This has got to be one of the seven signs.

Seven dwarves demand nude Snow White. Wow!

Now the seven dwarves, along with other characters from the Grimm Fairy Tale, even the wicked Queen, are threatening strike action

This could turn ugly quick.

I learned something rather interesting today

The backroom politics in Washington create strange and odd groups that work for a common cause, but this one takes the cake.
I should learn to go by The Gun Zone more often as they have good articles and I end up learning something everytime I am there. This time the information bothered me some.

As is common with any controversial issue, there's a great deal of misinformation floating about, and misperceptions held by those affected by the issue.

Nowhere is this truer than with 1994's infamous "Crime Bill," the second significant piece of federal firearms legislation passed that year. Aside from the "assault weapons" (whatever those are) provisions, a significant portion of that bill dealt with magazines (or "clips" by the unknowing, the lazy or the sloppy thinkers)... very simply, if one is a civilian (non-military, non-law enforcement), one may not legally possess any "high capacity ammunition feeding device" of more than ten rounds manufactured after that date. Centerfire, rimfire... makes no difference.
.......................
But, sad to say, it was none of those, or anyone even associated with them. It was Bill Ruger, "one of our own" who, for whatever his motives (and you'll get a lot of heated opinions on just what those motives might have been), became a Vidkun Quisling¹ to Second Amendment stalwarts.

The 2nd amendment activists are fast to jump to the attack when one of the manufacterers starts playing loose with our rights. I remember the backlash against Smith and Wessen for dealing with Clinton and the Taurus people willing to be in the pockets of the New Jersey government for their cut of the market.

But I admit total surprise at this story. It seems that William Ruger not only helped create and push for the high capacity ban in the early 90's, and for his own advantage in the market, but the NRA honored him with a Honorary Life Member by the NRA Board of Directors just years later.

As someone who is the owner of a ruger 10/22 and who still plans on buying a Ruger mkII in the future I am bothered. I do not think this will change any purchases in the future, but buying used is the preferred method.

Nigerian games part III

In the last letter I had sent him he I asked if this was a scam. His reply made it obvious that he was insulted. Like I care!
OCT-06

Dear Mr. Westman,

I am not here to prove your grand father name whether it is in the list or not. i am here to do business with you. from the beginning i informed you that this is a deal which would benefit you and i. if you wish to continue, do indicate in your next mail else you back out. i have my name to protect considering what i have on ground in this deal. i wouldn't want to be exposed.
looking forward to knowing your final decision on the subject matter.

Truely yours,
R. Lauder.

OCT-06

Sir,

Your letter included this

All that is required now is for me to obtain a notarized sworn affidavit of fact stating you as the Next of Kin of the deceased customer. Next is to submit the affidavit to the Claims Resolution Tribunal, being the government established agency responsible for verification, processing and approval of Release order for settlement of claims of heirs to assets of victims of holocaust.

I have talked to a notery and she said she could not noterize a claim paper without the clients name and country of origin. Please send me some basic information for the notery and I will get this form to you as soon as possible.

I am sorry to hear about you putting your house up for this good cause. If there is anything i can do to help you please do not hesitate to ask. I myself have had financial troubles in the past.

Saul.

I figured that showing some worry about his house would be a nice touch. His reply was soon to follow.
OCT-07

Dear Mr. Samuel Westman,

Do not border yourself on the affidavit as I am conluding arrangement to get it done here with a lawyer. I am putting the money together towards that. Do not involve any attorney there for the affidavit at this point in time. I will take care of that myself. Thanks for your concern, i am doing all i am supposed to do to ensure that no mistakes are made. i will kep you up dated from time to time. all you need do is to take instructions from me and ask question when applicable in any gray areas. you must not compromise the confidentiality of this business as i have name and job to protect.let me have your telephone number as i would like to talk with you on
the telephone.

best regards,

r. lauder.

He sure seems to be desperate to "help" me. What a humanitarian.
OCT-07

Thank you for your help. I have contacted my parents and will be getting some records of my grandfathers to see if they will help. He died in 1967 and was buried in New York Hebraic Cemetary on Long Island. Hopefuly some of the documents could help. This organization that you represent. Will there be any problems with customs or something. The money involved here is large and I hope to use most of it for certain charities I have helped in the past.
I feel strange writing to someone I did not even know a week ago. Could you send a photo or something so I will know what you look like? Emailing is so impersonnal for true communications.
I will respond to your photo with one of myself and my dear wife. I have not told her of this because the exitement may be to much for her in her condition. She has recently gone through a bad spell with being unconscious so long. The attack left her very weak and she did not wake for days. The doctors say she will make a full recovery and this will help us a lot.
What city are you in? You mentioned Europe but I would like to know this please.

Saul.

So there it is . I asked for a bit of something like a photo from him. Lets see what happens. I decided to throw in some Jewish tid-bits to spice up the pot. With him using a Muslim website for an email in The United Kingdoms and the majority of Nigerians being Muslim I figured that would keep him interested in scamming me.

***stay tuned***

Make Love, not Spam

Lycos has earned a gold star for the day with an idea that may just be what is needed in the war on Spam. Make Love not spam. They have the idea of using your extra computer capacity to slow down and use the bandwidth of spam sites, thus costing the spammers cash. This will be done while your screensaver is activated.

Net users are getting the chance to fight back against spam websites
Internet portal Lycos has made a screensaver that endlessly requests data from sites that sell the goods and services mentioned in spam e-mail.

Lycos hopes it will make the monthly bandwidth bills of spammers soar by keeping their servers running flat out.

The net firm estimates that if enough people sign up and download the tool, spammers could end up paying to send out terabytes of data.

Make the scum pay big for their websites.

Can-Spam and all of the other governmental initiatives to fight spam has had no real effect on the spam level. Every day it gets worse. So a company, on its own, has decided to go hunting.

The sites being targeted are those mentioned in spam e-mail messages and which sell the goods and services on offer.

Typically these sites are different to those that used to send out spam e-mail and they typically only get a few thousand visitors per day.

The list of sites that the screensaver will target is taken from real-time blacklists generated by organisations such as Spamcop. To limit the chance of mistakes being made, Lycos is using people to ensure that the sites are selling spam goods.

As these sites rarely use advertising to offset hosting costs, the burden of high-bandwidth bills could make spam too expensive, said Mr Pollmann.

Sites will also slow down under the weight of data requests. Early results show that response times of some sites have deteriorated by up to 85%.

Users do not have to be registered users of Lycos to download and use the screensaver.

While working, the screensaver shows the websites that are being bothered with requests for data.

The screensaver is due to be launched across Europe on 1 December and before now has only been trialled in Sweden.

Despite the soft launch, Mr Pollmann said that the screensaver had been downloaded more than 20,000 times in the last four days.

Now while I think this is a great idea the people at Slashdot have a few reservations about it. Even Fark has a good debate over the merits of this project.

I will withhold judgment for now, but this looks like it has more promise then the governments efforts.

Web Won't Let Government Hide

That's the title of the latest Wired article and it is packed with goods and information. The advent of blogs, and freedom of information sites have become a thorn in the side of the government(good). The government likes to use the "war on terror" as the reason for limits of information, but it does not fly in my opinion.

Given the government keeps tabs on the world using armies of agents, algorithms and wiretaps, how can a citizen compete? Try a browser.

Governments at every level these days are providing less information about their inner workings, sometimes using fear of terrorism as an excuse. But it's precisely times like these that mandate citizens' rights to check the efficiency of their government and hold those who fail accountable, open government advocates say.

The government itself won't make it easy, so an increasing number of websites and data crunchers are stepping in to provide information about the inner workings of government.

The article links to several fine search engines for you to research subjects. The one that I am most impressed with is Google/UncleSam. A government specific search engine that has already shown to me it's usefulness.

The government has been playing with information lately by pulling it from the public domain. Translated it means that although not classified secret, you cannot see it. Thus it is out of reach, and they hope out of mind.

Secrecy News has emailed several bits of information out about this latest government action.

11/17

NGA PURSUES CONTROL OF UNCLASSIFIED SATELLITE IMAGERY

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) contacted a
private web site this week to advise that a one year old commercial
satellite image of the Iraqi city of Fallujah should not have been
publicly disclosed even though it is unclassified and should not be
further distributed.

John Young of Cryptome.org noted the incident and republished the
unclassified image in question here(PDF)

The private web site at http://gallery.colofinder.net/ that was
approached by NGA also retains the Fallujah image online.

The NGA asserts the right to limit disclosure of unclassified
satellite imagery based on a statute enacted in 2000 (10 USC 455),
which entitles the Defense Department to withhold imagery and
related products under certain conditions, independent of their
classification status.

That statute is implemented by DoD Directive 5030.59.(PDF) It
established the LIMDIS or Limited Distribution caveat for
controlling unclassified satellite imagery.

11/18

MORE NGA WITHDRAWALS FROM THE PUBLIC DOMAIN

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) paid the public
the courtesy today of announcing more withdrawals of unclassified
information from the public domain.

"The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) intends to remove
its Flight Information Publications (FLIP), Digital Aeronautical
Flight Information File (DAFIF), and related aeronautical safety of
navigation digital and hardcopy publications from public sale and
distribution," the agency stated in a Federal Register Notice
today.

"This action is taken to accomplish the following objectives:
safeguarding the integrity of Department of Defense (DoD)
aeronautical navigation data currently available on the public
Internet; preventing unfettered access to air facility data by
those intending harm to the United States, its interests or allies;
upholding terms of bi-lateral geospatial data-sharing agreements;
avoiding competition with commercial interests; and avoiding
intellectual property/copyright disputes with foreign agencies that
provide host-nation aeronautical data."

11/21

The announcement by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency
(NGA) last week that it will withdraw various categories of
information from the public domain (SN, 11/18/04) is beginning to
arouse concern from those who rely on government mapping products.

"This is serious stuff, much moreso than the FOIA imagery exclusion
issues you raised some months ago," writes SN reader K.

"Map librarians in particular are going to go absolutely ape[crazy]
when they read the fine print that 'ONCs, TPCs, etc.' [i.e.
navigation/planning charts] will be withdrawn from public sale at
FAA. These are basic elements of the international map coverage
held in government depository libraries all over the country, and
even throughout the world."

The problem the government is having the control of a lot of information is slipping from their grasp, and that loss of control is again everything our government is about today.. Yes they can demand it be removed from data banks, but the resulting demand will simply spread it even more..

I have a saying that "once on the web, always on the web". While the government is wanting to keep an eye on us, we will fight to keep an eye on them.

NOTE:
I copied just a small part of the Secrecy News email alerts. They are full of useful information and it arrives about every other day. I would recommend them to anyone who is worried about the games played in Washington.

To subscribe email them here with SUBSCRIBE in the body.

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. — C. S. LEWIS

Nigerian games part II

My reply to the Nigerian scammer was answered much faster then I thought it would be(OCT-05).

Dear Mr. Saul Westman,

i received your email and i am glad that you are resolute in your decision to be a partner to me in this risk free, high profit venture which will turn around our lives and that of our dependents into big success.
All that is required now is for me to obtain a notarized sworn affidavit of fact stating you as the Next of Kin of the deceased customer. Next is to submit the affidavit to the Claims Resolution Tribunal, being the government established agency responsible for verification, processing and approval of Release order for settlement of claims of heirs to assets of victims of holocaust.

After receipt of the Release Order, the funds will be sent to a safe, highly secure bank account in your favor in the Bromwich Albion Bank Limited, London.The London Bank is a safe haven for funds and provides very many wonderful advantages not found in many other countries. Firstly, there is no tax on funds, second there is high interest rate on deposits, good investment opportunities, and most importantly confidential banking facilities to enable you access the funds through internet banking, and anonymous ATM/debit cards without revealing or compromising your
security.
You must remember that I am a top executive at ICEP, hence security is of utmost concern to me. I have mortgaged my very beautiful home to borrow the money to pay the attorney for legal services and also to pay other charges to ensure speedy processing of the documents. You must also remember that with my contacts and position, i will ensure that all processes are expedited to ensure transfer of the funds securely to London Bank.

I am living in an official residence provided by ICEP to me and the area has telephone system that is networked, hence you may not be able to call me so that we do not compromise the security of the transaction. I will communicate by email and fax and will arrange for secure way to call you or you call me whenever the need arises

Once more, thank you for accepting with courage and interest for us to turn around our lives as successful business magnates This tranaction is safe, risk free and guaranteed to be completed successfully in a few days from today

Best regards and God Bless.

Mr Lauder

"I have mortgaged my very beautiful home to borrow the money " Sniff sniff. What a great humanitarian.


Now there is something to note on his return address.
rlauder@ummah.org

ummah.org is an interesting site, even the definition of Ummah is interesting. When you go to WWW.ummah.org it forwards you to www.salaam.co.uk/diary/. The best way to describe it is a Muslim web host. They have a nice Muslim calendar and a mosque location button right on the top.

So being the honest and forthright person I tried to contact them at their contact address

Someone is attempting to scam me with a classic Nigeria scam. Who do I file a complaint with?

Thank you.
Sam Westman

For some reason they did not reply. Kind of hurt my feelings.

So I replied again(OCT-05) to the scammer because I think I may have hooked a nice fish.

I received your letter and I am confused. How do I know that my grandfather, Samual Westman, is even on the list. It would be improper for me to claim money that was not mine. I also would not want to take advantage of you if that is also true.
Do you have any of the documents that might show some of the money is my families?

Thank you
Sam Westman

****Stay tuned****

Groping my wife's breasts

I am going to touch on a subject that you may not expect to see here and why I am angry.
Groping and fondling women's breasts. Specifically my wife's, and I'm not the one doing the fondling. That's where the anger comes in.

Thanksgiving this year is quiet here in the old No Quarters household because my wife is flying to Hawaii as I write this. She should be near California right now on the Fort Worth to Honolulu leg of the trip. She has had to gone through one(Nashville), and maybe two(Fort Worth) security areas in two airports and in each the chance of being groped by some government perv is pretty high. Then there is the return trip, through wonderful Chicago.

Women go though life knowing that they may get felt up. Doctors, boyfriends, and husbands are at the top of that list. But somehow the government has decided that they, and their little perv's, have that right also. All in the name of national security and the war on terror.
From Stupid security

Key quotes from the NYTIMES article: "None of the complaints have been resolved so far nor have any penalties been imposed." and: "Most of the women interviewed said they did not make formal complaints, most saying that they assumed it would be futile to do so. Ms. Maurer said she and some other women she had spoken to are wary of complaining in writing, both because of the presumed futility and from fear of being singled out when they travel in the future." and finally: "routinely, my breasts are being cupped, my behind is being felt,' Ms. Chekowsky said. 'And I feel I can't fight it. If I were to say anything, I picture myself being shipped off to Guantánamo.'"

One of the women said that she's now driving whenever possible. Me too. For me, it's not so much the humiliation of actually being touched as the sense that something profoundly un-American (in the traditional sense of the term) is going on here.

Being singled out is not the problem, she does not fly a lot and is not the type to be "profiled", the problem is the fact that without the "needed" grope she would not be allowed to go to Hawaii unless she took a ship.

I have to sit at home and know deep down that some damn overpaid, over powered, government goon has the deluded idea that this is right and he can do it without restraint. That is so damn wrong. We cannot object because the system has gagged us. They have the power of screwing her vacation and costing her the time and money invested. Miss one flight during the holidays and it is all over. The have the ace card of "no fondle, no fly" and it sucks. That is power above what they should ever have.

The ability to travel, unmolested, used to be assumed. I am sure there are no terrorist or illegal items under her breasts. I check regularly.

So here I sit knowing that my wife is willing to put up with that just to travel. Maybe it is the macho redneck in me, but screw you Tom Ridge and all the other alphabet soup goons out there who do this every day.

So this holiday I am not in the best of moods.

So one more time. "Screw you Tom Ridge."

Scrapple Face

This is my first link to him and it is a good one. Down below I posted on a bill the government passed, and then was shocked at what they passed.

Scrapple Face does one better

A secret provision in the proposed 3,600-page omnibus spending bill for 2005 would require members of Congress to actually read the text of legislation before voting.
...................................
"This sneak-and-peek provision is a violation of our fundamental rights as legislators," said one unnamed Republican Senator. "If you require lawmakers to actually read the text of bills, then they would lose plausible deniability and become accountable for their votes. This would shake the foundations of our constitutional republic."

If it was not so true it would not be funny.

Stopped at the border, almost

The news is full of horror stories about the flu vaccine shortage and the effect it may have. The contamination at the one plant in Europe started the whole fiasco.

The government has reacted like it normally does, inaction. Yes they have made statements that talk of increasing the supply, next year, and lifting the shots to the needy for now. But the one thing they have not done is let more in.

Never fear, free market is here. The government calls it smuggling, I call it unregulated and un-shackled commerce.

Thousands of doses of flu vaccine smuggled from France through Saudi Arabia were destined for black-market sales in New Jersey, federal officials said Tuesday.

The smuggling scheme is the latest, and perhaps boldest, criminal act to arise during the nation's unprecedented flu vaccine shortage. As health officials dole out a limited supply of vaccine, police are dealing with price gougers and vaccine thieves.

Boldest? Now you may ask why they seized it. Was it watered down or just crappy stuff? Nope.

Worse.

"Our concern wasn't that it had been doctored. Our concern was that it wasn't a legal import," Raimondi said. "At no time was there ever a chance of this particular shipment entering the supply chain."

Wasn't legal!! So the fact that it did not have the USDA stamp on it makes it immoral. That means good vaccine is going to be destroyed.

How about this feds. Let us make our own choices if we want to us it or not. Try to be less paternal in your dealings with the people.

We have just lived through watching our government take its infant first steps into regulating the new civilian space industry. This control the government has is the base of the shortage. Yes I understand that the FDA has done much good, but when its rules create shortage and cause deaths then the rules need to be revamped or tossed.

When all else fails(and it is), go free market

It is hard today to not open a paper and see the sad state that the government and predator lawyers has put our medical system into. I do not blame the insurance companies for the most part. They are forced by the profit margin to charge enough to cover the law suits. I blame the government.

So why is it there is one surgery field that is growing like there is no tomorrow, and getting cheaper by the day and has the happiest patients? You might find that the free market has a lot to do with it.

A system of licensing and registration is the perfect device to deny gun ownership to the bourgeoisie. — VLADIMIR ILYICH LENIN

Bourgeoisie. That's you and me people. Think about it.

Voting blind in Washington.

Politicians have a small bad habit of voting for things and getting bit in the rear later.

When the first election occurred after the McCain feingold bill was passed a lot of politicians were surprised at what they had voted for.

It began as a modest idea: a series of small seminars by Democratic Party lawyers for elected officials, political consultants and Congressional aides on the intricacies of the new McCain-Feingold campaign finance law. Party officials reserved a dining room at the Democratic Club on Capitol Hill and sent out invitations across Washington.

By the end of last week, that low-key undertaking had drawn more than 400 people over the course of a month, a turnout that has astonished its organizers. The crowd came first for a three-hour introductory course on a statute that is upending the fund-raising culture of Washington, and many have returned for specialized weekly three-hour classes at what has become known, none too fondly, as McCain-Feingold School. "We sometimes leave our audiences in a state of complete shock" at what they hear, said Robert F. Bauer, a lawyer for the Democrats' House and Senate campaign committees. "A sort of slack-jawed amazement at how far this thing reached" is not uncommon at the seminars, Mr. Bauer said. Nor are "a lot of very anxious questions."

Benjamin L. Ginsberg, a Republican Party lawyer who has conducted seminars for the other side of the aisle, said lawmakers were startled to hear that once-standard practices like acting as host at a fund-raiser for a home-state governor might now be illegal. "There's an initial stage where the reaction is, 'This can't be true,' " Mr. Ginsberg said. "And then there's the actual anger stage."
..........................
The new chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Representative Robert T. Matsui of California, who voted for McCain-Feingold, says he has been surprised by its fine print.

"I didn't realize what all was in it," Mr. Matsui said. "We have cautioned members: 'You have to really understand this law. And if you have any ambiguity, err on the side of caution.' "

He did not realize what was in it. What a dumb-ass. These are the people who think they run the country and they do not know what they are voting for.

Well it seems they got bit on the rear again. A small section in the omnibus spending bill gives the ability to two committee chairmen to look at the tax return of anyone in the United States. But not one person knows who put it in there. They noticed it AFTER they passed it.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Sunday that "accountability will be carried out" against whoever slipped a provision into an omnibus spending bill that would have allowed two committee chairmen to view the tax returns of any American.

"I have no earthly idea how it got in there," Frist said on CBS's "Face The Nation." "Nobody is going to defend this."

The language was caught and removed in the Senate on Saturday, but the House will have to approve the fix before the spending bill can be sent to the White House for President Bush's signature.
.....................
"This harkens back to the days of [FBI Director] J. Edgar Hoover, when some unknown person could go and snoop on you," he said on CNN's "Late Edition With Wolf Blitzer."

Saturday, rushing to adjourn for the year, the House passed the $338 billion omnibus spending bill, which was necessary to keep government operations funded after Congress ran out of time to pass nine regular appropriations bills. The bill ran to more than 1,000 pages.

Here they are voting on 1000 page bills filled with the legal double speak that is so common in Washington, and they have no idea what is in it. This bill only spent 338 BILLION, plus attempt to destroy a few more rights of privacy.

Also with the fact that amendments are the bread and water of Washington this spending bill included the following pork barrel projects.

$335,000 to protect sunflowers in North Dakota from blackbird damage.

$60 million for a new courthouse in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

$225,000 to study catfish genomes at Alabama's Auburn University.

A potential boon for Bush himself, $2 million for the government to try buying back the former presidential yacht Sequoia. The boat was sold three decades ago, and its current owners say the yacht is assessed at $9.8 million and are distressed by the provision.

Thanks Washington for doing a good crappy job!

He needs to make up his mind

Now it really does not help your position on a subject when the first part of the article you proclaim your love for firearms, and then say they should be banned and controlled in the second part.

Jed , at Freedom sight, decided to fisk this article, and does a good job at it. A lot of geese died at the hands of democrats to get this specific type of hunters vote.

Big time business slapdown people

Well it seems there are a lot of "Dumb women" with anger issues in this world. Why you ask? Because Best Buy has quietly backed down from a rather sexist statement and changed it in the night in fear of them.

The contest form my wife found was for a 30,000$ jackpot, and written by a 30,000$ fool. I blogged on it and even called their headquarters media division. The next day I received a call from a "Chip" sort of character who went out of his way to inform me that they were simply trying new ways of finding the right socio-economic groups to market to and that there was no attempt to insult anyone.

In reality I believed him. But stupidity knows no bounds.

Here is what it looked like on November 17th




Well I checked back today and the phrases have all been magically changed to nicer kinder words.




The new neutered version. Totally free of any mention of the sexes.

Now who wants to lay odds that some corporate drone has earned a few days off without pay.
Thanks for anyone who called them on it.

Modesto news mock

With the latest release of the years most harmful weapons toys, and the main one being an Uzi, the Modesto city council has gone one even further.

In a late night closed meeting Friday the council voted to censor Walmart for their violent advertising.



"All you hear on TV is that if you slash something you get it cheaper and that is wrong" Said Susie Granola, chairperson of the Modesto city council. "We have to deliver a message that violence is not the way. Our motion asks Walmart to create compromising Karl to deliver a peaceful message instead of a horrible knife wielding slasher message"
With these sage words the council has censored and ordered them to take down all of the "happy killer faces" in the cities two Walmarts.

When asked for a comment Bob Buckmaker, Walmart spokesman said "They need to avoid the shrooms"

The vote was not close, with only one dissenting vote. "I refuse to vote for anything that Granola person supports until I get my mandatory yoga programs in all schools" was the rant by Harold Contrary.

City officials in New York and San Francisco have already shown interest in this and will likely follow with their own "slasher laws".

Never question our authority



New York has decided that the threats of bikes should be licensed. The threat will still be there, but the city will be full of fees, and they will have control over another group of people they do not like.

Bicycle riders pose a growing danger on city roads, said a Bronx politician seeking to put registration plates on bikes and slap fines and jail time on offending pedalers.

The bill, introduced by City Councilwoman Madeline Provenzano, calls for fines up to $300 and up to 15 days in jail for anyone over 16 years old who rides an unregistered bike or flouts traffic laws.

While safety is important I have no doubt in my head that safety is the last thing on her mind.

This is her problem.

Remember those darn bike protestors during the RNC convention and chalkers and how they dared to question the cities authority. The same ones who had a judge throw most of their illegal arrests out, and fine the city. The ones at the base of several lawsuits.

Provenzano, a Democrat, said she received complaints about bicyclists. "They zigzag in and out of traffic, they're on the sidewalk, they're a danger to senior citizens," she said.

The standard drivel of the "women, children and old people" line thrown out once more. The chant heard from all people trying to control you for others. I am amazed she did not toss in the terrorist issue also as it is the common theme in most intrusions lately.

Well it is now governmental payback time against the protesters.

Now read this carefully people.

Criticism that she doesn't understand that cycling is a growing and popular activity among New Yorkers is wrong, Provenzano said. She said her family are bike riders, although she never rides.

"That's one of the reasons I think it's a good piece of legislation because riding a bike has gotten to be so popular," she said.

It is good in her words because it is popular. What is good, must be controlled by the state, what we like, must be controlled with paper and fees. This bill is a symbol of the governments need to control. It is always about control, money, and power.

Here is a form to send your views to her, and the city. Not that they will hear you if the NY smoking ban is any indication.
[metafilter]

Nigerian scammers and the games they play

Anyone who has an email address has at one time or another gotten a letter like this.

Hello,

My name is Mr. R. Lauder , a member of Independent Committee of Eminent Person(ICEP), Switzerland. ICEP is charged with the responsibility of finding bank accounts in Switzerland belonging to non-Swiss indigenes,which have remained dormant since World War II.
It may interest you to know that in July of 1997, the Swiss Banker's Association published a list of dormant accounts originally opened by non-Swiss citizens. These accounts had been dormant since the end of World War II (May 9, 1945). Most belonged to Holocaust victims.
The continuing efforts of the Independent Committee of Eminent Persons (ICEP) have since resulted in the discovery of additional dormant accounts - 54,000 in December, 1999.

The published lists contain all types of dormant accounts, including interest-bearing savings accounts, securities accounts, safe deposit boxes, custody accounts, and non-interest-bearing transaction accounts. Numbered accounts are also included. Interest is paid on accounts that were interest bearing when established.

The Claims Resolution Tribunal (CRT) handles processing of all claims on accounts due non-Swiss citizens. A dormant account of ORDNER ADELE with a credit balance of 35,000,000 US dollar plus accumulated interest was discovered by me. The beneficiary was murdered during the holocaust era, leaving no WILL and no possible records for trace of heirs. The Claims Resolution Tribunal has been mandated to report all unclaimed funds for permanent closure of accounts and transfer of existing credit balance into the treasury of Switzerland government as provided by the law for management of assets of deceased beneficiaries who died interstate (living no wills).

Being a top executive at ICEP, I have all secret details and necessary contacts for claim of the funds without any hitch. The funds will be banked in the Cayman Island, being a tax free, safe haven for funds and we can share the funds and use in investment of our choice. Due to the sensitive nature of my job, I need a foreigner to HELP claim the funds. All that is required is for you to provide me with your details for processing of the necessary legal and administrative claim documents for transfer of the funds in your name.

Kindly provide me with your full name, address, and telephone/fax. I will pay all required fees to ensure that the fund is transferred to a secure, numbered account in your name in the Cayman Island, of which you will be capable of accessing the funds gradually and transferring to your country and other banks of choice in the world. My share will be 60 percent and your share is 40 percent of the total amount. THERE IS NO RISK INVOLVED.
You can find additional information about unclaimed funds through the internet at the following websites:

www.swissbankclaims.com
http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9902/09/germany.holocaust/
www.avotaynu.com
www.icheic.org
www.livingheirs.com
www.wiesenthal.com

The Holocaust Claims Processing Office has put funds in Escrow awaiting submission of valid claims for necessary disbursement. I find myself privileged to have this information and this may be a great opportunity for a life time of success without risks. Due to security reasons, reply to me via email only. You may reply to me securely on the following email, rlauder@ummah.org. Thank you for your prompt response.

R. Lauder.

I get them every other day or so.

Who is R. Lauder? For one he is ranked 277 on the Forbes richest people.

Country of citizenship: United States
Residence: New York, NY, United States
Industry: Apparel
Marital Status: married , 2 children
University of Pennsylvania Wharton School, Bachelor of Arts / Science


Mother, Estée Lauder, founded eponymous cosmetics company in 1946 to sell skin cream developed by Hungarian uncle. Now $5.1 billion (sales) company chaired by brother Leonard (see). Onetime deputy assistant secretary of defense under President Reagan, later appointed ambassador to Austria. Active investor in former Communist bloc. Founded and heads Central European Media Enterprises: six television stations in the Slovak Republic, Romania, Ukraine and Slovenia, but lately fighting Czech government over TV contracts. Vast personal art collection valued at $450 million. Looking to revive once-flourishing Hungarian wine industry through Lauder-Lang Vineyards and its Gundel brand wine, maker of chardonnay, merlot, cabernet sauvignon and a series of Tokaji wines. Also stakes in Hungarian paprika and goose liver industries.

He even has his own foundation, And to think he wrote little old me. Somehow I think Mr. Lauder has more things to do then write me.

Maybe the weather was changing or the moons were in alignment the day I got this one, but I decided to reply.

I do know that my Grandfather on my mother's side was a refugee during WW2 from Austria but I do not know much of his history. How do I know this is legit and not a scam?

Saul Westman

Yes, Through the use of internet chatroom identity change powers I became

Saul Westman, Jewish coin dealer

Living a simple life in the Nashville area I decided to take him up on the offer.

**More to come**

A chicken in every pot? Not according to Kant

I have a saying that "you can polish a dog turd only so much". No matter how much you try to make something look nice it will still be a turd.

In once Great Britain the government is shoving an ID program down the throats of the people. The government is desperate to blame someone for the vocal protests against it.

Home Secretary David Blunkett said today that the German philosopher Immanuel Kant is to blame for scepticism about the government's plans for a compulsory national identity card. He was speaking at a meeting at the Institute of Public Policy Research, restating his arguments in favour of the scheme.

The British public's fear of ID cards is down to our "history of legitimate doubts about the intentions of the state, reinforced by what we saw in terms of communism and fascism over the last century", Blunkett said. "It was writers like Kant who first took the view that there is something suspicious about government activity, and that if a government is up to something, it must be about removing freedoms."

Now not withstanding the fact that he died in 1804 I find their fevered desperation to blame someone for their own problems humorous.

Kant’s belief that is the most likely target of the government is his principles of rights.

The establishment of a Civil Constitution in society is one of the most important facts in human history. In the principle on which it is founded this institution differs from all the other forms of social union among mankind. Viewed as a compact,* and compared with other modes of compact- by which numbers of men are united into one Society, the formation of a Civil Constitution has much in common with all other forms of Social Union in respect of the mode in which it is carried out in practice. But while all such compacts are established for the purpose of promoting in common some chosen End, the Civil Union is essentially distinguished from all others, by the principle on which it is based. In all social contracts we find a union of a number of persons for the purpose of carrying out some one End which they all have in common. But a Union of a multitude of men, viewed as an end in itself that every person ought to carry out, and which consequently is a primary and unconditional duty amid all the external relations of men who cannot help exercising a mutual influence on one another, is at once peculiar and unique of its kind. Such a Union is only to be found in a Society which, by being formed into a Civil State, constitutes a Commonwealth. Now the End which in such external relations is itself a duty and even the highest formal condition -the conditio sine quâ non-of all other external duties, is the realisation of the Rights of Men under public compulsory Laws, by which every individual can have what is his own assigned to him, and secured against the encroachments or assaults of others.

The idea of an external Right, however, arises wholly out of the idea of human Freedom or Liberty, in the external relations of men to one another. As such, it has nothing specially to do with the realisation of Happiness as a purpose which all men naturally have, or with prescription of the means of attaining it; and it is absolutely necessary that this End shall not be mixed up with the Laws of Right as their motive. Right in general, may be defined as the limitation of the Freedom of any individual to the extent of its agreement with the freedom of all other individuals, in so far as this is possible by a universal Law. Public Right, again, is the sum of the external Laws which make such a complete agreement of freedom in Society possible. Now as all limitation of freedom by external acts of the will of another, is a mode of coercion or compulsion, it follows that the Civil Constitution is a relation of free men who live under coercive Laws, without prejudicing their liberty otherwise in the whole of their connection with others. For, Reason itself wills this. By "Reason" is here meant the pure innate law-giving, Reason which gives no regard to any End that is derived from experience, such as are all comprehended under the general name of Happiness. In respect of any such End or in what any individual may place it, men may think quite differently, so that their wills could not be brought under any common principle, nor, consequently, under any External Laws that would be compatible with the liberty of all.

Kant says that laws which limit your freedom are morally wrong.

so that their wills could not be brought under any common principle, nor, consequently, under any External Laws that would be compatible with the liberty of all

In an online essay Kant's view on government types is like this

The Civil State, then, regarded merely as a social state that is regulated by laws of right, is founded upon the following rational principles:

1. The Liberty of every Member of the Society as a Man;

2. The Equality of every Member of the Society with every other, as a Subject;

3. The Self-dependency of every Member of the Commonwealth, as a Citizen

Now since the issue is liberty,even if many think a simple ID will not limit liberty, then I will quote that part.

The Liberty of every Member of the State as a Man, is the first Principle in the constitution of a rational Commonwealth. I would express this Principle in the following form:--No one has a right to compel me to be happy in the peculiar way in which he may think of the well-being of other men; but everyone is entitled to seek his own happiness in the way that seems to him best, if it does not infringe the liberty of others in striving after a similar end for themselves when their Liberty is capable of consisting with the Right of Liberty in all others according to possible universal laws.-A Government founded upon the principle of Benevolence towards the people-after the analogy of a father to his children, and therefore called a paternal Government" would be one in which the Subjects would be regarded as children or minors unable to distinguish what is beneficial or injurious to them. These subjects would be thus compelled to act in a merely passive way; and they would be trained to expect solely from the Judgment of the Sovereign and just as he might will it, merely out of his goodness, all that ought to make them happy. Such a Government would be the greatest conceivable Despotism; for it would present a Constitution that would abolish all Liberty in the Subjects and leave them no Rights. It is not a paternal Government, but only a patriotic Government that is adapted for men who are capable of Rights, and at the same time fitted to give scope to the good-will of the ruler. By "patriotic" is meant that condition of mind in which everyone in the State-the Head of it not excepted-regards the Commonwealth as the maternal bosom, and the country as the paternal soil out of and on which he himself has sprung into being, and which he also must leave to others as a dear inheritance. Thus, and thus only, can he hold himself entitled to protect the Rights of his fatherland by laws of the common will, but not to subject it to an unconditional purpose of his own at pleasure. This Right of Liberty thus belongs to him as a man, while he is a Member of the Commonwealth; or, in point of fact, so far as he is a being capable of rights generally.

The part that is causing the British government so much grief is the "paternal government" title. The government has a "from cradle to grave" view on managing their subjects. As as a kid you needed your parent's permission to go out, the British government feels they have the right to control their "kids" in the same manner.

The politician in question makes many promises, and while he is incapable of doing any of it.

In fact, the ID card will pave the way for a more tolerant society, with greater social cohesion. It will be useful in the fight against racism, and won't be a big-brother style surveillance tool, at all.

Now unless this is a "rectangular plastic shield of righteousness and protection" there is no real way for it to protect against racism in anyway.

Blunkett has certainly changed the tone of his approach. He is far more conciliatory, putting forward a picture of a benevolent government, with much less of the usual scare mongering. He has acknowledged that an ID card will not put an end to crime, organised or otherwise, nor will it prevent terrorist attacks. He is back to describing the card in terms of the services it will allow access to, rather than as the killer weapon in the fight against terrorism.

Instead, he proposes that the card will build social cohesion, by ensuring that access to "free" public services, like medical care, is granted only to those who are entitled to it. This, Blunkett argues, will help in the fight against racism. After all, who could possibly object to Johnny Foreigner when he is provably only using the public services he's allowed to use. Xenophobes are known to be receptive to rational argument, after all.

Simply try to board an airplane in any airport in this country without ID and lets see how far you get. He says no big-brother surveillance. I agree. They will simply make it so the British subject cannot function or live fully without your "paternal governments" plastic hall-pass. The last quote even mentions the ease of access to their "free" services with the card. Sort of like your parents not letting you have dessert unless you dress up for dinner.

The British government has worked hard and long to achieve the position of paternal government, so they should now reap the reward of it's children wanting to be free from out from under their protective wings.

The British live in a despotic system, and with their daily bribes of social medicine and cradle-to-grave social programs the majority does not see it. That is true horror, their cage is gilded.

Dumb women

My wife has a hobby of entering contests online. Better then collecting cats and the prizes are nice. She is also where I get my monthly firearm contests from.

But today she found one that pissed her off to no end. Best Buy is having a contest for 30,000$ and she started to fill out the form. Standard form with normal survey questions until she got to this one.


{sarcasm on} You know you women folk get confused with more then one button on anything {sarcasm off}

Now I am not sure of the corporate policy of sexism they have, but this is one instance that I sit back and laugh at. So if there are any women out there who get confused just find one of us strong smart men to help you, or at least that is what Best Buy thinks.

They can be contacted at

Customer Service Inquiries
Best Buy
Corporate Customer Care
P.O. Box 949
Minneapolis, MN 55440
1-888-BEST BUY (237-8289)

Web Site Inquiries
BestBuy.com
Customer Care
P.O. Box 949
Minneapolis, MN 55440

Store Inquiries
Best Buy
Corporate Customer Care
P.O. Box 9312
Minneapolis, MN 55440

Media Inquiries
Best Buy Public Relations Department
NewsCenter@bestbuy.com
Phone: 612-292-4000 - Option #4
After Hours Pager: 612-538-6998

General/Corporate Inquiries
For general comments and questions about Best Buy Co., Inc., contact:

Best Buy Co., Inc.
Corporate Headquarters
P.O. Box 9312
Minneapolis, MN 55440-9312

I have a call in to their Media Inquiries department but no return call at this present time.

Avoiding winners?

In Virginia there has been a lot of press about open carry and the Virginia Citizens Defense League. Using activism and the law they have racked up a nice amount of victories.

The Virginia Citizens Defense League and its 2,400 members have gone a long way toward achieving that goal in Virginia. In the past few years, the group has successfully sought out and helped strike down gun control ordinances throughout the state.

Its members fought to overturn a decades-old ban on guns in state parks. Then they went after gun prohibitions in city parks. Some cities, such as Radford, acquiesced within days, quickly painting over "No Firearms" signs. Others, including Norfolk, put up a fight before giving in. They've taken on libraries and Lowe's hardware stores so that gun owners can carry inside. They've boycotted shopping malls that bar guns, and they've published "gun unfriendly business" lists.

They sued Fairfax County and "won big time," Van Cleave said gleefully, to prevent officials from banning guns at recreation centers and county buildings. Thanks, in part, to the league, gun owners soon will be able to carry their weapons as far as the terminal doors at Reagan National and Dulles International airports. But to get lawmakers to allow guns on those airports' property, gun owners lost the long-standing ability to carry weapons all the way up to the metal detectors at most other airport terminals in the state. The league won't stop fighting until they can do so again.

And the group won't stop fighting until gun owners can bring their guns inside, right up to the metal detectors, the way they could in most other Virginia airports until the new airport law passed.

In the past few months, Van Cleave and other group members have been turning up in Northern Virginia with their guns, at restaurants and malls and a contentious Falls Church City Council meeting. The show of weapons was intended to test the resolve of city leaders who, in Van Cleave's view, proposed to "harass" gun owners by calling the police if they showed up with any gun, concealed or exposed, on city property. City leaders called it something else: intimidation.

This year, the league's top priority, as always, is to pass a law that would allow Virginia's 112,000 concealed weapon permit holders to carry their hidden guns into bars and restaurants that serve alcohol, something they were allowed to do until 1995, when the concealed weapons law went into effect, barring it.

Sounds great. They go out and DO, they don't just talk.

So why is it that the larger groups that work in the same field seemingly avoiding them?
CCRKBA

Joe Waldron, executive director of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, wrote in an e-mail that was later circulated on the Web that Van Cleave and league members threatened to turn the event into a "see the gun nuts wearing guns on their hips conference."

NRA

The National Rifle Association, with 100,000 members in Virginia, has not taken a position on the restaurant bill for the upcoming session. And it largely keeps its distance from the Virginia Citizens Defense League.

"I've never run into them. Never talked to them," said Randy Kozuch, the NRA's national director of state and local affairs. "I think they just want to stir it up."

I wonder why the ones who are making changes occur are the ones the big money groups avoid. If rocking the boat works then we should all rock the vote.

Please save Vincent's life

It is up to you

Moral majority three

The FCC has been acting like the Saturday night live Church lady in their recent pogram against anything that even hints at sex on the TV or radio. Using the complaints sent to them as the reason for the Ashcroft induced religious like censoring the fine blog BuzzMachine found something out. There was no flood of horrified people sitting in shock at the evil entering their house from the TV.

There were three. More then two and less then four.

I just received the FCC's reply with a copy of all the complaints -- and a letter explaining that, well, there weren't 159 after all. William H. Davenport, chief of the FCC's Investigations and Hearings Divison, admits in his letter that because the complaints were sent to multiple individuals at the FCC, it turns out there actually were only 90 complaints. It gets better: The FCC confesses that they come from only 23 individuals.

It is shocking enough that what tens of millions of us are permitted to see by our government can be determined by 159 ... or 90 ... or 23.

But it gets even better: I examined the complaints and found that all but two of them were virtually identical. In other words, one person took the time to write a letter and 20 other people then photocopied or merely emailed it to the FCC many times. They all came from an automated complaint factory like the one I write about here. Only two letters were not the form letter.

So in the end, that means that a grand total of three citizens bothered to take the time to sit down and actually write a letter of complaint to the FCC. Millions of people watched the show. Three wrote letters of complaint.

So that system put into place to protect the virgin children is being used to hammer anything down that is more suggestive then "Dick and Jane".

The multitude of facts in this case bother me. The FCC hammering the show with a million dollar plus fine on so little public outcry is bothersome. The people who used the system of fine induced censoring is really bad. But the real thing is the whole feel of what is happening in today's society.

First they came for Jerry Springer, then Stern, then Janets breast. The FCC seems to have become the moral enforcers of the right. This is frightening for many reasons.

Lexmark

To say I do not like this printer brand would be an understatement, I hate it would be better wording.

The first nail in the coffin
My knowledge of lexmark occurred when I first started to see them on sale and priced half of what other printers of the same capacity were priced. Getting online I checked them out and found out that the main reason they are cheap is their ink cartridges are horribly expensive.

The printer supplies industry has adopted the practice of cell phone and razor blade sellers: Charge low prices for initial equipment, then make money from ongoing fees for additional needed components. Vendors sell consumer printers at cost, or even sometimes at a 20 percent loss, say financial analysts at Bear Sterns who track Epson and HP. But on the flip side, both firms earn a 60 percent gross margin on ink jet and toner cartridges, says Bill Hand, financial analyst with Bear and Stearns.##

So nothing wrong with making a buck, I just went with another printer that did not want to make all my bucks theirs.

The second nail in the coffin
The came LEXPPS. My brothers computer was running bad so I did the standard spybot and ad-aware cleaning and it got better. I pulled up his taskbar and since he had XP it showed all the tasks running. One I noticed was LEXPPS. Going to Answersthatwork I found that it was a lexmark program running and using a lot of CPU capacity. Since his printer was a HP I asked if he had uninstalled the last printer driver. His yes confused me until I read the description of LEXPPS.

Lexmark Printer Port Scanner. Background task which auto-loads with the rest of the printer drivers and which allows your Lexmark X or Z Series to be shared over a Windows peer-to-peer network using the conventional method of setting up a shared networked printer (without it, you will not be able to share the printer using the conventional Windows method).

But it was the recommendation that got me.

This task is a comprehensive nightmare. From preventing your PC from booting up, to interfering with your network card, to asking your Internet firewall for permission to install itself as a server application, to general PC instability, this task has everything to make you instantly return your Lexmark X or Z Series printer and go for something else, and some users have done so !! In order to regain your sanity the first thing to do is to rename LEXPPS.EXE to LEXPPS.EXE.OLD (do it in Safe Mode if you cannot boot your PC normally) – this will ensure that this task never loads and will cure all the problems that it causes. If you need to network the printer over a peer to peer network, do not use the standard manner, instead install the printer as a local printer on the remote PC, and then go and change the port from a local port to the network share that the printer is known as.

Now when a program is called a nightmare I a prone to blame the company for selling crap. I went to their website and got no help. After several hours I had to give up on this program. It still resides on his computer. Totally un-uninstallable.

The third nail in the lexmark coffin was the chips and lawsuit.

A Killer Chip
Last year Lexmark began using a computer chip with some toner cartridges that uses software programs to communicate with its printers. Without the software, for which Lexmark filed copyrights, its printers won't function. In the remanufacturing industry the chip is known as a "killer chip," because it prevents remanufacturers from making compatible cartridges.

SCC figured out a way to mimic the software program and began selling chips that allow cartridges to be made for Lexmark's printers. In so doing, according to Lexmark's lawsuit, SCC violated terms of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The act made it illegal to circumvent a protection technology in order to gain access to a "protected work" inside.

Lexmark filed its suit in December, in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Kentucky, arguing that SCC's chips contain "unauthorized copies" of its software programs. It wants the court to prevent SCC from selling the components in question.

Now they did not copy the program, they simply found a way to mimic it. There is a demand for cheap chips, someone will create a supply. Free enterprise.
last I can find is that SCC just won.

This just in --- Static Control Corp. has won its appeal against Lexmark over the right to produce after-market replacement cartridges for Lexmark printers.

Good news I think. The initial Lexmark victory was based on the DMCA copyright law. One of the worst laws ever from Washington. Here is a nice anti-DMCA site if you want to read more about this gift from Clintons administration, and a Electronic freedom foundation site that has a lot of information of the case.

But now Lexmark has closed the coffin and needs to be buried. Your printer is spying on you. I repeat. Your printer is spying on you.

Allegations have been swirling around an online newsgroup this week that printer manufacturer Lexmark has been installing spyware on its customers' computers.

Reports on the comp.periphs.printers Usenet newsgroup claim that Lexmark has been planting spyware on its customers' PCs in the form of undocumented software that monitors the use of its printers and silently reports back to a Lexmark-owned company website.

One user said that after initially denying the allegations, Lexmark acknowledged installing tracking software that reported printer and cartridge use back to the company for survey purposes. He claimed that Lexmark said no personal data was taken by the program, and that it was impossible to identify anyone by it.

However, users installing the software are prompted to fill in a registration form including their name and the serial number of the product.

This type of corporate games has already made Microsoft the bad boy of browsers. It almost seems like Lexmark wants to be hated, or knows people will always buy the cheap stuff so they could care less.

So for me I would not even use a lexmark of it was a free gift. I would recommend to everyone to avoid them totally.

Some of the worst abuses of government force in recent years were precipitated by technical and victimless gun-law violations. For example, the BATF claimed that the Branch Davidians possessed machine guns without paying the required federal tax and filling in the proper registration forms. So a tax case worth less than $10,000 led to a 76-man helicopter, machine gun, and grenade assault on a home in which 2/3 of the occupants were women and children.

Dave Kopel and Dr. Michael S. Brown, Prohibition Fever, NationalReview.com

Hawaii and Family

My wife and a few people are going to Hawaii over Thanksgiving so we are having a big get together this weekend. So with that in mind I will be blogging a lot less for the next three days, unless something good happens.

Green card spam

For the last couple of days I have gotten something in my email I have never seen before. Green card spam. Now I am not sure if the timing is related to Bush being re-elected, and his desire to make illegals, legal. I find it unusual to say the least.

Now this is to strange to believe

In what screwed up mind did this idea come from? The newest online "idea" is the merging of a rifle and the internet at Live-Shot.com.

Hunt deer in Texas, while you stay warm in Kentucky might be the next great hunting memory you have.

LIVE-SHOT is a new concept. You can challenge yourself and compare your skills to other members with our on-line target shooting. We have developed a system where you can control a pan/tilt/zoom camera and a firearm to shoot at real targets in real time.

While your membership is active, access the viewing cameras to see how others stack up to your abilities, control the pan/tilt/zoom camera to take a look around, and schedule a reservation for your on-line shooting experience.

Currently, shooters will be able to fire 10 (ten) .22 caliber rounds at paper and silhouette targets. You may also have a DVD recording and/or the paper target from the session shipped as an option. Look for additional, varied shooting systems along with competitions to come online soon.

If exotic big game hunting is of interest to you, contact us at info@live-shot.com for information on scheduling a hunt on our ranch in Texas.
..............
LIVE-SHOT is similar to a trip to the rifle range with one very notable exception. Everything is done through a computer and the internet. A paid membership will allow for access to the range viewing camera(s) at any time. Members can then schedule a reserved session time which allows exclusive control of the shooting system to fire at a choice of various reactive targets. Please note that the shooting range is an outdoor facility located on a secluded ranch in the Texas hill country. Please take this into consideration while shooting is taking place, as weather can affect accuracy.

Now I am not sure how serious they are about this. But it sounds real enough that the government has already decided to jump in.

Potential Wildlife Regulation Changes
White-tailed Deer
Prohibition of hunting by remote control. This issue centers on the use of Internet technology as it relates to the taking of wildlife resources.

Now one part of me says this is to surreal for words, but the fact that the government wants to quash it before it even starts makes me wish they make a crap load of money. They have not sold one hunting "trip" yet and the government has made it clear that they do not like it, and will regulate it out of bisuness. Thanks gov.

They even have a video page set up for windows media.
What next? Remote control killer droids?
[Museum of Hoaxes]

A good effort

The people of England have started to fight against crime. But in a surreal situation the ones they are fighting is their own government.

The Telegraph has started a campaign to take back the basic right to protect yourself in your own home. With the charge that a man's house is his castle they have bombarded the nation with the one thing the government cannot resist. The truth.

Their latest effort has been to show the people the true "face" of defenseless crime victims. While the images are horrid they do deliver a shocking message the crime needs to be fought.

Two women in their eighties have been brutally beaten in their own homes by burglars in the past few days. Two more reasons, if they are needed, as to why vulnerable householders must have the right to defend themselves against violent intruders.

Annie Hendrick, an 89-year-old grandmother, was in a critical condition in a London hospital yesterday after being beaten almost beyond recognition 11 days ago.

Sally Skidmore was attacked on her 81st birthday a week ago yesterday, as she sat in an armchair watching television at home. She was punched repeatedly in the face and was left with two black eyes, a swollen jaw and a bleeding nose.

What is probably causing the government the most distress is the fact that the people want and are demanding their rights back.

The poll, conducted by ICM, revealed that 72 per cent of people believe that the current law, allowing householders to use only "reasonable force" against intruders, is "inadequate and ill-defined".

A similar proportion, 71 per cent, say that householders should have an unqualified right to use force, if necessary deadly force, against people breaking into their homes.
More than half (51 per cent) do not believe that the police can protect householders against intruders; 70 per cent believe the government could do more to reduce the risk of burglaries; and an overwhelming 81 per cent say burglars should not have any rights to to sue householders if they, the intruders, suffer any injuries during the break-in.

While the campaign is good it brings back to mind the last time the people spoke.

For a group that holds itself up as champions of Democracy, Britain's chattering classes sure can get their knickers in a knot with the will of the people offends their liberal sensibilities.

Case in point: a recent stunt by BBC Radio 4's Today program. As an exercise in grass-roots lobbying, Today asked its 6 million weekly listeners to propose a new law for the new year. A labour MP, Stephen Pound, was drafted to front the bill when it was all over.

More than 10,000 new laws were suggested over the course of a couple weeks. Of those, five were short-listed and voted on via email and telephone by some 26,007 respondents. The results, as one wag put it, "blew up" in the face of Today's producers and presenters.
...........................
Clearly expecting some sensible law mandating fat-free potato chips or renewed efforts to save the ruby-throated thrush of Upper Equatorial Guinea, the organizers were obviously aghast when the winner, with 37 percent of the vote, was a law allowing homeowners to use "any means" to defend their property from intruders.
...........................
But after he heard the result, the Labour politician appeared to withdraw his support, arguing: "This bill is unworkable," as it "endorses the slaughter of 16-year-old kids."

Mr. Pound was apoplectic. The bill was "unworkable," he said. "I can't remember who it was who said 'The people have spoken - the bastards,'" he quipped.

So it looks like the "bastards" are speaking again, and like last time I feel the will be ignored. The advantage they have this time is that they have a strong friend in a large media group.

Sorry

Gunner will not be posting for a day or two. Computer problems. His computer seems to have caught a cold.

He will be back as soon as I can get him back on his feet!

Inflammatory words

You know the type. The ones that make you want to kick someone in the nuts. The real racist inbred type that shows the dark side of mans nature.
Only problem is that with the modern PC climate we are living in, or should I say suffering under, the definition of inflammatory becomes vague and strange.

In the Netherlands they have just suffered a crime. A film director helped make a film with a local politician that upset the Muslims of Europe to no end. So one killed him in league with a group. Logical to the killer, nuts to the rest of the world. Now this post is not about the ignorance of his act. It is about the mosque on Insulinde Street in the Netherlands and what they thought was inflammatory speech.

A Rotterdam artist, Chris Ripke, made a mural to express his disgust over Van Gogh's killing. A beautiful artwork with an angel in it and the words Thou Shalt Not Kill.
Chris is an artist with a lot of integrity, he made some good stuff near Angelo Betti's pizzeria. His workshop is right next to the mosque on Insulinde Street. The mosque considered the text "Thou Shalt Not Kill" inflammatory. So he called Ivo Opstelten (editor's note: mayor of Rotterdam, same political party as Hirsi Ali, right-of-center liberal). As a local TV journalist I went over to film what was going on.

I was immediately asked not to film because it would give too much tension in the neighborhood. I was in the middle of a discussion when a car arrived to spray the artwork. I could not bear that and decided to stand in front of it (I am a bit Rushdie like).

After a scuffle with the police I got arrested. I am free again but the artwork is gone and I really fail to see what Opstelten is thinking. My colleague Mireille was forced by police to wipe part of her video tape.

What a country, it's unbelievable.

Both Chris and I have spent decades working with Turkish and Moroccan children/adults to try to involve them in our activities. What a rigid government. What a beautiful statement: Thou Shalt Not Kill. Something more universal doesn't exist. But you can't put that on wall!

I am furious.

Now I will admit openly that the message was directed towards the mosque and yes it probably upset some. The issue was that the government felt they had the right to destroy his message simply because it bothered someone else.

So because the government feels free speech is a luxury they destroyed the mural, forced the reporter to erase part of her tape, and arrested the other reporter for having the gall to question their authority. The European government feel they have given to the people their rights, and thus have the power to limit it when the need occurs and they even define the need. Sorry but they need a lesson in the term "unalienable rights".

Well that is all nice a fuzzy and very PC, but it also destroys a basic human right to express yourself with free speech. When you allow the government to decide what is free speech and what is not, you end up with neither.

Well I am sad today

The man who I wanted to take the white house lost. I was hoping he could take Ohio and throw the election into turmoil, but it did not work out.

National Ammo Day

Is it here again? Time to get my shopping list together



Kim du Toit is again running the National Ammo Day to deliver a messsage to the gun grabbers.

"There have been million-men marches and a million moron mommies," said Ammo Day organizer Kim du Toit. "It's time for a billion rounds to show the gun-grabbers and the nanny-legislators just how many Second Amendment supporters are out there."

Du Toit said he's calling on America's 75 million gun owners to "buycott" their local gun shop, sporting goods or hardware store on Nov. 19 by purchasing every round of ammunition on the shelves. He figures if every gun owner or Second Amendment supporter bought 100 rounds, there would be 7.5 billion rounds in the hands of law-abiding citizens. Gunblast

Now that would be a nice message.

Initial OSCE observer report

I have followed the story of the OSCE observers from here in Tennessee as best as I could. The story facinated me because of its long term implications. Well the election is over and first reports are being generated.

The OSCE observers have released a general news release and the initial report on the election that have just occurred.


Here is the news release

WASHINGTON, D.C., 4 November 2004 - The 2 November elections in the United States were conducted in an environment that reflects a longstanding democratic tradition, including institutions governed by rule of law, free and professional media and an active civil society involved in all aspects of the election process.

The elections mostly met OSCE's commitments for democratic elections, agreed to by the 55 OSCE participating States, concludes the Election Observation Mission of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). The Mission focused primarily on election reforms, particularly the implementation of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002.

"The high turnout indicates the importance of this election for the electorate and the strong democratic tradition in this country. Although it was not possible for our observers to access polling stations in all states, due to lack of provision in federal or state legislation, it appears that the voting and the processing of ballots proceeded in an orderly manner," said Barbara Haering, Vice-President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and Special Co-ordinator of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office for the Short-Term OSCE Observation Mission. "We commend the interest and patience of voters who often had to wait in long lines to cast their votes."

Professor Rita Suessmuth, Head of the OSCE/ODIHR long-term election observation mission, said: "The impact of the HAVA reforms was positive but limited due to delays in its implementation and varying interpretation of parts of it. It is a work in progress. Clearer rules for handling of provisional ballots are undoubtedly needed. In order to meet all the country's OSCE commitments the U.S. election reforms will have to go beyond HAVA, particularly regarding access for international observers."

According to the limited OSCE observations on election day, staff in polling stations appear to have coped well with new voting procedures across many parts of the country, despite warnings of a significant shortage of poll workers and the introduction of new technology. The use of electronic voting machines was broadly successful.

The OSCE observers were able to assess aspects of the pre-election environment and were granted access to polling stations in a number of states, sometimes only in specific counties. The OSCE believes that in order to further enhance transparency and to meet U.S. international commitments, Congress and individual states should consider introducing legal provisions allowing unimpeded access for international observers invited by the U.S. government.

The Mission was deployed by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. It published its preliminary findings today, based on the work of 92 observers from 34 countries, including 56 parliamentarians.

Now the initial report is in PDF form but a few small bits are worth noting.

Allegations about voter disenfranchisement and so-called voter suppression were also aired. It was claimed that such practices included non-processing of voter registration applications, the improper removal of eligible voters from voter lists, harassment and intimidation of voter.

While recognizing the seriousness of the above allegations, the EOM was not provided with first-hand evidence to substantiate them or to demostrate that such practices were widespread or systematic.

In another words it was a lot of hot air from the left and right. The Moore's of our society screamed bloody murder that this election would be stolen, yet in the end he slunk off to his den and is rather quiet today.

During the pre-election period expenditure by the candidates and parties on their campaigns was subject to limitations and disclosure rules imposed by federal law. However, by the end of the campaign a number of so called "527" groups, tax exempt campaigning bodies which are not subject to limits on financial contributions, were effectively deployed in support of both leading presidential candidates. This innovation effectively circumvented the statutory regime fro campaign finance in relation to the presidential election.

Now this is a pet peeve of mine. How can regulated and "regimed" speech be free? While many would argue that campaign finance laws keep one side from spending so much they buy the election this year showed them wrong. Soros threw a crap load of money behind Kerry and his influence was offset by others who threw their own money in. While I will admit I have not studied the finance laws in depth, but any limitation on speech is wrong.

So with this initial report and news release it turns out that the whole OSCE observer situation was not as it appeared. Some frumpy politicians from Europe came, they saw, they filled out forms, and they went home.
See ya next year OSCE.

Guns guns guns

Only two firearm related contests this month. A nice set of bolt action rifles for the hunter in your life, or just you.

We start with Remington's offer of a BDL rifle in 30.06. Going for 683$ msrv.


This contest is one time per membership per person at the Remington site. Good luck

The next rifle is a Howa M1500 lightning in .270 caliber. This stainless steel bolt action rifle is offered by Gallery of Guns and is worth 595$ msrv.


This one is one time per person.

As always you must be of legal age in the jurisdiction in which they reside and be eligible to pass background checks and required Federal, State and Local laws in order to take possession of the firearm. In another words don't enter if you can't pick it up at the store.

Good luck..

Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined. — Patrick Henry, during Virginia's Convention to Ratify the Constitution (1788)

Welcome to the prison cell block

Right now across this country the two biggest thugs are fighting over the right to screw the little guys. It does not really matter who wins, because in the end, we all take it in the end.

Kerry will pull back our nation from what we are doing and hand victory to the tyrants and despots of the world, He will cowtow to the international community and nothing will be done without their blessing. Our rights at home will be eroded and the government will grow into every portion of our life's even more then they are. National healthcare, gun control, enforced government schooling, and every other obscenity that they can do to us will be done, but "for our own good".

Bush will continue to destroy the very rights that we have to push his war forward. We will not be able to travel or be caught outside without the biometric card. Our library reading, our internet usage, even our travel will all be studied in giant data bases to find the evil terrorist, but it is all "for our own good".

Well welcome to the cell block newbie. You got the bottom bunk.

Foreign observers being kept from the polls. The horror.

In some areas there are non-OSCE observers that are not being allowed in to view some polls.

The Belarusian Foreign Ministry says it has formally complained to the U.S. ambassador in Minsk about Belarusian diplomats who have been banned from monitoring tomorrow's U.S. presidential election.

Deputy Foreign Minister Alyaksandr Sychow says the Belarusian Embassy in Washington applied for its diplomats to directly monitor polling stations in Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. He says the applications were refused in all cases except Virginia, where the diplomats will be allowed inside polling stations in two out of 135 counties -- and then, only then for a maximum of 10 minutes.

Steve Pike, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, says the Belarusian statement is misleading because it implies that monitors will not be allowed during the U.S. election

Now I would almost have some sympathy for this political ass and his complaint if it was not for the fact that I have read on their elections last October.

According to observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the democratic watchdog organisation that sent 300 election observers to Belarus, the elections took place in "a chilling climate of fear".
............
"One of the most important things supporting the false [electoral] structure is fear," he said.

Nevertheless, 1,000 demonstrators took to the streets to protest what they called rigged elections that prevented the participation of opposition parties.

The day after the election, the Belarus KGB seized Anatoly V. Lebedko, chairman of the United Civic Party, one of a coalition of parties that unsuccessfully sought to win seats in parliamentary elections on Sunday. According to international news sources, Lebedko was seriously beaten during his arrest. Shortly afterwards, an opposition journalist was found murdered in her apartment.

So do I feel anything but utter contempt for this political thug. No.

So in their country the beat, kill, and create fear. What do they say about this?

We are a society in transition and as such, we can be criticized in some areas. But the extent of the US criticism is absolutely ungrounded. We have concerns about democracy in the United States.

Transition. Transition to what? Sounds like some good old Soviet thuggery at work. Then they have the balls the question us.

So the next time someone wants to complain about our country I would suggest they get their own house in order.

Observing on a budget

I found a small bit of humor in the whole election observer situation.

The program has not been easy to coordinate: The Greek delegation, which won the coveted Fort Lauderdale, Fla., slot, confounded the OSCE by refusing to stay in nonsmoking hotel rooms.

The Russians and Kazakhs must monitor elections within driving distance of Washington because their governments cannot afford to fly them around the United States, according to Vitaly Evseyev, a Russian official with the OSCE.
...............
When they heard that the average U.S. congressional candidate raises about $1 million and a senator four times that, they gasped.

"It would be impossible to spend that much money in Switzerland," marveled Cleveland observer Barbara Haering, a full-time environmental lawyer and member of Switzerland's part-time parliament, "probably because we are not allowed to advertise on television."

Now that is funny.

OSCE observers in action

I just got an email from In-Mi Gosnell of the state department with a more specific list of where the OSCE observers are.

Mr. Gunner.

Probably, this is too late. I was gone last week to Tbilisi/Baku for a media conference and just returned. ODIHR has the best list, I am sure. Going through what I have, I think the following states (not exhaustive) will have OSCE observers:
Illinois (Chicago)

Nevada (Las Vegas)

Maryland (Baltimore and Montgomery County)

California

Virginia (Arlington County)

New Jersey (Bergen County)

In-Mi Gosnell

Now I know the day is half over, but if anyone out there can possibly get photos of them, they work in pairs, I would be pretty happy.

The observers are not getting off to a great start though. In Florida they are less then happy.

European election monitors touring central Florida were dismayed yesterday at their local hosts' emphasis on Democratic events, saying their schedule of pro-Kerry and left-leaning themes has left little time for similar Republican visits.
.................
The four-member delegation of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) also listened to filmmaker Michael Moore address the League of Conservation Voters and visited a polling station in Sanford, Fla., which was the site of voting irregularities four years ago.
"I would say we are dismayed," said Bart Tommelein, a Belgian congressman, of missing a Bush campaign rally that coincided with their arrival here Saturday evening.
"We are neutral, you know, and we really should be spending more time with the other side."
Other OSCE observers concurred.
The group, which has been shuttled around Orlando in cars with Kerry-Edwards bumper stickers yesterday, rebelled against a planned visit to a campaign rally for Democratic Senate hopeful Betty Castor, who is running against former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Mel Martinez.

Seems they do not like being used. Got to give them respect for that.