Juries

 Have y'all been paying attention to the trial going on?  The one where the woman murdered her three children and the jury is hung up?

I'm reminded of Mark Twain's observation in his work, Roughing It.

The jury system puts a ban upon intelligence and honesty, and a premium upon ignorance, stupidity and perjury. It is a shame that we must continue to use a worthless system because it was good a thousand years ago. In this age, when a gentleman of high social standing, intelligence and probity, swears that testimony given under solemn oath will outweigh, with him, street talk and newspaper reports based upon mere hearsay, he is worth a hundred jurymen who will swear to their own ignorance and stupidity, and justice would be far safer in his hands than in theirs. Why could not the jury law be so altered as to give men of brains and honesty and equal chance with fools and miscreants? Is it right to show the present favoritism to one class of men and inflict a disability on another, in a land whose boast is that all its citizens are free and equal? I am a candidate for the legislature. I desire to tamper with the jury law. I wish to so alter it as to put a premium on intelligence and character, and close the jury box against idiots, blacklegs, and people who do not read newspapers. But no doubt I shall be defeated-- every effort I make to save the country "misses fire." 

Not much has changed.

Stranded

 Reminiscing about 9/11.

My Dad was 67 years old, recently retired, and wanted to see the great American Southwest.  The Painted Desert, Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon.   He and Mom planned a trip and decided that Los Vegas would serve nicely as a hub for this adventure.  They booked the trip and in early September 2001 got on a plane.

Early afternoon of 9/11 the phone rang.  It was my sister.  "Dad and Mom are stranded in Los Vegas."

I considered that information briefly, weighed options, said "Okey", and hung up the phone.

She called back immediately.  "Did you hear me? Dad and Mom are stranded in Los Vegas!  They got on the plane this mourning, but it didn't take off.  They are back at the hotel. Stranded in Vegas."

I softened my tone. "Sweetheart, do you hearer what you are saying? If I had to make a list of places to be stranded in, Vegas would be at the top. I'm sure that the Old Man has a clean, comfortable room with a TV and a cafe on the first floor."  I continued. "If they were stranded in Jasper, Texas I would get in the car and head west.   They are not, they are stranded in Los Vegas. They'll be fine."

Mom and Dad got home four or five days later. The only thing Dad was upset about was that they would not let him board the flight with his pocket knife. They took his little 3-blade stockman knife that he carried everywhere and he was mightily offended.

Thursday, Again

 Its Thursday morning and not much happening on PawPaw's acre.  What's left of Edouard is dumping rain on east Texas.  We're getting a bit here in central Louisiana and we needed it.

Belle is running errands.  The dawg and I are out in the shop.  Belle has been hungry for chicken pot pie and that is her recipe.  She told me to take out some chicken thighs and she would make a pot pie when she finished her errands.

I'm thinking about the anniversary of 9/11.  It's been 25 years.

Belle and I had been dating for eight months.  I had worked a night shift at the Natchitoches Parish Detention Center, got off work at 5;00 am, went home and fell into bed. Shortly after 8:00 CDT the phone rang.  it was a friend telling me to get up and turn on the TV.

I saw the North tower burning and thought "what the helll?", then watched the second plane hit the other tower.  "That was no accident."  I stumbled into the kitchen, put on a pot of coffee and  spent the  rest of the day curled up on the couch watching television. I had calls from friends and family and got no sleep that day.  At 5:00 pm I reported back to work for another night shift, tired, grumpy and in no mood for standard inmate bullshit. The others on shift felt the same way. It was a quiet night.

Where were you when the world stopped turning?

TS Edouard

 It looks like Tropical Storm Edouard (ain't that cute) has finally been named.

As storms go, Ed is pretty piddling, but he will bring wind and rain to Texas.  It looks like he is heading toward Dallas, which is in the throes of a drought, having had no rain in August. The Houston/Galveston/Beaumont area is no stranger to tropical weather and I wish them no ill will, but if you are going to be hit by a storm, this one is the one you want.  If this thing goes as forecast, DFW will get a little rain, which they need.

Watching the Tropics

 On the last day of August, we are watching the tropics.  There is a blob of unsettled weather just south of New Orleans that everyone is expecting to become tropical storm Edouard.    For whatever that is worth.  it is expected to organize, gain strength and come ashore somewhere near the Louisiana/Texas line.  Maybe closer to Beaumont.  who knows.

They are also watching the remnants of Dolly.   It has been a slow season for tropical storms, and I am okay with that.

Pecan Island

 Governor Jeff Landry and Elon Musk made the announcement this week, Elon and SpaceX are going to build a launch facility near Pecan Island, LA.    There are lots of good reasons to build a spaceport on the coast and Musk chose Pecan Island as the place he wanted to build.

Termite sent me this graphic, which deserves wide distribution.

We wish Musk and SpaceX good things and we hope that Louisiana serves his needs and the needs of the broader community for years to come.

Gravel

 We built this shop during the winter of 2017-18 and put down gravel during that winter.  That has been eight years.  Around here, crushed limestone is the preferred driveway material  The limestone dust packs well between the stones and makes a firm driveway that needs very little maintenance.

That is Belle's parking spot, immediately adjacent to the main entrance door. I wanted to get this done before the winter rains set in. My gal is a diehard country girl but at this stage of her life objects to walking through mud.

Filters

 Sometime about the middle of May, we had to buy a new fridge for the house. Belle went online to the Lowe's site and picked out a fridge.  A nice Frigidaire on sale.  Had it delivered.  The fellow who delivered it and set it up was a nice fellow, very professional, did a great job setting it up, connecting the ice maker and walking me through the process.

Couple of days ago, the fridge threw a code on the door panel, telling me that it needs an air filter.

What?  An air filter?  Seriously?  So, we went to Amazon and ordered some air filters. They will be in tomorrow.  Today, I came in and it is throwing another code.  It wants a water filter.  Hence, we have ordered some water filters.

My old fridge stood there for almost 20 years and when Lowes hauled it off it had the same filter in it that the manufacturer had installed.

It is a nice fridge, but it is needy.

Wednesday

 It's hot outside.  Belle is puttering in the kitchen.  Lunch will soon be upon us.  Just another Wednesday in the piney woods of central Louisiana.

I'm being worthless today.  As is my right as an old retired curmudgeon.  I will haul off some trash later, but that is about the extent of my ambition today.  As I scroll through my news feeds I note that it is all Dolly, all the time. That is to be expected, I guess.

The tropics are quiet, almost spooky quiet.  Looking at the list of names for the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season, I note that the name Dolly is on the list.  Strange coincidence.

Rest In Peace, Dolly

 After a busy morning, I turned on the computer and learned that Dolly parton has died at age 80.

Dolly/s music has been a constant in mu life.  She was truly a superstar in the music industry, and her music has reached across genres.  She will be sorely missed.

Hot

We are in the mid-August heat wave.  It hasn't rained in a couple of weeks and the sun is a constant tormentor. The grass is "crunchy", dry and coarse.  In short, it is hot. Humidity is only at 36%, but the heat feels like a blanket.

 There is a chance of a passing thunderstorm tonight, but it is well under 50%.  Any rain would help but I'm not holding out for a deluge.

Oath of Office

During this election cycle we have become aware of candidates who purport to be Democratic Socialists.

Go to their website, or even listen to them and they will tell you what they want.  Abolish the Senate, change the President into a Prime Minister,  expand or abolish the Supreme Court.  That is Article I, II, and III.

Yet, they are seeking election to the US House, which requires an Oath of Office.

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.”

A Democratic Socialist cannot take that oath without a purpose of evasion. They cannot bear true faith and allegiance.

I'm just saying.

Cougars

 Cougars  (catamount, panthers, whatever) are in lots of places where the Wildlife Weenies don't seem to want to admit that they have cougars.  Like in Michigan for example. Good for Michigan for admitting what landowners and hunters have known for years.

When I lived in Natchitoches Parish in the early 80s, I had panthers on my property.  i would hear then occasionally and saw them twice.  Ours were dark brown, almost chocolate and would appear black in certain light conditions.  The neighbors would talk about sightings, but the wildlife weenies would not admit that we had then in the area.  okay, fine. In 2002 I wrote about it on Castbullet.

If you want to stir up some crap around a campfire, tell then that there is no such thing as a black panther.  In certain low-light conditions a brown panther will look black. That is what people see and that is what they report.  If you go back to the little video linked above, one of the photos looks black.

I'm just glad that they are out there.

Dog Days

 On this 19th day of August we are officially in the dog days of summer.  The local weather weenies tell us that our afternoon temps will flirt with triple digits, if not surpass it. As we approach the typical peak of the hurricane season, the tropics are unusually quiet. Thus far we have had only three named storms, and I had to verify that  It is quiet.

The national weather weenies tell us that fall teps are just around the corner.  That is well and good for the rest of you, but I am aware that I live in Deep South Louisiana and.  We are two months away from taking out the flannel shirts.

This is the first day in a while that Belle and I have nothing scheduled.  No appointments, no obligations. the only problem with doing nothing is that you are never sure when you have finished. As such, I pulled some fish from the freezer, and it is thawing in the sink.  I'll make a run up to the Dollar Store in a bit to pick up some french fries.

Mechanics and Medicine

 I took my Honda to the dealer today to get it serviced. It's a 2020 Odyssey with ~60K miles.  It needed an oil change and a tire rotation.  when the dealer finished and we were settling up, she told me that my vehicle has two safety recalls.  One for the rearview camera and one for an air bag. The only problem is that they don't have the parts for the recall.

For one of the recalls (I forget which) they will order the part and it will be in by next Tuesday, when we'll do the recall work.  Thor the other, the dealer can only order one (1) per day, and they have thousands of customers on that list.

I recently realized that I had lost the appointment for my primary care doc.  I called the office, but that was a no-go, so while I was in town today, I went to the doc's office to check. It's next month.  While I was there, I registered a complaint on behalf of Belle's brother who is in the hospital.  It seems that the coms lines between the hospital and the primary care doc are inop.  No message traffic.  One hand has no clue what the other is doing.  That is the nature of medical practice today.

Friday Editorial

 Back in the day when I got a daily newspaper, I enjoyed reading the editorial page..  I would get a cup of coffee and sit before the fireplace. Sometimes I would agree, sometimes I would disagree and other times I would throw the paper into the fireplace in disgust.

These days, my editorial is on the intertubes and one of the folks I like listening to is victor Davis Hanson. He has a podcast that I enjoy with wide-ranging topics.  Sometimes history, other times current events.  In the one embedded below, one of the topis is the rise of the Democratic Socialists in American politics. The whole podcast is over an hour, but if you skip forward to 25:30 you can get his take on them.  Agree or disagree but he has studied the movement and I have not.

While listening to VDH, I got out the Winchester and started futzing with the new reflex sight. Playing with reticles and brightness.  Learning the sight. I now own precisely two red dot sights. A Vortex tube sight that sits on an AR and this new one on that sits atop the Winchester. At some point I will compare and contrast.

This new sight uses a CR1632 battery, so I'll have to pick up a spare. The Vortex uses a Triple A battery and those are always on hand.

Purists

 Back in the day of The Frugal Outdoorsman, Junior and I were playing with the old .30 WCF cartridge and I bought a Winchester 94 simply because I didn't have one and I  saw one sitting forlornly in a used gun rack.  Mine is nothing special.  It was built in 1965, right after Winchester changed everything, and they called it the Antique Model.  Purists said that this was Winchester's attempt at putting lipstick on a pig.  I thought the price was right and bought it.

I immediately tapped out that execrable buckhorn sight and added a Williams peep. I added a saddle-ring to the left side of the receiver. I shot that rifle for several years as a test bed for castbullet.com, playing with cast bullet loads.  I never made venison with it.

After Junior died, and my eyesight went to hell, that little rifle became a safe queen. I had changed shooting pursuits and didn't do much rifle work for about fifteen years.  Last week, I was digging through the safe and found this little rifle and though how nice it would be to put an optic on it. The purists would howl, but it sure would make this a nice little rifle again.

If you know anything about gun restoration, you have heard of Turnbull Restoration.  Turns out, they make an optics mount for the Winchester 94.  If Turnbull is okay with it, the purists can kick rocks.   This little mount uses the barrel dovetail to mount an optic.  I ordered the mount pronto,  then went over about bought a Burris FastFire4 optic. It has the Docter footprint that the Turnbull mount requires.

The sight has four reticles and I'll have to figure out which is more useful.

Installation was straight forward. Tiny screws and follow the directions.

I think it looks good.  The purists may scoff, but that is their right.

Physics Wins

 Physics wins, every time.

A FRT (Forced Reset Trigger) seems like a lot of fun, and I'm sure that they are.  An FRT simulates full-auto fire in a weapon that is perfectly legal to own and use. And it is dangerous,  simply because automatic weapons require a different mind-set than semiauto weapons.  Because physics wins, every time.

Colion breaks it down for you.  The whole video is worth watching because physics does not often lend itself to simplistic explanations.

I have been blessed in my life to shoot plenty of full auto weapons.  From the M3 to the M2 and everything between. And I know what happens when a bullet gets out of the range fan. You are responsible for every bullet you fire, from the time the bullet starts moving until it stops moving.

Have fun with these things, but please be careful. Because physics always wins.

CMP

 There was some talk at the club this weekend about the M14s the CMP is going to release.  Talk is that the price is going to be sub-$2000 range, and no fun switch.  I carried an M14 in training and it was an okay rifle. I don't hate it, but I'm not a fan, either. It is what it is.

I also heard today that CMP is going to get a supply of M1897 trench shotguns.  That might be interesting.

Well, Damn

 For the first time in 21 years, the old Ford F150 failed to fire when I twisted the key. It cranked over fine, but it would not start. It started two weeks ago when I needed to move it to mow Today, it failed to fire.  We will have to figure that out. I don't run ethanol in this truck because it us used so infrequently.  It hasn't been filled with ethanol for five years.

I find it amusing that folks are freaking out about those Flock cameras because of security and privacy concerns. Those same folks carry a cell phone with them everywhere, and if you think those things aren't collecting data, your naivete is surpassed only by your lack of situational awareness.  Apple, Samsung, Motorola AT&T and Verizon all collect data. Why do you think that meta is building data centers everywhere?

A couple of years ago, I bought a smart garage door opener.  It's real convenient.  If you think it is not collecting data, then wake up and smell the biscuits. Likewise, your vehicle. If it is not old enough to have an ashtray, it is collecting data. If you want to go dark on data, dump you cell phone in the nearest creek, along with your computer, and drive a car that has a carburetor.  Disconnect the cable and internet and watch an old TV that uses an antennae.

You can do it, but you'll be the only one. Flock cameras are the least of your worries.