The View From North Central Idaho

Handguns are banned in the U.K.  So this couldn't have happened:

Gun gang hit church club

THESE sickening CCTV images show merciless robbers storming a church social club where they threatened to shoot OAPs.

The three cowards, two with guns, stopped two elderly women escaping the venue. They bundled one over before dragging the 83-year-old into the main hall.

The gang then told the ten staff and customers to sit with hands behind their heads at Our Lady of Assumption Church’s parish club in Childwall in Merseyside.

Manageress Lynn Goulding, 54, said: “The gun sounded like a firecracker. I grabbed one of the men through sheer panic but he hit me on the chin.

“I can’t believe I was inches from a man pointing a gun at me. It was the most horrific experience of my life. I’m still shaking.”

The gang stole £970 and fled Wednesday’s 1am raid in a 4x4.

 

Anyone who studies the matter will reach the conclusion that good marksmanship, per se, is not the key to successful gunfighting. The marksmanship problem posed in a streetfight is ordinarily pretty elementary. What is necessary, however, is the absolute assurance on the part of the shooter that he can hit what he is shooting at - absolutely without fail. Being a good shot tends to build up this confidence in the individual. Additionally, the good shot knows what is necessary on his part to obtain hits, and when the red flag flies, the concentration which he knows is necessary pushes all extraneous thinking out of his mind. He cannot let side issues such as fitness reports, political rectitude, or legal liability enter his mind. Such considerations may be heeded before the decision to make the shot is taken, and reconsidered after the ball is over; but at the time, the imperative front sight, surprise break must prevail.

Thus we have the paradox that while you almost never need to be a good shot to win a gunfight, the fact that you are a good shot may be what is necessary for you to hold the right thoughts - to the exclusion of all others - and save your life. This may come as a shock to a good many marksmanship instructors, but I have studied the matter at length and in depth, and I am satisfied with my conclusions.

Jeff Cooper
From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries
Vol. 5, No. 1
January 1997

SayUncle brings up an interesting point. I don't bring it up very often, but my position has long been that if someone has proved themselves so dangerous to society they can't be trusted with possession of a gun then they can't be trusted with a can of gasoline and a book of matches either. Either lock them up and try to keep them from possessing any weapons or let them out where they have access to all types of weapons. Prohibiting them from possession of a firearm just doesn't make any sense to me.

A couple months ago I heard some rumors of police hostility to Tannerite in some jurisdictions. And I also keep getting hits from "interesting" places looking at my posts on Tannerite. I wonder if it's getting a little bit too much attention from the wrong people. I'm nearly certain that it stores very well if kept cool and dry (and protected from theft!). You might want to stock up...

Here are some of the hits I'm getting:

• Tannerite and the law
• Heads up

This is the most recent:

Domain Name		senate.gov ? (United States Government)
IP Address		156.33.195.# (U.S. Senate Sergeant at Arms)
ISP		U.S. Senate Sergeant at Arms
Location		Continent  :  North America Country  :  United States  (Facts) State  :  District of Columbia City  :  Washington Lat/Long  :  38.8933, -77.0146 (Map) Distance  :  2,072 miles
Language		English (United States) en-us
Operating System		Microsoft Win2000
Browser		Internet Explorer 6.0 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0; .NET CLR 2.0.50727)
Javascript		version 1.3
Monitor		Resolution  :  1024 x 768 Color Depth  :  16 bits
Time of Visit		Aug 30 2006 7:12:15 am
Last Page View		Aug 30 2006 7:12:15 am
Visit Length		0 seconds
Page Views		1
Referring URL		http://www.google.co...,RNWE:en&q=tannerite
Search Engine		google.com
Search Words		tannerite
Visit Entry Page		http://blog.joehuffm...ite And The Law.aspx
Visit Exit Page		http://blog.joehuffm...ite And The Law.aspx
Out Click
Time Zone		UTC-8:00
Visitor's Time		Aug 30 2006 7:12:15 am
Visit Number		96,907

Update: Here's another one:

Domain Name		dsl.net ? (Network)
IP Address		65.86.162.# (Charles County Sheriff's office)
ISP		DSL.net
Location		Continent  :  North America Country  :  United States  (Facts) State  :  Maryland City  :  La Plata Lat/Long  :  38.5163, -77.0154 (Map) Distance  :  2,085 miles
Language		English (United States) en-us
Operating System		Microsoft WinXP
Browser		Internet Explorer 6.0 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; InfoPath.1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727)
Javascript		version 1.3
Monitor		Resolution  :  1024 x 768 Color Depth  :  32 bits
Time of Visit		Aug 31 2006 7:00:38 am
Last Page View		Aug 31 2006 7:00:38 am
Visit Length		0 seconds
Page Views		1
Referring URL		http://www.google.co...e&btnG=Google Search
Search Engine		google.com
Search Words		tannerite
Visit Entry Page		http://blog.joehuffm...ite And The Law.aspx
Visit Exit Page		http://blog.joehuffm...ite And The Law.aspx
Out Click
Time Zone		UTC-5:00
Visitor's Time		Aug 31 2006 10:00:38 am
Visit Number		97,072

It was a time when a certain amount of cynicism and moral confusion set in among western democracies, when those who warned about a coming crisis, the rise of fascism and Nazism, they were ridiculed or ignored.

...

This enemy is serious, lethal and relentless. But this is still not well recognized or fully understood. It seems that in some quarters, there is more of a focus on dividing our country than acting with unity against the gathering threats.

Donald Rumsfeld
August 29, 2006
Voice Of America News August 30, 2006

Alright guys. This has to rank near the top of the list of the most despicable crimes. Keep your eyes open as you go about your business and report anything suspicious.

Neighbours who believe they live next to property being used for sex slaves are being urged to help the fight against human trafficking.

A drive will also appeal for men who frequent brothels to contact the police anonymously and without fear of prosecution with concerns about women who appear to be working there against their will.

Senior officers want people to look out for women who cannot speak English, seem reticent or afraid and are not allowed out without being accompanied by a man.

The next time Barb takes me to a brothel you can be sure I'll be on the lookout.

At least some people that will be listened to are talking about it:

Security officials should concentrate on people not objects at airports but simplistic racial profiling is not the way to thwart potential attacks on airlines, experts say.

They warn, however, that more effective behavioural profiling would be very labour-intensive, expensive and would not guarantee success.

"It's the only methodology that can stay ahead of terrorism and terrorists," said Philip Baum, editor of the magazine Aviation Security International.

"Screeners are spending far too long trying to confiscate scissors and shampoos and gels from people who pose absolutely no threat."

A debate over the merits of profiling -- where security staff focus their search efforts on people they regard as suspicious on grounds such as ethnicity and religion -- has erupted since British police said on August 10 they had foiled a plan to blow up trans-atlantic planes using liquid explosives.

Immediately, airports across Europe and the United States tightened security: passengers were banned from taking liquids or hand luggage on board and travellers were rigorously checked. Some of those measures were later relaxed.

Baum said such actions, which caused airport chaos, flight delays and cancellations, were unnecessary and ineffective.

"The existing technologies have been proven to have limited effectiveness," he told Reuters. "They haven't as yet identified anybody who has been carrying an improvised explosive device on their person or in their baggage, whereas profiling has been proven to be effective."

This is all prior to boarding and I don't disagree with any of it. Once people are on board more changes are necessary. All alternatives should be investigated.

It's interesting how the different media organizations spin things. This particular time it is Rumsfeld that gets run through the spin cycle of the media washing machine.

Forbes mentions the lessons of history in regards to Hitler:

In remarks prepared for delivery to the American Legion's national convention, Rumsfeld recited what he called the lessons of history, including the failed efforts to appease the Adolf Hitler regime in the 1930s.

CNN noticed that too and goes further:

Addressing several thousand veterans at the American Legion's national convention, Rumsfeld recited what he called the lessons of history, including the failed efforts to appease the Adolf Hitler regime in the 1930s.

"I recount this history because once again we face the same kind of challenges in efforts to confront the rising threat of a new type of fascism" he said.

...

Rumsfeld recalled a string of recent terrorist attacks, from the 9/11 attacks to bombings in Bali, London and Madrid, and said it should be obvious to anyone that terrorists must be confronted, not appeased.

The Seattle Times didn't mention the above and focuses on:

"They are actively manipulating the media in this country" by, for example, falsely blaming U.S. troops for civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan, he said.

"They can lie with impunity," he said, while U.S. troops are held to a high standard of conduct.

Rumsfeld made similar points later, in remarks prepared for delivery at a Reno, Nev., convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

"The enemy lies constantly — almost totally without consequence," he told the veterans group.

And from the UK again no mention of the parallels of the fascism of the 30's with the fascism of today, just about the media being manipulated:

'The enemy lies constantly -- almost totally without conscience,' Rumsfeld said. 'They portray our cause as a war on Islam when in fact the overwhelming majority of victims of their terrorism have been thousands and thousands of innocent Muslims.'

Similar oversights occur in most of the media reports and Democrat commentators either ignore it (Harry Reid) or call it absurd (Stephen Elliott) without even giving us their reasoning. But one shouldn't be surprised by this. Expecting them to reason, let alone articulate it, is like expecting a dog to be able to drive a car. They may think they are doing just fine but they will very shortly crash and drawing the unwanted attention of the entire world to their deficiencies.

If you are a blogger and you haven't read this page from the Electronic Freedom Foundation it is a worthwhile read: How to Blog Safely (About Work or Anything Else).

Money, not morality, is the principle commerce of civilized nations.

Thomas Jefferson
[Islamic extremists, please take note.--Joe]

Some men change their party for the sake of their principles; others their principles for the sake of their party.

Winston Churchill

That's the point of this editorial. Okay. Fine. All you have to do then is amend the constitution. Just don't pretend it doesn't exist.

You can't get the votes to amend the constitution? Tough. Your bright ideas must not have been all that bright then. Your options are now rather limited. You can move to another country more to your liking. Maybe you can find one with the all the socialist trimmings you whine about not having. Want a few bucks for the one-way plane ticket out of the country? I'll be glad to contribute to you leaving. Another option is you can start a revolution and overthrow the existing government by means of violence. Your choice Mr. Kurlansky. What's it going to be?

In May of 2005 ATF Investigator Crystal visited my explosives magazine for the mandated inspection. It was the first time she had seen my magazine and contrary to what every other ATF representative had said she wasn't sure my locks met the letter of the regulations. She decided to ask the authorities "back east" about it and in June of 2005 sent me an email saying I had to correct the deficiency. I made what I thought were the required changes and sent her the pictures in September of 2005. I hadn't heard anything about them by March of 2006 and was starting to get worried. Boomershoot 2006 was approaching and I required the use of the magazine. I wrote her an email and got a call from her a couple minutes later. I followed her suggestion and asked for a determination on the locks and hoods. Nothing by Boomershoot time and used her suggested Plan B.

After being not being home for a month I went through my big pile of mail tonight and found a letter from the ATF dated July 18, 2006. In it they said, in part:

After careful review, ATF has determined that the 1/4-inch protective steel coverings do not prevent lever action on the locks. However, ATF believes that the combination of the construction of the locks and the protective steel coverings is substantially equivalent to the requirements of the regulations. Therefore, you are granted a variance from 27 CFR, Part 555, Subpart K, to use the alternate locks for you Type-1 outdoor magazine.

Finally! Bureaucracy moves slowly and unsurely. It wasn't quite what I wanted but it's good enough.

I can again legally store thousands of pounds of explosives in the Taj Mahal if I so desire. And I do desire that. Planning for Boomershoot 2007 is underway.

I just read this and came up with a hypothesis I would like to explore. The hypothesis is, "States that have shall issue laws regarding concealed weapon have lower rates of drive-by shootings."

I specifically wonder about drive-by shooting because I envision them happening in the evenings/nights when people are more likely to be carrying their personal protection tools with them. During the day bigoted employers have rules prohibiting the exercise of your rights while on company property and violent crime against these people, even if temporarily off company property, is less likely to be met with an armed response.

I haven't even done a simple search engine inquiry for the data yet, but has anyone seen any papers/reports that address the issue?

Oh, I also wanted to point out that the newspaper reports it was a "gunman driving a car", not a "car driver with a gun". And of course the response will be that we need to eliminate gunmen, not eliminate car drivers.

I don't have a problem with being interviewed before flying commercially. I do have a problem with searching through my stuff, especially when it including the clothes I'm wearing. That's why I think it's possible, but not likely, for these efforts to bear palatable fruit:

In the U.S., small teams of TSA screeners walk around Logan and Dulles, among others, trying to find people who look nervous. The program -- dubbed Screening Passengers by Observation Technique, or SPOT -- was first used by state police at Logan.

They consulted with psychiatrists to develop a behavioral profile. In addition to obvious things like someone sweating excessively on a cool day, the teams look for people whose facial expressions are deemed to be hiding an emotion. The teams haven't caught any terrorists though they have detained several people with outstanding criminal warrants, TSA spokeswoman Peppin says.

The agency wants to expand the program and replace contractors who collect identification at airport checkpoints with staff trained in interrogation and behavior identification, Peppin says.

`Conversation With Congress'

"It may be something that we roll out initially in small airports,'' she says. "Any kind of total transition would require a larger conversation with Congress and our airline partners.''

The reason I think it's unlikely to be acceptable is because of their underlying attitude:

There may be no better time to push for tougher measures, Loy says. He contrasted today's climate with a 1759 comment by Benjamin Franklin, who said those who would give up liberty for "a little temporary safety'' deserve neither.

"He wasn't getting on airplanes,'' Loy says.

That statement hightlights they don't fully understand the problem. The problem isn't just that existing airport/airplane security is a joke, the problem includes that there are certain inalienable rights being infringed.

The war on terrorism doesn't resemble other wars with fairly defined battlefields. Today's enemy could be as close as the person sitting next to you on an airplane.

Michael Cousineau
Training against air terror
August 27, 2006
Union Leader
New Hampshire

I can't imagine who would believe this:

Vice President Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, said Saturday that the heavy-water plant will also be used to treat and diagnose AIDS and cancer, and for other medicinal and agricultural purposes.

Well, there are the barking moonbats I guess. They probably will believe it.

I just read Scott Adams thought experiment about dealing with Iran. Scott's hypothesis is it's mostly about pride. But I think he is ignoring the Islam component and nearly a 1000 years of history. But while I regard it as a worthwhile thought experiment I don't see any reason to revise my inclinations on what to do about Iran.

An undefined problem has an infinite number of solutions.

Robert A. Humphrey
[Early in my career as an engineer a wise technical manager, Ken M. at Teltone, told me it was more important to define the problem than discover a solution. It took me a few real world experiences to fully appreciate this observation. Now I see the wisdom of his counsel all around me. Gun control becomes crime control, airport security becomes defending against terrorists, and the war on terror becomes the war against Islamic extremists.--Joe]

Airport security is a joke. It only exists to make some people feel better. Case in point:

HOUSTON - A college student's checked luggage on a Continental Airlines flight to Houston from Argentina on Friday contained dynamite, and federal authorities are investigating why he had it and what he intended to do with it, an FBI spokeswoman said.

"Certainly we are doing a thorough investigation and trying to find out what this individual's intention was in trying to bring dynamite here," FBI spokeswoman Shauna Dunlap said Friday.

The dynamite was found during a luggage search in a federal inspection station at Bush Intercontinental Airport shortly after Continental Flight 52 landed about 6 a.m. Friday. Marlene McClinton, spokeswoman for the Houston Airport System, said a bomb-sniffing dog "had a hit" on explosive residue during a further search.

Read that closely. They found the dynamite AFTER the plane landed.

This has to be one the easiest to detect cases. One of the problems with explosives sniffers is that someone can custom make an explosive that isn't detected by existing detection devices. The problem is similar to the computer anti-virus vendors. They have databases of "virus signatures" they compare suspect attachments and files to. If it matches something they have in their database they flag it as a virus and handle it appropriately. If a new virus shows up they have to update their database with the new signature. Commercially available explosives, such as dynamite, should be within the capabilities of the explosives sniffer.

Even in this easy case the system failed. We don't yet know why it failed this time but in general it's an exceedingly tough problem because of what is called the "attack surface". There are many hundreds of airport, thousands of sensors, doors, gates, fences, and walls defining the "secure" areas, and tens of thousands of people with privileged access to the "secure" areas. Each of these airports, each of these secure areas, and each of these people is a potential point of attack. Together they form the "attack surface".  Because the attack surface is so large the probability of their being a weak spot someplace is very high. Hence the problem is very difficult to solve.

IMHO the problem is so difficult to solve using the existing paradigm we should divert all the existing resources to a different paradigm. That new paradigm is being on the offense rather than being entirely defensive/reactive. First (back in the 70's) we defended against guns, then box-cutters and knives, then cigarette lighters, and most recently liquids and gels. We are always defending against the most recent attack. We need to make them be defending against our attacks. This paradigm change would also stop the infringment of some of our rights.

But, as you know, airport "security" isn't about actual security. It's about making some people feel better.

Update: I forgot to mention that Sean gave me the link to the article.

Mr. Speaker--I have as much respect for the memory of the deceased, and as much sympathy for the sufferings of the living, if suffering there be, as any man in this House, but we must not permit our respect for the dead or our sympathy for a part of the living to lead us into an act of injustice to the balance of the living. I will not go into an argument to prove that Congress has not the power to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Every member upon this floor knows it. We have the right, as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity; but as members of Congress we have no right so to appropriate a dollar of the public money. Some eloquent appeals have been made to us upon the ground that it is a debt due the deceased. Mr. Speaker, the deceased lived long after the close of the war; he was in office to the day of his death, and I have never heard that the government was in arrears to him. Every man in this House knows it is not a debt. We cannot, without the grossest corruption, appropriate this money as the payment of a debt. We have not the semblance of authority to appropriate it as charity. Mr. Speaker, I have said we have the right to give as much money of our own as we please. I am the poorest man on this floor. I cannot vote for this bill, but I will give one week's pay to the object, and if every member of Congress will do the same, it will amount to more than the bill asks.

Representative David Crockett (TN)
[See also this quote by Crockett.--Joe]

I watched a lengthy segment on the news the other day about the recent liquid explosives issue.  We were told that airline passengers could no longer bring liquids, gels, etc. onto a plane as carry-on luggage, but rather should take such items on as checked-in baggage.  Translation:  Muslim terrorists are now required to load their liquid explosives onto your plane as check-in baggage.  I guess that means they'll need delayed or remote controlled detonators rather than manually operated ones.  That'll show 'em.

Effective August 10, 2006, the TSA has advised that travelers are not allowed to transport any liquids, gels, lotions, aerosols or similar items on their person or in their carry-on luggage. This includes items such as beverages, hairspray, toothpaste and shampoo. Customers are advised to transport these items in their checked luggage or discard them before entering the security checkpoints.

Emphasis mine.  Seriously, am I missing something important here or is that insane?  None of the news anchors appeared to think anything was odd about the story.

It may not come as a surprise to many of my readers that I am just a little bit 'different' from most other people. Among my probable differences is that I get a thrill from seeing this in my sitemeter:

Domain Name		treas.gov ? (United States Government)
IP Address		199.196.144.# (Executive Office of Asset Forfeiture)
ISP		Executive Office of Asset Forfeiture
Location		Continent  :  North America Country  :  United States  (Facts) State  :  Virginia City  :  Dulles Lat/Long  :  39.0853, -77.6452 (Map) Distance  :  2,036 miles
Language		English (United States) en-us
Operating System		Microsoft WinXP
Browser		Internet Explorer 6.0 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; FunWebProducts; .NET CLR 1.0.3705; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)
Javascript		version 1.3
Monitor		Resolution  :  1024 x 768 Color Depth  :  32 bits
Time of Visit		Aug 24 2006 9:53:37 am
Last Page View		Aug 24 2006 9:54:37 am
Visit Length		60 seconds
Page Views		2
Referring URL		http://www.google.co...en&lr=&start=10&sa=N
Search Engine		google.com
Search Words		seattle university blog
Visit Entry Page		http://blog.joehuffm...ttle University.aspx
Visit Exit Page		http://blog.joehuffm...d3-01f14d508357.aspx
Out Click
Time Zone		UTC-5:00
Visitor's Time		Aug 24 2006 12:53:37 pm
Visit Number		95,929

The "Executive Office of Asset Forfeiture" with the U.S. Treasury Department. Doesn't that just warm your heart? It thrills me to be able to point out such an office exists and they are actively out there, hard at work, doing whatever it is they do, looking at my websites (they also visit Boomershoot.org).

I'm not paranoid but if I ever am I'm certain I'll be able to find plenty of justification.

They shouldn't be violating our 4th amendment rights to begin with so this issues should never have come up. But now it has and I have been sort of following this story. I probably wouldn't have commented on it but then he said:

Amin may not want his mother to know he has a penis pump, but he said he doesn't consider it an unusual device to own.

"It's normal," he said. "Half of America they use it."

Half of America would mean virtually all males. I don't think so. My guess it would be in the fraction of one percent range, but then Dr. Joe hasn't done accurate surveys on that particular topic.

I don't think he should be prosecuted over this since the public embarrassment would seem to be sufficient punishment. I mean, if you were so embarrassed by it that you didn't want your mother to know you had it and told security it was a bomb rather than a penis pump can you imagined the discomfort he is experiencing when the entire world can read about it and is making jokes at his expense?

Poor guy. Let that be a lesson to you. If are going to bring sex toys on the plane bring something that won't be mistaken for a weapon. The only sex toy I take on my airline flights is my spouse which no one has yet considered a weapon (no, I'm not going to go for the joke, my own "homeland security" would come down on me way too hard). But if you don't have one you might consider an anatomically correct inflatable sheep or something.

They are saying it needs a valve job. Apparently, mixing metaphors, they are unwilling to face the reality that it's time to remove life support from socialized medicine and let it die. But at least it is a step in the right direction. If they open the valve maybe the monster will bleed to death as citizens utilize the private sector.

I sort of hinted at this in my comment in response to Lyle's comment here but I'll elaborate a bit now.

One thing I find lacking in our current form of government is a counter balance to creeping government power. In my Utopian vision the only function of the Federal government would be to protect our union of states from foreign threats (purposely left vague to include regulation of immigration and other issues) and to prosecute state government officials who, under the color of law, violated the U.S. and state constitutions. Hence the Feds would not have it in their power to legislate restrictions on, or enhancements for, individual citizens because that would be the sole domain of the states. This would mean, for example, any state/city/local officials that passed and/or tried to enforce laws against firearms would find themselves being prosecuted for violation of the 2nd Amendment. And any effort to fund roads, education, or social welfare would also be categorically out of the scope of Federal jurisdiction.

If you were to squint and hold your head just right you could say that is what our current U.S. constitution says the current state of affairs is (the constitution doesn't explicitly say they are to police the state/city/local officials). But of course that's not current reality. We have a long way to go before reaching utopia. I'm pretty sure even the "Skycycle" I mentioned in my comment will be inadequate to make that leap.

The police can't protect you. You are responsible for your own safety. The police are reactive and show up to draw the chalk outline on the sidewalk and make a good faith attempt at finding your killer. It's too bad Mr. Woodhams and his family had to discover this on their own rather than the entire culture understanding the idiocy of banning the tools of self-defense:

The Metropolitan police have apologised for "any hurt" caused by their failure to prevent the fatal shooting of a 22-year-old father.

Peter Woodhams was shot in Canning Town, east London, on August 21st after confronting a group of youths and died later at Royal London hospital.

It later emerged that the TV engineer had been stabbed in the neck nearby exactly seven months earlier, but no-one was ever charged.

The victim's fiancee claims that police did not launch a thorough enough inquiry in January and Commander Rod Jarman admitted that an internal police investigation was needed.

"We will robustly deal with any failings in our investigation of the previous incident and make sure that those matters are dealt with," he said.

"I would also like to make my apologies for any hurt that that investigation may have caused the family."

In England there appears to be some thought given to the concept that all cultures are not just as valid:

Ms Kelly acknowledged that suspicions between communities were being fuelled by the events of 9/11 and its aftermath, as well as the recent arrests in Britain over an alleged plot to blow up transatlantic airliners.

"For some communities in particular, we need to acknowledge that life in Britain has started to feel markedly different since the attacks on 9/11 in New York and on 7/7 in London - even more so since the events of two weeks ago," she said.

But in an interview on the BBC Radio 4 Today programme earlier, she ruled out changing British foreign policy in response to the strong disapproval voiced by some sections of the community. "I certainly don't accept that it is the root cause of extremism, which I think is based on twisted ideology."

Ms Kelly questioned whether exaggerated respect for multiculturalism in Britain had driven communities apart, an issue already addressed by Trevor Phillips, the chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality.

"We have moved from a period of uniform consensus on the value of multiculturalism, to one where we can encourage that debate by questioning whether it is encouraging separateness," she said.

This is just a baby step but it is a step in the right direction. Ultimately they must realized that we must Destroy Their Culture.

Way back when I was a student at Command and Staff School, the class was treated to an all day session by a group of white-coated biology professors who told us all about the limitations and capabilities of "biological warfare." This session was very secret - evidently to the point where no one learned anything from it.

The professors in this case informed us that if biological weapons were to be used, no existing affliction would be involved - not anthrax or bubonic plague or typhus or anything else that anyone had seen before. The agent used would be a synthetic disease created in a laboratory and given a code name, such as "Q27." All members of the attacking population could be immunized against it, but the defenders would have no way of combating it since they would not know what it was.

The professors further pointed out that the symptoms of the disease could be manufactured to order and need not be permanently serious. The affliction would have to last only long enough to allow ground victory by the attacking force. These professors pointed out to the class how humane that was. Well, maybe, but anybody who chooses to use anthrax as a weapon does not understand biological warfare.

Jeff Cooper
From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries
Vol. 6, No. 3
March 1998
[Considering that Cooper is in his 80's and hence this class must have been at least 50 years ago the current state of the art might be "very interesting".--Joe]

...or maybe kryptonite.  Demanding clarity from a socialist is, universally, considered a personal attack.  Remember this next time you see a Leftist interviewed.  Here is just one of countless examples.  Its from 1994, the year of the deadly "assault weapon":

My position is that anybody who's in favor gun control is a fucking moron.

Jackie Mason
From Penn and Teller: Bullshit! Gun Control
See also Wikipedia.
[Actually, I can think of three other options. The gun control advocate could also be one or more of the following: 1) Ignorant, 2) Evil, 3) Insane. If you are a gun control advocate and are unsure as to your classification let me know and I'll help you figure it out.--Joe]

My main computer just died. It won't even get to POST. I'm virtually certain no data has been lost but I haven't really verifed that yet.

The biggest issue is that my email access will be significantly impaired until I get it repaired (it may still be under warranty). Email sent to me after about 21:30 Pacific Daylight Time is in limbo for now as well. Resend if you sent me something that needs to be addressed soon.

Update: It is still under warranty and although I have to take it back to Moscow, Idaho (300 miles from where I am now) it might be ready when I return.

In case you haven't seen it yet. It's 28 minutes spent worthwhile even if the language is a bit crude at times.

I will be using a sentence from it for the quote of the day tomorrow.

They want to return the world to a pre-age-of-reason/age-of-enlightenment world. That is where the split took place that put the muslim world as second rate to ours. They believe that their world, following the will of God, must be able to express that as also being the best world in all aspects. If not they must in the eyes of God being doing something wrong. Since they cannot compete with us in this world, they must destroy it to return it to a state when they were the best (their enlightnment during our dark ages).

Greg Hamilton
August 8, 2006 6:58 PM
From the email list: insightstraining @ yahoogroups.com

I had long misunderstood. I had only causally paid attention but I thought dark matter was just ordinary matter that was in too low of energy state to emit light or other radiation. Wrong. And now they have actually proved it's existence. What really got my attention was this:

The two galaxy clusters passed through each other at an incredible speed of 16 million kilometers per hour. As they did, the bulk of the luminous matter in the two clusters, which is in the form of hot gases, bumped into each other and slowed down. But the dark matter sailed ahead because it does not interact with normal matter the same way.

...

Sean Carroll is a cosmologist at the University of Chicago who was not involved in the observations. He says particle physics laboratories around the world are trying to capture dark matter in an effort to determine its properties.

"So there absolutely is a new particle that physicists get to go out there and find," he said. "That's great news because it tells theorists what to think about - to think about models for dark matter - and experimentalists what to do to go out there and look for that particle."

A completely new type of matter which composes the majority of the mass in the universe. Wow! There has got to be some science fiction stories enabled by this. Parallel universes come to mind...

This is like going through life thinking people like you were the norm and then one day having the majority of the population "coming out of the closet" and finding you actually were a very small minority.

You remember Jenny Price from the other day, right? I was just looking at who has been visiting me and saw this:

Domain Name		usdoj.gov ? (United States Government)
IP Address		149.101.1.# (US Dept of Justice)
ISP		US Dept of Justice
Location		Continent  :  North America Country  :  United States  (Facts) State  :  Maryland City  :  Potomac Lat/Long  :  39.023, -77.1993 (Map) Distance  :  2,059 miles
Language		English (United States) en-us
Operating System		Microsoft WinXP
Browser		Internet Explorer 6.0 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; DOJ3jx7bf; SV1; DI60SP1001; .NET CLR 2.0.50727)
Javascript		version 1.3
Monitor		Resolution  :  1280 x 1024 Color Depth  :  16 bits
Time of Visit		Aug 21 2006 7:30:47 am
Last Page View		Aug 21 2006 7:31:54 am
Visit Length		1 minute 7 seconds
Page Views		2
Referring URL		http://blogsearch.go...22&btnG=Search Blogs
Search Engine		blogsearch.google.com
Search Words		guns & "jenny price"
Visit Entry Page		http://blog.joehuffm...55-698f2960fb51.aspx
Visit Exit Page		http://blog.joehuffm.../Thinking Small.aspx
Out Click
Time Zone		UTC-5:00
Visitor's Time		Aug 21 2006 10:30:47 am
Visit Number		95,122

I wonder why the DOJ is interested in what bloggers are saying about Jenny Price. Did she get a credible death threat or something?

Very interesting...

I quietly declare war with the State, after my fashion, though I will still make use and get advantage of her as I can, as is usual in such cases.

Henry David Thoreau
(1817-62), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist.
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience (1849).
[I hope to expand on this theme in a blog post soon.--Joe]

I just made all my reservations for attending the Gun Blogger Rendezvous in Reno. There are already lots of people signed up that I'm looking forward to meeting. You don't have to be a blogger to attend, just have an interest in meeting some of the gun bloggers.

See you there?

Baby formula doesn't kill people. Islamic fascists kill people.

Ann Coulter
August 20, 2006
Terrorists win!

Islam, in and of itself, however, is an Allah-worshipping, Kamikaze Nation, exactly like pre-World War II Imperial Japan. It's Bible, the Koran, can be read like Hitler's Mein Kampf. It demands to rule the entire human race. Islam's only idea of freedom of religion is the freedom of Islam to rule everything. Islamic Political Parties should be no more trusted than neo-Nazi, White Supremacists and David Duke of the Ku Klux Klan have been trusted. Tragically, the only language Islam, like Hirohito's Japan, understands is violence. The measures Harry Truman took to end the war with Japan may prove tragically necessary with Islam.

Michael Moriarty
August 16, 2006
An Interview with Emmy-Winning Actor Michael Moriarty, Presidential Candidate

The other night at the Jim Stafford show Stafford asked how many people had ever been called various names. One of those names was "Democrat". A few people, perhaps ten, indicated they had been. Stafford commented sadly, "You find them everywhere." He then asked how many had ever been called Republican. Most of the probably 150 people in the crowd indicated they had.

Another hint of the political leanings of the area comes from reading some of the local history:

Thus the stage was set for a conflict between the settlers, mostly Republican and law-abidders, and the natives, mostly Democrats who liked the status quo.

The status quo was:

... government for the most part had ceased to exist with anarchy reigning over the county.

Some things never change I guess (I'm thinking of the cities of New Orleans and Washington D.C.).

Interesting:

The study by Hamburg Sex Researcher Professor Dr Werner Habermehl looked at the sex lives of hundreds of German women and compared them with their hair colour.

He said: "The sex lives of women with red hair were clearly more active than those with other hair colour, with more partners and having sex more often than the average. The research shows that the fiery redhead certainly lives up to her reputation."

He added that women who dyed their hair red from another colour were signalling they were looking for a partner, and added: "Even women in a fixed relationship are letting their partners know they are unhappy if they dye their hair red. They are saying that they are looking for something better."

Despite standing right beside the Muslim extremist who shot her and listening while he "ranted on the phone about Jews, Israel and the U.S. role in the war in Iraq and the Middle East" Ms Klein is concerned about all the wrong things:

Klein said she hopes the shooting will serve to renew local and national efforts to draft gun control legislation.

How and why Haq "was able to legally acquire two semi-automatic weapons in our state is still a very disturbing mystery to me," she said.

...

"Naveed Haq has wasted enough of my time," she said.

Huh? Haq is the reason she may not regain the use of her hand. His extremist religious beliefs are the reason he and millions of others want her dead. And she is distrubed because it's legal to purchase firearms? Had she purchased and carried a similar firearm she and others might not have been shot. She should exercise her rights, her brain, and before pushing for more useless gun control legislation answer Just One Question.

For reference see:

• The Seattle Times
• Seattle PI
• The Daily Herald

As pointed out by Denise, Jenny Price wrote another editorial. This time on gun owners instead of guns. I commented on her last one here. This one is about being "Targeted by Gun Nuts". At the time I suspected she visited my blog a week or two after I wrote that post because of what I saw in my log file, but one never knows for certain.

Jenny, if you visit again please answer Just One Question.

I think the most telling part of the editorial are the last two paragraphs:

...do you really want these people on these websites (and 40 million other people in the country) to have guns?

I can cite statistics, and I can tell you why the right to carry a 9-millimeter semiautomatic handgun with a 10-shot clip is not guaranteed by the 2nd Amendment. But the paranoia and bone-chilling hatred that spew from such sites as packing.org and freerepublic.com make for an equally — and unusually — effective argument for a ban on handguns.

She can cite statistics but can she do it correctly? Last time she had a terrible problem doing so. I've looked around a fair amount this morning and as near as I can tell she is off by about a factor of two, on the low side, with the number of gun owners in this country.

And if she can tell us why the 2nd Amendment doesn't guarantee us the right to carry a 9mm handgun with a 10 round magazine there are some others besides me who would be interested in her reasoning. For example:

• The Subcommittee on the Constitution of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, 97th Congress, Second Session, 2/82
• The judges in U.S. vs. Emerson, 5th Circuit Federal Court
• The U.S. Attorney General

But then she could have done that this time but instead went for the emotional appeal and claims it's is an unusually effective argument.

I think the 2008 presidential election will be won or lost on environmental degradation and new thinking on the environment.

Fabian Nunez
California Assembly Speaker
August 17, 2006
California on brink of global warming breakthrough
[We are in the middle of WWIII (or IV) and this guy thinks "new thinking on the environment" will be the deciding issue of the next presidental election? The guy is a Barking Moonbat.--Joe]

I remembered as soon as I heard it, Barb and I mispronounce Missouri. It's pronouced mi-ZER-ah by the locals here. With that small error corrected we are doing fine (other than the marginal Internet connection).

Monday was spent in Branson. In the morning we visited the Titanic museum. We were quite impressed. But why such an extensive Titanic museum in the Midwest? I could see having it in New York City, Belfast, or even London, but Branson Missouri? Never mind. We liked it a great deal.

Monday afternoon we rode the ducks with "Captain Clyde." Very funny and pleasingly informative.

Monday evening we had dinner at the Shogun Restaurant and were pleased with both the food and the show.

After dinner we went to the Jim Stafford Show. He and his kids are very talented musically but the humor was disappointing.

Tuesday afternoon we visited the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in Mansfield. I haven't read even one of her "Little House on the Prairie" books or watched one of the T.V. shows but still enjoyed the museum. Her daughter Rose Wilder Lane was quite impressive too and a large section of the museum is devoted to her. Rose is considered seminal force behind the Libertarian party!

Late on Tuesday afternoon we found our way deep into the "hills" to the home of Ozark Pyrotechnics owner Dave and his family. The highest point in the state is 1772 feet and the lowest is 230 feet above sea level so it's not really possible to have "hills" that qualify to our Idaho sensibilities. Dave is a self described hillbilly. If Dave and his family are representative of hillbillies then it is no insult to be called one. For hours Dave and talked about Boomershoot and his first effort at a similar event while Barb was entertained by the two girls:

Dave, knowing we were celebrating our 30th anniversary this week fixed us a wonderful dinner, complete with champagne, and put on a fireworks show for us. This wasn't just a few fountains, sparklers and firecrackers. This was a real fireworks show that required a call to the local sheriff and the fire marshall beforehand. Here is a picture of Dave with his idea of real fireworks (the biggest shells for us were 'only' four inches):

Update: I forgot to mention the fireflies! Barb and I had never seen fireflies before. We saw our first fireflies Tuesday night as we were preparing the fireworks. The dark haired girl in the picture above caught a couple and showed them to us up close.

It was such a cool way to celebrate our anniversary. Other people celebrate anniversaries by going to Hawaii or Europe. We visited hillbillies in the Ozarks and saw fireflies and our own private fireworks display. How many people can claim an experience like that?

The folksongs of the 1960s will never be written again because of President George Bush. He has hampered the liberties of my country in the name of September 11. Songs now can only talk of patriotism, they cannot mention peace.

Catherine Mayo
AN AMERICAN IN PAKISTAN: Value of dissent
March 18, 2003

[Mayo is the Barking Moonbat who urinated in the aisle of United flight 923 from London to Washington D.C. yesterday.--Joe]

The Democrats are the party of government activism, the party that says government can make you richer, smarter, taller, and get the chickweed out of your lawn. Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work, and then get elected and prove it.

P. J. O'Rourke
Parliament of Whores

The Democrats seem to be basically nicer people, but they have demonstrated time and again that they have the management skills of celery. They're the kind of people who'd stop to help you change a flat, but would somehow manage to set your car on fire. I would be reluctant to entrust them with a Cuisinart, let alone the economy. The Republicans, on the other hand, would know how to fix your tire, but they wouldn't bother to stop because they'd want to be on time for Ugly Pants Night at the country club.

Dave Barry

What I really need is a directional WiFi antenna. I've been meaning to get one and had really intended to do that before this trip. As I stand (the signal inside the car is too weak) in the parking lot next to our rental car (for the power from the inverter I did bring along) in the early hours of the morning, blogging, reading and writing email, I realize my tendency to procrastinate is a vice (Xenia, please learn from your father's mistakes--even if you did inherit this personality trait from him).

I have permission to use the WiFi in the building across the parking lot from our place here but just not the range with the network card in my laptop. Neither WalMart nor Staples have the desired equipment. And it looks like the closest Fry's is in Texas.

All though this video I get increasingly uncomfortable. I kept thinking "this can't turn out well" and I was tempted to stop watching. The tension gradually increases and reaches a peak just as you "know" it's going to get really ugly. It has a nice twist at the end as everything resolves in a satisfactory manner that makes it worthwhile watching. Via Ry.

It illustrates the truth of Lyle's post from the other day.

No wonder the police and the politicians in Philadelphia want the citizens disarmed: Philadelphia cops use badges to exhort sex.

Liberty is a hollow joke without an armed populace to protect the rights of all.

Donald L. Cline
August 14, 2006
Gun laws only help criminals

We have arrived. The internet connection sucks. Only if I put my laptop on top of the T.V. at a funny angle can I get a connection. I think I can fix it but it will have to wait for a few hours. We are both tired and are going to take a nap.

NWA is going to get a letter from Barb about our baggage and a couple other items. She already called them and rattled their cage once. They messed up a bunch of people, not just us. It's straightened out now but it wasn't pleasant.

We've made more enemies during the presidency of George Bush than in the rest of our history combined.

Ramsey Clark
Former US Attorney General
[And one could make a lot of enemies serving "colored people" in your restaurant in the deep south 50 years ago too. It's the same emotional 'argument' about "squandering our good will". We "squandered our good will" with Germany, Italy, and Japan about 65 years ago too. Doing the right thing is more important than trying to make everyone happy. Facts don't support his agenda so he makes an emotional appeal.--Joe]

The majority opinion over here is pretty much what Ry and I have concluded. We'll have to take a serious hit before we stop swatting at the "wasps" and instead destroy the "nests" and kill the "queens".

We were supposed to be in Springfield MO by now. But our plane to leave Seattle arrived 40 minutes late. It took off well over an hour late (taxiway congestion). We arrived in Minneapolis about 10 minutes after our connecting flight to Springfield was scheduled to leave.

The airline (NWA) put us up in a very nice room with free ground transportation, meals, and small overnight kit (they locked up our luggage for the night). Tomorrow morning we get a wake up call at 4:00 AM (2:00 AM my time) to catch a shuttle ride back to the airport where we catch a flight to Memphis and from there we go to Springfield arriving almost exactly 12 hours later than we planned..

Barb is stressing a little bit but as long as I do the interacting with all the wonderful service people that have been so accommodating we'll do just fine.

I am annoyed with the hotel here, they have a policy of no guns on the property. This appears to be in accordance with Minnesota law. But since I don't have my gun with me (it's locked up at the airport) I suppose it doesn't matter all that much this time. I'll leave them one of these cards in the morning:

Barb and I will be visiting the Mark Twain National Forest and Ozark Pyrotechnics this week. The plane leaves in a few hours. I'm sure it will be fun going through security. I'm tempted to play games with security but Barb gets annoyed when I do that when she is along.

While we are gone the Huffman-Scott compound will be occupied by men and/or women with nasty attitudes, both long and short guns, bitey dogs, but no explosives. The explosives have been locked away in a secure facility. This is so there will be something left of any goblin who visits while we are gone. I don't want them to get all the fun.

Update: From being dropped off at the airport until we were through security and done putting all our clothes back on it only took 40 minutes. That 40 minutes included an inexperience ticket agent dealing with my handgun. They are doing their best to make the violation of our inalienable rights as painless as possible.

As I have been saying for years current airport security doesn't and probably can't possibly work. Here are some other peoples thoughts on the topic:

• New Airline Security Rules (be sure and read the comments)
• Threat modeling airplane explosive detection
• Bruce Schneier points out knives and guns are built in prisons so how can we hope to keep them off of airplanes?
• Gaping holes in airport security

It's time to investigate alternatives. Even scrapping the existing system entirely and taking all that money and investing it in intelligence and police work would be an improvement.

There should be a meteor shower tonight.

Appeasement but begets new and bloodier wars.

Douglas MacArthur
1880-1964
American general
Address to Congress
April 19, 1951
[Communists, Islamic extremists, or anti-gun owner bigots it still applies.--Joe]

I'm getting a bunch of hits from people searching for liquid explosive recipes. You won't find them on any of my sites. They are too unstable for my use. The explosive that probably was planned for the most recent event in the U.K. is this one. Note what is said about it:

For its instability, it has been called the "Mother of Satan".

Even nitroglycerin is more stable.

But if you are planning a one way trip to meet your 72 virgins I suppose that doesn't much matter.

Who says you own Britain, anyway? Britain belongs to Allah. The whole world belongs to Allah. ... If I go to the jungle, I'm not going to live like the animals, I'm going to propagate a superior way of life. Islam is a superior way of life.

Anjem Choudary
A former leader of Al Mujahiroun
Via Diana West

Clayton asks, What, Exactly, Is The Purpose Of Blowing Up A Bunch of Airliners?

A couple years ago I was talking with a guy in the CIA. He was a manager over, among others, a bunch of psychologists. What he told me was that "these people" think differently than we do. "Perhaps more differently that we can think." Most important about this is that we understand what to do and/or say to get them to do the things we want them to do, next week, next month, and next year. And these means to these different goals may be in conflict with each other.

Now for my speculation. We probably think so differently that they have difficultly thinking like us as well. They probably are doing what they think should cause us to do what they want us to do, but as Clayton points out, it is going to make us more determined to capture and/or kill their extremists. It's sort of a messed up communication channel.

Another possibility is they just want to kill as many infidels as possible. They are just delivering on the "convert or die" offer from their leaders. If you look at the kill ratio when our military goes up against them it's probably 1:20 to even 1:100 in our favor. The numbers are against them in that situation.

Ry and I once did an informal study of kill ratios for various "occupations" such as military, mass killers, serial killers, terrorists, etc. This was a little different than your normal ratio of dead on one side to dead on the other side. In this case what is the ratio of people involved on one side to the number of people dead on the other. So if Ted Bundy acted alone, which I think is most likely true, and he killed 43 (or maybe 143--who knows?) then the kill ratio there is 1:43 (or 1:143). In the Oklahoma City bombing 168 were killed and there were probably two people involved for a ratio of 1:84. In 9-11 there were 19 (plus some organizers and support people) who killed something like 3500 people for a ratio of (on the high end) of 1:184. In the case of the military dropping a nuke you have to include all the people that helped make and store the nuke and it's delivery system, as well as the people in the chain of command who delivered the nuke.

It's not difficult to concluded that 1:200 is about the upper limit.

Therefore, if the goal is to kill as many infidels as possible losing one "martyr" per airplane full of infidels is pushing the limit of what is the "current state of the art" in dealing out death.

But who can know if that's right? My guess it's going to be difficult for us understand even if they were to explain it to us.

Oh, how many times we have heard the phrase, "It takes two to make a fight".  That statement appears to assign equal guilt to the defender and the perpetrator, which is the same as saying that you do not have any right to defend yourself, or to be defended by anyone else.  By the time I reached high school in 1972, two kids caught fighting were both punished equally ('cause fighting just isn't cool, man).  I see it as no mere coincidence that the arena wherein I've heard this phrase uttered the most, if not exclusively, is the public school system.

Its time to modify the phrase slightly, based on the application of intelligence guided by experience:

"It takes at least two to make a fight-- one perpetrator and one defender."

Col. Jeff Cooper was once asked whether violence merely begets more violence.  His answer went something like this (I'm going from memory, so I can only paraphrase): "It is my sincere endeavor to see to it that it does."  In explaining his answer, he said that if someone is going to perpetrate violence against innocents, that person should get more violence in return than he can handle.

How many times have you heard some version of "Don't judge me, man" or "You're being too judgmental"?  Similar to the "it takes two" quote, this seems to be designed to prevent us from doing that which makes us human-- it asks us to stop using our ability to reason.

If we really value "Peace And Love, Man" we should be ready to dish out both blame and praise appropriately.

Iran is fighting a proxy war, but smugly feels itself immune to consequence. Not only is this unfair to the Lebanese, but it is dangerous for Washington. The more overconfident Iran becomes in its ability to get away with murder, the more likely Americans will be targeted down the line.

Michael Rubin
Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington
Attributed in the article Iran mullah rush to resupply Lebanese agents, "Hezbollah"

I arrived at 8:00 this morning and didn't leave until 22:00 except for about 10 minutes to get a slice of pizza from the cafeteria. The brought supper to us which we ate in a conference room. It was a long tiring day but I got the last of my stuff checked in before Barb and I leave on vacation next week. This gives me two days to deal with whatever might blow up when my stuff starts getting executed in the daily build.

As I left work were still dozens of cars in the parking garage which reminded me of one time I had commented about how different it was at PNNL. I had made some causal remark about how my car would be nearly the only one in the parking lot when I left at 19:00 and how different this was than at Microsoft. I blogged about this once too. Some of my PNNL co-workers got indignant about that comment. My comment was accurate. It must have been there was some guilt on their conscience.

Will this be the triggering event for another change in airport security? Just like when the shoe bomber did his thing we had to start taking off our shoes before boarding the planes. Will now have to follow the British lead as described here?

BRITISH police have reportedly foiled a plot to smuggle explosive devices in airline hand luggage to blow up planes in mid-flight, according to Sky News in London.

The targets were said to have been flights between the Britain and the US.

Overnight police have arrested a number of people in London.

The BBC reports that the Department for Transport has set strict security measures at UK airports.

Passengers would not be allowed to take any hand luggage on to any flights in the UK, the department said.

Only the barest essentials - including passports and wallets - would be allowed on board in transparent plastic bags.

Sky said the Metropolitan Police arrests were the culmination of a big covert counter-terrorist operation lasting several months.

It followed a pre-planned intelligence led operation by the Met's anti-terrorist branch and security service.

Police said they believed the aim was to detonate explosive devices smuggled on board the aircraft in hand luggage.

"We would like to reassure the public that this operation was carried out with public safety uppermost in our minds," a police statement said.

"This is a major operation which inevitably will be lengthy and complex. We will provide further information as soon as possible."

Next will be strip and body cavity searches. But even that will fail. Defensive security is inherently very difficult and prone to failure. You must take the offense which, if reports are correct, it appears the British successfully done in this case. Good for them if true.

In the 1980s the Regan administration "deregulated" the telephone industry.  Since then, phone service has become vastly better, cheaper, with far more options, and the prospects for the future of personal communication are truly awesome.  Critics of deregulation said we simple Americans would be inconvenienced with too many choices, and too inept to shop for the best deals, etc., etc.  They were of course entirely wrong.  Stunningly wrong.  More wrong than anyone could have imagined 25 years ago.  Does anyone remember having to get your phone from the same company that provided your connection service, and then having to buy your long distance from that same company (there was, naturally, only one choice)?

Maybe its time for more deregulation.  I say start with education, energy, and transportation.

Is anyone going to seriously argue that the old, Soviet-style, big government monopolies are a proven path to excellence?

A good place to start, mentally, is to try thinking of just one part of our lives in which government has absolutely no business whatsoever.  For some people, this will be a formidable challenge.

From the U.K. via the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies comes this study, 'Knife Crime': Ineffective reactions to a distracting problem? A Review of Evidence and Policy.

The PDF document is protected such that I can't copy and paste but some hand typed excerpts are worth the effort:

Government and the police lack a coherent, evidence-based, reasoned strategy for dealing with knife carrying and knife-related offences. There is insufficient evidence that a knife amnesty or increased sentence length for carrying knives will decrease the level of knife use and carrying. Due to the easy availability of knives, there will always be opportunities to commit knife offences. Since it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to limit the availability of knives and knives are merely a tool used in violent crime, success in fighting knife usage will only come with success in dealing with the underlying causes of violence, fear and insecurity.

This is mostly correct and applies to firearms as well as knives. What I disagree with is the last few words. And it is these last few words that are critical to solving the problem. They have an incorrect problem statement. This shows, conclusively, they don't understand the problem. If they don't understand the problem then they can never solve it.

They believe they have a violence problem and they are attempting to make it more difficult to commit violence. This is totally wrong. They have a violent crime problem. The only solution (assuming we are talking about ordinary crime and not sometime like a rebellion that is labeled crime by the ruling class) to violent crime is violence, or the threat of violence, against the criminals. This is what the police do when they arrest someone. They use violence or the threat of violence to remove the criminal from the general population.

The "underlying causes of violence" are more numerous than "fear and insecurity" which also shows they don't understand the problem. I'm shocked the author didn't at least throw in "poverty". But even then he would be leaving out the really big issue, evil in the hearts of men. It is only with this last issue can you explain such things as rape and extortion.

So a better problem statement is that they (and we) have violent crime problem for the most part because some people are evil. I will grant that as poverty (the definition of which is tenuous at best) increases crime tends to increase as well, but that is a topic for another day.

The solution becomes much more obvious with an appropriate problem statement. The dominant root cause is "some people are evil". The problem can now be broken down into identification and "elimination" (either by incarceration or other more violent solutions) of the perpetrators or "persuading" the potential criminal to not act out their evil inclinations. And as Al Capone said when discussing persuasion methods, "You can get much further with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone." And this basic truth is what the people in the U.K. have overlooked with their faulty problem statement. Further compounding their problems is that they have disabled the most effective identification and persuasion mechanism available by disarming the victims of violent crime.

It may be that they will eventually figure out the error of their ways. For example the study points out the folly of the "knife amnesty" program as follows with the stereotypical British understatement:

According to the Home Office, at total of 89,864 knives were handed in during the national amnesty. Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker stated that this means "fewer knives on our streets" and greater security for everyone. Assuming that there are approximately 22 million households in England and Wales, each possessing a single kitchen knife, the amnesty has been successful in removing 0.0041 of the knives that might be used in crimes. Of course, most households contain many more than a single knife and it is barely worth considering the tens of thousands sitting in shops waiting to be purchased. As such, it is, at best, questionable whether this will result in a reduction in knife carrying and knife-related offences.

Further evidence that they might be getting a clue is this part of the conclusion:

At the moment the government seems to be planning action to a problem without knowing the full and true nature and extent of it and whilst overlooking the causes.

The author has a clue, but just barely. But really, there is Just One Question that needs to be asked.

The Government is constructing responses without any credible evidence that they will be successful. Knife amnesties will have a negligible impact since knives will be available as long as there is unsliced bread.

Chris Eades
The Centre for Crime and Justice Studies
'Knife Crime': Ineffective reactions to a distracting problem? A Review of Evidence and Policy
From The Independent: Big rise in knife crime despite tougher penalties
[First they came for the guns...--Joe]

On my website I mention the lax security at PNNL and how it can be used by people hostile to the U.S. No one seemed to care.

Here is another example of the type of information leakage that is happening.

I can't get away from it. It has to be mental problems. Do they even realize what they are saying?

...it’s also a symptom– a symptom of a culture that believes guns can be safe, a culture that believes teenagers can be trusted with firearms.

The truth is that no one can be trusted with firearms. They represent a threat, all the time, every time. This study makes it clear that things need to change– the only way to protect children from guns is to get the gun out of the houses they live in.

And here:

Guns are dangerous everywhere– why should we think a gun is any safer when it’s in a park rather than a church or a school? The guns don’t change. The people carrying them don’t change. Concealed weapons aren’t safe anywhere, because, as history shows time and time again, no matter how much training or discipline a gun owner has, a gun still represents a dire threat to everyone around it.

Evidence apparently doesn't matter. I have Just One Question.

He should volunteer to live in a place where the police don't have guns. Oh, that's right, there is no such place. I guess that means he yearns for a place that doesn't exist. Some imaginary world where everything is as he wants it to be rather than the way things are. I suppose it could exist for a while. Britain survived for a while without the police having guns on a regular basis. But look where they are now. They saw the folly of that and they have now have teams with guns available on short notice and one of the highest violent crime rates in the western world.

Yeah. There were problems with my blog for most of the day. My ISP was doing maintenance that took longer than it should have. My blog as well as Ry's had strange problems all day.

This book is dedicated to an anonymous member of Spain's Secret Police. On January 27, 1960, during a brief encounter on a quiet back street in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, I asked him for advice on how best to avoid any problems in the land of Generalissimo Francisco Franco. The advice he gave me has served me well for more than forty years. He said there was only one way to avoid troubles with the authorities:

"Make yourself invisible."

And so I did.

J.J. Luna
How To Be Invisible
2nd Edition

It's good for causal conversation I suppose. But I'm very suspicious of the accuracy. It's almost for certain self reported:

An international survey of 40,000 men has revealed 60 per cent of Australian men have never strayed, ranking just behind the Germans and Poles at 62 per cent.

...

South Korean men are having sex more times a week than anyone else in the world, while hot-blooded Brazilian men are at it with a wider range of women.

On average, South Koreans said they were having sex at least four times a week, while Filipinos were world-beaters at masturbation, doing it almost six times a week.

Brazilians topped two categories, with 19 per cent saying they had had a threesome, which might help account for them having clocked up the most lovers, the internationally published fitness magazine said.

British men spend or claim to spend an average of 17.44 minutes on foreplay per sex session, longer than Australians (17.2 mins), Germans (16.92 mins) and Mexicans (16.91 mins).

But British men last only 18.64 minutes from foreplay to climax, far behind the Mexicans (23.17 minutes) and the Dutch (22.42 minutes).

Women might want to keep an eye out for an Italian lover 60 per cent of Italian men said they made their partner climax every time.

Now if they wanted to do a real study they need to have unbiased scientific observers. Dr. Joe is available for the right price.

The biometric ID card has been one of my hot buttons for a long time. The U.K. is a little ahead of us on this and they are finding out it's a bad idea:

MPs attacked plans for identity cards as inconsistent and lacking clarity yesterday and called for a rethink of the technology to be used.

The Commons Science and Technology Committee published a report expressing incredulity that the Home Office claimed to be able to produce firm estimates of the costs of running ID cards when fundamental technical decisions were still unclear.

The Home Office has said that running costs would be £584 million a year, whereas the London School of Economics, in a controversial report, has put the total costs of setting up and running ID cards at between £10.6 billion and £19.2 billion.

The report called on the Government to disclose more information about how the scheme would operate, particularly the database on which personal details would eventually be held.

The criticism comes after the admission by the Home Office last month that the introduction of identity cards as a voluntary measure was likely to be delayed past the target date of 2008 because of practical difficulties in implementing a scheme of that size.

...

The MPs’ report, which focused on the use of science and risk management in the ID cards policy, was particularly critical of ministers for deciding at the outset to have a sophisticated identity card holding three forms of biometric data — ten fingerprints, two iris scans and a face scan.

They expressed surprise at the unscientific manner in which this was decided, without adequate evidence on their effectiveness, especially of iris scanning, and urged the Government to be ready to change this if necessary.

Subsequent trials of the biometric technology showed that iris scans had a higher recognition rate for white and Asian participants than those who were black, casting doubt on their effectiveness. The Government faced further embarrassment over ID cards yesterday when the Information Commissioner criticised the Treasury for refusing to release information about the programme’s budget and timetable.

So what does Blair say he is going to do about it?

Tony Blair brushed aside criticism of the Government’s plans for identity cards yesterday, saying that they would remain a central policy aim for Labour.

Addressing his monthly press conference at Downing Street, the Prime Minister said: “Don’t be in any doubt that this goes forward. Absolutely.”

He added: “Whatever the technical issues this is a major, major issue for us and will be a major plank of Labour’s manifesto at the next election.”

I just hope we can learn something from their mistakes--like don't go there!

It's not just the lack of guns and the high rate of violent crime over there. As I have commented before their sex lives have something to be desired too. Here is another story on that topic.

This weekend Barb attended a class in Spokane. We stayed in motel and I ran errands and worked on the computer while she attended class. Saturday while out walking around on my errands I noticed that just a block or so from our motel there were a large number of vagrants hanging out under the freeway and the neighboring parking lots (I-90 and Division street). One approached me and asked for a dime or a quarter. Greg Hamilton describes this as an "interview". I apparently failed the interview and did no further business with him.

Later that evening we walked to a restaurant for dinner past the same area. On the edge of the parking lot of a drive-in burger joint (Dicks) several vagrants nearly had the sidewalk blocked. We took a path through the middle of the parking lot to reach our restaurant (Frankie Doodles) that adjoined Dicks. Barb and I were talking but I was watching out of the corner of my eye. The largest of of the vagrants stood up and followed us about 20 feet behind and to our left which put him in a position to close the distance if we returned to the sidewalk. For thirty feet or more he matched our speed and direction. My gun was between Barb and I and not in danger of being blocked by him if he chose to attack. I could deploy and utilize it if needed. But at his range he could probably get a first strike in before I could get off a first shot. But why wait for an attack? I'm not a grass eater, he needs to know that. I snapped my head around and looked directly at him while continuing to walk. He immediately stopped and developed an intense interest in something on the ground.

Later returning to the motel they were still there and we gave them an even wider berth. They paid us no interest.

Thanks to this link from Clayton I read this sobering article. Here is a sample:

When I used to read about the 1930s — the Italian invasion of Abyssinia, the rise of fascism in Italy, Spain, and Germany, the appeasement in France and Britain, the murderous duplicity of the Soviet Union, and the racist Japanese murdering in China — I never could quite figure out why, during those bleak years, Western Europeans and those in the United States did not speak out and condemn the growing madness, if only to defend the millennia-long promise of Western liberalism.

Of course, the trauma of the Great War was all too fresh, and the utopian hopes for the League of Nations were not yet dashed. The Great Depression made the thought of rearmament seem absurd. The connivances of Stalin with Hitler — both satanic, yet sometimes in alliance, sometimes not — could confuse political judgments.

But nevertheless it is still surreal to reread the fantasies of Chamberlain, Daladier, and Pope Pius, or the stump speeches by Charles Lindbergh (“Their [the Jews’] greatest danger to this country lies in their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio, and our government”) or Father Coughlin (“Many people are beginning to wonder whom they should fear most — the Roosevelt-Churchill combination or the Hitler-Mussolini combination.”) — and it is even more baffling to consider that such men ever had any influence.

Not any longer.

Remember the old joke?

A republican is a democrat who has been mugged.

A democrat is a republican who has been arrested.

After my experience with PNNL I lost my faith in the system. Even with my current job being apparently secure I nearly constantly worry that someone may take a disliking to me because of my hobbies, skin color or some other non job issue and cause me harm. I couldn't have imagined being in this constant state of fear prior to my own experience. Now I can.

This came up because Benjamin is on the verge of his own conversion.

I have an ultra-secure wireless network that automatically reports all hacking attempts to unsavory men with bitey dogs.

Bruce Schneier
Schneier Asks to Be Hacked
June 28, 2006
[Cool! I'd stipulate that the unsavory men and dogs enjoy guns, explosives and rough sex but that's just me.--Joe]

I don't probably don't blame Reuters as much as a lot of others do. People have a very strong tendency to hear what they want to hear and disregard the rest. Reuters got caught and is apparently taking the appropriate action.

Someone from the culture in a war zone is going to find it much easier to get pictures and stories that a less biased outsider would be. But then they are going to have their own biases, because of their culture, in that war. If the people at Reuters biases tend to align with the incoming pictures and stories it would be easy to look at pictures and stories less critically as those that did not.

That doesn't mean I don't think we should look the other way when it happens. Just don't try and arrange a lynching because of it. A light flogging should be sufficient.

Here's the story for those that haven't been reading the big name bloggers:

• little green footballs
• Reuters Pulls Phony Photo
• The Propaganda Portfolio of Adnan Hajj
• Worst Excuse of the Decade
• Green Helmet Guy Rides Again
• Doctored Beirut Photo: the First Draft
• The Reuters Clone Tool Scandal
• Counterterrorism Blog: Another Pro-Hizballah Reuters Reporter
• Another Fraudulent Adnan Hajj Photo
• The First Casualty
• Michelle Malkin
• Where there's smoke, there's Photoshop?
• Reutergate: "Picture kill"
• A smoke-clearing blogswarm
• DRINKING FROM HOME
• Extreme Makeover - Beirut Edition
• Yet more Hezbollywood
• The Jawa Report
• Reuters Doctoring Beirut Photos (Updated)
• Reuters Suspends Photog, 2nd Employee Suspended for Death Threat
• What Adnan Hajj Really Photographed
• Another Fake Reuters Photo from Lebanon
• Reuters Fires Photographer
• Ace of Spades HQ
• Another Hajj Photo That Should Be Retracted (Seriously)

Access taxes and proficiency tests for exercising your rights are very much alive for black Americans, and all Americans, if you wish to exercise your right to keep and bear arms.

Alan Korwin
August 04, 2006

From Michelle Malkin:

A disabled war hero and his wife were assaulted and robbed in Bethesda, Md., a few weeks ago.

The guy lost an arm and a leg in Iraq and five punks mugged him and his wife. If one or both had been armed things might have turned out differently. Maryland, however, doesn't trust it's citizens to carry firearms to defend themselves except under rare circumstances. Hence being outnumbered or out-sized is an invitation to the predators on the street.

From the Washington Blade:

"It’s a shame in this world that both in the area of gay rights and in the area of gun issues that these should be political issues,” Sarah Brady says. “These should be common sense, human decency, public safety issues, not political footballs.”

The bipartisan approval that the Brady Bill ultimately achieved is something that she would like to see occur in the realm of gay rights, Sarah Brady says.

“We were able, in the ‘80s and ‘90s, to bring the two parties together for public safety and that’s something which is beginning to happen in the gay community as well,” she says. “It should not be a hot-button issue. It should be common sense and the right thing.”

I fully agree neither issue should be political footballs. Common sense and scientific facts should bring us together for the elimination of the Brady Act and other unlawful, immoral, and hazardous restrictions on our inalienable rights to keep and bear arms.

The other day I posted about a friend not getting a job after being asked bigoted questions about his gun ownership. I bumped into him again on Thursday. He now has a job with another company. This company didn't ask any questions about his personal life during the interview.

He asked if I was interested in working there. For now I'm not. I'm happy with my job and my co-workers and no one has even hinted my interest in guns and explosives is a problem. I'll keep my eyes open for warning signs though.

The right there specified is that of 'bearing arms for a lawful purpose.' This is not a right granted by the Constitution. Neither is it in any manner dependent upon that instrument for its existence. The second amendment declares that it shall not be infringed; but this, as has been seen, means no more than that it shall not be infringed by Congress.

Chief Justice Morrison Waite
U.S. Supreme Court
U S v Cruikshank
92 U.S. 542 (1875)
[In response to "The Gun Guys". Remember that rights are guaranteed or infringed. They are not granted. Only privileges and permissions are granted.--Joe]

There has been some interesting research on the correlation between lawyers and gun owner rights. Here is the conclusion:

Lawyers contribute primarily to candidates who vote against gun rights. Most of this money ends up in the pockets of Democrats, who exhibit a heavy bias against gun rights. Interestingly enough, the Democrat party is the one that claims to represent the little guy, while a special interest group comprised of economically-elite professionals encourages Democrats to pass more laws limiting the right of self-defense for people who cannot afford private security guards. It’s time for those who believe in traditional Democrat values to take a closer look at their party.

My own research on a closely related topic supports this conclusion. I'll post the details on my research at a later date.

The real problem is in the hearts and minds of men... it is easier to denature plutonium that to denature the evil spirit in man... Man's skills have outstripped his morals...

Albert Einstein
[As applicable today with regard to the threat from Muslim extremists (Iran for example) as it was when Einstein said it.--Joe]

Have you lost the combination to a Master Lock combination lock? Here's how you recover it.

Keith Tyler is teaching firearms classes now. I used to shoot with him when he was going to college at WSU in the '90s. We both went down to Lewiston to shoot the USPSA (IPSC) matches at the Lewiston Pistol Club. He was always a very fast shooter. His accuracy sometimes left a bit to be desired but since he is a Grand Master (Open Class), and Master (Limited and Limited 10) I suspect that weakness has been corrected.

There is talk of getting him to visit the Lewiston Pistol Club for a weekend class sometime this fall. If you are interested let me know and I'll forward your message to the appropriate person.

As I mentioned the other day Xenia and Sara talked to a newspaper reporter. Yesterday their picture was on the front page of the Daily News along with quotes from them and me. I haven't seen it yet but Barb and Xenia bought three copies and I should see it this weekend.

Update: I misunderstood. The picture was of Xenia and Jesse. Sara wasn't available when the photographer called so Xenia called Jesse. And the quotes from me weren't until page three.

I just had a long and very interesting chat with a man, retired from the Air Force, who served in Korea among other places, then spent several years as a government inspector for M-14 rifle production.  He could rattle quite a bit of fascinating information off the top of his head (I took notes) but one thing struck me as odd: He seemed to be completely unaware of both the NATIONAL FIREARMS ACT of 1934 and the Firearm Owner's Protection Act of 1986.  A forgivable "offense" I suppose, but interesting from one who had had a career in handling "machineguns".  He was under the assumption, as are many citizens, that machineguns in the hands of peaceable Americans are illegal.  Anyone casually interested in such things can take a clue from the acronym, BATF.  A machinegun is much like a carton of cigaretts or a bottle of whiskey-- their possession is said to require an accompanying tax stamp.  Also take note of the fact that BATF is a branch of Treasury.  They are (ostensibly) a tax authority.

For anyone interested in Second Amendment politics, please take a look at this analysis of THE FIREARMS OWNERS' PROTECTION ACT.  You will get some insight into that hideous, chilling muddle with which we in the industry are faced and, I think it important to point out, what John Moses Browning, among others, was not.  FOPA was a simplification, mind you, of previous law.

For those of you at all levels in law enforcement; you need to know a little about what's been going on, from the coup of 1934 until now, so that collectively we can begin taking the steps to restore American's full civil liberties.

When I was getting fingerprinted at the local sheriff's office years ago for an NFA weapons transfer, the deputy taking the prints saw the "Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms" title on the forms and asked me if I was applying for a job.  I told him, "No.  This is an NFA weapons transfer."  Previously chatty, he clammed up and said no more, obviously knowing nothing about such things.  He probably thought I was a super-spook, paramilitary international arms dealer working on the sly for Ollie North or some such, and he wasn't going to ask any questions.  I didn't try educating him on decades of political and legislative history, either.

The whole passport design is totally brain damaged. From my point of view all of these RFID passports are a huge waste of money. They're not increasing security at all.

Lukas Grunwald
A security consultant with DN-Systems in Germany and an RFID expert.
Hackers Clone E-Passports
[In addition, the same arguments used against a national ID card can be used against passports.--Joe]

There is no cease-fire, there will be no cease-fire. We are determined to succeed in this struggle. We will not give up on our goal to live a life free of terror.

Ehud Olmert
Israeli Prime Minister
Israel Approves 'Full Force' Strikes
On the attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Charles Whitman made history. Both sides of the gun debate use the example for their case. The anti-gun people because he killed 15 people and wounded 31. The pro gun people because private citizens started shooting back and kept him pinned down while the good guys got in position to finish him off.

The link above is a factual retelling of the tragedy. It's good reading.

[Sent to me by Meredith who is a student at the University of Texas.]

Xenia was downtown with Sara yesterday when a woman identifying herself as a newspaper reporter for the Daily News approached them and asked if they were high school students and if they would mind talking to her about cell phones in the school. They had a nice conversation and Xenia called me shortly thereafter to tell me I might be getting a call about cell phones in the schools.

I received the call earlier this morning. And one of the first questions she asked was if I had any comments on the school policy against cell phones with cameras. I asked if they had a policy against ordinary cameras in the school. They didn't. So I told her I didn't think it made any sense to have a policy against cell phone cameras. One is allowed and the other isn't. What sense can that make? Besides what's the problem with cameras anyway? She expressed her opinion that there was concern about cameras being in the locker rooms and bath rooms. Yeah, I can see why they wouldn't want pictures taken in those places but it's just like gun control.

They don't seem to get it. If someone is going to violate a rule against behavior that is obviously wrong and will be punished if the perpetrator is caught then what makes them think a rule against possessing the object to begin with will be honored? The possession is a victimless crime. Victimless crimes shouldn't exist.

This could be very useful. Lighter and tougher body armor. It will never take the place of defensive weapons but I would consider wearing body armor on a regular basis if it were cheap and comfortable enough. I carry my handgun whenever I can but in many cases you may end up taking the first hit before you are able to take the attack to the aggressor. And of course there are those times when I'm not allowed to bring my defensive tools with me and body armor might allow me additional time to bring my hands and/or feet into range and absorb the attack while I'm delivering my own.

From the UK Times:

Since Israel started to bomb Hezbollah targets in Lebanon last month, it has asked for faster delivery of JP8 jet fuel and guided bomb units (GBU28s). The jet fuel order could be worth up to $210 million and the 100 GBU28s, which are better-known as bunker busters, could cost $30 million. Other outstanding deliveries include F16 fighter jets and armoured troop carriers.

Just as computer programmers turn caffeine into code Israel converts jet fuel and bombs into dead terrorists.

I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions.

Lillian Hellman
Letter to the House Un-American Activities Committee, May 19, 1952.
[An admirable point of view.--Joe]