Red Gauntlet , SASS 60619

Were those 'biblical justice'?

The fact that the swastika was used as a positive symbol by many cultures is very well-known, and has nothing to do with the Nazi flag. Only except that the Nazis spoiled the symbol, at least for a few generations. Guns are guns. In themselves, they have no particular significance. That they were used by German forces matters little or nothing. They are interesting in and of themselves. A Nazi flag is a bit different. As a war trophy, it makes perfect sense. But that's in the past. The question was: how much money can I get for it? Give it to a museum. Or s

Not everything should mean money.

I don't think the problem is so much that the CSA statues are the legacy of slavery. It's more likely because they are the legacy of Jim Crow. Slavery ended 155 years ago. Jim Crow ended what, 50 years ago? And then, incrementally. The system was defended by the local and state public authorities to the end. There are still millions that lived under it. One could imagine a country where even the decendants of former slaves might to some degree admire the symbols of CSA military bravery and history, or at least be very accepting of them. The Jim Crow system with all of i

Most interesting, indeed! The power, of course, is the potential energy of that shale on top of the mountain....

As Joe says, every generation passes, but for a great many of us this was the generation of our fathers and uncles, our senior partners and mentors in business and life, and it is particularly hard to see the last of them go, though of course most have gone long since. This is the universal human experience , but we still encounter it ourselves individually, in every generation. My own grandfather was a Royal Air Force pilot in the First World War. I knew him well into my adulthood, and then one day, not so many years back, it was noted that every last WWI veteran was gone; every o

Mortensen has been in lots of movies, including well before LOTR. A Walk on the Moon is one of his first and a very good one. A favorite of mine is Eastern Promises; Russian mafia stuff/ lots of great action scenes.

Actually, the Snopes article is quite interesting, and supports the claim with a lot of detail; just not the photo. My own experience is that Snopes has always done a pretty good job.

Joe's post got me to look it up-- as of a year ago, there was only one B of B pilot still alive, and he was 100. I had the privilege in 2002 to meet in England and spend several hours with a Battle of Britain pilot, Air Commodore Sir Archie Winskill, DFC*, KCVO, with whom I had corresponded for a couple of years previously. In the later stages of the Battle, he shot down two Italian biplanes; the Italians had come in late under the false impression from their German allies that they would be 'in at the kill'. He shot down an M 109 and shared a Heinkel, and others confirmed in later

Actually, I'm not shocked by that price list. Last time I hunted birds in the lower Yakima Valley, it would cost. Hunting license, Fed duck stamp, state duck stamp, upland bird permit, Yakima Indian Reservation license. It would add up. Can't remember the $, but they'd be much higher now. In the days when I'd get out all season, it was worth it. Nowadays, to join somebody for a single geezer outing, it's an obstacle....

A trust is the solution for inheritance of a family cabin amongst siblings after the folks are gone. Our folks set up a trust for their beach cabin on the ocean in Oregon. We six siblings are the benificial owners, with the rights of use, but the trust is the legal owner. They died 20+ years ago and it works well. It contributes to family harmony, whereas legal inheritance as tenants in common is a recipe for disaster as the years go by. Sometimes a sibling wants to sell his share; sometimes one really needs the money and has to sell. The others don't want to buy-- it's gotten high in val

How in the world did they ever eliminate the smallpox and polio viruses? And a few others......

Let everyone choose for himself. And let the chips fall where they may. All by now have long since had all of the information they will ever need, whether from down at the corner cafe, or from other reliable sources.

Bumpy ride with those wheels....

The main reason is that the listed diseases have a small incidence of mortality. Of all you list, only the flu carries among Western adult populations a particular level of mortality, but it is considerably lower. A 2-3% mortality rate among over-70s is actually a very high mortality rate for infectious diseases in modern times. That's Covid. And then, for measles, mumps, and chicken pox, vaccinations have been standard for decades, and for flu have been wise. As for colds, the comparison approaches the ridiculous. But who can argue with waitresses and old c

Half of a continent, for sale for peanuts. Or peppercorns; whatever the expression was then. Only a fool would say nay, and Jefferson was no fool.

Sure, by all means. I joined as a SASS member but haven't shot a CAS match for many years, and don't pay dues. But I've kept all of my cowboy guns, shoot them regularly, and consider myself belonging!

My Toyota Sienna has a 'change drawer' in the left lower dash, near the driver's door. I never knew it was there for a long time.

Natchez is a fascinating place to visit. We did a couple of decades back, and stayed at a B&B there before going on to Vicksburg. The ante-bellum houses there, well-preserved, are unique in many ways. Many stories there....

Remember that while the war was going on, the US was sending locomotives over the isthmus of Panama and working on the transcontinental railroad. In short, as Shelby Foote said, it was fighting the war with one hand tied behind its back. The resources of the Union guaranteed victory, as long as the will was there.

The Illinois Memorial at Vicksburg is extraordinary among Civil War monuments. Really amazing to visit. Its design is based on the Pantheon in Rome, and the construction cost was 20% of the Illinois state budget in 1904. There were 36,000 Illinois soldiers at Vicksburg.

As some incidental interesting information, the Norwegian gent who originally brought that video to my attention tells me that the main competition rifle in Norway nowadays is the Sig Sauer 200 STR (Scandinavian target rifle). Apparently in the Scandinavian competitions, the allowed rifles are old military, the Krag-Jorgensen, and the Swedish and Norwegian Mausers. The idea is to keep competition relatively inexpensive, and thus widespread and not unduly specialized.

No, thanks. I meant the original post to be positive, but one can do only so much in that direction.

"The Father of Waters flows unvexed to the sea". We stayed at a B&B in Vicksburg a few years back which had been Pemberton's HQ. The battlefield monuments there are very moving and impressive, second only, I think, to those at Gettysburg.

Unless, of course, one knows one or more who have, in fact, changed their minds...