Today is a good day. I got the last of the new ammonium nitrate stored away at the Taj Mahal. I even had room for one more bag:

I wasn't watching really close since I was on vacation and it will take me a little bit of effort to figure out exactly when Boomershoot 2008 filled up but it is completely full now. This is ten months before the actual event! There will be some cancellations so send me an email if you want to be put on the waiting list.

Just a few minutes ago I completed the last of the important electrical work and have verified it is all working correctly (this blog post is made from the Taj Mahal using the new power supply for the WiFi access point Boomershoot2).

There's nothing but red-necked, knuckle-dragging, Neanderthals living in Idaho. Those cretins marry their cousins, they let kids play with guns, the women are ugly, and they even play with explosives. People from places like California, Florida, and Chicago who visit should just spend their tourist dollars quickly and go home before they get shot or something. I just got back from vacation and have the photographic evidence:

Phones like this are still in active use (my parents ring is three shorts). I had to explain to the tourists how to use this one at the Powell Ranger Station.

The plants are damaged. It's probably from all the gunfire and exposives nearby.

Children with assault weapons!

More guns and kids!

Me, the Cease Fear Instructor--Gays and Queers take note.

I think this is supposed to be the state flower or something.


Just over the border into Montanna near Lolo Hot Springs

Caleb on the rocks above Lolo Hot Springs.

Caleb and Kim above Lolo Hot Springs.

Daughter Kimberly Joe at Johnsons Bar on the Selway river. This is what you get when cousins (Barb and I) have kids.

Johnsons Bar on the Selway River. White water is dangerous you know.

Caleb and Kim. Can you tell they are going to be married soon?

Nancy says the scar on her nose doesn't show nearly as much as it used to. She probably got it while in a fight with her sister Barbara over who was going to marry their cousin Joe.

Tourists from Chicago and Florida spending money.

The guide took their money and led them off into the woods. I haven't seen or heard from the tourists since.

Another example of when cousins have kids. Daughter Xenia whose expression says, "Don't bug me when I'm taking pictures."

Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.

Mahatma Gandhi
[Closely related is Erich Fromm's "There can be no real freedom without the freedom to fail.” Those that advocate gun control or claim health care is a right need to study a bit more philosophy.--Joe]

Terrorists generally select targets where they can cause most damage, inflict mass casualties or attract widespread publicity. VBIEDs can be highly destructive.

National Counter Terrorism Security Office (U.K.)
Police explosives experts prevent carnage at the Tiger Tiger Club
[Just in case you have forgotten, I gave you the minimum evacuation distances for Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Devices (VBIEDs) here. It's only a matter of time before we see them in the U.S. You should be prepared.--Joe]

I got a call a few days ago while I was away on vacation from Omie who is a a reporter at the local newspaper. She wanted to talk about class 3 firearms--full automatics in particular. I arranged to take her and her photographer, Geoff, to the range as soon as I got back. This morning we went off to the range with the closest thing I have to what she wanted--"An Evil Black Rifle".

Omie had zero experience with firearms. I didn't ask but I suspect she is doing a summer internship at the paper. She did say she was assigned the topic and that it was partially motivated by the recent courthouse shooting. Geoff's background with firearms was essentially zero as well.

We talked a little bit about the history of NFA 34 and how infrequently legally owned full-autos are used in crimes. And what my opinion of full autos are. Basically I don't have use for them because I can get more shots on target per unit time with a semi-auto than I can with a full auto. And the full-autos are so much more expensive to feed. But they are fun to shoot and I don't think they should be so heavily restricted.

We talked about the 1994 "assault weapons" ban, it's history, and the statistics related to crimes committed with those type of firearms. I told them of the definition of an "assault weapon" and that I had an example for them to shoot today.

We also talked a little about my history as a gun owner (inspired to buy my first gun by the election of Bill Clinton), as a gun rights activist, and director of Boomershoot.

After that I gave them some safety lessons and did some dry fire exercises with my STI Eagle. I didn't want them to dry fire the rim-fire gun I was going to start them with. I then started them out with my Ruger Mark II (.22LR) from about 10 feet away. They did pretty good. I could tell Omie was a little scared. The first live round caused her to jump quite a bit. Her second shot wasn't even on the paper. She then settled down some and did okay. Geoff did well even with his first shots.

After this we talked a little bit. Omie confessed she was afraid that if she held a gun she might do something terrible with it, like shoot herself. I told her about my fear of heights. When confronted with a situation where it is possible to jump off of a high cliff/building/whatever I feel an urge to do so. For years I thought there was something wrong with me for feeling this. I then found out it is a common manifestation of a fear of heights. I suspect the same thing happens with a lot of people about guns. She told us she has a similar fear of heights and seemed to agree that her reaction to firearms was similar.

I moved them to about 20 yards away and did some more dry exercises with the AR-15 before going live. Geoff was really nailing the 10 ring and I was actually rather impressed. Omie didn't do quite as well and I could see her shaking some even when she wasn't holding the gun.

Geoff with an Olympic Arms AR-15 carbine.

Omie with the Olympic Arms AR-15 carbine.

I didn't notice until after looking at the picture above that Omie was looking over her glasses through the rear site. That could explain part of why she didn't do quite as well as Geoff.

They then wanted pictures of me shooting so I emptied several magazines from my STI into an IPSC target and explained a little bit about "Practical Shooting".

I think things went well. We'll see how the article turns out.

Update: I messed up the spelling of Geoff's name. I originally had it as Jeff. If I were to change the title now it would break the link in Sebastian's post.

Update2: Sebastian says he'll fix his link so I fixed the title.

Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable... the art of the next best...

Otto von Bismark
[This is probably more true than I like to acknowledge. It also applies to engineering, as in this quip, "There comes a time to shoot the engineers and ship the product." As freedom activists we want perfection but that is seldom possible. If we want any action in our favor we probably must accept far less than our ideal. When fighting a restriction on our freedom we are sometimes better off working to make the proposed legislation less onerous than we are to fight a losing battle against a greater infringement. That is achieving what is attainable rather than what should be.--Joe]

I've known of Hillsdale College for some time, but only recently did I learn from their publication, "Imprimis" that they long ago swore off federal funding, and the restrictions that naturally come with it.  Here's a sample, but you'll want to read it all:

The thousands of young men and young women who have studied here have been taught some fundamental truths; among these is that the freedom guaranteed them as citizens of this great country is the freedom to dream and aspire without limit and the freedom to fulfill their dreams and aspirations without interference; that our country’s greatness is the result not of government benevolence but rather of individual initiative and enterprise; and that responsibility is the counterpart of independence.

We hold these views to be as valid today as they were in 1844 despite the appearance and growth of a contrary philosophy based on government paternalism.

It is our conviction that this contrary philosophy is negatory to the traditional beliefs and teachings of Hillsdale College and is to be deplored as harmful to the continued development of our country, both morally and economically.

It is therefore the decision of the Board of Trustees of Hillsdale College to reaffirm its historic independence and to resist subsidization of its affairs by the federal government. Acknowledging that the possibility of failure is a concomitant of independence, the Trustees place their trust in God and in the dedication and generosity of students, alumni and friends who share their views.

They have courage and good principles.  You have to give them that.  The feds even tried to claim rule-making jurisdiction over the college based on the fact that some of the students were taking federally guaranteed student loans (surprize, surprize).  Well, Hillsdale was having none of that, so they started their own financial aid program and today they are flourishing.  Hillsdale is apparently one of the few institutions of higher learning that does NOT serve as a socialist indoctrination center.  Imagine that.

Now I have to find out if they support concealed carry on campus.  According to packing.org, Michigan and Washington State have a reciprocity agreement.  That's a good start.

Now I have another reply for those people who have "Support our Troops, Opposed the War" bumper stickers:
"Support Education, Pull the U.S. Out NOW!"  I could go on about mistakes, quagmire, and how the Department of Education is nothing but a political tool for the empowerment of a few politicians and enrichment of the largest labor union in the world, but I won't.

Peace: In international affairs, a period of cheating between two periods of fighting.

Ambrose Bierce
The Devil's Dictionary
[I don't know if it's wisdom or just cynicism, but as I get older I'm more and more inclined to believe that fighting is the normal state of affairs in the interaction between large groups of people.--Joe]

Now that most of the months-long hype (or was it years? It seems like years) over the Durham / Nifong scandal has died down, we can discuss it here ('cause now we actually know what happened and we can't indulge it guesswork and flapjaw).

All I can say is, well, both Ann Coulter and Thomas Sowell say it far better, so I'll add just one point:

Nifong needs to hang.  Literally.  Its not because I hate him-- I've never met him.  Its because he committed the worst possible form of betrayal: Someone in the Public Trust turning Public Predator.  Someone who's sole job it was to protect Liberty & Justice turned enemy of Liberty & Justice.

I pity the fool, yet at the same time realize that if he doesn't receive the maximum possible sentence, others will more likely follow in his footsteps.  If he gets away with disbarment and saying he's sorry, we will have demonstrated that the cost of such a despicable and far-reaching crime is quite low.  We will have invited more of the same and we will get more of the same.

As much as I love Liberty, as much as I love my children and want them and every other American to live in Liberty, free to pursue their dreams of excellence, I want this pile of crap, and a few others who went along with him, to swing.  In Public.  Justice demands it, as an example to anyone who might get similar ideas, and as an example to all of us that someone believes our Liberty to be worth defending.  This society (our country of millions!) is not a toy for the cheap amusement of a few thousand public "servants".

I want to shoot the black rifle!

Jonathan Ryan
Age 9
June 26, 2007

Me giving instructions to my nephew Jonathan. Photo by my daughter Kim.

[And so he did. It was interesting to me that he came up with the name of "The Black Rifle" on his own. We were shooting lots of other firearms but the kids all seemed to like the AR-15 the best. Scott, age 18 and with lots of shooting experience, said it was the most fun to shoot gun he had ever shot. Yeah, they are pretty fun to shoot.--Joe]

It bugs me every time I hear it or see it in print, but I haven't been able to articulate it.  I will try anyway:

I do not want (nor could I ever believe it would be possible) for someone in government to "keep me  safe".  I feel all icky whenever a politician, or anyone else, but especially a politician, tries  to assure us that they're working hard to "keep us safe".  I liked Joe's title to a post on June 24th ("Help Kill Terrorists") because it more clearly and directly addresses the job at hand.

When our president, blowhard senator du jour, or DC culture kool-aid drinker talks about "public  safety" I feel a lot like I did after a middle-aged man approached me at a Spokane, WA city park  when I was around 7 years old.  He asked me if I wanted to earn five dollars.  "OK" I said,  whereupon he led me to the restrooms and asked to see my underwear.  I dashed right out of there of  course, and never forgot the lesson: Someone you should be able to trust can turn out to be a predatory scumbag who sees you as nothing more than a means to his self gratification.

So here's the deal.  I DO NOT want to be kept "safe" by my government.  Letting them try is far too dangerous.  I want my kids to feel reasonably safe, sure, and aware of their surroundings at the same time, but that is my responsibility and mine alone.  It is not the government's job to make us "safe".  It is the government's job to be there to retaliate when someone violates our rights, and to make it known that the retaliation will be sure and swift.  To value human rights is to demonstrate intolerance for human rights violations.

In the best of circumstances you are going to be exposed to many risks (some of the richest lives are full of risks) and guess what; you are still going to die.  Its what we DO WITH OUR LIVES that matters, and for that we need maximum Liberty.  Living in a padded room in solitary confinement might be considered "safe" but somehow I doubt that is what the Founders of this Republic had in mind when they wrote the Bill of Rights.

When it comes to terrorism I want one thing and one thing only--  I want the Jihadi sons of bitches to die.  That is all.  I want them, and anyone who supports them, hunted down, shot (or bombed, etc.) and left to die in the dirt.  Let their countrymen clean up the mess, too-- that's not our job.  That killing the jihadis might make a few of us more "safe" is a side benefit.  Liberty and Justice are the aim here, and they're not the same thing as safety.  They are very different, though slightly overlapping, concepts that should never be confused.

Meanwhile, I will not be trying to delude myself into believing that I am ever safe, either from the jihadi idiots, or from politicians trying to chip away at my rights for their self gratification.

I want to live in a civilized, polite society.  I do NOT want to live in a society with barriers, checkpoints, restrictions, surveillance, or some dipshit walking up to me and demanding, "papers please" no matter how "safe" a few deluded individuals might feel, and no matter how important it makes a politician or a woman in uniform feel.

So, Mister politician, lay off the talk about "safety" and start talking Liberty.  You couldn't take the danger out of life even if you genuinely tried.  I want to you to protect our Liberty, and though there may be some overlap with safety, Liberty is a very different and far more precious thing.  It is the American way, and as much as you might like to forget it, you are sworn to it.

I think the slogan for the web site, American Snipers, then, should read: "Help real snipers get the real gear they need to kill more terrorists more efficiently."  I like that.

I think people have the right to bear arms at a hunting reserve. But you're not hunting deer with semi-automatic weapons. We're going to keep protesting until America becomes more conscious of the domestic terrorism allowed by guns.

Rev. Jesse Jackson
Arrest motivates Jackson to fight for gun control
[Interesting. I've read the 2^nd Amendment many times, as well as several state constitutions. It's only been in recent years, and in just a few states, that I've seen any mention of a right to hunt. Jackson must be living in some other reality. But I suppose it could depend on his definition of "hunting reserve". If you define "hunting reserve" as all 50 states with no bag limits on government employees then he is in line with the true meaning of the 2^nd Amendment.--Joe]

I think they should be charged with 18 USC 241 as well, but at least it is a start:

The Rev. Jesse Jackson was arrested over the weekend at a demonstration at a Chicago area gun shop, while calling for stricter gun laws. Jackson was charged with criminal trespass to property.

Ry has been telling me about the equipment deficiencies of our snipers in the sandbox and I had been meaning to blog about this for while. Kevin's post reminded me. American Snipers appears to be a very efficient way of getting needed equipment and supplies directly to the people that will, as their home page says, "Help real snipers get the real gear they need to help keep us safe."

If you want to help deliver a 168 grain message to terrrorists this (or this) seems to be one of the easiest and most efficient ways to do it.

What the left does not get about the 2nd Amendment is that it is not about the National Guard, or sporting firearms or gun collections. It does not guarantee the government an army, nor does it guarantee civilians the right to hunt and shoot skeet. It's about the right of the people to maintain some portion of the ultimate power of government -- violence -- to themselves.

Mac Johnson
Court Rediscovers 2nd Amendment, Liberals Fear Other 'Rights' May Soon be Found
March 15, 2007

Caren sent me a link to this article about a summer camp where teenagers learn to use explosives. At first I was so disappointed that I didn't have something like that available to me when I was a teenager. Then I realized that I was working with explosives before I was a teenager and I was making my own explosives when I was 16. Okay, so maybe I wasn't so deprived after all. But I would have liked the opportunity anyway.

Most people can't do simple math. If they could they would have immediately seen something wrong with these results:

A new federal survey about sex and drug use in the United States reveals that an average American man has sex with seven women during his lifetime, compared with four male sexual partners for the average woman.

The latest survey, which claims to have used the high-tech methods to solicit candid answers on sexual activity and illegal drug use, found that approximately 29 percent of men reported having 15 or more female sexual partners in a lifetime, while just over 9 percent of women reported having sex with 15 or more men.

Every time a man has sex with a new partner that woman has sex with a new partner. The writer of this story should have clarified they are not using the usual definition of "average" (the "mean"). If they were then the average for both men and women must be the same. This article clarifies they are using a measure less frequently used by (excuse the pun) lay people, called the "median".

I don't have the time to go looking for it in my sex archives but this anomaly in survey results has been known for a long time and it was about five or six years ago they figured it out what was going on.

It turns out prostitutes are under represented in nearly all surveys. Most surveys were done with phone calls during the evening hours. The evening is during the working hours of the "ladies of the night" and hence they are under represented. A simple example will demonstrate why the numbers above, interpreted as a mean, must be bogus and the prostitute answer explains how it could happen.

Suppose there are 100 men and 100 women in a given closed population. Each of the men pair up with one women. But one woman, wanting a little something extra, has sex with not only her partner but the other 99 men as well. The true mean number of partners for the men is (99x2 + 1x1)/100 => 1.99. The true mean number of partners for the women is (99x1 + 1x100)/100 => 1.99. Yet if you did a sample of 20 men and women with a bias against surveying women who were likely to have large numbers of partners then you would probably end up with numbers of 2.0 and 1.0. In any example of heterosexual sex pairings you can come up with in this population the mean number of different partners for men must equal the mean number of partners for the women.

If you read far enough into Schneier's essay I quoted yesterday you would have found this:

Subjects were divided into two groups. One group was given the choice of these two alternatives:

• Alternative A: A sure gain of $500.
• Alternative B: A 50% chance of gaining $1,000.

The other group was given the choice of:

• Alternative C: A sure loss of $500.
• Alternative D: A 50% chance of losing $1,000.

These two trade-offs aren't the same, but they're very similar. And traditional economics predicts that the difference doesn't make a difference.

...

But experimental results contradict this. When faced with a gain, most people (84%) chose Alternative A (the sure gain) of $500 over Alternative B (the risky gain). But when faced with a loss, most people (70%) chose Alternative D (the risky loss) over Alternative C (the sure loss).

Interesting. But even before I read the results I felt myself drawn to alternatives A and D even though I knew it was illogical. And today I got real world confirmation of this phenomena in a very similar "test" of the felons at Battelle/PNNL when I got a look at their response to our second interrogatory. They had a choice. They could answer our questions which almost for certain would result in their losing the case and perhaps ultimately leading to felony convictions or they could refuse to answer the question and risk discovery abuse as well as losing the case and risking the felony convictions. But by refusing answer the questions they have a chance of escaping entirely. I don't think they will escape and actually I'm pleased they made the choice they did. It increases the total penalties that I may be able to inflict upon them and removes all guilt I might have for making things difficult on the innocents at the lab. But I have to hand it to them, they have a lot of chutzpah.

One of the requests we made was for an email the proves one of the projects I briefly mentioned on my blog only had a very small portion (which I did not mention) of data that was restricted. The rest of the project was completely open and this email said it was acceptable that I publish papers on it as well as file for a patent and license the technology to a university. This blog posting of mine was used as evidence against me when they were discussing my possible termination. The email would have proved there was nothing wrong with me posting that information on my blog. In response to our request for that email they responded with:

Object: This request is beyond the scope of permissible discovery and not calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence.

Another request of ours was "Please produce a copy of the email containing a link to the web page http://www.joehuffman.org/Freedom/ScreeningFails.htm which was clicked on by Una Carriera on Friday May 6, 2005 at 18:34:07 GMT." We believe this email (and others we requested) would show they were interested in my gun rights activism.

Their response:

Object: This request is beyond the scope of permissible discovery and not calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence. Furthermore, this request requests information that is unduly burdensome to produce.

This type of answer was a favorite of theirs and they used it for almost every response. They refused to give us "comparators" for how they did or did not discipline others that had "adult content" on their computers or people who let non employees use a company laptop (the one thing I did do wrong) for a few hours.

Basically I only obtained two new pieces of evidence out of 16 new interrogatory questions and 12 new requests for production. Those bits of information were SPEEDY was Marty Peterson and PUCK (the main investigator of the websites) was Cullen Tollbom.

I felt no qualms whatsoever when I clicked the button that yielded this:

And I didn't feel any qualms when I did that repeatedly. I was hoping to avoid causing certain innocent people to do extra work. But they have had over two years to find new jobs or push out the felons from the inside. I now regard them as part of the problem. This quote comes to mind:

The only thing needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

Edmond Burke

I'm doing something. The people inside the lab could be doing something too but to the best of my knowledge they have not and are not. You can do something as well. Make a donation to my legal fund by clicking on the button near the top of this page.

Then why are we going?

Xenia Huffman-Scott
June 23, 2007
When informed that our vacation location did not have cell phone service or an Internet connection.

The reality of security is mathematical, based on the probability of different risks and the effectiveness of different countermeasures. We can calculate how secure your home is from burglary, based on such factors as the crime rate in the neighborhood you live in and your door-locking habits. We can calculate how likely it is for you to be murdered, either on the streets by a stranger or in your home by a family member. Or how likely you are to be the victim of identity theft. Given a large enough set of statistics on criminal acts, it's not even hard; insurance companies do it all the time.

We can also calculate how much more secure a burglar alarm will make your home, or how well a credit freeze will protect you from identity theft. Again, given enough data, it's easy.

But security is also a feeling, based not on probabilities and mathematical calculations, but on your psychological reactions to both risks and countermeasures. You might feel terribly afraid of terrorism, or you might feel like it's not something worth worrying about. You might feel safer when you see people taking their shoes off at airport metal detectors, or you might not. You might feel that you're at high risk of burglary, medium risk of murder, and low risk of identity theft. And your neighbor, in the exact same situation, might feel that he's at high risk of identity theft, medium risk of burglary, and low risk of murder.

Or, more generally, you can be secure even though you don't feel secure. And you can feel secure even though you're not. The feeling and reality of security are certainly related to each other, but they're just as certainly not the same as each other. We'd probably be better off if we had two different words for them.

Bruce Schneier
February 28, 2007
The Psychology of Security
[In a large part this is the battle gun rights activists are fighting. The probabilities are on our side and to a large extent the anti-gun bigots have a lock on the feelings. As you read the essay you realize why it's so important to make guns familar and common. Part of Boomershoot is making the public comfortable with guns and thus help people reduce their negative feelings towards firearms. Do your part and come out of the closet as a gun owner.--Joe]

There are people that want to ban sex toys in India:

Saying that the sale of sex toys in India would have "severe consequences in society", a Madhya Pradesh minister has urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to convene an all-party meeting to discuss the issue.

Even as a condom with a vibrating ring continues to stir controversy in the state, Public Works Department (PWD) Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya urged in a letter to Manmohan Singh that the import and sale of products like sex toys be banned.

"The Madhya Pradesh government stresses yoga shiksha (yoga education) instead of the centre's yon shiksha (sex education). There is an urgent need to rise above party lines in this matter," Vijayvargiya said.

About six months ago, HLL started to sell Crezendo - a three-condom pack with a vibrating ring - at a price of Rs.125. The Madhya Pradesh government is contemplating a ban on its sale in the state if Crezendo is proved to be a sex toy.

...

"The sale of such toys will lead to severe consequences in society. And they should be banned. But the union government is turning a Nelson's eye despite such sale taking place openly in the national capital," according to Vijayvargiya.

And it was from India we have one of the oldest books written on sex--the Kama Sutra.

I got some email from the "Gun Guy" today. I guess this bigot has never heard of the concept of prior restraint. But of course that isn't surprising since he apparently hasn't gotten the word the Second Amendment as well as most state constitutions guarantee the people the right to keep and bear arms.

Here is the scary stuff:

Many of our current gun laws have loopholes and vary from state to state. So, even if we locked up all the criminals, all we'd end up with is... more criminals. Most criminals don't commit crimes based on some inner, unavoidable evil inside of them. They commit crimes when given the opportunity to do so. Get rid of that opportunity, and you get rid of the crime completely.

So enforcement alone won't do it. But prevention will. Prevention in the form of comprehensive and effective gun laws -- laws that keep guns from ever reaching the hands of criminals in the first place -- will make a difference. Laws that keep weapons that do not belong in civilian hands, such as high powered rifles, will make a difference. And, laws that keep firearms out of the places they shouldn't be, and that stop crime even before it starts, will also make a difference.

That's how you stop crime. What the NRA misses when it asks for enforcement only is that enforcing the law doesn't actually prevent it. You can't arrest someone until after they've committed a crime, so if all you do is arrest criminals, you're still seeing the crimes happen.

We need to remove opportunities for crime? Yeah, right. Does that mean to prevent rape we should castrate all the men? How about sewing all vagina shut so women can't engage in prostitution? Or removing eyes so people can't engage in voyeurism? And to prove I'm not stuck on sex crimes, we can prevent fights by shackling the hands and feet of everyone. We can prevent drunk driving and public drunkenness by banning alcohol. Slander can be prevented by removing people's vocal cords. Libel can be prevented by banning publication of, well, everything. And while we are at it we can prevent theft by abolishing private property.

This isn't the first time this anti-freedom bigot has pushed this particular hot-button of mine.

The bottom line is you cannot prevent crime without going down a very dangerous path.

Still more bigots that fire people with guns. Via Uncle.

After getting the suggestion from Ry I have been exploring the possibility of doing a 1000 yard Boomershoot.

I did a few calculations with Modern Ballistics last night to see what would happen if people just overshot the target area. My cousin's house is a mile away and pretty close to directly behind the proposed target area. The house is out of sight and I suspected the shots would over shoot the house and land in the fields behind his house. It turns out the answer depends on the caliber being shot:

• A 7.62 x 39 (yeah right!) bullet would land in the field several hundred yards in front of the house.
• A .50 BMG bullet would overshoot the house by a few feet.
• A .300 Win Mag shooting Blackhills Match ammo with a 15 MPH wind from the West would put a bullet through his living room window.

I haven't checked with my cousin yet but I suspect the safety margins are not acceptable.

It is very unlikely there be 1000 yard shooting at Boomershoot 2008. I need to find a different location before that becomes a reality.

I've always liked the kind of guys who'll get me shot.

Marilyn the Patriot Matchmaker
Originally from http://www.westword.com/1996/112896/news1.html as of January 22, 1999
Currently this link is valid: http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.PrintableArticle?article_id=2988

Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which have been brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government.

Henry David Thoreau
(1817-62), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist.
Letter, 31 July 1849, to Ellen Emerson (then 10 years old), eldest child of Ralph Waldo Emerson (published in The Correspondence of Henry David Thoreau, 1958).

This is one of the best short essays I've seen.  Apparently its been reposted under other names, but Marko is the author.  Here's a sample:

A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the state has granted him a force monopoly.

Hat tip to Say Uncle for bringing to my attention.

Democracy is a form of government that substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.

G. B. Shaw

Unfortunately, an almost perfect inverse correlation exists between those who are affected by gun laws, particularly bans, and those whom enforcement should affect. Those easiest to disarm are the responsible and law abiding citizens whose guns represent no meaningful social problem. Irresponsible and criminal owners, whose gun possession creates or exacerbates so many social ills, are the ones most difficult to disarm.

Don Kates
GUNS AND PUBLIC HEALTH: EPIDEMIC OF VIOLENCE OR PANDEMIC OF PROPAGANDA?

This weekend was pretty much consumed with prep for Boomershoot 2008 (and beyond). As an aside, it's nearly 90% full now. Those last eight empty positions could disappear in a single day so sign up soon or wait until 2009.

Friday morning I received two and a half tons of ammonium nitrate (BTW, Sebastian says Xenia is "smoking hot" in that picture). Saturday I took the first two loads out to the Taj Mahal. Here is the start of what it looked like as I packed the shed higher and tighter than it has ever been with chemicals:

Xenia came along on with me with the second load and repackaged some of the old stuff so I could store it more compactly. I needed every cubic foot of space I could get. My calculations indicated it should fit if I played this game of Tetris just right.

Saturday I also tried "drilling" (auguring actually) a well near the Taj. I want a plentiful water supply for cleaning up the mixing equipment, first-aid, and the first line of defense against a small fire. The second line of defense against a small fire and the first line of defense against a medium or larger fire is RUN!!!

The ground is already so dry that even in going down three feet in the bottom of the creek bed near the Taj yielded a dry hole. Here you see me working on what ended up being a five foot deep dry hole before I ran into a hard-pan that essentially halted my progress. I'm not sure what my next effort along these lines will be. I know there will be water there at Boomershoot time but if I could get water this time of year by going down 15 feet with a backhoe I would do that. I'll have to think about it some more.

Today I went back with load three of the ammonium nitrate and confirmed that I have just enough room for all of it.

I also worked on the Internet connection at the Taj and reworked some electrical stuff. The Boomershoot2 WiFi site would take many minutes to connect with Boomershoot1 and then would drop off frequently. I raised the antenna about four or five feet and now it connects in less than a minute and appears to stay connected. I connected the grounding wire to the metal shed and improved the ground connection to the 120 VAC system and the WiFi antenna.

I started work on getting a proper power supply to the WiFi "Range Extender" but discovered the gadget I bought at Fry's in Renton, 350 miles away, was broken. It only worked if I pushed on a slide switch really hard. It took a while to discover what was wrong and still more effort to figure out how to jury-rig it to work temporarily (a tie-wrap cinched down really tight did the job). I ran out of time so I'll have to finish that last little wiring job the next time I go out there.

Sandy Froman delivers part 2 of the history of gun control.

Our nation and much of the developed world, thanks to digital technologies, is moving quickly toward a universal background database. Eventually, experts say, you'll need your thumbprint (or similar) to ride an elevator, board transit, buy groceries (or anything), open accounts, get fuel or use your computer online. The most free places on earth will be the most primitive, like Africa, where human activity will remain largely untrackable.

Alan Korwin
New Gun Control Law to Monitor Entire Population in Central Database
[It's very interesting to me that the people that scream the loudest, "Bush is Hitler", overlook the dark side of the gun control laws they endorse. Korwin has great insight down this dim corridor.--Joe]

It's kind of bizarre to think that we have a "choice between coercion and choice" which is an oxymoron, but technically we do have it:

In a just world, we would never need to waste a minute discussing this, except with our young children, or in elementary school history classes, but see if you can guess which will outperform; a Soviet-style, government-run monopoly or a free market (our current public school system or school choice)?

Walter E. Williams of course nails it as usual.  The video, done by Stossel and 20/20, is excellent also.  I especially liked the "rubber room" concept they have in New York, as it upholds everything I've ever said about our socialist education system (I do have to hand it to them as I’ve often said we’d be better off paying certain public workers to stay away from the job, and here we find that they’re doing exactly that).

Our current system really is anti-American, anti-choice, and anti-success, and it needs to be scrapped as soon as possible.  The best teachers and administrators will form their own, better schools virtually overnight.  The worst ones?  They can always pick fruit for a living.

I don't blame the Sheriff's office or FBI for this--some criminal is responsible. But I don't want to hear anyone whining about only the government should be allowed to possess certain things when the government can be stolen from as well as private citizens or businesses. The following news release is dated June 13^th:

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the FBI and the St. Charles County Sheriff’s Department announced today a joint reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the theft of explosives from an explosives storage bunker at the St. Charles County Sheriff’s Department training center.

An FBI agent discovered the theft at the center, located at 1835 Highway 94, yesterday. The magazine was utilized by the St. Charles County Sheriff’s Department and the FBI’s St. Louis office.

Investigators from ATF, St. Charles County Sheriff’s Department and the FBI responded to the scene immediately, and determined that commercially manufactured high and low explosives were stolen. The types include C-4, dynamite, cast boosters, safety fuse and detonating cord. Not all items in the magazine were taken. The follow-up investigation has determined the theft occurred within the last 10 days. Leads are being followed up as the investigation continues.

Also, someone should get their wrist slapped because the theft should have been discovered in seven days or less:

§ 55.204 Inspection of magazines.
Any person storing explosive materials shall inspect his magazines at least every seven days. This inspection need not be an inventory, but must be sufficient to determine whether there has been unauthorized entry or attempted entry into the magazines, or unauthorized removal of the contents of the magazines.
[T.D. ATF-87, 46 FR 40384, Aug. 7, 1981]