I don’t much care for country music but this one is okay.
Via Don S. from the gun email list at work who says, “This made the hair on the back of my neck stand up and sent a chill down my spine! So COOL!!”
Author Archives: Joe
Quote of the day—Dan
Bad people in power WILL NOT STOP. They will continue to do bad things to us until we stop them…. and stopping them will require the use of force. All other discussion on the matter is window dressing.
Dan
April 21, 2013
Comment to Quote of the day—Senator Charles Schumer
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
New shooter smile
Via email from Will:
It was taken at the Norpoint range in Arlington WA.
And that is part of why we win.
Red Girl Red State
Quote of the day—Brian Lydon
@linoge_wotc Why can’t #radical #gun #nuts like you ever seem to get your hands on a big enough gun? #3inchdick
Brian Lydon (@brianchicago76)
Tweeted on January 23, 2013
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday! Via still another Tweet from Linoge.—Joe]
Quote of the day—Senator Charles Schumer
We have foot soldiers everywhere answering the foot soldiers of the NRA and the gun owners of America, and I am telling you, we are going to win this fight a lot sooner than you think.
Senator Charles Schumer
April 20, 2013
Schumer Cheers On Gun Control Advocates In Midtown
[Dream on.
Our activists outnumber theirs 100 to 1. We have the facts on our side. We have the Bill of Rights on our side. And most importantly we have rational people on our side (compared to Joan Peterson and many others).—Joe]
Quote of the day—Paul Waldman
The truth is that most of the people who threatened to filibuster the background check bill aren’t afraid of the NRA. They’re on its side. They don’t need to be intimidated or even persuaded.
Paul Waldman
April 19, 2013
Gun control fight just beginning
[I realize it is hard for the anti-gun people to comprehend but it’s the truth.
It’s not about the NRA making money from gun sales. It’s not about the NRA buying off politician. It’s not about the NRA threatening to oppose a politician that votes the wrong way. There is no Triangle of Death as they claim.
People actually believe that people have the inalienable right to keep and bear arms and that it must not be infringed. The Bill of Rights says this. The Supreme Court of the United States has confirmed this.
The facts actually support the claim that guns are used to save more innocent lives that they used to take innocent life.
These strongly held beliefs and facts are why there exist politicians on our side. This is why we are winning.
And, most importantly, this is why the anti-gun people are on the wrong side of history and will be swept aside as we push forward to reclaim our infringed rights.—Joe]
Tab clearing
I have a bunch of open tabs in my browser and I only have a few minutes before I’m leaving for 10 days to put on Boomershoot. I’ll have some time to make a few blog posts but I want to clear these up before I go.
It’s rare but sometimes they really do say the incredibly stupid things that we accuse them of:
Rep. Jackson Lee: ‘Don’t Condemn the Gangbangers’ – We Need Gun Legislation
Jackson Lee took the House floor on April 9 to argue in favor of increased gun control legislation, “Don’t condemn the gangbangers, they’ve got guns that are trafficked — that are not enforced, that are straw purchased and they come into places even that have strong gun laws.”
“Why? Because we don’t have sensible gun legislation.”
Jackson Lee continued by saying that current gun laws need to be enforced, “I’m going to agree with my friends on the other side of the isle. Our Republican friends, let’s enforce the gun laws that we have – – who would run away from that. That’s a sensible proposition. Put a resolution on the floor of the House – – let’s enforce gun laws that we have.”
Yes. She said that. Blame the gun not the criminals.
Yes. She said that. Put a resolution on the floor to enforce existing laws.
Her babblings should qualify her for dementia medicine trials.
I could only see four out of the ten weapons being in the category “you won’t believe are legal”. And then only if you don’t understand the 2nd Amendment. They had to be desperate for content:
10 Weapons You Won’t Believe Are Legal
- Flame Thrower
- Miniguns
- Katana
- Cannon
- Crossbow
- Grenade Launchers
- Nunchucks
- Umbrella Sword
- Speargun
- Chain Whip
There has to be more to this than what I have had time to dig into.
Judge: lawsuits can proceed against theater owner in Colorado massacre
A federal judge refused on Wednesday to dismiss wrongful death and personal injury claims brought against a movie theater chain on behalf of victims of last summer’s mass shooting at a suburban Denver screening of the Batman film “The Dark Knight Rises.”
U.S. District Judge R. Brooke Jackson ruled that Cinemark
USA, owner of the theater where 12 people were shot
dead, could potentially be found liable for damages under a
Colorado law that holds landowners responsible for activities on their property.
What? The best I could come up with for a plausible grounds for claiming the theater was responsible was if the plaintiffs believed they were disarmed and unable to protect themselves. And I think that is only about 10% chance of being the case.
Yes. Some people blamed the 2nd Amendment for the Boston bombing:
What bothers me most about today is that we’re getting used 2 it. ENOUGH. 2nd amendment must go. Violence has 2 stop. Culture MUST change.
— Jay Mohr (@jaymohr37) April 15, 2013
I once had a boss suggest that I was making so much money at time and a half on weekends that I shouldn’t fly back to Idaho to visit my family. I should just hire a hooker to give me blow jobs under the desk while I continued to write code. I laughed and went home for the weekend.
It turns out there might actually be a market for that sort of service:
Silicon Valley’s other entrepreneurs: Sex workers
In a quiet cafe outside San Francisco, “Josephine” — a local prostitute — arranges a collection of t-shirts across the table. They’re emblazoned with phrases like “Winter is Coming” and “Geeks Make Better Lovers.” She wears them in her online ads to catch the eye of the area’s well-off engineers and programmers.
“I’m trying to communicate to them that I understand a little bit what it’s like to be techy, nerdy, geeky,” she says. There’s another thing Josephine and her clients have in common: Like many of the techies she caters to, Josephine views herself as an entrepreneur.
Quote of the day—Tim Wadsworth
There’s an overall increase in sense of well-being that comes with engaging in sex more frequently, but there’s also this relative aspect to it. Having more sex makes us happy, but thinking we are having more sex than other people makes us even happier.
Tim Wadsworth
April 2013
Keeping up with the Joneses? Having more sex than your friends makes you happier, study finds
[Well duh!
I just hope no tax money was used to do his study. But it’s difficult to imagine any private investors sponsoring such a thing so it probably many taken at the point of a gun.
There is in interesting angle about this. People are made happy if they are better off than their neighbors. Or, put another way, people are less happy if their neighbors are better off than them. The progressives/communists prey upon this unhappiness and offer to bring the haves down to the level of the have-nots.
So when the communists get their way and everyone has equal material possessions and people are still not equally happy because of disparate quality or quantity of sex what will they advocate for then? Will people with super model appearances be required to “share” with the “less fortunate”?—Joe]
You knew it was coming
Not one to let a crisis go to waste it is no surprise Frank Lautenberg is the first to come out with this:
As a result of Monday’s bombing in Boston, New Jersey senator Frank Lautenberg will introduce legislation requiring background checks for the sale of explosive powder. Lautenberg is also filing the bill as an amendment to the gun legislation currently being debated on the Senate floor.
I don’t suppose Lautenberg, Schumer, et. al. would care but some of the more sane politicians might be interested to know that flour, coffee creamer, and many other powders can be made to explode as well.
But the biggest loser will probably be consumers of Tannerite. The proposed law would require a permit to mix explosives.
And since black powder has been made since the 7th Century the recipe composed of potassium nitrate, sulfur, and charcoal is well known and the processes are very low tech. Precursor materials to make the potassium nitrate can be as common as urine. It is also in some toothpastes. Sulfur is a common element, is found in many fertilizers, as well as occurring naturally. And of course charcoal is easy to come by. The government can’t seem to significantly reduce the availability of recreational drugs or firearms, and you can be sure black powder is going to be available in the black market they create.
Lautenberg and company do not have public safety in mind. They have control in mind. The more laws there are the more control exists over the people. In this case Ayn Rand certainly knew what she was talking about.
Quote of the day—President Barack Obama
All in all, this was a pretty shameful day for Washington.
President Barack Obama
April 17, 2013
Senate Votes to Block Expanded Background Checks for Gun Sales
[Yes. It was shameful that so many people put so much effort into attempting to infringe upon a specific enumerated right. This forced millions of other people to put their own effort into stopping that attempt. The entire country, especially the politicians, had important other things to do and we had to take time out to fight the statist scum.
When they spend so much time, stealing our time and resources in the process, on such a destructive task It is hard to imagine that our political opponents want anything other than the destruction of our entire country.
Shameful doesn’t even begin to describe it. Criminal and treasonous come much closer.
But this just might have been their last stand.—Joe]
Petition to repeal the 2nd Amendment
Via an email from Squirrel Hunter:
I think this was a wonderful idea. The list of signatures should be used to prohibit them from ever voting or holding public office.
This should be clear and convincing evidence people would sign a petition to fine everyone $10,000 and blow up every bridge in the state.
Quote of the day—Robb Allen
Arguing with @csgv about constitutional law is like arguing with Stevie Wonder over color palettes.
Robb Allen (@PantsFree)
Tweeted on April 17, 2013
[I strongly suspect this was in regard to this conversation Linoge was having with CSGV.
While there is a lot of truth to what Robb and Linoge are saying it’s also true that the U.S. Constitution deliberately gave the Federal government more power than it had. The Articles of Confederation before it did not give it enough power and failure was imminent. So there is a grain of truth in the CSGV saying, “… the Union could only be preserved by strengthening the federal government”.
What the CSGV appears to completely overlook is that while the Constitution increased the power of the Federal Government it also severely limited it’s powers. Those limits are mostly ignored now and again one could argue failure is at least foreseeable if not imminent.
However in the present case the solution is not more power. As President Reagan said, “… government is not the solution to our problem. Government is the problem.”—Joe]
Quote of the day—President Barack Obama
We still do not know who did this or why. And people shouldn’t jump to conclusions before we have all the facts.
President Barack Obama
April 15, 2013
In regard to the bombs detonated at the Boston Marathon.
[I fully agree.—Joe]
Boston explosives
I’m setting aside the tears that come from looking at the pictures and reading the articles and just channeling “Spock” as best I can on something I know a little bit about.
The first thing I noticed from watching the video and then from the still photo I found at the Los Angles Times is that this looks like a crude homemade bomb.
Here is a cropped version from the Boston Globe YouTube video:
This is a full two seconds later from that same video:
See all that flame? And it looks as if there is still fuel burning in the cloud two seconds after the explosion.
I’m almost certain that no commercial or military explosive produces that much flame. Something like that would be totally banned in the mining industry.
That may mean there was a great excess of fuel in the explosive composition. Boomerite has an excess of oxygen which makes for easier detonation. Maximum power comes from a balance of oxygen and fuel. Some explosives are naturally oxygen or fuel rich. For example TNT is fuel rich. During WW II they would add ammonium nitrate which is (under the proper conditions) an explosive that is oxygen rich. The excess oxygen in the AN increased the power of the detonation by consuming the excess fuel of the TNT.
With that much flame persisting that long after the explosion occurred means huge amounts of power was wasted in light and relatively slowly expanding gases. This was not a military grade explosive. Getting the most bang for the least weight is worth the cost of getting the oxygen balance right.
This means it’s a homemade explosive.
Another possibility is that it wasn’t really a detonation at all but rather a deflagration. For example gun powders typically do not detonate. They “just” burn very rapidly. The flash you see at the muzzle of your gun at night (and sometimes even in bright sunlight) is composed mostly of burning particles of gunpowder. Confine the powder in a strong closed container, such as a pipe, and you get an explosion when the container bursts.
From the sound of the explosion and the speed of the blast product development I’m leaning toward a deflagration.
Mr. Completely sent me an email asking if I could “rule either in or out that readily available reloading powder could have been used”. My answer to that question is that I think it is definitely possible.
Update April 16, 6:20 AM: At least one source says:
…the devices used gunpowder as the explosive and were packed with ball bearings and other shrapnel to maximise injuries.
Update April 16, 1:25 PM: Rick Boatwright has an excellent analysis which points to black powder being the explosive.
Politeness
Apparently when I’m woken up in the middle of the night and asked to roll on my side because I snore when I sleep on my back I ask, “Which side?”
If you were to believe all the lies told by the anti-gun people about bumping into a shopping cart in the aisle at Safeway causing mass shootings you might expect a different outcome. The most plausible outcome in their world view would seem to be I would just shoot them with the gun next to the bed and continue sleeping on my back.
Perhaps Heinlein was right about being armed and politeness.
Quote of the day—Lisie G
zombies aren’t REALLY taking over instead of assault weapons try penis implants..you’ll be fine with “regular guns” #dontbedumb #guncontrol
Lisie G (@GreekSiren87)
Tweeted on January 21, 2013
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday! Via still another Tweet from Linoge.—Joe]
Boomershoot 2013 shirts
I’ve created the Boomershoot 2013 Cafepress store.
The image (via Barron Barnett, see also his post) on the products is:
You don’t have to be a participant to buy from the store. And there is still time to enter the event if you do want to participate.
We used 14 pounds of explosives and 13 gallons of gasoline for the fireball in the image above.
I got a really good deal on 150 gallons of fuel this year. Ry was a little evasive in his answers but I’m pretty sure he promised not to use it all up this year. You should attend to find out what he has planned. Nomex clothing is optional.
Random thought of the day
If universal respect for the right to keep and bear arms saved just one nation from just one genocide wouldn’t it be worth it?
Quote of the day—Cook’s Helper
Cook: [Pointing to a very well endowed woman’s breast area] You have some soup on your shirt there.
Cook’s Helper: Damn!
Cook’s Helper 2: Would like someone to lick it off for you?
Cook’s Helper: One of my three partners will get to it before you could.
Overheard April 13, 2013
[I have interesting friends.—Joe]