The Minuteman

Dave from RNS has the comfort and efficiency side figured out.

1. Load your ammunition into a cooler, reasonably sized of course, and it makes it much easier to carry in fewer trips.  Also with a handle on each side someone can help, instead I took a picture.
   
   
2. Have a nice awning covering and then provide all the necessary comforts of home.

   

Here’s an opening set of pictures in a countdown to Boomershoot.  Boomershoot for me starts full bore in 19 days.

Opening shots from the high intensity event Friday night 2010.

Shooters from the second wave Friday 2010.

Boom, Boom, KaBoom. Nothing quite compares to that thump to your chest when you smack a boomer.

Some reassembly required.

Last October the wife, a friend, and I headed out to the Boomershoot site to help Joe with some work.  Joe previously covered it here.  As I was going through pictures today, I noticed I took about 1350 pictures while we were out there and I never did a post on it.  That just seems kind of wrong.  Though it does appear the wife just held down the shutter button while I was on the dozer.

As this was on 10/10/10 which evidently was some environmentalists wet dream of an idea for some such crap or another we felt like doing our part to help the environment.

Ford Earthfucker Jr. with a quite literally earth fucking dozer.  The actual goals for the day was to get some pre-winter work done to aid the berm so it will be more comfortable for the end positions come the end of the month.  Here’s a few of the pictures from the process.

Joe started off and made it look “easy”.  Sadly you can’t see his expression in that picture but it was best described as “I meant to do that.”

After Joe got the addition started he began teaching me to use the dozer, as you can see I’m porpoising quite badly.  Backing up over it hurt, there’s no shocks and the seat is about as fluffy as 1/4 steel.  It was a strong motivator to do it right!

Eventually though I made Mother Gaia my bitch and started cutting smooth swaths to add to the berm.  Once I was doing it repeatedly and established my own confidence that I was in fact doing it myself and not by blind luck I passed it off to my buddy Matt.

Porpoising doesn’t even begin to describe his adventure, more like a dolphin in a boats wake.  After a couple passes he gave up.  Then  we got TMW to do it.

She didn’t fully drop the blade on her first pass.  This was her discovering the bumps matt had previously left.  If you don’t hear from me over the next week, assume she killed me for posting that picture.  She actually enjoyed it though.  Those heavy bumps however were enough to get her to want to stop.

Joe then proceeded to finish packing everything down and clean up the mess the rest of us made.

While he finished that up, we went and blew up some stuff down at the tree line.  Why else would there be a solid white object down there(look to the left of Joe’s head)?  We needed to add some extra CO2 into the atmosphere to offset the smug emissions from some of the new hybrids showing up in the area.

I think on that note, I may try and set up a post a day for the rest of this month using pictures from the past two three years of Boomershoot.

This had quote of the day written all over today.

“Of course they want that, but we live in a world of gravity, friction, and taxes.”

It’s amazing how many people don’t seem to understand this, especially those who know nothing about engineering.

So Robb posted something about government lists yesterday.  It is another example of the government discriminating and criminalizing those who might disagree with them.  Here is the list Bill Quick created:

So how does a person qualify as a potential domestic terrorist? Based on the training I have attended, here are characteristics that qualify:

• Expressions of libertarian philosophies (statements, bumper stickers)
• Second Amendment-oriented views (NRA or gun club membership, holding a CCW permit)
• Survivalist literature (fictional books such as “Patriots” and “One Second After” are mentioned by name)
• Self-sufficiency (stockpiling food, ammo, hand tools, medical supplies)
• Fear of economic collapse (buying gold and barter items)
• Religious views concerning the book of Revelation (apocalypse, anti-Christ)
• Expressed fears of Big Brother or big government
• Homeschooling
• Declarations of Constitutional rights and civil liberties
• Belief in a New World Order conspiracy

So like Robb most of that list for me is a big fat yes.  About the only real things on that list that I am not currently a part of and will not be in the future is the “New World Order” conspiracy.  Which makes sense since according to some people, the fact that I’m a Freemason makes me a part of the New World Order.  But that’s a completely different story, suffice it to say I fit every single one of those brackets, and I don’t doubt the fact I’m a Freemason probably counts against me when it comes to the government.

Previously we saw how the DHS was labeling different groups of individuals and how they were being classified as terrorists.  What is most disturbing though from that PDF that was released was how they described lawful acts as being grounds for being classified as extremists.

It is becoming apparent that the only way to stay off any list at this point is to be a blindly following sheep.  If you do not have blind faith for the government to protect you, provide for you, and that it is completely infallible and will not fail you are on a list.

Couple that with a license to handle and manufacture explosives, a blog for the world to see, and other lists many have had to volunteer information to remain law abiding, there is no longer a way to escape being on a list.  The best you can do is to be in the middle or towards the bottom.  If you’re at the top, you’re just the canary in the coal mine.

So, I took a working lunch today so I could leave work early.  The downside of that is I have to drive through downtown Pullman at the height of rush hour.  Right now I’m really wishing I had just worked late and put in the extra time.  

Here’s why:

It doesn’t look like she did a lot, but you’ll notice the cosmetic part of the bumper is actually torn on the right.

On the right hand side of the cut out for the hitch receiver there is a bright green patch.

Since she was in a Ford Fusion (sadly I didn’t have my camera with me), she went under my bumper and impaled her radiator on my hitch receiver.  My hitch peeled her hood up, she was dripping radiator fluid and her I even removed the ford logo from her grill.  She removed the full size spare from my rig.

You can see it was pushed forward and sheered free, and busted part of the mount casing in the process.

She bent the wiring bracket for the hitch wiring back as well.

Due to this whole incident I had to move my spare tire into the back of my explorer.  Instead of it being used for cargo, it is now relegated to moving the tire that is supposed to be underneath.  Boomershoot is coming up fast and I’m going to need my cargo space back ASAP.

To top it all off I got about half way home about 45 minutes after the accident and I started feeling my neck stiffen up.  I’ve now got ice on it and it’s creeping down my back.  I must say 2011 is turning out to be one craptastic year.  The wife was abruptly fired from her job last week, they used her disability as the excuse.  She had quit another job to take that one.  Now we have decreased income and Earth Fucker Lite has to get fixed.

I know better than anyone how much worse this could have been, but this incident was preventable.  All the other driver needed to do was pay attention and not worry about crap that is inconsequential at the immediate moment.  At least it wasn’t Junior.

Apparently the State Department is looking at changing the application information requirements for a US Passport.

If you plan to apply for a passport and you don’t have rock-solid proof of citizenship, you might soon be asked to fill out an insanely detailed passport application, form DS-5513, by the State Department before you can receive your papers.

Among the information that will be required to obtain your passport is the following:

• Birthplace and dates for parents, siblings, and spouse.
• Mothers address the year prior, year of, and year after your birth.
• Name of the natal doctor and dates of her appointments.
• Names of those who attended your birth.
• Addresses of all places in and out of the US you have lived since birth.
• Your entire employment history, with supervisors and contact information
• All the schools you attended with addresses and dates.

I could probably write up a nice spiel on how this rectal exam is pointless and only serves to harass honest citizens, instead I’m just going to point out the irony.

Mr. Obama, can you please provide the above documentation considering your proof of citizenship has been deemed questionable.

• Some are not fully sure of your moms location before, during and after your birth.
• No one knows the name of the doctor present at your birth, the certificate of live birth doesn’t contain the signature of the attending physician as a birth certificate does.
• Some are not sure which hospital in Hawaii saw your birth.
• Can you provide your entire employment history?
• Your school records are sealed.

If you are going to require it of any citizen, it shall be required of ALL public servants.  Just because they may only require this of some citizens doesn’t exempt them from having to do it themselves.  To require it of one, they should have to be willing to go through it themselves.

Dave Hardy over at Of Arms and the Law just posted something that has me completely non-shocked.

Of what a prosecutor friend once told me — that he was appalled to think of how all the power given a prosecutor these days could be used to entire ruin an honest man, or one who had made some minor error. Here’s a case from the 11th Circuit, applying what appears to be established law, holding that the prosecutor and his agents are mostly protected by absolute or lesser forms of immunity from a civil rights lawsuit.

My dad always told me a couple things regarding the law.

1. There is no correlation between the law and justice.
2. Prosecutors live by the mantra, “It takes a good prosecutor to convict a guilty man, it takes a great prosecutor to convict an innocent one.”

Recently Uncle posted about a DA offering bonuses to prosecutors who hit conviction targets.  I’m seriously beginning to wonder if they are using convictions to just strip honest people of their rights and make them subservient to the state.