General

Conversations with friends can be difficult. One of my friends is burdened by the inequity of the world.

Because he is conservative and a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, his issues with inequity are putting him in serious mental anguish.

What Has Been

You struck out, westward, when you found a place to your liking, you made it your own. This included clearing the land, building your home, cultivating your ground, hunting, and surviving.

If you were lucky, you might find an abandoned homestead to take over. You paid for that home with the sweat of your brow. Nothing was easy.

In other cases, you might be close enough to civilization that you could purchase your home. Be that the wood to build it, or the house itself. You could also buy a house from the previous homeowner.

As time went on, the areas around the towns became more built up. The houses within the towns became more valuable. People invested in their homes, making them still more valuable.

Still, it was almost always a buyer’s market.

With vast amounts of “free” land, land was cheap, if you didn’t want a big house, your house was cheap too.

When you start seeing more expensive homes, they were passed down from father to son, as was the land. The family’s wealth was tied up in their land.

It’s NOT Fair!

But that means that those who came first got it easy! They got it cheap! There’s nothing left of ME!

My grandparents bought their home in the early 1900s. If I recall correctly, they paid around $5k for it. According to the googler, the average house price in 1929 was $6k. In 1929, my grandfather was likely earning about $1700/year. So a house would cost about 4 years worth of labor.

My house cost about one year of labor, the year I bought it. My house is actually cheaper than my grandfathers house. And my house is huge in comparison.

My grandparents, with their three daughters, lived in a two bedroom, one-bath house. There was a living room and a dine in kitchen. There was a full, unfinished basement. My grandfather built the detached garage later. It had a massive porch that extended the entire width of the front.

Grandpa added a back porch that was closed in to make it 3.5 seasons. Oh, there was a big mudroom off the back entrance.

When we were looking at houses, our minimum requirement was two full baths, four bedrooms, large kitchen, dining room. What we ended up with was larger than that. And it was still cheaper than my grandparents’ home.

It is fair.

But they didn’t have to pay as much!

It is all relative. My grandparents didn’t spend as much on entertainment. When they did go out, it was often very cheap dates. A nickle movie with popcorn and a soda was a 1/2 hour of labor. A movie with popcorn and soda is about 3/4 of an hour of labor today.

My friend wanted to buy a house for 2 years of labor, while having “needs” that would cost him 5 to 6 years of labor. And being upset.

His argument is that if they people that had come before were to stop being “evil” and “greedy”, there would be more houses.

The issue is that the housing market is currently a seller’s market. The demand is higher than the supply. This means that sellers can demand more money. When they get to where they are going, they will have to pay more as well.

Listening to people dancing at the “profit” they made selling their homes on Monday, and bitching about how unfair it is on Friday when they have to pay more for a new home, makes me giggle. I feel for them. I don’t understand why they don’t get it.

If we were just to…

We have a small lot, for the area, which backs on a few acres of forest. I do not want somebody to build a house right behind us. My options are to purchase the property behind us, risk it, or get the government to zone the land to stop new building.

I would like to purchase the land outright. That would be the best option for us. The risk is fairly low, there isn’t much demand for new housing in our area. But going to the zoning board…, now there’s an idea.

The wonder of the zoning board is that you can often convince the zoning board to put limits on the uses of property to protect the community.

We will zone land as noncommercial to keep traffic out, we might zone an area for single family dwellings to give people a sense of space and property, we might zone an area for high density housing or even trailer parks.

Zoning laws help protect the community from things like semi-trailers driving down the road in front of your house. The government put a US highway through my grandparent’s town. It was the street in front of their house. When they moved in, the road was a tree—lined boulevard. The first time I saw it, it was a four lane road with street parking on both sides and big rigs running through town all day and all night.

Occasionally, we find zoning laws designed to protect our farm land. The farm up the road was on the market for 10 years. Nobody was willing (or able) to buy it. In the end, they were able to sell off about 5 acres of the 100+, which became 3 lots with big houses on it.

Zoning laws kept that farm from becoming a huge apartment complex, or a subdivision.

If we were just to allow people to build as many houses as densely as they want, then house prices would be low enough for me.

Conclusion

I’m wealthy, by world standards. By world standards, I’m part of the “1%”. Then again, so are you.

The people of the United States are unbelievably wealth. The poorest of the poor in America are obese. They are not starving. Some might be hungry, but they are not starving.

I’ve been in section 8 housing to service computers. At a time when large, flat screen TVs were running 1000 to 2000 dollars, they had three.

When I was in high school, at one bus stop the “poor” kids would get off, they would run into their tar paper shacks. These were the kids who got to go to gym class as their first class. So they could use the showers.

They were so poor that they didn’t have enough running hot water for showers. I don’t know if they had showers in those shacks.

I do know that there were always two or three late model Cadillacs in the driveway.

The “poverty line” for the United States is higher than the average income of most countries in the world. Even some 1st and 2nd world countries.

If what you want as a home isn’t here, you need to look further afield or change your specifications.

Crying over what has been isn’t going to change anything.

Complaining that the people with wealth are “greedy” and “evil” isn’t going to change anything.

If it is the government standing in the way of lower costs, then we can get the government out of the way. That doesn’t mean that all zoning laws are bad, some might be.

In general, being upset that some people have things you want and are unwilling to give it up, or are willing to fight to protect their property or the value of their property, is only going to make you mad.

Stop stressing over what others have. Take stock of what you do have and give thanks.

I’ve had a slow leak in the right front wheel of my truck for the last year. When I went to have it fixed, I found that it wasn’t the tire. It was the wheel that was leaking.

Leaking tire? $20. Leaking wheel? $150+

Well, that slow leak isn’t slow anymore. Ally asked for a ride to the store. When we got to the truck, the left front tire was flat.

I could have pulled the air hose to the truck, filled the tire, moved the care to the garage and changed the tire there. But…

I decided that I was feeling old, so I was going to change the tire using only the in vehicle tools.

The tools were not where I expected to find them. Which makes sense. I looked for them under the left rear passenger seat. It was empty.

You don’t put the tools on the left. That would have the driver’s door open for an extended period of time with the driver not paying attention to traffic. Of course, it is under the right rear passenger seat.

The package consists of a hook on a rod, 2 straight rods, the tire iron, and a column jack.

I put the hook and extensions together, then went to find the magic hole to lead to the tire let down. Do you know it is designed to be done in the dark, with your eyes closed? There is a cup designed to accept the hook end. Just feed the rod in until it can go any further, rotate counterclockwise.

This old man was under the truck looking. Trying to find that stupid hole to feed in the rod. I got it done. I got the tire out.

Then it was time to do the tire change. A trick for youngsters, break the nuts free before you lift the tire off the ground. Much easier when the tire doesn’t spin.

In the course of breaking the lug nuts free, I manged to break a stud. Not a huge issue. Just another one of those things.

In the end, I used the car jack to get the tire off the ground. It wasn’t difficult. Surprisingly so. I used the tire iron to break the lug nuts free. After the one stud broke, I did as well.

I finished using a 1/2″ breaker bar and a floor jack.

In the end, I felt like I was able to do the task with the tools at hand.

Practice Your Skills, Even the simple ones

Is this something I could have done faster and easier with my impact wrench, floor jack and such? Yes. But I would not have practiced a skill I want to have. Practice, practice, then practice some more.

Story Time

Years ago, mom took the VW Micro bus in to the tire shop to get new tires put on. She was instructed to tell the staff that she wanted the lug nuts torqued to a specific setting. Per the manual.

When they were done changing the tires, she asked, “Did you torque them as specified?” To which the manager replied, “Of course we did.”

Mom got the bus and drove it around to the entrance. Took the tire iron from the roadside tool kit and went back inside.

She told the manager to come take on lug nut off and replace it on each wheel. The manager shrugged and called one of his guys to take the car back into the bays to do what was requested.

“No, you do it with this”, holding up the tire iron.

He tried, was unable to do so. Mom explained that she needed to be able to change the tire if she was alone with her kids. That she wasn’t going to be able to call him to do it for her when on a road trip to Wisconsin.

The manager “got it”. He sent the bus back in and they torqued the lug nuts to spec.

Ally has an event at the Fort this weekend. I drove her up Friday to stay the next two nights.

We arrived after dark. The moon was bright, the skies clear.

Ordinarily, visiting the fort is stepping back into a bustling place where I have so much to do.

Tonight it was silence. There was nobody but Ally and I.

We got to listen to silence. It was wonderful.

It was dark. Walking through the entrance in the dark is different. The shadows are longer. The palisade, taller, more imposing.

I stood there for a while, thinking of what it would have been like to stand sentry in the dark. My eyes adjusting to the moonlight, watching for the waving of the grass. Listening for anything disturbing the sleep of the fauna.

It is a beautiful memory.

Hopefully, a short one.

I’ve been accused of reacting quickly to situations. Mostly, this is a result of anticipating different situations and making a plan, long before anything happens.

I used to need to walk about a mile from where I parked to the office. This meant I had to carry my briefcase, with “extras”, my coffee travel cup, and my fat old self that distance. Sometimes in the rain, sometimes in the sunshine, and often in the cold and snow.

My briefcase was slung over my left shoulder, my left hand holding the strap. My right hand, held my coffee travel cup. Before I left the vehicle, I repeated, “if attacked, toss mug at attacker, draw.” and “Just drop the mug.”

I never needed to do those actions, but it meant that I had already decided what to do if needed. Preplanning and positioning yourself to have the advantage.

This required me to think about me, about how I respond, about what I would do. It is the easiest level of introspection.

Introspection becomes more difficult when you have to look at yourself, warts included, to figure out if you have done wrong. If you need to change.

If somebody says I did something wrong, I always treat it seriously. I always look to see what I did wrong and, if I was actually wrong, how to change myself to keep from making the same error.

This is difficult to perform honestly. You need to be willing to admit errors, and accept responsibility for your mistakes.

It Is His Fault

If you are not being honest with yourself, it is easy to blame others. It is his fault, not your own.

It isn’t that you didn’t study for the test, it is that he put things on the exam that he didn’t warn you about.

It isn’t that you didn’t start your project until the day it was due, it was the size of the project.

It isn’t that you said objectionable things, it was that he was mean. He wasn’t fair.

If you look at a situation where you feel like you should have succeeded, but didn’t, and you are looking at outside reasons, stop.

Look at yourself. What did you do wrong? What can you do differently.

Just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you

If you look at yourself, and you believe that you didn’t make a mistake, then you can investigate outside causes.

That means investigate.

It does not mean leap to the conclusion. There are often other reasons. Look at yourself first.

When you are looking at outside forces, don’t look at the motive. Look at the actions. Solve the actions before you assume motives.

If you are told that you did something because you have impure motives, this isn’t going to accomplish anything.

Did he perform better than you did. Did she put in a great effort than you did. Did they beat you because they were better than you.

If so, be honest with yourself. Move forward, changing yourself, to do better next time.

I am reminded of the image showing a US soldier on a hillside with civilians hiding behind him. The caption reads, “The difference is that we ourselves between them and the enemy, they put them between themselves and their enemies.”

It was, and is, such a powerful message of the differences between the animals and the civilized nations.

One of the more disgusting things I’ve seen out of Gaza was a video of Hamas placing the shattered body of a child into a bomb crater, to be found with a great deal of anguish on the faces of the actors.

The child was already dead. His skull was hanging open. It was disgusting.

I support Israel. I hope they root out every last terrorist bastard and send them to get their 72 raisins.

The suspicion of an attack on Route 4 is growing: a fatally wounded person at one scene and a moderately wounded person at a second scene Amit Segal on Telegram, Google AI translation

Five injured Amit Segal

One of them died of his wounds Amit Segal

Ben Gvir: The person who killed the terrorists was a citizen who received a weapon thanks to my reform. Amit Segal

The title on the web page is now “Israeli Civilians Are Taking Up Arms”.

The article is another anti-gun screed by the normal people, decrying the number of deaths “caused” by guns.

One of the things that Ben-Gvir’s new regulations have accomplished is that Israeli citizens are no longer disarmed after a self-defense shooting.

While we in the US have backup guns for our backup guns, many people that own firearms in foreign countries consider themselves to be lucky to have just one. … the practice of requiring citizens involved in an attack to hand over their personal weapons for extended examination and investigation.—id.

It seems like they are starting to come around to “it is a good idea for people to be armed”.

To put this in some sort of perspective, Israel is smaller in area than New Hampshire. It is a little longer north-south and about the same east-west. There isn’t a place in New Hampshire that you can’t reach from the border within an hour of driving.

The enemies of Israel surround it. There is no place more than an hour from the border with hostiles.

The date was July 24, 1969. The world waited to see the spacecraft to return. They should land in a very accurate area, some of 6 miles by 10 miles Timestamp 1:14:10

The video is 640×480 NTSC, (Never Twice the Same Color).

There were multiple US warships in near the splashdown zone. Thousands of men to recover the command module before it sank, or something else bad happened.

The day is October 13, 2024. The booster for StarShip returns to the pad, where it lands within the cradle of a gigantic pair of arms, called “The Chopsticks”. The booster has extended four short pegs which will rest on top of the catch arms.

All of this is being filmed in beautiful 4k (or better).

The decision was made to attempt the catch after the last test flight landed within a few centimeters of the target.

Later this day, the booster is lowered and preparations are started for the next launch.

Yes, we are going to Mars.

Aim small, miss small. We have gone from a CEP of 5 miles to a CEP of 0.5 inches.

Confirmation Bias, another woke pseudo-science?

One of the most infuriating things to hear a “journalist” report, is that something is a “dog whistle” for some nefarious think.

The idea that when I say, “Peacefully march to the Capitol” the reality is that this is a “dog whistle” to storm the Capitol.

The remarkable thing is that only these hard hitting, truth to power, journalists can hear these dog whistles. The rest of us can’t. But I’m told that this is all super secret communications directed at me and people like me.

Microaggression is the pseudo-science that allows a “victim” to be victimized by minute aggressive words, phrases, and actions. Hold the door open for a female student with her arms full of books is a microaggression. You are telling them that they need a male’s help.

Other things that sound like pseudo-science are real. Neuro linguistic programming, is one. Except it is very real. I’ve seen it used. I’ve used it. It works, and it works well.

The gist is that you can associate words, phrases, and actions with feelings. Then using those words, phrases, or actions can cause the programmed person to react with the same feelings.

Confirmation Bias is also real. It is the process of being more likely to believe something that confirms what you already believe. Nothing woke about it. We all suffer from it. Some of us just understand it exists and work to defeat it. I.e., have coping methods.

What’s the Big Deal about Frames and Receivers?

The bump-stock ATF rule was a clear-cut case of the ATF overstepping their legislative authority.

The ATF’s frame and receiver rule, not so much. I’m not sure if we are going to win this one, on regulatory overreach.

The ATF has never given clear rules on how to determine if something is a frame or a receiver. The only way to know if an item is a hunk of aluminum or a hunk of plastic vs. a frame or receiver, is to have a determination letter from the ATF.

You need to send the ATF the item you have made. If the ATF determines it is a frame or receiver, they tell you that. I do not know what will happen to you because you have just sent the ATF a frame or receiver (a firearm) that is not serialized, as required by the GCA of 1968.

By examining the determination letters, manufacturers were able to black box the point at which an item crossed the magic line, in the ATF’s view, and became a frame or receiver.

In looking at the determination letters, the context is always the same, “This is a frame or receiver because only these operations need to be done to reach the fully functional stage.”

The determination letters describe those operations. “Drill a 5/8in hole, then use a 4/8 rotary file to complete the frame or receiver”. It is a determination based on the number of operations, the difficulty of those operations, the equipment needed to complete those operations.

The difficulty of an operation is based on the skills required. Today, a numb skull can read the directions and achieve acceptable results, a fully functional firearm, in only a few hours of work. Given my current skill set, the tools I have available, I figure it should take me about 2 hours to fully mill an 80% lower. A 50% lower would take me 4 to 8 hours.

The ATF is arguing that they are applying the same logic, to fulfill the same legislative language. That, as such, they have not changed how they do the rule making, only that they are allowing for modern tools and methods.

Poison in the Well

When a rogue inferior court wants to deny The People their rights, they have no problem finding help from other rogue inferior courts.

Years ago, Bush SR instituted a new educational directive, “No Child Left Behind.” The concept of this program was to make sure that every student received the resources they needed to succeed. Regardless of their abilities.

This might mean that one set of students was receiving instruction in advanced math and literature while another set of students was receiving instruction in remedial math and literature. Both sets would receive enough instruction to succeed at their level.

That was the boss’s instructions.

But teachers don’t implement, they follow directions. By the time the line workers, the teachers in the trenches, received orders on how to implement “no child left behind”, it had become a mockery of what was intended.

The teacher’s unions said that “no child left behind” meant that no child could be held back. Instead, every child had to pass every year. It was designed to fail, and it did. And Bush was made to look worse.

The district courts have the ability and the responsibility to read Bruen and all Supreme Court opinions and to follow them.

Instead, they play stupid, claiming that they don’t have clear guidance. Since their immediate superior court hasn’t given them guidance, they then must turn to other courts, where they get to cherry-pick.

Thus, we have multiple district level courts claiming that “does the conduct proposed implicate the Second Amendment?” requires the plaintiffs to prove that the arm in question is a covered arm. Then they narrow the definition of “arm” to exclude firearms they don’t like.

Who Had “Good Judges in New York” on their Bingo Cards?

It appears that Trump’s appeal of the so-called “fraud” case was heard.

According to the State of New York, a businessman, asked to borrow money. He offered as collateral different property. As part of the negotiation process, he valued his property at the top of the market. They bank valued it at less.

The bank testified on behalf of the businessman that they intended to give the loan, regardless of the value of the collateral, because they had done loans to this businessman in the past. And that he had repaid all past loans, with interest, in full. It was a good business decision to make more money from him.

The loan was given, the businessman repaid the loan with interest. All parties were satisfied.

The state decided that this was actually fraud in play. That the bank must not have done due diligence in assessing the collateral. Because they didn’t do due diligence, the businessman got away with defrauding the bank.

Even though he repaid the loan, as he promised he would do.

At the appeals level in NY State, the 5 judge panel dug into the prosecutors. Some video is difficult to watch, there is so much blood spilled.

The prosecutors seemed to be begging to escape the courtroom without sanctions.

If the questions are any indication, this case will be dismissed as the political hatchet job it is.

Bianchi to get his day in court?

Finally, the Bianchi case is before the Supreme Court seeking cert. The plaintiffs, (good guys), had appealed the horrific opinion by the Fourth Circuit with in 15 days of the opinion being published. The state asked for and was granted a 30-day extension.

The plaintiffs did not oppose the extension.

When a case is submitted for certiorari, the opposing party is granted time to file an opposition brief. If this is done through the emergency docket, a justice will deny the request or present it to the court.

The justice might require a response and in general, the opposition will file a brief in opposition.

Occasionally, a stay or injunction will be issued, and the case will be moved to the regular docket to request a writ of certiorari.

Once on the docket, there will be a briefing schedule set. Once the final briefs are submitted, per the schedule, the case will be distributed for conference.

In conference, the justices will decide if they want to grant cert.

If a case were to be distributed for conference this week, and it was granted cert, the case would be heard in the 2024-2025 term with an opinion issuing sometime in July or August, at the latest.

By default, it looks like the response is due with in 30 days. This would require the state to file their response by September 23rd. On September 11th, they asked for 30 days more. This was granted. The state’s response is due October 23rd.

If this schedule is met, then the case will be distributed on November 6th. It would be heard in conference on November 22nd.

The state has requested a 30-day extension. This would push the first time the case could be considered to January 10th, 2025.

This could mean that the case would not be heard until the 2025-2026 term, with an opinion issuing in July/August 2026, 4 years after the case was originally GVRed.

The justices want to conference on this case in 2024. They did not grant the full 30 days. Instead, the deadline for the response is now November. 12th.

The Math of weaving

I have a little gizmo for winding thread from my bobbins into a coil. Each full round is one yard in length. Other versions of the gizmo warp 2 yards with each full wrap.

There are several tools around the fort that measure yarn/thread by the yard. This is helpful when it is time to warp (or dress) your loom.

The process starts with determining the wraps per inch of your yarn. This is accomplished by wrapping the yarn around a ruler until one inch is filled. The yarn should be touching, but not overlapping.

This gives you the number of wraps per inch.

The yarn we are using is 22 wraps per inch.

Next, we convert this to ends per inch. This is determined by the waving pattern used. An over/under plain weave, the density factor is 1/2. For a twill, it is 2/3. We intend to do a twill. This means our factor is 2/3 which gives us 14.6 ends per inch.

This can be rounded down to 14 or up to 16. Odd setts are more difficult.

The loom has a weaving width of 46 inches. This is 736 ends at 16 EPI.

The warping board I used has 35 pegs. Three are not used for length but for the cross and ???.

The pegs are 2 yards apart. One full run is thus 64 yards long.

We would need 47,200 yards of yarn. At 400 yards per hour, that is around 120 hours of spinning. Note that you will need the same amount for the weft as well. That is about 53 pounds of wool.

After I finished making a new peg for the warping board, I started winding. The distance between pegs was enough that I had to take a couple of half steps to move back and forth.

With Ally’s help, pulling the thread of the cone, I was able to do about 3600 yards in 4 hours. I was getting faster there at the end.

My warp is only 10 yards long.

The next step is to finish restoring the reed then to dress the loom. I’m sure that Ally will take pictures of that too. So you poor folks will have to see pictures of me dressing the loom.

You are scrolling through the cesspool that is social media, and you stumble upon an article with a title of “FEMA refuses access to NC donations.”

Your mind goes, “Yeah, FEMA sucks. Just another example of the government ‘helping’.”

Why?

Because your confirmation bias is at work. What you read matches what you expect to read, it matches what you want to be true.

A leftist reads, “Trump makes racists comments at rally.” Their confirmation bias says that this is true.

The confirmation bias can be so strong, that no amount of evidence can break through. The fine people hoax is a good example of this.

We call it a hoax. They say we are lying. They know we are lying because “MAGAts” always lye. Besides, they have seen the video. He says those words.

Confirmation bias can overtake common sense and people that generally make good decisions.

The other day, Ally was telling me about Marjorie Taylor Greene saying something about government weather control in the house.

I’ve heard MTG say really dumb things. She seems to be a good representative, but occasionally, she doesn’t apply common sense to what she is saying/thinking.

Since I have come to expect MTG to say such “dumb things”, my confirmation bias kicked in. I was thinking, “Yeah, that sounds like something she would say, buying into the latest conspiracy theory.”

This led to the next words out of my mouth, “I’ve not verified that she said that.”

Ally told me she had. I accept that as a given. I still have not verified. I believe it to be true, I don’t know that it is true. Therefore, I tell you to verify before you pass it on.

This morning, She showed me a video purporting to be a CBS “cut and paste” of answers into her interview.

In the video, the top version showed Kamala answering a question without actually answering, but cleanly. The bottom version showed her answering the question in a faulting, stilled way.

The interview is done with cut edits. A cut edit is when there is no transition from one scene to the next. It just “cuts” from one scene to the next.

A standard interview technique is called the “one camera interview”. The camera is set up behind the interviewer, focused on the person being interviewed. The interviewer asks their questions, the camera records the answers. The camera is then repositioned facing the interviewer. They then run through the same questions with the camera recording the questions.

Back in the studio, the two videos are spliced, making it appear that they are two cameras.

You can see this used in some interview fakes. A person positions a camera pointing at themselves. They ask a series of questions. They then splice the answers from different interviews and different questions as the response. This makes the person being “interviewed” look like an idiot.

When I was presented with the video of Kamala, my confirmation bias kicked in. Yes, CBS would do this. Yes, Kamala is so bad at answering questions, they likely had multiple takes. This is real.

This caused me to go, “This is too good to be true. I need to verify.”

This is a person I have been following for years. She has shown herself to be honest. When she makes mistakes, she comes back, acknowledges the error, corrects the error and moves on.

She was in MA, she is currently in TN(?)