Asked And Answered

Question:

“Interestingly, this very segment [White men] produces by far the most of our engineers, and judging by what we have accomplished, they have done a damn good job,” he said. “Why do these ideologues want to run them down?”

Answer:  It is precisely because White men have produced this long, storied list of achievements, and the social justice warriors haven’t (and can’t), is the reason why they seek to run us down.

It’s the politics of envy, pure and simple — pulling the outstanding back into the herd — and there’s no accommodating or reasoning with this mindset.  The sooner we all recognize this — and crush these pathetic fuckers wherever we can — the happier and more successful we all will be.

Using The Proper Method

Yesterday I renewed my Texas State Rifle Association (TSRA) membership — in fact, I “upgraded” to the 3-year package — and paid for it using my CitiBank credit card because Citi are a bunch of gun control-loving bastards.

Even better, I’m currently on a “lowered” promotional APR of 1.99%, so they get diddly out of this renewal except the transaction fee.

And as soon as my balance is paid off (before the expiration of the promotion period duh), out come the scissors.

Oh and by the way, it’s an “affinity” card with American Airlines so I get frequent flier miles with every purchase.  However, American now refuses to carry my (or anyone’s) shotguns and rifles when I fly over to the U.K., so fuck them too.

Quote Of The Day

From the (lamentably-furloughed) Diplomad:

The excuses for [Venezuela’s] collapse are numerous, and you can find them in the standard swampy media. My favorite is, of course, that Venezuela was done in by the “collapse” of oil prices: a stupid, lazy lie. According to OPEC data, the average price of a barrel of oil in 1999, the year Chavez took power, was $17.44; the price of oil today is over $68. Only in prog world can that be a collapse. Furthermore, at no time since 1999, has oil gone below the price it was in 1999. During the entire Chavez-Maduro disaster, oil stayed well above the 1999 price.

Of course, the fact that stupid people like Oliver Stone and Sean Penn as well as the evil, self-styled “democratic socialists” like Corbyn and The Bern love this style of government should be proof enough that the whole idea sucks, but there you have it.

Fresh Look: .327 Federal Magnum

The .327 Federal Magnum cartridge was introduced to the market back when I was about to quit take a break from blogging, so I never got to try it out for myself.  However, following a link from Bill Quick (who is unconvinced about the .327, mind you), I got this information about it:

The 100-grain Speer Gold Dot load for the .327 Federal Magnum will penetrate more than 16 inches in 10-percent ordnance gelatin and expand with a frontal diameter of almost a full half-inch. The DoubleTap 75-grain TAC XP load will penetrate almost as deep and expand almost as wide but will do so with less than .38 Spl. recoil. It has lightning-like velocity, even from short-barreled revolvers. The 130-grain hardcast load from Buffalo Bore Ammunition is even suitable for bear defense. You can expect almost 3 feet of penetration from this hard-hitting, powerhouse, .32-caliber load.

And:

When you compare a .357 Mag. load that will deliver the same level of terminal performance as the .327 Federal Magnum, you’ll find it does so with about a 50 percent increase in recoil. The .327 Federal Magnum performs so well because it operates at a higher pressure than the .357 Mag.—45,000 psi as opposed to 35,000 psi. But recoil is reduced because it fires smaller diameter and slightly lighter bullets. The .357 Mag. is a great cartridge, but with 125-grain bullets, the .327 Federal Magnum can match its velocity and terminal performance without the wrist-twisting crunch.

And finally:

The true beauty of the .327 Federal Magnum is its ability to fire four other cartridges. You can shoot .32 ACP, .32 Long, .32 Short and .32 H&R Mag. ammunition in any .327 Federal Magnum revolver.

To me, that’s quite compelling.  So why isn’t the .327 flying off the shelves?

That’s from CheaperThanDirt.  And there’s not much else out there.  Worst of all, nobody seems to be offering cheap practice ammo in .327 FedMag, only the spendy self-defense loads.  And yes, the other .32 loads are out there, but they’re not that cheap to shoot either.

It’s even worse when you look at guns to shoot this stuff.  Here are the Ruger LCR and LCRx which are nice, but weenies:

and the tried-and-tested SP101 (one of my favorite revolvers of all time):

…and that’s it.  Nothing else with a longer barrel, and neither S&W nor Taurus list any revolvers chambered for the .327 FedMag, which means that aside from the SP101, the .327 is doomed to be limited to the backup role only.  Seems a waste, in my opinion.

That said:  as Henry is now making their Big Boy lever carbine and rifle in .327 FedMag:

 

…I might be persuaded to get a Henry and SP101 as a rifle/pistol combo, but only if someone starts making practice .327 ammo*.

Anyone from Winchester, CCI/Speer, UMC or the big reloaders listening?  Otherwise, I’d just go with the same guns chambered in .357 WinMag, and be with Quick in the “Undecided” column when it comes to the .327 FedMag.


*I’m not about to start reloading, so don’t even go there.

Laziness, Or What?

Yesterday I lazed away the entire morning in bed, snoozing, catching up on a few old favorite websites, reading the news and watching a couple of stupid YouTube videos — you know, just yer everyday laziness.  I did have a couple chores to run, but none were critical so I kept putting them off till later until pretty much the whole day had passed by.

I’d like to say I felt guilty about it all, but I didn’t;  and when during a rare moment of introspection I paused to wonder why not, I realized that I am retired, and I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to.

As I said, I don’t feel guilty about this, at all.  And the corollary thought came to me that this guilt (that I didn’t feel) is probably caused by the fact that everyone has to be busy these days:  that inactivity is seen as a Bad Thing, or Laziness, and that I should be more like those old fools who spend their retirement walking in the Andes or going on adventures in the Amazon, or (eek) bicycling across Siberia or some equally-foolish nonsense.  Good grief, even camping makes me feel jittery.  I don’t do the latter because I did enough when I was in the Army, and even if someone did force me to do it, my reaction might be to equip myself with something like this:

Note the rain shield, the wooden floor (elevated so you don’t have to walk on the dirt, and so that any rain will drain away outside the tent) and so on.  On the other hand, there’s even a word for this: glamping (glamorous + camping), which is such a precious term I would not only not do it myself, but I’d punch someone in the face who boasted about having done it.

If you want to really rough it, stay at a Motel 6 in some small country town.  That’s about as far as I’ll take it.

But let me drag myself back to the original topic.

I don’t have any problem at all with a life of idleness after retirement.  I’ve worked fucking hard my whole life — even my hobbies, like paying in a band, were strenuous.  (Yeah, driving miles to a gig, setting up all the gear, playing like maniacs for five hours, then, when all the partygoers have gone home to bed, having to pack the gear back up, drive back to town and unload it all into the storage locker to be ready for the next practice — it’s not all fun fun fun.)  And as for my jobs:  stress, long hours, massive responsibility, brain-draining calculations and study — it’s a wonder I survived to age fifty, let alone halfway into my sixties.

So now I prefer to live a life of quiet contemplation and idleness — reading books (not too challenging, because I don’t want to overload my already-overworked brain), shouting at the TV, writing this blog and in all senses of the word, letting my life slow to a crawl before old age stops it altogether.  (I know, there’s that Uber nonsense that I do, but it’s manageable and I do it on my own terms anyway in order to fund good things like travel, fine food, single-malt Scotch and, very occasionally, a decent gun.)  I have my friends and family, and all of them know this about me because I’ve told them, in no uncertain terms.

As for the rest of it, it can all drift away on the tides of my indifference because I just don’t care a fig about it anymore.  All I’m looking forward to is annoying my kids when and if they present me with grandchildren to spoil — and if they don’t, c’est la vie.

It’s called Splendid Fucking Isolation.

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go out for some breakfast.  I’m lazy, but not that lazy.