Tag: Good News

The Full Texas Thang

Entertainment, Friends and Family

Last Saturday I took New Wife out for a Full Texas Day (I know, I know:  never go Full Texas).

Part One was the Fort Worth Gun Show (that was for me, of course, although she found several Girly-things to buy there, and did).  Blessedly, there was more on display than the usual AR-15/Glock/Tacticool stuff (although there was plenty of that too):

… although that mythical unicorn (mint condition Colt Python for under $1,000) was nowhere to be found, of course.  There was a S&W Mod 65-3 for sale, but it looked like it had been towed behind a Ford F-150 for a mile or two, and they wanted $700 for it, so:  pass.  However, there was a vendor selling from a huge  selection of Anza knives, and somehow I managed not to buy a single one (although I could have bought six or seven, easily).

Good grief, they’re lovely knives.  I’m rapidly starting to think of Anza knives as I do .22 rifles — i.e. every home should have at least one — and the next time I go to the Ft. Worth gun show, I’m going to buy another one, because… I shouldn’t have to explain myself on this one, should I?  Here’s one that caught my eye, just because of the shape:

…but honestly, I could also see myself getting any one of these little beauties too.

We were planning on getting a late lunch of BBQ in downtown Ft. Worth (Part Two), but as it happened, there was a vendor at the show from Robinson’s BBQ (“since 1947”) so that was the brisket taken care of — and it was excellent.

We did take a little drive trip through Ft. Worth, and would have stopped to listen to the orchestra playing in Sundance Square, but parking in downtown is crappy, so we didn’t.  Instead, we went out to The Stockyards for a little shopping and entertainment.

The shopping at the various Western wear stores (Part Three) was patchy — some expensive stuff there, Bubba — but I did manage to snag a decent summer-weight vest which doesn’t look like a mil-surp, fishing- or photographer’s vest for a decent price.  New Wife, not so lucky.  (She steadfastly refused to let me buy her some cowboy boots, but hey:  she’s been in Texas less than five months, and I only got a pair of cowboy boots after over fifteen years  here, so it’s a long-term project.)  Also:

Anyway, it was getting late, so we went into Riscky’s for more BBQ and margaritas (Part Four):

Decent ribs, outstanding  grilled shrimp (seriously, maybe the best I’ve ever tasted), and Ernesto the barman is brilliant.  (I tended bar in my distant yoot, so I know the trade.)

Dinner over, we went to Part Five of the Full Texas Thang:

Oh yeah, baby… rodeo! 

Now I have to confess that I’m no expert on rodeo — mostly, I think it’s cheap country entertainment — but you can’t go Full Texas without rodeo, right?  So we watched the bull-riding, bronco busting, calf-roping and all that, until the over-loud PA (and screaming commentator) got to my tinnitus and the hissing/whistling sound became unbearable (my ears are still ringing as I write this, the day after).

But New Wife enjoyed the day thoroughly, even the gun show — although she won’t be going to another one anytime soon — and hey… how often do you get to go Full Texas with a newbie?

Quote Of The Day

QOTD

From an Uber passenger last week, a real estate attorney of 35 years’ standing, when I asked his opinion of the massive economic growth in north Texas:

“What can I tell you?  We’re in Year 9 of a 5-Year Growth Cycle.”

Quote Of The Day

QOTD

From Captain Capitalism, Aaron Clarey:

“The vast majority of humans are about as valuable as individual atoms of hydrogen, a lump of coal, or the unearthed and unrefined ore of iron. They are worthless, they are pointless, they will never amount to or achieve much of anything. Out of the estimated 150 billion humans who have lived and died on this planet, a mere 10,000 are the ones who made history and set forth humanity on the path it is today.”

Diamonds, Steel and Stars (the article from which the above came) is definitely worth a read.  In fact, it should be mandatory reading for every adolescent — even if only 0.00005% of them actually do what the article suggests.

Sanity Returns

The Gun Thing

…at least, finally, to the price of ammo.  From Eric at AmmoMan comes this offering:

Y’all can do the calculations on the other calibers — I don’t have any guns chambered for ’em — but the per-round (non-rebate) prices are:

  • Federal .45 ACP 230gr:  35c
  • CCI .22 LR 40gr: 6.4c
  • Blazer 9mm 115gr FMJ (not pictured):  19c

That’s more like it.  I can now suggest culling vermin with .22 ammo as the “7-cent solution” and not the “25-cent solution”, as during the Obama Years [shudder].

During the Happy Times (2001 – 2008), I urged everyone to buy ammo because those prices wouldn’t last.  I thought that the cost of ammo would go up if we elected a RatBastard Democrat to the presidency, but what I did not predict was that under CommiePres Obama, the huge sales pressure on the “popular” rifle calibers (5.56mm and 7.62x39mm) would cause serious shortages in the other  calibers as manufacturers retooled to meet the demand.  Hence the rationing of, say, .22 LR at places like Wal-Mart and Academy, and the complete disappearance of various calibers at local gun stores.

So let us learn from history, as we conservatives like to do, and buy ammo by the truckload during these, the Happy Times II.  That way, when the next Commie asshole president starts talking about “how much ammunition does a person need?” en route to setting purchase limits, we can say,  “Fuck you.”

Watch your Inbox — I’m on almost all the ammo sellers’ mailing lists, and you should be too — and take advantage of the low prices when they’re promoted.  (And try, where possible, to buy American — remember, asshole Commie politicians will always ban ammo imports when they can, so let’s try to keep our guys in business.)

As much as I like to promote National Ammo Day on November 19th each year, nothing would give me greater pleasure than to do so this year, only to be told:  “Shut up, Kim.  I have enough ammo stored for two generations already.”

Make me and Baby Vulcan proud.

News Roundup

Bad News, Good Stuff

…wherein I’m too lazy to make a full post about stuff:

1)  Valerie is saved! — Thank goodness.  Now I can continue to add inches to my waistline by eating their pastries every time I go to Britishland.

2) Rio cops execute violent choirboys on the spot — Now quit that cheering and applause.  And no, I have no idea when ICE are going to implement the same policy when faced with armed cross-border drug smugglers.

3) “If [an active shooter] walks onto this campus, they’re going to be shot and killed.” — It’ll be interesting to see if school shootings ever occur in these schools from now on.  And if any of my south Floriduh Readers are looking for a part-time gig…

4) Sexbots could be hazardous for your health — Oh puh-leeze.  I know more than a few women (including some ex-girlfriends) who would pose a far greater threat than a collection of latex and transistors.  Think:  Terminator, with tits.  (Yes, Cheryl, I’m thinking of you.)

5) Amazon tells NYC to fuck off — These are the perils of trying to do business in a Socialist environment.  Frankly, I think Amazon should breathe a sigh of relief, because they just dodged a BIG bullet.

Time For A Little Assistance

Advice, Business, Politics

…or, as some might call it, benign colonialism.  Looks like somebody’s about to get rich, real quickly:

On the coast of South America, just north of Brazil, lies the obscure and impoverished former British colony of Guyana, distantly remembered for a bizarre mass suicide four decades ago that begot the term “drinking the Kool-Aid.”
But today, the discovery of a massive trove of oil off its shores, including two finds just this week, put Guyana on the cusp of becoming one of the world’s wealthiest nations, in the league of petro-states like Qatar.

How big a trove?

Since 2016, Exxon has made a dozen discoveries in Guyana that now total more than 5 billion barrels of recoverable reserves. This is enormous — for perspective, the industry calls a 1-billion-barrel field a “supergiant.”

Needless to say, the Guyanese are totally unprepared for this:

Guyana has barely gotten organized for what, in other countries, has triggered a free-for-all of chaos, corruption and war.
The country has been in political turmoil since last year. In December, the Parliament ousted the government of President David Granger in a vote of no confidence. That set in motion new elections within 90 days, but the government is challenging the move in court.
No plan has been devised for how to begin to build and upgrade the country’s roads, communications and institutions. Neither is there a plan for building up the capital of Georgetown.
No one has determined how to both husband the wealth, and to share it.
Insanally said the reaction in Guyana runs the gamut: “There are people who are excited, people who are apprehensive, and people who think oil should be avoided as a curse altogether.”

Ordinarily, I’d suggest that as Exxon/Mobil is an American company, that they (or the U.S. or even British governments) should step in and lend a helping hand in the organization.  But that would lead to loud cries of “Colonialissssssss!” from the Usual Suspects.

My modest proposal, therefore, is a little different:  let Norway  step up to the plate and show Guyana what they did with, I should point out, a relatively much smaller income stream than the one under discussion.  After all, nobody associates Norway with eeeevil colonialism, and indeed, the “Scandinavian model” is applauded by all the neo- and actual socialists out there.  And let’s be honest, if nobody on the West gets involved, then the Venezuelans will.

It may fail, of course, because nobody can fuck up a Good Thing better than the socialists — except of course for the Third World, who could fuck up Paradise in an afternoon without any effort at all.

But it’s worth a try.  Come on, Norway:  uff da, or whatever.