If you ever wonder how Germany got to the point it did look at Australia. Insane authoritarianism, rising identitarianism, and apologists terrified of the state pretending to offer some opposition but defending camps for the ‘unclean’
Tim Pool @Timcast
Tweeted on September 4, 2021
[Via daughter Jaime:
See also here.—Joe]
I work in computer security. The following were recently shared in one of the threat intel channels I follow.
Rather lame, but it’s what Hyatt Hotel prohibits as passwords in their network: https://www.hyattconnect.com/files/passwordpolicy/dictionary.txt
This is claimed to be the largest collection of actual passwords ever assembled.
The download link on the web page given by the link above is very scary (if you can even find it). I downloaded the .gz file, decompressed it, and packaged it up as a .zip file here: https://www.joehuffman.org/misc/RockYou2021.zip
The Third Circuit panel found that not only did the township offer no evidence that its zoning rules are targeted to achieve a public safety benefit without imposing undue restrictions on the right to keep and bear arms, but that it neglected to explain why it chose to implement these specific restrictions, and why they did so only in the part of the township that was zoned for “sportsmen’s clubs.” Two other areas of town where “shooting ranges” are allowed to operate don’t have these same types of restrictions in place, but the township can’t explain why center-fire rifle firing should be banned at a sportsmen’s club and not at a shooting range.
Now the case goes back down to the district court for a third time, and hopefully this time around the judge makes the correct decision and finds that the township violated the rights of the gun range owner by arbitrarily imposing these zoning restrictions without being able to offer up any substantive reason for doing so.
Cam Edwards
August 17, 2021
Second Amendment In Gun Range Case
There have been over 400,000,000 guns sold in the U.S. since November 1998.
The range proper is complete. I have some grass to plant and a few other niceties to finish up but it is entirely functional now.
The shooting box is at 15 yards.
This is from about 35 yards.
The pavers protect the washed river rock and drain tile directly underneath from dirt.
I need to get some target stands for USPSA paper and steel targets and a full set of Steel Challenge targets. That probably won’t happen until next year.
You want to be a protective spouse, a concerned parent, a good citizen, a patriotic American? Save your family and your community from danger by getting rid of your weapons, and especially your handguns. Don’t wait for the law. Do it yourself; do it now. Do it because you just bought your first home, do it because you just got married, do it because you just had the baby you cherish more than anything in this world. The gun you trust against your fears is itself the thing you should fear. The gun is a lie.
As more Americans recognize the lie, they may notice a powerful new possibility. Once emancipated from the false myth of the home-protecting gun, they will find it easier to write laws and adopt policies to stop the criminals and zealots who carry guns into the streets. Win enough elections, and the federal courts will retreat from their sudden gun advocacy—and return to their historic deference to state regulation of firearms.
David Frum
September 1, 2021
How to Persuade Americans to Give Up Their Guns
[Frum needs to review the 2nd Amendment and the Heller decision.
Then he needs to read some books on the risk of not owning firearms and the ethics of restricting firearms ownership. I would like to suggest:
Then, if he is still in the persuasive mood, I’d be glad to introduce him to the power of the word “No.” backed up by 100 million determined gun owners with their own means of persuasion.—Joe]
Data shows that visible guns makes people more aggressive, so it’s a logical next step to believe that open carry makes it more likely that disagreements will turn into violent conflicts.
Shannon Watts
Founder of Moms Demand Action
September 1, 2021
TEXANS CAN NOW OPENLY CARRY GUNS IN PUBLIC WITHOUT A PERMIT OR TRAINING. POLICE SAY THE NEW LAW MAKES IT HARDER TO DO THEIR JOBS
[Interesting. I wonder what invisible guns make people do.
Watts knows open carry does not make it more likely that disagreements will turn violent. She is planting the idea in a effort to persuade the public it is acceptable to infringe upon the specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms. And, of course, she completely ignores the existence of the 2nd Amendment.
I would also bet that any data she has indicating “visible guns makes people more aggressive” is the result of cherry picking the data and probably presuming causality and ignoring other factors which account for any change in perceived aggressiveness.
One of the repeated lessons of history is that when Potemkin politics become standard operating procedure in a nation, no matter how powerful and stable that nation might look, it can come apart with astonishing speed once somebody provides the good hard shove just discussed. The sudden implosion of the Kingdom of France in 1789 and the equally abrupt collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 are two of the most famous examples, but there have been many others. In every case, what happened was that a government that had stopped solving its nation’s problems, and settled for trying to manage appearances instead, discovered the hard way that governments really do derive their power from the consent of the governed—and that this consent can be withdrawn very suddenly indeed.
John Michael Greer
August 18, 2021
Potemkin Nation
[Via email from a reader after reading yesterday’s post.
Prepare appropriately.—Joe]
Barb hasn’t had a chance to visit my gun range and made a comment about the size being somewhat small. I parked my car in it and put some targets in the berm for scale so she could get a better idea of the scale:
She has revised her view of the size.
The tile inside the range and more gravel was installed yesterday and the washed river rock was put over the tile today.
Today I made two trips into town to pick up some concrete pavers to cover the gravel over the tile to prevent the dirt from plugging up the gravel and tile line. As the dirt from the berm starts to cross the paver line I will “rehabilitated” the berm.
The range still needs some more gravel but that should be completed tomorrow. Then it will be done!
I now need to invite Mike B. over. I told him about my project last winter and I promised to invite him over when it was done.
Update: The picture below is from across the road looking up range at the retaining wall for the berm. This is the reason for higher blocks on the left side than the right:
Large trucks would be visible from the range if the extra blocks were not present.
It’s certainly a bold ask, as the groups attached to this letter are blatantly requesting that Democrats not only have a monopoly on gun legislation, but to adopt a hardline position of legislating away at gun rights while also urging the public to relinquish said rights through persuasion via the bully pulpit.
Gregory Hoyt
August 29, 2021
Here it comes: Gun control groups pressure Biden to create firearm control office to bypass Senate
[Bold? Perhaps. Especially with President Biden is completely overwhelmed by other issues. But if gets even a little publicity and traction in leftist media it will move the Overton Window in the wrong direction.
Do your part to combat the continuing battle for mindshare.
The Biden administration, deliberately or not, appears to be destroying the United States of America. Some of the individual states with low debt and a strong mindset of liberty appear to be the best hope for the future. Perhaps it is time to let the U.S. collapse.—Joe]
I think the males who don’t want to get vaccinated are already in the wet noodle phase.
It’s why they need to walk around with so many guns.
Joey (@Joey13251)
Tweeted on July 31, 2021
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday!
Oh! It’s a twofer! Their childish insults and prejudice includes people skeptical of experimental vaccines as well gun owners.
Remember, childish insults are what you use with you can not think of anything better.—Joe]
Generally, the word gun, for those who are worried about research in this area, is followed by the word control, and that’s not what I want to do here. I’m not here about gun control. I’m here about preventing gun violence and gun death.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky
Director of the Centers for Disease Control
August 27, 2021
CDC Director wants the agency to take on firearm violence for the first time in decades: ‘I’m not here about gun control’
[Wow! That was impressive. On her first venture into the 2nd Amendment arena she tripped and fell flat on her face into a tar pit and is unlikely to ever get the stain off her reputation.
She completely, unambiguously, showed her evil hand with the phrase, “preventing gun violence and gun death.” If she had substituted “criminal” for “gun” in the phrase I would have given her a C+ and offered her some suggestions for remedial Constitutional law. But she didn’t. She completely failed.
Apparently she doesn’t understand (and/or is engaged in deliberately deception) there is such a thing as necessary violence and death. And frequently a gun is the most effective way to delivery that necessary violence. There are people that need to be shot, quickly and repeatedly, until they stop their violent attack on innocent people. In this article there is not even a hint that she is willing to acknowledge this.
Next there is the issue of prevention. You can only legally prevent gun violence and death by means similar that of the exercise of the 1st Amendment can be restricted. The government cannot legally prevent the falsely yelling of, “Fire!” in a crowded theater by gagging the theater patrons upon entry into the theater. They can only threaten people with prosecution for harming innocent people after the harmful act.
I suspect her further activity in this arena will put her at risk for future prosecution under 18 USC 242.—Joe]
A majority of Americans may currently favor more restrictive laws regarding firearms, but that majority looks likely to shrink in the years to come, making policy changes less likely as the years go by. That’s just as well, since passage of such laws would leave the powers-that-be looking thoroughly ineffective given that the people who would actually be touched by them have demonstrated their unwillingness to submit to such policies.
J.D. Tuccille
August 25, 2021
Don’t Be Surprised if Gun Owners Don’t Comply With Gun Control Laws
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
Last Saturday I said I expected the range to be completed by the end of this week or early next week. I was on site yesterday and it only lacked rock and gravel which are being put down today (and possibly Monday).
Below are the latest pictures.
55% of Reps & 44% of Dems said the other party is “not just worse for politics—they are downright evil.”
34% of Reps & 27% of Dems said the other party “lack the traits to be considered fully human—they behave like animals.”
Nathan Kalmoe (@NathanKalmoe)
Tweeted on October 1, 2019
[This was nearly two years ago. I’m certain things have gotten worse since then.
I have to wonder how much of the current political conflict is the result of external agitation by our adversaries such as Russia and China. US Civil War II would certainly be to their advantage in many ways.
Regardless, fasten your seat belts because it’s going to be a bumpy ride.
Or, as I more frequently say, prepare appropriately.—Joe]
I believe in a multi-racial, progressive society where whites, blacks, and Koreans can all work together to stand on rooftops and shoot communists.
Dogs don’t have thumbs @MorlockP
Tweeted on August 23, 2021
Deleted by Twitter sometime between August 24, 10:22 AM PDT and August 25 7:01 PM PDT.
[That was an unexpected plot twist in the last couple of words.—Joe]
Dramatic anecdotes and a tendency toward gun-related puns seem at times designed to troll gun-safety advocates, who view his rulings and his expansive view of the 2nd Amendment with a mixture of outrage and alarm.
Laura J. Nelson and Kristina Davis
August 8, 2021
The judge upending California’s gun laws: ‘Blessed’ jurist or ‘stone-cold ideologue’?
[This is regarding U.S. District Judge Roger T. Benitez who has been throwing out some of California’s oppressive gun laws.
I don’t think it does any good to troll the anti-gun people in judicial rulings. Rather I think they should be treated with a certain amount of respect as they are prosecuted.
I didn’t know that he is 70 years old and semi-retired. That explains why some of his rulings have taken so long.
Reading about his experience as a child in Cuba may explain why he gives the 2nd Amendment the respect it deserves:
In September 1960, Castro set up a network of “revolutionary collective vigilance” committees in neighborhoods across the country. Its members, covert adherents to the Communist Party, began going door to door, asking neighbors to surrender their weapons, said Lillian Guerra, a University of Florida history professor.
At school, Benitez and his classmates were pulled out of class and questioned about their parents’ view of the revolution. His father was a businessman, and his mother held advanced degrees. In the Daily Journal, Benitez recalled opening the front door one day to see two armed people in army uniforms who took his mother away.
“We didn’t see her for three days,” he told the Daily Journal. “We didn’t know where she was, what happened to her, whether she was dead or alive.”
That would make quite the impression.—Joe]
The indictment alleged Reid lied to a Seattle federal grand jury about statements purportedly made to her by an individual identified in court papers as “Suspect #1” — a man federal agents say bragged to Reid about being involved in Wales’ death.
According to court documents and law enforcement sources, Suspect #1 is an acquaintance of the individual believed to have killed Wales on contract, and Suspect #1 is believed to have acted as a lookout while the job was done.
During her appearance before the grand jury on Feb. 28, 2018, Reid claimed the government lawyers laid a “perjury trap” — tricking her into telling a lie — so they could indict her, with the goal of pressuring her to give more information about Suspect #1 and others. Her attorney, Nance, has said it was a dry well and that Reid had no firsthand knowledge of the crime or those involved in it.
Wales, a white-collar prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Seattle, was shot to death in the basement of his Queen Anne Hill home on Oct. 11, 2001.
Mike Carter
Seattle Times Reporter
August 23, 2021
Woman accused of lying in unsolved Thomas Wales slaying case pleads guilty to misdemeanor
[I sort of marvel at the effort put into this case. As near as I can tell the FBI has been working on this full time for just short of 20 years. At this point it appears they are willing to violate the rights of innocent people in order to give indicators they are making progress. They brought in “special” prosecutors with questionable (at best) ethical standards (from the quoted article):
Earlier this month, Robart reprimanded and chastised the special prosecutors out of Washington, D.C., brought in to handle the case, for “carelessness” by failing to turn over evidence to the defense.
The apparently innocent person in this case, Reid, was ensnared in the “perjury trap” and then threatened with a lengthy prison sentence:
Reid was indicted on charges of lying to a grand jury and obstruction of justice. A conviction could have sent her to prison for up to five years.
She traded a guilty plea for:
U.S. District Judge James Robart sentenced Shawna Reid to time served — a total of nine days in custody since she was indicted in 2019 — with no additional supervised release, plus a $25 fine.
Can you imagine the FBI having a team work full time for 20 years to solve the murder of an ordinary citizen and withholding evidence from the defense to acquire a conviction? I can’t. This must mean the “King’s Men” are considered very special.—Joe]
Looks like I’ve angered a lot of <100 accounts desperate to prove their guns are bigger than their cocks
Magus Melanie @MagusMelanie
Tweeted on August 13, 2021
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday!
We have SCOTUS decisions. The best they can bring to the party are childish insults.—Joe]
The American appetite for social media censorship is apparently increasing: 48 percent of survey respondents now want the government to restrict misinformation, compared with just 39 percent in 2018.
…
That figure—48 percent—is significant. It means, that just about half of all people want the government to violate the First Amendment, which protects the free speech rights of private actors, including tech companies.
Robby Soave
August 20, 2021
48% of Americans Want the Government To Restrict Misinformation on Social Media
[I find it very telling that Democrats had a 25% jump in desire for government infringement upon the specific enumerated right to free speech.—Joe]