I suspect that for this fellow, his guns are compensation for a miniscule “endowment”.
Sealabian
January 10, 2013
Comment to Tactical Response CEO Threatens To ‘Start Killing People’ Over Possible Obama Gun Measure (VIDEO)
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday!—Joe]
EXT – day – view of the airfield, with the ship they just boarded in the foreground
(note: this is really the part that needs the heroic action music in the background)
The large flier rises slowly, but unevenly. Suddenly it tips, lurches to one side, and runs into the other large flier next to it with it’s landing strut, tearing large gash and tangling Helton’s ship forward landing gear in its side. Helton’s flier tries to move this way and that trying to free itself, but just gets more tangled. After a few moments of trying to get free by pulling this way and that to whining sounds of over-stressed drives, it sways and sags down on the opposite side of the grounded ship and a steep angle, front end on top of the second large flyer, back end squishing a small flier that was sitting on the field. Continue reading
IMHO, best defense against sexism in tech is to be a badass woman. Prove every archaic stereotype irrefutably wrong and set great examples.
snipe ツ (@snipeyhead)
Tweeted on February 23, 2013
[Being a “badass” woman with a gun could be a great part of that.—Joe]
Barb L. and I spent most of the day working at Boomershoot Mecca. We (mostly she) folded hundreds of the boxes we use for targets and stacked them on the new shelves:
We also put in more of the supporting brackets for some of the shelves where they were a little weak. They are awesome now!
While Barb was folding boxes I finished grinding (Kitchen Aid blenders rock!) the last of the Potassium Chlorate that was of the wrong particle size. It isn’t as good as it comes from the factory but it is good enough that we can used it for the high intensity event where the bullet velocities are so much higher.
We tested the targets I made the last time I was on site and were stored for several days with the new packaging method of putting the Boomerite directly in the cardboard boxes then sealing the boxes with heat shrunk plastic on the outside of the box. Six out of seven targets detonated exactly as expected. The seventh made a half-hearted pop that spread the contents all over the snow. That sometimes happens anyway so I don’t think the one sort of dud can be attributed to the packaging technique.
All systems are go for the new packaging method.
Fade to
Low angle of Guard 1 tied up similarly to the first slaver, two bodies laying nearby, with Helton and Harbin in the background looking into an open gun crate.
Harbin: If we can find ammo, these will make things a bit easier.
Helton: I’ll look, you get a couple unpacked.
Harbin stoops down and removes a black plastic-shrink-wrapped rifle from the packing crate, and starts to peel back the wrapping.
Helton: (OC) Found it.
Harbin: Good. Drag a few thousand round up front, then find magazines.
Helton: WHAT?
Harbin: Hope we don’t need it all, but ammo is like money – I have yet to have too much.
I think it is probably much simpler. Some antis are at ease lying through their teeth about an “assault weapon” being full auto, they’ll lump suicides together with homicides to try to inflate statistics, they’ll lie about what the laws currently are, they’ll lie about the our motivations, they’ll lie about the effects gun control will have, etc…
That they include ad hominen attacks in their repertoire is no surprise. They do it for the same reason they lie : because it often works.
milquetoast
February 23, 2012
Comment to An explanation for Markley’s Law.
[While I can believe, nay I know, this is true for some of them I think more commonly the reason is they have found themselves cornered. In their desperation they think themselves clever to make a jab at their opponent’s expense. It changes the subject and can put their opponent on the defensive.
Still, the bottom line is the same. It often works.—Joe]
The Second Amendment Foundation today won a significant victory for concealed carry when the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals let stand a December ruling by a three-judge panel of the court that forces Illinois to adopt a concealed carry law, thus affirming that the right to bear arms exists outside the home.
The ruling came in Moore v. Madigan, a case filed by SAF. The December opinion that now stands was written by Judge Richard Posner, who gave the Illinois legislature 180 days to “craft a new gun law that will impose reasonable limitations, consistent with the public safety and the Second Amendment…on the carrying of guns in public.” That clock is ticking, noted SAF Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb.
“Illinois lawmakers need to create some kind of licensing system or face the prospect of not having any regulations at all when Judge Posner’s deadline arrives,” Gottlieb said. “They need to act. They can no longer run and hide from this mandate.”
“We were delighted with Judge Posner’s ruling in December,” he continued, “and today’s decision by the entire circuit to allow his ruling to stand is a major victory, and not just for gun owners in Illinois. Judge Posner’s ruling affirmed that the right to keep and bear arms, itself, extends beyond the boundary of one’s front door.”
In December, Judge Posner wrote, “The right to ‘bear’ as distinct from the right to ‘keep’ arms is unlikely to refer to the home. To speak of ‘bearing’ arms within one’s home would at all times have been an awkward usage. A right to bear arms thus implies a right to carry a loaded gun outside the home.”
Judge Posner subsequently added, “To confine the right to be armed to the home is to divorce the Second Amendment from the right of self-defense described in Heller and McDonald.”
“It is now up to the legislature,” Gottlieb said, “to craft a statute that recognizes the right of ordinary citizens to carry outside the home, without a sea of red tape or a requirement to prove any kind of need beyond the cause of personal protection.”
The ruling also affects a similar case filed by the National Rifle Association known as Shepard v. Madigan.
This is a stepping stone to slap down California, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Washington D.C., Maryland, and others that have “May Issue” permitting for carry. It may even enable nationwide Constitutional Carry.
Bloomberg/MAIG, the Brady Campaign, and other anti-freedom groups may soon have very little legislative action available for them to consider.
Cut to
Helton and Harbin are looking at the security camera screens, and they hear a groan. They look back toward where the prisoner is, take a quick glance at the screens, then go back to where Slaver1 is tied up to a large, heavy-duty shelving unit. His hands are bound behind his back, his feet are bound, and there is a cord around his neck with a noose tied to the shelf, so if he moves or tips over he gets choked. There is blood on the floor behind one knee. Helton looks sharply at Harbin.
Harbin: (flatly) Hamstrings. Didn’t want him getting any ideas.
Continue reading
Anyone who thinks the anti-tyranny function of the Second Amendment is completely irrelevant today should also spend some time considering the historical experience of black Americans. At least until quite recently, one of the chief purposes of many gun control laws was to help secure the political subordination of the black population. That goal was successfully achieved for a long time, but it might not have been so easy if blacks had enjoyed the same right of access to firearms that the white population reserved for itself.
Nelson Lund, J.D., Ph.D.
June 2002
A Primer on the Constitutional Right to Keep and Bear Arms
[Also highly recommended reading is The Racist Roots of Gun Control by Clayton Cramer and:
See also several QOTDs by the author of the book.—Joe]
As I mentioned a few days ago I wrote a article for a magazine about the history of Boomershoot.
The editor sent me the final layout of the pages of the article in the magazine (well, at least the first few, some were missing) and it looks nice. There are few typo/grammar errors that both the editor and I missed but it’s good enough.
It will appear in the March issue of Western Shooting Journal starting on page 78.
Fade in
EXT-Day-low rocky ridge
Helton and Harbin are lying just below the crest of a ridge of rocks, peering over the top toward the mine. The sun is not quite overhead. Their cloths are covered with dust, so they blend into the rocks well. In the near distance, against the far wall of a small valley is the prison / mining operation. It is located about where three steep-walled valleys converge. There is a scattering of rock piles here and there, and a flat landing spot to one side with two medium-large sized fliers, one medium-small, and two small two-person quad-rotors. There is no wall or fence, just a some industrial-style buildings built against the rock face, a few out-buildings, and a couple of conveyor belts coming out leading to large gravel piles. Continue reading
Every once in a while they admit what they really want:
Nowhere is the defeatist liberal approach to American politics more evident than in the post-Newtown campaign for gun control. Liberals are rushing to repeat, like a devout incantation, hand on one’s heart, that “we believe in the Second Amendment” — in an “individual’s right to own a gun.” Half of the legal and moral battle is lost right there and then.
…
the right to own guns is a communitarian right, not an individualized one.
…
A true liberal position, the place to start, is to call for domestic disarmament. That is the banning of the sale of all guns to private parties coupled with a buyback of those on the street (Mexico just moved to so control guns). Collectors can keep their guns as long as they remove the firing pin or fill the barrel with cement. Gun sports can be allowed — in closed shooting ranges. And hunters can be allowed to have long guns (if they pass background checks) with no scopes, which are not sporting. But, these exceptions aside, liberals should call for a gun-free nation
That individual/collective argument was settled before it was proposed and the Heller decision just confirmed it. This guy, a “true liberal” in his not so humble opinion, has no regard for the constitution or court rulings.
A true liberal is one who wants everyone disarmed? Got it. That can and will be used at their trials.
If you think pepper spray will stop an attack then shouldn’t it also make it impossible to drive a car after being sprayed?
At approximately 6:18 p.m. two women in their 50′s were traveling in a car that was stopped at a red light northbound on Martin Luther King (MLK) Jr. Way South at South Graham Street. Two unknown male suspects approached the victims’ vehicle and assaulted both women with pepper spray in an attempt to steal their car. The victim driver ran the red light in order to escape, which was successful.
If a middle-aged woman is hosed down with pepper spray and has the presence of mind, will power, and pain tolerance to drive away and call the police then someone intent on doing harm to you can probably continue the attack. Pepper spray will reduce functionality but it will not put healthy adults out of commission.
Giving an attacker the universal hand signal for “LIE DOWN” may still be required even if you carry pepper spray and should be available if needed.
When liberals take self defense classes is it just a class full of people pissing themselves and vomiting?
John Yowan (@Yowan)
Tweeted on February 20, 2013
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
…is what’s wrong with society. You all have gotten some version this spam e-mail, usually from a .ru domain;
“You know, they are so many people in the world, but some of them are alone, because they didn’t find their halfs yet, as it is so hard.
If you are alone and want to find your love, you can write me and we’ll start communicating. I’m alone and looking for a good man, who will give me his love and care. Who knows, maybe we can fill up our lonely hearts with love.”
If you’re looking for someone else to make you whole, you’re looking in the wrong place. If you want to be wanted, if you desire to be desired, if you need to be needed, you are part of the problem.
I cringed when one my many nephews said, right after he’d been divorced within a year or two of being married, that he’d found this other woman, and how great she was, and how they were meant for each other and he knew it because of some mundane coincidence or other. The ink on the divorce papers was still drying. I didn’t know what to say at the time, but he was running from one hell-of-his-own-devising and straight into another.
No, Young Grasshopper; if you’re not whole, or complete already, no one else can make you whole. If you’re searching for someone else to make you whole, you’re looking for love in all the wrong places. You’ll be let down, because getting what you want, the way you want it, is impossible. You’ll feel betrayed, because what you thought you had was something you can never have. This is the stuff of murder, of self destruction and suicide. It’s what’s wrong with our whole society.
Those in government (and gangs) know just enough about this to take advantage of it. We look to them for “salvation” of one kind or another when all they have to offer is entrapment. They want to own you in the same way you want to own someone else, or be owned by someone else. They want you dependent on them in the same way you want to depend on someone else, or you want someone dependent on you. They want you to need them in the same way you need other people, or you want other people to need you. This is the stuff of mass destruction, war and mass death.
That word we throw around so much in America, Independence, I am only just realizing, has a far deeper meaning than I’d previously suspected, and I think it is extremely important.
None of this stuff is new, and so these words aren’t mine. It’s as old as the hills, and yet we fall for this trap over and over.
Via email from Mike B. (AlphaMike in Idaho) who reports his wife thought it was good reading. I agree. We have a possible explanation of the mindset of anti-gun males:
He’s scared of the thing. That’s understandable–so am I. But as a girl I have the luxury of being able to admit it. I don’t have to masquerade squeamishness as grand principle-in the interest of mankind, no less.
A man does. He has to say things like “One Taniqua Hall is one too many,” as a New York radio talk show host did in referring to the 9-year old New York girl who was accidentally shot last year by her 12-year old cousin playing with his uncle’s gun. But the truth is he desperately needs Taniqua Hall, just like he needs as many Columbines and Santees as can be mustered, until they spell an end to the Second Amendment. And not for the benefit of the masses, but for the benefit of his self-esteem.
He often accuses men with guns of “compensating for something.” The truth is quite the reverse. After all, how is he supposed to feel knowing there are men out there who aren’t intimidated by the big bad inanimate villain? How is he to feel in the face of adolescent boys who have used the family gun effectively in defending the family from an armed intruder? So if he can’t touch a gun, he doesn’t want other men to be able to either. And to achieve his ends, he’ll use the only weapon he knows how to manipulate: the law.
There is a lot more. Good stuff.
Biden may actually be giving good advice to his audience. Double barrel shotguns are simpler than an AR-15. So simple that given enough time and an instruction video even anti-gun Democrats could probably fire off a shot or two.
His advice is entirely consistent with Security Theater advocated by most government types. He is suggesting people “Do Something” and they will feel better even if it accomplishes nothing that helps your situation.
Or instead of being onto something he could just be on something. Was he in Colorado testing out the local herbs when he shared his stupid thoughts with us?
Cut to interior view of cave entrance.
INT – day – in a cave
Helton and Harbin slide down the loose rocks and stuff half-filling the cave mouth, and lay, panting quietly but otherwise motionless, with a look of listening intently for what’s passing outside. The humming sound of a flier gets louder as it approaches, then it Dopplers down and fades away. They are just about to get up and move again when the sound of another flyer is heard approaching, then fading away again. They look at each other, then around the cave.
Continue reading
Via email from Willi S.:
Participating in a gun buy back because you believe that the criminals have too many guns is like having yourself castrated because you believe that the neighbors have too many kids.
Willi doesn’t know the originator and a quick search revealed it’s been around for a while with no good attribution.
And on a more serious note don’t ever forget this one from Steve Levitt:
Gun buybacks are one of the most ineffectual public policies that have ever been invented in the history of mankind.
Linoge, You and Joe are too strong for me. By that I mean a great compliment. Your knowledge of the subject is too great for me to compete with. I’ve said this to Kevin a while back. Yet, as prolix and fact-laden as you guys are, I don’t find the argument convincing. I honestly read what you write, but I cannot answer your first question about what it would take to convince me.
mikeb302000
Comment on February 15, 2010 to Direct confrontation with the Brady Campaign
[mikeb302000 is one of the few anti-gun bloggers in existence. He used to frequently comment on here on my blog. I was one of the few bloggers that didn’t ban him.
He also doesn’t know how to determine truth from falsity.
A response such as his is fairly common when I debate this face to face. Those that remain stuck to their fallacious beliefs cannot tell me what it would take to change their beliefs and furthermore cannot tell me how they determine truth from falsity. That should be very telling.—Joe]