Month: May 2019

At Last, The End

Entertainment

So the interminably-horrible Game Of Thrones  TV show has ended.  Hoo-fucking-ray.

Watched the very first few episodes because the Son&Heir (who had read all the books) said I should, then walked away when Sean Bean was killed — I knew even back then that a writer who slaughters the main characters in his story has only contempt for his readers, and so it proved.

Good riddance.  But hey, don’t take my word for it;  try this bloke’s take on the final episode (if you care):

This whole pitiful spectacle couldn’t have been more stultifying if it had opened with the words, ‘This is a party political broadcast on behalf of the Liberal Democrats of Westeros’. The problem was that Game of Thrones, once so irreverent and mercurial, started to believe its own press releases. After winning more Emmys than any series in history, it imagined it was Great Art. Since its first episode in 2011, which stunned viewers with two electrifying shocks in the final scene, the show has killed off more than 100 characters, not to mention countless thousands of serfs and nameless soldiers – and never paused to regret a single one of them. But that psychopathic streak was forgotten yesterday, as the handful of survivors moped around the city of King’s Landing to a soundtrack of sad cello music.

Sometimes when one has seen an especially-bad movie (e.g. Lord Of The Rings trilogy), one demands a return of those hours of wasted life.  Imagine what one would feel after eight seasons of this shit…

Which reminds me:  I need to call the Son&Heir and mock him.

Major Affront, Meet Corporal Punishment

Crime

I think what pisses me off most about modern-day “petty” crime is not the robbery of cell phones from people’s hands, or the theft of cars for the sake of a “joyride”, or even the painting of graffiti on walls — although each one in its own way renders me irritated beyond belief.  Try these “petty” crimes, however, and see how they make you feel:

Arsonists destroy 250-year-old oak tree that has stood since George II was on the throne

Hunt for yobs who vandalised model town and brutally kicked a cat in the head as they made their escape

Mindless vandals wreck a charity model railway show

Correction to that last piece:  they’re not mindless;  they’re amoral, antisocial and spiteful, and their vile actions are those of childish anarchists.

Unlike a lot of people (especially on this website), I don’t think these little shits should go to prison for these crimes — although there’s a lot to be said for taking them out of society for a while.

What’s needed here is for these childish hooligans to be treated like children — but not in the modern manner of making them sit in the Penalty Corner or “grounding” them (whatever that means).

Prison’s too much punishment, they (usually) have no money to pay restitution, and “community service” is a fucking joke when by their actions they have demonstrated that they have no ties to the community whatsoever.

No.  We need to bring back flogging, because that ancient punishment is precisely what these kinds of actions call for.  We need to catch these assholes, make sure they’re guilty (of course), and then immediately  after sentencing lead them off to a punishment cell where they can be given ten lashes with a heavy cane.  (And for the feministicals:  female miscreants of this nature, although much rarer than their male counterparts, should get the same punishment, except with a light  cane.  Feel free to insist on equality for the womyns, however;  I’m not feeling too charitable at the moment.)

I know, corporal punishment is supposed to be barbaric and all that.  Remember, though, that the reason that these horrible people are called “vandals” is because their behavior is of a kind with the ancient and barbaric tribe named Vandals — and we should punish them accordingly.

The hell with them.

Slight Disagreement

Gratuitous Gun Pics, The Gun Thing

Over at Shooter’s Log, Bob Campbell has some good things to say about CZ’s little model 527:

One of the neatest and classiest rifles of all time is ignored by many shooters. When I fire the CZ 527, I am not concerned with getting off the X or engaging the target in enfilade fire, but rather in hitting what I am aiming at, and getting a clean kill and meat. Not that the rifle would not serve in many situations, but this European stalker is a purebred stalking rifle with many good features. The rifle is a product of CZ and available from CZ USA. They were once marked BRNO. The CZ 527 is a light, neat looking, and effective rifle that will not strain the back with weight or the shoulder with recoil. The price is right as well.

Then he goes on to give his reasons.

The only quibble I have with the article is the title (“CZ’s Best Rifle”) because it isn’t CZ/Brno’s best rifle, by a long chalk — not when put up against the 550/557 or the peerless “Safari” (Brno 602), anyway.

That said:  I love the 527 carbine, and have said so in the past.  For its purpose, it is horrendously over-engineered (that CZ set trigger ooooh ), surprisingly inexpensive thereby and frankly, about as handy as a rifle could be.

In fact, given that it’s chambered for the 7.62x39mm Commie cartridge (of which I may have a box or two lying around), I see little need to own a lever-action rifle for the “carbine hunting” purpose.  New, it’s quite a bit pricier (at ~$650) than, say, a Marlin 336 .30-30 lever rifle (~$450), but then again, I wouldn’t have to spend (at least) $1,400 more to get the requisite thousand rounds of .30-30 (of which I own not a single cartridge) into Ye Olde Ammoe Locquer.  All I need is a few boxes of serious 7.62×39 hollowpoints (e.g. Hornady SST or Federal Fusion), and I’d be good to go.

I think I need to reinstate the old BANG* Fund on this website… about which I have an idea, but that’s for another post later this week.

*BANG:  “Buy (Kim) A New Gun”

 

 

Food For Thought

Good Stuff

One of the reasons I love reading C.W. Swanson’s excellent Timewaster  blog is that one many occasions, the pictures evoke a tangential thought from me.  Here’s one:

And I agree that it’s disgusting.  That fine machine gun needs to be mounted on a full-sized Murkin Ford F-150, not that lil’ Jap thing.

Here’s another:

I mean, that’s a pretty picture, for sure.  But am I the only one who thinks that nickel-plating the utilitarian Ruger SP101 is akin to gold-plating a Willys Jeep?

I think I’ve said before that I know a man who has nearly a dozen SP101 revolvers scattered around his domain:  bedroom, bathroom, toilet (!), garage, toolbox, glove box, basement, hall closet and what have you.  When I asked him why, his response was simple:  “They’ll always work, even if I haven’t cleaned them for five years.  And some of ’em, I haven’t.”

Can you imagine that shiny SP101 in a rusty, grungy old tackle box?

Unexpectedly

Military

So let me make sure I’ve got this right:  you force a bunch of twentysomethings of both sexes to live together in cramped quarters, and are then surprised when the young men set up a “hit parade” of the women’s bonkworthiness?  Only in Today’s Navy.

Sailors on a US Navy submarine were said to have created a ‘rape list’ ranking their 32 female crew mates and listing sexually-explicit comments by their names, according to a military investigation.
The ‘rape list’ was said to have been shared by some sailors on the gold crew of the USS Florida, an Ohio-class cruise missile submarine that was the second to integrate enlisted women into its two crews in 2016.
According to an investigation, the list was said to be circulating among men on the gold crew. Two versions of the list existed, one which ranked female crew members on a star system and the second which added sexually-explicit comments to those rankings.

Oooohhhh the Shock & Horror that such a thing could happen.

I would put serious money on the possibility that the female sailors had a “Fuck / Marry /  Kill” list of the men, but of course that would never be punished because feminism.  (“If we do it, it’s a bit of harmless fun;  when men do it, it’s rape culture / oppressive patriarchy etc.”)

Here’s another thing to consider.  Any disciplinary action following from this silliness (because that’s what it is) is not going to put an end to this, either.  If the Navy wants to solve this problem for good, go back to male-only submarine crews (and surface ships too, but that’s a topic for another time).  Otherwise, reap what has been sown, and suck on it.  I see no good outcome from this.