• I’m going to start with Harris, only because I don’t think this is going to take very long to research. I don’t mean that in a snarky way, either. I just don’t believe she’s actually accomplished all that much.

    According to the official WH website: “As Vice President, she has worked to bring people together to advance opportunity, deliver for families, and protect fundamental freedoms across the country. She has led the fight for the freedom of women to make decisions about their own bodies, the freedom to live safe from gun violence, the freedom to vote, and the freedom to drink clean water and breathe clean air. While making history at home, she is also representing the nation abroad – embarking on more than a dozen foreign trips, traveling to more than 19 countries, and meeting with more than 150 world leaders to strengthen critical global alliances.” Semantic content, zero. This is literally more of the word salad she uses in her speeches.

    To be clear, women can already make decisions about their own bodies. People are already free to live safe from violence of all kinds, not just gun violence, and we have a whole police force to take care of it when violence becomes a problem. If anything, Harris made the country MORE violent by bailing out violent offenders who burned the country during the riots. Everyone has the freedom to vote, and there’s been not one whiff of a smidgen of a hint that anyone’s interested in repressing that right. Drinking clean water and breathing clean air is a function of many things, and if you want to do it you have to move out of the cities. There’s nothing a VP or President can do about it. And in four years, Madame VP has made “more than a dozen” drips. Wow. In what way did she “strengthen critical global alliances,” pray tell? Again, this has no actual content.

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  • Image from Sheep To Shawl Competition

    What they did may we not do? And even better, for are we not armed with ages of superior knowledge, and have we not the means of protection, defense, and sustenance which science has given us, but of which they were totally ignorant? What they accomplished, Alice, with instruments and weapons of stone and bone, surely that may we accomplish also.
    —Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes (Project Gutenberg Aug. 2021)

    First published in 1912, the conceit of John Clayton still flows through the veins of modern men (and women).

    He was sure that his “superior knowledge” would prevail over his lack of actual skills.

    Does he know how to make cordage? He makes their first shelter with rope left by the mutineers. He did not know how to make cordage.

    He protects himself and Lady Alice with the rifles and pistol. He has no way of making more cartridges. When his supply is gone, there is no more. He just has a fancy stick.

    I have extensive knowledge about many things. That doesn’t mean I have skills in all of those things.

    I know the basics of long-distance shooting. I don’t have the skills. That means my shots will be well within 200 yards. Yes, I consider 200 yards to be close in.

    Did John know how to make clothing? How long is the clothing he has going to last?

    Can he make thread? Can he make a drop spindle? A spinning wheel? Can he collect fibers and turn that into yarn and then turn that yarn into clothing?

    One of the skill contests that happens in many places, a few times a year, is sheep to shirt.

    A team will be set up and at “go” they will shear the right number of sheep. While that is happening, they second team will be cleaning the fleece.

    After the fleece has been cleaned, it will be spun into thread. There are always multiple spinners. As six to twelve doing the first spinning. Those are either spun to make stronger two or three-ply material.

    While the spinners are spinning like made, the weavers are creating the warp. This is the process of taking the thread and wrapping it around pegs to organize the threads and to make loops that are the same length.

    The longest warp I’ve done was about 18 yards.

    Once the warp is prepared, the loom needs to be warped. This is the process of passing each thread through the reed and then through the heddles. The warp is then tied to the back roller and the warp is then pulled to the back of the loom.

    More thread is put onto bobbins and then one person starts weaving. All of that to make a few yards of cloth.

    Having made the cloth, a new team takes up sewing everything together.

    A good team can do the entire process in 12 hours or so.

    Did John have any of those skills? I have all the skills except for shearing and the cutting/sewing of the final product.

    I have knowledge of how to shear. I don’t have the skill to do it. Nor do I have the tools to do it.

    Part of preparing is learning how to do things.

    So here’s another example. Making soap. My wife makes soap. I have the knowledge of how to make lye from hardwood ash. The question is: Do I have the skill to make lye?

    Currently, the answer is “no”. I’ve tried, and failed. I’m not sure why.

    So my answer was to buy large bottles of Sodium Hydroxide. 5Kg is #34.50 and 50lbs is $78.00. I can make pounds and pounds of soap from that much Sodium Hydroxide.

    Yet, there is still a problem, Mixing Sodium Hydroxide with water is an exothermic reaction. This means the stuff gets HOT.

    To make soap, you need the temperature to be reasonable.

    We had the knowledge, but the last time my wife taught a class, she wasn’t prepared for that exothermic reaction. We had to use an ice bath to cool it down.

    There are many skills you require. You should be looking at skills to live comfortably.

    The question of the day for you, you have a spinning wheel, you have the wool, you have the loom. What is the fastest path to a shirt, gloves, socks, hat?

            

  • There are always songs that stay with us forever.

    My first year at University, I was amazed at how many concerts and shows were held on campus. Over the time I was there, I was able to see off Broadway productions of Cat and A Chorus Line.

    In addition to plays there were the concerts. And they weren’t little names.

    Harry Chapin gave a concert every year.

    When my roommate tried to get me to go, I begged off. I was studying for a test or some such thing. That was a mistake.

    A few months later, Harry died in a car accident.

    Having been introduced to Harry, I purchased many of his albums on CD and nearly wore them out.

    I’ve already written about Sniper.

    I listened to the following song, and it felt like it was telling a part of my story.

    My father was in the Navy, he would deploy for 6+ months every few years. He worked a lot. When I was old enough to actually do things with him, he was CO of the base, which left him little time.

    His support was always there.

    He and mom delayed moving to their dream home after he retired to allow me to complete high school in the school I started.

    They left at the end of the school year, I went to Europe for a trip, came back to the states and spent the summer staying with a friend and working.

    From there, it was straight to University. I went “home” for Christmas and the summer break.

    That was the last time I lived with my parents. Every other summer, I was at school or working. Or both.

    So when I heard this song, it hit me hard. My father has always been there for me. As much as I needed. He was the strength behind mom. He was.

    And I was the selfish son who couldn’t make time for him.

    So I told him this song was so meaningful to me because I wasn’t making time for him and I never had.

    He heard the other side and felt like he wasn’t there for me.

    I hurt him. I regret telling him about “Cat’s In The Cradle”, but at the same time, I hope he heard that I felt I hadn’t been there for him.

            

  • Cassoulet Vert is one of those fancy French dishes that has the look and feel of a delicacy. Fortunately, it’s not difficult to make, and it’s incredibly tasty as well. If you make this one, cook it in a big pot but serve it in individual bowls. The presentation makes it look like you’ve worked for hours in a kitchen, and you’ll impress your friends and family. This recipe doesn’t just look good, by the way. It is both tasty and rather filling!

    Ingredients (soup):

    • 1 can (29 oz) little white beans
    • 2 tablespoons olive oil
    • 1 medium onion diced
    • 4 garlic cloves, rough chopped
    • 4 cups vegetable broth
    • 1 cup water
    • 2 teaspoons salt
    • 1/2 teaspoon pepper
    • 2 bay leaves
    • 2 teaspoon herbs de Provence

    Ingredients (pesto):

    • 2 cups fresh kale, packed
    • 1 cup cilantro, packed
    • 3 cloves garlic
    • zest and juice from one small lemon
    • ¼ cup pine nuts
    • ¼ cup olive oil
    • ¼ cup water
    • 1 teaspoon salt

    In a soup pot, add olive oil and onions, and saute for four to five minutes, stirring. When the onions are soft, add garlic, and saute another 2 minutes.

    Rinse the canned beans well. Add beans, stock, salt, pepper, bay leaves, and other herbs, and stir gently. The broth should just barely cover the beans. Simmer for 30 minutes to an hour.

    While the cassoulet is cooking, make the pesto.

    Put the kale, cilantro, and garlic into a food processor. Pulse until it is chopped but not soupy. Add the rest of the ingredients: lemon zest, lemon juice, oil, water, salt, and the pine nuts. Pulse until it’s well combined but not too smooth. You want pesto, not soup. Use a spatula to scrape off the sides, and pulse briefly one more time. Set aside.

    When the cassoulet is ready, you should remove some of the broth if there’s too much. The soup part should be mostly beans, with only a bit of broth. Stir in the pesto, gently turning it until it’s well mixed. The cassoulet should have the consistency of stew, rather than soup. Continue to simmer on your lowest heat setting for another 10 minutes to let the flavors blend together.

    Add salt and pepper as needed for flavor. This dish should be quite lemony, and salty as well. Top with croutons, sprouts, sliced avocado, a poached egg, or some cheese, depending on your tastes. It pairs well with a white wine, and a hearty, crusty bread.

    Notes:

    You can use traditional basil pesto in this recipe, but you may want to use a bit less. The jolt of flavor from the basil will overpower the mild taste of the beans if you use too much. Add other types of pesto slowly, until the flavor seems right to you. That said, I recommend making the kale pesto above. It’s so delicious!

            

  • Today is different. It is challenging to put into words what is different. I know what has changed, but finding the words is difficult.

    More than 36 years ago, I was sitting in an operating room as a doctor was cutting my wife’s belly open. I was in scrubs, looking and feeling out of place.

    I had informed the doctor ahead of time that if there was a choice to be made between saving my wife or my child that my wife would take priority.

    My child was six months early. She is now a successful mid to upper manager in a large corporation.

    My second set of children came before my oldest graduated from middle school.

    Today, my youngest children, twins, start classes at University.

    The house seems quiet. Their spoor is being quietly removed from the public areas, reviling my mess/spoor.

    I have been informed that there will be cleaning done. That I will be moving my “stuff” out of common areas and into my areas.

    I’m both sad for the silence in the house. I’m also at a loss. This is the first day in over 36 years when my children were not a major part of any decision I made.

            

  • People get very upset when they go to visit Amazon, Netflix, or just their favorite gun blog and the site is down.

    This happens when a site is not configured with high availability in mind.

    The gist is that we do not want to have a single point of failure, anywhere in the system.

    To take a simple example, you have purchased a full network connection to your local office. This means that there is no shared IP address. You have a full /24 (255) IP addresses to work with.

    This means that there is a wire that comes into your office from your provider. This attaches to a router. The router attaches to a switch. Servers connect to the server room switch which connects to the office switch.

    All good.

    You are running a Windows Server on bare metal with a 3 TB drive.

    Now we start to analyze failure points. What if that cable is cut?

    This happened to a military installation in the 90s. They had two cables coming to the site. There was one from the south gate and another from the north gate. If one cable was cut, all the traffic could be carried by the other cable.

    This was great, except that somebody wasn’t thinking when they ran the last 50 feet into the building. They ran both cables through the same conduit. And when there was some street work a year or so later, the conduit was cut, severing both cables.

    The site went down.

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  • Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceivebe a system admin

    I’ve been deep into a learning curve for the last couple of months, broken by required trips to see dad before he passes.

    The issue at hand is that I need to reduce our infrastructure costs. They are out of hand.

    My original thought, a couple of years ago, was to move to K8S. With K8S, I would be able to deploy sites and supporting architecture with ease. One control file to rule them all.

    This mostly works. I have a Helm deployment for each of the standard types of sites I deploy. Which works well for me.

    The problem is how people build containers.

    My old method of building out a system was to create a configuration file for an HTTP/HTTPS server that then served individual websites. I would put this on a stable OS. We would then do a major OS upgrade every four years on an OS that had a 6-year support tail for LTS releases. (Long-Term Support)

    This doesn’t work for the new class of developers and software deployments.

    Containers are the current answer to all our infrastructure ills.

    (more…)

            

  • Picture this:

    The worst case happens. Trump wins, the Dems create complete havoc, and the country loses large portions of its infrastructure. Unknown agents provocateurs have managed to take down the cell system and the power grid. The grocery stores are empty, and what’s left of the government is having issues getting FEMA where it needs to be. Basically, the world is shit, and once that big ball gets rolling, it takes a long time to stop. You can tell your area isn’t getting any better, anytime soon.

    What do you do?

    All too often, I hear weekend warriors talk about how they’re going to play soldier in the woods with their friends. I was once scoffed at because I said in a dire emergency, I would be home in my comfortable bed and not traipsing around the forest living off worms and beetles. Apparently I’m not a Real Rebel [tm]. *shrug* That’s fine. I let them know it was perfectly acceptable for them to sleep in the dirt and be uncomfortable, but my family wasn’t going to do that.

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  • The DNC held their convention this week. The level of hypocrisy exceeds even my expectation.

    The left attacked Trump’s kids, Bush’s kids, Palin’s kids. It was always “OK”. Some idiots on the right pointed at Walz’s kid, and the left is having a meltdown over how evil Republicans are.

    I don’t remember walls around the RNC. They have walls around the DNC and hotels where attendees are staying. Besides the business owners that boarded up their stores for the week because of “mostly peaceful riots”, there are businesses that are inside the DMZ where people can’t go without IDs. They are losing money.

    The lies are never ending. Policies are still unstated. And Kamala promises to fix all the issues on day 1. Issues that she and the Muppet that is residing in the White House haven’t fixed in the last 3.5 years.

    I’ve started to dig through some of the cases that have been going on. It has been hard as I’ve been in “learning mode” for the last two months, interrupted by trips home to see my father.

    Dad is back in intensive care. My brother doesn’t think he will make it to Christmas. That will be hard.

    Thank you to everybody who is still here. It is a bit disheartening to see how many people no longer visit regularly.

    So again, thank you.

    We are currently looking for somebody to social engagement on X. The auto post doesn’t work, and the share doesn’t seem to put the image or anything else interesting.

    I think there are maybe 4 followers of @vineofliberty on X at this point.

    If you are interested, please reach out to us at AWA@vineofliberty.com

    If you were one of the regulars and are just stopping by, please leave a comment as to what caused you to leave. I know we aren’t Miguel nor J.Kb.

    Have a great weekend!

            
  • “What would you do if you were stuck in one place and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered?” In the Ninth Circuit, if a panel upholds a party’s Second Amendment rights, it follows automatically that the case will be taken en banc. This case bends to that law. I continue to dissent from this court’s Groundhog Day approach to the Second Amendment.

    Following the Supreme Court’s recent decision in United States v. Rahimi, the federal government acquiesced in certiorari in a handful of cases pending before the Court and presenting the same question addressed in this case. The Supreme Court should have granted one or more of those cases, and this case illustrates why. After New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n, Inc. v. Bruen, perhaps no single Second Amendment issue has divided the lower courts more than the constitutionality of the 18 U.S.C. §922(g)(1) felon-disarmament rule’s application to certain nonviolent felons. The Third Circuit—and for a time, this circuit—concluded that there was no analogous tradition of disarmament for at least some defendants. Range v. Att’y Gen.; United States v. Duarte. The Eighth Circuit concluded otherwise, United States v. Jackson, while the Tenth and Eleventh Circuits upheld the continued constitutionality of Section 922(g)(1) under pre-Bruen precedent without reaching the historical question, Vincent v. Garland; United States v. Dubois

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