On Bond

 It's being reported everywhere that Scam Bankrupt Fried has been released from a US Court on bond.  $250 million bond.  His parents had to put up their home as security,   He has been ordered to live with his parents, surrender his passport, and obtain mental health treatment among other things.

That's fair, I guess.  He is ignorant innocent until proven guilty and is certainly eligible for bond. His momma can cook him vegan meals.

His butt-ugly girlfriend has turned states evidence.  His investors are mightily pissed.  He would do well to stay indoors, listen to his lawyers and maintain a low profile until this whole thing blows over.  And, I suspect it might well blow over.  He's too politically connected to have a single-tired justice system put him away for a long time.  This one will be interesting to watch, but he is out of jail for the time being.

Christmas Prep

 Family is coming in from out of state, and we're in our semi-final prep.  Is anyone truly ever ready?  

Juvat asks in comments:

I want to try that gumbo recipe. It's just the Mrs and I. How many servings does that make?

I'm not sure.  Eight or ten, depending on your serving.  But, the thing about gumbo is that it freezes well.  Many of us believe that it is better on the second day.  Justin Wilson used to recommend that  you let the whole gumbo cool, put it in the fridge and re-heat it on the second day.

At any rate, we're prepping for the holiday and blogging might be spotty at best.  I'll check in when I can.  Y'all have a Merry Christmas.

 

Lock Time- Visualized

Winter Solstice

 Today is the winter solstice.  No, it's not the shortest day of the year.  We still get 24 full hours.  But, due to the magic of physics and planetary orbital mechanics, we turn the corner, and the daylight hours start getting longer tomorrow. 

It's also my half-anniversary.  Belle and I were married on the summer solstice.  And, no, not out of any weird Druid predilection. She was a practicing RN and I was a street cop.  That year our work schedules combined so that we were both off on a particular Saturday.  Just another coincidence of life.

More particularly, today is the first day of Winter.  And, if you look at the weather map, you'll see that there is a big winter storm moving across the US to punctuate the idea of winter.

I feel like it's time to make a gumbo.  So, if you will excuse me...

That Time Again

It appears that I have made another trip around the sun.

Christmas Weather

 It looks like we are in for a deep chill on Christmas weekend.  Predicted temps will set records.

I mean, seriously, they are predicting 8F for Friday morning, which is causing everyone to be in panic mode.  And,it looks like it is going to hang on over the weekend.

Friday won't get above freezing at all, but at least we will be in double digits.  Saturday and Sunday will begin the thaw, but most folks in central Louisiana are simply not equipped for such cold.  In short, it's going to get interesting.

I hope the weather weenies are wrong, but hope is not a plan, so I'm going to start getting ready right now.

Rainy Days and Mondays

 Yeah, that's what it's doing today.  Cold, rainy, the weather is not fit for man nor beast.

Yet, ;we have things to do, to get ready for the festivities later this week.

Hopefully, we will get done early and ensconce ourselves in a warm dry place.

Cultural reference here.

Pietta in 9mmP?

 Pietta  is an Italian gum makes, making many replica firearms from the late 1800s.  We in Cowboy Fast Draw, and indeed the other Old West shooting sports, use a lot of Pietta firearms.  They are fairly historically accurate.

There is a rumor floating around that Pietta is going to start chambering some of their single action revolvers in 9mmP.  I don't see the new offerings in the catalog, but the rumor is fueled by this flyer.

We can argue that the 9mm is probably the most common centerfire handgun cartridge in the world. Everyone I know owns at least on 8mm.  Indeed the gun I carry on my hip every day is chambered in what Jeff Cooper called the "Europellet".  That does not diminish its popularity.

It seems a bit odd to see a single action revolver chambered in 9mm, but I hope they sell a lot of them.

Sunday Morning Dawg

 He loves his chew toys

Landmarks

 Every community has them.  SIlly little landmarks that remain for decades.

My Dad bought some land in Deville, LA during the late 80s.Going out to the property we noticed a local landmark near the property, a lawn chair hung in a tree, near the road.  Probably blown up there during a wind storm, it has remained for at least three decades.

I stopped this morning on the way out and took a photo.  For posterity.

I don't know how long it will continue to be there, but it was there an hour ago.

Does your community have any weird little landmarks?

Plundering Around

 Belle and I were plundering around in the backwoods of Deville, LA this morning.  Doing maintenance on some family property, checking systems, and getting it ready for winter.  At lunch, we decided to go to AWs Drive In, an old standby lunch spot in the woods of northeast Rapides Parish.

AW's has been around since forever.  I recall when I was in high school, think 1969, the place was an old standby then.  Just a little drive=in out in the country, serving fast food, drinks, and shakes.  These days it is under different management, AW himself being long retired, but the crew soldier on, feeding the county folks who need vittles.  They have a Facebook page.

Belle opted for the standard hamburger basket, while I went with the steak burger.

The new management seems to be carrying on just fine.  Belle said that her burger was tasty, and my steak sandwich filled an empty spot.  Our ticket came to a single $20 bill.

It's not that I'm advertising AWS as much as calling attention to the little out-of-the-way places that do yeoman's work every day feeding people.  These little joints are all over the country, and we need to support them.

Shocked, Shocked I Say

 I always thought it was an odd coincidence that the Covid pandemic erupted from the very city in which the Chinese study such things.  What are the odds?  Of course, we were called conspiracy theorists

Turs out, it seems that our suspicions, on purely common-sense grounds, may have some basis in fact.

 Republican members of the House Intelligence Committee are alleging in a newly released report that there are "indications" that COVID-19 could be tied to China’s biological weapons research program and "spilled over" to the general human population during an incident at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. 

I mean, c'mon man.  China has a bioweapons program with a research lab in Wuhan.  What are the odds that a global pandemic started there, with a virus that they were studying in the building? 

I know that science entails risk, but a prudent approach might be to weigh the risks of a global pandemic against whatever benefit might result from knowing a little bit more about a virus that might wipe out every person on the planet.

The evidence is becoming more and more compelling that the Covid pandemic was not so much a tragedy as much as it was an horrific crime against humanity. The challenge now is to bring those people to justice.  Those in China may be out of reach, but there is also evidence that much of this research was funded by sources in the United States. Those people should answer for their crimes.

Nothing Much Wednesday

 It's been raining since last night at dark, a bug cold front moving through.  As a result, I haven't done much today.  I've got the lazies, a state of mind where you just don't want to do much.  I did clean my EDC piece, a SW Shield. That little gun goes everywhere I go, and when I'm busy it gets dragged through all sorts of things.  It's cleaned and oiled and back in the holster now, so I guess that's a good thing.

I may break our the sharpening stone and work on the kitchen knives.  It's just that sort of day.  

Priorities

 It's easy to tell where the priorities of the White Hose fall.

Yesterday there was a huge celebration over the signing of a bill that codifies the right to marry.  I thought we settled that discussion in 2015 with the decision in Obergefell v. Hodges.  It was a huge party, with the Washington glitterati dancing on the lawn.  Good for them.

No sane person has been worried about same sex marriage since 2016.  I happen to believe that marriage is a contract between a man and woman, signed by God.  Of course, I still believe in outmoded concepts of what describes a man or a woman.

My pastor sometimes says that if God doesn't soon address the popular culture in the United States, then He owes an apology to Sodom and Gomorrah.  That always draws a chuckle from the congregation.   

But, I suppose the left, after having suffered a stunning defeat in the Dobbs decision. felt a need to codify same-sex marriage before some challenge to Obergefell arose.

Because, you know, same-sex marriage is more important than the border crisis, or inflation, or dealing with Putin, or fuel production, or unrestricted immigration, or any of the other issuers that grind on the middle class.  Or for that matter, rooting out corruption,

Goblin Down

 The headline tells the tale:

Las Vegas carjacker shot dead by victim who grabbed another robber’s gun

I might read the rest of the article, I might not. 

Arrested

Fox News is reporting that Sam Bankrupt Freid has been arrested in the Bahamas. I notice that the Bahamas seem to move faster on political lawbreakers than we do here in the US.  This fellow's crime is financial, but no one can deny that he has strong political connections, especially in the US.  It will be interesting to see if any US charges are filed, and how quickly he might be extradited.

The Age of the Lie

 David Solway, at PJMedia makes the case that we are living in the age of the institutional lie, where people in power tell blatant, bald face lies to further whatever personal of governmental objectives that are currently in fashion.

I have noticed this myself.  To wit:

Anthony Fauci denying the lab leak theory, when he himself was funding corona virus research at a lab in Wuhan, China.

Dickhead Mayorkas telling us that the border is secure when all evidence to the contrary is plainly evident.

The idea that the 2020 election was both fair and secure.

The social justice crew telling us that there are more than two genders.

That laws to ensure election integrity (see Georgia) are Jim Crow 2.0/ 

Fifty-one intelligence officials telling us that the Hunter Biden laptop is Russian disinformation.

I could go on, but why bother.   They are liars and theives, and that's why we need to take back the country.

RICO?

 Instapundit links to a Washington Post article detailing the upcoming move to silence witnesses as the House republicans begin to investigate the pay-to-play schemes of the Biden crime family.

"The Washington Post, which revealed the powwow, described it as Biden family ‘allies’ planning an offensive to blunt any investigation into the Bidens’ alleged multimillion-dollar influence-peddling schemes. . . . Morris’ plan could easily be taken as a declaration of all-out war on potential witnesses against Hunter Biden.”

Witness intimidation is still against the law.  It's not like we have a two-tiered system of justice in this country. 

Epic Musk

 Not only is Elon Musk the new owner of Twitter, but he is also most prodigious troll.

Today, he selected his pronouns.

I wonder what he has found in the files, and which bomb will detonate next

The Twitter Files

 So, Mr. Musk is releasing internal files that show how the company conducted themselves to shadow ban conservative thought.   That is not, in-an-of itself, a 1st Amendment violation. What may be a 1A violation is how the government, through its alphabet agencies, pressure Twitter to do so.

As interesting as these revelations are, we have to ask ourselves what it means?  Twitter itself was profoundly changed during the Musk takeover, but will there be any repercussions for the government agencies? I doubt it, unless Twitter starts naming names.  Not the agency involved, but the functionaries involved.  When we learn that Agent Schmedlap did something that violated the 1st Amendment, then we can prosecute Agent Schmedlap.

It's not enough to know that the FBI pressured Twitter to do certain things.  We need to know who in the FBI pressured Twitter to do those things.  When Agent Schmedlap's career is ruined and he is serving time in a federal prison for civil rights violations, the word will get out to the rest of the agency.

If that doesn't happen, then none of this matters.  They will have gotten away with it.