• Are you ready for what happens after the apocalypse? I’m not talking about the zombie apocalypse here, nor am I referring to the next pandemic. The apocalypse I mean is the one that’s currently predicted: Harris winning the election. I know some of you are laughing, but please don’t. I am quite serious about this. What are your plans for if she wins?

    There are so many moving parts to planning for a Harris win. We have to consider the possibility (likelihood?) of social unrest. There may be a repeat of January 6th, this time with weapons, even if Harris is a clear winner (which I think is unlikely). More importantly, we need to plan for the economic downfall of the country.

    It’s time to stock up on some basic things. From now until the election, prices have eased slightly. Harris is trying to buy votes. I know money is tight, but it’s really time to go and buy up all the canned goods you use in a year. Pick up extras of all your dry goods. If you can, order a half cow and stash it in your freezer. I have a funny feeling that if she wins, the country is going to get very expensive, very fast.

    I always say, prep what you eat, and eat what you prep. This isn’t for a long-term emergency, though. This is food that you expect to eat over the next year. So look at what you use on a regular basis. For me, in the canned goods department I use a ton of canned tomatoes (both regular and the type with the chilies in it). I use canned beans (black, red, chili, garbanzo, etc.) as well as dry ones. I use rice, specifically Jasmine or Basmati. My family likes sausage, and I can usually find them on sale, so I will buy extras and toss them into the freezer. Last week, I found turkey breasts on sale for 99 cents a pound, and I bought the limit.

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  • Wednesday was a good day, sort of. I was able to shut down my K8S cluster.

    The amount of grief this new fangled thing has given me cannot be overstated.

    Bluntly, most of the issues could have been resolved by throwing more money at the problem. K8S does work for large infrastructure solutions. The sort of infrastructure where you have 10+ nodes and each node has 32+ GB of memory.

    What does this mean for Troglodite? We are moving sideways to a different type of infrastructure. This is built on more VMs but smaller.

    “The” debate happened. It was the first presidential debate I’ve watched in years. I had to tune it out about 15 minutes in, when the referees tackled Trump for the second time. I.e., did a fact check and reported Trump lied when he had not.

    It was the three on one that I had hoped not to see.

    The number of manipulative things that were done to make Trump look bad.

    His microphone was louder. This makes him sound more aggressive.

    They were keeping his microphone muted after Kamala stopped talking, he started talking into a dead mic. A second or so later, his mic goes live, but it makes it sound like he is talking over Kamala when he is not.

    They asked him questions that were phrased in the negative, they asked her questions phrased in the positive.

    The fallout on the debate was surprising. Immediately after the debate, there were all the cheerleaders claiming that Kamala won and talking about how bad Trump was. Many claiming that the fact checking proved that Trump does nothing but lie.

    This filled my X feed. More leftist noise than I normally see in a month, all in that first 5 hours.

    But, the discussion has morphed into “How bad was ABC? Can we give them a -5 on a scale of 1 to 10?”.

    Not just on the right, but CNN is holding up the ABC debate as proof they aren’t leftist. When you lose CNN, you are really messing things up.

    Social media, thank you to all of those that are following .

    It is sad, I check the number of followers I have a few times a day, looking for those triple digit follows.

    More federal judges are twisting the words of the Supreme Court to get the outcomes they want. Most of those are ending up in court, and losing. Even the Ninth Circus is putting up (temporary) wins for The People.

    Have a fantastic weekend!

            

  • I’ve been advocating for the Right of The People to keep and bear arms for decades now. After the Sandy Hook shooting, I was in a discussion with somebody on Google+. They were attempting to come up with a “common-sense gun safety laws”.

    After a couple of days going back and forth, they asked “Well, what law would you propose?”

    “A well regulated militia, being necessary for the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

    He didn’t reply.

    Regardless of what anybody tells you, the supreme law of the United States is the Constitution, as amended. It is not a document locked in amber, nor is it bright, transient dots on a display, it is the bedrock of our country.

    It is difficult to modify, there have been only 17 amendments since 1791 when the first 10 were ratified. That is a very stable foundation to work from.

    The problem that leftest have with The Constitution is that it is too stable. It does not progress as they would like to see.

    If it doesn’t progress, then it must be thrown out. According to them.

    So we have endless arguments about “well regulated”, and “being necessary” means it is a collective right.

    They modify the meaning of the words so that they can twist the foundation of the Constitution. I fear for our grand children. They will have to depend on the translations of others to know what our Constitution actually says.

    Consider this for a moment, how many times have you heard or heard of somebody saying that the King James Bible holds the words of Christ?

    I promise you, it does not. Jesus Christ did not speak English. I can’t tell you what he spoke, it is not relevant.

    My point is that most people cannot read the original Bible because we don’t read that language. I can read some Latin. I know others that can read ancient Greek. Those scholars are few and far between.

    Words have meaning. Leftists don’t care what the meaning of a word is. They choose the meaning of the word as they want it now. Which can change in 10 minutes, or less.

    So the arguments always start from the same place: How can we get away with breaking the law?

    In Heller, the Supreme Court said that the Second Amendment protects the core right of self-defense.

    So for 22 years we had people breaking the law because their needs were more important than the law. Justified by saying they weren’t hurting “the core right of self-defense too much”.

    They were breaking the law, and they knew it. They knew it then, they know it now.

    Shall not be infringed? Well, it isn’t too much. YES, it is too much. You are breaking the law every time you infringe on my Right to keep and bear arms.

    A machine gun isn’t an “arm” under the plain text of the Second Amendment? Why? Because it isn’t used for self-defense.

    Is it an arm? It is a firearm. This makes it an arm. FULL STOP.

    We’re not going to take away your Second Amendment rights — we’re going to prevent your kids from getting shot at school. — Tim Walz
    For nearly 50 years, @Bradybuzz has been fighting for common-sense gun laws, but we must also tackle the Big Lie that makes people believe owning a gun makes them safer — and if that were true, America would be the safest country in the world. (2/2) — Kriss Brown, Brady
    Together, we passed the first bipartisan law addressing gun violence prevention in nearly 30 years, but we have more work to do.

    We must pass an assault weapons ban, universal background checks, and red flag laws. — Kamala Harris

            

  • I admit it, I’m struggling. I don’t understand a lot of this. I know what I thought and said four years ago. I know what I felt during Trump’s first four years. I know that I had a small inkling into the lies of the Left, but not enough to make me change. Now? Now I see so much, and I wonder how I could have been so stupid.

    I’m constantly being blasted with headlines like What If Trump Wins? (“The safeguards that kept Trump in check during his first term have collapsed — starting with the MAGA-fication of the Republican Party. “We know from the first administration that Trump was an amateur and lots of people stopped his most radical actions,” says Jason Stanley, a Yale professor and author of How Fascism Works. He underscores that Trump’s darkest ambitions were present from the beginning — from the Muslim ban to the coup attempt of Jan. 6. “The only thing that stopped him from being a full-on dictator was other people,” Stanley says. “We know that that’s not going to happen anymore.”), Pelosi suggests Trump might skip presidential debate against Harris: ‘I know cowardice when I see it’ (“Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested former President Trump could skip the upcoming presidential debate because of ‘cowardice’…”), and Trump warms up for debate by threatening to jail election officials (“Trump warned he will jail election officials he considers cheats; is complaining Pennsylvania’s voting is a fraud; vowed to pardon January 6 rioters; railed against women who accused him of sexual misconduct; and spent hours in recent days on sometimes incoherent rants that raised questions about his state of mind.”).

    The so-called news doesn’t seem to match the reality. When I go and research things, it turns out that words are taken out of context, lies are being told, and things are being blown ridiculously out of proportion. I’m especially confused by the comments about “incoherent rants” that I keep hearing about. I tried to listen to Trump back when he first ran, and I found it difficult. His speaking voice was uncomfortable in pitch, and he tended to ramble. He’s gotten MUCH better. I admit I wondered if it was my own bias that made it seem less coherent before, but I went back and listened and a lot of what he said on campaign tended to be difficult to follow. He has either taken lessons in public speaking, or has been practicing. Regardless, his ability to stay on topic is much better. That aside, when you hold up Biden or Harris beside him, the term “incoherent” should not even be considered. Good grief.

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  • This is an attempt to cleanse my palate after watching part of the debate.

    The magic of the can…

    Or better stated, the how to preserve food.

    We are spoiled today, we go to the local supermarket and purchase almost any type of food we want, regardless of the growing season. It will be fresh and safe to consume.

    My parents would not have dreamed of such luxuries when they were children.

    We have a tradition of putting an orange into our Christmas stockings. Today, no big deal. When the tradition started, in my parents’ or grandparent’s time, it was a big deal. Those oranges were brought from far away at great expense. It was fresh and taste.

    Yesterday, my wife went grocery shopping. We don’t eat as well as we did 4 years ago, inflation has eaten much of our purchasing power. Still, she was able to pick up fresh avocados and a bag of oranges.

    If we don’t want fresh food, we can buy our food frozen. Still tasty. The quality is good, actually. Much better than I remember as a child.

    But that food is not “shelf stable” and it will not last if the power goes out.

    Smoked and dried foods will last a long time, but they too have issues, one of the large ones is that they are unprotected from the elements. It is no fun to find that your dried goods have been eaten by some critter.

    Canned goods are, generally, shelf stable. They do lose nutritional value over time, but that time is measured in decades.

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  •         

  • For me, the flavors in a good soup are the taste of autumn. I adore soup weather, and with the nights getting colder, I’m looking up my soup recipes. Last week, I made a small pot of beef barley soup, and I impressed even myself. It’s easy to do, and you can even pop it in the crock pot if you want.

    Ingredients:

    • 2 lbs beef shin bone (with bone and marrow)
    • 1/4 cup red wine (for deglazing the pan)
    • olive oil (for cooking)
    • 1 onion, diced
    • 2 ribs celery, diced
    • 1 carrot, diced
    • 6 cups beef broth
    • 1-1/2 cups pearl barley, rinsed
    • 1 tbsp tomato paste (optional)
    • bay leaf
    • spices to taste (salt, pepper, thyme, oregano, sage)

    In a soup pot, add a bit of the olive oil and bring to a medium heat. When the oil is shimmering, add in the beef shin bones. If you have more than one, you may need to do them one at a time. Don’t crowd the bottom of the pot. You want to sear the meat for about 2 minutes per side, then set the meat aside.

    Add a bit more olive oil if necessary, then toss in the onion, celery, and carrot (this is called a mirepoix, and it’s the base of many soups and stews), and saute until the vegetables are softened but not yet brown. Use the red wine, a little at a time, to deglaze the pan. Add in a drizzle of wine, and then use a wooden spoon or spatula (it should be wooden, NOT plastic or rubber) to scrape up all the stuff off the bottom of the pot. That “stuff” is called fond, and it’s delicious.

    Once the pan is deglazed, put the meat back in (still on the bone), along with the broth, bay leaf, and tomato paste. Stir to combine the ingredients. Bring it to a boil, then lower the heat and allow the soup to simmer for about an hour. Taste the broth, and then adjust for flavor by adding the spices of your choice.

    Rinse your barley well, and pick out any stones you may find. Add the barley to your soup, and raise the temperature enough to keep the liquid at a steady strong simmer. Check on your soup every 15 minutes or so, to ensure nothing is burning. Add more beef broth if necessary. Continue to simmer until the barley is completely cooked and is chewy.

    Lower the heat to its lowest setting, and remove the meat from the soup. Carefully trim the meat from the bone and put it back into the soup. Get rid of any gristle or fat, but make sure that the marrow from the shin bone goes back into the soup. The marrow makes your broth rich and tasty. Taste and adjust the spices as necessary, and then serve.

    I like to serve this soup with fresh baked bread, still warm from the oven. If you’re not a baker, pick up a nice ciabatta at the grocery store, drizzle olive oil over it and toss on some salt and pepper, then heat in the oven at 350F for five to ten minutes.

    This soup freezes very well. If you have a pressure canner, you may can it, as well. I find I never have enough left over to can up, though! A note on the tomato paste: I find it adds a nice zing to the broth, but it isn’t necessary. Some people like to put crushed tomato or stewed tomato into their beef barley soup, but I’m a purist.

            

  • A mentally troubled kid decided to take his AR-15 to school and start shooting.

    The good news is that there was an SRO on site. This SRO ran to the sound of gun fire. The cowardly asshole shooter gave up as soon as a good guy with a gun arrived.

    The bad news is that 2 teachers and 2 children lost their lives.

    Thank god it wasn’t another Uvalde.

    The father of the shooter has been arrested and charged with manslaughter. This is likely a direct result of the parents of the Michigan shooter being found guilty of their child shooting up a school.

    Before the blood was cold, before the smoke had cleared, the blood vultures were at it again.

    For some reason, they are big in the collective punishment game. I’m considered guilty of killing children because I have guns. Worse, I have a black gun that looks like an AR-15.

    They have no issues with the actual weapons of war I have in my collection. The M1, the Springfield Trapdoor, the K98 and others are all weapons of war. They were all carried in battle.

    But for some reason, that AR-15 style firearm is so evil I have to give mine up because some nut job used a gun to kill people.

    Still no word on the murder capital of the US, Chicago. Oh, right, that’s black on black crime. I guess that doesn’t matter to the blood vultures.

    Years ago, my eldest son, in 2nd grade, came home to report that he had been in lockdown. This was the first I had heard of “lock-downs” in schools.

    When I went to talk to the principal, he explained it was a drill because a bad person could come and shoot up the kids.

    He made a mistake, he asked me “What do you want me to do?”

    “I want you to open the gun safe, take your gun out and run to the sound of gun fire and stop the shooter.”

    He did not like that answer. Seems that he would rather children die than have the right tool to save lives.

    Most schools are “weapon free”. A local high school was on lockdown for most of the day, this then extended to a local elementary school.

    The cause of the lockdown? A high school student was spotted with a pocket knife. When they demanded to look into his stuff, he left. He walked home. That happened to have him walking into town. The elementary school was in the general direction.

    This required therapy dogs and counselors to deal with the panic the staff instilled in the kids.

    I’m sick of the blood vultures. Every one of them starts their argument with the same line of reasoning: We should break the law! It is for the good of the children!

    Why do they always advocate breaking the law?

    Oh, that’s right, they don’t like that law. So it must mean something else. You know, like only muskets, they say on their Wi-Fi enabled handheld magic box.

    “You ignore the first part of the amendment, about well regulated! That means plenty of laws.” No, it means functioning well. It is still used in some technical fields to mean exactly that.

    Or it only applies to “the militia”. The English doesn’t scan that way. The Supreme Court has said it is an individual right. The amendment says “the right of the people“. But they are dishonest.

            

  • In the best of worlds, the courts would work to enforce the laws as they were meant. We wouldn’t have judges and justices that are so goal-driven that their wants forces a predetermined outcome.

    The state passes a bad law. The People file a suit challenging the law. They request a temporary injunction, a preliminary injunction, and summary judgement.

    The court looks and agrees that the law is likely bad and grants the TRO. The parties file briefs, the court grants the preliminary injunction as well. The case does or does not succeed on a summary judgement and moves to arguments.

    The case is heard by the court, the court issues their final judgement, or they issue the summary judgement in favor of The People

    The state files an appeal. The administrative panel reads the court’s judgement, allows it to stay in place, schedules the case for a hearing before a merits panel. The merits panel looks at the case law and the lower court’s opinion and finds for The People.

    The state pleads for an en banc hearing. The court denies the request.

    The state file a motion for certiorari with the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court denies cert, case over. The People win.

    Unfortunately, that is seldom how it works.
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  • About 6 months ago, I picked up a Kershaw Select Fire based on a suggestion in one of the comments.

    After I wrote about it, I was asked to do a review after I had been using it for 6 months or so.

    First, it is lighter than my Cold Steel. When in hand, it deploys as fast. It is easier to close than the Cold Steel. I find myself fumbling and being unhappy when I have to close the Cold Steel.

    The liner lock works for me. The only locking knife that has a better release was my exchange blade Gerber. That had the release on the side. Your fingers didn’t get near the blade when closing.

    The liner lock requires your thumb to be inline with the closing blade, but only for a moment, and it is comfortable to move out of the way. With the Cold Steel, you needed to squeeze the lock on the back to release. This put your fingers in the wrong place while you didn’t have a great grip on the knife.

    The Cold Steel is a win on the pocket clip. I can place the knife in any of four different positions, tip down, tip up, left or right clip. The Kershaw only allows for left/right, not tip up.

    For me, this means the knife comes out of the pocket in the wrong orientation. I have to do a rotate in my hand before I can deploy the blade. It is a rapid and easy deploy.

    The actual blade is nice. It has held an edge for the last 6 months. It needs a touch up. Kershaw offers free sharpening. I have not looked into that. I’m sure I can sharpen this blade, I haven’t needed to. Almost there, not quite.

    I’ve used it on cardboard, carving wood, lots of plastic, sealing tape, scraping things clean, cutting food and general use. No issues.

    So what about the gimmick? The folding 1/4″ socket and four bits held in spring-loaded holders on the side?

    First, it is not a Gerber. This is NOT a multi-tool. The number of times I reached for it because I wanted my Gerber is unreasonably high. It just isn’t a Gerber.

    That said, I wouldn’t have had the Gerber with me in those cases, I would have had the Cold Steel. This Kershaw is a replacement for my Cold Steel, NOT for the Gerber. If I leave the house, the Gerber is with me. Inside the house, the Gerber is not with me, but I have real tools instead.

    The first thing I learned is that a 1/4″ socket is not the right size, most of the time. In the past 6 months, two screws have had 1/4″ heads. Those were located yesterday.

    Every other screw has had a larger head size. It had gotten to the point where I was considering adding that socket to my junk to carry. Then decided against it.

    When using the screwdriver bits, it works a champ. Very happy. The bits are good enough. They are well-made, The socket holds them firmly, they don’t wiggle. It feels much like using a fat handled replaceable bit screwdriver.

    As such, I prefer it to my Gerber. It takes a little longer to deploy, but it fits better.

    The downside, yesterday I needed to pry a clip up. The driver slid in, as it should, then I started to pry. The socket popped off.

    It went back on, I was very surprised it came off. I haven’t tried to repair it yet. I’m not sure how to repair it.

    This is a significant disappointment.

    I am more than willing to accept that if I use a blade as a pry bar, I should expect the blade to break. I have had far too many blades destroyed or damaged because I used them to pry or twist and had a piece snap off.

    Do I recommend this tool? Today, that would be “no”. If I can get the socket to stay, it will become a “yes”, with caveats.

    I have also not looked into Kershaw’s repair policy.