Barb got me another book on tape to listen to on my long commute (she does this frequently–I love it and she knows me well enough to seldom ‘miss’).  This time it was Hillary’s Choice.  I haven’t finished it yet but so far it is fabulous.  I never really understood what the big deal was with Hillary. Why were people so impressed with her and why did so many people hate her?  As I was telling Barb the other day Hillary was an absolutely driven person from a very young age.  She was a top scholar from her first contact with school.  She was interested in politics from a young age and was first politically involved with the Republican party.

All this was very interesting to me and I’m looking forward to hearing some more of the tape tomorrow on my drive home.  Then tonight I read an opinion piece by Peggy Noonon on why and how she thinks Clinton will run for president in 2008.  It fits so well with what I’ve been hearing on tape that it was like a key turning an expensive and well oiled lock.  It really clicked with what I had been hearing.  Here is a sample of what Ms Noonon has to say:

Three reasons. The first is that she knows another attack on American soil is inevitable and wants to position herself politically as The Wise One Who Warned Us.

Second, she knows that a woman perceived as a liberal has no chance at winning the presidency while a woman perceived as a tough, pragmatic moderate does. So she is tough where Mr. Compassionate Conservative is soft (immigration), or is vulnerable, after a coming attack, to charges that he was soft (homeland security). She can’t lose on this one. Security can always be better, and after America is attacked again anger and finger pointing will be widespread.

Third, Mrs. Clinton knows the Democratic Party as a whole is to the left of the electorate. She is used to this. It is the story of her life. The electorate in Arkansas were always more moderate than Gov. and Mrs. Clinton, and President and Mrs. Clinton for that matter. She knows how to operate in such conditions. She does not intend to go down in flames as a leftist when she runs for president. This will take guile. She has guile.

We live in interesting times.  Yes, I know–a Chinese curse and all that.

Belgium, the Netherlands, Massachusetts, and now Canada have approved it.  New Jersey, New York, California, and other states in the U.S. are working towards it via the courts and the legislature.  Even though several states had initiatives on the topic last election and the gays were just pulverized by the voters I think it won’t be long before there will be several states that have approved it and perhaps even other countries.  I’m quite thrilled by this for a number of reasons.

1. It’s the right thing to do.  I think marriage is a good thing.  It stabilizes relationships through a deeper commitment.  If a couple of any gender combination wants to make such a commitment then I see nothing but good coming from that.
2. It will give the politicians something to fight about other than things like gun rights, welfare, Social Security, national security, and taxes.  If they can expend their emotional rhetoric on gay marriage rather than on other things then maybe we get them to be more rational on the other topics.
3. It will inevitably bring up the full faith and credit issues on licenses–such as concealed carry licenses.
4. It will level the playing field on some of the special privileges given to same-sex couples.
5. It will demoralize the Islamic extremists.  They need to realize that we are not going to be adopt their religion as our law as demanded by Osama bin Laden.  They need to know that they are loosing ground on a daily basis.  This will either demoralize them or further motivate them and cause the sleeper cells to expose themselves.  Either way we win.

If I could dance I would do a “happy dance”.  As it I’ll just try to visit the Taj and blow something up in celebration soon.

I’ve mentioned this before and my friends have heard me tell stories of all the media bias about guns I have personally experienced but LGF has a post that shows the two sides of a recent story in very plain detail.  If you are going to form opinions from the news and act upon them be sure to do your research.  Check out Google News.  Put in a few keywords and do a search on the news for your topic.  Read what the papers in different countries say about the same event.  Even just different paper in this country have huge differences in perspective.  It can be very enlightening.

Over in Kim duToit’s forum there is a post about the people in the UK and their anti-weapon hysteria.  The comments to the post have been going on for sometime and drifted to airport security.  And about how “free speech” in a airport will get you thrown into jail.  I started to make a little comment there and it grew into a rant that is better placed here.

Chris Byrne commented (minor spelling error corrected):

FREE SPEECH? IN AIRPOTS?

Joking about bombs, terrorism, security, or weapons will get you thrown in jail in an airport. Including on a t-shirt.

No, I’m not kidding, joking, or exaggerating for effect.

Technically you are right.  Joking about bombs or weapons can get you in trouble.  But I wear my Boomershoot shirts through airports without problems.  They have images and words like this:

2005 (not yet airport tested)
2004
2003
2002
2001

And the next time I travel it will be with a Boomershoot coat (that’s Ry, not me).

And of course I almost (I was legal in Chicago when I spent a week there once) always travel with a firearm (legally) in checked baggage and books and papers on improvised explosives in my carry-on computer case (not to mention all the stuff on the computer itself).  As my “get out of jail free card” I carry my ATFE license type 20 (license to manufacture high explosives).  Sometimes I even deliberately salt my computer case with explosive components.  I’ve been ‘sniffed’ for explosives more times than I can count and once (March 20, 1998 in St. Louis) the blind security agent even ran her white swab over several of the books on explosives without noticing the titles of the books.  Not once have I tested positive for explosives.  Not once have I been questioned about explosives or my choice of shirts.  Ask me face-to-face about some of the other tests (some unintentional through just plain forgetfulness) of airport security I have been involved in.  In each and every test they have failed.  In one case even when they knew I had one of these in the case and they knew where it was in the case!  They couldn’t see it on the x-ray.

The only reason we are spending nearly $2 Billion dollars a year (and this doesn’t count the wasted time of the passengers) on screeners at the airport is to make some people feel good.  It does NOTHING to make us safer.  It’s all about “doing something”.  And what it does is erode the U.S. Constitution.

With all due respect to Michelle Malkin, she and others are calling for the resignation/impeachment of Norm Mineta, I think they are wrong.  They aren’t thinking big enough.  They should be calling for the abolishment of the entire TSA.  Show me again where the U.S. Constitution says the Federal government is authorized to stick their nose into this.  Show me again where Mineta Minions are exempt from the 4th Amendment.

They are now testing the concept of putting people about to board a bus through “prison style” weapons checks.

Passengers travelling through a bus station will undergo prison-style weapons checks from today after police installed a metal scanner to cut knife crime.

The metal scanner, which is the same technology used in prisons to detect people carrying weapons, will be deployed at Hammersmith Bus Garage in west London as part of a week-long police trial.

Operation Blunt, part of the Metropolitan Police’s anti-knife initiative, could be rolled out across other London boroughs if the trial is a success.

I grew up on a farm where we had a few cattle.  Some breeds of cattle have horns.  When we had an animal growing horns we would dehorn it before the horns got big enough to hurt us or other cattle.  From our standpoint this worked well.  We could work with the cattle and do the basic things necessary such as vaccination, castration, feeding, moving and butchering without worry that we would get injured by their weapons.  You still needed to be careful, if they were to pin you against a tree or building or something they could do serious damage, trampling, and kicking was something to be concerned about too.  But those were relatively easy things to avoid compared to horns.  Of course this meant we had to put more effort into defending them from their natural enemies such as dogs (of all types) and large cats.  But it was a good tradeoff for us. 

What I don’t think the UK subjects realize is that they are becoming cattle.  Their government is increasingly becoming their owner and as such is perfectly free to shear (as you would sheep), castrate, and butcher at will.  And of course it is quite apparent that the UK government regards the natural predators of the ordinary UK subject (subjects with criminal behaviors) as just as important as the non-criminal subjects.  If a UK subject does any sort of preparation to defend themselves from predators then they are subject to the same sort of punishment as the predator.  Just as we regard all animals a equally valuable from the standpoint of meat production they regard the lives of all their subjects equally valuable.  The UK government is treating their subjects as cattle and is in the process of “dehorning” all of them.  The people of the UK need to be liberated or else used as a bad example for the rest of the world as they reap the consequences of their tolerance for such an oppressive government.  Because they gave up their firearms several years ago and we are pretty busy now with the war against the Islamic extremists so I’m inclined to say there isn’t going to be anyone that’s going to help them.  That means they are just going to have to be a bad example for the rest of the world.

Barb’s mom Joybelle, as I reported earlier, died on November 30th.  The funeral was December 4th.  The obituary in the paper does a good job as far as it goes.  Some of the highlights:

Building memories and caring for people was more important to her than acquiring things.  Education and learning were her life’s work whether it was teaching children in the first and second grade, reading to her children and grandchildren or helping in the community.  Her legacy to education and learning is evident in the numerous degrees her children and grandchildren have earned or are earning in education, physical therapy, computer science, business, pre-med, science, social science and political science.

Some of the things which aren’t explicitly said are the following:

• Her determination to stand up to the prevailing thought when she believed them wrong.
• Her sense of humor.  She would make some dry comment with a straight face and an innocent look that would fool half of the people listening making it all the more funny to me.
• I sometimes joked that I never believed any of the mother-in-law jokes until I actually had a mother-in-law but I can’t complain about her.  She and I would never have been best friends due to our completely different approaches to things (she was very intuitive, I am very factual and concrete) but we never had a fight in the 30+ years I knew her.  She never was a problem in my relationship with her daughter or anyone else.
• After ‘retiring’ in addition to the volunteering for various public causes she “made the rounds” to her kids and helped with the grandkids for a month or more at a time before moving on to the next.
• I can’t think of a single time that she declined a request for help from us in any way.  She let us stay at her place any time, she fixed us countless meals and she took care of our kids when we needed help such as when I was working on my master’s thesis. Even after her stroke which left her paralyzed on her right side she insisted that she would live with her daughter Nancy, who had some health problems at the time, and help her with her kids.  Barb had to force Joy to confront her own health situation (the stroke had affected her mind to the point she didn’t realize how handicapped she was) by asking her to show how she could help by standing up out of her wheelchair.
• She gave our kids so many books we sometimes thought we would be buried under them.  This started before we had our first child because she was afraid some of her favorite children’s books would be out of print before we had children.

Her funeral was the first one I didn’t find myself my attention drifting.  Katie did such a wonderful job of being ‘right on’ with her comments about Joy that I was very impressed.  Joy probably would have been a little bit embarrassed by all the praise Katie and others heaped on her, but it was all deserved.

I keep seeing references to the problems with airport screening and decided it was time to finish my essay on airplane security.  I also added some material to the problems with existing security.  This was inspired by an article I had run across some time ago but never got around incorporating until now.  I now have an answer, but not really a solution, to the concerns over explosives being brought on board.  Read the essay if you are interested in that aspect.

To help get more notice of my thoughts on the subject I also posted a couple links in the comments section of Bruce Schneier’s blog posting about airplane security.

200 pledge willingness to carry out suicide attacks against Americans, Israelis.

TEHRAN, Iran, (AP) – Some 200 masked young men and women gathered at a Tehran cemetery Thursday to pledge their willingness to carry out suicide bomb attacks against Americans in Iraq and Israelis.

The ceremony was organized by the Headquarters for Commemorating Martyrs of the Global Islamic Movement, a shadowy group that has since June been seeking volunteers for attacks in Iraq and Israel.

A spokesman, Ali Mohammadi, described Thursday’s group as the “first suicide commando unit,” though another official has claimed members already have carried out attacks in Israel.

“Sooner or later we will bury all blasphemous occupiers of Islamic lands,” Mohammadi said.

…

Thursday’s ceremony included the unveiling of two-meter (6-foot) stone column commemorating a 1983 attack on U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon as “the biggest suicide bombing operation against global blasphemy.”

Another article says this:

The group, which has no links to official organizations, in September also placed a symbolic gravestone at the cemetery for two Palestinian suicide bombers who carried out a twin bus bombing that killed 16 Israelis earlier this year.

…

The group said more than 25,000 “martyrdom seeking” volunteers have so far signed up and one of its members said the registration drive would continue.

Why do they want to kill us?  It’s not because we took (actually we purchased it) their oil.  It’s not because we attacked Iraq.  It’s not because we support the existence of Israel.  It’s because we engage in ‘global blasphemy”.  If you or I blasphemy then we deserve to die.

Typically www.boomershoot.org gets about 10 hits a day from people doing searches (such as on google) for bomb building help.  Just before the 4th of July it jumped up to about 15 or 20 per day then it went back down.  So far this month (part way through the 3rd day!) it has had 76 hits.  The hits I took the time to lookup are coming from the US, the UK, Australia, and Israel.  The one from Israel I sent to the Israeli police.  I probably should do the same for some of the others but it’s a fair amount of work to find the proper LEO contact and explain.  And at 25 or 30 a day I simply don’t have enough time to do that.  I suppose I should try to automate part of the process.  I could build up a collection of LEO contacts in various countries and have a form letter to send out.  A simple application could watch the log file and send me an email that I just have to forward on with minor tweaks for exceptions that come up such as a geographical location that I don’t have a LEO contact for yet.

On the other hand it’s not illegal in this country to ask for information on building a bomb as long as you don’t have the intent to acutally build a bomb.

Heavy sigh…

It’s been an expensive experiment.  Very expensive.  What the anti-freedom people claimed would only cost $2 Million (Canadian) is now $2 Billion (Canadian).  Read the timeline here of the failing gun registration scheme.  It may even bring down the liberal government.  A snippet follows:

Jan. 7, 2004

Prime Minister Paul Martin says the gun registry is under review. “We are committed to gun control and we are committed to the registration of weapons, but at the same time, common sense dictates that there have been a number of problems,” says Martin. “They will be looked at and dealt with.”

Feb. 13, 2004

Documents obtained by Zone Libre of CBC’s French news service suggest that the gun registry has cost $2 billion so far.

May 20, 2004

The Liberal government, just days before an expected election call, eliminates fees for registering and transferring firearms. Ottawa will also limit its spending on the gun registry to $25 million a year, spending which has averaged $33 million a year and reached as high as $48 million. Licensing of gun owners and firearms will continue.

The problems they speak of are, in a large part, due to the resistance of the gun owners.  Any American politicians considering gun registration in this country should keep in mind the U.S. has far more gun owners who will put up far more ‘resistance’ than the Canadians.

From the UK Telegraph:

“We are conducting random stop and search under current anti-terrorist legislation,” began the constable, addressing me through my open side window. “Would you mind if we searched your vehicle? We’re training these new community support officers.”

Although a little worried about being late for my meeting, I agreed to the search. I unlocked the doors and they went through my car and its contents: my overnight bag, my washbag and glove box. Next, they gestured towards my briefcase. As I lifted the lid I pointed out to them a Victorinox Swiss multi-tool, contained in a small webbing case, and a small collapsible baton, contained in another piece of webbing.

It is perfectly legal to buy both of these items. The penknife I carry because I find it useful for many small everyday tasks – cutting through packaging, opening bottles. The baton I bought to keep at home for security reasons. I live in a rural part of Suffolk that, although relatively crime-free, is policed very sparsely. I often hear people outside the house at night and I feel more comfortable with the baton inside the front door. A week or so before, I had discovered my young daughters playing with it and had locked it in my briefcase for safekeeping.

The community support officers reacted immediately. They behaved as if they had never seen a penknife before, pulling out the bottle-opener, the corkscrew, the thing that gets stones out of horses’ hooves. “This device has a locking blade,” said the constable. My goodwill towards the police began to give way to alarm. I reached for my mobile to call the lawyers and explain that I was going to be late but the constable stopped me. “Turn that phone off,” he said. “You’re about to be arrested for possessing offensive weapons and carrying a bladed instrument in public. You’ll be allowed one call when we get you to Charing Cross police station.”

I asked the constable whether this was, in his opinion, a valuable use of police time and resources. This was when the policemen and the PCSOs started to become hostile. “You’ve committed an offence, mate, and you’d better get used to the fact that you’re going down for six months,” said one policeman.

There’s more but the tone doesn’t change much.  Tell me again.  Why are the politicians there still breathing after they started taking guns away from the people?  It seems to me the people in the UK are relearning the hard way some lessons from the 20th Century originally taught by schoolmasters Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Mao Tse-Tung and Pol Pot:

Lesson No. 1: If a bureaucrat, or a soldier sent by a bureaucrat, comes to knock down your door and take you someplace you don’t want to go because of who you are or what you think– kill him. If you can, kill the politician who sent them. You will likely die anyway, and you will be saving someone else the same fate. For it is a universal truth that the intended victims always far outnumber the tyrant’s executioners. Any nation which practices this lesson will quickly run out of executioners and tyrants, or they will run out of it.

Lesson No. 2: If a bureaucrat, or a soldier sent by a bureaucrat, comes to knock down your door and confiscate your firearms– kill him. The disarmament of law-abiding citizens is the required precursor to genocide.

Lesson No. 3: If a bureaucrat tells you that he must know if you have a firearm so he can put your name on a list for the common good, or wants to issue you an identity card so that you may be more easily identified– tell him to go to hell. Registration of people and firearms is the required precursor to the tyranny which permits genocide. Bureaucrats cannot send soldiers to doors that aren’t on their list.

Lesson No. 4: Believe actions, not words. Tyrants are consummate liars. Just because a tyrant is “democratically elected” doesn’t mean that he believes in democracy. Reference Adolf Hitler, 1932. And just because a would-be tyrant mouths words of reverence to law and justice, or takes a solemn oath to uphold a constitution, doesn’t mean he believes such concepts apply to him. Reference Bill Clinton, among others. The language of the lie is just another tool of killers. A sign saying “Arbeit Macht Frei” (Work Makes You Free) posted above an execution camp gate doesn’t mean that anybody gets out of there alive, and a room labeled “Showers” doesn’t necessarily make you clean. Bill Clinton notwithstanding, the meaning of “is” is plain when such perverted language gets you killed. While all tyrants are liars, it is true that not all political liars are would-be tyrants– but they bear close watching. And keep your rifle handy.

In an article out of Scotland with the title of So what do you do when your home is burgled?  Is this incredible statement:

To this end it is perhaps important not to dwell on the situation involving Mr Martin because, regardless of the appeal procedure he successfully went through to secure his freedom, in many ways the law still points to his particular attack on the intruders who entered his home as a pre-meditated assault. He had previously been the victim of a number of burglaries within his home and as a result of this he was effectively prepared for further intrusion and reacted as such when his farmhouse was broken into again.

I’m aghast!  If you prepare for further intrusions into your home you are guilty of “pre-meditated assault”?  And what is it if you have your life insurance paid up and you get in a car accident and die?  Is it suicide?

So what is it you think this “expert” advises people to do if they are the vicitim of a “hot burglery”?  Get this.  He advises:

…the victim should adopt a state of active passivity.

I’m of the opinion that giving them the universal hand signal for “GO AWAY!” is more effective.

Free Muslims against Terrorism are asking all people to sign a petition.  This is very encouraging to me.  This does not mean we should let our guard down in the slightest.  It only means we may be getting some allies. The complete petition is below.  I found it via Jihad Watch:

Sign Petition to Punish Religious Leaders who Preach Violence and Justify Terrorism

November 30, 2004
Freemuslims.org

Sign Petition to Punish Religious Leaders who Preach Violence and Justify Terrorism

The Free Muslims Against Terrorism (Free Muslims) have partnered with progressive Arabs and Muslims to hold religious leaders accountable for justifying violence and encouraging terrorism.

The Free Muslims are petitioning the UN Security Council and the United States government to establish an international tribunal to prosecute religious leaders, including clerics who issue “fatwas” which are religious opinions, edicts, rulings and conclusions that incite violence and justify the use of terrorism. These religious leaders are especially dangerous because some of their followers consider their opinions to be gospel.

This petition is a follow up to the recently adopted UN Resolution 1566 that reads in part:

“…[A]ll members of the Security Council to consider and submit recommendations… on practical measures to be imposed upon, individuals … involved in or associated with terrorist activities…bringing them to justice through prosecution or extradition, freezing of their financial assets….”

It is crucial to hold these religious leaders accountable because most terrorists who kill in the name of Islam rely on the fatwas and conclusions of these religious leaders to convince themselves that they are going to heaven after their death.

The Following is an example of a Fatwa that encourages terrorism:

• Sheikh Yousif Al-Qardhawi issued a Fatwa permitting the killing of “fetuses” (unborn) Jews, because (according to him) when Jews are born and grown-up they will join the Israeli army. Furthermore, on September 3, 2004, (at the Egyptian Journalist Union) Al-Qardhawi issued a fatwa to kill all American civilians working in Iraq. And on July 3, 2004, he issued another fatwa permitting the killing of Muslim intellectuals as being apostates, claiming that Islam justifies the killing of such apostates.

These extremist clerics continue to issue fatwas that incite terrorism under the false umbrella of Islam. Join us in stopping these religious leaders by signing this petition requesting the U.N. to create an International Tribunal to prosecute them.

This petition has been organized by Dr. Jawad Hashim (Iraq’s former Minister of Planning), Lafif Lakhdar (A Tunisian Intellectual), and Dr. Shakir Al-Nabulsi (A Jordanian writer and author). The Free Muslims Against Terrorism has joined this effort and we seek 20,000 people to sign this petition. More than 3000 people have already signed.

All people are invited to sign this petition by sending your name, profession, country of residence and nationality to Jmhashim@hotmail.com and cc: President@freemuslims.org. Write “petition” in the subject line.

For more information Visit www.FreeMuslims.org

If anyone ever complains about the U.S. not fighting WW III by the rules of war remind them of all the weapons and fortifications found in Mosques.  Michelle Malkin has the most succinct posting on this topic I’ve seen so far:

BAGHDAD – A mosque raided by security forces in southern Baghdad contained a workshop to rig suicide car bombs, with seven vehicles ready for terror attacks, an Iraqi Defense Ministry official said Sunday.

Car bombings and remote-controlled roadside blasts have become routine in the Iraqi capital in recent weeks, including a blast Sunday that wounded two U.S. soldiers…National guard forces raided the Sunni Muslim Al Yassen Mosque in the southern Baghdad area of Abu Dshir on Saturday, said Gen. Saleh Sarhan of the Defense Ministry. In addition to seven cars rigged with explosives, the guardsmen found 30 rocket-propelled grenades, high-powered rifles, mortars and remote control detonators, Sarhan said.

Churches loose their special status once they are used by enemy combantants.  Converting them into a SCAD (Smoking Crater of Ash and Dust) is fine with me.  If it saves just one American life it will be worth it.

I got a call from Barb about 6:30 this morning.  Joy had just died.  Barb and her sisters had spent the night at the nursing home with their mother and were with her when she died.

See also Xenia’s posting.

I picked up sister-in-law Susan at the Spokane airport today.  She started talking about politics, the war, etc. and I expressed my concerns about another attack on U.S. soil.  She wanted to know what she and her family could do to prepare for such an event.  Earlier today I had heard an advertisement on the radio from DHS.  I haven’t really looked at it very close yet, but I’m sure the people behind http:/www.ready.gov have put more thought into how to prepare than I have.  I suggest that website as a good first effort at being prepared.  In my quick look through the site I didn’t see any mention of a generator, firearms, or a geiger counter however.  I have all of those in my collection of materials for personal homeland security but those are somewhat expensive items and perhaps beyond the level of committment some people are comfortable making..

Kim du Toit has a rant up today about the TSA.  Lots of good comments too.  I’ve been working on and off for a while on a research/white paper on airport security.  It’s almost done and I think it’s time to start letting people take a look at it and give me some feedback.  My biggest concern at this point is how to deal with FREDS.  The conventionally armed hijacker is an annoyance but not a serious threat if we set up the proper environment.  Since this is reality we are taking about the laws of physics, chemistry, and economics must be obeyed.  Please read and if you have any ideas that I incorporate I’ll be glad to give you credit.  Long term I hope to do a full blown research paper with government money and access to classified reports.  But I want to have some novel ideas that have a reasonable chance of being successful before I approach it from that direction.

Now… I’m off to the airport to pick up my sister-in-law Susan who wants to see her mother one last time before she dies.  At least I don’t have to go through airport security to do that and can ‘carry’ for the entire trip there (Spokane) and back.

Columnist John Railey wrote an opinion piece asking for ‘compromise’ and ‘common sense’ in regards to gun control.  I responded with the following:

—–Original Message—–
From: Joe Huffman 
Sent: Sunday, November 28, 2004 2:13 PM
To: ‘jrailey@wsjournal.com’
Subject: “Common sense” gun control.

Unfortunately, as near as I can tell, whenever and wherever governments have tried to restrict access to weapons of any type they do not succeed in making the average person any safer.  There are basically two ways to look at the problem. 

1) Compare geographically and politically similar areas during the same time frame which have different laws regarding weapons.  Examples would be Washington D.C. (handguns banned) versus nearby Virginia (both concealed and open carry of handguns is legal).
2) Compare the situation before and after a weapons law is passed.  Did the crime rate change for the better when the laws were more restrictive.  Examples include the “Assault Weapons Ban”, the passage of laws against handguns in D.C. and laws making the concealed carry of weapons easier or more difficult.

Both methods come up empty if you are looking for successful (in terms of making the average person safer) gun control.  However there are numerous examples where gun control has enabled genocide (Germany, Soviet Union, China, Rwanda, etc.)

So the question is, “What is ‘common sense’ in regards to ‘gun control’?”  The only answers I come up with are that gun control means being able to hit your target and the individual maintains complete control of their own guns.

Regards,

Joe Huffman
—-
https://blog.joehuffman.org
http://www.boomershoot.org

We got a call from the nursing home where Barb’s mom, Joy, lives today.  She is ill and fading fast.  They said it could be just hours or maybe days but the end is near.

We made all the phone calls and then went to be with her for several hours.  Barb and Xenia read to her and James stroked her head for a long time.  Her body is in such bad shape and her mind has slowly faded since she had the tumor removed and then all the strokes.  It’s time for her to go but it’s still hard on us.  Especially so soon after Karen died.  This has to be really really hard on Grace.  Grace is Karen’s mother and Joy’s sister.  She was here today visiting Joy and left before we got the news.  She will be back from the Tri-Cities tomorrow.