This weekend Barb attended a class in Spokane. We stayed in motel and I ran errands and worked on the computer while she attended class. Saturday while out walking around on my errands I noticed that just a block or so from our motel there were a large number of vagrants hanging out under the freeway and the neighboring parking lots (I-90 and Division street). One approached me and asked for a dime or a quarter. Greg Hamilton describes this as an "interview". I apparently failed the interview and did no further business with him.

Later that evening we walked to a restaurant for dinner past the same area. On the edge of the parking lot of a drive-in burger joint (Dicks) several vagrants nearly had the sidewalk blocked. We took a path through the middle of the parking lot to reach our restaurant (Frankie Doodles) that adjoined Dicks. Barb and I were talking but I was watching out of the corner of my eye. The largest of of the vagrants stood up and followed us about 20 feet behind and to our left which put him in a position to close the distance if we returned to the sidewalk. For thirty feet or more he matched our speed and direction. My gun was between Barb and I and not in danger of being blocked by him if he chose to attack. I could deploy and utilize it if needed. But at his range he could probably get a first strike in before I could get off a first shot. But why wait for an attack? I'm not a grass eater, he needs to know that. I snapped my head around and looked directly at him while continuing to walk. He immediately stopped and developed an intense interest in something on the ground.

Later returning to the motel they were still there and we gave them an even wider berth. They paid us no interest.

Thanks to this link from Clayton I read this sobering article. Here is a sample:

When I used to read about the 1930s — the Italian invasion of Abyssinia, the rise of fascism in Italy, Spain, and Germany, the appeasement in France and Britain, the murderous duplicity of the Soviet Union, and the racist Japanese murdering in China — I never could quite figure out why, during those bleak years, Western Europeans and those in the United States did not speak out and condemn the growing madness, if only to defend the millennia-long promise of Western liberalism.

Of course, the trauma of the Great War was all too fresh, and the utopian hopes for the League of Nations were not yet dashed. The Great Depression made the thought of rearmament seem absurd. The connivances of Stalin with Hitler — both satanic, yet sometimes in alliance, sometimes not — could confuse political judgments.

But nevertheless it is still surreal to reread the fantasies of Chamberlain, Daladier, and Pope Pius, or the stump speeches by Charles Lindbergh (“Their [the Jews’] greatest danger to this country lies in their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio, and our government”) or Father Coughlin (“Many people are beginning to wonder whom they should fear most — the Roosevelt-Churchill combination or the Hitler-Mussolini combination.”) — and it is even more baffling to consider that such men ever had any influence.

Not any longer.

Remember the old joke?

A republican is a democrat who has been mugged.

A democrat is a republican who has been arrested.

After my experience with PNNL I lost my faith in the system. Even with my current job being apparently secure I nearly constantly worry that someone may take a disliking to me because of my hobbies, skin color or some other non job issue and cause me harm. I couldn't have imagined being in this constant state of fear prior to my own experience. Now I can.

This came up because Benjamin is on the verge of his own conversion.

I have an ultra-secure wireless network that automatically reports all hacking attempts to unsavory men with bitey dogs.

Bruce Schneier
Schneier Asks to Be Hacked
June 28, 2006
[Cool! I'd stipulate that the unsavory men and dogs enjoy guns, explosives and rough sex but that's just me.--Joe]

I don't probably don't blame Reuters as much as a lot of others do. People have a very strong tendency to hear what they want to hear and disregard the rest. Reuters got caught and is apparently taking the appropriate action.

Someone from the culture in a war zone is going to find it much easier to get pictures and stories that a less biased outsider would be. But then they are going to have their own biases, because of their culture, in that war. If the people at Reuters biases tend to align with the incoming pictures and stories it would be easy to look at pictures and stories less critically as those that did not.

That doesn't mean I don't think we should look the other way when it happens. Just don't try and arrange a lynching because of it. A light flogging should be sufficient.

Here's the story for those that haven't been reading the big name bloggers:

• little green footballs
• Reuters Pulls Phony Photo
• The Propaganda Portfolio of Adnan Hajj
• Worst Excuse of the Decade
• Green Helmet Guy Rides Again
• Doctored Beirut Photo: the First Draft
• The Reuters Clone Tool Scandal
• Counterterrorism Blog: Another Pro-Hizballah Reuters Reporter
• Another Fraudulent Adnan Hajj Photo
• The First Casualty
• Michelle Malkin
• Where there's smoke, there's Photoshop?
• Reutergate: "Picture kill"
• A smoke-clearing blogswarm
• DRINKING FROM HOME
• Extreme Makeover - Beirut Edition
• Yet more Hezbollywood
• The Jawa Report
• Reuters Doctoring Beirut Photos (Updated)
• Reuters Suspends Photog, 2nd Employee Suspended for Death Threat
• What Adnan Hajj Really Photographed
• Another Fake Reuters Photo from Lebanon
• Reuters Fires Photographer
• Ace of Spades HQ
• Another Hajj Photo That Should Be Retracted (Seriously)

Access taxes and proficiency tests for exercising your rights are very much alive for black Americans, and all Americans, if you wish to exercise your right to keep and bear arms.

Alan Korwin
August 04, 2006

From Michelle Malkin:

A disabled war hero and his wife were assaulted and robbed in Bethesda, Md., a few weeks ago.

The guy lost an arm and a leg in Iraq and five punks mugged him and his wife. If one or both had been armed things might have turned out differently. Maryland, however, doesn't trust it's citizens to carry firearms to defend themselves except under rare circumstances. Hence being outnumbered or out-sized is an invitation to the predators on the street.

From the Washington Blade:

"It’s a shame in this world that both in the area of gay rights and in the area of gun issues that these should be political issues,” Sarah Brady says. “These should be common sense, human decency, public safety issues, not political footballs.”

The bipartisan approval that the Brady Bill ultimately achieved is something that she would like to see occur in the realm of gay rights, Sarah Brady says.

“We were able, in the ‘80s and ‘90s, to bring the two parties together for public safety and that’s something which is beginning to happen in the gay community as well,” she says. “It should not be a hot-button issue. It should be common sense and the right thing.”

I fully agree neither issue should be political footballs. Common sense and scientific facts should bring us together for the elimination of the Brady Act and other unlawful, immoral, and hazardous restrictions on our inalienable rights to keep and bear arms.

The other day I posted about a friend not getting a job after being asked bigoted questions about his gun ownership. I bumped into him again on Thursday. He now has a job with another company. This company didn't ask any questions about his personal life during the interview.

He asked if I was interested in working there. For now I'm not. I'm happy with my job and my co-workers and no one has even hinted my interest in guns and explosives is a problem. I'll keep my eyes open for warning signs though.

The right there specified is that of 'bearing arms for a lawful purpose.' This is not a right granted by the Constitution. Neither is it in any manner dependent upon that instrument for its existence. The second amendment declares that it shall not be infringed; but this, as has been seen, means no more than that it shall not be infringed by Congress.

Chief Justice Morrison Waite
U.S. Supreme Court
U S v Cruikshank
92 U.S. 542 (1875)
[In response to "The Gun Guys". Remember that rights are guaranteed or infringed. They are not granted. Only privileges and permissions are granted.--Joe]

There has been some interesting research on the correlation between lawyers and gun owner rights. Here is the conclusion:

Lawyers contribute primarily to candidates who vote against gun rights. Most of this money ends up in the pockets of Democrats, who exhibit a heavy bias against gun rights. Interestingly enough, the Democrat party is the one that claims to represent the little guy, while a special interest group comprised of economically-elite professionals encourages Democrats to pass more laws limiting the right of self-defense for people who cannot afford private security guards. It’s time for those who believe in traditional Democrat values to take a closer look at their party.

My own research on a closely related topic supports this conclusion. I'll post the details on my research at a later date.

The real problem is in the hearts and minds of men... it is easier to denature plutonium that to denature the evil spirit in man... Man's skills have outstripped his morals...

Albert Einstein
[As applicable today with regard to the threat from Muslim extremists (Iran for example) as it was when Einstein said it.--Joe]

Have you lost the combination to a Master Lock combination lock? Here's how you recover it.

Keith Tyler is teaching firearms classes now. I used to shoot with him when he was going to college at WSU in the '90s. We both went down to Lewiston to shoot the USPSA (IPSC) matches at the Lewiston Pistol Club. He was always a very fast shooter. His accuracy sometimes left a bit to be desired but since he is a Grand Master (Open Class), and Master (Limited and Limited 10) I suspect that weakness has been corrected.

There is talk of getting him to visit the Lewiston Pistol Club for a weekend class sometime this fall. If you are interested let me know and I'll forward your message to the appropriate person.

As I mentioned the other day Xenia and Sara talked to a newspaper reporter. Yesterday their picture was on the front page of the Daily News along with quotes from them and me. I haven't seen it yet but Barb and Xenia bought three copies and I should see it this weekend.

Update: I misunderstood. The picture was of Xenia and Jesse. Sara wasn't available when the photographer called so Xenia called Jesse. And the quotes from me weren't until page three.

I just had a long and very interesting chat with a man, retired from the Air Force, who served in Korea among other places, then spent several years as a government inspector for M-14 rifle production.  He could rattle quite a bit of fascinating information off the top of his head (I took notes) but one thing struck me as odd: He seemed to be completely unaware of both the NATIONAL FIREARMS ACT of 1934 and the Firearm Owner's Protection Act of 1986.  A forgivable "offense" I suppose, but interesting from one who had had a career in handling "machineguns".  He was under the assumption, as are many citizens, that machineguns in the hands of peaceable Americans are illegal.  Anyone casually interested in such things can take a clue from the acronym, BATF.  A machinegun is much like a carton of cigaretts or a bottle of whiskey-- their possession is said to require an accompanying tax stamp.  Also take note of the fact that BATF is a branch of Treasury.  They are (ostensibly) a tax authority.

For anyone interested in Second Amendment politics, please take a look at this analysis of THE FIREARMS OWNERS' PROTECTION ACT.  You will get some insight into that hideous, chilling muddle with which we in the industry are faced and, I think it important to point out, what John Moses Browning, among others, was not.  FOPA was a simplification, mind you, of previous law.

For those of you at all levels in law enforcement; you need to know a little about what's been going on, from the coup of 1934 until now, so that collectively we can begin taking the steps to restore American's full civil liberties.

When I was getting fingerprinted at the local sheriff's office years ago for an NFA weapons transfer, the deputy taking the prints saw the "Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms" title on the forms and asked me if I was applying for a job.  I told him, "No.  This is an NFA weapons transfer."  Previously chatty, he clammed up and said no more, obviously knowing nothing about such things.  He probably thought I was a super-spook, paramilitary international arms dealer working on the sly for Ollie North or some such, and he wasn't going to ask any questions.  I didn't try educating him on decades of political and legislative history, either.

The whole passport design is totally brain damaged. From my point of view all of these RFID passports are a huge waste of money. They're not increasing security at all.

Lukas Grunwald
A security consultant with DN-Systems in Germany and an RFID expert.
Hackers Clone E-Passports
[In addition, the same arguments used against a national ID card can be used against passports.--Joe]

There is no cease-fire, there will be no cease-fire. We are determined to succeed in this struggle. We will not give up on our goal to live a life free of terror.

Ehud Olmert
Israeli Prime Minister
Israel Approves 'Full Force' Strikes
On the attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Charles Whitman made history. Both sides of the gun debate use the example for their case. The anti-gun people because he killed 15 people and wounded 31. The pro gun people because private citizens started shooting back and kept him pinned down while the good guys got in position to finish him off.

The link above is a factual retelling of the tragedy. It's good reading.

[Sent to me by Meredith who is a student at the University of Texas.]

Xenia was downtown with Sara yesterday when a woman identifying herself as a newspaper reporter for the Daily News approached them and asked if they were high school students and if they would mind talking to her about cell phones in the school. They had a nice conversation and Xenia called me shortly thereafter to tell me I might be getting a call about cell phones in the schools.

I received the call earlier this morning. And one of the first questions she asked was if I had any comments on the school policy against cell phones with cameras. I asked if they had a policy against ordinary cameras in the school. They didn't. So I told her I didn't think it made any sense to have a policy against cell phone cameras. One is allowed and the other isn't. What sense can that make? Besides what's the problem with cameras anyway? She expressed her opinion that there was concern about cameras being in the locker rooms and bath rooms. Yeah, I can see why they wouldn't want pictures taken in those places but it's just like gun control.

They don't seem to get it. If someone is going to violate a rule against behavior that is obviously wrong and will be punished if the perpetrator is caught then what makes them think a rule against possessing the object to begin with will be honored? The possession is a victimless crime. Victimless crimes shouldn't exist.

This could be very useful. Lighter and tougher body armor. It will never take the place of defensive weapons but I would consider wearing body armor on a regular basis if it were cheap and comfortable enough. I carry my handgun whenever I can but in many cases you may end up taking the first hit before you are able to take the attack to the aggressor. And of course there are those times when I'm not allowed to bring my defensive tools with me and body armor might allow me additional time to bring my hands and/or feet into range and absorb the attack while I'm delivering my own.

From the UK Times:

Since Israel started to bomb Hezbollah targets in Lebanon last month, it has asked for faster delivery of JP8 jet fuel and guided bomb units (GBU28s). The jet fuel order could be worth up to $210 million and the 100 GBU28s, which are better-known as bunker busters, could cost $30 million. Other outstanding deliveries include F16 fighter jets and armoured troop carriers.

Just as computer programmers turn caffeine into code Israel converts jet fuel and bombs into dead terrorists.

I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions.

Lillian Hellman
Letter to the House Un-American Activities Committee, May 19, 1952.
[An admirable point of view.--Joe]

I don't care for horror flicks. I don't find it fun to be scared. In most cases the victims do some really stupid things and avoid doing things that would obviously improve their odds of surviving until the end of the movie. However, here is a horror video that is "more like it". Via Clayton and Arms and the Law.

Occasionaly I have some sympathy for the media. They can't be experts on everything they write about. But this instance is just too rich. And Alan Korwin does such a good job of skewering them:

The lamestream media told you:
An armored car heist in Phoenix was committed using automatic weapons. An unknown amount of cash was stolen, and police are looking for the suspects. No shots were fired during the robbery.

...

Several days later, the followup story claimed that automatic OR semiautomatic weapons MAY have been used, and suspects were in custody, increasing skepticism in those parts of the community that are awake.

Today (July 28), the headline says "Toy rifles aided three in heist," and Bosnia-Herzegovina natives were the apparent culprits. "Fake AK-47 assault rifles" were used in combination with pepper spray. I am not making this up.

According to the report, toy fakes can be scary sounding "assault rifles." The money has been recovered. No correction has been issued. The reporter is still at large.

I can't comment authoritatively on everything this guy says but I do know at least some of it is without basis in fact. And yet he claims to be a professor. Well, I suppose really it all makes sense then:

The National Rifle Association (NRA), which makes millions of dollars through the manufacture and sales of weapons, has always opposed vigorously any law that would restrict citizens from easy access to the purchase of weapons. As a result, the United Sates has turned into a very violent society. Statistics show us that more people are killed by the gun in the United States every year than in all of the countries combined!

...

The United States is the only nation on earth that views the constitutional "right" for every citizen to bear weapons on a 24 hour basis.

News flash: The NRA doesn't manufacture weapons, doesn't sell weapons, and doesn't get membership dues from firearms manufactures. They do sell advertising space to the manufactures.

News flash: England has a higher violent crime rate than the U.S. As I have said many times before here measuring violence only in terms of crimes committed with firearms is irrelevant. There is Just One Question.

News flash: He should check out the gun laws in some other countries such as Switzerland and Bolivia. They may not a have constitutionally guaranteed right to firearms but they don't have many restrictions either. Perhaps he has and that is why he worded the statement so narrowly.

However, many people in the United States and the world at large have witnessed other types of Americans whose ultimate goal was to exploit them and to inflict in them endless pain and suffering. These are the capitalistic American industrialists who want to control the economy of every single nation on earth. Anyone that resists their domination is viewed as the enemy and they will soon ask the US government officials, whose campaign for election they financed, to punish such heads of states through boycotts and sanctions. This has been the case of Fidel Castro of Cuba who said from the very beginning, "the economy of Cuba belongs to the Cubans and not to American industrialists."

Okay. We are done. No need to read any further. Castro's Cuba is a workers paradise which is why so many of them risk death to flee to the U.S. The guy is clueless.

Castro is getting old and feeble. Some are even saying he is already dead. There could be fighting break out there too. A Cuba without Castro could be very interesting. It would be hard to imagine it being any worse than it is under the thumb of Castro.

One of the things we teach in self-defense classes is to not be timid. If you take an aggressive stance, preferably with a loaded large caliber firearm, your attacker is far more likely to rearrange their to-do list such that causing you harm is placed at a much lower priority than previously. On the other hand if your voice quivers and you look like you are about to break and run that increases the odds of violence being committed against you. Apparently Israel understands this:

The Israeli cabinet has agreed to widen the country's ground offensive against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

The decision, made at a closed door session, received unanimous approval, a senior political source said.

Earlier Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ruled out an immediate truce, saying Israel would continue its offensive as long as its security was threatened.

Good for them. I hope we are giving them satellite images and/or whatever else help we can without being too overt about it. Some good deals on bombs for their warplanes wouldn't hurt my feelings either.

I would like to think that with last Friday's tragic event we can wake the Jews up in this country to the benefits of sensible gun control (trigger prep, sight alignment, squeeze). Israpundit gives them a good shake here:

Now we remember why we have such little use for the Anti-Defense League: this is the same batch of Kumbaya-singers that supports gun laws like those enacted to disarm Jews in Nazi Germany and thus facilitates exactly the same kind of terroristic violence that took place last Friday.

I rather like this cartoon too:

Via Samantha, a collection of computer related quotes. My favorite is this one:

1f u c4n r34d th1s u r34lly n33d t0 g37 l41d

Time to go back to bed. Barb is waiting for me.

I realize the Israel/Lebanon situation is very stressful, to put it mildly, for Muslims. But this sort of response to the shooting at the Seattle Jewish center is a very good thing.

Thank you Shahed Amanullah.

The sad fact is that the anti-gun lobby's "vision" of gun control just doesn't work. It can't because it targets exactly the wrong group of people: law-abiding gun owners. Gun control isn't crime control -- it is only about divesting law-abiding citizens of their rights.

Bruce N. Mills
July 31, 2006
Guns and rights
Globe and Mail, Toronto Ontario

My magazine changes are pretty good, but not anywhere near this good.

And the anti-gun bigots wonder why we think restricting a magazine capacity is just plain stupid as a means of reducing crime.

Some time ago our son James took the Myers-Briggs temperment test and came out as an INTJ. This describes how to deal with him quite well:

1. Be willing to back up your statements with facts - or at least some pretty sound reasoning.
2. Don't expect them to respect you or your viewpoints just because you say so. INTJ respect must be earned.
3. Be willing to concede when you are wrong. The average INTJ respects the truth over being "right". Withdraw your erroneous comment and admit your mistake and they will see you as a very reasonable person. Stick to erroneous comments and they will think you are an irrational idiot and treat everything you say as being questionable.
4. Try not to be repetitive. It annoys them.
5. Do not feed them a line of bull.
6. Expect debate. INTJs like to tear ideas apart and prove their worthiness. They will even argue a point they don't actually support for the sake of argument.
7. Do not mistake the strength of your conviction with the strength of your argument. INTJs do not need to believe in a position to argue it or argue it well. Therefore, it will take more than fervor to sway them.
8. Do not be surprised at sarcasm.
9. Remember that INTJs believe in workable solutions. They are extremely open-minded to possibilities, but they will quickly discard any idea that is unfeasible. INTJ open-mindedness means that they are willing to have a go at an idea by trying to pull it apart. This horrifies people who expect oohs and ahhs and reverence. The ultimate INTJ insult to an idea is to ignore it, because that means it's not even interesting enough to deconstruct.
   This also means that they will not just accept any viewpoint that is presented to them. The bottom line is "Does it work?" - end discussion.
10. Do not expect INTJs to actually care about how you view them. They already know that they are arrogant bastards with a morbid sense of humor. Telling them the obvious accomplishes nothing.

Ahh.... that is my boy!

Barb and I bumped into a friend today and we innocently asked "What have you been up to?". Our innocence was taken away when he said he and his girlfriend just got back from Las Vegas where they attended the Lifestyle conference. There were 3000 people there. That's a very big sex party.

He reported they both had a really good time.

I participated in a steel match at the Lewiston Pistol Club last weekend. I just posted the results on the Lewiston Pistol Club web site. Although the same people are ahead of me that were ahead of me last month I've closed the gap some. I really need to start shooting while I'm in the Seattle area during the week.