Monday, August 08, 2005

The picture below was taken from the sidewalk across the street from my house a few minutes ago.  That cloud is smoke from a fire about 50 miles away.


Click on the picture for a higher resolution version.

This fire made the news:

Joe Huffman  Monday, August 08, 2005 3:46:15 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Disclaimer  |  Comments [0]  | 
A friend of mine, Eric Engstrom who I quote occasionally, just sold his company to AOL.  As Ry put it in an email to me, he "escapes again".  Ry and I both used to work for Eric at Chromium Communications.  I was his first employee at Chromium.  Chromium morphed into Gitwit and then into Wildseed in a series of restructurings.  The details of the sale aren't public but I hope Eric gets enough out of it to pay off his debts and at least get back the money he put into it--which was a lot.
Joe Huffman  Monday, August 08, 2005 2:17:32 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Disclaimer  |  Comments [0]  | 

As near as I can determine people who desire restrictions on firearms have zero connectivity with reality.  They haven't looked at the history of gun control to determine what happens in the real world.  This determination is the basis for my Just One Question--which no one has ever attempted to answer.  In addition to the safety and security issues which are my main concerns there are the enforceability, corruption, and abuse of power issues.  The current situation in South Africa is just the latest example of what happens when you allow the government to attempt implementing "common sense" restrictions:

The Black Gun Owners' Association says it is preparing to sue the Minister of Safety and Security, Charles Nqakula, on behalf of thousands of prospective gun owners who have paid fees in advance to comply with new firearm licence legislation, only to have their applications and requests for refunds refused by the South African Police Service.

...

To comply with legislation, applicants paid up to R1 500 for training courses, safes and competency certificates, only to have their applications denied.

"Everything has been planned for people not to obtain licences. The government has made a big blunder. The minister (Nqakula) said he does not want illegal firearms, so why is he refusing people legal firearms?

"The new law is encouraging people to support illegal firearms. In South Africa, firearms are readily available and some of the people selling illegal firearms are police (disposing of) amnesty firearms," he said.

...

Durban Guns and Ammo owner Justin Willmers said more than 1 000 applications submitted via his shop, after waiting two years to be processed, had been refused on appeal.

He said applicants had received identical response letters saying they had not given a "substantial reason" as to why they could not use alternative means of protection.

"Since July 1 last year, I have not sold one gun," Willmers said. He said when customers realised the lengthy processes involved in obtaining a firearm legally, they simply turned to the black market.

...

Suter claimed the police had neither the capacity nor the expertise to administer licence renewals from the country's roughly 2,5-million gun owners. And with three and a half years left to renew 4,5-million firearm licences, at the current pace of work, it would take 26 875 years, he said.

Joe Huffman  Monday, August 08, 2005 8:25:52 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Disclaimer  |  Comments [0]  | 

"This is a day in America when the little guy lost out to powerful special interests."

– Michael Barnes, President, Brady Campaign to Prevent Handgun Violence

That is the lead to this article by Howard Nemerov.  You know Barnes is full of crap just from his association with the Brady bunch.  But I didn't know the other details outlined in that great article.  Nemeroy also says this about Barnes:

He is a Washington insider, having been a congressman from 1979-1987. He is a lawyer who has an association with the law firm of Hogan & Hartson.

He thens goes on to tell how much money lawyers have been donating to our politicians and how those politicians are a "Who's Who" of those that voted against the bill to outlaw frivolous lawsuits against firearms manufactures.

If you like well documented, hard facts kind of reading go read the rest of it.

A bit of a side note--I haven't crowed about this bill passing the Senate for various reasons.  Stephanie sent me this link which articulates some of the reasons not to be overjoyed about passage of this law.  I agree with everything in the article but if I were to vote on the bill I probably "hold my nose" and vote "Yes".  The reality is the Federal government exercises way more power than it was granted by the Constitution.  But failure to exercise that power for good does not lessen the evils that excess of power brings.  That excess of power must be reduced in a manner which reduces evil as much or more than the good that can be done with that power.  Failure to accept this good does not accomplish that.

Joe Huffman  Monday, August 08, 2005 8:10:09 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Disclaimer  |  Comments [3]  | 

I say not "give me liberty or give me death". I say I am born free and he who would deny me freedom risks his own death.

Mack Tanner
http://www.buildfreedom.com/tanner/born_free.shtml

Joe Huffman  Monday, August 08, 2005 7:32:53 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Disclaimer  |  Comments [0]  | 
 Sunday, August 07, 2005
It's been months since I went to an IPSC match.  The stars just wouldn't align themselves to allow it with the Boomershoot, troubles at work and home life all contributing factors.  Finally there is nothing holding me back except a gun that is filled with lint and dust from being carried so much without use or cleaning and virtually no practice during that time.  I'll clean it when I get to the range.  The match itself will be "practice".  I'm hoping I'll be in the top half of the competitors.
Joe Huffman  Sunday, August 07, 2005 7:20:47 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Disclaimer  |  Comments [0]  | 

When they took the fourth amendment,
I was quiet because I didn't deal drugs.

When they took the sixth amendment,
I was quiet because I was innocent.

When they took the second amendment,
I was quiet because I didn't own a gun.

Now they've taken the first amendment,
and I can say nothing about it.

yento@scn.org

Joe Huffman  Sunday, August 07, 2005 7:15:14 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Disclaimer  |  Comments [1]  | 
 Saturday, August 06, 2005

An armed republic submits less easily to the rule of one of its citizens than a republic armed by foreign forces. Rome and Sparta were for many centuries well-armed and free. The Swiss are well-armed and enjoy great freedom. Among other evils caused by being disarmed, it renders you contemptible. It is not reasonable to suppose that one who is armed will obey willingly one who is unarmed; or that any unarmed man will remain safe among armed servants.

Machiavelli
The Prince; Chapter 17

Joe Huffman  Saturday, August 06, 2005 6:11:28 AM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Disclaimer  |  Comments [0]  | 
 Friday, August 05, 2005

I've been watching the log for my PNNL info site and noticed there were a fair number of referrals coming in from search engines.  I did my own searches and came up with interesting results:

The other search engines appear to be a little behind but they don't matter nearly as much.

Thanks to everyone for linking to the site as per my suggestions on this page.  That helped make the above happen.

I'm in the process of making some more changes that should boost the visibility even more.  And since I've been seeing the Google bot traverse the website recently that can only be good news.

Joe Huffman  Friday, August 05, 2005 10:18:25 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Disclaimer  |  Comments [3]  | 

Barb and I made it back home tonight and as I was going through my piles of email I found this gem from Alan Korwin, author of numerous books on gun laws:

18 USC 241. If two or more people conspire to injure, oppress, threaten or intimidate any person in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured under the Constitution or laws of the United States, they shall be fined, or imprisoned up to ten years, or both.

I wonder... Does firing someone from their job meet the legal definition of "injure" or "oppress"?  I'm not sure--but you can be certain I will be finding out soon.

Joe Huffman  Friday, August 05, 2005 8:36:42 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Disclaimer  |  Comments [2]  | 

You can't shoot somebody just because they are a scumbag.  They have to have the ability, opportunity, and have put an innocent person in imminent jeopardy of life or serious bodily harm.  If you are looking to just shoot somebody go to some other country and buy a tag.

Greg Hamilton
Self Defense Instructor
Nov. 19, 1995

Joe Huffman  Friday, August 05, 2005 8:14:09 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Disclaimer  |  Comments [1]  | 
 Thursday, August 04, 2005
The Second Amendment gives us the right to bear arms in order to have a "well-regulated militia."  People with little understanding interpret that as meaning the National Guard or some other government organization.  But here's how George Mason, one of our unsung framers, responded to the question, "I ask, sir, what is a militia?"  Mason answered, "It is the whole people, except for a few public officials."  James Madison said, "Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion...in private self-defense."

George Washington said, "When firearms go, all else goes...we need them every hour."  The framers of our Constitution knew well that an armed citizenry was the ultimate defense against government tyranny.  As for crime, Thomas Paine said, "The peaceable part of mankind will be overrun by the vile and abandoned while they neglect the means of self-defense...(but) arms like laws discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe....Horid mischief would ensue were the good deprived of the use of them."


-Walter Williams-
Periodical
Colorado Springs Gazette
4/24/94
Joe Huffman  Thursday, August 04, 2005 5:57:49 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Disclaimer  |  Comments [0]  | 
 Wednesday, August 03, 2005

And Miss (Attorney General Janet) Reno, I say to you: If you send your jackbooted, baby-burning bushwackers to confiscate my guns, pack them a lunch.  It will be a damned long day.  The Branch Davidians were amateurs.  

I'm a professional.

Harry Thomas
NRA Board Member

Joe Huffman  Wednesday, August 03, 2005 10:16:39 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Disclaimer  |  Comments [0]  | 
 Tuesday, August 02, 2005
Most people are grass-eaters with their heads down on the ground.  The jackals and lions know this and think of them as that.  Hold your head up and walk like you are the biggest, badest lion that walks.  The jackals and lions will notice and leave you alone because they don't want to get hurt.  Don't challenge them because they might feel they have to respond to it. All you want is their respect, not their dignity.

Greg Hamilton
Self Defense Instructor
Nov. 19, 1995
Joe Huffman  Tuesday, August 02, 2005 5:17:12 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Disclaimer  |  Comments [0]  | 
 Monday, August 01, 2005
[T]he government of the United States, under Lyndon Johnson, proposes to concern itself over the quality of American life. And this is something very new in the political theory of free nations.  The quality of life has heretofore depended on the quality of the human beings who gave tone to that life, and they were its priests and its poets, not its bureaucrats.

William F. Buckley, Jr.
Periodical
National Review, August 7, 1965
Joe Huffman  Monday, August 01, 2005 8:28:46 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Disclaimer  |  Comments [1]  | 
 Sunday, July 31, 2005
Who can protest an injustice but does not is an accomplice in the act.

The Talmud

Joe Huffman  Sunday, July 31, 2005 1:03:10 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)  #    Disclaimer  |  Comments [0]  |