Friday, September 30, 2022

Student Loan Relief is Unconstitutional: Who Said It?

9/29/22 Washington Post.

No, really.  And that it largely benefits people at the higher end to the detriment of the rest.

When even the WaPo says Biden is exceeding his powers, Biden is in trouble. 

The comments are a mix of "what about tax cuts for the rich" with no awareness that Congress passed these and a surprising number of Democrats saying that Biden was wrong and the student Loan forgiveness was a bad idea.

Why Ordinary People Cannot Be Trusted With Guns But the Government Can

9/22 Office of the Inspector General:

Audit Results Since September 2015, the NDB has been responsible for disposing of thousands of ATF-owned firearms and firearms seized for forfeiture each year by the ATF and other Department law enforcement agencies. In August 2019, a former contract security guard stationed at the ATF facility in Martinsburg was sentenced to 14 years in prison for stealing thousands of firearms, firearm parts, and ammunition from the NDB facility from 2016 to 2019. The events that led to this conviction triggered two internal ATF inspections of the NDB facility and an OIG investigation that resulted in the identification of several vulnerabilities that enabled the thefts to occur undetected, as well as recommendations for corrective action by the ATF’s internal inspection groups. 

Why they are commonly called BATF-Troop.  If you are too young the reference to the TV show F-Troop will be lost on you.  It was not a very clever show, but funny when you are eight years old.  Shall we say this was not one of the U.S. Cavalry's elite units? 

An Accident?

 Instapundit linked to this fascinating discussion of Nordstream failure:

I call them “incidents” for a reason. I grew up in overseas oilfields. I try to, by training, observe everything from as objectively neutral a viewpoint as possible.

In my experience when anything involving energy-industry hydrocarbons explodes … well, sabotage isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. And honestly, when it comes to a pipeline running natural gas under Russian (non)maintenance, an explosion means that it’s Tuesday. Or Friday. Or another day of the week ending in “y”.

“But, LawDog,” I hear you say, “It was multiple explosions!”

Yes, 17 hours apart. No military is going to arrange for two pipes in the same general area to be destroyed 17 hours apart. Not without some Spec Ops guy having a fit of apoplexy. One pipe goes up in a busy shipping lane, in a busy sea, and everyone takes notice. Then you wait 17 hours to do the second — with 17 hours for people to show up and catch you running dirty? Nah, not buying it.

The Nord pipelines weren’t in use. To me, that means it’s time for maintenance! Hard to maintain pipes when product is flowing.

Pipelines running methane, under saltwater, require PMCS* quicker than you’d think, and more often than you’d believe.

I would bet a cup of coffee that any of the required weekly and monthly checks and services since the Russians took over have been pencil-whipped. (See Andreev Bay 1982.)

They officially shut it down in July of 2020 for maintenance, and had cornbread hell getting it back on-line, and “issues” with maintaining flow throughout the next year; shut it down again in July of 2021, with bigger “issues” — we say “issues” because the Russians won’t explain what these issues were — and even more problems, including unexplained, major disruptions in gas flow in Dec21/Jan22; Feb 22; and April 22.

Yeah, there’s problems with those lines. And these are the same folks that PMCS’d Chernobyl.

So. They’ve got pipelines with issues that are currently pressurised (with highly flammable, if not outright explosive, natural gas/methane), but not moving product. It’s time to find out what those issues are....

So, yes, hostile actions are a possibility, but mass amounts of explosive hydrocarbon gas + 300 feet down under salt water + shoddy Russian maintenance = “Nobody could have possibly seen this coming”, and yet another entry into the extensive Wikipedia page on “Soviet/Russian disasters”.

“But what issues could happen in an undersea pipeline that could cause ruptures?”

Oh, my sweet summer child. Many, many, many. You might go far as to ask, “What issues won’t cause a rupture in an undersea pipeline?” — It’d be easier to list.

However, in this case involving a natural gas pipeline under the pressure of 300 to 360 feet (8 atmospheres to 10 atm.) of water, I’d like you to turn your eyes towards a fun little quirk of nature called “methane hydrates”.

Well, actually, I’d like you to meditate upon “hydrate plug”, but give me a moment.

Under certain circumstances of pressure, temperature, and water presence natural gas/methane will form solid hydrates, with concomitant amounts of fun.

For the Chinese definition of fun, anyway.

Thursday, September 29, 2022

Addictive

And I suspect this new AI art program will make science fiction book cover artists obsolete..






“English Springer Spaniels surfing”

I Wondering Why I Never Took Any Pictures of Jupiter With Satellites

 The answer was BEFORE STROKE:


I did not have tracking yet, hence the movement:




Was This Stupid or Honest

9/28/22 Newsweek video of Pres. Biden promising to end NordStream 2 if Russia invades Ukraine.  Does that the U.S. did it?  Does it mean one of our NATO allies did it so it would not have our fingerprints?  I think overall it was a good thing, but if Biden had allowed Trump's veto on this project to hold, rather than bowing to Russia, I think it would have been better.

Always Nice to See Stupid and Crooked Punished

 Today's spam under Subject: Invoice

/-654T4-57-5687


#-29-09-2022

- -
T-1/33 \


/

with attached PDF.  Is anyone fooled by such a cryptic email?

I fired back a "waste his time" email and was rewarded with:

Sorry, we were unable to deliver your message to the following address.

<robert1879tho@gmail.com>:
550: 5.2.1 The email account that you tried to reach is disabled. Learn more at 

5.2.1 https://support.google.com/mail/?p=DisabledUser r24-20020ae9d618000000b006cf848f791bsi1215871qkk.561 - gsmtp 

Cat Grooming

 When I mentioned that our 21-year-old cat was suffering fur matting, one of you recommended the Shed Ninja brush.  To my surprise, I already had one.  I have been using it daily.  

For the most part, he tolerates it.  I think it feels good on his skin and it is definitely removing the fur that is loose, which is what tends to form mats.  Some of the bigger mats are too big, but I have found use of my beard trimmer, far from the skin, removes some of the most egregious ones.  I have also discovered that grabbing the mats with my fingers and separating the fur often allows enough of the fur shed long ago to break loose, turning the mats into mini-mats, which the brush often breaks open.

Wednesday, September 28, 2022

I Am Glad Someone is Asking the Important Questions

3/22  Radiation Physics and Chemistry:
"Investigation of radiation shielding characteristic features of different wood species"

Because you never know when World War 3 will start while you are locked inside a furniture store.

Maybe CNN Really is Reforming

9/28/22 CNN:

Several times a week you can hear gunfire echoing from Brandi Joseph’s scenic Southern California property. A licensed firearms instructor and dealer, Joseph decided to open Fortune Firearms in December to serve a growing and rapidly changing clientele.

“There is a huge uptick in female owners,” Joseph said. “Women are getting trained; women are carrying… liberal and conservative.”

Proof of that change pulled up Joseph’s long, dusty driveway in the San Jacinto Valley just before 10 a.m. for a Saturday social, of sorts. A group of seven African American women stepped out of their cars seemingly eager to start their first firearms training session....

Finding common ground at the range

Both Mendez and Regalado at first worried about the type of people they encounter at the gun range, many of whom, they say, advertise their conservative politics in what they’re wearing or listening to.

“It’s mostly all men, mostly all white men, older men like 70s, 80s,” Mendez said. “Seeing people looking at us, and kind of just staring… It always makes us more uncomfortable. Because we’re like, ‘oh my God are they going to come and tell us, like, get out of here… you don’t belong here.’”

Instead, they’ve gotten a different reaction.

“They’re like, ‘Hey, you’re doing well, but can I show you something that might help you more?,” Mendez said.

Mendez says not only has it changed her impression of those individuals, but she also believes it’s given some a different perception of people like her.

“When I (came) back the next day, (one of the men) was like, ‘Hey! I saw your wife out there – she looks nice. Tell her I said ‘hi’.”

There is not a nasty stereotype or dig at gun owners anywhere in the article.

The Twilight Zone Episode Where the SS Captain Returns to Dachau

It strikes me that the evil judged at Nuremberg of generally well-educated people (often Ph.D.s) sets a model for after the Elites lose power.  The number of children and teenagers seduced into hormonal abuse and mutilating surgeries screams for justice to be exacted on the well-educated people who pursued this evil to make money and make themselves feel normal. 

That Does It

Rise BarelyBand cannot even guess when they will again provide 20Mbps service.  High Speed Idaho provided us with service in the old house.  It was not blindingly fast (and they are promising only 25Mbps) but I think based on past experiences with them they can provide it.

How Idaho


These are in the statehouse:



 



Some Friends Took Terry's Class and Spoke Highly Of It

 Idaho ECCW NRA Personal Protection in the Home Handgun course Saturday October 8th 2022    


5 SEATS AVAILABLE AT THIS WRITING

To sign up for this class on Saturday October 8th 2022, please click this link to register on the NRA Training website: 

https://www.nrainstructors.org/CourseDetails.aspx?Courseid=743982&seats=5&State=n&zip=83709&radius=25.1&id=14&bsa=&youth=&women=





 
Saturday Saturday October 8th 2022 
NRA
Personal Protection Handgun Course
Idaho ENHANCED Concealed Weapon License
12 hour course 8am - 8pm
NRA Personal Protection in the Home Course exceeds Idaho 18-3302K ENHANCED Concealed Weapon License requirement, certificate recognized by all states as firearms training (Though NOT for certain states' CCW , see list below)
 
$199 Course Fee includes NRA handbook, fliers & NRA Course Completion & Idaho State Police Training Certificates. Classes are small (7 at most). PAID advance registration is required to reserve your seat. Class is open to Instructor-approved citizens who have no felonies or other legal gun-ownership disabilities. Liability Release form signature required.
 
Course consists of approximately 5 Hours Classroom, Hours on the Shooting Range, 2+ Hours Legal Instruction, 2 hours written test and wrap-up. Includes Basic Handgun Safety, Familiarization, Hands-on Firearms Handling, Shooting Skills & Instruction. Personal security & avoiding violent confrontations will be covered in depth. Safety & Awareness are critical.
Several hours will be spent on the firing range bringing student skills up to standards. Idaho State Law and Federal Law regarding firearms, concealed weapons, self-defense and after-event issues will be taught by a licensed Idaho attorney (formerly served as a public defender, a prosecutor and as an Idaho State deputy attorney general, and often competes in IDPA and IPSC shooting events)
BRING:  jacket & hat, Temps are expected to be warm, maybe even hot, and it sometimes gets cold, stormy and windy at the desert shooting range, and wear a button up shirt or turtleneck so no hot brass goes down your shirt to ‘brand’ you and make the event unsafe, eye and ear protection and handgun & at least 2 boxes of 50 rounds of factory ammunition ( Idaho law requires 98 rounds ), lunch ( some previous attendees have suggested you bring 2 lunches) snacks drinks notepad highlighter pencil post-its (Don't have a handgun or eye/ear protection? let me know I have a few loaners & can help you select the right one) NOTE -  class can go long due to questions to the lawyer, traffic, and other unforeseen circumstances so it is advised that you do not make plans for after class )
TALLEN HOOVER
NRA Certified Instructor                 NRA Training Counselor
          (208) 631 3003                               PO Box 6232 Boise ID 83707
 
THE IDAHO ENHANCED CONCEALED WEAPONS LICENSE IS VALID IN: IDAHO ( & Idaho public colleges) ALASKA ARIZONA COLORADO DELAWARE NEVADA NEW MEXICO PENNSYLVANIA SOUTH CAROLINA VIRGINIA? LOUISIANA  MINNESOTA WASHINGTON WISCONSIN   as well as states that accept the Basic LicenseALABAMA ARKANSAS FLORIDA GEORGIA INDIANA IOWA KANSAS KENTUCKY MAINE MICHIGAN MISSISSIPPI MISSOURI MONTANA NEBRASKA NEW HAMPSHIRE NORTH CAROLINA NORTH DAKOTA OHIO OKLAHOMA SOUTH DAKOTA TENNESSEE TEXAS UTAH WEST VIRGINIA WYOMING. VERMONT (no lisc reqd) Oregon non-reisdent licenses easy to obtain with Idaho ECCW.   Total WAS 41 states allow CCW w/ID ECCW. note: List per Idaho State Police 9/2021 - states laws change constantly, this list may not reflect current status.  Current political events :  I believe we have lost VA & PA due to politics within those states, subject to change.
 
 
Yellowstone National Park accepts CCWs that are valid in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming (see website) Federal Park Service webpage indicates that which CCW holders may carry in Yellowstone park (but not into buildings of any kind) Shooting, even is self defense is prohibited, so don't unless you are being eaten, and then prepare for legal repercussions.
 
NRA Basic-Level Courses: Home Firearms Safety, Basic Pistol, Basic Rifle, Range Safety Officer, Personal Protection Outside the Home
Become an NRA Certified Instructor:
INSTRUCTOR-Level courses, CALL for information:
NRA BIT Basic Instructor Training course $150 (the first class required) Offered weekday evenings by arrangement.
NRA Basic Pistol Shooting Course Instructor course $399 (includes both Basic & Instructor courses)
NRA Personal Protection (in the home) Instructor course $399(BIT&Pistol are prerequisites)
NRA Personal Protection Outside the Home Instructor course $399 (BIT&Pistol & PPith are prerequisites)
NRA RSO Range Safety Officer $150
NRA CRSO CHIEF Range Safety Officer $175 (BIT & RSO are prerequisites)
NRA Basic Rifle Shooting Course Instructor course $399
 
Group & Individual classes available upon request. Liability Release form signature required. A written test will be administered (it is possible to fail this course).

Instructor reserves the right to dismiss anyone, anytime, without refund. All rights reserved. No Warranties are Expressed or Implied. Copyright 2022 Hoover Police Supply


Question for You Pipeline Engineers

 The variety of experience and knowledge of my readers never ceases to amaze me.  Do pipelines have stop-loss valves?

A->B->C

Idiots blow up pipeline at B.  

If I designed pipelines, I would have sensors at A and C to detect sudden losses of pressure and close the pipeline at A and C, both to prevent loss of valuable merchandise and pollution from the hole at B.  Also, for underwater pipelines, this reduces water pressure on sections that would now depressurize and be collapsed by the water pressure.

What a Surprise!

 9/28/22 Inside Higher Education:

Federal student aid awards are technically awarded without regard to race, but researchers detail in a new National Bureau of Economic Research working paper how the financial aid system actually reflects and adds to disparities in wealth among demographic groups.

They note that the formula for federal student aid doesn’t consider a family’s retirement savings and home equity in determining how much parents can afford to contribute to their child’s college education—a figure known as the Expected Family Contribution—advantaging upper-income white families, who tend to have larger retirement savings and home equity, over upper- and middle-income families of color.

Milton Friedman observed that if you ask college-educated middle class Americans to design a welfare system, the primary beneficiaries are the college-educated middle class Americans who administer that system.  Is anyone surprised by this?  Or that student financial aid has a similar problem.  Of course, not only will poor blacks suffer from these disparities but also poor whites who are not even a designated victim group.  (I speak from experience.)  

Our national government's student financial aid programs largely benefit colleges and universities who raise tuition to clear the market of customers at whatever amount the government and families can spend.  This is a rational economic decision for a greedy corporation as most universities are.  Oh, but they are "woke," so exempt from criticism and shame.

Tuesday, September 27, 2022

The Error Appears Very Early in the Decision

The public policy error, I mean.  Hoodbhoy v. D.C. (D.C.App. 2022):

Hilman Jordan shot and killed Jawaid Bhutto in the parking lot of the condominium building where they both lived. At the time of the attack, Jordan was on conditional release from Saint Elizabeths Hospital, where he had been committed two decades earlier following his acquittal, by reason of insanity, on a first-degree murder charge. Jordan’s release from Saint Elizabeths was granted via a Superior Court order requiring that both Jordan and the D.C. Department of Behavioral Health (“DBH”) comply with certain conditions, intended to ensure Jordan would “not pose a danger to himself or others” while living in the community. In the months preceding the shooting, DBH failed to perform several of the duties required by the court order. Most significantly, after Jordan tested positive on multiple drug tests, DBH failed to return him to Saint Elizabeths or even inform the Superior Court of those results. 

Yes.  Not guilty by reason of insanity?  Release him.  Do not bother to keep track of his misbehavior. And somehow even though subject to a firearms disqualifier in what is still a pretty antigun juridiction, he got a gun.

And of course, the widow's suit:

However, when a plaintiff alleges the “District negligently failed to protect [them] from harm,” the first element of a negligence claim—duty—is governed by the public duty doctrine, under which the “government and its agents are under no general duty to provide public services, such as police protection, to any particular individual citizen.”  



Canadian Province Says No

 The Trudeau Administration is intent on an assault weapons ban, although I am not aware that Parliament passed such a law.  9/26/22 Countersignal:

The Government of Alberta has sent instructions to the RCMP K-Division, the arm of the federal police force with authority in Alberta, to ignore direct orders from the federal Trudeau Government.

In a bid for assistance with the firearm confiscation program, federal Minister of Public Safety Marco Mendicino issued a direct request for support from the Kenney government in Alberta.

“I am writing to seek your support in implementing the buyback program,” Mendicino pleaded in a secret letter to Alberta’s government. He added that his office would be working directly with policing authorities to successfully implement the “buyback program.”

To make a long story short, the Alberta government declined.

Alberta’s Minister of Justice, Tyler Shandro announced today in a press conference that he will obstruct the gun grab by any means necessary. His office, in a coordinated response to Trudeau, issued orders to the K-Division expressly directing them to ignore federal orders on the matter.

“Alberta is not legally obligated and will not offer any provincial resources to the Federal Government as it seeks to confiscate lawfully acquired firearms,” Tyler Shandro shot back at the federal government today [emphasis in original].

“The decision to ban over 1,500 models of different firearms, simply because the “style” of the firearm was deemed to be aesthetically displeasing, is offensive and suggests to us that you are uninterested in meaningfully addressing gun crime,” the response reads.

Anytime you want to change teams, Alberta, we would love to have another gun rights state. 

Blasting Open a Lock With a Gun

 Does it work?  Widener's Guns & Ammo tries to use a variety of rounds to unlock deadbolt locks.  I would call a locksmith.

What Size Nukes Might Russia Send?

9/22/22 SkyNews says Russian ICBMs carry 300 to 800 kiloton warheads.  NukeMap says light blast damage to about 11 miles.  I used the air burst option because that maximizes blast damage.  I am thinking that the master bedroom closet might be the best choice.  There are no windows.  The additional walls and distance from any exterior radiation sources.  Ground radiation to my surprise exceeds roof radiation.  (There is a limited amount of fallout piled on the roof.  Fallout outside can be pouring radiation at you from hundreds of feet away.)  

Use the shelves in the closet to stack ammunition.   They will not hold entire cases, but lots of individual boxes will not strain the shelves.  The laundry room appliances provide coverage from the west.  Moving more furniture to the bedroom to provide protection from the east.  Ditto for all canned foods.  The water heater helps from the north. Distance alone helps from the south.  

Also, the master bathroom is immediately adjacent to the closet.  This simplifies waste issues with only brief raised exposure.

Monday, September 26, 2022

Okay, I Should Have Put This In the Spider Post

If you look at pictures of bright stars photographed through reflecting telescopes so big that they have operators because the astronomer could never do both direction and observation, you will often see either four or six spikes off the star.  Four spikes means a four leg spider; six spikes means a three leg spider.  The spikes from a three spider are supposedly less bright than from a four leg spider but I confess the difference is usually too subtle for me to see.


How Gaea-Friendly Are Devices That Use Copper?

A powerful analysis of the Fossil Fuel use in copper production.   Imagine wind turbines, electric cars, photovoltaic systems without copper.

Why History Matters

 I explained this last week in American History that every provision of the Bill of Rights is based on some abuse of government power, either in the colonies or England.  To enforce customs duties and suppress smuggling, judges issued general search warrants that did not specify what customs agents were seeking, what crime was involved, or sometimes even to where the search applied.

This why the Fourth Amendment requires "no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. "

The FBI did not get the memo.  From 9/23/22 Los Angeles Times:

The privacy invasion was vast when FBI agents drilled and pried their way into 1,400 safe-deposit boxes at the U.S. Private Vaults store in Beverly Hills.

They rummaged through personal belongings of a jazz saxophone player, an interior designer, a retired doctor, a flooring contractor, two Century City lawyers and hundreds of others.

Agents took photos and videos of pay stubs, password lists, credit cards, a prenuptial agreement, immigration and vaccination records, bank statements, heirlooms and a will, court records show. In one box, agents found cremated human remains.

Eighteen months later, newly unsealed court documents show that the FBI and U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles got their warrant for that raid by misleading the judge who approved it.

They omitted from their warrant request a central part of the FBI's plan: Permanent confiscation of everything inside every box containing at least $5,000 in cash or goods, a senior FBI agent recently testified.

The FBI’s justification for the dragnet forfeiture was its presumption that hundreds of unknown box holders were all storing assets somehow tied to unknown crimes, court records show.

It took five days for scores of agents to fill their evidence bags with the bounty: More than $86 million in cash and a bonanza of gold, silver, rare coins, gem-studded jewelry and enough Rolex and Cartier watches to stock a boutique.

The U.S. attorney’s office has tried to block public disclosure of court papers that laid bare the government's deception, but a judge rejected its request to keep them under seal.

Some people do not trust the FBI.  They must be paranoid.

Sunday, September 25, 2022

I Would Not Read Too Much Into This

9/24/22 Atlantic article about a prominent Belgian immunologist who developed lymphoma and therefore accelerated his COVID booster because lymphoma treatment would make him immunocompromised and therefore higher risk for COVID. Amazingly(?) his lymphoma spread far faster than normal after the booster.  He is careful to note that this might be coincidence but also there some theoretical models that might explain this unobvious connection.  I am still not prepared to join the COVID-19 vaccine puts you at higher risk crowd but that the Atlantic published this story is bloody amazing.   It does suggest that maintaining the narrative may not suppress all news media examination of these questions. 

Why I Have Been Fairly Silent

I am rebuilding an 8" f/7 Newtonian reflector test was originally built by my father and I in 1969.  

First of all:  a Newtonian reflector uses an elliptical mirror (which at a 45 degree angle is a circle) to reflect the image from the primary mirror to the eyepiece focuser.  The elliptical mirror is held on a diagonal holder by the spider, so named because it has either three or four legs holding the diagonal holder.  The legs attach to the tube.

The diagonal holder should have adjustment screws to collimate the image from the primary mirror to the rest of the optical components. 
The closer it is to collimation, the finer the detail and the higher the contrast of the image.  When Coulter first started making mirrors at an absurdly low price (one of the first to do large scale automated production: the factory in North Hollywood looked like no other telescope maker of the time), they advertised them as +-1/25th wave.  The surface was within 1/25th of a wavelength of a perfect parabolic.  There are times the telescope has given me reason to believe it.  During one spectacular Rohnert Park heat wave I used about 700x on the Moon with a very sharp image, far above what is considered possible with this size of reflector. 

When my father and I built this we used an Edmund Scientific spider/diagonal holder that had no adjustment screws.   The best that I could do adjustment collocation was brute force bending the assembly until the laser collimator was very approximately correct.  Let me emphasize how approximate that was.

I finally broke down and bought an AstroSystems spider with the adjustment screws.  I have mentioned my efforts to make 5" long 10-32 thumbscrews to replace the SHCS with which it comes.  There is nothing intrinsically wrong with their design but the diagonal is pretty far from the end of the tube; holding an Allen wrench to make adjustments above a irreplaceable mirror makes me shudder.

I am finally working on the installation.   First of all the elliptical mirror was glued to a piece of paper glued to the diagonal holder.  The AstroSystems unit lets you slide the mirror into the holder where a metal lip keeps it from falling out.

Removing the elliptical mirror from the old diagonal holder involved gently slicing through the glue with an Exacto knife.  The AstroSystems assembly is 1.5" longer than the Edmunds so the old holes will not do.

I measured the proper distance from the end of the tube, then used a cloth sewing tape measure to put ink dots at the appropriate locations for four equally spaced legs.  Then I used a center drill in the power screwdriver to make precise pilot holes, then a twist drill to go through the fiberglass tube trying to minimize dust production.

The next step was to patch the old holes.  I tried mixing flay black paint with 5 minute epoxy to full those holes.  Too much paint; the epoxy flowed too much, leaving black drips on the outside of the tube.  Then I realized that I needed something on the inside of the tube to hold epoxy while it hardened.  But what? Black construction paper is close to flat black.  I epoxied small pieces to the interior of the old holes and filled each hole from the top, rotating the tube 90 degrees after the epoxy started to harden.  Then I put painters tape on top of the new holes and around exposed parts and sprayed a small amount of flat black paint on the interior and glossy white on the exterior to cover over the globs of epoxy in the old holes.  

Now it is drying.  Tomorrow I put the new spider and make sure that I measured correctly. 

In case you are having trouble visualizing this assembly (and feel the need)
I finished installing the new assembly this morning.   If I have the energy this evening, I will collimate and may be even make another attempt to get to Go To working.

Bending over repeatedly to get installed is showing up in my lower back so tomorrow night.

"The Obsolete Man"

If you want the quintessential Twilight Zone showing mid-20th century liberalism it is this episode with Burgess Meredith playing a librarian in a future totalitarian society which has no need for books and thus librarians. 

As he patiently awaits his execution while tormenting and educating the chancellor (played to perfection by Eric Braeden, the Aryan's Aryan in too many TV episodes to count) he reads the 23rd Psalm among others.  How far we have come since 1961.  (That is not a positive statement.)

I was sure that was Eric Braeden but it does appear on his Wikipedia page.

Saturday, September 24, 2022

I Think It Is Time for Starlink

 Rise Broadband went from 80-100MB/sec. download to at bbest 5-6MB/sec.  For two weeks they have been saying it is their local tower, affecting about 500 customers.  But they cannot seem to fix it.  So existing Starlink customers, how hard was it?

Blog loudly.  Problem seems to be fixing itself. 

No.  Back below 5MB/s.

George Soros' Nazi Past

Both Snopes and CNN are calling Soros' work for the Nazis looting his fellow Jews in Hungary Fake News.  Here's the video where he admits it.  The rest of the interview sounds like he was trying to fill the traditional stereotype of "international Jewish banker.  I will upload my own copy when I have it done converting.  You never know when Google will send it down the memory hole.







The Crazy is Strong

 Some conspiracy buffs that I know believe the U.S. is already fighting in Ukraine.  The evidence I was shown was a YouTube video pointed to was something called IsraeliNewsLive.org.  Even his video admits that American and British soldiers are volunteers or paid by the Ukranian government.  He uses an unnamed source for the claim of U.S. forces fighting in Ukraine.  So I went a little deeper to finding out what this "news" organization (based in Tennessee) was.  They seem to cover  everything BUT Israeli news: vaccine conspiracy; how Trump will replace Pence as Vice-President (talk about news with an expiration date); New Global World Order; oh and Navy SEALS fighting fallen angels in Antarctica; FreeMasons founded Israel; lots of stuff that smells like anti-Semitism wrapped in a very misleading name.  

The A-10s in the video are more persuasive.  If this was staged, it would require U.S. military assistance.  I can easily believe we might have turned over some A10s to the Ukrainian Air Force, and trained some of their pilots since February.   Can any of you see any holes in that footage?

Of course, with the A-10s distinctive shape, the Russians would have video on antisocial media.  Where?

3D Printed Guns and Homemade Guns

Rigby, Knight v. Delaware, memorandum opinion (D.Del. 2022) issued a preliminary injunction against enforcement of a new Delaware law on this subject and denied Delaware's motion for summary judgment to defend the new laws.

Along with federal regulations aimed at these, Delaware passed laws prohibiting 3D printing of guns and gun components and:

Second, § 1463(c)(1) limits using “a three-dimensional printer[4] or similar device to manufacture or produce a firearm,[5] firearm receiver,[6] or major firearm component [7] by a non-licensed manufacturer.” In addition, § 1463(c)(2) makes it unlawful to “[d]istribute[] by any means, including the internet, to a person who is not licensed as a manufacturer, instructions in the form of computer-aided design files or other code or instructions stored and displayed in electronic format as a digital model that may be used to program a threedimensional printer to manufacture or produce a firearm, firearm receiver or major component of a firearm.” 11 Del. C. § 1463(c)(2)....

In Ezell v. City of Chicago, the Seventh Circuit struck down a Chicago ordinance that simultaneously (1) permitted only those who have trained at a firing-range to possess firearms and (2) barred firing-ranges within city limits. The Seventh Circuit reasoned that “[t]he right to possess firearms for protection implies a corresponding right to acquire and maintain proficiency in their use; the core right wouldn’t mean much without the training and practice that make it effective.” 651 F.3d 684, 704 (7th Cir. 2011). Similarly, here, the right to keep and bear arms implies a corresponding right to manufacture arms. Indeed, the right to keep and bear arms would be meaninglessif no individual or entity could manufacture a firearm. 

Now this is all preliminary injunctions stage before this goes to trial but Bruen is likely to sink a lot of laws on this subject. 

 

Friday, September 23, 2022

Ken Burns is a Fool to Compare the Shipment of Illegals to Martha's Vineyard to the Holocaust

But his new documentary The United States and the Holocaust is an astonishingly fascinating examination of how pre-war immigration restrictions impaired the escape of Jews from Germany while it was still legal. Also they show the Deep State at the Dept. of State, a guy named Long, repeatedly interfered with Jewish refugees coming to America and during the war actively blocked efforts by our government to save those not yet murdered.

I have one or two complaints.  He oversimplied 19th century immigration restrictions.   The Oriental Exclusion Acts are oversimplified; the bond requirements for impoverished immigrants in antebellum America.  I also am a bit disappointed by the I think false portrayal of America having a realistic chance of doing something to stop the Holocaust.   

On the plus side, many individual Americans and officials did great things to save lives.  The War Refugee Board played an important part in the work done by Wallenberg and other diplomats in Hungary in saving hundreds of thousands of lives.

There is an obvious message here: we waited too long to engage in stopping the brutality of the aggressor that started the war.

I can see why working on this documentary might have impaired his ability to see the differences between our current situation and 1940.

To his credit, he also shows that the idea of the U.S. stopping the Holocaust by bombing was impractical. 

Of course, he has to close with a progression from National Socialists to white supremacists to the Charlottesville riot and then the Jan.6 riot with the obvious implications.   Even though the Holocaust was not a small number of rioters fighting a government but a government using its nearly unlimited resources. 

Good article from American Spectator about the flaws of the final episode.  I would add one more: the Holocaust was not about unhinged thugs murdering innocent people by themselves but the resources of a national government focused on order, much like the concern about Jan. 6.

Would You Like to Help?

This is a chance to directly participate in a major research paper.  I am currently compiling a comprehensive analysis of mass murders in American history.  Part way through the project I have realized that there are three pieces of information that I neglected to gather from newspaper accounts that have only just started gathering, and that I need to add to my database.  I really need to gather data from the 1800+ newspaper articles that I have already read.  (I realized that I needed this in the 1940s, when the cumulative number of postpartum cases became so obvious.)  You may find this process horrifying or educational.  Maybe both.  You will also get your name in the acknowledgments section of the book.

The data you will be working from: a Microsoft Word document which has a synopsis of each crime; a Microsoft Access data base that includes a link to an article (usually a newspaper article that you can read online).


What this will involve:  The data that I have realized that I need that I did not gather when I started this project: age of the mass murderer; sex of the mass murderer; for women identified in my records as possibly suffering postpartum depression, the age of their murdered children. 


1. Age: If the article identifies more than one mass murderer, or there is no murderer identified, the age field will be blank.  For all single murderer incidents, Just add the age to the entry in the Word file and the field in the database.  Do not worry about where in the synopsis. Age: number.  I will go through and do the textual adjustments and add it to the database if I cannot figure out how to merge your additions into the existing database.


2. The sex of the mass murderer.  If there is more than one murderer (and this is more common than you might think), the sex will be M, F, B (both men and women), X (the article fails to identify the sex, usually because the murderer or murderers were unknown when the article was published).


3. In many cases, the Word document lists the cause of the crime as "postpartum?"  Many of these women murdering their children are almost certainly postpartum depression.  Some women, in the months after birth, suffer severe depression.  A pregnant woman is pumped full of hormones that make many feel really good; after birth the no longer pregnant body pulls back those mood-enhancing hormones with often disastrous results for her mental health.  This sometimes turns into the murder of all or many of their children and usually a suicide.  These have been so common in my research that I have decided that I need a postpartum depression category as a cause of the crime.  (If you know a recent mother who is spiraling down into depression or starting to act loopy, talk to her husband or other family about your concerns.  Please.)  Any woman whose record in the Word document listed as "postpartum depression?" with children, especially multiple children at least one under two years of age, will be categorized as "postpartum depression" (no question mark). I will need you to list the ages of the dead children from the newspaper article.  Again add it to the synopsis in the Word file: Children Ages: numbers.  You will be reading stuff like this:


Waterville, Me. (1954)

03/08/1954: The mother, 24, “drowned her three young children, in their home and then attempted suicide.”  The children were ages 6, 4, and 1.  Her intended suicide note explained, “God told me to do it.”

Category: family

Suicide: no

Cause: postpartum

Weapon: drown1]


The number of incidents in need of review is so large that each person who takes on this very sad project will get a particular number of incidents from some block of decades designed to keep each volunteer's part not too big.  Your research will only go into the 1940s when I started recording this data that I suddenly realized that I needed.   


I will be happy to Zoom and show you what the database and Word document look like so you can figure out if you want to help.

Thursday, September 22, 2022

Which Flag Rank Officers Were Captured in Mariupol?

The Russian trollocracy keeps claiming that among those captured at Mariupol were: a 4 star American general; a 4 star Canadian general; an American admiral.  Yet whoever this 4 star officer is, the official Russian news media have neglected to put him before the cameras or identify him by name.  A real name or image would be easy to verify or diversify.  

I know many alt-right have decided that because Putin is Biden's enemy and Russia has not gone LGBTWTF, then Russia is the only hope for a Christian West.  

Somehow, the mass graves are not exactly what I expect of a Christian nation. 

France 24 looked into this claim.  The picture Russian state media uses is so poor that it could be any adult white male.  Worse, they did a reverse image search and found out that it was first used in 2014 for a story about a Luhansk memorial service.  This lovefest for Putin or at least utter distrust of all Western media is really absurd.  

Yes, American news media are not to be trusted.  Foreign news media such as the Telegraph often report on unPC stuff in America.

That Canadian 4-star general: From a Wikipedia article about 4-star officers around the world:

General/admiral is the highest rank within the Canadian Armed Forces as defined within the National Defence Act.[1] Usually, only one officer, the Chief of the Defence Staff, carries the rank of full admiral or general at any one time. However, the crown may authorize additional officers at that rank for special cases such as for Canadian officers in the position of Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, who are usually former Chiefs of the Defence Staff seconded to NATO for that duty.

That is Wayne Eyre.  I have seen no pictures from Russian claims.  It is hardly likely that Canada would send its Chief of the Defence Staff to Ukraine.

Wednesday, September 21, 2022

Why Reading Federal Court Decisions Can Be Quite Fun

 Volokh Conspiracy examines a recent decision  U.S. v. Quiroz, (W.D. Tex. 2022) which ruled that 18 U.S.C. § 922(n), which prohibits receipt of a firearm by a person under indictment, runs afoul of the Second Amendment.  As the decision observes:

Yet the plain meaning of the verbs “have” or “possess” include the act of receipt. For example, “to have” means “to be in possession of . . . something received.” 24 Therefore, “to have weapons” would encompass the past receipt and the current possession of those weapons.

And logically, excluding “receive” makes little sense. To receive something means “to take into . . . one’s possession.”  How can one possess (or carry) something without first receiving it? Receipt is the condition precedent to possession—the latter is impossible without the former. Taking the Government’s argument at face value would also lead to an absurd result. Indeed, if receiving a firearm were illegal, but possessing or carrying one remained a constitutional right, one would first need to break the law to exercise that right. The Government is asking in effect to banish gun rights to Hotel California’s purgatory: “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.”...

With nothing further, the Government’s argument can be boiled down to the following syllogism: 
(1) felon-in-possession laws have the same history as § 922(n);

(2) Heller endorsed felon-in-possession laws as constitutional; 

(3) Therefore, § 922(n) is constitutional. 
The first problem with this argument is it’s a logical fallacy. Sharing a history with felon-in-possession laws makes § 922(n) constitutional in the same way a dog is a cat because both have four legs. 

On to a less amusing but more important point:

The nature of grand jury proceedings is one such area that casts a shadow of constitutional doubt on § 922(n). Some feel that a grand jury could indict a [burrito] if asked to do so. The freewheeling nature of such proceedings stems from the Supreme Court holding that (1) the rules of evidence don’t apply, (2) evidence barred by the Fourth Amendment’s exclusionary rule may be heard, and (3) the grand jury may rely on evidence obtained in violation of a defendant’s Fifth Amendment privilege against selfincrimination. Simply put, “[a] grand jury investigation is not an adversarial process.” 

As Professor Volokh wryly observes about the burrito: "That appears to be a Texification of a New York Chief Judge's famous quote involving a "ham sandwich." 

An indictment is far from a conviction.  It is at best a strong hint this guy might be a criminal.

I think more important is that if an indictment is sufficient reason to take away someone's Second Amendment rights than it is equally valid to take away their other rights in the Bill of Rights.  (Residents of a prison have no protection against unwarranted searches; convicted felons have no guarantee of a right to vote; their property can be confiscated without due process, among other matters).

In addition, if possession of a gun makes them too dangerous to the larger society, why do we allow them to possess or drive 400 horsepower 4000 pound metal battering rams (yes, a typical Texas motor vehicle); incendiary materials (like gasoline), or knives.  If they are too dangerous to release, give them their guaranteed trial right quick, unlike Jan. 6 defendants, many of whom were kept in jail until they  plea-bargained their way out.

If Community Colleges Are Failing At This...

9/21/22 Inside Higher Education:

While Black students disproportionately attend community colleges, their enrollment at these institutions has significantly dropped and gaps in their academic outcomes have more than doubled over time compared to their white peers, according to a new report by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a think tank focused on advancing Black communities. 

What exactly is going on?  Community colleges are not Ivy League.  In my experience, they try very hard to be welcoming and supportive of BIPOCs, because they know they need to work harder at getting virtue-signaling "brownie point." 

Class

 To sign up for this class on Saturday September 24th, please click this link to register on the NRA Training website: https://www.nrainstructors.org/CourseDetails.aspx?Courseid=743024&seats=5&State=n&zip=83709&radius=25.1&id=14&bsa=&youth=&women=






 
Saturday September 24th 2022 
NRA
Personal Protection Handgun Course
Idaho ENHANCED Concealed Weapon License
12 hour course 8am - 8pm
NRA Personal Protection in the Home Course exceeds Idaho 18-3302K ENHANCED Concealed Weapon License requirement, certificate recognized by all states as firearms training (Though NOT for certain states' CCW , see list below)
 
$199 Course Fee includes NRA handbook, fliers & NRA Course Completion & Idaho State Police Training Certificates. Classes are small (7 at most). PAID advance registration is required to reserve your seat. Class is open to Instructor-approved citizens who have no felonies or other legal gun-ownership disabilities. Liability Release form signature required.
 
Course consists of approximately 5 Hours Classroom, Hours on the Shooting Range, 2+ Hours Legal Instruction, 2 hours written test and wrap-up. Includes Basic Handgun Safety, Familiarization, Hands-on Firearms Handling, Shooting Skills & Instruction. Personal security & avoiding violent confrontations will be covered in depth. Safety & Awareness are critical.
Several hours will be spent on the firing range bringing student skills up to standards. Idaho State Law and Federal Law regarding firearms, concealed weapons, self-defense and after-event issues will be taught by a licensed Idaho attorney (formerly served as a public defender, a prosecutor and as an Idaho State deputy attorney general, and often competes in IDPA and IPSC shooting events)
BRING:  jacket & hat, Temps are expected to be warm, maybe even hot, and it sometimes gets cold, stormy and windy at the desert shooting range, and wear a button up shirt or turtleneck so no hot brass goes down your shirt to ‘brand’ you and make the event unsafe, eye and ear protection and handgun & at least 2 boxes of 50 rounds of factory ammunition ( Idaho law requires 98 rounds ), lunch ( some previous attendees have suggested you bring 2 lunches) snacks drinks notepad highlighter pencil post-its (Don't have a handgun or eye/ear protection? let me know I have a few loaners & can help you select the right one) NOTE -  class can go long due to questions to the lawyer, traffic, and other unforeseen circumstances so it is advised that you do not make plans for after class )
TALLEN HOOVER
NRA Certified Instructor                 NRA Training Counselor
          (208) 631 3003                               PO Box 6232 Boise ID 83707
 
THE IDAHO ENHANCED CONCEALED WEAPONS LICENSE IS VALID IN: IDAHO ( & Idaho public colleges) ALASKA ARIZONA COLORADO DELAWARE NEVADA NEW MEXICO PENNSYLVANIA SOUTH CAROLINA VIRGINIA? LOUISIANA  MINNESOTA WASHINGTON WISCONSIN   as well as states that accept the Basic LicenseALABAMA ARKANSAS FLORIDA GEORGIA INDIANA IOWA KANSAS KENTUCKY MAINE MICHIGAN MISSISSIPPI MISSOURI MONTANA NEBRASKA NEW HAMPSHIRE NORTH CAROLINA NORTH DAKOTA OHIO OKLAHOMA SOUTH DAKOTA TENNESSEE TEXAS UTAH WEST VIRGINIA WYOMING. VERMONT (no lisc reqd) Oregon non-reisdent licenses easy to obtain with Idaho ECCW.   Total WAS 41 states allow CCW w/ID ECCW. note: List per Idaho State Police 9/2021 - states laws change constantly, this list may not reflect current status.  Current political events :  I believe we have lost VA & PA due to politics within those states, subject to change.
 
 
Yellowstone National Park accepts CCWs that are valid in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming (see website) Federal Park Service webpage indicates that which CCW holders may carry in Yellowstone park (but not into buildings of any kind) Shooting, even is self defense is prohibited, so don't unless you are being eaten, and then prepare for legal repercussions.
 
NRA Basic-Level Courses: Home Firearms Safety, Basic Pistol, Basic Rifle, Range Safety Officer, Personal Protection Outside the Home
Become an NRA Certified Instructor:
INSTRUCTOR-Level courses, CALL for information:
NRA BIT Basic Instructor Training course $150 (the first class required) Offered weekday evenings by arrangement.
NRA Basic Pistol Shooting Course Instructor course $399 (includes both Basic & Instructor courses)
NRA Personal Protection (in the home) Instructor course $399(BIT&Pistol are prerequisites)
NRA Personal Protection Outside the Home Instructor course $399 (BIT&Pistol & PPith are prerequisites)
NRA RSO Range Safety Officer $150
NRA CRSO CHIEF Range Safety Officer $175 (BIT & RSO are prerequisites)
NRA Basic Rifle Shooting Course Instructor course $399
 
Group & Individual classes available upon request. Liability Release form signature required. A written test will be administered (it is possible to fail this course).
Instructor reserves the right to dismiss anyone, anytime, without refund. All rights reserved. No Warranties are Expressed or Implied. Copyright 2022 Hoover Police Supply