And every day on the B-blogge.
Great shooting at the Stoughton Conservation Club Monday. As a newly minted member, I brought along as a guest the Divine Miss Vicki, who was treated like a rock star by the friendly members we encountered.
At the 25-yard shooting range, a 25-year member by the name of Berlin Sorensen let us shoot his U.S. Army issue M-1 Garand. In turn, I put my father's 30-06 M1903 Springfield into his hands, which saw action in the Aleutian Islands. Scanning the muzzle with an expert eye, he determined that it was manufactured in 1942 -- which was the year father enlisted. R.I.P. Fitting weaponry for a gloriously warm Memorial Day. (The two rifles are compared here.)
We were soon joined by a wizened fellow named John who brought his sweet-shooting .22 caliber Ruger Charger, that looks like something out of Star Wars. It's scoped and stands on its own with the help of two legs mounted forward and the pistol stock. Made for steady aiming, I guess.
What John and Berlin don't know about guns and ammo isn't worth knowing -- and Miss Vicki isn't far behind.
We fired Miss Vicki's .327 magnum Ruger revolver, her semi-auto 9 mm pistol, and a newly acquired .20 gauge autoloading shotgun and my modest arsenal, which includes a nine-round .22 Taurus revolver and a break-action .410 shotgun. Both are fun shooters.
Wish I had photographed the second of two paper targets we used; it was shredded like a deposed dictator's secret files. Which is why we saved the shotguns for last.
What are they afraid of?
By state law, the school voucher program in Milwaukee is subjected to rigorous academic scrutiny. The school choice program provides low-income kids in Wisconsin's worst school district the same options, say, Barack and Michelle Obama enjoy for their children. State lawmakers want to know whether the program is working or not. Fair enough.
So why won't the Milwaukee Public Schools cooperate? The two researchers monitoring the program report:
The private high schools of the choice program graciously opened their doors to us and allowed us full access to their schools. Although several MPS principals urged us to come see their schools as well, the central administration at MPS prohibited us having any further contact with those schools as they considered our request for visits. We have not heard from them in weeks. [Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel: 5-28-11]
Maybe because choice students are performing above their public school counterparts, says UW-Madison's John Witte and education professor Patrick Wolfe of Arkansas-Fayetteville University.
Being in the choice program in ninth grade increases by four to seven percentage points a student's prospects of both graduating from high school and enrolling in college. Students who remain in the choice program for their entire four years of high school graduate at a rate of 94%, compared with 75% for similar MPS students.
What's more, they're doing it more cheaply than the public schools. Witte and Wolfe confirm the Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau's findings that school choice saves money -- $52 million in Fiscal Year 2011.
Where is the court order that Milwaukee Schools admit the researchers into their troubled classrooms?
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Jeffrey Horn sends along a report that DeForest Schools' 22 top administrators got pay raises averaging 16%. At least they didn't fake calling in sick.
The field hands at the Experimental Work Farm report that the bush beans -- Roma II and Jade, planted May 20, have emerged. Time to erect the electric razor-wire fences to deter the bunnies. As for the chipmunks, more drastic measures are in store.
Berg and I chomped down on tasty Johnsonville bratwursts Saturday at the World's Greatest Bratfest, then drove downtown around the Alt-Fest. Lots of T-shirts with the raised fist. And jugglers. Ugh! I shouted out of the window a question any good journalist would ask, "What's wrong with you (people)?"
Never did get a response. Guess they don't know.
Wouldn't you think that if the Left wanted to hurt Johnsonville they would eat as many brats at Bratfest as they could stand, given that the company donates the product? For charity? I.E., help the company exhaust its resources? Does that make too much sense for our liberal acquaintances? (For they ARE ...)
Today's encomium
Blaska's Blog is "the brave resistance behind enemy lines." -- Michael J. Caughill, 3-16-11 on Twitter.
