Last Friday Barb and I flew into Victoria B.C. to attend daughter Jaime’s wedding. While waiting in baggage claim a guy walked up to us and ask, “Are you Joe Huffman?”
“Uh…. yes”, I replied.
I was a bit concerned. I was already uncomfortable that I had to leave my gun, knives, and even pepper spray behind. And now some strange guy has approaching me, correctly identified me, and is verifying my identity. It took a couple seconds to think it through and realize that he just got off the same plane I did and almost for certain doesn’t have any weapons either. Together, Barb and I should be able to handle the situation should it go sour.
It turns out, as you might have already guessed, he reads my blog and just wanted to say hi. He lives in Texas and had traveled to Victoria to be with his daughter while she attended a ballet class for a month.
As computers continue to permeate every aspect of our lives, society, and critical infrastructure, it is much more important to ensure that they are secure from everybody — even at the cost of law-enforcement access — than it is to allow access at the cost of security. Barr is wrong, it kind of is like these systems are protecting nuclear launch codes.
I have it on good authority that conflating Special Forces with Special Olympics in the presence of a half dozen or so Spec Ops people has the potential to be hazardous to your health.
The person who tested this hypothesis told me he was concerned he might be killed for couple of minutes. He managed to talk his way out of the situation without injury but does not recommend others attempting to repeat the experiment.
To the best of my knowledge the reverse conflation has not been tested. I would like to suggest this is a new field ripe for original research with a lower potential for health hazards.
SUMMERFIELD — Marion County sheriff’s officials say a homeowner armed with an AR-15 shot and killed two intruders and was injured himself during a home invasion robbery in Summerfield Wednesday night.
…
Sgt. Micah Moore found Doyle with a gunshot wound and a shotgun next to him on the ground. Deputies entered the home and found Jackson dead on the dining room floor. Detectives said he was wearing a “Jason” mask on top of his head, gloves on both hands, jeans and a black shirt.
Near Jackson’s head was a semi-automatic pistol, detectives said.
Continuing into the home, deputies found the 61-year-old homeowner in a bedroom.
He had an AR-15 rifle on his legs and was bleeding from a gunshot wound to the stomach, according to sheriff’s officials. Doyle and the homeowner were transported to Ocala Regional Medical Center, where Doyle died.
Four young and armed thugs broke down the front door and attempted to rob the one disabled old homeowner. An AR-15 evened the playing field.
According to the study, older adults over the age of 55 who consumed more than 50 grams of chili per day displayed nearly double the risk of developing poor cognition and a decline in overall memory. Interestingly, slimmer adults indulging in a spicy diet exhibited even more significant memory loss.
It wasn’t until I was well into middle age before I finally figured out that some people interpreted the eating of things like chili and black peppers as having a taste. To me (and both of my brothers) there is no taste associated with many peppers. There is only “hot” and pain. It had long been a source of great perplexion to me, “Why do people deliberately cause themselves pain for no apparently benefit?” I will feel the pain in my mouth and throat from food that has pepper concentrations that no one (other than my brothers and I) can even detect. In fact the concentration can be one tenth below the detection level of “normal” people and I still feel the “heat”.
Hence, for all my life, I have avoided spicy hot foods.
I’ll remember this when people who told me, “It’s not at all spicy!” and called me a “wimp” are drooling idiots. Don’t expect me to have much sympathy. I knew that stuff was bad for you decades ago.
That’s why everything has become politicized in the US. Americans have come to see the State as their parent, so they’re constantly pleading with it, like children, asking it for favors and benefits. Like children, they expect the State to magically support them.
They don’t seem to understand that the State isn’t a cornucopia. It’s the opposite. It’s a dangerous parasite. A huge tapeworm in the body of society.
Big gun = small wienie Embarrassing #RVA #Virginia again surrounding unarmed @MomsDemand & children who are fighting to keep kids & workplaces safe #gunsense laws
KarenVCU (@KarensHavoc) Tweeted on July 9, 2019 [When the arguments are weak, the weak lash out, and then we get another Markley’s Law Monday! And they delete their tweet because these cowards know they can’t defend themselves in the free marketplace of ideas.
Americans have always come together as ‘one’ when we have a identifiable threat or a common enemy and the Democratic Party fits the bill perfectly. #Truthdom#WalkAway
Isaiah Washington @IWashington Tweeted on July 13, 2019 [I don’t think it is quite that simple and clear cut, but I can see a good case being easy to make.—Joe]
This is what House Democratic leadership fears: that Ocasio-Cortez and the Squad, through their dominance of social media and their centrality on conservative media, will become the faces of the House Democratic majority.
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Trump took a fight House Democrats were having with each other and turned it into a fight they are now having with him. In doing, he rallied House Democrats around the Squad, and made himself the Squad’s chief opponent. “The Dems were trying to distance themselves from the four ‘progressives,’ but now they are forced to embrace them,” Trump tweeted. “That means they are endorsing Socialism, hate of Israel and the USA! Not good for the Democrats!”
Ezra Klein July 16, 2019 Trump vs. “the Squad”–Trump reunited the Democrats to further his narrative. [“The Squad” is the far left wing of the Democrats and their politics will be unacceptable in the vast majority of U.S. political jurisdictions. Speaker Pelosi knows this. She has data, from the quoted article, which says:
…the weird poll that Democratic officials apparently leaked to Axios to emphasize the damage Ocasio-Cortez was supposedly doing to the party. The poll was of non-college educated white men, and the post-publication controversy has swirled around whether it’s appropriate to call this group, which went heavily for Trump, “swing voters.”
But more telling was the framing of the poll by whoever leaked it. The Axios headline read “AOC defining Dems in swing states,” even though the results didn’t include any data to that effect. What the poll did show was that 74 percent of the respondents knew of Ocasio-Cortez, and 53 percent knew of Omar. How many other House Democrats have that kind of name recognition?
“If all voters hear about is AOC,it could put the [House] majority at risk,” an anonymous “top Democrat” told Axios. “[S]he’s getting all the news and defining everyone else’s races.”
Trump apparently saw this and made three tweets (and here and here):
So interesting to see “Progressive” Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly……
….and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run. Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how….
….it is done. These places need your help badly, you can’t leave fast enough. I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!
Trump is just castigating them as foreign because he says racist stuff.”
I find it telling that the tweets have to be explained as racists rather than demonstrate the racism directly. Ordinary people can clearly see they aren’t racist. The political left is like a paranoid person who imagine they see “people out to get them” everywhere. Healthy people don’t see the imaginary threats but that doesn’t reassure the paranoid. To the paranoid, as is the case with the political left, they interpret the fact that only they can see the “threat” as proof of their special powers.
With these three tweets President Trump bonded, essentially, all Democrats with “The Squad”. This bonding is a political albatross.
Congresswomen, who I truly believe, based on their actions, hate our Country. Get a list of the HORRIBLE things they have said. Omar is polling at 8%, Cortez at 21%. Nancy Pelosi tried to push them away, but now they are forever wedded to the Democrat Party. See you in 2020!
Tim Pool describes it as 4-D Chess:
Via email from Chet who also asks, in a somewhat different context:
Would it be possible to do this for the first and second amendments? For example coming up with really, really outrageous positions that would distract the opponents of the bill of rights?
The vast population of this earth, and indeed nations themselves, may readily be divided into three groups. There are the few who make things happen, the many more who watch things happen, and the overwhelming majority who have no notion of what happens.
On a good day I watch things happen. To accomplish the analog to President Trump’s manipulation of the Democrats but in defense of the First and Second Amendment is beyond my capacity. Suggestions?—Joe]
In the comments Gerry asked if the bales at Boomershoot would be square or round. I’ve only seen round for at least 10 years. The renter appears to have finished the baling at about 7:30 PM today.
Turns out the California county with the most concealed carry licenses has a lower homicide rate than LA County, where it’s easier to win an Oscar than get a CHL.
Cam Edwards @CamEdwards Tweeted on July 16, 2019 [Reference article, also by Edwards, is here.
I think the hard cord Democrats know who they really are. They are for the power. For people to mock and disrespect them creates an incredible urge to destroy even children associated with restricting their access to power. These people have to “know” what they are that they would murder children on their path to power. But it is a small price to pay because those who would restrict their access are not really human. They are deplorables.
The question is, “Does the set of people who are mostly apolitical know who these people really are?” I wish it were true. But I’m not yet convinced they are.
I want to change the conversation. I’m tired of people saying “things will never change.” I’m tired of walking on egg shells. After Sandyhook, if that’s where you’re at, you’re wrong.
I would like to suggest McMurray get a little practice in before he goes nationwide with that plan. I’d like to suggest he stop in at my place in Idaho sometime so I can give him a lesson or two.—Joe]
I kept forgetting to make a post about my reloading activities. Partially because there hasn’t been much. But it was greater than zero and I intended to make my usual posts. Oh well.
March
80 rounds of match grade .223. This was four sets of 20 using various weights of CFE 223 powder. Even the hottest loads, showing some minor high pressure signs, were almost 20 fps slower than previous loads with Varget which showed no pressure signs. Varget is one of Hodgdon’s Extreme Rifle Powders which is extremely consistent from lot to lot and extremely temperature stable (actual test with 308 Winchester):
CFE 223 is not part of their Extreme product line.
April
125 rounds of match grade .223 using the previously tested Varget loading.
May
216 rounds of match grade .223 using the previously tested Varget loading.
2509 rounds of .40 S&W.
175 rounds of these were a load which tested hotter than expected. They resulted in a Power Factor of 182.7. My previous tests indicated this load should result in about a 175 PF. I was quite perplexed at this until I looked at my data closely. This velocity measurement was done when the temperature was 80F. My previous velocity measurements had been at a lower temperature. I verified this by cooling some of the ammo to 35F. The velocity was over 25 fps slower which was equivalent to a powder charge of 0.1 grains less. I put these rounds aside for a match in Idaho on a cold day.
The remainder of the .40 S&W rounds were of the load I wanted to use for USPSA matches when the temperature is 60 F or warmer.
June
61 rounds of match grade .223 using the previously tested Varget loading.
This brings my lifetime reloaded ammunition totals to:
I’ve been whining to Barb about the tall grass when I went to the Boomershoot site about 10 days ago. Daughter Kim, Jacob, and I taught some new shooters (report coming any day now) how to shoot handguns and rifles and we had to drive and walk over the hay crop to get to the berm where we could shoot safely. I hated doing that. The crop belongs to the renter and we were damaging it. When I was growing up on the farm it was considered normal to be putting the hay crop in the barn on the 4th of July. This year the crop hadn’t even been cut. We did have a very late spring so it wasn’t really a surprise. Even though it was a very small percentage (probably like 0.1%) which had some damage I felt bad about it.
Yesterday the renter cut the hay and my webcam got a pretty good picture:
