The View From North Central Idaho

I was almost asleep a few minutes ago and the phone rang.  Xenia was calling.  It must be one of three dire emergencies I thought.  Those were, not necessarily in the matter of importance to her: 1) Someone is hurt or is very sick or dead; 2) Her Internet connection is down; 3) Her website is down.

I was wrong.  She wanted to know if I had read her Live Journal recently.  "How recently?"  I had read the posting from yesterday sometime.  Nope that wasn't it.  She wanted to know if I had read it in the last 10 minutes.  "No, why?"  I couldn't imagine what was so important.  She told me she posted the email she got from her English teacher on her anthology that I quoted from the other day.

I was wide awake now.  Did I need to immediately drive home and be ready to dance on the English teachers desk with muddy boots when he showed up tomorrow morning?  I couldn't quite tell from Xenia's tone of voice.  It could be she was very happy with what he said and it could be she was smug with the knowledge that someone was going to get what they deserved for trashing the hard work of Daddy's little girl.

The important part is as follows (emphasis in the original email):

Xenia:

This just may be the most beautiful anthology I've ever read.

It is the boldest.

That's my girl he's talking about!

Update: This is the teachers blog posting on the topic.

Maybe the TV news people left something out that would make things a little more clear but the way it's spelled out now Mayor Kiss doesn't make a lick of sense:

"From the perspective of being mayor," he said, "I haven't looked at public safety in terms of whether there are initiatives we would like to take. At least an element of that is that we've had two recent shootings in which handguns were involved."

Kiss said it was possible that Burlington might seek a charter change related to guns or a member of the Legislature from the city might propose a bill.

...

Despite the likelihood of opposition, Kiss said it was timely to talk about handguns, given the recent shootings. "We could see where that went, without prejudging the process," Kiss said. I don't want to be afraid of bringing up issues that are sensitive."

He doesn't want to be afraid of bring up issues that are sensitive?  Okay then Mister Mayor, why don't you bring up reinstating slavery?  Never mind that should he start pushing for such a thing I would probably be among those looking for a clear shot to put a .30 caliber hole in his cranial vault.  That is if he wasn't almost immediately impeached and unable to get any job with a higher status than shoveling pig manure.  It would make about as much sense.  Vermont has one of the lowest crime rates in the country and among the most relaxed gun laws.  Why would he want to change what is working well?

I have Just One Question for you Mayor Kiss.

The felons at PNNL didn't allow me to see the evidence against me, confront my accusers, or present a defense of any sort but I didn't know such things existed in criminal courts of law of modern countries.  So this, from Ireland, really surprised me:

His lawyers had sought to have his conviction quashed after the Supreme Court last week overturned a 1935 law that made it an indefensible crime for any man to have sex with a girl under the age of 15.

I can see the point but one should always be allowed to defend themselves.  They could have been framed for example.  Their DNA could have been planted by someone else, the pictures could have been edited, whatever evidence is used should be subject to question.

Something like this even happens in the U.S. under certain circumstances.  The freedoms we take for granted are not as secure as you might think.

No greater wrong can ever be done than to put a good man at the mercy of a bad, while telling him not to defend himself or his fellows; in no way can the success of evil be made surer or quicker.

Theodore Roosevelt
[England, Chicago, Washington D.C., New Jersey, San Francisco, etc. please take note.--Joe]

The "armed populace at large" becomes the libertarian fantasy of some people, arrested in political adolescence, who have an extreme difficulty accommodating to public authority and giving the "consent of the governed". The fantasy is that this is a viable concept. The right to be armed outside of the law is a right and a fantasy that has to be maintained by defeating legislation. It succeeds because everyone else fails.

The Potowmack Institute
As revised on November 11, 2005
[They completely neglect to consider the concept of inalienable rights such as freedom of speech and other rights guaranteed by our Bill of Rights so it's no wonder they arrive at the wrong conclusion in regards to firearms.  Thanks to Lyle for pointing these guys out.--Joe]

We walked from our motel to the Ponderosa and had breakfast.  Then walked up the street to the church where we got married:

From our motel room balcony we watch the VFW do a 21-gun salute on the bridege for Memorial Day.  Then we drove to my parents place and said hi before driving back to Moscow.

It has been a wonderful weekend.

We got up a little earlier on Sunday and drove up the Lochsa river:

We stopped to watch the rafters going through the white water:

Even though it was raining we hiked up the trail to Jerry Johnson Hotsprings:

We expected that because of the rain we would be the only ones there.  There were six people in the first pool and eight in the second.  We sat in the first pool for several hours and talked and talked to a couple from Montanna that come to the springs several times a year.  People came and went but mostly came and about 17:30 there must have been 15 people in the pool and standing around.  The other couple, Marty and Cheryl, invited us back to their camper for dinner.  We hiked back down the trail with them:

We ate with them and talked and talked and finally about 22:00 we left on our two hour drive back to Orofino and our motel room.

The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet church-yard in the land. In this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.

John A. Logan
Commander-in-Chief
N.P. CHIPMAN
Adjutant General General Orders No.11
WASHINGTON, D.C.
May 5, 1868

I quietly declare war with the State, after my fashion, though I will still make use and get advantage of her as I can, as is usual in such cases.

Henry David Thoreau
(1817-62), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist.
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (1849).

We drove down to Orofino last night (after my five hour drive from the Seattle area) and checked into the Lodge at River's Edge.  It is, literally, on the rivers edge.  This is the view from our balcony:

I looked around at the other balconies, but mine was the only one with a beautiful woman on it.

I didn't look in the other rooms but my bed had a woman it in.  Although I doubt most rooms were furnished as well as this one I was pleased with my good fortune:

It rained today which meant that going for the walk didn't quite work out as we had planned.  We ended up telling housekeeping to go away and not come back and we didn't leave the motel until almost 1:00 PM.

We drove to the Dent campground to eat our picnic lunch.  But the rain hadn't stopped and the wind was picking up.  We ate in the Jeep as the rain came down:

On the way back we stopped at Canyon Creek Campground and walked out to the water's edge.  We saw a trail to go hiking on but it was too wet and we left after taking a few pictures:

We drove back to our motel and then had dinner at the nearby restaurant.  Excellent food, the waitress was the daughter of one of our high school classmates (Danny Reed), and we had a wonderful view from our table:

After dinner we went to Lisa's graduation.

Update: I forgot to add the following picture and explanation.  We stopped at the pullout and took some pictures in the road where we first kissed each other--over 30 years ago:

Our niece, Lisa Huffman, graduated tonight from the same school Barb and I graduated from 33 years ago.  And 30 years ago, to the day, her parents graduated from the same school.  Lisa, being validictorian, gave a very nice speech and mentioned her parents graduating 30 years ago.  She said quite a bit about her parents and I saw her mother wiping tears from her eyes.

Here are a couple pictures taken with my crappy camera phone:

Mom, Lisa's grandmother, is looking at the camera with her dad and mom (red and white) just to the right.

Lisa in the center of the picture.

Clitorises are the best thing in the world! No other piece of the human body has the SOLE PURPOSE of bringing pleasure. If that's not the coolest thing ever, I don't know how you expect to find any sort of sexual happiness in your life.

Xenia Huffman-Scott
Celebration of Ovulation
An anthology Moscow Idaho English period 6.
May 5, 2006

Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe. The supreme power in America cannot enforce unjust laws by the sword; because the whole body of the people are armed, and constitute a force superior to any band of regular troops that can be, on any pretence, raised in the United States. A military force, at the command of Congress, can execute no laws, but such as the people perceive to be just and constitutional; for they will possess the power.

In one of the most fact free editorials I have seen in a long time the bigot known as William Crane said this at the Spectator, the school newspaper for Seattle University:

Those who are ineligible to buy firearms at a local store will simply go to a gun show and purchase a firearm there.

...

Concealed weapon permits are also available to any eligible gun owner with no further background check or training needed.

...

Overall, firearms killed 11,829 people in the United States in 2002, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. This number far outweighs any potential benefit firearm possession has in Washington State or the United States.

...

The corroboration between firearm regulations and a reduction in firearm violence is clear.

I was not particularily gentle in my online response. It has to go through a moderator and hasn't shown up yet on their site. I repeat it here in case the moderator decides my opinion is not worthy of being published:

Please have Mr. Crane do some research before expressing his bigoted opinions.

There is no gun show loophole. The laws are the same at a gun show as they are at any gun shop. And even if there were such a loophole according to several government studies only a very small portion of guns used in crime are purchased at gun shows. And most Washington state gun shows already voluntarily require a background check before attendees can purchase a firearm.

Concealed Pistol License do require a background check.

Firearms are used to defend innocent life from grave injury and/or death between two and three million times each year in the U.S. This far outweighs the number of murders committed with firearms. Guns in the hands of private citizens save more innocent lives from harm than are injured by guns in the hands of criminals.

Crane states:

The corroboration between firearm regulations and a reduction in firearm violence is clear.

I presume he means correlation, not corroboration, but regardless Crane is wrong. Please see the CDC report on this very topic for more details.

As for the other misleading, bigoted, and inaccurate statements made by Mr. Crane, I have Just One Question for Crane:

Can you demonstrate just one time, one place, throughout all of human history, where restricting the access of handheld weapons to the average person made them safer?

"Smart guns" are not only a dumb idea but may be impossible with todays biometric technology.  Biometrics is something I studied and successfully researched for a different application.  I'm not a stranger to biometric technology.  New Jersey thinks they can find a solution for their "smart guns" but I think they are living in a make believe world.  Here's what they have to say about their smart gun research:

The prototype, developed at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, has pressure sensors embedded in the gun handle that recognize a person's unique grip.

The team says a commercial model is up to five years away, but if it works, it will trigger a singular - and controversial - state law. Within three years, all handguns sold in New Jersey would have to be personalized, with this or some other recognition technology.

Michael Recce, who dreamed up the grip-recognition concept in 1999, said the only obstacles are time and money. "It's an engineering problem, not a scientific problem," he said.

...

Inside the grip, 16 ceramic discs generate a charge when pressed. They are called piezoelectric sensors, from the Greek piezo, for "pressure." Barbecue lighters use a similar feature.

Once the shooter squeezes the trigger, the grip sensors spring into action, recording the pressure for one-tenth of a second. In that moment, the pressure applied by each finger varies enough that engineers can distinguish between shooters with a high degree of reliability. A grip's signature does not vary significantly from firing to firing, even in stressful situations, researchers have found.

A year and a half ago, a prototype recognized authorized users nine out of 10 times. Now, the rate lies between 95 and 99 percent, said Michael Cody, a computer science engineer on the team.

The goal: at least 99.95 percent - or good enough that the recognition process fails less often than a regular gun would jam or fail. A higher success rate will require better placement of the 16 sensors; currently, four or five do most of the work.

Recognition of the authorized users isn't enough.  It must also reject unauthorized users.  It could be they are quoting the cross-over point where both the successful rejects and the successful accepts are the same.  It's common to distill the performance down to a single number when in fact you will seldom run your biometric device at that point on the operating curve. 

Typically you will allow a much higher rate of failure for correct rejections that you will allow failure to accept correctly.  For example you might be perfectly happy the gun rejects 90% of the unauthorized users as long as it accepts correct users greater than 99.9% of the time.  I don't know if it is the failure of the reporter to understand the subtleties of biometrics or if it is the failure of the engineers to understand the problem.  For the time being I'll give the benefit of doubt to the engineers on that point.

What I seriously doubt is that Reece and his team have done is evaluate real stress and adverse shooting conditions.  What is the grip like when your hands are numb and swollen from the cold?  Or slippery with blood?  Or with gloves on?  Or after you have been stabbed and/or shot by your attacker(s)?  Add in shooting strong hand only, weak hand only, and with both hands and you have a very large set of variables that you can't program into baseline template for the authorized user without allowing a very high percentage of random people to be able to shoot the gun as well.

I believe, short of nearly instant DNA analysis, biometrics cannot solve this problem.  And even if we had DNA sensors that could respond in milliseconds it wouldn't solve the glove and other problems.  The "magic decoder ring" type of solution is the only thing I see as viable.

Recce estimated that his revolving team of graduate students and postdocs could develop a market-ready product in five years, and that a private company could do so in three.

Estimated cost: an additional $5 million. To date, the school has received $4.4 million in state and federal funds, said Donald H. Sebastian, a university senior vice president who oversees the research.

A 2005 study by a committee of the National Academy of Engineering was less optimistic, predicting that any of the various smart guns would need five to 10 years and $30 million.

The committee recognizes the problem is much, much bigger than Reece realizes or cares to admit. 

Keep spending NJ money.  That's fine with me.  That's less money they have to spend on enforcing their stupid and tyrannical gun laws.

He didn't answer Just One Question when I ask the other day.  He didn't even look at it (I checked my logs).  He knows what he wants to believe and that's all that is important.  And he calls Chris Cox evil?  What can be more evil than insisting we ignore the facts and do things his way?  The way that has enabled the murder of at least 60 million people by their own governments in the 20th century?  His name is Michael Daly and he says:

Staring down barrel of NRA's evil lobbyist

The devil does not wear Prada.

The Devil wears an off-the-rack suit and tie and speaks with a honeyed Southern accent.

That much remained clear yesterday as you gazed at the congealed blood on W. 22nd St., where four more New Yorkers had been shot with an illegal gun. The figure who immediately leapt to mind was the guy in the suit you had seen over the weekend at the National Rifle Association's annual gathering in Milwaukee.

His name is Chris Cox, and he is the NRA's chief lobbyist. He leads the charge to block Bloomberg's effort in Washington to get the federal legislation that is the only way to stem the flow of illegal guns into New York.

Considering the 2nd Amendment says the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed and the 14th amendment says the Bill of Rights apply to the states and cities as well as the Feds, just what is an illegal gun?  Michael Daly has mental problems.

We pray that it will not come to shooting in South Africa, but if it does - God forbid - consider who is likely to win between a group armed primarily with AK47s and no skill in their use and another group armed with sporting rifles and considerable skill in their use. Numbers would not matter particularly in such a confrontation. Formal armies can defeat other formal armies, and they can put down mobs of agitators, as in China. They cannot defeat a population completely armed with simple old-fashioned rifles. What the disarmers never recognize is that episodes like Tiananmen Square can never occur if every citizen maintains his own rifle in his house, as in Switzerland.
   
Jeff Cooper
Jeff Cooper's Commentaries
Vol. 1, No. 10
15 November 1993

They have done all they could (and failed) with guns and crimes committed with guns and now they are working on knives.  A "knife amnesty" program is now underway in the UK.  Can you believe it?

A NATIONWIDE knife amnesty aimed at reducing knife crime comes into force today.

For the next five weeks people will be able to hand in offensive weapons such as flick knives, butterfly knives and swords without fear of reprisal.

Secure bins will be left in police stations and other public places such as supermarkets, schools and youth clubs, to encourage people to hand in their weapons.

It is hoped the amnesty, which ends on June 30, will lead to fewer people carrying knives.

...

Kent Police's Assistant Chief Constable Dave Ainsworth said: "We obviously want to reduce the number of knives and lethal weapons on our streets that are designed to kill or maim, such as combat knives, flick knives and swords.

"Knives can damage and destroy lives, leaving families and communities devastated."

...

Wrong.  People with knives damage and destroy lives.  And they don't need knives to do it.  These people have severe mental problems.

"In a survey, 46 per cent of youngsters in Newcastle said they carried around a knife with them. That's a horrifying statistic.

"We have got to get the message through: this is illegal, it is very, very dangerous. You could end up yourself being injured or, worse still, on impulse inflicting some mortal injury on a friend."

I remember getting a Christmas present from my teacher when I was in the first grade and six years old.  It was a knife and all the boys in the classroom got them.  One guy cut his finger a few weeks later but that was the only problem that occurred and that was minor.  The people in the U.K. are totally bonkers.

From the May 23, 2006 edition of the Washington Post--Federal Law Negates D.C. Suit Against Gunmakers, Judge Rules:

A lawsuit in the District against gunmakers was dismissed yesterday by a D.C. Superior Court judge who ruled that the suit was precisely the sort of claim that a new federal law was intended to block.

In a 37-page opinion, Judge Brook Hedge wrote that the city and the federal government had two competing policies, and only one could prevail.

...

"The Court is faced with a classic tension between two elected branches of different governments, two equally clear legislative judgments, but each enforcing opposite policies," Hedge wrote.

"At bottom," she said, the federal law was enacted "to prohibit the very types of lawsuits the Strict Liability Act allows."

And unless she was persuaded that the federal law was unconstitutional -- which she was not -- the federal law would prevail, she wrote.

And from the National Shooting Sports Foundation news release:

This is the third case against the gun industry to be dismissed based on the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act signed into law by President Bush last October.

In March, Los Angeles-based federal district court judge Audrey B. Collins became the first judge in the nation to dismiss a case based on the new legislation. Collins dismissed a public-nuisance lawsuit filed against Glock and gun distributor RSR by victims and family members of the now infamous "Jewish Daycare Center" shooting in Los Angeles in 1999 by Buford Furrow, a crazed homicidal maniac.

Last Friday, Los Angeles County superior court judge Charles W. Stoll dismissed a case filed on October 18, 2005, against three firearm manufacturers and a distributor following a gang shooting of a Los Angeles police officer during a traffic stop.

Links are via a post at Alphecca.

Just because we have made progress doesn't mean we can back off.  We need to keep pushing and drive the bigots into political extinction.

Yet another example of how our right to not be searched without a court order are being violated without any benefit:

CBS4) DENVER Nearly 5 years after Sept. 11, 2001, how difficult would it be for terrorists to get explosives aboard a plane? With billions being spent on airport security, one would hope it would be nearly impossible. But what CBS4 found may have you questioning whether we are really safer.

CBS4 demonstrated 3 years ago how explosive chemicals placed on luggage, a computer and a person could pass through security. The CBS4 Investigates wanted to see what, if anything, has changed. CBS4 began the test by purchasing those same explosive chemicals.

...

After this, the CBS4 team placed even more of the chemicals on the bag. Investigators also packed a lead-lined sack designed to protect film from X-rays. Then an electronic object was placed beneath it. This was to see if security would open the luggage to see what the lead bag was hiding.

The team then went to Denver International Airport.

A CBS4 employee who carried the bag with her purchased a one way ticket in hopes of being placed in the security line for extra screening. She was not.

The bag was placed on the conveyor and passed through the X-ray machine. The Transportation Security Administration screener spotted the lead-lined bag and wanted a second look. They let it through. They did not open it to see what was beneath the lead lined bag. And no one seemed to notice all that powder.

From watching the video I'm pretty sure I know what powdered chemical they used for the tests.  If I am correct there is no way the explosive detectors can flag it as dangerous without generating false positives on a very high percentage of the passengers.  It's an unsolvable problem with the current paradigm.  If people wish to increase security, rather than just make some people feel good, they need to switch paradigms.  Here are my suggestions for increasing airplane security.

There is some concern that the bird flu has just made the evolutionary jump to transmit between human easily.  It's too early to say for certain but it looks like that concern is unfounded:

"This is not the first time, and we cannot conclusively discard or prove this to be human-to-human transmission," Mehta said, echoing a statement made by the WHO.

On Tuesday, the WHO said limited human-to-human transmission of bird flu might have occurred in the family, but there was no scientific evidence that the virus had mutated to allow it to spread easily among people.

"What is reassuring is two of the human samples from Kubu Sembilang have shown no evidence of reassortment or significant mutations. The lineage of these viruses are very similar to H5N1 viruses from avian specimens from north Sumatra," Mehta said.

It's things like the bird flu that cause me to have near zero concerns about global over-population.  The glass is half-full, right?  I'm just naturally an optimist.

For the sheer terror of it - the worst thing you can do to people is aim at their children.

Lee Boyd Malvo
May 23, 2006
Rockville, MD trial of John Allen Muhammad
In response to being asked why Muhammad devised a two-phase plan to shoot as many as six random people each day for 30 days in the Washington area and then target children and police officers with explosives.  They planned to place explosives on school buses in Baltimore, kill a Baltimore police officer and then set off explosives packed with ball bearings at the officer's funeral.  Malvo also testified Muhammad hated America, introduced him to the teaching of the Nation of Islam, and thought white people were "the devil".
[Islamic extremist.  Racist.  Murderer.  Conspiring to murder children.  The death penalty is clearly appropriate for Muhammad.--Joe]

Update: Far more details are in the Washington Post article.

It's a pleasant thought.  Start prosecuting the bigots that are infringing upon our inalienable rights.  From the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms comes this news release:

BELLEVUE, Wash., May 23 /U.S. Newswire/ -- New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg should be investigated for obstruction of justice, and possibly prosecuted under the federal RICO statutes, for his headline-hunting "sting" operation of alleged law- breaking gun dealers, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) said today.

"According to the New York Daily News, 'Quick-Draw' Bloomberg's decision to hire private investigators for this gun control stunt has apparently jeopardized several genuine criminal cases,' said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. "In his foolish zeal to drum up support for an anti-gun campaign, Bloomberg quite possibly has put real investigations at risk. This appears to be as clear cut a case of obstruction of justice as I've ever witnessed and Bloomberg should be investigated, and prosecuted if necessary."

There is also the felony offense of 18 U.S.C. 242 "acting under color of any law to willfully deprive a person of a right or privilege protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States."  The offense is punishable by a range of imprisonment up to a life term, or the death penalty, depending upon the circumstances of the crime, and the resulting injury, if any.

Of course the fantasy of Bloomberg spending the rest of his life in some Federal prison playing the role of "girlfriend" to some thug won't play out anytime soon.  He is above the law for now and knows it.  But it doesn't hurt to keep reminding the bigots that what they are doing is illegal.  Perhaps someday, before the statute of limitations runs out, he and others will get what they legally have coming.

It would appear that, despite the screeching of the anti-gun bigots here, the U.S. doesn't have the most lax or ignored gun laws.  Yemen seems to enjoy a bit more freedom in that regard.

"I have cannons, missiles, Kalashnikovs, anti-aircraft guns and hand grenades," said community leader Mohammed Naji, sitting cross-legged in his house in the Yemeni capital, Sana'a. "This is a part of our culture, and a tribesman can give up everything except his gun."

...

The report said it was relatively easy to obtain surface-to-air missiles in Yemen.

Too bad their culture is so messed up in other ways.  Revenge killings are just a bit too crude for my tastes.

No, it is not the cleanup the Boomershoot participants helped with.  Sunday, while Barb was at work, I drove the hour east to Boomershoot country to tidy up a bit in preparation for the next ATF inspection. 

After using over a 1000 pounds of my chemical supply (we consumed 864 reactive targets at Boomershoot 2006) I had some room to rearrange things.  I also removed a couple garbage bags full of old milk and soy cartons.  We used to use the cartons for target containers and I had saved them for testing new mixtures.  We discovered the type of container made a difference in how easy the targets detonated.  Future tests will be made with the actual containers used.  This gave me room for the table we set up outside during production on the north side of the Taj Mahal.  This lets us open the door to the magazine without the table being knocked over and gives us better access to the chemical on the south side of the shed.

This same table has been broken for a couple years.  This year during the building of the targets it collapsed with some targets on it.  There wasn't any danger of the targets exploding from the slide to the ground but it was not pleasant and someone could have gotten hurt anyway.  It needed to be fixed and I have been meaning to do that every year.  I still need to do some sanding, buy the screws, and put them in but I have made a significant amount of progress on this long overdue task.

I was pleased to note that the batteries were fully charged by the solar cells.

I swept the floor which had a couple dustpans full of dirt on it from all the travel in and out with muddy feet.

I ran the generator for a few minutes to warm it up so I could change the oil--which I did at lunch time in my parents shop.

I took the floor mats to my parents place and hosed them off.

I cleaned the air cleaner and put in a new filter.  I burned the old filter which was filled with potassium chlorate dust.

I removed all the miscellaneous mixing utensils we don't use which have gathered over the years.

I brought home two blenders that "froze up".  The chemical contact apparently had corroded the bearings (ammonium nitrate is particularly hard on metal).  I'll see if I can repair them easily, if not I'll buy at least one more for backup to the two remaining ones.

I did an inventory of chemicals we use (there are some chemical types we have used for testing that I didn't inventory), and the target containers.  I still need to inventory the remaining stakes.

The following pictures are after clean up and putting all the remaining stuff, including some empty garbage cans, back in.  I'm pleased and I hope Crystal, Sue, or whoever the ATF sends to visit this year is as pleased as I am.

Last Wednesday my girlfriend for the last 30+ years, Barbara, flew into SeaTac (I work in the Seattle area) from Idaho.  Even with the extra few days together it seemed we didn't have enough time together or to do the things we wanted to do.  We had lunch with HsuanHua on Thursday.  I introduced Barb to my work associates on noon Friday.  Friday night we went to dinner and a movie (The Da Vinci Code--good, but not as good as the book) with my roommates.  Saturday morning we went hiking on Mt. Si then had lunch with Michelle before we drove back home to Moscow together.

And every night we tested out the new sheets I bought for my bed.  At 600 threads per inch they are almost like satin sheets without the problems (a small amount of sweat cause satin sheets to stick to your skin).  Even at $100 for the set (King size) they are worth it.

Soon, we hope, the visits and the testing of the sheets will be much more frequent.

It takes a particular kind of nerve to be filmed taking $100,000 in alleged bribe money out of an FBI informant's car, have the FBI later find the same cold, hard cash wrapped in aluminum foil in your freezer -- and then adamantly claim that you have done nothing wrong.

...displaying the cool of a man who keeps his cash in the freezer.

Dana Milbank
May 23, 2006
So $90,000 Was in the Freezer. What's Wrong With That?
Washington Post
[While this scumbag, Rep. William Jefferson of Louisiana, needs to be prosecuted this incidents of these sorts of crimes could be greatly reduced by restoring the limits to power to those mandated by the U.S. Constitution.  An excess of power, as is now the case, attracts the type of people who will abuse it.--Joe]

Daly was my Quote of the day today.  Alphecca also commented on him.  This is the email I sent him:

I just read your May 21, 2006 article in the Daily News and the first paragraph or two of a few of your other anti-gun owner articles.  You appear to be mistaken and or ignorant about certain facts.  Firearms in the U.S. are used to defend innocent life between two and three million times each year.  In the vast majority of these cases no shots are fired.  Most of these firearms are handguns.  Defending the innocent from grievous bodily harm or death is a entirely legitimate use of a tool--which is why the police and millions of private citizens in the U.S. carry handguns on a daily basis.

Before you advocate restrictions on such useful tools you have to ask yourself Just One Question:

Can you demonstrate just one time, one place, throughout all of human history, where restricting the access of handheld weapons to the average person made them safer?

-joe-
http://blog.joehuffman.org

Looking through my log files I could not find any indication he clicked on the link to my "Just One Question".  This is as I would expect.  Bigots don't need to think about an issue since they already know what they want to believe.

Lyle's comment deserves some more attention.  He says:

In a free society, "legitimate demand" is determined by the manufacturers and their customers, not by socialist political activists masquerading as journalists.

Very true, but beyond that only someone that hasn't made it past elementary school would believe that manufactures would be able to known what "legitimate demand" is.  The manufacturers sell to distributors who sell to retailers.  They manufacture as many as the distributors wish to purchase.  They have no "crystal ball" which can give them any sort of clue as to how many of those firearms will be lost, stolen, or sold to straw purchasers and end up in the hands of a person prohibited from firearms ownership.  And with there being about 200 million firearms in the country and just a little over 300,000 crimes involving a firearm each year in this country it means only about one out about 700 guns is used in a crime.  And that is making the worst case assumption that each crime is committed with a different gun!  The real number is probably something on the order of one gun out of 2000 to 10,000 is used in a crime.  Hence forecasting of firearms sales would have to be accurate to the level of about +/- 0.01% in order to know what the "legitimate demand" is.

Bigot Daly and his kind have mental problems.

...to enter the cavernous Midwest Airlines Center was to behold thousands of weapons, many of them handguns that have no real purpose other than to kill people and are produced in far greater numbers than the legitimate demand.

Just inside and to the left was the booth for Smith & Wesson, which manufactures two of the three most-prevalent guns among the 5,551 recovered by the NYPD last year. The list was topped by the Smith & Wesson .38-caliber revolver, a number of which were on display for anyone to heft.

Michael Daly
Aw shoot, they're cute
May 21, 2006
Daily News
[I don't believe I have ever read a more bigoted article by someone who was not on the payroll of an anti-gun owner organization.  I sent him a short email asking Just One Question--Joe]

The inquisitions, however, are predicated upon the wholly implausible notion that there are people out there willing to bomb the bejeezus out of 300 fellow passengers, yet unable to bring themselves to tell a fib. Either that or the increasing torment is just a canny plot by rabid environmentalists, hellbent on dissuading us from flying at all.

Personally, I find the second more likely. I also think they're winning.

Carol Sarler
May 21, 2006
Airport security is a farce... I rest my case
The Observer (UK)

From the Edmonton Sun, Gun control advocates lining up their ammo:

Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe and Wendy Cukier of the Coalition for Gun Control accused the Conservatives of pandering to the gun lobby.

And the liberals are pandering to the gun control lobby.

We believe the evidence is absolutely clear on this.

This system is expensive and not effective. It's not the right way to spend dollars on both gun control and crime control.

Stephen Harper
Prime Minister of Canada
May 19, 2006
Harper tells Ontario, Quebec to butt out on gun registry complaints
[It's going to be a rough road getting rid of this dangerous encroachment on civil rights but Harper appears to be determined.  Good for him!--Joe]

Ms. Porter should walk in the shoes of those who couldn't fend off the strength of another, where using a gun would be the only means to stay alive. If it isn't a gun, then it would be a baseball bat, tire iron, piece of glass or just muscle.

As a woman, I deserve the right to defend myself the best way I can. Gun-control advocates don't seem to realize that gun control will adversely affect the rights of the easily-victimized, i.e., the elderly and young and, especially, females who can't throw a punch like men.

Celeste A. Morello
Letter to the editor.
Philadelphia
Apparently in response to this editorial.
[Ms. Morello should ask Just One Question.--Joe]

David Harsanyi
Denver Post Staff Columnist
Hate hotline puts speech on hold
Via Analog Kid.

Red asked a bunch of questions.  This post was only after I didn't answer a much more detailed email from her two days before.  It wasn't that was avoiding the questions it was that I was really busy with some other stuff.  I woke up at 3:40 this morning and couldn't go back to sleep so I decided now was as good a time as any.  So here are Dr. Joe's answers to the publicly available version:

Q: What is sex? Is it the act of intercourse carried to its fullest extent of a man orgasming inside a woman?
A: Technically speaking that should be "ejaculating inside a woman" the orgasm doesn't really happen inside the woman.  But nit-picking aside, in this context it's called sex if it's a sexually motivated phenomena or behavior.  Hence "phone sex" is still sex even if you are using it as a communication device and not as a toy.

Q: Does the man pulling out right before he orgasms count as sex?
A: Yes.

Q: Does a man entering a woman once count as sex?
A: Yes.  Ask a rape victim.  Or imagine what one of your parents would say if their spouse used that argument as a defense against infidelity.

Q: Is any penetration of the vagina sex?
A: No. There has to be sexual motivation.  Hence the exam at the doctors office probably isn't sex even though there is penetration.

Q: Then that brings up hand jobs. Is that sex?
A: Yes.

Q: Does cyber sex count as sex? Does phone sex count as sex?
A: Yes and yes. It's called sex isn't it?

Q: Does thinking about sex with a man count as sex?
A: Now you have asked a more interesting question! No. This is actually more of the motivation for the phenomena or behavior, not the phenomena or behavior.

Q: Where is the line of virginity drawn these days?
A: It probably has always had a little bit of fuzzy definition.  But probably the clearest line can be draw with sexual intercourse.  Once the male has penetrated the woman's vagina with his penis, even a small amount, they are no longer virgins.

Q: What is cheating?
A: That is going to depend on the rules of the relationship. For some couples having lunch with a member of the appropriate sex with the intention of pursuing a sexual relationship is cheating.  For other couples having complete intercourse with everyone at the orgy is not cheating.  It's about breaking rules, not the acts themselves.  Those rules are defined by the people involved.  Problems can arise when different parties to the relationship are working from different understandings of what the rules are.

The rest of the questions, while important relationship questions, are beyond the scope of Dr. Joe's expertise (sex). The two things I will tell you are that: 1) you are 21 years old and at that age it is normal to be asking those type of questions; and 2) For the most part you will have to answer them yourself.

Bill Lockyer
California State Attorney General
Lockyer touts gun control Amid area visit, officials push bills
May 16, 2006
[You would think that someone smart enough to get themselves elected to such a high office would realize that government cannot actually prevent things.  Government can only punish acts that have already been committed.  Never mind the little "shall not be infringed" issue in the Bill of Rights which means Mr. Lockyer is actually admitting to a felony.  But as we already know, the law doesn't apply to 'them'.--Joe]

Our kids harass Barb and me whenever we mispronounce certain words.  "Wash" and "Washington" are two of the biggies (we grew up pronouncing "wash" as "worsh") but "creek" (it came out as "crick") gets a fair amount of attention also.  I actually appreciate being corrected and work at incorporating the corrections.  Barb does not appreciate it and at times threatens the kids (and occasionally me for agreeing that, technically, they are correct) with various types of retaliation and furthermore declares she will pronounce words just as she always has--which of course just means she told the kids they have a button to push almost anytime they want to use it.

It turns out it isn't just in our household pronunciation is sometimes an issue.  Heather Armstrong nearly had me falling out of my chair in laughter with her pronunciation (MP3) of "crayon" with which her husband disagrees with.  Her entire post on the topic is here and probably will get at least a chuckle from you.

Some videos of the plane that hit the Pentagon were released.  From the DOD FOIA Requester Service Center:

Video 1
Video 2

A year and a half ago I spent a little time debunking that it was actually an explosive charge rather than fuel from the plane that caused the flash on the previous images that were released.  These videos should help a little bit on that front.

No freeman shall ever be debarred the use of arms.

Thomas Jefferson
[Either Jefferson was wrong or we are not free.  Others may come to a different conclusion but I have concluded we are not free.--Joe]

Maine realizes the Federal mandate on Real ID is unrealistic:

AUGUSTA - Two years from now, Mainers wanting to fly for business or pleasure may be barred from getting on the airplane. The federal Real ID act takes effect May 11, 2008, and state officials say there is no way Maine can be in compliance with the law that mandates various security measures dealing with driver's licenses.

It would cost millions to implement, and new licenses likely would cost more than $100. "I don't see how we could possibly meet all its requirements. I don't see how any state could meet all the requirements by the deadline," Secretary of State Matt Dunlap said. "This is something that could cost a couple of hundred billion dollars to do."

Dunlap said the Real ID Act was passed a year ago as a result of the 9-11 Commission Report that was critical of the lack of security in obtaining identity documents such as driver's licenses. But, he said, the Read ID Act has unrealistic schedules and provides little federal funding.

"It is a huge, unfunded federal mandate," he said, "and it is totally unrealistic in its timelines."

For example, Dunlap said, Maine has spent years and more than $14 million to set up the new computer system in his office to handle license and motor vehicle registrations. He said the federal law requires that all the states share, through databases, the personal information needed for a driver's license.

"It simply can't be done in a couple of years," he said. Dunlap is joined in his criticism of the law by the National Governors Association and the National Conference of State Legislatures, which issued a report last month critical of the lack of funding and unrealistic implementation schedule.

...

Dunlap said other states are as concerned as Maine. The New Hampshire House has passed a bill to opt out of the law, and its Senate has voted to study it. Other states are considering resolutions calling on Congress to adopt a more realistic implementation schedule.

All the states need to stand up and assert their constitutionally guaranteed powers on this issue.  The Federal government is way out of line on this as well as nearly everything they currently do.

I find this amusing.  The Puritans in society try to crack down on a victimless crime and the end result is they end up increasing the activity the very activity the were trying to stop.  From our neighbors to the north:

TORONTO -- A 2005 Supreme Court decision that cleared the way for swingers clubs appears to be bringing out Canada's more, well, adventurous side.

Those who prefer life closer to the edge of the conjugal bed say the high court's re-interpretation last December of the definition of indecency has fuelled a growing interest in private clubs that feature group sex, partner swapping, voyeurism and exhibitionism.

...

Five months later, their operators say more aggressive advertising and marketing efforts in the wake of the ruling have attracted significantly more people to their events.

"I think there's a great opportunity to provide a safe environment where couples can really enhance their sex life," said Linda Fox, who operates Club Eden in Vancouver.

The same thing happens when there is talk of banning certain types of firearms.  The sales of those models and accessories dramatically increase.

From the U.K.  When investigating a threat to yourself and/or your home it is entirely reasonable to arm yourself.  Too bad she didn't have access to better tools.  If the politicians had not disarmed her and her countrymen she might still be alive.

Special constable Nisha Patel-Nasri was stabbed to death with her own 13ins kitchen knife, detectives believe.(MON).

Nisha was found bleeding to death in her pyjamas and dressing gown on the doorstep of her semi in a quiet suburban street in Wembley, northwest London.

Police now believe that before going out to investigate a noise the brave part-time police officer picked up a kitchen knife to warn off would be intruders.

There is a different version of the same story here.

We've thought about that as an intimidation tool.  Some guy is hassling you on the street and you start putting your ear plugs in.  The guy says, 'What are you doing?'  You say, 'It looks like I'm going to be doing some shooting here pretty soon and I don't want to hurt my ears.'

Greg Hamilton
Self Defense Instructor
Nov. 19, 1995
When discussing self-defense equipment to carry and a student asked about earplugs.

In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant.

Charles de Gaulle
[I'll bet Hillary Clinton uses this, or the equivalent, as a daily manta.--Joe]

Yeah.  I know my blog has been down for over 24 hours.  I don't know why.  This is the second time.  The first time was just before Boomershoot.  Both then and today I simply didn't have any time to work on figuring it out and bring it back up.  Both times it came back on it's own.  Probably something my hosting provider figured out and fixed.

Yesterday and today I was busy with graduation stuff.  My son, James, and his cousin were graduating from the University of Idaho--at different times.  Pretty much scrambled my entire day today--I hate ceremonies.  But James and I did go see Mission Impossible III tonight.  Pretty good flick.  Plot holes, of course, but still pretty good.

To get the bad customs of a country changed and new ones, though better, introduced, it is necessary first to remove the prejudices of the people, enlighten their ignorance, and convince them that their interests will be promoted by the proposed changes, and this is not the work of a day.

Benjamin Franklin
1781
[Gun rights advocates still have a lot of work to do.--Joe]

This is a war of civilizations. There is no room for negotiation. Islamofascism needs to be completely and utterly destroyed, both in the death of its adherents, and in the humiliation of a political theory that asserts it has a moral superiority that justifies being in complete control of the entire world.

Clayton Cramer
May 11, 2006
United 93
[Yes.  What he said.--Joe]

USA Today:

The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.

The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of whom aren't suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity, sources said in separate interviews.

Here's the story they don't tell you.  Using the simple data of who called who and the times of the calls some very interesting conclusions can be made.  Out of billions of calls individual groups as small as ten people can be identified and their organizational structure mapped.  For example they can determine who the leader is and who will take his or her place if they were removed.  This was several years ago so I imagine the results are better now.  The same sort of information can be derived from email traffic as well.

I'm not sure how I stand on this.  My inclination is that if the companies who own the data are compelled to turn it over without probable cause then I'm against it.  But if it is optional and they get paid to share the information then I'm annoyed but don't have a strong objection.

Other opinions include Michelle Malkin and Alphecca.

I could see being so nervous/overwhelmed/scared/in-awe/whatever that you have "performance problems" in real life.  But Bruce Willis refused to shoot a movie sex scene with Ms. Berry for other reasons:

Willis said: "I get all awkward. She's beautiful. It's almost like looking at an eclipse of the sun.

"You have to poke a pin through a card and look at her through that. She's so stunning you could damage your retina."

If that was the problem then I think I would just close my eyes and try to manage using Braille or something.

Very cool video of Fedex air traffic into Memphis (their hub) as a thunderstorm rolled in.

Via Periodic Journal of my wanderings.

History proves that when government holds both the sword and the purse, as Britain’s government does, it makes law serve its interests, not those of individual members of society. By following the links of cause and effect, we thereby see that Brady, whether its actions are intentional or not, favors the rights of the criminal over those of the law-abiding.

Howard Nemerov
May 11, 2006
Gun Control: Do Brady Policies Support Criminal Behavior?
[Based partly on the policies of Britain that now lets many crimes such as burglary, arson, vandalism, and sex with underage girls be "punished" with a "caution" which does not result in a court appearance, a fine, community service or jail time.--Joe]

He just can't make it much more clear:

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has previously said Israel should be wiped off the map, also told a cheering crowd of students in Indonesia's capital that the Jewish state "cannot continue and one day will vanish."

Students in the crowd held up posters saying "Iran in our Hearts," and "Nuclear for Peace."

Israel will vanish?  As in a ball of fire?  Ahhhh yes...that would be a peaceful use of nuclear power.

If I were in charge of the world my inclination would be to jam all the communication coming out of Iran and all the satellites looking in (except ours which would feed directly to Israel without us getting a glimpse), and not let anything larger than a cockroach exit.  Then tell Israel they had a year and to please be careful of the wind direction if they happened to be creating any excess dust while they were cleaning house in preparation for the next inhabitants.

I haven't update the general public on the battle with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in a long time.  I needed to keep things quiet for a while.  I can give out a few hints now.

I grew up on a farm and we had a few head of cattle at various times.  And sometimes I helped my nearby uncles with there many head of cattle.  When you are herding them often they don't want to go where you want them to go.  You could be herding them to the corral for branding, castration, and slaughter.  Or you could just be herding them to greener pastures.  Most of the time they don't know what your intentions are but sometimes you are pretty sure they know it isn't greener pastures because they really resist going where you want them too.  In these cases you have to give them some "encouragement" in the form of a dog nipping at their heels, a switch, or even just yelling at them.  It's rare that anything more than this is necessary.  It's pretty amazing when you think about it.  You can yell at them and they will willingly walk into the corral where they have no escape from your branding iron and your knife.  They simply can't think that far ahead.  The short term discomfort of dealing with a dog nipping at their heels or the sting of a switch on their rump is sufficient to persuade them to commit to their own undoing.

It was just over 11 months ago that I began the journey that I knew then would last years.  I didn't really know how or if I would reach my desired destination and to a certain extent I still don't.  What I do know is that they just stepped into my corral.  It two weeks ago, just before Boomershoot, that I picked up the first of the letters from one of my attorneys from my P.O. Box.  I picked up the second one last Sunday.  And then yesterday I discovered some information that nearly made me go dancing in the street (this is from someone that despises most dancing).  If you were to read the letters you would think there was no good news about my quest for justice in those letters but you would be wrong in thinking that.  Just as you would be wrong if you thought the cow I just tried hit with my switch jumped and ran away, toward the corral, without my switch touching her escaped my intentions.  Yes, using the metaphor, repeatedly switching the felons at PNNL would bring a certain amount of pleasure.  But that's not the real goal--I want them branded, castrated, and slaughtered.  They might still break out of the corral, but their lawyers, dancing out of the reach of my switch, put them within reach of my branding iron and knife.  It will be different lawyers of theirs that will have to deal with my branding iron and knife and that will curse the lawyers just doing their job who only knew about the sharp teeth of the snapping dog and the sting of my switch.  The new lawyers didn't get involved until the corral gate was shut behind them.

In an abstract sort of way I feel sorry for someone that could have gotten away if they only had played their game a little differently. If only they could have seen far enough ahead and had communicated better with others.  If only they had known I wasn't their ordinary adversary and they hadn't been so careless in their felonious assault against me they almost for certain would have gotten away with it.

It may be that I have a mild form of Aspergers Syndrome and this probably contributed to my downfall at PNNL but it also gives me the incredible focus, persistence, and intensity they, almost for certain, have never dealt with before.  This isn't something abstract for me and I don't feel genuine pity about them not getting away with their crimes.  It's not only very personal but it has tremendous potential to affect the entire gun rights movement.  This isn't just about compensation for the nearly catastrophic impact on my life and my family.  If I play my game correctly it could easily affect every gun owner in the state of Washington and possibly every gun owner in the U.S.  Thinking they were striking a blow against one gun owner, political activist, and N.R.A. firearms instructor they may have given us an opportunity to make unimaginable gains.

There are still years of work ahead of me in this roundup but I can now start heating my branding iron and sharping my knife.  In my minds eye I can now see the smoke and steam boiling off my branding iron as it sears their flesh, I can see their bloody testicles in my bucket, and I can see their hides drying on the wall of the barn.  All just as I did so many years ago when helping my uncles with their cattle.

I'm sleeping better than I have in a long time.

...the beauty of Boomershoot is not just about the big bangs, big booms, or big guys with their big guns. The true beauty of Boomershoot is the daylong happiness you see, everywhere you look. From down range to up range, there’s more laughter and happiness on Boomershoot Day than there is in any comedy club in L.A.

Ms. Cyborg
Post-Boomershoot thoughts from Ms. Cyborg...
May 9, 2006

Michael Howard is "Home Secretary" of the U.K., sort of a national chief of police. In his words, "Gun ownership is a privilege, not a right, and the use of firearms in self-defense is not acceptable for civilians in this country" (presumably it is okay for a soldier). So much for The Land of Hope and Glory! Die if you must but do not shoot back. 
   
Jeff Cooper
From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries
Vol. 4, No. 13
November 1996
[Brought to mind by reading this.  A woman in England gets five years in jail for a non-functional, blank-firing gun stored in her home by her boyfriend.  Guns and their owners are treated like Jews in Nazi Germany.  This woman was guilty of hiding a Jew.--Joe]

They don't even try to hide it.  They just come right out and say it, Children need to be protected:

Constitutional issues aside, consider youths: In Seattle, firearms are the leading cause of death among 15- to 24-year-olds. In King County, an estimated 32,000 children live in homes with unlocked firearms; about 7,000 of them live in homes with loaded firearms and about 2,000 in homes where guns are stored loaded and unlocked. Does this make sense? Don't children deserve to live in a community where guns are safely stored, their purchase closely regulated and weapons clearly intended for maximum damage banned?

As one commenter said, "The phrase in this article that I find the most chilling 'Constitutional issues aside...'".  Constitutional issues are just dismissed by invoking "youths".  And ignoring the fact that more children have been killed because of gun control (start by counting the number of kids killed by the Nazis) rather than in spite of it.  In the comments I asked them my usual, Just One Question.  No response yet.  I don't expect one either.  It's not about logic or safety.  It's "for the children."

Ain't freedom beautiful?

Michael Burrows
April 30, 2006
At Boomershoot after launching an anvil 100 feet into the air.

From Scripps Howard News Service:

The test scheduled for June 2 will be of a 700-ton conventional bomb. The research could aid in development of so-called bunker-buster weapons, including small-scale nuclear devices, according to the federal official overseeing the test, Doug Bruder, director of counter-weapons of mass destruction technology for the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

As near as I can tell the maximum takeoff weight any 747 is about 910,000 pounds which is only 455 tons and that includes the weight of the plane and fuel.  A semi truck is much smaller.  The only remaining thing I can think of is a train and that is rather problematic for a number of reasons.

So this "demonstration", as some are calling it, of a 700-ton bomb ammonium nitrate (Boomershoot uses AN as the main ingredient) and fuel oil bomb will be more "interesting" than just a big pile of AN detonating.  And although there may be some fuel oil in it my guess is there will be aluminum powder as well as other stuff much more interesting that just fuel oil.  This guy is openly calling it a tactical nuke instead of a conventional bomb.  Tactical nuke?  Sure, that makes sense.  You can deliver those with artillery shells as well as cruise missiles and conventional air dropped bombs.

Iran is virtually begging for someone to attack.  The Israelis claim Iran is only about a year away from having their own nuclear bomb.  Others claim more time is needed, but regardless the Mideast is a very interesting place these days.  Regardless, for us to claim there is too much sand and not enough glass in Iran before we take another hit will be a tough situation politically.  But for us to wait might mean the near total destruction of Israel.  And if we take a nuclear hit on north American soil my bet is that our retaliation will not be so "surgical" as dropping a few tactical nukes as we would prior to taking a hit.  My guess is we would turn not only massive portions of Iran into glass but Medina and few other areas as well.  Mecca would probably have a few bombers in permanent "orbit" around it for several years--just daring any Muslim extremist to set off a pipe bomb in some pizza joint on our turf.

Interesting times ahead...

Update: If you follow the links in Ry's comments (and here) you will find the people I based my post on were totally clueless.  Which means I was totally clueless when I made the post.  Idiots.  And they made me look like an idiot.

Xenia posted a little bit about her Boomershoot experience.  It includes pictures by and of Sara and Lexi.

In the 1840s Americans still thought Manifest Destiny was really cool and got the president to fight a war to get more land from Mexico including Texas and California. Texas said it was already free, but Mexico didn’t think so until after America kicked their butt.

Xenia Joy Huffman-Scott
4:00 AM, May 1, 2006
On the day the history project was due.
[There is other great stuff in her timeline of American history too, check it out.--Joe]

I liken Boomershoot to the state of mind when one is doing yoga. It's very peaceful.

Stephanie Sailor
April 30, 2006
While at Boomershoot.

From Ry

Boomershoot 2006 cleanup. April 30, 2006. 14 MBytes .WMV

As Ry said, "Why weren't you there?"

The first nationalization of the 21st century…. After today the hydrocarbons will belong to all Bolivians. Never again will they be in the hands of transnational corporations. Today the country - la patria - stands up…. This is a patriotic and heroic decision that takes back our soul and dignity. But it will be a measure attacked by dinosaurs, conservatives, and traitors of the country.

Álvaro García Linera
Vice-President of Bolivia
May 1, 2006
Nationalization of Gas!
From ZNet--A community of people committed to social change
[Yet another attempt of an experiment that has repeatedly failed.  It's a sad day for the people of Bolivia as this resource and source of income heads toward it's ruin.--Joe]

At Boomershoot 2005 (last year) we blew up a computer.  Watch the KING5 Evening Magazine video to see it.  Someone else blew up their computer and made a really nice video of it as well.

Most gun control advocates have mental problems but they usually avoid contradicting themselves in the space of two minutes.  Mayor Street can't even manage that:

The illegal guns - about 1,500 of them - covered most of the floor of the Mayor's Reception Room on the second floor of City Hall.

Mayor Street, who said they had been confiscated since the start of 2006, used them as a platform yesterday for launching another gun-control campaign in Harrisburg.

"This [effort] isn't going to go away," Street said at a news conference. "When the General Assembly goes back into session, we will be there. I expect to be joined by mayors from other areas."

"... If we can have gaming in the commonwealth, then we can restrict the flow of guns."

...

"When you are out on the street and someone points a gun at you, you have to do something," Street said. "We believe we have a well-managed Police Department."

...

This was echoed by Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson: "To kill or be killed often involves only a split-second decision. When cops are confronted by a person with a gun, they have to react."

The cops "have to do something" when someone points a gun at them.  But private citizens don't have the same need?  These people need some help from a mental health professional.

The mayor asks the state to pass laws that prevent firearms from getting into the hands of criminals. But state and federal laws already prohibit the possession, purchase or sale of firearms for felons, people with a history of mental illness or facing allegations of domestic violence. All commercial sales of firearms require a background check for such disqualifiers.

What else could the state do? An outright assault weapons ban is unfair and unenforceable. Manufacturers supply trigger locks with their firearms and the locks are widely available at no cost.

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD
Gun Control: Blaming the state
May 4, 2006
[This is a huge turn around for the PI.  Add in their publication of the Boomershoot article on Tuesday and I'm a little weak in the knees.  This is really good news.--Joe]

Boomershoot 2006 is over but the blogging doesn't stop:

• Range Report: Missoula Special Classifier, 04/23/06 (Kitiara decides not to attend Boomershoot 2006)
• NoR Spring Rally and meetup for my birthday (The Anarchangel whimpers about Boomershoot being the same weekend as the NOR Spring Rally)
• Blowing things up (Spokesman Review blog posting about reviewing the Boomershoot video to be put on their website)
• Boomershoot 2006 (Video Journal of Colin Mulvany of the Spokesman Review)
• It Blows Up Real Good. Yup, Real Good (Notes from the Technology Underground)
• Guns and booms, what's not to like? (from Dick's Rocket Dungeon in Maryland)
• I WANNA GO DO THIS TOO!!!!!! (JeanC's Cat House and Shooting Society -- Jeez.  I can almost see her house from my house there's nothing stopping her from attending.)
• Boomershoot 2006 (leroy_brown242, one of the Boomershoot 2006 volunteers and the first shooter to connect with a 700 yard target this year)
• Only in Idaho (f-words)
• Saturday in Moscow (Ry)
• Boomershoot (Mr. Completely--who didn't show up to collect his free entry)
• The Soundboard: Keeping the depression away (Analog Kid feeling down because he was unable to attend)
• See what you're missing at 2006 (Ry linking to the Boomershoot 2005 history video)
• Some of the Love and Some of the Hate (Mention of his jealousy of someone else attending but not him)
• Boomershoot, Day 1 (Clinic) (This guy, Peter Biddle, was on a business trip in Europe and flew back for Boomershoot weekend!)
• Boomershoot, Day 2 (Clinic) (Peter Biddle again)
• History Project (Xenia whining about her history homework being interfered with by Boomershoot)
• Getting closer (Ry concerned that he may not be able to attend Boomershoot)
• Can't sleep (Ry whining about moving into his new place)
• Boomershoot in the news (Say Uncle commenting on my Boomershoot posting)
• Gallery lives! (leroy_brown242, one of the Boomershoot 2006 volunteers about to post some pictures)
• Eve of Boomershoot (William at reasonablenut--these guys drove from New Mexico to North Central Idaho stopping for only 12 minutes the entire trip!)
• Range Report / Carry Gun (Benjamin at reasonablenut)
• RNS Quote of the Day (Analog Kid--irritated that he missed the best Boomershoot ever)
• I'm off to Nebraska (David at Random Nuclear Strikes consoling himself about not being able to attend Boomershoot 2006)

In addition to blogging activity the Spokesman Review article was picked up by the AP and showed up here:

• The Times-News (Twin Falls, ID)
• KGW (Portland, OR area television station)
• Seattle Post Intelligencer (Seattle, WA morning newspaper)

From Mail & Guardian online:

A rash of cases of Malaysian women being tricked into having sex with fraudulent "healers" has prompted a warning from authorities for women to beware of smooth-talking con men.

In the latest case, a 41-year-old woman was tricked into having sex dozens of times with a medium who claimed to be the "Ninth Emperor of the Kingdom of God" and said she was possessed by evil spirits, newspapers reported on Wednesday.

The 52-year-old medium said her domestic and financial problems would be solved with the sex sessions, which took place over seven months at a cost of 20-50 ringgit ($5,50 to $13,85) each, during which he moved into her house.

He was eventually turfed out by the woman's husband and has threatened to put a curse on the family.

Dr. Joe recommends sex as a cure for everything but this guy was out of line--unless he was hired by the husband in which case the couple is just too stupid be given much sympathy. Even sex doesn't cure stupidity.

Everything's better with a boom.

Lee Ellyn Frailey
April 30, 2006
While at Boomershoot 2006.

Via Ry and Wired Magazine. Take The AQ Test:

Psychologist Simon Baron-Cohen and his colleagues at Cambridge's Autism Research Centre have created the Autism-Spectrum Quotient, or AQ, as a measure of the extent of autistic traits in adults. In the first major trial using the test, the average score in the control group was 16.4. Eighty percent of those diagnosed with autism or a related disorder scored 32 or higher. The test is not a means for making a diagnosis, however, and many who score above 32 and even meet the diagnostic criteria for mild autism or Asperger's report no difficulty functioning in their everyday lives.

I scored a 23.  Ry scored 13.

Aspergers is closely related to Autism.

Wile E. Coyote's got nothing on us.

Steve Joachim
April 30, 2006
After blasted an 80-pound anvil over 100 feet into the sky, which then buried itself into the ground, for halftime entertainment at Boomershoot 2006.

Boomershoot 2006 was the best ever.  No doubt about it.  I'm way too tired to say everything I want to about it now but here are some links to what the Spokesmans Review (a Spokane area paper) had to say about it:

• Boomershoot 2006 (video Journal)
• Boom with a view (on the front page!)

The high point of the event for me was seeing 17 year-old Sara Young (Xenia's friend and one of the workers for Boomershoot) detonate a 700 yard boomer on her first shot.  Of course she was using the rifle of one the Precision Rifle Clinic's Instructors and had some expert coaching from him, but it was still quite a thrill for both Sara and I.

For some shooters, the event is all about marksmanship. Others say they're driven by politics – how the combination of guns and explosives is the ultimate expression of their constitutional rights as well as a gentle show of force for anybody watching in the federal government.

James Hagengruber
May 1, 2006
Spokesman Review: Boom with a view