Hello again my friends, its turning into the good old days, when I had to churn out three or four of these a week. I’m working my way back into a permanent spot. I’m out next week when Tonio will take a victory lap, and then fade back into the darkness, inevitably popping up when bears are mentioned or editing needs doing. I thank him for taking this over when I stepped back during the second set of kids interspersed with Mrs. L getting a hip replacement.
I’m up to two in a row and already stretching my much neglected ability to run off a hundred and fifty decent words of introductory patter. Today, its all about the local “ninja gym”. You see, whenever that American Ninja Warrior obstacle course thing got big a family who lives around me also got into it. I think the dad finished second once or twice, his son had some good outings. His daughter also made the finals, and then won… some sort of obstacle tag challenge. Anyhow, they own and operate the local ninja gym, and are super nice people. I mean, like, there’s a lot of homeschool granola vaccine dodging undercurrent and most of the teenagers who make up the staff that run the little kids have that weird social awkwardness of not having been chewed into a certain shape by school. Super cool folks that I would absolutely take training advice from and ignore medical advice from. I’m taking my 3 younger kids there tonight. The 10 year old does Parkour, which I think is French for “not enough grip strength for the ninja course”. My five year old is kind of in a transition to the “big kids”, and still finding his confidence. And upper body stregnth. And coordination. And the holy-crap-he’ll-be-4 this month littlest, they have nursery ninjas, which is hilarious. Everything is about 1/4 scale, but lots of swinging, jumping, and rolling. Plus they have… the best way I can describe it is an indoor cat run for 3-4 year olds. They can climb out a ladder and be up above everyone’s heads, but its all enclosed. The kids love it. They think its so funny they get to look down on their parents. And then jump in a ball pit. None of this has made my kids more coordinated, better athletes, or able to overcome their father’s very mediocre genes, but they have fun with it.
I’m not saying we’re living in a certain dystopian sci-fi timeline, but…
Oh no, Kristi Noem is stepping down. My guess: after starting like six wars with states that sponsor terrorism, they want someone who isn’t an airhead leading the department
Political donor of no party affiliation worth mentioning found guilty in civil trial of causing the death of two men, hit for $2M.
“Fuck you, pay me“
Nice.
I must have missed the reference on the first link.
AI got cauley mixed up with the kid from T2
I see.
I’m assuming Mr. Reynolds found it amusing that an AI got a Skynet reference (actor playing John Connor) so humorously wrong is all.
Either that or the AI doesn’t want John to be able to lead humanity and is trying desperately to hide him. Same reason they got rid of the phone books so it is harder to track down people and protect them! All connected… maaaaan….
lol Poor Edward did get chewed up and spit out by the child actor conveyor belt. I haven’t seen or heard from him since American History X – holy shit that was 28 years ago – but I heard some tales.
Noem is an infidel!
And incompetent!
“None of this has made my kids more coordinated, better athletes, or able to overcome their father’s very mediocre genes, but they have fun with it.”
They’re having fun doing something physical, and not sitting in front of a tablet. Excellent parenting.
Dangnabbit… my free association brain says: Obligatory now… Bonus that I can never get out of my head though I have no desire to watch the danged thing….
For 4 year olds it is cute …. when it is your 17 year old doing it emotionally / mentally it is less cute.
But yeah — not a ninja gym, but there was a Funworks in Modesto I used to take my son to where the kids play area had stairs into a whole overhead hamster tube type thing with plexiglass… so I assume roughly the same idea. And yeah, could barely get him out of it when he was younger.
At first glance that looked like “Fuckworks” and I had questions.
I suspect the Catholic school moms would have reacted quite differently when we had his 7th birthday party there and invited his classmates….
Fuckworks, it is a program to get people off of the dole by using their pole
That sounds fun for lightweight adults.
TOK, sex, do it for the kids.
I’m not saying we’re living in a certain dystopian sci-fi timeline, but…
I don’t get it.
OT. I finally read about how bad they fucked F1 with its hybrid powertrain and usage.
Wow. It makes me even less interested than I was. The millionaires buying all the green indulgences to fly around the globe adds to the lack of appeal.
I’ll still watch the first few races. Hopefully if I haven’t mucked up access (or the Apple deal itself didn’t) I can at least watch F2 and F3 when they’re part of the weekend. Often that’s a better watch than F1 anyway.
Link to article? I haven’t really dug into it – I’m balking at paying Apple for the privilege of watching.
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2026/03/nerve-damage-energy-management-and-apple-tv-f1-in-2026-starts-today/
“Oh no…. anyway…” about sums it up for me. Of course, like gushing emails about VP level reorgs in corporations… I really don’t think most figureheads really impact the day to day all that much. (I’ll give Pete Hesgeth (sp?) an exception to this as he seems to be trying to make an impact… not firing as much useless brass from the Pentagon as I think he should… but trying…)
“We wish her well in her new role…”
“… as a support pylon in the New York tunnel project….”
She is filling some fancy, newly-created post. Guardianess of the Americas or somesuch. IOW, she didn’t fuck up enough to be fired, but did fuck up enough to be “promoted” to a sinecure.
Does that Guardianess of the Americas role come with a superhero costume a la Wonder Woman? Asking for a friend.
Evidence in the criminal case showed Buck lured young Black men who were often experiencing homelessness, addiction, and/or poverty to his West Hollywood apartment for sexually charged so-called “party and play” sessions in which he would inject them with methamphetamine and drug them with sedatives, with and without their consent.
I was told that there would be no kink shaming.
Buck had a Tick.
Man and they didn’t just bury the lede in the last paragraph on where his political donations went, they buried it entirely. Nothing to see here, move along.
I don’t remember where but I can guess.
I noticed that as well – totally shameless.
That’s a lot of PC in one sentence. Capitalizing black. “Experiencing homelessness, addition and/or poverty.” Can’t just say he picked up poor homeless drug addled black guys. That would be too concise.
Insider trading
A previously unreported bill led by Sens. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., being introduced on Thursday would ban the president, vice president and members of Congress from trading event contracts — which allow users to wager on the outcome of specific events. It would also limit prediction market activity for senior executive branch officials and impose fines starting at $10,000 for violators.
“Members receive all sorts of tips and advice,” Merkley said in an interview. “The actual demonstration of insider trading is too difficult to be sufficient to address the problem. The problem becomes both real corruption … and the appearance of corruption and conflict of interest.”
Did anybody cash in on Noem’s sudden departure?
America did.
https://polymarket.com/event/kristi-noem-out-by-march-31
I finally read about how bad they fucked F1 with its hybrid powertrain and usage.
The pinnacle of automotive technology! It’s going to be like a Nissan Leaf showroom stock series.
Maybe Toto rammed through the regulation changes so his wife’s Formula-E team can get some love. (I think she’s still in charge of that, isn’t she? Whatever… don’t care enough to go look it up…)
I’d go Prius over Leaf.
Europe is still down with EVs while they buy Russian oil for generation.
Continuing the off topic ramble on unwinding by assembling the lego rifle from the previous thread…
I was going through a checklist of what I don’t have and realized I don’t have sights or an optic. I haven’t ordered the handguard yet, but I figure there will be a rail along the whole top, extending the rail on the upper.
What would you guys suggest for iron/optic combo that work together well? Rail mount only.
Red dot, or magnified optic?
Also, tell us a bit more about the rifle config, and your intended use (plinking at such-and-such distance, gun games, hunting, murdering politicians [in Roblox], etc.)
I’ve been building a basic 5.56 AR with a focus on not runing afoul of New York’s unconstitutional laws. I’ve only ever aspired to shoot paper at 100 yards from a bench.
I suppose that means magnified, since my eyes are not so great.
Should I just skip irons?
What will you do when your optic breaks in the zombie apocalypse?
Use the 1911, or the 686, or one of the other rifles, except maybe the baby rolling block. I haven’t fixed the crack in the baby rolling block. (Wooden part near the mechanism)
These days, there’s barely a use case for iron sights at all. Most of my ARs don’t have them. Some of my guns have multiple optics/laser designators, but that’s probably not what you’re into (yet).
I was an early adopter of the LPVO (low-power variable optic) concept, and I remain a staunch advocate. A decent 1-6x with an illuminated reticle can be just as fast as an unmagnified red dot up close, and the magnification gives you more flexibility for smaller or concealed targets at longer distances.
I would look at the Primary Arms SLx 1-6x24mm NOVA. https://www.primaryarms.com/KIT-PA-SLX-1-6X24S-NOVA-PADLXSM It’s inexpensive but not cheap, reasonably lightweight, has decent glass for the money, and an excellent illuminated reticle. Bonus – it’s available in a package deal with a decent mount.
If you decide to get irons, just get a set of Magpul MBUS folding sites. They’re cheap and they do the job.
👍
Thank you.
I was always trained that you use iron sights from the start and then get optics later when you become familiar with how it shoots.
Well, right now, it strips the round off the magazine and immediately throws the whole cartridge 2-3 feet away.
*I was testing with snap caps to see how the bolt carrier group ran along the mechanism. It’ll probably throw further when I have the buffer and spring installed, 2-3 feet was when throwing the BCG forward by hand.
That was they way I learned as well, and it was wrong, and it’s even more wrong now.
We know now that modern optics are much faster and easier to train to a reasonable level of competence with, and they’re reliable enough that you really will never need to use your irons unless you’re playing a game that requires them.
We’ve probably learned more about how to train in shooting in the last twenty years, than in the preceding two hundred.
https://worldoftroy.com/product-category/battlesights/
For irons, get folding.
🤔👍
If you wanted to save $$, Magpul polymer buis are just fine too.
I didn’t read the previous thread. It took me *way* too long to understand why the fuck you were building a Lego gun, and how fucking complicated it all was, and everyone kept adding sights, irons and everything!! WTF Lego gun is this!?! … then I (finally) understood what y’all were talking about. *sheepish whistle-walk away*
My first thought upon reading you’d been unwinding by assembling the lego rifle: “We are *very* different people.”
It’s an AR-15. I have been calling it a lego rifle because I’m assembling it from parts like a lego kit.
Building things helps me de-stress.
I recently discovered the F1 channel on Prime. They replay old races (not, unfortunately, from the ’70s and ’80s).
They replay F2 and F3 races, so that’s a plus. No idea what content will be when the season starts.
The Honda “power unit” in the Aston is apparently a total disaster. Cadillac won’t be the worst team on the grid.
If I were a GM shareholder I’d be enraged.
If I were a GM shareholder I’d be enraged.
GM shares are up.
Hence the F1 entry.
Market reacted well when they wrote down all their green initiatives.
Up over the last year, not up today.
I mean, like, there’s a lot of homeschool granola vaccine dodging undercurrent and most of the teenagers who make up the staff that run the little kids have that weird social awkwardness of not having been chewed into a certain shape by school. Super cool folks that I would absolutely take training advice from and ignore medical advice from.
Well, we definitely fit the type. Off to ninja practice with the 5 year old in 30 minutes. 🫡🤣
From our egghead betters at The Conversation:
Imagine the escalating conflict between the US, Israel and Iran unfolding in a world powered mostly by wind, solar and batteries rather than oil and gas.
Maybe I’ll maybe I’ll throw a link after I stop laughing at the notion of rubber band powered bombers.
The bombers are powered by unicorns fueled by rainbows.
Even John Lennon is laughing from beyond.
“Suppose they had a war, and nobody had enough fuel to go?”
See, it would work.
I assume this crowd are pro-green scammers? This is their grasp of reality. What is the point of that ‘thought experiment’ anyway?
Just for fun
A slightly modified Prius.
Cool
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_RV8_engine
I read in the WSJ one not named company has managed to evacuate like 1,000 employees and family so far.
Meanwhile our government is bragging about one flight.
https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2026/03/department-of-state-charter-flight-departs-middle-east-to-united-states
I talked to my guy stuck in Qatar this morning. He tells me the State Dept. was “marginally helpful,” got them on a list to be extracted and made it sound clandestine, like they should wait on a call to be ready in 30 minutes. The reality is they will likely make the 8 hour drive to Saudi overnight Friday night and try to catch a flight from Riyadh to London, then figure out how to get home after that.
Marginally is better than “not at all”.
I feel badly for everybody stuck there.
Also London – more or less Muslim than where they are right now?
First few days were “not at all.” As for Muslim populations, probably a toss up.
“Mrs. L getting a hip replacement.” *understanding, but optimistic fist bump*
I trust she’s getting all the care she deserves.
I’ve been watching A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. I’ve never watched anything from Game of Thrones, so I went into this with an open mind. I’d have to agree with The Drinker, this is a pretty awesome show. I’ve watched 5/6 episodes and I should finish it up tonight. Episode 5 was absolutely brutal. If you like knights beating the shit out of each other, this is for you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRAoyJ493N4
It’s my favorite out of all of them so far. Way too many gratuitous dick shots though.
That does sound like GoT.
I remember liking S01 but I tapped out somewhere in S02, it just got to be overkill (and I don’t mean the full-frontal).
I’m sure there were lots of GoT references but not knowing them didn’t take anything away for me.
What service? Only HBO?
HBO Max. I only have it because they gave me a great deal when we renewed our phone plan.
I think that happened to us with Spectrum, though I haven’t scoped it out. But Mom is decisively against the price surge for us. I believe I’ll verify cuz I love GoT. Never read the books, so no issue there, and honestly don’t remember the ending, so whatevs. The first four or five seasons (at least) are so good. So much fun. That was my only weekly gathering of friends to watch new eps.
In ’13 and ’14, my (then) cover band would end shows in Korea with the theme song. We fucking killed it and audiences ex-pat and local loved it. Thrilled I have a good vid of that.
On my end, tried calling possible Test Scorer employer, but that didn’t work. BUT! I wrote out my shit and sent it to them a few hours ago, and I already got a call from ’em. She’s Fatima Khalid (Senior Recruiter), predictably, has a very strong accent. I now know it’s an April – June contract, I already knew $18/hr, but I don’t know what age, etc.
Now she wants to talk again. Awaiting that to learn more. (Just further confirmation, I just learned.) My tickled pinkishness continues its tumescent journey.
Thanks to y’all for hearing my doldrums, especially Mo & Tarran with their help. I paraphrased some of their remarks with my psych appt today. *mwah*
As I always say: Onward, upward, always. It’s nice to get a smack of all three at once. Incredibly timed, as well. It’ll be the first time since Dec ’24 I won’t ‘have’ to say I work at Walmart or Meijer. I strongly approve. 😎 Thanks again.
How $800 Monthly Car Payments Are Hurting Car Sales
https://archive.fo/TmUWf
EXHIBIT A why I am still without a car. No way we could handle even half that.
Don’t worry. A local dealer near you will sell you one that has the top option package for only modestly over list.
I was going to suggest see what has the highest inventory:
https://caredge.com/guides/fastest-and-slowest-selling-cars-2026
I wouldn’t recommend any of them. If you put a gun to my head I’d pick the Audi. Although for your needs the Santa Cruz would be an interesting choice. It would make tossing your wheelchair in the back easy.
How $800 Monthly Car Payments Are Hurting Car Sales
No shit, Sherlock.
Speaking of shows…
I have been watching Peter Gunn. If you like ’50s tough guy jazz fan hipster private dicks…
Apparently the brainchild of Blake Edwards, which I previously did not know. Marginally not dumber than Clouseau.
$800 Monthly Car Payments Are Hurting Car Sales
Inconceivable!
What’s crazy is you can still find usable cars for not much more than that.
I have an idea….let’s print up another couple of trillion dollars and dump it in the economy.
Ohhh
And pay people to scrap their perfectly good cars!!
“ And the holy-crap-he’ll-be-4 this month littlest”
My daughter had her 4th birthday yesterday.
Too fast.
Also, do we need to arrange a marriage?
EPL relegation update, round 29 (30 for Arsenal and Wolves).
Safe: Arsenal, Manchester City
Reasonably safe: Manchester United, Aston Villa, Chelsea, Liverpool, Brentford, Everton
Safe for now: Bournemouth, Fulham, Sunderland, Newcastle United, Crystal Palace, Brighton
Danger zone: Leeds United, Tottenham Hotspur, Nottingham Forest, West Ham United
Toast: Burnley, Wolverhampton
Relegated: none
I was joking last time about Spurs getting relegated. It really may not be a joke. They are now only 1 pt ahead of Forest and West Ham for the 3rd relegation spot.
Two weeks until I see Tottenham and Nottingham Forest. That’s setting up nicely.
you’re going to be in blighty?
Backwards thinking
Throughout his presidency, Donald Trump has hindered the growth of renewable energy and instead propped up fossil fuels like oil and coal.
That has made the country more vulnerable to the effects of geopolitical conflicts like the recent U.S. military action in Iran—and risks putting the U.S. even further behind, experts say, in terms of renewable and battery developments.
Trump acknowledged this week that America’s attacks on Iran are likely to cause oil prices to spike. We’re already seeing that effect: The average price for a gallon of gas in the U.S. jumped 11 cents overnight into Wednesday, and experts say oil prices could reach $100 a barrel.
That effect isn’t only being felt in the United States. European natural gas prices surged “by as much as 50%” after the conflict prompted Qatar to halt production of liquefied natural gas, The New York Times reported. U.K. gas prices hit their highest level in three years on Tuesday.
Trump, by ensuring continued access to domestic supply, has somehow caused a shortage. There will be gas lines just like in the ’70s even though OPEC has no meaningful ability to affect our supply. It’s a global market, so prices will react.
Eurotopia, on the other hand, might be in trouble. Good thing spring is almost here.
Propane outfit just called me to offer $2.04 a gallon.
Bullshit fees and delivery bring it to $2.50 but that’s a buck less than I pay per gallon to fill a 5 gal tank.
So sad. Let the euros be hot or cold or just sad.
Oil and gas are global commodities, meaning their prices are affected by global factors. But just how much the Iran war impacts a country’s energy market depends on how much that country is dependent on fossil fuels.
Unfortunately, Trump has made the U.S. increasingly dependent on these dirty, unstable sources of energy. His administration has slashed incentives for wind, solar, and battery development. It also blocked or canceled such projects while providing tax incentives and fast-tracked permits for oil and gas drilling.
“The costs of Trump’s war to the average American will be higher than it could have been because of the assault of the GOP and the Trump administration on renewable energy projects,” Peter Gleick, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, says via email.
Oh,insanity.