Quote of the day—President John F. Kennedy

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We dare not tempt them with weakness. For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed.

President John F. Kennedy
January 20, 1961
Inaugural Address
[The “we” and “them” Kennedy was referring to were the United States and the communists of the world. But the sentiment has broader application.

It also applies to the people of a nation and a government delegated certain powers by those people. And if you think of “arms” as lawyers and financial resources it also has application to those with whom you enter into contracts with.

And if “arms” were a metaphor for “votes” the first sentence, but not the second, could have immediate application to the NRA, SAF, and other gun rights organizations and politicians versus the anti-gun organizations and politicians.

I had hinted at something similar with a very narrow application over 16 years ago but Kennedy says it more clearly and with broader application.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Amanda Wilcox

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It wasn’t a failure of laws. I just don’t see how our gun laws could have stopped something like that.

Amanda Wilcox,
Lobbyist for the California chapter of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence
April 6, 2012
California’s tough gun laws could not prevent Oakland tragedy
[It’s nice to see the Brady Campaign admitting gun laws cannot stop mass shootings but she still has some pretty significant symptoms of Peterson Syndrome.

Did you noticed she said “It wasn’t a failure of laws” but then in the next sentence she says she doesn’t see how gun laws could have stopped the shooting. One or the other of those statements has to be false.

The corrected statement should be:

Our gun laws have failed. Our gun laws cannot stop something like that. The best known way to stop an active criminal shooter is for another person to shoot back. As long as our gun laws make it difficult or impossible for potential victims to defend themselves these tragedies will continue to happen.

But the Brady Campaign has a vested interest in the blood of innocent people running in the streets. If they were more rare their funding would dry up and they would cease to exist. Hence they give out sound bites that at first glance support their warped view but upon closer examination cannot even maintain coherence from sentence to sentence.

See also Say Uncle and the comments to his post.—Joe]

Sometimes it’s no fun being right

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In comments here, regarding Hollywood’s lack of ideas and their focus on remakes, I predicted a new series of the Three Stooges.  Turns out I was right on time.  They have the movie coming out this month.  I’ll guess that the new series is already in the works.  The Marx Brothers and then Silent flicks to follow, I suppose.

These are the people who accuse us of being “backward” or “simple-minded”.

Liberty is Not on Trial

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Don’t forget it.  This is (partially) in response to the QOTD below.

The argument for liberty is primarily a moral one.  Many people focus on cause and effect.  We could dig into detail after detail, analyzing this and that cause and this and that effect.  In that pursuit, yes, we will find much evidence in favor of liberty.

But liberty is not on trial.  Oh no, Young Grasshopper.  This may be news to most people, but it is the socialist/communist/Fascist (statist) bloc that is on trail.  I hereby accuse it of willfully conspiring to perpetrate envy, hopelessness, fraud, grand larceny, stagnation, decline, anger, hate, conflict, assault, battery, chaos, and mass murder.

It is not up to us to defend liberty as such.  We who support and uphold it are the plaintiffs, see?  Liberty needs no defense in that sense, because it has done nothing wrong.  It needs to be taught, yes, but if any fingers of blame are to be pointed, they should be pointed at the statists, and if any defense need to be mounted, let the accused try to defend their crimes.  Let them point back and leer at us— but always understand that they are the accused and we are (liberty is) the injured party.

Ultimately it comes down to the fact that Man, by nature, yearns to be free.  Sure; with our liberty intact, we do vastly better than we ever do without it, but the argument is primarily a moral one.  Right and wrong.  Freedom verses force.  Choice verses coercion.  Good verses evil.  America was founded on that principle.  Isn’t it time we strive to understand, and then to fulfill America’s Promise of Liberty?  For once?

The plaintiff doesn’t walk into the courtroom with a defense attorney at his side.  He may need a good prosecutor, but he doesn’t need a defense.  Republicans of course have never understood it.  A plaintiff or a procesuter who is constantly defending himself, with the perpetrator sitting in judgement, is a blithering fool.

Quote of the day—Windy Wilson

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Their words and the things they choose to defend prove again that the Brady Center is not merely rooting for the criminal element, they are offering to hold their coats and act as lookout during the murder, rape or robbery of the law abiding citizens.

Windy Wilson
April 5, 2012
Comment to Quote of the day—Gura & Prossessky.
[While I do not believe people of the Brady Center intend this to be the result I am certain this is the unintended consequence of their actions.

Many of these people have no rational belief system and some don’t even have a grasp of what rational thought is but some do. My model for those who have a quasi rational belief system is that they are only vaguely aware of these unintended consequences.

Those of us on the side of individual rights are willing to accept the unintended consequences of freedom. Those unintended consequences include crimes and accidents involving firearms.

As Thomas Sowell made very clear in one of his essays from the 1980s (read Compassion Versus Guilt, and other Essays) and in a great many of his other writings and lectures, “There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs.”

The proper question then becomes, “Which set of tradeoffs is better?” And digging still deeper, “How do you measure ‘better'”? But as near as I can tell our opponents are unwilling, or perhaps unable, to even acknowledge there are no solutions. Yet the real debate should be at least three levels deeper.–Joe]

Boomershoot 2013

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I’m doing some thinking about Boomershoot 2013. I need to schedule around wet/snowy weather, Fire Season, the NRA Annual Meetings, Mother’s Day, and my wife’s work schedule.

I have tentatively chosen Sunday May 5th as the date.

Can anyone come up with a good reason why that date should be avoided? I realize this is the probably going to be the weekend before finals at the University of Idaho but I’m not seeing a better tradeoff at this time.

Discuss as needed…

Ignorant yahoo

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Paul Krugman writes:

Florida’s now-infamous Stand Your Ground law, which lets you shoot someone you consider threatening without facing arrest, let alone prosecution, sounds crazy – and it is. And it’s tempting to dismiss this law as the work of ignorant yahoos.

The Stand Your Ground law does not enable someone to avoid arrest for shooting someone “you consider threatening”. It merely codifies what has been common law since at least Biblical times. If you are reasonably in fear of seriously body harm or death then you are protected from prosecution and civil action if you use deadly force to protect innocent life rather than having an obligation to attempt escape.

As people have known for quite sometime you shouldn’t live in a glass house if you are going to throw stones. If Krugman is looking for someone to call an ignorant yahoo he only need look as far as the nearest mirror.

Quote of the day—Gura & Possessky

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Hey, @MotherJones @sidhubaba, how is this story http://is.gd/tXiZEU turning out so far? kthxbye

Gura & Possessky
Tweeted on March 31, 2012
[In the story link to above, (former) Brady Center President Paul Helmke says in reference to a brief they filed in a federal court in North Carolina seeking the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by Gura, “Police and emergency responders seeking to quell a riot,” he said, “should not be forced to contend with legally-authorized armed individuals and groups roaming alleys and public streets.”  The author @sidhubaba, said, “You don’t say!”

In the decision released last week striking down the bad law the Brady’s were defending Judge Malcolm J. Howard said, “It cannot be overlooked that the statutes strip peaceable, law abiding citizens of the right to arm themselves in defense of hearth and home, striking at the very core of the Second Amendment.”—Joe]

Confirmation

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I ordered a bunch of stuff from Amazon for Boomershoot last night. This included things like foam ear plugs, safety glasses, nitrile gloves, electronic hearing protection, a new flour sifter, and a shooting mat for the media types who show up and take us up on shoot for free offer. The interesting thing was the total price of the order after tax and shipping:

Thanks for your order, Joe Huffman!
Want to manage your order online?
If you need to check the status of your order or make changes, please visit our home page at Amazon.com and click on Your Account at the top of any page.
Purchasing Information:
E-mail Address:  ???@joehuffman.org

Billing Address:
Joe Huffman
8512 122nd Ave NE #6
Kirkland, WA 98033
United States

Order Grand Total: $666.66

For the crazy anti-gun people who believe guns are in hell this probably confirms their belief.

For the rest of the world who are more sane but still a bit superstitious they will probably just take this as a sign that Boomershoot 2012 is going to be a hell of a good time.

What’s Going On With Gun Sales?

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Via an e-mail from the NRA (Yes; I am part of the “triangle of death” and as a card-carrying member, I get the sooper secret decoder ring and classified e-mails)

What’s up with gun sales?  Americans are rediscovering the fun and utility of gun ownership, that’s what.  People are starting to shrug off the effects of political and social bullying, saying “to heck with all that nonsense – guns are good, I want one and I’m buying one (or three)”.

Quote of the day—John Lott

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A lot of people (both conservatives and liberals) are going to end up being embarrassed by their instant, snap judgments about this case.

The focus on a single case to evaluate laws that have been in effect for years in over 40 states is troubling enough. But right now it looks as if the rush to reform is based on nothing more than bad reporting.

John Lott
April 3, 2012
Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman and the media’s misleading rhetoric on guns
[The problem is that many (most?) people do not base their opinions on facts or rational analysis. Yes, this can be hard at times. Stirring up emotions or allowing your emotions to rule your actions “gets things done” but at what cost? The cost is wasted resources, bad law, and injustice.—Joe]

Fallacy of “Gun-Free” Schools

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Via email:

From: David Burnett [mailto:media@concealedcampus.org]
Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2012 8:23 AM
Subject: Shooting Highlights Fallacy of “Gun-Free” Schools

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Shooting Highlights Fallacy of “Gun-Free” Schools

April 3, 2012 — Seven students were gunned down yesterday morning in California on the same day that a national protest began to raise awareness about students being left helpless against such murderers.

The national Empty Holster Protest, organized by Students for Concealed Carry, involves students strapping on empty holsters to illustrate their defenselessness at the hands of college gun bans. The event runs through April 6 and involves hundreds of college campuses across the US.

“This is a poignant and ironic example of the very thing we’re protesting,” said David Burnett, the group’s spokesman.
“Colleges invite these shootings by guaranteeing criminals their victims will be disarmed. It takes more than signs to fend off killers.”

Although the details of the massacre are still unclear, it remains apparent that prohibitions against firearms were completely ineffective. Over 20 such college shootings have occurred on so-called “gun-free” campuses since 2001. At the same time, more than 200 campuses in six states allow students to carry handguns to class without experiencing any such rampages.

“Gun-free zones are defense-free zones,” said Burnett. “Since our colleges can’t guarantee our safety, it’s time for them to allow us a fighting chance and decriminalize self-defense.”

A PDF version of this press release is available at:
http://scc.gs/HEXF5S

Media resources available at: http://concealedcampus.org/media

CONTACT:

David Burnett, Director of Public Relations

Students for Concealed Carry

david.burnett@concealedcampus.org

859-576-7522

ABOUT:

Students for Concealed Carry is a national, non-partisan, grassroots organization comprised of over 40,000 supporters which advocates for legal concealed carry on college campuses.

I don’t have anything to add other than I think the college administrators and state legislators that created these victim disarmament zones should be prosecuted for conspiracy to deny civil rights under the color of law with particular attention paid to the following:

…if death results from the acts committed in violation of this section … shall be fined under this title, or imprisoned for any term of years or for life, or both, or may be sentenced to death.

Perhaps if a few of these people are in jail awaiting trial with the possibility of a death sentence others will be a little less eager to infringe upon the specific enumerated rights guaranteed by our Bill of Rights.

Quote of the day—Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.)

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The growth of TSA’s bureaucracy has outpaced the number of travelers the agency was designed to protect.

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.)
March 28, 2012
How many airport security screeners is too many?
[I went through the Moscow/Pullman airport a few weeks ago and counted six TSA agents. There could have been more in back out of sight. 15 years ago, with only slightly less of passenger traffic, there was one security agent.

There are some things government is really good at—spending lots of other people’s money is near the top of that list.

If you have a desire to waste huge amounts of money then giving it to the government is probably a near optimal method of having your desires realized. If you merely burn your money and don’t get it completely burned someone could come along and recover a portion of it. Money given to the government is much less likely to incur those sort of risks.—Joe]

Gunnuts Boomershoot prep

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Shelley Rae talks about prepping for Boomershoot.

Quote of the day—Yutsano

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What happened to the old fashioned way of using your car to compensate for penis size? Suddenly I feel a wee bit less safe indulging in my coffee in the morning.

Yutsano
March 4, 2010
Comment to Open Thread: Penis Substitutes At the Ready!
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday!—Joe]

Quote of the day—Thomas Sowell

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Is the purpose of legal proceedings to get at the truth or to provide media entertainment?

Thomas Sowell
March 12, 1998
Media Circus versus Justice
[Sowell was referring to the Monica Lewinski/President Clinton media circus but it applies just as well to the Martin/Zimmerman media circus.—Joe]

Boomershoot prep in the mud

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This morning I loaded up my Ford Escape with 400 pounds of Potassium Chlorate, boxes of ammo, Cafepress shirts, mugs, and miscellaneous other stuff and drove out to Boomershoot Mecca. I knew the ground would be wet and soft and I knew I might not be able to make it all the way out there but worse case I could leave the stuff at my brother’s place a mile or so away until the ground dried up. The last 150 yards were the only part of concern and I stopped to check it out before attempting to traverse it. I walked about 20 yards into the field and it was surprisingly firm in the track we had packed in the ground on our previous trips last fall and winter. I decided I could make it. I made it across the field and still had a fair amount of velocity when I tried to make a left turn up the hill onto the grass and weeds of the scab patch where the shipping container is. That was an error. I probably should have kept going straight and got onto the firmer ground ahead of me. I immediately lost all velocity and spun down into the mud.

The hybrid drive train is extremely anemic in reverse. It wouldn’t even spin the tires when I tried to back up. Attempts to go forward didn’t accomplish much either. I did manage to slide sidewise a bit into the softer mud of the field.

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The sun was out and things were drying up so I figured I would have a better chance of getting out if I waited a few hours. My brother Doug showed up a little later. He was clearing out the drain tiles in the nearby fields. He came over to see what I was doing. He said the forecast was for 90% chance of rain after 11:00 AM. That made it an imperative to get the vehicle out almost immediately. He didn’t think the tractors would be able to get in any better than a pickup and another pickup out there probably would mean another stuck vehicle.

I already had everything else out of the vehicle and he helped me get the Potassium Chlorate out and the rest of the way up the hill and into the shipping container.

We both had shovels and starting digging the mud out from behind the tires. After we had three or four feet of soft mud removed from all the tires he pushed on the front and I drove. I flipped the back end around and up the hill to get close to a straight shot at the “road” back out of the field. The drive out threw a lot of mud in the air but I made it back to the road without problems.

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The Internet provider guy showed up shortly thereafter and he took a look at Teakean Butte from the shipping container and said it shouldn’t be a problem. He would schedule someone to come out and install the service in a week or 10 days. I was annoyed. I understood they were going to install the equipment today. I could have sent them a picture of Teakean Butte from the shipping container if that is all they were going to do. Now one of my brothers will have to come out again and open up the shipping container for them to install the equipment. Nearly every contact I have had with these people has been unsatisfactory.

I had lunch with my parents and brothers. Dad made a really nice lentil soup.

Doug and I both went back out in the afternoon and I did some cleanup and arranging of things and he rerouted some cables and oiled the squeaking (almost crunchy) things on the doors. Other than getting stuck it was a pretty productive day.

Quote of the day—Judge Malcolm J. Howard

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It cannot be overlooked that the statutes strip peaceable, law abiding citizens of the right to arm themselves in defense of hearth and home, striking at the very core of the Second Amendment. As such, these laws, much like those involved in Heller, are at the “far end of the spectrum of infringement on protected Second Amendment rights.”

Judge Malcolm J. Howard
Senior United States district judge for the Eastern District of North Carolina
March 29, 2012
MICHAEL BATEMAN, VIRGIL GREEN, FORREST MINGES, JR., GRNC/FFE, INC., and SECOND AMENDMENT FOUNDATION, INC.,
Plaintiffs,
v. BEVERLY PERDUE & REUBEN F.
YOUNG, Defendants.
[This was a ban on the possession of firearms outside the home during a natural disaster or other emergency..

A few years ago the Brady Campaign was claiming a complete ban on firearms was constitutional. Their brief in the Heller case specifically claimed “the Second Amendment guarantees no right to possess firearms unless in connection with service in a state-regulated militia.”

They retreated to a position of advocating severe restrictions carrying guns outside the home. A position they strongly advocated as recently as a couple weeks ago, “Maryland and other states with more restrictive laws have chosen not to make Florida’s mistake. Their choices should be respected by the courts. Nothing in Heller, or in the Constitution, suggests otherwise.”

Now it has now been ruled this infringes upon the very core of the Second Amendment. It was at the far end of infringement.

Also this week the New York Combined Ballistic Identification System was scrapped, “the state has spent $32 million on CoBIS since the creation of the program in January of 2001, and not one crime has been solved with this technology.”

It’s getting difficult to keep up with all the wins we are making.

The options available for the Brady Campaign to have relevance have become extremely narrow and virtually no one listens to them in the small domain they might be able to eke out an existence in.

I think it is Tequila time again for the Brady Campaign and their supporters—if they can afford it.—Joe]

More on Heavy Boots

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Or is it Moron Heavy Boots?  Ry brought up the “Heavy Boots” phenomenon a while back, but I hadn’t heard of it until he explained it to me and I Googled it.  I was disappointed, but the story didn’t surprise me.  I’ve talked to a lot of people about a lot of things, having been in the service business and in consumer credit, for over 30 years.  Richard P. Feynman wrote about similar experiences he’d had in his teaching career.  It’s sad to realize how many people lack that little bit of curiosity that would lead them quickly to understand some of the basics of their world.

At the music store, I put up a poster-sized photo of the full Earth taken from space.  You’ve all seen it, and some of you will already know when it was taken, based on the history of the mission.  I looked at it a lot, just as a beautiful image that says something about the ingenuity of Man, before I realized that it told us a few other things.  So now I have some questions.  This is my Heavy Boots experiment but it’s on a bit higher level.  These questions are for those who have no idea when the picture was was taken without analyzing the image itself.  Forget the history and the mission, and so on.  It’s a simple question for those who know the basics of our solar system and of Earth’s place in it;
About what time of year was this photo taken?  How can you tell?  Also; About what time of day was it taken?  How do you know?

Here’s another one.  Looking at this image of the moon, assuming you’re facing East.  What time is it?  Why?

One of my older brothers liked to mess with people when we were younger.  When one of his young sisters-in-law asked him what those bumps between the lanes on the freeway were for, he told them they were part of a project for the blind– so blind drivers could tell when they were crossing lanes.  “Really?” came the reply.  He pulled off a lot of that sort of thing, trying to see just how fantastic a story he could tell and still get someone to believe him.  I suppose his behavior could be referred to as a search for Progressive voters.  If you’re ignorant enough, you’ll believe anything if it’s presented just right.  Our coercively-funded schools have that part covered.  They actively discourage learning.

Leno had a bit on his show last night wherein he placed a magician behind the counter at a convenience store.  There were some plastic Easter eggs in a counter display, labeled “Insta-Chick” or some such.  The egg contained a little foam “chick” that would expand in water.  The magician, introducing the new and rare product to the customers “placed one in a cup”, then “poured water over it” and a live chick came out instantly.  People believed it, even after he said they were “engineered in China” such that you could let them dry out again and reanimate them later, and you didn’t need to feed them.  More “Heavy Boots”.  “Vote for me— I’ll give you free health care” or etc. is along the same lines.

I try not to be discouraged.  There are a lot of people who don’t fall for this stuff.  They can tell from looking at a photo of our planet what time it was taken, know that mass exhibits gravity, know that we can’t all get free lunch forever and there’s no such thing as a perpetual motion machine.

Underestimating the difficulty

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ATK just won a contract to supply up to 450 million rounds of .40 S&W hollow point ammo to the Department of Homeland Security.

I first heard about this on the Glenn Beck radio show this morning. As Beck said, “That must mean they think that 150 million of us will need to be shot twice.”

If the plan were to shoot nearly everyone in this country they are seriously underestimating the difficulty if they think they will only need 450 million rounds. Hence I have to conclude they don’t have such a plan or if they do it demonstrates a catastrophic failure of their victim selection process.