The View From North Central Idaho

It's an overcast day and vampires could attack at any time. We take safety very seriously.

James Huffman-Scott
Boomershoot April 30, 2006
Explaining the reason for the wooden stakes being given to every participant at check in.  The real reason, which James was not allowed to know, was that each shooter was to get a personal target to put at close (20 to 30 yards) range after lunch. More context from James:

Random person checking in "What's the stake for?"

Me: "Killing vampires."

Possible follow ups:

"Bullets won't hurt a vampire, they'll just piss it off. That's why you need a stake."

"It's an overcast day and vampires could attack at any time. We take safety very seriously."

Do you know how to double the effectiveness of any bullet?  Put another round through your target.

Greg Hamilton
Self Defense Instructor
Nov. 19, 1995
[The lesson was, don't put effort into buying the best bullet or cartridge, put your efforts into placing your shots where they count.--Joe]

We care more for our liberties than to meekly hand over to the federal government the potential to ennumerate, track, identify and eventually control.

It's not going to promote national security. It's not going to help us prevent illegal immigration. It's just going to help the government keep tabs on ordinary citizens.

Neal Kurk
State Representative, New Hampshire
April 25, 2006
N.H. leads a rebellion against driver's license regulations

The mayor's answer is an elitist national campaign on the backs of law-abiding gun owners. Believe me, the rest of the country does not want Mayor Bloomberg's elitist gun policies, because they don't work.

Chris Cox
NRA-ILA
April 26, 2006
CBS News: Big City Mayors Huddle On Gun Control

I suspect this will be my last post for a few days.  I'll either have Xenia post a "Quote of the Day" or back date them after Boomershoot 2006 is over.  I have to work all day today at my new job then drive home to Idaho tonight.  Thursday morning I head out to the Boomershoot range to prepare for the big event.  No internet access from Thursday morning until late Sunday night.  By late Sunday night I will be ready for a shower and sleep.

Every time they cry wolf, they lose a little more credibility and support. Their ideas on gun control were tried, and failed. The social experiment is over. It is time to stop denying our rights and heritage based on a pack of lies.

Dan White
21 April 2006
Protestors Cry Wolf Again
Ohioans for Concealed Carry
[Lies and bigotry.--Joe]

It's not done yet but it's close.  And it's nearly seven MBytes.  Boomershoot 2005 history video.

Update: It's midnight and I just finished it.  It's nearly 7.5 MBytes now.  I just need to make 100 CD's with it (and some other stuff) on it.  It's taking about four minutes per CD so that means I should get to bed about 6:00 AM.

The high resolution version being put on the CD is here (nearly 39 MBytes).

What do people even need handguns for? Protection, right? However, if no one could buy or carry a handgun legally, no one would need a handgun to protect themselves.

The Minnesota Daily
Editorial April 25, 2006
[I'm thinking 6th grade.  Maybe as high as the 8th grade.  The thinking can't be attributed to someone beyond that level.  What about people that don't need a weapon because of their size, or other weapons such as knives, clubs, or illegally obtained firearms?  Whoever wrote this needs to grow up and answer Just One Question.--Joe]

Weather reports are looking very good.  From My-Cast (using the lat/long of 46.5422, -116.39128):

DAY		Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat	Sun	Mon
SKY
HI TEMP (F)		67	71	73	78	77	73	70
LO TEMP (F)		42	42	46	48	49	49	47

I'd like to believe this will be the best Boomershoot ever.  There is still lots of work to do but things are coming together quite well.

The pistol ban was one of those knee-jerk things. I think people realize now that the pistol ban hasn't done anything to reduce gun crime.

Kate Hoey
Labor Party lawmaker
London
From UK Competitive Shooters Can't Train at Home
[Perhaps there is a tiny spark of hope for the people of the U.K.--Joe]

This kind of fuzzy thinking is typical of anti-gun lobbyists, who never let facts get in the way of a good story or tarnish their dream of a world without guns.

Michael S. Brown
Friday, April 21, 2006
Local View: Gun-control activists ignore facts
The Columbian

It may be there is more to it than what appears in the paper.  And of course the kid is living and going to school in the repressive Peoples Republic of Massachusetts.  What from what I see in the paper, except for the recreational drugs (which should be legal but I would ban them in my house) if it were my kid I would be asking the police, "And your point is?"  Instead they are charging him with possession of bomb-making materials.

STOUGHTON — Alexander J. Wilson, 17, who was charged with having bomb-making materials after an incident in March was ordered held on $100,000 surety or $10,000 cash bail Monday in Stoughton District Court.

...

When police stopped Wilson's car March 29 in the O'Donnell Middle School parking lot next to the high school grounds, authorities reported finding gunpowder and a pellet gun.

Also found were model "rocket engines, igniters for those, wires and miscellaneous other stuff that could be used to make bombs," said acting Police Chief Christopher Ciampa.

Most of the materials were in the trunk of the suspect's car, and some were under the front seat, the chief said.

Police also recovered a small amount of marijuana and marijuana residue in a pipe, Ciampa said.

The problem is that it's a rare house that doesn't contain materials appropriate for making a bomb.  People shouldn't be charged with possession of things that might be used in a illegal fashion.  Only if there is clear intent to do harm to someone else or someone else's property should they be harassed by the police--which is the way it is in Idaho with explosives.

After the big collection and destruction of firearms in Australia we have some more numbers:

Tasmanian Auditor-General Mike Blake produced a $63,000 report on the impact of the reforms last year.

It showed that in 1994, of 2364 crimes against the person, firearms were used in just 69 cases. In 2004, the level of crime against the person had soared 90 per cent to 4492, and just 56 of those instances involved firearms.

I have Just One Question.

Ah, the voice of reason.

Ry Jones
21:18:47
April 21, 2006
[Blog posting about a lowlife barking moonbat who commented on my blog about Michelle Malkin saying he wanted to rape her with a broken beer bottle.--Joe]

Further nasty news from the nasty United Nations Organization:

One Eric Kibuka, who delights in the title of "Director of the United Nations African Institute for the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of Offenders," has gone on record to the effect that "The international community (sic) has decided that firearms regulation is at the core of democracy and good government." The connection between firearms regulation and democracy is about as obvious as the connection between traffic regulation and quail hunting, but that is not likely to trouble a U.N. official. As we have all noticed, the cry of the modern left seems to be "To hell with the facts. It's the gut reaction that matters."

Jeff Cooper
From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries
Vol. 6, No. 1
January 1998

Looking for Michelle Malkins home address and phone number?  Look no further: Michelle Malkin's Address and Phone Number.

I'm posting this everywhere I think Boomershoot spectators might be checking for information.  There is a dinner on Saturday April 29th the evening before Boomershoot 2006.  Specators as well as participants are welcome. Please get your reservations in soon. Details are here.

I've added a new page to the Boomershoot.org website.  It's on the relationship between bullet shapes and the detonation of boomers.

Compare the mindset of these Jersey City professional victims (emphasis added):

(CBS) JERSEY CITY Jersey City Police today released surveillance videotape of a known Bloods gang member running away after shooting a man twice in broad daylight on Easter Sunday near Grant Avenue and Martin Luther King Blvd.

He's identified as Jamal Ebron and he's still on the loose considered armed and dangerous.

“The individual who he shot refuses to cooperate with the police,” Jersey City Police Chief Robert Troy said.

Investigators say this video shows how important it is to enact tough Federal gun legislation.

Just last night, police confiscated the guns and a thousand dollars in cash.

Four suspects have been charged with bringing the guns here from Georgia, where police say gun laws are laxed and where gun owners aren't required to report stolen weapons.

“This gun here is marked a hundred and ninety-nine dollars, this gun sold in Jersey City last night for five-hundred dollars.”

Investigators say the weapons were found in a car that had a secret compartment, where the trunk can be accessed quickly.

With the mindset of a gun owner:

I have been completely baffled by the content of many letters to the Cape Argus and other newspapers in response to the antics of "killer cops" in the past week or so.

Some call for the police to be given higher salaries. Others call for the police to be provided with better working conditions.

Even more call for civilians to be more sympathetic towards "overworked, underpaid cops".

Sympathetic? Higher salaries? Better working conditions? Surely when somebody goes on a killing spree, society should call for the trial, conviction and imprisonment of such criminals instead of increased perks and sympathy?

It did not make any sense until I discovered the definition of Stockholm Syndrome. Stockholm Syndrome can be described as "bonding to one's hostage-taker as a survival strategy or mechanism". The term was coined after the world witnessed the bizarre behaviour of several hostages in a botched 1973 bank robbery in Stockholm, Sweden.

While the hostages were held, they bonded with their captors to a point where they actually defended their captors and resisted attempts by the police to rescue them, despite the fact that they were strapped with explosives and victimised.

In a hostage situation, the hostage instinctively understands that any harm to the captor could cause the captor to harm or even kill the hostages. The hostage hopes that as long as the hostage taker is alive and his demands are met, he will see no need to harm the hostages. Hostages' survival strategy is to persuade the hostage taker to have as many reasons as possible to keep his hostages alive.

The relationship between killer police and sympathetic citizens could be described as some sort of variation of this syndrome.
The police are seen by many helpless and defenceless citizens as the only barrier between themselves and violent criminals.

As with the Stockholm hostages who overlooked the fact that they had explosives strapped to their bodies, it would seem that unarmed and helpless South Africans are prepared to tolerate immense abuse from the police for the mere promise of survival and protection.

This may also explain why several firearm owners, who have made successful use of their personal firearms in defence of life and limb, refuse to adopt similar soft-hearted approaches towards killer cops. Such firearm owners will simply call for the immediate dismissal of such rogue cops.

This could be further explained by the fact that the traditional barrier - police - between gun owners and the criminal thugs has been replaced with, in their own opinion, a stronger and more reliable barrier in the form of a shotgun or two.

Hence the popular saying among gun owners that "a gun in the hand is worth 10 cops on the phone".

The people of Jersey City are mentally ill and need to be asked Just One Question again and again until they figure it out.

It seems to me that the anti-gun crowd are all mentally ill hostages, who are under siege from criminals and who suffer from a variation of Stockholm Syndrome in their pathetic desire to protect the honour of this violent standing army known as the police, simply because they are their only means of survival from something worse.

On the other hand the pro-gun crowd are a healthy bunch who see reality as it is: killer cops deserve jail time, not sympathy. Gun owners have control over their guns and do not need to live in fear of an inanimate firearm. This results in firearm owners adopting a more balanced perspective.

Emilio Halepopoulos
Sandton, Gauteng
April 19, 2006
Letter to the editor titled Gun owners show way to true freedom in SA

Lots of hits now that we are only 11 days away from the big event (and Ben, bless his heart, can't seem to think of or blog about anything else):

• Just One Question (minor mention of Boomershoot)
• Boomershoot: The Final Countdown
• Range Report (The Tunnel Edition)
• My primary (actually Ben was so excited about this post he forgot to give it a title)
• E-Postal Match
• Boomershoot Anticipation and Angst
• 850 yards
• Hunter woulda LOVED this one....
• Fun with the boys.
• Caption Time

As Stephanie has explained to me if you want the media to cover your event you need to write the story for them.  Compare this article to our news release.

Keep this in mind when you are complaining about the bias against guns in the media.  Don't hide in the closet.  Give the media something positive to say about gun owners and make it really easy for them.  Then you can gloat as the anti-gun people whine about the bias in the media.

I suppose it depends on how you define "successful".  From New York Daily News:

The National Summit on Illegal Guns will take place next Tuesday. The event will begin with a symposium outlining successful gun control policies from cities across the country.

If they mean using legal restrictions on weapons to reduce crime then it will be a very short symposium.  If they mean disarming the victims and enabling murder and other violent crime to increase then they could probably spend months on the topic.  My prediction is they will measure success in terms of gun destroyed, not lives destroyed, by their illegal actions.

I have Just One Question for these nut cases.

Ry merely calls it Reading list.  I was busy when I first read his post and didn't follow the links.  Yesterday he talked to me about some of the content.  Mostly about "category errors".  Interesting stuff and there are some valuable lessons in studying that concept.  But that is a topic for a different time. 

More importantly Dan Simmons uses a science fiction short story as a vehicle to get some points across about WW III.  I had long thought the politicians had been calling it "The War on Terror" simply as a euphemism for the war against the Muslim extremists.  But perhaps that's not true.  If, in fact, they and the vast majority don't understand the true nature of who are enemies are and why they are at war against us then lots of people have some reading to do.  Simmons gives us a starting point.  It's required reading.  Just like Osama bin Laden's letter to America.

I come from a place and time where your grandchildren and hundreds of millions of other dhimmi are compelled to write ‘pbuh’ after the Prophet’s name. They wear gold crosses and gold Stars of David sewn onto their clothing. The Nazis didn’t invent the wearing of the Star of David . . . the marking and setting apart of the Jews in society. Muslims did that centuries ago in they lands they conquered, European and otherwise. They will refine it and update it, not toward the more merciful, in the lands they occupy through the decades ahead of you.

Dan Simmons
Speaking through a character he calls "The Time Traveler"
April 2006
[The link above may break soon.  I expect you will find it's replacement here.--Joe]

I don't recall being asked for permission but in this case I don't mind.  Gun Owners of America published my Just One Question post in their Opinions And Editorials section.  It's in the "Various Authors" section.

It's sort of "a dirty little secret" but I'm going to tell it anyway.  There are certain things that drive technology forward.  And, from the viewpoint of many, it's frequently for the wrong reasons. 

War is a huge push.  Think of the jet engine, electronics (RADAR, communications, computers for ballistics calculations), rockets, aircraft, ships, photography (spying), optics, satellites, etc.   All those because of wartime need.

Business of course is a bad word with some people and that "evil" concept of "profit".  Another big push for technology.  Robots, computers, mechanical and electrical power for the factories.

But did you realize what a big push sex was?  You certainly know that abstinence doesn't create a market for new technology.

The first moving image I ever saw on a computer screen was a very simple, two-color image of a woman having sex with a man.  I think I may still have that around someplace.  The timing of the image was dependent on the speed of the processor and since at the time there was only one clock speed for the IBM PC, 4.77 MHz, it would run at something approaching "Warp 8" on today's computers. 

The push for better image quality (the first color graphics screen, the CGA, only had 16 colors) on the PC was not from conventional business.  It was porn.  Programmers did some amazing tricks (for example changing the palette between scan lines) to get better pictures of naked women.

It turns out Microsoft spent a lot of time developing Net Meeting (or some such thing, I forget the exact name now) for business needs thinking that major corporations would be their biggest customers.  Well... it was "business" that first adopted it and had a lot of feedback for improving the first versions.  In fact it was a variation of the "oldest business", or should I say "oldest profession", that pushed the early development.

Photography, from the very earliest of days, until the present is technologically pushed by pornography.

And what do you think people used the early VCR's and video cameras for?  It was for porn.

And the logical next step is being worked on right now:

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - When America's top sex researchers gathered recently to discuss the next decade in their field, some envisioned a future in which artificial sex partners could cater to every fantasy.

"What is very likely to be present before 2016 would be a multi-sensual experience of virtual sex," said Julia Heiman, director of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender and Reproduction at Indiana University, Bloomington.

"There is a possibility of developing erotic materials for yourself that would allow you to create a partner of certain dimensions and qualities, the partner saying certain things in that interaction, certain things happening in that interaction."

A field dubbed "teledildonics" already allows people at two remote computers to manipulate electronic devices such as a vibrator at the other end for sexual purposes.

"People who use it are just blown away," said Steve Rhodes, president of Sinulate Entertainment, which has sold thousands of Internet-connected sex devices over the past three years. "This is not something that just the lunatic fringe does."

"The Iraq war...was kind of a boom for our company."

Gina Lynn, who writes the "Sex Drive" column for Wired magazine, says she has used and enjoyed the Sinulator and says there is no reason to fear the technology.

...

SEX WITH A PORN STAR

Entrepreneurs are also seeking to fuse explicit video imagery with real-life tactile sensation.

Brad Abram, president of XStream3D Multimedia, said his firm's "Virtually Jenna," an online game in which the player has sex with realistic cartoon of porn star Jenna Jameson, can link hardware devices following the action to genitalia.

"None of the big publishers will probably venture in there so we could be like the Hustler or the Playboy or whatever, the Penthouse of adult gaming," the Vancouver, Canada-based Abram said. "Sex toys is a huge business."

His service, without the hardware, costs $29.95 a month, and he said several hundred thousand people have tried the online sex game to date. He expects the hardware area of such simulations to grow rapidly.

...

ALL IN THE MIND

Going even a level further, other researchers say in decades to come advanced devices will be able to stimulate the brain to create a sexual experience without manipulating genitalia.

Marvin Minsky, a pioneer in the study of artificial intelligence dating back to 1951, said such devices could either trigger an actual physical response from the brain, or have the entire experience take place in the mind with the sensation of sex -- but without the mess or risk of sexually transmitted disease.

"It's bound to happen ... and is not as far off as some people think," Minsky, a professor emeritus at MIT, said of direct brain manipulation. "They are doing things with monkeys but it is not a big world-class industry yet, so that could take 20-30 years."

"But if the game (industry) people got involved in some underdeveloped country that didn't have any laws against it, it could all happen twice as fast."

You've already gone way past the "Thin Ice" sign.

Kim Huffman-Scott
April 16, 2006
Telling her dad to back off some on teasing her brother James about Meredith.

As Jason pointed out to me with this link the proper phrase should be "Veni, vidi, BOOM!".  Not Vini. Vidi. BOOM! as in the quote of the day from last week.  Unfortunately this wasn't pointed out to me until after there was one order for a shirt already "in production" before I got the image corrected and back up in the Boomershoot 2006 merchandise shop.  I don't know if that means the image will actually make it onto the shirt or not.  So... it's possible there will be just one shirt on the whole planet that has the wrong slogan on it.  It will be a collectors item.

That wasn't the only change I made either.  Here is the before and after:

Vini. Vidi. BOOM!
[I came.  I saw.  I blew stuff up!]

After:

Veni, vidi, BOOM!
[I came, I saw, I BLEW STUFF UP!]

Order soon if you want to have your stuff in time for the event.  There won't be shirt sales at the event.

After I put up the site about Pacific Northwest National Laboratories they blocked access of their employees to my websites.  Apparently this has changed:

Domain Name		pnl.gov ? (United States Government)
IP Address		130.20.177.# (Battele Pacific Northwest Laboratory)
ISP		Battele Pacific Northwest Laboratory
Location		Continent  :  North America Country  :  United States  (Facts) State  :  Washington City  :  Richland Lat/Long  :  46.282, -119.4917 (Map)
Language		English (United States) en-us
Operating System		Microsoft WinXP
Browser		Firefox Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.2) Gecko/20060308 Firefox/1.5.0.2
Javascript		version 1.5
Monitor		Resolution  :  1280 x 1024 Color Depth  :  32 bits
Time of Visit		Apr 17 2006 7:58:56 am
Last Page View		Apr 17 2006 7:58:56 am
Visit Length		0 seconds
Page Views		1
Referring URL		http://www.google.co...zilla:en-US:official
Search Engine		google.com
Search Words		pnnl email
Visit Entry Page		http://blog.joehuffm...w,category,PNNL.aspx
Visit Exit Page		http://blog.joehuffm...w,category,PNNL.aspx
Out Click
Time Zone		UTC-5:00
Visitor's Time		Apr 17 2006 10:58:56 am
Visit Number		73,506

Now if they would just turn in the evidence to Federal prosecutors for the felony some of their bigoted employees committed against me.

Xenia: We are going to be gypsies.
Sara: And maybe become lesbians.

Sara Young
Xenia Huffman-Scott
Referring to their plans for when they turn 18 years old.
April 16, 2006
[I'm always entertained by what Sara and Xenia say when they get together. It's great having such smart kids around.--Joe]

Several years ago we became good friends with this Jewish guy named Randy.  Easter came along and we were making plans for the holiday.  We sort of absent mindedly asked what he had planned and then realized it wouldn't be a Holiday he or his wife (she is Buddhist) would celebrate.  He, however, corrected us. 

"Sure!  Jews celebrate Easter." 
"You do???" 
"Yeah, sure we do."
"How do you celebrate?"
"We hold hands and dance around in a circle singing, 'We killed him!  We killed him!'"

My kind of humor.

I can understand someone having this sort of dream.  But after waking up you would think they would recognize the difference between reality and a dream.  This guy apparently doesn't and then in some sort of embarrassing public confession he tells everyone of his delusion.  And the worst part?  He's the mayor of Toronto.  The men in white coats should just quietly take him away and the people of Toronto could just pretend he never represented them.  Here are the details of his delusions.  The overview follows:

I see a yellowing front page of the Toronto Star shouting "Gun violence ends!" There are no guns on the street any more because a Toronto-led coalition of mayors from both sides of the 49th parallel stood strong against the American government on gun control.

So persuasive were Toronto's arguments that the U.S. finally enacted common-sense gun control and repealed legislation that prevented lawsuits from being launched against firearms manufacturers.

...

This helps explain why gangs aren't a problem any more. No one's drawn to the gangster life because of all the services the city can provide to all of its residents. There are childcare spaces for all parents who need them so they can work and make the money needed to nurture their children. And parks and recreation programs are available free for every child in every city neighbourhood.

Training and jobs have been made available through partnerships established among City Hall, the Toronto Board of Trade and organized labour. Youth from neighbourhoods that were once Toronto's poorest get proper training and gain the self-respect needed to move forward in life. They become carpenters. And bankers. Even journalists. Whatever they aspire to be.

No one in Toronto lives in isolation. Or on the street. Not the young. And certainly not their elders. Homelessness is a thing of the past. Because of the compassion and commitment of Torontonians, all orders of government came together as partners to provide affordable housing to anyone who needs it. There's an incredible array of services for seniors who want to remain engaged in the communities where they live and share their wisdom with other generations.

It's the kind of wisdom that has led Toronto to be recognized as a world leader in promoting peace and harmony. The city will forever be a microcosm of the world's people living together with respect and not a hint of intolerance. Our Canadian Council for Christians, Jews and Muslims is cited around the globe as an example of how to build bridges among people of different faiths. Every man woman and child can walk down every street in this city and know they are recognized as Torontonians regardless of race, colour or religion.

...

Our subway stations are astonishing. As many people enjoy the exhibits at the TTC's Museum station as visit the ROM. They come for an enlightening look at the exhibits before moving on to their chosen destinations. There's a network of streetcars crossing this city on reserved rights-of-way. The Finch Hydro Corridor is now a conduit for light rail transit. People can get from eastern Scarborough to western Etobicoke quickly and at reasonable cost. Every neighbourhood has access to rapid transit, and every able-bodied Torontonian is within a five-minute walk of a bus stop and is one bus journey away from the subway or a light rail connection. For the disabled, every bus, streetcar and subway stop is accessible.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.  Nearly all anti-gun people have mental problems.  Mix those problems with the obvious failings of socialism and the all the conditions decribed in When Prophecy Fails and you end up with what you see above--increased proselyting of a failed belief system.

Like it or not, the Zionist regime is heading toward annihilation. The Zionist regime is a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Iranian President
April 14, 2006
As quoted in the April 16, 2006 Scotland on Sunday
[With Iran enriching Uranium as fast as it can it's not hard to imagine what kind of storm he has in mind.--Joe]

The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.

Albert Einstein

A well-wrapped statistic is better than Hitler's "big Lie"; it misleads, yet it cannot be pinned on you.

Darrell Huff
How to Lie with Statistics
Copyright 1954
[I was reminded of this book when reading this from the Violence Policy Center.  The VPC ignores all the murders in Washington D.C. due to the repressive gun laws and focuses on a subset of the suicides.--Joe]

Zacarias Moussaoui has no regret and no remorse.  I have no doubts.  He should be executed and his extremist culture must be destroyed.  Read his own words and decide for yourself.

From the AP (via South of Boston):

He mocked a Navy officer who wept as she described the death of two subordinates in the attack on the Pentagon.

"I think it was disgusting for a military person" to cry, Moussaoui said of Lt. Nancy McKeown. "She is military. She should expect people at war with her to want to kill her."

Asked if he was happy to hear her sobbing, he said, "Make my day."

He noted many relatives of victims wept on the witness stand, then walked past him in the courtroom and looked his way without crying. "I find it disgusting that people come here to share their grief over the death of some other person," he said.

"I'm glad there was pain, and I wish there will be more pain," Moussaoui said. "The children in Palestine and in Chechnya will have pain. I want you to share their pain."

So, Spencer asked: "You have no regret, no remorse?"

"No regret, no remorse," Moussaoui responded.

...

In a lengthy explanation of why he hates Americans, Moussaoui said Islam requires Muslims to be the world's superpower as he flipped through a copy of the Quran searching for verses to support his assertion. He said one verse requires Muslims "to fight against all who believe not in Allah."

"We have an obligation to be the superpower. You have to be subdued," Moussaoui said. "America is a superpower and you want to eradicate Islam."

From Bangkok Post:

Zacarias Moussaoui said he wished the September 11 attacks had happened many more times over and expressed his willingness to kill Americans "any time, anywhere", in testimony at his own death sentencing trial Thursday.

"I wish it had happened not only on the 11th, but the 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th," Moussaoui said of the attacks on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001, according to television news broadcaster CNN.

From ABC News:

Asked if he wanted to see 9/11 happen again, Moussaoui said he wished it would happen "everyday." Chuckling to himself, Moussaoui testified to prosecutors that Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh is "the greatest American."

From BBC News:

"Suicide bombing would be a high calling?" prosecutor Robert Spencer asked him. "You would do it again tomorrow?"

"Today," Moussaoui responded unhesitatingly.

...

But he launched into a diatribe that put a quick halt to the tittering, beginning with a citation from the Koran which he said meant Islam had to become a superpower in place of America, and drifting into an answer about "the Jewish state of Palestine" that ended with a threat to "exterminate" American Jews.

He said he felt no regret when he saw 11 September victims testifying in the court, enunciating every syllable of his reply: "None what-so-ever.

"We did it for this. We want to inflict pain on your country."

From The Independent:

We wanted you to have pain in your country," he said during two-and-a-half hours of testimony. I just wish it would have happened on September 12, September 13, September 14 ... there's no remorse for justice."

The French-Moroccan, a confessed member of al-Qa'ida, claimed to have enjoyed images shown in court this week of the Pentagon after it was attacked and said that reports of the deaths "make my day".

It will make my day when I see the video of his remains being excreted from the ass of a pig.

Vini. Vidi. Boom.
[I came. I saw. I blew stuff up.]

Bruce at mAss Backwards
The winning Boomershoot 2006 slogan entry.
Congratulations Bruce.

I hope this goes well:

A scholar known for his work on guns and crime filed a defamation lawsuit Monday against University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt, co-author of the best-seller "Freakonomics." John Lott Jr. of Virginia, a former U. of C. visiting professor, alleges that Levitt defamed him in the book by claiming that other scholars had tried and failed to confirm Lott's conclusion that allowing people to carry concealed weapons reduces crime.

...

The lawsuit alleges that Levitt and his publisher, HarperCollins Publishers Inc., made the statements with reckless disregard for whether they were true and that the book damaged Lott's reputation.

I don't know about the details of Lott's lawsuit but in some states there are a lot of exceptions for this sort of thing.  You can knowingly lie about someone, cause them great damage, and be untouchable by a lawsuit.  I was told by a Hindu friend those sort of people will be reincarnated as a lower life form--perhaps as manure eating flies. I confess to having urges to accelerate certain slime-balls toward their destiny.

Whenever there's a shooting, there's almost always two people who are responsible, the one with the gun and the one who sold him the gun.

David Yassky
New York City Council Member
City Gun Control Bill Would Punish Dealers
April 12, 2006
Epoch Times
[Is the same true when there is a stabbing?  Or a hit and run?  How about in a beating with a baseball bat?  David Yassky has mental problems.--Joe]

Good news on the National ID boondogle called "Real ID".  New Hampshire is considering just saying no:

Last year, Congress passed the Real ID Act in an effort to curb terrorism.

That means by May 2008 all states must issue drivers licenses and ids that meet tougher federal standards laid out by the Department of Homeland Security.

Information on a 'Real ID' would include a person's full name, date of birth, home address, physical features and arguably the most controversial aspect, some sort of bar or chip that can be read or scanned, much like a credit card.

All of that personal information would be stored on a database to be shared nationwide.

Republican Representative Neal Kurk ushered the measure to bar the state from adopting Real ID through the House last month.

He told the Senate Committee the new federal plan won't enhance national security at all.

:55 ... Remember the 9/11 terrorirsts were in this country legally and had legally obtained documents. The real id system will enhance government control and citizens will suffer. Perhaps that is why the Real ID Act is opposed by the Naitonal Governor's Association, the National Conference of State Legislatures, the National Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, the conservative Cato Institute and the liberal ACLU.

Indeed, traditional political opponents find themselves on the same side of this issue.

Whether Republican, Libertarian or Democrat much of the criticism centered on privacy.

Some, like Jennifer Coffey with the gun rights group 2nd Amendment Sisters, worry about identity theft.

12:46 it creates a beautiful database that is easy to get into. If they get into the NH Liquor Store database and stole people's names and credit cards. They got people's names and address from Fidelity and social security. And those were much smaller databases.

Democratic Senator Iris Estabrook spoke of being tracked.

2:43 it doesn't seem to me that as Americans we want to live with radio signals being omitted from our required ID cards. That doesn't sound like America to me. And it doesn't sound like something we need in order to have drivers licenses.

Opponents see Real ID as a first step to a national identification system that would require people to carry their papers even when walking their dog.

Republican Representative Steve Valincourt warned Senators similar systems haven't worked out so well in other countries.

1:10 in the 1930's we are told the Netherlands went to this type of system for national id...Of course late in the 30's, some other people goose-stepped their way into the Netherlands, and all the work on National ID had been done.

Another victim of a repressive government:

...

On Monday, L/Cpl James Piotrowski was jailed by a court martial for handling a stolen SA80.

He pleaded guilty to possessing and handling it after another soldier stole it from Wellington barracks in London in 2004.

He didn't steal it.  He didn't fire it.  He only handled it.  I can't image why the politicians that create such laws are still allowed to see the sun and breath fresh air.

In the 20th Century "gun control" is an essential pre-condition for genocide.  Until and unless a hate-driven group gets control of the government mechanism and disarms its intended targets, genocide simply cannot and does not occur.

There is nothing wrong with having nothing to say unless you insist on saying it.

Steven Gerri
April 10, 2006
[A frustration of mine with all politicians.--Joe]

Benjamin at reasonablenut asked this last month and I'm just now getting caught up with things enough to respond:

It's a simple question, really: What constitutes the offense where you would not rely on the authorities?

-Rape/killing of your wife/girlfriend?

-Fucking with your kid in any way?

-Untowards aggressive action against your person?

-Targeting your specific property?

At what point do you say "fuck it", and find and kill the motherfucker?

It's only a little more than a hint in his post so I will explicitly spell it out.  This is not about stopping an attack in progress.  This is about truly "taking the law into your own hands".  You are judge, jury, and executioner for someone you believe to be worthy of nothing more than pushing up daises.  What is the criteria that would cause you to disobey the law and take another human life because you thought it was the right thing to do?

Good question.  Timothy McVeigh had an answer.  I think his threshold and his execution were severely flawed however.  As he said while in prison awaiting "the needle" he should have read Unintended Consequences before, rather than after, destroying the Murrah Federal Building.

Mahatma Gandhi was faced with similar problems and used alternatives that Ben didn't really want us to consider.  It's not entirely fair to limit someone else in the solution a to particular problem but that is the way Ben has phrased it.  This is actually kind of a pet peeve of mine and Raymond has commented on this recently as well.  You really need to isolate what the problem is rather than focusing on the implementation of your solution.

If, in the cases above, the problem might be described as one of eliminating "a threat to society" it's possible this can be accomplished in ways other than to directly murder them.  For example you might be creative enough to trick him into a gun battle with the police.  Long term those always go poorly for the individuals.  The last minutes of Bonnie and Clyde are particularly illustrative.  You might be clever enough to frame the scumbag with a crime the police are particularly interested in solving or the attack on a powerful drug dealer who have their own system of "justice" that achieves the desired results.

If the problem might be described as punishment rather than elimination of the threat then you might be able to eliminate their ability to be employed.  For example child porn on the computer of a grade school teacher pretty much means the end of that career.  When they get a new job exploit another vulnerability and eliminate that line of work.  Continue as needed until MacDonald's won't hire them because they are always vomiting on the job (syrup of Ipecac does remarkable things).

I guess what I'm really going to saying here is that similar to some of the other people Ben asked this same question I'm going to wimp out.  Not because I haven't put a lot of thought into it but because I have put a lot of thought into it.  Basically we have a social contract that says we don't take the law into our own hands.  If things reach the point where that social contract isn't being fulfilled by the authorities then we have a different problem and the individual that really should be pushing up daises is probably much lower in the queue of people you need to be dealing with.  So with that in mind I would like to refer Ben to a different page of mine.  What is the threshold that you decide the social contract has been broken and needs to be "forcefully renegotiated"?

I grew up just a few miles from where Lewis and Clark went through Idaho on their way to and from the Pacific Ocean.  Lewis and Clark were a prominent feature in Idaho History taught in the eight grade.  I have listened to books on tapes about them and Barb and I have stopped at lots of historical landmarks and a few museums along the Lewis and Clark trail in Montana and Idaho.  It was an amazing journey with only one man lost, probably due to an appendicitis rupture, through hostile native American country (the Sioux in particular) as well as incredibly friendly native Americans (the Nez Perce as well as others), starvation as well as an excess of food, and dangerous animals (read about their experience with grizzly bears!).  Thomas Jefferson made an excellent choice in Meriwether Lewis for the leader of the journey but screwed up in the handling of his return.  Lewis probably should have been sent back out on another trip rather than being given a desk job as a governor.  Lewis ended up committing suicide just a couple years after returning from his historic trip.

I'm reminded of all this by the following from the Washington Post:

"What we have ahead of us represents a challenge significantly greater than when we first went to the moon," Griffin said recently in a speech.

New classes of astronauts will have to practice flying in a vehicle quite different from the shuttle and learn how to extract resources such as oxygen from the moon's soil. They will be taught to grow vegetables in lunar greenhouses and conduct geological tests on the moon's surface. Already, engineers at United Space Alliance are studying how a crew will be able to train aboard the spacecraft on a three-year trip to Mars. Eventually, Mars-bound astronauts will have to learn how to extract fuel and other resources from Mars' surface.

"The requirement to live off the land will be crucial to our future in space, just as it was to Lewis and Clark," Griffin said recently.

There will be some crucial differences in the journey to Mars versus to the Pacific Ocean via the Missouri and Columbia rivers.  In some ways we know a lot more about what is between Earth and Mars than the men of Lewis and Clark's expedition knew before their trip.  But then L&C could turn around and come back at almost any time if the going got too rough.  They never had to worry about where their next breath of fresh air was going to be found, water was never a problem, and food was only rarely a problem.  Even when they were at their most distance point from their origin, the mouth of the Columbia, they could have just waited for the next ship to stop in and pay for a ride home.  Mars explorers will face larger challenges but will probably have to do less "thinking on their feet".  The brain power of thousands of support staff on earth will be only a few minutes away as long as their radios work.

I wish them luck and wish I could go with them.  James and I, as well as other friends, have often fantasized about starting over someplace other than Earth.  If it were up to us we would create a new place to live where the rules were extraordinary few and the freedoms vast.  A place where the Bill of Rights were adhered to rather than ignored.  Where government was truly limited to the most minimal amount absolutely required.  Where free markets and free ideas were something to be celebrated rather than repressed. 

This isn't off topic, so stay with me for a moment--James sent me an email yesterday saying:

Ok, Meredith is insisting that I read some Heinlein.  Not reading him is apparently a great offense.  She's got where I should start narrowed down to The Past Through Tomorrow, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, and The Cat Who Walks Through Walls.  So I'm cross-referencing them by you to see what you think I should read first.  Thanks.

Barb drove over to Seattle a week ago Friday, flew to Sacramento on Saturday to help her sister celebrate her birthday, then flew back to Seattle on Thursday night to spend the weekend with me. 

Friday was my last day as a contractor, Monday I start my full time employee position, so my officemates insisted we needed to go out for lunch.  I was just going to go to the cafeteria with Barb but Chandrika insisted we needed to go someplace "far away".  I suggested Sankt Gertruds Kloster (some say it is one of top restaurants in the world, it is very good).  It's far away and the type of restaurant you would go to for special occasions.  But the frown I got when I told my officemates where it was told me that wasn't what they had in mind. We settled for Todai in Redmond.  It's not Sankt Gertruds Kloster but it is very good and several thousand miles closer.  It is one of Barb's favorite restaurants and my (former) officemates, Chandrika and Eric, both gave it high marks.

Yesterday Barb and I stayed in bed most of the morning before go to meet some friends to go hiking at 2:00.  By then it had started raining and we needed an alternative activity.  We ended up getting tours through the Red Hook brewery and just across the street from it the Chateau Ste Michelle winery.  The difference in the "culture" between the two was probably the most interesting to me.  I drank more beer yesterday than in the previous 20 years combined (I haven't even had a sip of beer in the last 20 years until yesterday).  At the winery they gave us a sample of a wine we just had to have, Muscat Canelli.  "Good news, bad news" they told us after several people commented on how good it tasted (in my book there is no such thing as something too sweet).  "The good news is we make this wine right here.  The bad news is you can only buy it here.  We have such limited runs of it that we don't sell it to our distributors."  Barb bought a bottle in the gift shop as we were leaving.

After the tours we went back to our friends home for grilled burgers and stayed until about 10:30 before coming back to my place.  Barb left about 10:00 this morning for the long drive back to Moscow.  It was sad to see her go.  It was so nice to spend three consecutive night with her.  And it was especially nice not to have drive the ten hours round trip this weekend.

Israel will have no contact with the Palestinian Authority, which is a hostile entity, and will work toward preventing any entrenchment of the Hamas government's rule.

Anyone who fires a rocket and anyone who participates in terror acts will be dealt with without hesitation.

Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
April 9, 2006
Israel exerts diplomatic, military pressure on Hamas
Reuters
[With nearly all the foreign aid to Palestine cut off and Hamas unable to pay the government workers and many people about to go hungry things may get very "interesting" soon.  When people get hungry their motivation for "less than lawful" activities is dramatically increased.  With Israel ready, willing, and able to respond to these "less than lawful" activities there is likely to be significant bloodshed in the near future and most of the blood will be Palestinian.--Joe]

I managed to get Barb's Jeep clean before she saw it:

Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad name.

Henry Kissinger
1992 Daily Curmudgeon Calendar

Background:

• Bias against self-defense
• A bias against self-defense part II
• A bias against self-defense part III
• Opening arguments to verdict in 10 hours

I got a phone call from a friend of Michael Charles Williams last night.  He was sentenced yesterday.  25 to 30 years with no possibility of parole for voluntary manslaughter.  As Ry said when I told him, "There must be something else going on."

I asked the friend if he was going to appeal but she didn't know.  When I get some time I'm going to see if I can get some more information on the case.

Laws against guns on school campuses have not prevented a single school shooting. Laws against murder have not stopped murders. Laws restricting the firearm rights of law-abiding citizens have penalized the wrong people, while criminals intent on breaking the law and harming others keep doing it.

Stop trying to hoodwink the public into believing that one more restriction on law-abiding gun owners is going to stop the Kyle Huffs of the world, because it isn't, and the gun-control extremists know it.

Alan Gottlieb & Joe Waldron
Don't let gun-control extremists exploit Capitol Hill tragedy
Seattle Times April 7, 2006
[It's giving the the gun-control extremists too much credit to think they "know it".  They shun factual knowledge and confuse deeply felt beliefs for knowledge.  They then wallow in their emotions and the emotions of others to reinforce their beliefs.  I have Just One Question for these gun-control nut cases.--Joe]

More confirmation of Dr. Joe's cure for everything.  The history of the vibrator.

They kill innocent men, women and children to achieve their objective. These folks cannot be appeased. We can't hope that nice words will change their point of view.

And so the decision I made right off the bat is we will find them, and we will hunt them down, and we will bring them to justice before they hurt America again.

President George W. Bush
President Discusses Global War on Terror at Kansas State University
Kansas State University
Manhattan, Kansas
January 23, 2006

Yesterday I got a call from some reporter at a Boston area newspaper, The Enterprise.  She was looking at the title to this web page: Want Some Help Building a Bomb?  In a very hesitant voice she ask, "Why would anyone put up a web page like that?"  I asked if she had read the web page.  "No."  Okay, so I have to start at the beginning with her...  I was tempted to ask her if she knew how to read but figured that would make a poor first impression and I generally try to stay on the good side of people that buy their ink by the barrel.  So I explained how I make explosives for recreational purposes and I get email from people wanting to build bombs and I tell them no and if appropriate forward the email on to the appropriate law enforcement agency.  She seemed particularly interested in this story about the 13 year old kid waiting in the headteacher's office for his parents to arrive. 

After telling a few stories about how stupid some of these people are--I put all this email on my website telling about how I turned in everyone yet I still get email (and calls from reporters) from people thinking I actually provide help on illegal activities.  She then got a lot more friendly and enthusiastic about what I'm doing.  It turns out that some kid in her area got caught with pipe bomb materials in his car at high school.  Talk turned to "It's so easy to find bomb building instructions on the Internet" and she was tasked with writing a story about it.  The librarian did the research and the reporter was calling the people with the web pages to ask "Why?"  She asked a bunch of questions about have I helped catch any other kids with bombs or bomb building intentions.  I told her I didn't really know because it's rare the police will get back to me with that sort of information.  I told her I did get one kid arrested but it wasn't related to my web page.

She then went on to ask about "this hobby".  I explained Boomershoot to her and she keep asking "Why haven't I heard of this before?"  Again I refrained from pointing out the obvious about this question.  She works in Massachusetts, guns are very restricted there.  Boomershoot is near Orofino Idaho.  We are separated by about 2200 miles and totally alien cultures.  I told her, "It's been in Newsweek, Outside Magazine, and this year we have a magazine coming from the U.K."  Anyway she started seemed quite interested in Boomershoot and people coming from all over the continent to this event and generally seemed quite enthusiastic.  I'll be checking out their website everyday for a while to see if she actually publishes a story on what we talked about.

Very nice of the VPC to point this out to us:

State	Number of Gun Dealers	Number of Gas Stations	State	Number of Gun Dealers	Number of Gas Stations
Alaska	844	229	Oregon	1,479	1,146
Idaho	682	663	Wyoming	550	401
Montana	1,017	597	U.S. Total	54,902	121,363

This isn't so cool.  It's just ignorance and bigotry:

The 1992 VPC publication More Gun Dealers Than Gas Stations first focused national attention on abuses by FFL holders and revealed that at the time of its release the number of Americans who possessed the Type 1 FFL outnumbered gas stations 245,000 to 210,000. The bulk of the licenses were held by illegitimate "kitchen-table" dealers who operated out of their homes or offices, an unknown percentage of which were actively involved in criminal gun trafficking. As the result of policy recommendations contained in the study that were implemented under the Clinton Administration, today only five states have more gun dealers than gas stations (see chart below). The full study contains information for all 50 states as well as policy recommendations.

"Illegitimate kitchen-table dealers"?  "Unknown percentage of which were actively involved in criminal gun trafficking"?  Are "kitchen-table" cosmetic dealers illegitmate?  I'm sure an "unknown percentage" of them are engaged criminal activities too.  By saying "unknown percentage" they only admit their ignorance and their open disregard for knowledge.  As far as the number of dealers goes, most gun owners have far more guns than cars so it's to be expected there are more gun dealers than gas stations.  At least I live in one of the states where the gun dealers still outnumber the gas stations.  And remember the gasoline is more effective in mass murders than guns.  But the "Violence Policy Center" isn't really interested in reducing violence, just the availability of guns.

More guns means more violence, no matter what. Trained or not (and many carriers aren’t anymore), anyone who’s carrying a concealed weapons represents a threat to those around them.

The Gun Guys
Our Country's Crazy Concealed Carry Laws
April 4, 2006
[I guess the police carrying guns means more violence and are a threat to those around them too.  Let's get rid of them.  I have just one question for these nuts.--Joe]

Things in Chicago and Washington D.C. could be worse I guess.  This guy had just a single cartridge (they say bullet exposing their ignorance but from the context it's a cartridge):

Bandar Seri Begawan - A 27-year-old Indonesian man was sentenced to five years imprisonment and three strokes of whipping by the Bandar Magistrate's Court yesterday after he pleaded guilty to possession of an unlicensed bullet.

The defendant, Andriyadi was convicted of possessing a three-cm by one-cm bullet without a: licence issued by the licensing officer. It is an offence punishable under rule 17(l) of the Arms and Explosives Rule of the Arms and Explosives Act, Chapter 58.

He got caught when he tried to get on an airplane:

The defendant then took his wallet out and placed it in the X-ray machine.

As the wallet was screened, one of the airport security officers noticed something that looked like a bullet inside the defendant's wallet.

The defendant was asked to take out the contents of his wallet which he did witnessed by the airport security officers.

Asked by the airport security officers about the bullet, the defendant admitted that the bullet belonged to him. The bullet was sent to the Royal Brunei Armed Forces where upon examination, the bullet was found to be a live bullet which had not been used before.

IMHO the wrong person is getting the whipping and the prison sentence.

I'm going to my room and sulk now.  Because it looks like I have feces rubbed all over my face.

Xenia Huffman-Scott
After makeup to imitate a jackal was applied to her face for the play Jungle Book.  Her post on the play is here.
April 1, 2006

The New York Times has an article about Bloombergs attack on the right of people to keep and bear arms.  They have the headline of In His War on Illegal Guns, Bloomberg is Facing Uphill.  It should be In His Illegal War on Guns Bloomberg is Facing Prison.  But he's not--even though 18 USC 242 says he should:

Section 242 of Title 18 makes it a crime for a person acting under color of any law to willfully deprive a person of a right or privilege protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States.

For the purpose of Section 242, acts under "color of law" include acts not only done by federal, state, or local officials within the their lawful authority, but also acts done beyond the bounds of that official's lawful authority, if the acts are done while the official is purporting to or pretending to act in the performance of his/her official duties. Persons acting under color of law within the meaning of this statute include police officers, prisons guards and other law enforcement officials, as well as judges, care providers in public health facilities, and others who are acting as public officials. It is not necessary that the crime be motivated by animus toward the race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin of the victim.

The offense is punishable by a range of imprisonment up to a life term, or the death penalty, depending upon the circumstances of the crime, and the resulting injury, if any.

Just like the blacks of 50 or 100 years ago the law doesn't apply when it is the rights of gun owners that are being violated.

Ry and I were out the door of my house in Moscow by 7:30 AM then traveled the hour to the Boomershoot range and made about 45 pounds of reactive targets by 11:00.  We tested them with .223 and .50 BMG ball ammo.  With the .223 we got detonation 50% of the time at 460 yards which figures out to about 1700 fps.  On the .50 BMG there have been problems in the past.  Smaller calibers were popping them off just fine but the .50 in ball wouldn't.  No problem today -- at least at 460 yards.  We also tested some steel targets with the .223 (no damage at 460 yards with VMAX bullets).  Targets six weeks old detonated from 20 yards away with a .223 (last year targets just a four weeks old wouldn't detonated with a .223).  Just as we were leaving some guy drives up, walks up to the driver side of the Jeep as we are pulling out on the road and asks, "Are you going to be doing that next weekend?"  "No."  "Good!" and he walked off.  <shrug>  It will be four weeks before we detonate about 1000 pounds (in one and two pound increments) instead of just fifty pounds.  Oh well.  He'll find out soon enough.  I dropped Ry off at his van, parked at Microsoft, about 12:20 AM.  And now I'm ready for bed at 1:20 AM...

Pictures of Barb's Jeep later.  I got a comment of "Been four-wheeling, huh?" when we stopped for a bathroom break in Ellensburg.  I didn't know mud covered Jeeps attracted the attention of pretty college-age girls... I'll have to keep that in mind for the next time Barb is out of town.

Update: Ry has a couple posts up here and here about our adventures this weekend.  And here is the picture of Barb's Jeep after we got back from the Boomershoot range:

We are going to have peace even if we have to fight for it.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

We note with amazement that Bill Clinton has had the chutzpah to pose as a devotee of Theodore Roosevelt. For a draft dodger to presume to align himself with the hero of San Juan Hill is possibly the crowning impertinence of the 20th century.

As it has been mentioned, the Clinton administration may be quaintly characterized as "the evil of two lessers."

Jeff Cooper
From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries
Vol. 4, No. 11
September 1996

On February 15 I posted about some tests I did with the new Boomerite mix.  At 630 yards the targets didn't detonate with with .223 ammo I was using.  I was using muzzle velocity numbers from several years ago for the same brand of ammo in the same gun but I didn't trust the numbers because the point of impact was lower than I expected.  I measured the muzzle velocity again and found the MV was 135 slower than my previous numbers.

Using the new MV I recalculated the target velocities of my tests in February.  My best estimate is the target velocity was 1182 fps.  Too slow to expect detonation.

Assuming the weather holds Ry and I will redo the tests tomorrow to find out if 1500 fps .223 bullets will detonate the targets.  1500 fps is the expected velocity of my .223 bullets at about 550 yards under Boomershoot conditions.

They couldn't just wait any longer.  Xenia and John got married.  Details and pictures are in Xenia's Live Journal post.  Here is one of the pictures:

The ring is the one I gave Barb (which she wore for about a week)

Update: If you click on the link to Xenia's LJ and follow it to the bottom of the page you will see it's--April Fools Day!

I saw an ex-marine buddy of mine back down two Seattle Seahawks in a bar once -- scariest thing I have ever seen.  This guy is only about 5'8", the Seahawks just towered over him.  Things escalated to the point where they said, "We are going to mop the floor with you and what do you think you are going to do about it?"  The ex-marine eyes are just as black as death and he said, "I don't know, but we'll find out if you try."

This was the perfect thing to say.  It didn't challenge them, and it wasn't submission (although submission and running might have been a good way out for most people).  It drew a line for them and told them there WOULD be a response if they stepped over it.  His body language made it clear that he would respond.  The Seahawks backed down -- they didn't feel a need to find out what the response might be.

Greg Hamilton (paraphrased)
Self Defense Instructor
February 5, 1997