Show Me On the Doll Where the Doctor Mutilated You

 7/10/26 College Fix:

A University of Minnesota project to create “therapeutic” transgender dolls for children as young as 4 is officially launching this year.

However, the project continues to face criticism from medical leaders, as well as questions about whether public funding is involved.

“Join the waitlist” and “Launching in 2026,” the MyGender Dolls website tells visitors.

“Grounded in gender-affirming clinical practices,” the dolls will be a “therapeutic” resource for clinicians and educators who work with children ages 4-10, it states.

The new website only includes a few details about the dolls, a years-long project by faculty at the university’s Eli Coleman Institute for Sexual and Gender Health. Some of the links on the site are not working yet, but there is a “waitlist” form that people can fill out “to be kept up to date about the MyGender Dolls.”

The College Fix contacted the email address listed on the website and the project organizers via email on July 2 and 5, asking for information about the product and launch date. No one responded.

Previously, the university had a webpage dedicated to the project, but it was removed at some point after The College Fix first reported on it in December 2024.

According to the page, MyGender Dolls mimic classic paper dolls, featuring drawings of children of different ages, shapes, and skin colors to represent “all” kids. Children will be able to choose different internal and external genitals, clothes, and other accessories to help them “visualize their anatomy and genders,” the page stated.

21st Century Arrives

7/29/26 New York Post:

Stunning video taken by a covert sea drone shows a Chinese warship lingering inside the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.

The 42-second clip shows a ship identified by Reuters as a Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy Type 052D guided-missile destroyer, floating 65 miles off Luzon Island in the Bashi Channel on June 16.

The ship was identified by “the deck layout, superstructure, crane and ​mast,” according to the company, “which matched archive imagery.”

Seasats, a San Diego startup, told The Post its drone, the Lightfish USV, was “conducting a commercial operation to prove the feasibility of autonomous operations in the Taiwan Strait.”

I hope this is a company either with, or on its way to, a government contract. Swarms of sea drones might make invading Taiwan so clearly impossible that we can avoid war with China. 

The Grand Tour

No, not the Top Gear sequel. It is a 1994 time travel movie with a different scenario than i have ever seen or read. That alone makes it worthwhile.  There is essence special effects. The science (other than time travel) is pretty good except the meteor collision as a byproduct of a meteor shower is wrong and the devastation is too localized.

There is a powerful story of paternal love as well. Language is pretty mild; sex is only implied; nothing too terrifying shown or even implied. 

Idaho Proposition 1

 I heard my first pro-1 ad on the radio this morning. Woman talks about how happy she and her husband were to be pregnant. Then her doctor told her that the baby was very sick and he would have her call a doctor in Utah because he could not even suggest a medically necessary abortion.

This is grossly deceptive, unless they recorded it two years ago. Idaho Code sec. 18-622 prohibits abortion with a few exceptions:

(i) The physician determined, in his good faith medical judgment and based on the facts known to the physician at the time, that the abortion was necessary to prevent the death of the pregnant woman. No abortion shall be deemed necessary to prevent the death of the pregnant woman because the physician believes that the woman may or will take action to harm herself; and
(ii) The physician performed or attempted to perform the abortion in the manner that, in his good faith medical judgment and based on the facts known to the physician at the time, provided the best opportunity for the unborn child to survive, unless, in his good faith medical judgment, termination of the pregnancy in that manner would have posed a greater risk of the death of the pregnant woman. No such greater risk shall be deemed to exist because the physician believes that the woman may or will take action to harm herself; or

The next section exempts abortions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest: if "the woman has reported to a law enforcement agency that she is the victim of an act of rape or incest and provided a copy of such report to the physician who is to perform the abortion."

Notice that a doctor makes this decision based on "his good faith medical judgment and based on the facts known to the physician at the time." Proving that a doctor was operating in bad faith would be quite an obstacle to overcome at trial. I think you would need a statement by the doctor (orally or in writing) that an abortion under these circumstances was a bad idea.

Things That Make You Ask, "How Stupid Are You?"

7/28/26 channel 2 Boise:

"BOISE, Idaho (CBS2) — Boise Police officers were dispatched on July 23 to a report of a dog locked in the back of a U-Haul moving truck around 6:05 p.m.

"Police report the outside temperature at that time was around 98-degrees. Responding officers made contact with the caller, and inspected the truck. One officer could hear heavy panting from within the back of the moving truck and determined the conditions were too dangerous, ultimately deciding to force open the back of the truck."

Moving is hard. But is there anyone that does not get the hazard of this to an animal?

Speech Therapy is Helping

A variety of exercises is making my speech clearer and less exhausting; the globus sensation is almost gone. This is nice because I will be speaking at the Gun Rights Policy Conference in Dallas in late September. I have been polishing my PowerPoint and rehearsing endlessly until it is so easy that I do not get nervous and try speeding my way through.

Chant With Me: "What Do We Want? Common Sense Knife Control! When Do We Want It? Now!"

7/26/26 Daily Mail:

A beloved California art gallery manager who was writing an illustrated children's book has been stabbed to death in broad daylight. 

Rachell Summers, 73, was stabbed 11 times outside Capitola Mall in Santa Cruz County on Monday in what investigators have called a random act of violence.

Tyler Leibelt, 19, has been charged with murder while lying in wait and using a deadly weapon, court records show. He has not entered a plea. ...

Leibelt ran up to Summers outside the mall and stabbed her from behind, the court document said.

Summers was 'stabbed multiple times in her back, defensive stab wounds to her forearms, and stab wounds to her center chest, more than 11 total,' prosecutors alleged in the filing.

The 19-year-old ran into the mall, leaving a trail of the grandmother's blood behind him. Prosecutors say he also discarded a knife....

Leibelt told police that 'he purchased two knives so that he could hold one in each hand as he was killing someone,' the court filing says. 

He gestured stabbing with both of his hands during the interview with investigators.

Investigators have found nothing to suggest that Leibelt knew Summers before he targeted her in the deadly attack. It is also unclear why he chose her as his victim.

Leibelt told police that he had been suffering from 'homicidal fantasies for awhile' and claimed he had 'previously disclosed these fantasies but he 'kept getting let out' of custody,' according to the filing.

Prosecutors noted that a gun violence restraining order was issued against the alleged killer in November last year. 

He allegedly told sheriff's deputies during that incident that he 'expressed a desire to cause a mass casualty event,' the court document said.

He also allegedly 'wrote a goodbye letter expressing a desire to kill as many people as possible.' [emphasis added]

Gun violence restraining orders make us so safe--from gun violence. Those other methods for murdering people are so much nicer. 

Released from custody. Police should have requested an involuntary commitment order until California Welfare and Institutions Code sec. 5250.

A Fascinating Book: Tamed

Alice Roberts. Tamed: From Wild to Domesticated, the Ten Animals and Plants That Changed Human History. 

This is a popular history of the domestication of the animals and plants that to a large extent created our civilization. My wife found it interesting but not as well written as her English Composition teaching standards required. Yes, there are areas where I found the structure less than satisfying but it tells stories so interesting that I can forgive some minor issues.

If I fault this book for anything, it is that for many of these stories, it recounts the early attempts to understand the domestication process, then the later attempts, and now today’s theories.  While that development process has a certain detective story interest to it, it is far less satisfying to me and much wordier than just presenting current theory. 

Since I teach Western Civilization, these domestication events are of great importance. There is a bit of wit and humor scattered through the book, although not as thoroughly entertaining as Mary Roach's similar popular science books.

One surprising deficiency, since the author is a professor is that the lack of either traditional footnotes or endnotes. The bibliography is detailed, but if i am curious about one little detail, I should not need to read through a dozen books and journal articles to find it.

The chapter on humans I thought might examine the futile attempts of eugenics but it is an examination of how for a variety of reasons, humans have changed genetically in ways that have tamed us, making us more able to get along with each other.  Also along discussion of why GMO is the Island of Dr. Moreau disaster that many Greens assume but of course it turns into evil greedy corporations cannot be trusted with this, only the selfless universities and other nonprofits. 

Choose One

1. LGBTWTF making a spectacle of themselves. 

2. Muslim immigrants. 

6/26/26 AP:

BERLIN (AP) — A van ramming and stabbing near Berlin’s Pride festival that left one person dead and many others injured is believed to have been an Islamic extremist terror attack, Germany’s interior minister said Sunday.

The suspect in Saturday night’s attack remains at large. Authorities issued a wanted notice and warned people against approaching Abdul Ballout, a German citizen with Lebanese roots, saying that he may be armed and dangerous. 

Authorities said he is believed to have injured several people with a van in a park near the Pride festival’s closing party. Several people were also apparently stabbed.

One I find annoying. The other is a public safety problem. I do hope Queers for Palestine sees this in their newsfeed.

I Am Going to Miss My Forest

Although the new house has even more forest, some of it hickory. I am not yet sure if this the species with edible nuts.

Magic Cushion

 I mentioned a few weeks back that the seats in my CT5 were too painful for my wife to sit in for even short periods. (Her 2022 Hyundai Tucson Limited is only slightly longer until pain becomes unbearable.) The rather stiff bolsters cause her great pain. After many experiments ordering and returning cushions to Amazon, we found one that she can comfortably both ride and drive with.

Amazon.com: C CUSHION LAB Patented Pressure Relief Seat Cushion for Long Sitting Hours on Office/Home Chair, Car, Wheelchair - Extra-Dense Memory Foam for Hip, Tailbone, Coccyx, Sciatica - Light Grey : Office Products

Buy C CUSHION LAB Patented Pressure Relief Seat Cushion for Long Sitting Hours on Office/Home Chair, Car, Wheelchair - Extra-Dense Memory Foam for Hip, Tailbone, Coccyx, Sciatica - Light Grey: Back & Seat Cushions - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

amzn.to

200 Motels and Buckaroo Banzai in the Fifth Dimension Now Seem Rational and Normal

 Everything, Everywhere, All at Once (2022). The girlfriend who dragged me off to watch 200 Motels whispered in my confused ear part-way through, "It makes more sense if you take acid first." No, thank you. This movie might be similarly enhanced by LSD. Or perhaps permanent insanity lies that way. It was visually stunning. There is a almost incomprehensible plot involving travel between different universes. Amazing kung fu sequences, too. You will never watch Ratatouille (2007) the same way again.

A movie that I just watched and very much enjoyed was The Sheep Detectives (2026). If you liked Babe (1995), and Chicken Run (2000), you will like this. Not giving away much: shepherd reads murder mysteries to his flock in the evenings. After his murder, his flock uses what they have learned to find the killer.

The Dead Not Only Vote...

They also cash checks.  7/21/26 New York Post:

The Treasury Department has blocked nearly $100 million in taxpayer money from going to dead people since implementing a government-wide payment verification process last year, The Post has learned. 

The department’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service discovered the money set to go to ghosts after a review of an eye-popping 885 million payments worth a total of nearly $2.7 trillion.

Weird Al

 I have always enjoyed his music. Seeing this 6/23/26 Variety article makes me respect him more. He explained that he was offered seven figures to perform at the Riyadh Comedy Festival:

"But I’m doing enough that I don’t need to take any amount of money if it makes me feel icky, and that kind of did.”

Saudi Arabia is slowly inching towards the 16th century. It still needs to sign the Abraham Accords and treat women as equals. 

Boxes

I found that Home Depot's Heavy Duty Large was big enough for the absurdly large Canon PRO-300 and a much more modest Canon MG2522 with lots of bubble wrap. We are almost done packing and I will be glad to be done 

Real Unobvious

7/23/26 ABC News:

According to victim and witness statements, the suspect yelled "Allahu Akbar" during both attacks, according to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch. The NYPD is currently evaluating whether this is a potential hate crime, she said....

While the perpetrator has no known mental health history with the NYPD, the initial investigation suggests that mental health may have been a factor, the commissioner said.

Google Earth is Amazing

 

California Switchblade Law

 Knife Rights v. Bonta (9th Cir. 2026). This being the 9th Circuit, they upheld California's ban on concealed carry of switchblade knives. I am disappointed that I was not asked to provide expert declarations or rebut the other side's expert declarations. I am not sure how much difference it would have made. At the core of this decision is the concept of how and why:

In assessing whether a law is "relevantly similar under the Second Amendment," courts are instructed to compare modern and historical regulations in terms of "how and why the regulations burden a law-abiding citizen's right to armed self-defense."...

Other states and territories continued to adopt concealed carry restrictions on Bowie knives and other dangerous knives and weapons during and after the Civil War. These states punished unlawful concealed carry with imprisonment, fines, or both.^[10] In addition, the record includes prohibitions on the concealed carry of knives from several cities in the post-Civil War period.^[11]

The record also includes evidence as to why jurisdictions prohibited the concealed carry of Bowie knives and other knives. One of California's experts, Dr. Robert Spitzer, explained that "Bowie knives were widely used in fights and duels," and were known to be "fighting knives" intended for "[interpersonal] combat." Another expert, Dr. Brennan Rivas, explained that "[a]s rates of violence rose during the nineteenth century, people were more likely to carry and use large knives; the increased presence of knives . . . had the regrettable consequence of exacerbating the problem." This problem was "especially notable in southern areas, where Bowie knives were quite common and known to be associated with needless bloodshed." 

The problem here is why those laws were adopted. The decision acknowledges that these laws adopted in the 1950s because of criminal use.(Perhaps largely in West Side Story.) The why for the antebellum period was not members of the criminal class but the people who would become legislators, judges, and militia officers. My book Concealed Weapon Laws of the Early Republic examines this odd situation in more detail.

 

It Is Always Good to Introspect

 I am planning disaster against this people,

from which you cannot save yourselves.
You will no longer walk proudly,
for it will be a time of calamity.
In that day people will ridicule you;
they will taunt you with this mournful song:
"We are utterly ruined;
my people’s possession is divided up.
He takes it from me!
He assigns our fields to traitors."
Therefore you will have no one in the assembly of the Lord
To divide the land by lot." (2:3-5)

What goes around comes around: You defraud your fellow Israelites out of land with no remorse. "Your" (you took it from the poor) land will now be taken from you. Who will do this? The Assyrians. You will be as to them what the poor has been to you.

God is warning His people that their callous injustice has blinded them to the storm clouds that are gathering around them. They are so busy scheming that they do not see nor care that there are other people who are scheming against them.

There is a message here for many. Steal from the taxpayers and do not be surprised when it is taken back. Ignore the legitimate needs of those in whose names those frauds took place and it will not go well for you. 

I Knew the Date Seemed Important

A high point of Western Civilization, America, and Humanity.  Another reminder of the importance of metric system.

Lost Keys

I misplaced the keys that hold the roof rail crossbars on my wife's Hyundai. I eas planning to pay a locksmith to fit keys for them.

It was not an opium dream but a dream nonetheless revealed their location.

In Hyundai Tucson glove box, a stately key set i did find.

Clearly a Big Market for This Degree

7/16/26 Campus Reform:

Northeastern Illinois gender studies major enrolls just 4 students

I wonder what it costs taxpayers to fund a no-demand major.

Shipping Boxes

The next time you buy something expensive that comes in a custom box, save that box! We are trying to pack some expensive, oddly-shaped items: HP LaserJet, Canon PRO-300. If you put them in a box that is wide enough, it is likely so tall that any weight on top will crush the box down.  You do not want anything heavy in the box on top of the printer.  If you put anything soft on top of the printer, it needs to be compressible enough to absorb weight without transferring it to the printer. 

Monitors, at least are standard sizes and shapes. Boxes for them are surprisingly expensive, especially when you get the 33" monsters that I have on my desk.  The 65" TV seems to not be a common moving box size.

We have historically discarded these boxes because of storage space.  Next time, I will find space. 

Heavy duty foam for padding around printers in boxes is available from U-Haul and UPS.

Home Depot has a double wall box that just about exactly fits the Canon PRO-300.

Don't Judge Someone by "Their Worst Day"

 7/15/26 KTSP:

Gov. Tim Walz is defending his vote to pardon a man convicted of molesting a 10-year-old child more than 20 years ago.

Last week, the Trump administration deported Tou Lue Vang despite a pardon approved by Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison and Supreme Court Chief Justice Natalie Hudson in their role on the Board of Pardons...

Walz questioned whether Vang’s removal improved outcomes in Minnesota.

“I guess the question I would as is, did that make us any safer? Did that make the children that are left behind any more stable? Did it improve the idea that we can’t all be judged by our worst day?” Walz said.

I think Walz just had his "worst day." 

Vang defended his multi year molestation of a 10-year-old as part of his culture.  

The Butcher's Tale

By Helmut Walser Smith. This is what historians call "post hole history." To say that is a very deep dive is an understatement. The sources are interrogations, court transcripts, and census records associated with Konitz, a small town in what was then German East Prussia. 

The crime was horrendous: an 18-year-old boy was suffocated or strangled and then dismembered expertly and wrapped and tied as though he was coming from a butcher. Bad enough, but rapidly this turned in the popular imagination of the town into a Jewish sacrifice of a Christian for blood to make matzohs. Antisemitic journalists soon arrived to throw liquid oxygen on a gasoline fire. 

This book examines not only the crime itself but how the assumptions of the locals spun this positively medieval blood libel into a widely believed story. While some local prosecutors pursued the blood libel idea, responsible aristocrats and bureaucrats recognized it as an absurd claim and provided troops to protect Konitz's Jewish community when local police were overwhelmed by numbers. Amazingly enough, it did not turn into a pogrom.

He examines in detail the underlying questions of how neighbors turn against neighbors and why the blood libel persisted into remarkably recent times in Europe, in spite of strong papal opposition.  Much of this discussion is not spectacularly interesting to me, but as detective story, it works well. 

Fortunately, Democrats are looking for other ways to demonize the Jews; blood libel is even too much for MSNOW.

New Jersey Assault Weapon & >10 Round Magazine Ban Overturned by 3rd Circuit

3rd Circuit heard an appeal by New Jersey to a district court ruling that the Second Amendment protects AR-15s but not LCMs (magazines greater than ten rounds). To my shock and pleasure they broadened the ruling to protect all the militia appropriate firearms as well as the LCMs. And yes, this is a case on which i worked. 

My Wife Was Skeptical of the View From Our Yard

 So I asked Google Earth:

Pool in New House

 

Buyer For Caldwell House Finally

I was hoping to close here before close on new house but it will only be a week or two of short-term financing.

I Took The Girls For Their First Ride in the Cadillac (Driving Miss Rosie)

This got scrambled first time. A potential, and eventually actual buyer, wanted to see the house and Mom's Taxi was not home, so I loaded our Springer Spaniels in the back seat and away we went. Lillie tried to climb into the front seat, but I explained that she could not drive and she lay down in the back. Both girls calmed down and saw quietly in the back seat, without sedatives, sometimes looking out the window. I explained to my wife that Rosie and I could split driving shifts.  She was not convinced. The first prairie dog or pronghorn antelope along the road and we would driving after it.

The more I drive my CT5, the more impressed I get with the electronics. The SuperCruise lane change capacity at first disappointed me. I turn the turn signal on and I have to turn it off after the lane change completes. 

A few weeks back, I watched a YouTube video about features present in many cars that are not explicitly in the manuals and are very nice. One is that on many cars, if you turn the turn signal stalk just a little, it turns on the blinker just long enough to warn those in that lane, "I'm coming over." (In the 1960s, I repaired the blinkers on my 1964 Chevy Malibu wagon, and saw the very curious mechanism to implement that in plastic, without electronics.)

So I did the brief warning mode. SuperCruise did the lane change with no need to turn off the blinker. Very nice. It also will do uncommanded lane changes to get around road hogs. I do not understand how it makes this decision but it is possible to tell it to not make uncommanded right lane changes,  I have never seen it make a dangerous decision on this.

Bizarre Reasoning Screaming for Cert

 Barnett v. Raoul Nos. 24-3060, 24-3061, 24-3062 & 24-3063.(6th Cir. 2026). Curiously:

Contrary to the dissenting opinion's efforts (often without citation) to conclusively link Bowie knives to criminality, however, Bowie knives were both widespread and used for lawful purposes. One expert in the history of arms in America, for example, explained that in the nineteenth century, "European visitors who ventured beyond the Appalachians found [the Bowie knife] such an integral part of the American way of life that they felt compelled to comment on it at length in accounts of their adventures.... In many communities, no man, whether hunter, gambler, tradesman or political leader felt himself fully clothed without one." Peterson, supra, at 25. Similarly, the historian who (literally) wrote the book on Bowie knives noted they were "widely carried by Americans of all stripes"; "served everyone equally, upstanding citizens and villains" alike; were "wide[ly] popular[], in the North and South" during the Civil War; and were "common[]"—"a weapon carried by men of all walks of life." Norm Flayderman, The Bowie Knife: Unsheathing an American Legend 20, 125, 130 (2004). Other scholars agree. See David B. Kopel, Clayton E. Cramer & Joseph Edward Olson, Knives and the Second Amendment, 47 U. Mich. J.L. Reform 167, 184 (2013) ("During the nineteenth century, Bowie knives were commonly present in many areas of the United States. Contemporary sources leave no question that Bowie knives, Arkansas Toothpicks, and similar knives were a common part of American life until well after the Civil War....").

The test that Heller imposed recognized that arms in common use are protected. Their dangerousness did not matter; their commonness did matter.

New York Must Accept Concealed Carry License Applications from Non-Residents

Higbie v. James, 795 F.Supp.3d 307 (2025) directs New York State to accept applications for concealed carry licenses from non-residents. This is not surprising: Hoffman v. Bonta imposed a similar requirement on California.  Some counties there are already doing so.

The decision refused to require New York to recognize licenses from other states. This is unfortunate because the license process is slow and costly in these states. It may take a few more cudgelings by the Court. 

I Saw This And I Found It Completely Plausible

This means it probably should be evaluated for accuracy.

Subsidies mean more money chasing same pile of goods or services. 

Final Negotiations for House Repair Complete

We negotiated the price down $2000 to cover some important repairs that the selkers are too strapped to pay for. We have a number of ambitious renovation plans to bring it into the 21st century which we can afford to do.

We leave on August 4th and become Tennesseans August 12th.

Carrying on Public Transit

Certain governments seek to maximize terror and murders. One strategy is to prohibit concealed carry licensees from carrying on public transit systems.  Angelo v. District of Columbia challenged this ban. The district court denied that these licensees had standing to challenge the district's law. The D.C. Court of Appeals reversed that decision:

Otherwise, because the pistol owners have alleged a pocketbook injury that is caused by their compliance with an allegedly unconstitutional criminal statute, we reverse and remand the case for additional proceedings.

Most of this decision is about decisions concerning whether the economic injuries suffered by the ban qualify them to sue. At district court, the plaintiffs also need to raise a Second Amendment challenge. In the Framing Era "sensitive places" did not include either public transit (there was none) or private transit. In various cases in which I have worked, their side has attempted to argue that post-Civil War railroads prohibited private possession of firearms. Their evidence has been either weak or non-existent. Railroads often required long guns to be checked. (People were going west to hunt.)

Memories of Being a Cool Kid

Remember these?

All the cool kids listened to these after 8-track went the way of the buffalo.  There were pre-recorded ones made very cheaply and short-lived. Or if you had the most minimal of technical know-how, you recorded from your turntable onto a cassette tape deck for your car. 

I had one of the highly hyped Pioneer AM/FM/Cassette decks in several of my silly cars as a young adult: 1977 Chevy Nova; 1978 Camaro Z28; 1979 Pontiac Grand Am.

The case was 1970s cool also:

Making a 1970s period piece? Let me know or in the trash it goes.

When They Are Not Banging the Drum for Fascism, The Old Gray Lady Can Do Journalism

 7/8/26 New York Times (behind a paywall; use Open in Private Window):

They told him that he was “the guy.”

Last July, in a small town in coastal Maine, a couple of progressive, self-styled recruiters of economic populists showed up at the blue-shingled house of Graham Platner, a little-known oyster farmer and Marine veteran who lived largely off government benefits.

They knew his name from local labor organizers and activists, and they had watched a video on the internet of him talking about oysters. Struck by his left-leaning ideology, his working-class affect and his gravelly voice, they became convinced that he could win a Senate seat in Maine — and quickly persuaded Mr. Platner of the same.

The initial headhunters, Dan Moraff and Leanne Fan, and then a third out-of-state operative they called up to Maine — Morris Katz — told Mr. Platner he was “the one,” a “hero of the movement,” “a historical figure” who could be “leading a revolution,” according to half a dozen people with knowledge of their conversations.

But a clutch of people who cared about Mr. Platner were telling him something else. They worried about his mental health, amid his ongoing efforts to heal from post-traumatic stress disorder after tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. They feared this trio of out-of-state operatives was a dangerous combination of inexperienced and overconfident. The worst-case scenario, they thought, wasn’t running for Senate and losing — it was destroying the life he worked hard to build.

It is a very detailed, pull-no-punches account of the left picked and then stood by a Nazi-tattooed, misogynist, kinky (discussing how he would rape an intruder in a dominant, "not gay sort of way"), alleged rapist when any rational political party would have backed away and insisted that he was a Republican dirty trick.

Packing Ourselves

Trying to find a company to pack our stuff in a professional manner was too hard. We have enough time to pack ourselves. I have started on the telescopes. The 17.5"v Dobsonian looks impossible but is a half-Serrurier truss design so it can be broken down to four 24x24 boxes.

My wife is helping me get everything bubble wrapped for safe transit.

Arizona Hot Tomorrow

 It will be 113 Thursday. Un like 1994 when Lake Havasu had 128.

Cute

On an SUV:

Emotional Support Vehicle 

Court Grants Cert on Assault Weapons Cases

6/30/26 Guardian:

The US supreme court will consider whether bans on AR-15 rifles and similar semiautomatic firearms are constitutional.

The justices said on Tuesday they will hear appeals challenging bans in Connecticut and the Chicago area in the next term.

There have been enough statements by both pro- and anti-gun justices to expect these laws to collapse.

"We Fought a War for This?"

Our dogs are losing their sanity from the fireworks." In the closing years of the 19th century, cynics begin to make fun of the solemn speeches associated with the Fourth. I would like more of that and less of this.

Watching John Adams With My Wife

Really well done. Yes, I have to make little corrections because I have read Adams' defense of the Boston Massacre soldiers and see how the screenplay oversimplified it and left out the RKBA lines, but hey, being married to an historian is hard.

Moving is So Much Fun

We were going to use UPack to get our stuff cross-country.  We are not inclined to pack and load ourselves but UPack has an affiliated business that provides local pack and load services. 

I made a reservation with them. They do not bring or supply boxes, tape, or moving blankets to protect your furniture. So how many boxes will I need? I really do not want to buy 100 boxes and they only use 80. This is not something that I would expect professional movers to do, and yet this is a local moving company. 

SuperGrok thinks the full service movers can do it for about $15,000 (no appliances, 300 pound gun safe, not heavy but oddly shaped telescopes). I am getting estimates this next week. If it comes into that price range, it is only a few thousand more than UPack and whatever the local pack and load service would cost. 

Frustrations

The initial burst of showings of our Caldwell house had trickled down. I hope this is because of 4th of July.

That the first offer fell through because they were not really looking to buy a house was odd, but several realtors now have told of people who finally admitted (in one case after wasting 18 months of her time) that they could not buy a home. They just liked shopping.

Record Heat!

 Actually, no. This is the data on record high temperatures by state and in which year. I am trying to do what should be simple: plot a map showing year and maximum temperature by state. It is harder than it looks. Can any of you tell me how to do this?

State,Record High (°F),Year,Date,Location

Alabama,112,1925,"September 6, 1925",Centreville

Alaska,100,1915,"June 27, 1915",Fort Yukon

Arizona,128,1994,"June 29, 1994",Lake Havasu City

Arkansas,120,1936,"August 10, 1936",Ozark

California,134,1913,"July 10, 1913",Greenland Ranch (Death Valley)

Colorado,115,2019,"July 20, 2019",John Martin Reservoir

Connecticut,106,1995,"July 15, 1995",Danbury

Delaware,110,1930,"July 21, 1930",Millsboro

District of Columbia,106,1930,"July 20, 1930",Washington

Florida,109,1931,"June 29, 1931",Monticello

Georgia,112,1983,"August 20, 1983",Greenville

Hawaii,100,1931,"April 27, 1931",Pahala

Idaho,118,1934,"July 28, 1934",Orofino

Illinois,117,1954,"July 14, 1954",East Saint Louis

Indiana,116,1936,"July 14, 1936",Collegeville

Iowa,118,1934,"July 20, 1934",Keokuk

Kansas,121,1936,"July 24, 1936",Alton

Kentucky,116,1930,"July 28, 1930",Louisville

Louisiana,114,1936,"August 10, 1936",Plain Dealing

Maine,105,1911,"July 10, 1911",North Bridgton

Maryland,109,1988,"June 21, 1988",Conowingo Dam & Darlington

Massachusetts,107,1975,"August 2, 1975",New Bedford

Michigan,112,1936,"July 13, 1936",Mio

Minnesota,115,1917,"July 29, 1917",Beardsley

Mississippi,115,1930,"July 29, 1930",Holly Springs

Missouri,118,1954,"July 14, 1954",Warsaw

Montana,117,1937,"July 5, 1937",Medicine Lake

Nebraska,118,1936,"July 24, 1936",Minden

Nevada,125,1994,"June 29, 1994",Laughlin

New Hampshire,106,1911,"July 4, 1911",Nashua

New Jersey,110,1936,"July 10, 1936",Runyon

New Mexico,122,1994,"June 27, 1994",Waste Isolation Pilot Plant

New York,108,1926,"July 22, 1926",Troy

North Carolina,110,1983,"August 21, 1983",Fayetteville

North Dakota,121,1936,"July 6, 1936",Steele

Ohio,113,1934,"July 21, 1934",Gallipolis

Oklahoma,120,1994,"June 27, 1994",Tipton

Oregon,119,2021,"June 29, 2021",Pelton Dam

Pennsylvania,111,1936,"July 10, 1936",Phoenixville

Rhode Island,104,1975,"August 2, 1975",Providence

South Carolina,113,2012,"June 29, 2012",Columbia

South Dakota,120,2006,"July 15, 2006",Fort Pierre

Tennessee,113,1930,"August 9, 1930",Perryville

Texas,120,1994,"June 28, 1994",Monahans

Utah,117,2021,"July 10, 2021",St. George

Vermont,105,1911,"July 4, 1911",Vernon

Virginia,110,1954,"July 15, 1954",Balcony Falls

Washington,120,2021,"June 29, 2021",Hanford Site

West Virginia,112,1936,"July 10, 1936",Martinsburg

Wisconsin,114,1936,"July 13, 1936",Wisconsin Dells

Wyoming,115,1988,"July 15, 1988",Diversion Dam

Germany: Mass Murder

 6/29/26 DW:

A shooting in the northern German city of Stade left several people dead on Monday, according to local police.

Police initially reported a death toll of five adults, but later on Monday said it has risen to six. Five people died at the scene, while the sixth died in the hospital due to injuries sustained during the shooting, police said in a statement.

.

Balancing Checkbooks

After my stroke in 2014, I was in the hospital for three months, so I was not balancing the checkbook. My wife took over that disagreeable task. I just focus on large scale finance now.

Those of you too young to remember dial phones, or even corded phones, may not know what a pain balancing checkbooks was. You had no way to go online and see which checks had recently cleared. You got a monthly statement showing which checks had cleared as of several week ago, and which deposits you had made. Then you marked in your checkbook register which checks and deposits were on the statement. Then take the balance from the statement, add any deposits not yet cleared, subtract outstanding checks and see if you were lucky enough to have it match what your register claimed.  If not, check every arithmetic operstion in the register, verify that you recorded the amounts correctly, and you did not fsil to record a check.  If the register went from check 2948 to check 2950, hmmm...

This was before ATMs and similar paperless transactions. You have no idea how impressed a young lady in my car was about 1978 when I said, "Let me get some cash out of the bank," at 7:30 PM. 

Yea, a rare date.  I was adequately good looking, well-paid and too polite (or clueless) to recognize an opportunity.  I had a young lady out to dinner. She invited me to her place where she changed into "something more comfortable" a not very sexy nightgown.  She had me lay down on her waterbed to see what it was like and she hovered over me and in retrospect waited for me to take the hint. 

I was not a bad boy who mistreated women by treating them as casual sex objects, so I was pretty much free of second dates until I met my wife at a Bible study 

A girlfriend (yes, mentally ill, hence a second date, the result of a double blind date: blind date arranged by a blind girl).  She had a checking account that always had overdrafts and not for the reason satirized in a bumper sticker of the time: "I can't be overdrawn.  I still have checks left." Many (most? all?) checking accounts of the time charged a per check transaction fee. Hers was $0.35 per check.  She did not know this. 

Once enough of the charges accumulated to take her to 0, every check, no matter how small, caused another overdraft. Once I explained this mystery, her problems, at least her accounting problems, were solved. 

So, how do young people balance checkbooks? (My son does not even have a checking account; possession of a checking account used to be a sign of adulthood.) Nothing like the old days I am sure. My wife balances the old-fashioned zway with the advantage that she can see which checks have recently cleared rather than rely on a three week old statement. It strikes me that there must be a way to do this that is less cumbersome.

I envision what I call the top-off method for very rich people.  You put $100,000 in checking; when your current balance gets below $20,000 you transfer money to get it back to $100,000. 

Advantage: no need to balance checkbook or keep a register. Disadvantages: you have no idea if someone has figured out how to loot your account except regularly reading the transaction history; the difference in interest rate on checking and your investments means you are forgoing some income. But once you have 3-4 million dollars, the difference is less than $50,000 per month.

Can anyone think of a more clever name than top-off checking?

Not Like He Did Something Bad

7/1/26 BBC News:

 Government ministers have said officials are "exploring every option" to have the leader of a Rochdale grooming gang deported.

Shabir Ahmed was jailed for 22 years in August 2012, but his victims were this week told he was set to be released from prison on licence today.

They were also informed, despite earlier promises, that a 55-year-old law barred the government from deporting him.

The good news is that this guy is such an embarrassment to the groomer gang/Islamophile Industrial Complex that he needs to go, and Parliament is looking for some way to do so. 

Remember What Party Hates Trump More Than Child Rapers

7/2/26 Daily Mail:

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has pardoned an illegal immigrant who was convicted of raping a ten-year-old child to stop him from being deported. 

The Democrat was part of a three-person panel that granted clemency to Tou Lue Vang, 42, who was set to be sent back to Laos due to his horrific child sex crimes. 

Vang admitted to repeatedly sexually abusing the child for four years when he pleaded guilty to first-degree criminal sexual conduct in 2006, and at the time he justified his actions by claiming it is a 'cultural thing' to 'marry and have sex with girls as young as 12.' 

His plea deal allowed him to avoid jail time but face deportation, a fate he has now been spared by Walz and the other two members of the panel, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Minnesota's Chief Supreme Court Justice, Natalie Hudson.

This is the party that with no evidence claims Trump is a pedophile but helps keep a guy who makes excuses for raping a 10-year-old in the U.S  You also notice that justifying raping a child got him no jail time in 2006.

Our Caldwell House is Under Contract

Our realtor managed to sell our daughter's house in six days and our house in six days, and on the seventh day, Danielle rested. 

UPDATE: The buyers withdrew. Apparently this is a recurring pattern. There is a period of time after signing contract to put down earnest money and they reached that point. A couple realtors that I know have a problem with people who spend lots of time looking at houses they have either ability or interest buying because it is so much fun! Shopping for houses for me is better than filling a cavity but not by much 

House Hunting

The first day was a mixture of houses that were sad (enough unrepaired water damage to show that someone had stopped repairing the obvious problems; to make you wonder about the subtle problems) or reminders that a 1960s houae needs renovation of fixtures to not look like it is looking for a place in James Lilek's Interior Desecrations.

 Some houses were beautiful but failed to meet our needs: 2 car garage with no way to easily build a detached garage (for shop and telescope storage) slopes so severe that building a dog run would be hard. Houses with pools and no other yard.

My First Thought Was: Wiccan Store?

After analysis, this is even more disturbing. 

That seems to be a demonic hot dog.

Someone Had Way Too Much Fun Writing This Label

Reparations

6/29/26 Tilting at Windmills discusses the current demands by Africa for slave reparations from Europe and America. The transatlantic slave trade is "the greatest crime against humanity" unlike the longer and larger transondian slave trade.

As most of you know, slaves were usually sold by Africans to Arabs and Europeans. This had severe bad effects on Africa. Largely agricultural societies were militarized to take prisoners of war for sale.  Much of this wealth was spent on repeating the process and buying alcohol, tools, and cloth. At the end, African slave traders exported several generations of workers in prime working years and failed to sensibly invest the capital. 

In England, some of the wealth from the slave trade was sensibly invested. Thomas Sowell says the role this had in capitalizing the Indistrial Revolution had been greatly exaggerated.  Over the years, I have seen many docum5 about Georgian building by slave owners that absurd vanity project:  capital wasted. It made England no better off.

In America, much of the wealth was sensibly invested. Lots of that invested capital was destroyed during the Civil War. Is that unfortunate? Yes but that wealth that Africa wants is just as gone as that which the slave traders wasted.

Stop whining and ask why a continent awash in natural resources remains poor today.

I Promise to Get Back to Current Events and History Soon (Fireflies As Light Pollution)

This relocation is just burning up all my time and energy. We have an offer on the house in Idaho. While not as much as we had originally hoped, it is sufficient to pay for the Tennessee house, the staircase rebuilds, adding a small staircase for the dogs from back porch to back yard, and a split A/C for the shop.

We drove up there last night about 11 PM to do s sky survey. Adding to the difficulty was a Full Moon and some high cirrys clouds. While not as dark as the house we had in Horseshoe Bend, it is better than what i have now. Beta and Gamma Lyrae, both magnitude 3 5 stars, were easy to see and Delta Lyrae, magnitude 4, was visible with averted vision. Polsris, magnitude 2, of course was plainly visible. I expect without the planet's most annoying nightlight I will see magnitude 4 and 5 stars easily. 

There are streetlights in the area but they are at least 100 feet below us and hidden by our front forest. The biggest light pollution problem seems to be fireflies. This is somewhat magical to us, still.