Category Archives: Freedom

Quote of the day–H.L. Mencken

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Why should democracy rise against bribery?  It is itself a form of wholesale bribery.  In place of a government with a fixed purpose and a visible goal, it sets up a government that is a mere function of the mob’s vagaries.  Its security depends wholly upon providing satisfactory bribes for the prehensile minorities that constitute the mob . . . the very head of the state, having no title to his office save that which lies in the popular will, is forced to haggle and bargain like the lowliest office seeker.

H.L. Mencken
[Think about it; Elections are bribery in both directions. The people who seek and win elections are those willing to engage in bribery and are best at it. Do not expect politicians to be honest. The system discriminates against honest politicians. This is just one more reason why our government is (theoretically) and should be limited by strictly enumerated powers.–Joe]

Boomershoot 2008 raffle proceeds

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The following should be self-explanatory.

From: Joe Huffman
Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 8:55 AM
To: ‘soldiersangels@gmail.com’
Cc: ‘Chuck Ziegenfuss‘; ‘Barb Scott’; ‘Jason Scott’
Subject: Boomershoot 2008 Raffle proceeds.

 

Boomershoot (http://www.boomershoot.org) is an annual long range precision rifle event held in North Central Idaho. Each year soldiers from Fort Lewis attend and for two days prior to the main event help teach Boomershoot participants the science and art of accurate long range shooting. Some of those soldiers later went on to Iraq and Afghanistan and were injured and some were killed.

 

Last October my wife and I met Chuck Ziengenfuss at the Gun Blogger Rendezvous in Reno. He told us of his injuries and how Soldiers’ Angels helped him. It turns out that it was the second time my wife had met Chuck. She had also met at Walter Reed when she was visiting our nephew Jason Scott who was wounded in Iraq and benefited from your help.

 

At Boomershoot this year we held a raffle with the intent that half of the proceeds would go to raffle participants and the other half going to Project Valour-IT. All winners of the raffle proceeds gave the money to me to forward on to you. Two other people quietly came up to me and each gave me three $100 bills to give to you.

 

Below is the reference number and other information from my bank who is mailing you a check of the entire proceeds. If it does not arrive as expected please let me know.

 

 

PENDING PAYMENTS

Payee

Reference #

Send On

Expected Delivery

Amount

Soliders’ Angels

EBUBC5PX 

05/06/2008

05/13/2008

$1,860.00

 

 

Regards and thank you,

 

Joe Huffman
Boomershoot Event Director

Quote of the day–Soldiers’ Angels

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May No Soldier Go Unloved.

Slogan of Soldier’s Angels
[See my next post for more context.–Joe]

Feeding the poor

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Ignoring the fact that no where in the U.S. Constitution does it allow for the Federal government to do this it’s just plain stupid even if it was allowed:

President Bush called on Congress Thursday to approve $770 million to help alleviate dramatically escalating food prices that threaten widespread hunger and increasing social unrest around the world.

In a surprise mid-afternoon appearance at the White House, Bush announced he is asking lawmakers to approve the additional funds for global food aid and development programs. The money is being included in a broader $70 billion Iraq war funding measure for 2009 that the White House sent to Capitol Hill on Thursday.

If it were the case that it was some sort of rare natural disaster at a personal or business, not governmental, level I could see accepting promissory notes in exchange for food or even making gifts of food. The goodwill generated might prove worthwhile. But to feed those that can no longer afford to feed themselves and have no realistic hope of improving their economic situation will only increase the suffering.

A short story will illustrate. The essence is true but I forget the details.

A few years ago a group (I think it was a state wildlife department) decided to feed a small herd of hungry deer searching for food in the snow. There were only a few of them–perhaps 20 or 30. Nearly all the deer made it through the winter when perhaps a five or ten of them would have died had they not been given assistance.

The next winter, at the same location they again fed the deer but this time there were 40 or 50. The wintering area could only support perhaps 15 or 20 deer. If they didn’t feed them again then perhaps 20 or 30 would die. If they could not allow for five or ten to die last year then certainly the could not allow 20 or 30 to die this year! A few years later the herd was in the hundreds and not only was it prohibitively expensive to feed them the deer were destroying the plant life of both their winter and summer feeding grounds. That many hooves and mouths became, in essence, a swarm of locusts that stripped the countryside clean.

What should be done now that they realized the folly they had engaged in that first winter? They had reached the point where they would have to feed them even in the summer to avoid the deaths of hundreds and still they would destroy the plant life and endanger other animal species wherever they went. I believe some were trapped and moved to other areas but increasing the bag limits on hunting season thinned the herd down to levels where the environment could support them. Most of those deer they feared would die were killed.

So what do we do about people in some distant land that cannot afford to feed themselves? I don’t know exactly but the free market, if it were allowed to work, will find solutions such that most of them will not starve. Someone who is hungry and whose family is hungry will work hard and for long hours. Cheap labor attracts the capitalists. The smart ones in those areas of food shortages, if allowed to do so, will find products and/or services they can export in exchange for food and/or money. And yes, some will die of starvation. The media will show us high resolution color pictures of dying children and say it is the fault of the greedy capitalists. But giving them food without anything in exchange will only mean death is delayed and the magnitude of the tragedy increased.

Quote of the day–Al Capone

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When I sell liquor, it’s called bootlegging; when my patrons serve it on Lake Shore Drive, its called hospitality.

Al Capone
[I’m reminded of this by the apparent suicide of the “D.C. Madam” Deborah Jeane Palfrey. How sad that a provider of a desired service is convicted of a victimless crime and ends up dead. The real criminals are those that created and enforced such a law.–Joe]

Food riots

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Food shortages and riots are occurring around the world and even toppled Haiti’s government. In the U.S. wheat flour prices are double what they were a few months ago.

This is good news for farmers in a free market but the implications are profound. Food shortages are probably more destructive to the fabric of civil society than any other single factor. When people get hungry enough they will do almost anything.

A few years ago my brother told me the world reserve of wheat would last nearly a year even if all production were stopped immediately. Things have changed (from the previous link):

…there is now less wheat in grain bins than at any time since World War II — only about enough to supply the world for four days.

Record oil prices, collapsing housing market, and now world wide food prices and shortages. These are interesting times we live in. Will it result in increased government involvement to “solve” the problems? Or will people realize that government interference in the free market causes the problems? Remember that for decades the Soviet Union tried to increase food production under their communistic form of government and failed. And during those same decades the U.S. with a mostly capitalistic economy was trying to reduce food production so prices would increase and they too failed.

I’m reminded of Milton Friedman quote:

Governments never learn. Only people learn.

Have people learned? When they are hungry will the remember the lessons? Or will they insist the lessons be repeated at the cost of millions or perhaps even billions of lives?

Quote of the day–Milton Friedman

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The most important ways in which I think the internet will affect the big issue is that it will make it more difficult for the government to collect taxes.

Milton Friedman
[I have to think on this some more. Are there some opportunities I’m not taking advantage of? I want to believe Friedman but I don’t see the Internet as that big of obstacle to tax collection.–Joe]

The Era of Reagan is Over

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So says the Newtster, pretty well verifying what I’ve suspected for a long time– that Gingrich either never really got it, or he’s just tired of the fight and wants the DC culture to be nice to him once in a while.

Others have tried to get this across, so it’s old news, but I’ll give it another go:  As one who upholds the founding principles of the U.S., I could not give a rat’s behind if someone running for office is a black, white, Asian, Hispanic, one-armed female homosexual midget named Butch Hussein Ahmadinejad.  If that person has a track record of strenuously upholding and defending the founding principles of this country, she has my vote.  I do not care about personality (except she has to be a confident fighter or nothing’s going to improve).  I do not care about looks, I don’t care about slick marketing or any of that BS.  She’s got my vote.  This is why Reagan won two landslides- he tried to uphold the founding principles of this country.  He understood and embraced those principles and (and this is key) he was therefore capable of articulating them.  He was far from perfect, but he did it better than any president in my lifetime, even with a solid Democrat majority in both Houses, and that’s why he was popular.  It’s also why he was, and is, so hated and maligned by the Left (clue: You cannot embrace America’s founding principles and expect to get along with the Left.  They will never, ever tolerate you, so if you’re going to do it, expect to be attacked ruthlessly.  Ruthless attacks, however, can go both ways).

If you think it is a matter of hero worship, or cult of personality, etc., you are not capable of understanding Reagan’s success.

Therefore, to say that the era of Reagan is over is to say that the era of upholding America’s founding principles is over– that we are to abandon our principles in favor of “getting along” with those who would further undermine them.  No, Little Grasshopper– let them feel they must strive to “get along” with us in order to stay in the game.  It’s a choice.

Now we have three conservative-hating, anti-Constitution leftists remaining in the presidential race– two calling themselves Democrats and one calling himself a Republican, so this election no longer interests me.

To anyone else who wants my vote; it’s really easy– Just show the track record stated above.   For now, I will vote on state and local issues. (Yeah, I know– I could vote for Paul, but…)

Chicago people are slow learners

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9 people killed in 36 shootings over the weekend in Chicago:

Nine people were killed in 36 shootings over the weekend in Chicago, reflecting what some community leaders say is a deadly breakdown in discipline among gang members after a crackdown over the past few years put many of their leaders behind bars.

[…]

The shootings included drive-by attacks, and one case in which someone shot up a plumbing supply store with an AK-47. At least 14 of the shootings were gang-related, according to police. As for the rest, the only thing they can say for sure is that three had nothing to do with gangs.

[…]

Around the country, a number of cities, including Boston, New York, Los Angeles and Dallas, are not reporting surges in gang violence.

So, Mayor Daley, how is that handgun ban working out for you?

You would think the lessons of alcohol prohibition would not have to be retaught for recreation drug and gun prohibition. But for some reason that isn’t the case and Chicago appears to be the natural epicenter of demonstrating this lesson. What seems so odd to me is that it is taking so much longer to learn the lesson this time. I guess people in Chicago are just slow learners.

Quote of the day–Greg Hamilton

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The WA/BC border is one of the most significant entry pts for terrorist that our country has, as well as for illegal materials.

Canada is a significant staging ground for terrorists of all brands.

Besides building their own networks, all type of terrorists will use smuggling routes and the in-place smugglers themselves, to move people and materials.

[…]

As the masses sleep, we and our allies have prevented quite a few attacks bigger than Sept11. and probably hundreds of small ones. We CAN’t talk about them because doing so means the “journalists” and lawyers, etc. will know HOW we stopped the attacks and that tool will no longer be available. The only way to keep the evolutionary cycle in our favor is Operational Security of our techniques.

Greg Hamilton
March 24, 2008 2:48 PM
Insights Training Discussion Group
[It’s an interesting dilemma. And it goes much further than what is obvious at first glance. If you were to arrest and prosecute them then only the first one or two attempts would be unsuccessful. The methods of detection would come out in the trial(s) making it much more likely subsequent attempts would work. So what can you do? Put a sack over their head and ship them Club Gitmo on a military plane in the middle of the night? Put a bullet in their head and feed them to the sharks and crabs? But what about due process? Yeah, they are terrorists. But what if President Obama declares the NRA to be a terrorist network? Do NRA members then get the same treatment?–Joe]

Wal-Mart support of the oppressors

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Chris Cox of the NRA has this to say:

“Today’s announcement by New York City (NYC) Mayor Mike Bloomberg comes as no surprise to National Rifle Association (NRA) members across the country. None of these joint Wal-Mart/Mayor Bloomberg initiatives will lower crime, because they ignore the real cause of crime — criminals.

Mayor Bloomberg has long confused his NYC mayoral podium for a national bully pulpit from which he feels entitled to push his personal gun control agenda outside NYC. Now, instead of trying to impose his philosophy on other cities and states, Mike Bloomberg has set his sights on our country’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

Bloomberg proves his disdain for individual firearm ownership, and his assertion that only the privileged should own a firearm and should have the right to defend themselves and their loved ones.

NRA will continue to oppose any scheme that puts burdens on law-abiding Americans and not on criminals.”

Sebastian is pretty pissed but counsels restraint when writing your letters to corporate headquarters.

Here is what really got to me:

Creating a record and alert system to record when a gun sold at Wal-Mart is later used in a crime. If the purchaser of that gun later tries to buy another gun at Wal-Mart, the system would alert the sales clerk of the prior buy and could refuse to make the sale.

Retaining the recorded images of gun sales in case law enforcement wants to view them later as part of an investigation.

Have they ever heard of “due process”? The RKBA is about to be declared, by the highest court in the land, as an individual right guaranteed to not be infringed. And yet if I bought a gun at Wal-Mart and someone stole that gun from me and used it in a crime Wal-Mart would hold that against me if I tried to buy another gun. Why stop there? Why not do the same for knives and baseball bats?

How about flashlights? I’m sure burglars need flashlights when they are sneaking around someone’s house in the middle of the night. What if Bloomberg put pressure on Wal-Mart to keep flashlights out of the wrong hands? Would Wal-Mart cave to him about that? Or would they offer to insert their finest four D-cell flashlight someplace where it would help him find his way out of his cranial rectum inversion problem?

What would happen if some KKK member in political power put pressure on Wal-Mart to “retain the recorded images” of blacks/Jews/Gays that made purchases “in case law enforcement wants to view them later as part of an investigation”? This is no different. Guns are just as legal to sell and own as claw hammers, baseball bats, and kitchen knives. For Wal-Mart to single out gun buyers as a special class of people worthy of extra scrutiny and suspicion is deplorable. They are supporting the oppressors of essential freedoms and should be treated the same as those that would collaborate with the KKK.

Wal-Mart management would do well to remember K-MART.

Quote of the day–Peter Hitchens

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Charlton Heston was a good and decent man, as well as a fine actor and a brave one, who did his own stunts.

Some people can’t work out how the same person courageously went on civil rights demonstrations long before it was fashionable, and equally courageously opposed the authoritarian, futile silliness of ‘gun control’ when that cause wasn’t fashionable either.

The two things are completely linked. Both are causes of liberty and justice, and both got him into trouble with received opinion.

Gun control, much imposed by dictatorships, restricts gun ownership to the State, to criminals and (in this country) certain officially approved terrorists.

It bans law-abiding people from defending themselves, even where the State is not doing its job.

Peter Hitchens
April 12, 2008
The week they sowed the seeds of a British secret police
[Some people in the U.K. get it.–Joe]

Another example of futility of the TSA

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The TSA should just give it up and let congress spend that money on something that would do some good.

Also note that in this video the morons interviewed think that somehow outlawing the “glass knuckles” will make society safer. Do they think banning sharp sticks will make society safer? These things are so easy to make anyone with a room temperature I.Q. could be taught how to make them. But then maybe the media morons and the people they interviewed should be given a pass because they don’t have a room temperature I.Q.

It’s no wonder they don’t understand

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Ignore all the errors, the deceptive use of numbers, and the emotional appeals. There is one sentence that explains why they just don’t get it:

America is a nation that pays a heavy price for permitting its citizens to be armed.

Our constitution does not permit its citizens to be armed.

Yup. You read that right. And that is not an late April fools joke either.

Until they understand and adhere to this fundamental point they will never understand or leave us alone. The reality is that the people had the right to be armed before the Constitution existed and the people retained, explicitly through the 2nd and 10th Amendments those rights afterward. The U.S. Constitution permitted, through Article I, Section 8, Clauses 15 and 16, the government to be armed.

Quote of the day–John K. Nolan

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As Illinois is one of the last two states to prohibit the carrying of concealed guns, it should be the first to proudly enact the law prohibiting the ownership and carrying of concealed knives.

Knife owners who are allowed to own them, must be required to carry KOID (Knife Owner Identification) licenses. To ensure knives are being sold to responsible owners, there should be a five-day waiting period for background checks.

Knife owners must attend mandatory knife training classes to ensure the proper use of knives and understand the potential harm caused by the unknowledgeable knife owner.

When transporting knives, owners must secure them in a secure case in the vehicle’s trunk.

John K. Nolan
April 5, 2008
A cutting satire on gun control
[It’s pretty good satire. It’s not up to the VPC Blog level. But it’s not bad. Of course the above fairly accurately describes the current situation in the U.K. so the satire aspect will probably be missed by some.–Joe]

Liberalism’s Tragic Soul

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I’d never heard of Jim Pontillo.  I found him through a link on Jewish World Review.  Liberalism’s Tragic Soul is a long post, but there are a lot of very quotable statements in it:

…you are victim to the liberal propaganda which suggests CEOs are big all controlling evil despots who can set policy and control the population at their whim. CEOs in a truly capitalist society are the biggest slaves of the planet. They are enslaved to the whims of the market—to you and me.

That one reminds me of a good friend, who opened a retail store in a small village that had a two-store monopoly.  The two stores had been price-fixing for years.  My friend saw this monopoly, correctly, as an opportunity.  He did his homework and found out he could provide goods at vastly lower prices and still make a good profit.  So long as his property rights were protected against coercion and other forms of force, he could do a nice business and in the process he’d be giving every resident of this little village a raise, in effect, by lowering the prices on all the goods they needed.  He did just that, and has done very well for many years.  That’s the value of a free market right there, in microcosm.  There can be no lasting, anti-consumer monopoly in a free market, since anyone taking undue advantage of the consumer is merely creating an opportunity for their competitors.  That is, unless government steps in and screws it all up.

The next time you get into an argument about freedom with a liberal, the freedom they profess to defend, the freedom that conservatives venture to usurp with their fascist beliefs, ask them what freedom they are talking about.  Is it the freedom to possess firearms to protect ourselves if government fails to, or the freedom to keep most of the money we earn, or the freedom to speak candidly about religion, or the freedom to provide the best for our families; or is it the freedom to hand our lives over to some elected official where he will decide what is best for us…

Quote of the day–Gwen

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The idea that the only way we think we can make a safer, better society is for everyone to carry a gun is incredibly sad. It’s also individualistic–the answer to racism, rape, and gay bashing is to carry a gun, not have any form of social organizing.

Gwen
January 10, 2008 10:48 PM
Comment in Equal Opportunity Gun Ownership
[This is very revealing of their mindset. Apparently “social organizing” makes individual responsibility obsolete and justifiably deprives all individuals of the right to defend their lives. The collective is to defend the members it deems worthy of defensive. And of course we know how that works out. The “leaders” get their armed guards and the ordinary individual gets a dysfunctional and corrupt police system. The issues is that in the U.S. the elected officials are supposed to be “public servants” not “leaders”. When the government successfully claims a monopoly on the use of force they have dropped all pretense of being “public servants” or “leaders” and have declared themselves to be “rulers”.

Although Gwen didn’t make the blog post she was commenting on she is a co-editor of the blog.

As Kevin pointed out “everyone” is blogging about this post and the comments. It was the source of my own QOTD yesterday.–Joe]

Quote of the day–maineshark

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Gun control serves violence, oppression, genocide, and other evil purposes. Opposing it serves peace, freedom, human dignity, and the triumph of intellect over brute force. Choose your side. Do you want the side that was supported by the KKK, racists, Nazis, rapists, gay-bashers, and other scum, or do you want the side that is supported by fine folks like the brave Jews who fought back against the Nazis, and men of peace like Ghandi?

The choice is yours, and history will remember you by it…

maineshark
April 3, 2008 5:37 AM
Comment in Equal Opportunity Gun Ownership
[H/T to Tam and Uncle. I’ll probably use another comment from that same post as my QOTD tomorrow.–Joe]

I’ll only do this once

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I’ve been thinking about this for a long time and Sunday while waiting for the ferry to cross over to the island to visit Mr. Completely and Keewee I made my decision. The event that confirmed everything was the dog sniffing for explosives around the vehicles waiting for the ferry:

There were two things that really struck me about this. 1) The dog didn’t take any particular interest in my car even though I had been making explosives and driving that car just a week earlier. No special precautions on cleanliness and the dog didn’t hit on us. I also had several hundred rounds of ammunition in the trunk. Therefore the dog and all the WSP officers standing around are just more Security Theater. 2) Why isn’t this considered an illegal search? We were on public roads doing nothing suspicious and we get searched.

After a few minutes of thought I realized the game I had been playing was over. For years I have pushing for restoring our freedom and yet we have suffered more and more infringements. There is always some “justification” for the infringement. Before 9-11 it was because of crime and recreational drug use. Now it’s the threat of terrorism. Nearly all of the infringements are mere theater in regards to addressing the problems they claim to be concerned about yet they adversely affect the ordinary citizen.

With this realization I concluded I have been playing the game wrong. Therefore I have decided to change sides. From this moment forward I am on the side of Islam. Yes, I know, for the most part they are a bunch of losers. But I have my reasons:

  • I think I can make a major contribution to turning their loser ways around.
    • I have thousands of pounds of explosives materials available for immediate use.
    • I have long range rifle experience and equipment.
    • I have computer security expertise.
    • I have extensive engineering experience.
  • The U.S. Constitution is dead. It was killed by neglect years ago and there is no hope for its resurrection. This great hope for freedom has died and pretending otherwise is a fraud.
  • If we can’t have freedom then the next best thing is peace through uniformity of belief. Islam is the best hope for that.
  • I’m getting older and so is Barb. Those 72 virgins for eternity are looking better and better.

I know I am handicapping myself by making this public announcement but I feel morally obligated to tell my friends and family the truth. I don’t play the part of secret traitor well–I have to look at my face in the mirror each morning. As Winston Churchill once said in regards to formal declarations of war, “When you have to kill a man it costs nothing to be polite.”

My apologies to Uncle and others who (correctly at the time) said, “I’m glad he’s one of the good guys.” Things change and perhaps you should too.

When Barb left this morning she didn’t know. It was just returning to work in Idaho as she does every other week after spending the last several days with me. But that was the end of a 34 year run we had. Our first date was in March of 1974. This was a picture I took of her on that date, a walk along Dworshak Lake:

It was nice but she was only a virgin once. She just can’t compete with 72 virgins for eternity.

You might ask, “What are you going to do?” and that’s a fair question. I figure I have at best a few months before I am caught and probably killed but I am certain I can make a significant impact in that time frame. Think for a moment about how long a city could last if all the bridges, roads, water, and electricity were cut off with the repair crews taking sniper fire from 1000 yards away. Draw a circle with a radius of 1000 yards around each of the severed connections and imagine trying to protect the crews from someone, someplace in that area. And as law enforcement is searching for me there they won’t really know if I am there are not. I could be several hundred miles away getting ready to sever another city from food, water, and power. You don’t need nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons to create mass destruction. By creating the appropriate circumstances you can cause the delicate fabric of society to collapse and let nature do the rest.

Ry and I have observed it’s rare that a single person can kill more than 200 people before being stopped. It is my ambition to set a record in the 10s of thousands and perhaps higher. I want my name to be in the history books as a demonstration of just what one determined person can do.

Allahu Akbar!

Quote of the day–Bill Vaughan

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If there is anything the nonconformist hates worse than a conformist it’s another nonconformist who doesn’t conform to the prevailing standard of nonconformity.

Bill Vaughan
[Continuing the theme of humans as pack animals.–Joe]