Category Archives: Current News

This is about stuff in the mass media that generally has a short interest life span. Speculation about an election outcome a few days before the election is an example.

NSA data used for blackmail

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If this report is true then I was right (emphasis in the original):

They went after–and I know this because I had my hands literally on the paperwork for these sort of things–they went after high-ranking military officers; they went after members of Congress, both Senate and the House, especially on the intelligence committees and on the armed services committees and some of the–and judicial. But they went after other ones, too. They went after lawyers and law firms. All kinds of–heaps of lawyers and law firms. They went after judges. One of the judges is now sitting on the Supreme Court that I had his wiretap information in my hand. Two are former FISA court judges. They went after State Department officials. They went after people in the executive service that were part of the White House–their own people.

Syria – a win-win thought

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Just thinking out loud here. Why is the current Syria situation NOT considered a win-win? I mean, yeah, it sucks for Syria, but that part of the world has been in various stages of suckitude pretty much continuously since well before the first Persian empire threw up there. But consider a simplified view of it: LOTS of Islamic radicals go there to fight, and die in the process (i.e., they are not butchering civilians and imposing Sharia elsewhere). One side buys guns with profits from the opium trade from Russia, the other side buys guns with oil profits from us, everyone gets to export young male Islamic radicals there. Heck, seems to me Russia and the US should be ENCOURAGING it to fester in the name of national security and as a domestic jobs program…. I mean, if it’s OK for the Islamic world to deliberately leave the Israel “problem” fester and use it for  domestic political purposes, is this not simply a “balanced approach” to the region?

He Gets It

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To all you fellow racists redneck Tea-partiers and haters, who only opposes the Obama-sariat because you are racists haters (yes, there might be a tad-bit of sarcasm there), I give you a guy who gets it. Nothing new, just well-presented.

I’d sure vote for him over any of the candidates I’ve seen run in my district in the last twenty years. I’d prefer a straight-up libertarian, but he’d be a vast improvement over the statist we have now.

More on illegals

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If anyone gave a damn about the poor, poor, downtrodden Mexicans, they’d be asking why Mexico is such f^<ked up crap-hole of a country that people are so desperate to get out of it. They’d be asking themselves what might be done to fix it.

If anyone cared about people having a place to escape to, they'd be spending all their time shoring up, teaching and defending the American principles of liberty.

But they don't. Far from it, which proves they're full of shit and couldn't care less about Mexicans, or about oppressed people anywhere.

We’re still missing the point

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In all the talk about the latest scandals involving the targeting of political enemies by government, the arming of criminal gangs and Islamist groups, and government spying on American citizens, there is a lot of back and forth about security verses privacy and so on.

All of it misses the main point, the preverbal elephant in the living room– Our government can and currently does consider patriotic, pro constitution citizens a greater threat than practically anything else.

While sheepishly looking away from the Fort Hood shooter’s jihad talk, while twiddling their thumbs regarding the warning signs prior to the Boston bombing, they were crawling up the assholes of tea party groups, and targeting states like Colorado and Texas to reorient the political landscapes there.

If you’re a strong, self sufficient, productive, independent thinker who loves the American ideals, YOU are the enemy of this government. Your country is the enemy of this government. The jihadists provide a convenient excuse to have the power infrastructure in place and to build on it, to help keep constitutional limits to a minimum. To maintain this charade, they actually need the occasional terrorist attack. They need a certain amount of crime, unemployment, border insecurity and inflation.

Without pain, suspicion, fear, frustration, demoralization, anger, miseducation, dependency, hopelessness and chaos, they are nothing. In short; they’re waging a multi-front war against America’s founding principles. Top Down, Bottom Up, Inside Out.

As painful as it may be to face up to it, we must if there is to be any solution. The first step in solving any problem is to admit you have it (or that it has you). We certainly will never solve any problem we’re unwilling to define and address openly.

Former KGB operative tells us how we got here

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This interview took place in 1984. He explains his relationships as a KGB officer with the Useful Idiots, and how those Useful Idiots were often “squashed like a cockroach” after their usefulness had played out. Once the shock hit them, at the time of revolution, of what they’d done they could very well become the most staunch anti-communists, and so they were snuffed out before that could happen. “When the military boot hits their flabby butt..” the shock of seeing what they’ve helped create can turn them against the glorious idology of “Social Justice”. In other words, they’re targeted for destruction before they have a chance to wake up and smell the coffee. It’s typical, small scale gang behavior brought to the wholesale level.

But not, 29 years later, it’s much worse. There likely won’t be a military boot in the Useful idiots’ flabby butts, because we’re in such a state of degradation that we’re asking for “normalization” (of communism). We’re not fighting back.

This is about an hour and a half. Grab a cup of coffee or what have you, and listen to the whole thing .

This is a companion to Joe’s QOTD post here.

For further study, here is a domonstration of how it’s done. There is religious language in this one, but if you want to go straight to the mind control part, start at around 8 minutes.

In short, if someone knows how, they can tell you up front exactly what they’re going to do to you, they can then do it right then and there, openly, and some people will still be totally controlled by it, AND they’ll defend the utterly insane things they do as a result of being controlled. THEY are the more aware and YOU are “just too stubborn” to see what is clearly reality.

Quote of the day—Harry Reid

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Right now I think everyone should just calm down and understand that this isn’t brand new. It’s been going on for some seven years.

Harry Reid
U.S. Senate Majority Leader
June 6, 2013
Reid on reaction to furor over phone records: ‘Just calm down’
[If this was your spouse telling you to “calm down, this isn’t brand new…” that they had been fooling around with someone else for seven years would that make it okay?

Maybe that is an extreme example. Let’s try some others:

  • How about your accountant telling you they had been embezzling for seven years?
  • How about your lawyer telling you they had been working for your legal opponent for seven years and billing you for the time spent doing so?
  • How about your doctor giving you unnecessary prostate exams every three months for seven years, and charging you for it, because he enjoyed giving them?

Hmm… I’m thinking Senator Reid has a severe case of rectal cranium inversion. Too bad it not so debilitating that it necessitates immediate retirement and exile.

I also think it is very telling that in Paul Barrett Business Week article he restructured the quote in such a way that it changes the meaning. Barrett rephrases it as:

“Everybody should just calm down,” the Nevada Democrat said at a press conference in Washington. “It’s a program that’s worked to prevent not all terrorism, but certainly a vast majority of it.”

If that is the measure of success and such success is sufficient justification then one should not be surprised to soon see some “common sense” restrictions on the First Amendment. I expect Senator Reid and Mr. Barrett can surely agree our government needs to pass legislation for the following:

  • Background checks, ten day waiting periods, and proof of need before allowing anyone to own a Bible/Koran/Torah
  • Registration of all religious texts
  • Limiting the purchase of religious books to one per month
  • Ban all religious books containing more than 10,000 words

They should then give enforcement powers to the ATF and rename the organization Firearms, Alcohol, Religion, and Tobacco (FART).

It’s just common sense, for the children, to prevent terrorism.—Joe]

It’s a bird. No, it’s a drone!

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Found on Drudge. And “this is just the beginning” they say. Of what? I ask.

For some reason I’m reminded of the “Hunter-Seekers” (or were they “Hunter-Killers”? It’s been several decades since I read the series) of Frank Herbert’s Dune. They were tiny, silent, flying assassination drones that could get into your house or pretty much anywhere else. I wonder if the IRS is looking into drone technology, but then; who isn’t?

Quote of the day—Tio Hardiman

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I am Mr. Ceasefire and I got caught up in a situation and I am not here to point fingers and blame nobody. The verdict is still out. I can’t really speak about the case. Things happen for a reason and liberation comes in many forms.

Tio Hardiman
June 1, 2013
Bond set for CeaseFire head Tio Hardiman in domestic battery charge
[The organization “CeaseFire Illinois”, of which Hardiman is the director, changed their name to “Cure Violence” in September of 2012.

Some people have been calling the organization “Anti-Gun”. From what I have read about them, and I have sort of been following them for several years now, they aren’t really anti-gun. There is an undercurrent of anti-gun sentiment but I have not seen anything overt on their website although Hardiman himself has been quoted as advocating restrictions on guns. As near as I can tell they are a decent organization that attempts to prevent violence in a reasonable way. Yes, preventing violence is something that sends up warning flags for both Lyle and I (see also here and here). But these people are doing it by talking to potential perpetrators and victims when a violent situation is developing. I don’t have a problem with that.

The guy hasn’t been convicted of domestic violence yet, only accused. So I’m a little hesitant to say this anti-gun guy is a violent person. We have some strong clues and there is a strong correlation between anti-gun people and violent behavior but you should not apply statistics to an individual. So for now I’m going to glare at him and prepare to verbally lash out should the domestic battery charges turn out to be true.

Getting back to the quote. He appears to know English words but is unable to string them together in sentence in a way that make sense to me. Liberation comes from being arrested for domestic battery? But what do you expect from an anti-gunner?—Joe]

Gay bashing in Seattle

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This looks like a race and/or gay bashing:

On 5/29/13, just shortly before 10:00 p.m., a witness flagged down an officer to report that he saw 6 or 7 men assaulting an unknown black male. The witness went on to say that while the group was assaulting the man they were yelling racial and sexual orientation epithets at the victim.  The witness saw the group beating the man with their fist and kicking him. They were also striking the victim with their skateboards.

…

While officers were interviewing the suspects, a man (later identified as the victim) walked up to the scene, bleeding from a laceration to the mouth. He pointed to the group and told the officers that the suspects had assaulted him and called him names associated with his ethnic background and sexual orientation.

…

The victim stated that he did not know the suspects or why they attacked him.

The 20-year-old victim was bleeding heavily from a lacerated lip.  He was transported to HMC for further treatment of his injuries.

You could be the nicest person in the world with no known enemies in what you think is a “safe part of town” but yet people could hate you and want to inflict violence upon you. Be able and prepared to defend yourself.

The police hit their targets about one third of the time. Unless you are more highly trained than them you are unlikely to get a better hit ratio.

Getting “one shot stops” is difficult and rather rare. There are seven attackers and you only have a 10 round magazine in your gun? Tell your next of kin to blame the anti-gunners if you run out of ammo and your attackers kill you.

Update: I should have pointed out that this happened in the same Seattle area neighborhood, Capital Hill, that recently had gay/gun-rights posters criticized by the local press which claimed, “What better way to make people feel unsafe in gay-friendly Capitol Hill than by slyly referencing homophobia and hate crimes in pro-gun propaganda plastered on every street corner?”

Plastic guns are easy, try paper!

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Via an email from Paul K. we have instructions on how to make a working gun out of paper. I have duplicated the instructions here for archival purposes.

I really, really, have serious concerns about using one of these. I can see where the radial strength might be adequate when using a small gauge shotshell but the recoil could still be a problem. There is no breachface and stock to prevent the shot shell from pushing the nail (firing pin) and perhaps the case-head into/through your hand.

Use at your own risk and remember that the extent of my obligation should this result in you or a friend of yours dying an unnatural death is to nominate you for a Darwin Award. If, and only if, I am in a generous mood when I learn of your date with fate.

Interview with Defense Distributed’s Cody Wilson.

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(of 3D printed gun fame)

On theBlaze TV last night. You can watch the video at the link there.

Of course, if you were a Blaze TV subscriber you’d have seen it, and much more, Monday night.

If you’re looking only at tactics you’re missing the point

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Seen here about this;

“We’re right and our opposition is wrong. When lobbying for a cause, make sure your cause is right and just and is historically supportable. Having it already enshrined in the constitution is a big plus. Otherwise, even huge amounts of money and millions of warm bodies are going to have a difficult time getting support for your provably wrong (and unconstitutional) ideas. There is no substitute for being right.”

There are cases wherein you can never “figure out” (by tactics alone) how a person or movement achieved a particular aim. The American Revolution comes to mind. Those without principles may look at it every which way they know how and never understand it, because they’re looking in the wrong places. You can study it all your life and never be able to apply it to your own cause. It can (and does) drive people quite insane.

No, Young Grasshopper; you can not have a pet cause that you want to shove down Americans’ throats, and then “study to see how the NRA did it”.

It is not so much the “how” as the “why”.

Quote of the day—Robert J. Avrech

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It’s obvious that classic American liberalism is dead. It has morphed into a radical leftism which has found its standard bearer in Barack Hussein Obama, a rigid, cold-blooded leftist whose end-game is the complete dominance of American politics by a single political party. This is to be achieved using classic Socialist* tactics: making a majority of citizens dependent upon the state, either through jobs (shuffling paper, torturing fellow citizens with endless rules and regulations) or through welfare (redefined as a human right).

The revelations of political repression by the IRS against Conservatives should send chills up the spines of every American. For this is how tyrannies gain traction.

And under Obamacare, the IRS will have even more power.

…

*Socialist: noun \ˈsō-sh(ə-)list\— a Communist who has not yet picked up an AK47.

Robert J. Avrech
May 13, 2013
It Can’t Happen Here
[Not only can it happen here. It is happening here. People who have lived in “those other places” are experiencing déjà vu and we need to undo the damage done.—Joe]

Quote of the day—sandbagger

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The President and his advisors are behind calculated and concerted efforts to use the power of the Executive Branch to intimidate and silence their political opponents. Or the Federal Government is populated with rogue civil servants who abuse their authority coincidentally in support of the President and his Party’s agenda and the President and his advisors are powerless to stop them.

sandbagger
May 16, 2013
Comment to Words That Should Not Be Strung Together In America, “IRS Building Largest Government Database”
[I suppose there is at least one third option; the Executive Branch quietly rewards those that do it’s dirty work while maintaining plausible deniability.

In any case I can’t think of any options that are very flattering to the integrity of the Obama administration.

There are more than one way to deal with this as someone opposed to the current administration. One is to let them remain in power and exploit their weakness like what Sebastian is saying. Another would be to try and remove them from power. I’m not sure which would be best. “President Biden” does not have a pleasant ring to it but having Obama impeached would be satisfying. I’m just not sure the rewards are worth the effort. A “radioactive” Obama may be better long term than “cleaning house” when you can’t purge the site of the entire toxic waste pit until 2016 anyway.—Joe]

It’s the whole point

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There seems to be some surprise and indignation at the idea that the IRS would be used as a weapon against political opponents. I don’t understand.

First; what did you expect from a communist administration? Really. Can you say, “DUUUH!”? Second; the entire tax code is a weapon of political power. Always has been. It is designed to nudge you into behaviors you’d not be engaged in if you were left to your own devices, and to nudge you out of other behaviors. The very concept of a progressive tax is a political weapon, designed to substantially reduce wealth creation and accumulation. Raising revenue is far down the list, or it is only an ancillary function of the tax code and the IRS. I could on and on, but you should have gotten the point by the time you received your very first paycheck.

The specific targeting of individuals and groups is nothing new at all either. The Clintons were famous for it. Rush Limbaugh has been getting audited every year for many years. The list is longer than this whole blog since its beginning.

A “Gosh, we’re sorry” will change nothing. The only solution, assuming anyone wants one, is to abolish the tax code, abolish the IRS and go to a single digit flat tax. Otherwise quit your bitching– this is exactly what you’ve been asking for. Begging for, actually. Don’t bother pretending to be surprised– it makes you look even more stupid.

Faceless bureaucrats, not blue helmeted elk

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I spent some time investigating ITAR in regards to the files for 3-D printing of weapons. It’s interesting stuff. The implications are huge.

I am not a lawyer although one or more of my sources for this post are. But none claim expertise in this area because it is such a specialized field. One source did claim “I know something about this”. The following may be a too broad interpretation of the law and the legal experts in the field will have to give us a more factual read.

The U.S. Department of State Directorate of Defense Trade Controls is the agency we have concerns about. Their mission is stated as:

The U.S. Government views the sale, export, and re-transfer of defense articles and defense services as an integral part of safeguarding U.S. national security and furthering U.S. foreign policy objectives. The Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC), in accordance with 22 U.S.C. 2778-2780 of the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) (22 CFR Parts 120-130), is charged with controlling the export and temporary import of defense articles and defense services covered by the United States Munitions List (USML).

The documents of particular interest in figuring out the implications appear to be these two:

  1. SUBCHAPTER M—INTERNATIONAL TRAFFIC IN ARMS REGULATIONS: PART 120—PURPOSE AND DEFINITIONS
  2. Title 22: Foreign Relations: PART 121—THE UNITED STATES MUNITIONS LIST

One of my sources ran up against ITAR due to being an NRA Firearms instructor. The NRA recently sent out a notice to instructors telling them not to provide training to foreign students. This is because, according to the first document above:

§ 120.9 Defense service.
(a) Defense service means:
(1) The furnishing of assistance (including
training) to foreign persons,
whether in the United States or abroad
in the design, development, engineering,
manufacture, production, assembly,
testing, repair, maintenance,
modification, operation, demilitarization,
destruction, processing or use of
defense articles;
(2) The furnishing to foreign persons
of any technical data controlled under
this subchapter (see § 120.10), whether
in the United States or abroad; or
(3) Military training of foreign units
and forces, regular and irregular, including
formal or informal instruction
of foreign persons in the United States
or abroad or by correspondence
courses, technical, educational, or information
publications and media of
all kinds, training aid, orientation,
training exercise, and military advice.
(See also § 124.1.)

In the last few months the Department of State is taking a much broader interpretation of this and other sections of U.S. code and applying it to gun owners, manufacturers, and instructors. There are two hypotheses for the change. One is that John Kerry is driving the change. The other is that is part of what Obama was talking about when he said he was working on gun control “under the radar”. The failure to get any gun control through Congress could have inflamed him enough that he sent out the word to find ways to punish us for our success in blocking him.

The law was intended to apply to people selling and providing real militarily useful products and training to our Cold War enemies. Things like night vision equipment and training on tank warfare or repairing high performance jet engines were valid things to be concerned about. And even though rifles that were particularly well suited for winning NRA High Power competition and training for doing better at USPSA matches could have military application the people at the Department of State ignored that. They were concerned with the nation states of the world that declared us their enemies rather than the “right-wing NRA domestic terrorists” who taught Home Firearm Safety classes a few times a year.

The law was written before the Internet and personal computers existed and some of the concepts that made sense then are absurd now. In the mid ‘90s we had the battle over encryption technology being declared an export restricted munitions. This was ultimately decided in favor of freedom under the First Amendment (the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the Bernstein case and the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in the Junger case). I don’t see why the present issue wouldn’t fall under the same protection and it might. But being right and being able to fight it to the end in court are two different things.

My sources seem to think the biggest concern is that all firearms instructors, “Mom and Pop” FFLs, and of course libertarian college students with a mischievous streak (borrowing and mangling a phrase from Paul Barrett) will be required to pay the $2000+/year license fees to register with the Department of State. This would be even though there was no technology, products, or training being exported. Just that you’re “in the business” could make you subject to the restrictions and require that you register with the Department of State and pay the annual fee. The government wouldn’t have to directly “stop the signal” in it’s entirety. There a million different signals and they only have to make examples of a few people and most others would want to avoid the hassle and “would lead more compliant lifestyles”. There is very little profit to be made in being a martyr for the cause. The 3-D printer issue could just be noise and a distraction to a much bigger concern.

Ultimately the courts and Congress can probably get most of this straightened out on the side of freedom. If they don’t freedom will be lost to faceless bureaucrats not “blue helmeted elk” that you can shoot at as they go door-to-door confiscating your guns.

In the mean time an enraged narcissist who didn’t get his way with the legislature could conceivably apply the regulations to people posting YouTube videos on how to grip your pistol.

ATF on 3-D printed guns

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The ATF just Tweeted a link to a Q & A .PDF about 3-D printed guns.

I put a copy here.

The short version is:

Yes, it’s legal without a license as long as it is not an NFA item. If it does not have a rifled barrel then it might be classified as ‘Any Other Weapon” which is an NFA item.

Summary of who can and how to get a license to manufacture.

It seems a reasonable response once you suspend disbelief enough to allow that the ATF is more constitutionally permissible than a BRAS (Bureau of Religion, Assembly, and Speech).

Update: There are some questions (and this is why I was deliberately vague above) about what constitutes an AOW. From 26 USC § 5845:

The term “any other weapon” means any weapon or device capable of being concealed on the person from which a shot can be discharged through the energy of an explosive, a pistol or revolver having a barrel with a smooth bore designed or redesigned to fire a fixed shotgun shell, weapons with combination shotgun and rifle barrels 12 inches or more, less than 18 inches in length, from which only a single discharge can be made from either barrel without manual reloading, and shall include any such weapon which may be readily restored to fire. Such term shall not include a pistol or a revolver having a rifled bore, or rifled bores, or weapons designed, made, or intended to be fired from the shoulder and not capable of firing fixed ammunition.

It is my NON-LAWYER reading of this that since neither the current nor WWII Liberator fires a shogun shell they do not qualify as an AOW even though the barrels are not rifled.

Who will they punish now?

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Remember when the control freaks announced they wanted background checks for the sale of explosive powders after the Boston Bombing? This, of course, was aimed at gun owners. Not real terrorists because real terrorist could easily find substitutes. Gun owners could not.

We now know the explosive powder the villains used:

BostonBombersPowderSource

Yup. That’s right. They disassembled fireworks and put that powder in the pressure cookers.

So now I wonder… Who will the control freaks seek to punish now? Will they want background checks on anyone that buys fireworks?

Never mind. Those were rhetorical questions. The Boston Bombers (WeaponsMan calls them “Speed Bump” and “Flashbang”—I like!) were just an excuse. Gun owners are the real targets and it will still be the gun owners they seek to control.

Counterproductivity

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The NRA sent out an alert today entitled, “Washington State Attorney General Takes Action Against Florida Gun Owners” encouraging members to contact the Washington Attorney General and ask him to rescind his decision to stop the recognition of Florida CCW licenses by Washington. The reason that Washington took this action is that Florida changed their statute to allow honorably discharged veterans under 21 to apply for a Florida license.

However anybody feels about mandatory CCW licensing, I think we can universally agree that this is a group that should be able to obtain a license to the extent that anyone is required to in order to carry. As a policy decision on the part of Washington I think that this is execrable- the problem with the alert (authored by Marion Hammer) is that it is barking up the wrong tree and maybe causing some collateral damage in the meantime.

I’ve been in contact with the person at the Washington AG’s office, who Ms. Hammer suggested contacting, regarding Washington recognition of the Idaho Enhanced CWL. This person was straightforward with me about Washington’s rules: if the other state complies with Washington’s statutory requirements then Washington will recognize; if not then it won’t.

These requirements are pretty simple as these things go: 1) you have to take Washington 2) you have to have an explicit mental health records check in your statute and 3) you can’t issue to people under 21. In this case Florida’s statute doesn’t meet requirement #3.

I don’t think there is any question that the current Washington Attorney General is not a fervent supporter of gun rights. But in this case he is just doing what he is supposed to be doing: applying the statute as written and not imposing his spin on it– if Florida has an issue it is with the Washington legislature.

Why am I concerned about this? Because I am working hard trying to get Washington (and other states) to recognize the new Idaho Enhanced license when it comes into existence on July 1 and I just want the Washington AG to apply their recognition law as written. Is it within his power to drag his feet over recognition?: Sure it is. Could he come up with some niggling reason why the Idaho statute isn’t in compliance with Washington’s: Sure he could. Has he done anything (yet) other than apply their law as written?: No he hasn’t.

I just don’t see how having gun owners across the country contact someone about something they don’t have the discretion to do anything about is going to encourage them to do the right thing– when it is in their power to do so.