Cathead

People dig in to these so fast I can’t even get a picture before the biscuits are gone! I hope my grandmother would be proud of them. 

The Wickwick solution

Steven Green doesn't think Big Glenn deserves to be scuttled, but suggests that NASA's SLS probably does. The damage to Amazon from the launch explosion does, however, appear to be dramatic. Not all rocket companies are equally adapted to failure as a learning mode.

Travels in Appalachia

My passage through the Tennessee mountains went smoother than that of certain German prisoners of war. Of course, I know better than to trespass on Granny's property.

Tennessee Highway

The only downside to the recent trip to Tennessee was how very hard it is to get there from here and vice versa. We went out by US 64, which was fine except that then you have to pass an unnatural barrier in the form of Chattanooga, which currently has hundreds of thousands of semis every day trying to pass through. I've never seen it without a massive traffic jam, but this time it took three hours to get through the city because one of those semis had wrecked on the interstate and was blocking one of only two lanes where it was. 

Ah, beautiful Chattanooga.

The other main route across the line is I-40, which...

The project to repair the eastbound lanes of I-40 washed away in Haywood County during Hurricane Helene is progressing on-time, but the heavy lift has really just begun. When Helene tore through Western North Carolina in 2024, it inundated the embankment supporting the highway so vital to interstate commerce, washing away about a million cubic yards of rock and dropping the eastbound lanes into the water below.... 

state officials and project supervisors said the project is scheduled to be completed — or at least close enough to fully open both the eastbound and westbound lanes — by fall 2028.

That's a solid four years of construction; it's another three-hour crawl through the gorge if you want to go that way. 

We came back through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which can also be quite slow especially when sightseers spot a bear. It's shady and cool, though, especially once you come up towards Newfound Gap. 

Prosecutorial Nullification in VA

A small minority of prosecutors in Virginia have stated that they will not prosecute violations of the "facially unconstitutional" 'assault weapons' ban.

In a letter addressed to the County Sheriff shared with 29News, Powhatan Commonwealth’s Attorney Rob Cerullo said “significant” parts of that law are “facially” unconstitutional, citing, in part, the famous Heller ruling.

“The provisions mentioned above place both my office and yours in an untenable position,” Cerullo wrote. “We can either honor our oath to preserve the Constitution, or enforce statutes which are clearly unconstitutional.”

In a public letter, Pulaski Commonwealth’s Attorney Justin Griffith wrote that he will not take “law abiding citizens as of June 30 and criminalize that same behavior on July 1.”

“The General Assembly just really overstepped,” van Cleave said. “What they passed in one year, other places would have probably taken a decade to do all of that. But they just crammed it down everybody’s throats.”

The state government says they expect prosecutors to enforce the laws whether they agree that the laws are constitutional or not.  

UPDATE: Virginia State Police announce they have reinstated mandatory background checks on private sales of firearms, despite a court order requiring them to desist. GOA is suing them for contempt of court. 

Memorial Day

Amidst ten days of constant rain, a brief break in time for the ceremony. 

American Legion Post 104 conducts its annual memorial. 

The Library Dance Continues

I've mentioned the public library issues locally before now; it continues to be the flash point driving the culture war in these mountains about here. The local newspapers, which claim to have received threats driven by the Republican political faction, are reporting: you can account for that matter in how you read the coverage.

When Jackson commissioners on May 5 reviewed a draft document outlining the framework of a new county library board upon departure from Fontana Regional Library system, Commissioner Jenny Lynn Hooper, clad in a Turning Point USA T-shirt, was quick to express her central grievance: “I don’t think [a board member] ought to have a library card.” 

Bitter laughter erupted from the audience. 

“I feel like that’s kind of a prerequisite to knowing what’s happening in the library, is to have a library card and be active,” responded Chair Mark Letson.

But Hooper wasn’t backing down.

“Well to me, it’s like, do you make people that’s going to be on the ABC Board know all about liquor?” she asked.

Hooper’s comment analogized two independent bodies not typically ripe for comparison. ABC boards in North Carolina are responsible for “controlling the sale of spirituous liquor.” Library boards do not exist to “control” public access to literature nor are members intended to reflect the will of elected leaders.

This is a news piece, not an opinion piece, by the way.

While serving FRL and JCPL, Richards supported a “juvenile card program” for children ages 15 and younger, requiring “parental consent for use of the library by a minor.” She also proposed a policy to ban “banned book” displays in system libraries. Her motivation to join the board was stated in just three words — “to provide oversight.” 

Martinez also backed the juvenile card program and introduced a motion to curtail librarian reports....Blaine is an anti-LGBTQ+ activist. He backed JCPL’s withdrawal, routinely expressing misinformation in the process. His reasoning for wanting to join the board came in a list of handwritten bullet points: “provide oversight, evaluate budgets, evaluate policies, evaluate programs, perform book challenge reviews.” 

The thing is, the journalists have a point this time even if it's disabling their ability to report dispassionately. It is definitely true that the Republicans locally view the library as a disagreeable phenomenon similar to a liquor store, one that -- if it must be allowed to exist at all -- needs careful regulation and oversight to prevent harm to young people from exposure to toxic contents. Censorship is the whole reason they have been waging this battle, exactly as their opponents contend. There are stark First Amendment issues in the power play they are attempting. 

It is also true, as the Republicans contend, that the prior library governance was running the public library as a platform from which to wage cultural civil war against the values of the local community. That's also definitely the truth, and indeed explicitly in accordance with the American Library Association's published intent for such libraries in rural communities. They are indeed actively pursuing the charge that got Socrates put to death by an earlier revolt: 'corrupting the youth,' i.e. intentionally exposing the youth to ideas that their parents would find horrifying and subversive. 

There doesn't seem to be a compromise position on offer, one that respects the First Amendment and also allows the community to enjoy an undisrupted common peace according to local values and traditions. Both of the sides are, in a way, speaking the truth and correct in their assertions; neither side is promoting an acceptable way forward. Even if they didn't despise each other, it's not clear how they could move forward. 

The most likely outcome will be that the library system collapses locally, because both sides seem to prefer that it be destroyed than ceded to the other side. 

Anthropic & the Pope

Pope Leo announced that the Church and Claude will be working together. 

Man of the North

 

A Quarter-Century Struggle Closes

One of the stories of Red America is how our cities leverage their wealth and power to strive against our way of life. Indiana in the 1980s was one of the most friendly states for gun rights; but since 1999, the city of Gary, Indiana has been trying to sue gun manufacturers out of existence. That fight just ended. 

After a tumultuous 26-year journey through Indiana’s court system, the city of Gary’s historic lawsuit against the country’s largest gun manufacturers has come to an anticlimactic close. 

On May 21, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled that it would not hear an appeal from Gary, whose lawyers had argued that a state law aimed at ending the lawsuit was unconstitutional. The ruling means the city’s case is effectively over, with no opportunity for appeal.

“What happened here should shock and terrify anyone wanting to access the courts to seek accountability,” said Kris Brown, president of the gun violence prevention group Brady[.]

You can see the same thing happening across the country; every Austin, Texas or Asheville, North Carolina is working as hard as it can to try to force its views on the rural parts of the state. They bring in NGOs with deep pockets and lots of lawyers, and try to sue their way to victories they couldn't win through democratic means because the people don't agree with them. It's been the story of politics in Red America for my whole life. 

Climate Change is Canceled

The worst predictions, at least, are being walked back. This is from lefty site Vox: 

The world that [doomsday scenario] RCP 8.5 assumed will never arrive. Global coal use isn’t on a path to quintuple; consumption has largely plateaued after decades of growth. Instead of the global population ballooning to 12 billion people, the UN’s current median forecast projects about 10.2 billion by 2100, with other reputable forecasts putting the number even lower. (All things being equal, fewer people means less emissions.)

At the same time, the clean energy transition moved faster than almost anyone in 2011 anticipated.... 

Was RCP 8.5 ever realistic? One camp of experts, led by climate scientist Zeke Hausfather and energy modeler Glen Peters, argues that RCP 8.5 was plausible in 2011, but was taken off the table by genuine policy and technology progress. The other camp, led by Roger Pielke Jr., argues that the rate of global decarbonization has been roughly linear for decades. That would mean we didn’t actively avoid RCP 8.5; it was just never realistic to begin with.... 

But, of course: 

But even if we’ve averted doom, there is a lot of work to do to secure a safer future....

The entire point of climate scenarios like RCP 8.5 was that there was no one certain future for climate change — only multiple possible futures. Whether or not RCP 8.5 was ever possible, the enormous advances in clean energy over the past 15 years are what made its retirement certain. Now we have new futures before us, waiting for what we do next. 

A lot of us have been very skeptical for a long time about the Climate Doom models. Those of us who have been around long enough remember the earnest Ice Age predictions of the 70s, the Acid Rain of the 80s that was going to melt away all our cities (sadly, the cities are still there), the Hole in the Ozone of the 90s (which closed long ago), the Global Warming that became Climate Change because the data just couldn't be made to fit. We remember the prediction that Glaciers National Park wouldn't have any glaciers by 2020; in 2020, they removed the signs that made the claim.

For me, I was always willing to entertain the idea up until people started using coercion. The Chronicle of Higher Education used to run both the excellent Arts & Letters Daily (they still do, and it's still worth checking out regularly) and a sister site called Climate Debate Daily. The latter faithfully reproduced both studies and stories that argued for climate change, and skeptical accounts that were also based on scientific methods. One day, however, that became impossible in academia: they could no longer allow skeptical voices a place in the discussion. At that point, I decided I knew enough to know that the discussion had departed from reason and become another racket. Using your social power to crush dissenting voices is never the mark of someone who is comfortably correct and on the side of reason; it's the way the weak of mind fight, not the strong. 

Poker Card Shootout, May 2026

I forget what number we're on, but it doesn't matter.

This time I dispensed with the usual Ruger Single-Six, which is a .22 revolver with no recoil, and shot a few ".45 Long-Boys" like I would usually be carrying in practice. Turned out all right. 

Starship test flight went brilliantly

Behind the Black is a good place to watch these launches. SpaceX morale is obviously over the top. Update: link fixed!

Good Luck, Tulsi

I am saddened to hear of DNI Tulsi Gabbard’s resignation to address her husband’s rare bone cancer. I wish them both the best of luck. Thank you, ma’am, for a long career of genuine public service according to an honest conscience.