Well, I have to say that so far this year’s Grand National (or “Tanned National” someone called it, because of all the Trumpian fake tannery) at Liverpool’s Aintree track has been pretty much a bust for us Train Smash Women-watchers. I mean, it just looks like they’re not really trying very hard:
Of course, there have been some close calls:
…and one or two near-misses [sic]
…but let’s hope that things improve as the event progresses, so to speak.
I’m sorry to see that the Big C finally ended the life of Val Kilmer, who I’ve always thought was a fine actor. If he’d played no other part, his role as the dying Doc Holliday in Tombstone would make a hell of an acting legacy. In The Saint, Heat and even the silly Real Genius: likewise brilliant.
As for the rest… pick your favorites.
(Apparently, according to some directors, Kilmer could be a total asshole to work with, but I don’t care about that. Sometimes, talent excuses a few peccadilloes, a.k.a. the Barrymore Exception.)
In an earlier post, I mentioned that I would be selling off a number of my guns to get a better handle on my financial situation. Several Readers contacted me, and I have to say that pretty much all have been snapped up. To all those Readers who sent me a request for a list, sorry — but Reader Matt The Polack, who lives here in north Texas, made me an excellent offer for all but one of them and is now the proud owner thereof. The guns also came with shall we say a substantial quantity of ammo included in the price.
I’m now down to what I consider the bare minimum of rifles — an AK-47, which as my SHTF gun cannot be sold, and my beloved Browning 1885 High Wall .45-70 Govt, which was a gift from you guys back in the day and which although originally included in my to-sell list, I just cannot bring myself to part with. As I’m unlikely ever to go hunting again, therefore, all my other rifles were redundant and have disappeared from Ye Olde Gunne Sayfe, ditto their boolets from Ye Olde Ammoe Locquere.
Of course, my .22 rifles are not included (because they’re not guns but household commodities, as I never tire of reminding people); although I did toy with selling the Marlin heavy-barreled varmint rifles, I’ve reconsidered because they are now the only scoped rifles I still own and with my failing Old Fart Eyes, I have to be able to hit something.
My handguns… ah, now I’m faced with a dreadful dilemma.
You see, I really have few (shall we say) extraneous handguns. All are either needed for self-defense or else plinking — pretty much the same situation as my rifles now are. I do have a duplicate or two, however, so I’m offering this one up for sale:
It’s a Ruger Single-Six in .22 LR (only; there’s no .22 Mag swap-out cylinder) which I love, but it’s one of two in the safe. POR.
The only other handgun I’m considering selling is my Ruger Super Blackhawk in .30 Carbine:
Look; this is a fun gun. It’s not really a hunting gun, and obviously not much use as a self-defense piece either. BUT: few other guns compare in that the noise is wonderful, the 18″ muzzle-flash impressive, and the recoil out of the 7″-barreled heavy revolver is somewhat less than a .357 Magnum. If I do sell it — and I’m really torn about it, as you can see — it will carry a hefty price premium, although that price will be somewhat ameliorated by the amount of ammo that would be included in the sale. (With the M1 Carbine gone — aaargh! — I no longer need to keep any .30 Carbine ammo.) Interested parties should email me for details.
None of my other handguns are for sale, for the simple reason that in addition to their utility, I cannot bear to part with any of them.
Finally, let me provide a humble reminder of my annual fundraiser — the last I hope to ever do — and for which the details are here. My heartfelt thanks to all who have already contributed.
Your suggestions in Comments.
Ignoring any sensationalism from the Daily Mail (like ignoring rapaciousness from the IRS), I see that Britishland faces a 10% tariff hike.
Which, using Kim’s patented Law Of Ten Method, means nothing. (The corollary to said law, when applied to budgeting, says that you can always take 10% off anything without much or indeed any problem. This is true of a household or corporate budget.) Remember too that tariffs are not applied to the retail sale price — i.e. what you pay for them — but to the cost of goods in the home country. Even so, I expect that U.S. retailers will eat some of any wholesale price increases, so the retail cost of goods to the consumer will not be that onerous. Especially after we’ve just gone through Bidenflation. [25,000-word rant on that topic deleted]
I see this, with amusement:
The UK currently exports around £60billion worth of goods to the US.
Almost all of these goods will now be taxed 10% to send them to the US, making it more expensive.
Within this £60billion, British cars make up just over £6billion of the exports. Trump last night announced a 25% tariff on all imported cars, again making it more expensive, and less attractive, to buy UK-made motors.
So those Rolls Royces, Bentleys and NuJaguar Duracell cars are going to cost more (not the full 25%, as I expect that the manufacturers thereof will eat at least part if not most of the tariff). Somehow, I’m pretty sure that the Murkin buyers (plutocrat scum) of said luxury items will not be driven away by what is not a significant price increase.
Doubtless, my post-lottery Eagle E-type will cost more:
…but I’m pretty sure the lottery winnings would absorb the hit with little notice. [/snark]
As for companies like AstraZeneca (the Covid guys) with their ~5,000% profit margins, my heart bleeds custard, the chiseling scum.
The Euros (20%), on the other hand, may have a harder time of it, and the Chinese (34%) harder still. Whatever. Peruse the table below, and feel free to comment about any of the countries that you may know about.
The Balkans are not listed, but I’ll be curious to see what if anything happens to the price of, say, Prvi Partizan ammo.
Finally, just remember that the United States is the world’s largest market for just about everything made in that world, so if prices rise too high, Americans will just stop buying that imported shit. Which suits me just fine. I’d like to see a whole bunch of textile mills, for example, re-open in places like Mississippi, who could sure use the jobs that they lost to the cheaper sweatshops in Asia in not-so-long-ago times, when the Finance assholes moved their operations abroad.
Interesting times.
Okay, it wasn’t actually a shooting, but I think everyone will agree with my bending the rules in this case. Here’s the headline:
Schoolchildren disarm robber and stab him to death after being held at gunpoint
The 40-year-old man reportedly approached the two schoolchildren, a girl and a boy, on a bike. They reported that he was armed with a gun and knife and tried to steal their phones. The Public Prosecutor’s Office said that the victims got into a struggle with the man, with one of them snatching the knife off him. The man was stabbed two or three times but managed to get away on his bike. Shortly after he was found lying in the road.
I guess the moral of the story is: Don’t mess with Chilean teenagers.
And this last item will come as a surprise to exactly nobody:
The prosecutor also confirmed that the deceased had previous criminal records.
…which ended right there, on a dusty street somewhere in Chile. [/Hemingway]