Q: What’s better than Princess Leia in a metal bikini? A: Two Princess Leias in metal bikinis

Note to younger readers. In the pre-Web era we could only dream about pictures like this. And we did. Constantly.

Bikini Leia and her stunt double nap in the Tatooine sunshine.

Previously

• Leia’s Metal Bikini - The Greatest Web Site on the Entire Internet
• New Femtrooper Pics
• Femtrooper Sithvixen: “guys love boob armor”

Small customizations - like trigger jobs or bedding jobs - can make the piece better. You won’t get all of your money back out of it when it’s time to sell, but you won’t lose your shirt, either. I’ve never regretted paying for a trigger job or custom trigger, even for the one time I later sold the gun. The sights and the trigger are the two most important parts of the gun’s user interface. You can’t be happy with the gun if you aren’t happy with those two parts.

What about buying customized guns?

The reverse of Tam and Chris’s advice is that buying customized guns can be a bargain. You get a lot of value for very little money, assuming the gun is what you want.

Here’s a customized Smith & Wesson 686 I bought through Gunbroker five years ago. The previous owner was an attorney in Grapevine, Texas who had the gun customized to shoot NRA Silhouette. I’m going to brag on it, in the interest of illustrating a point, natch.

The red dot electronic sight and mount are obvious extras, but not really customizations per se. The Elmer Keith Bill Jordan grips are cut to fit the scope mount. (FWIW, the grips didn’t work for me. Way too big. Elmer Keith Bill Jordan apparently had enormous hands. I like Jerry Miculek grips much better for S&W revolvers, or just plain old rubber Hogue monogrips.)

The removable Jarvis underlug beneath the barrel adds 10 ounces out front to reduce muzzle flip. To accommodate the Jarvis underlug and red dot sight the owner had a custom Prezine leather speed holster made. The holster is a gorgeous work of art that had to cost the previous owner several hundred dollars, but he threw it in as part of the deal.

Dallas gunsmith Lynn Patton did the trigger work. The double action pull is 9 pounds, 3 ounces and the single action pull is 2 pounds, 9 ounces. The chambers have been chamfered for quicker reloading.

How much did all of this cost me? I’d rather not say, since I may want to sell this one day, but the price I paid is about what a run of the mill used 686 would normally cost. Even in 2004 that was less than the cost of a new 686 and many S&W fans prefer the parts and workmanship in these older models.

Geez, I need to go shoot it. It’s been too long.

Ride Fast - The California Way - Stealing from the wage earners:

As of yesterday, California is stealing an additional 10% of wage earners pay, by pre-deducting today your future taxes of tomorrow. They say it’s all wonderful and rainbow, unicorn farts, cause you’ll get the money back.

Ah, no, you won’t. They won’t be paying interest. And since they didn’t ask, it’s stealing. I say they’re breaking the law by not passing a tax increase. Borrowing isn’t a tax increase, they say. Raising fees on everything isn’t a tax increase, they say. I call bullshit on that.

In California the notion of government by the people, of the people, and for the people is dead. It’s now the people working to pay for the government.

How bad is it in California? It’s so bad the L.A. Times finally admits California taxes are too high:

These folks pulling up stakes and driving U-Haul trucks across state lines understand a reality the defenders of the high-benefit/high-tax model must confront: All things being equal, everyone would rather pay low taxes than high ones. The high-benefit/high-tax model can work only if things are demonstrably not equal — if the public goods purchased by the high taxes far surpass the quality, quantity and impact of those available to people who live in states with low taxes.

Today’s public benefits fail that test, as urban scholar Joel Kotkin of NewGeography.com and Chapman University told the Los Angeles Times in March: “Twenty years ago, you could go to Texas, where they had very low taxes, and you would see the difference between there and California. Today, you go to Texas, the roads are no worse, the public schools are not great but are better than or equal to ours, and their universities are good. The bargain between California’s government and the middle class is constantly being renegotiated to the disadvantage of the middle class.”

Gold futures for December delivery rose $30.90, or 2.9 percent, to $1,084.90 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange, a record settlement price. The contract touched $1,088.50, the all-time high intraday price. The previous record was $1,072 an ounce, set on Oct. 14.

Previously - Gold hits another all time nominal high of $1,059 Oct. 7

Five most-indebted state governments:

Five least-indebted state governments:

Massachusetts was the worst state in both absolute dept per capita and debt per capita in terms of state GDP. Tennessee was the best on both measures, with Texas second best on both.

Hat tip to Philip Greenspun.

or,

Cash for Duffers

Wall Street Journal - Cash for Clubbers: Congress’s fabulous golf cart stimulus:

We thought cash for clunkers was the ultimate waste of taxpayer money, but as usual we were too optimistic. Thanks to the federal tax credit to buy high-mileage cars that was part of President Obama’s stimulus plan, Uncle Sam is now paying Americans to buy that great necessity of modern life, the golf cart.

The federal credit provides from $4,200 to $5,500 for the purchase of an electric vehicle, and when it is combined with similar incentive plans in many states the tax credits can pay for nearly the entire cost of a golf cart. Even in states that don’t have their own tax rebate plans, the federal credit is generous enough to pay for half or even two-thirds of the average sticker price of a cart, which is typically in the range of $8,000 to $10,000. “The purchase of some models could be absolutely free,” Roger Gaddis of Ada Electric Cars in Oklahoma said earlier this year. “Is that about the coolest thing you’ve ever heard?”

Previously - Delicious free lunches for pro sports teams

The kids love it when I take them to Home Depot and Lowe’s. They sit on the riding lawn mowers and play kitchen in the cabinetry department.

The other night I told my wife that Miley Cyrus acts like a 46 year old divorcee with six kids and a couple of orders of protection against her exes. Gal is on her way to being wizened and hard at the ripe old age of 16. The celebrity life has not been good for this child star.

MSNBC - Worst Celeb Influence? It’s Miley:

Cyrus, who easily took the title with 42 percent of the vote, has indeed been less than stellar in the role-model department: pole dancing, a probably racist photo, an oversexed photo shoot.

She’s no saint, but still, how she managed to top the runner-ups is mystifying.

Britney Spears (27 percent) took the No. 2 spot. That’s right. Britney Spears — the same woman who forgets to wear underwear, married K-Fed, slams junk food, smokes cigarettes, divorced K-Fed, shaves her head, attacks cars with umbrellas, lost custody of her children, starred in a reality show, makes-out with Madonna and dances half naked at concerts. This woman is somehow a better influence than Miley Cyrus.

Wait until Cyrus turns 18. Flashing her vajayjay to photographers Brittney Spears-style will be the least of her coming out party. I’m thinking Lindsay Lohen-level breakdown. Here’s hoping someone in her family steers her to a better direction.

Selena Gomez was voted best celeb influence.

Selena Gomez (”Wizards of Waverly Place,” also on Disney) is awesome. Fresh-faced, kind, optimistic, and without a hint of cynicism.

As a cautionary tale, the WhiteHouse.gov administrators might look to Recovery.gov, which is devoted to tracking stimulus spending. The site originally used Drupal but soon hired a private contractor—at a reported cost of $18 million—to rework the site. Perhaps the White House site’s administrators have learned from their colleagues’ mistakes.

But I can’t help but think the new software represents the triumph of hope over experience. Drupal looks great in theory: It’s a powerful way to govern a Web site that is born out of the collective efforts of the community. In practice, it tends to be a bit of a mess. Does that sound like any particular form of government to you?

Any kind of chocolate is a big winner. And when you’re a kid the tart and sour stuff is pretty good, too.

IU.com: When you say “stay away from risky assets,” many people hear that and think, “Aha, gold!”

Roubini: I don’t believe in gold. Gold can go up for only two reasons. [One is] inflation, and we are in a world where there are massive amounts of deflation because of a glut of capacity, and demand is weak, and there’s slack in the labor markets with unemployment peeking above 10 percent in all the advanced economies. So there’s no inflation, and there’s not going to be for the time being.

The only other case in which gold can go higher with deflation is if you have Armageddon, if you have another depression. But we’ve avoided that tail risk as well. So all the gold bugs who say gold is going to go to $1,500, $2,000, they’re just speaking nonsense. Without inflation, or without a depression, there’s nowhere for gold to go. Yeah, it can go above $1,000, but it can’t move up 20-30 percent unless we end up in a world of inflation or another depression. I don’t see either of those being likely for the time being. Maybe three or four years from now, yes. But not anytime soon.

Maryville (TN) Times July 3, 1913

Mr. Wiley G. Everett came to South Louisville last Wednesday, June 24th and claimed as his bride Miss Fannie Gourley McCosh.

Mrs. Everett is a charming and accomplished young lady, who by her winning ways makes friends of all she meets and will be greatly missed at the above named place, and all who have the pleasure of her acquaintance are delighted to know that she will make her future home in Maryville.

Mr. and Mrs. Everett boarded the train Wednesday evening and were pleasant visitors at the beautiful home of the brides sister Mrs. T.G. Callahan of Mentor.

Mrs. Everett is the second daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J.W. McCosh and the writer with a host of other friends wish the young couple all the success, happiness and prosperity this life affords, and hope their troubles will be few and far between as they travel the journey of life together.

My maternal grandmother’s family, the McCoshes, were well off. They owned a marble mine just down the road in Louisville, TN. The Times writer seemed to be a friend of the family, which might make sense for a prominent family. Gourley was Fannie McCosh’s mother’s maiden name.

The McCoshes disapproved of my maternal grandfather, Wiley Everett, because he was of modest means and didn’t come from a prominent family. On my mother’s birth certificate his occupation is listed as “carpenter.” He later worked for TVA.

I have a reproduction of an early Maryville phone listing that shows Wiley Everett living on McGinley Street in Maryville near Five Points and Everett Hill. My parents later lived on Everett Hill and opened their carpet store (Dorolee’s Carpet House) a half dozen blocks away on Broadway.

Fannie McCosh passed away in 1929, three years after my mother was born. The other children were old enough to fend for themselves, but my mother was sent to the Maryville orphanage. Why the McCoshes didn’t take her in I can only guess. She was adopted by the Whitehead family in Walland. Her father later remarried three times. He eventually settled one county over in Lenoir City.

Fannie and Wiley are buried in Grandview Cemetery in Maryville, TN at a monument for Everetts and McCoshes.

Fershteh Ghazi (@iranbaan) tweets that Hamed Derakhshan, brother of jailed Iranian blogger Hossein “Hoder” Derakshan, just said on @bbcpersian his brother has been held in solitary confinement for 10 months. Hoder was first arrested on November 1, 2008.

Previously:

• Iranian blogger dies in prison
• Hoder on a Nuclear Iran
• News from Iran
• Live-blogging Hossein Derakshan’s BlogNashville Talk