There has been a recent trend of women in NYC getting randomly approached by men in broad daylight and punched in the face resulting in them getting bumps, bruising, and hematomas.

Criminals know that they'll get away with whatever they do in NYC, so they're not afraid.
Yet if… pic.twitter.com/J7Lc8bsU1Y

— Leftism (@LeftismForU) March 28, 2024

How many times has this blog covered one punch kills?

A trend of punching women in the face will result in women dying.

Eventually, a woman will be sucker punched, lose consciousness, fall, hit her head, and die.

These men need to be prosecuted for attempted murder.

Ideally, women should be able to concealed-carry in NYC, and when a dude takes a swing at her, he gets his liver ruptured with a JHP.

I have no idea how come Liberal Democrats and Media are not having attacks of agita about this bill.

HB 2854 by Hill (R)

Firearms and Ammunition – As introduced, exempts the retail sale of firearms that have a barrel less than an internal diameter of .50 caliber and shotguns of 10 gauge or greater from the sales and use tax. – Amends TCA Title 67, Chapter 6, Part 3.

So far it is advancing through the legislative hoops. There is hope.

Initial impressions:

So what is this thing? Well, it is a bearing holding a bushing with an endmill.

When we are trimming cases to length, we use what we can measure. For some cartridges, this makes sense. For others, it is nearly impossible.

Our goal is to have a cartridge correctly seated in the chamber with the bullet at the correct distance from the rifling (or just touching), and the distance from the end of the cartridge to the face of the bolt be correct.

Consider a .45 ACP round. The cartridge is designed to position itself in the chamber based on the mouth of the cartridge. When the cartridge is fully seated in the chamber, the mouth of the case will be resting against a feature in the chamber.

The overall length of the case should be such that the base of the case is at a known, correct, distance from the face of the bolt. Using the mouth of the case allows us good control of bullet to rifling distance.

30-30 Winchester, .45 Colt, .303 British, 7.62x54R all position the cartridge according to the front of the case rim.

With a rimmed cartridge, the thickness of the rim is known. This means that the distance from the base of the case to the face of the bolt is the controlled distance.

By correctly seating the bullet and by making sure that the length of the case is correct, we get control the distance the bullet is from the rifling.

In some senses, rimmed cases are the easiest to measure and keep within specifications.

More modern cartridges seat against the shoulder. This gives good control over the distance between the bullet and the rifling, and supposedly, good control of the distance between the base of the case and the face of the bolt.

The issue is that measuring from that hypothetical shoulder location to the mouth and the base is a little difficult.

We address this by “bumping the shoulder”. This is using the reloading press to reform the shoulder at the correct distance from the base of the case. At that point, trimming the case to length based on overall length should give good results.

To trim a case to length, we need to be able to repeatably cut the case to the same length. Thus, we need to have some way of making sure that the cutter is the correct distance from the base of the case.

On a case with a shoulder, we can either measure from the base of the case or from some other known location on the case.

One method used is to have a rod of known length that pokes out of the flash hole. This stop rod keeps the cutter from getting any closer to the face pressed against the base of the case.

When done correctly, this is quick, easy, and very repeatable.

The issue is that each cartridge needs its own stop rod.

Another method is when the cutter is kept from advancing beyond a known location. If I could, I would use my milling machine for this.

The cutter would spin in the spindle, when the quill is brought down it will stop when it hits the quill stop. Very fast, very repeatable.

Most of the trimming devices that have a lathe like spindle that has the cutter works this way. There is a stop collar that keeps the “spindle” from moving to far.

My issue with that style is that it is a little slower and I don’t trust the stops.

Which takes us to the last time. A trimmer that is based on the distance from a known location on the shoulder to the cutter.

Since we’ve positioned and shaped the shoulder correctly in the reloading press, measuring from the shoulder should be consistent.

This is what the UGLY SRT does.

The SRT consists of 5 major components. The first is the cutter. This is just a standard 4 flute 3/8″ endmill. The size is by a mark I eyeball, so it could be anything close.

The next component is the body. This is a simple bit of turning. It has a slip fit for the cutter at one end and is bored to size on the other end.

The cutter slips into the hole for it and is held in place by two set screws.

A baring has been pressed into place at the other end and makes the third major component.

The next major component is a simple disk with a single set screw in it. This is to allow you to adjust the depth of cut.

The final component is the collet. This slips into the bearing. It has a shoulder to press a case against.

To operate, this is simple. Chuck the endmill into a drill. When the drill is running, the endmill will turn and the housing will turn. The collet and inner race of the bearing will not rotate.

Slide a case into the collet and press it into the cutter. When it bottoms out on the shoulder in the collet, you will have cut the case to a length.

This is very consistent.

Adjusting the depth of cut is also simple.

If you want to make the depth of cut less, you make sure that the adjustment disk held in place and that it is firm against the body. You then release the endmill from the housing, slide a feeler gauge of the right size between the body and the adjustment disk. Tighten the set screws to lock the endmill/cutter in place.

Reposition the adjustment disk tight against the housing and lock it there.

This is dirt simple. It is an adjustment method that I will be using in my designs.

To cut more, loosen the adjustment disk, slip the correct feeler gauge between the body and the adjustment disk. Lock the adjustment disk in place. There is now a gap between the adjustment disk and the body. Release the endmill, push the adjustment disk against the housing, lock the endmill in place.

Everything about this is simple, well constructed. The adjustment process is different but easy.

I’ve only tested on a few cases, but I think this might be my end goal for shouldered cases.

The only downside I’ve identified, so far, is that I have to purchase different collets depending on the case I’m trimming. And I’m not sure if I’ll be able to manufacture them from the tooling I have on hand.

More to when I do my next large trim run.

A Mad Oger Bon Mott.

A PPK in .32 ACP was my first carry gun. It was the only thing I could afford when I got my permit in Venezuela and that was because it was my Dad’s and he carried maybe twice in his life before shoving it in some drawer.

Even in .32 ACP, it barks bad and if your hands are not skeletal, you will sport a slide bite more than once. The trigger is simply atrocious in double action and barely passable in single action.  But also, the principle of a bad gun is better than no gun applied: It saved my bacon more than once.

I could not bring it with me when we moved to the States and Mom gave it to a friend of ours who was a cop and could take care (or ignore altogether) the legal bullshit of the registration transfer. And other than the fact it belonged to Dad, I had very little remorse about not being able to keep it.

A buddy of mine sent me the Instagram channel of a realtor who talks about the reality of the Millenial and Gen Z financial situation.

Three videos of his really hit me hard and and explain why the last year and a half has been increasing hopelessness and depression.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Freddie Smith (@fmsmith319)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Freddie Smith (@fmsmith319)

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Freddie Smith (@fmsmith319)

I was born in 1983, so I’m an elderly Millenial, but I don’t feel like one.

Here is why.

I finished college in 2006. I didn’t like being a chemical engineer in a refinery, so I went to grad school for metallurgy. I expected to get an MS, but fell in love with my school and research, and my grad advisor became my best friend, so I just stuck around to get my PhD.

I finished school in 2012 at the age of 29.

My first job was in consulting. Wasn’t a big fan so left to work in R&D for a manufacturing company.

Iived that job. I was laid off when they declared Chapter 13 bankruptcy.

I went to a small aerospace and defense sub contractor until an election and change of presidents resulted in me losing my SBIR funding.

I went to another consulting company, and hated it. They fired me after 14 months, just before I was going to turn in my two weeks notice.

I went to work for another manufacturer in R&D, which is where I am now, and I love my job.

My living situation is horrendous.

I never expected to be a job hopper. I would have loved to stay with my last factory job until I retired, had they not gone bankrupt.

The advise about job hopping leading to raises is true, but that only works if you job hop and stay in the same house.

Unfortunately, my specialty means that every job hop requires a move.

I’ve lived in nine states in my adult life.

Since I started working, I’ve done four cross country moves, and bought and sold three houses.

Every job hop costs me easily $20,000 out of pocket. Combined with a few stints of extended unemployment between jobs and that’s lost me virtually all of my savings. Each time I bought a house, it was more expensive than the previous one.

Every job hop, despite averaging a $10,000 raise, has been a financial step backwards.

That brings me to where I am today.

My first house was a town home I paid $147,000 for with a $7,000 down payment that was a graduation present from my grandmother.

I sold that for my next house, and it got mt $20,000 on a $237,000 house.

I benefited a little grom COVID housing price increases and that got me $60,000 on a $440,000 house.

Sold that house after 14 months and got fucked. I had to rebuild the septic to sell it. Along with sime other repairs, and closing costs, I lost money and walked away with $30,000.

In New Hampshire, closing costs can’t be put into escrow.

A 3 bed/2.5 bath, 2,000 sq-ft house, for my family of four, averages $650,000.

My proceeds from my last home will only cover closing costs. I have no down payment.

I’m trying to put money away, but rent is $4,000 per month. Water is $300, electricity is $300, heating oil is $500 in winter and $300 in summer (heating oil also heats my water).

That’s $5,000 per month in rent and utilities.

I’m making $150,000 and my wife makes $70,000.  Rent and utilities is 42% of our net take home pay.

We have two kids, two car payments, a couple of credit cards, and she has student loans.

I’m scripting and saving to put away $10,000 per year.

To do a mimum 3% down is two years of savings on top of what I have just for closing.

At current interest rates and New Hampshire property takes, mortgage alone will be $5,500.

That means that means rebt and utilities will be 54% of my net pay.

With all my other bills, that’s $2,000 per month for all consumables to break even, putting nothing into savings.

I’m working hard to pay off credit cards, but that will only buy me another $700 per month.

The reality is, I cannot afford a home unless prices and interest rates come down.

If I manage to buy and be stupidly house poor, I’ll get it paid off at 72.

So already, I’m looking at still paying a mortgage long into when I should be retired.

If housing costs continue to increase faster than I can save, that keeps pushing further and further out until I will die before my house is paid off.

I’ve looked at moving to where housing is more affordable, but that puts me back into the uncertainty and cost of another job hop and cross country moves.

My current employer loves me and my boss wants me to stay and have a long career here.

So I don’t know what to fucking do.

Stay with an employer that I love and loves me, but it’s becoming crystal clear that I’ll never own a house or retire.

Or

Move again, lose the last of my savings doing that, and end up at another job that might force me to move again after that.

So what I am is a 40 year old man with two kids, making a combined income of $220,000, and the inability to be a homeowner or retire, with no light at the end of this tunnel.

The more I try and crunch the numbers, the more hopeless I become, and the depression is starting to sink in.

I never thought I’d be in this situation.

If my wife and I had our salaries now in our 2019 home, I’d be living like a fucking king.

Today, I turn the heat to 50°F and make everyone wear sweat shirts in the winter, and buy Aldi store brand groceries.

I don’t know what to fucking do.

B.L.U.F.
This case is quoted in Heller as the Court’s understanding of the meaning of “The People”. In reading the opinion, it becomes crystal clear that the Supreme Court has been using text, history, and tradition for a long time.

(2500 words)

Introduction

There are numerous terms we use to describe the courts and judges of the United States. The first term is “inferior”. This is a technical term. The Constitution establishes the Supreme Court and such inferior courts as congress might authorize.

All courts are inferior to the Supreme Court.

Below the Supreme Court are the Circuit Courts and state Supreme Courts. Under the Circuit courts are the district courts.

The states also have hierarchies of courts.

Inferior courts are supposed to follow the guidance given to them by their superiors. When they do not, they are “rogue” courts or justices.

I use the term “agenda driven” to describe those courts, judges, and justices that are so driving by their agenda that they can twist the plain text to mean whatever they want it to mean.

Listening to some questions and comments from circuit judges, it is often easy to identify those agenda-driven judges. When a judge says, “It can’t mean shall not infringe because that would mean we can’t regulate guns!”. It is pretty clear that their agenda is more important than the law.

Text, history, and tradition

Read More

Yesterday I was having lunch at the local park when I heard an amplified voice. It was a police officer using his vehicle’s P.A. system telling a gentleman that his dog (beautiful German shepherd) had to be on the leash. The guy gave a sideway glance, ignored him with a smirk on his face and kept walking toward his vehicle. The cop repeated the warning, and the now official Asshole repeated his initial reaction. It felt like “So what are you gonna do?” and he was about to find out.

The cop turned his vehicle around and parked in front of me. He got out of his car and confronted Mr. Asshole, very politely about the dog not being on a leash. Mr. “A” began to complain and even used the “I see people with unleashed dogs all the time” doubling down on the stupid attitude. The officer then asked for ID and Mr. “A” initially said he did not have ID and then thoughtfully confessed he had it in his van. After retrieving it and passing it to the cop, he kept going back and forth about other people and their dogs and assorted BS while the officer checked him out on his computer.

Since I had a better angle than Mr. Asshole, I could see the officer using his pen, figured somebody was about to get a ticket and this was about to get even funnier given the prissy attitude I have been seeing coming from the Idjit… and I was not disappointed.

Mr. Asshole was not happy about getting a ticket, and then he said something I was not expecting:

“It is because I am White and did not run, isn’t?”

Are my ear deceiving me? Is this guy actually using a Reverse Race Card like it was a game of Political Uno? Nope, he went on a tirade re-using the “other people are doing it so I should get a free pass” and the always favorite “You could have given me a warning instead” alongside with “I am going to court and fight this ticket!” and repeated the “It is because I am White and did not run” bit at least twice more and adding “If I ran away, you would have not bother chasing me and giving me a ticket” or words to that effect.

Oh yes, the officer was Black which made it even funnier and incredibly sadder for Mr. Asshole.

The cop remained at all times utterly professional in his dealings with Mr. Asshole. Bravo for him.

I believe that a simple attempt at de-escalation by Mr. Asshole, namely acknowledging the officer’s warning and making a half-hearted effort to restrain the dog would have saved him some money and aggravation. Instead, he will be at least $50 off and a lot of blood pressure up.