A YouTube video of a Gabby Giffords themed concealed carry side match to a USPSA match generated nearly 8000 views and the rage of anti-gun groups and even got the attention of a Brady Campaign Board member who said, “These folks could have just sat back and shut up.”

Joe Huffman – Winning Public Opinion

February 29, 2012

[Oh did we ever piss them off with that video.  That quote from Joan still makes me smile when reading it.  As I mentioned earlier today I am wanting to get some GoPro cameras.  Not just as training aids, but I think it would be neat to cut up videos of the highlights from action pistol matches.  The more instances of that type of information that are out there, the harder it is for the antis to peddle their lies.

When the truth becomes so prevalent their lies are obvious we’ve won.  Often many seem to think the inanimate object is going to instantly cause injury.  The solution to that is education.  If we can get people interested in the sport the will be receptive to education.  Teaching is selling, we want to sell people on our sport, on our hobby, on our right.  We want them to come enjoy it with us.  Often the anti-gunners will do everything they can to dehumanize us into animals.  Video’s of shooters competing, having a good time, the emotion that goes with it, that makes us human. I’m not talking about just having videos that are just highlight reels, but videos that cause the viewer to go, “Wow, that’s impressive!”  Then as they continue to watch, “Wow, those look like nice people, I’d love to get to know them.”

That’s the truth, 99.9999% of us are actually really nice people.  However many of us hide the fact that we’re gun owners.  I think Joe is right regarding gun owners coming out of the proverbial closet.  It’s not as if I’m hiding in the closet here but one should always lead by example.

So as I did previously when Newbie Shooter started it:

My name is Barron Barnett.  I am an Eagle Scout, an engineer, a wood worker, a blogger, a web designer, a computer programmer, a ham radio operator, your neighbor, your coworker, your friend, a loving husband, and I am a gun owner.

I am the guy that will clear his neighbors drive way of snow.  I am the guy that will stop and help you with a flat tire. I am the guy who will get in his car and come get you at 0 dark 30 and get you because you’ve had too much to drink.  Again, I am also the a gun owner. -B]

Proof that mother nature is a cruel, mean, cold hearted, son of a bitch.

And when she is, she is doing it with pure unadulterated beauty. 

It actually makes sense but it isn't something I considered before.  Normally with I think of saltwater in the ocean I don't think of salinity changing so rapidly.  In this case as ice forms the salinity increases (salt water has a lower freezing point), that salt water with a higher salinity is more dense and colder so it begins descending.   The fact that water is colder, below the freezing point of the surrounding water, causes the surrounding water to freeze.  Wash, Rinse, Repeat.

Remember that the next time someone says you should be cuddly with mother nature because frankly, she won't cuddle you back.  If she could she'd freeze your ass in place for the hell of it.

via Dave(Photographer) at RNS.

Here’s one from the dubstep realm.  Damn you Weer’d and Pandora!

The song is by Glitch Mob, Title: We Can Make The World Stop.

I am actually looking into slowly amassing a set of 4 GoPro cameras.  For shooting, boating, off roading, snowmobiling, and diving.  I want a couple that will remain pretty much permanent in the cars except rare occasions and others for use in shooting.  120 FPS would be nice for some fireballs too.

I’ve got other stuff on the list first, hopefully one is picked up here soon.

This isn't a true accountabilibuddy but it deserves serious recognition. 

A King County judge has ruled that the names of Seattle police officers who are disciplined for misconduct may be released under public-disclosure requests.

....

Superior Court Judge Dean Lum, citing the public's right to know the names, handed down his ruling after listening to arguments from the city and the guild. His decision comes at time when the Police Department is under intense scrutiny, particularly after the U.S. Justice Department found late last year that officers had routinely used excessive force on citizens.

I run the State Sponsored Criminal Count specifically to help shed light on bad behavior.  Why?  Because light is a natural disinfecting which helps curtail bad behavior.  Currently the police are protected in so many ways that they are immune from any consequences.  If you are proud of your job and what you do you stand up and receive praise right.  Just the same if you screw up you serve as an example for others.  Besides, the fact that it's publicly available will make that officer think twice in the future less his fun be exposed as a ongoing problem with a history.

So, with that, Superior Court Judge Dean Lum, Thank you.  Thank you for not caving to police pressure and reinforcing the law as written.  Thank you for making sure light can find those who need disinfectant the most.

Because not everyone thinks that you need so many protections to do your job effectively.

ROY ALLOWAY, 56, of Bremerton, Washington, was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to two years in prison and three years of supervised release for unlawful dealing in firearms and filing a false income tax return, announced U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan.  ALLOWAY is a former Bremerton Police Officer, who for years was assigned to the West Puget Sound Narcotics Task Force.  ALLOWAY was warned twice in 2005 that his sales of guns at gun shows violated federal licensing rules.  Nevertheless, ALLOWAY continued to purchase and sell guns without a federal firearms license – including nearly 600 guns purchased from Bremerton and Tacoma gun shops, and another 169 firearms purchased from a Shelton source.  Much of the conduct occurred while he was an active police officer.  "It was a breach of trust," said U.S. District Judge Ronald B. Leighton at sentencing. “It was not a technical violation; it was a total abdication of his responsibilities under the law.”

This wasn’t a technical glitch folks.  He actively circumvented the law and of course he was active in the war on nouns.  Seriously I want to continue but it is just infuriating considering what the state would have done had it been you or I.

State Sponsored Criminal Count Honorable Mention: Roy Alloway

Because the law is just for all those other schmucks.

via Joe

So early this afternoon my inbox started exploding with more about the current “Drama Llama”.  Normally I’d just continue ignoring the whole thing as I’ve done since the last post, but this was just too good.  Linoge posted it, then Weer’d, Evyl Robot, Jennifer, and then Only Guns and Money.  All I can say is this guy must have really done something because there’s a lot of detail in it.  Either that or there was a group working on it, like some sort of conspiracy.  Who knows, like Law Dog, I don’t hate the guy, I don’t care two shits about him, though I would say I know he’s probably going to get pissy over this.

So without further ado, here is Smoking Blunder, not to be confused with Smoke and Thunder Chunder.

I applaud this individual on his attention to detail as he even recreated the redirect issue that was discovered yesterday.  The 404 redirect for Smoking Blunder is classic.

Remember, New Mexico sucks so I’m unsurprised about the following.

A New Mexico woman called the state police to report that she had been the victim of an Internet scam. The police told her they couldn’t come right away. She asked them to call before showing up at her house. They didn’t.  Instead, an officer arrived while she wasn’t home, ignored the woman’s “Beware of Dog” sign, hopped the woman’s fence . . . and then killed her dog.

Yeah, non violent crime, no probable cause, all she wanted to do was file a report and you jump the fence and kill her dog.  Yup, we have people that mentally deficient in law enforcement, doesn’t it make you feel safer knowing that?

State Sponsored Criminal Count #264: John Doe sponsored by Lt. Robert McDonald

Because whenever a cop shows up, a puppy has to die.

As I previously talked about here, it seems there are many who do not actually understand how the food chain works.  Via Weer’d I found another incident to add to the list.

New Hampshire officials say a teenager walking his dog in Hopkinton was attacked by a coyote and is receiving a course of rabies shots as a precaution.

I did a long post regarding this previously but it serves as a reminder.  Wild animals are wild and just by being born a human does not mean you’re exempt from being prey.  If an animal is hungry, guess what, like them, you’re made of meat, and they’ll have you for dinner and not in the good way!

Carry your gun and be prepared to use it, it isn’t just two legged varmints that are problems.  They’ve even seen coyotes in New York City, this is not just a rural problem either.

This right here is just classic!

El Paso, Texas County Commissioner Willie Gandara Jr. was arrested late Wednesday on federal drug-trafficking charges. Few details have been released, but according to a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) spokeswoman, the investigation involves multiple agencies.

Ok a county commissioner was selling drugs, why is it classic though!?  This is why!

Back in September 2011, Gandara harshly criticized drug legalization in an official statement:

Legalizing drugs is the coward practice of combating cartels, it is an insult to our men and women in law enforcement, and the laziest form of parenting our children and youth about the effects of drugs.

Nice, he was pushing prohibition to protect his enterprise.

State Sponsored Criminal Count 263: Willie Gandara Jr.

Because the real reason you become an elected politician is so you can build an enterprise and make it illegal for everyone else!

via Uncle

(Warning, drama llama within.  No links go to SmokeAndThunder.com only friendly blogs and screenshots.¹)

So it was brought to my attention that a particular individual finally followed through on his threat and created a profile on his website for me.  His threat I must say showed his commitment to being a classy member of the gun community.

Your profile will go live today Dick... err Barron

So, I wasn’t sure exactly what I did to get labeled a dick, however I really didn’t care.  Angering a troll to the point he calls me a dick and stomps off, that’s just awesome.  I could care less about the profile, yeah it’s negative, but it just makes him look childish and hurts his credibility, even more so when you consider what happened later.  At this point though I was ready to completely shun him and stop giving the admitted troll attention.

The thing is, the little troll just won’t shut up and there were some things I noticed that raised some serious questions. 

On My Profile

Starting off, the tone and style of my profile was quite familiar.

Warning:

Image courtesy of Robb Allen found via JayG

A Spokane police officer fired in 2009 after driving drunk while off duty, hitting a pickup with his truck and leaving the scene of the collision is likely to be rehired and get more than two years of back pay.

Wait, he did what and this is acceptable for a police officer.  Why would they do such a thing?

Bob Dunn, Thoma’s attorney, said Thoma had a disability – alcoholism – that resulted from stress from his job. He argued that the police department knew Thoma struggled with alcoholism and didn’t try to get him help. Thoma filed a complaint about his firing with the Washington State Human Rights Commission soon after he was terminated.

So how much do taxpayers get to pay this criminal?

Thoma also would be paid about $275,000 for back pay and benefits, and the city will pay his attorney $15,000. The back pay is based on the amount he earned as a sergeant.

So isn’t that nice.  Remember if you’re going to commit a crime, become a cop first.  This by the way is the prime definition of a state sponsored criminal count.

State Sponsored Criminal Cop #262: Sergeant Brad Thoma

Because when you commit a DUI and a hit and run and you’re a police officer, just blame it on alcoholism that way you’re disabled.

So the bottom line is that if I remove the doors from the shed I can store 18,000 pounds of explosives. If I put the doors on I can only store 50 pounds.

It doesn't have to make sense. It's just a government rule.

Joe Huffman - It's a Government Rule! It doesn't have to make sense.

February 20, 2012

[So when Joe first told me about this, a while ago, I sat there dumbfounded for 30 minutes trying to reason why.  Joe misspoke with an extra 0 on the doors off number when he told me, but if the closest habitable area was another 50 feet away he would have been correct.

For those who have never been to the Taj, the outer building is your standard garden style storage shed.  The walls and doors are about 1/16th of an inch thick, if that, and are just aluminum.  Prey tell, what in the name of Zeus's butthole is an extra 16th inch of aluminum going to do between a 50lbs detonation and a 18500lbs detonation.  About the only thing I can think of is in the former they might still be solid, in the latter they shall be rendered to their molecular components.

Remember this though whenever someone says there should be a law, a rule, or the government should have the power to do "X".  They may be well intentioned but eventually well intentioned is lost and what we are left with is a steaming pile of bull dung that we have no choice but to deal with.  Also remember most of those who argue for rules and regulations aren't going to have to deal with the idiocy to begin with.

I'm also working on a followup to this, lets just say as of yesterday the clock is still ticking.  -B]

So some startup, previously mentioned here, has decided that it’s going to make a “social network” for gunnies.  After I wrote that previous post, the gift that just doesn’t stop giving posted a response at Uncle’s place.  I haven’t gone all Kevin Baker on someone this month, I guess it’s about that time.

Before getting to that though it should be noted that this guy is digging himself a hole so fast with his customer base that if it were the earth he’d be sitting at the core experiencing fission right now.  There are numerous issues, especially given that he claims to be a site for “gunnies”, the biggest of which, he’s censoring comments.  Otherwise known to our field as “Reasoned Discourse”.

It does appear he finally let the comment go through, however the fact he is moderating comments is rise for concern.  I’m 99% sure there are deleted comments because Tango is supposedly comment #8 on that post.  He’s the first one listed.

So given the crap storm that he created today, lets start.

Tip: To mask the noise of racking the slide as you load up at the airport do it while the toilet is flushing.

Joe Huffman - Tweet

[I started laughing uncontrollably as I read that.  Then I started laughing even harder when I remembered a conversation from Saturday. It is easier and more fun too.-B]

Update: Sebasitan added this which is funny as hell:

@barronbarnett If you slam fired into the toilet, you could also easily exclaim "Damn, that was one hell of a burrito!"

A drunk off-duty policeman shot two sober brothers in a bar parking lot, one fatally, as they "were coming to the rescue of a young woman" a drunk patron had punched in the face, the widow claims in Harris County Court.

Unpossible, an anointed one drinking while carrying a pistol, the gun grabbers constantly claim that they are the only one’s responsible enough to carry a firearm.  I’ve drilled into this problem before.

Go read the story.  A couple good Samaritans stepped in to stop a criminal and prevent a woman from being further assaulted.  This drunk police officer not knowing what was going on just shot the two  good Samaritans. 

Nothing has been done to the officer, and the officer was protected in this situation.

The family says Coronado was following "conflicting city policies" when he shot the brothers, "one policy requiring him to carry a firearm and intervene in all conflicts, and another policy prohibiting him from carrying his firearm and intervening after drinking."

State Sponsored Criminal Count 261: Officer Jose Coronado

Because drinking to excess and carrying a firearm is only a problem if you’re a lowly civilian.  If you’re a law enforcement officer it’s just another way to commit murder and get away with it.

via Robert Lake

Steel match was early this month which worked out well for Joe.  We shot the match this morning, I did decently well and came in middle of the pack.  Got some tips from one of the shooters which helped and I’m going to incorporate it into my practice.  I had been fairly lucky thus far but I had a failure to go boom today.  Did an immediate action drill.  I thought the round extracted but it didn’t or I had a double feed because the slide didn’t go home.  I promptly locked the slide, dropped/ripped the mag out,  dropped the slide and racked it again, inserted a new mag, racked and reengaged.  That obviously was my throwaway string for that stage.  Compared to the other runs though that only added 10 seconds, it felt like an eternity, I know with practice I can get that time down but for the failure I had I can’t complain with how I handled it.

After the steel match we headed out to the Boomershoot site.  We had some storage experiments to conduct.  We get out to the road for Mecca and there’s still a lot of snow on the ground.  We start to walk on it and we both arrive at the same conclusion, we would probably make it driving out there but we probably wouldn’t make the return trip successfully.  We decide to head over to the entrance for the berm since that’s closer to the Taj, our final destination.  The snow felt like it wasn’t going to be too bad so we began our hike sans snowshoes that we forgot at Joe’s house anyway.

So yesterday Ry emailed me another incident from Seattle PD.  I didn’t get around to blogging it and forgot about it until today.

There was at least a reprimand from this incident, though there are some serious questions this brings up.

Now we've found a chilling case that started as a simple traffic stop that could happen to any one of us. Only this time the dash cam video of the incident was shown to a man's boss, jeopardizing his very livelihood.

Now why is that so significant, they showed the video to his boss and then did the following.

KOMO 4 News is suing the Seattle Police Department after the department denied our requests for other videos similar to Miller's stop. Citing privacy laws, the department has denied us copies of any videos less than three years old. Yet the officer who stopped Miller didn't hesitate to show damaging video to Miller's boss at school, jeopardizing his job.

Think about that for a second, they’re more than willing to attempt to use that evidence in their favor to ruin your life, but the second they might be held accountable they will refuse citing privacy.

Go read the story, my only real comment is this:

Never, get you of your car during a traffic stop unless you are instructed to do so.  That said, the reaction by the officers was a bit over the top, especially given the number of them on scene.  Overall this was just a bad incident, though this statement right here is telling about the attitude from Seattle PD.

Seattle Police Department Spokesman Sgt. Sean Whitcomb said officers respond to over 1,000 calls a day and get 99.99 percent of them right.

And the law exists Mr. Whitcomb to protect the innocent and when you screw up it’s a big freaking deal because you have violated the rights of someone.  As such you should have a boot put up your ass.  If you can’t take the time or be bothered to strive for 100% accuracy you’re in the wrong damn line of work.

I had a conversation recently with a friend regarding WiFi, phones, automated discovery and mapping, along with oh so many other things you could do.

We'll these guys cranked the whole thing to 11.

I see so many opportunities, especially with regards to another project I've got in the background that I'm looking into doing the mechanical design for.  One of these years I'm going to have to get to Defcon, however in doing that I'd also like to have something to present if I went.

So earlier this month Joe was informed about some particular anti-rights bigots using video he shot and I edited without permission and outside the bounds of fair use. Joe has asked nicely and it appears that Ladd intends to ignore him.

This is a single frame, being used as a still image without commentary, out of context, and in no way is being used in a manner that can be considered “Fair Use”.  They do not own the rights to the image, they are not using the image for a derivative work, they stole it to use it in a manner to show us as intimidating and threatening, and they have not licensed the use of the image either.  They have not cited or credited the source of the original work either.  It is not even in a manner as they did previously where it was obvious that the still was associate with a video.

So, there’s a new game of chess, the question is what’s the next move.  Joe is the rights holder for that frame as he shot it, I think if there’s another volley prior to a formal DMCA request it needs to focus on rights and usage.  A DMCA request can also be issued to Blogger without the necessities of a lawyer and let Blogger remove the material.  If Blogger refuses to, then more force may be required.

I got another email from Ry this morning.  At this point I firmly believe that Seattle has to be out for some sort of record for most consecutive days in the press.  This doesn't make the full count as it wasn't a police officer who committed the crime, but the police stood off to the side.

The man is Michael Lionnel Edwards, also known as Charles Edwards. According to court documents, Edwards is a member of the Vice Lords gang and his victims are littered across several states. His criminal history includes robbery with serious bodily harm in Indiana, assault in Minnesota, and aggravated assault in North Dakota.

So here we have a known felon with a history so thick that officers would easily see the danger he is.  The woman, while undergoing cancer treatment let this monster in her house as he claimed that he would help her.  All that did was give the wolf entry and her hell soon began.

Instead, Cindy says Edwards took over her life, even changing her locks, so he could lock her inside. Then, in September of 2010, she was recovering from surgery when Edwards came home drunk. "He had been putting a gun in my face."

When Edwards passed out a girlfriend warned her, "you can't come back here, he is going to kill you. When he comes to he is going to kill you."

What does she do?  She goes to the police like the media and the state keep telling us to do.  The better to protect us they claim.  They tell her to call 911 and they dispatch officers to the apartment.  Upon arrival at the apartment and discovering he is still there they decided to stand down and leave him be.  A known violent felon who threatened a woman, we're not going to arrest him.  Now remember the role of the police is to investigate your murder, not protect you.  That said at this point he was breaking the law trespassing as the home owner didn't want him there anymore.

Instead of removing him from the residence, here's what happened to the resident.

For the next ten days Cindy, still recovering from surgery, was homeless.

"It was terrible. I had gone there, I had talked to them, I had done everything they had asked me to," she said. 

Cindy was stuck on the street, living in her car with her dog until Edwards was eventually arrested and convicted.

The department claims if they handle a domestic incident incorrectly there will be a corrective action.  Many of the officers felt personally that the incident was not handled correctly.  The corrective action?

But the Office of Professional Accountability recommended no discipline, only supervisory intervention. Department command staff overruled, saying the commander should have used special units like SWAT to arrest Edwards, rather than leave Cindy homeless.

See those black suited ninjas, they don't use those in actual dangerous situations.  They just either call in to the criminal and talk him out or just walk off to arrest him later.  The only time any department uses a swat team is for a non-violent offender to harass, intimidate, and kill those who have committed victimless crimes.

Let this be a serious warning to those who would think of letting a stranger into your house.  We often want to believe that people are inherently good however there are wolves out there and you cannot tell who it is you're letting in your house.  This woman took a promise to help with the bills as a sign of good intentions, sadly it resulted her arrival in hell.

That said, this seems like a classic case of what the police are there for.  Someone was threatening another person, the threats were not idle, and then they were trespassing after the fact.  It was a classic domestic incident given the use of a weapon, which as a felon that's unpossible, and the police showed up, saw he was there, turned around and left.  The end result was to leave a woman recovering from surgery homeless while letting the armed felon roam free.

So this begs the question, why do we have SWAT teams?  If they aren't willing to deploy them for incidents such as this why have them?  Are they just trained to kick down the door of a house of the innocent and kill anyone inside?  Are they just trained to shoot the dogs who are in a kennel?

This is a classic demonstration of two principal issues:

1. You cannot depend on the state for anything.
2. The armed militarization of the police has nothing to do with catching armed and dangerous criminals.

Remember both those points and draw from it what you will.

*The record comment originated with pyrotek85.

So today was Starbucks appreciation day, however my visit to the coffee house was delayed by the wife’s 12 hour shift. 

So initially I planned on buying myself some coffee and at the same time buying a bunch of Via to send overseas.  There’s an old adage that was drilled into my head by my dad growing up, “No Plan Survives First Contact With the Enemy.”  They didn’t have the big packs of Via at this Starbucks.  The wife is going to check Safeway tomorrow after her shift and if that fails I’ll be picking it up at Costco or ordering it online.  My current receipt is small but will be growing considerably once I get my hands on the Via or order it.

An 18-year-old at Brazoswood High School in the Brazosport Independent School District says she was a senior when the Clute Police Department officer, who was assigned to protect the school, called her into his office as she walked in the hallway.

The woman writes in her lawsuit that she felt "fearful and intimidated" by the officer, who was wearing his uniform with a gun and a Taser during the encounter.

Know what’s sad.  I’m no longer surprised by these types of incidents.  They are all way too common.  If you want more details go read it, I’m sick of the excuses people give for putting predators around children.  Especially when the predators in question are backed by the state.

State Sponsored Criminal Count 257: Joe Matthew Mosqueda

Because the perfect crime is the one where you already have the power and control of the situation before anything even starts.

Dot Torture that is!

So I’ve got with Joe to the past couple action pistol and steel matches and come in middle of the pack.  I don’t always let my type A personality take over, but middle of the pack just isn’t acceptable.  I know I’m going to be there for a while, it’s going to take time and practice.

Today was the first time in a while I actually spent some time at the range for some serious practice.  I started off with just some standard target shooting at 7 yards eventually pushing it to 17 yards.  Then I switched to the 1911 with the .22 LR conversion kit.

About 2 years ago I bought a Kimber .22 LR conversion kit for my 1911 with the statement I can practice more.  Well, I have practiced more, with anything other than my pistol.  So I finally broke it out yesterday and figured I’d review it as well.

So, Oleg posted a video this morning which is a strong reminder of why I have the State Sponsored Criminal Count. 

As much as I hate to say it.  The police by their own attitudes have become the enemy.  If a law enforcement officer has a problem with being video taped, they need to find a different job.  The human brain sucks at memory under stress.  A video camera is unbiased and unforgiving to those in the wrong, which is why they hate it.  If you don’t want to be video taped, don’t be a public servant.

Any officer that has a problem with me video taping them while acting in an official capacity is a criminal acting under the protection of the state.  Period.  Lawdog had the comment regarding evidence collection.  I have no problem providing my name, address, phone number, and even identification as a material witness.  While they do have a right to obtain the evidence, especially with regard to investigating possible police misconduct, they have a nasty habit of just deleting files off the phone.  I will deal with the courts and a subpoena and provide you an unaltered copy of the data.  You will not be allowed to delete the original which is what happens oh so often.

This is why I left auto uploads enabled on my new phone.  Immediately after taking a picture or video it starts uploading it online.  I can immediately lock my phone at the push of a button.  I can also have my wife remotely wipe my phone so they cannot gain access to the online services where it was uploaded.  I do not have to surrender my phone because there may be other material available on that phone which becomes a 4th and 5th amendment issue.  You wanting a video file doesn’t allow you to search through all my email which is now available on my phone.  Surrendering my phone to you implies possession and if there’s some picture on there that can be construed as illegal it can be used against me.  I don’t record illegal acts, but I can tell you video and pictures of explosives being seen by a cop who doesn’t know who I am is going to land me in a world of shit.  I will email them a copy of the video, on scene, immediately, unaltered.  See that’s the thing about technology.  They don’t need the device itself, it’s not tapes anymore, it’s a fucking file! 

Generic witnesses do not have a horse in the race and it does not benefit them to alter or destroy evidence.  The cops however have a horse in the race.  They have qualified immunity to protect them and they don’t want evidence to show that they did something wrong.  They want anything and everything to stack in their favor to keep them from becoming Accountabilibuddyable.

We’ll I’ve known that for a long time.  I would say I’m short bus special but alas I never rode it.

Now there’s been a blogger award running around amongst the gun blogs, geared at the less read blogs.  Arms are the Mark of a Free Man put me in his award list. 

Liebster Blog Award:

The rules are:

1. Copy and paste award on your blog. Check.
2. Link back to the blogger who gave you the award. Did you miss the link?  Check.
3. Pick your five favorite blogs with less than 200 followers and leave a comment on their blog to let them know they have received an award.  Huston we have a problem,  yeah most of the blogs I follow are well beyond the 200 mark.
4. Hope that the five blogs chosen will keep spreading the love and pass it on to five more blogs.  Yeah, I could care less, it’s up to them if they want to or not.  God knows I’m having trouble finding 5 that haven’t been done.

I’m probably flirting with the 200 followers now.  I have 124 subscribers when I just checked feedburner, that’s a more accurate count than just looking at google reader stats.  However my daily traffic is now about 120.  I say flirting because a lot of that traffic aren’t really daily readers but people searching for stuff.

So I will try and come up with 5, that haven’t been listed, and these are in no real particular order:

1. Gun Geek Rants 
2. Men Are Not Potatoes
3. Bayou Renaissance Man
4. The Clue Meter
5. Black Sunday Society

*As a random note, my cat failed me and I was attacked by a spider while writing this.  Best part is it looks like she pulled the insulation out that runs around my antenna wires which is how it got in.  She’s planning to kill me!

Suspected marijuana was found by three police officers at the home of the director of the state Alcoholic Beverage Commission, whose mission is to eradicate marijuana.

Wohoo, maybe there will be some equal treatment under the law.  Oh wait, what was I thinking!?

The TBI investigative file into how the suspected drugs were handled ultimately ended up with District Attorney General Dan Alsobrook, who declined to press charges.

Go read the story, it’s just one long list of excuses and protecting their own.

State Sponsored Criminal Count 255: Danielle Elks

Sponsored by District Attorney General: Dan Alsobrook

Because all those anti drug laws are really just for those lowly peons and to protect our racket. 

via Uncle

This one’s going to be a twofer.  First up is Hollywood Undead – Hear Me Now.

Been to Hell has been rolling too.

Which leads into the second.  For some reason Pandora decided to start playing Dubstep on my Hollywood Undead station.  This one’s been covered by Weer’d but it’s just so awesome here it is again!

It started playing dubstep and I didn’t even know it, I just recognized it as industrial from when I was in school.  Ends up that genre morphed into what we have today. 

Like they have done such a bang up job of it. If it were a class teaching how to molest a teenager and arrest her mother for speaking out, stripsearch elderly grandmas, or identify an old west gun design on a purse, or conduct a cupcake threat assessment.

Disavowed With Honor – TSA: Teaching People How To Spot Terrorists

February 4th, 2012

So Joe and I started off this morning with heading out for the Action Pistol match in Moscow.  I have no clue how I did.  I think I did reasonably well.  I’m obviously a little more rusty than I’d like to be, especially when it comes to steel which there was a lot of today.  I screwed the pooch a few times but recovered.  I didn’t shoot a single no shoot, shot every last piece of steel, and I don’t believe I had any misses either.

After that we headed out to the Boomershoot site. 

If you remember about a month ago, Joe and I started investigating a problem with the Boomerite.  Through our testing we discovered the KClO₃ was the wrong size, which was confirmed by Ry.  Joe got a blender and we were going to confirm we could grind the current KClO3 two weeks ago.  Mother nature intervened and stopped our trek 10 yards in.

Today we planned ahead, more specifically remembered half way to the range, and brought the snowshoes this time.  That was a good thing for me, Joe escaped by without them.  The crust buckled under me about every 3rd or 4th step.  After 100 yards I just put them on and trudged on, I remember doing this stuff while I was active in Scouts and going like gang busters.  Sitting behind a desk is killing me.

But I made it.  We quickly made up the first batch of explosives.  This made two 7 inch targets and then we went out to test them.

We were showered in dirt.  Hopefully Joe will post the video he took.  Both of them went bang just as we expected and wanted.  Now 2 isn’t the largest sample size, and my stat teacher would kill me for thinking it’s statistically relevant, though we had a second experiment.  It is worth noting, during the previous test we had a 100% failure rate with this rifle and ammunition.  Now we had 2 detonations with the new mix with the same rifle and ammo as previously used.

We mixed up a second batch using what we had already blended.  Filled the boxes without using baggies.  Again both detonated, eventually.  The 4th target took two shots because there was “technical miss”.  Let’s just say I shot a Delta instead of an Alpha.  So, that’s 4 for 4 with the blended KClO₃ mix.

So we don’t need the baggies, possibly.  There’s some other experimentation that needs to be done.  Joe had a previous experiment along these lines, however we had trouble getting to them previously.  Due to the longer storage it confirmed one of my concerns.

The ethylene glycol absorbs out of the mixture and into the cardboard.  This could affect the sensitivity of the target.  There is a second issue that will have to be tested as well.  When filling boxes in this manner we wrap them with Saran wrap.  My concern is that this is not nearly as solid of a vapor barrier as the Ziploc baggies.  Further testing is required.

The sun was setting and Joe and I needed to get the hell out of dodge.  The temperature was dropping pretty fast, we had to hike back out, and there was a minor issue with the vehicle that needed to be fixed before heading home. 

Joe lit the older targets on fire and we began our hike back out.  We headed over to his brothers place, Joe set me up with the necessary tools for the job and went into visit his parents.  He came back out to a fixed rear hatch.  No longer do you have to do the weird bump game to get the latch mechanism to work.  At some point the latch shifted and was no longer lifting the lock enough.  I popped the shaft out of its clamp and moved the clamp further down.  Joe kept testing it and I said, “Let’s not tempt fate and have it get stuck open again.”

Got back to Moscow, had dinner with Joe and his family since he was already running late and needed to save some time.  IT’s been a long, yet productive day.

*As an aside, all the pictures above were with my new phone.  The bottom one was cropped heavily since I was so far from Joe.

Update: Here's the video from Joe and his report.