Still here, just mad busy

That's what you get when you go off for a fortnight's holiday, then have to get a magazine to the printers before heading to the Midland Game Fair.

Meanwhile, I highly recommend this excellent post at Hubert Hubert's Rabbit Stew blog, on lessons he learned (and relearned) while zeroing his air rifle.

And for a bit of light relief, check out the shenanigans that went on in a hunting lodge near Berlin in the 1890s, as reported by the intriguing Ana the Imp.

If you can tolerate a bit of swearing, check out Old Holborn's advice to the public sector - 'Just Say No', something that the RSPB might just take on board rather than constantly whining about cuts. If they spent less on advertising, they could afford another reserve or two - every time I go near facebook I'm bombarded with RSPB membership ads.

Another random thought... What's with this word "persecution"? Does no-one just shoot a buzzard any more? It's a sad indictment of journalism when papers allow lobbying groups to rewrite the English language. And now I see the gamekeepers' organisations, BASC et al have taken it on board as well. How long before they start referring not to "shooting" but to "this outdated bloodsport that should be consigned to the dustbin of history"?

Come on, people, wake up to how the antis are manipulating language to their advantage - and fight back!

Talking of antis... just suppose you were in charge of security at a political party's conference in Liverpool, and some fruitloop from a bunch of animal extremists wanted to wander round, cosying up to high profile public figures dressed in a ridiculous pheasant costume under which any amount of drugs, explosives, weapons etc might be concealed. Well, I'd be taking him aside and giving him a good plucking, wouldn't you?