There is some truth in this

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Study reveals average tech worker’s wardrobe is 85% free tech t-shirts:

A team of UC Berkeley researchers has discovered that the 85% of the average tech worker’s clothes are free tech t-shirts, hoodies, and other assorted clothing.

The study of this prevalent free clothing, known by tech workers as “swag,” has come at the same time as a massive tech boom that has swept the Bay Area. On a normal weekday in San Francisco, you’re liable to see dozens of young hipsters walking down the street wearing t-shirts, jackets, hats, and even socks emblazoned with the names and logos of companies ranging from tech titans to ten-person startups. Tech companies hand out free logo-festooned paraphernalia at career fairs, company events, and almost any opportunity available.

It’s a joke article but there is a lot of truth in it.

Most of my casual shirts and some of the shirts I wear to work have some gun reference to them. But probably 10% of my shirts are Microsoft branded. MS gave out a lot of shirts, hats, coats, sweatshirts, etc. and I still have most of them. There are other tech companies represented as well but it’s far from 85%.

Gun cartoon of the day

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StandYourGround

Bogus premise. False conclusion. 100% prejudice and paranoia against the inalienable right to self-defense.

Quote of the day—Alan Gura

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The plaintiffs in these cases are suing because democracy failed them. They didn’t have the votes in the places where votes count: the ballot box at referendum time, the state legislature. They turned to the courts because the Constitution, and the judiciary that is supposed to enforce it, must check democracy’s excesses. Majorities are only entitled to have their way when they aren’t having their way with someone’s rights. But if constitutional interpretation is all about who has the most votes for a policy, why should the Court care about votes on an internet brief when it can look to the result of a real statewide election?

…

There are plenty of places for you to pitch your soapbox, court ain’t one of them.

Alan Gura
March 4, 2015
Amicus Detritus
[While in this instance Gura is not referring to gun rights litigation the principle is the same. This principle, as well as many others, appears to be lost on our opponents. It may benefit us to remind them of this at appropriate times.

It wouldn’t matter if 90% of the population were in favor of enslaving the other 10%. The U.S. Constitution does not allow for that and any laws enabling it can and should be struck down. The same applies to laws infringing upon the right to keep and bear arms.—Joe]

Gun cartoon of the day

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MothersBestArgument

This certainly isn’t the way the cartoonist intended it but when I saw this I thought, “I’m all for saner gun laws. Guns are how mothers protect their children.”

If the cartoonist had realized people would so drastically misinterpret it would they have expressed it like this? I assume they would not. If this assumption is true then doesn’t that say something about the mind of the cartoonist?

They must have difficulty in comprehending the mindset of others, right? Is that the type of person who should be driving our public policies? I say no. If they can’t comprehend there even exists another viewpoint how can they possibly weigh the pros and cons of an issue? They can only be advocates for their narrow-minded views.

Quote of the day—Stamboulieh and Beck

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Defendants cannot support their position with any factual data regarding machineguns with respect to law abiding citizens. It cannot be done and there is no justification for § 922(o)’s prohibition with regard to a law abiding citizen…

Stephen D. Stamboulieh and Alan Alexander Beck
February 27, 2015
Case No.3:14-cv-03872-M
JAY AUBREY ISAAC HOLLIS Individually and as Trustee of the JAY AUBREY ISAAC HOLLIS REVOCABLE LIVING TRUST, Plaintiff,
v.
ERIC H. HOLDER, JR., Attorney General of the United States; B. TODD JONES, Director of the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearm and Explosives, Defendants.
PLAINTIFF’S SUR-REPLY TO DEFENDANTS’ REPLY TO PLAINTIFF’S RESPONSE IN OPPOSITION TO DEFENDANTS’ MOTION TO DISMISS, OR IN THE ALTERNATIVE, FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT
[H/T to Ry for the Tweet.

Work is in progress on making new manufacture machine guns available to the general public. I am not a lawyer but it seems the ATF made some serious forced errors in regards to trusts. While legally a very narrow window of opportunity these may bear fruit when leveraged with the Heller, McDonald, and Mance decisions.

This is consistent with what we were thinking seven years ago while waiting for the Heller decision.—Joe]

Stolen government money

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It seems that someone just embezzled three billion dollars from the US treasury. Well, actually, it was some insurance companies, and the Treasury just cut them checks. And it wasn’t authorized by congress. And the treasury told congress to go piss up a rope when they said “you can’t do that!” That story and other bureaucratic contempt for the law here.

The rule of law is dead, unless some pols and appointees start going to jail, or otherwise paying for their crimes against the people.

Pretty pictures

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Last weekend Barb and I went to California for Stanford’s Parents Weekend. It is Barb’s daughter, Maddy, who is attending there and I was mostly along for support such as carrying heavy objects, navigation, and donating excess heat to Barb as needed. It was colder than we expected and we even had rain. I’m not really complaining about it. Mostly just trying to rub it in a bit to others. While others were dealing with snow and cold we went for a walk on the beach.

When not performing my normal duties I took pictures. We drove to Venice Beach and hiked a little more than 1.5 miles south were some of the prettier ones were taken. Some other time I’ll post pictures of the two mile long particle accelerator we toured.

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As shown by the unruly hair it was a little windy.

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It was a little bit cold. We only saw three women in bikinis and I only saw one of them get into the water. While we were glad we brought coats and long sleeve shirts for a time it was comfortable with short sleeved shirts.

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We saw a group of about 15 or 20 people on horseback. I’ve never ridden horse on a beach before. I might like to try it sometime. But it probably would have to be without Barb. She doesn’t care for riding horses.

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This is probably a radar station but I preferred to think of it as a giant golf ball on a tee.

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There were a fairly large number of seagulls and I was a bit concerned they were on “bombing runs” sometimes when they flew over but they were actually well behaved.

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I took this one with my phone. I wish I had used my SLR. With a longer focal length Barb would not have been so distorted in size compared to Maddy and the higher resolution would have made it something I would have cropped a little bit, printed, framed, and hung on the wall.

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This is probably my favorite. The dramatic clouds. The active ocean. The disappearing tire track. Even the seagulls in the distance really appeal to me.

Gun cartoon of the day

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Because it is applicable to current events I’m posting a gun cartoon that is actually more pro-gun rather than the anti-gun type I usually do.

gun-control-cartoon-by-nate-beeler

Our opponents think they are clever but they are simply wearisome. Ammo bans don’t pass constitutional muster any more than gun bans do. It just costs us time and money to slap them down. Again.

We really need to prosecute these people and put an end to this type of nonsense.

Quote of the day—Graeme Wood

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The Islamic State is committed to purifying the world by killing vast numbers of people. The lack of objective reporting from its territory makes the true extent of the slaughter unknowable, but social-media posts from the region suggest that individual executions happen more or less continually, and mass executions every few weeks. Muslim “apostates” are the most common victims.

Graeme Wood
February 2015
What ISIS Really Wants: The Islamic State is no mere collection of psychopaths. It is a religious group with carefully considered beliefs, among them that it is a key agent of the coming apocalypse. Here’s what that means for its strategy—and for how to stop it.
[H/T to Sebastian.

Everything I read in this article is consistent with what I have read elsewhere about Islam. This includes but is not limited to the following books:

Read the Atlantic article this QOTD came from. It will take you less than an hour and you’ll know 100% of what you need to know to make good decisions about them and 80% of what you need to know to understand them.—Joe]

Gun cartoon of the day

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Ebola

This is deliberate deception on the part of the cartoonist. Over half of the deaths by bullets are self inflicted and there is no gun specific preventative that could successfully reduce the number of suicides. Beyond that death by bullet is not an “epidemic”. Both the absolute numbers and especially the raw numbers have been dropping during the last couple of decades despite there being more guns and bullets in circulation, more people having easier access to them, and more people being able to carry guns in public.

The cartoonist furthers their deception by ignoring the potential risk of Ebola. Some strains of Ebola have a 90% death rate. Even if it were as low as 25%, as one might speculate it would be with first class medical care, with infection rates as low at 5% of the population this could result in four million deaths in a year in the U.S. You would be hard pressed to imagine scenarios involving bullets that cause that many deaths unless the government were to try confiscation of guns (H/T to Don K. for the link). Which one might imagine the cartoonist is suggesting. Hence we can tentatively conclude the cartoonist is advocating for policies which will increase not only the death rate from Ebola due to resources being moved from mitigation of the Ebola threat but increasing the probability there will be an increase in the the death rate from bullets. That demonstrates crap for brains. But as we can see it is common in their profession.

Quote of the day—Bacon @Baconmints

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Making the #tinycockclub aka nra lapdogs, twist is a pleasure and a joy. Good times. #chickenshitcowards #gunsense #fuckthenra

Bacon @Baconmints
Tweeted on December 23, 2014
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday!

Via a Tweet from BFD‏ @BigFatDave.—Joe]

 

Rounds in the last month

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Here is an update on the total number of rounds I have reloaded:

223.LOG: 2027 rounds.
3006.LOG: 467 rounds.
300WIN.LOG: 1351 rounds.
40SW.LOG: 37670 rounds.
45.log: 0 rounds.
9MM.LOG: 19709 rounds.
Total: 61224 rounds.

This is a delta of 1896 rounds since last month. This is composed of 830 rounds of 40 S&W and 1066 rounds of 9mm.

I still haven’t found any of my favorite pistol powders available. But I found a pound of Longshot on my shelf and another local source had some so I bought a pound from them as well.. I’m working up a load for 40 S&W with it. Even 0.2 grains less than the suggested starting load gives higher velocities than what I really want. I’m getting 1047 fps with Montana Gold 180 grain JHP for a Power Factor of 188 when I really want a PF on the order of 175. I may reduce the seating depth and see if that helps. I was able to order eight pounds of ETR7 which I’m hoping works out okay. If so then that should keep me in business for quite a while.

Quote of the day—John Randoph

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I am an aristocrat. I love liberty; I hate equality.

John Randoph
US congressman from Virginia from 1799 with various absences until 1827.
From Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America (America: A Cultural History)
[I was struck by this because I wondered if the same sentiment is shared by many of our current politicians. When they speak of liberty are they referring to their own liberty but not liberty for all?

One the primary revelations I had while listening to this book was the extreme differences between different settlements in North America. For example the Quakers in Pennsylvania were, essentially, Libertarian. The people in Virginia were an extremely status/class driven society who demanded the liberty to own slaves.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Bruce Schneier

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I prefer to conceptualize privacy as a right to be respected and not a commodity to be bought and sold.

Bruce Schneier
February 24, 2015
AT&T Charging Customers to Not Spy on Them
[SoWhatDidYouExpect comments, ‘Replace “prefer to conceptualize” with “DEMAND”.’—Joe]

Quote of the day—Mike Weisser

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Physicians should continue to ask patients to immunize themselves against gun violence by getting rid of the guns.

Mike Weisser
Mike the Gun Guy
February 23, 2015
A Gun Violence Vaccine
[Don’t ever let anyone get away with telling you that no one wants to take your guns.—Joe]

Gun cartoon of the day

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GotMeADeer

This cartoonist has some serious flaws. Either their ignorance or their willingness to lie is without practical limits. Furthermore the cartoon ignores the real purpose of this type of rifle and the Second Amendment. It’s not about hunting. George Washington didn’t cross the Delaware River to get to his duck blind.

Quote of the day—Richard M. Re

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When the government has a dog of a case, someone has to draw the short straw and argue it. In Henderson v. United States, Assistant to the Solicitor General Ann O’Connell drew that straw. It seems clear that the Court will side with petitioner Tony Henderson – a felon seeking the right to sell or otherwise dispose of firearms that he owns but can no longer legally possess. In offering concession after concession and various fallback options, the government offered a case study in controlled implosions.

Richard M. Re
February 25, 2015
Argument analysis: A controlled implosion
Via Firearms Policy ‏@gunpolicy
[As we build a stronger and stronger foundation of case law more and more of the unconstitutional firearms laws and regulations will result in these sort of implosions. They are defending a house of cards and ultimate nearly all of it will fall to the fundamental principles.—Joe]

Inverse Markley’s Law

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Via email from Toastrider we have this:

LittlePistol

For some reason I haven’t been able to find any commercially available ammo. It must be that a high demand for it hoovered the shelves like a lot of the other ammo. This would appear to be consistent with the abundance of large rifle ammo, moderate availability of .223 ammo, and scarcity of .22 ammo. Thus I claim we have proof that if the size of a gun is inversely related to penis size then the caliber of the gun owning man in this country is much larger than average.

A day away from fundamentally transforming the internet

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And hardly anyone is noticing, apparently. This is one of the biggest power grabs regarding free speech in the history of history, and it seems to be going through without much discussion, or even much notice.

I’ve been saying for years that the left really, really MUST gain control over the internet, and right now it seems they’re just a day or two from initiating their Solution; FCC control. Goodbye Wild West. Hello Federal Department of the Internet. I hope you like your new overlords.

Smart bombs and stupid people

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How Dumb Cluster Bombs Are Becoming Heinously Smart is a fascinating post on smart cluster bombs. For example:

Once these 64 pound, 31 inch long submunitions are released, each will deploy a parachute, slowing their forward movement and orientating them vertically in relation to the ground. Then, a rocket motor fires and forces these cylinders into a slight climb, although at a distance it would look like the BLU-108s are hanging in mid-air. This rocket also causes the BLU-108s to spin rapidly.

As the submunition spins while almost hovering in mid-air above the target area, each BLU-108 cylinder will throw four individual sub-submuntions, known as ‘Skeets,’ from its body. Each Skeet is slung in a different direction at a 90 degree vector from the now empty BLU-108 cylinder. As these hockey puck-like Skeets fly through the air while rapidly spinning, a small infrared imager and laser ranging system activates on each one. The infrared seeker rapidly scans the ground below for an enemy vehicle or weapons fixture that it can recognize, while the laser ranger provides a ground contour map.

…

the Skeet fires off its 2lb explosively formed penetrator along with a fragmentation ring, sending a molten spear into the target along with a handful of dense shrapnel covering the area around it. The idea is that the penetrator kills the vehicle from top, where even main battle tanks are vulnerable, while the shrapnel kills who is inside (if it is a lightly armored target) and anyone in the targeted vehicle’s immediate vicinity.

…

the Sensor Fuzed Weapon’s unique discriminating abilities, and its WCMD delivery system, will most likely morph into even more dynamic submunition capabilities. Ones where taking out individual soldiers via large-insect sized flying explosives, capable of loitering above the target area for long periods of time, could become a reality. Or even a future where small nano-robotic mites are dropped using a WCMD-like dispensers over a convoy of enemy armor, their mission to destroy vehicles’ electronics from the inside out without causing so much as a single explosion, may also become a real capability one day.

In many ways conventional warfare is obsolete because equipment on the ground is so vulnerable. Unless a force can successfully challenge the air superiority of their opponent wars will (and are) be fought using Fourth and Fifth-Generation Warfare.

The most naïve and stupid comment I found on the post is the following:

Why can’t we use this technology to deliver food to hungry people? Smart fruit, laser guided bananas. Something positive, and far cheaper.

Nevermind, answered my own question. There’s no profit in peace or help, only in violence and destruction.

I would try to explain it to them but I don’t think we have enough in common to form a means of communication such that they could understand what I was saying.