How About Hard No?

The Atlantic: LET’S DECLARE A PANDEMIC AMNESTY

An Atlantic author, who has quite the Twitter history (with the tweet below but one example of many) of being a Covidiot:

 

Is now proposing we should let bygones be bygones and forgive how the Dems et al acted and overreacted during the pandemic.

My first inclination to her request for an "amnesty" would be a hard no. 

Most especially as they have yet to abjectly state they were wrong.  Most Covidiots, including our governor are still busy claiming they handled the pandemic just fine and refuse to admit any mistakes.

But, well, I’m sure we could have an amnesty - right after their apologies.

Oh, and in addition to apologies, an amnesty can come only after a Truth and Reconciliation Commission too, as after all, the Left loves those.

So let’s have them all come testify before a Commission as to the absolute mess they made and lives they destroyed while they ignored actual existing plans for handling a pandemic, and then panicked and carried on like tin pot power-drunk dictators with insane lock downs that never made any rational sense. 

Perhaps the testimony can include their shutting down schools with subsequent loss of learning continuing to this day; their placing Covid-positive patients in nursing homes to let the disease rip through them killing grandma and then deliberately undercounting the deaths that resulted.  Let's not also forget the arbitrary and capricious rules of the lockdowns including being able to buy food at a store but not paint in the next aisle.  No golfing or power boating but a canoe, or kayak was just fine (but not in California where you could be arrested for paddle boarding by yourself, alone on a flippin' ocean.

On second, thought let's roll with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, but screw the amnesty - these people need to live with and pay for the poor decisions they made that cost lives and inflicted misery upon their fellow Americans while they enjoyed the perquisites of their misguided power.

Sig P365X - An EXcellent Pocket Carry Pistol

Got a SIG P365X in July and have been using it ever since.

With 12+1 rounds of 9mm in the XFrame, it fits the hand well and fits and conceals easily in a DeSantis Nemesis holster in a front jeans pocket even with the red dot.  It also fits nicely in a Phlster Pro holster for appendix carry when I'm not wearing jeans.

Even better, with a MagGuts spring and follower, you get 14+1 in the magazine in a very compact yet very shoot-able package, which is pretty darn amazing capacity for such a small pistol. It's pretty much my favorite and most carried pistol at this point as its both convenient in sub-compact size yet still offers a  compact pistol's capacity.

It came with the SIG Romeo Zero Elite mounted.  The Romeo Zero Elite  is a very nifty compact sight and fits well with my idea of red dotting all the things. 

The sight is very easy to acquire form the draw, and the circle dot makes for very easy target acquisitions and fast transitions between targets. No problems shooting A-Zones at 25 yards, and transitions from A-Zones at 10 yards to 7 yards and back is fast and easy.

The only drawback is that the battery life of the SIG Romeo Zero Elite quite simply sucks.  The sight is aptly names as Zero as that's about the average battery life experienced.

The battery that came installed in the sight lasted about two weeks.  I chalked that up to a possibly old battery and the firearm moving around in shipping etc, and I swapped it out. Of course, to change the battery, just like the RMR, you have to remove the sight from the slide.

I then put in the new in wrap battery that came in the package with the SIG, and that lasted about a month. 

I replaced it with a newly purchased Duracell and that lasted all of thirty-eight days.

Just replaced that yet again yesterday and will be contacting SIG as it appears the sight is defective because this is sure not a 20,000 hour sight as advertised.  Instead, it is averaging less than 800 hours even with the sight shutting itself off automatically with the MOTAC system with no movement. That's three battery changes in less than a total of 4 months.

The MOTAC system works nicely and the sight does come right back up when the firearm is moved but it doesn't seem to save the battery much life, if at all.  Meanwhile I can leave an RMR on full time for a year and no problems.

On the upside, the sight returned to zero exactly even after being removed each and every time. It also has night sights on it that are pretty much co-witnessed so shooting through the window even if the sight is not functioning is very doable.

Further downside:  What idiot decided to use Allen keys as the screw head for mounting the sight? Allen keys suck and tend to strip.  They also tend to lack bits that fit in a torque screwdriver to set the screws at the required 9-inch pounds.  SIG really should have used a Torx head for the screws at the very least.

Overall, aside from the battery life issue of the sight and the terrible idea of using Allen keys for screw heads, the pistol has been great and reliable.  Over 400 rounds through so far with zero failures including 100 rounds of Speer Gold Dots.

Not Flying - All Fogged Out

Was going to do some flying today and while the weather by the house had cleared up nicely by the time I left, at the airport it was a different story.

 Fog and zero-zero visibility.  About as Low IFR as you can get.

That's looking south from the north hangars along taxiway Delta.   Runway 27R/9L at the end of taxiway Kilo is not visible, nor is the parallel runway, nor is the tower on the south end.

Under Part 61, which is the rules I fly under, I could legally takeoff in these conditions.

Legal, but dumb.

Dumb, because you can't legally land in zero/zero and if you have an issue at or shortly after takeoff your options are rather limited.

While I both want and need to get some IFR practice in, this was not the day to do it.

Zero/Zero is substantially below by personal minimums for IFR, so, no flying for me this morning.

Liz Cheney Leaps Across The Aisle

If you had any doubt that Liz Cheney is on her way to leaving the Republican party after getting primary-ed, there's really not much doubt any longer:

The Detroit News: GOP’s Liz Cheney endorsing Michigan Democrat Slotkin in a first

You generally don't see Republicans endorsing Democrats over fellow Republicans.

Choosing Slotkin over Tom Barret is a rather curious choice to come out swinging for the Democrats on the part of this Wyoming RINO.

Why choose Michigan to come out for the Dems?   Couldn't she find a race a bit closer to home to dip into?

Barrett is hardly an out-there candidate, and while on the actual conservative side as one might hope a Republican would be, he's hardly an extremist however one might label that, and instead is erudite, coherent, has a good record in the State Senate, and has a good shot at winning the race.

It could be because Slotkin is rather connected to the Obama administration  and the CIA, and is an excellent example of the definition of a Democrat DC-insider, who likely gets along great with Democrat-lite RINO-establishment Cheney.

Still a curious choice to commit to this election season, and it certainly should end any affiliation Liz Cheney has with the Republican party. 

FFS, Get It Together Wayne County Circuit Court

So this morning I'm doing work and got a call a couple minutes ago from opposing counsel on a case, wanting to discuss the status conference from this morning on a case we have in Wayne County Circuit Court.

"What status conference from this morning?", I ask, somewhat perturbed.

Apparently there was one, and the court did not send me any notice of it at all, and thus I did not know and did not Zoom in accordingly.

Not the first time this has happened on this case, and it seems the only case I never get notices on, but it's getting well past ridiculous.

How ridiculous?

The Commercial landlord-Tenant case is running under two different files in the court:

It has both an Appeal from District Court (landlord-tenant possession only filed by the tenant after losing to me there) and a Circuit Court case (filed by us for the money owed from that landlord-tenant case) in front of the same judge.  

It's been going on since July 2020.  Yep, you read that right, it's over two and a half years old now.

I have a motions for summary disposition on their counter-claim in the money case that was filed over 2 years ago that the judge has still not set a hearing on or ruled on.  To put it in perspective, that should take around 28-60 days max to get heard, not 2+ years!

Two other summary motion,s and the appeal brief itself have been filed over a year and a half ago with no hearing or ruling in sight. Again, way outside appropriate timing for decisions to be made.

And for some reason, whenever the judge issues a status conference on the Appeals case, the court does not send me a notice.   Even though I show up on the electronic file and docket as the attorney of record, have an appearance in, and have filed a response to their appeal brief, I get nothing. Thus has happened at least three times now.

Rather disconcerting.

Even better, at the status conference held under the Circuit Case (which I actually got a notice and appeared for)  in early September, the court after noting we were there then stated they would call us for the conference.  But, the court  never got around to actually contacting us, so it never actually happened and nothing has moved even an inch in the case.

Still no dates on any of the motions, no action at all, no trial date -- which is probably good considering the motions should get rid of most of the case without a trial if they ever get heard.  

The cases just sits out there, waiting for the court to do its job.

A little notice while it considers doing its job may be too much to ask for though.

Politifact and Michigan's Secretary Of State

Poltifact does a bit of rehabilitation of Jocelyn Benson's prior acts, and then really decides to be less than forthcoming about the effect of Zuckerberg's et al.'s outside funding of elections.

Politico: Before election, Michigan Republicans blast Secretary of State Benson for her oversight of last one 

Interestingly Politifact tends to gloss over the Michigan Court of Claims nailing her for illegally deciding that clerks did not need to verify signatures on absentee ballots, and omits quite a few other things she did in the 2020 election that were rather questionable.

Then they get to quite an interesitng observation about outside funding, mainly from Mark Zuckerberg et al, that when actually looked at paints a rather different picture than what they claim was an even-handed funding to both Republican and Democrat locales as they state they both received grants:

Democratic- and Republican-leaning communities received election grants

Over the past two years, Republicans have railed against private grants distributed to elections offices in 2020 from the Center for Tech and Civic Life, which received millions of dollars from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan. Republicans have dubbed the donations "Zuckerbucks" and allege the funds were funneled to Democratic-leaning communities to boost turnout in those places.

. . .

More than 450 Michigan municipalities received grants from the Center for Tech and Civic Life, according to tax filings. That included a large $7.4 million grant for Detroit — the state's largest voting jurisdiction — which went for President Joe Biden. It also included donations to smaller communities Trump won, such as Macomb County's Chesterfield Township, which received a $16,545 grant, and Ottawa County's Allendale Township, which secured a $15,398 grant. 

Looks totally fair right? Democrat stronghold gets $7.4 million, and Republican township in a Democrat County got $16,545.00. Sounds totes the same, doesn't it?

So let's dig into this a little deeper.

Detroit, with 246,562 voters in the last presidential election that went 233,908 for Biden (95%) received $30 per voter in that election from Zuck et all to get out the vote, and essentially $28.50 for each Democrat vote.

Meanwhile Chesterfield Township, which went 63% Republican and had 25,822 voters of which 16,421 voted Republican,  and 9,401 voted Democrat  received 64 cents per voter, or all of 40 cents per Republican vote.

This seems totes the same thing, right?

Sure, some Republican-majority communities got some funding, to make it appear at first glance the funding was non-partisan.  But it appears to be less than a pittance compared to the millions poured into Democrat strongholds to help drive the vote in 2020 - for example, New York City received the largest grant of $19 Million).

In short, Zuckerbucks sure as heck helped the Democrats in 2020, no matter how Poiltifact wants to gloss over or paint those facts.

Sunday Match Day

Today was the Guga Ribas Invitational Match at WCRH Club.

An auspicious omen, as the penguin is my spirit animal.

9 stages with over 300 rounds, and it was a tail-kicker. 

I was the only Carry Optics shooter in my squad.  The vast majority were Open-class shooters with race guns, and there was a production and a single-stack shooter to round it out.

It was a nice bunch of shooters and a good squad. 

Interestingly, my squad was mostly Filipino  -- and damn good shooters too.  

Lots of Filipinos also came from not just the US but also Canada to shoot this match, which was kinda neat as well. Darn good bunch of folks all around.

Lots of fun and challenging stages, with difficulty likely on a par with a Sectional match as compared to a standard club match.  

I definitely made some mistakes, including shooting past cleverly hidden targets, which I really, really hate doing.  

If it was any consolation, and if it was it wasn't much, at least 6 of the shooters on my squad of 13 on the last stage we shot missed and waltzed past a target due to the cunning design of the stage.  

Aside from messing that up, my accuracy was pretty good though my penguin-waddling speed is still not quite where I'd like it to be.  

On the upside, I did not come in last, in either overall ranking nor in carry optics and I am shooting better than I did before and seeing some improvement. 

Some fun  stages, including one where you had to hit each target a minimum of three times as opposed to the normal two, and a neat stage where to get to the r you had to walk through a tight path lined with shotgun clays, and for every clay you broke it was a procedural.  I didn't break any, but a few of the squad did, to their dismay.

Still having trouble with the Henning mag extensions which slowed me down on a couple phases so I'm going to contact them for some tech support, as the problem continues. It looks like the spring and follower is not getting the round high enough to clear the front edge of magazine consistently.

Overall a good match with lots of improvement still needed and a fun time spent with a good bunch of people.

Clean-The-Planes Day

This morning was the twice-yearly aircraft Wash-n-Wax.

The weather was absolutely perfect for it.

Scrubbed the planes down, took them to the wash stand and covered them in soap.

Then we brought them back to the hangar, dried them off and waxed them, and  buffed them to a shine.
 

Probably picked up a few knots in speed and dropped a few pounds worth of grime each.

Given the nice weather, both planes were reserved and took off shortly after being cleaned.

Great turnout of club members, so we were done by 11 a.m.

Ancient Graffiti

Quite a neat discovery recently in David's Tomb in Israel, or it could be claled the Tale of the Medieval Tagger.

The Jerusalem Post: Graffiti of knight from Middle Ages discovered in King David's Tomb

A piece of graffiti bearing the name of Knight Adrian von Bubenberg along with his family emblem was discovered on the wall of King David's Tomb on Mount Zion, in Israel's capital of Jerusalem, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced on Thursday.

Found as part of the IAA's research project documenting pilgrims' inscriptions, the researchers discovered the graffiti bearing the name of the Swiss noble, who was dubbed a Knight of the Holy Sepulchre following his pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1466.

 "Von Bubenberg was here" doesn't have quite same ring to it as "Killroy was here," but he was a solid 473 years ahead in leaving his mark.

Not At Those Rates You Don't

So Oakland County being now Democrat-dominated, wants to do a gun "buy back" to show they're doing something.

The Detroit Free Press: Oakland County cops want to buy your gun

Those who turn in guns are to receive generic Visa-type gift cards. The amounts are $100 in exchange for a handgun, $200 for a long gun and $300 for an assault rifle, according to a news release. Those who turn in firearms will need to provide ID. The "gun buyback" is scheduled for Saturday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., at these sites:

That's certainly below market rates for just about any firearm.

Since the County never owned these firearms calling this a "gun buyback" is an abuse of the English language and a word choice to suggest only the state should have firearms.

So this is basically a nice County-run crime-gun laundering scheme, using $45,000 of our tax dollars, to let criminals get rid of guns they've stolen or used in a crime, and it also nicely encourages people to go out and steal guns for cash.  

Really great incentives there.

Or, even worse, it is an attempt to swindle people who are ignorant of the value of the firearms  to give them up for a pittance in the name of social justice and "getting guns off the street"  -- guns that aren't on the streets now.

There's certainly some potential free market opportunities here to go to the locations listed in the article and offer a tad more than what the County is offering.  After all, form looking a the guns they have displayed on the table all of them are worth more than the County's offering price.

No It Actually Doesn't Raise That Issue

The Detroit Free Press:  Guard's accidental gunfire in Oxford school raises issue of arming school employees

Instead, it raises a very real training issue for proper arming of school employees:

Monday’s incident at Oxford Middle School, which is on the border of Oxford Village and Oxford Township, occurred when a school security guard was using the single-stall staff restroom, near the field house, and he placed his handgun on a door hook, the school district said in a statement.

Quick Tip:  You never, ever, hang your firearm by the trigger-guard on a hook in the washroom, or anywhere else for that matter.  It's ridiculously unsafe and there's no need to do it at all. Just you leave it in your holster.

It is rather amazing that someone actually did this at all as it displays some impressive lack of gun handling training. 

Scarily enough, the security guard is describes as having "28 years of law enforcement training".

You would have thought proper gunhandling habits would have been brought up sometime in those 28 years.

Impressively, not only was no one hurt, but no one in the entire school except the guard apparently even noticed the negligent discharge.

Weekend In The Wine Country Next Door

Tash and I decided on a weekend getaway this past weekend.  The first getaway without kids in tow in 14 years.

So with Leah happily ensconced in Abby's dorm room over the weekend due to a school break, we headed off to Essex County, Ontario.

The best part - no more fakakta ArriveCan App needed!  Even the Canadian Border people expressed that they were rather happy to see it gone.  Apparently it sucked for them just as it sucked for the users.

I had not realized that there was some beautiful wine country just a bit over an hour from our house, but there is, and it is truly lovely in autumn.

It was not the high season at all, so getting an AirBnB was easy right across the road from the CREW winery, with a short walk from there to the North 42 Degrees Winery, and a short drive from other wineries as well.  This made wine tasting rather convenient.

We arrived late on Friday night and awoke and then started to explore the area.

After breakfast we headed to Point Pelee National Park and hiked the nature trails there, seeing beaches on both the bay side and Lake Erie side of the point.

The bay side was calmer, even with large trees down from storms on the beach:

The Lake Erie side had some good wind and wave action going:

We walked further along into the marsh area of the Park, saw some ducks and some informative boards about he wildlife in the area.

Interestingly enough, the Beavers around here are bi-national:

An neat quirk of language, that.

Having suitably exercised, we decided to reward ourselves with a wine tasting at Oxley Winery. 

Oxley, like CREW and North 42 Degrees are all small, family-owned and operated Estate wineries.  Estate meaning the grapes used in their wine are grown on their properties. We did the Swanky Wine tasting, which featured their rarer and finer wines that they have produced. Some of them, for example, only have 50 cases produced of some of these particular vintages. 

Their master taster, Yvonne, did a nice job telling the history of Oxley Winery and the wines they produce, and the story of these wines in particular. We had a nice couple across from us and we got to chatting during the wine tasting and had a very pleasant time.

As to the tasting itself, the Bianca to start with was really great, I had never had a Bianca before, and it was smooth, crisp, semi-dry, and refreshing. 

Next up, the Barrel fermented Chardonnay was superlative.  I normally really dislike Chardonnay, but I could drink theirs all day if given the chance - no sour or gasoline aftertaste with this stuff, it was deliciously smooth without being sweet nor bitter and with a delightful finish.  

The Merlot and Merlot Cabernet were very good but their 2019 Syrah Reserve is delectable.  A really lovely full bodied wine that is simply awesome. I got an extra pour of that from Yvonne and sipped it in appreciation accordingly.

We then had a light lunch at the winery and the food, accompanied with more wine, of course, in this case a Winter Wowza - their white heated mulled wine, as we were dining outside and the wind was a tad chilly. Very tasty food and wine both.

We then walked the grounds for a bit, looking inside at the shops, and then headed off, checking out some local fruit stands, including one where they have test apples.

What are test apples?   Test apples are new varieties farmers are growing to develop the next great commercially successful apple.  Quite interesitng and tasty with interesitng varietal focus - some sweeter, some crisper, some of both. They are certainly developing some interesitng apples, and some may soon end up in an orchard near you.   Had to eat them there, as you can't cross the border with fruit.

Then we had a nap and after waking up changed into dinner clothes and walked across the road to CREW Winery and had a tasting and dinner there.

Tash loved their Gewürztraminer,  and I found their Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon to be mighty fine indeed.  Their Merlot felt a little watery and was too light for my taste, but their cab varieties are terrific.

Well wined and dined we walked back to our AirBNB and that was Saturday.

So on Sunday we got up, had a light breakfast at the AirBnB, packed up and checked out, wandered around the area for a bit and then headed over to North 42 Degrees Winery for brunch.

Lovely to see their vines as you pull up.

Lots of grapes remain on these particular vines, to hopefully become ice wine.

 

 

Inside, for brunch, we were seated on the top floor of their lovely main building.

 

The view from the room is amazing and had the weather been warmer, we would have eaten outside on their large deck with a lovely view.

Of the three wineries we visited, Wineries North 42 Degrees had the best food. 

Not to say the others were bad, as they were really very good, but this was a cut above.  The steak and poached eggs with Hollandaise sauce was cooked to perfection, and Tash's Smoked Salmon (smoked right on the premises)  Eggs Benedict was similarly outstanding.  I had a glass of their delectable Cabernet Sauvignon to accompany the Steak and Eggs. Tash had a French 75 made with their sparkling wine and an addition of some essence of lavender they grow on their estate. The brunch finished with a Belgian chocolate pots de creme. To say it was an awesome brunch would be an understatement.

We then toured the grounds of the winery and spent some time in their garden in the sun planning for the upcoming week.  After that, we headed to Amherstburg, a nice town with quite a bit of history, especially involving the War of 1812, on the Canadian side of the Detroit River.

So there are indeed Cannons to be seen.

They're some rather nice British 24-pounders, pointing across the river towards the US side, aimed to shoot over Bois Blanc Island, just in case of a rematch.

It's also a monument to the men of Amherstburg who lost their lives in World War One and World War Two.  

The monument is rather well done, with the names on plaques on the main monument, and then each of the stands describing the men who fell serving their country complete with their picture and a short synopsis of their service and loss.  Two of the boards are below:

 It's a very well-done memorial honoring the heroes of this town.

After viewing the memorial we explored the town, visited a local bookshop and bought some books, and visited a coffee shop to caffeinate before departing. We then headed off, and crossed back into the USA, picked up Leah, and went home after a great and restful weekend.

I had not visited Point Pelee before nor known about this neat wine region right next door to us.  It is now on the must visit again list and considering we could easily make a day trip of it, visit it again we shall do, as there are many more wineries there to visit, and the ones we visited already are also worth another trip.

Gov. Whitmer Getting Nervous?

After Republican challenger Tudor Dixon more than held her own in the governor's debate, it seems Whitmer has gotten nervous and called for reinforcements.

The Detroit Free Press: Former President Obama to hold Detroit-area rally for Whitmer, other Democrats

Probably to get out the Detroit, Benton Harbor and Flint voters as that voting base has been rather less than enthusiastic about her.  

That they have former President Obama coming to town may mean they don't quite believe the polls showing Whitmer leading the race.

Given the horrendous job Whitmer has done as governor, even her outspending Dixon (complete with lots of progressive money from California and 41% of her funding coming from out of state - so much so that her fundraising site includes a California Privacy Notice) may not be enough given her record.

Athletic Privilege And Progressive Prosecutor Hypocrisy

Ah, progressive Washtenaw County Michigan, where a sports star at age 18 can get two serious felonies, along with driving under the influence of marijuana dropped down to a single misdemeanor which will then be completely expunged without any record upon completing a diversion program.

The felonies happen to be carrying a concealed weapon without a license (you can't even get such a license until you're 21 in Michigan btw),  and a felony of said firearm having defaced serial numbers (likely stolen with serial numbers removed to hide its origin).

The Detroit Free Press: Emoni Bates felony charges to be dropped, Eastern Michigan suspension lifted

We will note this deal is made by the very woke Washtenaw County prosecutor, the same prosecuting office that proudly states on their website:

The Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s Office is committed to ending the scourge of gun violence in our communities. Towards that end, we are committed to supporting efforts to stop the flow of illegal firearms onto our streets, and to prevent gun violence from occurring. Learn more about our efforts by reading our briefs and statements below. 

So, instead of prosecuting two slam dunk illegal firearm felonies after catching someone flowing with a very illegal firearm onto their streets, they have arranged for him to walk and be eligible to continue playing basketball.  

This may be in line with their stance on "equitable justice" as the criminal here is Black, but it sure as heck conflicts with their professed anti-gun stance.

New York Progressives And The Justice System They Have Sowed

From New York City comes a charming if not incredulous tale of what happens when progressives run the criminal justice system.

The situation is as follows:  a man in a park in a very progressive part of Brooklyn attacked a lady walking her dog, threw urine on them and killed the dog by hitting it with a stick he was carrying. He then left unmolested.    He has since neither been charged nor arrested.

New York Post: No arrest of Park Slope dog killer despite multiple sightings of suspect

A further complication is the assumed to be mentally-challenged man happens to be Black, which has set the progressives in the area around the park in quite a quandary.

Fox News:  Dog's killing leads to Brooklyn progressive civil war over 'social justice,' New York Times reports

Hilariously if not unbelievably, residents there are less upset about the crime and the fact they have a violent mentally-disturbed person wandering about their park free to assault people at will, but are more upset that the man is being sought out of concerns that it could be systemic racism to do so. Indeed they seem busy defending him in the name of social justice:

Weeks went by with no arrest made. Neighborhood sleuths fervently discussed the situation, and many expressed support for Chrustic, but soon a vocal minority asked why the mostly White town seemed insistent on taking down a Black man who seemed homeless and "emotionally disturbed." Others called the man a "psychopath" and a "predator" who needed to face justice," the Times reported.

Martin Lofsnes, a 52-year-old dancer who had moved away from the neighborhood in 2020, saw the discussion on Nextdoor while trying to sell some belongings, and was appalled. He spoke about the "400 yrs of systematic racism which has prevented black people from building generational wealth through homeownership resulting in the extreme disparity we see today." He told residents that throwing the man in jail would solve nothing and urged them to set up fundraisers for him.

Other residents thought Lofsnes naïve, with some even saying he was "mansplaining."

"In a dog-loving, progressive enclave, where pushing law and order can clash with calls for social justice, what’s the right thing to do? How do you protect the public without furthering injustice against this man?" Times writer John Leland asked.

You really cannot make this up. 

Apparently if you're Black and quite a few Froot Loops short of having a full box of cereal, you may, per the New York progressive belief system, attack people in public and kill their pets at will, because social justice.

In short, the NY powers that be will likely do nothing about this person until he kills someone.

Then, there will be much excuse-making over lack of mental health care facilities, and of course, the canard that "the system failed".

The system the woke in New York have setup is deliberately designed to fail.

It is designed to fail to protect ordinary citizens from crime - from hamstringing the police; to ignoring crimes; to letting violent criminals be immediately released without even a requirement for cash bail so they can be out to commit crimes yet again; and a justice system that gives the criminals mere slaps on the wrist if they happen to decide to show up for trial.

Unfortunately, this progressive obsession with letting criminals roam amuck is not confined to New York.

The Air Zoo: The Space Exhibit

In addition to it's fine focus on Aviation, the Air Zoo has an extensive exhibit dedicated to space flight and space exploration.

The exhibit begins with early rockets like a V2,  and full size examples of the RIM-8 Talos missile:

And it moves on to manned spaceflight and they've got a mock-up of a Mercury Capsule:

 

They have an actual Gemini Capsule Trainer vehicle on display:

Notice how small the interior is:

Amazing how astronauts could even fit inside, it barely had room for their big brass ones, let alone the rest of themselves.

And they've got El Kabong! 

Not Quick Draw McGraw but the actual El Kabong that was drop tested as part of the Gemini program to see if they could return the Gemini capsules to land rather than splashing them down into the ocean after re-entry.  It was not a success.

I wonder if it sounded like "Kabong!" or "Kaboing!" or just "Thump!" when it hit the ground during the testing.

There's also exhibits regarding what living quarters look like on the the ISS, and even coke cans that came back from the MIR space station:

Apparently Coke is as refreshing in space as it is on earth.

Lots  and lots of cool space stuff.

Then there's some space fantasy through the ages, including a neat exhibit on how space exploration, aliens, and robots have been depicted in cinema:

And it wouldn't be the future without some might-have-beens, including this actual Milner Motors Air Car, a flying car:

Were were promised flying cars and instead what we got was 144 characters and woke pronouns.  

Then again, given how I've seen most people drive, a flying car for the general populace raises lots and lots of issues.

The Space Exhibit at the Air Zoo is worth the price of admission for the entire museum all by itself.

Democrat Coalition Showing Some Definite Strains In Dearborn

It's always hard having a coalition with some members who want to do their thing and push their agenda, and another portion that wants to throw them off rooftops or behead them for doing their thing and pushing their agenda.

That tension was on display in Dearborn Michigan recently when at the School Board meeting, Muslims wanted homosexual-related books removed from schools.

The Detroit Free Press: Protesters shut down Dearborn school board meeting over LGBTQ books

One of Michigan's most prominent faith leaders, Imam Hassan Al-Qazwini of the Islamic Institute of America in Dearborn Heights, urged people during his Friday sermon to attend the protests.

"Some of those books are completely inappropriate for our children to read," Al-Qazwini said. "Some of those books promote pornography. Some of them promote homosexuality. We don't need this. Go and attend this meeting."

Qazwini as a popular Democrat supporter has issues, including a history of anti-antisemitism that came to light (at least among Democrats) during his very vocal support and campaign for for Bernie Sanders.

Qazwini then went on to note that as Muslims are the majority in Dearborn they should get to decide what gets taught in schools and in school libraries.

Qazwini isn't the only rather well known fellow leading this charge:

Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), gave a talk Sunday at the American Moslem Society in the south end of Dearborn, one of the largest and oldest mosques in metro Detroit, about how Muslims can protect their religious rights in Dearborn public schools from materials or practices that conflict with their faith, such as using transgender pronouns. 

Adding to the fun, there was outrage among the Muslim community in Hamtramck when the city flew a gay pride flag.  It also likely didn't go over well when one proponent publicly compared the pride flag to a Muslim call to prayer.

Democrats are going to have a lot of fun with trying to keeping Islamists, Groomers, and Wokesters placated and kept in line.

Air Zoo: World War 2 Aviation Display

Leaving the Guadalcanal exhibit, the museum takes you to the excellent display of multiple World War Two aircraft in their collection.

The Grumman FM-2 Wildcat, a higher-performance and the most numerous variant of the F4F Wildcat.

 The F6F Hellcat, the sucessor to the Wildcat on the Navy's larger aircraft carriers, whike the FM-2 and other Wildcats continued serving on the light and escort carriers:

 The FG-1D Corsair

The Douglas SBD-3 Dauntless

The Slow-But-Deadly dive bomber that hammered the Japanese aircraft carriers at Midway.

There's also trainers from the period, including the first aircraft acquired for the museum, a Boeing Stearman:

There's not only Naval and Pacific theater aircraft, there's lots more on display, including a rare  original WACO CG-4 Hadrian Glider, a displayed in the colors of one of the four that was sponsored by the Greenville Schools in Michigan from student funding during World War 2 and built by the Gibson Refrigerator Company of Greenville.  

The Glider it is painted in the colors of the 45th glider that landed during the Normandy invasion.

There's a also a C-47 on display and interestingly, some of the dummy paratroops that were dropped to confuse the Germans during the early hours of D-Day:

It's a Bird, It's A Plane, It's A Decoy!

Rather neat.

Tons of things to see in that room alone.

When Good GFCIs Go Bad

A couple weeks ago after a big storm came through, I found a circuit breaker had popped on the panel.  Reset it and it did not fix the problem - the lights in the guest bathroom, laundry room, hallway, and garage were all non-functional, as were al the plugs on the other side of that wall including the printer, and cable modem. Much fun.

Happily, the fridge, washer, and dryer in the laundry room still worked as did the garage door itself.

Clearly beyond my limited capabilities, I moved the modem via an extension cord to a working plug, and I sought an electrician to further diagnose and fix the issue.

Sadly, finding an electrician willing to work was hard. 

Finally found one and had an appointment set for last Thursday at 9:15 am, about a week after the outage, but it was the earliest I could get someone there.

So last Thursday 9:15 rolled around; then 10:15; then 11:15, and  no call -- no show.  I then called and got voicemail followed by a text message that he would call me right back.

As you might guess, no, no, he did not bother calling back at all.

Nor was there any response to my follow-up text asking if maybe he was too busy to come that day and if we could reschedule.

Then, since he clearly didn't want the work, I started looking for an alternate electrician.  Hard to get people to want to work today I suppose. Got a name from another friend yesterday, called him today, and he came over this afternoon right after finishing another job.

He then started diagnosing it and traced the cause to the GFCI outlet in the garage.  

There were three hot wires connected to the GFCI. One had gotten just loose enough to knock out that part of the circuit while leaving the rest of the circuit on the same breaker, including the Garage door working.  Rather tricky.

So wires got stripped, re-connected, and re-wired, and as a precaution we installed a nice fresh GFCI there as the old one was looking kinda dodgy, and it all works now.

The Air Zoo: Find The Sniper!

The Air Zoo is not solely dedicated to Aviation.

It also has a detailed exhibit regarding the Campaign at Guadalcanal.

Why?  Because the founder of the museum, Preston "Pete" Parish served as a Marine Lieutenant during the campaign, and his best friend was killed there. 

There are detailed dioramas of the naval battles around Guadalcanal, exhibits of uniforms and many other  informational items that make the past come alive.

 

 

The museum has the only extant piece of the USS Juneau, part of Task Force 67 and sunk by a Japanese submarine during the campaign.  The five Sullivan brothers died in the sinking of USS Juneau:

As to spotting the sniper:

Can you find him before he gets you?

 

He's right there somewhere.

 

He's right there.

He's There!

 

A very impressive and educational (good addition juvat) exhibit about one of the most hard-fought battles and pivotal campaigns in the Pacific in World War II.

Sunday USPSA Day

So today I headed to Brighton this morning for a USPSA match,

Turnout was impressively small - just one squad worth of all of seven shooters but the match went on anyways.  It appears another club just started matches on the same day close by, which is pulling shooters away from the Brighton match.  It's also nearing the end of the competition season here in Michigan, so turnout is low because of that as well.

On the plus side, we had a lot of fun with just one squad moving through all five stages.  A good bunch of people indeed, and I was the secondary RSO so I got to run about half the small squad while the primary did the other half. That way we weren't being ROs when in the hole or on deck to shoot.

I'm overall quite happy with my performance - certainly I've gotten better at stage planning and my shooting is definitely showing improvement.   Had a couple magazine feeding issues that slowed me down, which was weird, and the first time that has happened.  It started in the later half of the match and was rather annoying.  Time to tear down and clean everything.

On the one classifier stage, I was the only one to shoot it clean and hit all Alphas, including 4 head-shot Alphas.  This classifier might not be actually used for classification - it's on trial at various clubs and is a lot of fun it's Classifier 22-04 "Calm Before The Storm".  You start seated outside the shooting box, with toes touching the shooting box.  You then get up at the beep, get your gun off the table in front of the shooting box then shoot 4 rounds at two targets of your choice, and then do a mandatory reload from the table and do 4 rounds on each of the remaining two targets. 

Each outside target has hardcover diagonally through it, and the center third and fourth target are one above the other with a no-shoot target in the middle.  Oh, the 4th and topmost target has a no-shoot covering the lower A-Zone, thus my 4 head-shot alphas. 

Quite a bit of fun to shoot, and I hope it does become an official classifier.

Still waiting for the result but I had a good time, and my speed and accuracy have both improved. I had some rather good runs with decent hit factors and not a single missed target nor missed shot in the entire match, which is happy-making.  

Update: Results sorta came in.  I can't see it on the Practiscore site that gives overall rankings, but only on a site that gives it by division.  So out of three Carry Optics Shooters, I came in 2nd, not bad considering the guy who came in first was really, really, good. I also had zero misses, no Deltas, 93 Alphas and 17 Charlies. Not too bad, and had I not had the malfunctions the times would have been better.  

Pretty happy with my performance at this match and it was a lot of fun.

Air Zoo - That Looks Just Like A Messerschmitt

It looks at first glance just like a Messerschmitt BF-109.

 

So much so that this very aircraft even stood in for a BF-109 in the classic film Battle of Britain starring Michael Caine, Sir Laurence Olivier and many others:

It's not a BF-109, it's a Buchon HA-1112, a copy of the Messerschmitt BF-109 produced under license in Spain.

It is now back in Spanish Air Force Livery and on display at the museum, after originally being displayed in it's Luftwaffe paint job it wore during the film.

The Buchon had a different engine than the original due to German inability to supply sufficient Daimler Benz engines and instead used the Hispano-Suiza engine which gave the aircraft a major right turning tendency on takeoff as it has a counter-clockwise propeller rotation, compared to the Daimler-Benz's clockwise rotation that the airframew was designed to handle.  

This last variant of the Buchon uses a 1,600 hp Rolls-Royce Merlin 500-45 engine rather than the 1,300HP Hispano-Suiza and has two 20 mm Hispano-Suiza 404/408 cannons and the Buchons served in the Spanish Air Force until December 1965.

Some Jets From The Air Zoo

The Air Zoo main hall has quite a few notable jets:

An F-14 Tomcat

 

 

An F-8 Crusader, the last gunfighter. 

An F-18

An A-4 Skyhawk in Australian livery:

These are just the jets in the main hall.

There's also one of the world's earliest jet propelled devices on display:  The V-1 Dooodlebug".

Air Zoo - Another Rare Bird - The SR-71B

The largest bird on display in the Kalamazoo Air museum is the SR-71B.

This is the last surviving original SR-71B two-seat trainer.

After It served with the Air Force, it was transferred to NASA before being was used for research by NASA until 1997 when it was retired. The aircraft was then transferred back to the Air Force and then has been with the Air Zoo since 2003 and is now in the newer main building.

It is an impressively large aircraft. Unfortunately given the way it is placed in the museum, you can't get a decent shot of the front of it.

The refueling area is visible from a platform designed to give viewing access to the top of the plane.

Both cockpits are rather cramped and laden with instruments.

 

 

The rear cockpit is similarly cramped.

Even on display, and even knowing she will not fly again, she still looks fast.