I agree with the title “Reaffirming the State of Israel’s Right to Exist” and much of the language, but I’m voting No on the resolution because it equates anti-Zionism with antisemitism. Antisemitism is deplorable, but expanding it to include criticism of Israel is not helpful. pic.twitter.com/YWBDKDCGZB

— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) November 29, 2023

Once again, Massie is the only Republican to vote with the Squad 100% of the time on the topic of Israel.

His excuses are becoming more bullshit at each iteration.

Nothing in this billsays disagreement with the Israeli government is antisemitism.

It affirms that denying Isreal’s right to exist is antisemitism.

Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action. Six times isn’t Libertarian principles, it’s Jew-hatred.

I’m getting really fucking tired of his shtick where he votes no on something that takes a moral stance and costs no money, and then acts like he’s smarter and more principled than everyone else because he’s above the fray.

It’s peak Libertarian bullshit.

This!

OldNFO added this as a comment on one of my posts.

It used to be said that what separates us from the animals is our ability to use tools. They no longer say that, as there are some animals that do use tools, it is still a good differentiator.

It is all well and good to have a tool, but if you don’t know how to use it, it is just about worthless.

My mother gave me a reproduction “coffee grinder” many years ago. It was based on a brass coffee grinder from the area of Turkey. It is a brass cylinder about 10 inches tall, 2 inches in diameter. There is a crank on the top with a grind adjustment nut.

The reason it is a reproduction is that they didn’t have coffee bean burrs but instead pepper burrs. At the time, most people either had expensive coffee grinders or electric grinders. Almost nobody was grinding coffee manually.

On the other hand, it was, and is, a beautiful pepper grinder. For the last 20 years ago, it was forced into service as a coffee grinder. About 15 years ago, it was taken out of service because we had some superb manual coffee grinders.

All of which takes us to Thanksgiving. I make a wild rice, sausage, and Cognac soaked raisin dressing. It needed some pepper. We have a nice pepper grinder for the table, but it is slow to use. I had cleaned the “coffee grinder” a year or so ago.

It was time to put the tool back in production. I did, it worked perfectly. The family was informed that it was ready to use.

The next day, my wife went to make breakfast and grabbed the “pepper grinder” and cranked. The pepper doesn’t come out because there is a catch cup in place.

She can’t figure out how to take the catch cup off. She ends up using the black pepper from a can.

She didn’t know how to use the tool.

I’m willing to bet that each and every one of us have tools we don’t know how to use. There is only one way to know that you know how to use a tool. That is, to use it for the purpose for which it is intended.

I have a suture kit. I don’t know how to use. I could learn. That tool isn’t for me, it is for properly trained medical personnel that don’t have gear.

There is a MIG wielder in the shop, as AvE says, “a grinder and paint makes me the wielder I ain’t”. I should run beads for a few hours, but I never take the time to do so.

I have an internal threading tool I’ve never used. I really should, just to prove to myself I can cut internal threads.

Please take the time to put some tool you own that you don’t know how to use (well enough) in the comments. Maybe take a moment to decide to learn how to use some tool.

It is always better to know how to use something and not need to do so, than to need to know how to do something and having to learn when time is tight/short.

This website, Oct7th.org has posted almost 200 videos from Israel of the aftermath of the October 7th massacre in Israel.

The videos are, I believe, worse than even the images after September 11th.

After 9/11, there was lots of rubble and ash.  After 10/7, the killing was so intimate you can see the conditions of the bodies.

These videos make absolutely clear the enormity of the atrocities committed by Hamas.

I personally believe that every Leftist who has been siding with Hamas should be strapped down like Alex in A Clockwork Orange and forced to watch these on a loop until they repent or die.

Gaza should be fire bombed until there is nothing left but ash.

The Jew hunts are beginning.

Teacher forced to hide in a locked room while a mob of students riot after they learned she attended a pro-Israel rally. This happened at a high school in Queens, NY. pic.twitter.com/BtGrQoup0S

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) November 26, 2023

The NY Post covered the story.

Pro-Israel teacher hides in Queens high school as ‘radicalized’ students riot: ‘They want her fired

Hundreds of “radicalized” kids rampaged through the halls of a Queens high school this week for nearly two hours after they discovered a teacher had attended a pro-Israel rally — forcing the terrified educator to hide in a locked office as the teen mob tried to push its way into her classroom, The Post has learned.

The mayhem at Hillcrest High School in Jamaica unfolded shortly after 11 a.m. Monday in what students called a pre-planned protest over the teacher’s Facebook profile photo showing her at a pro-Israel rally on Queens Oct. 9 holding a poster saying, “I stand with Israel.”

“The teacher was seen holding a sign of Israel, like supporting it,” a senior told The Post this week.

“A bunch of kids decided to make a group chat, expose her, talk about it, and then talk about starting a riot.”

Hundreds of kids flooded into hallways and ran amok, chanting, jumping, shouting, and waving Palestinian flags or banners.

Students recorded the commotion, posting multiple videos, some set to pulsing Arabian music, on TikTok.

Most comments posted on the videos applauded the kids and jeered the teacher, one calling her a “cracker ass bitch.”

Racist calls, violence, property destruction, as they hunt for the one Jewish teacher who had the audacity to support Israel.

This wasn’t the only case in New York City.

The pro-Hamas mob smashed the window of a New York kosher restaurant. Because, you know, terrorizing Jews in America will #FreePalestine. pic.twitter.com/WUEDQsgTVg

— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) November 26, 2023

Smashing the windows of Jewish businesses.

These people are near or at voting age.

They will soon start to acquire political power.

Jew hunts and the destruction of Jewish property is how it started in Germany too.

This is a low key kristallnacht, and since the Democrats in power are overwhelmingly tolerant of this, or even support it, it will increase.

I was warned by elderly Jews that we shouldn’t get complacent. A Holocaust could happen here.

Every day it seems more likely that it will happen here.

This is why I am a gun owner.

This is from January 1994.

From what little I gathered, in most cases is somebody who knows the place beforehand (worked there/knows friend or has relative, etc.) and that means they do not want witnesses left alive.

Here is another excerpt from the article:

There is no doubt that having a gun to defend yourself increases the odds of survival, especially if the bad guy does not know you have one (Hint: Nobody at work needs to know), but that does not mean you should surrender your life without a determined resistance. Yes, you may get shot, but it may not be the pop in the head he wants, and you may have a chance to survive.

Submission means an almost guaranteed death.

Before I was as political as I currently am, I didn’t really care which dancing monkey was performing. I only cared that their dance was good.

In 1994, a movie came out that I took my kids to see. It was fun, it was funny. And there was this club scene… Oh my goodness.

The lead character jumps up on stage and gets the band to play swing. I think this was the first time I heard swing. Or at least recognized it as such.

Here is a good rendition of it, without leading back to the dancing monkey who really needs to keep his mouth shut when not dancing and his ass in Canada.

I got done with my 8mmx57 Mauser reloads yesterday. Moving on to 5.56×45 NATO today. There were over 500 clean cases in the “cleaned 5.56 brass” can.

All of it needed to be sized and checked for max case length. The 10th case squeaked when it went in. It didn’t come out, instead the rim ripped right off. DAMN!!!

I’ve been to this rodeo before. It is not fun. The last time I had to do this, I ended up driving the case out with a custom-built drive rod. And then chucking up the case in the lathe to cut the case and extract the resizing rod.

It was a pain in the ass. Something I would rather not do again.

I remembered that there is a case extraction tool you can buy that drills out the primer pocket, threads it and then pulls the case out with a bolt.

Well, I’ve got a lathe, I’ve got tools, I can do this.

First, I figured out a size to use. I picked 1/4″ 20. I really should have gone with 1/4 28, but I didn’t check my part drawer for 1/4″ 28 bolts/screws, so I went with 20 TPI.

I didn’t worry about “perfect”, just chucked up a number 7 drill and used my hand drill. I have complete sets of drills. 1/64 through 1/2″, #1 through whatever, and a-z, plus metric. Machine shop stuff. I have the taps.

No problems drilling and tapping. I screw the cap screw into the case, and then what? I look at levering it out with the claw on a hammer. That doesn’t seem to be a good idea.

Machine shop! I walk over to the lathe and in the junk cutoffs is a slug of aluminum. I drilled a 1/4″ clearance hole completely through. Then I drilled a 1/2″ hole, about 3/4″ deep. 1/2″ is big enough to handle the 5.56 brass. If I need a larger hole for other brass, I’ll either make a different tool or I’ll just make this hole larger.

Back to the vice with the copper jaws, which has a good grip on the die. The slug is too long. Back to the lathe and I face off about 1/4″. Back to the vice.

I screw the cap head bolt in, and it easily pulls that case out of the die. And then stops. With the case lose in the die it just spins instead of being pulled out.

Take the slug/spacer off, screw the decapping pin back in all the way, then slowly screw the cap head back in. Out pops the casing.

With only a $1 worth of scrap aluminum, I was able to make my own brass extractor tool!

Tools used: 12″x5′ South Bend Lathe, $1500, Quick Change tool post, $250, QC toolholder, $75. Toolholder, $75, insert $20. #7 drill, 1/4 drill, and 1/2in drill, about $10 total. Hand drill, $75. 1/4″ 20 plug tap, $15. Starrett tap handle $100.

This proves to my wife that all of those “expenses” to save $27.79.

Machine shop for the win!