What part of the Bill of Rights is the TSA ignoring?

The Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Several years ago, I visited Kitt Peak National Observatory near Tucson, AZ. Some friends and I took the guided tour that brought us into several of the telescope domes on the mountain. One statement the tour guide made stuck in my memory. He said “We get more light pollution from Phoenix than we do from Tucson which is less than half the distance from the observatory.”

Tuscon, which is home to the main campus of the University of Arizona (go Wildcats). The University does a lot of optical and astronomical research and was a main influence on Tucson’s Dark Sky Ordinance. Most of the Phoenix Metro cities do not have a dark sky ordinance. We can stand in the 18 wheeler lot after nightfall at our Wickenburg hotel and see the glowing dome of light pollution to the southeast.

The Town of Wickenburg is considering a dark sky ordinance. The ordinance isn’t yet in effect, so we don’t have to comply when selecting our outdoor fixtures, but we want to be compliant. The image above shows the light pattern that our compliant fixtures will deliver - no upward light.

We have two telescopes - serious ones - 10″ and 90 cm catadioptrics, but we don’t use them much because of the terrible seeing in Southern California. We want to be able to take them out on clear Arizona nights and be able to see the planets, stars, galaxies and nebulae without competition from our own lights.

We usually do our grocery shopping on Thursdays. Before we retired, we went shopping on Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. We changed to Thursday because there is less traffic in the store unless they have one of their weird 6-hour sales or something.

We decided that today we would combine the weekend shopping and pick up the things we’re going to need for our Thanksgiving dinner. As usual, the store wasn’t too crowded today. We shopped for the weekend faire, got some household supplies. got a few pantry items and also got everything we needed for our holiday celebration.

We redeemed a bunch of coupons and walked out of the store having saved over seventy dollars on the total. We’re looking forward to our weekend cooking and the Thanksgiving Holiday with eager anticipation.

With Pelosi’s public approval rating now less than Cheny’s lows, what could possibly go wrong?

During our October trip to Arizona, we crossed the Hassayampa River and noticed some people painting the pylons under the pedestrian bridge across the river. We passed by again later in the day and documented what a good job they did. Roll your mouse over the image below to view the results.

We read an article in the Wickenburg Sun that told about a group of student volunteers that did the work under the supervision of several adults. Local sources donated paint and materials for the project.

Courtesy of a former colleague . . .

We looked for some southwestern outdoor lighting on our last trip to Arizona. Unfortunately, we didn’t find anything close to what I thought was a good design. We bought some inexpensive outdoor fixtures to fill in the holes pending finding the style we like. However, when the electrician opened up the boxes, two out of the three fixtures we bought were broken. We boxed them up and returned them to the home improvement warehouse.

So now what to do? We put the fixture installation on hold while we came back to California for some business here. Bob went on line and found an outfit called TheSouthWestStore.com that custom makes sconces in the style we like.

The photo shows two styles - a bear and a road runner - I chose the bear, but the finish will look like the one shown on the road runner - it’s a blue-green patina with copper highlights. The translucent liner shown will be replaced with an amber mica liner that should look really nice at night time (the link to the night time picture shows light coming out of the top of the sconce - in reality, there will be a metal piece blocking upward light for dark sky purposes). Click on the image to enlarge.

These three tiny pumpkins are growing on our vine in the California garden. They aren’t going to grow to be the huge pumpkins that you see around this time of the year, but rather into some of the small ones often used for table decorations and such. Click on the image to enlarge.

I bet it smells worse than Noah’s Ark did after 40 days and 40 nights of defecating animal pairs . . .

From Mark Alexander at The Patriot Post

It is notable that Veterans Day shares the same anniversary date as the signing of the Mayflower Compact in 1620. That simple document, after all, is the taproot of a great nation, now a shining beacon of Liberty, which owes its very existence to the toils and trials of generations of American Veterans.

From the cold winter winds at Valley Forge in 1777 to the deadly terrain of the Korengal Valley in eastern Afghanistan today, generations of American Patriots have stood fast in defense of Liberty and at great cost.

I am certain I will never meet a seasoned war Veteran who is fond of combat, but to a man, every Patriot concurs with John Stuart Mill’s timeless note on the subject: “War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse. A man who has nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety is a miserable creature who has no chance at being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.”

I am equally certain that these Patriots, like millions of others since the 1789 founding of our Republic, have honored their “sacred oaths” to support and defend the Liberty enshrined in our Constitution, against all enemies foreign and domestic.

God Bless our veterans!