Monthly Archives: December 2006

Making and publishing lists of gun owners

Posted on by

I’m far from the first on this topic but no one I have read has pointed out what comes immediately to mind when I see this sort of thing:

That said, I understand that this will not be well-received everywhere. Some folks complained loudly in the past when, as a matter of routine, this newspaper published the names of those granted permits in Minnehaha County – and likely they will complain loudly now, arguing that it is none of our business whether they have a license to carry a gun.

Some will invoke the Second Amendment, which only protects their right to have guns.

Wrong. The Constitution does not give people the right to own guns. It guarantees that preexisting right will not be infringed (see An Individual Right and search for Cruikshank).

People also have the right to marry someone of a different race–even if it isn’t guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. Should those people be registered? Does the public have the right to know who is in an interracial marriage?

The registration and publication of gun owners and their guns only serves one purpose and that is harassment and discrimination. Bigotry is an ugly thing no matter who is practicing it.

Update: My exact same comments also apply to this article.

Honeymoons and Just One Question

Posted on by

One of my favorite Boomershoot stories is that Paul and Tammy celebrated their honeymoon by attending Boomershoot 2001. As popular as Boomershoot is it just doesn’t draw that many honeymooners. But as rare as that is I suspect that a Honeymoon in Iraq is even more rare. In addition to the admiration I have for them performing dangerous work to help secure world peace and stability I’m honored for Chris to claim he reads my blog almost every day and he made a very favorable post about my Just One Question.

Thank you Chris and Desert Lizard. Please make it back safely.

Human smell

Posted on by

One of the most interesting, after the ant experiments and the safe cracking, parts of Richard Feynman’s book Surely You’re Joking Mr. Feynman! was his experiments with smell. While he was out of the room he would have a group of people pick a book from a shelf, handle it briefly then replace it on the shelf. He would then come back into the room and identify which books were handled and by which person. He said it was surprisingly easy.

Feynman’s experiments are entirely consistent with these which extend human smell to tracking.

Handles

Posted on by

Ry says they don’t have handles and gives this page as reference. However informative and useful the reference I beg to differ with the claim they don’t have handles. Even most Manx have a little something that can be used as the rear handle and the scruff of the neck works well for the second handle. This presumes of course you have heavy leather gloves to prevent the slitting of the wrist of the hand utilizing this handle.

I have successfully accomplished the task with only minor wounds and scars that, after 15 years, only barely show. The biggest problems were the two girls, ages four and six I think, that were climbing on my back and screaming, “Daddy’s trying to drown the kitty!!” Once Barb dragged them off of me things went pretty smooth–all things considered.

Quote of the day–Mohandas K. Gandhi

Posted on by

I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and Non-violence are as old as the hills.  All I have done is to try experiments in both on as vast a scale as I could.

Mohandas K. Gandhi
(1869-1948), Indian political and spiritual leader.
Harijan (28 March 1936).
[This is something for gun owners anxious to “push the reset button” to remember. We have truth on our side and for now we have non-violence. Once the non-violence threshold has been breached many of the terrible things they say about us will become true. That is to not to say there isn’t a valid time and place to use violence. It’s just that we must be very careful to have sufficient moral justification for using violence.–Joe]

Taking power to Seattle

Posted on by

The power is on for both James and I where we work so we need to be back at work tomorrow. James has power at his apartment but I don’t have any at my place so I’m taking my 3500W generator. I should be able to get the gas furnance working and if not my roommates and I can continue to burn wood in the fireplaces. The generator should keep the refrigerators and the computers up. Candles and kerosene lamps for lights and we will be comfortable. We should also be able to run the washing machine if we shut down some of the other stuff to wash clothes. The water heater is gas and hasn’t been affected by the power outage.

We head out in a few minutes and hope to get over Snoqualmie Pass before it snows too much.

Quote of the day–George H. Smith

Posted on by

Cases of persecution similar to Galileo’s (which are also found in Protestantism) are a significant indicator of the extent to which Christians themselves have been aware of the conflict between reason and faith.  The issue is not whether Galileo was right or wrong.  The issue is:  Why has Christianity found it necessary and desirable to suppress free inquiry with the threat of force?  If reason will only lend support to the dogmas of religion, why have those countries with a strong Church-State alliance displayed such an eagerness to enforce religious dogmas and eliminate dissent through the power of the State?  Why has Christianity refused, whenever possible, to allow its beliefs to compete in a free marketplace of ideas?  The answer is obvious – and revealing.  Christianity is peddling an inferior product, one that cannot withstand critical investigation.  Unable to compete favorably with other theories, it has sought to gain a monopoly through a state franchise, which means: through the use of force.

George H. Smith
From Atheism the Case Against God
[This same argument can be used to even greater effect with Islamic extremists. They have been “converting by the sword” for centuries. Frequently murdering everyone in an entire town. I’m listening to Hatred’s Kingdom: How Saudi Arabia Supports the New Global Terrorism and the picture it paints about the history of Islam is worse than I thought it was. Which was already extraordinarily negative.–Joe]

Sex and taxes

Posted on by

Now they are taxing sex. It’s an extension of the “pleasure tax”:

The sex levy is part of the “pleasure tax,” which originally placed a duty on casinos and arcades and was later extended to include brothels, massage parlors and table-dancing clubs.

Okay. So it’s only on the business sex. But they also pay other taxes:

The city’s finance department was not able to say how many prostitutes worked in the city as individual tax numbers could be registered to entire brothels. Prostitution is legal in Germany, where sex workers also have to pay income and value-added taxes.

Value-added tax? I”m going to have to think about that one for a while…

Posted in Sex

More boom in the boomers

Posted on by

The last couple years we have been using cardboard boxes for the targets. The Boomerite (also known as “Joe’s Special Recipe”) is put in zip lock bags and then put in the boxes. The zip lock bags for the 7 1/8″ x 7 1/8″ x 1 3/8″ targets have been, when flat, 8″ x 8″. When filled with Boomerite they are no longer 8″ x 8″. When put in the cardboard boxes they leave a gap of about a half inch all the way around the edge. This year I purchased 1000 of the next size larger zip lock bags 9″ x 12″. This will allow us to completely fill what we call “the seven inchers” and result in slightly bigger booms.

Also for the last couple of years we had “six inchers”. Boxes which were slightly smaller than the seven inchers but held almost as much Boomerite. To simply purchasing, inventory, etc. I decided to not have any six inchers this year. Where we used six inchers in the past we would use seven inchers. No one should have a problem with that. The bigger targets will be easier to hit and have bigger booms.

So far, so good, no big deal. I wasn’t even going to mention the above but then when I took the newly purchased boxes and the zip lock bags out to the Taj Mahal today I noticed something about the “four inchers”. I ordered, and received, boxes that were 4″ x 4″ x 3″. Previously we had used 4″ x 4″ x 2″. I had pressed the wrong button on the online order form. Here is the difference between the boxes:

I just tested out one of the zip lock bags we have for these and confirmed that the four inchers will have about 50% more Boomerite than last year. And since I bought 1000 of these boxes we will have some left over for next year as well.

Oh well. It wasn’t what I planned but I don’t think there will be any complaints.

In other news I was able to drive the van over the culvert I put in last September. There was quite a bit of water flowing but all the dirt appeared to be in place and grass is growing. Unless there is some really unusual weather next spring I don’t think there will be any problems with it.

One last thing. After leaving the Taj I went to my parents place for lunch. When I walked into the shop to chat with my brother and Dad my brother was on the phone trying to help Dean Gimstead with his new computer. Dean brings the “roach coach” that provides breakfast and lunch to Boomershooters. I ended up doing the computer support and then let Dean know the exact dates for Boomershoot 2007. I just need to order the Port-a-Potties and all the major issues will be taken care of until just a few days before the event.

Pictures from the Seattle area

Posted on by

See also the Seattle Times article here. These were all taken on Friday December 15 between 8:30 and 12:00. I took the first one and James took the rest.


Typical residental street


Near Redmond on Highway 202 on our way out of town


Near Redmond on Highway 202 on our way out of town


Notice the power line is down on the left as well as half of highway 202 is blocked

Quote of the day–Dr. Harrison H. Schmidt

Posted on by

What does it take for Americans to do great things; to go to the moon, to win wars, to dig canals linking oceans, to build railroads across a continent? In independent thought about this question, Neil Armstrong and I concluded that it takes a coincidence of four conditions, or in Neil’s view, the simultaneous peaking of four of the many cycles of American life. First, a base of technology must exist from which to do the thing to be done. Second, a period of national uneasiness about America’s place in the scheme of human activities must exist. Third, some catalytic event must occur that focuses the national attention upon the direction to proceed. Finally, an articulate and wise leader must sense these first three conditions and put forth with words and action the great thing to be accomplished. The motivation of young Americans to do what needs to be done flows from such a coincidence of conditions…. The Thomas Jeffersons, The Teddy Roosevelts, The John Kennedys appear. We must begin to create the tools of leadership which they, and their young frontiersmen, will require to lead us onward and upward.

Dr. Harrison H. Schmidt
Sen., New Mexico
[To win wars? Hmmm… If Schmidt is right what are we missing?–Joe]

No! (to being in Seattle without electricity)

Posted on by

The power flickered many times with the first record in my uninterruptable power supply logs at about 17:00 yesterday. There were numerous 10 and 20 second outages until it went out for the night about 22:30. For James it was very early this morning. Work was closed and although I could have kept our computers up it just wasn’t worth the effort. We drove back to Idaho today to wait for the power to be restored to the Seattle area.

The snow on the pass and all the way to just a few miles west of Vantage wasn’t bad but it was coming down pretty good so we were glad to make it across when we did. The worst part was making it through all the traffic on the Eastside of Lake Washington. With no power all the traffic lights were 4-way stops.

Ry reports in and is doing fine.

Phil at Random Nuclear Strikes hasn’t said anything but I’m sure he is doing well unless he suffered a direct hit from a tree.

Mr. Completely has several reports and seems to be doing well:

James and I took a few pictures and I’ll put something up later. I need to make supper before Barb gets home from work.

Quote of the day–Jeff Cooper

Posted on by

During our recent motor touring, we noticed on several occasions the road sign “Gusty winds may exist.” Now I find that pretty fascinating. The notice that gusty winds may exist suggests some thought be given to the relationship of reality to existence. Whether such winds may or may not exist opens the door to questions about what constitutes existence. Descartes declaimed, Cogito ergo sum (I think: therefore I am). Whether winds may or may not really and truly exist calls for serious thought. I almost ran off the road considering this matter.

Jeff Cooper
From Jeff Cooper’s Commentaries
[Gusty winds do exist. Seattle without power is proof of that.–Joe]

No warm and fuzzys for me

Posted on by

Via Tam I read more about the wanna be truck driver I mentioned yesterday. Barb and I talked about it some tonight. This guy is really stupid:

Mohammed Yusef Mullawala wanted a license to transport hazardous materials and to learn how to drive commercial tractor trailers. There was nothing unusual about that, until he told his teacher that he only wanted to learn how to drive forward, and he wanted to learn fast.

…

Crawford said Mullawala came to the school with a Rhode Island driver’s license inquiring how to obtain a commercial driver’s license within a month. It normally takes around eight weeks for a student to go through all of the required courses before he or she obtains a permit, she said.

“We’ve been doing this for quite a long time and a lot of things just didn’t add up,” Crawford said.

Crawford started documenting suspicious activity: Mullawala lived in New York City but traveled to Rhode Island for the driving classes; he missed his first day of classes; and he was very insistent on getting his hazardous material transport license.

But the fact that he only seemed interested in driving forward was the most concerning.

“We tell them from Day One, ‘you will be backing up,’ ‘you’ll be backing up every single day,'” Crawford said, adding that it normally takes two to three weeks of practice backing up before drivers get road permits and learn how to drive forward, among other things.

…

After Mullawala took two classes, Crawford contacted Highway Watch, which had conducted an anti-terrorism and safety program at her school.

Two classes. That’s all it took for him to totally blow his cover.

So why don’t I get a warm and fuzzy feeling that this guy is pegged and probably getting a one-way ticket to the far side of the world? Because it seems all the potential terrorists we catch are incredibly stupid. I’m not so arrogant to believe that the average law enforcement people we have working on these sort of cases has 50 I.Q. points over the best and brightest of our enemy. I can only think of two reasons for what I see in the news.

  1. Only the dumbest get caught. The smart ones are working on something big, keeping a low profile and haven’t been noticed by our law enforcement.
  2. We are nabbing brighter guys but we aren’t publicizing it. The law enforcement types don’t want the brighter guys to know how we are catching them so they only report the most stupid of the bad guys. The others quietly disappear in the middle of the night and get free plane trips to Club Gitmo, Turkey, or Pakistan for further questioning by professionals.

I’m hoping it is either number 2. or there is a third reason I haven’t thought of or didn’t consider viable.

Must be a Google alert

Posted on by

Last night I posted about a letter I received from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This morning they came visiting:

Domain Name   usda.gov ? (United States Government)
IP Address   199.156.60.# (USDA Office of Operations)
ISP   USDA Office of Operations
Location  
Continent  :  North America
Country  :  United States  (Facts)
State  :  Colorado
City  :  Fort Collins
Lat/Long  :  40.524, -105.1396 (Map)
Distance  :  730 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; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)
Javascript   version 1.3
Monitor  

Resolution  :  1024 x 768
Color Depth  :  32 bits

Time of Visit   Dec 14 2006 8:37:30 am
Last Page View   Dec 14 2006 8:37:30 am
Visit Length   0 seconds
Page Views   1
Referring URL
Visit Entry Page   http://blog.joehuffm…1d-6c7a83021e29.aspx
Visit Exit Page   http://blog.joehuffm…1d-6c7a83021e29.aspx
Out Click    
Time Zone   UTC-8:00
Visitor’s Time   Dec 14 2006 8:37:30 am
Visit Number   120,426

Constantly choosing the wrong metric

Posted on by

The anti-gun bigots are at it again. They are claiming victory when they fudge the numbers:

Gun-control measures that Australia adopted after the 1996 Port Arthur massacre have eliminated mass killings and halved the number of suicides and deaths from firearms, according to a new study.

There have been no mass killings since the passage of the first measure just after the massacre, researchers led by Simon Chapman at the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney said in the study, published in the December issue of Injury Prevention. In contrast, there were 13 such killings in the 18 years prior. The study covered 1979 to 2003.

“Removing large numbers of rapid-firing firearms from civilians may be an effective way of reducing mass shootings, firearm homicides and firearm suicides,” the authors said.

…

The laws also doubled the pace at which firearm deaths were declining, they said. Gun deaths had been falling by 3 percent a year, and the rate rose to 6 percent after the new rules, the study found. The average number of people killed each month dropped to 332.6 from 627.7, it said. Suicides make up about four out of five firearms deaths; the remainder are either homicides or unintentional deaths.

And what’s your point? Why should anyone care? This totally ignores the possibility of any benefit that might have resulted from people being allowed to own those firearms that were taken from them. The total murder rate and the total violent crime rate are what is important. A reduction in the number of crimes committed with firearms is, by itself, meaningless. You could reduce the number of murders committed with baseball bats by banning the sport and the bats but it’s not going to reduce the total murder rate.

They can’t win being honest with the numbers so they have to cheat. But what can you expect from people that have mental problems?

This is what happens in places without guns–Case XIX

Posted on by

From the U.K. where, if the government hadn’t implemented a Criminal Occupational Safety Act, an “equalizer” from Samuel Colt, John Moses Browning, or Smith & Wesson would make this sort of thing too hazardous of a hobby to partake in this frequently in the same small geographical area and small population:

There are growing concerns tonight that police are drawing a blank in the hunt for the Suffolk Strangler.

Officers from the Suffolk force – one of the smallest in the country – have been “overwhelmed” by the discovery of five bodies in 10 days.

…

One source said: “Even a larger force would have a problem resourcing at this stage. It is six weeks since the first prostitute went missing – and police admit it is a race against time before the killer strikes again.”

Detective Chief Superintendent Stewart Gull, who is leading the manhunt, went on television to say the serial killer is “out of control”. He has murdered five women in six weeks, an unprecedented rate in British criminal history.

Some of the prostitutes in Ipswich’s red-light area have given police names of their customers and detectives are trying to compile a complete list.

…

The numbers of sex workers in the area is said to be about 40, but the hardcore is about 15 – five of whom are now dead.

Cameron Diaz has subscribed to Dr. Joe’s cure

Posted on by

I’ve been saying it for over 30 years and now celebrities are endorsing it:

Hollywood beauty Cameron Diaz thinks that sex is the remedy for all the world’s ills.

The actress, who is dating pop singer Justin Timberlake finds lovemaking so therapeutic she believes it could be used as a cure for practically everything.

“Sex is the most amazing stress reliever. I actually think it’s the best thing for everything! I think it should be 100 per cent part of everyone’s life on a day-to-day basis. We’d all be a lot happier!” she was quoted by Hollywood Ragaas as saying.

Posted in Sex

Finalizing a plan

Posted on by

Barb and I own a little bit of farm land and because of various government programs intended to help farmers (yes stuff related to the subsidies, but also “helpful” stuff mandated by the environmentalists) we get mailings from the Federal government every once in a while. The one I got the other day made me laugh. It must have tickled my sick humor funny bone. This one is from the United States Department of Agriculture. FSA stands for Farm Service Agency:

Dear Clearwater County Producer:

The Idaho State FSA Office has been instructed to devise a plan for closing offices in Idaho. In keeping with that directive, a Committee was formed last spring to identify and prioritize the offices with the State that could be considered for closure. Now six months later, after extensive debates, discussions and arguments, the proposal is out — Clearwater County tops the list as the first office in Idaho to close should that become a requirement.

It is important to note that no directives have been issued to actually close offices at this time. The Agency is simply looking forward, and in an attempt to be ready should future budge restrictions force the issue the office closure plan would be ready for implementation. It is also important that you know that the entire process will take approximately two years to complete. After the plan is finalized in Idaho, it is submitted to the National Office for approval, then on to Congressional Representatives for review, and finally back to the local community for comment. All in all, it can take as long as two years for a plan to be finalized.

[… blah, blah, blah…]

Two years just to come up with a plan??? How long to actually close the office? A decade if they really work at it? If it were a private business wanting to close an office the size of that one the plan would take a couple weeks and by the end of the next month new renters would be occupying the office space.

There are very, very few things government can do well. Examples abound from the airport security issues to prohibition (alcohol as well as modern day recreational drugs) to gun bans. Government is colossally incompetent at nearly anything they do. My favorite example is that for 70 years the USSR tried to increase food production in their country. During essentially those same 70 years the U.S. government tried to decrease food production in the U.S. Both governments failed.