Author Archives: Joe

The view from my driveway

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While at the NRA annual meeting I bought a pair of glasses with lenses for sunglasses or safety glasses. The also have a camera (still or video with microphone) built in. The main reason for getting them is for shooting. I expect to be able to get feedback for training (pistol matches) and for shooting explosives.


The results are suprisingly good. Here is the view from my driveway (scaled down from 1080 x 1024 to 600 x 480)–The View From North Central Idaho:



Tomorrow I have a Steel Challenge match I am going to. I’m really looking forward to the video.

Quote of the day–Mayor Richard M. Daley

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Next will be hand grenades, right? We’ll say that hand grenades are OK. I mean, how far can you go in regards to mass weapons? To me, any gun taken off saves thousands of lives in America. I really believe that, I don’t care what people tell me. You have to thank the police officers for seizing all these weapons. We lead the country in seizing weapons. This is unbelievable.


Mayor Richard M. Daley
May 20, 2010
Mayor Daley Threatens to Shoot the Messenger—Namely, Me
[H/T to Rob who sent me an email.


“Any gun taken off saves thousands of lives”? Really? Yup, he says, “I really believe that.” There are approximately 200,000,000 guns in private hands in the U.S. If all of them were seized would there be 200 billion lives saved?


I think he says all we need know about what goes on in his mind when he says, “I don’t care what people tell me”. I never would have guessed.–Joe]

Distortions, exaggerations, and lies–it’s what they do

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Paul Helmke is at it again with Open Carry Equals Open Season?



From sunrise to sunset. In cities, suburbs, and rural areas. In climates both hot and cold. Every day, somewhere in America, people disagree over the littlest things. One person mistakes another person’s expression or gesture for an insult. And if one of those persons has a gun, then that littlest thing might lead to that gun being used.


What is it about open carry that differs from discreet carry that Helmke thinks will result in a little disagreement escalating into lethal force being used? We have millions and millions of people legally carrying guns, knives, Tasers, and pepper spray. Yet the occurrences of those being illegally used is quite rare. So why the hang up with open carry? Why should he believe a openly carried gun will be more likely to be used illegally than a discreetly carried gun?


It’s simple. It’s not about crime prevention. Open carry, over time, will desensitize the general population to the presence of ordinary people carrying defensive tools. Helmke and his organization rely on irrational fear to push their agenda. The more accepted it is for people to carry firearms in public the less able they are to accomplish their goals. It’s no different than mixed race or homosexual couples holding hands or kissing in public. Some people find it extremely disturbing and get all bent out of shape about it. It’s a specific enumerated right to freedom of association and it’s a specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms.


Helmke is a closed minded bigot and cannot let go of his prejudices even when he is staring at the face of factual data, and constitutional and common law going back hundreds of years.



In the foreground are Countertop, Paul Helmke, and Say Uncle. See also Alan Gura v. Paul Helmke.

Quote of the day–Jay G.

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Guns don’t kill people.


Dads with pretty daughters do.



Jay G.
On his t-shirt May 16, 2010.
[I can’t say that this actually happens that often. It was something I generally wanted to avoid but I did tell my daughters there was a “Blood for Tears” policy in effect (each girl tear would result in an ounce of boy blood) and they should inform the boys that came prowling. When I asked a couple of the boys if they had been fully informed they seemed surprised.


It turns out neither of my daughters had informed any of the boys.


I can’t imagine why they failed to do that. They are usually quite responsible. I would have hated to have been in the middle of a blood letting and had one of the girls back up the boys claim that he didn’t know.–Joe]

Militia Joe From Idaho

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If my memory is correct the following was originally broadcast on August 5, 1995 on the Swine Before Pearls television show (also a band) in Seattle, Washington. About the only things I can now find on the web about the show are here and here. I still have the CD from the band that has my picture from that evening on the cover.


I was going to save the video for the 15 year anniversary but there was renewed talk of an “Assault Weapon Ban” today.


I can’t watch it. It is embarrassing to me but nearly everyone that has seen it thinks it is good. They may just be attempting to make me feel better. The mangled words, the error with “three items” rather than two, other minor errors, and the obvious signs of discomfort are magnified 100 fold in my mind when I attempt to watch it.


My intent was to progress from the most extreme stereotype to something very normal to show the error of the viewing people exercising their rights in the stereotypical fashion.


Regardless of the efficacy of my effort and my comfort level this was one of my first public attempts to make a difference in the war on our right to keep and bear arms.








Maybe this will serve to show I can post really terrible pictures of myself as well as Caleb.

Quote of the day–Ry Jones

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Shoot at kids for not taking you seriously; the cops, once they arrive, will take you seriously.


Ry Jones
May 20, 2010
How to be taken seriously
[Uhhh… yes. That will work but it is highly discouraged.–Joe]

Tactical pants

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I didn’t see them on the exhibit floor but Say Uncle told a few of us that he saw some neat tactical pants there.


Via email from Jeanette we now have The Ultimate Guide to Tactical Pants.

Different

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A long time ago I concluded The Brady Campaign and others in the anti-gun camp had a different set of base assumptions. Sometimes it has been obvious they had different definitions for some words.


I think it may be both are true in this case. “Enjoy” just doesn’t map into what I am feeling when I look at that picture.

Quote of the day–NotaPIFan

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I’ve noticed a trend with right wing fascists, like the above-commentators. When a poll shows findings that counter their wacky ideas, challenge the credibility of the poll. Why do we allow a minority of crazy, right wing people who believe the earth was created in 6 days and in faith healing to so dominate our political discussions? Can’t we just send them to a farm where they can live out their cloudy-minded days in peace and without harming the rest of civilization?


NotaPIFan
Comment at 5/12/2010 11:02 a.m. to Should gun-control group wake up and smell hot joe?
[“Send them to a farm”? Didn’t Joseph Stalin do that as he was trying to implement his utopia?


Denial of civil rights, reeducation camps, and gulags–it’s what communists/socialists/liberals/progressives do. It’s in their nature and they can’t help it–but you can.–Joe]

Censorship

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While at the NRA Annual Meeting on Saturday I wore this shirt:



It got a lot of compliments while on the exhibit floor but something happened that night while at the blogger dinner. I’ve been told that I might have to burn that shirt. I would have never worn that shirt to work and figured as long as I stayed away for places like that I would be okay. But censors are sometimes where you least expect them. Yes, the heavy hand of censorship is threatening me because of that shirt.


On the night in question there were about 20 or 30 bloggers at this bar having dinner, drinking a few, and trying to talk to each other (it was very loud). Alan Gura had expressed, rather forcefully, that it was too loud and wanted to go someplace else so we could talk easier. I was up moving around and trying to shepherd people in the general direction of the door and to a nearby outdoor plaza with a quiet fountain and seating. From a nearby table filled with college students two young women approached me and said they really liked my shirt and they wanted a picture of one of them with me and the shirt. I obliged them.


I later told Say Uncle about it and he quipped, “I’ll bet you never thought you could use that shirt to pick up chicks, did you?” I laughed and said, “No.” That would have been the end of it had I not opened my big mouth later. Later that evening as I was talking to wife Barbara and she asked how my day had gone I told her of the event and Say Uncle’s joke. In the silence that followed I blissfully babbled on and told her of another funny thing that happened. This probably sealed the fate of that shirt.


As everyone was saying goodnight someone said how wonderful it was to meet and hang out with the celebrities like Michael Bane, Alan Gottlieb, and god of gods Alan Gura. I agreed and added something like, and pointing at Mike W, “But you said I was a celebrity.” Mike protested, “But you are a celebrity. You are the Boomershoot guy!” Dixie was standing just to the right of me and said, “You are the Boomershoot guy?” and stretched her arms out with fingers straight, palms flat, and bowed to me.


Barb hasn’t actually said it in words but I’m pretty good at reading the silence.


I think I’m going to have to burn the shirt.

Quote of the day–Breda

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Joe Huffman is not really a redneck.


…


He seems very sophisticated, not a redneck at all.


Breda
May, 2010
The Educated Redneck
[I probably would have responded with something like, “You can fool all of the people some of the time…” but Alan had a more unique response which I also considered for use as the QOTD.


I have to wonder if she said this before or after I explained how current womens fashion was destroying old growth habitat and creating an endangered species in the NRA Press Room to a bunch of bloggers while she was there.


See also a more serious and detailed response as to why I have the subtitle I do.


Thank you Breda.–Joe]

Wow!

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I really should read the decision before saying a whole lot but my first impression is that this is incredibly alarming:



In a broad endorsement of federal power, the Supreme Court on Monday ruled that Congress has the authority under the Constitution to allow the continued confinement of some sex offenders after they have completed their criminal sentences.


Prisoner: “Today is the day my sentence is complete!”


Government: “Today is the day we start keeping you in prison without due process and ex post facto increase the penalty as long as we feel like it.”


[H/T to Chet from work.]

Quote of the day–Neal Knox

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There is a silly notion, fervently adhered to by many gun owners, that if our side of the gun issue would just sit down and talk with the other side, we could work out a “reasonable” compromise that would satisfy “society’s need to keep guns out of the hands of criminals,” while imposing little inconvenience upon law-abiding gun owners.

…and the lion shall lie down with the lamb.

Neal Knox
July 29, 1988
The Insatiable Thirst To Ban Guns
The Gun Rights War, page 118.
[He goes on to explain that after every infringement concession the anti-gun people immediately propose a further infringement. No concession by the proponents of freedom has ever appeased the anti-freedom forces.

Chris Knox added a note to the article and pointed out:

The single exception to the history of NRA either supporting or acquiescing to every Federal gun law now on the book is the 1994 Clinton ‘assault weapon’ ban. Bill Clinton signed that bill half a decade after this piece was originally written. ILA, under the leadership of hardliners, fought the Clinton ban with everything it had–and lost. The tactical loss turned into a strategic victory. The long-term result was the Democrats losing its lock on the House majority and the first sitting Speaker to be turned out of office in a century.

Today we are still enjoying the benefits of this “strategic victory” that occurred 16 years ago. The AWB is no more, the anti-gun people have significantly scaled back their ambitions, and still congress gives them a cold shoulder.

I found this quote particularly applicable because of a story Dave Hardy told a small group of us at lunch yesterday. He told us that during the debate for the Gun Control Act of 1968 the NRA seriously considered conceding defensive handguns and rallying around hunting rifles and shotguns.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Dixie

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Mike, you’ve had the same “relationship” with gun bloggers that a baseball has with a Louisville Slugger.


Dixie
May 15, 2010
Referring to MikeB302000 in a comment here after MikeB said, “Joe, Thanks so much for posting those pictures. I feel like I’ve met them now too, some of whom I’ve had quite a relationship with over the last year or two.”
[That was out of the park Dixie. Thank you.–Joe]

More blogger pictures

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Dave Hardy



Sebastian and Bitter.



Danielle Sturgis



I have five pictures of Caleb and this is the least sucky.



I have one picture of Caleb’s wife, Lindsey, and it is great.



This is the first time I have met Nancy R.



Daughter of Nancy R.



Husband of Nancy R.


Update: In the comments Danielle says she doesn’t care for her picture. Here is another which I don’t think is any better, but maybe it is…


Typical

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The word came out this morning that there was going to be a protest at 2:00 PM here at the NRA Annual meeting. About 10 minutes early Say Uncle and I started scanning the sidewalks and plazas in front of the convention center. Nothing. We followed a video camera crew around for a while as they interviewed a bunch of gun people.


About 10 minutes after 2:00 Say Uncle approached the camera crew and asked if they were here for the protest. They said no, but the protesters had shown up earlier. But there were maybe ten of them and they already left, “They were little old ladies in their 80’s and they had to go home and take a nap or something.”


Update: Alan caught them and has some pictures on Facebook:



Running scared

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Mayor Bloomberg sees the writing on the wall and is backing down on the repressive gun laws in New York City:



The Bloomberg administration announced on Friday that it was moving to simplify the process for New Yorkers to obtain gun permits, thus speeding up a set of byzantine licensing requirements that gun-rights advocates have long criticized as among the most restrictive in the country.


Administration officials said that the move was forged by a City Hall focused on efficiency and that it would allow for better investigation of applicants who might not qualify for a gun while more swiftly satisfying those fit to have them.


But the timing of the decision was curious to some, as it follows a 2008 Supreme Court ruling that struck down parts of the gun-control law in the District of Columbia and subsequent challenges to gun laws in other places.


“If I were working for the mayor in New York, in the legal department particularly, I’d be saying: ‘Are we sure we can defend these laws? Are there things to do, ahead of time, that will make it easier for us to defend them?’ ” said Paul Helmke, the president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. “I would be surprised if that were not the thinking.”


The announcement was an unexpected turn for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who has made national headlines with his efforts to take guns out of criminals’ hands and stem their trafficking, like using private investigators to pose as gun buyers in sting operations and suing gun dealers in several states.


My guess is they know they are the top of the list and in the cross-hairs for the next lawsuit and didn’t want to be in that position.


My advice to Bloomberg is–if you run you will only die tired.


(H/T to Alan Gottlieb @ SAF who told me about it this morning)

Quote of the day–Paul Helmke

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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.

My book list

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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

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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.