1873 Pennsylvania Constitutional Convention

 The 1873 Convention to amend the Pennsylvania Constitution raised this very question as to whether the arms provision protected concealed carry as well as open carry.  Delegates debated whether to add the word “openly” before “to bear arms.”[1]  Delegate Ewing argued against this amendment asking “Have there not been repeated occasions within the past ten years when it has been unsafe for people to abroad in Philadelphia upon the public streets without carrying deadly weapons?”[2]

Delegate Dallas arguing for the addition of “openly” responded that “the purpose of such laws is not to prevent peaceable citizens from protecting themselves from the superior muscular power of ruffians, but to prevent the ruffians from arming themselves against peaceable citizens.”[3]  The final vote on whether to add “openly” which would both guaranteed a right to open carry and justified legislative prohibition of concealed carry was 54-23.[4]  The Convention chose to leave both open and concealed carry constitutionally protected.

---

[1] 7 Debates of the Convention to Amend the Const. of Penn. 258 (1873).

[2] 7 Debates of the Convention to Amend the Const. of Penn. 260 (1873).

[3] 7 Debates of the Convention to Amend the Const. of Penn. 260, 261 (1873).

[4] 7 Debates of the Convention to Amend the Const. of Penn. 261 (1873).

mid-19th century Penn. carry case struck down as violating the Penn. Const.?

 I know that I have read it somewhere.  Young, n.25,  tells us in justifying that Pennsylvania's 1862 law prohibiting carry was apparently not in conflict with "The Pennsylvania Constitution of 1790: The right of citizens to bear arms in defence of themselves and the State shall not be questioned.” Pa. Const. of 1790, art. IX, § XXI."

If you know the case, let me know.

Fear Addiction

A lot of why so many people run in circles, scream, and shout in response to whatever the latest authoritative announcement is (vaccination is the only way out of having to wear masks; no they really will not help with the Delta variant; why are so many people refusing to get vaccinated?) Is that some people live their lives in enormous fear.  If they can get others just as afraid they can feel "normal" and at the same time, superior to the ignorant sorts who are not terrified.   

I was concerned about COVID-19, enough to get vaccinated, both because I am in a high risk group (self-interest) and to reduce the risk of exposing others to it (altruistic).  But I refused to be terrified to the point of unreason by a disease that even for someone like me, was only likely to be miserable and hospitalizing.  

Do not let fear rule your life! Fear of a low mortality disease, fear of traffic accident, fear of crime, fear of meteor strikes. Do sensible things to reduce risk.  Vaccinated.  Drive carefully and soberly.   Move out of high crime areas.  Live in concrete bunkers for meteors.  (Okay that is going a bit far relative to the risk.)

Sweden

Small Dead Animals reports that Sweden:

"Going on two weeks (give or take a day) of zero COVID deaths despite a 39% vaccination rate and the lowest mask compliance on the continent."

The Karens are welcome to mask up and have a hissy fit because they need something to be upset about.  The rest of us will ignore them. 

Requiring Masking

6/29/21 AP:

"Nearly all COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. now are in people who weren’t vaccinated, a staggering demonstration of how effective the shots have been and an indication that deaths per day — now down to under 300 — could be practically zero if everyone eligible got the vaccine."

There is no reason for the government to resume masking for the vaccinated.   If you really do not want to be vaccinated, for reasons good or bad, "your body, your choice." The rest of us are pretty much safe.  The vaccinated have more to fear from a traffic accident.

If you are suffering Karen-itis and want everyone back in masks because some people are not convinced that they need it, you are not concerned about anyone but what you think are the stupids.

Is This Why Soros Funds Marijuana Legalization Efforts?

 7/26/21 CBS Baltimore:

(CNN) — The proportion of schizophrenia cases linked with problematic use of marijuana has increased over the past 25 years, according to a new study from Denmark.

In 1995, 2% of schizophrenia diagnoses in the country were associated with cannabis use disorder. In 2000, it increased to around 4%. Since 2010, that figure increased to 8%, the study found.

“I think it is highly important to use both our study and other studies to highlight and emphasize that cannabis use is not harmless,” said Carsten Hjorthøj, an associate professor at the Copenhagen Research Center for Mental Health and an author of the study published in the medical journal JAMA Psychiatry, via email.

“There is, unfortunately, evidence to suggest that cannabis is increasingly seen as a somewhat harmless substance. This is unfortunate since we see links with schizophrenia, poorer cognitive function, substance use disorders, etc,” Hjorthøj wrote.

Previous research has suggested that the risk of schizophrenia is heightened for people who use cannabis, and the association is particularly driven by heavy use of the drug. Many researchers hypothesize that cannabis use may be a “component cause,” which interacts with other risk factors, to cause the condition.

I know many of you will insist marijuana is natural and perfectly safe--you have not gone mad.  But just because 98% of pot smokers come through unscathed does not mean that it is safe.

Reading CNN Stories Like This

Makes me wonder if vaccination did anything at all.  

The Delta variant is so transmissible that even the vaccinated can get it and transmit it.  Maybe it is time to just order everyone to live 50 miles apart.

As I read this story, those who got vaccinated did not benefit from it and even 100% vaccination would have solved nothing.  All that money and whining about antivaxxers and it does not appear to have done anything.

Of course CNN is not a very trustworthy source so CDC says:

• If you are fully vaccinated, you can participate in many of the activities that you did before the pandemic.
• To maximize protection from the Delta variant and prevent possibly spreading it to others, wear a mask indoors in public if you are in an area of substantial or high transmission.

Gee what does this mean? I am vaccinated but I can still get and transmit the Delta variant.  What was the point of all that whining about getting everyone vaccinated?  I hate to see this as a Big Pharma thing but the taxpayers paid a huge amount of money for vaccine that CDC does not trust.  Why should I believe anything they tell us?

Perhaps the solution is to end international air travel.  Come by ship and the dead can be buried at sea.

UPDATE: already changed.  The first paragraph is now gone.

I Am Going to Need Some Volunteers in a Couple Weeks

A prominent law professor and I are writing a law review article exposing how the 9th Circus decision Young v. Hawaii cited lots of early Republic laws that prohibited carrying of firearms.  Regular readers will know that I discovered many were not at the cited locations and some were selectively quoted.  I am going to need 2 or 3 of you to read the paper for typos and such but also following the links to these session laws (the laws actually passed in each legislative session to verify that the page image actually comes from that volume and that the link points to the stated year and state. I am trying to be very careful but three pair of eyes are better than one.  This cannot have any errors if we want to demonstrate that these people are both incompetent and liars.

Thanks.  I have enough.

The Latest Attempt to Politicize Vaccination

 Apparently Republican states have low vaccination rates.  I can think of a number of factors coincident with Republican domination of a state: largely rural populations not so worried about the disease; Democrats have higher incomes than Republicans; this 10/17/13 articles observes:

When it came to strongly stated religious adherence, his conclusion was that there was a small negative correlation between it and science literacy.

He concluded: "I frankly don't think that that's a very big deal. There are plenty of highly religious folks who have a high science comprehension score, and plenty of secular ones who don't."

However, his eyebrows were lifted by an examination of scientific knowledge and politics.

He had expected that those with the poorest hold on scientific knowledge would be members of the Tea Party.

Some might imagine that this was along the "I disagree with you most strongly, ergo you must be most stupid" axis.

What the numbers told him -- and he declared them statistically significant -- was that those who professed to be Tea Party members had a positive correlation with scientific smarts.

Yet Los Angeles County is again mandating masking to protect their large unvaccinated population.  I had no idea that Los Angeles County was rich in Republicans!  Antivax sentiment is as much a leftwing cause as conservative.

Who Responds to Emails Like This? Do They Have Enough Money to Be Worth the Effort?

 saluto My,

What's your age? I wish to goodly talks;-)
Where do U stay now?

at this moment I am seeking safe not young dude!

I am gracious 32 years old Miss)
This is my e-mail tasnilastanilat@gmail.com:-) I will send You my pictures

You Will Never Hear the Phrase "First World Problem" Again Without Cringing

 

And of course:

Forgot about this Reddit thread.

Of which my favorite is

"Not being able to fit your divorce settlement on a single line of a check"

And amazingly, a real settlement check.

Really Interesting Video on Wealth Inequality

https://youtu.be/Ot4qdCs54ZE

The Netherlands is the most unequal distribution of net wealth in the world.   Why?  What does it tell us about socialist hopes?

I Do Not Know If There Are Any Astronomers Among My Readers

 Losmandy G11 tripod. I bought this originally for a business manufacturing telescope mobility solutions. For several years this had a GM8 mount and 5" f/9 refractor on it. I have since moved those back to a GM8 tripod. This is the non-folding tripod. It weighs 28.8 pounds and is very stiff. It is easier to ship than it looks; the legs are held in place by clamps and can be removed for shipping in a smaller box. Obviously I would rather sell it locally.

Cosmetic issues: The previous owner left it in a location with direct sunlight and the legs faded from that beautiful anodized black to a dark purple. As you can see there are some scratches at the bottom of the legs where my mobility solution clamped on. These are purely cosmetic issues.

Dog not included.

Sold!  FULL PRICE PLUS SHIPPING!

The Most Amazing Amicus Brief So Far in NYSRPA v. Corlett

BRIEF OF THE BLACK ATTORNEYS OF LEGAL AID, THEBRONX DEFENDERS, BROOKLYN DEFENDER SERVICES,ET AL. AS AMICI CURIAE IN SUPPORT OF PETITIONERS

The incorporated Second Amendment affords the people “the right to keep and bear arms.” U.S. Const. amends. II, XIV; McDonald v. City of Chicago, 561 U.S. 742 (2010); District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008). Despite the clear text and this Court's precedent, New York's licensing regime does the opposite. It deprives everyone of that right, only returning it to those select few who manage to first secure a firearm license from the police. For everyone else, possession of a firearm is effectively a “violent  felony,” punishable by 3.5 to 15 years in prison. N.Y. Penal Law §§ 265.03; 70.02(1)(b). New York’s licensing requirements criminalize the exercise of the fundamental Second Amendment right, with rare exception. As a result, each year, we represent hundreds of indigent people whom New York criminally charges for exercising their right to keep and bear arms. For our clients, New York’s licensing regime renders the Second Amendment a legal fiction. Worse, virtually all our clients whom New York prosecutes for exercising their Second Amendment right are Black or Hispanic. And that is no accident. New York enacted its firearm licensing requirements to criminalize gun ownership by racial and ethnic minorities. That remains the effect of its enforcement by police and prosecutors today.

It Must Have a Name

When you remove the lens on a DSLR, you have a big hole that it is begging for dust and dirt.  Of course you always put another lens on it at once.  My previous Pentax DSLR had a black plastic insert that would fit into lens connector to keep dirt and bugs out while I was carrying it out to the telescope where I would put the telescope adapter in place of the lens.  It is not a lens cap.  The dimensions are wrong and it is rather more like a T-ring.  What is it called so that I know for what to search?

Camera dust cap.

I Mentioned a Few Weeks Back That Money Not in an IRA or 401k Has Some Advantages

Primarily that selling mutual funds, stocks, or bonds tonly produces a capital gains tax, unlike IRA distribution which are treated as regular income with the typical income tax rate.

I decided that I could use a bit more income to spend on travel.  I discovered that one of my mutual funds in my non-IRA account has actually lost value since I invested in it.  This means that withdrawing 0.5% every month will produce a capital loss.  This will offset any capital gains elsewhere.   I doubt it will be enough to reach the $3000 annual carryover but still nice way to reduce total income tax. 

Remember the Plot to Kidnap Gov. Whitmer?

 7/20/21 BuzzFeed says it was an FBI entrapment.  Read the whole article, and remember what a friend of mine who was active in the antiwar movement in the 1960s said: "The guy who thinks burning down the ROTC Building is a neat idea is the FBI agent."  If you find yourself with people making concrete plans for illegal activity, denounce the idea as close to the likely informant as possible (loud enough for the wire), and remember the strength of a movement of "lone-wolves;" 

There is a Way to Use Facebook For Good (For Some Definitions of Good)

 7/19/21 NPR:

In 2021, Ben Shapiro rules Facebook.

The conservative podcast host and author's personal Facebook page has more followers than The Washington Post, and he drives an engagement machine unparalleled by anything else on the world's biggest social networking site.

An NPR analysis of social media data found that over the past year, stories published by the site Shapiro founded, The Daily Wire, received more likes, shares and comments on Facebook than any other news publisher by a wide margin.

Even legacy news organizations that have broken major stories or produced groundbreaking investigative work don't come anywhere close.

And they are making doing so. 

Today's Obscure Machining Question

You want a 32mm inside (or perhaps a bit larger, you do not need a close fit) square aluminum tube.  The closest you can get is a 1.5" exterior .125" wall tube.  The inside is about 31.5 mm.  I tried filing it out.  This is a shockingly slow method.  

So buy a larger tube. The available choices of commercial square tube are 1.75" .25" wall or 2" .5" wall.  None of these get you to 1.375" interior which is close enough for what I need.  Wall thickness is pretty much irrelevant; it carries very little load.

I tried to mill the inside of the tube using an end mill; in this case, 2" long .375" diameter.   That goes deep enough for my needs but not into the corners.  A .125" mill would do the corners, buy I doubt anyone makes a end mill that length and diameter; it would be too fragile.  There are tools for cutting square holes on a lathe (which seemed impossible until I saw it on This Old Tony's YouTube channel).  But that seems perilously close to buying a well rig to install a fencepost.

Any suggestions?

Eureka is in the 50s

Astoria is in the 60s.  Why am I so tempted to go out for a week to enjoy ocean air?  Unfortunately it is 8 hours of driving and car rentals at PDX remain absurd.

Boise Heat Wave Unusual?

The Left is ranting about climate change and this current heat wave.  One little problem: it is not so terribly high compared to the 20th century.   This list of record highs for Boise includes 111 in 1960 and 1931.  Throughout the 1920s and 1930s record highs above 100 were common. 

Tomatoes and Cucumbers Are Coming In

Such a Nice Night of Observing

And now.

Smoke gets in your eyes 

SculpSure

This is a fat removal system that uses lasers focused just under the skin with a cooling process to prevent burns that kills the fat cells and your lymphatic system eventually removes them reducing weight and inches.   It is FDA so I suspect that it is both safe and reasonably effective.   It is about $1000 for six treatments, which would likely do me a lot of good, both from a cardiovascular and cosmetic standpoint. 

Anyone out there know someone who has had it?

I Will Never Have a Post-Factory Stereo Installed Again

When we bought my wife's Jeep we did not even think about CDs.  So several years ago I had a Pioneer AVH-2330NEC installed, which has a CD player.   The voice feature for making calls through your cellphone was a safety feature I thought important.   For the first year it worked fine.  BestBuy's installer mentioned Android Auto but I did not what it was.  I should have asked.

As some point some Android update turned Android Auto on as a normal boot app.  From then on, it no longer allowed her say Call <name>.  Repeated efforts by Geek Squad never worked for more than a few weeks and I was no more successful than Geek Squad.

So we went to a Pioneer dealer in the hopes that they would debug this.  Their solution was a Pioneer AVH-2500NEX.  ($1000 by the time we were done.)  This was supposed to do Android Auto.  It did work somewhat randomly.   When it worked it was very cool.

After four visits to the Pioneer dealer and two wild goose chases that ended up at BestBuy, it seems to be solved.  Android Auto is very picky about the USB cable because of bandwidth.   The Pioneer dealer told us that we have to buy the right cable at BestBuy.  They do not stock the USB cable required to make their product work.

No more buying yearend closeout cars!  It is cheaper but my sanity is worth a lot more. If it does not have all the features in the stereo we want, we will not buy it. 

Now I see that Pioneer says the AVH-2330NEX supports Android Auto (perhaps with a firmware upgrade).   Either the Pioneer dealer was not competent to know this or they just wanted to sell another stereo.  It appears that the fourth visit did not solve the problem.   

The next step is to tell them to put the AVH-2330NEX back in and refund our money.   Fortunately we paid on Discover so we can refuse payment for being either incompetent at installing or for misleading us as to the need for a new stereo.  As it turns out, it was likely both.

It is actually working correctly with both of our phones!  It appears the problem with my wife's phone was that we needed to set it to automatically unlock when it was in Bluetooth contact with the stereo even though it appears that Bluetooth lacks the required bandwidth to do Android Auto.  That is a shame because having to plug and unplug the phone each time you enter or exit the Jeep is annoying.

Astrophotography Again

 I finally figured out how to use Live View on my Pentax K20D.  You turn it on from one of the menus then the mode selector to video and then do fine focus, exposure length, and ISO, before returning to still mode to take the picture.

This was taken just after sunset, prime focus, ISO 100, 1/100th second:

I obviously have a ways to go on sharp focus.

I bought a variable length eyepiece projection adapter so that I can vary distance from eyepiece to focal point for more magnification.  I am only going to share a couple tonight.  I took some video so that I can learn to use Registax to stack images.

I think that may be the Long Wall in this one. 1/3 second ISO 100, using the 25mm eyepiece I think.  I will GIMP this tomorrow:

These are 20MP images which through the black magic of JPG and DCT are only about 5MB images, which Blogger I think reduces to a reasonable resolution.  I may be able to make these truly impressive with GIMP.

That Decision About 18 Year Olds and Handgun Purchase

 Hirschfeld v. BUREAU OF ALCOHOL, FIREARMS, TOBACCO & EXPLOSIVES  (4th Cir. 2021) notes 15, 27, 29, and 49, cite my work, sometimes quite extensively.

Support for Breaking US Growing

Even among Democrats. Daily Mail.   I hate to see America die but the Left will not leave us alone.  They can have feces and used needle cities.  To cover our share of Social Security payments they can deed all federal lands to the states.  

Should I Cry or Should I Laugh?

From Yahoo News story about the Georgia election audit finding absentee ballots counted twice in Fulton County:

"Carter Jones, an independent monitor of Fulton's elections, posited an election worker may have lost track of which ballots were scanned. He said the chances of organized fraud were small.

“It’s Fulton failing to follow proper election protocols again,” he said. “Fulton is so poor at managing the actual process that if they had actually tried to rig the election, they would have bungled it, and we would have found out.”

As Much As I Hate Doing Business With Amazon

There is one advantage to a single source.  I recently ordered a part for my webcam from Newegg.com.  It never arrived.   I could not remember from whom I ordered the part.  Because it was not very expensive, I ordered from eBay.  I suddenly realized that Newegg was from where I ordered.  So I went there to see if my order had shipped.  

Weirdly, the tracking showed the vendor created a label and that was all.  Newegg had already refunded my money but without letting me know about the canceled order and refund.   Complicating this was that they showed the refund was to my original payment method.   I searched through PayPal and found it.

I guess if I want to order from other vendors, I better make a spreadsheet. 

No Flights From Boise to Cheyenne

I do not mean no direct flights.  At one time it seemed as there were no direct flights from Boise to anywhere. 

But Travelocity showed no flights from Boise to Cheyenne.   Not five layovers.  None with any number of stops.  Why?

I Googled flights Boise to Cheyenne and it found flights in September and at a very reasonable price.  Travelocity needs a within some number of days function.

Cheyenne is apparently doing renovations causing the shutdown. 

America's "Racist" Constitution

Every properly woke person knows that our Constitution is racist.  They did not abolish slavery.  Indeed while the word slave appears nowhere in it until the 13th Amendment abolished it. Art. 4 Sec. 2, cl. 3 provides for extradition of persons "bound to service," a term that applied to apprentices, indentured servants and slaves.  Art. I, sec. 2 treats non-free persons as 3/5 of a person for purposes of taxation and representation.   In both cases, this means slaves.

So why did the Framers so carefully avoid the word slave?  A number of Framers including some slaveholders (such as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson) regarded slavery as an evil that needed to go away at some point.  Breen's Tobacco Culture examines how tobaccos reliance on slave labor eventually led Washington to switch from tobacco to wheat.  Many other delegates were active abolitionists such as Ben Franklin, John Adams, and Alexander Hamilton.   

Even supporters of slavery from states profoundly tied to the system recognized the immorality of it, or at least getting high and mighty about it.  When C.C. Pinckney returned from Philadelphia and had to justify why the new Constitution had no Bill of Rights, he explained: One was that bills of rights generally begin by declaring that all men are by nature born free. The reporter's summary of his observation concluded, "Now, we should make that declaration with a very bad grace, when a large part of our property consists in men who are actually born slaves."^[18]

So what did the new Constitution do about slavery, a contentious issue that risked losing South Carolina and Georgia from the United States?  It did something no other government of the time had the moral character to do: it set a deadline for abolition of the international slave trade in 1808.  Yes Britain did likewise in 1807 but the U.S. Constitution stated the goal in 1788.  This was well before William Wilberforce's successful persuasion of Parliament.

Abolition of the Atlantic slave trade other than by America and Britain was a byproduct of the treaties signed as part of the Congress of Vienna (1815).

For all that America's founders missed the boat on slavery they were still ahead of the rest of the world.  Remind your local antiracist of this.

Boy, This Hurts

 I spoke at Columbia in 2001.  I was actually a pretty effective speaker before the stroke.  

Math is Subjective and Racist

SmallDeadAnimals links to an excerpt from Ontario's new 9th grade math curriculum that would be funny parody on Babylon Bee but in the real world is just 1984.

And all this time I thought borrowing from Babylonia math and Hindu numbers and Muslim learning made math multicultural.   I guess not.

You Don't Know Anyone With a Multifunction Printer Apparently

 Video of VP Harris claiming voter ID is unfair because people in rural communities have nowhere to make photocopies of their ID.  There are times that I wonder if she has ever been in a town of less than a million.

Babylon Bee, as usual, gets a few well-sharpened barbs in her claims.

Really Tragic

 How many of these mass murders are arson of tenement buildings in New York City.  Some were Mafia extortion where the victim (sometimes a first floor business) refused to pay.  Another was a guy who had overinsured his furniture and did not mind killing his wife along with others.  Many are just "who knows?"

And there are heroes (bottom of right column):

Combining Signs for Two Businesses

In this case a law firm and fast food.

This Is in Middleton. 

More Amazing Sci-Fi Stories

The 14th Science Fiction Megapack is not all gems of the Golden Age, but some of them are masterpieces.  "No Great Magic" has a costumer for a Shakespearen troupe convinced that she lives in the playhouse because of a nervous breakdown and therefore is not entirely trusting of her senses.   They are preparing to perform Macbeth and some of the actors are just getting too much into their parts, not as Banquo, Macbeth, and the witches, but as the actors who played them in Shakespeare's time.  I think you can see where this is going.  Every acting troupe is own the move through space... and time.

You Hear About Someone Finding Old Stock

 

Software Subscriptions

 If you ever decide to unsubscribe to software, make sure you screenshot that unsubscribe screen.  LuluSoft makes SodaPDF which in v11 did a pretty decent job of OCRing PDFs.  v12 really did nothing when you OCRed.  I unsubscribed months ago but of course they ran the $84 annual subscription through anyway.  PayPal is of no help except for blocking any further renewals.

I have learned my lesson: no more autorenewals.

The Well-Behaved Mutual Fund

CPOAX has gained 774% in the seven years since retirement was forced on me.  FLPSX is the worst 157% gain over the same period.

Reach Out and Touch Someone's Life

 

Ormsby, Minn. (1921)

09/05/1921: The father chloroformed his wife and their five children and shot them.   He then committed suicide.  There were no obvious rational reasons for this murder-suicide.  He had quit his job as a bank cashier six weeks before; he gave the bank no explanation for his resignation.  His accounts were in order according to the bank.  The day before the murders, he went around town paying all outstanding debts in cash.  The article: “Temporary insanity is the only explanation friends make.”

Category: family

Suicide: yes

Cause: mental illness

Weapon: pistol[1]

---

[1] "Entire Family Found Murdered; Wife And Five Children Victims Of Father; Woman Finds Bodies," [Great Falls, Mont.] Great Falls Tribune, Sep. 06, 1921, 1.

All of these stories make me sad; some more than others. You read a news account like this and you wish that someone had reached out to this guy in the days before and made some sort of connection that either identified a problem or gave this guy a reason to live.  

I Was Hoping For a Clear Night

One of the biggest frustrations with astrophotography is getting a sharp focus.   This becomes an especially hard thing when doing eyepiece projection with an eyepiece in the path to the camera.  This lets you get a lot more magnification than prime focus.  But my results have always been a little disappointing.

I see that my Pentax K20D has a feature called Live View where you get the image on the little pop-up screen instead of the always disappointing ground glass viewfinder.  It took a while to figure out to get to work, but now I am ready.

Tomorrow is supposed to be clear and in the 80s by nightfall.

Can You Help Me Find This?

 Last year the Smithsonian put up a web page listing aspects of whiteness.  It was really offensive, saying that whites believe in rational thought and hard work.  I blogged about it.  They of course took it down once the companion piece about blackness read like Klan literature.  The whiteness page I found archived.

I cannot find the blackness page that called blacks emotional instead of rational.  Can you find it for me?

Does This Hot Spell Tell Us Anything About Climate Change?

 Let's see.  The Pacific Northwest is suffering terrible heat.  But what about elsewhere?  Honolulu's average high for July: 88.  Predicted high for today: 84.  Tampa average July high: 89.6.  Today: 89. This heat seems to be pretty local.

If You Think Black Friday Madness is a Recent Manifestation of Materialism

 

The Cordova daily times. (Cordova, Alaska), 26 Feb. 1921

That Finderscope Mount

 Finally complete and installed.  This picture shows the broken and repaired aluminum version on the right.  The slight deformities where the bones did not knit well should be obvious.  The interior dimensions of the rings are identical; it may not be obvious because the broken one is farther back and white objects always show bigger.  (Yes, human optical systems are racist.)

This is the setup I used to put the screw holes 120 degrees apart:

This is the dovetail base with 75 degree angle:

And this is how I cut that angle:

The thumbscrews in the rings were going to be M3x0.5, just like the original, but I used the wrong drill bit on the holes in the rings and had to go with 8-32 instead.

Installed:

I spent a bit of time at the end discovering that while acetal is not Teflon, it is very slippery.  Through holes are always slightly larger than the threaded holes into which the screw goes.  A little larger on the through holes reduces the chance that your through holes and threaded holes are not perfectly aligned, but with acetal, it also means you really cannot get a solid grip that does not allow some slip.  So I cut a .1" deep slot at each end of the piece that holds the rings.  Now it is not only held in position by the clamping force of the screws but also by the slot that holds the rings.  

This also solved another problem: the 8-32 SHCS screws holding the rings to the base were just slightly too long.  A 3/8" length was not enough to get a solid grip.  That .1" deep slot meant that 3/8" length is just right.  They have a good grip but do not protrude into the rings.

The original mount was held in place by an M3x0.5 thumbscrew using friction along the edge of the dovetail alone.  This is bad from a fore and aft point of view and not very solid hold left to right.  My original solution was drill a hole into the original base for the set screw to lock into.  It did not work well because the set screw was too short to take full advantage of that hole so I ended up adding another set screw (a 6-32) to lock it more firmly.

The new one uses a longer M3x0.5 setscrew that goes all the way into the hole.  This is needed because the base is a little too narrow to otherwise achieve a tight fit.  I may remake this whole mount in aluminum at some point, or just remake the base part in acetal.  Everything is held together by 8-32 screws so that will not be a problem.

Patriotism

 There aere a couple of Neil Diamond songs, that each in its own way, show his love for America.  The first is "Brooklyn Roads," a nostalgic description of his upbringing.

I grew up a few years later, but I have lots of similar warm memories of an America that the left has stolen from us.  And the more obvious "America":

Watching Leftists Grudgingly Give Credit to Republicans

 7/1/21 Cedar Rapids, Iowa Gazette:

Amid a laundry list of terrible tough-on-crime bills in the Iowa Legislature this year, there is at least one silver lining — a new law making it easier to legally get guns.

As of Thursday, Iowans no longer need a permit to carry or acquire handguns, a policy supporters often call “constitutional carry.” That’s a longtime priority of the right-wing 2nd Amendment movement, and it also is shown to have a beneficial impact on racial disproportionality and government spending in the justice system.

With the new laxer gun laws, legislative analysts expect the state to see 600 fewer convictions each year and save between $2.2 million and $4.7 million annually in court and corrections costs. It’s the type of smart-on-crime reform Iowa Democrats should support, but chose not to in the House and Senate this year.

Under previous law, Black Iowans were convicted of acquiring or carrying a gun without a permit at about 7 times the rate as the total population. That’s similar to the racial disparity found in Iowa’s marijuana arrests, according to ACLU figures last year showing Iowa is the fifth-worst in the nation in over-arresting Black people for pot.

Like many gun control regulations, Iowa’s former permitting system was a relic of our racist history, meant to give law enforcement officials control over who’s allowed to have a gun. Even if it’s not what majority Republican lawmakers had in mind, their “constitutional carry” law in effect is a criminal justice reform policy.

Independence Day

 I have had a few days of discouragement when it felt like the Great American Experiment has failed, but I still have hope for the future.  I think the Critical Race Theory trash and Corporate America whoring after transgender stuff is going to cost the Democrats dearly in the midterms.  In the meantime, enjoy the freedoms that we stil have.

The Rising Murder Claim

 Over at BuzzFeedNews' coverage of the fake commencement one of the commenters claimed:

gun deaths have been on a stark incline within the last decade alone. the US has the most guns in the world and also responsible for 85% of gun related deaths in the world. you’re either a moron or someone who is profiting first hand from spreading these lies

Obviously, someone retired from reality.  From the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports:

 

Amazing the Effort the Gun Control Groups Go To

 I guess Dr. John Lott and Crime Prevention Research Center are doing important work:

I was honored to deliver a commencement address to a Nevada high school this month. But the school didn’t exist. It was a hoax perpetrated by gun-control activists. 

On May 14, I received a call from a man who identified himself as Jordan Simon, board chairman of James Madison Academy, a Las Vegas-based online high school with 2,000 graduating students. Mr. Simon told me students and faculty had picked me to be their commencement speaker.

I looked up the school and found a professional website (JamesMadisonAcademy.net no longer exists) featuring photos of smiling students and detailed descriptions of the school and teachers.

Mr. Simon offered to cover my travel expenses and pay a small honorarium. Since there were no direct flights from Missoula, Mont., where I live, and Las Vegas, he even offered to charter a plane to fly me down. That seemed excessive, so I drove. I wanted to save the school money and visit friends in Idaho on the way.

I agreed to give the talk, and made plans to drive the 950 miles for the June 5 event. I planned on giving a talk based on the advice I give my own children about hard work and how to get started in a career. But a few days before the event, Mr. Simon told me that I had to discuss background checks and James Madison’s role in drafting the Second Amendment. I objected, but he said the students were conservatives and the Second Amendment had been part of the core curriculum. So I went along.

In an email to Mr. Simon in which I outlined my speech, I wrote: “I still feel uncomfortable getting into this type of political discussion for a commencement because it seems to me that commencements should be talks that leave everyone satisfied.”

Mr. Simon told me that I needed to attend a dress rehearsal on the morning of June 4. I replied that I had another talk scheduled for June 3, and it would be almost impossible for me to get to Las Vegas on time. He pleaded that they had a big crew for the rehearsal, and it would cost the school a lot of money to delay. 

I offered to give my rehearsal address over the phone. “Unfortunately,” Mr. Simon texted, “my hands are tied. Everyone participating will have to be there on Friday for rehearsal.” 

Later, in a phone call, Mr. Simon said they were making a video of the dress rehearsal in case there were problems with the recording at the commencement. They wanted the video to be just right so they could use it to market the school.

I sped through the night to Las Vegas, getting a ticket along the way. But what should have been a 13-hour trip took an extra four hours because of a major accident. I kept Mr. Simon apprised, and he kept pleading with me to hurry and saying how much the students and faculty appreciated my effort. 

I arrived early in the afternoon June 4. I met Mr. Simon and was taken to the venue. It was an impressive setup. A team of about 20 staff and technicians were present. There were multiple cameras and flying drones, a large dais and a tent filled with technical equipment. Banners with the high school’s logo hung on either side of the stage. No expense was spared, and I had no suspicion that the event might be fake. Mr. Simon called me the next morning to say the commencement had been cancelled, claiming that the police had contacted the school about a credible threat of violence. 

Change the Ref, the group that orchestrated the hoax, argues that I should have done a “proper background check” on the school. Seriously? I have given many hundreds of talks at schools over the years, and nothing like this ever happened.

The group then posted a deceptively edited one-minute video with excerpts from my speech. It claims, for instance, that I am working to “block background checks.” In fact, my talk focused on how to fix a system that discriminates against minorities and the poor. I made two points.

6/24/2021 USA Today has an article quoting the fraudsters. 

Some Combinations Are Too Dangerous To Allow

 From "A Perfect Storm: The Ocoee Riot of 1920,"  The Florida Historical Quarterly , Summer 2014, Vol. 93, No. 1 (Summer 2014), pp. 25-43:

 Ocoee became a microcosm of the mounting nationwide racial tension. Though blacks remained the minority in the small town, many were prosperous and prominent in the community, and whites were threatened by their affluent status. Additionally, approaching the 1920 national election, blacks in Ocoee collaborated with local Republican candidates to register unprecedented numbers of black voters. Lastly, in early 1920, many white public officials had formed a new branch of the KKK in West Orange County; these men made it their personal mission to ensure blacks would not cast their ballots on Election Day. And so the scene was set for the bloody battle that became known as the Ocoee Riot.

The Absurd Rental Car Rates

Still absurd because rental companies sold off most of their cars during the crisis.  Even though flights are not so bad when you get there.   Cody Airport is $195/day for an economy car!

NRA Board of Directors Election

 Any recommendations and why?

People I know who are "in the know" recommend:

Owen Buzz Mills

and two write-in candidates:

1.       4  Name ____Frank C Tait__________________________________________________________

 

CITY & STATE (of principal residence )______Wayne, PA__________________________________

2.       4  Name ____R. B. Rocky Marshall, Jr._________________________________________

 

CITY & STATE (of principal residence)_________Boerne, TX__________________________\

I just voted.  If you are a voting member of NRA, do so.

Need Altitude

This heat wave is just horrible. For once, the progressive billionaires on the West Coast are not exempted by the Pacific Ocean (at least not much).

I have been less than happy with the rapidly growing traffic jams of the Boise area.  The next move is going to be up at least 1000 feet.

Usually, this level of heat gives clear night skies but i am not even getting that!

The Encouraging Things You Find Reading Old Newspapers

 10/09/1920 Chicago Whip:

Appealing to white concerns about public health and safety got esults.  I would prefer to read about this being motivated by humanitarian concerns but anytime good comes out self-interest, I applaud because you can count on self-interest/

LGBT History Fraud

 7/2/21 Inside Higher Education (a very establishment university source):

Naomi Wolf attempted to block the publication of her error-strewn doctoral thesis for a further year after submitting it to the University of Oxford’s digital archive more than five years late.

According to internal emails seen by Times Higher Education, the American feminist requested an additional extension to embargo her D.Phil. dissertation after depositing it, alongside a lengthy corrections sheet, with Oxford’s research archive at the end of December 2020.

Normally, those awarded a D.Phil. at Oxford are required to submit an electronic copy of their thesis at least five days before their degree is conferred either at a ceremony or in absentia. Wolf’s D.Phil. was awarded in April 2015.

Why the delay?

These events follow a tsunami of criticism over Wolf's book Outrages: Sex, Censorship and the Criminalisation of Love, which was based on her doctoral dissertation, after BBC Radio 3 presenter Matthew Sweet pointed out on air in June 2019 that Wolf had, based on a misreading of criminal records, wrongly claimed that several gay men had been executed in Britain after 1857.

 

The controversy was reignited earlier this year when other errors highlighted by Sweet appeared in a reissued version of the book, with several men cited as examples of antigay injustice actually having been convicted for sexual offenses against children and animals. 

As I explain here, the Supreme Court's Lawrence v. Texas (2003) decision was based on misleading and probably intentionally deceptive "history."

The policy of punishing consenting adults for private acts was not much discussed in the early legal literature.  We can infer that one reason for this was the very private nature of the conduct. Despite the absence of prosecutions,there may have been periods in which there was public criticism of homosexuals as such and an insistence that the criminal laws be enforced to discourage their practices. But far from possessing "ancient roots," Bowers, 478 U.S.,at 192, American laws targeting same-sex couples did not develop until the last third of the 20th century.

Important Solution to Doxxing

 AMERICANS FOR PROSPERITY FOUNDATION v. Bonta (2021).  The setup is long. but the essence is that charitable organizations in California are required to disclose major donors.  Those with a potential for fixing the immorality that is California are being required to expose who these donors are, opening them up to all sorts of harassment and potential loss of jobs.  For the same reasons that the Court struck down a similar rule in NAACP v. Alabama (1958).

Your progressive friends will insist the situations are very different: the NAACP was fighting racism, while these organizations are fighting the essence of love and understanding.

How NOT to Murder Your Wife

 

Chicago, Ill. (1920)

06/21/1920: Husband hired a hit man to “stage a fake holdup, in order that he might put his wife out of the way.”  He then killed his wife, their unborn child and the hitman “in order that there would be no witnesses.”  He confessed to police but pleaded insanity at trial.  This was unlikely to be a successful strategy, because he clearly knew he was doing something wrong by murdering the hit man.  Police caught him because the pistol found on the hit man was an Army pistol issued to the husband’s brother.

Category: family

Suicide: no

Cause: unknown

Weapon: pistol[1]

---

[1] "Will Plead Insanity To Save Carl Wanderer," [Washington, D.C.] Evening Star, Oct. 05, 1920, 4.

His insanity plea clearly could not succeed.  Killing the hit man to eliminate a witness shows that he could distinguish right from wrong and knew he was doing wrong.  Using a gun borrowed from his brother just shows stupidity.

Don Green, RIP

 6/30/21 Press-Democrat:

Philanthropist Don Green, one of two music lovers whose names are emblazoned on Sonoma State University’s Donald & Maureen Green Music Center and who made his fortune as the father of Petaluma’s Telecom Valley, died Monday in Mexico.

Green, who turned 90 on May 12, had suffered from Parkinson’s disease for 17 years but continued to live an active life. With his wife, Maureen, Green led the way to finance building of the Green Music Center with an initial donation of $10 million in 1997. Maureen Green died Nov. 6, 2020.

I agree with the many positive observations about Don.  I worked for him at Harris Digital Telecom Systems, although way down the hierarchy from him.  I doubt that he recognized me.  When he started Optilink, I knew of it from some friends that I met on a street in San Francisco outside a trade show.  So I called up a supervisor from Harris and bullied my way in as employee 22.  Like a lot of other people, Optilink's acquisition by  DSC made a lot of us pretty darn rich.  Startups that spun off Optilink did so again.

Don had a pretty lower class (in the British sense) upbringing and his politics were influenced by this or at least his perception of Democratic Party goals.  He was a funder of Democratic causes and did a lot of charitable giving.  (A wealthy friend received a invitation to a Democratic fundraiser at Don's house.  "When you reach the gated driveway on your right, follow it 1.3 miles to the house."  This was Sonoma County, so not cheap.

Like most wealthy men he knew lots of what the left wanted him to know.  He was a big fan of gun banning, and complained in one of our conversations on the subject that there was almost no regulation of guns in America, so I brought him the BATF Green Book of state and local regulations.  He was surprised and recognized that he was mistaken.  He was a good person and capable of learning from his mistakes.  We should all have others be able to say that of us.