String Trimmers

 In 2007 we lost my Dad, and shortly thereafter, Momma bought a string trimmer.  A battery operated string trimmer.  She didn't know a lot about power tools, but she knew that Dad always bought Craftsman tools, so she bought a Craftsman. The kit came with a charger and two batteries, and she would move around the place, running that trimmer until the battery died, then she would take a break, change batteries, and get after it again until the second battery died.  Then, se was done for the day.

Last year, I bought a string trimmer. A DeWalt.  Like this one.  I have DeWalt tools, and I couldn't see changing batteries, so I stayed with what I had.  Nowadays I'm just about as old as Momma was back then, and suddenly her work protocol makes sense. I get done what I can do with two small batteries.  The rest of it will wait till tomorrow, or the next day.

Getting old ain't for sissies.

Pore Ol' Bill

 I don't follow football. I just don't care, but sometimes I brush up against it.  It's unavoidable in today's society. If pressed, I could probably name a few notable coaches from over the years.  Tom Landry, Bear Bryant.  And, I've heard the name Bill Belichick.

When I was in my mid-forties, I got divorced. Like millions of Americans.  It's a sad tale, but a common one.  Suddenly, you are thrust from married life to single life, and it's time to get out there and see how deep the dating pool is. Like many Americans, I spent some time in the dating pool.  But,,I never got down in the kiddie section. I dated gals with life experience. I culled some, and some culled me and eventually I met Belle.

We turn now to Coach Belichick, who has the same story.  He gave an interview recently, and some gal named Jordan was hanging close.  Evidently, they are a thing.  She's 24 and he isn't.  My first thought was "go ahead, Coach."  But then you watch Bill's eyes, and you can see that he isn't having much fun. The eyes tell the tale.  I'm not saying that anything nefarious is going on, but if you google Stockholm Syndrome, some insight might come through.

The dating pool can be a scary place, and I suspect that many men learn that the hard way.

Fort Bliss

 It looks like Fort Bliss, TX is going to be used to house migrant detainees.

Folks my age will remember that Fort Chafee, AR was used in the early 80s to house detainees that came over during the Mariel boatlift out of Cuba.  In the late 80s, For Polk housed a couple of hundred detainees for a short time. When I got there in 1990, the MPs on post were still talking about it.  It was part of the near-term organizational memory.

As I recall, the MPs at Polk considered the Cubans to be a huge pain in the ass. I'm betting that the soldiers at Bliss will consider the new detainees likewise.

Palace at Versailles

 Evidently, the Federal Reserve is building a new headquarters in Washington..  A place for them to gaze into crystal balls and manage the nation' money supply.  Problem is, they have gotten a little carried away with their own comfort.

Here is the headline:

Federal Reserve blows $2.5B on ‘Palace of Versailles’ HQ despite mounting losses: ‘Congress must put its foot down’

Evidently, this place is sheer luxury.  Rooftop gardens, water features, all manner of expensive bullshit. They do an important job, but if they want luxury, they can build it at home, at their own expense.  Federal buildings should be simple structures, designed for economy and versatility. I'm thinking Steelcraft desks like the Army uses.

$2.5 billion may not seem like much to the Federal Reserve, but to the rest of us, that is a shit-ton of money.  Our money.

Judges Acting Badly

 What's up with these activist judges?

Like the one in Milwaukee who literally let an illegal run from ICE.while he was in her courtroom.

Then the one in New Mexico who was harboring a gang-banger, gave him a rifle with a suppressor.  I can think of about a dozen ATF laws that he violated.

I've known corrupt judge and I've seen them disciplined, but nothing like this.

Thirty Days

 We're thirty days away from the major shooting competition I host every year, and while I've been planning and working on this match for about eight months, it's time to double-check everything and make sure we have what we need. Spare timers, spare sensors, extra Cat 5 cable. Ladders, rolls of duct tape, extra zip ties.

I have long known that if you have spares, everything will go smoothly, and you won't need them.  If you don't have spares, you will need three.

I have my teams together, and the trophies are ordered.  The insurance is paid, and the policy is in my hand. It's just time to check everything and keep the lists straight.

We normally host a state championship, but this year we are combining it with a regional tournament. More participants, more prizes, more stress. The secret is to make it look easy.  Do the planning and check everything twice.

It's going to be a lot of fun.

Running Errands

 Running errands this morning, I happened to see that egg prices continue to drop.

That's not as bad as it was on the 1st of the month.  They're coming down.  Driving to the next stop, I heard a talk radio guy ay that Louisiana has a bill pending to rescind all local sales taxes on groceries.  Currently, locally, we pay about 5 cents local taxes on groceries. That would be better, but I don't give it  snowball's chance of passing.  Local government loves their tax money.

Thence to the barber shop, where we discussed everything from bakes ham to Jesus.  In an old-style country barber shop, you never know what the topic of conversation might be. We're still paying $20 for a haircut, which is another indication of inflation.  The haircut is worth $8, but the conversation makes up for the other $12.

RIP

 I see that Pope Francis has died, peacefully at his residence in the Vatican.

Say what you will about the proper role of a Pontiff, but he exerts vast influence across the globe.

The College of Cardinals will now assemble and make their choice as to a successor.

Rest In Peace, Francis

Boosting The Signal

 If you haven't gone to covid.gov yet, maybe you should.

There seems to have been some updates recently.

WTF??

 I haven't the latest and greatest in handgun design over the past decade or longer. I freely admit that I am way behind the knowledge curve.

Lately, I've been noticing a meme about Sig Sauer handguns, specifically the P320 going off all by themselves.  I can't imagine a fire control group that would just fire randomly. Of course, that would make the Four Rules a whole lot more pertinent.

WTF?  Is this really a thing?  And, isn't the Army's new pistol a direct variant of the Sig?

Bell 206

 I'm sure by now you have all heard of the Bell 206 tourist helicopter that went down in the Hudson River last week.  A tragedy, and I'm sure that the NTSB will eventually figure it out.

Juan Brown covers it here.

Captain Steve follows it here.

Here is a short reel that everyone has seen.

I'm no pilot, but it looks like the transmission came out of the damned thing. That is both catastrophic and unrecoverable. I've never flown in one of those, but I did spend a little time in the Army's version when I was playing those silly games.  I always considered the OH-58 to be a damned fine helicopter.

As it turns out, a good friend of mine is tuned in to the helicopter maintenance community.  I haven't had a chance to pick his brains yet, but as soon as I get the chance, I will.

Disappeared

 Some pundits are saying that the Garcia fellow, that illegal from El Salvador, more recently from Maryland, was "disappeared" by the Trump administration.  Not likely.  We know exactly where he is, which is not a hallmark of being "disappeared".  If they were trying to "disappear" this fellow, it was truly inept. We know exactly where he is.

For a proper "disappearing", we can go back to Stalin, who knew how to "disappear" someone who crossed him.  Or Mao, or even Pol Pot.

Closer to home, we can go back to the 70s, when Louisiana Representative Hale Boggs disappeared on a campaign flight over the Alaskan wilderness. Some conspiracy theorists say that Boggs was lost because he was in a very public pissing contest with FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. Others think that he was simply a victim of 1970s aviation technology and the vast Alaskan wilderness.  Either way, he was never found. And, Louisiana reelected him, even though he wasn't declared dead until after the election.

This Garcia case is interesting.  It seems that Garcia is an illegal alien, and in 2019  two immigration courts ruled that he is eligible for deportation because he is an MS-13 gang member. But, he can't be deported back to El Salvador because there is a chance that rival gangs may inflict great bodily harm. So, he was allowed to stay inthe United States.

Recently, Garcia was caught up in an ICE dragnet and deported to El Salvador to that prison that the Trump administration is using to house alien miscreants.  Garcia's lawyers got involved and sued for his return.  The Trump administration admits that it was a mistake to deport Garcia to El Salvador, but they had no power to have him returned.

The case got fast-tracked to SCOTUS, who upheld a lower court ruling ordering that Garcia be returned.

El Salvador's president said that Garcia is a citizen of his country and the country has cleaned up its gang problem and the president of El Salvador has no authority to take a citizen and smuggle him into the US.  Basically, El Salvador has told SCOTUS to go kick rocks.

The Supreme Court does not always get its way.

Traffic Stop

 Belle and I are sitting on the back porch, and she happens to notice a Sheriff's deputy sitting in our side yard.  We live on a corner, and have a street beside our house. I peek over the fence and see that the deputy has some teenager pulled over.  The teen is on a side-by-side four-wheeler.

We live in a subdivision outside of town. Four-wheelers on the road are an issue, and many of them have no registration or insurance. Many of the kids who ride them don't have a license yet.  It's a problem.  God forbid some kid gets run over.  Seriously.  No one wants that to happen.

So, I sit back down, tell Belle what's going on and give her my synopsis, based on what I did when I was a rural deputy.  Shut the kid down.  Give him a warning citation and get in touch with his parents.  No harm, no one gets fouled, and hopefully the kid learns a lesson.  Don't drive four-wheelers on public roads.

About an hour later, Belle notices that the deputy is still there, and I start making excuses for him.  He's doing paperwork, it's close to the end of shift and he has no calls pending.  Then, we hear air barks and a back-up warning.  I peer over the fence and see a wrecker.  A nice tilt-bed wrecker.

That deputy is impounding that four-wheeler. Don't ask me why, I can think of a few scenarios. None of them good for the kid, and I bet that Daddy is going to be pissed.

Weekend Update

 It seems that over the weekend, a federal immigration judge says that Whatshisname Khalil can be deported under current immigration law. Khalil, you may recall is a foreigner, married to a US citizen, studying at Columbia university, and a leader in a pro-Hamas group that has been disrupting the campus and threatening Jewish students.  SecState Marco Rubio had him detained and he is currently held in a detention facility i Jena, LA, awaiting final judgement.

Khalil's lawyers say that he is entitled to First Amendment protections.  The government disagress, under an immigration law that allows the SecState to declare some immigrants to be deported whenthey are stirring up crap.

I wonder how the defense lawyers would react if Khalil was an avowed Nazi and was riling up students to threaten and harm black students on campus?  I'm aware that Khalil is entitled to some degree of due process in this country, but I don't believe that he should expect the dame level of due process as a citizen.

If you're comig over here to study, that's fine.  Mind your manners.

Oh, Bullshit

 It seems that when we weren't paying attention yesterday, Colorado's governor signed into law an new bill that would restrict the rights of Colorado residents and visitors to possess certain firearms. According to the Colorado Sun.

Starting in August 2026, the manufacture, sale and purchase of certain semiautomatic firearms that can accept detachable ammunition magazines will be outlawed in Colorado. 

That will include AR-15 and AK-47 rifles, as well as a long list of their popular variants. Senate Bill 3 will also affect tactical shotguns and a small number of handguns.

The banned weapons would only be available for purchase to anyone who is otherwise allowed to purchase a gun if they have a magazine with a maximum capacity of 15 rounds that is welded, epoxied or soldered on. Right now, those kinds of weapons are rarely made. 

The bill also immediately bans so-called rapid-fire trigger devices, like bump stocks, which can make a semiautomatic weapon fire at a rate similar to that of an automatic gun. 

It seems to me that a number of lawsuits are virtually inevitable.  I don't imagine that the Colorado governor has ever read the 2nd Amendment.  He is certainly unfamiliar with the concept of firearm ownership

Another Water Heater

 Belle and I bought this place in 2004 and now I have replaced three water heaters.  The first in 200+, the second in March, 2020 and the third one today.  Grandson Zach lives with us and works for a major package shipper.  His trucks come to your house regularly.  He goes in to the warehouse at 0-dark-thirty,  moves packages from big trucks to little trucks and normally gets home about mid-morning.

Today he came in, found Belle and I in the shop, and told us that we had a major wter leak in the wash room.  Well damn. The only up-side was that he was here to help and as a 22-year-old, he needed to learn this skill.  So, I went to the lumber yard for a water heater.  Two hours later and much wetter, we were done.  Zach was there for the whole process, turning off the house water,  removing the old heater, filling the new one, installing the electrical connections.  

So, that job is done once again.  Five years seems to be the life of a hot water heater around here.

Why Now?

 I'm a bit amused and distracted by the number of tel-all books and articles coming out about the Biden White House. Insty talks about it here, and I understand that there are a couple of book coming out that will reveal when people suspected that Biden was done.

Many of us suspected that he was getting decrepit and senile, but for me, the proof that he was ready for the nursing home was the day that the Easter Buny was leasing him around the yard.  I'm not a paid political pundit, and I wasn't really paying attention, but that day I knew thatr Joe Biden was not making the decisions in the White House.

Yet those guys like George Steph-whathisname and Morning Joe continued to insist that Biden was on top of his game, when our own eyes told us that it was a lie.  The family didn't want to give up the access to the most powerful office in the United States.  Jill loved the perks of being First Lady and Hunter needed the access to graft.  I can understand their motives, but I cannot understand the motives of the journalists.  So, the questions remain, why now?

Perhaps the answer is simply the publishing cycle. It takes six months for a book to come out.  Their reputations and credibility are thoroughly in shambles, yet they think people want to buy their books?

This N' That

 Overheard a political commentor on the Tube of You yesterday, talking about the SCOTUS decision on the deportation flights.

"Oh, yeah, they will get a habeas hearing.  And a bag of peanuts before they get on the plane."

Got a letter from my homeowners insurance company yesterday.   Louisiana has some of the highest insurance rates in the South.  There are lots of reasons, but we can blame it on hurricanes, trial lawyers. and the insurance companies themselves. We've been trying hard to change the legislative climate in Louisiana and do thigs that other states have done to reduce insurance rates.  Maybe it's working.  Basically, the letter said that they have been working with our Dept of Insurance, and realize that they have been over-charging me. I'm going to get a refund in the next 30 days.  I'm not sure what brought this on, but I'll take it.

The Court Punts

 SCOTUS punted on the question of whether the President can remove illegal aliens under the 1798 law that allows him to remove aliens.  They said that he may remove them, but requires that they bea afforded a reasonable time to seek habeas.  Reuters reports:

Detainees "must receive notice after the date of this order that they are subject to removal under the Act. The notice must be afforded within a reasonable time and in such a manner as will allow them to actually seek habeas relief in the proper venue before such removal occurs," the majority wrote.

The article said that is was an unsigned 5-4 opinion, so I'm curious which of the so-called "conservative"  justices voted with the liberals.  I thought we had a 6-3 Court. 

So, Trump can still deport people under that old law, but the detainee must be afforded the opportunity for judicial review. Okay, whatever that means.

More Confusion

 Sometime prior to the 1970s there was a fellow who lived in the woods east of Holloway, LA.  His initials were A.W. and he decided to build a restaurant and serve short-order foods to the people who lived in the community and travelers along the highway. AWs Drive In was born.

This place is not to be confused with the national chain, A&W, who makes great root beer. This is a down-home, family owned establishment. Their Yelp review is here, and I was not surprised to see that they get great reviews. This is one of those great, down-home local restaurants that used to be everywhere, but is now fading from the American scene.

A commenter asked how the BLIT was.  Served on Texas toast, with plenty of bacon, Belle reports that it was just fine. My fish plate was excellent as well, with good farm-raised catfish, fries, cole slaw, hush puppies and an onion slice.  

My Dad loved to fish, he even put in a catfish pond on the property.  In his later years, he said that AWs was his favorite fishing hole, because he didn't have to load the boat or clean the fish.  Fishing at AWs is a sure thing. You don't even need bait.

Confusion

I called in an order to a local drive-in for lunch.  Belle wanted a BLT sandwich, and I wasn't sure that they made a BLT.

Her. "AWs Drive-In"

Me. "Yeah, do you make a BLT sandwich?:

Her. "Sure do.  Do you want everything on that?"

Me. "Un.. Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato?"

Her. "Well, yeah, but some people like mayo on it."

Me, chuckling. "A little mayo would be great."

I picked up Belle's BLT and got myself a fish plate.  AWs has been a standard in the Deville community for decides.  Personally, I have known it sine the late 1960s When I was in high school, a great Sunday drive with a gal would be to go out to AWs and get a milkshake.  They made a great black walnut milkshake. It's changed hands a few times since then, but it's still open, making burgers and shakes, and evidently, BLT sandwiches.  With mayo.

Handgun Stopping Power

In the early 80s, when I first pinned on a badge and took the oath, the .357 Magnum was king of the law enforcement community.  Everyone carried one, along with the .38 Special. There were big things happening in the firearms world. Jeff Cooper was still the guru, touting the .45 ACP and the 1911 platform as the top of the lie for serious handgun use. Then, in 1986, a couple of things happened.

The FBI Miami shootout happened, calling into question the tactics and handguns currently in use. And, also in 1986, Gaston Glock introduced the Model 17 in the US market, introducing the popular age of polymer handguns.  Each of these developments spurred development of handguns and cartridges for law enforcement and self-defense use. There was no internet back then, so we would have to wait for the monthly magazines to come out, telling us what  the latest thinkers were saying and the products that were hitting the market.

Everything moved more slowly back then. s we hashed out our differences, the lines were drawn, and there were several lines to draw.  Semiauto vs revolver,  Polymer vs steel.  Glock vs 1911. Those were exciting times around the coffee pot in the squad room.  Everyone had an opinion.

In January of 1990, Smith and Wesson introduced the .40SW cartridge. It grew out of tests that the FBI was conducting to find a better handgun cartridge and the debate really cranked up. The US Army had adopted the Beretta 92FS in 1985, but I didn't see the first one until late 1990, supply issues being what they are. Exciting times.

We heard rumors about a big study being done as part of an academic exercise. Then, in 1992, Evan Marshal and Edwin Sanow published their study, Handgun Stopping Power.   You can still find it on Amazon, sometimes. With this study, the wheels fell off the debate. We can find a very brief summation of it at US Carry forum here.

I say all this to remind the youngsters that we are still arguing about the best gun to carry and use for self defense. The 9mm is now the king of the hill, but that does nothing to diminish the utility of the others. I find a couple of things interesting.  Marshal and Sanow found the diminutive .32 ACP to be a 64% stopper with good bullets.  And, the renowned FBI Miami shoot was finished with the old FBI .38 Special load. Both of those are considered extremely anemic by today's standards.

Todays bullets and powders are worlds apart from what we were using in the 1980s and 1990s. Yet, those same cartridges have benefitted from the technology that gives us better powder and bullets. Technique and bullet placement are still critical. The best parameter for success is still hitting the target. Every thing else is secondary. Don't scoff at the little lady with the .32, or the old man who is carrying a revolver. They probably know how to use them.

Liberation

 The markets are reacting poorly to President Trump's tariffs. Dow is down 4%, NASDAQ down5%, S&P down6%.  The markets are all about short-term gain and this is a long-term move.  The pain should be short and over soon.  Let the market react.

My Honda is in the shop at the shop.  I didn't have an appointment (really?  It's hard to schedule a major electrical issue.) but I'm told that it's next in line and the techs will get on it tomorrow morning.  We'll see, but before I left the dealership this morning, I had the service-critter check the status on the warranty.  I'm good.

Whut??

 In April of 2020, I bought a new car.  For myself.  Probably the first new car I had purchased since 1975. In my world, the lady drove the nice car, the man drove a clunker, probably a pickup truck.  My current ride is a 2020 Honda Odyssey.  It's been a good ride, and it's carried Belle and I to lots of cowboy shoots.  It hauls a lot of gear and I've been happy with it. It is still under warranty.

Today, I started getting some weird codes. Error messages on the dash.

Weird stuff like that.  Odd.  It all happened at once, and I'm getting about five error codes. Confusing.  I"m going to get up at 0-dark-thirty and have it sitting in front of the Honda dealer tomorrow morning when they open the doors.  I don't know what the issue is, but Honda will figure it out.

Eggs

 I worked the grocers list this morning while doing errands and noticed that the price of eggs have dropped.  Belle and I normally buy the Grade A Large eggs and that's what I looked at today.

$3.93 is a lot better that the ~$5.00 they were earlier when I checked. We don't eat a lot of eggs, but I needed them for lunch.  I fried some nice pork steaks and used an egg wash to help the breading stick to the pork.  

When I get ready to cook chicken fried steak, or chicken fried pork, I season the meat with salt, pepper and garlic powder, then run it through some all-purpose flour, then an egg/milk wash, then into crushed saltine crackers.  Hot oil at 350F, fry till golden brown.  It helps if you have the butcher run those little pork steaks through the tenderizer.

I don't fry chicken. Popeye's is just down the road, and I can't seem to get the motivation to fry chicken anymore. So, today's lunch was chicken fried pork, with mashed potatoes and a cream gravy.  

Torpedo Bat?

 The sports world is abuzz about the Yankees winning a ball game with something called a "torpedo bat". It's actually nothing new. Every kid who ever played sandlot ball knows that some bats work for you and some don't.

Evidently, the batting coach did some analytics and found that each hitter is different and had some bats made that match the hitter.  Good analytics, because it worked for him. But every kid who ever played baseball knows that a bat has a sweet spot, and when you connect that spot with the ball, magic happens. That same kid knows that if you can get to West Main Street in Louisville, the factory will make a bat designed just for you.

Baseball will survive the torpedo bat, just as surely as it survived lights on the field. Every good pitcher knows his hitter, and if he's hitting low and away, then give him high and inside.  Work the corners and keep him guessing.