I don't bounce back like I used to

This is expected because of the Chemo. 

Maybe it's Allergies

Maybe it's a cold/cough.  No fever and the cough is kinda productive. 

Anyway, still feeling poorly.  

If Smith had shot Rock in the knee we'd have something to gun blog about.  But no.   

Maybe it's Maybelline

Huh

TTAG rewrote my post/s as their own.   Good for them.  Happy to help.  They did expand a bit on it, and the message is spread wider.

Allergies

They were mild the first 45 years of life.

They get worse every year now.  A SInus headeache on the right temple and behind the right eye that rivals the best migraine. I hate this.  Debilitating.

Claritan and sudafed and tylenol work some.  Coffee too.  

How the hell did this happen?   

I am starting to get used to the pile on.  I can never not have a pressing medical issue.  And its usually 2.  Not since turning 50.  If everything gets fixed and better I'd breaka leg the next day.  

My Reply

 

But seriously?  I'd never CHOOSE to go back to Adventist, or any big hospital, for a procedure that could be done in an offsite outpatient facility.  Just too ponderous and innefficient.

Don't worry buddy

I am sure the Billionaire tax will be taking money out of the paychecks of folks that make $100,000 a year soon enough.

 

1. Unconstitutional
2. Impossible
3. How is it a billionaire tax rate if it kicks in at the $100 million mark? That's literally 10% of $1 billion https://t.co/xlEDnIchhi

— Tristin Rice (@tristin_rice) March 27, 2022

If it weren't for the 600 pound Gorilla

"The NRA... then we could finally pass some gun banning around here!  But the NRA controls Congress."

Well, crooked Wayne and his Crew can barely control their bowels and have to resort to fake PO Boxes on the board ballot envelopes to grasp to power.  So I guess it wasn't all them doing the legislative steering.  Maybe it's the constituents making up a majority of the voters in a majority of seats? 

Hogg is feelin' down

Which is always a good thing.

I’m so frustrated and I’m sad. You can do everything right you can turn out as many voters possible, you can bring the NRA to the weakest position in decades and still these politicians do not give a fuck.

it’s absolutely heartbreaking.

— David Hogg 🌻 (@davidhogg111) March 25, 2022

"If you can't swallow"

"Then you should be drinking protein shakes and smoothies."

I'd rather lose another 100 pounds than drink one of them. I am not so desperate to resort to those vile things.  

Just give me the laudanum, Hostetler.

It's the Steak, not the Coffin Nails

Still don't know why they call them that.  Ever tried to hammer a cigarette into balsa wood? It's a challenge!

In 1955, President Dwight D Eisenhower suffered a massive heart attack while playing golf.

What happened next brought on the BIGGEST obesity epidemic the world has ever seen.

🔴THREAD 🔴 pic.twitter.com/xoYevd9re8

— Sollozzo 🥩⚡️ (@MrSollozzo) March 22, 2022

These guys

 My State Senator doesn't consider that he may be a part of the inflation problem.

And did my Country Exec write for the Washington Post?  "World Ends Tomorrow; Women and Minorities Hardest Hit."

Infusion yesterday

Tired out today. 

Dammit Joe

First you goad Putin into invading, practically giving him permission, then you admit the sanction back then were actually not meant to deter him, and NOW you are trying to dare him into WWIII?  I'm really not feelin' it, Joe.

⚡️Biden: US would 'respond' to Russian use of chemical or biological weapons.

Speaking to members of the press at the NATO summit in Brussels on March 24, U.S. President Joe Biden said NATO would respond "in kind" if Russia uses weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine.

— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) March 24, 2022

Ghost

So there has been a EXPLOSION of ghost guns in Baltimore.  Sposebly. 

345 last year, with 12 per in the Oughts.

How many of those 345 are just plain old 1970s (or 1940s) style serial numbers filed off and they just counted it as ghost.  I wouldn't put it past the State constabulary to conflate like that.

Or how many are a Polymer 80 with no work done to it at all.  A bad plastic cudgel.

We only have one confirmed shooting with an actual made ghost gun and that victim didn't die.  That argues for the whole thing being low risk.  If low risk, wouldn't you prefer MORE of them?

So, how will I know if the numbers are real?  Well, I got a guy.  Running for State Delegate.  Got my fingers crossed.   He might have the pull to confirm.

Of the 345, 32 are linked to a shooting or homicide investigation.  What does 'linked' mean?  'Linked' can mean they busted some mope shooting people with a glock and in his stuff was a polymer 80 in the clamshell, untouched.  And it had nothing to do with the crime to hand.  Mebbe.

No matter, the law is passed out of the legislature.  It will soon conference up .  And Larry Hogan, even if he vetos (a big if) will prolly get overridden.   If you made a gun from an unfinished lower you gotta hie to an FFL and get a number etched and on the books or you will stand before the man.  BEFORE it goes into effect.

Unclear if this is only a problem when your Polymer 80 gets turned into 81+ or just having the 80 is enough to burn you.  

She is right

It is just ASTOUNDING how quickly we went from 1 "Vermont" style CCW to 24 or so.  Like the blink of an eye, politically.  As fast as Prohibition became unpopular and repealed.   

And here I sit.  In Maryland.  Yeah, I know.  If the rest of the country keeps this up, I may luck out and my state will be forced to comply as a fait accompli.  It will have to be dragged kicking and screaming, but dragged it may well be.  

(That last sentence feels grammatically correct and grammatically awful at the same time.)

---

In other news, gas prices plummeted here, overnight.  Funny how some gas stations dropped the price by 36 cents while other did not, dropped in not as much.  And don't go "IUt's just he big brand gas station stealing extra profits!" Because the Exxon next to the independent are both the same in their sub 36 price drops.  I think they figure local traffic will bear that.  The commie here at work thinks it's all Big Oil trying to screw him personally, and he doesn't understand how futures markets work or that you aren't paying for what is in the ground at the station, but for the NEXT tank worth will cost.  That's why gas prices can drop precipitously in Novemember when Hillary loses even before the inauguration.  Assumption of a less punitive regime.  

Quite a Record of Achievement

Everytown

Update: 10 of those 15 states have now passed permitless carry. pic.twitter.com/nCSmF4fLnp

— Firearms Policy Coalition (@gunpolicy) March 22, 2022

Five more for the To-Do list.

Here's the mistake publishers make

If you got a classic book cover art, go with that.  I mean look at these, for the same book.

 

The new one, top, leaves me cold.  Even if I was NOT an aficionado of classic 70 year-old book cover illustration, the top one has no soul.  (Ross and John are the same guy.)

If you want to or have to upgrade the cover art, is it that difficult to take a little extra effort?  I'd One-Click the bottom in a second, and pass buy the top if I was shopping for detective novels.

So that scope I got

They were able to get to both tumahs and get a biopsy sample.

The pathologist took and initial look an was all "???"

Inconclusive.  More lab info in one or two weeks.

Maybe surgery?  That'd be two different, NEW doctors to go to.  Abdominal and Chest area being totally unique and all.

"Uhh, take some prilolsec?"

Ok. I guess.

(Prilosec is a no-no with my chemo.)

---

In other news, regular hospitals are super tedious. My brain surgery was outpatient, and much easier and quicker than a camera down my gullet.

Sew buttons!

I do a lot of my own sewing.  I've gotten the 100 year old Singer motorized up and running, but most of my projects are sewing my hand.  

The Remington typewriter lives on the sewing machine cabinet.  I use that more.  

Most all my work is re-attaching buttons (and I have a decent sized jar of cast off buttons and from destroyed shirts) and mending blown out pants seams.

But the plastic container I keep my sewing supplies in is over full.

What I need is a metal cookie tin.  That'd be perfect.

Meditation

Phew!

pic.twitter.com/e4aLaQqD5R

— Lightspeed_Outlaw🇺🇸 (@breakonthru234) March 17, 2022

Now that WuFlu is about over

I noticed that there were two types of work from home peeps.  

"Keep doing what you are doing, you are doing great, we won't be able to let you do this forever, so take full advantage."  

"The state said we can open the office this Monday.  I look forward to seeing you at your desk at 8AM."

The first one was/is super productive at home and she is an asset to the whole operation, the second needs to be watched as if he was a kid in daycare in a room full of hammers and razor blades, and even then you are lucky to get much product out of him.

I am sure both kinds will be noted when the next wave of layoffs comes.   

It is a Tumah!

Laproscopy to check on one of em today.  Well, RIGHT NOW.  According to shedjool. 

I think I kinda feel it...  I'll know more in a bit.  And where I am imagining.

This is the stomach one.  Though they use the same system to go after the chest one for tests.  To get the chest one out they will prolly have to gut me like a fish.  But the gut one?  Easy peasy, Grampa Killah.    

Erl

You know, gas prices are in tune with the oil futures market.  

Can you imagine if the big wigs in the Democrat side of the aisle, go "You know, we've come around on this whole thing, and we are going to deregulate this industry a lot and approve pipelines and what not."? 

I think the industry would respond favorably and if you had shorted oil futures you'd make a mint.  

So apart from Pelosi making a killing for some reason it's good for everyone.

One this day

 2066 years ago, Gaius Julius Caesar, 55, noted author, Egyptologist, salad maker, and calendar enthusiast, died surrounded by his friends.

Crap!

I forgot to post.  

Got something for tomorrow. 

Nothing for today.

Uhhhh...  

What is it, 25 states got Constitution Carry?  Maybe Indiana, 26, if the governor is pressured to let the bill go by. 

26 is more than half.

Hard to argue with

I feel seen

— J T Bolt (@NewJovianTBolt) March 13, 2022

Why, T-Bolt?

"Why are 1911s superior?"

Huh, what?  I just woke up.  Where did that come from?

"You said it last post."

I did?  Lemme check.  Oh, that was just a throwaway line.

"So you didn't mean it?"

Oh no, I MEANT it.  But not like you think.  They are superior for ME.

I did all that gunsmithing.  I know the design inside and out.  If I munged up the sear somehow, for example, I could have a chance at replacing it and not making an unsafe condition.  I'm not that good with a sear stone.  I'd probably ruin half a dozen $20 sears before figure out how to finesse that tiny little facet into something satisfactory.  And I can test a sear and no if it is any good right now, with one hand tied behind my back.  And if it breaks is it trivial to get one of the only 50-some parts for it, and that will be true for years years to come.  And much of the rest is easier to fit compared to harmony in the hammer-sear engagment.

What I am saying is that I have the working of a 1911 down, pretty good. 

My pistol training was 80% Glock platform and 15% 1911 and 5% revolver.  100% pistol.  And it was hours and hours.  I, of course, would welcome more.  And refreshers.  Etc.  Training is good.  But one thing I sorta worked through is pistols are pistols.  Like "shoot/no-shoot" is the same with a M&P as it is with an M&P (semi/revolver).  I have no bias on that, and I have a bit of work inside the guts of a revolvers, just nothing like a 1911.  I can now run a Glock, when before the training that, for some reason, was my worst personally-performing platform.  

"So why not a Glock?"

Well, I don't OWN a Glock.  Nor have I taken a Glock Armorers class (though that takes a weekend, not weeks)

The 1911 is superior because it is the gun I know, the gun I have, and the gun I like.  It's my solution for me.  Not the solution for everyone.  The 1911 is superior in this very specific use-case.  Me.  And it works ok.  It has limitations, and I am aware of them,

I'm not here to argue with you over your SIG P369 or 302 (or whatever) selection or make fun of you for it or try to convert you to my preference.  I might look down on your for a Taurus Judge selection a little bit.  But for wholly different reasons.  "Revolver, fine. THAT revolver?  Meh...." I used to be that arguing guy.  I've gotten much better

If I signed up for training I'd prolly have to borrow a black plastic service pistol.  Range up a few times ahead of the class.  And that is fine.  But that's because the trainers say to bring a black plastic service pistol to a lot of these.

I've feel like I've mellowed

The blog used to have more rants.  Paragraphs explaining how 'commies are bad for childrens and other living things.'  And 'all gun control is an infringement and how about them loathsome Fudds?' 

I've said all that, for one thing.  And to go over it again is just repetitive.  Trying to keep things fresh from posts I did 10 years ago, as much as possible.

I can't just rehash the 4 Rules of Gun Safety posts every month.  Unless I can get some novelty out of it.  I can't rail agin' Metrocons because they all morphed into boring old Never Trumpers.  Ho hum.  

The assumption now is "Well of course commies are bad and gun laws are infringements, I don't need to tell ya."

Plus, the illness has taken some wind out of my sails. Slowed me RIGHT down. 

Funny memes get shared and spread on other platforms.  

No one wants to hear about how good 1911s are.  

Makes blogging a bit tougher, but my mellowness has me just going with the flow.  Good ol' inertia!

 

Plauge

Remember when it was ladybugs several years back?

Then stinkbugs?

It was supposed to be Japanese Murder Hornets 2 years ago.

Now this.  Parachuting spiders the size of a St. Bernard.  Not including the legs. 

Who's on our side?

Welly Welly Well!

Indiana legislature passed a Constitution Carry bill and send it to the governor.  He may well veto it.

Because of course.  Politicians on both sides of the aisle are generally anti-gun.  GOP ones are just the ones that sometimes get punished when that fact is revealed.  

Not every Republican is a gun banner.  Or there would be ZERO Constitution Carry states.  But the only way to reveal one of these creatures it to get them to sign off on serious revivals of firearm owner's rights.

Once revealed, pressure builds in pro guns jurisdictions.  To either make them reconsider and eventually force their hand to correct their mistake, or so turn them out.  

Is Governor Holcomb a squish?  I don't know, I am not a Hoosier.  If he vetoes the bill will a lot of people in the state of Indiana be disappointed with him?  I guarantee it. 

Indiana will be #22.  Or is it #23 now?

 

Oooo!

I know the answer to this.

Don't open that hatch, tank guy!  Better pray he doesn't have a larger Robertson screw driver.  Looks like a #5. 

This is why armor is supposed to be supported by infantry, especially in urban environments. pic.twitter.com/LwHxRdyWZc

— Louis vil LeGun ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ (@LouisvilleGun) March 9, 2022

In Chicago

20 Shot, 1 Fatally...

You see similar headlines like that, outta Chicago for the last few years.  Maybe not a 20:1 ratio, but definitely a bias toward WIA vis KIA.

Criminals are shooting people, but not fatally.  

I am almost certain it was always thus.  If they highlighted it in DC papers in 1991, the ratio would be similar, I'm saying.  I don't know, and the papers didn't word it the same, but it's the way to bet.

Bad guys, using pistols, hopped up on panicky adrenalin, with insufficient marksmanship training and practice, yielding more survivors, all while conducting street level pharmacological services outside the law.

Why do WE care, in the legitimate firearm community?  Well, it's something to remember when CCWing.  If you have to use your pistol, the person trying to rob you might not fall down and close his eyes at the outset of the first exchange.  I mean, it's not like your purpose is to kill the threat, it's to stop the theat.  Those 20 shot, 1 fatally in Chicago might have been out of the fight or an innocent bystander might have caught a stray round, so unless it was 20 assassination attempts, those 20 beefs might have been resolved to the shooters satisfaction.  The news articles don't go into that.  It's not an after action report of much value, from that angle. 

And it is probably too much to ask for the Chicago Tribune to inquire and report such details.  Like they are even fully knowable.  

Golly, I want to retire to Cleveland

I wish I could have seen it in the 40s and 50s.

Never desired an AK

But I might be persuaded, depending on the features.

pic.twitter.com/DvcSO6H3jH

— Brandon Hannibal Donkey (@BHDonk1) March 7, 2022

Ok, Vlad

How much is Putin paying you, Secretary General of the UN?

In reaction to the report, U.N. Secretary-General, António Guterres doubled down on that message, calling fossil fuels "a dead end." 

 "Coal and other fossil fuels are choking humanity," Guterres says. Fossil fuel companies, banks and investors are all complicit, he argues. "Those in the private sector still financing coal must be held to account. Oil and gas giants - and their underwriters – are also on notice."

 Dang Commie Simps

Dick's Ammo

Marine buddy sez, "Went to Dicks.  Also, I went to a sporting goods store to get LaCrosse cleats for Biff and they had ALL the ammo!"

First, we are both from the Don't Ask Don't Tell generation of the military, but I already knew you are a former Marine.  Second, good news!

Lemme see what favored online supplier have in my preferred brand and caliber and... it looks like it always did.  I hadn't checked in a long time because, you know, feeling a spot poorly of late and not hitting the range.  So I wasn't depleting stocks.  

Hell, I forget what I wanted to lay in a bit more of.  Hmm. 

Just to save this as a reference

I kow in a year I will want to find this graph and won't be able to Google these with "Chart or Oil and Gas Prices under Biden" for some reason.

 

Tossed like a Caesar Salad

The NY AG's suit to dissolve the NRA.  Judge says don't be silly.

This despite the abject corruption and incompetence displayed by the leadership of America's oldest civil rights organization.  Their worry about avoiding jail has adversely impacted their ability to respond to attacks by Gun-Banner on the Second from that angle.  While Gropey Joe opens up new attacks on the natural right by going after PLCAA.  Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.  Trying to treat gunmakers, in the courts, like they did tobacco companies.  You know, Joey Applesauce, them companies DO make guns for the military and police, too.  Do you really want to put them out of business?  

And as for Caesar Salads.  You want me to believe an Italian guy that's been dead for over 70 years made that salad?

They vote, same as you

I’m in awe pic.twitter.com/ATJcC2GGFo

— Lt. Col. Hippolytus, Ukraine Patriotic Front (ret) (@Real_Hippolytus) March 4, 2022

Lindsey

“Well, now what happened is one of our Senators went a little funny in the head. You know, just a little funny and he went and said a silly thing.” pic.twitter.com/NEMViK0yOK

— The Columbia Bugle 🇺🇸 (@ColumbiaBugle) March 4, 2022

Yes, Fred.

This Just In

BREAKING NEWS

74% of Americans are DEE YOU EM BEE.

74% of Americans support a "no-fly zone!" This euphemism has done tremendous harm to the American public's understanding of escalation and conflict.

I'm very worried that Russian state media will seize on this and further misrepresent it to Russians. https://t.co/arwFvZseLN

— Emerson T. Brooking (@etbrooking) March 4, 2022

No longer having a gay old time

 

My Tank!

With all this armor up for grabs, now, after getting abandoned, there is something I always wondered about.  

When infantry disable a tanks tracks and make it immobile they then swarm it, avoiding the point end of the turret, and wary of other enemy tanks in machine gun range, which could ruin the dog-faces day...

The next step is to open a hatch, spray inside with a burp gun to lower their moral, then drop a grenade in there.   Rinse repeat on the next piece of armor.

The thing I wonder about is, why isn't there a latch on the inside to keep the hatch from being opened?  You lock your car door whenever you cross into the bad neighborhood downtown, why don't tanks? 

Just a Hollywood trope?
Yeah...

Now, sure, if they leave a hatch open and you sneak up on it, that's different.

I can't even see the firearm in this tweet

Kinda diggin this Jericho rn. What do you guys think?? pic.twitter.com/IeDFFCjC6y

— Huey Lewis (@HAv2RtrnVdeoTps) March 3, 2022

Yesterday was a good day

Why?  I took an extra-strength Tylenol at work around lunchtime.  Remarkably good spirits after that.  

I am normally an Advil person, but can't use them now because of the chemo drugs.  Nor aspirin.  I don't drink much for the same reason, counterindicative with chemo; acetaminophen is both fine, and the only recommended analgesic, now.   I didn't expect it to work so well with my thoracic pain. Nice.  Some good news, for once.  Nice discovery.  

Also, dinner was chicken Kiev.  No particular reason for the choice...

  

"I love Chucks!"

"I love converse shoes, they have always been popular, for decades and decades."

Oh, you sweet summer child.

Yes, they have been quite popular.  Stylish even.  For a very long time.  

But there was a time...  When Jordache jeans were popular...  From the mid seventies to the early 80s Chuck Taylors were NOT popular. Adidas and Nike were coming into their own.  And these shoes were not.  They were called fish heads.  Un-fashionable.

The only thing less popular were K-Mart blue-light specials. 

"We're gonna walk down to K-Mart and buy some shoes.  They only cost a dollar."

Poor placement

The first Ad Youtube thought would be good to serve up for me on this video was for an electric toothbrush...

Bit of a funk

And it's been AGES since I went to the range.  

I may need to venture out, now that my energy is up since the anemia is addressed.

Might be able to wear real big-boy shoes again, by the middle of the month. One of the things I may have to do is find shoes that fit.

Before all this foot ulcer thing happened I had found a house shoe (just like the Japanese!) that felt good.  $24.  I was so pleased I bought 2 more pair.  Now I don't know if they will be wide enough for comfort.  Fingers crossed.

But a trip to a big shoe store, if such things still exist, to try on shoes rather than go through the catalog-order, then order-return I usually do.  PIA.