Whine On, Bitch

 AoC opens her pie-hole.

AOC: I think young people overall feel a tremendous amount of betrayal about the world that we’ve been left with.

Oh, please.  If she had any sense of historical perspective, she would know that the current generation has it better than any human since Lucy walked the Gret Rift Valley.   AOC lives in the greatest county the world hs ever produced, during  the easiest time that humanity has ever enjoyed.

This generation has it better than I did.  I had it better than my Dad's generation and he had it better than my grandfathers generation.  I don't now what AOC is whining about.

C'mon, Amy!

 I see that our gurl, Associate Justice Amy Comey Barrett, has sided with the liberals and Chief Justice (hack, spit) John Roberts on a case involving mail-in ballots.  Amy hails from Louisiana so she should hae better sense.

Unfortunately, the court ruled 5-4 in favor of allowing Mississippi to count ballots received up to five days after Election Day. This is a disaster, obviously a huge opportunity for fraud, an encouragement not to count expeditiously, approval for ballots not mailed in time and possibly harvested, and also indirectly ensures other states like California will count until they get the results authorities want. It was a very disappointing decision from SCOTUS, especially given our supposed conservative majority.

I thought that she was a conservative.  I guess not.  We'll have to put her into the liberal wing of the Curt.

In other news, I was at my local hooch dealer today and saw that they have upped their Scotch whisky game.  I found a bottle of Lagavulin and picked it up.  Never tried it, but I've heard good thing.  We will crack it the next time the Scotch drinkers assemble.

Super El Nino?

 The main weather channel I watch is Ryan Hall, who I have come to trust among the weather-weenies.  In addition to tornadoes and hurricanes, he talks about other topics and today he's talking about a broad weather pattern called a Super El Nino.

Click here and go listen.  It's interesting stuff and may have implications through this winter.  As always with weather, it's liable to change, but Ryan makes the argument that this weather pattern is interesting and may affect us all for several months.

Reflection

 I am writing this to post over at the CFDA page, so my normal readers should just buckle up, or scroll past.

Many of us have noticed over the past year that participation in our sanctioned matches is getting smaller.  Large matches that used to draw 80 shooters are drawing barely 50 and match promoters are wondering how we can get more shooters to come to our matches.

I know, for myself, I budget $1000 for a three-day sanctioned match. Between entry fees, fuel, hotel, restaurant and incidentals, it costs money to go to a shoot. Like everyone, I'm getting older.  Travel is a bit more stressful than it was10 years ago, and my old body takes longer to recover from the stress of traveling.

Putting on a match is a major commitment.  It takes planning and coordination across several levels.  By the time we rent a venue, buy trophies, pay caterers, arrange for prize money,  and gather all the incidentals, a club might be several thousand dollars in the hole.  We know we will never get rich doing this, but we certainly don't want to lose money. My club has successfully held nine (9) state championships.  The numbers I am seeing from some state matches makes me wonder if those clubs are losing money, which does not bode well for the future of our sport.  We need to get more people to our state matches, but I am not convinced that we are asking the right questions.

We need more clubs.  We need to penetrate markets where the cowboy culture is strong. The fact that New Mexico does not have a strong CFDA club astounds me. New Mexico has a strong cowboy culture and should be fertile ground for our sport.  Likewise, Missouri.  Missouri should have at least one vibrant CFDA club.  Those of us who remember the old TV series Rawhide recall that Rowdy Yates was pushing the herd to the rail line in Sedalia, MO.  It seems like a natural for Cowboy Fast Draw.

Someone once told me that if your club isn't growing, it is dying. Likewise, the organization.  We need more clubs.

The World Reacts

 I've never followed soccer, but I am told that the World Cup has come to America and lots of tourists are over here getting their minds blown.  In a good way.  Little things that we take for granted. Like restaurant portion size, like American barbeque, like yellow school busses.  They seem to be baffled by gallons of sweet tea.

Many of these games are held in smaller towns, and mid-America friendliness and hospitality seems to have made a favorable impression.

Perhaps this is a good thing.

Thursday Already?

 It's Thursday and I realize that I haven't pasted anything since Sunday.  The reason is simple.  There ain't nothing happening worth commenting on.

The weather is confounding.  Lots of rain, very little sunshine.  The humidity is always at or above 90%. The ground is saturated. With this amount of rain, it is nearly impossible to keep the pool chemistry in balance.  Abut the time I get it right, we get another deluge of fresh water, throwing everything out of balance.

Thankfully, the tropics are quiet. No identifiable hurricane threat.

It's just been a quiet week.  

Solstice

 June 21st, the longest day of the year, and that is just an astronomical fact.  Something to do with the tilt f the axis in our yearly orbit.  The ancients noted this day in their observatories (think Stonehenge).

The beginning f summer. Tomorrow, the sunlit portion of the day will be a bit shorter, culminating on December 21s when the cycle starts again.

Today, through a fluke of the calendar is also a Hallmark holiday.  Fathers Day.  It's a holiday that I truly don't care about.  I've never seen the  utility.