Month: July 2022

The Three Things

Economics, Politics

Back when I was a retail marketing analyst, I used to make formal presentations to my clients about every month or so, each aimed at different audiences within the company — buyers / merchandisers, operations, marketing / advertising and senior management (the last being more of an annual high-altitude presentation, of course).

Because of the volume of data I had on hand it was almost impossible to show all of it, so I would provide summaries, but with all the data on hand in case there were any questions requiring a deep dive into the supporting numbers.

I would then make a summary of the summary, and give each executive an action plan consisting of three, and only three things that had the highest priority with the greatest impact, with the suggestion that they tackle those three items immediately after the meeting.  (Their bosses, of course, got the list of all the departments’ action items so that they could follow up to make sure that they’d been addressed.)

That habit has stayed with me ever since, especially when, as today, I see an enormous problem that needs fixing.  What spurs me on to even greater efforts is when I see that the people who are supposed to be fixing the problem either not doing anything (a massive clue that they don’t know what to do), or are timidly tinkering around the edges of the problem when in fact, the remedies are quite simple, but usually radical.

Here’s what I’m looking at right now.  Read this article first, please, and then come back below the fold.

Read more

Gratuitous Gun Pic: BSA-Martini Cadet

Gratuitous Gun Pics

Before I talk about the gun, I want to talk a little about something that was once the only option, then fell by the wayside, and now is practiced by only a few hardy people:  hunting with a single-shot rifle.

To see that this type of hunting has not disappeared altogether, one only has to see the perpetual fascination for single-shot rifles in sales of guns such as the Ruger #1 (with its derivation of the Farquharson action), and the Winchester / Browning 1885 High Wall (with its “falling block” action).


I cannot describe the satisfaction one gets in working these exquisite actions.  Mr. Free Market, after our most recent Schutzenfest, confessed to me that of all the dozen-odd different rifles he fired, the one that gave him the most shooting satisfaction was my 1885 High Wall in .45-70 Govt.  Yeah, that one-at-a-time thing feels so cumbersome compared to the slick semi-auto and even bolt-action rifles of today — but there it is:  a single rifle is the bee’s knees, and certainly if that’s what you’ve just used to fell a deer, buffalo or bear, your chest swells with pride — and so it should.

So with that said, allow me to present to you the venerable BSA-Martini Cadet rifle:

This is hardly an unknown gun:  the old BSA has been used as a training rifle since the Stone Age, and is most commonly found in .22 caliber.  (It’s what we used back at St. John’s College for our musketry classes, and was capable of astounding accuracy — far more than I for one could achieve.)

The BSA Martinis were also chambered for the silly .310 Greener (“Rook”) cartridge, which is a decent training caliber, but useful for nothing else except hunting rooks.  Luckily, a large percentage of these rifles have been rechambered for other .30 cartridges such as the .32-20 and even the .357 Mag.  The action handles the heavier loads with ease, and the rifle’s lighter weight makes carrying in the field less problematic than with its heavier cousins.

Which brings us to today’s rifle, which is chambered for the wonderful and very much underappreciated cartridge, the Winchester .32 Special.  Most often compared to the .30-30 (.30 WCF), the .32 Win Spec is perhaps best described as the .30-30 on steroids.  One acquaintance told me of a black bear taken with a single shot in Pennsylvania, fired out of a Marlin 94 lever action with a 20″ barrel.

Now take that same bullet and fire it through the BSA-Martini’s 28″ heavy barrel… and I think you can all see where I’m going with this one.

Just practice, and get really good — because you only get one shot.

New Name

Health, LGBTOSTFU

Seeing as we’re renaming every damn thing — women to womyn, Latino to Latinx, his/her to xis/xir, Wuhan virus to Corona virus, and of course homosexual to gay, I think we took a hard look at this monkeypox thing, and courtesy of Insty, I think I’ve come up with the (data- / reality-based) proper name.

First, the data:

All patients identified as men who have sex with men and there was a median age of 41.  90% of the patients who responded to the questions on sexual activity (47/52) reported at least one new sexual partner during the three weeks prior to symptoms, and almost all (49/52) reported inconsistent condom use in this same time period.  Over half of the patients (29/52) had more than five sexual partners in the 12 weeks prior to their monkeypox diagnosis.”  [my emphasis]

So, ladies and gentlemen, as monkeypox has in fact got pretty much nothing to do with monkeys, herewith its new name:

HOMOPOX

Please adjust your grammar / spelling correction systems accordingly.

Wedding Party

Freaks & Loonies

One of Rupert Murdoch’s grandspawn got married over the weekend.  Normally, of course, I would ignore nonsense like this, but I had to share the fun with My Loyal Readers.

First, there was the fact that the day before the wedding, ol’ Rupert told wife Jerry Hall (the ex-Mrs. Mick Jagger) that he was dumping her — told her this by email.  Pretty classless, but more or less standard behavior of the man christened the “Dirty Digger” by various press outlets.

Second, there was the bridal party, and I’ll leave it to you to find the flyshit in the sugar bowl:

And lastly, there was the bridal couple:

Here’s a full frontal of Rupert’s granddaughter:

Black and white, in color.  The tattoos don’t even match the dress pattern…

It all just shows, as if we ever needed a reminder, that money doesn’t buy class.

News Roundup

Bad News

Brought to you by:

And speaking of asses:


…well yes, except that not one state has a law which defines an ectopic pregnancy procedure as an abortion.  Not one.

Now from the (non-Disney) Animal Kingdom:


…just South Africa reminding Australia that they have sharks, too.  And:

A woman has died after a shark ‘bit off her arm and leg’ at a tourist hotspot in Egypt.
…wait: now the Gyppos try to get in on the act?


…only nine feet long?  [Oz and Seffrica giggle]


…and for those who think that this was just coincidence after the pro-2A Gruen decision by SCOTUS, I have a London Bridge to sell you.

More Californication:


…yeah, this is going to end about the way we all know it will — it’s West Hollywood, so in tears and squealing.


…and you believed them?  LOL


…which chronicles the lifestyle of the Greatest Living Englishman.  And speaking of driving fast:


…while escaping to Florida and Texas, no doubt.


…and if the voters say “Forget it” (as they did with same-sex marriages)?

From the Department of Irony come three snippets:


…’nuff said.


…imagine the humiliation of being caught out by the guys who invented the things.

And:


…couldn’t make this stuff up.


…say “Buh-bye” to a lot of crap schools, and their administrators.


…I’d prefer to listen to the sound of Drowning Piers Morgan, myself.

And from Perverts International:


…oh, you naughty Bees.


…no, she just doesn’t want to be “suicided” by the Clintons, like her old boyfriend was.


…key word:  Australia.

And from the bowels of link-free INSIGNIFICA:

   

And from the sporting world — yes, it’s Wimbledon Time:


…until she lost, of course.  Still:

 

 

Cleans up well, doesn’t she?

That’s the news…