[Garden & Gun] On a freezing afternoon late last winter, I drove west on I-10, leaving my home in San Antonio for a yearlong sabbatical in Fredericksburg. Though only seventy miles away, the town couldn’t feel more removed from my life back home. Fredericksburg may be little, especially by Texas standards—population 12,135—but it boasts a big reputation. Known for its sweet summer peaches, a booming wine industry, and its German heritage, it will begin celebrating its 175th anniversary this May with a year’s worth of festivities. But even a weekend exploring its mix of historic and modern charms—and reveling in its springtime wildflower show—can feel like a reset. Graphic depicts a typical Fredericksburg 'Sunday House' where ranchers and their families would spend the night after a long buggy ride into town to attend services.
For a landing pad, check in to the Trueheart Hotel, with its twelve cottages and lush, meandering garden nestled just off Main Street. Nick and Alice Adair purchased the property, previously called the Sugarberry Inn, last summer and launched a complete overhaul. Sitting on the sun-drenched patio, I hear the couple’s cockapoo, Mr. Bean, rustling in the flower beds as Alice explains her vision. "I wanted an homage to Texas with an element of earthiness and not overly feminine," she says. The result is a "pop retro meets Western meets Hill Country" aesthetic that shines through in festive Pierre Frey wallpapers, traditional Scalamandré fabrics, scalloped door frames painted by the English expat designer Miranda Gill, and watercolors of Texas flora and fauna by the San Antonio artist Tara Gill.
#3
If you are interested in the German history of Texas, Rantburg’s own Sgt. Mom’s Adelsverein trilogy is about the coming of the Germans in 1847, sponsored by a society of Mainz aristocrats, and what happened next. She has written a number of other things in this, her third career, all listed on her Amazon author page.
A number of other Rantburgers are published authors, too, in a variety of genres. Something to look into if you’re ready to try something new during the waning days of the lockdown. If you see this, guys, please put a link to your website/author page/best book in a comment below.
To start off, badanov’s Wounded Eagle collection of his Mexican Drug War articles are below Fred’s novels in the right margin. He also has two novels.
#4
RE #3 - I have a new hobby: Using Amazon as a locator service, reding reviews, features, etc., then finding someplace to buy it without Bezo's involvement. In the case of the Adelsverin Trilogy - LINK
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/09/2021 16:45 Comments ||
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[NRA] Everyone is aware of the ammunition crisis. Major media outlets have covered it, it's all over what little of your social media feed hasn't been censored, and I've been covering in detail since July. The ammo crisis has been constantly evolving, starting as a mere shortage in the early days of the COVID-19 lockdowns, and progressing to a full-blown crisis as I write this 321 days after March 13th.
What caused it?
The simple explanation is that demand exceeded the supply, then continued to exceed the supply. But to understand how that happened you have to go a little deeper. According to Jason Vanderbrink, President of Federal, CCI, Speer and Remington, before the COVID-19 pandemic, there was considerable excess capacity in the ammunition market.
Manufacturers could make more than they could sell, so supply was abundant and prices were low. You could order a case of 9 mm off the Internet for $200. Manufacturers were prepared for an uptick in sales that normally accompanies a presidential election, but the excess capacity would have been enough to cover that.
2020 had other ideas. The first was the COVID-19 pandemic. Then a summer of civil unrest that sometimes turned violent. A hotly contested presidential election, and then the party of gun control having control of both houses of Congress and the Presidency.
#3
Always got a good stock around, just in case. Got a couple 9mm at a really good price... now I can't find 9mm ammo. Only down side is I don't want to go shoot because I can't replace the stuff I shoot.
#6
I have some 380 ACP JHP if you're really needing it. It's Federal HST, designed for micro (Pocket) pistols. Course it's /way/ easier if you in Greater Houston:p
#8
From the article Using AmmoSeek to track historical 9 mm prices, the online price for 9 mm seems to have plateaued at between $0.80 and $0.90 per round for quality new manufactured 9 mm, which is actually a good sign.
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/09/2021 16:50 Comments ||
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[LI] On February 16, 2020, Legal Insurrection published a piece reporting that Chinese university researchers believed the virus might have originated in a government laboratory.
A new bombshell paper from the Beijing-sponsored South China University of Technology says that the Wuhan Center for Disease Control (WHCDC) could have spawned the contagion in Hubei province.
’The possible origins of 2019-nCoV coronavirus,’ penned by scholars Botao Xiao and Lei Xiao claims the WHCDC kept disease-ridden animals in laboratories, including 605 bats.
It also mentions that bats — which are linked to coronavirus — once attacked a researcher and ’blood of bat was on his skin.’
Now, a year later, The Washington Post Editorial Board conceded the possibility that the coronavirus may have its origins in a Wuhan laboratory.
[Free Beacon] An Iranian cleric said that taking the coronavirus vaccine will turn vaccinated individuals into homosexuals in an online rant Monday.
Ayatollah Abbas Tabrizian told his more than 200,000 followers on the social media app Telegram that those who take the coronavirus vaccine "become homosexuals."
"Don’t go near those who have had the COVID vaccine," Tabrizian said. "They have become homosexuals."
Tabrizian’s statements come as Iran deals with rising coronavirus cases, in addition to increased crackdowns on domestic dissent. In the past week, two of Iran’s most prominent soccer players died from COVID-19. The regime has reported some 1.4 million cases and 60,000 virus-related deaths in total.
The cleric’s remarks also reflect a longer trend of homophobia from the Iranian regime. Homosexual activity is illegal in Iran and can be punished with charges up to and including execution. Tehran executed between 4,000 and 6,000 homosexual Iranians since 1979, according to a 2008 British WikiLeaks cable. A 2019 State Department report also highlighted how Iranian security forces systematically harassed, arrested, and detained citizens suspected of homosexual behavior.
#2
And speaking of stale "limericks," multiple phobias, and pandering to San Diegans...
"At the parties of Allah, the juice
Runs like wine when his Muslims get loose,"
Sang the poet Kebab.
"I arrived in a cab,
But got home with a Rumi caboose."
[PJ] Well, I did not see this coming. The BBC reports that Cuba is about to open up most of its economy to private ownership.
Cuba!
Cuba has announced it will allow private businesses to operate in most sectors, in what is a major reform to its state-controlled economy.
"...major reform..."? It’s the communists admitting defeat. Because:
The communist country’s economy has been hit hard by the pandemic and US sanctions introduced by the Trump administration.
Last year its economy shrank by 11% — its worst decline in almost three decades — and Cubans have been facing shortages of basic goods.
Well, we did have toilet paper shortages here, but that was mainly because people panic-hoarded when they didn’t need to. It wasn’t due to decades of abusive state policy.
#3
Thanks to that embargo, Clem, Cuba had enough serious problems that they chose not to host nuclear missiles pointed at us for two solid generations. I’d put that in the Win column for us and embargoes.
After all, they would have oppressed their people in the usual stupidly oppressive totalitarian way regardless, so their people would not have suffered any less without the embargo. See North Korea for an example of what that looks like.
#8
"Cuba is about to open up most of its economy to private ownership"
Forgot to read the fine print? 99% taxes.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
02/09/2021 15:35 Comments ||
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#9
In a related Har Har moment:
Remember the entertainer Bulldog? Called for El Chapo to go get President Trump because that was the fashion (decapitation chic, beer & chips salesman's assassination video, murder theater in the park).
Apparently he is a bit hesitant about the new administration, his family teaching him this is exactly how things went before they had to flee Cuba.
Written in full sympathy for the Democrats having to deal with devious Republicans, so the conclusion is interesting.
[Independent] Insiders suggest this is exactly what the House Minority Leader intended to happen, and that failure to see it was a huge misstep by Democrats
Such a miscalculation has significantly raised the stakes of future elections because of the GOP’s propensity to abuse power, they said: “After this, we can never afford to lose the majority again.”
Hearing House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy ...the GOP house majority whip. He replaces Eric Cantor, who got whupped because his politix are like Kevin McCarthy's... rail against a House resolution to strip committee assignments from a QAnon-supporting freshman member who once advocated for the death of Speaker Nancy San Fran Nan Pelosi
Continued on Page 49
#2
But actual, damaging statements and causes, such as lowering voting age to 16, opponent colleagues plotting assassinations, and air strikes against US citizens on US soil, that's ok.
[Red State] President Joe Biden’s reversal of many Trump-era policies are threatening America with all ideological adherence rather than common sense thinking. One of those things is to loosen border security to the point of absurdity, and now officials are speaking out against it, including one Virginia Sheriff.
According to the Daily Wire, the sheriff was interviewed by Steve Doocy on Fox and Friends, who made it clear that all Americans should be outraged by Biden’s decision to effectively neuter Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in order to appease the leftist hard-liners in his party:
Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy prompted Frederick County Sheriff Chuck Jenkins to comment on the issue, remarking, "Out on the campaign trail, Joe Biden said, ’During the Obama-Biden administration, we deported too many people.’ ... Well, he certainly has taken a big step in that direction."
"This is absolutely outrageous, Steve," Jenkins replied. "Americans should be angry and outraged. What he’s done is effectively and functionally dismantled ICE, basically telling the agents to stand down. There will be no enforcement."
Doocy continued by referencing an article in The Washington Post that discussed the Biden administration’s approach to illegal immigration. Doocy said, "They say they will not deport people who are in this country illegally if they get a DUI, assault, money laundering, property crimes, fraud, tax crimes, solicitation, or charges without convictions, so for a variety of crimes, despite the fact that you are in the country illegally, Sheriff, they won’t deport you."
Jenkins replied, "They won’t, Steve, and one thing that’s always considered in the deportations, are the criminal histories, so regardless of the felony, regardless of the event, the crime, these people are going to roam our streets with impunity. It’s absolutely ridiculous." He added, "So, listen, what this is gonna do; this is going to be disastrous, dangerous, gonna impact every county, every city, every community in this country. And again, this is total lawlessness. We have to have interior enforcement along with strong border security or we have no laws."
Jenkins went on to make it clear that these types of rules have proven in the past to hurt not only the American people with massive increases in crime, but the immigrant communities where these criminals gravitate. He added that the only reason Biden is doing this is that the left is trying to get back at Trump.
"I believe a part of this is, listen, they’re angry at President Trump," Jenkins replied. "Everything that he, all the strides that he made in stronger immigration enforcement over the past 4 years, they’re totally being undone and dismantled."
This echoes what a New Mexico rancher at the border recently said to Lawrence Jones of Fox News when asked about the Biden administration’s stopping of border wall construction.
[Right Scoop] CNN’s Fredo Cuomo had on left-wing nut Tom Friedman last night, who literally argued that Communist China is a better and more serious country than the US because they don’t have to worry about politicians like Marjorie Taylor Greene and a QAnon shaman:
This guy is a total clown. He literally plays down how the Chinese government is oppressing Uighurs while lauding the commies for not having to worry about conspiracy theorists becoming politicians. Seriously, how can he be this dumb?
There’s one big reason why China doesn’t let just anyone become a politician in their Communist regime and it’s called "Tiananmen Square." The oppress and kill people who disagree with them! Which is exactly what they are doing to the Uighurs.
But China has bullet trains!
Talk about an unserious person. And this guy writes for the New York Times.
And at the very end of the clip Cuomo says "I can add nothing." What LOL!? If any Republican had suggested something this absurd Cuomo would have been all over them. This is just part of why he’s a joke of a host at CNN.
#2
They also don't read the NYT.
(Actually, they help write the NYT.)
Posted by: ed in texas ||
02/09/2021 11:47 Comments ||
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#3
So Social Credit and Chinese Communist repression are now on the table.
Why not? We're already seeing Maoist struggle sessions become a common feature of the workplace.
And Dems are now preparing Patriot Act 2..0, equating deplorables with ISIS and AQ. So even if Time magazine openly admits the election was rigged, those who agree it was rigged -- and deplore it -- will become deplorables deserving a Social Credit score next to zero.
When are we going to rise up and put an end to this madness?
Are we going to wait until we have Soviet-style psychiatric prisons for dissidents?
#7
huh. wonder how many 'people of color' there are in China.
Posted by: Bob Grorong1136 ||
02/09/2021 21:07 Comments ||
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#8
I looked in the park and the dump,
Even far up an elephant's rump,
But found scarcely a trace
Of the Don's brazen face.
Commies, where are the statues of Trump?
[American Thinker] There's a reason the left doesn't want COVID ever to end.
First, it became a pretext for blue-state officials to shut down businesses, churches, and schools.
Now it's morphed into a pretext for Orwellian spying on Americans and their every personal move. It's all about control.
At the same time, the Biden administration is also encouraging illegal immigration. It comes down to "your papers, please" for Americans, based on purported concerns about COVID, but for unvetted foreigners, never mind about the passport.
This comes with open borders, amnesty, and "free" health care serving as incentives for them to come on in. That's some central planning from the party of Big Government. Or more to the point, Biden has his priorities.
Here are some of the specifics:
Joe Biden in one of his first executive orders called for the study of COVID passports. According to the New York Times:
#1
This is so retarded on so many levels that they can't seriously believe their own bullshit:
"This is going to be guided by data, by science, by medicine, and by the input of the people who are actually going to have to carry this out," Buttigieg responded.
"Data", "science", "medicine":
Butt-giggles means junk data. False positives, false negatives, both as high as the 25% range.
Plus we know that every single Democrat lockdown-Nazi will evade this, as surely as Pelosi evades the Capitol metal-detector. All of them will cheat.
And of course this is a Big Leap Forward toward establishing our very own tech surveillance-enabled Social Credit scheme.
#2
If we have to have COVID status on our passports, how about AIDS status? Maybe "clear", "positive", and "susceptible" for the people who indulge in the behaviors most likely to transmit it?
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
02/09/2021 12:40 Comments ||
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#3
Joe Biden in one of his first executive orders called for the study of COVID passports.
[Townhall] "The Senate must summarily reject this brazen political act," his attorneys wrote in a legal brief, calling the single impeachment article "unconstitutional for a variety of reasons, any of which alone would be grounds for immediate dismissal."
But according to Rep. Adam Schiff, there is precedent for late impeachment. It’s just in...British history.
In a thread on Twitter, the former lead impeachment manager attempted to make his case.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.