Quote of the day—Brandon Smith

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What is it that makes Keynesians so insanely self destructive? Is it their mindless blind faith in the power of government? Their unfortunate ignorance of the mechanics of monetary stimulus? Their pompous self-righteousness derived from years of intellectual idiocy? Actually, I suspect all of these factors play a role. Needless to say, many of them truly believe that the strategy of fiat injection is viable, even though years of application have proven absolutely fruitless. Anyone with any sense would begin to question what kind of madness it takes to pursue or champion the mindset of the private Federal Reserve bank…

Quantitative easing has shown itself to be impotent in the improvement of America’s economic situation. Despite four years of free reign in central banking, employment remains dismal in the U.S., the housing market continues its freefall, and, our national debt swirls like a vortex at the heart of the Bermuda Triangle. Despite this abject failure of Keynesian theory, the Federal Reserve is attempting once again to convince you, the happy-go-lucky American citizen, that somehow, this time around, everything will be “different”.

Brandon Smith
September 14, 2012
Get Ready For An Epic Fiat Currency Avalanche
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Susan

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I spent a day in Timbuktu. That was enough.

Susan
September 20, 2012
[I’ve been dating a bit via match websites. I met Susan for the first time today for lunch. She has lead a very interesting life. She has been to 22 countries—in Africa. Then there are the trips to Laos, Myanmar, Mongolia, North Korea, Iran, all five ‘stans, USSR (before and after the collapse), all the ordinary places like Europe, and several trips to Antarctica.

Once I recover some I have to write up something about some of them. I have had nine dates with six women in nine days recently. I have repeat dates with some on this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I think I’m done. Yes. I tend to focus intently on one task at a time.

Wow! There are some strange people out there as well as some nice and ordinary people. And there are the nice but not ordinary. Susan was in the later category. The one self-proclaimed liberal was a walking, talking, caricature that could be used by liberals most vehement critics.—Joe]

Jobs

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A “job” is the result of inspiration, creativity and production, plus available time.


“But Lyle, a job is the result of need” you say.  “The person hiring needs another employee, and the employee needs a job.”


If I’m hiring, it means I have a business, or it means I’m starting a business.  If I have a business, it means I created somehting and I’m already producing, and if I’m creating a business it means I’m in the process of creating something.  Before I can create something I must be inspired, and I must have the available time.


Before I have the available time, I must have produced, otherwise my time would be taken up merely subsisting– I must have subsisted by producing, and then some, else I have no time to create something new.


See where this is going?  A job is the result of productivity, else there is no place for a job.


So when we’re talking about “creating jobs” what do we really mean?  Do we really even know what we mean?


Politicians always talk about “creating jobs” and it is perfectly clear to me that they haven’t a clue what they’re saying.  Not a single one of them.


If I’m getting inspired to do something, and then find this law, this licensing requirement, this tax, this higher tax for being in business, this government “program” and on and on and on– this whole nightmarish quagmire of red tape and barriers, what do you think is going to happen to my inspiration?


All hell; maybe it wasn’t such a great idea anyway, it would cost a lot and take a lot of time anyway, with a lot of risk, and it would put stress on my family, but with all this red tape crap, these endless rules and endless lists and endless catagories I have to wade through to pick one that applies to me and my new business, the ever-present potential liability, and sometimes the outright harrasment, it just isn’t worth it.  (shrug)


You want to “create jobs”?  (you don’t, I know, but you like saying you do) There is one way and one way only– Start a business.  You don’t have the inspiration, or the creativity, or the guts for risk-taking to start your own business?  That doesn’t mean you’re a bad person.  OK, then get all this extra bullshit out of the way so someone else can.  Get the holier-than-thou Central Planners, those who are so mind bogglingly stupid that they think they can, and have the right to, plan our lives better than all of us combined, and get them the hell out of the way.  Then keep them out, because we need to believe that our new-found liberty will endure.


That is all it takes.  Just that one, simple, cheaper-than-anything-else thing.


At that point, hope has been restored. the imagination is free, capital flows in like a tsunami, business pop up like popcorn, inspiration has been liberated, the looming storm cloud has been lifted (I was going to say “black cloud”, but then I’d be accused of racism [and if you’re one of the would-be accusers, I feel sorry for you]) and Bob’s your uncle.


The jobs come as a side benefit to inspiration, creativity and productivity, so you don’t even have to think about them.  They’re a natural outgrowth of liberty.


So it’s a choice between two model views.  In one, the government’s job is to reign us in, control us, redirect us, and tax us for public works projects.  In the other, the government’s job is to protect liberty by protecting the property rights of every individual.


Just imagine that you’re starting your very own business, with your very own ideas, using your very own resources.  In which model would you want to do it?  Don’t even bother answering.  We all know.

Quote of the day—Sen. Chuck Grassley

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It’s clear that both the ATF and the Justice Department failed to provide meaningful oversight of Operation Fast and Furious. They ignored warnings from employees, and frankly, failed to do their jobs. It took the death of our own Border Patrol agent, action by a courageous whistleblower and intense scrutiny from Congress before they even took note of what was happening under their own eyes. Even then, they wouldn’t come clean with how bad it really was until after they had sent a false letter and retracted it eight months later.

Sen. Chuck Grassley
September 19, 2012
14 face discipline in Fast and Furious probe
[I have nothing to add but I’m doing some price checking on tar and feathers.—Joe]

Overheard at the morale event

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Ry: I’m into meta-curling.


Eric: What is that? Watching people curl?


Ry: Absolutely!

Quote of the day—wolflover3825

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And that is coming from someone who wants to disregard our right to self defense, someone who doesn’t acknowledge the part in the 2nd Amendment where it says “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”, someone who twists and turns everything inside out, upside down and sideways to misinform, confuse, and deceive the un-familiar. It’s actually funny he says that. It’s funny that he says the pro-gun people disregard the Constitution while he is the one that does it on a daily basis.

wolflover3825
September 9, 2012
Comment to Oh Ye of Little Faith: The Pro-Gun Movement’s Total Disregard for Our Constitution
[Sometimes I just have to shake my head. The anti-gun people accuse the pro-gun people of “total disregard for our constitution”. How can they possibly believe they can convince others of that? Yet, it would seem, they go beyond that and they actually believe it.

To be surrounded by people like them would be like living in an insane asylum.—Joe]

In the search for meaning

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We often come up empty-handed.  There are always a lot of words being said and written, but the far less meaning.  Our job is to search for the meaning.  It’s fun.


Seen on a paper grocery bag;



“[Big grocery chain] has partnered with [presumably Obama stash money-funded green energy company] to convert their waste into power for the community.


This initiative will help produce 3 mega-watts of power.  Enough to power 3,000 homes for one year!”


What does that mean?  It’s only a one-year project?  What happens after that?  Or is it that someone flunked their high school physics classes and doesn’t know the difference between power and energy? 


Then there’s that all too convenient, catch-all word in there; “help”.  Let’s say for sake of argument that all the Columbia hydroelectric projects combined produce on average 100 gigawatts.  All by myself then, I could help produce 100 gigawatts by pissing in the river.  I could help produce 100 gigawats for one year, each year, by pissing in the river once per year.  Hope and Change.


In fact it doesn’t mean anything as written, but either we are supposed to believe that it means something anyway, and love them for it, or the people who wrote it are ignorant and can’t be bothered with looking things up, or both.  And among the listed items of “output” from this “initiative” are “green power” and “carbon credits”.  Oh goody.  I guess the recycling of the paper into new paper is no longer good enough, and the use of food waste as animal feed is no longer a good thing.  So we can burn this stuff, cut down more trees and use more farmland.  For carbon credits.  Hope and Change.


Then there was this “Halftime in America” ad from Chrysler that many people thought meant something really great.  It’s one of the more artfully meaningless, and/or misleading bits in television.  In fact, if it means anything at all, it means that the government bailout and takeover of Chrysler, using taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars to hand a company over to the unions, is The Way to get out of an economic downturn.  It also implies strongly that if one auto company goes into receivership, we stop making cars– a wildly ignorant idea if ever there was one.  In fact there is the very real and very well-proven concept of “creative destruction” wherein one badly-run company goes out, making the way for the next, better-run company to flourish, the end result of which is more and better, and more affordable cars, with more stable car-making jobs as a side benefit.  “Halftime in America” conveniently ignores all that, instead using pure (false) assumption and building on it with innuendo.  And if there is a “halftime” provision written into the U.S. constitution, at which time we were presumed to have entertained the Central Planners for 100 years, started going broke as a result, then regrouped with more central planning to fix the destruction from the earlier Central Planning, then I am Karl Marx’s uncle.  In fact we are under attack by the Progressive movement and the only way out is to rid ourselves of it and get back to our beautiful American Principles of Liberty.


The arena with probably the least meaning of all is politics.  When millions of people were swooning over Sarah Palin during the Palin/Whatshisname campaign, I went over to her personal web site to see if I could find any meaning.  I have to hand it to her– she is very, very good at combining words, thousands of them, into sentence after sentence, without a scintilla of meaning.  Total blank-out.  Very impressive.


At the same time, Obama told us he wanted “Redistributive Change” and that “When you spread the wealth around everybody benefits” out of one side of his mouth, while telling us he would have the most transparent, open and fiscally responsible administration ever.  Right there, at that moment, he proves to the whole world, with just those two assertions, that he is a lying piece of shit.  Then we elected him.  I guess searching for meaning isn’t a hobby for many people.


Make a point of it.  Next time you see a politician speaking, or an advertisement, or anything really, try to see if there is any meaning, and what, exactly, is the meaning.

Central Planning in a nutshell

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First;



Then;



Those are the burnt out ruins of Berlin, after Central Planning had run its course.


The lesson?  Mind your own business.


On the other hand; if mass destruction is your end goal, then by all means centrally plan to your heart’s content, but of course you’ll need your own army.  And it had better be one hell of an army.  You see what happened to that son of a bitch in the photo, and he had, in say 1940, the best army and the best air force, and prossibly the best navy in the world.  He did accomplish plenty of destruction, so you can look up to him I guess, as one of the greatest Central Planners in history.


He, like all Central Planners, of course naturally assumed that he was smarter than all of the People of Europe, or of the world, combined.  It’s always like that– they’re so shockingly ignorant and/or stupid that they think they’re smarter than everyone else, and they are furthermore shockingly stupid enough to think that their towering genius automatically gives them the right to tell us lesser creatures how to live (or not live).


Here’s the clue that maybe you are one of those twisted, nasty, retarded fools.  It’s very simple.  If you see someone minding their own business, and you hate them, and you want to do something about it, you’re a Central Planner.  As a Central Planner, you are of course too fearful to actually do anything yourself about these people who mind their own business, so you’ll seek some official position, or a gang or committee or some such, so you can have other people do your dirty work.  That way you don’t feel like the criminal you are, because other people are carrying the guns for you.  If you had the guts and the initiative to act on these hatred impulses on your own, you’d be what we call a common criminal.


If you had guts, self initiative, and a little bit of decency, you’d be too busy minding your own business to worry about stopping or redirecting someone else’s.  That, and you’d have a vested interest in protecting property rights.

Quote of the day—Lyle

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Special Interest; any interest with which communists disagree.

Lyle
September 11, 2012
Comment to Quote of the day—Suzanne Langland.
[This didn’t really catch my eye until Windy Wilson commented, “Lyle, ‘Liberty shouldn’t be a special interest’ does fit on a bumper sticker.”

I’m inclined to respectfully disagree with that being on a bumper sticker. I think the proper phrasing should be “Liberty is not a special interest.”—Joe]

Quote of the day—Richard

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I told my broker about 5 years ago, “I wish I had had $150,000.00 worth of rifles instead of all that stock.”

Richard
September 16, 2012
Comment to We Are Of Different Worlds.
[I don’t own nearly as many guns as many people I know. But I can’t think of any gun, except those with exceptionally heavy use, that might have gone down in value. Nearly all have gone up in value. I have a lot of ammunition components (and a far amount of factory ammo). All of it has gone way up in value. Investing in lead and copper has paid off. Not as much as gold and silver has but you can’t eat gold or silver. And you can’t defend yourself, your family, or your possessions with a piece of gold or silver.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Robert Steinbuch

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Unlike guns, cars are not designed to be deadly — needless to say — but they are involved in the death of almost as many Americans in one year than were killed in the whole Vietnam War. If we were to prohibit the manufacture and sale of blue Honda Accords (an excellent vehicle, no doubt), then there would almost inevitably be a reduction in the number of deaths caused by blue Accords. The relevant question, however, is whether automobile deaths overall would go down — which under this limited example, they seemingly would not.

By analogy, the relevant question regarding gun-control legislation is whether it makes people safer or just shifts the allocation of resources within a marketplace.

Robert Steinbuch
September 14, 2012 (date it became public even though the article is dated September 17)
Gun control is a moving target: Most gun-restriction laws simply shift purchasers to different lethal weapons — with the notable exception of limiting magazine size.
[From reading the title and his introduction, “I served as a counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee, attached to a U.S. senator who was one of the original co-sponsors of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban. I worked in the Senate when the act was up for renewal.” I expected something very anti-gun. It was much more factual and almost pro-gun.

I also like the comment from Lawrence Keane (do you recognize that name? You should!), “So it seems your point is that gun control is a failed social experiment? All the firearms misused by this criminal are commonly owned by law abiding citizens and protected by the Supreme Court’s Heller and McDonald decisions.”—Joe]

Au *= (1 + 0.023/s);

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Gee… I wonder could have caused that step change in the price of gold yesterday…

gold20120914

Could it be that QE3 means dollars are worth less today than they were yesterday?

Graphic from http://www.goldprice.com/.

*Electrical Engineers who write software will understand the title.

Quote of the day—scizzoid

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It takes a child to raze a village.

scizzoid
2011
Comment to this picture:

razeAVillage
[H/T to Brennan from the gun email list at work.

It looks like she has really good control of the gun for someone her size.

A comment by Sherman from the email list at work is also worthy of note, “Peace through superior firepower!”—Joe]

Boomershoot/Tactical rifle for sale

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This got lost in my inbox while I was out of town, sorry Mike:

Hi Joe,

Say, I’m thinning the rifle herd a bit, and thought I’d mention one of the rifles I have for sale to you, in case you or someone you know would like a superb Boomer/Tactical rifle.

It’s a Remington Tactical/Target – .308 caliber. Comes from Remington with their adjustable target trigger, tactical stock, and triangular shaped barrel with 5R rifling. I’ve mounted a Nightforce NXS 8-32×56 scope (NP-R2 reticle) on it in the Nightforce one piece mount/ring setup. The scope and rifle are brand-new, never been fired. This would be an absolutely killer long-range setup. I already have a couple of other .308s that I really like, and could use the bucks, so this setup really belongs in the hands of someone who will use it properly! I’d love to see a Boomershooter use it to good effect!

Asking $3200 for the setup – all mounted and boresighted.

If you know anybody interested, feel free to let them know, post it on your blog, etc.

Mike

If you are interested send me an email (blog@joehuffman.org) and I’ll forward it on to Mike.

Quote of the day—Jim Treacher

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This is an example of why comedians tend to leave Obama alone. It’s not that they’re afraid of being called racists. It’s because he’s beyond parody.

Jim Treacher
September 13, 2012
Middle East explodes, Obama’s palace guard digs in
[Well… I suspect there is a little bit of fear of being called racists. But still the raw facts are enough that parody is difficult.

H/T to Breda.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Alan Korwin

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Meet with me and a few select others for counseling that will truly get to the heart of the matter. Let’s get past the firing mechanisms, types of lead or brand name intrigues and into the real-world answers that can reduce or stop this sort of behavior and make our world more safe. Together we can fix this.

Alan Korwin
August 27, 2012
Whatever Happened to Waiting Periods for Guns?
[The Brady Campaign want to have, “a thoughtful conversation that explores real, effective solutions to our national gun violence epidemic”. But the problem is that every single one of the ideas proposed by the Brady Campaign for the last 40 years has proven to be unconstitional and/or ineffective in reducing violent crime.

It’s time to try some different ideas. I know Korwin. I know people at the NRA. I know people at the Second Amendment Foundation. These are some very smart people. I have met and talked to numerous people from the Brady Campaign and Washington Ceasefire. I wasn’t impressed. They were evasive, easily angered, and/or ignorant. We are better than this.

The media and politicians have been riding a dead horse for 40 years. You would think it would be obvious that it is time to get off and ride a fresh one. But it is irrational to expect people to be rational.—Joe]

Toast

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I realize that predictions can be hard. Well, predictions are easy, but making accurate ones is a bit more difficult.

This week, the Chicago teachers union went on strike, turning down a 16% pay increase (4% per year for four years), even though they are one of the most highly compensated districts in the nation, while simultaneously turning in bottom quintile performance. Teachers unions are one of the most rabid pro-Obama groups out there. On the the other side of the dispute is Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s former chief of staff, infamous for hard-nosed, in-your-face negotiation.

In Lybia, the US embassy was attacked and Ambassador Stevens was killed, and I’m now seeing reports that embassy security was being provided by Libyan nationals, who may have helped in his murder, NOT US Marines (the two that were killed there were last second additions when things got violent).

Obama has told Israel to take a flying leap in so many different ways recently it’s not easy to list them all, and it looks like they are getting itchy to pull the trigger on dealing with the Iranian nuke thing.

Prediction: If Obama doesn’t pull some serious magic out of his hat in the next week or so on at least two of these issues, he’s toast. Not just lightly toasted, but burned-to-a-crisp toast. Utterly humiliated. A defeat that will be compared to Carter for the rest of US history. Something that most American’s can’t stand is weakness in a leader, and pretty much all the options he might take on these three issues to appeal to his base will repel the undecided middle. On the other hand, any sort of strong action that might sway the persuadable middle his direction will infuriate much of his base, and do nothing to change minds among the conservative base. The optics are horrible for him no matter which way he goes, and the campaign spots nearly write themselves. Of course, he’s got the Mainstream Media flying air-cover for him, but even they can only do so much, and when it looks like he’s on a failing course they will turn on him to save the liberal ideology (by saying it was the messenger, not the message).

So, barring some actions he has so far shown absolutely no ability to perform, I think we are seeing a major turning point in the election.

Quote of the day—Suzanne Langland

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I know that big money, special interests, the gun lobby and cowardly, greedy politicians are to blame. BUT, WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE FROM THE CITIZENS OF THIS COUNTRY? Too many issues have been allowed to be pushed aside in this country. We need to change this. I urge you to demand that guns be banned and a Felony penalty imposed on those who would reject a federal gun surrender ALL GUNS ARE MADE TO KILL. WHATEVER SIZE THEY ARE AND HOWEVER QUICKLY THEY DISCHARGE THEIR BULLETS.

Suzanne Langland
September 7, 2012
Facebook comment.
[Special interests? How many people own guns versus how many want guns banned? It would appear to me that the people that want guns banned are the “special interests”.

In any case it’s nice to have their real agenda out in the open. Do not ever forget that they want you defenseless and/or in jail.—Joe]

I’ll be in my bunk

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I arrived back at my clock tower last night after being on the road for nearly 15 hours, got six hours sleep and went to work. Tonight I had the usual dinner and Sci-Fi video evening with son James and Kelsey.

I have lots of pictures and stories to share about Gun Blogger Rendezvous but I’m just too tired to do that tonight. Perhaps I’ll make some progress on that tomorrow night.

Quote of the day—Anonymous

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Now that you said “lubricant” I think I should shake your hand.

Anonymous
A woman at the Gun Blogger Rendezvous,
September 8, 2012
[No. It wasn’t me she was talking to. I was between her and the person she shook hands with.

In some ways this GBR was far more “interesting” than any previous one I have been to. There are stories from this event that will last a lifetime and will probably never be told involving a woman licking a stripper’s breast, whiskey to be licked off one another, 2 Women 1 Cup (DO NOT WATCH IT! I haven’t and neither should you), Jar Squatter (DO NOT WATCH IT! I haven’t and neither should you) and the hand on my thigh as a certain someone told me they were going to bed.

Being the guardian of morals that I am I took it upon myself to do something about this. I was able to get the two people I believe were most responsible for the decadence to agree to attend Boomershoot 2013.—Joe]