Now it’s Diana Rigg’s turn to shuffle off this mortal coil (or, as the title suggests: “another one bites the dust”). In an email to me, Mr. Free Market included this pic:
…and I’m fairly sure this would be how we all want to remember her.
R.I.P. to one of the classiest and sexiest Dames ever.
Your suggestions in Comments.
And yes, you can go there — just no death threats, please.
I see that some Black people want to start an all-Black community somewhere:
“We are dealing with systemic racism,” Scott wrote in an op-ed for Blavity last month. “We are dealing with deep-rooted issues that will require more than protesting in the streets. It’s now time for us to get our friends and family together and build for ourselves,” Walters, who serves as the president of the organization, said in an interview with Yahoo News. “That’s the only way we’ll be safe. And that’s the only way that this will work. We have to start bringing each other together. We really just want you to come and hang out and feel safe,” Walters said. “You don’t have to worry about the Karens of the world and anything like that. You just come in and have fun. We’ll have a sportsman area, like a Black sportsman area with fishing, hunting, shooting range, ATV trails. We really just want to build a tight-knit community for our people to just come and breathe.”
…
Scott said in the report that black Americans need to own land and create their own social, political, and economic institutions.
“Amass land, develop affordable housing for yourself, build your own food systems, build manufacturing and supply chains, build your own home school communities, build your own banks and credit unions, build your own cities, build your own police departments, tax yourselves and vote in a mayor and a city council you can trust,” Scott wrote. “Build it from scratch. Then go get all the money the United States of America has available for government entities and get them bonds. This is how we build our new Black Wall Streets. We can do this. We can have Wakanda! We just have to build it for ourselves!”
Let’s hope this is the start of a trend.
I know, this may sound strange coming from a lifelong and bitter opponent of apartheid. The fundamental difference between apartheid and this idea, however, is that apartheid was forced upon people by government policy. This, however, is a bunch of people who want to band together — a natural right of free individuals, as enumerated in the First Amendment.
And I want it to work — I really do.
However, not only have I seen this fail elsewhere in the world, but we have ample evidence right here in the U.S. to suggest that even with all these good intentions, it’s likely to fail here too. But hey: if it worked for the Mormons in Utah, who’s to say that it wouldn’t work in Georgia — if the right people get to congregate according to this plan.
Good for them, say I. Just as long as they don’t expect too much help from government — because that, you see, would be un-Constitutional.
Earlier this week I went off to the range to finish sighting in the Ultimate Long-Distance Rifle:
I’d zeroed the thing at 100 yards (just to “put it on paper”), so now I was making the final adjustments to give it a 200-yard zero, and also checking to see which ammo it “prefers” (between the Federal “Non-Typical” Whitetail Softpoint 180gr and the Winchester SuperX Powerpoint 180gr).
The ammo part first: on this day, under these conditions, using this gun, fired by Your Humble Narrator, the Federal stuff (my “premium” choice) was a bust. I couldn’t get anything like the accuracy I got from the Winchester loads in the first couple of targets, and so I only fired five rounds into the target below (the last five rounds in the box). It’s not bad ammo, of course: but under all the above conditions, it wasn’t as good as the SuperX.
Next, I adjusted the Zeiss up 2 inches, and used a point-of-aim a little below the target bull, trying to land the bullets into the bull using a “hold-under”. (I know, it’s a little wonky as techniques go, but it’s how I do this kind of thing, and it seems to work for me.)
Here’s a pic of the last targets I shot, suitably annotated, at 100 yards distance:
The bottom four smaller targets may require a little explanation. Generally, once I think I’ve zeroed the scope/rifle combination to my satisfaction, I throw caution to the winds — all that precision stuff makes my head ache after a couple hours’ hard concentration — and I go for a “rapid” fire string — one bullet per target, holding on the bull because it’s just easier to acquire it when you’re shooting and working the bolt as quickly as you can. From a precision perspective, it sucks — but as preparation for hunting, it’s pretty cool practice, and it’s always worked for me. Also, I dialed the magnification down from 24x to 10x, to give me a wider field of vision and help me reacquire the target more quickly.
One last thing: all these shots were fired through a “dirty” barrel — I’d already put thirty rounds through the gun while shooting at the previous targets, I was running short on time, and the range doesn’t allow cleaning of guns in the bay anyway. Gotta say: that’s a pretty decent result, all things considered. Oh, and I did allow the barrel to cool between target strings, except of course for the last four rounds fired. (The flier in the central group was caused by the guy in the next bay letting off a round a split-second before I did.)
Okay, folks: that’s about as much as my fading skills will allow me to zero the thing. Over the weekend I’ll have the draw, and announce the winner next Monday, Sep 14 at 1700h Central.
The ULD Rifle will be shipped on Tuesday morning first thing.
Note: I’d planned on also testing Sellier & Bellot ammo as well, but the cartridges set off the range’s magnetometer, indicating doubleplusungood steel somewhere in the boolet; so, no S&B on this day.
Because Mr. Free Market is a Foul Evil BastardTM, he decided to send me a few scenic pics from his current sooper-seekrit location in Scottishland. Here’s the general milieu (note the complete absence of freezing rain, for the first time ever in this event I’m told):
(Note that Mr. FM is not wearing a face condom, despite Scottish law.)
Then it’s off to the “boxes”:
Note the careful arranging of reloads in pairs, ready for the old Load & Slaughter routine in his Beretta O/U (gawd help us, but the man has such terrible taste in shotguns).
The group shot down several hundred grouse and partridge, but here’s a pic of one brace, taken by Mr. FM with a single barrel.
When I say “taken”, I mean “shot”, of course, not clubbed out of the sky with his shotgun (which would be poor form, of course).
I am so jealous I could spit.
Over at Insty’s place, there’s a post linking to a thing about the Marxists and the military, also containing the story of Gurgle censoring a blogger by hiding his site when you search for an article he wrote (specifically: “Under Obama, there came to be a cancer in the Pentagon” with the addition of his website: “site:bookwormroom.com” in the search string.
Under Gurgle, nada. Using DuckDuckGo, however:
Yup, it’s #1.
I don’t think I’ve used Gurgle for over two years, for just this reason.