albert Rasch was actually a student of biology. Really. But after a stint as a lab tech performing repetitious and mind-numbing processes that a trained capuchin monkey could do better, he never returned to the field. Rather he became a bartender. As he once said, "Hell, I was feeding mice all sorts of concoctions. At the club I did the same thing; except I got paid a lot better, and the rats where bigger." He has followed the science of QDM for many years, and fancies himself an aficionado. If you have any questions, or just want to get more information, reach him via TheRaschOutdoorChronicles(at)MSN(dot)com.

Monday, June 27, 2011

Oo La La! Cest Magnifique! The Suburban Bushwacker!

The Suburban Bushwacker entertains and educates!
© 2011 Albert A Rasch and
The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles
$g&m f9bd 45kd q!?5.

Friends,

I like nothing better than a good, ole fashioned, rollicking shootout on a crisp autumn morning. Blood pumping, adrenalin flowing, finger on the trigger, with acrid cordite in the air burning your nose like brimstone - nothing speaks better of a proper Sunday morning spent in contemplation of one's life.

Our irrepressible and sometimes wacky Over-the-Pond Blogger who is more commonly known as The Suburban Bushwacker, has an older post that I think is all to good to be left whithering away in the bowels of the internet netherworld.

Our entertaining, fearless Blogger/correspondent from the British Isles shares "Battue: French For Bushwacking" and explains how our Continental friends organize and run a drive.


Now I don't know about you, but I sure would love to experience that at least once in my life. Of course it may also be the last thing I do, but I am willing to take the risk..

Even if they are French...

Best Regards,
Albert “Afghanus” Rasch
The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles
Albert Rasch In Afghanistan

Member: Shindand Tent Club
Member: Hunting Sportsmen of the United States HSUS (Let 'em sue me.)
The Hunt Continues...


The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles, Albert A Rasch, Hunting in Florida


Albert Rasch,HunterThough he spends most of his time writing and keeping the world safe for democracy, Albert was actually a student of biology. Really. But after a stint as a lab tech performing repetitious and mind-numbing processes that a trained capuchin monkey could do better, he never returned to the field. Rather he became a bartender. As he once said, "Hell, I was feeding mice all sorts of concoctions. At the club I did the same thing; except I got paid a lot better, and the rats where bigger." He has followed the science of QDM for many years, and fancies himself an aficionado. If you have any questions, or just want to get more information, reach him via TheRaschOutdoorChronicles(at)MSN(dot)com.

Friday, June 24, 2011

The Dangers of Fly Fishing! Englishmen Beware!

Hunting and Fishing in America!
© 2011 Albert A Rasch and
The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles

From the "I Really Can't Believe I'm Reading This," file comes the following:

Tourist Fly Fishermen visiting North America are in danger of being killed or seriously injured !!!

“I am very serious. Non Americans fishing in America are in danger of being killed or of being seriously injured. There are hazards like bears, alligators, stingrays, poison ivy, hunters with guns and monster sharks that can cause you harm if not fatal damage.”


Well, I’ve read it a couple of times now. I’m pretty sure it was written as a legitimate, yet misinformed warning, maybe as an attempt to dissuade English folk from visiting our shores, but I don’t think it was a comedic piece done tongue in cheek.

I think the fellow that owns it is Craig Moore, but I’m not 100% certain so I don’t want to quote him, but the site says,

Here in Britain there are no dangerous animals to interrupt a great day's fishing.”

Yeah, but you guys have soccer hooligans! So there!

Oh by the way, they really have some beautiful flies at The English Fly Fishing Shop. They are all hand tied, and they also hand tie custom flies. So if you’re into the fly fishing hobby, stop by and take a look.

All of the information is certainly valid; you shouldn’t tow fish on a stringer, off your hip, while wade fishing in Florida, and you probably shouldn’t walk around grizzly country unprepared nor unarmed. I suppose that gators might be a concern too, but I have never had any problems with them. Except for the one in that lady’s garage. He was really fat and heavy and no one wanted to help me get him back into the lake he came from. The Mrs. and both the boys finally had to help me out on that one. Mosquitoes, now that’s a different story. I got torn to shreds while in the US Army, but a mosquito did more harm to me, hurt worse, and laid me low for a lot longer!

But I do take exception to the statement about hunters.

Yes, while it is true that we Americans are frequently well armed during hunting season. (It must be very intimidating to our English friends to know that I and the citizens of this great nation are as heavily armed as we are, yet more than capable of governing ourselves without bloodshed or civil unrest. Must be a lesson in there somewhere…) It is also equally true that rarely does anyone get shot by accident during hunting season. On occasion, people get shot on purpose, that’s true, but usually they got it coming to them. Well… sometimes not, but we have the Law to sort those things out.

Anyway, as far as I know, no fisherman has ever been bagged out of season. That’s if they’re even on the books as legal game. Come to think of it, I don’t even think they have a season on fishing folk, even in the western states. Furthermore, any English fly fishing sportsman would be a transient or migratory species and would require a special and expensive stamp; same for an Irish or French one. Well, I don't know, but the French might be considered an invasive or nuisance species and might not have any legal protection from any laws, like the starling, walking catfish, and Norway rat. Don’t quote me on that, I’m no legal expert on game laws outside of Florida. Anyway I figure anyone that lives in such a damp and cool climate as the British Isles is bound to be oily and gamey. I know that sometimes I’m a little gamey sometimes on account of the dampness. So no sense in shooting one anyway.

Grizzlies are pretty placid if you give them their space, and anyway you should be fishing with a guide, who likely will carry a Ruger Redhawk in 44 magnum. I personally prefer the 45 Long Colt; more oomph at lower pressure. If they made a 46 Colt I would carry that instead.

Now mountain lions are little different. They go after the weak and infirm. And they really like people on mountain bikes. Now I don’t have any specifics as to which bikes they prefer, and with the new 29s coming out the whole paradigm may change, so stay tuned. You can figure that unless you’re riding a bike to your fishing spot, you should be ok.

Bull elks and moose in general, don’t usually do the cross species thing. They find it distasteful. Remember what happened to those caribou that ended up hanging out with that fat guy in the red suit? They got funny names and have to haul butt under less than tolerable conditions! Where’s the RSPCA when you need it? That’s why they don’t take any unnecessary chances with us humans.

Shuffle your feet, and stingrays won’t stick you a good one. Though if you do happen to screw up and get stuck, get some meat tenderizer on it as soon as possible.

Ask me what I think the most dangerous thing is and I will tell you what it is:

It is stupidity.

If you’re stupid, don’t go and do stuff that will get you killed. I know that stupid people don’t know any better, but if you have any question, and one of the outcomes can lead to dismemberment or worse, it would probably behoove you not to go that way. Politicians are excluded for obvious reasons. Just a little advice.

So my English friends, believe you me that fishing in the United States is much, much safer than taking a walk through Londonistan. No one is going to take out a fatwah on you because you use a fresh water fly in the briny. Just don’t get mad at us when we ask you if you are from Australia. That’s probably the worse affront we might commit, other than mangling the Queen’s English. And drink beer ice cold.

Seriously, if you really want to worry about something, worry about how contagious American Freedom is. I’ve met a lot of people from around the world. Just recently Jordan Bear made three new friends from South Africa. The thing they most remarked on was how overwhelmed they were at first, by the unbridled freedom they found. The freedom to make choices, along with the responsibility, can be intoxicating.

So don’t sweat the “dangers.” We Americans will see to it that you all don’t get into more trouble than you can handle, and we have proven over and over that we will always come to your aid, even when it hurts.

And don't forget the great Winston Churchill said, "Americans will always do the right thing... After they have tried everything else!"


Best Regards,
Albert A Rasch
Member: Qalat City Tent Club
Member: Hunting Sportsmen of the United States HSUS (Let 'em sue me.)
The Hunt Continues...


The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles, Albert A Rasch, Hunting in Florida


Albert Rasch,HunterThough he spends most of his time writing and keeping the world safe for democracy, Albert was actually a student of biology. Really. But after a stint as a lab tech performing repetitious and mind-numbing processes that a trained capuchin monkey could do better, he never returned to the field. Rather he became a bartender. As he once said, "Hell, I was feeding mice all sorts of concoctions. At the club I did the same thing; except I got paid a lot better, and the rats where bigger." He has followed the science of QDM for many years, and fancies himself an aficionado. If you have any questions, or just want to get more information, reach him via TheRaschOutdoorChronicles(at)MSN(dot)com.



Best Boar Hunting Rifle Calibers: Part I

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Sun Protection and Skin Care for You, the Outdoorsman

Hunting and Fishing in the Sun: Reduce Your Risks!
© 2011 Albert A Rasch and
The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles
$g&m f9bd 45kd q!?5.

Having Fun in the Sun - Safely!

Editor's Note: I've been very fortunate. Though I have spent the majority of my working days out in the sun, I have not suffered any damage... that I can tell. Time though, will tell just how much damage I really have done to my skin.  So allow me to remind you of the dangers, and the simple precautions you can take to safeguard your health. 

As many of you must know, skin cancer is on the rise. Exposure to everyday chemicals, polluted atmospheres, over exposure to the sun, and better record keeping, all have contributed to the rise according to the American Cancer Society. 2 million cases of non-melanoma skin cancer on average are diagnosed each year. 68,000 cases of melanoma, the most serious and lethal type of skin cancer, are within that diagnostic catagory.

Remember when summertime rolls around, we tend to spend far more time outdoors, especially if we love fishing! Long hours on the dock, pier, shoreline, or boat add up to a lot of exposure, especially to the strongest and most harmful ultraviolet sun rays of the year.
There are some simple precausions you can take to reduce the harmful effects of the sun and reduce your chances of skin cancer and damage.
  • Wear a hat.your head and face are the most likely spots to get damaged and suffer skin cancer!
  • Wear long sleeved shirts and pants. If you have ever watched the TV shows of flats fishermen in Florida, you will notice they wear lightweight pants and long sleeve shirts.
  • Use good sunglasses that are polarized. Not only can you see better, but it really helps protect your eyes from flying debris, sand, lures and insects.
  • Use a good sunblock. SPF 30 is the minimum for outdoor work, and you should reapply frequently.

 It's really important to drink plenty of water, and stay hydrated. If you're hydrated so is your skin. And hydrated skin can cool itself more efficiently. 


Following these simple guidelines will lessen the chances of you getting skin skin cancer and keep you enjoying the great outdoors!

Best Regards,
Albert A Rasch
Member:  Qalat City Tent Club
Member: Hunting Sportsmen of the United States HSUS (Let 'em sue me.)
The Hunt Continues...


The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles, Albert A Rasch, Hunting in Florida