Does Bad Diet Cause Obesity?

 If you wander through YouTube, you will videos offering many explanations for why Americans are obese today, when they were not in the 1950s. Certainly, my recollection is that in my elementary school classes (1963-1968) it was usually one kid in each class who was fat. (By junior high, that was me.) Pictures of 1950s and 1960s American seem healthily skinny. But did fat people not get photographed?

United States Long-Term Trends in Adult BMI (1959–2018): Unraveling the Roots of the Obesity Epidemic

. 2024 Jan 9;21(1):73. doi: 10.3390/ijerph21010073

As you will not be surprised to see, obesity in America has always been a poor people's problem. But look at the BMI in 1960 through 1980. What did Americans eat back then? Steak, potatoes, hamburgers, hot dogs, butter in and on everything, milk shakes, cookies, cakes, pancakes, sausage, bacon: You know, a really fattening diet. Care to throw your hypotheses into the comments? 

Solution is Obvious

California Attorney-General complains that Baird v. Bonta (9th Cir. 2026) will provoke fear:

“Allowing the open carry of firearms in densely populated counties creates unnecessary anxiety, terrorizes children, and instills fear throughout our communities."

I agree that open carry likely will terrify the sheep that inhabit California cities. SolUtion: Remove obstacles for law-abiding people to receive concealed carry licenses. Concealed carry scares no one.

Another Victory in a Case On Which I Worked

 Baird v. Bonta (9th Cir. 2026):

For most of American history, open carry has been the default manner of lawful carry for firearms. It remains the norm across the country—more than thirty states generally allow open carry to this day, including states with significant urban populations. 1 Indeed, several of our Nation’s largest cities and states recently returned to unlicensed open carry by explicitly authorizing it. For example, Texas reauthorized open carry without a license in 2021. 2 Kansas likewise transitioned back to allowing open carry without a permit in 2015. 3 And other states that placed restrictions on open carry in recent decades have also removed those burdens.4 Similarly, for the first 162 years of its history open carry was a largely unremarkable part of daily life in California. From 1850, when California first became a state, until the Mulford Act of 1967, public carry of firearms in California (open or concealed) was entirely unregulated. And when California first deviated (or considered deviating) from this practice, its reasons for doing so were less than morally exemplary. The first restriction on public carry that California contemplated was a concealed-carry ban in 1856—which was intended to apply only to “Mexicans,” who were considered dangerous. See The Rise and Fall of California’s First Concealed-Carry Law, NRA Institute for Legislative Action (Jan. 1, 2013) (citing John David Borthwick, “THREE YEARS IN CALIFORNIA” (1857); Roger D. McGrath, GUNFIGHTERS, HIGHWAYMEN, & VIGILANTES: VIOLENCE ON THE FRONTIER (1984)), https://www.nraila.org/articles/20130101/the-rise-and-fallof-californias-first-concealed-carry-law.

Eventually, in 1967 California first criminalized the peaceful open carrying of a loaded handgun in the Mulford Act—legislation that was also tainted with racial animus. See Mulford Act, 1967 Cal. Stat. 2459 (codified as amended at various sections of Cal. Penal Code); Cal. Penal Code § 25850 (2024). Passed during a period of significant racial unrest, the Mulford Act was a legislative response to the Black Panther Party’s activities, which included openly carrying firearms to protest police behavior in AfricanAmerican communities. See Thaddeus Morgan, The NRA Supported Gun Control When the Black Panthers Had the Weapons, HISTORY (last updated May 28, 2025), https://www.history.com/articles/black-panthers-guncontrol-nra-support-mulford-act. The catalyzing event occurred when “30 members of the Black Panthers protested on the steps of the California statehouse armed with .357 Magnums, 12-gauge shotguns and .45-caliber pistols and announced, ‘The time has come for Black people to arm themselves.’” Id. The California legislature disagreed and responded by passing the Mulford Act. Id. Yet even then, it remained legal in California to openly carry a handgun, so long as it was unloaded. See Mulford Act, 1967 Cal. Stat. 2459.

Count on an appeal to an en banc panel by California but this is then likely to end up before the Supreme Coiurt. 

En banc petition filed. No word on action yet 

How in the Hell Does a Quadruple Amputee Aim and Fire a Gun?

3/23/26 ABC News:

"Quadruple amputee cornhole champion facing murder charges in fatal shooting"

He is a corn hole champion as well. Both of three seem implausible if not impossible. 

"Dayton James Webber, 27, is accused of fatally shooting the front seat passenger of his vehicle during an argument in La Plata, Maryland, on Sunday and then fleeing to Virginia, according to the Charles County Sheriff's Office."

How do you drive a car without limbs? Mouth controls?

Finderscope

I mentioned that I needed to reduce the length of one part of the assembly. While doing so, I switched from PVC to aluminum tube. It took some work to find the right diameter. My wife suggested that rather than try for white, I should go for bright polish and it does look very nice this way. 

I was planning to blacken the interior of the aluminum tube parts. It seems to be optically fine for now. If it does not present itself optically well tonight, I will disassemble and blacken.

Right now, it is optically quite sharp and I expect it will work well for the intended purpose: wide field low power.

I Am Home

The surgery sites are finally registering pain. Not bad enough to get the Norco Rx filled and just a bit more than Tylenol can silence. The catheter is both more annoying and a sharper pain when in certain positions.  And a 250 ml of urine sloshing about in a bag on your ankle is annoying, but at least there are nighttime visits to the toilet. Although I would gladly trade that for this nuisance.  I should get priority seating with my urologist to find a solution to this inflamed prostrate gland.

A Shockingly Positive Japanese Perspective on Trump's Pearl Harbor Joke

Click over and read.