We Can Only Hope They Are Not Alone

 10/17/25 Reuters:

BEIJING, Oct 17 (Reuters) - Two top Chinese military leaders have been expelled from the ruling Communist Party and the military on corruption charges, the country's defence ministry said on Friday, the most senior officers to be purged in an anti-graft drive that began in 2023.

He Weidong, China's number two general, and navy admiral Miao Hua, the Chinese military's former top political officer, are the latest senior military officials to be targeted in a campaign against corruption in the People's Liberation Army.

In some ideal world, graft would not impair military readiness.  But it never seems to work that way.  I suspect that the much vaunted Chinese tiger will turn out in combat to be the Chinese giant panda. 

UPDATE: Behind a paywall, but the headline tells us more.  10/17/25 South China Morning Post:

China expels He Weidong, Miao Hua and 7 other generals from party and military

Why Gun Control is Doomed to Failure

 10/17/25 WGN:

KANE COUNTY, Ill. — The former police chief of Campton Hills, two former officers and a current officer are accused of a scheming to sell guns from the evidence room.

The four, including former police chief Steven Millar, are facing a bevy of charges in a grand jury indictment.

Millar is facing five counts of delivery of a firearm before 72-hour waiting period expired, two counts of theft, 22 counts of official misconduct, wire fraud, nine counts of forgery and money laundering.

He allegedly stole a handgun, revolver, two rifles and a shotgun from the police department’s evidence locker between Jan. 2018 and Feb. 2023.

Guns are high value items.  Even when lawfully sold they are worth hundreds of dollars a pound.  This is why gun smuggling can be so lucrative.  When purchase is severely regulated, I am sure that price per pound at least doubles.  They are also compact enough to easily steal from an evidence room, especially handguns.

As long as police have accessed to seized guns, this will be a problem.

Tapped Blind vs. Through Holes

I mentioned my joy that CFC taps fine if you do it with a hand tap.  This had another pleasant result. 

I had planned to hold the slow motion control axis that drives the worm gear in two pillow blocks.  I was going to bind them to the 1/4" CFC base plate with screws going through both.  Trying to turn the socket head screw while holding the nut on the far end was clumsy, especially when you are holding 6-32 nuts in big fat fingers.  Using tapped blind holes means that there are no nuts.  I can just screw the screw through the base plate and into the pillow blocks.

The Right Tool for The Right Job, My Dad Alwsys Told Me

Although if he did not have it, he was clever enough to make it.  In this case, the mill vise that i use with my Sherline mill is not a Sherline product.   I bought it from Little Machine Shop a few years ago because the Sherline mill vise only holds 2" wide pieces. (This is advertised as 3" capacity but actually holds workpieces as wide as 3.8".)  They sold it to me as a cosmetically challenged second.  After receiving it, I emailed them to complain,  "You left out the coamwtic defects.  Please ship immediately!"

I needed to fabricate some hold downs to mount it to the Sherline table.  It is far superior to the standard Sherline mill vise.  The clamping screw is a socket head screw that uses a .25" Allen wrench.  Using the Allen wrench is clumsy compared to a T-handle wrench.  The first T-handle .25" wrench I bought was just a little large to fit the head.  After trying to sand and grind it small enough, I threw it away.  I then bought this T-handle adapter for Allen wrenches.   

My expectations were low.  This far exceeded them.  Instead of a simple piece of T-handle into which the wrench sat, this used a screw to lock the wrench into the handle.  I suspect almost any reasonable size Allen wrench would fit. (I am sure Tacoma Screw probably has some that might take two people to operate.) Made by Craftsman, a brand that always enjoyed a great reputation when associated with Sears.  

They were sold by Sears some years ago so I worried this would be made in the PRC.  Nope.  Vietnam.  For all the problems of an authoritarian state, I do not worry that Vietnam is ever going to war with the United States.  PRC, maybe.

Anyway, it holds the wrench very securely and lets me lock that clamping screw down very solidly.  I at first thought I might need another one of these because I was in the habit of using the long end first, then the short end for more torque.   The length of the T-handle lets me enough torque with just the long end of the wrench.

In Tinker v. Des Moines (1969), It Was Black Armbands

10/14/25 Tennessee Star:

In the wake of Lipscomb Academy’s admission that it initially prohibited students from wearing suit jackets and ties to mourn the assassination of Charlie Kirk, Turning Point USA (TPUSA) spokesperson and conservative influencer Savannah Chrisley told The Tennessee Star on Tuesday that she was asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) prior to meeting with Lipscomb University President Dr. Candice McQueen and Lipscomb Academy Head of School Dr. Brad Schultz.

The meeting was held on October 2, just days after Chrisley sent an email to administrators at both Lipscomb Academy and Lipscomb University, which owns the private K-12 Christian school. The academy operates as part of the university’s legal entity, and both share campus facilities and branding.

Chrisley, whose family member is enrolled as a student at Lipscomb Academy, provided The Star with her September 27 email, revealing that she expressed concerns about the academy’s shifting statements regarding whether it prohibited students from mourning Kirk on campus. She urged the administrators to, “restore confidence that [Lipscomb Academy] remains committed to both the mission of Christ and the freedoms our Constitution guarantees.”

Okay, it is a private Christian school, so Tinker does not apply.  It is still amazing that a school "committed to both the mission of Christ and the freedoms our Constitution guarantees" is upset that students might mourning the assassination of a prominent, blatantly Christian activist by wearing suits.

That NDA makes perfect sense.  Who knows what these officials might admit behind closed doors.

It seems that the academy destroys everything in its orbit.

Cutting Small Pieces

The mill vise only holds workpiece up to about 3.8" wide.  In the past, i have cut pieces from 6"x6" CFC sheets by clamping them to the mill table (after removing the mill vise).  This is very slow.  It should be very precise but today's piece was not.  The clamps apparently did not hold it down adequately. Worse, it is very slow, cutting at 1 inch per minute at ,005" depth per pass. 

The right solution is to your sheet of CFC or aluminum on a powerful but less precise tool. Once you have a piece that clamps in the mill vise you cut precisely.  

The chop saw is fine for cutting big pieces but nothing small enough to hold with your hands around that spinning blade.  Saws that are not so scary are the table saw and band saw.  Because my previous house had such a tiny garage, I sold them when I moved there.

So, perhaps buy something like the Micro Mark mini-band saw?  I may have a better solution.   The chop saw has a clamping system for holding pieces of wood in place while cutting. This works fine for pieces that are st least 10 inches from the blade.  This 6"x6" sheet was never going to be champagne with that system.  I used a C-clamp to hold the sheet to the table of the saw and no problem!

Is there a way to hold smaller pieces? I may make a replacement for the native clamp with a longer arm to let me clamp sheets to the saw table.   This is an astonishingly simple enhancement.   I should be able cut pieces that are way too small for me to put fingers on near that blade.

Won't Someone Stop the Killings in Gaza?

10/15/25 CNN:

Violent clashes have erupted between Hamas and rival groups in several areas across Gaza, including an incident that culminated in an apparent public execution, as worries grow about the security situation following Israel’s withdrawal from parts of the territory.

Reports of violence have been shared widely on social media channels, with one particularly gruesome video that was shared by Hamas-affiliated channels showing a group of masked fighters, some of whom are wearing green Hamas headbands, killing eight blindfolded people in a square in Gaza City while large crowds are watching, a possible sign of the brutality Hamas is using to reassert itself as the security force.

Oh.  Hamas is doing this. There will be no protests about this.