News Roundup

All the news that’s fit to mock.


violence against men, however, is quite socially acceptable.


having raised toddlers myself, I want to hear Mom’s side of the story first before passing judgment.

Train Smash Update:


and the hits just keep on coming.


suggested new name:  West Washington Huns.


hey, look on the bright side:  he could have been watching CNN.


Great Midas’s bleeding hemorrhoids, they’re not competent at anything, let alone spending money.


women only hate getting a “facial” for the delivery process.


they’re refusing to lose their income stream from selling permits.


me, too.  Overwrought, pretentious and cheesy, and let’s not even talk about the music.

From the Dept. of Covidiocy:


I must admit that after hearing it several times a day, “Why is Walt Disney World so fucking expensive?” must get quite tiresome.

And now comes the time for INSIGNIFICA:

 

I’ve just figured out a retirement plan:  run for TexGov as a centrist Democrat, raise millions, and when I lose bigly, retire to a farm somewhere in the boonies to live off the remainder of my campaign funds.

Time for the mandatory street totty pics:

 

 

From The Mailbox

I like getting letters such as this one from Longtime Reader Topcat1957:

I don’t know if you’re a knife guy (besides the obligatory Fairbairn-Sykes Fighting knife, which all men with chests need), but here are a couple of mine from a S’Affrikin maker, Arno Bernard. Good bunch of guys putting out quality knives. A little pricey, but worth the money, I reckon.

The top one is a handy little field knife (Fin and Feather) with African blackwood and warthog tusk scales. I don’t hunt anything bigger than quail anymore, and only fish for brook trout, but this will make short work of both.
The bottom one is a small utility knife, also finished in warthog tusk.

Great Vulcan’s testicles, but those are exquisite.  I had no idea that warthog tusks made such lovely handles [makes note to ask Doc Russia and Mr. Free Market to get me a couple on their next African safari together].

I am not really a “knife” man — I own barely more than three dozen in total, and only a couple thereof are of comparable beauty/value withal — for the simple reason that I regard knives (even more than guns) as tools.  As such, I use them and wear them out.

Yes, I do have a couple decent ones, such as the Big Guys:

…the Little Guys:

…and what I refer to as the “Working Class”:

…along with sundry bayonets, pen knives and utility knives.

But none of them even begins to compare with Topcat’s two.  Hell, even the elephant-hide sheath for his little knife is sublime.

I welcome all similar offerings from my Readers on their fine cutlery…

First, McVeigh

…and now this asshole:

On Jan. 12, the Del City Police Department received an intelligence bulletin about someone making threats to blow up the Occupational Safety and Health Administration building in Oklahoma City.
Investigators learned that the man said he was going to rent a truck, fill it with gasoline, blow up the building, and then take his own life.

As an impartial observer, I should note that it doesn’t seem like Oklahoma City is the prime location for gummint offices, does it?  (I know, we shouldn’t have so many gummint offices in the first place [/Andrew Jackson].)

Officials say Moore threatened the OSHA because he didn’t agree with the agency’s guidelines regarding COVID vaccinations or face coverings.

Seems a kinda strong response just for “disagreement”, I have to say;  so 10-to-1 says this Covid bullshit was threatening his livelihood.

Or else he’s just a radical libertarian.

Branch Line

Running off at a tangent from yesterday’s train of thought (about simpler cars), I need to add the following.

As Longtime Readers know well, I’ve always preferred simple, reliable guns such as  Mausers and AK-47s:

…over the vajazzled option-heavy tricked-up “operator” guns that all the cool kids are buying these days.

So needless to say, when the Great Day Of The Barricades finally comes, you’ll most likely find me lying dead on the ground with an AK-47 clutched in my cold dead hands, with a cherry-red barrel, smoking handguard and an absolute shit ton of slowly-cooling brass lying around me.

Next to me will be some amateur “operator” also dead on the ground, clutching his Mattel gun with lights, cameras, red-dot sights etc., but only half a mag of brass lying next to his corpse, because that was all he managed to get off before his supergun malfunctioned.

I’m not saying that this is the way I’d prefer to draw my last breath, of course, but under extreme circumstances (like this:  45% of Democrats want the unvaccinated sent to internment camps), it’s certainly better than the alternative:

or:

Just sayin’.

Wot Abaht The Frogs?

…asks Reader Brad:

“You talk about VWs, Lancia, etc., all the time, but don’t seem to make much mention of what the Frogs created.”

..and then points me to this list.

Speaking frankly [sic],  the Frog cars are a classic case of where Gummint stuck its greedy fingers where they didn’t belong, i.e. by levying a tax on horsepower — the lowest tax being on engines generating (from memory) less than 15hp.  This meant that most passenger cars were perennially underpowered, despite the technological superiority that French car manufacturers had over most others in the world.  Now add the recent development of adding yet another layer to the puissance fiscale  (PF, or “power tax”) by incorporating a carbon dioxide emission multiplier:

PF = (CO₂/45) + (P/40)^1.6

where P is horsepower, and Frog cars are still underpowered except where they’re not, i.e. in rally-style cars or hot (and expensive) hatchbacks.  The giant Citroën DS’s engine, for example, never generated more than 100hp so despite the DS having the smoothest ride of any car (before and since), it was a lumbering beast whose 0-60mph time was measured by calendar rather than stopwatch.

For the most part, too, outside the luxury cars like the DS, French fit and finish have always been crappy, and the non-use of vulcanized steel meant that in a country which has wet, damp weather much of the time, you can hear the car rusting when you turn off the engine.  [some hyperbole there]

This does not mean that the French make lousy cars.  When they are allowed to, they make absolute monsters, such as the Peugot Le Mans sports cars which were Audi’s only serious competitors at that race during the mid-2000s:

…or the Matra-Simca race cars which so dominated sports car races in the early 1970s:

…or for that matter, the Renault F1 factory cars of the early 1980s:

…with their engines winning several drivers’ championshops for Williams (Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost etc.) in the early 1990s.

So what about the passenger cars?  Looking at the list above, there’s probably only one I’d take, the Venturi Atlantique 400 GT:

…because of its wonderful 1980s styling.  (Reader Brad lusts after the 1930s Delahaye 135MS, even though that long bonnet hides a 3.3-liter engine which produces only 110hp, i.e. <10 PF units):

However, my favorite French car of all time is the wonderfully old-fashioned Citroën Traction Avant:

Because if I’m going to drive around in an underpowered Frog passenger car (1900cc, 56hp, <4 CF units), I’ll take style and comfort as the benefits, thank you.  And put up with the  water leaking into the passenger compartment every time it rains — in true Gallic fashion, Citroën never fixed that problem, after making the TA for nearly a quarter of a century.

This car, by the way, is still the hands-down favorite choice in France as a bridal car.