Saturday night, and the next data set came in

so look it over

It's March, and in Oklahoma

that means choices:
Do I plant stuff in the garden, knowing that- at least once- I'll have to cover it for the last(and maybe next-to-last) frost?

Do I start something outside that can't be finished in a day?

If you plan to hit the outdoor range, check the forecast for wind speed and direction.  And hope they got it right this time.

Ref the aforementioned forecast: you can have the windows open to air out the house, and sleep, in glorious fresh air; and find yourself waking up to close windows and throw a blanket on top.

The mockingbird(I'm sure he's the same one from the last two or three years) has returned, and is announcing it to the world, from the accustomed high perches.  No, that's not a choice, but worth mentioning.

Put the cold-weather stuff away?  Bad decision, because while it's unlikely to hit with any extended cold, it damn well WILL freeze again, at least once.

Right now I've got a couple of things I need to do outside this next week, and I'm hoping the forecast is at least close to reality.  We'll see.

Dear Valued Customer,

• Missing dimensions- If you don’t know, we can’t guess.
• Conflicting dimensions or tolerances- Please choose wisely.
• Confusing geometry- We see the lines but have no idea what the part is supposed to look like. Please add appropriate hidden lines, views and other clues as to what you want.
• Fuzzy figures- Please provide electronic copies with sufficient resolution that all numbers and details are clear.
• Tolerances too tight for proposed fabrication methods- If you don’t want to pay for grinding, lapping and honing, move the decimal over by one or more places. That would be to the right, in case you were wondering.

The rest is here.
And thanks to Feral for posting it(a bit NSFW at times)

Seems appropriate

A Miami defense lawyer’s pants burst into flames Wednesday afternoon as he began his closing arguments in front of a jury — in an arson case


Over in EUnuch land, the war against peasants being able to defend themselves, or just learn to shoot, continues.
Despite the engagement and efforts of many Members of the European Parliament, who criticized and opposed what has now come to ignominy as the "EU Gun Ban", the comprimise text as agreed upon by the so-called "Trilogue" back in December was adopted yesterday morning by the European Parliament; all amendments proposed by many groups have been rejected, and now the Member States will have 15 months of time to receive it with a national laws and 30 months to implement it.


Qualified immunity too often means "We can do illegal stuff, like murder you, and get away with it."
And lots of cops wonder why more and more people don't trust them, or the system.

On the subject of those self-congratulating 'elites'

 So do many of our elites in some sense "deserve" to be doing well? Sure -- but this does not mean they "deserve" to lord over the rest of us. Because here's the funny thing: They are doing all the right things, but they refuse to promote their bourgeois living as a national ideal. In other words, they don't preach what they practice. They may be living in stable families, sticking to household budgets, investing their money wisely in retirement accounts, and telling Johnny that yes, his homework is his first priority, but when they write their national columns or appear on national television, their message is always that family structure doesn't matter, that dysfunctional underclass sub-cultures are all "delightfully subversive," and that expecting people to prioritize when it comes to budgets both governmental and personal is inhumane and anti-poor.
...
...Young people especially need the opportunity to test their physical and cognitive limits, bump up against obstacles, and - both literally and metaphorically - hang upside down on the monkey-bars hands-free. But our elites have decided that risk of emotional and bodily injury must be stamped out completely -- and predictably, the people under their oh-so-compassionate charge have now been trained to be, essentially, mentally ill. Indeed, even among our young children, we're seeing a rise in the incidence of attention-deficit disorder, sensory integration disorder, and other maladies -- and at least one occupational therapist has argued convincingly that this is because our elites are micromanaging our children's play in the name of their great safety crusade.

Friday evening, windy but warm,

and all's well.  So far.  So relax and observe

Short version: "You idiots in black robes REALLY screwed this up."

The language of the opinion was almost Scalian: the five Ninth Circuit judges noted their “obligation to correct” the “manifest” errors so bad that the “fundamental” errors “confound Supreme Court and Ninth Circuit precedent.” The district court questioned any judge issuing a “nationwide TRO” “without making findings of fact or conclusions of law” on the merits of the matter and conducting published opinions on seminal matters of national security based on “oral argument by phone involving four time zones.”

Aside from the procedural defects of the process, the five panel jurists then noted the deep legal problems with the panel’s order: its a-historicity, it’s abdication of precedent, and its usurpation of Constitutionally delegated Presidential rights.
That's about as close to "You fools have no business wearing those black robes" as you'll see coming from other judges.


Hey, if you define 'religious-related' properly, you can ignore just about anything.
She said the final straw was when she received death threats to her family from her year 5 and 6 students, with some saying they would behead her.

Prior to that she claimed she made a number of complaints in 2014 about some of the behaviour in her classroom.

She said she was abused by students when she stopped them from hanging a Syrian flag in the classroom.
...
News Corp reports that the woman said her complaints to the NSW Department of Education were simply dismissed.

A spokeswoman for the Education Department did not deny that teachers at the school had been given compensation.

However, she said the department was not aware of any religious-related violence at the school.
Connected:
A Sydney high school principal and his deputy have been sacked after female teachers were excluded from school events.
Why might that have happened?
According to the complaint, the award ceremony exclusion was just one of a number of issues at the school, which has predominantly Muslim students.
The decision to sack the school leaders comes after Hurstville Boys High introduced a policy allowing Muslim students to refuse to shake the hands of female teachers.
Australia is in trouble.


If you substitute "colored people" every time you read "people of color" as you follow the so-called "news" the racism is glaring. The grammatical difference is tiny. The substantive difference is enormous. Left-wing racists insist on singling out people based on race, and name calling. Conservatives, centrists and moderates (almost the same thing) never do, because they shy away from racism and calling people colored ("of color"). It's just not right. It's left.

Leftist tolerance and acceptance

A La Crosse man admitted throwing roofing nails into driveways of residents who supported Republican candidates after someone stole his lawn sign supporting a Democratic candidate, according to La Crosse police reports. 

Martin Sellers, 59, of 2126 Hoeschler Drive, told police he “has done some stupid things” during his arrest Sunday for criminal damage to property and disorderly conduct, reports stated.
Make damn sure he's prosecuted, and go after him for the damages.  You know what good tires cost?


"I called you names, but I'm happy to attend your party!"


It's leftists threatening Republicans/conservatives/libertarians, of course THAT'S ok.


So milk is now racist... these people are just freaking nuts.


Socialism!


Navy Polar Manual from 1965.

So, besides the general "I don't like pain" reason to stay out of fights,

some more concrete "Getting punched can kill you" information on the subject.

It's really a miracle that none of the Trump supporters beaten by leftist mobs have died.  Side point: faced with an actual dead body, and family and friends throwing loud fits, what would the cops who just stood around watching to?  And the school officials when the lawsuits, and possibly criminal charges, hit?


Crap.  ANOTHER MHI book coming out....



Purveyor of one-dimensional view of founding father whines about one-dimensional views.  Because racism.

Over in EUnuch territory, the EUnuchs are claiming victory,

but:
And the growing strength of the Freedom Party can be felt not only on the banks of the Maas River, but across the waterways of the Netherlands. A new wind of change has blown off the North Sea and ruffled feathers in Belgisch Park. 

In The Hague, where Carnegie’s Peace Palace hosts the World Court while the humbler Noordeinde Palace houses King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima, the internationalist institutions colliding with the nationalist ones, the United Nations rubbing up against the Dutch parliament and Supreme Court, the Freedom Party has become the second largest party despite the 15% Muslim population.
...
Despite the attempts to kill it, smear it and destroy it, the Freedom Party continues to rise. And its enemies are being forced to respond to its ideas. The dangerous campaign by Turkey’s Islamist butcher, complete with threats and intimidation, helped Rutte salvage his government. But not his coalition.

The EU elites have to be crapping bricks over this; they can claim victory all they want, but they lost more ground.  And will continue to do so.

"Trust the FBI, we're ethical(when it suits us)!"

Andrew McCabe, the deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigations who aided the investigation into Hillary Clinton's email server, did not report his wife Jill's salary or campaign donations in financial disclosure forms. McCabe's forms were filed with the Office of Government Ethics, and were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act, according to Fox News.

The Washington Free Beacon reported on Nov. 7, 2016 that Hillary Clinton bundlers and Clinton ally Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe were major donors to Jill McCabe's Virginia state senate campaign.

The donations from Clinton bundlers and McAuliffe's political action committee totaled nearly $600,000; however, none of these donations appeared on the 2015 "Executive Branch Personnel Financial Disclosure Report" filed by McCabe.
Ethical Behavior, EffingBI style.

Glen asked, so here 'tis (make added)

Here's the Chiappa mini-Sharps with scope

and without

The mounting blocks are still on the barrel, and the ring with the stripped threads is on its way to be repaired.

I've had this for several years now, and I've had two problems.  First, in the rear sight base, there's a screw that tensions the spring that holds the ladder up or down.  The screw stripped.  I couldn't figure out what thread pitch it was, or find something that size to try, so I tapped the spring for a larger size, dressed the head appropriately, and blued it.  End of that one.

The second, I was firing one day, worked the lever, and instead of moving open and staying there, it flopped.  First thought was "Crap, the spring broke."  Happily, no.  Here there's a spring under the forend that tensions the spring that the lever works against; the head of that screw stripped.  Apparently the head was a bit small for the pressure involved, and it finally broke.  There I was able to find a screw with both matching thread(yes, it was metric, and Ace Hardware) and a wider, stronger head.  No problems since.

I like it.  It's fun to shoot, accurate, and out to 100 yards or so- with appropriate ammo- I'd have no problem using it for deer(lighter loads for smaller stuff).

You want to know just how effing stupid this 'ableist' bullshit is?

This effing stupid.
“Members of the signing Deaf community argue that research which aims to eliminate or cure deafness is a form of cultural genocide,” Burke explains. “The argument goes like this: the use of gene therapy to cure hereditary deafness would result in smaller numbers of deaf children. This, in turn, would reduce the critical mass of signing Deaf people needed for a flourishing community, ultimately resulting in the demise of the community.”

Burke argues that people simply assume that life is better if you are able to hear sounds — that possessing a full complement of basic senses is better than missing a really important one.

“This bias of Hearing culture can be seen in the normative claim that it is better to be a member of the dominant, mainstream Hearing cultural community than to be a member of the non-dominant Deaf cultural community,” Burke writes.
Think about that.  'Form of cultural genocide.'  'Bias of Hearing culture'.

From a fucking PROFESSOR of 'philosophy and religeon'.

These students are being taught by idiots.

Short version: "They are monsters!" Yes, they are, and

you created them.
Take New York Times columnist Frank Bruni. His latest column is filled with dismay over the way Middlebury College students attacked Charles Murray and a liberal woman professor who interviewed him (she was injured by the rioters).
I have no doubt that Bruni is sincere. However, sincerity is completely unrelated to wisdom or insight.
Here's the problem:
It is the left that transformed universities into the moral and intellectual wastelands most are now.
It is the left that created the moral monsters known as left-wing students who do not believe in free speech, let alone tolerance.
It is the left that has taught generations of young Americans that America is essentially a despicable society that is racist and xenophobic to its core.


Over in Britain,
British soldier Alexander Blackman - better known as Marine A - was today sensationally cleared of murdering a Taliban fighter in Afghanistan and could be a free man by next week. 

His wife Claire grinned and there were loud gasps and then cheers from his family, ex-Marines and other supporters as five top Court of Appeal judges quashed the conviction and reduced it to manslaughter. 

Sergeant Blackman, who has already been in prison for three years, will face a new sentencing hearing in the next week but his legal team will argue he should be freed because of time served.
Looking at the article, the information on just how they were supplied and equipped, and their numbers, under those conditions... Shitty way to treat your own troops.


Has the media gotten worse? Or am I just grouchier?
Yes.

Speaking of idiots with no concern for the law, we have Debbie Wasserman Schultz(again)

Imran Awan is the lead suspect in a criminal probe into security breaches within the House of Representatives that was launched on February 2. Imran, who was hired in 2005, was reportedly in possession of an iPad used by then Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz around the time that DNC emails had been leaked to WikiLeaks.

As Rosiak discusses with Loesch, soon after Imran was hired, four of his family members were put onto the payroll, as well as one friend, each making the maximum amount of money you can make. Rosiak, however, believes they were likely not working there at all, but were simply ways for Imran to make more money.
Bad enough, right?  But wait!

There's MORE!
Interestingly, the Awans were said to have owed money to the terrorist group Hezbollah, as Rosiak previously reported.

Not done yet!
Not only is it likely that Imram was cheating the system, he had access to top DNC leadership tech, as Rosiak writes in a report at The Daily Caller.

WikiLeaks emails show that although Imran was employed by her taxpayer-funded House office, the Florida Democrat’s world — and iPad — mixed DNC, House and campaign business, and that Imran was on call for, and on a first-name basis with, top DNC staff.

Now wait for it...
Capitol police ordered that Imram was no longer to come near House servers during the investigation, but Schultz decided to get around that by keeping Imram on a “advisory position.” 

“She’s circumventing the Capitol Police’s direct orders that he’s not supposed to touch House computer systems because he is the suspect in a major criminal investigation,” Rosiak told Loesch. “So she’s having him advise remotely so he could be telling other people what to do in a way that he potentially still has access to this stuff.”
These people aren't just idiots, they're dangerous idiots.  Who don't seem to care about the law, good sense, security, or anything other than what they want to do.

University of Texas/Austin: "Screw the facts,

we want the accused found guilty!  So don't do a fair investigation!"
In particular, Section 7 of the manual, billed as a “toolkit” for police investigators, warrants further discussion. … FIRE is deeply concerned by the recommendation that police investigators—who even by the report’s own admission are supposed to serve as “neutral fact finders”—should deliberately conduct their investigations in such a way as to “anticipate” and “counter” possible defense strategies.

One of the most disturbing of these recommendations relates to the defense strategy of “impeachment by contradiction,” which happens when “[a] witness testifies to facts at the trial that are different from facts recorded in their case documentation.” To prevent the defense from being able to do this, the report essentially suggests that investigators avoid creating any record in which parties might make contradictory statements. So, investigators should “avoid repeating a detailed report” when conducting follow-up interviews, and they should “reduce the number of reports prepared by investigators,” all to limit the defense’s ability to challenge the prosecution’s case.
This is horrendous.  And if the cops listen to it they're opening themselves up to some serious charges. 

The asshats pushing this?  I wonder if the realized the kind of charges they're opening themselves and the university up to?

Sue the bastards.  For everything they have or ever will have.  Maybe that'll get their attention.

"Those kids can pray in school, and we'll set aside special times for them. Your kids can't pray in school.

And if you object, you're a racist!"
In other words, standard SJB club being used once again on people.

"You won't come to this war zone. You won't come to this poverty-stricken area. You won't come and look us in the eye."

Of course not.  They're the EPA, they don't like facing the people they're screwing over.
If I get the chance to stand one day, 
And name the things to me that I'm most proud of, 
Well, I hope one day I can say, that coal kept the lights on. 
My hometown keeps food on the spoon in my young-un's mouth. 
Tires on the truck and a sundress on my baby girl. 
Coal kept the bills paid, the clothes on the backs, 
and shoes on the feet in the high school halls of the Mountain Lions 
and the Bill County Bobcats on the hill. 
I hope I can say that coal kept the lights on.


The SJB in full flower, counting on guilt-feeling leftists to pay their way.
Shorter:

I hate this $65K a year school I have the privilege of attending, and I hate all the white people who are at the school with me.  Here is a bunch of White Guilt I know you Liberals will fall for so give me some money so I can go on vacation.  Fuck you.  

Sincerely, Self Aggrandized Victim

Dear S-A Victim:
Piss off, you nasty piece of work.


Good for the Czechs.  Tell the EUnuchs to piss off.

Balls the size of cantaloupes, I tell you

The boat in question was a near-antique. Predating the American entry into World War I, she had been built in 1916 by the Lake Torpedo Boat Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut, designated with the hull number SS-73. Unexpectedly, her ultimate fate in the hands of Philadelphia’s scrappers was sidelined by an eccentric Australian gentleman, though it is safe to assume that no tears were shed in the U.S. Naval headquarters when he offered to take her off the Navy’s hands. O-12 was given a new, though ultimately brief, lease on life, in a journey that was to span the breadth of the Atlantic Ocean and past the rim of the Arctic Circle. It was an expedition that in the literal sense would go where no man had gone before, furthering the frontiers of science…while simultaneously threatening everyone involved with watery graves and financial ruin.

Mommies Demand hate 'innocent until proven guilty'

At least when the accused had a firearm.

Under current law, homicide defendants must prove at a pretrial hearing that they “reasonably believed” they were threatened with grave bodily harm, and therefore are entitled to make a claim of self-defense at trial. But a bill moving through the Republican-controlled Legislature would turn the hearing process on its head, by shifting the burden to prosecutors to prove “beyond a reasonable doubt” that a defendant’s claim to self-defense was not valid. 

Oh.  So Florida is going to apply the legal standard that is at the core of American jurisprudence, placing the burden of proof in a criminal trial on the prosecution.  That doesn’t actually sound so bad.

Of course, MDA isn’t going to stand for this.  They don’t care about civil liberties or the rights of the accused  when it comes to gun laws.

"Radiation! AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

Etc.  Except.


Short version: the Saudis tried their previous tactic, and it won't work anymore.  And they're screwed.*
The remarks by Tillerson ...  come as the Saudis have effectively abandoned their strategy to drive higher cost producers out of the market by ramping up cheap supplies from their own fields ... shale oil producers' resilience in cutting costs to make some wells profitable at as low as $40 a barrel means that North America has effectively become a swing producer that will be able to respond rapidly to any global supply shortage.
Add to that the new discover in Alaska.


New Effing York.  Run by PC-brained idiots.
Prospective teachers in New York will likely no longer have to pass a basic reading and writing literacy exam, the Associated Press is reporting. 

The state’s Board of Regents is expected to ditch the Academic Literacy Skills Test in part because black and Hispanic teaching candidates struggled to pass the exam, according to the AP.
"All hail Diversity!  Your kids won't be able to read, write, count, or know real history, but they will love Diversity!"





*Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of people.

Why, it's almost like he's not Hitler(or stupid) after all

He spoke with the Afghan ambassador.  Who was impressed.  Key part in the second paragraph:
Trump would listen intently after each question, often asking follow-ups. Trump's second call with our president was even longer than the first. Asking these types of questions for our country is something the Obama administration never did. The Obama administration was the most academic administration we have ever had to deal with but the Trump administration has been the most thoughtful and intelligent. 

Trump continually asked “How can you win? What does Afghanistan need to win?” in reference to our fight with terrorism. Trump wants to win. Sincerely. All the Obama administration wanted to do was not lose.

Have to admit: between things like this, and his general driving of leftists even further out of their minds, he grows on you a bit.

Professional 'Justice' Department lawyers... (Scablands link fixed)

And then there is the United States, appearing through attorneys from the Department of Justice. I have no criticism of their knowledge of the law, and their zeal is, to say the least, more than adequate. But they entered these proceedings with arrogance and condescension. One of the Department’s lawyers even exhibited her contempt for Texas and its representatives and her disdain for these proceedings by regularly rolling her eyes at State witnesses’ answers that she did not like, and she amused herself by chewing gum while court was in session.

It was obvious, from the start, that the DoJ attorneys viewed state officials and the legislative majority and their staffs as a bunch of backwoods hayseed bigots who bemoan the abolition of the poll tax and pine for the days of literacy tests and lynchings. And the DoJ lawyers saw themselves as an expeditionary landing party arriving here, just in time, to rescue the state from oppression, obviously presuming that plaintiffs’ counsel were not up to the task. The Department of Justice moreover views Texas redistricting litigation as the potential grand prize and lusts for the day when it can reimpose preclearance via Section 3(c).


Leftist tolerance of others.
Many conservative students felt that the campus became more hostile during election season, and some students received violent threats. On the night of the election, a student in the Pause threatened to beat up [College Republican President Emily] Schaller, calling her a “f***ing moron.” Over the next couple of days, she overheard multiple students threaten to hurt the next conservative or Republican they saw. Vice President of St. Olaf College Republicans Kathryn Hinderaker ’19 had a similar experience. 

“I think one of the hardest things was, the second day, I went into Buntrock and someone yelled from the bottom, ‘if you voted for Trump, you better be f***ing scared.’ Everyone clapped and applauded,” Hinderaker said. “Obviously, it didn’t feel super safe.”


I've read about the scablands before; never knew the backstory of all the academic bullshit.