I updated my web site on the bigotry at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

The changes were about the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request I mentioned in this post.  PNNL responded this week saying:

PNNL completed a diligent, thorough search for responsive documents and was unable to find identify or locate any existing records consistent with your request.

As of May of this year those "records" (computer programs actually) did exist.  I created a lot of them.  My co-workers used that code (computer program code) in other projects.  Those computer programs were delivered to numerous customers.  If what they just told me was true then they would have had to rewritten numerous computer programs, tested them, updated all their customers with the new versions, ensured those customers deleted all the old copies, and deleted large portions of their source control archives--all within two months.  Some customers were delivered source code (I did training for one customer on it), those customers would have had to also rewritten their derived works, tested the resultant programs, and deleted their source control archives.   If they were able to do that then which government contract did they charge those efforts to?  I don't believe they did any of that.  I believe PNNL chose to defy FOIA. 

Barb said (paraphrasing), "What did you expect?  They don't care what the law is.  They don't have to follow the rules."  Of course in the practical sense that is true even if technically they do have to follow the law.  I had two different lawyers tell me it looked to them that PNNL employees had committed a felony in the actions they took against me.  Those people, as near as I can determine, still work there.

Public opinion wins wars.

Dwight David Eisenhower
1890-1969
General
34th President of the United States
[This is particular true in the war we are fighting against the anti-freedom bigots on the repressive gun laws in this country. -- Joe]

Yesterday I was invited to be a guest blogger on Second Amendment matters at Conservative Thinking.  With their permission I have decided to not post anything on their blog that I don't post here first.  As I pointed out in my introduction I don't consider myself a "conservative" but on the Second Amendment there isn't likely to be much divergence.  They do have numerous other bloggers that have very worthwhile postings so please do check them out.  I particularly liked these posts:

• The Authority of the Noose
• School Teaching Children To Be Muslim
• Zawahiri-Zarqawi Letter Authenticity Refuted and Defended

According to David Hardy at Arms and the Law quoting Daphne Retter, Congressional Quarterly Staff, CQ Today, October 19, 2005:

"It's not an easy job to get up every day and duke it out with the gun lobby," Michael Barnes, president and CEO of the Brady Campaign and Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said Tuesday, "but it's very important."

Barnes resigned this week.

I have been unable to verify the resignation.  There is nothing I could find on the Brady Campaign nor the Brady Center websites about it.  Still, it is quite plausible.  They have been running up an impressive string of losses in recent years.  The "assault weapon" ban expired without a battle.  The passage of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms bill (I commented on this yesterday) just bit a big chunk out of their mission statement.  They have lost numerous court cases.  FL passed the law that affirms innocent people can meet force with force and all the Brady bunch could do was whine about it.  And then the press wasn't as sympathetic to them as they would normally expect:

Workers for a gun-control group protesting a new law that they say could put Florida tourists in harm's way got a mixed reaction at Orlando International Airport on Thursday.

At least one visitor admonished workers for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence for what she called a manipulation of the truth.

"It burns me up that they twist stuff around to misinform the public," said Tamryn Hunter, who was catching a flight back to Pittsburgh when she ran into the workers handing out leaflets warning about the law.

The paper even included this picture of Ms. Hunter showing that she isn't someone you would consider the stereotypical NRA member.

We must not let these wins cause us to go into celebration mode and neglect what we really have to do.  We must drive these anti-freedom bigots into political extinction.  As Chris(?) Knox said in a Firearms Coalition Alert email I received last night:

Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom. The game, God willing, is never over.

From his dad:

Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2005 6:23 PM

Jason has improved substantially today. He recognizes people and since morning when he was drifting in and out of reality. He can hold a conversation. His pain medications are very high and he still sees figures from movies like star wars but now he realizes that they are not real and I think he is amused by them.

Jason doctors (I have seen dozens of them literally today), say he is making good improvement. Jason insists, by the way, that he is involved in all conversations with medical staff. Tomorrow they are going to clean wounds and hopefully close the right arm. Although there is tremendous variation among patience he may be out patient in two to three weeks. However, he will still live on campus and will be treated everyday. These treatments will go for months.

Jason is thankful to be out of Iraq and is already making plans about what he wants to do when he recovers. I sure that his feels about the future will go up and down but with love and support of family and friends he will recover substantially physically and emotionally.

There was lots of good news today but I am sure there is going to be lots of pain and emotional stress as he recovers.

I am amaze that will all the suffering Jason is going through that he takes the time learn the name of each caregiver, establish a personal link with them and thanks them for helping him. For me this is true hero behavior.

Susan Jason got a cd player from the Red Cross today, it is a cheapy but things get stole here. I have bought him a i-pod with speakers and his friend said he could put cd on the ipod also. He does not have a tape player. I would not buy books or cd on tape. Yet if any of you have some that you like send it to him if you mind not getting it back. For other books let me see what he is interested in.

There have been some phone calls too.  Xenia posted about them.

Those who set in motion the forces of evil cannot always control them afterwards.

Charles Waddell Chesnutt
The Marrow of Tradition
1901
[Gun control and national ID cards are prime examples. -- Joe]

The house passed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms today.  As a libertarian and a 2nd Amendment purist ("What part of shall not be infringed don't you understand?") I'm opposed to the law.  It simply shouldn't be necessary.  These cases should be thrown out of court after the first 30 minutes.  As a pragmatist I support it because things are not working as they should and we apparently need to engage in some dirty fighting rather than remain pure.  As Joe Waldron (see also his comments in this news release) recently stated in an email to the WA-CCW Yahoo group:

We're giving up required provision of a $5 locking device (nothing says you have to use them, nor does it say you can't bring your own device from your previous gun purchase; you give the lock to the dealer, he gives it back to you with the gun) for the most significant tort reform bill in recent history, a bill that will protect gun manufacturers, distributors and dealers from nuisance lawsuits that are killing the industry. These suits are filed with almost no chance of succeeding, but cost the industry millions annually to defend.

The alternative is to hold out for a "pure" bill... and watch it die again this year. And the manufacturers/distributors/dealers will continue to shell out $$$ in legal costs.

It looks like the bill went 90% our way, 10% the other way. Those are pretty good odds/returns to me.

I'm all for winning and getting a little bit dirty rather than losing and staying clean.  Yes, it might have some unintended consequences with the trigger lock and armor piercing ammo provisions in it.  More on that later.  But more important is the favorable impact it has both practically and politically.  As reported by Reuters:

Opponents said they would oppose it in the courts, arguing it violated the U.S. Constitution.

But Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association said he believed the bill's passage would mark a big setback for gun control advocates.

"I think the air is out of the gun control balloon, and I think what popped the balloon is politics and elections," he said. He predicted that several dozen Democrats would join most Republicans in backing the legislation.

I wouldn't say "popped".  It's been leaking out for a couple years now.  It's getting more and more obvious to everyone that the anti-gun crowd is suffering a meltdown.  Of course they have mental problems to support anti-freedom legislation to begin with but can be dealt with another day.  But because the people at large, many of the politicians, and to some extent the mainstream media are recognizing how really whacked out they are we have made huge gains.  Politically we are no longer on the defensive at the Federal level and in most states.  We need to build and maintain momentum against these nut cases.  I've posted on this before:

• Right to murder bill
• When "Ballistic Fingerprinting" fails
• If you find you are riding a dead horse, dismount
• I'm proud of my F+ grade
• Pathetic anti-gun turnout
• Happy day -- end of the 'assault weapon ban'

And just yesterday John Stossel demonstrated they are out of touch with reality quite well in a column on Townhall.com:

What if it were legal in America for adults to carry concealed weapons? I put that question to gun-control advocate Rev. Al Sharpton. His eyes opened wide, and he said, "We'd be living in a state of terror!"

In fact, it was a trick question. Most states now have "right to carry" laws. And their people are not living in a state of terror. Not one of those states reported an upsurge in crime.

But back to the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms bill.  It will be signed by President Bush and it will become law within a few days or weeks.  It will save the firearms industry millions of dollars each year.  It might even save your local gun range money in reduced insurance costs.  That money will be in your pocket (you do buy guns and ammo and use them, right?).

There are two downsides of the proposed law; 1) The trigger-lock requirement the Gun Owners of America have been harping on and 2) the armor piercing ammo portion of the law.  The GOA had this to say in a recent pre-written email they wanted people to send to their representatives:

S. 397 takes us dangerously close to mandatory trigger locks, and mandatory trigger locks kill.  Just ask Mary Carpenter, who has had to live with the fact that two of her grandchildren were killed in 2000, because no one in the house could disengage the gun locking device that kept the family from protecting themselves against a pitchfork wielding thug.

Yes.  Mandatory trigger locks are a bad thing.  I have a t-shirt I wear that says Trigger Locks--Rapist Approved (they are closing this item out and only have a few shirts left so buy one now!) but every new gun I have purchased over the counter, as opposed to special ordered, had a locking device with it anyway.  The impact of this law is very nearly zero in cost and behavior for everyone.

The armor piercing ammo portion of the law does not change the definition of the armor piercing ammo which was my big worry.  It's still:

(A) The term “ammunition” means ammunition or cartridge cases, primers, bullets, or propellent powder designed for use in any firearm.

(B) The term “armor piercing ammunition” means—

(i) a projectile or projectile core which may be used in a handgun and which is constructed entirely (excluding the presence of traces of other substances) from one or a combination of tungsten alloys, steel, iron, brass, bronze, beryllium copper, or depleted uranium; or
(ii) a full jacketed projectile larger than .22 caliber designed and intended for use in a handgun and whose jacket has a weight of more than 25 percent of the total weight of the projectile.

(C) The term “armor piercing ammunition” does not include shotgun shot required by Federal or State environmental or game regulations for hunting purposes, a frangible projectile designed for target shooting, a projectile which the Attorney General finds is primarily intended to be used for sporting purposes, or any other projectile or projectile core which the Attorney General finds is intended to be used for industrial purposes, including a charge used in an oil and gas well perforating device.

(7) for any person to manufacture or import armor piercing ammunition, except that this paragraph shall not apply to—

(A) the manufacture or importation of such ammunition for the use of the United States or any department or agency thereof or any State or any department, agency, or political subdivision thereof;
(B) the manufacture of such ammunition for the purpose of exportation; and
(C) any manufacture or importation for the purposes of testing or experimentation authorized by the Attorney General;

(8) for any manufacturer or importer to sell or deliver armor piercing ammunition, except that this paragraph shall not apply to—

(A) the sale or delivery by a manufacturer or importer of such ammunition for use of the United States or any department or agency thereof or any State or any department, agency, or political subdivision thereof;
(B) the sale or delivery by a manufacturer or importer of such ammunition for the purpose of exportation;
(C) the sale or delivery by a manufacturer or importer of such ammunition for the purposes of testing or experimenting authorized by the Attorney General;

Becomes:

(7) for any person to manufacture or import armor piercing ammunition, unless--

(A) the manufacture of such ammunition is for the use of the United States, any department or agency of the United States, any State, or any department, agency, or political subdivision of a State;
(B) the manufacture of such ammunition is for the purpose of exportation; or
(C) the manufacture or importation of such ammunition is for the purpose of testing or experimentation and has been authorized by the Attorney General;

(8) for any manufacturer or importer to sell or deliver armor piercing ammunition, unless such sale or delivery--

(A) is for the use of the United States, any department or agency of the United States, any State, or any department, agency, or political subdivision of a State;
(B) is for the purpose of exportation; or
(C) is for the purpose of testing or experimentation and has been authorized by the Attorney General;

So what is happening, in Joe's model of the political world, is that the good guys are throwing a couple bones to the politicians that need to appease some anti-freedom people "back home".  Those politicians can say, "I voted for the safety of our children by mandating trigger locks and against armor piercing ammo."  It's just a couple of old dried bones.  Let them have their bones until after the next election.  We get some real meat out of this law.

At the present moment in world history nearly every nation must choose between alternative ways of life. The choice is too often not a free one.

One way of life is based upon the will of the majority, and is distinguished by free institutions, representative government, free elections, guarantees of individual liberty, freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from political oppression.

The second way of life is based upon the will of the minority forcibly imposed upon the majority. It relies upon terror and oppression, a controlled press and radio, fixed elections, and the suppression of personal freedoms.

I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.

I believe that we must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way.

Harry S Truman
Message to Congress
Later known as Truman Doctrine
March 12, 1947

Hint to criminals using computers--don't.  The following is just the tip of the iceburg.  From Bruce Schneier:

Many color laser printers embed secret information in every page they print, basically to identify you by. Here, the EFF has cracked the code of the Xerox DocuColor series of printers.

Update: For those of you who didn't really get what I was hinting on the first pass here it is spelled out for you:

Schoen said that the existence of the encoded information could be a threat to people who live in repressive governments or those who have a legitimate need for privacy. It reminds him, he said, of a program the Soviet Union once had in place to record sample typewriter printouts in hopes of tracking the origins of underground, self-published literature.

From his Dad:

Tuesday, October 18, 2005 

Jason’s wounds were cleaned in preparation for his trip.  According to the Doctor his flesh looks healthy. 

He arrived in the U.S. about 7:00 PM.  Dan was able to see him.  Dan said that he did not look as bad as he expected.  He is stable and heavily sedated.

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

I just talk with Jason’s nurse.  She said that he is stable and able to follow simple commands.  He seems to be aware of his surrounding.  Jodi should arrive in D.C. this morning.  The Army is arranging for Katy, Lisa and my flights out.  I should fly out this afternoon.  Jason will go into surgery today to close his wounds. 

I may have trouble communicating regularly once I leave for D.C. 

Thank you all for nice emails and phone call.  We appreciate your support.

• Cap
• Charge
• Junk Gun
• Nipple
• Percussion Arm
• Powder Charge
• Saturday Night Special
• Shot (updated to include information about various shot sizes)
• Shotshell
• Wad

The program shall include procurement, transportation, storage, and distribution of safety notification and emergency change of address cards...

Executive Order 11490, Part 6, Post Office Department, SECTION 601, Functions
October 28, 1969
Plans for the event of a nuclear attack on the United States.

National Ammo Day is only a month away and some people are talking about putting a twist on it this year.  The plan is for everyone to buy the same brand at the same time of day at WalMart.  I agree it has some amusement value.  Winchester white-box or Remington value-packs in your favorite caliber at 15:30 Central time on November 19th.

I updated the gun dictionary web page on Boomershoot.org again:

• Cocked, Full
• Cocked, Half
• Cylinder
• Double
• Ejector
• Extractor
• Forend

From the Tri-City Herald: Suit alleges lab, Battelle sabotaged software:

A consultant for Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has sued the lab and Battelle Memorial Institute, alleging they sabotaged a software program he was supposed to market, then stole his ideas on how to write a better product to peddle on their own.

[name deleted by request] claims the lab contacted him in 2001 to find potential buyers for PalmFon software.

...

[deleted name] in his 49-page complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Richland, alleges the software was defective from the start or made nonfunctional later so his company wouldn't be able to sell it.

His lawsuit also claims employees at Battelle Memorial Institute, which runs the lab, realized after 9/11 that they had a hot item that could make millions of dollars for the nonprofit institute without having to go through a middle-man such as [deleted name] and his company, [deleted] Inc.

...

[deleted name] alleges that when the lab couldn't get him to release his rights to the software, they gave him a final product that wouldn't work. He says PNNL then began developing its own version of a parallel program that would compete with what he was trying to deliver.

I have no inside knowledge of the validity of the claims.  I just know PNNL allowed some employees to commit felonies against me and get away with it--so far.

In Star Trek IV there is made mention of transparent aluminum.  Very cool idea, huh?  Well... science and engineering have nearly caught up with that science fiction material.  It's aluminum oxynitride that the US Air Force is testing for transparent armor:

ALON^tm is a ceramic compound with a high compressive strength and durability. When polished, it is the premier transparent armor for use in armored vehicles, said. 1st Lt. Joseph La Monica, transparent armor sub-direction lead

"The substance itself is light years ahead of glass," he said, adding that it offers "higher performance and lighter weight."

Traditional transparent armor is thick layers of bonded glass. The new armor combines the transparent ALON^tm piece as a strike plate, a middle section of glass and a polymer backing. Each layer is visibly thinner than the traditional layers.

ALON^tm is virtually scratch resistant, offers substantial impact resistance, and provides better durability and protection against armor piercing threats, at roughly half the weight and half the thickness of traditional glass transparent armor, said the lieutenant.

In a June 2004demonstration, an ALON^tm test pieces held up to both a .30 caliber Russian M-44 sniper rifle and a .50 caliber Browning Sniper Rifle with armor piercing bullets. While the bullets pierced the glass samples, the armor withstood the impact with no penetration.

In extensive testing, ALON^tm has performed well against multiple hits of .30 caliber armor piercing rounds -- typical of anti-aircraft fire, Lieutenant La Monica said. Ttests focusing on multiple hits from .50 caliber rounds and improvised explosive devices are in the works.

Thanks to Ry for the email on the topic.

Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life. Thus people haunted by the purposelessness of their lives try to find a new content not only by dedicating themselves to a holy cause but also by nursing a fanatical grievance. A mass movement offers them unlimited opportunities for both.

Eric Hoffer
Section 75, The True Believer

Analog Kid at Random Nuclear Strikes has been posting some outstanding quotes from Ayn Rand's book Man’s Rights.  I don't have this book.  I should get it.  Read the quotes and see what you think:

• Criminals are a small minority
• If one wishes to advocate a free society
• Code of ethics
• The subordination of society
• A “Right” is a moral principle

Update: As Analog Kid points out in the comments section--it's not a book.  It's an essary in one of her books.  Also he has posted another Ayn Rand quote.

Ry put up two videos of gun related episodes of Myth Busters.  They come up with the correct conclusion on the bullet impact effects--which was nice to see.  The bullets into the gas tank demonstrated what really happens but then they engage in some conjecture that is unfounded.  And as Ry points out they have no clue as to how tracers actually work.

The abolition of the caliphate, then, accomplished precisely the opposite of what Ataturk hoped it would: it gave the adherents of political Islam a cause around which to rally, recruit, and mobilize. In essence, it gave birth to the crisis that engulfs the world today. It is likely that a destruction of the Ka’aba or the Al-Aqsa Mosque would have the same effect: it would become source of spirit, not of dispirit. The jihadists would have yet another injury to add to their litany of grievances, which up to now have so effectively confused American leftists into thinking that the West is at fault in this present conflict. But the grievances always shift; the only constant is the jihad imperative. Let us not give that imperative even greater energy in the modern world by supplying such pretexts needlessly.

Robert Spencer
FrontPageMagazine.com July 28, 2005

From his Dad:

Sent: Sunday, October 16, 2005 9:02 PM

At 5:00 PM I had an opportunity for a long talk with Jason’s nurse and then I had an opportunity to talk with the surgeon who had assessed his condition and cleaned his wounds.  The good news is that although Jason is heavily sedated he is communicating through nods to the nurse’s questions.  However, because he is heavily sedated he will remember nothing about his treatments and travels until they reduce the drug dosages. Nurse and Doctor assess him as stable, good blood pressure, heart rate is good, temperature is normal, there are no internal injuries and he has movement in all of his extremities. 

The negative news is that he is on a ventilator (which the nurse says is normal for someone heavily injured).  The Doctor said that there are three main injury areas.  First, they amputate his arm below the elbow but if there is not enough soft tissue for a prosthesis they will be forced to amputate his arm above the elbow.  They want to keep the elbow if at all possible.  Second, some bones in his face seem to be crushed and it may require facial surgery.  Although Jason has facial swelling and maybe some broken facial bones, according to the nurse the facial injury does not seem to be too bad, i.e., ears, nose, eyes, mouth and hair all intact. A specialist in this area will examine Jason tomorrow.  Third major injury is to his both sides of his buttock.  This injury required surgery in Iraq and will require more surgery.  However, wound should heal.    The only thing that seem worrisome to the nurse was that they still needed to give him blood which she immediate assured me was normal for extensive injuries.

I ask the Doctor directly about Jason’s overall condition and what kind of recovery that could be expected.  He said that main concerns now were blood clots and infection but the Doctor said he is very unlikely to die.  Second, that Jason could have a full recover but it will require one or two years of surgery and physical therapy. 

Jason will be surgery tomorrow and we will have more information about his condition about noon central time.  He if remains stable the Doctor intends to have him flown to Walter Reed hospital on Tuesday.   They may keep Jason sedated until he arrives at Walter Reed.   Katy, Lisa and I will meet Jason at Walter Reed later this week.   If Jason stays at Walter Reed more then 30 days that will become his home military base.  Once he is recovered enough to leave Walter Reed, Jason will go before the medical review board they will decide the extent of his disability and he will be referred to medical care at his home address for any further treatments (i.e., right now that is XXXX).

I will keep you posted.  Katy and I have appreciated the notes and calls of support.

From my brother (Jason is the son of my wife's brother, Brad is my brother's son):

Brad has had a picture of Dad's combine you took many years ago with Jason in it. That picture was on our wall in the trailer, but has been on Brad's wall since we moved into the house. The kids only know Jason as the boy in that picture.

Too bad handguns are banned in the UK.  It looks like they need a new Pink Pistols chapter there:

The killers of a man who was beaten to death in an "abhorrent and shocking" homophobic attack are likely to strike again, police warned yesterday.

Jody Dobrowski, 24, a bar manager from south-east London was chased and brutally beaten by his killers who shouted homophobic abuse while they kicked and punched him in a wooded park area in Clapham Common, south London.

Mr Dobrowski, who was found late on Friday night by passers-by was taken to hospital shortly after midnight where he died on Saturday from severe head, neck and face injuries. He is believed to have been gay although he had not formally told some family members. It is thought his attackers chased him shouting insults before cornering him and overpowering him - despite the fact that he was six foot four tall. Metropolitan Police investigators believe the two male suspects may have struck before and are "likely to strike again".

...

A few weeks ago there were reports of an attempted garrotting in the same area.

Lyle and I took his son out hunting white-tailed deer on Friday.  Lyle didn't carry a rifle just helped his son to have an enjoyable experience.  We first explored the area where I had seen two deer burst out from under a tree a couple weeks ago.  Lyle and his son saw two (and maybe a third) deer as they ran away from us after we had walked past them in the grass.  I took them out in the woods behind my parents house and Lyle spotted another which we watched run through the brush and up the hill out of sight.  After lunch we scouted out an area where a grass waterway joined an 80 acre patch of woods.  The grass was still green and probably good food.  The timber and field areas have very little food left in them this time of year.  I heard then saw one deer jump up and run deeper into the woods.  We expected the deer would come out of the woods later that evening to feed and we could be waiting for them.  We saw lots of tracks and were quite hopeful of our prospects there.  We went back over near the Boomershoot site and Lyle walked through a small patch of trees and brush where I had seen lots of tracks a few days early.  His son and I sat a 125 yards away waiting for something to come our way.  There was nothing there.  We went back to original patch of a few acres next to the Taj Mahal where Lyle and his son had seen the deer earlier in the day.  His son and I waited at one end of the patch of brush, grass, trees, and ferns while Lyle went to the top end and walked down trying scare any deer toward us.  It worked--a deer burst into the open and ran within about 10 feet of his son.  I was another 40 feet away and managed to get my scope on the deer by about the time it was 100 yards away.  It was on "full afterburner" and bounded out of sight in just a few seconds.

We made up a batch of explosives and put them in some clay pigeons to test the feasibility of Boomer Clays.  I shot them with the highest velocity shotgun ammo with the largest pellets I could find from about 15 yards away.  It did nothing but spread reactive target mix in the plowed field.  We shot the same type of target with Stinger .22LR from 15 yards away.  It went boom.  Next we tried American Eagle .22LR (fairly low velocity) ammo, again from 15 yards away.  It failed to go boom.  I didn't realize it but my previous, successful, tests with this ammo were from slightly closer.  We switched back to the high velocity Stinger and everything went boom on the first hit.  I don't know if the mix was slightly different or if it was just because of slightly decreased velocity of the .22 that the mix failed to detonate with the slower ammo and the shotgun.  But it didn't really matter which.  If the mix was different it meant we couldn't produce it reliably.  And in addition the shotgun test were with a very long barrel at very close range.  Optimal conditions for detonation with zero success.  Real life shooting would be far less likely to produce results.  If we want to do shotgun boomers it's going to have to be Plan B.  We cleaned up our mixing equipment and went back to the grass waterway/woods junction to lay in ambush for Bambi.

We got into position at 17:38 about 125 yards from the far edge of the grass waterway.  We waited and waited as motionless and as quiet as we could until 18:30--the last legal minute of hunting for the day.  Nothing.  We packed up and drove back to Moscow.  Between Troy and Kendrick we saw two more deer alongside the road as we went by at 55 MPH.  We saw seven and possibly eight deer during the day but with zero chance of getting a decent shot at one of them.  More opportunities will present themselves and we have until December to connect.

My brother, Doug, wrote up a very detailed story on the arrest of David Pruss.  Doug contributed a fair amount to the search for and eventual arrest of this vandal who caused over $100,000 in damage.  I should have posted this over a week ago but kept forgetting.

pruss.doc (303.5 KB)

Here is what the Sherrif had to say about the story:

Doug, I took the article home and read it when it was quiet and thought it was excellent. You brought out a side that most law enforcement officers don't think about or if they do they don't speak about it. It's the day to day issues that they face in a situation like this. We are trained to write reports but we leave out the human side of things. Yes we are some what like robots. I gave a copy to our prosecutors and I will get their permission for you to print this as soom as possible.

See also my previous postings:

• More articles on David Pruss
• They caught him
• We already got the hole dug

For the first time ever the truth laid bear Blogosphere ecosystem rating for this blog has nosed up into the mammal section.  It is, as of this minute, an Adorable Little Rodent after spending mouths bouncing around in the Flappy-Birds/Slithering-Reptiles region.

Friday was my birthday.  Xenia posted something really nice about it.  We didn't celebrate it until yesterday because Kim and her boyfriend were coming from Coeur d'Alene for part of the weekend.  Xenia took some pictures but missed out on the cake and ice cream with the rest of us because Kim had car troubles and was a couple hours late getting her.  That forced a schedule change that caused a conflict for Xenia.  And of course by that time we had received news of Jason being injured.  I was and am still rather depressed about it.  We didn't really celebrate my birthday as much as go through the motions.

I did like what Xenia's history teacher had to say about my birthday, "Just tell him it's an awesome caliber."

Thanks to everyone that has said kind words both in the comments and in private email.  Here is pretty much everything I know about what has happened and what the status is.  Xenia has posted a little bit about things too.

I was looking at a picture of him on Friday.  It was a picture of him when he was about seven or eight years old riding in a combine harvesting wheat with my Dad on the farm with the Boomershoot site in the background.  My Dad suggested I show the picture to my friend Lyle who was having lunch with me at my parents house.  It was at almost exactly at the same time as when he was injuried.  Whenever I look at pictures of him now I look at his right arm and hand.  The arm and hand he no longer has.

This might be about the incident:

There were no effective attacks against Task Force Liberty forces since last evening when two IED attacks damaged one Humvee and wounded seven Soldiers who received non-life threatening injuries.

From his father, typos and all.  I have obscured some information that shouldn't be of particular insterest to anyone but immediately family:

Sent: Saturday, October 15, 2005 5:42 PM

Friday, October 14

A bomb exploded near or under Jason’s humvee causing sever injuries while he was on duty on Friday, Oct. 14, 2005.  Other members of this unit were hurt or killed.

Friday, October 14, 2005

I received a call from the Army about 11:00 PM 8 hours after the incident.  I was told he was critical condition; his right arm below the elbow had been amputated, he had laceration on right side of his face; he had abdomen and back injuries.  He has been placed in a medical coma.  I verified that the call was for real (Jason had warned us about hoaxes) and called Katy.   Army casualty center is in Washington, D.C. and they are our link to Jason (1.888.331.XXXX).  They have been very helpful and caring but there seems to be limited information coming out of the Army trauma center in Balad, Iraq were Jason was sent after the explosion.    

I was told that the Army would provide a flight to either Germany or to the trauma center in the U.S for Katy, me and Lisa.  They advise waiting tell Jason arrives in the U.S. because his stay in Germany seemed to be uncertain as to the length (4 to 7 days) and we are not sure of his condition.   

Saturday, October 15, 2005

I was told that Jason was entering surgery for his back at 12:30 AM; I later found out it was for the buttocks.  He was out of surgery at approximately 9:00 AM.  It was unclear if he was in surgery all of this time or what the extent of the injuries was. 

I was told that they were flying him to Army trauma center in Landstuhl, Germany this evening.  It is a 10 hour trip and he should arrive Sunday morning.  This is good sign because he is in stable enough condition to be moved.  Hopefully we will be able to arrange a phone call once he arrives.  I am suppose to get a prognosis report when leaves Iraq / Kuwait (approximately 7:00 PM).  Unfortunately, I just learned that the prognosis report will not be available for several more hours 

Barb referred me to co-worker (Shane XXXX – 509.332.XXXX) who had recently spent 15 months working as a physical therapist in U.S. Military Hospital in Germany.  He was able to give me a better perspective of what the recovery process would be like and how Jason would be treated by the Army.  First, the Army pushes the wounded soldiers to get up and become active as soon as possible, even during their short stay in Germany they are immediately placed in physical therapy?  They are typically reassessed and additional surgery is performed as necessary.  Wounded solders are sent directly to a military hospital or trauma center depending on their injuries.  I was told by the Army that Jason will more than likely go to D.C (i.e. Walter Reed) or Huston (Brooks).  Shane says the care at these facilities is very good and they try keep them there as long as necessary.   Once the immediate surgeries and other treatments are completed, Jason will probably be assigned to his base at Ft. Steward and have therapy there, additional surgeries as necessary and counseling.  He will work at the base if is able.  Jason will be given 30 day medical leave(s) to come home and he will receive treatment as necessary while he is here.

Sent: Sun 10/16/2005 8:12 AM

I was on the phone early this morning trying to determine what Jason’s status was.  They had very little information because he is still in transit.  Jason is scheduled to land in Germany at 4:45 PM (German time) today which is just an hour from now Central Time.  They said that it will be several hours before he is processed into the hospital and evaluated.  He will be at Landstuhl Medial Center at least until Wednesday and possibly until Saturday (Those are the days that the two weekly flights are made to the U.S.). The average stay in Landstuhl is 5-6 days during which time they evaluate Jason, clean is bandages, perform any immediate surgery, and get him ready to travel to the U.S.   

I think Jason was in a medical induced coma for the trip to Germany.  I don’t know if they will keep him in the coma.  He is currently list VSI (Very Serious Injury) which is civilian equivalent of critical condition.   

Jason’s Aunt Judy and Uncle Stan are planning to visit him while he is in Germany.  Landstuhl is about five hour drive from Brussels where they live.

I am hoping to get a more complete report on the seriousness of Jason’s injuries once they do the evaluation in Germany.  I have not had any success getting the medical report from Iraq.

Update: Another weird coincident thing... When Lyle, his son, and I were eating lunch with my parents, probably just before the bomb went off that caused Jason's injuries, we were talking about my great Uncle who lost his hand in an explosion over 80 years ago.

It's old news, from October 7th, but the topic has been on my mind for the last few days.  From World Net Daily:

Bin Laden has been amassing nuclear weapons and materials since 1992, when he was in the Sudan. This was substantiated by the testimony of al-Qaida officials in federal court during the hearings of "The U.S. v. Osama bin Laden."

When he returned to Afghanistan, bin Laden purchased tactical nuclear weapons from the Chechen Mafia. News of the sale was confirmed by Saudi, Israeli, British, Saudi and Russian intelligence and reported in The Times of London, the Jerusalem Report, Al Watan al-Arabi, Muslim Magazine, Al-Majallah (London's Saudi weekly) and by the BBC.

In 1997, bin Laden made additional small nuclear weapons from materials bought not only from the Chechens but also black market sources in Russia, China, Kazakhstan and the Ukraine.

In 1998, he purchased large quantities of highly enriched uranium from Simeon Mogilevich, a Ukrainian arms dealer. For one delivery of fifteen kilos of uranium-236, Mogilevich was paid $70 million. Bin Laden also purchased several bars of enriched uranium-138 from Ibrahim Abd, an Egyptian arms dealer and several Congolese opposition soldiers.

...

The seven cities targeted by al-Qaida for nuclear destruction are New York, Washington D.C., Miami, Houston, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Chicago.

...almost twenty-one hundred American aircraft were to be found over central and eastern Germany around the middle of that day.  For the German population on the ground, it must have seemed that the sky was black with machines that meant them harm.

...

The entire First Division would deliver 678.3 tons of HE ("general purpose") bombs and 400 tons of incendiaries.

Frederick Taylor
From his book: Dresden, Tuesday, February 13, 1945
Chapter 23: Ash Wednesday

Your city will be obliterated unless your government surrenders.

Leaflets dropped on Hiroshima
August 5, 1945

An unexpected phone call after 10:00 PM is a bad omen.  This one was no exception.

My nephew in Iraq had a bomb explode under his Humvee.  He is in critical condition.  His right arm has been amputated below the elbow.  He has lacerations on his face.  They are evaluating injuries to his back and abdomen.

I know what I am about to write is an emotional response.  It's not what I think we should do, it's what I feel we should do.  I'll be more rational in a few days.

Nuke Mecca, nuke Medina, nuke every "holy" city on that continent and fill the craters with pig manure.  Osama is in the mountains of Afghanistan?  Make those mountains into glass lined sub sea-level valleys in Afghanistan.  Islam is hereby banished from our planet, our solar system, and our galaxy.  All paper copies of the Qur'an shall be put into pig manure, shredded, then used to fertilize fields in Israel.  All digital copies and their backups shall be deleted, the media reduced to at least it's molecular components if not transmuted into different elements.  If anyone so much as mentions a word related to Islam they shall be dropped, naked, into the middle of a pig sewage lagoon.  If they can swim out fine.  If not then no great loss.