Those who made and endorsed our Constitution knew man’s nature, and it is to their ideas, rather than to the temptations of utopia, that we must ask that our judges adhere.
Robert Bork
The Tempting of America
Category Archives: Freedom
Jason updates
All updates on Jason are on this blog: http://ltjason.blogspot.com.
Walter Gaya in the news
Walter Gaya was one of the Boomershoot Precision Rifle Clinic Instructors in 2004. His best friend Adam, also a Boomershoot instructor, was killed last February in Iraq. Walter was seriously injured in July. Now Walter is in the news again.
- Mindless Bit Spew Walter gets the run-around
- Smallest Minority Blogswarm!
- Sondra K a mission
- AR-15
As Barb said, “That stinks. That’s just so wrong.”
Please do what you can.
Update: The news is that things seem to be under control now. Thanks everyone.
Quote of the day–Justice Robert H. Jackson
It is not the function of our government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.
Quote of the day–Tench Coxe
Who are the militia? Are they not ourselves? Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man against his own bosom? Congress shall have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birth-right of an American ….The unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or the state governments, but where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the People.
Tench Coxe
Pennsylvania Gazette
Feb. 20, 1788.
Proof of derangement
I’ve been trying to reverse the situation in my mind and look at it from all the different angles I can. I still just can’t imagine doing this sort of thing myself in any sort of situation. These nutcases are protesting against the war on terrorists at Walter Reed hospital:
The Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., the current home of hundreds of wounded veterans from the war in Iraq, has been the target of weekly anti-war demonstrations since March. The protesters hold signs that read “Maimed for a Lie” and “Enlist here to die for Halliburton.”
The anti-war demonstrators, who obtain their protest permits from the Washington, D.C., police department, position themselves directly in front of the main entrance to the Army Medical Center, which is located in northwest D.C., about five miles from the White House.
Among the props used by the protesters are mock caskets, lined up on the sidewalk to represent the death toll in Iraq.
I could be walking past them soon. I’ll maintain my composure but I’ll be steaming inside.
Passports to get RFID chip implants
Here is some disturbing news:
All U.S. passports will be implanted with remotely readable computer chips starting in October 2006, the Bush administration has announced.
Sweeping new State Department regulations issued Tuesday say that passports issued after that time will have tiny radio frequency ID (RFID) chips that can transmit personal information including the name, nationality, sex, date of birth, place of birth and digitized photograph of the passport holder. Eventually, the government contemplates adding additional digitized data such as “fingerprints or iris scans.”
Over the last year, opposition to the idea of implanting RFID chips in passports has grown amidst worries that identity thieves could snatch personal information out of the air simply by aiming a high-powered antenna at a person or a vehicle carrying a passport. Out of the 2,335 comments on the plan that were received by the State Department this year, 98.5 percent were negative. The objections mostly focused on security and privacy concerns.
…
In regulations published Tuesday, the State Department claims it has addressed privacy concerns. The chipped passports “will not permit ‘tracking’ of individuals,” the department said. “It will only permit governmental authorities to know that an individual has arrived at a port of entry–which governmental authorities already know from presentation of non-electronic passports–with greater assurance that the person who presents the passport is the legitimate holder of the passport.”
To address Americans’ concerns about ID theft, the Bush administration said the new passports will be outfitted with “antiskimming material” in the front cover to “mitigate” the threat of the information being surreptitiously scanned from afar. It’s not clear, though, how well the technique will work against high-powered readers that have been demonstrated to read RFID chips from about 160 feet away.
Sure, shielding the passports is a good idea. If they weren’t made with that built-in the private market would have supplied them.
The article goes on to discuss some concerns about the security of the encryption and some legal issues but misses one of my big concerns. The government tries to reassure us that everything is going to be okay because they are making efforts to make sure only they will be able to read the information. And that they will only read the information at ports of entry. It’s government that is the biggest threat to the individual person. It’s government abuse that I’m worried about. This technology makes it practical for automated reading, recording, and tracking of the passports. When the passports were nothing but paper it took a human time to retrieve the information and verify it’s validity. It simply wasn’t practical to put a human at the entrance to every government building, every boarding gate for planes and trains, and monitor every banking transaction. This technology changes that. And it is likely to creep into more and more of our lives. Then there will be little reason to not require the same technology on whatever government mandated ID U.S. citizens will have. The temptation will be just too great.
And of course mandated ID and/or tracking of people violates my Jews in the Attic Test.
Jason Update 10/27/2005
From his dad:
Sent: Sunday, October 23, 2005 3:45 PM
Athough it has been a bit of tough weekend, it ends on an up-note. Jason is in his room with Jodi and Dan watching a Bears game (Bears were winning the last time I checked). This afternoon is probably the best he has felt for the last several days and certainly his ability to communicate has greatly improved this afternoon. The swelling in his face has gone down enough so he can now see at of this right eye which is fantastic news.
Tomorrow Jason is schedule for two sets of surgery. The first is a cleaning and treatment of the Buddock, and the second is for this arms. They may close his right arm and it looks like the elbow will be saved. Second, they will place the pins in the left arm.
On Tuesday, they will do the face reconstruction. The surgeon feels like a good job will be done.
There have been numerous calls and the following is, in some cases, third hand.
The hospital would like a friend or family member with Jason 24/7. Currently there isn’t enough people in the area to do that. Barb and I will probably be going back to spend a few days (Barb perhaps a week or more). Our daughter Kim may spend even more time there. Barb’s sister Susan will probably spend some time there too.
Jason’s eyes are still a concern. The bones around his eyes are broken and more reconstruction is needed. He did watch a football game over the weekend with a friend of his. He has nightmares and gives orders to his men in his sleep. He “sees” Star Wars characters sometimes too.
Nukes for Iran?
If anyone suggests that Iran has just as much right to have nuclear weapons as any other country then point this out to them:
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has openly called for Israel to be wiped off the map.
“The establishment of the Zionist regime was a move by the world oppressor against the Islamic world,” the president told a conference in Tehran on Wednesday, entitled The World without Zionism.
“The skirmishes in the occupied land are part of a war of destiny. The outcome of hundreds of years of war will be defined in Palestinian land,” he said.
“As the Imam said, Israel must be wiped off the map,” said Ahmadinejad, referring to Iran’s revolutionary leader Ayat Allah Khomeini.
His comments were the first time in years that such a high-ranking Iranian official has called for Israel’s eradication, even though such slogans are still regularly used at government
rallies.…
Ahmadinejad, a veteran of Iran’s hardline Revolutionary Guards, took office in August after scoring a landslide win in a June presidential election.
His tone represents a major change from that of former president Mohammad Khatami, whose favoured topic was “dialogue among civilisations” and who led an effort to improve Iran’s relations with the West.
Hitler wrote about his plans for the Jews. Ahmadinejad is telling us what his plans are. Connect the dots. If you have a better solution than destroying the extremist Islamic culture then let’s hear it. Until then we need to offer discount prices on missiles and warplanes to Israel and give booze and porn to Arab Muslims.
ACLU and the Second Amendment
Once upon a time, long, long ago (over 20 years) I had a membership with the ACLU for one year. They still send me letters telling me the sky is falling and I need to send them more money. For at least the last ten years when I get one of those letters I write them a short note saying when they support the Second Amendment as an individual right I will immediately send them a check for $200.00 but until then they will get nothing from me. I use their postage paid return envelope and send it back to them. They haven’t changed their way yet and I’m not holding my breath.
To be fair, they have been on the same side as pro-gun people on some issues. And I have been told by one very high ranking pro-gun activist that at least one ACLU lobbyist carried a handgun in her purse illegally while on the job because it was such a dangerous town. Just because the top leadership of the ACLU has made a decision not to support the Second Amendment doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of them on our side. My guess is that a big part of the equation is that certain large donors to the ACLU are very anti-gun and being a pro-gun organization would cost them too much money.
See also my previous posts on this topic:
Advice for Democrats
I wonder if the ACLU will be interested
ACLU responds
PNNL.info site update or “The law doesn’t apply to us”
I updated my web site on the bigotry at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
The changes were about the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request I mentioned in this post. PNNL responded this week saying:
PNNL completed a diligent, thorough search for responsive documents and was unable to find identify or locate any existing records consistent with your request.
As of May of this year those “records” (computer programs actually) did exist. I created a lot of them. My co-workers used that code (computer program code) in other projects. Those computer programs were delivered to numerous customers. If what they just told me was true then they would have had to rewritten numerous computer programs, tested them, updated all their customers with the new versions, ensured those customers deleted all the old copies, and deleted large portions of their source control archives–all within two months. Some customers were delivered source code (I did training for one customer on it), those customers would have had to also rewritten their derived works, tested the resultant programs, and deleted their source control archives. If they were able to do that then which government contract did they charge those efforts to? I don’t believe they did any of that. I believe PNNL chose to defy FOIA.
Barb said (paraphrasing), “What did you expect? They don’t care what the law is. They don’t have to follow the rules.” Of course in the practical sense that is true even if technically they do have to follow the law. I had two different lawyers tell me it looked to them that PNNL employees had committed a felony in the actions they took against me. Those people, as near as I can determine, still work there.
Quote of the day–Dwight David Eisenhower
Public opinion wins wars.
Dwight David Eisenhower
1890-1969
General
34th President of the United States
[This is particular true in the war we are fighting against the anti-freedom bigots on the repressive gun laws in this country. — Joe]
Another blog I’m posting on
Yesterday I was invited to be a guest blogger on Second Amendment matters at Conservative Thinking. With their permission I have decided to not post anything on their blog that I don’t post here first. As I pointed out in my introduction I don’t consider myself a “conservative” but on the Second Amendment there isn’t likely to be much divergence. They do have numerous other bloggers that have very worthwhile postings so please do check them out. I particularly liked these posts:
Quote of the day–Charles Waddell Chesnutt
Those who set in motion the forces of evil cannot always control them afterwards.
Charles Waddell Chesnutt
The Marrow of Tradition
1901
[Gun control and national ID cards are prime examples. — Joe]
The air is out of the gun control balloon
The house passed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms today. As a libertarian and a 2nd Amendment purist (“What part of shall not be infringed don’t you understand?”) I’m opposed to the law. It simply shouldn’t be necessary. These cases should be thrown out of court after the first 30 minutes. As a pragmatist I support it because things are not working as they should and we apparently need to engage in some dirty fighting rather than remain pure. As Joe Waldron (see also his comments in this news release) recently stated in an email to the WA-CCW Yahoo group:
We’re giving up required provision of a $5 locking device (nothing says you have to use them, nor does it say you can’t bring your own device from your previous gun purchase; you give the lock to the dealer, he gives it back to you with the gun) for the most significant tort reform bill in recent history, a bill that will protect gun manufacturers, distributors and dealers from nuisance lawsuits that are killing the industry. These suits are filed with almost no chance of succeeding, but cost the industry millions annually to defend.
The alternative is to hold out for a “pure” bill… and watch it die again this year. And the manufacturers/distributors/dealers will continue to shell out $$$ in legal costs.
It looks like the bill went 90% our way, 10% the other way. Those are pretty good odds/returns to me.
I’m all for winning and getting a little bit dirty rather than losing and staying clean. Yes, it might have some unintended consequences with the trigger lock and armor piercing ammo provisions in it. More on that later. But more important is the favorable impact it has both practically and politically. As reported by Reuters:
Opponents said they would oppose it in the courts, arguing it violated the U.S. Constitution.
But Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association said he believed the bill’s passage would mark a big setback for gun control advocates.
“I think the air is out of the gun control balloon, and I think what popped the balloon is politics and elections,” he said. He predicted that several dozen Democrats would join most Republicans in backing the legislation.
I wouldn’t say “popped”. It’s been leaking out for a couple years now. It’s getting more and more obvious to everyone that the anti-gun crowd is suffering a meltdown. Of course they have mental problems to support anti-freedom legislation to begin with but can be dealt with another day. But because the people at large, many of the politicians, and to some extent the mainstream media are recognizing how really whacked out they are we have made huge gains. Politically we are no longer on the defensive at the Federal level and in most states. We need to build and maintain momentum against these nut cases. I’ve posted on this before:
And just yesterday John Stossel demonstrated they are out of touch with reality quite well in a column on Townhall.com:
What if it were legal in America for adults to carry concealed weapons? I put that question to gun-control advocate Rev. Al Sharpton. His eyes opened wide, and he said, “We’d be living in a state of terror!”
In fact, it was a trick question. Most states now have “right to carry” laws. And their people are not living in a state of terror. Not one of those states reported an upsurge in crime.
But back to the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms bill. It will be signed by President Bush and it will become law within a few days or weeks. It will save the firearms industry millions of dollars each year. It might even save your local gun range money in reduced insurance costs. That money will be in your pocket (you do buy guns and ammo and use them, right?).
There are two downsides of the proposed law; 1) The trigger-lock requirement the Gun Owners of America have been harping on and 2) the armor piercing ammo portion of the law. The GOA had this to say in a recent pre-written email they wanted people to send to their representatives:
S. 397 takes us dangerously close to mandatory trigger locks, and mandatory trigger locks kill. Just ask Mary Carpenter, who has had to live with the fact that two of her grandchildren were killed in 2000, because no one in the house could disengage the gun locking device that kept the family from protecting themselves against a pitchfork wielding thug.
Yes. Mandatory trigger locks are a bad thing. I have a t-shirt I wear that says Trigger Locks–Rapist Approved (they are closing this item out and only have a few shirts left so buy one now!) but every new gun I have purchased over the counter, as opposed to special ordered, had a locking device with it anyway. The impact of this law is very nearly zero in cost and behavior for everyone.
The armor piercing ammo portion of the law does not change the definition of the armor piercing ammo which was my big worry. It’s still:
(A) The term “ammunition” means ammunition or cartridge cases, primers, bullets, or propellent powder designed for use in any firearm.
(B) The term “armor piercing ammunition” means—
(i) a projectile or projectile core which may be used in a handgun and which is constructed entirely (excluding the presence of traces of other substances) from one or a combination of tungsten alloys, steel, iron, brass, bronze, beryllium copper, or depleted uranium; or
(ii) a full jacketed projectile larger than .22 caliber designed and intended for use in a handgun and whose jacket has a weight of more than 25 percent of the total weight of the projectile.(C) The term “armor piercing ammunition” does not include shotgun shot required by Federal or State environmental or game regulations for hunting purposes, a frangible projectile designed for target shooting, a projectile which the Attorney General finds is primarily intended to be used for sporting purposes, or any other projectile or projectile core which the Attorney General finds is intended to be used for industrial purposes, including a charge used in an oil and gas well perforating device.
What it does do is slightly reword some existing law and adds penalties for committing a violent crime with AP ammo. The rewording has no legal impact as near as I can tell (I’m not a lawyer if this your life at stake talk to a lawyer). This:
(7) for any person to manufacture or import armor piercing ammunition, except that this paragraph shall not apply to—
(A) the manufacture or importation of such ammunition for the use of the United States or any department or agency thereof or any State or any department, agency, or political subdivision thereof;
(B) the manufacture of such ammunition for the purpose of exportation; and
(C) any manufacture or importation for the purposes of testing or experimentation authorized by the Attorney General;(8) for any manufacturer or importer to sell or deliver armor piercing ammunition, except that this paragraph shall not apply to—
(A) the sale or delivery by a manufacturer or importer of such ammunition for use of the United States or any department or agency thereof or any State or any department, agency, or political subdivision thereof;
(B) the sale or delivery by a manufacturer or importer of such ammunition for the purpose of exportation;
(C) the sale or delivery by a manufacturer or importer of such ammunition for the purposes of testing or experimenting authorized by the Attorney General;
Becomes:
(7) for any person to manufacture or import armor piercing ammunition, unless–
(A) the manufacture of such ammunition is for the use of the United States, any department or agency of the United States, any State, or any department, agency, or political subdivision of a State;
(B) the manufacture of such ammunition is for the purpose of exportation; or
(C) the manufacture or importation of such ammunition is for the purpose of testing or experimentation and has been authorized by the Attorney General;(8) for any manufacturer or importer to sell or deliver armor piercing ammunition, unless such sale or delivery–
(A) is for the use of the United States, any department or agency of the United States, any State, or any department, agency, or political subdivision of a State;
(B) is for the purpose of exportation; or
(C) is for the purpose of testing or experimentation and has been authorized by the Attorney General;
So what is happening, in Joe’s model of the political world, is that the good guys are throwing a couple bones to the politicians that need to appease some anti-freedom people “back home”. Those politicians can say, “I voted for the safety of our children by mandating trigger locks and against armor piercing ammo.” It’s just a couple of old dried bones. Let them have their bones until after the next election. We get some real meat out of this law.
Quote of the day–Harry S Truman
At the present moment in world history nearly every nation must choose between alternative ways of life. The choice is too often not a free one.
One way of life is based upon the will of the majority, and is distinguished by free institutions, representative government, free elections, guarantees of individual liberty, freedom of speech and religion, and freedom from political oppression.
The second way of life is based upon the will of the minority forcibly imposed upon the majority. It relies upon terror and oppression, a controlled press and radio, fixed elections, and the suppression of personal freedoms.
I believe that it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.
I believe that we must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way.
Harry S Truman
Message to Congress
Later known as Truman Doctrine
March 12, 1947
Hint to criminals using computers
Hint to criminals using computers–don’t. The following is just the tip of the iceburg. From Bruce Schneier:
Many color laser printers embed secret information in every page they print, basically to identify you by. Here, the EFF has cracked the code of the Xerox DocuColor series of printers.
Update: For those of you who didn’t really get what I was hinting on the first pass here it is spelled out for you:
Schoen said that the existence of the encoded information could be a threat to people who live in repressive governments or those who have a legitimate need for privacy. It reminds him, he said, of a program the Soviet Union once had in place to record sample typewriter printouts in hopes of tracking the origins of underground, self-published literature.
Jason Update 10/19/2005
From his Dad:
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Jason’s wounds were cleaned in preparation for his trip. According to the Doctor his flesh looks healthy.
He arrived in the U.S. about 7:00 PM. Dan was able to see him. Dan said that he did not look as bad as he expected. He is stable and heavily sedated.
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
I just talk with Jason’s nurse. She said that he is stable and able to follow simple commands. He seems to be aware of his surrounding. Jodi should arrive in D.C. this morning. The Army is arranging for Katy, Lisa and my flights out. I should fly out this afternoon. Jason will go into surgery today to close his wounds.
I may have trouble communicating regularly once I leave for D.C.
Thank you all for nice emails and phone call. We appreciate your support.
Quote of the day–Eric Hoffer
Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life. Thus people haunted by the purposelessness of their lives try to find a new content not only by dedicating themselves to a holy cause but also by nursing a fanatical grievance. A mass movement offers them unlimited opportunities for both.
Eric Hoffer
Section 75, The True Believer
Ayn Rand quotes
Analog Kid at Random Nuclear Strikes has been posting some outstanding quotes from Ayn Rand’s book Man’s Rights. I don’t have this book. I should get it. Read the quotes and see what you think:
- Criminals are a small minority
- If one wishes to advocate a free society
- Code of ethics
- The subordination of society
- A “Right” is a moral principle
Update: As Analog Kid points out in the comments section–it’s not a book. It’s an essary in one of her books. Also he has posted another Ayn Rand quote.