Costco Employee: “What are you going to do with all that
?” Joe: “Make explosives out of it.”
Costco Employee: “Good to know.”
March 25, 2011
[”
Whenever I am so completely open and honest about what I am doing with some large quantity of something (like a shopping cart full of zip lock bags) I always wonder if the police got a call as I was walking out the door. If so, I always managed to get out of town before the cops caught up with me.—Joe]
I so want to comment on some things that I see in the press about Windows Phone 7. Especially the problems with the remote update feature.
Maybe someday I can tell the stories. But not now.
Alan and others are sort of optimistic about the coming government collapse. Kevin is pessimistic.
The argument for optimism is basically that government is a parasite and that once the parasite dies the host (or new offspring of the host) will be able to flourish. I can see that.
I can also see that as the government nears the end those in power will rationalize almost any action to “Maintain order” or “To preserve the union” in the face of the riots. They will “just have to”. Your “goods, knowledge, and skills” may be required by others. And “whatever means necessary” will be utilized to implement “justice”.
As my brother Doug told me recently after I expressed some satisfaction about owning some productive farm land in our time of economic collapse, “We own land only as long as the law allows it.”
This is the difference between the Soviet Union and us. When the Soviet Union collapsed they already owned and controlled everything. There was nothing left for the government to take when the checks started bouncing.
I’m not saying the government will be successful in the acquisition process but both success and failure would be exercises of considerable unpleasantness.
Adam sent me an email telling me they are accepting applications for the 2011 Wiley Coyote 3 Gun Match. It takes place south of Grangeville Idaho on the Whitebird grade. It will be May 28th and 29th. You can download the application here.
As pointed out by Say Uncle (I also got an email from him) the letter that went out to all the gun dealers in Washington State earlier this month was because the Washington State Patrol lost a gun:
The state patrol won’t say how the gun disappeared — only that it was missing from the state patrol’s inventory in Tacoma last summer.
This is mostly reiteration of what nearly everyone else has said but poor handling on the part of the police is no reason for concern by anyone else. I’d use the letter for target practice.
Everyone needs moral support when they’re lying their faces off.
RB
March 22, 2011
Media Matters Pundit Boot Camp
[I think this explain why the anti-gun people, such as Joan Peterson, get so bent out of shape and whine about everyone being mean to them when we bring facts to the discussion. They need a lot of moral support in order to maintain their belief system.
I’m sure I got the link from some other blog but I can’t find it right now. Sorry for not giving credit where it’s due.—Joe]
LOL the wingnuts havent one soon they will kill eachother with all there guns adn then all the peaceful people of the world can live a peaceful life without the neanderthals.
BL
March 19, 2011
Comment to Quote of the day—Paul Helmke.
[The first few times I read this I had no clue what was being said. I suspected comment spam but there was no link to cheap prescription meds. I finally asked Barb, who was in bed with me at the time, “What is this supposed to mean?” She pointed out that “one” should be “won”. Oh! Now I get it.
I have a difficult time interpreting thing other than literally and I wasn’t able to make that translation on my own. Had it been “their” instead of “there” or “no” instead of “know” I would have been able to do it. I believe this was my first encounter with this particular homonym and since I didn’t attempt to read it out loud I was baffled.
Since BL is so much smarter than I am that I needed assistance in reading just a single sentence of this enlightened commenter I guess this proves them correct.—Joe]
Via Nick:
Wife Barbara, son James, and I all graduated from the U of I. Daughters Kim and Xenia are about 3/4 of the way through. Numerous other family members have attend (and are attending) and graduated here. When my brother and I attended we could have guns in the dorms. It’s time for the University to stop infringing upon the rights our children.
This is a little out of date but perhaps there are still a few pirates left if you want to get in on the fun.
Via email from (Random) Brandon who said, “I read this and thought of you.”
The following is via an email alert from the Idaho Sport Shooters Alliance. I have added the counties for the various district in red.
Shooters:
This Friday the 25th the Senate State Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on the campus carry bill. The anti-gun college administrators are pulling out all the stops to try to kill this bill. We need those of you who live in one of the districts below ( whose Senator is on the state affairs committee ) to call your senator and let them know that you support the right of faculty, staff, students, and members of the public to defend themselves on college campuses and that violent predators do not respect gun-free zones.
You may also have heard that the Governor has not expressed support for this bill. Everyone: please contact his office ASAP and politely ask Governor Otter to support this bill.
Governor Butch Otter
(208) 334-2100
Senator Curt McKenzie (R-12), Chairman (A co-sponsor: Thank him for his support!) (part of Canyon County)
Senator Russell Fulcher (R-21), Vice Chairman (part of Ada County)
Senator Bart Davis (R-23) (Owyhee County)
Senator Brent Hill (R-34) (Fremont and Madison County)
Senator John McGee (R-10) (part of Canyon County)
Senator Patti Anne Lodge (R-13) (part of Canyon County)
Senator Chuck Winder (R-14) (part of Ada County)
Senator Michelle Stennett (D-25) (Blaine, Camas, Gooding, and Lincoln County)
Senator Edgar Malepeai (D-30) (part of Power County)
Today daughter Kim sent me images from the University of Idaho school newspaper. There were several editorials telling everyone how terrible this bill is. How it removes choices from the students and the administration. Choices they would and have made to make the campus safer. And how dangerous it will be if people with permits are allowed to carry firearms on campus.
“Choices”? What about the choices of the students that will be expelled if they choose to carry everyday self-defense tools which they carry off campus on a regular basis? Would they use the same argument if the bill were to allow mixed race couples on campus? Or allowing Jews and Muslims on campus? Or how about forbidding the university administration to expel students who obtained abortions? Would those be “choices” the administration should be allowed to make?
The right to keep and bear arms is a specific enumerated right protected by both the U.S. and Idaho State Constitutions. The University does not and should not have an exemption to infringe upon the Bill of Rights.
Friends, as a Jew, I have a deeply ingrained distrust of any government that promises it will “protect me.” The history of the Twentieth Century teaches us that “gun control” registration schemes lead to political decisions to allow some populations to protect themselves while others are disarmed. Gun control is inexorably tied to malevolent citizen disarmament. See: “INNOCENTS BETRAYED“
Rabbi Dovid Bendory
Rabbinic Director
Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership
JPFO Launches “High Cap Freedom”
[Via Musing of a Vast Right-Winger.
Innocents Betrayed has some very powerful content. But then so did the Twentieth Century. I just find it sad and frustrating that so much of the world insists on relearning those lessons.—Joe]
Via Nick in the comments.
There are some updates in the University of Idaho gun case here.
If you are in the Moscow area this Wednesday it would help if you could attend the hearing at 9:30 AM at the Latah County Courthouse.
In other news the defendants have filed a response to the plaintiffs motion for judgment and the plaintiff responded to it. Basically the defendants say, “The state is prohibited from banning guns but we can do what we want because we aren’t the state and besides that, you gave up any right to complain when you became a student and signed the lease which said no guns allowed.”
That defense goes over with me about as well if they were prohibiting mix-race marriages. It’s a good thing my blood pressure is naturally low because it spiked a few points when I read their response.
Inflation is the one form of taxation that can be imposed without legislation.
Milton Friedman
[We are likely to get a lot of this in the near future.
But the main reason I was reminded of this was because of gun control without legislation being contemplated.
I wonder if there is a special name for that like “inflation” for taxation without legislation? Other than “unelectable” of course.—Joe]
One year ago, U.S. newspapers and broadcasters could feel confident they controlled the news content they created.
It was understood that competing and special-interest websites couldn’t appropriate that content and post it without authorization.
When such infringements occurred, they were dealt with swiftly and effectively with a simple phone call or email.
Infringing websites typically had re-posted material out of ignorance they were violating the Copyright Act and agreed to remove the material or replace it with a link to the source newspaper or broadcaster.
Then along came Righthaven LLC of Las Vegas, the self-appointed protector of the newspaper industry from such news sharers.
Some 250 Righthaven lawsuits later, Righthaven’s startling achievement is that newspapers now have less — not more — protection from copyright infringers.
Steven Green
March 19, 2011
Righthaven lawsuits backfire, reduce protections for newspapers
[Via email from John Hardin.
Nice!—Joe]
Sometimes I would almost agree there should be common sense limits, including background checks and licensing, on the First Amendment. This is one the reasons:
For an American, that means the person working beside you or sitting beside you on the bus or at the bar or the stadium or the movies or in class, or in the same traffic jam ready to explode with road rage, could well be carrying one of those formidable multiple-firing Glocks, the kind Mr. Loughner wielded.
But this guy is from Canada where censorship is already part of the political landscape. Maybe they should implement mandatory training and testing on a topic by topic basis for all journalists. The number of distortions and amount of ignorance and bigotry this guy spews is truly impressive.
Via email from Ry:
This is an interesting way to have your guns registered—the police just ask. What would the public response be if they were asking about Koran, “Heather Has Two Mommies”, or “Earth in the Balance” sales?
Update: Via Joe Waldron’s GOAL Post 2011-11:
Earlier this week most, if not all, firearms dealers in Washington received a letter from the Washington State Patrol asking for data on ALL AR-15s (and clones) and AR-15 lower receivers sold or purchased by the dealers over the past nine months. The information sought was reportedly requested pursuant to an investigation of a stolen AR-15.
Apparently the ATF (who has jurisdiction over tracing stolen firearms) was not consulted by the WSP before they initiated their query. It would appear the WSP request FAR EXCEEDED their authority to seek such information. It typically would take a subpoena to gain access to such a broad sweep of transaction records. And that would have to be signed by a judge, after presentation of sufficient probable cause.
It is my understanding most dealers politely declined to comply, as was their right. The Bellevue-based Second Amendment Foundation jumped right into this issue. Meanwhile, in addition to ATF asking questions (of the WSP), several state legislators want to know what’s going on.
BATFE has broad legal authority to examine firearm dealers’ records.
Local law enforcement has much more limited authority in cases like this. I suspect this was simple overreach by an over-zealous and perhaps inexperienced WSP detective. At least I hope that’s what it was. Eternal vigilance remains the price of liberty!
I haven’t posted much recently. Things have been pretty rough at work recently and I haven’t had much time or energy for blogging or even reading other blogs.
Yesterday, in an effort to improve things, I (figurative) threw a couple Molotov Cocktails. Short term things will be a mess but long term it should help clean things up.
Don’t expect a lot of posts until after Boomershoot 2011.
We’ve lost the battle on what the Second Amendment means. Seventy-five percent of the public thinks it’s an individual right.
Paul Helmke
June 12, 2008
Brady Campaign President
Gun Control Group Braces for Court Loss
[And 100% of the U.S. Supreme Court thinks that as well.
Nice try guys. You came close.
In an alternate history with the Internet lagging just a little bit the bad guys would have won and the 21st Century could have been a dystopia.
Now we get to condemn them to the dustbin of history like the Berlin Wall, the U.S. Confederacy, and the KKK.—Joe]
There’s no middle ground on this issue that will make our opponents surrender and give up. That’s why I’m interested in giving up as little as possible, and taking everything from them that I can. I’m not in this fight to keep people worried. I’m in this fight to win, and to make what my opponents advocate about as publicly acceptable as someone who thinks we ought to ban newspapers.
Sebastian
March 17, 2011
On Obama’s Bully Pulpit
[The most important point here is that we need to change society attitudes not just get the politicians to vote our way. If we change society the votes will be there and other good things will follow. Just having votes without a change in society means we will have the same fights over and over.
I generally use the phrase, “Make belonging to the Brady Campaign the social equivalent of a membership in the KKK.” But Sebastian’s choice of words is probably better than mine for most audiences.—Joe]
We’re not interested in curtailing the rights of gun owners…
Chuck Schumer
U.S. Senator from New York
March 16, 2011
Mayor Bloomberg scolds nation for not standing up to gun lobby
[I choked when I read that even though I wasn’t drinking anything.
To get a better idea of Schumer’s interest you need a little background. Here is a good example:
We’re here to tell the NRA their nightmare is true!. We’re going to hammer guns on the anvil of relentless legislative strategy! We’re going to beat guns into submission!
U.S. Rep. Charles Schumer
November 30, 1993
NBC Nightly News
I’m reminded of how you can tell when a politician is lying—his lips are moving.—Joe]