11:07 – Barbara’s sister Frances stopped over after work last night. We had dinner and then spent the evening talking about what herbs, spices, and other seasonings to recommend for long-term storage. Frances was also kind enough to bring over some of her loose-leaf recipe books from when she ran a food-service operation. They’re on a large scale. One I remember listed the first ingredient as 20 pounds of chicken pieces.
I told Frances and Barbara to start with the idea that we were cooking over a period of months or longer with long-term packaged staples like flour, sugar, pasta, powdered milk, beans, etc. along with some canned meats and other foods. The goal is turn turn this stuff into appetizing meals, and we spent the evening talking about which herbs, spices, sauces, and other seasonings to include in preparations, at what priority, and in what amounts for one person-year. They both came up with excellent suggestions, which I’ll now incorporate in the book.
It is amazing at how much contention the global warming advocates are willing to stir up, which goes beyond reason in advocating their position. Latest is The Weather Channel’s very vocal condemnation of John Coleman’s recent observations that nothing the alarmists have said would now be upon us, actually is coming to pass. The Weather Channel has been owned by NBC for some time now. What is their stake in whether global warming is true or not? If I were the head of NBC, I would have told that fool in charge of The Weather Channel to STFU, as a fight is far more likely to cause viewer polarization than just remaining silent.
And TWC does not need that. Under NBC, it has continued to slide from THE most popular channel on all of cable TV, to one of the least-watched.
First of all, Coleman was only at TWC for a little over a year, although he retained an ownership interest in it for much longer. Like my friend who created “All Things Considered”, who says that positively no one currently associated with that program has any clue at all as to who or how the program was created (he also went on to create “Marketplace”, which that program now credits someone else as creating), — who is it at The Weather Channel that has any stake in it which would call for attempts to discredit one of its founders? Certainly not anybody at NBC’s home office or in upper Weather Channel management, all of whom at this stage, are most likely never to have even met Coleman.
I have not gotten the money trail here figured out. As far as I can see, there is nothing in it for NBC to start this fight. Coleman never attacked The Weather Channel in his latest pronouncements, even if the media in reporting his comments, do note that he was a founder of TWC. But TWC has been all over him. At what potential gain?
Coleman only reported observations, which call into question the conclusions the alarmists have ever-screechingly insisted will come to pass. In fact, as my commercial pilot friend told me: the weather prognosticators can barely come up with trustworthy forecasts for 6 hours out. And they certainly are wrong a very high percentage of the time for more than 3 days out, as I see almost daily in doing the voice-track for the weather on the radio project. Two weeks out? Forget it! They are not even close.
The following points bother me regarding the so-called scientific community that presents global warming as “settled science”.
— What on Earth are people who call themselves scientists but who have positively zero expertise in climatology doing adding their voice to warming as settled science? Makes me wonder if they really have much scientific value or credence in their own areas.
— Measuring actual climate conditions has not been pervasive except since the satellites of the 1970’s; those methods are still being standardized; reporting positions have been changed over the years, so all data is not equal; and examination of things like tree growth and soil samples are mixed in with currently observed measurements as if they are equally true components. One of the first things we learned in high school physics was that differing measurement methods often produced different results — sometimes markedly different. In some instances, those could be explained; other times, not.
And I clearly remember when the official reporting station for temperature in Chicago was moved from Miegs Field to O’Hare. Temps were instantly 10 to 15 degrees warmer, and it took a period of years to get used to the difference. There is no way, with the change in reporting, that the new figures could or should be used in long-term comparisons.
— The lack of transparency in sharing the computer modeling that indicates global warming will result from current trends is particularly disturbing. I love the fact that Teller frequently shares how his tricks are done, rather than keeping it a secret. It is even more awesome to realize the control he has to have to accomplish some of the illusions. But anyone can predict anything. Why in the world should — or does — anyone accept anything without solid proof of the how and why?
— Global warming has become a religion, and it is used to ad hominem attack anyone who disagrees. And the attacks are becoming more witch-hunt-like as time goes on. That alone makes me a disrespecting rebel.
“Global warming has become a religion, and it is used to ad hominem attack anyone who disagrees. And the attacks are becoming more witch-hunt-like as time goes on.”
There it is. And as you have illustrated, it’s not necessarily about the money anymore, at least not exclusively. Cui bono? It’s about political power, too. It has become an article of faith in the same league as Diversity, Democracy, Affirmative Action, etc. Question it at your social, political and economic peril.
Gorgeous day here today, temps in the high 30s. Mrs. OFD is indisposed with stomach ailment and lack of sleep. Thus our day of hauling MIL’s junk around went up in smoke; possible re-scheduling for tomorrow AM and then later she has to catch a flight to Pittsburgh.
I’ve got plenty to do around here in the house and yahd and a phone interview Monday, VA appointment Wednesday, and the Comcast guy coming Thursday to lay some fiber optic for us and get us back on the net. We may add the phone and tee-vee stuff to the internet for a bundle; hope this pans out OK. If he gets here early enough and done in time, I have the “Vietnam Combat Group” meeting that afternoon and hope meantime no one has offed themselves. Jesus wept. What a lotta pain some of us are in still, forty-plus years later. A lot of it has torn through marriages and families accordingly and the fallout is just horrific. Multiply that by all the wars over centuries.
There better be a good fucking reason for going to war for a country and my criteria are the same as the Catholic Church’s, found in the Catechism; by that reckoning none of our wars can be justified. That said, if ISIS paratroops are falling outta the sky above northern Vermont, I’ll be the first son-of-a-bitch out the door with a rifle.
The Good War:
“I have commented previously that I believe (at least given my current understanding) the main purpose for U.S. entry into the war was two-fold: 1) to take the place of an increasingly ailing Britain as the primary tool for the elite to expand global control, and 2) to ensure a new, long term enemy can be made out of the Soviet Union and communism. I will add a third to this list – actually it is a subset of the first: to bring the productive populations of Germany and Japan under the control of the elite.”
http://www.lewrockwell.com/2014/11/bionic-mosquito/was-wwii-the-good-war/
There are sirens all around me. It is close, whatever it is.
England never would have survived if we had not intervened. And Europe would not have been free. It would never have been won without us.
I have no qualms about our participation. There WERE a ton of Europeans here then, many just off the boat (including my grandmother), and it was worth it, IMO, to save their parents from fates worse than death. What Germany and Russia did to Poland was inexcusable. And it is a beautiful country; as scenic and lovely as New England or Wisconsin.
I believe you are right about having an enemy in the USSR. It is impotent today. You can see that in the almost comical antics of Putin, pretending he rules an empire of strength. And as I have mentioned here before, no people I have met on the planet (and I am really only missing time in Asia, thanks to the lottery) are more like Americans than the Russians. Even down to their two-timing politics.
And nothing has changed from that article. Our ‘leaders’ still support corrupt dictators, and change their minds as quickly as ClearChannel/iHeart changes the morning drive guy, when he steps out of line or does not deliver the goods.
Oh, it’s the darned Xmas parade from the high school to the Courthouse. Better run my last errand going the opposite direction. In my childhood, that parade was 3 weeks before Xmas, not 7 weeks before. And the Xmas shopping season was 2 weeks long.
“In my childhood, that parade was 3 weeks before Xmas, not 7 weeks before. And the Xmas shopping season was 2 weeks long.”
Ain’t it great? Welcome to North Murka, circa 2014-15, well into the Brave New Century! I started seeing Xmas stuff a couple of weeks ago; I thought I was hallucinating and having an acid flashback or sumthin. They start this shit right after All Hallows Eve now. Hell, I’m still working on my T-Day menu, you know, that Murkan day where we honor Our Pilgrim Forefathers, who came over to this howling wilderness, broke bread with the First Nations Peoples, and it all later became a City Upon a Hill, or more accurately, An Empire Straddling the Solar System. And luckily for us that lovely Calvinist mentality got carried through to the present day, in almost all our institutions and throughout the culture, though few recognize it.
Mrs. OFD gets a kick outta the occasional times we’ve visited museums down in Maffachufetts and she’s seen the various ancestral portraits on the walls, like at the Peabody-Essex Museum and the American Antiquarian Society and how I’m their spitting image. Yup, a dead ringer for Pilgrim and Puritan maniac fanatics. My late dad was a ringer for Ben Franklin, very eerie.
Oh, sure, it was vital for them. The vital American interest was less clear. For either World War, or Korea, or Vietnam, or Afghanistan, or Iraq.
I’m not quite to the point of saying, “Fuck the world. They made their problems, let them deal with them.” but it’s close. And the American interest should be clear before we spend one taxpayer dollar or risk one American life.
If private persons wish to go and fight on one side or the other, go ahead. Don’t let me stop you, but don’t expect me to bail you out, either.
Truth out: my grandfathers, dad, uncle and me were *wrong* to enlist in this country’s damn wars. Period. Flat out.
As it was wrong for two of Mrs. OFD’s cousins and now is for a third.
The sooner we stop signing up the fewer wars there will be for this nay-shun to stick its damn nose in, with the usual bullshit results. I mention this around other vets and Faux Nooz enthusiasts and get silence. I get silence only because they know I was in that shit. If I hadn’t been, there’d be explosions of rage and threats.
Oh well.
Truth out: my grandfathers, dad, uncle and me were *wrong* to enlist in this country’s damn wars. Period. Flat out.
You’re still a hero to me.
OFD, that “Calvinist mentality” is precisely what sets America apart from the rest of the world.
Consider that only those brave and willing enough were to set out for the New World.
That’s an interesting gene pool right there, isn’t it?
I suspect that novelty-seeking, risk adventure, and curiosity contributed to the initial American experience. A high IQ probably helped, too.
So in 1810 or 1910, you end up with a population of bright, energetic guys (and gals).
Come 1933 or so, the smartest of the bunch in Europe also emigrated for one reason or another.
“Consider that only those brave and willing enough were to set out for the New World.”
Prior to them, the Spanish, and before them, the Norse. But it was British Protestantism which won out in the end and which still exercises cultural hegemony in North Murka. For another half-century or so, tops. Demographics being what they are.
Obviously, spices will stay potent longer than dried herbs.
Off the top of my head the following will stay potent for a while and add flavor:
– salt
– pepper, as peppercorns (don’t forget grinders)
– vinegars (to add some acidity – an assortment would work)
– dried chiles
– granulated garlic and/or garlic powder if they have reasonable stability
– dehydrated onion
– nutmeg (as the nut, with a microplane to make powder)
– cloves (again, whole, with a dedicated grinder)
– cinnamon (unground, but be careful about the type, as some supermarket cinnamon sticks are low quality and have little flavor)
– cardamom – as seed. Adds flavor to quick breads with other “sweet” spices
– Cholula or Tabasco
Most herbs have a shelf life of a year or two at most.
I’d also suggest having the ingredients for a sourdough starter in the kit. You might need to swap out the yeast on a regular basis before you start it, as it has limited shelflife. But yeast is cheap.
…Under NBC, it has continued to slide from THE most popular channel on all of cable TV, to one of the least-watched…
…As far as I can see, there is nothing in it for NBC to start this fight…
Perhaps the answer to the riddle of the second statement is hidden in the first statement.
It’s called: ratings.
Create a very voluble controversy in an attempt to increase viewer numbers. Forget viewer polarization as an objection. In Corporate Amerika 2014 the long run does not count. Only this quarter’s numbers count.
OFD, yesterday you asked “Which reminds me; I better staht looking at snowblowers…
Anyone else here living in the north country got any recommendations?”
It’s been a few years since I lived in the Great White North just a smidgen west of South Bend IN, where all the lake effect snow got dumped, but I would have liked to have any of the units shown on this page:
http://www.grouperpmtech.com/en/self-propelled-snow-blowers.aspx
Another Ebola stricken doctor arrives, IN NEBRASKA! I guess OdooshBag won’t stop until every State has some Ebola sickies. Wouldn’t it be better to have a central treatment facility, say in Gitmo.
And, Biden announces the illegal alien jihad will start in December. I wonder if the Redumblicans can mount a defense. Maybe declare everything south of the US the 51st State. How can the welfare state survive millions more in a matter of months? If I was super rich and still earning money, I’d just stop and watch the chaos.
Taking the doctor with Ebola to Nebraska is reasonable. They have one of 4 centers in the US that can deal with such cases in the safest fashion. Unlike Dallas, they practice treating such virulent diseases.
Perhaps the answer to the riddle of the second statement [why create controversy] is hidden in the first statement [falling prospects].
It’s called: ratings.
Well, I can tell you from my career in that industry that controversy sometimes does increase ratings, but controversy about yourself is very, very bad and usually has the opposite effect. Creating controversy about yourself is suicide, as Rush Limbaugh is finding out. Media buyers are actually avoiding talk radio altogether, because it is too difficult to sort out which of hundreds of stations are safe and avoiding controversy, and which are not. So the solution is just to avoid all of them. It has hurt them badly this past quarter. Thanks to Rush.
Not taking away from the Rockwell site article condemning Roosevelt, which I agree with, but I’m not so sure that by 1940 it wasn’t fairly clear that we needed a free Europe as partners to our business crimes. During the Depression was when international trade really became important — in the early 30’s. Instantly after the war, work began on GATT, which was agreed to and implemented a couple years later, and is still in effect. (One of my jobs as English instructor in Berlin, was to teach accountants, primarily at the BASF accounting center, the English terminology used in GATT.)
From the standpoint of history, in 1940, few places but Europe had business potential for the US in terms of growing our economy. China? Not until the ’80’s, really. Africa? Still largely colonial and certainly not possessing modern economies, except in South Africa. South America? Largely underdeveloped with civil wars in several and prospects looking bad nearly everywhere, although Brazil, Argentina, and Cuber held promise. Panama was an economic drain, but providing plenty of income for American companies involved in the canal.
Had Europe fallen to the Eastern powers, as it surely would have if we had not stepped in, I seriously doubt the postwar growth we experienced could have happened.
That said, it never ceases to amaze me how — in other circumstances — US military efforts have never ‘exported freedom’ as Mr. Murka himself, the dumbest President we have ever had in my lifetime, claimed has always been our objective. Quite the contrary, we have supported dictatorships who even publicly decried republican freedom. But the world would have looked quite differently had we not stepped into Europe’s war. As both OFD and SteveF indicate, no war is good — not even that one, — but I do not think that war was regrettable, as the ones following have mostly been.
“Had Europe fallen to the Eastern powers…”
Well, half of Europe did fall to the East; with the connivance and full approval of Pharaoh Roosevelt II and his factotum NKVD agent, Harry Hopkins. Leaving countless millions in totalitarian communist slavery and degradation.
In return for that we got to claim in our Murkan history textbooks that WE won the war singlehandedly, well, maybe with a little help from the doughty Brits, who we bailed out again. No mention whatsoever of the Russian front or the ten million dead Russian soldiers who died on that front.
Check out Buchanan’s book on the Good War and how “necessary” it was.
‘Fraid I can’t take much of Buchanan. Somehow, reading or hearing him always tweaks me the wrong way in a hurry. Something about his ego that keeps coming through.
What on Earth are people who call themselves scientists but who have positively zero expertise in climatology doing adding their voice…
Well, to be fair, I am not shy about adding my voice on the other side of the argument. As a trained engineer, I like to think I have a pretty good feel for how systems behave, and also for statistics and models. Even though I’m not a climate scientist, to my engineering nose the global warming hypotheses stank from the very first day. They haven’t improved with age…
That said, the true believers are starting to look a little desperate. Lately, it seems like they have been doubling down. There has been a whole new flood of “catastrophe is upon us” stuff: Sea level (again), storms, lightning – we had just as well roll over and die.
The frustrating thing is that it will be years yet before this is thoroughly debunked. There will be no way to ever say “I told you so” and get these idiots to apologize or retract. They will have moved on – through “climate disruption” to, very probably, “global cooling”.
– – – – –
On reasons for war: The US strategy over the past 15 years in the Middle East has been so totally braindead that incompetence is no longer a sufficient explanation. I am coming to the view that the US is deliberately creating chaos and fanning the flames. Keep terrorism scary and alive, but in an area safely far from American shores.
This allows the elite continue to justify enormous military expenditures, which serve both their lust for political power and provide ample opportunities for personal enrichment.
Cynical on Sunday, that’s the way to go 🙂
I argue endlessly with my left wing friends (and it only seems to be them) about AGW. Personally, I don’t have an axe to grind, but as a person with a background in science I’m highly suspicious of the data. The believers don’t take no for an answer, and the great unwashed think it must be true, because all these famous scientists are advocating it. I’m agnostic, leaning towards denial, not because I know much about the science of it but because I deeply suspect the motives of the main advocates of AGW.
One thing that’s bad for deniers and skeptics is that advocates like Jerry Coyne, the NCSE and the like lump skepticism and denial in with creationists, and nobody wants to be lumped in with them. Sorta guilt by association.
Like most shelf-life claims, this one is bogus. Most herbs and spices are packaged in glass or PET bottles, and their shelf lives are essentially unlimited. I once tried a batch of several herbs and spices that were found in an old trunk in an attic and were at least 40 years old but in unopened glass bottles, and they were indistinguishable side-by-side from fresh. At worst, stored products might lose a bit of potency, which is easily accounted for just by using a bit extra.
Yep, and we also have 40 pounds of baking soda stored in foil-laminate pouches, which is good essentially indefinitely and can be used with any acidic food to make single-acting baking powder or with readily available chemicals to make double-acting baking powder. That said, I have my doubts about the #10 cans of double-acting baking powder that are supposedly good for 20 years or more. Chemically, I don’t think it’s possible for double-acting baking powder to last that long. It’s just not stable.
What is the nonstable component of double-acting baking powder?
Re herbs: I once read a joking article that said you could leave herbs to your heirs. Just with the proviso that they may taste like nothing at all. I expect that depends very much on them being sealed against oxygen, which will otherwise interact with the essential oils.
Double-acting baking powders contain both a fast-acting acidic powder that reacts with baking soda in the presence of moisture and a slow-acting acidic powder that reacts only when heated in the oven. When mixed with baking soda, either of these acids will eventually react with the baking soda even in the absence of much moisture or thermal energy, which is why I question cans of baking powder with supposed 20-year shelf lives. Once the baking soda and acid are mixed, they’re going to react eventually, the only question is how long it will take.
As to herbs and spices, there may be a few exceptions, but I’d bet money that a properly stored material in glass will be usable essentially indefinitely if unopened. Yes, it’s partially oxygen that’s the problem, but probably the main issue is the escape of volatile essential oils.
Regarding baking powder, why not stock up on cream of tartar as the acid to react with the baking soda? CoT plus soda is the canonical recipe for baking powder. A sealed jar of CoT should last approximately forever, just like the soda.
The standard recipe is 1 part soda to 2 parts tartar, but I get perfectly good results with much less CoT. This is usually when making quick breads like banana bread, which may explain it, though I don’t think banana or pumpkin is notably acidic.
“… lump skepticism and denial in with creationists, and nobody wants to be lumped in with them. Sorta guilt by association.”
It’s worse than that; simply harping on the words “denial” and “deniers” associates by implication those who deny the Holocaust ever occurred. So anti-warmists are thus lumped in with all those fringe nutballs, Holocaust deniers, creationists, rightwing cranks, neo-Nazis, racists, etc.
Again, the SteveF Notebook page comes in handy here; if the regime wished to seize upon yet another phony crisis to generate more fear and tension and the masses becoming more dependent on the word and protection of “experts” and Our Nanny the Almighty State, how would they have gone about it differently? Of course they can just add this crisis to the ones involving “terrorism,” (as defined and provoked by them), mad-dog school shooters (always deranged white males, how convenient), the Ebola outbreak (again, apparently facilitated by them and hyped by them), and rightwing extremist “hate” groups.
As the brigand prince of Chicago has said, ‘never waste a good crisis.’ He and his ilk, like Larry Klinton and his lovely wife Bruno live for stuff like this. It tends to solidify their hold on power, just like their Soviet and Maoist role models demonstrated.
Regarding herb storage, dried herbs stored in glass are good years later. (This would be glass canning jars with the disposable white-coated metal lids and rubber seals, screwed tight but not run through the pressure canner.)
Herbs stored in the small, milky white plastic containers taste plasticky after not terribly long, call it a year.
Herbs stored in the big, rather brittle, clear plastic containers like you get at BJs or Sam’s Club are good for years. I’m not sure how many years, but they taste fine for at least three. (I’d bought some extra basil and what-not, didn’t have room on the spice rack, tucked them away, forgot about them, and found them years later. No harm done.)
Spices, such as chili powder, are a mixed bag. Some keep fine, some not so much. I haven’t figured out any pattern, but guess it has to do with how dry they were when sealed. Emphasis: guess.
All this is personal observation by a good but not pro-level cook, to wit myself.
The spices I buy at the grocery are never sealed tightly from air. I have never seen any that are. They depend solely on the screw-off lid sealing them, which I seriously doubt is an air-tight seal.
My experience has been like SteveF’s, that — whether in glass or plastic (and glass is harder and harder to find as each year passes by) — seasonings get to tasting off-kilter after about a year. It is especially noticeable to me in genuine Italian recipes. I replace all of my half-dozen most-used spices every January.
Strangely, the Knorr chicken and beef powdered bullion jars I buy (I use a lot of that, as it is the European and S. American’s seasoning secret) are sealed so tightly with a glued-on aluminum foil cover, that it is hard to get that off. But I would not trust grocery-bought spices to last until they start sealing them like the bullion.
I have one of those FoodSavers. You can vacuum Mason jars with one of the attachments. Would throwing in an oxy absorber in the smallest Mason that fits, vacuuming it, make the herbs/spices immortal?
if the regime wished to seize upon yet another phony crisis to generate more fear and tension
It all started with Y2K when the leaders saw how the hype could spread fear and dependence. Once that cat was out of the bag the next task was to simply spread the crisis of the moment.
Add in 9/11 where the government complete over reacted and made everyone that flies a subject of the government’s bidding, the ability to harass people, demand body searches for Purple Heart recipients and other noteworthy individuals, the game was well set in motion. Walk along the street and the police can ask for identification, don’t provide it and the police will arrest you for some trumped up charge.
Every crisis that is spread via the media the local police and TV stations attempt to find a local connection. That way the local police can stock up on SWAT, military style equipment, lots of toys for the police to play with, nothing that they will ever use except in a parade.
It is in the interest of the local, state and federal governments to keep any crisis alive. There is a lot of money to be made.
…and power to be grabbed. There is never any shortage of wannabe gaulieter and commissar types in any political system, and they’re attracted to the various bureaucracies and “law enforcement” organizations, of course.
I have a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M and am a licensed Professional Engineer in Texas with over 30 years of experience. I was a field test engineer for power plants for several years.
By my experience, the testing criteria and the calculational models just do not reach the level of precision that the Global Warming XXXXX Climate Change XXXXXX Climate Disruption XXXX Global Cooling scientists are claiming. As a test engineer, I found it very difficult to measure temperature to 1.0 F accuracy, must less the 0.1 C accuracy that the scientists are claiming.
It is easy to measure 0.1 C in the lab but very difficult in the field. Weather stations before the 1990s or even the 2000s were manually read instrumentation. I used to take care of a weather station out in west Texas back in the 1980s. The thermometer was graduated from -20 F to 150 F and manually read by a 70 year old gate guard. That instrument was accurate to +- 1.0 F on a good day and most of those gate guards could not see anything up close.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevenson_screen
My point is that the atmospheric temperature measurements before 1990 are not accurate to 0.1 C. I might even argue that time period extends into the 2000s. So, the temperature record before 2000 is not accurate enough for a study to be run with a 0.1 C accuracy.
Would throwing in an oxy absorber in the smallest Mason that fits, vacuuming it, make the herbs/spices immortal?
Probably not. The some of the flavor components would be drawn out into the vacuum. Once opened, I toss herbs after a year, ground spices after 2, whole spices are good for a lot longer. Sealed herbs would not spoil for a year or more. IIRC, most herbs are irradiated to preserve them, so if sealed in sanitized containers, they should not spoil as long as they are sealed. However, oxidation after opening will degrade flavor profiles.
I have a degree in English Literature from the University of the State of New York, with additional graduate study at Clark University and Rutgers University. I am an unlicensed gun nut in the state of Vermont with over 42 years experience. I was a teacher and a cop for several years each.
I know bullshit when I hear it and see it.
The warmists are full of it.
I wonder what the definition of “gun nut” is?
A gun nut is anyone who owns and/or uses and/or is interested in: firearms.
That is all.
I think I was 8 when I shot Dad’s Ruger 22 pistol. About 46 years ago. I’ve got dibs on that gun and if he ever gives me the safe combination, it may disappear some weekend.
You better get that safe combo before it’s too late; otherwise a locksmith will have to bust in which will cost a bit. Is it a Ruger semi-auto or a revolver?
You got me beat on the firearms thang, for longevity, anyway, but I doubt for rounds fired, haha.
Mom has the safe combo. Somewhere. I could drill it if necessary but would hate to destroy the safe.
The old Ruger Mk I in 22 LR. Great little gun.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruger_Standard
Ah, did you see the overheated blathering by the British lefties? Some family took their 10 year old girl duck hunting, and posted the picture of her first success. The UK papers were just full of stuff like “how could you put a weapon in a child’s hands”. This is, of course, the country that was trying to think of a way to outlaw knives. If only the darned things were needed in the kitchen.
The England of yesteryear is no more…
The critics would have at least some credibility if they were all vegans.
FWIW, brad, I’ve not seen any leftwing press complaining about that. Only the Daily Mail, which is a sort of neo-fascist propaganda sheet.
When the leftwing press complains about hunting here, it’s usually not about the animals, but about class. In modern England, hunting is limited almost exclusively to the upper class. Hence why it causes a lot of resentment. Interestingly, fishing seems to transcend class divides, and gets none of the opprobrium that hunting gets.
A couple of thoughts on CAGW (or whatever the term is today):
1. Physics training: Never take a calculation to more significant digits than the primary data. Never!
2. Navy Training: Never record data to more precision than 1/2 of a graduation.
3. Engineering Training: All models are wrong, some models are useful. ~George Box.
The corollary being that the model MUST be validated.
4. Engineering Experience: Positive feedback systems bounce off the rails. The ONLY temperature rail that this planet has ever hit is the cold rail. And if a little CO2 can keep us off that rail, Hurrah!