Six more days…

Posted on by October 30, 2024

And this mess will be done…

Except for the lawsuits we all know are coming…

Sam, over at Ammo.com sent an interesting little report about guns and gun ownership in the US.

Report Highlights:

  • According to the most recent estimates, the United States has between 400 million and 500 million civilian-owned firearms.
  • There are 1.93 firearms for every adult in the U.S. and 1.5 for every American citizen, including children.
  • In 2022, there were 22 million people with concealed carry permits.
  • 46% of American households—approximately 65.19 million—contain at least one firearm.
  • Since 1899, at least 494,060,285 firearms have been manufactured in the U.S.

Link HERE to the complete report.

Now I will grant you that ‘some’ folks have more than 2 guns. Some folks have a lot more.

Now the ammunition numbers are even more nebulous, with some claiming over one TRILLION rounds of ammo in the US alone. While that may seem like a lot, if 500 million guns have an average of 15 rounds per, that’s 1.5 BILLION rounds alone.

With 22 million CCP’s we’ve come a long way since Georgia in 1976. I got my first CCP in 1987 in Florida. And I remember an article in the WAPO back in the late 90s when a criminal was interviewed about robberies, and his ‘preferences’ were DC (no carry,  very little ownership), MD (no issue), and he stayed out of VA (shall issue) “Because he didn’t want to get shot!” And the FBI statistics proved that out with homicides and violent crimes against people.

The other thing you STILL hear is anytime there is a change or loosening of concealed carry, or permitless carry from the left and MSM is the “There will be blood in the streets!” calls/headlines.

Funny how that doesn’t seem to ever happen…

The continual attempts to crack down on weapons, bans, etc. have turned many gun owners into scofflaws, as witnessed by the ‘compliance’ with the NY Safe Act, and Connecticut registration laws where the compliance is guessed to be around 10%.

One thing that does bother me is that few folks actually go practice with their weapons. They are not magic wands that will keep you safe if you don’t know how to actually use them, and keep them clean!

Kicking the soapbox back in the corner now…

 

Interesting…

Posted on by October 29, 2024

Apparently not ‘everybody’ in Europe is in favor of ‘green’ energy…

The link to the X post is HERE.

The guard fires are lit!

Much like what we are finding here, the wind farms don’t produce as expected, they ruin the landscape, and are in the migration paths of birds.

Sound familiar???

Personally, I don’t think I want to piss off the Vikings.

Just sayin…

A little humor…

Posted on by October 27, 2024

Why ask why???

How important does a person have to be before they are considered assassinated instead of just murdered?

Why do you have to ‘put your two cents in’.. But it’s only a ‘penny for your thoughts’? Where’s that extra penny going to?

Once you’re in heaven, do you get stuck wearing the clothes you were buried in for eternity?

Why does a round pizza come in a square box?

What disease did cured ham actually have?

How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage?

Why is it that people say they ‘slept like a baby’ when babies wake up like every two hours?

If a deaf person has to go to court, is it still called a hearing?

Why are you IN a movie, but you’re ON TV?

Why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground?

Why do doctors leave the room while you change? They’re going to see you naked anyway.

Why is ‘bra’ singular and ‘panties’ plural?

Why do toasters always have a setting that burns the toast to a horrible crisp, which no decent human being would eat?

If Jimmy cracks corn and no one cares, why is there a stupid song about him?

Can a hearse carrying a corpse drive in the carpool lane ?

If the professor on Gilligan’s Island can make a radio out of a coconut, why can’t he fix a hole in a boat?

Why does Goofy stand erect while Pluto remains on all fours? They’re both dogs!

If Wile E. Coyote had enough money to buy all that ACME crap, why didn’t he just buy dinner?

If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, what is baby oil made from?

If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?

Do the Alphabet song , Bah bah Black Sheep, and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star have the same tune?

Why did you just try singing the songs above?

Why do they call it an asteroid when it’s outside the hemisphere, but call it a hemorrhoid when it’s in your butt?

Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog’s face, he gets mad at you, but when you take him for a car ride, he sticks his head out the window?

Book promo…

Posted on by October 26, 2024

H.Y. Gregor has the first in a new series out, The Vechnoye Saga Book 1– Reka’s Grasp 

As always, click on the cover for the Amazon link!

The blurb-

The devil lies in still waters.

Grad school applications are Nikita Baird’s biggest problem—until a friend dies in her arms after a sinister accident. Rusalka and Baba Yaga were just fairy tales—until they aren’t. Soon Niki can’t deny the truth. Something inhuman lurks in the river.

Worse, her own roommate just might be the killer.

Ryan Fortner, Crypto Division, works alone since his partner died on their last case together. Now he needs Niki’s help, even if he doesn’t want it. Together they plunge into a realm of shrouded histories, dredging up more than just folklore.

Niki and Ryan must navigate the currents of myth, tragedy, and redemption to stop the drownings—before the river’s grasp can’t be broken.

This is going to be an interesting series!!!

Next is Pam Uphoff with the 12th in her Chronicles of Fall series- Bad Cop

The blurb-

“There was a shield piercing Impression on the bullet. Karl had a shield up, too, and it wouldn’t have stopped that bullet.” A faint snort. “I think he’s a little indignant that the ‘Bad Cop’ saved him.”
Police Captain Lord Daniil Ambrose Vinogradov grinned. “As opposed to the Good Cop? I’m afraid that when it comes to double teaming on a suspect, the role of Bad Cop does come rather easily to me. And Nix is a damn good cop.”
“Ah. I thought you two disliked each other?”
“We’re rivals for the next promotion, and, well, I am more aggressively ambitious and less well mannered. Or to be less polite, a ladder-climbing asshole.”

As the attack on the 300, the Government Council, leaves the Three part Alliance without leadership, a runaway teenager leads a police detective deep into trouble, and romance.

And last but certainly not least, Holly Chism with the fourth in her Liquid Diet Chronicles- Meals on Wheels

The blurb-

Not by the (nonexistent) hair on her chinny-chin-chin…

Meg Turner, vampire, accountant, ruler of her own small territory. Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? Not if you ask her, it doesn’t. Because the world’s going mad, the idiot mortals in charge are forcibly shutting down the economy without the understanding that it won’t start up again as easy as it’s going down, nor that it’s creating a nasty blood shortage for hospitals, much less vampires.

Even better, the head of her line is invading her dreams again, and teaching her history of all things. And teaching her about the laws, and why they’re there. It’s not just to avoid being noticed by humans capable of staking, beheading, and burning vampires during daylight hours—a vampire that breaks fundamental laws turns into something worse than a vampire.

And she’s got a bunch of those knocking at her border, wanting to come in. Worse yet, they’re sending their day-help into her territory to kidnap their meals, and they keep mistaking her for prey. And leaving their discarded empties in her territory to make it look like she’s draining humans without concern for the laws.

This really isn’t looking good, and it’s really not safe for her still-living friends and family.

I was proud to be a beta reader for this one!

And a couple of pics of a local hot rod…

70 Nova, with a LOT of work done, and a cagey owner about what power it has… But it’s HEALTHY!

Israel has responded…

Posted on by October 25, 2024

It appears last night was ‘a’ retaliation strike on Iran, possibly by up to 100 Israeli jets against targets in Iran, Syria, and Lebanon.

From Fars Iran-

Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reports that several military bases in the Tehran area were targeted in Israeli strikes. It specifies that several bases in the western and southern areas of the capital were attacked.

Iranian media also says there are no fires or explosions reported at a key refinery south of the capital. “There are no reports of fire or explosions at a Tehran refinery,” Tasnim news agency reports.

Iranian state TV, meanwhile, says operations at Tehran’s airports, including Imam Khomeini International airport, are continuing as usual.

“Operations at Imam Khomeini International Airport and Mehrabad Airport are normal and they continue to operate according to the schedule,” the state TV presenter says, citing the chiefs of Mehrabad and Imam Khomeini airports.

The AP had an interesting take, HERE, basically saying Israel was pushing the Middle East toward war.

I firmly believe Israel has the right to defend themselves, and do what is necessary to get their hostages back. The US use to have a policy of not negotiating with terrorists, but sadly that went out the window…

The question is, what’s next???

Is Israel done, or is there more to come? And what will happen after the election? Anybody want to try to pin ‘that’ tail on the donkey???

Why oh why…

Posted on by October 24, 2024

Does anybody trust ANY of these organizations???

The World Bank was created, in part, to help alleviate the extreme poverty in about 10% of the world’s population. That’s 700 million people living on less than $2 a day. 

The bank gets its funding from contributions made by rich nations. However, a recent decision to divert 45% of its development funds from poverty programs to climate change programs is meant more to assuage the guilt of rich nations than to help the poor climb out of poverty.

About $40 billion a year from the World Bank is now earmarked to fund climate change mitigation efforts. Naturally, with that much loose cash floating around, sticky fingers are busy “misplacing” the money, and isn’t that a darn shame?

An investigation by Oxfam of the World Bank’s finances shows that anywhere between $24 and $41 billion of “misplaced funds” has gone missing due to “poor record-keeping practices, says Oxfam.

Full article, HERE.

If it’s not the UN, it’s the WHO, and now the World Bank.

How many billions of dollars have been scraped off that SHOULD be going to help the poor and disenfranchised, but ends up in the pockets of those who are supposed to ‘administer’ the money?

A nothing will be done yet again. Oh, there will be an ‘investigation’, probably scraping off another few million, it will then drop out of the media, and nothing will be done. Again…

Bueller, Bueller???

Sigh…

What is going on…

Posted on by October 23, 2024

With CBS and the whole 60 Minutes kerfuffle???

As we recently outlined, it has been a damaging, credibility-harming few weeks for CBS News.  The network violated its own debate rules with a disputed-to-misleading ‘fact check’ of JD Vance at the Vice Presidential debate, then cut off his microphone as he calmly picked apart their assertion.  Their morning show was thrown into chaos when some employees melted down over an anchor asking pointed, tough questions of an anti-Israel zealot, resulting in angry recriminations, tears, and a series of embarrassing leaks.  Then there was the curious 60 Minutes edit of Kamala Harris’ answer regarding US-Israeli relations, which looked completely different in a teaser clip, compared to what aired on the broadcast itself.

Full article, HERE from Town Hall.

I know we bitch about the MSM coverage of pretty much ‘everything’ these days, but this one is a head scratcher…

Normally, or maybe used to be normally, the company doing the interview would release at least a written transcript of said interview.

This time, zip, nada…

And word salad from CBS, on top of their earlier behavior. I can’t help but wonder if this is a ‘new’ procedure, based on the White House refusing to allow the FBI to release either a transcript or the actual tapes of Robert K. Hur’s interview with Biden over the classified documents scandal (that got quickly swept under the rug).

I guess the latest way to ‘handle’ stuff like this is to bury it, hoping something else will happen to distract the viewing public (like a hurricane or two), or some international crisis like Israel vs. Iran and proxies.

It’s pretty sad when the go to these days for news is overseas papers and media! Granted the reporting may be slanted, but at least it’s out in the open!

We are less than two weeks out from Nov 5th, which is election day. I don’t care WHO you vote for, but I am asking each of you to go vote!

RIGHT OF CITIZENS TO VOTE

FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT

SECTION 1. The right of citizens of the United States to

vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by

any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.

SECTION 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this

article by appropriate legislation.

This was re enforced by the Voting Rights Act of 1965, HERE.  But you still need to go exercise that right!!!

Interesting follow up…

Posted on by October 22, 2024

To yesterday’s post…

The Pentagon has denied allegations linking a specific department staffer to the leaks of two purported classified documents that held sensitive information related to Israel’s expected retaliation against Iran.

Two documents purportedly from U.S. government agencies, the National Security Agency and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, on Israel’s expected response began circulating online last week. The documents include sensitive information that reveals indications of how Israel intended to respond, though the leak may have forced the country to alter its response.

On Tuesday, Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen Patrick Ryder denied that Ariane Tabatabai, the chief of staff to Assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low Intensity Conflict Christopher Maier, is responsible for the leaks. Foreign outlets have pointed the finger at her, while her name has spread on social media.

Full article, HERE from the Washington Examiner.

Apparently this is not the first time her name has come up with respect to Iran influence operations…

And more interesting is that while none of the MSM are putting her name forward, many overseas news organizations ARE saying she is involved.

Now the question(s) will be are the FBI getting all the information, and how much ‘access’ is the Pentagon covering up.

And I don’t have good answers or good feelings about either one.

Gah… How???

Posted on by October 21, 2024

Once again, this administration is ‘leaking’ important documents to the enemy…

Or at least what most of us think is the enemy…

Earlier on Monday, a defense department official confirmed to the Guardian that an in-depth inquiry was under way into how the two documents, attributed to the US Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency, came to be published on the Telegram messaging app four days ago.

<snip>

The first document is titled “Israel: air force continues preparations for strike on Iran and conducts a second large-force employment exercise” and the second is “Israel: defense forces continue key munitions preparations and covert UAV activity almost certainly for a strike on Iran”.

Full article, HERE from The Guardian (pretty sad when we get better news from the UK than our own media).

I don’t know about anybody else, but I’m beginning to wonder who’s side this administration is really on.

Between pushing for an early cease fire, and now doing the same with Hezbollah, to dealing with Iran for $$$ and hostages…

And ‘indications’ that there are players at State, and possibly deeper inside the administration that are more than friendly to Iran, plus not knocking the Houthis down when the Navy had two carriers worth of attack aircraft setting there, instead they send a couple of B-2s to hit ‘specific’ targets…

I’m not saying we were perfect in the past, because we damned sure weren’t, but the last three years of one security violation after another, either through DOD, JCS, or the administration ‘officials’ are enough to make me concerned about our future security.

Snerk…

Posted on by October 20, 2024

A little humor to start the week.

His Lordship was in the study when the butler approached and coughed discreetly.

“May I ask you a question, My Lord?”

“Go ahead, Bernard ,” said His Lordship.

“I am doing the crossword in The Times and found a word the exact meaning of which I am not too certain.”

“What word is that?” asked His Lordship.

“Aplomb, my Lord.”

“Now that’s a difficult one to explain. I would say it is self-assurance or complete composure.”

“Thank you, My Lord, but I’m still a little confused about it.”

“Let me give you an example to make it clearer. Do you remember a few months ago when the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrived to spend a weekend with us?”

“I remember the occasion very well, My Lord. It gave the staff and myself much pleasure to look after them.”

“Also,” continued the Earl of Grantham, “do you remember when Wills plucked a rose for Kate in the rose garden?”

“I was present on that occasion, My Lord, ministering to their needs.

“While Will was plucking the rose, a thorn embedded itself in his thumb very deeply.”

“I witnessed the incident, My Lord, and saw the Duchess herself remove the thorn and bandage his thumb with her own dainty handkerchief.”

“That evening the hole the rose made in his thumb was very sore. Kate had to cut his venison for him, even though it was extremely tender.”

“Yes, My Lord, I did see everything that transpired that evening.”

“And do you remember the next morning while you were pouring coffee for Her Ladyship, Kate inquired of Will in a loud voice,

‘Darling, does your prick still throb?’

….and you, Bernard, did not spill one drop of coffee?

That, Bernard, is complete composure, or aplomb.”

h/t Guy