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Well, Now

Health, Plagues and Poxes

…are we heading back to the 1980s, pox-wise?

The world faces a monkeypox pandemic — said pandemic having originated not in Wuhan this time, but in Africa, the traditional ground zero for most shitty modern-day plagues and illnesses — such as HIV/AIDS.

But wait! there’s more!  Let’s look at the breadcrumbs:

The U.K.´s Health Security Agency said Monday there were now 470 cases of monkeypox across the country, with the vast majority in gay or bisexual men.  According to U.K. data, 99% of the cases so far have been in men and most are in London.

…and:

First monkeypox patient to go public is a gay HR manager from London who was deported from Dubai just weeks ago for testing positive for HIV

…and:

American man, 48, vacationing at a Mexican resort for gay men fled a Puerto Vallarta hospital after being told that he might have monkeypox: He flew to Texas where he tested positive for the highly infectious virus

Of course (just as with AIDS), there’s the obligatory warning for heterosexuals:

Scientists warn that anyone, regardless of sexual orientation, is susceptible to catching monkeypox if they are in close, physical contact with an infected person or their clothing or bed sheets.

…which is true, of course, but unless you’ve been sleeping in some fegelah‘s unwashed sheets or snogging his boyfriend, your chances of catching this latest little present from Africa seem to be remote.

And of course, the CDC is ever ready to play its part in this maskirovka, putting out a pamphlet like this one, which depicts (surprise!) a hetero couple and not someone from Greenwich Village.

Even our old ‘Rona friend, the oh-so scientific (not) “6 feet apart” rule, has made a comeback.

What a load of crock.  Needless to say, the Covidocrats are just itching [sic]  for some new pretense to lock us all down again, but it ain’t gonna work this time.

3 Inexplicable Things

3 Inexplicable Things, Gratuitous Chick Pics

…in this case, three older women I still have impure thoughts about:

Caroline Quentin (64)

Never a great looker, but for some reason I always had a thing for her, starting with Jonathan Creek all the way through Blue Murder.  And she’s never let her dumpy figure get in the way of her career, or self-esteem. My kinda gal.

Jean Smart (71)

Fell in love with her during the Designing Women  days, never lost it.  One of the sexiest voices of all time, and even though she’s from Seattle, she speaks Dixie with the best of them.  And she inhabits every role she plays, ergo  all those acting awards.  The interesting thing is that she never really got to play the leading-lady femme-fatale  romantic roles, probably because at 5’11”, she towers over most Hollywood actors, and casting directors are morons.

And last, but by no means least:

Rita Wilson (66)

Yeah, Tom Hanks’s old lady.  Always had a slight thing for Greek chicks… and let’s not forget the freckled boob thing.

Pronouns

Grammar Nazism, Gratuitous Chick Pics

Read these two headlines — the first using standard pronoun terminology, the second the woke version — and see which one is more comprehensible.

So… being sexually exploited caused Doug Hutchison to get breast implants too?  I am SO confused…

Here are the objects in question, by the way:

I report, you decide.

Gratuitous Gun Pic: Savage Mod 99 (.250 Savage)

Gratuitous Gun Pics

Of course, the idea of an old Model 99 selling for well north of six grand is preposterous… until you see this one:

I mean, seriously?

 

I know, the silly price really reflects the added cost of the engraving (none of your laser-cut nonsense here), and as far as I’m concerned, transforming this lovely old rifle into a work of art is a Good Thing, akin to any similar improvement made to a decent old shotgun, for instance.

The only iffy thing about this rig is the scope, which I’d replace with something more fitting, such as this Leica.

On to practical matters.  First, the chambering.  I’ve owned and/or shot many Savage 99s, in the above .250 Savage (a.k.a. the .250-3000), in .243 Win, in .300 Savage and in .308 Win.

The .308 was a brute, and hurt my shoulder like hell (Savage 99s have a very slender buttstock) and ditto the .300 Savage, albeit to a lesser degree.  The .243 Win was nice, but of all of them, the .250 Savage was an absolute joy to shoot, and it’s the only chambering I’d consider now.  It’s also fast, deadly and wonderfully accurate.

Secondly, the full (Mannlicher) stock.  Savage barrels are not heavy, to put it mildly;  the Model 99 was designed as a light carry gun, to be used when there were miles of stalking involved in the hunt, or where portability was at a premium, e.g. in hilly- or densely-forested terrain.  So after a few shots — maybe a magazine load or so — the “soda-straw” barrel tends to start whipping around from the heat.  While the full stock would not help the barrel to cool down (the opposite, in fact), I can’t help but think that the wood could also brace the barrel as it heated up.

None of which is important, really.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Mannlicher stock on a Model 99, and I’ve certainly never seen one so beautifully engraved.

Want.

‘Twas Ever Thus

Technology

Via Ace:

  • A non-Apple hardware site reviews Apple’s Mac Studio. (Hot Hardware)They do like it, but if you go to page two you can see a PC configured at the same $2000 price point simply wipes the floor with the Mac. Yes, the Mac Studio is small and elegant and quiet and sips power, but it’s fast only in two specific cases: When compared with out-of-date Apple hardware, and when tested on Apple proprietary video codecs.

Yeah, Apple has always tilted the playing field when it comes to processing speed and overall performance.

I’ll never forget being the only PC user in a Mac-obsessed company (I should have known about that before I joined, because it was an IT company).  Time after time I’d send a data report to someone, only to be told that their little Mac toy had choked on all the data — and this was when I was using a PC 386 with a 450MB hard drive, FFS.

Right now, of course, I could probably get away with using a Mac, seeing as most of what I do is this blog and searching for guns, smut and cars on Teh Intarwebz, but I’m too old and impatient to change.  (And for those who think I hate Apple unreasonably, allow me to point out that my very first personal computer was an Apple IIe — then the top of the line — and it couldn’t handle even one of my small spreadsheets — in VisiCalc — without choking.  As soon as I could, I swapped it for an IBM PC — yes, pre-AT even — and it handled the same spreadsheet without blinking.  I never went back.)

That disparity in performance has never changed.