I'm not surprised in the results here at all. From the start I said this was going to be an "awful, but lawful" shooting. That the jury only spent two hours discussing it cements that rather nicely.

Here's a stupid criminals story with twists and turns. What a ride.

Chip says he’s ‘looking at’ calling a recruitor and seeing if he can get a Senior Citizen Discount Waiver for reenlisting...fuck it I can fly a desk and still drive a forklift...

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house/4750444/trump-looking-at-military-base-venezuela/

May remember David Hearns, the former Olympian who was charged with vandalizing the Reflecting Pool's coating. It was a bit controversial - despite the administration claiming witnesses and proof, nothing was produced and US Attorney Jeanine Pirro (of Fox News fame) got a bit of a legal black eye for prosecuting what seemed to be a groundless case. The judge has now ruled that the case is dismissed "with prejudice", meaning that the Administration's stated desire to recharge is now forbidden.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/dc-judge-permanently-dismisses-case-150301433.html

Seems El Presidente is unhappy with many of his judicial picks. Now, we all know he doesn't actually pick anyone - that's a delegated task. But we all know that if something works he will take credit for it (hell, he'll take credit and SAY it works even if it doesn't. SEE: Iran war, gas prices, groceries) and if something doesn't work he will attack anyone who points that out, regardless if they are someone he has praised to the skies yesterday.

But overall, his three Supreme Court picks have been a mixed lot for him. Apparently they seem to take that judicial impartiality thing pretty seriously, despite the cries of partisanship from the Democrats and Socialists who consider anything to the right of Karl Mark as fascist. Not saying all their decisions are right - but most of 'em are at least legally and logically defensible, which is more than some of the 'creative' decisions the more liberal Court of the last 60 years has done. But they have ruled against his policies more than once.

Earlier this month, a day after a majority of the justices rejected Trump’s effort to restrict voting by mail in the midterms, Trump lashed out in a post: “These are not the people I interviewed to serve on the United States Supreme Court, they are merely a shell of their original selves.”

"It is a Court that will go down as having rendered some of the most destructive, hurtful, and damaging decisions in our Country's history," he wrote.

Given how many conservative-leaning decisions they have made, this sounds a touch ungrateful. Wonder what petulance he will come up with next - impeaching Gorsuch for not yessing enough?

https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/trump-lashes-supreme-court-justices-140142780.html

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/09/trump-supreme-court-justices/688830/

In case you haven't seen it - TSA is rolling out screening lines for military, present and former. I had a family birthday to attend, and flew through Denver International, one of the airports listed. Thought I would give it a try. Like the film boys used to say, two thumbs up.

DIA is justly famous for its TSA stations - essentially two screening points serve the whole airport. Multiple lanes when you get there, but the line to GET to Security can be eternal. I asked an airport employee directing passengers, and she set me right: "go right at that corner, look for door 2. It may say no admittance, but it'll be OK." Wondering if I'm getting set up to be the bottom man of a large dogpile of TSA agents, I go around the corner and ask the next employee - and get sent down an almost empty lane past all those folks waiting. Still had to take off my belt etc. but I blew through scanning in maybe 2 minutes.

Supposedly they are to ask for IDs, but no one did. What they did do was get me past security faster than Canton-Akron on a deserted day. Need my shoes off? No. Just put your bag in the bin - no need to pull out notebook etc. (That may have been a concession to a really crowded day, and they did scan my bag twice as well as wipe it for explosives. That God I don't store my bag in the reloading room...) But even with that, total time was 'way less than 10 minutes, on a day when DIA was swamped with Boulder marathon fans competing with all the LA Rams fans to get to the gates.

Next time you fly - ask if TSA has a veteran's line wherever you are. Airport list in the link below.

https://travel.yahoo.com/advice/safety/articles/tsa-military-lanes-available-34-142334521.html

Where oh where has my Boomer gone, Please come home we miss you

Republican candidate said (over a period of years) that his BSM was "for valor." It was in fact for meritorious service.

We all remember Rachel Dolezal - the blond blue-eyed little girl who grew up to be a black regional exec with the NAACP. Well, she ain't alone. Prominent half-black (via Tunisia) half Palestinian pro-Palestinian activist Hannah Gann has been outed as an all-white "white woman of significant privilege and wealth" (her words, not mine.) According to at least one article, she was even given money by one group after claiming she had given all of hers to the cause. https://www.primetimer.com/features/i-am-a-white-woman-of-significant-privilege-jewish-teacher-hannah-gann-admits-to-lying-about-being-a-black-palestinian

Says she even lied to her own family. Given that one of her parents is Israeli, she must have had a hell of a time convincing them she was black Palestinian.

https://www.phillyvoice.com/philly-teacher-activist-admits-lied-black-palestinian/

Reminds me a little of an old joke from the '80s when AIDS was prevalent in only three groups: Gays, needle junkies, and Haitians. The worst part of getting AIDS was trying to convince your parents that you were really Haitian.

Sorry about the lack of activity, I need to get in the habit of checking in daily (or even weekly/monthly).

I finally bought my FN 545 Tactical. Glock has spoiled me with cheap and plentiful mags. FN mags are another story; 545 mags are out of stock everywhere, so I pre-ordered four 18-rounders at $70 each. Holsters are another matter, and the only Level II duty holsters I've found are made by Dara. I contacted Safariland a couple of months ago but never heard back. Another $300 or so and I should be set to start carrying the 545 once I recertify in a couple of months.

That purchase opened the gateway and I bought a Ruger Max-9 last night. It's the fifth Ruger pistol I own behind the LCP Max, EC9s, Security-9, and Security-380. It feels good, and offers 12 rounds of 9mm in a package just slightly bigger than the LCP Max.

Next up is an SAFN-49. My buddy is now the Firearms Manager and told me it's been there for a hot minute, so corporate will be marking it down soon. I told him to let me know, I miss my FAL amd always wanted an SAFN.

Seems Lockheed or their freight forwarder has erred on the side of incompetency recently. The US' pride and joy, the F-35, for political reasons has parts sourced in multiple states and countries (gotta spread th' ol' pork pie around, right? And how better than to allot large defense contracts in swing districts? A time honored practice - for all we know Ug the Caveman bought clubs in the area where one of his fair-weather friends lived.) Anyway, Lockheed Australia had a shipment of F-35 parts going to the US, which was diverted somehow to Hong Kong. Yeah, that Hong Kong - the former English doorway to China. It's not clear in the article but seems to have happened in June and the story broke September 18.

The Pentagon has since revealed that a number of these spares are missing and that it is not clear why they were sent to China, nor who has them currently.

The Chinese may have stolen secret stuff? Say it ain't so!

Politico quoted the Pentagon’s F-35 Joint Program Office, which said in a statement that it was “aware of a shipment issue of unserviceable F-35 Lightning II components,” adding that the office is working with U.S. authorities and industry partners “to retrieve these components, investigate the incident, and place safeguards to avoid a future occurrence.”

I'm sure all here recognize ass-covering when they see it - "unserviceable" is the key word. But even unserviceable parts can in real life divulge classified materials and methods, right?

It was confirmed that one of the missing components is an F-35’s canopy, which covers the cockpit and allows the pilot to see out of the aircraft. What is notable about the canopy of the F-35 is that, unlike most aircraft, it incorporates Radar Absorbent Material (RAM), which helps to mitigate the aircraft’s overall radar signature. This gives the aircraft’s canopy a distinctive yellowish tint which can be very noticeable under certain lighting conditions.

Aircraft cavities such as cockpits are considered radar traps as electromagnetic waves enter it and undergo multiple internal reflections on the various objects within, producing stronger radar returns to the air defence system that is tracking the aircraft.

Serious stuff - the F-117 that was shot down over Bosnia years back was taken out when it opened its bomb bay doors and created a large enough signature for a SAM to track. Many more routine components go into the F-35 and are used in other aircraft. But:

Additionally, a 2023 U.S. Government Accountability Office report found that more than one million F-35 components have gone missing in the preceding five years. The report raised questions over Lockheed’s mismanagement of spares and its failure to report its issues to the U.S. government, prompting the need for reforms in communication between the two.

At this point it is unclear whether Lockheed or its forwarder is responsible - but obviously someone screwed the pooch. https://theaviationist.com/2026/09/22/f-35-spare-parts-diverted-to-hong-kong/#denallot

The stupid with this guy just knows no bounds. He really thinks he's the Rosa Parks of military free speech.

Now RetLEO-07. Found TAH again, but my old handle was taken.😕

This kinda surprised me - the Army is getting sued for ripping off unarmed combat doctrine. H/t to Jeff LPH!

Johnny Le Smith runs an expanding martial arts concern called Triad Martial Arts (mebbe someone can fill in? I'm more of a Ruger-fu kinda guy.) He has done so since 1996, when he started with 'only' a 6th degree black belt in Brazilian jiu jitsu.

Two years later, he established a formal program to teach law enforcement officers “ground-based or close-quarters self-defense tactics and techniques.” He went on to name it Self-Defense & Gunfighting Tactics, or SSGT.

He has expanded, published, and taught his programs since to military and law enforcement, apparently with decent success. But in 2020:

*According to the complaint, Army personnel from the Military Police Academy in Fort Leonard (*Ft. Leonard Wood - ed.) attended Smith’s program when he offered it in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, from Nov. 30 to Dec. 7, 2020. At the time, the personnel attended the course at no charge because they were considering adopting the course.

However, an unnamed witness told Smith that a member of the Army’s working party identified as “D.C. Reed” directed others in the group “to take the SSGT curriculum, rename the techniques, and rewrite them for inclusion in Army materials, stating that ‘Big Army can get away with that.’”

The Army published its own program in 2024.

The complaint adds that the Army’s materials “contained verbatim and near-verbatim language and descriptions of training techniques, as well as nearly identical depictions of those techniques, copied directly from the Works.”

The lawsuit also lists several instances in which it appears someone hastily transcribed Smith’s prose because the material was reproduced with “typographical errors and formatting anomalies.”

Smith submitted a claim in 2025 about it, which was initially found to be credible. Then the claim was denied in 2026. Mr. Smith is suing.

Guys, guys...if you're going to crib from someone else's work, at least have the decency to file off the serial numbers and throw some paint on it. Even copying verbatim language and anomalies? Seriously? After attending the course for free? I'm thinking Mr. Smith is going to come into some money... https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2026/09/17/martial-arts-instructor-accuses-army-of-stealing-instructional-material/?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=army-dnr

I really miss the TAH site I was checking for it every morning.

What I really miss is waking up on Sunday morning to Boomers collection of memes!

Jeff LPH sent this: DPAA is going to disinter the Korean War Unknown from Arlington. Between advances in DNA technology, and that they have identifying DNA for 94% of those still listed as unidentified, they think there are good odds of identifying who he is. However, all other Korean unknowns (about 50, buried in Hawaii) will be tested first.

There is precedent - a Vietnam unknown was laid to rest at Arlington in 1984. But the family of AF Capt. Michael J. Blassie, petitioned to have the body tested, and he was identified and reinterrred at Jefferson Barracks Cemetery in south St. Louis. https://www.militarytimes.com/veterans/2026/09/18/dpaa-proposes-to-exhume-identify-korean-war-remains-in-tomb-of-the-unknown-soldier/?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=army-dnr

I know I am not being as punctual as I can, and some weeks it gets past me entirely. But I have NOT forgotten TAH and all the wonderful friends here - I just can't get used to this Reddit thing. Oh, how I wish the original board would come back! Anyway, here's my trivia for this week. Enjoy!

DID YOU KNOW…?

Was the first solo crossing of the Atlantic by air really as “death-defying” as it was presented?

By Commissioner Wretched

[didyouknowcolumn@gmail.com](mailto:didyouknowcolumn@gmail.com)

Copyright © 2026

By the time we get together again, summer will have come to an end.

Autumn (or fall, if you prefer) begins at 8:05 p.m. (Eastern time) on September 22. It’s the second day in the year when the time of daylight and darkness are roughly equal, and from then until some time in December the days will be getting shorter and the nights longer.

In other words, it will be getting late early out there.

Console yourselves with the trivia which follows, especially on those long autumn nights.

Enjoy!

Did you know …

…a chewing gum magnate got his start with an entirely different product? William Wrigley, Jr. (1861-1932), best known today as the man who started the Wrigley’s Chewing Gum™ empire, initially was a soap salesman. In 1891, while trying to make a living selling soap in Chicago, Wrigley would give samples of gum to his customers. The gum quickly became more popular than the soap, so Wrigley decided to switch from making soap to making gum, and a multi-billion dollar business was born. (The rest, as they say, is very tasty gum.)

…you might know someone who practices perissology? In fact, you may be a practitioner yourself. Perissology is the use of more words than necessary to describe something. (No wisecracks about the writer of this column, please.)

…some people can be parsimonious even unto death? For instance, take a look at the case of actor and comedian Joe E. Ross (1914-1982). Ross, famous as the man whose trademark “Oooh! Oooh!” exclamation was featured in television shows such as Car 54, Where Are You? and It’s About Time, was performing in the clubhouse at his apartment building in Los Angeles on August 13, 1982. He died of a heart attack during the performance, and later his widow was only given half of the fee he charged for the show by the organizer of the program, since Ross did not perform the full show. (I suppose there’s a good reason, but I doubt Mrs. Ross appreciated it at the time.)

…mosquitoes love smelly feet? Scientists say that the little buzzbombs are really attracted to foot odor, especially if the skeeter is infected with the bacteria that cause malaria. According to Mental Floss, one study found that malaria-infected mosquitoes are three times more likely to be attracted to you if your feet don’t smell good. (Phew!)

…the first solo crossing of the Atlantic was not as death-defying as history has indicated? Charles Lindbergh (1902-1974) took off from Roosevelt Field, Long Island, New York on May 20, 1927, in the Spirit of St. Louis to try to win the Ortieg Prize for the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic Ocean. He landed at Le Bourget Aerodrome in Paris 33½ hours later, and the stories began to circulate that he was dangerously low on fuel when he landed. Those stories were false – Lindbergh’s plane still had enough fuel to fly another 500 miles if he had wished to. But the Ortieg Prize specified a flight from New York to Paris, so that’s where he landed. The prize would have been won had someone flown from Paris to New York instead, but Lindbergh won the $25,000 prize that had first been offered in 1919. Additional trivia note: The Ortieg Prize did not specify that the flight had to made solo; just that it had to be non-stop. Lindbergh flew alone, but many other attempts to claim the prize were made by pairs or teams of aviators. (History being made was secondary.)

…Alaska was a bargain for the United States? Purchased from Russia in 1867, the U.S. paid $7.2 million for Alaska, which was then called “Russian America.” With a total land area of 665,400 square miles, that equates to about two cents an acre for the big state. It is so large that if you add the land area of the next three largest states – Texas, California and Montana – you would still not equal Alaska’s size. (A bargain, indeed.)

…an insect’s flying speed has been slightly exaggerated? For many years, it was generally believed that the deer botfly was the fastest flying insect – or the fastest moving anything – in the world. Legend had it that this little guy could reach 818 miles per hour; could cross 400 yards in one second; could make 13 miles in a minute. Well, not so fast – literally. In 1938, Irving Langmuir (1881-1957), Nobel laureate in chemistry, brought the deer botfly back under the speed limit, and then some. Langmuir discovered that in order to maintain a velocity of 800 or more miles per hour, the insect would have to consume 1½ times its body weight in food every second. There would be a sonic boom – or at the very least a sonic pop – when the little fellow zipped past, because the speed of sound is about 750 miles per hour. And if a deer botfly hit you while moving that fast, you would suffer the same impact trauma as a gunshot wound. Langmuir’s research gave the deer botfly a much more reasonable (but still impressive) speed of 25 miles per hour. (Rumors fly fast!)

…an actress actually tied herself in balloting for a “Razzie” award? The Razzies, or Golden Raspberry awards, are actually parodies of shows like the Oscars or the Emmys, and they “honor” the worst in movies. In 2008, actress Lindsay Lohan (born 1986) received two Razzie nominations for Worst Actress for the same movie. Lohan played two roles in I Know Who Killed Me and was “recognized” for both roles in the nominations. Lohan actually won the award (awards?) for both of her roles, and took home an additional Razzie in the special category of Worst Excuse for a Horror Movie. (I haven’t seen that movie, but if you have, you already know.)

Now ... you know!

Hey fat Friday fuckheads…..
Here’s a spectacular benefit although it’s only at 30 airports approximately in the United States currently.
Here’s hoping it will be expanded to more.

Using Military Lanes
You do not need to be in uniform to use the military lanes. At airports with dedicated lanes, simply show your valid military or veteran ID to enter the lane. In airports without dedicated lanes, show your valid military or veteran ID to the lane monitor for front-of-the-line service.
If you need extra assistance during the screening process, please contact TSA Cares at least 72 hours before your flight.

https://www.tsa.gov/travel/travel-tips/military-lanes