Tomorrow at very dark thirty in the morning, I will begin my pilgrimage to one of the holiest sites in Shootingdom to study under the High Priest of Blasting.

I bring with me two guns, ten mags, three days worth of redundant gear, and I have two thousand rounds waiting for me at my destination.

Like many a pilgrim on a holy journey, I will pass through strange and dangerous lands.

Next stop, Portland, Oregon.

B.L.U.F.
On September 22nd, Judge Benitez entered his decisions, finding that California’s ban on magazines was unconstitutional. Later that afternoon, the state gave notice of its appeal to the Ninth Circuit. On October 2nd, the temporary stay issued by Judge Benitez will expire. If the Ninth Circuit does not issue a stay before then, California will have its second freedom week in four years.

If there is such a tight schedule, why did the state delay until Tuesday the 26th to file for an Emergency Stay?
(1800 words)

The state is arguing that they need the stay because having magazines “flood into the state” will cause death in the street and more mass shootings. Emotional blackmail.

What is their reason for an appeal?

Lower courts would rather not be first in any major decision. This is likely why the Fourth and Second Circuit haven’t released their opinions. They would prefer those first cases to come from some other circuit, so they don’t get slapped down.

When arguing a case, the parties want to be able to reach for the highest authority they can. Citing legislation, legislative history, doesn’t work very well. What works is when the party can point to a superior court’s ruling on the legislation.

Some kid says, “I don’t have to identify because the law says I only have to identify if I have been lawfully arrested. I’m not under arrest, I don’t have to ID.” This might be true. It doesn’t mean much. If that same kid points to a district court ruling that says the same thing, that might mean something, but only if that district court oversees this area.

If the circuit court overseeing the area has said the same thing, that holds still more weight.

Strangely enough, a Supreme Court ruling does not. That’s because the Supreme Court’s rulings have to be “interpreted” by the appeals court.
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When at the gym, I get to check the Media Propaganda News Channels and the usual suspects have been defecating clay Polyhedrons at the polls showing “deadlock” between Trump and Pedo Joe or outright advantage by Orange Man. Add to that the majority of Democrat voters (The live ones) think Joes should not run because he is too old/mentally feeble/etc.

So, I am expecting a Democratic challenger to pop up soon enough and here is my tip: If you live in a state that has Open Primaries, go ahead and cast your vote for Joe Biden.

Use the tools they designed against them and shove it up their collective rectums.

Interestingly enough, today’s article got caught in my feed for who knows why, but I found it interesting. It touches on the relationship between weather and climate change. I found it interesting because it is not a part of the usual media frenzy about all things climate related, AND the person they talk about in the article is Steven Koonin, who was an energy tzar under Obama, of all people. When the Left starts saying that climate change and weather are not as fragile as the media says, we might be making headway.

I am a firm believer in the idea that we should not shit in our own nests. This means we ought to stop tossing garbage everywhere, and we should continue to find new and better ways to package stuff that doesn’t leave behind a floating garbage patch the size of Texas in our oceans. We should stop putting microbeads of plastic into facial cleansers, because we’re starting to find them in commerical fish. We should be considering what’s going on with Splenda, if only because it seems to be entering our waterways in much the same way it entered us, which means we’re peeing it out in the same formulation it went in.

There is a lot of stuff we can all agree on is Bad. The garbage patch in the ocean. Overfishing or overhunting to the point where we no longer get to enjoy our foods. Working on eliminating food deserts. We ought to be focusing on the things everyone (or the vast majority) agrees on, and that we can make progress on. The Left can argue until it’s blue in the face that oceans are warming, and there will be people who deny it, others who support it, and a group in the middle who are confused over why it matters. Whatever the facts are, that argument is going nowhere, so let’s walk away from it and actually get something done.

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In case you all haven’t figured it out, I’m not a rich person. The only reason I have nice stuff is that I’m old and have slowly accumulated this stuff/junk.

A few years ago, I purchased a replacement EDC light. Prior to this, I was using a Mini MagLite. The type that took two AA batteries. I had upgraded to the good bulbs.

The problem I had with these lights is that they were always dead when I went to use them. They would turn on in their holster or in my pocket. By the time I noticed, they were dead. While they had a spare bulb in the battery cap, I don’t like mucking around changing bulbs in the dark.

All of my MagLites were dead. The big ones, the mini’s. All of them. I had been using the cheap LED lights but decided to take a step-up. I purchased a $70 flashlight.

Given that I was used to spending $20 to $30 for a Mini MagLite, this was a big price difference.

What a difference. I use that little Olight every single day. Not an exaggeration.

First, it is tiny. Barely 3 inches long and about the size of a nickle. It comes with a reversible clip. When in the default orientation, the emitter is pointing out of your pocket when clipped to your pocket. This means that you can clip it to the bill of a cap and have an excellent light source.

It has a single control, a side push button.

So what makes this thing so damn amazing? The amount of light it throws along with its run time.

The mode I use most often is the “moon” mode. This is a 0.5 Lumen mode. This is the mode I use at night, moving around the house when the lights are out. It makes more than enough light to see 10 to 15 feet in the dark, but it doesn’t blow out your night vision.

A single click turns it off or on.

If it is on, you can press and hold, and it will cycle to the next brightness mode. 12, 60, 300 Lumens. 300 Lumens will nicely light the world. At 300 Lumens it has a 60-minute run time, at 60 Lumens it has a 4.5 hour run time. At 12 Lumens, 33 hours. If you are only using the 0.5 Lumen mode, it has a 15-day run time.

That is a heck of a long time.

In addition to the normal modes, there is a 600 Lumen mode and a 900Lumin mode. When I’m going after trash pandas, I will sometimes use the 600 Lumen mode. I had forgotten how to get into the 900 Lumen mode.

There is also a 13hz strobe mode.

One of the reasons I chose this light was that it was rechargeable. It has a magnet attach charging connector. Put the tail near the charger pad and they jump together. The charge indicator goes red. When it turns green, the battery is fully charged.

But wait! There’s more! Rechargeable is all well and fine, but what if you can’t recharge your battery? That is another outstanding feature of this particular light. It takes a regular 123 cell. This is not rechargeable, and non-olight rechargeable batteries don’t recharge in the light. This means that if you need light, you’ve got it. My package came with both the Olight rechargeable battery and a regular 123 cell as backup.

One of the side benefits of that magnetic charging system is that you can attach this light to any steel item. The other day, I was replacing the igniter in my oven. I had the light in 12 Lumen mode and just stuck to the roof of the oven. This gave me more than enough light to work with. Because it is so small, it goes into places where I could not get a big work light.

The S1R Baton is no longer made. They have follow on versions that have nearly the same features. I would not hesitate to buy any of them.

Which takes us to the Odin Mini. Because the Baton is side activated, many of the tactical light grips don’t work. It is also so small that sometimes it is hard to orient. This has become an issue when dealing with trash bandits.

I picked up the Odin Mini because it was a weapon mount light that had a quick detach. It can easily be used in your hand as well as when mounted on the provided M-Loc mount point. The package came with a charger that works with my Baton, the mounting hardware. The pressure switch for weapon mounting is also included.

It all just works.

The control is in the tail cap. There are two brightness modes, 300 and 1250. Yeah, the low power is at the “normal max” for the Baton. The 1250 Lumen mode will really light up the dark.

Again, there is only a single control. To activate the bright mode, press hard. To activate the low mode, press softer. A quick click and stays on. Click and hold to have the light go off when you release pressure.

The pressure switch uses the same quick or long, but only activates high mode.

As an off weapon light, it works well. On the weapon it works well.

For me, the big thing was learning that there is a huge difference between what I need for a weapons light and what I need for every day. This thing is too bright for most everyday uses. As a weapons light, in my environment, it is damn near perfect. The only thing that would improve it is if I could select the low mode from the pressure switch.

If you want more, they have a version with a built-in green light laser. You can mount the light and then zero the laser to the point of impact. The GL is visible in both low light situations and most bright situations. The laser can be run with the white light, by itself, or just the white light.

There is a big brother version, the Odin (vs. Odin Mini). I considered it, but I didn’t need the extra Lumens, nor did I need the laser option.

I’m currently looking at their Warrior series as a second, slightly larger, EDC light. One of the requirements is that the light must have a tail switch.

Chicago.

Because, of course, Chicago.

Shortly before 3 o'clock Monday afternoon, two men attacked and robbed another man as he walked down a Bucktown alley. It was caught on video.

(Discretion advised)#Chicago pic.twitter.com/Xl8eCuVwGf

— CWBChicago (@CWBChicago) September 26, 2023

I always keep an ear out for running.

It’s one of those habits I developed, but the sound of someone running up behind me sets off every alarm bell I’m my body.

Get tackled from behind once (school bullying incident) and your brain never forgets it.

And be armed.  Yes, a gun is probably optimal, but many people don’t want that, and there are places where that’s still not an option, so at a very minimum, pepper spray.

Shit is getting wild out there, stay safe.

In keeping with NYC v the rest of the country.

I’ve been to NYC a couple of times. My senior class went to see a Broadway play. It was something worth doing. Never again.

The Hotel we stayed in was expensive and felt cheap and run down.

The next time I had to deal with NYC was, I rode the bike up with my daughter on the back. We were looking for a particular restaurant. Early GPS days. We rode around these three blocks about a half dozen times and couldn’t find the actual street, much less the restaurant.

Finally, I spot a cop, roll up to him, and he starts screaming at me for running a stop sign.

Said stop sign was in the middle of the block. My line of sight to it was completely blocked by a box truck. The cop was still angry.

I talked my way out of the ticket and asked for directions. Cop kindly gave me directions. We thanked him and rode off.

We were following his directions when I realized they were directions to the Holland Tunnel and would take me off the island.

Turned back and finally found the place. Turned out that it was located a half block from where that cop was standing. The “road” I was looking for was actually an ally. The end of that ally was about 20 ft behind me when I stopped to speak with the cop.

We also did a ride through NYC with a large group of bikers. I just remember how freaking dirty everything was. I didn’t want to touch anything. The sidewalks were narrow in most places, broken, and full of garbage. The drivers were rude.

I have not seen the things that J.Kb. has seen, I’ve been luckier in some ways as I have been able to live rural for the last few years with no need to visit the cities.