I am a petty man. All this Do Not Call stuff reminded me of how much I hate junk mail. I thought I’d share just how petty I am.

Each time I get a credit card application or some other variety of junk mail that has a postage paid return envelope, I take all contents of the envelope and I rip them to shreds. I then place the shreds into the postage paid return envelope (which will be paid by the company sending me the junk mail), attach a note that says Please Recycle and place it in the mail box.

Every time someone sends me junk mail with a return envelope, it costs them 26 to 37 cents. I encourage everyone to do the same. If all 300 million of us did it, we could bankrupt the junkmail industry.

In a shocking move, the VPC and the Brady Center announced plans to lobby congress to pass a bill that bans children. Tom Diaz (VPC senior policy analyst) stated It was just the next logical step. We spend all of our time trying to get this or that banned willy-nilly in the name of the children. We decided it’d just be easier for everyone concerned if we just banned children.

In light of the recent string of litigation, studies, and statistics that conclude children are overwhelmingly the victims of everything from Battlestar Galactica action figures that shoot tiny plastic missiles and guns; to uncomfortable soccer shoes and Teletubbie induced insanity, Sarah Brady confirmed It’s about time we got to the heart of the issue, the children. If they weren’t around, we’d all have more fulfilling lives and some more free time. And frankly, we’re just tired of dealing with it. Plus, it’s tiresome being wrong all the time.

Do you realize what this means? Phil Jackson, vice president of games & puzzles for Mattel, asked excitedly We can start making lawn darts again! Jackson continued Everyone loves Jarts! Except seven year olds with particularly soft skulls.

The Motion Picture Association of America is opposed to the ban on children as it would put them all out of a job.

Nationwide, parents are expected to not even notice the battle in Washington until it’s too late. They’re collectively busy working long hours, reading about Ben and J-Lo, and scheduling play dates.

Well:

The United States would train and lead an international police force, bypassing traditional peacekeeping bodies such as the United Nations and NATO, under a proposal by the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld.

The plan, involving thousands of Americans permanently assigned to peacekeeping, would also be a major reversal by the Bush Administration, which has strongly opposed tying up its troops in such operations.

This is kind of scary.

My new URL has surpassed the old one, according to the ecosystem. But I am no longer a flappy bird.

Rich has a good two part series on the lie at the heart of liberalism. Part 1 and Part 2.

In the interest of full disclosure and to be fair and balanced, I wonder if he’ll do one on conservativism.

The teenage kids who shot into the interstate and killed one man will not be tried as adults. Good thing they’re not Snipers.

Two things about this situation are curious:

1) The police had the boys in custody for 24 hours before letting the public know, which could have lead to some sniper hysteria.

2) The police, to my knowledge, haven’t alluded to where the kids got the guns. I’m thinking from the parents and wonder if a case is being built against the parents or whoever may have let them have access to the guns.

Update: More here.

Frist said he’d support an amendment banning gay marriages.

Slightly more troubling, however, is this statement:

“I have this fear that this zone of privacy that we all want protected in our own homes is gradually — or I’m concerned about the potential for it gradually being encroached upon, where criminal activity within the home would in some way be condoned,” Frist told ABC’s This Week.

“And I’m thinking of — whether it’s prostitution or illegal commercial drug activity in the home … to have the courts come in, in this zone of privacy, and begin to define it gives me some concern.”

So, the courts can’t define privacy? Apparently, it’s better left to the legislators according to Frist.

I think we see why the Republicans are losing the support of us libertarian whackos.

Over at Bubba’s, someone made the observation that while Clinton was in office, that unemployment decreased; and while Bush has been in office unemployment has risen. Of course, this observation was meant to credit Clinton with creating jobs (which is crap) and Bush with losing them (again, crap).

I don’t think that the government can control the economy. If it could, we’d have no recessions or depressions. But we do. The government can slightly impact the economy by adding or removing certain barriers at its disposal, such as taxes, fines, subsidies and a limited number of other things. That is, in a nutshell, my position in this argument.

Barry B. makes the claim that when Clinton was in office, he was responsible for the phenomenal unemployment rate. I asked Barry to prove it. Obviously, he can’t because it didn’t happen. The overwhelming majority of jobs were created as a result of a technological revolution. The internet revolution and IT consulting employed a great number of people and stock prices rose and everyone was happy. Clinton was, of course, happy to be coincidentally occupying the office of the president about this time. If Clinton was the reason, why then did unemployment and the markets start tanking at the end of his tenure? Because the internet revolution and IT consulting went belly up and did so hard and fast. Therefore, he couldn’t control it.

After asking Barry to prove it, Digby chimes in to tell me that my debate skills are minimal because all I did was tell Barry to prove me wrong.

My problem with this is that I don’t have to prove that there is no cause and effect. But Barry has to support his contention of cause and effect to prove his point. Things coincidentally happen all the time without one being the cause of the other. Right now, I am typing at my computer. I am also drinking a beer. These two things just happen to be occurring at this moment almost completely without regard to one another. I therefore can’t state drinking beer caused typing at my computer; nor that typing at my computer causes me to drink beer. I think for a scientific fact to be valid (if I’m recalling high school science correctly) that it must be absolutely proven. We call this positive assurance, which means something is proven to cause some other thing. Negative assurance is essentially stating that nothing has been brought to our attention that disproves what we think is the effect of this particular cause. This is the basis for theories, not facts.

Barry can (and does) theorize about the cause of employment but it is not a hard and fast fact. So, we will disagree until he proves that Clinton caused unemployment to significantly decrease. Regardless, the burden of proof is on him.

And no, I don’t think the current turnaround in the economy is attributable to Bush.

The straw poll at moveon is interesting. I think it’s useless but it is interesting. Some problems with it: It should have just excluded the folks who really have absolutely no chance (Sharpton & Braun). Also, the votes in these types of things tend to be dominated by the fringes of the parties.

Dean was the most popular but he didn’t get 51%. However, I don’t think Dean can win the real thing. Sadly, I think it will be Lieberman or Kerry.

Seems like Rachel Corrie’s untimely demise was no one’s fault but her own. Or perhaps her zeal.

Don’t get me wrong, her death was sad. But she’s not the martyr you’re looking for.

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan today announced that the Federal Rate would be lowered to negative 5%. In response to recent criticism that he was a one trick pony and the fact that he was running out of positive numbers, Greenspan decided that the best way to aid the economy was to totally change the rules since he couldn’t change algebra.

That’ll show those smarmy bastards! said Alan Greenspan, referring to positive numbers.

One effect of this change is that banks now pay you to borrow their money. And you pay the banks interest on your savings account. When asked if he thought that this change would devastate the banking industry and commercial securities market, Greenspan responded by flipping everyone off, downing two shots of Cuervo, and lighting a big fat spliff. He then stated: I haven’t really given it much thought. But surely you understand how powerful I am now!

The other effect of this change is that the stock market is expected to take off like a shot, since you can borrow money (at a profit) and invest it (hopefully at profit). That or your mattress is the best investment, no one is really sure.

In addition to this change, accountants around the world began using imaginary numbers in the computation of annuity payments and bond payment schedules.

What do you mean X² equals negative one! It makes no sense said Bob from accounting, not realizing that math had been made up for a long time. At least, continued Bob we’re still using the decimal system and not binary.

Fuck! said Greenspan I didn’t think of changing the decimal system.

This reporter is off to close all his bank accounts and borrow as much as he can.

About affirmative action this week, make sure it’s this.

An interesting piece on political hypocrisy. By using the same rationale that feds are using to investigate Snoop for arms violations, it seems Ted Kennedy is not allowed to own guns or have bodyguards. Oh wait, he’s a politician and therefore above the law.

City officials in Mesa have mistakenly installed two bus shelters where no buses run.

The installation cost $32,000 at a time when the city is cutting its public transit budget to save money.

Looks like some teachers could be carrying guns to school. If this wasn’t Utah, I’d comment about how at least they could shoot back now.

In a follow up to this post, local regulators say no to the feds request for a list of Tennessee’s 850,000 no call subscribers.

Update: Kathy has more on how to sign up.

Just noticed my first check at my new tax rate. I don’t know what I’m going to do with that extra $8. Only benefits the rich, my ass.

The bash was last night. Smallest turnout I’ve been to. Myself, Rich, Les and Chris showed up eager for some entertaining conversation. The smaller crowd was nice because you could talk to everyone there but still I missed seeing the regulars. I think weeknights are bad for folks as evidenced by the small crowd. But any excuse to toss back a Guinness (or three). And the fact it’s summer may limit weekends as well.

Seeing Rich again is always a pleasure. Chris was a super nice guy who appreciated my adult beverage choice. And Les showed up wearing an I’m Blogging This T-Shirt. We talked about Canada, strip clubs, dogs (I talk about my dogs too much), new bloggers in town, and the status of the RTB.

Some specifics:

We pondered if the epic struggle of good and evil, played out by Bill Hobbs and SK Bubba (not necessarily respectively), was an intentional ploy to draw traffic; or if those two were just ornery; or if perhaps they had a slight affection for each other.

We also pondered why Bubba (an ordinarily mild mannered liberal) has been so quick to ire lately. We wondered if he was catering to lefty lunacy to increase traffic, which is apparently very popular these days. We decided instead that it may have coincided with a specific event.

We also discussed the difficulty in getting Instapundit’s attention these days. And we discussed the current quality of his posts. Until recently, Insty would post a link to something, then a quote or relevant fact about the topic, and then some of his insightful commentary.

Now, all he seems to post are links to other people’s insightful commentary followed by an Indeed or the slightly less frequent Heh. Is he burnt out? Busy? Enquiring minds want to know.

Les also proposed the idea of having RTB day at the range. Come one, come all. Bring your family and your guns. Could be fun or deadly.

It was a good time. I hope more (and especially some of the newer members) make it next time.

This is awful but not every whacko who shoots someone is a sniper.

I don’t like him because he supports the AW ban renewal. Anti gun groups don’t like him because he’s not a true gun control candidate.

Even Letterman is making fun of him.

Nuclear materials found in an Iraqi man’s backyard.

“This shows how hard a job it will be to find stuff when it’s under people’s rose bushes,” the U.S. official added

Alan Fucking Greenspan and company announced an interest rate cut to 1%. Is this all he can do? Back in the 90s boom, he was cutting interest rates. Now that the economy is supposedly going to hell in a hand basket (gratuitous sarcasm), he’s doing the same thing.

Seems to me lowering rates in times of plenty encourages people to purchase things while discouraging interest rate based investments (bonds and such). This would serve to promote investing in the stock market, I would think but I’m no economist.

It is widely believed Greenspan wasn’t a fan of the stock market boom in the 90s (and rightly so since it tanked hard and fast) because it was overvalued. But why did he lower rates? To encourage spending or discourage other low risk, low return investments. It seems the actions don’t fit the motives. And he’s doing the same thing now when the economy is not as good. And by not good, I mean the stock market is no longer overvalued.

Kind of curious to me.

After a long hard day at the office of shifting paradigms and leveraging resources for value-added catalysts for change, it’s nice to know that Deloitte Consulting can help me make sense of it all.

It’s also nice to know that I can immediately insert jargon back into my work.

Missouri is limiting the amount of cold medicine you can purchase in an effort to thwart production of methamphetamines.

Should I remind everyone that Drugs are currently winning The War on Drugs.

Caribbean nations say that US prevention of internet gambling violates World Trade Organization rules.

Moxie had a blog. Moxie wasn’t some other Moxie. They had a little spat over who the real Moxie was. Someone faxed Moxie’s employer a nastygram stating that they wouldn’t do business with someone who employed the likes of Moxie.

Now, I hope people understand why some of us bloggers remain anonymous.

In response to my post on NPR, Bjorn writes:

NPR affiliates are only partially funded by government, and many, including our own here in Knopatch, are actively seeking to get rid of all government funding. Knoxville’s NPR affiliate is hardly funded at all right now by the University. The station is almost entirely listener supported.

All NPR/PRI programming is purchased at the local level through funds raised by the stations. If a show is not popular, the station has the choice to remove it and play something else. So what you hear on a local station is not really being spoon-fed from the national level.

A good example of an independent station is WDVX, Knoxville’s world-famous bluegrass/Americana station. They can do whatever they want.

NPR stations do tend to attract the more intelligent/affluent listeners because of their programming and musical selections. Those people have a lot of money to give, and do so. Those people also like the quiet DJ who can properly pronounce all the German/Russian/whatever names too.

Anyway, many NPR affiliates survive with ZERO government funding. Our local station is working towards that at this very moment. It is important to realize that the local stations are not sanctioned by nor are they controlled by NPR. These stations simply broadcast selected NPR/PRI shows that listeners pay for.

I have to say that I applaud such an effort and if that effort comes to fruition, I would listen to the programs.

The RTB welcomes Sick of Bush and Democratic Veteran.

Welcome!

Black protestors turn out to protest Jesse Jackson.

Jesse wasn’t there, he was too busy running his two Anheiser Busch distributorships that he blackmailed and extorted from the man, err, earned fairly and squarely.

Six biologists and technicians with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services Division spent the morning herding gaggles of geese into pens at Greenbelt Bicentennial Park for relocation to areas adjacent to Kentucky Lake in West Tennessee.

Me and the Mrs. were there last weekend and there were literally hundreds of geese and ducks. Geese are fairly unpleasant animals. Every year (twice per year), there is a group of 3 – 4 geese that settle in my subdivision for a couple of weeks to take a break from migrating.

Geese are not very smart. I have a seventy pound bull dog. You would think that when such a dog was near the geese that the geese would lay low and keep it quiet (like rabbits) so as not to draw the dog’s attention. This is not the case. I would take pupster for a walk and the geese would come out, start strutting around with their wings extended, and honking. They were trying to intimidate me and my pooch so that we would leave their property. Don’t they realize I pay a mortgage and it’s my property? They were safe because pupster was on a leash. This went on for about four days. One day, I’d had enough of these uppity geese. I looked around and none of my neighbors were out and I knew pupster wouldn’t catch them (the can fly, you know, or so I thought). So, I unhooked pupster’s leash and off he went in full geese catching mode.

Pupster chased the geese for a good hundred yards. Did I mention that geese aren’t real smart? The geese flew away from pupster while staying relatively close to the ground (maybe three or so feet). Apparently, they forget that they can fly upwards when they are stressed. As pupster was closing in on the flying geese, they finally remembered Oh yeah, flying is three dimensional. We can go up! Pupster didn’t catch them, which is good because I’d hate to violate some arbitrary federal migratory bird law. Yet, those geese (who did return two days later) weren’t so vocal the next time we went for a walk. Lesson learned.

Instead of USDA agents, maybe the feds should just ask to borrow pupster.

Tennessee legislators are trying to decide if the state’s No Call list (to deter telemarketers) should be turned over to the Feds.

“We’re engaged in a classic struggle of federalism,” said some government sycophant who is angered at the fact some power and control over people will be given to the Feds and not remain with the state “We’ve got the FTC stepping in and gobbling up our program and we’re left with table scraps.”

There was some praise a while back about Knoxville’s new budget that allowed raises for city employees without raising taxes. Well, that was bogus.

Of course, registration fees in Tennessee are much lower than in other states.

Like heavy music? Live in Tennessee? Then check out TeamRock. A blog devoted to the local heavy scene.

You should be. Steve is one funny guy. Now he’s set up a page of just his best of. Check it out.

Bredesen decided that his backbone wasn’t needed with this.

The WaPo has a neat little Pit Bull Fact or Fiction.

I would have added an emphasis on It’s not the dog stupid! It’s the owners!

Bigwig and company have moved.

This is absolutely unbeleivable. A couple was detained by armed guards while their child was given a shot. Thanks to Publicola for the link.

A policeman was fired for smoking tobacco. Oh and it was while he was off duty.

I am currently blogging from Toronto. Nice city but has that Great Lakes smell. My Canadian friends here like to discuss politics which has been entertaining. We took a bus tour of the city and a boat tour of the waterfront.

Per my friends, the SARS scare has decimated the local economy. A lot of the theater shows have left and new ones aren’t coming. Tourism is way down. It’s a nice place even though no one has handguns. I haven’t got to use their free healthcare yet and hope I don’t have to.

Bloggage will be intermittent, I’m on vacation.

Tonight is food and drink. Tomorrow is the CN Tower.

Update: Read in the paper that gay marriage is legal here now.

Barry has posted the VTP. It is now also 30% bloggier.

Buck got himself one of them there blog things. Check it, yo.

Point – Counter Point.

So, you think Instapundit will appear on The O’Reilly Factor?

Once upon a time (circa 1997ish), I was deluded into believing that listening to NPR appeared to make people seem intellectual. I listened to All Things Considered regularly for my world news. Then I started thinking: NPR is funded by donations, advertising, and (the big one) government funds. I mean big as in influencing my decision and not relative dollars.

First, some boring financial stuff: In FY2000, NPR reported roughly $144M in revenues and $123M in expenses or a profit of roughly $21M. Why is their last audit for September 2000 anyway? Even though the NPR national organization states in their financial statements: NPR received no direct general operating support from any national or local government source roughly 10 – 25% of any NPR stations revenue is from the government. The national organization does however receive grants for projects and states that this is 13% of revenue (revenue is $144M so it’s almost $19M). Also, their financial statements don’t contain notes and required supplemental disclosures, so much for generally accepted accounting principles.

Now why do I bring this up? One reason is that I figure if an organization such as this can’t survive on its own (without government funds), it should go out of business. Perhaps that’s the evil capitalist in me. But NPR can survive without government support. $21 less $19M leaves a profit of $2M. And I assume that NPR is not in the business to make a profit. Of course, local NPR affiliates couldn’t function without government support. Second, I oppose government funded radio. I don’t listen to NPR or watch PBS because I think that government funding of mass media is a bad idea. What does NPR do if the government decides to assert its influence with respect to the coverage of issues by threatening to pull funding? As Barry pointed out, he has seen no attempt by the government to assert its influence on NPR. NPR is not independent in fact or appearance from the government and the potential for pro-government bias with respect to reporting news exists even if it has not come to fruition. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Of course another reason not to listen is, as Barry points out, NPR’s DJs are monotonous, somnolent drones. It is boring and you’re in danger of falling asleep at the wheel. And some folks say they’re liberally biased.

And that is why I oppose media supported with public funds.

The RTB welcomes the following:

Jeff

Wandering Hillbilly

Mr. Lawson

Big Stupid Tommy

Welcome all!

Update: Bubba lays down the law!

We’ve moved and we don’t know why we refer to ourselves as we. A couple of new features thanks to MT:

Categories
Internal Search Function
Better Reliability
More control
Blogspot Free
Easier to track – for example, this will be my 583 entry and I blog about guns 12.71% of the time.

If you haven’t moved to MT, you should. But be forewarned, categorizing 582 posts took up a big chunk of my weekend.

One note, I couldn’t transfer comments. Sadly, they are lost as of now. If absolutely want to recover an insightful comment you or someone else left, let me know and I will email it to you.

A big thanks to Kathy and Rich. Without them, this would have taken me about three weeks to do (if at all). I thank them both for their patience and for putting up with my constant email and for taking the time to answer my questions. And, in some cases, taking the time to do it for me.

If you see a feature you’d like added, let me know. Also, any template issues you notice, feel free to shoot me a line about.

So welcome, sit back and enjoy. It don’t cost nothing.

This is a test of the SayUncle broadcasting system. Is this thing on?

Say Uncle will be along shortly.

a dangerous, cult-like event that was unlawfully and deceptively conceived, sponsored, promoted and supervised by Forest Hill Baptist Church, its pastor, its deacons, its youth director and several of its members.

SKBubba has the scoop.

Nashville just got bigger! In an effort to get more Free Federal Funds™

From the horse’s mouth:

In our city as well as many across the country our local officials have adopted a program called Character First. It is a thinly veiled religious program created by a near cultish like evangelist named Bill Gothard.

I along with a small group of multi denominational Christians formed a coalition to put an end to our city’s support of this program. Later a few atheists, who saw what we were trying to accomplish, joined us and that is essentially how the Libert1st group got its start.

The short version of this story is that our government officials tried to use intimidation and indirect threats to keep our opposition muted. It was not until that moment I realized how important the First Amendment was to a (so called) free society. I also realized that in another country or time these people of faith (or not) could have been jailed for speaking out against the government’s brand of faith so openly. And believe me if they thought they could of got away with it they probably would have jailed us.

This one event cemented in my mind how essential it is for the individual to be allowed to dissent from popular opinion. The First Amendment applies to everyone equally and there is no safety valve for those who may be offended by its use. If you allow the state to silence a Christian because you, the minority or the majority of people may be offended by what they have to say you are setting a precedent that may never be able to be undone.

Here is a link Liberty First.

Update: The above mentioned program (Character First) wants kids to chant during class time:

MEEKNESS vs. Anger – Yielding my personal rights and expectations with a desire to serve

OBEDIENCE vs. Willfulness – Quickly and cheerfully carrying out the proper direction of my authorities

FLEXIBILITY vs. Resistance – Being willing to change plans or ideas according to the wishes of my authorities

DEFERENCE vs. Rudeness – Limiting my freedom so I do not offend the tastes of those around me

HOSPITALITY vs. Loneliness – Cheerfully sharing food,shelter, or conversation to benefit others

GENEROSITY vs. Stinginess – Carefully managing my resources so I can freely give to those in need

AVAILABILITY vs. Self-centeredness – Making my own schedule and priorities secondary to the wishes of those I serve

Rap entrepreneur Master P has been busted at Newark Airport with six hollow-point bullets, the deadly and illegal ammo known on the streets as “cop-killers.”

Now the bullets are probably illegal at the airport and maybe even in Hell err New Jersey, but hollow points are not cop killers. Cop killers refer to rounds that have a steel core and are capable of penetrating body armor. To my knowledge, such bullets aren’t illegal under federal law but may be under NJ laws.

Contact JAMIE SCHRAM and inform her of her ignorance. In typical cowardly fashion, the Post doesn’t publish her email address. However, here is the general contact page. But if I had to guess here email address it would be jschram@nypost.com.

Update: That’s not her address. So try Chris Shaw instead, the assistant managing editor at cshaw@nypost.com.

The Tax on Hope was signed into law.

You can help by annoying evil, murderous bastards. Bigwig has the scoop.

A graduate wanted to sing a religious song at the ceremony. The school said to replace the word God. The student sues. They settle and she can sing her song but can’t give her religious sermon. One of my favorite sites reports on the issue. Then the high school student responds to the report. Read the whole thing to understand what’s wrong with education these days.

A few notes (the always engaging HHH were more polite in their response):

The clueless “educators” were violating my free speech.

Or were they not respecting an establishment of religion?

We are living in America, not Iran. America is a nation that presupposes a God who created us and sees us. Maybe you should retake your high school government class and be reminded what the First Amendment really means, and what the founding fathers meant it to be.

Maybe high school government is teaching wrong things. Our founding fathers were mostly deists (I’m certain high school government didn’t teach her that). They did assume God created but they also very specifically left God out of government. When you put God in government, that is equivalent to living in Iran.

Keep your God out of the government and it’ll keep government out of your God. Religious ideals do not belong in secular government. Period.

No citizen in America, no matter the religion, should have to put up with religious descrimination (sic).

Aside from running spell check, another lesson that high school government failed to teach her is that her rights end where others begin. They were preventing themselves (by approving her speech) from infringing on the freedoms of others.

I think she should retake that government class or sign up for SayUncle 101.

A Pulitzer Prize awarded in 1932 to a New York Times correspondent is under review and could be revoked because of complaints that he deliberately ignored the forced famine in the Ukraine that killed millions.

I guess ignoring facts is as bad as making them up.

Even if I didn’t know I was. Apparently without realizing it, I helped another fine blogger win some sort of contest. Congrats.

Never underestimate the power of the oblivious!

Barry has decided to charge admission. Go look, it don’t cost nothing and it’s a good read.

By calculating how long it takes to get from Point A to Point B and using an electronic reciever to monitor how long it takes, you could be issued a ticket. Of course, that’s minor compared to knowing that the local government knows where you travel to and from. Oh and a mylar bag thwarts the technology.

But it illustrates gun control proponent stupidity:

The Firearms Safety and Consumer Protection Act, introduced by Sen. Jon S. Corzine (D-N.J.) and Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.), would give the Department of Justice authority to regulate the design, manufacture and distribution of guns.

Sort of. And he writes it himself, unlike other candidates with blogs. I’m referring to Michael Badnarik, Libertarian (with a non-lower case L) Candidate. Here he tackles property.

I’ve often thought about this whole voting Libertarian (Big L) thing, since I am a libertarian (little L). The likelihood that I’ll be throwing my vote away has always bothered me. Essentially, to think that I voted for someone who has no chance of winning (and Badnarik, like Dean, doesn’t) and that my vote may have been used merely to keep a worse candidate from winning is a frightening concept. Then again, it is equally morally appalling to me that I don’t vote for who I believe in (which is Badnarik).

I always dread elections. Should I vote how I feel? I never do. I vote against most Democrats. Period. Not because I think Republicans are swell guys but because they’re less bad than Democrats.

Now, it seems the Republican Administration is turning into the Democrats I used to abhor. The administration is creating big government (which they were against), they’ve increased spending (which they were against), they’ve supported the assault weapons ban (which they were against), and the reckless trampling of civil liberties under the guise of safety from terrorism and the war on drugs.

So, read Badnarik’s article and check out his positions on the issues. I did. I’m not saying I’ll vote for him yet but he is the candidate with views most similar to mine (there are some differences).

New Campaign Slogan: Vote Libertarian, Nobody will Notice.

A Texas man who won $5.5 million in the state lottery has been ordered to give it up because he bought the winning ticket with money made selling cocaine, federal officials said Friday.

Needless to say, determining exactly which dollars he purchased the tickets with would require omniscience. The war on personal property err civil liberties err drugs is a tad out of hand.

Les takes on Kalifornia stupidity. Favorite quote:

Brrring. Brrring. Hello?

“I’m a mile away pointing a gun at you. Give me your wallet.”

And 22s have a range of a mile by the way. Read the whole thing.

The Illinois House on Wednesday passed its first gun-control measure of the session, requiring nonlicensed dealers of firearms at Illinois gun shows to conduct criminal background checks on buyers.

By nonlicensed dealer they mean private citizens engaging in lawful commerce with other private citizens. Some more feel good legislation that does nothing but cost people money and infringe on their right to do business. The bill is on its way to the senate.

New York had a cash for your gun event aimed at getting illegal weapons off the street. Maybe I should go there and stand outside and offer people who have something I want a higher price than $100?

Tennessee Attorney General Paul Summers says the largest antitrust settlement in state history will be distributed to agencies dealing with residents’ health. The money is going to non-profits. Last time a suit was settled like this (tobacco money), our legislators spent it and then acted surprised when it dried up. That’s about the time the income tax debate started.

Apparently, coyotes are a problem in West Knoxville. And by a problem, they mean there have been two coyote attacks on pets (see, local news is always slow).

No one is interviewing Bill Clinton on what he thinks about Hillary’s book. Can we say duck?

Ok, I’m moving to MT soon. Been looking into domain names and of course wanted www.sayuncle.com. Well, that URL is taken and is for sale for between $688 and may be over $10K. Yeah, right.

Welcome to Secret City Sister and Thomas. And Andrew is making the move to moveable type. Good for him, I shall follow at some point. 53 and counting.

The UN (giggle) is hosting (hehe) a gun control conference (it gets better) in New York! New York has more gun laws than most cities and more gun grime than most cities. And we should ask hundreds of thousands of Rwandans, Ugandans, and people from Zimbabwe what they think of the UN’s gun control ideology.

But Publicola links to this petition in which asks our governor and legislature to nullify federal gun laws within Tennessee’s border. What would that mean?

I haven’t read it (and won’t) but I suspect the major theme is this: Let’s get all that Monica, Whitewater, Disappearing Files, Senate Travel Paid for as Official Business of the First Lady, Vince Foster, Etc., stuff out of the way now so that when she runs for president it’s already been dealt with. Beautiful PR move and I’d bet one cold beverage that she didn’t write hardly any of it.

Update: Nevermind, she says she ain’t running. Unless she’s saying that just to see how many people call her up and say please run!.

US faces critical gas shortage over summer. But they’re talking about natural gas.

as my Dad is fond of saying “You can wish in one hand and crap in the other, and we will just see which one fills up first.”

From Andrew via SKB.

This is wrong on so many levels. But my God is it funny.

Some yammering lately regarding the question: Is blogging journalism? And the short answer, some times. There are a variety of styles of blogs, from cat blogging and personal diaries to political commentary and original research. Obviously, I’m referring to the latter types of blogs. In light of the recent events involving The Guardian, some bloggers of note are taking notice of the potential impact blogs had on uncovering the truth. This has happened before and will happen again. And other blogs point out that if you hold big media to standards then you should hold blogs to those same standards.

Some blogs actively claim that they are fact checking your ass, and they do a good job. A while back, the BBC released a story that claimed the US did not budget any aid for post-war Afghanistan. The story was false and the reason was that the BBC has a failure to grasp what is meant by a fiscal year. Alex Knapp and Jay Caruso were all over it, with an assist by yours truly. I don’t know that the BBC ever retracted the story but they were either being misleading or ignorant. I think the latter is more likely given the gross inaccuracies we see in the media involving firearms.

So, what is journalism?

1 The collecting, writing, editing, and presenting of news or news articles in newspapers and magazines and in radio and television broadcasts.
2 Material written for publication in a newspaper or magazine or for broadcast.
3 The style of writing characteristic of material in newspapers and magazines, consisting of direct presentation of facts or occurrences with little attempt at analysis or interpretation.
4Newspapers and magazines.
5 An academic course training students in journalism.
6 Written material of current interest or wide popular appeal.

The definition is dated because it doesn’t consider the Internet as notably newspapers, magazines, radio, and TV have a presence on the web. Blogging does consist of direct presentation of facts or occurrences but often does a lot more analysis and opining. Blogging also consists of Written material of current interest or wide popular appeal. And there is also fair amount of original news that comes from blogs by way of bloggers witnessing events, personal experience, and doing research.

Blogs, though lacking the code of ethics that big media has (until recently), are held to higher standards. If you blog something that is refutable, someone will refute it. Media had the luxury of being immune from that for a while. Through blogs, the media aren’t that lucky anymore. In addition, blogs often link to facts with direct links (heck, our local paper hasn’t even figured out hyperlinks yet). Media often quote the ominous anonymous source, which apparently is where Mr. Blair got some of his disinformation. Anonymous sources by nature aren’t verifiable (yes, I’m fully aware of the irony that this is coming from your friendly neighborhood anonymous blogger).

Don’t be too quick to dismiss blogs as not providing anything relevant and not competition for the media. At the same time, realize that blogging likely isn’t going to be the next best thing since toilet paper (pun intended).

So, is blogging journalism? Some times.

Is blogging better than journalism? Some times.

Are bloggers more accountable for their material? Definitely.

OW gets past catering to lefty lunacy and says something insightful.

Suddenly, I am a Flappy Bird.

Anyone know how this Ecosytem works? I sure don’t. But it seems that incoming links is not the true measure of success, but hits are. Plus, it doesn’t include all links I’ve gotten from other bloggers.

A NZ man is building a cruise missile in his backyard to prove that terrorists could do it too. Costs about $5K. That’s kind of strange as we all know that terrorists purchase their other weaponry at gun shows.

Knoxville police have started dressing as construction workers to catch speeding motorists.

Rich has the Volunteer Tailgate Party up and running. Give it a read to find out what the RTB is thinking.

I know Martha Stewart was indicted, I just don’t care. Now, TV is all Martha all the time.

I know about the scandal at the times, but I thought the NY Times was discredited enough a long time ago.

PBS releases propaganda err a teaching lesson for high school instructors to teach students about second amendment issues. It is, of course, totally unbiased. And by unbiased I mean in that same way that Ann Coulter isn’t biased.

Yeah, give me my tax money back.

Brehd is back, but he moved in with Bjorn. Good to see his return.

Well, I’ve pretty much decided that I will be moving to a moveable type format some time in the future. I figure I need 1) a domain name, 2) a hosting service, and 3) MT installed. I know how to do the first two and three doesn’t seem real hard. If anyone has any advice, drop me a line in comments.

I know that blogger data will transfer (I’m guessing through some combination of XML/RSS, but I don’t really know how those work) but what about comments? Are they just lost?

Any suggestions for a hosting service would be great too. I know lots of folks use hosting matters. But what sort of bandwidth would I want? And what should I expect to pay?

As an aside: I’ve decided that group blogs are definitely the future. They offer a wide range of opinions and tend to draw traffic. I’d be willing to share the new site with people wanting to get off of blogger and would expect them to share the costs. Plus, it is an opportunity for us smaller bloggers to band together and get more people to read our stuff. Thoughts, opinions?

Any other blogspotters out there who are interested, shoot me an email or leave a note in comments. Or anyone who has thought about blogging can shoot me an email as well. Of course, do so knowing that I will be the one with administrative rights to the page.

I figure this will come about sometime in July.

Sacramento banned the 50 caliber. Thanks to Andrew for the link. Now, I need to invent a 51 caliber to market in Kalifornia.

Tennessee got a $29M Grant for homeland security. The money is to train and equip emergency workers. Wonder if Sherf Tim will buy some more boats and helicopters.

Over at Silflay Hraka, bigwig posts about styles of BBQ. I made the claim that my barbeque sauces would take the Pepsi challenge with anyone (check the comments). Doggerel Pundit posted this excellent sounding salmon recipe. I’ve posted some recipes here before, which are:

Red Beans & Rice
The Perfect Bloody Mary
Rosemary Primerib

Bloggers of the world, I command you: Post your recipes! Or email them to me or just leave them in comments.

And Chuck, I expect a recipe that explains how to skin or clean whatever it is I will have to cook!

Some combination of surfing got me to this post by Acidman, which lead to this response by Venomous Kate. I couldn’t take my eyes off of it. Of course, I just wanted to see titties and if that’s all you want, don’t bother and go here instead (he’ll post some just wait). It was a train wreck. I’m not taking sides but it was like a Springer episode.

Another blog Soap Opera to rival this one, I suppose.

If it’s blogoticking, it worked because I linked to it.

Publicola once sent me a link to SmallestMinority, and I liked it. For some reason, I neglected to bookmark it. I recently found it again, thanks to Bill Hobbs.

Here, he takes on the ACLU’s hypocritical stance on the Second Amendment and it’s a good read. It seems we agree. And he (like me) is a member at AR15.com.

I have a close friend who was a much decorated chopper pilot in Nam, I mean real John Wayne stuff. Anyway, he once gently admonished me for suggesting he use it to his advantage in a certain situation. “I’ve never known anyone but worthless liars and phony bastards to do that.” Yup.

A brothel in Nevada is offering returning troops freebies.

A reason people think Breed Specific Legislation is a good idea. Of course, the dogs should have been in a fenced yard and not running amok.

Uberblogger Bill Hobbs, one of my regular reads, and I finally disagree. He feels that Tennessee’s having a Choose Life license plate is OK and shouldn’t be vetoed by Governor Bredesen because it doesn’t violate the first amendment. That may mean that it is not illegal but it’s not OK.

State sponsored political opinions about debatable issues have a tendency to oppress the non-sponsored political opinions. Obviously, the extreme example of this is Nazi Germany. If you want to have a pro-life plate then you need a pro-choice plate. In fact, let’s have license plates for all political opinions. In fact, here are some I’d like to have:

Republicans Suck
Democrats Suck Slightly More
Eat Meat Because It’s Normal
Vote Libertarian, Nobody Will Notice
Nuke The Gay Whales For Jesus
Fags Are Okay
No Income Tax Was Used To Pay For This License Plate
Buy A Gun, You Pansy
Destroying Civil Liberties Is Like Letting The Terrorists Win (from UnknownNews)

I don’t think my political opinions would make it on many T-Shirts, much less state sponsored license plates.

Damn Art Diary turned one year old.

I met a pro-choice vegetarian the other day. She won’t eat eggs but she’s fine with abortions.

And read the whole thing.

We bloggers like our traffic. I do, which is strange because I don’t get much. At SayUncle, I’ve gotten just over 20K hits since August of 2002. 8K of those were in two days from an Instalanche. Of course, it’s mostly my own fault as I suck at blogoticking. I don’t pay for ads. I don’t troll (if I post a link in someone’s comments section it is because I feel it adds to the discussion). I’ve only emailed a few bloggers with links to my site and that was because I thought they’d be interested in what I sent them. Of course, a gratuitous link in response would be nice but I didn’t expect it.

You should notice that the title of my page is Remember, I do this to entertain me . . . Not you.

My lack of traffic is my own fault as I’ve not put forth much effort into actually drawing traffic. Even when I ordered all of you to link to my site, only some folks did. Enough of my crying!

Apparently, there comes a time when you get so much traffic that you don’t care about offending people. Or (more likely) you’re offending people in an effort to draw more traffic to your site. I guess it’s reverse blogoticking. Mac-a-ro-nies has a good summary of same anger in the Blogosphere. Is it genuine anger or attempts to draw traffic? Her nice little summary consists of:

Someone just generally being insulting to other bloggers – why link to someone whom you’re just going to insult? If you’re going to disprove a contention that’s one thing, but just calling someone a name isn’t productive.
Very angry commenters
A blogger threatening to quit blogging because he doesn’t like where blogging is going (it requires marketing)
And someone spending $376 a month in ads to get you to their site

Most seems to be an effort to get traffic.

In the exact opposite vein, banning your commenters is popular too. Hey, then why do you have comments? I can understand if someone is being genuinely offensive but banning folks for criticizing your writing style and making bad jokes about Florida seems kind of silly. I haven’t had to ban anyone (and I don’t think I would unless it was just offensive) but that’s because my traffic level doesn’t warrant it. I have a few loyal readers but not droves that come here en masse. Naturally, I am jealous because I want enough traffic where I could ban commenters and not care that I may lose some of my audience. If you’re going to have such stringent guidelines, why have comments? The really big blogs don’t even have comments because of the massive trolling that would occur.

Of course, whoring yourself is always acceptable too.

And in the same vein of my previous post on blogotics, I order you to link back or else. And by else I mean nothing, really.

A while back when the Rolling Stones did a tour, the jokes were flying about how old they were and that they were too old to rock. They proved people wrong by having a successful tour.

Metallica just released a new single. In case you haven’t heard it, here’s my in-depth, riveting analysis of it: It sucks ass. It sucks real bad. It’s god awful.

SayUncle is a metal head. I love it. My favorite newer bands are Mudvayne, Slipknot, System of a Down, and Taproot. I’m a sucker for drop D (heck, even A for those 7 stringers out there) tuning. Older bands that I like include Pantera, Sepultura, and old Metallica. And the greatest band ever is Faith No More (who proved that you don’t have to be metal to be heavy).

By old Metallica, I mean anything from And Justice for All and before. Back in the day, Metallica was the heaviest thing around (until Pantera showed up). And when you bought an album, you got your money’s worth. You’d get like thirteen songs that were usually six minutes long. Then came the Black Album. It was the beginning of the end. Metallica went into that artsy-fartsy stage and released songs like Unforgiven. And they sucked. When I heard that Metallica was supposedly going back to their metal days on the new album, I half believed it. I heard the song. Hetfield doesn’t have it anymore. He’s too rich to be angry. The drummer is still amazing, and still remains in my top 10 favorite drummers list. It seems that following success, most metal bands can’t do a good album after that. The Deftones had a cool album (forgot the name, but it had Bored on it) then after that they started doing this music that had no hook, no feel, just meandering chord progressions and dissonant lyrics that didn’t go anywhere. I guess money mellows the angry metal types out.

The difference between rock and metal: The Rolling Stones were made fun of because they toured at like age 80, but they still rocked. Hetfield turns 40 this year and he is metalled out. You can still rock when you’re older, but you can’t give a rebel yell or the devil horns without looking (sounding) your age.