The View From North Central Idaho

I knew this sort of thing happened but this is the first time I have heard it used as a defense in a sexual assault case:

TORONTO - In an unusual case Tuesday in a Toronto courtroom, a 33-year-old man was acquitted of sexual assault after a judge ruled he was asleep during the attack, the Toronto Sun reported Wednesday.

"This is indeed a rare case," said Justice Russell Otter, as the woman who Jan Luedecke had sex with shook, sobbed and then left the courtroom.

"His conduct was not voluntary."

...

Luedecke, a landscaper, met the woman at a party on July 6, 2003. Both had been drinking.

The woman had fallen asleep on a couch. She woke up to find him having sex with her. She pushed him off, then contacted the police.

Luedecke said he fell asleep on the same couch and woke up when he was thrown to the floor.

He only suspected he had had sex after using the bathroom and discovering he was wearing a condom, court heard. He confessed to police.

During his trial, sleep expert Dr. Colin Shapiro testified Luedecke had parasomnia - a disorder with symptoms such as sleep-walking. Shapiro testified Luedecke suffered from sexsomnia, which is sexual behavior during sleep.

It was brought on by alcohol, sleep deprivation and genetics, Shapiro said.

Luedecke previously had sex while asleep with four girlfriends, court heard.

News of the successful defence of sexsomnia may spread to others accused of sexual assault, said University of Toronto law professor Hamish Stewart.

"We may hear more forms of this defence from accused persons," he said, adding he has never previously heard of such a case.

Luedecke has cut down on his drinking and is taking medication to stop a repeat of the incident, court heard.

It sounds to me like the correct decision was reached but the woman says she has the means and the intent to appeal the decision.  I would like to suggest she stop falling asleep in drunk stupors at parties and get on with her life.

It's a little bit subtle but once you think about it and look at the numbers it's hard to come up with any other conclusion.  Howard Nemerov didn't spell it out quite like my posting title but that is what jumped out of his posting at me.  If you are for the restriction of self defense tools that compensate for the physical advantage men, on the average, have over women then the unintended consequence is that you increase the violence against women.  I found these numbers particularily disturbing: 

Rape Rate Trends 1995–2003 (per 100,000 pop.)
	1995	2003	% Change
Australia	72.5	91.7	+26.5
United Kingdom	43.3	69.2	+59.8
United States	37.1	32.1	-13.5

In the time period under consideration above Australia and the UK both implemented extremely repressive firearm laws.  The U.S. made it easier for people to carry the tools necessary to defend yourself from violent attacks.

His final word is a little over the top, but it's a thought that certainly comes to mind:

Is “Burka-ed and pregnant” next on the gun-ban agenda?

One of the peace activists recently kidnapped by the Islamic extremists was written about in tomorrows Washingon Post.  It's so sad to read the words he wrote before going to Iraq and what his friends here are saying now:

As Tom Fox headed toward the end of his first week in captivity in Iraq, friends said the 54-year-old musician and peace activist was well aware of the dangers he faced in the war-ravaged country.

He was so realistic, in fact, that he devised a written plan he distributed to friends and co-workers that they should follow if he were taken hostage. Don't pay ransom for his return, he wrote in an October 2004 e-mail, and reject the use of violence in trying to win his freedom. Don't "vilify" the abductors, he said, but instead "try to understand the motives of their actions."

...

"We are very worried about our four friends," Christian Peacemaker Teams said in a statement on its Web site yesterday. "We fear that whoever is holding them has made a mistake. [They] are four men who came to Iraq to work for peace and explain their opposition to the occupation. They are not spies."

...

At the service in McLean, where Fox's e-mail from 2004 was read aloud, his friends reminisced about his ideals. One woman said that just before Fox left for Iraq, he told her, "Too many are willing to die for war and too few are willing to die for peace."

"Try to understand the motives of their actions"?  The motives are, "You are not Muslim or you are not the right flavor of Muslim.  You must convert or die."  "Explaining your opposition to the occupation" isn't going to yield the desired results.

And who has ever said they were willing to die for war?  I've heard or read about people willing to die for country, freedom, honor, family, way of life, and a lot of other things but I've never heard it said they were willing to die for war. 

These people are living in an alternate reality.  It's sad their introduction to reality will likely be in the form of a box full of sand covered body parts.  Don't expect it will convert many of them.  They are prime canditates for When Prophecy Fails mention.

The online entry has been a big hit.  Some women have purchased gift entries for their husbands and numerous other entries have resulted in a big rush.  I have a total of 19 slots filled now.  In 2003 that many positions weren't taken until February 7th.  In 2002 it wasn't until February 28th.  Get your entries in soon unless you just want to be just be a spectator.

Unless you sent a snail mail in the last week everyone should have received their confirmation email by now.  If not let me know.  I was really slow in getting some of the confirmations out and there's a remote possibility I lost one or two.

State drama competition is in the state of Southern Idaho and that's where Xenia is going to be for a couple days.  It snowed last night (see her pictures of it here) and that made the roads very slick.  Barb and I are somewhat worried about all the road travel but it's really important to her and it's not very often that kids on a school trip are injured--the drivers know they have an extra responsibility and have commericial drivers licenses.

I talked to her a little bit ago.  "Good luck!", I said.  Then I remember that was wrong and followed up with, "And break a leg!"

I have often used the analogy in personal conversation, teaching self-defense classes, and sometimes alluded to it on this blog (here, here, here, and here).  But Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, U.S. Army (Ret.) spells it out better on this page than anyone else I have seen.

Thanks to someone at work for pointing this page out to me.

The terrorists have identified Iraq as central to their global aspirations. For that reason, terrorists and extremists from all parts of the Middle East and North Africa have found their way to Iraq and made common cause with indigenous religious extremists and former members of Saddam's regime. This group cannot be won over and must be defeated -- killed or captured -- through sustained counterterrorism operations.

National Strategy for Victory in Iraq
From the Whitehouse

I ran across these stats in a UK newspaper:

• Insurgents in Iraq have kidnapped more than 200 foreigners since the invasion in 2003
• Of these, 52 are known to have been killed by their captors — 41 in 2004 and 11 in 2005
• Of those killed, three were American and two were British
• Margaret Hassan, an aid worker, was kidnapped on her way to work in October 2004 and is believed to have been shot. Kenneth Bigley was beheaded after being kidnapped in September, 2004
• Approximately 55 foreign nationals are currently being held hostage in Iraq

With stats like that it's amazing to me there are leftist "peace activists" that complain about U.S. soldiers putting a "holy book" on top of a toilet.  I'm with Clayton on this--the left is completely "losing it". 

You would think the "religion of peace" and peace activists would get along well.  But currently the extremists for the "religion of peace" are holding some Western peace activists with a sword hanging over their heads:

AN ELDERLY British man and three other Western peace activists kidnapped in Baghdad appeared last night in a video released by an unknown insurgent group that labelled them “spies of occupying forces”.

...

Friends of Mr Kember dismissed the spy claim as outrageous. “He would never ever dream of doing anything like spying,” Bruce Kent, the veteran peace campaigner, told the BBC. “The last thing he would do would be working for the British Government.”

...

Mr Kember’s family released a statement yesterday saying that he had gone to Iraq “for a short time to join a peace group that’s talking and listening to people of all persuasions, believing that dialogue not confrontation should help to bring about conciliation. He feels very strongly that the occupation in Iraq is a mistake.”

These naive fools need to read a little bit of what Osama bin Laden has to say about things.  He is very clear on things--convert, submit, or die.  Think about it.

I would have never have guessed.  Perhaps it's only true in Australia:

Some rural sex workers, male and female, are aged over 70, a new study has found.

The study by the University of New England, believed to be the first of its kind in the world, interviewed 20 NSW rural sex workers.

It found the numbers of female and male sex workers in the state's country areas had risen in the past 10 years.

While there had always been brothels in country areas, escort services had only taken off since the early 1990s, project leader Dr John Scott said.

And male escorts had only begun to appear in rural centres in the past five years, he said.

The study also found country sex workers were more educated and much older than those in the city.

The interviewees were mostly aged between 20 and 58, but there were a few - male and female - over 70, he said.

In case you hadn't already heard Kim has a new blog up.  In his email he said, "I got sick of anonymity."

The new blog promises to show another side of Kim--a Kim more presentable to corporate America.  I understand the sentiment.  I have had my own problems with that.

Our movement took a grip on cowardly Marxism and from it extracted the meaning of socialism. It also took from the cowardly middle-class parties their nationalism. Throwing both into the cauldron of our way of life there emerged, as clear as a crystal, the synthesis- German National Socialism.

Hermann Goering (1893-1946),
German Nazi leader, air marshal.
Speech, 9 April 1933, Sports Palast, Berlin.
["Progressives" and "Liberals" should never be allowed to forget the roots they share with the Nazis.-- Joe]

Our idea of improving NICS is to abolish it. There is this continuing assumption that a gun buyer is guilty until proven innocent.

Larry Pratt
Executive director of the Gun Owners of America
Associated Press
November 27, 2005
http://www.columbiatribune.com/2005/Nov/20051127News033.asp
http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/couriernews/top/3_1_EL27_A1GUNS_S1.htm

Where would you be less likely to be killed?  As a resident of Washington D.C.?  Or an american serviceman in Iraq?  Don Kates has the answer:

Drastically increasing homicide led Washington, D.C., to ban handguns in the 1970s. So useless was this that D.C. soon had (and continues to have) the nation’s highest murder rates. Today, its residents have a 25 percent higher chance of being murdered than American troops in Iraq have of dying from enemy action.

Lots of other great stuff in the article too.  This, from the same article, is basically my Just One Question posting:

In a study published last December, the National Academy of Sciences, having reviewed 43 government publications, 253 journal articles, 99 books, and its own research, could not identify even one example of gun control that reduced murder or violent crime.

Update: It's been pointed out to me the article quoted has been updated.  The information was wrong.  Apparently monthly casualty rates in Iraq were being compared to yearly rates in D.C.  Sorry about that.

Who would have thought the benefits would have shown up so soon?  Certainly not me.  I guess those San Francisco voters knew what they were doing.  Read the details here.  [end sarcasm]

Stunning photo:

And high praise:

Still on guard

Gun-control advocate keeps up the fight 16 years after Montreal massacre

TORONTO -- Wendy Cukier didn't stand by and weep for the 14 young women who were murdered by a lone gunman on Dec. 6, 1989, in Montreal.

Instead, she formulated a plan to eradicate the use of illegal firearms, and has been working tirelessly towards that goal ever since.

The Ryerson professor, and founder and president of the Coalition for Gun Control, was lauded for her initiative 14 years ago when she was one of 10 winners at the Sun Media's annual Women on the Move celebration in Toronto.

Today, Cukier is still a prof at Ryerson, as well as an associate dean of its business school, which is the largest business undergraduate school in Canada.

And she's still involved in gun-control issues.

Cukier, mother to a 17-year-old daughter, says there's still a lot of work to do in light of all the gunplay Toronto is witnessing.

"It's important to continue the fight and ensure gun legislations that have been implemented are properly enforced, and not watered down," says Cukier.

"It's clear you can strengthen the laws in your own country, but if you are next to a country with as many guns as people and no effective gun control, you remain vulnerable," she adds.

Currently, the dynamic activist is doing a lot of work at the United Nations level trying to establish international standards.

"Canada is often recognized as a model for other countries - they think we've done a good job. Amnesty International recognizes Canada's gun laws as a model for preventing violence against women with guns," says Cukier.

And even though there has been an increase in homicides by guns in Toronto this year, the death and injury rate by guns in Canada is at the lowest it's ever been.

"Gang-related murders are definitely a problem and shows there is more work to do. Yet murders of women with guns is down 75%," she adds.

"The big thing is, even though it's been 16 years since the Montreal massacre, we're still having to fight very hard to preserve the gains we've won," says the author of The Global Gun Epidemic: From Saturday Night Specials to AK-47s.

"The gun lobby is fighting every step of the way and my message is for people ... to speak out. Victims of violence and police officers are trying to get the attention of our politicians, but if the public doesn't get engaged in the solution, then they become part of the problem."

No mention of what really is important--the overall death and injury rate in Canada since they implement their "model" gun control.  Further questions include "How many people were injured or killed because they didn't have the appropriate tool to defend themselves?"  And "Would the nearly two billion dollars spent on the failed gun registry have been better spent on more police officers, equipment, and prisons?"

And finally, "Has this paper ever given a pro-freedom advocate high praise similar to what they give this anti-freedom advocate?"

Just a hint for those of you that look for the cheapest ammo you can find.  Same gun, same shooter, same range, same day:

Hunting ammo.

Match ammo

The main foundations of every state, new states as well as ancient or composite ones, are good laws and good arms . . . you cannot have good laws without good arms, and where there are good arms, good laws inevitably follow.

Niccol Machiavelli
(1469-1527)
Italian political philosopher and statesman
The Prince, ch. 12 (1514)

This guy is even more obsesive and geeky than I am.  He shot about 2350 rounds to get this data.

Current airport/airplane security is a waste of time.  Everyone knows it and some even talk about it openly.  Here they just hint at it.  We need to research the problem starting with a clean slate.

The problem is that private firearms ownership in Australia has fallen victim to a narrow, authoritarian mentality which substitutes the lowest common denominator, irrational fear, for sensible debate. The fundamental freedom to protect one's life and property has been replaced by a policy which ignores the fact that no matter how well resourced a police service may be it cannot prevent violent home invasions. Ultimately, individuals must be given the opportunity to take responsibility for their own safety.

Paul Peake
Self Defence (November 1998)
From http://www.ssaa.org.au/ilanov98.html (as of December 1, 1998)

anti-gun lobbyists think that anyone, at any time, can turn into a raving lunatic and, if armed, start effectively killing people. laura is an example, having said something pretty much to this effect in this folder at one time or other. under this operating idea, firearms bans would be a pretty good idea. they also tend to think that collections of people act more rationally than individuals, and that therefore, governments which represent collections of people (rather than, say, parasitic elites) are not to be taken as concerns.

pro-gun lobbyists think that most people will not turn into raving lunatics, under pretty much any circumstances; those that do are the fairly rare exceptions that the rest of us sane folk need to be able to protect ourselves against. under this paradeigm, firearms bans make no sense whatsoever, as the lunatics and criminals won't care about them anyway. they also tend to think that collections of people are more likely to get Real Bad Ideas than individuals (the mob effect, or as put in Men in Black, "A person is smart. People are weird, panicky and stupid.") and have more power to exercise those Real Bad Ideas. Therefore, power groups (such as governments) are to be monitored carefully and not allowed to accumulate too much power.

both, fundamentally, have fear issues. the question is, whose fears ring true with you?

Dar Korra'ti
Friday, August 14, 1998 11:23 AM
Right vs Left Discussion (Microsoft public folder)

This Website will outline our aims, which are simple, and the ways you can help, which are many.

The job of this network is not to convince people that guns, especially handguns, are dangerous. Everyone knows that already. The vast majority want to see handguns prohibited completely and much tighter controls on all other weapons.

Our job is to convince the law-makers that they must listen to the majority, and not be swayed by the selfish minority.

Gun Control Network (U.K.)
From http://www.gun-control-network.org/gcnhome.htm
As of March 3, 1999
[They completely miss the point that because guns, especially handguns, are dangerous make them an extremely useful tool for self-defense.  That is unless they subscribe to the "cattle theory" of government where all people are equally valuable and the loss of any human life no matter how vile a crime they are committing when they are shot by an innocent victim is a tragedy.  So we are left to conclude either they are ignorant and/or they are immoral.--Joe]

I got a call from Xenia yesterday.  She said a big package arrived in the mail from PNNL.  I asked her to open it and tell me about the contents.  It was from Peggy Hevland who said they found some more stuff from my former office that appeared to be personal rather than work related.  It was some paperwork I had filled out related to getting my security clearance.  I didn't have Xenia go through all of it but as near as I could tell it wasn't anything important.  They appear to be just tidying things up as best they can.  Sort of like sweeping up the broken lamp and putting the furniture back in place after they broke into your house and raped you.

Barb had an interesting comment when she heard about it.  I'd repeat it here but I generally don't use that kind of language.

I wonder if they have run out of options on the FOIA and Privacy Act requests they have been defying and are trying to get things in order for the counter attack they know is coming.

Also of interest is that I suspect it's someone from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory that downloads all the pages off of my pnnl.info web site every so often.   It's nice to know they are still "thinking about me."  I often think of them too.  That reminds me--I need to sharpen a couple of knives I used when I gutted and skinned my deer.

1. Talk about a huge breast!
2. Tying the legs together keeps the inside moist.
3. It's Cool Whip time!
4. If I don't undo my pants, I'll burst!
5. Whew, that's one terrific spread!
6. I'm in the mood for a little dark meat.
7. Are you ready for seconds yet?
8. It's a little dry, do you still want to eat it?
9. Just wait your turn, you'll get some!
10. Don't play with your meat.
11. Just spread the legs open and stuff it in.
12. Do you think you'll be able to handle all these people at once?
13. I didn't expect everyone to come at once!
14. You still have a little bit on your chin.
15. How long will it take after you stick it in?
16. You'll know it's ready when it pops up.
17. Wow, I didn't think I could handle all of that!
18. That's the biggest one I've ever seen!
19. How long do I beat it before it's ready?

Always have a gun with you when you get an unexpected visitor at the door.  Of course the government should be on trial here as well as the perps because it was the criminal government that disarmed the victims in this case:

THE widow of the financier John Monckton yesterday relived the moments when a bogus Royal Mail delivery man she named as “Postman Pat” burst into their home with an accomplice and destroyed their lives.

Homeyra Monckton, 46, needed the assistance of a court usher to enter the witness box and briefly broke down as she told a jury at the Old Bailey how the men forced open the front door. After being stabbed twice in the back by the accomplice, who was wearing a balaclava, she said that she passed out, believing her husband would overcome the figure with whom he was struggling.

“I was thinking, ‘I am dying and he will survive’, because he looked so strong,” she said. “He was fighting, still holding the man’s wrists up. I said to my husband, ‘I have been stabbed’, and I was screaming all the time. I said it maybe a couple of times and then I fainted.”

When she regained consciousness, she heard her fatally injured husband moaning on the floor as their assailants fled. Mrs Monckton was giving evidence in the trial of Elliot White and Damien Hanson, both 24, who deny murdering Mr Monckton, a senior bonds director with Legal & General at the couple’s opulent home in Chelsea on November 29.

Both men also deny the attempted murder of Mrs Monckton and wounding with intent.

The court has been told that Mr White posed as a postman to deliver a bogus parcel to Mr Monckton after the couple had been targeted for their wealth.Mrs Monckton, a mother of two, told the court that her husband returned home early on the night of his death while she was giving her daughter, Isobel, nine, a bath. She said that the doorbell rang at about 7.30pm and, over the intercom, the caller announced that he had a parcel for Mr Monckton.

He first checked through the front-door spyhole and then, with the security chain still on, opened the door. Mrs Monckton said she could see a man holding a parcel and wearing a striped jacket, which she described as being like a Postman Pat outfit. Moments later, after her husband had taken off the chain, he opened the door and the men burst in — her husband crying “no, no, no,” as he tried to push the door shut. She joined him but the couple were unable to keep them out.

Mrs Monckton told the jury: “One came in with a balaclava. He stabbed me almost immediately, without saying anything. All I could think about was that there was a panic alarm in the bedroom on the first floor and I needed to get up there. I was stabbed again as I was going up.” She added: “I could not feel anything in my legs. I sat down and I could see my husband defending himself with another man. I could see him holding his arms high, holding the other man’s arms in front of him, away from him.”

Her assailant “calmly and coldly” demanded the two rings from her fingers, her earrings and a watch — and when he asked for money, she pointed out her handbag to him.

Mrs Monckton said the man in the balaclava had two weapons — a knife and a handgun — and through the eyeholes in his balaclava she could see that he was black. The two rings and watch were worth about £4,500, the earrings were only costume jewellery. Asked whether one of the robbers was reluctant to join in with the violence, she replied: “No, not at all. They destroyed our lives.” The case continues.

The pass over the Cascades on my way home to Idaho had a rock slide a few weeks ago and travel is restricted to just one lane in each direction.  Even when the pass is wide open significant (one or more hours) delays occur during the holiday travel season.  With only two lanes and a speed limit of 35 MPH on the temporary road around the slide zone they are asking people to not cross the Cascades over the holidays.  I'm going home anyway.  They are saying worst case delays could be up to 16 hours and 40 mile backups.  That means my normal five hour drive could become 21 hours.  Ouch. 

I might not blog much in the next few days with all that is going on.

Preparations for my trip eastward include:

• Six gallon gas can in the trunk
• Full tank of gas
• Sleeping bag
• Spare clothes and shoes
• Tarp
• Food
• Water
• Gloves
• Coat
• Rain gear
• First aid kit
• Guns
• Jumper cables
• Flash lights
• Ammunition
• Good snow tires
• Tire chains
• Computer (work and entertainment while waiting)
• Inverter (to power the computer)
• Cell phone charger
• Magazines

Details on the slide and projected delays: RockSlide.pdf (110.51 KB)

I was chatting with my landlords about Thanksgiving plans this evening and remembered a Thanksgiving story I shared with them.  A friend of mine was at Thanksgiving dinner with parents, grandparents, etc and they went around the table sharing what they were thankful for.  My friend, in addition to being rebellious, was sexually active at a rather young age.  She, at the age of 15 or 16, told the entire family she was thankful for birth control.

I'll bet that really changed the atmosphere of that particular family gathering.

Innovation as well as expanding their market share of existing products brought greater profits to Durex recently:

The launch of sex toys and new types of condoms has lifted sales growth at Durex to a record 10 per cent. And SSL, which owns the Durex brand, promised further growth yesterday as it launched a new range of sex aids for men that will be available in Tesco and Boots.

A range of vibrators and lubricants sold under the Durex Play brand accounted for half of the sales growth reported yesterday. Durex revenues were £77.1m in the six months to 30 September.

The decision by Boots to stock a new £5.99 vibrating ring for men represents a significant U-turn for the high street chain. At the start of this year it backed out of talks to launch the Durex Play range of vibrators, for fear of a conservative backlash. The range was eventually launched by Superdrug.

...

Tesco insisted yesterday the disposable rings - which last 20 minutes and have a small vibrating pad to enhance the pleasure of women during sex - were not sex toys but part of the health and family planning range.

SSL claimed that Durex's global market share had risen to 30 per cent after strong growth in the US and Eastern Europe, and thanks to the launch of innovative condoms, such as Pleasuremax, which is ribbed, and Tingle, which is coated with a lubricant that gives a tingling sensation.

SSL, which owns the Scholl footwear and footcare brands, reported interim profits of £17.3m, up from £10.5m in the half-year to 30 September 2004.

The streets are safe in Philadelphia, it's only the people who make them unsafe.

Philadelphia Mayor, Frank Rizzo
[My guess is that neither truer, nor more stupid, words have ever been spoken.  The solutions to the problem Rizzo outlines are many but only a few are acceptable.  Philadelphia has had a problem getting it right for many decades.--Joe]

Once upon a time there were two Chinese businessmen, No Cum and How Cum.  For reasons yet unknown, How Cum was unmarried.  But No Cum was married to a lovely little Chinese lady by the name of No Cum Too.  One night, while No Cum was away on business, No Cum Too invited How Cum to spend the evening with her.  That night How Cum had great pleasure as No Cum Too came and How Cum came too.  After a few months had past, No Cum found that he was to became a father and he did not know How Cum.  So, when the number one son was born, he named him How Cum You Cum.  And to this day, both No Cum Too and How Cum know how number one son How Cum You Cum came, but No Cum has never found out how number one son How Cum You Cum came.

Told by Gordon Lightfoot
October 1973 at his concert in Moscow Idaho as an introduction for his song, That's What You Get For Loving Me

About eight or ten years ago when we were driving through South Dakota we read there were more sheep than people in the state.  So unless things have changed I'm not sure what this guy's problem was:

"There was inappropriate activity between him and the mannequin," a police spokesman told the newspaper. "That's the only way I know how to put it."

From an email Ry sent me...

Well, I suppose they will catch a few crooks that were candidates for Darwin Awards anyway.  All the surveillance cameras in the UK and their automatic number recognition software came in handy the other day.  They used it to track down and arrest the people that killed a cop on Friday.  Great!  And they publicized it--bad.  One of the most critical things in intelligence gathering is protecting your sources from discovery.  Just how difficult will it be to defeat the system?  How much effort is it to stop and smear some mud on the plates?  Or put a piece of tape over some of the letters?  Or put a paper with a different number over the top of your plates?  Anyway, here is the story where they are crowing about how great and wonderful it is:

A pioneering number plate recognition system in Bradford played a vital role in the arrests of six suspects after the killing of Pc Sharon Beshenivsky.

A network of CCTV cameras linked to a database of registration numbers automatically alerts officers to a vehicle's route across the city.

Within minutes of Friday's shootings, police were using the system to track the suspected getaway car.

The first arrests were made in London early the following morning.

...

At its launch in May, Ch Supt Geoff Dodd of West Yorkshire Police, said: "I believe that this is the best investigative tool we have had since the introduction of DNA analysis.

"DNA broke new ground for the police service and this is another revolutionary tool in detecting crime."

""The importance of this system in the fight against crime cannot be underestimated."

"Denying criminals use of the roads denies access to the primary means of transport for a whole raft of criminal activity."

"It includes the transportation of drugs, stolen property and articles for use in crime, as well as transport for offenders to and from the scenes of crimes such as robberies and burglaries."

"The bottom line is that if a stolen vehicle comes into or out of Bradford city centre we will know about it."

A friend of mine once told me that the personalities of cops and crooks were very similar.  The biggest difference was their IQ.  The cops have the advantage at something like 105 to 95.  They may be smarter than the crooks on the average but crowing about their new toy neutralized the advantage.

On the flip side they can still use it to track innocent people and sell the information on the black market to stalkers, politicians wanting dirt on their opponents, and for industrial espionage.  And just think how useful it would have been to the East Germans 30 years ago.

A couple of cops are shot, one killed, when responding to a call of an armed robbery in progress.  And they are "skeptical" that arming the cops would increase their safety.  A couple of hours of simulations with AirSoft guns would answer that question quite decisively but they are so paralyzed by their own hoplophobia they can't consider the obvious:

Mr Davis accused the government of failing to tackle the source of gun crime and particularly the illegal holding of firearms.

He said gun crime had doubled to around 10-11,000 since 1996 when Thomas Hamilton killed 16 children and a teacher at Dunblane Primary School in Scotland. 

Home Secretary Charles Clarke said the government was keen to learn any lessons from the Bradford shootings.

"My main priority is to ensure that guns no longer have a place on our streets and that armed gangs who terrorise innocent people are brought to justice," he said.

But he signalled his opposition to arming all police, citing evidence from other countries which suggested it encouraged criminals to carry guns.

"I remain sceptical that arming all police officers all of the time would make them safer," he said, writing in The Sun.

"Indeed, all the experience from other countries where the police carry firearms demonstrates that this only encourages the criminals to arm themselves and potentially to turn law enforcers' own weapons on to the police themselves."

Cause public proclamation to be made, that everyone strong in body at leisure time on holidays use in his recreation the bow and arrow and learn and exercise the art of shooting - forbidding all and singular on our behalf that they do not after any manner apply themselves to the throwing of stones, wood, iron, handball, football, bandyball, cambuck, or cock fighting; nor to other such like vain plays which have no profit in them, under pain of imprisonment.

Edward Rex
Westminster
12th day of June 1369
[From mandated use of arms as recreation to arms being banned for any private use.  I wonder when the average individual was safer in the U.K.--Joe]

This is one of my favorite jokes:

Q: Why were men given larger brains than dogs?
A: So they wouldn't hump women's legs at cocktail parties.

Of course not all men use more of their brain than that used by a dog--particularly after they've had a few drinks.  Which explains the behavior of some men wherever women and alcohol are present.

Bruce Schneier brought this to my attention.

Ex-MI5 chief says ID cards in the UK would be "useless" for fighting terrorism and "a waste of money".  Which is what I have been saying for years.  She, of course, has a much more influential position than most.  And she does a good job of hammering the half-baked idea for fighting terrorists:

ID cards have possibly some purpose. 

But I don't think that anybody in the intelligence services, particularly in my former service, would be pressing for ID cards.

My angle on ID cards is that they may be of some use but only if they can be made unforgeable - and all our other documentation is quite easy to forge.

If we have ID cards at vast expense and people can go into a back room and forge them they are going to be absolutely useless.

ID cards may be helpful in all kinds of things but I don't think they are necessarily going to make us any safer.

And if it doesn't help when fighting terrorists then it's not going to be any good for fighting criminals.

We knew from the teacher's reports, Xenia's enthusiastic descriptions, and the effort she was putting into it that her entries in the District competition were going to be good.  Both of her entries won first place in District Drama.  It's on to STATE!

This afternoon was much more productive than my wallowing in self-pity this morning.  I accomplished a bunch of stuff and still have other things in the queue:

1. I purchased 200 rounds of Winchester Ranger self-defense ammo in .40 S&W.
2. I purchased 50 rounds of 52 grain moly coated Blackhills Match ammo in .223 for testing purposes.
3. I implemented on-line entry for Boomershoot 2006.
4. I posted Eugene Econ's details on the Precision Rifle Clinic for Boomershoot.org.
5. I fixed various errors on Boomershoot.org web pages.

Barb and her sister Nancy made it back from D.C. 20 minutes early last night and we went out to dinner at Outback (in part because of this).  Despite being tired from the travel and time difference they were very upbeat and talk about how wonderful the hospital (except for the food), volunteers, doctors, and therapists were.  They told me stories of Jason and others in the hospital how nearly everyone was so upbeat even though many of them had lost a great deal--arms, legs, eyes, brain injuries.  The helicopter pilot that lost her arm and both legs "tooling around in a wheelchair wearing a t-shirt that said, "It's a good thing my husband is a butt man."  Barb and Nancy were sorry for the losses but said they were being well taken care of and they all seemed proud of what they had contributed.  Barb said I really needed to go visit Jason and meet these heroes.  I want to but even as they were telling me of all our soldiers and how well they were doing the tears welled up.  It made me very sad.  I'm not sure I could do anything but cry if I went to visit.  I think we are doing the right thing in Iraq, but the losses make me very uncomfortable.  Although I sometimes say, "Too much sand, not enough glass"  I don't mean it.  I know that of the available options to us we are almost for certain going down the correct path.

Barb, Nancy, and I went to the Uncle Bonsai concert last night and enjoyed it.  I wanted to hear more of their old songs but they had new material and I hadn't really heard all of the stuff that has been out for a while.  I never listened to anything but a little bit of their "Doug" album.  After hearing a couple of the songs last night I listened to the entire album this morning.  Some of the songs were sad and it probably affected me more than usual because of the stories from Walter Reed.

When we got back from the concert I did a very quick check of my email and I found out Bob Coval died yesterday.  We knew it was coming (low bandwidth version here) but still a great sadness swept over me.  Since I've been over here this last week I had been thinking about Bob frequently.  I should visit him or at least find out when he died.  I didn't really want to know though.  Now I know.

This morning Nancy announced it was 6:00 AM and they needed to leave right away.  One short night is all I got with Barb before she headed home again.  They need to leave early because I-90 is one lane in both directions in parts of Snoqualmie pass because of rock slide.  The state transportation department is saying there could be long delays over this holiday week.  Five hours was mentioned but that could be for next Sunday night when the really heavy traffic occurs.  I'm hoping to go home on Wednesday night.  I didn't even try to get an airplane ticket because they sell out a couple months in advance over Thanksgiving.  That means I need to try and get over the pass at a high traffic time.  And over course coming back Sunday night will be hell.  It might be that the return trip will be best done via Portland.  It's normally a nine hour drive but that will be better than 10 or 12 hour drive over the traffic clogged pass (which is normally a five hour drive).

I was at my first IDPA match Saturday until just before I went to the airport to pick up Barb and Nancy.  The match went pretty well.  Lots of rules to process on a continuous basis after the buzzer goes off.  It's not like IPSC where you often get to "shoot them as you see them."  Gaming is still present just less obvious.  Thanks to Wendell for arranging a group of us to attend together.  Robin, Sean, and I had dinner at his place with Hobbit Friday night.  Robin and I were in pain from laughing at the S&W (Sean and Wendell, not Smith and Wesson) rendition of Whale.avi (S&W were far better than the real thing).  Then we all were in the same squad for the match on Saturday.  It was most pleasant company for both Friday evening and Saturday.

So... I'm alone here in front of my computer thinking about Bob, Jason and our other heroes that have lost so much, Barb leaving after spending just a few hours, and I will have some long drives to visit home over Thanksgiving.  I think it will be best if I get out and do my National Ammo Day purchases.  I wanted to do it yesterday but the IDPA match and spending time with Barb were higher priorities.  Anything to get out and moving will be better than here.

I'll be back with something more upbeat later.

If you had to choose between saving The Lying Bastard of Pennsylvania Avenue from drowning in a vat of steaming bubbling pig shit and taking a Pulitzer Prize winning photograph...

 ...what f-stop would you use?

Inquiring minds want to know

Ward Dorrity
Friday, December 04, 1998 2:49 PM
SOC Constitutional Infringement Issues
Microsoft Public Folder
[Check the date.--Joe]

A attorney who in specializes in self-defense told me that of the 300 clients who said something to the police before talking to him, only two managed to NOT hurt their case.  Those two didn't help their case, they just didn't hurt it any.  If you are involved in a shooting, call the police, physically cooperate with them, but don't say anything except you want to call your attorney.

Greg Hamilton
Self Defense Instructor
Nov. 19, 1995

If the vote was 44,000 to 38,000 would you say the voters were "evenly divided" on the issue?  How about 44 to 38?  I haven't done the statisical tests on the significance of a sample size of 82 but my gut feel is you can't justifiably call that "evenly divided".  Yet that is what this newspaper article does:

The issue of handgun control is a controversial one, with many people saying curbs on sales of handguns will reduce crime, while others feel it’s important to protect Americans’ constitutional right to own firearms.

Visitors to the Star Courier’s Web site were evenly divided on the question last week.

The online poll asked whether people favored tougher restrictions on buying handguns in Illinois.

Of the 82 who voted, 44, or 54 percent, said “no” and 38 said “yes.”

I think I see some spin being placed on the outcome.  Either that or the Star Couier Staff need to retake 1st and 2nd grade math.

I had the most vivid dream this morning.  It was the most detailed dream I can ever recall having.  The conversation with my dad as we walked alone the fence was detailed and I could "hear" the tone in my fathers voice and the heavier breathing as we walked through the deep snow.  The trail in the snow had footprints that were both fresh and old.  The sounds of our feet on the cold, dry snow was accurate.  The dog we found caught in the barbed wire gate that had fallen down was whimpering and scared.  It did a realistic "happy dance" running in circles and licking me after I freed it.  Then I noticed the reason the gate had fallen down.  The ground had bulged up and hot water was pouring out of the cracks in the earth.  The bulge had tipped the gate post over enough the gate fell to the ground.  A river of hot steaming water washed across the road north of the old blacksmith shop and down through woods toward the old well.  The little meadow in the woods that always had less snow that other areas now was green with growing grass even though it was the middle of winter and other areas had five to six feet of snow.  The smell was like that of the hot springs Barb and I visited at Yellowstone National Park this summer.  We had a geothermal vent a couple hundred feet from my brother's back door.

I woke up as I realized the impact this could have on the farm.  Best case was my brothers and parents had a source of cheap heat for the shop and their homes.  But if this was a precursor to a Mt. St. Helen's scale eruption the entire farm would be gone.  Orofino could be at the bottom of a lake formed by the backed up river just two miles from the farm.  Lewiston and Clarkston, 35 miles down river, could be scoured clean from the valley floor as the ash and earthen formed natural dam gave way and a wall of water rushed down the narrow valley.

I'll be visiting my parents for Thanksgiving.  I'll need to walk down through the pasture to dispel the images from my mind.

... we may indicate three minimum requirements that must be fulfilled before any belief can claim the status of knowledge:  (a) a belief must be base on evidence; (b) a belief must be internally consistent (i.e. not self-contradictory); (c) a belief cannot contradict previously validated knowledge with which it is to be integrated.  If a belief fails to meet any or all of these criteria, it cannot properly be designated as knowledge.

George H. Smith
From: Atheism: the Case Against God
[Gun control advocates, socialists, and other anti-freedom advocates would do well to understand the difference between belief and knowledge as outlined by Smith above.--Joe]

I wonder if Monica and Bill have heard the news:

US researchers studying the effects of human papilloma virus (HPV), a leading cause of cervical cancer in women, have found a connection between the virus and instances of mouth tumours.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University compared 1,670 patients who had oral cancers to 1,732 healthy people and HPV was found in a small number of the cancer patients. Those infected carried HPV16, the most common strain of the virus, which in Britain is estimated to infect one fifth of women between 18 and 25.

The study showed that people with mouth tumours containing the HPV16 strain were three times more likely to have had oral sex than those whose tumours did not contain the virus. 

Raphael Viscidi, a virologist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine said that the study is very decisive. "This is a major study in terms of its size," he says. "I think this will convince people."

While the US researchers said there was no need for people to alter their behaviour, this was not the line taken by the head of a similar study in Sweden.

Dentist and researcher Kerstin Rosenquist headed a smaller study conducted at the Malmoe University Faculty of Odontology in southern Sweden that showed the same connection between HPV and oral sex. Rosenquist found that 36% of the cancer patients were carriers of HPV while only 1% of the control group had the virus.

She said, "You should avoid having oral sex."

"In recent years (oral cancer) has been on the rise among young individuals and we don't know why. But one could speculate that this virus (HPV) is one of the factors," Rosenquist said.

There is a very promising vaccine that should soon reduce the risk some.

Sean sent me this link early this morning.  We then chatted about where to find an old washing machine (he has an old one but isn't ready for it to be deconstructed yet) and a place to try a similar experiment of our own.  I suggested a dump--we might find the desired object(s) and wouldn't have to clean up afterward.  Sean said it was a good idea and maybe we would get lucky and ignite the methane escaping from the rotting organic matter in the dump.  That was when I realized it wasn't such a good idea.  It would be impossible to determine the minimum safe distance from which to view the deconstruction of the home appliance(s).  If the entire landfill went up in one fireball.... well... it would be thrilling until it came back down on top of us.

They cost about $2.00 each and from the video I'm guessing they are equivalent to a few ounces of "Boomerite".  Nice packaging.

The economic egalitarianism of the liberal ideology implies ... the reduction of Westerners to hunger and poverty.

James Burnham
Suicide of the West
1964

Gun Guys claim Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito is:

Known consortion with practically criminal organizations, including the NRA.

When the truth is that it is the people in groups like the VPC and Gun Guys actually are criminals.

If it were only true that Alito has a NRA membership.

If you stop to think, men should be the ones riding sidesaddle.

You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.

Aristophanes
[When reading this I immediately thought of the two Senators from New York.--Joe]

It has been said that if you build a better mouse trap the world will beat a path to your door.  I'm not so sure that is true but no matter.  The more sexually aware of you will know the Sybian has been around for several years and gets a lot of praise.  I've talked with several women that have tried it.  Awesome reviews.  It would be more than a little intimating if you thought the primary reason your woman hung around was for the orgasms.  But then you knew that already.

But what I'll bet you didn't know is that in Moscow, Idaho there is a guy building prototypes of a better machine.  Cheaper and more natural in action.  Same great results.  I know three woman that have tested one or more of the prototypes and gave them very positive, if somewhat incoherent (oh, oh, oh, oh my god...), reviews.  I haven't checked with him on his machines for a year or more not and should do that.  It's not exactly a mouse trap, in fact it is sort of the opposite of a mouse trap.  But I wish him luck in his endeavor.  I just wish I could help out in his research.  Surely he needs some good photographs taken or something...

Q: What should you do if a pit bull is humping your leg?
A: Fake an orgasm.

This so reminds me of the government trying to "help".  You certainly don't want to resist their "help".  That will only make things worse.

Ry sent me an instant message today with a link.  The plans to take the UK another step closer to a police state have been leaked to the press:

A "24x7 national vehicle movement database" that logs everything on the UK's roads and retains the data for at least two years is now being built, according to an Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) strategy document leaked to the Sunday Times. The system, which will use Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR), and will be overseen from a control centre in Hendon, London, is a sort of 'Gatso 2' network, extending. enhancing and linking existing CCTV, ANPR and speedcam systems and databases.

Which possibly explains why the sorcerer's apprentices in ACPO's tech section don't seem to have needed any kind of Parliamentary approval to begin the deployment of what promises to be one the most pervasive surveillance systems on earth.

The control centre is intended to go live in April of next year, and is intended to be processing 50 million number plates a day by year end. ACPO national ANPR co-ordinator John Dean told the Sunday Times that fixed ANPR cameras already exist "at strategic points" on every motorway in the UK, and that the intention was to have "good nationwide coverage within the next 12 months." According to ACPO roads policing head Meredydd Hughes, ANPR systems are planned every 400 yards along motorways, and a trial on the M42 near Birmingham will first be used to enforce variable speed limits, then to 'tackle more serious crime.'

My new friend who wants to put the chips in everyone's head would do well to watch this and see where it leads.  A lot of us will be watching.  There are lots of changes going on in the U.K.  This is a scary time to have friends or family there.

Steve at random thoughts is from England and has some questions about why we have such an intense interest on being able to carry concealed.  In one link (I don't have time for this until tonight) this is my answer.

Be gentle.  He is a friend of mine.

Update: Steve and I had lunch together today.  After chatting about "old times" and catching each other up on the people we both knew, the beauty of Montana, traveling with kids, how he met his wife, and a few other odds and ends he asked what I thought of his post.  "No", I told him, "You didn't sound a like a liberal gun hater.  You were thoughtful and asked a good question."  Then I went about trying to answer his questions.  I explained that with all the studies that have been done they are unable to show any benefit from gun control.  There are between 1.5 and 3 million defensive uses of guns each year with only about 10 thousand crimes committed with guns.  Criminals, who violate the laws against murder, rape, and assault, will be less affected by any gun control efforts than the "good guys" that will be deprived of the tools to defend themselves.  And putting the onus on the gun controller I ask them my One Question.

Steve listened careful, understood what I was saying, but didn't commit himself one way or the other.  That's fine with me.  I enjoyed the time with him and that's what was important.

To walk into the lobby of a hotel, to see a wedding procession and to take your spouse with you into that wedding and blow yourself up — these people are insane.

King Abdullah of Jordan
November 13, 2005
From http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,251-1871428_1,00.html
[Or they are showing their dedication--their willingness to die for their cause.  This atrocity reminds me there is some symmetry in this conflict.--Joe]

Now that Analog Kid has posted the results I'll explain how I was going to "game" the October postal rifle match Analog Kid called "The Black Death".  Because you can shoot the target as many times as you want what I was going to do was put up ten targets at 200 yards.  Then:

1. Take one shot at each of the smallest, 0.5", squares.  With no wind I can connect with a 0.5" square at 200 yards about 48% of the time as predicted by Modern Ballistics.  With 10 shots I should hit five of them.
2. On the five targets I hit the 0.5" square on I would shoot at the 0.75" inch square.  The odds of touching a 0.75" square is predicted to be 63%.  With five shots I should hit three of them.
3. On the three targets I hit the 0.75" square I would shoot at the 1.0" target.  The odds of touching a 1.0" square is predicted to be 75%.  With three shots I should hit two of them.
4. On the two targets I hit the 1.0 target I would shoot at the 1.25" target.  The odds of touching a 1.25" square is predicted to be 83%.  With two shots I should hit one of them.
5. On that target I would shoot the rest of the squares with the odds of 90%, 96%, 99%, 99.8%, and 99.99% of hitting the 1.5", 2.0", 2.5", 3.0", and 3.5" targets.  The odds of connecting on all of them is predicted to be 85%.

So...with 25 shots I have an 85% chance of creating a clean target at 200 yards.  With 50 shots I have a 98% chance of doing it.

Unfortunately I procrastinated too much and didn't make time to get out to the range until it was raining and almost dark.

Lots of little things went wrong but it went fairly well overall.

I got through big stack of paperwork in orientation without a hitch and arrived at the work-site one minute early.  The guy that walked in the door just ahead of me used to run the Tuesday night handgun league at one of the shooting ranges.  We probably haven't seen each other in five years or so.  I chatted a bit with him as he picked up a temporary badge and I checked in with the receptionist.

The guy I was supposed to report to didn't answer the phone and the receptionist sent him an email.  About 20 minutes later another guy I used to work with at Chromium Communications and one of my firearms students showed up to have a meeting with people at my new employer.  We chatted for about five minutes and the receptionist made attempts to find someone else to come out and greet me.  The guy I was supposed to meet finally showed up about 30 minutes late with the excuse that his phone was turned off or something.  Whatever... it doesn't matter.  Just lead me to my office and computer.  Oh, the computer that has been on order for me for two weeks still isn't here.  We had to scrounge for one.

I had a domain account and password but when I tried to set up my email the Outlook Exchange server said the account didn't exist.  Checking with other people revealed some servers recognized me and others didn't.  It probably will just take some time for the email alias to propagate to all the servers.  It still hadn't made it to my server by 17:30 when I left for the day.

As various programs were installing I started reading up on C# and wrote my first "Hello world!" program in it.  That will be the dominate language in this new job.  It's past time I learned it and it's great they are paying me to do so.

Probably the most amazing thing to me is that just a few months ago both Ry and I were living in Moscow 300 miles from where we now work and now we are working so close to each other that we can easily walk to lunch together.  And there was no "intervention" by him to get me my job or vice versus.

Gun Guys put up this post about a lawsuit that may be dismissed because of the recent law passed by Congress on frivolous anti-gun legal actions.  I've read the post three times now and still can't make sense of it.  The facts are that a lawsuit was in the works blaming the manufacture, the dealer, a gun show operator, and "others" for the shooting of one Daniel Williams.  The gun used by the "mutant" shooter was illegally purchased at the gun show by one James Nigel Bostic. The Gun Guys say:

James Nigel Bostic is a criminal, and his criminal negligence costed Williams and many other victims of violence many things, physically and financially. Williams was a star high school basketball player, and lost a scholarship because of the shooting. Because of Bostic’s criminal actions (Buffalo News documented his straw purchases in a previous article), Daniel Williams’ life is forever changed.

And yet, because of the gun immunity bill (now the gun immunity law, passed by Congress under the gun industry’s lobbying), James Nigel Bostic will likely never see a day in court with Daniel Williams.

...

Because of this law, hundreds if not thousands of illegal dealers like Bostic will never see their day in court.

What they don't mention is that in the source article for their posting is that Bostic is in prison because of his illegal purchases.

So Bostic broke the law, went to jail for it and Gun Guys are whining that he won't have a day in court for his crime?

I guess the post doesn't have to make sense to their audience--it just has to arrive at the conclusion that makes them feel good.

[For my kids in school.]

10. You can usually find someone to do it with.
9. If you get tired, you can stop, save your place, and pick up where you left off.
8. You can finish early without feelings of guilt or shame.
7. When you open a book, you don't have to worry about who else has opened it.
6. A little coffee and you can do it all night.
5. If you don't finish a chapter, you won't gain a reputation as a "book teaser".
4. You can do it, eat and watch TV all at the same time.
3. You don't get embarassed if your parents interrupt you in the middle.
2. You don't have to put your beer down to do it.

and the number one reason is .....

1. If you aren't sure what you're doing, you can always ask your roommate for help!

I was talking with a new friend the other night--"Solving the worlds problems".  And his solution was two fold; 1) Sterilize everyone at birth, 2) Put a chip, with a GPS and radio transmitter, in everyone's skull at birth.

His thinking on item 1) was that after people really wanted kids then they would be able to get the sterilization reversed (we are talking utopia here, not the reality that many sterilizations can't be reversed).  With only wanted kids the quality of the childhood environment would go up drastically and crime, child abuse, gangs, drug use, etc. would drastically reduce and our looming exhaustion of natural resources would be relieved.  On item 2) it was his belief that this would almost completely solve all crime where the criminal planned/hoped to escape.  His biggest concern was how to deal with all the police, prosecutors, judges, lawyers, and prison personal that would be put out of work by his grand plan.

I think I bruised my jaw from it hitting the floor so hard.  Apart from all the unsurmountable technical problems, with both 1) and 2), his ideas fail my Jews in the Attic Test in the most spectacle fashion I have ever seen.  I outlined the test and said his ideas would usher in a police state and result in the deaths of millions.  His response was that he would get rid of religion too so there wouldn't be any need to hide "Jews in the Attic".

Yup.  There really are people like that out there.  I tell you...just don't get weirded out when someone starts talking and they will tell you the most "interesting" things.

He's a nice guy and I like him.  He's very entertaining--but I don't want him voting.

Neglect of an effective birth control policy is a never failing source of poverty which, in turn, is the parent of revolution and crime.

Aristotle
[This topic was brought up yesterday by someone I was talking to.  More details on the proposed solution later.--Joe]

This was surprisingly tough.  The area of the targets is proportional to the square of the diameter.  Those small dots are tough to hit.  Click on the picture for the hires version.  If you put an overlay on the bullets near the 40 point dots on the upper right and the lower right the bullet did intersect the spot.

I started my collection of quotes and things in '84. I now have over 8000 of them.  A lot are jokes and "fortune cookie" type things.  And a lot are quotes of dead presidents and politicians, that sort of thing.  But also I have collected quotes of some of the more interesting people I know.  If you ask the right question at the right time it's amazing what people will tell you.

I know a guy that, even though a multi-millionaire, considered himself failing in his quest for more money.  I asked him what he would consider rich, in his terms.  He told me:

I will consider myself rich when I'm standing on the moon with the sunlight reflecting of my visor as I'm looking at my initials carved into the soil. They will be big enough and deep enough that when people on the earth look up they can see I was there.

That was just his start.  He also wants to be immortal and be the first man to set foot on Mars.

Barb says that I seem to attract "interesting" (my word, not hers--she uses "different", "strange" and "weird" a lot) people.  What is amazing to me is how people will open up to you and tell you things if you let them.  Just don't get all weird on them if they start talking about things that are a little "different".  For example, Susie:

I was driving around late one night and turned around in a motel parking lot. These two truck drivers asked me to have coffee with them ... it was the first time I ever had sex with two men at the same time.  It was like being plugged into an electric circuit -- I knew then I could never be in a sexually monogamous relationship again.

Susie
Member of a swingers club.
December 9, 1997

I'm going to branch out into the more "interesting" side of human sexuality here from time to time.  There are some people that read this blog (or might) that about now are probably getting a little "concerned" about the quotes I might attribute to them.  Stay calm.  If I decide to use some of your "interesting" material that you probably would prefer remain private I'll strip out all the identifying material before publishing it.

Mostly cats with one porn shot.

All the advances that mankind has made over his environment have been done using a formal system whereby man has hypothesized, "If I observe A then I can conclude B" and thereafter presenting the hypothesis and the formal system to the scrutiny of others.

Dave Smead
[I include political environment in this line of thought.  Anti-freedom bigots apparently use some other failed system.--Joe]

Almost two months ago Ben tagged me with this post and said:

5) I’m passing this meme on to:

Kirk at Limpidity, as he hasn't posted or emailed in awhile;

AnalogKid at RandomNuclearStrikes, as he is one of my favorites nowadays;

and Joe Huffman. I just can't see him having a big Styx collection that he rocks out to on Saturday nights.

No Styx at all.  But at this minute on this Saturday night I'm listening to Ten Years After, A Space in Time.  A few minutes ago it was Uncle Bonsai, The Inessential Uncle Bonsai.

I didn't really mean to wait this long before responding.  I had to think about it some.  Since we had our first kid, 21 years and nearly five months ago we pretty much stopped listening to music.  When the kid(s) were awake music would have just added to the din.  When they were quiet (asleep) we were so grateful for the quiet we just enjoyed the silence.  When driving alone I usually have some talk radio station on.  Music?  Hmmm... maybe when I'm cleaning house or something.

I'm in my new digs in the Seattle area now and feeling a little sad and alone.  I bought some decent speakers for my computer for the first time and after listening to some Boomershoot sounds put on some music to test them out.  It sounds good.  It helps bring the mood up a bit.  On the drive over I played music in the most geeky way I could think: I played Elvis, The Ventures, and Uncle Bonsai on the laptop computer running off the inverter, the laptop sound output went into a small FM transmitter which I either played into the FM receiver in my new cell-phone and headphones or through the car radio.  The laptop also had Microsoft Streets and Trips with the GPS unit running to track my speed, altitude, and of the course exact position.  Then there was the walkie-talkie on my arm to communicate chat with Barb and her sister in the Jeep.  They came over to catch a cheap flight to the D.C. area to visit Jason.

So... anyway on to the music meme (and Van Halen on the computer):

1) How much music do I have?

Probably 100 albums total.  About an even split between CD's, cassette tapes (I used to see lots of eight tracks but never had one myself), and vinyl albums.  I haven't listened to vinyl since Kim (or was it Xenia?) broke the needle on the turntable when she was just a toddler.  James broke it too and we replaced it only to have it destroyed again by one of his sisters.

2) What was the last CD I bought?

Probably the complete collection of Uncle Bonsai a few months ago.  I'm not sure.  I had a couple of their albums on a pirated cassette and really wanted it legit and in good quality.

3) What am I listening to right now?

You Really Got Me, Van Halen.

4) Five songs I listen to that mean a lot to me?

N/A is probably the best answer.  Music doesn't doesn't really have "meaning" for me.  It's a pleasant distraction from boredom.  If pressed for something more than that I would say That's What You Get for Loving Me, by Gordon Lightfoot.  I don't listen to it very often, maybe once every couple of years.  But over 30 years ago Barb and I were listening to Gordon Lightfoot in the car while parked overlooking Orofino and the Clearwater valley.  I decided I would kiss her for the first time when the next song came on.  That was the song.  Then there was Having My Baby (You're) that played on the radio immediately after another milestone in our relationship.  I can't remember the last time I listened to that.

5) I’m passing this meme on to:

Whoever wants it.

Apparently there was a repeat of the Evening Magazine episode on Boomershoot.  I just received several queries about the next event.  Get your entries in early this year!

Labia majora, n:  The curly gates.

I have my own reloading press and have reload 9mm, .40 S&W, .223, 30.06, and 300 Win Mag.  These days it's mostly .40 S&W and I probably average few hundred rounds a month.  My guess is I'm on the low to mid range in terms of home reloaders.  Ry points out someone on the high end.

People who falsify history don't rescue freedom, they jeopardize it.

Vaclav Havel
President of Czechoslovakia
[In similar words, President Bush in a speech yesterday said, While it's perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began. -- Joe]

Kevin, over at The Smallest Minority reports on a book, Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America.  He has this to say about the book:

The Scots-Irish culture is a highly individualistic one, but one willing to follow a strong leader. It has a hatred of aristocracy, but a respect for accomplishment. It's also an embracing culture - adopt its ways, no matter your background - and you're an accepted member.

...

If you want to understand the portion of the populace that decides elections these days, I recommend you read Born Fighting. If you're of Scots-Irish descent, you'll find yourself nodding and agreeing. If you're not, you'll be shaking your head. But trust me on this: James Webb knows whereof he writes.

It turns out those attitudes and personalities are still very visible in the descendants of those people today.

Barbara Scott, my wife, is of Scot-Irish descent (with a last name like that you never would have guessed?).  Reading up on genealogy she found some interesting information on how the Scot-Irish immigrants and the German farmers (IIRC Huffman, a German name, means worker on a small farm.  I grew up on a farm.) who immigrated at the same time into Virginia interacted.  Also of interest is that Barb and I are cousins--about 5 or so generations back one of her relatives married one of mine in Virginia.  We didn't know this until a couple of years ago.  Anyway the interactions and attitudes of those immigrants is not that much different from Barb and I.  Not hostile but not always cooperative either.  Our communication style is very different and we approach conflict MUCH differently.

Our children's personalities reflect those differences too.  James is the German.  Kim is the hot-tempered Scot-Irish.  Xenia is mostly German in personality but loves the Scot-Irish culture.

Ry and I have had some all night discussions on the topic of genetics and personality and the results were far more disconcerting that we cared to believe.   Think about it some.

In France they claim the situation is improving because:

Police said 463 vehicles were set ablaze across France, a slight fall from the previous night, but the number of vehicles torched in the areas around Paris rose from 84 to 111.

 "This confirms the downward trend overall, with some resistance in the Paris region," national police chief Michel Gaudin told reporters. "This weekend we will exercise extra vigilance in the Paris region."

Using that measurement they also could claim the riots are over when there are no cars left to burn.  Sort of like celebrating the end of the genocide in Darfur (via Clayton Cramer):

As my friend Johann Hari put it recently in the London Independent: "At last, some good news from Darfur: the genocide in western Sudan is nearly over. There's only one problem—it's drawing to an end only because there are no black people left to cleanse or kill."

The same thing happens with the anti-gun bigots.  They celebrate when fewer people are killed or injured using guns but the murder rate went up.  And to top it off they almost always include justified and praiseworthy homicides and injuries on the negative side of their gun usage equations.

One shouldn't be surprised.  It's human nature to find reasons to believe what you want to believe.  It's the job of scientists to encourage them to face reality.  I'm a scientist.  So you should believe me. 

One of the feature of my blog software is the ability to track the number of click throughs on the links in my posts.  The link to Xenia's Live Journal post about lesbian porn was very popular.  It was was over eight times as popular as a typical link.  And the link to the lyrics of Penis Envy was over twice as popular as the typical link.

And all this time I thought it was guns and explosives that were what you guys had on your mind when you came here.  I should have known better.  The Gun Guy and Random Nuclear Strikes are gun bloggers and have far, far more popular sites than my blog.  Now I can't attribute it to just the better writing and having been around longer.  They have their (near) weekly display of female flesh too.

I'm tempted to make one post a day with some moderately high, but probably still work-safe, sexual content.  However I'd need to be careful not to betray the confidences of certain people that have confided in me.  Something like these quotes:

Concerning coeds: If all those sweet young things were laid end to end, I wouldn't be at all surprised.

Dorothy Parker

Whoever named it 'necking' was a poor judge of anatomy.

Groucho Marx

I believe that sex . . . is one of the most beautiful, wholesome, wonderful things that money can buy.

Steve Martin

Or perhaps as daring as these:

Q: Do aggressive women like "sensitive new age guys?"

Lydia: Yes. For breakfast, with sliced strawberries and chopped pecans on top.

December 4, 1997
In the email forum for Society for Human Sexuality
Which was followed by:
    
And now I'm *hungry*...
    
Catherine

Docs are largely unprepared for people like us. New ones generally ask me what I'm doing for birth control. So I tell them: My girlfriend doesn't come inside me, my boyfriend shoots blanks, and I don't have a uterus. Next question???

Lydia
5/31/2001
From the Highteq email list

Saturday is my 51st birthday.  I'm going to the club and going to have sex with 25 guys, twice, then have sex with my husband for number 51.

XXXX at YYYY
September, 1997

Any thoughts on the idea of a new topic?

The art of taxation consists of plucking the goose so you get the largest amount of feathers with the smallest amount of hissing.

Jean Baptiste Colbert
[Thinking of the election in Washington state on Tuesday. -- Joe]

I've known for a long time there are a lot of people with some severe mental problem that they, their friends, and their families frequently are unaware of.  It's called Hoplophobia.  Thanks to a posting by The Gun Guy I found this link to someone offering a cure for Hoplophobia.  What is Hoplophobia?  Glad you asked:

Known by a number of names - Hoplophobia, Fear of Firearms, and Fear of Guns being the most common - the problem often significantly impacts the quality of life. It can cause panic attacks and keep people apart from loved ones and business associates. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath, rapid breathing, irregular heartbeat, sweating, nausea, and overall feelings of dread, although everyone experiences hoplophobia in their own way and may have different symptoms.

They claim good results too:

We have never met a case of Hoplophobia that could not be overcome using these methods. So please, whether or not you decide to work with us, make a decision to get over Hoplophobia now.

I can't agree more.  Seek help if you have to, but get over it now.

From Bloomburg.com:

Suspected Bali Bomber Azahari Husin Is Confirmed Dead

Nov. 10 -- Indonesian police said fingerprint tests confirmed Azahari Husin, an alleged organizer of the 2002 Bali bombings and one of Indonesia's two most wanted terrorists, was among those killed in an ambush yesterday in Java.

"The fingerprints match those sent by the Malaysian police," deputy police spokesman Sunarko Danu Ardanto told reporters in Jakarta today.

Indonesian authorities suspect Azahari and fellow Malaysian Noordin Mohammad Top organized attacks in Indonesia including Bali that killed more than 240 people. Azahari and Top are suspected members of Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian terrorist group linked to al-Qaeda, which analysts say probably carried out yesterday's attacks in Jordan that left 57 dead.

One other person, not two as earlier thought, died when bombs went off as security forces yesterday tried to storm the house where Azahari was staying in Malang in East Java, police spokesman Aryanto Danang Budiarjo said earlier. The other body is believed to be a man called Arman, who is wanted by police. The police found 30 bombs inside the house, Police Chief Sutanto said.

Just who is Azahari?  This should give you a clue:

Known as the "Demolition Man" for his expertise with explosives, Azahari bin Husin was a key figure in Jemaah Islamiyah, a terror network with links to al-Qaida that has been blamed for a series of deadly bombings as well as failed plots in Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore.

The discovery of the bombs indicated Jemaah Islamiyah was preparing more attacks.

The bombs included small devices easily contained in backpacks _ similar to ones used in the July London Underground attacks and in last month's suicide strikes on three crowded restaurants on the resort island of Bali, said police chief Gen. Sutanto.

He came to an appropriate end:

Police initially said Azahari blew himself up Wednesday to avoid capture when his hide-out in east Java province was raided, but Sutanto said Thursday he was shot as he reached to detonate his suicide belt. Another militant set off the device, sparking a massive explosion that ripped off the roof of their rented house.

Too bad for the owner of the house unless he knew what was going on in the house.

I'd prefer we had better options but killing and/or capturing the older ones does seem to be the only viable options we have.  On the younger ones I suspect capitalism, porn, gambling, and booze might be an effective weapon.

Update: Details on the raid and how they found him are now available: 

An elite FBI-trained police counter-terrorism unit, known as Detachment 88, encircled the Flamboyan housing complex in Batu.

According to the Paras Indonesia website, the police, using a loud-hailer, ordered the occupants of the house to come out and surrender.

Instead, those inside opened fire and threw up to 11 explosive devices. Detikcom online news reported that an exchange of fire between the two sides began at about 3.30pm (4.30pm Singapore time) and was followed by the two explosions at about 3.45pm, after which thick black smoke billowed from the house.

In finding the link for the Uncle Bonsai lyrics in my last post I discovered Uncle Bonsai is having a concert a short distance from where I'm staying in the Seattle area on a night when Barb will be there with me.  I bought tickets!  What hoot!  Uncle Bonsai is one of my favorite groups and since the group disbanded in 1989 this is a very rare opportunity.  I'm thrilled.

Last night Barb, Xenia, and I went to a meeting about Xenia's drivers education class.  All the students and their parents were there.  One of the things the teacher talked about was a police officer that talked to the class the day before.  The students wrote questions on a pieces of paper and the questions were asked in a way such that the students who asked the questions couldn't be identified.  The teacher said the most popular theme of the questions was about drinking and driving, open containers, passengers who had been drinking, etc.--then they got distracted by the question, "Is it legal to drive naked?" 

The room burst into laughter and a lot of the kids were pointing fingers at each other and whispering to each other accusing each other of submitted that question.  But Xenia just looked straight ahead with a straight face.  Barb and I both looked at Xenia.  "Xenia, that was you.  Wasn't it?"  She gave us her Innocent Look.  "Xenia?"  She nodded her head and the Innocent Look broke into a tiny smirk.

Sometime I'll have to get her to write down the story of when she sang Uncle Bonsai's song Penis Envy on the bus to State for Drama and The Scotsman about kilts and ribbons to the people in the office at the Jr. High.  This kid lives in a different world than Barb and I did when we were that age.

As a man, sows, so shall he reap. In works of fiction, such men are sometimes converted. More often, in real life, they do not change their natures until they are converted into dust. One does well to distrust a tamed tiger.

Charles Waddell Chesnutt
The Marrow of Tradition
1901
[I keep thinking of Hillary Clinton when I read this.--Joe]

Xenia and I were at the store today and well... read it for yourself (lesbian porn).

It's back to the Seattle area to bring money east to Idaho.  I show up to do paperwork at the contract agency at 8:00, employer at 10:00.  Advantages and disadvantages abound.

More news from France:

YOUTHS threw molotov cocktails at police and torched cars in several French cities and towns in a 13th night of violence, ignoring the Government's imposition of emergency laws.

Just like the mind boggling stupid people that voted for the gun ban in San Fransisco yesterday the French politicians just don't get it.  You don't change the behavior of people that disobey the law (assault, murder, arson, etc.) by passing still another law or regulation.  You change their behavior by making it physically impossible for them to commit more crimes.  They are arresting lots of people in France, which provided they are held for at least a few days before being allowed on the streets again, will reduce the number of repeat offenders.  And I suppose the curfew does make it easier to arrest some of the rioters.  But no one should expect that a person willing to commit a violent crime with all the moral as well as criminal violations involved will pay any attention to a law that bans them from being on a public street or the possession of some concealable object.

Oh, by the way.... French prisons are among the worst in the world.  In the 1970's something like half of the people would die within a year while in prison.  My understanding is things have not changed much, if any.  As much as I believe the rioters belong in prison I don't believe any prison should be as atrocious as the French prisons are.

I sometimes feel sorry for myself when I think of the crimes certain bigoted PNNL employees committed against me and are currently getting away with.  But my troubles are nothing compared to what some of these people have suffered at the hands of like minded bigots.  For example:

In 1993 I accepted a misdemeanor charge of domestic violence (my atty confirmed it wouldn't affect my gun rights) in response to slapping my rebellious teenage son. A single offense, which 3 years later automatically made me a "prohibited person". Now 13 years later I'm being charged with a felony because my son's Ruger 10/22 was found in my home. I'm sorry but regardless of what several circuit courts around the US say, this is expost facto and unconstitutional. We learned that in 6th grade civics class!

I don't have any problem with laws that are made public so a person would have knowledge of the consequences. But to take ones rights away retroactively is just NOT RIGHT! Even today judges do not warn defendants in domestic violence suits that they will lose their 2nd Amendment rights for life if convicted. If I had known that, I would have requested a jury trial and spent a fortune defending myself.

I know of another old timer that paid a $5 fine for domestic violence in 1947 and lost his rights and entire gun collection in 2000 due to this law. He is still happily married to the same woman 58 years later.

Bigotry is never pretty but when it's enforced by the government it's particularly ugly.

I'm with Ry on this one.  Don't like Idaho?  Wonderful!  Stay away!

As for attractions he forgot to mention Boomershoot which brings people in from all over the North American continent.

San Francisco voters are smart and believe in sensible gun control.

Chris Daly
San Fransisco Supervisor
On Proposition H which passed 58% to 42% and makes it illegal to possess, buy, sell, distribute and manufacture firearms and ammunition in the city.
November 9, 2005
From SFGate.com
[Now you know what they mean when they talk about "sensible gun control."  -- Joe]

From SFGate.com:

With 65 percent of San Francisco precincts reporting, 64,676 people, or 57.3 percent, voted in favor of the proposed gun ban, while 48,112, or 42.7 percent, opposed it.

Bloomberg.com has the best reporting I have seen so far on the war on the western front:

In the 12th night of rioting, French police said 1,173 cars were torched in 226 districts in cities including Toulouse, Lyon, Marseille and Avignon, bringing the total of burned vehicles to almost 6,000. The euro fell to a two-year low against the dollar as incidents of violence were reported in Germany and Belgium.

The rioting is the longest stretch of urban violence in France since a student uprising in 1968, reflecting tensions in neighborhoods marked by large immigrant communities and youth unemployment of more than 30 percent. It puts pressure on the government to better integrate largely Muslim communities, and sets immigration and equal opportunity at the center of the political debate 18 months before presidential elections.

They actually used the 'M' word but then they come to the conclusion that more socialism is needed:

In a bid to help cool tensions, de Villepin proposed boosting spending on training and education programs in poor neighborhoods and called for the country to step up its fight against discrimination of minorities.

...

De Villepin's call for increased spending on training programs comes amid rising unemployment among immigrants. Last year, 17.4 percent of immigrants were unemployed, compared with 9.2 percent for non-immigrants, says Insee, the Paris-based government statistics office. For the same education level, immigrants are more likely to be unemployed, it said.

"Youth unemployment reaches almost 40 percent in some areas,'' de Villepin said. He added that the goal of the government will be to give unemployed youth living in France's ``sensitive urban areas'' a work contract, an internship or training in coming months.

De Villepin also said he will restore government subsidies to local associations scrapped by his predecessor and aims to triple scholarships and improve links between universities and students living in poor areas.

The prime minister said in the interview that students must be able to join vocational training programs at the age of 14 instead of 16. Almost 150,000 students drop out of school without a diploma or a skill each year, according to the prime minister.

De Villepin also called for businesses and the population as a whole to fight ethnic discrimination. The government wants to make sure that the riots aren't used by "radical Islam,'' which is not the "main'' concern at the moment, he said.

That's not entirely fair to all the French government officials.  This one appears to have a clue and the strength of character to admit failure.  From the Independent (UK):

The Socialist mayor of Noisy-le Grand, Michel Pajon, called for the army to be brought in. "I am sounding the alarm," he said. "You can't let things get as bad as this." He said he recognised that for a Socialist to ask for military intervention was "an absolutely unimaginable admission of failure". M. de Villepin said he did not plan to bring in the military at this stage.

In an editorial brought to my attention by The Gun Guy Mark Steyn of the Chicago Sun-Times has this to say:

Ever since 9/11, I've been gloomily predicting the European powder keg's about to go up. ''By 2010 we'll be watching burning buildings, street riots and assassinations on the news every night,'' I wrote in Canada's Western Standard back in February.

Silly me. The Eurabian civil war appears to have started some years ahead of my optimistic schedule.

This observation of Mr. Steyn was of particular interest to me:

The notion that Texas neocon arrogance was responsible for frosting up trans-Atlantic relations was always preposterous, even for someone as complacent and blinkered as John Kerry. If you had millions of seething unassimilated Muslim youths in lawless suburbs ringing every major city, would you be so eager to send your troops into an Arab country fighting alongside the Americans? For half a decade, French Arabs have been carrying on a low-level intifada against synagogues, kosher butchers, Jewish schools, etc. The concern of the political class has been to prevent the spread of these attacks to targets of more, ah, general interest. They seem to have lost that battle. Unlike America's Europhiles, France's Arab street correctly identified Chirac's opposition to the Iraq war for what it was: a sign of weakness.

How interesting!  I read in another article about 10% of the population in France is Muslim.  That makes France's response (opposition) to our war on terrorists a little more rational--they had their own people being held hostage.

I really should read some world history on this war that has been going on for the last 1300 years or so.  Mr. Steyn gives us a short lesson:

The French have been here before, of course. Seven-thirty-two. Not 7:32 Paris time, which is when the nightly Citroen-torching begins, but 732 A.D. -- as in one and a third millennia ago. By then, the Muslims had advanced a thousand miles north of Gibraltar to control Spain and southern France up to the banks of the Loire. In October 732, the Moorish general Abd al-Rahman and his Muslim army were not exactly at the gates of Paris, but they were within 200 miles, just south of the great Frankish shrine of St. Martin of Tours. Somewhere on the road between Poitiers and Tours, they met a Frankish force and, unlike other Christian armies in Europe, this one held its ground ''like a wall . . . a firm glacial mass,'' as the Chronicle of Isidore puts it. A week later, Abd al-Rahman was dead, the Muslims were heading south, and the French general, Charles, had earned himself the surname ''Martel'' -- or ''the Hammer.''

And he makes an frightening observation about the present and the future:

If Chirac isn't exactly Charles Martel, the rioters aren't doing a bad impression of the Muslim armies of 13 centuries ago: They're seizing their opportunities, testing their foe, probing his weak spots. If burning the 'burbs gets you more ''respect'' from Chirac, they'll burn 'em again, and again. In the current issue of City Journal, Theodore Dalrymple concludes a piece on British suicide bombers with this grim summation of the new Europe: ''The sweet dream of universal cultural compatibility has been replaced by the nightmare of permanent conflict.'' Which sounds an awful lot like a new Dark Ages.

Ry and I were chatting yesterday and we were of the opinion that if it weren't for the nukes France has we should just let France burn and serve as an example for the rest of Europe.  There are many lessons to be learned from such an example: 1) The government can't always protect you--there is a reason for the right to keep and bear arms, 2) The extremist Muslim culture must be destroyed, 3) Socialism is (again) proved a failure, and 4) Probably most importantly--appeasement is never a viable long term solution.

But because they do have nukes which we cannot let fall into the hands of the terrorists we probably will have to get involved as France falls.  It's possible that France will not fall but I'm not hopeful.  There is no unity in their government and they are candidates for a When Prophecy Fails award with their proposed solution of more socialism to stop the riots.  My initial heartless, cold blooded, rational approach to the problem of the nukes is to watch the situation carefully and when it becomes clear the nukes will fall into the hands of the terrorists to preemptively strike them with our own nukes.  We don't have the manpower to seize them so we must destroy them in such a way that the materials are not salvageable.  That's the ruthless, heartless approach.  There may be another way.  Perhaps we could make an offer to the French to transport the nukes and government officials to a safe location prior to them falling into the wrong hands.  I'm thinking maybe Quebec would have them.  I'm not sure I want Quebec in possession of nukes but it's better than Islamic extremists having them.

Families, when a child is born
Want it to be intelligent.
I, through intelligence,
Having wrecked my whole life,
Only hope the baby will prove
Ignorant and stupid.
Then he will crown a tranquil life
By becoming a Cabinet Minister

Su Tung-p'o
[I'm thinking of people like the "minister for social cohesion" in France as a prime example but nearly any would do.]

I had planned to do the latest rifle postal match today.  Results are due by midnight tonight.  Then I got a call from someone else that is having some "unpleasant" dealings with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.  We ended up talking for an hour or more.  This person knew of other cases similar to mine where Battelle (the company that manages PNNL) decided to fire someone and then found the slimmest of pretexts to do so.  Although the root of the problems we are having is very different we both had similar frustrations in getting action to be taken by the appropriate authorities.  In both cases it appears that by the letter of the law there should be people at PNNL facing fines and/or jail but in practical terms the law doesn't apply to them.  We collaborated some and shared some information and brainstormed on different approaches.  It was a useful exercise.

I got a letter from my Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) attorney.  He resubmitted the FOIA request for material which PNNL previously told me doesn't exist.  I know the material exists because I created a lot of the material.  He reworded things a little differently so maybe that will make a difference.  There really needs to be some penalties for the jerks that defy FOIA and the Privacy Act.  As near as I can tell the law says, "You must do this." but there are no consequences if they don't comply.  After all the instances of injustice and illegality in their dealings I'm surprised there haven't been some cases of heavy metal (lead comes to mind) poisoning or something at Battelle and/or PNNL.

After I had dealt with the phone call and a couple of other things that just had to be done today I was faced with doing the rifle match in both the dark and in the rain.  I've done both, but never at the same time.  I decided to pass on the match this time.  I did some rifle shooting in the last month.  I nailed a deer in the spine of the neck at 255 yards last week so I guess that will have to be sufficient for now.  I really shouldn't procrastinate so much on these things.  If I need to shoot something I should just get out there and do it.  I participated in an IPSC match ("combat pistol") yesterday so it's not like I'm completely ignoring getting some trigger time in.  I wasn't shooting all that bad but I wasn't shooting very good either.  I came in 4^th overall out of 14.  If I hadn't had the one miss I would have come in 3^rd.  More practice is needed--after I start work I should have time to hit the indoor ranges in the Seattle area.

Interesting info from Australia:

Australian authorities believe they have foiled a major terrorist attack, arresting 15 people on Tuesday during raids in the country's two biggest cities of Sydney and Melbourne.

The arrests come less than a week after Prime Minster John Howard said Australia received intelligence about a "terrorist threat".

Other sources include:

• News 24
• Sydney Morning Herald
• The Age

Assuming they arrested people about to carry out a terrorist attack, BRAVO!

From: XXXXX@optusnet.com.au
Sent: Monday, October 24, 2005 1:02 AM
To: joeh@boomershoot.org
Subject: HELP!!!!

hello, i was just on ur website and me and a friend want a bomb big enough to blow up a car or anything along those lines of how big the thing is we want to blow up can u please help us? if u can can u please send me what i will need and how i go about making the bomb? thnx from grim.

 

From: Joe Huffman [mailto:joeh@boomershoot.org]
Sent: Monday, October 24, 2005 7:23 AM
To: 'webteam@mfbb.vic.gov.au'
Subject: I need contact info for the Melbourne Australia police.

I received the following email and need to forward it on to the appropriate people.  The IP address of the sender indicates they are in Melbourne.  Can you help?

Joe Huffman
Moscow, Idaho, USA
Voice: 208-301-4254

[snip]

On 10/24/05, osac@joehuffman.org <osac@joehuffman.org> wrote:
The following message was sent from  http://www.ds-osac.org on 24 Oct 2005

I received the following email and need to forward it on to the 
appropriate people.  The IP address of the sender indicates they are 
in Melbourne Australia.  Can you help?



Joe Huffman
Moscow, Idaho
Email: osac@joehuffman.org
Voice: 208-301-4254

[snip]

I received replies:

From: OSAC Feedback
Sent: Monday, October 24, 2005 9:24 AM
To: XXXX@joehuffman.org
Subject: Re: I need contact info for the Melbourne Australia police.

Dear Mr. Huffman:

Thank you for your interest in the U.S. Department of State's Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC).

In response to your e-mail message, the information has been forwarded to the appropriate authorites.

Thank you for your concerns.
Sincerely,
Marsha Thurman
Overseas Security Advisory Council
Bureau of Diplomatic Security
U.S. Department of State

 

From: PANTAZI, Angelique
Sent: Monday, October 24, 2005 6:41 PM
To: Joe Huffman
Subject: RE: I need contact info for the Melbourne Australia police.

 

Hello Joe

Thank you for sending through this email.  I have forwarded it to our Commander of Emergency Management.

Kind regards

Angie

Angie Pantazi
PR/Events Co-ordinator
Metropolitan Fire Brigade
456 Albert St
EAST MELBOURNE VIC  3002

Tel: (03) 9665 4394
Mob: 0400 919 778
Email: [deleted]
www.mfb.org.au

The chances are slim that I had much, if anything, to do with the arrests, but the chance does exist.

Kappe likens it to the no-smoking movement: "Community by community, you restrict access without banning it. And finally, the Legislature takes notice."

We lost a lot of ground in the last few decades in our battle for freedom and not just 2nd Amendment related freedoms either. Recently we have been making some progress on the 2nd Amendment front but it's a tough fight. Learning from our enemies successes is a useful endeavor. We can learn how to defeat their game plan as well as how to adapt their winning tactics to our own agenda. Reading the profiles of their warriors is instructive.

The warrior Kappe is talking about above, Sayre Weaver, is a smart, dedicated, activist with a specialized skill useful to their fight. There isn't a multi-million member organization behind her. She is essentially a one person war machine. She has approached her fight against freedom by chipping away at it pieced by piece. She is winning one small skirmish at a time and gradually marginalizing access to and the use of firearms. We can do the same in the reverse direction. For example; get the attention of the press with your wholesome shooting events.

I suspect it was this coverage of one of my shooting events that caused so much alarm by some anti-freedom bigot they conspired to get me fired from my previous job. If it causes them so much pain they are willing to risk committing felonies to stop you then you know are being effective.

We have some momentum now, lets learn from our enemies successes, learn from our succeses, and let's keep it moving. She is just one person and is making a big difference. You too can make a big difference.

It says something, I think, that Muslims are trying to do what the Nazis refused to.

The Gun Guy
Regarding the current unpleasantness in France--after a short history lesson on the Nazi occupation of and withdrawal from Paris.

11 NIGHTS OF VIOLENCE
15 CITIES AFFECTED
900 ARRESTS
4000 VEHICLES BURNT
2,300 ADDITIONAL POLICE ON PATROL

4000 vehicles burned!  1300 of those on Saturday night.  Who is doing this?

... rioting by youths, mainly of Arab and African origin

Can you say "Muslim"?  Nope, I didn't think you could.  But this is the line that really gets me:

The violence is widely blamed on the harsh rhetoric and tactics of Nicolas Sarkozy, the Interior Minister and UMP leader.

And just what is the proper response?  They don't say.  They don't want to have to admit it.  We have to destroy their extremist culture.

What typically gets lost, and lost deliberately, is the meaning of the word 'compromise'. In a compromise, both sides gain or lose bargaining points in a mutually acceptable, if not optimal fashion.  In the gun control debate, the meaning of compromise is twisted to, "Okay, we'll only take half your guns, this time." The pro-RKBA folks are never even offered anything in return. This is a variation of the slippery slope that I call "Zeno's Paradox of Lost Rights". As with the paradox of motion, the remaining scope of the Second Amendment is progressively halved, and halved again. The illusion is that we never lose the right, because there is always the remaining half. The Theory of Limits suggests otherwise.
    
Sean Flynn
6/15/98

Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor liberty to purchase power.

Benjamin Franklin

I would have never expected to see things like this said in the New York Times about gun control:

"This is putting a Band-Aid on heart surgery," said Gary P. Delagnes, president of the San Francisco Police Officer's Association. He called it another "silly idea" from elected officials whose progressive ideas are not grounded in the realities of fighting crime.

...

"This is a triumph of symbolic politics," said Franklin E. Zimring, at professor at the University of California at Berkeley Boalt School of Law, deeming the ordinance a "sure loser" in state court. Both daily newspapers in the city, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Examiner, cited the likelihood of a successful legal challenge as one key reason they recommend voters reject the measure.

Mayor Gavin Newsom, citing the likelihood of a successful court challenge, said he hasn't bothered to take a position on the measure. "It's a symbolic gesture," Mayor Newsom said. "It's a public opinion poll."

Wow!  I must be hallucinating from eating too much Halloween candy or something.

While in the Seattle area the last few days I listened to talk radio some.  Last night on my way out of town I was listening to John Carlson.  He got to it in a roundabout way but what came out was the shocking revelation that Washington State Department of Transportation has been changing the traffic lights on major intersections to make traffic far worse than it would if the traffic lights were set correctly.  By giving priority to the minor streets the major streets end up with restricted traffic flow.  One of the callers claimed he had been told by DOT workers that they do that in the days and weeks prior to a vote on increasing taxes for DOT use.  The objective is to make traffic worse so the voters will think increasing taxes for road construction isn't such a bad idea.

There's probably no law against doing that but images of tar, feathers, and rails keep appearing in my mind.

Ry has been posting about it since Tuesday but it wasn't until tonight that I saw anything in the mainstream (New York Times) about it.  Michelle Malkin has been all over it though (here and here).  I find it amusing in a sad, sick sort of manner the way the NYT talks about it:

France's worst urban violence in a decade exploded for a ninth night on Friday as bands of youths roamed the immigrant-heavy, working-class suburbs of Paris, setting fire to dozens of cars and buildings as the government struggled over the violence and the underlying frustrations fueling it.

The unrest, which has also spread to other parts of France with large North African and Arab populations, prompted the American and Russian governments to warn citizens visiting Paris to avoid its poor, outlying neighborhoods. France reduced train service to Charles de Gaulle Airport after two trains became targets of rioters earlier in the week.

Look at the words they use to describe the rioters: "North African", "Arab", "bands of youths".  It not until near the end of the article they dare to hint at reality:

While the vast majority of the young people behind the nightly attacks are Muslim, experts and residents warned against seeing the violence through the prism of religion. The cultural divide between these second- and third-generation immigrants and the native French is deeper because they come from Muslim families, but to date the violence has had nothing to do with Islam.

The cultural divide is because of Islam.  Islam calls for the death of anyone that leaves the faith.  Islam calls for non-Muslims to be subservient to Muslims.  Islam calls for the death of all Jews.  Until this extremist culture is destroyed they will be at war with us.  The French have an "interesting" situation on their hands.  How they deal with it and the results will have valuable lessons for all of us.

I was originally scheduled to start work this morning.  But due to some paperwork not getting to me days later than it should have been certain things weren't ready.  The company I am contracting through told me yesterday, "It's just not going to happen until next week.  Go home and we'll give you a call a day or so before you start."  Okay, fine.  I get to spend an extra day with my family and I get to go to teacher conferences with Xenia.  During the middle of the teacher conferences I get a call from the company I'm going to be working for, "Where you supposed to be here for orientation this morning?"  The contracting company apparently didn't tell them they didn't have all the paperwork done yet.  I didn't even know to who or where I was supposed to report to thus I had no way of informing them.

I think it's all straightened out, but it's still embarrassing and painful.  And I still don't know when I actually start work.

Three weeks ago I reported on the arrest of Shaun Kranish for wearing a pro-Second Amendment jacket.  Stephanie has pointed out there are more details available now.  This part interests me:

When asked if I had any weapons, I informed him that I did not, as he could plainly see. After Chief Drought frisked me to verify that was the case, i.e., that I was unarmed and defenseless, as school policy stipulates, we were able to continue our conversation. I began expressing my concern about the policy and explained how it puts the students at serious risk. We spoke about the Constitution and the right to keep and bear arms. I informed them of the organization I started, and we talked a bit about the laws in Illinois. Both officers claimed many times to agree with my views and claimed to share my beliefs. At one point in the waiting room, I was about to quote Thomas Jefferson, when Chief Drought said I didn’t need to, as he knew all of the quotes as well. This seemed encouraging to me – a knowledgeable and informed law enforcement officer that believes in freedom.

The Chief then asked me to come in the back, so we wouldn’t have to speak in the waiting room. He led me into a room, shut the door, and we sat down and talked some more. I don’t remember the specifics of our conversation, but I think it was still centered around what I thought were the beliefs we shared. At some point, he told me he had some other things to do and that Officer Crumb would be taking over. Officer Crumb came in the room, and we talked some more. I could tell he was a very haughty man by his attitude and demeanor. He would constantly patronize me with agreeing confirmations and quirky smiles, but this didn’t bother me. To each his own – I was perfectly satisfied in discussing my beliefs.

The guy goes to the campus police station to discuss school policy on firearms and in order to continue the conversation he has to consent to being frisked.  I think the conversation should have been terminated then.  He is being asked to give up his Fourth amendment rights to exercise his First Amendment rights of discussing his Second Amendment rights.  I can't see things getting any better here--and they don't.

The other interesting thing is that the Gestapo claimed to share Kranish's view of the Second Amendment and the illegality of Illinois law and campus regulation.  I would have to review some of my books, but I'm pretty sure this is a standard interrogation technique.  The interrogator establishes a rapport with the person being questioned and they open up and confess without even realizing that is what they are doing.  An example would be interrogating a wife beater the cop would say something like, "There are times when my woman gets out of line.  I haven't hit her yet, but one of these days I know I'm going to.  She needs it.  She needs to understand who's wears the pants in the family.  So what does your old lady do that just pisses you off?  How do you keep her in her place?"

Keep in mind that while in a conversation with the police you are required to be truthful and they are not required to be truthful with you.  While engaged in a discussion with the police of a repressive government such Illinois, New Jersey, California, etc. you should be even more wary than usual.  Kranish is an example for all of us.

Aristocrat:  A democrat with his pockets full

Josh Billings

Radicals who would take us back to the roots of things often fail because they disregard the fruit Time has produced and preserved.  Conservatives fail because they would preserve even what Time has decomposed.

Louis D. Brandeis

I now have a place to stay in the Seattle area for my new job.  The KING 5 Evening Magazine video of Boomershoot didn't scare them off ("Sounds like fun") so I'm happy.  It's not quite as close as I would have liked but it's close enough and the price was right.  I have a big room with a fireplace.  A hot tub will be installed just out the back door soon.  I move in on Monday.

Those who made and endorsed our Constitution knew man's nature, and it is to their ideas, rather than to the temptations of utopia, that we must ask that our judges adhere.

Robert Bork
The Tempting of America