Gun Free Zone

Government over stepping its bounds has been of interest to me for many years. I take notice when something comes past that is especially egregious. We talk about how long we’ve been fighting for our rights, this is the story of a couple that has been fighting the EPA since 2004.

Some of this is from memory, some is prompted by some of the cited sources in this case.

In 2004, the Sacketts purchased a 1/2 acre of land near Priest Lake in Idaho. This was their dream property, they were going to build their dream home there. Thier property was set back from the lake, with a road between them and the lake.

They got all the required permits and started construction. Part of that was site preparation. This included flinging in some areas that got boggy when it rained. There was no running water from their property to the lake. There was no standing water on their property.

They got big puddles when it rained.

Along came the EPA, who told them that they needed to get a permit from the EPA because they were erasing a federally protected wetland—Oliver Milman, US supreme court shrinks clean water protections in ruling siding with Idaho couple, The Guardian (May 2023). Since they had not gotten a permit before starting the site preparation, the EPA found them in violation.

They were told to put the property back the way it was. If they did not, then they would be fined something like $10,000 per day. When they attempted to get a hearing to challenge the ruling, they were told “yes, but if you are found in violation, you will be held liable for the $10,000 per day fine.”

In other words, to challenge the ruling, the Sacketts would need to be prepared to pay all the outstanding fines.

They decided to fight this. The Pacific Legal Foundation took up their case.

Earlier this week, the Supreme Court found in their favor.

More coming tomorrow now that I have a better idea of why my citation engine is/was failing.

Meanwhile, feel free to read the article that irritated me enough to start another of my short articles on legal stuff:

US supreme court shrinks clean water protections in ruling siding with Idaho couple

Ruling by conservative-dominated court shrinks scope of landmark law to protect America’s waterways

Expert sounds the alarm after U.S. Supreme Court sides with couple wanting to build house at protected site

The decision came at a time when the Clean Water Act was being strengthened by the EPA and the Biden administration.

If I remember rightly, I bought this watch some 45 years ago. Regular wristwatch would be destroyed by my carelessness, and I got tired of replacing the crystal and the hands every few months. I saw this watch in a jewelry store and figured that keeping it in a pocket would be a safer proposition than my wrist. I forgot home much I paid for it, but it was not a cheap investment and it has shown the investment part pretty good: still runs accurately.

Now for the funny part. The concept of pocket watches in Venezuela was at best very rare and the idea of watch chains? Nonexistent.

I wanted a watch chain so the same jeweler had to create one from a section of a silver necklace and a tie clasp.  The chain is not the usual length we are used to see because my idea was to clip it to the belt and secure the watch to the jean’s 5th pocket AKA the watch pocket! I am sure for many years I was the only young feller walking around Caracas using the watch pocket as intended and not to keep some spare change or empty altogether.

Then Casio and others came along with the inexpensive, yet hardy digital watches and I transitioned to them while my faithful pocket watch went to rest safely for many years after. I had probably not used it at all in the last 20 and I was glad I did.

It is going back to the safe, but I promise to take it out for a spin once in a while. The least I could do for faithful service.

Cam Edwards covered this Monday or Tuesday of this week. The Gun Owners Action League of Massachusetts is working on an analysis of the bill. I’ve not read it, I don’t want to read it.

If you live in Massachusetts, if you travel through Massachusetts, you need to be aware of the proposed law. Once it hits the courts, I’ll look at the cases.

This is what you are supposed to do.

Would you open the door if your neighbor approached you in this manner?pic.twitter.com/wyAbNMQrcc

— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) June 27, 2023

I believe there is no scenario where opening the door would lead to a proper resolution. Neighbor Karen was looking for satisfaction, not fixing the alleged problem and that is Ego-led behavior which never ends well for somebody.
And again, get yourself at least a doorbell camera which not only can provide advanced warning, but evidence in your defense. Knowing what’s outside your perimeter is as important as noy breaking it.

According to my sources, “Dude” is non-gendered, so according to my sources this is not a sexist rant.

I’m an old fart. I do “dude stuff”. I’m no longer shocked when other people can do the same things I can do, but I do have certain expectations, and I’m continuously let down.

“Dude Stuff” is when the boss comes over to you and asks “Can you open this?” and shoves a taped up package at you. You are the dude, so you flick your wrist and a 3.49in blade pops open for you to cut the tape. The boss looks in shock at the “huge knife” and tries to figure out where it came from, so fast.

“Dude Stuff” is your daughter coming to you with a necklace, hopelessly tangled and twisted, knowing that the dude in her life will just fix it. And you do.

“Dude Stuff” is the dishwasher that is getting water flowing back into it from the sink. Knowing that there should be a check valve or something else to keep that from happening. Seeing the water flow into the dishwasher sump when a pot is emptied into the sink, but not when water is just running.

Oh, the discharge hose needs a blight ABOVE the outlet to keep the bad water from flowing downhill into the dishwasher.

“Dude Stuff” is going out to do a safety inspection on the roof rack that your child just installed and instantly seeing that the cross bolts aren’t tightened, looking for why they came from the factory like that, and knowing that the rack needs to be adjusted for size and knowing how to do that.

“Dude Stuff” means you get handed the Fitbit to change the band because they “couldn’t figure out how”.

All of these and 1000s more are “dude stuff”. It is that ability to look at something and know what should be done next. Or to know how to figure it out.

I was speaking with Hagar, and we were talking about the rape statistics in this country. This is something we’ve talked about before.

As I see it, there are three or four different types of rapists out there. The first is the “accidental” rapist. These are the situations where a man and a woman are interacting, and the situation is such that she only decides it was rape the next day. Those situations where she is a little too drunk to consent. It is the situation where she thought she was saying “no” and he didn’t hear “no” but “I’m not on any birth control.” He takes out his condom and thinks it is ok to proceed, while she doesn’t actually say anything, he should have just known.

Hagar inserts the “Yesterday it was ok, today it is rape” situation. Those situations where one of the two had a birthday and turned 18. They do the same thing after his birthday as they were doing before and suddenly, he’s guilty of statutory rape.

The next situation is what I call “One and done.” It is rape. The rapist should be caught and, when found guilty, properly punished. This is a horrific crime and should be treated as such. The difference is that after that one time, the rapist never rapes again. One rapist, one victim.

The final group is what I call “serial rapists”. These are the monsters that have raped somebody, decided they liked it and then rape more. One rapist, multiple victims.

It is my unfounded belief that these serial rapists are what account for the majority of victims.

It is no less horrific if a rapist only has one victim one time, or one victim multiple times, it is a crime for which proper punishment should be given.

These are the monsters that haunt people’s nightmares.

In a bar, a woman is speaking with her friends. A man walks up and quietly asks if he can buy her a drink. She looks him up and down and tells him to get lost. He leaves, rejected.

Shortly after, another man walks up. He’s carrying a drink for her. He hands it to her and talks her up. He doesn’t really take her simple brush-offs. She has a short relationship with him. Maybe as short as the one night.

She gets bitter and posts to social media about how all men are just creeps. How all they are interested in is her body, and she’s never found a man who wasn’t shallow and crass.

She’ll never find a good dude because it is the man who takes “no” for an answer and leaves that is much more likely to be the good man she is looking for rather than the one that held his ground.

The men and women of today are not going through the same dance as 50 years ago. What they are looking for is different from their parents. YOLO is something that happened in the past, but it was the unusual, not a life philosophy.

We aren’t bringing up our children to be able to do “Dude Stuff”. We are lucky if they can tie their own shoes. Not a joke. My grandson is likely to never have to tie his shoes. Even the shoes he has with laces are really Velcro.

Somewhere our society lost something small yet important. How to do “Dude Stuff”.

‘Brilliant’ cardiothoracic surgeon and father-of-two, 56, dies two weeks after he was knocked to the ground in Brooklyn road rage brawl

A ‘brilliant’ cardiothoracic surgeon has died two weeks after he was knocked down to the ground in a brutal road rage attack in Brooklyn.

Dr. Jaime Yun, 56, a beloved married father of two, died on June 16 from a traumatic brain injury he sustained due to a violent brawl that took place on June 8 just miles away from the hospital where he worked.

Yun, a respected and gifted surgeon, was in his vehicle around 11:30am at the corner of Schenectady and East New York Avenue in Crown Heights, when a verbal dispute took place between him and motorist Dexter Alexander, 31.

According to police, Yun hit the side-view mirror of Alexander’s vehicle with a stick, and that is when Alexander reportedly punched Yun in the face causing him to hit the pavement, Daily News reported.

When medics arrived they found Yun on the ground with a massive head injury. They transported him to King County Hospital where he was initially expected to survive until his health grew more dire and he died days later.

This fits the pattern I keep pointing out in other one punch kills.

The victim gets punched in the head, not expecting it, and generally not ready or knowledgeable about how to take a punch.

The victim loses consciousness and topples over, hitting the hard ground with their head.

The secondary impact causes a traumatic brain injury thar leads to swelling and death.  Sometimes days or even weeks later.

This is a horrific way to die.

There are few critical lessons here.

Just because someone is unarmed, doesn’t mean they are not dangerous or their attack isn’t potentially fatal.

Distance is your friend, especially with an unarmed aggressor.  Keeping out of sucker punch reach during an argument is a good idea.  Even if they attack, you will have warning time to react.

Lastly, in a road rage incident, don’t get out of your vehicle. This is probably rule number one we discuss all the time on this blog, don’t breach your own permiter.  You’re safer in your car.  If the other asshole is attacking your car, call the cops, record it, but don’t get out of your metal and safety glass box.  Let your car take the damage, it’s better than your head taking the damage.

Avoid taking a punch to the head.  They can be fatal.

H/T Scrappycrow

Guy beats young girl and tries to rape her. Men chase him away, catch him, and tie him to a post. Revenge ensues. https://t.co/BX3Bg6SG0T

— Brosa Parks (@Parabellum2021) June 27, 2023

I fully endorse tying attempted rapists to light poles and beating them like piñatas that give out blood and teeth as prizes.