The New York Times has become Mad Magazine.

Rush Limbaugh
May 29, 2007
After reading the second paragraph of this opinion piece.

I support the war against the Islamic extremists who insist we must convert to their religion or die:

They are willing to die for their beliefs and I am willing to help them with the dying part until they are willing to leave us alone. But it's tough when the cost of those convictions are brought home:

An explosive device built in Iran (not really an IED) nearly killed our nephew Jason. He lost his right arm, the vision in his right eye, and his face, his buttocks, and his left arm were severely wounded.

Adam Plumondore was a Boomershoot Precision Rifle Clinic Instructor. He was killed by a car bomb in Iraq. His partner at Boomershoot, Walter Gaya, was injured a few months later by an explosive device in Iraq.

A friend of mine was shot in the leg while invading Granada. He never completely recovered from that wound. That and numerous other injuries suffered both in combat and training took him out of the Army and are now a permanent part of his life.

Growing up I just missed the draft for the Vietnam war by a few months. I knew people and relatives that participated in WWI, WWII, the Korean War, and Vietnam. Even by the time I graduated from high school I can only think of one person I knew who was even wounded in combat--a friend of my Dad that I only met a half dozen times. It was all "just numbers" in the history books and on the news. It wasn't real. Reality is different.

I don't think that teenage and early twenty-something males really have that good of grasp on reality. Certainly their judgement center is insufficiently myelinated. This causes them to take risks they shouldn't and to have a high rates of organ donation compared to the general population. For the survival of our species this is a good thing. Young males are best fit to fight predators whether it be a man-eating tiger or the people trying to finish the job Hitler and his gang were unable to complete. They are better fighters and they are more likely to survive their wounds than women and older men.

For them to not really understand the risks makes it harder for me. I know the job must be done. I know we can't let the predators have their way. Their way would be to go back to the dark ages. Because I know a little more about the risks, the costs, of defending or freedom my inclination is to keep our young men and women off the ground in the Mideast. I think, "Glass over the entire sandbox! Better that that lose another one of our people." But that's my emotions talking. That's not the right thing to do.

It's a tough battle with my emotions. Logically the right thing to do is much different that what my emotions are fighting for. It's particularily difficult for me right now. Not just because it's Memorial Day but because my daughter's boyfriend, John, is shipping out next month.

John just turned 18. Good luck John. Please come back in one piece. Thank you, and all the others, for your service.

See also Xenia's Live Journal post.

Interesting. Tish Durkin, in essence, turned my Just One Question around. She took nearly 2000 words to say it but here is the essence:

In other words, the burden would not be on the gun control lobby to prove that there absolutely, positively would be fewer violent deaths if it were harder to get guns.

She overlooks, perhaps too conveniently, that the data already exists. She only need go look for it rather than imagine she knows the answer. But maybe she doesn't want to know the answer. She admits she is very hard core anti-gun but she is far from stupid.

I updated the Boomershoot 2008 web page today. I also added a page outlining some of the preparations already accomplished.

I have increased the number of shooting positions to 76 total.

The new online entry website is currently under test. If you would like to help test it let me know and I'll send you the URL.

The date for Boomershoot 2008 has been set--April 27^th. We will be accepting entries soon--probably by the end of the week. I already gave away two positions to King County Friends of the NRA. Staff and Boomershoot 2007 entrants will have first chance when it opens up. When I give the general announcement expect it to fill up within a month with the best positions filled within a couple weeks. If you think you might want to attend sign up soon then get a refund if you can't make it.

Not because they committed criminal acts but simply because the lab didn't have enough work for them

Nearly 60 employees at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have left their jobs in recent months mainly because of the "ebb and flow" of federal funding.

About 40 of the employees received involuntary layoff notices, said Greg Koller, spokesman for the lab run by Battelle for the Department of Energy.

I haven't checked with my sources but almost for certain it didn't include the people that should be facing felony charges. That will have to come later after I do some more work on the problem.

This has exposed the abusive, arbitrary and autocratic nature of Chavez's Government, a government that fears free thought, that fears opinion and fears criticism.

Marcel Granier
Chief of RCTV, the country's oldest broadcaster
May 28, 2007
Venezuelan TV channel shut down
[Chavez is just being true to his socialist ideals. Socialism, The Road to Serfdom.--Joe]

Since my post on my colonoscopy last week was so popular (over 100 referrals in the last 16 hours) I thought I might bump the readership numbers still more by reposting something from UseNet from nearly 17 years ago. The details of my vasectomy:

From joe@proto.COM Wed Aug 15 11:59:07 1990
Path: proto!joe
From: joe@proto.COM (Joe Huffman)
Newsgroups: misc.kids
Subject: Re: Vasectomy
Summary: I am pleased with the results.
Message-ID: <1392@proto.COM>
Date: 15 Aug 90 18:59:07 GMT
References: <SCOTTP.90Aug14093250@bwdlh461.bnr.ca>
Distribution: misc
Organization: Prototronics; Sandpoint, Idaho
Lines: 110

In article <SCOTTP.90Aug14093250@bwdlh461.bnr.ca>, scottp@bwdlh461.bnr.ca
(Scott Pace) writes:
> I would like to hear from anyone out there who has experienced a
> vasectomy (or knows someone who has).

What do you want to know?  As a means of birth control it has been successful.
I got mine about 2 years ago and I haven't got anybody pregnant yet.

The operation was relatively painless.  The doctor and I talked about
computer programming most of the time during the surgery.  I had some
slight internal bleeding in the scrotum area that left a bruise appearing
discoloration for about a week and a half.  This is normal.  The doctor
told me to take some pain pills before the novacaine wore off, go home put
a ice pack under my shorts and go to bed for the afternoon.
I got bored in bed and keep waiting for the pain to kick in after the
novacaine wore off but it NEVER did ache or hurt.  I finally got up and
went to work on my computer in the other room.  No orgasms allowed for
one week after the surgery (one of the toughest parts of the whole thing). 
No heavy physical activity allowed either.  It was a bit tender for a week
or two but no big deal as long as the kids didn't jump on me.  A month after
the surgery it was nearly impossible to see the incision marks.  In 2 months
it was impossible.  I had to use other methods of birth control until I got a
0 sperm count.  That normally takes about 3 months.  My first count (at 3
months post surgery) was 2 dead ones.  A month later it came back 0.  So 4
months past before other methods were deemed unnecessary.

-----
>>>DETAILED<<< DESCRIPTION OF PROCEDURE FOLLOWS
-----

The doctor had a pre-surgery consultation and advised me of all the risks.
The ones I remember were:
1) About 1 out of 200 fail and have to be redone.
2) Some number (I forget how many) develop a nodule at the point of
blockage.  This may get as large as 3/4 of an inch in diameter.  Usually it
is painless but sometimes it must be removed with surgery.  I think I have a
very small occurance of that on my right side.
3) It should be considered permanent.  Reversal rate is about 80% but it is
much more involved, more costly, and of course less successful.

This was our GP and I asked how many he had performed, he told me about
300.  I asked about complications that he had observed.  He told me that he
had one patient that had to be redone, he had done nothing different in that
case that he was aware of.  One patient was riding his motercycle about
three days later and ending up pushing it some distance when the engine
failed and he was bedridden for a couple days afterwards.  With one
procedure the guy was more nervous than most but made it through one side
without freaking out.  The doctor put in the stich on that side and said,
"Now we'll do the OTHER side."  At which point the patient did 'freak' for
a while. 

He instructed me to shave the front of my scrotum the morning of the
surgery.  The surgery was to be at about 10:00 AM.  I went in a bit early
and they started early due to a previous patient canceling.   The nurse
(Viki, beautiful woman, but that's irrelevent, or is it?) had me take off my
pants and lay down.  She draped my stomach -> thigh area with sterile
sheets with an opening for my scrotum and penis.  She complemented me on
the shaving I had done and said she wouldn't have to do any more.  She then
scrubbed the front of my scrotum for (a timed) five minutes.  We had a nice
chat about how it had worked out for her and her husband (she was very
pleased and indicated he hadn't had any problems with it).  She draped
that area and got the doctor.  He put on latex gloves and manipulated the
vas deferens to the front of the scrotum (it is normally near the rear).
He then used a clamp to hold it place near the surface while he got the
syringe in his hand.  He warned that this would hurt for a little bit.  He
poked the needle upwards skewering the vas deference lengthwise, this HURT
until he started injecting the material.  He then pulled the needle out of
the vas deferens, but not the scrotum, and repeated in the downward
direction.  He then made an incision about 3/8 inch long vertically above
the vas deferens between the jaws of the clamp where he had made the
injection.  He cauterized a few blood vessels that were bleeding and
pulled the vas deferens out of the scrotum so that about a 1 inch section
was exposed.  I could feel some tugging on my testicles but it was not
painful.  He 'stripped' the sheath that contains blood vessels from
around the vas deferens being careful keep damage to a minimum.  When about
3/4 inches of the vas deferens was exposed he tied it off in two places
about 1/2 inch apart.  He then used a scaphel to cut a section about 1/4
inch long from between the two places that were tied off.  This section
was set aside to be set to a lab for "identification".  I asked if he had
ever had a lab report indicate he had made a mistake and he said, "No"
(then why do it?  I didn't ask, but I suspect it is insurance against
lawsuits).  He then cauterized the two ends of the vas deferens.  This was
to seal the ends (in addition to being tied off).  He then put the severed
vas back in the scrotum and put in a single stitch.

Repeat for the other side.

Through all the surgery Viki would come in and ask how things were going
and chatted with us a bit.  The doctor had a mother cat that had kittens and
Viki had picked up one of the kittens a couple weeks earlier...

They gave me some pain pills (which I only used one doseage of), some gauze,
and instructions on how to care for the incision site.  No big deal, I was
to keep it dry for 24 hours, and change the dressing if it became blood
soaked.  I had some minor external bleeding for about 1 1/2 days and had to
keep the gauze pads in place to avoid bleeding on my underwear.

From the time I walked in until I walked out it took about an hour and 45
minutes.  Actual surgery was about 50 minutes or so.

I think it was about 4 days later I went in and had the stitches removed.

Anything I left out?

--
--
netcom!proto!joe
joe@proto.com

When everyone in politics jumps on a bandwagon like ethanol, I start to wonder if there's something wrong with it. And there is. Except for that fact that ethanol comes from corn, nothing you're told about it is true.

John Stossel
May 23, 2007
The Many Myths of Ethanol
[Remember when I wrote about ethanol a while back? My brother Doug did some quickie "back of the envelope" type number crunching and came to the same conclusions Stossel writes about.--Joe]

All the early reports on the nut case known as Jason Hamilton that killed a bunch of people in Moscow last weekend said he shot his wife Crystal first. An email from Mike informs me that Crystal was his ex-wife:

The couple filed for divorce on Aug. 3, 2004, citing irreconcilable differences. Hamilton and Jones said in court documents they had no children. The couple had been separated since March 2004 and listed separate home addresses in Moscow.

There was no dispute over the division of assets or debts. The divorce was granted the same day it was filed, records show.

It looks to me as if she should have read How to be Invisible and then disappeared after the divorce.

There is a phrase I have heard from people in the news business: "If it bleeds it leads." The traffic on this site over the last week illustrates why:

Typically I get about 200 visits a day with the weekends being a little bit lighter. On Sunday (and here) and Monday (and here) Lyle and I reported about the nut case that shot up the Latah County Dispatch center and killed three people before belatedly removing himself from the gene pool.

Yes, there is media bias about gun control but part of that tendency is fed because of readership/money. If I had reported the nut case had shot at the dispatch center, the police showed up and arrested him without incident there probably wouldn't have been a blip. If it had been a private citizen that had run him over with a car while he was reloading it would have been only a minor blip. But three innocent people were killed and two others were wounded so there was almost six times the normal traffic.

In this "war" we are fighting against the anti-gun bigots there are natural advantages and disadvantages for both sides. The bigots have the advantage of better media coverage for their viewpoint and much higher emotional content. We have the advantages of the facts, the numbers of dedicated activists, and our social networks. There are other advantages too, but that is a topic for another post.

I believe that a persons moral compass can be determined by how he references free men the right to defend themselves. The Second Amendment is so obvious to me it's insane that there's an argument.

Ted Nugent
From a video found at Say Uncle
[The rest of video is a "must watch". Not as quotable, but great stuff.--Joe]

Yesterday I took off work early to get a guided tour of a place I've never been before. Actually a place no one has visited before. I'd been putting it off for a while now. I hadn't had a physical for about three years now. The last time I did the doctor said that when you turn 50 it's recommended you know. <great> No physicals for me for a while since I didn't want to be reminded. I turned 51 several months ago and had procrastinated as long as I could.

Tuesday night I had my last meal with solid food. No solids until after the procedure. Wednesday I had a few six ounce cans of apple and grape juice, and a can of Cherry Coke for my sustenance. I noon I took four little pills. About six that evening they were starting to work their magic and it was time for me to go home and spend some quality time with the porcelain goddess. I had four liters of some sort of stuff to drink that would clean me out from end to end. It did. It continued to clean me all night and I didn't get much sleep.

Yesterday morning I had nothing but water for input. At noon I stopped the water. About 13:30 Barb and I drove to the to the medical center. I was required to bring someone with me to drive and receive my care instructions afterward. <great> They were going to mess with my mind as well as my alimentary canal. Barb was joking with me about it. I tried to threaten her about "When it's your turn" but she knew she would "get it" even if she was easy on me and didn't let up. <heavy sigh> Yeah, she was right. She knows me too well after 33 years together.

I filled out the paperwork, took off my clothes and put on the hospital gown that opens, full length, down the back. They put me on a stretcher, put an I.V. in my arm and wheeled me in to a room with a T.V. monitor and some other instruments. I knew what was going to be on the T.V. monitor. It was going to be me. All me and nothing but me. The nurses hooked me up to the other instruments. Oxygen saturation: 100%. Blood pressure: 100 over 60. Pulse: 61 to 64. All very good. That was before the doctor showed up.

The doctor showed up introduced herself and a student who would just be watching. An audience--the two nurses, a student, and the doctor. The doctor started to give me the meds that would mess with my mind. She said, "This is very fast acting so you will start to feel it right away. I presume you want to not feel..." I cut her off before she pushed the plunger on the syringe. "Actually", I said, "I would rather you go light on that stuff." "Would you like to try it without meds?" she asked? "Okay", I agreed. I think the audience all started smiling. Something different I guess. I was going to be their entertainment for the day. I couldn't see the doctor. She was behind me--of course.

One of the nurses announced she used to work in OB/GYN and that I needed to focus on something and take some deep breaths. "Relax", she told me, "And keep your muscles soft. This is going to be a lot like having a baby." The doctor quipped that I wasn't going to be doing any pushing though. At my suggestion they agreed there wouldn't be an episoitomy either.

It wasn't bad a first. At the turns the pressure increased. At the third turn I asked to doctor to stop for a moment. She offered the meds and I said I just wanted to relax a bit. It's tough to keep your stomach muscles relaxed when there is a five foot long snake writhing around in your large intestine. Now I wonder what my blood pressure and pulse were. At the time I didn't really think about it.

After a few seconds with my breathing coach praising me and putting her hand on my stomach to help focus on the relaxing of the muscles I told the doctor okay and she continued pushing the one eyed snake until it's head reached the junction with my small intestine, my cecum, and appendix.

The trip out was much easier. And that was when we got to really see things. But they pumped me full of air, inflating things so the snake could get a better view of things. That air pressure caused some discomfort but not too bad. Especially compared to the pushing around those corners. I focused on the monitor and the doctor explained all the different things we were looking at. The student, with a great deal of glee said, "It's rare we get to give guided tours." <wonderful. She thinks of me as a tourist in my own bowel where she gives tours.>

After it was done they all praised me. "Wow. That's not something you see every day--no meds." The student asked the doctor if I get a two for one deal next time. The doctor said they should have some gold stars to hand out for people like me. I was just glad to have the alien out of my belly.

Everything was normal. The doctor told me I didn't have to do that again for seven years. And the question she wanted answered is if I was going to do it without meds next time. I said I didn't know. I liked being able to see what was going on but there was a lot of discomfort.

They gave me pictures of the various places we visited. Sort of like those pictures you get at tourist attractions except these were much, much, more expensive. I'd post them but I don't think the pictures were taken from my most flattering angle.

Our data do not show whether guns at college confer a net benefit, impose a net cost, or have an indifferent effect on college communities or on individual gun owners.

Matthew Miller, MD, ScD
David Hemenway, PhD
Henry Wechsler, PhD
Guns and Gun Threats at College
Journal of American College Health, Vol. 51, No. 2
[When you read the Brady Campaign Against Gun Ownership web page on allowing teachers and students to exercise their inalienable rights keep the above quote in mind. Brady claims this paper supports their insistence it's insane to recognize constitutionally guaranteed freedoms on college campuses.--Joe]

Mike has researched the genealogy of Jason Hamilton. Hamilton is the guy that shot up Moscow Idaho last weekend before terminating his branch of the family tree with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

Replace my real light bulbs with fluorescents, in sickly yellow or morgue blue, and I’ll have to burn something else for color. Whale oil, maybe.

Tom Scocca
May 22, 2007
Fluorescent Fanatics Turn Me Off

But this is the reality of the idea that firearms in “good” hands can somehow protect us from firearms in “bad” hands. They can’t, and even if they help in one lucky situation, the balance of all the pain and suffering they make possible in every other just is not worth it.

Guy Guys
May 23, 2007
Referring to the fact that Peter Husmann was wounded while attempting to stop the shooting in Moscow last weekend.
Idaho Gunman Had Mental Illness History, CCW Owner Shot at Scene
[Apparently, according to this nut case, even police shouldn't have guns. He is facing the problem that if you believe guns in the hands of the police can be used for good then you will have to admit that guns in the hands of private citizens must, at least sometimes, be a good thing also. He solves this dilemma by claiming guns are so seldom used for good that they shouldn't even be in the hands of the police.--Joe]

Via Ry we find the Spokemans Review tells us all we need to know about the Moscow shooter. The following is just a sample:

Jason Kenneth Hamilton, the man responsible for the deadly shooting spree in Moscow, Idaho, was a card-carrying Aryan Nations member...

...

Hamilton had an extensive criminal history in Idaho, Arizona, California and Oklahoma, including arrests for violent crimes, domestic battery and drugs, according to court records obtained Tuesday by The Spokesman-Review.

...

He was arrested in September 2005 for attempted strangulation of his on-again, off-again girlfriend. A jury convicted Hamilton of a reduced charge of misdemeanor domestic battery in June 2006.

As he was awaiting trial, he was arrested for allegedly grabbing another woman by the hands and throwing her to the floor, injuring her. The case was dismissed.

Prior to moving to Latah County, Hamilton was charged with felony aggravated assault in 1992 in Lake Havasu, Ariz., and placed on probation. He was charged a few months later with possession of marijuana and driving with a suspended license; both charges were dismissed.

Hamilton was arrested in 1995 by the Tulsa, Okla., city police on a cruelty to animals charge that was reduced to malicious injury. He was sentenced to a year in jail, but the sentence was suspended.

He needed to be locked up a long time ago. But you never know for certain until it's too late.

See also Ry's report on the conversation we had today at lunch about the police response.

It is not a help. In fact, it's a hindrance and it greatly places people in danger. The police are liable to shoot someone with a gun.

Dan Weaver
Moscow Police Chief
May 21, 2007
UI senior tried to help but became victim
Referring to Peter Husmann who grabbed his pistol and went to help stop the person shooting up the Latah County Courthouse.
[I'm in total agreement with Weaver. In addition the evacuation and care of Husmann consumed resources that could perhaps have been better allocated to other tasks had Husmann not been collecting bullet wounds. If you are there when the shooting breaks out and can stop the shooter then by all means do so. But you don't leave a safe area and seek out the shooter. There may be some exceptions such as when the police will not be arriving for many minutes or perhaps hours and your loved ones are in danger but Husmann's actions were clearly wrong. This event took place just outside the Sheriff's office and maybe three blocks from the Moscow Police Station. In this case the police response time could be expected to be within one or two minutes and perhaps even in seconds. A person out of uniform with a gun in hand in these circumstances when the police arrive have special names--they are call a "Target" or "Bullet Magnet". I understand Husmann's motivation. I am glad there are people willing to put themselves in danger to help others. But this wasn't the time or the place.--Joe]