The 42-kiloton Russian VTOL cruiser Kiev, launched in 1972, was the terror of Tom Clancy novels and the boardgame Sixth Fleet when I was in high school.Now it's a floating theme park. In China....

Once upon a time, it was not considered unseemly for a gentleman on the continent to acquire a pistol for his vest pocket......

The croci are in bloom in Broad Ripple, even if cars are still atop the ice elsewhere.I've got some gladiolus bulbs to plant around the sunnier side of the tree this weekend; I'm thinking if my delphinium has survived another winter, they'll look pretty cool together....

The Indy 1500 Fun Show is in town this weekend. Bobbi and I took a preliminary pass-through yesterday afternoon; we'll probably go back at least once more. (If you've never been, it's huge; way too big for one day if you plan on examining things in detail or doing any comparison shopping.)I picked up a trinket: It's chambered in 7.65 Browning and h...

Joe Biden, bless his heart...(h/t to Breda.)...

If you want to see nature's cleanup crew in action, Robert at Blackfork Blog has turned an automated deer camera to a slightly grislier function: Dead Cow Cam.Really neato, albeit in a creepy, "sure glad it's not filmed in smell-o-vision" sorta way....

...

Since we're on the subject of Mother Nature hating her some joggers...Mr Striegl, 25, was running up Canberra's Mount Ainslie during his lunchbreak yesterday and did not think twice when he spotted one of the resident roos nearby.The bushland reserve in the nation's capital is popular with joggers and cyclists, and assaults by the marsupials who sh...

While Barry is still feverishly stumping for the My Great Big Legacy Health Care Act of '10, most recently by holding hands with Dennis "The Red Menace" Kucinich, the Idaho state legislature has beaten Congress to the punch with the "Get Bent, D.C." Act of '10, which the governor of the Gem State has already signed into law. "[E]very person within ...

No this isn't about a Californian getting eaten by a puma or a Canadian folk singer getting killed by coyotes...This time it's about an Alaskan getting eaten by wolves.Colleagues said Candice Berner was determined to experience AlaskaWell, sounds like she experienced it, alright; all up close and personal-like.What I want to know is how come the sa...

Robb Allen wants to use his code-writing powers for good. Even better would be to use his powers for good and turning a profit at the same time, although he'd consider that just an added bonus. He needs ideas, though, so go help him out: Any ideas for software that would improve your life as a gunnie? Consider this a brainstorming session – no ...

So the local news was running a blurb on the travel warnings for spring breakers in Mexico this morning, warning them to stay within one block of the beach, while camera footage showed an Acapulco swarming with grim-eyed, black-uniformed men with slung German assault rifles.Wow.If you had told me when I was in high school that, in order to take spr...

This just in from my undercover mole:According to a little birdie, Tiger McKee, who was a padawan learner under Clint Smith before setting off on his own and starting Shootrite Firearms Academy, is collaborating with Red Jacket Firearms of Louisiana on a special AR carbine with the Tiger McKee stamp o' approval.It allegedly has a Sabre Defense lowe...

If my productivity is shot, it's all the fault of the reader who hit my Amazon wish list and sent me a copy of Working IX to V: Orgy Planners, Funeral Clowns, and Other Prized Professions of the Ancient World...

From Denise McCluggage, who was racing professionally while Shirley Muldowney was still in bobby socks:Her favorite car is a 1959 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta in which she won the 1961 Sebring GTIII."It was not only my only car; it was my only thing. I had a Ferrari, and that was it," she said.That's frickin' awesome; walking the Earth like Kane from ...

Wow, just when I thought "Torn Apart By A Killer Whale In The Middle Of An Amusement Park" was going to be a strong front runner for Bizarrest Death of '10, along comes one that knocks it into a cocked hat.Apparently a guy was flying his Lancair, a small low-wing single-engine plane, back north from Orlando when he started having engine problems. ...

Primitive societies mark the turnings of the year with special festivals: planting, harvest, the returning of the birds from wherever they went to for the winter.We should have modern equivalents, festivals celebrating the last lawn mowing, the first running of the air conditioner, that sort of thing... Today, for instance, would have been the Fest...

RX: "What is a 'Flexitarian'?"Me: "Somebody who thinks that vegetarianism is all cool and hip and green and trendy, and wants to be part of that club, but doesn't actually want to quit eating meat. So they eat lots of vegetables and a little meat..."RX: "In most countries do you know what they call someone who eats lots of vegetables and a little m...

Like a photographer without a camera, or a mechanic who doesn't own a car, Kelli Fields is a webmaster without high-speed Internet access.By day, the 42-year-old uses a broadband connection at work to update a university's Web site, which she built and codes from scratch.But when she goes home at night, the rural Midwesterner struggles with a dial-...

On this date in 37AD the increasingly weird and reclusive Tiberius, Rome's second emperor, choked on his last cookie. Officially the death was of natural causes, however there was a young man present who had enough means, motive, and opportunity to keep people speculating for millennia.The young man in question had been fairly constantly humiliated...

The Yang: Rode my bicycle to the grocery store...The Yin: ...for a couple pints of gelato....

Joe Huffman on why gun owners have a right to be angry:Constantly lying about the law, firearms, and gun owners has a tendency to make gun owners angry. If they don't want us to be angry they should stop lying.Word.Of course I agree, but then, since I'm an uncivilized, ignorant, illiterate, pickup-driving, bible-thumpin', backwoods-dwelling Repub...

So I finally went and read the article about the sushi bar that got raided for serving up fillet o' Moby Dick. I made it about four paragraphs in before I nearly had a cerebral event...Prosecutors charged Typhoon Restaurant Inc., the parent company of The Hump, and one of its chefs -- Kiyoshiro Yamamoto, 45 -- with the illegal sale of a marine mamm...

So roomie was on vacation last week, leading to a couple of observations:Vacationitis is apparently contagious. I found myself sleeping in a lot, too.Coffee consumption at Roseholme Cottage doubles during vacation.The only thing harder than going from Standard Time to Daylight Savings Time is going straight from Vacation Time to DST. Bobbi, like me...

...

Would anybody be interested in an ultra-rare S&W Performance Center 627 V-Comp with a 3" tube? So rare that its particular SKU isn't even listed in the SCSW3E...

So the Texas Board of Education voted 10-5 to teach history instead of a textbook full of free-floating multi-culti anti-American self-loathing guilt.Naturally, this displeased a lot of people, especially those in the booming free-floating multi-culti anti-American self-loathing guilt industry. They were quick to fling accusations of the "C-word"* ...

Bad broadcasting idea in Georgia (the one with satsivi, not the one with grits):On Saturday night, the pro-government Imedi TV in Georgia broadcast what it called a "simulation" of what a fresh invasion would look like. And the broadcast ended with a note that the events in it were not real. However, the show did not run any on-screen notes during ...

...but I like Daylight Savings Time.For one thing, it shuts my winter blahs off like a switch. I know that it's just a bit of horological legerdemain, that we're sawing an hour off one end and gluing it to the other, but six thirty is just a damned depressing time for the sun to be setting and somehow calling that time "seven thirty" instead makes ...

My post from 9/07: Right scam, wrong scammer...Now look at that Clinton, that's the way you do itYou play the class war on the ol' tvThat ain't campaignin', that's the way you do itHealth care for nothin' and your docs for freeNow that ain't campaignin', that's the way you do itLemme tell ya that gal ain't dumbMaybe look righteous waggin' a fingerS...

Just because I haven't done it in a while, here's the current top 10 most frequently played tunes in my iPod..."Viva la Vida" Coldplay"The Great Destroyer" Nine Inch Nails"New Dawn Fades" Joy Division"Left To My Own Devices" Pet Shop Boys"Galileo" Indigo Girls"Bleed It Out" Linkin Park"The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning" Smashing Pumpkins"Ge...

A sadly un-strained metaphor:A congressman and his constituent were walking in the woods when they came upon a metaphorical bear...Click on the above to read the whole thing. Brian J. Noggle has encapsulated the entire problem in a nutshell.We need mandatory expiration dates. Or a House of Repeal. Something.Just this morning, sometime conservative ...

The police blotter from Unalaska, AK, written by a Sgt. Shockley, makes for some pretty droll reading:Suspicious Person/Activity – Officer attempted to resolve a complicated situation involving several people in two different states, a vehicle that may have been stolen three years ago and then sold several months ago, and a vehicle title that had...

When I first started carrying a flashlight, I found it was a handy thing to have around. I mean, sure, I liked the whole "fanged ninja flashlight of tactical doom" that was my Surefire Z2 with its GG&G "Tactical Impact Device", but what I used it for was the things for which you'd usually use a flashlight: illuminating darkened pathways, not st...

I was reading a post over at New Paltz Journal which referenced Chris Hedges. Now, Hedges is one of those people whose name rings a bell, but whose oeuvre and my regular reading don't make for much of a Venn Diagram. So I Googled him. And was instantly transported to Bizarro World...Popular institutions, from labor unions to political parties, have...