…….

This and That

At 0001 on 2022-08-24 (yesterday morning) the ATF’s new rules on building your own firearms went into effect. There were three big cases that were attempting to get an injunction to stop the rules from going into effect. Two were denied by the judges and one was granted in part but the final decision isn’t due until next week.

In addition to the new rules going into effect, they aren’t the same rules that were available for comments. Three days ago the ATF changed the new rules. The injunction to stop the rules from going into effect over that was also denied.

In Florida, Rebeka Jones was disqualified from running. Being a democrat she ran to the Courts and got them to overrule the law. She was on the primary and won. She will be running against Matt Gaetz.

Gun Owners of America brought suit to block the NY state law that makes places such as stadiums, hospitals and Times Square “sensitive locations” Gun rights group asks judge to block NY gun ban in Times Square, other ‘sensitive’ places

I hit a personal goal yesterday, 4 months ago I was at 330. Yesterday I weighed in at 298.5. I credit Miguel with being part of the reason I got the drive to do something about it. The changes I made were to go from a standard dinner plate to an 8in dinner plate. This let my wife feel like she was showing her love but with about 1/3 as much food going onto my plate.

I got back on the exercise bike and do 30 minutes per day, 5 days per week. When the weather gets a bit cooler we’ll be clearing the weight machine so I can use that as well. Dealing with some other issues has helped reduce my cravings and I’m just not as hungry all the time.

Is losing weight an important health goal?

Gun rights advocates cheered the Supreme Court’s June decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen as a reaffirmation of the Second Amendment’s protections of an individual right to bear arms. Gun control advocates grumbled that the decision would prove a costly disaster for states desperate to address sharply rising rates of gun violence.

And yet, as states are already proving, the truth is likely to be more complicated. Rather than an abrupt change to American gun laws, the Bruen opinion may accelerate existing political and legal trends, driving state laws toward more permissive and more restrictive gun regulations.

Red-state legislatures will likely continue their efforts to make it easier to own and carry guns — citing Bruen as a reason to relax their gun laws, repeal existing laws or vote against gun regulation. Blue states, by contrast, will likely continue to expand restrictions, citing passages in Bruen that bless gun licensing, the designation of sensitive places unsuitable for the presence of firearms, the prohibition of dangerous and unusual weapons, and the restriction of gun ownership to those who are “law abiding, responsible citizens.”

State gun regulations are a messy patchwork. The Supreme Court’s Bruen decision won’t help

In case you didn’t hear, CNN got roasted because they claimed that the decrease in gas prices over the last couple of months should be greeted as a $100/month pay raise. Totally ignoring the fact that gas is still way up from what it was before Biden took office.
America just got a $100-a-month raise

The lame street media is finally starting to admit that it is men fucking men that is spreading Monkeypox. Of course they only admitted this after the rest of the population doubled over in laughter over the claim that it was going to affect everyone.

I agree with J.Kb., every child that comes down with Monkeypox should be treated the same as an under aged girl coming in pragnent. They might have caught it from innocuous source but at least investigate.

Sex between men, not skin contact, is fueling monkeypox, new research suggests

As soon as they admitted it was spreading between gay men the next great pandemic just evaporated.

The Citizen Times published an opinion that is so full of straw man arguments and general bad logic that it was worth a full article debunking every other sentence. You are smart, you can read and laugh or swear as you like.

Opinion: Madison County’s new AR-15 initiative is about gun rights, not student safety

The Huffington Post publishes a confession of a teacher that is willing to go on record as violating Florida law, as long as she can use a pseudonym. Like every other teacher and teacher’s union spokesperson the author has to lie in order to make it look like she’s the victim.

Lady, don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

Florida Has An Outrageous New Law Targeting Teachers. Here’s Why I’ll Be Breaking It.

I’ve known a couple of people with Lyme disease. It is a nasty not fatal disease. It can affect your ability to do physical labor, walk or have any energy at all. Not to mention the pain it can cause.

A vaccine for Lyme disease is in its final clinical trial

Words still have meaning, no matter how often the democrats try and change the words and meanings. One of my first introductions to this was my kids kindergarten teacher telling me he had to be nicer to his friends. They had changed the word used for “classmate” to “friend.”

My child was suppose to be “friends” with everybody in his classroom. The education industry has a long history of making up new terms and words for the same old thing and then laughing at the parents that are using last months terms and words. Nobody is as professional as them. Leave education to them.

In the same way Gov Hochul of NY has redefined “convicts” and “inmate” as “incarcerated person”. Because “convict” and “inmate” is dehumanizing and people think of them as “less than people”.

Kathy Hochul, Democrats demand ‘inmates’ must now be called ‘incarcerated person’

It is all in how it is framed

In 2012 a black man was spotted casing houses in a gated community. A neighborhood watch member spotted the young man and called in a suspicious person. During the conversation with the 911 operator the neighborhood watch member did not mention skin color until directly asked by the 911 operator.

At some point he lost sight of the suspect and left his vehicle to investigate. He was still talking to the 911 operator. At some point the black animal attacked this watch member taking him off his feet. The animal straddled the man and starting throwing punches “MMA style” driving the man’s head into the concrete multiple times. (See the multiple postings by J.Kb. about one punch kills).

Afraid for his life the watch member drew his legally licensed and carried firearm and shot the animal that was attacking him. Killing the animal.

The police arrived, did a preliminary investigation felt it was a justifiable homicide and declined to arrest the neighborhood watch member.

A few weeks later a media blitz struck. The media used a picture of the animal from years before, showing a bright happy smiling child. They media told us that a white man full of racial hate hunted this child (He was not yet 18 years old) and killed him.

The image used in describing that animal was always the innocent child image.

This certainly looks like a young man who has tattoos and is attempting to look like he is a part of thug life. Not a 12 year old child looking forward to a wonderful life.

There are other images that Travon posted of himself showing he was part of the thug life. There aren’t any of him doing community service or hanging with local civic groups doing good things. Mostly there are images of his self styled thug life.

On the other hand we have another 17 year old. We have multiple pictures and videos of him doing community service. He was a member of a couple of youth groups that did things like learn police procedures and learn what it means to be a law enforcement officer. He expected to go to college and was doing the prep work to get accepted.

After riots destroyed parts of Kenosha Wisconsin, he went back to his hometown to help clean up some of the vandalism the animals of the previous night had done. While still in Kenosha his friend was asked to help stand guard at couple of car lots. He agreed.

When he arrived on scene he was carrying first aid gear as well as an AR-15 style rifle. Throughout the day and evening he attempted to help people multiple times. He is seen on video attempting to extinguish a dumpster fire. He is being interviewed and breaks off the interview to lend first-aid.

Later that night he became separated from his group and a violent animal started to chase him. There is video of this animal taunting the young man multiple times earlier in the day.

The young man became cornered and when the animal grabbed at his rifle he fired. The animal went down.

Kyle original started to lend first aid when sounds of the mob screaming for blood are heard. Kyle started running towards the police line. He stumbled and fell to the ground, a man attempted to kick him in the head (see one punch kills). Kyle fires and misses. Another man swings a mace (longboard skateboard) at Kyle and connects. Kyle fires again and hits. That man drops.

A forth man approaches, Kyle turns to face him. The forth man has a pistol in his hand. He holds his hands up for a brief moment then lunges forward. Kyle fires another shot and “vaporizes” lefty’s right bicep.

Kyle retreats to the police line. Attempts to turn himself in and told to go home. He is later arrested.

After over a year, Kyle had his day in court and was found “Not Guilty” on all charges.

Which brings us to now. Kyle was spotted by a police officer in Texas. The police officer asked for a selfie and Kyle obliged him. The police department posted the selfie to their social media and immediately the hounds of the left started baying for blood.

Here is the image the media used :

You have to wonder why they choose the image of him at trial and with law enforcement standing over him? Maybe the are trying to send a message?

Tuesday Tunes

Growing up we had music in the house. One of the groups that was played over and over again was “Peter, Paul, and Mary”.

The stories they told with their songs would transport me.

Sometimes when reading a good Heinlein story I’d hear the trio playing the sound track to his story.

I had the privilege of seeing them in person. They had just gotten back together and were giving concerts in small venues. In this case it was a small hall in Lansing, MI. They put on a great performance and afterwards my friends and I were just hanging out talking about how good it was.

And the three of them came out to just talk with the dozen or so people that were still in the hall. I’m not one to be at a loss for words but here were three of my “heroes” within easy speaking distance, just talking. I went mute. I had no idea what to say or do. I just stared.

Paul turned to me and said something like “Are you ok? Is there anything you need?” and I stumbled out something about how I had grown up listening to them and how much of an honor it was to hear them in person.

Well about a year later there was a big event on campus. Know that there were about 65,000 students at MSU that year. The headliners for the event was Peter, Paul, and Mary.

It was a cold rainy day and we started to gather hours before they were set to perform. I’d guess there were about 5,000 to 10,000 people standing in the rain in a big field facing the stage waiting for the concert to begin.

The anointed hour arrived and Paul steps out on stage with Peter and announces. “We are so sorry, Mary has laryngitis and can’t perform.” They were very apologetic but there wasn’t going to be any concert.

And then the chant started “Mary. Mary. Mary.” growing louder and louder. The two of them left the stage and the chant continued. They came back out and there was silence and they announced again that there was going to be no concert.

The chant started up again. They were looking very concerned. Suddenly the blond hair of Mary is seen coming on to stage.

Not a single person had left at that point.

When we saw Mary a huge cheer rose up over the field. Applause echoed from the buildings 100s of yards away. Mary waved to the crowd and the clapping when on and on.

The three of them raised their hands together and took a bow, and then another. The cheering and applause never dimmed.

Then they turned and walked of the stage and those students, many of whom were not yet born when they played their first gig, turned and left the field.

This is a song from PP&M which is a theme song for me and my lady.

Bruen, NYC version

The Bruen decision gutted the NY City and state permitting sham for the infringement it was. It was almost impossible for a normal person to get a permit to carry a firearm. It was even difficult to get a premise permit (government permission to own a gun in your own home.)

It was also rife with corruption. Over the years multiple people involved with the permitting process have gone to jail for taking bribes. It really was who you knew and how much you were willing to pay that got you a permit.

The permitting denial process centered around “good cause”. You had to show that you had a unique and directed reason in order to be granted your second amendment guaranteed rights.

In one case a man was kidnapped off the street, he was threatened and almost lost his life. The criminals realized that they had kidnapped the wrong person and set him free. He applied for a permit as he feared that the same mistaken identity would happen again. He was denied a permit “because the threat wasn’t against him in particular, it was against the actual target.”

Of course he was kidnapped again. And his second application was denied for the same reason.

With Bruen in place the good cause requirement is gone. Instead NYS put into place a series of requirements that are almost impossible to meet. Starting September 1st, 2022 those requirements take effect. One of those requirements is a training requirement. The state has until early 2023 to have the requirements for the training ready for presentation. The state then has still more time until they have to actually approve the training.

It is likely that it will take even more time for instructors to be certified to provide the training.

What this means on a practical matter is that as of September 1st, 2022 there will be NO permits issued for at least 6 months and much more likely 12 to 18 months.

Fortunately for some people, Bruen took effect on June 23rd, 2022. There is a back log of permits under the old laws that must be processed under the old laws. Including permits that were denied because of lack of good cause and permits that were downgraded.

NYC Police Department has issued a “NOTICE OF ADOPTION OF EMERGENCY RULES FOR RECEIVING A CONCEALED CARRY HANDGUN LICENSE AND RESUBMITTING CERTAIN RECENTLY DENIED APPLICATIONS

It is unclear from the order what training is required, regardless, people that were denied under the old scheme now have an opportunity to get their permits under the old laws minus the “good cause” requirement.

NYPD issues emergency rules for receiving a concealed carry handgun license

Unelected man overrules state legislature and Gov. DeSantis

The left is very good at lawfare. They know how to get judges that will rule in their favor and who will grant injunctions that act nationwide.

We saw this during the Trump years. The president would sign an executive order and some federal judge in some leftist hell hole would decided that he knew better than the president and put a nationwide injunction in place blocking the executive order.

Even when the right gets an injunction from a judge it is often limited in scope as much as possible. In one case during the Trump years the judge issued his injunction and then put a hold on the injunction because he knew it was being appealed.

Florida has been on the forefront in the fighting woke indoctoration in the schools and in businesses. In the first blows struck DeSantis worked for and then signed the Parental Rights bill making it illegal for school personnel of any sort to teach sexual issues (trans, gay, or straight) to K through 3rd and all such instruction had to be age appropriate there after.

It use to be that you didn’t know a teachers sexual leanings. That was something for their home life. You might guess that some male teacher was gay because of certain behaviors, but it didn’t really matter and it was not an issue for students. It fell into the “don’t ask, don’t tell” situation. Private matters were private.

Today teachers advocate for all sorts of causes. “Gay Pride!” If you can advocate for gay pride in the classroom can my kid get equal time for “straight pride?” Nope, that’s homophobic. If you can advocate for BLM can my kid get equal time for All Lives Matter, much less White Lives Matter? Nope, that’s racist.

Teachers had free rein to advocate what they wanted. So Florida did something about it. They did it as a representative Democracy. Of course the left melted down and demanded that the law be stopped.

In April, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis into law a bill that would limit CRT in schools and businesses.

Many businesses are forcing employees to attend struggle sessions where people that are not part of the privileged group are forced to denounce themselves and others like them.

The problem is that these DEI training sessions are becoming mandatory. Just like the sexual harassment training that many businesses require. For the Sexual Harassment training it always is the obvious things they talk about and tell you not to do. “Don’t grab her breasts.” “Don’t require sex for promotions.” “Don’t make sexual advances on your coworkers.”

How about they answer “When is it ok to date a coworker and how do you ask a coworker out on a date without it being sexual harassment?”

People were getting fired for not saying they had “white privilege.”

This week U.S. District Judge Mark Walker said that the “Stop Woke” act violates the First Amendment.

So it is against the First Amendment to stop struggle sessions but not against the First Amendment to not attend and to not parrot the required sayings. Something is wrong here.

We need to keep fighting and we will keep winning. Don’t get discouraged. Just stay the course.
Judge blocks Florida ‘woke’ law pushed by Gov. DeSantis

CNN loses another: Brian Stelter Is “Fired”

Sometimes you just have to go with the feel good news of the day.

It is being reported in multiple sources that CNN has canceled “Reliable Sources” and that Brian Stelter is leaving or was let go.

Without Trump to drive ratings up during the hourly two minute hate, CCN’s overall ratings have gone down and down and down.

Brian Stelter made it his business to breathlessly report every misstep, misspeak or to blunt thing that President Trump did or said.

Without Trump driving the two minute hate CCN is looking for other things to report. Mostly that consists of blaming everybody right of Mao as “Right Wing Extremists” and lamenting how they can’t shutup other people’s opinion.

So we close our week with a small bit of good news.

CNN cancels ‘Reliable Sources,’ host Stelter leaving network

Looking For My Facts: Gun Violence Archive

In the Bruen case the dissenting justices appealed to emotions to justify why they didn’t want to follow the law.

Justice Thomas put it just right: The two step process is one step to far.

Previous to the Bruen decision the courts in gun rights unfriendly areas would start with “We’ll stipulate that the law violates the 2nd amendment BUT…” at which point the second amendment goes away. These courts always found that the state had compelling reasons to abridge and infringe on our rights.

In order for those emotional appeals to actually work, there have to be enough horrible stories to touch people. You need stories that allow the people to connect with the evil and heartbreak. “One death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic”.

Where to get those number? Those stories? Those scary numbers?

“There have been more mass shootings than days in 2022!!!!”

Only when you use the “right” definitions and the right sources.

When the CDC was advocating for gun control they did studies and the numbers were cooked. Even so they couldn’t hide the fact that the number of DGU was way higher than the number of people killed with firearms. So when they were no longer able to advocate for gun control, they stopped studying violence involving guns.

The gun grabbing media and politicians had to turn to other sources. They turned to people like the Giffard’s and Everytown and Moms Demand and Brady. The problem was that nobody trusted these sources. If you can’t use the numbers from the NRA you can’t use the numbers from people with this much conflict of interest. It didn’t stop them, but it slowed them down.

Thus enters the Gun Violence Archive. This is a group of people, it started with just one person, that started looking in media reports for any and all incidents involving guns. They then made a record of that incident and reported it.

Suddenly there were hundreds of incidents. The only problem was that it didn’t match the FBI’s Uniform Crime Statistics.

What it was good for is scare numbers”

“Since the start of this year (2022), there have been 277 reported mass shootings — an average of more than one per day. See Gun Violence Archive,” Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in June in the opening paragraph.

In other words, the GVA is not at all scientific, its data is hand picked and questionable. Anybody that actually looks at their individual incidents soon finds multiple errors. And they use their own definitions and play loose with those definitions.

All to get those “Scary numbers”

The media and the politicians eat it up because it matches their confirmation bias. So much so that Supreme Court Justices feel comfortable quoting GVA numbers. It is sick.

Just remember, when Obama told the CDC to study violence involving guns after a couple of years the CDC came back with numbers that were so bad for the gun grabbers that they quietly buried the report.

How a tiny nonprofit with no full-time employees became the foremost tracker of gun violence in America

Social Contagion or Grooming

Gender dysphoria has been a known mental illness for a while now. The earliest treatments were done at Johns Hopkins. The procedure took many years, required extensive therapy and living as the opposite gender for a significant time before anything irreversible was done.

I know of multiple people that firmly believed they were the wrong gender. They went to Johns Hopkins and when everything was said and done, they were not even allowed in to the early stages of the process. The therapy part was enough to show that the individual wasn’t suffering from gender dysphoria but had other issues.

Over time the doctor that started created the original gender reassignment procedures came to believe that it was wrong. He stopped performing reassignment surgeries.

Confirmation bias is when we expect to find something and because we expect to find it we do find it. This is the gambler that finds a pattern at the craps table or roulette table. He expects there to be a pattern so he finds it. Those processes are random so there isn’t a pattern.

Scientist are not immune to confirmation bias. A good scientist designs their experiments such that it should eliminate confirmation bias. Good scientists will have others examine their research to look for confirmation bias and to help them remove that bias from their research.

One example of confirmation bias is in temperature samples. Some climate scientist expected to see certain patterns in global temperature measurements. When they didn’t see what they expected they decided that the data was bad. Not their findings, but the data. They then applied “corrections” to the data in order to get the results they wanted to see.

We see it with all of the climate alarmist. It is hot that means climate change is real. It’s cold, climate change is real. There is too much rain, there isn’t enough rain, there is too much snow, there isn’t enough snow… No matter what the weather event it always means “climate change!” to those with that level of confirmation bias.

Social contagions are syndroms that seem to be contagious when there should not be any contagine. In the 80’s there was the “Satanic Panic”. The word spread that there were satanic rituals taking place involving children. People were on the lookout for these satan worshipers doing evil to children.

And they found it. They found it and suddenly they had children telling adults about horrendous events. One group of children from a daycare facility described eating a baby.

It was all imagination. The children quickly learned that the more outrageous their stories the more praise they received from the investigating adults. The adults were feeding answers to the children, often without even realizing it.

The current social contagion is “transgender” or “non-binary”. Here’s the thing, it clumps. Once one child comes out and is praised for being “brave and beautiful” others follow. Those that do this are often willing to believe that a social contagion exists but it doesn’t apply to them. It is those others. They are the real deal.

Today trans people are treated with kid gloves and our entire society is being bent to accommodate these people. Why does my technical support person have their pronouns in their signature block? Why does my bank teller have their pronouns pinned to their shirt? Because they are afraid of offending somebody. Worse, they want you to be afraid of offending them.

…including some sympathetic to Turban’s political mission, wondered whether his research reflected scientific curiosity and discovery or confirmation bias and an axe to grind. Throughout his career, Turban has authored studies which conclude that there are great benefits and minimal risks to providing gender-confused minors with “gender-affirming care,” a medically cryptic way of saying hormonal therapy for puberty suppression, reconstructive surgery, and social and behavioral re-conditioning.

Dr. Jack Turban found his research niche in the treatment of pediatric gender-identity disorders nearly a decade ago and quickly rose through the ranks of the discipline. In a prestigious fellowship at Stanford Medical Center following a residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, he focused on child and adolescent psychiatry with an emphasis on transgender youth, or facilitating sex change through surgical, medical, and social interventions.

In February, Sweden’s National Board of Health and Welfare (NBHW) updated its service guidelines for children and youth with gender dysphoria, citing “uncertain science” and “no definite conclusions about the effect and safety of the treatments” as reasons to conclude that “the risks outweigh the benefits at present.” Multiple Republican state legislatures, recognizing the unknowns and moral and ethical uncertainties, have limited access to the treatments.

It is highly unlikely that this trend towards mutilating children will stop anytime soon. The amount of damage being done to our children is alarming, even if it is only at a mental level. Movies and shows are pushing and affirming transgenderism.

At some point our children’s children’s children will look back at this and label this time “The crazy years.”

Until that time this is a small step in the right direction.

‘Advocate Rather Than a Scientist’: The Compromised Research of Child Gender-Transition Doctor Jack Turban

In order to save the village we had to destroy it?

The Guardian published Do you want free speech to thrive? Then it has to be regulated, now more than ever raising the question of just how important free speech actual is.

Free speech is a bedrock of a free society. Without it bad things are driven into the darkness and good things never see the light of day. Free speech means defending people saying things you disagree with.

A common saying years ago was “I disagree with you but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

Today we have more and more people defining “hate speech”. Speech that must be regulated. “Hate speech isn’t Free Speech”.

Hate speech is exactly what Free Speech must protect. It isn’t the things that are easy to listen to that need to be protected. It is those things that you don’t want to hear.

So many of today’s leftist institutions strive to limit speech in some way. “Misinformation”, “disinformation”, “fake news”, “hate speech”, and whatever term they choose to use tomorrow. All of these are just ways of saying “Shut Up!”

Everyone of these rules or regulations or policies is premised on “safety”. Generally “For YOUR safety you shouldn’t hear these things.” or “For YOUR safety you shouldn’t say these things.”

There is a Ren Faire in New England that might not survive because of “hate speech”. Not that anything was actually spoken, but because people were afraid something might be said. There was an incident where some people were found near the site of the fair that might have been actual racist. So in order to punish those people many vendors and performers decided not to attend.

This will likely kill the fair. All because people were afraid of hearing something “racist.”

In many places speech is called violence. If you were to call a black person N…. they feel that violence has been done to them which allows them to respond with physical violence. Giving offence via speech is considered violence by more and more people.

In Kenosha the prosecutors implied that showing a symbol, an AR-15, was enough to justify people attacking a young man. He didn’t even have to say anything. Just being in that location with an AR-15 was causing people to feel unsafe justifying their attack on the young man.

This is the debate now thundering into view. The correct response to the Rushdie outrage is not just to plead for freedom of speech, but to ask what it really means and how it is to be sustained – and regulated. That is not done through silence.

We need people to stand up for free speech in all of its nasty and mean and evil forms. Otherwise we will be lost.

Tuesday Tunes

You can tune in a radio station today and listen to most types of music. When you listen you’ll hear “cutting edge lyrics”. Pushing the limits of what is acceptable. Wet Ass Pussy (WAP) won a People’s Choice Award and was nominated for MTV’s “Best Song of the Summer.”

From the 80’s there was “Dancing in the Sheets” (Did you hear that as “dancing in the streets? I did.)

Every wanna be and published rapper can use the “N-Word” as often as they want.

Shock radio is no longer shocking. Comedy where the comic drops F-bombs every other sentence are no longer shocking.

This generation didn’t invent risque or crude lyrics. There are traditional folk songs from centuries ago that are very explicit. If you listen.

Steeleye Span does it in a folk rock style. Maddy Priors voice is still wonderful.

Damh the Bard does an acoustic version.

The song was collected by Frank Warriner around 1930 but there are references going back to 1856.