Quote of the day–Edward Rex

Posted on by

Cause public proclamation to be made, that everyone strong in body at leisure time on holidays use in his recreation the bow and arrow and learn and exercise the art of shooting – forbidding all and singular on our behalf that they do not after any manner apply themselves to the throwing of stones, wood, iron, handball, football, bandyball, cambuck, or cock fighting; nor to other such like vain plays which have no profit in them, under pain of imprisonment.

Edward Rex
Westminster
12th day of June 1369
[From mandated use of arms as recreation to arms being banned for any private use.  I wonder when the average individual was safer in the U.K.–Joe]

Of men, brains, dogs, and women

Posted on by

This is one of my favorite jokes:

Q: Why were men given larger brains than dogs?
A: So they wouldn’t hump women’s legs at cocktail parties.

Of course not all men use more of their brain than that used by a dog–particularly after they’ve had a few drinks.  Which explains the behavior of some men wherever women and alcohol are present.

Posted in Sex

ID cards in UK take some heat

Posted on by

Bruce Schneier brought this to my attention.

Ex-MI5 chief says ID cards in the UK would be “useless” for fighting terrorism and “a waste of money”.  Which is what I have been saying for years.  She, of course, has a much more influential position than most.  And she does a good job of hammering the half-baked idea for fighting terrorists:

ID cards have possibly some purpose. 

But I don’t think that anybody in the intelligence services, particularly in my former service, would be pressing for ID cards.

My angle on ID cards is that they may be of some use but only if they can be made unforgeable – and all our other documentation is quite easy to forge.

If we have ID cards at vast expense and people can go into a back room and forge them they are going to be absolutely useless.

ID cards may be helpful in all kinds of things but I don’t think they are necessarily going to make us any safer.

And if it doesn’t help when fighting terrorists then it’s not going to be any good for fighting criminals.

Xenia is going to state drama competition

Posted on by

We knew from the teacher’s reports, Xenia’s enthusiastic descriptions, and the effort she was putting into it that her entries in the District competition were going to be good.  Both of her entries won first place in District Drama.  It’s on to STATE!

Sunday afternoon accomplishments

Posted on by

This afternoon was much more productive than my wallowing in self-pity this morning.  I accomplished a bunch of stuff and still have other things in the queue:

  1. I purchased 200 rounds of Winchester Ranger self-defense ammo in .40 S&W.
  2. I purchased 50 rounds of 52 grain moly coated Blackhills Match ammo in .223 for testing purposes.
  3. I implemented on-line entry for Boomershoot 2006.
  4. I posted Eugene Econ’s details on the Precision Rifle Clinic for Boomershoot.org.
  5. I fixed various errors on Boomershoot.org web pages.

Weekend activities

Posted on by

Barb and her sister Nancy made it back from D.C. 20 minutes early last night and we went out to dinner at Outback (in part because of this).  Despite being tired from the travel and time difference they were very upbeat and talk about how wonderful the hospital (except for the food), volunteers, doctors, and therapists were.  They told me stories of Jason and others in the hospital how nearly everyone was so upbeat even though many of them had lost a great deal–arms, legs, eyes, brain injuries.  The helicopter pilot that lost her arm and both legs “tooling around in a wheelchair wearing a t-shirt that said, “It’s a good thing my husband is a butt man.”  Barb and Nancy were sorry for the losses but said they were being well taken care of and they all seemed proud of what they had contributed.  Barb said I really needed to go visit Jason and meet these heroes.  I want to but even as they were telling me of all our soldiers and how well they were doing the tears welled up.  It made me very sad.  I’m not sure I could do anything but cry if I went to visit.  I think we are doing the right thing in Iraq, but the losses make me very uncomfortable.  Although I sometimes say, “Too much sand, not enough glass”  I don’t mean it.  I know that of the available options to us we are almost for certain going down the correct path.

Barb, Nancy, and I went to the Uncle Bonsai concert last night and enjoyed it.  I wanted to hear more of their old songs but they had new material and I hadn’t really heard all of the stuff that has been out for a while.  I never listened to anything but a little bit of their “Doug” album.  After hearing a couple of the songs last night I listened to the entire album this morning.  Some of the songs were sad and it probably affected me more than usual because of the stories from Walter Reed.

When we got back from the concert I did a very quick check of my email and I found out Bob Coval died yesterday.  We knew it was coming (low bandwidth version here) but still a great sadness swept over me.  Since I’ve been over here this last week I had been thinking about Bob frequently.  I should visit him or at least find out when he died.  I didn’t really want to know though.  Now I know.

This morning Nancy announced it was 6:00 AM and they needed to leave right away.  One short night is all I got with Barb before she headed home again.  They need to leave early because I-90 is one lane in both directions in parts of Snoqualmie pass because of rock slide.  The state transportation department is saying there could be long delays over this holiday week.  Five hours was mentioned but that could be for next Sunday night when the really heavy traffic occurs.  I’m hoping to go home on Wednesday night.  I didn’t even try to get an airplane ticket because they sell out a couple months in advance over Thanksgiving.  That means I need to try and get over the pass at a high traffic time.  And over course coming back Sunday night will be hell.  It might be that the return trip will be best done via Portland.  It’s normally a nine hour drive but that will be better than 10 or 12 hour drive over the traffic clogged pass (which is normally a five hour drive).

I was at my first IDPA match Saturday until just before I went to the airport to pick up Barb and Nancy.  The match went pretty well.  Lots of rules to process on a continuous basis after the buzzer goes off.  It’s not like IPSC where you often get to “shoot them as you see them.”  Gaming is still present just less obvious.  Thanks to Wendell for arranging a group of us to attend together.  Robin, Sean, and I had dinner at his place with Hobbit Friday night.  Robin and I were in pain from laughing at the S&W (Sean and Wendell, not Smith and Wesson) rendition of Whale.avi (S&W were far better than the real thing).  Then we all were in the same squad for the match on Saturday.  It was most pleasant company for both Friday evening and Saturday.

So… I’m alone here in front of my computer thinking about Bob, Jason and our other heroes that have lost so much, Barb leaving after spending just a few hours, and I will have some long drives to visit home over Thanksgiving.  I think it will be best if I get out and do my National Ammo Day purchases.  I wanted to do it yesterday but the IDPA match and spending time with Barb were higher priorities.  Anything to get out and moving will be better than here.

I’ll be back with something more upbeat later.

Quote of the day–Ward Dorrity

Posted on by

If you had to choose between saving The Lying Bastard of Pennsylvania Avenue from drowning in a vat of steaming bubbling pig shit and taking a Pulitzer Prize winning photograph…

 …what f-stop would you use?

Inquiring minds want to know

Ward Dorrity
Friday, December 04, 1998 2:49 PM
SOC Constitutional Infringement Issues
Microsoft Public Folder
[Check the date.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Greg Hamilton

Posted on by

A attorney who in specializes in self-defense told me that of the 300 clients who said something to the police before talking to him, only two managed to NOT hurt their case.  Those two didn’t help their case, they just didn’t hurt it any.  If you are involved in a shooting, call the police, physically cooperate with them, but don’t say anything except you want to call your attorney.

Greg Hamilton
Self Defense Instructor
Nov. 19, 1995

Mathematically challenged?

Posted on by

If the vote was 44,000 to 38,000 would you say the voters were “evenly divided” on the issue?  How about 44 to 38?  I haven’t done the statisical tests on the significance of a sample size of 82 but my gut feel is you can’t justifiably call that “evenly divided”.  Yet that is what this newspaper article does:

The issue of handgun control is a controversial one, with many people saying curbs on sales of handguns will reduce crime, while others feel it’s important to protect Americans’ constitutional right to own firearms.

Visitors to the Star Courier’s Web site were evenly divided on the question last week.

The online poll asked whether people favored tougher restrictions on buying handguns in Illinois.

Of the 82 who voted, 44, or 54 percent, said “no” and 38 said “yes.”

I think I see some spin being placed on the outcome.  Either that or the Star Couier Staff need to retake 1st and 2nd grade math.

The volcano in my brothers backyard

Posted on by

I had the most vivid dream this morning.  It was the most detailed dream I can ever recall having.  The conversation with my dad as we walked alone the fence was detailed and I could “hear” the tone in my fathers voice and the heavier breathing as we walked through the deep snow.  The trail in the snow had footprints that were both fresh and old.  The sounds of our feet on the cold, dry snow was accurate.  The dog we found caught in the barbed wire gate that had fallen down was whimpering and scared.  It did a realistic “happy dance” running in circles and licking me after I freed it.  Then I noticed the reason the gate had fallen down.  The ground had bulged up and hot water was pouring out of the cracks in the earth.  The bulge had tipped the gate post over enough the gate fell to the ground.  A river of hot steaming water washed across the road north of the old blacksmith shop and down through woods toward the old well.  The little meadow in the woods that always had less snow that other areas now was green with growing grass even though it was the middle of winter and other areas had five to six feet of snow.  The smell was like that of the hot springs Barb and I visited at Yellowstone National Park this summer.  We had a geothermal vent a couple hundred feet from my brother’s back door.

I woke up as I realized the impact this could have on the farm.  Best case was my brothers and parents had a source of cheap heat for the shop and their homes.  But if this was a precursor to a Mt. St. Helen’s scale eruption the entire farm would be gone.  Orofino could be at the bottom of a lake formed by the backed up river just two miles from the farm.  Lewiston and Clarkston, 35 miles down river, could be scoured clean from the valley floor as the ash and earthen formed natural dam gave way and a wall of water rushed down the narrow valley.

I’ll be visiting my parents for Thanksgiving.  I’ll need to walk down through the pasture to dispel the images from my mind.

Quote of the day–George H. Smith

Posted on by

… we may indicate three minimum requirements that must be fulfilled before any belief can claim the status of knowledge: (a) a belief must be based on evidence; (b) a belief must be internally consistent (i.e. not self-contradictory); (c) a belief cannot contradict previously validated knowledge with which it is to be integrated.  If a belief fails to meet any or all of these criteria, it cannot properly be designated as knowledge.

George H. Smith
From: Atheism: the Case Against God
[Gun control advocates, socialists, and other anti-freedom advocates would do well to understand the difference between belief and knowledge as outlined by Smith above.–Joe]

Bummer

Posted on by

I wonder if Monica and Bill have heard the news:

US researchers studying the effects of human papilloma virus (HPV), a leading cause of cervical cancer in women, have found a connection between the virus and instances of mouth tumours.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University compared 1,670 patients who had oral cancers to 1,732 healthy people and HPV was found in a small number of the cancer patients. Those infected carried HPV16, the most common strain of the virus, which in Britain is estimated to infect one fifth of women between 18 and 25.

The study showed that people with mouth tumours containing the HPV16 strain were three times more likely to have had oral sex than those whose tumours did not contain the virus. 

Raphael Viscidi, a virologist at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine said that the study is very decisive. “This is a major study in terms of its size,” he says. “I think this will convince people.”

While the US researchers said there was no need for people to alter their behaviour, this was not the line taken by the head of a similar study in Sweden.

Dentist and researcher Kerstin Rosenquist headed a smaller study conducted at the Malmoe University Faculty of Odontology in southern Sweden that showed the same connection between HPV and oral sex. Rosenquist found that 36% of the cancer patients were carriers of HPV while only 1% of the control group had the virus.

She said, “You should avoid having oral sex.”

“In recent years (oral cancer) has been on the rise among young individuals and we don’t know why. But one could speculate that this virus (HPV) is one of the factors,” Rosenquist said.

There is a very promising vaccine that should soon reduce the risk some.

Posted in Sex

Explosive goodness

Posted on by

Sean sent me this link early this morning.  We then chatted about where to find an old washing machine (he has an old one but isn’t ready for it to be deconstructed yet) and a place to try a similar experiment of our own.  I suggested a dump–we might find the desired object(s) and wouldn’t have to clean up afterward.  Sean said it was a good idea and maybe we would get lucky and ignite the methane escaping from the rotting organic matter in the dump.  That was when I realized it wasn’t such a good idea.  It would be impossible to determine the minimum safe distance from which to view the deconstruction of the home appliance(s).  If the entire landfill went up in one fireball…. well… it would be thrilling until it came back down on top of us.

A new source of exploding targets

Posted on by

They cost about $2.00 each and from the video I’m guessing they are equivalent to a few ounces of “Boomerite”.  Nice packaging.

Quote of the day–James Burnham

Posted on by

The economic egalitarianism of the liberal ideology implies … the reduction of Westerners to hunger and poverty.

James Burnham
Suicide of the West
1964

Machine Gun Sammy

Posted on by

Gun Guys claim Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito is:

Known consortion with practically criminal organizations, including the NRA.

When the truth is that it is the people in groups like the VPC and Gun Guys actually are criminals.

If it were only true that Alito has a NRA membership.

Thought for the day

Posted on by

If you stop to think, men should be the ones riding sidesaddle.

Posted in Sex

Quote of the day–Aristophanes

Posted on by

You have all the characteristics of a popular politician: a horrible voice, bad breeding, and a vulgar manner.

Aristophanes
[When reading this I immediately thought of the two Senators from New York.–Joe]

A better mouse trap

Posted on by

It has been said that if you build a better mouse trap the world will beat a path to your door.  I’m not so sure that is true but no matter.  The more sexually aware of you will know the Sybian has been around for several years and gets a lot of praise.  I’ve talked with several women that have tried it.  Awesome reviews.  It would be more than a little intimating if you thought the primary reason your woman hung around was for the orgasms.  But then you knew that already.

But what I’ll bet you didn’t know is that in Moscow, Idaho there is a guy building prototypes of a better machine.  Cheaper and more natural in action.  Same great results.  I know three woman that have tested one or more of the prototypes and gave them very positive, if somewhat incoherent (oh, oh, oh, oh my god…), reviews.  I haven’t checked with him on his machines for a year or more not and should do that.  It’s not exactly a mouse trap, in fact it is sort of the opposite of a mouse trap.  But I wish him luck in his endeavor.  I just wish I could help out in his research.  Surely he needs some good photographs taken or something…

Posted in Sex

Government help

Posted on by

Q: What should you do if a pit bull is humping your leg?
A: Fake an orgasm.

This so reminds me of the government trying to “help”.  You certainly don’t want to resist their “help”.  That will only make things worse.