Here at the house, the celebrations are already underway.
The New Year's Table is set, and the feast has begun.
We've already drank a toast to 2019, had the appetizers, polished off the main course.
Now we've taken a break, and after the break - dessert.
Soon, the New Year will arrive, we'll toast it coming in and give presents to celebrate.
May you all have a happy, peaceful, and prosperous 2020 and a experience a great new decade!
After a very nice trip to both the east and west coasts of Florida over the last week, to both relax and see family, I'm back.
Sadly, it seems that winter is about to be back as well.
In any case, lots of fun things to blog about from the trip and I will be back in the swing of things shortly.
The vacation has sunset, so here's a nice shot I took of a sunset from the beach in Englewood, Florida.
To my Christian readers and friends, may you have a joyful and peaceful Christmas season.
I've been told that Santa has passed his flight review and will be on his way to you shortly.
Happy Hanukkah!
We made Latkas yesterday for the first night of Hanukkah. Tonight, Sufganiyot are about to be prepared and eaten tonight and we're having a nice family time together.
Silly Democrats, don't you know you're supposed to push for registration first, then confiscation?
Instead, the newly Democratic controlled Virginia government got it backwards and thought they had the power and could skip Step 1 and go straight to Step 2.
They began their legislative session with a bang, by rolling out gun confiscation legislation. The legislation promptly got rolled back when the reality of what door-to-door confiscation of "assault weapons" would look like. This also led to one particularly bright Democrat representative threatening to send out the Virginia National Guard to assist in the confiscation.
This led to lots of push-back, with the VANG politely saying in not so many words to leave them the heck out of it.
So now, the Virginia state government which is completely Democrat dominated, is magnanimously backing away from immediate confiscation, proposing instead that "assault weapons" would be banned but those who have them would be grandfathered in for possession so long as they're registered.
So, after first threatening to confiscate people's firearms, they now think people will comply and register their firearms with the very same government that had until oh so recently been threatening to confiscate them including loosing the military to seize them?
They actually think people will now register them so the government will know in the future who has them in order to confiscate them more efficiently, which they just stated they would do?
Good luck with compliance with that law, especially since you let the mask slip and let everyone know exactly what you will do with the registration list once you have it and feel the time is right to move forward again with confiscation.
Also, good luck for any Democrat politician in the future proposing "common-sense" legislation like registration by claiming they have no intention of ever confiscating or banning such registered firearms.
One also hopes that gun owners in VA just got a wake-up call and will vote to protect their rights accordingly in the next election.
We left the Israel Air Force Museum and headed north. I could have spent a lot more time there and taken even more pictures but, I was overruled.
We drove north towards Tel Aviv, stopping at Rehovot and headed to the Ayalon Institute.
The institute was located on a Kibbutz during the British mandate period. Most of the Kibbutz residents and workers did not know about the existence of the factory and had been told the 45 volunteers who operated it spent their days working in other farmers' fields.
A pretty standard kibbutz, it was mainly focused on agriculture, had a nice bakery and cafe and a large and rather noisy laundry facility.
And under the laundry facility when you moved a machine aside...
And in the bakery when you moved a 10 ton oven aside...
You had the secret entrances to the Ayalon Institute - the bullet factory. We headed on down to explore.
The factory was located a short walking distance from a British military base, and British soldiers often bought bread and had refreshments at the bakery while the bullets were being produced underneath their feet. It was completed and up and running in just 21 days.
The bullet factory manufactured 9mm ammunition for use in STEN guns that were built elsewhere. Ironically enough, the bullect manufacturing machinery smuggled in from Poland was of German manufacture.
9mm casings were punched out of sheets of brass, stretched and formed to size.
Bullets and primers were also manufactured at the institute.
The cartridges were assembled on presses that most reloaders would recognize.
They were then tested, at the same time when a train came by each day to hide the noise, as often the gun powder smuggled into the facility was not of the best quality:
Then they were smuggled out to where they would do some good.
The workers instead of working in the fields would be rather pale from working underground, so to maintain their cover story, a tanning facility was made part of the underground facility:
Over 2 million bullets were produced at the factory at a maximum capacity of 40,000 per day, from 1945 through 1948, providing vital ammunition that was critically needed in the early days of the War for Independence.
Ace of Spades (who should have been in more blogroll for a long time and I've now corrected that oversight) notes that Representative Tlaib stupidly tweeted that the murder of Jews and a Police officer by two Black anti-Semites in New Jersey was a case of "White supremacy kills".
She then deleted the tweet, but the Internet is forever.
Classy as usual there, Tlaib.
While you may think this was an example of how dumb Tlaib is, after all the killers were Black Supremacists, not White Supremacists, but in my opinion being simply stupid isn't what Tlaib was doing at all.
In my opinion Tlaib knew exactly what she was posting as it fits a long track record of leftists and Arabs blaming the Jews for a tragedy even when Jews are the victims.
Hence, in the leftist and Arab worldview, Jews, being considered by the leftists and Arabs to be White, and Jews are thus White supremacists who are clearly at fault for this act of terrorism by existing. Yes the actual White Supremacists are probably choking on this lefty theology, but it is what it is.
After all, who are the only White people involved in this act of Terrorism? The Jews and the police officer who was shot prior to their attacking the Kosher supermarket.
In short and again in my opinion, Tlaib's tweet rather than being merely stupid was her deliberately playing to her anti-Semitic base in a language they're used to hearing in her District.
Well, as predicted they sent the email that it would be delivered between 10-2 again today.
It wasn't. No surprise there.
Further status said delivered by end of the day.
Well, it did finally arrive today, on this truck:
I didn't realize FedEx had changed their logo to U-Haul at some point.
The back of the truck was crammed to the gills with packages so I suspect the reason my package was bouncing back and forth since Sunday was its been sitting on that truck buried underneath all the other stuff.
I saw this as I was pulling up when he was delivering the packages.
Interestingly enough, the guy didn't bother ringing the bell, and yes people were home, he simply left the ammo on the porch unsigned for, as if he had actually been anywhere near here yesterday he would have done so then as no adult signature was required.
Well, one of the boxes was pretty beat up but not torn open. All was present and accounted for inside but a couple of the boxes inside the main box had been smacked around enough that they were broken open to the world, but nothing was missing.
Rather surprised at what a mess of this delivery was made by FedEx, they're normally a lot better. Maybe it's the Christmas shipping rush or something.
On the upside, I now finally have more ammo to shoot, which I got at a good sale, so that is happy making.
The Museum has the only remaining prototype of the Lavi fighter jet.
Developed in the 1980s, the Lavi ("Young Lion") was developed by Israel Aircraft Industries as a fourth-generation multi-role fighter. Originally designed to replace the Kfir and A-4 Skyhawks in Israeli service. During its development it became a capable aircraft likely able to compete with the F-16 C/D and similar aircraft.
This prototype is a two-seater aircraft, and the initial batch were going to be ordered as two-seaters for initial training with later blocks having the second seat removed to allow for more growth and room for even more avionics and upgrades over time.
Speeds were up to Mach 1.6, a range of 2,000 nautical miles, and it was armed with a 30mm DEFA cannon and advanced missiles and air-ground weapons with an advanced electronics and sensor suite and fully digital flight controls.
However, it was not to be. First, there was considerable American opposition to Israel building an aircraft that could compete with the F-16 in international and domestic sales.
Second and more importantly, building a 4th generation fighter is a darned expensive project. Just as Canada learned with the Avro Arrow back in the late 1950s, building a technological advanced fighter is an expensive proposition.
In short, Israel simply could not afford to build it both because it would annoy the USA and because it was far too ambitious and costly a project for a small country to undertake. The Lavi program was cancelled in 1987.
The last surviving prototype sits on display at the museum, a memorial to what might have been.
The Lavi name lives on in IAF service however, as Israel's new jet trainer aircraft, the Alenia Aermacchi M-346 Master, has been given the name Lavi in Israeli service as it trains the young Lions who will grow up to be Israeli Air Force fighter pilots.
As you might have guessed, they didn't try and deliver it between 10:30-2:10 today and the message changed to delivery by the end of day.
That didn't happen either.
But, when I checked the status tonight at 8:00 pm there was a surprise awaiting:
"We made a delivery attempt . 12/11/2019 7:06 pm. Delivery will be attempted again on the next business day."
The hell you did.
I'll note that there was no FedEx sticker left evidencing any such attempt.
I'll also note we were home and no one approached the door.
I'll further note that I know there was no delivery attempt as any delivery person approaching the house would have been picked up by a camera, and the camera did not trip at all between 7:00 until 8:40 pm when I left the house to walk the dog.
Even better, from the online tracking into, it showed the delivery attempt was at 7:06 pm here and the package arrived back at Lake Orion at 7:08 pm - that's physically impossiblesince its 22 miles away, that is unless they've developed a teleporter.
What's going on here FedEx?
What the FooKit is a Tzukit you may be asking?
The IAI Tzukit is the Israeli upgraded (and some produced completely under license in Israel) French Fouga Magister jet trainer.
Formerly used as an initial jet trainer, a ground attack aircraft in the Six Day War, and as the aircraft of the Israeli Air force Acrobatic team, this 60's era design twin-engined jet has a storied history in IAF service.
Tzukits in the Six Day War accounted for and destroyed over 50 tanks and over 70 other armoured vehicles in close air support missions during the war.
Seating two, the aircraft offers speeds of up to 386 knots, a range of 499 nautical miles or 650 with external tanks, a ceiling of 30,000 feet and a nice fast rate of climb of over 3,000 feet per minute.
Lots of Tzukits are at the IAF Museum, Most in the Orange/White trainer color scheme:
The Tzukit is in that oh, so just almost but not really affordable range for private ownership in the US. Tzukits have been imported and are being offered for sale in around the $30K range.
Tempting right?
That unfortunately doesn't cover the (considerable) operating cost and likely steep refurb costs associated with the imported aircraft to get them certified to fly again, nor the need for an IFR rating, a multi-engine rating, and a type rating for the Tzukit. The training costs alone will total more than the cost of the aircraft itself.
But darn, that plane with its amazing history and capabilities and apparently nice flight characteristics gives me the wantsies rather badly.
Especially as at the museum I could climb into and enjoy it for at least a brief happy moment:
It's a comfy cockpit, easy to get into, controls very well laid out and organized and yep it induces a burning desire to take one home.
The Tzukit has now been replaced in its role in the IAF by the Beechcraft T-6 Texan II.
So I had ordered some of the Federal 9mm ammo on sale at Classic Arms on Black Friday.
First I got a FedEx message that the ammo would be delivered between 10:30 am and 2:10 pm this past Sunday.
Oh good I thought, I'll get it and then head out to the range.
Nope, 2:10 came and went and then the update said by 8:00 pm Sunday. Then a status update with Scheduled Delivery Monday by end of day.
Then a new email came Monday morning that it would arrive between 10:30 am and 2:10 pm this past Monday.
Nope, 2:10 came and went and then the update said by 8:00 pm. Then a status update with Scheduled Delivery Monday by end of day.
Then a new email that it would arrive between 10:30 am and 2:10 pm Today.
Nope, as you might have guessed, 2:10 pm came and went and then the update said by 8:00 pm today.
However, checking the status it now says Scheduled Delivery Wednesday 12/11 by end of day.
Why bother sending these notifications if you're not even going to try and deliver it on those days?
Apparently the package has been tooling around out for delivery on a truck from Lake Orion Michigan to who knows where the past three days with no attempts at actually delivering it.
Ah well, first world problems. Maybe they'll actually try tomorrow.
Update Wednesday at 3:40 pm: Yes I got yet another email this morning with "arrive Wednesday between 10:30 am and 2:10 pm" and of course no delivery. Tracking shows it still on the truck out for delivery claiming it will be delivered by the end of the day. Still no actual attempts made at delivery to date, so I'll believe it when I see it.
Last night I went to a presentation at Chabad House given by Sassy Reuven.
Who is Sassy Reuven you ask? One of the leaders that took part in the hostage rescue at Entebbe Uganda on July 4, 1976.
One of the most successful, and certainly one of the farthest ranged, hostage rescues in history, The Entebbe Raid was a major historical event and one of the turning points in fighting terrorism and aircraft hijackings.
An Air France Plane, set to fly from Tel Aviv to Paris with a stop in Athens Greece was hijacked by 2 Arab and 2 German Red Army Faction terrorists who were able to get weapons including handguns, grenades, and explosive by bribing Greek airport security.
The plane was first diverted to Libya and then flown to Uganda where the terrorists were joined by 3 more Arab terrorists and protected by the Ugandan army as the president of Uganda Idi Amin, had become very close to the terrorists after he broke off relations with Israel, after Israel had refused to give him fighter jets to attack Tanzania.
The non-Jewish passengers were released, but the Captain, Michel Bacos and crew of the Air France jet insisted on remaining with the Jewish hostages and not leaving any of their passengers behind. 94 Jewish passengers and 12 crew remained.
The terrorists were demanding $5 Million dollars and the release of terrorists held by Israel, France, and other countries.
The Israelis were able to formulate a plan to rescue the hostages and put it into action. Flying 2,400 miles from Israel, through hostile airspace they would land at the airport and rescue the hostages. To increase the deception, the first Hercules would be loaded with a Black Mercedes and two land rovers to look like Idi Amin's entourage as he had frequently visited the airport during the hostage situation.
4 C-130 Hercules with two carrying troops, a third with refueling equipment and the fourth setup as a hospital, and two Boeing 707s, one setup as a Command Center and the other as another hospital aircraft accompanies the formation. Flying at 30 feet above the Red Sea, they remained under Saudi and Egyptian radars, and once passing the Red Sea and the radars then climbed to 20,000 feet for the flight to Uganda.
Landing at 7 minute increments, the C-130s landed at the airport.
Sassy was in the first C-130 Hercules to land at Entebbe and the second man to touch the ground in Uganda, following Nehemiah Tamari, the commander of the paratrooper ground force towards the New Terminal. The job of his section of the paratroops' was to secure the New Terminal building as Sayaret Matkal freed the hostages in the Old Terminal. Other sections were to secure the runway, setup runway lights, and another Sayaret Matkal detachment would destroy the MiG-17 and MiG-1 fighters based at the airport to ensure the Ugandan Air Force could not engage the Israelis once they had left the airport.
The paratroopers secured the new terminal, having one man seriously wounded.
At the Old Terminal, the leader of the ground force, Yonatan Netanyahu, brother of Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu was killed, shot by Ugandan army soldiers shooting from the control tower.
The mission was a success however with all but 4 of the hostages rescued. 3 Of the hostages were killed during the rescue operation, and the fourth, 74 year-old Dora Bloch, who had been taken to a hospital in Kampala and was not at the airport during the raid, was killed days later on Idi Amins orders. All 7 terrorists were killed along with 45-50 Ugandan soldiers.
The entire operation on the ground lasted 53 minutes and the assault on the terminals lasted only 30 minutes.
Later immortalized in the Israeli movie Operation Thunderbolt and then in the the quite good Raid on Entebbe and then completely messed up by Hollywood in the recent 2018 film 7 Days In Entebbe that did its best to take the terrorist's point of view in the affair and turned an amazing historic hostage rescue it into a rather dull politically-correct bit of nonsense.
Meeting one of the heroes from the Entebbe hostage rescue mission was pretty impressive. Sassy Reuven was a very engaging speaker and gave a great talk combining facts humor and history into a riveting presentation. He spoke on both his and Israel's and Uganda's background before the hijacking, the hijacking itself, and then the planning and execution of the raid.
He's touring around the US speaking about the Entebbe hostage rescue, so if you get a chance to listen to him in person, it's well worth it.
Abby had her driving test today.
Wish I had some happy news to reportas she is a quite capable driver, but she didn't make it out of the parking lot.
As reported to me by her and Tash who was there, the testing arrangement stank to high heaven and was not a reflection of reality at all.
First, the examiner had lost her voice and was hard to hear.
So examiner is outside the car, has Abby first start the car and then drive forward, stop where she indicates and then has to back into a spot with small cones bordering it, followed immediately by pulling out and parallel parking at a very weird angle.
Not something you would ever do in real life, and Tash notes the angles were strange, you would not try to back into the spot indicated from that starting position in real life, the cone spots don't match up to the angles for the actual striped parking spots, and the cones very low and hard to see. You also wouldn't immediately try and parallel park from that angle either.
Oh, and you have to do both maneuvers with a total, of 6 wheel movements.
Not reflective of actual driving at all, kinda designed for failure.
I daresay even Murphy's Law or Keads would've had a bit of trouble pulling that off within those parameters, especially when not driving the samll driving test car for the test.
So the examiner fails her on that, but cheerfully notes that she should come back and take a lesson with them for the parking section so she can see how its done at those angles and then take the test right after and oh, she may want to rent their car for the test which is smaller and has a backup camera.
See where this is going?
In other words, administering the driving test is $60, failing her and then "suggesting" a lesson and then another test would net them another $120 so its kinda in their interest to fail them out with this BS setup and collect $180 plus more with the test car rental rather than pass her and only make $60.
Yep, this stinks on ice. She's not happy as she didn't get to demonstrate how well she actually drives nor how she can actually park but instead got hosed inn a made up cone land in a parking lot at an off angle.
We'll have to see if other testing centers are similarly setup or if we have to play the game and pay up in order for her to pass, though I daresay simply requesting a bribe form us of $180 to pass the parking portion of the test would have been both more economically efficient and far more above board than this baloney.
Get a call from a prospective client, whop as it turns out is facing a Reckless, wanton use or negligent discharge of a firearm charge.
This is a misdemeanor and depending on what he did exactly is either up to 90 days or up to a year in jail and a decent fine of between $100-$500 attached.
His story starts with:
"My gun was defective, I dropped it and it went off in my garage."
He then went on to embellish it that he thought it was unloaded - yep yet again, thought being the operative word.
Then he went on to state the slide was stuck shut and he was going to take it to a gunsmith to work on it when he dropped it on the garage floor and it went off.
He then called the police on himself and then made a very full detailed statement to the police and then was charged. Apparently the round went through his garage and put a hole in his neighbor's garage so depending on the damage done the fine and potential jail time can differ.
Asking some questions about the event, he first can't remember even the model of the handgun in question, and he finally states it was a Ruger.
Anyone at this point want to guess where this is going?
Asking even more questions regarding the event and discussing the importance of accurate information in order to defend him from the charge, he starts hemming and hawing on the circumstances.
Then he finally states:
"Ok, it didn't actually fall and go off, I had pulled the trigger but I was sure it was empty and the slide was stuck so I couldn't check".
Yes, you may do a facepalm at this moment, I sure did on hearing it.
Look folks, lying to an attorney who will try to defend you from criminal charges is just not a good idea. It makes your defense that much harder and we're on your side. We'd rather have the truth and deal with it than try to defend you on a false premise you fed us that then blows up in your face in court.
Please do not lie to your attorney. The freedom you save may be your own.
After talking I explain what will likely happen process-wise and my need for a retainer (actually a ridiculously low one for this type of case but anyways), and he states he's going to try and handle it himself.
Good luck with that. I can guarantee the prosecutor will lose all sympathy with the guy once he starts lying, and if he rejects a deal and tries to defend himself in court the prosecutor will have him for lunch, and the jury will see right through it as he doesn't lie well, at all.
Once again, please don't lie to the attorney you want to retain to protect your rights. It doesn't help.
The scum that shot two Detroit Police officers, killing one and wounding the other was no stranger to law enforcement.
The Detroit Free Press: 28-year-old man charged with murder in fatal shooting of Detroit police officer
As one might suspect, the felon is no stranger to the penal system.
In 2009 he was convicted of breaking and entering and did less than a year of a three year sentence.
Then in 2011 he was hit with felon in possession of a firearm and a count of felony firearms.
He was also hit with Assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder, likely with the firearm he was illegally in possession of, but was paroled in March of this year, a couple years short of his maximum sentence.
Not learning from any of these experiences, and strangely completely ignoring that he was on parole and not allowed as a felon to posses firearms, he was apparently on quite a crime spree before police met up with him in a home he had broken into on November 20 and he shot the officers from ambush.
Yet another multiple-count felon allowed to go free until he kills someone.
He killed Officer Rasheen McClain, a 46-year-old, 16-year veteran officer, leaving a wife and two children.
You may think its unloaded, but thinking does not make it reality. Then going on and pointing said "unloaded" gun at another person and pulling the trigger leads to tragedy.
The Detroit Free Press: Deputies: Off-duty Detroit police officer shoots girlfriend in Lyon Township
Basically the officer, while demonstrating firearm safety and how to safely handle a firearm to his girlfriend managed to shoot her with an "unloaded" gun. The girlfriend does verify his story and also believed it was unloaded.
This safety demo ended with her taking a thankfully survivable round to the chest.
From the article, it sounds like either he forgot the one up the pipe or racked to clear it with the magazine still inserted and then dropped the magazine, inadvertently loading it before carrying on with his demonstration.
Again, making sure a firearm is unloaded before demonstrating with it is vital.
Since people clearly are fallible when it comes to making sure the firearm is unloaded, it is even better use a blue or SIRT gun in demonstrations or at least to insert a trainer or training barrel into the gun if you have to show how to manipulate it and prevent it from being shot.
In short there's a whole lot of inexpensive, and useful tools out there to completely avoid these kinds of negligent accidents.
Basically if there's an appeal to authority with a quote that sounds too good to be true about a current day event, chances are, it is in fact fake.
A lefty I know published with approval this image on the Book of Face this morning:
Looks like the wise Jefferson is wisely foretelling the rise of the uncouth and media criticism of that Orange Man Bad Trump, and Orange Man is bad for acting contrary to the wise statement of Jefferson, now doesn't it?
The problem, of course, is that Jefferson never said nor wrote it, and the quote first seems to have popped up in February 2017, 191 years after Jefferson died. Would be a neat trick if he could have pulled that off.
In fact, Jefferson was rather Trumpian in his criticism of the press of his day:
"I deplore... the putrid state into which our newspapers have passed and the malignity, the vulgarity, and mendacious spirit of those who write for them... These ordures are rapidly depraving the public taste and lessening its relish for sound food. As vehicles of information and a curb on our funtionaries, they have rendered themselves useless by forfeiting all title to belief... This has, in a great degree, been produced by the violence and malignity of party spirit." --Thomas Jefferson to Walter Jones, 1814. ME 14:46
"Our printers raven on the agonies of their victims, as wolves do on the blood of the lamb." --Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 1811. ME 13:59
"From forty years' experience of the wretched guess-work of the newspapers of what is not done in open daylight, and of their falsehood even as to that, I rarely think them worth reading, and almost never worth notice." --Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe, 1816. ME 14:430
"Nothing can now be believed which is seen in a newspaper. Truth itself becomes suspicious by being put into that polluted vehicle. The real extent of this state of misinformation is known only to those who are in situations to confront facts within their knowledge with the lies of the day." --Thomas Jefferson to John Norvell, 1807. ME 11:224
"As for what is not true, you will always find abundance in the newspapers." --Thomas Jefferson to Barnabas Bidwell, 1806. ME 11:118
"Advertisements... contain the only truths to be relied on in a newspaper." --Thomas Jefferson to Nathaniel Macon, 1819. ME 15:179
"The press is impotent when it abandons itself to falsehood." --Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Seymour, 1807.
In other words, one might just say Jefferson called the mainstream media of his day fake news.
There's many valid reasons to criticize Trump without resorting to fake quotes, but it does make it sound better to use a fake quote by a founder of our country rather than going "Reee, Orange Man Bad".
Now, its not just the left that make up historic quotes to bolster their arguments. We have plenty of fake quotes used by those on the right side of the spectrum by Adolf Hitler, George Washington and one particular quote claimed to be from Voltaire but isn't, constantly bandied about by the right side to bolster their arguments as well.
In short, if you come upon a quote by someone considered to be a historical authority or known to be a wise person and it looks like it suits the current drama of the day to a T, it's most likely fake and worth doing a quick check to see if the person quoted actually ever said it before you repost the fakery.
The Detroit News: Death toll put at 20 after Mexico cartel attack near U.S. border
A Mexican drug cartel, the Cartel of the Northeast, attacked and shot up the city hall of Villa Union, killing some government workers, in an hour-long assault including a battle with state and federal responding forces.
In reading the article, you can see the cartels aren't exactly keeping a low profile - the convoy of trucks the attackers rode in on for their assault had C.D.N. markings very nicely applied to the sides of their trucks. Not exactly a covert action by any means.
The attack took place all of 35 miles south-southwest of Eagle Pass, Texas.
Any bets on how long it takes before these large-scale attacks spill over to the American side of the border and we need to send forth responding punitive expeditions led by a new Black Jack Pershing?
Classic Arms has Federal 115gr 9mm FMJ for $124/1000 after rebate and free shipping, which is one heckuva great deal If you shoot 9mm.
I hope all of you had a peaceful and enjoyable Thanksgiving with your families. We had a nice one with family and friends over to enjoy the festive meal.
Congresswoman Brenda Lawrence (D-MI 14) my Congressional District (sigh), recently came out and said she was against impeaching Trump and instead for censure.
Apparently this didn't sit well with the Democrat powers that be, as she likely got a talking-to and she quickly back-flipped and came back out in favor of impeachment.
Understand that here in Michigan, Lawrence is in a very, very, safe Democrat district comprising mainly of Detroit and some Democrat dominated districts to the northwest. For all intents and purposes it is practically impossible for a Republican to win this district as structured.
So why backing away and then the backflip?
Perhaps she realizes what everyone else following the "inquiry" has already figured out - it's damn thin gruel, based on hearsay, done with rigged procedural rules, supposition, and not a high crime nor misdemeanor to be found.
In short, it's Impeach Orange Man Bad because Orange Man Bad and because the Democrats probably can't beat him in a fair election with the current candidates they're trying to run against him so if this sham weakens him so much the better for them.
Congresswoman Lawrence tends to be quite smart so far as Democrats go, so for her to realize this impeachment proceeding would likely backfire on the Dems shows she has a decent connection to reality and knows that the public isn't buying the charade.
She just tried to pull her party back from the brink to a nice safe attack on Trump with a censure vote that they would have locked up in the House, facts be damned.
A censure vote would have been a nice easy hit, rather than continuing the inquiry and going on to having a trial in the Senate with actual evidence, witnesses, and normal procedural and evidentiary rules rather than a kangaroo court inquiry where the Dems control the entire process. It may very well end in a censure vote once the Dems complete their inquiry and realize it's not going anywhere substantively and they've milked it for all the soundbites and innuendo about the Orange Man Bad that they can.
While its a great show for their radical left base, their impeachment inquiry likely won't last long enough to be dragged out and turn into an October surprise, and most people aren't impressed with the nonsense.
Instead of listening to their Cassandra, the Dems pushed her back onto the impeachment track, hard.
Today after work I met up with the members of my Synagogue's "Sports Club" at the range.
Since the membership of the Synagogue tends to veer leftwards, we don't dare call it a shooting club, some congregants might get the vapors.
We had a good turn out tonight, actually getting a full minyan at the range.
Among those were a couple gentlemen who hadn't shot before.
I got to coach them and used the M&P Compact .22 with the silencer on it as a teaching tool.
Nice, quiet, and easy to shoot, it's a very easy way to get new shooters to learn how to shoot without really loud bangs and recoil to distract them. Big smiles resulted.
They did great and I had them try out the Masada as well. Even more smiles.
They both enjoyed it and did quite well, as the Masada is now even easier to shoot and accurately hit the target.
Since it's the Masada ORP, meaning Optics Ready Pistol, it was time to mount an Optic.
It's a Trijicon SRO and mounting it on to the Masada could not have been easier. Using the included RMR plate and screws that came with the Masada, installation was no fuss, no muss, and simple as it could be and very solid.
Shooting with the SRO is a pleasure - place dot on target location, squeeze trigger, bullet then lands on the spot marked by the dot.
100 rounds of M882 9MM Ball ammo shot with zero failures including being shot by people who have never shot a gun before.
I met up with a client in Davison, about 45 minutes to the north, to talk some business and go over some things he needed, and then do some shooting yesterday. It's good to have clients that are shooting enthusiasts.
We went to Williams Gun Sight Company Range up in Davison.
Yes, Williams, the makers of some exceptional firearms sights, also has one heckuva nice store and range. Great people, amazing selection of shooting stuff, and a first class indoor and outdoor range.
Outdoors, I shot my IWI Tavor SAR, which hadn't been out for awhile. I now have a nice 100 yard zero on it. 60 rounds of 5.56 went through it without a hiccup and the trigger really is darn nice. I've been neglecting to shoot this rifle and need to remedy that, as its very enjoyable to shoot. I also got to shoot my client's SIG .308 AR with a Nightforce optic on it that was a joy to shoot - he's got some nice toys.
At the pistol range I got to try out his Beretta 92X Performance - it's quite a bit heavier than a standard 92FS, noticeably so. But it has quite the nice double action pull and in single action it is downright amazing which makes up for the weight. Its a competition rather than a carry gun so the weight is less of an issue and really sucks up just about all the recoil. He also had an STI 9mm that had perhaps the best 1911 trigger I've ever tried.
He tried the IWI Masada and remarked that it fit his hand well and did have a nice trigger. He shot quite nicely with it and rather liked it.
We proceeded to shoot a variety of ammo through the Masada - 50 rounds of Blazer 147 Grain fmj, 100 Federal 9mm NATO, and 100 of the Remington 115 grain that was indeed comparably quite hot and flashy compared to the other ammo.
The sight adjustment worked, and while it still shoots low, it is centered now.
No failures of any kind in the 250 rounds today.
And it may not arrive at all.
Expect stores in Michigan to continue to suffer alcohol shortages, right in time for the holidays.
Why? Because due to the State's mandated distribution system, when the largest liquor distributor in the state catches a cold, everyone gets pneumonia.
Basically, the distributor consolidated operations, then royally screwed up said operations, and can't seem to do their job as a result. With the way state liquor laws go, there's no way for anyone else to work around it and as a result expect stores and bars to be low on alcohol.
The Detroit News: Fear of liquor shortage sparks concerns among retailers
Logistical issues at Michigan’s largest liquor distributor have led to roughly $65 million in delayed gross sales and tax payments to the state and dwindling supplies at state liquor stores with no guarantee of a fix before Thanksgiving. ...Michigan employs a three-tier system when it comes to liquor sales. The first tier, licensed manufacturers, sell their liquor to the state. The state, as the second-tier wholesaler, takes orders and distributes that liquor through authorized distribution agents such as Republic National Distributing Company, which warehouse and then distribute the liquor to the third tier: bars and liquor stores.
State law prohibits liquor stores from purchasing from other liquor stores and limits liquor bars who purchase from liquor stores to one case a month. In that sense, retailers are dependent on their distributor, and Republic National is the largest in the state.
Heaven and the Michigan government forbids that we should have a free market in alcohol sales where a single distributor's problems wouldn't be able to disrupt the entire state.
Note that even when the system "works" as designed, I still can't buy Yuengling, or Spitfire Beer in this state for that matter, nor lots of other fine brands up here.
Detroit's 3.3 mile long rail-transit of wonder, the Q-line, is already deteriorating after 2 years of operation.
The Detroit Free Press: Get serious about fixing the QLINE or admit that it's just for show
Of course, one must be amazed that someone actually gave up their car to rely on this 3.3 mile light rail that moves, if at all, at the speed of a slow walk.
As I've written previously to amusing criticism, my wife and I gave up car ownership in June 2018. Early on, we expected to rely on the train for trips to destinations such as the Detroit Institute of Art, Whole Foods and Midtown restaurants. While we do sometimes take the streetcar to those places, "rely" isn’t quite the right word for using the QLINE. In good weather, scooters or walking often are faster, happier options.
Ah, an SWPL mass transit enthusiast that publicly preached giving up his car, so he can use mass transit to the DIA and of course, Whole Foods. So how's that workin' out for ya there skippy?
M-1 Rail, which runs the QLINE, acknowledges that it is “not where we want with reliability at this moment,” spokesman Dan Lijana told me. Improvements are being made, he said, in arrival estimates and staffing that will improve reliability, though they aren’t visible yet.This is after two and a half years of operation. This is exasperating. Already, many Detroiters scoff at the streetcar, complain about its unreliability and don’t consider it among transportation options.
So not only is it a slow 3.3 miles, but it's an unreliable erratic 3.3 miles.
Who coulda seen this coming?
If you have a 9mm 3rd Generation Glock, or if say, you happen to be building a P80 frame into a Not-A-Glock, you likely have an ejector that looks like this, especially if you recently bought a Glock frame completion kit online:
Note the narrow point at the end of the ejector.
This design can, but not always, cause ejection issues including failure to eject the brass completely from the firearm and stovepipes.
This is rather disheartening especially as Glock is generally the standard for reliability when it comes to 9mm pistols.
Luckily, there is a fix: You replace the 3rd Gen ejector with a 4th Generation ejector:
Note how much more meaty and squared off the tip of that 4th gen ejector is compared to the troublesome part #336.
These go for around $7 or so from places like Midway and Brownells. A nice inexpensive fix to what can be a very frustrating problem.
However, the 4th Generation trigger block that contains the ejector does not fit in the 3rd generation frame. So a little finagling is needed.
On the back of the ejector block, there's a small metal bit of the end of the ejector showing. Using a small flat head screwdriver, you can push it out from there (not from the front or you'll bend it) until it comes free.
This pops it out the front:
Then place the 4th Gen ejector into the slot from the front, and push it all the way into place until it fits completely flush, then reassemble.
Done, and no more ejection problems for you.
The shooting took place in California.
The Detroit News: California police say 10 shot, 4 killed at backyard party
Funny how such strict gun laws in California just don't seem to keep the criminals from breaking those same laws and committing crimes.
There oughta be a law against doing that, right?
The "I lost all my guns in a tragic boating accident" has been quite the meme for awhile now.
The gun owner in the linked article decided to top that meme by having his car roll into a pond with his guns inside.
The Detroit News: Car rolls into pond near Lyon Township gun range as owner scrambles to grab firearms
Lyon Township — A sedan that was started remotely slipped into a pond near a gun range on Saturday and had to be retrieved with the help of the Oakland County Sheriff's dive team, authorities said.It was 7 feet below the surface of the water in a retention pond before divers spotted the car.
The water had "zero visibility conditions," a release from the Sheriff's Office said.
There were no injuries.
The owner of the black 2004 Saturn Ion said he was loading firearms into the trunk of his car parked near Huron Valley Guns in Lyon Township when it began rolling forward, said the Oakland County Sheriff's Office. The sedan traveled about 15 feet before entering the pond.
The vehicle, the sheriff's department said, was remotely started and equipped with manual transmission.
Having a remote start on a manual vehicle sounds a bit strange, not to mention having it rigged so that when it starts it the car can begin rolling is somewhat problematic.
There has been no comment yet as to how many of his guns were tragically lost in that zero-visibility pond.
The funeral was last Sunday.
About 800 people attended, which was impressive. Marilyn had been a professor at University of Toronto prior to her retirement and had a ton of good friends and knew many, many people.
My dad gave a fantastic eulogy if I say so myself, and her daughters followed with a fine one as well. Lots of tears were shed.
It was quite the funeral procession to the cemetery, with prayers said there and the burial.
Afterwards we would got to synagogue in the mornings and sat shiva through Wednesday, including through Monday's record breaking ice and snowstorm in Toronto that dropped the most snow in 36 years for November. Unfortunately Tasha and the kids were driving home in it which made a 4.5 hour trip into 7.5 hours of fun.
The shivas were always busy which is good, as it surrounds the grieving family with friends and acquaintances and keeps you very busy, but the long days can and did get tiring. It's also nice to talk with people who had known her for a long time and some fun stories came out, as well as much about her accomplishments. Yes, she will be missed, and I regret we weren't as close as we could have been.
I headed back Wednesday night on the train which was rather a pleasant way to travel.
Unfortunately, I picked up a case of the shiva cruds - uvulitis where I can't really talk, its hard to swallow and it feels like I'm having trouble breathing constantly. Fun. So I got some antibiotics for that and hopefully they will kick in and I should recover soon, but for now its a tired feeling of crud-iness combined with being unable to sleep from waking up feeling like I can't breathe and then nodding off again. Yuck. Ah well, a case of the cruds is worth it to have been there and to support the family.
Marilyn Chapnik Smith died today.
Marilyn Chapnik Smith was an amazing person and I was honored that she was my step-mother for the past 24 years.
Today, after a long battle with cancer, she died peacefully and on her own terms, surrounded by her family and in the loving arms of her husband. The world will be a lesser place without her, and she will be missed by all who knew and loved her.
As always, fuck cancer.
Since people hire attorneys for their advice and legal skill, one would think the client would perhaps actually listen to that advice.
Not so much.
Client Y came in last month facing an eviction due to chronically paying her rent late. While the Landlord company has not minded so much before, the new administrator for the Landlord did.
I get it resolved in court with the Landlord’s attorney, point out some legal issues with their case and get it resolved that since she’s already rendered the rent after the complaint was filed, she just has to pay $205 in attorneys fees per the lease to stay. Simple right?
So that’s put on the record, she knows to pay it within 10 days, I tell her to pay it even sooner than that she agrees and we’re done, right?
Of course not. She doesn’t pay it until yesterday and then is shocked when a court officer shows up with an eviction notice.
Of course she paid her November rent in full yesterday (late yet again) as well as the attorney fee, so she needs to get this straightened out immediately, and it’s now a mess, she’s facing more fees and even a potential eviction, but it’s no one’s fault but hers.
Sigh. Please listen to your attorneys folks. You hired them for a reason after all.
The Air Force Museum also features some transports used by the IAF.
Think B-29 turned into a transport and you'd be right.
It was used for a variety of missions and served in the IAF in from 1964 to 1978. The Israelis added a rear-opening ramp and used it for air-dropping supplies as well as a heavy lift aircraft.
The Israelis called it the Anak or giant and referred to it as "the largest three engine plane in the world", due to the tendency of its engines to malfunction.
A DC-3:
A Beechcraft King Air:
The three Nords in the IAF were sold by the French as part of a package deal with the Ouragon jets and the French demanded Israel buy the Nords in order to get the jets. The Israelis ended up appreciated them and bought some more later on and used them for everything from dropping paratroopers to ferrying supplies and dropping bombs.
This brings us to our guide for the entire tour of Israel: Yaacov.
Why?
Well, it turns out he jumped from this very plane.
Yaacov, you see, is a certified bad-ass.
Born in France in 1941, he was one of the hidden Jewish Children. Only he, his brother, and mother survived the Holocaust, the rest of the family including his father, uncle, brothers and sisters were killed by the Nazis.
He immigrated to Israel after World War 2 ended, and then when he grew up joined the IDF and became a paratrooper.
He served in the 1967 Six-Day War; The 1973 Yom Kippur War; and the 1982 Lebanon War - side by side in that war with his son who was also a paratrooper.
Since his military service ended he's worked as a tour guide for 30 years and has an encyclopedic knowledge of the entire country and knows everyone by name. He also worked helping settle Ethiopian Jews in Israel when they arrived - we later met one of them and his family in the north of Israel when he remembered Yaacov from years ago and approached him to chat. Like I said, Yaacov knows everybody. It was always a fun moment, that happened multiple times during our trip, when other tour guides at sites would approach us when we were with Yaacov, chat with him, and then tell us we had the best tour guide around, after all, he had trained some of them!
78 years old and the man could walk us into the ground with ease, and he enjoyed every moment of teaching us and showing us Israel. I daresay he truly is the best tour guide in all of Israel.
Sometimes, the practice of law is rather enjoyable.
Today I get to sue a psychic. Really. For fraud among other things. Basically she charged the client a lot of money for "career counseling" and failed to provide any. We won't go into why my client had the strange idea of seeking career coaching from a psychic of all people, but that's a whole other story.
I really can’t wait to ask the psychic in court: “So, you failed to see this lawsuit coming, eh?”
The Israeli Air Force Museum also contains aircraft never used operationally by the Israeli Air Force.
The Israeli Air Force Museum happens to house a lot of MiG aircraft that were flown by their Arab state opponents and subsequently obtained by the Israeli Air Force.
The Mig-15
This Egyptian MiG-15 was shot down during the 1956 Suez campaign and retrieved from the sea.
The MiG-17:
This is one of two Syrian MiG-17s that happened to land by accident in 1968 at an Israeli air force base. Navigation was apparently not stressed sufficiently by the Syrian Air Force.
The MiG-19. Well, the tail of one anyways:
This particular MiG-19 was shot down during the Six Day War.
The MiG-23:
This Syrian MiG-23, similarly to the MiG-17, managed to land at an Israeli airbase in 1989 when its Syrian pilot decided to defect to Israel.
And the museum also houses the most famous MiG in Israeli hands:
MiG-21, number 007.
The MiG-21 was the front-line fighter of the Soviet Union and its allies in the 60s and 70s. The West badly wanted to obtain one to examine its flight characteristics and to prepare for dealing with it, whether in the slies of the Middle East or over Vietnam and elsewhere.
The Mossad launched Operation Diamond with the goal to obtain a MiG-21.
The Mossad was able to enlist Iraqi Pilot Munir Redfa, an Assyrian Christian, who agreed to defect, on condition that along with him and the MiG-21 that the Israelis get all of his family out of Iraq to Israel as well.
Munir Redfa then flew the MiG-21 from Iraq to Israel, and his family was successfully smuggled out of Iraq.
It was quickly renumbered as 007 in honor of how it was acquired and then flown extensively by Israeli pilots to examine and learn its strengths and weaknesses.
Once Israel obtained the MiG-21, it quickly shared both information about it and the aircraft itself with the United States, loaning the US the aircraft under the US Code named Have Doughnut program, which took place at the storied Area 51 base.
In 1988, an HBO movie, Steal the Sky gave a fictionalized and dramatized account of Operation Diamond and the defection of the MiG-21.
