Via Powerline.

I’m flying today but I’m not fucking around with Omicron.
✅Pfizer x 3
✅Negative rapid test
✅Natural immunity
✅N95 sealed to my face with surgical tape
✅Secondary mask for displaying opinions
✅Face shield
✅Vinyl gloves
✅Touchscreen gloves
✅Shitton of Xanax pic.twitter.com/quolApA0iD

— Dana (Not Scully) (@telefeminism) December 21, 2021

I would put this squarely in the category of clinical mental illness of some sort (or various sorts).

In honor of the fact that she apparently restricted who could see her picture, here it is from a screen capture.

For the reloader, it was his first time shooting a lever action 30-30.  He did well (missing only once), and that’s expected.  I find the 30-30 easy to shoot, easy on recoil, and powerful enough to take anything I want to take.  I think the rifle and cartridge are a pure joy.

Here is the bill.

Here is [part] of what it does to FFLs.

• Requiring physical security measures to prevent firearm theft;
• Clarifying the standards by which licensed dealers, and their employees, are assessed for purposes of license issuance and renewal;
• Repealing long-standing Appropriations Riders that have impeded enforcement of existing law by barring the ATF from using funds to require licensed dealers to conduct physical firearm inventories and prohibiting the public disclosure of firearms trace data; and
• Increasing record retention and electronic data management and sharing for background checks. “
• Require reporting of two or more rifles or shotguns purchased over five consecutive days, same as for pistols.
• Close the indicted dealer loophole, prohibiting licensees immediately upon being indicted for certain crimes from receiving new firearms or transferring any firearms in their business inventory to anyone other than another licensee or a law enforcement agency.
• Require annual inspections for “high risk” gun dealers and inspections for all other gun dealers every five years. Due to existing statutory restrictions and limited resources, only a small fraction of gun sellers are inspected annually, and a large number of those inspections reveal violations.
• Require dealer-applicants and employees trusted with the possession of firearms to undergo background checks for FFL issuance and renewal.

The controllers never sleep.  Neither can we.

By the way, can you imagine the work stoppage and inconvenience (for the large stores) of actually taking a complete inventory for a few worthless ATF agents who didn’t have anything better to do that day?  Maybe we should encourage them to eat doughnuts rather than making fun of it.

News from North Carolina.

A Bible quote painted in the hall of one North Carolina law enforcement agency has ignited a very public spat between a Christian county sheriff and the national Freedom from Religion Foundation.

The foundation is demanding the New Testament quote be removed and hints legal action could follow.

The sheriff of Columbus County posted an equally pointed statement on Facebook saying he intends for it to stay.

“I am not scared of much, but I am afraid of burning in Hell,” Sheriff Jody Greene says in the post.

“The Freedom from Religion Foundation, mocks Christians’ fear of burning in Hell. According to their Facebook page, they have a contest for the Unabashed Atheist/Nonbeliever of the Week. … It is time, past time, to stand up. So let me be clear, I will not waiver on my stance and Christian beliefs.”

Philippians 4:13 is at the center of the controversy: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.”

Foundation officials say “a concerned citizen” informed them Greene had the quote prominently displayed at his office in Whiteville. The town is about 115 miles south of downtown Raleigh.

Greene has an “obligation to provide all citizens with an environment free from religious endorsement by removing this exclusionary display,” foundation officials said in a Dec. 14 news release.

“The Columbus County Sheriff’s Office must serve all citizens equally, whether Christian or non-Christian,” FFRF Co-President Annie Laurie Gaylor says in the release. “A blatantly Christian message in a law enforcement division sends a message of exclusion.”

Those folks are so droll, and cowardly too.

Any system of law requires an undergirding philosophy.  If it isn’t Christianity, it will be utilitarianism, or instrumentalism, or whatever.  I’ve studied them in Philosophy and History of the Christian Church.  This is historically a Christian nation, even if it isn’t today.

If the atheists weren’t cowards, they would put their views into the marketplace of ideas where they would fail under the weight of irrationality.  But they are afraid of that, so they try to get the state to bully people like this Sheriff.

Hey listen, moron.  This is easy.  The Christian message is exclusive because God is exclusive.  He has said you are separated from Him by your sin, in need of a savior to give a propitiatory atonement, and that only His Son, truly God and truly man, can suffice for that sacrifice.  There is no other way.  You must bow your knee to King Jesus.  If you do not, you will suffer for eternity.

See?  Now that’s not so hard – doing a little truth-telling and teaching.  What are you afraid of, atheists?  Why are you so scared of a passage of Scripture?

If you believe him, this new Ruger (Marlin) lever gun is getting 1 MOA with .45-70.

I will remark that it’s beautiful.

Florida.

Some top Florida Republican lawmakers have now said they would support constitutional carry legislation in the upcoming session.

The policy would allow all legal gun owners to carry firearms without a concealed weapons license.

The constitutional carry legislation was filed by the Legislature’s most outspoken conservative member, Rep. Anthony Sabatini.

“Our very liberal Republican Speaker Chris Sprowls has gotten tens of thousands of emails from gun groups,” said Sabatini.

The policy is split into two bills.

The first would allow gun owners to carry concealed weapons without a license.

“You don’t have to go ask the government for permission,” said Sabatini.

The second would allow for open carry.

Please tell me that open carry will pass, and that I don’t have to watch any more idiotic police antics with cops showing their ass to everybody when guys open carry while fishing?  Please?

Alabama.

Remember Sheriff Sam Cochran (aka, Boss Hogg) who literally fired Stringer for having different political views?  Yes, that Boss Hogg.

To the folks in Mobile County.  Please tell me you’re going to find a way to get rid of that tyrannical goober you have for Sheriff.  Please?

This doctor says by a factor of 100 (I’ll embed the video below).

This paper comes up with a value of at least 20 (twenty).  VAERS underreports vaccine injuries by a factor of 20.  Yes, I read the paper.  No, I didn’t download the data and calculations from Github and independently confirm the results.  I wish I had that much time, but I’m working too many projects at the moment to do that.  Alas, if I was independently wealthy … or paid to do the review.

But since I know how difficult it is to prepare formal papers and do the work behind them, and since I have my own Researchgate site, I have immense respect for anyone who has the confidence to put their work out for review (including all data and calculations) and take the beating that might come.

OL.

For years now we’ve heard from rifle and ammo manufacturers that the 6.5 Creedmoor is their most popular cartridge. It’s an excellent round for open country, and it’s found its way into plenty of Midwestern and Eastern deer camps, too. But there’s one consideration that’s become a head scratcher. A whole bunch of deer hunters are reporting sub-par blood trails from deer—even well-hit deer—shot with their 6.5 Creeds.

Just ask full-time Wisconsin blood-tracker Dean Muthig, who has put his Bavarian mountain scent hounds on 230 deer tracks so far this season. Many of his calls over the years have been from parents who need help recovering deer during the youth rifle season. Not because their kids are making poor shots—Muthig says younger hunters seem to shoot just as accurately as adults. Instead, it’s because they tend to use smaller calibers like a .243—and the 6.5 Creedmoor. It’s not that these kids aren’t killing deer. They just can’t find them.

Consider the 9-year-old boy who shot a nice buck on a Wisconsin food plot this fall. The 8-pointer fled into a stand of pines, which his family searched without finding a speck of blood. When Muthig arrived, his hound lead him directly to the buck. It had run 175 yards before piling up from the double-lung shot. The bullet had not exited, and there was no visible blood on the entire track.

“The kid made a great shot, but it’s just one of those things where the deer didn’t bleed at all,” says Muthig, who’s been tracking for 17 years. “The 6.5 Creedmoor is like a .243 where—they kill deer, don’t get me wrong. There are a lot of people who kill deer with them. But they just don’t leave a blood trail, hardly ever. And it’s just because it’s such a small entry hole … It’s the size of a pencil, and a lot of times the bullets go in and expand and there’s no exit, and nowhere for the blood to go. … Or if it does exit, there’s not a lot of room for blood to get out. Running deer cover a lot of ground fast, so you can end up with really minimal blood in the course of a few hundred yards.”

[ … ]

But even if you have a higher sectional density with the 6.5 Creedmoor, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll get a heavy blood trail on a pass through. So what does this mean for hunters who don’t want to wade into ballistics, and just want to recover their deer? It means they need to choose the right bullet for their desired outcome.

“If you like two leaky holes, and there’s a lot to be said for that, you’re going to want to shoot something like a Nosler AccuBond, a Barnes Monolithic, or a Hornaday GMX,” Snow says. “If you want lots of internal damage but not necessarily a pass-through, look at the Hornaday ELD-X or a Nosler Ballistic Tip—any of those lighter, polymer-tip bullets should fit the bill. Just know that there’s still a chance that it’ll blow through the deer.”

I guess that’s one knock against the bullet.  But it seems to me that you want both – expansion and damage + pass-through.  Of course, I spoke to one old hunter one time who told me “I shoot the 300 Win Mag and I don’t have to chase a blood trail.”

I do disagree with him that the .45ACP is becoming less and less popular.

I think overall this is a fair analysis.  My experience is that if you pay for a good 1911, it serves you reliably.  As I’ve said before, I’ve shot thousands of rounds out of 1911s and never had a single FTF / FTE.  The things I like about 1911s are numerous, but here’s just a few of them

I like the grip angle.

I like the hammer fired operation.  I do not have striker fired pistols and will not have one in the future.  To me, pulling the trigger on striker fired pistol feels like letting a bucket full of compressed springs and rubber bands explode.

I like the smooth, crisp trigger.

I like the single stack design with the slim grip (which is good for my severe RA and gnarled up knuckles on my right hand).

I like the weight (what some people see as an undesirable, I see as a benefit).  Getting a commander size 1911 brings the weight close to most striker fired handguns.

And finally, I like the safety, which can be swept off by merely achieving proper purchase on the pistol if you desire.

Backpacker.com.

A survey of more than 700 John Muir trail thru-hikers gave researchers insight into what makes a hiker more likely to get injured or ill while backpacking.

[ … ]

The study singles out three factors that were correlated with injury and illness. The first was age, and not in the way you might think: Older hikers reported fewer adverse events on the JMT. One explanation for this might be that they have more years of experience on the trail and are better equipped to identify and avoid risky situations. A study on search and rescue missions in the Polish Tatra mountains also revealed that younger tourists were more likely to need help due to inexperience and lack of equipment.

So to begin with, don’t be stupid on the trail and engage in proper planning and execution.

Given that the majority of reported injuries were to the feet and legs, Spano suggests that because older backpackers tend to use trekking poles—which are correlated with a reduced rate of lower extremity injuries—they might be more protected.

“Hiking pole use is good for preventing strain and reducing injury to lower extremities,” Spano says. “And I don’t know a lot of younger people out there hiking with poles; they just don’t feel they need them.”

I, too, see very few younger hikers or backpackers using trekking poles.  I think that’s very unwise and arrogant.  It takes a mushy brain full of hubris to believe your youth will save you from mechanical injuries.

You can’t control everything in the bush.  But you can minimize the chances of mechanical injury with the use of good trekking poles.

Just go buy some and be diligent about using them.  I do even on days hikes, and miss them if I happen to forget.