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Imagine that you own a chain of gun stores in Missouri. You are selling about $4 million a year in firearms, where it is completely legal to do so. That would be awesome.

Now let’s say that the government has managed to get all of the local banks and credit card companies to refuse doing business with you, so you are forced to hire an armored car company to transport the proceeds from your cash sales. They pick up the cash in Missouri, and transport it across Illinois to Tennessee.

Now selling guns is illegal in Illinois, so the cops pull over your armored car and confiscate all of your cash. $700,000 of it. Then a week later, they do it again.

That is why I am upset by what is happening in Kansas and California. I don’t care if pot is legal or not, there are rules for searching and seizing property, and this ain’t it. There are two Amendments to the Constitution that say this shouldn’t be happening. But it is.

Amendment 4
– Protection from Unreasonable Searches and Seizures

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized.

Amendment 5
– Protection of Rights to Life, Liberty, and Property

No person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.

The rights protected by the Constitution aren’t only rights for people that I happen to agree with. They are for everyone. Someone doesn’t lose those rights merely because another person has accused them of being a lawbreaker, even if the accusation is being made by a cop or other government official. ESPECIALLY if that accusation is being made by a cop or other government official.

I recently met a woman with the most amazing life story. A truly remarkable woman with an incredibly interesting tale to tell. I spent over two hours listening to her as she told this story to me. Her name is Audra, and this is her story.

When Audra turned 16 years old, she decided to run away from the boarding school that she called home. With a Greyhound bus ticket in one hand and her bags in the other, Audra was to Chicago. When she arrived, it was to discover that America was at war. The date was December 7, 1941.

Chicago was known as the pulse of America, but Audra found it to be the pulse of her story. She found opportunity there after she became a showgirl in a high-class dinner nightclub, where Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra performed. She was the opening act for both of them.

She told me how “Frank and Dean” used to pinch her on her bottom, and she would turn and gently slap them while wagging a finger at them.

She soon moved on to support the war effort by becoming an inspector for the seats on fighter aircraft that were being manufactured in Chicago’s Chrysler factory. If the seat passed inspection, she stamped her initials onto them.

While working for Chrysler, Audra entered a company beauty contest competing for the “Blonde Bomber B-29” title. Coming in first place, she made headline news and became a “pinup girl.” She actually became one of the women used as nose art on American bombers.

After learning about the contest, a fighter pilot reached out to Chrysler requesting a picture of Audra “Miss Blonde Bomber.” The contest picture was soon sent to him and he pinned it up in his cockpit. When the war ended and the plane was returned, officials found Audra’s picture still hanging in that aircraft. Coincidentally, that aircraft’s seat had her initials stamped on it as one that she had inspected.

Audra eventually became a trained machinist’s assistant and in the tail end of the war had a job grinding valves for the engines of B-29s. So it was that in 1945, one of her valve sets was used in one of the first Silver B-29 bombers, one bearing the serial number of 44-86292. She was considered the aircraft’s good luck charm, and even though the aircraft didn’t bear her name, her picture was carried to war, pinned to the inside of the lower cabin.

That B29 was named by its pilot. The plane was named the Enola Gay.

That fighter pilot who carried her picture as he sat in the seat that she had inspected? After the war, he searched for her until he found her. They were married, and Audra became a June Taylor dancer. For the next five years, Audra appeared on shows like Jackie Gleason’s “Toast of the Town.”

After five years, she left the dance troupe to raise the first of the couple’s three children. She remained married to that fighter pilot for 44 years, until his death more than 30 years ago.

It was a real honor to get to know this incredible woman and hear her larger than life story. That entire generation is filled with truly incredible Americans. Sadly, that generation is dying off, and with them, so is this nation.

There is an old saying: How do you spot the Fed or the police informant? He is the one urging you to break the law.

There are some people who have been emailing, posting, and commenting that seem eager to get some sort of incriminating statement from others. Just last week, one of them was dumb enough to post from an IP that traces back to a Federal Law enforcement office in the DC area. For Christ’s sake, the Feds can’t even afford to spoof an IP?

No one here is going to tell you about how they are plotting violence, or how they are flouting the law. This blog is being run in the public eye. I am not stupid enough to be locked up in a cell without bail, getting beaten every day while I await a trial that isn’t going to happen.

Anyone who has been paying attention to the J6 people know that the Feds operate by getting you to say inflammatory, illegal things and then framing you.

No thanks. Go try that stuff somewhere else.

ATF has decided to redefine what constitutes a firearm. Here come the draconian regulations. We already know that the ATF is illegally keeping a firearms registry. This is just to make sure they don’t miss any. Registration is only good for one thing: confiscation.

The Potato in Chief thinks that the fight he is picking with a global nuclear power will remain contained to the Ukraine [rhyme intentional].

He is mistaken.

My post on less lethal got a few chest thumping answers that seemed to indicate some people not seeing a use for less lethal alternatives. I disagree. There are times when it isn’t legal to have a firearm on you. The post office, a school, polling places, a bar, etc.. Florida law has more than a few places where you can’t have a firearm.

There are times when the use of lethal force isn’t justified and will get your ass chucked in jail.

Now consider the weapon that I posted about. It isn’t legally a firearm. It isn’t legally a chemical defense spray. I am not sure that it would legally be considered a weapon at all. There are times when your choices of defense devices are extremely limited. There are more than a few places where I am legally reduced to carrying pepper spray, which has its own limitations and issues.

I am thinking that it may just give me options.

Ever since schools sent children home for school during the COVID lockdowns, parents have had a front row seat to what their children are learning. Many teachers have always said that they want more parents to get involved. Now they are.

In a movement that is infuriating the left, parents are telling schools that some books and other materials have no business in schools. The communists are calling it “book banning,” but I don’t think it is. Banning a book isn’t the same as picking a more suitable one.

No one (except the left) is saying you can’t say or write whatever you wish. That doesn’t mean that school libraries need to buy what you write using taxpayer funds. There are millions of books that have been written, but even a well stocked library only has 15 to 20 thousand books. So are the other books banned? Of course not.

A school district that chooses to use the 3rd Edition of a biology book isn’t banning the 2nd edition. Some books are appropriate, while others are not. Parents who don’t want their 12 year old child reading books about 11 year old homosexual prostitutes are well within their rights to demand the removal of those books from the school library.

The reply from the left is that kids are getting the material from their cell phones anyway. I agree, but that opens a completely different debate on nanny software and the responsibility that parents have to monitor and limit their child’s access to the Internet.

This article talks about the longevity of pickups. According to the author, the most reliable pickup trucks are the Honda Ridgeline and the Toyota Tacoma. The only criteria was the percentage of vehicles that made it to 200,000 miles.

I submit this for your consideration: the reason why these two vehicles last longer than other trucks is that they are not trucks. The Tacoma and the Ridgeline have low cargo capacity, low towing capacity, and are essentially cars with a cab and bed. Don’t get me wrong, I think that they are fine, as long as you aren’t going to be using them for doing, well, truck stuff. Many of those who buy vehicles like those are not using them to haul materials to construction sites, nor are they pulling a heavy trailer. Nope, these vehicles are mostly daily drivers that do nothing more strenuous than take city dwellers back and forth to the cube farm.

The F150 and the SIlverado are used as workhorses. You see them hauling bricks, farm equipment, and trailers with lawn equipment. They are work trucks, and as such, they see harder duty than hauling the husband to the hardware store for some LED lightbulbs. For that reason, they are less likely to see 200,000 miles.

If you want to look at reliability between work trucks and others, there needs to be a way to control for commuters versus construction workers, versus farmers.

Imagine that you just bought a brand new or even a used 4×4. Then imagine that you can’t use the optional equipment without paying a monthly fee to the manufacturer. The air conditioner costs $15 a month, the ability to tow a trailer is $20 a month, and engaging the four wheel drive sets you back $40 a month. Heck, even the seat warmers cost $4 a month. It will cost you $20 a month to use your key fob to remotely unlock or start your vehicle. Sounds crazy, right? Who would buy a $45,000 truck, only to have to pay more to use most of the features that you already paid extra for?

Auto manufacturers are already doing it, and they stand to make billions in profits with the new scheme that doesn’t require them to do a thing to rake in the dollars. Toyota has already started the project. So have BMW, Subaru, Ford, Lexus, GM, and Tesla. If you think that you are immune because you own a used vehicle, think again.

Buried in the agreements that you signed when you bought the vehicle, the manufacturer retains all rights to the options installed in your car. They are letting you use them as part of a free trial. Ever since the 2018 model year, these hidden restrictions have been installed in software of new cars, allowing them to turn virtually anything in your vehicle into a subscription service that can be taken away from you at the manufacturer’s whim. You are one over the air software update from getting fleeced.

Some of the options proposed: limiting the performance of your car unless you pay extra, limiting the range of electric vehicles unless you pay extra for “bonus miles,” as well as simpler things like options and extras.

The last time I posted on this, I predicted that a new industry would take off: an industry centered around hacking your car. It turns out that I was correct. That day is already here. I drive an F150, and people are already doing some interesting hacks on Ford vehicles. Enter a piece of software called FORScan. You can already do some interesting things. Reprogramming your temperature gauges to bee more than just meaningless scales, for one thing.

Adding options that aren’t available to your model like automatic folding mirrors, daytime running lights, and more are possible.

Manufacturers are already taking steps to combat this, but the war over controlling vehicles is happening. Manufacturers are putting in software the requires you to be an authorized mechanic to access the electronics on the car.

One repair industry executive told a conference in January 2020 that he had heard of “at least two [other]” car makers moving toward an authorized-access model. Volkswagen may be one of them. Ross-Tech’s Vega said that the electric ID.4 is the first U.S. Volkswagen model with Vehicle Diagnostic Protection, requiring authentication from VW servers to alter nodes. Volkswagen (which did not return emails for comment) has seemingly not offered access to customers, or software like VCDS. As of July 2021, VCDS’s founder and its most fervent customers were trading anger, disbelief, and Right to Repair links in a long-running thread.

I don’t see it as any different than the fight over unlocking your cell phone, but with this much money at stake, you can bet it will be a big fight. In fact, I have already done a few hacks to my truck. I got rid of that annoying automatic start/stop feature in my F-150, for one thing.

Democrats are threatening violence if you don’t get jabbed, but that isn’t the reason for this post.

Carville and Hunt took a listener question wondering why President Biden would not pass a bill that bars unvaccinated citizens from interstate travel.

Because the President doesn’t pass bills. He only signs bills that have already been passed by Congress.