Sometimes it is amazing what one, essentially, insignificant, unknown person can do. “Joe the Plumber” is in the news right now and may be “a bone in the throat” of Obama. I even got a text message from my old boss asking, “Are you watching the debate?” I replied, “No. Should I be?”. He responded that “Joe” was what the debate was about. Since I don’t have a TV it wasn’t until the next morning that I figured what was going on.
On a much smaller scale my barely read blog occasionally gets attention from people of power. That’s pretty cool. But what really amused me was what happened yesterday.
I noticed I had a hit from Handgun Control Inc. who was doing a search for “Joe Huffman”. Apparently I am known, by name, to the biggest, baddest, anti-gun bigots in the country:
| Domain Name | sct.com ? (Commercial) | |||||||||||||||||||
| IP Address | 65.242.56.# (HANDGUN CONTROL) | |||||||||||||||||||
| ISP | Verizon Business | |||||||||||||||||||
| Location |
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| Language | English (U.S.) en-us |
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| Operating System | Microsoft Win2000 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Browser | Firefox Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.8.1.17) Gecko/20080829 Firefox/2.0.0.17 |
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| Javascript | version 1.5 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Monitor |
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| Time of Visit | Oct 16 2008 12:45:39 pm | |||||||||||||||||||
| Last Page View | Oct 16 2008 12:55:48 pm | |||||||||||||||||||
| Visit Length | 10 minutes 9 seconds | |||||||||||||||||||
| Page Views | 6 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Referring URL | http://www.google.co…2US261&q=Joe Huffman | |||||||||||||||||||
| Search Engine | google.com | |||||||||||||||||||
| Search Words | joe huffman | |||||||||||||||||||
| Visit Entry Page | https://blog.joehuffman.org/ | |||||||||||||||||||
| Visit Exit Page | https://blog.joehuffman.org/ | |||||||||||||||||||
| Out Click | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Time Zone | UTC-5:00 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Visitor’s Time | Oct 16 2008 3:45:39 pm | |||||||||||||||||||
| Visit Number | 370,096 |
Further investigation revealed that on March 21st of this year they did a search for “”@stopthenra.com” -www” and found me. On May 14th they did a search for ‘”north central idaho” gun’ and found me again. They have done several searches for “Dennis Hennigan” (Brady Campaign attorney) and found my blog.
And yesterday after specifically doing a search for my name they added my blog to their RSS reader. I feel so honored. Hello Sarah, Jim, Dennis, and Paul! I have Just One Question for you. Think about that for a while…
Yesterday was apparently good day to be noticed because New York City got my opinion on the issue of microstamping (Google ranks my blog post #1 with a search phrase of “microstamping research”):
| Domain Name | nyc.gov ? (U.S. Government) | |||||||||||||||||||
| IP Address | 161.185.151.# (City of New York) | |||||||||||||||||||
| ISP | City of New York | |||||||||||||||||||
| Location |
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| Language | English (U.S.) en-us |
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| Operating System | Microsoft WinXP | |||||||||||||||||||
| Browser | Internet Explorer 6.0 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; InfoPath.1) |
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| Javascript | version 1.3 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Monitor |
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| Time of Visit | Oct 16 2008 1:55:43 pm | |||||||||||||||||||
| Last Page View | Oct 16 2008 1:55:43 pm | |||||||||||||||||||
| Visit Length | 0 seconds | |||||||||||||||||||
| Page Views | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Referring URL | http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://blog.joehuffman.org/content/binary/MicrostampingSEM.jpg&imgrefurl=https://blog.joehuffman.org/2008/02/18/MicrostampingResearch.aspx&h=515&w=516&sz=38&tbnid=9x03aBEr7zUJ::&tbnh=131&tbnw=131&hl=en&prev=/images%3Fq%3 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Visit Entry Page | https://blog.joehuffman.org/2008/02/17/microstamping-research/ | |||||||||||||||||||
| Visit Exit Page | http://blog.joehuffm…tampingResearch.aspx | |||||||||||||||||||
| Out Click | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Time Zone | UTC-5:00 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Visitor’s Time | Oct 16 2008 4:55:43 pm | |||||||||||||||||||
| Visit Number | 370,120 |
Sometimes I feel rather impotent (in a way Viagra can’t help) in regards to what is happening to freedom and gun rights in this country and the world. Even Boomershoot, which I consider my greatest accomplishment, seems like too little but when I think of my impact in terms of what it was 10 years ago or compared to the impact of the non-professional gun bigots like Robyn Ringler I’m doing fairly well. I’m not a Wayne LaPierre, Alan Gottlieb, Alan Gura, Joe Waldron, Dave Kopel, David Hardy, or an Ashley N. Varner. But other gun bloggers and I are doing okay for not being on the payroll (the wheelbarrows full of cash aren’t part of the official payroll) at the Apex of the Triangle of Death. I don’t know if it is enough but we are having an noticeable impact.
Update: I was also quoted in a newspaper last week which may have been the reason the Brady Bunch became interested in me.
“Apparently I am known, by name, to the biggest, baddest, anti-gun bigots in the country:”
They say a man is known by his enemies; I guess that puts you in good company.
That’s the way I look at it. I consider it quite the honor to merit their attention.
Be afwraid, be vwery afwraid…