Via Ry I found some great articles on explosives:
- Water Acts As Catalyst In Explosives
- Explosives At The Microscopic Scale Produce Shocking Results
- High Powered New Explosive Developed
There are more but I have to get ready for work.
Author Archives: Joe
Mandatory volunteerism
Quote of the day–Austrian
Let me just tell you, Congressional/Executive Branch Scumbag, Esq., if you do this… if you take this turn… I won’t even think twice. I will move my firm to Switzerland, or to London before the year is out. Those employees who do not follow me, I will have to fire. The corporate taxes I pay will no longer be yours. Instead, they will go to something useful, like a nice tunnel through a mountain for high speed trains that actually work. Further, I will dedicate a substantial portion of my personal time, effort and capital to frustrating your every attempt to collect personal taxes on me thereafter- given your draconian anti-expatriation laws. But that’s not all. My job is to make money for my clients, in whatever way I can. I will short your flagging financial firms mercilessly and remorselessly. I will buy QGRI puts to bet against any firm that took bailout money. I will buy credit default swaps on every firm you put your greasy paws on, because I know your fingerprints are laced with poison. For every boneheaded centralist move you make, I will be there, profiting from your lunacy. I will never again take a client who pays taxes in the United States. I will not permit any capital or profit to be diverted to any such. I will do this because in the same way you believe it your divine right to punish “greed,” I consider it my duty to punish the stupidity and arrogance that is central planning, and because I believe in economic freedom. I will divert as many of your resources to my new home and its relative economic freedoms as I can. I will promote free markets in this way, and I will never look back. You will have made it clear that you are my enemy, and I do not forget such declarations.
I take no pleasure in this fight. I did not ask for it. I only asked for liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Deny me these at your peril. In the end, I can only hope I’m not alone.
Austrian
March 22, 2009
Wait a second… you want to blame ME for the financial crisis?
Via Ry.
[It seems to me there are hundreds or thousands of ways one can legally declare war against the enemies of freedom. Look around and find yours.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Phil Mendelson
The Supreme Court in Heller struck a balance between the right of individuals to protect themselves and the right of individuals to be protected. If we so limit gun control as to favor individuals to protect themselves, but then disadvantage the right of individuals to be protected by the police, what will we have gained for the public good?
Phil Mendelson
An at-large member of the D.C. Council and chairman of the council’s Committee on Public Safety & the Judiciary.
D.C. Vote: This Is About Safety, Not the 2nd Amendment
March 22, 2009
[People don’t have a right to be protected by the police. Nowhere in the constitution, the law, or in court rules can you find such a “right”. Just the opposite in fact. The courts have ruled the police have no duty to protect individuals. This is just the worst of the lies in this article. Read the rest and be sure to take your blood pressure meds first–Joe]
Live blogging from the Boomershoot site
I replaced most of the Wi-Fi gear at the Boomershoot site and things appear to be working well. There have been no drop outs.
We have full signal strength on my laptop at the intersection of the creek and the road. All places that I have tested have higher signal strength than before I need to get my signal strength mapping software out here and remap the area.
Lots of snow still but it got up to 54F this afternoon and it’s still 44F at 1740. The snow is melting fast. That means there is lots of water in the low areas.
Quote of the day–Clayton Cramer
Abandon all hopes of utopia – there are people involved.
Clayton Cramer
http://thinkexist.com/quotes/clayton_cramer/
[Dystopia, on the other hand, is well within our grasp and I fear we are approaching it at warp speed.–Joe]
Who cares?
It’s just a law. Rulers don’t need to obey the law. Just their subjects.
Never mind they aren’t rulers. They are public servants. And when they don’t obey the law it becomes obvious they wish to change the relationship between servant and master.
Had the troops put on a reflective vest over their civilian clothes and directed traffic as civilians I wouldn’t have a problem with it. But they didn’t do that.
It sounds like some officers are taking it seriously but don’t expect most government officials to care in the slightest. They might need those troops for controlling the serfs someday.
Quote of the day–Senator James Abourezk
The bigger the appropriations bill, the shorter the debate.
Senator James Abourezk
[The Senator left office over 30 years ago but it appears to me his observation has withstood the test of time.–Joe]
Quote of the day–Dmitry Orlov
So that’s what we have now. The ship is on the rocks, water is rising, and the captain is shouting “Full steam ahead! We are sailing to Afghanistan!” Do you listen to Ahab up on the bridge, or do you desert your post in the engine room and go help deploy the lifeboats? If you thought that the previous episode of uncontrolled debt expansion, globalized Ponzi schemes, and economic hollowing-out was silly, then I predict that you will find this next episode of feckless grasping at macroeconomic straws even sillier. Except that it won’t be funny: what is crashing now is our life support system: all the systems and institutions that are keeping us alive. And so I don’t recommend passively standing around and watching the show – unless you happen to have a death wish.
Dmitry Orlov
February 13, 2009
Social Collapse Best Practices
[I don’t know whether to believe we are really in a life or death situation but I suppose it is possible. What I am fairly confident of is that the current administration doesn’t have a clue as to what to do. They may think they have a clue but it’s all “hope and change” and almost zero knowledge.–Joe]
Doing fine
“Fine” can be a relative word. A prime example is this case:
“For being hit in the face with a shotgun, he’s doing fine,” said Tennant.
I reported on this incident yesterday but the latest news report has a lot more details.
I”m glad the injuries aren’t serious and that the perps were arrested quickly and without incident.
Good stuff
There wasn’t any new material for me in this essay but it was a great collection and presentation of the problem: Dismantling the Killer Elite.
General Wesley Clark is in good company
Via Sebastian I discovered something General Wesley Clark said:
If people want machine guns, let them join the military. We got em! But for public and personal use, absolutely not.
That is eerily close to something else said by a national leader a few decades ago:
If any citizen wants to possess arms, let him join the Party.
Adolf Hitler
That isn’t the only instance either. See also the Council of People’s Commissars a few decades before Hitler.
You can tell a lot about a person by the company he keeps.
Quote of the day–Chris Cox
Yesterday afternoon, DoD additionally confirmed the lifting of the suspension to pro-Second Amendment United States Senators Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.), who sent the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) a joint letter vigorously opposing the suspension, on the grounds that it had “an impact on small businesses who sell reloaded ammunition utilizing these fired casings, and upon individual gun owners who purchase spent military brass at considerable cost savings for their personal use.”
…
DLA also put to rest various theories and rumors that were circulated on the internet, concerning the reason for the suspension. As DLA explained to Senators Baucus and Tester, and to NRA-ILA, DoD officials responsible for the demilitarization of military property temporarily halted the release of the cartridge cases last week, pending review of a policy change issued last year by the Office of the Secretary of Defense, which, in the interest of national security, halted the sale of items within a broad category of government property including, but not limited to, surplus small arms cartridge cases.
Chris Cox
March 18, 2009
Military Surplus Cartridge Case Issue Resolved
[I was working on a post comparing the destruction of the brass to destroying used books that were being sold to underfunded schools in black neighborhoods. But I procrastinated long enough to avoid the appearance of jumping on the Obama conspiracy train.
Appearances are not always what they seem.–Joe]
Arrested at my gas station
When in Moscow I buy my gas there:
Pullman police arrested a 20-year-old man overnight for allegedly shooting another man in the face.
…
Pullman Police and the Moscow Police Department worked together to find Lawrence, who was arrested at a Tesoro gas station in Moscow a half hour after the shooting.
Just because they are across the state line from each other doesn’t mean they don’t have excellent cooperation. My understanding is the Washington State University Police (in Pullman), Whitman County (Washington), and Latah County (Idaho) police also work closely with the Pullman and Moscow city police. I’ve met a few of them, shoot with some of them and occasionally some of the sniper teams attend Boomershoot. All of seem to be good guys. Perhaps a little grumpy when one of their fellow officers gets shot (pictures here) however.
Monumentally stupid idea
It doesn’t take a Sherlock Holmes to arrive at the same conclusion as Mr. Brunson:
Dugger was treated at the hospital after one of the bullets police say he was slamming with a hammer exploded, blowing shrapnel into his leg.
“If you get hit with something hot and fast and out of control, it’s going to possibly cause a problem,” said Travis Brunson, owner of Chiquita Guns.
The event was reportedly witnessed by several children belonging to Dugger’s roommate, who was already under investigation by the Department of Children and Families for inadequate supervision of the children.
“Anyone nearby could have certainly been hit by it. It’s such a monumentally stupid idea,” Brunson said.
Explosives Employee Possessor update
Last Thursday I reported the ATF responded well to my request for clearance for Boomershoot staff and gun bloggers to handle explosives at Boomershoot 2009. I have a quick update which is also positive.
The three people that had their clearances “Pending” on Thursday were all cleared by Friday.
Yesterday one of the people noticed there was a typo on his address in the clearance paperwork. I sent the ATF an email this morning informing them of the error and requesting clearances for two more people. About two hours later I received the following email:
Good morning Mr. Huffman –
I have made the correction for Mr. XXXXX and ask for a corrected print of his Letter of Clearance with the correct address. I will also get the 2 possessors added to your license.
Nice. And I sent him an email thanking him for his quick service too.
ATF still should be a convenience store instead of a regulatory agency and they still should get their wrist slapped (and others should be hanged) for some of the crap they pull. But just because someone has ATF on their business card doesn’t necessarily mean they are Gestapo.
Read your own references
Eric Boehlert goes on a rampage about gun control and cites some references to support his position:
After a mentally ill student, Seung-Hui Cho, had made a mockery of Virginia’s gun laws by falsifying his gun-store background check and killing 32 people with the guns he purchased illegally, CNN presented a debate in which an activist arguing that the United States needed to relax its gun-control laws was given equal time to an activist who urged that the country tighten its gun laws. The pro-gun advocate, who represented a radical minority in America, was put on the same footing as the gun-control advocate, whose views reflected the clear plurality of Americans, who have consistently called for stricter gun laws. That’s how CNN chose to frame the debate in the immediate wake of the Virginia Tech massacre.
…
Left unreported in that kind of gun coverage is the fact that relaxing gun laws in the United States represents a radical, out-there idea that’s supported by just a tiny fraction of Americans. Not even gun owners in America want to make the laws less restrictive. (Just 15 percent back the idea.)
What I find interesting is the first reference he cites says this:
Just about 4 in 10 Americans are dissatisfied with gun laws in the country, while half are satisfied.
The pressure to make gun laws stricter appears to be mitigated. Just slightly more than half of Americans support making laws covering firearms sales more strict, at its lowest point since 2002.
More than two in three Americans oppose the government completely outlawing the right to possess a handgun.
Nearly 6 in 10 of Americans now say the government should enforce current gun laws more strictly rather than passing new laws. This percentage is up this year, similar to levels previously measured in 2002.
The public has grown slightly more likely to say that having a gun in the home makes it a safer, rather than a less safe, place to be. The opposite was true previously from 2000 to 2004.
This has a completely different tone than Boehlert’s rant. Boehlert had to really stretch to use it has justification for his conclusions.
In the use of his second reference he overlooks the fact that just 51% of the public thinks the laws should be made more strict versus 47% (2% have no opinion). And that 4 point difference is down from 14 points in the previous year and down from 60 points a few years before that! The trend is definitely in our favor.
And what does this guy think the “other side” of those in favor of more restrictive gun laws would be? Apparently he is of the opinion the two sides are “more gun control” and “no more gun control for a while”. This is like trying to work out a compromise with your would-be rapist by asking him to wear a condom.
I’m of the opinion even the “pro-gun” position mentioned is not really “the other side”. A public opinion poll, which didn’t even ask the right question to find out how many people are on “the other side”, can’t possibly define it. I’ve explained the middle ground before and so won’t do so again here. But suffice it to say Boehlert should be thrilled “the other side” chosen was as close to his viewpoint as it was. Had it really been “the other side” he would have had an aneurysm.
Lead in the parks
Mike contacted David Barna, chief of Public Affairs for the National Park Service.
He says the lead ban doesn’t apply to visitors. Just the people who work at the park.
I’m with Mike. It’s still troubling.
Quote of the day–Lazarus Long
Sovereign ingredient for a happy marriage: Pay cash or do without.
Interest charges not only eat up a household budge, awareness of debt eats up domestic felicity.
Lazarus Long
The Notebooks of Lazarus Long, page 30.
“The Notebooks…” was extracted from Robert A. Heinlein’s book Time Enough for Love in which Long is the main character.
[Although this advice was intended for marriages between humans in a common household, probably including group marriages, it seems to me it applies to much larger groups as well. I’m thinking of our city, state, and Federal governments.–Joe]
ATF loses one
The ATF started really harassing the model rocketry folks a few years back. Today they got their wrists slapped:
District Court Judge Reggie B. Walton for the District of Columbia today issued an order finding in favor of the Tripoli Rocketry Association and National Association of Rocketry vs. The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The decision followed a status hearing this past Friday in Washington.
Walton’s order granted a summary judgment motion in favor of the plaintiffs TRA and NAR, denied the summary judgment motion of BATFE, and vacated the classification of Ammonium Perchlorate Composite Propellant (APCP) as an explosive.
…
The parties came before the Court on March 13, 2009, for a hearing on the parties’ cross-motions for summary judgment. Upon consideration of the parties’ written submissions, the administrative record presented to the Court, the applicable legal authority, the oral arguments presented by the parties, and for the reasons expressed by the Court at the hearing on the motion, the Court finds that the agency’s decision does not satisfy the standard for evaluating agency rulemaking because it was arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with the law. 5 U.S.C. § 706(2)(A). Specifically, the defendant did not adequately explain why it came to the decision it did in light of contrary evidence in the administrative record submitted by the plaintiffs, which tended to show that APCP can burn at a rate lower than that which the defendant designated as the threshold, and “which, if true, . . . would require a change in [the] proposed rule.’” La. Fed. Land Bank Ass’n, FLCA v. Farm Credit Admin., 336 F.3d 1075, 1080 (D.C. Cir. 2003); see D&F Afonso Realty Trust v. Garvey, 216 F.3d 1191, 1195 (D.C. Cir. 2000) (quoting Public Citizen, Inc. v. F.A.A., 988 F.2d 186, 197 (D.C. Cir. 1993) (”‘[t]he requirement that agency action not be arbitrary or capricious includes a requirement that the agency adequately explain its result . . . .’”). Here, the agency’s shortcoming was its failure to articulate any rationale for finding that the relevant and significant evidence in the record that conflicted with its position was unpersuasive, which it seemingly out-of-hand dismissed merely because it was contrary to the agency’s ultimate conclusion.
I hope this is but one of many more to come in regards to both firearms and explosives. It’s long past time they were told in no uncertain terms they must obey the law.