He called to tell me a few things:

• The “Wicked Witch of the Boomershoot” (long story from a few years ago) came by trying to get him involved in shutting us down in the future.
• She said that if she has to she will build a house at the top of the hill (actually it would have to be a little ways over the top of the hill) to shut us down.
• He repeatedly asked what her problem was and she kept saying, “It’s not regulated.“
• One of her tactics is to get it shut down on noise considerations.  He pointed out to her that she lives in Orofino and probably can’t hear it from there even if she tries.
• He referred her to another neighbor to see what his thoughts were.  I laughed and laughed at that.  That particular neighbor asked for a Boomershoot 2005 hat (shipped on May 7th) to annoy someone in cahoots with the Wicked Witch.
• He repeatedly thanks me and the entire Boomershoot crowd for driving slow past their house to keep the dust down and for keeping the explosions at a scale such they didn’t have things falling off the walls.

I told him she is a problem for lots of people in the area.  As near as we can tell she just likes to cause trouble.  He is in agreement and wants nothing to do with her plans. 

Others have plans to keep her busy for a while so maybe she will leave us alone once she is engaged elsewhere. 

Seth A. sent me an email asking if I was going to rant about the “Real ID” passing Congress now.  Heavy sigh.  It’s so wrong on so many levels and I just don’t have the energy for something I can’t do something about.  Bruce Schneier works it over if you want the details.  And as both Seth and Bruce point out activists can go here for some coordination on the protest.

My attitude, which sucks on this, is if we have our guns the harm done by this piece of crap is minimized.  Yeah, we end up paying $100+ million for something that probably decreases security but one should fight the battles you have a chance of winning and not wasting energy on things that are foregone conclusions.  And we can still fight it in the implementation and funding stages.  Make it much more costly and make it fall flat on it’s face. Point out that the risk if information like gender preference, or and/or ethnic origin (”I see you are a homosexual Jew! Your cattle car is waiting for you right over there.”)  were available from your ID card and is required to be shown to cops, employeers, and banks.

Update: The Bruce Schneier link was broken.  It’s fixed now.

I already sent email out to everyone on the Boomershoot aliases, but figured there were some people reading this that wouldn’t be on the aliases.  I think they may put the video on their website if you don’t mind registering.  Ry plans to put it on DVD for us too.

—–Original Message—–
From: Kim Griffis
Sent: Monday, May 09, 2005 9:43 AM
To: Stephanie Sailor
Cc: Joe Huffman
Subject:

Hello Stephanie and Joe,

It looks like the Boomershoot story will air “this” Wednesday (the 11th).
Please let everyone know they can see the story Wednesday on Evening
Magazine — that’s 7-pm on KING-5 in Seattle. I know the show replays on
Northwest Cable News in Spokane, Portland and Boise, but I am not sure the
time of the re-air, I think it depends on the cable system.
We had a fun time with you. Thanks for all your help.
We hope you like the story!

Kim

Kim Griffis
Reporter/Producer
KING-TV Evening Magazine
333 Dexter Ave N.
Seattle, WA 98109
206-448-2977

We are at war.  Please don’t forget that.  And although we have been fighting it on the turf of the enemy for the past few years they DO want to bring home to us again.  Read this, make plans for your safety and your loved ones, then be alert.

New York City hospitals are on the lookout for impostors trying to scope out health-care facilities and locate radioactive materials following warnings late last month from the Department of Homeland Security and the city Police Department about an emerging pattern of “suspicious incidents” in some American cities.

In an April 22 bulletin, the Department of Homeland Security warned hospitals that a string of people falsely representing themselves as inspectors for the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations had visited hospitals across America at odd hours, demanding information about the inner workings of the facilities.

The incidents occurred in Los Angeles and Boston, where the impostors entered hospitals at 3 a.m., as well as in Detroit and at several hospitals in New Jersey, the bulletin said. After hospitals received the Homeland Security alert, another incident was reported, in Indianapolis.

“These said individuals were attempting to gain public health service information from hospital personnel, and behaved in a manner inconsistent with legitimate inspection professionals,” the bulletin warned.

Although the department said it knows of no specific terrorist plot, the bulletin said: “These most recent nationwide impersonations are more noteworthy when seen in the broader context with similar incidents which have occurred from October 2004 to February 2005.” The letter went on to detail a series of incidents in that period in which people were caught taking unauthorized pictures of hospitals, asking for hospital blueprints, requesting information about the whereabouts of medicines that would be used in biological attacks, and inquiring about the institutions’ capacity for cardiac care, trauma care, helicopter access, and private rooms.

…

“We really don’t know why these incidents are happening,” he said. “There are a lot of things in a hospital that are desirable. Medications. Drugs. Equipment. In a post-9/11 world, one’s mind can wander and assume the worst.”

The past few days I’ve been posting a Quote of the Day which reminds us of how far the gun rights movement has come in the past few years.  Analog Kid suggests we should use it as a reminder to be vigilant.  I certainly agree with that suggestion but my intent is much larger in scope.  I believe we are in a position to drive the anti-gun bigots into political extinction and ultimately repeal nearly all the repressive anti-gun laws in this country and perhaps even liberate other countries.  To do that we have to focus our energies properly.  How I think we should do that is coming soon in an essay I intended to deliver as my Boomershoot Dinner speech but didn’t have time to write.