Listen to this blast of truth from Virginia Delegate Nick Freitas regarding the lies and deceptions of the left.

My great-grandfather got on a boat in Ireland in 1905, and ended up in Boston, MA a few weeks later. He had $2.50 in his pocket, one suitcase, and a sister in Woburn, MA. From that humble beginning my family got established in the US, and fought for the US in every war from WWI through at least Vietnam. Unless you are Native American, your family has a similar story.

So what is the It in the title? It is inertia. It is the fear that keeps all of us from doing all those big things we are always going going to do. Things like:

• Start a company
• Through-hike the Appalachian Trail
• Take off an epic road trip
• Move to an island
• Retire young

I could go on but you should get the point. Almost all of us have an embarrassingly long list of big projects we were going to do, but never actually did.

Do you know who doesn't have that list?

Immigrants don't have that list. They did it. They picked up and moved to a foreign land where they may not speak the language, and may not know anybody. They may have even broken the law to do it. They uprooted everything they knew and left a county that was likely their family's home for generations, all on the chance that they can build a better life here in the US.

Immigrants have already done one of the things Americans claim is most important for success. They have shown initiative. They have taken a big chance. They have put it on the line. An American that risks everything to make a better life is a damn hero. But if the person is Hispanic it is a whole different story.

Immigrants founded over half of the billion dollar start ups in the US, but given the risk they take just to get here, that really shouldn't be surprising. By coming here they exhibit the very qualities we claim are critical for success. And that number only counted first generation immigrants. It doesn't count their kids, people like Steve Jobs, who grow up as citizens and go on to do great things.

Immigration is basically a filter for the people that get shit done. It's a filter for the people we need in this country. It's a filter for the people we want in this county. Put another way, if we took the 35% of people still supporting Donald Trump and traded then for an equal number of immigrants this county would be in much better shape.

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I've mentioned my post-match desire for range time previously. This week instead of wanting to hit the range to fix some errors made when shooting a match, I feel a need to hit the range to spend time emphasizing the things I did right. I felt I shot pretty well last weekend, and that makes the urge for range time even more intense.

Alas, my work schedule is full of meetings and out of town visitors this week, which leaves little opportunity for a lunch break away from the computer. Unfortunately, now that the clocks have been set back, the outdoor range closes at 4:00PM. As a result, after work shooting is not an option until the return of Daylight Saving Time next spring.

The gun that I enjoy shooting the most, the full size SIG P320 has been shipped off to the manufacturer for the trigger enhancements. If I do squeeze in a range trip, I'll select an alternative weapon or two to shoot. Now is not the time to slack off on the practice level. With the continuing leftward political shift in Virginia, I expect the violence and oppression of personal rights that accompanies leftist politics to grow in fervor. Keeping up the skill level is important.

See you at the range!

I’ve been trying to figure out what to say about 2016 for a couple of weeks now, and I’ve decided maybe it’s best if we just never speak of it again. So onward to 2017. It has to be better, right?

Right?

OK, maybe one last thought about 2016. Did you ever find yourself wondering how it felt to live through the decline of the Roman Empire, or maybe closer to home, how it would have felt to be an antebellum plantation owner in Virginia in early 1865? Hopefully 2017 won’t give us a chance to feel a kindred connection with citizens of previously fallen societies.

Seriously, looking ahead now…

Michelle’s last radiation treatment is January 12th. Then I guess we enter that weird phase where she doesn’t have cancer anymore, but we get to worry about it coming back. I wonder if it ever fades from being omnipresent in our consciousness, or if this is the new reality for us now? I guess we’ll find out.

Blocking every news source that shows up in my newsfeed on Facebook turned out to be a brilliant idea. My Facebook wall is now mostly pictures of kids, my friends’ travels, and my friends out drinking. Facebook is much better that way. So I fully expect FB to change something to stop me from blocking all news sources fairly soon.

I wrote 14 blog posts this year. Counting this one and one more planed post, I'll finish with 16. I’m certain that is the lowest number since this site became a blog in 2001. I’ve been thinking for months that I need to get back to writing here regularly. Writing on Facebook is not the same. However, I’ve been lacking inspiration. I’m sick of politics and current events, and I’m out of the homeschooling game. That was probably 75% of my content in my heyday. However, I do have some ideas about how to get back on the writing wagon though. We’ll see how that works out.

Anybody else with a neglected blog want to commit to bringing it back to life in 2017? Seriously, Facebook does not need any more free labor from us. Also, Facebook encourages consumption of more and more content so they can serve more and more ads. I’m convinced that this is not good for our mental health. If blogs ruled online communication in 2016 they way they did in 2006, Donald Trump would not be president. I’m convinced of this fact.

One more blog post coming this year, the annual happy birthday ODonnnellWeb post on 12/31. The site turns 21 this year. It may need to drink itself silly. Or maybe that is me I'm talking about there.

A couple of weeks ago I subscribed to my local newspaper, The Freelance Star. I was hoping to avoid online news sources a bit, and be able to keep up on local news while avoiding the web site / Facebook page, and the community of bigoted racists that seem to live in the comments there. After a couple of weeks. I'm not really impressed and questioning if it's worth even the paltry $12 a month I'm paying.

1. The Section A news is often only 4-6 pages. I do appreciate the longer form writing and lack of ranting I find there, and I do feel like I'm staying informed while still avoiding the worst of online. However, I think I could get the same from skimming BBC.com every morning.

2. The sports section is useless to me. I don't care about local high school sports, and any professional / college sports I care about I'm following in near real time, so I don't need a newspaper for results.

3. The local news section has been forgettable, but that might be the time of year. Did I really need a feature article on why people go out on Black Friday?

4. Why is Dear Abby still published, and who is reading it?

5. The comics I care about are delivered via RSS feeds every day, and only one of them is in the paper anyway.

6. People still check stock prices in the newspaper?

7. I'm pretty sure over 50% of the paper is ads on any given day. That was 95% on Thanksgiving.

8. The paper is physically smaller than it used to be, and I think the font is smaller too. Or that might be my aging eyes. Either way, it's hard to read.

9. I could not care less about the lifestyle, religion, or any of the other fluff sections that make up the majority of the paper.

10. Even with all the ads, almost none are relevant to me. I'm not car or electronics shopping, and the stuff we buy at the grocery store is almost never connected to a coupon. We aren't the types to change stores weekly to save $10, so I'm not going to comparing the price of a gallon of milk at Giant, Wegman's, and Weis to plan our shopping trip. We are going to Wegman's every Sunday, at least until the Lidl opens up. (We did try Weis when it opened up. Didn't seem any cheaper than Wegman's and the selection is more limited.)

Local news is important. Somebody needs to be attending the city council meetings and reporting on what happens there. I wonder if a weekly local paper is a viable business model? I feel compelled to read the paper if I'm paying for it. I'll give it a few more weeks, but the early returns are not promising.

In the storied 20 year history of ODonnellWeb we have never endorsed a candidate for any office. However, the events of 2016 leave us no choice but to endorse Hillary Clinton for President. The simple fact is that she is the only one running even remotely qualified for the job. She spent 8 years in the White as First Lady, she was in the Senate for 12 years, and she was Secretary of State. We are quite impressed by Jill Stein's time on town council. but it doesn't quite measure up. Likewise, Gary Johnson was a decent governor for NM, however he did it during a booming economy. He didn't have to make any tough calls, like remembering the name of a foreign leader.

Over her career Clinton has been a tireless advocate for important issues such as children's health care and the rights of women to not be sexually assaulted by an orange asshole, or asshole of any color for that matter. Yes, she may a little too chummy with Wall Street, but at least she will keep the SEC intact, unlike Gary Johnson, who apparently looks at the 2008 financial meltdown and wonders how much farther he can push it with even more unrestrained capitalism.

We have surveyed our overseas networks of friends via Twitter and Facebook, and 100% of them have asked us what the hell is wrong with our country that anybody can take Trump seriously for anything. These are people that live in counties with functioning health care systems that don't bankrupt families, education systems that result in citizens smart enough to recognize that Trump is a joke, and transportation systems that don't grind to a halt at the sight of a roundabout. They are clearly smarter than us, and we should heed their concerns.

Trump is a sexual predator that has bilked investors and taxpayers out of billions, and vendors out of hundreds of millions of dollars, while screwing over three wives. His VP thinks evolution and climate change are liberal conspiracies. Gary Johnson is a decent enough person, just hopelessly naive about the effects of unrestrained capitalism and market based solutions to problems markets can't solve. I don't disagree with Jill Stein on much. but a local politician winning the White House and getting shit done is a movie plot, not the basis of real life change.

Our best bet for a more progressive future starts with electing Hillary Clinton as President in November.

Aren't you glad we have all these super smart people making sure we don't screw up?

When you need to hide your guns in plain sight.