Later, I spent several years touring the world, often in places where atrocity had recently been, or still was being, committed. In Central America, I witnessed civil war fought between guerrilla groups intent on imposing totalitarian tyranny on their societies, opposed by armies that didn't scruple to resort to massacre. In Equatorial Guinea, the current dictator was the nephew and henchman of the last dictator, who had killed or driven into exile a third of the population, executing every last person who wore glasses or possessed a page of printed matter for being a disaffected or potentially disaffected intellectual. In Liberia, I visited a church in which more than 600 people had taken refuge and been slaughtered, possibly by the president himself (soon to be videotaped being tortured to death). The outlines of the bodies were still visible on the dried blood on the floor, and the long mound of the mass grave began only a few yards from the entrance. In North Korea I saw the acme of tyranny, millions of people in terrorized, abject obeisance to a personality cult whose object, the Great Leader Kim Il Sung, made the Sun King look like the personification of modesty.

Theodore Dalrymple
Autumn 2004
The Frivolity of Evil
[Never forget why we fight to defend our right to keep and bear arms.--Joe]

I managed to drag Barbara to the Gun Blogger Rendezvous this year. It was on the condition that I didn't totally ignore her and I found time to do things with her.

We arrived at Circus Circus very late on Thursday evening and went to bed (to sleep). We had breakfast with the others the next morning then went on a walk while most of the other people went to play poker or various other games. We picked up Sebastian and Rob on our way out the door and went looking for the "River Walk" which Barb assured us would be more interesting than downtown Reno.

Barb, Sebastian, Rob

She was absolutely correct. It was much more "interesting" along the river than it was downtown or in the casino.

After walking for an hour or so we wandered back to Circus Circus in time to clean up and attend the Friday afternoon conference with the Apex of The Triangle of Death (the NRA).

Most everyone was there but I didn't take pictures of everyone and not all of the pictures turned out well.

Uncle made my ears smile with his Tennessee accent.

DirtCrashr and JimmyB

Sebastian

US Citizen (foreground), Uncle (background), and Glen Caroline from the Apex of the Triangle of Death

Rob (his back anyway), Mel and Chris, and Ashley Varner from the Apex of the Triangle of Death

I loved the part where Ashley told of going to television studios to debate some bigot from the Brady Bunch or the VPC and seeing their response when they first lay eyes on her and thinking, "I have to debate you?" For some reason Ashley doesn't fit the stereotypical image the bigots want to paint of the NRA.

Uncle saw me taking pictures and motioned me over. He wanted an ATF picture:

Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms

After getting our wheelbarrows full of cash and marching orders from the Apex of The Triangle of Death we had a little show and tell.

Uncle talking about the Ko-Tonics 6.8SPC upper

DirtCrashr and his toys

Mr. Completely with Sebastian in the background

After dinner Sebastian borrowed one of my knives and attacked the package of 6.8 SPC ammo. For a while we thought the package was going to win:

But Sebastian finally figured out the secret weapon being used against him--the package had staples which were nearly immune to my knife. He then engaged his superior intellect and defeated the wily package.

There were multiple simultaneous conversations all evening long and I constantly felt like I was missing out on something because I couldn't listen to all of them at once. The conversation continued until after midnight when, as we were headed for our rooms, Sebastian, Mr. Completely, and I witnessed hotel security go irrational on Chris. Another security guard came along and "suggested" the wacko go find something else to do. Thus Chris escaped without having to fill out a bunch of paperwork for leaving someone else's body parts littering the elevator lobby on the third floor.

Except for the last few minutes of the day it was very, very enjoyable.

Someday soon I'll post on the exterior ballistics of Saturday at GBR 2007.

Last week James just had to show me a new XBox 360 game he had been playing. He insisted I play it. It was probably painful for him to watch me. Things that he took for granted, like being able to move in a coordinated manner, were difficult for me. But he did have a point. This is a very cool game. It was more like solving puzzles than what you usually think of as video games. It was rather mind bending in a lot of ways. Imagine you have a tool, sort of like a gun, that can create a portal between any two surfaces you can see no matter how far apart or their orientation to each other. Now what can you do with it? It's a great game.

Spoofing that game concept we have this video:

I stumbled upon a link while (mostly) lurking in the comments of Kevin's post.

I may have read it sometime before. I seem to recall the name of the author, Theodore Dalrymple, and certain passages invoke a vague Deja Vu. If I have read it before and forgotten there is a good reason for it. It is very dark and invokes a mood of hopelessness in me. But it is a brutal reminder of why I fight to preserve the right to keep and bear arms and to oppose socialism in all it's forms. And I thought Uncle had experienced sufficient contact with evil to adequately remind of this.

Read The Frivolity of Evil at the risk of losing your own mental well being. But vigorously insist that people that oppose freedom, who insist on victim disarmament or have even a hint of Marxism in their political leanings read it.

I won't sleep well tonight, but I thank you Ed "What the" Heckman and Theodore Dalrymple.

Fellow blogger here at The View From North Central Idaho, Lyle @ UltiMak, took Thursday off from work to drive to the Seattle area to spend three very long days becoming a NRA (apex of the Triangle of Death) certified firearms instructor. Not only is he a trained killer he is now a certified trainer of killers--to hear what the Brady Bunch and others think of us.

I thought maybe he would mention it after he recovered from his grueling four day weekend (one day of travel then three days of instruction) but since he hasn't I'll at least bring up the topic. Maybe Lyle will elaborate on it later.

He didn't return home back in eastern Washington until well after midnight early Monday morning. You have to admire that level of commitment of time and money. And you know it wasn't so he could teach people how to kill. It was so he could instruct people in Personal Protection.

Via email from Stephanie.

I like the part where the scientists who have supposedly been "paid off" are lamenting about not receiving their wheelbarrows full of cash. It's the same story as us gun bloggers not getting our payoff from the NRA.

It's telling when someone thinks its money that is the reason someone is opposed to a viewpoint. This is a strong indicator the proponent of the viewpoint is a Marxist. Evidence and logic appear to be irrelevant to these types hence they must resort to some other explanation for people to be opposed to them. Money, the root of all evil, must therefore be the reason.

Marxism has killed and impoverished more people than any other political philosophy yet they keep trying. "Global warming" is just one more tool in their bag of tricks to try and destroy capitalism. It may not be the conscious motive for the masses but I'm certain the people at the top know it's nothing more than a scam to propel them to power. It's simply not possible for them to not know the facts if they put any serious effort into researching it.

Dave has a picture of Boomershoot 2007 cleanup. Boomershoot is a difficult thing to capture. The cleanup in particularly tough. The video is good but even ignoring the inability to capture the true dynamic range of the audio there is so much going on that it doesn't capture the visuals all the well either. Dave's picture helps get nonparticipants a little bit closer to understanding what it is like to be there.

Because there's no way in hell the two of you together can take Allen, if you give him the slightest chance.

I'm serious, Russell. Trust me on this, all right? Backshoot him, the second your sights bear, or I promise he will kill you for days. Longer days than you can possibly imagine.

Zudie, a character in Very Bad Deaths, page 175, by Spider Robinson
[It's possible one can imagine taking the law into your own hands. Robinson sets up a situation. In this case a telepath gets knowledge of a brutal murder about to occur. It's a true vigilante justice situation. It's a good story.--Joe]

Uncle is correct in saying "feeling threatened by an empty holster is beyond silly". Bigoted is the word I would use. The same as if people felt threatened by blacks wanting to use the same drinking fountains. Perhaps even more so.

Our analysis of the current stalemate in the national debate over gun control has led the Ed Fund to believe that activists must challenge the idea that guns protect freedom and democracy. We have begun to fuel a debate among academics, journalists, progressive leaders, and the general public over the relationship between guns and the values that define us as Americans. By demonstrating how the "insurrectionist" philosophy of the National Rifle Association has helped to build and sustain the conservative movement, the Ed Fund hopes to drive a wedge between the highly partisan and ideologically extreme leaders of gun rights organizations and moderate gun owners, as well as the non-gun owning public. We believe this strategy will give policy makers the best chance of enacting sound, progressive gun laws at the federal and state level that will ultimately save lives.

Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence
Objectives for Fiscal Year Beginning 01/01/2007
[They are correct about driving wedges but not about saving lives via their wedges. They need to answer Just One Question and reevaluate their objectives.--Joe]

Thoreau said, "That government is best which governs least".

Kevin explains in greater detail.

One of the ways the KKK and Aryan Nations were defeated was by driving them into bankruptcy. It appears we are doing the same thing to the anti-gun organizations.

The following are some numbers from some of the non-profit anti-gun organizations. There are other organizations but these appear to be the largest and oldest. My entire spreadsheet is here (.XLS Office Excel format). I obtained the numbers from the IRS filings I found here. The 1998 numbers were not available for Brady and the VPC. I used 1997 numbers instead. All numbers are in dollars.

Their revenue has been falling and they have reduced expenditures some but the net asset numbers have crashed. This is great news for us and partially explains why the politicians are paying attention to the NRA. The NRA and other pro gun organizations numbers are increasing (analysis some other day).

Total Revenue

Expenses

Net Assets

The Brady assets are 34% that of their peak in 1999.

The VPC and Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence (EFSGV) assests are currently so small it's tough to see them on the graph and most individuals have a greater net worth.

The VPC as of the end of 2005 was down to $98,162 This is 11% of their peak in 2002.

The EFSGV as of the end of 2005 was down to $30,624. This is 8% of their peak in 2003.

We need to keep the pressure on and drive them completely out of business. If we could only use some sort of lawsuit such as what the Southern Law Poverty Center did to some other bigoted organizations. Organized bigots have no place in our society.

A gun range exposes kids to a lot more than just lead dust. It also exposes them to the fascination of shooting guns.

Shooting ranges and rifle clubs have plummeted over the last several decades which used to be a "gateway" for youngsters into target shooting. From there, gun marketers hoped teens would grow into adults and become gun owners and hunters. But now the gun industry and lobby have taken more extreme measures. To rescue its declining gun market the gun lobby is desperately trying to lower the hunting age in several states to lure children into the industry's "gun and hunting culture".

The Gun Guys
October 18, 2007
Gun Range in Middle School Should Close Now, Not Wait Until 2010
[It's interesting he uses the same terminology frequently used to reference recreational drug use. Apparently in his mind firearms and recreational drugs are morally equivalent.--Joe]

Importantly, we need real financial privacy because the goods and information cost money.  When you buy or sell or communicate, money is going to change hands.  If they can track the money, they can track the trade and the communication, and we lose the privacy involved.

John Gilmore
A transcript of remarks given at the First Conference on Computers, Freedom, and Privacy, March 28, 1991
[Jews in the Attic Test again.--Joe]

It appears there will be a special Boomershoot event November 11th, 2007. This is for the benefit of a U.K. film company doing a documentary. For some background see this blog posting.

If you would like to participate send me an email. I will be charging $50.00 per shooter for this event and everyone can have their own shooting position. Depending on the weather we may not be able to get targets up on the hill and they may all be at the 375 yard tree line. We won’t know until the day of the shoot. But there will be lots of targets including fireballs to help keep us warm.

It’s not for certain yet but I estimate the chances of this happening on this day at about 75%.

While at Gun Blogger Rendezvous 2007 I received some very favorable comments about one of my concealment holsters. I was wearing blue jeans and a t-shirt and people had not noticed that I was carrying a STI 2001 Eagle 5.1 (the 5.0 is nearly identical) with a 18 round magazine.

This is the holster.

None of this is easy for someone raised to believe that the Second Amendment was the dividing line between the enlightenment and the dark ages of American culture. Yet, it is time to honestly reconsider this amendment and admit that ... here's the really hard part ... the NRA may have been right. This does not mean that Charlton Heston is the new Rosa Parks or that no restrictions can be placed on gun ownership. But it does appear that gun ownership was made a protected right by the Framers and, while we might not celebrate it, it is time that we recognize it.

Jonathan Turley
12:15 AM/ET, October 04, 2007
A liberal's lament: The NRA might be right after all
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University and a member of USA TODAY's board of contributors.
[We are winning. I hope to have some numbers and graphs ready for posting by tomorrow sometime.--Joe]

If some terrorist gets a bomb through security TSA (A Security Theater) is apparently going to tell them try again because they missed it the first time or three. But since it's coming from that liberal haven (read "logic impaired") of San Francisco it all sort of makes sense:

USA Today revealed that a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) report found screeners at SFO failed to find small bomb parts 20 percent of the time during a recent 12-month test.

SFO spokesperson, Mike McCarron, said the failure rate is unacceptable.

But McCarron said the TSA may have simply made the test too hard.

See also these news items on airport security:

• Report: U.S. screeners not catching bombs
• Airport security 'not where we need to be'
• US baggage control still lacking: report
• TSA: Turbans Don't Have to Be Removed

This last item is of particular interest because the TSA is telling everyone, "Hide your stuff here, we won't look there."

I've been harping on this for a long time and I don't see any evidence to invalidate my conclusions. It's time to consider alternatives to TSA because what we have now is just Security Theater.

Depending on what your definition of a robot is sex with robots is old hat. But what this guy has in mind is a taking it little bit further:

According to Netherlands University student David Levy, robots may become so human-like in the near future that people could fall in love with them, marry them, and have sex with them.

He recently completed his PhD on the subject of human-robot relationships. He stated that “At first, sex with robots might be considered geeky, but once you have a story like “I had sex with a robot and it was great!” appear in a magazine like Cosmo, I’d expect many people to jump on the bandwagon.”

Existing toys include these (not safe for work):

• http://sybian.com/ (considered by many to be the ultimate toy for women)
• http://vrinnovations.com/ (computer driven toy for men)
• http://www.adameve.com/adult-sex-toys-ch-6.aspx (variety of older technology)

. . . don't I sometimes get called a Nazi?  Yes, name-calling, in which conservatives such as myself are loathe to indulge, is a favorite tactic of the liberals.  I have often been called a Nazi, and, although it is unfair, I don't let it bother me.  I don't let it bother me for one simple reason.  No one has ever had a fantasy about being tied to a bed and sexually ravished by someone dressed as a liberal.

P. J. O'Rourke
Give War a Chance
[He has a good point. And on a more practical note you can probably end the name calling if you use this line.--Joe]

More evidence Dr. Joe's cure for everything (more sex) works.

Mostly this is for the people at Microsoft that read my blog, but I'm sure there is application in other companies.

Here at Microsoft there is a big push during the month of October to sign people up for charitable donations. I think last year employees donated something like 72 million dollars. I'm pretty sure that is before the matching, dollar for dollar, funds from MS are counted. It is claimed MS employees donate more per capita than any other company.

This whole "giving" thing annoys some people. An argument could be made that is, barely, voluntary socialism. I'm not going to make that argument. Instead I think you just have to choose your charities carefully.

And of course there are organizations like JPFO and SAF that will help in our fight against the bigots that want to take away are civil rights but maybe that isn't sufficiently "in your face" to suit you. There are other options.

On Saturday evening at dinner at the Gun Blogger Rendezvous Chuck told us his story of being wounded in Iraq and how Soldier's Angels was such a huge help to him. I was glad I was in position such that nearly no one (I think Barb might have noticed) saw the tears running down my checks as I listened to his story. Barb and I bought $100 worth of raffle tickets but had to sell some of them to someone else because all the tickets were purchased before everyone had a chance to get some. Not only is that a worthy cause but supporting the "baby killers" might be enough to make someone in the Breasts Not Bombs crowd perk up and if you have seen any of the pictures you know that would be a remarkable and worthwhile accomplishment.

But if you want the ultimate slap in the face for the PC crowd you can play out this fantasy of mine--When you are asked to tell your story about why you donate you tell them its because you like to reach out and touch people you wouldn't have otherwise been able to. You don't need to tell them you donate to Snipers Online--unless you really want to. They are already in the Microsoft database, Ry put them there a year or two ago.

I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.

John Adams
[One could make the argument that this is more true today than when Adams said it 200 years ago.--Joe]

There has been a lot of talk (and here) about how the anti-gun bigots got pwned by a section in the microstamping bill that says it won't take effect unless the technology is "available to more than one manufacturer unencumbered by any patent restrictions". Furthermore those people dancing in the streets point out the primary patents won't expire for another 15 years.

I hate to rain on everyone's happy dance but check this out:

Question: Is microstamping a sole-source technology that would create a government-sanctioned monopoly for a single company?

Answer: The patent holder of microstamping technology has announced that a royalty-free license will be provided to every manufacturer in the United States on guns sold in California.

Tell me again who got pwned.

This (see the comments here) isn't the first time someone has said something like this about me (see also this and this post in which I believe I contributed some to his conclusion). I could name off a half dozen people that said something similar. I'm not saying I disagree with them. I just don't get what it is I say or do that causes people to arrive at these conclusions after a brief encounter.

About the only thing I can think of that might have given them this idea was that I explained how easy it was to get a knife through airport security (Sebastian said, "I'm glad you are on our side" after I did this). But then Uncle explained how to get a gun through which is a little more difficult but uses the same principles as I used in my knife example--so I'm not sure why I was singled out as an example.

This might help the "bullets on target" problem I have with machine guns but I still am put off by the cost of feeding such a device. At 1000 yards with my "Spud Gun" (some call it "insanely accurate") will deliver a bullet just as accurately and with as much momentum as I could with this sub gun at 25 yards and with far less chance of receiving return fire.

It is a neat engineering advance in guns though. I applaud them for their ingenuity.

It bothers me that my fellow scientists are not speaking out against something they know is wrong. But they also know that they'd never get any grants if they spoke out. I don't care about grants.

Dr William Gray
October 12, 2007
Gore gets a cold shoulder
[Man is not causing global warming. Policitial correctness, desire for political power, and a hatred of capitialism are the driving forces behind the global warming scare.--Joe]

As we see it, the technology to implement the micro-stamping is flawed, there would be an increase in the potential for civil liability for law enforcement agencies that continue to use handguns which will be placed on the "unsafe" handgun list, there would be an increase in law enforcement training costs due to not being able to reuse spent cartridge casings, the technology could be easily defeated since the stamping is only 25 microns deep and the cost of the technology would be passed on to law enforcement agencies and citizens alike.

The North State Sheriffs'
Bill Analysis, Senate Rules Committee, Third Reading, Bill No: AB 1471
[I'm not sure why the reuse of shell casings would be affected. Any ideas?--Joe]