The View From North Central Idaho

The ATF explosives examiner for Idaho said I could just email the scans of the copies I kept. But after two days of getting neither confirmation or bounced email messages about the "Employee Possessor Questionnaires" (background check paperwork for handling explosives) I was about to call him when he emailed me. He said he hadn't received any emails from me after the first one. I had actually sent him two emails in that time frame. The first had bounced and I presumed it was because the attachment was too large. So I put the 9 Mbyte .ZIP file on the boomershoot.org website (the .ZIP file has now been deleted and my logs indicate only I had attempted to download it) and sent him a link to that. That email did not bounce.

But I noticed something, the email address he used was different than the one I had originally used to contact him. I originally used <something>@atf.gov and the one he responded with was <somethingelse>@usdoj.gov. So I sent the same two emails again. One with the attachment and one with the link. Then a couple hours ago I called him. He hadn't received anything.

We verified the email addresses. The first one (which, on Tuesday, made it through to him) was wrong. The other, which I had done a "reply to" from his email was the correct one. He would not download a file from a website ("We don't do that"). Okay, so I'll try sending a plain text test message from a different email account to his preferred email address. That worked. Okay, now the 9 Mbyte .ZIP file. He's not sure what a .ZIP file is. He knows about .PDF files. .JPG files? Yeah, kinda.

The 9 Mbyte .ZIP bounced. The message:

The original message was received at Thu, 05 Mar 2009 12:15:40 -0800

----- The following addresses had permanent fatal errors ----- "somethingelse@usdoj.gov"

----- Transcript of session follows ----- .. while talking to mailsc20.usdoj.gov

>>> DATA <<< 550 5.7.0 Maximum Attachment Size (12M) Violation

Yeah, my 9 Mbyte .ZIP file exceeded their maximum attachment size restriction of 12 M.

Maybe this is a test to see if I'm calm enough to be trusted with explosives.

I broke the 9 Mbyte file into five .ZIP files the largest being 1.95 Mbytes and sent them as attachments to five plain text emails from my alternate email address to his second email address.

About 15 minutes later he called back. He had received them but it was going to "take a while" to get them from "picture viewer" to the printer. He would start work on that the first thing in the morning.

Apparently I passed the test.

I'm going out to the Boomershoot site this weekend. I think I need to blow something up.

I think it's astonishing, they're ruining the US economy, they're ruining the US government, they're ruining the US central bank and they're ruining the US dollar.

You are watching something in front of our eyes, very historically, which is basically the destruction of New York as a financial center and the destruction of America as the world's most powerful country.

Japan's economic "lost decade" was caused by trying to bail out the banks, and the West risks running out of money if it doesn't let the bad banks fail now.

Systemic risk is going to be the same in 10 months, 5 years or 10 years if the fundamental problem is not solved.

The idea that you have too much debt, too much borrowing and too much consumption and you're going to solve that problem with more debt, more consumption and more borrowing? These people are nuts.

Wall Street and the City of London are going to be "disastrous" for years, like in the 1950s and 1960s, and in 30 years, finance will "dry up and wither away" as we are entering a "long period of hard times."

Power is shifting now from the money shifters, the guys who trade paper and money, to people who produce real goods. What you should do is become a farmer, or start a farming network.

Jim Rogers
March 3, 2009
Jim Rogers: Let AIG Go Bankrupt, Not America
[If true, "real goods" probably involves more than just farm/food products. My guess it will include security, water, shelter, sanitation, communication, and transportation as well. Probably in about that order.--Joe]

In pre-revolutionary times, the British government (some say the King, but England has had a Parliament since after the civil war in the middle 1600s) was trying to control religion and the press.  The practice, in some form or another, was ancient by the time of the American Revolution, as we see the Bishop next to the king and queen on a chessboard.  When the U.S. was formed it was therefore fresh in the minds of the Founders that there should be some strict protection of both religious freedom and freedom of speech.

Why?  Why is it so important that government not be in control of religious practices or of the press?  It's because as we all know, governments invariably grab more and more power for themselves at the expense of liberty.  What better way to help that process along than to control the thinking and the beliefs of the people, and what better way to control the thinking and beliefs of the people than to control religion and the press?

But there is something missing.  If you can't have control of religion and the press, there is something just as powerful as a means of controlling the minds and beliefs of the people.

Education. (I'll also include science, which would be seen as a sub set within education until we see the vast amounts of money poured into government research grants and the like)

It's a pity the Britts weren't trying to establish political and social indoctrination centers disguised as schools, circa 1770.  In that case our first amendment would have been slightly different;

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or respecting the establishment of education, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

As it is, your kids are being taught what to believe, not in a Church Of America and not by a U.S. version of Pravda, but in government schools.

(If the kingdoms of Medieval times had used education as it is being used today, maybe we'd see a "College President" or maybe a "Head of Education", or perhaps a "Head of the Teachers' Union" in the same line with the king and queen, the knights, and the rooks on a chessboard)

Alan Gottlieb via CCRKBA says:

“Once again,” he said, “Democrats are revealing themselves as the party of restrictive gun control. If the citizens of Washington, D.C. have a right to full congressional representation, they also have a right to own the firearm of their choice. For Democrats to argue that one right is more important than another – especially after last year’s Supreme Court ruling on the Second Amendment – they are engaging in world-class hypocrisy.”

...

“Democrats argue that the right to representation is not related to the right to keep and bear arms,” Gottlieb said, “but that’s nonsense. This country was born because our founders were being taxed without representation, and because British troops tried to disarm the citizens. Those issues are just as equal today as they were 230 years ago, and Democrats on Capitol Hill need to understand that.”

I keep wondering how close we are to the taxes and disarmament thresholds of another country being born. The Democrats may also be the party that creates a revolution.

Via Say Uncle news from New York City (emphasis mine):

On Tuesday 03/03/09, at approximately 12:00, members of the NYPD's Firearms Suppression Division executed a search warrant at 864 Jewett Ave., within the confines of the 120 PCT. Upon conclusion of the warrant, a total of 80 firearms had been seized from within the home. One individual was taken into police custody and charged with Criminal Possession of a Weapon.

"Firearms Suppression Division" should be the name of a successful corporate entity and never associated with a police department. Can you imagine the screams of protest, and rightly so, if the NYPD also had a "Faggot Suppression Division" or "Jew Suppression Division"?

Those boys in blue need a serious spanking. 18 USC 242 comes to mind as a good first step.

Via my Sitemeter I discover that the city of Virginia Beach is looking for a minority supplier of ammunition:

Domain Name		vbgov.com ? (Commercial)
IP Address		198.252.245.# (City of Virginia Beach, Virginia)
ISP		City of Virginia Beach, Virginia
Location		Continent  :  North America Country  :  United States  (Facts) State  :  Virginia City  :  Virginia Beach Lat/Long  :  36.8061, -76.0612 (Map) Distance  :  2,189 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; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; InfoPath.1; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.648; MS-RTC LM 8)
Javascript		version 1.3
Monitor		Resolution  :  1280 x 1024 Color Depth  :  32 bits
Time of Visit		Mar 4 2009 6:31:55 am
Last Page View		Mar 4 2009 6:31:55 am
Visit Length		0 seconds
Page Views		1
Referring URL		http://search.msn.co...minority%20suppliers
Search Engine		search.msn.com
Search Words		ammunition minority suppliers
Visit Entry Page		http://blog.joehuffm...unitionSupplier.aspx
Visit Exit Page		http://blog.joehuffm...unitionSupplier.aspx
Out Click
Time Zone		UTC-5:00
Visitor's Time		Mar 4 2009 9:31:55 am
Visit Number		451,178

There's no such thing as a free lunch.

Milton Friedman
[One would think that those people who advocated for the "stimulus package" would have heard of this bit of wisdom before. Some will say overlooking Friedman can be blamed on deficiencies in our public school system. Others will claim many of those pushing the stimulus package know exactly what they are doing -- creating a socialist America. I think it is likely they are both correct in their claims.--Joe]

I'd read some of her work in the past and been impressed. Brigid's home on the range - guns and gourmet cooking from a small homestead in the Midwest.  Oleg Volk posted a link to her site recently.  Most of what she writes comes out like poetry.  This was very good;

I am not a tree hugger. Not for me the granola fueled protests to save the spotted owl. Growing up in the mountains of the wilderness, I appreciate a tree in the form of a pile of two by fours as well as in it's original state. I do not think the trees are the home of sentient druid spirits, nor do the trees speak to me; but I am pleased to take shelter under or in their branches, reinforced in the smallness of my form next to their trunks, smiling as the branches separate me from the chatter of the world that echoes outside the woods. There, branches are what conceal me as I wait for my prey, like any animal, participating in the cycle of the food chain. I am an omnivore and those less equipped than I, forget that at their peril. It is the bringing home of sustenance. Bringing home, not a trophy so much as a sign of provision, that those that work and strive will be rewarded with a full belly and warmth.

It's a nice change from reading about the downfall of our Republic.  She's a prolific writer too, so you're in good shape if you need a lot of distraction.

Because the Senate told them they are going to have to abide by the Second Amendment the D.C. City Council now wants the district to become a state. Do they think that will change things? Just because Alabama and Mississippi are states doesn't mean they can disregard the 13^th Amendment.

At 0526 this morning I got a call from my potassium chlorate supplier. Normally I would be sound asleep or in somewhat more rare cases had not gone to bed yet (I'm a night person). This morning I had been up for several hours and had gone to bed only a minute or two earlier. I have been sick and I have been sleeping for a few hours then read stuff on the web for a while then sleep some more. My sleep schedule is really whacked now.

The supplier wanted to know if I wanted the 142 pounds (see my previous post on the topic) sent ASAP. I had explained it to the other person I had talked to but this woman wanted to make sure. No, that isn't necessary. Sending it all in one shipment would be fine. I've have been dealing with this woman for several years and I get the impression that, well... it sometimes takes several attempts to explain things to her. I think this same "characteristic" caused her to fail to realize there was a significant time difference between her place of employment and that of her customer.

After getting the logistics straightened out she did mention something interesting. The reason the packaging changed is because the previous potassium chlorate I have been purchasing from them came from Spain. That company has gone completely out of the business and the new manufacture is in Sweden. The new manufacture packages it in a different manner. The packaging isn't a big deal but the new manufacture means as soon as I get the material in my hands I need to do tests to make sure Boomerite still works and is safe. In the past when we have changed what we thought were very minor variables the mix would not detonate as easily.

Oh well, it's easy to get volunteers to do help do the tests.

After going back to bed and sleeping for a few hours I got up, checked my email, and found a response to a query I made to the ATF yesterday. It was about why none of the explosive handlers who I sent in the paperwork for last November had heard anything back from the ATF. The response I got (after being forwarded around a bit) told me who I really needed to contact and I sent them an email. I received a call about 90 minutes later and we had a nice chat. The address on the back of the form is incorrect and paperwork sent to that address tends to disappear. He said I could just scan the copies I had kept (hooray for being paranoid about the government messing things up!) and email them to him. He would expedite the processing and there shouldn't be a problem with getting the approvals completed in time for Boomershoot 2009.

It's not complicated. Americans can accept Barack Obama's invitation to move onto the plantation. Or they can choose personal responsibility and freedom.

Star Parker
February 9, 2009
Back on Uncle Sam's plantation
[I figure there is about a 60% chance Americans will continue voting to move onto the plantation. The future is grim.--Joe]

Via an email from Gullyborg:

This is hot news here in Oregon and it needs to be spread across the blogosphere:

http://oregonwarvets.typepad.com/owva_blog/2009/02/owva-prepares-to-litigate-against-western-oregon-university.html

My friend Greg runs OWVA. He is committed to providing Maxwell with whatever help he needs to sue the crap out of WOU. But it will take money, so please post about this and encourage readers to contact OWVA to contribute to the Maxwell case.

Basically a retired Marine was legally carrying a pistol while attending Western Oregon University. He was suspended for a year for exercising his rights and "In addition to his unlawful discipline, WOU humiliated the 30 year old, veteran Marine by mandating that he receive psychiatric evaluation and write a ten page paper on civil obedience before his readmission into the university."

The WOU bigots are the ones that need to fired, prosecuted under 18 USC 241, receive a psychiatric evaluation, and write a ten page on respecting civil rights. Help Oregon War Veterans Association make it so.

D.C. may have to give some recognition to the Second Amendment and the Heller decision and what do the anti-gun bigots have to say about it? They think it's "a nightmare":

What should have been a day of celebration last Thursday turned into a nightmare for the District, however, when the Senate approved its version of the “D.C. House Voting Rights Act” S. 160, with an amendment drafted by the National Rifle Association (NRA).

I wonder if they also think recognition of the 13th Amendment was a nightmare as well?

Update: I left the following comment:

And those other states with the "weaker gun laws" have much lower rates of violent crime.

There is Just One Question that needs to be answered:

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

The answer is no. Violent crime rates were not improved (unless you cherry pick the data very carefully) in D.C. after the gun ban. And after asking that question for over four years I have yet to get an answer which any anti-gun person would be proud of.

One has to wonder what the real motive of people associated with anti-gun organizations is. We know restrictive laws on firearms don't make people safer so what is it they hope to accomplish?

I can only conclude they are of the same type of mindset that would have screamed the 13th Amendment was going to be a "nightmare" as well. Hence, I am lead to believe the anti-gun organizations of the 21st century are the equivalent of the KKK of the 20th century.

Comments are moderated so "reasoned discourse" will break out in 3, 2, 1, ...

Update2: After five hours the comment has still not appeared.

Update3: After nearly 57 hours the comment has still not appeared but other comments, supporting their position, left after mine have shown up.

The ATF trains dogs to detect explosives. This is obviously useful for bomb searching and post blast investigation. But there are some things I didn't know and don't exactly approve of (emphasis mine):

The ATF explosives detection canine, a graduate of ATF's 10 week explosive detection training program, has been conditioned to detect explosives, explosives residue, and postblast evidence. As a bonus, because of their conditioning to smokeless powder and other explosive fillers, ATF trained explosives detection canines can detect firearms and ammunition hidden in containers and vehicles, on persons and buried underground. With the assistance of support systems such as the National Response Team, Explosives Technology Branch, ATF Laboratories, Certified Explosives Specialists, and the ATF Firearms Branch and Tracing Center, the ATF canine program is producing a viable tool to assist law enforcement with their war on violent crime.

Such a bonus.

With roughly 40% of the population exercising their 2nd Amendment rights the ratio of false positives (innocent people "caught" exercising a specific enumerated right) to true positives (people with criminal intent) is going to be extraordinarily high. Those false positives will be singled out for searches and general harassment. If the dogs were being trained to detect Jews, gays, or some other minority would the government be posting it on their website?

I have a pounding headache and a stuffed up nose but I managed to order 392 pounds of potassium chlorate this morning. Potassium chlorate is one of the main ingredients in Boomerite. It's also the most expensive (in the past it has accounted for almost 65% of the cost) and it's hard to find suppliers who can deliver it in the quantities we need.

Last Thursday I started the process of ordering and ran into some obstacles.

First, they wanted a copy of my ATF type 20 license to manufacture high explosives. The one they had on file had expired. I had expected that and wasn't concerned.

Second, I estimate we have about 100 pounds left over from last year and we need about 350 pounds for Boomershoot 2009. I wanted to order the usual 275 pound drum which would have given me a little bit left over for testing and other things during the year. But my supplier told me they only had 142 pounds on hand. Larger quantities will be available in two to three weeks. Also they changed their packaging and they now only sell in 250 pound increments. And the worst part was the price has doubled since last year. Ouch!

But, if I ordered just the 250 pounds then, at best, I wouldn't have any extra for testing purposes during the year. 500 pounds would be more than enough for Boomershoot 2009 but the expense!

I told them I would think about what I wanted to do, FAX them a copy of the license on Friday, and call them back on Monday (today). Over the weekend it occurred to me--they have 142 pound on hand why not buy that plus a 250 pound package? I called today and they said it works for them so it should be just fine. I'm not looking forward to paying the steep price but getting 392 pounds is better than not having enough with 250 pounds and better than paying for 500 pounds of which half will sit around for year.

The cardboard boxes used for the target containers have arrived and are safely stored away. There are just a very few minor supplies that need to be picked up locally now.

Greg D., an average Joe and friend on the east cost reports: "Funny story (sad really), we have been trying to buy extra .380 here in SC and also in GA and it is non-existent. Everyone who carries is stocking up. But I was in Maryland -- where no one but a friend of the governor can carry, and the shelves were full." According to anonymous economists, this is caused by the law of supply and demand. Knowledgeable insiders report that president Obama is trying to repeal that law.

Alan Korwin
March 2, 2009
Ammunition Scarce Somewheres
[With all due respect to Mr. Korwin I fairly certain president Obama believes he already has repealed almost all economic laws.--Joe]

"That was uplifting." That was what Barb said after I read this to her:

President Barack Obama has set his course for battle with America's powerful interest groups over his ambitious, some say radical, spending blueprint that aims to remodel American society.

Even as he has rammed through emergency economic spending that easily could top $1 trillion, Obama has asked Congress to adopt a budget that is ripe with programs to improve the lot of lower- and middle-income Americans at the expense of the wealthy and the farming and industrial complexes under their control.

...

On the budget plan Obama presented on Thursday, the president said it would help millions of people but only if Congress overcomes stiff resistance from well-financed lobbies.

"I know these steps won't sit well with the special interests and lobbyists who are invested in the old way of doing business, and I know they're gearing up for a fight," Obama said Saturday in his weekly radio and video address. "My message to them is this: So am I."

Under the president's proposal, America's wealthiest 5 percent would pay a whopping $1 trillion in higher taxes over the next decade, while most others would get tax cuts. Industries would buy and trade permits to emit heat-trapping gases. Higher-income older people would pay more for government health insurance benefits. Drug companies would receive smaller profits from the government. Banks would play a much smaller role in student loans.

We are living in interesting times.

Sleep well and have a nice day.

The congressman's media release about his letter uses the tired tirade about this being a "no-brainer... requiring no legislative action," to "protect our brave police," and a "market flooded with imported, inexpensive, military-style 'assault' weapons." He fails to note that assault is a type of behavior, not an imported product.

The public is able to get the fine value-priced merchandise as kits, parts imports, reassembled models with some American-made parts, and as curios and relics. Criminals found with the firearms, which even the New York Times has said are bulky and unpopular with street gangs, are subject to immediate arrest and imprisonment -- completely apart from gun type or nation of manufacture.

Part of a larger racist scheme to ban guns for anyone but the rich, it is a new twist on the discredited and now abandoned "Saturday Night Special" schemes (remember those?), and "junk gun" schemes (remember those?) that would outlaw firearms in poverty-stricken neighborhoods, largely populated with people of color, where they really need the guns for self defense and protection against rampant government-sponsored crime from its war on some drugs.

Alan Korwin
March 1, 2009
Affordable Rifle Ban
[When someone says something is a "no-brainer" in relation to gun laws they are usually right. No brains were involved.--Joe]

You would think that professional writers would know words have meanings and this is nonsensical unless you also believe the Robocop or Terminator movies represent reality:

The U.S. State Department said on Friday that U.S.-purchased or stolen weapons account for 95 percent of Mexico's drug related killings, and that Mexican cartels are increasingly carrying out contract killings in the U.S.

But of course from the following it's apparent facts are irrelevant to this writer (gun shows have the same laws and most state do not have registration):

Mexican cartels often pay U.S. citizens to purchase assault rifles or other guns at gun shops, then sell them to a cartel representative at a U.S. gun show, where registration rules are much less stringent and the gun sale can't be easily traced.

I have to conclude the writer is clueless, has an agenda against the Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights or both.

Mike Brown is the Idaho Sport Shooting Alliance lobbyist in Boise and he announced, as did the Apex of The Triangle of Death (info on the Triangle of Death), the good guys advanced another few yards in the battle for gun owner rights.

If that passes and is signed by the Governor it will ease some of my Boomershoot worries.

I rather surprised the New York Times actually printed this story since they can never say anything good about private gun ownership on their editorial page.

It's sad that the woman is facing, in essence, a loss of innocence. But she also goes through her thought process and is realistic about why she needed to buy her first gun:

Back in late September, when my bank stocks began to tank — slowly, then all at once, as Hemingway described going broke — another wall in my life began to crack, as rumors of break-ins rattled my peaceful neighborhood in Allentown, Pa.

...

A few weeks ago, my husband went away on business, and after two sleepless nights starting every time the old steam radiators knocked, I finally decided I wanted protection.

Jimmy took me to the Army-Navy Store on Grape Street. It was 11 o’clock on Sunday morning, and 15 normal-looking — I was relieved to see — people were leaning on the gun counter at the back of the store. Jimmy explained the differences between the Glocks, semiautomatics with magazines, and the Smith & Wesson revolvers with six bullet chambers. The clerk told us a lot of handguns were out of stock; arms sales around the country have been increasing in inverse proportion to the collapsing economy and in response to the unsubstantiated buzz that the new administration is going to tighten gun control.

“You want a revolver, to start,” Jimmy said. I pointed to a dull pink Charter Arms revolver with a two-inch barrel: the Pink Lady. It looked like a toy. Jimmy laughed. “You don’t want a pink gun.”

I watched the woman at the counter next to me test the feel of several Glocks while the young girl with her thumbed an electronic game. Then finally I picked out a Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum, “the gun I started with,” the clerk said. I handed him my driver’s license and filled out the paperwork. He left us to run my license number through a criminal-records system called QuickCheck. Two minutes later I was qualified and, between gun and ammo, $762 poorer. The revolver I bought has a black handle and a four-inch stainless-steel barrel. There’s nothing pink about it.

A few days ago in comments it was strongly suggested I drop the Neanderthal tag-line. For example:

But I've never been fond of ''Ramblings of a red-necked, knuckle-dragging, Neanderthal.'' Those words have bothered me for years, every time I visit your site, over the years.

Before I dive in, I openly state that I approach this from a marketing/advertising angle. It's my job to wrap my mind around slogans n' such.

I understand the concept of seizing control of negative words. In some situations this technique is effective. However, I've never liked the tongue-in-cheek words quoted above. You, Joe, and your cohort Lyle, are *nothing near* rambling, knuckle-dragging, or anything near Neanderthal.

and

I direct lots of people (including representatives in the media) to this blog. I cringe every time I have to do this, because the first thing they'll read is the header. Yes, readers will get to the hearty content, but self-deprecation *does not* work in the case of this blog.

I thought about this quite a bit and decided I needed to give a little more history.

Barb and I went to high school in Orofino Idaho--Home of the Maniacs. We went to college at the University of Idaho (as did/do all of our kids) where we were Vandals. So maybe calling myself a "red-necked, knuckle-dragging, Neanderthal" comes natural. The Maniac name has been under attack for at least 40 years that I know of and they/we proudly stuck to the name. "You think it is insulting and/or degrading to be called a Maniac? That's your problem. We're proud to be called that."

I see advantages and disadvantages to using the tag-line. The disadvantages have been outlined in the comments to the post linked above. I think those disadvantages are minor. I readily admit I'm not a marketing person. But while a case might be made that I am attempting to market ideas I'm not really interested in people that are so susceptible to a "marketing image" that they are unable to "get past" the tag-line. If they get hung up on that then they are, in many ways, my enemy. Distortions such as "assault weapons", "weapons of choice", "sniper rifles", and "Saturday Night Specials" are in their domain and those type of people are who I attack. If those type of people happen to be on my side of an issue I'll probably be tone it down some but I still will find them contemptible.

The advantage of having a tag-line like what I have is that my enemies underestimate me. Keep in mind I use "enemies" as a shorthand for "philosophical/political enemies", not enemies in the sense of literally "kill or be killed". Read the post for the details but basically my enemies already think of my kind as stupid, violent, racist, women hating, and crude. Giving them a tag-line that agrees with their prejudices causes them to stop their mental processing at that point. And they treat me as such without processing the actual facts and logic of my writing. This leaves them more susceptible to attack. For example, they sometimes have attempted to claim they are better than me because of my (supposed) lack of education. Informing them that I have a MSEE (Electrical Engineering) and asking them what degrees they have causes them to go strangely silent. When I appear to fit their preconceived notion of a gun owner they attack with far, far less than adequate resources. This makes it all the easier for me to counterattack with overwhelming force.

So, the bottom line is I'm not going to change the tone of the tag-line but I might be persuaded to change "Neanderthal" to "Maniac". I still consider myself a Maniac but that doesn't fit the stereotype the anti-gun people have of us quite as well so I favor Neanderthal at this time.

Sorry Stephanie (and others), you are going to have to keep cringing for now.

I think contraception is disgusting -- people using each other for pleasure.

Joseph Scheidler
Director, Pro-Life Action League
August 11, 1985
Chicago Tribune,
[See also other "interesting" quotes that give credence to The Handmaid's Tale view of politics.--Joe]

Via Say Uncle I found out some college professors will call the police if you advocate exercising your Second Amendment rights to defend innocent life:

On October 3, 2008, Wahlberg and two other classmates prepared to give an oral presentation for a Communication 140 class that was required to discuss a “relevant issue in the media”. Wahlberg and his group chose to discuss school violence due to recent events such as the Virginia Tech shootings that occurred in 2007.

Shortly after his professor, Paula Anderson, filed a complaint with the CCSU Police against her student. During the presentation Wahlberg made the point that if students were permitted to conceal carry guns on campus, the violence could have been stopped earlier in many of these cases. He also touched on the controversial idea of free gun zones on college campuses.

That night at work, Wahlberg received a message stating that the campus police “requested his presence”. Upon entering the police station, the officers began to list off firearms that were registered under his name, and questioned him about where he kept them.

They told Wahlberg that they had received a complaint from his professor that his presentation was making students feel “scared and uncomfortable”.

That's all it takes to have someone call the police on you? And furthermore the police didn't tell the bigot, "Get over it."? What if a student had announced they were gay? That could have made some people "scared and uncomfortable".

I wonder if the college has some sort of policy against "creating a hostile environment" that could be applied to Professor Anderson.

You can't underestimate the power of fear.

Trica Nixon
[I was inspired to post this one after reading Jeff's post and this line in particular, "If hoplophobe describes a fear of guns, what’s the Latin word for fear of pro-gun voters?"--Joe]

How would you deal with someone that got everything exactly backward? When they want the car to stop they step on the accelerator and when they want to go they step on the brake. Instead of washing their hands before meals they soil them in the most foul manner possible. They put water on the campfire that is keeping them warm and they put gasoline on the Christmas tree fire in their living room.

I would have to conclude they are insane. And unless there are some sort of drugs or therapy available for their condition they should be locked up for the protection of themselves and others.

But that's doesn't appear to be an option in this case where the political leaders of D.C. are demanding Congress commit an unconstitutional law and object to the a law that brings them in line with the constitution on another matter:

D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) and D.C. Council members disagree with that conclusion. They furiously protested the firearms amendment.

"The District of Columbia leadership is fully united in its opposition to unwarranted amendments that would dramatically damage the District's carefully revised gun law and expose the District to great harm through the undoing of its laws," D.C. Council President Vincent C. Gray and Council Member Phil Mendelson, chairman of the council's public-safety commission, said in a letter to Congress released yesterday.

In a statement after the Senate's vote, Ilir Zherka, executive director of D.C. Vote, a lobbying group, said the city has passed a "significant hurdle in our fight for full democracy for DC residents."

But he added of the gun amendment: "If anything, this amendment has strengthened our resolve to continue to fight for the rights of Washingtonians. Congress repeatedly treats the District as a testing ground for flawed, dangerous legislation. This has to stop - and we'll keep fighting to ensure that the bill signed into law is not tainted by this amendment."

I've had this in the back of my mind for weeks.  Then two events brought it to the forefront.  First, a customer wrote this wonderful comment in an order form;

Your lessons and videos in your Resource section WERE LIKE GOLD to me! I thought only I had questions that you answered there (i.e., how to attach plastic rail guards easily, can AKs shoot clay targets, what EXACTLY is the difference between stamped and milled (it is like EVERYBODY already is supposed to magically know this somehow!), difference between red dot and other sights, and so on). Seriously, I have tried to learn about AKs now for 2 years, most of my knowledge comes from Gabe Suarez (who strongly promotes Ultimak as you know) but you really filled in holes in my knowledge quickly on that one resource page. THANK YOU! Please keep teaching us, it builds amazing trust between us and you and we appreciate it!

It's great to hear from customers, especially happy ones.  And I know the feeling.  When I was in High School I was expected to know things (event schedules and such) that were never told to me and were not posted, as if osmosis had been expected to work for knowledge transference.  "What do you mean you didn't know about the meeting?  Everyone else knows!"

Now to the reason for my posting said "lessons and videos" on my web site.  I did it because I was tired of answering the same questions over and over, and explaining the same things in detail to people who just did not get it, plus I was frustrated with trying to sell a product that (it seemed) few people understood.  I spent some time putting that stuff on the web site as a labor-saving measure so I could spend more of my time being productive, and because the more people understand some of these products the more people will buy them.

But there is a much broader point to this.

Regular readers know that I'm a fan of Walter Williams' writing.  He recently put up a nice bit entitled "Economic Miracle" describing much the same thing;

Adam Smith, the father of economics, captured the essence of this wonderful human cooperation when he said, "He (the businessman) generally, indeed, neither intends to promote the public interest, nor knows how much he is promoting it. ... He intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain." Adam Smith continues, "He is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. ... By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it." And later he adds, "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."

To the customer, it may seem that our putting up a user resources page is an act of charity, or some other form of magnanimity (after all, it is free of charge).  It may in fact have that effect on people, but the bottom line is; this sort of thing happens millions of times per day, all around the world, all out of self-interest.

In a free market, we have to do a better job of serving the customer than those around us, or we fail to prosper.

Let government interests meddle with free markets and it all starts coming apart.  It happens a tiny bit here and a tiny bit there.  At first it may show up as a minor annoyance-- maybe a slight price increase here or a drop in service over there.  Eventually it leads to higher risk, fewer start-up businesses, more failures, the formation of de facto monopolies through the process of government licensing or subsidies, people holding back on investments in capital improvements, etc.  You can rarely ever put your finger on it directly, and if you listen to politicians, things are going to be just fine as long as you keep them "in charge" of things.  Finally it leads to stagnation, lawlessness, and decay, as can be seen in parts of the U.S. and in other countries.

For those of you who voted for Obama; I'll spell it out for you.  Capitalism works better than any of the alternatives.

The Brady Campaign is now pointing out the rate of fire with a semi-auto firearm can approach the rate of a fully automatic firearm.

One has to assume this fact will be used to argue that semi-auto firearms should be treated like fully automatic firearms. In other words newly manufactured firearms of this type should banned from sale to private citizens and the ones currently in circulation should be heavily taxed and licensed.

Just wait until they find out that in the hands of an expert revolvers and lever action rifles can be fired as fast or faster than a semi-auto in the hands of amateur. Soon they will be calling bolt action rifles and single shot pistols the "weapons of choice" for drug runners, mother rapers, father stabbers, and father rapers.

Earlier this month I asked if anyone had questions for Patrick Leahy when he came to speak to people at Microsoft. I then live blogged about his appearance.

Early next month Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal will be speaking to a group I plan to be a part of.

Any questions you want asked? This is assuming I'm aggressive enough to get my question(s) presented.

Background on Governor Jindal:

• Bobby Jindal was sworn in as Governor of Louisiana on January 14, 2008.
• He was elected Governor of Louisiana on October 20, 2007, with 54 percent of the vote in the primary, winning 60 of 64 parishes. Shortly after taking office, Governor Jindal called a Special Session to address comprehensive ethics reform, the cornerstone of his election platform. Since the conclusion of the session, the Better Government Association and the Center for Public Integrity announced that Louisiana’s new ethics laws are among the best in the nation.
• Additionally, the Governor's second Special Session eliminated burdensome taxes that deterred investment in Louisiana and limited the growth of existing Louisiana businesses.
• Governor Jindal has put forth detailed plans for reforming our state's health care, education, and transportation systems, as well as for encouraging workforce development and continuing recovery efforts in areas devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, as well as Hurricanes Gustav and Ike.
• Governor Jindal led the historic response to Hurricane Gustav by successfully moving 1.9 million people out of harms’ way, the largest evacuation of citizens in the history of the United States, including the largest medical evacuation in history moving more than 10,400 people from hospitals, nursing homes, and other medical facilities out of the path of the storm.
• Governor Jindal has worked tirelessly to eliminate the bureaucratic red-tape that has slowed the recovery process in the past, allowing recovery from Hurricanes Gustav and Ike to progress quickly. Louisiana's oil and gas, agriculture, fisheries, and transportation industries were all affected by the storms and Governor Jindal continues to work with local, state, and federal entities to ensure that all individuals and industries affected are provided with the necessary assistance.
• Jindal was born in Baton Rouge on June 10, 1971. He graduated from Baton Rouge High School in 1988 and went on to attend Brown University where he graduated with honors in biology and public policy. Following his graduation from Brown he attended Oxford University in England as a Rhodes Scholar, having turned down admissions to medical and law schools at both Harvard and Yale.
• In 1994, Jindal went to work for McKinsey and Company as a consultant for Fortune 500 companies before entering public service. In 1996, he was appointed Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals (DHH). There were many issues that needed resolving during his tenure, not the least of which was the growing deficit in Louisiana's Medicaid program. During Jindal's tenure as DHH Secretary, he rescued Louisiana's Medicaid program from bankruptcy, childhood immunizations increased, Louisiana ranked third best nationally in health care screenings for children, and new and expanded services for elderly and disabled persons were offered.
• In 1998, Jindal was appointed Executive Director of the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare. As Executive Director, he was responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Commission, whose work continue to be the driving force behind much of the ongoing debate on how to strengthen and improve Medicare.
• At the conclusion of the Commission's work, Jindal was appointed President of the University of Louisiana System, the 16th largest higher education system in the country. While serving as President, Jindal worked to establish areas of excellence at each individual institution. President George W. Bush appointed Jindal to serve as Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in 2001. In that position, he served as the principal policy advisor to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. He later resigned from the position in 2003 to return to Louisiana and run for elected office for the first time. In that race, Jindal went from being a relatively unknown candidate for Governor, to receiving the most votes in the primary election and eventually 48 percent of the vote in runoff.
• In 2004 he was elected to the 109th United States Congress representing the First District of Louisiana. In Congress he was elected Freshman Class President and served on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, the House Committee on Homeland Security, and the House Committee on Resources. Bobby also served as Assistant Majority Whip. In his first term he passed a number of notable pieces of legislation and played an instrumental role in Louisiana's recovery from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. His noteworthy accomplishments include the passage of legislation to bring significant offshore energy revenues to Louisiana for the first time and legislation that keeps Federal Emergency Management Agency from taxing certain recovery grants as income.
• Jindal was re-elected to Congress in 2006 with 88 percent of the vote majority.
• Jindal and his wife Supriya have three young children.

See also Say Uncle's comments about him as well as Tam's.

Update: After thinking about it while I was taking a shower if I were fairly certain he would get the reference to both books I would be inclined to ask Tam's question:

Why does the GOP insist on offering me The Handmaid's Tale as its cheery alternative to the Democrat's promise of 1984?

Update2: This post is being attacked via spammers every few minutes. I'm turning off comments for now. Send me an email if you want to make a comment and I'll post it for you.

Update3: The meeting has been canceled for now:

We received word this weekend that President Obama is travelling to Louisiana on March 5^th - to meet with Gov. Jindal and tour Katrina recovery efforts.  This unfortunately means that he will not be able to travel to the NW for meetings this week.  Governor Jindal is very sorry to make this last-minute cancellation, but we look forward to working with his staff to find a new date for his visit in the future.

Idaho has this reputation for being a bunch of anti-federal government crazies, but I don't think that's particularly deserved. I mentioned last February that Montana officials had warned the Supreme Court that Montana joined the Union on the understanding that the Second Amendment protected an individual right, and they might have to rethink that situation if the Court ruled wrongly on D.C. v. Heller (2008). Fortunately, the Court got it right, so there was no need for Montana to seize the Air Force missile silos there, and become the world's lowest population and density nuclear power.

Anyway, it appears that the Montana legislature is preparing for the Obamination of restrictive federal gun control laws.

...

Adding to the amusement of this is that those who were upset about the Raich decision (and they were right to be upset, even if it was for a very stupid cause: marijuana) will have to admit that if California has the right to legalize marijuana that doesn't move across state lines, free of federal intervention, then Montana has a similar right to tell the federal government that guns made in Montana are exempt from federal rules.

Clayton Cramer
February 25, 2009
Those Pesky Montanans
[Although I probably am as amused about this as Clayton people don't "have to admit" anything. I literally know a person that will insist to your face that "the fence line is over there and has always been over there" even though you could break a leg stepping into the ancient fence post hole in front of you and get tangled in the rusty barbed wire as you fell. This same person also convinced a judge that it was legitimate self-defense after a neighbor caught him sitting on his ex-wife pounding on her face who was flat on her back on the sidewalk (had it been me that caught him the judge would not have been required to make a decision). Some people are just reality impaired and/or have an infinite capacity to lie.--Joe]

Kris tells me he is going to attend Boomershoot as a spectator and wondered if this would be an appropriate lead pusher for the event:

The original design intent is described as:

Designed as an equalizer for inconceivable and unpredictable lane changes, and other traffic related anomalies perpetrated by the cell phone using, motor home/SUV driving morons in Florida imposed on the rest of us. The below pictured machine was designed for that purpose.

Each mini gun fires at a rate of 3000 rounds per minute (6000 total). During initial test and evaluation it was demonstrated that a single 2 second burst would, and did blow a 40 foot RV with tow car clean off the road, leaving an open and unobstructed route ahead. It will vaporize an SUV in seconds! Tests further indicated that after two or three RV's/SUV's in a row were eliminated, or "friggin smoked", others voluntarily pulled off the road and thus became a "non threat."

I told him it would be welcome but the accuracy of the lead on target was far more important than the quantity.

But perhaps we can create a special Boomershoot event for this class of toy if there is enough interest out there. See also these variants.

From reader Rob who makes reference to a previous post of mine when he says, "Abnormal behavior?" and sent me this picture:

When a non-technical person says, "reset" I have to examine the context carefully and frequently ask more questions. They could mean anything from closing an application and restarting it to unplugging the computer without going through a graceful power-down process.

Steve Ballmer is saying:

"I often think of this as an economic reset. It's not a recession from which you recover,"

I think this is much closer to someone else yanking the power cord from the wall on your computer while it is still running than simply closing an app then trying it again. I just hope the computer doesn't catch on fire and the electrical wiring in the building fuses into a blob of molten metal during this "reset".

The anti-gun people are celebrating yesterdays Supreme Court decision:

Gun control advocates hailed the ruling as a good sign following the Court's decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, a 2008 decision that defined the Second Amendment as covering an individual's right to possess weapons. That decision was the first time the Court had ever ruled so broadly on gun rights.

But the Heller ruling suggested that some reasonable restrictions to gun ownership would be allowed. "That's a good sign that Heller is the limited ruling we thought it was," said Daniel Vice, a senior attorney at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

They may be overlooking something. The Second Amendment was neither briefed or mentioned in the case. Hence, if my understanding of judicial process is correct, the court could not bring the Second Amendment or the Heller decision into the discussion. Thus, if someone else challenges the Lautenberg Amendment on Second Amendment grounds we could end up with a completely different decision.

Go ahead and dance Mr. Vice, your day to whine may be coming yet.

I think it is altogether possibility that all freedom in America will be killed in the name of public safety.

Wendy McElroy
February 24, 2009
Modern day Committee for Public Safety
[It's obvious on the gun laws but it extends way, way beyond that. Just think about the regulation of all industry. A business can be fined and or prosecuted if they

• Don't clean their tools according to code (everything from hair cutters to restaurants)
• Don't get the government approval of the label on their product (alcoholic beverages)
• Don't install safety equipment on their products (think about all the mandated materials and equipment on a car and imagine what horse riding would be like after the government safety committee got through with it)
• Don't have a separate bathroom for the exclusive use of the government inspector (meat inspectors)

Enumerated powers were supposed to protect us from this sort of thing. What happened and how do we regain our freedom? Sebastian doesn't have the answers but formulating the problem sometimes helps.

H/T to Say Uncle and Two--Four.--Joe]

As you all know the downturn we are operating in is more severe and global than anything we have seen before.

We are in the midst of a phase of history in which nations will be redefined and their futures fundamentally altered. Many people will be under extreme pressure and many companies mortally wounded.

Rupert Murdoch
February 24, 2009
Peter Chernin's little shocker
[Risk and opportunity abound. Keep your eyes open for both. I'm listening to The Black Swan which appears to be applicable to the times as well.--Joe]

Does anyone think it is "abnormal behavior" to read a book in public? How about putting a bumper-sticker on your car in favor of (or opposed to) a candidate for political office? How about requesting a lawyer before being questioned by the police? Or insisting on a warrant before the police search your home?

In all of the above the people of the United States are guaranteed these rights by the First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution. So why would someone in their right mind say:

In case you haven't noticed, the pro-gun lobby is working overtime to normalize abnormal behavior. Let us ask you a handful of questions.

Would you be willing to:

• Sip hot chocolate with your toddler at Starbucks while a fellow patron openly displays a gun at the table next to you?
• Attend a church service with your entire family knowing that the fellow parishioner sitting next to you has a handgun tucked in his belt?
• Stand in line at a bank to make a deposit as two men enter with baseball hats on and what appear to be guns in their pockets?
• Board a crowded bus with your newborn child with upwards of 5 other passengers carrying concealed weapons?

"Abnormal behavior"? Exercising a specific enumerated right in public is "abnormal behavior"? Perhaps in the Peoples Republic of China, Massachusetts, or Chicago. But it is a right. All of the above activities seem perfectly normal to me. I don't know what his problem is. Is he one of those that didn't want n***ers in the same restaurant with him too? Maybe he doesn't want Jews handling his money either. And blacks need to sit at the back of the bus and give up their seats to good white folk too.

The only conclusion I can reach is that the guy isn't in his right mind. He is the one exhibiting abnormal behavior. He must have mental problems, is a blatant bigot, or both. It's time we treated these people as the bigots they are and condemn them to the political dustbin of history.