This weekend, I’m going to be looking at the filings for cert. I’ve listened to a couple of reports talking about how powerful these petitions are. It should be good.

We have a guest post happening. If you submit an article in LibreOffice or google doc format, and it is fitting for the blog, we’ll likely post it. You can submit your articles to gunfreezone@troglodite.com

Back links will be evaluated on an individual basis.

Have a great weekend!

Please let us know what you are interested in, in the comments.

I came across a true stunner of an opinion written today. One so chock full of ignorance, self loathing, and antisemitism, it was a masterpiece in moral depravity.

It comes from none other than Ryan Deitsch.

From Parkland to Palestine: Jewish American Gun Violence Survivor Demands No More Munitions To Israel #CeasefireNOW

So right off the bat, he’s trying to use his victim status as a survivor of the Parkland shooting to browbeat Israel.

You know it’s going to be bad.

Six years ago today, tragedy struck my hometown of Parkland in the form of a neo-nazi 19-year-old who shot up my high school, Marjory Stoneman Douglas. The shooter deliberately targeted students and faculty in and around our Holocaust Studies program; killing 14 students and 3 staff, all friends and loved ones of our community.

It is factual that Nikolas Cruz had a history of making racist and antisemitic statements, his motives never appeared politically. He was obsessed with other mass shooters, had a history of other behavioral issues, and was most likely a fucking psychopath attracted to other afwul people.

In the aftermath, my friends and I responded by popularizing a hashtag “#NeverAgain” to raise awareness of shootings and hopefully bring an end to this violence.

This is grotesquely offensive. They deliberately appropriated a phrase popularized to combat genocidal antisemitism for gun control.

As a gun owning Jew, who quite purposefully owns guns to defend myself against violent antisemites, I hated this.

Among our many supporters, those connected to Israeli society were sympathetic towards us; providing Israeli trauma specialists to train counselors in Parkland, covering our community in the press, even going so far to join in our protest “The March For Our Lives.” That March 2018 rally in Tel Aviv saw speakers emphasize the need for people, especially children, to not experience the horrors of gun violence.

These last several months, Israel has been waging all out war against the Palestinian people of Gaza and the West Bank. As of this writing, Israel has reportedly killed, among others, +12,300 children. Despite the killings in Gaza by Israelis dating back long before last October, the United States government and many in the political class remain committed to openly endorsing this genocide.

There is do much to deal with in this paragraph.

First of all, is the glaring lack of mention of the 10/7 Attack. As though Israel decided to wage war on Gaza for no reason.

Second, there is no genocide on Palestinians. That’s not the stated intent of Israel, unlike Hamas, which has stated its intent is to wipe out the Jews. Also, Israel tries to remove civilians from harm’s way, even when that increases the risk to Israeli soldiers.

Third, he just acceptes Hamas casualty numbers, without ever questioning if they are accurate or anti-Israel propaganda.

When kids were killed in Parkland, every major news network (both U.S. and international) sent reporters on the ground. When kids are killed in Palestine, journalists are killed alongside them. 110+ journalists have been murdered by Israeli forces using U.S. made weapons. Most of these journalists weren’t in the field as most would assume. They were targeted and killed in their homes. U.S. news outlet CNN has to be approved by the IDF before sharing reports from Gaza.

Most of the “journalists” killed are Hamas terrorists. Mohammed Wishah was a journalist for Al Jazeera and a Hamas commander, for example.

He’s defending Hamas terrorists with Hamas propaganda.

To those people who stand against gun violence in Parkland but not in Palestine, hypocrite is too weak a descriptor. People like my representative, Jared Moskowitz, has been an ardent vocal supporter of Israel’s war that has killed dozens of academics and destroyed every university in Gaza; while simultaneously touring officials around the MSD shooting crime scene. Moskowitz, who endorses collective punishment of Palestinians, has previously said in an official statement:

The “gun violence” was the 10/7 attack on civilians by Hamas and Gazans.

What Israel is doing is a war to destroy a terrorist army that attack it.

Those are different. To conflate the two is moral depravity.

The Parkland shooting shows that U.S. militarism abroad comes home to roost in the form of our domestic gun violence epidemic. The AR-15, a weapon used by many killers and few sportsmen, was illegal for civilian use when the shooter was born because of the assault weapons ban of 1994, which expired in 2004. This expiration was permitted by a Senate waging expensive forever wars in the Middle East, the “War on Terror”, resulting in investments like expanding the 1033 program, which grants surplus military weaponry to domestic police forces.

This is literally nonsense. US military deployment overseas and US foreign policy had nothing to do with a psychopath killing kids in a high school. Nikolas Cruz didn’t bet his gun through the 1033 program, so what’s the point of mentioning that.

Weapons of war have flooded our communities, in the hands of unaccountable cops and private citizens. The ease of access to weapons increases the mortality rate of most violent crimes. At this rate U.S. law enforcement have become more brutal and better equipped than many foreign militaries.

No.

I’ve covered a lot of bad cop shoots on this blog. Even then, no, our police are neither more brutal or better armed than foreign militaries.

In all of these years on my healing journey, I learned painfully well that the violence many experience today is not only preventable, but is manufactured. During the Parkland shooting, the sheriffs office not only failed to stop the shooter (he was stopped by his swastika-laden gun jamming) they also prevented emergency health technicians from entering the building, costing several lives that could’ve been saved.

The Broward County Sheriff’s Office is a bunch of gutless, dickless, feckless, yellow-bellied cowards, who violated SOP for an active shooter. That is correct.

Not only did the Israeli forces do the same thing on October 7th, they also shot, bombed and killed many Israelis.

There were a few, tragic, friendly fire incidents, in the heat of battle, where the IDF did misidentify targets and accidentally kill Isrealis.

The IDF did not bomb the Nova music festival or deliberately kill Israeli civilians. That is an antisemitic conspiracy theory cooked up by Palestinian and neo-Nazi conspiracy theorists who want to deny the horrors of the 10/7 attack.

And he buys it.

As a Jew growing up in Zionist spaces, I was taught the Talmudic phrase “To save a life is to save the world entire”: that each individual contributes to the whole that is humanity. Why, I ask why, are so many who stood with us not only okay with, but are actively cheering on the U.S.- backed death squads in Rafah, Gaza’s supposed safe zone.

There are no Israeli death squads in Rafah, or anywhere else. The IDF did rescue two hostages that Hamas had taken into hiding in Rafah.

Zionists who use Hamas as an excuse to justify carpet bombing Palestinian communities are the same political actors who use shootings like Parkland to justify our ballooning police and military budgets.

There is no carpet bombing of Gaza. Carpet bombing actually means something. Huge waves of bombers blasting an area flat, like how we bombed Berlin in WWII, that’s carpet bombing. Israel isn’t doing that. That is a Hamas lie.

Supporting Israel’s expanding war makes us all less safe.

How?

This is the disgusting trope of blaming Israeli actions for antisemitism. I.e., “Jews are hated because of what Israel is doing. If Israel stopped doing that, people wouldn’t hate the Jews.”

We are more safe because Israel is killing terrorists.

If we want children to not die brutally, regardless of nation, then we must stand against the killers of our youth and their benefactors. The genocide of Palestinians, just like mass shootings in the US, continue to occur because of this poverty of political consciousness on the front of those who claim to care about children in one place and not another.

There is no genocide of Palestinians.

Demanding a ceasefire is to reward Hamas for using the tactic of hiding behind children.

This must be why Ryan likes Hamas. He and his Parkland cohorts (David Hogg, especially) like to hide behind children, ideologically, when making their absurd attacks on law abiding gun owners. For instance, when Hogg said Republicans had blood on their hands and faces, then said he couldn’t be criticized because he is a just a high school student and it was unfair for adult politicians to push back against him.

I draw no line at borders when it comes to the protection of human life – nor should you. If you reject kids dying in Parkland, you should also reject kids dying in Palestine. If you demand safety and security for one group but not another, you aren’t a humanitarian, you are a hypocrite who only believes some deserve safety.

Do Jewish kids get to be safe from Hamas?

No, of course not. Jews get to die as good victims.

For those like myself who fight for freedom and liberation for all, we must be honest that if every Israeli captive was freed today that would not end their military occupation and ethnic cleansing of Palestine. 

Actually, Hamas turning over all the hostages would be a major step in ending this. Also, there is no ethnic cleansing in Gaza. This is antisemitic propaganda from Hamas.

I stand with those calling for the ~100 Israelis still captive in Gaza to return home as well as the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners Israeli holds, many of which continue to be held without charge.

Return the Israelis.

The “Palestine political prisoners” are terrorists. Again, wirds have meaning. They weren’t arrested for publishing an op-ed. They provided material support to terrorists or tried to murder Israelis.

I join the majority of the world’s nations in demanding Israel commit to a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and demand the United States cease providing munitions to Israel in direct violation of U.S. and international law.

No.

This asajew has parroted Hamas and neo-Nazi talking points, spread antisemitic lies about Israel, and utterly ignored the 10/7 attack, and then tries to conflate the psychopathic Maas shooting in Parkland with a war of self defense against a terrorist state.

This is some of the most morally depraved bit of garbage I have read online.

I saw Lenard’s post Best Pocket Tool, and thought I’d put in my opinion.

I’m a dedicated Victorinox Super Tinker or Deluxe Tinker guy. My most used tool is actually the scissors, so that is a must for me.

I work in an office and find Leatherman tools to be too big and bulky to ride in a pocket. If I’m carrying a Leatherman, it’s in a belt sheath on a sturdy jeans belt. I wanted to like the K2, but for a $100 knive, I wanted a better quality of blade steel.

What I have come to carry most of the time is a utility blade multi-tool.

There are a number on the market grom high end EDC makers, but I can’t justify the price.

My go-to are the Outdoor Edge Slidewinder and the Milwaukee Fastback.

Both have a utility blade, flat head, philips head, and bottle opener.

As you can see, the Slidewinder is tiny, it would make a good money clip (both have pocket clips).

Even if I’m carrying a larger knife, like a Spyderco, I’ll carry the Slidewinder because it’s nice to not worry about dulling an edge cutting open cardboard boxes and Amazon packages.

The Fastback is more of s traditional utility knife. It fits a double ended 1/4 inch driver bit, which is easily replaced at and hardware store. It also carries a spare blade.

The only downside to the Slidewinder is that changing the blade requires a T6 Torx. But it makes up for it in convenient size.

One other tool I’ve come to like is the Havalon Evolve multi-tool.

Its about the size of the Leatherman Skeketool, but I like it more.

It uses replaceable scaple blades, like other Havalon knives.

It also uses 1/4 inch standard bits, and carries a flat and philips on board.

As a tool designed for hunters, it has a skinning hook. I’m not a hunter, so I modified my tool my creating a tungsten carbide tip glass breaker that fits into the 1/4 inch driver socket. The skinning hook also makes a great seat belt cutter, so combined with the glass breaker, I turned ot into a self rescue tool.

The blade exchange works well.

Since the scaple blades and factory Leatherman blades are both 420 stainless, I’d rather just toss a replacement blade instead of sharpening a mediocre steel blade.

This is what I tend to carry, to each his own.

TL;DR A verbose and not especially eloquent but assuredly boring read about my iterative process to find the best pocket tool for EDC. There’s a few pics and lots of links too. 7118 words.

(Part 1: 3000 Words)

I have been on an eternal quest to find the best EDC tool(s) to supplement the typical knife, flashlight, pen, etcetera that fit my specific requirements. For our purposes here, EDC means what is carried on my person and in my pockets, on my belt, in my boot etc. Effectively, it is affixed to me in some way. Supplementing the pocket knife with crap I keep in my bag is very easy, supplementing it with only what’s in my pockets is tough! This search also must be considerate of my carry choices and methods with carry being either strong side or appendix, with speed loaders or a magazine in the pocket. So pocket space is a premium!

Requirement wise, I’m an IT guy, well THE IT guy, who works in a manufacturing company. While I do make my way into the shop when needed, I’m primarily in the office, and I don’t find myself doing as much field surgery these days in the office or shop. That said, it is quite aggravating to find myself at the furthest end of the building from my office, only to discover I need a screwdriver or Torx driver of some specific size and that no one in the machine shop I work in seems to possess such a tool but me. I also occasionally find myself doing some minor spelunking in the walls and ceilings to pull and mend cables, and there is the infrequent surface mount box or receptacle I have to open up. A screwdriver is also of course handy for rack mounted items. Considerations for this EDC outside of work are moot. If I’m doing real work on something that requires real tools, I’m not going to waste time and aggravate myself with pocket tools. I have sets of real tools for this purpose, and if it can break and fuck up my day, then I won’t leave home without the means to repair whatever “it” is. For me, the EDC that fits work requirements is sufficient for play requirements.

The conclusion is that in addition to the knife, flashlight, pen, etcetera, I would like to have a couple of other tools in my pocket with me all the time to save myself a long walk back to my office or from doing a tool scavenger hunt. The screwdriver is the most used tool after the actual knife, or maybe even before, and so my initial requirements developed as follows:

1. Must have at least a Phillips screwdriver. Multiple sizes are better.

2. Must have at least one flat head screwdriver. Multiple sizes are a bonus.

3. Must fit in my pocket, be compact, not be obstructive, and work with gun carry options.

4. Any additional tools, farkles, and greebles I can fit in the required form factor is a bonus.

These requirements in mind, I came to the following ways to meet these requirements. A bit of testing and experimenting with each category would eventually yield what I have settled on today.

• A multi-tool/Leatherman/Swiss Army Knife of some sort. One thing to do the knifing and tooling in one package.

• A custom made kit built of the tools I want/need to fit the size I want.

• A purpose built tool to meet my requirements.

Read More

Pickleball is millennial badminton.

This is Scotland in 2024, because Europe is going back to its Jew-Hating roots.

At a rally in Edinburgh, a @PoliceScotland officer asked a Jewish bystander to hide his Star of David, to avoid “triggering” the protesters.

The police officer is clearly worried that he and his colleagues are heavily outnumbered and that these protesters could pose a threat to… pic.twitter.com/kI8As7KNCm

— Campaign Against Antisemitism (@antisemitism) February 14, 2024

Fuck that noise.

I’m an American.

If some cop told me to hide my Jewish star to keep from triggering antiseimtes, I swear to everything good and holy, I’m to strap up like Noah MacManus, put on a Magen David the size of Flavor Flav’s fucking clock, and strut around like the Homecoming game winning QB who just fucked the prom queen.

What happens happens. They can fucking try me.

It is always weird when you have something that you can’t find online anymore.

Years ago, when we owned a small hobby farm, we used to have “sausage making day”. About once per year we would, as a family, gather to make sausage. One of our lodgers owned a powered meat grinder. We would spend the day grinding meat and making sausage.

I do not remember what make or model it was. I just knew that people complained about the motor overheating and other issues.

Fast-forward, we want to make ground meat and sausage again, but we don’t have a grinder. I set my lady to looking for a manual meat grinder. She located a Weston #32.

As far as I can tell, meat grinders are sized by that number. #32 is the larger size. Today, #32 are professional sized electric grinders. The sort of thing which will grind an entire cow in a single session.

The thing is, I think that this darn manual mill could do an entire cow in a few hours also.

It is constructed of two large iron castings. The body and the augur. The body doesn’t seem to have much in the way of machining. The drive end of the augur takes a plastic bushing to center the augur, the front might have been machined round to take the grate.

The augur is drilled and tapped at both ends. The cutter end having been faced as well.

All in all, a low cost of production. Castings are generally fairly low cost. The amount of machining is low.

The one issue I have with ours is that the feet are not on the same plane. I could take it to the shop and cut the legs level, but it isn’t worth the effort.

Currently, we just clamp it to the counter top with C-Clamps.

How well does it work? Very well.

One of the first things I learned is that the retaining ring must be on tight. And you will have to tighten the ring a few times as you use the tool.

The last thing I learned is that I should remove the cutters and grate between passes, as there will be product that gets caught in the cutter.

The second thing I learned was that you don’t really want or need to fill the hopper. Just add enough so that the augur is barely covered, add more as the augur is exposed.

We did a 75% venison to 25% beef fat mix. It was still leaner than the 85% ground beef we get from the store.

It just feed through. There were no difficulties. It took us about 30 minutes to process about 10 pounds total.

We ran the entire batch through a total of three times. The first were one-inch cubes. We mixed the result manually and feed it through a second time, only for mixing purposes. Then we mixed manually a second time and feed it through for the last time.

Everything was then packaged in one-pound packages and frozen.

The only issue we’ve had is that the plastic pushing had a thrust bushing. That was broken before we got it. I will have to machine a replacement.

At this point, we are looking at making ground beef. It isn’t much more work, and I believe we will get superior results.

We are just looking for some cheap beef to come on sale.

Furthermore, We are looking at sausage making, again. We just haven’t gotten there yet.