Update: I was not clear on my emotions when I wrote this. Then I had to ask Hagar for the right words.

It is not that I feel remorse over harvesting that deer. It was done ethically. Nothing was wasted. It is that I feel the immensity of the life I took. I need to honor it.

I hope that helps clarify.

I’ve waited a bit before writing about this.

Earlier this season, I was able to harvest a deer. I’m not a great hunter, I just do my best.

The first deer I harvested was taken at about 500 yards with a 7.62×51 through a Remington 700. My hold point was about 8 inches over the deer’s spine. The round was a good shot. The deer stood there for a moment, then with the rest of its group bounded into the tree line.

I hiked out there, lugging that rifle. Three times I was about to give up when I finally spotted the blood trail. I followed it into the woods, found the deer. We used every bit of the meet of that deer.

This time was a little different. The shot was at about 50 yards. I was using a 30-30 out of a Winchester Model ’94. A 75-year-old rifle.

We talk about how a round performs into jugs of water. We talk about how rounds work in ballistic gelatin. We even use “meat targets” if we can afford them.

All of these are simulations. The only way to know is to see how it actually performs.

In this case, it performed amazingly well. The round entered between ribs a little higher than I wanted. It then traveled through the interior, tearing up everything except the meat.

The buck took one step forward and its left front leg gave out. It fell the rest of the way to the ground with a short scream. Its smarter brother had already taken off. Stopping at the 75-yard range.

By the time I got to the buck, it was dead. Almost no blood outside the body.

When I field dressed it, the main cavity was full of blood. That round did a number. One shot, one kill, about 30 seconds.

When I got to that left front shoulder, I found that the scapula(?) was cracked. I believe that is why it stumbled. No signs of bullet damage there.

The load was 160gr Hornady FTX over 33gr of LeveRevolution. DON’T USE OR TRUST MY LOAD DATA!

Bacon wrapped backstrap steak for dinner tomorrow.

I’m going to do a product review on the Weston #32 meat grinder soon. Having that tool was one of the reasons I went hunting this year.

Oh, why the wait? Because I am an ethical person. I can still close my eyes and see the sight picture, feel the recoil, hear the round going off. I can still see the ejected casing flying off to my right as a chambered the follow-up, in case it was needed. I can still hear the cry it made.

It took a while to be able to write about taking a life. We wasted nothing. The hide is going to a good home. The bones are being used by people that create things the “old ways”.

All in good fun:

The petition for writ of certiorari before judgement has been filed.

The state has until March 13, 2024, to respond. We should see a spat of the regular suspects chiming in over the next 3 weeks on why this case should not be heard by the Supreme Court.

This petition was submitted to Chief Justice Roberts.

We want to see when it is distributed to conference.

There is some interesting timing going on. Oral arguments are calendared for 2024/03/20, 7 days after the response is due.

I’m not quite sure how you can as an individual care about students, but as a group not do so. — Paul Koning

There is study of people as a group that is very successful. We know how people, in mass, will respond to different stimuli.

This is one of the reasons that mobs are so dangerous. They react as a “mob” and not as individuals.

Some of the worst mass casualty events in our recent history have come about because of mob mentality.

Look at the doors of your home, the screen door, if any, opens outward, the main door opens inward. Now look at the majority of business doors. They open outwards. This is so universal that people will insist on pulling on business doors that open inwards, even with signs.

This is because of that mob mentality. When an individual is trying to exit and needs to pull the door open, they will do so, not issues. The people behind him will give them room to do so.

In a mob event, the people in the rear will push forward, causing the people in the front to be pushed forward, making it impossible to pull the door open. This leads to crush deaths at the front. The people in the rear are then trapped.

Unions are controlled mobs. The people at the top manipulate the lower down, and they use mob manipulation to accomplish these things.

What this means, is that good teachers, and there are many of them, will sacrifice their time, their emotions, and their money to help their students. Many of those teachers purchase extra supplies for their students. Spend time out of contract hours to help students. Will invest their emotions in the success of their students.

This is the individual acting as an individual.

I listen to the complaints of teachers. One of the huge issues today is safety in the classroom. I’m not talking about “school shootings”. I am talking about out of control students.

Every year, one or more of the elementary school teachers is injured by a k-5 student seriously enough to require a trip to the hospital.

Every week, a classroom is taken over by a student and the classroom is evacuated for the safety of the other children.

Every day, there is a story of another student who is holding a class or school hostage. I’m not talking about nationwide, I’m talking about a single school.

So it was time for contract negotiations. The biggest issue I’ve heard from any teacher is classroom safety. Instead of talking about classroom safety, the union was thrilled they got another pay raise. As were the teachers.

As far as I can tell, not a single teacher has bothered to ask, much less demand, that their union work towards a safe working environment for their members.

They are afraid of “rocking the boat” or “the union can’t help”.

This is mob mentality. The union isn’t willing to do battle for the students and the safety of their members, they just want more dues, they want more money. The teachers hear they are getting another pay raise and are happy.

I despise what unions have become.

(1500 words)
Out in California, Virgina Duncan has been fighting the state and the Ninth Circuit court since 2019. Her case made it all the way to the Supreme Court, where it was Granted Certiorari, the decision of the Ninth Circuit was Vacated, and the case was Remanded (GVR).

The Ninth Circuit court then kicked the case back to the district level for more “fact finding”. The California statute was found unconstitutional, again at the district level. It was appealed to the Ninth Circuit court, where games were played.

A year and a half after Bruen Virginia is still being screwed by the state.

At the same time as the Supreme Court GVR’d Duncan v. Bonta, they also GVR’d Bianchi v. Frosh. Yes, the same day, at about the same time.

The Fourth Circuit Court took a different approach. They acted rapidly, and a three judge merits panel heard the case in December of the same year. This is amazingly fast for the appellate courts.

Then they sat on the case. For over a year, they sat there, doing nothing.

Finally, in January, we heard that the Fourth was going to hear the case en banc. Normally, the three judge merits panel would have issued their opinion.

The plaintiffs (good guys) have taken a highly unusual step. They have moved for a writ of certiorari from the Supreme Court before the appellate court issues their opinion.

Here are some highlights from the motion for writ of certiorari.
Read More

(1000 words)
As I’ve stated before, my wife is a teacher. She is absolutely spectacular at teaching.

She is not so good at understanding ramifications, potential outcomes, and intentionally setting people up for failure.

Back in 2002, she was required to be a member of the teacher’s union. At one of the regular meetings of the faculty and staff, the new government regulations were explained to them.

In particular, under the new government mandates, they could no longer hold students back, they had to be advanced. In addition, it was explained how the new regulations made it almost impossible to expel or even have out of school suspension.

There were also new requirements, from the state, requiring that all students be included. For the most part, marking the end of special education classes for students at need.

This is how it was related to me 20+ years ago, so my memory could have left some things out.

The teacher’s union was incensed that the horrible Republican Congress and President would step in where they didn’t know what they were doing and how this new mandate would destroy the education industry.

Well, they were right, in part. It destroyed our education system. The industry is doing fine.

What was the horrible, horrible legislation that brought down this new mandate from on high?
Read More

I wanted to write about something more interesting and stumbled down a rabbit hole. The interesting case is the one of Hunter v. Cortland Housing Authority.

For many years, Section 8 or Public Housing Assistance leases have included a clause in the lease agreement that obligates tenants, [n]ot to display, use, or possess or allow members of Tenant’s household or guest to display, use or possess any firearms (operable or inoperable) or other weapons as defined by the laws and courts of the State of New York anywhere on the property of CHA. — CHA’s Residential Lease Agreement.

In different words, the lease requires renters to give up their Second Amendment protected rights. The right to any arms for self-defense.

Of course, we know that the bad guys have plenty of weapons in public housing.

This particular filing is to have the case dismissed for lack of standing. The CHA claims that the federal court lacks subject matter jurisdiction.

I don’t know. I wanted to know, instead I got this:

Let’s break this down.

The plaintiffs say that their Second Amendment Rights are violated because they are not allowed to display, use, or posses arms in their homes.

In response, the state argues(?) that the plaintiffs ignore how hard it is to regulate people in public housing.

The plaintiffs assert that because they are low income, they are denied the right to possess any firearm. I read into this that the full argument is that they can’t afford to safely store firearms off the property.

The state argues that doesn’t count. They could do it, that’s all that is required.

The state filed that steaming pile on 2024/01/03. A year and a half after Bruen. 16 years after Heller. 14 years after McDonald. Yet, they believe that the plaintiffs have to prove something more than their proposed conduct is within the scope of the protections of the Second Amendment.

Is the proposed conduct within the scope of the protections of the Second Amendment?

Yes!

The burdens then shifts to the state to prove a history and tradition of analogous regulations from the time of the ratification of the Second Amendment.

It is obvious that they know this as well. The final lines, talking about how public housing is “new” so there couldn’t be any regulations in 1791, so they are allowed to infringe as much as they want.

Justice Thomas’ powerful language regarding one step too far when discussing means-end didn’t seem to register with the state when they asked the court to considering the balancing of the many interests.

The state didn’t provide a single regulation from the founding era. Not one.

Argh!!!!