Upgrading Broken Focuser

I think I mentioned that a couple telescope parts did not survive the move undamaged. One of them was the refractor's focuser. I bent the damaged parts back into what looked to be the original shapes, but the focuser is rough and it binds. before the move, I had considered replacing the focuser with a dual-speed focuser. These have two knobs; one is the coarse focus typical on telescopes; the other turns at 1/10th speed, allowing very fine focus changes. So I ordered the GSO 2" Linear Bearing Crayford Focuser (made in Taiwan). It is an gorgeous piece of machining:

The only downside is that the flange is 112.5mm OD and the refractor's tube is 125mm ID. So, I need to make an adapter. To quote the opening sequence from The Six-Millionaire Dollar Man:

Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. 

At least, I do. I have a 6" 4-jaw chuck. No, Sherline lathes do not normally go this large. In the past, I have made riser blocks for the headstock and tool holder to allow turning big stuff. 

1. I will start with a 6" x 6" aluminum square.

2. Drill and tap a 3/4"-16 center hole. (This is the Sherline headstock spindle size as well as the size of the rotating table adapter.)

3. Remove 6" chuck.

4. Rotate workpiece onto headstock spindle.

5. Turn workpiece to 124.8mm OD.

6. Make riser block for the tilting table on which rotating table will sit. (I need the clearance to rotate this large of a workpiece.)

7. Tilting table to 90 degrees.

8. Put workpiece on rotating table adapter.

9. Turn workpiece 120 degrees at a time. 

10. Center drill each hole.

11. Repeat for two more holes.

12. Replace center drill with twist drill for a through hole deep enough to get through the 112.8mm layer.

13. Return workpiece to 6" chuck on headstock spindle.

14. Use cutting tool to cut 105mm hole.

15. Use boring bore to enlarge center hole to 112.7mm.

More Reasons Why Voting Democrat Would Be Really Foolish

 10/26/26 Real Clear Investigations:

The U.S. has been running a real-time experiment on two approaches to criminal justice: the Biden-era emphasis on social justice versus the Trump administration’s embrace of traditional law and order. The results are now in.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) reported this morning that felony violent crime fell 25% in 2025. Rape declined 13%, robbery fell 27%, and aggravated assault dropped 31%. Property crime fell 19%. Except for rape, these are the largest one-year reductions recorded since data collection began 53 years ago.

The reductions followed substantial increases during the previous four years, when felony violent crime rose 59% and violent crime, including misdemeanor simple assault, increased 42%....

Murder also declined sharply last year. The U.S. recorded about 4.1 murders per 100,000 people in 2025, a record low, down from roughly 5.1 per 100,000 in 2024. The murder rate has continued to drop. If preliminary FBI data showing an additional 18.4% decline during the first seven months of 2026 hold for the full year, the murder rate would fall to approximately 3.36 per 100,000.

“We are witnessing a historic plunge in crime to levels never seen before in the United States,” Professor Carl Moody, a crime researcher at the College of William & Mary, told RealClearInvestigations. “As a result, we are all safer in our communities than we ever have been. We should all thank our law enforcement professionals.”

These declines go far beyond normal cyclical fluctuations in crime. The murder rate has fallen to record lows. Crime also shows a clear pattern over time. Felony violent crime declined during Trump’s first term, surged under Biden, and is now plunging during Trump’s second term. The pandemic can’t explain Biden’s increase: Felony violent crime rose 59% from 2021 to 2024, including a 4% increase in 2024.

Tick-b-Gone

 Permethrin is an insecticide. Treat clothes with it and insects do not survive.

How to Treat Clothing With Permethrin

The most important thing to remember when spraying your clothing with permethrin is that you must follow the instructions on the product label. If you don’t, you could be violating federal law, Conlon says. (Because permethrin is a pesticide, the Environmental Protection Agency regulates its use.)

It’s also important to follow the instructions on the label to ensure you’re using the pesticide as safely as possible, says Michael Hansen, PhD, a senior scientist at Consumer Reports. “It’s an endocrine-disrupting compound," he says. That means “if it gets into your system, there can be effects on the hormonal system."

The CDC notes that permethrin and related chemical compounds can cause serious health problems in people exposed to high doses. “You don’t want to be inhaling it or getting it directly on your skin," Hansen says. Hansen also says that some recent studies suggest permethrin and other synthetic pyrethoids may be linked to adverse effects at lower doses, too.

If you follow the directions on the label, however, the dose of permethrin you receive by wearing treated clothing is considered safe, even for pregnant women. (Higher concentrations of permethrin are used in medications for treating both head lice and scabies.)

Permethrin Safety Tips

Spray only your clothing. We said it before, but it’s worth repeating: Permethrin spray is only for your clothes and gear. Don’t apply it to your skin. And when treating clothes, stick to outerwear. The Environmental Protection Agency says that you shouldn’t treat underwear with permethrin.

Spray while the clothes are off your body. Hang them on hangers outside, and spray them down while they hang. Don’t apply permethrin to your clothes while you’re wearing them, and don’t apply permethrin indoors, where you could risk inhaling it.

Never spray around cats. Keep your feline friends away from the area while you’re treating your clothes because permethrin is highly toxic to cats. According to Sawyer, which makes permethrin products, treated clothing is not dangerous to cats once it has dried.

Spray enough, but not too much. Mather says he often sees people making the mistake of giving their clothes a quick spritz of permethrin, even while wearing the clothing. But it takes a slightly heavier hand for full protection. Mather says you should spray enough for your clothes to become damp (they should look a little darker in color) and not spray the clothing you’re wearing. You don’t need to drench them—to where they’ll drip if you wring them out—but they do need a thorough coat.

The product labels can help give you a good idea of how much to use. For example, the label on Sawyer’s permethrin aerosol spray says that a 4.5-ounce bottle will treat a shirt, a pair of pants, and a pair of socks.

Let the clothes dry completely. Before you wear them, they should be totally dry. That should take a few hours, depending on the humidity of the day.

Re-treat when necessary. Manufacturers of pretreated clothing say their products are still effective after many washes. But the clothes you treat yourself need to be re-treated much more often. Sawyer says you need to re-treat after six weeks or six washings, for example. Even clothes or gear you don’t wash need re-treating; Mather says he sprays his own and his family’s shoes monthly.

Cleaning Supplies

We disposed of all the gun cleaning chemicals (CLP, Hoppes #9, Stainless Steel Lube) before we moved.  It also appears that the rest (Gun Snakes, bore brushes, half my bore patches) went with the liquids. I needed to start over today, which simplifies my collection. Two gun snakes, a collection of bore brushes to go with the cleaning rods that escaped the purge, Hoppes #9, and CLP. I may need to order stainless steel lube.

I went shooting at lunch time at Shooter's Source, an indoor pistol range and gun store in Kingsport.  Nice range.

I have not shot my Government Model in several years. It has a 4 1/2 pound trigger, which more than compensates for the intrinsic slop of the 1911's intentional slide to frame tolerances. At 7 yards, firing one round a second,  is good enough for most shots center of mass. 

The Walther works great. Again, one shot per second puts all the shots in the center of mass. 'The inadequate gun you carry is better than the major caliber you do not carry because of weight or bulkiness "

I have not fired or cleaned the Government Model in several years and I found myself saying, "How does this reassemble?" The Browning Hi-Power is different in several ways.  It took a while but I finally figured it out.

My First Ever Tick

I was drifting off to sleep last night and I felt something odd on my belly. A little itchy lump like a small scab except it would not scratch off. Yes, a tick. We put in a plastic bag. From the pictures, it appeared to be a deer tick and a rash was beginning to bulls eye around it, so we ran off the an ER about 10:30. There was no waiting get in. They confirmed it was a deer tick. The doctor said Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever are pretty rare here from ticks (he has never seen either) but to be sure, I was given two doxycyclines and a tetanus shot. He used some lidocaine and a scalpel to remove the head which was still in my flesh. I had taken all my evening medications just before getting into bed so I was on the edge of sleep the entire time. 

Put Together Both Reflectors Today

It was also the day of discovery for broken parts, fortunately none optical. The amount of force involved in the moving truck guillotine our dining room table. It is no surprise other parts experienced unreasonable forces.

The upper cage of Big Bertha has a diagonal mirror assembly that reflects the light from the primary mirror into the eyepiece focuser. There are four screws at the top of the cage. Three are collimation screws for making very subtle adjustments of diagonal mirror position. Like half a turn of a 32 threads per inch screw (.031" per turn). There is also a center screw that positions the whole diagonal mirror holder fore and after in the tube.  This has an adjustment knurled nut. The screw was bent about 60 degrees.  One I extracted it from the diagonal holder, I put it in the vise wrapped.in rubber and clamped it in two axes until straight again. To my surprise,  it all worked perfectly. 

At the stern, there were several weights to improve balance, held in a 1/4-20 thumbscrew which was hideously bent. If i had another of these unusually long brass thumbscrews,  i would have just replaced it. It is a weird size and i picked brass to avoid chewing up thr aluminum mirror cell into which yhis  screws.This time I both straightened it rethreaded it by first two axis squeezing in a vise wrapped in rubber sheeting, then holding it by the thumb end in the vise and turning a steel hex nut down its length until any thread discrepancies were turned out. (I thought i took a picture of this. )

Another disappointment was that the 5" refractor got banged hard enough   through all the foam rubber for the diagonal and focus knob to get shoved into the tailpiece (thr human end of the tube) so hard that the thumb locking screw that prevents the diagonal from falling out was so hopelessly bent that the focus knobs would not move the focus tube out. When I tried to usei pliers to unscrew the locking screw it broke off where it turned into the focuse tube. Oh no 

The tailpiece is held in the tube by three machine screws. I removed them expecting that the broken locking screw could be removed with a screw extractor, which I hate to use. To my pleasure, just enough of the thread body was proud of the tube to get my fingernails on and unscrew it. Now the focuser tube comes out. The hideously expensive and clever Ukrainian chromatic aberration corrector was not damaged; it cost more than the rest of the refractor and made it equivalent in optical quality to some that cost $3000 

Problem solved, right? No. The rack and pinion assembly was also beaten up. Once I opened it, the shaft on which the pinion gear sits was bent as was the metal plate that holds the pinion gear at the right tension to the rack.

Back to the vise to straighten the shaft and bend the metal plate back to the original shape.  It looks right but it does not turn as smooth as it should. 

I had thought a while back of replacing the focuser with a dual speed focuser. These have different speeds on the ends of the shaft and are really nice for getting very sharp focus. Instead I replaced one of the focus knobs with one I turned in aluminum twice the diameter.  This almost the same result because you can make very tiny movements of that bigger knob to get almost the same result.

I guess i now have a reason to do that upgrade.  The GSO dual focus tailpiece has a 112.5mm outer diameter flange. The interior tube diameter is 125mm. I just need to turn a piece 112.6mm ID and 124.9mm OD to adapt it.

The final fun of the day was putting the 8" mirror back in its tube. This is hard for several reasons. 

1. The cell is perhaps 1/8" smaller diameter than the tube ID. If you are not exactly square going in. It will get stuck. 

2.The holes into which the machine screws turn that hold the cell in the tube are not easy to find once the cell is approximately the right position. 

3. When I drilled these holes in the 1990s, I had no terribly precise way to get holes exactly 120 degrees apart. I used a tape measure and I am very close. You still need to remember not to tighten down any screws until all are started. 

This is always a pain to do but Rhonda has the patience to help me do these hard tasks. 

The day was not over. Big Berrha is a half-Surrier truss Dobsonian.  There is an upper csge  with eyepiece and diagonal and a lower cage holding thr mirror. They are held at the right distance by 6 1" diameter aluminum poles forming three triangles for light stiffness. Unless you are eight feet tall, putting the upper cage on top of those poles is difficult especially poo especially because those six poles look like you are wrestling a confused insect. 

Rhonda has much better spatial reasoning than me so she figured out that it made more sense to put the upper cage on the poles and lower the poles into their lower cage receivers.  

Big Bertha is reassembled; she collimated more easily than I expected. Tomorrow i will collimate the 8". I am hoping the concrete pad where the telescopes will roll in front of the shop will be done setting by Wednesday. 

This is Actually More Serious Than the Joke Below Suggests

10/26/26 Guardian:

The unintended actions flagged by Anthropic included a model submitting a fake tip about an unsolved murder to the Philadelphia police department. The US state department also revealed this month that Anthropic model had filed 19 visa applications in August.

So  did Claude also request naturalization for its agents? Or does birthright citizenship apply to clankers, too?

Some Days at the Office Are Better Than Others

 I am doing rebuttals of expert declarations again. One of the declarations make a claim about the absence of firearms in U.S. military hospitals in the Framing Era. This is not intrinsically absurd but the expert claims to have read James Thacher's Military Journal and found evidence contradicting her claim. It is 600 pages. I need to read it myself rather than rely on AI to characterize its contents. 

Requiring a historian to read a contemporaneous, often eye-witness account of the American Revolution is rather like being paid to taste test every pizza joint in your town.

This Could Be a Full-Time Job, Tracking Medicaid/Medicare Fraud

9/11/26 Department of Justice:

A Brooklyn woman was sentenced yesterday to 76 months in prison in connection with her leadership of a vast $64 million Medicaid fraud and illegal kickback scheme at her two social adult daycare centers and home health care company. The defendant was also ordered to pay over $56 million in restitution and to forfeit $5 million in fraud proceeds, including two properties, cash, and gold jewelry seized during a search of her home, as pictured below. 

 Again: if you stole $10 million and left the country, you could live like a king and leave that $10 million to your kids. Likely Uncle Sam would either never catch you, or not be able to get you. The greed is what sinks these idiots.

Here for more news reports than you can read.

How Many Different Categories of Medicaid/Medicare Fraud Are There?

10/21/26 Gothamist:

Two operators of a social adult daycare center on Staten Island have been arrested on charges they defrauded Medicaid out of more than $500,000, including billing for services to people who were dead, the Staten Island district attorney announced Wednesday.

Mother-and-daughter team Yangsim Oum and Juyoung Choe, the Staten Island Social Adult Day Care Center's owner and program director, allegedly billed Medicaid for providing services to people who didn’t show up — including some who were deceased or were out of the country at the time, Richmond County DA Michael McMahon said.

The pair could face up to 15 years in prison on more than 400 counts of healthcare fraud and falsifying business records, according to an indictment shared with Gothamist.

Social adult daycare centers across New York City are at the center of a sweeping fraud investigation by local, state and federal agencies. These centers provide activities and meals to seniors with cognitive impairments or disabilities and bill Medicaid based on daily attendance at their programs.

The arrests took place Tuesday as nearly a dozen other centers in Brooklyn and Queens were raided in actions that Gov. Kathy Hochul said were part of ongoing investigations into suspected Medicaid fraud. Interviews were conducted at 20 centers under investigation and another 80 received letters, according to the state Department of Health.

A Billion Here, A Billion There, After While It Adds Up to Trillions

10/22/26 New York Post:

Feds busted Los Angeles medical fraudsters accused of stealing $2 billion Thursday, cuffing white-collar thieves for unneeded surgeries, hunting the homeless for rehabs and billing the government for phony hospice care.

Department of Justice officials charged 15 defendants in all, including medical professionals, for making fraudulent claims to government and private health care programs – including $1.6 billion sham rehab case, the largest of its type ever.

The California Post was there as Federal SWAT teams sought their suspects in a series of predawn raids, targeting high-class criminals such as Dr. Hany Malek, 61, an allegedly armed-and-dangerous chiropractor accused of keeping an arsenal in his $2 million Tarzana mansion.

“Come out with your hands up,” called an FBI agent in the huge, gun-toting team of camouflaged officers who encircled Malek’s massive suburban home with a swarm of armed vehicles.

Agents cut Malek’s security gate and placed ladders against his tall fences, training guns on his home. Three flash-bang grenades exploded and sirens were activated.

After a few moments, the FBI brought their man down in handcuffs and placed in him an armored truck.

Worse than stealing billions from people who really needed treatment: 

Malek is accused of working with Dr. Harold Tabaie, 78, of Anaheim, a cardiothoracic surgeon, of stealing $134 million in fraudulently billed to Medicare claims for unnecessary atherectomy procedures that resulted in injury to patients.

Authorities say Malek posed as a medical doctor and diagnosed patients with arterial disease, recommending that they receive the invasive procedure in which a bladed catheter is used to clear plaque from arteries.

Tabaie then performed the procedures on patients who did not actually have disease, executing repeat atherectomies on some who he previously treated unsuccessfully with the procedure, prosecutors say.

Wow! Remember, if you or someone you know was planning to vote Democrat next month because you are pissed off about gas prices, this is probably a bigger financial burden.

There's a Really Committal Answer: "To My knowledge"

10/22/26 Fox News:

Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., denied Wednesday that she married her former husband, Ahmed Nur Said Elmi, to commit immigration fraud and pushed back against claims that they are related.

But when asked if there's any familial relation with her ex-husband, Omar admitted, "Not to my knowledge." 

I would hope she would have some knowledge of this. For me, Christmas and Thanksgiving gatherings, birthday parties, and parental wedding anniversary parties usually did a pretty good job of telling me which of these boys and girls were siblings. 

It Is Always Nice to See Democrats Supporting Capitalist Entrepreneurship

10/22/26 NBC News:

NORFOLK, Va. — Federal authorities on Thursday charged a prominent Virginia Democrat with racketeering and a money laundering conspiracy as part of an alleged public corruption case involving a cannabis business she co-owns.

Virginia state Sen. L. Louise Lucas, a frequent critic of President Donald Trump who is one of the most powerful Democrats in the state, surrendered to authorities Thursday. She was also charged with conspiracy to distribute marijuana. A half dozen others, including Lucas’ daughters, were also in custody and charged in the alleged scheme.

The investigation into the 82-year-old Lucas predates the Trump administration, NBC News previously reported. But the Justice Department’s move, just 12 days before a midterm election, is unusual, as federal authorities have typically avoided taking overt investigative steps against political figures so close to an election. Lucas is not up for re-election this year but has ties to prominent Democrats who are on the ballot....

The indictment alleges that members of the conspiracy “used various business entities” to “disguise the proceeds of illegal marijuana distribution,” and that Lucas “used her political position in the Virginia state senate to insulate” the enterprise “from criminal scrutiny, to further the goal of wealth accumulation.”

In one intercepted phone call in February 2026 with an alleged co-conspirator who has not been indicted, Lucas allegedly said that this was their “last chance at generational wealth,” adding “I’ve gotten too old to not be greedy.”

Lucas has been a proponent of marijuana legalization in Virginia. The state now allows for possession of marijuana for adults over 21, but recreational marijuana sales remain unlawful.

That is set to change; this summer, the governor and state legislators announced an agreement to allow the licensed retail sale of marijuana beginning July 1, 2027.

Greed is ugly when it involves invention and new technologies but so pretty when the greed is setting up a generation for mental illness. 

Switchblades as Protected Arms

 Knife Rights v. Blanche (5th Cir. 2026):

This case presents a Second Amendment challenge to the Federal Switchblade Act (FSA)’s restrictions on switchblade knives. Applying the framework articulated in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, we hold that the FSA is unconstitutional. We determine that switchblade knives qualify as “Arms” and are covered by the “plain text” of the Second Amendment. Because the regulation implicates the amendment, the government bears the burden of establishing that the FSA comports with well-established principles of the Second Amendment and its regulatory tradition. The government fails to meet its burden. Specifically, the FSA’s restrictions on the introduction, manufacture, transportation, and distribution of switchblades fail step two’s “how” analysis. The plaintiffs, however, fail to satisfy the stringent requirements for mounting a facial challenge to § 1243.

 Accordingly, we conclude that this regulation violates the Second Amendment. We REVERSE the district court’s grant of the government’s motion to dismiss as to the § 1242 claim. We AFFIRM the district court’s dismissal of the § 1243 claim, and we REMAND for further proceedings.

Are any of you upset enough about gas prices that you are willing to vote for mutilating children and restrictive gun laws? 

This is Both Tragic and Weirdly Weird

 Oakland, Cal. (1974)

01/31/1974: Someone hacked to death three people in a mortuary as they attempting to escape their attackers. Police later arrested a man, 20, for the murders and theft of “several bottles of embalming fluid.” His father brought him to the police station in response to an arrest warrant for rape in an unrelated event.

The embalming fluid theft, and the murders probably caused by the theft, while at first bizarre, has a rational basis. Drug dealers in the 1970s used “embalming fluid” as a street name for PCP into which marijuana cigarettes were dipped. “This eventually led to the actual use of embalming fluid when lacing both cannabis and tobacco cigarettes.”

Category: public

Suicide: no

Cause: robbery 

Weapon: other sharp[1]

---

[1] "Trio Hacked To Death In Mortuary," [Chico, Cal.] Enterprise-Record, Jan. 31, 1974, 2; “Berkeley Man, 20, is Arrested in Oakland Mortuary Murders,” Sacramento Bee, Feb. 09, 1974, 11; “Is PCP the Same as Embalming Fluid?” Medical News Today, Nov. 23, 2023, https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/is-pcp-embalming-fluid, last accessed October 22, 2026.

I Barely Remember This

Reading the Wikipedia article about the Zebra killings, their racial motivation, their reputed connection to Nation of Islam, the deranged political response to attempts to find the murderers is pretty depressing. If you think our current societal madness is bad, 1974 was not so wonderful, either.

Body Armor Ban

 Heeter and Wurtenberg v. James (W.D.N.Y. 2026)

New York enacted a first-of-its-kind law prohibiting law-abiding residents who are not engaged or employed in an eligible profession- from purchasing body armor for self-defense. New York enacted this legislation "to further strengthen gun laws." New York's body armor legislation, however, violates the Second Amendment. This result is dictated by the teaching of the Supreme Court's cases addressing individual Americans' right to keep and bear arms. Indeed, body armor is an "Arm" protected by the plain text of the Second Amendment. As such, regulation in this area is permissible only if the State demonstrates that the new enactment is consistent with the Nation's historical tradition of sufficiently analogous regulations. New York fails that test. 

You may wondering, even before the constitutional question comes into focus, how banning most people from buying body armor strengthens gun laws. Body armor kills no one. The reason is that some mass murderers have worn body armor to protect them from police or even, horror of horrors, civilians defending themselves or others. Doubtless done for that reason and once this was widely reported "because all the cool mass murderers are doing it." (Journalists could leave this detail out, along with the attention-seeker's name: the ignominy of forgetting an evil person's name.) I am pretty sure every mass murderer got to the scene of the crime by motor vehicle. Would limiting possession of such be similarly justified?

Of course, all body armor does is require a murderer to get close for a head shot. If you are wearing body armor, you better be ready to return fire. The analogy to armored knights is really clear. Once you unhorsed a knight, even if by making his horse a longbow pincushion, the hoi polloi still needed to get in close enough to hack him apart with axes and halberds. (The skeletons with halberd injuries are horrifying to see.)

The real issue here is that body armor makes people safer, or at least makes people feel safer. Nothing terrifies the gun banners more than people being safe. How much fascism can you build on top of people who feel safe?

Back to the constitutional question:

The State points to the Statute of Northampton for support for its position that there is a long-standing tradition of restricting who can purchase body armor. See Dkt. 77-1 at 29-31. The law prohibited anyone to "go, nor ride armed by night, nor by day, in fairs markets, nor in the presence of the justices or other ministers, nor in no part elsewhere, upon pain to forfeit their armor to the King and their bodies to prison, at the king's pleasure." ...

The State's analogy to the Statute of Northampton is an attempt to justify its body armor ban by speculating that individuals only wear body armor to terrify the public. See Dkt. 77-1 at 37-38. Yet, this ignores the reality put forth by Plaintiffs, that the public is more likely to reach for body armor to protect themselves from terrifying circumstances. Dkt. 80 at 42. In Rahimi, the Supreme Court concluded that "[a]n individual found by a court to pose a credible threat to the physical safety of another may be temporarily disarmed consistent with the Second Amendment." Rahimi, 602 U.S. at 702. Here, however, the State is suggesting that a merely broad-based suspicion over the population at large is sufficient to justify a universal ban on the sale and purchase of a specific type of arm. And to the extent that the State analogizes this to prohibiting criminals from purchasing body armor, other statutes already criminalize the use of body armor while committing violent crimes. See, e.g., 18 U.S.C. § 931(a); 34 U.S.C. § 10534(d)(l); U.S.S.G. § 2K2.6; N.Y. PENAL LAW§ 270.20. The State's categorical prohibition of a specific type of arm to law abiding citizens at large, is untethered from any historical tradition-including the Statute of Northampton. 

I would have also pointed out that even within the historically irrelevant Statute of Northampton meaning. Legal writing after 1328 recognized that the Statute prohibited wearing armor not carrying arms. In the nineteenth century, a manual for justices of the peace discussing the Statute explained that “A man cannot excuse the wearing of such armour in public.”[1] Even as to wearing arms in the modern sense, this volume is clear that “no wearing of arms is within the meaning of this statute, unless it be accompanied with such circumstances as are apt to terrify the people…”[2] Concerning those wearing armor under their clothes: “And persons armed with privy coats of mail, to the intent to defend themselves, against their adversaries, are not within the meaning of this statute, because they do nothing in terror of the people.”[3]

---

[1] Thomas Walter Williams, 1 The Whole Law Relative to the Duty and Office of a Justice of the Peace..., 2nd ed., 29 (1808).

[2] Williams, op cit.

[3] Id.

When the Incidents Get Close Enough in Time to Recognize the M.O. Before You Find the Confirmation

 Wichita, Kan. (1974)

01/15/1974: Police were puzzling over a crime scene where the phone line was cut, the parents were bound, gagged, beaten, then strangled to death. The son was also bound with three plastic bags over his head; he likely suffocated. The daughter was hanging in the basement, toes two inches from the floor. Their other three children were at school. There was no sign of robbery, although the murderer appears to have stolen their car. Police later suggested there was some sort of fetish to the murders but refused to describe what had been done to the bodies in support of this theory. The B.T.K. murderer eventually claimed to have done it.

Category: family non-resident

Suicide: no

Cause: mental illness

Weapon: strangle, hang[1]

---

[1] "Four In Wichita Family Slain," Kansas City Times, Jan. 16, 1974, 1, 16; “Murders Baffle Wichita Lawmen,” [Olathe, Kan.] Olathe News, Jan. 17, 1974, 1; “Letter Writer Claims He Killed Seven in Wichita,” [Iola, Kan.] Iola Register, Feb. 11, 1978, 1..

One of the Hard Drive Companies Was Found to be Putting Bricks in Their Boxes to Get Adequate Inventory for Their Cooked Books

 10/20/26 Fox News:

A winery co-owned by the husband of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., was shuttered amid fraud claims, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said.

Comer said over the weekend that the winery had been selling empty barrels to investors under the guise of "wine to be aged."

"I can tell you from our initial investigation of Omar and her financial disclosure form that there are multiple fronts where you could get a search warrant issued," Comer told Trey Gowdy on Fox News' "Sunday Night in America."

"First of all, not only was there a huge discrepancy in the financial disclosure form, there was the winery that was the big base of her $25 million listing on her financial disclosure form. That winery has, according to the press, been shut down because of fraud."

This could well explain the bizarre changes in her net assets over the last several years. 

US Representative Ilhan Omar's net worth became a talking point after her 2024 financial disclosure showed a sharp increase in the reported value of businesses owned by her husband, Tim Mynett. The disclosure, filed in May 2025, valued his venture capital firm, Rose Lake Capital LLC, at between $5 million and $25 million.

His winery, eStCru LLC, was valued at between $1 million and $5 million.

Of course, Islam does not approve of alcohol. Perhaps those empty barrels of wine were halal. 

The New Passover Method

 You doubtless remember that when Moses demanded Pharoah:

To protect the Jews from the deaths of the firstborn sons, the Jews put the blood of a lamb at the top, bottom, and sides of the doorposts of their homes (yes, making a cross of protection).  Babylon Bee really hits it out of the park with this:

FRANCE — French shop owners across the nation have begun hanging hams over their doorposts so the hordes of rioters will pass by their shops and leave their property unscathed.

Business owners began using the unusual defensive method after noting that looters and rioters ransacked French grocery stores but left the ham and pork products untouched.

"I'm not allowed to explain why it works, but it does," French shop owner Desmond La Forge commented. "When we hang hams from our doors, no one enters. It's amazing. I started to ask a fellow store owner how it works, but he said 'Explaining that would be hate speech' and just kept hanging up the hams."

All Tragedies; Some Just More Complex Than Others

 Many of these tragedies turn into one page summaries: fourv dead bodies in an alley shot to death. No clues. Others are surprisingly interesting.

Santa Clara, Cal. (1969)

Before 09/31/1969: The career of the father, 48, as a credit manager collapsed as his financial problems led to “misappropriation of funds” from the credit bureau. Then his attempt at embezzling funds from his senile mother-in-law failed. Neighbors said the family “seemed to just disappear in the middle of the night.” The house changed hands several times before the crime came to light. He ended up in Cedar City, Utah, where he explained that his previous wife and family had died, which was technically true. Then he vanished after embezzling more than $50,000, taking his son from second marriage with him. He was eventually caught in Biloxi, Mississippi, where he married a third time.

In 1974, a termite inspector went into the crawlspace of the family home preparing the house for sale. He found a woman and her two teenaged daughters buried there. He later admitted that he beat to death his wife and one daughter with a hammer and strangled the other daughter.

He was convicted of three murders and sentenced to life.

Category: family

Suicide: no

Cause: financial?

Weapon: blunt[1]

---

[1] “Termite Inspector Finds Victims of Triple Murder,” [Burley, Ida ] South Idaho Press, Mar. 22, 1974, 1 .“House With a Secret,” [Scranton, Penn.] Times-Tribune, Oct. 06, 1974, 63, 70; “Former Biloxian Gets Life Term for Murders of Wife, Daughters,” [Biloxi, Miss] Sun, Jan. 27, 1979, 8.

I can find no record of his death. By this point, I think it unlikely he is still alive. It might be worth checking voter registration records.

This Seems Like a Dirty Trick

A text message:

Hello Fellow Democratic Socialist!

We the People of Idaho, who hold socialist values, are proud to endorse Senator Jim Risch for re-election to the United States Senate. With no Democrat on the ballot this year, the choice before us matters more than ever. Matt Loesby is simply too extreme for our values, and Todd Achilles betrayed us when he served in the State House and abandoned our party. Senator Risch offers something different: while we may not agree with him on every issue, he has shown a willingness to work with us to advance a national socialist agenda. After nearly two decades in the Senate, few people understand the power of the federal government quite like Jim Risch. Together, we can make sure our voice is heard and build a brighter socialist future for all of us in Idaho. On November 3rd, join us in voting for Senator Jim Risch!

STOP=END

The Independent Candidate Surge: Do Not Be Fooled

 I recalled just as we left Idaho, supposedly independent candidates with positions intermediate between Democrat and Republican appearing. When we arrived, one of the candidates for governor was a convicted felon. From the 9/15/26 Tennessee Lookout:

Hatley running as conservative outsider

Hatley has never run for political office in Tennessee and has spent most of his adult life as a businessman. 

After a felony bank fraud conviction, Hatley said he turned his life around. He became the successful owner of Whisper Outdoor, which started by manufacturing hot tubs and has since expanded to producing golf carts, boats and off-road vehicles.

While running as an independent, Hatley described himself as “a very conservative guy.”

“I’ve always been pro-life and pro-guns,” Hatley said. “I want to be independent because I don’t want to have party pressure.”

A tenet of Hatley’s argument to voters is that he is pushing for the state to have an elected auditor to “figure out where the money is going,” because he doesn’t feel like the state is managing its budget correctly.

He is also touting his willingness to spend at least $7 million of his own money and doesn’t plan to do any fundraising.

“I don’t want anyone in my ear,” Hatley said. “It’s very important that I go in on day one with a clean slate, only thinking about things that make sense for Tennessee.”

Hatley was 21. We all do stupid things when young. Maybe not that stupid.

I do believe that once a felon has completed their sentence, continuing their disability from full citizenship is not a great idea. If you are that dangerous, perhaps you should still be inside. I do not think this particularly recommends you for public office, however. 

Grok confirmed my intuition: 

Yes, more pure independents (candidates not nominated by a political party) are running for Congress in the 2026 midterms than in typical recent cycles.

A July 2026 Newsweek analysis of candidate lists found 217 independent entries across U.S. House and Senate races (170 House, 47 Senate), covering 153 distinct contests. Later reporting (NPR and others) put the House figure around 170–173.

A more precise Ballot Access News tally (September 2026 print edition) counted 141 independent candidates for U.S. House seats. That is roughly double the recent norms and matches or exceeds the recent high-water mark:

• 2024: 57 independents for House (lowest since 2004)
• 2022: 78
• 2018: 84
• 2016: 72
• 2014: 82
• 2012: 104
• 2010: 140
• 2006–2008: ~63–65

Political scientist Bernard Tamas noted that a clear increase would reverse a decline in independent/third-party House candidacies lasting more than 25 years (the broader third-party + independent peak was 559 in 2000). Multiple outlets (The Nation, Independent Voter News, NPR) described 2026 as one of the largest surges of independent candidates in recent memory, coinciding with a record ~45% of Americans identifying as independents in Gallup data.

Notable high-profile pure independents include Senate candidates Dan Osborn (Nebraska), Brian Bengs (South Dakota), Todd Achilles (Idaho), and Seth Bodnar (Montana), several of whom benefited from Democrats stepping aside in red states, plus House candidates such as Bill Hill (Alaska).

Caveats: Early lists can include candidates who later dropped, failed ballot access, or ran as write-ins. “Independent” here means unaffiliated (not a nominee of the Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, Green, or other parties). Structural barriers (petition requirements, fundraising, spoiler concerns) remain high, and success rates for independents have historically been very low. Overall congressional candidate volume was also elevated in 2026, partly due to high open-seat numbers.

In short, the data support more independent candidacies than the recent average, especially versus the lower counts of the 2010s–early 2020s.

Why? It would be tempting to see this as a rejection of doctrinaire politics. This would be a good thing.

A cynical view is that these are Democrats in mufti, attempting to split likely Republican voters away to give Democrats seats that would otherwise be out of their reach. I asked Grok about this as well. While independent candidates are not concentrated Republican districts:

Where the serious/viable ones stand out

The independent candidates receiving the most attention—and those where Democrats have cleared the field or formally/informally backed them—are concentrated in Republican-leaning states for statewide races:

• Nebraska (Dan Osborn for Senate)
• South Dakota (Brian Bengs for Senate)
• Idaho (Todd Achilles for Senate; also House candidates like Sarah Zabel in a deep-red district)
• Montana (Seth Bodnar for Senate)
• Alaska (Bill Hill for House)

This reflects a pattern in which Democrats, facing weak brands in solidly red states, have stepped aside in hopes an independent can be more competitive against a Republican incumbent. Similar dynamics appear in some deep-red House districts (e.g., examples cited in Florida and Idaho).

At the same time, independents are also running in blue-leaning or competitive areas (New York, Illinois, California, Washington, Virginia, swing districts like Iowa’s 1st). One sitting House member, Kevin Kiley (California), switched from Republican to independent and is running as such in a redrawn district that leans Democratic.

This actually makes sense. Democrats know that socialism and child mutilation are so now heavily identified with their party that backing candidates without that "Democrat" label is likely to defeat Republicans. These IINOs (Independents In Name Only) could redeclare themselves after the election or simply caucus with the Democrats like Socialist Bernie Sanders does.

Wealth

10/17/26 Fortune:

The Federal Reserve’s latest Survey of Consumer Finances revealed a striking split: Median net worth rose roughly 38% for households headed by someone 75 or older between 2022 and 2025, while falling 23% for those headed by someone under 35. Both figures account for inflation, according to an analysis by Nick Maggiulli, chief data officer at Ritholtz Wealth Management and author of The Wealth Ladder.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the age split in a short post on what it called “the gold standard for measuring household wealth,” which the central bank releases every three years. Americans 55 and over now hold roughly $140 trillion, about three-quarters of the nation’s net worth, Fortune reported this month, citing a Bank of America Institute analysis of the Fed data.

The oldest households finished the period with a median net worth of $504,600, up from $366,288 in 2022, measured in 2025 dollars. For the youngest households, it fell from $42,725 to $32,820. The oldest group now has roughly 15x the wealth of the youngest, compared with about 9x three years earlier.

Across all families, inflation-adjusted median net worth rose just 2% between 2022 and 2025, reaching $215,900. That modest national gain concealed sharply different experiences at opposite ends of the age spectrum.

The findings also echo an argument Yale law and history professor Samuel Moyn made in an interview with Fortune this summer about his book, Gerontocracy in America: The concentration of wealth among older Americans is not merely a matter of who has had longer to save. In his account, it also shapes whose interests the economy and political system serve.

Moyn describes an “oldigarchy,” in which older, disproportionately wealthy Americans hold outsize influence. His book argues that “aging Americans control the biggest bank accounts and stock portfolios,” and that “the old rich have pulled away from everyone else.”

Yes. We had the good sense to not take out enormous student loans for degrees that did not lead to jobs of any value. Some of this was not really good sense. Almost any degree except maybe art or sociology would likely get you an adequate job in 1970. Education was also so absurdly expensive that you needed the 1970s equivalent of a $100,000 student loan to start out adult life.

We had some other advantages. Lots of good jobs did not require a college degree back then. Creeping credentialism and the contempt for technical jobs had not closed other avenues from serious consideration.

The harsh reality, however, is that generally getting older makes you richer. We bought a Sears refrigerator in 1976. It was still working into the 2000s. Some of the dishes that we received as wedding presents in 1980 are still in use, although not many.

Still, time heals most financial mistakes if you stay invested and do not waste on trying to look like The Illustrated Man.

I suspect as us Boomers go bust and our assets enrich our kids, this will even out a bit. Unless the young whiners decide we need to go full Communist.

If You See Something, Say Something

10/15/26 Chicago Tribune:

A jammed gun and workers at an Arlington Heights Taco Bell restaurant prevented a potentially devastating mass shooting Sunday at a Hindu temple in Aurora.

Those were among the details to emerge Thursday as authorities released additional information about the arrest of a 19-year-old Palatine man accused of plotting a terrorist attack on the Sri Venkateswara Swami Balaji Temple.

Cook County prosecutors said Alexandros Paporakis told a Taco Bell co-worker he had gone to the temple Sunday and attempted to shoot someone from his car, but his rifle jammed.

He indicated he intended to return later Sunday to try again, but a co-worker called 911 and stopped the potential massacre, authorities said.

The story gets more interesting. A "Heritage American"? Apparently not. 10/16/26 Chicago Tribune:

Paporakis, an enrolled student at Harper College, was allegedly living with his mother at the time of the planned attack and had been for about a year, Palatine police Chief William Nord said Wednesday. But a guardianship petition filed in Cook County last month alleges that his mother was unable to provide a stable home and that his father had abused and abandoned him. Those circumstances, the petition states, left the teenager unable to return to his home country.

The Tribune could not independently verify which country the petition referred to as Paporakis’ home country. The teenager’s own writings, according to court documents, suggest a hatred rooted less in national origin than in race and religion.

“The shooter hated Indians, but his hate did not discriminate,” U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi said at a news conference Friday, as he appeared to hold back tears. “According to court documents, the manifesto that he wrote described Indians, Jews, Black people and other minorities as ‘subhuman’”.

That seems like a Greek name to me. Perhaps, the entire spectrum of antisocial media found a new host to infect. In the 1990s, I recall a mass murder at a college in Western Massachusetts carried out by a neo-Nazi Korean.