Author Archives: Joe

Names you don’t hear anymore

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On Tuesday night, at age 91, my aunt* Mardell died. I have never met another person with the name of Mardell. I’ve been a bit sad and nostalgic the last few days.

There are a lot of other names from my childhood I which I have never, or extremely rarely, hear anymore. I probably will only rarely again hear them associated with any living person. For some reason they are almost all on my dad’s side of the family.

All children of my great grandfather:

  • Ada
  • Alden
  • Ardis
  • Helena
  • Pet**
  • Sadie***

Others of the same generation:

  • Cecil
  • Claude
  • Charlotte (my maternal grandmother)
  • Elsa
  • Ida
  • Lorne
  • Ollie
  • Orla
  • Oscar
  • Lillian
  • Van (my maternal grandmother’s husband for a while)
  • Verna (my maternal grandmother’s middle name)

My dad, his cousins, friends, and neighbors:

  • Ally
  • Clinton (as a first name)
  • Doyle
  • Donzal
  • Drexel
  • Edna
  • Ernestine
  • Gladys
  • Gwen
  • Harriet
  • Lowell
  • Manual
  • Mardell
  • Ned
  • Skyler

Friends of mine growing up:

  • Lethco (only person on this list who is still alive)
  • Verl

* Technically, she was not my aunt. However, my father’s mother was a sister to aunty Dell’s mother AND my father’s father was a brother to her father. Also, for several years, both families lived in the same household. Dad was an only child but he had three double cousins he grew up with. My brothers and I called these siblings of his uncles and aunt.

** Although this was just nickname for Patricia, I don’t know that I knew her
real name was Patricia until years after she had passed away.

*** I know someone who named their dog Sadie. But I don’t know any living humans with that name.

Quote of the day—Defens

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Liberal anti-gunners look at the mass shooter and say “Oh that’s so awful, I don’t want to be like him.”

Pro-rights citizens look at the shooter’s victims and say, “Oh that’s so awful, I don’t want to be like him!”

Defens
January 13, 2023
Comment to Quote of the day—Danny Westneat
[This rings true and there is considerable evidence to support this hypothesis.

This is also tends support for my claim that these people are inherently violent. They apparently believe others are similarly afflicted and the primary result of guns in a society is to enable this criminal violence. This is my “generous” view of their psychology.

When I am less generous, I tend to believe they are evil and they make up these excuses to justify making their victims defenseless.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Danny Westneat

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This past year, the number of concealed gun licenses awarded in Washington state soared by more than 57,000, to about 700,000, according to data from the state Department of Licensing.

It means that just shy of 12% of all the adults in Washington state are packing (or at least are licensed to do so). This rate is 11th highest in the nation, according to a national roundup of gun data, behind mostly red states.

…

Around here they appear to be as hot as ever. That’s despite all the gun control laws (or maybe in reaction to them). Despite the bad publicity from mass shootings. Despite years of public-health ad campaigns about the potential dangers of having guns in the home.

Danny Westneat
January 11, 2023
Blue state paradox: WA keeps arming up
[Emphasis added.

12% of the adult in Washington have CPLs. That has to contribute to a culture change about gun ownership. That number is greater than the number of LBGT people in our society. It’s time to come out of the closet.

I found it amusing Westneat thinks that publicity about mass shootings would tend to reduce the carrying of guns.

I want to pat him on the head and tell him, “That’s so cute!”—Joe]

Quote of the day—Robb Allen @ItsRobbAllen

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There is not a single aspect of your life, no matter how small, that these tyrants do not feel the overwhelming desire to control.

Senators are more of a threat to your wellbeing than gas stoves.

Robb Allen @ItsRobbAllen
Tweeted on January 10, 2023
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Wow!

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I suspect the real numbers are about half this:

image

image

image

One of my daughters listens to the same books on the same account as I do and we talk about them. Still, those are larger numbers than I expected.

Quote of the day—Quora

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Should a law be passed requiring that one gun manufacturing executive or lobbyist be publicly executed for every victim of a school shooting?

Quora
December 2022
[This is what they think of you.

They want you dead.—Joe]

Quote of the day—NRA-ILA

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The Biden White House has for the most part worked hand-in-glove with gun control advocacy groups toward their shared goals of civilian disarmament. But a lawsuit against the government by survivors of the Sutherland Springs attack in 2017 is putting a strain on this harmonious relationship and causing embarrassment to all concerned. That’s because defending the suit has forced the government to admit inconvenient truths about the limitations of gun control. Now Biden & Company face a tough choice: Pony up more than $230 million or appeal the current judgment against the government and incur the wrath of its usual allies by truthfully admitting the top priority of gun controllers doesn’t really stop violent criminals.

…

It’s significant they had already argued in the case that even background check denials would not likely have stopped the perpetrator, nor could the Air Force had known from his commission of domestic violence that he had the potential to carry out a different type of attack.  Both those admissions essentially negate any further claims by the Biden Administration that firearm background checks have any essential role to play in public safety.

NRA-ILA
January 9, 2023
Biden DOJ Angers Gun Control Allies by Truthfully Admitting NICS Can’t Stop Violent Criminals
[It is such a pleasure to see the truth we have been shouting from the rooftops for decades finally putting the squeeze on the anti-gun people. With the Bruen case behind us the legal environment is essentially won with “just” a decade or two of mop-up left. As seen above the practical argument is becoming more and more one sided. The philosophical argument is easily won which may be why the anti-gun people almost never push that angle.—Joe]

Born to regulate

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This will not go over well:

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) may decide to outlaw natural gas stoves after a new study claimed the appliances can emit harmful pollution, according to Bloomberg.

The article makes it sound as if the CPSC can ban gas stoves without any action by Congress.

As I can’t imagine there is as much soot and other pollutants as they claim this would appear to be another case where people get a thrill out of creating regulations:

I like having a very direct and very powerful impact on worker safety and health.  If you put out a reg, it matters.  I think that’s really where the thrill comes from.  And it is a thrill; it’s a high… I love it; I absolutely love it.  I was born to regulate.  I don’t know why, but that’s very true.  So as long as I’m regulating, I’m happy.

I wonder if 18 USC 242 could be made to apply to them.

Between having promise and realizing it

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I don’t care for the communist spin in the article but the core of the message is intriguing:

The effort to slow down aging isn’t slowing down. The Institute for Aging Research at New York’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine claims we’ve moved beyond hope in turning anti-aging into reality, and we now sit “at the point between having promise and realizing it.”

I expect the middle class have access in less than a decade after the billionaires.

Quote of the day—The_right_thinks_memes_are_facts (@Politicallyexp2)

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Wow there was a whole lot of small dick energy coming from your tweet. My god you cucks are so sensitive! Can’t handle free speech

The_right_thinks_memes_are_facts (@Politicallyexp2)
Tweeted on November 17, 2022
[It’s not only another Markley’s Law Monday, it is another science denier!

The context has nothing to do with free speech. It has to do with a threat to “neutralize” anyone with an AR-15.

My message to The_right_thinks_memes_are_facts (@Politicallyexp2) is:

Please continue. We are gathering evidence for your trial.

My model for their thinking pattern is something approximating hissing and popping noises around a tribal/communist offset. These useful idiots are essentially alien entities to me.—Joe]

There could be a problem here

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Via Rolf who says, “I detect a problem”:

Meme-TargetShooting

I think someone needs to put a little more spin on their bullets.

Although, if the distance is short enough and/or the target big enough this probably has more stopping power than a soft or hollow point bullet.

An issue with solar power

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I was at my place in Idaho last month to do some general maintenance on things and this was one of the things I had to take care of:

20221206_084330

In the center is a solar panel. The batteries, in the box on the right, were still holding up but were low. I brushed off the snow and charged up the batteries with an alternate power source. They probably will hold out until I visit again. But this is an issue with solar power. You might think of solar panels as near zero maintenance, but they are not. They get dirty as well has get covered in snow and ice. The batteries also need to be replaced every few years.

For some applications they are the best choice available. For general purpose electricity, not so much.

Boomershoot 2023 entry opening soon!

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Registration opens for staff 1/9/2023 6:00:00 PM Pacific Time.
Registration opens for previous year participants 1/14/2023 9:00:00 AM Pacific Time.
Registration opens for everyone 1/21/2023 9:00:00 AM

As Boomershoot 2022 participants know we had some issues with placement of long-distance targets.

Due to issues mostly beyond the control of the landowner we were only able to place a few targets near the 700-yard area berm. Most of the details have been worked out for this year with a different area for some of the long distant targets.

You can see the new target area by visiting the entry website Available Positions web page.

Select an available position and you will find an image with all the target areas for a given position. Some shooting positions will have parts of one of the available target areas blocked by the tops of trees. The shooting position specific image (the bottom image) is several years old, and the trees have grown. The top image of available target areas is from August 2022 and closely represents the view from the East (left) side of the shooting berm. Choose your shooting position to take this limitation in mind.

Prices have increased. Boomershoot was losing a lot of money on the dinner and breaking even on the High Intensity event. There have been donations offer to cover the price of dinner for ALL participants. If one of these generous offers comes through refunds will be given to everyone who has signed up for dinner at the new price.

Let me know if you have questions or see typos or errors on the website.

Sign up here.

Quote of the day—Timothy P. Carney

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We know for a fact that Democrats and liberals use the charge of racism dishonestly as a cudgel — as a way to shut up political enemies and increase the cost of opposing them.

Recall how liberals wrote in private emails they expected only their allies to see: “Take one of them … who cares — and call them racists.”

What is necessary,” liberal journalist Spencer Ackerman explained, “is to raise the cost on the right of going after the left. In other words, find a rightwinger’s [face] and smash it through a plate-glass window. Take a snapshot of the bleeding mess and send it out in a Christmas card to let the right know that it needs to live in a state of constant fear.”

Timothy P. Carney
January 5, 2023
Cori Bush reveals that when Democrats talk about race, they simply mean party
[Violence and lies, It is an inherent part of their nature.—Joe]

Evidence for their trials

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Please continue doing this:

A King County Superior Court judge has ordered a Federal Way gun shop to stop selling high-capacity magazines in violation of a state ban.

Judge Michael Scott on Friday granted Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s motion for preliminary injunction against Federal Way Discount Guns and its owner, Mohammed Reza Baghai.

Ferguson sued the store in December, saying it’s one of just two gun stores out of 25 tested across the state that failed to follow the law during a compliance operation.

This is evidence to be used at their trials

Yes, I know that at this time the odds seem very low of this happening. But I also know the odds are lower still if we don’t think and plan as if it will happen some day. There were lots of people who thought they would never be prosecuted for lynching blacks too. Attitudes can change a lot in 20 years. Be a force to change attitudes.

Quote of the day—John R. Lott, Jr.

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Like many other mass public shooters, the Buffalo shooter targeted defenseless people. He even wrote in his manifesto: “Attacking in a weapon-restricted area may decrease the chance of civilian backlash. Schools, courts, or areas where CCW are outlawed or prohibited many[sic] be good areas of attack. Areas where CCW permits are low may also fit in this category. Areas with strict gun laws are also great places of attack.” The national media refuses to report other explicit statements by attackers explaining why they pick the targets they do. Nor do they report the fact that 94% of mass public shootings occur in places where civilians are banned from having firearms.

John R. Lott, Jr.
President, Crime Prevention Research Center
December 15, 2022
Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security
[Emphasis in the original.

Via David Hardy who also says this:

Read it all, this is great material, probably best I’ve seen on the topic.

Prepare appropriately and spread the word.—Joe]

Red flag law is unconstitutional

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The good news just just keeps coming:

The New York law that enables the confiscation of guns from people who haven’t committed a crime is unconstitutional, a state Supreme Court judge has ruled.

This red flag law, or the Extreme Risk Protection Order law, lets individuals—including police officers—petition a court to allow the seizure of firearms from a person they believe poses a threat to themselves or others.

If a judge agrees, the judge can direct law enforcement to take guns from the person in question.

The law, which took effect in 2019, has led to the issuance of more than 1,900 removal orders.

However, the law is in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Second and 14th amendments because it doesn’t “sufficiently protect a citizen’s rights,” state Supreme Court Judge Thomas Moran said in a ruling in late December 2022.

The answer I want to know is when are the prosecutions of the criminals who created these laws going to start happening?

Bump stock ban unconstitutional

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Good news:

Today the en banc U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms regulation extending the federal prohibition on machineguns to “bump stocks” is unlawful, as Eugene noted in a post below. In Cargill v. Garland, the judges split 13-3 on the merits, and the 13 in the majority divided on the rationale. Eight of the judges concluded the statute is unambiguous. Five additional judges concluded that, insofar as the statute is ambiguous, it should be interpreted not to cover bump stocks under the Rule of Lenity.

As I have said before, it is not unreasonable to assert that my grandkids will be participating in machine gun sporting events in high school.

My dream will have been realized.

Quote of the day—Alice Smith @TheAliceSmith

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You have no “checks and balances” of power in your country unless you have an armed citizenry to counteract an armed State.

This is what the UK doesn’t understand.

Alice Smith @TheAliceSmith
Tweeted on January 4, 2022
[Or, perhaps the people in power do understand and prefer there not be checks and balances on their power.

I’m of the opinion the U.S. should sanction countries which infringe upon the right of individuals to keep and bear arms. But, I will grant we need to do far more in our own country before we have the moral highroad on the issue.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Joe Patrice

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There are two kinds of lawyers in this world: the ones who understand Bruen as an unprecedented and ahistorical Supreme Court power grab rewriting the Second Amendment to create an individual right to gun ownership over and above the power of the states, and the ones who collect fees from gun dealers and manufacturers.

Joe Patrice
January 4, 2023
Lawyer Challenging NY Gun Regulations Accidentally Says Quiet Part Out Loud
[And then there is the type of lawyer that couldn’t make it in the legal profession and now demonstrates why by writing ill-informed opinion pieces and/or deliberate lies.

There are so many profoundly wrong things in this post that I have to believe he either did not read the Heller and Bruen decisions and/or he is deliberately lying.*—Joe]

* A third possibility is the sky is a different color in his universe.