Seems he got drunk and took someone else’s vehicle out for a joyride, “looking for The Promised Land”. That would be an unsuccessful joyride, I’d expect. I guess if he’d driven his own vehicle into, say, a river and killed his date, he’d be OK. As it is, he’ll probably be fired. I wonder if he keeps his pension after this.
Monthly Archives: June 2011
Other Boomershoot dozer work
The culvert I put in a few years ago needed some fill on both sides to make it more level rather than just a mound over the culvert with increasingly deep holes on either side.
But if we finish the new production facility this culvert won’t get nearly as much use as it has in the past so it might not really matter.
A couple weeks ago Barron and Janelle got their pickup stuck when they showed up to help at a private party:
All the traffic during Boomershoot left some big ruts but the stuck pickup made them even worse:
So I smoothed those out a little bit:
The first Boomershoot explosives storage magazine hasn’t been used in many years and even though I should have taken it out a long time ago I had some sort of attachment to it. When the ATF visited last month the inspector seemed to be taking more interest in it that I was really comfortable with. It hadn’t been “up to snuff” for quite some time but I didn’t think it mattered since I wasn’t using it anyway. But she was making notes even though I told her I would take it out this summer sometime. Rather than risk some sort of requirement that I repair it I decided to take it out today while I had the cat there to break up the concrete blocks.
Before:
After:
Later this summer after the hay has been taken off the field I’ll salvage what I can from the remnants and haul off the rest of the pieces.
Reactive target production facility
As I mentioned yesterday I did some work on a site for a new reactive target production facility for Boomershoot.
Progress continues and I declared it “good enough for now” this afternoon:
This looking to the north and a little bit east at about 5o.
This is looking to the northwest at about 315o.
This is looking a little more to the west at about 290o.
This is from the opposite end of the location looking back at the position the picture above was taken from.
You might notice in the first and last picture that there is section of disturbed earth that extends into the field in the southeast. This is where (I hope) the truck and trailer can enter the site with the shipping container. I expect we will have the dozer there when the shipping container is brought in so that changes can be made in the landscape should they be necessary so the trailer doesn’t get high centered or something. And if nothing else the can get it fairly close and then I can push or drag it into the final position with the cat.
Final leveling will probably be done with a hydraulic jack, gravel, railroad ties, and boards.
Quote of the day—Unknown
Whatever you give a woman, she will make greater. If you give her sperm, she’ll give you a baby. If you give her a house, she’ll give you a home. If you give her groceries, she’ll give you a meal. If you give her a smile, she’ll give you her heart.
She multiplies and enlarges what is given to her. So, if you give her any crap, be ready to receive a ton of shit.
Unknown
Via email from Karen.
[I looked around some for the author of this but didn’t find much except that it has been around since at least 2008.
However amusing this is I’m not convinced it’s entirely true. I gave Barb a Windows Phone 7 and a Jeep for Christmas and I would expect I should have received a new computer and a truck in return but Valentines Day and Father’s Day have come and gone without any sign of her multiplying and enlarging either one.
And another thing—being a physical therapist means she has to maintain her credentials as a poor lover by using ice to take the swelling down. So that is another case where she doesn’t “multiple and enlarge” what is given to her.
But I won’t be surprised if I receive a ton of crap tomorrow morning when she reads this.—Joe]
More Boomershoot improvements
I started work on a new Boomershoot building site today:
This will be for manufacturing of the targets. In years past we have built the targets on the tailgate of my pickup, folding tables in the middle of an open field, and under a folding canopy.
We have sometimes made a few targets in the Taj Mahal but it just isn’t big enough for large scale production. This year we made a firm decision to move the manufacturing location to a location further from the storage location and improve the working conditions. We plan to put in a shipping container with lights, tables, and ventilation.
Daughter Kim “had” to be back in Moscow by 2:00 PM for the Zombie Carnival (I was sort of interested in going until Kim said head shots from 300 yards away would be frowned upon) so I didn’t get the dozer work completed. We will go back out tomorrow to finish up.
Intriguing
This (pages 2 and 3) would make an interesting starting point for an alternate history:
As Joyce Malcolm has extensively documented, the English perception of an individual right to arms arose out of a 17th century reversal of policy course. Prior to the Stuart dynasty, English governments actively forced their subjects to own and use arms. All healthy male subjects were required to own arms appropriate to the time and their wealth, towns were required to construct shooting ranges, and all games other than marksmanship were outlawed in order to ensure that Englishmen would have but one legal sport.
Imagine if that were the case in the United States. No football, basketball, or baseball. Just hundreds of games involving shooting.
It would be totally unconstitutional (freedom of association would probably nix the idea) but it could make an interesting story.
Via Dave Hardy.
Quote of the day—cloneboy
I often wonder how the Brady Campaign and other anti-gun organizations can be so ignorant about guns.
Then I find myself thankful that they are because it makes their arguments so much easier to refute.
cloneboy
June 17, 2011
[Well… most of the time they don’t really have an argument. They just demand that “something be done”. But their ignorance of the subject matter does make the task of slapping them down easier. I think their ignorance is willful. They literally don’t think it matters. They just “know”. They believe things and claim their opinions are just as valid as anyone else’s. This is not true but many of them are lacking the ability to determine truth from falsity so they don’t really understand when we attempt to correct their process errors. Furthermore they don’t care that they don’t know how to determine truth from falsity. This results in us having to live on the same planet but in essentially different universes.—Joe]
Quote of the day—Ted Nugent
Does anybody not know that the most dangerous place in the world is a gun-free zone?
Ted Nugent
May 2, 2011
We must turn up the heat against ‘America hating’ Obama and the gun control lobby, says Ted Nugent
[I will admit there are some places that could be considered “gun-free zones” that are safe compared to some places where guns are allowed. But if you are talking statistical means rather than overlapping tails of particular bell curves then Nugent’s presumption is correct. And the answer is most people, including most anti-gun politicians know this. The reason the politicians continue to be anti-gun vary but none of the answers are acceptable in a free society.—Joe]
Project ‘Fast And Furious Gun Restrictions’
The more I see on this scandal with the BATFE, the more it stinks. Here are several issues I have, in no particular order. To me they’re obvious quirks in the story that aren’t being discussed. If someone knows of these being brought up and addressed, please do share;
The Old Media are actually covering this to some extent. They don’t cover anything unless it in some way promotes the leftist cause. They’re actually being critical of the BATFE, but wait. The “problem” is being spun as one of too few restrictions. BATFE is bad, not because they’re idiots or self-serving thugs looking for more funding, or outright criminals or tyrants, but because they didn’t stop gun purchases. Keep an eye on this.
Very large purchases of guns were supposedly “allowed” to take place. We’re being asked to believe that Mexican criminals purchased up to dozens of guns at a time, on several occasions. First; if these were real straw purchases wherein there was a genuine worry about secrecy, they’d take place in dibs and dabs, so as not to attract attention. Second; why would powerful Mexican cartels with international influence be interested in paying hundreds of dollars more, per gun, in the U.S. compared to getting them at global street prices? Even the cartels would know about our background check system at gun stores, yet these purchases supposedly took place at gun dealerships, where they would know that such large purchases would attract immediate attention. But they did it anyway? Too many stinky points. I say the purchases were engineered, either by, or in close cooperation with, BATFE, and not simply “allowed”, as we’re being asked to believe.
We’re told that hundreds of these guns were found at crime scenes (I think I heard the number 800 dropped the other night). What? Really? Hundreds? That’s an awful lot of clumsy, absent-minded, criminals, isn’t it? Leaving their guns, so painstakingly straw-purchased at inflated prices at U.S. retail dealerships, behind at crime scenes to be found in very short order by our super heroes? Stinky, stinky, stinky.
A big government operation, not to shut down Mexican cartels, not to investigate corruption in Mexico that’s threatening people in the U.S., not to revisit the effects of our War On Drugs, but instead to draw attention to how our evil gun rights in the U.S. lead to death and destruction in other countries.
These issues aren’t being brought up in the press or by the Congressional “investigations”. Nope. Instead it’s all about; “You bastards! Why didn’t you guys stop gun sales?” All this after Obama promised anti gun rights groups he’d be doing something for them “…under the radar“.
I think the indignation we’re hearing from the press and from Congress is all feigned. Good Cop, Bad Cop.
My younger brother and I put together a list of socialist tenets many years ago. It’s been lost to computer upgrades and internet evolution, but one of those tenets was; “When restrictions on freedom produce disastrous results, freedom is to blame and the solution is more restrictions.” Look for it in this case. It’ll happen, I guarantee. It’s in the DNA of it.
Quote of the day—Thomas Jefferson
I ask the acceptance, by your son, of a keep-sake from me. It is an article of the tackle of a gun-man, offering the convenience of carrying the powder & shot together. I presume he is a gun-man, as I am sure he ought to be, and every American who wishes to protect his farm from the ravages of quadrupeds & his country from those of biped invaders.
Thomas Jefferson
August 15, 1816
Letter to Payne Todd.
[Every American ought to be a gun-man.
Update that to include women and it’s “case closed”.—Joe]
This Public Servant Bit Needs More Discussion
This is an addendum to the post below.
As stated; as a public employee, as a public servant, your job, your individual tasks, your pay and the very existence of the department for which you work, exists purely at our (The People’s) pleasure. It is our prerogative to alter this relationship, to dismiss you, or to eliminate your department entirely, at a whim.
As a public servant, you have no “right” whatsoever to a particular salary, or to a particular job, etc. If we decide we must lower your pay or dismiss you altogether, your proper response would be something like; “I understand. Thank you for the opportunity to have served you.” At that point you are free to go your own way and prove your worth in the marketplace as you see fit. May you live long and prosper.
If you decide, on the other hand, to get hostile about it and start in with the name-calling and the threats, what can We The People conclude about the relationship we’ve had with you? Look at me when I’m talking to you!
In private practice, a servant that gets hostile with the home owner will probably result in the police being called in on a domestic disturbance. At the very best it would result in an unflattering reference when you apply for another job. This is OUR house. If the hostility continues and becomes threatening, what are we to do? If the police aren’t able to help us get you public servants under control, well then, what? What are we left with for options in that case? You aren’t going to get your way, let me just put it like that. Not for long, I can tell you. This is OUR country.
Someone Doesn’t Know Their History…
…as Dan here at UltiMAK said about this.
I’ve often said that the socialists are calling the anti-socialists socialists for not being socialist enough. Or the Communists are angry at the socialists for not being communist enough.
Christie is being called “Hitler” for trying to cut government spending. The name-caller would have more credibility if he simply called Christie a “snotty nosed poopy pants”.
There is the fact that the communists are often bitterly angry at Progressives (who believe in achieving the goals of Marx through progressive steps). The communists think the time is right to pounce– to take off the masks and have the “People’s Revolution” right now. The Progressives are still in progressive mode, so there is a real conflict, but invoking the name of a famous socialist, as an epithet, doesn’t help their case.
There is also some conflict between the National Socialists verses the global socialists (FDR, Stalin and Hitler all held the same basic tentets, but differed only on the details and the execution) but I’m no more interested in the details than in the differences between rival crime gangs. They’re all enemies and they all have to be ground into the dustbin of history if we’re going to have a free society.
ETA; You public employees around the country seem to be terrible confused. See, you’re not “The People”. You’re The Government– our servants. Big difference. Your jobs, your pay and your benifits, exist at our pleasure. It’s when you tell us what our jobs, pay and benefits etc. should be, that’s Nazi-ish. Get it?
HT to Drudge.
Trunk Monkey!
Nice view
I was dreading working in downtown Seattle but the nice office with a view at least partially makes up for it.
Puget Sound is in the distance on the left:
While doing the orientation in California earlier this week I found some other things out about the company that pleased me too. It would appear they very strongly encourage innovation and the particular focus for my MSEE (communication theory) is a better match that what I first thought it would be. Plus they are looking to leverage my experience at Microsoft rather than expect me to retrain for Linux as I had feared.
One of the first things I did after getting my computer up and running was search for, find, and add myself to the company email list for the gun club. Nice!
Also a guy just down the hall from me has several targets on his desk with bullet holes in them. I haven’t talked to him yet but I expect I will before the week is over.
Any gun collectors interested in this pair?
I’m not into collecting guns but maybe someone else out there is. Even if I were into collecting guns the sales price on these wouldn’t pass the wife test. And even worse—they don’t even shoot!
I do admire the mechanics though. That is very impressive.
Via email from K.W.
Quote of the day—Dennis R. King
If government is the solution; Then it is highly probable that government created the problem in the first place.
Dennis R. King
2004
[Dennis is my cousin. Until yesterday it probably had been close to 20 years since I had seen him. He had framed this and put it on the wall of his home. I thought it qualified as QOTD material. Living in California with all the examples to chose from he talked at length about how messed up the government is. Frequently the rants extended to the Federal Government and Washington State government where his brother lives. I had a very pleasant visit.—Joe]
Exposing Leftists
College students are asked to sign a petition to impose Affirmative Action upon the basketball team (for diversity), to redistribute GPA points, ban conservative talk radio, etc. Good stuff. Enjoy.
What I took away was the students’ apparent total lack of ability, or preparation, for these discussions, meaning that high schools and universities aren’t encouraging such critical thinking at all. I believe my son, who just graduated from high school, could give these petitioners a resounding talkin’ to.
HT to Glen Beck
And You Thought FEMA was All About Helping People
Admit it– somewhere in the recesses of your mind, you thought there were only the best of intentions behind the creation of FEMA.
Little Grasshopper; I’ve been trying to get this across for some time now. I know it’s extremely difficult, but you have to try harder to grasp this pebble from my hand. People with good intentions want YOU TO BE STRONG ALL ON YOUR OWN. In the harder times, when you fall down and get seriously hurt, they want YOUR LOCAL COMMUNITY TO BE STRONG ALL ON ITS OWN. In the hardest of times they want YOUR REGION TO BE STRONG ALL ON ITS OWN. If the end of the world seems to be upon you, they want EVERY INDIVIDUAL TO BE AS INDEPENDANTLY STRONG AS POSSIBLE. Only then can Mankind face the biggest challenges and come out strong.
Creating a system that operated through coercion, funded coercively, which by its nature weakens charities and weaken individuals in favor of centralized power, is not the result of good intentions. It is the result of hatred. I know it’s extremely difficult, Little Grasshopper. I know there are all those assertions of warmth and light and compassion, but those are deep, deep lies, all the more the egregious because of their mockery of love and compassion.
What evidence will it take to convince you?
Quote of the day—Cork Graham
Firearms are only as good or evil, or as decisive, as the one brandishing them. Yet, every week, federal, state, and city lawmakers and politicians propose a Rubik’s cube of laws diminishing the Second Amendment–laws impinge on the God-given right and responsibility of every human to self-preservation.
It’s our responsibility to remember the purity and simplicity of The Constitution. That it’s a document intended for eons based on simple truths, and though can be added to, cannot, must never, be modified to meet the whims and agendas of political fancy.
To do so is not only counter to the vision of the founders of the United States of America, it also risks our sliding further down the slope of corruption and elitism that infests the governments of Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia.
Cork Graham
June 14, 2011
Third Culture Kid Learns Respect for the Second Amendment
Cork Graham is a former CIA paramilitary operations officer and combat photographer, who wrote the international best-selling Vietnam prison/treasure hunt memoir The Bamboo Chest.
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
Just say no to vaginal rejuvenation
This creeps me out. But then I’m adverse to rubber breasts, tattoos, body piercings, and most other cosmetic body modifications. Sure, I’m okay with reconstructive surgery to repair damage due to trauma or disease but that’s not what is going on here.
The only surgical body modifications in an otherwise healthy adult for enhancing sexual enjoyment I’m comfortable with are sterilizations. But “your body and your choice” overrides my preferences.