Monthly Archives: October 2018

Quote of the day—Alan Korwin

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Disarming the public is not even remotely a solution to the actions of criminals or insane people. In fact, it only makes matters worse, by leaving the innocent helpless in the face of miscreants and sociopaths. Failure to see this is a sign of untreated hoplophobia.

One way of fighting this, untested at the current time, is creed discrimination. It is illegal to discriminate based upon creed. Though creed is often viewed in a religious context, it is also equally valid in a socio-political context. The fierce attachment with which many Americans cling to their right to arms is indeed a creed, dating back to Colonial times. Singling citizens out for special legal action is creed discrimination and illegal under civil-rights statutes. Where are the creative and ambitious civil-rights attorneys looking to break new ground and make a name for themselves…

Alan Korwin
Infringement is Constitutionally Banned
September 22, 2018
[Interesting idea. It’s worth a try. Toss it into the same lawsuit with the 2nd Amendment claim.

But if the courts won’t recognize the 2nd Amendment then why would one anyone think they would recognize your gun-owner creed?—Joe]

Vote No on #I1639

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Via a tweet:

DnrPMAAV4AA1jgc

You can’t be forced to give up one right to exercise another.

League of Women Voters Annual Forum on Ballot Measures (#I1639)

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Tonight, October 4th, the Seattle/King-County League of Women Voters is having a debate on Washington State ballot initiatives. This will include I-1639. It will be at The Collective (I’m not kidding!). The following is via a Facebook friend who works for Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership:

There will be a ballot initiative Forum organized by the League of Women Voters on Thursday, 4 Oct. Please plan to attend; 1639 is on the agenda. See below for details.

DETAILS
Location: The Collective
Address: 400 Dexter Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109
Neighborhood: South Lake Union
Parking: There’s a pay garage and street parking
Walk into lobby, you may have to check in with security. Tell them you’re there for the League of Women Voters event and proceed to the elevator. Go to the second floor and check in with either Chelsea or myself. This is where our event will be taking place. There will also be signage directing you on where to go. If you get lost or confused give me a ring at (206) 697-2698.

SCHEDULE
Before 6:00 PM, informal networking in the Collective’s bar HighTide (this will also be open after the event for similar use)
6:00 PM – 6:55 PM Tabling outside of forum room on second floor, please feel free to bring whatever literature, hand outs, etc. you’d like. The venue should have an area set up for you to do this.
7:00 PM Forum starts
940 Pro (Jack Sorenson) and Con (Mike Sloan) MIKE PLEASE CONFIRM
1631 Pro (Mo McBroom) and Con (Christian Gobel)
1634 Pro (Jim Desler) and Con (Jim Krieger)
1639 Pro (Stephen Paolini) and Con (Keely Hopkins) KEELY PLEASE CONFIRM
Seattle Preschool Promise Levy (LWV Education Committee)
9:00 PM Forum ends
9:00 – 10 PM HighTide is open for informal networking and discussion among speakers and participants

FORUM FORMAT
3 minute opening statements Pro
3 minute opening statements Con
15 minutes of questions (campaigns get 1 minute to answer questions, this should be like five questions per side with time to ask questions; we’ll make sure each side gets the same amount of questions)
2 minute closing statements Pro
2 minute closing statement Con

AV will be minimal, we’ll get you all mic’d up but there’s not going to be time for any visual presentations/slides. The current plan is to have chairs available for you to sit, and you can choose to either stand or sit while you talk. We want you to be as comfortable as possible.

Questions will be solicited from our members before the event and during the event from participants. If you need to arrive late/duck out early that is totally fine, but please let me know in case it impacts our schedule.

Our moderator will be either Dan Beakman or Jim Brunner from the Seattle Times. TVW has tentatively agreed to film and broadcast this for us.

Lastly, please feel free to broadcast this far and wide to your networks. We have a large space and want everyone to feel included and heard at this forum.

All the best,
Alyssa

—
Alyssa Weed
LWVSKC Second Vice President, Program Chair

My oldest daughter and I will be there. Please attend and show your support for stopping this terrible infringement upon our right to keep and bear arms.

Quote of the day—Randy Barnett

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Because I think the meaning of the text of the Constitution should remain the same until it is properly changed by amendment, and that judges have a constitutional duty to invalidate laws that conflict with that meaning, I believe the President’s choice of Brett Kavanaugh—who is otherwise highly qualified—should be confirmed. If Democrats disagree they should specify the approach they think is better.

If their “judicial philosophy” is that a judge should simply reach all the outcomes that a progressive Democrat would like the Supreme Court to reach, they should candidly say so. If they believe that the precedents they like—like Roe v. Wade—are sacrosanct, but those they detest—like Citizens United—are to be discarded, they should identify how we know which precedents are binding and which are not.

Failing that, they too should vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh.

Randy Barnett
The Case for Kavanaugh
October 1, 2018
[I agree.

H/T to David Hardy.—Joe]

Vote No on #I1639

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This evening I went to the NRA phone bank event and made calls to encourage people to vote against I-1639.

I’m an introvert. It’s uncomfortable for me to make calls to friends. It’s tough to make calls to businesses to ask if they have a particular product or to make an appointment to get my car repaired.

Making calls to people I don’t know, some of whom are openly hostile to what I have to say, puts my stomach in knots. I did this for about an hour two weeks ago before I had to stop. I went back last week but the office we had used the previous week was locked (they moved to a different office when someone forget the key or something, and I didn’t see them). I went back this evening hoping I could handle it better. Nope. It was worse.

I left after about 35 minutes of making calls. I decided my time could be better spent doing something else. I decided to gather up all the memes I could find and post them here (and Twitter, Facebook, and Gab).

In a little over an hour I have collected enough that I have one for every day between now and election day. There is a lot of repetition in the text of the message even though they have a different images so I’ll continue looking for new material (hint to Oleg, Stephanie, and Brian) and will boost the count per day as needed.

You are able to find all my posts on I-1639 by clicking on this link (the category link for “I-1639” at the bottom of this post). Share with people for whom you think will be receptive.

You can donate money (as I have done) here to support video ads like this:

You can also donate here to fund NRA efforts (as I have also done) to defeat I-1639.

Here is the first meme from my collection. Via a tweet:

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Quote of the day—Hanna Scott

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McDermott says if the state legislature is not going to pass stricter gun safety measures on its own it needs to get out of the way of cities and counties that want to do it on their own by repealing the state preemption law.

If that happens, the county’s gun safety action plan calls for immediately moving on to enact stricter gun laws, such as banning semi-automatic, high velocity weapons, banning high capacity magazines, raising the age to buy all guns to 21, establishing a waiting period, and requiring a firearm safety course in order to buy a gun.

The council voted through the controversial gun storage initiative on Monday afternoon by a 6-3 margin, with the three other initiatives passing unanimously.

Hanna Scott
October 2, 2018
King County Council approves wide-scoping Gun Safety Action Plan
[This is King County Washington which includes Seattle and many of the surrounding cities.

It appears to me that our best hope, and almost only hope, is to get a friendly SCOTUS. This crap has to stop.

Don’t ever let anyone get away with telling you that no one wants to take your guns.—Joe]

Help stop I-1639

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Via email from the NRA.

I’ll be at the Bellevue event.

Come join us at two NRA events happening this week in Northwest Washington. Connect with your NRA and do your part in opposing Initiative 1639.

On Wednesday, we’ll be calling our neighbors and supporters to inform them about I-1639, and rally their support to VOTE NO. Join us for two phone banks, in Bellevue and in Custer, Wednesday evening from 6:00pm to 9:00pm. The NRA will supply snacks, phones, and soda – just bring your voice and your dedication to defeat I-1639.

What: Custer “No on 1639” Phone Bank
When: Wednesday, October 3, 6pm
Where: Custer Sportsmen’s Club, 3000 Birch Bay Lynden Rd, Custer, WA 98240

What: Bellevue “No on 1639” Phone Bank
When: Wednesday, October 3, 6pm
Where:  Lower Level, 12500 NE 10th St, Bellevue, WA 98005

If you have any questions, or would like to know more about opportunities and ways you can get involved in opposing Initiative 1639, please contact me by phone at (310) 853-9419 or by email at julian@nrailafrontlines.com

Yours in freedom,

Julian Markowitz
Northwest Washington Campaign Field Representative
(310) 853-9419
julian@nrailafrontlines.com
http://www.nrailafrontlines.com/

Paid for by Washingtonians and the National Rifle Association for Freedom, 11250 Waples Mill Raod, Fairfax, VA 20030 Pursuant to WA 390-18-025(1), the top five contributors are: National Rifle Association of America, Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, Henry Harbert.

Rounds in the last month

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I reloaded 3,300 rounds of .40 S&W last month. 3,206 of those rounds were 180 grain Montana Gold JHP to be used for practice at indoor ranges. 94 rounds were 180 grain Hornady Action Pistol (HAP) bullets. The HAPs were those I ordered last May in response to the President of Hornady Manufacturing Company saying they would not knowingly allow their ammunition to be sold to the Government of the State of NY or any NY agencies.

Yesterday I tested the HAP rounds and found they were nearly identical in the mean standard deviation of the velocity for the same powder charge as what I get with the Montana Gold JHP. The accuracy appears to be better. Here is a 20 round group at 30 feet (1.75” of which some of the error was surely mine):

20181001_123025Cropped

The price isn’t quite as good as the Montana Gold bullets but I think I will switch over to the HAP bullets when I finish up the Montana Gold bullets because of Hornaday refusing to do business with New York.

This is by far the most number of rounds I have reloaded in a single month all year. And taking into consideration that I used a lot of my “reloading time” to install and get a new reloading press set up I’m very pleased. I also spent a fair amount of time individually checking the length of about 2,300 cartridges which had the potential to have a double charge which blew up my STI DVC Limited. No double charges found so far but I have about another 2000 rounds to go.

I purchased the Dillon XL650 mostly because of the powder check stage. This gives a buzzer warning if there is no powder or a double charge in a case. This should prevent another blown up gun. A bonus is that the new press with the automatic case feeder gives me almost double the production rate of the Dillon 550B press. This is why I was able to get so many rounds out this month.

Also, if you are a reloader, get the LED lights for your press. They give you a much better view of what you are doing:

20180930_182342

The picture above is of both presses with only the press lights on. With room lights on as well the reloading area is exceptionally well lit which makes it easier to see if something is a little off.

This brings the rounds year to date to 12,228. With the new press it should be pretty easily to meet my goal of getting to 16K by the end of the year. I may even exceed my previous best year of 23,356.

This brings my lifetime reloaded ammunition totals to:

223: 4,813 rounds.
30.06: 756 rounds.
300 WIN: 1,591 rounds.
40 S&W: 90,393 rounds.
45 ACP: 2,007 rounds.
9 mm: 21,641 rounds.
Total: 121,201  rounds

Quote of the day—Ashe Schow

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There is absolutely nothing an accused person can present that would actually be considered exculpatory. Meanwhile, any and all evidence just reinforces the accuser’s trauma and truthfulness.

Ashe Schow
5 Signs You’re In The Midst Of A Moral Panic
[Salem “witches”, the satanic panic of the 1980’s and 90’s, and others are discussed in the article.

It’s not a scholarly article but it’s good enough that you can see some common patterns that would have a low chance of false positives when broadly applied.

When Prophecy Fails also applies in many ways. Read my short synopsis of the book to get the gist of it.

The political left had a firmly believed prophecy that Hillary Clinton would win the 2016 election. When that failed they made a series of new prophecies involving the evils of a President Trump administration and prophesized all the more fervently. One of the more memorable was the prediction by Nobel Economics Prize winning economist Paul Krugman on election night:

It really does now look like President Donald J. Trump, and markets are plunging. When might we expect them to recover?

Frankly, I find it hard to care much, even though this is my specialty. The disaster for America and the world has so many aspects that the economic ramifications are way down my list of things to fear.

Still, I guess people want an answer: If the question is when markets will recover, a first-pass answer is never.

All the predictions about the various investigations of President Trump and his advisors will result in his impeachment have repeatedly been proven false. But evidence cannot convince them. These people are in a state of hysteria.

As long as the Five Conditions are met they will continue to remain in their irrational state and increase the passion with every prediction that is proved false:

  1. There must be conviction.
  2. There must be commitment to this conviction.
  3. The conviction must be amenable to unequivocal disconfirmation.
  4. Such unequivocal disconfirmation must occur.
  5. Social support must be available subsequent to the disconfirmation.

Their numbers are growing smaller and while a good sign for the long term the short term consequences of the increased passion means there is also increased potential for violence.—Joe]

Free ammo for a year

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Widener’s has a raffle for “free ammo for a year”. It’s not really all the ammo I would shoot in a year if it was free. It is a gift card for $1500 which might cover my .22 LR needs but wouldn’t come close to my total consumption. But, a $1500 gift card is nothing to be sneered at.

To enter the raffle visit this blog post and give them your email address in the edit box at the top of the blog post.

I’ve purchased stuff from them over the years (almost $2200 worth in the last 2.5 years) and I almost always check them for price and availability when I am purchasing reloading supplies. I sometimes find interesting things which I couldn’t find anywhere else. An example would be SS109 bullets for .223 in large quantities.

Full disclosure: I was contacted via email by Widener’s about this “free ammo for a year” raffle. If I linked to their blog post about the free ammo they offered to give me a $25.00 gift card and entry in a different raffle with other bloggers who also posted about their raffle.

Quote of the day—Cyberzen‏ @JDBonnar

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Young me reading history…”How did evil, tyrannical regimes exist like this within the last 100 years?”

Me in 2018 watching Democrats operate…”Oh.”

Cyberzen‏ @JDBonnar
Tweeted on September 30, 2018
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]