I’ll be shocked if the Supreme Court doesn’t rule in favor of Alan in the McDonald case.
Paul Helmke
President of the Brady Campaign
May 14, 2010
He was referring to Alan Gura and the Chicago Gun Case.
See also Alan Gura v. Paul Helmke.
Monthly Archives: May 2010
My book list
We were talking about books today and I mentioned I listened to a lot of books during my commute to/from Idaho. Below is a fairly complete list from the last four years in close to reverse chronological order. I get nearly all my books from Audible (thank you Ry).
Of the science fiction I listened to it fails into two categories with one exception. It is either Robert Heinlein or it isn’t. If it is by Heinlein it is awesome otherwise it is good. The one exception was Beyond the Gap. I thought it was mediocre.
Everything by Ayn Rand is awesome. Anything that has “brain” in the title is great or better. The Female Brain is AWESOME. Sex Time and Power is very good.
I recently finished “Ice Man”. It is about serial killer Richard Kuklinski who killed for the mafia as well as sport. He killed hundreds of people. Grisly and very disturbing at times but I still recommend it just so you can get a glimpse of “the dark side”.
Spycraft was great. I kept meaning to write up a review of it but never got around to it. It’s about CIA technology and some of their operational methods.
Pride and Prejudice sucked. Snuff was disturbing and it sucked.
The Glenn Beck and Michael Savage books were a little “too low of bandwidth” for me. They had some good points and new information but sometimes I got bored waiting for more good stuff to come along.
Why Woman Have Sex was surprisingly good. Barb and I had, and I expect will continue to have, some good conversations about this book, The Five Love Languages (don’t laugh! It’s a great book!) and Strange Bedfellows.
I listened to The Black Hole War and 13 Things That Don’t Make Sense back to back. If I had not done that I don’t think I would have put two and two together and realized that we are living in a huge black hole. The “background radiation from the big bang” is actually just the event horizon of the black hole which is our universe–which contains other black holes. The direction toward the center of our black hole is the direction of time. This is why we can only perceive time at a single instant–completely different from the other spacial dimensions of our universe. It also (potentially) explains “dark matter” (no such thing) and a lot of other things. At least that is my hypothesis.
The Demon Under the Microscope was very good. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it.
Genghis Khan and Hannibal: One Man Against Rome, both by Harold Lamb, are awesome.
Columbine made for great conversations with son James and Barbara. It is a great myth that Columbine was about guns. They tried to use explosives but they didn’t do adequate testing–just like the guy in Times Square recently. Guns were just a poor “Plan B” to them. If everything had gone according to plan for them they would have killed thousands in the first minute. They would have liked to have killed off the human race. They believed humans were too stupid to deserve to live.
Survival of the Sickest is AWESOME. Daughter Kim, son James, and Barbara and I have talked about it a lot and really liked it.
The almost complete list:
Natural Selections: David P. Barash
The Virtue of Selfishness: Ayn Rand
The Housing Boom and Bust: Thomas Sowell
The Ice Man: Philip Carlo
Inside the Jihad: Omar Nasiri
Why Women Have Sex: Cindy M. Meston, David M. Buss
Time Traveler: Ronald L. Mallett, Bruce Henderson
Strange Bedfellows: David P. Barash, Judith Eve Lipton
Next: Michael Crichton
The Big Leap: Gay Hendricks
Pirate Latitudes: Michael Crichton
The Colour of Magic: Terry Pratchett
Pride and Prejudice: Jane Austen
Arguing with Idiots: Glenn Beck
Kill Bin Laden: Dalton Fury
Plain, Honest Men: Richard Beeman
The Unincorporated Man: Dani Kollin, Eytan Kollin
Lords of the Sea: John R. Hale
Have Space Suit, Will Travel: Robert A. Heinlein
Tribes: Seth Godin
The Stars, Like Dust: Isaac Asimov
Pebble in the Sky: Isaac Asimov
The Case for Democracy: Natan Sharansky with Ron Dermer
Thermopylae: Paul Cartledge
The Devil of Nanking: Mo Hayder
Columbine: Dave Cullen
Dexter in the Dark: Jeff Lindsay
The Demon Under The Microscope: Thomas Hager
Thomas Paine’s Rights of Man: A Biography: Christopher Hitchens
Welcome to Your Brain: Sandra Aamodt, Sam Wang
Outliers: Malcolm Gladwell
How the Mighty Fall: Jim Collins
World War Z: Max Brooks
Liberty and Tyranny: Mark R. Levin
America’s March to Socialism: Glenn Beck
Glenn Beck’s Common Sense: Glenn Beck
New Deal or Raw Deal?: Burton Folsom
Strategic Intuition: Bill Duggan
The Talent Code: Daniel Coyle
Brain Rules: John J. Medina
Furnace of Creation, Cradle of Destruction: Roy Chester
Appetite for Self-Destruction: Steve Knopper
The Drunkard’s Walk: Leonard Mlodinow
Patriot Pirates: Robert H. Patton
With the Lightnings: RCN Series: David Drake
Economic Facts and Fallacies: Thomas Sowell
Cold Zero: Christopher Whitcomb
Childhood’s End: Arthur C. Clarke
The Irregulars: Jennet Conant
The Five Love Languages: Gary Chapman
The Black Swan: Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Dune: Frank Herbert
The Enemy Within: Michael Savage
The Black Hole War: Leonard Susskind
13 Things That Don’t Make Sense: Michael Brooks
The Clan of the Cave Bear: Jean M. Auel
Human Smoke: Nicholson Baker
On Intelligence: Jeff Hawkins and Sandra Blakeslee
The Devil Came on Horseback: Brian Steidle with Gretchen Steidle Wallace
The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Middle East: Martin Sieff
Podkayne of Mars: Robert A. Heinlein
Tempted: Megan Hart
The Portable Atheist: Christopher Hitchens
The Case Against Barack Obama: David Freddoso
Altered Carbon: Richard K. Morgan
The End of America: Naomi Wolf
Spycraft: Robert Wallace, H. Keith Melton, Henry Robert Schelsinger
2008 RNC: Alaska Governor Sarah Palin (9/03/08)
Why Migraines Strike: Scientific American David W. Dodick, J. Jay Gargus, Scientific American
The Biology of Belief: Bruce H. Lipton, Ph.D.
Sackett’s Land: Louis L’Amour
The Burden of Bad Ideas: Heather MacDonald
America Alone: Mark Steyn
Naked: David Sedaris
The Best American Erotica 2005: Susie Bright, Jane Smiley, Mary Gaitskill, Steve Almond, and more
Bonk: Mary Roach
This Is Your Brain on Music: Daniel J. Levitin
Blade Runner: Philip K. Dick
Snuff: Chuck Palahniuk
Trigger Men: Hans Halberstadt
The Disappeared: Kristine Kathryn Rusch
The Future of Freedom: Fareed Zakaria
The Brain That Changes Itself: Norman Doidge
Red Mars: Kim Stanley Robinson
The Puppet Masters: Robert A. Heinlein
The Door into Summer: Robert A. Heinlein
More of the Best of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Orson Scott Card, Arthur C. Clarke, Karen Joy Fowler, Roger Zelazny, John Varley, Joe Haldeman, Robert Silverberg, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Lawrence Watt-Evans
The Greatest Science Fiction Stories of the 20th Century: Harlan Ellison, Ursula K. Le Guin, David Brin, Arthur C. Clarke, Greg Bear, Terry Bisson, Lawrence Watt-Evans, Clifford D. Simak, Judith Merrill, Frederik Pohl, Greg Bear, Terry Bisson, Eric Frank Russell, and John W. Campbell
Hominids: The Neanderthal Parallax, Book 1: Robert J. Sawyer
Voyagers: Ben Bova
The Omnivore’s Dilemma: Michael Pollan
Three Cups of Tea: Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
Liberal Fascism: Jonah Goldberg
The Abolition of Man & The Great Divorce: C.S. Lewis
Shadow Divers: Robert Kurson
Great Blunders in History: Kasserine Pass: The History Channel
Genghis Khan: Harold Lamb
How Come They Always had the Battles in the National Parks?: Peter Bales
Berserker’s Planet: Fred Saberhagen
For the New Intellectual: Ayn Rand
Striking Back: Aaron J. Klein
The Coming Economic Collapse: Dr. Stephen Leeb and Glen Strathy
In the Wake of the Plague: Norman F. Cantor
Gut Feelings: Gerd Gigerenzer
We Could Do Worse: Larry Niven, Howard Waldrop, Harry Turtledove, Robert Silverberg, Gregory Benford, Mike Resnick, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, and Allen Steele
Predictably Irrational: Dan Ariely
Beyond the Gap: Harry Turtledove
Opening Atlantis: Harry Turtledove
The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress: Robert A. Heinlein
I Am Legend: Richard Matheson
Children of Jihad: Jared Cohen
The Cat Who Walks through Walls: Robert Heinlein
The Menace from Earth: Robert A. Heinlein
Shut Up, Stop Whining, and Get a Life: Larry Winget
Irshad Manji and Ayaan Hirsi Ali at the 92nd Street Y on The Trouble with Islam
Preachers of Hate: Kenneth Timmerman
Philosophy: Ayn Rand
Infidel: Ayaan Hirsi Ali
The Big Three in Economics: Mark Skousen
Freedomnomics: John R. Lott, Jr.
Free to Choose: Milton Friedman and Rose Friedman
The City Who Fought: Anne McCaffrey and S.M. Stirling
The Sky People: S.M. Stirling
The Pleasure of Finding Things Out: Richard P. Feynman
What Women Want Men to Know: Barbara DeAngelis
IBM and the Holocaust: Edwin Black
Guns, Germs, and Steel: Jared Diamond
Callahan’s Key: Spider Robinson
The Callahan Chronicals: Spider Robinson
Callahan’s Con: Spider Robinson
Very Bad Deaths: Spider Robinson
Callahan’s Legacy: Spider Robinson
Snow Crash: Neal Stephenson
Death by Black Hole: Neil deGrasse Tyson
The Female Brain: Louann Brizendine, M.D.
Double Star: Robert A. Heinlein
Citizen of the Galaxy: Robert A. Heinlein
Variable Star: Robert A. Heinlein and Spider Robinson
Lies: Scientific American Mind
Consciousness: Scientific American Mind
Scientific American: A Robot in Every Home: Bill Gates
The Rolling Stones: Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Heinlein Radio Dramas: Robert Heinlein
The Sociopath Next Door: Martha Stout
The Diamond Age: Neal Stephenson
God Is Not Great: Christopher Hitchens
A Game of Thrones: George R. R. Martin
The Tipping Point: Malcolm Gladwell
Survival of the Sickest: Sharon Moalem with Jonathan Prince
Blink: Malcolm Gladwell
A History of the Middle Ages: Crane Brinton, John Christopher, and Robert Wolff
Rocket Ship Galileo: Robert A. Heinlein
Dave Barry Is from Mars and Venus: Dave Barry
How to Make Anyone Fall in Love with You: Leil Lowndes
Brave New World: Aldous Huxley
Freakonomics: Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
Linked: Albert-Laszlo Barabasi
Win Your Case: Gerry Spence
Because They Hate: Brigitte Gabriel
The Best American Erotica 2002: Susie Bright, Jamie Callan, Maggie Estep, and more
Deep Survival: Laurence Gonzales
The God Delusion: Richard Dawkins
2007 State of the Union Address: George W. Bush
Islam Unveiled: Robert Spencer, foreword by David Pryce-Jones
Hatred’s Kingdom: Dore Gold
America’s Secret War: George Friedman
The Truth About Muhammad: Robert Spencer
Empire: Orson Scott Card
Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal: Ayn Rand
Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Richard P. Feynman
Atlas Shrugged: Ayn Rand
The World of Atlas Shrugged: Robert Bidinotto
The Clash of Civilizations: Samuel P. Huntington
A Short History of Nearly Everything: Bill Bryson
Mozart’s Brain and the Fighter Pilot: Richard M. Restak
Sex, Time, and Power: Leonard Shlain
Sex and the City Writers’ Special: Un-Cabaret
Cryptonomicon: Neal Stephenson
Starship Troopers: Robert A. Heinlein
Hannibal: One Man Against Rome: Harold Lamb
Fraternization with the enemy
I know some people are a little shocked that some hard-core gun bloggers would shake Paul Helmke’s hand and have a civil discussion with him.
I’m reminded of Winston Churchill’s words, “When you have to kill a man it costs nothing to be polite.” Not in the literal case in this instance but the sentiment is the same.
Yes, I want to make him the social equivalent of a Grand Wizard of the KKK and, if possible, get him some serious jail time for violation of 18 USC 241 and possibly 18 USC 242. But I don’t see a problem with smiling at him as I work toward that goal.
Besides, we picked up a little bit of intel by listening to him debate Gura and even more in the private conversation afterward.
Socializing at the NRA annual meeting
I had planned to walk the exhibit floor today but other than attend the debate between Gura and Helmke I spent nearly the entire time socializing. Mostly it was with bloggers but I did spend probably an hour of pretty intense face to face time with NRA Board of directors member Scott Bach (and here).
Scott told us a little bit of some of the behind the scenes stuff at the NRA and how he thinks things will shake down after the McDonald case comes down. Since he lives in New Jersey there was a particular emphasis on his home state. The application of the McDonald case will be particularly interesting there and in California. There is tremendous opportunity to gain ground but there are lots of things that can go wrong too.
I was pleased to meet some gun bloggers I have read for the first time and see others again. I screwed up and did not get a picture of Rick even though we met and talked quite a bit this morning and throughout the day. I will try to remedy that error tomorrow.
I met Breda for the first time. For some reason I expected someone much smaller.
Alan also took some pictures of Breda at dinner but she said she would kill him if he posted them.
Honest, it had nothing to do with Say Uncle making a comparison to a porn star. That was much earlier in the day.
I have five pictures of Jay G. These two suck the least. He also posted on the afternoon and evening activities.
This was my first time meeting him. But I have talked to him when I was on Vicious Circle and listened to him even more.
This was the first time I have met Weer’d Beard. He is a frequent commenter here and on daughter Xenia’s LJ.
I first met Denise and Yosemite Sam at the NRA meeting in 2008.
I got in trouble with Barb for not attending Sarah Palin’s speech so maybe Denise’s post can get me almost back in good graces at home.
I first met Alan at Boomershoot 2009 where he helped make the targets as well as shoot them.
He also is the ringleader of Vicious Circle.
I first met Mike W. at the NRA meeting in 2008. He is also a frequent commenter here.
He says I’m a celebrity so I need to keep reminding Barb that she sleeps with one.
Say Uncle and Alan decided they had to expose Breda and me to southern food. A group of ten of us went out to dinner. Say Uncle recommended the shrimp and grits which I did enjoy. Breda liked the greens and said, “I could eat these forever!”
After dinner was over, about 22:30, I was just coming alive and ready to talk until 2:00 or 3:00 but everyone else was a wimp (and mostly on east coast time instead of west coast like me) and said they were headed back to their hotels for the night.
Tomorrow, I really will get out on the exhibit floor and take a bunch of pictures.
Alan Gura v. Paul Helmke
Say Uncle beat me with my own picture and what I planned to make QOTD tomorrow (I’ll have a different one from Paul from today to use tomorrow). Countertop has a picture of us. Jeff has some more pictures.
Here is my take on the debate we just saw with a slightly edited version of the same picture Say Uncle used:
Proof I shared space with Alan Gura and Paul Helmke.
Alan Gura. Our point man in the war for our civil rights.
Paul Helmke. The point man in the war on our civil rights.
Paul Helmke shakes hands with Say Uncle.
Countertop, Paul Helmke, Jeff Bishop, and Say Uncle.
The debate was civil and interesting. The gun bloggers (yes, we have some biases) were of the opinion that Alan was holding back some and could have “mopped the floor” with Helmke.
Paul did make a point that surprised us. He pointed out that the First Amendment has been ruled to protect the right to view pornography and other potentially harmful material in private but allows “reasonable regulation” of those same activities in public. “The Second Amendment should allow similar restrictions.”, he said. We would disagree with this point in that the Second Amendment specifically enumerates the right to bear arms and the purpose of defending innocent life. But it was a surprise and an interesting take on things.
I asked the first question when it was opened up to the floor. I pointed out that Paul had specifically called out gun violence when comparing U.S. v. U.K. when Alan had pointed out that the U.K. is one of the most violent countries in the world. Paul had sidestepped Alan’s point by ignoring the total violence rate. Paul responded by saying his organization focuses on the one component of violence. Alan followed up better that I could have. He said the violent crime rate in the U.S. is lower than in the U.K. even though the rate of violent crimes committed with guns in the U.S. is higher. For example the burglaries in the U.S. are done when the occupants are away because they are afraid of being shot (prison interview confirm this). In the U.K. criminals frequently invade homes when people are home because people have money and person items of value. This causes more confrontation between criminals and their unarmed victims. He also pointed out that regardless of the utility (or lack thereof) of some social policy we are talking about a protected constitutional right that does not depend on the crime rate for it to be protected. Constitutional law does not look to the social sciences for validation.
Quote of the day–Alice Marie Beard
I had the perfect chance to put a bullet thru the back of his head. I regret that I did not do so.
…
How easily I could have pretended to stumble, shooting him in the back of the head. An accident. Folks would have felt sorry for the young girl and might have wondered why the old man had been so careless. A blameless tragedy. I could have done it so easily.
Alice Marie Beard
Ray Pierce, pedophile, Montmorency Co., Michigan
[I’m not sure what to say about this. I understand why she says that. But I wonder if there would be regrets for taking the action she didn’t and who is to say that a five ten year old is sufficiently mature to make those decisions. When confronted with immediate threat of death of permanent injury, sure. But this is a little different.
Update: Ms. Beard informs me she was ten when the opportunity occurred.–Joe]
Registration day at the NRA annual meeting
The weather is just a little on the warm side of what I am comfortable with and the humidity is pretty high but it’s still well within tolerable limits.
There is lots of press coverage. Below is a picture of the mobile units from a couple local television stations. I later saw a “talking head” standing around in front of a camera wait for their time to say a few sentences.
In the picture below the three people on the left are NRA staff. On the right are Sebastian and Bitter. In between are the media badges.
Below is the view of the exhibit floor from the Press Office.
At ~17:30 a few bloggers and some NRA staff went to a bar for drinks and to talk. Say Uncle showed up not too much later.
At ~19:30 a few of the bloggers went to a restaurant at the Westin Hotel where we had very small tasty meals which were very expensive and very pretty.
At ~20:30 we moved to a bar in the Westin where Dave Kopel and other high powered legal types hung out with us and kept us enthralled with stories from behind the scenes and what may and may not be possible for the right to keep and bear arms in the future. I also met George after years of occasional correspondence.
At ~12:45 the last of the bloggers and one of the legal minds retired. Two lawyers went off to smoke. One a cigar and the other a pipe.
Tomorrow I will spend most of the day on the exhibit floor.
Changing Colors
Ah, Spring! It’s a time when the land turns green, the trees are budding, the flowers are blooming, and the Republicans begin to change their spots, pretending to be conservative in preparation for the upcoming election season. It’s the never-ending cycle of life.
They treat us so nice
I’m at the NRA annual meeting in the Press Office. I have press credentials, free wireless Internet, and free food and drink:
I haven’t seen anyone I know yet. Currently I’m alone in the Press Office with my two Windows Phone 7 devices.
Quote of the day–James Huffman-Scott
And you say I get my talent for tormenting people from Dad.
James Huffman-Scott
May 11, 2010
After hearing this story from his mother.
On my way
I’m on my way to Charolette for the NRA annual meetings.
I made it through A Security Theater at Seatac with only a minor hassle.
Because I was checking a gun through in my baggage TSA handles the bag “special”. They opened up the suitcase, pulled out the hard-sided case with the handgun and swabbed the interior for explosives. The gun was in a side compartment and they didn’t even see the gun. They just wanted to swab the interior of the gun case.
What do they think that is supposed to do? Other than, of course, irritate me.
How to get the answer you want
When I was in college at the University of Idaho I remember fellow electrical engineering student Marget M. (her father happened to be one of my favorite EE professors) explain “The Fudge Function” as was sometimes used in the labs by students who didn’t get the correct results. “You multiply by zero and add the correct answer”, she said.
Looking at things a little differently
I was browsing through some screed by the VPC about civilian “sniper rifles” and it made mention of how ours law allows civilians to own the same equipment as law enforcement and the military. This is essentially true but the wording is a little misleading.
It would be more correct to say that the people allow law enforcement and the military to use the same equipment as civilians.
Number of Colleges Allowing Concealed Carry on Campus Doubles
Via email from Daniel Crocker:
I don’t know if you have seen anything about this, but the number of colleges allowing concealed carry on campus has more than doubled this week. Especially as this has not received any media coverage, I feel that this is a substantial news issue that should be covered and would be of interest to your readers. I’ve gone into more detail about this below, but feel free to email or call me at the address below for any additional information.
Prior to this week, only twelve colleges in the entire nation explicitly allowed carry of a firearm: The ten public colleges of Utah, Blue Ridge Community College in Virginia and Colorado State University. Following a substantial ruling to remove the ban at the University of Colorado, the fourteen colleges in the Colorado Community College System (CCCS) voted to rescind their current ban and allow any licensed adult with a concealed carry permit to exercise that right while on campus. While I cannot find any direct news articles about it, you may link to the revised policy at:
http://www.cccs.edu/SBCCOE/Policies/SP/PDF/SP19-10.pdf
This action alone more than doubles the number of universities and colleges allowing concealed carry from twelve to twenty-six.
In addition, one of the two community colleges in Colorado not part of the CCCS, Aims Community College, has scheduled a meeting to make the same changes in their policies. You may view an article about this at:
http://www.greeleytribune.com/article/20100511/NEWS/100519933/1007
This dramatic shift follows in the wake of a ruling against a similar policy at the University of Colorado. Members of Students of Concealed Carry on Campus (Concealedcampus.org) and the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners (Rmgo.org) originally filed suit against the University of Colorado claiming that state law preempted any governmental entity, including the Board of Governors, from banning concealed carry license holders from possessing a firearm on campus. While the initial ruling went against the firearms activists, it was reversed on appeal:
http://www.thedenverdailynews.com/article.php?aID=8082
The Colorado State University (CSU) Board of Governors originally voted to reverse the long standing policy of allowing students with state-issues concealed carry permits to possess firearms on campus shortly after the initial ruling:
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_14454241
Over the last seven years while the policy had been in place, crime had rapidly decreased and not a single instance of gun misuse by a licensee has been reported. The new ban was opposed by CSU’s student government, the county sheriff, the editorial boards of both the campus newspaper and the Colorado Springs Gazette, as well as more than 1,000 students who signed a petition against the ban in just a few short days. Larimer County Sheriff Jim Aberdeen, was so outraged by its passage that he told local media that he intended to undermine it by refusing to book violators of the ban into his jail, which the CSU police department utilizes for arrests. In the wake of the recent ruling however, Colorado State University has reversed it’s ban on firearms.
http://www.denverpost.com/headlines/ci_15027249
This issue will likely continue to be fought in court. For the time being however, it appears that some Colorado students and faculty will be allowed an option for self defense and that some criminals will no longer have a governmental guarantee that their potential victims will be unarmed.
Regards,
Daniel Crocker
Southwest Regional Director,
Students for Concealed Carry on Campus
Daniel.Crocker@concealedcampus.org
(205) 370-9126
I am have more than the usual interest in this topic because I have two daughters and a niece in college. Two of them have concealed carry licenses and are prohibited from using the most effective defensive tools should they be attacked.
Quote of the day–JadeGold
So how do you measure a “potential terrorist”?
NRA ballcap or decal.
JadeGold
May 6, 2010
In the comments to Bloomberg on the “Terror Gap”.
[And when 80,000 “potential terrorists” get together this weekend just think of the havoc they will create. And it happens every year. It’s time people realized we can’t be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans to legitimately have freedom of association…
Oh, that’s right, the people at a NRA convention are extremely well behaved. It’s when a dozen or more leftists get together that they frequently riot and/or destroy property. The leftist terrorist organizations (FALN, ALF, ELF, anarchists, revolutionary socialists, etc.) commit far more crimes in this country than all the conservative, right-wing (National Alliance, WCOTC, Aryan Nation), and libertarian (have there any been libertarian terrorist organizations?) organizations combined.
I guess it must be the mental problems of JadeGold causing them to engage in projection.–Joe]
Playing with a bigot
Today I went to my hair appointment before I left Idaho and drove to the Seattle area bunker. The lady who was just finishing up in the chair next to me turned and said, “Hello Barbara Scott.”
We had a pleasant short conversation about Dixie where she is trying to sell a bar and house — a remote and beautiful part of Idaho. We briefly talked about Boomershoot and another long distance shooter she had read about in the Lewiston Tribune. After she left a man in expensive “casual” dress sat down.
While he was getting his silver grey hair cut, he started talking about his former student who he had seen working at Tri-State. Apparently this was a typical “Idaho boy” — his words — who was poorly motivated, not very smart, married by the time he was twenty, etc. My ears perked up.
“A typical Idaho boy?”, I said.
He said, “Oh, yes. A typical Idaho boy.”
“Well tell me about this, I am very interested”
He said, “Of course this is an East coast point of view.”
And he told me all about it repeating the “this is an East coast point of view” line several times.
I said, “That is fascinating! I’m just a physical therapist and I can’t wait to tell my husband and son who both work for Microsoft all about it. They’d like to hear about a “typical Idaho boy.”
He muttered again, “It’s just an East coast point of view.”
About that time his hair dresser who is another Idaho boy chimed in, “Well, I’ve got all my teeth.”
I congratulated him and said something like, “We just got our first indoor toilet last year and really like it!”
The conversation died. The man looked kind of truculent.
I was having fun with the conversation and was really disappointed because there was a great deal I hadn’t got to say. Like my son graduated Suma cume laude from college and he was a National Merit Scholar. My husband is an Idaho boy who has been written about in Newsweek, Outside Magazine, Idaho Magazine, Motorcyclist magazine, and has been on television and radio several times. And my brother is a professor at Loyola in Chicago and I would have liked to have mentioned all the savvy men who like to work in lower stress jobs in the Idaho paradise where they can spend their off time hunting and fishing instead of spending hours commuting to work. But that’s just an Idaho point of view.
Quote of the day–Alan Keyes
The only difference between today’s slavery and the slavery of the old South is that at least the plantation owners paid for the chains.
Alan Keyes
Presidential Candidate
At a speech in Orem Utah in approximately ~2000.
Via Richard Mack and From My Cold Dead Fingers–Why America Needs Guns, Third Edition (“Final Chapter”), page 197.
[Most people in this country don’t seem to realize they are slaves. A typical attempt at refutation might go something like, “Life is good! And if the government would just give us [fill in the blank] life would be even better. We aren’t slaves!” I’m almost at a loss for words in such a conversation. Their own words refute their claim. When you have to beg your superiors to give you what you want with no opportunity to escape you are their slave. I have heard slavery defined as when more than “X” percent of your work output is taken by force and only the remainder is used for your food, housing, and other individual needs. IIRC “X” was in the neighborhood of 25%. Our taxes far exceed exceed 25% of our work output. I have no meaningful escape to freedom from the oppression of my “master”. I, in many ways, am a slave.–Joe]
I think I detect a note of sarcasm
Or perhaps, as Peter Zatloukal has said, an entire symphony of sarcasm:
After hearing the news that consideration was being given to National Guard troops being dispatched to the city of Chicago to quell violence, I wanted to take the opportunity to thank Mayor Daley and Governor Quinn.
Mayor, Governor, congratulations. Your pathological efforts to disarm the honest law-abiding citizens of the state of Illinois have finally paid off in a most graphic way. By making Illinois one of only two states in the United States that denies its citizens the rights granted under the Second Amendment, you have succeeded in turning the city of Chicago into a war zone. Since the beginning of 2010, there have been more Americans killed in Chicago than in Afghanistan and Iraq combined. Congratulations, great job, I hope you’re proud.
Frank Ladonne
Buffalo Grove
Kevin asks why, I have the answer
Kevin points out that the other side lies, extensively, even when actual numbers are easy to come by and their lies are easily exposed.
He asks why do they do that. That is actually an easy question to answer.
As I have demonstrated before they are incapable of determining truth from falsity. They cannot distinguish their fantasy world from reality. This is part of the reason they can be so convincing with their lies. They actually believe them. The other reason they can be very convincing is that many of their audience want to believe them. They want to believe there are solutions as simple as congress flipping a switch and making the Boogie Monster under the bed go away.
They are frequently pathetic creatures for whom the light switch on the wall is, in a very real sense, magical. They have no concept of how things actually work. How else do you explain their belief that some collection of people could write down set of rules on a piece of paper and evil people, who fail to obey existing rules against violence crime, will suddenly obey still another rule to turn in or destroy their tools which enable them to pursue their chosen evil ways?
Of course do not underestimate our opponents. As Sean likes to point out, not all of them are so simple minded.
Boomershoot staff hard at work
In my post last night I outlined some of the work the staff does for Boomershoot after the main event is over. I said the sound in the video doesn’t do it justice.
In Jason’s video the sound is a much better but it still doesn’t capture the THUMP that you feel throughout your body but it does hint a little better at it and give you some more clues as to what it means for Rolf to be Entertainingly Close: