09:48 – The weather has moderated a bit. It was 23F (-5C) with no wind when I got up this morning, which was a lot better than the 13F (-10.5C) with a stiff breeze and gusty winds yesterday morning.
I ordered the boxed DVD set of Heartland S8 from Amazon.ca yesterday. I always order Heartland CDs as soon as they’re available because I want to support the program. I’d intended to order them back in September/October, but I didn’t get around to it because we had so much going on at the time. The DVD sets are always less expensive from amazon.ca, so I wasn’t surprised that they were $27.49 in CA dollars versus $42.60 from the US Amazon site. What did surprise me was the exchange rate. Not all that long ago, the Canadian and US dollars were at parity. A Canadian dollar now buys only about $0.72 US. Even with the added international shipping charge, the boxed set cost me only about $27 US.
There was an interesting column in the WS newspaper this morning, about new gun laws proposed in Tobaccoville, NC, which is right on the western edge of Forsyth County, a few miles from our old house. I asked Barbara what she thought of it, and her opinion was the same as mine. These proposed laws aren’t an attempt to infringe gun rights. One of them increases the minimum distance from an occupied dwelling to discharge a firearm from 300 feet to 1,000 feet, which is not unreasonable. The other prohibits the use of exploding targets (Tannerite high-explosive charges). Barbara and I agreed that 1,000 feet was a reasonable separation, and that neither of us would want someone detonating high explosives with only a 300-foot (~91 meter) separation from our house. Those opposing the new laws are attempting to frame it as a gun-confiscation issue, which it clearly isn’t.
I gave my wife the Heartland Season 8 DVDs for her birthday last month. I purchased them in October. I got around to doing something before you did? You must really be backlogged.
“Those opposing the new laws are attempting to frame it as a gun-confiscation issue, which it clearly isn’t.”
Agreed, but it’s more of the same incrementalism, the give-em-an-inch-they-take-a-mile theory of modern prog infestations, the frog in the slowly boiling pot of water, i.e., Joe Citizen, gets used to these little “non-offensive” and non-limiting and “reasonable” ordinances and laws and is primed for the actual restrictive violations of 2A.
They could similarly pass a feel-good law that prohibits schoolchildren from owning semi-auto rifles and peeps would say, oh, sure, that’s reasonable, who in their right mind would oppose such a reasonable law? A year later they pass another one barring people with mental health issues from the same thing and again the reaction is a big yawn, of COURSE it’s reasonable. Except they write the law so just about any bureaucrat anywhere could interpret those issues however they want to, and there is no recourse and no accounting.
This week it’s “don’t be firing off guns within a thousand feet of an occupied building.” Next month it’s five-thousand feet of ANY building. And so on, rinse and repeat.
That’s how the bastards operate, and they’ve been operating like that since the 1960s.
300 ft from an occupied dwelling ???
When I lived in Oklahoma I use to plink at cans on the wood fence from my back porch. That’s where I taught my two boys gun safety and marksmanship. I sure miss being able to step out back in my PJs for a few minutes practice. Now if the law excluded the residence of the shooter I might agree. BTW: when family moved me to CA at age 12 I set up a short range in our downstairs hallway using .22 shorts for safety.
“…about new gun laws proposed in Tobaccoville, NC, which is right on the western edge of Forsyth County…”
So, plural laws, eh? Not just the distance from the “occupied dwelling.” Is this the county, town or state? And since when did this become such a sudden and critical issue requiring the imposition of yet another law or ordinance?
And the “exploding targets.” 300 feet is the length of a football field. None of the splatter targets I’ve seen have anywhere near the danger of splatting someone within that distance, not even close.
Again, my question would be: do the people writing and proposing these new laws have ANY idea of what they’re talking about, in regard to nomenclature, specifically, and what various firearms, ammunition, etc., are actually capable of??? And my other question would be: are these new laws already a done deal? Already written up, packaged up and about to be pencil-whipped through a compliant city council, town meeting or state legislature?
OK, here’s the article:
http://www.journalnow.com/news/columnists/scott_sexton/sexton-small-town-of-tobaccoville-caught-up-in-big-city/article_a277ab04-4b30-5449-aeee-6ce2f39ce64f.html
The nooz writer couldn’t be more smarmy and snarky, could he? Why not ridicule any possible dissent from such “reasonable” laws and “precautions?” Anyone who would oppose such rational ideas is clearly a wacko extremist gun nut, contributing to our national malaise of polarization on all issues, blah, blah, blah.
I still say: Give ’em an inch…
Well, there is the give-’em-an-inch argument, with which I agree, but have you ever heard even a half-pound charge of Tannerite detonate? (Of course you’ve heard bigger detonations than that by far, but within a hundred yards of your house?)
I see that it was the property owner’s son who was doing this without his knowledge or permission. He proposed what sounded to me a reasonable solution: no shooting before noon or after one hour before dusk, and no high-explosive detonations.
I sympathize with the lady who had a stray round go through her storm door. That would scare anyone, including radical gun rights people (like me). We shooters need to make absolutely sure that nothing like that can ever happen. Having one’s home struck by gunfire is enough to make even pro-gun people say enough is enough.
Incidentally, the NFA is responsible for a lot of the problem. I don’t know if it’s still true, but in the UK one used to be able to walk into a hardware store and buy a suppressor, on the theory that using one helped save shooters’ hearing and cut way down on the noise of nearby gunfire. We should be able to buy suppressors freely and without any transfer tax or paperwork for just those reasons.
If you make your own suppressor do you have to fill in paperwork or pay fees/taxes?
@miles, you have to go to federal prison.
They are even more psycho about suppressors than guns.
n
1000 feet per side would be a 1,000,000 square foot lot as most lots are square. That is almost 23 acres. So unless you own that much land it would be illegal on your own property. To be totally legal it would actually have to be 2000 feet per side which would make it almost 100 acres.
Don’t get me wrong shooting at or even toward a building is stupid and in most cases criminal, but I see this as the usual “I hate guns because my left wing demigods say I should” crowd trying to impose their views on everyone else.
Knowing the hue and cry that has occurred when states try to require a photo id such as drivers license before allowing people to vote. Image we place the same levels of restrictions on voting we currently place on firearms.
My understanding is that federal law applies only to interstate sale, not to manufacturing or in-state sales. Which is why the 80% lower receivers are so popular. There is NO requirement that people register such things in-state. The complication comes when stores sell items – they’re not absolutely sure they’re not for sale to an out-of-stater, so registration is required. (Sneaky thing, that).
So no, a home-made suppressor does not need to be registered or reported by by federal regulations.
On the other hand, _owning_ one may depend on state regulations.
Whew. Sentence structure in that last post is awful. I’m going to leave it, though.
You can buy and make your own lower receiver without reporting. You can make your own suppressor. Owning one depends on local & state law.
BTW, perfectly legal to build your own gun in the US, but illegal to sell or transfer that gun. There are kits and clubs to do just that for the AK platform. (the receiver- the part that is actually a ‘gun’- is just folded metal. Very straightforward to make.)
If you want examples of the idiocy of some of the laws,
This is a restricted firearm/suppressor, and in combination with your gun, when used is a federal crime. To be legal it needs a serial number, and you need a tax stamp for it.
http://www.amazon.com/IMACS-Filter-Thread-Adaptor-8×24/dp/B00T82R8HO
Note that these are simple to make, widely available, and are NOTHING more than a small piece of machined metal.
(here’s the legal- http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2014/10/24/solvent-traps-still-illegal-use-intended/ )
Here’s a picture of another piece of inert metal that needs a tax stamp (or it’s a felony)
http://www.quarterbore.com/nfa/dias.html
The first pic at the top of the page…
And here are pix of a couple of other inert pieces of metal that are also considered to be firearms, must be registered and tax stamped
http://www.notpurfect.com/main/semifull.html
and some discussion.
It’s like holding a bottle opener responsible for drunk driving accidents.
nick
Because, once again, imbeciles get all hot and bothered that “we have to DO something” and then more imbeciles gin up the laws and ordinances and pass them, with the masses nodding out in front of their tee-vees and grunting “yeah, guess that’s reasonable…”
And the camel’s nose keeps nudging away under that tent.
Same old, same old.
@JimL
“So no, a home-made suppressor does not need to be registered or reported by by federal regulations.”
This is incorrect. Even owning the parts is a felony IF YOU DON’T HAVE THE TAX STAMP.
Technically you CAN build your own, but you still need to do the federal paperwork first.
Beyond that, OWNING one is sometimes restricted by state law as well.
http://www.silencertalk.com/forum/index.php
nick
The Firearm Blog link – I stand corrected. Thanks, @nick.
I have noticed there is some company on Facebook that is selling something that they call a solvent trap which goes on the end of a gun much like a suppressor. The only difference is it doesn’t has a hole in the end like a suppressor. It seems to me that the real purpose of the device you buy it and put a hole in the middle and have a “home made ” suppressor.
On the end of the solvent trap, you screw on an oil filter (with a hole in the end). This suppresses the sound.
Seems kind of shaky to me. I would be really worried about the silly thing shifting while shooting.
Our lame-duck gov here in VT recently signed the OK for suppressors to be legally bought and sold here, but yeah, you gotta get the Fed tax stamp and pay $200. And we’re hearing the paperwork hurdle takes anywhere from three to eight months and longer.
Periodically some libturds who are not-from-around-here but have property here and may actually live and work here now, will rise up and try to pass more laws and ordinances, especially in the “cities” like Burlap and Montpeculiar, and the college towns, where they tend to congregate, being the rat-fucking lemmings they are. They have so far been routinely defeated and shown the door but they never stop and never give up entirely. They’re progs, i.e., neo-Marxists, and they think in the Long Term, the Long March, etc., just like their forebears and just like the musloids. They’re in no hurry; they’ll wear us down and out-populate us. Or so goes their strategy.
Yes, the “solvent trap” is in fact possible to use as a suppressor. If you do so, without the tax stamp, it’s a felony. (which is my point about the ridiculousness of requiring the tax stamp and a serial number on that thread adapter.)
See the video of hickok45
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t_pcWPdSDs
he’s got a bunch of good videos
nick
eh, can’t talk today. words no make sense to theya
It always comes down to eating grass:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3388505/Starving-survivors-trapped-Syrian-towns-siege-Assad-forces-rebels-forced-eat-cats-dogs-grass-food-supplies-cut-aid-groups-warn.html
“some residents are eating grass to survive and undergoing surgery without anesthesia.”
nick
“Polysorbate-60”. “What is the password”?
http://www.gocomics.com/overthehedge/2016/01/07
Kinda makes one wonder if Polysorbate-1 through Polysorbate-59 were poison.
Wait a minute, RJ is a prepper!
“I have noticed there is some company…”
If you don’t have a lathe, or access to one, you can buy solvent traps and oil filter thread adapters on Amazon and elsewhere. Also “maglite cell cups”, which look an awful lot like suppressor baffles that haven’t been drilled yet.
However, I question the prudence of buying such things online. Too easily traced, especially when the BATF purports to apply “constructive possession” rules.
Simple but serviceable suppressors are old, old technology, and expedient disposable ones can easily be made with household items. Get an old edition of Tom Clancy’s novel “Without Remorse” for a blow by blow account of how to build one (it’s been expunged from recent editions), or just look on archive.org for the relevant US military technical publications, which are freely available for download.
Ewwwwwww! Slobber on the screen!
http://www.daybydaycartoon.com/comic/love-affair/
Referencing Chris Matthews interview of Cankles:
http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/chris-matthews-slobbering-fawning-embarrassing-interview-hillary
Guys, I wouldn’t dream of buying a “solvent trap” or making a home made suppressor. Even though I already have an old copy of Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse. If I wanted a weapon that would shoot silently, I’d buy a longbow or a crossbow. Assuming of course that I haven’t missed the executive orders banning them.
Lots of places treat the crossbow as a firearm….
n
or air guns, or knives, or axes, or baseball bats, or tire irons (first time I was on a jury was ‘The Tire Iron Murder’).
Anything that can cause bodily harm is a weapon.
It’s the act not the tool.
I remember watching a guy shoot a .22 with a 2 litre soda bottle taped to the muzzle. It worked quite well.
Denis wrote:
“Get an old edition of Tom Clancy’s novel “Without Remorse” for a blow by blow account of how to build one (it’s been expunged from recent editions)…”
That was what prompted my original question. “John Clark” is shown how to make a suppressor by a navy guy, and he makes his own for a pistol and rifle. My copy of Without Remorse is literally falling apart but I won’t get rid of it. I can’t believe they’ve censored it.
There was a Myth Busters episode that tested the plastic soda bottle “silencer” myth. IIRC it was confirmed.
Must be used under adult supervision. 😉
This was on the Dilbert Scott Adam’s Blog on Tuesday. Good for a chuckle, enjoy.
http://blog.dilbert.com/post/136688410576/the-amazon-gift-predictor-trump-master-persuader
I remember watching a guy shoot a .22 with a 2 litre soda bottle taped to the muzzle. It worked quite well.
For the first shot only?
No, actually it worked fine for several shots. It made about as much noise as the Sionics suppressor on my MAC-10. Granted, that was firing .45 ACP rounds rather than .22, but I was still impressed. All it cost him was an empty Coke bottle and a few inches of duct tape. Well, that and the chance of a long stretch in a federal penitentiary and a huge fine.
What, it suppressed with an EMPTY coke bottle? I figure that the sound suppression was performed by the liquid.
So what is the ATF gonna do, arrest you for a 2 liter bottle and some duct tape? Oh wait, we are talking about the ATF.
Yeah, empty. If it’d been full, the liquid would’ve stopped the bullet and there’d have been coke all over the place.
Not to mention the backpressure doing bad things.
We are doomed:
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story/military/2016/01/06/marine-corps-boot-camp-job-titles-gender-neutral-april/78351756/
We are doomed:
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story/military/2016/01/06/marine-corps-boot-camp-job-titles-gender-neutral-april/78351756/
That is nothing compared to Obola’s ROE for troops in the middle east. You cannot return fire unless you feel that your life is threatened. Just about all return fire incidents are generating court martials.
As far as job names, here you go:
Rifleman -> Rifleperson
maggot -> maggot
#*%&(%*#& -> #*%&(%*#&
We had some pretty effed-up return-fire rules in SEA from time to time, also, so this is not new stuff. We’d do whatever we had to do, of course, and radio in whatever we needed to tell them, plus the reports afterward ditto.
Hey, I was in the vets group today and one of the fun things is that you get to find out shit about somebody WAY later after you’ve been knowing them, etc., etc. I’d thought I had a rotten temporary job for a while as a military customs inspector over there, search human remains in caskets for contraband prior to shipment to the States. But our ex-Army artillery guy got back from ‘Nam and was stationed at Fort Dix, NJ, where he then spent seven months doing the next-of-kin death notifications in NJ and on Long Island, each time with an officer and a chaplain. I’d rather rummage through caskets or charge a fucking machine gun bunker with a toothbrush than do that gig.
Yep.
I wonder if the same rules apply to hunting islamorrhoids as to hunting game you’re not supposed to: yell “Oh my god, it’s coming right at me!” and then fire away.
More seriously, just why is it that American soldiers, fighting non-Americans who are trying to kill them, work under much stricter rules than American police, who are working amongst primarily American citizens on American soil? I can’t even blame it on Ofuckface’s hatred of America because much the same applied when Bush43 was prez, and I even dealt with some of the same back when Reagan and Bush41 were prez.
BTW, I saw a female Marine Corps DI about ten years ago. She was five foot nothing and scared the you know what out of me. And I was just one of the parents hanging around at the initial induction ceremony.
She could yell instructions about twice the level of the other two male DIs. She had the twenty young men line up for the ceremony and of course about five of them were not in their proper place. She then “fixed” their positions standing about a foot away from them at what sounded to me like 130+ db.
The big problem with women in battle is that the stuff they carry into the field weighs 100+ lbs. My son was a mortar gunner and a light machine gunner. He wore 65 lbs of armor plate to start. Then his backpack with about 20 lbs of MREs, water, poncho, sleeping bag, field medical stuff, etc, etc, etc. Then he had his M4 and 30 round mags if he was a mortar gunner that day. Then he carried the mortar barrel, 20 lbs. Somebody else got the 35 lb base plate (65 mm mortar, the 81 mm mortar is far worse).
Or if he was a light machine gunner, he carried a M-249 with seven drums of 5.56mm, 200 rounds per drum. Around 40 lbs.
They would go on five mile walks with all this stuff! Lord forbid that you got receiver of the M-2. That is 50+ lbs!
I have not seen very many women who could carry their body weight for five miles. I have met two ladies in the USMC who weighed 130 to 140 lbs and could maybe do that. One was the DI and another a MP.
“More seriously, just why is it that American soldiers…”
Because we were led by, and are led by, ball-less metrosexuals who are slaveboy pets of the matriarchy that runs the show now, on top of which they are careerist perfumed princes of the Pentagon. Even former enlisted scum who rise through the ranks tend to forget from whence they came as they sniff the heady vapors of steamy brown ass-cracks. And the homegrown police state is in service to the propertied and moneyed overlords and needed to keep the riff-raff in their place.
Any other questions?
Copchicks and soldier chicks usually ain’t built for heavy weapons rucksack marches, sorry to report, but there it is, yet another pesky function of biology, anthropology and fucking physics. I had no armor plate and hated the helmet, too goddam hot by a long shot. My daily/nightly getup was baggy woodland camo fatigue pants, green canvas jungle boots, an OD green tee-shirt, and I humped just the M60, couple hundred rounds of belted ammo, and my S&W .38 revolver with just the six rounds. Other guys shared out the M60 ammo and carried their own M16s. Sometimes I also toted a LAW, and the “heavy weapons” guys hauled grenade launchers and mortars.
Same getup on the choppers; and my headgear was always a floppy OD green boonie hat, stained by sweat and salt, and like me most of the time, kinda rank. By my second tour I was considered a very cold and methodical SOB with zero patience for lifer maggots or uppity officer types. They gave me my re-up briefing in the hospital while shrapnel was being removed from my extremities and shoulder, and sewing up the top of my head.
My DIs in boot were SSgt. Pedro Ramirez (half-Apache/Mexican lifer maggot), TSgt. Thomas Pike (lifer maggot and redneck cracker Korean War vet with awful stories for us) and the head honcho was big fat MSgt. Alfonso Rocamontes. All bastards; “Your mommies and daddies cried to Congress that we can’t hit you anymore, but that’s alright, we got something else for ya…” By the second week we wished they’d just hit us and get it over with. There were no womyn around then, good thing, too, ’cause they had some pretty filthy cadence marching ditties….
“‘Unlike Anything I’ve Ever Seen’: Mike Rowe Describes His Wild Night With a Pack of Rat-Hunting Dogs in New York City”
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2016/01/07/unlike-anything-ive-ever-seen-mike-rowe-describes-his-wild-night-with-a-pack-of-rat-hunting-dogs-in-new-york-city/
““Mild manner little terriers, these loyal pets are transformed into the hound of the Baskervilles,” said Rowe. “Together they go into the city and they start killing rats.””
““All we know is its almost impossible for a New Yorker be anywhere at any time and not be within five-feet of a rat,” said Rowe.”
I knew that there was a reason that I did not want to live in NYC. I have killed four roof rats in my house in Fort Bend County, Texas since we moved into it three years ago. Nasty!
Terrier dawgs have been used for centuries to catch and kill rats, often at betting venues, of course. Bulldogs likewise, and crosses of the two.
I wouldn’t live in NYC if they paid me a million dollars an hour. Gigantic cesspool filled with four-legged and two-legged rats and commie scum and underclass revenants. Twenty million in the greater NYC area, nightmarish. If and when the SHTF real good, that area will become Inferno writ large.
No rats here; we have three cats. Of course, not many chipmunks, squirrels, birds or frogs, either.
New Zealand Is A Civilized Country
In the United States if you want to own a sound suppressor (or silencer) for your .22 rifle or pistol, you must fill out an ATF Form 4, pay a $200 tax, submit both a picture and fingerprints, get the signature of the chief law enforcement official in the jurisdiction of your place of residence, undergo a background investigation, and then wait. This is in addition to the cost of the suppressor which, I understand, begins in the $200 range.
In New Zealand, you drive on down to Gun City in Christchurch, pay NZ$39.99 or about $29.91 in U.S. dollars, and walk out with your suppressor. As their ad says, “There are no age or licence restrictions on silencer sales.”
I miss New Zealand.
@OFD, how did you miss The Donald over in Burlington today? His speech starts at 27 minutes into the video.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/cl6300d7tZk
Lynn wrote:
“She could yell instructions about twice the level of the other two male DIs.”
Ah, thanks for this info Lynn, I never knew my sister was moonlighting as a USMC DI… 🙂
“@OFD, how did you miss The Donald over in Burlington today?”
Easily; I went straight home after vet group stuff. Funny you should ask, though; one of the Desert One vets mentioned he’s been having bad thoughts for the last two weeks about killing people, like from a church tower in downtown Burlington, and, driving by where Trump was gonna be, the Flynn Center, which his krew grossly overbooked by an order of magnitude, what the best post he could take for a good head shot. We talked to him about those thoughts and ‘splained how they come about and what to do about them. Not that he would have acted them out but he wondered where they came from all of a sudden. Also feels guilty/crummy that he doesn’t know for sure if he killed anybody over there. Etc.
This is the kinda thing that comes up at these meetings. But mostly it’s just guys trying to cope with everyday shit, some for half a century. And some for just a few weeks; those guys are kinda scary. They’re extremely angry for some odd reason and can easily become very violent very quickly. But we remember what that was like and can talk them down usually. So far, so good.
We get a lot of Canadian snowbirds here, and the drop in the loonie vs. the greenback has hurt them, and our local economy. A US $70 meal for a husband & wife costs them right at CD $100 ( including a little exchange fee from the credit card company), so many of the Canadians here are eating out less, playing less golf, etc. They say that the drop in the price of oil is the culprit. I hate to see that side effect; Canada is an ally of ours. But the drop in the price of oil also huts a lot of countries that are NOT our allies, so IMHO the folks up north will just have to deal with it.
The Saudis are dropping the price to make fracking in the US uneconomic, at the same time hurting OPEC and Russia.
What’s not to like?
Personally, I don’t want to hurt Russia; we should be friends with them against ISIS and the rest of the hadji swarms. Ditto with the Persians. But our political leadership is way too shortsighted, stupid and greedy, and would rather hold hands with the Soddie bastards who finance the musloid hordes and continue fellating the banksters and fossil energy nabobs.
Meanwhile our great friends and allies the Turks continue to enable the musloid scum and lie about their shooting down of the Russian SU-24 bomber in Syrian air space. Our government has also been lying about that, naturally. Prince Vlad told the truth about it, and so far I haven’t caught him out in any obvious lies like our own and the Euro hacks use constantly.
In other nooz, Mrs. OFD off to Kalifornia again and I get my RAV4 back, no doubt to clean out all the accumulated Princess rubbish and garbage, remove my broken and cracked CD jewel cases, and my CDs thrown all over the inside and scuffed up on the floor, per usual.
Didn’t take a year:
Note that the victims are reported to be 14 and 15yo.
nick
It’s what they do: rape, torture, savage murders, pedophilia, etc., all in the name of the demon entity who spoke to their Founder in that underground bat cave. Whether or not one believes in the reality of the Devil, it’s not a great stretch to describe their behavior as satanic.
And if the State won’t protect its children, men and women, mostly men, will eventually rise up to do the job.
The Saudis are dropping the price to make fracking in the US uneconomic, at the same time hurting OPEC and Russia.
What’s not to like?
The minute that the oil prices go back up, new wildcatter companies will be formed and the fracking will resume. Fracking is known technology, it is good technology, and it is extremely efficient at removing entrained oil and natural gas from the ground.
To combat the pain that is going on right due to the Saudis (actually there is more pain due to the Iranian oil is hitting the world market due to Obola), I would like to see a $10 per barrel import duty on oil to the USA to help out our existing companies but that will never happen.
The Saudis are idiots. This is not the middle ages where we stop using a technology and we also forget that we have that technology. Fracking will be used for the next 1,000 years. Unless, we nuke ourselves back into the stone age and then the problems are so many that we will spend hundreds, if not thousands, of years in savagery.
“Unless, we nuke ourselves back into the stone age and then the problems are so many that we will spend hundreds, if not thousands, of years in savagery.”
A few dozen years at most; there will be enough knowledgeable and skilled peeps around to recreate and resurrect some of the basic technologies and industries. Longer if we allow the hadjis to win and destroy Western Civ and install the Greater Caliphate worldwide along with sharia, because then we really will be back, not to the Stone Age, but circa 700 AD. Remember, though, that not only was that the age of Mohammed the Pervert, many curses be upon him and his progeny and acolytes and slave-dogs, but it was also the age of Beowulf and the Norsemen.