I lost my wedding band last week.  I've been losing weight and noticed that the band was getting a bit loose, but didn't think much about it.  Until it was gone.  Doing yard work, I noticed that I was not wearing a wedding band.  Well, hell.

It was a plain gold band, 10-carat, size 9.  I think, when I got married, I paid about $50 for it.  

This morning, I went to my jeweler and ordered a new wedding band.  Yellow cold, 10-carat.  The guy didn't blush went he told me the price, but he did apologize. $500.  Yeah, really.  I'll pick it up on Tuesday. The gold spot price today s $4284.25.

I'm one of those guys who feels naked without a wedding band.

"The Chinese government has taken possession of potentially sensitive F-35 stealth aircraft parts that were inexplicably diverted to Hong Kong while being sent to the US from Australia, people briefed on the incident said."

By Dave Workman As the 41st annual Gun Rights Policy Conference begins unfolding in Dallas, Texas this weekend, there is suddenly growing media attention to the upcoming Dec. 2 oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in the consolidated cases from Illinois and Connecticut which challenge the constitutionality of bans on so-called “assault weapons.” This […]

The post As GRPC Unfolds in Dallas, Media Pays Attention to Looming 2A Battle appeared first on Liberty Park Press.

 4/15/26 AP:

The Environmental Protection Agency is reconsidering whether facilities that recycle plastic chemically should be held to the same strict air pollution standards as incinerators.

The possible change is alarming environmental advocates who say it would lead to more dangerous pollution spewing into communities, with fewer or no checks at the federal level. The plastics industry disputes that, saying it would clear up confusion while still controlling emissions.

The world is pumping millions of tons of plastic pollution into the environment every year. While dozens of countries and many environmental groups have urged caps on production, industry and several big oil-producing countries have resisted, arguing instead for improvements in reuse and recycling.

Chemical recycling uses heat or chemicals to break down plastics. The main method, a process known as pyrolysis, has long been regulated as incineration by the Clean Air Act. The EPA limits emissions from incinerators of nine air pollutants, including toxic particulates, heavy metals and dioxins.

The agency says a potential new rule could instead recognize pyrolysis as manufacturing.

The American Chemistry Council, an industry group, has long argued for such a change.

How dare you solve a landfill and ocean pollution problem! 

 9/15/26 Newsweek:

Images claiming to show President Donald Trump kissing his executive assistant, Natalie Harp, on a golf course have circulated widely on social media, prompting questions about whether they are genuine....

No established news organization, official White House photographer or photo agency has been identified as the source of either image. Searches of White House material and photographs published by AP, Reuters and Getty Images did not locate a corresponding image from the purported encounter.

The two circulating pictures appear to be versions of the same scene rather than independent photographs corroborating one another. One is clearer, while the other is blurred and contains fewer details that can be examined.

The higher-resolution version contains several visual irregularities associated with AI-generated imagery. Harp’s visible hand appears to have six fingers, while parts of the golf equipment and background lack consistent shapes and detail. The lower-resolution image is too degraded for some of those anomalies to be seen clearly, but blurring an image does not establish that the underlying scene is authentic.

Newsweek also submitted both versions to Grok, the AI assistant developed by xAI. Its assessment was consistent with the anomalies outlined above. Grok said no single irregularity proved fabrication but concluded that the combined evidence was characteristic of an AI-generated image that had subsequently been blurred or compressed.

Newsweek further asked ChatGPT to assess the files. It said the irregularities described above were consistent with AI generation or substantial digital manipulation and found no useful camera, date, location or editing metadata embedded in either image. ChatGPT cautioned that metadata is often removed during online sharing and therefore cannot settle the question alone, but assessed fabrication as the more likely explanation.

OpenAI’s verification tool found no SynthID watermark or trusted C2PA record linking the image to OpenAI products, but cautioned that this did not rule out its creation with another AI system....

The images do not authentically show Trump kissing Harp on a golf course. No verified source for the purported photographs has been identified, and the clearer version contains visual anomalies associated with AI generation, including what appears to be a sixth finger on Harp’s hand. The two pictures are versions of the same unverified scene, not separate images confirming that the encounter occurred.

 The actual article seems not bad at all, except for the cost to preventwhat is actually a rare but tragic situation. 9/21/26 Daily Caller:

Massachusetts Responds To Lindsay Clancy Failure By Expanding Home Surveillance Of New Moms..

Democratic Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey recently proposed expanding home visits from nurses for new parents and postpartum mental health screenings across the state.

Healey has proposed a $2 million investment to provide universal access to the Department of Public Health’s (DPH) Welcome Family program across the state and also $250,000 to broaden the Department of Mental Health’s Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Access Program for Moms, according to a Sept. 15 news release. The move comes as the Lindsay Clancy trial in Massachusetts has fueled an intense public debate about postpartum mental health conditions. (RELATED: Patrick Clancy Says Lindsay Never Asked Forgiveness For Killing Their Kids)

Welcome Family is a voluntary and free home visiting program “that supports parents and caregivers in the weeks after a baby is born,” per the announcement. The program presently serves 3,000 births annually, according to Healey’s office.

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 YUKUTAKE V. LOPEZ (9th Cir. 2026) (en banc) involves provisions of Hawaii's law:

1. That requires those who meet their standards for firearms purchase to then buy the gun within 30 days or start all over again, and,

2. Bring the gun to a police station within five days after acquisition for inspection.

The en banc decision upheld both provisions, claiming that footnote 9 of Bruen makes any shall-issue law presumptively constitutional:

As detailed infra, Bruen instructs courts to engage in a two-step inquiry: First, does the Second Amendment’s plain text cover the plaintiff’s conduct?  And second, if so, is the legislation at issue consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation?  Id. at 24.  Yet in a footnote, the Bruen Court included an apparent carve-out to this test: objective, non-abusive “shall-issue” licensing regimes are presumptively constitutional.  Id. at 38 n.9.  

As Judge Nelson's dissent observes:

But the majority incorrectly holds that footnote 9 of New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen, 597 U.S. 1 (2022), creates a “carve-out” or “safe harbor” from Second Amendment scrutiny, and is thus analytically distinct from Bruen’s framework.  Maj. Op. 13, 18.  Footnote 9 does not say that all objective regulations placed within a “shall issue” licensing regime are “presumptively constitutional.” Id. at 13.  It only addresses “public carry” regulations not at issue here.  Bruen, 597 U.S. at 38 n.9.  And it does not shift to the citizen the burden to prove that a law governing protected conduct has been “put toward abusive ends.”  Maj. Op. 17 (cleaned up).  That interpretation violates Bruen’s clear command that it is the government’s burden to show that restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms are “consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition.”  597 U.S. at 24.   

Instead, footnote 9 described non-abusive regulations to ensure that only “law-abiding, responsible citizens” were carrying handguns outside the home, preserved challenges when a permitting system denies citizens their right to carry, and concerned only longstanding licensing regimes.  Id. at 38 n.9 (citation omitted). 

Hawaii’s challenged provisions are something else.  Hawaii requires purchasers of handguns to obtain a handgun-acquisition permit that is void unless the permittee completes the purchase within 30 days, and it requires persons acquiring certain firearms to bring them to a police station for physical inspection within five days of acquisition.  Haw. Rev. Stat. §§ 134-2(e), 134-3(c).  Neither regulation has anything to do with determining whether applicants are “‘law-abiding, responsible citizens’” eligible for licenses to “exercis[e] their Second Amendment right to public carry.”  Bruen, 597 U.S. at 38 n.9 (quoting District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570, 635 (2008)).  Indeed, the challenged laws operate after the applicant has completed a background check, firearms training course, and myriad other requirements—i.e., after he has proven himself a “lawabiding, responsible citizen”—and has been issued a permit to purchase (not carry) a handgun.  And neither regulation was “longstanding” in 2022 when Bruen issued. 

Nelson goes on to point out these laws did not develop based on public concerns about safety but as part of a not very subtle attempt to ignore Bruen: 

This case is all the worse since the challenged laws appear to be part of Hawaii’s consistent and not-so-subtle attempts to end run around the Second Amendment, which suggests that these laws are abusive under footnote 9.  See, e.g., Young v. Hawaii, 45 F.4th 1087, 1090–94 (9th Cir. 2022) (en banc) (O’Scannlain, J., dissenting); Teter v. Lopez, 76 F.4th 938, 942–43, 947–49 (9th Cir. 2023), reh’g en banc granted, opinion vacated, 93 F.4th 1150 (9th Cir. 2024), vacated as moot on reh’g en banc, 125 F.4th 1301 (9th Cir. 2025); State v. Wilson, 543 P.3d 440, 442 (Haw. 2024), abrogated by Wolford v. Lopez, 146 S. Ct. 2032, 2050 (2026).  Hawaii has only grown more intransigent in its “blatant defiance” of the Supreme Court’s clear commands on the Second Amendment.  Wilson v. Hawaii, 145 S. Ct. 18, 21 (2024) (Statement of Thomas, J., respecting the denial of certiorari) (citation omitted); cf. Granillo v. State, 593 P.3d 1, 28 (Haw. 2026) (accusing the U.S. Supreme Court of “[m]aking the country more dangerous with a Second Amendment unmoored from text or history and unrecognizable to the framers who wrote it”); id. (Bruen was “deadly jurisprudence,” and Wolford “show[ed] disdain for Hawai‘i’s constitutional traditions.”).  But Hawaii’s “[m]erely local attitudes can neither shrink nor inflate the meaning of fundamental Bill of Rights guarantees that apply to the States through the Fourteenth Amendment.”  Wolford, 146 S. Ct. at 2050. 

A correct application of Bruen to Hawaii’s regulations makes this case straightforward.  First, the Second Amendment’s plain text covers the acquisition of arms.  A person ordinarily cannot “keep” an arm without first acquiring it, and the law has long recognized that authorization of an act includes authorization of necessary predicate acts.  Luis v. United States, 578 U.S. 5, 26 (2016) (Thomas, J., concurring in the judgment).  Hawaii’s statewide restrictions govern the process by which ordinary citizens take possession of handguns; possession is the core conduct protected by the “right of the people to keep . . . Arms.”  U.S. Const. amend. II (emphasis added).  Second, Hawaii has not identified “a well-established and representative historical analogue” for either its short permit-use period or its acquisition-linked inspection mandate.  Bruen, 597 U.S. at 30.  Because Hawaii has not carried the burden Bruen places on the government, we should have affirmed the district court’s judgment.  I respectfully dissent.

Oh and Judge Van Dyke's dissent is also powerful:

But in spite of the Court’s obvious efforts to instruct lower courts to enforce the Second Amendment, the Ninth Circuit has done precisely the opposite.  That’s not a rhetorical statement: in this circuit, the Second Amendment safeguards less liberty now than it did in the wake of Heller.2 For Exhibit A on how things have changed in the wrong direction, look no further than the majority’s opening paragraph.  The majority recalls that the district court “blocked the implementation of [Hawaii’s] firearm licensing regime on Second Amendment grounds” the year before Bruen was decided.  Maj. Op. at 10.  The legal basis for reversing that injunction, according to the majority, is the “guidance” that Bruen provided on “how courts should analyze ‘shall-issue’ regimes like Hawaii’s.”  Id.  I agree that Bruen changed the law.  But if our court’s takeaway from Bruen is that Bruen changed the law to make it harder to mount a successful Second Amendment challenge, then somebody has seriously lost the plot.  

Deputies with the Kanawha County Sheriff's Office said a person called 911 saying two men were having an argument when one of them shot the other in the leg.

The man with the gunshot wound left the scene but was later located by deputies and medics, deputies said, adding that they found the shooter still at the residence with injuries to his arms and chest. Deputies said the alleged shooter was the property owner.

More Here

More Here

Police said the initial investigation shows a fight took place between the man and the 15-year-old at a home in the 5200 block of Reilly Street around 7:35 p.m.

"As a result of the altercation, the teenager was shot and died," police said.

Crime Insider sources told Jon Burkett that the family member is a Capitol Police officer and that the teen was his nephew. Sources say the officer claimed the shooting was done in self-defense.

More Here

 I just finished a dry week, which is something I do occasionally.  For one entire calendar week, no  alcohol of any kind.  No beer, no wine, no whiskey.  It helps reset the palate, gives the liver a break, and makes sure that there are no psychological problems.  It's a good idea.

Surprisingly, I don't miss it at all when I take a dry week, which is exactly the point.

We did get a passing thunderstorm late this afternoon.  We need the rain.

More Here

Riel got into a heated argument with his 18-year-old ex-girlfriend, who apparently abandoned Gonzales at the isolated gas station, taking off in a black BMW.

Gonzales then allegedly stole a red work truck from a driver who was pumping gas and pursued his ex-girlfriend toward Anton Chico, about 40 miles north of the gas station.

Ultimately, Gonzales retrieved the BMW and drove off from the residence where the ex-girlfriend had left it. Her mother came to pick her up, but as they left, they found Gonzales waiting on NM 119 near Anton Chico.

During their encounter, shots were fired, and a vehicle collision occurred. The mother's boyfriend responded to the location and witnessed the crash. Gonzales fired on him. He fired back and ultimately subdued Gonzales. 

More Here 

I haven't blogged about this, but apparently it's a thing now and has been for maybe a decade.  This is a really good breakdown of what one of these attacks could do (and more importantly, could NOT do) to a container ship or a tanker.

This Week in History: On September 21, 1893, Frank Duryea drove the first American-made gasoline-propelled vehicle. September 22, 1499: Switzerland became an independent state. September 22, 1656: An all-female jury heard the case of Judith Catchpole, accused of killing her child, and acquitted her in Patuxent County, Maryland. September 23, 1779: John Paul Jones aboard the USS Bonhomme Richard defeated the British frigate HMS Serepis and soon became the United States’ first well-known naval hero. September 24, 1869: The “Black Friday” panic on Wall Street after investors Jay Gould and James Fisk attempted to corner the gold market. — I …

The post Preparedness Notes — September 22, 2026 appeared first on SurvivalBlog.com.

(Continued from Part 1. This concludes the article.) How did we get here? We are more than 40 trillion dollars in debt. Our streets are not lined with gold and other precious metals, but our nation is decaying around us. We are being invaded. Our military instead of repelling invaders and rounding them up is engaged in foreign adventures around the world contrary to what George Washington said about foreign adventurism and alliances. You can read my 14,000 word essay “Fall of the American Republic” for a detailed look into our likely fall in Parts One and Part Two. I …

The post 40 Trillion Reasons for Economic Collapse – Part 2, by Single Farmer appeared first on SurvivalBlog.com.

The following recipe for Leftovers Automatic Chicken & Rice is from SurvivalBlog reader Angie T. She writes: “My husband travels a lot for his work, and I don’t like to make elaborate meals for myself when he’s on tehe road. This is a recipe I use in my automatic rice cooker, using chicken leftovers. It is a variation on a recipe that found online. You can also use a traditional stovetop pan for cooking this.” Ingredients 2 cups of your preferred rice (I like Jasmine) 3 cups chicken broth (canned or leftover from your freezer, microwaved back to liquid.) 1/4 …

The post Recipe of the Week: appeared first on SurvivalBlog.com.

Today’s graphic is a map showing average annual snowfall across the United States, county by county. (Graphic courtesy of Reddit.) The thumbnail image below is click-expandable. — If any SurvivalBlog readers have personally taken or otherwise hold the copyright to a particularly nice landscape photo or other photo of particular interest to preppers that is in a wide horizontal format (to match our blog template) then please send it in as an e-mail attachment, and I will consider posting it as a Graphic of the Week, or as a Top Note photo. I can of course credit you by name …

The post SurvivalBlog Graphic of the Week appeared first on SurvivalBlog.com.

In Economics & Investing Media of the Week we feature photos, charts, graphs, maps, video links, and news items of interest to preppers. Today, a map showing average land value (in USD) across the Lower 48, by ZIP Code. The thumbnail below is click-expandable.       (Graphic courtesy of Reddit.) Economics & Investing Links of Interest The Fed is Raising interest rates. JWR’s Comments: This was the first rate hike green light in three years. It appears that they prefer the possibility of a recession over the certainty of accelerating inflation. But the FOMC is walking a fine line, …

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SurvivalBlog presents another edition of The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods. This column is a collection of news bits and pieces that are relevant to the modern survivalist and prepper from JWR. Our goal is to educate our readers, to help them to recognize emerging threats, and to be better prepared for both disasters and negative societal trends. You can’t mitigate a risk if you haven’t first identified a risk. In today’s column, a new tick-borne disease with a rapidly-spreading vector. A New Virus in a Tick Invasive to the US. At the “progressive” publication The Hill: New virus detected in …

The post The Survivalist’s Odds ‘n Sods appeared first on SurvivalBlog.com.

Our weekly Snippets column is a collection of short items: responses to posted articles, practical self-sufficiency items, how-tos, lessons learned, tips and tricks, and news items — both from readers and from SurvivalBlog’s editors. Note that we may select some long e-mails for posting as separate letters. — US House of Representatives votes to require AM radio in all new cars. From an X post: “Joint statement from Chairman @SenTedCruz and @SenMarkey on the House passage of the AM Radio for Every Vehicle Act: “This vote sends a clear message to car manufacturers that AM Radio is a lifeline that …

The post SurvivalBlog Readers’ & Editors’ Snippets appeared first on SurvivalBlog.com.

This weekly column features media from around the American Redoubt region. (Idaho, Montana, eastern Oregon, eastern Washington, and Wyoming.) Much of the region is also more commonly known as The Inland Northwest.  Pictured above is Lake Pend-Oreille. REDOUBT NEWS LINKS Last week, I mentioned Quest Kodiak STOL cargo/passenger planes, built in Sandpoint, Idaho.  Here is a video showing numerous Idaho backcountry landings and takeoffs in a Kodiak 100: “Craziest Take Off of My Life” — The Razor Thin Margins of Backcountry Flying. Two new Ambition Strikes videos from Hope, Idaho: Putting a Roof on Our Abandoned Mansion. My favorite comment …

The post SurvivalBlog’s American Redoubt Media of the Week appeared first on SurvivalBlog.com.

To be prepared for a crisis, every Prepper must establish goals and make both long-term and short-term plans. In this column, the SurvivalBlog editors review their week’s prep activities and planned prep activities for the coming week. These range from healthcare and gear purchases to gardening, ranch improvements, bug-out bag fine-tuning, and food storage. This is something akin to our Retreat Owner Profiles, but written incrementally and in detail, throughout the year.  We always welcome you to share your own successes and wisdom in your e-mailed letters. We post many of those — or excerpts thereof — in the Odds …

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The latest meme created by JWR, as a variation on an existing meme: Meme Text: Most Lightning Strikes Are Sent Out: “To Whom It May Concern” But Some Seem To Have A Particular Address In Mind An interesting technical piece explains how cloud-to-ground lightning actually has one components that goes UP from the ground to touch a leader coming down that “connects the circuit.”: Does lightning travel upward or downward? Notes From JWR: Do you have a meme idea? Just e-mail me the concept, and I’ll try to assemble it. And if it is posted then I’ll give you credit. …

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“Freedom is not defined by safety. Freedom is defined by the ability of citizens to live without government interference. Government cannot create a world without risks, nor would we really wish to live in such a fictional place. Only a totalitarian society would even claim absolute safety as a worthy ideal, because it would require total state control over its citizens’ lives. Liberty has meaning only if we still believe in it when terrible things happen and a false government security blanket beckons.” – Dr. Ron Paul

The post Editors’ Quote: appeared first on SurvivalBlog.com.