Monthly Archives: April 2011

It’s about time

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The wolves have been devastating both private livestock and wildlife in Idaho for many years now. At the local level people have been taking things into their own hands for quite some time with the consent of the local law enforcement. We now have support at the state and national level to deal with the problem:

Gov. Butch Otter signed a bill that declares a disaster emergency due to the number of wolves in the state — even though he disputes that the Legislature should have the authority to declare such an emergency.

“The uncontrolled proliferation of imported wolves on private land has produced a clear and present danger to humans, their pets and livestock, and has altered and hindered historical uses of private and public land, dramatically inhibiting previously safe activities such as walking, picnicking, biking, berry picking, hunting and fishing,” the bill says. “…it is the intent of the legislature to regulate the presence of Canadian gray wolves in Idaho in order to safeguard the public, wildlife, economy and private property against additional devastation.”

Thanks must also be given to the NRA as well for all the effort they put into protecting our families, our livestock and the wildlife of Idaho.

Target distribution plan

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I just finished up the target distribution plan for Boomershoot 2011. I didn’t get to it this weekend and it is after 4:00 AM as I finish this up.

Tree line (375 yards):

Target Type Crates Targets Pounds
4″ Cardboard Targets: 4 72 61.2
4″ Plastic Targets: 10 480 211.5
5″ Plastic Targets: 10 160 299.6
Total: 24 712 572

Hillside (550 to 700 yards):

Target Type Crates Targets Pounds
7″ Cardboard Targets: 8 96 190.7
4″ Plastic Targets: 2 96 42.3
5″ Plastic Targets: 10 160 299.6
6″ Plastic Targets 1 10 28.1
Total: 21 362 561

This is more at the tree line than last year (~550) and fewer on the hillside (~500 last year) with the total number being greater this year.

The High Intensity Events on Friday and Saturday will both have 210 targets (for 27 and 26 people) with 105 pounds of explosives.

I’m reserving 210 targets (about 125 pounds) for the Precision Rifle Clinic.

Time for some sleep.

Quote of the day—Carolyn McCarthy

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No. that’s absolutely not true. I’ve been working on gun issues for the last 14 years, since I’ve been in Congress. This is something I’m passionate about, as much as they are passionate about say their Second Amendment rights.

We’re not dealing about guns here. We’re dealing about a piece of equipment that goes to the gun. I think when you think about just common sense here, large capacity clips that can basically, in my opinion, be weapons of mass destruction, should not be available to the average citizen. They will be available to our military. They will be available to our police officers.

Carolyn McCarthy
January 11, 2011
McCarthy To Propose Ban On High-Capacity Ammo
In response to the question, “What would you say to gun rights supporters who may be listening to you and feeling that you’re politicizing this rather extreme tragedy to push the bill that you’re describing?”
[Notice that she doesn’t answer the question other than, “No. That’s absolutely not true.” No evidence, no logic, just vigorous assertion.

Further notice that she apparently thinks “weapons of mass destruction” should be available to police officers. Or she is lying when she says, “large capacity clips that can basically, in my opinion, be weapons of mass destruction”. And/or she has crap for brains.

And of course the headline writer thinks there is such a thing as “High-Capacity Ammo”.—Joe]

Windows Phone 7 update is available

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The Windows Phone 7 update for the Samsung Focus (and I think all AT&T Windows Phone 7 phones) is now available.

Copy and Paste is just one of the many new features and bug fixes that come with the update.

Connect your phone to your computer to install the update.

Just say no

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This would not be acceptable to me:

The Michigan State Police have a high-tech mobile forensics device that can be used to extract information from cell phones belonging to motorists stopped for minor traffic violations.

If a cop were to ask me to allow him to connect his device to my cell phone the answer would be, “No”. If that wouldn’t be allowed I would attempt to do a hard reset of the phone (know how to do this so you can do it quickly) or attempt to call someone who could remotely wipe it for me.

Via email from retired co-worker Chet.

Quote of the day—Chris W. Cox

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It’s been nine long years since the anti-gun leadership in the Wisconsin Senate denied state residents their basic right to carry a firearm for self-defense.

…

The days of government-mandated victims in the Badger State need to end.

Chris W. Cox
April 17, 2011
Chris W. Cox: Wisconsin should join free America
[Well… at least more free America. We still have a lot of work to do before I would declare America “free”. But certainly getting rid of government-mandated victims would be a good start.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Mike Barkley

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Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States repealing the right to keep and bear arms.


Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid for all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States at any time after the date of its submission for ratification:



‘Article–


1. Any right to keep and bear arms, whether under the Second Amendment to this Constitution, or under some pre-existing doctrine of natural law or common law or otherwise, or under Constitution or laws of any State, is repealed.


2. The privilege to keep and bear arms throughout the United States shall be under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.’


Mike Barkley
Candidate for Congress
April 17, 2011
Repeal the Right to Keep and Bear Arms
[As if natural law can be “repealed”.


He also ignores the fact that the 2nd Amendment is part of the Bill of Rights and said Bill of Rights was a requirement for the agreement to enter into the Union. Hence if the 2nd Amendment were to be “repealed” would that mean that the states are no longer bound by the agreement to be a part of the union?


Of course he ignores the little problem of the majority of the people in this country support the existence of the 2nd Amendment. And finally he seems clueless that there are many states that would consider such an act sufficient grounds to have another civil war.


This is just a reminder that there are people out there that explicitly say they do want to destroy the 2nd Amendment.—Joe]

Atlas Shrugged: Part 1

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This started out as a comment at Tam’s post about target marketing fail while waiting for Atlas Shrugged: Part 1 but grew to the point I figured it should be a post of my own.


Son James made a very similar “target audience” fail remark during the previews about different movies at our location as well.


James has read the book three times and I read it once then listened to the unabridged audio version once (yes, Galt’s eight hour monologue actually takes eight hours). We both liked the movie but had some minor criticisms about the movie skipping over some points too rapidly for “newcomers” to really understand the points being made.


We both really liked that the sex scene with Dagny was not the way Rand always portrayed an ideal man/woman relationship.


The scene wife Barbara liked best was where the guy wanted Rearden’s money but asked Rearden’s name not associated with the donation.


I agree with the commenters who said the casting of James Taggert was a little off.


I was uncomfortable with a train going 250 MPH on those curves with the passengers standing up. Sorry, but I don’t think they ran the numbers through the physics equations before they filmed those scenes. And the curves had better have some appropriate slope to them to keep the train from rolling over or pushing the tracks off the railway bed.

Boomershoot 2011 nightmare

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The nightmares about Boomershoot are much rarer than they used to be but I had one this morning.

It was raining hard. Really hard. The visibility was only a couple hundred yards and the wind was strong and cold. But the worst was the sticky mud. My size 14 shoes must have had 20 pounds stuck to each of them. Vehicles couldn’t get out to the Taj Mahal and I was the only one to walk in to make the ton of explosives and many hundreds of targets.

That does not compute

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Yesterday I received an email from Josh Horwitz at Coalition to Stop Gun Violence:

Recognize VA Tech Anniversary by Saying “NO GUNS ON CAMPUS!”

As many of you know, April 16 will mark the fourth anniversary of the mass shooting at Virginia Tech. This weekend will be a time for survivors to remember their lost loved ones and pay tribute to their lives, and for America to reflect on the causes and meaning behind this horrific tragedy.

While the Virginia Tech families have emerged as some of the strongest proponents of tougher gun control laws, the gun lobby has exploited the massacre to push extreme legislation that would force colleges and universities to allowing the carrying of loaded firearms on their campuses.  Such NRA-drafted bills are now being considered in 18 different states.

Today, Friday, April 15, the Campaign to Keep Guns Off Campus is recognizing the fourth anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings by conducting a National Call-In Day.

Please call your governor today and ask him/her to oppose guns on campus legislation in your state. If you are in a state with no pending guns on campus legislation, please call and ask your governor to oppose any future attempts to force colleges and universities to allows guns on campus. To find the phone number for your governor, just click here.

Thank you in advance for participating in this important action. If we are to build a safer future for our children, keeping guns out of the classroom is a must.

What Horwitz doesn’t say is that Virginia Tech had rules against guns on campus and it didn’t stop the shooter. There were also laws against murder which didn’t stop the shooter either. The only thing that would have stopped the shooter was another person with a gun. This was, in fact, the response of the police dispatch when they got the call about an active shooter on campus. They sent people with guns to confront the shooter. But they took a few minutes to arrive and of course they were much too late to stop the carnage.

Yet Horwitz want to “build a safer future” by ensuring that all campuses have the same policy in place that enable the shooter at Virginia Tech to be “successful”. Had Virginia Tech not had such a policy and the shooting took place it would almost make sense (there would still have been the law against murder in force) for his call to action. But that wasn’t the case. He is advocating for the proliferation of a policy proven to fail and uses an instance of failure as a reason for a call to action. Huh?

I shouldn’t be surprised. Again (and again just today!) the anti-gun people demonstrate they have nothing but crap for brains.

Boomershoot stuff

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Recently I’ve been very busy with work and Boomershoot 2011 prep. Here is a partial list of the Boomershoot stuff I have done in the last week:

  • Updated the number of guests and paid the deposit for the Boomershoot dinner on Saturday night (sign up here if you wish to attend)
  • Confirmed we will have food available for the Sunday lunch from CD’s Smoke Pit and emailed the menu to Boomershoot participants
  • Asked for confirmation of bloggers planning to attend “Media Day” (essentially zero this year so I’m going to cancel it)
  • Handled several cancelations and sent out one refund (the others wanted to be automatically signed up for next year). There are five positions available now.
  • Paid for 2011 Internet access at the Boomershoot site
  • Configured the new Wi-Fi access point for the shooting line. Previous coverage was acceptable for laptops but many cell phones couldn’t get a connection so I’m adding another access point.
  • Requested the sizes for Boomershoot staff t-shirts
  • Purchased Yellow “Caution” Barricade Tape, 1000-Feet by 3-Inch
  • Ordered Red “Danger” Barricade Tape, 1000-Feet by 3-Inch
  • Ordered 1000 9” x 14” 1.5 mil Clear LDPE bags
  • Ordered 1000 13” x 16” 1.5 mil Clear LDPE bags
  • Ordered 1000 Fluorescent Green Circle Labels 3″ Diameter
  • Ordered 1000 Fluorescent Red Circle Labels 3″ Diameter
  • Ordered 1000 Fluorescent Pink Circle Labels 3″ Diameter
  • Ordered 1000 Blue Circle Labels 3″ Diameter
  • Ordered 100 48 oz. Rectangle Containers- Corn Compostable
  • Ordered 600 32 oz. Rectangle Containers- Corn Compostable
  • Ordered 900 8 oz. Rectangle Containers- Corn Compostable
  • Ordered 1000′ Foot Black Parachute Cord Paracord Type III Military Specification 550
  • Ordered 100 Dynarex Black Nitrile Exam Gloves, Heavy-Duty, Powder Free, (in sizes Small, Medium and Large)

This weekend I’m going to add some code to my Boomershoot management software to send email to people that have signed up for spectator announcements, order more staff t-shirts, compute the number of targets to be made, allocate targets to various target areas, and print the badges.

It seems like there was some other stuff too, but that is most of it. Ten days from now it gets really busy as many of those items and others are prepared for being reduced to their molecular components in rapidly expanding clouds of water vapor and CO2 amid yells of joy.

If you made it through all that boring stuff above here is a reward; Barron has been posting Boomershoot pictures every day on his blog:

Living in a cave for the last three years

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With the good guys marching down the field like this it is understandable that Brady Center Senior Attorney Daniel Vice (what a wonderful name for a gun banner, it ranks right up there with anti-gun researcher professor Bogus ) would have been living in a cave for the last three years. But surely even from the deepest, darkest, rat infested hole that Mr. Vice could have found he would have heard about the McDonald case before he spoke to the local radio station:

Vice says more than 350 lawsuits have been filed after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in District of Columbia v Heller in 2008 that the Second Amendment allows an individual to possess a gun in his or her home for self-defense.

Vice says none of the previous suits has been successful because courts don’t want guns going to dangerous people.

Of course it could be that it was not through ignorance but willful misrepresentation that particular bit of untruth was uttered. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time people with the Brady’s lied about something.

Quote of the day—Charles Krauthammer

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The claim of the advocates that banning these 19 types of “assault weapons” will reduce the crime rate is laughable. (The term itself is priceless: What are all the other guns in America’s home arsenal? Encounter weapons? Crime-enabling devices?) Dozens of other weapons, the functional equivalent of these “assault weapons,” were left off the list and are perfect substitutes for anyone bent on mayhem.

…

In fact, the assault weapons ban will have no significant effect either on the crime rate or on personal security. Nonetheless, it is a good idea, though for reasons its proponents dare not enunciate.

Charles Krauthammer
April 5, 1996
Disarm the Citizenry. But not yet
Originally in The Washington Post on April 5 1996. The above link is in the Seattle Times from April 8, 1996.
[See also another QOTD extracted from this article.—Joe]

Overheard in bed last night

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Paraphrasing just a little…



Joe: So what is the Tea Party protest sign you were talking about with James and Xenia?
Barb: Xenia is going to carry one that says, “Refresh the tree of liberty.”
Joe: That’s a little over the top. I wouldn’t carry one like that.
Barb: It was John’s idea.
Joe: Xenia’s a big girl and can make her own decisions. That she is a young woman and John is in the military helps some.
Barb: I wonder what sign they will make for me.
Joe: Probably it will be something like, “Kill them all and let God sort them out.”


Here is a picture of son James and daughter Xenia at the protest in Olympia Washington today:


JamesXeniaProtest

You’re doing it wrong and you’re lying

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The Brady Campaign has a new video and web site about “assault clips” (yes, I put the “nofollow” tag on that link). In addition to the obvious ignorant use of the words “assault” and “clip” the shooter has a  very poor grip on the gun. His left thumb is in danger of needing a bandage and/or stitches. And his left index finger is doing nothing.

Furthermore the narrator and text of the website talk of 32 shots in 16 seconds. But I only count 16 (or maybe 17) shots in 4 seconds. And of course the claim is that “A magazine that allows a gun to fire 32 rounds in 16 seconds is only good for one thing. Killing a lot of people–fast.” Is totally bogus.

In the following video I shot 17 rounds in 7.5 seconds including a magazine reload and a malfunction clearance. I then go on to shoot a total of 36 rounds in 16.02 seconds—still with 10 rounds in my magazines.

If one were to accept the Brady Campaign claim that “a magazine that allows a gun to fire 32 rounds in 16 seconds is only good for one thing” then 10 round magazines must be only good for killing a lot of people fast too. Hence, I must inevitably must conclude one of three things about the magazines in my guns which hold more 10 or more rounds:

  1. I have killed many thousands of people with the 60,000 or so rounds I have fired through these guns and no one has noticed—including myself.
  2. The magazines have continuously malfunctioned to the point of being useless for their intended purpose.
  3. The Brady Campaign is lying.

The use of Occam’s Razor should reveal the correct answer.

Quote of the day—President Obama

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I just want you to know that we are working on it. We have to go through a few processes, but under the radar.

President Obama
March 30, 2011
Over a barrel? Meet White House gun policy adviser Steve Croley
[This was a comment to Sarah Brady as she remembers it. I don’t know if this was accurately related and a serious comment or a platitude from an expert politician. Certainly Obama has the background to qualify this as extremely serious but actions speak louder than words and from the Brady Campaign viewpoint his actions have been minimal at best.

He and his administration deserves to be watched very, very closely.

H/T to Dave Hardy.—Joe]