Friends Of Australia Friday Lamb Salisbury Steak & Little Penguin Shiraz Cab

It’s once again an Australia Time Friday! It’s FRIDAY!!!!

Due to a dental issue, the spouse is on soft foods “for a while”, meaning that for the next who knows how many weeks, the lamb dish will be minced lamb in some way or another. Today we’ll be doing a Salisbury Lamb Steak. Minced lamb, minced onions & garlic, all made into a 1/2 pound steak shape. Fried about 3 or 4 minutes a side (depending on how thick it ends up) on medium, then allowed to stand a couple of minutes to finish the middle properly.

Side salad and asparagus with butter most likely sides. Desert of canned freestone peaches.

The wine is a Little Penguin Shiraz / Cabernet Sauvignion blend, 2016. Near inky black in the wine glass (even looking at the daytime sky out the window doesn’t penetrate it fully). Hints of reds and purples on the cork and at the meniscus. Somehow both smooth and teasing a bit of aggressive on the tongue. Rich Shiraz flavors, Cabernet mellows. The nose is mildly fragrant. The flavor has clear Cabernet notes to it, but with that “something extra” of Shiraz.

I really like this wine. I think it was about $5 at my local Bargain Market Grocery Outlet. Last bottle on the shelf. They often have wines much cheaper than the same wine can be found elsewhere. They do “clearances” when a winery needs more warehouse space and “something has to go”. Some bottles are not the best, others are easily $20 wines for $5. I suspect this is the latter. The downside is you have offered “whatever is around”, so don’t expect to find anything in particular. OTOH, I get a LOT of good wine there quite cheap.

In Other News

China is likely to regret pissing off Australia. Looks like Australia funded an investigation into the security of a multi-million data center built for Papua New Guinea. They found a lot of security flaws (equipment installed 2 years after EOL on software upgrades, known exploits left open in software, etc.) and now PNG is refusing to make payments on their Debt Trap Loan that built the Chinese Spy Facility called a national data center.

Then, new storms are dumping yet more rain on central China ag areas. China has issued directions for the people to “save food” as pork prices have doubled. Bet that USA Pork and Australian Barley is looking better right about now…

Hey, China! This morning I had ham and eggs for breakfast. Bet you didn’t! Tonight I’m having Australian Lamb and wine for dinner. Bet you didn’t. Right now, I’m enjoying freedom of speech. Bet you don’t. Maybe you ought to try being more like the USA & Australia and less, oh, I don’t know, Communist Socialist Authoritarian? Just sayin’…

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Wuhan Covid: It Is About How Fast, Not How Many. Time To end Lock Downs.

We are being handed a “Bait and Switch”. The “30 days to flatten the curve” was to spread out infections over time. It was never about preventing infections. Now we are being told the lock downs must continue to prevent infections. No. With a native R-naught or R0 of 6 to 12 you simply cannot prevent eventual infection.

Hospitals are now way below capacity. We need to start using them for all health issues again.

We have used the flattened curve time to develop effective treatments. From HCQ+Zpack to Ivermectin+ Doxycycline along with sterouda and anticoagulants and more. It is time to now rescue the economy by using those trearments. It is time to address the non-covid backlog of medical needs which are poised to cause more deaths than covid going forward.

Furthermore, it looks like herd immunity is being reached in many countries at about 15% infected. Not 80%. A large part of the population is naturally immune. IMHO likely from a combination of cross immunity to other corona viruses and higher vitamin D and other immune enhancing nutrients.

Evidence, reasoning, and analysis here:

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While I was getting ready for this posting, Ossqss raised the same point here (h/t):

https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2020/07/28/w-o-o-d-27-july-2020/#comment-132056

It links to: https://aatishb.com/covidtrends/

That has a very nice time lapse graph of cases by country, showing the drops as we are reaching herd immunity.

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How To Choose A Gun For Noobs

This is largely just a set of videos by a firearms instructor who has clue. It gives a rough overview of how different guns are operated and general guidance about how to choose one over another. He also has lots of videos about different specific gun types in more detail should one type catch your interest.

If you are a gun nooby this is a good place to start. If you are experienced, this review can be helpful.

This first video does more “show and tell” on guns types:

Part 2 is more about legal issues, practice, storage and such:

Here is his top 5 guns for beginners / training. Note that the small Ruger Bearcat is a $600 gun. The recently introduced Ruger Wrangler fills the same role at $200.

These guns run to .22 LR and while it does end most attacks it also does not stop 1/3 of attackers (where “self defense” calibers fail to stop an attacker 14% of the time. Yes, even .357 Magnum has trouble with folks on PCP some of the time. A difference of 19% more “failure to stop” for the 22 LR.) While I’m ok with that statistic, if you are not, then it is a centerfire for you. The 14% is pretty much a constant from 380 ACP / 9mm kurtz or corto up to .44 Magnum. How many die on the first shot changes. Percent stopped at all not so much. I’m willing to accept potential “hand to hand” with someone I’ve put 6 rounds of .22 LR into already while I wait for them to notice or bleed out. You may not be.

Then, his top 5 guns for home defense.

Remember that your needs, abilities, budget, and local laws can dramatically change your best choice.

The short shotgun is very hard to beat. A home defense pump is relatively cheap and stops just about anyone who can be stopped. My pattern when things look horrible is to load up the Defender shotgun and put it near the bedroom. That’s the major defensive action. Then a small pistol goes in the pocket. IF anything goes nuts, the pistol is fast and has 66% to 86% probability of being enough (depending on .22 or bigger) then lets me fall back to Stage Two. Your plan will vary.

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Chicago New Riot Looting: Mayor Finally Gets Clue

This was streamed live just an hour ago by WGN as looting & riot in Chicago, so now Fox calls it a “protest” despite Mayor Lightfoot herself saying it was not a protest, but looting. Come on, Fox, call it what it is: Looting and Riot.

The good news is someone has finally given Lightfoot a whack with the Clue Stick and she now realizes “catch & release” does not work and this embarrases the Dimocrats In Charge, not Trump. It’s pretty clear she’s now pissed at the right people. (She seems often pissed, so best you can hope for is to have it pointed the right way…)

One hopes this is the start of a trend of increasing Clue in Dimocrat Cities and they will realize Antifa and BLM are Marxist Communist organizations that wish to destroy them, their cities, and America (Communist doctrine says first you must burn it all down so you can then erect the Marxist Utopia on the ashes…. So if you support them, realize the necessary consequence is the destruction of your City, State, and Nation. You can’t have just a little bit of plague or a touch of being dead; embrace it and die, or eliminate it.)

So hopefully as the Mayors of Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis, New York City, etc. look at the rubble of their burned out urban core, they too will feel the sudden energy brought by a whack of The Clue Stick and realize they must have proper rule of law, fully funded and effective Police, AND a D.A. who prosecutes law breakers, and not selectively letting The Radical Left literally run riot without consequences.

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