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Getting Rid Of The Burden

Bad News, Business, Economics

Salma Zito has done it again:

Café Raymond is a favorite destination and, as usual, both floors, the balcony and the sidewalk tables at the diner are packed with patrons.

None of the people waiting for his signature stack of ricotta pancakes stuffed with blueberries, his home-cured smoked salmon and caper platter or his savory sunny-side-up egg and brisket hash have any idea the man behind the kitchen counter — Ray Mikesell — has placed his beloved restaurant up for sale. He’s calling it quits two decades after he returned home from Baltimore to raise his children and carve out a life in Pittsburgh.

Through tears he says he simply has had enough — not of his customers, not of creating new dishes or specialized drinks, but of all the uncertainty that has dogged nearly every small businessman in the country since the beginning of the pandemic.

“It started with COVID and just over time, the uncertainty, the stress of trying to stay open, the inability to hire people, the underlying tension in society, the inflationary cost of everything you need to purchase to create quality food, that is, if you can get it…” he says, his voice trailing. He stops and pauses to hold it together.

The food costs are crushing him, he said, but so is the cost of doing business, period. His utility bills have skyrocketed, as has the cost of fuel to pick up fresh meats and vegetables from local farms or to deliver food for catering jobs. The costs are crippling, he says, and they are creating a barrier to investing in a business he has loved for so long.

“It just breaks you down no matter how strong you are,” said Mr. Mikesell.

Here’s my take on this.  Every time a politician says he cares about small businesses and their owners, he’s lying in his teeth.

This new crowd of socialists (including, alas, the Socialist Lite Republicans) absolutely loathe small, successful businesses, for the same reason they hate people owning cars: having your own car gives you freedom of movement, and your own business makes you part of a community, a community that binds you to itself because they now have the freedom to decide when, where and what they want to eat, and not have to go at specific times to a dreary commissariat like the hapless Winston Smith in Orwell’s 1984, and be fed the same slop and gruel as everyone else.

And the government absolutely hates that you have those freedoms.

If that’s not the case, please then explain to me why commuter and passenger rail systems are so popular with neo-socialist governments and why, when businesses like that of Ray Mikesell experience the same ghastly misfortunes (created, it must be said, by government), the government policy does absolutely nothing to help those businesses except by ladling out one-time, piddly subsistence-level “incentives” instead of addressing the main issues that cripple both the businesses and their customers:  soaring inflation (created by the government printing too much money), high fuel prices (even though we are the most self-sufficient energy-producing nation on Earth), the double whammy of ever-higher food prices and shortages (in America!!!), and logistical / transport operations that are crippled by (all together now) government regulations.

I know that anecdotes are not data — except that they are, when the owner of a business like Café Raymond is not a statistical outlier, but just one of tens of thousands in a similar or worse predicament.

Explain to me why Ray Mikesell, and all those other business owners, should not just quit and go somewhere else.  Explain also why the millions of ordinary people who are affected by the closing of small businesses and their own personal misfortunes should not be heating barrels of tar, oiling ropes, and loading up their semiautomatic sporting rifles.

But then we’re the bad guys.  Yeah, right.

Old Times, Good Times

Gratuitous Chick Pics

Here’s a heartbreaker:

Fern Britton’s ex-husband Phil Vickery was seen kissing her best friend in the street in new images taken leaving a fancy London hotel on Wednesday.

The TV chef, 61, was pictured passionately kissing Lorraine Stanton, 58, who has been close friends with presenter Fern for years, in pictures obtained by The Sun.

According to the publication, the new couple were on a date and were seen leaving the hotel together with overnight bags in their hands.

Some “date”.

As these two people are somewhat obscure Brit TV celebrities (certainly very few of my Murkin Readers will know who they are), here’s a pic of Fern ‘n Phil in happier times:

...much happier times:

And Fern, in the same photoshoot:

But let me not be unkind.  She has lost a lot of that weight, recently:

Not at all bad for 65…

News Roundup

Bad News

Brought to you by our all-vegan sponsors:

So let’s skin it and wring it with some news:

From the Disaster Department (Florida Division):


...everybody panic!


...the FuturePOTUS shouldn’t have bothered.

In Italy:


...good thing they voted for her and not him, then.

And then there’s this, which might be a little more important:


...let’s hope she does.


...actually, that’s not bad advice.  I’m assuming the soldiers don’t have any clotting salve because Russia.


...as long as they swap them, one for one, with convicted Mexican criminal child molesters, then fine.


…the more science progresses, the closer it comes to magic.

From the Furrin Travel Department:


...as long as you want to visit Airstrip One, with their ubiquitous telescreens, $20 pints and non-existent crime, that is.  Oh, wait:


...having solved all other crimes, they can afford to do this.  Oh, wait:


...and of course, no guns or rights to self defense for you.  They, however, will be carrying Glocks, knives and machetes.  Also:


...so much for that tour of the UK, then.  And:


...yup:  never a better time.

Back on this side of The Pond:


...I suspect the “zero tourists” thing may have had something to do with it.


...but what if the FBI was responsible for the breach?  Asking for a friend.


...headline edited for clarity.


...which never existed anyway, except in Nancy Pelosi’s wet dream.


...remember Kim’s 7th Law:  no cameras in the bedroom, ever.

And from the bowels of INSIGNIFICA:

  …say okay, then ban her from the party.

And finally:


...perhaps if you dressed with just a tad more modesty, sweetie…?

And the pics in question:

I have no idea who this tartlette is, of course, and I suspect that the same may be true for many of my Readers.  So what follows is purely for educational purposes, of course:

 

 

Just your standard Hollywood skinny, then.

And so much for the news.

Another Take On The New High Power

Gratuitous Gun Pics, Gun/Ammo Tests

Some time back I looked at the new replacements for the John Moses Browning/Dieudonné Saive P35 High Power from Springfield and EAA Girsan.

At the time, I was unaware that FN Herstal had made plans for their own replacement for the older P35, which, as Ian McCollum pointed out in his latest video on the topic, makes all sorts of sense for FN, in that it makes manufacturing less costly and more modern, and gives FN a platform for future generations of their 9mm handgun.  (It would help if you watched Ian’s as-always immensely knowledgeable analysis of the new High Power compared to the older P35.)

Here’s my take after watching Ian’s video:  I hate the new gun with a passion.  Here’s why.  (To avoid confusion, I’m going to refer to the new FN gun as the High Power, and the older version as the P35.)

The new High Power is big and blocky, with an oversized grip and all sorts of changes to the P35’s disassembly process.  Myself, I have never had a problem in taking the P35 apart, mostly because the process is a lot less fiddly than the (also-Browning-designed) Colt 1911.  The P35’s appeal to me has always been its sexiness — that slim profile is gorgeous, it prints less in a carry holster, and mine works very well — admittedly, after a fair amount of improvement by a master gunsmith (and a reworked hammer to avoid the infamous P35 hammer bite).

I don’t care that the High Power now has a larger ammo capacity (18 vs. 13/15 rounds), because 13 rounds has always served me just fine;  I’m not some SpecOps or SWAT guy, just a civilian who has always loved the P35 for all the reasons stated above.

And by the way:  the High Power now has a longer (plastic ???!!!) guide rod, which means that the once-closed front end of the slide now has an ugly great hole to accommodate the longer guide rod (and did I mention it’s made of plastic?).

My knock on the old P35 has always been that it should been built to handle the .45 ACP cartridge.  My suspicion is that the bigger High Power will easily do so — and mark my words, I bet that FN will soon release a .45 ACP version of the High Power.

Anyway, Ian takes the new gun for a spin, and it feeds all sorts of ammo flawlessly — although I note that he didn’t shoot any +P loads.  My guess is that the High Power should handle them with ease — not always the case with the P35, or at least my P35.

Now I want you all to know that my dislike for the new FN is not rooted in my well-documented dislike of modern stuff.  I just don’t think the new High Power is a proper Browning High Power, but rather a “re-imagining” (their word)  of JMB/DS’s 1935 design.  Which is fine, but they should have called it something else.  And did I already say that the new gun is fugly?

Pass.

If I were to replace my P35 with a new-model 9mm pistol, I’d rather get a SIG 210-9:

 

…or else a new-manufacture CZ 75 B:

…or I’d just get a new Springfield SA-35 clone, and be satisfied:

I don’t just buy guns because they can shoot well.  If I did, I’d just buy a frigging fugly Glock.  No, a gun has to be beautiful, and sexy, and fit my hand, and… and… well, you should know the rest by now.

Your opinions, of course, may vary.  (I should point out that Ian, even though he likes the new HP, is quite sympathetic towards people of my ilk, as you can see in the first video.)