Can bloggers make a difference?

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Sometimes you might think you are just “preaching to the choir” and the people that can make a difference don’t listen no matter what you do.

Then there are other times when you think maybe someone in a position of power is paying attention:

Domain Name   senate.gov ? (U.S. Government)
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ISP   U.S. Senate Sergeant at Arms
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Continent  :  North America
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State  :  District of Columbia
City  :  Washington
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Distance  :  2,071 miles
Language   English (U.S.)
en-us
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Domain Name   senate.gov ? (U.S. Government)
IP Address   156.33.24.# (U.S. Senate Sergeant at Arms)
ISP   U.S. Senate Sergeant at Arms
Location  
Continent  :  North America
Country  :  United States  (Facts)
State  :  District of Columbia
City  :  Washington
Lat/Long  :  38.9097, -77.0231 (Map)
Distance  :  2,071 miles
Language   English (U.S.)
en-us
Operating System   Microsoft WinXP
Browser   Internet Explorer 7.0
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; InfoPath.2)
Javascript   version 1.3
Monitor  

Resolution  :  1024 x 768
Color Depth  :  16 bits

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Bigot talk

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You just have to shake your head at times. Some people are so bigoted it’s almost beyond belief:

Today, guns are generally preferred by paranoid sociopaths, cowards and vigilantes — as guns have become the implement of choice for the increasing numbers of street gangsters, criminals and domestic terrorists. The profuse abundance of guns and bullets (which is, of course, gained through a provision of capitalist profit in that area of industry) allows for the unhindered pursuit of their endeavors.

[…]

What the American people need to clearly understand is the U.S. Constitution is intended to disallow such an introduction of danger and fear into our society. The only way to right a wrong is with a right. The most basic civil right is that of being free from harm.

Today, we are assigned the important responsibility of instructing our representatives in government, to lead with measures which assure our safety and security. The current over-production and indiscriminate distribution of firearms and ammunition must be outlawed and the participants disengaged.

This guy, Mark S. Fuller of Gloucester Massachusetts, is an anti-capitalist, has extremely negative views of gun owners, as well as having no clue as to what a right is. The ignorance and bigotry are mind boggling.

Quote of the day–Megan McArdle

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When the government controls your paycheck, your housing, and your ration card, it doesn’t need to put you in jail; you are in jail.

Megan McArdle
February 25, 2008
HOPELESS IN HAVANA
[I fear we are about to learn this lesson first hand.

H/T to Kirby for the email pointing this out.–Joe]

NRA’s Annual Meetings & Exhibits 2008

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Official news release from the Apex of the Triangle of Death:

With an estimated 60,000 attendees and more than 400 exhibits, this year’s Annual Meetings and Exhibits promises to be among the best in NRA’s 137-year history. Leading firearm manufacturers will display the firearm industry’s latest products. Various hunting and shooting accessories, and an extensive private collection displayed by NRA-affiliated gun collector clubs, will fill acres of convention space.

NRA’s Annual Meetings and Exhibits provide a safe and fun atmosphere the whole family can enjoy. The ever-popular air rifle range is a top attention-grabber — both for participants and observers. NRA offers diverse presentations throughout the three-day convention, including methods of concealed carry; Refuse to Be a Victim® Seminars; hunting in Africa; and the Firearms Law Seminar. This year promises more Special Sessions for members and guests than ever before, and the most popular session, Methods of Concealed Carry, will be offered twice (on two different days).

I’m going to be there. Will you?

Quote of the day–Bill Gates

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640K ought to be enough for anybody.

Bill Gates
1981
[I’m listening, live, to Bill Gates tell us his vision for the future of our group. I’m reminded to not take everything he says as the word of god.–Joe]

I wonder what German kids played with in 1939

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Via an email from Jason (who says, “Makes losing your rights fun!”) I discover there are toys to “help children understand and be comfortable and confident in the need and process of higher security protocols”:

My guess is there were similar things for the slightly older kids of the Hitler Youth.

I’ve changed my mind on microstamped bullets

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After doing some thinking on the topic of microstamped bullets I’ve changed my opinion. I was vehemently opposed and couldn’t imagine this would catch on. I was wrong on both accounts. I now think it is a great idea and I think it will do exceptionally well and will be accepted by the majority of shooters.

What I realized was the company pushing this (see Sebastian’s post) was trying to use a government mandate instead of the free market. Which, of course, is nearly always a recipe for disaster. They will get much greater market acceptance with a free market approach.

I think that there are a lot of people that would pay another penny per bullet for something like “Mist Maker” engraved on their Speer TNT bullets. I’d pay an extra $0.02 per bullet so I could load up 9mm jacketed hollow points inscribed with “Please Don’t Rape” for the women in my life to carry. In my case even at an extra $0.05 per bullet I’d order 1000 Berger .308 caliber 210 Grain Match VLD’s engraved with Μολὼν λαβέ.

Quote of the day–Pat Paulsen

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Assuming that either the left wing or the right wing gained control of the country, it would probably fly around in circles.

Pat Paulsen
[With all due respect to Paulsen I think the more likely result would be a crash. I wish Paulsen were still alive and running for president this year. We could use the comic relief and perhaps even a viable alternative.–Joe]

Boomershoot 2008 position 49

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Sunday morning, February 24th, position 49 will become available at 8:00 AM.

Sign up here: http://entry.boomershoot.org/. Only online entries will be accepted. Call if you have questions, but you must sign up via that web page.

Reasonable restrictions

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Ry graphically demonstrates what reasonable restrictions look like under a Obama regime.

Interesting condition

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It sounds like something is miswired in the brain. I’ve talked to women that were true sex addicts and women who took drugs to reduce their sexual desire to managable levels, but this is significantly different:

PSAS, identified and named just six years ago, remains a mysterious condition that thousands of women wish they didn’t have. They are constantly on the edge of orgasm regardless of time, place or circumstance. And while this situation might sound desirable, funny or just plain weird it is actually akin to being a prisoner: a nightmarish reality where a woman’s body acts independently of her own desires.

ABC News spoke with four women who all experience unwanted sexual sensations. Heather Dearmon, Nancy Austin, and two women who requested anonymity (referred to as Lauren and Emily) all suffer from unintended sexual arousal.

“It’s unwanted sexual sensations in your vagina,” Dearmon said.

“And sex doesn’t help it,” Lauren said. “Orgasm doesn’t relieve it, sometimes it makes it stronger. This is to me, irritating, torture.”

It’s a sad situation. Apparently there is an exception to Dr. Joe’s cure for everything.

[H/T to Phil for pointing it out to me.]

Posted in Sex

Quote of the day–Dick Cheney

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It is easy to take liberty for granted, when you have never had it taken from you.

Dick Cheney
[While this may be true I keep wondering if enough people really notice when its been taken. Intrusive, pointless searches at airports, “Real ID”, socialized medicine, firearm restrictions, McCain-Feingold, the Kelo decision, etc. I think a worse problem is that it is too easy to accept your chains. That has not always been the case and I wonder why.–Joe]

Wooo hooo!!

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This restriction has directly impacted me for years. Barb and I love visiting National Parks. If we get this through then our visits will be far less stressful:

Bush Administration to Propose New Rule Regarding Right-to-Carry in National Parks

Reading the fine print what this really means is that a major offensive has been opened in our battle against the anti-gun bigots on one front. We probably will win but we still have work to do. This is just a commitment to go through the process, including public input, to change the policy. Barb and I have a rule regarding good news. We’ll believe it when “the check clears the bank”.

Thanks go to former Idaho governor Dirk Kempthorne (currently Secretary of Interior), Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID), and NRA-ILA.

Airsoft guns and knives are next

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A glimpse into the future:

Berlin – The German parliament approved tighter gun-control laws on Friday in a move designed to stop the spread of violent crime. The new legislation bans the carrying of replica firearms and so-called airsoft guns as well as certain types of knives.

Living in a fantasy world

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With so much real world data available you would think they wouldn’t even try to get away with publishing something like this. But these people have mental problems so I guess it’s not too surprising, just frustrating. This nut case is classified under projection:

Concealed carry safety is a fantasy

Some people say we need to let college students have the right to carry concealed weapons so that they can protect themselves and others. Here’s a possible scenario:

Dear Diary:

Well, here I am in my Physics 202 class at NTU, ready for another boring lecture by the professor’s assistant. I feel really good today, ’cause I’ve got my new Ruger 7-shot automatic in my backpack and a box of extra ammo too.

Makes the backpack a little bit heavy, so I think I’ll toss out a couple of boring textbooks when I get back to the dorm. I sure hope some intruder will burst into the lecture hall one of these days so that I can shoot him!

Meanwhile, several friends and I are thinking about taking our automatics to the game against State U tomorrow night. We’re only a half game behind in the standings and if any of those State guys start smarting off to our coach or players, we’ll know how to handle them at half time!

It’s so great now that even 18-year olds can pack heat. Is this a great country, or what! Well, diary, I’d better sign off now, ’cause that lecturer is writing some sort of formula on the board and I guess I’d better start paying attention.

Whoa! One of the kids on the other side of the room just stood up and has started shooting people! The teaching assistant just went down, and he’s bleeding!

I’ll just get my gun out of my backpack and get it loaded in a second and I’ll fix him! Oh no! He’s pointing that gun at me now! Oh…..

Kurt Thoss

Quote of the day–Milton Friedman

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The black market was a way of getting around government controls. It was a way of enabling the free market to work. It was a way of opening up, enabling people.

Milton Friedman
[Speaking of black markets…

Something to keep in mind is a tax greater than 15% on an item is the threshold at which a black market is created. Think of all the things that are taxed at rates greater than that. Then remember than in a black market you don’t have the court/justice system to enforce contracts. Which means contract disputes are settled privately–frequently with violence. One further point before I deliver the punch line, it is exceedlying rare that a criminal pays taxes on his income. Thus $100K/year in criminal income is more like $175K/year in legal income. Hence high taxes not only create crime in the form of a black market and their methods of dispute settlements but high taxes make criminal income more attractive than legal income. Big government doesn’t keep us safe from crime, it creates crime.–Joe]

Cool!

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This article is very interesting for two reasons. The first is:

A group led by a Princeton University computer security researcher has developed a simple method to steal encrypted information stored on computer hard disks.

The technique, which could undermine security software protecting critical data on computers, is as easy as chilling a computer memory chip with a blast of frigid air from a can of dust remover. Encryption software is widely used by companies and government agencies, notably in portable computers that are especially susceptible to theft.

The development, which was described on the group’s Web site Thursday, could also have implications for the protection of encrypted personal data from prosecutors.

The move, which cannot be carried out remotely, exploits a little-known vulnerability of the dynamic random access, or DRAM, chip. Those chips temporarily hold data, including the keys to modern data-scrambling algorithms. When the computer’s electrical power is shut off, the data, including the keys, is supposed to disappear.

In a technical paper that was published Thursday on the Web site of Princeton’s Center for Information Technology Policy, the group demonstrated that standard memory chips actually retain their data for seconds or even minutes after power is cut off.

When the chips were chilled using an inexpensive can of air, the data was frozen in place, permitting the researchers to easily read the keys — long strings of ones and zeros — out of the chip’s memory.

“Cool the chips in liquid nitrogen (-196 °C) and they hold their state for hours at least, without any power,” Edward W. Felten, a Princeton computer scientist, wrote in a Web posting. “Just put the chips back into a machine and you can read out their contents.”

That’s cool enough, but this is just as cool:

The issue of protecting information with disk encryption technology became prominent recently in a criminal case involving a Canadian citizen who late in 2006 was stopped by United States customs agents who said they had found child pornography on his computer.

When the agents tried to examine the machine later, they discovered that the data was protected by encryption. The suspect has refused to divulge his password. A federal agent testified in court that the only way to determine the password otherwise would be with a password guessing program, which could take years.

A federal magistrate ruled recently that forcing the suspect to disclose the password would be unconstitutional.

Not that a child pornographer may be able to get away with his crime but that you can password protect your data and the government can’t force you to potentially incriminate yourself.

Just One Question response

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Another fish bit on my Just One Question lure–sort of.

From: “Joe Huffman”
To: bree_dalling@musician.org
Subject: Gun control laws will save lives
Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2008 08:46:55 -0800

Regarding your opinion piece here: http://media.www.suujournal.com/media/storage/paper951/news/2008/02/19/Opinion/OpEd-Gun.Control.Laws.Will.Save.Lives-3219311.shtml

I have just one question for you: Can you demonstrate one time or place, throughout all history, where the average person was made safer by restricting access to handheld weapons?

See also: https://blog.joehuffman.org/2004/12/14/just-one-question/

Regards,

Joe Huffman

From: Bree Dalling
Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2008 6:35 PM
To: Joe Huffman
Subject: Re: Gun control laws will save lives

Hi Joe,
As I’ve explained before, I’m not proposing banning them, or fully restricting access to them. If you’re a law-abiding citizen, then you won’t have a problem. I’m saying put the people who aren’t so law-abiding on several lists. If something changes with their status (they receive anything higher than a class A misdemeanor, or they start having mental health issues), then require them to turn their gun in for as long as it takes for them to get it taken care of and/or whatever happens with it. Notice that every single school shooting in the past few years has been from someone who went off their medications.

I will admit, I have yet to read your blog post. I will get to it once I finish my homework. I just wished to clarify my position.

Thanks,
Bree

From: Joe Huffman
Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2008 7:41 PM
To: ‘Bree Dalling’
Subject: RE: Gun control laws will save lives

I don’t know the details of the “several lists” you are proposing but I expect they already exist and are enforced in the form of NICS (http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cjisd/nics.htm).

As it is currently implemented my main gripe with NICS is that it consumes money without any measurable benefits. I agree one should expect it to make people safer but no one has been able to measure an improvement. It’s kind of like expecting you will get sick less often if you wash your hands frequently. But if your water supply is contaminated with raw sewage washing your hands just doesn’t make a difference. The real problem is that restrictions on the access to firearms can be, and has been, no more successful than restriction on access to recreational drugs or alcohol during prohibition.

But it gets worse than that because the restrictions end up prevent praiseworthy use of firearms such as self-defense. If someone with criminal intent wants to obtain a weapon they will without concern they are breaking the law—after all they intent to commit some other violent crime why would they be concerned about breaking a law in regards to gaining possession of a firearm? The potential victim(s) generally obey the law and hence restrictions on firearm access hinder them from using firearms as defensive tools. Thus we find that restrictions on firearms have both a positive benefit (it makes it somewhat more difficult for potential criminal use) and a negative benefit (less access for defensive use). The net effect is that people, on the average, are never safer after the restriction was put in place than before. If you want to look at specific people such as Stalin, Hitler, other tyrants, then yes, they were made safer by restricting access to weapons by their prey, but that isn’t an accomplishment any gun control advocate can be proud of.

Do your homework and get back to me if you feel like it.

Thanks for responding.

-joe-

CCRKBA op-ed

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Just released: Illinois shootings prove Brady Campaign is horribly wrong on guns.

It hits on the Brady scoring of Illinois in the top ten in terms of gun laws but the effect was to create government-enforced killing fields. Here is a sample:

The anti-self-defense extremists at the Brady Campaign – who have consistently battled common sense concealed carry laws that put law-abiding citizens on a level playing field with criminals and crazies – are real proud of themselves. They should be begging forgiveness for the horrific crimes that occur in shopping malls, on college and university campuses and anywhere else that their hysteria and political demagoguery have prevented sensible right-to-carry statutes from being enacted.

I like it.

Whatever works

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In the U.K. the handguns were the object considered most important to ban as is generally the case in the U.S. However, in Australia they took the long guns first. But not wanting to show favoritism the Australia politicians are now demonizing handguns. And of course little things like facts are no obstacle to the anti-gun bigots:

“We need the same restrictions on handguns, automatic handguns, that the Howard government implemented on long guns after the Port Arthur massacre (in Tasmania) in 1996.”

Automatic handguns were effectively machine guns and should be withdrawn from public availability, Senator Brown said.

I’m reminded of Goldilocks Gun Control (another version of the same story is here). But really, it’s whatever works for them politically at the time. The only thing that is consistent is they they want more and more restrictions. There is never going to be a gun that is “just right” for people to have.