Special Operative Brass is one of the Castle weaponsmithies, and he reminds us:

Dear Dread and Frightful Czar,

The reason the EPA dropped the ban [proposed for lead bullets, referenced here] was the Republicans in Congress actually grew a pair and passed some legislation that forbid [the EPA] from enforcing the ban.

Other than that picked-nit, I’m in full agreement. I think the reason the Republicans were able to get this passed was because the Dems know it’s a losing cause that will hurt them in elections.

The Czar does not believe we are in disgreement: the EPA did not voluntarily drop the ban, but was forced to by grass-roots movements. On that we agree. However, for your own private journal, the dropping of the ban however happened in August of 2010; the GOP legislation to prevent a further occurrence did not happen until Spring of this year.

Here is something important from JAB:

Dear Your Czarness,

Hey there! I’m just back from a vacation (No, not at the government’s “Gray-Bar Hotel,” by the way!) and checking back in with the Castle-dwelling class.

Regarding your trip to the gun range, I can corroborate your observations. Beloved Bubba and I had the chance to take the young’uns to Wolf Creek, outside Atlanta, back in April. This was the venue for the shooting sports during the ’96 Olympics. Now, I had never, ever shot hydraulically-propelled clays, let alone from towers. Let me tell you, those babies get up and go! So, like I totally whiffed on the first five.

But back to your observations of who is shooting these days. I saw at least five other women, including a very cute girl who I reckoned to be about 15. I didn’t have time to watch her shoot much, but her stance was promising. Our guy (for those not familiar with sporting clays, you call “pull” and the attendant triggers the clay target), was an African-American young man of about 25. Based on the tips he gave us, I think he is pretty deadly with a shot-gun. As we were leaving, an Asian man of about 60, commented how happy he was to see a family out enjoying the sport of shooting together. Like you said, all ages, races and types.

I haven’t read all the posts you gent’s made in my absence, but your question about Andrew Jackson [That Jackson killed many Indians in battle is uncontested—but please let us know if you have information to the contrary.] got my attention. Certainly, he didn’t win battles without killing, be they British, Creek, or Seminole, but I don’t know of anything you’d call a massacre. However, did you know that he raised a Creek baby found on a battlefield with the body of his dead mother? His name was Lyncoya, and he was raised and educated with the other children of the family (Andrew and Rachel had no children of their own but reared many, including nieces and nephews). Although Jackson wrote of wanting him to attend West Point, Lyncoya died of tuberculosis, the same fate as Jackson’s niece Rachel Donelson, who served as his First Lady, his wife Rachel having died before he was sworn in. It is hard think of a time when tuberculosis was a death sentence even to the well-to-d, isn’t it?

Yours from the Doublewide, JAB

Indeed, JAB goes the extra mile to prove Andrew Jackson showed a little more than mercy to the Indians once in a while. Thanks, JAB! Happy hunting!

The Czar of Muscovy

Божію Поспѣшествующею Милостію Мы, Дима Грозный Императоръ и Самодержецъ Всероссiйскiй, цѣсарь Московскiй. The Czar was born in the steppes of Russia in 1267, and was cheated out of total control of all Russia upon the death of Boris Mikhailovich, who replaced Alexander Yaroslav Nevsky in 1263. However, in 1283, our Czar was passed over due to a clerical error and the rule of all Russia went to his second cousin Daniil (Даниил Александрович), whom Czar still resents. As a half-hearted apology, the Czar was awarded control over Muscovy, inconveniently located 5,000 miles away just outside Chicago. He now spends his time seething about this and writing about other stuff that bothers him.