What is Xavier Reading?

"Visual Poetry: A Creative Guide for Making Engaging Digital Photographs" by Chris Orwig is an excellent read, although the author can get a bit verbose. The author makes good points though, and he wants his reader to understand and appreciate them. That can lead to tedious nit picking. Visual Poetry never reaches that level.

The concepts Orwig discusses are often lost on those who believe good photography comes from equipment. In fact, good photography no more comes from the latest and greatest Nikon than great paintings came from Rembrandt's brushes. The masterpieces came from the master's mind and soul, not his equipment. These are the ideas that Orwig harnesses and unveils in this work.

The creative process is a mystery to many people who have never studied the arts or investigated the artistic mind. Digital cameras have brought photography out of the darkroom and into the lap of anyone with a computer. Still, the snapshots many people take are just as common as those thirty years ago. "Visual Poetry" can give the uninitiated amateur photographer the first look, and a decisive look, into the creative process of making captivating images. After all, it is the photographer who must be developed, not just the image.

Lessons from Armed America

My friend Kathy Jackson has co-authored a new book. Lessons from Armed America is available now for $15.95.

This is an unsolicited plug for a fantastic gun writer. Shame the gun rags have overlooked her. They might still be relevant if she was on board. Order several copies and give them for Christmas gifts.

I will.

Meditations on Violence

Over the years, I have found that while crimes of violence usually have common denominators leading up to the actual physical assault, many if not most people are woefully unprepared to deal with a violent attack on their life. On Grant Cunningham's blog, I learned about this book, Meditations on Violence by Sgt. Rory Miller. The author is a corrections officer with real world experience surviving desperate and violent confrontations with hardened human predators in the course of a day's work.

In the dojo of indisputable reality, Miller paints a stark portrait of what works, what doesn't, as well as the myths fantasies that many people cling to regarding their ability to survive and cope with life altering violence. As Miller states early in the book, "you are what you are, not what you think you are."

From Lawrence Kane's review of the work on amazon.com:

"This is a guy who routinely survives brutal encounters that would leave the average person physically and emotionally shattered. Unlike most martial arts instructors, he has first-hand experience that separates longstanding myths and heroic fantasies from merciless reality. Using interesting personal vignettes backed up by solid research and indisputable logic he conveys this hard-earned wisdom in a highly effective manner. His insights on how to make self-defense work and overcome subconscious resistance to meeting violence with violence could very well save a reader's life one day.

While the author's no-nonsense tone can be a bit "street" and his examples a bit graphic at times, his psychology degree shines throughout the writing as well. This combination makes for a fascinating read. One of the best features of the book is an informative matrix that addresses various types of violence, demonstrating how they differ from each other and how the lessons from one type may not apply to the needs of another. Other important topics include the dynamics of violence, predator mindset, adapting training to the realities of violence, making physical defense work, and the after-effects a sudden assault or long-term exposure to a violent environment."

Grant's endorsement is good enough for me. Now I just need to find another worthwhile book so I can get the Super Saver shipping discount.

What is Xavier Reading?

I am poring over some of my old photography books. Most were purchased when I was still in the Navy, and as a result are well traveled and small. They are also 35mm specific. I think they will help me get back into the groove with light. The film to digital information is easy enough to find on the innerweb.

The USS Forrestal Fire

At 10:52 on July 29, 1967, on Yankee Station aboard the USS Forrestal (CV-59), a defining moment in US Naval history occurred. My wife asked me about John McCain's role in the Forrestal fire last night. It was McCain's A-4 Skyhawk that was struck by the zuni rocket launched on deck from an F-4 Phantom. His being there has been politicized by some misinformed individuals, but John McCain only had one role in this tragic incident. That of an aviator........ And perhaps that of a hero.

John McCain's role really doesn't matter to those who have sailed in the US Navy since that time. They know what took place on the USS Forrestal. It was ingrained in each and every one of them as surely as the ice cold wind at Great Lakes RTC in January. All sailors since that time have been trained as firefighters. When there is a fire at sea, the choice is clear. Fight the fire, or die. There is no place to run, no place to swim to.

The lessons of the USS Forrestal were preserved on a training film called "Trial By Fire." Regrettably, I was unable to find a copy, but I was able to find a more modern dramatization of the events. Shellbacks will note several discrepancies, such as modern aircraft and equipment appearing in some of the film. The black and white plat lens footage though is real. The story is factual. The men who died were real.

134 sailors perished. 161 were injured. 21 aircraft were destroyed. Thousands survived, and a ship was saved. For those who want to know true heroism at sea, here is the story of what US sailors commonly know as "The Forrestal Fire."











A complete account of the Forrestal fire can be found in the book Sailors to the End by Gregory A. Freeman.

Update: Trial by Fire thanks Mopar!

Congrats Gordo & Todd!

Visit this link for my review and how to order your copy.

She's Got a Gun

"For the first nine years after Jimmy's death, Dad would drive past the cemetery where Jimmy was buried, on his way to work. Each day, twice a day, he would say as he passed by, 'Come on home, Jimmy boy.' Dad stopped doing this after he changed jobs and his driving route changed. He told me he held on to the slightest hope that the body sent home to us wasn't Jimmy's and he was still alive, somewhere in Vietnam. Dad acknowledged how far-fetched this sounded, but it didn't stop him from thinking it, wishing it. If Jimmy had come home, I wonder, would he have followed his boyhood dream and become a gunsmith? ...

If Jimmy had come home from Vietnam, I don't think his kid sister would have purchased a gun at the end of the first Gulf War. The only reason I bought my gun was because I wanted to understand what he loved about firearms. By doing what he loved most, I thought I might learn more about him. And I have."

Nancy Floyd

"She's Got a Gun" is a volume of women gun owners photographed, quoted, and compiled by Georgia State University photography professor Nancy Floyd. It challenges the idea that gun ownership and appreciation is solely a masculine quality. In the exerpts located at Creative Loafing, it looks like this book is a good one....A very good one. Like "Armed America" by Kyle Cassidy, it crushes the myths that gun owners are ignorant tobacco chewing rednecks with dried up cornflakes stuck in their beards.

She's Got a Gun by Nancy Floyd is available in hardcover at Amazon.com, and also at Temple University Press.

Hat tip to Tam

What Is Xavier Reading?

"Bill Ruger's .22 Pistol" by Don Findley is a wonderful surprise I found at a book fair. I have been unable to locate it on Amazon.com, other than a $100 leather bound version. My lesser quality copy had a $44.95 cover price. The Book Fair price was five bucks.

Don Findley's publication is a coffee table sized book filled with detailed two page spreads of the Ruger Standard, MKI, and MKII pistols. It also contains photos of Bill Ruger's hand tools from his first abandoned business. The large clear photos are accompanied by text that explains the evolution of the little plinker and the myriad variations that collectors relish and justify their latest purchases by. While not a reference book or a definitive anthology of the pistol, the book certainly lives up to it's billing as a "photographic essay of the Ruger Rimfire Pistol." If you enjoy Ruger rimfire pistols, and see the book for an affordable price, do not hesitate to purchase it.

"The Ruger .22 Automatic Pistol" by Duncan Long is available on Amazon.com for $10.88. It is a history of Strum Ruger as well, and a good, inexpensive reference to their auto loading pistols.

Duncan Long's book adequately covers the Ruger pistol through the Mark II line. The illustrations obviously can't compare with the coffee table book, but they are sufficient. Long's book also covers the care and maintenance, disassembly and reassembly, accessories, and ammunition.

Both books are certainly worth the price to the Ruger plinker aficionado. The Findley book is certainly directed more towards the collector, with enlarged macro photos. The Long book is more information packed, aimed at another niche in the esoteric world of accumulating firearms. If you accumulate the Ruger pistol, you may as well pick up both books if you have the chance.

What Is Xavier Reading?

I finally received my copy of The Great New Orleans Gun Grab-Descent Into Anarchy by Gordon Hutchinson and Todd Masson a few days back. I say long awaited, not because the book took a long time to arrive, but because in September 2005 I knew this book would be written. My copy actually arrived within days of being ordered from Louisiana Publishing.

It is odd that many gun owners still refuse to believe the reality of the US Constitution being raped on the streets of New Orleans and the surrounding areas in the days after hurricane Katrina. If you have a gun owner friend in denial, this book is a most illuminating Christmas gift. Many gun owners say "It could never happen here." Guess what.......It did. This book dispels a lot of the Rambo vote from the rooftops chest beating, and places the reader directly into the reality of confiscations.

Last night, I pored through the introduction and first chapter before I had to put the book down to get some much needed sleep. I was not at all surprised to find the first chapter to be Ashton O'Dwyer's tale of survival. Ashton lives in one of the antebellum mansions on St. Charles Street. He spoke for thousands when he went on national television and said "Treat me with benign neglect! Get out of my neighborhood, get out of my life, get out of my ******* city!" Ashton was living a resolute existence of survival at the time. To help preserve his sanity, with black humor, he proclaimed his property sovereign, the territory of the Duchy of Kilnamanagh, seceding from the United States as Peter Sellers had in "The Mouse that Roared". On the fateful morning of September 19, 2005, Ashton O'Dwyer drove to Baton Rouge to file the first Katrina related class action lawsuit against Governor Kathleen Blanco, Mayor Ray Nagin, and New Orleans Police Superintendent Eddie Compass. Then he drove back to his home on St. Charles Street.

The wild proclamations from his driveway made Ashton the media darling of the hurricane. The lawsuit brought him the attention of those in power. Most people who saw Ashton O'Dwyer broadcast around the world on CNN never knew what happened next.....Until now. Ashton O'Dwyer was taken into custody, caged like a dog, pepper sprayed, and shotgunned multiple times in the groin with beanbag rounds.

Obstinate and unswayed, Mr. O'Dwyer remained in New Orleans. Today he represents other confiscation and eviction victims. Tonight, I move on to the next chapter, the next victim.......

"The Great New Orleans Gun Grab - Descent Into Anarchy" by Gordon Hutchinson & Todd Masson is available from Louisiana Publishing, The Louisiana Conservative or Amazon.com for $19.95

The Great New Orleans Gun Grab

The Great New Orleans Gun Grab by Gordon Hutchinson & Todd Masson is due to be released on November 15.

August 29, 2005, was a day no American will ever forget. When Hurricane Katrina, one of the top five-strongest storms ever to build in the Atlantic Basin, slammed into the city of New Orleans, her towering storm surge tested the limits of the flood walls and levees protecting one of America’s largest cities. The surge would find them lacking.

As the city filled and drowned, it descended into mass hysteria and anarchy, and within hours became a place that would reveal to Americans whether their Constitution had any more value than the frayed, fragile, brown parchment on which it is written.

As looters and thugs took over, the city’s leaders turned their crosshairs and iron sights toward the lawful, gun-toting citizens who sought nothing more than to defend themselves from the marauding hordes. In what proved to be the greatest real-life test case of the Second Amendment in American history, America failed miserably.

The Great New Orleans Gun Grab tells the story of New Orleans residents who legally defied mandatory evacuation orders to protect their property, and who were subsequently beaten, harassed and robbed of their guns by the very civil authority that was funded and charged to protect them.

You can order your copy here.

What Is Xavier Reading?

My wife bought this book in hardcover on sale somewhere and read it in one night. I am not as voracious a reader of paper as my wife, but I have found this book extremely difficult to put down. It is written for a sporadic reader like myself, with short accounts of intense experiences of Louis Cataldie's career as the Coroner in Baton Rouge. At times darkly humorous, but always tragic, it is a personal catharsis of the cryptic world of living with death.

Largely written before Cataldie was called to account for the dead of hurricane Katrina, this is no high tech CSI wannabe glamour novel. Cataldie makes no bones about the reality, the personal costs and the sacrifices his calling takes on himself and his family. Katrina hit as the author was finishing this book, and the first chapter chronicles his ongoing frustration and struggle to account for the dead of the storm. Prior, he had achieved fame for his work on the serial cases of Derrick Todd Lee, and murderous spree of John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo.

Although panned by Publisher's Weekly as being an "unremarkable account" with "flat writing and the occasional platitude", I feel that Coroner's Journal: Stalking Death in Louisiana is a glaring example of why artists frequently say they have eyes while critics have spectacles. This book is anything but unremarkable. It is a spot of human brilliance concerning a topic that is all to often simply a scientific fashion statement in today's world. Louis Cataldie does not seek to increase his reputation by writing this book, rather he attempts to respectfully speak for the dead while educating us all. It is intense, it is menacing, ominous, bizarre, and it is absolutely compelling. Best of all, it's on the cheap rack. Prove the critics wrong. Read this book.

The Great New Orleans Gun Grab

About a week and a half after Hurricane Katrina ripped through New Orleans, Eddie Compass, the city’s police superintendent, went on national television and promised there would be no guns allowed in the Crescent City. Police, he said, would confiscate all guns.

When the policy was implemented, it set off a hot controversy. Gun owners said the police were violating the Constitution’s second amendment guarantee of the right to bear arms. Some of the gun owners were members of the National Rifle Association and complained to the organization.

The NRA sued, Baton Rouge attorney Dan Holliday representing the organization in the action in U.S. District Court. Federal Judge Jay Zainey agreed with the NRA and ordered the city to stop seizing guns and to start giving the guns they had already taken back to the rightful owners. The city ignored his order.

The city kept taking guns, even though officials denied it. The NRA wasn’t going to let go of the issue. It wasn’t just that it was guns. This was also a property rights issue. Many of the guns were cheap guns, but even those were worth hundreds of dollars each. Other, more expensive guns were also taken. The NRA dogged New Orleans on the issue, filing a contempt of court suit in February 2006 and eventually forced the city to allow them to examine the cache of confiscated weapons. That happened in April 2007.

In the upcoming August cover story for the NRA’s million-circulation magazine, America’s First Freedom, local author and NRA member Gordon Hutchinson and co-author Barb Baird reveal what the NRA observers found: barrels of illegally seized guns, mostly handguns, many damaged or rusted to uselessness.

Whether or not you are comfortable with gun ownership, you have to be appalled at what happened in New Orleans. No governmental entity ought to be able to confiscate citizens’ private property with no compensation and no promise of return. The issue so concerned Hutchinson that he and fellow Louisianan Todd Masson have written a book that details the whole story. The Great New Orleans Gun Grab will be in local bookstores in a few weeks.

Marcus Luttrell: Lone Survivor

"It was the stupidest, most Southern-fried, lame-brained decision I ever made in my life to vote to let them go ... I actually cast a vote that I knew would sign our death warrant."
-- Marcus Luttrell, from "Lone Survivor"



Marcus Luttrell and his three buddies had to make an impossible decision. Afghani goat herders disrupted their secret mission to track a Taliban leader. Killing the goat herders would be a violation of the Rules of Engagement. Holding them would reveal their position. Letting them go would likely bring the Taliban upon them. Luttrell, who’s riveting new book ‘Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10’ is fast top seller, talks to Breitbart.tv in front of the U.S. Capitol about courage, the consequence of decisions, and the meaning of his Navy Cross.

More

Armed America

Bashir, his Bushmaster CAR-15 and Cisco

Go to Armed America to see more armed Americans in their homes.

Armed America
Portraits of Gun Owners in their Homes
Kyle Cassidy

Supica's Third Edition Is Out!

The Standard Catalog of Smith & Wesson compiled by Jim Supica and Richard Nahas is unique in the literature of gun collecting. It is the S&W collector's Bible. The third edition has just hit the racks, available at Amazon.com or Old Town Station.

If you are a S&W aficionado, do not miss this book!

America's Right Arm

The Smith & Wesson Military and Police Model 10 revolver is perhaps the most pervasive, widespread and successful revolver in history. From 1899 to the present day, the K frame Hand Ejector with fixed sights has been the staple of Smith and Wesson's offerings. It has ridden in the holster of many a patrolman, and stood watch on many a naval deck. It has protected US Marine's at Guadalcanal, and rested on their widow's dresser on the home front. This Smith and Wesson is American history.

Like many relics, The Smith & Wesson Military & Police revolver has been taken for granted. They are so plentiful that high quality Model 10s are still very affordable to the collector. Still, they represent a mere footnote in most volumes of firearm literature. One author though, has given the Military and Police revolver the recognition it deserves, in it's own volume of historical and collector information.

John Henwood first published "America's Right Arm - The Smith and Wesson Military and Police Revolver" in 1997. It is a 296 page comprehensive resource for all questions concerning this gun. Do you wonder what de-milled Victory M&Ps sold for in 1979? It's in this book. Have you ever wondered why stainless S&W revolvers used flash chromed lockwork? The answer is in there. Have you ever wondered if that Model 10-6 chambered in .357 magnum was authentic? John Henwood has the answer.

John Henwood's authoritative resource on the S&W M&P is not available from the usual sources. It is self published, and is available through his gentle wife Katherine. It is chock full of illustrations and information that can not be found elsewhere. If you are a Smith & Wesson M&P fan, this book is indispensable. Buy it.

Contact: John Henwood
819 Linda Mar Blvd.
Pacifica CA. 94044-3450

The Gift of Fear

How does one know when an attack is imminent?
How does one tell when a verbal confrontation is about to escalate into a physical fight?
How does one discern whether an adversary has lethal intent or is trying to intimidate?

Intuition is perhaps the most valuable asset a potential victim of crime can have. Without intuition, a victim will invariably wait until an attack begins before reacting. By that time the outcome of the encounter is almost a forgone conclusion. Later, if the victim survives, they often wonder what they could have done to avoid the encounter. What did they miss? How could they have known? Friends gather to comfort the victim, and themselves, by saying nobody can predict random violence. They are wrong. It does not have to be that way.

In 1997, Gavin deBecker wrote a landmark book in the dual fields of criminal psychology and self defense, The Gift of Fear. DeBecker's work in the field of predicting criminal behavior earned him three Presidential appointments and a position on a congressional committee. He was twice appointed to the President's Advisory Board at the U.S. Department of Justice, and was a principal advisor on the federal research project into mentally ill people who stalk public figures. He served two years on the Governor's Advisory Board at the California Department of Mental Health. He is currently co-chair of the Domestic Violence Council Advisory Board and a Senior Fellow at the UCLA School of Public Policy. As a consultant to many major media figures, government agencies, Fortune 500 companies, and universities, he has overseen the assessment and management of more than 25,000 cases. Clients include the Central Intelligence Agency, the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Los Angeles County District's Attorney's Office, and many others.

In The Gift of Fear, deBecker explores the idea that the human animal is the only animal that rationalizes away it's fear. Every other animal on the planet uses survival instincts to avoid attack and thus continue to live. In humans these instincts are known as intuition. Because intuition is not logical and not understood, it is discounted. That is a mistake.

I first read The Gift of Fear back in 1998. This book is often overlooked in the realm of armed self defense, simply because deBecker is not a gun advocate. A book does not need to advocate concealed carry of lethal weapons to be relevant to self defense. The Gift of Fear is a very relevant book for those who have considered the acute possibility of a lethal attack in their future, and who want to prepare for it. Violent acts do not occur without warning. Trusting and honing one's intuition, or gut feelings if you prefer, will allow you to see the warning signs, and may save your life. The Gift of Fear is an engrossing read, but more importantly, it will place you on the path of fostering that intuition.

Standard Catalog of Smith & Wesson

The Standard Catalog of Smith & Wesson by Jim Supica & Richard Nahas is the hardcover Bible of the Smith & Wesson collector. At $25 or less on amazon.com, the purchaser of this book will likely make his money back in savings on his next used S&W purchase.

With the bastardized finishes and materials along with safety locks on the new S&W products, as well as their high prices, the older, plentiful S&W revolvers are quickly becoming the favorites of the savy wheelgunner. This book will tell the potential purchaser with assurance what he holds before him.

This particular edition (2nd) was published in 2001. The prices listed, therefore are from about 2000, and are five years old. Many of those prices have increased, but the information contained in this volume is still very pertinent. Jim Supica, of Old Town Station Ltd is a recognized authority on Smith & Wesson, as well as other guns. When Supica speaks, collectors listen.

The Gun Digest Book of the 1911

For under twenty bucks, Patrick Sweeney's The Gun Digest Book of the 1911 is a hell of a deal. There is also a Volume 2 of this book. The only real difference is the original has nice Turnbull restorations on the cover instead of Dan Wesson guns. I prefer the first edition just for the cover.

This book is one of the most encompassing 1911 books yet written. It will give the novice 1911 gunner a firm foundation on the workings of the gun he holds, as well as it's potential and how best to tap into it. As an introductory book on the 1911 it has no peer. Consider that at the news stand, three gun rags would cost you more than this volume of 1911 information. That is just to damned good to pass up. If you are interested in the 1911 buy this book. Thank me later.

The Best Defense....A Great Read

"The Best Defense: True Stories of Intended Victims Who Defended Themselves With a Firearm" by Robert A. Waters is a fascinating compilation of true stories in which everyday citizens defend themselves and others using deadly force. Filled with factual accounts of normal everyday people who survived deadly encounters through the implementation of deadly force, a more eloquent case can not be made to prove the veracity of the 2nd Amendment, and the futility of relying on law enforcement for protection. This collection of stark, true stories about everyday people who owe their lives to the fact that they had a gun when they needed it most will sway the most vehement anti-gunner. After all, who can say that another person should die for one's own beliefs?

This book will no doubt wake up the bliss ninny in your family, and have them considering firearms ownership as well as concealed carry. It reads very much like a Reader's Digest magazine, providing the reader with one breath taking tale after another, with photos provided to show that the people involved were not Rambo types, but honest, hardworking Americans.

If your significant other wonders why you "need" a gun, buy this book and place it on their nightstand. They will soon ask for assistance in choosing their own gun.