Hello Dennis

I just received a visit to my blog from Handgun Control (now known as the Brady Campaign). It looks like it might have been Dennis Hennigan:

 

 

Domain Name sct.com ? (Commercial)
IP Address 65.242.56.# (HANDGUN CONTROL)
ISP Verizon Business
Location
Continent  : North America
Country  : United States  (Facts)
State  : District of Columbia
City  : Washington
Lat/Long  : 38.9042, -77.032 (Map)
Distance  : 2,071 miles
Language English (U.S.)
en-us
Operating System Microsoft WinXP
Browser Internet Explorer 6.0
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1)
Javascript version 1.3
Monitor

Resolution  :  800 x 600
Color Depth  :  32 bits
Time of Visit   Sep 24 2008 10:22:02 am
Last Page View Sep 24 2008 10:22:02 am
Visit Length 0 seconds
Page Views   1
Referring URL http://www.google.co…nigan%22&btnG=Search
Search Engine google.com
Search Words “dennis hennigan”
Visit Entry Page http://blog.joehuffman.org/2008/08/31/quote-of-the-day-dennis-hennigan/
Visit Exit Page http://blog.joehuffman.org/2008/08/31/quote-of-the-day-dennis-hennigan/
Out Click  
Time Zone UTC-5:00
Visitor’s Time Sep 24 2008 1:22:02 pm
Visit Number 360,023

 

 

 

Unfortunately he only visited the one page but that probably was enough for him to realize he wasn’t going learn anything here which he has any interest in knowing. I wish he had at least checked out Just One Question. But that probably is a nightmare he doesn’t want to think about.

Gun Blog 45

As we were filling out the paperwork so I could be approved to exercise my Constitutionally protected right to own a firearm the clerk behind the counter asked, “What model is that?” I thought about it a moment and said, “I guess we can call it a ‘Gun Blog 45’ just like what it says on the side.” He agreed and after 45 minutes of paperwork and a phone call to the FBI (the first NICS check ever done on me–I always managed to avoid them with my concealed weapons permit in the past) I got my Para-USA Gun Blogger Summer Camp gun last night. The same one I shot last month at Blackwater. Yeah, I purchased the gun I said has a Pri 0 bug. I was convinced by several people that learning to shoot it right wasn’t that outrageous of a suggestion.



Para-USA LDA with Crimson Trace Lasergrips
(Click to see higher resolution version)


I immediately bought some ammo–230 grain FMJ Magtech (the cheapest ammo on the shelf) and 230 grain Winchester Ranger (hollow points). I went to the range and loaded up one magazine of each. I put my targets at 30 feet which is the same range as the target that came with the gun:



I loaded the FMJ ammo and fired a shot. The gun failed to feed the second round into the chamber. Grrr… I had lots of problems with that at Blackwater but the problem went away after shooting a few hundred rounds and then lubricating the dirty gun. But this time the gun was clean and fully lubed. I racked the slide and continued to fire and had no further problems.


I was fairly satisfied with it: 



Magtech 230 grain at 30 feet.


I fired all eight rounds of the Winchester Ranger without incident except the last round which I pulled a little bit when I fired:




Winchester Ranger 230 grain at 30 feet.


This was better than the factory target!


Ammo makes a difference!


I didn’t do any fast shooting as I had other things I wanted to do last night. That will be coming up soon. I need to see if I can train myself to shoot fast while taking my finger nearly off the trigger between shots.


The batteries appear to be dead in the laser grips. There is just the faintest glow coming out of them. I bought some new batteries but haven’t installed them yet. A report on Crimson Trace Lasergrips will be coming soon. I have two guns equipped with them now.


Others who have received their Gun Blog guns from Para-USA:


What’s So Great About America?

At this time– this very day when Congress is plotting the final stroke in yet another, years-in-the-making, offensive against capitalism, Bill whittle has brought our attention to his doctorate level thesis on American exceptionalism.  It’s called, Trinity (part 1).



If you believe, as I do, that wealth can be manufactured out of thin air, then there is no limit to the amount of wealth you can amass. And since you are creating it out of thin air, there is no moral onus on making money – you work hard to create it and have stolen from no one. There is an expression for this: you earned it.


Indeed, since charity depends on excess wealth, excess capacity, the more you make for yourself the better off everyone else is. You can even throw charity out the window if you are so hard-hearted; the fact remains that you will spend that money to get the things you want, and the more you have the more you can spend. That money goes to other people. This interchange is called “the economy”, and rich societies are rich because they understand in their bones the centerpiece of Capitalist thinking: Wealth can be created from thin air by human ingenuity and hard work.


Now people on the left have, in their guts, a revulsion towards the rich and the wealthy, because whenever they see wealth they naturally assume that it was stolen…


So true, Doctor Whittle.


If any of you haven’t read Bill’s piece, you’ve missed out.  We know at least 99% of politicians have never read anything like it.  Either that or they were unable to understand it and wandered off to catch happy hour down at the watering hole.  Certainly nothing like this is being presented within our public schools.  Ever.


Well, now’s your chance.  It’ll take some time, but you’ll thank Bill for it, I guarantee.


For you lefties out there; don’t bother.  Something like a curse in a foreign language, you won’t understand it but it will upset the hell out of you all the same.  Like when certain people ask me how to do something and I say, with total sincerity, “I’m sure you can figure it out.”  Curse in a foreign language.

Facts and opinions

Reading the blogs today I’m reminded of a Heinlein quote:

If it can’t be expressed in figures, it is not science; it is opinion.
-Robert Heinlein-

Apparently certain “fact checkers” didn’t get the memo. There is a big buzz in the gun blogger world today:

Our friendly Apex of the Triangle of Death has probably the best information with On Obama’s Gun Record, Who Will Fact Check the Fact Checkers? I found this to be the most illuminating:

There’s another possible explanation behind FactCheck’s positions. Just last year, FactCheck’s primary funding source, the Annenberg Foundation, also gave $50,000 to the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence for “efforts to reduce gun violence by educating the public and by enacting and enforcing regulations governing the gun industry.” Annenberg made a similar grant for $100,000 in 2005.

I see three simple questions, inspired by the Heinlein quote above, to get to the bottom of the controversy. Everyone can answer them for themselves with only a small amount of work using the above links. Those questions are:

  1. How many laws which restrict gun ownership and use has Obama supported?
  2. How many laws which encourage gun ownership and use has Obama supported?
  3. In the last few years how much money has FactChecker given to pro-gun organizations and how much to anti-gun organizations?

There no need for opinions on this topic. There is a need for facts. If “FactCheck” is to honor it’s name then it should emphasis numbers and not words.

NRA ads about Obama

Something I don’t see much of in Idaho is how the NRA spends it’s advertising money during elections. Spending the money in my area of the country would be a waste of time. Any money spend getting an election victory greater than 50% of the vote is wasted. Seeing how my money is spend is nice.


Here, for your education and enjoyment, is the latest propaganda from the Apex of the Triangle of Death:


Quote of the day–Philip Elmer-Dewitt


In a Time/CNN poll of 1,000 Americans conducted last week by Yankelovich Partners, two-thirds said it was more important to protect the privacy of phone calls than to preserve the ability of police to conduct wiretaps. When informed about the Clipper Chip, 80% said they opposed it.


The battle lines were first drawn last April, when the Administration unveiled the Clipper plan and invited public comment. For nine months opponents railed against the scheme’s many flaws: criminals wouldn’t use phones equipped with the government’s chip; foreign customers wouldn’t buy communications gear for which the U.S. held the keys; the system for giving investigators access to the back-door master codes was open to abuse; there was no guarantee that some clever hacker wouldn’t steal the keys. But in the end the Administration ignored the advice. In early February, after computer- industry leaders had made it clear that they wanted to adopt their own encryption standard, the Administration announced that it was putting the NSA plan into effect. Government agencies will phase in use of Clipper technology for all unclassified communications. Commercial use of the chip will be voluntary — for now.


Philip Elmer-Dewitt
March 14, 1994
Who Should Keep the Keys?
[Those that criticize Republicans for “spying on U.S. citizens” forget how hard the Clinton administration worked to do the same thing.–Joe]

Quote of the day–M. Carol Bambery

Women are at a severe disadvantage when confronting a likely stronger male assailant. In general, women simply do not have the upper body strength and testosterone-driven speed to effectively defend themselves without help. A firearm, particularly an easily manipulable handgun, equalizes this strength differential and thereby provides women the best chance they have of thwarting an attacker. Even more statistically likely, a firearm in the hands of a threatened woman offers the deterrence empty hands and an often unavailing 911 call do not.


M. Carol Bambery
Brief of amicae curiae 126 women state legislators and academics in support of respondent.
[Equality of women can only be achieved if they have a physical equalizer. Until then they are dependent on a protector. Could that be why Ted Kennedy and Bill Clinton are so opposed to people owning guns and Diane Feinstein carries a gun?–Joe]

Quote of the day–Ayn Rand

It only stands to reason that where there’s sacrifice, there’s someone collecting the sacrificial offerings. Where there’s service, there is someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master.


Ayn Rand
[I’m thinking of certain Democrats and their tax plans.–Joe]

A match made in hell

Obama is trying to woe gun owners telling us how he “supports the Second Amendment”. As if this should even be an issue, have you ever heard politicians say they oppose the Bill of Rights?? Of course he is a like a teenage boy thinking he is going to get laid for the first time if he says, “I love you” enough times–no matter how insincere he is.


The Apex of the Triangle of Death has a little quiz to help cut through the fog of raging hormones and see the truth about what Obama is really about:




He must think he is psychic

From “The Gun Guys”:

Gun Pusher: noun. 1. Someone who pushes guns on others whether they need, want or should have them. 2. A person who cares more about profit generated from the sale of firearms and their own power than they do about their fellow-citizens. 3. A person who can pretend that 30,000 deaths from guns in the United States is simply the price we pay for “freedom”.
Like a drug dealer, a gun pusher will seduce you into believing that you want and need a gun. After all they say, “guns will keep you safe.” What they fail to tell you are about the terrible side effects of guns in America.

The NRA is little more than a two-bit gun pusher. Like a drug-dealer they peddle their wares regardless of consequence or conscience.
Beware of the gun pusher, they will leave no stone unturned in their relentless pursuit of profit and power. Schools, churches, malls, playgrounds, national parks and airports are all fair game to them. And, believe us when we say, the last thing they are concerned about is the safety of you, your family or your loved ones.

Apparently he is unaware that of those 30,000 deaths by gunfire half were suicides that nearly all would have occurred even if there were no guns on the planet.

Apparently he is unaware that of the remaining 15,000 deaths thousands of them were from legitimate self-defense by both the police and private citizens.

Apparently he is unaware that at least 74 Million people lost their lives in the last century because of gun control. Do the math on that when you estimate your price for freedom.

He apparently is unaware the NRA teaches thousand of people in personal protection and safety with and without guns each year.

Apparently he believes firearms in the hands of the police are not about the security and safety of innocent lives.

And finally, does this guy really think he is psychic and knows what we are and are not concerned with? He is actually closer to a psychotic disconnect from reality. But then we already knew he has mental problems. This isn’t really news.

Quote of the day–Alan Gottlieb

However, gun owners are not so foolish to believe that House Democrats embraced this legislation just because it was the right thing to do. Many voted for H.R. 6691 to give themselves some pro-gun-rights cover for the upcoming election, and they know it.


Those Democrats are fully aware that chances of this bill getting through the Senate during this session of Congress are virtually nil, but this issue gave them a chance to cast a pro-gun vote they can brag about on the campaign trail over the next seven weeks.You can bet your gun collection that Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will block a vote on this measure.


Alan Gottlieb
Founder of Second Amendment Foundation
September 17, 2008
HOUSE RIGHT TO VOTE ON D.C. GUN REGS, MAKE COUNCIL BEHAVE, SAYS SAF
[It about symbolism over progress on the civil rights front. But at least they using symbols that appeal to us rather than to the Brady Campaign. I’m annoyed D.C. is defying the Supreme Court chastisement for their 30 year repression of civil rights with the attendant hundreds, if not thousands, of lives lost. But at least they are headed in the right direction even if they have their feet dug in and are being dragged into compliance. I’m annoyed at the situation, can you imagine what the anti-gun bigots are feeling? I think I can–at least partly. I remember the passage of the Brady Act and then a few months later the “assault weapon” ban. I felt anger that lasted for months. But I had an outlet. I purchased guns, ammo, reloading equipment, training, and then in 1996 started working on explosives. The Brady supporters don’t have nearly as good an outlet. They can only whine, complain, and scream. That isn’t nearly as satisfying as putting a bullet through a pop can filled with explosives from 500 yards away. But then they have been whining, complaining, and screaming for years now and are good at it–it what they do. We have better things to do and it is part of the reason why we are winning. We have positive activities with tangible social and self improvement results. They are a hate group and have zero positive results to show for all their decades and even lifetimes of hate. To have even their minimal accomplishments in a few square miles of swamp wasteland near Virginia and Maryland be taken away from them as got to be extremely discouraging. Pity them as individuals but drive them as a group into political extinction.–Joe]

Pure Microsoft

Last evening as I was leaving work I saw this. Sorry for the low picture quality. It was taken with my cell phone.



Today, all day, was the company meeting. In a lot of ways, especially when Steve Ballmer is on stage (or running through the crowd), it’s like a prep rally from high school. The following are my Twitter comments while watching the meeting. If you view them on the web they don’t have the proper time stamp because the cell phone connectivity (and my Internet connection on my Pocket PC) at Safeco Field was very intermittent (overloaded with all the geeks with mobile devices). Most of the Twitter updates had to be sent several times before they finally made it out.



At the company meeting. Live Mesh is awesome. Office 14 is gettting lots of applause too.


Watching cool demos of Live Search.


XBox has good stuff coming.


Just saw world premier of more MS ads. Will show up on TV tonight. Much better than the first one.


Windows 7 demo is cool!


Raiin Wison led us in making a new world record of simultaneous paper airplanes in the air–22K.


One of the best ways to predict the future is to invent the future.–Craig Mundie


The robotics demo was impresssive. Receptionist assistant will go to beta in a few months.


Fireworks for Steve Baller’s entrance.


60B in sales. 22B in gross income. No other company (if they aren’t an oil company) can say that.


Apple: GAME ON!


Google has never been challenged. I want see what happens when they are.–Steve B.

Interesting correlation

There are times when I’m certain I can tell who is going to be in favor of gun control just by looking at them. They look scared all the time. Sort of like they are about to run home and tell mommy because you looked at them wrong. I have commented on this before (see also the picture in that post). Now we have some research to indicate there is a correlation but it is different from what I expected:



Alford and his colleagues studied a group of 46 adult participants with strong political beliefs. Those individuals with “measurably lower physical sensitivities to sudden noises and threatening visual images were more likely to support foreign aid, liberal immigration policies, pacifism and gun control, whereas individuals displaying measurably higher physiological reactions to those same stimuli were more likely to favor defense spending, capital punishment, patriotism and the Iraq War,” the authors wrote.



The researchers noted a correlation between those who reacted strongly to the stimuli and those who expressed support for “socially protective policies,” which tend to be held by people “particularly concerned with protecting the interests of the participants’ group, defined as the United States in mid-2007, from threats.” These positions include support for military spending, warrantless searches, the death penalty, the Patriot Act, obedience, patriotism, the Iraq War, school prayer and Biblical truth, and opposition to pacifism, immigration, gun control, foreign aid, compromise, premarital sex, gay marriage, abortion rights and pornography.


There are some profound implications if these results are true:



The paper concluded, “Political attitudes vary with physiological traits linked to divergent manners of experiencing and processing environmental threats.” This may help to explain “both the lack of malleability in the beliefs of individuals with strong political convictions and the associated ubiquity of political conflict,” the authors said.

Crimson Trace laser grips

While at the Gun Blogger Summer Camp last month I won a set of Crimson Trace laser grips–whatever set I wanted. I finally got around to asking for a set to fit a Ruger Mark II. I received them but haven’t installed them. I went to range tonight thinking I would put them on and try them out but wasn’t thinking ahead. I forgot to bring tools.


They look very cool but a full report will have to wait for a few days.