Author: Bud Thomas

Kai McKenzie, 23, was surfing off New South Wales in Australia when he was attacked by a shark, New South Wales police said. “Clinging to life, he was able to catch a wave back to the beach,” a fundraising site set up for McKenzie said. “A retired police officer used his dog’s lead as a tourniquet to stem the bleeding before the victim could be airlifted to hospital.”Amazingly, McKenzie’s leg washed up on the beach after the attack and doctors are hoping to be able to reattach it. McKenzie has undergone surgery and remains in critical but stable condition, according to ABC…

The New York Times editorial board pleaded with Vice President Kamala Harris to “do better” than her former running mate in fielding questions from reporters. “Vice President Kamala Harris, now the likely Democratic nominee, has the chance to encourage and embrace the kind of close examination that the public so far has had little opportunity to witness during the 2024 race,” the Times editorial board wrote Friday. “Americans deserve a campaign that tests the strengths and weaknesses of the candidates; that highlights their differences and allows scrutiny of their plans; that motivates people to vote by giving them a clear account of…

There was a positive test for a banned substance at the Olympics before the opening ceremony even began.Sajjad Sehen’s first Olympic Games are over before they even started after the Iraqi judoka tested positive for metandienone and boldenone in a sample taken in Paris Tuesday.The 28-year-old was due to compete Tuesday but is heading home instead. Sehen is provisionally suspended while a disciplinary case is prosecuted, according to the International Testing Agency, which oversees the anti-doping program for the International Olympic Committee.”This means that the athlete is prevented from competing, training, coaching or participating in any activity during the Olympic…

Twenty-four French athletes were Olympic torchbearers, but a special duo received the honor of lighting the cauldron.The torch’s final trek began with soccer legend Zinedine Zidane, and it was eventually handed to two French Olympic heroes who each won three Olympic gold medals.Track star Marie-José Pérec and judoka Teddy Riner lit the cauldron, which also had a French twist, much like the rest of the opening ceremony. The duo lit their torches onto a 100-foot hot-air balloon, which signified the first flight in a hydrogen balloon in 1783.Pérec, 56, won gold in the 400 meters at both the 1992 Olympics…

We take a quick look at 9.3x62mm Mauser, a powerful, all-around big-game cartridge.Developed around 1905 by Otto Bock, a well-known Berlin gunmaker, this chambering was introduced to give the farmers and hunters in the German colonies of Africa an adequate cartridge.When many African countries were in the process of adopting restrictive laws specifying minimum chamberings for dangerous game hunting, most ruled for a minimum bore size of .40 caliber. Almost universally, the 9.3x62mm Mauser was exempted from the banned classification. It was soon used in Europe on wild boar and red deer, and Mauser sporters were sold in the United…

At this same point in the election cycle four years ago, Joe Biden was ahead of Donald Trump by 9 percentage points among Wisconsin voters in a two-way presidential matchup. Now, just days after the Republican National Convention ended in Milwaukee, a new Fox News survey shows Wisconsinites give the advantage to Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris — by 1 point. Harris receives 49% support to Trump’s 50%. In April, it was 48% each for Biden and Trump, and it was also tied in January (47% apiece).  In June 2020, Biden was at 49% to Trump’s 40%.Trump’s edge is mainly…

Want a short-barreled AR-15 without dealing with the hassle of the NFA? Good news, AR pistol braces are back on the menu. AR pistols, AR-style firearms with no buttstock and a barrel shorter than 16 inches, have always been legal. AR pistol braces, on the other hand, have not been.Between the advent of AR pistol braces and today, the legality of the accessory has gone back and forth several times thanks to the ATF’s multiple contradictory rulings over the years. Will they always be legal? Who knows? But thankfully at the time of this writing, they’re perfectly acceptable to own, be…

Former President Trump said he plans to hold a campaign rally in the same Pennsylvania town where he was shot earlier this month in a failed assassination attempt. Trump was shot near the ear in Butler while speaking to supporters. The shooter, Thomas Matthew Crooks, was shot and killed by a Secret Service sniper.  “I WILL BE GOING BACK TO BUTLER, PENNSYLVANIA, FOR A BIG AND BEAUTIFUL RALLY, HONORING THE SOUL OF OUR BELOVED FIREFIGHTING HERO, COREY, AND THOSE BRAVE PATRIOTS INJURED TWO WEEKS AGO,” Trump wrote Friday on Truth Social. “WHAT A DAY IT WILL BE — FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!…

Knife designer Paul Munko has a sequel to his Kizer Mystic collab in the works. The Mini Mystic carries more differences than blade size, including a different lock and revamped materials. The full-size Mystic, named after the famous town in Connecticut, went big indeed with a 3.74-inch cutting edge. At the time, Munko told us that the choice of size came from a dual desire to emulate the look of a harpoon (in a nod to Mystic, CT’s maritime history), and create a universal, highly capable working knife design. It was a premium Kizer release, rendered in REX45, a pretty…

The U.S. Supreme Court announced on Friday that oral arguments for its upcoming case involving the government’s ban on so-called “ghost guns” will begin on Oct. 8. It is the lone gun-related challenge on the court’s fall docket. The case, VanDerStok v. Garland, challenges the Department of Justice’s 2022 Final Rule that redefined important legal terms dealing with guns, including “firearm,” “receiver” and “frame,” making the longstanding American tradition of building personal firearms pretty much a thing of the past. Back in April, the court voted 4-3 to consider the challenge. At issue is whether the DOJ and Bureau of Alcohol,…