George Orwell couldn’t have made this stuff up.
Jeff Soyer
October 20, 2008
Britain: More Police State on the Way
[On the state of affairs in Britain revealed by the article Passports will be needed to buy mobile phones.–Joe]
Author Archives: Joe
I want one
Heh. Mine will say “GET A WARRANT”.
The attack surface is too large
When examining the security of a system we have something called the “attack surface”. This is the area exposed to threats. If the system being studied is a web site then among other things the attack surface is composed of the physical server, open ports, and the URL for the site. These “surfaces” can be attacked. For example the the URL could be attacked with alternate pages and query strings. If you get lucky and/or know what you are doing you can obtain access to configuration files (such as this one I just found) which frequently contain information that can be used to get unauthorized access. The larger the attack surface the harder it is to make the system secure.
In a free society the attack surface is enormous and we, consciously or unconsciously, have decided the benefits of an open free society out weigh the susceptibility to attack and/or the cost to defend the attack surfaces. For example the grocery store keeps all the fresh fruits and vegetables accessible for the customers to directly examine. This allows anyone to tamper with them for their own evil purposes. We don’t have armed guards and security systems for the entire length of our water supply. We don’t have the means to realistically protect our air supply from nuclear, biological, or chemical (NBC) attacks.
When an attack surface is so large that it is essentially indefensible the smart security experts will put their limited security resources into mitigate the risk. In the case of our water supply we have multiple systems and medical facilities which reduce the number of people affected from a single point attack and provide care for those that are affected.
These principles are well known and adhered to by security professionals. I must therefore conclude that TSA (A Security Theater) isn’t concerned with real security. More evidence of this just came in:
The government has not been able to keep track of all the airport security uniforms and badges it issues, which makes secure areas in airports vulnerable to terrorists posing as authorized officials, according to an internal review released Friday.
The Homeland Security Department’s inspector general looked at five airports across the country from October 2006 through June 2007. The IG found major deficiencies in the Transportation Security Administration’s ability to keep track of uniforms, particularly after an employee leaves the job.
As some of us discussed at the Gun Blogger Rendezvous having a uniform and/or just being able to speak the language will get you access to places and things that should have been way out of bounds.
Another attack surface in airplane security is the process for screening materials that are allowed past the security check point:
If some copycat terrorists try to bring their liquid bomb through airport security and the screeners catch them — like they caught me with my bottle of pasta sauce — the terrorists can simply try again. They can try again and again. They can keep trying until they succeed. Because there are no consequences to trying and failing, the screeners have to be 100 percent effective. Even if they slip up one in a hundred times, the plot can succeed.
The same is true for knitting needles, pocketknives, scissors, corkscrews, cigarette lighters and whatever else the airport screeners are confiscating this week. If there’s no consequence to getting caught with it, then confiscating it only hurts innocent people. At best, it mildly annoys the terrorists.
To fix this, airport security has to make a choice. If something is dangerous, treat it as dangerous and treat anyone who tries to bring it on as potentially dangerous. If it’s not dangerous, then stop trying to keep it off airplanes. Trying to have it both ways just distracts the screeners from actually making us safer.
The attack surface the TSA is trying to protect is just too large. We should spend that money on alternatives. What we are doing now is just entertainment for those that enjoy security theater.
Obama and rights
Barack Obama says that health care is a right. Which apparently, in his world view, means government should make it possible for everyone to obtain health insurance via tax credits and forcing employers to provide it. He also says he believes gun ownership is a right. Therefore one should reasonably be able to conclude he also believes similar measures would be appropriate to pay for guns and ammo for everyone, right?
Odd, he doesn’t say anything about that in his policy statement.
Gun Rights Policy Conference Audio Recordings
Here’s something you won’t find from the anti-gun bigots. Recent Gun Rights Policy Conferences were recorded and the recordings are available to anyone. Get the recordings of previous conferences all the way back to 2003.
When the bigots hold conferences do they make their proceedings public?
Quote of the day–45Superman
Well, Professor, with your academic background and obvious intellectual gifts, perhaps you’d care to explain the tactical advantages of a “shoot-second” approach to self-defense, because I’m clearly not bright enough to see them.
45Superman
October 17, 2008
The case for ‘erosion’
Barack I Like Guns Obama
Barack Obama is now running ads telling us that he supports gun rights:
He bases this claim in the fact that he voted for SA4615 the bill which has the purpose:
To prohibit the confiscation of a firearm during an emergency or major disaster if the possession of such firearm is not prohibited under Federal or State law.
Good. But not good enough. This ignores all his other votes and support for the complete handgun ban in Washington D.C., and support for a ban on “assault weapons”. Hunting, which is what Obama and Biden focus on, has nothing to do with the Second Amendment. Unless you include hunting government employees in the definition of hunting. Hunting is not a protected right except under some state constitutions. Yet that is what Obama and company seem to think is the entire basis of the Second Amendment.
Check out the rest of the story before you believe this weasel.
Quadrupling your impact
I do the same as Ry.
Some explanation is probably required…
Employee donations to 501(c)(3) corporations are matched by Microsoft. Microsoft made up a special pop can to put in our refrigerators that said, “double your impact”. Referring, of course, to the matching gifts.
But then Ry and I donate money to American Snipers. That should result in an additional impact multiplier, right?
Blunder or not?
I hope they are right but I just don’t know. I don’t have a very high opinion of the ability of people to think for themselves. But could it be The Left’s Big Blunder?
What are they trying to do to my daughter???
I saw this while looking over daughter Kim’s shoulder when she was studying for her class Riddles and Paradoxes: How the Culture of Markets Shapes our World: Past, Present, and Future.
The Functions of Government
- To promote competition and provide a system of laws, courts, and method of enforcing contracts (infrastructure for free markets).
- To play an allocative function of producing goods and services.
- To redistribute income and assist the poor.
- To provide stabilization of the economy to keep inflation and unemployment low
Which of these four items are found in the U.S. Constitution? I agree with number 1 but the others are out of bounds. Some other governments do claim these to be within their legitimate areas of power. We call them socialists, communists, tyrannical, genocidal, and losers. Perhaps the Power Point slide deck I found this in or the instructor in class makes the point that this isn’t within the legitimate domain of our government but a quick scan through the slides certainly doesn’t make it obvious.
It appears one can assume we have a discrepancy in philosophical viewpoints. Kevin illustrates it with cartoons better than I can with words.
She doesn’t qualify as a mother
Ths happened in the state of South Idaho, not North Idaho where I am:
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho — An eastern Idaho woman whose boyfriend impregnated her 9-year-old daughter has been sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Isabel Chasarez, 27, must serve at least one year in prison before she is eligible for parole, 7th District Judge Brent Moss ordered Tuesday at the sentencing hearing.
Chasarez pleaded guilty in August to failing to provide proper prenatal care for her daughter.
Her 38-year-old boyfriend, Guadalupe Gutierrez-Juarez, pleaded guilty to rape in September. He is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 28 and faces life in prison.
The girl became pregnant at age 9, sometime between Aug. 1 and Sept. 30 2007, authorities say, and gave birth in April.
It looks as if the authorities are handling the case appropriately but I’m still shocked that the egg donor was unable or unwilling to protect her offspring.
Three months in jail for sex on the beach
I’ve reported on this before here and here. The couple has been sentenced now. It could have been up to six years in jail but they were given just three months, a $350 fine, and are to be deported from the country. I agree with:
Analysts here say their punishment is meant to strike a balance — by showing that expats must respect local laws, while maintaining the Emirate’s image of being welcoming to Westerners.
I don’t agree with the law but I think the judge did the right thing.
Hitting the 957 yard target
Last Saturday most of the gun bloggers at the Rendezvous went to the range. Other reports and pictures from range day are here:
- gbr-iii-saturday-101108-range-day
- Gunbloggers Rendezvous III
- GBR-III Fabrique Nationale
- GBR-III Range Day or Bust
- Gun Pr0n: Boom!
- GBR-III Update: The Packing Rat goes Full Auto
- GBR-III Update: Range Day, with Gun Pr0n
- We’re Either Dedicated or Crazy
- David’s Trigger Time
- GBR Day 3
- it goes boom
- Finally
Yes. As nearly everyone else noted, it was on the cold side of comfortable. The temperature was about 35 F and when we arrived the winds varied from 10 to 20 MPH.
Derek deals with the cold and wind.
These were not the best of conditions for long range shooting but this range is for long range shooting and I wanted to do some long range shooting. I had not shot my .300 Win Mag since the year before at this same range. This range has targets out to nearly 1000 yards and this, more than anything else, is why I wanted to go to the Rendezvous.
Traction Control brought his Barrett .50 BMG and was setting up at the very end bench. This minimized the impact of the vicious muzzle blast on other shooters. I set up on the empty bench next to him but stood behind the line when someone was shooting the .50 to avoid the vicious muzzle blast. This extended the time for my set up as I measured the wind speed, wind direction, air pressure, the inclination to the various targets, and used my laser range finder to get the exact range to each of the targets. I was still making measurements and taking notes as everyone else went through two cycles of shooting and shutting down the range to change targets. I then used my HP-41CV calculator running a special version of Modern Ballistics to compute the necessary sight angle between the scope and the gun for the elevation. I didn’t bother with measuring the incline for the targets at 523 yards and under because they were all less than 8 degrees and the resultant shift in scope settings would be less than 0.1 MOA from assuming no inclination. By the time I was finally ready to shoot there was very little wind from side to side so I didn’t bother to run the numbers through the calculator.
Here are my notes:
October 11, 2008
Apparent Elevation (based on air pressure): 3500′
Wind: 10 to 20 MPH 45 degrees
Target
Range (yards)
Incline (degrees)
Sight Angle (MOA)
Paper
197
0
4.87
Plate 1
342
–
7.83
Plate 2
412
–
9.51
Plate 3
523
–
12.38
Plate 4
637
8
16.63
Plate 5
957
11
27.19
Having done all this I finally took my first shots at the paper target:
Five shot group at 197 yards at the upper A-zone of a USPA target.
I should have put a orange target dot on the center of the ‘A’ to have a better aiming point. It was difficult to get the cross hairs centered on the outline as I couldn’t see the ‘A’ itself. As it was I just concentrated on the horizontal because I was uncertain as to my windage zero but not my elevation zero. I expect most of the vertical was my fault and not the gun and/or ammo. Still, it was a less than 3/4 MOA group and I was satisfied with it.
I adjusted my windage zero and took some shots at the closer plates. I connected every time and was rewarded by seeing the plate swing and hearing a loud “thwack-clang” sound. I then asked Phil to spot for me as I adjusted for the 957 yard plate. The plate was difficult for a lot of people to find. Here is the context as seen through a 300 mm (think of it as 6X telescope) camera lens:
Plate and drum are in the upper left quadrant.
Close up of the 957 yard plate and 55 gallon drum.
A 55 gallon steel drum is about 22″ x 34″ and based on that the plate appears to be about 30″ x 16″. My mil-dot reticle estimates agree with this. The wind was very low but even a 3 MPH wind would result in a miss if I aimed dead on at this range. I waited until the wind appeared to be zero and pulled the trigger. Phil reported it hit just a bit to the right of center and dead on for elevation.
A first round hit at nearly 1000 yards. The geek wins!
The rest of the day was anti-climatic for me. I shot at the 957 yard plate a few more times but I ignored the wind and got hits only about half the time. I shot 10 rounds out of Traction Control’s .50 (I brought my own ammo) and got 7 out of 10 hits on the drum. The .50 has a much better BC (1.05 on the 750 grain A-MAX versus 0.533 on the 190 grain Sierra Match Kings I was shooting) which helped on windage but I suspect that gun didn’t have the inherent accuracy because the target was bigger and I got essentially the same hit ratio.
I emptied a magazine (four rounds) into each of the closer plates and knocked down the 523 yard target with my last shot. As it appeared everyone remaining from the Rendezvous was waiting on me I packed up and left. I was done as soon as I got the first round hit on the 957 yard plate. That was all I was really interested in anyway.
By the end of the day the apparent elevation had changed to 3700 feet but I ignored this as it made only about 0.1 MOA difference at 957 yards. Had it warmed up 10 degrees to 45 F that would have made a difference of 0.28 MOA in the same direction and I would have taken two clicks off of the scope setting for the most distant target to account for both.
Update: The picture below is from last year and the target is out of focus but it does give a sense of the size of the target as seen in a 14X scope. The drum is 2.5 Mils to the right of the plate which is almost centered in the crosshairs.
2007 view of the 957 yard target at the Reno Range.
GunVoter.org
Jeff Knox and friends have created a website/forum for helping gun rights activists. Here is what he has to say about it:
GunVoter.org is a grand experiment and, we hope, will become a valuable tool in the activists toolbox.
This is your site and it will only work if you participate. Just snooping around now and then doesn’t help other activists any at all. We need you to share your thoughts and knowledge as well as learning from the posts of others.
In this area we ask that you introduce yourself, let users know where you live, what you do, what your interests are, and what’s important to you. Tell us what clubs you are a member of and what organizations you support.
I also want to encourage every user to go to the forum zone for your state, tell us what you think of your Senators and your Representative or, if you don’t know where your politicians stand on gun rights, ask a question so you and others can find out.
Something else that would be very helpful for all of us is if you would add to and correct the thread under your state listing pro-gun organizations and their contact information. We got that information courtesy of our friends at GunLawNews.com and know that it is incomplete and that some of it might be out of date. We need you to help us get it accurate. Then we need your help contacting those groups to invite them to participate here on GunVoter.org!
You don’t need to be an expert or a professional to post on this site, just interested and concerned.
Please don’t leave the site without contributing to the community in some way, whether just an introduction post, a question about legislation or a politician, or information about some candidate you support. Every post has value. Please participate in the project.
Thanks for being here and thanks for being a GunVoter.
Jeff Knox
Ignore the man behind the curtain
From Nevada Appeal (ignore the error about Biden being the presidential nominee instead of the vice presidential nominee):
Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware said Friday that Nevadans shouldn’t listen to claims he and Barack Obama would take away the right to bear arms.
“I get a kick out of, sometimes, the NRA saying we’re going to take your shotguns away,” he said in a telephone interview with the Nevada Appeal.
…
“Both of us believe strongly in the Second Amendment,” Biden said. “We do not believe in registration. We do believe in limits on some of the weapons. You can’t have your own flame-thrower or bazooka. And legislation in relation to assault weapons doesn’t affect hunters or sportsmen.
“We are two Democrats who voted against gun control,” he said.
But, Biden said, there is room for common-sense laws relating to such things as carrying concealed weapons.
That’s right. You shouldn’t listen to what people are saying about his record. Listen only to what he wants you to hear. “Assault weapons”? Concealed carry? You’re just a hunter. You don’t need to concern yourself with those things. We’ll send those people off to the prison camps first and you don’t need to worry about them because your gun is a good gun. Those other guys have bad guns.
Quote of the day–John Rosenthal
It’s not a stretch to think that terrorist groups have been coming to the United States, buying them, shipping them back to Afghanistan or Iraq and killing US soldiers.
John Rosenthal
October 18, 2008
Founder of Stop Handgun Violence
Logan twice missed passenger’s weapons–R.I. man got pistols, shotguns past security
[As if terrorist groups can’t get guns in Iran, Syria, or any other Mideastern country much easier. Rosenthal will say whatever he thinks he can get away with which will have the effect of reducing the ability of people in this country to exercise their specific, enumerated, right to keep and bear arms. Quoting Rosenthal after someone breaks a gun law is like quoting the KKK after a non-white breaks the law.–Joe]
The NRA and the Brady campaign agree
The NRA website has the details. The basics are:
This week, in a testament to his anti-gun record, Barack Obama also received a presidential endorsement from the Brady Campaign.
So, once again, the Brady Campaign and NRA are in total agreement—Barack Obama is, by far, the most anti-gun presidential nominee in history and he certainly deserves the endorsement of one of the most outspoken anti-gun organizations in the country.
NRA-ILA has repeatedly documented Obama’s anti-gun stance; but if any doubt remains about Obama’s true position on the Second Amendment, his endorsement from the Brady Campaign should dispel it.
Voting for Obama will be asking for a return the era of Bill Clinton only worse. Bill Clinton and his policies were significant motivators for me to buy my first gun. It was Diane Feinstein that motivated me to manufacture my own explosives. You don’t want to know what Obama will motivate me to do.
Boomershoot rifle
Chris says it’s for Boomershoot. But the maximum range of targets at Boomershoot is only 700 yards. Therefore I think it might be for more than just Boomershoot. I’m thinking my evil plan might be working. Hmmm… so that would mean it is about Boomershoot, even if it isn’t for Boomershoot.
Near miss
Daughter Xenia called me a few minutes ago. She was crying and could barely talk. She was crossing the street as she walked to class and a car turned a corner, didn’t see her, and missed her by a couple feet.
Other than the psychological aspects she is fine but it sure makes you think. What a difference a few seconds can make…
Update: Xenia has more details.
Having an impact
Sometimes it is amazing what one, essentially, insignificant, unknown person can do. “Joe the Plumber” is in the news right now and may be “a bone in the throat” of Obama. I even got a text message from my old boss asking, “Are you watching the debate?” I replied, “No. Should I be?”. He responded that “Joe” was what the debate was about. Since I don’t have a TV it wasn’t until the next morning that I figured what was going on.
On a much smaller scale my barely read blog occasionally gets attention from people of power. That’s pretty cool. But what really amused me was what happened yesterday.
I noticed I had a hit from Handgun Control Inc. who was doing a search for “Joe Huffman”. Apparently I am known, by name, to the biggest, baddest, anti-gun bigots in the country:
| Domain Name | sct.com ? (Commercial) | |||||||||||||||||||
| IP Address | 65.242.56.# (HANDGUN CONTROL) | |||||||||||||||||||
| ISP | Verizon Business | |||||||||||||||||||
| Location |
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| Language | English (U.S.) en-us |
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| Operating System | Microsoft Win2000 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Browser | Firefox Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.8.1.17) Gecko/20080829 Firefox/2.0.0.17 |
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| Javascript | version 1.5 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Monitor |
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| Time of Visit | Oct 16 2008 12:45:39 pm | |||||||||||||||||||
| Last Page View | Oct 16 2008 12:55:48 pm | |||||||||||||||||||
| Visit Length | 10 minutes 9 seconds | |||||||||||||||||||
| Page Views | 6 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Referring URL | http://www.google.co…2US261&q=Joe Huffman | |||||||||||||||||||
| Search Engine | google.com | |||||||||||||||||||
| Search Words | joe huffman | |||||||||||||||||||
| Visit Entry Page | https://blog.joehuffman.org/ | |||||||||||||||||||
| Visit Exit Page | https://blog.joehuffman.org/ | |||||||||||||||||||
| Out Click | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Time Zone | UTC-5:00 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Visitor’s Time | Oct 16 2008 3:45:39 pm | |||||||||||||||||||
| Visit Number | 370,096 |
Further investigation revealed that on March 21st of this year they did a search for “”@stopthenra.com” -www” and found me. On May 14th they did a search for ‘”north central idaho” gun’ and found me again. They have done several searches for “Dennis Hennigan” (Brady Campaign attorney) and found my blog.
And yesterday after specifically doing a search for my name they added my blog to their RSS reader. I feel so honored. Hello Sarah, Jim, Dennis, and Paul! I have Just One Question for you. Think about that for a while…
Yesterday was apparently good day to be noticed because New York City got my opinion on the issue of microstamping (Google ranks my blog post #1 with a search phrase of “microstamping research”):
| Domain Name | nyc.gov ? (U.S. Government) | |||||||||||||||||||
| IP Address | 161.185.151.# (City of New York) | |||||||||||||||||||
| ISP | City of New York | |||||||||||||||||||
| Location |
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| Language | English (U.S.) en-us |
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| Operating System | Microsoft WinXP | |||||||||||||||||||
| Browser | Internet Explorer 6.0 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; InfoPath.1) |
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| Javascript | version 1.3 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Monitor |
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| Time of Visit | Oct 16 2008 1:55:43 pm | |||||||||||||||||||
| Last Page View | Oct 16 2008 1:55:43 pm | |||||||||||||||||||
| Visit Length | 0 seconds | |||||||||||||||||||
| Page Views | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Referring URL | http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://blog.joehuffman.org/content/binary/MicrostampingSEM.jpg&imgrefurl=https://blog.joehuffman.org/2008/02/18/MicrostampingResearch.aspx&h=515&w=516&sz=38&tbnid=9x03aBEr7zUJ::&tbnh=131&tbnw=131&hl=en&prev=/images%3Fq%3 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Visit Entry Page | https://blog.joehuffman.org/2008/02/17/microstamping-research/ | |||||||||||||||||||
| Visit Exit Page | http://blog.joehuffm…tampingResearch.aspx | |||||||||||||||||||
| Out Click | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Time Zone | UTC-5:00 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Visitor’s Time | Oct 16 2008 4:55:43 pm | |||||||||||||||||||
| Visit Number | 370,120 |
Sometimes I feel rather impotent (in a way Viagra can’t help) in regards to what is happening to freedom and gun rights in this country and the world. Even Boomershoot, which I consider my greatest accomplishment, seems like too little but when I think of my impact in terms of what it was 10 years ago or compared to the impact of the non-professional gun bigots like Robyn Ringler I’m doing fairly well. I’m not a Wayne LaPierre, Alan Gottlieb, Alan Gura, Joe Waldron, Dave Kopel, David Hardy, or an Ashley N. Varner. But other gun bloggers and I are doing okay for not being on the payroll (the wheelbarrows full of cash aren’t part of the official payroll) at the Apex of the Triangle of Death. I don’t know if it is enough but we are having an noticeable impact.
Update: I was also quoted in a newspaper last week which may have been the reason the Brady Bunch became interested in me.