Author Archives: TMM

About TMM

TMM is the owner, editor, and principal author at The Minuteman, a competitive shooter, and staff member for Boomershoot. Even in his free time he’s merging his love and knowledge of computers and technology with his love of firearms. Many know his private name and information however due to the current political climate, many are distancing themselves due to the abandonment of Due Process.

Interesting…

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President Barack Obama isn’t talking about it and neither is Mitt Romney. But come January, 163 million workers can expect to feel the pinch of a big tax increase regardless of who wins the election.

I’ve heard about this for a while and it’s certainly not news that taxes will be increasing come January.  What is interesting though is that number, 163 million workers.  Otherwise known as 51% of the population.  It is also well-known that 47% of the population are exempted from paying taxes.  Often many of them actually make money from the government.

We often hear about the 53% percent who pay taxes and the 47% who live off the government dime.  What is even more entertaining is that often when there are tax cuts we hear wailing about how it only benefits the rich.  See this analogy if you’re unsure what I’m talking about.  While now we have a tax increase that only affects those now paying taxes.  Those who are getting handouts will continue to do so without an increase in what they owe.

You would think with a tax increase you would see more people overall having to pay taxes, this outcome is something I find quite interesting.

TSA Tab Clearing

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There’s been a bunch of incidents in the news lately and many of them worthy of serious note.  My being busy with other more pressing items, my photo gallery needs to get moved post haste, I haven’t had the time to write up everything I would.

So I want to at least clear out a few browser tabs since these are becoming “old news”.

Capping a year-long investigation prompted by reports of theft in a baggage room at Newark Liberty International Airport, the Transportation Security Administration said it it was moving to fire 25 employees and suspend 19 others for failing to ensure that checked bags were being screened adequately.

So they’re not adequately searching bags but I’m sure that agent made sure to feel up Tiffany’s boobs, in a random pat down I’m sure.

One airport TSA worker learned the hard way this week that if you see something, you should probably say something — instead of stealing it.

Andy Ramirez was the only officer caught in a national sting operation aimed at gauging how bad TSA theft actually is in light of recent data showing that 381 officers were fired for theft between 2003 and 2012.

I am surprised that the laptops didn’t go 10 for 10 on being stolen.  However this is worthy of note:

Pythias Brown, a former TSA employee at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey, who spoke to ABC News recently in his first public comments after being released from prison, said he was part of a “culture” of apathy within the agency that permitted corrupt employees – and there are a lot of them, apparently – to prey on passengers’ luggage and personal items with abandon, thanks in large part to nonexistent oversight and tips from fellow TSA workers.

“It was very commonplace, very,” said Brown, who admitted lifting in excess of $800,000 worth of items from luggage and security checkpoints over a four-year span. “It was very convenient to steal.”

Imagine that, a culture of stealing.  What that test did show is many are wary of “easy prey”.  When something seems way to easy, odds are it’s a trap.  One agent failed that test.

Lastly we have an incident out of my backyard:

The TSA is denying any wrongdoing involving the recent pat down of leukemia patientMichelle Dunaj. Dunaj says the screeners at Sea-Tac Airport made her lift up her shirt to check under bandages after refusing to give her a private search.

She also claims a TSA agent forced open one of her saline bags, contaminating the important fluid she relies on to survive. Agents also made her lift up her shirt and pull back bandages holding in feeding tubes.

Given their treatment of someone with an insulin pump, do we want to guess who’s story is worth believing and who’s probably telling the fib?

The TSA is merely a job program for idiots and the lazy so the training is remedial at best so most don’t even know the actual policies.  Show up with a copy of the policies in hand and they don’t care.  How bad can it be?  A GBR one of the attendees relayed a story about a TSA agent insisting that he hand over the key to his firearm case and allow him to inspect it without the owner being present.  That’s right, the agent wanted the owner to hand over the key that is NOT supposed to leave his possession  because that case is NOT to be opened without him being present.  Ultimately for fear of not being allowed on the plane he handed over the key.  See how this works, policies don’t matter at the national level, each local can do as the please because they put the passenger between a rock and hard place.

This is what happens when you give someone with less intelligence than a monkey the power to tell others what to do.

SSCC #438 – EPA

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been sued in federal court for allegedly conducting illegal experiments on human beings. The case tests whether a government agency can violate the law and the most sacrosanct ethics of scientific research — and get away scot-free.

Based on thousands of pages of documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act, since 2004 and continuing through theObama administration, the EPA intentionally has been exposing dozens, if not hundreds, of human subjects to extraordinarily high levels of air pollutants such as diesel exhaust and fine particulate matter, known as PM2.5. The experiments occurred at an EPA facility located on the campus of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.

Know what sucks, I can think of a perfect moment in history to compare this to but I can’t without invoking Godwin’s law.  Ain’t that a !@#$.

If you’re not sure exactly why and don’t want to read the whole article, let me provide you with one more paragraph.

Many of the study subjects were health-impaired — suffering from asthma, metabolic syndrome, old age (up to 75 years) or, worse, combinations of those factors. They were all financially needy, since they enrolled in the experiments for compensation of $12 per hour.

Sounds an awful like a serious war on poverty and “undesirables”.

State Sponsored Criminal #438: The EPA

Because when you’re a giant government bureaucratic nightmare  when you break the law and kill people, who are they going to be able to hold accountable?

h/t Ry

On today’s mass shooting…

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As usual twitter erupted into a bunch of people yelling and screaming for gun control, because well that’s what you do instead of nothing.

I sat and patiently waited until I could find the name of the shooter, with held for obvious reasons.  What is significant though is the following:

Authorities said they believed the shooting was related to a domestic dispute. The man they identified as the suspect, *redacted*, 45, of Brown Deer, had a restraining order against him.

So lets see here, restraining order and a serious domestic dispute.  Hmm, there’s some amendment I remember that says those with Protective Restraining Orders against them cannot have firearms. What is it called again, oh yeah the Lautenberg Amendment.

The act bans shipment, transport, ownership and use of guns or ammunition by individuals convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence, or who are under a restraining (protection) order for domestic abuse in all 50 states. The act also makes it unlawful to knowingly sell or give a firearm or ammunition to such persons.

So what’s the score on this one.  Gun control didn’t stop this murderer set on his mission.  It could have very well prevented people from defending themselves depending on the policies of the spa and mall.  It could have also prevented the victim from effectively seeking arms from the waiting period.  Ultimately though we won’t know the true effect of either of those items.

What is know, for a fact, that this man was a prohibited person, and as oh so often occurs, gun control failed.  Also of worthy note:

After the shooting, police said an improvised explosive device was found at the spa and a bomb squad is investigating, but they did not indicate whether the suspect ever tried to set the device off.

Personally I prefer these nut bags go use firearms.  There is a decent chance of survival and overall they are much less effective than explosives or fire.  The bottom line is all the clamoring for gun control is yet another example of the failure of people to comprehend how to properly cope with tragedy.

Gun control only does one thing really well.  It ensures that the law-abiding victims are disarmed so the criminals can have their way without fear of failure.

*I will not aid in giving this monster his 15 minutes of fame.

A Boomershoot Story…

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To protect the identities of the guilty we are going to use the following names, A, B, and C.

A is often considered to be the sane one, while his attraction to explosives could be considered insane by some, he operates with a much more conservative view when deciding safe areas, good distances, and making generally good decisions.  That isn’t to say that he hasn’t had a Page Fault like B has been known to do and forget recent experiences.  A has even been known to give the dad look indicating, “No, and stop even thinking about it,” for things that overall might be a little questionable but certainly not all that bad.

B is considered to be a little more crazy and more willing to take risks.  It should be noted that B is more than willing though to point out dangerous items of concern when he sees them.  Often if he is mentioning concern, it’s usually worthy of note.  Most of the time A agrees with the assessment prior to moving forward.

C however is considered unbelievably smart but with a very buggy operating system.  He holds the current record for detonating Boomerite at close range, a record that B will not even consider attempting to break and actually isn’t quite sure how it would be accomplished.

I describe the above so the following story you will hopefully find the humor in it.

You see, it has been a fantastically dry past couple months in the Palouse.  How dry?  We finally got rain for the first time about a week ago since before the 4th of July.  Forest fires are still raging and while we have had rain, none of it has been “substantial.”  It also must be remembered that this is just after harvest so the fields are full of dry stubble and due to the lack of rain many haven’t been tilled yet.  The weekend prior A explained to B why they haven’t been tilled yet.  All conversations are synopsized from memory.

So when B showed up at the berm and noticed that A was preparing a fireball his eyebrows raised.  B left his buddy to take care of other preparations for the explosives and went over to A and said, “We’re doing a fireball?”

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Yes some of that grass was 5 feet tall… the person in the picture is not necessarily an individual involved in this story…

To which A replied to B, “Yeah it has rained, there shouldn’t be any real danger.” And he’s talking over the gusting winds that are common at the Boomershoot site.

B then replies back to A, “I remember the last time we did something like this and we were lucky enough to be in the spring and next to a creek and had 10 or so bloggers on hand.”

A replies, “Yeah but overall there’s not much fuel around and what is here isn’t super dry.”

B just resigns and says mentally to himself, “This should be interesting.”

A short while later the story of the second fireball that should have never been is told by B to A and his companions.  Detailing how it resulted in 30 minutes of fire fighting and the question is posted to B by A, “When should we shoot the fireball?”

B without hesitation says, “First, so we’re not exhausted while trying to put out the fire.”

A agrees but still thinks there shouldn’t be much of a fire and it should be relatively calm…

The explosion and fireball doesn’t even finish after the detonation and B can already hear the familiar crackle of a grass fire.

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Entertainingly the fireball shot more out than up. (Video will be coming later.)  It shot straight towards A as if to “enlighten him”.  Promptly we put down our recording equipment, though I’m sure B wished to keep documenting the entertainment that followed.  For you see the wind was blowing the fire down through the grass, towards the stubble behind the field.  A promptly ran to the back side of the berm to do damage control.

After

What the hill looked like after the fire.

I tell the above because later that night B was having dinner with C since he was in town… C asks B, “So how was the pumpkins?”

B replies to C, “The pumpkins were great, though the fireball was a bit interesting.”

C freezes and looks at B and says, “A did a fireball? That’s got to be some fluke, there’s no way A would do that.  How did you talk him into it?”

B replies to A, “I didn’t, but I did point out my concern.”

C replies to B, “That’s interesting though there is this theory of addicts reverting to the mental state of when they started their addiction, maybe A reverted and was showing off.”

B laughs, then while driving home B remembers something else A told him about one time.

Researchers have begun to explore the cognitive impairment that men experience before and after interacting with women. A 2009 study demonstrated that after a short interaction with an attractive woman, men experienced a decline in mental performance.

I think B may have found another data point for the study.

*I will neither confirm or deny that I am any of the three parties in that story.  I will have video up later.  I’m spending today migrating my last two websites from my old hosting provider that is about to expire.

Adventures in Venture Capitalism

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It’s been known for a while that green-energy is suspect and has serious issues.  Yet our fearless leader has shoved more money at failed projects that most could comprehend.  If this man ran a venture capitalist firm his clients would have left long ago because he was driving them to be broke.

What exactly am I talking about, well here’s a list of companies that have failed that received funding from Obama.

  1. Evergreen Solar ($24 million)*
  2. SpectraWatt ($500,000)*
  3. Solyndra ($535 million)*
  4. Beacon Power ($69 million)*
  5. AES’s subsidiary Eastern Energy ($17.1 million)
  6. Nevada Geothermal ($98.5 million)
  7. SunPower ($1.5 billion)
  8. First Solar ($1.46 billion)
  9. Babcock and Brown ($178 million)
  10. EnerDel’s subsidiary Ener1 ($118.5 million)*
  11. Amonix ($5.9 million)
  12. National Renewable Energy Lab ($200 million)
  13. Fisker Automotive ($528 million)
  14. Abound Solar ($374 million)*
  15. A123 Systems ($279 million)*
  16. Willard and Kelsey Solar Group ($6 million)
  17. Johnson Controls ($299 million)
  18. Schneider Electric ($86 million)
  19. Brightsource ($1.6 billion)
  20. ECOtality ($126.2 million)
  21. Raser Technologies ($33 million)*
  22. Energy Conversion Devices ($13.3 million)*
  23. Mountain Plaza, Inc. ($2 million)*
  24. Olsen’s Crop Service and Olsen’s Mills Acquisition Company ($10 million)*
  25. Range Fuels ($80 million)*
  26. Thompson River Power ($6.4 million)*
  27. Stirling Energy Systems ($7 million)*
  28. LSP Energy ($2.1 billion)*
  29. UniSolar ($100 million)*
  30. Azure Dynamics ($120 million)*
  31. GreenVolts ($500,000)
  32. Vestas ($50 million)
  33. LG Chem’s subsidiary Compact Power ($150 million)
  34. Nordic Windpower ($16 million)*
  35. Navistar ($10 million)
  36. Satcon ($3 million)*

*Denotes companies that have filed for bankruptcy.

Total waste?  $8.108 Billion dollars.  Yes that’s billion with a B.  People keep insisting that to fix the budget problem we need to make massive cuts to the big pieces of the pie.  What people don’t seem to understand is that the biggest pieces are all the small tiny pieces added together.

Look at all that money that’s been wasted.  Debt that has now been laid upon our children and working class.  For what?  So that some donors to the Obama administration can go buy a new vacation house?  So that some leftist can feel good about his view on the environment and forcing others to pay for his moral views?

Seriously, why is anyone even thinking about continuing to vote for a man who so willingly and blatantly has been robbing the American public blind.  Not only is he robbing them but selling your children into slavery.  There is no such thing as a free lunch yet everyone seems to think they’re getting one.

That stimulus so heavily lobbied for has $80 billion in politically tied energy projects.  Yet we see how those projects actually worked, not to mention how it actually delayed existing projects.  Over 1900 investigations have begun to look into waste, further costs to the American tax payer.

To put this into even greater perspective, 10% of the funding for energy projects provided by the stimulus is nothing but waste.  That’s to a cost $25.82 per every man, woman and child, just in waste.  If you just count the tax payers, it’s an extra $70.81 in cost.  If you don’t believe me, do the math yourself.  Here’s where I got the numbers for population and taxpayers.  To take it further we have another 6 trillion in debt overall, that comes out to be another $51,000 dollars for every man, woman, and child.  The overall debt burden in this country is enough for most people to buy a house, again, every man, woman, and child, even babies.

Lets look at the issue in another way focusing on spending during 2012 overall:

Under Obama, for every $7 we’ve had, we’ve spent nearly $11 (or, to be more exact, $10.95).  That’s like a family that makes $70,000 a year — and is already knee-deep in debt — blowing nearly $110,000 a year.

Joe also put it really well a while ago before we ended up even further in this hole:

If your family income were $50,000 then:

Now that has brought the spending problem into a better perspective, let me ask, why is the out of control spending and economy not at the fore front of the presidential race?  I hope all of you who continue to not see a problem with this reckless spending and endless growth of government are happy selling your soul and children’s soul into slavery.  Because you honestly have no business writing checks your ass can’t cash and putting your kids name or my name on it.  Period.