BMEWS
 
When Sarah Palin booked a flight to Europe, the French immediately surrendered.

calendar   Tuesday - January 21, 2020

More Non News

Another mass shooting, but it doesn’t count because it wasn’t a white guy. Or they use the “4 or more dead rule”, which lets the blacks off the hook because they’re all such lousy shots.
I was going to post on this the other day, but meh. It got some minor news coverage, but faded away almost instantly. Blacks shooting blacks, even in bulk, just isn’t news.

Black Guy Shoots 15 Black Folks In Black Night Club, 1 Victim And Shooter Dead

KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV/AP)—An armed security guard shot and killed a man suspected of fatally shooting a woman and injuring 15 more people outside a bar, police said Monday.

According to the police, the shooting happened at 9ine Ultra Lounge in the 4800 block of Noland Road at 11:30 p.m. Sunday. A motive for the attack was not immediately clear.

Kansas City Police Capt. David Jackson said that responding officers found “a chaotic scene.” A man and a woman were killed and police believe the shooter is the deceased man, Jackson said. It was not clear if the gunman targeted anyone in particular, he said.

A spokesman said a gunman opened fire on a line of people waiting to enter the bar. A preliminary investigation indicates an armed security guard killed the shooter, Jackson said.

At least 15 went to hospitals with injuries related to the shooting, police said. It’s unclear whether all the injured victims suffered gunshot wounds. At least three people are in critical condition, police said.

A Facebook post on 9ine Ultra Lounge’s page advertised Sunday night’s “Sold Out Sundays” event, which appeared to be a celebration of the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs — featured on the event’s artwork — beat the Tennessee Titans on Sunday to advance to the Super Bowl.

“It just put such a tragic end to such a wonderful day in Kansas City,” Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said at the scene, referencing the win. “It’s just hard to stand here and talk about this kind of tragedy on really one of the best days Kansas City has had in a long time.”

Business filings for the nightclub identify former Chiefs cornerback Alphonso Hodge as the owner of the club. Profiles of the establishment show it held its grand opening in April 2019. [ “Grand opening ... grand closing” ]

KANSAS CITY, MO (KCTV)—Police continue to investigate after a mass shooting took place at a nightclub Sunday night.

Two people were killed, one of whom was the shooter. At least 15 people were injured.

The shooter is identified as 29-year-old Jahron Swift of Kansas City, Missouri. He has a record meaning he shouldn’t have had a gun, but he has several.

Police said that an armed private security guard at the club shot and killed Swift about 11:30 p.m. just outside of 9ine Ultra Lounge located in the 4800 block of Noland Road.

The victim is 25-year-old Raeven A. Parks of Kansas City.


avatar

Posted by Drew458   United States  on 01/21/2020 at 09:35 AM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
Comments (0) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Laff With The Loonie

AOC: Dem Party Isn’t Leftist, It’s Center Conservative

Man, where can I get some of the killer dope she’s smoking?

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said on Monday at MLK Now 2020 event, the Democratic Party was a “center or center-conservative party,” and “not a left party.”

Ocasio-Cortez said, “I wanted to go back to what you said about our left party. We don’t have a left party in the United States. The Democratic Party is not a left party. The Democratic Party is a center or a center-conservative party. We do not advocate for — we can’t even get a floor vote on Medicare for All, not even a floor vote, that gets voted down. We can’t even get a vote on it. So this is not a left party. There are left members inside the Democratic Party that are working to try to make that shift happen.”

She added, “But you’re right. It does convey a certain sentiment about true believers. And there are a lot of true believers in that we can capitalism our way out of poverty in the Democratic Party. If anything, that’s probably the majority. And that’s an area in which I agree with Dr. King that that assessment is flawed.”

So “capitalism” is now a verb? Of course, her idea of that verb is “tax and spend your way out of poverty”. And there is really damn little actual poverty in this country. She isn’t talking about acts of philanthropy done by the successful. She’s talking about government spending. Which is really the same as redistribution to the special people. Which is at best a kind of socialism, with major government control. Pretty much communism. Super leftism. So she’s tripped. Same old same old.


avatar

Posted by Drew458   United States  on 01/21/2020 at 09:17 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists •  
Comments (0) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Not Just Killing And Theft

A little “crime stoppers” sidebar story in the local news. It shows a certain truth, therefore it must be racist.

Newark Public Safety Director Anthony F. Ambrose reports that police are seeking the public’s help in locating the below pictured suspects wanted for outstanding domestic violence warrants.

In the 3 screens of Wanted pictures shown, 44 people appear. 36 of them are black, 6 of them are hispanic, 2 of them are white/asian. That’s 82%, 13.5%, and 4.5% respectively. Does that tell you anything?

Each picture is captioned with the crime. How white am I? I had to look up “VRO” because I’d never heard of it. I guessed it meant “violating restraining order” but it really means “violent repeat offenders”, which is the same thing, only worse.

But this is a report just from Newark NJ, so maybe it only reflects a highly local temporary situation. Certainly not indicative of a permanent national trend. Oh noes, never ever.

Riiiight.


avatar

Posted by Drew458   United States  on 01/21/2020 at 08:38 AM   
Filed Under: • CrimeRacism and race relations •  
Comments (2) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Slow TV

And you thought there was nothing on TV. Up In Norway, Really Boring Is Really Popular.

Norway: New Hit TV Show Where One Episode Runs 9 Solid Days

Slow TV to feature Svalbard round the clock for nine days

Fascinating viewers for hours and days, the Norwegian slow TV concept takes it to the ultimate with the longest ever program starting on January 31st.

«Svalbard minute by minute» was recorded last August and can be viewed on the national broadcaster’s NRK2 channel from January 31 at 18.00 to midnight on February 9.

NRK launched the idea of slow TV on the 100th anniversary of Bergensbanen, the railway from Oslo to Bergen in 2009. With cameras in front, inside, on the sides and along the route, the entire 7 hours 16 minutes journey became a big hit with 1,2 million Norwegians tuned in to the show (Norway has a population of 5 million).

The success was followed up by the Flåmsbana (Flåm railway) minute by minute in 2010 and the big hit «Hurtigruten minute by minute» in 2011 on board a cruise vessel sailing all along the coast from Bergen to Kirkenes, a voyage and TV show lasting almost seven days.

In 2012, Nordlandbanen, the railway between Trondheim and Bodø across the Arctic Circle was recorded for 9 hours and 50 minutes and was followed by 1,2 million viewers.

So, my question is, are these shows just background noise, or is life so slow that Norwegians actually veg out and watch this stuff all day all night for days on end?

Is this some kind of escapist, alternate reality, life in the Matrix kind of thing? Or are they all so stressed out by the already slow pace of living there that they need to immerse themselves in the utterly dull and boring? Maybe they’re all stoned out of their minds most of the time.

Nearly 1 out of 4 Norwegians are huge fans of this kind of show. What does that say about them? (Yeah, it’s bloody cold, and dark, and it’s cold and dark for months and months at a go. And you can only have so much sex or football.)

Most of Svalbard is Arctic wilderness and about 65% of the land area is protected as national parks.

Project manager with NRK, Thomas Hellum, names the Svalbard slow TV as the ultimate production so far.

«We believe everyone in one or another way has a dream-relationship to Svalbard. A voyage is for many unachievable, but here everyone can join from the sofa,» Hellum says in an NRK article about the program.

Yes, a dream relationship with some empty islands way the heck up in the Arctic. A place of even more dark and cold than regular Norway. Frozen tundra, icebergs, and one filthy Russian coal mine doing it’s best to pollute the place. About the only fun thing that ever happens is when a eco-warrior ship full of greenies hell bent on exploring the ravages of global warming gets stuck in the ice pack that they don’t believe exists.

This is not the first time a ship carrying climate change activists has run into trouble in polar ice floes. In the CNN video below, a ten thousand ton Chinese icebreaker, the Snow Dragon, became trapped by antarctic ice on its way to rescue a Russian vessel, the Academic Shokalskiy. The ship was carrying a team of global warming scientists and had become stuck in the ice floes several days earlier. The team’s mission?  To gauge the effects of climate change on the region.


avatar

Posted by Drew458   United States  on 01/21/2020 at 08:08 AM   
Filed Under: • International •  
Comments (0) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

calendar   Monday - January 20, 2020

Give Us This Day

Two Thirds Bread

Today’s bread is so simple recipe that you can remember it and never have to even write it down. I call it 2/3 bread.

The flour mix is 2/3 white flour to 1/3 whole wheat. The white flour mix is 2/3 bread flour to 1/3 all purpose. Hydration, the amount of water relative to the flour, is up to you. 67% - 2/3 - would work just fine, but for this batch I’m using 70%. Wetter dough - more “slack” - makes a loaf with a more “open crumb”, which means bigger air bubbles inside. People like that. The amount of salt you use is up to you. 1.5% is standard, but I usually use 2.5% or even 3%. Anything more than that and the yeast slows down and the loaf starts tasting salty. I put in 20% sourdough starter, which adds lots of flavor but is not really necessary. Starter has it’s own kind of yeast in it, which will make the dough rise if you have the patience of Job. Instead, I make a hybrid that uses starter and a 2/3 measure of instant yeast. Usually. For hybrid bread, the less dry yeast you add, the slower the rise, and the slower the rise the more sourdough flavor you’ll get. So this actual loaf has 1 teaspoon of added yeast, while the standard measure or the packet of yeast you buy in the store is 2 1/2 teaspoons.

Use your baker’s math to adjust the amounts, depending on how much bread you want. This is why you want a digital kitchen scale.

600gm flour:
     400gm white flour:
        266gm bread flour
        134gm all purpose flour
     200gm whole wheat

120gm fed sourdough starter at 100% hydration (half flour, half water by weight)

Ok, that gives us 600 + 60 = 660 grams total flour weight, so use between 13gm (2%) and 19gm (3%) salt. I used 18 in this batch.

With that much flour, 2/3 hydration (67%) works out to 402gm of added warm water. But don’t forget that the starter has 60gm of water in it, so together this adds up to 70% hydration. This is at the edge of “no knead” dough; you can just mix it and leave it alone and it comes out fine. However, a bit of kneading (stretch and fold technique, about a dozen rotations per knead) really helps, as does a bit more water. It’s very cold and dry today, so I used 420gm added water, which yields a 72% total hydration.

Whisk the flour and salt together, then mix in nearly all the warm water. Leave it at the “shaggy mess” stage, and let it autolyze for ... 2/3 of an hour. This breaks down the starch in the flour and makes for a better loaf. If you add in only 2/3 of the water, it will work but will make a brick. The yeast and starter solution will mix in eventually with a stand mixer, but it’s kind of a pain. Use all the water, saving out a splash or two to warm up your starter if it’s cold from the fridge.

After the flour has been autolyzing for half an hour, get the yeast going. In a smaller bowl, pour the dry yeast over the starter. Add a tsp sugar if you want. Add the remaining splash of water and stir it in. Let it sit.

After the autolyze, mix it all together, let it rest a bit, then use the bread hook to knead it for 4-5 minutes. Transfer to a covered greased bowl, and hand knead it once every half hour for 90 minutes if you want. Do the usual rise until doubled, then knead gently once more, shape your loaves, use the proofing baskets if you have them, blah blah. Standard bread making procedure.

I did this one “no knead” style, although I used the mixer to knead it really smooth for 5 minutes first. Set it and forget it; let’s see what happens.

I’m going to bake this in my Dutch oven. 475 for 20 minutes covered, then 20 uncovered at 450. I’ll probably put sesame seeds on top because we like them.

The recipe as show makes 2 1/2lb of dough; 1156gm. It’s almost exactly 1 quart by volume. That’s enough for 2 regular loaves, 1 giant boule, or 3 or 4 baguettes.  Ok, now on to the bulk ferment, the first rise.

Volumetrically marked plastic containers are awesome for rising bread. No more figuring out if it’s not quite doubled, or a bit more than doubled, or going by time. Grease ‘em up, put in the dough, see how much you’ve got, and figure out what twice that is. I buy the square ones by Cambro, which are indestructible, and we use them for everything else from flour storage to leftovers in the fridge.




Update: This is why I use the Cambro buckets. 1 hour at 78° and the dough had doubled. The dough is perfect. I took it out, cut it in two, gave things a light stretch and shaping, and put them in the bannatons. Then back in the warm environment to rise again. I’ll pull one out after half an hour and put it in the fridge to bake tomorrow or the next day, and one will bake this afternoon. After two years of baking, I finished off my 1lb brick of SAF Instant yeast, so I bought and opened a new one. Fresh SAF yeast is powerful stuff. It lives in the freezer and lasts forever.

Further Update: I think a slower rise and more kneading lead to a more open crumb. The first loaf wasn’t tight, but it didn’t have the big open bubble holes inside that bakers strive for. Tastes great though. I’ll bake the other loaf and see how that one comes out.


avatar

Posted by Drew458   United States  on 01/20/2020 at 09:02 AM   
Filed Under: • Bread •  
Comments (0) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

calendar   Sunday - January 19, 2020

back to the beginning, again

After we got slaughtered 0-7 Friday night at almost-cheap-league, I realized yet again that it’s time to reinvent the wheel, and go back to the beginning and learn how to bowl all over again. I been doing this every few years for nearly 15 years, but I haven’t done it in quite a while.

I just could not get any action going with my ball. And I notice that the callus on the inside of my thumb is coming back again. This means I’m clenching the ball. Not good. So assuming I can find some time this week, I want to get up to the alley and do some no-step and one-step drills. That’s where you stand at the foul line in “release position” and just swing your arm to throw the ball. The idea is not to actually bowl, but to focus on your release and on your targeting accuracy. With no momentum behind it, and only a short free swing, the ball ought to hook right off the lanes long before it hits the pins, or maybe just dink one or two on the left side of the rack. I need to work on a loose grip, on my finger spreads, on not overturning/forcing my hand, or rotating my shoulders to the left. Do that 5-6-7 drill with a flat wrist, a slightly cupped wrist, and then with the ball palmed as much as you can do. Repeat until it becomes automatic.

The good news is that the internet has a gazillion bowling how-to pages, and most of them are pretty good. The clockface concept tends to confuse me, because as a natural engineer I see things from all three axies at once, X, Y, Z .The trick is to remember that the inside of your forearm is always 12 o’clock. Also, when these sites talk about winding up with your thumb at 1 o’clock, they mean that you’re supposed to get it out of the ball and then flip it up to the side “thumbs up” style. If you just pull it out of the hole, it will be at about 10 o’clock. But the act of moving it to 1 positively gets it out of the way. Just make sure not to pop open your whole hand when you do that, because you want to keep some tension in your fingertips to impart the spin on the ball. That’s why these sites talk about feeling the weight of the ball on your fingers. And also, you’ll feel the burn in them (at first) when you do it right. If you’re not feeling the weight on them, it’s probably because you’re squeezing the ball with your thumb. Guilty! And that’s where the thumb callus comes from.

Best bowling advice I’ve had in a long time is to do the least amount of work that gets the job done. Keep it simple, keep it relaxed, let the ball do the work. And remember, it’s a game, so you’re supposed to be having fun.


avatar

Posted by Drew458   United States  on 01/19/2020 at 08:38 PM   
Filed Under: • Bowling Blogging •  
Comments (1) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

calendar   Saturday - January 18, 2020

Sleepy Saturday

Winter is upon us after a month of mild. How dare you!!™

We’re having “the big storm”. It’s been snowing since about 10am. We have a bit more than an inch. Winter Storm Jacob has hammered large swaths of the Midwest and Northwest, but here in New Jersey the expectation is for 5” or less. Probably quite a lot less here in my town. Somehow Clinton is a weather hole; systems move around us instead of through us. This saved our bacon during hurricane Sandy, with “only” half a million trees downed in our county. Compare that to where I once lived, up in Binghamton NY, which is a weather pivot. Watch any animated weather map of the Northeast, and you will see the storm systems head East across the flat southern border of NY until just before they get to that wiggly part that goes down to the right. Right there, that’s Binghamtom. Then the storms slow down, turn southeast, and head downstate towards New York City. So Binghamton gets a double dose. Lots of snow and rain and clouds. But then the clouds seem to split a little coming over the Endless Mountains of central Pennsylvania, and then more over the Poconos in the east end of the state, and the worst parts of the weather pass by to the north, while the milder parts of the weather swoop down to the southern part of NJ. And Clinton gets a pass. Sweet.

I think naming snowstorms is pretty silly.




Ok, here’s a nice picture. I’m sure you recognize her. Actress Yvonne Craig from about 1967. She passed away in 2015.


image


Yup, it’s Batgirl. Wow, what a cutie.


avatar

Posted by Drew458   United States  on 01/18/2020 at 05:21 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
Comments (0) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

calendar   Friday - January 17, 2020

Dems In Denial, Trump In The Nile

River Wars? Khartoum II?

Team America: World Police and Mediator

Against the backdrop of continuing tension in the Middle East, the United States is playing a peacekeeping role in a dispute among Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia.

You won’t read about the Trump administration’s mediation in the mainstream press because it doesn’t fit the meme of a war-mongering president.

So here goes. The three countries agreed to meet this week in Washington to tackle problems over a dam project on the Nile River that may greatly affect water resources in Egypt and Sudan.

The differences among the three countries date back to May 2011 when Ethiopia started building a dam, which is known as the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam.

The $5 billion hydroelectric dam would exist on the Blue Nile near the Ethiopia-Sudan border. The reservoir would hold up to 67 billion cubic meters of water and take at least seven years to fill, which would decrease the river’s flow for at least that period by 25 percent. For Ethiopia, the dam would aid water needs and economic development, as it is set to supply the country with more than 6,000 megawatts of electricity. But it could be devastating for Egypt, which relies on the river for irrigation, fishing, and transport.

The river is so vital that Egyptian officials have made it clear that military action may occur if Ethiopia doesn’t come to an agreement.

Enter the United States as the mediator. Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia agreed to a series of four meetings in Addis Ababa, Cairo, Khartoum. This week’s meeting in Washington is the fourth in this round of negotiations.

It’s unclear whether the United States will be able to help settle this longstanding dispute. But it’s readily apparent that Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia think the Trump administration may be able to help.

How classic that Egypt wants to smite Nubia again. They’ve been doing that for 6,000 years.

Hey Ethiopia: build your damn 100 feet higher. Take the whole damn Nile. It’s your water to begin with.





The Nile flows south to north. The Nile River as you probably think of it really begins in Khartoum in Sudan, never really part of ancient Egypt. [ although the area was so heavily influenced by them that the nearby city of Meroe (aka Saba {son of Cush (Kush) in the bible} ] built their own pyramids {but in the spiky Nubian style} ]

South of Khartoum in Sudan the Nile splits into two smaller rivers, the White Nile and the Blue Nile. Further north in Sudan, downriver, the Nile gets bigger where the seasonal Atbarah River joins in, also in Sudan.  However, the Blue Nile, and the Atbarah Rivers both flow from Ethiopia, where they drain the moist highlands.

The White Nile comes up from Lake Albert and Lake Victoria way down in Kenya, but is also fed by Ethiopia’s Baro River, which flows east to west across Ethiopia and in turn is fed by the smaller Birbir and Geba Rivers, which meander all over Ethiopia. The White Nile is the source of more than half of the water in the upper Nile, whereas almost all the good fertile silt that made the Black Land of Kemet of this very Egypt comes from the Blue Nile.

So a whole lot of the water in the Nile originates in Ethiopia. Most of these rivers are damned in several places, with hydroelectric generators.

Classically, the regions along the lower Nile are defined by the cataracts there. Aswan is at the first cataract and has always been Egypt. The old kingdoms of Kush and Nubia lie along the second to fifth cataracts, which are all close together. Khartoum is well south of the sixth and final cataract at Meroe. After that it’s all Deepest Darkest Africa.

~~~~

Footnote, and some Daily Geography

image

The above story would not exist if it weren’t for the Eastern African Rift, that ancient tectonic plate action that tore Africa off of Asia 25 million years ago, created the Red Sea and the Ethiopian highlands, and a bunch of volcanoes down in central East Africa.

You know how when you look at a global map and you see how eastern South America fits perfectly against western Africa? The same thing goes for that pinched bit of the Red Sea by the Straits of Hormuz. On one side you’ve got Yemen on the south end of Arabia, and on the other side you’ve got Djibouti on the coast, just northeast of Ethiopia.

That little area is known as the Afar Triangle, and it’s a scar of what happened a long long time ago. The land ripped apart sideways as well as vertically; the Afar Triangle is a depression, whereas the Sarawat Mountains on the Arabian side of the Red Sea rise up 12,000 feet. Plate tectonics, awesome stuff.

This is the part of the world where people originated. And moved the heck away as soon as they could: the west end of the Afar is bound by the appropriately named Awash River, which is flows lightly all year long except for the rainy season when it really really floods everything, then evaporates into salt pans, because the Afar area is the WORST PLACE ON EARTH, being terribly dry and unbelievably hot (120°) most of the year.


avatar

Posted by Drew458   United States  on 01/17/2020 at 01:15 PM   
Filed Under: • International •  
Comments (0) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Good Work Woodhaven PD

Woodhaven Michigan, halfway between Detroit and Toledo


Good Dogs, Good Cops

A woman home alone in the 25000 block of Reek Road secretly called police after hearing men inside her house.

According to police, the woman was kept on the phone as officers rushed to the residence at about 7 a.m. Jan. 15.

She was hiding in her basement and told police she could hear the men moving through the house.

Police records show that officers arrived within three minutes of the call and determined that two men had fled on foot.

A perimeter was immediately set up with the assistance of several local police agencies and the department’s K-9 unit began tracking the suspects.

After a foot chase, both men were captured within a block of the woman’s house.

Police said the suspects are ages 21 and 23, and reside in Detroit.

They are being held in the Woodhaven jail pending charges and multiple arrest warrants from other agencies.

According to police, numerous items stolen from the house, along with the suspects’ vehicle, were seized at the location.

I saw on a couple places online that her two little chihuahuas started barking when the two dindus rolled up, and she grabbed her phone and ran to the basement. Multiple departments responded, and the K-9 dogs ran them down. Good dogs. And good work Woodhaven PD.

The two suspects arrested in a Woodhaven home invasion are expected to be formally charged Friday. The 21 and 23-year-old men from Detroit will be arraigned later this morning, according to court records.


avatar

Posted by Drew458   United States  on 01/17/2020 at 12:56 PM   
Filed Under: • Crime •  
Comments (0) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

A Lot Of Effort To Steal $1.49

Those Tenacious Florida Shoplifters

MULBERRY, Fla. — Surveillance video from a convenience store shows just how badly a Florida thief wanted a Pepsi.

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office released a video that shows 49-year-old Gabriel Tillman walk into a convenience store last week, grab a Pepsi and try to leave without paying. The cashier quickly locked the door to prevent Tillman from leaving.

The video shows Tillman hip check and push the door several times. Then he steps back and charges it a few times. When that doesn’t work, he grabs a fire extinguisher and slams into against the door several times to no avail.

The glass door didn’t break but the fire extinguisher did. The cashier finally opened the door.

A deputy spotted Gabriel about two blocks away from the store enjoying his stolen Pepsi and placed him under arrest.

The sheriff’s office wrote in a humorous Facebook post, that the arrest “report did not say if he was allowed to finish his Pepsi.”


avatar

Posted by Drew458   United States  on 01/17/2020 at 12:41 PM   
Filed Under: • Crime •  
Comments (0) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

calendar   Thursday - January 16, 2020

Hell Yeah Alex Trebeck

Ain’t No Such Place, Never Was, Never Will Be

Meanwhile, on Jeopardy -

The show is structured under a number of different categories in which contestants answer questions that revolve around the same theme. In the episode that aired earlier this week, contestants were asked questions under the “Where’s the Church?” category, in which they had to name the place that was,"Built in the 300s A.D., the Church of the Nativity.”

In response, contestant Katie Needle said “What is Palestine?” But, her answer was rejected. Her opponent, however, responded with “What is Israel?” and was awarded the point.

The news article above has a leftist slant, arguing that the whole world calls it Palestine, and calling the area “Israeli occupied”. Fuck that. It’s Israel, it was never Palestine. There has never been a country called Palestine, and if someone lets me near the Big Button there never will be.

So good for you Alex Trebeck. Even though half the time I think you’re a Canadian socialist, and the other half the time I think you’re a stuck up snob. But once in a while you do the right thing. Well done.

Otay, that was really concise!!


avatar

Posted by Drew458   United States  on 01/16/2020 at 03:13 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
Comments (0) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

West Virginia Makes The Play

Dammit, I have to learn to write concisely. That last post took forever, for a really niche story that won’t interest many. Ok, so let’s keep this one short.

West Virginia Offers To Take All Of Virginia’s Second Amendment Sanctuary Counties

A huge “screw you” to the leftists in charge in Richmond.

It started in 1863. Because freedom. Actually, it started in 1775 but nobody paid them any attention.

A huge chunk of Virginia’s counties and their biggest city have now gone Second Amendment Sanctuary.

Last week West Virginia offered to take Fredrick County, half of which went over to West Virginia in 1863.

Virginia is for lovers, so West Virginia is reviving a 158-year-old proposal to ask one of its counties on a date. The answer, apparently, is still no.

The West Virginia Senate adopted a resolution by voice vote Monday to remind residents of Frederick County, Virginia, that the county has a standing invite — from 1862 — to become part of West Virginia. It now goes to the House of Delegates.

The resolution was introduced by Morgan County Republican Charles Trump, whose district borders Frederick County. Trump was born in Winchester, the seat of Frederick, which is Virginia’s northernmost county.

Now West Virginia has upped the ante, and has offered to take ALL the 2A counties.

In a display of pro-Second Amendment solidarity, a group of West Virginia lawmakers have introduced a resolution inviting Virginia counties frustrated by gun control efforts to switch states.

Delegates in the lower house of the West Virginia Legislature put the proposal forth on Tuesday. House Concurrent Resolution 8 would allow certain Virginia counties and independent cities to be admitted to West Virginia as constituent counties.

The group of 20 West Virginia Republicans, and one Independent, introducing the resolution said in the proposal that Virginia lawmakers have repudiated “the counsel of that tribune of liberty, Patrick Henry-who stated to the Virginia Ratifying Convention in 1788 that ‘The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able might have a gun.’”

“[T]he government at Richmond now seeks to place intolerable restraints upon the rights guaranteed under the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution to the citizens of [Virginia,]” the proposal reads.

If it passes, the Virginia General Assembly would need to approve the resolution as well, and hold an election prior to August 1, 2020 allowing residents in Virginia counties to vote on whether they’d like to join West Virginia.

If this happens, WV will double or triple in size, get lots more electoral votes, take in most of the rural and white population of Virginia, and leave Olde Virginny being little more than a bedroom community around Washington DC.

Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of leftists.

There. Concise enough?


avatar

Posted by Drew458   United States  on 01/16/2020 at 02:57 PM   
Filed Under: • FREEDOMGuns and Gun ControlPolitics •  
Comments (2) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Little Big Gun

The Wildcat .375 Raptor: Big Bear Medicine For An AR-10

image

Big heavy bullets at moderate velocity: the one gun hunting solution without tremendous recoil. And it will work in a full size “assault weapon” with just a barrel swap. Or in a regular bolt gun. Without spending a ton of money.

In 2014, the 45 RAPTOR brought Big Bore performance to the AR10 / LR308 rifle platform and extended the range of Big Bore Modern Sporting Rifles to 200-yards. 
Not one to rest on our past accomplishments, we continued our research and the result is the 375 RAPTOR – an evolutionary step forward in Modern Sporting Rifle performance delivering Big-Bore hunting performance out to 400 yards while eliminating proprietary rifle parts or ammunition components.

The 375 RAPTOR is created using abundant commercial 308 Winchester or military 7.62 NATO brass. The process is easily performed by any hand-loader using common loading tools.

There are hundreds of different designs of rifle cartridge out there, and since these things were invented back in the early 1870s, probably at least a thousand have come and gone. But sometimes a niche exists that the factories don’t fill. And that’s what wildcatting is all about: build your own from the ground up, or have some custom gunsmithing done and use one of these oddball rounds other folks have figured out. Whatever else, there’s a strong sense of individuality involved.

Back in the 80s and 90s, all the young guys drove Mustangs and Camaros. Popular. Ubiquitous. Great fun, but rather common. “Another pathetic sheep, following the heard.”, as “Joe Isuzu” used to say in the commercials.  I had 2 Mercury Capri RS in those days. Same performance as a Mustang GT, but a totally different look. In the 14 years I drove those cars, I saw only 1 other car just like mine, once. I liked that feeling. Now I have a Soul Red Mazda 3 GT. It’s a great car, awesome paint, and when I bought mine it was a rare bird. So rare that I had to order it from Japan. Nowadays you can’t go around the block without seeing a bright red Mazda, and every vehicle they make looks the same. At least mine is a GT, with the parchment white leather interior and a manual shift. So it’s a common car, but an uncommon build.

I like pushing the envelope. I like the unusual. I like “orphan” guns that look good and shoot well but are in cartridges that are rather overlooked or forgotten. I spent a number of years doing load development for the “level 3” .45-70, using a gorgeous Browning 1885 Highwall rifle. I wore the barrel out, and now it’s a wall hanger. But I learned a whole lot, and I tried to do the work in an intelligent manner, using the Quick-Load software package, tons of online research, a good chronograph, and some common sense. What I found was that, in a big heavy long barreled and very strong falling block rifle, with the chamber reamed for a half diameter long tight parallel throat and a low angle leade, I could safely create ammunition that would launch a 300 grain bullet at 2600 feet per second. Recoil was significant, even after I had filled the Browning’s hollow walnut stock with birdshot, giving me an 11lb rifle with scope. 300 grains at 2600fps is what a .300 Holland & Holland Magnum safari rifle can do, and that kind of power is sufficient to hunt the largest creatures on the planet. In any kind of normal weight gun, the recoil is phenomenal.

One thing that I did learn is that painful recoil, which can be calculated, is not really related to the strength of the recoil impulse, but to the impulse velocity. You won’t really notice a recoil impulse of 10 feet per second or less, even if the strength of the impulse is well over 20 pounds. But if that impulse gets over 15 feet per second, the “shove” becomes a “sharp kick” and then if the impulse strength gets up over 35lb it becomes “I just got punched by Mike Tyson with an axe”. And that is not a pleasant thing. Been there, done that, trust me. So keep the impulse strength to 20lb or less, and try and keep the impulse velocity below 15 fps. And the way to do that is with a heavy rifle. Get a good walnut stock, not a plastic one. Use a thicker contour barrel of a normal length. If you want to shoot heavy rifles, you need the mass. 9lb is a starting point. But if your plan is to make your own little junior hot rod, like this .375 Raptor, and you don’t load it to the ragged high edge, you can get away with 7 1/2 or 8lb. The used gun racks are full of flyweight superloudenboomer short barrel magnums for two reasons. Evil recoil and hearing loss. You’re not fighting house to house in Fallujah. You don’t need a 16” barrel. 22” or 24” is right, and adds another 12 ounces or so of mass. Happy gun for happy hunting.

This wildcat round is all about filling the gap. Oh, and making a stubby round you can use in an AR-10, which is the man sized version of the AR-15. While the AR-15 “poodle shooter” fires the 5.56 NATO cartridge or it’s civilian brother called the .223, the AR-10 is a bigger, heavier rifle that shoots the 7.62 NATO round, and it’s civilian brother called the .308. Night and day difference in bullet mass: the 5.56 tops out with bullets of about 70 grains, while the 7.62 starts with bullets of about 168 grains. It’s a lot more powerful.

So, the “gap”. A very long time ago there was a blackpowder cowboy cartridge called the .38-55. About a century later a modern version hit the market called the .375 Winchester. It could shoot a .375” diameter bullet of relatively light weight at about 2200fps. Moderate here means 220 grains, which is light for a .375 rifle but at the very heavy end of bullets for a .308 rifle. So there’s a big gap between what the .375Win can do and what the .300 H&H can do. And the .375 Raptor fills that gap, depending on how you load it.

230gr at up to 2625fps
250gr at up to 2465fps
300gr at up to 2250fps

Ok, it “fills the gap” not quite in the middle, but a bit towards the .38-55 end. If you want to fill the gap more towards the .300 H&H end, another version exists called the .375 Hawk-Scovill, which is based on the .30-06 cartridge, which is the longer, older, parent of the 7.62 NATO round, and it won’t fit in an AR-10 no matter what. .30-06 rounds are 3.34” long, .308 rounds are 2.8” long, .223 rounds are 2.25” long, .300 H&H is 3.6” long, and the venerable .45-70 and .30-30 are 2.55” long). So the .375 Hawk needs a standard length action, and that usually means a bolt action rifle.

OTOH, velocity equals range, power, and recoil. A 230gr bullet in .375 is plenty for deer at any distance, but loaded down to 2300fps it should be good to 200 yards - a responsible hunting distance - and not break your shoulder or burst your eardrums when fired. Similarly, a 250gr bullet is plenty for bears, and 2450fps is (marginally) manageable recoil in an 8.5lb rifle. That one gives you 2200lb/ft of impact energy at 200 yards, moving at 2000fps. Plenty of bear flattening power and enough final velocity to ensure proper bullet performance. If you shoot enough already to own you own reloading equipment, building this rifle won’t cost much more than ordering a good barrel, buying a short action bolt gun, and having your gunsmith rent a reamer and put it all together. 


avatar

Posted by Drew458   United States  on 01/16/2020 at 12:48 PM   
Filed Under: • Guns and Gun Control •  
Comments (0) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Memories Of The Heartland

I saw this today at Instapundit, but I’ll repost it anyway.

Memories of Knoxville: Steamed Hoagies and the original Fresh-O-Matic

image

“No one likes the button”



Grab yourself a big mug of coffee and something to nibble on, sit back and enjoy this 40 minute read. No politics, no snowflakes, no modern technology. Just a nostalgia trip about food, a salute to the small entrepreneur, and a big long story of how things used to be and in a few places still are.

This piece of writing should win some kind of major award. It’s that good.



We lived in South Knoxville, in a mid-century subdivision full of bad drivers — a dicey mix of old people and teenagers. I was always careful to stay off the shoulderless road, keeping my little sister corralled on the safe side as we tramped along on so many sticky Tennessee summer evenings, our light-up sneakers collecting cut grass. About a quarter-mile down the hill from our house sat a low cinderblock building shaped like a brick, its white paint speckled with adornments in always-fresh Volunteer orange. It was the first place we were allowed to go by ourselves.

The Korner Market & Deli was not a quaint country store. It was a purpose-serving place, anchoring the neighborhood in a way that was becoming dated even in the early 1990s. I learned the word “loitering” as soon as I could read, sounding out the hand-lettered rules on the side of the building while my mom ran in to grab an emergency bag of hotdog buns, or Cokes and Winstons for my visiting grandparents.

I worried the quiet corner store I wandered to as a child might have folded in on itself, crumpled by chain restaurants, or reduced traffic, or modernity in general. But when I revisit the neighborhood for the first time in a decade, the Korner Market still sits down the hill and around the curve from my childhood home, thrumming neon and fluorescence into the early winter darkness. I push the door open, the bell clangs, and I’m hit with that same old smell of scrubbed-down, Marlboro-glazed linoleum. There’s a sweetness, and a whoosh, and it’s me and my sister, two sticky-fingered baby ghosts pushing past me, scampering out into the evening buzz of cicadas, our mouths crammed full of Bubblicious. I twist around, expecting to see the high crown of my grandfather’s mesh cap as he waits for us in the parking lot, or the beat-up purple Saturn I drove as a teenager winking its one headlight, ticking as the little engine cools. Back inside, an awkward 13-year-old me winces as she peels her bare legs off one of the vinyl stools fixed along the counter; the 21-year-old heaves a sweating sixer of High Life proudly up to the register. In this abruptly flooded plane of memory, it is always summer, and every me exists at once.

PS - Krystal’s is a southern restaurant franchise, kind of like a White Castle that also does breakfast, along with grits, biscuits, and gravy. I’d never heard of them, but if I ever get down to Georgia again I’ll stop in.

PPS - Comment at Insty relating how a very Appalachian local explained the steamed sandwich thing: “Well, mainly is because REDNECKS AINT GOT NO TEETH.” and he smiles at me with a mouthful of black stumps. “Ain’t none of us can eat your Yankee bread.”.

PPPS - “dark” rolls are pumpernickel, made with coffee and cocoa powder. Makes for a strong flavor and a heavy duty bun that can handle the steam. 


avatar

Posted by Drew458   United States  on 01/16/2020 at 11:51 AM   
Filed Under: • FoodMiscellaneous •  
Comments (0) Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  
Page 3 of 5 pages « First  <  1 2 3 4 5 >

Five Most Recent Trackbacks:

Once Again, The One And Only Post
(4 total trackbacks)
Tracked at iHaan.org
The advantage to having a guide with you is thɑt an expert will haѵe very first hand experience dealing and navigating the river with гegional wildlife. Tһomas, there are great…
On: 07/28/23 10:37

The Brownshirts: Partie Deux; These aare the Muscle We've Been Waiting For
(3 total trackbacks)
Tracked at head to the Momarms site
The Brownshirts: Partie Deux; These aare the Muscle We’ve Been Waiting For
On: 03/14/23 11:20

Vietnam Homecoming
(1 total trackbacks)
Tracked at 广告专题配音 专业从事中文配音跟外文配音制造,北京名传天下配音公司
  专业从事中文配音和外文配音制作,北京名传天下配音公司   北京名传天下专业配音公司成破于2006年12月,是专业从事中 中文配音 文配音跟外文配音的音频制造公司,幻想飞腾配音网领 配音制作 有海内外优良专业配音职员已达500多位,可供给一流的外语配音,长年服务于国内中心级各大媒体、各省市电台电视台,能满意不同客户的各种需要。电话:010-83265555   北京名传天下专业配音公司…
On: 03/20/21 07:00

meaningless marching orders for a thousand travellers ... strife ahead ..
(1 total trackbacks)
Tracked at Casual Blog
[...] RTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPL [...]
On: 07/17/17 04:28

a small explanation
(1 total trackbacks)
Tracked at yerba mate gourd
Find here top quality how to prepare yerba mate without a gourd that's available in addition at the best price. Get it now!
On: 07/09/17 03:07



DISCLAIMER
Allanspacer

THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.

Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:
  1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
  2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
  3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
  4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere
It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.


Copyright © 2004-2015 Domain Owner



GNU Terry Pratchett


Oh, and here's some kind of visitor flag counter thingy. Hey, all the cool blogs have one, so I should too. The Visitors Online thingy up at the top doesn't count anything, but it looks neat. It had better, since I paid actual money for it.
free counters