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What is a pirate's favorite letter?
Most people think it's R but they really love the C.
The post US Army 1871 Rolling Block Pistol – Obsolete When New first appeared on Forgotten Weapons.
While some think the double action revolver is obsolete, there are many who still find effective use for it. Of late we’ve heard a lot of complaints about quality control on currently manufactured handguns of this type. One answer is to simply buy a good used one that was built earlier. But how do you […]
I recalled just as we left Idaho, supposedly independent candidates with positions intermediate between Democrat and Republican appearing. When we arrived, one of the candidates for governor was a convicted felon. From the 9/15/26 Tennessee Lookout:
Hatley running as conservative outsider
Hatley has never run for political office in Tennessee and has spent most of his adult life as a businessman.
After a felony bank fraud conviction, Hatley said he turned his life around. He became the successful owner of Whisper Outdoor, which started by manufacturing hot tubs and has since expanded to producing golf carts, boats and off-road vehicles.
While running as an independent, Hatley described himself as “a very conservative guy.”
“I’ve always been pro-life and pro-guns,” Hatley said. “I want to be independent because I don’t want to have party pressure.”
A tenet of Hatley’s argument to voters is that he is pushing for the state to have an elected auditor to “figure out where the money is going,” because he doesn’t feel like the state is managing its budget correctly.
He is also touting his willingness to spend at least $7 million of his own money and doesn’t plan to do any fundraising.
“I don’t want anyone in my ear,” Hatley said. “It’s very important that I go in on day one with a clean slate, only thinking about things that make sense for Tennessee.”
Hatley was 21. We all do stupid things when young. Maybe not that stupid.
I do believe that once a felon has completed their sentence, continuing their disability from full citizenship is not a great idea. If you are that dangerous, perhaps you should still be inside. I do not think this particularly recommends you for public office, however.
Grok confirmed my intuition:
Yes, more pure independents (candidates not nominated by a political party) are running for Congress in the 2026 midterms than in typical recent cycles.
A July 2026 Newsweek analysis of candidate lists found 217 independent entries across U.S. House and Senate races (170 House, 47 Senate), covering 153 distinct contests. Later reporting (NPR and others) put the House figure around 170–173.
A more precise Ballot Access News tally (September 2026 print edition) counted 141 independent candidates for U.S. House seats. That is roughly double the recent norms and matches or exceeds the recent high-water mark:
- 2024: 57 independents for House (lowest since 2004)
- 2022: 78
- 2018: 84
- 2016: 72
- 2014: 82
- 2012: 104
- 2010: 140
- 2006–2008: ~63–65
Political scientist Bernard Tamas noted that a clear increase would reverse a decline in independent/third-party House candidacies lasting more than 25 years (the broader third-party + independent peak was 559 in 2000). Multiple outlets (The Nation, Independent Voter News, NPR) described 2026 as one of the largest surges of independent candidates in recent memory, coinciding with a record ~45% of Americans identifying as independents in Gallup data.
Notable high-profile pure independents include Senate candidates Dan Osborn (Nebraska), Brian Bengs (South Dakota), Todd Achilles (Idaho), and Seth Bodnar (Montana), several of whom benefited from Democrats stepping aside in red states, plus House candidates such as Bill Hill (Alaska).
Caveats: Early lists can include candidates who later dropped, failed ballot access, or ran as write-ins. “Independent” here means unaffiliated (not a nominee of the Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, Green, or other parties). Structural barriers (petition requirements, fundraising, spoiler concerns) remain high, and success rates for independents have historically been very low. Overall congressional candidate volume was also elevated in 2026, partly due to high open-seat numbers.
In short, the data support more independent candidacies than the recent average, especially versus the lower counts of the 2010s–early 2020s.
Why? It would be tempting to see this as a rejection of doctrinaire politics. This would be a good thing.
A cynical view is that these are Democrats in mufti, attempting to split likely Republican voters away to give Democrats seats that would otherwise be out of their reach. I asked Grok about this as well. While independent candidates are not concentrated Republican districts:
Where the serious/viable ones stand out
The independent candidates receiving the most attention—and those where Democrats have cleared the field or formally/informally backed them—are concentrated in Republican-leaning states for statewide races:
- Nebraska (Dan Osborn for Senate)
- South Dakota (Brian Bengs for Senate)
- Idaho (Todd Achilles for Senate; also House candidates like Sarah Zabel in a deep-red district)
- Montana (Seth Bodnar for Senate)
- Alaska (Bill Hill for House)
This reflects a pattern in which Democrats, facing weak brands in solidly red states, have stepped aside in hopes an independent can be more competitive against a Republican incumbent. Similar dynamics appear in some deep-red House districts (e.g., examples cited in Florida and Idaho).
At the same time, independents are also running in blue-leaning or competitive areas (New York, Illinois, California, Washington, Virginia, swing districts like Iowa’s 1st). One sitting House member, Kevin Kiley (California), switched from Republican to independent and is running as such in a redrawn district that leans Democratic.
This actually makes sense. Democrats know that socialism and child mutilation are so now heavily identified with their party that backing candidates without that "Democrat" label is likely to defeat Republicans. These IINOs (Independents In Name Only) could redeclare themselves after the election or simply caucus with the Democrats like Socialist Bernie Sanders does.
After arriving, officers said they found a woman and man who had been shot outside of the business. Police said the man died at the scene and the woman was taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries
Police said witnesses told them the shooting happened after an argument. Witnesses say the man who died shot into a group of people who were arguing, striking the woman
Police said this led to another man shooting the man who shot into the group. Detectives said that man ran away from the scene. His identity is unknown at the time.
Adams says they have identified the shooter, and that he is cooperating with the investigation.
"He did come into City Hall, provided the police with a statement," Adams said.
The DA says based on video evidence, Steele was armed, and he believes Steele was the aggressor.
"Clearly, this is a situation where self-defense may be the appropriate resolution of this incident," Adams said.
Glenside Elementary School was placed in SECURE action due to police activity.
The district said in a statement that it will provide assistance and resources to students who may have witnessed or been otherwise impacted by the shooting.
“We must be as stealthy as rats in the wainscoting of their society. It was easier in the old days, of course, and society had more rats when the rules were looser, just as old wooden buildings have more rats than concrete buildings. But there are rats in the building now as well. Now that society is all ferrocrete and stainless steel there are fewer gaps in the joints. It takes a very smart rat indeed to find these openings. Only a stainless steel rat can be at home in this environment...”The latest version of the MapQuest App has a layer that will show the locations of various smart surveillance cameras. It's good to see the occasional tech company remember Silicon Valley's old subversive roots. (The latest version finally supports Android Auto, too.)
― Harry Harrison, The Stainless Steel Rat
We buried Bill yesterday. It was a pretty good crowd. Bill was a man o many parts, all o them good, steadfast parts. He was an Eagle Scout, a basketball coach, a competitive shooter, a retired educator. His widow asked the shooting club to wear our regalia and serve as "honorary pallbearers". Of course, we were honored to do so.
I am a decrepit old man. A lifelong smoker with a body wrecked by years of service on armored vehicles, along with the attendant bad habits that characterizes cavalry service. Yet, when it came time to bear the pall, there were not six o his healthy friends who could lift a casket. I was pressed into service as a pall bearer.
Later that afternoon, stirring a roux, I was struck by the irony that I have recently carried three healthy men to their grave. I'm not complaining, you understand, simply stuck by the irony that "healthy" friends are dyeing off. The last two did it right. They had a good day, enjoyed a pleasant evening, kissed their wives good night, then rolled over and went to sleep. No lingering, no drama, just went to sleep. That is the way to do it.
I hope, when my time comes, that is the way I'll go. I also hope that I have enough chain-smoking, semi-alcoholic friends to carry me to the hearse. Those "healthy" folks can't seem to carry the burden.
The suspected shooter was fatally shot by a community member who saw the teen going into the Silver Rail Elementary School after firing at a truck in front of the building, Krantz said.
In another "heroic" act that may have saved lives, the police chief said another teacher tackled the shooter to the floor and tried to take the gun away from him. That teacher was not injured, police said.
Deputies say two men wearing masks allegedly forced their way into a home in Bethel Township.
Deputies say the homeowner confronted the two suspects and discharged a gun at them and their black sedan as they fled.
Investigators say the suspects were not reported to be hit by the gunfire.
Three young children and a teacher were killed Thursday afternoon in a horrific shooting at an elementary school in Bend, Oregon, and a teenage suspect was fatally shot by a good Samaritan who pursued him.
The Federal Reserve’s latest Survey of Consumer Finances revealed a striking split: Median net worth rose roughly 38% for households headed by someone 75 or older between 2022 and 2025, while falling 23% for those headed by someone under 35. Both figures account for inflation, according to an analysis by Nick Maggiulli, chief data officer at Ritholtz Wealth Management and author of The Wealth Ladder.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the age split in a short post on what it called “the gold standard for measuring household wealth,” which the central bank releases every three years. Americans 55 and over now hold roughly $140 trillion, about three-quarters of the nation’s net worth, Fortune reported this month, citing a Bank of America Institute analysis of the Fed data.
The oldest households finished the period with a median net worth of $504,600, up from $366,288 in 2022, measured in 2025 dollars. For the youngest households, it fell from $42,725 to $32,820. The oldest group now has roughly 15x the wealth of the youngest, compared with about 9x three years earlier.
Across all families, inflation-adjusted median net worth rose just 2% between 2022 and 2025, reaching $215,900. That modest national gain concealed sharply different experiences at opposite ends of the age spectrum.
The findings also echo an argument Yale law and history professor Samuel Moyn made in an interview with Fortune this summer about his book, Gerontocracy in America: The concentration of wealth among older Americans is not merely a matter of who has had longer to save. In his account, it also shapes whose interests the economy and political system serve.
Moyn describes an “oldigarchy,” in which older, disproportionately wealthy Americans hold outsize influence. His book argues that “aging Americans control the biggest bank accounts and stock portfolios,” and that “the old rich have pulled away from everyone else.”
Yes. We had the good sense to not take out enormous student loans for degrees that did not lead to jobs of any value. Some of this was not really good sense. Almost any degree except maybe art or sociology would likely get you an adequate job in 1970. Education was also so absurdly expensive that you needed the 1970s equivalent of a $100,000 student loan to start out adult life.
We had some other advantages. Lots of good jobs did not require a college degree back then. Creeping credentialism and the contempt for technical jobs had not closed other avenues from serious consideration.
The harsh reality, however, is that generally getting older makes you richer. We bought a Sears refrigerator in 1976. It was still working into the 2000s. Some of the dishes that we received as wedding presents in 1980 are still in use, although not many.
Still, time heals most financial mistakes if you stay invested and do not waste on trying to look like The Illustrated Man.
I suspect as us Boomers go bust and our assets enrich our kids, this will even out a bit. Unless the young whiners decide we need to go full Communist.
A jammed gun and workers at an Arlington Heights Taco Bell restaurant prevented a potentially devastating mass shooting Sunday at a Hindu temple in Aurora.
Those were among the details to emerge Thursday as authorities released additional information about the arrest of a 19-year-old Palatine man accused of plotting a terrorist attack on the Sri Venkateswara Swami Balaji Temple.
Cook County prosecutors said Alexandros Paporakis told a Taco Bell co-worker he had gone to the temple Sunday and attempted to shoot someone from his car, but his rifle jammed.
He indicated he intended to return later Sunday to try again, but a co-worker called 911 and stopped the potential massacre, authorities said.
The story gets more interesting. A "Heritage American"? Apparently not. 10/16/26 Chicago Tribune:
Paporakis, an enrolled student at Harper College, was allegedly living with his mother at the time of the planned attack and had been for about a year, Palatine police Chief William Nord said Wednesday. But a guardianship petition filed in Cook County last month alleges that his mother was unable to provide a stable home and that his father had abused and abandoned him. Those circumstances, the petition states, left the teenager unable to return to his home country.
The Tribune could not independently verify which country the petition referred to as Paporakis’ home country. The teenager’s own writings, according to court documents, suggest a hatred rooted less in national origin than in race and religion.
“The shooter hated Indians, but his hate did not discriminate,” U.S. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi said at a news conference Friday, as he appeared to hold back tears. “According to court documents, the manifesto that he wrote described Indians, Jews, Black people and other minorities as ‘subhuman’”.
That seems like a Greek name to me. Perhaps, the entire spectrum of antisocial media found a new host to infect. In the 1990s, I recall a mass murder at a college in Western Massachusetts carried out by a neo-Nazi Korean.
Libertyman is perhaps the most prolific commenter here, rarely missing a Dad Joke (or much else, in fact).
The Queen Of The World says "Happy Birthday, Sir Libertyman". I say "Check your email".
Oh, and many happy returns of the day.
If you listen to music on the radio you've heard this song. In a way its a throwback to the 1970s when radio stations would play all sorts of genres - Johnny Cash, Rolling Stones, Engelbert Humperdink.
This is clearly a country song, but it has been all over pop radio - It set the record for the longest running single on the Billboard Hot 100 in history. A song that tells a story that everyone has experienced gives it broad appeal.
And it's quite a good song. The Queen Of The World really likes it, as do I. People who like old school country will like it, since it really channels the Old School. People who don't like country probably will like it (that Billboard Hot 100 thing).
The Queen and I shall watch young miss Langley's career with great interest.
Choosin' Texas (songwriters: Ella Langley, Miranda Lambert, Luke Dick, Joybeth Taylor):
Just when I thought I got him to fall in love with Tennessee
I shoulda known better than to take him back to Abilene
I put him right back into her arms
I wasn't a match for that kind of spark
She's from Texas, I can tell by the way
He's two-steppin' 'round the room
And judgin' by the smile that's written on his face
There's nothin' I can do
It doesn't take a crystal ball to see
A cowboy always finds a way to leave
Drinkin' Jack all by myself
He's choosin' Texas, I can tell
Well, I guess he forgot about the Smoky Mountain rain
Them old Hank tunes, the Memphis blues we used to sing
He always loved "Amarillo by Morning"
I should've taken that as a warnin'
She's from Texas, I can tell by the way
He's two-steppin' 'round the room
And judgin' by the smile that's written on his face
There's nothin' I can do
It doesn't take a crystal ball to see
A cowboy always finds a way to leave
Drinkin' Jack all by myself
He's choosin' Texas, I can tell
When I'm eastbound and down, and I can't help but cry
'Cause I-40 gets lonelier with every mile
I'll know that his mind wasn't ever gonna change
'Cause his heart still belongs to the Lone Star State
She's from Texas, I can tell by the way
He's two-steppin' 'round the room
And judgin' by the smile that's written on his face
There's nothin' I can do, naw, yeah
It doesn't take a crystal ball to see
A cowboy always finds a way to leave
Drinkin' Jack all by myself
He's choosin' Texas, I can tell, no
Drinkin' Jack all by myself
He's choosin' Texas, I can tell
Come on, baby
Just when I thought I got him to fall in love with Tennessee
The post Does the End of SBR Regulation Mean a Stocked Pistol Renaissance? first appeared on Forgotten Weapons.
As usual Dr. Lott is on top of this. His discussion of this tragedy links to a 5/31/2022 Oregon Public Radio article:
Oregon lawmakers last year gave every public school district in Oregon the option to ban guns from their premises.So why would districts disarm their teachers and staff?
So far, most districts have declined to take them up on the offer.
Since a change to Oregon law in September, just 13% of the state’s public school districts have opted to close an exemption that allows holders of a concealed handgun license, or CHL, to carry weapons onto public property where possessing a gun would otherwise be a felony.
According to an OPB analysis, that list includes some districts in the Portland metro area — though not yet Portland Public Schools — along with far more rural school systems. Among the 25 that have banned guns are districts in Klamath Falls, Myrtle Point, Tillamook, Pendleton, Tigard-Tualatin, Lake Oswego and Woodburn.
The vast majority of the state’s 197 public school districts have, to date, taken no such action...
Backers of policies banning guns in schools acknowledge it’s a small step. Board members in three districts OPB spoke with said they could not point to an incident where a CHL holder or their weapon had caused an issue on school grounds.
“It just allowed us to complete the commitment that we already had in place of having gun-free schools,” said Melissa Barnes Dholakia, chair of the Bend-La Pine school board. The board passed a ban in December, receiving just two comments on the policy, both of them supportive.
For some students, the possibility that lawful guns could cause trouble on campus was a primary driver of their support for a ban.
When the Hillsboro school board enacted the policy in January, a high school student named Ceph Tronco was among those voicing support.
“What I’ve been thinking about as I’ve been hearing about this policy isn’t, ‘Is someone going to be in place to stop an attempted school shooting?’” Tronco said. “It is: ‘Is someone going to have brought a gun into a school grounds that accidentally discharges? Or is somebody going to have the potential to get into a charged argument that escalates because of the presence of a firearm?’”
The bottom line, Tronco said: “We do not want people to be bringing firearms onto our campuses.”
And that worked out so well in Bend. Adults should be making policy not kids, whose knowledge of the world is necessarily incomplete.The homeowner, Cooper’s ex-girlfriend, told police she had been out with her boyfriend, one of the shooting victims. When they returned home, she went to the restroom. When she came out, she could not find her boyfriend but saw Cooper lying in the driveway.
She told police Cooper did not have permission to be in her home and that he had been stalking her for the past two weeks.
The boyfriend drove himself to the hospital for treatment. He told police he walked through the kitchen toward the bedroom and was ambushed by gunfire. He said he returned fire in self-defense but was not sure who was shooting at him. Cooper was struck several times.
A 19-year-old said he was shot and injured during an attempted robbery in Arlington on Tuesday, according to police. The man arrived at the Medical City Arlington emergency room about 3:30 p.m. with a gunshot wound to the arm, police said. Hospital staff notified police, and officers responded to the hospital to talk with the injured person.
The 19-year-old couldn’t name the location where the attempted robbery occurred, according to police.
Carbon Hill Police Chief Paul Anderson said the homeowner reported that Pugh and an accomplice kicked in his back door Wednesday shortly before 1 p.m.
“He heard the commotion and grabbed his gun. The back door came open. He opened fire,” Anderson said. Several shots also struck a neighbor’s home and car.
- An AI-powered recognition tool called Raven lets the cops pick an address from interior photos found on AirBnB and Zillow.
- AI-powered robots roam the aisles in LA grocery stores, scanning the shelves and automating inventory. Employees are worried. What do you want to bet that within a year or two the 'bots will also be loaded with facial recognition patterns of "known shoplifters"?
- AI researchers taking up smoking to virtue signal to each other their belief that AI will come up with the cure for cancer soon.
In the post below, where I said that every school should have a dedicated Resource Officer, one commenter made a common mistake.
If a bank can pay one or more individuals to be present during business hours, a public school with resources vastly more precious should be under protections as well.
The public school system should not pay one red cent for Resource Officers. The funding should come 100% from the police agency. There are several good reasons for this.
First, school administrators have no idea what cops do for a living, and frankly, most of what a Resource Officer does is sit on his ass. The good ones are moving most of the time, learning the school and keeping watch. Wandering through the parking lots, or judging the fencing around the perimeter. But, there is a lot of sitting on your ass. Administrators hate this and will try to put the Resource Officer on duties that are not related to law enforcement.
Second, administrators hate bad press. When a cop does his job, it generates reports. Administrators don't like it when the cop assigned to the school actually makes an arrest in the building or on the school grounds. They think it reflects poorly on the school.
The Resource Officer needs the authority to make arrests in accordance with the law. I worked in a high school and my basic yardstick was that if any other person could be arrested for the crime at Wal Mart, they could also be arrested for the same crime at the school. I did not arrest for every school yard tussle, but I had broad discretion to do so. The students knew this, and so did the faculty.
My assignment was in a high school. I normally wrote 110 reports each year, and made 25-30 arrests per year. Sometimes the principal like it, sometimes he didn't. I always worked well with my principals, but they knew that I worked WITH then, not FOR them.
Third, cops cost more than teachers, at least locally. If the administrators had the option of hiring an additional cop, or an additional teacher, what might they do? We estimated that it cost the Sheriff's Office $75K per year to put an officer in a school. At that time, they could get a new teacher, fresh out of college, for about $45K per year.
Our Sheriff was smart about funding. He asked the people for a 1-cemt sales tax to fund the Resource Officers. The voters approved it in a parish-wide ballot. The school administrators didn't want it. They were aghast at the idea. But the voters approved it and the school-house folks knew better than to resist.