Wednesday Houston Colt .45s Open Comments

Don’t miss this one, over at The Federalist:

Good morning.

America is perpetually never far from an existential moment of choice. But it is important to acknowledge that we do have a choice: to listen to the seething naysayers who would rather live in a world of cruel despots who shine fleeting favor on them, or to shrug off the burden of its own self-doubt, being the reluctant hero that never really conquers the frontier, but is shaped by it, existing in a world of wild beasts, harsh elements, barbed wire, and the barrel of a gun.

The frontier created the living myth we should not only defend but hold up as our ideal, a high moral bar that few can master and most don’t attempt. As Cooper wrote to his friend, inventor Samuel Morse, “We should assume the frank attitude of the republicanism we profess, ask only what is right, and take nothing less.”

Super Dave

Looks like Shannon kicked it off early today. The ground breaking for the Astrodome was real neat since they used Colt 45’s instead of shovels.
Mornin’ Gang

Morning gang. Winds predicted to be over 30 and gusty today and tomorrow, so we can get that out of the way.

I didn’t move to Houston until 1964 the summer before entering Rice as a freshman. Houston was an exciting place, the Astrodome leading the way of course, but NASA, the space race, business booming everywhere, and everyone seemed to have a “can do” attitude. The only limits to what you could do were what you could dream. Several Oiler players would come over to Rice to work out in the summer with us, and we were shagging passes from Frank Ryan while he was QB for the Cleveland Browns. High times for some old boy from San Saba to be running with a bunch of people you were reading about in the newspapers and sports magazines for some time. What an experience to discover that those people were real. Rehashing the building of the Dome with BFF, her father was an engineer and they would go over to the building site every day and look at the progress. It was an engineering marvel at it’s time, and many though that it could never hold up. Unique problems would come up, and the engineers would develop untested solutions – all covered breathlessly by the press.

Houston was the place to be in the 1960’s before the Dems took over.

You all have a great day.

Katfish

I recall Colt.45 stadium all too well – if the breeze wasn’t pretty strong the mosquitoes would carry you home for supper!

GJT

Great article Shannon.

Colt 45s were before my time here, but I’m ashamed of myself I had to rehash in my mind Houston Buffalo history vs the 45s because I confused remembering Buffalo Stadium’s home plate location is in the old Fingers building downtown.

GJT

I’m sure there were no lights in either of those stadiums, so they were all day games correct? Mercy.

Hubby and I are on a list, and we get multiple phone calls a day from real estate wholesalers looking to buy some property from us.

Like, ten out more calls a day.

Many of them are farmed out to call centers in India or the Philippines, but some here in America. When I get a “scam likely” message on my phone I don’t even answer it. Sometimes they leave a message. I guess I should clear my messages, too.

Last night, one of those calls way repeated right away after I hung up. That hasn’t happened before, so I thought it might actually be important, so I picked up the second call. The gentleman was very polite, well spoken, and considerate, but I cut him off and asked”are you calling to buy one of my properties?”. There was an awkward pause before he as awkwardly acknowledged that it was the purpose of his call. I told him we weren’t selling and hung up.

I feel badly now. That guy was trying to earn a living, and he was the most polite caller I’ve had. I didn’t feel like just a phone number, taking to him.

Super Dave

My wife saw a strange bluebird on the loop that goes from this house, the long way around to the highway. The road is a horseshoe so we usually just head east 200 yards to get to the highway but sometimes we make the 1 mile loop just to see what’s going on at the neighbors and kinfolks houses.
I thought it might be an Indigo Bunting but it turns out, it’s Blue Grosbeak. We’ve never seen them here before but we have lots of Eastern Bluebirds, a pair is nesting in the birdhouse beside the greenhouse. FWIW; The picture is bad but you can see the Rusty Wingbars so that you can tell the difference between the birds. Wife says that he’s there all the time so I’m going to run over there on the Mule and see if I can get a good shot.

Bonecrusher

There is some D-Bag named Carol Holt who is in the process of having her house foreclosed. Somehow, my phone number (that I have had for more than 20 years) is on the official record. I have probably gotten at least 500 phone calls related to her non payment issues over the last 2 years and at least 100 in the last 6 weeks or so. I have given up on trying to be patient or polite; now they are texting me as well. If I don’t have a name associated with the number I don’t answer, if they text me I respond with WRONG EFFING NUMBER. I respond harshly to all telemarketers as I am on the DO NOT CALL LIST. It is not legitimate to cold call people who make it clear that they do not wish to be called.

Super Dave

#6 GJT, As I understand it the Astrodome was built with opaque panels in the roof to let in sunlight so they could grow real grass but the grass didn’t cooperate so that is why Astro Turf was invented.

The Army has let out a contract to Sig-Sauer for a rifle and Squad Automatic weapon to replace the M4 (M16) and M249 (Mini-mi).

The heart of the system is a new cartridge, long overdue, that is a hybrid of the 5.56 (.223) and 7.62 (.308) that increases firepower and penetration without increasing weight and bulk.

The Stoner M16 system has an impressive service record having served as the principal infantry weapon for almost 60 years (58 to date), the longest in US History. Previously, the record had been held by the United States Rifle, Caliber .30, Model of 1903 which served as the principal arm from 1903 until 1936 and as a secondary standard until the 1950s.

But I have my doubts as to whether M16 platforms will serve in inventory the way the ’03 did. The ’03 served as the principal sniper weapon until the early ’70s, making it still the longest serving weapon in inventory (68 years). The M16 will in no way challenge that record as its utility as a Designated Marksman or Sniper weapon is limited to using common ammunition with other squad weapons. For actual Sniper purposes where the weapon uses dedicated ammunition (such as .308 and .50) there is no place for .223 unless your target is woodchucks.

But this new 6.8 cartridge holds a lot of promise in the Sniper role as well as the standard cartridge for Squad weapons. It will be a long time, though, before the .50 BMG is replaced in the long distance role.

Super Dave

Netflix Nightmare: Stock Craters, 200K Subscribers Loss, Predicts Losing 2 Million More This Year.

Netflix is facing what can only be described as a nightmare scenario as customers continue to abandon the far-left streaming entertainment giant in droves, threatening the company’s financial stability.

Shares of Netflix plummeted more than 20 percent in after-hours trading Tuesday after the streamer reported catastrophic results for the first quarter.

So far this year, Netflix shares are down a staggering 55 percent.

Netflix, which still has a production deal with Barack and Michelle Obama, said it lost 200,000 subscribers for the first quarter of the year — a huge miss for the company, which had expected to add 2.5 million subscribers.

Even more troublesome, leaders are forecasting Netflix will lose a whopping 2 million more subscribers this spring — potentially the largest quarterly loss of customers in its history.

The guidance paints a bleak financial outlook for Netflix, whose main revenue stream is paying customers.

In a letter to investors, Netflix blamed password sharing and increased competition from other streamers including Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video for what it euphemistically called “revenue growth headwinds.”

Netflix recently began cracking down in earnest on password sharing, which reportedly costs the company billions of dollars a year. Among its strategies is to charges subscribers who share their passwords with people outside of their households.

On Tuesday, Netflix made no reference to customers who have grown increasingly alienated by its woke content and close Democratic party affiliations. Netflix’s top executives backed the campaigns of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as those of radical leftists like Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon, whose soft-on-crime policies have led to a spike in homicides and other violent crimes.

Super Dave

#11 Sarge, I’ve been reading a lot about that platform in American Rifleman and Guns N Ammo. The 6.8 millimeter round was conceived as the best compromise of bullet diameter and case capacity that would still fit in the AR rifle. A 30 would be much better but the case doesn’t hold enough powder to achieve the velocity. I think it’ll be a big improvement and like you said; It increases firepower and penetration without increasing weight and bulk.

Super Dave

A plane full of “Karen’s” get the news that the mask mandate is gone. 😀
H/T GJT

Super Dave says:
APRIL 20, 2022 AT 8:50 AM
#11 Sarge, I’ve been reading a lot about that platform in American Rifleman and Guns N Ammo. The 6.8 millimeter round was conceived as the best compromise of bullet diameter and case capacity that would still fit in the AR rifle. A 30 would be much better but the case doesn’t hold enough powder to achieve the velocity. I think it’ll be a big improvement and like you said; It increases firepower and penetration without increasing weight and bulk.

The tension has always been between having a weapon that is as effective at range as it is in CQB. The M16 was poor at range and did the CQB job relatively well, especially when the system is shortened the way they did when they adopted the M4.

Thinking had been that since the US is no longer a nation of marksmen that the long range functionality of a round was less important than CQB, but this system is being paired with a new sighting system that apparently will be better adapted for 19 year olds with extensive video game experience and paired with the new ammuntion may bring us back to the Army of Marksmen we had at Chateua Thierry and Belleau Wood.

I do hope that Basic and Advanced Infantry Training includes extensive use of iron sights as well as the whizz bang thingy to make sure running out of batteries for the damting doesn’t become a huge issue.

Super Dave

Nolte: ‘Doomed’ CNN+ Axes all External Marketing Spending.

Every day is Christmas as more and more stories pour in about CNN+’s predictable, catastrophic, and humiliating failure.

“Warner Bros. Discovery has suspended all external marketing spend for CNN+ and has laid off CNN’s longtime chief financial officer as it weighs what to do with the subscription streaming service moving forward,” reports Axios.

Axios also reports that CNN executives believe the launch has been successful. Yeah, well, these are the same CNN execs who spent five years spreading the Russian Collusion Hoax, the Jussie Smollett Hoax; the Hands Up, Don’t Shoot Hoax; the Trayvon Martin Hoax; the Donald Trump Jr. Wikileaks Hoax; the 17 Intelligence Agencies Lie; the “Very Nice People lie; the Trump Fish Food Hoax; the Governor Cuomo Is on Top of COVID Hoax; the Republicans Funded the Russian Dossier Hoax; the Racist Covington Kids Hoax; the Brett Kavanaugh Rapist Hoax; the Melania Trump Is Missing Hoax; and on and on…

These racist, violent, dishonest degenerate executives are impervious to truth and reality, so of course, they believe CNN+ is successful.

But gets this… According to Axios, CNN+ has only 150,000 subscribers!

That’s it!

A mere 150,000…

CNN has spent somewhere around $300 million on CNN+. We already know that CNN+ only attracts 10,000 viewers at any given time. Now we know that CNN+ is nowhere near its stated goal to sign up two million in its first year. Although I’m sure CNN’s executives will tell you they are very much on track to reach that goal, but those scumbags will say anything.

If my math is correct, CNN+ has spent $2,000 per subscriber.

Ooh, there’s also bad news for Chris Wallace. If you recall, late last year, in a self-righteous snit, Wallace resigned from Fox News to put his soul in a jar for disgraced former CNN chief Jeff Zucker’s vast collection of jarred souls. So now Chris Wallace is stuck at CNN+, stuck with 10,000 viewers and his stupid CNN+ streaming show. We’ve had multiple reports that he’s very unhappy over there, melting down daily and demanding Chris “Fredo” Cuomo’s old 9 p.m. slot at CNN. If he’s not given that timeslot, the reports say, crybaby Chris has threatened to quit.

HA! 😀

Shannon

Colt stadium had lights. I don’t remember ever going to a day game there.
Daddy worked days. Seven days a week.

Disney already prepping the battlefield by putting out stories about how much debt Florida would assume if the Reedy Creek district is dissolved .

Of course, they forget to mention that all that needs to be done is to assess a special tax on theme parks to pay off the debt.

Got to make those billionaires pay their fair share, you know.

Shannon

Heh.
I watched a video or read an article a couple of weeks ago that the new caliber round is a monumental mistake.
Sorry, I didn’t save it.

Coffee & Covid ☙ Wednesday, April 20, 2022 ☙ AGREE WITH XIR

Good morning, C&C! It’s Wednesday, and there’s a lot of news popping today. Your roundup: the corporate media shifts into action to protect Narrative 2.0 with a raft of stories about how masks are harmful and don’t work; Florida strikes back after woke Disney threatened the state’s kids, and even dumber, threatened the state’s legislators; Disney flails at a too little, too late response; the Governor takes on Twitter.

/snip

******************************

*COVID NEWS AND COMMENTARY*

Yesterday I reported that a Florida judge finally ended the CDC’s abominable transportation mask mandate on Monday, with the news met by cheering throngs of in-flight passengers and crew who couldn’t even wait till they landed to strip off the hated face rags.

Then things got muddled. Joe Biden seemed to announce the White House’s official policy of NOT appealing the decision when he was reported to have said it’s an individual choice now. The Daily Mail UK said that when asked about whether passengers should still follow the CDC mandate, Biden said, “That’s up to them.”

But apparently Biden’s not in charge. As pushback from radical elements in the democrat party ratcheted up, the messaging pivoted and became more … nuanced. Yesterday, Biden’s HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said the Biden administration will “likely” appeal the federal ruling striking down Biden’s mask mandate. Then Jen Psaki told reporters it was up to the Department of Justice to decide whether to appeal the ruling.

So, who’s in charge?[Yeah, like the whole country hasn’t been asking that question already!]

When reporters asked the DOJ, it said it planned to appeal, but only depending on whether the CDC concludes the mask requirement remains necessary. Um. Then CDC said it was reviewing its secret data archives or something, and will get back to us.

Who does the CDC report to again? It’s so confusing. Here’s how the buck was passed yesterday: Biden -> Becerra -> Psaki -> DOJ -> CDC -> Biden?

Meanwhile the TSA stopped enforcing the mask mandate nationally. Several states and large cities also announced ending local transportation mandates. Disney ended its mask policy (we’ll get into that below). Seems to be a trend.

At this point, yet another pivot would be politically disastrous for the Biden Administration. People want the masks to be OVER, regardless of what mentally-challenged experts on Twitter say. Stay tuned.

*****************

Florida’s special legislative session began yesterday. The most significant item up for debate is whether to end Walt Disney World’s special exemptions from sales taxes and local government. Ruh-roh, Mickey!

I want you to really think about what a tectonic shift this is, and how quickly things spiraled out of control for the corporate giant. And I want you to think about how quickly a woke board of directors can destroy a legacy American corporation by hiring “diverse” super-woke termites to run the company instead of proven corporate executive talent. Who needs expertise when you can achieve diversity?

But maybe — maybe — those particular diverse voices have been historically un-heard for a reason. Just saying.

Remember, Disney has been THE most politically powerful entity in Florida, for decades, or even longer. So what’s happening now is truly remarkable. Here’s the timeline. First, Florida passed a law protecting very young kids from grooming. Then about three hyper-woke Disney employees with face tattoos complained, and Disney’s woke managers sprang into action.

Disney announced it was cutting off all political donations in Florida, so there. Well, money is how you grease the wheels of government, and plenty of lawmakers that had been expecting their annual contributions from Disney were probably not too happy about that. But then Disney nailed itself into its coffin.

The media giant announced that, instead of supporting legislators, it was going to financially support a slew of kooky leftwing activist groups that oppose Florida’s new law, and was going to help work to get the law reversed. YOU might not have gotten the message, but our lawmakers got it, loud and clear. Disney just threatened them. In other words, Disney said it would indirectly fund most lawmakers’ political opponents in Florida. In yet other words, Disney said it would help REPLACE the lawmakers.

I’ve never heard it said this way before, but Disney seems to have touched some kind of “third rail” with its political threats. You simply don’t do that, not if you’re trying to do business in a state. But they did it. Every conservative lawmaker in Florida now has notice that Disney plans to shift its billions to help get them UNELECTED.

Dumb, dumb, dumb. Dumb Disney!

Disney not only threatened our KIDS — our most precious gifts — by promising to support groomers and pedophiles over parents, but for some deranged reason it also simultaneously threatened legislators. Not just a couple. All of them. Including lots of legislators who are ALSO parents.

Right now, at least, Disney has made itself politically toxic. If the legislators don’t sent the corporate giant a strong message now, they’ll be digging their own graves and encouraging more political brinksmanship from other big corporations in the upcoming cycle. A strong message seems inevitable now.

And anyway, what’s Disney going to do if their special tax breaks and political district are ended? Close the park? Nope, they’ll just have to take it, and start over. I could argue persuasively that none of this would have happened absent the pandemic.

If Disney wants my advice, here’s what they should do. The board should immediately purge the entire C-suite of managers. The new managers should be impeccably non-woke, and the company should announce a review of all pending projects to ensure they meet family-friendly standards. It should also issue a public apology to Florida.

Let’s see if they take the advice!

**********************

Disney is reeling, now trying to stealthily backpedal from last week’s disastrous pro-grooming messages, bizarre internal corporate videos showing execs promising to shove our kids’ faces in unwanted LGBTQ++ content, and its poorly-considered threats to Florida lawmakers. First, it’s largely shut up about “don’t say gay.” But yesterday, the media giant made a major policy announcement, desperately trying to quench the flames of public outrage. Check out yesterday’s story in the AP, coincidentally published for wide distribution just the same day that Florida’s special session to debate Disney’s fate was firing up. The headline: “Disney World: Face Masks Optional for All Areas of Resort.”

Hahahahahaha! Too late, Mickey!

The AP ties the Mouse’s sudden reversal to the judge’s convenient decision Monday vacating the CDC’s transportation mandate. But Disney’s previous policy didn’t track the travel mandates at all. It was specially obnoxious, requiring only UNVACCINATED guests to wear face masks, but allowing jabbed hostages, I mean guests, to take them off in some spots in the park. It seems to me this announcement shows Disney was well aware that its policy was EXTREMELY irritating to many park-goers, or else the media giant wouldn’t be trying to use it as some kind of peace offering now.

In other words, Disney’s saying, “look! We’re sorry! We’ll even drop our stupid mask mandate. We’ll behave, we promise!” Wouldn’t you have just LOVED to have been in the conference room in California where the tattooed pierced lunatics running the company came up with this idea?

CEO: “What are we going to do, Kwanje-Dorothy? Those transphobic bigots in Florida might cancel our giant tax break!”

Co-CEO: “I don’t know, Kujawamana-Felicia, when they/them said just now that they/them didn’t know what to do, I agreed with xur, I, I mean xi, sorry, I can’t remember; anyway I don’t know either.”

E-VP: “Wait! Why don’t we, I mean wur, sorry, I mean xour, or xe, hang on let me look at the chart again, yes, XE should stop making people wear masks in the park in Florida. We, er xe, all know transphobes hate masks. That could work.”

CEO: “Okay, that might work. Call our AP liaison and have xim, um sorry they/them, or it, oh never mind, we don’t have time for that now, just have ‘him’ run a story on it. Let’s get it out in time to convince the special session.”

Oh man, THIS is the kind of great family-friendly entertainment we expect from Disney, and boy are they delivering.

***************************

The San Fransisco Chronicle ran another crypto-hit-piece on masks in the form of an “expert” opinion piece headlined, “Four COVID Experts Say It’s Time to Accept Reality: ‘Vaccines Work, Masks Do Not’.”

The four self-designated covid experts who wrote the piece aren’t Team Reality players. Dr. Monica Gandhi, for example, has been a cheerful social media champion of masking and jabbing from day one. But look what the four experts stated near the top of their piece, stated as a FACT:

Before other cities like San Francisco follow [Philadephia and reimpose school masks], it’s time to reassess our prevention strategies in and outside of schools and accept reality: vaccines work, masks do not.

Masks don’t work! They said it OUT LOUD!

Look, I’m just as happy as anyone that the maskal tides are finally turning out to sea, but it is hard not to feel a tiny bit bitter about corporate media’s loving new embrace of Narrative 2.0. What I mean is, if you’d written the statement above on Facebook six months ago, and said we have to “accept reality … masks do not” work, your account would have been locked down faster than Joe Biden can wander away during a press briefing if no one’s watching him.

Last year, the corporate media ran endless opinion pieces by experts telling us to mask up, dammit, don’t be anti-science. But now it’s the very same experts telling us that masks DON’T work. Thanks experts.

So you can now add Dan Halperin, Jeanne Noble, Norman Hearst and Monica Gandhi to Leanna Wen as prominent social media covid experts who are publicly advocating AGAINST masking. And Jiminy Cricket, this letter was perfect timing for a Biden Administration wrestling with the fractious politics of ending airplane masking.

The article first rounds up a bunch of studies showing no or limited effect from masks, critiques studies purporting to show mask benefits, and then notes darkly that “there is emerging evidence that masking can be harmful.” Imagine saying THAT twelve months ago. Actually, you don’t need to imagine it, since I and others DID say that, and were accused of literally kicking Grandma into the wood chipper while she’s not looking, just by SAYING IT.

And in case you are thinking, but Jeff, this article was probably written last week, long before the airplane mask falderol started, consider this sentence from later in the piece: “Continuing to require masks in schools (or airplanes for that matter) simply makes no sense.”

OR AIRPLANES.

Is that enough evidence for you that this piece was whipped up to support ending masking on planes, as I argue? The only question is whether it was organic, whether these FOUR reliable “follow the CDC” experts came up with this on their own, or whether someone asked them to do it. I have no evidence besides the propitious timing and the sneaky parenthetical reference to airplane masking. But what do YOU think?

Finally, wrapping up, the four experts fired the rhetorical Cruise missile, FOLLOW THE SCIENCE: “We should instead follow the science (and much of the world) and allow children to enjoy their childhood while learning and playing with their faces uncovered.” It’s Science! Shut up!

See how easy it is? Mask advocates are now the science deniers. Hey, other foot: meet the shoe.

**********************

The New York Times also ran a stealth hit job on masks yesterday, headlined “For Some Teens, as Masks Come Off, Anxiety Sets In.” The sub headline explains, “Whether it’s virus worries, social pressure, shyness or acne, some kids are reluctant to ditch the mask.” The story focuses on teens who have obvious anxiety disorders caused by two years of face masking.

For example, the article quotes Belle, 16, who said “only seeing half of someone’s face for two years straight and then completely opening up to them, like, ‘Oh, here’s my face’ — you know, it’s a lot.” Belle has decided to keep wearing the mask even though her school has lifted the mandate. Charlie, 15, has also decided to hang onto his mask, explaining “as of now, I feel most comfortable when I have it on.”

The Times recites the well-known figures about teen suicides, rates of suicidal thinking (up 25%) and levels of depression and anxiety (doubled). It notes the new term “mask fishing” traveling around younger social media, a term which connotes tricking people into thinking you’re more attractive than you really are by hiding your face flaws under the mask. The Times explained these kinds of trends can multiply the pain and judgment teens already feel when perceived as unattractive by their peers.

The kids think masks are normal, since they’ve been masking for a substantial fraction of their conscious existence. Charlie, the 15-year-old, even described masking as a SOCIAL NORM, explaining “when you have to break a social norm, it’s kind of like opening a door that you haven’t been through before, and it’s scary.”

The article ends on an upbeat note. An update describes how Charlie tried taking his mask off during the last three periods of school and enjoyed it. He’s keeping the mask in his pocket though, just in case.

We’ve been discussing mask-induced psychosis in kids here on C&C since the beginning. We saw it as an argument for ending child masking as soon as possible, to contain the damage created by power-mad, brain-damaged public health experts. And that’s how the Times is using it now too. They didn’t EXPLICITLY say we need to immediately stop masking kids. They just made it clear you’re a horrible person if you don’t agree with that.

********************

Yesterday, Governor DeSantis announced the State of Florida — a twitter shareholder — was looking at ways to hold Twitter’s board of directors accountable for breaching their fiduciary duties in rejecting Elon Musk’s offer to buy the company. Ruh-roh.

Ron De Santis needs to be the next POTUS. All of the ballzes, none of the baggage.

#21

From the “no one reads my posts” camp. I posted that story yesterday, including your summary of his strengths v. Trump.

And the C&C also noted it, at the end of his column today. Your timing of posting your #21 was perfect.

Shannon says:
APRIL 20, 2022 AT 9:12 AM

Heh.
I watched a video or read an article a couple of weeks ago that the new caliber round is a monumental mistake.
Sorry, I didn’t save it.

When looking at it from a strictly cost perspective, it is. But waging war on the cheap doesn’t work all that well, ask Vladimir Putin how that works. Its more than just weapons an ammunition that will be need to be replaced. Load bearing equipment and storage comes to mind immediately, although that will lag behind weapons procurement and issue. For about a decade, attempts will be made to utilize present LBE for the new ammunition much in the same way as we did when we went from .308 to .223, but in the end, LBE will begin being optimized for the new rounds almost immediately by private contractors like London Bridge Trading and troopies will buy a lot of it with their own money, bringing about a hue and cry about soldiers having to equip themselves….

Back from coffee. Not sure what is next on the agenda, other that I’ll probably eat breakfast about 10. Winds have not started howling yet, and we have a little overcast, but the prediction is that it will all be blown away pretty soon. I picked up a wedge to try to split some of my year old dead hedge stumps in hopes of being able to get them out in a year or two. I got one out, but the others seem to be not degrading as fast. I’ve sawed them down about as far as I can, but I’m thinking that if I can split them in a few places they might rot away faster. So that may be my project for today.

More later.

BTW – The Vatican refused entry to Cardinal Burke yesterday.

Cardinal Burke is an outspoken opponent of Pope Francis’ attacks on the traditional church. He is also a survivor of Covid. He, along with other faithful Catholic priests, refused the jab on moral (and scientific) grounds. He was hit quite hard, since he checked off several of the comorbity concerns. There was, of course, the usual cohort of callous and morbid cheerleaders, saying “told you so” and hoping he’d die. Thankfully, he survived and is back in action.

Pope F is not a fan of Burke. I’m sure that the order to disregard Burke’s natural immunity in lieu of the magical “green pass” indicating that the individual has succumbed to pressure and received the jab, came directly from the papal office.

Burke is willing to kiss the ring, but Bergoglio has equated the jab to that sign of respect. The more I hear about this pope, the higher the bile rises in my throat.

Texpat

I’m guessing I’m the only person on this site who actually went to Buff Stadium as a kid. It was an exciting thing for a boy in those days. I know I went twice during the week for afternoon games with my father and his business partner. Once, we got to hear Dizzy Dean announce the game and the park was packed. Dean was so popular he would tour the all the St. Louis Cardinal farm team games and announce when the Cards weren’t playing.

Some interesting facts.

On February 21, 1931, the Chicago White Sox and New York Giants played an exhibition game at Buffalo Stadium that was the first night game between two major league ball clubs. The game went on for ten innings.

The stadium nearly became home to the Cardinals after the 1952 season. Fred Saigh, who had bought both the Cardinals and the Buffs in 1947, was on the verge of being forced out of baseball after being convicted of tax evasion, and put the Cardinals up for sale. The most lucrative offer from a consortium of Houston businessmen who planned to move the Cardinals to Houston.

In the early 1960s, Buff Stadium was used as a practice facility for the AFL Houston Oilers. Charlie Hennigan, who was trying to make the team in 1961 as a walk-on, remembers:

“I wanted to play football so bad. I drove down with Charlie Tolar and there were 62 guys in the Oilers camp when we got there. We trained at the University of Houston in an old baseball stadium, Buff Stadium, and some of the guys they had in camp were out of shape; they literally crawled in there. Within two weeks, they had eliminated all but 50 of us. At that time, they only kept 33 ballplayers on the roster. Making the final cut was something everyone wanted to do.”

I somehow remember these huge black buffaloes.

Two large black buffaloes stood on both sides of the left-center field scoreboard facing each other.

wagonburner

11 sarge
Would other NATO members adopt that round as well? The commonality of ammunition across all platforms seems like it should be something that is maintained.

I’m washing the final load of canning jars. Now, to find a place to store them.

There are two lid sizes: regular and wide mouth. There are various jar sizes: quart, pint, half-pint (think “jelly jars”), and very small quarter-pint. I’ve also discovered a new one on me: pint and a half. There are large half gallon sizes, too. There may be gallon size jars, but I doubt they’d be canned; probably used for pickles. Some of the very small jars are what I have termed “belly jars,” since they have out-curved shapes, like small bellies. These would also be perfect for jellies and such, but they are wider than the usual jars.

The wide mouth jars take up more space, since their openings don’t curve in. Usually, that’s not a big deal. I have found, though, if I can find a regular mouth half-pint jar, I can c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y lower it into a wide mouth quart jar for storage. That will save me some space.

Until I fill them, of course. But for now, it helps.

This last load is on its second run, as the first time didn’t do much to cut the dirt. I noticed that some of the jars are cloudy, which indicates hard water in the canner. The house where I acquired them is literally right around the corner from where I grew up. Everyone there is on well water, and the water I drank growing up was so hard you could pound nails with it. I’ve added vinegar to this wash cycle, to see if I can clear some of the mineral deposits on the glass.

Then I have to wash the water bath canner and some other canning pieces that came with all of these jars.

And then I have to find a home for everything. /sigh

First world problems, I know.

Texpat

I just went back and saw GJT’s #6.

Surprise !

On February 21, 1931, the Chicago White Sox and New York Giants played an exhibition game at Buffalo Stadium that was the first night game between two major league ball clubs. The game went on for ten innings.

It cost $250,000 in 1930 to install lighting at Buff Stadium.

Super Dave

Just finished fabricating this car battery carrier. It’s going to make life so much ~~easier~~ more exciting. 😀

squawkbox

Texpat

I’m guessing I’m the only person on this site who actually went to Buff Stadium as a kid.

Uhhhh no. I would spend 2 weeks during summer vacay with my Grandparents. Got to go with my G-pa to Buff. Could not tell you who played, that young I was more interested in everything but the game. That was in 60-or 61. Yanno how 6 year old attention span is.

Texpat

31 Squawk

Good. I didn’t want to be alone in the old Houston geezer class.

Texpat

I also noticed this morning Mickey Herskowitz is still kicking at 89 years old.

squawkbox

A little buff Stadium minutia

. Too my knowledge the only death at Buff Stadium was truly bizarre

On June 11, 1950 a death occurred at the ballpark during a game between Houston and the Tulsa Oilers when a fifty-year-old laundry worker, Sanford B. Twente, committed suicide there at the press box.^[15] The incident was heard by those in the ballpark as well as those listening on television via KLEE-TV. Directly after the suicide, a camera broadcast television footage of the man slumped over. The police had been told a half-hour before the incident that the man had reported to a waitress that he would kill himself. Upon arriving at the television booth of the press box in the sixth inning of a game, Twente told broadcaster Dick Gottlieb “I got something to tell you.” Gottlieb, motioned the man away, and continued commentary of the game. Instead of leaving, Twente sat himself between Gottlieb and a television engineer. As the engineer attempted to remove Twente from the press box, he revealed a pistol and shot himself. His body then fell across the engineer.

Super Dave

I’ll just leave this without comment. 😉

squawkbox

Texpat

I got to tour the Astrodome before it officially opened. My G-Pa worked at the Houston Post as a printer at the time and had contacts. I think that is when my love affair with baseball got started. I think I was 8 at the time and it was so cool to go into the dome and get lost in the size of the place.

Texpat

1 Shannon

Whenever I see James Fenimore Cooper’s name mentioned, I immediately think of this Mark Twain literary beatdown of Cooper’s work. It’s hilarious.

It seems to me that it was far from right for the Professor of English Literature at Yale, the Professor of English Literature in Columbia, and Wilkie Collins to deliver opinions on Cooper’s literature without having read some of it. It would have been much more decorous to keep silent and let persons talk who have read Cooper.

Cooper’s art has some defects. In one place in “Deerslayer,” and in the restricted space of two-thirds of a page, Cooper has scored 114 offenses against literary art out of a possible 115. It breaks the record.

There are nineteen rules governing literary art in domain of romantic fiction — some say twenty-two. In “Deerslayer,” Cooper violated eighteen of them.

and,

Cooper’s gift in the way of invention was not a rich endowment; but such as it was he liked to work it, he was pleased with the effects, and indeed he did some quite sweet things with it. In his little box of stage-properties he kept six or eight cunning devices, tricks, artifices for his savages and woodsmen to deceive and circumvent each other with, and he was never so happy as when he was working these innocent things and seeing them go. A favorite one was to make a moccasined person tread in the tracks of a moccasined enemy, and thus hide his own trail. Cooper wore out barrels and barrels of moccasins in working that trick. Another stage-property that he pulled out of his box pretty frequently was the broken twig. He prized his broken twig above all the rest of his effects, and worked it the hardest. It is a restful chapter in any book of his when somebody doesn’t step on a dry twig and alarm all the reds and whites for two hundred yards around. Every time a Cooper person is in peril, and absolute silence is worth four dollars a minute, he is sure to step on a dry twig. There may be a hundred other handier things to step on, but that wouldn’t satisfy Cooper. Cooper requires him to turn out and find a dry twig; and if he can’t do it, go and borrow one. In fact, the Leatherstocking Series ought to have been called the Broken Twig Series.

You can read the rest of the Twain indictment, Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses, here.

Texpat

36 Squawk

Nice story. Our father took us to the Dome for a tour very early. I think they started official tours before it even opened for baseball. Maybe it was not MLB season yet.

wagonburner says:
APRIL 20, 2022 AT 9:40 AM
11 sarge
Would other NATO members adopt that round as well? The commonality of ammunition across all platforms seems like it should be something that is maintained.

I was wondering that as well. I know that for a while, Yerp insisted on keeping the .308 and only relented on adoption of ,223 when the US agreed to adopt 9mm as the standard for pistols and submachine guns, but I don’t know if there are any statutory or treaty requirements to do so.

Perhaps the Time Of Light Round Foolishness has passed and we can convince the Yerpeons to adopt the .45 ACP for those purposes. Might cause a realignment of the planet’s axis enough to combat Global warming.

GJT

I did not know they had stadium lighting that early, or that it would have been feasible. So most games were at night? That would be tolerable.

GJT

Unless you had to wear a suit and tie.

I’m pretty sure that many of you are upset with the sudden cataclysmic ruling that did away with the mask mandates, so if you are suffering, confused, and just having trouble coping, here’s the Bee to your rescue. https://babylonbee.com/news/7-ways-to-cope-now-that-you-cant-force-people-around-you-to-wear-masks

Shannon

30 Super Dave

If it comes with a guy with good shoulders to use it, I’ll take one.

Shannon

Duck Gottlieb…

Now there’s a name only old Houstonians would recognize.

Shannon

And Ray Miller.

wagonburner

Yerp insisted on keeping the .308

Izzat the 7.62mm?

mharper42

I just noticed I never said “HI — Good morning to Hamsters near and far!” I’m about to get ready for taking Milo, one of my 15 y.o. brother cats, to get his annual checkup from the new vet. Our old vet is the only person I know who was horribly impacted by the Chinese Flu. He is still alive, but shut down his business when he didn’t recover from covid with all his faculties intact.

Bonecrusher

TT: Does your hubby’s car club ever produce a bug like this?

wagonburner says:
APRIL 20, 2022 AT 12:03 PM

Yerp insisted on keeping the .308

Izzat the 7.62mm?

Yep. It started out as a round to replace the .30-06 right aftwr WW2 to emulate the German MP44, which is widely regarded as the first true “assault rifle” using a mid sized cartridge that fit somewhere between a rifle cartridge and pistol caliber cartridge in order to keep the weapon manageable and reasonably accurate during full auto fire, but intended to be primarily used in semi-auto mode.

The original rifle designed for that role in the US was the M14 which used the .308 but it was unmanageable during full auto fire, which contributed to the US adopting the .223 in its place. But the cartridge is a good man stopper and is widely respected as a deer hunting cartridge today.

The Yerpeons designed some excellent .308 assault rifles that IMO should have been adopted by the US but we had Macnifrikkinmara as SecDef at the time and he insisted on the lighter cartridge because he was a frigging idiot.

Texpat

REQUEST

Her Highness’ LDL cholesterol (the bad stuff) level shot up 20 points, from 73 to 93, in about 3 months after she had the 3rd vaccine shot (booster). Her triglyceride levels went up 28 from 44 to 71, still within the safe level but an unusual increase nevertheless.

I told her she shouldn’t take it, but do women ever listen to men ?

My request is to be on the lookout for any reporting or articles mentioning Pfizer COVID mRNA vaccines affecting cholesterol and/or triglyceride levels in the body.

Thanks in advance.

#50

The Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine is the first novel nucleoside-modified messenger ribonucleic acid (modRNA) vaccine to receive Emergency Use Authorization from the Food and Drug Administration in the United States. It is indicated to be used in patients ≥12 years-of-age as of May 25th, 2021, including populations with high atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) burden. However, little is known about the potential impact this vaccine may have on serum lipoprotein levels in patients with familial hypercholesteremia (FH), who are predisposed to high ASCVD burden due to elevated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). We present an interesting case where a patient with heterozygous FH (HeFH) and elevated triglycerides (TG)-controlled for years on medication and apheresis-experienced significantly elevated TG, one day after receiving his second Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine dose. It is not known whether this adverse event may be seen in other FH patients and may be worth assessing in such patients to determine the possibility of a rare adverse reaction from a COVID-19 vaccine.

Don’t know that this would helpful, but the link is here.

#35

You know that someone in some editing room had fun making that headline.

Texpat

51 Tedtam

Great, thanks, that’s a good start. Some people definitely have a reaction with LDL and triglycerides after the Pfizer vaccine although I wouldn’t be surprised if it didn’t apply to all mRNA vaccines.

Let me know if you run across anything else.

GJT

#43

30 Super Dave

If it comes with a guy with good shoulders to use it, I’ll take one.

The heat might just help your shoulders lol.

Super Dave

The Yerpeons designed some excellent .308 assault rifles that IMO should have been adopted by the US but we had Macnifrikkinmara as SecDef at the time and he insisted on the lighter cartridge because he was a frigging idiot.

I have a nice .308 that started out as a full auto or semi-auto but mine is semi-auto only. German designed, Spanish made, roller locker-delayed blowback: C.308 AKA HK 91. I love it!

Super Dave

The heat might just help your shoulders lol.

Yup but the smoke would burn your nose. 😉

Winds howling out there today, but I’m going out to face the music and see if I can get a little water on the plants. Probably need to fill the outside water troughs in back too. Expecting more of the same tomorrow I hear.

I’m working with a new/old friend to update all my emergency information, phone numbers, and the like to get it all up to date. Since BFF was so rude to get me totally dependent upon her to direct my brothers how to handle things and then had the audacity to predecease me, leaving me high and dry, and playing some catch up here. Just as well as I discovered that BSW had my Medical POA on file, but for some reason failed to scan in my DNR,so I talked to them and they found the original and have now entered it on my chart which is available to all BSW caregivers in their system. Check that off the list. Update phone numbers from brothers to reflect current addresses and the like so they can be called in emergency. Included in their instructions the fact that the neighbor lady has a key to my house so they don’t have to smash in a door or something to gain entry. Send all old instructions to call BFF and add information to contact my new/old friend that I talk with every evening much like I did with BFF so that someone knows what I’m up to if no answer for a day or two or if I’m traveling. Then copy all the players with the list.

BFF was an attorney and had her affairs in order in her head I assume, and it’s still turning into a treasure hunt – OK, where is the document that created this trust, who is the substitute trustee if the original is deceased, where is this insurance policy, why did she do this or that. Imagine what it would be like if her affairs were not in order. Point is, get with someone, tell them what you want, tell them where all the paperwork is. Title documents for vehicles, car key with labels or tags, and importantly – make certain that someone other than you can sign on your checking account to keep bills paid while all the probate stuff is pending -holding time for probate court in Dallas now sits at 4 months. Need to keep the power and water on and do a few other things while this is all going on, and someone has to keep those bills current, so get a joint account accessible to more than just the decedent – BFF did not do that and it’s creating a burden on the family as nothing can be done for 4 months but the bill have to be paid.

Anyway, it has been somewhat taxing for me just to update all my simple instructions, so keep your stuff current.

Looking like new/old friend will soon assume that title of BFF2.

Texpat

Florida Senate votes 23-16 to end Disney’s special tax privilege

Whoa ! Hammer down.

I have an Evernote account, and LD has the password. I have a document in there for “when I die” – includes information on how to find our accounts, lists all the insurance policies (including contact info), how I want certain items divvied out, etc. Also included is cemetery information. I can “inherit” a space that Grandpa paid for, but it’s best to approach the cemetery after I’ve taken my last breath. Trying to get legal rights to a plot while still alive means I have to contact every last heir or guardian and getting them all to sign off their rights to a plot.

At Grandma and Grandpa’s 50th Anniversary, they had 31 grandchildren. That was in the 80’s. There have been oodles of offspring since then, and I wouldn’t even know how to get ahold of some of them.

BUT – I found this out when dealing with Mom – if I’m dead then burying me becomes an “emergency” and different rules apply. LD (or Hubby, if he’s still around) can go to the cemetery folks, point to one of three remaining plots, and say “Plant Tedtam there.”

Same applies with Hubby. Since his mother didn’t use her plot, I plan to bury him with his father and brother in Lake Jackson. The only other relative is his brother, and I really don’t want to deal with him. He and I are like oil and water. Knowing him, he’ll probably opt to be cremated and scattered. Hubby, being Catholic, needs to have a resting place. It’s a requirement.

So, in my Evernote document is a copy of funeral contract that Grandpa put in place. I need to make sure I have a copy of my birth certificate, too, so that LD/Hubby can prove I’m an heir to the piece of dirt.

But, El G has a point. I need to review the document and make sure that everything is up to date.

Getting old sucks, but I guess this isn’t just a ‘getting old’ thing. Even young adults need to do this. None of us are guaranteed a tomorrow.

Bonecrusher

#58: The special tax privilege and the Reedy Creek management district. Now the Disney terds are going to have to go through all the same permitting headaches that every other Floridian has to deal with. I think Disney dropped a clod in the butter churn when they came out in favor of grooming children.

GJT

My aunt had a will, we found it pretty quickly but it was a copy and we never did find the original. The lawyer that did it 30 years ago was no help. Copy of a will is just a piece of paper. She had never married and had no kids, my deceased dad was the only sibling. We have to get signed and notarized affidavits, three I think, of witnesses verifying that. At least we were able to get me on her account to keep the bills paid.

Eldest Sis tried to get Beloved Fluttery Aunt to stop autopayment on some of her accounts. BFA refused, thinking that this was her way of effectively managing her demise. Since Eldest was not a signatory on the account, nor on any of the autopaid accounts, it took her several months of effort to get the account closed and the payments stopped. I remember how frustrated she was. Eldest, that is. BFA didn’t really care at that point. Obviously.

GJT

My aunt having everything on autopayment was a blessing to us, it kept things rolling along till we could get a handle on things. We didn’t have any issues getting them stopped, but they were all on utilities, credit cards and such.

She got a Discover card very early on and every time I talked to them they were in awe of how long she had been a customer, giving me a direct phone number so next time I wouldn’t have to go thru the press uno for engless BS. Very nice people. In fact they just called yesterday to tell me the check for credits she had build up were cleared and in the mail.

Texpat

GJT

I did not know they had stadium lighting that early, or that it would have been feasible. So most games were at night? That would be tolerable.

Unless you had to wear a suit and tie.

I only remember bits and pieces of being at Buff Stadium. The big black buffaloes on the scoreboard, the Spanish tile-roofed entrance and the fact most of the men had on suits or dress shirts with ties and wearing hats. I’m sure they were, like my dad and his partner, escapees from the offices/businesses in downtown Houston. No doubt there were men there in work clothes, but I don’t recall them.

One of my other early memories were the twice or three times a year my grandparents came down from Bellville and we spent all day Saturday in downtown Houston. My mother, aunt and grandmother would go to the Tea Room at Sakowitz for lunch and then go shopping at Foleys, Joskes, Battelstein’s and other stores. My grandfather and I would go to Oshman’s to look at guns and fishing gear. Then we would cross Main and go to Shudde Bros where he would buy a new hat. Then we would walk all the way down near the foot of Main and eat chili dogs at James Coney Island. After lunch we would walk over to Stelzig’s and look at all the tack, boots and Western wear. Finally, we would make it back up to Foley’s and meet up with the women folks. Shannon was with them because he was too young to make the trip in those days. Poor kid. The evening treat was loading up the car and going out South Main to Gaido’s for a big seafood supper.

Those are cherished, great memories.

I have a nice .308 that started out as a full auto or semi-auto but mine is semi-auto only. German designed, Spanish made, roller locker-delayed blowback: C.308 AKA HK 91. I love it!

The CETME version of the HK91 is truly a wonder. I have a friend who is waiting on ATF approval to produce a reproduction of the worst weapon ever devised for infantry combat for the reenactor market. He’s finished the prototype he’s talking about in this video made two years ago. He’s making two versions, one is a live fire semi-auto (which is dang near the original cyclic rate of the original if your finger is healthy), and the other is BFONG (Blank Firing Only Non-Gun) full auto, both in .308. I can’t link to pics as they’re all in a Private group over yonder, so the crappy video will have to do. He’s previously made reproductions of grenade launchers for WW1 rifles and a 3″ mortar.

Not good news for Alec Baldwin.

And not good news for the folks trying to blame the Armorer:

Investigators found production managers placed tight limits on resources for a small team that controlled weapons on set and failed to address concerns about a shotgun left unattended twice.
Armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed, the daughter of a sharpshooter and consultant to film productions, was limited to eight paid days as an armorer to oversee weapons and training, and was assigned otherwise to lighter duties as a props assistant. As her time as an armorer ran out, Gutierrez Reed warned a manager and was rebuffed.
Gutierrez Reed is both a plaintiff and a defendant in lawsuits seeking damages in the fatal shooting. In a statement Wednesday, her attorney highlighted findings that the armorer “was not provided adequate time or resources to conduct her job effectively.”

Even worse news for good ol’ Alec:

Kenney said the separate investigations into possible criminal charges are still underway. The Santa Fe County sheriff and local prosecutors had no immediate comment.

Hubby reminded me that we are going to Bryan/College Station tomorrow for Muster. College Buddy will be remembered this year, and his aunt asked us to join them for the event.

We’ll be gone all day, coming back Friday. Hubby will go from there to the Dallas area for a car show.

I remembered to get payroll done today. If we don’t get rain tonight, I’ll have to remember to water tomorrow and take out the trash before I leave tomorrow.

mharper42

Well, Milo passed his inspection and no issues were found. Went ahead and made appointments next week for his 2 brothers. That gets everyone caught up since we had to have a new veterinarian. The new doc seems to be genuinely fond of cats.

Super Dave

Well, I had a busy day clearing the dam of the big pond. The pines and sweetgums have about taken over the sides. I’ve been working on it for about a week and I might be 3/4 finished. SO, when I got my shower, I threw together a Hobo Supper with pork chops, fresh string beans and corn on the cob. I also popped some frozen Texas Toast in the broiler. Man, that was some fine eating and something that my wife loves even though I’ve only been making them for a few months, well except for those times in the 70’s. 😉

Texpat

Tedtam

Aggies on the March 1908

Available here.