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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.

Personal attacks are not going to be allowed here. In my post yesterday about landlords, user Hedge posted this comment:

Idk. I kind of like that idea. What do you have to hide as a landlord? Seems fair. Asshole wont fix a damn thing. Wants to raise the rent cause college is in? Last tenant had a fucking pig in the back yard. Fuck that. People ought to know and it’s coming so sell or get ready.
And yes I do work for a large property management company in a college town for 10 years .

Fuck landlord scum. It’s all about the money so shut up and spend it or get out of the game fags.

First, let me explain to you how renting a house works. The lease lays out exactly what the landlord will do, and lays out what the tenant will do. That lease is a legally binding contract. If it says the property owner has to fix something, he does. If it doesn’t say so, then he won’t. Once that contract is concluded, that property owner is free (in most states) to charge whatever he thinks the market will bring.

As a landlord, I will tell you that the house I am renting is a large investment. That quarter of a million dollar purchase price isn’t the end of it. My insurance went up by 15 percent this year. Taxes went up by 10 percent. Landscaping costs are up another 8 percent. On top of that, I have to price increased risk into my prices.

As an example, one property company in Milwaukee filed 850 evictions in two weeks. Why? Because the eviction moratorium prohibited them for over two years, meaning that as many as a third of their tenants owed as much as $17,000 in unpaid rent, with the total being $5 million in lost revenue. That money has to be made up somewhere, and that means higher rent.

As to Hedge the commenter, I want to point out to you that back in June, you were bragging about how you are making a 6 figure income selling weed while calling bloggers a bunch of beggars who keep talking out of our asses. Maybe you should use some of those huge profits to buy a house, instead of bitching about how the man is ripping you off. As a business owner, I am sure you understand about pricing, costs, and profit.

Then you decided to come after me for getting the vaccine, even though I plainly said:

I felt it was best for me, so I got it. That may not be the same with everyone. Each of us has the same right to decide what medical care is best for us. Not everyone has the same medical situation, and there are no one size fits all solutions to ANY medical situation. You do you, and I will do me.

This blog, like my rental property, is owned by me. I pay for it, and I decide who gets to use it. Since you have decided to call me scum, you are cordially invited to fuck right off. Three times of personal attacks is two times too many. Hedge, you just earned yourself and your entire IP in Norman, Oklahoma a ban.

Let’s say that you want to borrow a quarter of a million dollars. The bank has you fill out an application and checks your credit. Do you ever ask the bank to prove that they are nice guys?

As a property owner, when a person wants to borrow my $250,000 house, I have them fill out an application. If an applicant ever demanded that I do likewise, I would assume that he was going to be a major pain in the ass and toss his application in the trash. That, according to the article, means

As if you needed any more proof that landlordism is the scum of the earth (sorry not sorry), a TikToker has revealed the wild response he got when he asked a real estate agent for a landlord reference…

Good and normal system we have! Where you basically have to beg someone to live in their spare house! While knowing that as someone under the age of 50 you will never be able to buy one (1) house of your own!

So because she can’t manage to buy a house and I am willing to invest my savings and loan her one, that makes me ‘scum of the earth.’ She goes on to say:

Honestly, this is a fucking baller move and ten out of ten way to figure out if a future landlord is a raging anal blister instead of a human being.

No wonder she can’t manage to be responsible enough to buy a house, or even get the references needed to rent one.

I also Google my applicants. Kathleen Farmilo is never renting a house from this anal blister.

Some Americans are upset that the Chinese government is pulling journalists from the air if they report on things that the government doesn’t want reported on.

Isn’t this what the American people want? After all, it’s what they are trying to do to Joe Rogan, it’s what happened to Mark Levin, Sean Hannity, and others. It’s what YouTube, Facebook, and the NBA are doing.

So what’s the difference?