The View From North Central Idaho

Ramblings on explosives, guns, politics, and sex by a redneck Idaho farm boy who became a software engineer living near Seattle.

The View From North Central Idaho

Quote of the day—Dan Gross

We have a national crisis on our hands. Chicago has a crisis on its hands. We have to do everything we can do to prevent tragedy from happening.

Dan Gross
Head of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence
August 1, 2012
Quinn wants to ban assault rifles
[Chicago has a crisis on its hands because they prohibit people from using the best available tools to defend themselves and the government there is incredibly corrupt.

We have to do everything we can do to prevent tragedy? Then:

  • No vehicle of any type, land, air or sea, that can travel faster than 5 MPH may be allowed to exist
  • No building may be higher than 10 feet tall
  • No body of water may be more than 12″ deep
  • No mountain may have a slope of more than 30 degrees

Dan Gross is some combination of delusional, evil, ignorant, and/or incredibly stupid. That a news publication would quote him and not mock him is evidence of that organization’s complicity in evil.—Joe]

Micheal Savage Doubles Down

He’s so proud of his Brady Campaign talking points, he sent them out in a mass e-mail today;



‘You don’t need body armor to hunt deer’


Welcome to The Michael Savage Newsletter, your daily insider report on all things “Savage.”


In this issue: Michael Savage is in distinguished company. Last week, he was virtually alone in placing partial blame for the Aurora, Colo., movie theater massacre on Hollywood.


Now esteemed director Peter Bogdanovich has joined the chorus. With that, Savage renews his call for a moratorium on violent movies, as well as a ban on body armor and certain kinds of ammunition.
________________________________________
“After the slaughter in the Aurora, Colorado, movie theater, I immediately blamed the actors, the directors and the violence in the movies,” Savage reminded listeners, adding:
Nobody paid attention to it, because I’m only Michael Savage.


I’m not a legendary movie director, like Peter Bogdanovich, who I see from this morning’s Drudge Report more or less agrees with me.


Charles Hurt of the Washington Times also mentioned the connection between movie violence and the real thing, so I put a link up to his article on my website.


His article is called “An Open Letter to Christopher Nolan, Sean Penn and Warner Brothers.”


Maybe you already read it. Maybe you want to move on. But I don’t want to move on.


I’m going to say this again: Last Friday I said they should ban body armor for civilians, and they should ban drum magazines of ammunition.


Yet my point was missed by almost everybody in the media


I’m a gun owner. I was on the rifle team in high school.


I absolutely would defend the Second Amendment. But let me tell you something: There’s a huge difference between the right to bear arms and the right to carry around a weapon that could shoot a hundred bullets at police.


You don’t need body armor or drum magazines to hunt deer.


We conservatives must take the high road and say we are in favor of banning body armor and drum magazines.


That’s because unless our side controls what gets banned, we’re liable to see things happen that we don’t want to happen, because we have a communist in the White House who’s capable of doing anything.


(Emphasis mine) This man clearly has what I’ve come to call the “Beltway Disease” or the “Republican Disease”.  “We’ve lost and we’re going to lose more, so lets lose more in a way that’s a little bit more palatible by losing in a way of our choice.  It would be wise, my friend.”  Typical Republican– pretend to be on the side of liberty so you can woo us into submission.  Michael; go bang your head against a wall.  That, I would pay to see.


Oh, and; you do realize that city, county and state LEs are civillians, don’t you?  Just checking, Michael, being as you tell us on a regular basis that you are ever so highly educated.  Never mind that the CO shooter wasn’t wearing body armor, and that you’re asking us to be unprotected while the criminals could always get their armor, and their drum magazines, illegally under any “ban”.

Michael Savage Rages Against Drum Magazines

Talk show host Michael Savage went on a tirade today, using many of the left’s anti-gun talking points while calling for a ban on drum magazines.  To paraphrase; “Do you need something like that to hunt rabbits?  Enough is enough!”  He used multiple hunting references, and said multiple times that he is a gun owner and a 2A “supporter” (more of the antis’ talking points).  I didn’t hear any of the callers’ responses (because I work for a living and can’t be glued to a radio) but here is my own.


First, Michael, the second amendment has nothing to do with hunting.  This “need” test of yours is so obviously foolish that I won’t glorify it with a response other than to say; anything you have that you don’t absolutely “need”– turn it all in, sucker, or quit using a stupid argument like the “need test”.


Why would I want a 75 or 100 round magazine?  Deterrence, for one thing.  Mob control for another.  Are you familiar with the concept of suppressive fire?  The assault rifle (full automatic) isn’t typically used in battle for mowing down hoards of enemy, charging up a hill at you.  More often than not it is used for “suppressive fire”– pinning down opponents while you or your partners maneuver against them, or while others escape.  A semi-auto (especially one with a large magazine) can be used effectively for suppressive fire.  Remember the LA riots?  Suppressive fire is a legitimate tactic even against a lone attacker.


Overall deterrence is an important factor in an armed society.  That Switzerland hasn’t been attacked in over 500 years is some testament to that.  The American founders spoke of the deterrent effect when they started that an armed population would hold any government in awe.  “You’re never going to fight the government, and if you did, you’d lose” says Savage.  Not the point, says I.  Sure, you may lose, but when it is widely known that millions of Americans have the ability and the equipment to make any armed conflict a very costly one for the government, you have effective deterrence.  That is an extremely important point.


And Michael, seriously, I know you are aware of the fact that prohibitions make things worse.  When alcohol is prohibited, only outlaws will have alcohol, and things go all to hell– gangs get rich and powerful, corruption is rampant, and a general disrespect for the law is fostered.  When drum magazines are outlawed, only outlaws will have drum magazines.  That’s what you want?  Really?  I think you’ve been in San Fransicko for too long.


I don’t suppose you heard that the CO movie theater killer’s drum magazine jammed.  Be sure to get a good one.  The all-steel European 75 round AKM/RPK magazines with the ratcheting loading lever are very good.  I think I’ll get another one, in your honor, Michael.  We also use them in our high round count “torture testing” of our gun accessories, but as I indicated, I don’t need any reason to own them other than the fact that I damned well feel like it, Skippy.


Lastly; I’ve wondered for years whether the things you say on your show are from the heart, or if a lot of it just a shtick– playacting to what you think of as a dumb audience, for ratings.  I still wonder.

Quote of the day–jacksonsam2

Sorry u are full of Krap and to allow guns everywhere makes u a target in a good poker hand.  U lose the element of surprise.
Make my day. Carry a gun and I will slap your face in disgrace.. Guns are unamerican and unpatriotict. The NRA wants to sell guns and ammo not for a revolution but for enjoyment and protection. Our law enforcement will shoot or arrest your ass. Who is to tell the difference from the good gun totters and the bad gun toyters .  We want  to protect a democracy not a  republic or a neo nazi idealogy or anarchy .  We whom are born in america and sreves the country under a commander in chief are truly americans.

jacksonsam2
Comment sent to www.GunLaws.com
Via email from Alan Korwin July 23, 2012.
[It’s nice to know the quality of the anti-gun people is being maintained at an appropriate level. I just wonder what drugs they are self-medicating with.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Answerer 1

give them 1 day to turn in the guns, then anyone caught with one would be shot on site.

Answerer 1
July 13, 2012
In response to the question, “If you were in charge of gun control for your country what would you do?
[And by the end of day two the police and military would have rounded up all the anti-gun people and have them hog-tied, sheared, deloused, and ready for deportation to North Korea.—Joe]

How stupid do they think we are?

The Obama campaign is running a video ad that claims Romney of misquoting President Obama. The problem is that even in Obama’s ad, a few seconds later, Obama is shown saying exactly what Romney quoted him as saying.

Do they think we are incapable of remembering things that happened 30 seconds ago? Or do they think we are that mind boggling stupid?

I suspect the real answer is that they are suffering from cognitive distortion (CD). I’ve had occasion to read up on CD and some other mental health issues in the last few months and I think a good case can be made, in a more scientific manner than expressed by Michael Savage, that Liberalism is a Mental Disorder. In fact it is a fairly well known and understood disorder. It just, to the best of my knowledge, hasn’t been explicitly connected to liberalism.

The problem is there appears to be no cure. It’s not a chemical imbalance. It’s not something that can be treated with counseling or therapy. If you can’t completely avoid contact with them the best you can do is give them firm boundaries, deal with their outbursts of anger and irrational behavior, and try to keep them from hurting themselves or others.

Some day when I have lots of time I’m going to write up a post on the topic.

Quote of the day—Emily Miller

Lawmakers in Prince George’s County, Md. hate guns so much they want to brand anyone convicted of violating one of the state’s convoluted firearm statutes. Stab someone with a knife, and the county won’t care or take notice of you after you serve your time. Sell a handgun that’s not on the state’s list of approved firearms, and the Washington suburb will mark you as a criminal and hold you up to public ridicule.

Emily Miller
July 18, 2012
MILLER: A scarlet letter for guns: Prince George’s public registry shows county’s priorities are misdirected
[A scarlet letter is a mild way to describe a number of gun laws. The original “scarlet letter” was for adultery  which is generally looked down upon and even considered a criminal act in some places. Unless of course you are the President and have a ‘D’ after your name. But gun ownership in our country is a specific enumerated right.

The Second Amendment, as ruled by the courts, should be treated like the First Amendment. Is there a state approved list of religious books? Does the state require a background check for each book purchased? Does the state require records on the purchaser be kept for 20 years for each book sold? Such laws have a chilling effect on gun ownership and they need to be treated as such by the courts and gun rights activists.

We are winning but we still have a long way to go. Maryland is as unenlightened in regards to gun ownership as societies that stone adulterers.—Joe]

Your tax dollars at work

2 Seattle men stopped at border for illegal candy:

The agency warned on its website around Easter that the treats can’t be imported legally.

The agency says it seized more than 60,000 Kinder Eggs from travelers’ baggage and international mail shipments in fiscal 2011.

60,000 pieces of “illegal” candy were seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection workers last year? That must mean they have stopped all the people entering our country illegally and now have nothing better to do but sit around all day and eat stolen candy.

I need a new frontier.

Quote of the day—Cliff Schecter

They distinguished themselves by being the first group of ruffians to hold a sitting Attorney General in criminal contempt over the so-called Fast and Furious “scandal”. Let me translate: They pandered to the ageing-fat-white guy demographic that makes up their base and the Board of the National Rifle Association (NRA), by attacking the black Attorney General who happens to work for the black President.

Cliff Schecter
July 15, 2012
Fraudulent and fictitious
Congress’ latest vote is another example of political nihilism – this time with Democrat support.

[Let me translate: Argumentum ad hominem is the best he can do. And, no surprise, he has a history of this when it comes to the NRA.

But what do you expect from a bigot? 300+ dead Mexicans, as planned by this administration (H/T Kevin and Robb), just don’t matter to them or Schecter.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Timothy A Campbell‏

If shooting paper silhouettes of people is not murder, then looking at porn is not adultery.

Timothy A Campbell‏
July 13, 2012 Tweet
[This Internet thing exposes the crazies in the anti-gun crowd.

With the intellectual capacity of our opponents at this level it’s no wonder we are winning.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Alan Gottlieb

How many times must Bloomberg be told to keep his own house in order before he runs around complaining about the rest of the country?

Alan Gottlieb
CCRKBA Chairman
July 13, 2012
BLOOMBERG NEEDS TO PLUG POLICE LOCKER ROOM LOOPHOLE, SAYS CCRKBA
[I understand Gottlieb was asking a rhetorical question but I’m going to treat it as if it were serious.

Alan, your question presumes facts not in evidence. There is no evidence that Bloomberg responds to being told anything. This is true no matter how many times he has been told.

The more appropriate questions are:

—Joe]

It was Racist from the Beginning

Hat tip; Uncle


This is the first I’ve heard about it.  I can’t say I’d be surprised.  Federal gun restriction has always had racial motivations, among others.  One of the “problems” of recognizing black people’s citizenship rights was stated openly– that such would allow them to go about armed anywhere they went.  We could fix this gigantic mess by simply repealing the NFA of 1934 and the GCA of ’68.  This country got along just fine without them.  As it is, we’re still festering in FDR’s aftermath.


Meanwhile, the Republicans are busy trying to figure out what it is they should pretend to believe during the upcoming election.

Didn’t he get the memo?

Going back as least until the 1960’s it has been common knowledge that you could always tell who the FBI informants were because they were the ones in any group encouraging people to illegally blow something up.

Apparently this guy didn’t get the memo and is going to be spending many years in prison because he is stupid as well as want-to-be terrorist:

The man accused of plotting to use model airplanes loaded with explosives to attack the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol agreed Tuesday to a plea deal.

Rezwan Ferdaus, a 26-year-old from Ashland, Massachusetts, will plead guilty to two of the six charges against him and faces 17 years in prison followed by 10 years of supervised release, according to a statement from the Justice Department.

Ferdaus, a U.S. citizen, will plead guilty to attempting to damage and destroy a federal building by means of an explosive and attempting to provide material support and resources to al Qaeda for attacks on U.S. troops overseas, authorities said.

Quote of the day—Steven Den Beste

Way back in the depths of time, Greek philosophers ended up with two basic and incompatible ways of looking at the universe. One way was materialism, which says that there is a material universe which behaves in a consistent way, and if you study it you can learn the way it works.

That’s the world view of engineers and scientists — and businessmen, for that matter. It’s the world view of people who understand and use mathematics, and statistics. It is a place where cause leads to effect. It’s the place that game theory studies. It isn’t necessarily inherently atheistic; a lot of religious people live in the materialist world.

But there are people who don’t. A different epistemological view is teleology, which says that the universe is an ideal place. More or less, it exists so that we humans can live in it. And human thought is a fundamental force in the universe. Teleology says that if a mental model is esthetically pleasing then it must be true. Teleology implies that if you truly believe in something, it’ll happen.

Steven Den Beste
December 6, 2009
Government by Wishful Thinking
[H/T to wfgodbold in the comment to A process failure.

As I have said before (and here, here, and here) our opponents have a “currency” which is emotionally based. I find the dealings in this currency perplexing and frequently repugnant. But what is scary to me is the number of people that advocate this currency, deal in this currency, and hold great political power.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Sensible Educated Person

Apart from obvious psychological issues and inability to use proper grammar, you represent the paranoid fringe of our society. Disparaging those who disagree with your right wing opinions only reinforces your image as an ignorant conspiracy theorist who compensates for his inadequate sexual equipment with lots and lots of guns.

Sensible Educated Person
June 29, 2012
Comment on That didn’t work for G. Gordon Liddy.
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday!

This was directed at me. My response is in the comments.—Joe]

More on ‘Gunsmiths’

This happens a lot.  A customer calls about a problem, and it’s the customer’s gunsmith who says “X” yet the “gunsmith” is totally wrong.  The “gunsmith” is the source of the problem, or the source of the misunderstanding of the problem.  Yesterday, a rep from Big Household Word High-End Optics Company came in with a Yugo M70.  The wooden buttstock’s comb was too high for him, plus he had a Galil missing a detent ball for the rear sight.


Solid wooden stock with a bolt through the middle.  So shave down the comb.  Fit and try.  Ten minutes, plus some finish sanding and some linseed oil.  Nope.  “Gunsmith” decided it would be a better idea to bubba some lump of weld under the rear sight leaf, to raise the sight instead, thus negating the elevation slide function entirely, and crank up the front to match.


“Gunsmith told him that a detent ball for the Galil was “hard to find”.  It took google less than a second to find several sources of loose steel balls, and yet you don’t need a ball per se.  It could be a short piece of rod.  All it really needs to do is fit in the hole with the spring and be sort of roundish on one end.


I asked the rep; “What kind of a ‘gunsmith’ is this guy?”  And this is the answer I get every time;


“Oh but he’s a really great guy.  Really a great guy.  Old School.  He’s been at it for decades and really knows his stuff..”  I have gotten that answer from a lot of people.  That very same answer.  In that very same kind of ‘I can’t believe what I’m hearing’ situation.


I’ve taken to using Tam’s definition of a gunsmith– one who can take an amorphous lump of steel and turn it into a fine firearm.  Give the average farmer or junior high school shop teacher around here a bent, rusty nail, a hack saw, an old bastard file and a power drill, and he can make you a new detent pin for your Galil rear sight, without ever having heard of a Galil.  Actually he could make do with just the file, the saw and the nail, and his bare hands, but that take a little longer.  Same deal for adjusting the comb height, but you only need the file (or a pocket knife) and a chunk of sandpaper.  But an “experienced gunsmith” was out of his element.  It’s gotten so every time I hear the infamous words, “My gunsmith says…” I start rolling my eyes.  I know there are good ones out there (some really, really good ones) but no one calls me or comes in with a problem if they have a really good gunsmith, do they?  So my sample is heavily weighted.  Or so I hope.


A big takeaway here is that a nice personality, I suppose, can overcome the greatest depths of incompetence, and keep you in business.

This is for Bill Whittle

And also for everyone else.  I don’t get paid to do this.  The time spent is all cost, so I don’t spend much time editing.  I wanted to take this piece, or rant, of mine and really polish it, using historical links and references, but too bad– here it is.  It’s verbatim off of a members only section on gunrightsmedia.org, from a thread on medical pot and guns.  I bring Bill Whittle’s name into this post because he has, as I’ve been describing on numerous blogs, fully embraced, with relish, the left’s “guns cause harm” meme.  All the best intentions will be for naught unless we think clearly, following the truth where ever it leads.  Well here it is;



There is a direct and inseparable link between Prohibition and gun restriction. Note Operation Fast and Furious.

The authoritarians learned a great lesson from alcohol prohibition. They learned that huge amounts of power and money were transferred to authoritarians, both inside of government and outside of government (tyrants and gangsters) as a direct result of prohibition.

The first time; Americans understood that it would require a constitutional amendment, because the government is not authorized by the constitution to tell us what we may or may not consume. When Prohibition was modified (it was never ended) with another amendment to the constitution, the feds that were employed to smash down doors and brutalize people over alcohol were given another job, the very next month. Prohibition was modified in December of 1933 and the NFA went into effect in January of 1934. The former Prohibition enforcers, who were accustomed to stealing alcohol for their own use and profit could now smash down doors and brutalize people to enforce the brand new National Firearms Act,. Stealing guns and using them for their own use and profit, and making deals with gangs as before.

Just as Prohibition created a newly vitalized and powerful organized crime culture, which of course availed itself of the best weapons, so too did it give FDR an excuse to circumvent the second amendment. He pushed for and got the NFA as a backdoor to gun restriction, making the case that all this gun violence is just too much—something must be done. “Why; it’s not a ban– it’s a tax!” The shiny new ATF was originally a part of Treasury. See?

Create a situation of violence and gangsterism (Prohibition) then swoop in and “fix” it with more even authoritarianism. Works like a charm, every time it’s tried.

The authoritarians have since come up with ways to fool us into accepting federal drug laws, this time without a constitutional amendment. So now we’re right back to the 1920s, but the constitution took a hit in the process. Drug money instead of alcohol money, drug gangs paying off law enforcement instead of Al Capone buying cops– drug enforcement excuses for more power and money instead of alcohol as an excuse for more money and power. The equation is exactly the same, only this time it’s far worse. They’ve beat down former constitutional limits, this time it’s far longer lived, it’s still growing, and it’s growing right along with outrageous actions of feds working directly with Mexican drug gangs (Fast & Furious). Meet your new masters– the big, happy family of gangsters, corrupt government officials, corrupt police, corrupt foreign governments controlled by gangs, some of the worst enemies of America, the BATFE which was recently made part of the Justice Department (not even any more pretense of being a tax authority) and whole new agencies with guns, lots of funding, and protection from the President when they get caught with their pants down, all circle-jerking together, and weakening America at every stage.

Meanwhile; the Republicans are still busy, frantically trying to decide on what they should pretend to believe during the next election. You Suckers!


Now was that so hard?  I don’t believe I blamed guns for anything, or said that guns were “responsible”, I acknowledged the existence of the constitution, acknowledged the fact that corruption exists at all levels (though it’s unpopular to even think that cops can be corrupt) I blamed gangsters for their gangster crime, I didn’t use the term “assault weapon” which was fabricated by the anti-gun media and the Clinton administration, I didn’t confuse an assault rifle with a semi auto carbine, and I laid out a brief history of drugs and guns, showing that they have been inseparable since the 1930s, when FDR linked them and made up the BATF as a faux “tax” authority.  This is all one, continuing story, see, on-going for generations– we’re just caught up in it.  It’s louder now, our government is every bit as corrupt as during the 1920s and ’30s if not more so, and it’s bigger and more powerful, but as of this morning we’re still not connecting all the dots.  Now I have to go pick up my kid.


ETA; Here’s the Whittle piece.  Listen to the actual words.

What, indeed, my friend

A lot of people are thinking the same thing.


But let’s not be too coy about it.  What if Al Capone actually condoned illegal activities in Chicago?  Gosh; that would be shocking, wouldn’t it?  Oh but that would mean…. No; it’s too much to contemplate.


And again, because it isn’t sinking in.  At all;
Saying that the guns were “allowed” into Mexico is a bit like saying that the Reichstag building was “allowed” to burn.  Why; they just stood by and let it happen.  That’s it– there were all these petty arsonists all over the place, setting fires all the time, so all that happened was someone (we don’t know who) turned off the pumper truck.


No, you fools; Obama and Holder longed, they desired, they were frustrated, so they planned, they plotted, they bought the gasoline, they bought the matches, and they lit the fire.  THEN they “allowed” it to burn, see?  You still don’t really know what we’re dealing with?  Do I need to slap someone upside the head?  Can you read the ten-foot high letters on the wall in front of you?  No?  Well then take a few steps back and look again!

Mass vehicular assault

From Lima Ohio:

Around 30 people were hurt, some seriously, when a woman drove her car into a street party in Lima, Ohio, Friday night.

“It was unreal. There were bodies, and shoes and jewelry,” The Lima News reported Amee Truesdale as saying. “They took many, many people to the hospital, and two or three of them looked seriously hurt … I saw men pick up that car and move out a gentleman that was pinned underneath.”

The driver, who reportedly had a dog with her, was parked five feet from the town’s main square when she accelerated rapidly, a police spokesman told NBC News.

Following this violent act will the Violence Policy Center follow up with media releases about the driver of the car having a drivers license despite a history of mental illness? Will the Brady Campaign be asking how the driver gained possession of the car? Will the CSGV demand that only the police and government officials be allowed to posses assault vehicles?

I can tell you the answers right now. No, no, and no. Those organizations are composed of people who have mental defects and cannot understand that both cars and guns are inanimate objects which have no volition of their own. They still adhere to the ancient belief that objects not people should be punished.

And this is why those organizations should be, and are being, left in the dustbin of history.

Quote of the day—Timothy A Campbell

Just make gun ownership punishable by death and we won’t need any more prisons or court systems. We will all be free.

Timothy A Campbell
June 12, 2012
On Twitter via a Linoge retweet.
[Not even a court system to judge those accused of gun ownership?

Why are anti-gun people so violent?

Campbell uses that word “free”. I don’t think it means what he thinks it means.—Joe]