To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.
George Washington
First annual address to Congress, 1790.
[I was reminded of this by my (and about 125 other people) preparations for Boomershoot.–Joe]
Author Archives: Joe
Tales of woe
I usually keep my email on my computer in my Seattle area bunker then access it remotely. I decided not to do that for the trip to Idaho time because the battery for the uninterruptable power supply went dead. I purchased a new one but the control software says it is dead also. One power glitch and that computer is offline. So I transfered my email to my laptop. So far so good.
This morning the bunker computer went offline. Glad I moved all the critical files to the laptop. Lots of last minute email from Boomershoot people changing things like dinner plans, High Intensity participation, shooting partners etc. It was all safely on the laptop.
I was just finishing up thing at work before I left for Boomershoot country and my laptop died. It won’t boot. It will try then suddenly shut off. Ouch.
I called work and filled them in with things and they will manage fine without me. But that Excell spreadsheet with all the last minute Boomershoot changes was a problem. I had things backed up one more place. An home server computer that automatically gets all of the files in certain directories of my laptop and bunker computers. Unfortunately it doesn’t have Microsoft Office on it. I took the server computer with me (it’s an old laptop that son James was going to throw away).
When I got to the farm I borrowed my brother’s computer and printed out the spreadsheet pages I needed and I think I’m good to go again on that front.
Driving into the Taj Mahal there was one spot that was completely dry last time I was here and I didn’t expect it to be filled with water and soft mud. I hit it with the car going much too slow. I threw mud all over and just barely pulled through it. I figured I can probably get back through it okay by hitting it a lot faster the next time.
I set up my tent and unloaded most of the stuff out of the car… then it started raining about 6:30 PM. It’s raining hard (currently 7:07 PM). The entire area is a slip and slide now. I don’t think I’m going anywhere tonight.
I had planned to get the ATV and little trailer over here tonight so I could transport all the various stuff to the shooting line and the hillside. That is going to have to wait now.
Update: It has stopped raining now (8:25 PM) and my main laptop is working again. I’ve sent and received email. My tester at work says she fixed one of my bugs and another tester resolved another bug of mine as “No Repro” so I’m down to just two bugs. Thanks Crystal and Satya! I’ll think up something special for you guys at the Private Boomershoot Party next weekend.
Boomershoot weather
The weather forecast for Boomershoot this year is looking great. There will be a few people, including myself, in tents that might get a few drops of rain early tomorrow morning:
| HOUR |  | Wed 8AM | Wed 2PM | Wed 8PM | Thu 2AM | Thu 8AM | Thu 2PM | Thu 8PM | Fri 2AM |
| SKY | |  |  |  |  |  | |  | |
| CHANCE OF PRECIPITATION | | Little / None | Little / None | Little / None | Slight | Slight | Little / None | Little / None | Little / None |
| TEMP (F) | | 56° | 59° | 57° | 51° | 52° | 62° | 57° | 45° |
| DEWPOINT (F) | | 44° | 44° | 45° | 43° | 40° | 36° | 33° | 32° |
| HUMIDITY | | 64% | 57% | 64% | 74% | 63% | 38% | 40% | 60% |
| WIND (MPH) | | E 3 | NW 9 | W 7 | W 5 | W 3 | NW 13 | S 6 | SW 2 |
But the Precision Rifle Clinic and the main event should be fine:
| DAY | | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed |
| | | | | | | | |
| SKY | |  |  | | | | | |
| HI TEMP (F) | | 64 | 66 | 61 | 62 | 66 | 66 | 63 |
| LO TEMP (F) | | 49 | 39 | 45 | 40 | 39 | 44 | 45 |
Forecast by My-Cast.
Quote of the day–Ronald Reagan
Here’s my strategy on the Cold War: We win, they lose.
Ronald Reagan
[A good strategy for the “war” on gun rights as well.
This weekend is my most important “battle” for the year.–Joe]
A threat to safety and democratic rights
An email from the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence:
Today, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer announced that the District of Columbia Voting Rights Act would be pulled from consideration in the U.S. House of Representatives because of the chamber’s inability to stop a National Rifle Association (NRA) amendment that would have effectively gutted the city’s gun laws. “The price was way too high,” said Hoyer, who indicated he made the decision along with D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton.
The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (CSGV) applauds Majority Leader Hoyer and Delegate Norton for making this hard decision and for acknowledging that the bill was a threat to D.C. residents’ safety and democratic rights. It is a tragedy that a bill that would have extended voting representation in Congress to American citizens who richly deserve it was undermined by the NRA’s insidious agenda.
A recent decision by a federal judge upheld the District of Columbia’s new gun laws as constitutional and torpedoed the NRA’s claims that these regulations are arbitrary and tyrannical. Nonetheless, the NRA pressed ahead and put their petty, partisan agenda ahead of the civil rights of 600,000 patriotic Americans. Their goal was to drive a wedge between D.C. residents, but in the end we emerged unified and more determined than ever.
CSGV has been committed to obtaining full democracy for the District for 40 years. Our president, Mike Beard, was the first executive director of Self-Determination for D.C., a national coalition that was instrumental in passing the Home Rule Act in 1973. In recent years, we have been proud to advocate for voting representation and political autonomy for District residents.
We would like to thank the many individuals and organizations who stepped forward to protect the principle of self-determination in the District. Among them were the 13 members of the D.C. Council, ROOT (Reaching Out to Others Together), the League of Women Voters, DC for Democracy, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, the D.C. Democratic Party, and—most importantly—family members who lost loved ones in the March 30 mass shooting in Southeast Washington.
I find it very telling CSGV calls the repeal of the oppressive D.C. gun laws “a threat to … democratic rights”. I didn’t know we had “democratic rights”. We have civil rights. We have voting rights. But “democratic rights” is something new to me. A quick Bing search indicates it is not a common U.S. phrase. My suspicion is that CSGV knew use of the more common “civil rights” would have yielded laughter and claims of ignorance and/or bigotry. And of course in the next paragraph they overlook the fact that the NRA is very concerned with civil rights. But despite all nine Supreme Court justices agreeing with the NRA that the right to keep and bear arms is a constitutionally protected individual right CSGV is willing to push for the clearly unconstitutionally representative for D.C. in the U.S. Congress. Apparently the U.S. Constitution is irrelevant to their agenda as is safety. If they were concerned with resident safety they would recognize that violence crime is much lower just across the political boundaries on all sides of D.C. where gun laws are more relaxed and that in the last year after D.C.’s fun laws were found unconstitutional violent crime reduced rather than increased as the anti-gun people predicted.
It would seem to me that a rational person would observe that the correlation between restrictive gun laws and high crime is positive in D.C. and that the relaxing of gun laws coincided with reduced violent crime. A rational person would be willing to relax the gun laws even more yet at every turn they fight for more restrictive laws. I can only conclude CSGV does not have rational people or they are not concerned with resident safety as they claim.
I have to smile at them anyway because as they whine about people being allowed restricted access to firearms I’m preparing for over 100 ordinary people to play with guns and explosives for four days. My accomplishments in the next few days will be on television (and has been before and the show was even nominated for an Emmy) and reach thousands of times more people than their pathetic news release.
That explains it
I got a call from a guy in the Seattle area last night asking about Boomershoot.
KING5 Evening Magazine ran their Boomershoot 2005 video again. They put a new introduction on it and called it Blowing off steam at Boomershoot this time.
The guy that called signed up a few minutes later and will be attending on Sunday.
Update: I got another call from the Seattle area from someone else seriously considering attending.
Quote of the day–James
Conservatives admire radicals who were right. Liberals admire radicals who have been proven wrong, but remain convinced that the theory is sound if only the right people were in charge….
James
April 19, 2010
In a comment to Quote of the day–Leo C. Rosten.
[Of course this disregards the redefinition of “liberal” that has occurred over the last 150 years.
Reading between the lines of this you can see why it is so important to “liberals” to engage in voter fraud and engage in political violence. They want a powerful (and frequently totalitarian) government and they know it is critical “the right people” control such a powerful government.–Joe]
Rivrdog’s ‘Box-Stock’ Rifle Mini-Match
Rivrdog has finalized the rules for the Boomershoot Mini-Match on Friday and Saturday.
He has changed the originally proposed rules such that I won’t be able to game it as I had contemplated.
Boomershoot 2009 video
Barron just put up his Boomershoot 2009 video.
I would attempt to make some snarky comment about procrastination but daughter Xenia is the Queen of Procrastination and she probably inherited that trait from me.
Quote of the day–Leo C. Rosten
Conservative: One who admires radicals centuries after they’re dead.
Leo C. Rosten
[There is more than a little truth in this.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Barbara Scott
You are in Boomershoot mode. I can sense the energy.
Barbara Scott
April 18, 2010
[Yeah. Boomershoot has been consuming nearly all my cycles and actually Barb is being a more than a little bit generous in saying she can “sense the energy”. I tend to get grumpy with her.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Karl Marx
Democracy is the road to socialism.
Karl Marx
[See also Socialism and Democracy.
Although Marx had not yet been born the Founding Father’s knew better than to give us a Democracy and created a Republic with enumerated powers instead. This has gradually been corrupted into an unlimited power monstrosity through appeals to Democracy. Remember this whenever someone espouses the virtues of Democracy. We don’t want a Democracy.
This quote was inspired by certain recent political events. I find it very telling that when asked where in the Constitution the Federal government is given the power to force people to buy health insurance the leaders of this monster say (via Bill Whittle), “Are you serious?” I think the appropriate answer to Ms. Pelosi’s response would have been to lower your voice by about an octave and slowly and clearly say, “As. Serious. As. A. Heart. Attack.“–Joe]
Quote of the day–George S. Patton, Jr.
I want you to remember that no bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He won it by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country.
George S. Patton, Jr.
Exhortation to troops, North Africa
[Even if we if only speak figuratively about fighting a culture “war” with the enemies of freedom the same sort of exhortation applies. “Dying” may be an economic “death” of their organizations from lack of donations. Or it may be that we starve them of media coverage because we outnumber them 10 (or 100) to 1 at rallies. But still we win the war by “killing off” their “troops” (supporters).
Think in terms of your activism doing the most damage possible to your opponents rather than sacrifice of yourself.
Also of possible interest is people attending Boomershoot this year will be within a mile or so of one of Patton’s Jeep drivers who served in Europe during WW II. He has a farm nearby and lives just over the hill a little way from the Boomershoot site.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Abraham Lincoln
If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. It is true that you may fool all the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.
Abraham Lincoln
From Lincoln’s Yarns and Stores by Alexander McClure, page 81.
[Brady Campaign, Violence Policy Center; this is for you.–Joe]
Boomershoot 2010 open positions
There have been some more last minute cancelations and we now have six seven open shooting positions for Boomershoot 2010.
- Positions #2 and #4 in .50 Caliber Ghetto are open.
- Position #11 in Lowlands is open.
- Position #33 and #36 in Main are open.
- Positions #47 and #51 (this is the better position if you are going to shoot from the berm) in Berm is open.
There are lots of positions available for both the Friday and Saturday evening High Intensity events.
Sign up here: http://entry.boomershoot.org/
Update: Position 33 just opened up as well.
Quote of the day–Charles Bradlaugh
Without free speech no search for truth is possible … no discovery of truth is useful … Better a thousandfold abuse of free speech than denial of free speech. The abuse of dies in a day, but the denial slays the life of the people, and entombs the hope of the race.
Charles Bradlaugh
1890
[And what ultimately protects free speech from infringement? Our contracts with our governments, our constitutions. And how do we enforce our contracts? With the soap box, the ballot box, the jury box, and when all else fails, the cartridge box. Hence, a similar claim could be made of the importance of the “cartridge box” as Bradlaugh did for free speech. There will be abuse with such freedom exists. But the abuse will be minor compared to the catastrophe that awaits the society that embraces the denial of the specific, enumerated right to keep and bear arms.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Bill Summer
When it comes to realism about elections, democrats (the Evil Party) generally do better than republicans (the Stupid Party). Democrats really want to win. They’re motivated by a belief that America is a sexist, racist, homophobic, unfair, unequal country. At the same time, they believe that society can be fundamentally changed by the political process. Therefore, getting and keeping political power means everything, and justifies any and all subterfuges. In addition, many democrats know that if they don’t win, they don’t eat. Many leftwing activists live on government paychecks, or government grants to organizations that, like ACORN, meet their budgets with taxpayer money.
Bill Summer
Via Alan Korwin
[This matches my impression but Summers expresses it more eloquently than I could.–Joe]
USPSA match results
I shot in a USPSA pistol match yesterday. I knew I did quit well in two of the stages (I thought I probably had won both but I only won one of them). But I figured I messed up some of the other stages bad enough to drop me down to fourth or fifth place overall.
It turns out I came in second overall–a close second to Master class shooter Adam who was having a really bad day:
Place Name USPSA Class Division PF Lady Mil Law For Age Points Stg %
1 ADAM A42720 M Limited Major N N N N 269.0633 100.00%
2 JOE TY29386 B Limited Major N N N N 255.2261 94.86%
3 KW L2847 C Limited 10 Major N N N N Senior 254.4007 94.55%
4 KEVIN L2544 C Open Major N N N N 250.8631 93.24%
5 MIKE A39993 A Limited 10 Major N N N N 245.9446 91.41%
6 DON TY25213 A Limited Major N N N N Senior 217.3348 80.77%
7 Roger U Revolver Major N N N N 207.5478 77.14%
8 Robert A67563 U Limited 10 Major N N N N 185.8986 69.09%
9 John A65903 D Limited Minor N N N N 174.7153 64.93%
10 Roger U Limited 10 Major N N N N Senior 165.1802 61.39%
11 Richard U Limited 10 Major N N N N 154.8904 57.57%
12 ADAM REENTRY A Revolver Major N N N N 142.7239 53.04%
13 DON REENTRY U Production Minor N N N N Senior 132.5499 49.26%
14 Bill A67422 U Limited Minor N N N N 118.3946 44.00%
15 Trent U Limited Minor N N N N 110.4684 41.06%
Individual stage results were:
Stage: 1 3-V
Place Name Class Division Pts Pen Time Hit Fact Stg Pts Stg %
1 ADAM M Limited 64 0 8.72 7.3394 70.0000 100.00%
2 JOE B Limited 60 0 9.61 6.2435 59.5478 85.07%
3 MIKE A Limited 10 67 20 9.94 4.7284 45.0974 64.42%
4 Robert U Limited 10 66 0 14.26 4.6283 44.1427 63.06%
5 KW C Limited 10 62 20 9.94 4.2254 40.3000 57.57%
R6 DON U Production 66 0 16.46 4.0097 38.2428 54.63%
7 John D Limited 68 0 17.26 3.9397 37.5751 53.68%
8 Roger U Revolver 66 0 18.09 3.6484 34.7968 49.71%
9 KEVIN C Open 64 20 12.34 3.5656 34.0071 48.58%
10 Roger U Limited 10 64 0 18.18 3.5204 33.5760 47.97%
11 DON A Limited 60 10 14.53 3.4412 32.8207 46.89%
12 Bill U Limited 54 0 17.33 3.1160 29.7191 42.46%
R13 ADAM A Revolver 61 10 17.00 3.0000 28.6127 40.88%
14 Richard U Limited 10 70 0 24.37 2.8724 27.3957 39.14%
15 Trent U Limited 31 30 15.31 0.0653 0.6228 0.89%
Stage: 2 Paper Poppers
Place Name Class Division Pts Pen Time Hit Fact Stg Pts Stg %
1 JOE B Limited 47 0 6.90 6.8116 50.0000 100.00%
2 MIKE A Limited 10 49 0 7.31 6.7031 49.2036 98.41%
3 KEVIN C Open 50 0 7.51 6.6578 48.8710 97.74%
4 DON A Limited 49 0 8.44 5.8057 42.6163 85.23%
5 Roger U Limited 10 49 0 9.21 5.3203 39.0532 78.11%
6 KW C Limited 10 44 0 9.71 4.5314 33.2624 66.52%
7 ADAM M Limited 39 10 6.52 4.4479 32.6495 65.30%
8 Trent U Limited 44 0 10.44 4.2146 30.9369 61.87%
9 Roger U Revolver 46 0 11.06 4.1591 30.5295 61.06%
10 Bill U Limited 44 0 11.71 3.7575 27.5816 55.16%
11 Robert U Limited 10 47 0 12.65 3.7154 27.2726 54.55%
12 John D Limited 46 0 12.66 3.6335 26.6714 53.34%
R13 ADAM A Revolver 50 0 14.69 3.4037 24.9846 49.97%
14 Richard U Limited 10 50 0 16.77 2.9815 21.8855 43.77%
Stage: 3 Madness
Place Name Class Division Pts Pen Time Hit Fact Stg Pts Stg %
1 KEVIN C Open 69 0 11.96 5.7692 70.0000 100.00%
2 JOE B Limited 66 10 9.98 5.6112 68.0829 97.26%
3 DON A Limited 65 0 12.45 5.2209 63.3473 90.50%
4 Bill U Limited 64 0 14.10 4.5390 55.0735 78.68%
5 Robert U Limited 10 67 0 16.43 4.0779 49.4788 70.68%
R6 DON U Production 62 10 13.66 3.8067 46.1882 65.98%
R7 ADAM A Revolver 64 0 17.03 3.7581 45.5985 65.14%
8 ADAM M Limited 62 20 11.27 3.7267 45.2175 64.60%
9 MIKE A Limited 10 59 20 11.66 3.3448 40.5838 57.98%
10 John D Limited 56 10 13.87 3.3165 40.2404 57.49%
11 Roger U Revolver 68 0 22.68 2.9982 36.3784 51.97%
12 KW C Limited 10 58 20 13.49 2.8169 34.1786 48.83%
13 Trent U Limited 59 20 14.44 2.7008 32.7699 46.81%
14 Richard U Limited 10 68 0 25.98 2.6174 31.7580 45.37%
15 Roger U Limited 10 62 30 18.76 1.7058 20.6972 29.57%
Stage: 4 Fluffy’s Revenge 1
Place Name Class Division Pts Pen Time Hit Fact Stg Pts Stg %
1 ADAM M Limited 38 0 3.26 11.6564 40.0000 100.00%
2 KEVIN C Open 40 0 4.73 8.4567 29.0199 72.55%
3 KW C Limited 10 39 0 5.02 7.7689 26.6597 66.65%
4 Roger U Limited 10 38 0 5.21 7.2937 25.0290 62.57%
5 MIKE A Limited 10 37 0 5.18 7.1429 24.5115 61.28%
6 John D Limited 34 0 6.38 5.3292 18.2876 45.72%
R7 DON U Production 36 0 7.38 4.8780 16.7393 41.85%
8 Roger U Revolver 40 0 8.80 4.5455 15.5983 39.00%
9 Trent U Limited 38 10 6.74 4.1543 14.2559 35.64%
10 DON A Limited 34 20 4.96 2.8226 9.6860 24.22%
11 JOE B Limited 32 20 4.27 2.8103 9.6438 24.11%
12 Richard U Limited 10 34 20 6.87 2.0378 6.9929 17.48%
13 Bill U Limited 31 20 6.27 1.7544 6.0204 15.05%
14 Robert U Limited 10 39 10 18.84 1.5393 5.2822 13.21%
R15 ADAM A Revolver 33 20 9.97 1.3039 4.4745 11.19%
Stage: 5 4 Bill Drill
Place Name Class Division Pts Pen Time Hit Fact Stg Pts Stg %
1 KW C Limited 10 105 0 30.37 3.4574 120.0000 100.00%
2 Roger U Revolver 100 0 38.46 2.6001 90.2447 75.20%
3 MIKE A Limited 10 88 20 27.27 2.4936 86.5483 72.12%
4 ADAM M Limited 81 30 21.80 2.3394 81.1963 67.66%
5 KEVIN C Open 112 60 26.17 1.9870 68.9651 57.47%
6 DON A Limited 80 30 25.20 1.9841 68.8645 57.39%
7 JOE B Limited 82 30 26.56 1.9578 67.9516 56.63%
8 Richard U Limited 10 100 20 41.53 1.9263 66.8583 55.72%
9 Robert U Limited 10 60 0 34.87 1.7207 59.7223 49.77%
10 John D Limited 82 20 41.43 1.4965 51.9408 43.28%
11 Roger U Limited 10 71 30 30.39 1.3491 46.8248 39.02%
R12 ADAM A Revolver 72 40 28.44 1.1252 39.0536 32.54%
13 Trent U Limited 59 30 31.57 0.9186 31.8829 26.57%
R14 DON U Production 76 40 39.82 0.9041 31.3796 26.15%
15 Bill U Limited 33 90 31.01 0.0000 0.0000 0.00%
Update: I just realized that if you remove Kevin, who was shooting an Open Division gun, I did win two stages.
See also the official results on the USPSA website.
Quote of the day–Edmund Burke
The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.
Edmund Burke
[I’m not quite sure what to make of this quote. It’s sort of like one of those drawings that depending on which way you look it could be an old hag or a beautiful young woman.
Burke engaged in a spirited debate with Thomas Paine over what Paine called “natural rights”. Burke argued the Monarch had a divine right to rule. Paine argued there were certain inalienable, natural, rights.
Hence when I read the above quote by Burke I first thought of a gun rights activist pointing out the imagined security proposed by some gun ban supporter. Then, as if looked at the words through the other eye or something, I heard them in my minds ear being said by the likes of Josh Sugarmann.
It turns out that even in his own time people weren’t quite sure what to think of him at times.–Joe]
Moscow Idaho gun blogger meet
Last night while out shopping for the last of the Boomershoot supplies I got a call saying Laurel wasn’t a fictious person and that if I wanted to show up at VJ’s BBQ in the next hour I could actually meet her rather than her sister as I did the last time I was in town. I called Barb and she was available so I picked her up and we went to dinner at VJ’s. In addition to Laurel and her daughter Abigal, blogger Barron and his wife Janelle were there. Barron and Janelle are part of the Boomershoot crew who have the ATF paperwork to make and handle explosives.
It was nice to finally meet Laurel. Abigal wasn’t very talkative but everyone else was and we had nice time.
The thing that most pleased me about the impromptu meet was that Laurel told us VJ’s has a 10% discount for people open carrying!
Take that Brady Campaign people! The Brady’s are trying to get private businesses to ban people with guns and some businesses are responding by giving gun owner discounts! I took off my outer shirt and open carried to get our 10% discount (and left a 25+% tip).
Laurel and Abigal
Barb, Janelle, Laurel, Abigal, Barron.
Barron’s self-defense tools.
Janelle’s tool.
Abigal and Dan.
Gadsden Flag and the Declaration of Independence on the wall at VJ’s.
Sisters Laurel and Corina.
Joe, Barron, Janelle, Laurel, Abigal, Dan, Corina.
Photo by Barb.