aubreyturner.org

It think that this one has to take the prize for the longest Google search that I’ve encountered:
Microsoft VP Jim Allchin who stated, under oath, that there were flaws in Windows so great that they would threaten national security if the Windows source code were to be disclosed.  He mentioned Message Queueing, and immediately regretted it

This one, however, disturbs me:
pregnant at 12

I took my new Browning to the range last night.  The range report is in the
notes section of the Browning’s page.

I’m not an animal rights person and I despise PETA.  However I do think that animals, especially trusting ones like dogs, deserve compassion from us.  If an animal must be killed, then it must be done quickly and humanely.  Further, it must be done for a good reason.

That’s only a small part of why this makes me so mad that I could kill one of those soldiers.  I’d very much like to tie the bastard up like he did that dog and do the same thing to him.

Link via Vodka Pundit.

Update (10:36 pm):  I’m still mad as hell about this and the more I think about it the madder I get.  Let’s just nuke the whole damn country.

I’ve created a page that brings together all of the gun shows that I could find for the Dallas/Ft. Worth area in 2003.  In addition to this link, I’ve added it to my links in the left column under the heading “Shooting Supplies/Etc”.

Here’s the link:
Dallas/Ft. Worth gun shows in 2003.

There are currently 114 comments to the Guns And Freedom article over at RachelLucas.com.  Bill Whittle made some very moving arguments about the real reason for gun ownership in the article.  The comments were generally positive until Angel Shamaya (the Director of KeepAndBearArms.com) chimed in with a horrible statement that since Mr. Whittle didn’t own a gun he was a sub-citizen:

While I admire, greatly, your clarity on the issues of which you so eloquently speak, I still think you a sub-citizen and a sub-American for shirking your responsibility and yea duty to stand in preparation for the possible eventualities of which you are so clearly familiar. Until you are armed, you are cannon fodder; but worse yet, you’re cannon fodder who wouldn’t do what you knew long ago must be done in a “gestapo kicks your door in” scenario—resist, and take out aggressors so they don’t do it to your neighbor. This, to me, suggests that you were wiser at 6 years old than you are today, about the foundations of your above subject matter. In other words, nice speech.

I may rail against the evils of gun control and those who disingenously hawk it as a snake-oil cure for all the ills of our civilization, but I also recognize the right of each person to make his or her own decision regarding the ownership of guns.  I also recognize when someone “gets it” and is on “our side” in this fight.  It seems pretty crappy to me to then attack someone who agrees with you.  What good will come of this?  Will Mr. Whittle somehow be more inclined to purchase a gun now?  What business is it of yours if he does own one?  Who the hell are you to tell him how to live his life?

The decision to own a gun is a personal one.  Each person must weigh his or her own circumstances to make the decision.  As Col. Cooper said, “Owning a handgun doesn’t make you armed any more than owning a guitar makes you a musician.”

In my dealings with those who may be on the fence or against gun ownership, I try to present myself as an anti-example of the stereotypical gun owner and try to engage them and show them the true nature of the shooting sports.  I’ve read several articles by Micheal Cloud (a libertarian from Massachusetts) on political persuasion.  He points out that each person has different areas of interest, which can provide openings for them to be receptive to arguments for liberty.  Immediately jumping into harsh moral judgements (which may be quite pursuasive to us) can do more harm than good by turning off someone before they ever have a chance to hear the benefits that would accrue to them. 

I think where I’m trying to go here is that while there are times for thunderous rants, harsh moral judgements, and namecalling, there are many times where they will do more harm than good.  I’ve said some pretty harsh things on this site about anti-gunners (specifically the unrepentant hardcases), and I truly believe the things I’ve said, but I keep these things to myself when dealing with someone in person until I know them well enough to judge their reaction.  I don’t see it as a compromise or being a sell-out to try to tailor my message to be effective with my audience.  When dealing with those who are not so gung ho on the topic, but may be on our side or are at least open to discussion, it’s best to engage them on their own terms in a friendly manner.  If someone’s open to the argument, then let’s give them the benefit of the doubt and give them a chance to see that we’re not a bunch of raving lunatics.  As I mentioned earlier, humanizing gun owners could go a long way towards combating the negative stereotypes foisted upon people by a biased media on a near daily basis.  Most people understand that the media gets things wrong all the time, but for some reason they still buy into what the media says in areas where they have no experience.  Let’s give them good experiences to use as a comparison against the negative reporting.

Update: Fixed typo (”:s/weight/weigh/”).
Update 2:  Clarified my take on harsh comments against anti-gunners.
Update 3: (3:00pm)  The debate rages on.  There are now 173 comments on the article.

Crying babies may be annoying to some, but it’s probably best to keep it to yourself.

Wal-Mart shopper attacked after imitating crying baby
By CHRISTINE VENDEL
The Kansas City Star

Prosecutors said a Kansas City man shopping at a Wal-Mart store grabbed a baseball bat from a shelf and attacked a man who had made a remark about a crying baby.

The victim, David Holbrook, 41, of Bonner Springs, suffered head injuries that required 14 stitches, as well as a broken rib and bruised kidney. He was treated at St. Joseph Health Center and later released. The attack occurred about 12:50 p.m. Saturday.

Police arrested Jefferson Uta, 26, of Kansas City, at the store at 9051 Hillcrest Road. Uta appeared in Jackson County Circuit Court on Monday to face first-degree assault and armed criminal action charges. He remained in jail Monday night in lieu of a $50,000 bond.

Police and court records gave this account:

Holbrook and his girlfriend were shopping for Christmas presents and walking through the toy department when they passed Uta and a woman with a crying baby. Holbrook imitated the baby’s cries, “Waaaa. Waaa,” and then the couple continued to the electronics department.

While there, Uta reportedly appeared with a wooden baseball bat on his shoulder. Holbrook said: “Are you going to hit me with the bat?”

Holbrook was struck in the head, police said. As he tried to regain his balance, he was struck in the back. Holbrook’s girlfriend screamed, and an off-duty officer working at the store responded.
…

Despite this being the season of goodwill towards men and all that it appears to bring out the worst in people.  Holbrook sounds like a smartass prick, but he didn’t deserve what happened to him.

Some interesting searches that landed people on this site:

• Ari Fleisher is a jerk—At least the searcher is keeping an open mind.
• north korea darpa against us latest update 02—Given the Total Information Awareness fiasco, I would wonder if DARPA is against us as well.
• paint code for fast and the furious mitsubishi eclipse—Eclipse?! (Spit!)  Now this is a car.
• banned delta airlines commercial—Is that the one where they show what really happens to people’s luggage?

Update: Moved the link to the Delta commercial here  The original was pretty stilted with the link where it was..

Rachel Lucas has a great article that consists mainly of responses written by Bill Whittle in the comments section of her original article asking for input on the “gun control” debate.  I won’t do it the injustice of quoting only portions of it.  It’s long, but well worth your time.

Jeff, at Alphecca commented on my boombox entry.

But then I got to thinking (and I’m older then him and so my days were earlier then his) we used to drive around the high-school with (brace yourselves…) our eight-track players in our cars blasting Black Sabbath and ZZ Top. Cars (in my day) didn’t have much of a sound system so we had huge, loose speakers sitting on our back-decks. So in reality we were all the same. And like all high-school kids, we were obnoxious. Some things never change.

You should have seen my last vehicle.  I had a 1996 Dodge Ram club cab with two 10” subwoofers in a box under the back seat, a CD/MP3 player, and two 100W/channel Rockford Fosgate amps.  It started out as a simple project: add an MP3 player and replace the speakers so I could run more power to them.  My reason was that I wanted to be able to hear the music while driving at highway speeds with the windows open (the existing stereo wouldn’t drive the speakers well enough to do this without serious distortion).

I enlisted the help of a friend from work who had an interest in car stereos (it’s interesting to note that he had to keep his rear license plate in the back window because the bass from his stereo had vibrated the rear license plate holder loose).  We met up at another friend’s house in Arlington one Saturday and went down to Trader’s Village where my friend knew somebody who would make us a good deal on the equipment.  We started working on it around noon, with my friend doing the wiring and me doing the mechanical stuff (I had to take the front seats out, pull the front off the dash, and take off the door panels).  We ended up finishing the work on my truck around 2:00 am.

Like all such projects, it kind of took on a life of its own, although the system sounded great.  It also had enough power that I never turned it all the way to the maximum volume setting.  The windows and mirrors would be vibrating badly long before I hit the maximum and I didn’t want to shake anything loose.

Please note that I was always careful not to annoy the neighbors with my stereo (I always turned it down when I left the highway and entered a residential area).  I hate it when people drive down your street at 2:00am making a lot of noise (and bass is the worst, since it travels further).

I’ve already replaced the factory radio in my Avalanche, but I don’t think I’ll take it to this level.  For one thing, the interior of the Avalanche doesn’t allow much space for subwoofers if you want to maintain the ability of the rear seats to fold down when you open the midgate.  The other is that I think I was starting to damage my hearing with the old system (the road noise from driving with the windows down would cause me to turn it up too high).

Dillon Precision sells a wide variety of products for shooters and reloaders.  While I don’t reload, I look forward to their catalogs each month.

Maybe this is why:

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a better image than this.  This is from the online catalog entry for one of their poster sets.  The poster business came about because of their catalog, which features a different picture like these on the cover each month.  The January issue features the young woman shown here in pictures 1 and 6.  You can thank her for this blog entry.

Politically correct?  No, and I thank them for it.