For once I can actually thank the Gun Guys for doing something useful. They pointed me at this video. Nice. Thanks Gun Guys.
Of course they call it ridiculous. But hey, what do you expect from him?
I still have the sneaking suspicion this guy is working for our side and collecting money from the bad guys. Nice gig if you can get it and aren’t encumbered by little things like morals and principles.
Reader Rob pointed these out to me.
Setting aside the ones that appeal to my sick sense of humor and the one that would piss off my vegetarian daughter I think the pro-choice one is my favorite.
It’s just ludicrous to allow guns in schools under any circumstances. There are regular common-sense gun owners who overwhelmingly want the local school board to at least be able to make their own decision on this at the local level. Most of the parents I talked to had no idea, and they were horrified when they found out it was possible to bring a gun to school. . . . Johnny’s parents don’t want his first-grade teachers packing heat.
Ginny Burdick
Oregon State Senator
D-Portland
September 11, 2007
Teacher demands to carry gun in school
[Oh really? ANY circumstances? How about when some nut case or (redundancy alert) religious fanatic is shooting up the school? Should the cops leave their guns at the station when they come out to put a stop to it? If no, then why shouldn’t the teachers put a stop to it even sooner? And how about this teacher who has a nut case ex-husband? If she is a teacher then she doesn’t deserve to be able to defend herself? And it’s particularly noteworthy that she appeals to “common-sense”–because there is no factual data to support her conclusions. If she lived in the deep south 40 years ago she would be appealing to the “common-sense” laws prohibiting blacks to use the same water fountain with whites. It’s typical that she claims she is an advocate for “gun safety legislation”. I’ll bet she has never taught or even attended a gun safety class yet wants to legislate on the issue. In conclusion, not everyone is a bigot or has mental problems like Ms. Burdick. Some people want teachers to be able to protect themselves and their students. That is the real “common-sense” which should be adhered to.–Joe]
People need to start talking about it in the open and France is actually doing it. Good for them.
I sort of ran out of snark for these sort of things and they have just sat around in my Inbox “forever”. Some I would have turned over to law enforcement but it has been so rare that I have received even an acknowledgment of receipt from them that I got discouraged. If they don’t care then I guess I don’t much care either.
But maybe you will get some amusement out of them:
From: Pgleon@
Sent: Wednesday, June 28, 2006 3:29 PM
To: JoeH
Subject: DA BOMBhey joe i was wounderin how 2 make a bomb could u plz tell i at least wana blow a little hole in a wall or somin blow a hole in da floor i meen grass like a golf hole but a bit wider and deeper could u plz send me instruction but i avent got much 2 spend on it and i live in the uk. send this 2 gesty@ thx dude
From: Jordan
Sent: Wednesday, July 05, 2006 6:59 PM
To: JoeH
Subject: bombi was wondering if me and a friend put black powder in a concled place with a wick would it explode and how big. Well anyways can you give us directions on a big bomb blow a few feet into the ground?
Jordan
From: yunus
Sent: Thursday, July 06, 2006 12:14 AM
To: JoeH
Subject:hiii
c
i trying to some kind a loud bomb for a trick but i cant be there and so i
need also a timer but i have no idea so i hope you will help mewhatting your answer
please_________________________________________________________________
En etkili ve güvenilir PC Korumayi tercih edin, rahat edin!
http://www.msn.com.tr/security/
From: René
Sent: Sunday, July 16, 2006 10:30 AM
To: JoeH
Subject: Can u help mee?I want to Build a Big Bomb with a big boom… It can be expensive but easy to get the stuff to it…..
Nothing else matters
From: SCOTT
Sent: Tuesday, July 25, 2006 1:48 AM
To: JoeH
Subject: HOW TO EXPLOSIVESHello Mr. Huffman,
I would like some info on how to build a bomb, something with the power of about 2 sticks of dynamite. I might like to try and put a hole in a cement wall or something to that affect.
Thanks!
Scott
From: mark
Sent: Saturday, August 12, 2006 10:54 AM
To: JoeH
Subject: help meDear Joeh;
I have an enemy in my neighborhood who’s always trying to get me arrested. She hates me and tries to hurt me in anyway she can. Well, I want to teach her a lesson once and for all. Help me build something that can be thrown through her window and severely hurt that bitch. Remember it can’t be to heavy because I have to be able to throw it.
sincerely,
troubled housewife
From: ASHTRAYASHTRAY13
Sent: Wednesday, August 30, 2006 12:59 PM
To: JoeH
Subject: basic bombhi,
i was wondering how to make a small basic bomb with simple and easy available ingridients. i would be very grateful if you could possibly tell me ??
regards,
Ash
From: Mirjana
Sent: Monday, September 04, 2006 5:29 AM
To: JoeH
Subject: Homemade bombCan you tell me how to make a bomb that can make a hole in the ground (about 20 cm). Not too strong so i have to run like half a mile, and not that it explodes in 5 sec… I don’t have many materials avalible, just stuff that you can find in every home. I know how to make one bomb… but i need some weird acid so i can easily get hurt.
If you don’t reply me, thanks anyway…
From: louis
Sent: Thursday, December 07, 2006 6:04 PM
To: JoeH
Subject: u are a faggot and u cant catch me bitch hahahahahaha!!!!!!HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!y dont u leave the 15 year old texan alone, dont u have something better 2
do! try and track me ass hole wow u have my e-mail big deal, i am 15 as well
and im guna make a bomb, throw it into a hotel swimmig pool
From: extinct02ws6
Sent: Sunday, January 28, 2007 11:12 AM
To: JoeH
Subject: Just CuriousHey. I was wondering how to build 2 types of bombs. the first, small, how to build a hand grenade. and second, larger, how to blow up a car. fused or timed. doesn’t really matter. thanks!
tommy
From: Kayci
Sent: Saturday, February 24, 2007 8:47 AM
To: JoeH
Subject: PlanOkay,so a friend and I need to build a series of explosive devices for a plan we have that will
probably take a few years to finalize. Anyway,we need to build 2 or 3 types of bomb:2 gas bombs,most likely propane,and some handy throwable explosives like grenades or pipe bombs. For the propane ones,we need complete instructions on engineering and remote
detonation. We want to take out a large building,roughly the size of a high school gymnasium. We want to injure many people in the proccess. We need the pipe bombs and grenades so we can fend off any resistance. We also might need a car bomb or two,for a good distraction. So,let me know what you got,I need the info soon.
Thanks,
KC
I did some maintenance on my blog this morning. The live comment viewer is working now, or at least it was the last couple times I tried it. I can now edit posts and have the changes “stick” which they hadn’t been doing for the last couple weeks. Very annoying that last one. In order to edit a post I had to copy the .XML file for that day’s entry to my personal computer, using my “geek brain” edit the .XML post which was encoded within the day entry file, then copy the file back up to the blog server.
While I was messing around with it I thought I might as well update the blogroll to better reflect reality. There are other blogs I read fairly frequently but I only put blogs that I read every post nearly every day on my blogroll. I’m sort of a purist I guess. No offense to others that I read frequently but don’t have on the list. I just don’t have time for everyone that I would like to read and/or that link to me. If you link to me in a post I will read your post and I will monitor the comments to it for a while. And if you put me on your blogroll I will check you out for a few days but it’s going to be very rare that I am going to link to you just because you linked to me.
I know I messed up some RSS feeders as things were changing–at least mine was affected. Sorry about that.
In most of Europe, phone companies don’t record the phone numbers when you call, and they don’t show up on your bill. They only tick off the charges on a meter. Now, I was told that this is partly because the Nazis used the call records that they used to have, to track and identify the opposition after taking over those countries in World War II. They don’t keep those records any more.
John Gilmore
March 28,1991
A transcript of remarks given at the First Conference on Computers, Freedom, and Privacy
[Interesting perspective. I hadn’t really thought of it but phone records could be thought of as violating my Jews in the Attic Test.–Joe]
Why didn’t they see it coming before realizing our sex lives are our own business?
But this suggestion from the government’s sisterhood also demonstrates the migration of individuals’ control over their lives to the state and beyond. As more power and decisions are passed to Europe – without our consent – so politicians have to find something to busy themselves with, and what better challenge than 60 million people who fornicate, drink to excess, smoke, eat too much salty and fatty food and harbour all sorts of antisocial and criminal intent?
This is a presumption of a historic scale and arrogance which is best seen in the systems set up under Tony Blair to scrutinise every movement, communication and transaction we make. But at least we now understand the extent of the takeover. According to a YouGov poll released with Liberty’s report ‘Overlooked: Surveillance and Personal Privacy in Britain’ last week, 60 per cent of us believe we live in a surveillance state and only one in five trusts the government to keep our personal details confidential. Unless controlled, a government of long standing is by nature leaky, incompetent and greedy for ever more power.
Although it is often true it is “better late than never” I just wonder that if in this case it is too late to avoid a disaster.
But at least they are seeing and saying the right things:
It is argued that we have the Data Protection Act and the information commissioner, but despite the latter’s agitation, nothing has stopped the 500,000 interceptions of private communication each year, the total surveillance of motorways, the building of the ID card data base, the creepy children’s database and expansion of the police DNA database.
The Canadian system hasn’t worked perfectly, especially since 9/11, but Canadians shudder at what is happening in the UK, at the abandon with which we allow government more and more control over our lives and our futures.
A revolution of thought needs to take place. The personal information of innocent people, their digital footprints, their movements, as well as the things consenting adults get up to must not be allowed to become the property of the state or the subject of regulation by a lot of po-faced, reformed dope-smokers who can think of little but the improvement of their fellow human beings.
I’ve been reading every article I can on the materials these two guys were playing with. They are claimed to have had the following in their car:
Except for the pipes and the stuff all mixed up you might find that in one of my vehicles sometime.
It is claimed the cat litter was used to “bind the ingredients” but I’m not buying it. Karo syrup doesn’t need any help “binding”. If you put enough cat litter in the mixture it would make it easier to handle–including putting it in the pipe. But if you add enough litter to make it easy to handle I keep thinking it would interfere with the desired reaction–unless you were just trying to make a 4th of July type “fountain” or “smoke bomb”. With a good detonator (blasting cap) and with no, or a limited amount, of cat litter it might go boom but it’s not going to be all that impressive.
If it were just the above items and it were up to me personally I would give them a stern warning for traveling with the pipes filled with the mixture. If they had a car accident it might catch fire and make the situation much worse. It’s not going to go boom and rip the car apart or anything but it’s not something you should do either.
If the mixture will actually explode then it would be a violation of Federal Law in regards to transportation of explosives since I doubt they had the proper placards, packaging, licenses and/or permits, storage magazine, and an hazardous materials endorsement on their drivers license.
But it wasn’t just those items. There was one more thing that changes the entire flavor of the case:
In July, Mohamed posted a video on YouTube that explained how to transform a toy remote controlled car into a detonator, Hoffer said. The 12-minute video is narrated by a man speaking Arabic with an Egyptian accent. It shows no face, only hands.
“Mohamed admitted he made and uploaded it,” Hoffer said.
The video’s narrator says it’s meant “to save one who wants to be a martyr for another day in battle,” Hoffer said. The narrator also mentions a previous example that used a remote controlled toy boat. Federal agents searched the New Tampa home of Megahed’s family and found a remote controlled toy boat, Hoffer said.
But what does that mean?
The judge asked if there was a definite link between the two, and Hoffer said no.
Exactly! Does the video mean he was intending to be “a martyr for another day in battle”? Was he going to try to detonate the material remotely for an evil purpose? I detonate explosives remotely using supersonic lead pellets and I could see doing it by a radio controlled device too (it’s been a common fantasy of mine and others to fake shooting a reactive target with an ordinary iron sighted handgun from 500 yards then tease those that can’t hit a target with their scoped rifles).
Summing up I am in near complete agreement (an extremely rare event) with CAIR:
Ahmed Bedier, director of the Central Florida office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, was quick to distinguish between Megahed and Mohamed.
“It’s obvious there are two separate individuals with different charges and different allegations,” he said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if the two individuals end up having separate cases altogether.”
He defended Megahed, saying it appeared he “just happened to be in the car.” But he had harsher words for Mohamed.
If he could talk to Mohamed, Bedier said, “I’d say, ‘Wake up!’ “
He added, “Muslims don’t get a second chance when they dabble with things like this. Not only will this have consequences on him, but it will have consequences on most of the Muslims in this country.”
Update: Ry reminds us we can’t believe everything we read in the media.
Update2: Ahh… now things are making more sense:
In the trunk, deputies found four small sections of PVC pipe, at least three of which were stuffed with a “potassium nitrate explosive mixture” of potassium nitrate, Karo syrup and kitty litter, Hoffer said. He said the kitty litter served as a binder to keep the substance from coming out of the pipes, which were not capped.
[…]
Both men are charged with transporting explosives without a permit, relating to the stuffed PVC pipes deputies have described as pipe bombs. Hoffer conceded in court, however, that the devices, while explosive, were not pipe bombs and were not “destructive devices” under the law.
Allen maintained that the filled PVC pipes couldn’t do much damage because there were no caps and no metallic material that could serve as shrapnel.
Sounds more like smoke bombs than pipe bombs to me. Worst case they could be incendiary devices. My bet is that if the defense plays their cards right they can beat the explosives charge.
I knew Ms. Ringler was stopping by for a visit every once in a while. I had some time tonight to explore in greater detail her visits. I put the results in an Excel spreadsheet to easier share it with you: RobynRinglerVisits.xls (36 KB)
When I wrote my Sympathy for Robyn Ringler post I actually knew a little more than I let on. I knew that she had seen my post where I called her and her ilk bigots. I also knew she was visiting Kevin’s blog at least occasionally too (it’s all in the spreadsheet).
After my “sympathy” post she came by to read it less than 36 hours later (as well as visiting Uncle after he poked her with a stick). Ride Fast had his hope realized in less than 19 hours.
Bigots really don’t like to be made fun of. Frequently part of the reason they are bigots is because they are unsure of themselves and feel threatened. They need to bring someone else down in order to make themselves feel powerful. This may particularly apply to anti-gun bigots because we already scare them just because we own guns. As explained by my formerly liberal friend Mike:
Back in the days when I was very anti-gun, I tended to think of “gun nuts” as drooling, knuckle-dragging morons. Cavemen. Uneducated. Beer-drinking slobs who could barely read and who probably beat up their wives a lot. Maybe they were even all closet Nazis, eh? Etc., etc., etc. It was an image that came instantly to mind. I would talk about “gun nuts” that same way with friends of like mind. It all made such perfect sense to us.
But if ever I came across a “gun nut” in person I would be silent — especially if it was someone dressed in, say, hunting cammos. Or I might see “gun nuts” on TV and make a snide comment about them, but seeing them made me feel a bit afraid (something I didn’t reveal to other people). It wasn’t rational, but it wasn’t surprising considering how I’d been raised. It wasn’t until a long time later that I realized what I’d been doing: trying to make the “gun nuts” almost into sub-humans in my mind, and paint them as ridiculous and stupid so that they shrank in stature and were less scary to me. (But as I said, this doesn’t work. No amount of sneering made me feel less afraid.)
Pointing out their total lack of factual knowledge on the subject has got to be very painful for them. For them to think of us as knuckle-draggers and then have their intellectual lunch handed to them probably will do nothing to change their minds. But what it does do in this new democracy is make them back off the topic. I believe that having them avoid the topic is the best we can hope for. When they have such a poor self-esteem and they have taken a very public stance on the issue it is simply beyond their ability to admit they are wrong. You wouldn’t expect a Klansman to admit they were wrong would you?
The best you can hope for is for them to back down. So let’s take our victory over this bigot and continue on to the next one. Conversions are too difficult, just intellectually shame them into silence and mock them as we roll on past.
Ms. Ringler, if you stop by again to read this there is something I want you to know and understand. From Clayton Cramer:
Still, her announcement that she was going to stop allowing comments doesn’t particularly upset or surprise me–this is a common response of gun control advocates, who soon discover that we knuckle-dragging Neanderthals don’t just outnumber them, but we’re smarter than they are–way smarter.
That and if you ever change your mind about guns and gun ownership I’ll give you free NRA Certified training, a free position at Boomershoot, and I’ll never bring up your ugly past again.
Shooter groups, like the Sporting Shooters Association, who want to break our gun laws; take away gun registration; take away limits on hand guns; are in my opinion the most anti-social and dangerous type of groups that Australia has recently seen outside of course of certain criminal drug-related gangs.
John Crook
Gun Control Australia’s president
http://ssaasa.org.au/alerts2.htm
[Just so you know what they really think of you.–Joe]
Listening to the radio on the way to work, I heard that a small town school bond levy in Idaho had passed by an approximately 70:30 vote.
Let that sink in for a moment…70:30 approval.
The next thing I heard was that the voter turnout was 30 percent.
If my math is correct, 70 percent of 30 percent comes to 21 percent of eligible voters who approved the levy. 21 percent of the people wanted the levy, and the other 79 percent either opposed it, figured it was a forgone conclusion, didn’t care enough to vote, or didn’t know about it (the latter leaves me wondering who was in charge of publicizing it).
In a very small town where the school district is possibly the largest single employer, how many of those 21 percent who approved the levy do you suppose were school district employees, the families of school district employees, and contractors to the school district?
Forget how you would vote on something like this– you could be on either side of it, depending on the particular issue. Looking at it conceptually; how is it that 21 percent of the people, most of whom are the direct recipients of the tax revenue, are able to impose taxes on 100 percent of the people? Is that outcome consistent with the idea of democracy, or of a free society? No and no.
Why don’t we have a quorum rule for something like this?
Lots of sobering material in this video.
I wish some national leaders would reframe the issue for what it is rather than a politically correct phrase. It’s not a “War on Terror”. It’s a war against religious fanatics.
We must destroy their culture to win. If we don’t win everyone loses.
At least Newt gets it. But I suspect he is right–we will have to lose an American city before we as a nation will take their threat seriously. And losing a city will be a much bigger loss than just the city and it’s people.
Handguns should be banned because they can kill quickly and from a long distance giving victims little chance to escape. If they use knives or any other weapon then the victims can escape.
We should be tightening our borders to ensure no one can bring any guns across the border and maybe lobby the Americans for a gun ban (too bad Americans to believe in this) or else energy exports are reduced.
rewrite the safe schools act to determine which disipline method is needed on a case-by-case basis (i.e instead of expulsion, we should try mental health programs)
Some police presence near schools can be helpful but can’t be everywhere at once.
I DONT WANT TO SEE ANY OPPOSITION TO THIS REMARK.
September 9, 2007
Comment in response to Gun ban needed, not school metal detectors: McGuinty
[signed] “Vote NDP in the next federal/provincial election from Toronto, Canada”
[Heavy sigh. See also yesterday’s QOTD. Keep in mind this article was, in part, about a high school student who was fatally stabbed. Apparently victims can’t always escape. Or else it is a nuance available only to the liberal mind which, of course, escapes a red-necked, knuckle dragging, Neanderthal like me. I suppose it could be that someone is mocking McGuinty but I can’t quite convince myself that is the case.–Joe]
Does it ever strike you as odd that some of our servants demand that they have a monopoly on certain types of weapons?
I keep thinking that they must have either forgotten they are servants or intend to change the relationship.
I have been in contact with Alice (Catherine has taken over) at Firecracker Films in the context of Boomershoot. My family is not that good of a match because Alice Catherine wants children aged 12 and under. Does the following apply to you? This is your chance to make a difference in the British view of firearms.
Let’s ban handguns in Ontario. Let’s ban handguns across the country. Let’s declare war against handguns.
Dalton McGuinty
Ontario Liberal Leader
September 12, 2007
Gun ban needed, not school metal detectors: McGuinty
Responding to concerns after a student had been stabbed to death at a Toronto High School.
[Via Phil. Many of the comments to the article are just as nonsensical. These people have mental problems.–Joe]
It seems there are a lot of people stopping nearly a full car length behind the broad white line at traffic lights lately. This was once a rare occurrence (old people who can’t see, stoned kids, etc.) but I’m seeing it every day now as I drive through town.
Is this some new cultural phenomenon, or do we suddenly have more pot smokers in Moscow, Idaho?
I found this at Say Uncle.
The video pretty well speaks for itself (the audio anyway– there’s not much to see). Full transcripts are provided also. I truly did not believe what I heard the first time through: The cop actually threatened to fabricate charges against an innocent man because he dared to ask questions. The cop then lied to a fellow officer, saying the motorist had been weaving and had failed to signal (he was driving perfectly and the signal indicator is clearly visible in the video).
Cops have to put up with a lot of really insane crap. Having worked in the late-night music scene for many years, I’ve seen cops put up with the most outrageous behavior from people, and do it with amazing patience. LEOs need to present a far more calm demeanor than the average person. This cop on the other hand is a fight picker– a frustrated, undisciplined prick with a chip on his shoulder, and that is a disaster in the making.
The fact that our LEO said what he said, knowing he was being recorded, suggests he had reason not to worry much about being disciplined for it. On the other hand, it seems the recording taken from his cruiser has turned up missing. Put those two facts together and what do we have? Was he contemplating the destruction of his victim’s recording?
Understand that when you’re out in the middle of the night this sort of thing is far more likely.
On a broader point: Our foolish “war on drugs” has led to far more abuse, as cops are looking out for drug deals and the like, with full knowledge of current forfeiture laws. In this environment, “probable cause” has morphed from that-which-is-required-to-obtain-a-warrant-from-a-judge, into whatever-the-cop-decides-at-the-moment-is-cause-for-a-warrantless-search. As with much of our Leftist speak, “Probable Cause” has taken a meaning opposite to its original. It is now used to enable the exact abuse it was intended to prevent.
My experience with city and county law enforcement (north Idaho/Eastern Washington) has been pretty good over the years, and in most cases, very good, even when I was clearly in the wrong. Lets hope it stays that way. You get one retarded mayor or one bad sheriff at the next election, and things could go to hell fast.
…it does seem as though when you want corrupt politicians by the bushel, Democrats are a more reliable supplier.
Clayton Cramer
September 10, 2007
New Jersey Corruption
[Yup. I suspect it has to do with the lack of fundamental political principles.–Joe]