Quote of the day—Bruce Schneier

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We have one infrastructure. We can’t choose a world where the US gets to spy and the Chinese don’t. We get to choose a world where everyone can spy, or a world where no one can spy. We can be secure from everyone, or vulnerable to anyone. And I’m tired of us choosing surveillance over security.

Bruce Schneier
September 19, 2014
Fake Cell Phone Towers Across the US
[A similar statement can be made about gun ownership.

We don’t get to choose between the everyone has guns and only the good guys have guns. The bad guys will always have guns or at least lethal weapons of some sort. And since they get to choose the time, location, and victim they will frequently succeed in their attacks when the innocent are stripped or discouraged from owning guns.

It’s only when the potential victims have the capability of causing near immediate serious consequences that perpetrators give serious consideration to their life choices. If there are not serious consequences then the case can be made they would be stupid to not to take advantage of those who are vulnerable. If the consequences are significantly delayed, as in a possible jail term a year or two in the future, the perpetrators may not be able to integrate those consequences into the decisions being made in the present.

I’m tired of politicians giving us the false choice of tolerating infringements on our right to keep and bear arms in exchange for imagined security.—Joe]

Another nail in the coffin of gun control

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Via email from Mike we have ELIZABETH E. MORRIS; and ALAN C. BAKER, Plaintiffs, v. U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS, et al., Case No. 3:13-CV-00336-BLW:

While the Corps retains the right to regulate the possession and carrying of handguns on Corps property, this regulation imposes an outright ban, and is therefore unconstitutional under any level of scrutiny, as set forth in Heller and Peruta.

…

For all of the reasons cited above, the Court will grant plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment…

Summary judgment! Can school and Post Office carry be far behind?

Yes, I recognize this decision is dependent upon the Ninth Circuit and other circuits have contrary ruling but when SCOTUS ultimately takes the case we will have that much more data demonstrating the risk, if any, to respecting the right to keep and bear arms is low. Claims of government being “special” will warrant little more than a raised eyebrow.

As Say Uncle said, Ban on guns violates second amendment? Who knew?

Greatest danger to the world

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I find this chart very odd (from Apart From Ebola (And Inflation), These Are The Greatest Dangers To The World):

20141016_worries1

In the U.S. and several Western European nations what people consider the “greatest threat to the world” is “Inequality”. While many of the nations where I envision “inequality” being the most obvious, like India, Mexico, and South America, other issues dominate. Is it an expression of envy by people with worthless degrees or unable to graduate from high school seeking “social justice”? Are these people willing to bring chaos to the world because they believe they don’t get what they deserve? Or is this some sort of guilt for living in a relatively free society?

If guilt then I guess I don’t have any because if I were doing such a survey it would not have even crossed my mind to have that as one of the options.

Could the Republican Party be any more ridiculous?

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I get several messages from the NRSC and other Republican interests daily. They’ve been “name dropping” Mitt Romney, McCain, Carl Rove, and other flabby, pasty-white, clueless, Progressive/elitist dry-balls, as though THAT were they way to get us pumped-up and writing checks– Trot out the guys who made conservatives stay home in the last two presidential elections. I’ve also gotten a few messages saying I could WIN, get this… a STICKER! That I could PUT on my VEHICLE! (squeeeeee!…count me in! Not).

My question for all of you is; could they appear more ridiculous and impotent if it were their prime directive to do so?

I maintain that they could get more support if they all got together, got stinking drunk on bad liquor, took off their clothes, buggered a herd of sheep on video and put that out as their campaign ads, with “Vote Republican and Bugger the Sheep!” as their main slogan. Unlike what they’ve been saying and doing, that COULD be interpreted as actually meaning something.

Quote of the day—Jane Thynne

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It would be surprising, as Amis says, that such a warped psychology as Hitler’s could ever be “a considerate and energetic lover”. Yet, once I began to write about the Nazi wives, I realised that the ability of mass murderers to compartmentalise their lives is one of their most disturbing aspects.

A new documentary about Himmler’s home life, called The Decent One, by the acclaimed filmmaker Vanessa Lapa, focuses on the tender personal letters between Himmler and his wife Marga, largely about their daughter Puppi, even as he perpetrated daily atrocities. It raises the same questions as Thomas Harding’s book Hanns and Rudolf, about the private life of Rudolf Höss, the Auschwitz commandant, whose children played just yards away from the camp, oblivious of the horrors occurring there.

Jane Thynne
October 15, 2014
What Hitler’s sex life was really like
[What I don’t think most people really understand is how easy it was, and is, for people to murder people on a mass scale. Hitler and the Nazi’s are viewed as terrible monsters the likes of which have only been seen once in history. Wrong.

People, across differing societies, accept orders to do terrible things to other people up to and including murder them. Read Hitler’s Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust. Or The Gulag Archipelago. Or The Rape Of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust Of World War II. Those are just some of the better known instances.

You can’t imagine our government rounding up people and putting them in camps? “That just can’t happen in this country”? Wrong. It did happen. Read Looking Like the Enemy: My Story of Imprisonment in Japanese American Internment Camps.

The people that inflict these terrible things did not have warning beacons flashing on their foreheads. Many, if not most, were kind to their family and pets and widely admired in society at the time. In both Hitler’s Willing Executioners and The Rape of Nanking, it is documented that the perpetrators sent photos and postcards of their atrocities to their families and the public at large. They were happily doing their jobs for the good of their country and the betterment of mankind.

I think one of the key flags to identify people who do these things are that they believe that the good of society outweighs the rights of the individual. There may be exceedingly narrow circumstances where this is true, Ebola comes to mind but when I hear someone advocate people “make sacrifices for the greater good” I go on full alert. Those are fighting words to me and such a person is, at a minimum, an enabler of, if not an advocate for, the next genocidal tyrant. And as such they deserve all the contempt given Stalin, Pol Pot, and Hitler.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Karagan Knowles

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Gun control laws would not affect any citizen who follows the law. No one wants to take away the right every American has to own a gun. But responsible Gun control is needed to keep all of us safe.

Karagan Knowles
October 13, 2014
Opposing Opinions: Gun Control
[Uhhh… wrong. Every. Single. Sentence.

Laws that require me to seek out and pay a FFL to loan my gun to my girlfriend for the week affect me. Laws that ban nearly every gun I own affect me. Laws that require me to pay a $200 tax and wait many months to purchase a hearing protection device not much larger than my thumb affect me.

There are lots of people who want to take away our guns.

Gun control has never been shown to make anyone safer.

Please try again Ms. Knowles. And this time do a little research rather than just making up stuff as you go.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Ron W

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The main aspect of slavery down through history was that people victimized by slavery were unarmed, disarmed and then kept that way. Anyone who wants to disarm you while they remain armed are for slavery!

Ron W
October 13, 2014
Comment to White slaves
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Shane Smith

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After several well publicized instances of the tiny penis brigade marching through Target stores with their artificial manhood in hand, Target announces that they want you to leave your insecurities and guns at home. Since the total number of people who really want to bring a gun to Target stores is about 11, and all of them are unemployed man-children in Texas, I suspect they won’t miss the business. Hell given the number of weekly gun-fails in the US of A they might save more customers lives in a single year than they lose to the Neanderthal crowd.

Shane Smith
July 3, 2014
Stores behaving well!
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday! Via email from Bob S.

Plus we get bonus insults to our maturity and genealogy. Citation needed on the number of people that carry guns into Target stores (I’ve done it dozens of times) and potential for saved lives considering the increased risk from the suggestion that Target stores become victim disarmament zones.

I wonder if he noticed irony of the maturity comment while making references to “the tiny penis brigade”. I suspect not.—Joe]

Capturing the changes

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Last month I made some substantial changes in the landscape around the Boomershoot explosives production facility (Mecca). I took pictures but I was frustrated they just didn’t seem to capture the changes. Barb and I were there again this weekend and in addition to some minor additional changes, such as spreading grass seed around and raking the seed into the dirt:

WP_20141011_007

I took some more pictures. I think this one captures things much better:

IMG_1797Adjusted

I also was able to take a picture that better captures what the new tent site looks like:

WP_20141011_009Corrected

Quote of the day—Barb L.

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Why is it so much fun?

Barb L.
October 11, 2014

[It’s not on video but she said this after shooting steel with a suppressed .22 pistol with no ear protection for the first time. The video above was probably about her fourth magazine on the steel.

The answer to her question? “It just is.”—Joe]

Quote of the day—Charles Gallagher

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There’s a difference between gun culture and hunting culture. They’re talking about hunting in Montana. They’re not talking about walking into a Wal-Mart with a 9-millimeter strapped to their back.

Charles Gallagher
October 10, 2014
Does race shape Americans’ passion for guns?
[Gallagher claims expertise in the field of sociology, race, and guns. I don’t know about his sociology and race credentials but when he talks about “a 9-millimeter strapped to their back” you know he has lots of work to do on the gun side of things.

Other than quoting crap for brains Gallagher in a few places it’s decent article. For CNN to publish this, it’s conclusive proof we are winning.—Joe]

Scam alert

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At 11:46 this morning I received an automated call from 800-331-3172. They said, IIRC:

Your AT&T account has been flagged for possible security violations. Please enter the last four digits of your social security number to avoid service interruption.

I immediately hung up.

How do I know with absolute certainty it was a scam? They called my Verizon phone.

Quote of the day—Michael Z. Williamson

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There are always people who are convinced there is a rational, polite, gentle and civilized way to stop a violent sociopath from raping their eye sockets.

We call these sensitive souls “Morons.”

Michael Z. Williamson
October 9, 2014
Wishful Thinking Knows No Bounds
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Quote of the day—X9887L

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Times have changed, society has changed. Time to disarm.

X9887L
November 4, 2013
Comment to Dianne Feinstein: ‘Gun People’ Hold A ‘Hammerlock’ On Gun Control Reform
[Never let anyone get away with telling you that no one wants to take your guns.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Marshall Dunlap

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No one needs a gun, especially a handgun. The idea that a handgun is essential for self protection is a myth. If someone is pointing a gun at you then it’s too late for you to pull yours out on them. A handgun is worthless for hunting.

…

The government is not going to invade your home and take away your guns. Gun-rights advocates say that they need their guns in order to keep the government from confiscating them. It’s illogical, paranoid reasoning, especially given the fact that there are already almost enough firearms in private hands to arm every man, woman and child in the country. The government would not need a list in order to come after your guns. All they would have to do is go door-to-door, and they would likely find one.

Marshall Dunlap
October 7, 2014
Gun control: Background-check inconvenience worth it to keep guns from criminals
[Gun owners are illogical and paranoid? This is a few sentences after he says we handguns being used for defense is a myth (tell the police that), they are worthless for hunting and, “No one needs a gun…” And it’s a few sentences before he suggests it would be easy for the police to go door-to-door and confiscate them.

I think Mr. Dunlap is doing some projection and that he is further evidence of why we shouldn’t have registration lists of guns or gun owners.—Joe]

Well, there’s always the Contender

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Via TFB, we see The Dominator, a 308 Winchester upper for the 1911. OK then. As Cooper was fond of saying; I suppose we should refrain from asking “why?” I don’t know what it’s for, but it is interesting from a gadgetry liker’s point of view. If it were a choice between the two I think I’d take the Thompson Center Contender. Hmm; how about a 300 Win Mag upper for your LCP, then, for, you know, uh…practice, or something, so when you’re out shooting for defense with your .380 it would serve as low recoil practice for big game hunting.

Quote of the day—Martin Fischer

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I had a liberal colleague giving me grief about guns and that gun owners are crazy, so I just put the question to her – if someone handed you a loaded gun, what would you do with it? She said “I’d look for someone to shoot”. I told her “That’s the difference between me and you – I’d be looking to be sure it was pointed toward a safe place. You’re the one that needs professional help, not me.”

Martin Fischer
October 4, 2014
Comment to AND SHE STABBED HIM IN THE HEAD: Why Gun Control Supporters Don’t Trust You With Guns
[H/T to Paul Koning.

I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Justin Trudeau

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In his Thursday morning address to the Canada 2020 conference, he declared himself ardently for “humanitarian” intervention — but scorned any air support for a military effort as just, you know, the Harper boys “trying to whip out [their] CF-18s and show how big they are.”

Justin Trudeau
October 2, 2014
Rex Murphy: Trudeau’s joke about Canadian jets bombing ISIS reveals an unserious mind
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday!

As Andrew Benghazi suggested in a Facebook message to me, “The ultimate Markley’s Law?”

Perhaps it is. But ultimate implies it cannot be exceeded for all time. We’ll have to wait for the end of time but Andrew just might be correct.—Joe]

Huffman Wheat in the news

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I was browsing through the Fall 2014 issue of Idaho Grain, (The Idaho Grain Producers Association magazine) when I found an article that mentioned the new variety of soft winter wheat, Huffman wheat.

Below is the scan of the article. The group picture contains both my brothers, my sister-in-law, my nieces, and their families.

IdahoWheatCommision2014AnnualReport0

IdahoWheatCommision2014AnnualReport1

IdahoWheatCommision2014AnnualReport2

Quote of the day—Nicki Kenyon

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My rape prevention device is an M1911.

Nicki Kenyon
October 1, 2014
Comment on Facebook.
[It should not be the only tool in your toolset but you probably will not need a backup for it.

See also John Fogh’s expression of a similar thought.—Joe]