Thomas Sowell is one of my heroes, but I've never known him to comment on guns or shooting until now.

Even within a range of 6 feet or less, the police miss more often than they hit — 57 percent of the shots at that distance miss and 43 percent hit.

As you might expect, there are even fewer hits at longer distances. At 75 feet — which is less than the distance from first base to second base — only 7 percent of the shots hit.

Moreover, just because a shot has hit does not mean that it is now safe to stop shooting.

Sowell wastes not a single word while offering more perspective than an entire flock of regular journalists.

James and I just finished up Stargate Atlantis season three and were going to start watching Farscape but the first season is very tough to find on DVD. Is there anyone near where I roam (Seattle to north central Idaho) willing to loan it to us for a few weeks?

Thanks.

According to both statistics and sheer logic, the very notion of gun control is so patently stupid, that only people with too much education could possibly believe it, and it is no accident that for self-described “progressives,” gun control is often at the top of their list. Call me old fashioned, but I much prefer English statesman Edmund Burke’s observation that “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” And when it comes to these random shootings, allowing as many good men possible the ability to shoot back is our only hope for less deadly results in the future.

Jack Hunter
Columnist
December 11, 2007
WTMA commentary broadcast
The Insane Logic of Gun Control
[And good women.--Joe]

The little guys try harder:

In what's likely to be seen as a privacy-friendly move, IAC Search & Media's Ask.com search engine Tuesday announced a new feature called AskEraser that deletes a user's search activity data from the company's servers.

When enabled by the user, the feature will completely delete search queries and associated cookie information from Ask.com servers -- including IP addresses, user IDs, session IDs and the text of queries made, according to the company. In most cases, the deletion will take place within a few hours of the time a search is completed, the company said.

What's bizarre is that some people want government involvement in something where the big concern is government involvement to begin with:

Ask.com has also said that it will also retain user search data in cases where it is required by law to do so, according to Chester. Formal legal requests for search data will continue to be honored, even if AskEraser is enabled.

As a result, Chester argued that Ask.com still hasn't fully addressed consumer privacy concerns.

"Some privacy advocates will suggest that this announcement shows the 'market' is working," he said. "No doubt, that's what Google and the other online advertisers opposed to a serious privacy policy will echo, whispering it to regulators, lawmakers and journalists. That's why a national privacy policy is required."

I reported the other day that I was very, very busy at work and was putting in some very long hours on weekends and evenings/nights/early-mornings. They've been telling us it's really important to get these changes done soon, we can't miss this deadline, etc., etc. It's not that I doubted that, but it's interesting when aspects of the project my officemate and I have been spending unreal hours working on (she worked all day on her birthday this last Sunday) make the news.

To my Program Manager and Dev Lead who have been expressing concern; Yes, we will be code complete by Friday. There will probably still be bugs which won't be fixed for week or two but the feature set will be there and working. Perhaps as early as tomorrow.

Genius is more often found in a cracked pot than in a whole one.

E. B. White
[While this may seem to be true I would have to see the actual numbers to believe it myself. I have known and worked with many people that qualify as genius in the I.Q. department. I suspect that the genius can see what others either cannot or do not want to see and ignores many societal conventions simply because they are superfluous. This gives the appearance of "cracked". The non-genius wishes to either deny they are blind, and/or have their eyes closed, calls the genius "cracked" in an effort to bring the genius down to their level. Still, using the model as described above could be useful if for no other reason than you don't reject the company or contribution of someone "a little strange". Being in the company of genius can have it's advantages and is perhaps worth putting up with a little strangeness.--Joe]

Sometimes you can't make this stuff up. Now maybe someone did make this up and is just playing with me but I would expect a bimodal distribution across this particular dimension if that were the case. Instead I get a more normal distribution with this guy pushing the limits of the tail.

From: XXX@aol.com
Sent: Monday, December 10, 2007 3:46 PM
To: Joe
Subject: yo jo

yo want a bomd well do you want tio kill some one becouse you can use a fairly resonoble flash pree bomb that will make a lot of nois ans send shrapnal for several hundred feet take any house hold cleener that has hydreclorikacid in it and add mettle shavings to detinate if you want shrapnal to maximize damage atache it to the 12oz botle you mix the chemical and medil shavings in or put glass inside the botle etyher or your bomb will be loud and there will be no flas

________________________________________
See AOL's top rated recipes and easy ways to stay in shape for winter.

Just as one would expect it is an AOL user. The IP address places the sender in New York City.

It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own interest. We address ourselves, not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never talk to them of our own necessities but of their advantages.

Adam Smith
The Wealth of Nations
[I just finished listening to Free to Choose and just started Freedomnomics. Both, and rightly so, reference Smith's book and the quote above.--Joe]

I've been working very long hours the last week or so--including this weekend. Barb came over to my Seattle area "bunker" to visit and it's a good thing she had lots of scrap-booking supplies to work with while I was doing the "work from home" thing. I'm waiting for a build to complete now after making tons of changes.

Anyway, sorry for not making anything but the QOTD posts, not answering email, and almost not reading anyone else's blog postings for days. I haven't been doing much except work, a little food, watching a couple crappy movies on-line with Barb (Breasts, A Boy and His Dog, and Darwin Awards), and partaking in liberal amounts of Dr. Joe's Cure for Everything as needed.

Things will probably still be pretty busy for the rest of the week before I get through this crunch period.

Thanks for your patience.

Honestly, and as God as my witness, when I saw him shooting and as watched for a few seconds trying to figure out what he was going to do and what I should do, the thought that when through my mind was, “If I had a gun, I have a perfect shot.”

Yes, a perfect shot. I had a full side profile, I was close, and no one was visible behind him execept a wall. I had a clear shot during the second round of fire. I told this to every cop I came in contact with. The interviewer agreed.

When I realized that I had no gun, fear instantly struck me, along with anger, and severe panic.

[...]

I am very angry at the city of Omaha and the mall for their stupid laws that nearly cost me my life. The laws protected no one, and in my opinion, caused people to die.

"NW"
A witness to the Omaha Mall mass shooting
Via Joe's Crabby Shack, thanks to an email from Rob.
[People died because some anti-gun bigots didn't even try to answer Just One Question before they passed criminal rules prohibiting firearms in the mall.--Joe]

The days of political candidates being able to duck and run on the Second Amendment issue are over. It's time to find out what their real positions are, and I challenge every reporter who has access to Hillary to pose these questions to her.

Wayne LaPierre
December 7, 2007
Some Questions for Clinton
A .MP3 version of the entire blog posting is here.
[The Internet and computers furthers the cause of freedom more than the cause of the oppressor.--Joe]

It is by the fortune of God that, in this country, we have three benefits: freedom of speech, freedom of thought, and the wisdom never to use either.

Mark Twain
[Reading all the editorials about the Omaha mall shooting reminded me of this. They never bother to consider Just One Question.--Joe]

The government official is supposed to be our servant. When you are sitting across the desk from a representative of the Internal Revenue Service who is auditing your tax return, which one of you is the master and which the servant?

Milton and Rose Friedman
Copyright 1979
Page 298, Free to Choose--A Personal Statement
[This is an excellent book. However, you might want to have your blood pressure medication available.--Joe]

This isn't the way counterterrorism is supposed to work, but it's happening everywhere. It's a result of our relentless campaign to convince ordinary citizens that they're the front line of terrorism defense. "If you see something, say something" is how the ads read in the New York City subways. "If you suspect something, report it" urges another ad campaign in Manchester, UK. The Michigan State Police have a seven-minute video. Administration officials from then-attorney general John Ashcroft to DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff to President Bush have asked us all to report any suspicious activity.

The problem is that ordinary citizens don't know what a real terrorist threat looks like. They can't tell the difference between a bomb and a tape dispenser, electronic name badge, CD player, bat detector, or trash sculpture; or the difference between terrorist plotters and imams, musicians, or architects. All they know is that something makes them uneasy, usually based on fear, media hype, or just something being different.

Bruce Schneier
November 1, 2007
The War on the Unexpected
[This is the way real witch hunts happen. This is the way we lose our freedom and our rights are permanently infringed. And when you dig deep into what actually happened, with 20-20 hindsight, no one was really to blame. Everyone makes pretty reasonable decisions at every little step along the way. The problem is that most people don't have any hard and fast principles. They have no underlying philosophy they have confidence in. They take "one day at a time". And "today is a good day to ignore the Bill of Rights" because these are "special circumstances".

What I think people don't really get is that the Bill of Rights wasn't written for "a sunny day in the springtime". It was written, and expected to be honored, when emotions are running high and as a firm reminder of what the true limits to government must be. It was written with extraordinary deliberation by very smart people who knew the risks of a tyrant, a committee, a mob, a government under stress and running on high emotions. After due deliberation it can be changed but it should never be violated because tyranny often masquerades as doing good.--Joe]

If it hasn't been said that complexity is the tool of the corrupt politician, I'll say it here for the record.  This post is a rewrite of a comment I made here.  I thought it deserved its own post.

"...the ATF sent out it’s ATF State Laws and Published Ordinances. Ride Fast notes some numbers:

California, 67 pages, about 120,600 words of regulation.
Massachusetts, 18.5 pages, about 32,400 words.
Nevada, 6.5 pages, about 11,700 words.
Vermont, 1.05 pages, about 1890 words."

(To those who have so far never cared about the issue enough to look into it; Vermont has historically had a right-to-arms policy close the original intent of the Second Amendment. For example, one may legally carry a concealed pistol without getting government permission.  It is also worth noting that their violent crime rate is lower than those of surrounding states.)

Here are some contrasting numbers:

The Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States: One sentence, 27 words.

The Congressional Oath of Office: One paragraph, 73 words.

I assume you've all looked it up and saved it, being concerned citizens and all, but to save you the trouble of going to your desktop and clicking on it, here it is again:

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”

Human rights, honesty and reason are relatively simple.  Obfuscation is complex.

This is really good news: 

The grade-school teacher who was jailed in Sudan for allowing her students to name a teddy bear Muhammad was met at London's Heathrow Airport this morning by her son John and daughter Jessica.

Also good news is who helped her gain her freedom and come home alive:

But she was released a week early thanks to an intense British diplomatic effort led by two Muslim members of Britain's House of Lords, who met with Sudanese President Omar al Bashir.

That there were Muslims helping to bring some sanity to the situation is very encouraging. I see also there were other Muslims working toward that same goal.

If you — my servant — are going to pass a law — and enforce that law using guns — and that law makes me and my fellow permit-holding constituents (who as I mentioned are more law abiding than the average person) so pissed off that we decide to shoot you dead over it — don’t you think that maybe, just maybe, you should rethink your position on that law?

That is the whole point of the Second Amendment, Duhrlene. When you are given the privilege of exercising the state’s privilege of force, you should do so with an armed populace at your back. It’s the American Way, and the more literal it is, the better.

The Everlasting Phelps
June 24, 2004
Shooting Up the Capital
[Regarding banning firearms from government meetings such as legislative sessions and city council meetings. See also the comment here. At numerous times I had thought about posting something along these lines but hadn't put it in words. Phelps articulated my thoughts quite well.--Joe]

I was browsing some of the bigot sites this evening and ran across this set of pictures (rel=nofollow set on the link so they don't get a bump in ranking from the search engines). I just can't see what they think they are accomplishing. I kept thinking of that old adage, "When in danger, when doubt, run in circles, scream and shout. They must actually subscribe to that sort of philosophy. Pictures of people laying on the ground helps in what way?

Their actions remind me that the dead students at Virginia Tech were disarmed by the people that claimed to be protecting them. The people laying on the ground symbolize the people that believe submitting to evil frequently end up dead. It makes me think of "proof by vigorous assertion". They can't prove their case with numbers and logic so they have to just insist that lawmakers do things their way. They don't even bother trying to prove what they want would benefit anyone but the criminals. Just do things their way or they will lay on the ground and have people take pictures.

It doesn't seem like they are getting their way yet. Maybe if they start screaming and kicking they would get better results. It works for some two-year olds.

By focusing on the non-issue of gun shops, Suffredin is conveniently ignoring the factor that has the greatest impact on violent crime rates. According to the Chicago Police Department, 88% of murderers and 76% of murder victims have previous criminal records. A reasonable person would likely ask why criminals are so likely to be either a perpetrator or a victim in a murder case. The answer is quite simple - the justice system is either unwilling or unable to rehabilitate these dangerous people. Federally-licensed gun shops are not the problem, the revolving door justice system is clearly at fault.

Suffredin's long standing hatred of guns and the people who own them has clouded his ability to address the issues important to the citizens of Cook County. Thus, he is unqualified to serve as the State's Attorney for Cook County.

Richard Pearson
December 3, 2007
Proposed Cook County Gun Control Ordinance a Case Study in Politically Motivated Deceit
[Clouded his ability? Yeah, so what else is new? Suffredin should be brought up on felony charges but that isn't going to happen anytime soon. We need to just keep working toward that goal. The bigots will get their just reward eventually. We are making great progress.--Joe]

I just got the new (blue) rule book. It says anyone shooting a classifier at below freezing temperatures in falling snow deserves the crummy score they get.

KW Hipps
Lewiston Pistol Club Discussion Group email list
December 1, 2007
[We have an IPSC match today. The current weather forecast is:

HOUR Sun 6AM Sun 7AM Sun 8AM Sun 9AM Sun 10AM Sun 11AM Sun 12PM Sun 1PM Sun 2PM SKY CHANCE OF PRECIPITATION Slight Slight Slight Slight Slight Moderate Moderate Moderate Moderate TEMP (F) 31° 31° 31° 32° 32° 33° 34° 35° 35° WIND CHILL(F) 18° 18° 18° 19° 19° 21° 23° 25° 25° DEWPOINT (F) 25° 25° 25° 26° 26° 26° 27° 27° 27° HUMIDITY 78% 78% 78% 79% 79% 75% 76% 73% 73% WIND (MPH) SE 21 SE 21 SE 22 SE 23 SE 24 SE 22 E 20 E 18 E 18

We start shooting at 10:00 and probably won't be done until 12:00 (the wimps won't be there so it shouldn't take too long). 20 to 25 MPH winds and snowing. This is practical shooting. Caleb and I plan be there. Pictures later if I manage to make it over Snoqualime Pass this afternoon on my way back to the Seattle area. The current pass report: