Humans are pack animals

The observation that most humans are “pack animals” and conformists leads me to conclude that in addition to having the obvious detrimental effects of forcing conformity to harmful and even dangerous beliefs there are ways this human characteristic can be exploited to the advantage of freedom loving people. In essence we need to align the pack norms with our principles rather than let the anti-freedom movement align them for us.

I haven’t read it, but I suspect Groupthink: Psychological Studies of Policy Decisions and Fiascoes would be very insightful. In the absence of my doing the proper research here are my speculations on the gun issue and how we might take advantage of this human characteristic:

  • The more gun owners “come out of the closet” the more difficult it is for the anti-gun bigots to herd the pack in the desired direction.
  • The more times you take a new shooter to the range the less people there will be who accept the implied characterization by the bigots of all gun owners as actual or imminent criminals.
  • Every time you speak up when someone else is denigrating gun ownership you make it more difficult for others to agree with the anti-gun position.
  • Every time a piece of pro-gun legislation is introduced and/or passed it makes it harder for the anti-gun forces to introduce their legislation even if it is mostly unrelated to the pro-gun law. Hence getting a state preemption law passed (YEAH Mike!) helps prevent “assault weapon” legislation from getting a toehold. Another example would be a law requiring the ownership of firearms in one city throws into question a proposal in another state or city to limit gun ownership.
  • Every court ruling that says gun ownership, no matter how narrowly defined and incremental from the existing group think, is a right protected by the constitution it makes it harder for the bigots to get critical mass for restricting some other aspect of gun ownership.

We need to create a “pack” where gun ownership and freedom is the predominant viewpoint. When the forces of anti-gun bigotry and socialism are viewed with justified contempt the forces of freedom can then advance and turn back the terrible cloud hanging over our country and the world.

When Prophecy Fails also gives us insight and ideas for breaking people out of the pack. 

Are there any pro-freedom psychologists and sociologists out there that can contribute more on this topic?

Send the teachers to the reeducation camps

Via an email from Kirby I get this link and story:

LARP fans at Bowling Green State University may have to contend with a crippled game of Zombies vs. Humans after the University banned Nerf guns on campus.

Nerf guns are banned???

I started poking around the University website to try and figure out what sort of place this is. I found this scary:

Established in 1910 to educate teachers, BGSU is the 14th largest producer of teachers in the country

They pride themselves on producing teachers and they think 18 year olds should not be allowed to have Nerf guns? I think some teachers of teachers need to be taught something. Perhaps some time at a reeducation camp would help. I suggest they start with the U.S. Consitution and the basics of a free society.

Quote of the day–Martin Duberman

Americans have a very low tolerance for differentness, whether it’s racial, ethnic, or sexual.  Despite our rhetoric about individualism, we are a desperately conforming people.

Martin Duberman
[My QOTD from yesterday was on this same topic. As I was laying in bed last night I had a lot more thoughts on the topic and decided to make a post on the subject. When looking for a QOTD for today this one jumped out at me. I’ll try to get the post out sometime this morning.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Jenny Block

The problem, it seems to me, is this. People are pack animals and they want — need — approval from the herd. So, forcing this one-size-fits-not-nearly-everyone way of life down everyone’s throat is detrimental to everyone. Living a life that doesn’t fit is miserable and that misery plays out in unhappy ways in people’s lives.

Jenny Block
March 27, 2008
Open Relationships: What the World Already Has
[The pack animal observation applies to so many things that bug me about people. It is a huge component of the attacks on freedom. From gay rights and gun control to religious intolerance you will find this urge to conform and to enforce conformity playing a big part.–Joe]

Tom Mangan in the news again

H/T to Uncle.

Mangan is reading the Brady script to CNN this time (previous posts about Mangan):

ATF special agent Tom Mangan says the .50-caliber rifle has become one of the “guns of choice” for the drug cartels. The weapon fires palm-sized .50-caliber rounds that can cut through just about anything.

Mangan showed CNN the power of the rifle on a gun range near Phoenix, Arizona. The weapon, a Barrett, was seized in an ATF raid. A round fired from 100 yards away tore through a car door and both sides of a bulletproof vest like those used by Mexican police.

“There’s nothing that’s going to stop this round,” Mangan says.

The rifle was intercepted as it was being smuggled into Mexico. Mangan says investigators believe four others already had passed through the border.

Watch the video to see and hear the emotional appeal these bigots invoke. What they don’t seem to realize is all this is caused by the banning of recreational drugs. In other words, governments cause crime.

Demote or promote?

I sent out a couple emails using some “back channels” after I posted this. I wonder if it got someone stirred up:

Domain Name   usdoj.gov ? (U.S. Government)
IP Address   149.101.1.# (US Dept of Justice)
ISP   US Dept of Justice
Location  
Continent  :  North America
Country  :  United States  (Facts)
State  :  District of Columbia
City  :  Washington
Lat/Long  :  38.9097, -77.0231 (Map)
Distance  :  2,071 miles
Language   English (U.S.)
en-us
Operating System   Microsoft WinXP
Browser   Internet Explorer 6.0
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; DOJ3jx7bf; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; InfoPath.1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727)
Javascript   version 1.3
Monitor  

Resolution  :  1024 x 768
Color Depth  :  32 bits

Time of Visit   Mar 25 2008 8:42:16 am
Last Page View   Mar 25 2008 8:43:03 am
Visit Length   47 seconds
Page Views   3
Referring URL http://search.yahoo….args=0&pstart=1&b=31
Search Engine search.yahoo.com
Search Words atf forfeiture blog
Visit Entry Page   http://blog.joehuffm…ThinkForfeiture.aspx
Visit Exit Page   http://blog.joehuffm…ThinkForfeiture.aspx
Out Click    
Time Zone   UTC-4:00
Visitor’s Time   Mar 25 2008 12:42:16 pm
Visit Number   273,824

They are looking pretty deep because my blog was number 39 on the list of hits.

I just wonder if they will find it cause to demote or to promote.

Who is Fascist?

I’ve written about this several times over the years, but it takes a true scholar to do a superior job of it.  A while back, Jonah Goldberg did just that, and Thomas Sowell did a review on Goldgerg’s book:

Fascism, initially recognized as a kindred ideology of the left, has since come down to us defined as being on “the right” — indeed, as representing the farthest right, supposedly further extensions of conservatism.

The next time you hear Leftists throwing the word “Fascist” about like a general epithet, and then hanging it around the necks of capitalists or Jeffersonian liberals, you can correct their rather silly (and I have to think willfully ignorant) error.

There is no Santa Claus

I’ve never had a big problem with automated traffic law enforcement as long as it was used only for enforcement of moving violations and not for general surveillance.

Now you can add another objection to my list of objections. From Dallas:

Citywide statistics obtained by NBC affiliate KXAS-TV found that red light cameras do reduce accidents. That is a good thing.

But they do it by reducing red light violations, by as much as 29 percent from month to month at particularly busy Dallas intersections. On the face of it, that, too, is a good thing — but not, necessarily, if you rely on traffic fines to make up a healthy chunk of your budget.

Dallas lawmakers originally estimated gross revenue of $15 million from their 62 cameras this fiscal year, which ends June 30. But City Manager Mary Suhm estimated last week that the city would fall short by more than $4 million.

So Friday, the city turned off about a quarter of the least profitable cameras, saying it couldn’t justify the cost of running them.

Yeah, I’m naive, I take things at face value. I actually believed traffic law enforcement was to reduce personal injury and property damage, not just a source of revenue. I don’t recall ever believing in Santa Claus and having the myth shattered, but this must be what it feels like.

Quote of the day–Richard Lamm

Christmas is the time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell government what they want and their kids pay for it.

Richard Lamm
[This quote reminds me of a book I just finished listening to: The Coming Economic Collapse: How You Can Thrive When Oil Costs $200 a Barrel by Stephen Leeb and Glen Strathy. It has some interesting stuff in it. He claims we are headed for some very bad times, “Unless government does something.” Of course this annoys me a great deal unless he means that government should stop meddling in the free market. Published in 2006 he correctly predicted $100/barrel oil when it was $60 and the DOE was predicting it would return to the $35 to $45 range. He said gold would skyrocket. He is saying that we could even see the collapse of civilization because of the shortage of energy and our large debt.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Milton Friedman

If you put the federal government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in 5 years there’d be a shortage of sand.

Milton Friedman

Quote of the day–Barry Goldwater

A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away.

Barry Goldwater

Wolf guarding the hen house

Grrrrr… Even if the ATF and police didn’t actually get the lawyer-client conversation tapes (I don’t trust them to tell us the truth about this), that they admit to getting a list of the times and duration of the calls is unacceptable to me. Even if I don’t have access to the actual content of your phone calls and email if I have all the other information the traffic analysis alone can reveal far more about you than you might want known.

More thoughts on the slaves being freed

The following is from a reader regarding my post Slaves are about to be freed. He reveals that he and his family are so far unarmed but strongly support the RKBA. He lives in the California which puts a severe chilling effect on actually possessing firearms.

From: Rob 
Sent: Wednesday, March 19, 2008 2:42 PM
To: Joe Huffman
Subject: Re: Your post: “Slaves are about to be freed “

 

Joe,

 

I was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

 

“I think we should start preparing to use a new weapon that we might well have in our arsenal by July. As with all new weapons we need to train with it and plan how to use it before we can use it to maximum effectiveness.”

 

I thought you were going to write about a newly informed populace and moreover, new shooters. 

 

The biggest thing we can have/build is numbers.  Politicians can read polls.  If we have the majority of folks behind us (as I think we do) we tend to win.  If we have repeated instances of the Kim du Toit happy dance for new shooters, then we have motivated people behind us. 

 

Numbers are what the Brady Bunch worked on for a long time, but they are in trouble because they are selling a negative – the momentum has shifted. 

 

The intermediate victory is that we have begun to sell gun ownership and carrying as a positive.  A place not to let up is the “Gun Free Zone” nonsense.  We need to make darned sure that private defensive use of firearms in such situations is responsible and underscored in the media as such.  The Brady Bunch has no answer for this.

 

People are the new weapon.  The most potent weapon is people who understand RKBA truth and wield it well – freed slaves, empowered private citizens.

 

I see the training as literal, for new shooters. (My little family – for example – will someday, God willing, be new shooters.  We are pro-gun and pointedly so, but not –yet- armed.)  The gun community needs to train train train,  Now is not a time for a blossoming of gun accidents because people do not know and strictly follow Cooper’s four rules.

 

When we add to our numbers (who this we unarmed white man?) we win.

 

When even those who do not choose to arm themselves are happy to allow us to do so, we triumph.

 

I think I hear the sound of triumph approaching just over the next hill.

 

Rob

All good points. I’m sure there are others that can be made. I just threw things together off the top of my head to get people started thinking. Please keep thinking and if you want it to have more visibility than a comment email it to me and I’ll probably post it.

Quote of the day–George Washington

I have heard the bullets whistle; and believe me, there is something charming in the sound.

George Washington
After returning from a battle during the Revolutionary War.
[For a general he was quite the bad-ass. He had horses shot out from under him. His coat had numerous bullet holes in it. His accomplishments as a young officer were rather daring as well. To say that Washington was “highly regarded” by his men and country would be a huge understatement. My school history books did not do him justice.–Joe]

Always Think Forfeiture

I already told you what TSA really means.

Now Jed spills the beans on what ATF really means and the U.S. Government backs him up on it.

Scary stuff.

CryptLight

Last night I wrote a simple encryption program. Basically it’s “Encryption for Dummies”. You can use it to encrypt text message such as email or even instant messages.

Here is the zip file: CryptLight_1_0_0_1.zip (225.56 KB)

Download it. Unzip it, read the ReadMe.htm file and you should know all you need to know about it. If it sounds like something you could use run Setup.exe and have fun.

As a test message use this with the passphrase of “Password” (without the quotes):

gmPtGYutvQCrqXMT++rFLwcN53qTuDpieDL/Z3svuIz4RnHNTCeJ+8aGC4Z2orZ9Zsen/rg7
8JG/Rm/cQ33D5bqSWqTXU4ctDCabZAKw2po=

Update: I forgot to mention, because of my exceedingly Microsoft centric view of the universe, this only works on Windows. I tested it on XP and 32 and 64-bit versions of Vista.

Update2: If you enter in corrupted cipher text and try to decrypt the program will crash. I have fixed it but haven’t released new version yet. I’ll wait for a few more days to get feedback and bug reports. Consider what you have as an Alpha release.

Contributions by everyone

The day before yesterday I wrote about others contributing to and being a part of history in the Heller case. Certainly the participants in that battle did some really heavy lifting and deserve credit for it. I’m also hearing some of them say encouraging words to the effect that they couldn’t have done it alone. That all the decades of activism on the part of the grass roots and enabled them attempt lopping off the head of the beast yesterday.

Listen to what Dave Kopel says.

Ashley Varner at NRA-ILA sent me this in an email after I told her to tend to important things and not to worry about answering my email right away:

I must kindly take issue with your last email. Don’t say you are unimportant — if I were to believe the Brady Campaign claims, we are all a part of the Triangle of Death and each of our different roles are important to the cause of pissing off anti-gunners, educating the mass of gun owners, inspiring others to join the fight and above all, preserving liberty for our future generations. 🙂

I have two “take aways” (Is that in common usage? Or is that just a Microsoft thing?) from this:

  1. The big hitters in our political game (a game of life and death!) are gracious.
  2. A contribution even at the very lowest levels make a difference so don’t think you can’t or don’t help by getting involved.

Slaves are about to be freed

I have been reading (and listening) to a lot of material over the last 24 hours. No one has said they think the bigots are going to win on the individual versus collective right issue.

Reading the websites and listening to the statements from the bigots I get the impression that they are trying to hold things together and not collapse into disarray:

The Brady Bunch:

“Today, the Justices of the Supreme Court thoroughly discussed the Second Amendment of the Constitution for the first time in nearly 70 years, in the District of Columbia v. Heller case.  Their probing questions, and the lawyers’ responses, highlighted the complex history and competing approaches to gun regulation in our country.  I am hopeful that their ruling will uphold the right of people in communities like the District to enact common sense gun measures they feel are needed to protect themselves and their families.

“One of the reasons we have weak or nearly non-existent gun laws today is because a lot of politicians, and many citizens, think the Second Amendment limits our ability to enact common sense gun restrictions. Today’s arguments, however, demonstrated broad support from all sides for responsible regulations concerning guns. 

“Think how much safer we all would be if we made it harder for dangerous people to get dangerous weapons nationwide, not just in a few areas.”

The Gun Guys:

The VPC:

While cautioning that, as Barb and I say in cases like this, “I’ll believe it when the check clears the bank”, I think we should start preparing to use a new weapon that we might well have in our arsenal by July. As with all new weapons we need to train with it and plan how to use it before we can use it to maximum effectiveness.

The biggest issue I see is that we are, in a lot of ways, like slaves that have never known freedom. We are about to be freed from a terrible yoke and we have to learn how to use our new freedom on several different levels. If we don’t we will mess up and we will still be “gun n***ers“, freed, but still “gun n***ers” and subject to all the Jim Crow laws the bigots can muster.

  • Most importantly we must be responsible with our new tool. Challenging restrictions on RPGs, tanks, artillery, and even machine guns needs to be off the table. Just tell people, “That’s not at issue here.” When they insist, tell them there is no point in talking about it because it’s not at issue.
  • We need to just hammer the bigots who for decades have claimed it was a “collective right”. Anytime one of them says anything about gun control remind the world this is the same guy that lied to everyone about what the Second Amendment really means. Capture their quotes now before they try to rewrite history. Make them eat those words every time they open their mouth.
  • The bigots lied before and they are probably lying again. Make them completely justify every word and nuance. Put them and their organizations under the strictest scrutiny we can possibly deliver.
  • Remind the world the CCRKBA/GOA/JPFO/NRA/SAF/etc. was right. These are the people that have been defending inalienable civil rights and have been vilified by lying bigots all these years.
  • Attack, attack, attack. You don’t win a war by playing nothing but defense. We must choose the battles, the skirmishes, and the conflicts.
  • 18 USC 241 and 242. It is a right. Those that oppose it are criminals. Tell your prosecutors, tell your representatives, tell the media, tell it to the bigots faces.
  • We must politically destroy the opposition. If nothing else I expect can financially destroy the organizations. We can probably turn a Heller victory in at least a moderate financial win for the pro gun side and even though the bigots might be able to get a short term financial boost I expect this ruling will impair their ability to raise funds long term. Their supporters will realize they have been lied to and it won’t sit well that they have been supporting a lie.
  • Gun owners have been and are victims. Yeah, I know, it doesn’t feel right to portray ourselves that way, but it’s a powerful tool and it’s true.

That’s just what I can come up with off the top of my head. Think about it and try to realize that we have a completely new game with brand new rules here. Yes, technically the rules haven’t changed they are just being enforced for the first time in, well, forever. But the things we can do now that we have rule book the other side is forced to accept changes the picture. Instead of arguing about the rule book we can now play the game.

Quote of the day–Stefan Bijan Tahmassebi

Many of the proponents of gun control have commented on the need to restrict other constitutionally guaranteed rights in order to enforce gun control or prohibition laws. A federal appellate judge urged the abandonment of the exclusionary rule in order to better enforce gun control laws. Malcolm Wilkey, Why Suppress Valid Evidence?, Wall Street J., Oct. 7, 1977 at 14. A police inspector called for a “reinterpretation” of the Fourth Amendment to allow police to assault strategically located streets, round up pedestrians en masse, and herd them through portable, airport-type gun detection machines. Detroit Free Press, Jan. 26, 1977, at 4. Prominent gun control advocates have flatly stated that “there can be no right to privacy in regard to armament,” Norville Morris and Gordon Hawkins, The Honest Politician’s Guide to Crime Control (1970).

Stefan Bijan Tahmassebi
February 2008
Brief of Amicus Curiae Congress of Racial Equality in Support of Respondent
[Only three more days until oral arguments.

These aren’t the only outrages documented in the brief. Most of the others were familiar to me such as the laws enacted and enforced explicitly for the purposes of suppressing Italians (the Sullivan Act), blacks, and other minorities and enabling the Klan and other bigots.

To those that would say gun control doesn’t mean encroaching on other guaranteed rights please remind them of the exceptions carved out of the Bill of Rights for the “wars” on drugs and terror.–Joe]

So far left they are right?

A friend sent me this link to a video (about 45 minutes long). The synopsis is:

Naomi Wolf on

It not only can happen here, it is happening here.

Mussolini created the blueprint (with inspiration from Lenin), Hitler elaborated on it, Stalin studied Hitler…

Here’s how it works (notice how many Bush & Co. is using now.):

1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy
2. Create a gulag
3. Develop a thug caste
4. Set up an internal surveillance system
5. Harass citizens’ groups
6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release
7. Target key individuals
8. Control the press
9. Dissent equals treason
10. Suspend the rule of law

Wolf’s conclusion? Impeachment of Bush and Cheney is not enough. Prosecuting (and jailing) them for crimes committed is the only rational solution.

I wouldn’t normally think my readers would be interested in this kind of stuff but something came up in this video that surprised me. She mentioned the 2nd Amendment. Each time she immediately went on to something else. She just used the words, “Second Amendment” then, basically, changed the subject.

Are the extreme left wing people (the organization who owns website for this video and many others with a similar theme is based in San Fransisco) thinking it’s time to consider the 2nd Amendment as an individual right?