According to the UK Times Online:

Iraqis have reacted furiously to the three-year jail sentence imposed on Lynndie England, the US soldier pictured holding a naked Iraqi inmate on a leash at Abu Ghraib prison, provoking outrage across the world.

England, 22, was convicted on six counts of abuse while working as a prison guard, but was acquitted of a charge of conspiracy.

Last night she was jailed and dishonourably discharged from the US Army, but ordinary Iraqis said that it was not enough. They said the sentence exposed American hypocrisy, as it would have been more harsh had she been convicted of abusing Americans.

...

Iraqis were particularly incensed by the picture of England holding an inmate on a leash like a dog, a degrading act because Muslims regard dogs as unclean. In Iraq's male-dominated society the idea of men being abused by a woman was said to be particularly humiliating.

 

Where are all the "furious" Iraqis over all the beheadings, bombings, and the executions of politicians and teachers in Iraq?  Do they not exist?  Or do they just not exist in the reality of the UK Times?

England stepped over the line in terms of handling of prisoners and is going to jail.  But as crimes go there one has to keep in mind there are a lot of people that will pay to be treated like that.  Not so with the treatment our enemies are dishing out to innocent people all over the world.  I don't approve of what England did but once she has paid her debt to society (three years seems more than adequate to me) I'm hoping she can become a productive member of society.  Perhaps she can utilize her fame and experience in the alternate entertainment industry.

On Monday I bought my hunting license and a tag for a white-tailed deer.  This will be the first time I go hunting.  I never really had an interest and in some ways I still don't.  I harvested a deer a couple years ago--while driving Barb's Jeep.  The meat was very lean and quite good.  There was no gamy taste as the deer was grain feed off of the local crops.  But Barb, for some reason, can't stand the smell of even the meat cooking in the house when she is there.  Kim and James (my two oldest kids) liked it though.  Xenia, being a vegetarian, has no interest.

A good part of the reason I got the license and tag is because they are so plentiful on the farm they are pests.  They destroy the crops.  Helping my brother to thin the herd a little bit will help him out.  It looks like I will have more time this year so I can hunt during week days and not just weekends.  If I get something I'll be giving a good portion of the meat to my two oldest kids.  Hunting season opens October 10th.

I heard it on the radio yesterday while reloading ammo.  It's on the web now:

Idaho 55 at the Rainbow Bridge was closed for about six hours Tuesday after a suspicious object was found underneath the bridge.

An ITD spokesman said investigators were conducting a routine bridge safety inspection around 9:30 a.m. today when they saw an object they could not identify. It was a green bucket with wires poking out.

Idaho State Police and the Boise Bomb Squad were called in to investigate and 17 miles of highway was closed. Investigators determined the bucket was filled with trinkets, photos and toys placed there as part of an online scavenger hunt called geocache. Players use a global positioning system to find the treasure.

Police say the man who stashed the object under the bridge has come forward and charges might be filed against him.

As it was said in a geocaching forum:

Consider. If all it takes to shut down the country is to toss ducted tape tupperware full of rocks with an old radio in it out the side of your window while you are driving down the interstate, then it won't be long before terrorists start causing disruption in a mass scale by doing exactly that. 

There are an almost infinite number of things we can't and shouldn't defend against.  Money is better spend attacking the root of the problem--extremist Muslims.  We must destroy their culture.

Occasionally I'm surprised at how far the anti-freedom people will take things.  The banning of certain types of clothes took me by surprise.  That Gun Guys (anti-gun website) would suggest there is no such thing as justifiable homicide almost surprises me, but not quite.  In order maintain internal consistency they have to conclude that one life is just as valuable as any other life.  And so we end up with drivel like this:

What exactly is a “justifiable” homicide? Is it OK to kill people sometimes and not others.

And from their newsletter which doesn't appear to be their website there is this:

For whatever reason, killing another human being, an act made simple and easy by firearms, is an act not lightly taken, and not without consequences.  Though a killing may be considered "legal" by any number of laws, that doesn't necessarily make it right, and doesn't mean that we should broaden laws without regard for those consequences.

Anyone that has taken any firearms self-defense class will have been exposed to the downside of using deadly force to defend innocent life.  The taking of a life is serious stuff.  But sometimes it's the best of the available options.  And when the legal use of deadly force is employed the person on the receiving end of that deadly force made the choices that triggered the use of the deadly force.  It is they that bear the ultimate responsibility for their own injury or death.  For the "Gun Guys" to even hint that there is not a time and a place for the use of deadly force in the defense of innocent life shows how completely disconnected from reality they really are.  The last sentence of their email only seals that forgone conclusion.  I'm not surprised:

Legal or not, like anything else involved with firearms, "justifiable homicides" lead to more violence and pain.

If I were mad enough at someone to kill them I wouldn't use a gun.  They might wink out on me before I wanted them to.  I would want them to know who it was and I would want them to feel the pain.

Eric Engstrom
[Probably said sometime in '96 or '97.  I responded by saying "I wouldn't use a gun either.  I'd use a propane torch and a wire brush." -- Joe]

Last week I ordered some new boxes for possible use as reactive target containers for Boomershoot 2006.  They arrived today.  This year there were some indications the targets were failing to detonate because of they were very thin (some of them were only one inch thick).  The new ones have inside dimensions of 6" x 6" x 3".  I'll be doing some tests soon.  Perhaps this week sometime.  Or if I get an email from someone that wants to help out I might do the tests on an upcoming weekend if that would work out better for someone.

I spent part of the weekend cleaning out enough of the garage to make a path to my reloading bench and finding enough of my stuff to reload some 40 S&W ammo.  I reloaded about 50 rounds yesterday and 400 today.  There is an IPSC match next Sunday and I needed some ammo.

I'm expecting I will have some bad news to report soon.  I can't really talk about it until it shows up in the papers.  I've been depressed enough lately and this only makes things worse.  I really should go make some explosives and detonate it at both "entertainingly close" and long range just to get me out of my depression.

Those who have command of the arms in a country are masters of the state, and have it in their power to make what revolutions they please. [Thus,] there is no end to observations on the difference between the measures likely to be pursued by a minister backed by a standing army, and those of a court awed by the fear of an armed people.

Aristotle
Quoted by John Trenchard and Walter Moyle
"An Argument showing That a Standing Army is Inconsistent with a Free Government, and Absolutely Destructive to the Constitution of the English Monarchy."

More news on the airport insecurity front.  Bruce Schneier was on the working group that reviewed the plans for the TSA database to match passengers with names on the Watch List and the No-Fly List.  As usual Bruce asks questions they can't answer without confirming they don't have a clue about security.  The basic questions are in the report and are repeated on his blog.  Here is a taste:

The SFWG found that TSA has failed to answer certain key questions about Secure Flight: First and foremost, TSA has not articulated what the specific goals of Secure Flight are. Based on the limited test results presented to us, we cannot assess whether even the general goal of evaluating passengers for the risk they represent to aviation security is a realistic or feasible one or how TSA proposes to achieve it. We do not know how much or what kind of personal information the system will collect or how data from various sources will flow through the system.

Again, "TSA has not articulated what the specific goals of Secure Flight are."  That's absurd.  How many billions have we spent on airplane security since 9/11?  However much it has been it was all wasted if they can't answer that simple question.  It's time to reevaluate airplane security methods.

Bruce winds up with the story of a commercial pilot that was put on the no fly list--which means he can't work and he can't find out why.  He summarizes with:

Remember what the no-fly list is. It's a list of people who are so dangerous that they can't be allowed to board an airplane under any circumstances, yet so innocent that they can't be arrested -- even under the provisions of the PATRIOT Act.

The policy of the American Government is to leave their citizens free, neither restraining them, nor aiding them in their pursuits.

Thomas Jefferson

World War is the second worst activity of mankind, the worst being acquiescence in slavery.

William F. Buckley, Jr.
On the Right

As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people duly before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow citizens, the people are confirmed by the article in their right to keep and bear their private arms.

Tench Coxe
1755–1824

From a KABA alert:

FEDERAL JUDGE HALTS NEW ORLEANS GUN SEIZURES

BELLEVUE, WA – The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana this afternoon issued a temporary restraining order on behalf of the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and National Rifle Association (NRA), bringing an end to firearm seizures from citizens living in and around New Orleans.

District Judge Jay Zainey issued the restraining order against all parties named in a lawsuit filed Thursday by SAF and NRA. Defendants in the lawsuit include New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Police Chief Edwin Compass III.

“This is a great victory, not just for the NRA and SAF, but primarily for law-abiding gun owners everywhere,” said SAF founder Alan M. Gottlieb. “We are proud to have joined forces with the NRA to put an end to what has amounted to a warrantless gun grab by authorities in New Orleans and surrounding jurisdictions.

“Over the past three weeks,” he continued, “residents who had lost virtually everything in the devastation following Hurricane Katrina had also essentially been stripped of something even more precious, their civil rights, and their right of self-defense, because of these gun seizures.

“SAF and NRA had no alternative but to take action,” Gottlieb added. “If these gun confiscations had been allowed to continue without challenge, it would have set a dangerous precedent that would have encouraged authorities in other jurisdictions to believe they also could suspend the civil rights of citizens in the event of some other emergency.

“What must happen now, and quickly,” said Gottlieb, “is for authorities in the New Orleans area to explain how they will return all of those firearms to their rightful owners, and do it promptly. What this ruling affirms is that even in the face of great natural disasters, governments cannot arbitrarily deprive citizens of their rights. Thanks to some great teamwork between SAF and the NRA, this sort of thing will hopefully never happen again.”

PS Click here to make a contribution to help fund this lawsuit.

It's just a small step.  But it's certainly a step in the right direction.  From here we need to proceed to get one more more convictions on charges stemming for the violation of laws such as these:

18 USC 241

If two or more persons conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or because of his having so exercised the same; or

 

If two or more persons go in disguise on the highway, or on the premises of another, with intent to prevent or hinder his free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege so secured—

 

They shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, they shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death.

18 USC 242

Whoever, under color of any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom, willfully subjects any person in any State, Territory, Commonwealth, Possession, or District to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States, or to different punishments, pains, or penalties, on account of such person being an alien, or by reason of his color, or race, than are prescribed for the punishment of citizens, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both; and if bodily injury results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include the use, attempted use, or threatened use of a dangerous weapon, explosives, or fire, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both; and if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section or if such acts include kidnapping or an attempt to kidnap, aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to commit aggravated sexual abuse, or an attempt to kill, shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death.

It's a stretch, but if someone lost their life due to these jerks confiscating their firearms then some bigots could be facing the death penalty.

See also:

SAF and the NRA to file suit
SAF needs New Orleans info
Searching for survivors
This is the way it will always happen

See also: Random Nuclear Strikes.

I got a call from the FBI this morning.  It wasn't anything I can really talk about here or anything that might have adverse effects for me or my friends.  He said my name sounded familiar, "Did you call our office last week?".  Nope.  I have never called their office.  As our conversatiion progressed his voice and his name gradually fell into place for me.  It turned out I have shot at IPSC matches with him occasionally.  I remember him as smart and somewhat intense.  He's a pretty good shooter too.  Small world...

We have a blogger up and running full speed over at the Nation of Rifleman.  He calls himself The Gun Guy.  He immediately got added to the blogroll.  This is no relation whatsoever to Gun Guys which is very anti-gun.

See also my post Nation of Riflemen is up now.

Thanks to Analog Kid at Random Nuclear Strikes for the heads up.

I don't understand how they can say this without causing their head to explode:

Currie has been a strong advocate for civil liberties and women's rights in the state legislature. She also has pushed for major reforms in the state's property tax-reliant funding of public schools. Additionally, she's been a leading advocate for gun control and an opponent of the death penalty.

[Emphasis added. -- Joe]

It makes just as much sense as if the following occurred:

• NAACP advocated white supremacy
• ADL advocated children joining Hitler youth groups
• HRC advocated stronger sodomy laws

Why doesn't the press laugh them them all the way to the funny farm?

I just heard on the radio there is two feet of water from hurricane Rita in parts of New Orleans as water over-topped one of the levees.

They really need to give it up.  Let it be an archaeological site for future generations.  New Orleans might recover from this battle and the next, but the war will be lost along with resources that would be better invested in a new city.

See also:

Another shot at New Orleans
Now do you believe me?
New Orleans was most vulnerable major city to hurricanes
More levee info

Information is the oxygen of the modern age.  It seeps through the walls topped by barbed wire, it wafts across the electrified borders.

Ronald Reagan
Guardian (London, 14 June 1989)

The connection between my ISP and Sprint to the Internet went down about 30 minutes ago.  Less than half the people in Moscow can reach my websites, the rest of the world will just have to get by without them somehow until the connection is restored.  Last time this happened it was a fiber optic cable that was severed by some construction north of Moscow.

Update 12:00: From our ISP's website:

Line to the Internet is Down
Starting around 8:20 this morning, our Sprint backbone to the Internet went down.  Sprint long distance and cell phones are also down.  Sprint is aware of this problem and is working on it.  9/22/05 9:00 a.m.

11:11 a.m.  We heard scuttlebutt from a usually reliable source that the fiber optic line near Worley was cut, and that they expect it to be back up by noon.

There is a bunch of highway construction going on all along state highway 95.  Worley is on 95 north of Moscow.

Update 13:00: From our IPS's website:

12:40 p.m.  Nope.  No additional word.

Update 14:05: From our IPS's website:

1:50 p.m.  Verizon says the fiber should be repaired by 2:30.

Update 15:54 From our IPS's website (heavy sigh):

3:50 p.m.  Nope.

Update from the Lewiston Morning Tribune:

Long-distance phone service cut in area

Several communities in Latah, Nez Perce and Clearwater counties lost their long-distance telephone service Thursday morning when an underground line was cut by an Idaho Transportation Department crew near Worley, Idaho.

According to Kevin Laverty, a Verizon media relations spokesman, most Idaho long-distance customers south of the cut line to around Orofino were without service until about 4 p.m. when repairs had been completed.

Affected towns included Moscow, Peck and Orofino, according to Laverty.

Barb woke me up at 2:08 this morning to report the electricity was off.  No electricity, no clock, no getting up at the right time to go to work.  I offered her the alarm clock on my cellphone and discovered a text message from Ry sent at 0:35:05, "Network down?"  That meant the battery backup had failed on our websites sometime prior to that.  I went outside and looked around.  The nearest lights I could see were about a mile away.  No need to report it then since there were lots of people without power.  I replied to Ry and we sent a couple messages back and forth. 

Power came back up at about 3:10.  Everything appears to be normal at the Huffman-Scott home and websites now.

Update from the Lewiston Morning Tribune:

Moscow residents hit by power outage

MOSCOW -- The city of Moscow was hit with a double-whammy by loss of service from two utilities Thursday.

First it suffered a power outage, which began late Wednesday night. Then its long-distance service was disrupted, along with several north central Idaho communities, Thursday (see story below).

Electrical service was knocked out shortly after 11:30 p.m., affecting more than 6,000 Avista Utilities customers, ranging from the Washington state line to one or two miles east, north and west of Moscow.

According to Debbie Simock, a spokeswoman from Avista, the blackout was caused by equipment failure at a substation in the area.

Avista rerouted some switches, bringing power back on for some customers, including Gritman Medical Center, by 1 a.m., Simock said. The rest of the affected areas had power by 3 a.m.

A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on.

Samuel Goldwyn

For those who are not members or have a bad email address with them.  "Under new management":

http://www.thenationofriflemen.com

From a Keep and Bear Arms alert I just received.  Tomorrow morning they will file suit:

SAF, NRA ASK FEDERAL COURT TO HALT NEW ORLEANS GUN SEIZURES

BATON ROUGE, LA (Sept. 22) – The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and National Rifle Association (NRA) joined with individual gun owners in Louisiana Thursday morning, filing a motion in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana seeking a temporary restraining order to stop authorities in and around the City of New Orleans from seizing firearms from private citizens in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Click here to make a contribution to help fund this lawsuit.

Arbitrary gun seizures, without warrant or probable cause, have been reported during the past three weeks since the Crescent City was devastated by the hurricane. In cases reported to SAF, police refused to give citizens receipts for their seized firearms. Earlier, SAF insisted that police account for all seized firearms, disclose their whereabouts, and explain how they will be returned to their rightful owners. Authorities have not responded.

Gun confiscations have been highly publicized since the New York Times quoted New Orleans Police Superintendent P. Edwin Compass III, who said, "Only law enforcement are allowed to have weapons," and ABC News quoted Deputy Police Chief Warren Riley stating, "No one will be able to be armed. We are going to take all the weapons."

For example, a San Francisco, CA camera crew from KTVU filmed one incident in which visiting California Highway Patrol officers tackled an elderly woman identified as Patricia Konie, to seize her pistol and forcibly remove her from her home. An ABC news crew accompanying an Oklahoma National Guard unit filmed another incident in which homeowners were handcuffed and disarmed, then released but without their firearms.

"We are delighted to work jointly with the NRA in an effort to bring these outrageous gun seizures to a halt," said SAF founder Alan M. Gottlieb. "Our inquiries about these confiscations were cavalierly ignored, as were our demands for a public explanation from the police and city officials about why citizens were being unlawfully disarmed, leaving them defenseless against lingering bands of looters and thugs.

"New Orleans officials left us with no recourse," Gottlieb observed. "It was bad enough that Big Easy residents were victims of the worst natural disaster in the nation's history. That they would be subsequently victimized by their own local government, taking their personal property without warrant, is unconscionable. These illegal gun seizures must be stopped, now."

Today I checked on the status of a couple of the "blunt instruments" I'm using on Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.  Since I hadn't heard back on them for weeks I sort of guessed they had been dropped and I wasn't going to get anywhere with them.  I was wrong.

The first person I talked to said the issue was still VERY much alive it was just that he had been buried in stuff and was reluctant to share the work load with others.  He has a couple of hard deadlines to meet and couldn't work on it this minute.  My project had received some attention a couple days ago and would be getting more attention soon.  I felt pretty good about things.  He asked a few more good questions which I gave short answers to and then followed up with detailed email answers.

The second person I talked to said I had gone about things in the wrong manner.  No big deal--the person in the appropriate channel will be contacting me soon.  I got the feeling that it wouldn't have happened if I hadn't called back twice to find out the story.  I was very pleased with this.  I was afraid I would just be told to "go away."  That could still happen but at least I believe I will get a chance to present my findings and have a reasonable chance of convincing them to take action.

One "blunt instrument" should be in there hands by now.  That is the appeal of their denial of my Privacy Act request on all the information they have in their files, email, etc. about the "investigation" they did on me.  I hired a lawyer in D.C. that specializes in FOIA/Privacy Act requests.  They claimed the Privacy Act didn't apply to them, but both my and the lawyer's read of the Act is that it specifically says it applies to contractors that perform a government agency function--so "hand it over!"  Nothing back on the appeal yet.

And since PNNL has received the FOIA request I talked about the other day by now I might as well reveal it here.  I asked for:

---

A list of all Pacific Northwest National Laboratory computer programs that use the FlashTek software library or rely on derivations of the FlashTek software library and/or it's source code.

A list, complete with contact information, of all PNNL customers and contacts that have copies of those programs.

Most, perhaps all, of these programs will have been produced in the Cyber Security Group at PNNL.  The source code can be easily identified by a copyright notice similar to the following:

/////////////////////////
// Copyright FlashTek
// Joe Huffman
// Joe@joehuffman.org
/////////////////////////

---

In case the name "FlashTek" doesn't mean anything to you, that is the name I use for all my private business stuff.  From software to explosives FlashTek is my dba (Doing Business As) name.  To speed up development of several projects at PNNL my coworkers and I used some of my previously developed code. PNNL never bothered to obtain a written license for that and I never bothered to ask for one. The implied threat with the FOIA request is that I will now ask for a license and/or demand they and all their customers stop using my previously developed software. This is a really nasty thing to do and I don't really want to do it. If they would give me all the information I asked for via the Privacy Act request then I, almost for certain, would not bring up the software license issue.

There is one more "blunt instrument" that I haven't checked up on.  I'll just wait a while for that one.

Previous posts:

Blunt instrument number five
Case blown open--maybe
Reconsideration

The second printing of this book is coming out next month.  For gun geeks this is a great book.  Lots of math and experimental results to back up the theory.  I have a copy of the first printing someplace.  I got it probably 7 or 8 years ago and immediately went out and did some of my own experiments to verify things.  The results looked good.  From the web page:

Bullet Penetration describes the analysis and testing of a model of bullet penetration dynamics; this model  is a significant technical advance over what has been heretofore available.  This penetration model is directly related to understanding the production of an incapacitating wound by the bullet parameters (velocity, weight, shape, diameter).  Incapacitation from wound trauma is a complex subject that has been controversial for many decades, and all aspects of this subject are discussed in detail in Bullet Penetration.  The new results in this book are described in a style and vocabulary that make the basic principles and results understandable to the layman.  This outstanding book should be read by everyone who is critically dependent on handgun bullet performance as well as all those with an interest in any aspect of wound ballistics.

The topics covered in Bullet Penetration include physiological and psychological effects in incapacitation from wound trauma, modeling of bullet penetration, and modeling of bullet expansion.  The realities associated with the desired "one shot stop" and the ignorance and/or fraud in "combat data" claims are discussed in detail.  The primary focus is on handgun ammunition, but the principles and many of the results are also applicable to rifle ammunition.  The book has 303 pages, including 69 pages of bullet photographs and graphs of test results.

Xenia's boyfriend John came over to visit yesterday afternoon.  Xenia and her John were looking at stuff on the computer and didn't seem to be needing any of my attention so I laid down to take a short nap.  I awoke to find the my legs on the edge of the couch separating the dogs, who were on the floor, from a half grown cat I had never seen before on the couch.  The dogs were extremely interested in the cat bug weren't big enough to jump over my legs onto the couch to make contact with the cat.  The cat seemed content with this arrangement.  My thought was, "This must be the cat Xenia's John said he was going to get for his sister.  Okay, I'll be the 'castle wall' for the cat.  I need to be careful not to crush it by moving my legs quickly."  Xenia and her John were on the other side of the room talking in whispers and I didn't pay them any attention as I tried to go back to sleep.  Xenia then told me in a normal voice, "I updated my Live Journal".  "Okay", I said, "I'll look at it later when I get up."  After a minute or two Xenia asked, "Do you like the cat?"  "Sure, it seems to be a nice cat."  What did it matter to me?  I probably would never see it again after her John gave it to his sister.  A few more minutes passed.  "Can she stay?  Her name is Zandra."  "No.", was my immediate reply.  Why would she ask that?  This cat is for her John's sister.  Probably 30 minutes later I got up and went downstairs to my computer.  I found this Live Journal posting from Xenia.  Zandra was a birthday present to Xenia from her John.

To make a long story short Barb and I ended up giving her three choices:

1. She could keep her cat or she could keep her John (only mentioned to get her attention of how serious we were).
2. We would call her John's parents and explain that John had not asked US about Xenia getting another cat.  They would be asked to come and get the cat.
3. She could take trigonometry next year and do really good job and not complain about hating math (she dropped it on the second day of class this year).

She chose option 3 amid apologies and tears.  We weren't and aren't upset with Xenia but her John really stepped into it.  That was a major blunder on his part.

She is a nice cat.  She is laying on my lap purring as I type this...

Update: It turns out Xenia asked her John to not ask us if she could have the cat.  It appears John wasn't the "bad guy" here.  More consultation with Barb is needed before we partake on a final course of action.  Xenia got herself into trouble on this one.

Xenia renamed the cat "Zanitia".  I'm thinking perhaps it should be "Xenia's Folly", or perhaps "Albatross".

No one has the right to destroy another person's belief by demanding empirical evidence.

Ann Landers
Nationally syndicated advice columnist and Director of Handgun Control, Inc.
[I would claim than in matters that adversely affect other people one has the obligation to demand empirical evidence.  But so many moonbats agree with Landers philosophy that it is rather depressing at times.  -- Joe]

The annual Gun Rights Policy Conference is this weekend.  If I had a job and it wasn't in California (spit, spit) I would have seriously considered going.  I was a speaker at GRPC 1999 and 2000 and was very impressed with the entire event.  I just received this Keep and Bear Arms alert:

WATCH LIVE FEED FROM GUN RIGHTS POLICY CONFERENCE

BELLEVUE, WA – Gun rights activists unable to attend this weekend's 20th annual Gun Rights Policy Conference in Los Angeles can still get in on the action via a live internet video feed from the event, according to Alan M. Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA).

Gottlieb announced today that by visiting the SAF website at www.saf.org, the CCRKBA website at www.ccrkba.org, or KeepAndBearArms.com, and clicking on the link, activists may watch the action unfold on their computer screen.

The live feed is being accomplished through the courtesy of the Freedom Broadcast Network, both Saturday and Sunday.

In addition to Gottlieb, scheduled to appear during the conference are U.S. Senator Larry Craig (R-ID), National Rifle Association President Sandra Froman, NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, SAF President Joseph Tartaro, UCLA Law Prof. Eugene Volokh, national syndicated talk radio hosts Larry Elder, Michael Reagan, author and Professor John Lott of the American Enterprise Institute, Larry Pratt with Gun Owners of America; John Burtt, chairman of the Fifty Caliber Shooters' Institute; Dr. Timothy Wheeler, director of Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership, and many others.

Cool.  Very cool.  You won't get a chance to do all the networking (I met Stephanie at GRPC 2000--she does all the publicity for Boomershoot) but you will get a chance to listen to some awesome speakers.

My wife, Barbara, is a physical therapist who specializes in "home health".  She drives all over the county to see her patients.  She works with others who do speech therapists, occupational therapy, and nursing.  Many of the patients are on Medicaid/Medicare so in many cases there is government payment for the services.  The Danes have a new branch of government supported therapy which the government is also paying for.  The next time she complains about her job I'll suggest she could change her therapy modalities and perhaps go into private practice in Denmark.  On second thought, that probably wouldn't be a very good suggestion to make.  Via Clayton Cramer:

Danes take care of disabled to new level

Danish activists for the disabled are staunchly defending a government campaign that pays sex workers to provide sex once a month for disabled people.

Opposition parties call the program, officially known as ''Sex, irrespective of disability,'' immoral.

''We spend a large proportion of our taxes rescuing women from prostitution. But at the same time we officially encourage carers to help contact with prostitutes,'' said Social-Democrat spokesperson Kristen Brosboel.

Responded Stig Langvad of the country's Disabled Association: ''The disabled must have the same possibilities as other people. Politicians can debate whether prostitution should be allowed in general, instead of preventing only the disabled from having access to it.''

Mandatory reading if you plan to spend some time in Thailand or those of you who think working on the holy day, Friday, is no big deal.  From Jihad Watch with the complete article on Sign On San Diego:

PATTANI, Thailand – The open-air market in this southern Thai city falls eerily quiet on Fridays. Most vendors stay home, terrorized by leaflets threatening to kill or cut off the ears of anyone who works on the Muslim holy day.

After 20 months of insurgent violence, the no-work threat has driven another nail into what is becoming an economic coffin in Thailand's terrorized southern provinces.

...

Among the hundreds killed in the predominantly Muslim provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat are police and soldiers, but police records show that 80 percent are civilians – rubber tappers, shopkeepers, civil servants, construction workers and ice cream vendors.

Bombs have exploded at a department store, a cinema complex, the international airport at Hat Yai and a department store owned by the French Carrefour chain. Now investors and tourists have been driven off and some workers are leaving.

...

Soaring demand, driven by the booming Chinese economy, has doubled rubber's price on the global market, but production in Pattani province has plummeted to a tenth of its volume in just a year, according to official statistics.

...

Prices of quarried rock have doubled, because the government severely limited the use of explosives that were reportedly being stolen for bomb attacks. The government eased the curbs as part of efforts to revive the economy, but Defense Minister Thammarak Isarangura Na Ayutthaya, while warily approving the measure, said he expected coffins would have to be stockpiled for bomb victims.

I might be about to adjust to not working on Friday, but severe restrictions on explosives?  Now they've done it!  We we have no viable options but to destroy the extremist Muslim culture world wide.

On probably the second day of class this year Xenia told me she needed ten minutes of video to take into her English class that would "get people talking."  She asked me for suggestions.  It's 58 minutes, not 10, but we came up with Innocents Betrayed.  She said she could just select 10 minutes of the video to show.  We watched it together and timed various segments.  She decided just the first ten minutes would work.  I wanted her to skip one of the genocides and show the part about the kids in California who were killed by a guy with a pitchfork in their home.  All the kids knew how to shoot but couldn't get access to any of the guns because California state law requires "safe storage" to keep guns away from unsupervised kids.  But it was Xenia's decision and she figured showing a few more million dead because of gun control would be sufficient to start people talking without getting into little kids with hundreds of stab wounds.

Her class should be over by now and I haven't got any calls from the school to pick her up so my guess is things couldn't have gone too badly for her.  I'll update this posting later today when I get a full report from her.

Next on our list of projects is to take my picture from the fair and the KING 5 Boomershoot video to her chemistry teacher and suggest a field trip on "exothermic reactions".  In an "isn't it a small world" twist her chemistry teacher's husband supplies the portable toilets each year for Boomershoot.  Also, Barb and I graduated from Orofino High School with him.

Update 1: Xenia called a few minutes ago on another topic and I asked how the English class went.  She said when she turned off the video it was silent for 30 seconds.  They didn't know what to say.  She didn't have much time and I'll get a further update after school.  She seem pretty happy with the results though.

Update 2: Xenia reported most people didn't talk.  The instructor didn't commit himself either way.  Many of the kids didn't get the connection between lack of guns and genocide, "The government would have just done it anyway."  One suggested that taking of the guns was as much a symbolic thing as much as anything, "Maybe because they didn't have guns they were more likely to feel helpless."  Even if they weren't totally convinced at least they had some doubt put in their minds about the wisdom of gun control.  Video can be a much more powerful media than the written word and JPFO did a great job on this video, although I do agree that the "gun-control enables genocide" could have been expressed better than just giving examples of when that happened.  They should also of said that genocide has never happened without there being gun control in place.  And more examples of where a relatively small number of private citizens with guns saved themselves (or at least significantly delayed their demise) from government sponsored murder would be welcomed.

I remember attending a party once where most people id not know who I was and where I worked at the time (a contractor for Microsoft).  I was just sort of hanging out and listening (that's really active for me, often I just find a place to take a nap if I have to go to a party).  This woman started talking about how selfish rich people are and how they should be made to be more generous.  "So", I asked, "What is your source of data for the claim that rich people are selfish?"  I know, that was a below the belt punch on a defenseless communist as per the following:

No one has the right to destroy another person's belief by demanding empirical evidence.

Ann Landers, nationally syndicated advice columnist and Director of Handgun Control, Inc.

But being the scientist/engineer and generally socially clueless type I asked anyway.  The response was, "Do you have any evidence they are not?"  That was actually a fairly decent response--had I not been working at Microsoft for several years and knew many multi-millionaires.  Other people could have mentioned numerous famous foundations and philanthropists but I chose to give examples I had witnessed.  I told of going to Denny's in Bellevue, a short distance from Microsoft, with other people form Microsoft for coffee and desert.  We hung around for an hour or two talking, sipping our drinks, and nibbling on our pies and cakes.  As we left we tossed money on the table to cover our bill and a tip.  There was probably six or seven people but the excess money for the tip was over $60.  No one cared if they got change for the $20 they tossed on the table.  That was common whenever I went out for meals with "rich people" from Microsoft--a $20 bill WAS change to them.  I further told the clueless commie that the head of my favorite charity (I didn't tell her SAF was my favorite at the time) came in to talk to a club I belonged to at Microsoft (the Microsoft Gun Club) and told us that every year the largest single donation they received was from Microsoft Corporation.  Microsoft matches employee donations dollar for dollar to qualified 501(C)(3) organizations if you do the proper paperwork.  Those "rich selfish Microsoft employees" and their greedy corporation donations made a huge difference to that charitable organization.  In my several years of being around "rich people" I didn't know a single person I would have considered selfish.  I even knew one manager who offered to pay for one of his employee's sex change operation out of his own pocket (in return he wanted the testicles in a jar to put on his desk--but that's another story I didn't tell her).  In short, I had a very limited sample of probably 50 to 100 people in one geographical location at one company, but every bit of data I had contradicted her claim.  She didn't have anything to offer and we changed subject--I wasn't so clueless that I pushed the issue with her.

Ry, over at Mindless Bit Spew, is currently working at Microsoft and today reports on the activities of just one Microsoft private pilot who got time off from work to help with Katrina relief efforts.  Here is the first paragraph of his story published in a newsgroup internal to Microsoft:

Watching the destruction of Hurricane Katrina & the effect it was having on people’s lives, I wanted to help somehow. Our neighborhood organized a lunch, and we raised $3000 in just a few hours via donations by selling sandwiches to people simply driving buy. The company that I work at building a game called Flight Simulator, Microsoft Corporation, matched the donation. Wow, I was very impressed how people rallied and came together to support individuals thousands of miles away. Although I thought this effort on my neighborhoods part was awesome, I wanted to contribute more directly to the relief effort. I searched online for a way to contribute my airplane to fly people & supplies to the disaster stricken area.

People that bash capitalism need some exposure to reality.  Personally I know of no better place than what you see at Microsoft.  They've done some things wrong but the scales are so heavily weighted on the positive side you have to be actively avoiding reality to claim socialism/communism/fascism or whatever government scheme you might imagine is a "better way".

Below is a graph of the traffic on my blog for the past week.  As I mentioned yes