winsor

Suspiciously like a PA. To whom does one report these things?

They're just following CNN's lead.

Understood. The guide that was killed was with a fishing party, the lady that dropped the bear with the Mk I was checking the mail. I'm with you on the bear spray, but autoloaders aren't my first choice for dangerous game, and pistols are at the low end of the Taylor KO range. My go to backup for big and cranky creatures is a Marlin 1895 in .45/70 firing full patch heavy solids. Going with the philosophy of using common ammo, a T/C Contender 14" in the same caliber works. If I had to stick to a pistol caliber, I'd use the Redhawk and the M92 in .44 RM with 300 gr. solids over as much 296 as will fit. With a wheelgun you don't have to rack the slide on a bad primer - just keep pulling the trigger. BSBD, Winsor

A classic stopper is a large bore double gun. No chance of jamming on the follow up shot. If you ever have to resort to lethal force, make certain that you are very well trained in the use of the particular implement. A solid hit with a .22 is infinitely better than 6 misses with a .44 - someone reportedly dropped a Kodiak bear with a lucky shot from a 4 3/4" Ruger Mark I (followed the optic nerve to the brain). Having said that, in another case a seasoned guide was killed by a Kodiak that he had just shot fatally with a .458 WM. The last thing the bear did was to swat the guide while he was chambering another round. Having seen Grizzlies in the wild, I am fine with doing everything I can to avoid drawing their attention. They don't get that big by missing many meals, and I doubt if they'd pass me up for lack of condiments. BSBD, Winsor

Many years back, Black bear remains were found in the woods, of Maine IIRC. The skull looked odd, and 1 1/4 oz. of #4 shot was then found to have HEALED into its sinuses. It appears someone had discharged a 12 ga. shotgun into its nose, and the bear lived long enough for the wound to heal. While getting shot likely ended any potential or active attack, Brown bears reportedly respond to injury by attacking - and Browns are much bigger and tougher than Blacks. A 12 ga. has roughly twice the stopping power of the vaunted .44 RM, and most people can't shoot a.44 for beans - particularly under pressure. Think the kid shooting at Jackson and Travolta in "Pulp Fiction." Even though I've fired thousands of rounds of .44 RM, and can routinely empty a Redhawk on target in rapid fire, I'd want a minimum of a fast firing .45/70 equivalent to stop the attack of a Brown bear. A .458 SOCOM in an AR platform fits the bill of Cooper's 'thumper," and is about the most wallop an amateur may be able to wield effectively. When it comes to Charismatic Megafauna, and Browns certainly qualify, my recommendation is to do everything you can to stay off the menu in the first place. BSBD, Winsor

We encountered a Black bear while camping on the PA/NY border. The Cub Scouts and their parents were pretty nervous, but I yelled at the bear and told it that it should either show the necessary permits to occupy that camping spot or leave. It left. I read an article by someone who went hiking in Alaska for a Big Deal Vacation, Upon advice from someone experienced to have a firearm, he brought along a .357 Ruger Blackhawk. Coming across a Caribou carcass in a clearing, he wound up close to it when he noted a Brown bear ambling toward the carcass. He fired a round in the air to hopefully scare the bear away (hitting it with a .357 would have really pissed it off), which caused it to pause and keep coming. Concluding that the vacation for which he had saved and planned for a long time was about to be ruined by the bear mauling him, he started to scream at the bear, truly giving it a piece of his mind. Perhaps the bear concluded that the obviously psychotic animal by the caribou carcass was more trouble than it was worth, but it then wandered off in a different direction. Having seen Grizzlies in the wild, I am happy to give them wide berth. Prevailing over an eating machine the size of a Buick is not an adventure to which I look forward. BSBD, Winsor

I recall something to the effect of a guide making recommendations for travel in bear country saying one should wear bells to give bears warning so they could avoid people, and bear strength pepper spray to deter them if the bells didn't work. Asked how one could tell the difference between black bear and brown bear scat, the response was that brown bear droppings had bells in them and smelled like pepper spray.

It seems O'Rourke has figured out how to pander to a different voter base. Do I 'believe' him? I don't think 'belief' is part of the equation. Since an accepted definition of 'assault rifle' is a select fire version firing a reduced power cartridge, there really aren't that many to be confiscated. Most of the StG44s and the like in circulation are collector's items and don't see a lot of use. The ammo's expensive and spare parts are a bear to find. I suspect he's referring to 'military style' autoloading long guns with detachable magazines, such as AR-15 and AK variants. From a hunting standpoint, about the only thing for which either seems well suited is feral pigs. In large parts of the country they are a real problem, and fast, accurate follow up shots can make a big difference. My biggest objection to high capacity rifles is with Rambo wannabes in law enforcement. At train stations I have seen cops on patrol with the full G.I. Joe outfit with holsters and magazines in anticipation of terrorists starting a shooting war. While I'm cool with jihadi dipshits getting the opportunity to enter Paradise forthwith, I'm not crazy about my family being caught in the crossfire due to zeal on either side. I have fired an awful lot of ammunition on full auto, mostly 7.62x51 & .50 BMG, and stick to BB guns anymore due to the cost of ammo if nothing else. The problem with 'gun violence' is not the guns so much as the people driving them. The most heavily armed groups of people amongst whom I've lived have been entirely devoid of armed conflict. Other groups are given to mayhem with access to pointy objects. Given my choice, I'll take armed to the teeth and responsible over disarmed and out of control anytime. BSBD, Winsor

Too late!

Five right. Cut!

Since I am pretty sure you are not stupid, the level of sanctimonious delusion necessary to craft that response is simply awesome. I am dumbstruck by the level of denial in that position.

Nice try, but the problem with CRT is not that it lets on the Big Secret that there were slaves prior to 1865 (are you sure? I never heard that), nor the other Big Secret that blacks were treated very shabbily thereafter (as were Irish, Chinese, any Native Americans, etc., etc.). The fact that the underlying theme of CRT that the USA is All About Race is at issue. Believe it or not, the people you despise do not start every decision with the question "in doing this, is there any way it can further disenfranchise the downtrodden - Blacks in particular?" If you beat people over the head with an issue, eventually they get sick of getting beaten over the head - regardless of the reason. It's not so much whether they support or oppose the issue as it is that they conclude that the people beating them over the head with it are way fucked up. Of course you are on the side of the angels (as always), so it's all good. BSBD, Winsor

Not at all like 'critical race theory.' One need not get past the premises of critical race theory for it to be revealed as a racist ideology at the very best. If you hadn't noticed, critical race theory is all about race (big surprise there). It works out to be remarkably one-dimensional, and every bit as egalitarian as the Klan. Whether or not CRT or the KKK are right or wrong, they're equally fucked up for very similar reasons. To ignore the differences between Kikuyu and Yoruba in a track meet is to overlook fundamental aptitude for spring vs. endurance. The differences between men and women are significant and real. In some circumstances they matter, and in others they are irrelevant. To say that everyone has, or at least deserves, equal rights is fine. To say that everyone is the same is delusional. BSBD, Winsor BSBD, Winsor

This is reportedly Biden's appointee for Deputy Assistant Secretary of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition in the Energy Department's Office of Nuclear Energy. Sam Brinton's the one standing up. You can't make this shit up. BSBD, Winsor

Attacking the messenger rather than the message is a sure sign that you have nothing, as usual.

I happen to think the blockade of the Ambassador Bridge is inane and offensive. 'Protests' that amount to pissing in the soup do little to sway me to whatever cause is being espoused, which is one reason I find unions distasteful in practice. What I find instructive is the reaction of people who supported the BLM riots. The fawning reports of 'largely peaceful protests' that left a trail of vandalism, looting, smoking wreckage and death have turned to vitriol over an ill-considered tailgate party on a bridge. Apparently former Obama admin undersecretary of Homeland Security Juliette Kayyem has called for violence and vandalism against Freedom Convoy protesters who have amassed on the bridge that connects Detroit, Michigan to Windsor, Ontario. As usual, I find double standards distasteful. Some animals are more equal than others and all that. BSBD, Winsor

50 years ago was 1972, and I recall all sorts of havoc wreaked upon people who would fit into the 'entitled' mold these days. If you were insulated from it, good for you. I wasn't.

While I agree that this particular legislator is an idiot - or plays one on TV at the very least - it strikes me that neither side has the market cornered on stupidity. For every blithering idiot elected to office by one side there is an absolute moron counterpart on the other. The yin and yang of politics as it were.

I've seen pictures of him, but do not recall having heard his voice.

The biggest problem with football is the lack of time outs for commercials. Without commercials, how would you know that Anhauser Busch products are 'beer?' They certainly are not in compliance with Reinheitsgebot.

Thanks.

Okay, some of these things are confusing, like Anheuser-Bush suing some posers for calling their beer "Budweiser." The fact that it's brewed in Budweis, Czechia is a pretty weak excuse, so they settled out of court. It seems they were given orders of magnitude more than years' worth of sales would generate, so you have to look for 'Czechvar' on the shelves these days.

I'm kind of indifferent to drug and alcohol use per se. I recommend against it, but someone told me it's a free country or something like that. If this is accurate (consider the source): https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/biden-admin-to-fund-crack-pipe-distribution-to-advance-racial-equity/ the problem I have with it is that its rationale is racist. To imply that one's race makes drug addiction more or less likely is, I don't know, racist? Rather than equity, what's the problem with equality? Why can't we treat injustice without applying a racist/sexist lens to the issue? I know the idea that the law, in it's evenhandedness, applies the same penalties to a rich man stealing a loaf of bread as it does to a poor one and all that, but that doesn't change the fact that 'reverse discrimination' is still discrimination, and is still a bad thing from where I sit. With the best of intentions, the law of unintended consequences will bite you in the ass every time. In Yugoslavia under Tito, everyone was on their toes and largely got along. Once everyone was free of the Communist yoke, people remembered long buried animosities where Albanian, Bosnian, Croatian and Serb peoples recalled longstanding animus and began killing each other. Iraq under Saddam Hussein was similar. While I dislike Communism in practice, I also dislike the discrimination where one group gets a pass due to their ethnicity/religion and another is treated very differently (say Catholic/Protestant during the Troubles in Ulster). If you contend that having different 'rights' for different populations is okay, be careful what you ask for. Your goal might be to foster different standards between European stock people and indigenous sorts, but you may then find out that Apache don't see eye to eye with Navajo, or that Lakota aren't on the same page with Cheyenne and so forth. To bring it around, there just may be the odd person of Black African lineage who finds offensive the presumption that they are more given to addiction than the average, or that they need 'help' with Math, or that they are inherently given to single-parent unwed-mother households or whatever. From what I hear, that's as racist as it gets (okay, so white hoods and nooses is a more unpleasant variant). From what I've seen, equality is the best standard to which one might aspire in practice. "Equity" is just another flavor of racism. BSBD, Winsor

Are you talking about the football where you don't actually use your hands, or the proper American football where feet are used for running - except for when they occasionally trip over the ball?

Perhaps they consider it the baseline within the beltway so they focus on other things. Again, I contend that accusing Trump of lying is giving him credit for knowing the difference, or even what constitutes 'truth' by any measure. It seems that he simply blurts out whatever crosses his mind without any filter.