You’d think a band made up of former Sabaton members would be in my top ten. Although the lyrics are generally good, I’m not fond of the singer. Still, this is a decent song.

The Parker Solar Probe was launched at oh-dark-early Sunday. From the article:

If all goes according to plan, the Parker Solar Probe will end up traveling faster than any craft ever has, and getting unprecedentedly close to the sun; indeed, it will fly through our star’s outer atmosphere, known as the corona. And the measurements the probe makes there will reveal key insights about our star’s inner workings that have eluded scientists for decades.

In addition to just being a cool bit of scientific and engineering awesomeness, this may provide some understanding of how the sun works. I’m also hoping it can help with models that can predict coronal mass ejections. Because although I do have preps, they’re mostly geared to “hurricane” not “years long disruption of modern technology.”

What’s going to make me comfortable… is when people stop coming into this office and acting like there’s a debate about it. The debate is over. The guns are downloadable. The files are in the public domain. You cannot take them back. You can adjust your politics to this reality. You will not ask me to adjust mine.

Since Publix was running a BOGO on my breakfast sandwiches, I decided to get a box of their lower calorie ones to try. Had the first one this morning.

Me: Okay, these sandwiches aren’t too bad. I guess I’ll switch over to these.

Fiancée: Not too bad? Aren’t the other ones better?

Me: Not 60 calories better. That’s almost two Oreo thins. I’ll take less breakfast to be able to eat two Oreos. I gotz muh priorities!

So, I have a question. In light of Apple, Facebook, and just about all the other tech giants scourging InfoWars from their sites, I’m seeing two things: shameless celebrating by the left who are triumphing in private businesses choosing who they should deal with and the right pointing out that businesses should be allowed to do business with whomever they want whether in cyberspace or meatspace (e.g., businesses who don’t want to serve “teh gayz”.) To which, the left responds with “public accommodations.”

There’s strong arguments for public accommodations, particularly when the supply of services is limited. It’s easy to claim that businesses should have the right to choose what customers they’ll serve when there are twelve other bakers in the city. It’s a bit harder when there’s only one baker in town.

So, considering that currently the tech giants are acting more like, say the only baker in a town, should they be forced to provide platforms under public accommodations laws?

Personally, considering how each side has been flip-flopping on their normal core issues with each new twist of the culture/chattering war, I’d kind of like to see the debate.

Another in the long list of Metal Tuesdays chosen because it’s currently burning around my head. Still, a very good song.

The “parking lot shooting” is still dredging up the politicians hoping to use this to win elections or noteriety.

One of the Democratic candidates is demanding that the governor call a state of emergency

Al Sharpton tries to remain relevant by saying he’s coming to protest.

Hell, one of the local news stations now has an entire web page dedicated to bullshit about SYG

With this hitting at the five-year mark of Treyvon (and the new “documentary” airing), we are definitely getting the full-court press.

In other news, I got an email from Sen. Bill Nelson telling me that now anyone can make an undetectable 3D printed gun. The senator is apparently unaware that:

1. I can make my own gun now.
2. Printing guns isn’t as easy, and you really shouldn’t use a desktop printer for that.
3. Even though the gun is plastic, not all of the parts would be. Especially this important part generally called bullets.

Over 450 people have had their guns seized thanks to the “Red Flag” bullshit passed by the legislation. Of no surprise to anyone, places not friendly to RKBA are issuing more RPOs than the rest of the state, and the system is being used against people on the flimsiest of pretenses.

At the big Rally in Tally, Erin Palette spoke. In addition to being one of my favorite podcast hosts, Erin’s the organizer of Operation Blazing Sword, which works to pair interested LGBTQ people to instructors for an introduction to firearms.

A budget is not about restricting what you can spend. It gives you permission to spend without guilt or regret.

Yeah, I know. Everyone is using that as the title of their post about Code Is Free Speech

For the few of you who don’t know, let me borrow some text from the site:

CodeIsFreeSpeech.com is a publicly-available Web site for truthful, non-misleading, non-commercial speech and information that is protected under the United States Constitution. The purpose of this project is to allow people to share knowledge and empower them to exercise their fundamental, individual rights. CodeIsFreeSpeech.com is a project of Firearms Policy Coalition, Firearms Policy Foundation, The Calguns Foundation, California Association of Federal Firearms Licensees, and a number of individuals who are passionate about the Constitution and individual liberties. We wish to thank Cody Wilson and Defense Distributed for their courage, passion, innovation, and inspiration.

Download all the plans!

EDIT: It looks like Amazon wasn’t comfortable hosting the site and has shut it down. But, everything is already out there, so as soon as I find a good repository, I’ll post it.

EDIT 2 – BACK UP!

H/t John Richardson

Maybe they should take a harder look at their rhetoric.

Via Reason (of course) comes an excerpt from Obama’s speech on Mandela’s 100th birthday.

Democracy demands that we’re able also to get inside the reality of people who are different than us so we can understand their point of view. Maybe we can change their minds, maybe they’ll change ours. You can’t do this if you just out of hand disregard what your opponent has to say from the start. And you can’t do it if you insist that those who aren’t like you because they are white or they are male, somehow there is no way they can understand what I’m feeling, that somehow they lack standing to speak on certain matters.

This isn’t the first time Obama’s said something like this.