Team Kimberlin Post of the Day

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Most of my time at Goddard Space Flight Center on Friday was spent closing out as much paperwork as possible so that the project I’m supporting will be able to complete an “orderly shutdown” on Monday if Congress does not appropriate money to continue operations. Although I was retired in 2013, I was still actively participating in Engineering Seminars at Goddard, and that year’s end-of-the-fiscal-year train wreck caused one of those seminars to be cancelled. When I took note of the impending cancellation, Bill Schmalfeldt provided opportunity to publish a post titled Maybe McCain is Right.

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Stacy McCain says that Bill Schmalfeldt is a “deranged cyberstalker.” I published a post at 9:33 this morning, and the Cabin Boy had this tweet up 10 minutes later.frr201309301343Z

Hmmmmm.

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No, I’m still inclined to prefer Ken White’s classification of the Cabin Boy as a disturbed freak (scroll down to the conclusion).

Team Kimberlin Post of the Day

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One of the images that has occasionally illustrated these posts is a picture of the sort of Mark Time timer that the Speedway Bomber used in his time bombs. In early posts the timer was quoted as saying,

tick, tick, tick, tick, …

Eleven years ago, the timer’s vocabulary was expanded in a post titled Dread Pirate #BrettKimberlin and Time Keeping.

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I would like to express my thanks for the generosity of commenter Grammie for providing tocks. Tocks had been unavailable because they have been booked well in advance by a crocodile chasing another pirate. Now that they are available:

<mockery> Tick, tock, tick, tock, … </mockery>

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Brett Kimberlin is still the Speedway Bomber.

Tick, tock, tick, tock, …

New York City’s Fair Share

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I saw this tweet on X (TSMPFKAT)—According to Politico, New York City has received “more than 100,000 migrants” since the spring of 2022. While that may seem like a lot, it isn’t quite their fair share. Given NYC/s percentage of the US population, they should be taking in about 2.2% of the illegal aliens in the country. The city’s share for the past couple years alone would be roughly 140,000.

After all, New York is a sanctuary city.

Team Kimberlin Post of the Day

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Brett Kimberlin actually tried to argue that the First Amendment right to petition the government protected his right to lie on a criminal complaint. The TKPOTD for seven years ago today, reported on how well that claim stood up in court.

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During the oral argument for the Kimberlins’ failed motion to dismiss the Hoge v. Kimberlin, et al. lawsuit because they were alleging it was a SLAPP suit, The Dread Pro-Se Kimberlin tried to argue that the First Amendment protected his right to say anything in a complaint filed with a public official. Of course, that’s nonsense. Neither the First Amendment nor the Maryland Declaration of Rights protects perjury in a criminal complaint.

While TDPK was trying to make his case, Judge Hecker posed some hypothetical questions along these lines—

Suppose Mr. Hoge went to the Sheriff’s Office and falsely told them you were a pedophile. Would the First Amendment protect him from being sued for defamation?

Suppose your lawsuit had not ended in a directed verdict, and Mr. Hoge had had to present a defense. Would he have been able to use the First Amendment as a defense in that case?

TDPK seemed to have difficulty answering those questions.

In the end, Judge Hecker came to the same conclusion as Judge Mason did in the Walker v. Kimberlin, et al. case—if TDPK’s theory of the law were correct, the tort of malicious prosecution could not exist. For that and other reasons he found that my suit is not a SLAPP suit and denied the Kimberlins’ motion.

And that proceeded as I foresaw.

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He really should have found a better source for legal advice.

Tonight’s Postmortem

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Well, a significant amount time was wasted by panelists talking over one another.

Burgum was straightforward in pointing out that some things aren’t the business of the federal government. Christie talked about how to use federal assets within constitutional limits, but even he suggested the need for at least one federal law to address a non-federal problem.

The South Carolinians did not come off well. Tim Scott’s lack of executive experience showed in his answers. Nikki Haley stuck me as abrasive.

Mike Pence is past his sell-by date.

Ramaswamy seems to have a lot of good ideas that aren’t well integrated politically. As Bismarck noted, politics is the art of the possible. Some of the things Ramaswamy wants to do aren’t doable, at least in the short run.

I don’t think DeSantis hurt himself, but I also don’t think he helped himself either.

So who won? Burgum seemed to be the adult in the room. Christie talked a game that would be good if he can get the voters to trust him. DeSantis didn’t move the needle one way or the other.

Given that the debate was in California, maybe the winner was Gavin Newsom.

Tonight’s Panel Discussion

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Some of the candidates for the 2024 Republican nomination for President are getting together at the Reagan Library for a panel discussion masquerading as a debate. I plan to watch it, but rather than soberblogging* as it goes, I’ll present a postmortem afterwards.

Stay tuned.

* Vodkapundit does plan to engage in drunkblogging. His running commentary is often more interesting than the event itself.

A Bipolar Nebula

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When astronomers first studied this object, they thought they were seeing two, so the two lobes of this planetary nebula were cataloged as NGC 2371 and NGC 2372. Now, the object is often called NGC 2371/2. NGC 2371/2 formed when a Sun-like star reached the end of its life and blew off its outer layers, shedding gas and dust and pushing material out into space to leave a dying, superheated star. That remnant is the bright star between the two lobes at the middle of the image.

Image Credit: NASA / ESA

Team Kimberlin Post of the Day

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I read on the Interwebz that the first load of M1 Abrams tanks has been delivered to Ukraine. That reminded me of this post from ten years ago today about #BillSchmalfeldt, Abrams Tanks, and the Second Amendment.

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I was going spend the entire day ignoring Cabin Boy Bill Schmalfeldt, but someone sent me a link to his latest waste of bandwidth over at Digital Journal (No, I won’t link to it.). It’s called Op-Ed: If Abrams tanks are outlawed, only outlaws will have Abrams tanks. Schmalfeldt seems to believe that ownership of an Abrams tank by a U. S. citizen is (or should be) illegal.

Other than nuclear, biological, and most chemical weapons, citizen ownership of weapons is not generally prohibited under federal law. Some are restricted. Some are taxed. But few are prohibited. Some states are more restrictive than the feds.

I don’t know how one would go about buying one, but I’m not sure that there is any federal law that bans private ownership of an Abrams tank.

There would be a lot of paperwork and tax filings involved in owning an Abrams. The two 7.62 X 51 mm machine guns and the .50 M2 machine gun would need to have the appropriate ATF tax stamps (and the guns would need to have been made before the 1986 ban). The main gun (either the 105 mm for early M1 or the newer 120 mm) would also have to be registered with the ATF as a destructive device and the appropriate tax stamp purchased.

Here in Maryland, the three machine guns would have to be licensed by the State Police, and the owner would have to pay a $10/year fee for each. The MVA wouldn’t issue tags, so the owner would be restricted to off-road use.

If the owner kept live rounds for the main gun, the ATF would impose requirements on the storage magazine, and, here in Maryland, the State Fire Marshal would get involved.

So, yes, the Second Amendment does protect a citizen’s right to possess arms.GE

Even an Abrams tank with the right paperwork.

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I haven’t bothered to check with Kimberlin’s Ukrainian news site (empr dot media which now forwards to ukrainefrontlines dot com) to check to see if Team Kimberlin believes that Ukraine should have those tanks.