Looking for a Fox

And Found Two.

While walking Jett, a neighbor waved me over.  

Their neighbor had caught a fox by their porch.

 

 

We took a look.  He gave a little bark-like sound as we approached but otherwise he was rather calm about the whole thing.

He and Jett looked each other other, but neither growled nor barked at the other, nor were they aggressive. 

Then I noticed some movement. To the right of the house was another trap.

Turned out the neighbor had actually caught two foxes. 

This one was rather cute as well, and maintained eye contact the whole time we looked him over.

 I expect they will get dropped off at the nature preserve or released elsewhere.

Lots of wildlife is moving about this spring.

If You Are Blatantly Lying About that, What Else Are You Lying About?

Yet another op-ed in the Detroit Free Press, on the topic of police.  By an ex- Detroit Chief of Police no less.

The Detroit Free Press: Former DPD chief explains what needs to be done to restore trust in police

Get a load of this whopper:

Or they may be one of millions who, over the past few decades, have witnessed violent and brutal police interactions with unarmed citizens through viral videos from the assault on Rodney King in 1992 to Tamir Rice in 2014, George Floyd in 2020 or Ma’Khia Bryant and Andrew Brown, just this month. 

Hang on there ex-chief. 

Ma'Khia Bryant had a knife and was in the process of stabbing someone at the time she was shot.   This is not in question, nor particularly controversial. That is not unarmed, no matter how much BLM wants to now classify knife-assaults as non-armed encounters.

We will note also that Tamir Rice had a fake gun that he was reaching for as he was shot as well.   We can also further note that Rodney King, George Floyd and Andrew Brown were all busy resisting arrest, and while we are still waiting for the details of Andrew Browns acts they may have included trying to run over police with a car.

It makes one wonder about the reliability of his recommendations, not to mention the reliability regarding his claims of dealing with police from his own past.

Detroit's crime rate when ex-chief Isaiah McKinnon was chief of police was rather high, with an average of 487 murders per year.  Hardly a success and the murder rate started dropping after he left office, so you can draw your own conclusions over how effective he was as a police chief. a

If he can't even get some basic and obvious facts right nor even be honest and accurate in defining the problem, one must wonder about how much his recommendations are worth.

Well That Delay Sucks, AKA When Judges Don't Want To Hear A Case

Had a pretrial in a case in a local district court today.

This case has been going on for a heckuva long time.

Plaintiff filed it in 2019 (on his own without a lawyer, which was his first mistake) as a breach of contract when Defendant, an unlicensed contractor, royally screwed up the renovation of his home after a fire had occurred and botched it and then never completed it.  Defendant also did not have a lawyer and it bounced on through the process, with some major goofs along the way due to neither side having an attorney.

Plaintiff retained me to handle the trial set to be held in May 2020 as he realized he needed an attorney.  

It is now April 2021.

We've already had 4 adjournments:

The first was on June 2020, when Defendant, not being a complete fool, stated he didn't want to do a trial by Zoom when the judge gave him an option to do so.

The Court then reset the trial date for another Zoom hearing for September 2020.

The second delay was when he again refused to do a Zoom trial.  Most judges would have said too bad, but this judge was all for delaying.

The court then set a live in-person hearing for October 2020.

For a third delay, Defendant got out of that at the door to the courthouse by claiming he had been exposed to someone with Covid in the last 14 days.  Trial adjourned yet again.

Date was then set for a live trial on February 24, 2021.

As you might have guessed there was another delay.  The Court then on that day, of its own accord,  delayed it when Defendant got an attorney and instead of having the trial go as scheduled turned it into a pre-trial and then set today for yet  another pre-trial, denying my request to set a new trial date then and there for today.

I'll note we had to spend time preparing before each of these dates, getting the couple witnesses ready to go, and all for nought each time.

So today we show up for pre-trial and the Judge is like 

"Did you settle it?"  I said that we had made a settlement offer but they never responded to it, so can we get a trial date now?

Judge is, yes you can get a trial date - in March 2022.  He suggests we settle the case.  Kinda hard when the defense doesn't respond to settlement offers.

Judge claims the court is all backed up with criminal cases and that's the earliest he will do.

My client hit the roof at that point and justifiably so.   The delays are great for the defendant but justice delayed is sure as heck being justice denied.

Most other judges would have proceeded with the trial back in June 2020 and held it via Zoom and not let it get this delayed out. We're getting close to a year past that and it will be over 3 years since the case was filed before it gets to trial - and this is a simple half-day to at most a 1 day trial.

For whatever reason, he's bending over backwards for the defendant and really refusing to hear this case.

Quite A Deliberate Ignoring of Reality Going On In BLM World

If you disregard facts, evidence, and bodycam footage, you can create some really impressive false narratives about white supremacy everywhere.

 Two op-eds in the Detroit Free Press highlight this rather ridiculous narrative.  Both are very selective in dealing uncomfortable or contrary facts to their worldview and typically gloss over them in the most dishonest manner.

The first of course see white supremacy everywhere and blacks are apparently victimized by police on a regular basis:

Does Chauvin verdict signal real change or is it a mirage? 

The most recent episodes of excessive and fatal police force against Black bodies continue to air on our TV, phone and computer screens.

First, this whole "black bodies" thing the Lefty academics do is rather curious.  After all it's rather dehumanizing isn't it? - I mean I consider black people to not just be  some undefined anonymizing "black bodies" but, you know, actual individual people and not just some mass of bodies.   But then again, that would imply that the Black bodies have agency and actually are responsible for the choices they make - like committing crimes and resisting arrest and the consequences of same.

And why shouldn't we be afraid, when you consider the minimally illegal alleged offenses for which police and civilians — some of them people of color — have killed Black men and women over the last 30 years? Lt. Nazario (license plate) and Daunte Wright (car air freshener) are now added to the exhaustive list of Blacks — including Eric Garner (cigarettes), Alton Sterling (bootleg CDs), George Floyd (counterfeit money), to name a few — who receive maximum and lethal force for minimal crimes.

First, let's note Lt. Nazario wasn't killed after he was resisting arrest, but nice try.

Second, quit lying about Daunte Wright - he was pulled over for an expired registration and had a felony warrant out for an aggravated armed robbery.

Third let's see here - to begin with, it's not the minimal crimes that they committed - minimal crimes I might add passed by Democrats in their cities and states - that caused them to get in a situation where they might die, but the fact that every single one of them decided that resisting arrest, in many cases violently, was the way to go.   I;m impressed he failed to add Freddie Grey to the list who was killed while trying to beat a police officer to death - not good for the narrative I suppose now that the whole hands up thing has been dis proven as a lie.

 Though I am afraid I, too, will one day join the decades-long list of legalized racially motivated killings, most of all, I'm afraid that most of white society doesn't care that I'm afraid.

Here's some good advice Mr. Alemu, as a PhD candidate and thus an academic with a lack of knowledge of the world outside your ideological bubble, the secret to not getting killed by police is twofold: One - try not committing crimes in the first place. Two, Do not resist arrest if you do commit a crime and it will work out ok.  

He also swings for the fences with a fun false comparison: 

Must we accept that protests for the killing of Black bodies trigger the deployment of a state's National Guard almost immediately, while hundreds of whites — some armed — are able to stage a coup of our nation's Capitol with little to no police resistance, despite weeks of warnings?

Let's see, $2 billion dollars in damages by BLM so far and over 22 deaths, and the promise of more riots, arson, and confrontation if Chauvin wasn't railroaded, compared to a demonstration - not a "coup" - where nothing was set on fire and the only casualty was an unarmed woman killed by a police officer?  

Pull the other one dude, it's got bells on and you can only lie so many times in one op-ed.

The next op-ed gets even cuter: Chauvin verdict is the exception, not the norm, in 'justice' system

While news of the verdict was still sinking in, we learned that police in Columbus, Ohio killed a 16-year-old girl, Ma’Khia Bryant.It was at least the second time in weeks that police killed a child; Chicago police shot 13-year-old Adam Toledo on March 29.  . . . It was not any safer to wake up today as a Black child, a Black elder, a brown child, or anyone vulnerable to the murderous gaze of white supremacy in the U.S.

Oh come on now, she must think the readers of the op-ed are amazingly ignorant. 

Let's remind everyone, as the opinion piece quickly and neatly glosses over it, and totally ignores the fact that dear sweet Ma'Khia Bryant was in the process of trying to stab to death two other black girls when she was shot. It also ignores that little gang-banger Adam Toledo was turning with a gun in his hand after running away from police after he and a fellow felon had shot up a passing car.

Totes innocent victims of police brutality, neh?

The op-ed goes on extolling the virtues of defunding police and incarceration of criminals which will be just great for Detroit - if you're a criminal.  For everyine else, not so much.

Sadly these rather trite fact-optional views seem to be taking sway among the left, which will have bad consequences for all of us.  Facts are clearly merely things that get in the way of their rather false narrative.

That's Got To Sting There, Gov Half-Whit

After Governor Whitmer proclaimed that Michigan residents shouldn't travel due to Covid, she decided to head off to Florida.  

Again, yet another Democrat governor with a "My Rules Are For Thee, Not For Me" Attitude.

Her little trip to Florida, violating her own guidelines, as well as a trip to Florida by her Chief Operating Officer Tricia Foster did not go unnoticed.

Florida tourism officials decided Gov Half-Whit's visit was worthy of commemoration:

The Detroit News: Florida official sends Gov. Whitmer tourism information after trip

Florida's chief financial officer, Jimmy Patronis, sent Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer tourism pamphlets Monday, making light of the governor's out-of-state trip during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I know members of your team are telling you to downplay the recent trips to Florida," Patronis wrote in a letter to Whitmer. "Don’t listen to them. Now that you and your COO (Chief Operating Officer Tricia Foster) have personally experienced what the Sunshine State has to offer, I encourage you to share your experiences publicly.

"More importantly, however, don’t be a stranger!"

 Gov Half-Whit still won't formally admit she traveled to Florida while telling everyone else in Michigan not to go anywhere, nor would she confirm the dates she left our state for Florida. 

One could say she's been on, and is still on, quite a power trip.

Sunday Range Day

Went to Wayne County Racoon Hinters Club in Romulus for a USPSA match today.

I'll wait for the standings to come out to see how I did, but overall it went ok but many mistakes in execution were made. So not a great, result but I learned a fair bit. I wasn't doing any RO'ing at this match and just helped paste targets whcih was a nice change of pace, and it was easier to see how others were delaing with the stages and learn from them accordingly.  I still need to work a lot more on that.

First stage I shot was Stage 3. 

It looked like this:

There's a swinger in front of the wall that is activated by stepping on the yellow box to the left side outside the firing zone.   Basically the best way to handle the stage is to shoot it from right to left starting as required at the orange spots on the PVC pipe outside the free-fire zone.

 

I was the second to shoot and I had a plan, did the plan and it was going well.  I engaged the targets, got to the box, stepped on the box with one foot and moved right behind the wall to engage the targets and swinger in front of the wall.  

All good getting my hits . . .  things are going great and then I realize my step on the box didn't activate the swinger!  I was well past the box and shooting other targets and getting toward the swinger. So I had to run back to activate it and move on.  Drat, next time stomp the heck out of those boxes.  Best laid plans and all that.

Next stage was a rather long and complicated one, and of course I was going first.  It also had a swinger and all sorts of ports, and a nice 180 trap if you weren't careful.  They forgot to demonstrate the swinger, but that wouldn't have changed the result anyways.  

So I got to the line, made ready,  reviewed the plan in my head, got the are you ready command, and as the beep went off and I draw someone loudly said "Wait!".  So I stopped.  Turns out it was two of the other shooters having a loud conversation right behind me and one said oh wait to the other.  No actual need to stop, but since I did we then started over again, Better safe than sorry. Threw the plan off a bit though.

The stage after that when I went up to shoot, after the previous shooter somone mis-rigged setting up a swinger so the popper it was attached to would not fall and activate it as the string was literally holding it in place by tension rather than the other way around. Yes, I sure was finding all the issues possible.  So I got to re-shoot that one for equipment failure, and once rigged properly I did pretty well.

Most other stages went ok, I did blow by a target on one stage and couldn't get back to it due to the design once I realized I was past it and it would have taken too long to get back so I took the miss and non-engage penalties.  Ouch. I'll try not to do that again.

The match got backed up one stage ahead of us due to a popper that kept breaking, which held everyone up, a lot.

Overall a lot of fun, got a lot of tips from other shooters that are a heckuva lot better than I am, and it was still a good match with a good squad, my many mistakes and all.

A very good match, and a great bunch of people with which to spend a Sunday on the range.

Farewell To ECB

ECB being the El Cheapo Brinkmann smoker.

After years of good service, first arriving here in 2013,  the bottom tray and the base itself has rusted through.  This makes temperature control difficult and raises the issue of hot coals dropping out the bottom.  No bueno.

Sadly, Brinkmann has gone out of business and replacement parts are hard to find.   Quite a few parts for the electric models are floating around Ebay, but none of the bases nor charcoal trays there match my model, and the prices are pretty darn high almost as much for those two parts as for what I paid for the while thing to start with.

In short no way to repair it and time for it to go.  

But fear not, there is another.

So today I received and assembled its successor and its rather an upgrade.

The Weber Smokey Mountain 18 inch smoker.

It's bigger than the ECB so more food will fit, as well as a larger water bowl.  It has multiple adjustable vents for heat control and has a nice firebox arrangement that should make cleanup and maintenance a lot easier.  The door is larger and easy to get more wood and charcoal into the firebox. The smoking grates have nice handles for ease of removal which will be appreciated when using it.

Assembly wasn't terrible, but note the instructions are in the back of the manual with the parts schematic up front, which leads one to think the only instructions are the schematic which was kinda sketchy.

Assembly was pretty quick and easy with only one - actually three cuts from the sharp sheet metal (ouch!) and the pain of getting the thermometer pass-through installed.

Will break it in shortly, and will begin this smoking season with a nice new smoker.

Friday Lunch Flight

Today the weather was very promising for flying, if a bit gusty.

I had invited my friends Nick and Anna for a lunch flight to Jackson.  Neither had ever been in a small plane before.

So we met at the airport at 1:30 and I got the airplane out of the hangar and showed them how I did a pre-flight inspection.

Then we loaded up, taxi'd to the run-up area and then took off to the southwest.

It was kinda bumpy up there at 4,500 feet.  Not terrible but not calm air by any means.  Wind kept pushing us to the right in gusts so i had to keep adjusting left to stay on course.   Also some up and down forces were at work as well, which made it even more fun.

They had fun and described it as a bit of a roller coaster feeling.

Got to Jackson and got a straight in to Runway 25.  With the wind out of 240 at 13-20 it would be gusty but not a ton of crosswind correction to worry about.

So I flew the approach a little bit faster than normal to account for the gust factor.  Of course, the bottom dropped out of the wind gust right during my flare so I did what Juvat would call a passable aircraft carrier landing as a result.  Still good enough that my passengers thought it was a really good landing, but I promised the next one would be better.

We went to the restaurant and had a very nice lunch, burgers for the guys, and a salad for the lady.

Then back in the plane to head back to Pontiac.  Since they actually got back in the plane, the flight out must not have scared them off too much.

Bumpy yet again, but a little better.

Then at Pontiac did the typical 27L downwind entry that was extended for a Falcon jet to pass on long final and then a base turn behind him to Runway 27R.  Pontiac had winds gusting 13-18 right out of 270.

I had promised a nice landing and I delivered - smooth and it felt like I was  holding it off the runway forever with that headwind.  Landed smooth as silk.

I also landed on 27R at the Whiskey taxiway leaving tons of runway to spare. This was thanks to the strong headwind.  I  then got to roll down the runway to Kilo to turn off and park the plane.

A great flight and both my passengers enjoyed themselves immensely.  A little challenging for the gusts and medium chop but it was a most enjoyable flight.

1.5 and 2 landings, one good and one excellent.

So As A Police Officer You Better Decide Quickly Which Black Life Matters

So which one's life matters?

You're a police officer called to a scene of a fight, and have already seen the "loving, peaceful little girl" in this fight try to stab one girl and observe her as she goes after another who is pinned in place by a car.

So, you better choose quickly:

So, as a police officer are you going to allow the Black life in pink to get stabbed and potentially killed by the Black life stabbing at her with a knife or not?

BLM and its supporters apparently don't care that there's a lethal knife attack going on putting a Black life in immediate jeopardy - note that it is not a knife fight when there's only one knife in play.

The tweets from the progressives over the incident are rather insane:

Valerie Jarrett, tweeted:  ‘A Black teenage girl named Ma’Khia Bryant was killed because a police officer immediately decided to shoot her multiple times in order to break up a knife fight. Demand accountability.  Fight for justice.’ 

BLM co-founder Bree Newsome tweeted:

Teenagers have been having fights including fights involving knives for eons. We do not need police to address these situations by showing up to the scene & using a weapon against one of the teenagers. Y’all need help. I mean that sincerely.

Read those tweets again and realize they are not based in reality, at all. BLM takes the side of the criminal, always.

Note also that the video shows that the baby daddy of Ma'Khia Bryant is busy not attempting to break up the fight or get his daughter to drop a lethal weapon, but is instead trying to kick the other girl who is down on the sidewalk. 

Charming.

Imagine the outrage if the police officer decided, following these tweets as inspiration -  "Heck, teens have been having fights involving one side having a knife for eons, I'm gonna just leave and go get some doughnuts and let them fight it out."

Think Ferguson effect writ large.

That is what BLM is advocating here, a rather recurring theme where BLM advocates that Black criminals should be free to resist arrest if they feel like it, and should instead be left to conduct their criminal ways without police intervention - no matter the cost to other lives.  Those other lives being Black or other races that don't get a nice sign.

Got A Pfizer Stick In The Arm Today

Abby and I got vaccinated today.  It took more time to find a place giving vaccine shots than anything else really.  Distribution in Michigan is still a mess with still changing rules and arbitrary and almost Calvin-ball like procedures.

After getting turned away from one place last week for a given reason that we weren't technically in their area (a 8 minute drive away) and no there was nothing posted about a certain area before we arrived.  Also, said vaccination location spot  had been giving shots to people outside their area  - a friend of mine got his there which is what clued us in to it and they had told him that people could come get them - not so much, or there was a shift and policy change within an hour. 

So we found another location and called and made an appointment for this week and we went in today and it was very straightforward and efficient.  Held at a pediatricians office no less.

Checked in, got our temperatures checked, then went to the needle station and  sat down. Got swabbed and then got stuck with a very thin and sharp needle which was no more than a pinch.  Out of the chair  and then had to sit in the waiting room for 15 minutes before heading out and the next person got theirs administered.  No big deal and very professionally done.  Already scheduled for the follow up shot.

Humorously enough they allow you to take a video of yourself getting the shot if you want,  and one guy wanted to do so, so they asked us to move form the chairs we were sitting in after the shot so we didn't get in the video due to HIPAA regulations.  Never-mind that we had to have, and did have masks on so we were unlikely to be identified in the video but hey, whatever makes them happy.

The arm injection site was sore and actually felt like it was burning for a little bit but that since went away.  Nothing serious in the realm of side effects to report so far.

These modern vaccines are rather awesome products of modern scientific effort and Trump's Operation Warp Speed.  Be interesting to see if the mRNA technique can be successfully applied to other viral infections.

What Is It With Democrat Politicians And Sexual Harrasment?

It appears that wherever one has a blue state politician in power, verifiable allegations of sexual harassment cannot be far behind.

Yet another Democrat politician decides not to run for office, after a long history of accusations of sexual harassment comes to light:

The Detroit Free Press:  Former Mayor Virg Bernero drops Lansing mayoral bid, Dunbar joins the race

Why did he drop out? Well, you guessed it - 

Bernero's announcement comes weeks after several women accused him of sexual harassment during his tenure in the Michigan Legislature and while he was mayor.

Verily, female Democrat supporters are all about ending sexual harassment of women because after all, they live it, as they constantly get victimized by Democrats in positions of power.  

This sort of unacceptable behavior must seems rather normal to them - after all it appears that this is an ongoing and standard practice for Democrat male politicians - Cuomo, Franken, Clinton, Kennedy, Biden, Conyers, Kihuen, Scott, Weiner, Massa, Spitzer, Edwards, Bernero, and many more, and the list just keeps on growing.

Sexual harassment is not acceptable, but Democrat male politicians sure have been getting away with it for a long time while talking a good game about women's rights.

Indianapolis Shooting A Demonstration of Red Flag Laws' Innate Flaw and Failure

The Indianapolis killer as far as we know to date was not driven by any white supremacy beliefs (much to the sadness of the progressives), but instead was apparently well known to be CCFCP*

Indeed, he was even "known to the FBI" which as Cindy at From the Caer has rightly commented, is about the most useless titles for a potential mass-killer. Apparently, "known to the FBI" means the FBI makes sure it will stay well out of your way until you commit a mass killing and then say "yep, we knew him".

Verily, this fellow and the action taken by police in response to his being CCFCP* and proclaiming he wanted to commit suicide by cop was indeed the very example of the glaring failure and obvious inherent flaw of Red Flag laws:

The Detroit News: Prosecutor: FedEx shooter didn’t have ‘red flag’ hearing

Authorities believed they had done what they needed to by seizing the pump-action shotgun from Brandon Scott Hole in March 2020, Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears said.

“Absolutely there needs to be some intervention and absolutely the firearm needs to be taken away. … But the risk is if we move forward with that (red flag) process and lose, we have to give that firearm back to that person,” Mears said. “That’s not something we were willing to do.”

The shotgun was never returned to Hole, police have said.

Read that one again.  He was reported to be likely to kill others and himself, the police responded by taking a firearm away and then not even holding a "Red Flag hearing" because they might have lost and had to return it.

So they did what everyone who has concerns about red flag laws has pointed out as to what can occur: They left him free to go out and purchase another firearm and commit murder, and he did.

But hey, at least they thought they did what they needed to do.

Yep, take the firearm away from the madman and leave the madman free and unsupervised to go forth and  commit mayhem - including going out and buying another gun, explosive, gasoline, what have you. 

A rather glaring and fundamental flaw in the whole process.

Now, had they taken him in under a psych hold it would have gone differently. If he was then involuntarily committed as a threat to himself or others - which sounds pretty darn likely - then after a hearing (with all that due process stuff the anti-gunners don't like, which is why they circumvent it to go with a red flag law), he would have been designated in  NICS and been unable to legally purchase a firearm. Even more importantly, he would have received treatment for his underlying psychosis of being CCFCP.* These involuntary commitment laws predate red flags and are a lot more effective.  But the police and other officials need to actually decide to use them.

But, that was too much work apparently, and the police apparently figured that just partially red flagging him instead of having him get treatment for his underlying mental instability would suffice.

It obviously did not.

Red Flag Laws don't prevent an act of mass murder, they just delay it a bit.

* CCFCP for those who don't know means Coo Coo For Cocoa Puffs.  Since we don't know the wackjob's actual diagnosis, that will have to suffice.

Sunday Funday Flight To Jackson

Today the weather was finally good for flying,  Heck, it was just beautiful, and just right for a breakfast flight. 

I took my friend David up for a flight.  David is a licensed pilot but hasn't flown in over 15 years.

A slight cross-wind from 300 at 6+ knots and we took off and headed to Jackson leaving the runway and hitting the skies right at 8:30 am.

At Jackson we were initially set to do a straight-in approach to Runway 25, but then the wind started blowing a fair bit from 330 at 10-12 knots. So the Tower started routing all aircraft to use Runway 32, which I hadn't ever landed on before.  Did a right base to 32, following a Cessna in and did a very nice landing if I say so myself, and David approved so that works.

 

Had a nice omelet at the on-airport restaurant, which has great food as always, and then we headed back to Pontiac. 

 

 

Weather was just beautiful on the way back as well.

I let David fly us back to Pontiac once i had us up to cruising altitude, and he was rather smooth, even with a two- handed death grip on the controls. He had a great time and had no problem keeping it pretty much on course and altitude.

I used the time to get the ATIS and listen in to traffic at Pontiac.

Pontiac got pretty busy. At 12 miles I checked in and idented, and as the Tower was giving me instructions and he got stepped on by another pilot so I had to ask Tower to repeat them.  

Tower got a little ticked off at the other pilot and then repeated my instructions.  

First he set me up for a 2 mile close downwind entry to Runway 27L, then amended the instruction to do a wide downwind, then he further amended  his instructions to continue downwind with his calling my base and then foing do a wide base leg and land on 27R. Kinda figured he would shift me over to 27R,  so it wasn't a big deal.

I then did another darn nice landing, and then we refueled and put the plane away.

1.5,  2 great landings, a great breakfast, and a very happy passenger.

10 Major Errors The Appellant Attorney Made With Her Filing, Number 2 Will Shock You!

I won a landlord-tenant case at a Zoom trial earlier this year on behalf of the landlord and received a nice $19,000 judgment for unpaid rent as well as possession back. Tenant lied her tail off in court and it was readily apparent to everyone, not to mention her own text messages to the landlord contradicted her claims in court.

The attorney on the other side was, well, interesting would be a word. 

She's a newer attorney and did some questionable stuff at trial.  This included appearing for trial from her car and often having her video off, which is professional as all heck.  She also added exhibits during trial which is not allowed, and she kept trying to confuse the actual issues that were at trial. But, I still won handily.

She then filed a motion for reconsideration after the judgment, but she filed it late, and she never served me with it.  

These are two major problems. 

This combination of non-service and lack of filing timeliness would be a recurring practice.

The first moment that I learned she had filed the motion was when the judge sent out an order dated March 9, 2021 denying it as it was a complete failure of a motion and didn't actually conform to the rules regarding a motion for reconsideration.  

In short, it was a word salad bringing up things that were never litigated. This too would be a recurring practice.

Her appeal starts off with quite a fatal flaw - she's a day late, and more than a dollar short.  The last day she could file an appeal is 21 days after the denial on March 9, so March 30 was the cut off, not  March 31.  She missed it by that much. That alone should get it kicked.

Next, I found out that she has filed an appeal only when I get an email from her on April 8 that she had filed an appeal on March 31. No, you cannot file an appeal and wait a week to serve the other side.  You also cannot falsely put on your claim of appeal that you served the other side on March 31 when you did not.

I look through the appeal and it is absolutely done wrong.  The claim of appeal form itself alone has 5 major false statements made on it.  

She even has the parties listed wrong on the form with her client as the plaintiff rather than the defendant. No can do.

She fails to even file the order/judgment she is appealing from, while falsely stating that she had.  She fails to order the transcript, while falsely stating that she had. She even claims she filed a bond and filed an empty bond form with no actual bond, so she's lying about that too.

But wait, there's more!

She files a brief that is totally in the wrong format, and as you can guess it was a word salad almost completely bringing up things that were never litigated in court.

You cannot expand issues beyond what was litigated at the trial court.  You cannot come up with new arguments that you never raised at the trail court.  An appeal is not a do-over, it's supposed to fix any errors a lower court judge may have made.  You cannot make new arguments you never raised before and expect an appeals court to deal with them.  Her appeal is 95% new arguments and new "facts".

She also files exhibits with her appeal that were never filed in the trial court at trial. No, that's really not allowed either.

I point out to her that her appeal is totally wrong and a frivolous appeal and she can't wait a week to serve me with it while claiming to the court she served me a week before. She doesn't care.

So, I draft and file a motion on Wednesday pointing out all these issues to the court and ask her appeal to be dismissed for all these errors or at least all the documents with the errors be stricken which would do about the same thing.  

The court is currently requiring everyone to email for a hearing date rather than the next Wednesday as is normal.  I email after filing the motion Wednesday morning, and the Judge's Clerk replies back in the afternoon that he's working on an order and will get it to me soon.

An hour later, on Wednesday afternoon, I get an order from the Court.

The order does not set a hearing date. 

Instead, the Court issued an order completely dismissing her appeal without a hearing, using the proper caption for the appeal right from my motion.

This almost never happens. Normally, the other side gets to file a response and we argue it on the record.  Her appeal was so bad the Court had the authority to, and did, simply dismiss it out of hand after these issues were pointed out.

Wish I was a fly on the wall when she gets to explain to her lying client why her appeal was dismissed.

Deterring Dry-Fire Disasters

Had a call from a client this morning.

A good, solid, experienced shooter.  Lots of trigger time and dry-fire time.

He had been dry-firing at home in his basement and had put his pistol down on his table.

He picked up the pistol to shoot it again, aimed at his target, squeezed the trigger and .  .  .

                                     BANG!!!!!!

The incident was described to me as time standing still, he could hear the 'tink' of the brass that ejected hitting his table, he saw the dust fall from the ceiling and only then had a nice ringing in his ears.

His immediate reaction was WTF!?!?!

He had picked up his carry gun he had taken off and put on the table and which was identical to the gun he had been dry firing, rather than the gun he was dry-firing. 

Ooops.

Luckily, he still had the gun pointed in a safe direction at a wall when the shot went off.  It went through the drywall and then stuck behind it and did not exit anywhere.  Some ringing in the ears and that was the extent of the damage. Apparently no one outside the house heard the shot go off in his basement either.  No physical harm nor legal repercussions for the negligent discharge.

"That'll never happen to me",  you say.

Hopefully not, but you're human, and at some point in the future you are likely to make a mistake.  Whether through complacency, carelessness, or clumsiness, you may very well put a hole where it was neither intended nor desired.

The idea is to mitigate the damage from that future moment of negligence that may hopefully never take place but is just waiting for you to slip up and for the opportunity to happen.

When dry-firing, make sure there is no live ammunition in the room where you are practicing. Unload and clear the gun you are going to dry-fire in another room before you even go to the room you are dry firing in.

Make sure there are no live firearms or ammunition in the room you are dry firing in, as in none.

Before you begin to dry-fire, check again that the firearm is unloaded in chamber and magazine, really look, and check again, and then check one more time.  

Make sure any practice magazines for reloads are similarly completely empty of live rounds, which should all have been left behind in the other room, right?

Make sure when you dry-fire that you still do not point the firearm at anything you do not want to destroy, and you have a solid backstop at all times. This will save you from complete disaster when you've managed to still manage to get a round chambered even after you swore up and down that the gun and magazines were empty.  My client's incident is now having me rethink my habit of aiming toward the TV with targets arrayed in front of it while dry-firing.

If the gun leaves your immediate possession or you've put it down, and it is not in your hand or holster, stop and start your safety checks all over - check it again to make sure it is unloaded and you didn't just pick up its twin, or Murphy came by and did a swap of pistols  - or more likely you did it in a fit of absent-mindedness.

If you practice under the impression that you will have an incident someday and you need to do everything possible to prevent it from happening and causing irreparable damage, you'll be a lot safer than saying "That'll never happen to me."

Gov Half-Whit: We're Having a Surge of Covid Because Of Low Infection Rates

So how well is that harsh lockdown approach working for you, Michigan?

Apparently not very well.  

Michigan, with one of the most severe lock-down policies in the nation, now leads the nation in infection rates.

WLNS.com: Gov. Whitmer pushes for more vaccine doses as COVID-19 cases surge

Governor Whitmer told CBS News, “We are seeing a surge in Michigan despite the fact that we have some of the strongest policies in place, mask mandates, capacity limits, working from home. We’ve asked our state for a two-week pause,” Whitmer said in an interview on “Face the Nation” a segment on CBS News. “So despite all of that, we are seeing a surge because of these variants. And that’s precisely why we’re really encouraging them to think about surging vaccines into the state of Michigan.”

. . .

According to CBS News, Whitmer states the spike in positive infection rates in the past is due to low infection rates and individuals having a lack of antibodies.

Hmm,  governor, mayhaps these low infection rates and lack of antibodies are due to a wrong-headed and excessive lock-down policy.  

The same policy that prevented any herd immunity or community resistance due to lack of exposure of healthy individuals to the virus that were unlikely to be harmed by the virus and now makes them open to be infected and pass this on now?  

You know, due to the same overwrought and excessive policy made by this same governor perhaps?

Sunday Match Day - First Outdoor USPSA Match Of 2021

I got up early this morning, Picked Tosh up along the way and headed to the range.

First outdoor match of the season and my first as a certified RO.  Happily enough it rained both before and after, but not during, the match.  So we had mud but we were not playing in the rain, which was nice.

It was a special classifier match - 6 classifiers and 1 field course.

The classifiers interestingly enough all required movement which made them a bit more fun than the traditional stand and deliver classifier courses of fire. 

I had a good squad to RO and we moved right along.  I brought along the Glock with the 509T and shot Concealed Carry Optics from my carry appendix holster and appendix Koala mag pouch as you can now shoot form appendix in CCO division. 

Still awaiting the results, but I think both using the same drawstroke and having put in some dryfire time have made me a tad bit better.  I'm definitely more accurate and slightly faster but there is still lots of room for improvement.  Probably still C-Class but hopefully a bit more towards the upper end, but we'll see.  Hit factors were generally and consistently in the  high 4s to 5 somethings which was an improvement for me.

Overall it was a good match and I ro'd rather smoothly.  

I only had the one horrible, awful, no-good very bad stage.  Last one of the day - the darkhouse field course.  12 paper targets.  I was shooting first of course.

It started well from the entryway I was hitting targets with aplomb, but as I entered the darker interior the 509T dimmed slightly and I lost the dot which was an unpleasant surprise.  That was not happy-making.  I then fumbled the reload as well. So yes, it sucked and I ended up owing hit factors for that one.  Learned a lot from that mess though and I'll make sure it won't happen again, so that's something.

Overall a darn fun and positive start to the match season.

If It Wasn't For Fake Hate Crimes, There Might Be Very Few Hate Crimes At All

At Albion college, Michigan, the students, faculty and administration were agog and aghast that someone had placed brazenly racist graffiti against Blacks and Jews in a dormitory.

MLive: Racist graffiti found in college dorm condemned by Albion community leaders

Albion College, city of Albion and local NAACP leaders came together virtually Tuesday to stand with Albion College students and the community against racist graffiti found on a dorm wall.

Robert Dunklin, the NAACP’s Albion branch president, condemned the graffiti, which included racist epithets and multiple references to the Klu Klux Klan.

“Students have been dealing with issues like COVID-19, locked in their dorms and now they have to deal with racial graffiti. It is not acceptable in this community. And we are here to stand with this community and the community of Albion College,” Dunklin said. “Whoever it is, they’re best to come forward or get out of town.”

. . .

The NAACP has been fighting violence against Black people since its founding in 1909, and the organization will continue to fight any time there is an injustice, said Yvonne White, president of the Michigan State Conference of the NAACP.

“To the Albion NAACP, we stand with you. To the Albion citizens and community, we stand with you as well,” White said. “We will fight until we win.” 

As one may suspect by now, the perpetrator was not, as it turned out, some White Supremacist type. 

MLive: Student responsible for racist graffiti that was found in Albion College dorm, officials say

Burying the lede just a tad there. 

Once you hit the second paragraph you find out it was a Black student that did the deed:

Albion police brought the 21-year-old Black male in for questioning on April 6, according to Chief Scott Kipp. The student admitted to creating most of the graffiti, and video evidence from Albion’s Campus Safety Department confirms the statements made by the student, Kipp said.

No follow up in the article to see if the NAACP will condemn this fake hate crime and advocate that the Black student  is run out of town.  It will be interesting to see if charges actually pursued - as they should be - and also if the college will truly stand against hate and make his now temporary suspension permanent.

Of course the college instead of condemning racial hoaxes that cause division and create racial tension, instead called for generalized woke racial healing:

“We know the acts of racism that have occurred this week are not about one particular person or one particular incident. We know that there is a significant history of racial pain and trauma on campus and we are taking action to repair our community,” college officials tweeted. “We will change and heal together as a community, because we are committed to doing the work.”

"Not about one particular person or incident" - really?  Will "doing the work" include teaching people not to create fake hate crimes, perchance?  Don't count on it.

Road Trip Week: Arrival In Washington DC

After Johns Hopkins, we headed towards Washington DC.

Leah was staying with a friend for the week in DC while we looked at Campuses with the elder child.  So we got an AirBNB in their Tenlytown neighborhood which was very nice.  It is a very SWPL place, Whole Foods in walking distance, along with a smoothie place, and a great Mediterranean quick service restaurant.

In DC, they have masks on everywhere even outside with the only exception being for vigorous physical exercise under their mayor's edict  - which is why quite a few people were out jogging or walking their dogs, everyone else had masks on.

They've got quite a bit of Stockholm Syndrome going on in Tenlytown:

Lots of these signs festooned the neighborhood.  

They were joined with the "Please Don't Break Our Windows" a/k/a BLM signs, and various other forms of virtue signalling.  

Very tolerant stuff indeed, but as told to me by a friend that lives there  in the neighborhood, the tolerance only goes so far - don't have any Republican bumper stickers in sight on your car as the oh-so-caring progressives in the neighborhood will key it. 

We have no stickers on our cars for that reason among others, but our having a Michigan license plate apparently ticked someone off, as our windshield was cheesed during the night.  Yes someone threw a couple pieces of Swiss cheese on the front windshield which was rather disgusting, not to mention a waste of Swiss cheese.  We cleaned that off and then headed out to check on the cherry blossoms.

Surprising No One But BLM, No Charges In Police's Self-Defense Shooting Of Hakim Littleton

In one of the clearest cases of appropriate police conduct resulting in the death of a criminal, Detroit Police appropriately shot and killed Hakim Littleton after he shot at Police back in July 2020.

We finally have a charging determination in the case by the Wayne County Prosecutor.

The Detroit Free Press: Prosecutor: No charges filed in officer-related death of Hakim Littleton

No one but Detroit's BLM group and the race hustlers should be surprised by this decision in the least.

It should not have taken even this long to come to that conclusion.   The video footage of scumbag Littleton's attempted murder of a police officer, and then his becoming a good criminal immediately thereafter is rather definitive.

0 For 5 So Far in 2021

The progressive woke left must be sorely disappointed.

Out of 5 of the most recent mass-shooting/vehicle/knifing incidents, none have been by the dreaded "white supremacist" / "white insurrectionist" type.  Heck, none were even committed by known Trump fans.

Instead we've got:

Atlanta massage parlor shootings - nutcase with sex addiction

Colorado Mass Shooting - Islamist Syrian

California Orange County mass shooting- Hispanic

Capitol Attack - Black and member of the Nation of Islam

Fort Detrick attack - Black

Hardly an array of right-wing extremists there. Each time, of course, the leftists jump on Twitter and elsewhere and proclaim it must have been the work of white supremacist males, or Trump supporters, or something similar, until the facts came out, and then it fades rapidly from the news, except for a call for more gun bans.

That must be disheartening.  

Now, I'm sure at some point some loser white-supremacist type will crawl out of his mother's basement and do something stupid. At which point the left will dance in the blood and proclaim "right-wing extremism" to be the most pressing issue of our times, ignoring all the left-wing violence and Islamist violence.

But until then, the lefties would be better off waiting for the facts to come out before beating their white male extremist drum.

University Visit: Johns Hopkins

From Philadelphia we headed to Maryland, stopping overnight in Newark, Delaware.

We then drove into Baltimore and headed to Johns Hopkins.

 

Another reach school with both excellent reputation and wonderfully strong science and research programs where even undergrads get to participate in serious research its definitely one of her top reach pics. 

The main camous grounds are absolutely beautiful.

 

 

 

Downside is that it is in Baltimore. 

University (unarmed) Security was everywhere on the main campus.   I mean everywhere and in multiples.  You don't have that level of security unless you need it.  The main campus even so is however very nice and in a reasonably nice area.  Still that's a factor to be considered.

The medical campus however is in a much more sketchy location.

Overall, it is one of her top choices along with U Penn and CM, but they all have a shockingly low acceptance rate so we will see what happens come application time.

Detroit BLM Still Beating A Very Dead Horse

A drug-using-felon-that-shot-at-a-police-officer-dead-horse to be precise.

The ill-chosen poster child for Detroit's BLM moment,  Hakim Littleton was a gang member and druggie who was properly shot by police after drawing and firing two shots at point-blank range at a police officer.  

All of this was caught on camera in July 2020, so there's no dispute as to the facts.

That doesn't stop Detroit's BLM group and other race card players from continuing to make stuff up and demand "investigations" of a very open and shut case.

The Detroit News: Hakim Littleton's family, group demand 'credible' probe of police shooting

They make a laughable claim that if Littleton was White and from nice Grosse Point rather than Detroit it wouldn't have happened.   

Since Whites from Grosse Point don't tend to shoot at police when approached, they may very well be onto something there.  

However, since that's not what they mean, I can pretty much guarantee that if a person pulls a gun on a cop and fires some shots at them from a few feet away, you are going to get shot in response to your actions, regardless of your color or geographic origin.  

Detroit's BLM White supporters are certainly invited to go try this out and lets us all know what happens, you know, for science.  Lest you think that is encouraging progressive idiots to commit suicide by cop, that is sarcasm and not written with an intent for idiots to actually try same.

University Visits: Swarthmore

Located in the outskirts of Philadelphia, less than 20 minutes from U Penn,  but in many ways a world apart. Swarthmore College offers a very serene and walkable isolated campus with some stately buildings and naturalist landscaping.

 Lots of nice buildings in a quiet wooded environment that is completely apart from the city itself but close enough to go into town.

The historic Sproul observatory built in 1907 and completed in 1913 when it had the largest telescope on the east coast of the US.  It has since been replaced as an observatory at Swarthmore:

Swarthmore is very big on environmental science and the environment in general.  Every class year plants a tree on the campus.  Here's one from the class of 1875, an Elm that is 146 years old and still growing - 

They have some solid science programs, and it offers a small student body and  a very comfortable and walkable campus and it is definitely under consideration.

University Visit: For U, It De Penn

We spent the night in Bradford PA, and then in the morning headed to Philadelphia, the home of The University of Pennsylvania.

Established in 1740, and founded by Benjamin Franklin,  its first President, it has a lot of history to offer.

 It has some very stately architecture.

It also has some iconic sculptural works around the campus.

As important as all of that, it has a highly regarded and rigorous science and biology research department, which is what the kid is looking to study.

Again, every building was shut tighter than a drum, but we got to see the outside of the buildings and quite a few students were around. The bookstore/spirit store was open, so shopping occurred.  

The area around campus is rather nice with a variety of shops and restaurants, many aimed at the hungry college student so dinning occurred as well.

Overall it's definitely one of her top choices to apply and reach towards.

It's Not Like We Didn't Tell You That Woke Policies Have Consequences

Ah, those lovely and oh-so predictable moments when those woke-inspired policy choices come back to bite the Progressives in the butt.   Sadly thenon-woke get to suffer the consequences of their policy choices as well. 

1. Defund the Police:  Conservatives and others with common sense pointed out this was not a good idea and would lead to more crime and violence.

To no one's surprise, it did lead to increased crime and violence.

The Oregonian, first supported the defund the police movement, and defunding the Portland Police’s gun violence team in particular. They are now shocked, simply shocked, and dismayed at the violence, shootings and deaths that have resulted.  

The Oregonian is now advocating to reinstate the Portland Police’s gun violence team  after the reality of the crime increase after its disbandment and to actually fund the police, but the woke running Portland still have other ideas and will likely double-down on their failure.

2.  Ending Cash Bail / Low Bail:  Again, this has been pointed out to be a very bad idea with lots of consequences by releasing criminals onto the streets to continue to commit crimes.

Yep this Illinois state senator, advocated for and passed the law for eliminating cash bail. He's now all sorts of surprised when he's a victim of crime and the criminal who committed the crime against him gets out on low bail and can go on committing crimes? 

At least it's nice that someone who passed this idiotic law has to live with the consequences of his actions rather than being able to wall himself from the consequences of those actions.  This no cash bail policy has led to more crime everywhere it has been tried in the US so far, yet the progressives show no signs of backing away from this crime-increasing policy.  

These defund the police and no cash bail policies are brought to you by the same fools who couldn't figure out the correlation between criminals being locked up and resulting low crime rates.

Mail Delivery Blues - Now They're Just Making Stuff Up

So I was expecting a package in the mail yesterday.  The tracking info stated it would be delivered.  The rest of the mail was delivered, but the package was not.  Tracking though still said it would be delivered yesterday.  Nope, not so much.

Funnily enough, the tracking reports an exception that they were unable to deliver it:
 

Seriously now, you managed to get the rest of the mail delivered to the same location as always, but now have "No Access to Delivery Location".  What, did the house and mailbox shift into another dimension temporarily between delivering the rest of the mail and the package?

This is just straight up lying. 

Probably being done to get out of refunding the postage for priority mail not being delivered on time.  Instead of just admitting it was delayed or they could not get around to delivering it, they now claim they can't access the location which is nonsense.

On the upside, they will allegedly try and deliver to the same location today they could not access tomorrow, so there's that.

Sheesh.

Update: Mirabile dictu, the package is delivered. They managed to find the mailbox today, right where they left it yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that. 

The Criminal Revolving Door In Detroit

One of the main problems involving crimes by criminals with firearms is not the firearm.

Instead, the pattern adopted by areas with high amounts of violent crime is to have a revolving door where violent criminals are released on no bond, or low bond and are free to continue their violent crime sprees.

The Detroit News: Detroit police Chief Craig speaking out against bond decision in case involving late officer

In Detroit, it is often the 36th District Court and its judges that set bond, and they seem to go out of their way to let criminals out.

Per the article, you can point a firearm at police officers while fleeing police and getting into a crash and then be released - with no bond in March of this year:

[36th District Judge's] decision to free two men from jail without having to post bond after they allegedly pointed a gun at a police corporal and his partner before leading officers on a high-speed chase that ended when the car plowed into a police cruiser.

That is unacceptable and it's not the only example.

Chief Craig reports that 75% of those arrested while illegally carrying firearms are released with no or low bond  - any wonder why violent crime is up in Detroit (and other locales with a similar revolving door)?

Progressives calling for gun control and gun bans while at the same time you have progressive judges releasing violent criminals who use guns in crimes out of jail wholesale is the height of ineffective insanity.

Next University Visit: To The Home Of The Tartans

We then drove a few more hours and reached Pittsburgh.

If you didn't know, and I hadn't known until we arrived, the Tartans is the team name for Carnegie Mellon.

 

Their mascot is Scotty, a Scottish Terrier, which is always a good sign.

They run with it in all the things, including their social distancing notices. maintaining 6 Scotties distance away from others and you're good.

 

 

Every university we went to had regs for having masks on whether inside or out on campus grounds.

We did manage to see the inside of the Carnegie Mellon Student Athletics center as well as the outer grounds, but again, most buildings were shut tight.

The main campus has some impressive buildings.

 

We then went further into Pittsburgh towards U Pitt and saw the Mellon Institute, which has a rather impressive exterior.

It's a rather big building in beautiful neo-classical style.  Built in 1937 its facades are almost as large as the Parthenon. Its also quite a drop from the base of the columns to the ground so stay away from the edge.  It was also locked up but was nice to look at the outside.

The dark stains are left deliberately uncleaned as markers of Pittsburgh's more polluted past.  Either that, or they wanted to save on the cleaning costs and came up with that as a good excuse.

Carnegie Mellon scores higher marks with the kid for its stronger emphasis on the sciences and she liked the campus and that it was in a city with things to do.

University Visits - Oberlin

Day One We headed out of Michigan and into Ohio.  The roads immediately got better, the drivers worse.

We first stopped at Oberlin College.

Unfortunately with Covid, the buildings were all closed to visitors so it was all an external ride and walk about tour.

Oberlin is in a rather pleasant town.

We also stopped at Gibson's Bakery which is rather famous due to its mistreatment at the hand of Oberlin's administration - as can be seen by viewing the entire story over at Legal Insurrection.

We met one of the Gibson family who was working that day.  Super nice guy. We had a great chat about jiu-jitsu as Abby was wearing her jiu-jitsu sweatshirt and he had been practicing for quite some time and was even involved in the Oberlin Jiu-Jitsu club back when they had one.  

He was not negative about Oberlin College in any way, didn't discuss the dispute, and didn't do anything to dissuade a possible applicant to the college - even with how his family had been badly treated by the college administration.

Oberlin is overall a nice university in a small town setting.

Overall, Oberlin is rather heavily focused on music and the liberal arts, whereas Abby is all about science, so it may not be one of her top picks.  So, on to the next scheduled stop at a University in the next state.

Where We Were This Week

Here's a quick location photo to help you guess:

We were off on a Great American Roadtrip with a purpose:  To checkout potential universities for Abby.  

We hit 4 states, toured the grounds of 6 Universities, and visited with Leah's friend in DC and drove around there as well.  Lots of fun was had.

Compare And Contrast

Also known as Democrat politics as usual.

The Detroit News: Pelosi: Remove Rep. Gaetz from committee if claims are true

The New York Post: Pelosi re-appoints Eric Swalwell to Intel Committee despite ‘honey pot’ scandal 

In one case, there are unsubstantiated rumors and it appears a blackmail scheme against a Republican member of Congress.  Pelosi calls for him to be removed from committees with the "if true" qualifier,

In the other, a proven  relationship of a Chines Communist Spy with a Democrat that sits on the Intelligence Committee.  Pelosi, after the relationship with the spy has been exposed and verified as true, reappoints this now badly compromised member to the committee.