The Brady Bunch are whining again.

Why wait until something's legal to order it? One Illinois company is ready to serve America's extreme psychotics right away. Have your credit cards ready.

Washington, D.C. - Tomorrow, there will only be 30 days until the assault weapons ban expires, and our nation will face a new era of criminal and terrorist attacks with assault weapons unless President Bush keeps his campaign promise and gets the law renewed. And some Americans are simply drooling at the notion of deadlier guns.

Whoo hoooo!!!  It's such a pleasure to hear them crying.  Basically they are saying that ArmaLite should be prosecuted for gathering components ready to be built on a moments notice should the ban actually expire.  I wonder where they would draw the line?  Would it be okay to mine the ore for the guns prior to expiration of the 'ban'?

And of course they can't be trusted to tell you the truth about things.  Ignoring all the garbage about “era of criminal and terrorist attacks” the link they provided in their press release and letter to the ATFE leads to a page that says this:

1.  Full pre-payment, non-refundable.  No credit cards or credit terms can be accepted.

So the Brady bunch says “have your credit cards ready” and Armalite says they won't accept credit cards for this.  So they don't even care to check for easily spotted errors.  It appears they are so wound up about losing this battle they care even less about truth and getting caught at it than normal.  I need to go do a happy dance someplace.

I think I'll send the Brady Bunch this photo of me using my 'assault weapon' when the ban expires:

What should I tell them?  Check out what I can do with my “assault weapon”?  Read all about my toys and hobbies in the October issue of Outside Magazine?  Keep sending out those press releases -- I get the warm and fuzzies and end up buying another case of ammo everytime I read one?

The communists both here and abroad support Kerry for president.  Now the Democratic Socialists of America do too:

In reaction to the administration’s record of war at home and war abroad, massive voter education and mobilization efforts by the feminist, trade union, environmental, peace, and civil rights movements are building for the 2004 elections. Their goal is our goal: to kick the Bush regime out of office. Given that only the Democratic presidential candidate can defeat the Bush administration, these movements — and the Democratic Socialists of America Political Action Committee — will work to elect John F. Kerry the next president of the United States.
...
We firmly believe that the defeat of George W. Bush and the Republicans is a necessary but by no means sufficient condition for moving the world towards a democratic and socialist future. Removing Bush from office is the next crucial and tactical step in the long march to remake the world.
...
Adopted July 17, 2004 by the Democratic Socialists of America PAC.

I keep wondering about these people.  Have they never had a history lesson?  Can they possibly not know of the millions and millions of deaths directly attributed to communism and socialism?  If they wanted to live in a communist or socialist society then why didn't they move to China or the USSR?  Anyway... John Kerry has some great people backing him.

I just got off the phone with Christine Cyr from Outside Magazine who was doing some fact checking.  It sounds like Lisa Anne Auerbach, the writer who came out for her own private Boomershoot adventure, had the basics right.  I nit-picked on a bunch of minor stuff however.  She had describe the rifle she used as 300 Winchester with a Remington Action and a “mega scope“.  I corrected that to 300 Winchester Magnum with a Remington action and gave her a pass on the scope.  When we got stuck up against a tree near the Taj Mahal she had us on a road when the nearest road was actually 500 yards away.  She had us fishtailing when in fact it was a simple front end slide (but I didn't bother to correct this).  She had us filling 3” tubes with explosives when the smallest were actually 4” tubes.  We did the clean up from about 20 yards away rather than 20 feet away.  I nitpicked on a few other minor things but generally I didn't have a major problem with the facts as presented to me.  And as near as I can tell from the information I have the article is favorable.

It's going to come out in the October issue rather than the September issue as previously indicated which means it will probably show up in mid September.  I'll keep you posted.

[Update] Christine just called back.  Lisa was referring to the depth of the tube when she used the measurement of 3”.  This is correct for the 4” diameter tube.

The Communist Party USA is for electing Kerry.

They aren't explicitly saying vote for Kerry, but things like:

How will the Communist Party USA and YCL do our part in this historic battle to deliver a decisive defeat to Bush...

And regarding Kerry:

He is not left. He is the vehicle by which George W. Bush, representing the most extreme reaction, can be defeated.

And in general saying how much better Kerry will be that Bush. 

Now I just wish we could get Osama on video tape telling us who he wants for the next U.S. President.

Why am I not surprised?  Complete article here.

By Jeff Gannon
Talon News
July 21, 2004

The Associated Press reported Monday that the head of the communist movement in Nicaragua and Sandinista Leader Tomas Borge announced his support for Sen. John Kerry's (D-MA) presidential bid.

...

The Republican National Committee suggested that Borge must be one of the foreign leaders the Democratic presidential candidate says wants him to win in November.

"The cloud of mystery surrounding John Kerry's support by foreign leaders lifted a little over the weekend. Since Sen. Kerry won't tell us who they are we will continue to monitor New York's fine dining establishments hoping to glean some insight into the other still-mysterious foreign leaders supporting John Kerry," said RNC Communications Director Jim Dyke.

Pilots and air marshals are reporting Arab men are testing airplane security.  It's happening frequently.

Pilots and air marshals who asked to remain anonymous told The Washington Times that surveillance by terrorists is rampant, using different probing methods.
...
A January FBI memo says suicide terrorists are plotting to hijack trans-Atlantic planes by smuggling "ready-to-build" bomb kits past airport security, and later assembling the explosives in aircraft bathrooms.
...
A second pilot said that, on one of his recent flights, an air marshal forced his way into the lavatory at the front of his plane after a man of Middle Eastern descent locked himself in for a long period. 

The marshal found the mirror had been removed and the man was attempting to break through the wall. The cockpit was on the other side.

The second pilot said terrorists are "absolutely" testing security.
...
"It's a probe. They are probing us," said a second air marshal, who confirmed that Middle Eastern men try to flush out marshals by rushing the cockpit and stopping suddenly.

We don't have enough air marshals to put on all the flights.  Not nearly enough.  And these arab teams are have been composed of six to fourteen people.  That might be enough, with the right tatics, to neutralize the air marshals even if they were on the flight.  If you fly be prepared to defend the plane because the government can only do a very limited amount to protect you.  And remember the governments back up plan -- F-16s.

Link to the story.  Summary of the story:

A U.S. military spokesman in Tikrit told United Press International that the report was untrue.

"Nothing's been found. The report is not factual," said Master Sgt. Robert Cowens, a spokesman for the 1st Infantry Division, based in Tikrit.

It's not confirmed/official/etc. yet, but it doesn't come as any surprise to me.  Here is a link, but I included the entire article below.  Consistent with my other “comforting thoughts“.  Sleep well.

BAGHDAD, July 21 (UPI) -- Iraqi security reportedly discovered three missiles carrying nuclear heads concealed in a concrete trench northwest of Baghdad, official sources said Wednesday.

The official daily al-Sabah quoted the sources as saying the missiles were discovered in trenches near the city of Tikrit, the hometown of ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

"The three missiles were discovered by chance when the Iraqi security forces captured former Baath party official Khoder al-Douri who revealed during interrogation the location of the missiles saying they carried nuclear heads," the sources said.

They pointed out that the missiles were actually discovered in the trenches lying under six meters of concrete and designed in a way to unable sophisticated sensors from discovering nuclear radiation.

The sources said al-Douri, who is related to former Vice Chairman of the Iraq Revolution Council and Saddam's right-hand man Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, was captured after Iraqi police intercepted an e-mail message in which he set a meeting with another former Baath official.

The report could not be authenticated by the interior ministry or the national security department, but the paper noted Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiar Zibari made a surprise request recently to Mohammed el-Baradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, to resume inspections for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Copyright 2004 by United Press International.
All rights reserved.

Last week Los Alamos started getting in trouble and ended up being shut down. This week the news that Sandy Berger is under investigation for violation of security.  His lawyer and some politicians are making light of it saying it was “inadvertent” and/or “sloppiness”.  For anyone that has worked with classified data this excuse is like a high school student saying the boogie-man ate my homework.  You would be skeptical if they said their dog ate it but it's out of the realm of possibility for anyone to believe even for a second the boogie-man story.

Anyway... a memo just “came down” to inventory all our removable storage media.  I've worked here over 2.5 years and this is the first time this sort of thing has occurred.  I've had to do complete inventories with checks on all the markings, etc. before but never just removable storage media.  I had an administrative assistant ask me to open my safe and do the inventory with her.  No big deal--10 minutes out of my day.  I only had one hard disk and it took longer to log my entry into and out of the safe than to do the inventory.

Does anyone not believe this is going to be the last straw for the University of California management contract at Los Alamos?  It's up for renewal.  Battelle wants that contract, so do others.  Battelle might not get it but I'm nearly certain UC is going to be exceedingly hard pressed to hold on to it.

The Battelle Staff Association arranged for a group rate on the Columbia Gorge. Barb and I took Xenia and went on a short cruise on a sternwheeler.  We took a bunch of photos the more interesting of ours are here.  Xenia took a bunch too. We had a nice time.  I loved hearing about the history and geology of the area.  It was a long drive for us but by driving along the more scenic north side of the Columbia river on the way back made the drive enjoyable as well.

Former world chess champion Bobby Fischer was arrested in Japan on Tuesday.  I used to play a lot of chess.  That was pretty much all I did in high school and the first year or so of college.  Bobby Fischer won the world championship in '72 (I think) when I very much into the game.  I feel a fair amount of attachment to him for what he did for chess.  It makes me sad to read stuff like the following:

Mr. Fischer's legal troubles date back to 1992 when he emerged from hiding to play a highly publicized match against Russian Boris Spassky in Yugoslavia, then at war with Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Mr. Fischer won the competition, earning a prize of more than $3 million, but he was indicted by a U.S. federal grand jury for violating United Nations sanctions against Yugoslavia by playing the match there.

...

"I think the U.S. is not going to exist much longer," Mr. Fischer said. "I think everybody is going to be surprised at just how soon the U.S. collapses and the U.S. becomes history."

In other such interviews, Mr. Fischer has praised the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.

Barb and I were talking the other day about how famous people are often strange.  She was reading a book on John Lennon and asked, “Does becoming famous make people strange or is it that only strange people become famous?”  My answer was, “I don't know.  But my hypothesis is that in order to be famous most people will have to be 'different' in some way.  Smarter, greater motivation, extrodinary talent, something like that.  Whatever it is that made them different may also have a tendency to make them strange.  And of course there are a fair number of examples of people that appear to be 'nice' and manage to handle fame fairly well.  But you are correct, it does seem like there is some sort of correlation.”

Bobby Fischer is possibly the greatest chess player that has ever lived and it's possible that whatever it was that made him such a good player also made him more than a little bit strange.