A View from the Rocking Chair:
** Responsibility and accountability are like kryptonite to the woke. This guy echoes my experiences perfectly in this Tucker clip.
** Wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it. Right is right, even if no one is doing it.
** This is for Old NFO, fellow Mustang…and everyone else.
** Civil War is a movie in the same way a grenade is a source of light. Whatever else Civil War might be — a dystopian work of fiction, it is foremost a psy-op exercise masked as a brave work of creative storytelling. Its bombastic violence is the shiny thing that distracts attention from the deeper purpose of the movie: to dissuade and demoralize anyone who would support Trump in 2024. (American Thinker) Note: I haven’t seen the film, but trust this review.
** University graduates in 2024 may not be the most educated. They are likely the most indoctrinated, and that’s not the same thing.
** Thinking about my Colt 1911… God made men, and Samuel Colt made them equal. Samuel Colt knew nothing about smokeless powder or auto-loading handguns. He died in 1862. The real genius in firearm design was John Moses Browning (and I give credit to his father, Jonathan Browning, who was a firearms designer and got him started, too). There are few singular geniuses when it comes to firearms design, and the fact that gunmen (like myself) still carry John Moses Browning’s design over 100 years after the first handgun was made – given all of the advances in the world between 
1911 and now – is remarkable. I also own a Browning Hi-Power but tend to carry my Kimber 1911 more frequently. My favorite bird-hunting shotgun is the Browning (Broadway) Lightning in 12 ga. (over/under). I own a long-range rifle that chambers the Browning Machine Gun .50 caliber cartridge. The Ma-Deuce (M-2 machine gun) is as legendary as his other designs. The son of a pioneer gunsmith who crossed the prairie to Utah, Browning stands as a monument to both simplicity and engineering genius. My grandchildren will inherit my firearms designed by John Moses Browning.
** The Chinese Bicycle Graveyard. All those EV-sharing schemes rusting in silence.
** Peterson on understanding anxiety.
** Only a woman who has delivered a child without an epidural can understand the pain that a man goes through when he has a cold or the flu…
** Old NFO disbelieves the official numbers. More here.
** This year, for the first time, new cases of cancer in the U.S. are expected to surpass 2 million. The alarming increase follows a period of relative stability in new cancer cases before COVID-19. Experts disagree on the root cause. Some say it’s just a backlog after so many people put off screenings during the shutdowns.
However, some researchers have pointed to the mysterious spike protein in COVID-19 that vaccines make. They say it’s causing “turbo cancers.” Dr. Nathan Goodyear is a medical doctor, an alternative treatment homeopath, and an integrative oncologist. He became interested in specializing in cancer after he developed a tumor in his adrenal gland.
The Horse Manure Problem of 1894
The 15 to 30 pounds of manure produced daily by each beast multiplied by the 150,000+ horses in New York City resulted in more than three million pounds of horse manure per day that must be disposed of. That’s not to mention the daily 40,000 gallons of horse urine.
In other words, cities reeked. As Morris says, the “stench was omnipresent.” Here are some fun bits from his article:
Urban streets were minefields that needed to be navigated with the greatest care. “Crossing sweepers” stood on street corners; for a fee, they cleared a path through the mire for pedestrians. Wet weather turned the streets into swamps and rivers of muck, but dry weather brought little improvement; the manure turned to dust, whipped up by the wind, choking pedestrians and coating buildings.
. . . even when it had been removed from the streets the manure piled up faster than it could be disposed of . . . early in the century farmers were happy to pay good money for the manure, by the end of the 1800s stable owners had to pay to have it carted off. As a result of this glut . . . vacant lots in cities across America became piled high with manure; in New York, these sometimes rose to forty and even sixty feet.
We must remember that horse manure is an ideal breeding ground for flies, which spread disease. Morris reports that deadly outbreaks of typhoid and “infant diarrheal diseases can be traced to spikes in the fly population.”
Comparing fatalities associated with horse-related accidents in 1916 Chicago versus automobile accidents in 1997, he concludes that people were killed nearly seven times more often back in the good old days. The reasons for this are straightforward:
. . . horse-drawn vehicles have an engine with a mind of its own. The skittishness of horses added a dangerous level of unpredictability to nineteenth-century transportation. This was particularly true in a bustling urban environment, with surprises that could shock and spook the animals. Horses often stampede, but a more common danger comes from horses kicking, biting, or trampling bystanders. Children were particularly at risk.
Falls, injuries, and maltreatment also took a toll on the horses. Data cited by Morris indicates that in 1880, more than three dozen dead horses were cleared from New York streets each day (nearly 15,000 a year).
Meme of the Day
For Boat Owners – You know who you are…
From the Days of Fighting Sail
Klaus Störtebeker, a German Pirate
Besides numerous notorious pirates like Blackbeard, Anne Bonny, Henry Morgan, and so on, there was also a German pirate. A certain Klaus Störtebeker, Klaas Störtebecker, Claas Störtebeker, or Nikolaus Storzenbecher (* c. 1360; † probably on 20 October 1401 in Hamburg), was a pirate and, besides the notorious captains Gödeke Michels, Hennig Wichmann, Klaus Scheld and Magister Wigbold one of the leaders of the Vitalien brothers also known as Likedeeler. Numerous legends surround it.
Together with the other captains mentioned above, he occupied Stockholm as Queen Margarethe I of Denmark from 1391, supplying the Swedish population with food. Duke Albrecht II of Mecklenburg, a relative of the Swedish King, was responsible for this. They were then named after the French “Viktualien brothers” or “Vitalien brothers” who supplied the French army with food in the 14th century during the war against England. After their success against Queen Margarethe I, they were hired by Duke Albrecht II as privateers to damage the Danish trade. With the peace agreement of 1395, the Vitalien brothers lost their patron. To protect maritime trade with England and Holland from pirate attacks, the Hanseatic League, particularly the Hanseatic city of Hamburg, intensified the persecution and fight against Störtebekers and Gödeke Michels. However, Störtebeker is said to have repeatedly escaped the superior Hanseatic cogs with his ships to the high seas. As Likedeelers, as “equals,” they distributed their prey justly among themselves and gave poor from it. Their new motto was: “God’s friends, enemies of the world!”
Three years later, the Teutonic Order drove the Vitalienbrüder away from Gotland. They left the Baltic Sea and found new clients and protection with Frisian chiefs. Klaus Störtebeker’s crew was captured near Helgoland in 1400 and executed on Grasbrook near Hamburg.
Störtebeker offered the Senate a golden chain after the death sentence, for life and freedom, which should extend around the whole city – and, which the Senate rejected. When the legendary gold treasure of the Likedeeler could not be found, the ship was sold to a ship carpenter. When he set the saw to dismantle the ship, he encountered something hard: hidden in the masts was the treasure, one filled with gold, the other with silver, and the third with copper; he had a crown made from the gold for the tower of St. Catherine’s Church in Hamburg. Klaus Störtebeker was beheaded on 21 October 1401 with 72 companions, among them his helmsman Humbert Grobherz, on the Grasbrook outside Hamburg’s harbor entrance by the executioner Rosenfeld from Buxtehude.
(Execution of the Vitalienbrüder on Grasbrook in Hamburg. Flyer from 1701 from the Hamburg State Archives)
According to legend, Kersten Miles, the mayor of Hamburg, promised to give life to all the men he would pass after his beheading. The headman walked past eleven men before the executioner threw the executioner’s block in front of his feet (according to some sources, he was legged). After the fall of the pirate, the mayor broke his promise, and all 73 pirates were beheaded. The heads of the pirates were impaled along the Elbe. Störtebeker’s remains, such as his drinking cup, were destroyed in the Great Hamburg Fire in 1842.
(Skull of a man executed in Hamburg around 1400, discovered in 1878 during the construction of the Speicherstadt on Grasbrook, served as the basis for the reconstruction of the facial features, probably a pirate, perhaps Klaus Störtebeker.)
The Earliest Known Ship’s Name
The vessel from Egyptian times was a riverboat made of cedar and named Praise of Two Lands after an inscription (Anzovin, Steven (2000). Famous First Facts, p. 385), it dated from the time of Sneferu, 2613 BC
This is part of a Mural with an Egyptian sailing ship, ca. 1422-1411 BC, from the tomb of Menna. Even if the time span between this mural and the aforementioned ship is quite long, the appearance is unlikely to have changed much. So, it is quite possible that Praise of Two Lands could have looked like this.
Identify the Aircraft
1 & 2
3
4
5
Identify the Vehicles
6
I changed my mind. I’m not going to make you guess. British Lanchester 6×4 armored cars camouflaged as elephants, 1941.
7
Parting Shot
End
Identify the Aircraft:
1. Panavia Tornado
2. Vickers VC10 tanker
3. Naval Aircraft Factory SBN
4. Mitsubishi J2M ‘Jack’
5. Blackburn Firecrest
Identify the Vehicles:
6. M26 Pershing
7. M15 half-track
I had hopes that the Blackburn would slow you up. I guess not. Stand by…
Touche AI Surly! Caught me sleeping.
Or is there another reason? Our answers are usually almost identical in layout and content. We usually respond near simultaneously. Perhaps Surly is the fugue state of HogsbreathSS or vice versa?
IDA-
1. Panavia Tornado
2. Vickers VC10
3. Naval Aircraft Factory SBN
4. Mitsubishi J2M ‘Jack’
5. Blackburn Firecrest
Identify the Vehicles:
6. M-26 Pershing
7. M15 half-track
Correction
6. Lanchester Mk. II armored car
Yes, definitely not a Mk1 Mod3 Elephant.
I thought the Mk1 pachyderm had a lot more hair and longer tusks…
I was sitting at a light headed toward the launch with a friend when I got rear-ended.
They ran into the back of my boat.
I walked to the owner of the van parked behind me and asked if she didn’t see that big boat stopped at the red light.
She said “Of course I did, but I don’t think the guy behind me saw my van when he hit me and shoved me into your boat.”
Good answer…sorry for the boat, hope it was okay.
I was able to repair the transom since it’s aluminum.
Busted the trailer. had to reweld that too.
But like that boat in the picture, I never tie it down.
Years ago, my dad was pulling it down the expressway with no motor on it.
The tie down strap broke and the boat started to fly like a kite.
Then the winch started paying out. A near disaster.
Every good American should own at least one 1911. I generally pack a Springer, though my prize is the Remington Rand Dad brought back from Okinawa in ’45.
Verily, all should harken unto the Gospel of Saint John Moses of Browning, as translated from the ancient documents by Friar Frog:
https://www.frfrogspad.com/jmb.htm
I have a Para-Ordnance P12-45…..Does that count?
“The Horse Manure Problem of 1894”, when the world saw the answer to horses powering everything was the horsepower from internal combustion engines. In a century, they were back to wanting the horses because they’d lost all the lessons from the past.
There’s a pattern there. The cries for “renewable energy” when much less than a century ago, renewable energy was too dirty. In the sense of burning those renewable trees and planting new ones. And every elementary school kid knew carbon dioxide was the trees’ food instead of some evil gas that must be gotten rid of at all costs.
“There she blows” (no relation to testimony in NYC) will be the name of my renewable energy start up. Because nothing says sustainable quite like whale oil. Served for lighting for centuries, and you can eat the byproduct or make nice artwork (useful employment for the social studies crowd) out of it.
If you ever try to book a seat with “Cape Anne Whale Watch,” do NOT ask “can I bring my own harpoon, or do I have to rent one at the dock?” They have no sense of humor.
Heh
Heh
In regards to JMB if you haven’t already read it I highly recommend this book.
https://www.historynet.com/the-guns-of-john-moses-browning-book-review/
Old NFO is spot on…Aaron Black at the WSJ had these numbers: [2023 numbers listed] “Well, last year wasn’t too bad – only cumulatively up 3.8% – half the entire amount of Mr Trump’s FOUR years. So far 2024 looks like this: 24-Jan 18.9%, 24-Feb 19.8%, 24-Mar 20.6%, 24-Apr 21.1%….That is NOT inflation going down. And the cumulative has increased by 2.7% in only four months – looking much worse than last year. It will be at 25% by the election.”
—Burn the house down to rule over the ashes (h/t Sun Tzu)
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Send all the Lefty’s back in time to 1894 NYC, force them to stay for a week. How many will return with a changed attitude? How many will freak out over zero technology and no vegan fare? How many would return at all…because they expired having no idea how hard life was back then and running afoul of something? Forcing reality on the indoctrinated tends to weed out the convicted of their foolishness.
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Boatman- Same reason why I scan the Home Depot parking lot before heading out onto the main road — avoidance of some in the General Public is an imperative. (see the 1st video for clarification)
Were the elephant disguises effective?
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– Kle.
They did on first blush for me. heh Was going to ask how they got them loaded until I realized they were facsimiles.
…grandchildren will inherit browning…and still be well armed. they discontinued the p35 thinking it was outdated and stale. now at least six companies are selling them like hotcakes, and my original tripled in value. but my favorite is still a bone stock govt model 45.
The one thing I do not like about the 1911 is how dependent they are. They follow me home on a regular basis. Oh well, I have to have something to fondle and play with in my room at the poor house.
The care and feeding of the 1911…
Browning. Funny you should mention. Yesterday I managed to get in some range time (well, it was my birthday). Shot my Springfield Range Officer and Browning Hi-Power (Hungarian PJK). Having seen 7+ decades, I am happy to report that I can still keep ’em in the center.
In my younger days I read John Browning’s illustrated biography. I was surprised to learn that there were several of his lever action rifle designs that were never produced. Winchester bought the patents to keep them off the market.
Larry, I’m just checking in to make sure you’re okay and life is good. I hope you’re enjoying yourself. Your pictures are amazing. I’m incredibly busy. I only have time to watch Clarkson‘s farm and nothing else apart from other things which are endless and time consuming to the point of relentless hysteria. If only I was a pirate in Cornwall. I’m still trying to move house whilst doing a challenge and things are very much on top of me – not in a good way. Anyway, I thought I better come to your blog in case I’ve been barred for not coming for ages. Even my own WordPress site may have locked me out. Back again at some point, maybe I might come back here again tonight. I can’t promise anything anymore. It’s all very Ruby Tuesday. This is not a non sequitur, you just have to use my logic.
As with you, I’m still breathing in oxygen and exhaling CO2, doing my bit to contribute to global warming. The blog must go on.
Breathing is good…waiting for The Dems to start taxing it…”You have reached your breathing allotment for the day, please refrain from further CO2 activity…you can offset the future infraction by paying a consumption tax.” (or if suffering a cold, do as London does, a congestion tax)
My boys argue on who gets my 1971 Colt Government Model. If they knew how long I had to work at $2.50/ hour to buy that beauty, as a high school senior . How many times I took it to the pawn shop, when I had sick babies and no money, but I always left with it. Well you know.
Don’t shoot it as much any more , I don’t shoot anything as much anymore. My shooting compadres have shuffled of their mortal coil.
To be clear , it is a 1911 bought new in 71.
used my enlistment bonus to buy my first one. had to trade it a couple years later for an approved backup gun for work. got another asa i got my head above water and never been w/o one, or five, since.
Never owned a 1911. I did own a Star clone in 9 mm bought at the Rod and Gun Club in Hanau, Germany. Worked well with no problems but I finally sold it. I’m a revolver man. The M2 is also legendary for being a bitch to hump on a road march.
Kimber Ultra Raptor II WSF. S&W (642) five screw and S&W (686) .357 Magnum are a couple of my personal revolver favorites. Post war Colt .38 detective special is up there too. What are your top three revolvers if you don’t mind me asking?
-STA Seasoned
I’ve carried a Charter Arms Bulldog .44 Special since around 1995. In 2005 my shooting eye developed macular degeneration leaving me left eye dominate. No amount of practice made me more than marginal. All the long guns and shotguns went to family members. My tuck away bad breath range piece is a NAA stainless steel single action derringer. I have four cylinders, two in .22 and two in .22 Mag. The most expensive long gun I’ve owned was a Mannlicher double trigger carbine in .308 bought while stationed in Hanau, Germany. I wanted something better than the p.o.s M-14 I was issued if Ivan came thru the Fulda Gap.
I’m not joining the debate on M-14s. Depending on who built them, they can be fine weapons. Whoever built the one I was issued built a p.o.s.
A firearms, to me, is a tool. Snap On is a premium tool but upgrade Pittsburgh from Harbor Freight turns the nuts and bolts I need turned.
No disrespect to those who own and appreciate fine firearms. My criteria is just that, my criteria. That Bulldog has well over 1,000 rounds down the barrel and has never failed to go bang when I’ve pulled the trigger.
Could I once shoot? High School, three time state champion Junior NRA. Army Basic, missed two targets during qualification with a beat up M-1. Grew up with subsistence (poacher) hunters.
Large Frame: I’m partial to my Colt Python in 4″ blue steel, low serial number. I bought it when a teenager from a former Salt Lake City, UT municipal police officer who needed $35.00. Ever the sharp trader, even from my youth, I kept cash in my pocket (then and now). I’ve used that handgun ever since and we have an emotional attachment to each other. I inherited a 6″ blue steel Colt Python from my father when he passed. I can nail tacks with both of them. I carry a short barrel Ruger Super Alaskan Redhawk in .454 Cassul for bears and such at the White Wolf Mine and am fond of it. I also have a S & W 460V, which I carry for the same purpose. It has a longer barrel than the Ruger and is a bit heavier. The cross-draw tanker holster solves that carry issue. I don’t flinch when I shoot them even though they have significant recoil. Either of them will kill any animal in North America. I keep them handy when traveling in gang areas these days. I don’t want to double tap. Just shoot and scoot without leaving brass behind.
” it is foremost a psy-op exercise masked as a brave work of creative storytelling”
Wow! A brit doing a psy-op on the Americans? It’s almost like they want their colonies back. Next I’ll be quoting Tom Luongo on the need to destroy perfidious Albion.
Perfidious Albion. How many of the world’s current trouble spots were once ruled/controlled by them?
I bought a Tirsis 1911 in 9mm last year.
Sweet gun. I mostly wanted to get familiar with how it came apart and went back together.
Then a young friend of mine went in the Marines and wanted one, but the state wouldn’t allow him to buy one at his age.
So I gave it to him.
God Bless John Moses Browning! The 1911 is my pistol-of-choice. I also have a Sig P226, a beautifully made pistiol, but I prefer the 1911. It just “feels right” in my hand.
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Civil War sounds like it might be worth a watch. Might pick a few useful tips for the coming months.
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Because only God can…had he lived today he’d be raided by the DOJ/FBI/ATF Bums at 3AM with a full tactical assault because he forgot some 2A Undermining Bravo Sierra FFL paperwork that no one but those 3-Letter Gestapo shops knew about.
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Look what that POS “Don’t bring the 2nd Amendment into my courtroom!” judge did to Dexter Taylor. This Lefty Operative needs to start with her own demographic, who obtain and use illegal guns in a large percentage of crimes, instead of persecuting an honest engineer hobbyist harming no one…and DID NOT break ANY law. She made it up as she went along to fit the outcome she wanted…typical Lefty/Dem tactic…same BS travesty they are doing to PDJT.
https://redstate.com/jeffc/2024/04/22/brooklyn-man-convicted-over-gun-hobby-by-biased-ny-court-could-be-facing-harsh-sentence-n2173162
This is a great post for many reasons, but I especially love the photos of your fleet and rocking chair. Hey, that’s just me.
The rocking chairs…that’s a great spot.
LOL, you got us with that one Larry! And no, never trust the government’s numbers, since they ALWAYS shade them in their favor. Re the 1911s, yep, my kids will each get one of mine, and still be shooting them 100 years later!
I highly suggest that if you are considering watching Civil War, that you give a look at Col Kurt Schlicter’s series that starts with Peoples Republic.
Followed by Indian Country. So realistic a depiction of the after math and predicate of a modern Civil War here.
And the protagonists favorite tool is his Kimber Elite 1911.
I’ve grown to really like the new blog format, photos, server host and so on. The change has been very good.
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1911… what’s not to like …
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Parting shot was good. Hidden behind that humor of course was the reality that going on “dawn patrol” often times meant you did not come back. And in the cartoon, this particular patrol was so bad that the Sergeant knew they probably weren’t coming back.
I forgot to say:
Applause for your painting. The first infographic captures the scene perfectly.