Author Archives: Joe

Interesting–just rambling mostly

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Heather and Jon were married twenty six years and four days after Barb and I. Heather is the origin of the word “dooced“. She now blogs full time successfully enough to support her husband and child.

This week I received my first performance review after going to work full time at Microsoft last year. I was shocked to discover the size of the bonuses and stock grants (James called me up immediately after his review and reported similar shock, “That is a lot of money!”). Even counting the lost pay after being dooced myself (I still need to finish writing up the full story–lots of interesting details about what really happened) in about four or five years I will be financially better off that I would have been had I stayed at the lab. I would rather do the work (for the most part) I was doing at the lab but financially I can’t complain.

Speaking of the Fourth Amendment

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Via Bruce we find out they are drug testing sewage.

So, here is how it works… They test at the main outlet for drugs, then start moving up the pipe and at each junction they mark it “clean” or “dirty” and keep moving upstream on the “dirty pipes” to the individual homes. When the arrive at your back door they have probable cause and you are busted.

The same sort of methodology will find gun owners (gun powder residue) and Jews In The Attic (DNA markers) and can also be applied to your trash at the landfill and the air downwind from your community.

I love the comment to Bruce’s post by John Thurston:

This opens a new form of blackmail:
“Be nice to me or I’ll pee in your toilet.”

Left wing wackos for guns

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Left Wing Wackos for Guns is an interesting read even if it’s all old news to us at the forefront of the gun rights movement. It’s more evidence that we are winning. I look forward to the day when I can put gun rights on the “back burner” to simmer and increment by two the Constitutional Amendment of my primary focus.

Quote of the day–Dan Rather

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But now, like the US, the UK has a crime problem. And believe it or not, except for murder, theirs is worse than ours.

Dan Rather
June 2000
Britain is capital of crime, says US TV channel
[See also Gun Control’s Twisted Outcome–Restricting firearms has helped make England more crime-ridden than the U.S.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Spider Robinson

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I really did comprehend, intellectually at least, that I was engaged in one of the most profoundly thrilling endeavors in human history.

How conservative can you be if you have jumped off the edge of the solar system?

Do conservative people travel at relativist speeds?

By the end of the first year of our voyage we were already traveling at more than a third of the speed of light. And even though there were no sensory cues at all to confirm that we were all well of it and believed it. And I think I can safely say we all found it more than a little thrilling. By the time we reached turn over in nine more years our velocity was going to peak at a hair frying 0.99794 C.

Does a conservative man race photons?

Joel Johnston
A character in the book Variable Star by Robert A. Heinlein and Spider Robinson.
[Johnston is referring to a literal definition of conservative, not the present day political definition. I have another 20 minutes worth of the book to listen to. Both James and I are enjoying it a great deal.–Joe]

Quote of the day–“Dan” in Pennsylvania

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I consider the ownership of arms not only a right, but the duty of a free people to themselves and future generations.

“Dan” in Pennsylvania
Armed America page 60.
[Do your duty.–Joe]

Quote of the day–G. Eric Engstrom

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Dear Jamie,

Money is the root of all evil. A man does need roots.

Remember to dream with your eyes open so you can act on them to make them real.

G. Eric Engstrom
March 23, 2000
Inscription inside the front cover of Renegades of the Empire: How Three Software Warriors Started a Revolution Behind the Walls of Fortress Microsoft
[This inscription was addressed to our son James–who now works at Microsoft. The book is about Eric, Craig Eisler, and Alex St. John. I worked for them when I first started doing contract work for Microsoft in 1995. I’ve known Eric for about 20 years now starting when we both worked for Zortech (they sold a C/C++ compiler for MSDOS and later OS/2 and Windows). While researching this quote, much to my surprise, I discovered Craig is now back at Microsoft.–Joe]

More signs of victory

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As I (and others) have been saying for quite some time we are winning:

A recent Zogby International poll question conducted for Associated Television News found that 66% of the American voting public in a recent poll of 1,020 Americans from August 8-11, 2007 (margin of error of +/- 3.1%) found that the American public rejects the notion that new gun control laws are needed.

The poll asked: “Which of the following two statements regarding gun control comes closer to your own opinion? Statement A: There needs to be new and tougher gun control legislation to help in the fight against gun crime. Statement B: There are enough laws on the books. What is needed is better enforcement of current laws regarding gun control.

Conversely, only 31% of the American public think new and tougher gun control legislation are needed.

A majority of voters who support enforcement of gun laws already on the books exists virtually across all demographic groups and in all regions of the country with the only exception being Asian and liberal voters.

Don’t slack off, don’t celebrate for more than a day. We need to politically exterminate them. Our job isn’t done until they are as unpopular as the KKK and the neo-Nazis.

May we live long and die out

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If you have sometimes suspected that the ecofascists hate humans then you may be pleased to see the evidence to support that hypothesis–The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement:

Phasing out the human race by voluntarily ceasing to breed will allow Earth’s biosphere to return to good health. Crowded conditions and resource shortages will improve as we become less dense.

“Crowded conditions” are either voluntary or imposed by government action. They are not an inevitable result of our present population.

“Resource shortages” would get worse if there were far fewer people on the planet. This point might not be obvious so I will explain. Imagine you and a few hundred others are marooned on a large isolated island that in addition to the sand, has tillable soil, fresh water, metal ores and, deep underground, oil. How long before you will have tractors and cultivators such that you can raise a surplus of food? How long before you will have electrical power, air conditioning, computers, and cell phones? There are a great many things that are only possible because there is a large enough market to justify the initial investment.

VHEMT apparently lives in a fantasy world.

Update: VHEMT responded on their Yahoo email group confirming my suspicions:

I think this is one of the funniest views of VHEMT I’ve seen so far:

[…snip of my post above…]

I don’t know what “Crap for brains” refers to at the end. It was
placed to the right like a signature.

Les

Apparently he was unable to determine that “Crap for brains” was a topic tag.

Obviously Joe Huffman has never lived off the grid without A/C,
refrigeration or phone service.  I have, and must confess I prefer life
without all the amenities.

Camille

Camille (and Bob) have a Yahoo profile. Occupation: Eco-Smugs.

Does anyone else find it ironic their favorite quote is “The need to be right is the sign of a vulgar mind. Albert Camus”?

When growing up on the farm there were several years we did not have a phone or A/C. However, we did always have refrigeration. I’ve been camping and backpacking many times without any of the amenities. It’s enjoyable for a few days but I wouldn’t want to live my entire life like that. I find it ironic that Camille is posting on the Internet about her preference for living without “all the amenities”.

Well, his blog is subtitled, “Ramblings of a red-necked,
knuckle-dragging, Neanderthal” so I do think “crap for brains” is a
signature!

😉
Doris

Another person in the group that couldn’t figure out the topic tag “Crap for brains”–confirming the correctness of my categorization.

It may be illegal to delete files

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I consider Stottlemire’s actions unethical. But he does have a point:

Stottlemire, 42, of Fremont, California, insists there was no encryption or hacking involved, and therefore he did not violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. “I honestly think there are big problems when you are not allowed to delete files off of your computer,” says Stottlemire.

I also think he is on shaky, at best, legal ground. The law says:

`(2) No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof, that–

`(A) is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title;

`(B) has only limited commercially significant purpose or use other than to circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title; or

`(C) is marketed by that person or another acting in concert with that person with that person’s knowledge for use in circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.

The law doesn’t say the circumvention has to have anything to do with “encryption or hacking”.

Where it gets interesting to me is that if someone were to design their copy protection based on the existence of a browser cookie such that if you had the cookie you couldn’t copy the “protected work” and if you didn’t you could do the copy. Then if someone make a program or script that selectively deleted just that one cookie they would be violating the law. But a web browser which allowed the user to selectively delete cookies would apparently not subject the authors to legal action. And furthermore someone who told you how delete the cookie with the browser or even the command prompt would not be subject to legal action either.

This is so alien to me

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I grew up in Idaho and when I wasn’t residing there I lived in next door Washington. As I have reported before my interactions with and knowledge of local law enforcement have been what I considered very fair. And as I have also reported before that isn’t the case in New Jersey. And apparently it isn’t the case in New York City either:

When motorists see traffic-control officers breaking the same rules they are paid to enforce, it can send them over the edge.

Meet “Jimmy Justice,” one of those frustrated motorists.

But instead of railing against fate, he decided to do something about it. Taking camcorder in hand, he’s compiled nearly 30 hours of video — most of it accompanied by his own highly indignant commentary — of traffic enforcement officers parking in front of fire hydrants while going for lunch, making illegal U-turns, and breaking every other traffic rule in the city.

“The traffic cops in New York City are especially mean-spirited and very aggressive,” the 36-year-old video vigilante told TODAY’s David Gregory.

“Although they’re doing their jobs, they go over their bounds a lot. What hurts a lot more than getting a ticket — especially if you didn’t deserve a ticket — is watching the same person who gave you a ticket go and commit the same violation with their official vehicle. That’s just wrong. The whole goal of traffic enforcement is to increase safety in the city for pedestrians and motorists.”

[…]

Keeping his real identity secret is, he said, is a matter of self-defense

“I think there will definitely be reprisal attacks against me by different city agencies that I’m embarrassing by showing the public the truth,” he said.

Gregory asked Jimmy how he can be sure the officials he tapes are not on official police business.

“It’s pretty obvious if they park blocking a fire hydrant and then walk into a restaurant and then stand on line ordering their lunch,” he said. “That’s not doing their job, that’s ordering lunch. We’re not allowed to block a fire hydrant — it’s a matter of safety. What’s the difference if it’s my vehicle blocking a fire pump or the vehicle of a traffic enforcement agent?”

Is this just an “east coast thing”? Or is it because cops are the only ones who can legally possess firearms in public and they feel superior to the people that supply their paycheck?

Quote of the day–Traci Hughs

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If we had less guns on the street, more people would be alive today.

Traci Hughs
August 21, 2007
D.C. police spokeswoman
In Study Of Gun Traffic, Va. Stands Out
[She doesn’t address the issue of whether the homicides she is referring to were felonious, justified, or praiseworthy. She doesn’t address the issue of substitution of other weapons as a means of homicide. She doesn’t address the issue of felonious homicides that are committed without a gun that could have been prevented had the victim possessed a gun. And I’ll bet she can’t answer Just One Question. And I don’t think it is a misunderstanding of the English language that throughout the article author, Alison Klein, refers to firearms being seized by law enforcement as being “recovered”. “Recover” means “to bring back to normal position or condition”.–Joe]

Quote of the day–John Perry Barlow

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You do not know our culture, our ethics, or the unwritten codes that already provide our society more order than could be obtained by any of your impositions.

John Perry Barlow
[Barlow was speaking of the Internet but he just as well could have been talking about the gun culture in our country.–Joe]

Stockpiling ammo

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Lots of people have been reporting on the high price and shortages of ammo recently. I know the folks over at Master Blasters Bullets and they told me the price they pay for lead has increased something like a factor of four in the last two years.

And if you are, or will be, into reloading you should buy some bullets before the price goes up again. I know the prices at MBB will be going up very soon and I have my order in at the existing prices.

And stocking up now is a good idea just to help counteract the anti-gun bigots.

Speaking of socopathic dictators

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Recently I posted a quote about sociopaths. Auntie Tam tells us of how one such sicko died a violent death after being responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands including:

In 1868, when the allies were pressing him hard, he convinced himself that his Paraguayan supporters had actually formed a conspiracy against his life. Thereupon several hundred prominent Paraguayan citizens were seized and executed by his order, including his brothers and brothers-in-law, cabinet ministers, judges, prefects, military officers, bishops and priests, and nine-tenths of the civil officers, together with more than two hundred foreigners, among them several members of the diplomatic legations (the San Fernando massacres). During this time he also had his mother flogged and ordered her execution, and also attempted to have himself canonized by the local bishops.

Sociopaths; just one of the many reasons gun control fails my Jews in the Attic Test.

Quote of the day–John Gilmore

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The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.

John Gilmore
[This, or a similar, quote is often attributed to John Perry Barlow but Barlow gives credit to Gilmore (and here) for at least the concept if not the exact words. Regardless, this point is being hammered into the psyche of the anti-gun bigots. They no longer have their hand on the throttle of information dissemination. Freedom of information is something some people just can’t tolerate.–Joe]

Xenia’s face is made of rubber

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She tends to put her best face forward but sometimes she is a slacker and just doesn’t care.

Quote of the day–Mac Johnson

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A number of sources on the left held up for praise in the decision the one dissenting judge, Karen LeCraft Henderson, whose opinion that the gun ban was constitutionally permissible was based on at least two stellar deductions. The first was that since the District of Columbia is not a state (as in “necessary to the security of a free State…”), then the 2nd Amendment did not apply in that part of America. This is a wonderful precedent, not only for the District, but also for America’s other territories such a Puerto Rico.

According to this same logic, Amendments 14, 15, 19, 24 and 26 (among others) do not apply in the District either, which means the District is free to a) deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, b) deny the vote to blacks, c) deny the vote to women, d) institute a poll tax, and e) deny the vote based on age. Clearly, Henderson deserves her new status as a liberal hero.

Mac Johnson
Court Rediscovers 2nd Amendment, Liberals Fear Other ‘Rights’ May Soon be Found
March 15, 2007

New version of dasBlog

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I’ve installed a new version of the blogging software. It seems to have fixed the problem I had with comments bringing down the server CPU. It runs just fine on my 32-bit Vista Ultimate home machines. But there are some problems on my website and on my 64-bit Vista machine.

Patience please…

Update: The most serious problems are solved! I can now log in and create/edit posts on the site rather than editing them on my local machine then uploading the new entry to the website, then “touching” web.config to reload the content. The comment preview still doesn’t work and the comment box overlaps the right panel if your screen width isn’t wide enough. But it’s now usable.

TSA fodder

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You can make a crude stun gun from a disposable camera. A better quality flash unit will have a faster recycle time.

There is no limit the number and type of weapons that can be easily made and gotten past the Theater Security Agents (TSA). I’ve already mentioned making dust explosions with flour (powdered coffee creamer works too). It’s long past time to consider some alternatives to existing airplane security.