• Image you are a school bus driver. You’ve just picked up a load full of elementary school students to take them home.

    And they start singing “Joy To The World.” Every. Single. Day.

    That is how we tortured our bus driver.

            

  • It’s that time of year. Most of us enjoy a turkey over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. My family tends to do the “friendsgiving” thing on Saturday, but we also have a small gathering on Thursday afternoon. Turkey is ubiquitous. It’s also a bear to cook, if you ask many chefs. I’ve never understood that. My turkey always turns out moist, delicious, falling off the bone, and perfect. Maybe I’m just special? Never mind, I’m going to share my turkey secrets with you, so that you can also have a perfect turkey this Thanksgiving!

    Ingredients:

    • one turkey, 15-22 lbs
    • stuffing of choice
    • Bell’s seasoning
    • bacon or butter
    • fresh herbs (parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme are popular)

    I prefer to make my turkey in a Westinghouse, because it frees up my oven for pies and other sides. The cooking method is exactly the same, though, no matter what container you use.

    To prepare your turkey, make sure that all the giblets are out of it. Check the main cavity, but also the space around the neck. Sometimes, butchers like to hide little gifts in there, and it’s unpleasant to realize that half way through the cooking process, when the plastic they’re wrapped in begins to melt. I like to rinse my turkey, inside and out, but that’s a personal choice. If you do rinse it, make sure that your sink area is clear of all items that might be besmirched, and do a bleach wipe afterward. Turkeys (and chickens) can carry salmonella and other stuff, and even a little of it lingering on a countertop is bad. Use a lint free towel to dry off the exterior of your turkey. Salt the inside of your turkey well by taking a handful of salt and rubbing it on all the interior surfaces. This isn’t meant to be caking it on. Think of it as like a dry rub for steaks.

    Add your stuffing. My family uses a variety of recipes depending on the year. We have a wild rice and sausage meat stuffing, and a more traditional bread and liver stuffing (nicknamed “heart attack stuffing” because of the “one egg per pound of turkey” rule used in it). If you don’t feel like making a stuffing, add the heel of a loaf of bread and one quartered onion to your turkey’s cavity. You can also add an apple or orange, if you like. Do not leave the cavity empty, as it changes how the turkey cooks. If you are in a rush, feel free to make up some “stove top stuffing” and jam it up inside there. I’m not going to judge you. Put your raw, stuffed turkey into the roaster pan or Westinghouse and tie the legs together with the tail tucked up in between them. Tuck the wings down into the bird’s underarms as best you can. Don’t panic if it doesn’t work; if the wings are a bit crispy at the end, they’ll be perfect for making turkey broth the day after Thanksgiving.

    Using your hands, loosen the skin over the breasts of the turkey. There are several ways you can proceed here. My personal method is to stuff part of my bread stuffing up into the breast area, where it will keep the breast meat moist and help it cook. However, if you’re not using a bread stuffing, you can instead rub the breast meat UNDER the skin with either bacon or butter. Leave little bits of it under the skin. Slide your fresh herbs up under the skin, too, if you like. I almost always slide in a sprig of rosemary and a few leaves of sage from my garden. These will flavor the breast meat, especially as that bacon or butter melts into it.

    Sprinkle the outer skin of your turkey with Bell’s seasoning and a bit of salt, pepper, and paprika (REAL paprika, not the red sawdust that passes for “paprika” in most stores). The skin should be evenly speckled with the seasoning, not covered entirely. Make sure to get some of that on the wings and legs, as well as the breast. Cover the turkey with a lid or tin foil, and put it into the cold oven or Westinghouse.

    Bring your oven or cooker to 450F. Add a bit of olive oil or bacon fat to the bottom of your turkey roaster or Westinghouse pan, to help keep your turkey from sticking. If you want it to be really rich, you can melt a stick of butter in there, but beware that it may smoke due to the high temperature. Once the oven is to temperature, let it sizzle for 15 minutes, no more. Turn the heat down to 300F, and walk away.

    You will not look at your turkey again until an hour before you think it’ll be ready. I mean, you can peek now and again, but you don’t need to baste or anything else. I will sometimes suck the fat out of the bottom of the roaster, if I think it’s getting too much, but that’s an individual thing.

    Turkey cooks for about 20 minutes per pound of turkey, when stuffed. That means if your turkey is 21 lbs, like mine, it’ll take about 7 hours (yes, SEVEN) to cook (20 minutes per pound, that’s 3 pounds per hour, divided into 21 lbs, which gives you an answer of 7). When you get to the bigger end of turkeys (over 18 lbs), the timing gets wiggly. I might only have my turkey in for six hours, so I have to watch it during the last couple of hours to make sure it isn’t overcooked. For anything under 18 lbs, though, you’re safe to count 20 minutes per pound of turkey. Always start checking on it an hour before you think it’ll be ready, though.

    Having a meat thermometer on hand is really handy. I use mine all the time. Turkey must be between 160 and 165F internally to be properly cooked. Turkey also continues to cook and rise in temperature for a full 20 minutes after it comes out of the oven. I always aim for 160F, knowing it’ll go up more as it rests before I slice it up.

    If you don’t have a meat thermometer, or don’t care to use one, you can also do the “leg wiggle” method of testing. As you near the end of your estimated cooking time, wiggle one of the legs gently. You may need to pierce the skin if there’s a lot of liquid inside, which is fine. Your turkey leg should be very loose, almost coming off, when it’s ready. If your turkey leg comes off in your hand when you go to wiggle it, it’s definitely ready. Don’t panic if it does… this method of cooking will result in it not being dry even if you’re a little over in your cooking time.

    Turkey MUST rest for a minimum of 15 minutes before you cut into it. Take it out of the oven, and out of the roaster. Place it on a large cutting board. I usually place a handful of towels I don’t much care about underneath the board, because the juices will run when you start cutting, and it’s easier to clean up if it’s all just drained into a towel. The resting time allows much of the liquid to be reabsorbed into the turkey meat itself, making it taste incredibly moist and delicious. It also lets it finish cooking. While you’re waiting, make some gravy with the pan drippings!

    Don’t forget to take your stuffing out before you carve the turkey. You can do that at the 15 minute mark, if you like.

    I usually cut the turkey up onto two platters: one dark, and one light meat. The breast is the most difficult part to cut up, in my opinion. It’s always at an odd angle. Take a few pictures of the turkey before you start cutting it up, and then carefully (using silicon heat pads if necessary) remove the two breasts and put them flat on the cutting board. It should be fairly easy, by cutting along the breast bone and then just gently pulling downward. Once on the cutting board, your turkey breast meat will slice up quickly and neatly. After that, you can pull off the legs, thighs, wings, and whatever dark meat you can get at. I can’t stress how useful silicon gloves are, because you can clean them in a way that fabric ones can’t be, which means you can grasp the various parts of the turkey more easily.

    I know it seems like a lot of work. It really isn’t. Most of my turkey time is spent doing all the other assorted foods that go along with turkey. We usually eat around 5pm or so, which means I’m not getting up at the crack of dawn to try and do a gyn exam on my turkey before I’ve had coffee. I can get up at a reasonable hour, and set it all in motion by 10am. Once you’ve done this a time or two, it’ll become second nature. It’s such an easy way to prep the turkey.

    A few notes:

    • Don’t pre-stuff your turkey the night before. You can make the stuffing ahead of time and have it ready to go, but letting it sit overnight inside the turkey will be a sure way of getting everyone to the ER in record time. Don’t do it.
    • Do invest in silicone gloves, a decent carving knife (NOT an electric knife), and the Bell’s seasoning.
    • If you use bread stuffing, REALLY stuff it in there. Cram it in. Every chef I’ve watched on television goes on and on about how you should never over stuff your turkey For Reasons. Ignore them. They’re wrong. Over stuffing your turkey will result in the turkey disjointing itself during the roasting process. This makes carving it up later SO much easier. There’s something special about opening the turkey roaster and just looking at your disjointed turkey, held together only by skin.
    • Ignore those stupid pop up timer things that come in some of the turkeys. They often don’t work, and sometimes they pop early. Just pull them out and toss them.
    • Remember to defrost your turkey, folks. None of this will work with a frozen turkey. Don’t try and cook a turkey from frozen, please. Even if you get one that says it CAN be cooked from frozen, just don’t. Whole turkeys should be slow roasted to preserve the moistness and flavor. Here’s a link to a handy defrosting schedule.
            

  • 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.

            

  • Doing work at the Fort is wonderful. It is also an exercise in interpreting what you are seeing vs what you expect to see.

    When you look at the different items in the Fort, it is often surprising to find that they are “modern” items. We laugh when people pick up the wooden cup because stamped on the bottom is “Pier One”.

    It is good enough at a distance.

    We use the tools at the Fort. We use the spinning wheels from the 1700s, we use the warping board from the same time. We use all these things. And occasionally, it isn’t really that old.

    One of the ladies that volunteers is an excellent spinner. She has left her person spinning wheel at the Fort. On my first walk through, I was examining the wheels to see if they needed fixing.

    Hers took me aback. It had metal bearing surfaces. Then I took a step back and realized that the entire wheel is no more than 20 years old.

    Somebody brought me a sickle to sharpen. On of the volunteers was using it to cut some longer vegetation. This is the type of task that worries me. If this thing is 300 years old, I can ruin it by touching a stone to it. I was asked to proceed.

    A few minutes of working on the blade with the stone showed that it was a modern blade. It was both a relief and a disappointment.

    The Froe

    One of the workhorses of an older shop is the Froe. It is a 12″ blade with the sharpened edge away from you. You hold it by the handle to position the froe against the end grain of a log. You then rap the back of the blade with a wooden mallet.

    With a bit of work, you can split a long, straight piece off the log that can be turned into something else. Such as barrel staves.

    I’ve known of them for years. I only got a chance to handle one a few months ago. I was surprised at how thick the blade was. I was expecting a knife thickness. Instead it was 3/8+ inches thick.

    When I set the blade against the log, to split of a slap, hit it hard with the wood mallet, the damn blade bounced back at me.

    The blade was so dull that it didn’t even pretend to enter the wood.

    45 minutes later, it was sharp enough to use. And I was worried that I was modifying a piece of history.

    Then two weeks ago, I received permission to take the froe home to properly sharpen it. Instead of taking it home, the blacksmith Sam sharpened it with a file.

    As we worked on the blade, it became obvious that it wasn’t from the 1700s. It had a wield repair, the fold wasn’t forge wielded. It was a reproduction that really wasn’t a working tool. Close, but not really.

    Sam has been tasked to make a reproduction froe that I can use at the Fort without worrying about breaking something 100s of years old.

    He made a beautiful blade. It looks like a froe blade, it is not.

    A froe is used by reefing on the handle to twist the blade in the wood. By twisting the blade, you can guide the split.

    That is why it is so thick. That is why the handle is so long.

    Sam made this blade from some scrap he had around. It is 3/32’s thick. This is not thick enough. The eye is not long enough. This does not qualify as a reproduction.

    What it is, is a safety splitter for Ally. When you are starting a fire, you need kindling. She uses a splitting stand.

    You put your stick of split firewood in the mouth of this thing, resting on the fixed blade. Then you wack the back side with another piece of wood, driving the wood onto the blade and splitting it.

    This is much safer than holding the stick with one hand while swinging a blade at it with the other. Even people that are good at this will sometimes make mistakes. Mistakes that can be life-threatening.

    This splitting gizmo is a very modern tool. It will pass, but it never existed in the 1700s.

    The froe that Sam made will work perfectly at the task of splitting kindling from a firewood stick. With one hand, balance the stick on an end, hold it there. Use the other hand to position the froe blade where you want it. Your offhand is on the handle of the froe. The blade is on the stick of firewood. You can let go of the stick.

    Pick up your wooden mallet and drive the froe into the stick of firewood, splitting it.

    As long as you are driving it straight into the wood, this tool will work. And it looks great.

    I do have to make a handle for it. Not difficult with the wood lathe.

    Markings

    When I or Sam make reproductions, we mark the reproductions with our marks. If they would not have had makers marks, we hide them. We’ve given our marks to the Fort. This means that they can look at one of our reproductions, 30 years from now, and know it was made as a reproduction.

            

  • 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.

            

  • So there’s an emergency. The power is out, and your neighbor comes by to borrow a candle. It’s no big deal, you lend them one of your hurricane lanterns, so they can have light and be safe. You don’t even think twice about it. When it’s a short-term emergency, this is a standard response, and it’s very reasonable. When there is a better-than-coin-toss likelihood of replenishing your stash of any given item in the near future (“near” being defined however you like), lending or gifting is not a big deal.

    If we’re dealing with a big emergency, though, this may not be the case. Suddenly, giving something to your friend or neighbor seems a lot less reasonable. You have to weigh the possibility that you may not be able to get more of whatever it is you’re lending, before you run out yourself.

    It’s not easy to say no. It’s a skill, and it’s one you have to practice, as with all other skills. Unlike most of the other prepping skills, it comes with an emotional cost that far surpasses its use.

    Consider this scenario: It’s the apocalypse, however you see that. You’re fairly well situated, and have “enough” of stuff that you’re not hurting. But you’re budgeting every calorie, and watching the weather to know what to do next. Your neighbor comes by and asks to “borrow” a candle. They have kids, and those kids are afraid of the dark, and she knows you have extras… Suddenly, it’s not so easy to say no. Note the kids, because that’s the gotcha that many people will inveigle into the conversation if they think it’ll get you to part with your goods.

    It’s easy to say that they ought to have prepared in advance, like you did. And it’s true, the parents should have prepared. The kids, though, are not responsible for their parents’ stupidity or lack of forethought. So what do you do? You still say no.

    (more…)

            

  • Introspection

    This has been a long week of the left showing an enormous amount of introspection, looking at themselves to see why they lost the election…

    Who am I kidding, the number who are actually looking at themselves appears to be so small compared to the complete melt down of why you are bad for voting for Trump.

    Nerd Network Stuff

    There are times when I feel so slow. I’ve been learning about OpenvSwitch and OVN. There are some great advantages to using it.

    Unfortunately, nothing is ever easy.

    I know how networks work. I’ve been in the trenches, bit fiddling on the wire, since the late 80s. This means I understand all these logical switches and logical routers that OVN uses.

    Nope. I don’t.

    The euphony that hit today? Open Virtual Networks use tables to describe logical devices. It translates those to code. That code is then “compiled” and handed to OpenvSwitch.

    This is not “networking” this is “programming”. There are many things that “just work” in the networking world, which doesn’t translate to this programming perspective.

    I’ve started reading the code, it is now starting to make more sense.

    Fetterman

    Or as he is better known, Lurch, has lurched to the right.

    His race was seemingly pretty corrupt, and I knew he was going to be another Democrat rubber stamp.

    He has turned out to be a bit better than expected:

    I mean, I would describe it as god-tier level trolling, that has triggered a full-on China Syndrome to own the libs in perpetuity.”
    — Sen. John Fetterman

    Not a bad description of Matt Gaetz’s nomination for AG.

    The left can’t keep up

    I figure that by January, the left is going to have lost half of its people to heart attacks and strokes. Trump is announcing nomination after nomination.

    He is announcing them so rapidly that the MSM can’t keep up and Trump is blowing the news cycle right out of the water.

    I like winning

    Conclusion

    What has been your favorite nomination, so fart, and why?

            

  • 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.

            

  • It’s been a heck of a few weeks, but things seem to finally be slowing down slightly. I am behind in postings, and hella busy, so if I miss one or two, I apologize. It’s National Novel Writing Month, and I’m writing a new cookbook. I hope to have the first draft complete by Dec 1st. That eats a lot of time, because it requires me to do a LOT of writing each day, but it’s very productive.

    I got talking with friends about the differences between the Left and the Right. The biggest one that I see is the concept of morals. These are, of course, very sweeping generalities. Take what you will from them.

    The Right has a very strict sense of morality, and while there are people under the Big Tent with different beliefs, generally speaking the vast majority hold incredibly similar morals. You can be a straight laced, white Christian and be Republican. You can be as gay as they come, pagan, and be Republican. But if you think it’s okay to punch people because of their beliefs, you can’t really be Republican. The opposite is true of the Left. On the Left, if you aren’t clad in rainbows and supportive of whatever the victim-de-jour requires, you can’t be Democrat. On the other hand, you can have wildly different moral codes, and in fact have moral codes that change depending on the moment.

    The Right likes to talk about how intolerant the Left is, and the Left makes all sorts of claims about intolerance on the Right. Trump’s election win has the Left trotting out Karl Popper’s essay on intolerance, of course. Let me share:

    “Less well known is the paradox of tolerance: Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. — In this formulation, I do not imply, for instance, that we should always suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies; as long as we can counter them by rational argument and keep them in check by public opinion, suppression would certainly be unwise. But we should claim the right to suppress them if necessary even by force; for it may easily turn out that they are not prepared to meet us on the level of rational argument, but begin by denouncing all argument; they may forbid their followers to listen to rational argument, because it is deceptive, and teach them to answer arguments by the use of their fists or pistols. We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant. We should claim that any movement preaching intolerance places itself outside the law, and we should consider incitement to intolerance and persecution as criminal, in the same way as we should consider incitement to murder, or to kidnapping, or to the revival of the slave trade, as criminal.” — Karl Popper, The Open Societies and Its Enemies

    (more…)

            

  • During the dark days before Heller, the rogue inferior courts, like the Ninth Circuit, came to the consensus that the phrase “a well regulated militia” was more indicative of who had the right to keep and bear arms than “the right of the people”.

    The result of this piece of stupidity was that we, The People, could not challenge a law based on the Second Amendment. We had no standing.

    The federal courts can only address active controversy for the people affected for which they can grant relief. You cannot go to the court and have them decide on which color is best. Nor can you challenge many government regulations, even if they are known to be bad. You have no bone in the fight. No skin in the fight.

    The courts have long ruled that being a taxpayer does not grant you the right to challenge the government.

    Heller says that the Second Amendment applies to the people

    Yes, it does. The Court did a fantastic job of driving a spike through the heart of that bit of sophistry in Heller, ⁣ but that doesn’t mean that the inferior courts haven’t found other things they can twist.

    That idea, that the only “people” that had standing to make a Second Amendment challenge were the Militia. That private Militias are banned in many states. The only “legal” militia is the National Guard. The state controls the National Guard. The only people that can challenge state infringements on Second Amendment grounds was the state.

    What Part of the Constitution Authorizes the Department of Education?

    The civics and history lessons required to understand the federal government’s role in education are of course deeply intertwined and begin, as with so many things American, with the Constitution. That document makes no mention of education. It does state in the 10th Amendment that “the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution … are reserved to the States respectively.” This might seem to preclude any federal oversight of education, except that the 14th Amendment requires all states to provide “any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
    —When it Comes to Education, the Federal Government is in Charge of … Um, What? | Harvard Graduate School of Education, (last visited Nov. 13, 2024)

    When the Supreme Court issued their opinion in —Brown V. Board of Education, 98 L. Ed. 2d 873 (1954) the Federal Government has used the 14th Amendment to justify prosecuting legally sanctioned discrimination.

    The issue is that the Federal Government’s lust for power caused them to overstep “…to correct for persistently unequal access to resources…” —When it Comes to Education, the Federal Government is in Charge of … Um, What?, supra. This is all the justification they really needed to create the Department of Education.

    You and I can look at this and agree that the Department of Education is not authorized under our Constitution. What can you, or I, do about it.

    You would think we could run to the courts and file a lawsuit to stop the law. It doesn’t work that way.

    The “case or controversy” clause of Article III of the Constitution imposes a minimal constitutional standing requirement on all litigants attempting to bring suit in federal court. In order to invoke the court’s jurisdiction, the plaintiff must demonstrate, at an “irreducible minimum,” that: (1) he/she has suffered a distinct and palpable injury as a result of the putatively illegal conduct of the defendant; (2) the injury is fairly traceable to the challenged conduct; and (3) it is likely to be redressed if the requested relief is granted.
    —Justice Manual | 35. Standing to Sue | United States Department of Justice, (last visited Nov. 13, 2024)

    You have not suffered a distinct and palpable injury. You would have paid taxes regardless of the law, and the only injury you, or I can point to is our tax dollars being miss-spent.

    Most of the requirements that the DoE places on the state are stated in terms of getting or not getting money.

    A few years ago, the school board was hearing a request to raise the price of school meals for students. There was no need to raise the price of the meals. The costs were still covered by what the students were paying.

    They were required to raise prices to maintain compliance with a DoE “free lunches” program. Under the program, the schools are allowed to purchase food from the government at a significant savings.

    If we had ditched the program, the cost of school meals would have gone up more than what the program required.

    The board was forced to raise prices so that they could continue to offer lower priced school meals. You can’t make this stuff up.

    Who has standing?

    Let’s say that on day one, Trump uses Obama’s pen and phone methodology and shuts down the Department of Education. The DoE answers to the executive. He decides how the laws are enforced and carried out.

    You are no longer having your money taken to give to failing schools, that will never succeed. You don’t get to keep any more of your money, that’s still going to be taken away.

    But somebody is now being injured. All the people who are no longer getting the beautiful DoE money have been injured by the executive order.

    This means that they have standing to file a lawsuit in federal court.

    Which means the government can now argue that the DoE violates the Constitution. The plaintiffs (people wanting money from the federal government), have to argue how the Constitution authorizes the transfer of wealth to them.

    Reading the plain text of the Constitution and the 14th Amendment, we can see that education is not mentioned in the Constitution, as amended.

    At the first step, the plaintiffs lose. If we presume, without finding, that it is constitutionally authorized, the plaintiffs need to show a match to this Nation’s historical tradition of education regulations.

    That fails as well.

    In the question of Anchor Babies, the same is true. As soon as Trump says “no more anchor babies”, somebody will sue. Then it can go through the court system. During that process, they will find that the Supreme Court has already decided the question of Anchor Babies with —United States V. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. 649 (1898)

    That decision was placed upon the grounds, that the meaning of those words was, “not merely subject in some respect or degree to the jurisdiction of the United States, but completely subject to their political jurisdiction, and owing them direct and immediate allegiance;” that by the Constitution, as originally established, “Indians not taxed” were excluded from the persons according to whose numbers representatives in Congress and direct taxes were apportioned among the several States, and Congress was empowered to regulate commerce, not only “with foreign nations,” and among the several States, but “with the Indian tribes;” that the Indian tribes, being within the territorial limits of the United States, were not, strictly speaking, foreign States, but were alien nations, distinct political communities, the members of which owed immediate allegiance to their several tribes, and were not part of the people of the United States; that the alien and dependent condition of the members of one of those tribes could not be put off at their own will, without the action or assent of the United States; and that they were never deemed citizens, except when naturalized, collectively or individually, under explicit provisions of a treaty, or of an act of Congress; and, therefore, that “Indians born within the territorial limits of the United States, members of, and owing immediate allegiance to, one of the Indian tribes (an alien, though dependent, power), although in a geographical sense born in the United States, are no more `born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof,’ within the meaning of the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment, than the children of subjects of any foreign government born within the domain of that government, or the children born within the United States of ambassadors or other public ministers of foreign nations.” And it was observed that the language used, in defining citizenship, in the first section of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, by the very Congress which framed the Fourteenth Amendment, was “all persons born in the United States, and not subject to any foreign power, excluding Indians not taxed.” 112 U.S. 99-103.
    —id. at 680–81

    In other words, if the child is not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, it is not a citizen of the United States. Welping your child on American soil does not make your child a citizen of the United States.

    Life is going to get interesting, in a good way.