Personally, I’d rather such laws didn’t get enacted rather than live through the years it takes for a case to get through the court system

OSD 364: Gun control is quietly having a moment
Huh, normally we like retro vibes.

A few months ago, in “OSD 352: ‘Gun rights are winning and nobody has realized it’, 2025 edition”, we checked in on state-level gun control laws:

Delaware passed an assault weapons ban in 2022 and Illinois and Washington passed one in 2023. Colorado is going to have a permit-to-purchase regime for “assault weapons” in 2026. Those were major setbacks. Previously, we had often cited the pleasing fact that all seven states with AWBs had originally passed them between 1989 and 1994. The idea was that AWBs weren’t a trend, they were a relic from a moral panic. That is no longer entirely true.

This hasn’t been a big topic because it happened on state by state, but it is a sea change. From 1994 to 2022, no state changed its mind in favor of AWBs. But that equilibrium — seven states with AWBs and 43 without — no longer holds. In addition to the states above, Virginia and New Mexico look to be on their way to bans of their own in 2026.

It’s a mirror image of the concealed carry revolution. That also happened state by state, and most of the country was shall-issue before most people even knew that was a trend. The same could happen with AWBs. What will decide that is whether guns continue to build cultural momentum and whether the courts get involved.

On that latter point, a New Mexico ban might have a silver lining. It’s in jurisdiction of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. Unlike the circuit courts covering, say, California or New York or Massachusetts, the Tenth Circuit might strike down an AWB. That could generate a circuit split, since other circuit courts to look at the issue have upheld AWBs. And a circuit split makes it likelier for the Supreme Court to accept an AWB case. Justice Kavanaugh has already basically announced that the Court is looking to take such a case in the next 1-2 years.

There’s a “you know you’re over the target when you’re taking flak” aspect to expansions of individual rights. As the rights gain momentum, they provoke a backlash of crackdowns from governments that are hostile to them. So the moment of most contentious backlash is the moment right before you win. But a right has to survive long enough to break through to that point. Keep at it.

The Article is very long and technically involved. I still strongly suggest you “Read The Whole Thing™” as it gives a basis for one of the main problems with Darwinian evolution  i.e. “Irreducible Complexity”

Comment O’ The Day
Davide “Tanner” Taini
So the genetic code has a bootstrap problem identical to compiler theory. The aaRS enzymes are the compiler that translates DNA into proteins, but they’re themselves proteins, compiled from DNA by the very system they implement. Dennis Ritchie solved the C compiler bootstrap by sitting down and hand-writing the first version in assembly on a PDP-11. Someone had to intervene from outside the system to start the loop.

Except in biology, that someone also had to design the hardware, the instruction set, the memory architecture, the power supply, the chassis, and make sure the whole thing was self-hosting from the first clock cycle. Ritchie only had to write the compiler. God apparently handled the full stack, and shipped it without a single patch note!

BLUF
the code and the machinery that reads it had to arrive simultaneously and completely. The literature dances around this without landing on it.

So the short answer to your question is: the literature confirms the co-organization of code and decoder machinery, names it as symbolic rather than chemical, and identifies the second base as its organizational anchor — but does not draw the conclusion that this makes unguided origin not just improbable but logically incoherent.

The DNA Code was Designed; the Decoder is the Code
“The code and its decoder had to arrive simultaneously and completely functional.”

First a synopsis, then the Claude Sonnet conversation that got us here. This is tentative.

The standard codon wheel, RNA version. The radial symmetry graphic of the 4³ codon table requested below.

Code and Decoder as a Single System

The standard codon wheel — the diagram found in every genetics textbook — organizes the code around the first base. In that orientation, the second-base symmetry TES identifies is effectively invisible. It has been hiding in plain sight for seventy years simply because the field adopted the wrong organizing axis early and never changed it.

When the charts are examined directly, the second-base blocks map cleanly onto amino acid physicochemical properties: the C block contains the smallest, simplest amino acids; the T block is dominated by hydrophobics; the A block handles the polar and charged amino acids. This is not incidental. Peer-reviewed work by Carter and Wolfenden confirms that the acceptor stem of tRNA independently encodes amino acid size, while the anticodon encodes polarity — the same two properties that track with the nucleon count progression that The Ethical Skeptic (TES) identifies. Carter explicitly describes the result as “a symbolic mapping,” comparing it to Morse code. The second base, he notes, is the most organizationally conservative position in the entire code.

What the literature does not do is follow this to its logical conclusion. Carter frames the self-referential relationship between code and decoding machinery as a “reflexivity” that enabled evolution. What it actually describes is a closed loop with no entry point for an unguided process: the aaRS enzymes that implement the code are proteins, produced by reading DNA through the code that those same enzymes implement. The code and its decoder had to arrive simultaneously and completely functional. Neither has any meaning without the other.

This is not merely improbable. It is logically incoherent as an unguided event.

Continue reading “”

Indianapolis Police Get It Right on First, Second Amendments

I’ve never been one to make a big deal out of Valentine’s Day, but I can think of about a million things more romantic than going out and protesting ICE with my sweetheart. I can’t imagine that an anti-ICE protest in downtown Indianapolis on Valentine’s Day is going to draw a huge crowd, but its organizers are hoping for a big turnout, include armed demonstrators.

If anyone is hoping that the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department will be cracking skulls and arresting those who dare exercise their First and Second Amendment rights at the same time, they’re going to be sorely disappointed.

A group called Strong Neighbor is hosting the protest at the Abraham Lincoln statue in University Park, at least partly in response to the comments by President Donald Trump and other administration officials suggesting there’s no such thing as peaceably carrying a gun at a protest after the killing of anti-ICE activist Alex Pretti in Minneapolis last month.

Strong Neighbor calls those statements “an attack and dismissal of our constitutional rights,” though the group’s broader disagreement seems to be with the administration’s immigration enforcement efforts. The following Monday, for instance, the group will be taking part in a “Gen Z Against ICE” protest. For those not interested in protesting, though, next weekend they’ll be hosting a “Potting Party” where attendees can “plant seeds you can take home, learn about hydroponics, and build community”. No word on whether lawfully possessed firearms will be welcome at either of those events.

In response to the planned protest, the IMPD put out a statement making it clear that there’s no conflict between the First and Second Amendment, at least from the agency’s perspective and that of state and federal law.

The presence of guns at a protest is both not a crime nor a reason for law to intervene, an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department statement said.

Our team recognizes that the visible presence of firearms can make some community members uncomfortable or concerned,” the statement reads. “The IMPD recognizes and respects the constitutional rights of all members of the community to peacefully assemble and exercise free speech.”

That’s all that needs to be said, really. And so long as the “strong neighbors” who show up for the protest aren’t violent, I wish them well.

If, on the other hand, there are protesters who cross the line, as we’ve seen at another anti-ICE protest in Indiana, I suspect the IMPD is going to quickly move to take that individual into custody. Just pointing a gun at someone who’s not threatening you is a serious offense, as Ryan D. Hughes has learned. The anti-ICE demonstrator’s been charged with a felony and a misdemeanor for allegedly pointing a loaded shotgun at the driver of a van passing by the protest, as well as purportedly pepper-spraying several of his fellow protesters.

I sincerely hope that nothing like that happens in Indianapolis tomorrow, but as we’ve seen with other protests and counter-protests about ICE, they don’t just bring out the passionate. They have a tendency to bring out the nutballs as well.

Liberalizing concealed carry laws won’t lead to a return to the Wild West – though it wouldn’t be bad if it did. … in 19th Century cattle towns, homicide was confined to transient males who shot each other in saloon disturbances. The per capital robbery rate was 7% of modern New York City’s. The burglary rate was 1%. Rape was unknown. — David Kopel

Besides being St Valentine’s Day, February 14 is also another important date

The patent for the 1911 pistol was issued on February 14, 1911.

The Colt M1911 pistol, designed by John Moses Browning, was patented under U.S. Patent 984,519, which was filed on February 17, 1910 and officially issued on February 14, 1911. This patent covered the semi-automatic, recoil-operated design that became the foundation for the M1911, a firearm that would later be adopted by the U.S. Army on March 29, 1911. 

Columbia City shooting was self-defense, authorities confirm

Seattle police are investigating a shooting in Columbia City that officers say was an act of self‑defense.

A man was shot Thursday evening, the Seattle Police Department (SPD) confirmed.

Police officers were called to S. Angeline Street at approximately 6:30 p.m. after receiving reports that gunshots were fired. When they arrived, officers found a 33-year-old man who had been shot in the chest.

A short time later, a 27-year-old man called 911 and reported that he was involved in the shooting.

According to police, the 33-year-old man forced his way into his ex-girlfriend’s apartment and assaulted the 27-year-old man, who is her current boyfriend.

Investigators said the younger man then shot the ex-boyfriend.

Seattle police released the shooter from custody, but the case remains open.

At last check, the man who was shot was in serious condition.

Political grandstanding has always been fraught with the danger that the politician and his staff are just stupid enough to make a public fool of the politician. And sometimes this stupidity should hurt.

DOJ Officials Claim Thomas Massie Just Made an Unbelievable Error

Reps. Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna may have gotten themselves into hot water after falsely accusing four men of being tied to the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein in front of Congress.

The pair claimed that four names, which the Department of Justice redacted in the release of the files, were “powerful men” engaged in connected to Epstein, but those men were simply randomly selected for a police line up and had zero real connection to the case.

Massive and Khanna claim that the fault in the false accusations lies with Department of Justice officials, stating that the DOJ “illegally redacted names without explanation and then refused to give context for the names once they redacted.”

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon say that the pair jumped onto social media and in front of Congress to wave the men in front of the country rather than reach out to the DOJ for clarification beforehand.

The two have faced calls online to resign for airing the names of innocent men, with some saying that they have no interest in the victims and are only pursuing the matter for attention.

The Babylon Bee Ranks Humanity’s Worst Inventions

Since the invention of the wheel, many have pondered the greatest inventions of mankind. The Babylon Bee, however, is more fascinated by studying humanity’s worst inventions.

Here is an exhaustively researched list of mankind’s worst inventions — ranked:

  1. QR code menus – You’ll pry our germ-soaked paper menus from our cold, dead hands.
  2. TikTok – Yes, some of it is funny. But at what cost?
  3. Sin – Bad, but not quite as bad as QR code menus or TikTok.
  4. OneDrive – Save. My. Files. On. My. Own. Computer.
  5. Unskippable cutscenes in video games – If you want to make a movie, MAKE A MOVIE, NOT A VIDEO GAME.
  6. Ohio – No elaboration necessary.
  7. Mustard gas – Bad, but not Ohio bad.
  8. The designated hitter rule – BASEBALL IS NINE PLAYERS VERSUS NINE PLAYERS. THIS IS HOW GOD ALWAYS INTENDED IT TO BE.
  9. Zoom meetings – This includes Microsoft Teams.
  10. Communism – Hundreds of millions killed. Many more lives ruined. Still better than a Zoom meeting.

Think there’s anything that was missed? You’re wrong, this is a definitive list.