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Tragedy, Repeated

Disaster, Eco-Crap, Freaks & Loonies, Lies and Untruths, Two-Minute Hate

While we all feel for the folks in Oz whose environment is being set to BROIL, it’s worth noting that many of their problems have been caused by the same people as the California genus:

But let us not allow the heartbreak and the emotion to distract us from the truth about this natural disaster: it has nothing whatsoever to do with ‘climate change’.
…[charts and graphs etc]…
So, to be clear, there is zero evidence of any change in climatic conditions that might have increased the likelihood or severity of these bush fires. This is not — repeat NOT — a man-made climate change story, and anyone who claims otherwise is either a gullible idiot or a lying charlatan.
There is, nonetheless, good reason to believe that the stupidity and irresponsibility of man is at least partly to blame for this disaster — just not quite in the way that the left-liberal MSM and the green wankerati would have you believe.

Read the article for the full story, but if you have insufficient time, here’s the executive summary:

Animal-worshipers, Greens and pyromaniacs.  Just like in California.

I feel the need for mass whippings, hangings etc. starting to build… but no doubt someone’s going to have  problem with this.

The Ultimate Long-Distance Rifle

Good Stuff, The Gun Thing

As I posted yesterday, I’m going to be setting up a fund to buy and then ship a high-quality long-distance rifle and scope to some lucky guy.  Here are the details (and if you enter, please follow them faithfully):

  1. You can only make one $40* donation per household, and only $40.  More than $40, and I’ll send the surplus to Greenpeace.  Believe me on this.  If you send me two checks, one for yourself and one for your “brother”, the checks had better be in two different names and addresses, or the second goes to Greenpeace.  Husband & wife get no exception.  One entry per household.  Don’t test me.
  2. Checks or money orders only, with your current address listed — I need the paper trail — to the sooper-seekrit mailing address (6009 W. Parker Rd #149-141, Plano TX 75093), made out to Kim du Toit.  Make sure the “Note” on the check says ULD Rifle 2020 and your website ID (if you have one) so I know it’s for the rifle and not just a donation.  By sending me a check, you agree that I can publish your name / ID (but not address) as the winner.
  3. The drawing will be notarized, i.e. performed by a third party and witnessed by a notary public or some such official, to keep this kosher and the ATF happy.
  4. I get to pick the rifle, and the scope — and what I get will depend on how much I get in donations.  The winner gets what I picked out, and no whimpering or complaining.  (Sheesh… you’ll be getting a fine long-distance setup for $40.)
  5. It will be chambered in .3x caliber, so that I can get better results past the 400-yard mark (from experience, the smaller 6.5x55mm bullet gets blown around a little too much for consistent accuracy at 400+ distances — and the wind always  blows at Boomershoot).  It will most likely be in .308 Win or thereabouts, but I’m not ruling out .300 Win Mag and the like, if I can get a decent deal.
  6. If there’s a surplus from buying the set, I’ll round off the amount to the nearest couple of dollars by setting aside some for the postage, packaging and such.  If there’s still more left over, I’ll use it to defray some of my travel costs (it’s a six-day roundtrip drive ugh), if that’s okay with everyone.
  7. The winner will be notified personally before the result is posted, and I’ll also add a certificate of the “provenance”.
  8. The gun and scope will be shipped to your FFL — even in the state of Texas.  (That paper trail thing, again.)
  9. My family are prohibited from entering, as are Doc Russia, Combat Controller and Tech Support II.
  10. Remember, I’ll be shooting it at Boomershoot 2020.  It may come to you with a scratch or two.  Deal with it.
  11. Regrettably, I can only make this work in the United States.  As much as it would delight me to ship this equipment off to a GFW country, it ain’t gonna happen.  Sorry.  If you send me a check from England or Japan, the money will get passed on to Greenpeace.  Don’t test me.
  12. Whatever rifle I get, it will be legal in all 50 states.  For that reason, I won’t be getting an AR-10 HB or anything that could be classed as an “assault” rifle (not that I would, anyway).  If your state bans “sniper rifles” during the interim period, however, you’ll be SOL, and I’ll have to make another drawing.  I’m not going to break any gun laws on this, no matter how stupid I think they are.
  13. I reserve the right to close the fund at any time, when I judge that the fund has reached an acceptable level.  Judging from the popularity of the idea the last time I did this, I’m going to set an arbitrary shut-off date of January 31, 2020 but I also reserve the right to extend the date too.
  14. Conversely, if I don’t get enough money to buy a really decent rig, I’ll just close the fund, refund your donations and go with what I’ve got.  I don’t want to do that.

Obviously, this is open to anyone, not just Readers, so if you have a friend, relative or neighbor who fancies his luck, have at it — but via a separate check, or else Greenpeace gets the surplus and he gets nada.

If this idea gets really popular, I might make it an annual event.

*One last thing:  the old raffle tickets only cost $20, but at that time I had about ten times the daily readership that I have today, PLUS I don’t have to tell you what’s happened to the price of guns in the past dozen-odd years.  [20,000-word rant deleted]

If you wanna blame someone, blame Has-Been President Obama and the other Commies for driving up demand with their stupid threats of confiscation.

Omission, Explained

Train Smash Women

A little while ago, I asked why the Daily Mail  only features Train Smash Women Partying in northern British cities, and got this thoughtful email response from Reader Pippa D:

I believe it’s because the drinking areas and establishments in northern English cities are fairly centralised — Manchester, Deansgate; Newcastle, Bigg Market; Birmingham, Broad Street — for example. So the concentration of New Year drunks spilling out of local bars and clubs is greater. The party paparazzi duly get a lot of amusing/tragic photos as they are in the right place at the right time.
But in London, the drinking establishments are spread right across the city; they are spread across suburban areas too. Effectively, London is a swirl of lots of mini-towns with not one centralised ‘party district’. Not even Leicester Square, Piccadilly or Covent Garden. People party in Camden, Dalston, Clapham, Mayfair, etc. So if the paparazzi have to choose to wait for drunks outside a handful of pubs and bars in one small area containing only 3% of the overall nights revellers in the city, they might not get too much joy.
I don’t believe it’s a northern/southern British snobbery thing or politicised.

Makes sense to me — although I would suggest that pretty much any two-block area in London’s East End would yield similar results.

I also note, by the way, that the above pic came from the Daily Express, and not from the Mail.

About That Knife Maker

Advice, Education

You all may recall one of the Christmas presents I got two weeks back:

Well, thanks to Alert Reader Mark D, we learn the truth about “knifemaker” Ed Mehler (my emphasis):

Ed Mehler is a knife seller for Knives Ranch and that he had previously been told to stop representing himself as the maker of Knives Ranch knives he was selling (at least those with the Knives Ranch logo stamp on them).

Note that this dates back to 2014, which means this asshole is still in business.

Caveat emptor (let the buyer beware) — in my case, emptor morsus est (the buyer was bitten).

Oh well… at least I have the best-looking boxcutter in Texas.

Winning A Raffle

The Gun Thing

Many years ago, I was invited to a prairie-dog shoot out in West Texas.  The only problem was that at the time I didn’t have the right gun for the job, and couldn’t afford to buy one that would, at least, give me a chance at bagging a few of the little critters and not just waste ammo for two days.

So I had a raffle back at the old Nation Of Riflemen website, which worked as follows:

  • Tickets cost $20 each, limit one per Reader
  • The goal was to get a decent rifle and scope — the highest quality rig I could purchase with the ticket proceedings
  • After the shoot, a third party would draw a ticket number, and that lucky Reader would get a pretty serious varmint rig shipped to his FFL (at my expense), all for an outlay of $20
  • Which is what happened — I do not  remember the Reader’s name, only his Reader ID, and that he lived somewhere around Atlanta.

I don’t remember the actual gun we ended up with, but I think  it was a Cooper Arms Model 21 HB in .223 Rem, topped with a monster Leupold 24X scope:

 

Whatever, the rig was an absolute monster, and when sighting it in, I was getting .25″ groupings at 100 yards in windless conditions.

As it happened, the prairie dog shoot was called off, which meant that the winner got a gorgeous varmint rifle and scope with fewer than a dozen rounds through its barrel (sighting-in only — I never even got to practice with the damn thing).

For $20.

Here’s the actual announcement post from the time (scroll down to see the winner’s reaction):

 

We Have A Winner

October 15, 2007
6:46 AM CDT

Yes, we held the drawing for the Ultimate Varmint Rifle over the weekend, and we have a winner (and a runner-up, in case said winner doesn’t contact me in 30 days).

Full details will be posted anon, but unless both these conditions are both met, you are not a winner:

      • Name: John L. L.
      • Residence: Atlanta GA

I will be contacting Mr. L. by mail over the next day or so, but if you read this happy message, John, feel free to email me.

A full account (including pictures of the draw) will be posted as soon as I have all the details available.

Comments:

  • Aww, man.

    Well, congrats to John!

    Author ID: 142 | 10/15/2007 07:04 AM CDT

  • Dang it!! long face

    Congrats John, enjoy!!

    Author ID: 9172 | 10/15/2007 07:18 AM CDT

  • w00t! Congrats John!

    Author ID: 41 | 10/15/2007 07:20 AM CDT

  • Congrats John! Make damned sure you post pics of your first targets.

    Author ID: 112 | 10/15/2007 07:29 AM CDT

  • Kim, I changed my name to ‘Brutus.’  Please send everything to me at that address.  Much ‘bliged.

    Author ID: 10034 | 10/15/2007 07:37 AM CDT

  • Nicely done, congrats!

    Author ID: 2166 | 10/15/2007 08:48 AM CDT

  • who was the runner up? Gotta know!

    Author ID: 8372 | 10/15/2007 09:45 AM CDT

  • Congrats, JohnLL, I’m a little bit green with envy; and thanks for the fun contest Kim.

    BTW, when is the next contest? (Be sure to set some aside as a ‘gratuity’ for your work this time.)

    Author ID: 8969 | 10/15/2007 10:14 AM CDT

  • Carnaby,

    I’m not going to post the runner-up—that would be cruel. But I can say two things: a.) it’s not you and b.) he’s a (very) Long-Time Reader of this website.

    And don’t let’s have any LTRs pestering me either, because that’s the last word I have to say on the topic.

    Kim | 10/15/2007 11:20 AM CDT

  • I’m with Les on that ‘gratuity.’  I don’t know what an appropriate ‘Entrance Fee’ would look like but I plan on doing this next contest and a small entrance/processing fee would be acceptable for all your hard work and effort.  And as much as I am a hunter and enjoy scoped out long guns, I sure would like to see an M-14 as the prize!  Surely, you could break it in, too.  You wouldn’t want to send of a liability.

    I have to confess, too, that I was only pulling your leg: John L. from Atlanta didn’t change his name to Brutus.  Sorry, John, that was rather dishonest of me and congratulations.

    Author ID: 10034 | 10/15/2007 11:23 AM CDT

  • Congratulations to JohnLL.

    Didn’t want a .223 boltie anyway, mumble mumble mumble…  wink

    Author ID: 1448 | 10/15/2007 12:08 PM CDT

  • Congratulations, John!

    Author ID: 503 | 10/15/2007 02:53 PM CDT

  • Just so it’s not my brother-in-law John…

    If so, John… <suggestion to let his first target be his face deleted in the interest of good taste.>

    Author ID: 8950 | 10/15/2007 05:54 PM CDT

  • Aww, darn it!  Well, enjoy yourself, sir!  And may this be the 1st of MANY that Kim does!

    Author ID: 9123 | 10/15/2007 06:40 PM CDT

  • Kim,
    You’ve mis-spelled my name. It should read E*** J****. I forgive you for the error, please feel free to ship to my FFL at your earliest convenience. grin

    Author ID: 6138 | 10/15/2007 06:40 PM CDT

  • Well, at least my homeboy got it. Maybe I can talk him into a day at the range just to fondle…er, test-fire it a few times.

    Author ID: 8681 | 10/15/2007 07:22 PM CDT

  • John, congratulations!

    Kim, I still hope you got to break it in after all.

    Rich

    Author ID: 359 | 10/15/2007 07:48 PM CDT

  • Hey, Kim…when you post the follow-up, be sure to re-post the photo of the rifle…my keyboard doesn’t have enough drool in it yet.

    Author ID: 7656 | 10/16/2007 02:46 AM CDT

  • HOLY )$#@($#* , I actually won something!!!!!  *does the happy dance*  Either that or there’s another John L. L. who also lives in Atlanta who just happened to enter this raffle.  Sorry guys, but I’m making sure my claim is staked on this. wink

    Author ID: 7371 | 10/16/2007 05:23 AM CDT

  • Reader JohnLL is indeed the lucky winner. Congratulations.

    Kim | 10/16/2007 06:34 AM CDT

Anyway, that’s what happened.  Tomorrow I’ll post the details of a new drawing, this time for the Ultimate Long-Distance Rifle — to be used at Boomershoot 2020 in May this year.

Monday Funnies

Funny Stuff

Oh, hooray.  It’s the first Monday after the holidays, with a full work week to look forward to.

So let’s try to get things moving with a little humor.  Before we get going, however, I had no idea that Conan O’Brien played in the U.S. Women’s Soccer team:

But on with the show:

…not that they should, of course:  that’ll just weaken the bloodline.  And speaking of weak and whiny men:

And in the spirit [sic]  of the festive season just past:

Just sayin’.

But hey, it’s a new year, right?

,,,but just be sure where that light is coming from.

Before we do all that, however, let’s just wallow in the past a little, so to speak.  Back by popular demand, here’s a Swede nicer than the Mauser 1896, Anita Ekberg:

Now get going into that new year…