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.

Quote of the day–Tamara K.

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Can you imagine what would have happened if some wide spot in the road had kidnapped a boat full of ‘Er Majesty’s tars back in the days of Pax Britannia?

HMS Thunderer would have dropped anchor in the harbor of whatever pathetic hamlet they were being held captive. Royal Marines would have been disembarked. Crowds of Wogs would have been mowed down by Gatlings and run through with Martini bayonets. The local rajah would have forked over his prisoners, or he would have found his house burned to the ground and Tommy Atkins pissing on the ashes.

Tamara K.
March 30, 2007
England, ma’am. It’s where Great Britain used to be.

Inconvenient news

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This is just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak. A sample:

“Nowhere does Mr Gore tell his audience that all of the phenomena that he describes fall within the natural range of environmental change on our planet,” Dr Carter wrote. “Nor does he present any evidence that climate during the 20th century departed discernibly from its historical pattern of constant change.”

…

Professor Easterbrook disputed Mr Gore’s claim that “our civilisation has never experienced any environmental shift remotely similar to this”. Nonsense, Professor Easterbrook said. He flashed a slide that showed temperature trends for the past 15,000 years. It highlighted 10 large swings, including the medieval warm period. These shifts were up to “20 times greater than the warming in the past century”.

This is mild stuff compared to what I heard when I listened to the audio book version of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming (and Environmentalism). Gore isn’t so stupid that he doesn’t know he is trying to sell “snake oil”. My guess is that he wants to use this issue to gain power for him and for the socialists of the world. Don’t let him or his followers get away with it.

A slip towards the abyss

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Via Phil at Random Nuclear Strikes comes this story from the U.K. about another small step toward a police state:

Thousands of council staff are being trained to police the smoking ban in bars, restaurants and shops in England.

Ministers have given councils £29.5m to pay for staff, who will be able to give on-the-spot £50 fines to individuals and take court action against premises.

They will have the power to enter premises undercover, allowing them to sit among drinkers, and will even be able to photograph and film people.

…

But the council is also exploring the possibility of getting street wardens, who currently aid the local police force, to help ensure the ban is effectively enforced.

Steve Dowling, director of environment and public protection at Nottingham City Council, said: “We have about 100 wardens and they could keep an eye on whether people are smoking in pubs as they go about their other duties.”

“But it is not just about pubs and restaurants. We will also be looking at the likes of car garages and shops are complying as well.”

Does anyone remember what happened with all the “Revenue Agents” after the end of prohibition? Faced with unemployment congress passed a jobs creation bill to keep them employed. That piece of legislation is now known as the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA34, or just NFA). Something that most people don’t think about is that people believed that in order for the Federal government to have the authority to ban the recreational use of alcohol they needed to amend the constitution. And the thinking after the repeal of the 18th Amendment with the 21st Amendment was that without a repeal of the 2nd Amendment congress couldn’t prohibit gun ownership either. But what they could do was put a huge tax on certain guns. $200, the standard transfer tax specified in NFA was about six months salary in 1934. All those “Revenue Agents” now had a job to do. They had to collect those $200 transfer taxes on guns that sold for, maybe, $10.00.

Even if these street wardens and council staff, trained to “keep an eye on people”, don’t have their job functions removed by legislation more enlightened about the rights of property owners there is still a serious danger lurking. Since they are already watching, taking pictures, and reporting on “anti-social” behavior they will be utilized for other things. What will it be next? Will people that complain about the smoking ban get called in to answer some questions about their loyalty to The Crown? Or perhaps ten years from now it will gay lovers who hold hands or steal a kiss in the dark corner of bar that will be charged with a “crime against nature”. East Germany had approximately one out of every 50 people as informers in the late 1980’s just before their collapse. The U.K. has better technology and is now recognized as having the most surveillance of western democracies. 

Adding informers to assist their technological surveillance will come in quite useful when the next tyrant comes to power. You don’t think they will get a tyrant in the U.K.? Maybe not anytime soon. But one never knows for certain what can happen in just a few years time. But what you can be certain is that the more power given to the state the more people that love power will be attracted to that centralized power. People that love power (why do I have these images of a certain Senator from New York flashing in my mind now?) use it to gain more power. They then exercise it to the detriment of a free society. Currently the U.K. is further down The Road to Serfdom than we are and just took another step ahead with the training of these informers.

News about the religion of peace

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It’s not just Israel, Europe (H/T to Kim), or the United States that Muslim have problems with. Here is the latest from Thailand:

BANGKOK, Thailand — At least 23 bombs exploded Sunday in apparently coordinated attacks in parts of southern Thailand plagued by a Muslim insurgency, killing three people and wounding more than 50, the military said.

The bombings targeted electricity transmitters, hotels, karaoke bars and markets in the country’s southernmost provinces, the only parts of predominantly Buddhist Thailand with Muslim majorities. Two schools were torched.

Violence in the south has been escalating in recent months despite a major policy shift by the military-imposed government, which is trying to replace an earlier, iron-fisted approach in dealing with the rebels with a “hearts and minds” campaign.

More than 2,000 people have died in the provinces bordering Malaysia since the insurgency erupted in 2004, fueled by accusations of decades of misrule by the central government. The insurgents have not announced their goals, but they are believed to be fighting for a separate state imbued with radical Islamic ideology.

Add things like the above to my listening material (audio books) in recent weeks:

And with the recent developments in congress I have become more and more convinced we, the non-Muslims, are going to be pushed into essentially unthinkable actions in the near future. By retreating from, or failing to accomplish, the least distasteful of the options available (what President Bush is trying to accomplish in Iraq) we will allow them to develop and use nuclear weapons against us. This war is different than any other war I have heard about. This is a war where there is no one leader, country, or countries to negotiate “terms of surrender” (the surrender of either side) with. You could take out the top three layers of leadership and still the war would not end.

I believe the “religion of peace” will either permanently succeed or permanently fail in the next few decades at the cost of 100’s of millions, if not billions, of lives.

Questions You Won’t Hear

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The prerequisite, of course, to getting the correct answers is to ask the right questions.  Doing so, of course, will often be extremely difficult, and for a wide variety of reasons.

Regarding the Trolley Square shooting incident: We understand that the perpetrator was stopped by an “off duty policeman”.  Said off-duty policeman was also outside of the jurisdiction in which he worked as a policeman and was presumably carrying his own, privately-owned handgun (unless I’m wrong and it is in fact the policy of the Ogden Police Department that officers are allowed to carry their city-owned, issue weapons while off-duty and outside the jurisdiction).

So the questions you wont hear are:

Wouldn’t that make him just another, regular, armed citizen?

Wouldn’t he in fact have been a concealed carry permit holder, like you and me?

If so, how many concealed carry permit holders have you heard of being recommended for honors by city officials after using their guns to save lives, as has been done in this case by Ogden city officials?

Wouldn’t the normal response have been “No charges have been filed as of yet” if the defender had NOT been a policeman?

What might have happened if the perpetrator had done this in NYC, DC, San Francisco, or Chicago, where citizens cannot legally defend themselves with concealed firearms?  In that case, wouldn’t we be treated to days or weeks of demands in the media for even more gun restrictions, even though the gun restrictions themselves had resulted in a higher death toll?

How should we, as concerned citizens, treat our public servants when they attempt to undermine our ability to defend ourselves and our families against aggression?

Equality Under the Law? Sure, I’ll Take it!

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I thought that banks were required by federal law to have the Socialist Security numbers of all account holders.  It turns out not be true, apparently, for illegals.  I’ll choose to think of that as good news.  I’ll assume I can now open accounts all over the country, including credit card accounts, without my Socialist Security number or any other documentation of my true identity.  Cool.

A hint of attention to the law

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Usually when some state or local political type ignores the law (18 USC 242 as well as the 2nd Amendment) and attacts people exercising their constitutionally protected rights the Feds just look the other way. The impression I get is that they figure it’s just some uppity gun nut–so who cares? This time it’s a little bit different:

In a stern rebuke to the city’s high-profile crusade against illegal guns, the feds warned the Bloomberg administration that it could face “potential legal liabilities” if it continues to conduct sting operations that fall within the jurisdiction of federal agents.

…

According to a letter sent to City Hall, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and various U.S. attorneys’ offices have determined the city’s findings against the 15 dealers “do not rise to a level that would support a criminal prosecution.”

The letter – sent Tuesday by Michael Battle, director of the executive office for United States Attorneys at the Department of Justice – also scolded City Hall for engaging in sting operations involving persons “without proper law enforcement authority,” saying that could put the city in legal jeopardy. Battle added that City Hall could “unintentionally interrupt or jeopardize” criminal probes.

But of course, just like the classic deep south sherriff that is a member of the KKK, this politician doesn’t get it either:

Asked if the Bloomberg administration plans to stop conducting the sting operations, Deputy Mayor Ed Skyler said, “Not necessarily.”

“The city hasn’t violated any laws,” Skyler said defiantly, adding that the city will continue to pursue its civil lawsuits against the gun dealers.

Via Cam, Jeff, and Uncle.

Blinking lights and bombs

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Even though I have never built a bomb (ignore all the people that keep asking me for help building one) I know a little about them. Tam gets the sarcasm right and now I’m going to fill in a few technical details for you clueless types:

  • Hollywood does not do reality. Putting the time remaining until detonation in large numbers on a bomb is a Hollywood gimmick to increase tension in the story.
  • Lights do not serve any purpose on a bomb other than to draw attention to it.
  • If someone’s intent is to hurt people or property drawing attention to the bomb is probably counter productive.
  • Conventional explosives can only directly injury and kill via three different mechanism:
    • High speed projectiles, usually metal, that have been accelerated by the explosion
    • Overpressure which ruptures the lungs of the victims. You must be very close and sheltered from the high speed projectiles for this to matter
    • Acceleration of the victim. The various body parts are accelerated at different rates and the victim is torn apart or the victim can be thrown into an object that hasn’t been accelerated; i.e. they are thrown against a concrete wall
  • Bombs can cause indirect injuries such as the structural failure of a bridge, building, dam, dangerous chemical container, or starting fires (non-trivial but possible). Falling glass from the building above you is a big one to be concerned about.
  • Surprisingly small amounts, fractions of a pound, of properly placed explosives can do amazing things to structures without the explosion hurting people just a few feet, even inches, away.
  • Surprisingly large amounts (hundreds of pounds) of improperly placed explosives can do virtually nothing to structures and people who are relatively close by.
  • Hollywood does not do reality. There are no safe ways to disarm bombs in general. Anything you can come up with I (or any other competent electrical engineer) can defeat such that either my bomb will detonate when I want it to or you make a bigger explosion than mine in order to destroy my bomb.
  • Hollywood does not do reality. Fireballs are not an inherent part of explosives. It takes additional effort to create a fireball.  I’ve spent a lot of time figuring out how to make them (see also this page). It takes a lot of fuel to get something very interesting. The picture below used two pounds of explosives and four gallons of gasoline and I was clearly safe less than 50 feet away.

If you see something suspicious there are two things that are important; 1) How large is it? 2) What is it’s placement?

Here are the evacuation distances based on the size of a bomb. Those are worst case distances based in part over the concern of broken glass from the windows between you and the bomb and on the buildings above the sidewalks. A few licorice string sized objects properly placed would be more effective in taking out a bridge than a car fully loaded with explosives driving across the top.

If the placement is very near some important structure such as a bridge or fuel tank one should be more suspicious than if it is in the middle of the Safeway parking lot.

Blinking lights on a flat panel attached to non-interesting structures are either not a bomb or evidence of a very stupid bomber. In either case it’s not something to shut down a city’s transportation about. Stupid bombers, with the exception of suicide bombers which aren’t bombers but bomb delivery vehicles, are very rare because Darwin is very severe in his thinning of that herd. I just wish Darwin would thin the herd of stupid politicians as severely.

The creation of Maxwell’s Demon?

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Initial reports are a little ambiguous but if the Wikipedia entry is to be believed I don’t have reason to faint as I was initially inclined (violation of the Second Law of Thermodynamics is a very big deal in my world view).

Still, it is perhaps as big a deal as electronics. And since Maxwell’s Demon is very much like the very first electronic device, the diode, the analogy works pretty well. If the analogy holds, as things scale, then the analog of the integrated circuit will be mind boggling let alone the analog of the multi-core, multi-CPU, desktop computer.

Does the law apply?

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Vi Ry and Reason. A 80 year old man was shot and killed by undercover police after he told them to leave his property. He brandished a gun and they shot and killed him. Witnesses say the officers never told him they were undercover. What would the law do if it had been real drug dealers that had shot and killed him? Would they be prosecuted? Almost for certain. Assuming the witnesses are correct, what law says the police are held to a different and lower standard? Will they be held to the same standard as any other person that did the same thing?

Don’t count on it. The police are out of control and a good portion of the reason is because of the war on some recreational drugs. It’s time the legislature declared victory and gave it up.

Update: More info on the case (thanks to Steph for the link):

Police are now conceding that Singletary was completely innocent. The Jacksonville sheriff describes him in this article as an “honest citizen trying to do good.”

Which means that two undercover officers trespassed onto Singletary’s property. They then invited criminals onto his property to engage in criminal activity with them. Mr. Singletary, recognizing the trespassers as drug dealers, then properly demanded they leave. He brought a gun along to defend himself, not an unreasonable action, given the circumstances. For this, he was shot to death.

These police officers should be treated exactly the same as any other private citizen who shot to death a private citizen under similar circumstances. I.e. trespassing while engaging in a transaction involving illegal drugs. “The kings men” do not have special, unwritten privileges that places them above the law–both legal and moral law.

Just a Reminder

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From our friend in Israel:

Friends:
The terrorists have begun killing each other.  The U.S. is racing to infuse millions of dollars into the Fatah terrorist group.  So whats new?
 
Have a good weekend.
Howard

The U.S. has been supporting Jihadist organizations in the name of “Middle East Peace” for decades, as has Israel, by the way.  Can there be any doubt as to why this problem goes on and on, with no end in sight?  What would have been the result if the Allies had adopted this same policy toward the Nazis, or the Imperial Japs?  Does anyone doubt what needs to be done to secure peace over there, or are we still trying as hard as we can to convince ourselves that the Jihadists just want to get along?

Wow! What is their definition of moral?

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Of all the people to be given the death penalty there probably aren’t more than a few dozen in the last hundred years that were more clearly deserving than Saddam Hussein. Not only as punishment for his crimes but to prevent him from ever coming to power again. As long as he was alive their was the risk that he would be free and restored to power and take an incredibly bloody revenge.

Yet according to this report our European “allies” condemned the execution:

The United Nations, the Vatican and Washington’s European allies all condemned Saddam’s execution on moral grounds.

In my view the United Nations has no moral ground to stand on and should just shut their mouth and hide in the corner like they usually do. Or shall we talk about the sex scandals and/or allowing the genocides in Rwanda and the Darfur region of Sudan?

I’ll give the Vatican a pass–partly because it’s the Christmas season.

The Europeans are going to be learning their own lessons soon enough. The Islamic extremists who are taking over their don’t have any qualms about executions and the “moral objections” of the Europeans to them being given the option to convert or die will probably result in some of their positions on morality being revised.

One Tyrant Down, Many to Go…

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Watching the Saddam hanging, I experienced Three things:  First, a little bit of empathy for the idiot, which soon passed and is nothing to be ashamed about because its just human.  Second, a lot of empathy for his untold thousands of innocent victims– men women and children.  Third, the conclusion that they went awfully easy on him.  Had the table been turned and Saddam been the executioner, the condemned would have been beaten with rebar until he shit himself, had his ears cut off and fed to him, had his tongue ripped out, his knee caps shot, his face kicked in and covered with feces, then he’d be dragged through the dirt, spat on and hanged slowly in front of his wife and kids, all while Saddam watched, smoking a Cuban cigar with a great big giddy grin on his face.  But civilized people are better than that, I suppose.

Pictures from the Seattle area

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See also the Seattle Times article here. These were all taken on Friday December 15 between 8:30 and 12:00. I took the first one and James took the rest.


Typical residental street


Near Redmond on Highway 202 on our way out of town


Near Redmond on Highway 202 on our way out of town


Notice the power line is down on the left as well as half of highway 202 is blocked

No! (to being in Seattle without electricity)

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The power flickered many times with the first record in my uninterruptable power supply logs at about 17:00 yesterday. There were numerous 10 and 20 second outages until it went out for the night about 22:30. For James it was very early this morning. Work was closed and although I could have kept our computers up it just wasn’t worth the effort. We drove back to Idaho today to wait for the power to be restored to the Seattle area.

The snow on the pass and all the way to just a few miles west of Vantage wasn’t bad but it was coming down pretty good so we were glad to make it across when we did. The worst part was making it through all the traffic on the Eastside of Lake Washington. With no power all the traffic lights were 4-way stops.

Ry reports in and is doing fine.

Phil at Random Nuclear Strikes hasn’t said anything but I’m sure he is doing well unless he suffered a direct hit from a tree.

Mr. Completely has several reports and seems to be doing well:

James and I took a few pictures and I’ll put something up later. I need to make supper before Barb gets home from work.

Constantly choosing the wrong metric

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The anti-gun bigots are at it again. They are claiming victory when they fudge the numbers:

Gun-control measures that Australia adopted after the 1996 Port Arthur massacre have eliminated mass killings and halved the number of suicides and deaths from firearms, according to a new study.

There have been no mass killings since the passage of the first measure just after the massacre, researchers led by Simon Chapman at the School of Public Health at the University of Sydney said in the study, published in the December issue of Injury Prevention. In contrast, there were 13 such killings in the 18 years prior. The study covered 1979 to 2003.

“Removing large numbers of rapid-firing firearms from civilians may be an effective way of reducing mass shootings, firearm homicides and firearm suicides,” the authors said.

…

The laws also doubled the pace at which firearm deaths were declining, they said. Gun deaths had been falling by 3 percent a year, and the rate rose to 6 percent after the new rules, the study found. The average number of people killed each month dropped to 332.6 from 627.7, it said. Suicides make up about four out of five firearms deaths; the remainder are either homicides or unintentional deaths.

And what’s your point? Why should anyone care? This totally ignores the possibility of any benefit that might have resulted from people being allowed to own those firearms that were taken from them. The total murder rate and the total violent crime rate are what is important. A reduction in the number of crimes committed with firearms is, by itself, meaningless. You could reduce the number of murders committed with baseball bats by banning the sport and the bats but it’s not going to reduce the total murder rate.

They can’t win being honest with the numbers so they have to cheat. But what can you expect from people that have mental problems?

This is what happens in places without guns–Case XIX

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From the U.K. where, if the government hadn’t implemented a Criminal Occupational Safety Act, an “equalizer” from Samuel Colt, John Moses Browning, or Smith & Wesson would make this sort of thing too hazardous of a hobby to partake in this frequently in the same small geographical area and small population:

There are growing concerns tonight that police are drawing a blank in the hunt for the Suffolk Strangler.

Officers from the Suffolk force – one of the smallest in the country – have been “overwhelmed” by the discovery of five bodies in 10 days.

…

One source said: “Even a larger force would have a problem resourcing at this stage. It is six weeks since the first prostitute went missing – and police admit it is a race against time before the killer strikes again.”

Detective Chief Superintendent Stewart Gull, who is leading the manhunt, went on television to say the serial killer is “out of control”. He has murdered five women in six weeks, an unprecedented rate in British criminal history.

Some of the prostitutes in Ipswich’s red-light area have given police names of their customers and detectives are trying to compile a complete list.

…

The numbers of sex workers in the area is said to be about 40, but the hardcore is about 15 – five of whom are now dead.

Oppressive laws to bite the dust

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The Ohio Senate overrode the anti-gun bigot Ohio Governor who vetoed a common sense gun law on concealed carry. It will be months or perhaps years before the cities and counties actually obey the law and stop persecuting people who choose to exercise their constitutionally guaranteed rights (the Ohio state Constitution is more clear than the Federal Constitution on the matter of the right to keep and bear arms). But it’s a downhill fight for a while.

See also:

Something I noticed in the articles is that they were all very factual. No “blood in the streets” rhetoric. Just this from the bigot Toby Hoover who has been in the news for years wailing about how dangerous people are if they exercise their rights:

The Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence, which opposes concealed carry, accused lawmakers of giving in to the powerful and politically generous National Rifle Association.

“The passage of HB 347 and the override of Gov. Taft’s veto is an appalling arrogance against the will of and respect for the people of Ohio to govern themselves,” executive director Toby Hoover said in a statement.

It’s an emotional appeal but it is not the usual stuff said about gun owners being a threat to humanity. Very nice.

Congratulations to the people of Ohio that have been working on this for many years. Take a week off to celebrate then get back to work. There is still lots to be done.

Just Ask Hamas

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When faced with important decisions, it helps to understand the situation as completely as possible.  In light of all the facts, and with an understanding of history, one can usually see the right choice, or the right set of options, with little difficulty.  Knowing Hamas and their ideology, it then becomes impossible to understand why anyone would want to compromise with them without coming to the conclusion that it is only because of an overwhelming desire to avoid reality.

This from our friend in Jerusalem:

Friends:
The Palestinian Authority’s President, a Hamas member, is in Iran.  He says Hamas will never accept the State of Israel.  More, the only acceptable way to be rid of Israel is by force of arms. 
BELIEVE HIM.
Howard

Land for peace anyone?  I’ve spoken with several Leftists who either don’t know what the Jihadis are saying, or do not believe them, or do not believe that their words are actually their words.  They instead attribute their hatred for the West to silly things like U.S. foreign policy or our “taking” (like we never pay for it– to the tune of billions) of mideast oil (the fact there is, America is their best customer– they should love us).

I suggest that if you want to know why they hate us, you might try listeneng to them.  Oh, but I understand that that wouldn’t let you blame the U.S. and the Jews, or G.W. Bush, which seem to be the main goals for some Americans.

And what did you expect?

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No surprise here.

Palestinian Attacks Go on Despite Truce

JERUSALEM Nov 26, 2006 (AP)— Israeli troops withdrew from the Gaza Strip as a last-minute cease-fire deal took hold Sunday morning, but two major Palestinian militant groups, saying they had no intention of stopping their attacks, fired volleys of homemade rockets into Israel.

The ongoing rocket attacks by Hamas and Islamic Jihad tempered hopes for a lasting truce, which was meant to end five months of deadly clashes.

I believe the problem is the mindset of the Muslim civilization. As told by Samuel P. Huntington in The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order they have a different viewpoint on group loyalties than we do in the West. I’ve made a crude chart that attempt to get the concept across:

Huntington describes it as a “U” and an inverted “U”. I have it as more like ‘V’s because I didn’t want to enter in all the data points to get a smooth U. But the point is that when our nations leaders say, “We are going to make peace, stop fighting while we talk” our civilization will obey even if the local groups think the fighting should continue. Muslim civilization doesn’t have that much loyalty to their nation. The local tribe and community has more influence. And on the other end of the scale they have more loyalty to other Muslims than their nation as well.

This also explains why Saddam Hussein picked people from his hometown as his guards and elite army units. He trusted them far more than people from other areas of the country.

Where does that leave us? How can we, or the Israels, negotiate peace? Or even have peace with Muslims? Good questions. I’m not sure it can be done unless we destroy their culture.