Election Day

Go vote no. Unless unusually special circumstances apply, an anti-incumbent vote counts as a "no."

In Strictly Speaking Edwin Neuman conducts an election-day interview with a man on a London street. The citizen tells the reporter he anxious to vote and Neuman asks why.

"To get the buggers out," he replies.

If those aren't words to live by I'll kiss your arse on top of the U.S. Capitol dome and loan you a telephoto lens to boot.

Gun Show Report

Windom was the gun show of diggable boxes. Seems everyone in Minnesota decided to tidy up the gun room and peddle the detritus to gullible outtastaters. TeeHee. I am please to enjoy a few castoffs of Lutefiskia

An excellent 1981 air crew sheath knife, $3 including a light patina, now removed to reveal Camillus 1981. I had assumed the makers spoke Oriental. It was part of a package deal with a Kabar USN Mk 2, same price, The K has PTS as bad as you'll ever care to see, evilly pitted with marks barely readable and about half the leather rings missing. This will become the base steel for a custom.

How 'bout .452 -- 230 grainers FMJ, 100 for three bucks, loose in a baggie from a seller who said he sorta thought they were for a .45 but wasn't sure. Also two factory .257 Roberts at $10 per box. This caliber is getting a little hard to find.

The Queen of the Hop is Miss High Standard, a pumper in perfectly fine shape save for the remnants of a Bubba varnish job. At $75 I'll always find room for a spare 12 gauge.

Couple other goodies, but this is probably already more than you want to know.

I can't offer you an interesting Windom history fact because there isn't one.

EDIT: The prices in general were unremarkable, about the same as we've become used to, but I think everyone selling has become much more willing to negotiate.

Republicans

Within my lifetime, being a conservative Republican has meant something other than figuratively rolling queers and turning personal abortion decisions over to the politicians and cops.

The latest fiasco -- Stazzawhosis withdrawing in NY23 -- serves to remind us that Republicans have only themselves to blame for the Saint Barack era. For as long as the GOP demands theological purity in its subjects, Republicans in office will rarer than honest used car peddlers.

Stazza may have been a bad candidate from the outset. It seems to me she was. But that, too, illustrates the flibberdegibbetry of the Republican party which nominated her.

Kiwi wisdom

Our libertarian buddies down in New Zealand are wrestling with the

South Pacific versions of Gorebamaism. F'rinstance they link us to a site calculating the cost of ETS -- Emission Trading Scheme -- the local version of cap and trade. Among other things, the unworkable response to the nonexistent problem will add $21 to the cost of a sheep. That's baaaaaahd. Pendleton shirts are expensive enough already.