Author Archives: Joe

Quote of the day—FormerlyPeabodyPress @CodeNamePeabody

Posted on by
1

Because you weigh 300 lbs and can’t run a block and it’s easier to shoot someone than fight them. And you have a micro-penis.

FormerlyPeabodyPress @CodeNamePeabody
Tweeted on October 5, 2022
[It’s not only another Markley’s Law Monday, it is another science denier!

When a woman confirms Markley’s Law I always wonder if her husband or boyfriend has sent me a naked picture of her or will someday. At my age, I am little surprised it still happens but you never know. The odds are extremely low, but this could be the one.—Joe]

We live in interesting times

Posted on by
10

In addition to being the nation’s fastest growing state, counties in Oregon and California have voted to secede and join Idaho:

Two more conservative-leaning counties in eastern Oregon, and one politically split county in California, have voted to begin the process that could lead to secession from their respective blue states.

On Nov. 8, Oregon’s Morrow County passed the Greater Idaho proposal with 60 percent of the vote and Wheeler County with 59 percent.

A similar measure in San Bernardino County, California, passed by a narrow margin, 51.3 percent to 48.7.

I would have to investigate further to be sure, but my first impression is that it would be a good thing. It would reduce some of the political tension and give the political left more rope to hang themselves with.

Expect Eastern Washington wanting to get in on the fun too.

We live in interesting times.

Why can’t they understand?

Posted on by
7

I get frustrated with people when they don’t understand simple principles. Here is my latest example:

After their vote, Biden said, “Love is love, and Americans should have the right to marry the person they love,” adding their vote made “the United States one step closer to protecting that right in law.”

Schumer also said he had “zero doubt” the bill “will soon be law of the land.”

But multiple groups disagree, arguing it’s unconstitutional for the same reasons the Supreme Court struck down DOMA. Because the court already ruled Congress doesn’t have the constitutional authority to define marriage under Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution, and because ROMA is nearly identical to DOMA, they argue it will also likely be struck down.

The principle is the Federal government has not been granted the power to do anything in this domain. This is a power held by the states. Read the founding documents! It is really simple.

And while I have my blood boiling…

If you think any government has the power to outlaw guns, then you must also believe that same government has the power to mandate gun ownership for anyone.

If you think any government has the power to change the terms of a student loan and not require repayment, then you must also believe that same government has the power to change the terms of the loan and require immediate payment of ten times to remaining principle.

If you think any government has the power to give “free” healthcare to everyone, then you must also believe that same government has the power to deny healthcare (or at least make it extremely expensive) for anyone.

If you think any government has the power to take from the rich and give to the poor, then you must also believe that same government has the power to take from the poor and give to the rich.

If you believe any government has the power to deny marriage to people because they are homosexuals and biologically incapable of conceiving a child then you must also believe that same government has the power to deny marriage to people where one party is infertile.

If you think any government has the power to outlaw marriage between certain classes of people, then you must also believe that same government has the power to mandate marriage between certain classes of people. As in, “John Q. Public, you will marry Jack O. Public next Sunday regardless of what you think of homosexuality and your lack of affection for each other.”

If you think any government has the power to outlaw abortion, then you must also believe that same government has the power to mandate abortions.

I could go on for quite some time, but you get the idea.

Quote of the day—ReneeFiredUp (@livingjoyful)

Posted on by
6

Remove all semi automatic weapons.  If we start getting them off the street, in time the criminals will find the illegal ones too expensive and too much liability.  It’s not criminals who are the mass shooters!  #GunReformNow

ReneeFiredUp (@livingjoyful)
Tweeted on November 25, 2022
[If you don’t take anything else away from this, just remember, “no one wants to take your guns.”

There is a grain of truth in this quote. Most did not have a criminal record prior to going on their shooting rampage.

But something almost all have in common is they identified as Democrats or were the children of Democrats. See the updates to this post for the evidence. This should come as no surprise as criminal prisoners who identify as Democrats outnumber all other political affiliations combined by a factor of more than two to one. The mass shooters are just fulfilling their destiny early in their criminal career.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Ali Rowhani-Rahbar

Posted on by
3

The next step is to ask what is the impact on public health and public safety when guns are easier to carry. In a situation where you have a fight, do they contribute to the escalation and make it more lethal?

Ali Rowhani-Rahbar
The number of US adults carrying a loaded handgun every day doubled to an estimated 6 million in just 4 years
[That is the question if you believe all lives are equally important. That is, Ted Bundy, Jeffery Dahmer, Adam Lanza, and others of their ilk have lives just as important as their victims.

A more relevant question is, “Where does government get the moral, legal, and philosophical authority to restrict people from using the best tools available to defend themselves?”

Or if you want to strictly practical, “Can you demonstrate one time or place, throughout all history, where the average person was made safer by restricting access to handheld weapons?” The answer is, of course, no.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Joe Biden

Posted on by
13

The idea we still allow semiautomatic weapons to be purchased is sick.  It’s just sick.  It has no, no social redeeming value.  Zero.  None.  Not a single, solitary rationale for it except profit for the gun manufacturers.

Joe Biden
President of the United States
November 24, 2022
Remarks by President Biden After Visiting With Local Firefighters
[Enjoy your trial.—Joe]

News you might use

Posted on by
9

This is probably too good to be true. I would have thought someone would have noticed the correlation before if the consumption of certain foods reversed Alzheimer’s.

scientists at Tufts University are working to understand what might slow the progression of the disease. They tested 21 different compounds in Alzheimer’s-afflicted neural cells in the lab, measuring the compounds’ effect on the growth of sticky beta-amyloid plaques. These plaques develop in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s.

The team found that two common compounds—green tea catechins and resveratrol, found in red wine and other foods—reduced the formation of plaques in those neural cells. And they did so with few or no side effects.

The applicability of this to humans drinking green tea and red wine are somewhat tenuous. The experiments were done on an artificially grown 3D neural tissue model. I presume the treatment was done via the nutrient bath or some such thing. So there was no passage of the active compounds through the digestive system, into the blood stream, and through the blood brain barrier to the brain.

Still, the risk/reward ratio for drinking green tea and/or red wine (and/or eating grapes) is favorable.

Quote of the day—J.D. Tuccille

Posted on by
7

It’s difficult to see the future as anything other than more closely surveilled, and in a more coordinated way. Law enforcement agencies are likely to coordinate their efforts through multi-jurisdictional efforts such as the U.S. Department of Justice’s Regional Information Sharing Systems which increase reach while reducing costs and technical challenges. They can also sign up as subscribers to one or more privately developed plug-and-play surveillance networks.

Those of us who are especially surveillance-averse will still take active measures to obscure our trail, through purchases made in cash, face masks, clothing that confuses algorithms, and leaving our cellphones at home. But we will still be watched, and chances are that making efforts to preserve anonymity will itself come to be seen by the powers that be as suspicious.

J.D. Tuccille
November 21, 2022
See the Surveillance State at Work in Your Own Community: The Atlas of Surveillance lets us monitor the agencies that snoop on the public.
[Via a message from Stephanie.

The Atlas of Surveillance gives you some clues as to how thoroughly you are surveilled. It’s not complete so just because your area of operation shows as relatively clean doesn’t mean it actually is. Bellevue, where Barb and I live, doesn’t show anything at all. Yet, I can show you cameras on traffic lights and know people who have received automated tickets from those type of cameras in Bellevue.

I have to agree with Tuccille. It is only going to get worse.

I was talking with Mike B. last night night about cellphone location data and how it might apply to the mass murders in Moscow a few days ago. And, as suggested by Tuccille in the last sentence quoted above, I suggested surveillance camera in Moscow could be used to identity time and place of vehicle activity. Combine data around the time of the murders with cellphone location data. If a camera visible car did not have a cellphone then it is suspicious and should be investigated.

Other suggestions included:

  • The, obvious, look for cell phones visiting the house during the time of the murders.
  • Look for cellphones which were turned off during the time of the murder.
  • Get location data from popular phone apps as well as the cell providers. I know the Facebook app collects location data. Probably Twitter and others do as well.

We live in interesting times.—Joe]

Quote of the day—John Gregg

Posted on by
7

The right to carry a bowie-knife for lawful defense is secured, and must be admitted. It is an exceeding destructive weapon. It is difficult to defend against it, by any degree of bravery, or any amount of skill. The gun or pistol may miss its aim, and when discharged, its dangerous character is lost, or diminished at least. The sword may be parried. With these weapons men fight for the sake of the combat, to satisfy the laws of honor, not necessarily with the intention to kill, or with a certainty of killing, when the intention exists. The bowie-knife differs from these in its device and design; it is the instrument of almost certain death. He who carries such a weapon, for lawful defense, as he may, makes himself more dangerous to the rights of others, considering the frailties of human nature, than if he carried a less dangerous weapon. Now, is the legislature powerless to protect the rights of others thus the more endangered, by superinducing caution against yielding to such frailties? May the state not say, through its law, to the citizen, “this right which you exercise, is very liable to be dangerous to the rights of others, you must school your mind to forbear the abuse of your right, by yielding to sudden passion; to secure this necessary schooling of your mind, an increased penalty must be affixed to the abuse of this right, so dangerous to others.”

John Gregg
Texas Appeals Court Judge
1859
John Cockrum v. The State Page 402
[Via The legal history of bans on firearms and Bowie knives before 1900 by David Kopel.

I found this take on the use of large knives versus guns very interesting. There are several facets to this, but the following is the most intriguing. Those who would restrict access to guns would increase the use of weapons the courts have found to be more deadly.—Joe]

Quote of the day—William Melhado

Posted on by
5

Perez-Gallan had a restraining order issued against him, in which case federal law prohibits the possession of a firearm.

Counts ruled that the federal government’s disarming of Perez-Gallan did not sufficiently consider the historical context of domestic abuse law when revoking his Second Amendment rights. In September, the same judge ruled that it’s unconstitutional to disarm somebody who has been indicted but hasn’t been convicted yet.

William Melhado
November 14, 2022
Federal judge in Texas rules that disarming those under protective orders violates their Second Amendment rights
[Nice!

It is long past time which the specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms was recognized as a first class right instead of an embarrassing dog turd on the bottom of someone’s shoe.

I would think there are some due process issues involved as well.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Johnny Memphis @johnnymemphis

Posted on by
4

Wow can you even see your own penis?

Johnny Memphis @johnnymemphis
Tweeted on June 6, 2022
[It’s not only another Markley’s Law Monday, it is another science denier!

When they have no facts, no principles, and no legal argument they let you have it with the best they can delivery… childish insults.

Via a tweet from In Chains @InChainsInJail.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Handwaving Freakoutery

Posted on by
12

Ladies and gentlemen of the 97 Percent panel, thank you for letting me participate in the conference today as a representative of the gun community. I appreciate and endorse your stated mission of reducing gun deaths in America by conducting original research to identify common ground, to change the conversation around gun safety to include gun owners, and to leverage technology to make our communities safer. All of these goals are goals that the gun community shares with you.

But I must tell you something very important.

I have never heard a more delusional, more dishonest stream of bad faith bullshit as I have just heard. You all should be ashamed of yourselves.

Handwaving Freakoutery
November 18, 2022
Ninety Seven Percent: Epistemic status: gun policy fiction based on that embarrassingly awful 97% zoom call yesterday
[Good fiction humor based on a lot of facts.—Joe]

I fear global cooling more than global warming

Posted on by
12

If humans actually have some control over the global temperature we should error on the side of making things too warm rather than too cold. It’s a lot easier to deal with a few feet of rise in the level of the ocean than it is to deal with a mile of ice over Seattle, Chicago, and New York and everything north of there.

Mugme street update

Posted on by
3

I used to work in the tall building you see in the background.

Moscow mass murder update

Posted on by
8

More information on the tragic mass murder in Moscow Idaho last Sunday as been slowing dribbling out. It seems that the information raises as many questions as it answers.

Here are the points of interest I have found:

University of Idaho victim’s friend says dorm door-lock code wasn’t usually activated. I’m not too surprised. When my family lived in Moscow we always locked our doors. But I know people that leave the keys in the ignition of their vehicles when at home.

Over the last few days, police officers have come knocking at a local home improvement store to inquire about potential sales of a Ka-Bar knife – as they continue to try to locate the murder weapon. They appear to be specifically looking for a knife “with a smooth edge on one side and a serrated edge on the other.” But the picture they provide is of a knife without any serrations. My reading on Ka-Bar knives seems to indicate that Ka-Bar’s an not typically serrated.

Autopsies were conducted on November 17th. The Latah County Coroner confirmed the identity of the four murdered individuals and their cause and manner of death as homicide by stabbing. The coroner stated that the four victims were likely asleep, some had defensive wounds, and each was stabbed multiple times. There was no sign of sexual assault. This same posting tells us, “At this time in the investigation, detectives do not believe the two surviving roommates … are involved in the crime.” Also, there are over 128 people in law enforcement involved in the investigation. This includes the Moscow Police, Latah County Sheriff’s Office, Idaho State Patrol, and the FBI.

The 911 call that led to the discovery of Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Ethan Chapin and Xana Kernodle’s bodies was not made by their roommates, I don’t really trust parts of this report. It could just be former LAPD detective Mark Fuhrman wanted another 15 minutes of fame and speculated on things for the camera.

One of the University of Idaho murder victims called the same person seven times shortly before she was killed, her sister claims… “Kaylee calls [the man] six times between 2.26am and 2.44am. From 2.44 to 2.52 Maddie calls [the man] three times, then Kaylee makes a final call to him at 2.52am,” Alivea said. If this was after the attack started, why didn’t they call the police? See also this report which identifies the person the victims called as “Jack”.