Annoying Comments?

Posted on January 11, 2006 by Phil Kadath

But sometimes, they’re the most fun.

There is this big kerfuffle going around the blogosphere about some bill Bush signed to protect people from on-line stalking that supposedly says that ‘annoying’ someone anonymously is now a felony.

Some folks are taking this to mean that comments left by an anonymous commenter or someone using a pen name is covered under this.

OK, so let me get this straight: I go to Oliver Willis’ place and leave a comment on a post of his (like I just did this morning), and if he finds it ‘annoying’ he can have me prosecuted?

I may be the least ‘computer savvy’ blogger around, so help me out here; didn’t I leave an IP addy on his server when I hit the submit button? Am I to understand that he is unable to see my name, my email addy and the address to this very website that I put into the little boxes before I hit said submit button and that he is unable to do a domain registration search?

Don’t those tidbits of info mean that I am no longer anonymous?

Are people thinking that everyone now has to leave their name, address and home phone number in order to be safe?

Is this just a bunch of horse shit people are overreacting to?

I would think that as long as the person’s info is traceable, everyone is hunky dory. The only people who leave anonymous comments are trolls and even then I have a traceable IP with the old MT software I run (that will be gone shortly, along with TypeKey. Yay!).

I don’t mean to be insensitive to people’s fears, what with the Dems wanting to tie bloggers into McCain-Feingold, but did bloggers just turn into whiners overnight? Who the hell runs a full on blog and then goes around to leftie websites and tries to post anonymously?

I’m a bit confused at the worry here.

Posted in Color me confused | 4 Comments

State of the State

Posted on January 11, 2006 by Phil Kadath

Yesterday evening was the State of the State speech, given by Washington (Barely) Governor, Christine Gregoire.

Before I get into the issue here, I just want to fill you in on little, fun tidbit of info: The speech was at primetime drivetime, 1700-1800 and the audio was fed live to anyone who wanted it.

Guess who ran it:

Was it Seattle’s Progressive Talk – AM 1090 (Seattle’s Air America affiliate)?

Nope.

Was it the biggest news station in town – AM 710 KIRO (winner of more Edward R Murrow awards than any other radio station in the country, according to their commercials)?

Nope.
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Posted in The Left is Never Right | 2 Comments

RNS Quote of the Day

Posted on January 11, 2006 by Phil Kadath

What is the basic, the essential, the crucial principal that differentiates freedom from slavery? It is the principle of voluntary action versus physical coercion or compulsion. The difference between political power and any other kind of social ‘power’ between a government and any private organization is the fact that government holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force.

The difference between economic power and political power is that economic power is exercised by mean of a positive, by offering men a reward, an incentive, a payment, a value; whereas political power is exercised by means of a negative, the threat of punishment , injury, imprisonment, destruction. The businessman’s tool is values, the bureaucrat’s tool is fear.

From a lecture given by Ayn Rand at the Ford Hall Forum, Boston, December 17th, 1961

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More Non-Autoblogging

Posted on January 10, 2006 by Phil Kadath

In early December I showed off some pics of the Dodge Challenger Concept car that was to debut at the Detroit Auto Show this week.

It debuted and as was expected, the crowd and the press were floored. “Build It. Build It Build It. Just shut up and build it� were the words from the guys at Edmunds.Com and I agree with them. Even though I won’t be able to afford one for a few more years, I’d like to see something that nice on the road.

Especially if they bring back some of the original colors. Remember Go Mango Orange, Sublime Green and Plum Crazy Purple (aka: Statutory Grape)?

You can go to the link above for pics and a 5+ minute vid from Edmunds or you can just drool on this pic.

Challenger Concept.jpg

It’s up to you.

But if you go to this link, you can drool on all of the concept cars that were shown off in Detroit on Sunday. My favorites in the line up are the Chrysler Imperial, the Ford Superchief and the Lamborghini Muria 40th Anniversary retro concept.

Also, on the right hand margin they have a link to the video for the 2007 Toyota FJ Cruiser. Maybe a modern day SHTF vehicle?

But whatever you do, stay away from the concept Chevy Camaro. Also stay away from the picture definition of the word ‘Ugly’ in the new edition of the Webster’s Dictionary. They used a picture of that car as a very apt example.

Posted in Kewel! | Leave a comment

I forgot to show you this yesterday

Posted on January 10, 2006 by Phil Kadath

I mounted and sighted in the Nikon 6-18×40 scope I posted about last week.

Here it is on the cleaning stand after getting home from the range.

(click for bigger)
P1090010.JPG

Minute of pool cue chalk it is, but only at 100 so far. 200 will be will either be this weekend or the one after that. And I must say, those optional target knobs are excellent. The stock ones are pretty nice too, but when your finger are cold and wet, like mine were at the range this last weekend, they come in handy.

I’m also attempting to get a thumbhole target stock for it, but Boyd’s is 12-16 weeks out on anything for Rugers. Even though my riflesmith likes Boyd’s better, I’ll be going through Richard’s Microfit because they’re telling me only 8 weeks.

I’ll be cutting it close, but I should be able to have this

Pic from Richard’s Microfit (click for bigger)
rmthtargstk.jpg

mounted and bedded on the rifle by Boomershoot. I’ll be going with the Rosewood laminate that will hopefully look something close to this, btw.

Pic from Richard’s Microfit (click for bigger)
Tonywvanguard.jpg

Posted in Have Gun, Will Travel | Leave a comment

RNS Quote of the Day

Posted on January 10, 2006 by Phil Kadath

A disastrous package deal, put over on us by the theoreticians of statism, is the equation of economic power with political power. You have heard it expressed in such bromides as “A hungry man is not free� or “It makes no difference to a worker whether he takes orders from a businessman or a bureaucrat�. Most people accept these equivocations, and yet they know that the poorest laborer in America is freer that the richest commissar in Soviet Russia.

From a lecture given by Ayn Rand at the Ford Hall Forum, Boston, December 17th, 1961

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First New Gun of 2006

Posted on January 9, 2006 by Phil Kadath

A long story because I’m in the mood.

The very first gun I owned was a 1978 Colt Combat Commander in 45ACP. Sure, I had guns previous to that, ones that were my dad’s that he would give to me to shoot and maintain, but in my twelfth and thirteenth years on this planet, I worked for $3 an hour over two summers and selected and paid for the Commander.

I had been shooting a 38 Super Commander in competition for two years when I finally got the one in 45ACP. My dad had seen me shooting his friend’s and other competitor’s guns that last summer and figured I was ready for it, which was a good move on his part, because if he hadn’t let me get the 45, I would have made him grind his teeth by selecting a 9mm. I would have been a Hi-Power, so he wouldn’t have disowned me, but he wouldn’t have been happy.
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Posted in Have Gun, Will Travel | 4 Comments

RNS Quote of the Day

Posted on January 9, 2006 by Phil Kadath

Whenever, in any era, culture or society, you encounter the phenomenon of prejudice, injustice, persecution and blind, unreasoning hatred directed at some minority group, look for the gang that has something to gain from that persecution, look for those who have a vested interest in the destruction of these particular sacrificial victims. Invariably, you will find that the persecuted minority serves as a scapegoat for some movement that does not want the nature of its own goals to be known.

Every movement that seeks to enslave a country, every dictatorship or potential dictatorship, needs some minority group as a scapegoat which it can blame for the nation’s troubles and use as a justification of its own demands for dictatorial powers. In Soviet Russia, the scapegoat was the bourgeoisie; in Nazi Germany, it was the Jewish people; in America, it is the businessmen.

From a lecture given by Ayn Rand at the Ford Hall Forum, Boston, December 17th, 1961

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On Friday Night

Posted on January 8, 2006 by Phil Kadath

One of my drivers says to me while he’s getting ready to leave, “Have you been to that new pistol range off Central?�
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Posted in Have Gun, Will Travel | 2 Comments

More NRA Goodness

Posted on January 8, 2006 by Professor Booty

C-SPAN’s been running a talk by Glen Caroline, the NRA-ILA’s Grassroots Division Director, at American University this past Friday. He’s pretty impressive, but I transcribed the best part ’cause I figure most folks won’t want to sit through an hour-long presentation on political lobbying tactics.

Money quote:

“We have numerous stories, some that I’ve witnessed personally, some that I’ve seen pictures of, of lawmakers literally pulling out mailbin after mailbin after mailbin, just stacked with NRA letters and NRA member emails and NRA member faxes.

We’ve had instances where we’ve done phone banks [to NRA members] saying ‘you need to call your lawmaker’ on a particular issue, and a day later our lobbyists will call back and say, ‘cancel those phone calls!’

And we’ll say, ‘Why? The bill hasn’t been voted on yet.’

[And the reply is] ‘I just got a call from Senator Smith, he can’t make any outbound calls in his office because all the phones are jammed up, he said he got the message, he’s gonna vote with his constituency, [but] to please leave him alone….”

The reason the NRA displaced the AARP as the #1 most effective lobbying (and grassroots lobbying) organization in the country is that unlike the AARP, which is just a collection of people who like travel discounts,* the NRA has a bunch of committed, activist members devoted to a cause. Glen Caroline made sure to emphasize that point over and over again. Nice to see a lobbying organization give props to its membership base and not just be tossing out a phrase — he really meant it.

* I forget who said this, I think it was either Bob Dole or, more probably Alan Simpson, former US Senators and wiseasses both.
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Posted in Heroes, Comrades and Brothers | 2 Comments