Trying to be Sneaky and Failing

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One does not have to put on a tin-foil hat to be suspicious of this:

Several major holster manufacturers/providers received notices from the Department of Commerce Census Bureau requesting order numbers, product descriptions, and where the items were being shipped. A few holster companies have refused to turn over the requested information to the federal government.

…

Some companies reached out to Arbiter Weston Martinez of Texas for help. Mr. Martinez is the former Texas Real Estate Commissioner under former Governor Rick Perry. Mr. Martinez is well connected in the political sphere and believes that the companies are being targeted to gather intel on the gun market. He has vowed to help push back against the alleged government overreach.

If they were asking what state the holsters were being shipped to, and without order numbers, then okay, I could imagine the requested information was not intended for abuse. As it is worded here, I just roll my eyes. That isn’t fooling anyone.

Via email from Rolf

How Many Lies Per Sentence?

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Quote of the Day

Why are we tolerating the slaughter of innocent children at schools? For that matter why are we tolerating the mass murder of innocent Americans in stores, malls and the workplace. The common denominator in most shootings is an AR-15 assault-style rifle developed for the military, where soldiers need to be able to shoot a lot of bullets in a hurry to stop the assault of an enemy.

David Op’t Hof
David Op’t Hof: Only banning assault weapons will stop the slaughter

One has to wonder if this guy was trying to set some sort of record for the number of lies he could pack into a single sentence:

And secondarily, am I imagining it or are there some sort of visual characteristics such that you “just know” some people are anti-gun?

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It seems there might be some sort of thing like “Gaydar” for anti-gun people.

ATF Agents Have Problems With Obesity

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If this is true it is very “interesting”. The ATF was (is?) having difficultly maintaining staff for entry and quick reaction teams.

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Many of them are obese and they are losing staff due to injuries from obesity, cardiovascular disease and parallel conditions.

Perhaps they should just shut the entire anti-gun operation down and stop infringing upon our rights.

Via a tweet from Chuck Petras @Chuck_Petras.

Prepare appropriately. Don’t let your dog get close enough to an ATF agent that the agent might fall on them.

Socialism Works Great

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Quote of the Day

My father is a surgeon who’s worked for decades in some destitute & devastated places all around the world. He’s never seen a place where the sick are made to wait like in Canada. He can’t believe doctors have been brainwashed into accepting this truly criminal system.

Saifedean.com (@saifedean)
Tweeted on August 12, 2022

Socialism works great until you run out of other peoples’ money.*

* Rephrasing the Margret Thatcher quote:

The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples’ money.

Electrical Engineers Extinction

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Interesting observation.

Engineers on the brink of extinction threaten entire tech ecosystems

While computer science course take-up had gone up by over 90 percent in the past 50 years, electrical engineering (EE) had declined by the same amount. The electronics graduate has become rarer than an Intel-based smartphone.

That part of the technology industry which makes actual things has always been divided between hardies and softies, soldering iron versus compiler, oscilloscope versus debugger. But the balance is lost. Something is very wrong at the heart of our technology creation supply chain. Where have all the hardies gone?

I have a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering but switched to software after about 10 years because there were more and better paying jobs in software at the time. So… in a sense they are talking about me.

If You See a Bulge

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Quote of the Day

If you see a bulge in a conservative woman’s pants, it’s a gun. If you see a bulge in a liberal woman’s pants, it’s a penis.

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Blaire White @MsBlaireWhite
Tweeted on February 27, 2023

I do not think knowing her political affiliation is required to distinguish between a penis and a gun in her pants.

What is this thing? Is that a light?

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The scope seems a little odd to me too.

Mutating Cyber Event

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This could be “interesting”:

Cyber Apocalypse 2023: Is The World Heading For A ‘Catastrophic’ Event?

As the 2023 annual meeting of the World Economic Forum wrapped up in Davos, Switzerland, it ended with a disturbing prediction from one of the leading voices. Delivering a presentation on the 2023 Global Cybersecurity Outlook report, forum Managing Director Jeremy Jurgens revealed that 93 percent of those surveyed believe that a “catastrophic” cyber security event is likely in the next two years.

…

According to the WEF report, one of the biggest threats is a “mutating” threat. This could take the form of an AI-enabled virus that transforms as it infects various systems and organizations to evade defense systems or even detection. Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, whose country suffered an attack that brought down critical infrastructure in 2022, spoke about what he had learned since:

“It’s about viruses that can not only block our way of living but can control it and deviate it. So it can use our systems like, God forbid, our air transport systems to hit us back. Imagine if there is a cyberattack on our air transport systems that turn a huge number of airplanes that are flying into bombs.

Skynet smiles.

I need an underground bunker in Idaho.

Guns, With All Their Phallic Force, are the Best

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Quote of the Day

The answer to that is based in the psyches of men for whom violence is a form of power, a means to force respect; who view guns as symbols of manhood, and manhood as requiring power over women. Machismo, male supremacy, guns, violence, power, and respect are all interlinked, so that, for such men, neither respect nor power nor manhood can be achieved without violence, and the use of violence against those—especially women, but also nonwhites and other minorities—over whom they demand power. (Without which, to complete the circle, they cannot truly be men.) And guns, with all their phallic force, are the best possible means.

Abigail R. Esman
July 6, 2023
The Most Egregious Case the Supreme Court Agreed to Hear Next Term

It’s not only another Markley’s Law Monday, it is another science denier!

An opinion writer on Slate demonstrating Markley’ Law is unusual. I expect it as a matter of course in a Twitter debate. But an opinion writer doesn’t have to fall back on childish insults because they have lost the debate. She invokes it as part of her main arguments. That’s really demonstrating how weak their case is.

Other things to point out are:

  • No apparent concern about constitutional law.
  • No mention of why, if the defendant is so dangerous, which I’m inclined to believe he is, why he had not already been placed behind bars due to his crimes other than being a domestic abuser in possession of a gun.
  • No apparent awareness criminals will continue to acquire firearms or substitute other weapons and commit violent crimes whether they are prohibited from owning a firearm or not. Only the physical removal of these thugs from public life can make the public safe.

But what do you expect from someone so ignorant, stupid, and or evil they insist gun ownership is an indicator of compensation for inadequate masculinity?

Guns DO NOT Murder People: Criminals Do!

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Via a tweet from Jay (Parody) @jayhafe who tagged it with #JustOneQuestion

See also Just one question.

Tolmie Peak Lookout

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Barb and I visited Tolmie Peak Lookout six years ago. Yesterday, we hiked up there again. We left a little after 6:00 AM and arrived at the trailhead at about 8:00 AM. The last 19 miles were gravel with “high clearance vehicles recommended.” The speed limit was 25 MPH, but in places, I thought 15 MPH was plenty fast.
The sign at the trailhead said 5.8 miles round trip. They lied. My GPS step tracker said it was 3.47 one way.

The first part of the trail was really nice. It got a little more difficult in places. But it’s not so bad that we really complained about it. We knew the reward at the end would be well worth it.
Down toward the trailhead:

And on and up to the lookout:



We started out at just over 5,000’ elevation. This is the sign at Eunice Lake

The lookout is at 5,935.
Near Eunice Lake, we were swarmed with mosquitos. We applied insect repellant, but it was far from completely effective. Barb described it as her being their buffet.
This is Eunice Lake with the lookout on the skyline just right of center:

About halfway up the hill from the lake, we saw Mount Rainer to the Southeast. No matter how many times we have seen it, it never fails to impress us. This is from more than nine miles from the peak with a cell phone camera. The peak is nearly 9,000 feet above us.

To the Northwest was a valley filled with a river of fog.

We arrived at the lookout just before 10:00.

The lookout isn’t particularly special compared to many other lookouts. But the view is very special.

It is hard to capture it with a cellphone camera, but this is a very round valley carved by a glacier.

Last time, Barb got uncomfortable with the trail beyond the lookout. I turned around to stay with her. This time, I went on without her. I after traversing this section of the “trail” I stopped and reevaluated my life choices.

I had gone further than last time, but I didn’t see the risk/reward benefit analysis being all that favorable. This was the view forward shortly before I turned back.

Lake Twenty Two

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On July 4th Barb and I hiked to Lake Twenty Two in the North Cascades.

We arrived at the trailhead by 8:20 and found the parking lot full. A couple hundreds yards down the road the day use picnic area had one spot we could squeeze the car into.

The trail is claimed to be 5.4 miles roundtrip and has a difficulty of “moderate”. They lie.

My GPS tracking app says it is 3.3 miles one way. Had the trail been on even ground instead of random sized, irregular shaped, rocks half of the distance we would have granted it a moderate classification. The constant attention required to our footing and the work to keep our balance make it above what we considered “moderate” difficulty.

That said, it was a very nice mountain lake with waterfalls and snow:

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Continue reading →

Crime is Up After State Gun Ban—Make the Ban National

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Quote of the Day

We’ve banned assault weapons. We’ve banned high-capacity magazines. We’ve banned switches that turn regular guns into automatic weapons and here in Illinois those are things that will keep people safe and alive, but we need a national ban,

J.B. Pritzker
Governor of Illinois
July 8, 2023
Pritzker Pushes For Nationwide Gun Ban While Illinois’ Law Challenged In Courts

Don’t ever let anyone get away with telling you no one wants to take your guns.

From the same article:

Just in Chicago, violent crime has risen 86% over the past two years, and 56% over the past four.

Pritzker is innumerate, evil, or both.

Prepare appropriately.

Only a Little Surprised

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Quote of the Day

A new study commissioned by the European Federation for Transport and Environment revealed that toxic emissions of sulfur oxides from 63 cruise ships belonging to Carnival Corporation were 43% higher than all the combustion engine vehicles in Europe. This stunning statistic comes as EU leaders have decided to ban small combustion engines for cars by 2035. But what about ‘green’ cruise ships? Only crickets…

“The most polluting cruise ship operator was MSC Cruises, whose vessels emitted nearly as much sulphur as all the 291 million cars in Europe. When looking at parent companies, as in our original 2019 report, the Carnival Corporation comes on top with the 63 ships under its control emitting 43% more sulfur oxides than all of Europe’s cars in 2022,” the study said.

Tyler Durden
July 6, 2023
Carnival Cruise Ship Emits More Toxic Fumes Than All Of Europe’s Cars, Study Finds

Although Barb and I have never been on a Carnival ship we have talked to several people about the various cruise lines. Carnival cruises has a reputation like the Yugo GV has in the world of luxury cars. Yeah, they are laughed at and made fun of. There is a reason the contempt:

If a cruise ship is in distress or the passengers are suing it is a safe bet to say it was a Carnival ship.

Carnival ships emit more pollution than all combustion engine vehicles in Europe combined? I’m only a little surprised.

Anti-gun bigots are the KKK of the 21st Century

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Quote of the Day

The proposed legislation is an abhorrent anti-civil rights effort. No community in Massachusetts faces this kind an intentional bigotry and oppression from the State Government! It is simply a post Bruen tantrum, very similar to Governor Wallace after Brown v. Board of Education.

Jim Wallace
Executive Directory GOAL (Gun Owners Action League)
June 28, 2023
Mass. Anti-Gunners Push More Restrictions; Gun Group Chief Fires Back

As I said almost 17 years ago, “Anti-gun bigots are the KKK of the 21st Century.”

Open Defiance of the Constitution

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I’m hearing the echo’s of their Democrat brethren from sixty years ago in the deep south. They have announced the deliberate defiance of SCOTUS rulings regarding freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights:

Democratic Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes promised Friday to ignore a major Supreme Court ruling that prevents the government from compelling speech.

After the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 Friday that Colorado cannot require a Christian web designer to create wedding websites for same-sex couples that feature messages violating her religious beliefs, Mayes vowed not to enforce what she called the “woefully misguided” majority’s decision. The case, 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, challenged the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act (CADA), a law that prohibits public accommodations from restricting services based on sexual orientation.

Mayes promised to continue enforcing Arizona’s public accommodation law “to its fullest extent.”

If only we had a President willing to exercise whatever police powers are required to enforce SCOTUS decisions and protect the rights of the people in Arizona. Maybe that will happen in early 2025. I could see it being a 2024 election issue.

The day when we get to enjoy their trials is getting closer.

My Proposed Regulation Change on Pistol Braces

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Quote of the Day

Stabilizing braces gave me the ability to get back out and shoot things that I never expected I would be able to again and my life changed drastically. Since then, I have been traveling across the country teaching veterans how to shoot again. That brace is the foundation of everything I do because I can take someone who has limited strength in their hands or is missing digits and give them confidence and the skills and capability to grasp a firearm again and get them back to the things that were such a part of their life.

Rick Cicero
Co-designer of the stabilizing brace
July 30, 2021
LAWMAKERS: ATF STEPPING ON VETS WITH PISTOL BRACE RULE

I have never had any interest in one of them and so had no real opinion on them other than the government has no business regulating them. That they are considered helpful to people with limited strength, etc. has shifted my view on the government regulation some.

I think governments should change the laws such that pistol braces can be paid for using your health savings accounts (pretax dollars). I understand this will be controversial. But I’m will to go with this a small first step on the path to the elimination of all taxes on all arms.

The Countermajoritarian Difficulty

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Quote of the Day

While supportive of Brown, the legal scholar Alexander Bickel warned—via what he famously termed “the countermajoritarian difficulty”—that courts should be especially careful when invalidating legislation, lest legislatures flout their rulings and show courts to be powerless. Because we take legislation as representative of the will of the majority, courts are required to show legislation a degree of deference. They must justify themselves when they invalidate law in the name of constitutional rights.

Caitlin B. Tully
June 25, 2023
Rethinking the Liberal Giant Who Doomed Roe

I found this to be a very profound observation. This appears to be what is going on now in our battle for gun owner rights.

Entitlements are not Civil Rights

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Quote of the Day

In the face of multiple Supreme Court losses, including the reversal of Roe v. Wade, the blocking of Biden’s student loan relief program and the end of affirmative action on college campuses. All these court decisions really amount to is a reversal of entitlements that never should have existed in the first place. Leftists see such entitlements as “civil rights,” never mind that they exist as a means to take the rights of others.

Tyler Durden
July 1, 2023
Democrat Rep. Has Psychotic Meltdown – Calls Supreme Court “Illegitimate White Patriarchy”

I have nothing to add.

Boring Markley’s Law Demonstration

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Quote of the Day

That must be one really tiny penis

Vrt @SkullSkates71
Tweeted on February 27, 2023

It’s not only another Markley’s Law Monday, it is another science denier!

This assertion is so old and boring I nearly fell asleep trying to come up with an original response to it. I wish they would at least have an interesting twist. But that is too much to expect from these small brained anti-civil rights people.

The BEST Defensive Weapon

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Quote of the Day

For at least a hundred years the debate has raged and gun writers have written, ad nauseum, over the preferred defensive tool. The only point everyone can agree is: the BEST defensive weapon is a firearm, but it is totally useless unless accessible when defense is needed.

Chuck Klein
June 30, 2023
OFF-DUTY CARRY,
A SURVEY AND ANALYSIS OF CURRENT LE PRACTICES

And those who are opposed to the carry of firearms make their intentions abundantly clear. They are motivated to have you defenseless.