Quote of the day—Barbara Parker

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There are people out there whose minds we will never change. If you are a parent, if you are a mother, if you have children — how can you look your child in the eye and say we are willing to allow you to be collateral damage in order to keep what some people perceive to be their constitutional rights? If we as a society are willing to accept that, what kind of society are we?

Barbara Parker
August 30, 2015
Alison Parker’s parents on gun-control fight: ‘We cannot be intimidated’
[Answer to the first question: It’s not just a perception of a constitutional right. It is a specific enumerated right which all nine justices of SCOTUS agreed was an individual right. And we can look at our children and say, “We are going to defend your right to keep and bear arms in defense of yourself, your loved ones, your community, and your country even when grief stricken friends and relatives attempt to infringe upon our rights. And we can do that even as we feel and express our sympathy for their horrible loss.” Other than keeping and driving cars is not a constitutionally protected right this is no different than the situation where someone uses their car to deliberately hurt someone else. And in my personal experience this is more common that people using guns to hurt innocent people.*

Answer to the second question: We are a society which knows our rights are important and protect them from violation even when people, overwhelmed with emotion, are unable to think and act rationally.

And I don’t know anyone that wants to “intimidate” these grief stricken people. We just want them to respect us and our right to keep and bear arms.—Joe]

*Ry encountered someone driving straight toward him on the freeway at a high rate of speed. Ry narrowly missed being hit by leaving the freeway over the shoulder. He stopped in the grass beside the freeway, got out of his vehicle and vomited. The driver of the other vehicle continued on down the freeway in the wrong direction, and connected with a semi-truck and killed the driver of the truck.

My cousin Johnny and his friend Lonnie were struck head-on by a car going the wrong direction in their lane. Johnny reported the guy was alert, looking directly at them, and corrected when they took evasive action. Johnny and Lonnie were seriously injured but survived and mostly recovered. The other driver was killed in the attack.

I don’t know any friends or family who were shot by another person other than during military combat.

My car was burgled

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I went out to the car (Ford Escape) to go to work this morning and noticed stuff from the console scattered all over the seats, the doors ajar, and a plastic bin I keep “car food” in on the ground behind the car. A quick check in back verified I had lost a bunch of stuff.

I called the police. They said someone would be there within an hour, I sent an email to work, and I sat down to wait.

The police officer was really nice and made a report of the things I had lost and was able to obtain a fingerprint off of the lift gate. It could be mine but there is a chance it was the bad guy. I went to work and was looking at the stuff on the seat. There were several things made of smooth plastic and metal that had been removed from the console. I sent the officer a email asking if he would like to attempt finding fingerprints on those items too. He came to the parking garage where I work and spent another 45 minutes or so with his fingerprint brush and making various things black with the dust. He found another print and took it for his report as well.

He told me that there were three car prowls in my neighborhood last night and eight a short distance away the night before. My hope is that with someone this active they will make a mistake or two and get caught soon. I’m been doing some things to increase the odds of a mistake leading to their apprehension. I want something or someone to trip them up.

My losses include:

There were some other things as well that brings the total loss up to about $1800. I didn’t realize how much stuff I kept in there. The back of the Escape was completely covered with a tarp too.

They didn’t break any windows but it’s possible it wasn’t locked. I always lock it when I leave but from my bedroom with my key in my pocket the remote key will sometimes lock (or unlock) the car when I bend over.

Miscellaneous stuff: The cop was wearing the same Surefire flashlight holster and a nearly identical flashlight to mine. He is part of the bomb squad and we talked about explosives some. I shot at the same match as someone he knows in his department a couple weeks ago in Marysville.

It’s the gun’s fault

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Found at ZeroHedge. They got it from Town Hall.

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The sad part is that it’s not so much satire as truth WRT how the media spins the narrative.

Brady who?

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The Brady Campaign released a YouTube video* last week. It was a statement following the shooting of the WDBJ reporter and photographer. It has been viewed 113 times. One of those was me. Probably a significant number of them were other pro-gun people who did not sympathize with Brady President Dan Gross’s message.

113 viewings? Even every person who viewed it donated $20 it wouldn’t cover the cost of production. And even if all 113 people were convinced to vote for politicians who would advocate for more gun control the effect would be deep in the noise.

I posted a video of shooting at the steel match on Whidbey Island the day before Brady’s and it has 36 views so far. My video of the Marysville USPSA match two weeks ago has 87 views. Combined that’s 123 views and I don’t don’t have a staff and multi-hundred thousand dollar budget. I’m just a B-class pistol shooter and third tier blogger.

What does that make The Brady Campaign?

We are getting closer to seeing my dream come true.

* It is here if you really want to watch it.

Quote of the day—Ed @Rx_Ed

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ASSHOLES with gun fetish to compensate for their lack of adequately sized penises will say “God gave me right to bear arms.”

#gunsense NOW

Ed ‏@Rx_Ed
Tweeted on August 26, 2015
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday! Via a tweet from BFD ‏@BigFatDave.—Joe]

Sasquan post, obligatory

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It’s been an interesting week and a half. School starts this Tuesday, but I didn’t have a job lined up yet as of ten days ago (and the spousal unit was getting worried about that fact). The septic system had a pump die, needing replacement. And Sasquan, the World Science Fiction Convention that was being held in Spokane this year was fast approaching. The latter normally wouldn’t mean much, except that this year I had been nominated for the John W. Campbell award for best new SF writer, and my publisher had encouraged me to go. Continue reading →

Quote – dustydog

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“One definition of a liberal, is someone who doesn’t understand the problem, or the history behind it, or the concept of consequences, but is arrogant enough to think that his off-the-cuff solution should be enforced with as much violence and as much of other peoples’ money as might be required.” — dustydog on August 30, 2015

Many years ago I heard that the definition of a “liberal” is “someone who’ll give you the shirt off of someone else’s back”, but this one is much better. It sums up all the horror and mass death of the 20th century in one, concise sentence. Collectivists (Progressives, Fascists, communists, et al) are either extremely evil or blind, or both. In any case they must be kept as far away from government positions as possible.

Quote of the day—Michael @consultmelater

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@Rx_Ed I think #gunsense means guns should NOT be sold to people who are bat-shit crazy. That eliminates #2A supporters.

Michael ‏@consultmelater
Tweeted on August 26, 2015
[This is what they think of you and Second Amendment rights.—Joe]

Update: In the comments Michael says:

My comment is being misread. After reading it again I can see how many are thinking that I refered to #2A supporters as bat-shit crazy. On the contrary, my intended statement was that only #2A supporters should be allowed to have guns.

I apologize for the confusion.

Quote of the day—JaredDudley619

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We have to fixed this Gun Control problem ASAP!! Gotta get rid of these guns man!! I know it’s political on why we can’t but we gotta try!!

…

For the people who wanna keep guns in America, give me your reasons? Cuz if we got rid of all guns then there’s no need for protection..

JaredDudley619
Tweeted (and here) August 26, 2015
[“…if we got rid of all the guns then there’s no need for protection”? That’s definitive proof of crap for brains. And who is this “we” that are going to get “rid of all guns”?

And don’t ever let anyone get away with telling you no one wants to take your guns.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Chris B.

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My management tool of choice is public flogging.

Chris B.
August 27, 2015
[I work with some really fun guys. They are my kind of people.—Joe]

Android lock patterns

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News you can use if you have an Android phone (or are trying to break into one):

She found that a large percentage of them—44 percent—started in the top left-most node of the screen. A full 77 percent of them started in one of the four corners. The average number of nodes was about five, meaning there were fewer than 9,000 possible pattern combinations. A significant percentage of patterns had just four nodes, shrinking the pool of available combinations to 1,624. More often than not, patterns moved from left to right and top to bottom, another factor that makes guessing easier.

H/T to Bruce Schneier.

I’m a little surprised that brute forcing would be viable on Android phones. Windows phones will require significant delays after (IIRC) three failed attempts to log in. Then after a few more failures the phone will reset.

Of course he would say something like that

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It’s in his nature:

In the U.S., a person on a watch or “no-fly” list would not be flagged buying a train or bus ticket. Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, called for creating a “no-ride” list for Amtrak in 2011, a proposal the rail line said “could add value in creating an overall security posture.”

I think there should be more emphasis on the word posture. Schumer nature is to push us more and more toward a police state regardless of the effectiveness of his claims of trying to make people safer. He’s been doing this for decades with the most outlandish gun control proposals. I don’t expect he will stop until he no longer has an audience willing to listen to him.

Interesting data

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Ashley Madison was a bunch of dudes talking to each other, data analysis suggests:

Gizmodo editor-in-chief Annalee Newitz analyzed the data from the site’s user database and found a lot of suspicious stuff suggesting that nearly all the female accounts were fake, maintained by the company’s employees.

…

she found three really damning pieces of data:

  • Only 1,492 of the women in the database had ever checked their messages on the site. That’s compared with more than 20 million men.
  • Only 2,409 of the women had ever used the site’s chat function, versus more than 11 million men.
  • Only 9,700 of the women had ever responded to a message from another person on the site, versus almost 6 million men. (This number was greater than the number of women who checked messages because it’s possible to answer messages in bulk when you first visit the site, without ever opening your inbox.)

It’s possible that most of the women signed up but never did anything.

Either way, Newitz writes, Ashley Madison is a site where tens of millions of men write mail, chat, and spend money for women who aren’t there.”

So, basically, the business model was fraud.

Ry and I have frequently suggested to each other we could be wealthy if only we weren’t constrained by our morals. This is another data point suggesting this hypothesis may be true.

Quote of the day—Hillary Rodham Clinton

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We have got to do something about gun violence in America — and I will take it on.

Hillary Rodham Clinton
August 26, 2015
Hillary Clinton vows to be gun-control president
[It’s good that she is making this very clear. Maybe this will make it a campaign issue as well. With support for gun rights the highest it has been since 1993 there is a good chance this will make it a loosing issue.—Joe]

Mugme Street news

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Via email from Ry we have this story:

Police have increased patrols around 3rd Avenue and Pine Street this week after three tourists from Rhode Island were attacked and robbed outside the downtown bus tunnel.

Jonah Spangenthal-Lee of the Seattle police said the incident unfolded Sunday at around 11 p.m. as the tourists were walking to the tunnel’s entrance and passed by a group of men and women on the street.

One of the women in the group confronted the tourists and accused them of bumping into her. When one of the tourists apologized, a woman in the group responded by burning one of the tourists, a 29-year-old man, with a lit cigarette.

The group of suspects then stole a cellphone from the victims and struck the 29-year-old man in the head with a broken bottle when he began shouting for help, Spangenthal-Lee said.

The suspects also attacked the two female tourists – who are 23 and 24 years old – punching them both in the face.

When police arrived at the scene, the group of suspects had fled. However, officers did arrest one man at the scene after he interfered with medics’ efforts to treat the victims and told the victims they “deserved” to be beaten and robbed.

There is a reason Barb calls this street “Mugme Street”. I wish the tourists had guns with them and had encouraged these thugs to reconsider their life choices.

Bainbridge Island Swamp Lake

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Last Sunday Barb and I went for a hike on Bainbridge Island. We were meeting friends from the peninsula and as this is about halfway between our homes and them liking the outdoors as much as we did we decided to go on a short hike through the woods to Gazzam Lake.

We planned to leave at 8:30 AM to catch the 9:35 ferry but we were ready to go at 8:20 and left early. We arrived at the ferry dock, paid for our ticket, and were told we were going to be on the 8:45 ferry. Essentially we arrived just a few minutes before it was scheduled to leave and just had to drive onto the ferry and it took off. Excellent timing! The only problem was we were now 50 minutes early to meet our friends.

Continue reading →

Flavored air

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With the entire Northwest on fire, it’s been smoky here for what seems like forever. Below is the view from my deck this morning, looking south and then west.

The other side of town is now invisible

The other side of town is now invisible

Tastes like wood smoke this morning. The other day it was grass smoke.

Tastes like wood smoke this morning. The other day it was grass smoke.

Continue reading →

Quote of the day—brainuser1

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By now you have heard about the terrible accident at the hands of a toddler, resulting in the death of his father. What more reason do we need to address the issue of gun control? Better yet, what greater example to envision a society where there are no guns…eliminating these types of accidents?

I can’t help but “go there” for a minute and think (putting this very, very unfortunate accident aside for a minute) how many lives would have been spared if there were no guns to end them. How would differences be settled? What other alternative would police officers take if it were not so easy to reach for their pistol and shoot a suspect?

Maybe we’d go back to the old days of man up…dukes up and fight it out.

I don’t recall many people dying from that, just bloody.

I don’t know about you, but I am sick and tired of people dying from being shot!

brainuser1
August 24, 2015
Toddler’s Fatal Shot of Dad Should Open Conversation About Greater Gun Control
[There are five things I find worth remembering from “brainuser1”.

1) This brainiac apparently can’t imaging there are tradeoffs in lives lost if there were no guns. If there were no guns then there would be only “lives spared”, not lives lost due to inability to defend innocent life.

2) The physically frail or even those just small of stature, in the view of this person, are not worthy of having a chance of defending themselves against large predators.

3) “People dying from being shot” is what is important. Not people dying from evil predators.

4) The specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms is not even on their radar screen.

5) Don’t ever let anyone get away with telling you that no one wants to take your guns.

Make that five and a half things… They have crap for brains.—Joe]

Steel match results

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Saturday I went to Whidbey Island for the steel match at Holmes Harbor Rod & Gun Club. I had specially practiced for this match last Thursday and had high hopes of doing well.

Here are the results:

Name Division Time
Steve M. RF-O 44.92
Steve M. RF-RI-O 45.6
Brian L. RF-RI-O 46.35
Jeff K. RF-RI-O  52.72
Alex V. RF-RI-O 56.15
Jeff D. RF-O 63.2
Joe H. RF-I 67.22
MAC RF-O 69.61
Jim D. RF-O 71.43
Brian L. RF-I 77.43
Susan K. RF-O 81.4
Joe H. CF-I 82.13
Bruce B. CF-I 82.43
Bruce B. CF-I 83.73
Mitch H. RF-I 96.04
Brian L. CF-I 98.47
MAC              CF-RV-I 98.71
Jeff K. CF-I 99.08
Rev B. RF-O 100.7
Jeff D. CF-I 101.08
John H. CF-I 115
Jeff S. CF-I 141.44
Bekah H. RF-I 351.29

I won in both rimfire iron sighted (RF-I) and centerfire iron sighted (CF-I). In a similar match last month I had times of 69.39 seconds and 82.6 seconds compared to this months 67.22 and 82.13 seconds. Those differences are essentially in the noise unless the stages were more difficult this month but comparison of other shooters between the months doesn’t show a clear pattern so I’m going with I didn’t shoot measurably better this month. I had a lot of misses so I think I probably was doing the transitions quickly enough to make up for the misses. If I can combine the speed up in transitions with accuracy then I might see some improvement.

Here are pictures of the stages. You can play a game of “Where’s the tennis ball?” in each of the pictures to discover the starting aiming point for people shooting rimfire guns.

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I used my video glasses to record most of the stages. Again I forgot to turn on the glasses for one of the stages.

I was very pleased with one string (starting at 0.00:24). I shot five targets in 1.94 seconds. The first shot took about 0.77 seconds so the remaining four had an average split time of less than 0.30 seconds.

It was hazy from all the smoke but I had a nice ferry ride on my way home:

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Quote of the day—James Craig

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When you look at the city of Detroit, we’re kind of leading the way in terms of urban areas with law-abiding citizens carrying guns.

James Craig
Detroit Police Chief
August 2015
Packing heat in Detroit: Motown residents answer police chief’s call to arms
[It’s a great article.—Joe]