Can I Get one of These for My Jeep?

Snow Man Warfare

I doubt its real but what a cool idea.

Works for Me

Probably wouldn't be too effective in a Blitzkrieg though.

Cole Younger and Kindle Free

I got the Kindle for PC download so I could take advantage of the free Bracken books a while back.   A week or so ago, I got to wondering what else might be available for free.   I downloaded twenty-two free "books."

I got old books on hunting and life in the far North.  A book on trapping foxes.  One of Ghost stories.  I got books about Davie Crocket and Frederick Selous.  One called The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government by Jefferson Davis and more Slave narratives than I can recall. 

So far, the only one I've started reading is  one called The Story of Cole Younger. 

This particular book was written by Cole Younger.   He ought to know.

I'm not really up to speed on his history but his version is a good bit different from what little I've read elsewhere.   I never knew that he had spent time in Lake City Florida buying cattle and that he stopped an armed mob of black men from killing his black barber.  They didn't like the barber's politics.  The book is full of little stories like that.

I like reading old books.  I reckon I got more than I paid for.

Besides, I had to post something so I wouldn't be  hypnotized by that GIF that I posted earlier today the next time I check in. 

What They Said

Regarding the latest bullet that's supposed to make your 9mm stop an Abrams tank:


bayou renaissance man


Wirecutter


End of discussion

Abby Normal?

 The in-laws lost all three of their dogs to old age last year.   They had to put the last one down shortly after Christmas.   Today, The Lovely Bride went visiting and met their new puppy.

That's about as still a picture and she could get.

The in-laws are the second owners.  The dog came with a micro-chip pre-installed.  They didn't like its official name so they have rechristened her "Abby."

The people that they got her from said it is "a hound mix."  The vet says it won't get over fifty pounds.  TLB said it looks just like the Labradesian Retridgeback that lives next door.  I don't know why someone crossed a  Labrador Retriever with a Rhodesian Ridgeback.   Maybe they had a lion in their pond and they needed a dog that would kill it and bring it to them.  I guess its possible that the neighbor-dog's parents didn't ask their owners' blessing before hooking up.  Who can make sense of puppy love?  All I know is that we have a dog next door that is half Lab and half Rhodesian Ridgeback and Abby looks just like it  but in puppy size.

Ok. So what if it looks like it has some Rhodesian Ridgeback in it?  Nothing wrong with that.  They do tend to run well over fifty pounds when grown though.   They can be kind of energetic too.  The in-laws think they got a hound that will sleep all day like Duke on the Beverly Hillbillies.

TLB said it slept through airboats passing by on the river but would wake up and be fully alert if she so much as shifted her weight on the couch.   Not inconsistent with what one would expect from a dog bred to be around humans and dangerous, stealthy critters.

Its feet don't look big enough to suggest that it will get as big as a Rhodesian Ridgeback and it doesn't have the characteristic ridge of backwards fur so TLB thinks its probably just some mongrel hound mix.   I pointed out that an alternate name for the Rhodesian Ridgeback is "African Lion Hound" but she's still unconvinced.

I think I am going to get the last chuckle on this one though.   She told me that her parents named it Abby because the people they got it from gave it a really stupid name.  She asked me "why would anybody give a dog such a stupid name?"  Then she spelled it out:

 "Z - U - L - U."

A Little Makeup for the Old Girl

“From 30 feet away she looked like a lot of class. From 10 feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from 30 feet away.” 

 

 Philip Marlowe

 

 

A year or so ago, back when I painted Ruth, the Jeep, I ran into some trouble in the form of about two pounds of plastic filler stuffed into a nasty gash in the right rear fender.  The weather was about to change and would have been too humid to paint if I took the time to fix it so I just painted everything else. 

 

Then the regular car's alternator grounded its field and that confused the transmission (friggin' computers) so ol' Ruth had to step up and be the number one car for a while despite the ugly, half-assed primer painted fender. 

 

 I have worked on the fender a few times since. It gets closer to right every time but number one car is acting up again so Ruth gets to step up and be the reliable one again.  She ain't named for Festus' mule for nothing. 

Being tired of driving around looking like a high school kid that can't save up enough money for a paint job, I went ahead and painted the fender  today, despite the not yet finished body work.  

 

The area in question ran from the door, around the back corner to the tailgate.  Not a large area to cover so I didn't crank up the compressor and get out the spray gun.  I just used a Prevail sprayer.  

 

 

Not much to them.  A glass jar with an aerosol spray unit on top.  You mix your paint, pour it in the jar, screw the aerosol unit on top and you have a "spray can" of whatever paint you want.  I probably used four  whole ounces of paint.

 

It doesn't look great up close but from 30 feet away...

She's still got it.

 

More on the Situation in the Ukraine

I hadn't seen anyone link to this particular one yet so I thought I'd put it out there:


Illya Varlamov wrote:

Revolution in Kiev, Ukraine

In the last days I received multiple requests to translate my posts for foreign readers, as they have very limited information about the happenings in Ukraine. This material describes events which took place in Kyev on January 22 and 23.

Sharing and distribution is appreciated.

22 January 2014. Battles on streets of Kiev.
 

I came to Kiev. I came to see for myself what is happening here. Of course, an hour after arriving at Maidan, you begin to understand that everything what you've read in dozens of articles, saw in TV news reports is total crap. In the upcoming reports I will try to, as objectively as possible, to sort out this new wave of Kiev revolution.

Usually reporters try to answer the question: “Who came out to Maidan and why.” Depending on the political leaning of MSM, the answers are different. Some say it's “fascists who came out to lynch the Moscali (Ukranian derogatory for Moscovites and Russians in general).”, some say “they're bums and slackers, who've got nothing better to do” and “instigators on the government payroll.” In reality, there is no answer. Those who came out are completely different. Remember, how a couple of years in Moscow there was a MSM buzzword “angry townspeople.” Here you see football fans, retirees, office plankton. And everyone is standing together. A sweet, ol' grandmother is pouring Molotv cocktail in a nationalists' bottles; and a manager of a large company is carrying ammunition to the student. And as it seems to me at this time, these people do not have a specific plan, nor idea of what to do next. Of course, individually, everyone has their own plan to “save Ukraine.” For some its “we need a couple of crates of AKs and grenades, we'll sort things out here quickly.” Others “need to ask the world community for help and bring in the UN troops.” At this time there is no central idea of what to do, an idea that can unite and point in one direction the people at Maidan.

The only thing that is completely clear – people came out against Yanukovich.

 Much More at the Link

Dog Tricks

Had to post something so that picture of an SKS wouldn't be the first thing I saw the next time I checked in.

Saw it at The Lonely Libertarian

Study Finds Firearms May Be Inanimate Objects

by Jack "Guns" McGee · January 23, 2014

A scientific study that concluded the day before Christmas Eve found that guns may actually be inanimate objects with no will of their own. The highly controversial results were published today in Scientific Log, a leading journal in the scientific community, and has already drawn disbelief and criticism from top gun control proponents.

Read the rest of this cute, tongue-in-cheek article at Stupend.us

Make Mine A Double?

Some things were meant to be doubled.

Things like these:

and, of course, things like these:

Not so sure about ARs though:

Saw it at  The Truth About Guns.


I guess if the Doublemint Twins get turned into zombies.

Dodging Bullets

We've got this niece.   Every now and then, she'll say she wants to learn how to shoot or wants to practice with her bow and we say OK.    We make plans and tell her that we can take her to the trap range on such and such a day or to the indoor pistol range on ladies night or pick a weekend and we can go shoot whatever at wherever.   We've never actually gone shooting because she's always doing something with her pack of girlfriends instead. 

I got tired of it and told The Lovely Bride that if she ever gets something set up, I will go if I can but I'm not making any more plans and I'm not changing any plans I've already made to fit the little socialite's schedule.  The niece is a cute kid but too much a modern teenager.  All into cheer leading, going to the mall,  Facebook and selfies.

Yesterday, the niece was out riding around with her cousin, the step-niece, and the step-niece wanted to go shooting.  The niece and step-niece are "best fraaaands," whatever the hell that is, so suddenly, shooting fit into her schedule.  She texted TLB to ask her if we would take the two of them shooting.   Right that minute.

First of all, its time the kids learned that adults don't just sit around waiting to be asked to provide entertainment; at least not these adults.

Second:   Two giddy teenagers giggling and taking selfies around loaded guns?   No way I was going to be their Range Officer.  Not their first time out.   Three dogs become a pack but it only takes two teenage girls to get giddy and start acting like idiots.

  "Local Teens Shoot Selfie - Kill Uncle." 

No way do I want to be around both of them the first time they handle  firearms.   Well, maybe if R. Lee Ermey is the Range Officer.  

As it turned out,  TLB was taking some kind of a test on line that was related to her work and I was killing a few minutes before leaving to inspect a house.   We actually were doing job-related stuff on a Saturday so we couldn't have gone even if we weren't scared realistically cautious.  Who knows, maybe they learned something important without going shooting.

It did get me in the mood to load up a few rounds  of .32 S&W Long so today  I cast and lubed 200 round nose 90 grain bullets.  I have a little H&R .32 Magnum with a bull barrel and a curved grip that is perfect for young shooters.  They think they are shooting "a Magnum" and they seem to take it more seriously.    Its cheap to shoot with handloads and I find that kids tend to take more time and shoot less with a center fire than with a .22 LR.   I don't know why but the nephews will burn through 200 rounds of .22 LR and never hit anything but they take their time with their new 9mm  and shoot darned well for beginners. 

We will probably take the nieces shooting some day, if all our schedules, and The Gunny's are clear.

The Learning Curve

Just goofing around figuring out how to post GIFs.  Figured it wouldn't hurt starting with something interesting.

Found this one at  your crazy uncle bubba   this morning.  Lots of good stuff over there.

Jaws. Florida-Style

Bracken fo' Free

All 3 of Matt Bracken's "Enemies" trilogy books are free on Kindle today.  That's just today.  They ain't gonna be free tomorrow.

If you don't have a Kindle and don't want to spend the money to buy one, download Kindle for PC from Amazon.  Its free too.

What the hell are you doing still reading this?  Go to Amazon and type in "Bracken" and get yo' free sh!t.   Do you want Obama voters to be the only ones that get free sh!t?

Obama's Positive Impact on Health Care - Really

My Dad had been a chain smoker since about 1947.  He's in an ALF now and hasn't had a cigarette in well over a year.  Yesterday, I happened to ask my sister if our Dad still wants to smoke and she said "no, he doesn't even think about it."   That shocked me and I asked her how on earth the ALF accomplished that.  She said it wasn't the ALF that did it.   It was Obama.

It seems that, after his hernia operation not quite two years ago, Dad wasn't allowed to smoke for a while and when he got out of rehab and told my sister that he wanted a cigarette, she told him there weren't any cigarettes anymore because Obama took them away.   My Dad just replied "that sorry bastard" and hasn't asked for a cigarette since.

I believe in giving credit where its due.    Dear Leader's lawlessness made it plausible to my Dad that he'd decree a ban on cigarettes.  My Dad accepted my sister's lie and hasn't smoked in over a year.   Other than that, his impact on health care has been pretty much an engineered cluster f---.

Stone-wall Street

I NEED This

Truth