A little dried out from the Claritin.
How's things in the world? Michael Jackson still dead?
Saturday, September 05, 2009
Friday, September 04, 2009
Claritin-induced thoughts.
- Now that Bengal tigers are about gone and sharks are getting seriously overfished, perhaps we could start a rumor in Shanghai that American feral hog livers will turn Mr. Whipple into Fabio.
- I seem to have fended off the actual sickness-type sickness, but the evil foreign yankee weed pollen has taken the opportunity to fill my sinuses. No joint aches, no fever, sore throat mostly gone, but my head feels inflated to 30psi.
- Why do I have a strange hankering for an FN 1910? It's a really elegant-looking little JMB design, but I need another .32ACP like I need a hole in my head.
- I am bad about cleaning my "heavy rotation" guns. My Marlin Papoose, K-22 Combat Masterpiece, ParaUSA LTC-9, and 2" Model 64 all pretty much live in my range bag. The blued K-22 gets a wipedown and bore swab after the range session, but for the most part, those four guns only get a real cleaning when they start having function issues. I feel bad about this and will try to do better, honest.
- Why am I telling you people this?
Frankenstein never scared me...
...and neither do most things in the "horror" genre. Besides, why would I read something to be scared?
Anyway, Stephen King always struck me as an ace storyteller whose true metier was the short story, although he could write a bang-up novel when he brought his A Game, which was about one try in four, by my tastes, with the rest being workmanlike tales with a certain 'contractual obligation' feel about them.
The only novel of his that ever really scared me... I mean really gave me the creeping willies... was Pet Sematary. I was living in a rented room in a lake house in the middle of the woods at the time, and I had finished reading the book at closing time at the little local pub. I found myself sitting there in the front seat of my Z-car after pulling into the driveway just after midnight, and for some reason I just had to reach over and flip the book upside-down before I could get out of the car, because I was actually too creeped out to look at the cover.
It was therefore with some interest that I read this at John Ross's recently-revamped website:
Anyway, Stephen King always struck me as an ace storyteller whose true metier was the short story, although he could write a bang-up novel when he brought his A Game, which was about one try in four, by my tastes, with the rest being workmanlike tales with a certain 'contractual obligation' feel about them.
The only novel of his that ever really scared me... I mean really gave me the creeping willies... was Pet Sematary. I was living in a rented room in a lake house in the middle of the woods at the time, and I had finished reading the book at closing time at the little local pub. I found myself sitting there in the front seat of my Z-car after pulling into the driveway just after midnight, and for some reason I just had to reach over and flip the book upside-down before I could get out of the car, because I was actually too creeped out to look at the cover.
It was therefore with some interest that I read this at John Ross's recently-revamped website:
King is alleged to have said that he always wanted to write a book so scary he couldn’t finish writing it, and Pet Sematery came the closest. True story: In 1986 I had to make an emergency weekend trip to London as an underwriter for Lloyds. I decided to stay on Midwest time, staying up at night and sleeping during the day, since I’d be back home in two days. I bought a paperback to read in my hotel room. It was Pet Sematery. Reading that book at 4:00 AM in a strange hotel room in London was an experience I find difficult to put in words.Incidentally, the only other thing I've read by King that honestly scared me was the short story "1408", from Everything's Eventual, and that had the distinction of doing so in a well-lit, crowded restaurant at lunch.
Triumph of the Swill.
Ten days.
Even a Dead Kennedy can only keep Michael Jackson's corpse off the front page for ten brief days.
Unglaublich.
Thursday, September 03, 2009
Back off, man, they're scientists!
Many people are unaware that the 20-lb. brains at Los Alamos have been nuking the undead 'til they glowed since 1945.
If you are moved by their courage and sacrifice, you should go vote for their awesome patch in comments at Larry Correia's blog.
The fate of the free world depends on you. Help keep New Mexico zombie-free!
If you are moved by their courage and sacrifice, you should go vote for their awesome patch in comments at Larry Correia's blog.
The fate of the free world depends on you. Help keep New Mexico zombie-free!
Untruth In Advertising.
'When Thoreau judged that most men lived lives of quiet desperation I think he failed to consider the fact that, by a merciful provision of Providence, most men have little or no more imagination than an animal. Good reasons for despair may be all around the average man, but he won't see them.' -James Gould Cozzens
This slogan is a lie; a lot of the time it's actually kinda painful, like whenever the television is on or when you accidentally overhear a conversation in public and you think "Dear Shiva, if I had to listen to her go on like that through the whole dinner, I'd be using the fondue fork to tear out my eardrums before the dessert menu arrived."
College students, take note!
In this age of tightening budgets and soaring tuition costs, getting hammered can require selling a textbook or, worse, pawning your X-Box.
Never fear, however: A group of intrepid consumer reporters has thrown caution and their livers to the wind in the search for the Best Cheap Hooch of '09, just in time for back to school! Beverages are rated for color, bouquet, flavor, and similarity of aftertaste to common workshop solvents. See how your favorite libation stacks up: Clickety.
(H/T to Lissa.)
Never fear, however: A group of intrepid consumer reporters has thrown caution and their livers to the wind in the search for the Best Cheap Hooch of '09, just in time for back to school! Beverages are rated for color, bouquet, flavor, and similarity of aftertaste to common workshop solvents. See how your favorite libation stacks up: Clickety.
(H/T to Lissa.)
Instant Expert: Just Add Sheepskin.
Firearms laws are pretty complicated, and I'm just talking about the federal ones. Many, if not most, Federal Firearms Licensees don't know half of them. Here's an example: Most gun nuts know the combination of "evil features" that transform a wholesome imported semiautomatic rifle into the dreaded "assault weapon", but how many know the proscribed features for pistols? Self-loading shotguns?
Being the bookish sort and not much liking institutional food, I always read the booklets and circulars that the BATFEIEIO sent out to dealers, but I suspect that many use them to level the legs of wobbly tables. They're so busy staying on top of the big important legalities that the triviata slips by unnoticed; is it any wonder that their default setting so often is "Sorry, can't do that. It's 'gainst th' law"? If people who do this for a living are so often unclear on the arcana, one can imagine the fuzzy notions held by people on the outside.
This is what makes the latest "study" from Professor Wintemute, MD, MPH, especially hilarious: It seems that it consists of going "undercover" to gun shows and taking note of anything that "looks illegal". I'm sure it will be as packed with factual knowledge and sound research as his last effort.
Doc Wintemute has inspired me, however. I'm going to do a study on improper surgical procedures in the operating theaters of America. I'm just going to grab a mask and gown and go hang out in OR's, and note when stuff just looks wrong to me. I'm not a surgeon or anything, mind you, but I've prepared by watching a lot of House and ER, and reading a bunch of stuff. Plus, I'm very concerned about the issue, which should count for a lot.
It sounds like Wintemute has a bad case of what a physician acquaintance referred to as "doctoritis"; the feeling that, once one is awarded that MD (or PhD, or JD,) one is now an expert on everything. As a friend put it on the eve of her PhD: "This time tomorrow, I'll be twice as smart as I am right now!"
(H/T to Unc.)
Being the bookish sort and not much liking institutional food, I always read the booklets and circulars that the BATFEIEIO sent out to dealers, but I suspect that many use them to level the legs of wobbly tables. They're so busy staying on top of the big important legalities that the triviata slips by unnoticed; is it any wonder that their default setting so often is "Sorry, can't do that. It's 'gainst th' law"? If people who do this for a living are so often unclear on the arcana, one can imagine the fuzzy notions held by people on the outside.
This is what makes the latest "study" from Professor Wintemute, MD, MPH, especially hilarious: It seems that it consists of going "undercover" to gun shows and taking note of anything that "looks illegal". I'm sure it will be as packed with factual knowledge and sound research as his last effort.
Doc Wintemute has inspired me, however. I'm going to do a study on improper surgical procedures in the operating theaters of America. I'm just going to grab a mask and gown and go hang out in OR's, and note when stuff just looks wrong to me. I'm not a surgeon or anything, mind you, but I've prepared by watching a lot of House and ER, and reading a bunch of stuff. Plus, I'm very concerned about the issue, which should count for a lot.
It sounds like Wintemute has a bad case of what a physician acquaintance referred to as "doctoritis"; the feeling that, once one is awarded that MD (or PhD, or JD,) one is now an expert on everything. As a friend put it on the eve of her PhD: "This time tomorrow, I'll be twice as smart as I am right now!"
(H/T to Unc.)
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Strange things I want to do...
- Reload .32ACP. Or .25. That would probably have a building-ships-in-a-bottle feel.
- Have one of those little Z-scale choo-choo trains in a briefcase. I'm not sure why.
- Shoot a matchlock.
- Climb a mountain. Not a particularly big or difficult one, mind you. I'm not crazy.
- Ride in a motorcycle sidecar.
Quote of the Day:
Rich Hailey on Awareness Of Your Surroundings:
"Exactly right," I said, "Carrying a gun won't do you any good if you don't pay attention. The first thing you have to do is realize you live in a bad neighborhood."
"No I don't," he answered. "It's the Old City. It's well lit and..."
"Your roommate was robbed at gunpoint at your front door. You live in a bad neighborhood."
"It's not that bad! There are lots of people who live down here and..."
"One more time. You live next to the railroad tracks. Have you ever heard of anything good happening by the railroad tracks?"
Today In History: Anti-Airship Piracy Setback.
On this date in 1925, the U.S. Navy's fledgling anti-Airship Piracy forces were dealt a severe blow when a sudden thunderstorm over Ohio tore apart the USS Shenandoah (pictured at left), killing 14 of her officers and crew. Miraculously, there were 29 survivors.
Farmer-Poet...
Frank talks about his deep roots in this state.
The way he does that, you'd think he was a writer or something. ;)
The way he does that, you'd think he was a writer or something. ;)
It's not really a lie if you're sincere...
Assault Rifle: A medium-caliber, select-fire shoulder weapon that bridges the roles between a machine pistol and a full-power bettle rifle.
Assault Weapon: A legislative term describing certain imported weapons that meet a list of defined cosmetic criteria. There were domestic "assault weapons" between 1994 and 2004, but the term no longer applies to anything but imported weapons, and is functionally meaningless outside a courtroom.
Assault Postcard: Mailed to your grandmother by her legislators and designed to scare her bloomers clean off with a combination of misleading photos, B.S. "definitions", and outright lies.
Assault Weapon: A legislative term describing certain imported weapons that meet a list of defined cosmetic criteria. There were domestic "assault weapons" between 1994 and 2004, but the term no longer applies to anything but imported weapons, and is functionally meaningless outside a courtroom.
Assault Postcard: Mailed to your grandmother by her legislators and designed to scare her bloomers clean off with a combination of misleading photos, B.S. "definitions", and outright lies.
Wookie Suiters vs. Officer Clueless.
The thing that annoys me most about the video, apart from the goofy obliviousness of Officer Rerun, is the handy dubbed-in captioning. You know, where it says something like "Sparky's gonna love the FEMA camps."
Here's why: There aren't going to be any FEMA camps, Zippy. The whole idea of "FEMA camps" gives gives beer-bellied armchair revolutionaries from Cucamonga, California to Camden, New Jersey a nice safe "Go Code" that will never come; a bugle call that will never sound and that they'll only have to answer in their daydreams.
There aren't going to be any camps. Government will get a little more intrusive. Taxes will get a little higher. Laws will get a little more strict. All as we seesaw back and forth between Democrat and Republican administrations, each one tightening their favorite part of the ratchet and never repealing anything. And you'll keep going to work on Monday and tuning in to Alex Jones late at night and waiting for "The Camps" as the signal to start "The Revolution."
And meanwhile, we'll have turned into Sweden with NASCAR and better gun laws; Britain with baseball; a quasi-socialist "Third Way" country with its own American flavor and hot and cold running cable. And half the population wants this; half your neighbors; half your relatives.
And membership at the gun club is down, because who can afford to pay the dues these days, and did you hear how much the insurance is going to be next year? And your M1A will be "pre-ban" again, and nobody will have come to take your guns, and it's a shame about Bob, but he shoulda known better then to try to build that silencer in his basement. Maybe when they transfer him from Club Fed to the FEMA camp, then we'll go spring him...
(H/T to Billy Beck.)
Here's why: There aren't going to be any FEMA camps, Zippy. The whole idea of "FEMA camps" gives gives beer-bellied armchair revolutionaries from Cucamonga, California to Camden, New Jersey a nice safe "Go Code" that will never come; a bugle call that will never sound and that they'll only have to answer in their daydreams.
There aren't going to be any camps. Government will get a little more intrusive. Taxes will get a little higher. Laws will get a little more strict. All as we seesaw back and forth between Democrat and Republican administrations, each one tightening their favorite part of the ratchet and never repealing anything. And you'll keep going to work on Monday and tuning in to Alex Jones late at night and waiting for "The Camps" as the signal to start "The Revolution."
And meanwhile, we'll have turned into Sweden with NASCAR and better gun laws; Britain with baseball; a quasi-socialist "Third Way" country with its own American flavor and hot and cold running cable. And half the population wants this; half your neighbors; half your relatives.
And membership at the gun club is down, because who can afford to pay the dues these days, and did you hear how much the insurance is going to be next year? And your M1A will be "pre-ban" again, and nobody will have come to take your guns, and it's a shame about Bob, but he shoulda known better then to try to build that silencer in his basement. Maybe when they transfer him from Club Fed to the FEMA camp, then we'll go spring him...
(H/T to Billy Beck.)
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
Two Million Points Of Snark.
Four years and five days.
Five thousand and fifty eight posts.
Two million hits.
Go Team Me!
Five thousand and fifty eight posts.
Two million hits.
Go Team Me!
Not only could they indict the ham sandwich...
...but it's probably actually guilty of at least one federal felony.
Remember, kids: Ignorance is no excuse for a law!
Remember, kids: Ignorance is no excuse for a law!
Your Tuesday morning doom'n'gloom:
Mr. Walker concludes that “We face large and growing structural deficits largely due to known demographic trends and rising health care costs.” Further, “GAO’s simulations show that balancing the budget in 2040 could require actions as large as cutting total federal spending by 60 percent, or raising federal taxes to two times today's level.” -David Walker, ex-Comptroller General of the US.
There's only one way out of this mess, and it ain't gonna be pretty: "Mr. Sulu, fire up the printing presses at warp factor six. Engage!"
(H/T to SurvivalBlog.)
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