Author Archives: Joe

Quote of the day–Milton Friedman

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The power to do good is also the power to do harm.

Milton Friedman
[There is also a variation of this attributed to Barry Goldwater (probably false), Thomas Jefferson (probably false), and Gerald Ford (probably correct), “A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have.”

Regardless of who should get the credit the idea is correct and people advocating for health care involvement by the government need to realize the terrible risk they are advocating we all take by giving the government control of our health. They can “give” but they can, and will, take it away as well.

Similar cases can be made for government involvement in weapons ownership, the banking industry, and just about anything the government was not given specific enumerated powers in the constitution.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Salvor Hardin

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An atomic blaster is a good weapon, but it can point both ways.

Salvor Hardin
[This is as true today as it was in the future. Something both tyrants and “Threepers” should keep in mind.–Joe]

There is a simple solution

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It appears the FBI and the ATF can’t seem to play well together:

Agents of the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives are feuding over bomb investigations — racing each other to crime scenes, failing to share information and refusing to train together, according to a draft report obtained by The Associated Press.

The report says Justice Department bosses have repeatedly failed to fix the problem.

The Justice Department’s Inspector General, Glenn Fine, has drafted a preliminary report on the two agencies’ repeated squabbles to claim jurisdiction in investigations of explosives incidents across the country — from Times Square in New York City to Arizona and the West Coast.

The most recent documented spat came last December when the FBI protested a local prosecutor’s request to use the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to investigate a blast that killed a local bomb technician in Woodburn, Ore.

FBI and ATF supervisors “tend to deploy their employees to the larger, more sensational explosives incidents, sometimes racing each other to be the first federal agency on the scene and disputing upon arrival which agency should lead the investigation,” according to a draft version of the report.

It seems to me the Justice Department bosses are overlooking the obvious simple solution to the problem. If they would just look in the Constitution they would find they don’t have the authority for either the FBI or the ATF. If they would just disband both organizations and let the state law enforcement organizations handle the issues there wouldn’t be these squabbles between the two illegitimate siblings.

But the Justice Department is just like any other welfare mother and the more children it can bring into the world the more money it can justify taking from the tax payers. It’s time to kick the bums out and demand they make an honest living.

Appeasement?

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Dennis Henigan apparently thinks of President Obama as the Neville Chamberlain of the gun issue:

Appeasement.” What word better describes the current attitude of the Obama administration, and many in the Democratic Party, toward the gun lobby?

The word recently was invoked by syndicated columnist Marie Cocco referring to the approach of the White House to the gun issue. “Obama and the Democrats haven’t stared down the gun lobby,” she wrote. “They’ve enabled it.”

Is it a stretch to envision President Obama as the Neville Chamberlain of the gun issue?

There is a major problem with this mindset–It’s total projection.

The people of this country had a “treaty” with the government. On the issue of guns that “treaty” says:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

It was people like Henigan in the early part of the last century that began violating that treaty in a manner similar to the way Hitler did the Treaty of Versailles. It was the pro-gun people that did the appeasing and playing the role of Chamberlain for the last 70 years. Obama? He’s neither Chamberlain or Churchill. Even though he is politically aligned with Hitler on this issue he isn’t even playing in the game. Perhaps he wishes to avoid Hitler’s fate or that he is more astute than Hitler and realizes the risk of fighting a multi-front war.

Henigan realizes his hoped for “Final Solution” isn’t visible in the political future and is concerned. He goes on to say:

The real problem, of course, is that there is no end to the gun lobby’s demands. The more you feed the beast, the more it will want.

Henigan is also wrong on this point. All we want is for the “treaty” to be honored. “Shall not be infringed” should be clear enough and probably is even to Henigan. But, of course, the plain wording of the “treaty” is unacceptable to Henigan and his ilk just as it was to Hitler.

Let’s just hope President Obama continues to avoid getting draw into war against gun owners. If war breaks out it could get very ugly and we gun owners, as did the Allies in WW II, might not settle for a negoiated peace and demand an unconditional surrender. And if we have to drop a couple “nukes” to win the war the fallout will be unheathy for everyone.

Sebastian and David Hardy have a few thoughts on Henigan’s whine as well.

Charity

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Microsoft matches charity donations dollar for dollar for full-time (a “blue-badge” in the local vocabulary) employees. The Second Amendment Foundation has been receiving my automatic payroll deductions since I started full time with MS.

Kevin reports my donations, matched by Microsoft, have been put to good use:

I’ll post about this again, but last night SayUncle asked a question about donating toward the legal fight for our rights, mentioning that he’d received emails from people saying they’d tried to donate during the Parker/Heller litigation and had been refused. Alan said that there had been a deliberate decision to take that case all the way without outside aid of any kind, which is why offers of assistance had been politely but firmly declined. However, all the current litigation, such as the Chicago incorporation suit and many others, are being paid for by the Second Amendment Foundation and CalGuns. If you want to help now, that’s where your money needs to go. I’ve been receiving solicitations from SAF for a while, but I did not know that they were the financiers of these efforts. They’ll be receiving donations from me in the future, and I hope from you as well.

The payroll deductions are open for change starting October 1st and I’ll be increasing the amount they get.

Concealed carry permit for Lisa

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Making the Brady Campaign people cry just a little bit longer tonight niece Lisa picked up her concealed carry permit yesterday.

Things that make young men happiest

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Via email from Kris:

Combining two of the things that make young men happiest in one place.

http://www.explosionsandboobs.com/

If women in bras and swimsuits are safe for work then so is this site. Refresh the page for another set.

No. I didn’t have anything to do with the site or any of the content. If I had both types of pictures would have been more extreme.

Quote of the day–Sebastian

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The final topic we got into was what he thought the biggest threats to the Second Amendment were, and what we, as bloggers, could do about it.  His response was that he did not feel that the biggest threat to the Second Amendment came from groups like the Brady Campaign, VPC, or the now defunct Second Amendment Research Center run by Saul Cornell.  He believes the biggest threat to the Second Amendment comes from our own extremists and lunatics, and that the biggest way we could contribute as bloggers is in confronting that cancer within our community.

Sebastian
September 15, 2009
Mr. Gura Goes to Reno
[I think it is extremely telling that the Brady Campaign and VPC are not considered a significant threat. They are headed for the dustbins of history.–Joe]

More guns, less crime

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Even with all the relaxed gun laws and the big gun buying spree that began in late 2008 it didn’t translate into increased crime rates. In fact it was just the opposite:

Murder and manslaughter dropped almost 4 percent last year, as reported crime overall fell around the country, according to new data released Monday by the FBI.

The 3.9 percent decline in killings reported to police was part of a nationwide drop in violent crime of 1.9 percent from 2007 to 2008. Rapes declined 1.6 percent, to the lowest national number in 20 years — about 89,000.

The statistics are based on crimes reported to police, who then forward the information to the FBI. There were 14,180 murder victims in the United States last year.

“What has been impressive has been how flat all the violent crime rates have been since 2000. To a large degree that’s still the case, but the striking change this year has been murder,” said Alfred Blumstein, a professor of criminal justice at Carnegie-Mellon University.

The figures show that crime has come way down since its peak in the early 1990’s.

This was in the presence of a huge economic downturn which usually is an indicator for increased crime rates. So either gun ownership isn’t positively correlated with crime (and in fact is negative associated with crime rates) or there is some other driving factor which observers don’t know about or want to talk about.

Quote of the day–Michael Gale

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I think my line in the sand got washed away by the incoming tide.

But I will know where it is when nobody else remembers.

Michael Gale
September 14, 2009
Comment to Jeepers Threepers
[Yeah, it often feels that way.–Joe]

Playing in the dirt

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Last Saturday (the 5th) I borrowed Dad’s bulldozer and went playing in the dirt at the Boomershoot range. The main objectives were to make the berm the shooters use a little bit wider and deeper.

We have 22 shooting positions on the berm and prior to 2009 I only allocated six feet per position. This was a little too crowded and since everyone else had at least eight feet I wanted to expand it enough to accommodate eight feet for everyone. I tried to do that last fall for Boomershoot 2009 but didn’t quite add enough space. There was only room for 7′ 6″ for everyone. I really should have taken my laser range finder with me. So this year I brought the laser range finder and added enough that I could give everyone an honest eight feet.

I extended the east end of the berm by about 20 feet:

I think I squared up the end a little bit after taking this picture so it didn’t slope quite so much at the very end.

The other problem was that some areas of the berm were not deep enough and people had problems sliding down off the back side of the berm. Here is a before picture:

Here is during my modifications:


For reference purposes the width of the tracks is about 6′ 8″.

The following is after I smoothed off the top of the berm. I smoothed out the area in front of the berm a little later.


Everyone should have about eight feet of depth as well as width on the top of the berm.

The secondary objectives were to fill in the hole I had made near the Taj Mahal checking for a leak in the water barrel. Here is what it looked like after I got done with it on Saturday:


I extended the parking area into the trees some to give some more shaded area.


I dug out and pushed some big rocks out of the grain field about 1/2 mile to the west on my way back to the house.


I got very dirty. The hat, eye and ear protection left some almost clean spots.


My Gun Blog 45 also got very dirty. No. I didn’t test it in this condition.

I didn’t think of it at the time but I really should have made a level spot for tents instead of the parking area near the Taj Mahal. If I have time I might go back and do that this fall some time.

Hiking on Mount Hood

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Yesterday Barb and I went on a hike on Mount Hood. Some of the details are on my Twitter feed here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. A few of the pictures:


Impressive mountain but not as pretty as Mount Rainer where we spent our anniversary a few years ago.


Yes, I was open carrying the entire way. No one said anything but Barb said some people were looking.


We got as high as 7000 feet. I could have gone further but Barb had some tight muscles and was tired.


Some people were carrying skis and snow boards. We didn’t actually see anyone come down the mountain on them though.


 Mount Jefferson in the background is almost 50 miles away.
Even without Barb in the picture it was a nice view.


 Lots of interesting plant life at the higher altitudes.
It appeared there had been larger trees here at one time.

Quote of the day–Dave Stancliff

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I do ask for laws that would restrict sales of M-16s, AK 47s, or Uzi’s. I don’t care what anyone says, hunting with machine guns makes no sense. The only use for them, the use for which they were intended, is to kill people. Lots of people, real fast.

It’s no secret that automatic weapons are so easy to buy that American gun dealers supply the Mexican cartels with 90 percent of the weapons they use to terrorize people on both sides of the border.

Dave Stancliff
September 13, 2009
Let’s face it, no one will take the high road to gun control
[Actually, I think it is a secret–since only the anti-gun people believe it. The pro-gun people know they have to spend 10s of thousands of dollars on an automatic weapons of any type if they can find one for sale.

He also implies hunting is the reason people want to own machine guns. None of people that I know who own machine guns claim that is the reason for ownership of them.

Also in the article is the suspicious claim that “About two billion bullets were made in America last year, bringing in about $7.5 billion”. This implies an average cost of about $3.25 per round. This is more than a little bit high.

This is all more evidence that the MSM (this guy is a “former newspaper editor and publisher”) does not care or is too lazy to know the facts.

Comments can be sent to richstan1@suddenlink.net or www.davesblogcentral.com–Joe.]

Baaa! Baaa!

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I keep hearing what I think are their voices:

Before they make that mistake, politicians who have spent years ignoring their consciences and taking the N.R.A.’s orders should listen closely to Tennessee’s citizens. As one demanded at a local hearing this summer: “Are you going to hear the voices of the unarmed?”

They sound like sheep to me. Sheep that don’t realize there are wolves among them.

Quote of the day–Thomas Paine

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The instant formal government is abolished, society begins to act. A general association takes place, and common interest produces common security.

Thomas Paine
The Rights of Man
[I recently finished “reading” (listening to it) this book. I was familiar with most of the material in it but what struck me was the debate between him and Edward Burke. Burke was defending a monarchical type of government and Paine argued people had “natural rights” that no government had authority to infringe. It was then that I realized just how revolutionary Paine’s ideas were and how important to Western society many of them are.

As the product description on Amazon says:

The Rights of Man written by legendary author Thomas Paine is widely considered to be one of the top 100 greatest books of all time. This great classic will surely attract a whole new generation of readers. For many, The Rights of Man is required reading for various courses and curriculums. And for others who simply enjoy reading timeless pieces of classic literature, this gem by Thomas Paine is highly recommended. Published by Classic House Books and beautifully produced, The Rights of Man would make an ideal gift and it should be a part of everyone’s personal library.

It’s not a particularly long book but it is a very important book.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Say Uncle

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Hanging with Alan Gura. I’ll tell him you said ‘hi’.

Say Uncle
September 11, 2009
Cool
[If I were there (the Gun Blogger Rendezvous) I would say “Thank you!” After that I’d probably be tongue tied. What meaningful thing can you say to someone like that?–Joe]

Another step closer

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We don’t have anti-gun bigots being prosecuted for violations of 18 USC 241 and 242 but this is another step closer:

Judge Black concluded as a matter of law that the police violated Matthew St. John’s constitutional rights under the Fourth Amendment because they seized and disarmed him even though there was not “any reason to believe that a crime was afoot.”  Judge Black’s opinion is consistent with numerous high state and federal appellate courts, e.g., the United States Supreme Court in Florida v. J.L. (2000) (detaining man on mere report that he has a gun violates the Fourth Amendment) and the Washington Appeals Court in State v. Casad (2004) (detaining man observed by police as openly carrying rifles on a public street violates the Fourth Amendment).

Mr. St. John’s attorney, Miguel Garcia, of Alamogordo, NM was pleased with the ruling and look forward to the next phase of the litigation which is a jury trial to establish the amount of damages, and possibly punitive damages.  Garcia said that 

“[i]t was great to see the Court carefully consider the issues presented by both sides and conclude that the U.S. Constitution prohibits the government from detaining and searching individuals solely for exercising their rights to possess a firearm as guaranteed by our state and federal constitutions.”

Notably, Judge Black denied the police officers’ requested “qualified immunity,” a judicially created doctrine allowing government officials acting in good faith to avoid liability for violating the law where the law was not “clearly established.”

I think its actually a big step closer to where we want to be.

H/T to Ride Fast.

Government rations, it’s what they do

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Recently there has been a lot of talk of government rationing of health care. In the U.K. they have been rationing health care for a long time now and now there is talk of expanding their influence to other things:

Air travel is expected to at least double by the middle of the century as new airlines spring up in developing countries like China and rich countries like Britain expand airports such as Heathrow.

However the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) fears unlimited growth of air travel will cause greenhouse gas emissions to increase and therefore cause global warming.

…

The CCC report comes as a think tank suggested that the unless the UK manages to meet tough targets on cutting greenhouse gases within the next three years, everyone in the UK will have to be rationed on the amount of energy, car use and flights they take.

The Institute for Public Policy Research suggested people have a certain amount of carbon credits that limits the amount they can spend on luxuries like air travel.

Maybe I need to increase my sample size

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I realize my sample size is small and my methodology is subject to considerable bias but I wouldn’t have thought my conclusions would differ this much from this study:

From relieving boredom, to keeping the peace or curing a headache, women have sex for many reasons but romance and passion come rather low on the list, a new book has revealed.

One woman even admitted to having sex just so her husband would put the rubbish out.

“Research has shown most men find most women at least somewhat sexually attractive, whereas most women do not find most men sexually attractive at all,” Why Women Have Sex authors Cindy Meston and David Buss said.

Having apparently discounted physical attraction, the 1000 women interviewed by the Texas University professors gave a huge range of reasons for sleeping with a man.

One said she did it for a spiritual experience, proclaiming: “It’s the closest thing to God.”

But mostly the explanations were far more mundane, with 84 per cent admitting to having sex just to ensure a quiet life or to bargain for household chores. One woman said: “I have sex to relieve the boredom because it’s easier than fighting. Plus it gives me something to do.”

The book is here. It’s not currently available on Audible but Amazon says an MP3 version will be available October 26th so I might be able to pick it up for my Zune next month and review their research.

In the mean time maybe I should do further research on my own. Barb just looked over my shoulder and says she has sex for revenge. I wonder if that means I shouldn’t increase my sample size…

Posted in Sex

THIS is an AK-47

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A a good joke is based on at least a little bit of truth. Examples are here and the variation here.

Life imitated art just down the road from me (even closer to home is that Ry, son James, and I used to work in the building next door):

Kirkland police, contacted today for more details, said a passerby on their way to the local farmer’s market called 911 saying that they thought they saw someone walking down the street with an AK-47 about 4:20 p.m.

Here is the AK-47: