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.

Two Questions…

One, where can I recreate this.  I don’t think that Joe’s neighbors would appreciate it.

Two, is Ry willing to arrange the fireball for it.

I love seeing the shockwave roll across the sand, that’s just awesome.  I came across this one too:

The raining phosphorus at the end was down right neat, though I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near it when it went off.

Handling of Firearms During a Cease Fire…

via Ry I came across this thread at ARFcom

I’m at a cease fire at the range and we have a few guys changing their targets.
One guy finished shooting and decided to case his rie and take it to his car, handling it while people are down range.
The rules of the club are if the range is cold no one touches the guns
There is no range officer as this is members only hours. I didn’t say anything to him but am wishing I had politey reminded him of the rules.
What would you have done?

The comments in that thread make me weep.  You do not handle firearms during a cease fire.  Period, end of discussion.  Now how would I react?  I have been in that exact situation.  Sadly the video of said situation the audio is washed out by the wind.  But here is a break down of what happened.

At the high intensity event 2010 the first wave shot their targets and the range was called safe.  All rifles were unloaded and shown clear.  They were instructed to ground their weapons and let them cool, or case them if they felt their rifles were cool enough to do so.  At this point we had everyone step back from their weapons, or walk off with their case.  Staff then proceeded to go down range to set up for the second wave of shooters.  I stayed behind to talk to Oleg and act as a RSO.  While talking to Oleg I see someone pick up an uncased firearm and sweep the staff down range as well as the other shooting line before bringing it vertical.  As he started to pick up the weapon I promptly started yelling to put the weapon down.  I was very vocal but evidently he couldn’t hear me.  He continued and when I finally got on top of him he realized I was yelling at him.  He continued to say he hadn’t done anything wrong or against the rules, and then attempted to claim we had given conflicting commands.  Except just prior to him shooting he had to recite the following:

    • Always keep the gun pointed in a safe direction.
    • Always keep your finger off the trigger until ready to shoot.
    • Always keep the gun unloaded until ready to use.
    • Always keep the gun in its case unless the muzzle is pointed downrange and within two feet of the shooting line.

So he walked off the shooting line with an uncased rifle.  He was handling the weapon during a ceasefire, and in so doing had muzzled a bunch of the staff.  I handed the issue over to one of the “jacketed” ROs to deal with because he seemed to think I wasn’t someone he should be listening to.

The bottom line is that the rule of not handling firearms during a cease fire is to ensure that no one is muzzled and that there is a zero possibility of human caused discharge while people are down range.  If you’re so impatient that you need to be careless about safety, get the hell off my range and don’t come back.  In the incident above, I have not seen even the friends of this individual return.  Evidently it did cause a bit of a black eye.  You know what would have been worse, just ignoring it. 

Safety is a culture and if you don’t cultivate it and make sure people are thinking about it, especially in an event like Boomershoot, the next thing we know the event is no longer happening because someone was careless.

Seriously folks, is this that difficult to understand?  For any of those of you who recently started reading my blog, these types of things make me VERY angry.

Darwin Needs No Further Restraint

Yet another falling incident:

Police said 22-year-old Jonathan Meyer had been drinking with a friend Friday night when he tried to drop to a second-story balcony and missed.

To give you an idea of the current record for this year already:

This is the third alcohol-related fall at WSU and the University of Idaho in the past month. A 19-year-old WSU student was injured in a three-story fall Sept. 14 at a fraternity. A 21-year-old University of Idaho student was injured in a two-story fall Sept. 12 at his fraternity.

Not to mention the August incidents that they didn’t bother reporting.  Remember these are the “best and brightest” that we send to college.  No, I don’t think so anymore.   A good majority of those who go to college I think go because they’re too dumb to do anything else.

They go to college racking up debt to get degrees in things that will never earn them enough money to pay it back.  Again, remember what I was saying about them not really being the best and brightest.  Then you have other incidents where someone claims that College is a right and that everyone should go.

Everyone has the right to attempt to obtain a college education.  However just because you can attempt it, doesn’t mean you can afford it or that you will be admitted.  It is up to the person to perform well enough to be admitted as well as find a way to finance their schooling.  You do not have a right to force someone else to pay for your education.  You do not have a right to be automatically admitted.  You merely have a right to seek education, you do not have a right to have it handed to you.

Besides, you know what’s great about the internet, which you can use at your local library, and it’s also cheaper than going to college, you can self educate.  There are piles upon piles of information out there if you’re willing to go find it and read it.  The MIT Open Courseware is the best example of available information.  I have gone through many of the courses trying to improve my knowledge on different subjects as well as supplementing what I already know.

The point of college at this point is to provide a little sheet of paper and certification that you are educated about “X”.  The thing is, that certification is an investment and you had better invest wisely.  My wife got two degrees, both in the sciences, however it was an actual certification that finally got her a job.  All you get out of college now days is a piece of paper, most of them are worthless, a few are gold.  If you’re paying for that piece of paper, I suggest making sure it’s gold and not pyrite.

SSCC #418 – New Orleans

Former New Orleans police officer, Roger Jones, 38, has resigned after being arrested — again — on hit-and-run charges. The 15-year veteran, who was already on desk duty pending investigation of a 2011 hit-and-run, confessed to hitting a car, leaving the scene of the accident, parking his police cruiser at another location, then reporting it stolen.

Emphasis mine.  Note he was arrested for the same thing.  As usual he was left to resign instead of being fired less that black mark follow him where ever he goes.

State Sponsored Criminal #418: Roger Jones

Because hit and run is perfectly acceptable when you’re a cop.  They’re anointed so it’s cool.

Thank You Captain Obvious…

DSC_7521_tonemappedSo I stumbled across the following today which while isn’t news to me may be news to others, and even more so may be discounted or considered untrue.  I initially wanted to cover this as I went through the my “Power Series” posts and I touched on it on an episode of Vicious Circle but I think it’s time for me to write it all out.

President Obama has made so-called “green energy” policies a key part of his economic agenda, but as a new book argues, they actually disproportionately hurt the poor by boosting the cost of energy.

This is considered just common knowledge to those within the utility industry.  The reason being is because our legislators are ignoring not just the laws of economics but also the laws of physics.

For the purpose of this example I am going to talk specifically about the Pacific North West, more specifically Washington.

In the mid-2000’s Governor Gregiore decided that hydro-electric dams are not a renewable resource and that by 2020, 20% of the state’s electricity will be “renewable”, read that as wind power.  As an FYI for those out of the area, we pay approximately 4-5 cents per KWh for hydro up here.  Hydro is cheap and plentiful here in the Pacific North West, so much so we ship a good chunk of it to California.

To further encourage the construction of wind farms beyond the mandate the operating costs are subsidized by the state.  The cost even subsidized for a wind farm in the area is approximately 15-17 cents per KWh.  Yes you read that right, 3 times as much even with the state subsidizing it’s operation.

Except wind is not as “Green” as everyone makes it out to be.  You see wind can quickly come and go.  This means generation can quickly come and go offline merely based on what the weather does.  This is a problem because power is consumed on an on-demand basis.  You don’t want your lights turning on in the middle of the night right?  Just the same you don’t like the power going out while you’re working on your computer writing up that report for work.  Part of the whole “smart house” push is so that the utilities can control the load as well such as your refrigerator, dryer, etc., to shed load when necessary.

It makes sense and it sounds good, but ultimately I’m paying for a service and you can either provide it or you cannot.  Well the biggest problem with wind is how quickly it can disappear.  Generators don’t start instantly and other generation in the system doesn’t instantly spin up to supply power to the load.  There is inertia involved and to increase the power means you need to increase the torque etc.  The sudden decline in power being supplied while the load remains constant can cause system instability.

The solution to this problem is to have an onsite generator(s) at a wind farm that idles while the wind farm is producing power.  Usually this takes the form of a Natural Gas Turbine generator.  As the wind dies off the generator spools up to take the load.  Then the generator slowly spools back down to let the rest of the grid slowly absorb the power load.  So in other words your wind generator is burning fuel in a turbine, running as inefficiently as possible so it can pick up the load in event of a rapid loss of wind.

Out here in the Pacific North West this becomes very apparent in the spring with the high spring run off as well as peak winds through the area.  This past year the utilities were forced by the state to buy power from the wind farms while shutting down the dams.

Yes you read that right, the utilities were forced to buy more expensive power and leave cheaper power idle.  Not only were the dams forced to be idle, but because it occurred during peak run off, they were forced to dump water over the spillway and waste it.  Instead of following the laws of economics, they were tossed to the side and instead of the wind, the more expensive power providing the back fill for what hydro couldn’t provide, the roles were reversed, and for what?

Ultimately this does nothing but increase the rates for energy consumption.  Doubly so since the dam has increased costs because instead of it producing power, it’s forced to be shutdown, despite it being the more efficient and cheaper power producer.

This is what happens when politicians get involved in economics and start regulating business.  Instead of the consumer getting a better deal, they get a more expensive product and overall crappier service due to the power swings that come with the fluctuations in wind.

Then again, the goals of our politicians could be much more sinister.

SSCC #417-TSA

A convicted TSA security officer says he was part of a “culture” of indifference that allowed corrupt employees to prey on passengers’ luggage and personal belongings with impunity, thanks to lax oversight and tip-offs from TSA colleagues.

“It was very commonplace, very,” said Pythias Brown, a former TSA officer at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey who admits he stole more than $800,000 worth of items from luggage and security checkpoints over a four-year period.

What is most disturbing though is even in light of this information people continue to defend the TSA.  Ignoring that it is merely a theater that allows criminals to prey upon the citizenry with the aid of the state.

State Sponsored Criminal #417: Pythias Brown

Because the American public is merely an ATM for those who work for the government.

Where’s the Kaboom!?

I swear I’m beginning to feel like Marvin the Martian.

Now I know there won’t be a Kaboom, but our opponents keep on promising an equivalent and it never happens.

Almost no incidents have been reported involving concealed-carry permit holders, and there has been no spike in violence as predicted by some opponents concerned about the volatile mix of alcohol and guns.

What do  you mean there wasn’t a sudden increase in crime.  Our opponents promised blood in the streets, where is it!?  You mean that when the law was passed it followed the historical example of the past 20+ years where nothing happened?

Our opponents continue to bring the same old tired and false arguments to the table and are wondering why they are loosing so badly in their fight to infringe on the rights of people.  It’s obvious that they’re loosing because many of their supporters are descending into the second stage of grief.

After I went through 16 of the steps to register a gun earlier this year, I had to endure the 10-day waiting period to “cool off.” During that time, I received a terrifying call one evening. The stranger, whose number was blocked, left a minute-long voicemail.

“I know everything about you,” said the caller in a high-pitched voice. “I’ve been watching you. Your every step. I’m coming for you Emily.” Also, “I’m a crazy mother f–er. This is not a game. This is not for some f–ing scary f–ing movie. This is real business.” Finally the caller ended with, “Don’t you think of going to the police.”

This is the way our opponents behave when they’re loosing.  They say that we are the violent ones, yet they are the ones who regularly devolve into threats and violence.  Some have devolved into the third stage and are attempting to bargain, bargaining for an extra few minutes of life for their beloved cause.

They will get no sympathy from me. We bargained with them in the past and they took that inch and made it a mile.  We learned then and there they have no will to actually compromise or work together, their sole goal is the complete destruction of the right to keep and bear arms.

They can merely move on to depression and finally acceptance.  Our opponents must ultimately accept the fact that their bigoted view on rights was on the wrong side of history.

I wish the day that they finally implode would have an “earth shattering kaboom”, but alas I think they will just slowly fade into the dust bin of history.  Even once that happens it’s going to be a long road to undo the damage they have done and regain the full respect this right deserves.  I will fight tirelessly until that goal is achieved.

I suppose that when their irrelevance is sealed up, I can head out and make my own Kaboom!  I’ll make it a Bada-Big-Boom.

h/t David Hardy

Shooting Like A Girl…

So I was browsing through footage from Boomershoot 2012 and there was a couple clips I had intended to use but forgot about.  You see when Anette heard there was a rifle caliber pistol, she looked all giddy when I told her that.  Then we warned her about all the things that could possibly go wrong, most importantly making sure you provide correct eye relief before the shot. 

Below is the video of Anette and Shelly teaching us how to shoot like a girl.

Yes, Anette squealed like a little girl and Shelly just turned around and rocked it like a boss.  Now in Anette’s defense, she hadn’t seen that pistol fired every.  She didn’t know really what to expect other than what we warned her about.  Well when you’re warned about it flying back punching people in the face, you get a bit apprehensive.   Shelly got the benefit of watching Anette shoot it so she knew exactly what to expect.  Never the less, it was fun for everyone there, even Anette!

At the end was my new production clip I’m going to put at the end of every video I do.  That was my first venture into the world of After Effects and over time I may add more but that was 100% done in house.  I recorded the sound and edited it, did the 3D animation, and did the effect for the writing.  The animation was the hardest part because for some reason my render would break about a quarter of the way through.  Finally I did it in a bunch of stills and then condensed it into a clip.  Also of note, creating models in Solidworks is much easier than Blender.  Honestly I think blender has to be the most counter intuitive UI I have ever encountered.  When you’re excuse is, you haven’t learned it, you’re doing it wrong.  It doesn’t even lend itself to playing to figure it out, that’s a freaking clue!