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.

America's Most Common Jobs

 I have toyed with the idea for a couple of years of time travelers snatching Ben Franklin from his deathbed, treatimg him for pleurisy, and giving him a tour of modern America and technology.  His reactions to all this would be priceless.

Explain the IV in his arm. Explain antibiotics.  Show him an X-ray machine.  Show a CAT scanner in operation.

Take him to the kitchen.  Open the refrigerator.  Show him frozen foods.  Make pancakes.  Use a microwave oven.  Explain that most Americans do not employ a cook, housekeeper, or other domestic servant.  Show a Roomba.

When he asks what Americans do for a living, show him this list of the 25 most common  jobs in America.  When asks what software developer means, stumble through an explanation that he will clearly not fully understand.  When he asks why farmers are not on the list, explain farmers are a rare occupation, because machines allow 2% of our population to feed our nation and many others.

Drive him to the airport.  Take him aboard a Gulfstream private jet.  Fly him to a city in the Midwest.  Show him a map of the current United States.  

Take him to a shooting range.  Explain a semiautomatic metallic cartridge handgun.   Show him an animation video of how it works.  On a computer.  Take him to lunch.  Explain to him that the utensils are not silver or pewter but a metal that was unknown to his time: stainless steel.

Explain that food is cheap.  Drive to a wheat farm while a harvester is cutting the crop.  Go to a grain silo, then a flour mill.  When he asks where the drive belts and water wheel are located, show him an electric motor and explain how his work with kites led to omnipresent electricity.  Pull out your cell phone, call the time travel lab, and have a Zoom meeting with the nurse who helped Ben out of his deathbed.

Show him video of Apollo astronauts on the Moon.  Explain that America has sent space probes out of our solar system.  When he asks how the car knows where it is and shows a map on the display between driver and passenger, explain GPS and satellites in Earth orbit.  When he asks how and why all this technology exists, explain the V-2 IRBM, attacks on London, and U.S. desire to show the world our technological supremacy over an enemy nation.

Then, it gets dark.  A B-52 flies overhead and you explain that this plane can fly halfway around the world, drop many tons of bombs and fly back.  Explain it was developed after World War II to drop nuclear weapons on an enemy nation.   Explain the devastation caused by one bomb at Hiroshima.  Explain that Japan was an existential threat to the U.S., but we reformed them into a civilized and close ally.  

We will be nice and not tell him how much went wrong with our culture and government.  We will oversimplify the abolition of slavery so as not to discourage him about the Civil War.

Throughout, he will ask what words such as "arrow dynamics" means.

Why Canada's Socialized Healthcare System is a Bad Idea

10/14/25 Winnipeg Sun:

When gym teacher Rob Trachtenberg began experiencing severe numbness and pain in his right hand late in 2024, he never expected that his path to relief would lead him across the U.S. border. Frustrated by what he says was an 18-month wait for treatment in Manitoba, he opted to drive to Fargo, North Dakota, for a 45-minute procedure — only to be denied reimbursement by his home province. He now raises pressing questions about surgical wait times in Manitoba and how, or whether, the province compensates residents seeking treatment outside its borders.

Rotating My Images

 I know some of are tired of twisting your necks 90 degrees to look at pictures that the Blogger app turns badly.  (You could just pick up the monitor and turn it counter-clockwise.)  Fortunately, while I watch the mill cut CFC, I am sitting in front of a perfectly adequate Linux PC, where I can download those sideways images into GIMP and get them right with the world.  (Or counter-clockwise.: left with the world?)

Aren't You Glad the Left is Concerned About the Suffering of Others?

 10/13/25 EMS1:

PORTLAND, Ore. — Air ambulance vendors who transport patients to Oregon Health & Science University decided not to land at the hospital on Saturday night, an OHSU spokesperson said, a precaution while a flyer circulated encouraging people to shine lasers at helicopters.

The flyer, posted anonymously last week to a blog that describes itself as an “anarchist counter-info platform” in Portland, encouraged people to play “laser tag” with helicopters on Saturday. Shining lasers at aircraft is a federal crime.

“Every night for weeks we are forced to listen to the threatening rhythm of helicopter blades as the federal regime spies on us,” the flyer said. “The only limit power knows is our refusal to submit.”

Government helicopters have kept watch on the South Waterfront Immigration & Customs Enforcement Facility, the site of daily protests of varying sizes, since at least early October. The government choppers are audible well into Southeast Portland and have prompted a litany of noise complaints.

That facility is less than a mile, as the helicopter flies, from the OHSU helipads.

Sara Hottman, associate director of media relations for OHSU, warned Saturday that the “extremely dangerous activity” of shining lasers at helicopters could hurt patients.

Various air ambulance vendors decided not to land at the OHSU helipads on Saturday night, Hottman said. In an emergency, they would have needed to land at another airport and transport patients by vehicle, which could add up to an hour to patients’ commutes, Hottman said. That could be dangerous for trauma patients or others with urgent concerns, Hottman wrote Saturday.

Let's hope none of the trust fund babies need emergency airlifts.