If I've heard it once I've heard it a thousand times:  We have a "consumer based" society and as such, the more we spend, the better the economy, yak, yak, yak.  One of our recent presidents (I forget which one-- it doesn't matter as it could have been any one of them) was convinced of this well enough that he made a public statement asking Americans to go out and buy something, so as to help the economy.

No, Grasshopper.

A capitalist society (that is to say, a free socisty) gets its wealth from one source and one source only-- People who dream of new things, get excited about them, figure them out, and put them into practice and/or production.  Simply put, wealth is a product of a winning combination: The creative human mind in concert with hard work and determination.  I will herein go so far as to call it love.

"Hah! you idealist fool" you say, "oil and gold are not produced by humans, and THAT's wealth."  I say, tell that to a frog.  To a frog, petroleum is a dangerous, smelly goo that is to be avoided, and gold is just harmless and worthless.  The human mind on the other hand, has dreamed up, invented and created ways to locate, extract, refine and, more importantly, make use of, oil and gold-- they were not resources before the creativity of the human mind made them so.  

Other than a base, stone-age existence then (actually, remove the stones from that scenario, because humans invented stone tools) real wealth can only come from imagination, creativity, invention and productivity.

What the aforementioned U.S. President should have said (if he'd had a smidgeon of a clue) was, "Dream, Oh People.  Imagine something, create something, find a better way and then build a business around it.  Either that or throw your support behind someone who is doing it or has already done it.  In so doing you will be helping yourself while serving Mankind."  To my admitedly limited recollection, the only politician I've actually heard speak that way was, of all people, Condi Rice.

The next time you hear someone decrying the distastefulness of our "Consumerism" you can correct the major error in their thinking by stating this obvious fact:  Production is a prerequisite to consumption.

Therefore what we have, to the degree that ours is more successful than others, is a society built on "Producerism".

I find it more than a little telling that the word "consumerism" is in the dictionary, but the word "producerism" is not.

Socialist societies get their wealth from consuming (consuming other people's property) by plunder-- extorting from their own (all for very good reasons of course) and from conquest and enslavement.  Socialists are unhappy, defective, paranoid, upside-down individuals-- they have no imagination, which makes them unable to see or comprehend anything other than extortion and fraud as the primary means of getting things done.  This would certainly explain their hatred (even self-hatred) for the wealthy.

Update:  I forgot blind luck.  In addition to extortion and fraud, a socialist sees blind luck as the other means of enrichment, as in "Winners of Life's Lottery", etc..

The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others.  But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God.  It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.

Thomas Jefferson
[A concept that has served us well for over 200 years but the Muslims still have not learned. It appears they are slow learners. But then if you look at our recreational drug laws and gun laws we still have a lot to learn as well.--Joe]

I updated my personal website. It's pretty badass right now.

Xenia Joy Huffman-Scott
Updated Website
January 21, 2007
[Yup. It's very pretty.--Dad]

Acknowledging the existence of evil - not just evil people but evil itself - is a prerequisite to understanding and controlling it. Denying that evil exists, and that it is a proper metaphor for the worst kind of behavior, ensures that evil will prosper.

Cal Thomas
4/24/95
Column

I found it posted on Michelle Malkin's blog:

Trust me-- you'll want to read the whole thing.  You might also want to print it and hang it on your wall, framed, next to the Bill of Rights (you do have a copy, don't you?).  Though the term is over-used, I will say that this man was in fact a "Real American".  The kind of American that made America in the first place.

This man was more articulate at the age of 23 than I am at 48.  His parents, teachers, and home-town folk must be some pretty great people.  Now excuse me, I can't type anymore.

At $750 this is less than half of list price. Quantity 3 in XL for:

Threat Level IIIA Front & rear soft panels 

Front Plate - The 10x12-inch Model TK, K-47CL+ front plate is designed to stop 7.62x51 150 gr., 5.56 SS-109 62 gr., 7.62x39 all, inc API.

The only thing I know of that I lost is one Moody Blues CD I had ripped. I have it at home and when I get around to it I'll recover it also. I got off really lucky with no data permanently lost and only two evenings of my time gone.

Email is up and working again too.

A real backup plan must be implemented...

My former supervisor, the felon Bryan McMillan, at PNNL has a lawyer who requested a "huge number" (my lawyer's phrase) of items in their response to my lawsuit. The conclusion we may be able to draw from this is they don't plan to challenge the point of law about it being a wrongful termination to firing someone because they are a gun owner. The have chosen to go the route to try and make it cost me as much money as possible. Pursuant to that tactic they have requested a lot of financial data from me. With this data they can better judge what my ability is to sustain the legal battle. What they will find out is that our house mortgage payment is lower than most people's rent, we have no other debt, and Barb and I have very high paying jobs. In essence we can, with minor life style changes, sustain the battle until we retire ten or fifteen years from now. And that doesn't include all the donations I have received (click on the Make a Donation button here).

Assuming I win I'm paying everyone back with interest but we can't count on that so you should assume it's a donation. With a big thanks to some people from the Gun Club at Microsoft donations have covered about half of the legal expenses so far with promises of more as the bills come in. So for other side to try and make it too expensive for me to fight is going to be a losing tactic. All they can do is maybe slow down the inevitable and it actually improves the possibility for me to reach the desired end goal. I don't have the time right now to explain why that is but the basics are that as long as I win this particular legal battle the more money it costs both sides during the process the better chance I have of seeing the felons actually getting convicted.

Anyway... To prove the point that their game plan is to just drive up the costs, which ironically help me achieve my final goal, here is the list of requests (complete with typos) from the other side:

INTERROGATORY 1:  State your age, birth date, birth place, height, weight, sex, and Social Security Number. 

INTERROGATORY 2:  Have you gone under any other name or different spelling of said name?  If so, what name or different spelling?

INTERROGATORY 3:  List the addresses, with the dates, where you have resided during the past ten (10) years.

INTERROGATORY 4:  State the month and year you last attended any school, the highest grade or year completed, and the name and location of said school.

INTERROGATORY 5:  If you are married, please state your spouse's name and the date and place of your marriage.  If have been married more than once, state the names and addresses of previous spouse or spouses, if living, and the date and place of their death or your divorce.

INTERROGATORY 6:  State the names, addresses, and ages of your children, if any.

INTERROGATORY 7:  Set forth the amount of your earnings during each of the past five (5) years and your earnings to date during the current year. 

INTERROGATORY 8:  Are you claiming damages for lost earning capacity, lost wages or benefits?  If so, please state, with specificity:

a. The total amount of claimed damages;
b. How you calculated your damages;
c. All employers relevant to your claim and their addresses and phone numbers; and
d. All dates on which you were unemployed.

INTERROGATORY 9: If you have ever been self-employed, state each period of self-employment and the net monthly earnings of said periods.

INTERROGATORY 10:  Have you ever filed for bankruptcy?  If so, please state:

a. The dates and places at which any bankruptcies were filed; and
b. Whether the bankruptcy proceedings are still pending or whether they have been resolved.  If they have been resolved, please state the date of the dismissal, or discharge, if any.

INTERROGATORY 11:  State where you filed your last income tax return, and the year. 

INTERROGATORY 12:  Have you ever been previously involved in a lawsuit?  If so, please state when, where, the nature of the action, the disposition of the case, and the name of the attorney who represented you.

INTERROGATORY 13:  Please advise if you have in your possession or if you have access to statements made by any party or witness to this action.  (For purposes of this interrogatory, a statement is a written statement signed or otherwise adopted or approved by the person making it or a stenographic, mechanical, electrical, or other recording or transcription thereof which is a substantially verbatim recital of an oral statement by the person making it and reasonably contemporaneously recorded.)  If you do, please identify the name of the person making it, the time and place of its taking, the names and addresses of all persons then present and the name and address of the present custodian therefor.

INTERROGATORY 14:  Have you ever been admitted to a facility or hospital for the treatment of a psychiatric or psychological problem or condition?  If so, state:

a. The name and location of said hospital or facility;
b. Whether said treatment was in-patient or out-patient;
c. The dates of said treatment inclusive;
d. The names and addresses of both treating and admitting physicians, psychologists or care givers; and
e. The type and nature of the treatment received.

INTERROGATORY 15:  Give the names, addresses and telephone numbers of any persons known to you or your attorneys having knowledge of facts pertaining to this lawsuit.   This interrogatory is intended to include all witnesses known to you or your attorney or agents.

INTERROGATORY 16:  Have you ever pled guilty to or been convicted of a crime?  If so, state the nature of the crime, the date, and the ultimate disposition of the matter.

INTERROGATORY 17: Have you and/or your spouse/former spouse ever sought marriage counseling?  If yes, please state:

a. The name and location of where counseling was provided or sought;
b. The dates of said counseling inclusive;
c. The names and addresses of persons who provided counseling; and
d. The type of nature of the counseling received.

INTERROGATORY 18: Please state the date you were Adischarged@ from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory/Batelle?

INTERROGATORY 19: Please describe in detail the reasons given to you for your discharge, who gave them, and when these reasons were explained to you.

INTERROGATORY 20: Please state the name, address, and phone number of all places at which you have applied for employment since the date of the subject discharge.

INTERROGATORY 21: Please provide details of your current employment including job title, length employed, specifics regarding compensation, duties and if you have a written contract.

INTERROGATORY 22: Since the date of the subject discharge, please state approximately how many days or months you were unemployed.

INTERROGATORY 23: If the answer to the previous Interrogatory was in the affirmative, please state whether you have received any unemployment compensation.  If yes, please state the dates you received such compensation and the amount of each payment.

INTERROGATORY 24: During your employment at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory/Batelle, were you ever disciplined or educated as a result of what your supervisor determined to be improper conduct or deviation from the company=s policies or procedures?  If yes, please state the dates of such disciplines or educations, persons involved, and the nature and reason for the disciplines or education, persons involved, and the nature and reason for the discipline or education.

INTERROGATORY 25: For all employment held since your discharge from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory/Batelle, please state:

a. The names and addresses of each employer;
b. The name of your position and a brief job description for each position held;
c. The dates of employment with each employer;
d. Your salary or hourly wage for each position held.

INTERROGATORY 26: In addition the preceding Interrogatory, please list all income, of any type, which you have received since the date of your discharge from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory/Batelle.  State the source of the income, and the total income received from each source, including but not limited to, worker=s compensation benefits, unemployment benefits, Social Security benefits, income from jobs, and all income from any other source whatsoever.  If you received unemployment or worker=s compensation benefits which are the responsibility of more than one employer, state which employer is responsible for each amount of the benefit. 

INTERROGATORY 27:  Please identify by name and address each person consulted by you as an expert and whom you expect to call as an expert witness at the time of trial.  Additionally, as to such individuals so identified, state the subject matter on which the expert is expected to testify and state the substance of the facts and opinions to which the expert is expected to testify, giving a summary of the grounds for each opinion.

INTERROGATORY 28:  State whether or not you have received any reports of any kind concerning any aspect of your case.  If your answer is in the affirmative, state:

(a) What is the general subject of the report?
(b) The name, title or specialty, address and phone number of the person or expert or experts who made said report or reports.
(c) Who has custody of such report or reports?

INTERROGATORY 29:  Please describe and list each website maintained by you during the time of your employment at PNNL/Batelle and thereafter, including but not limited to the name of each website, its general subject matter, its URL, and the dates when such website was established.

INTERROGATORY 30:  Other than the websites described in your answer to Interrogatory 30, please describe and list each website where you have posted content of any kind or nature that could be viewed by other users of such website during your employment at PNNL/Batelle and thereafter, including the dates that such posts were made and the names and URLs of websites where such posts were made.

INTERROGATORY 31:  Of the websites listed in your answer to Interrogatory 31, please list specifically which websites you posted content referencing your employment at or information about PNNL/Batelle, including the dates of such posts and the name and URL of such websites.

INTERROGATORY 32:  For each post described in your answer to Interrogatory 32, please describe in detail the content of such post.

INTERROGATORY 33: While employed at PNNL/Batelle did you ever access the internet at work for a non-work related purpose?  If yes, please state the approximate dates of such access, the website you visited, its URL, and the purpose of accessing this website.

INTERROGATORY 34:  Please provide all facts to support the allegation in your Complaint that you were Acertified as a firearms instructor,@ including but not limited to the date of your certification and what agency or group granted you certification.

INTERROGATORY 35:  Please provide all facts to support that PNNL/Batelle knew that you were Acertified as a firearms instructor@ during your employment and/or that this influenced the decision to terminate you.

INTERROGATORY 36:  Please list the names of all the people present in May 17, 2005 meeting alleged in your Complaint, and describe what each person told you at this meeting, including the name and URL of the website(s) where it was asserted that you Areleased business and customer-sensitive information.@

INTERROGATORY 37:  Please list the dates and times that APNNL Investigators@ visited your Agun-related websites@ as alleged in your Complaint.

INTERROGATORY 38:  Please state the name of the AHuman Resources Specialist@ referenced in paragraph 3.9 of your Complaint, as well as the names of any others present at this meeting.

INTERROGATORY 39: Did you ever allow others to access the internet through PNNL/ Batelle owned computers?  If yes, please list the dates and times that you allowed others to access PNNL/Batelle owned computers and the name of such persons.

INTERROGATORY 40:  Please state the name of the manager referenced in paragraph 3.10 of your Complaint.

INTERROGATORY 41:  Please provide all facts to support your allegation that Afollowing [your] suspension, neither Plaintiff nor any of his co-workers, project managers, or program managers were asked any questions.@

INTERROGATORY 42:  Please describe in detail what was told to you regarding how you inappropriately and without authorization used PNNL computing resources, failed to comply with company standards, disclosed or used proprietary or confidential information without authorization, and were dishonest as stated in your Complaint at paragraph 3.14.

INTERROGATORY 43:  State the names of any others who were present at your meeting with Bryan McMillan described in paragraph 3.14 of your Complaint.

INTERROGATORY 44:  Please provide all factual support for your allegation that Athe proffered reasons for Plaintiff=s discharge are false and pretextual,@ as alleged in your complaint.

REQUEST FOR PRODUCTION 1:  Please provide legible copies of your income tax returns for the last five (5) years.

REQUEST FOR PRODUCTION 2:  Please provide legible copies of all transcripts or statements of any party or witness to this action.

REQUEST FOR PRODUCTION 3:  Please provide legible copies of all diaries, notes, memoranda, photographs, records, letters, or documents of any kind pertaining to the liability or damage claims of plaintiff.  This request for production is not meant to include materials prepared in anticipation of litigation, attorney work product, or confidential attorney-client communications. 

REQUEST FOR PRODUCTION 4:  Please provide true and accurate copies of all job applications you have filled out and submitted since the time of the subject discharge.

REQUEST FOR PRODUCTION 5:  Please provide legible copies of all resume or curriculum vitae which you have sent to an employer since the time of the subject discharge.

REQUEST FOR PRODUCTION 6:  Please provide legible copies of every record or document in your possession which is connected to, relates to, or is otherwise associated with your employment with defendant.  This request for production includes, but is not limited to, correspondence from or to defendant, written reprimands, performance evaluations, and any other documents received by you which relate to your employment with defendant. 

REQUEST FOR PRODUCTION 7:  Please provide legible copies of all reports, of any kind, including but not limited to reports of your experts, concerning any aspect of your case. 

REQUEST FOR PRODUCTION NO. 8:  For the websites listed in your answer to Interrogatory 30, please provide a hard copy of the log history of each website, from the date you began employment at PNNL/Batelle to date, showing who logged onto each website, at what time, and for how long. Please indicate on the log history, if it is not readily apparent, which entries you believe represent APNNL investigators@ and which represent you.

REQUEST FOR PRODUCTION NO. 9: For the websites listed in your answers to Interrogatory 30-32, please provide a hard copy of each posting made by you, from the date you began employment at PNNL/Batelle to date.  This request is intended to include posts in their original form as initially posted as well as any modifications, deletions, or additions made thereafter.  The hard copy may be from the website, from a back-up copy of the posting made by whomever maintains the server, or from any other means available to you.

What has happened and continues to happen in Monroe, N.C., illustrates an old truth: that words used in common by all men do not always have a meaning common to all men. Men have engaged in life-or-death struggles because of differences of meaning in a commonly-used word. The white racist believes in "freedom," he believes in "fair trial," he believes in "justice." He sincerely believes in those words and can use them with great emotion because to the white racist they mean his freedom to deprive Negroes of their basic human rights and his courts where a "fair trial" is that procedure and "justice" that decision which upholds the racist's mad ideal of white supremacy. On many desperate occasions when our constitutional rights were denied and our lives were in danger, we called on the Justice Department and the FBI to investigate the Monroe situation, to protect our lives and to restore our constitutional rights--in other words, to administer justice. And they always refused our request.

Robert F. Williams
Page 54; Negroes With Guns
[I'm really enjoying this book. Compare the above with the case where Second Amendment arguments in a gun manufacturing and possession case were not allowed. The Second Amendment does not mean the same to most of you and me that it does to the anti-gun bigots.--Joe]

Yesterday I received the interrogatories from the lawyer of my felonious former supervisor Bryan McMillan at PNNL. Among the list of things requested (according to my lawyer the 44 interrogatories and seven "requests for production" is a "huge number") was a HARD COPY of all my website log files from the day I started work at PNNL until the present. As I was organizing the log files (several Gigabytes of stuff) my hard disk died. I had back ups of all the log files up until a month or two after the termination (June 2005) but not for the last 18 months or so. I only had one copy of most of them. My email hadn't been backed up for several months either. I was up until 3:00 AM before giving up for the night.

Today I was able to recover nearly everything from the old drive with the only thing still potentially at risk was stuff I could recreate such as my website content (still up on my ISPs server). I haven't verified my email file yet but it seemed to copy just fine. Ry, his son, and I went to Fry's and bought a new hard disk and I'm now in the process of copying all my files to the new hard disk.

I'm glad I was able to recover the data. It would have been exceedingly difficult to explain a hard disk crash occurring only a few hours after getting a request for the contents.

And it's not like I don't want to comply either. It would be lots of fun actually. They want a hard copy of all the log files. I did a rough estimate and came up with over one million pages required using a normal sized font. Printed single sided that's a pile of paper over 300 feet high. And since when they lose the case they will have to pay all my legal expenses and hence will ultimately get stuck with the bill for all the paper and printing costs. And you know what would be even more funny? Driving a truck full of boxes of paper up to the door of the lawyer's office and telling them to unload it. And of course imagining them trying to find data of any use in a million pieces of paper would keep me laughing for a few weeks as well.

Unfortunately my lawyer said to just give them the data on a DVD and let them print it out if they wanted it that way. It seems my lawyer wants to spoil nearly all my fun.

Mayor Nagin, Chief Riley and the city’s attorney have repeatedly failed to communicate with our legal counsel, even for the most trivial of matters related to this lawsuit.

...

There comes a time when patience runs out and people need to be held accountable for what amounts to an arrogant disregard for the seriousness of this lawsuit and the rights of New Orleans gun owners.

...

The city’s behavior in this matter, and particularly that of Mayor Nagin and Chief Riley, has been deplorable, and it is time for them to behave like adults. Since the day the city began seizing firearms, Nagin and Riley have acted as though they are above the law. It is time they learned otherwise.

Alan Gottlieb
January 17, 2007
SAF FILES MOTION TO HOLD NAGIN, RILEY IN CONTEMPT

It would be the greatest mistake, certainly, to think that concessions mean peace.  Nothing of the kind.  Concessions are nothing but a new form of war.

V. I. Lenin
[Originally this reminded me of of Israel and giving up land for peace but it also applies to the Muslim extremists everywhere and conceding things to anti-gun bigot and all the socialists and communists in our government.--Joe]

Allah has created the woman, even if she gets a PhD, deficient. She may be suffering from hormones that will make her emotional. It takes two witnesses of a woman to equal the one witness of the man.

Green Lane Mosque Internet broadcast
Via Michelle Malkin's Hot Air
[This is "small potatoes" compared to some of the other stuff I have read in other places. Girls as young as nine are young enough to be married to much older men. A woman who accuses someone of rape must have four Muslim witnesses who witness penetration of the vagina by the head of the penis. If he admits she had sex with someone who is not her husband and cannot prove rape can be punished, by death, as an adulteress. Read Islam Unveiled for far more information than most people want to know.

I had lunch with someone from India today. He said his wife believes their grandchildren will all be Muslim.--Joe]

After the July 7, 2005 bombing in London there was a second wave of bombing on July 21. A bit off topic but a reminder of who we are dealing with; Islam prohibits the killing of innocent in war but the extremist Muslims have declared there are no innocents in Israel and there were no innocents in the World Trade Center. Apparently, according to these animals, there were none in the London Tubes either:

One of the men, Ramzi Mohammed, even turned his homemade device to face a mother and child as he detonated it on a subway train, the prosecutor said.

However, my main point is the information about how they built the bombs. From the same article we find:

The bombs didn't cause widespread death and destruction because they didn't contain a high enough concentration of peroxide to explode properly, Sweeney said.

...

Sweeney told a jury of nine women and three men that the defendants had constructed the explosives out of hydrogen peroxide, chapatti flour and detonators in a ``bomb factory'' in a north London apartment. Each device was designed to carry a main charge of as much as 6 kilograms (13 pounds), sealed in a 6.2- liter plastic tub and encased in screws and nuts to ``maximize the possibility of injury,'' he said.

Hydrogen peroxide is easy to buy (and make) and if someone doesn't know how to find or (make flour) then they probably are so stupid they need to be reminded to drop their pants before defecating. Hence if people can make bombs out of these common materials then we need to defend against criminal bombers by means other than placing restrictions on bomb making materials. Just like gun control, recreation drug control, and alcohol control, bomb control at the manufacturing level is an exercise in futility.

The struggles of the Freedom Riders and the Sit-In Movements have concentrated on a single goal: the right to eat at a lunch counter, the right to sit anywhere on a bus. These are important rights because their denial is a direct personal assault on a Negro's dignity. It is important for the racists to to maintain these peripheral forms of segregation. They establish an atmosphere that supports a system. By debasing and demoralizing the black man in small personal matters, the system eats away the sense of dignity and pride which are necessary to challenge a racist system.

Robert F. Williams
Page 38; Negroes With Guns
[Compare this to the rights of gun owners and the indignities of having to be fingerprinted and licensed to exercise a fundamental, Constitutionally guaranteed right. Or the restrictions on us within 1000 feet of a school. Or the abuse we have to deal with if caught with a gun while driving through New Jersey, Washington D.C. or Chicago, even though we are theoretically protected by the Gun Owners Protection Act of 1986. Even that we if are allowed to exercise our right we must keep it concealed if we are to do it in public. What we are fighting for shares some remarkable parallels with the civil rights battles others have fought. I think there is a lot to be learned from them.--Joe]

I got an email earlier today asking for permission to post a copy of Just One Question on a website along with a link back to my original post. I said "go for it" and it has appeared here as well as on the front page of their website (which I suspect is temporary).

Nice.

Everyone in Germany is a National Socialist - the few outside the party are either lunatics or idiots.

Adolf Hitler
[This reminds me of how the Democrats treat anyone outside their party. But I guess that shouldn't be surprising since they share socialism as a base ideology.--Joe]

Expect perennial gun haters like Paul Helmke to ramp up the rhetoric against sensible concealed carry laws that are proving their effectiveness in some 40 states. With violent crime on the upswing, and experts predicting it will keep rising, this is no time to advocate victim disarmament laws. May as well put wolves in the sheep pasture and bid them "bon appetit!"

Alan Gottlieb
January 12, 2007
Another view: Violent crime rise proves need for personal protection capability
Gottlieb is founder of the Second Amendment Foundation and chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms in Bellevue, Wash.
Paul Helmke is president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership Violence.