The View From North Central Idaho

A free press can of course be good or bad, but, most certainly, without freedom it will never be anything but bad.... Freedom is nothing else but a chance to be better, whereas enslavement is a certainty of the worse.

Albert Camus

The power of Liberty is often called depravity by those who do not possess it.

Lyle Keeney
Comment on The View From North Central Idaho
February 27, 2006

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

The power of accurate observation is often called cynicism by those who do not possess it.

George Bernard Shaw
[I'm thinking of the crisis the world has with Islamic extremists.--Joe]

I need to find the actual report or at least other news stories on it but this is a nice teaser on the subject:

WASHINGTON: A new study has revealed the mystery behind lovers getting more sexual satisfaction after intercourse than masturbation.

Following an orgasm, the hormone prolactin is released into the bloodstream in both men and women. The hormone makes one feel satiated by countering the effect of dopamine, which is released during sexual arousal.

Stuart Brody of the University of Paisley, UK, and Tillmann Kriger of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, measured blood prolactin levels in male and female volunteers who watched erotic films before engaging in masturbation or sexual intercourse to orgasm in the laboratory.

Surprisingly, after orgasm from sexual intercourse, the increase in blood prolactin levels is 400 per cent higher in both sexes compared with after orgasm from masturbation.

This explains why orgasm from intercourse is more satisfying than masturbation, says Brody. Since elevated levels of prolactin have been linked to erectile dysfunction, this may also explain why most men need a recovery period after sex.

I wonder how long it will be before there is a recreational drug on the market that mimics this?  I think there is a business opportunity here.  I've never used a drug, legal or illegal, recreationally.  But there certainly are a lot of people that do.

I got a call from our son James yesterday.  He had just finished taking the Graduate Record Exam (GRE).  Except for the essay portion they get the results back immediately afterwards.  He got a 560/800 on the verbal portion and 800/800 on the quantitative portion.  This is particularily noteworthy because it is an online, adaptive test.  The questions presented get harder if you are getting them all correct or easier if you are having difficulties with them.  He said it was "brutal".  He just barely finished the problems in the time given.  He was pretty "up" about things though--as well he should be.  We are very proud of him.

Another post from someone I used to work with at Microsoft.  Craig was my lead when I first started at Microsoft.  Here he gives the early history of DirectX.  I started in May of '95 and was responsible for the Cirrus chips for DirectX 1.  I took the summer off to be with my wife and kids for the summer of '96 and just barely had contact with DirectX 3.  But I was involved with 2 and 5. 

The "military coat" Craig talks about is a black M-65 field jacket.  I still have my DirectX jacket in my closet with the patches.  Ry and I now wear black M-65 jackets with Boomershoot embroidered on them.

Some of the patches for the various versions of DirectX had the project names on them.  Some of the project names were Manhattan (DirectX 1 was to "compete" with the Japanese game machines), Orion (reference to nuclear explosion powered space travel), and Orange (as in Agent Orange used in Vietnam to defoliate the jungle).  I think it was DirectX 6 that had the project name of "Diesel".  This was a veiled reference to ammonium nitrate/diesel mixture which was believed (nitromethane was the actual fuel) to be used in the then recent bombing of the Federal building in Oklahoma City.  Another time I will tell you of the mementos I made of ammonium nitrate for people on the project and shipped to Raymond to distribute.

See also Renegades of the Empire for DirectX history and lots of stories about Alex, Craig, and Eric.

Update: Fixed the broken link to Craigs post on DirectX history.

The more laws and order are made prominent, the more thieves and robbers there will be.

Lao Tsu
[In the more narrow context of "gun crime" this is also true.  The more restrictions on firearms the more useful they are to criminals and the more likely they are to use them.  If all potential victims were armed the criminals would be more likely to avoid situations where they could be shot.--Joe]

Via an old friend from Microsoft.  A work safe comedy video that probably hits a little "too close to home" for a lot of people I know.

...the Noam Chomskys and Michael Moores and Robert Fisks of the world (and their thousands of lesser imitators in faculty lounges everywhere) are not brave transgressive forward-thinkers but pathetic memebots running the program of a dead tyrant.

Eric Steven Raymond (ESR)
Gramscian damage
[ESR doesn't just claim this.  He proves it.  Great blog posting.--Joe]

Chances are, if you're ever going to be involved in a home defense situation with a shotgun, you'll be in your birthday-suit.  So unless you've got ammunition Velcro'd to your ass, all the extra ammunition you'll have will be on the gun.

Greg Hamilton
Self Defense Instructor
March 7, 1999

So congress says the Clean Water Act applies to all U.S. navigable water.  Okay, I can see them getting authority from the interstate commerce clause.  But then the Corp of Engineers and the EPA have their way with things:

The dispute is one of two cases consolidated for oral argument Tuesday examining just how far upstream the Clean Water Act (CWA) extends federal jurisdiction. Is it limited to lakes and rivers? Or does it include remote wetlands with no link to them? At stake: how broadly the clean water law will be applied nationwide and, potentially, whether a broad application of the law is consistent with the proper constitutional balance of power between the federal government and the states.

At the center of the dispute is a discrepancy between the words Congress used when it wrote the CWA and the regulations the US Army Corps of Engineers and Environmental Protection Agency wrote later to enforce the clean water law.

Congress said US jurisdiction would extend over all "navigable waters." EPA and Corps of Engineers regulations interpret the law as extending far upstream, even to waters with no hydrologic connection to a tributary of navigable waters.

"Through this authority, the Corps will effectively exercise a wide-ranging federal police power over all kinds of land use," writes Carabell's lawyer, Timothy Stoepker, in his brief to the court. "A saturated portion of a residential lawn, which is near a storm drain ... will come within the scope of the act, and the owners of such land will have to obtain permits from the Corps before making a variety of ordinary land-use decisions."

So what definition of navigable water can you come up with that includes a saturated portion of a residential lawn?  This is government WAY out of control.

I'm not sure why, but this makes me a little sad:

AN era of aviation history has drawn to a close with the US-made F-14 Tomcat fighter plane - the one flown into the danger zone by Tom Cruise in the film Top Gun - being withdrawn from active service.

The Tomcat is going into mothballs because advances in military technology have made its greatest attribute - the ability to manoeuvre at high speeds and in close combat situations - redundant.

Fighter planes no longer need such abilities because they don't dogfight any more. Instead, pilots shoot at each other with target-seeking rockets, sometimes from 20km away.

The Tomcats were officially retired from service last week, replaced by FA-18 Super Hornets that are cheaper to maintain, easier to operate from aircraft carriers and able to carry more bombs.

The F-14 requires nearly 50 maintenance hours for every flight hour compared to five to 10 hours maintenance for the FA-18.

The F-14 entered operational service in 1974 when two squadrons were assigned to the USS Enterprise, replacing F-4 Phantom fighters that were eventually phased out in 1986.

...

The Tomcat was designed in the Cold War era to be the world's best fighter-interceptor. Its primary task was to defend aircraft carriers against cruise missile-armed Soviet aircraft.

I thought they were deployed to deliver a particularly heavy missile.  But I forget the exact details and don't really keep up on this sort of thing.  I just marvel at the capabilities and the engineering.

I think this is a train wreck waiting to happen.

Mike Machado
California State Senator
Talking about "Real ID" which is expected by most to be a real mess.
[For expense think about the Canadian gun registry on steroids.  Plus it can't possibly achieve it's intended goals.--Joe]

Xenia had four days off from school this weekend so Barb took some time off too and visited me in Kirkland rather than me driving home to Moscow this weekend while James and the two attack dogs and two flesh eating cats guarded the Huffman-Scott compound.  Yesterday was mostly consumed with shopping at "thrift stores."  It always seems to me it would be much more thrifty to not go shopping at all, but that argument is always met with such a clamor that I seldom bring it up regardless of the unassailable logic.  We had lunch at a Japanese buffet which was very nice.  Today we visited the Seattle Center and had lunch in the restaurant at the top of the Space Needle.

Pictures are here.

Update: Xenia posted some more pictures.

Here's what the public thinks:

(Angus Reid Global Scan) – Many adults in the United States believe the current regulations regarding firearms are adequate, according to a poll by Rasmussen Reports. 52 per cent of respondents believe the U.S. does not need stricter gun control laws.

...

Polling Data

Does the U.S. need stricter gun control laws?

Yes	39%
No	52%

Source: Rasmussen Reports
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 1,000 American adults, conducted on Feb. 14 and Feb. 15, 2006. Margin of error is 3 per cent.

Here's what's on the agenda for Congress (from Volume 3, Issue 1, January/February 2006 Firearms Coalition, Hard Corps Report):

1. Limit Revocation of Gun Rights to Violent Felons Only
2. Repeal Interstate Sales Ban, NICS makes it Obsolete
3. Require the Return of Recovered Firearms to their Rightful Owners
4. Repeal the Federal "Gun-Free School Zone Act" with its Many Potential Pitfalls for Innocent Gun Owners
5. Repeal the Useless 1986 Machine Gun Ban
6. Repeal GCA '68 "Sporting Purposes Language
7. Removed Useless Restrictions on Silencers so these Useful Tools can be Employed to Make Shooting Safer
8. Reform NICS Instant Check to Guarantee Timely Sales

The Democrats are fractured over gun control.  The Canadian Gun registry is about to be scrapped.  New Orleans.  The list goes on.

Keep up the pressure.  Drive these bigots into political extinction.

The mere absence of war is not peace.

John F. Kennedy

Washington D.C. elected a convicted felon as Mayor but at least they waited until he was out of jail.  Not so on the West Bank.  And these aren't just minor crimes:

RAMALLAH, West Bank — Imagine 54 U.S. congressmen holding office from behind bars, and you get an idea of the problem facing the Palestinian parliament when it meets today for its first session since the January landslide victory of the radical, anti-Israel group Hamas.

About 10 percent of the 132 newly elected Palestinian legislators are inmates of Israel's civilian and military jails. Some of the legislators are being held in administrative detention without charges; others are serving time after conviction in Israeli courts.

How, if at all, these prisoner-politicians can participate in government and join debates on proposed legislation is a serious question.

"They won't get any special privileges just because they were elected," said Israeli Prison Service spokesman Ofer Lefler. At best, he said, they might be able to pass information to the outside world through monthly family visits or visits with lawyers, which can occur more frequently.

"In our jails they haven't got cellphones — I hope. And they haven't got permission to call," Lefler said. "They are prisoners. That's the whole story."

While Palestinian legislators confined to the Gaza Strip under Israeli travel restrictions are expected to participate via closed-circuit video link with their colleagues meeting in Ramallah, no such provision exists for the 13 legislators in Israeli custody. (One legislator is in a Palestinian jail as well as under international supervision.)

Ten of the 14 are members of Hamas, whose effective majority drops from 74 to 64 seats while they are incarcerated. Three are members of Fatah, including the head of the party's electoral list, Marwan Barghouti. Barghouti is serving five consecutive life sentences for his role in five attacks that killed civilians. Still, he is often mentioned by Palestinian and Israeli analysts — a la Nelson Mandela — as a possible future Palestinian leader.

One inmate, Ahmed Sadaat, of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, is in a Palestinian jail in Jericho for his role in the 2002 assassination of Israeli Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeevi.

This should speak volumes about their agenda, their political mandate, for their terms in office.

About 10 days ago I was telling someone about the extremist Muslim response to the cartoons of Muhammad.  They weren't particularly familiar with what was happening but said, "It will go away soon."  I agreed, but my point was it showed the tremendous gulf between the west and radical Islam.  Later, at lunch with a friend, I repeated, "It will go away soon."  He disagreed, "The only way I see to get to the other side of this is over a pile of bodies--either theirs or ours."  I realized he could be right but wasn't convinced.  A week or so, I thought, that's about the typical attention spam for this sort of thing.  I had forgotten the length of the French riots (and here, here, here, and here) last fall.  That was more like three weeks or a month.  This is a bigger and more widespread event.  Perhaps this will be the flame that will burn until all the fuel is exhausted.  It was over lunch yesterday this same friend told me about the $1 million reward for killing the cartoonist and ended the conversation with, "I feel like I'm living on another planet, these people are a bunch of savages."  I couldn't disagree.

In our frame of reference this insult is so trivial and their response is so extreme there will be no compromise, no truce, and no ceasefire.  As communication and travel have improved we can no longer be isolated from each other on this planet.  The publication of a few cartoons in minor newspaper in a small country in Western Europe ignited a violent, worldwide, response.  The fuel supply for this flame, this clash of civilizations, has been building for over a thousand years and the flame may not be extinguished until the fuel is exhausted.  I see only uncomfortable options; we destroy their civilization, they destroy ours, or we participate, as either victims or perpetrators, in the greatest genocide this world has ever known.

This is a unanimous decision by all imams of Islam that whoever insults the prophet deserves to be killed and whoever will take this insulting man to his end, will get this prize.

Mohammed Yousaf Qureshi
Peshawar, Pakistan
February 17, 2006
Cleric announcing rewards of $1 million dollars, one million rupees, 500,000 rupees, and a car for the killing of the cartoonist who drew the prophet.

The police commit the 'crime' in order to get evidence:

According to court documents, Spotsylvania detectives paid three visits to the Moon Spa in January and received massages, baths and sex acts on four occasions. Smith previously told The Post it was not the first time his agency has employed the full-contact method, which he said is essential because many prostitutes avoid verbally incriminating themselves. Several legal and law enforcement experts said the practice is rarely used, if ever, and might amount to breaking the law.

In their news release, Smith and Neely said that undercover officers often purchase illegal drugs to build cases against dealers and that the "same lawful investigative technique" was used in the prostitution cases. A Virginia law banning drug possession exempts law-enforcement officers who possess narcotics as part of their job duties. The prostitution statute makes no such exception.

Another case of "The law doesn't apply to us."  Jerks.

Congratulations to Mr. Completely for winning the title of Biggest and Best Gun Blog 2005.  For this he, and his lovely wife KeeWee, will be receiving a free entry into Boomershoot 2006.  I'm not sure what he is going to be using at the event as his particular area of gun dominance is with .22LR handguns, but I'm sure we can figure something out.  I'll be having dinner, again, with he and his wife on March 1 so maybe we can work out some details then.

The battle will last decades:

BRITAIN's security forces are nowhere near getting to grips with al-Qaeda, the country's top anti-terror police officer said yesterday, warning the struggle could take decades.

Peter Clarke, the head of the Metropolitan Police's Anti-Terrorist Branch, said it was "hopelessly optimistic" to think that the threat from al-Qaeda could be contained within five or ten years.

One report even suggests that the current generation of al-Qaeda leaders have drawn up a "50-year plan", he said.

Mr Clarke, speaking to a Whitehall gathering of security experts, gave a sobering assessment of the task facing police and intelligence officers trying to counter Islamic extremist groups.

As Ry and I concluded a year and a half ago--we must destroy their culture.  The only alternative involves a nearly uncountable pile of bodies and may be unavoidable anyway.  But we must try.

Patience and perserverence have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish.

John Quincy Adams
[I just got all caught up on my paperwork dealing with the bigoted felons at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.--Joe]

I don't go along with the idea of taxing income so "deductions" don't really excite me all that much--they should make deductions not applicable to taxes.  Deductions are just the government attempting to screw people a little bit less, but we are still screwed.  Anyway, Australia is going to be doing less screwing of prostitutes:

STRIPPERS and prostitutes will be allowed to claim condoms, lingerie, oils and other "tools of the trade" as tax deductions under new rules issued by the Tax Office.

In a directive obtained by The Daily Telegraph, the Australian Taxation Office informs sex workers that they should also claim for their exotic dancing lessons.

Damaged bondage equipment and "adult novelties" are also listed as valid tax deductions.

Sex workers who keep a separate premises will also be able to claim a deduction on their accommodation costs - even if it is a room rented by the hour.

The UK is on it's way just as F.A. Hayek warned.  This is from an editoral, again warning the British people:

FEW industries could be more competitive than retailing. The drive to better their rivals is what pushes the major store groups to continuously improve what they offer to customers. So what does a gaggle of Members of Parliament suggest applying to this thriving industry? A regulator, of course.

Imagine how the staff of the Retail Regulator might delight in “protecting” consumers by dictating permissible prices, and suitable sales mixes. The customer would no longer be king, instead it would be the bureaucrats who held sway over what appeared in the stores.

The MPs would have their new creation charged with bringing forward “proposals for the maintenance of a vibrant, diverse and sustainable retail sector”. That is a tall order of a bureaucrat, as likely to result in a dictat that every high street should have the approved quota of coffee shops, chemists and clothes stores and end up looking remarkably similar.

The All-Party Parliamentary Small Shops Group has identified a problem but it is reaching for the wrong weapon to deal with it. In its own evidence it cites the heavy regulation that already governs retailers, with the burden being disproportionately heavy on smaller stores. There is a genuine concern about the speed at which smaller stores are vanishing: in the last decade the UK has lost nearly 30,000 independent food, beverage and tobacco retailers. Yet dubious regulation has hastened this trend.

The insistence of the competition authorities that there were two distinct types of grocery shop, the superstores and the convenience stores, and that the first could be allowed to gobble up the second, has dramatically changed the retail landscape in Britain. There now seems a willingness to rethink that view but it is too late to undo the damage. One lobby group, the new economics foundation, is calling for the major grocers to be forced to divest their stores to limit their market share to a maximum of 8 per cent. Even if that were possible, consumers would be incensed.

Competition authorities and Retail Regulators? Wow!

The serfs are loosing even more freedom in other areas:

SMOKING will be banned in all pubs, clubs and workplaces from next year after historic votes in the Commons last night.

After last-minute appeals from health campaigners, MPs opted for a blanket prohibition which will start in summer 2007, ending months of argument over whether smoking should be barred in pubs and restaurants only. They voted to ban smoking in all pubs and clubs by 384 to 184, a surprisingly large majority of 200.

Smoking will still be allowed in the home and in places considered to be homes, such as prisons, care homes and hotels. But there are difficult decisions to be made on exemptions for places such as oil rigs, where smoking outside the workplace would be dangerous.

Smokers lighting up in banned areas will face a fixed penalty notice of £50 and spot fines of £200 will be introduced for failing to display no-smoking signs, with the possible penalty if the issue goes to court increasing to £1,000.

Caroline Flint, the Public Health Minister, also announced that the fine for failing to stop people smoking in banned areas would be increased to £2,500 — more than ten times the £200 originally proposed.

The Bill also allows the Government to increase the age for buying cigarettes. Ministers will consult on raising it from 16 to 18.

Smoking could still be banned at outdoor locations that are “substantially enclosed”, such as football grounds and railway platforms. The details will be contained in regulations after a three-month consultation.

No decision has yet been made on whether smoking will be banned in cars carrying passengers.

What signify a few lives lost in a century or two?  The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.  It is its natural manure.

Thomas Jefferson
Letter Nov. 13, 1787
referring to Shay's rebellion
[Present day examples of tyrants and patriots abound and are a constant reminder we must not give up the fight to keep our right to keep and bear arms.--Joe]

Read all about it here.

The ineffectual, expensive, and dangerous gun registry in Canada is about to get dismantled:

OTTAWA (CP) - The Conservative government has created a committee of two cabinet ministers and a backbencher to figure out how best to kill the long-gun registry as soon as possible.

Registry critic Garry Breitkreuz, who is working with Justice Minister Vic Toews and Public Security Minister Stockwell Day, said he has been given wide leeway to deal swiftly with the registry.

Remember New Orleans and remember Canada.

Via Bruce Schneier comes this cartoon.  Airplane security isn't improved by removing tools (such as knives and firearms) from the passenger compartment.  It's improved by removing the people that are a threat and giving the innocent people onboard the tools and the will to help with their own security.

The potassium chlorate was delivered this week.  I just need to order the boxes used as containers for the explosives and I will have all but the most trivial items needed for Boomershoot 2006 in stock.

Last Saturday I tested out a flour mill as a tool for getting all the lumps out of the potassium chlorate just prior to mixing it with the other ingredients.  It works but requires constant human attention.  Dad had an idea that I will try at the next opportunity.  In any case I think I can get rid of the blenders which are the biggest power drain and another drain on labor as when they are used they require constant attention as well.

The main reason for the Saturday excursion to Boomershoot country was to test target detonation with .223 at the greater ranges.  I made some new targets and shot at them from 630 yards with a .223. I made a number of errors and didn't realize until after I got home that because of the cold (30F) and the exceptionally high air pressure (30.5" of Hg) the target velocity was probably under 1200 fps. This velocity is below what I would have expected the targets to detonate and that in fact is exactly what happened. I had nearly a dozen solid hits without them detonating. I fired one round of CCI Stinger (high velocity .22LR) from about 15 yards away (probably about 1500 fps target velocity) and a target with three .223 holes detonated. I really want to test the .223 with a target velocity of 1400 to 1500 fps. 

Below is the target array I made to make it easier to assure a hit on a target while not having all of them detonate at once causing the neighbors to have things fall off the walls.  I had something else in mind, Ry suggested this but figured I would need someone at the shooting line to help get things lined up. While driving home from the Seattle area I figured out a way I could line it up myself.  I keep telling him that between the two of us we have a complete brain.  Lots of ideas from one or the other of us will be half baked and the other turns it into something quite clever.

From the shooters viewpoint

Side view

From Connecticut:

HARTFORD -- Getting guns off the streets was the focus yesterday of 15 Connecticut mayors and Gov. M. Jodi Rell at a summit on a statewide urban violence problem.

A rash of shootings, fights and other violent incidents that has plagued Stamford and Norwalk in recent months has also hit other cities. Rell last month invited the top local officials of the state's 14 largest cities and the town of Windham to meet to share suggestions and strategies for attacking the problem, particularly among Connecticut's youth.

Most of the 90-minute meeting, which was closed to the public, focused on the problem of illegal guns, participants said.

Just as Heinlein said.  I have Just One Question for them.

If "everybody knows" such-and-such, then it ain't so, by at least ten thousand to one.

Robert Heinlein
[Can you say "we need more gun control?"--Joe]

Yesterday the court began jury selection for the Michael Williams murder trial.  At 15:38 today I received a call from Williams.  He told me the trial had just gone to the jury.  He said he had lots of stories to tell from the trial but I was busy at work and couldn't take the time right then.  I told him I would call him back later this evening.  At 18:39, as I was about to leave work, he called me again.  The verdict was in--Voluntary Manslaughter.  This was in the case where the prosecutor insisted Williams was guilty of first degree murder.  Williams remains a free man while the judge decides on a sentence.  Williams is very happy about the result.  The family of the dead man, of course, is not at all happy and Williams had an armed escort to his car and out of the parking lot.

He is to email me more stories which I agreed to post.

Previous postings on the topic:

• Bias against self-defense
• A bias against self-defense part II
• A bias against self-defense part III

If it passes, as it almost for certain will, it will be with an English rather than a German accent this time when the police demand "papers":

MOST Britons will be forced to have an identity card within five years after MPs defeated the Lords last night, despite a Labour backbench rebellion.

Moves to require people to buy ID cards when they request or renew a British passport were carried by 310 votes to 279, a majority of 31.

...

The Identity Cards Bill will now go back to the Lords, who had voted to decouple the issuing of ID cards from passports, blocking ministers’ plans to add millions of people to the identity register each year technically on a voluntary basis.

The Lords must decide whether to insist that passport applications stay separate from identity cards, amending the Bill again in a “ping-pong” with the Commons, or to give way, which is the more likely option.

Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, moved amendments overturning changes made to the Bill by peers, saying that the Government had made clear that it envisaged linking ID cards to passports as part of their phased introduction.

Applicants for residents’ permits and for visas from certain non-European Union countries and asylum-seekers would also be subject to compulsory registration of biometric data — fingerprints and iris scans — on the identity database.

See also my essay on the fatal flaws of universal ID cards and my Jews in the Attic Test.

Don't ever expect them to be truthful.  In order to get their numbers up they included suicides, justifiable and praiseworthy homicides and woundings--bigots dancing in the blood:

WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Saturday's shooting of a fellow hunter by Vice President Dick Cheney was just one more addition to the more than quarter million Americans who have been injured by firearms during President George W. Bush's tenure. From 2001 through 2004, the most recent year available, 252,076 Americans were injured by firearms according to federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data. From 2001 through 2003, the most recent year available, nearly 30,000 Americans a year were killed by firearms according to information from the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.

...

Josh Sugarmann, Violence Policy Center executive director, states, "The Cheney shooting punctures the pro-gun argument that 'knowing guns' and 'having respect for guns' are enough to overcome the inherent hazards of firearms. Vice President Cheney's victim is now just one more sad statistic in America's annual gun toll."

Dr. Joe doesn't need to be convinced but not everyone is certain yet:

It can help to reduce stress, soothe pain, cure insomnia, lower the risk of a heart attack and, as if that wasn't enough, make your hair shine and your wrinkles vanish.

"Forget about jogging round the block or struggling with sit-ups," says the UK National Health Service patients' helpline, NHS Direct. The key for healthy living is, in fact, "a good bout of sexercise".

Undertaking "regular romps" will bring a plethora of health rewards, from staying fit and burning calories to combating cancer, says the website.

"Orgasms even release painkillers into the bloodstream, helping keep mild illnesses like colds and aches and pains at bay, and produce extra oestrogen and testosterone hormones," the site says.

"These hormones will keep your bones and muscles healthy, leaving you feeling fabulous inside and out."

But Dr Melissa Sayer, an expert in sexual health, said the site made unproven claims.

Sounds like more research is needed.  I'm a research scientist...now where is my female assistant?  We need to get started on this right away.

If this had happened in the U.S. where police officers are armed things probably would have turned out different.  But instead it was in the "gun free paradise" of London England:

LONDON (Reuters) - A female trainee police officer is seriously ill in hospital on Tuesday after being shot as she and a colleague tried to apprehend a suspected burglar.

Police said the incident occurred shortly before midnight when two officers, an experienced male officer and the 25-year-old female probation officer, were called to a burglary in the Lenton area of Nottingham and tried to stop a man nearby.

"The suspect produced a firearm and shot one of the officers," a Nottinghamshire police spokeswoman said, adding the victim had not yet been named.

The wounded officer, who was wearing body armour, has undergone emergency surgery for a gunshot injury and is in intensive care in a serious condition.

No one has been arrested.

New Orleans was the first place in American history to disarm peaceable citizens, house-by-house, at gunpoint. And I promise you this standing here today: We at the NRA are going to make sure it's the last place it ever happens.

Never again can Michael Bloomberg or Rebecca Peters or Mike Wallace, or the United Nations, or the Brady Center, or anywhere else say that honest citizens don't need firearms because what happened in New Orleans proves beyond a shadow of a doubt what we've said all along.

The next time some arrogant politician looks at you and says, 'Why does anyone need to own a gun?' I want you to look them straight in the face and say this: 'Remember New Orleans!'"

'Why do you need to own a gun?' Remember New Orleans!

'Aren't you just being kind of paranoid?' Remember New Orleans!

'Why does anyone need right to carry?' Remember New Orleans!

'What makes you think our government would ever try to confiscate your guns?' Remember New Orleans!

'Is the Second Amendment really relevant in the 21st Century?' Remember New Orleans!

Wayne LaPierre
Executive Vice President
National Rifle Association
From speeches given:

• Conservative Political Action Conference 
• New York chapter of the Sportsmen's Association for Firearms Education
• Gun Rights Policy Conference [I heard this speech live via a webcast and was very impressed.--Joe]

You knew it was coming.  Here's the first I've seen:

"Now I understand why Dick Cheney keeps asking me to go hunting with him," Jim Brady said in a statement. "I had a friend once who accidentally shot pellets into his dog -- and I thought he was an idiot."

"I've thought Cheney was scary for a long time," Sarah Brady said. "Now I know I was right to be nervous."

They do personal attacks so well.  They have lots of practice at it so it's not surprising.  I can only think of two reasons for this; 1) They don't like the results when they stick to facts, or 2) They can't handle high school math.

Xenia went on trial for murder this weekend--actually there were three trials.  She was found not guilty in the first two by a votes of 10-2 and 9-3.  Barb figured with her brother on the second jury she would be found guilty for certain.  But I knew him better than she did.  There was no way with the 'evidence' given that he would vote for a conviction let alone try and convince other jurors.  Just before the third trial, as I was about to leave for the Seattle area, I gave her a handcuff key just in case they convicted her.  She was found guilty but didn't need the key because she was able to squeeze out of the handcuffs.

It was a good performance.  I didn't realize Ayn Rand had written any plays.  This was apparently her first and it shows it in many ways but it wasn't really bad.  When Xenia got on the stand and told the court she had been raped by her employer ten years earlier on her first day at work and was proud to became his mistress from there after we gave each other "the look".  Yup, just the part Xenia would like to play.  Check out the pictures Xenia has on her Live Journal.

It's way too late for me to comment intelligently on the following newspaper clippings.  Michael Williams sister sent them last week.  I've read them all but was unable to comment on them due to my exceedingly busy weekend (more details later but it involving guns, explosives, and two murder trials unrelated to Williams trial).  If you are interested in this case go ahead and read them.  I'll comment later after I have had some sleep.

• 02/28/2005 Morning News
• 03/04/2005 Morning News
• 03/12/2005 Morning News
• 05/01/2005 Morning News
• 05/10/2005 Morning News
• 05/18/2005 Morning News
• 06/02/2005 Morning News
• 09/03/2005 Morning News
• 10/22/2005 Morning News
• 11/22/2005 Morning News
• 01/20/2006 Morning News
• 02/09/2006 Morning News
• 02/09/2006 Post Register
• 02/09/2006 Idaho State Journal

Once Law was sitting on the bench
        And Mercy knelt a-weeping.
"Clear out!" he cried, "disordered wench!
        Nor come before me creeping.
Upon you knees if you appear,
'Tis plain you have no standing here."

Then Justice came.  His Honor cried:
        "YOUR states? -- Devil seize you!"
"Amica curiae," she replied --
        "Friend of the court, so please you."
"Begone!" he shouted -- "There's the door --
I never saw your face before!"

Ambrose Bierce
The Devil's Dictionary

Life, liberty, and property do not exist because men have made laws. On the contrary, it was the fact that life, liberty, and property existed beforehand that caused men to make laws in the first place.

Frederic Bastiat
1801-1850

Taking a long view of history, we may say that anyone who lays down his arms deserves whatever he gets.

Col. Jeff Cooper

More Boomershoot blogging:

• Better than Reese's Peanut Butter Cups
• Boomershoot
• No Useful Sporting Purpose
• I am not into guns, but I would love to attend this
• Range Report
• The Gunnies
• Site Referals
• Learned a lot this evening...
• Boomershoot
• Boom Captured

If you want to fire an assault weapon, do what so many patriotic Americans do: Join the armed forces.

Does that sound familiar to anyone?  

That could have been Lenin rephrased, as in this case, where the party members were exempt from a weapons ban.  Or it could have been Adolf Hitler who said:

If any citizen wants to possess arms, let him join the Party.

But it was neither.  And it was said in todays newspaper, not by a despot known to have killed millions, but by the U.S. politician Del. Anthony G. Brown who is Martin O'Malley's running mate for the governor of Maryland.  He also said this:

Assault weapons have one purpose and one purpose only: That is to kill human beings.

Of the thousands of rounds I have fired through my "assault weapons" no humans were killed as a result.  I have to conclude that either my guns are defective or Brown's thinking is defective.  I don't have to toss a coin on this one.  In a comparison between my rifles and Brown's brain I'll take my rifles as the better of the two any day.

Another womans says she just couldn't control herself and had to have sex in public:

RANDY Alana May was nabbed having sex in public by police THREE times in 30 MINUTES, a court heard yesterday.

Two of the romps were at a floodlit abbey in the middle of a town. The third was on land also owned by the church.

Officers first saw Alana, 25, with her pants down with a semi-naked man outside Selby Abbey, North Yorks. They ticked her off and told her to go home.

But they returned 15 minutes later and discovered Alana performing a sex act on the man against the 11th century abbey’s walls.

She was again told to go home. But just 15 minutes after that the pair were spotted having sex in church parkland.

Alana and the romeo were arrested. She said of the romps: “I couldn’t wait until I got home.”

She was fined £50 for outraging public decency. Her unnamed lover, who has no previous convictions, got a caution.

THE STORY that amused me most in 1998 came out of the Christopher Hitchens' column in The Nation: "At a glamorous book launch given by Vogue for Katharine Graham, a Nation colleague of mine was introduced to Henry Kissinger. On hearing the name of the magazine, the doctor drew back. "The Nation? So I suppose you think I am a war criminal?"  Yielding to that fatal instinct that sometimes urges people to be laid-back and unpredictable, my comrade attempted a pleasantry and observed that in these post-Cold War days, the old mag was just as likely to describe - who knows? - Bill Clinton as a war criminal. Kissinger stared into his cocktail and said slowly and distinctly, `Mr. Clinton does not have the strength of character to be a war criminal.'"

From Paul Smith
January 13, 1999

They said they had this urge they couldn't control.  Oh well... I'll bet they will find a little more willpower the next time the urge occurs:

LONDON: In Argentina 'sex' is something which should be enjoyed within the four walls of the house, as if one intends indulging in it publicly, one is more likely to be put behind bars.

An Argentinean couple were recently arrested for making love outside a mayor's office in broad daylight.

The man and woman, in their mid-30s, were having sex in a completely nude state on a bench by the Nahuel Huapi river in Bariloche, and when cops arrived to arrest them, they shocked them further, by asking the officers to let them finish what they were doing.

A crowd gathered and cheered the couple on, but the Mayor of Bariloche said he was shocked by the spectacle.

Not ashamed of the incident, the woman concerned told police that she had always fantasised about having sex outside the mayor's office while politicians were working inside.

"They are otherwise two very respectable citizens but they told us they had this urge to have sex in public and that it was very strong and they couldn't control it," Fox News quoted a police spokesperson, as saying.

The couple were arrested on charges of disrespecting public space and indecent exposure.

Very nice.

In Pierce County [Washington] the way the prosecutor decides whether to press charges or not is to print out the arrest records of the people involved and weigh them... Scumbag dead, good guy still upright -- good guy walks.  Scumbag dead, other scumbag still upright -- scumbag gets prosecuted.  The guy is an IPSC shooter himself, he figures you are just cleaning out the gene pool when you shoot a scumbag.

Greg Hamilton
Self Defense Instructor
Nov. 19, 1995

Michael Charles Williams

I received two calls from Michael Charles Williams today.  I was driving to work the first time and couldn't take notes but here is what I remember.  Where I could I found news stories that relate to what he told me:

• Adams (the guy Williams shot three times) had a long rap sheet.  His associates have criminal records too.
• Adams was partway into Williams truck through the window by the time the last shot was fired.
• Today the prosecuting attorney tried to get the blood alcohol content of Adams (0.327--legally drunk in Idaho is 0.08) ruled inadmissible in court.  He failed.
• The ex-wife testimony was ruled inadmissible. The prosecutor was virtually begging for it to be admissible and said he would "go all the way to the Supreme court" to achieve that.
• There are no other witnesses that claim Williams "was looking for someone to kill."
• Detectives didn't try to get fingerprints or other evidence off of the truck.
• The first detective and Williams knew each other in high school 15 years prior and had a bad history between them.
• The first detective had a good relationship with Adams family.
• Williams had some handgun training in the military but no formal training on civilian self defense.
• The gun was a "brand new" Springfield 1911 style compact in .45 ACP with "self-defense ammo".
• The prosecutor has a conceal weapons license.
• The prosecutor once shot at, in error, a plainclothes police officer.
• At my suggestion the defense attorney plans to call SAF.
• Williams thanked me profusely for "helping" (not sure I have actually done much).
• Williams said he sent a link to my previous blog posting to friends, family, and his private investigator.  My log files have confirmation of such traffic.
• His sister is digging up more newspaper stories for me to put on the web and comment on.

Background is here.  This has been bugging me for several months now.  Maybe grumbling about it here will relieve the frustration some.

And before you start laughing at me please realize that I know it's a minor thing and "it really doesn't matter" but it still bugs me.  Its that I want the world to be perfect and expect people would want to work toward that goal.  I know it's not possible but why can't people make the changes that they can instead of being so random?  It makes me look down on people in general.  Give me a reason to believe that the Neurotypicals are worthy of my respect.  But no.  That's not the way it works.  I'm looked down upon when it is they who are inaccurate and random.

The thing that has been bugging me?  The one of the pizza types in the cafeteria is labeled "grilled vegetable pizza".  It has red peppers, yellow peppers, black olives, yellow squash, and mushrooms along with the usual cheese and tomato sauce on it.  I'll bet 99+% of you won't see anything wrong with this "picture".  I do.  And it bugs me.  There's only one vegetable there--the mushrooms.  All the other plants parts are fruits.

This sort of irritation is perversive in our society.  Why can't people get it right?  And they tend to get irritated when you politely inform them they made a mistake (no, I didn't inform the cafeteria staff about their mislabeling of the pizza) and they almost never correct their errors.

There's a reason I'm into computers, guns, and explosives--they are understandable, rational, and predictable.

Reports from the media are almost always filled with errors.  The reporters, at best, are expert writers and are seldom experts on the topic.  They have limited time and rely on others for the "facts" which filter through biases and various error prone communication channels before they ever reach the public. And in the case of what happened behind a bar shortly after closing time on a Friday night (actually early Saturday morning) even the people who participated are probably not going to be worthy of being called knowledgeable.  The changes in the story of what happened that night reflect the difficulty in knowing exactly what happened.

What is known for certain is that 32 year old Michael Charles Williams, in possession of an Idaho concealed weapons license, fired three shots from a "large caliber" semi-auto pistol into the chest of 25 year old Christopher Rick Adams who died at the hospital a short time later.

My references, all from the same paper, are:

• February 27, 2005 Man shot and killed near Blackfoot bar
• February 28, 2005 Waitress: 'This sort of stuff just doesn't happen': Blackfoot shooting shocks lounge workers
• March 01, 2005 Verbal dispute sparked killing: Victim hit by three gunshots to chest
• March 11, 2005 Hearing put off for accused murderer: Williams charged with shooting man
• April 08, 2005 Judge sets Williams' trial date: Man faces second-degree murder charges
• May 11, 2005 Accused murderer pleads not guilty
• May 18, 2005 Judge reduces bail in Blackfoot murder case
• June 02, 2005 Man posts bail in murder case
• August 30, 2005 Blackfoot man free unless murder charges are refiled
• September 2, 2005 Man faces highest charge of murder

Read the April 8th story for the most detailed version of what is believed to have happened.

In addition to getting an email from Williams sister asking for help what makes this interesting to me are some of the biases in the story as it appears in the paper.  Some of those biases are probably unintentional.  Others, almost for certain, were intentional.  All of them are against Williams yet who, according to my understanding of the law, is to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.

The February 28th story says:

A press conference on the murder is scheduled for 10 a.m. today at the Blackfoot Police Department, 501 N. Maple St.

It's not murder until someone is convicted.  The paper should have said something along the lines of "...conference on the death...".  If the circumstances had been much more clear I would let them get away with it.  But in this case there is at least some reasonable doubt as to what actually happened.

The following, from the March 1st story, doesn't adversely affect Williams in this case but it does affect you and me.  It's an implication of what someone, probably the reporter, thinks the law is or should be.  The police captain, Kurt Asmus, almost for certain knew the question presumed things that were not true but figured it didn't really matter and answered the question in such a way the reporter could continue believing their view of reality was correct:

The weapon was legally registered to Williams, Asmus said.

There are no registration requirements for semi-auto pistols in Idaho.  My guess is the police captain said something like, "The pistol was legally owned." in response to a question about the gun being registered.  This allowed the naive public to believe firearms are registered and desensitizes the public to the hazards of firearms registration.  When it comes up that firearm aren't registered after for years believing they were it will be easier to get such a law passed.

In the May 18th story the prosecutor, arguably doing his job, shows a bias and the newspaper lets it stand:

He said Williams has shown no remorse for his crime and has admitted he could have avoided the shooting.

"Mr. Williams was perfectly willing to kill Mr. Adams," Andrew said.

Williams has only been charged with a crime.  It has not been proved there was actually a crime committed.  No remorse could mean he believes he behaved morally and legally correct.  Admitting he could have avoided the shooting doesn't mean that would have been the proper course of action.  You could avoid shooting someone and let a dozen innocent people be killed.  And willingness to kill someone is not evidence of a crime or even evil intent.  For example I'll bet we could have found 100's of thousands of people willing to flip the switch that turned Ted Bundy into burnt toast.  I suspect the prosecutor exaggerated on the willingness angle.  Carrying a firearm for self defense shows willingness to use deadly force under extreme circumstances.  We don't really know if the prosecutor has evidence Williams was "perfectly willing" to kill.

In the August 30th story we have this from the prosecutor:

Andrew said witnesses would now testify that Williams told them he would kill someone if the right scenario presented itself.

If you reword that just slightly you get the essence of what nearly every firearm self-defense instructor teaches.  That is you are legally justified in using deadly force if innocent life is immediate danger of death or permanent injury.  And guess who one of the witnesses is?

...one of the prosecution's new witnesses is Williams' ex-wife and the couple is currently involved in a child custody action.

I'll bet the child custody battle will go a lot smoother for the ex-wife with Williams doing time for murder.  I'm sure she will be totally unbiased in her testimony.

From the September 2nd story we find the line from Deputy prosecutor Scott Andrew that got Williams sister all wound up in her email to me:

Williams is accused of shooting Adams outside the Blackfoot bar after Adams allegedly walked towards his car during an argument.

"He waited for him to get closer, just like when you're hunting ... He hunted Mr. Adams," Andrew said.

Interesting hunt when the prey knows about the hunter, has been warned about a possible weapon, and still advances on the hunter.  This is really over the top--even for a prosecutor.

I don't know which way this is going to go or should go.  I don't have a strong opinion on it because I know the facts as represented in the newspaper story are tenuous at best.  The jury will have much better, if still limited, view of the facts and usually will do a pretty good job of coming to the correct conclusion.  But there are some lessons to be learned here.  Nothing new, but this guy either didn't know or forgot them.  As we teach in the NRA Personal Protection class:

1. After a shooting let your lawyer do all the talking.
2. Don't talk about killing people to defend yourself.  What you can say is that if innocent life is in immediate danger of death or permanent injury you would be willing to use deadly force to stop the attack.

I suggested to his sister that the defense attorney call CCRKBA and/or SAF.  Depending on the type of case the prosecutor tries to make, like saying the concealed weapons license was evidence Williams was looking for someone to kill, they may be able to help in some way.

No matter how the trial goes there is plenty of tragedy to go around.  I just hope our legal system can come up with a reasonable approximation to justice--whatever that is in this case.

No longer is the issue merely that of belittling an immigrant group.  Just as there are heroes of free speech in Denmark, there are also heroes - from the Arabian Peninsula to North Africa to Indonesia - who are ready to take to the barricades to defend their prophet's dignity.

Jürgen Gottschlich
A German journalist based in Istanbul
Quoted on February 7, 2006 in A 'dangerous moment' for Europe and Islam

I get the most interesting email.

There have been the room temperature I.Q. cases wanting help building a bomb which I talk about frequently.  There are also cases where I don't talk much, if any, but are just as interesting. 

There was a case where a public defender wanted help defending against federal bomb making charge.  I thought Ry and I were going to be doing some testing for them.  But the case was dropped after the public defender told the court they had an expert who didn't think it would explode but wanted to test a duplicate of the device to make sure. My guess is the the prosecutor knew it wouldn't/couldn't/shouldn't explode but figured putting a 15 year old girl in the slammer was just another way to get a few laughs and get more points toward their next promotion.  Don't ever forget we have a legal system, not a justice system.

Due my Modern Ballistics program I have received lots of requests for ballistics help.  In one case (IIRC, it's been several years now) someone was investigating the possibility of a wrongful death case against a police officer.  It wasn't a problem my program was designed for and I couldn't help.  One request was the defense in a murder case.  Using all the data I had at my disposal I still had a couple unknown variables that could push the answer either way.  And even if those numbers were tied down the answer depended on the skill and knowledge of the shooter as much as the physics involved.

This week I received my first request for help in defending against a first degree murder charge (three shots to the center of mass from a large caliber semi-auto pistol) where the defendant had a concealed weapons permit.  I'll blog the details tomorrow.  The guy goes on trial Monday.

From ABC News online:

The tourist town of Broome, in northern Western Australia, is considering going to unusual lengths to promote safe sex.

Figures show the Kimberley region has the highest rate of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the country and health workers are advising authorities in Broome that something has to be done.

They are pushing for condoms to be made available in parks and public areas where young people gather.

They would be hung in PVC containers from trees - a method that has already proved successful in other Kimberley towns with high Indigenous populations.

I've update several of the pages on Boomershoot.org.  The most changes were on the general information page.

The news release for Boomershoot 2006 is available now.  See it here.  Send copies to whoever, media or not, you think might be interested.

There are still 26 positions available.  The last week of February is typically when the biggest surge of entries comes in.

There is going to be a similar event in Missouri on April 23rd.  I've been giving the organizer a little bit of help via email but other than that I won't have any involvement.

Update: I've been forgetting to mention that the portable toliets have been ordered, the caterer has us on his schedule, and the last of the chemicals have been ordered.  The only remaining items to be purchased are the boxes used for target containers and possibly a few more stakes to put the targets on.  On the portable toilets... I forgot to look at them at the end of the on Sunday.  Did we fill them up?  Were there long lines?  Do I need to get a third toilet this year?

The damage that the rioters did - both to Lebanese property and to the image of Islam - was far worse than that done by the cartoons which desecrated the Prophet Mohammed.

Editorial
The Star
An English-language Lebanese newspaper
February 6, 2006

A leader in the religion of peace has a solution to the riots and protests over the cartoons that upset the extremist Muslims--execute the cartoonists:

Speaking from Beirut, Omar Bakri Mohammad, leader of the Islamist group al Muhajiroon which is banned in Britain, called for the execution of those involved with the cartoons.

"In Islam, God said, and the messenger Mohammad said, whoever insults a prophet, he must be punished and executed," he told BBC radio by telephone.

But there are some voices of restraint and I hope they get their share of attention as well:

Moderate Moslem groups as well as Western leaders condemned the weekend violence and calls to arms and called for calm.

"With growing concern, we are witnessing the escalation in disturbing tensions...," the prime ministers of Turkey and Spain said in the International Herald Tribune.

"We shall all be the losers if we fail to immediately defuse this situation, which can only leave a trail of mistrust and misunderstanding between both sides in its wake," Tayyip Erdogan and Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said in the joint article.

H/T Michelle Malkin for the pointer to the Reuters article.

I can imagine no greater misfortune for a cultured people than to see in the hands of the rulers not only the civil, but also the religious power.

Caius Valerius Catullus
[Theocracies have been known to be a bad thing for a long, long time.  I wish the Muslim extremists could drag themselves into at least the 19th century.--Joe]

Karen and I grew up on farms just 3/4 of a mile apart.  She is a few years older than me and I fondly remember her reading books to me before I could read.  My family would visit her family and after a while our parents were too boring to listen to anymore she would be tasked with keeping me entertained.  I've always been very proud of her.  She was valedictorian of her high school class and later became a lawyer.  After several years of mostly corporate law she became a judge--an Idaho State Appeals court judge.  I don't get to see her very often anymore.  She lives in Boise now which is 300 miles from my home in Moscow.  Sometimes at Christmas and a few other family gatherings we get a chance to chat some.  When I got a mention in Newsweek for Boomershoot she told me that I had topped her single sentence mention in USA Today when she was appointed.  Today she got a mention in the Seattle PI:

"The state's interest in apprehending re-offending sex offenders was not rationally advanced by a classification that differentiated between offenders based solely upon their date of entry into the state," Judge Karen Lansing wrote for the court. "Because the statutory provision under which he was convicted was unconstitutional, however, Dickerson's conviction for failure to register must be reversed."

I can't wait to hear what her brother has to say about this.  One of the cases Karen worked on before she became a judge was a case where someone (I think he was associated with a school) was accused of sexual impropriety with a child.  As part of the investigation the guy took a test where they put fairly tight fitting paper band around his penis then showed him images of young children.  After showing the images for a few minutes they examined the paper band and it was found to be broken--indicating he had been sexually aroused by the sight of the young children.  If I recall the case correctly Karen was defending the school for not taking appropriate action against this accused pedophile.  Karen's brother took great pleasure in asking at every opportunity how her "Peter Meter" case was going.

This case isn't going to make life any easier for Karen.  I just emailed her brother a link to the article.

It is unjustifiable under any kind of personal freedoms to allow a person or a group to insult the beliefs of millions of Muslims.

Al-Thawra
Syrian state-run daily newspaper
Quoted in Ireland Online
February 5, 2006

The Washington Post had an article on shrapnel and a good portion of the article was on Jason.  Katy, Jason's mom, had a few words to say in her blog post about the article.

Mrs. Roosevelt's polemical life was lived right in the heart of liberal mania, with the results that, themselves bereft of their senses, they were incapable of recognizing that Mrs. Roosevelt was bereft of hers.

William F. Buckley, Jr.
Up From Liberalism

I received a call from Xenia's chemistry teacher this morning.  Uh oh...  This has never happened before.  Xenia has almost always been a pleasure for her teachers as well as her parents.

Rather inform me Xenia had lost control of some explosives in her locker (like I did once when I was in high school) she just wanted to tell me that Xenia is doing great in class.  She said she doesn't get to make many of those types of calls and she wanted to let us know.

I'd like to think it had something to do with the chemistry experiments I do and have had Xenia help with.  But while Xenia thinks it's "way cool" she hasn't had the slightest bit of interest in the actual chemistry (and here).

This post on a new blog, face of muhammed, articulates the concept Ry suggested to me the other day quite well:

A new non-political international movement is rising.

4000 terror attacks after 9/11, the world was still slumbering. But 12 innocent satirical drawings in a Danish newspaper, the kind of cartoons printed daily by the thousands in newspapers all over the world, have changed the geopolitical situation.

Suddenly, a new understanding is emerging across political differences.

In recent years, the world crisis between Islam and the non-Muslim world has been discussed in thousands of books, countless television debates and millions of articles across the globe. It did nothing but divide us. Even former western allies were divided, and a wave of anti-Americanism has swept even the free western societies.

Now ridiculous circumstances have changed all that. A sense of humour has changed what all the debating could not.

Read it all.

It isn't the first time I've seen this and it probably won't be the last:

Bloomberg, who was a Democrat before he switched parties for his first run for mayor in 2001, is a political moderate on such issues as abortion and gun control.

Why aren't politicians that want to, and do, violate the constitution considered extremists instead of moderates?

From the AP via the Washington Post comes this list of 12 different deadly postal shootings.  Should we ban postal buildings?  If it only saves one life...

I suspect the text for most of this is in Danish, but the images speak their own language (some may not be safe for work).  The "asshole switch" has definitely been flipped.  Here are a couple of my favorites:

Thanks to Ry for the pointer.

The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie -- deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.

John F. Kennedy (1917 - 1963)
[Think gun control.--Joe]

The Times (U.K.) calls it Cartoon wars and the clash of civilisations and there are now over 1000 news stories about it.  Channel 4 (London) quotes a Muslim cleric that I particularly liked:

Influential Muslim cleric Youssef al-Qaradawi said: "The least we have to do is boycott those who offended us by not buying their products.

"We thought it was only Denmark and Norway ... but several European countries and newspapers started reprinting these extremely offending pictures."

In the spirit of service to their customers I think all freedom loving media outlets should show the cartoons and continue the desensitization therapy.  Let the Muslims do their least to all of us.

Interesting report from the website owners of a sex toy supplier:

A British couple who launched a website selling sex toys to conservative Christians has revealed that vicars are some of their best clients.

Stella Hagarty and husband Stan revealed that they had decided to launch 'Wholly Love' to show normally reserved church-goers that sex is a gift from God, and that it should not be treated as something sinful.

And the website seems to have gotten its stamp of approval from God himself, as vicars make up some of the couple's best clients.

Of course the website owners are not at all unbiased in this.  But I still find it interesting.

If I could have one wish fulfilled right now, it would be for someone to get fusion electricity production operational. Cheap electricity would, in a decade or two, make oil irrelevant. The Arab nations would go back to being Bedouins--and we could turn that part of the world into a giant nature preserve, as a reminder of what happens when you get stuck in the twelfth century, and refuse to move forward.

Clayton Cramer
Middle Eastern Oil Dependence
February 01, 2006
[Not entirely true but probably close enough for Mideast politics.  Oil is used for lots of things besides energy.  Lubricants, solvents, and plastics are just the start of a very long list.--Joe]

Considering some of the crazy things the Brits have done in relation to firearms it should come as no surprise they are creating the circumstances in which their worst fears are realized:

Muggings and violent attacks up by more than 10%
By Richard Ford, Home Correspondent

MUGGINGS and violent attacks on people soared by more than 10 per cent in the third quarter of last year as the police struggled to contain street crime, according to figures published yesterday.

Street robbery is rising at its fastest since Tony Blair demanded action three years ago by the Home Office and police to tackle the issue.

...

Robberies soared by 11 per cent on top of a 4 per cent increase in the second quarter of last year. The Metropolitan Police has said that one of the main factors behind an increase in mugging in London is the rising number of portable hi-tech goods, such as mobile phones and MP3 players. In the weeks after the July 7 bombings, muggings in London rose 23 per cent after thousands of police were sent to guard the capital’s transport network.

Gun crime rose by 1 per cent in the year to the end of September 2005, to more than 11,000 incidents. Violence against the person rose 4 per cent overall, although more serious cases including homicide, threats to murder and serious woundings fell by 10 per cent.

Offences in lower category crimes such as less serious woundings rose by 10 per cent. Serious injuries from gun crime rose by 18 per cent to 470 in the year to the end of September but the number of deaths from gun incidents fell by more than one third to 50 compared with 80 in the previous year.

I find it engages my sick sense of humor that they blame the increase in muggings on the rising number of portable hi-tech goods.  Do they even hear what they are saying?  Muggers don't attack someone they think has a fair chance being their equal.  They "interview" their potential victim and attack those that look and act like "grass eaters".  Carrying a concealed firearm makes the victim selection process much more difficult and if that process misses something the possibility of catastrophic failure is quite high.  Muggings go way down when the wolves can't distinguish between the sheep and sheep dogs.

Sometimes people do things which cause their greatest fear to be realized.  For example; a man that is extremely afraid their wife will leave them will forbid them to work outside the home, to visit relatives, and in general isolate them from all other people.  This forced isolation may well be the reason their spouse does leave them.  And it could be the Arabs and perhaps Muslims in general are working as similar sort of angle.  Take a look at these cartoons from Arab media.  Their view of the world is that the Jews are out to get them.  This frame of mind would explain why many of them want to "wipe Israel off the map" and kill all Jews.  It appears to me they are at risk of having their greatest fear realized because of their own actions.

Jon Armstrong was interviewed yesterday.  And in that interview he was asked what he would do if he were president of the US.  His answer caused one of those blank stares (type 1) in me for a few seconds:

I’d disband the military entirely and spend the money on teacher salaries as well as encouraging public innovation.

I'm nearly certain he is serious.  I looked at some of his blog postings and it's entire consistent.  The defense of our nation via the military is one of the few things the U.S. Constitution grants the Federal Government the power to do and he would apparently leave us defenseless.  There is no Constitutional authority for spending money on teachers and he would do that.  I guess when he took the oath of office and said he would uphold the Constitution he would have his fingers crossed or something.  Of course that's not really any different than it is with the bozos we have in government (at all levels) right now.  But when I say the Constitution isn't even considered a strong suggestion it's barking moonbats like this which prove my point.

One way people with abnormal fears or sensitivities can overcome their problem is by gradually being exposed to more and more of whatever it is that causes the adverse reaction.  For example, someone with a fear of water/drowning could put their feet in a children's wading pool and become comfortable with that before moving on to deeper and deeper water.  It appears some European newspapers are doing some desensitizing therapy of their own on the Muslim extremists that have difficulty with images of Muhammad:

Newspapers in France and Germany were accused of throwing oil on the fire on Wednesday after they reprinted controversial Danish caricatures of the prophet Muhammad that have sparked unrest in the Muslim world.

The Dutch are helping too:

Geert Wilders, the rightwing Dutch politician whose campaign against radical Islam led to death threats that forced him into hiding, on Wednesday published the controversial cartoons on his website, Dutch media reported.

The German editor had a particularly insightful question:

Roger Köppel, editor of Die Welt, defended his decision to publish the drawing alongside an editorial asking, “How much humour can Muhammad’s religion take?”

Of course all these contributions to the desensitization therapy could be interpreted as "turning on the asshole switch" (as Ry put it to me at lunch today) but the Muslim extremists shouldn't think of it in that way. Never mind that for the therapy to work the person receiving the therapy has to want to change.  And that they need to stay mostly within their comfort zone as the stimulus is increased.  But as an enlightened people they should realize that all these people are just trying to help them overcome their problems and adapt to the differences from the usual protocol.

I haven't been following the story very closely but my intial inclination, were I at Microsoft in charge of dealing with the socialists in Europe, would be to tell them "We are suspending sales of products to your country.  All future versions, including updates to existing products, will refuse to operate if the IP address of the computer is within your country.  Language support for the dominate languages in your country will be disabled if it doesn't affect other countries who are friendly to us.  We can chose whether to do business in your country or not.  We chose NOT."

Of course, short term, this would be harmful to the stockholders of Microsoft but it would get my (a very, very minor stockholder) approval.  Here's the story that pushed me over the edge:

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union's antitrust chief says Microsoft (MSFT) cannot charge licensing fees for software blueprints that it is offering to share with competitors unless it can prove the computer code is innovative.

Neelie Kroes also told European lawmakers on Tuesday that she has not yet received all information on Microsoft's offer to share software code and comply with a 2004 EU antitrust ruling.

Microsoft has until Feb. 15 to meet European Commission demands from December that it provide complete and accurate information on code that would allow competitors' products to communicate smoothly with servers running Microsoft operating systesms.

EU antitrust regulators have threatened Microsoft with daily fines of 2 million euros ($2.36 million), retroactive to mid-December, if it fails to comply by the deadline.

In December, Microsoft provided EU officials with thousands of documents but an independent monitor said they were "fundamentally flawed" and required a drastic overhaul to make them workable.

Last week, Microsoft offered to let competitors examine some server source code, calling it the "ultimate documentation" which might address regulators' concerns. Kroes said the first she heard of that offer was via a Microsoft press release.

The EU has never asked Microsoft to supply source code. Backers of open source alternatives to Microsoft's proprietary operating systems called last week's offer a "poisoned apple," as the terms of access to the code were unclear.

EU officials and an independent monitor held talks Monday at Microsoft's U.S. headquarters to discuss improvements to the technical documentation that the software company has so far supplied.

This is just a letter to the editor and in general these are extremely unreliable sources of information.  But if true it explains something that has bugged me for a while, "Why are there so many accesses to the Canadian gun registry?"

Every time a car's licence plate is checked to see if it is a stolen car, or a driver's licence is checked to see if it is suspended, a "hit" on the gun registry gets recorded. We see thousands of those each day, so what? None of them have anything to do with keeping guns away from criminals, which should be the primary role of any gun-control initiative. Not even its most adamant supporters claim that the gun registry does that.

The writer goes on to nail the real reason for the registry--it makes some people feel good:

It was an interesting idea which didn't pan out; it's now an extremely expensive pink elephant that people cling to because it gives them a warm fuzzy feeling. One thousand more police officers with state-of-the-art equipment will do a lot more to combat gang violence in Toronto than some inaccurate and error-filled list of who owns which duck hunting guns.

Elena Markina, Thornhill

Interesting... using google.cn I get very similar results to google.com for the searches "Boomershoot", "Joe Huffman", "Freedom", and "want some help building a bomb".

I suppose the "Great Firewall of China" probably will block access for some of that but still it highlights the difficulty government types have in restricting information.

Also of interest is that by setting up a proxy on the outside of the firewall and encrypting the traffic between the browser on the inside of the firewall and the proxy on the outside it is trival to bypass the firewall and get access to all the internet.  The firewall would have to block all proxies or all forms of encryption and stegonography (very tough problem) to be effective.

As with illegal recreation drugs in the U.S., illegal handguns in the U.K., and all other goods if there is a market it will be supplied by someone making a profit.  Information in China will be the same.

The new Conservative government has the federal long gun registry in its crosshairs, which has prompted some defenders of the program to plead with the Tories not to pull the trigger on the much-maligned registry.

But the cries of clemency coming from crime victims and now police chiefs, as compelling as they may be, must not be heeded and the registry must be put out of its misery.

The Brandon Sun
Say goodbye to the gun registry
January 31, 2006
[If this actually comes about it will give freedom lovers everywhere hope.--Joe]