Month: March 2023

Slim Pickings

Good Stuff

I have to say that for an armchair commentator and pundit like me, there’s not much to write about at the moment — I’m really bored with politics — which is why the posts on this here back porch have recently been mostly about cars, boobs, guns and a little bit of art.

Not, as one Reader told me, that this is necessarily A Bad Thing, especially when it comes to the classics:

1935 SS (later Jaguar) 90 Airline

Yvonne Furneaux

And just for the hell of it, a different take on the venerable Ruger 10/22:  a twin-gun mount with a Gatling-style actuator and two 25-round mags:

John Atkinson Grimshaw — Boar Lane, Leeds

I would respectfully suggest that all the above are desirable, for different reasons.

Not As Advertised

Funny Stuff

I always laugh when I see someone’s normal reaction to a pic like this:

“Ooooh,” they coo, “that looks so relaxing.”

Really?

If you have that reaction, then you’ve never actually been in one.  Getting into it is fraught with danger — it usually takes three or four attempts the first time — and if you just jump into the thing, there’s always the chance that the whole apparatus will detach itself from the ceiling or beam and you’ll come crashing to the floor.

Once you’re in, assuming you eventually manage it, there are still more dangers.  You can’t roll over, because the balance changes and you’ll be swinging around until motion sickness sets in.  Basically, all you can do is read or sleep.  Good luck trying to reach for a drink if you get thirsty, because most likely you’ll either knock the side table over or spill the icy beverage all over yourself, or both.

I know;  you’re thinking about sex with your squeeze in that thing, aren’t you?

Read more

News Roundup

Bad News

Today’s sponsor:

And if you think that’s ridiculous:


...not just incompetent, but malevolent too.


...this tragedy must be a consequence of “climate change”, because there’s never been an avalanche in Colorado before.


...I fail to see the problem here, other than causing Darwin to bust a gut laughing.  Also:  Australia.


...see “clowns”, above.


...and then we shoot them on sight;  problem solved.


...keyword:  Liverpool.  So probably “Gerroff!”


...perhaps if they sold them in 2-packs instead of by the dozen?


...good.  Shouldn’t have made the stupid thing in the first place.


...finally, some competition for the Magic Wand.

And from the sublime to the INSIGNIFICA:

   

...the only relevant apology being:  “I’m sorry I ever dated you.”


...of course she does.

Were it not for that unfortunate Shane Warne Episode, she’d be one of the most bonkable women in history.

 

Punching Back

Education

Long ago, I went to pick the then-6-year-old Son&Heir up from his Catholic school’s after-school care, and found him sitting alone in the corner of the room.

One of the volunteer mommies told me that he’d been isolated for “fighting”.  Now, he wasn’t (and still isn’t) a fighter — unlike his Dad — so I called him over and asked for his side of the story.  Here’s what ensued.

“Ryan was picking on me, I told him to stop it but he didn’t, and when I turned away from him, he hit me in the back.  So I shouted at him to stop it and walked away again, but he followed me, so I hit him on the face — just like you told me to do.”
I turned to the supervisor and said, “Yeah, I did that.  I told him that if he’s being bullied, to try to get way from the bully, but if the bully comes after him, to hit the bully as hard as he can.”
“Well,” said the woman, “we don’t allow fighting in daycare.”
“But you do allow bullying, from the looks of it.”
“We didn’t see him being bullied.”
“So you admit that your supervision was a failure, in other words.”
“No, we just didn’t see anything.”
“But my son already said he shouted at Ryan, and Ryan was hitting him.  So you didn’t hear the shouting, and you didn’t see the fighting — which seems to me to be a failure on your part — and you didn’t do anything until Ryan came over with a bleeding nose.”
“Well — ”
“Did you bother to ask my son what the fighting was about?  You didn’t, did you?  This is the first time you’ve heard about the bullying, in other words.”
“We still can’t allow fighting.”
“Okay;  so what do you want me to do about all this?  Give my son a beating when we get home?”
“Oh no no no, we don’t want that.  We just want him to obey the rules.”
“He will, I promise you.  As long as you tell Ryan about the no-bullying rule.”  And I turned to the Son&Heir.  “Come on, boy.  Get your stuff and let’s go home.”
“Am I in trouble?”
“No;  how could you be in trouble for doing exactly what I told you to do?”

We never heard a peep from the school.

All that was recalled from Ye Olde Memorie Bankes by this article.

Going Dutch

Elections, Politics, Resistance

Looks like even the placid Dutch have had enough with the Gree Nude Heel:

The upstart populist pro-farmer party FarmerCitizenMovement (BoerBurgerBeweging, or BBB) shook the foundations of politics in the Netherlands overnight, securing a significant victory in Wednesday’s provincial elections on the back of growing resentment against the globalist government of Prime Minister Mark Rutte and his plans to introduce Great Reset-style environmental policies.

At the time of this reporting, BBB is expected to pick up an astonishing 16 seats in the 75-seat Senate, after previously holding zero. With 94 per cent of the vote counted, turnout is projected to have been around 57.5 per cent, the highest since the 1980s.

…and with good reason:

The driving factor for the groundswell of support for the pro-farming party was opposition to the government’s plans to implement EU-mandated cuts on the use of nitrogen fertilisers by as much as 70 per cent in some areas of the country by the end of the decade, with 92 per cent of BBB voters citing the policy as a motivating factor for their vote.

The elections, which also will determine the makeup of the provincial governments, could see the BBB take power in the very regions that the government is trying to impose its green agenda, potentially spelling more problems for the globalist governing coalition, which saw its total number of seats fall from 32 to 24.

However:

Despite the trouncing in last night’s elections, the government’s minister for nature and nitrogen policy, Christianne van der Wal signaled on Thursday morning that the controversial nitrogen policy will continue to be on the agenda because the government believes it is mandated to push it through under EU law. 

From the newcomers:

In response, the BBB leader Van der Plas said that her comments were “complete bullshit” and that “everything can change, if you want.”

We could use some of that plain language Over Here.

Well done, Dutchies!

Gratuitous Gun Pic: CETME 58 Model C (.308 Win)

Gratuitous Gun Pics

I’ve only ever owned a few semi-auto “battle” rifles, but I have to say that since the Unfortunate Canoeing Accident on the Brazos River several years ago, I’ve felt the CETME’s loss rather keenly;  and this one from Collectors has not helped at all:

The design went on to be the basis for the HK G3 (unsurprising, as the engineers were post-WWII Germans), but for some reason I’ve always found the CETME more pleasant to shoot.  Purely on aesthetic grounds, of course, the wooden grips are better than the plastic ones by a country mile.  And I really like the quirky upper-mounted bayonet. for a bonus.

Mechanically, mine fed everything flawlessly — .308 Win and 7.62 NATO both — and it was as accurate as any of its FN-based counterparts.

The history of the CETME is here, and once you’ve overcome the shock of paying over a grand for any Century Arms offering, I have to say that this would be a lovely (and cheaper) alternative to the other 7.62 NATO rifles out there.

To paraphrase Othias, I’d take this CETME to war in a heartbeat.