Let's think about that

 

I dunno. That sounds a little too much like Brer Rabbit and the briar patch. I think she deserves something significantly more severe.

An interesting piece of Civil War history

Of course, the soldiers probably would be arrested by somebody from the Dept. of the Interior today: "The Civil War Soldier With Wings".

In commemoration

I missed this by a couple of weeks, but October 3 was the 75th anniversary of "The Shot Heard 'Round the World", Bobby Thompson's pennant-winning homerun for the New York Giants.

Scroll down at the link for Red Smith's classic column on the game and the homerun ("Now it is done. Now the story ends. And there is no way to tell it. The art of fiction is dead.")

Ah, the joys of flying

If, in fact, you're ever allowed on the plane in the first place: "Passengers Say TSA Targets Them for 'Swamp Crotch'".

Blindsided

Ruger is discontinuing 19 product lines (or 20; not entirely clear): not only certain legacy guns, like the Blackhawk and the Redhawk, but also models of more recent vintage, such as the LCR and the LC carbine.  The SR-1911? Gone. The 77-series rifles? Gone. I only found out because I stumbled across this guy's video:

Here are some more details.

The Blackhawks and Redhawks have already vanished from some online retailers, as has the LC Carbine in 10mm. Ruger claims these may not be permanent suspensions, but I don't know. They're shutting down most of their revolver lines, which represents a radical change in the company's profile. I don't see how they're going to make up the handgun side of the business by focusing on semi-automatic pistols when they're going up against Glock, S&P, Walther and other manufacturers. The whole thing's pretty sad, to me. Even as recently as a year ago, you could find Blackhawks, Redhawks and Vaqueros in multiple configurations, finishes, calibers and barrel lengths.

On the upside, maybe most of my Ruger stuff now becomes collectable. 

Happy Feet Friday

The inimitable Duke Ellington and his orchestra with "Jack the Bear".

The leftist sepsis that has erupted in our political system and has spread to the private sector is proving very difficult to eradicate

And the result? Not even a half-hearted slap on the wrist: "9 Big Banks, one Yuge problem".

“A ​top U.S. bank regulator issued a report on Wednesday finding some of the country’s largest banks unfairly denied services to ‌some clients on political, religious or other grounds, but stopped short of imposing penalties.

“The de-banking report from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency covered nine of the nation’s largest banks by asset size. The regulator found each had policies restricting some clients’ access to financial services based on subjective criteria rather than financial risk.”

There are two sides to the story and Reuters was quick to give the other side, “Banks ​have said they close accounts or deny services because of legal, financial or reputational risks, not politics.

“The regulator criticized the banks ​for the practices, but did not indicate any sanctions or punishments were forthcoming. It said it may consider ⁠policy changes to discourage such activity.” [emphasis mine - Paco]

Yeah, I'm sure the regulators will get around to that two weeks after never. 

There are lots of "capitalist" rope salesmen out there, and lots of banks who are more than happy to finance them. Maybe these cowards should start thinking about an alternative to being the last one eaten by the crocodile. I mean, that strategy still means you get eaten at the end. Why not kill the crocodile and not get eaten at all?