Amusing. I particularly like the part about the aunt sexually abusing the guy with a tree branch.

 Officials said Mario Russo, 44, was attacked after he was spotted outside a bedroom window wearing his pants around his ankles and watching a 5-year-old girl who was sleeping outside the Bunker Ridge Apartments.

Russo was reportedly hiding in bushes.

Police said after he was discovered a group of six people, include the girl's mother, aunt and their boyfriends attacked him and brutally beat him for more than an hour.

The police report and mug shots of the attackers are available too.

With his pants at his ankles and his face swollen, Russo was found with "a twig inserted into his rectum and there was false teeth laying in the grass next to the male," according to cops. A witness told investigators that he heard a female attacker yelling, "put it in his ass, he wants it in his ass."

Yes. It was illegal for them to take the law into their own hands. Yes, they should be arrested and prosecution should be given serious consideration. But if I was on the jury I would be seeing images in my head of when my daughters were five years old and the punishment I would feel was just would be compensation to the landowner for the missing twig from the tree. Realistically I would probably go for something more harsh than that but it would be an effort to override my feelings.

Yes, the John Ross.  I had sent him an invitation to Boomershoot 2005.  In the body of the message I said 2004 although the subject line said 2005.  He was concerned about his lack of a time travel machine and after I straightend out my error we talked for about 15 minutes.  He's not certain he can make it, a long ways to travel, etc.  But he did sound very interested.  Mostly he asked a bunch of questions about the mix we use and how dangerous it was etc.  He told me stories of his shooting at dynamite (among other things -- about 1/6 of a stick in tennis balls).  Anyway, we'll see if he can make it.  It would be rather cool to have him out and to have him participate. 

I asked about the ETA of his next book. He said “Sometime in 2005.  Not early 2005, but sometime in 2005.”

http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,64599,00.html

Backed by a phalanx of civil liberties groups, civil liberties iconoclast John Gilmore on Monday relaunched his legal campaign against the federal government's requirement that airlines ask passengers for photo identification in order to board a plane.

Gilmore, who began his fight against the identification requirement in the summer of 2002, filed suit Monday in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, asking the court to force the government to reveal the requirement and to declare it an unconstitutional burden on the right to travel.

If you walk down the street to visit your neighbor you can't legally be stopped and asked for ID unless there is some reasonable belief that you are engaged in a crime in some sort.  Same thing as a passenger in a car or bus.  However on an airplane the government thinks it can require you to identify yourself.  John Gilmore is challenging that.  I am pleased.  Identification by itself does nothing to increase our safety other than as a mild deterrent to those that fear being caught after committing a crime.  In order for it to have any hope in terms for detecting intent to commit a crime you must check a database that has background information on the person.  If you have such a database it will be abused.  Politicians will use it for digging up “the dirt” on their opponents, the reglious zealots will want to use it to out gays, the anti-semites will use it to harrass Jews, just to give a few examples.  Information is power and concentrated power is always abused.  Don't tell me that line about “we just need to get good people in government”.  Power attracts the worst people.  “Good people” are either repulsed by power or scared of doing something wrong when given great power and avoid it.  Why do you think communism and socialism have been such huge failures?  It's because they give government way too much power and that power attracts evil people.  An ID system with the required database to make it really “do something useful” is an invitation to abuse.  Don't let it happen here.

Update:  I found John Gilmores web site: http://www.toad.com/gnu/.  I just did a quick scan but I didn't find anything I disagreed with him on.  He is even gun friendly.  I should sent him an invitation to the next boomershoot as a special guest.

BOSTON -- Police say they are seeing a surge in the number of gang-related attacks involving machetes, the huge knives that are a ubiquitous tool in rural Latin America, with blades as thick as an axe and nearly as long as a sword.

The troubling trend has led some departments to crack down on machetes, and not just in urban areas. Some suburban communities have also enacted new laws to ban the knives.

“Ban the knives”???  Someone who has taken even a single semester of high school shop is over educated as machete maker.  You can't successfully ban something that virtually everyone knows how to build and for which there is a ready market.  These idiots apparently are completely out of touch with reality.

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.