Tuesday, July 02, 2024

No, I did not know that about vultures

What is truly amazing about vultures, however, is the way they are designed to ensure they can perform this cleansing process without it resulting in great harm to them. Did you know, for example, that the acid in the vulture’s gizzard is the strongest of any animal in the world?

The vulture’s gizzard acid is even more corrosive than the acid in the battery of your car or truck. Even more amazing is the fact the vulture’s gizzard acid destroys such deadly pathogens as Anthrax, Tuberculosis, Botulism and Cholera.

I knew about the cleanup duties, but not about this

Monday, July 01, 2024

While we're hearing "UNPRECEDENTED!" and other such crap about the weather being hot(in late June

and the start of July), 
Where I used to work it was a 24/7 operation.  When I'd been working evenings this time of year, when it got hotter than average, you'd get off around midnight; it'd be in the upper 80's, sometimes low 90's when really bad, and the humidity so high you half expected to see small frogs kicking past you.  Lord, that's miserable.  And usually very little wind at those times, , which made it worse.

So when the Usual Suspects start bitching about the evils of air conditioning and how we were better off without it and would be now, I want to pick  up something long and heavy and beat them with it.  

Sunday, June 30, 2024

A good explanation of what those two Supremes rulings mean

for gun owners.  Very short version, ATF is among a bunch of federal agencies that just had their "We wrote a new rule for you to obey" powers cut off.

And, of course, there’s ATF’s practice of seeking to fine FFL’s through its own internal administrative proceedings for alleged violations of ATF rules would now seem to be barred under Jarkesy. ATF will be required to file a civil lawsuit or a criminal indictment…which I suspect it will be far less likely to do.  

What of ATF’s current jihad against FFLs, in which it seeks to terminate federal licenses based on even the slightest technical mistakes? That could be a tougher call, as the issuance of licenses may fall under the “public rights” aspect of the law that doesn’t implicate the Seventh Amendment. We’ll have to see how the post-Jarkesy case law shakes out.

In a post-Jarkesy communication with Prof. Hamburger, he told me that he expects the feds will try to take a very narrow view of the Court’s opinions, and more fights will undoubtedly be needed. Fortunately, the NCLA has already set up a “Relentless Working Group” which is tasked with monitoring and identifying agencies that are resisting the Supreme Court’s holdings, and they’ll bring test cases where appropriate. The administrative state is down, but it’s by no means out.