Finding OUt

 There is a lot of finding-out going on today. Ukraine President Zelenskey came to the White House today. He found out that Trump does not suffer fools lightly. A while new chapter in US diplomacy began today. FAFO.  I think it is encouraging.  Encouraging Zelenskey to get his head out of his ass, and 

I also did a little finding-out today, in the liquor store.  For a couple of years, my go-to house bottle was Evan Williams Bottled in Bond.  It's an altogether workman-like whiskey, just what you would expect from a four-year-old bourbon.

Decades ago, I drank Benchmark, the economy brand of Buffalo Trace.  Today in the liquor store, I was perusing bottles and saw a Benchmark Single Barrel.  The hell you say. At $25 and 95 proof, that may not be a bid idea.

We will crack that one open tonight and see how it fares.  I doubt I'll be disappointed.

Carnival

 It's Mardi Gras season in Louisiana, and the final days are upon us. Ash Wednesday is next week and so is Fat Tuesday.

Belle decided to make a King cake for lunch. King Cakes are normally sweet pastries, but Belle decided to make this one savory.  She used canned crescent rolls as her dough, then stuffed it with a mixture of boudin and cheese.  Gave it an egg wash, then put it in the oven.  When it came out, she topped it with red pepper jelly and topped that with bacon bits.

Sweet and savory in the same bite, it was a nice lunch.

I heard a pundit today call the Democrats the Party of Government Excess (POGE).  They are a bunch of poges, and I need to write my Dem congressman.  He needs to do a better job of representing me.

Doxxing ICE

 I'm sure by now, you have all seen the outrage over the ICE agents pictures being circulated and tacked to telephone poles.  It's tacky.  And, it may be illegal, I don't know.

I worked in small -town law enforcement for 37 years.  And, before you consider it like Mayberry RFD, consider that I carried three of my buddies to their graves.  Small-town law enforcement is still dangerous. There was no reason to doxx us, everyone in town who cared knew who we were.  It was no secret, our wives, our children, out homes.  Not a secret.

Sometimes my kids would wonder why I didn't have their pictures on my desk.  I had to explain that I didn't want to make it easy for the bad guys.  It was no secret, but there is no sense making it easy.

I do have the feeling that today's law enforcement is too scared.  I know the job is tough, but it is the job.  If the doxxing is illegal, charge the ones who do it. Simply cite the law, get a warrant, and put their asses in jail. Then, get on with doing the job.

Landman

 Have y'all be watching the series Landman? Billy Bob Thornton plays a landman in the Permian Basin.  A lot of it is drama and bullshit, but some of it is pretty good.  Hard truths.

There is a great clip here about alternative energy.  It's something to think about.

Accountability

 Watching the federal workers freak out over basic accountability is both amusing and disheartening.

This ain't that hard, folks.  When I was a cop, I had to fill out a patrol log every day.  I got my screwing-off time like everyone else, but I had to account for my time.  In my plain-clothes assignment, I was still accountable for the miles I put on a vehicle and to keep my supervisor off my back.

Even in the military, as an enlisted soldier, I had to keep my sergeant happy.  As an officer, I had to keep the colonel happy and supervise the sergeants. I didn't have to be an asshole, but I knew how to be when it was necessary.

The idea that federal employees are unable to provide basic accountability is both amusing and an indictment of their supervisors. Federal employment is not an entitlement program. This ain't hard, folks.  Earn your paycheck.

Changing Tires

 I'm a grandpa, first and foremost.  This blog nods to that with its name.  I remember my grandpa, who would drop whatever he was doing to help me out of a bind.  It's our job.

Grandson Zach came to me this afternoon as I was lounging in the shop.  He had a flat, in my driveway.  Too bad, so sad.  Zach knows how to change a flat.  He wanted to change it in the shop, where we have floor jacks and air tools.  Okay, but we need to air the tire so that you are not running on a rim.  I gave him a small compressor that would run off his battery.  Air the tire and bring the car around.

I prepped the shop, moving stuff so that he could get his car in the door.  In a few minutes, he came around and drove the car into the shop.  He knows how to do this, but I sat on a stool and coached him through the job.  He used my tools to change the tire, then we went through his trunk, made sure that he had a jack and a lug wrench and a jack handle.

He needs new tires, and he is gainfully employed.  I'll be a pain in his ass until new rubber is between his car and the road. If necessary, I'll get his grandma involved.  He does not want that.

DOGE Meme

 Fox News is reporting that the liberal swamp-dwellers are continuing to cry about Elon and his DOGE wizards.  President Trump, always the master troll, is promoting this meme.

That is funny, and probably ore than a little bit true.

Sunday Shorts

 Sorry about the light posting.  I've been quasi-busy for the past couple of days, and my efforts have been elsewhere.

The Pope is in a bind with medical issues.  He's 88 years old, and having respiratory issues.  Love him or loathe him, he is the Pope, and deserves our prayers. If I were a Cardinal in the Roman Catholic church, I'd have a bag packed and I'd be checking airline schedules to Rome.  It seems that there might be a conclave in the immediate future.

Elon Musk and Co continue to cut government.  Not with a finely hones scalpel, but with a chainsaw. I understand that federal employees will be getting an email asking them to detail what they accomplished last week.  Falure to respond will be considered a resignation.

I don't want to hear any crying or whining about federal workers losing their jobs.  It happens.  More locally, we learned last week that the paper mill in Campti, LA is closing.  That mill employs hundreds and for the past 50 years or so, it has been cranking out paper and issuing W2a to hundreds of workers.  That's over now, or will be shortly. It happens in the public sector and in the private sector.

I had an old pipeline welder tell me once that every time he quit, was layed-off, or run-off a job, it was the best thing that ever happened to him.  There was always something better around the corner.  That is the right attitude. Losing a job sucks, but you stand back up, dust off your britches, and get on to the next thing.

Mitch is Leaving

 I see today that Mitch (the bitch) McConnell is retiring from the Senate.  Thank God!  He is the worst of the old RINOs, never seizing the initiative, never promoting Republican principles, never using the power that we had to promote the agenda.  He has even voted against some of Donald Trump's cabinet members. He is despicable.

It pains me to say this, because Mich represents Kentucky, a state that is close to my heart,  Kentucky is the state that I started my military career, living there for three years, soaking up the geography and culture.  It's a beautiful state, with good people.  They deserve better than Mitch.  The United States deserve better than Mitch.

The new Republican party is a whole helluva lot better than the old one, and Mitch needs to go home and putter in the yard.

Ruger RXM Torture Test: 1000 rounds in one day!

My sons have a YouTube channel, and I've shared some things that they put up.  Recently, younger son bought one of the new Ruger RXM pistols and decided to put it through a torture test. He ran 1000+ rounds through it in three hours with zero malfunctions.  That is pretty good for any pisto

I'm helping them boost the signal, but I think it's a darned good review.

Winter Storm

 The big news today is a winter storm that hit us last night.  Down here in the Deep South, it's not snowing, but temps have dropped considerably since sundown yesterday.  At one point yesterday afternoon, I was wearing only a pocket tee shirt, but today I'm wearing several more layers.  Temps are hovering around freezing and I doubt they will climb much today.  The weather weenies tell us that temps will be in the teens overnight.

Grandson Zach works for a major shipping company and he tells is that the truck from Memphis failed to arrive at the docks this morning. 

I made a big gumbo last night, and leftover gumbo is on the menu for lunch.  It's always better the next day, and a big bowl will hit the spot around noon.

Auditing The Gold.

 Rumors are flying that Elon Musk is going to take his team to the US Bullion Depository at FOrt Knox to audit the gold.  I can't tell you the last time that place was audited, but the last inspection I am aware of happened in 1974 by members of Congress.

The inspection by Members of Congress on September 23, 1974, of U.S. gold stocks stored at the Fort Knox (Ky.) Bullion Depository marks a unique departure from the long standing and rigidly enforced policy of absolutely no visitors, Mrs. Mary Brooks, Director of the Mint, announced today.

When I got there in 1976, the place was still abuzz about the inspection, and the rumors about what they may or may not have found there.  We know that they stored some crown jewels from eastern European nations that were then behind the iron curtain. 

The security around the Depository is probably the tightest in the nation.  Easily seen by travelers on US Highway 31W, it looks like a small building sitting in a field.  Don't let that deceive you.

At one time I was tasked with providing a platoon of tanks on two-hour notice to protect the Depository in case of a national emergency.  They would test us occasionally, and yes, one day I drove a platoon of tanks up to the gate before Treasury came out, told us we did good, and sent us away.  That screwed up a Sunday afternoon.

Fort Knox is no longer the home of Armor, but I see that they have a smattering of units, to include the 4th Cavalry Brigade, along with some Engineer units.  I bet that those guys have the same mission we did back in the 1970s.  Protect the Depositoory.

Teutonic Order

 It looks like Germany is cracking down on hate speech, that is, anything that might offend or insult someone.  Especially politicians. Insty covers it here.  And CBS 60 minutes highlights it here.

Watching the 60 Minutes segment was chilling.  The German prosecutors say that a large portion of the German pubic has quit engaging online because of hate speech.  More likely, a large portion of the populace has quit engaging because they don't want the police banging on their door in the early morning.

Hate speech is free speech. It may be deplorable or detestable, but it is free speech.  The only antidote is universal condemnation, not pre-dawn police raids.  Germany has tried that once.  They called it Kristallnacht, followed by The Night of the Long Knives.

Germans should know that history often rhymes.  They should be very careful about criminalizing speech.

Questions Answered

 A couple of questions about the post below, where I'm tumbling brass in a concrete mixer.  Juvat asks:

Just a bit of a question, what is walnut media?

Walnut media is a fine abrasive made from ground walnut shells. I get it at Harbor Freight.  It's great for cleaning and polishing brass. 

Rob asks:

4,000 rounds? How long will it take you to reload all 4,000? Heck, how long will they last when the shooting starts? I'm just curious...

That's just what I'm cleaning today.  I already have 6000 cleaned. This is specialty ammunition used in Cowboy Fast Draw.  CFDA rules require that at sanctioned shoots, all competitors use the same ammunition.  One rule of thumb is that the host provide 100 rounds for each competitor.  All this ammunition will be shot in three days at the Texas State Championship to be held in Richmond, TX on the second weekend of March.  Through an inter-club agreement, we are supplying the loaded ammo and they will replace the wax bullets and primers.  Then, we will clean all the brass again and reload it for Louisiana State, which will be held in Pineville, LA over Memorial Day weekend.

We're having a club meeting tomorrow night to load ammo.  We'll be done in about three hours, then we'll eat gumbo and potato salad.

Everything you might want to know about Cowboy Fast Draw is in the video below.

The sport is a lot of fun.  If you are interested, go to Cowboy Fast Draw for more information.

Presidents Day

 It's Monday, which is traditionally the day to do laundry, and I've done two loads.  Belle and I agreed years ago that we married each other for better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health. The vows included nothing about laundry.  She does heres, I do mine.  It works out well for us.

It's also Presidents Day, a day that is a federal holiday, a day to reflect on a purely made-up holiday that allows government workers to take the day off.  It's always on a Monday, which led my father to declare it George Birthington's Washday.  

The dog and I are out in the shop now, and I'm tumbling brass.  I have just over 4000 pieces of .45LC brass to clean for a shoot next month.  We've found that the best way to clean large batches of brass is with a concrete mixer.  2000 pieces of brass, 25 lbs of walnut media and two hours.  They come out clean and shiny.

Yep, that is a trick I learned five or six years ago.

Tank Names

 Younger son sends this proto of a bunch of what appear to be Abrams tanks with tank manes.  Anyone who folows WWII  movies has probably seen the movie Fury, which focuses on one tank crew during the latter stages of the European theater.  Tank names, traditionally, are based on the unit that the tank is assigned.   Traditionally, tank companies are assigned to Company A, B, C, or D.  Whereas cavalry troops are assigned to Troop E, F, G, or H.  That tells me that the fictitious tank "Fury" was assigned to a cavalry unit and was in F troop.

I digress.  The photo my son sent me is below.

It seems that these tanks are assigned to Company A and B of some unit, and someone has a sense of humor.  The tank with the red arrow is "ASVAB WAIVER".  That is funny.

My first tank, and M60A1 in 4/37th Armor was "Cap'n Crunch".  Naming tanks fell out of favor in the '80s and I didn't see much of that.  In my last unit, 1/156 LANG, we could name tanks, but I was in a staff position and didn't have a tank.  However, on dark night during gunnery, our Batallón Commander stuck his tank in the pre-dawn hours and got off it to let the Master Gunner retrieve it.  When it came out of the ditch sometime around dawn, it had been renamed "Ditch Witch".  The old man laughed it off, he had a good sense of humor.

Naming tanks is a morale thing.  Good commanders laugh it off.

Bulk Primers

 Reloading ammo is a huge cost savings and many of us enjoy had-crafted ammo f or better accuracy, cost savings and more range time.  Running a Cowboy Fast Draw club, I buy a lot of shotgun primers for the club and sanctioned events.  If any of you are buying primers in bulk, eventually you will run into something that looks like this.

That box contains 10,000 shotshell primers.  Not in nice boxes, but in trays of 1000. They look something like this.

That is one tray of 1000 primers, all neatly in their little holes.  The big box holds 10 trays like that, but tray number 1, on top, always gets bobbled in shipment and comes out looking lie tis.

Pain in the butt.  You have to take all the trays  out of the box and find the loose primers that got rattled out of their tray during shipment.  I've never lost a primer, I've always been able to fill all the little holes, but it's just part of a large primer shipment.

Nitrogen Hypoxia

 CBS News is reporting that Louisiana has scheduled its first execution in 12 years, settling the debate over lethal injection.  The method used will be nitrogen hypoxia.

There are technically three execution methods approved in Louisiana. Lethal injection is the default method, and electrocution and nitrogen hypoxia are alternatives. State legislators last year authorized nitrogen hypoxia, an experimental procedure tried just four times before in the nation's recorded history, as a means to execute death row prisoners. Their decision came shortly after Alabama introduced the method to the public in January 2024, during the controversial and disputed execution of Kenny Smith, whose death was described by several witnesses, including reporters, as potentially torturous.

Nitrogen is an inert gas, composing the majority of the atmosphere we breathe. 

Wednesday Weirdness

 I see that the US Mint is thinking about stopping production on the US penny coin.  It takes 2 cents to make one.  They literally cost more than they are worth.

Pete Hegseth, or SecDef, has renamed Fort Bragg. He found a US Army Private First Class named Roland L Bragg who earned a Silver Star and a Purple Heart during the Battle of The Bulge.  For a PFC to earn a Silver Star, that is some hero activity right there.  Good on Hegseth.  Now, if we can find a hero named Polk, or Hood, maybe we can start setting things right.

I see breaking news that Tulsi Gabbard has been confirmed as DNI.  The very idea that Lieutenant Colonel Gabbard was a Russian plant was lunacy.  Lunacy, by the way, tends to define the Democrat party today.  Now, let's get RFK confirmed.  He is a Democrat and confirmation should be a shoo-in, but again, lunatic Democrats.

UPDATE:  How could I overlook this?  Federal retirement paperwork is done manually, on paper at a mine in Pennsylvania.  Elon talks about it here in the early part of the interview. An old limestone mine with manila folders. Truly archaic

70/30

 Like many of you, I've been watching the first three weeks of the new administration and I've come to believe that President Trump is tackling issues that I like to call 70/30 issues.  Issues that a vast majority of Americans want to see solved.

Immigration, for example.  I believe that 70% of Americans want something done about immigration.  Like him or hate him, but President Trump is doing something, and most Americans are on his side.

Likewise, government waste.  Most Americans are tired of government, and Elon Musk with his merry band of tech wizards are opening the books and making recommendations to curb waste.

Just yesterday, President Trump signed an executive order to bring us back to plastic drinking straws.  I think he is trolling the left, but many Americans believe that paper straws are simply silly. Yet, some Democrats are losing their minds.

So, the Democrats are now for paper straws, illegal immigration, and government waste.  These are 70/30 issues, and they are on the wrong side.  Still, they wonder why they lost.

Southpaw Actions

 I'm left-handed, but I'm right-eye dominant, so I learned to shoot shoulder arms from my right side.  My dad started me off on the right side, and it has never been an issue, but I have one son who is purely left-handed and two grandsons who are purely left-handed, so when I was outfitting them, it was necessary to pick bolt guns that work from the left side.  Back in the day that was an ussue, but things have gotten better.

If I were looking for a brand-new, out-of-the-box bolt gun today, my choices would boil down to Ruger or Savage.  I have nothing against the other manufacturers, but those two have put me in meat more often than the competitors.

On a post yesterday, Sailorcurt was talking about left-hand rifles, and today I took a peek at the current offerings.  Wow!  Ruger has a bunch, to include left-hand Ruger 10/22 models. Savage has a sizeable collection as well.

When I'm browsing used gun racks, the one I'm always on the lookout for is a left-handed Remington 870.  I could probably order one, but it's something that I've always looked for.  Along with a Ruger No 1 in 7mm Mauser or in 250 Savage.  That would be something to find.

Electricity Saving Boxes?

 During a club meeting on Saturday, the conversation turned to electric bills and possible savings.  Several of the members talked about a little box that plugs into an outlet and is supposed to save energy.  Ostensibly, it uses a capacitor to smooth the flow, making the house more efficient.

Color me skeptical, but before I knew what had happened, Belle found a four-pack at Amazon and ordered some. They were in the mail box this morning, and I plugged them in.

I'm still skeptical, but the four-pack was under $25.00 and I don't tell Belle how to spend her money.

It has a light to show when it is operating, so it uses energy.  Whether or not it will save any money is subject to claim.  We will see, I guess.

Monday Weather

 I wore a short-sleeved button-down to church yesterday and considered turning on the A/C yesterday afternoon while entertaining in the shop. The weather changed overnight, and I'll be wearing flannel today and burning propane in the shop.

Over coffee just now, Belle observed, "That north wind is cold, I don't care which direction it is coming from."

It's February and the weather will be playing with our heads for another month or so.

Load Development

 During the first decade of this century, I've done a lot of load development.  For several rifle and handgun calibers, and worked up loads for a dozen or more individual rifles and handguns.  In this sort of work, you need a chronograph to know your numbers out of your barrel. For all of this load development, I used a Shooting Chrony, a neat little device that we would put o a tripod and fire the bullets over the seceens.

Doing that gives invaluable data, but it also violates Jeff Cooper's Rule 2:  Never point your gun at anything you are not willing to destroy.  Or, maybe I was willing to destory it.  I knew the risk and the risk was worth taking.

Having said all that, Second Son borrowed the chrony to do some load development for a new rifle he recently bought in 6.5 Creedmoor.  And Rule 2 snuck up on us.

It was inevitable, I guess. The shot took out both screens.  It may have been a blessing.  Technology has advanced and there are better chronographs on the market. So, I went over to MidwayUSA and ordered this one.  It used doppler radar to measure the speed of the bullet, and will bluetooth to your phone. It sits beside the rifle rather than downrange of it, and shooting it will be a whole lot more difficult.

We made the upgrade.  It will be here in a week or so, and load development can proceed apace.

A Masterclass In The Collapse Of Woke Culture With Anson Frericks

Many of you know that I'm a fan of Mike Rowe.  Here he discusses woke culture and the fall of Bud Lite in the broader context of American corporate culture.  Fascinating.

Compare and COntrast

 

Hat Tip: Instapundit

Superb Owl

Watching Democrats freak out is becoming my morning news break.  I understand that the big freak out this morning is the idea that the Department of Education may be on the chopping block as we discussed yesterday.  There is no doubt that some f the money spent by Dept Edu is worthwhile, but much of it is administered by local officials in school districts across the country.  The program that administers the lunch program is probably the most visible of the good programs. It used to be run by the Dept of Agriculture, but nowadays is part of the Edu purse.

However, many of the past programs like No Child Left Behind, or Common Core, were bureaucratic nightmares and almost impossible to administer.  It didn't help that the Edu folks seemed to be intent on dragging the goalpost up and down the field.

I am reminded that this weekend is the national holiday that I am calling Superb Owl.  It involves two groups of men chasing a weird ball o a marked field. I have nothing against this holiday, and indeed have some remarkable history with it.  I met Belle at a Superb Owl party in 2001.

Y'all enjoy the game, if that is your  jam.  I'll be doing other things.

Crawfish Season

 Running errands this week, I happened to drive past Belle's favorite crawfish place and noticed that it is open.  Crawfish season in Louisiana has arrived. Locally in central Louisiana, the crawfish joints aren't open year-round because live crawfish aren't available year-round. The season runs, basically, from late January until mid-June. Depending on weather and rainfall.

Belle's favorite joint is Tom's Seafood in Pineville.  When I run errands this morning, I'll time my trip so that I can be at Tom's shortly after 11:00.  That will make Belle very happy, and my main function in life is to keep Belle happy. This looks like it is going to be a good season, because it appears that prices are down a bit from last year.  I'm sure these are farmed crawfish because the wild crawfish won't start coming out of the Atchafalaya Basin for another month or so.

It's crawfish season in Louisiana.

Sunlight

 The Democrats are losing their minds over Elon Musk and his group of data wizards who are shining raw sunlight on the spending in the US government. Very questionable spending, contrary to the wishes of most citizens.  We don't want money spent on gender issues here in the US, much less in Tanzania.

In 1961, Congress passed the Foreign Assistance Act and President John Kennedy subsequently established USAID by executive order. What can be established by executive order can be dissolved by executive order, and it appears that President Trump has done so.  Perfectly legal.

While I agree with the idea that Congress controls the purse strings, I also agree that an executive should be able to pause some expenditures to make sure that they comport with the interests of the United States.

I also believe that elections have consequences, and we elected Donald Trump to make changes. Prograns come and programs go.  If that were not true, we would still have the CCC program.

If you really want to start a hissy-fit, look into the formation of the US Department of Education.  You can believe that our president is looking into it.  I'm not sure that Congress had anything to do with that or not.  If it can be created by executive fiat, it can be dissolved by executive fiat.

Wednesday Wazzup?

 My calendar tells me it is Wednesday.  Tax season, and like all Americans, I'm dealing with that bullshit. One of the two inevitables.

I see that Pam Bondi got confirmed and sworn as Attorney General.  Good for her Good for us. I hope she does a great job.  We'll see.

What is this nonsense I see about Trump saying that the US will take over Gaza and help to rebuild it?  Our national interest is closely tied to Israel, but I don't see how we should be involved except to help Israel guarantee its security. Hamas has to go, root and branch.  From what little I know about the real estate, it might make a great resort area, but unless the governing authority is absolutely peaceful, I don't see much hope for the place.  Maybe I'm wrong, but we don't need to waste much blood over that place.

I have a huge reloading project looming, so I'd best get at it.

Psycho Bill

 I see that RFK Jr. got passed out of committee today for his DHH Sec job, and everyone is patting Bill Cassidy on the back for doing the right thing.  Just stop.  We conservatives in Louisiana have a very low opinion of Senator Bill Cassidy.  He's been dubbed Psycho Bill by one pundit, and most of us think that is appropriate.

As an ostensible Republican, Bill's whole job was to get Trumps cabinet through.  He did the right thing and deserves no praise.  The way he stabbed Trump in the back during the impeachment fiasco was a blot his record that includes the fact that Psycho Bill voted twice to impeach.

Since becoming the senator for Louisiana, Bill has become a full-fledged member of the swamp.  When he runs for Senator next year, he will be primaried, and I give him a 1:3 chance of surviving the primary, because it will be a closed primary and the Republicans in Louisiana are done with him.

Psycho Bill Cassidy is the senior senator from Louisiana, but Bill only represents himself.  We'll be glad to cull him.

Schumer Whines

 Chuck Schumer, that execrable senator from... same damn place, is complaining that DOGE is doing the job he should have been doing all along.

An unelected shadow government is conducting a hostile takeover of the federal government.

DOGE is not a real government agency.

DOGE has no authority to make spending decisions.

No, Chuck, what DOGE has the authority to do is shine a bright spotlight on government waste, fraud, and abuse.  And, to make specific recommendations to the elected authority. 

What actually happened, Chuck, is that the American people staged a hostile takeover of the federal government.  As is our right and privilege.  Then we asked DOGE to look at the books and tell us where we are wasting money.  DOGE is doint a great job, and the rats are running from the sunlight.

Sure Is Monday

Watching the news this morning, I saw a video of our new DHS Secretary, Kristi Noem, on the southern border.  In jeans, riding a horse and sporting a white hat. It was a good look for the Secretary, and I was struck by the difference between her and whatshisname Mayjerkus.  I bet that boy has never forked a horse, or gone to a border.  He was about a worthless sum'bitch.

I went to get glasses this morning.  This journey started in December, and after two cataract surgeries and the resulting follow-up appointments I finally got a new prescription.  I see much better now. Pre surgery I was seeing about 20/150.  Now, I'm 20/60 and new spectacles will clean that up.  I'll pick them up in the morning.

The big conversation around the dinner table yesterday was immigration and egg prices. The big conversation on the radio this morning was immigration and tariffs. I think that Trump is going the right thing on immigration, and I hope that he doesn't hurt us with the tariffs.  I don't buy many avocados anyway, but the little Mexican avocados' make really good guacamole.

Lear Jet Med Evac Crash KPNE 31 Jan 2025

Juan Brown breaks down the Philly jet crash from yesterday.  I'm just boosting the signal here.

Update** Another guy I trust, Captain Steve, breaks it down here.

Anniversary

 I see over on Instapundit that five years ago today, Covid-19 was declared a public health emergency in the United States.  I do recall that Belle and I were at a shoot in Oklahoma when we learned that schools were shut down and toilet paper was in short supply.

2020 was a nightmare and showed how fragile our civil rights are. Perhaps we should start working on legislation that a government can never again declare a public health emergency. They can cajole and educate, but never again declare an emergency that limits personal rights.

A History of American Barbecue

February has come in like a lamb, and I know that winter isn't over, but it will soon be time to fire up the pit and cook under the trees.