Sorry, I took today off.

More tomorrow.

Praxis: Calling Dr. D -- A new comment on an old field telephone post seeks your help. Plus, information on the TP-6N Norwegian field phone.

The TP-6N is a Norwegian-built felttelefon (field telephone) produced for the Norwegian and Dutch armed forces. The Dutch designation for this is veldtelefoon TA4881. It was designed in the early 1970's by Elektrisk Bureau in Billingstad, Norway, and won an Award for Design Excellence in 1973. It earned the nickname "cricket phone" presumably because of the tone generated by the electronic ringer.

In 2008, a surplus store in the US acquired a limited quantity of TP-6N phones and resold them to the public. We obtained some to evaluate, with the intention of interfacing with and/or replacing older field phones already being used for search and rescue communication. These TP-6N phones have since proved very useful, particularly in harsh cave environments. Additional phones have now been acquired from Europe, and this page is provided as an informational source for owners, users and other interested persons.

A new comment below from Ken on a post from June about field telephones. I post it here at the top so it won't get overlooked. Also, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the Norwegian TP6N field telephones, be sure and go to the link cited above.

Mike
III

This is for DR.D

You stated, "I've been contemplating designing a simple switch board that could be assembled from commercial parts. It's wouldn't be as rugged as a SB22 but it would be a lot smaller and lighter.

If any one needs help with field phones and switch boards and repairs/parts for the same let me know."

We are a Search and Rescue group in Minnesota that uses the TA-312 and TP-6N phones for cave operations. I recently received a SB-22 but have been talking with a fellow communications persion with the National Cave Rescue Commission on the need for as you said a smaller, simpler unit.

I would enjoy discussing the idea with you if you have time.

Thank you.

Ken A.
esssar@comcast.net

"My country, my ass."

Pete offers us a new anthem.

Be sure and go to all the links and consider doing the action items.

A moment to clarify what I mean by "moke"

An overloaded moke (who appears to be smarter than his owner).

"Moke" is indeed a disparaging term used by Hawaiians, meaning somebody big and dumb. However, as near as I can tell its usage preceeds that by many centuries in English-speaking countries. It is an archaic British, Australian, and United States slang term meaning donkey. I cannot tell you where I first heard it, but it was long ago in my youth, which was divided between Michigan and Ohio, far away from Hawaii. There are no racial overtones, intended or unintended, to the term as I understand it.

What a Lone Voice in the Wilderness Sounds Like: The Old Guide versus Leviathan's Environmental Collective.

The Maine North Woods is the northern geographic area of the state of Maine in the United States.

It covers more than 3.5 million acres (14,000 km²) of top forest land in north-western Maine. It includes western Aroostook and northern Somerset, Penobscot, and Piscataquis counties. Much of the woods is currently owned by the timber corporations, including Seven Islands Land Company, Plum Creek, Maibec, Orion Timberlands and Irving timber corporations. Ownership changes hands quite frequently and is often difficult to determine.

Its main products are timber for pulp and lumber, as well as a thriving hunting and outdoor recreation economy.

Included within its boundaries are two of the most famous wild rivers of the Northeastern United States: the St. John and the Allagash. The North Maine Woods completely surrounds thr Allagash Wilderness Waterway.

Wildlife

The Maine North Woods are predominantly forestland consisting of mixed northern hardwoods and conifers, much of it artificially planted after harvesting by the various landowners. The major tree species are sugar maple, American beech. balsam fir, quaking aspen, Northern white cedar, red spruce, white spruce, black spruce, yellow birch, paper birch, and Eastern white pine. The area is also home to white-tailed dear, moose, black bears, bobcat, coyotes, red fox, fisher, otter, mink, marten, weasel, beavers, porcupine, muskrat, red squirrel, Snowshoe Hare, ruffed grouse, Spruce Grouse, loons and gray jays. There are official hunting seasons for the grouse, deer and bears, with a state-run lottery system for awarding moose-hunting licences. Char including squaretail, togue, and isolated populations of blueback trout are the best known fish of the rivers and lakes. Black fly, mosquito, deer fly and midge populations can be significant from late spring through early autumn. The Maine North Woods are also home to the endangered Canada lynx, bald eagle and the Furbish lousewort, a rare plant that is found only in the St. John river valley. Animals which have disappeared from the woods during European settlement include caribou and gray wolf. Status of the cougar is uncertain.

Folklore

Early 19th century logging of the Maine north woods employed native Maliseet, English settlers from the Atlantic coast, French Canadians from the Saint Lawrence River valley, and some unskilled laborers recruited from large eastern cities. Unique mythology evolved in the remote logging camps from hazing new employees or attempts by competing groups to dominate the resource extraction labor market. Two birds held special significance. The relatively tame gray jays would follow loggers through the woods in the hope of stealing unwatched food, but were not harmed because they were believed to be the spirits of deceased woodsmen. Some French Canadians would quit work if a white owl was seen flying from a tree they were felling, for they believed it was a ghost who would haunt them unless they left that part of the woods.

Mythical creatures of the north woods:

* Razor-shins was an immortal humanoid with sharp shin bones and a thirst for liquor in the prohibition state of Maine. New employees were encouraged to leave a jug of Nagor whiskey outside of the camp door on the night of the full moon. If razor-shins emptied the jug by morning, he might use his razor-sharp shinbones to fell a tree for the new man. But there were tales of new employees caught in the woods by razor-shins and scalped or otherwise mutilated after failing to offer the customary tribute.

* Will-am-alones were squirrel-like creatures said to roll poisonous lichen into small balls and drop them onto the eyelids or into the ears of sleeping men. The lichen balls were reputed to cause headaches and visual hallucinations the following day. The effects seemed most evident among men who had consumed illegal liquor.

* Windigo (or "Indian devil") was described as a huge, shadowy humanoid with a voice like the moaning of the wind through the pine boughs, but known only by his tracks through the snow. Each footprint was 24 inches (60 cm) long and resembled a snowshoe imprint with a red spot in the center where blood had oozed through a hole in his moccasin. Some feared to cross his tracks and claimed looking upon Windigo would seal their doom.

* Ding-ball was a cougar whose last tail joint was ball-shaped and bare of hair and flesh. Ding-ball was fond of human flesh and would sing with a human voice to lure the incautious out of their cabins at night where it waited in the darkness to crack their skulls with its tail.

Americans for a Maine Woods National Park, an interest group that includes scientists, educators, environmentalists and celebrities, is pushing to turn a as much as 3.2 million acres (13,000 km²), an area larger than Yellowstone and Yosemite combined, into a national park.

The proposed park is very controversial among residents within or adjacent to the park's proposed borders. Many fear the dislocation of traditional industries and recreational activities as a result of a park's creation. The County Commissions from Aroostook, Piscataquis, and Somerset have voted to oppose efforts to create a park. They are joined by Maine's Congressional delegation, its governor and legislature. A local group, the Maine Woods Coalition, was organized to oppose the effort. -- Wikipedia.

Folks,

I received the description below from the Old Guide a recent National Park Service "listening" conclave about a proposed federal takeover of northern Maine.

The Feds came to Maine to "listen". They want to take over much of Maine for a new North Woods National Park. They lined up a whole bunch of environmental groups to testify in favor of it. A few of we property rights advocates infiltrated the session and were actually scheduled to testify.

I was one of the first to arrive about 1:45 and one of the last to leave. At the end I was surrounded by three top officials from the Obama administration who wanted to hear what I had to say because there were so few landowner advocates in Bangor. I was able to expand on what I said in my prepared remarks. There were five break-out sessions. (Divide and conquer.) I was in the "grey room" as determined by the color of our folders when we checked in. There were 35 people in the room to testify and five feds up front. I was the ONLY advocate for private landowners in the room! Years ago we called that a target rich environment. I did not seek to lead off with my presentation. I waited until the guy from RESTORE gave his presentation. When I gave mine I thought the RESTORE guy and Ted Koffman of Maine Audubon were going to bust a blood vessel.

Old Guide's presentation:

Federal "Listening Session"
September 2, 2010
Bangor, Maine

The Old Guide

Welcome to Maine. Your announcement said you come to listen. Thank you for your time.

• What Works? – Please share your thoughts and ideas on effective strategies for conservation, recreation, and reconnecting people to the outdoors?

You ask what works. Private ownership works. The reason the environmental industry likes Maine so much is that we private landowners have taken such good care of it for the last four centuries. We are still taking good care of it. However, in my lifetime we have lost great amounts of freedom. We used to be able to build a boathouse IN the lake. Boathouses didn't hurt the lakes at all and the fishing was better. We had a spruce budworm epidemic a quarter century ago. We needed to salvage large amounts of dead and dying trees. The environmental industry used that as an opportunity to attack Maine's landowners, large and small. A photo appeared in our newspapers showing a vast clear cut. The photo was taken in Siberia. It leads penthouse environmentalists in Boston to think our forests are gone.

In 1940 Maine had about 6,250,000 acres of pasture and cultivated ground. Today we have just over a million. In my lifetime Maine has gained an average of 77,000 acres a year of forest. Yes, gained. That is over three townships every year. Our forests are not gone. Those who say we are losing our forests simply lie or are ignorant of the truth. Our forests are not "fragmented". We don't need "wolf routes" to reconnect our forests. The addition of three townships of forest each year has created a huge contiguous forest and the greatest new carbon sequestration in the world. We private landowners did that.

• Challenges – What obstacles exist to achieve your goals for conservation, recreation, or reconnecting people to the outdoors?

The obstacles are many, but the biggest obstacle we face is LURC and the rules they invent. No other state has over half its land governed by an unelected bunch of state functionaries, accountable to no-one. We don't get to vote on these people or the rules they dream up to control us. They just impose them.

You folks are all high enough in the administration to realize there are preparations and contingency plans being made in the event of civil strife in our country. Just last Sunday your boss, President Obama spoke to the people of New Orleans and honored them for their perseverance. We too have persevered. We have been under a regime of discrimination, oppression and rural cleansing for four decades. Just prior to April 19,1775 the Crown imposed such rules on Americans. Those rules were called "The Intolerable Acts". Our forefathers fought a war over them. Now, 235 years later, we have new intolerable acts. At a state level listening session an employee of LURC asked if I thought we could experience civil strife in our country. He was too young to remember Detroit, South Watts and Atlanta in 1968. I answered him with a question; If we did have civil strife in Maine, where would the members of LURC go? I say these things because I was born before WWII and actually remember freedom. We want it back. We are Americans. WILL persevere.

• Tools – What additional tools and resources would help your efforts be even more successful?

Everybody likes clean air and clean water. Those are not issues. The real issue in Maine is a vicious agenda of rural cleansing. The tools and resources we could use are a state government that encourages economic growth instead of stifling growth. Economic growth brings prosperity. The environmental industry calls growth something else. They call it sprawl. They don't like growth or prosperity.

• Federal Government Role – How can the federal government be a more effective partner in helping to achieve conservation, recreation and reconnecting people to the outdoors?

We don't need to be reconnected to the outdoors. We are an outdoor people and have been connected to the outdoors all our lives - for many generations. We could, however, use a little help building more recreational trails for snowmobiles and ATVs. They are an important part of our economy since so much manufacturing has left and the recreational sector could use a little stimulus money. It's our money after all. Aside from that we don't need any federal involvement. Oh, and we'd like the piece of the White Mountain National Forest in Maine back. You could auction it off and use the proceeds for snowmobile and ATV trails.

Remember who we are. We are freedom loving Americans. Many of us have fought for freedom in several countries. As Lord Percy said in his report back to England after the battles of Lexington and Concord, "They are wise in the ways of the woods and they know what they are about." We still know what we are about today. We know who you are. Remember who we are, freedom loving Americans. It is in your best interest.

- - -

We have been led down the road by the environmental industry for years and following Chairman Mao's tenets of two steps forward, one step back. We are supposed to be thankful when they don't take as much from us as they first threatened. That is the behavior of a childish fraternity pledge. not a freedom-loving American.

I don't buy into that. You should have seen the shock when I advocated building boathouses in the lakes and when I said we wanted that portion of the White Mountain National Forest in Maine back. Those comments were what made the administration leaders want to talk with me in the lobby when it was all over. I guess the small bunch at the New Hampshire session ten days ago was more docile.

I tell you, there were 15 people on the opposite side of the large round table across from my side and I made eye contact with most. Their mouths were so wide open in astonishment they looked like a bunch of guppies at feeding time. They had never heard such ideas.

No name calling. No histrionics, just facts.

The Old Guide

What is it about these Jihadi mokes and beheading?

I mean, really?

A well-known Australian Muslim cleric has called for the beheading of Dutch anti-Islamic politician Geert Wilders, a newspaper said on Friday.

Wilders' Freedom Party scored the biggest gains in June 9 polls and is currently negotiating to form a new minority government with the Liberals and Christian Democrats. Polls show Wilders would win a new election if one were called now.

Wilders demanded to know why he had learnt about the threat from the newspaper and not from Dutch authorities who are guarding him after a film and remarks he made angered Muslims around the world.

De Telegraaf, the Netherlands' largest newspaper, led its front page on Friday with a story on the speech by Feiz Muhammad.

The Sydney-born Muhammad has gained notoriety for, among other things, calling on young children to be radicalized and blaming rape victims for their own attacks.

What if somebody cuts HIS head off and buries it wrapped in a pigskin, a la Black Jack Pershing in the Philippines? Hey, I know, Crocodile Dundee is currently stuck in Australia by order of the tax cops. And he DOES have a very big knife.

Now this is about as funny as it gets.

Really.

A snippet:

Add Jesse Jackson’s ride to prominent vehicles being stripped in Detroit.

Following the embarrassing news that Mayor Dave Bing’s GMC Yukon was hijacked by criminals this week, Detroit’s Channel 7 reports that the Reverend’s Caddy Escalade SUV was stolen and stripped of its wheels while he was in town last weekend with the UAW’s militant President Bob King leading the “Jobs, Justice, and Peace” march promoting government-funded green jobs.

Read that again: Jackson’s Caddy SUV was stripped while he was in town promoting green jobs.

"It's the end of the world as we know it."

A tip of the boonie hat to Irregular Stan for this link: Société Générale tells clients how to prepare for potential 'global collapse.'

Got militia?

Just another ATF outrage.

The one thing I know about incidents like this is that one day, there WILL be a reckoning.

Well, I did manage to muster up this one email.

From: georgemason1776@aol.com
To: (REDACTED SHORT LIST OF ATF MALEFACTORS)
Sent: Fri, Sep 3, 2010 11:17 am
Subject: Just a personal note to all my ATF friends.

Everybody needs to take a day off once in a while for rest and reflection and today is one of mine. Collecting my thoughts about what the last year of shadow boxing has brought us, I was struck by the following truths:

1. The fly always experiences a momentary sense of triumph when he has just conquered the flypaper.

2. Whatever has happened, is happening now and will happen between now and January will be the subject of oversight hearings by the reinvigorated GOP-owned House and (probably) Senate shortly afterward. Your strategic air cover will be a bit uncovered without Chucky Schumer and the Citizen Disarmament Caucus in absolute power in those vital committee chairmanships to protect you. You might want to compare notes now with James "Waco Jim" Cavanaugh. Now THERE was a guy who could perjure himself and get away with it.

Have a nice day.

Mike Vanderboegh
The alleged leader of a merry band of Three Percenters

PS: Waldo and R.A. Bear both say "Hi!"

Taking a day off for rest, reflection and gettin' stuff done around the house.

Frankly, my heart ain't in it just now. Be back tomorrow, I'm sure.

Gang vs. Gang: Unofficial gangs complain about treatment from the Official Dailey Gang.

Ironic as all get out.

Wanted Poster.

Of course this isn't an official agency poster, but the FBI certainly is in "dire need." Especially in dire need of ethics, morals and a constitutional purpose.

Well, that was interesting.

After what may have been a contrived incident of road rage on someone else's part, I was arrested by the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department this morning for possessing a loaded handgun in my vehicle without a permit. The other guy (the one exhibiting the road rage) was, as far as I know, not ticketed for anything. In fact, the Deputy, one nasty piece of work named Cornelius, told me loudly to "shut my . . . hole" when I asked about it. At no time was I impolite or contemptuous.

I was cuffed, arrested, and taken downtown by another far more professional, even kindly, deputy and booked on a $1000 bail, but then let go a couple hours later on a signature bond. The worst part of it is that our only car was impounded, towed, and we are still awaiting word on where, when and how much it will be to pick it up. At the time I was on the way back home from my doctor's appointment by way of the route I always take.

The stint in the jail holding cell was interesting. The wall and ceiling art made of carvings (how did THEY get a knife in there?), excremental scrawlings (swastikas, of course), paint peelings (the head of the devil was particularly well done) and toilet paper papier mache were quite inventive.

As I said, they let me go after getting my photo, fingerprints and signature.

Boy, is Rosey going to be pissed. Strike that. She's already pissed. I may live this down in another five or ten years. Upon expert friendly advice, I will have nothing more to say in this venue about the facts of the case.

-- Mike
III

PS: My pistol will be returned tomorrow. . . without the rounds. (Seized ammunition is used by the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department for practice -- and if not it almost always goes home with a well-connected deputy -- and it is almost never returned. Even if the charges are dropped. Even if we're talking about cases of ammo in the same situation.)

Saw no one on lame-stream media making the Al Gore connection to this moke this morning.

Lee said at the time that he experienced an ‘‘awakening” when he watched former Vice President Al Gore’s environmental documentary ‘‘An Inconvenient Truth.”

Calling Rachel Madcow.

Praxis: Load Bearing Equipment

Go here for info on USGI load bearing equipment from ALICE onward. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the newer MOLLE II gear, they have a copy of the Care and Use Manual you can download and print out.

Wanted: Volunteers with an airplane to smuggle Crocodile Dundee out of Australia.

I ain't makin' it up.

"I can't pay 10 percent of what they're asking.... bugger 'em!"

Intelligence test.

Photo and commentary found at The Cliffs of Insanity.

Obviously another reason why the Department of Homeland Security is right to be worried about "right-wing terrorists": The Lee Manifesto.

"Focus must be given on how people can live WITHOUT giving birth to more filthy human children since those new additions continue pollution and are pollution. A game show format contest would be in order."

Just in case you wondered why some folks in a citizen disarmament zone in Silver Springs, Maryland are being held hostage by a left-collectivist nutbag. But, wait! This doesn't fit the SPLC/MSNBC meme! Whatever will Rachel Madcow do?

Restoration and a Coalition of the Willing versus the People's Front of Judea and the silly sods of the Judean People's Front Crack Suicide Squad.

Folks,

Reading some of the comments at Pete's site on the subject of "Restoring the Constitution" and others insulting Bob Wright here reminded me of nothing so much as this scene from the Monty Python movie Life of Brian:



The core of Pete's post:

To me, there are three important reasons to use the phrase "restore the constitution":

1) Lawfare Ambush KZ: I dare that SOB Holder to use the DOJ mechanism against anybody working or talking to restore the Constitution. I double-dog-dare that MF to do so.

2) PsyOps: When the .mil is sent by the NCA against their fellow citizens, I want each troopie to have to put their reticle on a fellow American standing for the same Constitution that the troopie is oathbound to protect and defend.

3) Paradigm Inflexibility: Many good and honorable people who will stand simply cannot bend their heads around a "return to the Articles" endstate at this time. They will evolve in their thinking, just as I have (hell, I was a freaking drug war prosecutor fifteen years ago -- talk about evolution!), and I can't ask them to both die and give up their core preconceptions right now.

If you have to put labels on belief, I am a Christian anti-federalist libertarian. In terms of crafting a coalition of the willing to defeat the armed onslaught of tyrannical federal collectivism, that is a small philosophical boat in a very large sea. It is a larger craft than some of these anarchist and New Confederate dinghies bobbing around, but small enough.

Thus, if I want to secure my liberty, I'm going to have to find a whole lot of people who agree with me on the big things and set aside for now the small things (and some not-so-small-things) that we disagree on. (Mind you, collectivism, especially racial collectivism, is definitely not one of those.)

Two comments to Pete's RTC post reflect my thoughts:

Atlas Shrug said...

Restore The Constitution = Horse

Refine The Constitution = Cart


Right now we are still trying to get the Horse calm and bridled, let alone hitched. Let's get him pulling the Cart before getting too side tracked on what's in the Cart, OK?

The Horse is the vehicle that we ride into Liberty on, the Cart is the vehicle that follows it.

Let's not get the Cart before the Horse.

Keep your powder dry,

Atlas Shrug

August 31, 2010 11:04 AM

daniel said...

I'm partial to the RTC message because, boiled down, it's simply a call for a group of people to adhere to what they already agreed to. It's easier to do that than the other alternatives (explain libertarianism, economics, philosophy, history through a megaphone or on a flyer or banner).

The RTC rallies obvious inclusion of 2A needing restoration is a good starting point, something that's easily understood and difficult to BS around.

We're here. We're armed. The document you swore to uphold says we can do this. If you try to disarm us, you are going against what you agreed to.

That being said, a list of usurpations, like Eric Stinnet's speed read at Gravelly, would work best to quickly articulate what exactly it is that we want.

And this one from Anonymous directed to Pat H. in response to his comments on Bob Wright:

There is no perfect governmental plan. There is no Heaven on earth. Humans will always be far from perfect therefore so shall be their best of plans. That includes yours.

The best we can do is try to get back to where things were most tolerable, most acceptable, least offensive to human liberty and freedom. That is where Mr. Wright is going with his words. I personally find everything right with that.

We know the Constitution wasn't perfect. It was written by imperfect men. Now let's get on with restoring all that was good about it and flush what isn't down the drain. I don't think we need a new imperfect plan to accomplish that.

More importantly, if some folks insist that they must fight for the Articles of Confederation (or some other view consistent with their own variety of anarchism, New Confederacy, whatever) or not at all -- that we all must agree with them on an end state before they take up arms -- then they will either not fight or if they do they will resemble nothing so much as this other scene from Life of Brian:

Of course such folks will complain that I am reducing their principled insistence down to farcical comedy. But given the grim reality, is that so unfair?

Folks, look at the bloody collectivist beast that is upon us -- the Leviathan that we will likely be called upon to fight in the near future. Is it "principled" to insist that everyone agree with you before you will resist? Is it "principled" to sneer at other folks such as Bob Wright who have been fighting this fight for 20 years at considerable personal cost? Or are such "principled" people merely seeking another reason NOT to resist?

The concept of restoring the Constitution and the Founders' Republic is the ONE idea -- and the ONLY idea -- that a successful fighting coalition to resist collectivism can be assembled around. Forget that the Constitution and the Bill of Rights (put in there at the insistence of the anti-federalist) was at the time both a compromise and the greatest light-years leap forward in liberty ever codified. Did the Founders screw up in adopting it as it was, in part or in whole? I'll tell you there's things I wish had been in there.

So what?

We will have a chance to fix things AFTER WE WIN AND ONLY AFTER WE WIN. And at this point, it is by no means certain that we will win.

This is not glossing over anything, it is reality. If folks cannot exercise enough common sense to see that, then they will die alone or be enslaved because the rest of us anti-collectivists did not measure up to their high standards. They are, of course, free to do so -- leaving the rest of us to fight and to win against the same folks who would gladly see us all on boxcars, in camps or in a mass grave covered with lime.

For those of us who intend to win, we must redouble our efforts to get ready. And don't get side-tracked into these "How many Lysander Spooners can dance on the head of an Articles of Confederation pin?" discussions. It is time wasting and self defeating, perhaps intentionally so.

Of course there are apparently some who prefer to be ultra-principled even if they are defeated.

I'm not one of them.

How about you?

Mike
III