Jul 252021
 

I’ve watched a number of videos produced by a Russian couple who have a pet cat. Sure, we all like cat videos… but their cat, “Messi,” is a slightly subscale puma that lives like a house cat. Every video I’ve seen of this critter makes me want my own pet puma. And then I put a few seconds thought into it, look at the scratches I get regularly from my normally-scaled house cats who aren’t even trying, and I think better of the idea. Sure, Messi seems astonishingly well behaved. But pumas are not domesticated. One day I think Messi might remember what he is, and then the next video won’t feature the Russian couple… it’s just be the remaining one.

This video from a week ago, for instance. They give Messi some pills. This is a process I’ve had to do myself, and I always come out of it bleeding.

Nope.

NOPE.

 Posted by at 11:05 pm
Jul 232021
 

Two boxes with fifty copies of “SR-71” showed up yesterday. Woo! These will be signed and with any luck at all sold.

 

As previously mentioned, I’m working on a pair of 18X24 prints to go with the signed copies. if you’re on the mailing list, you should have recently received a message (or three… email continues to be problematic) about this.

Here’s a glimpse of the work in progress.

 Posted by at 5:19 pm
Jul 232021
 

Politifact, a “fact checking” site, claims without evidence that:

No, Joe Biden doesn’t want to ban handguns

The gaslighting is spectacular. The article even quotes Biden:

“The idea you need a weapon that can have the ability to fire 20, 30, 40, 50, 120 shots from that weapon, whether it’s a 9-millimeter pistol or whether it’s a rifle, is ridiculous. I’m continuing to push to eliminate the sale of those things.”

Politifact claims that this means “only” that President Elder Abuse wants to ban magazines. But he specifically said that he’s pushing to ban weapons that “have the ability” to fire twenty rounds. Bypassing the obvious point that even a single-shot flintlock can fire twenty rounds (it’ll take a quarter hours to do it, but you can do it), there are easily available 20 and 30 round magazines for common handguns. There are drum magazines you can plug into your Glock that hold 50 rounds. This means that your average handgun “can have the ability to fire 20, 30, 40, 50, 120 shots from that weapon” which means Biden wants to ban it.

So either Politifact is lying or Biden is.

Here’s a 20-round magazine for a .45.

Here’s a 40-round drum for a .45.

Here’s a 50-round drum for a .40 Glock.

Here’s a 50-round drum for a 9mm Glock.

 Posted by at 3:45 pm
Jul 222021
 

Because why not.

First up:

A Manchester Mural Was Defaced by Racist Graffiti. Soccer Fans Rushed to Fix It.

This story has been kinda all over the place, even though:

1) It’s Britain, not the US

2) It’s soccer, not a real sport

3) It’s someone I doubt one American in ten thousand had ever heard of.

Anyway, the story goes that a mural was painted of a black soccer player. The soccer player apparently played badly in a recent game of “let’s watch paint dry,” so some fans were upset. One fan painted negative graffiti onto the existing mural. The police were called and are making a big deal out of finding who did this dastardly deed (seems fair to ask if the the British police leap into action *every* time there’s graffiti. Or a burglary. Or arson. Or an assault. Or a grooming gang.). News media around the world lost their minds yapping about the racist graffiti. But, interestingly, finding out what the graffiti actually said is a little challenging. The New York Times article linked above decided that that wasn’t News Fit To Print. But it is possible to find what the graffiti was:

Marcus Rashford mural graffiti ‘not racial’, say police

The word “f***” was scrawled over the huge artwork and the words “shit” and “bastard” were also written beside the word “Sancho”.

That’s… that’s racist? Really? REALLY???

Huh.

And in other news:

Former city council candidate to introduce ballot initiative creating ‘African American autonomous zones’ in DC

Which includes this spectacular line from the proposed legislation:

To deny African Americans autonomous regions in DC, would be denying us our basic human rights.

I have little doubt that there are ethnic nationalists of all kinds – black, white, Asian, Hispanic, whatever – who will watch this with great interest.

That line was followed by these:

African Americans have the right to have autonomous regions because we are indigenous people.

The United Nations defines indigenous people as: “the descendants of those who inhabited a country or a geographical region at the time when people of different cultures or ethnic origins arrived. The new arrivals later became dominant through conquest, occupation, settlement or other means.” (United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues)

Huh. Once again, I’m sure there are lots of people watching this. Like… I dunno, a lot of English people in London. Or, hell, pretty much everybody everywhere. Jut about anybody is descended from somebody who got conquered at some point.

 Posted by at 4:16 pm