Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Freckles, they are good.


:-D


:-)


Socialist mayor Bill DeBlasio begins immediately by destroying jobs

New Yorkers get the government they deserve for voting for this idiot.




"We are going to get rid of the horse carriages. Period,” de Blasio said in response to a question at his press conference announcing his schools chancellor pick Monday.
“It’s over,” he said.
So now the horses go to the glue factory, and the guys with the carriages are out of work and on the public dole, while the income produced for the city by this trade is now gone. Plus, tourists have one less reason to visit the Big Apple.   Brilliant.   So brilliant that only a socialist idiot like Bill DeBlasio could conceive of it.  
Enjoy your hell, New Yorkers, because you voted for it.

Monday, December 30, 2013

Heh.


I need to get me some!


The first Obamacare treatments begin, this time for a migrane.



I'm sure this was quite successful.

Mondays, they're like that


"Am I being detained?"

If you have ever watched on of those YouTube videos where someone is held at an internal traffic checkpoint and passively resists the officer's demand to pull over and consent to a search, then this article is a must read.

You have certain constitutional rights, and the police are going to attempt to push you away from them as hard as they think they can get away with.  It's amazing how many people simply agree to allow a detention and search of their car without probable cause, in order to avoid conflict with the men in uniform.  Know your rights!

Here is a good example of what happens when officers at an internal checkpoint are challenged on their constitutional right to stop, search and question.  Caution: doing this with a bad attitude to the wrong cop is going to get you face down in the dirt with your hands cuffed behind your back.  If you are going to assert your rights, know what they are, be super polite, and explain what you are doing, so the cops get it, and don't decide you are a crook.

Saturday, December 28, 2013

Cabin Porn


Feels about this cold in our house, since the heater went out!  


Space ship?


Or Lenticular cloud over Mauna Kea, Hawaii.


Great beards of old.


Tsar Nicolas II, his beard, and Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna.

Tatiana is surprisingly fetching for a Grand Duchess.

How to deal with post holiday depression

Primitive skill level: 10

Making arrowheads out of a glass bottle.




Via Gorges' Grouse.

Hoppin' John

Has anybody heard of this dutch oven food before?   Over at Every Day Dutch Oven, there is a recipe that looks to me like something I'm absolutely going to do this weekend, especially as the wife has a cold and doesn't really want to cook. 

This one has a history behind it, described thusly:


     "Eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day for good luck in the coming year is a Southern tradition.  As luck would have it, during the Civil War when Sherman raided the Confederate Army's food stores, his men left behind the salt pork and dried peas, just enough food for the Southern soldiers to survive the winter.  For the ultimate in good fortune, one must eat exactly 365 black-eyed peas, one for each day of the New Year."

Well, I'm likely to add a bit of garlic, a spot or two of Yucateco Sauce, and to eat more than 365 black eyed peas, for sure.  

Check out how tasty this looks.





Is it real or is it CGI?


Colombia's lush Cocora Valley, part of Los Nevados National Park, is the principal home for the country's national tree, the palma de cera, or wax palm. The lanky tree is the world's tallest palm tree, reaching up to 200 feet tall.

Any country that can produce Sofia Vergara and the world's tallest palm tree has to be ok.

Light pillars


 Pictured above are not aurora but light pillars, a local phenomenon that can appear as a distant one. In most places on Earth, a lucky viewer can see a Sun-pillar, a column of light appearing to extend up from the Sun caused by flat fluttering ice-crystals reflecting sunlight from the upper atmosphere. Usually these ice crystals evaporate before reaching the ground. During freezing temperatures, however, flat fluttering ice crystals may form near the ground in a form of light snow, sometimes known as a crystal fog. These ice crystals may then reflect ground lights in columns not unlike a Sun-pillar.  A quick thinking photographer captured the above light pillars extending up from bright parking lot lights in OuluFinland.

Via APOD.

It's Saturday

It's been a weird week, what with the holidays, a cold that everybody is getting to share, and work, but hey, in spite of all that, it's finally Saturday.


Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Don't worry folks, just Santa and Rudolph burning off some post Christmas energy!


Claus


                                              They say everything's cool at the North Pole.

The satisfied look of a man who's work is well and truly done for at least one more year.

                                                                   Thanks big guy!

Santa is a good man

Ripping open the gifts this Christmas, we discovered this collection of American Rifleman magazines from 1965, sent our way by my father in law, who specifically designated these for the Man Cave down in the barn.  What an excellent gift!

The FIL is an expert yard sale shopper, and I presume he found these at one, and thought of us.  After all, nearly everything in the Cave has been sourced from yard sales. These magazines are indeed the perfect complement to the Cave, and I know we Cave dwellers will go through every page carefully and with great interest.  Thanks John!


Christmas greetings from 1920

Rummaging through some old stuff the other day, I came across these two old Christmas cards from the Swedish side of the family.  Taking my lead from Gorges' Grouse, I thought I'd photograph them and make them into a post, something for sure no one in 1920 could have imagined.  From post card to internet post!

Actually, the one on the left is dated 1920, but the one on the right has no date, but must be roughly at about the same time, maybe within ten years.

The one on the left says, in Swedish, "Happy Christmas" and the one on the right says, roughly, "May God be with you, and his glory revealed to you, Christmas in and Christmas out, in church and home and mind."

A very religious message from a more devout age.



Santa works in mysterious ways


When you reach a certain age, the type of gifts Santa brings tend to change.

This year, the 19 year old found a nice new tire under the tree for her car, Patty.  Both of them are quite happy about it.

Thanks Santa!


While the Obama administration is instructing soldiers not to say "Christmas" and discouraging students from sending religious cards to troops, it is perfectly acceptable to celebrate Christmas in unexpected and diverse places.

For example, a wish for a merry Christmas on a shop window in Peshawar, Pakistan, of all places.


And in Shenzen, Communist China, where up to ten percent of the population is suspected to be Christian.





























Hat tip: Gateway Pundit

This had me laughing out loud

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Being kinda bad

So years ago my brother in law gifted me a big pack of mini bottle rockets that have been sitting around gathering dust.  Tonight, on Christmas Eve, it seemed a good time to burn a few of them off, since it was a clear, cool night out here in the country.  Besides, a week ago some neighbor further up the road had apparently been to the mid west, as he was shooting off major quality fireworks with a mortar.  My little  rockets were pip squeaks in comparison.

So, after the Christmas Eve Jul Bord, and presents, me and the two youngest kids wandered onto the deck to see what would happen when a match and fireworks were combined.   Not exactly classic Christmas entertainment, unless you live at my house, but still fun.  Naturally, the teenagers loved it.
Here are the long exposures.  The star like dots about the sparks are the little rockets detonating with a nice sharp crack.

Ok, back to the egg nog....





William Gunnison Chamberlian, Ute medicine man, 1895


Artillery porn


Constructed in Styria, Austria in the early 1400’s, the Punhart Von Steyr is the largest wrought iron bombard by caliber.  According to modern calculations, it could fire a a 690 kg stone ball around 600 m using a 15 kg charge of gunpowder.  Today the Punhart Von Steyr is on display at the Museum of Military History in Vienna.

Gun porn


I picked up a used SP-101 off Gunbroker that was tarted up like this by Gemini Customs, and all I can say is that their work is worth the money.  The trigger on mine is a dream, which for me that is what allows me to shoot accurately.  Thanks to Bill Ruger for the basic but built like a bank vault revolver as well

Duffle Blog reports


In an unprecedented turn in American history, retired Marine Gen. James Mattis, several years after being dismissed by the President and exiled to his estate in the countryside, marched on the national capitol early Tuesday morning with an army over one hundred thousand strong.

This number includes at least ten infantry legions, several aviation and artillery legions, and multiple cavalry cohorts.

“I come in peace, by myself, in order to hand-deliver a Memorandum of Concern to the Commander in Chief and the Senate,” said Mattis in a press conference. “I am moving on foot at a leisurely pace, with no ill will. If these American citizens choose to take a stroll with me, then who am I to turn down their companionship?”

My favorite part:



   "After setting fire to the National Archives and sabotaging key infrastructure, the cabinet and most members of the Senate fled north toward New York and Boston in cars, vans and whatever other vehicles they could commandeer."


Notice that the House isn't fleeing?  If I were writing this spoof, I'd add this:


  "Senate Majority leader Harry Reid's motorcade was identified and stopped by citizen-partisans, and after a short gunbattle with his security detail, was seized and introduced to a rope and telephone pole.  His companion, Nancy Pelosi, was sold as a slave to Arab diplomats shortly afterwards, and the proceeds of the sale donated to reduce the national debt."

Waffles doesn't make it