Category Archives: Politics

Barack Flip-Flop Obama on guns

Posted on by

I wasn’t going to do this because I was very busy when the NRA offered me another wheelbarrow full of cash. But Sebastian has a good point. I’ll add a link from some of my other websites soon.

Barack Obama on guns. It’s not a pretty picture for gun owners. And of course he claims he supports the Second Amendment. But he voted and campaigned against gun ownership before he was for it then he whined about people clinging to their guns. And don’t forget that he thinks cities and communities should be able to make their own gun laws that meet their circumstances and needs. That concept has just as much merit now as it did decades ago.

It’s snowing

Posted on by

Snoqualmie Pass is getting snow today. Probably not so much that I can’t make it home on Friday but of interest because its so unusual for this time of year. It is snowing in Moscow Idaho (my home) and the Boomershoot site too. Maybe I should schedule Boomershoot 2009 for July 4th so the snow will be light enough the roads will be plowed and people can make it without snowmobiles.

Crank up those coal fired power plants and rev the engines in your trucks while waiting at traffic lights–we need to head off the next ice age.

Either Al Gore has crap for brains and/or his motivation is solely for political gain.

Update: Daughter Kim says not to blame Al Gore:

From: Kimberly
Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 11:10 AM
To: Barbara Scott; James Huffman-Scott; Joe Huffman; Xenia Joy

I apologize for the snow it was my fault I cut the dogs hair yesterday

Update2: From my weather advisory email alert:

OROFINO/GRANGEVILLE REGION-
135 PM PDT TUE JUN 10 2008

…SNOW ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 8 PM THIS EVENING TO 8 AM PDT WEDNESDAY ABOVE 3500 FEET…

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN MISSOULA HAS ISSUED A SNOW ADVISORY ABOVE 3500 FEET…WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 8 PM THIS EVENING TO 8 AM PDT WEDNESDAY.

TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 1 TO 3 INCHES ARE EXPECTED TONIGHT THROUGH EARLY WEDNESDAY MORNING ABOVE 4000 FEET AND OVER THE WHITE BIRD GRADE ON HIGHWAY 95. ELEVATIONS DOWN TO 3500 FEET…INCLUDING THE CITY OF GRANGEVILLE…CAN EXPECT TO SEE ACCUMULATIONS UP TO AN INCH.

A SNOW ADVISORY MEANS THAT PERIODS OF SNOW WILL CAUSE PRIMARILY TRAVEL DIFFICULTIES. BE PREPARED FOR SNOW COVERED ROADS AND LIMITED VISIBILITIES…AND USE CAUTION WHILE DRIVING.

This could mean certain types of crops in the area will be killed by the cold.

Something the global warming doomsday people ignore is that, typically, farm yields are better with abnormally warm weather than abnormally cold weather. Hence to be on the safe side of things we should try to push things in the direction of excess heating rather than risk excess cooling.

Neglegent Discharge

Posted on by

I wrote this as a comment on thehighroad.org but figured it should have its own post.  Someone started a thread about NDs at gun shows (smells like an anti to me, akin to the standard MSM interview wherein the conservative guest is asked, “What’s the dumbest thing you’ve ever done?”)  Here’s my response:

I used to exhibit at gun shows. I always felt as safe at a gun show as anywhere else.  Much safer than some places I’ve been.  NDs at shows were always something you heard about, but never witnessed, kind of like Sasquatch and space aliens.

If you ever find yourself afraid for your life, running into a gun show would be a good choice if available.

If you’re worried about safety, don’t drive to a gun show though– you’re vastly more likely to be injured or killed during the drive to and from the gun show than while you’re there.  I suspect this would be true even if 3/4 of the people at the gun show were drunk and all the people on the roads that day were sober.

On that note; I go to my kid’s school football games (you know where this is going, right?) and at each and every game there is an ambulance, complete with paramedic crew, on location all during the game.

Ever seen an ambulance and crew on standby at a gun show? How about at a shooting match, where people are, you know, actually loading and firing guns?

Me neither.

Do NDs happen? Yes. Very, very rarely. Usually, they result in no injuries or serious property damage. Do people get killed falling down in their own homes?  Yes, and it is a more common occurrence.

Carry on.

When I was taking my NRA instructor courses last fall, a couple of the teachers gave several accounts of antis going to gun shows or gun classes and leaving loaded cartridges in places they don’t belong, trying to create an incident.  I have no doubt that this can happen– it could be seen as a variation on Munchausen’s Syndrome by Proxy, or whatever you call it when someone starts a building on fire and then hangs around to watch the spectacle.  It also demonstrates that other people’s safety is often the last thing on the mind of the anti gun bigot.

Decisions, decisions

Posted on by

Tomorrow ATF inspector Sue will show up at my house and we will go for a little ride into the country. My ATF type 20 license to manufacture high explosives is up for renewal and they need to inspect my storage facility before they renew it.

As I was going through my closet this morning I wondered what I should wear tomorrow. I considered my Boomershoot t-shirt with this image:

But that’s a little tame. I wanted something a little more edgy for the occasion.

For about a half second I considered this one from JPFO (they no longer sell it so I’m saving mine for special occasions):

Elian’s story can be found here and occurred during those dark days while Janet Reno (The Butcher of Waco) was still in power.

I decided that shirt was a little too over the top even for me when meeting with someone from the ATF–in particular a meeting with Sue. Sue is very nice, I had lunch with her a few years ago and then we had a nice talk as we drove out to the Boomershoot site. She was helpful with getting my explosives storage facility into compliance with the government regulations. A couple years later I saw something posted on a website that could have been a threat toward her. I sent an email to her with the link and although Sue never responded alternate sources indicated I was the first one to tell her about it and everyone took it serious enough to put extra effort into her safety.

I decided it would be very rude and completely uncalled for me to wear the above shirt.

So… what shirt to wear tomorrow. I finally decided on Celebrate Diversity:

I’ll let you know how it goes after I drive back to my bunker in the Seattle area tomorrow night.

All you had to do was ask

Posted on by

The other day Jed said, “I’d like to raid Joe’s quotations database.”

I just got around to extracting the politics related stuff. There is lots of personal stuff in the master collection that some people would rather I didn’t make public. The politics related things are here. It includes things that aren’t really quotes such as political jokes. And because I have traded collections with other people some of the stuff does not necessarily represent my political leanings.

Quote of the day–John F. Kennedy

Posted on by

Washington [D.C.] is a city of Southern efficiency and Northern charm.

John F. Kennedy
[And the brilliance of a black hole*, the integrity of a sociopath, and the morals of an alley cat.–Joe]

* Yes, I’m aware of Hawking Radiation and speculation about it’s existence is on par with my observations of intelligence in D.C.

Mascot Politics

Posted on by

Thomas Sowell hits another one out of the park.  I’d heard about his recent article from R. Limbaugh. Here’s a snippet:

For people on the left, however, blacks are trophies or mascots, and must therefore be put on display. Nowhere is that more true than in politics. Nor do conservatives who were in the civil rights marches in the South, back when that was dangerous, make that a big deal.

The problem with being a mascot is that you are a symbol of someone else’s significance or virtue. The actual well-being of a mascot is not the point.

Read the whole piece here.

Quote of the day–Wayne LaPierre

Posted on by

Senator McCain is the only one in the race that has a pro-gun record of any kind. I think the mouthing of a pro-Second Amendment stance by Senators Clinton and Obama and pandering to gun owners is an embarrassment and I don’t believe it will work.

Wayne LaPierre
May 13, 2008
Q & A with the NRA’s executive vice president–Gun-rights lobby to meet in Louisville this week
[The problem is that it doesn’t have to work with all gun owners. It just has to work with enough gun owners to win the election.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Thomas Jefferson

Posted on by

I sincerely believe . . . that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.

Thomas Jefferson
Letter May 28, 1816 to senator John Taylor
[I haven’t investigated enough to say for certain but I suspect the “spending money to paid by posterity” is a significant part of why the politicians don’t do anything about illegal immigration. A rapidly expanding tax base (via both individual and corporate taxes enabled by cheap labor) is one way they can avoid a financial collapse. Hence Jefferson’s observation may be true in the general case but avoidable in some cases if the government is “creative” in the financing. But it may be that the dangers of massive illegal immigration are just as harmful as a standing army or a large debt.–Joe]

She is thinking about it

Posted on by

I’ve been quietly telling people that I wouldn’t be surprised if Hillary arranges for Obama to be “physically unable to accept the nomination”. Everything I have read about her indicates she is that evil.

I therefore am not at all surprised she said this:

“My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don’t understand it,” she said.

Update: I was listening to some talk radio station and a caller suggested instead of the Bobby Kennedy assassination example she should have used the example of Vince Foster being found dead in a park. For some of you that might not “get it” the predominate conspiracy theory surrounding Foster’s death is that Hillary arranged his “suicide”.

It has also been suggested that Hillary said what she said as a message to her more fanatical supporters of something they could do to ensure she gets the nomination.

CCRKBA News Release

Posted on by

I can’t find an online version to link to so I’m just posting the email version I received from the Citizens Committe for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. The short version is what Uncle said, “Ald. Richard Mell…like you and me only better.”

CCRKBA SAYS CHICAGO ALDERMAN SHOULD SUFFER LIKE OTHER GUN OWNERS

BELLEVUE, WA – Chicago Alderman Richard Mell ought to be prosecuted like any other negligent gun owner for failing to re-register his firearms under an ordinance he helped pass, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

“I don’t care if anti-gun Mayor Richard Daley supports giving Mell a break, and it doesn’t matter that Mell is the father-in-law of Gov. Rod Blagojevich,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “For years, the draconian ordinance supported by Mell and enforced by Daley has terrorized Chicago gun owners. It’s time for Mell to face his own music, and it’s time for Daley to just shut up.”

Mell has proposed an amendment to the existing law that would allow gun registration to re-open for a month, giving him amnesty. Mell and Daley are claiming that this is for other gun owners in the city as well who may have let their registrations lapse.

“For years, the Daley Administration has engaged in goon squad demagoguery against gun owners,” Gottlieb observed, “but now all of a sudden, just because Alderman Mell finds himself on the wrong side of a law he supported, he and Daley want to do Chicago gun owners a favor. This magnanimity is a flimsy sham, and law-abiding firearm owners all over Illinois should be outraged.

“It is equally outrageous that Mell is blaming this lapse on an aide,” he added. “How stupid is that? Mell knows that gun owners are personally responsible for re-registering their firearms, and over the years, the city has shown no mercy for others who have failed to comply with the law. This guy shouldn’t be on the city council, he ought to be in an unemployment line, and even more than that, he ought to be facing charges in court for possession of unregistered guns inside the city.

“The sad fact is,” Gottlieb concluded, “that this proposed amnesty amendment would never be on the table if it weren’t designed specifically to help Alderman Mell. That anyone else might benefit is an accident, and both Mell and Daley know it. Other gun owners should be allowed to re-register, but Mell should lose on this sweetheart deal. Perhaps then he will fully understand just how insidious Chicago’s gun laws really are, and he will lead the fight to abolish them.”

GRPC registration is open

Posted on by

Today I received notice from the Second Amendment Foundation that registration is now open for the Gun Rights Policy Conference September 26, 27, and 28th.

I have attended GRPC twice before and was very impressed. If you are into the political/academic side of the 2nd Amendment then you will benefit a great deal from attending.

Quote of the day–Glenn Beck

Posted on by

Before I pay over $10 for a gallon of gas I will drill through a polar bears head. — I would feel bad. But I would do it.

Glenn Beck
NRA Annual Convention
Keynote speech
May 17, 2008
[He also pointed out that polar bears have been dramatically increasing in numbers recently. I think he should have said “hugger” instead of “head”, but that’s just me.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Glenn Beck

Posted on by

We like lawyers, crooks, and crack dealers better than Washington!

Glenn Beck
NRA Annual Convention
Keynote speech
May 17, 2008
[After pointing out the President and Congress have approval ratings that are some of the lowest ever.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Glenn Beck

Posted on by

It comes down to Larry, Curly, and Moe?

Glenn Beck
NRA Annual Convention
Keynote speech
May 17, 2008
[He was referring to the remaining three viable candidates for president in 2008.

He showed us his cummerbund decorated with a skull and crossbones, said he was going plunder, rape, and pillage this evening. He did not disappoint.

After McCain had given a speech here the previous day with lots of favorable things said by the NRA. The Three Stooges reference above was just one of many negatives toward the Republican candidate. Across the table from me Bitter Bitch covered her mouth with her hands and her eyes bugged out as Beck ragged on McCain as well as the Democrats who “sold their soul to Karl Marx”.

I have more great quotes from Beck (and some pictures) but right now I have to get ready for dinner and then prepare for a 7:00 AM flight tomorrow.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Kevin Baker

Posted on by

And now we’re at a point, politically, where there are three candidates running who have a realistic shot at the Presidency, and I wouldn’t urinate on any of them if their hair was on fire.

Where the hell is the space colony they promised me when I was a child, watching men leave bootprints and tire tracks in the lunar dust? Where is my new frontier, my place to go to so that I may live free?

Kevin Baker
That’s 35 in Dog Years
[That’s me on a “down” day.–Joe]

What Gun Laws Would You Accept?

Posted on by

This is a post I made on thehighroad.org in response to the same question:

No victim, no crime.

The tool does not matter. For those who think the tool does matter, please read on:

My sister and her three year old daughter were stabbed and strangled to death back in 1977 in their own home.

The weapons were a kitchen knife and a shoestring.

Are you seriously going to argue that since no gun was used, this was somehow less of a crime than it would have been if a gun had been used?

Upon reading of this crime, how many of you thought, “Oh, thank goodness he didn’t use a gun. That would have been really bad.”?

I’m guessing no one would think that. Ever.

And how many of you thought, “What if she’d been able to defend herself?”

I’ve asked myself that a thousand times.

I submit that the only reason we’re even talking about this is because of the nuttiness we’ve been subjected to all our lives. For some reason it is hard to resist when we’ve grown up with it and so many people around us, people we respect even, have embraced the the false premise that says gun control equals crime control.

It’s time to say, “Enough already. We do not accept the premises of gun laws. We can see for ourselves that, no matter how ‘reasonable’ they may sound when promoted by politicians, their effects have run counter to their stated purposes.”

As for making it illegal for criminals to have guns; How’s it been working? Uh, criminals don’t obey the laws, remember? Gun laws do not apply to them.

“Gun control” is about one thing– controlling the law abiding. The Framers knew it. Why aren’t we teaching it?

And so it comes down to education.

As for the “under aged”: Parenting, anyone? And the same thing applies here as to criminals– the good kids will obey their parents and the laws. The bad ones will have guns, just as easily as they have drugs and alcohol.

A gun law is nothing more than a government enforced monopoly, reserving guns for criminal use only.

When are we actually going to enforce the Constitution, and protect it against all enemies, foreign and domestic? That’s my question.

As Oleg put it, regarding politicians: What do they have in mind, that they would prefer us unable to resist aggression?

What, indeed.

A time machine and scoped rifle

Posted on by

What would you do if you were given a time machine and a scoped rifle? Or would you want a scoped rifle to go with the time machine?

In the science fiction short story The Return of William Proxmire Proxmire doesn’t want a scoped rifle–he wants a syringe full of antibiotics and he is “gunning” for Robert Heinlein. I loved this story. It articulates the fantasy of changing history via what Niven claims, perhaps rightly so, the common fantasy assassinating some horrendously evil person before they had a chance to do their evil. It put the twist on that fantasy that perhaps you could change history in remarkably good ways by doing some small act of good as well.

Barb and I have been watching The Nazis: A Warning from History. This presentation casts doubts on my fantasy of going back in time to assassinate Hitler. And it makes me a little more sympathetic to all the people I read about in Plotting Hitler’s Death: The Story of German Resistance who had the opportunity but then failed to follow through because they didn’t have all their plans in order about what to do after Hitler was dead. Some of them spent months debating what type of government (a parliament? A representative democracy? Or perhaps even install a King?) would they put in place after they had successfully killed Hitler. My frustration with them boiled down to “just kill the SOB and worry about the details later”. But perhaps it wasn’t so simple.

In the The Nazis they claim Hitler wasn’t the dictator with a finely detailed plan we, or at least I, thought he was. Hitler had the broad goals of expanding the geographical territory and economic power of the “Germanic people”. Yes, many people blamed the Jews for the poor outcome of Germany in WWI and Jews as a scapegoat were a useful tool to motivate people. But in many ways Hitler was very lazy and let his subordinates do pretty much whatever they wanted. He had obtained great power through his gift of rhetoric and ambitious people sought access to that power. These power seekers put great effort into trying to please him. Hitler didn’t command them to commit all the great atrocities. They devised and implemented them in an attempt to please him and obtain still more wealth and power. If they furthered the broad goals of more territory and power for the Germans then Hitler did not interfere and they obtained the resources to further their work.

The above is background for the questions posed in the first two sentences of this post. If you could change history with a little nudge (what is one bullet into the brain of Gefreiter Hitler during the middle of WWI in the big scheme of things?) what would that nudge be?

Books such as Because They Hate, Hatred’s Kingdom, Preachers of Hate, The Truth About Muhammad, and Infidel put Muhammad on my list. And because Barb and I just finished Genghis Khan he would get some “special attention”. Both of these butchers could perhaps be better “nudged” with something other than “a scoped rifle”.

The introduction of the principles of scientific inquire and a little schooling might have changed Muhammad into something much more compatible with civilized society. And certainly the Arabs had the talent and even a strong tendency for pursuing science instead of superstition. Could the education of the illiterate Mohammad have made the desired difference?

And what of Genghis Khan? Was the poisoning of his father by a neighboring tribe, the resulting dissolution his tribe and him being hunted and marked for death as the eldest son of the dead tribal leader the motivation for his climb to power? Could his father have been warned about the poison and the results in the following decades been much different?

But the books Free to Choose, Freedomnomics, The Big Three in Economics and Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal have influenced me the most. I am inclined to go with the “scoped rifle” approach for dealing with Rousseau, Marx, Hegel, and Engels. These were brilliant men of ideas and persuasion that influenced and enabled Hitler, Stalin, and scores of other brutal dictators to kill hundreds of millions of people and enslave billions more right up through the present day. Perhaps this graphic from Kevin will make it more clear as to why these people are at the top of my list:

Quote of the day–Lazarus Long

Posted on by

Political tags–such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, conservative, and so forth–are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort.

Lazarus Long
A character in Time Enough for Love by Robert A. Heinlein
From Page 47 in The Notebooks of Lazarus Long
[This correct division of political philosophy explains why so many people are dissatisfied with the current set of political candidates for U.S. President. In essence all the candidates are on the same side of the aisle.

My reason for using this quote today will become more apparent after reading my next post.–Joe]

Quote of the day–H.L. Mencken

Posted on by

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]