Category Archives: Bloggers

Stuff about other bloggers and sometimes blogging in general.

Random humor

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At dinner with Phil and his wife last night we talked about religion some and for a short while Baptists in specific. Hence this isn’t entirely random:



A man was seated next to a stiff-looking Baptist minister on a flight to Wichita. After the plane was airborne, the flight attendant came around for drink orders.  The man asked for a whiskey and soda, which he got.


The attendant then asked the minister if he would also like a drink. The minister replied in disgust, “I’d rather be savagely raped by a brazen whore than let liquor touch these lips.”


The man then handed his drink back to the attendant and said, “I didn’t know there was a choice.”


This is for their dog Elsie:



Q: What has four legs and an arm?
A: A happy Rottweiler.

Gun selection for our mercenary training

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The top ten gun bloggers (it was a rigged election–I know it must be because I won) are going to Blackwater USA next month for some training with Todd Jarrett all sponsored by Para.


We aren’t being trained as mercs but I figure it’s a good story to tell people and I love the shock value.


Para is supplying the guns and has asked each of us what caliber we want. I asked for .40 because that is the pistol caliber I most frequently reload. Sorry, that wasn’t an option. My options were 9mm and .45. I have all the components and equipment for 9mm so I initially asked for that. Then a minute or so later I asked what the capacity on that gun was. It is 9 + 1. Arghh! 9mm and it’s not even a reasonably high capacity? I carry 18 + 1 in my .40! Okay, so if I’m going to be stuck with a low capacity gun I might as well go with the larger caliber. So it’s the .45. It’s a 1911 style gun and I can use it in the Single Stack division (I currently shoot Limited) for USPSA competition.


Now I find out that this isn’t exactly a 1911 style as I think of it. It’s a “Light Double Action” trigger instead of a single action trigger! The 9mm they offered has a single action trigger. Hmmmm… It’s looking like we’re talking the lesser of two evils here.


Okay. I’ll give them chance. I’ll still go with the .45 but this might be putting me at a disadvantage with the bet I have with Caleb. He’s going with the 9mm and he is spending a lot of time practicing.


Uncle is doing a survey to resolve his similar quandary.


Rob is going with the .45.

Quote of the day–Caleb of Call Me Ahab

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I have had a tendency in my young life to occasionally run my mouth with abandon (my wife is shaking her head at that); however I have been fortunate in the majority of this situations to be able to back up my mouth with skill or plain old dumb luck.


The more I read Joe’s archives, the more I realize I’m going to need a lot of the latter to win our friendly wager.


Caleb of Call Me Ahab
July 15, 2008
Pride goeth…
[Caleb will be at Gun Blogger Summer Camp with me next month. In a long email thread among some of the bloggers with the subject “My dad can beat up your dad” Caleb ended up challenging me to a bet on our shooting abilities. I can only recall accepting two bets in the last 35 years (I won both). I just don’t bet unless I’m pretty close to certain that I’m going to win. This was the most risky bet I have accepted in the last 35 years. Based on the cards face up on the table I’ve got a better hand but one never knows until all the cards are turned over. That will occur on August 24th.–Joe]

Gun nuts pod-cast on Para/Blackwater summer camp

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Caleb and Squeaky will be pod-casting tomorrow night on the summer camp some of us are attending:



Talking about the recently released results of ParaUSA’s blogshoot contest, where 10 bloggers and one lucky reader will get to go to Blackwater’s state of the art training facility in North Carolina for a weekend of shooting with Todd Jarret.


Assuming I’m not on the road (I’ll be traveling back to the Seattle area tomorrow afternoon/evening) I’ll be listening.

I’m going to Gun Blogger Summer Camp

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I just got a call from Kerby Smith from Para USA, Inc. They congratulated me on being one of the top ten bloggers in their contest. Other winners include:



There should be three others as well. I expected Sebastian and Kevin but Sebastian says he hasn’t been notified and Kevin hasn’t posted anything about it the last time I looked.


Michael Bane (Update: with Bitter and Sebastian) will be attending as a video photographer, plus there will be some lucky voter that will attend as well.


In other news, Kerby said they just announced their new tactical rifle and they are opening up shop in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Last chance to vote for me

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I’ve mentioned this before but a reminder that this is your last chance to vote for me can’t hurt.


The back story:


There were 40 gun bloggers, including myself, that participated in the 2nd Amendment Blogger Bash at the NRA Convention last month. There is now a contest to select 10 of those bloggers to participate in “Gun Blogger Summer Camp”.


Action item:


Would you please vote for me? Go here and find “The View From North Central Idaho” near the bottom of the list: http://www.para-usa.com/new/special/blogger_contest06-08.php#vote click on the radio button and submit it. You don’t have to put in your address and phone number unless you would like a chance at attending the camp as well (one lucky voter will get to attend with the blogger winners).


Please do it today. This is the last day of the contest.


Thanks!

Full-throated?

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I never been called this before:

Joe Huffman, the full-throated Second Amendment activist

For some reason that brings to mind “deep throat” and there is no version of that phrase that applies to me. Particularly in the context of the Pink Pistols as was the case in this post.

It must be something new. The rest of the post was nice. I think it was a compliment.

Busy busy

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I have a huge backlog of things I want to blog about but I have been rather distracted by other things.

Barb and I had barely seen each other for several weeks. The week after I went to Louisville for the 2nd Amendment Blog Bash (and NRA Convention) Barb went to Sacramento to visit her sister. Then I had a very busy time at work and was unable to go on vacation with Xenia, Barb, and her family to Montana.

Finally, on Wednesday, Barb arrived at my bunker in the Seattle area and we tried to make up for lost time. I did make it out of bed long enough to go to work for a few hours and we go to dinner and see a movie (Get Smart — It had it moments, but there were some parts that were too silly for me) with son James and daughter Xenia. But for the most part we were pretty much inseparable.

Then Saturday I started opening up Boomershoot 2009 registration for staff, on Sunday for 2008 participants, then yesterday for the general public. Even though that is mostly automated it has resulted over 170 emails being received or sent plus countless hand edits of data files and fixing of obscure bugs in my code.

One bug was particularly “interesting”. If two shooting positions used the same phone number for registration and I then tried to swap the shooting positions of those two entries then both entires would be deleted (I had a back up and it wasn’t that tough to recover from the bug). That bug had existed since day one over a year ago and I just now tripped it.

In any case that spike of Boomershoot activity will soon settled down because the event is almost full (91%) with only seven positions still open as of 11:00 PM. I was surprised at the number of bloggers that took me up on the offer. Those free spots are costing me a LOT of money in the short term. David and Phil have a big tent and are filling it with bloggers. Other bloggers signed up include BillH of Free in Idaho!, Matthew from Trigger Finger, Kevin of Smallest Minority, Barron Barnett, and of course Ry, Xenia (not really “signed up”, it’s more like “drafted”), and I. I expect Lyle at UltiMAK (who blogs here with me) will sign up too.

Speaking of Matthew in the context of Boomershoot, he just put some new posts with pictures and text up from Boomershoot 2008:

Any more Boomershoot gun bloggers?

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Gun bloggers planning to attend Boomershoot 2009 should send me an email at JoeH@boomershoot.org. I posted about this last month and several people expressed considerable interest but didn’t actually say yes.

General announcement of Boomershoot 2009 registration will be made soon. The event fills up very quickly and I want bloggers planning to attend to get a fair shot at getting a position.

Vote for ME!!!

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Via the Para website:

You can help send your favorite gun blogger to summer camp at Blackwater USA with world class shooter and instructor Todd Jarrett… and have a chance to win a invitation for yourself as well. Para USA, along with Blackwater, USA is sponsoring a weekend of first class instruction at the most exclusive training facility in the United States.

The top ten gun bloggers in our contest will get an invitation to shoot a special Para pistol and learn the secrets of a World Champion from Todd Jarrett. Blackwater USA is hosting the event at their facility in North Carolina. Gun Blogger Michael Bane and a video crew will record the event for Down Range TV.

Best of all, by voting for your favorite gun blogger, your name will be put into a drawing for an invitation to this exclusive event. That’s right 10 gun bloggers, and maybe you could spend a weekend learning the shooting secrets of the best shooter in the world.

The Para-Blackwater Gun Bloggers weekend will be August 22-24, 2008. Invitees must provide their own transportation to Norfolk, Virginia. Firearms, ammunition, accessories, room and board during the event will be provided by the sponsors. Participants must be 21 years or older and legally able to own and shoot a handgun.

Act now, voting ends July 1st! Winners will be annouced in early July. You may only vote once in this contest.

You want to see Todd Jarrett blow up a car by shooting at it, don’t you?

And I’m sure I can find excuses why you shouldn’t vote for anyone else, for example, that last time I talked to Kevin he had has a project he has to finish up in late August anyway so he won’t be able to make it.

Barb has to work that weekend so we will be celebrating our anniversary another weekend anyway.

Pretend you are a democrat and vote early, vote often, and vote for ME!!! I’m listed as “The View From North Central Idaho” near the bottom of the list.

Where in the world

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I was invited to speak at the Boeing Rifle and Pistol Club tonight. This will be something like the fifth time. Tonight I will be talking about the NRA Convention and the Second Amendment Blogger Bash.

My notes for the presentation:

  • Huge, fancy, gun show
  • Nearly 70K people
  • Media credentials for bloggers
  • Second Amendment blogger bash
    • Bitch girls
    • Snowflakes in Hell
    • Say Uncle
    • Michael Bane
    • Smallest Minority
    • Books, Bikes, Boomsticks (broomsticks)
    • Squeaky Wheel Seeks Grease
    • Call me Ahab
    • Sharp as a Marble
    • Third Power (Days of our Trailer)
    • Traction Control 
    • The Ten Ring (Denise and Bill)
    • 40 in all
  • Sessions
    • Legal
    • Activists
      • Its not the critic that counts
      • In their own words
      • They don’t fear me they fear you–Chris Cox
      • You have the final say–Wayne LaPierre
  • Blogger activities
    • Happy hour with Bane
    • Todd Jarrett
    • Publisher of Soldier of Fortune
    • Eyeblast.TV
    • Talk until dawn
  • Celebrities
    • McCain
    • Mitt Romney
    • David Hardy
    • Ollie North
    • Ted Nugent
    • Cam Edwards
    • Glenn Beck
      • It comes down to Larry, Moe, Curly?
      • The Democrats sold their soul to Karl Marx.
      • We like lawyers, crooks and crack dealers better than Washington.
      • Before I pay over 10 for a gallon of gas I will drill through a polar bears head.  —– I would feel bad but I would do it.

More stuff in the mail

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In addition to the postcard from Dave Barry I also received some other stuff today that thrilled me almost as much.

I received a couple of patches from Thirdpower. I’m going to put one on my Boomershoot coat and the other one on my cork board at work.

I received the explosives handler form Squeaky filled out a few days ago. It sure looks like we are going to have another gun nut playing with explosives next April. Cool!

Always Think Forfeiture resolution

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I have been wondering about this for a while and even asked a few people what was, if anything, going on. It turns out the case has been resolved. Not to my satisfaction but good enough. I would have preferred the ATF be disbanded and the guilty be given life sentences and sent to the prison labor lead mines to help reduce the cost of ammunition–but then I’m a perfectionist in cases like this.

Here is the best story on it I have found so far:

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is dumping the “Always Think Forfeiture” motto it’s used for more than a decade to help combat crime.

U.S. Rep. Bill Sali, R-Idaho, and others complained that multipurpose tools engraved with the slogan could be seen as encouragement to seize property, including guns, of law-abiding citizens.

The pocket tools were to be given to federal, state and local law-enforcement agents participating in the agency’s asset forfeiture training programs, as a reminder of one way to disrupt or dismantle criminal organizations.

None of the engraved tools, stored in the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., have so far been distributed. And now they won’t be, at least until the engravings have been removed.

The agency will no longer use the slogan on materials given out during its training programs, said Robert Browning, chief of ATF public affairs in Washington, D.C., adding it was never intended to undermine lawful gun rights.

Sali had said that the ATF “through its engraved motto, sends a message that these rights are secondary to the government’s apparent goal to ‘always’ seek forfeit of private property.”

The tools also included the words “ATF – Asset Forfeiture.”

Update: In the comments Jed points out the Idaho Stateman article. I have to agree it’s better because of this:

That changed March 19, when a blogger looking at ATF contracts on a government-purchasing database found an order for 2,000 Leatherman tool-kits engraved with the slogan.

The blogger wrote about it on www.freedomsight.net, and the issue took on a life of its own in the blogosphere. Gun owners and private property rights activists seized on the phrase as a sign that the agency was biased toward law-abiding gun owners.

As I said before, Jed did good. Real good.

Boomershoot Gun Blogger Day

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At the NRA convention last week I told several bloggers I was contemplating having a special Boomershoot for gun bloggers*. I have had time to think about this quite a bit more.

The following is tentative so if you have suggestions let me know before I finalize it in the next week or so.

Boomershoot 2009 is currently scheduled for Sunday April 26th with Friday and Saturday the 24th and 25th being the Precision Rifle Clinic. Nearly all of the gun bloggers who have never attended Boomershoot I have talked to expressed concern their long range rifle skills were deficient so I think participating in at least one day of the clinic is a good idea for them. Partially for this reason I have decided combining the gun blogger event with Boomershoot 2009 is a good idea.

What I think is one of the more interesting part of the event is the making of the targets prior to the event. We have repeatedly invited the mainstream media to observe and/or participate and only once had them accept. I’m guessing gun bloggers will be more inclined to take me up on this invitation. Hence I have decided to make Thursday April 23rd 2009 Boomershoot Gun Blogger Day. On this day gun bloggers will be given media credentials and a special behind the scenes tour of and participation in Boomershoot 2009. If the individuals involved want to actually mix explosives and package the targets they will need to fill out some paperwork at least a couple months in advance. This paperwork will be submitted to the ATF and if the ATF approves it these individuals will be allowed to actually make explosives and reactive targets. If individuals do not wish to submit the paperwork then they will still be allowed to observe target manufacturing and participate in all the other activities.

Other activities planned for Gun Blogger Day will include discussions of explosive chemistry, alternate materials for explosives, target detonation theory, fireball target construction, the history and future of Boomershoot, Boomershoot safety, Why Boomershoot, “entertainingly close” detonation of targets by the participants and almost any other safe and legal activity related to guns and explosives the participants can think of.

Do you want to blow something up? Toilets, laptop computers, and hard disk drives are just some of the things we have subjected to “Idaho Hardware Testing” (also sometimes called an Idaho Stress Test). If you have something you want subjected to Boomerite let me know and we’ll figure out how to make it happen safely. The only catch is that you need to clean up (or pay for) the mess afterward.

Gun bloggers who are attending Boomershoot for the first time will also get free admission to the main event on Sunday April 26th.

* For the purposes of this special offer a gun blogger is defined as someone who has an active blog with frequent posts about gun use or politics. “Active blog” means someone who has made 100 or more posts in the previous year as of April 1, 2009. This definition potentially and intentionally includes the anti gun blogs such as the Gun Guys and the Brady Blog. “Frequent posts about gun use or politics” will be defined at my whim on a case by case basis. Submit your blog to me for inclusion prior to April 1 and I’ll get back to you with my decision within a day or so.

Links for the bloggers I met

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While at the NRA Convention there were numerous times when someone say, “I once made about post about that.” Most of the time others would say, “Yeah! I remember that.” Occasionally someone would say, “I must have missed that. Could you bring me up to speed?”

This is for those times when people missed one of my posts.

For Kevin, Sebastian, and Bitter on Sunday night when we were talking about powdered sugar and coffee creamer in regards to A Security Theater. Check out the video link.

Photo below by Rob Allen (see this post of his for more pictures from Friday evening) which was taken within a few minutes of the discussion:


Left front and going clockwise: Jeff, Kevin, Joe, Say Uncle.

We were talking about endangered species and I mentioned the post I made about Habitat destruction leads to extinction. That got a laugh. But then we nearly fell out of our booth laughing as Kevin described it as deforestation.

Update: Late last Friday, the night we are not to blog about, someone who shall remain nameless mentioned a problem with insomnia. This same someone at a different time acknowledged reading about Dr. Joe’s cure for everything. But they apparently didn’t make the connection that their insomnia was a prime candidate for a treatment with Dr. Joe’s cure. I was tempted to make the connection for them but thought it would be inappropriate “to go there” in the given circumstances.

Todd Jarrett, guns and explosives

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Last Friday night Michael Baine hosted a social event for us bloggers. Todd Jarrett reported that 10 bloggers would get training from him at Blackwater and then take home a Paraordinance gun at the end of the training. Bitter has some details.

I spent probably 15 minutes talking with Jarrett and he got really interested in Boomershoot and told me he wanted to blow up a car. He wants to be able to shoot bullets into it and have it lift about four feet off the ground. I gave him my card and told him I thought I could do that. He seemed interested in exploring that further. Cool!

Pictures for Tamara’s groupies

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Several of the bloggers, myself included, in attendance at the NRA Convention were looking forward to meeting the Empress of Snarktm. She and Roberta flew in on their broomstick Saturday and left again before most of us got a chance to meet them. Tamera was persuaded to visit again on Sunday and some waited in the pressroom for quite some time. When she finally arrived we went in search of food:


Left to right are Bill, Mike W., Denise, Tamara, and Rick.


Tamara checking out her taco cone.

I’m almost always surprised when I meet someone in person who I had some non face-to-face contact. I expected Tamara to have a big smile on her face almost all the time as she laughed at the world around her and she would let rip with one snarky comment after another. Instead she was reserved and seemed to be pushing herself to overcome shyness. But maybe that was just her restraining herself from decking one or more of her groupies.

Regardless she was very tolerant of all the attention people gave her and to the best of my knowledge she didn’t have to even brandish her knife.

Update: In response to a comment from Chuck–She has eyebrows. It’s just that her light red hair is difficult to distingush from her pink skin.

See?