The advertising above is just a source of revenue, and sometimes, I don't know what will appear there.
Unique grips and accessories for your 1911!
Relocating to Boise? Use my realtor, neighbor, and friend, Cindy Smith csmith@1realtyone.com.
Magazines for cheap!
PayPal members: to make a contribution
Email me at blogmail at claytoncramer dot com. Sorry to be so indirect, but all spambots must die! But they haven't died yet! Include the word spamIamnot in your subject line to make sure that my spam blocker lets you through.
Labels: homosexuality Labels: gun rights Labels: Csharp Labels: economics Labels: homosexuality They would enter the shooting scene in a diamond formation with guns pointing in all directions. This technique was employed by police departments around the country. Seung Hui Cho shot 47 people, 30 fatally, in the university's Norris Hall in just 11 minutes. That means every minute he killed more than three people and shot a total of four. Once again, the gunman continued shooting until a four-officer team made entry and then he killed himself. Based on the Virginia Tech data, experts determined the first officer on scene should make entry immediately with an aggressive attack on the shooter. Every minute the officer waits for back-up, another three or more people could die. In other words, while it was once considered suicide for a lone officer to take on an active killer, it is now considered statistical homicide for him not to do so. TDI was teaching the tactic even before Virginia Tech. Now the National School Resource Officer Organization (NSRO) is using TDI instructors to teach school resource officers how to confront a gunman immediately. In most states, concealed handguns are prohibited at schools and on college campuses even for those with permits. Many malls and workplaces also place signs at their entrances prohibiting firearms on the premises. Now tacticians believe the signs themselves may be an invitation to the active killers. Also, the data show most active killers have no intention of surviving the event. They may select schools and shopping malls because of the large number of defenseless victims and the virtual guarantee no on the scene one is armed. As soon as they're confronted by any armed resistance, the shooters typically turn the gun on themselves. Labels: gun self-defense On Monday, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil suit charging Mr. Cuban with insider trading for selling shares of a small Internet search company in 2004, just before its share price fell. Mr. Cuban saved himself a $750,000 loss, according to the complaint filed in United States District Court in Dallas. Mr. Cuban swiftly fired back, accusing the regulator of “prosecutorial misconduct” and alleging that he was the victim of a political vendetta by the agency in the waning days of the Bush administration. Handgun purchases in Wisconsin skyrocketed 82% in the days before and after Barack Obama's election as president compared with the same 13 days in November last year, figures on state background checks show. Most of the early November background checks took place after the Nov. 4 presidential election, a sign that gun owners anticipate new restrictions with Democrats taking control of the federal government. Calls for background checks that are required for the purchase of handguns have flooded the state agency. In the first 13 days of the month, 2,642 background checks were requested. During the same 13 days last November, the number was 1,453, state Justice Department spokesman Bill Cosh said. Tom Smith of Eagle said Friday that he purchased two handguns, a .22-caliber snub nose and a .45-caliber semiautomatic, in the days before the election when it became clear Obama would win. "I bought them because I was afraid they were going to be outlawed .?.?.?," said Smith, who was at the McMiller Sports Center shooting range near Eagle in western Waukesha County. Gun owners also are worried that Obama might push for tax increases on ammunition and gun accessories, what they described as a back-door way to bring about gun control. "I went out and stocked up on ammo. I bought 20 cases of rifle ammunition," Kyle Troeger of Muskego said. Labels: 2008 presidential candidates, gun rights Labels: film reviews
Never forget!
I ran for Idaho state senate in 2008--didn't win
I've written a number of history books, as well as scholarly and popular articles, (see my web page).
Sorry, high pressure isn't included.
My nephew Shippy makes very pretty ceramic items. Click here to visit his online studio. Give someone one of these, and you can be sure that they don't already have one!
Click here to find out why the Amazon.com Honor System paybox is no longer here.
RSS feed
Other blogs you may enjoy:
My civilian gun defense use blog
My daughter's blog
Pete Drum's Web Page
Gun Laws Don't Work
instapundit.com
Dissecting Leftism -- By John Ray
A courageous Briton arguing for relaxing Britain's gun control laws
Right Thoughts
Final Protective Fire
Amitai Etzioni's Blog
Scrappleface -- Dangerously Clever Satire
Michael Williams -- Master of None
Lt. Smash is Again Citizen Smash
Another Conservative Blogger
A Group Blog By Iraqis
THE MESOPOTAMIAN: TO BRING ONE MORE IRAQI VOICE OF THE SILENT MAJORITY TO THE ATTENTION OF THE WORLD
Specializing in discussions of discrimination and affirmative action
An Iraqi dentist
Promoting children being raised by their own parents
A federal law clerk opines about the law
Michelle Malkin's blog
Impearls: a blog as electic and interesting as mine
Proving that the United States military does more than kill people and break things.
May not agree with this group on everything, but stopping the ACLU is high on my list
A conservative/moderate black blogger.
Another sensible American
Sex, Crime, and Corruption in the Democratic Party
Music, Politics, Motorcycles
Maggie's Farm: Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
A blog dedicated to "Documenting Saddam Hussein's support of Terrorism"
The blog of one of my fellow bloggers on the Civilian Gun Self-Defense Blog
J. Norman Heath's Blog--a circus rigger and Second Amendment scholar (really!)
Buckeye Firearms Association, for you Ohio gun owners and activists
Click here for a FREE NEWSLETTER on Ohio Gun Rights from Buckeye Firearms Association!
Another conservative.
Neocon Blues
Conservative Oasis
Other Idaho Bloggers
Bubbleheads is a retired submariner
An Idaho State University student. A Democrat. Someday, she'll start paying income taxes and change.
A retired Las Vegas stagehand, of all things.
archives
Search only this site: Click here and enter your search string at the beginning of the search field.
Who Steals Bathroom Stall Doors?
There's a comedian who has a bit about, "Who steals men's room bathroom stall doors? Does he have like a collection of them?"
Of course, no one steals them. Ladies, you may not be aware of this, but in many public men's rooms, especially in roadside rest areas, there are no doors on the stalls. Women's restrooms don't have this indignity--and for a reason.
This is a sore subject to me today. I was driving back from Bend to Boise, and nature didn't just call--but screamed--on a lonely stretch of U.S. 20 between Bend and Burns. I pulled into a roadside rest area to use the men's room.
Having to do your business sitting down in a public restroom is stressful enough already, but without even the modicum of privacy of a door that closes makes the situation even more unpleasant. And seeing the general filth of the toilet made me just endure the scream of nature until I got to Ontario. (Yes, there's not much on that road.)
And why do men's public restrooms get this additional degradation--but not women's public restrooms? Because some gay men use public restroom stalls for casual, completely anonymous sexual assignations. Senator Larry "Wide Stance" Craig (R-ID) briefly brought this whole sordid behavior to the attention of the public, but because it didn't fit the popular culture's image of homosexuality as an enlightened alternative lifestyle, the popular media did their best to spin the story as "hypocritical conservative Republican" rather than asking why this is a depressingly common part of the culture of gay men. And when I say, "common," I mean the evidence like this: a nationally prominent gay law firm producing a pamphlet telling gay men how to avoid being arrested while soliciting strangers for sex in the men's room.
Now, I admit that there are other unlawful activities that go on in public men's rooms that may also cause governmental bodies to steal the stall doors. When I lived in Orange County, California, heroin addicts would sometimes shoot up in public restrooms, and female prostitutes occasionally came to the attention of the police by turning tricks in gas station men's restrooms. But let's be honest: the vast majority of the reason for this is gay men. Obviously, not all gay men. I suspect that a majority of gay men don't have sex in public toilets. But the ones that do aren't exactly rare, and because they can't exercise enough self-control to go somewhere else for sex, they have caused this degrading loss of privacy in public restrooms--and force the rest of us exercise enormous self-control all the way from the Burns, Oregon, to Ontario, Oregon.
Over the years, I have been repeatedly told by gay activists that men who have sex with other men in public restrooms aren't necessarily gay--that they are overwhelmingly straight men. If that makes you brain start to catch fire and explode--let me explain that gay activists insist that a person's sexuality isn't defined by who they have sex with, or even who they want to have sex with--but with which sexual orientation they publicly identify themselves. So a man who is married to a woman, but cruises public restrooms for anonymous sex with another man--why, he's straight! Someone who makes an argument like that is obviously confused about more than just their sexual identity.
Idaho Democratic bloggers like to claim that there's something unhealthy or weird about "obssessing" about homosexuality. I'm actually obssessing about the loss of privacy. If gay men want to signal to other gay men (excuse me, "straight men who like to have random, anonymous sex with other straight men") to go somewhere in private for their actions, we wouldn't have lost the bathroom stall doors!
In 1960, or 1970, or even 1980, when homosexuality was illegal in most states, or even socially octracized in the other states, I could somewhat see the argument forwhy this behavior was being done in this anonymous and degrading way. But today? Or, for that matter, any time in the last ten years?
Do what you want in private. But do it in private. I want the bathroom stall doors back.
What A Shocker!
Corruption in the process by which a California sheriff issues concealed handgun licenses! Who would have thought? From the November 8, 2008 Los Angeles Times:Newport Beach millionaire Don Haidl testified Friday that badges were for sale under the administration of former Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona, and that the shields for volunteer reserves were purposely changed to look exactly like those carried by sworn deputies because "that's what campaign contributors would like to have in their pocket."
The only thing remarkable about this is that Carona appears to have been caught. The sleazy manner in which sheriffs in urban California counties have issued carry permits has been going for at least a couple of decades. It is one of the most blunt signs of the incredible dishonesty and corruption of the liberals that dominate the California legislature that they simply refuse to fix this mess.
Haidl, who was appointed by Carona to be the assistant sheriff and put in charge of the reserve division, told jurors that the initial group of reserve officers they recruited shortly after Carona's election were made up of 86 friends, relatives and business associates tied to the campaign.
...
Carona also modified the policy for issuing permits to carry concealed weapons so that members of the special reserve unit, known as Professional Services Reserves, would automatically qualify, Haidl testified.
...
Carona and his longtime mistress, Debra V. Hoffman, are on trial in federal court in Santa Ana on charges that they conspired with others to trade the powers of the sheriff's office for hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and gifts. Haidl has pleaded guilty to lesser tax charges and agreed to testify against Carona and Hoffman. Carona's wife is also charged, but will be tried separately.
Haidl has been on the witness stand since Tuesday. When he agreed to cooperate with the prosecution, he went undercover and wore a wire during three meetings with Carona in the summer of 2007.
Haidl has already testified that he bribed Carona with cash payments of $1,000 on a monthly basis for more than three years, provided Carona with access to his private jets and yacht and paid for vacations and other items.
The current concealed handgun permit law was adopted in 1923 as part of a package that was openly stated as being to disarm Chinese and Hispanics. It has created enormous corruption in the urban counties. If other states had not demonstrated for decades now that a non-discretionary permit system (which eliminates the corruption) is not a public safety problem, there might be some plausible explanation for maintaining the current corrupting system. But there isn't. Most American states now have a non-discretionary permit system, the expected disasters didn't happen--and the corruption and racism problem has been fixed. And yet liberals refuse to consider fixing California's corruption breeder. Why do you suppose that is?
"Destined For Greatness"
A Dr. Ablow, a psychiatrist, was being interviewed on Fox News. He said that large numbers of young people are growing up convinced that they are destined for greatness, because there is so much false praise from parents.
Lack of Blogging
And what little blogging I do from Bend is all the energy that I have at the end of ten hour days. I had this illusion that I would get a lot of work done on the next book and a novel that I am starting to write (a kind of time travel, mystery thriller that takes some subtle jabs at deconstructionism)--but I'm just too tired by the time I get back to my unswinging' bachelor pad.
Bend is a beautiful mid-sized town (about 80,000 people) in the high desert of Central Oregon. It reminds me of what Boise must have been like ten or fifteen or years ago. There isn't a lot of weird facial piercings, and when you see someone with "sleeves" (the tattoos that cover most of an arm or leg), it really stands out, because it is a bit unusual. If there wasn't anything holding us in Boise (like family and a spectacular house that we could never sell right now), I could see moving here. It almost doesn't feel like Oregon, it is so unliberal.
I have been working off the stress of the ten hour days by going to the Juniper Swim & Fitness Center, which is a City of Bend Parks operation. I neglected to bring a swimsuit (and even finding gym shorts in stores here was a struggle, much less a swimsuit), but they have two indoor pools, one of them Olympic sized, and a very complete gym. I've been working on my upper body exercises and using the treadmill--and it really does wonders for my attitude and for reducing my appetite. (Being all alone over here, I'm doing a bit too much eating for comfort, so anything that brings this under control is a good thing.)
Don't get the wrong impression: I really am enjoying the work that I am doing. Writing unit tests involves learning how a particular class works, then figuring out how to test all of its methods, then writing up bug reports that describe what I found that is broken.
And this isn't difficult--even code that works often has significant errors in it. For example, what happens if you pass in invalid inputs, such as null? A lot of coders simply don't think about these possibilities--and if you don't handle them, you open up the possibility that someone calls a method with a bad input and produces unexpected results.
$1.99 Gas
The Arco station in downtown Bend had regular gasoline for $1.99 per gallon! I wish that these bargains weren't built on the collapse of the economy and the loss of jobs.
Mob Activity
I wouldn't go into the Castro District and sing hymns--but Christians have a perfect right to do so--at least as much right as homosexuals have to engage in sex in the middle of public streets. In the video that Michelle Malkin has on her website, you can hear homosexuals insisting that Christians should not be allowed in "their" neighborhood. Gee, what if Christians said that homosexuals weren't allowed outside of the Castro? That would be fascism! But the reverse is just liberalism at work.
Warning: the language is raw (these are homosexuals, so you have to expect that).
Headed to DC This Weekend
The Cato Institute invited those of us who played a part in the D.C. v. Heller (2008) decision to a brunch and discussion next Sunday. (And before you ask, the event is not open to the general public--I asked.) They are actually paying my airfare and my stay at the Hay-Adams Hotel--which is the only reason that I could consider going, considering the state of my employment.
I expect to be free Saturday evening, if any of my readers want to be disappointed meeting me in person!
I'll take those German lessons with me on the plane--I can fit an MP3 player in my pocket, and have almost nothing to carry but my Pentax.
The Last Nail in the Coffin of "Let The Police Handle It"
From November 14, 2008 WCPO channel 9:The new tactics developed in response to Columbine involved creating an ad-hoc tactical team using the first four or five patrol officers on the scene.
So it appears that anyone taking a shot at an "active killer" is an improvement over waiting for more police to arrive. And the article goes on to admit that there's something else at play:
Then 32 people were killed by a lone gunman at Virginia Tech in April 2007.
Law enforcement reviewed its tactics.
Tactical Defense Institute in Adams County, Ohio developed one of the first "single officer response" programs in the nation.The other statistic that emerged from a study of active killers is that they almost exclusively seek out "gun free" zones for their attacks.
Clear enough?
The psychological profile of a mass murderer indicates he is looking to inflict the most casualties as quickly as possible.
Another Republican Fat Cat In Trouble!
We all know that insider trader is done by rich Republican fat cats! So who just got charged?
And just so you don't think Cuban was apolitical, or something--this is the guy who helped finance distribution of Loose Change, one of those bizarre 9/11 conspiracy theory movies.
The Booming Economy
I mentioned a couple of days ago how gun sales were booming because of the Obama election. This article from the November 14, 2008 Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel gives some real data:
The Lake House (2006)
I caught this on Oxygen Channel (which emphasizes that it is aimed at women) and this may be the perfect film for them. It is your basic time travel love story (of which there are many, although Somewhere in Time perhaps the most romantic), but with a new twist, because it doesn't involve time travel per se (except for some materials--this is exposed early enough in the movie that this doesn't really qualify as a spoiler).
What makes this remarkable is not just the romance involved, but how it sticks to the theme of Jane Austen's Persuasion--although it is not in any sense based on that novel--the value of waiting for the person that you really love. This is an astonishing idea in our microwave, instant gratification world. (Admittedly, anyone who wouldn't wait for Sandra Bullock is clearly beyond hope, anyway.)
There are several interesting subplots that provide interest tangents without distracting from what is, after all, a love story. To my surprise and pleasure, there is only the subtle implication of a sexual relationship involving the doctor and her old boyfriend; a very small amount of vulgar language appears to have been edited for broadcast. Within the secular worldview that this film inhabits, it is a powerful message about waiting for the right person--not taking whatever is currently available.
Watch this with someone you love.
Too Stupid To Drive And Refresh German At The Same Time?
After seeing my comments about finding some free German lessons that I could burn to CD for my drive back and forth to Bend, a reader told me of his experiences trying to use audio learning CDs while driving on a rural Interstate--and indicated that it was surprisingly easy to lose concentration on driving, even in what would seem like a demand situation. My first reaction was to thank him for the warning, while wondering, "How hard can this be? I listen to the radio all the time."
But actually doing it, I came to the conclusion that the learning process of listening to CDs, and trying to make sure that I remembered what these German words mean, was far more distracting than I expected--enough so that I won't be trying this in the future. Nor did I even get through the first CD.
In addition, while these audio files probably work fine in the context for which they were intended--using the workbook that came with them--they really aren't suited to the purpose for which I was using them. I might transfer the MP3 files to my wife's MP3 player, and use them (and the printed book) when I fly to and from the District of Criminals next weekend (for the Heller Brunch that the Cato Institute invited me to attend). At least I am not trying to pilot the plane at the same time!
