As I have mentioned before I attended John Holschen's class on the al-Qaeda training tapes.  Other than actually taking the class this news report gives the best detail on the contents of the class I have seen.  A sample:

The training video shows al-Qaida operatives practicing the following kinds of assaults:

• using pickup trucks with shooters concealed in the bed of the trucks;
• using motorcycles as a shooting platform for drive-bys and assassinations;
• execution of prisoners;
• ambushes of law-enforcement officers;
• residential assassinations;
• assassination on a golf course using a rocket-propelled grenade and rifle fire;
• drive-up kidnapping of target walking on a street;
• use of tunnels, storm drains and sewers for infiltration during urban raids;
• rappelling from rooftops of buildings to make entry on upper floors;
• use of motorcycles for grenade attacks; and
• raids on buildings with large numbers of occupants – perhaps schools or office buildings.

Analysts point out that all scenarios involving prisoners and hostages ended in execution. None included plans for negotiated settlements for escape by terrorists.

"They plan to kill the prisoners and die in place," wrote Holschen.

...

There is no point in complying with orders, they say. Those who do not resist ultimately will be rewarded with ritual execution in front of television cameras, according to the tactics and techniques captured on this video.

...

 When asked if these techniques are intended for use in the U.S., one military intelligence operative said without hesitation, "Yes."

Read it all.  This is WW III and whether you realize it or not if you are not a Muslim you are considered a combatant.

And I thought I was the only one opening calling this World War III.  The recently released audio tape of Osama bin Laden has him calling it that also:

The statement, peppered with Islamic verses and poems as is customary of bin Laden messages, urged Muslims around the world to take note that the most "pressing issue" of the day is the "third world war" waged by the "Crusader Zionist alliance" against Muslims.

Emphasis added.

Democrat Christine Gregoire will be certified as the winner over Republican Dino Rossi in the Washington State governor's on Thursday.  The Republicans are considering a challenge:

Republicans are demanding a list of voters in Washington's most populous county as the party considers a court challenge of Democrat Christine Gregoire's razor-thin victory in the governor's race, officials said Monday.

...

Chris Vance, state Republican party chairman, said officials would decide whether to challenge the recount results after studying the voter rolls from King County, a Democrat stronghold that includes Seattle.

``We're mostly posing questions,'' he said. ``King County is where we saw the votes changing. King County is the one county that was allowed to take ballots that were declared dead in November and bring them back to life in December.''

I don't think Rossi has a chance.  They are far too timid.  I think the root problem is they have an insufficient lack of ethics to do battle with the Democrats in such a close race and win.

It's not the intent to give people tips on smuggling things past the screeners but that is the effect as reported by NewsMax:

...the government has ordered airport security personnel to avoid touching female passengers between their breasts when performing patdowns.

Security screeners now will keep their hands to the ``chest perimeter'' of women unless detection equipment picks up the possibility that they are hiding explosives between their breasts.

The new method takes into consideration passenger discomfort while remaining steadfast in mitigating risks, said Transportation Security Administration spokesman Mark Hatfield.

The nation's 45,000 screeners are being told to pat down the perimeter of the chest, backsides and abdomen, effective Thursday.

I suppose it makes as much sense as anything they are doing now.  Unless they are doing body cavity searches and completely disassemble all carry-on materials people will get things through anyway so I can't see that it matters if they give terrorists a few “search free” zones on the outside of the body.

It's all a waste of time and money.  It's time to implement option 8 and use the saved resources for something more productive.

I'm tempted, so incredibly tempted to buy this shirt.  For myself it would be on the ragged edge of acceptability.  For my nephew Jason (going to Iraq in a few days) it would be perfect.

Thanks to Dutch Expat for pointing this out.

The more difficult the government makes it for law-abiding citizen to get guns, the more power criminals who do have guns will have.  Gun bans destroy the possibility of a balance of power of fire-power between law-abiding citizens and violent criminals.

James Bovard
Lost Rights
ISBN 0-312-12333-7
Copyright 1994, 1995

Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority.  It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions.  There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern.  They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters.

Daniel Webster

We drove a few miles up the road to Potlatch to visit Barb's sister today.  We ate snacks, opened some more presents, played cards, the kids played video games, some worked on a jigsaw puzzle, and generally just hung out.  Pictures are here.  Kim made it back from Spokane safely and stopped in for a while.  She laid down on me in the chair and we both went to sleep. 

Joseph Kim and Kimberly Joe

I've taken a number of classes from Insights Training and some of them were from John Holschen.  John taught my entire family Defensive Folding Knife.  I took the class twice, the first time without the rest of my family and at that class John's wife Martha was there to help teach the class.  John also taught Al Qaeda: Training and Tactics for Intl Terrorism which I took as well.

Recently John has been in Iraq as a security contractor.  While he was over there he got a call on December 15th.  His family had been in an auto accident.  One of his 18 year-old daughters (a twin stayed at home that day) was killed, his 15 year old daughter was seriously injured and is still in a coma.  His wife and and sons, ages 9 and 12, were also injured.

It's really broke me up to read about this.  I have an 18 year-old daughter that isn't the most safety minded person and I keep thinking of her.  She drove to Spokane yesterday and is supposed to be back today.

Thanks to Ry for giving me a pointer to this blog site which supplied me with the info on John and his family.

Today I was doing my usual review of the logs for www.boomershoot.org and saw a hit from someone trying to get information on building a specific type of bomb in Belgium.    That area of the world is increasing getting the attention of terrorists and I'm not surprised I'm getting hits.  I found an email address on this site: http://www.polfed.be/ which appears (I don't read or speak the language) to be the police and sent them the information I have.

I also sent them links to these images:

http://www.boomershoot.org/general/BombSearchSep2001.gif
http://www.boomershoot.org/general/BombSearch2001.gif
http://www.boomershoot.org/general/BombSearch2002.gif
http://www.boomershoot.org/general/BombSearch2003.gif
http://www.boomershoot.org/general/BombSearch2004.gif

It would appear to me that the frequency of people searching for bomb building information might be useful from an intelligence standpoint.  When put in the context of other intelligence sources.  I'm hoping the Belgium police will take a look at the information.  The email I sent to the ATFE Inteligence Division had links to those same images and the images were never looked at (the only log hits on those images were mine).  I've decided to make the images more widely available in the hopes that someone will take notice and get the informaton to the right people.

A minor note on the September 2004 data--it is missing about 10 days of information and my ISP says he will reconstruct that month for me soon and when I have it I'll update that image.

Update: The September 2004 data is now included in the 2004 image.

To be civilized is to restrain the ability to commit mayhem. To be incapable of committing mayhem is not the mark of the civilized, merely the domesticated.

Trefor Thomas

Christmas Eve was at my parents house.  My brothers and nieces and nephew were there too.  No snow this year which was a bit unusual.

Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of government. The history of liberty is the history of resistance. The history of liberty is a history of the limitation of governmental power, not the increase of it.

Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924)
U.S. Democratic politician, president.
Speech, 9 Sept. 1912, New York Press Club.

The Jihad Watch is a wonderful resource for people trying to figure out WW III at the strategic level.  What are the goals of our adversaries?  Well, this recent post pointed me to what the recently released French hostages had to say:

Georges Malbrunot, giving details of his ordeal in the French media, said he and his colleague Christian Chesnot both feared for their lives at times.

Mr Malbrunot said his captors were driven more by Islamic holy war than Iraqi nationalism.

"One of the lessons we drew from our captivity was that we were immersed in Planet Bin Laden," he said.

When the men were freed earlier this week, their captors said it was because of France's anti-war stance.

But Mr Malbrunot told French television the influence of the al-Qaeda leader was especially strong while they were with "a cell of the Islamic Army in the north".

"We were very aware of the fact that it wasn't the Iraqi agenda that motivated our kidnappers, but the internationalist jihadist agenda.

"I think this is the real challenge for the next 10 years - the clash of cultures that these people are advocating, are seeking."

It's not about American imperialism.  It's not about Israel.  It's about converting or killing all the infidels in the entire world. 

Bureaucracy:  An execution chamber in which the condemned are alternately strangled by rules, clubbed with paper, and starved in lines.

Alexander Yarrowville

Grumble, grumble.  Newsgator got an error downloading Fish Or Man this morning without me noticing and I didn't get his update just before I left.  He ended up not needing to go Spokane.  Barb and I did go to Spokane and sat through the processing of several people accused of domestic abuse.  Now we are at a book store which Barb enjoys so the 2 hour drive (each way) is not a complete loss.

We do have some additional information that isn't in Fish Or Man's report.  His lawyer filed a Notice Of Appearance before start of court this morning and the next court date on the traffic stop case is in Court Room E, Spokane District Court, for 9:00 AM, January 21st, 2005.  If you are interested in attending you can keep up to date on the status by going to this webpage and selecting Spokane District Court and cases CR0070552 and/or CR0070553.

I've posted before about airport screening and wrote a fairly detailed essay on how airport screening is a complete and total waste of time and money.  Now Michelle Malkin reveals the Air Marshal program is a disaster too.  Here is a short snippet from a former Marshal that wrote her:

The entire mission is a complete failure and the American traveling public is as ineffectively protected as they were before 9-11. The end result has been a 3.7 billion dollar boondoggle which has only extended the government careers of the top managers and to ensure that their pensions have been padded another $1000 dollars a month for life.

It is my belief that the Air Marshall program could be useful.  However Director Thomas Quinn, as reported by Malkin, apparently has a severe case of cranial rectum inversion.  If Quinn and his cronies can't be dumped and decent management put in place then it's time to try my option #8 and get rid of the entire FAM program for domestic flights (option #8 isn't feasible for international flights).

Free people never beg governments for fundamental rights like free speech, freedom of association, self-defense, worship and freedom to travel.

If the government gets in the way of your ability to live your life peacefully, as you see fit, in voluntary relationships with others, then it's wrong and you're right.  Period.

Don't sit around and wait for Congress to the state legislature to "fix" violated rights.  The very essence of the government game is that legislators give you a tiny bit here while grabbing a double handful of what's yours there.  Even if you gain a victory or two, in the long run, government is a game freedom lovers can only lose.

Never, never beg or negotiate for your rights.  Take them.  If enough of us do, no government in the world can stand in our way.

Claire Wolfe
From "101 Things To Do 'Til The Revolution"

It took a little bit of time to figure this out so I'll save others the trouble if they happen to plan on attending Fish Or Man's hearing tomorrow and are an even greater procrastinator than I am on figuring out exactly where to go.

Court Name: SPOKANE COUNTY DIST
Court Date: 12/23/2004
Court Time: 09:00 AM
Court Room: 2
Court Address: 1100 W Mallon Ave
Spokane
99260-2043 WA

Directions and map

Case CR0070552   Criminal Traffic    12/23/04   09:00 AM   Court Room 2
Case CR0070553   Criminal Non-Traffic 12/23/04   09:00 AM   Court Room 2

About a year ago my wife bought three 1500 Watt space heaters at Walmart.  About a week ago my youngest daughter noticed the plug on hers was discolored as if it had overheated.  She checked the plug on her brother's heater and found it too was discolored and reported it to me.  I checked the third heater and found it was even worse than the other two.  Since the heaters were tested by Underwriters Laboratory I sent them a picture of the plug and the information they requested such as information about the heater:

Holmes Group Inc
Milford, MA 01757 USA
Model: HFH2985
Made in China
Serviced in USA
Heater 120V 60Hz 1500W A/C Only
 3403DHX
UL
Listed 11C1
E91385

Today I received a letter from UL.  So far they are “doing okay” in my book.  It's odd the return address on the email is different from the person that 'signed' the email.  And it took almost a week to send me a confirmation they received my email.  But it's Christmas time of year and I give them a pass for now.

From: Lorene.A.Seeger
Sent: Wednesday, December 22, 2004 9:07 AM
To: Joe Huffman
Subject: Your report - space heater

Field Report Investigation Number: 2004FR-2260

Mr. Huffman,

Thank you for contacting Underwriters Laboratories Inc. The information you submitted has been forwarded to our Field Report Department and an investigation has been initiated. We will contact you if additional information is needed during the course of this investigation.

We would like to assure you that the information you provided will be thoroughly reviewed and appropriate action will be taken as warranted.

Since the information developed throughout the course of our investigation is confidential, we cannot provide you with details or the results of the investigation. However, we will notify you upon completion of this investigation.

Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention and assisting us in maintaining the UL Public Safety Mission.

Regards,

Craig M. Witt
Engineering Team Leader
Underwriters Laboratories, Inc.
[phone number and email address snipped]

-- For more information about UL, its Marks, and its services for
EMC, quality registrations and product certifications for global
markets, please access our web sites at http://www.ul.com and
http://www.ulc.ca, or contact your local sales representative. --

********* Internet E-mail Confidentiality Disclaimer **********

This e-mail message may contain privileged or confidential
information. If you are not the intended recipient, you may not
disclose, use, disseminate, distribute, copy or rely upon this
message or attachment in any way. If you received this e-mail
message in error, please return by forwarding the message and
its attachments to the sender.

UL and its affiliates do notaccept liability for any errors,
omissions, corruption or virus in the contents of this message
for any attachments .
*****************************************************************

Ho hum... So what did you expect?  I've been saying:

• King County is my entertainment for the day
• I stand behind my prediction
• Washington State governor's race

The AP story is all over now.  Here is one link and a snippet:

Democrats have claimed victory in the race for Washington governor by a razor-thin margin of eight votes, citing preliminary results of a hand recount they say puts Christine Gregoire in front for the first time.

...

More legal battles appeared inevitable. Rossi has said that he would consider challenging the election results in court if he loses the third count after winning the first two. Republicans have already started preparing for a possible court challenge.

...

King County Elections spokeswoman Bobbie Egan, who confirmed that both parties received the recount data on Tuesday, said official results would be released Wednesday at 3:30 p.m.

...

Seven justices will hear the lawsuit brought by King County, the state Democratic Party and the secretary of state seeking to include the 723 uncounted King County ballots.

Rossi doesn't have a chance and never did after the first count came out so close.

If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when victory will be sure and not so costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival.  There may be a worse case.  You may have to fight when there is no chance of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.

Winston Churchill

"As a leader of the country, Stalin did much," Gryzlov said. But "what I think to be his extremes in his domestic policy, they certainly did not do much for his image."

Russia NTV television said a poll of 1,600 Russians taken by the respected Levada Center showed that only 31 percent consider Stalin to be a cruel tyrant, while 21 percent think he was a wise leader. The poll had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.

The poll also found 16 percent thought that "our people will never be able to do without a leader like Stalin."

I could always see, via a twisted sort of logic, how present day Hitler admirers could maintain their belief system.  If they had been raised to believe they were the “superior race”, that Jews were the spawn of the devil (blah, blah, blah...), and there was some great Jewish conspiracy to rule the world then Hitler was “just solving the Jewish problem”--the Final Solution (you know about the First Solution don't you?  Interesting story for another time).  Sick chain of “logic” and “facts”, but you can sort of see how they got from “point A” to “point B”. Then there are the faith based nut cases, “god(s) said it, I believe it, that settles it”--we must kill the infidels.  Okay.  Facts and logic are irrelevant to them.  And if you were an underling of Saddam Hussein I could see how you would either adopt his viewpoint and admire him, quit his employee, or go insane.

But what about some of the other really truly evil people such as Stalin?  Surely decades after he or his thugs could put a bullet in your head any person could see “his extremes in his domestic policy” could not be compensated for by his abilities as “a leader of the country”.  But apparently not.  I suspect there are two ways to continue to believe what is clearly wrong and one or both are at work with these people.

1. People have an exceedingly strong tendency to believe what they want to believe.  Many of the Jews walking into Auschwitz surely knew better but yet wanted to believe “Arbeit Macht Frei“ (Work Will Set You Free).  And so they believed it rather than take at least one guard out on their way in.
2. When Prophecy Fails again impresses me as a absolutely brilliant piece of research into the human mind.  Basically there is a psychological cost involved with changing your mind and you will be willing to pay a very heavy price in order to avoid it.

Now that I see people who lived under Stalin can admire him and think of him as a “wise leader” I now can fathom how Bill Clinton is admired by a similar percentage of our population and people in this day and age still clamor for more gun control.  It doesn't have anything to do with rational thought, it has to do with being human.  And as I have said before, it is irrational to expect people to be rational.

This was originally intended to be a response to one of the comments in this post but I decided it was straying far enough and was getting large enough that it deserved it's own post.

I have had numerous people tell me how obnoxious the police are and how egotistic, etc., etc. But my experience has been completely the opposite. I've been stopped numerous times for minor traffic violations and had several interactions when I was involved in an accident (both my fault and not my fault). On each and every occasion I thought I was treated fairly. Only on one occasion did I think maybe the officer had been having a "bad day" and was a bit on the grumpy side. I have always chalked up my difference in experience from that reported by others to be because I have had my interactions in Washington and Idaho as opposed to places like New Jersey or Chicago (where the horror stories came from). And that I always let the police do the talking and I listened in a polite manner. My attitude was always, in essence, "You're right. I screwed up. I'm sorry.", "I screwed up? I'm sorry, what did I do?" or "I've got problems here, can you help me?" Even when carrying concealed (and I gave them my permit in addition to my drivers license), the back of the van full of guns, ammo, targets, and explosive components (I also have a license to manufacture high explosives) the police have been professional and treated me with respect--as I did them.

Gun Control: Hiding Their Heads in San Francisco.  Lots of nice numbers and tables then this:

Conclusion

Certain San Francisco supervisors are choosing to ignore history. With so much evidence casting doubt upon the wisdom of banning civilian firearm ownership, they would be wise to abandon their plan. Considering all the easily-accessible information contradicting their claims of noble intent, one must pause and ponder what their true motivation may be.

Since it has been in vogue for cities to sue firearms manufacturers for criminal use of highly-regulated, non-defective products, it would seem legal ground has been prepared for similar suits in the reverse direction: that city politicians should be held accountable for death and destruction of public safety resulting from the flawed policies they enact. Perhaps we need to start a new holiday: Take a Politician to Court Day.

Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act of depriving a whole nation of arms, as the blackest.

Mahatma Gandhi
Autobiography,
Translated from the Gujarati by Mahadev Desai.
Public Affairs Press, Washington, D.C. 1948.
(Republication by Unabridged Dover, 1983. page 403.