Drat!

No post queued,  Doc appointment all day.  Just follow-up style.  I doubt any of them will move the ball in a positive direction.

Been seeing a lot of stuff about how the 2nd Amendment says nothing about granting individuals permission to own a firearm.  Mentally insane Keith Olbermann being chief among them.  

I'd post a link but I am apparently blocked by Olbermann on Twitter.  Can't see his tweets.  Can only see em second hand.

This is the first time I have found I am blocked by anyone.  Olbermann!  Heh.  Awesome.

Other, less famous, say that only Scalia thought it an individual right, and everyone else consider it a group right.  Well, sue somebody.  Take that case to SCOTUS and get the group right nonsense ruled on.  Our side had to wait 75 years, so, good luck.     

they absolutely insist on making the NRA sound infinitely more based than it actually is pic.twitter.com/IeLKW7PyiJ

— Bad Weapon Takes (@BadWeaponTakes) July 14, 2021

None of those things are contradictory

In a discussion about the editor of the autobiographical papers of the greatest British hero of the Victorian Age, they described the editor thusly: 

MacDonald Fraser was a contradictory figure. A patriotic right-winger who had a deep respect for other cultures and peoples; one of Hollywood’s most in-demand screenwriters who happily lived on the Isle of Man in a self-conscious recreation of “the good old days”; a fully paid-up reactionary who wished to reintroduce corporal and capital punishment, but who loathed British incursions abroad.

But are those things at all contradictory?  At least on this side of the Atlantic.  There are conservative cases, here, both for and against capital punishment, say.  For and against incursions abroad.  You could always be a YUGE patriot and still respect other cultures and people.  If you can work for Hollywood, while also living half a world away, you are just very fortunate to not be standing calf deep in proverbial Cali filth.  

Those points just seem all consistent, to me.

And now I want to dig out my Flashman novels.  

I was wondering when they'd get back around to this

It's been 30 years since the gun ban orgs shifted focus to AR's and AK's from handguns.  Fewer people owned the rifles but nearly everyone had or knew someone with a handgun in a sock drawer.

The admitted truth is the most firearm homicides are done with handguns, but also, most self defense gun use is done with handguns.  A combination of numbers extant and convenience to the user, mostly.  

But it's a tough sell, still, to go after handguns, now as well as thirty years ago.  Go after the scary 'assault weapon' rifles.  

But that didn't work either.  It's long lost it's initial boogeyman momentum, and complaining about them only sells more of em.  So a few of the more honest gun ban types bring up that handguns are the true scourge.  

I don't think that's going to help them, even with a full court press propaganda push behind it.  Handguns and awareness that DGUs actual exist serious number are even more plentiful now than 30 years ago.  

The prohibitionists are going to have take more extreme measures.  Gunpowder causes Covid?  Hoppes cleaning fluid existing anywhere within a quarter mile of your location lowers testosterone in men and causes birth defects?  Semi-autos are fash, and bash the fash?  Yeah, I dunno. 

Booze seasons

Like wearing white shoes, booze should be consumed in season.  Between Memorial Day and Labor Day, clear liquors are appropo.  In the colder months, the brownest of the brown liquors.  Bourbon.  Or Scotch if you are one of THOSE kind, ya filthy animal.

(Little secret?  Go ahead and drink what you want when you want.  Just pretend to civilized, outwardly.  Or not.  I like uncivilized filthy animals, too.  Yes, I knew plenty of Marines.)

There you go!  Items for a Bucket List.  Booze I wanna try but really haven't appreciated in my short life and before I get spirited away by Cancer and Vengeful God.

• I haven't touched Tequila since a very traumatic even at age 17.   Maybe get some good stuff of that.  Try it again.  Not a WHOLE bottle just yet, I am still traumatized 35 years later.
• Madiera
• Proper Absinthe
• Napoleon Brandy
• A well made Olde Fashioned.
• Gin Fizz
• Lime Rickey
• Pimm's Cup
• Claret
• I got good gin and quite a few good bourbons accounted for.... never hurts to expand this list, cocktail wise of otherwise.
• ... what else?

I got a FEVAH

And the only cure is more lime and gin.

Speaking of booze...

We are FULL on into Gin&Tonic season. And I remember Tam tipped me off, on her blog, to Fever Tree Tonic Water.  "How much better can it be?" sez I, "What the hell, I'll try it, I guess."

Oh my.  Thas purty good.  Nice balance.  Good straight, great with Plymouth gin (RN).  

Dammit.  I'm stuck with getting the good stuff now, aren't I?  Dammit Tam...  Well there are worse things to spend a few extra bucks on.  Thanx.

Homer

I was gonna post about Homer Price and the Doughnut Machine, I already did last year.

Did Caffeine Create the Enlightment

Well, that and tobacco, and don't forget better/cheaper booze.  All three have some positive effect on the thought process.  All three together is the important bit.

A smoker will tell you how a cigarette can clear and focus the mind.  I can attest to this.  Yes, there are plenty of thing wrong with smoking, and I am glad I stopped, but wasn't devoid of positives.  Booze and creativity?  There are theories.

All three came together as one at about the time of the Renaissance and the Enlightment.

Those thee are much better than late night dorm room reefer schemes:

But wait... what new product widely appeared at the end of the Enlightenment?  Easy.  The widespread consumption of the potato and tomato.  Your French Fries and ketchup make you ordinary again.  But maybe more moral.  Makes you want to fight kill and die to end the scourge of slavery, them Krinkle Kuts with a side of Del Monte catsup, eh?  

30 some types of Non Hodgkins Lymphoma

Thirty!  I go through the list and point and go, "Glad I don't have that one." It's Baskin Robbins cancer.

Mine, named for the Swedish discoverer Jan Gosta Waldenström, is kinda rare.  And, interestingly enough, my sub-flavor of it is rarer, and enough to attract the attention of bigger hematologists.  So I get a 'top of the line' second opinion.

[I'm gonna omit that umlaut 'ö' from now on and just use regular 'o']

I wonder if it is prevalent in Swedes, since I am a full quarter Swedish on my mother's side, and my Swedish grandmother was my age when she died of some form of lymphoma.  

Anyway, got an appointment with a downtown doc arranged.

The deal with Waldenstrom Macroglobulimea, aka Lympho Plasmacytic Lymphoma (not leukemia) aka LPL, is you watch it and do treatment only when body produces too many of them Macro Globules or the symptoms get too bad.

But what level is bad?

• I got neuropathy in my extremities that is very annoying.
• My back pain might be related to the LPL.
• My listlessness almost certainly is.  Anemia.

What I don't have, yet, is:

• Immunoglobulin M, aka IgM, protein count levels north of 5000.  I have half that.  You have a 50th of that.  But 5000ish often triggers treatment.  That's the Macro Globule, btw; IgM is.
• High viscosity in my blood causing vision issues
• Viscosity in my blood causing an elevated stroke risk
• Diarrhea
• Night sweats
• Swollen lymph nodes
• Swollen spleen or liver

Glad I don't have some of them

The treatments are two main types.  Kill the cancer cells with chemo, and thus cease production of big protein globs.  Let the good blood catch up.  The other type is to take out my blood, filter the blood plasma to get the big globs out, then put it back.  

I am having a bit of trouble tolerating the symptoms I do have.  You have heard me whinge before.  I am concerned my current pain affects my judgement.  That this is nothing compared to what is coming.  That I should wait and endure longer, and then get more out of the treatment.  That there is only so many treatments they can do that will help before they are more harm than good.  So, that is on my mind ahead of Second Opinion Mega Doctor.  

Insurrectionists

Remember how they put up fences and made the national guard sleep on cold concrete then put up higher fences and STILL keep the Capitol closed because the January 6 rowdies that happened to have ALL forgotten their guns that first time outburst to topple the Democracy, somehow, were supposed to be coming back any second now?

Pepperidge Farm remembers.  

Nancy?  Lame.  I don't think they are coming back.  I've thought that since the 7th.  Of January. 

I think the only MAGA types that had guns on the 6th of January were all on the fed payroll and all were in hotels on the Virginia side of the river during the brouhaha. Prolly the smartest move for them, individually.  Guard the pitiful baggage train.   

Look at the windshield glass

Gone!

Certainly because of 1960s studio lightings.  But wait...

Superman was 10 year before Andy Griffith and:

I guess it depended on the angle or something.  LOOK at thos whitewalls.

I wasn't gonna send in my NRA ballot

Because to hell with Wayne LaPierre (he's got to go).  But John convinced me otherwise.  You got to August 15th to vote, sign it, stamp it and hope the mail gets it there before then.  Plan ahead.

Like youse, I am disappointed in the NRA, president and board.  Grifters.  Cancer.  But the organization can be better, needs to be better, and I hope it can get better. Also, I want the NRA to do better because they pay money to friends of mine who do actual good work for them.  JayG and Tam. 

SERE Training

You see they should've shifted gears to evasion.  Instead these sovereign citizen types allowed themselves to be pinned in place, hampering their freedom of movement.  

The first E is for Evasion.  Now that they are caught they gotta worry about R Reistance and E Escape.  S Survival wasn't really in play just yet.  

These particular individuals may not have had the advantages of Government Instruction, which is pretty cursory to begin with anyway.  But their real first mistake is attracting attention to themselves in the first place.  11 people looking like they are going to a church picnic but have a buncha rifle and pistols hidden out of sight?  Cops rarely notice them.  11 people in Massachusetts walking around with load bearing gear and rifles and pistols... Even the slower police officers tend to notice that. 

Lesson learned?  If you are up to shennanigans maybe don't look like you are up to shennanigans.  Hard to put the stopper back once things get all kinetic.  

Sneaking off on foot into the woods might have been a thought.  Sneaking off into the woods with a contact on the other side that might have driven you off somewhere else and all this planned ahead of time might have been a better thought.  

"They had car trouble T-Bolt!  How can you plan ahead for that?"

Two teams on parallel tracks.  In contact with one another.   Both with excess passenger capacity and both with folks with sharp overland orienteering skills?  That kind of plan?

No matter.  Escape and Resist now.  Your buddy is a Fed, tho.   

Go Team Venture!

Friendship

HAPPY #4THOFJULY!!!

It’s a Beautiful day, the beaches are open, and everyone is having a wonderful time. Amity as you know means friendship!#BeachesOpen #SummerDollars pic.twitter.com/5RJnkXqcAT

— Mayor Larry Vaughn (@MayorLVaughn) July 4, 2021

Happy Independence Day

Go blow up symbolioc tyrants that can't even run their own lives. I'll be damn if they run mine, sunshine.

 

Magnum Milk

Is that mob boss washing down Chinese food with milk in Magnum Force?  Foremost dairy, yup.

Nuns don't work on Sundays.

Is that a Beretta, Magnum?  I thought you were always a Colt man.

Barracuda!

Larry, if we make an effort today we might be able to save August. @MayorLVaughn #Jaws pic.twitter.com/Wi82zQiAyi

— Chief Martin Brody (@realchiefbrody) July 2, 2021

TeeVee

 I'd have paid Comcast more money the past 5 years if they'd have done what I said and let me have Turner Classic Movies, and ONLY TCM, as an ala carte option.  So I cut the TV cord way back then.

To replace that, I instead spend money on BluRay players and DVDs and have amassed what is essentially a sans-Osgood channel.  

Dumber than a box of hammers, and now they are eclipsed like Blockbuster.  Fools.

---

Lots of John Wayne.  Bogie.  Myrna Loy.  Hitchcock.  Plus Prime can fill in other gaps, catch as catch can.  

Oh dear...

Because I can take a pile of metal parts that don't fit together, apply file and stone and even dremel to said parts, end up with part that DO then fit together and make a darn reliable military grade firearm...  All in the comfort of my living room.

Am I now a terrist?

And there a plenty of you that can get a pile of parts mailed to you, acquire a single other part elsewhere, then with a video or $14 picture book instruction put those parts together because they are supposed to all fit together as they come from the warehouse... And then end up with a perfectly functioning AR.

Are you a potential terrist?  If you just read the picture book and internalized the lessons are you a terrist?

If you can detail strip a firearm and put it back together, is that enough gunsmith skill to make you a terrist?

So many questions.  

Since 1934, was the ATF ever more than a dangerous joke?