The View From North Central Idaho

Via Sebastian, who is called a wacko, I found the USA Today article about Cooper getting fired. It says "he [Obama] has said he respects the Second Amendment.". Numerous commenter's say similar things. I left a couple comments:

Obama says he supports the Second Amendment. He also says he wants to ban guns.

He can't have it both ways. His record of the past is clear. His words of the future are clear and consistent with his record. The only reasonable conclusion is that he is attempting to deceive voters here and now by saying "he supports the Second Amendment".

And:

If this were about someone donating money to the KKK, the company then found it was facing a boycott, and the company fired the idiot that donated money to the KKK then almost everyone would agree it was the right thing to do.

Well guess what--gun ownership is a specific, enumerated right, in the Bill of Rights (read the D.C. v. Heller decision).

Who would vote for someone that said, "I support the 13^th Amendment but I also believe we can have reasonable regulation of blacks to keep them in their proper place."?

Senators Obama and Biden and the people that vote for them are to the gun owners what the KKK was to blacks.

Maybe I'm competing for a more extreme title than the "wacko" title given to Sebastian but these guys really got me annoyed.

Update: It's time to put them on the defensive. I left another comment:

Melo_D wrote: Are you comparing Obama to the KKK?

The nonviolent aspects of the KKK--yes. He has publicly stated on his website he wants regulated and ban guns. This is infringing on a specific enumerated right just as if someone wanted to regulated and ban blacks (or other oppressed minority) from certain aspects of society.

Melo_D wrote: Less guns= less violence.

I have Just One Question (http://blog.joehuffman.org/2004/12/15/JustOneQuestion.aspx) for you:

Can you demonstrate one time or place, throughout all history, where the average person was made safer by restricting access to handheld weapons?

Via Ry. Post Zumbo, post Cooper. How many more are there out there than need to get their asses kicked for supporting Obama in this election? Gentlemen, we can out them. We have the technology. We have the capability to spend our dollars only with those gun companies that support our specific, enumerated, individual right to keep and bear arms.

So, lets do it.

Via an email from Ry a letter posted on ARFCOM:

Mr. Obama,

Given the uproar about the simple question asked you by Joe the plumber, and the persecution that has been heaped on him because he dared to question you, I find myself motivated to say a few things to you myself. While Joe aspires to start a business someday, I already have started not one, but 4 businesses. But first, let me introduce myself. You can call me "Cory the well driller". I am a 54 year old high school graduate. I didn't go to college like you, I was too ready to go "conquer the world" when I finished high school. 25 years ago at age 29, I started my own water well drilling business at a time when the economy here in East Texas was in a tailspin from the crash of the early 80's oil boom. I didn't get any help from the government, nor did I look for any. I borrowed what I could from my sister, my uncle, and even the pawn shop and managed to scrape together a homemade drill rig and a few tools to do my first job. My businesses did not start not a result of privilege. It is the result of my personal drive, personal ambition, self discipline, self reliance, and a determination to treat my customers fairly. From the very start my business provided one other (than myself) East Texan a full time job. I couldn't afford a backhoe the first few years (something every well drilling business had), so I and my helper had to dig the mud pits that are necessary for each and every job with hand shovels. I had to use my 10 year old, 1/2 ton pickup truck for my water tank truck (normally a job for at least a 2 ton truck).

A year and a half after I started the business, I scraped together a 20% down payment to get a modest bank loan and bought a (28 year) old, worn out, slightly bigger drilling rig to allow me to drill the deeper water wells in my area. I spent the next few years drilling wells with the rig while simultaneously rebuilding it between jobs. Through these years I never knew from one month to the next if I would have any work or be able to pay the bills. I got behind on my income taxes one year, and spent the next two years paying that back (with penalty and interest) while keeping up with ongoing taxes. I got behind on my water well supply bill 2 different years (way behind the second time... $80,000.00), and spent over a year paying it back (each time) while continuing to pay for ongoing supplies C.O.D.. Of course, the personal stress endured through these experiences and years is hard to measure. I do have a stent in my heart now to memorialize it all.

I spent the next 10 years developing the reputation for being the most competent and most honest water well driller in East Texas. 2 years along the way, I hired another full time employee for the drilling business so that we could provide full time water well pump service as well as the well drilling. Also, 3 years along the path, I bought a water well screen service machine from a friend, starting business # 2. 5 years later I made a business loan for $100,000.00 to build a new, higher production, computer controlled screen service machine. I had designed the machine myself, and it didn't work out for 3 years so I had to make the loan payments without the benefit of any added income from the new machine. No government program was there to help me with the payments, or to help me sleep at night as I lay awake wondering how I would solve my machine problems or pay my bills. Finally, after 3 years, I got the screen machine working properly, and that provided another full time job for an East Texan in the screen service business.

2 years after that, I made another business loan, this time for $250,000.00, to buy another used drilling rig and all the support equipment needed to run another, larger, drill rig. This provided another 2 full time jobs for East Texans. Again, I spent a couple of years not knowing if I had made a smart move, or a move that would bankrupt me. For the third time in 13 years, I had placed everything I owned on the line, risking everything, in order to build a business.

A couple of years into this, I came up with a bright idea for a new kind of mud pump, a fundamentally necessary pump used on water well drill rigs. I spent my entire life savings to date (just $30,000.00), building a prototype of the pump and took it to the national water well convention to show it off. Customers immediately started coming out of the woodworks to buy the pumps, but there was a problem. I had depleted my assets making the prototype, and nobody would make me a business loan to start production of the new pumps. With several deposits for pump orders in hand, and nowhere to go, I finally started applying for as many credit card as I could find and took cash withdrawals on these cards to the tune of over $150,000.00 (including modest loans from my dear sister and brother), to get this 3rd business going.

Yes, once again, I had everything hanging over the line in an effort to start another business. I had never manufactured anything, and I had to design and bring into production a complex hydraulic machine from an untested prototype to a reliable production model (in six months). How many nights I lay awake wondering if I had just made the paramount mistake of my life I cannot tell you, but there were plenty. I managed to get the pumps into production, which immediately created another 2 full time jobs in East Texas. Some of the models in the first year suffered from quality issues due to the poor workmanship of one of my key suppliers, so I and an employee (another East Texan employed) had to drive across the country to repair customers' pumps, practically from coast to coast. I stood behind the product, and made payments to all the credit cards that had financed me (and my brother and sister). I spent the next 5 years improving and refining the product, building a reputation for the pump and the company, working to get the pump into drill rig manufacturers' product lines, and paying back credit cards. During all this time I continued to manage a growing water well business that was now operating 3 drill rig crews, and 2 well service crews. Also, the screen service business continued to grow. No government programs were there to help me, Mr. Obama, but that's ok, I didn't expect any, nor did I want any. I was too busy fighting to make success happen to sit around waiting for the government to help me.

Now, we have been manufacturing the mud pumps for 7 years, my combined businesses employ 32 full time employees, and distribute $5,000,000.00 annually through the local economy. Now, just 4 months ago I borrowed $1,254,000.00, purchasing computer controlled machining equipment to start my 4th business, a production machine shop. The machine shop will serve the mud pump company so that we can better manufacture our pumps that are being shipped worldwide. Of course, the machine shop will also do work for outside companies as well. This has already produced 2 more full time jobs, and 2 more should develop out of it in the next few months. This should work out, but if it doesn't it will be because you, and the other professional politicians like yourself, will have destroyed our countrys’ (and the world) economy with your meddling with mortgage loan programs through your liberal manipulation and intimidation of loaning institutions to make sure that unqualified borrowers could get mortgages. You see, at the very time when I couldn't get a business loan to get my mud pumps into production, you were working with Acorn and the Community Reinvestment Act programs to make sure that unqualified borrowers could buy homes with no down payment, and even no credit or worse yet, bad credit. Even the infamous, liberal, Ninja loans (No Income, No Job or Assets). While these unqualified borrowers were enjoying unrealistically low interest rates, I was paying 22% to 24% interest on the credit cards that I had used to provide me the funds for the mud pump business that has created jobs for more East Texans. It's funny, because after 25 years of turning almost every dime of extra money back into my businesses to grow them, it has been only in the last two years that I have finally made enough money to be able to put a little away for retirement, and now the value of that has dropped 40% because of the policies you and your ilk have perpetrated on our country.

You see, Mr. Obama, I'm the guy you intend to raise taxes on. I'm the guy who has spent 25 years toiling and sweating, fretting and fighting, stressing and risking, to build a business and get ahead. I'm the guy who has been on the very edge of bankruptcy more than a dozen times over the last 25 years, and all the while creating more and more jobs for East Texans who didn’t want to take a risk, and wouldn't demand from themselves what I have demanded from myself. I'm the guy you characterize as "the Americans who can afford it the most" that you believe should be taxed more to provide income redistribution "to spread the wealth" to those who have never toiled, sweated, fretted, fought, stressed, or risked anything. You want to characterize me as someone who has enjoyed a life of privilege and who needs to pay a higher percentage of my income than those who have bought into your entitlement culture. I resent you, Mr. Obama, as I resent all who want to use class warfare as a tool to advance their political career. What's worse, each year more Americans buy into your liberal entitlement culture, and turn to the government for their hope of a better life instead of themselves. Liberals are succeeding through more than 40 years of collaborative effort between the predominant liberal media, and liberal indoctrination programs in the public school systems across our land.

What is so terribly sad about this is this. America was made great by people who embraced the one-time American culture of self reliance, self motivation, self determination, self discipline, personal betterment, hard work, risk taking. A culture built around the concept that success was in reach on every able bodied American who would strive for it. Each year that less Americans embrace that culture, we all descend together. We descend down the socialist path that has brought country after country ultimately to bitter and unremarkable states. If you and your liberal comrades in the media and school systems would spend half as much effort cultivating a culture of can-do across America as you do cultivating your entitlement culture, we could see Americans at large embracing the conviction that they can elevate themselves through personal betterment, personal achievement, and self reliance. You see, when people embrace such ideals, they act on them. When people act on such ideals, they succeed. All of America could find herself elevating instead of deteriorating. But that would eliminate the need for liberal politicians, wouldn't it, Mr. Obama? The country would not need you if the country was convinced that problem solving was best left with individuals instead of the government. You and all your liberal comrades have got a vested interested in creating a dependent class in our country. It is the very business of liberals to create an ever expanding dependence on government. What's remarkable is that you, who have never produced a job in your life, are going to tax me to take more of my money and give it to people who wouldn't need my money if they would get off their entitlement mentality asses and apply themselves at work, demand more from themselves, and quit looking to liberal politicians to raise their station in life.

You see, I know because I've had them work for me before. Hundreds of them over these 25 years. People who simply will not show up to work on time. People who just will not work 5 days in a week, much less, 6 days. People always looking for a way to put less effort out. People who actually tell me that they would do more if I just would first pay them more. People who take off work to sit in government offices to apply to get free government handouts (gee, I wonder how things would have turned out for them if they had spent that time earning money and pleasing their employer?). You see, all of this comes from your entitlement mentality culture.

Oh, I know you will say I am uncompassionate. Sorry, Mr. Obama, wrong again. You see, I've seen what the average percentage of your income has been given to charities over the years of 2000 to 2004 (ignoring the years you started running for office - can you pronounce “politically motivated”), you averaged of less than 1% annually. And your running mate, Joe Biden, averaged less than ¼% of his annual income in charitable contributions over the last 10 years. Like so many liberals, the two of you want to give to the needy, just as long as it is someone else’s money you are giving to them. I won’t say what I have given to charities over the last 25 years, but the percentage is several times more than you or Joe Biden (don’t you just hate goggle?). Tell me again how you feel my pain.

In short, Mr. Obama, your political philosophies represent everything that is wrong with our country. You represent the culture of government dependence instead of self reliance; Entitlement mentality instead of personal achievement; Penalization of the successful to reward the unmotivated; Political correctness instead of open mindedness and open debate. If you are successful, you may preside over the final transformation of America from being the greatest and most self-reliant culture on earth, to just another country of whiners and wimps, who sit around looking to the government to solve their problems. Like all of western Europe. All countries on the decline. All countries that, because of liberal socialistic mentalities, have a little less to offer mankind every year.

God help us...

Cory Miller, just a ordinary, extraordinary American, the way a lot of Americans used to be.

P.S. Yes, Mr. Obama, I am a real American... http://www.cmillerdrilling.com/

Follow up comment from Lyle in the email thread:

“Liberals are succeeding through more than 40 years of collaborative effort…”

Uh, try “more than 70 years” and you’ll be closer to the mark.

What Cory doesn’t seem to understand is that the Socialists don’t care if he’s right.  If they cared, they wouldn’t be socialists.  That makes his very well-reasoned and well-written message into that “rattling noise” you’ve mentioned before.

In essence they’re jihadists.  They want to bring the Corys of the world down.  It’s a purely emotional/visceral motivation and any such arguments as Cory’s will be rationalized away as “Rush Rhetoric” or as “Right Wing propaganda”, and ignored completely.

Things could go either way, but McCain won’t have had much to do with it.  What we need is someone who’ll run on the “I’m going to kick the socialist’s asses out of government altogether and then put them in cages for public entertainment” platform, but as usual we’re faced with a decision of more socialism, slower, verses more socialism, faster.

Have you seen Thomas Sowell’s latest bit?  He sees this problem as about as serious as it gets:
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/sowell1029b08.php3

As I say; jihadists.

As pointed out in comments (Lyle in the second comment) it would be very interesting to know "What in the world were you thinking?"

Caleb is putting some effort in to answering the question.

Policies that he proposes under the banner of "change" are almost all policies that have been tried repeatedly in other countries— and failed repeatedly in other countries.

Politicians telling businesses how to operate? That's been tried in countries around the world, especially during the second half of the 20th century. It has failed so often and so badly that even socialist and communist governments were freeing up their markets by the end of the century.

The economies of China and India began their take-off into high rates of growth when they got rid of precisely the kinds of policies that Obama is advocating for the United States under the magic mantra of "change."

Putting restrictions on international trade in order to save jobs at home? That was tried here with the Hawley-Smoot tariff during the Great Depression.

Unemployment was 9 percent when that tariff was passed to save jobs, but unemployment went up instead of down, and reached 25 percent before the decade was over.

Higher taxes to "spread the well around," as Obama puts it? The idea of redistributing wealth has turned into the reality of redistributing poverty, in countries where wealth has fled and the production of new wealth has been stifled by a lack of incentives.

Thomas Sowell
October 29, 2008
A perfect storm
[Via an email from Lyle. I had so many possibilities for quotes today that it was tough to choose. And all of them are time sensitive too. <heavy sigh>--Joe]

In regards to Cooper Firearms incident it appears the board of directors has taken swift and decisive action. David has the story.

It's the power of the Internet at work. It's a new world out there.

I've had two requests from people for help celebrating Halloween this year. Son-in-law Caleb and a friend from my work both want to blow up some pumpkins. That is planned for this Saturday.

This morning I got a report from someone else on the same topic:

As the crowd thinned, we started the good stuff. Saturday I had placed a baggie of amn mix in the seed cavity and shot it with the 300 weatherby loaded with 125 grain ballistic tips. I wanted to tell folks that I had acquired some new bullets and demo their performance. The pumpkin absolutely vaporized.

Yeah. That's what happens alright. I'll try to have pictures and video next week sometime.

Update: Video from November 2000 is here.

The Washington Arms Collectors have done the homework for gun owners in Washington State. Here are their recommendations.

The NRA has some advice for everyone in the states.

Brian Doherty’s Gun Control on Trial is to the Heller case what Richard Kluger’s Simple Justice is to the Brown decision—an essential history made up of equal parts legal theory and personal struggle, presented in page-turning fashion.

Glenn Reynolds
Professor of Law, University of Tennessee
Founder, Instapundit.com
From What Others Have Said on the Cato website about the book.
[You can preorder the book on Amazon for only $11.53. I was interviewed for this book. I don't know if I actually made it into the book but I'm buying a copy to find out and get the rest of the story.--Joe]

I have been having pain in one of my teeth off and on for about three weeks now. Over the weekend it got bad enough and persistent enough that I decided it was time to seek medical attention.

I called the dentist yesterday but they couldn't get me in until this morning. I made it through the night without much difficulty. I woke up a couple times and had trouble getting back to sleep but not that big of a deal.

Today was pretty much consumed with visiting the dentist, doing paperwork at the doc next door who would do the root canal, handling a few things at work, going back to the dentist office and getting the work done.

Hunter006 has some more details from an email exchange and there are some more details on Twitter.

All is better now but I need to catch up on some sleep.

A point I heard Glen Beck make this morning was that history shows us the more the difficult the economic situation is the more people support/demand socialism and communism. This was true in Russia, China, Nazi Germany, Western Europe and in the United States earlier this century. But in all cases it extended and worsened the economic situation.

Via Robb Allen we have this ad. But what occurs to me is that this may actually make him more popular rather than less. But like sick children given a choice between bitter medicine that works and a candy placebo most will go for the candy.

Do you think Newsweek will pick this up?

A new story by Brooks Jackson on the FactCheck.org website once again shows that FactCheck cherry-picks “facts” to suit its anti-NRA, anti-gun, anti-self-defense agenda—an agenda that the American people do not share.

...

Obama has also supported a federal ban on carrying concealed handguns, even though 40 states now respect this right. Obama’s home state of Illinois is one of only two that provide no means whatsoever for people to carry guns outside the home for self-defense. In the Illinois state senate, Obama even sided against crime victims by opposing a bill that would have allowed people who receive protective orders—such as domestic violence victims—to carry firearms. Why? Because, in his words, “authorizing potential victims to carry firearms would potentially lead to a more dangerous rather than less dangerous situation.”

With all this information from independent sources readily available, why did Jackson and FactCheck choose to highlight facts and details that bolster only one side of the story? Is it because the points they chose to highlight advances their preordained beliefs? Do Brooks Jackson and FactCheck have an intrinsic bias against gun owners?

These are legitimate questions that we encourage everyone to ask before buying Brooks Jackson’s or FactCheck’s perspectives.

Maybe after the election and hell freezes over.

Via reader and blogger William I received this link regarding Cooper Firearms:

Dan Cooper, a proud member of the National Rifle Association, has backed Republicans for most of his life. He's the chief executive of Cooper Arms, a small Montana company that makes hunting rifles.

Cooper said he voted for George W. Bush in 2000, having voted in past elections for every Republican presidential nominee back to Richard Nixon. In October 1992, he presented a specially made rifle to the first President. Bush during a Billings campaign event.

This year, Cooper has given $3,300 to the campaign of Democrat Barack Obama. That's on top of the $1,000 check he wrote to Obama's U.S. Senate campaign in 2004, after he was dazzled by Obama's speech at that year's Democratic National Convention.

Perhaps his hope is that Barack Crocodile Obama will eat him last.*

I know I won't be doing any business with Cooper and I hope other gun owners don't either.

Update: Sebastian has similar things to say.

Update2: Sebastian does the research on Cooper's donations. To say Cooper is trying to put a spin on the story is being generous. He needs to be taught a lesson similar to the one learned by Smith & Wesson a few years ago.

Update3 (10/29/2008): It appears David may have the final word on this bit of ugliness. They apparently didn't need the full lesson--just a reminder.

But, the Supreme Court never ventured into the issues of redistribution of wealth, and of more basic issues such as political and economic justice in the society. To that extent, as radical as I think people try to characterize the Warren Court, it wasn’t that radical. It didn’t break free from the essential constraints that were placed by the founding fathers in the Constitution, at least as its been interpreted and Warren Court interpreted in the same way, that generally the Constitution is a charter of negative liberties. Says what the states can’t do to you. Says what the Federal government can’t do to you, but doesn’t say what the Federal government or State government must do on your behalf, and that hasn’t shifted...

Barack Obama
Chicago Public Radio Interview -- 2001
[H/T to Kevin and Say Uncle.

This may be the deciding factor in the election. My guess it will be a very tight race between "spreading the wealth" quotes and the voting fraud as to which will ultimately decide the election.--Joe]

I've briefly mentioned these guys before but they have updated their website for our current election. They haven't become any more connected to reality since the last time I visited:

The McCain Campaign has denounced Barack Obama for his tenuous association with William Ayers, characterized as a domestic terrorist who hates America. Sarah Palin has her own associations with those who espouse insurrectionist and secessionist doctrines. The doctrines are pervasive in the present political culture. Are these the people who love America?

The problem is both embrace the National Rifle Association's childish political fantasy. A member of the NRA's National Board wrote in the Washington Post in 1989:

Twentieth century military machines are far from invincible when outflanked by armed citizen guerrillas.
http://www.potowmack.org/emerappd.html#ak47
http://www.potowmack.org/parkappe.pdf
p. 40

Ayers can only be faulted for acting out the NRA's childish political fantasy. The Obama Campaign can be faulted for the failed political leadership to turn the whole issue around on the McCain Campaign and exploit the opportunity the courts have given to bring rationality to firearms policy. See below. The gun rights militants need not worry that political and intellectual leadership will emerge anywhere else.

Their most glaring flaw in the above is they seem incapable of distinguishing between violently overthrowing our constitutional established republic (as Ayers attempted) and defending the freedoms guaranteed by the constitution from a tyrannical government attempting to infringe those rights.

As near as I can tell the person or persons at the Potowmack Institute regard all governments as equally valid and deserving of having a monopoly on the use of force. This is a false assumption. The truth is that no government is deserving of a monopoly on the use of force. No government can legitimately claim to possess powers that the individual also does not have and were granted to the government by the individuals. The individuals may grant the government a monopoly on the use of force in certain circumstances such as when declaring war on a foreign state, enforcing contracts, or punishment of criminals. But those are limited monopolies and are subject to revocation by the people.

There are other uses of force the government may never have a legitimate monopoly on such as the use of force to defend ones self and other innocents against imminent serious injury or death. Any government that claims to have a such a monopoly on the use of force is an illegitimate government.

My blog shows up as number four on Goggle when they went looking for it but I didn't have it. And I'm pretty sure none of the top ten do either. Still if someone did have it they could turn it into some money.

What is "it"? See for yourself:

Domain Name		charter.com ? (Commercial)
IP Address		68.117.42.# (CHARTER COMMUNICATIONS)
ISP		CHARTER COMMUNICATIONS
Location		Continent  :  North America Country  :  United States  (Facts) State  :  Minnesota City  :  Saint Paul Lat/Long  :  44.9487, -93.1002 (Map) Distance  :  1,152 miles
Language		English (U.S.) en-us
Operating System		Microsoft WinXP
Browser		Internet Explorer 6.0 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)
Javascript		version 1.3
Monitor		Resolution  :  1024 x 768 Color Depth  :  16 bits
Time of Visit		Oct 27 2008 6:43:52 pm
Last Page View		Oct 27 2008 6:49:54 pm
Visit Length		6 minutes 2 seconds
Page Views		2
Referring URL		http://www.google.co...&q=list of tsa goons
Search Engine		google.com
Search Words		list of tsa goons
Visit Entry Page		http://blog.joehuffm.../07/11/TSAGoons.aspx
Visit Exit Page		http://blog.joehuffm.../07/11/TSAGoons.aspx
Out Click		here http://abclocal.go.c...ews/local&id=6257417
Time Zone		UTC-4:00
Visitor's Time		Oct 27 2008 10:43:52 pm
Visit Number		375,386

From the Crap for Brains file:

The court records say Cowart and Schlesselman also bought nylon rope and ski masks to use in a robbery or home invasion to fund their spree, during which they allegedly planned to go from state to state and kill people.

For the Obama plot, the legal documents show, Cowart and Schlesselman “planned to drive their vehicle as fast as they could toward Obama shooting at him from the windows.”

“Both individuals stated they would dress in all white tuxedos and wear top hats during the assassination attempt,” the court complaint states. “Both individuals further stated they knew they would and were willing to die during this attempt.”

It sounds to me like they weren't getting enough oxygenated blood into their drug circulation system.

According to new research done at Oxford University, people who eat meat are less likely to suffer from shrinking of the brain than those that stick strictly to a vegetarian diet.

...

This doesn’t mean that vegetarians need to immediately start eating meat; it just means that when they decide to attack meat-eaters they should think about their small mindedness before hand.

Jaclyn Cousins
October 13, 2008
Vegetarianism Shrinks Your Brain
[H/T to Phil.

I'm in agreement with Kevin Baker on the topic:

Kevin Baker at the 2008 Gun Blogger Rendezvous on Friday October 10.

Xenia, be sure to eat your eggs and drink your milk.--Joe]

I'm always a little embarrassed and uncomfortable when someone says something nice about me or something I did. This is no exception and for more than the usual reason. The number one reason was that Mark made his post on Friday and I didn't notice until this morning.

Mark gave me a "Superior Scribbler Award":

He had this to say about me:

Joe Huffman, who blogs The View From North Central Idaho, as well as trenchant observations of the political scene from the perspective of a well-trained and -experienced gunny. Joe always seems to have the bons mots for the moment, whereas I generally have the esprit d'escalier.

Additional reasons number two and three were that I had to look up two phrases to figure out exactly what he was saying.

As per the rules of the award I have to post the rules:

• Each Superior Scribbler must in turn pass The Award on to 5 most-deserving Bloggy Friends.
• Each Superior Scribbler must link to the author & the name of the blog from whom he/she has received The Award.
• Each Superior Scribbler must display The Award on his/her blog, and link to This Post, which explains The Award.
• Each Blogger who wins The Superior Scribbler Award must visit this post and add his/her name to the Mr. Linky List. That way, we'll be able to keep up-to-date on everyone who receives This Prestigious Honor!
• Each Superior Scribbler must post these rules on his/her blog.

The five most-deserving Bloggy Friends deserve some thought.

In terms of "Superior Scribblers" I would have given the award to each of my three children had they actually put their best writing works on blogs. From the time they were old enough to write essay's and papers I have been super impressed with the quality of their work. But only Xenia has a blog and it's more social than representative of her writing. Here is something from James and Xenia. I also have stuff from Kim that would definitely qualify but none of it is on the web (hint, hint).

They must have inherited this from their mother. I always had an extremely tough time writing until I was in my early twenties. It was just extremely painful and difficult for me to think of anything worth putting into words.

Barb on the other hand wrote lots of stories and got excellent grades on her writings all through school. And then there was the book she wrote but never bothered to try and get published. She said, "It was just for practice." Here are some samples of her work:

• Can't Say Goodbye Again. Very short romance. Written for a contest in the Writer's Edge Ezine (defunct web site).
• The Medicine Cabinet. This is what I call one of her "Anti-Romance" stories. Others have compared it to Hitchcock because of the suspense, story twists, and surprises. Very good stuff.
• The Rose. Another "Anti-Romance" story. Definitely Hitchcock like.

She would definitely get an award--if she had a blog and put her best work on it.

Enough with the potential nepotism.

In line with having to look up words, as I did with Mark's work, to understand the post I have to give an award to Roberta X for The Adventures of Roberta X. She writes with a vocabulary a little bit above my comfort level at times but she puts interesting twists on things.

In terms of "interesting twists" (extreme snark is a better description) Tamara K with view from the porch also gets an award.

Alan Korwin and his blog Page Nine gets an award for inspiring a lot of my alternate ways of viewing things in the world of gun politics. And that doesn't even count all the books he has written.

I don't know who it is but the VPC Blog has to get an award. Wow! Just Wow! He or she really does a number with the satire.

Yeah, I know, that's only four. But with all the recognition to my family members can't each of those count as 1/4 of an award each?

Well, you'd be no fun if you lost interest.

Roberta X
October 26, 2008
Speaking Of Wood
Regarding a new camo pattern (it's call Morning Wood) she saw at the gun show yesterday.
[I really need to write the post that has been poking around in my head ever since I read Bonnie's Twitter post from over a month ago. It all has to do with the differences between the male and female brain. Read The Female Brain for the long version--you might get the answer sooner than if you wait for me to write the post.--Joe]

Several years ago while debating gun control with someone I claimed the crime numbers from the U.K. were known to be erroneously low. I had read that somewhere but when confronted for proof I looked all over the net for several hours without being able to find my source.

Kevin reports on the story that "just broke".

Ry points out a great article on the evolution of sniping gear and deployment in the last few years.

The article was written by Michael Haugen who attended two Boomershoots. Michael also wrote three articles which are posted on the Boomershoot website:

• Choosing Optics
• Optics and Their Use
• The Truth About Mil Dots

If you have ever heard me tell the story about shooting on the 1000 yard range at Fort Lewis--Michael was the guy next to me with Eugene Econ spotting for both Michael and me.

Michael was the guy that referred to watching me build reactive targets on the tailgate of my pickup as "Bomb Building 101".

I'm glad to hear he is still in the sniping business and apparently is well. I was impressed with his brains, seriousness, and dedication to our country and constitution.

And, as Ry said, I'm happy he calls out American Snipers as Good Thing. I donate money to them which Microsoft matches dollar for dollar.

Tell me why you think a woman should 'lie back and enjoy being raped' instead of shooting a rapist dead with the handgun in her handbag.

Tell me why black Americans should submit to being lynched instead of shooting the lynch mob dead.

Tell me why homophobes should be free to beat up homosexuals without the risk of being shot.

Watch Schindler's List and tell me again why only the police and military should have guns.

Tell me why you think police should be able to shoot an attacker to save their lives but I shouldn't.

Tell me why I shouldn't have the best means of defending myself -- a semiauto firearm with a standard capacity magazine.

Tell me why a woman's right to choose should not include weapon, mag size and ammunition.

Tell me why you think I shouldn't be able to defend my life or my freedom.

More than that, tell me why you should not have that right!

Barrett Tillman
Via Alan Korwin October 25, 2008 -- Liberty Poll Grows

The plan for the next gun blogger meet is for us to get together at the Mexican restaurant on Beacon Hill called La Cabana Cafe:

2532 Beacon Ave S
Seattle, WA 98144
(206) 322-9643

1800 on November 9th.

My political ideal is democracy. Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized.

Albert Einstein
[Idolized? Does that remind you of someone? Perhaps Einstein, like me, would have voted against Barack Obama.--Joe]

...We must advocate tougher gun restrictions.  I found this on Oleg's blog.

and part two, "The Carjackers";

That's the way to do it!  Humor.  Blistering sarcasm actually-- illustrating absurdity by being absurd.  There is no other proper response to the anti-rights movement.  Not at the moment.

I doubt this is part of their official campaign:

A knife-wielding man robbed a McCain-Palin campaign volunteer and etched a “B” into her face after he saw a McCain bumper sticker on the woman’s car, Pittsburgh police said.

But socialism does inspire and in fact outright demand (read Karl Marx) violence to achieve Utopia.

So I’m not surprised.

Democrats and crime? Typical. Who do you think some of the most dependable democrat voters are? Why do you think democrats want to register people to vote in prison and those with criminal records?

And the gun bans? If you wanted to get put on your tin-foil hat you could hypothesis they want to enable criminals so the political "leaders" can acquire more power to "protect the little guy". Hitler sent his goons out to break things then claimed he needed more power to "protect the people". What Schumer, Feinstein, Obama, and the others are doing is just a low level, indirect means of accomplishing the same thing. That they have supporters taking it to the next level is just showing us the trend and their roots more clearly.

They hate us and they hate freedom and they are certain they are right. That gives them justification for anything they do that furthers their cause. Think I'm exaggerating? Then read this. Here is a sample:

If a kid in a red state finds his daddy's handgun and blows his head off, we'll feel terrible (we're like that), but we'll try to look on the bright side: At least he won't grow up to vote like his dad.

This is the mindset of the socialists. This is the mindset that resulted in socialist governments murdering tens of millions of their own citizens in the 20^th century. This is the mindset of muggers for Obama.

Update: The attack on the girl was probably a hoax (H/T to Sebastian).

I received an email from someone today asking for information on the military surplus ammo he recently purchased. Here is a picture of the headstamp:

I could make some guesses, but they would be just stuff I pulled out of the air. I'm sure someone can tell me a lot more. Send me an email or leave a comment.

Thanks.

The only reason that Democrats push gun control is that nothing scares them more than the thought of a black man with a gun. All the loudest proponents of gun control laws either have ‘carry permits’ or they surround themselves with armed bodyguards. They don’t push gun control laws to keep guns out of their own hands – because they know that they’ll always be able to get them – they push gun control laws to keep guns out of your hands.

I’m a Republican. I want to see a gun in the hand of every African American in the entire country - including you.

Alex Stone Dale
October 14, 2008
Former cab driver
Manhattan NY (Republican)
http://observers.france24.com/profile/20080707-alexander-dale

When I heard BO talking to Joe The Plumber, saying that when we spread the wealth around, everyone benefits, I agreed with his words.  Any time you help to produce or deliver products or services, you are "spreading the wealth around".  Anytime you trade products or service with another person, both parties in the transaction are "spreading the wealth around".  Any time you buy stock in a company, you help finance that company and you're spreading the wealth around.  Any time you put money in a savings plan, you're helping to finance others, and you're spreading the wealth around.  If you hire someone, you're spreading the wealth around. If you go to work for someone else, you're spreading the wealth around.  Even if you're a miser and you buy gold to bury in your back yard, you're supporting the gold mining and processing industry and all the people they employ throughout the supply chain, and you're spreading the wealth around.

But we all know that Obama wasn't talking about peaceable, voluntary exchange of goods and services between free citizens.  He was talking about spreading the wealth around using force and the threat of force.  To put it another way, Obama, and all who think similarly, does not trust you to produce they way HE thinks you should produce, so he wants to tell you how to do it.  He doesn't trust you to make your own purchasing and financing decisions, so he's going to do more of that for you.

Obama and socialists everywhere are jealous of your abilities to produce and they're jealous of the freedom you've had in spreading your wealth around.  Make no mistake about it-- that jealousy leads to anger and hatred.

We can look at the political struggle in this country in this way; Either you favor spreading the wealth around through peaceable, voluntary exchange, or you favor spreading the wealth around through the use of force and the threat of force.

Lest you be tempted to demand a look at history to find which method of spreading the wealth has a better record of success, I would warn you that the two sides (socialists and capitalists) have incompatible measures of "success".  You may think that success means more people living at higher standards, with more choices in life, more mobility, a better life span and so on.  You'd be wrong if you think socialists will see that as a desirable outcome.

Update; Of course there is a whole lot more to participation in a free market beside "spreading" wealth.  In fact you are creating wealth-- something the socialists have never been able to comprehend.  In the mind of a socialist, to become rich is to deprive someone else.  In fact, and as with virtually all socialist beliefs, the opposite is true.  In the process of building your own wealth in a capitalist market, and in the process of using it in a capitalist market, you are invariably benefiting others.

Wendy Cukier is at it again:

It's one of the many measures that can help," Ryerson professor and gun control advocate Wendy Cukier said yesterday. "When guns are removed from homes, it reduces the chance they are misused or stolen ... That can have an impact on public safety."

The amnesty program, Pixels for Pistols, is a joint endeavour with the 26-store Henry's camera chain, based on Church St. in Toronto. For four weeks, Toronto residents who hand over a gun, legal or not, will receive a digital camera, either a Nikon Coolpix S52 or a Coolpix P60, listed at $230 and $190 on the Henry's website. The offer includes photography lessons.

I find odd she doesn't recommend turning over your car and money to the government too. Those might be misused as well. Oh, wait, the Democrats in this country are saying that. 

Jeff has other comments on the plan.

Peter uses something I wrote over three years ago as he QOTD. Nice.

...[W]hen I get to the moon I'd like a choice of food other than Happy Family Pork Seafood Rice #5. I was kinda hoping for a Big Mac rather than some soy & curry concoction, though. If we want to get back in the game, I say we tell Americans that anything that happens over a hundred miles up is tax-free, and then stand the hell back.

Tamara K.
October 22, 2008
The space race goes on...
[I'd prefer a little lower altitude, like five miles, but we're just quibbling over details at that point.--Joe]

Remember the post from last week? In the article I linked to they said:

It's not an image people would find invasive.

And:

It's not possible to save an image or get it out of the machine, it's physically not possible.

That was in Australia and this is the same technology being tested in Europe:

I wonder why the picture they share with us to demonstrate their technology is cut off the just below the breasts--NOT!

They are arguing about it now but I fully expect arguments that it is "for the children" or "the good of everyone" will prevail and within a year or so it will be back to normal Security Theater as usual with most everyone thinking they are safer when in fact they are not. But maybe it will save the little old ladies from getting their feet broken by TSA quite so often.

Update: Via a comment from Barron we now have more of the picture:

Nice, huh?

Via my Aussie friend at work I found out Australians are going to be prevented from viewing Internet materials their Nanny state deems "illegal". As he put it, "North Korea, China and now Australia all have something in common. Content filtering."

Details here, here, and here:

Details have begun to come out about Australia's Cyber-Safety Plan, which aims to block "illegal" content from being accessed within the country, as well as pornographic material inappropriate for children. Right now, the system is in the testing stages, but network engineers are now saying that there's no way to opt out entirely from content filtering.

It was "for the children" and now it's for everyone.

As pointed out in the articles the concern is what will be considered "illegal". This blog and my Boomershoot web site are blocked by many schools and businesses. I wouldn't be surprised if there aren't some countries it is blocked in as well. Just firearms training videos could be blocked in countries that have repressive gun laws. Even the concept of being responsible for yourself and fighting back when attacked is already essentially illegal in the U.K. Will just talk of the right to self defense soon be considered a thought crime there and other formerly free countries?

As they were getting their guns taken away I kept wondering why they didn't start shooting the politicians then. I can't help but think they are probably now wondering the same thing.

Via Dave Hardy (from last week--I'm still getting caught up from being on vacation) I discovered someone has a serious comprehension problem:

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels says he's hoping for "further clarity" on his authority to ban guns on city property.

He said Wednesday the city has a "moral responsibility" to pursue what he calls common sense gun laws.

Attorney General Rob McKenna issued a nonbinding opinion Monday that says cities lack the authority to ban guns because local laws would conflict with state regulations.

One would think the mayor would have hear of D.C. v. Heller. And if that wasn't enough, in case you forgot, the AG said, using the plain and simple words, "The answer to your question is no."

Perhaps Nickels needs a "clue by four" to assist him in comprehending simple sentences. If so, The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms says they are ready to supply the necessary clarification in the form of a lawsuit.

The first thing I thought of when I read this was the gun bloggers who went to summer camp at Blackwater a couple months ago. The critical portion is this (emphasis added):

The video that spurred the investigation of five men accused of plotting an attack on soldiers on New Jersey's Fort Dix shows some of them in camouflage clothing, firing rapid-fire weapons on a snowy driving range.

An investigator who was on the case from the beginning testified Tuesday that the way the men were firing was unusual.

"They were actually advancing toward a target," said Fred Lang, a member of an FBI anti-terrorism task force who was previously in the military. "Through my years as a firearms instructor, I've never seen that done."

"There's only one reason for that," Lang said. "It's a fire-and-maneuver tactic."

We did that at summer camp (see the video here). We do that in USPSA matches all the time. Yet this is being used against these guys as if it were something essentially unheard of.

It may in fact be these guys were training to kill U.S. soldiers and should be sent to prison for a long time. But this one thing in and of itself should not be conclusive proof of evil intent. I am concerned of precedent being set.

In the right column of this blog in the "Politics" section is a new addition I found at The Peoples Cube--"Random Obama Facts". Each time you refresh the page a random "fact" will be displayed. Some of my favorites:

Obama visited Benjamin Franklin in a dream and told him how to live his life serving the community, but all that Franklin could remember was, how to fly a kite.

Any sentence containing the name "Obama" and ending in a question mark has been determined to be racist.  The only exceptions are rhetorical sentences such as "Is there any way that Obama could be more perfect?"

Obama can calculate your guilt just by looking at the numbers in your checkbook.

Big government is like a thousand foot fishing line with a hook, but efficiency is always an inch beyond the hook. Every time you realize this, Obama wants you to believe that the government must grow an inch bigger.

Obama smokes so you don't have to.

Obama always overpays his taxes because he believes that the government will find a better use for his money than he ever could.

Jeffrey Goldberg tests TSA and finds it full of fail.

He does, and writes about it, all kinds of things that I knew were possible but didn't have the courage to do. Read it and laugh--or maybe cry.

TSA--A Security Theater.

This seems so odd to me. How can they possibly make such a claim?

Judge Richard A. Posner, in an article in The New Republic in August, wrote that Heller’s failure to allow the political process to work out varying approaches to gun control that were suited to local conditions “was the mistake that the Supreme Court made when it nationalized abortion rights in Roe v. Wade.”

Would he say the same about the right to a trial by jury, freedom of religion, or freedom of speech? The RKBA, is a specific, enumerated right. Yet Posner thinks it should be subject to "the political process"? If that were the case then what does he think a right really is?

And if you read his article in The New Republic you will find he misstates facts and overlooks things like the state constitutions at nearly the same time as the U.S. Constitution that specifically spelled out the RKBA as an individual right.

How can someone like this be considered fit to be a judge?

Or what about this?

“In both Roe and Heller,” Judge Wilkinson wrote, “the court claimed to find in the Constitution the authority to overrule the wishes of the people’s representatives. In both cases, the constitutional text did not clearly mandate the result, and the court had discretion to decide the case either way.”

What about the wishes of the people's representatives in Alabama, Mississippi, and the other deep south states of 50 years ago. Should have they been respected?

It seems to me that these judges are unable or unwilling to embrace the concept of inalienable rights.

If I were able to change the structure of our government one of the changes I would make is there would be specific provisions for a small minority to overthrow any law which plausibly granted to the government powers beyond those enumerated in the constitution. It seems too many people are unable to think of there being a problem that would not benefit from a government solution. And what I think of when government tries to solve problems is best described by the picture here.

It ain’t about Osama Bin Laden.

It's about Obama Been Lyin’.

Massad Ayoob
October 19, 2008
BRADY ORGANIZATION "OUTS" OBAMA
[In regards to what Barrack Obama says about guns.--Joe]

I'm all for freedom of choice and it's interesting to me the debate over open carry is sometimes actually framed in those words in the media. But then this is an Oklahoma newspaper.

Sometime I'll have to spend an hour or three and collect my thought on open carry for a post. I'm all for it but I do worry about scaring the sheeple and it backfiring on us.