From Hugh Grant:
I say to one of my sons, “It’s disgusting to watch you eat those Cocoa Puffs. I mean, for God’s sake. You’ve just had three bowls, have you any idea what you’re doing to yourself?”
And then he says, “Do you want some?”
I go, “Yeah, absolutely.”
Priceless.
Well now, lookee here:
Axios commissioned a Harris poll and discovered something unsurprising, even if the establishment was shocked.
Americans support mass deportations of illegal aliens.
In case you couldn’t be bothered to follow the link, here’s the chart:
No surprises there, I suspect.
Also, when drilling further into the numbers it was discovered that all but one group showed a decrease in support, when it was explained that “deportation” might include this option:
I’ll leave it up to you to pick which group remained steadfast in their support.
And to explain today’s front-page advert, then, is this:
...some assistance will be provided to my Readers (of both types) below the fold. Remember: it’s for your own good. And no, there will be no pics of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer swinging from the gallows, you sick bastards.
May as well go with the flow, so to speak:
...and here I thought that pulling out was all part of the show.
#MoneyShot
...hey, with the cost of stuff nowadays, that’s pretty much all anyone can afford to do.
#CheapEntertainment #FuckJoeBiden
...idiot. You always play to your marketable strengths.
...or more correctly, what you don’t want.
...etc.
...imagine what the other two guys’ wives must think.
And in some sex-drenched (but still link-free) 
...welcome to a man’s world, honey.
…*who was it? Just check the line of succession for the blind guy.
AND: 
And walking the dog down 
:
...I’d never heard of her, but I’m clearly out of touch. Anyway:
Quite toothsome, at 57.
Anyway, as promised, for those dirt-poor folks who don’t want to do drugs, and who want to avoid prostate cancer, some health aids:
We are all, I think, familiar with the concept of restoring-and-modifying a car, such as getting a beater Jaguar XJ6, and fixing it up so that the interior looks as good as it did when new, with leather seats, a walnut dashboard and an exterior paint job that is much better than what British Leyland could do back in the early 1970s.
But instead of trying to restore the haphazard and dare I say opaque intricacies of the 
of Lucas Electrical Co, you rewire the thing with proper materials and mechanicals, and instead of trying to fix the broken Jag engine, you drop in a decent Murkin small-block 375hp Corvette V8. Now you have a car that looks like a Jag, but in fact it’s been “fixed” so that you can avoid all the hassles and heartaches of Jaguar ownership. It’s now a “resto-mod”. (Jaguar purists may faint now.)
Alternatively, you can restore a car by bringing it to “concourse” condition, using only original (OEM) parts and eschewing any action that may make it look (and perform) any differently from its original fresh-from-the-showroom incarnation. Most Porsche 356 owners will know exactly what I’m talking about, here. This is a “restoration with no modifications” job.
And yes, you can do this with guns too, and here are two examples from those evil Merchants of Nostalgic Death at Collectors Firearms.
Gun #1 is a double rifle made in the late 19th century by W.W. Greener and Son, and it’s a monster.
As you can see, this old girl shows all its years, but remains a fully-functional double rifle. However, it has been carefully re-sleeved to take the excellent .45-70 Government cartridge instead of whatever it used to chamber. Most of the problem with shooting these old guns is that they are chambered for cartridges of esoteric dimension, e.g. the .400 Nitro Express which I guarantee you will not find at Bubba’s Bait ‘N Bullets on a back road in West Virginia. But .45-70 Govt? Oh hell yes, and probably with several different bullet weights and manufacturers withal.
And here’s the thing. I love me my double rifles — there is a reason why they’re still used on hunts and safaris all over the world, and that’s because you can get two massive bullets into the hide of a Cape Buffalo or lion almost as quickly as using a semi-auto rifle (those double triggers, oh yes sir).
This particular piece of gunny resto-mod even has a fiber-optic sight installed (which does make my mouth resemble an after-lemon bite, but still), because for Gentlemen With Shit Eyesight (like me), we need all the help we can get. So I could live with that thing, especially if I was loading up some extra-heavy Buffalo Bore monsters in the chambers.
So that’s the Greener double rifle, priced at around $3,750. Would I take this old warhorse out into the field? One word: gimme.
Now let’s look at the “restored” (Porsche 356-style) double rifle up next.
Gun #2 was made by Holland & Holland, also in the dying years of the 1800s, but it’s a different rifle altogether.
You can see that this gun has been restored to showroom condition (by no less than Holland & Holland themselves), and it is an absolute beauty, as you will see anon.
It is still chambered for its original cartridge, the fearsome .450-400 Black Powder Express (BPE) — the numbers standing for a .45-caliber bullet being sent on its way by 400 grains of black powder. (Makes the old Sharps “buffalo” chambering of .45-120 look kinda anemic, dunnit?) Here’s a modern manufacture, by Kynoch:
…a box of which caliber is included with the purchase of the rifle.
Now, a gun of this quality, restored by its original manufacturer is not going to come cheap, and the Holland does not disappoint, at $27,500.
But it’s not going to come in a flimsy cardboard box like some Savage or Ruger rifle, no sir. Instead, you can take this home with you:
(right-click to embiggen)
The case alone is probably worth about $3,000.
When people ask me why I love guns, love talking about them and love shooting them, this kind of rifle is one of the reasons.
It’s beautiful, deadly and of utter quality. And when it comes to guns with which to hunt the most dangerous of game, I can’t think of a better trifecta than that.
By the way: that $27,500 is about a quarter of what you’d pay to restore a Porsche 356 to concourse standard.
But we can talk about that dream some other time.
Also: in case bells are ringing in your head, this is not the H&H Royal Grade ($70k) that I looked at a while back. Same gun, different grade, and (very!) different price.
Okay, it won’t be a secret after this, but nevertheless: I have an old-man crush on Brit TV personality Kirstie Allsopp, the plump, matronly host of Location Location Location (or “Location x 3” as it’s sometimes called).
Apart from the obvious two, there are other reasons to love her and her outspokenness:
‘Plug-in air fresheners are poison. If you use them you are a moron who is poisoning yourself, your family & your pets. No reason for them whatsoever.’
On having to deal with British Airways:
And:
If ever there’s someone with a large megaphone that you don’t want to irritate, it’s her.
And by the way, she has an exquisite accent and lovely speaking voice. Hubba hubba.
Meme:
Life (with link):
What say you folks? Fair trial, and then a hanging?
Well, that ain’t gonna happen, sorry. Why not?
Keyword: Portland.