Author Archives: Joe

Chatting with Bing about Boomershoot

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I applied for and was accepted into the initial set of users of the Bing AI-powered answer engine. Here is my chat with it about Boomershoot. My requests are in red and right justified:

Welcome to the new Bing

Your AI-powered answer engine

Tell me about Boomershoot.

Searching for: Boomershoot

Searching for: Boomershoot history

Generating answers for you…

Boomershoot is a long range precision rifle event where people shoot at high explosives12. It is held near Orofino, Idaho, each year in late spring13. The targets are filled with explosives at ranges from 375 to 700 yards13. Shooters are allowed to engage as many targets as they can during the all-day event1.

Boomershoot was started by Joe Huffman, a software engineer who attended a dynamite shoot in 1996 and decided to make his own explosives4. He invited some friends and co-workers for an explosives shoot in 1998 and it became an annual event since then24.

What are you interested in learning more about Boomershoot?

Learn more:1. en.wikipedia.org2. boomershoot.com3. boomershoot.com4. gundigest.com5. bing.com6. boomershoot.com7. boomershoot.com8. en.wikipedia.org9. boomershoot.com

+5 more

Is Boomershoot safe?

Sent message. is Boomershoot safe?

Searching for: Boomershoot safety

Generating answers for you…

Boomershoot has some safety rules and precautions to ensure a safe and enjoyable experience for everyone12. Some of them are:

The explosions are not a threat from 375+ yards away, but the guns are2. There have been no serious injuries reported at Boomershoot so far.

Do you have any other questions about Boomershoot?

Learn more:1. boomershoot.com2. boomershoot.com3. boomershoot.com4. boomershoot.com5. boomershoot.com

+1 more

Is Boomershoot fun?

Sent message. Is Boomershoot fun?

I think that depends on your personal preference and interest. Some people may find Boomershoot fun because they enjoy shooting at explosive targets and seeing them go boom. Others may not find it fun because they don’t like guns or loud noises.

What do you think? Do you find Boomershoot fun?

Yes! Boomershoot is awesome!

Sent message. Yes! Boomershoot is awesome!

I’m glad you think so. Boomershoot seems like a unique and exciting event for shooting enthusiasts.

Bing AI chat is now my friend.

Sign up for Boomershoot 2023.

You are just junkies to them

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Quote of the Day

Ever wonder what the Left thinks of you? Your gun is a drug and you are just a junkie to them: “When we seize drugs in our city, we don’t put those drugs back on the street and give them to a different drug dealer. We destroy them. Why don’t we do the same thing with guns?”

Sean D Sorrentino @SorrentinoSean
Tweeted on February 21, 2023

See also yesterday’s QOTD on the same topic.

Sentencing guns to death for their crimes

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Quote of the Day

When we seize drugs in our city, we don’t put those drugs back on the street and give them to a different drug dealer. We destroy them. Why don’t we do the same thing with guns? I want our city to do our part and permanently destroy illegal guns that have been used to commit crimes once in our city. Once is too many.

Craig Greenberg
Mayor of Louisville Kentucky
February 16, 2023
To Sidestep Law, Louisville To Disable Confiscated Guns Before Giving Them To State Police For Auction

You can almost make sense of the quote above. But reading the article you get more context and you realize the guy is nuts:

In an effort to sidestep a state law that mandates guns seized by law enforcement be auctioned off by the Kentucky State Police, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said Thursday that the city would now disable firearms before turning them over to the state police force.

Going forward, he said, the Louisville Metro Police Department will render seized firearms inoperable by removing their firing pins before giving them to the Kentucky State Police.

…

Louisville will also place “warning stickers” on disabled guns turned over to the Kentucky State Police stating that the firearm may have been used in a homicide.

Think about this. Dumping used guns on the market will drive down the demand and price of guns. Destroying the guns means the market demand for new guns and prices will increase. The “evil gun manufacturers” will make more money and the local police will have less money. I can see, in a twisted sort of way, they want the police to have less resources. This will increase the crime problem and “justify” more gun control.

I can make the case they are really clever to help defund the police in a roundabout way. But my favorite hypothesis, which seems to fit all the data, is they are incapable of rational thought.

Does he really think the gun will commit a crime on its own if the firing pin is not removed? Or warning stickers will cause people to watch them extra careful to avoid further crimes?

And/or perhaps they believe that once a gun has committed a crime it is more likely to commit another and should be destroyed.

Delusions such this are is not as unusual as you might think. See, for example, Guns in Hell. And, as pointed out by Neal Knox, things like this go back over a thousand years. But, reading the history of deodands, the original purpose actually makes more sense than these modern day nutcases.

Brain miswired

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Quote of the Day

u like weapons? u have for sure a little penis – so sad

Sargon @Nogras69
Tweeted on January 9, 2023

It’s not only another Markley’s Law Monday, it is another science denier!

Via a tweet from In Chains @InChainsInJail.

I suspect this is a bot of some sort. At least a troll. The tweets appear to be nearly random. But what do you expect of anti-gun people? Their brains are not wired quite right.

Required Counterinsurgency Ratio

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Quote of the Day

Typically, counterinsurgency requires at least an overwhelming advantage of conventional forces over insurgents (some estimates are as high as 10 or 20 to 1).

John Robb
2007
Page 79 in Brave New War: The Next Stage of Terrorism and the End of Globalization

Good to know. See also Boots on the Ground.

This is a great book.

Not secret enough

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Via a tweet from Chuck Petras @Chuck_Petras.

I wish I had a secret unground bunker complete with a shooting range. It would be tough to keep it secret though.

ATF is openly weaponized

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Via a tweet from Chuck Petras @Chuck_Petras.

Leaked ATF Docs Reveal ‘Aggressive’ Push To Shut Down Gun Stores

Under the Biden Administration, ATF has changed its focus from regulating the gun industry to destroying it by whatever means possible—eliminating access to firearms by putting as many gun dealers as possible out of business.

There was at least a 200% increase in FFL revocations since enactment of ATF’s Zero Tolerance policy. Of course, license revocations are a lengthy process, and this number almost certainly will continue to increase. Compare Biden’s Zero Tolerance policy to ATF’s prior policy:

Zero Tolerance: “ATF will revoke a federal firearms license, absent extraordinary circumstances on initial violations.”

Prior Guidance: “ATF may revoke a federal firearms license under appropriate circumstances based on an initial set of violations.

Even worse, ATF is using a history of good behavior and compliance with federal law against FFLs. Under Biden’s Zero Tolerance, now even a history of compliance, followed by a single unintentional mistake, may be used as proof of a so-called “willful” violation.

I hope they kept good records of all the people involved in this. And I hope the people responsible enjoy their trials.

Long term, I have hope the ATF will be found to be unconstitutional in regards to the regulation of firearms. Where in the history and tradition of the 2nd Amendment prior to, or at the time of, the 14th Amendment did such an agency and function exist?

If people were serious about stopping mass school murders

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There are numerous potential ways to reduce the risk of mass murders at schools. But to the best of my knowledge there is one way that, for all practical purposes, reduces the risk to zero: As I have said before, eliminate the massing of students in one place.

But, since you almost never hear this offered as a solution one must conclude the vast majority of people have something else as a higher priority that stopping these mass murders.

The political left dances in the blood at these events. So, I understand why they aren’t all that serious about stopping them. But what about those of other political persuasions?

Joe Biden appears to have run out of time

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Quote of the Day

President Joe Biden appears to have run out of time to pass a ban on so-called “assault weapons.”

Not only has he lost control of Congress, where he had focused his legislative efforts to stop the sales of modern sporting rifles, but he is losing the support of the public in his bid to take away the most popular firearm ever.

In the latest Quinnipiac University poll, 48% oppose Biden’s ban, 47% support it. While obviously the nation is split, the numbers do not show the overwhelming support that the president and liberal democrats have been banking on.

Paul Bedard
February 17, 2023
Biden misfire: Majority turns against ‘assault weapons’ ban

The courts being in our favor is a bigger short term obstacle. In the long term, it is public opinion that will allow us to hold on to our freedoms.

Continue to come out of the closet, take new shooters to the range, and be a person the public is comfortable with possessing firearms.

How does this work?

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This doesn’t make sense to me:

Exclusive-Discover to enable tracking of purchases at gun retailers from April

Discover Financial Services, a provider of credit cards, told Reuters it will allow its network to track purchases at gun retailers come April, making it the first among its peers to move ahead with the initiative aimed at helping authorities probe gun-related crimes.

…

“We remain focused on continuing to protect and support lawful purchases on our network while protecting the privacy of cardholders,” Discover said in its statement to Reuters.

How can they track purchases while protecting cardholders? My primary hypothesis is they are counting on gun owners to believe a lie.

Pay cash when you can and use Virtual Cards when you can’t.

Greater Idaho still a viable option

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Quote of the Day

We have been to the legislature in Idaho, we have a lot of support in legislature in Idaho for this idea. They see the benefit of bringing 400,000 like-minded people into their state. It makes Idaho stronger; it gives people the government they want and it’s a win-win for everybody involved.

Matt McCaw
Spokesman for the Greater Idaho Movement.
January 15, 2023
Oregon state senator introduces bill to give 65% of Beaver State to Idaho, after conservative residents of 11 counties voted to join its GOP-voting neighbor

With the extreme anti-gun climate in Western Oregon I am certain the movement will continue to be an attractive solution to the eastern Oregon counties.

Mind reading judge

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Quote of the Day

CSPOA claims to eschew racist ideology, but in fact its leaders embrace racist and white nationalist ideologies. The growing “constitutional sheriffs” movement intends to increase the risk of conflict between local law enforcement and federal authorities. The movement is animated by the deeply flawed and ahistorical view that county sheriffs hold ultimate law-enforcement authority in each individual county outranking federal and state authority. This deeply flawed and legally incorrect analysis holds that the superiority of county authority is deeply rooted in Anglo-American law.  The anti-democratic ideas and quasi-legal theories propounded by the CSPOA and embedded in Second Amendment Sanctuary Ordinances have their origins in the writings of William Potter Gale, who founded the posse comitatus movement in the 1960s. They also have their origins in the writings of the Aryan Nation, an antisemitic, white supremist group.

The premise of such writings is the antisemitic and racist conspiracy theory that Jews are at the heart of America’s problems, that people of color are unwitting pawns to be manipulated by one side or the other, and that zealots must prepare for a final battle in the last days. The proponents of these ideas claim that a cabal of elites or globalists (code words for Jews) in the UN, or the fictional New World Order or Zionist Occupational Government, manipulate our federal government and, by extension, state governments.

James C Egan
Judge Oregon Court of Appeals
February 15, 2023
Concurring opinion to Board of Cty. Comm. of Columbia Cty. v. Rosenblum

Via email from Mike B. See also OREGON JUDGED CALLS SECOND AMENDMENT SANCTUARY RACIST, ANTI-Semitic – Oregon Firearms Federation

I find it very telling that the judge believes that if the proponent of a concept was a racist, white supremist, then anyone who also believes the concept is also a racist, white supremist. Does that mean that all people who believe women should have the right to vote are also women? Or all people who believe interracial marriage should be legal are also in an interracial relationship? Or if the originators of the hypothesis that the earth is a sphere, instead of flat, was homosexual all people who currently believe the earth is a sphere are also homosexual?

The judge is not only is the judges opinion “a lie and defamatory” as stated by OFF, it is a indicator of irrational thought. The belief he can read the minds of others.

Anyone who owns a semi-auto gun is sick

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Quote of the Day

Now it seems Biden and his anti-gun handlers are trying to expand the “confusion” to include any semi-automatic, not just popular rifles that happen to look like the fully automatic rifles used in the military.  This apparent intent to expand “confusion” is supported by Biden’s desire to ban 9mm semi-autos, arguably the most popular type of handgun purchased by law-abiding citizens for self-defense.  It is also supported by Biden implying that anyone who owns a semi-auto—the vast majority whom are law-abiding gun owners—is “sick.”

NRA-ILA
February 13, 2023
Biden’s Meandering, Sometimes Incoherent, SOTU Inevitably Includes Attack on 2A

This is what they think of you. They think you are easily confused by firearm technology and that if you own a semi-auto you are sick.

Ironic, huh?

This is just one example

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Via a tweet from the JPFO:

image

How to Detect Cognitive Dissonance

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Quote of the Day

How to know you triggered your critic into cognitive dissonance:

  1. Changes topic
  2. Goes ad hominem
  3. Mind-reading
  4. Word salad
  5. Uses analogy in place of reason
  6. Insists it is “complicated” and can’t be summarized
  7. The “So….” tell (indicates a straw man coming)

As soon as you detect one of the seven tells for cognitive dissonance, excuse yourself from the conversation. You can’t deprogram someone via reason.

Scott Adams @ScottAdamsSays
Tweeted (and here) on February 7, 2023

Does this sound familiar?

Markley’s Law at a Planck Level

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Quote of the Day

It’s impossible to talk about your dick because words don’t exist at the Planck level

Grandma Canada @Grandma_Canada
Tweeted on December 10, 2022

It’s not only another Markley’s Law Monday, it is another science denier!

I’d give her some bonus points for originality and knowledge of what a Planck length is. But one doesn’t need word length to match the size of the object being discussed.

Math isn’t taught in Baltimore

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Quote of the Day

Baltimore City’s math scores were the lowest in the state. Just 7 percent of third through eighth graders tested proficient in math, which means 93 percent could not do math at grade level.

But that’s not all; Project Baltimore combed through the scores at all 150 City Schools where the state math test was given.

Project Baltimore found, in 23 Baltimore City schools, there were zero students who tested proficient in math. Not a single student.

Chris Papst
February 6, 2023
23 Baltimore schools have zero students proficient in math, per state test results

This is so bizarre to me.

I find it difficult to believe any of the following hypothesis to explain these results:

  • Corruption of some nature which is so pervasive that teachers have near zero motive to do their jobs.
  • There are this high of percentage of students which are incapable of meeting grade level.
  • The tests are so difficult to meet grade level such that nearly no student can succeed.

I’m left with, “This is deliberate.” Could it be some sort of “Math is racist” thing is going on? What could be the motivation? Creating an “army” of non-thinking drones for welfare and votes?

Lesson for people managers

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Quote of the day

Being the most talkative person in the room may be a good way to get people’s attention, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you have the best ideas.As a neuroscientist, I’ve worked with large companies like Google and Deloitte on how to attract and retain top talent, and I’ve found that employers tend to favor extroverts.

But there are some surprising strengths that introverts bring to the table, and they shouldn’t be overlooked.

Friederike Fabritius
February 7, 2023
A neuroscientist shares the 4 ‘highly coveted’ skills that set introverts apart: ‘Their brains work differently’

This could be the theme of my entire career. I clean up the messes of the incompetent extroverts who then get the promotions.

A couple of years ago someone who is not an engineer, never been an engineer, and never will be an engineer (lacking in math ability as well as some other things that are beyond them) was given a position as Principal Engineer that I also applied for. I asked HR, “How did they even get past the resume screening? They didn’t meet any of the ‘required qualifications’ and only partially meet two of the ‘qualifications’.” At my manager’s request, I had WRITTEN most of those qualifications around my skill set. HR assured me that the best candidate had received the promotion because, “This position requires someone who is well known.”

A Principal Engineer requires someone who is, “Well known”? But they are not required to have any engineering skills or do any engineering?” Being “well known” was not even hinted at in the qualifications for the job.

I was so upset at this I terminated the conversation. There was no point in further discussion with someone like this and I was not in any state of mind to talk without high risk of saying something which was “career limiting”.

Today I received notification of my yearly salary, bonus, and other compensation changes. No promotion. I’ve been in the same position for almost eight years with nothing but high verbal praise but not a single promotion. Being constantly called the team’s ‘Q’ (as in the James Bond movies) is nice, but I would rather be promoted. I’ve seen interns promoted to my job title in half that time. They were decent engineers, female, young, and, of course, extroverts.

On socialism and communism

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Quote of the Day

In the end, we will be okay. The economy might crash, but in fundamentals we’re okay. Even manufacturing is reviving, even if it’s doing so in American fashion: fewer workers needed, less expense, more production, more profit.

We will be okay. Might “crash” in externals and structure for a while, before coming back, though. Same with the rest of our symptoms.

But we’re the majority. And we’ve already won.

The mop up is going to hurt like a b*tch.

But be not afraid. We got this.

In the end we win, they lose.

Because 2+2=4.

Sarah Hoyt
February 8, 2023
DOING THE ARITHMETIC

The post is about socialism and communism. I think she has things figured out as well as anyone.

Another day, another dead gun law

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Quote of the day:

A federal law prohibiting marijuana users from possessing firearms is unconstitutional, a federal judge in Oklahoma has concluded, citing last year’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling that significantly expanded gun rights.

Nate Raymond
February 6, 2023
Ban on marijuana users owning guns is unconstitutional, U.S. judge rules

If one gun law were to bite the dust every day we would be down to the number where we should have always been in about 55 years. That’s slower than I would like but the up side is the slow torture for the anti-gun people.