Good Deal

This photo of the Mustang on the flat Texas panhandle was shot with a Sony RX100. This is Sony's deluxe zoom lens shirt-pocket camera.

It features a 20MP 1" sensor, which is huge for a point & shoot. Most cameras of this type have tiny 1/1.7" or 1/2.3" sensors, not much bigger than those found in cell phones, while the 1" sensor is the same size as that in Nikon's recently-discontinued "Nikon 1" series of mirrorless interchangeable lens cameras.

The RX100 was initially released in 2012, and I think the most recent iteration is the "RX100 VII", but Sony keeps selling older styles alongside newer ones, because newer iterations tend to change feature sets, rather than simply upgrading megapixels.

The cool thing about this is that new (or at least New Old Stock) original gangsta RX100's are on sale right now at Amazon for under four bills, which is pretty swoopy for an award-winning camera that cost over a grand when it came out.

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Black Friday Deal

Surefire's running a Black Friday special on their little Sidekick key fob lights.

Rechargeable, and sporting an output that toggles between 5, 60, and 300 lumens, these things are handier than a pocket on a shirt. The sale price is $19.99, which is dropping into stocking-stuffer territory. I use the heck out of mine.
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Believing what you read on the internet...

So, the Threepdawgs and Borthers are charging off in all directions again.

The Big Igloo may have failed to materialize in Putnam County, NY the other night, but within less than a week, everyone has found something new to cause them to run around with their hair on fire.

This time, it's that Virginia is supposedly going to outlaw firearms training. Here's a typical post sounding the warning, with a bunch of Threepdawg chest-beating in the comments.

This is the law these guys are warning you that Virginia is trying to pass:

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. That § 18.2-433.2 of the Code of Virginia is amended and reenacted as follows:

§ 18.2-433.2. Paramilitary activity prohibited; penalty.

A person shall be is guilty of unlawful paramilitary activity, punishable as a Class 5 felony if he:

1. Teaches or demonstrates to any other person the use, application, or making of any firearm, explosive, or incendiary device, or technique capable of causing injury or death to persons, knowing or having reason to know or intending that such training will be employed for use in, or in furtherance of, a civil disorder; or

2. Assembles with one or more persons for the purpose of training with, practicing with, or being instructed in the use of any firearm, explosive, or incendiary device, or technique capable of causing injury or death to persons, intending to employ such training for use in, or in furtherance of, a civil disorder; or

3. Assembles with one or more persons with the intent of intimidating any person or group of persons by drilling, parading, or marching with any firearm, any explosive or incendiary device, or any components or combination thereof.

If any of these 21st Century Robert Newmans had taken thirty seconds to do their homework instead of rushing to the steeple of the Old North Church (those stair treads probably need replacing; they're well-worn in the middle) they might have noticed that those italics are significant.

See, §18.2-433.2 itself has been around since 1987, likely passed in the wake of early Eighties shenanigans by such wholesome folks as Bruder Schweigen and The Covenant, the Sword, and the Arm of the Lord. It currently consists of just the first two paragraphs. The current bill only adds the third para, the one consisting of "Assembles with one or more persons with the intent of intimidating any person or group of persons by drilling, parading, or marching with any firearm, any explosive or incendiary device, or any components or combination thereof", to the existing law.

All these people wanting you to set your hair on fire and run in circles with them about ZOMG THE DEEP STATE IS TRYING TO OUTLAW GUN TRAINING IN VIRGINIA haven't even read the existing law. Consider that fact when deciding how much credence to give to their mouth-noises.

Calm your tits, Herschel, and do thirty seconds of research before running to your keyboard for a change.
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Sixteen years since the last Concorde flight...

Home Again

So that puts a 2,600 mile round trip in the books. My longest in the Mustang so far, definitely. Heck, I'm pretty sure it's my longest solo road trip ever. There was something that felt adventuresome about setting out on a trip like this in a car with nearly a quarter million miles on the clock and myself with a dangerously flaccid bank account...

I shouldn't have worried. Like Keads reassured me, the Mustang was a champ, with a fair number of good, long cross-country trips yet in her tank. Great big chunks of flyover country were flown through with the cruise control set at 80-90mph. I've got notes I need to turn into posts...
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Automotif CLIV...

Ol' boy pulled up right behind me at the pumps. What are the odds of two Historic Vehicles wearing year-of-manufacture plates pulling up to the pump at the same time? (Of course, a '36 Chevy truck is a little more historic than a '94 Mustang. Props to this old dude and his truck, which sure appeared to be in regular use.)
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I LOL'ed...

Frankly the sunglasses just make the video.
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Seriously?

"300 patriots guarding the house"... MY. SIDES.

We have a hard time getting that many people to stand on the National Mall or a state capitol lawn with several months' notice, and you think that many turned up to Podunk, NY in a couple hours? And the news media...which would be practically decorating their cupcakes with excitement...were somehow ignoring it?

I mean, if someone fell for stuff like this last night (or, worse, passed it on this morning), they should probably consider sleeping with their head in a dry-cleaning bag tonight out of pure shame.

Congratulations. You got your face trolled off.
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O, Come Let Us Adore Phil

Mexican church erect's 21 ft baby Jesus. Sorry 21 ft Phil Collins in his undies #PhilCollins #scarystuff pic.twitter.com/d2xCnbEmHV

— ... (@humungoushammer) November 23, 2019

No word if Sunday's sermon will be from the book of Genesis...
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Social media helps you connect.

If you're into shooting, social media can help you connect with other people who are into shooting. If you're into Japanese funny books, social media can help you connect with other people who are into Japanese funny books. If you're a furry, social media can help you find other furries.

And if you're a credulous moron, social media can hook you up with other credulous morons:

"And Davidson quickly found a large online community believing the same thing. "I thought doing a conference would just take it to the next stage where the media and the world will look at it and say, 'wait a minute -- something must be going on. This is not just some internet fad, or a bunch of crazy people online. They're now meeting in buildings.'"

He has a few things he wants to make clear to a flat-Earth novice. Firstly, and most importantly -- "none of us believe that we're a flying pancake in space." The community merely believes that space does not exist, the world sits still and the moon landing was faked. The jury is out on gravity -- but as Davidson notes, no one has ever seen it.

Secondly -- no, you won't fall off the edge. While flat Earthers' views of the world vary, most believe the planet is a circular disk with Antarctica acting as an ice wall barrier around the edge."

Oh, fer... If you can't get a transcontinental commercial flight, then one on a clear day over the Great Plains will do. Get a window seat and observe the curvature of the earth yourself from FL350. No need to listen to any "commie scientists" or "lying astronauts".
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Sorry.

I have been sick unto death today, laying in bed achey and fevered.

The impeachment hearings have eaten the news, too, making it dull and repetitive and no fun to blog about.
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Yikes.

Video from the interstate in southern Illinois early last week.
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That's pretty sick.

Nothing like a couple of turbos to help explore the scarier corners of the C2 'Vette's aero envelope!
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Bad Commands

Craig Douglas with a very important public service announcement for the handgun toter...

View this post on Instagram

One of the worst places to be as a citizen, is held at gunpoint by multiple police officers who are issuing conflicting or poor commands. I observed this phenomenon quite a bit during my law enforcement career. A horrific example of this is the shooting of Daniel Shavers by Mesa, AZ. police officer Philip Brailsford in 2016. The footage below is from an Armed Movement in Structures (AMIS) class recently conducted in Albuquerque, NM and is an unscripted free flowing discussion between myself and the students, that is not part of the normal coursework. This is just a conversational sidebar in class but the topic of what the best course of action one should take when in this situation, is something that merits time and experimentation. Something I said or the way I said it may very well offend some police officers. As someone who spent over two decades as a full time police officer and retired honorably, I can say that if what I say upsets you, then do something about the problem. If you don’t, then you’re not part of the solution and the public will continue to view you with distrust. CD

A post shared by Craig Douglas (@southnarc) on Nov 18, 2019 at 1:08am PST

The downside of the road less traveled.

The Grayguns trigger job on my SP2022 is fantastic. It makes it even more shootable than my Grayguns P30L on the crucial DA first shot, since the pull is even lighter and smoother than the very workable P30 trigger.

The downside? Holsters are super hard to find. My usual go-to sources at Dark Star Gear, PHLster, and Raven Concealment don't have holsters for the SP2022 because frankly there isn't enough demand to make it viable for them.

What was surprising was that my usual sources for more unusual guns (Custom Carry Concepts, Comp Tac, and BladeTech) don't carry anything for it, either. Heck, not even DeSantis makes an IWB holster for it; all they offer in a concealable rig is a leather OWB pancake.

It looks like I'm going to need to get some custom kydex bent if I want to try carrying this blaster IWB.
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Gas Station Chatter

So, I'm pulling in to the BP on Keystone Avenue to top up the tank on the Mustang. I'm hanging a right into the parking lot off 52nd Street when the Camry in front of me just stops. He's sitting there like a duck in thunder, leaving the ass end of my car hanging out on 52nd for a minute before he decides what he wants to do and pulls into a parking spot.

I roll up to the pump and the dude using the nozzle on the other side said "Man, what was he doing, leaving you hanging out like that?"

I shrugged in response and started filling the tank.

"Hey," asked the guy, "Is that a 302 or a 4.6?"

"302," I replied.

With a wry eyebrow lift, he asked "Manual or automatic?"

Feigning indignation, I replied "Manual, of course!"

Beaming, he replied "Girl, whatchoo doin' with that?"

"Five liter five-speed is the way to go. Duh!"
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Deepfake...

Given the credulity of the average person, the future is going to be super annoying for those who keep grains of salt handy.
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Which one is it?

View this post on Instagram

New Classic #BenGarrisonCartoon #FederalReserve Thanks for your giving! Thanksgiving #StockMarket Read Ben's post at https://grrrgraphics.com/federal-reserve-thanksgiving

A post shared by @ grrrgraphics on Nov 11, 2019 at 10:03am PST

So, which is it, Ben? Is the stock market doing good because President Donald "Orange Man Good" Trump has created a great...yuge, even...economy? Or is it because the Federal Reserve (pronounced "the Illuminati" in Garrisonland) keep pumping paper into the system?

I know which I think is more responsible, but then I don't hop back and forth depending on which argument I need to deploy at the time.
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Good timing...

Looks like Bobbi and I got the leaves up and bagged just in time.

Record lows and record snows for the date and the month here in flyover country.
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Contact.

I just got an email from instagram letting me know I have unread messages.

Of course I have unread messages. I'm only on instagram a couple times a week to post a picture of my lunch or a gun I'm shooting. I don't use the messages on Instagram. Similarly, I have no idea how many "DM's", or whatever they're called, I have unread on Twitter. And my blog's FB page? I don't check the messages there, either. I keep meaning to turn them off, because Facebook nags you if you don't immediately respond to every message sent to your page.

I have a phone number and an email address, both of which are perfectly cromulent ways to get in touch with me. If we're "friends" (god, I hate that Zuckerberg used that word to describe total strangers you barely interact with) on Facebook, Instant Messaging will get noticed, but if we're not, it won't. Instant Messages from people with whom you are not "friends" are hidden behind a tab I never go check.

Every goofy little social media platform tries to add its own little way of private one-on-one communication and it's annoying as dammit.
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Equality of Misery

The data speaks for itself: #Socialism destroys wealth pic.twitter.com/uiVjgUK0sL

— Prof. Steve Hanke (@steve_hanke) November 10, 2019

Beejesus...

I just wanted to use the internet gun nerd double pun in the post title, that's all.

Also, vz.61's are fun as dammit. I highly recommend one as a range toy, and not just because I'm goofy for anything .32 caliber. The semiauto ones are a little steep right now, but deals can be had if you shop around. I wonder how hard it would be to SBR mine?
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Tab Clearing...

• National Archive photos from Operation Urgent Fury.


• Interesting article on listening to people with whom you don't agree.


• The results of an auto hitting a horse-drawn buggy.

Wow.

Sweet zombie Jesus, I’ve said it before, but if there’s anything that will make you long for the raw technical competence of r/guns, /k/, or Arfcom gen disc, it’s the raging idiocy of anything gun-related on a general interest conservative blog.

Man, if that holster isn’t like a million-candlepower “DERP AHEAD” beacon, I don’t know what is.

Across the Milky Way, through the years...

I have always been interested in galactic archaeology, but I don't think this is what they meant.

Did you know that dinosaurs lived on the other side of the Galaxy? pic.twitter.com/ngGCAu0fYU

— Dr. Jessie Christiansen (@aussiastronomer) August 28, 2019

Another day, another...

It's trite to say that "Depression lies."

In my experience, depression doesn't lie, it's just that the truth is depressing.

— Tamara K. (@TamSlick) November 8, 2019

Remix...

How fortunate that "Clinton" and "Warren" are both bisyllabic. This cover of my 2007 original still works!

Now look at that Warren, that's the way you do it
You play the class war on the ol' tv
That ain't campaignin', that's the way you do it
Health care for nothin' and your docs for free
Now that ain't campaignin', that's the way you do it
Lemme tell ya that gal ain't dumb
Maybe look righteous waggin' a finger
Sure to get a vote from some bum.

We gotta worry 'bout Middle East countries
Immigration and trade treaties
We gotta balance the fed'ral budget
And that don't play on soundbite tv.

See the little Warren with the earrings and the makeup
Yeah buddy that ain't her own dough
Givin' away other people's money
Always makes for a real good show.

We gotta worry 'bout Middle East countries
Immigration and trade treaties
We gotta balance the fed'ral budget
And that don't play on soundbite tv.

I shoulda learned to play th' Class War
I shoulda learned to court them bums
Look at that mama, she gonna promise free insurance
Votes? That's gonna get some.
And she's up there, what's that? Socialist noises?
Bangin' on the wealthy like Noam Chomsky
That ain't campaignin', that's the way you do it
Health care for nothin' and your docs for free.

We gotta worry 'bout Middle East countries
Immigration and trade treaties
We gotta balance the fed'ral budget
And that don't play on soundbite tv.

Now that ain't campaignin', that's the way you do it
You play the class war on the ol' tv
That ain't campaignin', that's the way you do it
Health care for nothin' and your docs for free
Health care for nothin' and docs for free.

Found on the internet...

...and before anybody gets assmad about it, yes, I've carried striker-fired pistols without manual safeties in the past and likely will again in the future. Heck, the decock-only Langdon Beretta I'm carrying doesn't have a manual safety. But anybody who gets cavalier about that is asking to be in the bottom half of that meme.
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Risk Management

At gun school, at night, shooting manufacturer-supplied striker-fired pistols from concealment had me really longing for a Gadget striker control device...or a DA trigger and a hammer.

— Tamara K. (@TamSlick) November 7, 2019

Unless a low-light class outdoors is a standalone event that starts after sundown and you siesta your way through the day to prepare for it, it often comes after a day or half-day on the range.

It becomes super important to slow down and pay attention to your holstering when you are doing it repeatedly and you maybe can't visually confirm the absence of obstructions around your holster mouth. Is that shirt coming untucked? Tail of the cover garment snagged on something? Do you have toggles or drawstrings on a jacket you've pulled on when the night turned chilly? (Trick question on that last one, because you're not dumb and you cut that stuff off for safety. I've cut drawstrings off Kitanica and De'dbird jackets before, and the jackets still work fine.)

This is where the failsafe of something like a Gadget, DA hammer gun, or a manual safety is a big reassurance. Otherwise, you're left with "Just don't screw up" as Plan A, Plan B, and Plans C through Z inclusive.

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Rental

Put in about 300 miles on a Nissan Sentra rental the last couple days. On the one hand, it was a depressing little shitbox compared to my usual rides. On the other, it was remarkably fully featured (even if all the features felt cheap) and by seat of the pants feel probably featured a 0-60 under the ten second mark by maybe as much as a second or two, meaning that if you’re willing to boot it, you’ll not likely need to be worried about passing or merging.

I got home in the early evening and had to run a quick errand, so I grabbed the keys to the Mustang. Ambient temp was exactly fifty degrees, so I could have taken my chances dropping the top on the Zed Drei, but rolling the windows down on the 5.0 was an auditory treat.

The drive in the Mustang reminded me of the differences between normal cars and the cars I like: With the rental Sentra, if you booted the throttle hard, you'd generally be in front of normal traffic across an intersection. With the Mustang, if you boot the throttle hard in first or second gears, you're going to get tire smoke and the rear end wagging like a puppy happy to be home.

Whupped.

Tired from gun school today.

On the upside, I got some time running a MRDS-equipped pistol with a light from concealment in low light conditions. We knocked off at about 9PM, and that makes a long range day,
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Sad.

I've been making an effort to get out of the house daily to try and take my mind off of depressing things for a bit. I made a point of dusting off the Ricoh GXR and its Leica M-mount A12 module this week. With the Voigtländer 40mm f/1.4 mounted, I get asked if it's a film camera a lot. (Then again, people ask that about the Hasselblad Lunar, which looks practically nothing like any film camera I've seen.)

Ricoh's cameras have an interface that is camera nerd friendly, almost as much so as the offerings from Fujifilm. I usually don't have to change much on the fly, though. I have the "Fn1" button set to toggle between color and monochrome, and I just power up the camera, give Fn1 a poke, and off I go...

Here, have something to smile about.

Dude's got moves.
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Brand Mishandling?

The real deal will be revealed on Nov. 17. https://t.co/XxnftKSoqh

— The Drive (@thedrive) October 25, 2019

There are two automotive nameplates in Detroit that don't owe their position in the automotive landscape to normal, rational marketing rules: Corvette and Mustang. They have unbroken lines going back to the early Fifties and mid Sixties, respectively, and seem to operate on a weird mixture of nostalgia, brand loyalty, mythos, and 'lifestyle branding' more akin to Harley-Davidson than anything else with four wheels.

Corvette has just made the transition to mid-engine, but that looks to have been handled deftly. Besides, they've been threatening a mid-engine 'Vette since the days of Duntov.

Ford's proposal to broaden the "Mustang" name to also include an electric SUV, though, has a chance of damaging the original pony car more than helping the new crossover. This is the goofiest thing Ford's done since inexplicably (and briefly) reviving the "500" model designator to replace the by then well-established Taurus moniker.

The closest they've come to this with the Mustang in the past was when they were planning on moving the fourth generation Mustang to a Mazda-sourced front wheel drive platform, the one that eventually hit the market as the Probe, and were only dissuaded by sacks of hate mail.
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Another one falters...

Kamala Harris, who was another media darling in the early innings of the campaign, seems to have peaked too soon. She's closing offices and laying off campaign staff in New Hampshire, supposedly to focus on a floundering Iowa campaign. I don't know how relieved to be about this. Her policies are among the more extreme, and a lot of people may have voted for her just so they could say they did...but she also carries a lot of baggage.

As things stand, the only Democratic candidates polling in double digits are three septuagenarians and Pete Buttigieg.
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*sad trombone*

I guess #Beto will have plenty of free time to come get my guns now, huh?

— Tamara K. (@TamSlick) November 1, 2019

The Babylon Bee is in with the funniest hot take, as usual:

Beto Drops Out Of Race To Spend More Time Taking Guns From His Familyhttps://t.co/pL3zOuK9RS

— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) November 1, 2019

How appropriative...

"At around the same time, in July 2017, complaints about how “absolutely…white” Anglo-Saxon scholarship was specifically alleged to be began to surface in radical-medievalist blogs. Adam Miyashiro, now an assistant professor of English at Stockton University in New Jersey and a self-described “product of the multiethnic mix of Asian and Polynesian peoples” in Hawaii, fretted online that the ISAS’s annual meeting in Honolulu that year featured papers mostly delivered by white (plus a few East Asian) scholars on specialist topics dealing with features of Old English philology and the strategic significance of battles against the Vikings. Miyashiro seemed particularly incensed that ISAS had rejected a paper of his own titled “Beowulf and its Others: Sovereignty, Race, and Medieval Settler-Colonialism.” According to Miyashiro’s proposed paper, Grendel, the monster that the hero Beowulf defeats in the poem, was actually “an indigenous person with a specific biopolitics.” Miyashiro’s paper “linked a non-European reading of Beowulf to the contemporary issues of white supremacy that plague Anglo-Saxon studies, and medieval studies more broadly.” In turning down his paper, Miyashiro argued, the ISAS had committed “erasure of the native.”"

Is this where I'm supposed to jump up and down and yell about cultural appropriation?
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Class Warfare...

Friend Staghounds sent me a link to this wide-ranging interview with Angelo Codevilla last Friday, and I've had it open in a tab ever since, trying to figure out an angle for a blog post. In the end, I'm going to avoid excerpting or editorializing, and instead suggest you read it in its entirety. It's pretty chewy.
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