The View From North Central Idaho

Kim, Caleb, and I went to the Boomershoot site yesterday. We put in a simple stairway from the water pump to the shed where we make and store the explosives for the reactive targets.

When we got back home Xenia asked what we did and I told her we made a stairway. "To where?", she asked. And I told her, "A stairway to heaven."

This captures a couple of different concepts in addition to the song with that title. I always worry some about blowing up myself and others when we are working on the explosives. Hence a literal use of the word heaven if you believe in such things. And also it's a very happy, pleasant place for me--gun, explosives, and the serenity of being out in the middle of the farm with no people or their sounds nearby.

It turns out that for an out-of-hospital "witnessed cardiac arrest" you probably shouldn't do the mouth-to-mouth portion of CPR.

Uncle says see-through frogs are creepy. I say you better get used to it. People are now creating completely new species. Future Shock is here and now.

I read Future Shock in about '75 and my opinion hasn't changed with 30+ years of evidence--Toffler just likes to blather about things no one can or has any need to measure.

Do you think we can gain any traction with the environmentalists who whine about the loss of species if we started creating new species faster than we made old ones extinct? No? I didn't think so either. There's just no making some people happy.

Advertisement: The most truthful part of a newspaper.

Thomas Jefferson
[Apparently problems with the mainstream media are nothing new. One might conclude that the problem will never be solved. Perhaps the best that can be done is to provide alternate outlets exposing the problems. The great thing about the Internet is that the barrier to entry is so low.--Joe]

Update: What Kevin said.

A loaded handgun was found in an airport men's room. 

[Yawn.]

No big surprise. It's an impossible "problem" to solve.

This weekend I'll be doing Boomershoot 2008 prep and other chores but some people will be here (San Francisco--of course):

The latest adult industry "'pr0nnovations" will be on display in San Francisco this weekend at Arse Elektronika, a three-day expo featuring sex machines, brainy talks and weird performances (including the Electric Orifice Orchestra, in which "extravagantly dressed performers use live biofeedback from muscular interior walls of their bodies to create a multimedia interactive show").

De inimico non loquaris sed cogites

Do not wish ill for your enemy ... plan it.

Jack L. Patterson
Baltimore, MD
June 20, 2007
[There are others that have used this as their .sig line but Patterson has used it more than any other that I can find. I have been unable to find the originator. 

I'm thinking of the anti-gun bigots at the moment...--Joe]

I said it would make them squirm. And both the Gun Guys and Josh Sugarman are doing just that.

Kim's last name isn't Huffman but I'll send an email to get that fixed. Check out our pictures with the other People of the Gun.

Ry has four Halo 3 video ads posted. Microsoft puts an amazing amount of money into marketing (and nearly everything they do).

What good would it have been to know the names of Timothy McVeigh, the Unabomber, or the DC snipers before they were arrested? Palestinian suicide bombers generally have no history of terrorism. The goal is here is to know someone's intentions, and their identity has very little to do with that.

And there are security benefits in having a variety of different ID documents. A single national ID is an exceedingly valuable document, and accordingly there's greater incentive to forge it. There is more security in alert guards paying attention to subtle social cues than bored minimum-wage guards blindly checking IDs.

That's why, when someone asks me to rate the security of a national ID card on a scale of one to 10, I can't give an answer. It doesn't even belong on a scale.

Bruce Schneier
April 1, 2004
A National ID Card Wouldn't Make Us Safer
[See also my web pages on National ID Card Flaws.--Joe]

Xenia made a video of John and her in the park. John is now headed back to the sandbox to guard convoys with his video game.

Good luck and thanks John. Please come back in one piece.

But it's no wonder we are concerned about privacy, because we are all "lawbreakers", We all break the law, but few of us are criminals.  The problem is that simply attracting the attention of the police is enough to put the best of us at risk, because we break the law all the time and it's set up to make that happen!

John Gilmore
March 28,1991
A transcript of remarks given at the First Conference on Computers, Freedom, and Privacy
[Remember what Ayn Rand said and Huffman's rule of firearms law.--Joe]

Goody Guns by JPFO.

[Heavy sigh] My youngest is in college now so this just wouldn't have the impact it would have 10 or 15 years ago. Maybe it would be a nice gift for some nephews and nieces.

This is the story I heard at Gun Blogger Rendezvous 2006 I most wanted to tell. I'm glad Uncle shared this in public so I could comment on it.

Basically, some people need to be shot. People that claim everyone is just like everyone else and predators just need to be "understood" or some such thing are ignorant. There are evil people that will never change and will be a threat to others as long as they are alive. Read the epiphany a former psychologist (Uncle) had when attempting to counsel one of these animals.

I don't advocate individuals hunting these animals unless you have a license and tag. The premeditate taking of even sub-human life should be carefully considered with the appropriate checks and balances. Defending against an imminent or in progress attack from one of them is another matter. Remember the following four rules and repeatedly apply them until the threat is eliminated or you can no longer acquire a sight picture:

1. Trigger prep
2. Sight alignment
3. Squeeze
4. Follow through

In case you haven't tested it out recently (as in the last day) Microsoft's search engine was just updated and for the first time has search results on par with Google. I know the test methodology for this claim but I'm not sure I'm at liberty to reveal it but I am of the opinion they did a good job measuring this and that the claim is accurate. "On par" is not good enough to win and I expect MS will pull ahead of Google in the near future.

Having an alternative to the anti-gun owner bigots at Google is important and now you don't have to compromise on search results. Now if I can just get the message to the right person to get MS to give us an alternative to AdSense so I can drop the Google ads in the right margin of this blog.

In winning our Independence, and to make certain that it could never happen again, the Founders wrote that the Citizen was to be SUPREME AUTHORITY, and that our authority was to be backed by force, forever. In their living this reality which they knew could occur in any age, any era, any administration, the reality of life today was that liberty must always be backed by citizen force.

John Longenecker
Original Intent--Citizen As Supreme Authority--Liberty -- How American Gun Control Is Adverse To The Public Interest In An Abuse Of Due Process
[There are lots of great quotes in this whitepaper.--Joe]

Syria is shamed and silent.  Iran is freaking out in panic.  Defenseless enemies are fun.

Dr. Jack Wheeler
Silence in Syria, Panic in Iran
September 25, 2007
[Via David.--Joe]

Yesterday we went to the east side of the park and again saw stunning beauty. Here is but one picture of mountains and a glacier:

I also took pictures of some animals. While still in the car we were able to get amazingly close. One of them, with a little coaxing got into the car with me and I took it back to the condo where it spent the night in bed with me. I know it will never be domesticated but even if it is wild it's fun to have in the bedroom. It's the last picture below. I call her Barbara.

Our major obligation is not to mistake slogans for solutions.

Edward R. Murrow
[Something to keep in mind as the candidates fire up their slogan machines for the next election.--Joe]

Two non-partisan, respected federal government agencies recently examined gun controls and found no statistically significant evidence to support their effectiveness. In 2004, the National Academy of Sciences reviewed 253 journal articles, 99 books, and 43 government publications evaluating 80 gun-control measures. The researchers could not identify a single gun-control regulation that reduced violent crime, suicide, or accidents. A year earlier, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on an independent evaluation of firearms and ammunition bans, restrictions on acquisition, waiting periods, registration, licensing, child access prevention laws, and zero tolerance laws. Conclusion: none of the laws had a meaningful impact on gun violence.

Robert A. Levy
September 27, 2007
The D.C. Gun Ban: Supreme Court Preview
[Via Uncle.--Joe]

Uncle reports having problems with Google being bigots. I had similar problems a while back and had similarly unsatisfactory results. I really wish there were a good alternative to getting advertising on my blog. I don't get a lot from them, currently about $0.80/day, but it pays my Internet related bills.

Here is the story of my experience with Google:

• Freedom of (some) expression is supported.
• Google tries to explain
• Google goes limp.
• I just deleted my Google Adwords campaign
• Google says good-bye

Thursday night we left the Huffman-Scott compound in the care of Caleb, Kim, and Xenia and headed to Missoula Montana. The next morning we went on a walk along the Clark Fork River:

We continued on to our time share condo in Columbia Falls and today went hiking in Glacier National Park. We hiked to Avalanche Lake. It is stunningly beautiful country. But it is also Grizzly bear country. And of course operational firearms are "illegal" in National Parks. I put illegal in quotes because the people that enacted and enforce that "law" are in violation of 18 USC 242. I'm hoping the Parker/Heller case will be a stepping stone to fixing that issue.

It's a small world. Over two miles off the road up a rocky hiking trail, at the edge of Avalanche Lake, we had the couple on the left offer to take our picture together. We agreed (picture above this one) and we took a picture of them together with their camera for them. We talked a bit and Barb asked where they were from. "Idaho", they said. "Where in Idaho?" we asked. "Troy", was the reply that shocked us. Troy is about ten miles from Moscow where Barb and I have our home. It turns out that Barb works with one of their friends and knows several of the people they know.

There is a loop at the bottom of the trail, about 1/2 of a mile long, that is suitable for wheelchair bound people. Some of it is almost artistic in layout.

We are still in Columbia Falls at our condo. No easy Internet connection. I'm sitting in the lobby of the lodge to get a connection. Blogging will be light for a few more days.

Growing up in eastern Kentucky like I did, I'm used to having a few guns around to protect me.

Loretta Lynn
[Not all celebrities are gun grabbers. Add Loretta Lynn to your list of common-sense people.--Joe]

There are hundreds of millions of gun owners in this country, and not one of them will have an accident today. The only misuse of guns comes in environments where there are drugs, alcohol, bad parents, and undisciplined children. Period.

Ted Nugent

I think I probably am spoiled. But that is okay.

Xenia Huffman-Scott
September 27, 2007
[Her sister Kim further noted that Xenia is in fact spoiled rotten--two cavities were discovered today when her teeth were cleaned.--Joe]

Firecracker Films have changed their contact person for the "Gun Families" documentary they are making. I've updated my post to reflect the changes.

They are still actively looking for people. If you have kids under 12 that are reasonably knowledgeable shooters please consider getting involved in this.

For a while I've been saying that this whole national ID debate will be irrelevant soon. In the future you won't have to show ID; they'll already know who you are.

Bruce Schneier
September 26, 2007
The Technology of Homeland Security
[It was this article that inspired the above comment. My comment to Schneier's article was:

I used to specialize in biometrics and was underwhelmed at the actual capabilities compared to the marketing hype. And that was with people that weren’t even actively engaged in trying to defeat the technology. If someone really wants to defeat it the odds of success are very close to 100%.

“Novelty” contact lens easily defeat iris scans. Remote fingerprint scanning can be defeated with Band-Aids (or just the sticky tape part of it). More sophisticated/determined people will use contact lens with someone else’s iris pattern and be wearing someone else’s fingerprints.

The bottom line is that for the average person they might be able to know who you are and where you have been. Great information to use against your political opponents and for stalkers with access to the databases but useless for stopping smart and determined criminals.--Joe]