Skeptical

Look, I like Richard Hernandez.  Even trust his reporting.  But I have been burned so much the last coupla decades by 'factual' reports detailing recent events that then turn out to be wholly fantasy to just accept things.

If he told me my mother loved me I'd still look for other sources to confirm.

"The Russian battalion-sized airmobile force met stiff air defense and was immediately counterattacked by the Ukrainian mobile reserve"

"Unable to land follow-on forces, the paratroopers could not withstand heavy weapons and were scattered or wiped out. Equally serious for the Russians was the failure of their northern pincer to advance on schedule"

"IL-76s loaded with paratroops destroyed"

"Putin rolled the dice of war and didn’t beat Ukraine"

Now, I want these to all be true.  I am rooting for Putin to fail.  But the information streaming in is so strewn with misinformation and totally made up bullshit.  It's too soon to tell.  To paint such an optimistic picture for Ukraine.

Is the ghost of Kiev a myth?  Probably.  Is the Snake Island defiance a myth?  Probably.  I do so want both to be true.  

There is plenty of time for Ukraine to suffer awful setbacks and lose everything, though.  The only fact I trust right now is there are Russian military forces inside Ukrainian territory and fire is being exchanged.

I’m confused… pic.twitter.com/gKjv2m0NoM

— Jewels (@jewels4meee) February 26, 2022

The Whole Ediface is Crumbling Down Around Us

Notice that little things seems to break and fail for no good reason?  Like weird 0530 alarms, unset, by your Apple phone.  One example of many many.  I bet you've noticed it too.

"Back in my day!"  Yeah yeah, things were more reliable in the 80s.  Right.  I agree.  But why?

Were the 'Experts' more confident, with educations un-muddled with Marxism and Diversity training?  And folks were more serious because you had to keep a watchful eye on keeping stuff running because otherwise the Soviets might steal a march?

Maybe.

Or maybe the worlds is a bit more complicated and orders of magnitude more computer code is now woven into life's fabric.  Even if our Experts in that department are more competent and catching more bugs, there is still a lot of bugs that run up and bit you in the ass.  

Gov't involvement in our daily lives is also more prevalent.  We miss the days when the Post Office and the IRS was the only interaction we had.  Oh, and if our bank went bust we got together with the FDIC folks.  Now DHS is constantly watching our bank accounts, along with the IRS, now.  Because they can.  And TSA is getting our shoes and belts when we fly, briefly.  Every time we buy a gun the FBI has to be contacted and paid a fee, too.  Getting nudged all the time to wear a mask, buy an electric car, ditch your gas stove, have restrictors in your showerhead, use awful paper straws.  Yes, sometimes mandated, but usually the policy is to make the path of least resistance so you comply because you have no other path as easy to take.

And it's awful.

More on Fox Company

It was negative 30 at night. Have you ever slept in a 1950s surplus Army sleeping bag?  I have one of them.  It's AWFUL.    

I've never been outside in negative 10 weather.  Zero degree weather a coupla few times.  But always less than half an hour.  

Outside for days?  No thank you!

"Hey, T-Bolt, don't you talk about retiring to Cleveland?"

Yeah?  And? 

"No reason."

Pure Energy

People think nothing could have been done to prevent Russia from invading Ukraine, but that's absurd: if Putin thought the costs of invasion outweighed the benefits, he wouldn't have done it. He's a rational actor not a madman. And today it's clear Putin calculated correctly.

— Michael Shellenberger (@ShellenbergerMD) February 25, 2022

"People who believe that nothing could have been done to prevent Russia from invading Ukraine thus imply that Russia's chokehold over European energy supplies was inevitable, but it wasn't. Europe could have easily increased, rather than closed, nuclear plants and natural gas."

Ban Hammer

Two 'conversations' talking over each other in two different instanstances.  So, four conversations total?  

First, in Tennessee. Where they 'banned' Maus.  But I heard reports it wasn't a ban.  It was "maybe this is more appropriate for a later grade?"  I have no problem with a school system deciding that, say, 5th grade was too young to introduce such a complicated subject in graphic novel form.  Maybe wait til 8th to bring it into the classroom.  I can see that.  Maus is good, but if it was my first graphic novel at at 11, I'd have sworn off the platform forever after.  

Then in Pennsylvania.  Closer to a 'real' ban.  Where Asimov would kick in.  Gonna need a list of all the excised whypipo authors?  But the organizers are going, "Oh, but that was all satire!  Can't you take a joke. Sheesh."  Mmmm.  Or did you get caught?  Or it could have been a great way to score surplus uncontroversial titles!  Something I'd have been thrilled to be in on.

I am more worried about the progressive woke latter, and less the reactionary holocaust-denying former, assuming the worst from both sets.  Why?  They are both awful, but there's a lot more of the woke types about, in sheer numbers.  I see them every day.  I never run into a troglodyte that goes Marge Schott on the 1940s. 

But that may be a factor of where I live.  I live is deep blue DC suburbs.  Maybe Texas is like that.  Full of holocaust deniers, while here I can't swing a dead cat and not hear "real communism has never been tried".    

Hotel Detective

It can't be a good job.  Being a House Dick.  Like being a School Resource Officer in a big High School.  But worse.

Tho, I'd think the Willard Hotel would have fewer Femme Fatales:

They have a patio on the roof now.  Great brunch on a Spring Day, with a downward view, it feels of the Washington Monument.  Makes the obelisk look shorter.  Good view of the Treasury, too.

"He put sugar in his claret.  If he wasn't a crook, he was a dangerous lunatic."  Oh, I agree.  Sounds like a furren type.  Prolly an Anarchist.

Last Stand of Fox Company

Been reading this book.  Fox Company was a 7th marine company under Barber, a mustang that fought at Iwo, defending a pass at Haguru-Ri.  I recommend it.  

But the point of this post is writing about the cold.  The battle happened after Thanksgiving but this was in an Appalachian altitude mountain range in an read the same latitude as Pennsylvania in the word winter in 30 years.

Unlike the 101st at Bastogne, the Marines had cold weather gear.  Cold pack (wool) overshoes over waterproofed and lined winter boots.  Three layer of pants, longjohns, wool pants, and windbreaker style over pants.  Four layers on their trunk.  Cotton undershirt, long johns, wool tunic, and an alpaca wool lined over-coat.  Wool hat under their helmet that had flaps that went down past their ears.  Winter gloves with leather or thick canvas mittens over that.  Some cut a hole in the gloves/mittens for their trigger finger.

The wind was funneled through that pass and came straight from Siberia.  As they were digging foxholes in the 16inch deep frosted ground, someone had thermometer and it said -23 Fahrenheit. 

That cold weather gear was good, but not enough. 

---

I always wondered what would happen if MacArthur had settled for establish a tough, defensive line from Wonson, west, making Pyongyang a South Korean city close to the DMZ instead of Seoul.  Giving Mao less provocation by encroaching too near the Yalu River, squeezing the Norks into a smaller territory with lass ability to cause trouble in 50 years.  "If you cause trouble, we push you back a parallel."

But that wasn't Dugout Doug's way.

Gun people have opinions

Gun opinions have opinions.  And just like all opinions, everyone has one and they generally stink.

And we are not shy about sharing our gun opinions with other people of the gun.  

You see another mostly-ally 'on the street' open carrying. (Really, it's at the register of the Sheetz, getting brefass sammich)  A Walther PPK.  In a floppy nylon holster with no retention.  At the small of the back.  What do you?

1. Point and laugh, "Loser!  What an awful gun!  Slide bite, much?  Yer gonna get that taken, then, nothing but tears."
2. Stare and judge silently.  Oh you ARE judging
3. "Hey buddy, you don't know me from Adam's off Ox, but, I'd carry with a better pistol and a better caliber and a better holster, and concealed.  UPGRAYDDD.  The J-Frame in your wife's purse she's never taken to the range is a better idea than that.  But you do you, Boo-Boo.  The grips are great, tho." 
4. If asked by the individual what you think of the ivory grips on his OC Gatt, say "The grips are tits, but, personally, that isn't my preference for a whole carry strategy.  That's just me."  Have polite explanations if follow-up questions are forthcoming.  

#1 might be true, but not polite for anyone but a best buddy.

#2 is the politest one.  Well, out loud polite.

#3 is a bit interjecting and innapropriate, sounding off uninvited.

#4 is polite, and satisfactory.  Trying to get around to #3, being your ultimate message.  But hell, what do you know?  Have some humility for once in your life. 

Me?  #2.  If I know the person, #4.  And more alert of people milling about that aren't him.  Silly.

 

When mask mandates get lifted

In my deep blue county.

"If it dips below 50 cases you can go to the grocery without a mask if you want.  Oh and After the 21st of Feb because this whole exercise is running out of gas and folks are getting sick of it:"

#BlueCovid

 

Elrich would have kept Montgomery Co. mask mandates in place until lower transmission rate reached https://t.co/qGO8BVxv88 pic.twitter.com/HrcrelFMYh

— FOX 5 DC (@fox5dc) February 18, 2022

Grazin in the Grass is a Gas

My gas stove is old.  I need to buy a spare before that become impossible.  With spare parts. 

Look, if the power goes out in the winter, the furnace doesn't work. Heck, the no pilot light oven doesn't either.  But the stove top will with a match or lighter.  You don't freeze.

Hmmm.  Expensive, but what am I saving money for, now?

Politics

Mid December:

"We are looking at a winter of severe illness and death for the unvaccinated — for themselves, their families and the hospitals they’ll soon overwhelm"

Mid February:

"Nevermind.  Mandates lifted."

---

Well, that's good, I guess.  Except in that one province in Canada.

Malaphor

 We'll burn that bridge when we come to it.

I saw that on FB, and figured malaphor would be a vocabulary word I'd retain forever, it is such a good word.  I was wrong.  Fortunately Facebook brought it back round, as it is wont to do.  You don't have to wait til the cows freeze over.    

So I am typing it again to remember it.  MALAPHOR!

STUPID TRUCKER STRIKE!

Since it started there has been NO diet Canada Dry Ginger Ale (made out of real soulless Gingers) available in any form anywhere!

I am quite put out.

I recommend PET scans

You have to go high fat high protein no carb for 24 hours, and then you get to nap an hour when you get there.  And it's quiet, not like an MRI.     

Suckah!

Dig them mines!  Build America!  Say what you please!  Tar and feather them folks that want to take that away from you.

"I've heard this talk before but I never thought I'd hear it in America."  Evergreen furrener complaint.  Furreners that came here to get away from Freemasons in Latveria.  Wait, no.

So, it is good to have Freemason about, but not them dang Nazzees.  Fair enough.  Never been a fan of the collectivists, and the Masons don't hurt anyone.  

And if Freemasons were super powerful and ran the world by pulling the strings of power behind the scenes, how come they didn't pull the string to keep the NSDAP from rounding them up, putting them in the camps, with the lice and typhoid?  Sort of a counterfactual to the puppetmaster theme.    

You know this video goes into a lotta detail about why to not like Nazis and they had been squashed underfoot in total victory two years before.  People worry about Nazis a LOT, even then.  That's to distract you from the REAL threat.  Don't be a sucker worrying about who they tell you to worry about.  Should you worry about ol' Adolf, years dead, or that monster Stalin and Mao, them or their successors undefeated.  Though you can extrapolate the lessons of this video forward, but why not make that lesson overt?

Ohhhhh... it's a video about the Civil Rights movement.  20 years from this video the heavy lifting will be done on that. 40 years after, the Commies will be squashed without a shot, only to be squandered after both.

(Though we screwed up Ukraine, over the decades.  To prep for today's problems we should started back in the 90s.  Don't send in the 82nd now..,)

Never seen one before, but that's got all the makings of a run

Justin Trudeau happened.

 

pic.twitter.com/X24ojuSArI

— Christopher Smith (@Heypally78rpms) February 16, 2022

I dunno

Folks definitely criticized Trump for not doing more than SCOTUS picks to help out the 2nd.  But our voices were on things like here.  Gunblogs.  Blogs read by almost a dozen people, daily.  While Everytown gun banners have the ear of CNN.  Which reaches scores of people, daily.  Much bigger megaphone.

 

In recent months, the gun-control groups have increased their public criticism of Biden, which I find pretty fascinating. I'm not sure it's true Biden could do much more on guns than he already is. But they all seem to feel otherwise. https://t.co/t7V78jTRVr

— Stephen Gutowski (@StephenGutowski) February 14, 2022

'Your labs look good'

"But the tumor in your gut is getting bigger.  That's not expected."

Well, drat. 

That's gonna impact the unit's morale, again.  And since I am the CO, that falls on me to try to improve.

JayG

 I worry about Jay because of LaPierre money shenanigans nigh destroying NRA.   And say Wayne goes to prison.  One of his cronies is probably in line to take that spot with little the board can do about it, since they monkeyed with the rules.

I hope that's not true, but if it was true, why is LaPierre still there?

If the NRA goes defunct because all the malfeasance, where does that leave folks like JayG doing good work there in Fairfax?  Like yesterday's post?  

The NRA was always the 600 pound gorilla striding through the halls of Congress, scaring some freshman congresscitters half to death.  That gorilla wasn't perfect by any means, and didn't always hold the line, but it still did stuff.  If the NRA went away, the 2A community would still have money to donate to somebody.  Something would take it's place.  But it will take a bit to ramp that up to Silverback levels.  And that always worries me.       

I was wondering when they'd get to this

S&W CSX.

Black plastic construction for ease of fabrication, 1911 styling because of 1911 cache.  Cash-AY.

And JayG showing the ropes. Thanks Jay.

I kinda like it!  A bit small.  Got a Commander size coming?  You can get 10 rounds in a 9mm 1911 single stack.  10 isn't that shabby.  But this micro also has 10 rounds, and it isn't Commander size, it is smaller, so I am guessing a little thicker than single stack.  Yup, Jay just told me.  I wonder what the single-action lockwork looks like...  Funny, that's what I care about most these days.  I like the trigger safety dingus.  Nice form  

Am I shopping for a small gun?  No.  I am more likely to mess around with pistol optics now that that mod is maturing.  

Tuscany

The Washington Football Team finally chose a new name that didn't offend white Liberals that were white knighting for the Indians.  Now they are the Commodores!

What?

Indigenous names for sports collectives is out of fashion, and not woke.  But one team still has the original moniker appropriated from Indigenous peoples that were clearly exploited from colonialist robbing them of their traditional lands and resources.  The Las Vegas Raiders have adopted the name of the Tusken Raiders.  How politically incorrect.  Surprised some group of Star Trek geeks haven't made life uncomfortable for them already.  But I am boycotting the NFL, myself, until they change.  So there. 

And don't you dare call them the S-word.  That's worse!  

SUPER BOWL!

Nothing lasts!

When I moved in to this place back in the 90s the previous owner had put up a thin braided cotton rope, about four feet long, in the laundry area.  This they, and I, used to put hangered clothes on when emptying the dryer.  Sometime I leave the summer stuff on it in the winter and winter stuff on it in the summer.  No room in the closet upstairs.

Anyway, after only 25 years the rope broke. I have replaced it.  Nylon, this time.  Why?  It was the first suitable cordage I ran across.  Draped the old and busted, in orange, as an example to other cordage:

I guess I have no right to complain.  The washer/dryer combo is older than me, though it looks like someone probably replaced the dryer in the mid 60s.   

No Knocks

I'm going to take a controversial position here. 

I think police should be able to do as many no-knock raids as they can get a warrant for.  

They just won't be allowed to do it armed.

No firearms, no body armor, no shield, no taser, not pepper spray, no nightstick or espantoon...  They use a battering ram to gain entrance they must leave that outside.  Flashlight must be plastic, and not D-Cell.  

If they get aired out during this home invasion, thems the breaks.  And that'll probably be justified.  But it will keep tragedies from happening.  Well, tragedies that one direction.

Of course police can't be FORCED to go on one of these no-knock raids.  The unions would never stand for that anyway.  So tragedies from two directions during a raid is minimized. 

"The this dude is dangerous.  He'd shoot through the door if we did the warrant with a real knock and wait!"

Better arrest him when he's away from home, then.  More overtime for stake-outs that way, too.

Cultivate

I wanted to buy a corkscrew.  The one I had was shite.  Amazon has a bajillion.  Page after page for what is probably the same 3 varieties.  With prices for the SAME thing from $12 to $400.  

I got one.  It's better, but I'm not super happy with it.  

Why can't Amazon be better?  Why can't I just get a result of "show me only French or Italian made corkscrews."  I'd pay a bit extra for that.  I'd pay extra for an Indonesian one.  I am sure all the crappy zinc ones on there are Chinesium.

Well, there is a browser extension called Cultivate.  Never underestimate buncha frustrated weeb shut-in programmers who create extensions for frustrated users.  Cultivate flags possible US made alternatives when you are shopping.  

I guess if you were shopping for a Springfield XD (US company that imports plastic guns made in the Balkans somewhere) it might tell you to buy a Glock (Austrian?  No, that one is Made... in Georgia).  They claim they suss out with their algorithm, at Cultivate.  I guess they weight how many parts of that Smyrna Glock are source from Austria, and whatever contribution Genseo is making to that Grip Zone.

---

Another idea, Amazon.  In 20 years I have NEVER bought a hat that wasn't size 11 3/4.  Because that is my size.  Please, never show me a hat that doesn't come in that size.  Or 2XLT shirts.  &c.  

Amazon isn't really motivated to make themselves that much better.  What are you gonna do, go to one of Amazon's competitors with a better run web interface?  If a better interface did pop up Amazon would just buy them up and Borg any improvement into themselves.  Or just ignore the improvement because, again, where you gonna go?

Good.

It's easier to make this statement when it is already known that: 

• The victim had no record.
• The victim had a CCW.
• The victim wasn't on the warrant.
• The cops murdered an innocent man doing nothing wrong.

"A Minnesota gun rights organization issued a statement condemning the killing of 22-year-old Amir Locke, who was shot by a SWAT team on Wednesday."

We usually don't know those details so soon after the event.  If the NRA comes out in support of the victim and a week later everyone know he was a pedophile with a long list of ruined children behind him, then Shannon Watts says, "The NRA supports pedophiles."  So the NRA waits will the furor dies down.

But the NRA should take after the MN Gun-Owner Caucus in circumstance similar to this one even if some go "The NRA takes the side against the thin blue line!  They must hate the police now!" 

Mask Advances

If you put pantyhose over your head while wearing your China Virus mask it makes it more effective.  The panty hose makes the mask fit tighter, but it does make bank clerks and gas station cash register operators nervous. 

You know, Vice, if you put a plastic bag over your head and duck-tape it around the neck real tight, in 10 minutes it will be even MORE effective in not spreading the virus ever again. 

Cab-Over Pete w/ a Reefer on

You never see cab-over semis anymore.  They musta made a safety rule about them.  Or maybe Kenworth or Freightliner went outta bidness?  Naw, I seen that badge on new trucks.  Let me check this website I just learned about, LMGTFY.com.

Ah, it's DE-regulation that took away the cabover's advantage  "As length regulations have increased, the amount of cabovers has decreased. Now that longer units are allowed on the roads, the main advantage of these trucks, is no longer valid."  Huh.  I learned something today.

Still a bunch in wooden shoe areas of the world, like Dutch-Land.  Tighter roads and their own regulatory regime must still give a reason for the style.

Hundreds of Dutch truckers, inspired by their Canadian counterparts, are heading to Rotterdam for a major demonstration against mandates and restrictions in an effort to restore freedom back to the people 🇳🇱 pic.twitter.com/xo7I8IDLFb

— The Vigilant Fox 🦊 (@TheVigilantFox) February 6, 2022

Cancel

 He's right.  

Cancel culture will only end when they go after someone like me after I say something rude and stupid and beyond the pale, and try to end me.  And everyone from J K Rowling on down to bloggers with 2 readers (as opposed to my whopping 9 readers) comes to my defense.  (Google, too.  This is blogger, after all; Google would have to stand on one side.)  And I prevail, and the other side hides in shame.

Though it won't be my defense, per se, it will be a defense of something much bigger than NJT and a stupid tiny gun blog.  It'd be a defense of freedom of speech and blow against censorship.

Boo! Ghost Gun

With Marylands AG pushing for ghost gun legislation, and now even Joey Ice-Cream pushing ghost gun legislation...

A buddy is printing a Hi-Power!

"pssspsssspssssss t-bolt psspsspsssssssssss" 

Oh, sorry, I meant Hi-Point.  And it has sparkles.  Just the frame, natch, but you can get the other parts separate and easy.

A Golden Gun is ideal when dealing with pesky Her Majesty's Secret Service types.

Fumbling for Traction

To stop their slide, we sorta expected Joe's grasping hands to reach for gun control.  I dunno why they think this will pass or might be popular.  Any more so than their other legislations.  At least THOSE had built in payoffs to entice legislators to go along.

If you wanna fight crime, go after criminals.  Don't go after the criminal's shoes or the criminal's earrings or the criminals other possessions they sometimes use to help them commit crimes.

"Feature" include:

• So-called Ghost Gun bans
  and...
• Private sales, regardless if the sale is legal or not

The only time where a gun-centric initiative bore any anti-crime fruit, to my knowledge, is when things like Project Exile were up.  But that's because it didn't go after guns, a morally neutral mere-deodand.  It went after the criminals, meting out long sentences for crimes committed with guns.  But locking criminals up, despite being a proven effective strategy, is not in fashion at this time.

"Project Exile was flawed, T-Bolt!  And probably raciss!"

Sigh.  Yeah, perhaps it was both of those.  So fix the flaws.  That's what we pay your lawmakers and preznits to do.

Poor Joe.  He's flailing.  Hate to see it.

Oh No!

The accurate groundhog, Milltown Mel, died.  Just before the Holiday.

What kind of weather prediction is it where he does look for a shadow but BECOMES a Shade?  

That's like Game of Thrones style long winter...

I hope Punxsutawney Phil can carry the load.

Coffee Horde

So, I overbought bean coffee last fall.  There was a supply chain crisis and I knew that coffee comes here on a ship and I didn't want to, you know, run out.  

Well that chain didn't snap like that, at Christmas time, and now I haven't made a dent in that over-purchase.  It's not THAT bad.  It's only like 7 pounds above and beyond normal requirements.  It'll get used.  

Other necessities are in over abundance under my roof.  I won't have a toilet paper problem unless the Spring of 2020 comes back and lasts a year. If I get to regularly baking bread, I might have to do better than 2 pound sacks.  I bake a loaf, eat about two thirds of it before the mold strikes.  Take a bit over a week.  Maybe not slice it as thin?   

I got a weather prediction for ya.

Finally

A television program to cater to the underserved Zombie enthusiast.  

--------

Unrelated, mayo instead of butter grilled cheese sammiches is alright. Not so great it knocks your sock off and you swear off butter. Just alright.