• I’ve been spending the last couple of weeks thinking a lot about voting, and who I’m supporting, and what I’m learning about politics along the way. I’ve never been a fan of Biden, and Harris wasn’t even a speed bump on my highway to hell until Biden fell down the plane stairs that time. I wasn’t a fan of Trump, either, and found him abrasive and rude. Now, Trump continues to be a bit abrasive, and occasionally rude, but I think he’s learned a bit about what it means both to run for the position of President, and to BE President. I can find him annoying to listen to, and still think he’s the better of the two current choices offered.

    But Harris? She scares me. She doesn’t scare me the way Hillary did. Hillary was actually a wee bit competent (that’s why no one’s been after her about all the people who “accidentally” died when they crossed her or Bill’s path), and that’s terrifying. Harris seems to be a sock puppet. I could actually be happy with a sock puppet, depending on who’s hand was up inside it. In this case, though, I think Harris doesn’t even realize she’s a sock puppet. She doesn’t have a clue what she’s saying. She regurgitates stuff, sometimes out of order. It’s not that she’s senile like Biden or anything. She just doesn’t have enough brain cells to run at full capacity. I suspect that’s why they aren’t having her answer questions.

    Despite all that, I could probably manage to live through a Harris presidency. The economy would tank, and a lot of socialist programs would eat up what little money we have left, and the country would be in shambles… but we’d live through it. The Right would buckle down, make do, and solidify itself over a four year Left presidency. I would probably be unhappy. I know most of my family would be devastated. But none of our lives would be directly threatened.

    If Trump comes into the presidency, we have a whole different story. I genuinely believe he’ll fix a lot of the problems we’re currently having. He’s smart enough to listen to advisors, and smart enough to pick decent advisors. He’s not afraid to fire people who do stupid stuff. The economy will likely get better, slowly.

    And then the Left will burn the country to the ground, in the name of love, tolerance, and peace.

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  • One of the hard things to accept is that so many inferior courts think that when a case is vacated and remanded, it isn’t for good reason.

    The courts speak in polite ways. You don’t call out a judge for being an idiot. No matter how often they open their mouth to remove all doubt.

    In Bianchi, the Supreme Court granted cert, vacated the Fourth Circuit’s judgement, and remanded it back to the Fourth Circuit for a do-over.

    If my boss comes to me and tells me that I got it wrong, here is the documentation, read the documentation and do it over, right. I’m going to read that documentation.

    If that documentation suggests that I’m right, I know that is the zebra in the herd of horses. Why? Because my boss told me to do it over.

    If I read his documentation, use it to reason to the same method/result, I’m making a mistake.

    Unfortunately, our court system doesn’t allow an easy method for an inferior court to say, “I’m too stupid to understand what you said, what does this line mean?”

    One of the cases that was before the Supreme Court before Rahimi was U.S.A. v Jackson. It was not granted cert until after Rahimi was decided. At that point, the case was granted cert, the Eighth Circuit’s opinion was vacated, and the case was remanded back to the inferior court with instructions to “do it over, follow the documentation in Rahimi”

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  • We are watching The Inside Man. They have a version of this which I wish I could find.

    Regardless, a powerful message.

            

  • poster about colonial show and tellCome one, come all! The Fort at No. 4 is hosting a Colonial Show and Tell over the Labor Day weekend!

    If you are an 18th century reenactor and would like to show off your skills, please contact me at m.allyson.szabo@gmail.com or reach out directly to the Fort at info@fortat4.com and we’ll get all the information to you.

    If you’re interested in learning about the 18th century, and would like to see what lights up the hearts and minds of reenactors and historical interpreters, please come to the Fort over the long weekend. Everyone presenting is there because they are excited to bring you their passion and joy, and there will be smiles and skills from one end of the Fort to the other! (more…)

            

  • This is what I served up to our volunteer historical interpreters this weekend. On Saturday, it was served up as a stew, and on Sunday I turned it into a lovely chicken soup. This is one of those early fall recipes that sticks to your ribs, is simple enough to throw together anytime, and delicious enough to make once a week. You can also vary the flavorings easily enough, to make it a slightly different meal each time! This recipe serves five people, with enough leftovers the following day to make soup.

    Ingredients:

    • bone in, skin on chicken thighs (8 pack)
    • 2 large onions, diced
    • 1/4 cup butter, margarine, or olive oil
    • whole wheat flour
    • salt and pepper to taste
    • fresh herbs (whatever you have on hand)
    • dried thyme, garlic, and nutmeg to taste
    • 3 to 4 cups of seasonal vegetables, cut into chunks
    • 2 to 4 cups of water

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  • This case involves California’s one gun per month infringement.

    On Dec 18, 2020, nearly 4 years ago, Michelle Nguyen and others filed a complaint against Xavier Becerra, the Attorney General of California asking for injunctive and declaratory relief.

    Because this happened before the Bruen opinion issued, it is couched in terms of Heller and levels of scrutiny. Remember, arguing that interest-balancing was wrong was a losing argument at that time.

    They claimed that their rights were being infringed because “arms” is plural and limiting the purchase of guns to just one per month is singular. Thus making the law unconstitutional, on its face.

    This case was a series of motions and counter motions. Both parties trying to limit what the other party could present as “evidence”. On Dec 6, 2023, three years after the case was filed, a motion hearing was held. This is the place where the parties argue why their motions are better before the judge.

    On March 28, 2024, the court issued its judgement. This brings this case to completion at the district level.

    The court found for the plaintiffs. The good guys. The court issued an injunction against California Penal Code §§ 27535 and 27540(f) as violating the Second Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment.

    Knowing the state would appeal, Judge Hayes put a 30-day administrative stay on his ruling. This is perfectly normal.

    The state filed their appeal the next day.

    The Ninth Circuit administrative panel, continued its unbroken record in Second Amendment cases, issued a stay pending appeal.

    Appellants have established a sufficient likelihood of success on the merits of this appeal and made a sufficient showing on the relative equities to justify a stay pending appeal.

    This is pure spite. The Supreme Court has said, on multiple occasions, how the Winter’s factors are to be addressed. First, the merits of the case, second that irreparable harm, third the balance of equities, and finally that the injunction is in the public interest.

    The order by the administrate panel did not address the merits of the case. This is an instant showing of a rogue court.

    If the case is a civil rights case, and the party seeking the injunction is likely to win on the merits, the analysis is over. The denial of a civil right is “irreparable harm”. The balance of equities always tips to the party being irreparably harmed, the public has no interest in enforcing an unconstitutional law.

    Thus, this admin panel did a crackerjack job of ignoring the law.

    The administrative panel issued their stay on April 24, before the administrative stay expired.

    The case is then calendared to be heard by a merits panel.

    That took place on August 14th, 2024. It was a complete disaster for the state.

    There are more than a few channels that have done reviews of the oral arguments.

    So how bad were the arguments by the state? Their stay pending appeal was reversed.

    The order (Dkt. 9) granting Defendants’ motion for a stay pending appeal (Dkt. 3) is REVERSED. Before: Owens, Bade, and Forrest, Circuit Judges.

    It took the merits panel less than a day to issue the order reversing the stay pending appeal, in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

    This is a good time to buy stock in heater vendors in hell, it has done froze over.

            

  • Americans know pasta. We eat tons of it every day. Of course, most of that is pretty boring or down right nasty stuff that comes from a box.

    I know that my childhood was replete with box after box of Kraft’s Mac and Cheese. Bring your water to a boil, dump in the box of elbows. Cook until “right”. Drain the water, add butter and milk. Then add the powdered cheese.

    The American “Alfredo”. Yes, it is as cheap and nasty as it sounds. And American’s seem to love it.

    As a cheese wanna-be snob, I order Parmigiano Reggiano DOP every few months. Much better than the powdered stuff in a can.

    So why and article on Pasta? Because I like to make my pasta by hand. Well, I call it that, but it wasn’t really “by hand” per the definitions that the real snobs use.

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  • There is this trope in story telling of the vagrant, hobo, bum, or cartoon character steeling a pie from a windowsill.

    It is good story telling. But, in my opinion, we forget what is actually happening.

    We can go to the supermarket and buy a decent, almost edible, pie for 5 dollars or so. We are going to put that price at 15 umms.

    Let’s take a step back in time. It is the late 1800s in the rural outback. It is a 20-mile trek to town to get supplies. But you have your homestead, there is food in the larder, there is food in the pantry, and there is food in the root cellar.

    While you are out working the fields, your wife is baking an apple pie for the family.

    The basics going into that pie are flour, lard, water, apples, sugar, some cider, butter, salt, and spices.

    She starts with pairing the apples. The apples are from last fall when she and the children spent a couple of days picking apples in the orchard, all three apple trees. Those apples were preserved and stored, they look ugly, but they will taste wonderful.

    The cost of those apples is the cost of picking, cleaning, storing, and preparing them. Call it 45 umms.

    The lard came from the pig they harvested last fall. There were many hours of tending the pig, feeding it, caring for it, then the slaughter, processing the pig, and rendering the lard. She’s only using a palm full of lard, so about 30 umms.

    The flour came from the store. They grew their wheat. While the total labor that went into growing that wheat was in the 1000s of umms, again, she is only using a couple of cups worth of flour. 30 umms.

    Sugar was purchased, the cost was 5 umms.

    The spices were expensive, but because she is only using a small amount, 5 umms.

    The pie is going to bake in the oven. That oven is heated with wood that was chopped from a tree they harvested. Total of 15 umms for the wood to heat the oven.

    In total, excluding the preparing of the apples, she has 30 umms invested in this pie.

    The total cost of that pie? 45 + 30 + 5 + 5 + 30 = 115 umms.

    An umm is a Unit of Man Minutes. So that 115 is 2 hours of labor. At $20/hour, that is a $40 pie. When that vagrant steals a pie, they are stealing at least 2 hours of labor from that family.

    This doesn’t even touch the cost of not having the pie for themselves. That might have been the last of their apples.

    It could have been a meat pie instead of an apple pie. If it was a meat pie, it would represent meals for the family for a couple of days, at least.

    As an aside, why did they put pies on the windowsills to cool?

    Because it was hot in the kitchen!

    You want the pie to cool, it isn’t going to do that as fast in the kitchen, plus, all that heat from the pie goes into making the kitchen that much hotter.

    Of course you want to cool that pie outside.

            

  • Honey is one of those items that many people have laying around the house, but not too many of them know its amazing properties. Used for sweetening, bug traps, wound repair, topical antibacterial, fighter of disease, and dozens of other things, honey is worth its weight in gold. From a prepping standpoint, honey is something I will always have in my “get home bag” because of its many uses.

    I’d like to start with honey’s sweetening properties. Many people love the flavor of a bit of honey in some tea. It tastes great with peanut butter, or even alone on bread or crackers. You can use honey in the place of sugar in any recipe (though there are some rules to follow, and it isn’t a 1:1 trade off – Blue Flame Kitchen). Honey is popular when mixed with other herbs and spices, such as honey garlic spareribs, and honey and cinnamon french toast, or even honey mustard dressing. Use honey wherever you’d normally use sugar or other sweeteners. If you’re diabetic, there’s a few studies out that suggest using honey may allow you to use smaller amounts because it’s sweeter than sugar, and therefore you’d be reducing your glycemic index, but there’s nothing definitive at this point.

    This weekend I was at the Fort at No. 4 again, and I ended up using honey to catch flies. For whatever reason, 18th century kitchens always seem to gather flies at this time of the year, and they’re a real nuisance. Unlike at home, when we’re playing in the 18th century, we can’t use electronic bug zappers or even fly tape, because neither existed in 1750. We have glass jars that you put honey or sugar water into, and the flies can get into them but not out. That works very well. One of the ladies suggested we coat a strip of linen with some honey and hang it out of the way near the flies, and hopefully they’d get stuck on it. It’s an interesting idea! I also had out a shallow bowl filled with honey water, with drops of modern dish washing liquid in it. The soap forms a coating on top of the water, and if flies go into it, they’re not able to get out. It all worked passably well, though the old fashioned method of attacking them with a wrung out wet dishcloth seemed to work best.

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  • Welcome to the weekend!

    We’ve made it through another week.

    I think the biggest thing I’ve heard to-date is simply this: We need to focus on the candidates for president, not their VPs.

    JD Vance is a better candidate than Walz, by far. No matter how much of a scumbag Walz might be, we need to focus on policy.

    Kamala has not given an interview in 27 days? She has failed as VP, we need the people to know that she will fail as president.

    There have been a couple of wins for the 2nd over the last week. Things are starting to break free. I think that one of the most significant changes in the circuit courts has been the dissenting judges being willing to stand up and call out the rogue judges for stomping on The People.

    I’m working on decommissioning my Kubernetes cluster. I’ve already torn down the local “test” version. The cost is too high for the benefits.

    The number of “supporting” containers is ridiculous. Each container takes a bit of memory. These containers suck the memory from the host nodes, causing instability.

    As an example, there are three containers that run constantly to handle SSL certificates. They are needed once every 90 days per certificate and once when a new certificate is needed. That’s a bit of resources for something that isn’t really needed constantly. There are 23 running as k8s command and control.

    I’m moving back to old school stuff.

    The comments are open, let us know your thoughts.