Yeah, there are a bunch of tags on this one. I could toss in some more, but what they heck.
In case you haven't seen it, mostly because the main stream media has got a case of the "silent" on the subject, Ebola is a thing in Africa, again. It started in the former Belgian Congo and has spread, by way of a family who knew they were infected and ran anyway, to Uganda. It is about *this far* from spreading off that continent, with this far being defined as *How close is the closest international airport?"
While we're a long way from it at the moment, so far as we know we're a 14 hour international flight away from our first case in North America. Of course, the bearer of that glad news could be deplaning in NYC right now. Or they could be wading the Rio Grande. Or coming overland from Canada. Or Joey Jihadi who has deliberately been infected and sent to America to cough on as many people as he can.
I'm not going to do the daily duty of trying to keep you posted on this. However, I've finally read enough that I'm Officially Concerned (pity the WHO and CDC aren't), and I'm going to point you to Aesop, of the Raconteur Report, who is doing the thankless task with more knowledge and flair that I ever could. Save that link, since it searches by tag and will always have the newest stuff at the top.
Sunday, June 16, 2019
Thursday, June 13, 2019
More like "Vanishing Point", but with a happy ending.
(Via Eric Peters Autos)
Someone in Texas takes a Challenger Hellcat out for a spin and the media loses their effing minds.
Someone in Texas takes a Challenger Hellcat out for a spin and the media loses their effing minds.
Wednesday, June 12, 2019
Well!
I'm catching up on my email, among which are copies of the Tactical Wire for Jun 11 and the Shooting Wire for June 12. While each are always interesting in total, the editorial content at the end of each is spectacular and thought-provoking.
The bankruptcy filing of SportCo earlier this week has had tongues wagging all about the Intertubz, since SportCo claims they went bankrupt because they made a bet on the Hildebeast winning the 2016 election, which she didn't. Leftists and gungrabbers all loved the concept and just the simple fact that a major retailer of firearms and a major distributor of firearms would be dead.
Well, like the man said, you ain't seen nothing yet. According to those Wire articles I linked above, lawsuits have been filed against SportCo in South Carolina, alleging the owners, various hangers on and John Does 1-100 effectively plundered the company. To make matters worse, this will wind up not as a Chapter 11 bankruptcy (reorganization) but a Chapter 7 bankruptcy (liquidation). You'll want to read them both, and I'd subscribe so you can see what Jim Shephard releases next.
You get the chairs and I'll start the popcorn popping. This may be the biggest scandal to rock the firearms industry and one of the biggest fraud scandals in a long time. As Jim points out, there is also going to be a lot of second-nth level fallout from this, so watch your favorite manufacturers. We may all need to do a little shopping with them to lend a hand with those bottom lines.
The bankruptcy filing of SportCo earlier this week has had tongues wagging all about the Intertubz, since SportCo claims they went bankrupt because they made a bet on the Hildebeast winning the 2016 election, which she didn't. Leftists and gungrabbers all loved the concept and just the simple fact that a major retailer of firearms and a major distributor of firearms would be dead.
Well, like the man said, you ain't seen nothing yet. According to those Wire articles I linked above, lawsuits have been filed against SportCo in South Carolina, alleging the owners, various hangers on and John Does 1-100 effectively plundered the company. To make matters worse, this will wind up not as a Chapter 11 bankruptcy (reorganization) but a Chapter 7 bankruptcy (liquidation). You'll want to read them both, and I'd subscribe so you can see what Jim Shephard releases next.
You get the chairs and I'll start the popcorn popping. This may be the biggest scandal to rock the firearms industry and one of the biggest fraud scandals in a long time. As Jim points out, there is also going to be a lot of second-nth level fallout from this, so watch your favorite manufacturers. We may all need to do a little shopping with them to lend a hand with those bottom lines.
Thursday, June 06, 2019
Again, we remember the "day of days"
This year is the 75th anniversary of D-Day. We often call it "Operation Overlord", but technically that was the name of the overall battle plan for the invasion of Normandy. The D-Day landings themselves are more correctly referred to as "Operation Neptune". I doubt the men who parachuted in the night of June 5/6 or the men who charged ashore from landing boats really cared much for the distinction. They had a job to do, and do it they did. By the end of the day the Allies were in France and were going nowhere but east, toward Nazi Germany.
Reading about the commemorative events taking place both in the UK and France (as wishing I could be there), I'm struck at the age of the men who were there on that day. All in their mid- to late 90s. Old, stooped and needing assistance to move around, the same will that saw them through D-Day carries them still.
As I've said before, I was raised by a veteran of WWII. Dad wasn't there for D-Day, but he was there for the end of the Battle of the Bulge and for the crossing of the Rhine at Remagen. He was in Co. B, 27th Armored Infantry Regiment, 9th Armored Division. His company was the second across the bridge, A Company being the first.
Dad, like so many of the men who saved Europe from itself, is gone over 8 years now. So are all of his friends from the war as far as I know. Those we see in Normandy now are the rear guard, fighting their final battle against mortality.
Having been raised by a man and men who fought in the war, having known people who lost sons in that war, I find it extraordinarily difficult to accept a world without those men in it. However, in a decade, perhaps a bit more, that will be where I find myself.
We are less without these men walking among us. We should strive to be worthy of their sacrifices, made when they were young, with entire lives ahead of them. Many of them made the ultimate sacrifice, and remain young to this day.
We live in a time when war is an unknown to 99% of our population. That's probably a Bad Thing, since those who know war firsthand seem least likely to send men into that particular hell without a damn good reason. I suspect that soon, the lessons of the past will again be forgotten and we will find ourselves consigning our sons, and this time our daughters, into the maw of the beast. Conflict seems to be hardwired into us as a species, and we've never been one to learn from history.
For now, however, remember these brave men. Gaze upon these pictures at the Denver Post, and see what they saw. And pray that our children never have to see it outside pictures.
Reading about the commemorative events taking place both in the UK and France (as wishing I could be there), I'm struck at the age of the men who were there on that day. All in their mid- to late 90s. Old, stooped and needing assistance to move around, the same will that saw them through D-Day carries them still.
As I've said before, I was raised by a veteran of WWII. Dad wasn't there for D-Day, but he was there for the end of the Battle of the Bulge and for the crossing of the Rhine at Remagen. He was in Co. B, 27th Armored Infantry Regiment, 9th Armored Division. His company was the second across the bridge, A Company being the first.
Dad, like so many of the men who saved Europe from itself, is gone over 8 years now. So are all of his friends from the war as far as I know. Those we see in Normandy now are the rear guard, fighting their final battle against mortality.
Having been raised by a man and men who fought in the war, having known people who lost sons in that war, I find it extraordinarily difficult to accept a world without those men in it. However, in a decade, perhaps a bit more, that will be where I find myself.
We are less without these men walking among us. We should strive to be worthy of their sacrifices, made when they were young, with entire lives ahead of them. Many of them made the ultimate sacrifice, and remain young to this day.
We live in a time when war is an unknown to 99% of our population. That's probably a Bad Thing, since those who know war firsthand seem least likely to send men into that particular hell without a damn good reason. I suspect that soon, the lessons of the past will again be forgotten and we will find ourselves consigning our sons, and this time our daughters, into the maw of the beast. Conflict seems to be hardwired into us as a species, and we've never been one to learn from history.
For now, however, remember these brave men. Gaze upon these pictures at the Denver Post, and see what they saw. And pray that our children never have to see it outside pictures.
Wednesday, June 05, 2019
Everyone else is linking it
So I may as well jump on the bandwagon.
The Surprisingly Solid Mathematical Case of the Tin Foil Hat Gun Prepper
It's pretty amazing to see it in mathematical terms, but the ugly truth of humanity is that we're always at war with someone, somewhere. Conflict is seeming baked into our cake. And only fools ignore reality, while reality doesn't ignore them.
The Surprisingly Solid Mathematical Case of the Tin Foil Hat Gun Prepper
It's pretty amazing to see it in mathematical terms, but the ugly truth of humanity is that we're always at war with someone, somewhere. Conflict is seeming baked into our cake. And only fools ignore reality, while reality doesn't ignore them.
The Triffin dilemma
(Via James Howard Kunstler)
Why the US balance of accounts stubbornly stays out of balance.
There are constant rumblings that China et al want to dethrone the dollar as the global reserve currency. Maybe we should let them.
Why the US balance of accounts stubbornly stays out of balance.
There are constant rumblings that China et al want to dethrone the dollar as the global reserve currency. Maybe we should let them.
Thursday, May 30, 2019
Monday, May 27, 2019
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