I’ve often thought about creating a multipart series regarding the dangers and truth behind “Green” technology.  Laziness has been winning on the front of me not doing it.  When I started this post Alan had just posted something about FERC changing the allowable deviation in frequency of the power grid.  That was then followed by MRS over at RNS posting something regarding Germany decommissioning a bunch of their nuke plants.

So for those who know me personally, you’ll have an idea of how much I really know about all this.  Seriously I’m not going to go into full detail on everything I know about all this stuff.  For those who don’t know me, my job entails me knowing lots about the power system and how it works.  It’s funny really, I’m a EE code monkey, who knows power systems, digital signal processing, and embedded systems.  For exact details on what I do or where I work, sorry, see the disclaimer.  Suffice it to say I know lots about transmission, distribution, industrial installations, and power protection and operation.  Teaching is selling, and what I hope to do here is provide a solid description and lesson in how the power system works.  Describing what is actually going on so when your legislator runs his mouth off you’ll know it.

How am I going to do it. I’m going to write a multi-part series covering the power system, how it works, and then I will discuss how different proposals and political pushes end up affecting it.  I will also answer any questions that come in, either in the comments directly or in a post if I feel it’s significant.  So in todays installment I’m going to cover at a very high level an overview of the power system, what different parts do, and how they relate.

A police officer in the Seattle Police Department didn’t have his head screwed on tightly.  In his infinite wisdom, the officer left his loaded “assault rifle” on the back of his cruiser and drove away.

It was around 9 p.m. and the car was parked outside the Roosevelt Hotel, near Pine and 7th Avenue, with no police officers in sight, said Gonzales.

In addition, after an officer got back into the patrol car, it was driven away with the rifle still on the trunk.

The Seattle PD has apologized and an investigation is being conducted.

Its amazing how much flak citizens are given over ownership of guns and the police are just given  a slap on the wrist.  I doubt the officer will be punished for his ineptitude. Especially since this is the same department who shot a deaf man in the back.

You know, I'd be happy if they were plain old vanilla literate. I mean, what percentage of today's high school graduates wouldn't be able to spell "environmentally literate", even if you spotted them half the vowels?

-Tam, Religion in Public Schools

[The most depressing thing about how hilarious that statement is, it’s 100% true.  The intelligence of the American public is constantly being eroded.  Most viciously by the public school systems who create the voters of tomorrow.  Coincidence, I think not. –B]

Usually I usually give absolutely jack !@#%ing crap about Great Britain.  My family fought a war to separate us from those ass hats and their movement towards a forced victim populace has killed any remaining respect I have for them.  Huh, what do you mean I hear you ask.  Well lets just look at this shining example of unbelievable behavior from the UK.

Officers arriving at the scene were told that four men in dark clothing, some in balaclavas, had broken in via the back door before being repelled. It is not known whether they were armed.

A search of the area was quickly launched and within minutes police found the dying man lying on a pavement in Hospital Road, Salford.

Compare that to here in the states, where many of us enjoy castle doctrine, along with many other laws that strongly support self-defense.  For instance look at the incident in Ohio recently where a man was attacked by two individuals.  Out numbered and properly fearing for his life he shot one, causing the other to run away.  The police have ruled it a case of self-defense and no charges are being pressed.  If you think however the Brits don’t value the life of criminals over the law abiding look at these excerpts from the same article:

Greater Manchester Police later described the incident as “a tragic set of circumstances” and said they were trying to unravel precisely what happened in and around the Flanigans’ terraced house.

Coupling this with the end quote we reach the root and crux of the problem.

Asked what advice he would give local householders, he replied: “I would tell them to ring the police and to use reasonable force to protect themselves within the legal framework.

From all I can see there is no question reasonable force was used to protect themselves and their property yet they were arrested.  The laws in Great Britain have been twisted to the point where they protect the criminals from the law abiding, not the other way around.  Don’t believe me, look at the advice they give those with garden sheds, and the death of a man who merely tried to break up a fight.

Anyone who attempts to criminalize the law abiding, prevent the law abiding from defending themselves, all in the name of “safety” are nothing but Criminal Occupational Hazard Reduction Organizations.  Great Britain has been twisted so far, the law now attacks the law abiding and keeps the victims from fighting back.

Instead of educating the populace on river safety, King County has gone straight to enforcement.  The county is already stretched thin on law enforcement and now it is stretching it further to “protect” the people. 

"This Council sometimes thinks it's everybody's mom," said Councilwoman Kathy Lambert, who voted "no."

Life vests are not just for water craft any more.  If you want to swim or wade in the river, you have to wear a life vest, no matter how old you are.  Fishermen are exempt, though not initially. Someone pointed out that they were going to be hit up by this asinine law. How many others will be hit by this victimless law?

I’m glad I no longer live anywhere near that county.

You engineers are it.  You will be the ones to create the next big thing.  It’s done by seeing a problem and solving it.  Very rarely if ever is it a businessman who has an idea of what problems exist or how to solve them.

I was told this while in my senior design capstone while finishing up my degree.  He nailed it exactly on the head.  I’m seeing it at work right now and even more so in a couple of pet projects that just started up here at home.

If the pet project works I’ll blog about it after it’s first successful test.  I have questions of if it will really work or not since absolutely no one else has done it.  I also have a realization that those in the field are probably trying to get people to fully upgrade than just buy a box to make their current equipment just as capable.

We no longer instill in them how they should fear wild animals. 

While it may look like the lion is playing, they play with their food prior to eating it.  It may look cute, but I know my place on the food chain, and by god I’m going to stay there.

I’m reasonably sure this kid is going to join the likes of the woman who is kicked by the wild moose after trying to pet it.  Or this guy who stepped in front of a buck unarmed who was attacking his dog.  I’m sure I could build a whole list, the Darwin Awards I’m sure could provide me a lot of resources, but I think you get the picture.

Free ice cream is down for the night due to stress and trying to get stuff done at work.  Instead here’s a bunch of stuff you should read incase you missed it.

• Linoge: On the BS Justification on the Guerena shooting.
• Weer’d: On the idiocy of some most laws (and people as well).
• Alan: He says exactly what we’re all thinking.
• Oleg: On why you fight, no matter the odds.
• Sebastian: On the audacity and true nature of our opponents. 

Sorry I’m all linky, no thinky tonight, I just can’t seem to do it with everything else rolling around my head.

You’re wrong.

1. After a SWAT team shot and killed Jose Guerena, a man who broke no laws and his only mistake was being related to someone who did. 
2. We had an incident where the Department of Education used their own SWAT team to kick down the door of the wrong person over “student loans.” 
3. The Indiana Supreme Court has ruled that the public cannot resist unlawful entry by police. 
4. We now have the FBI expanding the discretionary power of their agents.

The FBI is preparing new investigative guidelines for its agents that civil libertarians say would make it easier for agents to search commercial or law enforcement databases, conduct lie detector tests, search people’s trash and conduct physical surveillance, sometimes without any suspicion of wrongdoing.

To go after people who have “attracted” their attention, like their ex-girlfriend, their neighbor they hate, someone who cut them off in traffic.  People have a nasty habit of abusing any power available to them.  Couple that with the Indiana ruling and we have a storm that is ripe for disaster.  Sadly for some reason though the American people seem to look the other way as all of this is happening.  The Boston Massacre happened in the middle of a public street and riled Americans due to the liberties the king was denying them.  While now the government uses jack booted thugs to kick in our door in the middle of the night to kill the men who risked their lives to protect us.

Sadly I think Linoge nailed it on the head today with this statement:

The die has been cast, the train is in motion, the avalanche has started… however you want to phrase it, but what started as a grand experiment in the preservation of individual rights and liberties has ended, for me, with the bullet-ridden body of a United States Marine, laying dead on the floor of his home, guilty of nothing more than being related to some unsavory characters.

We have long past the precipice at this point, each time our rulers become more bold and ruthless.  An effective solution to this problem is becoming more and more difficult to see.  While we are all attempting to solve these problems through the soap box and ballot box, more and more we are seeing that the only remaining solution is the cartridge box.

The government is declaring war on it’s own citizens, it has militarized bands of jack booted thugs who are exempt from the law and legal restraint.  The are free to break down the door of any house and kill anyone inside.  The 4th amendment has been all but actually removed from the bill of rights.  It’s claws and teeth removed by the courts, and claims of necessity which gave birth to the TSA and DHS.  Their goals are to intimidate and scare their subjects in to compliance.

While my tripwire hasn’t been struck, people are certainly dancing around it.  I am stating this here and now, any no knock warrant executed on my house or that of my family will be considered a declaration of war against myself, my family and my freedom.  This includes warrants executed merely because they had the address wrong.  If you have reasonable cause to search my house, that of my family, and have a warrant from a judge, knock on my door and you will be let in peacefully.  Not only that but there are methods that could be used to ensure the safety of the officers and well as law abiding citizens.  I support the US Constitution above all else, and will defend myself against those who attempt to violate it so that they may violate me.

The government is murdering it’s own civilians and it seems like only a few of us are bothering to care or notice.  Frankly, that is the most saddening and disturbing prospect of all.  The American people no longer care about their neighbor, instead they tell the government to look after them and take care of them.

I weep for freedom, liberty, and all those who sacrificed themselves for this great American experiment.  FDR and the socialists have succeeded in what they set out to do, destroy America and the American dream.

Note: I do not condone indiscriminant acts of violence against the government or police.  I am merely condoning the act of self defense.  Someone kicking in the door of a law abiding citizen at Oh-Dark-Thirty with a gun, government agent or not, the home owner has every right to defend himself from the person invading his property.  Agents of the government can shoot people lying on the ground handcuffed in the back and get away with it.  I’d rather die with my boots on thank you.

No surprise to the rest of us though absolutely NOTHING happened.  While at the Genesee community days today the wife and I were open carrying.  There were numerous sheriffs deputies and state patrol walking around the area.  While there we saw something quite interesting form in the sky.

We stopped and chatted with the local sheriff after spotting a funnel cloud and took the opportunity for pictures.

We actually chatted with him for an extended period of time about open carry and different things he’s run into.  Evidently people often come up to him when working events like this and the county fair informing him of people who are carrying firearms.  His response to them is usually along of lines of, "and this is a problem because.”  It reminded me of the Pullman PD officer I met who looked at the person freaking out and pointed at the gun on his hip and said, “I have a gun, what’s the difference?”

It’s Idaho and as he put it, “It’s all that remains of the Western frontier.”  It’s talking with officers like him that reminds me while some are driving the us versus them wedge, it is by no means all officers doing it.  Especially since he has evidently gone to Boomershoot.  I told him he needs to come again.

To further put the icing on the cake, I gave Mike one of my blogger cards.  He had mentioned having a holster shirt but couldn’t remember the manufacturer.  After I was going to finish this post I was going to email him for the brand.  In my email I just got a message from him.  He has one of these and really likes it.  Anywhere else that whole exchange would probably have been forgotten.

There was a nice car show, here’s a simple set I did.

I got a bunch of pictures from the car show as well, but those will be processed slowly and will probably end up dumped on my photography site.

Here is a panoramic from Boomershoot 0.90.  It’s on the far right of the shot.  I must say, I love it out here.

If you’re from the area, that’s the Clearwater valley and towards the right of the picture is looking WSW towards Lewiston/Clarkston.

Jennifer asks:

But whether I’ve met you or not, I want to know your story.  The vast majority of my readers are firearms enthusiasts of some stripe.  How did that happen?  How did you become gunnies?

I think the most wonderful thing about being me is I don’t really remember a time in my life I wasn’t around firearms.  I don’t even remember the first time I went shooting.  I was 3 1/2 and my dad sat me on his leg and guided me through the whole process.  I squeezed the trigger and grinned from ear to ear.  I got my first .22 when I was in second grade for my birthday.  I spent hours at the range with my dad with him teaching me to shoot.  Pushing my capabilities and comfort.  If it looked easy he quickly remedied that.

In about 5th or 6th grade I started shooting pistol.  He started me off with a 22 and by the age of 14 I was regularly shooting a 1911 and driving tacks.  My dad shot competition pistol while at MIT, I still have the pistol he used to compete.  It is one of my favorites and one that provides the most piercing memories.  I had a habit of pushing with my thumb on the grip.  His solution to the problem was the same his coach used, thumbtack placed pin up taped in place.  I only screwed up once and I forever remembered and never made that mistake again.  Even now when I pull my 1911 my thumbs are well clear and are NOT going to push on the weapon.

All this time growing up I absolutely loved shooting.  Between that and flying those are the two stand out memories I have of spending time with my dad.  Even now shooting for me becomes very Zen like and I often hear my dads voice.  After a shot it’s his voice I hear telling me what I did wrong, if it’s a good shot I hear him telling me to call it.

Growing up my household was very libertarian in philosophy and politics.  I remember coming home on the day Waco burned.  I remember seeing the anger and aggravation on my dads face and in his voice.  At the time I was so young I didn’t understand what was going on.  As I got older that would change.  It changed most dramatically one day while sitting with him after an excursion to the range.

I don’t remember how or why the conversation took this turn, but my dad began to tell a story.  A story about a young boy who at the time was the same age I was.  Hearing something in the woods grabbed his rifle and his dog figuring it was a deer.  His father and a family friend proceeded to follow out the door behind him with their rifles as well.  The boy and his dog proceeded through the woods in the direction of the noise.  Then it happened, a burst was fired at which point the dog dropped dead.  In front of the boy was three men, heavily armed.  The boy, having seen them kill his dog returns fire and tries to retreat to safety.  They shoot the boy in the back while he is retreating.

I then ask my dad who the armed men were and why they were there.  The response was memorable to me, “They were there as representatives of the government.”  My dad then proceeded to tell me about the rest of the incident, including Vicki Weaver, and how Lon Horiuchi got away with murder.

I couldn’t help but place my self in Sammy’s shoes at that point.  He was my age and I began to wonder why I was any different or what prevented that from happening to me.  I have no doubt that the reason my dad told me that story was because he was looking at the incident from Randy Weaver’s position.  What would he do if they had shot me in the back and killed my mother?  I do know my dad had stated that Horiuchi was lucky my mother and I were around.  If it wasn’t for us my dad would have had nothing to prevent him from going on the hunt.  Some would say “yeah sure”.  If you knew my father, that wasn’t a joke and any thing he said was anything but an idle statement.  If he said it, he was damn serious. 

From that point on I was a very big gun rights advocate.  I did numerous projects through school, many my instructors disliked, on the falsehoods of gun control and the dangers of government. 

Eventually as I went through college and began to finish up I started moving back towards the gun community.  During school I had neither time nor money to play.  In 2008 I attended Boomershoot and led to me creating this blog.  I had other sites but hadn’t really started the blog.  I figured it would be a good on the side hobby and a way to relieve stress when necessary.  The blog just turned 3 and has resulted in some interesting communications.    I also found it a great way to pursue writing on freedom and liberty, not just gun rights.

I have grown more recently as now where I work, I’m like Joe, many have heard of me and know me as the “Guns and Explosives guy” before they’ve even met me.  People who a friends of friends are coming to me with questions.  Which is awesome, and very neat.

So there’s the story of why I’m a gunny.  There’s a lot of heart in why I’m here.  The happiest memories I have from my dad usually involve a firearm.  For me nothing is more peaceful that settling in behind the last gift I got from my father and reaching out and touching something.  I can’t help but remember that great man and all that he taught me.

H/T Sebastian.

While at the Boomershoot site one of the visitors asked Joe what voltage the transmission lines are over head.  He guessed around 50 or 100kV then noticed I was there and said well there’s the person to ask.  I have the disclaimer and will adhere to it.  All I will say is I know a lot about embedded systems, power systems, protective relays, and communication systems involving power and industrial controls.

I had looked at the lines before but never bothered to really figure it out.  I took a look at it and let my instincts take over.  My estimate was around 230kV but I would count the insulators at home and come up with the actual number.

So from the photo you can see there’s 20 insulator discs.  Three discs are approximately 35kV.

Crunching the numbers comes out to be 233.3kV.  230kV is a standard transmission voltage so the approximation is reasonable since it’s not sitting in between two standard voltages and isn’t way off in the weeds either.

So yesterday after I got my truck unstuck I climbed up to the top of the 700 yard berm and did a 360 degree panoramic of the Boomershoot site.  ICE was a little bit misbehaved in that for some reason it thought the images I supplied were beyond 360 degrees so is placed images where they didn’t belong.  I finally worked around it by doing the panoramic in 3 sections.  One section it called 270 degrees but it was more like 120.

The end result though is very neat.  The thumbnail below is only a section of the entire image.

The Husband and I were planning on participating in the non-event a day early while at the Palouse car show. But, we all know that no plan survives first contact with the enemy.  Grocery shopping was going to follow the car show, but it was delayed by a day.  I went out by myself to Wal-Mart and Winco and open carried the entire time.  Though I did not get actual action shots since I was going about my business as usual and therefore had no camera.  However, I did get a shot before I left.

Wal-mart was a complete non-event with maybe a look, but then again I always smile and act pleasant whether I am openly carrying or not.  Win-co for the most part was a non-event.  I was going about my business choosing bacon when a gentleman rounded the corner and almost immediately said something along the lines of “ now that’s cute” in reference to my .357 snubbie safely secured to my hip.  A very long conversation ensued and sadly the man has a lot of misguided knowledge.  To be nice, I listen to what he had to say. 

This man felt that concealed carry on the person was much better than open carrying or even purse carrying, which is what I normally do as I don’t have any other option for the time being.  He wanted to make sure I knew the dangers of open carry with respect to someone approaching me and removing my side arm and using it against me.  As I open carry with a Bianchi AccuMold® Belt Slide holster, I would know if someone were to try to take it and act accordingly.  As for purse carry, the man mentioned razor blades being used to slice the purse straps and stealing the purse before you even knew what happened.  My purse happens to be a backpack style and I think that would be rather difficult to remove when actually worn as a backpack as the straps would be harder to slice without slicing the person carrying it.  There were many more things he mentioned, but I don’t really feel like going into all that detail.

I think he was a little disappointed when he learned that I was married because he is looking for a girlfriend who shares his interest in guns.  He asked me if I knew any single ladies around who are interested in guns.  I don’t and as he had a mullet, I’m not sure many woman would go for him, even if he is super nice.

I ended up getting home much later than planned and the husband was actually worried that he was going to have to bail me out of jail.  Usually my grocery shopping trips last about an hour and a half including drive time.  This one, however, lasted almost twice as long because of the man at Win-co being excited to see a woman out carrying a firearm.

Rolf dumped some more pictures last night.  I have added them to my gallery under Boomershoot 2011.

Here’s some of the highlights I saw in the new batch.

Joe’s daughter taking a much deserved break.

The RNS crew with Rolf and someone else who I am not familiar with.

And it wouldn’t be right without at least one picture that somewhat qualifies as gun porn.

That’s Tango shooting his R700 in .308.

In other news my trip to the car show has been canceled to return us to our regularly scheduled program.  Guns, Gas, Flares, and Explosives.  More tomorrow night and probably Sunday.

For some reason I just can’t get any flow tonight and I’m not sure how well it’s going to work this weekend.  Sunday I will probably have something up.  In the mean time here’s what I saw out my front window last summer on a frequent basis.

We’re moving into June now and I’ll start seeing and hearing them more often.  They are an absolute blast to watch in action.  Those guys are seriously nuts. 

This is one of the upsides to living in BFE in the middle of farm country.  You never see this in the city.