Dean Weingarten has a good find at Ammoland.
Judge Eduardo Ramos, the U.S. District Judge for the Southern District of New York, has issued an Opinion & Order that a ban on stun guns is constitutional. A New York State law prohibits the private possession of stun guns and tasers; a New York City law prohibits the possession and selling of stun guns. Judge Ramos has ruled these laws do not infringe on rights protected by the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution.
Let's briefly…… [read more]
The coronavirus’ particle has a diameter of about 0.125 micron, he said, pointing to recent studies. HEPA filters are designed to filter particles that are 0.01 micron and above, Cuomo said, a figure he based on a previous NASA study on HEPA filtration.
Oh dear. It’s really a shame when non-STEM people try to do STEM without one iota of training or education. The problem with this is that none of it is true, at least, not exactly.
To rehearse what we’ve discussed before, while he has his sources that the virus is 125 nm in diameter, there are other sources that put it at around 80 nm in diameter. Furthermore, when he says that HEPA filters remove particles down to 0.01 µm in size, he’s referencing a NASA study of HEPA filters that essentially aren’t in use anywhere but space vehicles. Without observing the testing and performing my own independent analysis of the data, I question the study, but let’s move ahead anyway.
Most of the HEPA filters available for industrial use are nuclear grade HEPA filters, which remove particles to 0.3 µm in size. This means that a SARS-CoV-2 virus is 80E-9 / 0.3E-6 = 0.27 the minimum size necessary for even the most expensive nuclear grade HEPA filters to remove it from an air stream.
Furthermore, these systems are extremely expensive to design, build, maintain, flow balance and test. The filter housing themselves must be sealed and tested, the HEPA filters must be disposed of as hazardous material, the HEPA filters must be procured (there is a marginal market for that since these systems are only used in biological labs and nuclear power plants). A TAB (testing and balancing) engineer must test them and flow balance them, and the fans are powerful compared to normal use industrial fans since the ΔP is much higher across these filter trains than an ordinary industrial grade filter system.
The testing involves injection of DOP (Dioctyl Phthalate) to test penetration of fine particles through potential tears in the filter media and especially bypass around the filters themselves due to lack of proper sealing against the frame of the filter housing. The testing engineers for this sort of thing reside in one place, i.e., commercial nuclear reactors and utilities which run them.
I could go on about this, but it’s embarrassing to folks who know nothing about STEM to weigh in like this on subjects way above their head. I’ve done air filtration engineering, TAB and testing of penetration before. I know these things by education, training and experience.
The governor is essentially telling businesses in his neck of the woods that they must go out of business. That is the only alternative. No store or mall will be able to afford something like this, or the highly paid personnel to install it, test it, monitor it and equip it. Finally, these systems, if installed, wouldn’t create a virus-free environment anyway. It doesn’t work that way. A virus is like any other contaminant, which means that buildup and depletion of contaminants (based on a production term and loss constant) would be modeled with an ODE (ordinary differential equation).
The point is that the concentration of a contaminant can be reduced based on the terms, but not made to go away. Belief in risk free living based on science is belief in a myth. But someone who was studied in STEM would already know this. Only non-STEM people believe that science can work magic for free.
By now every one has seen the viral video pictures and discussion about Mr. Mark McCloskey and his wife outside having to defend home and hearth with firearms. What happened leading up to this is very important.
… [A]s soon as I said this is private property, those words enraged the crowd. Horde, absolute horde came through the now smashed down gates coming right at the house. My house, my east patio was 40 feet from Portland Place Drive. And these people were right up in my face, scared to death. And then, I stood out there. The only thing we said is this is private property. Go back. Private property. Leave now.
At that point, everybody got enraged. There were people wearing body armor. One person pulled out some loaded pistol magazine and clicked them together and said that you were next. We were threatened with our lives, threatened with a house being burned down, my office building being burned down, even our dog’s life being threatened. It was, it was about as bad as it can get. I mean, those you know, I really thought it was Storming the Bastille that we would be dead and the house would be burned and there was nothing we could do about it. It was a huge and frightening crowd. And they were they broken the gate were coming at us.
The man in the picture above is trespassing, and if he threatened Mr. McCloskey, he deserved to be shot until dead. One must take seriously verbal threats, especially if the one threatening has already trespassed on to private property.
This is called self defense, and it’s covered in the commandments of the Almighty. It’s not only a right, but a duty. Mr. McCloskey would have been neglecting the commandments of God had he abandoned his home and wife to the mob. One cannot assume that he can retreat fast enough to escape danger, and Mr. McCloskey is responsible under Biblical law not only for his own life, but the lives of those under his responsible charge, in this case, his wife.
There is a video embedded below, but before we get there, I do have a few tactical suggestions that future victims like Mr. McCloskey might want to consider. Nothing says back away and leave my family in peace like an AR-15. It gives the ability for rapid target acquisition, quick recovery of sight picture, and ability to produce heavier volume fire than if he had to chamber another round (e.g., as with a bolt action rifle).
Furthermore, a shotgun would have been limited in magazine capacity, even a tactical shotgun like an M4 Benelli. Readers can claim until they’re blue in the face that they just want their .308 or 30-06, but when it comes to CQB, there is nothing like the carbine. You can have your M1, there is nothing like an AR-15 in this circumstance. Everyone knows this is true, and it’s a good thing that Mr. McCloskey had that go-to weapon at his disposal.
I would suggest some training for him though. The particular stance, holding at the hip, is worthless and counterproductive, and could actually convince the assailant that you didn’t know what you were doing. He needs some practice at the range, holding at the low ready, and proper use of the sling. A tactical vest, along with at least Kevlar armor, able to hold additional magazines, would also have been handy in this circumstance.
If Mr. McCloskey intends to continue allowing his wife to carry a weapon, she needs some training in proper muzzle discipline and grip technique. There is deep fear in her eyes, and some training could have added confidence to her presentation. She also needs a legitimate weapon.
None of the things I’ve said above should be interpreted as mocking the gentleman and his wife. I think he acted bravely, even if I might have done things a bit differently.
You can expect to see video and pictures of this event shown, brought up, and discussed from now on until and through the election. This was a big deal, because it wasn’t someone who approached the violent mob intending to make trouble, it was a home owner defending his life. Similarly, the poor lady who was under threat by the mob in Fredericksburg, Virginia, is an event that should stick in the minds of readers for a very long time.
The self righteous circuit attorney, Kim Gardner, has her panties in a wad over this. It doesn’t matter since Mr. McCloskey was acting in self defense. Exactly why she would act the way she has concerning this might be confusing to someone who doesn’t understand the mob, but the important thing to grasp concerning Kim is that she is part of the mob. Glenn Reynolds says it best.
That’s why they don’t want you to own guns. And that’s why the Ken-and-Karen case has the left and its media enablers so upset. They want you cowering in your home, calling for police protection that their political action has made sure won’t come. Or worrying that that might happen so that you yield to their demands. If you’re out on the steps with guns in your hands, suddenly the script has flipped. Either they’re intimidated, which is bad for morale when you’re running a mob, or they escalate and become so violent that the “deniable” part of the intimidation is gone, because they can’t pretend even to themselves that this was a “parade” of “peaceful protesters,” and a more violent response to the mob becomes certain in the future. And while mobs can dish out violence, they usually don’t take it very well, lacking discipline and cohesion. That’s why the goal is to keep the violence ongoing, but at a low enough level that it seems easier to go along than fight. Open resistance interferes with that, and sets an example for others.
They want you to be disarmed before the violent mob. Kim Gardner wants that too. Resolve not ever to be disarmed, and resolve to be like Mr. McCloskey, at least in spirit.
Via David Codrea, this video is absolutely necessary viewing.
Watch the video again if you must.
In order to understand this, you need to jettison quaint notions of America the beautiful, and embrace where you find yourself, however uncomfortable it may be. A dose of reality will go a long way to prepare you for the future.
This lady made a usual and otherwise sensible decision, that is, to go out and get supplies she needed for her family. In the America that existed in the time of the Cleaver family living in Mayfield, this might have been a good idea and a customary thing to do.
No more. True especially for urbanites, and to some extent even for suburbanites, people need to understand the signs of the times, what’s going on around them, and prepare for exigent circumstances.
BLM/Antifa targets urban areas, and so this poor lady drove right into a trap. BLM/Antifa are Marxists, revolutionaries, hoodlums and ne’er-do-wells. They embrace violence as a means to an end. The end is revolution and the ultimate overthrow not just the government, but of the entire system.
They couldn’t have cared less about this woman’s safety or the safety of her child. She could have rolled the window down and expressed agreement with the ideas she heard, and it would have made no difference. She was fodder for violence. Furthermore, assuming that she was white, she committed the ultimate sin of bringing another white child into the world.
Oh it’s true that she could have driven over these thugs and used the 911 call in court to defend herself, but you see, that means spending $100,000 to defend herself, money she may not have had, even then possibly not successfully staying out of prison. Some aspiring young graduate of the local law school, wanting to make a name for herself, might have put her in prison regardless of what the righteous thing was.
There is a reason men and women alike are buying guns and ammunition. America is in the middle of a revolution, and the violence is just beginning. These are just skirmishes, and it will get much worse. In order to avoid the necessity to make the decision to run over people or pull the trigger – there is a lawyer attached to every round you discharge – stay away from crowds.
But that may not be possible in every circumstance. Study the law, learn to retreat, learn means of self defense, with and without a weapon, learn to use improvised weapons (a vehicle might be one consideration), and most of all, understand that just like the Bolsheviks, there is no peace with these people. You cannot accommodate them, you cannot appease them, you cannot make them happy, and you cannot compromise with them. They are your sworn enemy, whether you want them to be or not.
The Marxists have successfully swept through the academy, corporations, the government and churches. Everything else is just cleanup. All of the pieces have been put into place, and the war is upon you. The America you knew and loved is dead. It will never return in its old form. The form, fit and function of the new America will be different than the past.
So it’s not just “gun nuts” adding to their “arsenals,” as the gun-grabber groups would have us believe. A significant percentage are women or are from restrictive states like California, where, feeling threatened by what they see on the news, have started discovering just what they’ve been missing.
The thing is, with all these new gun owners, the chances for negligent discharges and other bad things happening through ignorance go up. Like “Gunners’ Guru” Jeff Cooper famously observed, “Owning a handgun doesn’t make you armed any more than owning a guitar makes you a musician.”
David recommend a specific book, and that’s great. Reading is the first step. Owner’s manuals are great too, but if you’re a new gun owner and new to this blog, I recommend that you get some training.
You can even write me and I’ll make some recommendations for training. The point is, while you’ll occasionally find arrogant gun owners like you find in any discipline, most of us are very nice, willing to help, and anxious to teach.
Sidney Powell, attorney for retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, said her client, in his duties as the White House national security adviser, was prepared to “audit” the U.S. intelligence community.
That, according to the former federal prosecutor, is partly why federal agents “set up” Flynn.
Powell, who took over Flynn’s defense last summer, told the “Vickie McKenna Show” on 1310 WIBA Madison that her client was “totally set up” because he threatened to expose wrongdoing by top intelligence officials in the Obama administration.
“He was going to audit the intel agencies because he knew about the billions Brennan and company were running off the books,” Powell said, referring to former CIA Director John Brennan.
Flynn was picked by former President Barack Obama to serve as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency in 2012, but he was pushed out of the position after clashing with Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and others.
He simply knew too much. Following the money would have led to weapons trafficking in Northern Africa, involvement by the CIA, military contractors and other elements of the deep state in Syria and Libya, trafficking in gems, previous metals, cash, humans, and a formidable flow of money into the pockets of deep state actors.
Illicit bank accounts and financial dealings would have been laid bare, names would have gone public, and then America would have known. The deep state couldn’t allow that to happen, and General Flynn had a target on his back from the day he announced his support for Trump.
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan expressed outrage after Black Lives Matter protesters showed up at her home Sunday afternoon, despite her previous support and defense of the “CHOP” encampment.
Protesters targeted her home after Durkan announced last week that the city would no longer support the Capitol Hill Organized Protest encampment and would seek to remove the concrete barriers that helped define the autonomous zone. But the CHOP remains intact.
Durkan released a statement expressing her anger at the protest. She was especially upset that Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant had joined the protesters at her home.
“Mayor Durkan and her family are in the state program to keep their address confidential because of the death threats mostly related to her.
Like most sheep, she sees herself as eaten last by the mob. The mob changed its mind.
Will she understand that she’s really just a tool who the mob intends to use and then discard? Do others understand that you cannot make peace with the mob?
Amid popular calls for policing reform, a handful of senators are resurrecting a bill to make it harder for police to take people’s property without first convicting them of crimes.
Sens. Rand Paul (R–Ky.), Mike Lee (R–Utah), Mike Crapo (R–Idaho), and Angus King (I–Maine) reintroduced the Fifth Amendment Integrity Restoration (FAIR) Act this week to significantly restrain the federal use of civil asset forfeiture, a practice that lets police and prosecutors seize and keep property they claim are associated with criminal activity.
Because the process is “civil,” it often allows police to do this without ever proving the property owner has committed a crime, or even charging them with criminal action. Those facing the forfeiture process often have to pay for their own lawyers (if they can afford lawyers, what with their assets being seized) and face a complex bureaucratic process stacked against them. This was sold as a way to fight drug cartels, but over the past several decades it has become clear that cops are abusing the process to pad their budgets and payrolls. Instead of drug kingpins, the targets are frequently poorer people, often minorities or immigrants, who lacked the financial resources to fight back when police took their property. Law enforcement agencies have raked in more than $35 billion in this way over the last two decades.
Several states have tried to curtail abuses by imposing their own restrictions on forfeitures, but the federal Department of Justice’s programs can be used to bypass state-level restraints. The Justice Department’s Equitable Sharing program allows local law enforcement agencies to team up with the FBI or Drug Enforcement Administration to do a raid, then launder the assets they seize through the feds and keep much of it.
The FAIR Act would eliminate such “equitable” sharing, forcing law enforcement agencies to comply with state-level restrictions on forfeiture. It also increases the evidentiary threshold for forfeiture, requiring “clear and convincing evidence” that the property to be seized is connected to a crime, compared to the current, much looser standard or a “preponderance of the evidence.” It’s still not the same “beyond a reasonable doubt” threshold to get a conviction, but it’s nevertheless an improvement.
[ … ]
This time Paul says he’ll be attempting to attach the FAIR Act as an amendment to any police reform bill the Senate might consider. Unfortunately, it’s not clear that the Senate will actually be considering any of them.
Because it’s the right thing to do, this doesn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell of passing. So the next time you hear anything about police reform, consider that it’s just window dressing until this bill has passed.
DENVER — Colorado’s ban on large-capacity gun magazines is constitutional.
The Colorado Supreme Court issued its ruling Monday morning, ending the seven-year challenge by Loveland-based Rocky Mountain Gun Owners.
In 2013, one year after the Aurora Theater Shooting, Colorado’s democratic-controlled legislature passed a number of gun reform bills, including House Bill 13-1224, which banned the sale and transfer of magazines that hold more than 15 rounds of ammunition. Then-Gov. John Hickenlooper signed the bill into law, which took effect July 1, 2013.
Rocky Mountain Gun Owners sued in state court, saying it violated the right to bear arms under Colorado’s Constitution. Because of that, Monday’s ruling is final and cannot be appealed to the United States Supreme Court.
“We hold that HB 1224 is a reasonable exercise of the police power that has neither the purpose nor effect of nullifying the right to bear arms in self-defense encompassed by article II, section 13 of the Colorado Constitution,” the 7-0 ruling concluded.
7-0, without batting an eyelid, without so much as a dissent. At this point what difference does it really make? We cannot turn to the black robed tyrants to defend God-given rights, as they don’t believe in God.
If any gun owner throws away his standard capacity magazines because of this, he is a fool.
