Not only do I know people like this I am getting a new job because I cannot work with someone like this.
Via email from Barron.
Firearms Coalitions action alert
Via email from Jeff Knox:
From: The Firearms Coalition’s e-Update
Sent: Thursday, May 26, 2011 4:55 PM
Subject: [Fcalerts e-Update] Immediate Action Alert!
Immediate Action Alert . . . . FirearmsCoalition.org
Immediate Action Needed – Window Closes Tuesday!!
Copy the text of the email below or rewrite it in your own words and email it to:
The comment period for the ATF’s proposed “temporary,” emergency regulation requiring firearms dealers to file reports every time someone purchases more than one semi-auto long gun was reopened, but that comment period closes this Tuesday, May 31.
During the last comment period on this gun owners were outnumbered by the prohibitionists. That should NEVER happen! We outnumber them 10 to one and our response to outrageous proposals like this should reflect that numbers advantage.
The ATF claims the reporting is necessary to combat the flow of firearms across the border into Mexico, but in light of the “Gunwalker” scandal currently being investigated in Congress and by the Justice Department Inspector General’s office, it looks like ATF is the problem, not the solution.
Some implications of the Project Gunwalker scandal are that ATF has already been receiving significant, voluntary cooperation from gun dealers in the border states, but that the agency has used that cooperation more to build inflate the numbers of illegally “trafficked” weapons as a way of justifying their existence.
Beyond the complications of Project Gunwalker, the idea of requiring reporting of multiple long gun sales is clearly in conflict with established congressional mandates and restrictions on ATF’s authority. By attempting to push through this major regulatory change without congressional approval (which they could not get), ATF is seriously overstepping their legal authority.
Please copy and paste the following note into an email or write your own and get it submitted as soon as possible. Also, please do the following: Cc info@FirearmsCoalition.org so we have some record of responses; Send copies to your Senators and Representative and ask that they send their own notes of opposition to ATF; Be sure to repost this Alert to all of your friends and every pro-gun forum you can find. We must have an overwhelming response to this.
Sample comment:
To: oira_submission@omb.eop.gov
Subject: Oppose Regulation Expanding Multiple Sale Reporting
I am writing to oppose the Information collection action to register multiple sales of certain rifles with BATFE from the 04/29/2011 Federal Register: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-04-29/pdf/2011-10355.pdf
This information collection is both illegal and unnecessary.
* The action proposed is outside the statutory grant of authority to record information about multiple sales of firearms. Title 18 U.S.C. § 923(g)(3)(A) specifically grants the authority to collect multiple sale information on handguns and revolvers. Other firearms are excluded and there is no implied authority to extend this reporting requirement to rifles or any other type of firearm.
* Analysis of the number of firearms seized shows that Mexico is being primarily supplied with firearms by South American countries, NOT the United States. In fact, a STRATFOR report indicates that fully 90% of the firearms traced in Mexico are NOT coming from the United States, contrary to assertions in the mainstream media: http://wwwprod-1756134246.us-west-1.elb.amazonaws.com/index.php?q=weekly/20110209-mexicos-gun-supply-and-90-percent-myth.
Additionally, Wikileaks cables have shown the US Government is at least partially responsible for supplying Mexico from the United States: http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2011/02/pentagon-fingered-source-narco-firepower-mexico. These firearms are NOT from the US commercial market.
* Source documents of the BATFE uncovered by US Senator Grassley and US Representative Issa show that BATFE has been complicit in supplying Mexican Narco-terrorist forces with firearms: http://www.scribd.com/doc/49971654/2011-03-03-CEG-to-DOJ-ATF.
* ”FFL” holders are already required by law to respond to BATFE requests for information on firearms distribution pursuant to criminal investigations: Title 18 U.S.C. § 923(g)(7).
* The regulation contains no provision for the destruction of information collected, which establishes a nationwide registry of “certain types of firearms” as proposed. Because of this the regulation, as proposed, is illegal under Title 18 U.S.C. § 926(a). ”No such rule or regulation … may require that records required to be maintained under this chapter or any portion of the contents of such records, be recorded at or transferred to a facility owned, managed, or controlled by the United States or any State or any political subdivision thereof, nor that any system of registration of firearms, firearms owners, or firearms transactions or disposition be established.”
There is a grave potential for this regulation to unduly burden citizens who are collectors or must obtain purchase permits at the local or state level to possess firearms. The proposed regulation does not say what the agency intends to do with the information but ostensibly it would be for criminal investigations. Subjecting law abiding gun owners to this type of investigation under the guise of “information collection” is an overt attempt to prevent them from exercising their 2nd Amendment rights to purchase and own firearms.
This regulatory action should not be approved.
# # #
Whether you use this specific language, edit it, or compose a letter of your own, please take action immediately! Do not put off sending a comment!
Comments must be received by Tuesday May 31, 2011.
Repost — Repost — REPOST!!
Please Send Your Comments Immediately and cc to info@FirearmsCoalition.org.
Thank you for your Action!
Jeff Knox
Director, The Firearms Coalition
www.FirearmsCoalition.org
Quote of the day—Susan Glick
The bottom line is that Florida’s concealed-carry law puts guns into the hands of criminals.
It is ironic that the gun lobby’s ‘model’ concealed carry law is designed to actually reward criminals who plea bargain, a practice that the gun lobby’s rhetoric routinely and vehemently condemns. Under the Florida law, Patrick Purdy, perpetrator of the 1989 Stockton, California schoolyard massacre, and the gun lobby’s poster-boy for the evils of plea bargaining, would not have been prevented from eventually obtaining a concealed carry license despite his previous arrests and convictions for drug possession, illegal possession of dangerous weapons, firing a pistol in a national forest, and resisting arrest.
Florida’s law has made it substantially easier for individuals with criminal records or criminal intent to go about armed. The findings in Concealed Carry: The Criminal’s Companion demonstrate that Florida’s concealed carry law is definitely a model one not to be followed.
Susan Glick
November 1, 1995
VPC Health Policy Analyst
New Study Shows Florida’s “Model” Concealed Carry Law Puts Guns Into the Hands of Criminals
[Note the date, 1995 before you get too wound up over this. History has shown the were demonstrable wrong on the “model one not to be followed” and their efforts to stop the shall issue concealed carry laws from steamrolling the nation were futile.
Even if we ignore the hints they prefer a system where accusations and not convictions are all that are required to deny a person their specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms they still have serious problems with their mindset. It may take few extra seconds to grasp but their basic premise is incredibly stupid. Almost any normal person would realize this within a minute after putting it down on paper. That they don’t recognize this shows how broken their mental processes are.
How can they possibly claim, “Florida’s law has made it substantially easier for individuals with criminal records or criminal intent to go about armed.”? Or “The bottom line is that Florida’s concealed-carry law puts guns into the hands of criminals.”? Do recreational drug users have any problem finding a supplier? Does anyone think that the criminal who wants a firearm will have trouble finding a supplier or tucking a gun into their waistband if they can’t get a concealed carry permit?
The anti-gun people have long demonstrated they have crap for brains and this is just one more example.—Joe]
Good old boys organization for California concealed carry
I was reading the appellants’ opening brief in EDWARD PERUTA, et. al., v. COUNTY OF SAN DIEGO, et. al. and found some interesting material.
It turns out that if you are much more likely to get a concealed carry permit if you are willing and able to join the Honorary Deputy Sheriff’s Association (“HDSA”) – a private, civilian entity, wherein membership is achieved merely by being sponsored by a current member, passing a background check, making a “donation” and paying annual dues (see pages 10 and 11).
Sponsored by a current member, make a “donation, and pay dues? Imagine only getting permission to exercise your right to an abortion, free speech, practice your religion, or a jury trial if you could get “sponsored by a current member” and made a “donation”. If this were anything other than a gun issue you would hear the screams of racism and sexism from the other side of the continent.
The right to keep and bear arms is a specific enumerated right and it’s time these repressive governments get slapped down over it.
For more information on this case see Michel & Associates, P.C. web page on Peruta v. San Diego.
Quote of the day—John M. Snyder
The facts show the gun grabbers are out to lunch. The entire gun control movement is full of bananas.
A drop in violent crime rates does NOT correlate with a drop in gun purchase rates. It DOES correlate with an increase in firearms purchase rates.
John M. Snyder
Manager
Telum Associates, LLC
Arlington, VA
Crime Rates Drop as Gun Buy Rates Rise, notes Gun Law Expert
[So much for “gun availability” being a contributing factor to crime rates—Joe]
Quote of the day—Mad Rocket Scientist
I would just love to hear about one these RAIDS coming up short because the doors wouldn’t batter down and the windows just chipped instead of breaking. I can just imagine the SWAT team standing outside of the little bungalow they tried to force, a bit perplexed that they couldn’t get it, when grandma’s voice comes out of the intercom speaker by the door, “Can I help you?”.
Mad Rocket Scientist
May 24, 2011
I think I’m gonna start a business
[There are other outcomes that I have fantasized about which also bring a smile to my face. But implementations are not cheap and the risks are unacceptably high even though the deterrence effects would be “significant”. It also probably would require “entrapment” of the police by the homeowner which would be frowned upon by many.—Joe]
Quote of the day—Nicolo Machiavelli
For among other evils which being unarmed brings you, it causes you to be despised, and this is one of those ignominies against which a prince ought to guard himself, as is shown later on.
Nicolo Machiavelli
The Prince, Chapter XIV, That Which Concerns A Prince On The Subject Of The Art Of War
[The first half that sentence is sometimes attributed to Charlton Heston. It’s possible that Heston borrowed that fragment from Machiavelli or it’s possible that it’s improperly attributed to Heston. I haven’t bothered to track it down but I thought you should know.
It’s also important to point out that we don’t have recognized royalty as rulers in this country. This country was designed with a different model. A model where the ultimate power resides with the people and they grant certain enumerated powers to the government via the various constitutions.
Because of this difference in models between a society which has the ultimate power residing with the royalty and a society where the ultimate power resides with the people the proper analog of Machiavelli’s instruction in our country is that the people should be armed to prevent them from being despised by the government. And so it came to be that we have the Second Amendment to our constitution and similar, if not stronger, provisions in most state constitutions.—Joe]
Steel Challenge results
Today I shot in a Steel Challenge match at the Lewiston Pistol Club. With Boomershoot consuming my time for the previous couple of months and the timing of my visits to Idaho not coincident with the match schedules it has been a long time since I shot in a match.
I messed up one stage and that hurt my overall results badly:
|
May 22, 2011 Steel |
Pendulum |
Accelerator |
Showdown Jr |
Not that W |
Smoke & Hope |
Total Time |
|
Roger (auto) |
20.39 |
19.93 |
14.51 |
18.03 |
15.56 |
88.42 |
|
Roger (Revolver) |
22.92 |
18.36 |
16.76 |
21.22 |
15.07 |
94.33 |
|
KW |
20.65 |
19.93 |
20.24 |
19.56 |
17.1 |
97.48 |
|
Joe |
26.8 |
20.37 |
16.8 |
19.61 |
15.49 |
99.07 |
|
Ernest |
21.14 |
23.04 |
19.53 |
20.6 |
14.83 |
99.14 |
|
Bill |
26.73 |
21.3 |
23.74 |
27.75 |
18.48 |
118 |
|
Roxanna |
31.77 |
22.05 |
22.12 |
25.58 |
16.92 |
118.44 |
|
Mike S. |
30.25 |
22.04 |
25.3 |
22.97 |
20.87 |
121.43 |
|
Robert |
30.76 |
28.9 |
30.27 |
29.68 |
18.14 |
137.75 |
|
Erik |
45.12 |
33.47 |
29.57 |
31.5 |
23.39 |
163.05 |
|
Mike G |
73.82 |
31.51 |
25.68 |
27.66 |
20.8 |
179.47 |
Notice the top two positions are the same guy shooting an auto loader and a revolver? It just goes to show you it is the shooter/training not the gun that makes the biggest difference in the outcome of a shooting match. Also, I am pretty sure Roger is the oldest shooter. What does that tell you given that I am in my mid-50s?
I’m skeptical
The Brady Campaign as an organization as well as board members and top leaders have repeatedly said they don’t want to ban guns.
One should probably regard such claims with skepticism since Google reports there are 86,200 instances of the of the word “ban” on their website.
Bing reports only 48,200 instances. Well, okay then. I guess it’s not as bad as I thought it was.
Quote of the day—Zombie Shooters Association of America
So many Zombies, so little time.
Zombie Shooters Association of America
H/T Linoge.
[Guns are fun. Pass it on.—Joe]
Live blogging from the Boomershoot site
I’m doing some maintenance at the Boomershoot site. Lots of little things:
- The oil in the generator needs to be changed (it’s warming up and
charging the battery right nowall charged!) - The O/S in my Wi-Fi access points needs to be updated (one done the other in progress)
- The yellow jacket trap needed the bait replaced (done)
- There is still garbage which needs to be hauled away
- The bowling pin rack was hauled back to the shed (cousin Alan brought it down off of his hill—whoops! I was going to do that two weeks ago and didn’t make it out here)
Need to do some chronograph work and practice for the steel challenge match tomorrow while I’m out here too. And that reminds me that I need to pay a special someone for all the steel targets they brought to me at Boomershoot.
Today We Mark The End of The World…
…of end-of-the-world cults. Yes I know– wishful thinking. End-of-the-world cults are as old as history, and they’ll just keep right on coming and going, no matter how many times they’re proven wrong (much like socialism and jihad). Eventually of course the world will end. All Things Must Pass. Then one of these cults will probably be proven right after all. That’ll show us.
This should be a course of study in high school – “Introduction to End of The World Cults.” Students could get involved by forming into groups within the class and starting their own end of the world models and doctrines. I’m trying not to be too flippant because this is a very serious subject.
Religious and political leaders, or leader wannabes, and most hippies, find that people desperately want to believe in something that makes them extra special. It is easy to convince people that they are part of a special group. A group that has super duper important information, and that the rest of us will rue the day if we don’t take heed of it and recognize that group as The One, and so on. It’s usually all about power. Raw power and nothing else. Algore and the Global Cooling, I mean Warming Now/Global Cooling Now/Oh What the Hell; Climate change cult is one of thousands of examples. Most churches practice some variant of it also, and it always works on someone. No matter what. Since people can’t bear the thought that they’ve been duped to such a deep level– that they’ve been so, so very foolish. They’ll do anything to explain it away somehow, to avoid the profound sense of embarrassment and shame.
That’s when the bullied become the bullies. The cycle repeats.
I know, I know. Trust me. I’ve felt The Spirit too, I know exactly what you cultists are going through. I was young and impressionable. I deeply wanted to believe in something that would relieve me of my doubts, confusion, self-loathing or whatever it was. And then there was that need to “fit in”. That’s when they get you. It’s a form of hypnotism, and it works on you because you want it.
It’s never going away, but you don’t have to participate in it. When you let go of that garbage– that baggage people have used to control you, and live a life guided by principles, none of it can touch you.
Quote of the day—Kieran Healy
I guess on Sunday when the #Rapture people feel really upset, we can’t console them by saying “Cheer up, it’s not the end of the world”.
Kieran Healy
May 20, 2011
[Via a retweet by Kris R.
On a more serious note—I should have updated my website www.whenprophecyfails.info. It still has a lot of great info on it. But I should have included info about this particular incident a week or two ago. I procrastinate too much.—Joe]
Boomershoot 2011 in time lapse
Notice the clouds of water vapor from the explosions in this time lapse video of Boomershoot 2011. The winds–they are a changing.
Quote of the day—Sarah Brady
The licensing debate is not about the right to own a firearm; it’s about responsible gun ownership, about safety, and about law enforcement’s ability to revoke the license of someone who becomes a danger to themselves or others. Additionally, a licensing system will ensure that gunowners understand their own states’ laws, from the regulations governing the carrying of concealed weapons to the responsibility for keeping loaded guns away from children.
Sarah Brady
Brady Campaign
January 28, 2000
STATEMENT OF SARAH BRADY RE: PRESIDENT CLINTON’S LICENSING INITIATIVE
[If a licensing scheme would “ensure that gunowners understand their own states’ laws” and presumably “preventing gun violence” then perhaps the government could license recreational drug (including cigarettes and alcohol) users and “revoke the licenses of someone who becomes a danger to themselves or others”. Or maybe licensing homosexuals, Catholic priests, and/or Muslims. Never mind that the right to keep and bear arms is a specific enumerated right and (probably) cannot be subject to a license while recreational drug use is not a specifically enumerated right.
Once the concept of licensing drug users proves its worth then we can talk about how effective licensing might be when applied to firearms. Don’t forget to do the arithmetic before you bring the topic up with me.—Joe]
The entire world is a battlefield
This may be reading too much into a few words but it bears watching. From Salon.com, “How many Americans are targeted for assassination?”:
Dozens of Americans have joined terrorist groups and are posing a threat to the United States and its interests abroad, the president’s most senior adviser on counterterrorism and homeland security said Thursday. . . . “There are, in my mind, dozens of U.S. persons who are in different parts of the world, and they are very concerning to us,” said John O. Brennan, deputy White House national security adviser for homeland security and counterterrorism. . . .
“If a person is a U.S. citizen, and he is on the battlefield in Afghanistan or Iraq trying to attack our troops, he will face the full brunt of the U.S. military response,” Mr. Brennan said. “If an American person or citizen is in a Yemen or in a Pakistan or in Somalia or another place, and they are trying to carry out attacks against U.S. interests, they also will face the full brunt of a U.S. response. And it can take many forms.”
See also Congress Proposes Bill to Allow Worldwide War … Including INSIDE the U.S.
It’s may be important to note that exercise certain, perhaps any, rights guaranteed by the Bill of Rights could cause you to be considered a “low level terrorist” and the DOJ, FBI, and JTTF will consider it justification to be watching you.
Via email from former co-worker Chet.
There is no privacy
I had lunch with someone today that told me they attended a “Privacy Conference” recently. One of the interesting things that came out of it was that the technologist all thought the lawyers would be the ones that would save privacy and the lawyers all thought the technologists would save it.
Other observations included:
- Kinect has a camera, microphone, a connection to the Internet and a view of the interior of your home.
- Many people carry a device with GPS, camera, microphone, and a connection to the Internet with them wherever they go.
- Surveillance cameras are almost free.
- Someone has demonstrated a system that you can take a picture of a random person on the street and ~40% of the time deliver the person’s SSN within a minute.
- An 8-core computer processor in quantity 1 can be now be purchased for about $8.00. This has implications.
- The UK may have millions of cameras and no improvement in their crime rate to show for it but they were trying to watch the cameras with human eyes. My fear is that we may get 100s of millions of cameras with computer eyes (Kinect technology?) and a police state to show for it.
I think I’m depressed again.
My headache was cured this morning
If you follow my Tweets you will have already gotten a few hints.
- 11-30 AM May 18th Is insanity contagious? I think I might be infected by contact with someone at work. May I take another sick day now? Please?
- 11-39 AM May 18th I have a headache now. I almost never get headaches. Is there a pain reliever you can get OTC for reducing pain in the ass people?
- 11-42 AM May 18th My coworker will be buying a months supply of such medicine too. Maybe we can get a discount on a bulk buy.
- 11-46 AM May 18th Someday I will blog about this person. Other people need to be warned.
- 10-19 AM May 19th Woot! I just got a great offer from another company. I can tell my crappy boss goodbye!
I have been told, in a very firm tone, by two different friends that I shouldn’t blog about this person by name. So, at least for now, I will hold off. But lets just say my mood has greatly improved in the last 24 hours and Barb will probably stop telling me I should take anti-depressants.
Former co-worker Chet also left Microsoft because of this guy. This morning, after I told people I was leaving, someone who also has had to deal with him came to me and said, “He is crazy! He has to be insane.” I think it is a case of Peterson Syndrome (a generic case which is probably unrelated to guns). Imagine having to deal with someone like that on a daily basis. Now imagine them writing your performance review. Yeah. I have been having nightmares for months now.
There are some things about working for Microsoft that are very good. There are other things that are very broken. Two more people, who don’t work with my boss, told me today they are looking for an exit for similar reasons to mine. Microsoft has some very serious flaws that are not being addressed by management.
My offer from another company includes a raise larger than all the raises I have gotten in working at MS for five years and a stock grant (vested over three years) that made me light-headed and made Barb squee.
I have another interview on Monday so I haven’t accepted the offer yet and I keep hoping I will get an interview at Barron’s place of work which is a few minutes from my home in Idaho instead of the Seattle area like the others I have been looking at. But the job applications there are moving way to slow for me to wait around much more. I need to get out before I just pull the covers over my head and never get out of bed.
You may notice an uptick in blog post frequency… we’ll see.
Do all socialists have this much money?
One has to wonder where socialists get all their money and why doesn’t everyone have as much wealth as this guy in all socialists societies? [/sarcasm]
Mr Strauss-Kahn secured his release from Rikers Island prison as it was announced a grand jury had voted to have him prosecuted for the alleged sexual attack of a 32-year-old maid in his hotel room.
In a hearing at New York supreme court, Judge Michael Obus said he would allow the 62-year-old former head of the IMF out of jail despite the fact there was a “serious risk” he would try to flee.
He warned Mr Strauss-Kahn, who was arrested at JFK airport on a flight about to take off for Paris, that the consequences would be serious “if there is the slightest problem with your compliance”.
…
He must move into an apartment in Manhattan rented by his wife, and “will be monitored 24 hours, seven days a week, electronically and by at least one armed guard”, the judge said.
He will pay $1 million (£600,000) upfront, provide a guarantee for a further $5 million (£3 million), and cover the expense of his own security, which was estimated at $200,000 (£120,000) a week and include an armed guard at all times.
Ry, you are a magnificent god!
Peter Biddle (Twitter feed is here) shares another video of Boomershoot 2011. This one is of the opening fireball.
I think it is Barron whom you hear say, “Ry, you are a magnificent god!”