Scott Bradford: Off on a Tangent

Rep. Scalise, Others, Shot at Baseball Field

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Representative Steve Scalise (R-LA 1st) and four others were shot this morning at a Republican baseball team practice in Alexandria, Virginia.

A single shooter carrying a rifle entered Eugene Simpson Stadium Park and opened fire. Scalise was shot in the hip and was seriously injured, but is in stable condition. Zack Barth, a legislative correspondent for Representative Roger Williams (R-TX 25th), and Matt Mika, Director – Government Relations at Tyson Foods, were also injured. Special Agent David Bailey and Special Agent Krystal Griner of the Capitol Police, who were serving as Scalise’s security detail, immediately engaged in a gunfight with the attacker and were injured. None of the injuries are believed to be life threatening, although Mika, the most seriously injured, is currently listed in critical condition.

Law enforcement officials have identified the shooter as James Hodgkinson, 66, of Belleville, Illinois. He was shot by police and later died of his injuries.

Representatives Jeff Duncan (R-SC 3rd) and Ron DeSantis (R-FL 6th), who left the practice early, reported that the shooter asked them whether Republicans or Democrats were playing. They told him that it was a Republican practice. Shortly after Duncan and DeSantis left, Hodgkinson began his attack. Hodgkinson’s social media posts indicate that he was a strong supporter of Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) in the 2016 Democratic presidential primary. He had recently commented on a Change.org petition, “Trump is a Traitor. Trump Has Destroyed Our Democracy. It’s Time to Destroy Trump & Co.” [sic]. Sanders strongly condemned the attack and all political violence.

The Republican baseball team was practicing for the Congressional Baseball Game for Charity, which has been held annually since 1909. It is friendly competition between teams of Republican and Democratic congressmen, and the proceeds benefit charitable organizations. The game is scheduled to be held tomorrow. Representative Martha McSally (R-AZ 2nd) has announced that the game will go on as scheduled.

Random Photos

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Somehow it has been two years or so since I’ve posted a bunch of random photos. So here’s a bunch of random photos. Many of these have made an appearance at one point or another on Facebook, but I was long overdue for cross-posting the ones I really like here. Enjoy!

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Trip to Taipei and Hong Kong

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In April and May, Melissa and I traveled to Houston, Texas, and then from there traveled with Melissa’s mom, dad, and brother to Taipei, Taiwan (Republic of China) and Hong Kong (a special administrative region of the People’s Republic of China). This was primarily a trip to spend time with Melissa’s extended family, although we also did some of the usual tourist things as well.

This was my (and Melissa’s) first time out of the western hemisphere, so it was kind-of a ‘big deal’ for us. Of course, for Melissa, it was a visit to her ancestral homeland, so it was probably a bigger deal for her than for me! Although I’m at least part English, so I can claim an ancestral connection to Hong Kong . . . sort-of. Hooray for colonialism!

Regardless, we had a good time. Lots of great people and great food. Although the air quality was pretty epically bad and we all got sinus infections. Oh well. I didn’t bring my camera on this trip; I mainly wanted to just enjoy it and soak it up. But of course I did take shots on my phone of things I found interesting, and I’ve included some of those photos below. Enjoy!

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Gorsuch Confirmed to Supreme Court

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Neil Gorsuch has been confirmed by a 54-45 majority in the United States Senate and will become the next Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

Gorsuch was President Donald Trump’s (R) first Supreme Court nominee, and his confirmation ends an unusually lengthy vacancy on the court. Justice Antonin Scalia died of natural causes in February of 2016, and although President Barack Obama (D) nominated Merrick Garland to the seat the following month, the Senate never acted on that nomination. Gorsuch, like Scalia, is generally regarded as a textualist, so his confirmation is unlikely to cause any major shift in the court’s ideological balance.

The U.S. Constitution charges the Senate with providing “advice and consent” on judicial nominations, and it remains an unanswered legal question whether inaction actually fulfills that requirement. Republicans simply never considered the Garland nomination, and Democrats mounted a “filibuster” in an attempt to prevent Gorsuch’s from going to a vote.

Republicans broke the filibuster by invoking the so-called “nuclear option,” a rule change that prohibits senators from obstructing Supreme Court nominations. Democrats made a similar rule change in 2013, but it only applied to cabinet and lower court appointments.

Gorsuch will be sworn-in by Chief Justice John Roberts on Monday.

Tales from the 1977 Jeep Manual

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Maybe I’m weird, but I read the manuals that come with most of the products I own. I don’t always read them before I start playing around with the product, but I almost always do sooner-or-later. Sometimes it’s a waste of time and I learn nothing new. Other times, I discover useful new features and capabilities that I might not have ever found otherwise.

I am especially diligent with the manuals for the automobiles I’ve owned over the years. Cars are complicated machines . . . and they’re among the most expensive products that most people own. When I get one, I want to know all of its ins-and-outs. I want to understand how its features work. And I can learn a lot of those things from the manual. Not everything, of course; most cars have ‘undocumented’ features and hacks that you can find in the service manual or enthusiast forums. Those are even more fun. But the regular owner’s manual can still provide a wealth of useful information.

Of course, in a modern car manual, there are a lot of disclaimers and legalese. It’s not uncommon to find a description of a feature, and then a warning instructing you to never-ever-ever use that feature unless you’ve signed a waiver, parked in a bubble-wrap sphere, and put on a helmet.

It wasn’t always that way. As I have mentioned before, I am the proud owner of a 1977 Jeep J-10 pickup (which is currently being restored). Its owner’s manual—which is actually an owner’s manual for the entire 1977 Jeep product line—does have some legalese warnings here-and-there, but overall it just tells you how the vehicles work and how you should take care of them. To a modern reader (like myself), it’s a bit disconcerting. But perhaps even more disconcerting are the features and oddities that are completely absent from modern cars . . . some of which deserved to land in the dustbin of automotive history, and others that ought to make a comeback.

Read on for some examples.

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Scott Bradford is a writer and technologist who has been putting his opinions online since 1995. He believes in three inviolable human rights: life, liberty, and property. He is a Catholic Christian who worships the trinitarian God described in the Nicene Creed. Scott is a husband, nerd, pet lover, and AMC/Jeep enthusiast with a B.S. degree in public administration from George Mason University.