Guard Dog

Finished Picard Season 2 last night. It was pretty good. Some things annoyed me. 2024 was a bit more advanced than it will be. 2024 Guinan showed no reaction to the mention of the Borg which was off. But I thought the actress who played her. besides being smoking hot, did a great job capturing the character. Plus all the other annoyances of time travel plots. Don't get me started. And didn't Picard have a brother? Where the hell was he during all the childhood flashbacks? And WTF happened to Picard's dog? Never saw him again. You know what? I don't think I liked it at all!

In other news: Canadian national security task force is preparing for the collapse of the United States As if taking a queue from it's far northern trade partner Mexican President Obrador was head musing aloud than maybe paying to finish that border wall isn't such a bad idea!

It's a good thing no one has rights to unrestricted access to unlimited firearms then. Not even here. Chicago has the highest gun death rate in the USA and has the most restrictive laws.

I spent 20+ years stockpiling/hoarding ammo because of this loophole. They cannot outright ban it but they CAN limit availability and tax the living hell out of it. But I have far more than can ever use so feasibly I'll never need to buy it again! Except black powder/muzzleloader stuff. But that is not likely to ever be a target.

To tell you the truth Bruce I don't really care anymore. If such a law were ever to pass I wouldn't obey it. If the knock on the door ever comes I will use them before handing them over. And all of that is just me writing a check I know I will never have to cash. It will never happen. Even though I would be 100% willing to die in a blaze of glory I can say that knowing it will never happen. I'm much more likely to die falling off a horse. Even if gun bans ever did happen they would not be broad in scope. It will be something like "assault weapon" (whatever the hell that means) bans. Not going to affect anything I own. So it's a non issue. I only have two with me right now anyway. One is my carry pistol which I never carry because my CC permit does not travel in any state I'm going to be in. The other is my muzzle loader Diablo scattergun with two .72 oval slugs loaded. And that is just for home defense. G has a .20 ga pump as well. I used to think political s--t was so important but I just don't care much about it anymore.

Totally stealing that line

So anyway I was looking onto taking G to Spain for her Birthday. I hadn't told her yet, she mentioned once a while ago she wanted to see Europe, Portugal & Spain in particular. I was 100% up for that. I've never been anywhere in Europe myself and I can speak Spanish passably well from working in Mexico. But I'm going to keep that one in my pocket until next year. Now she wants to visit Canada. It's literally three hours north of us but she's never had time to go. I suggested going to the Stampede in Calgary in July. Well take a week and explore southern Alberta and Calgary and come back through the Dakota's. She's very excited. I think is sounds like fun. The only place in Canada I've ever been is Toronto. And that was just for work.

I betcha EVERYONE here will get it!

The most bizarre example I've ever heard was three Bernie Sanders drones explaining to a sixty year old man that grew up in the USSR he didn't understand communisim.

In today’s episode of “Comics @Amentep hasn’t read (because they don’t actually exist) The Detroit Tigers actually made a comic book in the 70s

I thought we all agreed never to bring that movie up again? Dead stinky things should remain buried!

Mystery issue experienced on NASA's Voyager 1 probe from 1977 It has travelled 45 years in space. It has travelled 15.5 Billion miles. In space! 45 YEARS. Why can't I get a laptop that lasts more than four years????? Of course no one ever spilled coffee on the two Voyager probes. Probably.

Biden admin considering shutting down their new "Ministry of Truth" : Biden Administration Considers Shutting Down Disinformation Board amid Blistering Criticism: Report This would unquestioningly be for the best. Even if something like this is created with the best if intentions (not saying that is the case here) you had better believe it will be weaponized sooner or later. Almost certainly sooner. People are going to believe stupid and even dangerous s--t. There is NOTHING the government can or should do about it.

I thought the best movie adaptation of Kings books was Cujo. That was the only one that checked all of the plot boxes without major changes. I've said many times I've never been a fan of King's writing. He comes up with an interesting concept, bolts a makeshift plot to the concept and resolves all of it in 50 pages. Then he pads it with 150 pages or so of superfluous writing to glue it all together and then laughs all the way to the bank. Don't get me wrong, good for him. But he's not someone you are going to go to for interesting or memorable writing. I actually like the Bachman stories a little better because he was able to experiment with them. But one passage he wrote as always stuck with me. The next to las paragraph of Cujo changes the whole book: Edit: I just reread what I wrote here and I think it comes off harsher on King than I intended. He is not a bad writer. Far from it. From a technical standpoint he is excellent. In the opening line of the Dark Tower he identified the Protagonist, Antagonist, setting, and central conflict and did it one sentence. And it was a good sentence. He does not leave loose plots threads and resolves all conflicts. The plots make sense. But he does not inspire you to identify with his characters. He does not put you in the story. You never forget you are reading a book. You never get invested in the outcomes. At least that is true for me.

OK THAT I can get behind! He did steal the show.

Of course contractors make a profit on their services. No matter that service that is. If a private company is running a SP for a State DOC they are making money on doing it. So yes you could say they are making money on incarceration but that dies not rise to the level you seem to want to take it. They are not "incentivized" to lock people up for a better profit. They don't lock people up. The State does that. All the contractors are doing is maintaining the facility, making sure the prisoners are fed, secured, and otherwise provided for. It is no different than a state run CP. The only ones I'm familiar with are done in Florida and they were all minimum security/work camps. White collar or non violent with short sentences. Medium and maximum security in Florida was not contracted last I heard. The scenario you are imagining just does not exist that I've ever heard of.

Don't know about that. The plot made no sense. But then again it WAS a Schwarzenegger movie.

AFAIK no state has "private prisons". There ARE states that contract the administration of prisons but those contractors work for and are accountable to the state government just as state employees would be.

The running Man novella was so much better than the movie. But of course Schwarzenegger would not have fit the starring role if they had been faithful

Heavy weapons it has to be a MK-19 for me. Have you ever seen anything do so much damage so quickly? Light weapons I’d say the M-249. The US had nothing close to it. The Thompson and BAR were short range only and had limited ammo capacity. The German MGs and British Bren were comparable in firepower but were much heavier and could not be carried or operated by just one man like the SAW can.

On a lighter note Don’t California up my Portugal

Like I always said, buying crypto is buying nothing

LOL no they get to oversee the s--t details. That's a Corporal's s--t detail. Believe it or not Corporal is a pretty good rank in the Marines. There are three ranks that. once you make them, your quality of life improves noticeably; Corporal, Staff Sergeant, and Major. In the other three services (not counting the Space Force because it's stupid) E-4 is pretty meaningless. In Navy you get your rating at E-4 so there is that. But in the Corps E-4 is where you start to be exempted from some of the petty BS