What's today?

Hoof.  The 22nd?  Crap, I got no blog post.

It's humid.  Them hurricanes are down in the gulf but it feels like they are passing Norfolk heading nor'west.

But I am not complaining.  We have knocked out the string of 90+ degree days in July and some mornings this August have been downright pleasant.  I love it when we turn the corner on summer.  I much prefer the colder seasons. 

Ok, I'm back

I'll only have one or two more of these silly posts then real posts and all NEW silly posts

Bloggin'

Reblog

Been reading some Dan Mitchell.  When I am to home.  Work's proxy servers don't like some web platforms and wordpress is one of them.  I should be working, not reading blogs, anyway.

Anyway, reasonable libertarian.  Which, from my experience, are different from the Big 'L' Libertarians.  Big Ls often strike me as nuttier than a rodeo turd.

Enjoying Mitchell's stuff.  Both on how racist gun control is.  And the great universal utility of increasing economic freedom.  Cursory checks suggest he is not stark-raving mad.  And may not be mad at all.  He'd never get a job at Reason, tho.  If he smokes weed he sure don't qvetch about it.

Man, some things on the internet...

いやそうはならへnなんでや！！！！！！！！！！！ pic.twitter.com/QEGmHuxROv

— ( 常) (@tumi0083) January 21, 2020

So what you been up to?

Lots of stuff.  One thing after another.  At least it hasn't been all at once.  But all things with a need to be done immediately, or because of a near term deadline.

• Get the end of year work compliance training done.
• Christmas cards
• Christmas visiting
• Get work badge renewed
• Five separate medical appointments (check up, eye doc, dentist, routine)
• That thing with the sink
• Organize the linen closet
• My drivers license renewal with RealID
• My Passport renewal after that happens

Stuff like that.  Accomplish one small life task and then turn my gaze to the next one on the list.  Check them off, as they come.  What else can a body do?  It's just living.

I mean it is sort of like life, lived responsibly and adhering to whatever duty places in front of ya, but regularity of the ongoing tasks feels like the ticking of a clock escapement.  And that regularity is kinda comforting in its way.  You know what I mean?

Eventually the drumbeat on this galley will get monotonous, and I will set down my oar, jump the gunwhale, swim a lap and then get back into the ship.  Just for fun and to shake things up.  Also, you know what I mean? 

Yeah, yeah

The last two posts have been on the sparse side of on topic blog fodder.

And it's not like there is a paucity of gun news.  Virginia, Maryland, and Florida legislatures are all a bit rangey. 

On working on it!  It's the blahs!

I'd have a range report if it hadn't have called for snow yesterday.  Boring generic black plastic stiker fired service pistol, probably.  Well, when the pistol is boring, try to make the marksmanship somewhat interesting.  Maybe later today. 

Think of sumthin T-Bolt

You owe me a Sunday blog post.  And try to improve you quality.  Yeah, I know, you been playing that stupid new game.

Hey!  That reminds me!  More stupid new games.

Lots come out around now.  It's the season for game releases.

But there is a stupid old game coming out.  Red Dead Redemption 2.  But for PC. 

I suck at console controllers, so I don't use one.  And Red Dead was console only.  Until this November 5th.

I know the storyline to the game.  It's been spoiled for me.  But I just want to go around as Arthur, riding and hunting and camping and just enjoying the absolute beyootiful scenery this game has on offer.   Maybe look for Gavin.  Help that English tenderfoot out.

Lots of gunplay in that game, too.

"I wish he would stop tweeting"

I hear that from everyone.  Trump haters, of course, but also people that voted for him and from fans. (not the same thing)

I wish he would stop tweeting.

And I get it.  Trump's biggest negative is that he is a loudmouth vulgarian from Queens.  And that all is in your face because of the constant tweeting.

If he was charismatic and amiable like Reagan was that'd be great, huh?

Well, the thing is, he is president because of his tweeting, not despite them.  Being boisterous in tweets draws attention.  And tweeting is him directly communicating without filters.  He is going to up his tweet level now.  An election is coming in a year.  Maybe after that he will dial it back.  Unless he wants to get something passed through Congress...

Getting and staying in the Whitehouse has in history often been greatly helped due to a candidate best exploiting the latest communication gizmos.  Tyler and broadsheet gazetteering with song books, Lincoln and the telegraph,  FDR and radio, Kennedy and B&W TV, Reagan and color TV.  Clinton and the then extra plethora of TV talk shows.  Obama and email lists.

Trump and tweets.

Also, Trump and memes.

A new candidate at a future election will have the next new big way to communicate with the electorate.  Watch.  The one that works the new medium best will come out on top.

---

Yeah, yeah, more Trump nonsense.  I wanted to get Tippecanoe into a post.  If it's too much Trump send me a wire or Aeromail demanding a refund of your blog subscription and I will give you back all the money you are due.

If you could live in a past era...

What era would you choose?

Me?  I wouldn't want to go too far back.  No Rome or Colonial New England.  Certainly not 30 Years War era.  I'd want Air Conditioning and Anti-Biotics, and Modern Dentistry.  Yes, I capitalized them, as they are Important.

So, Post WWII.

Hey, Ima like the look of cars for a bit until the mid 70s!

But what would I drink?

Post prohibition beer isn't that great, and only get's worse over time until the microbrew revolution 60 years later.  Soda of the 40s-70s, for me, is too sweet.  I have to wait for the mid-80s to get a decent sugar substitute.  You remember how bad cyclamates and saccharin was!  So, decent beer is unavailable in the US for a couple decades, then when aspartame is available you still have to wait another decade for truly good micros to roll into the market.

Pah!

There is no such thing as the good old days.

Maybe I can live off of Ballantine from 1940-1970.


---

Guns?  Please.  Plenty of well made all-metal revolvers and automatics, the height of the war surplus days, and look for me to pickup some fun sub guns when inflations makes $200 seem less a bite.  Pre 1964 Winchesters.  The problem is what to restrict myself to.

If I was starting over

Buying guns.

Current-ish gunblog meme.

Starting over, now, knowing what you know, what do you get?

I'd buy two duplicate Commodity Plastic Striker Fired Service Pistols. Used. While living in a state that allows you to do that.

 (This all presumes a volcano opens up under my neighborhood and takes my house and all my stuff and that is why I am starting over buying guns from scratch at my age).

I'd buy two duplicate pocket pistols.  Used.  Prolly some pre-lock J-Frames that time on all 5.

That's about it.  Maybe a double barrel shotfun.  In case hunting.  Prolly don't need a spare, so no duplicate necessary.

I'm too old to do much rifle work in the militia.  But if I ended up in rifle country?  Meh, a couple ARs would get built, mebbe.  Put a pin in the rifle category.  Say zero for now.

No 1911s, sadly.  It's a great gun, but starting from scratch to make one work right again is a long haul.

So four, maybe five.  Three really.  Two pistols and their spares, maybe a shotgun.

I wouldn't even mod them much.  No tritium sights, frex.

Spare parts that'd fit in a .30 cal ammo box.  Ammo for each type that would fit in a .50 cal ammo box.  Four spare mags for a total of eight for 9mm.  Level III retention holster for the big pistols.  Small safe to store them in.

"What about a .22, T-bolt?"

What about it?  Nah.

Spoke too soon.

Even BUSIER day yesterday. Jinxed myself

Haven't even had time to read headlines til near dark.

Trump partied with cheerleaders and Epstein was around?  This is awful.  Lemme look.

Oh.

The media source made me think High School cheerleaders.  It was NFL cheerleaders.  IOne this is awful though.  Those eyebrows.



Other than that?  What's the big deal? Whole lotta nuthin.

C'mon. Trump does bad things. Why not bring those things up. Why bring up neutral-to-good things? It's not like he is Bill Clinton, here. Or Gropey Joe Biden.

----

The App I always wanted to get when I got a real cell phone was one of them Star Gazer apps. So I can ID stars in the sky and know when satellites are flying over. Got it. StarWalk2. Might get a plane traffic app, too. Recommendation for the plane tracker?

Ronry

Erry boday on my team at work has been on vacation.  One comes back tomorrow.

So I have been on my own at work, doing the jobs of four people.  So lonely.  And busier than a one-armed paper hanger in an ass kicking contest.  Assuming I was also missing a leg.  And had a lot of wallpaper hanging to do. 

Not an excuse for the poor blogging, just an explanation.

Hey, that reminds me of that radio Pentecostal that signed off with "not a sermon, just a thought."  Remember that guy?  I think he may be local.  He'd have to be to penetrate my listening preference, I do not seek out religious radio programming.  I think this is him.  I did appreciate his brevity.

Also,  Delenda Est LaPierre.  After he is removed his office needs to be trashed and the plush pile carpet salted so nothing can ever grown in there again.

Crap

You cruise along for 3 weeks with plenty of blog fodder then these droughts come along.

Hmmm.

Why's it got to be shifting Overton windows and marginalizing Commies in the news?  No good news out of NRA?  No big gun cases progressing nicely?

---

Some of my work buddies troll me.  Tell me they are gonna get a Taurus Judge for a first pistol.

---

I wonder if there was some big turnover at one of our news stations, WTOP.  They went from relatively neutral to noticeably lean progressive in only a couple months, it seems.  Then they got themselves wrapped around their own axle, yesterday.

The progression here, I'm cracking up LMAOOOOO pic.twitter.com/axKHsRjdwR

— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) July 16, 2019

As the French say...

Le Monday, Bupkis, tout suite, si vous plait

Sorry, got very little...  Hmmm....

Ok, Trump is shaping the battlespace.  He just made the Democrat party and Democrat president candidate rally around the 'squad' they had been internecine fighting against.  The squad that is wildly unpopular to a supermajority of American voters.  And you know, I don't think the president planned it that way, though he may have.  This seems like his standard knee jerk reaction that comes from a natural internal instinct.  But if he can keep the Democrats painted into an unpopular corner, alternatively defending unpopular young Turks and battling for the soul of the party with same...  it'll make it easier to beat them in many contests.  Plus these young Turks have been accusing EVERYONE of racism.  Trump, of course.  But also Pelosi is racist and maybe even the Congressional Black Caucus is racist.  And if all those people are racist together, then, no one is.

And this didn't happen in a vacuum.  The day before peeps ran up a Mexican flag in place of the American one at an ICE facility.  I figure that was what got angry Trump to react the impolitic way he did.  I know that got me angry.

Ugh, Trump. Not very gunnie related.  And I always feel a little bit sticky after talking about him.  I still can't believe he is president, but yet I cannot look away.  He is... horri-wonderful?

Speaking of presidential politics, I predict Biden fades and Harris gets the nom.  If not Harris, Warren.  And I got a bet with work buddies on that.  The Biden fade part, at least.  Gunnie related: candidate Kamala Harris thinks too many black men have guns and intends to do something about that.

Gun violence is the leading cause of death for young Black men in America. We must stop this. When president, I will take executive action to ensure guns do not fall into the wrong hands.

It’s not enough to just talk — Americans deserve action.

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) July 13, 2019

Seems kinda... racist.  But see the first point, by the election no one will be racist.

Hey, that turned into a decent sized post.

Feeling Poorly

Maybe more later.  Going to doctor.  Sure it is nothing.

Hey, it's only halfway-ish though June and I already got 24 posts.  Readership is down 66% from this time last year, unless I get a link from somebody.  

So why keep the blog up?  Habit.  Testing my self-discipline.  I still like it.  It keeps me focused on the issue when by now I'd be a 2 range days a year sorta person.  So that's nice.  I guess.  I'll quit when I wanna, and I don't wanna.  

I haven't watched any Game of Thrones

[no spoilers]

Since season 4?  Maybe.

And people around me in my day to day interactions are all very respectful about NOT spoiling it for folks that don't want it to be spoiled.

That said, without even trying, I have picked up the plot pretty much by osmosis and pretty much knew everything that happened of any importance in the finale in less than 24 hours.  Same for the rest of the season.  It just entered into my unconsiousness with no effort on my part.

I don't know what happened in Lost.

It's off how some stuff enters into the public sphere like that.  And this is softcore pr0n on a premium cable channel, not like NBC or ABC with the finales of Sienfeld or MASH.

I just find it odd how this all works.

And I am long on work and low on fodder.  So here.

I'm not doing so bad.  The past week I've had zombies, elitism, politics, court rulings, gunsmithing, and memes.  Need to add a dash of training/range work, history, hunting/survival to cover every base.

Also

Why So Pokey, T-Bolt

Why has the blogging suffered?

Well, when I started this thing I was at a job.  2007.  The work was important, but easy enough to do.  So I had spare cycles during the day to think on stuff.  I used those cycles here.  I was at that job til this time last year.

Then, the scope of the job quadrupled.  The job changed.  Same place.  Same sorta stuff.  I got a big raise and kicked onto more expansive responsibilities.  A bit more challenging, but the work pace went to frantic mode as we regained our footing.  Still in that mode, now.  And I can see it getting harder.  The first 90% is easy.  Squeezing out that last 10%, and doing it right, is a challenge.  Like cleaning up litter.  The piles of McDonalds cups and beer cans on the roadside are easy, but getting the half buried truck tire out of the ground and the shopping cart from the middle of the muddy creek is just two items that will take a lotta extra thought..

So few cycles to even think about guns and zombies.

Crap, Published Today's Post Friday Evening

So what do?

College admissions scandal?  Not gun related.  Don't care.

Robert Francis O'Rourk is a running?  Not much gun related.  Another watermelon chasing fake climate crises.  Standard leftlist gun banner.  Don't think he has much of a chance.  Don't care.

New Zealand?  That guy was a gaping azz.  They should try and hang him.  After that, don't care. 

737 crashes?  Not much gun related.  I don't fly because of TSA.  If it was caused by the self-driving part... I toldja.  That stuff should get de-emphasized in Planes Trains and Cars.  They are rushing it.  Apart from that, don't care. 

Alexandria Superstar Cortez is still dumb as a bag of doorknobs?  Not gun related.  Old news.  Don't care after a rueful chuckle. 

Work has been kicking my azz

Time to make the blog donuts.  Bloggnuts.  On this Ides.

----

I liked those CDC numbers.  Between 31,000 and 236,000 people are injured by firearms every year.  What a useless delta.  Well, not useless for them.  The CDC could extrapolate from "31k in 2010, 42k  in 2011, 55k in 2012....&c.... 198,000 in 2018" even when the actual number of injuries is as level as a billiard table.   "Look at the steep increases!"  Oh hush, you frauds.


----

Saw that Larry wants his home state of Utah to become a Vermont Carry state.  He wants to keep with enlightened states, the latest being Kentucky.  Nooooo!  A lot of use in the Gun Crow states rely on Utah to back stop us with non-resident permits.  They might let non-residents fall by the wayside if residents don't need on anymore.  And Florida just elected a Democrat to their Ag board that runs their CCW permits, and she is all for gun control.  And Virginia has made it harder for non residents and backlogs abound.  I found that out for my ownself.  Hold out Utah, at least until Clarence Thomas rams through a CCW reciprocity rule with greater constitutional hold than abortion have enjoyed for almost 50 years.

----

Remington can be sued for Sandy Hook because they marketed the Bushmaster to be attractive to autistic psychopaths to purchase through ads in the booming gun periodical market.  Wait... his mom bought the AR.  So I guess the advertisement enticed HER to get the gun so she could be murdered by the fruit of her loins who would then go on to shoot up a second grade classroom with the now stolen rifle?  Is that how it works?

I can't see this ruling holding up on appeal.  Buncha others are of the same mind.