To be GOVERNED is to be watched, inspected, spied upon, directed, law-driven, numbered, regulated, enrolled, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, checked, estimated, valued, censured, commanded, by creatures who have neither the right nor the wisdom nor the virtue to do so.

To be GOVERNED is to be at every operation, at every transaction noted, registered, counted, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assesed, licensed, authorized, admonished, prevented, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be placed under contribution, drilled, fleeced, exploited, monopolized, extorted from, squeezed, hoaxed, robbed then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, vilified, harrased, hunted down, abused, clubbed, disarmed, bound, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, derided, outraged, dishonored.

That is government; that is its justice, that is its morality.

Pierre J. Proudhon
General Idea of the Revolution in the 19th Century

I like having a very direct and very powerful impact on worker safety and health.  If you put out a reg, it matters.  I think that's really where the thrill comes from.  And it is a thrill; it's a high... I love it; I absolutely love it.  I was born to regulate.  I don't know why, but that's very true.  So as long as I'm regulating, I'm happy.

Marthe Kent
OSHA director of safety standards program.
National Review's Internet Update
June 26, 2000

Kathleen Antrim at The San Francisco Examiner tells how Micheal Moore is reaping that which he has sown: 

"He was at every Oscar party and screening," said Moore's former manager Douglas Urbanski, a critically acclaimed 25-year veteran of the entertainment industry most recently known for the movie "The Contender," starring Gary Oldman, Joan Allen and Jeff Bridges. "He took out full page ads, cut his hair, bathed and even wore a suit. [Moore was] very present around town."

But the Hollywood elite turned up their surgically sculpted noses at Moore's flick. Urbanski explained that Hollywood has had it with Moore. Many blame him for provoking conservative voters and contributing to John Kerry's defeat in the presidential election. He's become the No. 1 favorite target of leftists.

"In certain [Hollywood] circles he is a shutout," Urbanski said.

Why would Moore's former manager be so forthcoming in his criticism?

"Michael Moore makes a substantial living going into peoples' private lives. Sneaking up on them," Urbanski said. So Urbanski feels no compunction in talking about the only client he ever fired. In fact, he fired Moore with a 10-page letter.

"A more dishonest and demented person I have never met," [Emphasis added] Urbanski wrote me in an e-mail, "and I have known a few! And he is more money obsessed than any I have known, and that's saying a lot."

It was over due and it couldn't have happened to a more appropriate person.  I hope people remember this when they think back to his 'documentary' Bowling for Columbine.  And it would be even better if they took back whatever award it was he got for “Best Documentary” for that piece of propaganda.

Ry, his three kids, and I are going to do some tests with explosives tomorrow.  Lots and lots of experiments to do.  Anyone that wants to stop by the Taj Mahal and watch and talk with us is welcome to do so.  Directions are here.  Give me a call on my cell phone (208-301-4254) first so I know to expect you.  If I don't answer leave a message and I'll get back to you with 30 minutes or so.  Don't show up unexpected or you might not like the welcome you receive.  I get a little edgy when people unknown to me approach when I'm working with explosives.

Lots and lots of MSM stuff as well as still more blogger stuff out there about what Bradley Smith had to say in CNET about the implications of the McCain-Feingold act.  I just can't get too worked up over it.  And not just because it's totally unenforceable.  I'm even skeptical that they will even try to regulate the blogs.  Surely they aren't that stupid.  And beyond that it could just be a big hoax to discredit bloggers.  Probably not, but it could be.  People believe what they want to believe.  And the bloggers want to believe they are so important that the government and/or MSM has to shut them down to get on with “business as usual“.  So the bloggers get all bent out of shape and then Smith is found to have never said any such thing or was high on crack the time he said it or suffering from a brain tumor the size of a grapefruit, whatever.  Where are the interviews with the other commissioners on this topic?

Oops.  I'm too late, others are throwing ice water on the fire already.

Well... Not really.  Although there are some people with rather high emotions about this.  Here is a snippet:

If Congress doesn't change the law, what kind of activities will the FEC have to target?
We're talking about any decision by an individual to put a link (to a political candidate) on their home page, set up a blog, send out mass e-mails, any kind of activity that can be done on the Internet.

Again, blogging could also get us into issues about online journals and non-online journals. Why should CNET get an exemption but not an informal blog? Why should Salon or Slate get an exemption? Should Nytimes.com and Opinionjournal.com get an exemption but not online sites, just because the newspapers have a print edition as well?

Why wouldn't the news exemption cover bloggers and online media?
Because the statute refers to periodicals or broadcast, and it's not clear the Internet is either of those. Second, because there's no standard for being a blogger, anyone can claim to be one, and we're back to the deregulated Internet that the judge objected to. Also I think some of my colleagues on the commission would be uncomfortable with that kind of blanket exemption.

So if you're using text that the campaign sends you, and you're reproducing it on your blog or forwarding it to a mailing list, you could be in trouble?
Yes. In fact, the regulations are very specific that reproducing a campaign's material is a reproduction for purpose of triggering the law. That'll count as an expenditure that counts against campaign finance law.

This is an incredible thicket. If someone else doesn't take action, for instance in Congress, we're running a real possibility of serious Internet regulation.

Enough to make your blood boil, right?  Except it will be impossible to enforce.  I can register a domain with a fake name and address in a foreign country, host the domain in still another country, then post anonymously to that website with an IP address from a third country, all without leaving my little town in Idaho.  Oh, and the traffic from my bedroom to the other side of the international borders is encrypted.  So how are they going to regulate that?  What authority do they have to regulate websites and Internet traffic of foreign countries?

At another dinner, a year or two ago, with the same friend from last week I had expressed my concerns about how the internet and computers could be a real threat to freedom.  The sniffing of your email traffic, the websites you browse, the things you buy, the people you communicate with, far, far too much information about you is known from your internet traffic.  He dismissed it by rolling his eyes, a wave of his hand and the statement, “Computers and the internet are a far bigger problem for the government than they are for the individual.”  Because to him this was so obvious I decided to think on it rather than push the subject with him.  In the time since then I've come to conclude he is right.  Yes, it's a problem for the individual but it's a bigger problem for the government.  Look at what bloggers have done in the past couple of years.  Look at the communication we get back from the war front.  Look at the bind the FEC is getting into trying to regulate us. 

Two lesson are important here:

1. The free flow of information is almost impossible to control now.
2. Freedom flourishes when you have the free flow of information. 

Fascists everywhere know the second lesson and are rapidly learning the first.  It won't be long before the slow learners at the FEC, in the courts, and in our legislatures grasp both.

Update:  See also Kim du Toit's response.
Update2: Geek with a .45 is organizing the insurrection.

For once I'd really like to see a 'women's' self defense book or whatever saying (show picture of IPSC target): “Here's a pressure point. Apply 124 grains of pressure.“

Buji Kern
March 17, 1999

I've long a been a critic of airport “security” measures.  But I think the Federal Air Marshal concept has a lot of validity.  I have reservations about the constitutionality of government supplied security for private enterprise, but the functionality of having highly trained, undercover, armed guards seems to be beyond rational criticism.  And of course if something should work you can probably count on the government finding a way to mess it up.  The FAM program is no exception to this general rule.  Michelle Malkin has been following the mess the program is in and reports the potential for Director Thomas Quinn to soon be fired or to resign under pressure.  My favorite option, allowing all passengers to carry defensive weapons on board any flight, isn't likely to happen anytime soon and having an effective FAM program is probably the most politically acceptable of the various potentially effective options for airplane security.  The sooner we can get the FAM program to be effective the better.  Besides, my 18 year old daughter says she wants to be FAM.  And although she can shoot a handgun she isn't anywhere near up to the level she needs to be; FAM handgun qualifications are the most demanding of any law enforcement agency in the country.  We are going to the range on Sunday to start her education.  I expect it will take a year to get her up to speed.  She is an incredibly strong willed person and if she really wants this I know she has the physical and mental strength to accomplish it.  We'll see what happens in the next few months as I chart her progress.

As I mentioned the other day I had dinner with a friend last week.  He commented on the insanity of Bush's State of the Union speech if you read between the lines.  I got a comment on that post defending Bush which I didn't bother to respond to in public.  I am in close agreement with Bush on the issue and it coming from this particular friend of mine it shouldn't really be considered as disagreement with the “Bush Doctrine“.  My friend is well aware that he cannot claim any high ground on the issue of sanity.  His solution for winning the war on terror is a case in point:

1. We tell the residents of Medina we are going to nuke the city in two weeks.  Anyone that believes Allah will save them or prevent it should stay.
2. Medina is converted to glass on schedule.
3. We tell the world that if so much as a US pizza restaurant is bombed we will nuke a city in response.  As soon as we find a piece of a turban or a scrap of their beard another city will be converted to glass ASAP and without warning.

We had enough nukes to deal with Russia so we sure as hell have enough to deal with the Arabs.

I suggested perhaps the Muslim extremist psychology might not respond in the same way that he expected.  His response was:

Their psychology has been adequate for them to survive for the last thousand years.  This is about their survival.  They will figure it out or they will cease to exist, either way we win.

His solution for dealing with the existence of Osama bin Laden is similar in that it is simple, ruthless, and nuclear.

I am always looking for better explosives for the Boomershoot and the other day someone suggested nitroglycerine.  I told him no, it's just too hazardous to work with.  While following up on idea for something else I ran across this story which I have to share:

In the 1920's and 1930's, liquid nitroglycerine was used for "shooting" oil wells to stimulate production. The productive formation might have a large porosity, so it held a lot of oil, but might be relatively impermeable, or "tight," so the oil would not flow into the small hole with sufficient speed. In limestone, hydrochloric acid was often used, but this was not useful in sandstones. By exploding from 2 to 200 quarts of nitroglycerine, the rock could be fractured for a considerable distance, greatly enlarging the surface through with the oil would flow, equivalent to making a much larger hole. The "shooter" drove alone in a Ford coupe, with the "soup" in the back where the rumble seat used to be, from his source of supply. Nitroglycerine could not be commercially shipped, of course. He poured the "soup" into tin "torpedoes" and lowered them one by one, each fitting into the top of the one below. On the top went a time fuze that ticked away and exploded the charge at a reasonable interval. Then everyone filtered back to the well from their places of refuge. Occasionally, all did not go well, but the "shooters" were well paid and their widows had insurance. There are few graves of "shooters."

Ultimately, people will have to be controlled directly. The only open question is whether it will be the "jackboot" model (1984) or the "soma" model (Brave New World). Soma's ahead by just a nose as they round the turn...

Scott Meredith
Upon hearing that there is a push to register air guns in the UK.
May 10, 2000 9:23 AM

Kim du Toit just pledged the following:

When these boys come home, and I pray they will all come home, I will be there at Ft. Lewis to welcome them. 

Any of you who want to join me on that happy day are welcome to do so. No, I don’t know when it is: maybe later this year, maybe early next year—but I will be there when it happens, regardless of personal inconvenience.

These boys have become our boys, and that’s all there is to it.

I'm pledging the same with the possible exception of pressing government business I need to attend to.  Please join us if you can.

This is the kind of adventure that is better when it is over.

Barbara Scott
September 24, 2000
About 3:00 AM while traversing a narrow, gravel, poorly mantained road in the middle of West Virgina (Dolly Sods) trying to find the way to a time-share condo.

For some reason my blog comes up on top for a number of search terms with the search engines.  Due to the referrals I was seeing I noticed that searching for Josh Sugarmann on either MSN search or google puts The View From North Central Idaho at the top of the list.  It was this post that did it.

Josh Sugarmann, for those that don't know, is the Executive Director at Violence Policy Center, is the author of this book, and was the brains behind the assault weapon ban.  Wow!  Someone looking for information on Mr. Sugarmann ends up looking at my propaganda on freedom, guns, and explosives.  I love the irony.

Stephanie has finished tweaking all the press releases now.  Please point your favorite, or even your most hated, MSM editors, reporters and bloggers to them.  Our objective is to get positive media coverage of gun ownership and use.  The explosives angle gives that extra edge to make it a newsworthy story rather than just a bunch of people punching holes in paper that you can't see without a deep space telescope.  Our hand picked and carefully trained media specialists can keep even the most noxious gun fearing wussy reporter from gaining much traction.  Check out some of the previoius press coverage we have obtained to see what is possible if you manage the press appropriately.  We are expecting some good stuff this year too and if you can help make it happen it will benefit gun owners everywhere.

Here are some data points:

• More Than 2,000 Demonstrate at Iraqi Bombing Site
• bin Laden encouraged Zarqawi and his group to focus on attacks inside the United States
• Lebanese Cheer Collapse of Syrian-led Government
• Syria cooperating with Iraq authorities
• Democratic moves snowballing across Mideast

From this last article:

Under the combined impact of US pressure and rumblings on the home front, democratic moves have snowballed across the Middle East in recent weeks and brought in timid changes to Arab regimes fearful of reform.

Egypt has become the latest country to break with the autocratic order that has come to define regional politics and make a small concession to a cautious yet unprecedented democratic push.

President Hosni Mubarak took Egyptians and the rest of the world by surprise Saturday when he proposed multi-candidate direct presidential polls, replacing a 50-year-old system whereby a single candidate was vetted by the army before being submitted to a popular vote.

The fact that there are thousands of protesters against the terrorists in Iraq is a very good sign and I suspect this attitude is a good part of the reason why bin Laden is telling his top commander in Iraq to move his area of operations to the U.S.  They have lost the battle in Iraq and they know it.  Syria is trying to play friendly with the US and Iraq as their power wanes.  Egypt claims to be moving towards freedom.  Iran is a concern but overall it's almost all good news from the Middle East.

I, as well as most other people that watch these sort of things, are amazed we haven't had another attack on U.S. soil since 9-11.  That bit of good fortune may change as the extremists realize they aren't going to win in Iraq.  But we got nearly four years of preparation in before they decided to focus their sights on us again.  I just hope our intelligence network is working well enough to stop the vast majority of the attempts on our homeland.  That reminds me--I should go visit the guy upstairs to see if the stuff I have been giving him has been ignored or put to good use.

I will tell dispatch to hold the SWAT team.

John Willard
President, Clearwater Country Sheriff's Posse
Reserve Deputy for Clearwater County
April 14, 1999
This was in response to Joe Huffman asking him if he would let the Sheriff know about the Boomershoot before the neighbors did. John participated in the fun.

I did a lot of preparation for Boomershoot 2005 this weekend.  I finished up reducing the volume of the 8“ target bodies so the neighbors don't have so much stuff falling off the walls.  I didn't do all the 8“ target bodies, just more than enough for this event.  I changed my method to do this.  The egg cartons were just too time consuming.  I switched to using the expanding sealing foam used in home repair.  It was much, much faster even if it was more expensive.  Here is a picture of some of the target bodies:

Also note the colors of the lids at the base of the stack of target bodies. I'm painting them different colors to help the shooter/spotter teams identify which target they are talking about.  There will be a white as well as the yellow, red, and “cardboard brown” shown in the picture above.  I have painted all the yellow and red lids I need for the 8“ targets just the white lids remain.  I'll do the six inch lids and the rest of the 8“ lids sometime in March.

These are the new 4” targets we will be using for the main event on Sunday.  These are cardboard boxes with internal dimensions of 4x4x2 inches.  These targets will hold slightly more of the “reactive recipe“ than the old 4“ diameter targets did.  They come from the factory white so there will only be the three colors of them.  The clinic will use up the last of the 4” diameter targets with the plastic lids we used last year.

In other news I just sent in the comments from a number of proof readers (family and friends) on a article that is being written for a shooting magazine on the Boomershoot by someone that has attended the last two events.  It looks really good but we don't know for certain if the magazine will actually publish it or not.  I doubt that it will appear before this years event so it probably won't help attendance this year but it might for next year.

Next weekend, assuming the weather is favorable, we will be doing a bunch of experiments with new mixes to increase the sensitivity and reliability of detonation.  Then on the 27th of March we have a “private party“ to put on.  This is going to be a busy month for Boomershoot stuff.

I got an inquiry from someone in Wisconsin this weekend.  He will be a first from that state if he is able to make it.

There was never a genius without a tincture of madness.

Aristotle

Later in life, when mortar rounds were dropping around him, Brother said he didn't mind a bit.  "Just like fishing back on the farm," he always said.

Ragnar Benson
From: Ragnar's Guide to Home and Recreational Use of High Explosives
Page 5, Copyright 1988

As usual, lots of entries came in this last week of February but because I expanding the shooting line so much I still have 22 more shooting positions available.  I have 38 positions taken now.  I'm also officially in the black on paper.  That doesn't count the loan I made to Boomershoot for the new explosives magazine last year and all the chemicals I purchased last year or the new generator I bought a month ago.  But since I had purchased nearly enough materials for this years event last year my cash flow has been very good this year.  I have paid back $1650 (including interest) on the loan and paid for the generator with this years money so I'm feeling pretty good about the money situation.

Since we have all the bloggers showing up this year I had hoped to get wireless internet service onsite.  I talked to the provider yesterday and found out that there are political obstacles to that happening.  They have been working on providing service in that area for some time but aren't quite there yet.  There are permits they have to obtain and stuff like that.  The current schedule looks like “end of the summer“.  So, maybe Boomershoot 2006 will be the first to have live blogging.

There are just under nine weeks to Boomershoot 2005.  Next Saturday Ry and I will do a full day of experiments aimed at getting the mix more sensitive.  Then we will be ready until just a few days before the event when the work really begins.

I drove 400 miles round trip to have dinner with a friend on Wednesday evening.  I always enjoy my time with him immensely.  Very, very, funny, and thought provoking.  I'll share his solution to our war with Muslim extremists in some other post but a newspaper article I saw this evening reminded me of something else he said.  He made a comment about Bush's State of the Union speech being insane if you read between the lines. "Oh?", I asked. "How is that?" The answer I got was, "He wants to export freedom to everyone. That's not much different than Caesar saying he wanted to bring civilization to everyone and the Conquistadors bringing Catholicism to everyone."  Interesting viewpoint.  I hadn't thought of it that way before.  My friend doesn't exactly think everyone is ready or capable of handling freedom as we know it.  I'm not so sure but he has a number of data points from dealing with other cultures that I don't have direct experience with.  Anyway the news indicates, insane or not, foreign governments are taking Bush seriously.

From the LA Times:

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak called Saturday for a constitutional amendment to allow other candidates to run against him for the first time, a surprise move that could be a historic turning point in a country that has endured decades of repressive rule.

The announcement by Mubarak, a staunch U.S. ally, came days after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice canceled a trip to the Middle East this week amid mounting tension over the autocratic Egyptian leader's crackdown on political opponents.