Never Mind the Pilling Report, Here's Pravda

No-one's fooled, Sharky.

With a sort of blitzkreig suddenness, the Church of England no sooner caves in to women bishops than it finds itself confronted with the Pilling Report, recommending same-sex blessings. Here's an excerpt:

Ole Rascal & Sharky.

"Recommendation 16. We believe that there can be circumstances where a priest, with the agreement of the relevant PCC, should be free to mark the formation of a permanent same sex relationship in a public service but should be under no obligation to do so. Some of us do not believe that this can be extended to same sex marriage (Paragraphs 120, 380–3)."

Excuse me?

What does the Bishop of Birkenhead say?

"I believe in the unity of Christ’s Church and think the Report has not heeded the view of General Synod expressed in February 2007 that ‘efforts to prevent the diversity of opinion about human sexuality creating further division and impaired fellowship within the Church of England and the Anglican Communion... would not be advanced by doing anything that could be perceived as the Church of England qualifying its commitment to the entirety of the relevant Lambeth Conference Resolutions (1978: 10; 1988: 64; 1998: 1.10)’."

Nice.

Well done, Bishop, that'll get 'em quaking in their boots! Then there's Pravda, having a go at the Dutch:

Putin, New Constantine.

"The moral values ​​of civilization were formed over the centuries. If they are not followed, then people get killed in disasters or dye [Sic] out. Today, under the banner of liberalism and tolerance perverts are legalized in the Western society. The Netherlands acts as the flagship. What do you call a society that decriminalizes abortion at late terms, legalizes euthanasia, bestiality, incest, prostitution, and drugs? What do you call the country that is ready to declare a man and a cow a "married couple" and entrust them with raising children? Perhaps it is not an accident that in all the apocalyptic predictions the Netherlands is the first on the list to disappear."

Carry on,

LSP

Get That Franchi Instinct

Franchi Instinct L

GWB tipped up at the compound yesterday and before you could say "Archbishop Justin Welby's an Oil Shark!", there was an over and under on the mahogany. My philisophical friend had cleverly gone out and bought a Franchi Instinct L 20 gauge, and who can blame him?

Young Sharky

We took it out for a test drive today, rambling about in search of rabbits, who sensibly stayed under cover, and then slinging a box or so of skeet, country style. Just a lot of explosive fun and good practice. 

Old Sharky

I shot reasonably well, once I remembered to aim... and GWB was knocking the clays out of the air like a good 'un. But how did the Franchi perform? I took a couple of breaks from my cheap, but hey it works, Mossberg 835 Ulti Mag pump to find out.

Prince of Wales grip

I enjoyed shooting this gun; it's light, at 6.5 Ilbs, and comes quickly to the shoulder and to target.  I thought it looked good too, with traditional styling, case hardened finish on the receiver and no gaps between metal and wood. That said, the wood of the buttstock sits proud to the receiver by a millimeter or so, but I felt this was balanced out by well-defined, deeply cut checkering and A grade walnut furniture. Not a bad looking gun, but did it work?

dove feast

For sure, the Instinct functioned flawlessly over several hours of pretty much continuous shooting, with no misfires, failure to eject or mechanical problems. So that's alright then, but would I buy one? If I was looking for an over and under shotgun that costs $1149, yes, I think I would. 

The gun looks good, handles well and if you don't get carried away and forget to aim, it's perfectly capable of knocking the opposition out of the sky. Granted, it's not a $2000 plus firearm, but whoever said it was?

Shoot straight,

LSP