Poindexter just resigned the Pentagon according to Foxnews. Wanna bet (giggle) on the reason?

The keep playing the new White Stripes tune, Seven Nation Army. This song has the worst bass sound ever. The vocals are high-pitched, twangy and annoying. The drums are awful and they are so simple that anyone with the ability to count to four can play them. Guitar work is mediocre.

But strangely, I like the song. Go figure.

Per this:

Since the right-to-carry law was enacted in Florida . . . The homicide rate dropped 36 percent, firearm homicides dropped 37 percent and handgun homicides dropped 41 percent.

In the 10 states that adopted right-to-carry laws, the results were no change in the suicide rate, a 0.5 percent rise in accidental firearm deaths, a 5 percent decline in rapes, a 7 percent decline in aggravated assaults and an 8 percent decline in murder.

After Washington, D.C., enacted a handgun ban, the homicide rate rose 200 percent, while the overall U.S. rate only rose 12 percent. Of the 6.3 million violent crimes of rape, sexual assault, robbery, aggravated and simple assault, only 8 percent involved firearms.

U.S. Dept. of Justice’s Crime Victimization Survey has shown that resistance with a gun is by far the safest course of action when one is confronted by a criminal. The probability of serious injury from a criminal confrontation is 2.5 times greater for women offering no resistance than resisting with a gun.

America has a crime problem. But the Europeans are worse, despite the claims that America is a dangerous place peopled with gun-toting maniacs.

The entry linked above has some rather interesting statistics. The murder rate of blacks is higher. The rate of those commiting murder among blacks is higher.

Update: Poor wording on my part and thus corrected.

I don’t really care for Kalifornia. I think that most folks would be better off if the place fell into the sea but I’d sure miss some of the people there. I haven’t really been following the Davis recall because I don’t care. Kalifornia could declare bankruptcy and it wouldn’t bother me.

I’m only interested in it from a point of view of What does it take to rid yourself of an incompetent government official?

However, SayUncle correspondent Andrew has been all over it with a fine-toothed comb. Just click here and start reading.

Say it ain’t so. I personally don’t believe there is right-biased or left-biased force dominating the media. I think that individual reporters and editors insert their biases into their pieces but there is no conspiracy.

Bubba links to one example of this that occurred right here in KnoxVegas. Shameful!

Frank became a monkey. He doesn’t like monkeys, unless they’re ninja monkeys, I think. Anyway, he’s a great humor writer who doesn’t deserve to be a monkey, but maybe a ninja. And I’m pretty sure when he refers to ninjas, he doesn’t mean Insane Clown Posse fans.

And since I am not above helping a link-pimper out nor am I above stealing err borrowing other peoples’ ideas, here are some Fun Facts About Franks:

They don’t all have friends named Ernest.

The do, however, all have friends named Bean.

If you rearrange the letters in IMAO, it clearly spells Frank.

Frank also refers to A mark or signature placed on a piece of mail to indicate the right to send it free of charge. Despite this, Franks are not stamps.

If you refer to a Frank as a Franc, Frank’s will become quite agitated and take a striking posture. Franc’s, however, won’t care all that much.

The sworn enemy of the Franks is not the French. It’s monkeys. The French are generally pissy about this. The monkeys typically don’t notice.

The average life expectancy of a male Frank is 74.1 years. The average life of a female Frank is indeterminable.

If you make fun of a Frank by referring to Beans and Ernest, they may become agitated. However, it is more likely that they will just ignore you.

If you make a Frank angry, they become Frank-incensed.

Apparently starting tomorrow, Tennessee will become the fourth state to honor all other states’ gun carry permits.

In Russia, an AmStaff kept paramedics from saving its owner. It was too good of a guard dog. This is one reason why you should appropriately socialize your dog, I suppose.

It seems The River is keeping its format. I got an email yesterday from the VP saying so. Now the KNS says it too.

Me and the Mrs. moved into our house in September. We started construction several months before that. We called the local cable company (Charter) two months prior to inform them that we’d be moving in September and we’re interested in purchasing cable TV and internet. No problem, they say assuring us they’d have it in by September. We even had our house wired for it with convenient little hookups outside for them.

We were the first to move into the new subdivision. It comes moving time and we call Charter who informs us that there are no cable lines ran to our subdivision. I speak with the builder and he informs me that cable, telephone, and electric had all been notified back when the land was developed and that electric and telephone came out and ran their cables. But not Charter. Me and the Mrs. got satellite TV instead, which is definitely better than cable since it now has local channels. The picture is better and it’s just more convenient.

Now that there are about 20 homes in the subdivision (of which about 14 are sold and lived in), here comes Charter. Back when the land was being developed they could have installed cable which would have been convenient for us homeowners and cheaper for them. Now, they’re installing cable because more people are there. Each home has a ten foot easement on sides facing the roads for these companies to install their pipes and cables and such. All the homes had sod placed in the yard. Here comes Charter with their diggers. They dug trenches in several yards, which leaves a mess and ruins your sod. The knocked out my telephone line. I was lucky, they didn’t have to dig a trench in my yard because the dirt was soft and they could drill under my yard. This exercise is costing them more money than if they’d done it at the start, as the other trenches were already in place.

The real kicker (mind you I was upset at them taking out my telephone line) is that they left a digger parked in a neighbor’s yard for days. This, of course, killed sections of her grass.

In addition, the homes already in the subdivision all have satellite television because cable wasn’t available when they moved in. So, in addition to extra cost because of the time involved in using the drilling machine and replacing telephone lines and sod, they are not getting revenue from the people already living there who opted for satellite because cable wasn’t available.

Charter has had some financial problems recently and I think I see why.

The RTB welcomes the following:

Opinari a right of center sort of blog.

Dreams of Flying Fish, a personal sort of blog.

Hatamaran, which is a hairy blog. Click on it to find out.

And Bugly. Who is engaged in an epic battle with Rug Doctor.

Welcome all!

Jeff has the weekly chart up.

No matter what they do, there will still be the Sunsphere making downtown ugly. What do you do with a giant golden ball? And, no, it’s not Al Gore’s Wig Emporium.

The TN lottery meetings will be closed to the public. So much for as open as possible.

After reading this, linked by SKB, I found that Dennis Kucinich really did sponsor a bill banning orbital mind control lasers:

The bill which was originally H.R. 2977, of the United States House of Representatives was to be extremely important to the fight to expose and stop psycho-electronic or “psychotronic” mind control experimentation on involuntary citizens. The importance is that in this draft bill, the terms “PSYCHOTRONIC” and “MIND CONTROL” were clearly referenced.

And I thought Sharpton was the crazy one.

No, really.

Chuck has moved Redneckin’. Go here.

JP Morgan and Citibank agreed to pay $308M in federal and state charges for complicity in the Enron accounting scandal. The crime is that they didn’t look at Enron’s books to make sure their loan amounts agreed with the amounts the banks knew were outstanding.

Enron recorded loans as revenue and hid the loans on its financial statements. The money quote:

Banks “may not take the view they are not responsible for financial disclosure made by others. They may not hide behind accountants and lawyers. They may not say, ‘Everybody does it.’”

So, if I do business with another entity and I don’t agree their financials to mine then I have violated the law by not verifying the financial disclosure of others?

Update: As Marc asks, why not hold the Justice Department accountable?

Via Steve comes this site.

This well-endowed Asian girl will write submissions (up to 5 words) on her boobs, post the pic, and link to your site for free.

Me and the Mrs. are social-minded folks. We try to do our part. This post is about the difficulties in doing your part. One important element of doing your part is recycling. They™ say it’s good for the environment. They™ say it will ensure that future generations will have parks, clean air, blah blah blah.

Then why is it so hard? In our garage, we have several bins. The bins are labeled: paper, cardboard, aluminum, plastic, plastic bags, glass, newspapers, and magazines. Every couple of weeks, we take the stuff to the recycling center (why the city of Maryville won’t pick up recycling with trash pick-up is beyond me, since They™ say it’s so profitable). But the recycling center doesn’t take all this stuff. They only take milk jugs, not all plastic bottles. They don’t take cardboard, paper, or plastic bags. We have to make a separate stop for those items at the friendly neighborhood Food Lion. We drop off plastic bags in their recycling bin out front and take a buggy of paper and card board to the front office. It’s always someone new. We explain (as we’ve done for 9 months now) that we always bring in our cardboard and stuff and they put it in the crusher in the back for recycling. Food Lion may even make a tiny profit off of it. I also take the aluminum cans to the office and put them in a bin here. So, recycling takes up too much time. But we do it anyway, since we’re so social-minded.

Obviously others are upset about the center’s lack of recyclables too because at the recycling center (where they don’t take cardboard) there is a huge stack of cardboard on the ground beside one of the bins. I guess other recyclers haven’t discovered the grocery store yet.

If this is so beneficial, socially helpful, and profitable, why is it such a pain in the ass?

I’ve been nominated Secretary of the Interior by AlphaPatriot. I need to brush up on my upholstery skills.

A widow sues a gun manufacturer over her husband’s death. The widow loses. The gun manufacturer is now suing the widow to recover legal fees. The company has stated it is not going after her assets, just recovery of costs.

Good. It’s about time these gun companies started playing hardball.

Hat tip: Alphecca

Bob Hope is dead at 100. Godspeed.

The Assault Weapons Ban sunsets in September 2004. Here’s a release on the latest attempt. It bans post-ban models and makes the ban on high capacity magazines permanent (along with the whole bill).

A friend of mine recently had to take his two year old daughter to the emergency room due to an allergic reaction she was having. He loads her up in the car and heads to the ER. They treat her and everything is seemingly fine. The doctor suggests that (just to be safe) my friend take her to another hospital for some additional tests that could identify what caused the problem and that could prevent this from happening again. Of course, my friend agrees.

Enter the EMTs. My buddy drove his daughter to the ER. The EMTs suggest that they take an ambulance to the other hospital to expedite the travel. My buddy, of course, agrees. My buddy takes the car seat out of his car to give to the EMTs. The EMTs (trained professionals) place the car seat in the ambulance. My buddy checks the installation out and it is no good. He unhooks it and installs it himself. He’s thinking that in the amount of time this took, he could have gotten his daughter to the other hospital in his car. He secures her in the seat and off they go.

My buddy is tailing the ambulance (which doesn’t have its lights and sirens on) and waving to his daughter because she sees him tailing and his waving at him mouthing Daddy. The ambulance driver obeys the speed limit and traffic laws. At this point, my buddy is thinking I could have done that. They arrive and everything is OK.

A month later he gets a bill in the mail. One item listed is $600 for unnecessary ambulance fees. He could have done it himself faster. And his insurance won’t reimburse him for the unneeded ambulance fees.

Be careful what professionals talk you into.

Update: The Mrs. informs that my buddy did call 911, who took her from her home to the hospital. And she fell off the couch and it wasn’t an allergic reaction. Getting senile in my old age.

Being the second entry for half a day equals:

Now fellow RTBers, volunteer to host the tailgate party.

Four teenagers went on a rampage through a cemetary, knocking over headstones. They caused up to $100,000 worth of damage.

Someone needs an ass-whippin’.

With the demise of Mr. Davis, it is to be expected that he will be a martyr for gun control. But following typical gun grabber doctrine, the rules don’t apply to him. His organization’s desire for . . . no more guns to fight wars and no guns to kill children wasn’t even followed by Davis. He was known to carry a gun himself. He was even accused of waving his gun around his opponent’s campaign workers.

Good thing he’s not the martyr that gun controllers are looking for.

Update:

“The system killed my brother,” he shouted. “Just the same way they killed Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, the system knew that my brother would continue fighting for the betterment to stop violence. That’s who killed my brother. The system.”

The system?

Also, Askew (the shooter) had a gun license. All these politicians packing while the average New Yorker can’t even get a gun without paying almost $600 in fees before buying a gun.

Here is the current Volunteer Tailgate Party. After literally minutes of hard work and exhaustive research on my part, I’ve put together the finest things that the Rocky Top Brigade has to say about life, the universe and everything.

Rex rescues a pterodactyl. Yes, you read that right, a prehistoric bird.

Barry takes on Confederate symbols and the tenth amendment and interprets the amendment thusly:

it seems to me mostly the amendment says that where there is not a specific federal regulation, the states are free to create their own statutes.

I, of course, think it means that whatever privileges are not granted to the federal government remain with the states and the citizens.

Barry also has the misfortune of going through his family’s first encounter with real live skinheads. Bummer.

Troy bids farewell to his uncle Buddy. He also ponders aging and relevancy of things past in this thought provoking piece.

BA (of A-Team fame) tackles incentive pay.

The venerable Donald Sensing questions whether Democrats are really liberals. And, in the interest of fair and balanced reporting, he delves into whether Bush is really conservative.

Guy Montag alerts us to the NYT 9/11 scam, which evokes the almost always guaranteed to be used for political gain eminent domain (which is not a white rapper). He draws our attention to Hatch’s (again, not a white rapper though he does appear to have some mad skillz on da mic) proposal to rid DC of its draconian gun ban.

The always affable Les Jones enlightens us as to how guns in the hands of citizens can deter terrorists and some good all around quotes.

RTB’s other Barry takes on UraniumGate with the strategic (though seemingly random) use of bold fonts, underlined fonts, and ill-advised line breaks.

Rich talks about something that is near and dear to my heart, jerks. Why is it near and dear to my heart? Because I am a jerk, just not the kind he’s talking about. That type is offensive to us genuine jerks. Underachievers!

Deb over at Sugarfused is pimping for some bling bling. Seriously, if you go to Amazon from her site, she gets credit. Someone may as well profit off my mad clicking.

Jane gives us the skinny on Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Of course, why would straight men need Queer Eyes? We usually get married and go through the same thing on our own, without all the stereotypes.

Manish draws some darn convincing parallels between Islamic terrorists and Nazis. Actually, my conclusion is that terrorism is a war on jealousy. How do you fight against that?

SouthKnoxBubba details Graham’s economic plan, which seems OK except for that tax fairness bit. As if? No one should pay 40%, not even evil millionaires.

Here, your humble host points out what bastards management can be. And here I tell you all about either 1) lying cops or 2) lying reporters.

The above were the submitted articles. The following were picked at my leisure:

Ahh, screw them if they’re too good to submit stuff. See, I really am a jerk.

Update: Thomas submits this entry about 12 words, not 16. And this entry about RAGA extortion.

Update2: CJ addresses Kobe Bryant’s situation.

Disclaimer: This is entirely speculative.

James Davis is dead.

Brooklyn Councilman James Davis, a former New York City police officer, died after being shot twice in the chest.

Seems to me if he was shot twice, he was likely targeted. The killer is still on the loose. Mr. Davis was also a gun control sort of guy.

I wonder if some gun-nut had enough of New York’s oppressive gun laws and decided to commit an act of violence. Ironically, this wouldn’t do much to gain support of your position.

Again, pure speculation but it will be interesting to see what unfolds. In addition pro-gun folks will likely have to start dealing with Remember James Davis from politicians for a while.

Update: It was a political rival. Some reports said the shooter was shot by Davis. Now, the say the shooter was shot by the police. I still say it will get interesting.

One day the first grade teacher was reading the story of the Three Little Pigs to her class. She came to the part of the story where the first pig was trying to accumulate the building materials for his home. She read,”…And so the pig went up to the man with the wheelbarrow full of straw and said, ‘Pardon me sir, but may I have some of that straw to build my house?’” The teacher paused then, and asked the class, “And what do you think that man said?” One little boy raised his hand and said, “I think he said…’Holy shit! A talking pig!”

Michelle links to a site that says the timing of the Hussein brothers’ deaths is because Bush is having trouble. Cool, I guess in about October or November 2004 we can count on finding Saddam and Osama?

Jeff has the weekly gun bias chart and some good info. Give it a read. The chart is also done using a Sig P239, which is a fine pistol. I’m partial to my P229 though.

Politically Incorrect Dog stuff – A pit bull was shot when it attacked a neighbor’s dog. If you’re a dog owner, you should check your fence periodically.

As a last resort, the Willamina man ended up firing two shots into Buddy from a .357 magnum to get him to release a death grip on Digger’s throat.

This just perpetuates the myth that certain dogs can lock their jaws, which no dog is really capable of. They just have strong jaws.

Our governor backed down from supporting a law firm for the lottery board because he has close ties to the firm. Good for him.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to roll back a key provision, which allows the government to conduct secret “sneak and peek” searches of private property, of a sweeping anti-terrorism law passed soon after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The US confirms that Saddam’s sons are dead. Good!

Rush Limbaughtomy posts this, which lists a pic of some guy who he said got busted for weed. Then if you go here, you find the same pic.

I don’t know what gives here but it is a might curious. He got it from here.

I will be hosting the Volunteer Tailgate Party on Thursday(ish). Fellow Rocky Top Brigadiers, submit your entries by tomorrow at 5:00.

And I do mean Damn! Pretty biting bit of satire, I must say.

This article, in addition to having some neat facts, details the following:

13 members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives introduced a bill that would give law enforcement the authority to confiscate all handguns in private possession, unless they are approved by a newly created Handgun Standard Commission. The catch 22 is that no handgun currently manufactured today will be able to comply with the standards outlined in the legislation that this Commission must use to approve handgun sales.

The anti-gun crowd states that registration is not about eventual confiscation to soothe the masses. It is, however, a total lie.

A pit bull attacked four bears at Cades Cove. The winner, of course, was the Momma Bear (but not this Momma Bear – not sure who’d win that one either).

Hollifield was cited with federal charges of harassing wildlife, having an unsecured pet and creating a hazardous situation, according to Miller.

Park rangers want more information from witnesses to determine whether Hollifield ordered the dog after the bears, or whether the animal bolted from the vehicle.

“He is ultimately responsible for the dog,” Miller said, but rangers are seeking witnesses “to corroborate the circumstances of the dog getting at the bear.”

It is good to see an article that identifies the real problem, the irresponsible owner of the dog.

A new free diving record. She held her breath for three minutes and 38 seconds.

I was apparently picked as best all-around Knoxville blogger of the week.

And you should be reading Les Jones’ site.

Headline: Report on USA Patriot Act Alleges Civil Rights Violations

The inspector general’s report, which was presented to Congress last week and is awaiting public release, is likely to raise new concern among lawmakers about whether the Justice Department can police itself when its employees are accused of violating the rights of Muslim and Arab immigrants and others swept up in terrorism investigations under the 2001 law.

The report said that in the six-month period that ended on June 15, the inspector general’s office had received 34 complaints of civil rights and civil liberties violations by department employees that it considered credible, including accusations that Muslim and Arab immigrants in federal detention centers had been beaten.

And, via Bubba, crystal meth is a weapon of mass destruction.

Another criminal shot by intended victim:

. . . a 200 pound man crawled through a window into the house of a 65-year-old woman and demanded money. She gave him $200. He demanded more. She reached into a china cabinet and pulled out a .32-caliber pistol. He ran towards her to get the gun away. She fired two shots.

This didn’t happen of course. Because the Violence Policy Center and the Brady Bunch have told us that you’re more likely to have your own gun used against you than to use it to defend yourself. This is especially true if you’re a 65 year-old woman being accosted by a 200 pound man.

And a random gun quote:

GFW: “I wish all you gun-toting fucktards would just go create your own nation.”

Gun Nut: “We did. Who the hell let you in here?”

In Kalifornia, police can interrogate children without notifying parents.

Someone nobody heard of won the British Open.

Shake up at the BBC. I’m sure the Blogosphere is somehow responsible.

The SayUncle household went to the lake this weekend for some swimming. Actually, we took the dogs so they could swim while me and the Mrs. had some adult beverages. That didn’t last long, as soon as pupster and the elder dog (herein after referred to as Politically Incorrect Dog – PID – and Politically Correct Dog – PCD – respectively) decided to go for a swim, I couldn’t help myself:

Image

PID has one rule for playing at the lake. That rule is that anything in the water must be taken out of the water, such as this stump:

Image

Here PID has successfully saved the stump by returning it to land:

Image

Oh and this goes for any trees that might have decided to grow in the water or were flooded when the lake level rose. Here PID dispatches a small tree:

Image

Also, should PID save a particular piece of foilage and someone happens to throw it back in the water, he will again rescue it and hide it deep in the woods. We thought maybe he was building a nest or something at first.

Note to self: When swimming with a bulldog, wear some kind of armor to protect yourself. Also, you’re a pasty white boy. And a push-up or two every now and then wouldn’t hurt:

Image

And any day at the lake should end in a nap:

Image

Yes, I really do sleep like that.

America is at that awkward stage. It’s too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards.

Read here.

Jeff states:

I’ve often said that the “left” discriminates far more than the right. Point in fact: Few “liberal” gay blogs link to me. If you look at my blogroll or scan the blog-link sites, you’ll see that it is really only libertarians and conservatives who accept me for who I am.

Of course, Jeff is also a pro-gun guy. Other pro-gun guys seem to have problems with gay folks. Seems Jeff is in a tough spot, being criticized from the left and right. Of course, what anyone does in the privacy of their own home (assuming it doesn’t harm anyone unwillingly) is nobody else’s damn business.

Here’s to you, Jeff! It’s none of my business what goes on in your bedroom, whether it involves guns (giggle) or not. And I think you’re a helluva guy, but not in that way because I’m married to a woman. And I hope you have a sense of humor about this whole gay thing or, else, I was just bumped off your blogroll.

And there’s nothing wrong with living in Vermont either, it’s perfectly normal.

The Federal District Court dismissed the challenge to the Nevada Supreme Court’s heinous ruling.

Memphis man Mike Hollihan (who needs to get that new blog going ASAFP) emails this story about a pistol packing preacher (I am a mean MM MM servant of God? – bonus for the reference).

AlphaPatriot and Kevin have told us that the response by officials in Memphis to the rash of justified shootings in self-defense has been to warn citizens not to go shooting people willy-nilly or we’ll persecute err prosecute you. They do this instead of warning people that if you try to victimize others, you may get your punk ass shot (six or more times, in some cases).

Rev. Louis Brenton is armed everywhere he goes, sometimes with the Bible but always with a Glock 23.

Brenton said carrying a gun makes him feel more at ease in Memphis. He’s prepared to defend himself if he is ever attacked.

He is capable of dishing out some justice and last rites (I realize he’s not Catholic). This good Reverend has a congregation going:

Cassandra Holland, 32, knows that feeling, too. The Loomis Fargo & Co. employee was robbed at gunpoint in 2000.

“Every time I went to sleep, I’d see that gun in my face,” she said. “So, I said, ‘No more.’ ”

If it happens again, she said, she’s not afraid to pull the .32-caliber pistol she just bought. “I’m ready,” she said. “If you come in my house and I don’t know who you are, I’ll fire on you.”

I recommend Cassandra purchase a .45. Religious differences, I suppose.

And the Reverend’s flock is growing:

With the recent wave of armed robberies and home invasions, many are weighing the decision to carry a gun.

The rest of the article consists of various sycophants trying to convince you that packing heat isn’t such a good idea. They’re wrong. It is a good idea, just educate yourself and practice. Packing requires responsibility.

Jay has started a contest. The rules are (assuming you align yourself with Democrats or Republicans) to act as a consultant for the party you’re not aligned with and tell them how to get elected.

I don’t align myself with a particular party, so here’s my advice to both of them:

Democrats: Find some issues. Their only issue these days seem to be look what Bush is doing and Republicans are mean or stupid or evil or incompetent or out to get you all. Not a big winner with most folks.

Oh, and stop backing stupid gun control laws. Even the Democrats Big Dog said: . . . there are some people who would be on this platform today who lost their seats in 1994 because they voted for the Brady Bill and they voted for the assault weapons ban, and they did it in areas where people could be frightened. The Bill of Rights isn’t optional.

Stop backing ludicrous politically correct tripe, such as the assertion that God can’t be mentioned anywhere. It has that strange Orwellian feeling to it.

And lose the Nanny To The Masses nonsense. We can’t afford it. You don’t know what’s good for me. It’s up to the government to protect me from others. I’ll protect me from me.

And point out real issues the Republicans have, like the ties to Saudi Oil and the colossal fiasco that is Homeland Security/Total Information Awareness (oh wait, most of you voted for it too). The issues aren’t Blood for Oil or UraniumGate or any other horse and pony show you can get the NYT/BBC to blather about. Find something important. Oh and talking up the downturn in the economy ain’t working because it was going on during your watch too and people know it. And babbling on about selected not elected makes you seem a bit nuts.

And catering to that NAACP bigot? What the hell!

And back some tax cuts. Hell, propose your own and target them toward the people you want to get them Tax cuts are always good.

Republicans: Remember when you were the party of small government? Some of us do. You’ve really shot that one in the ass. A new huge department and the largest federal register ever. Shame, shame.

Look at your current record on civil liberties: Homeland Security has that Nazi flavor to it. Jailing people without lawyers? Tsk, tsk. The Bill of Rights isn’t optional nor is it something that should be conveniently sidestepped.

Stop pandering to racists and religious zealots. And that whole Saudi Arabia connection thing needs to stop.

And your big boy is backing the assault weapons ban of 1994. This attitude that gun owners have no one else to vote for is appalling.

Get your spending under control. That was one thing you harped the other side for. I guess the party of smaller government is the one that isn’t in power.

Fire Ashcroft.

I figure that’s a good start.

Stolen from Keep and Bear Arms, this Million Four Mom March fanny pack would make an excellent place to keep your concealed weapons.

Do it for the children.

A Cocke County grand jury has recommended firearm safety training at school, as a result of the Interstate 40 shootings.

I think this is a good idea. I had (and taught) hunter safety and marksmanship in high school ROTC. And to this day, I haven’t shot anyone. The system works!

Seriously, I have several friends who refuse to even acknowledge guns exist in front of their children. They don’t talk about them at all. When one of these children finds one, it could be devastating. Their only exposure to guns is seeing them glorified on TV. A child educated in the basics of firearms safety will know:

Don’t touch.
Leave the area.
Tell an adult.

They will also know:

Treat all guns as if they’re loaded.
Keep your finger off the trigger until you’re ready to pull it.
Never point a gun at anything you’re not willing to destroy.
Be sure of your target and what’s behind it.

Knowledge is power and it may save a child’s life.

Police searching for a missing Ministry of Defense adviser, who was named by the government as the possible source for a disputed news report that claimed intelligence on Iraqi weapons was doctored to strengthen the case for war, said Friday they have found a man’s body near his home.

but she could. The winner of the Worst Writing Award:

They had but one last remaining night together, so they embraced each other as tightly as that two-flavor entwined string cheese that is orange and yellowish-white, the orange probably being a bland Cheddar and the white … Mozzarella, although it could possibly be Provolone or just plain American, as it really doesn’t taste distinctly dissimilar from the orange, yet they would have you believe it does by coloring it differently.

Blogworthy!

The media gets a lot of gun facts wrong (like stating the Assault Weapons Ban of 94 bans automatic weapons when it doesn’t). Publicola delves into some of that in this fine piece about the LAPD going to Glocks. Most of the media disinformation comes from the cops in this article.

And the cops were badmouthing Sigs, which are the official sidearm of SayUncle. Of course the cops were either lying or ignorant:

San Fernando police officers traded in their Sig Sauers two months ago after a colleague accidentally dropped his half-cocked weapon in the parking lot and it discharged, striking him in the head and killing him.

Sigs do not have a half cock. Sigs have a firing pin block that is engaged when the pistol is decocked using the decocking lever. Sig even issued warnings (for older models) stating never to manually decock the arm (i.e., thumb on hammer, pull trigger, use thumb to ease hammer down) and to always use the decocker to ensure the firing pin block engages.

On newer models, this isn’t an issue I don’t think. I’m guessing this policeman manually decocked an older pistol and dropped it right on the hammer (that’s the only way it is physically possible). or he accidentally shot himself and that’s not something you tell people a policeman did.

There is a bill to repeal DC’s draconian gun ban. I guess all those lawsuits are starting to have an effect.

UnknownNews is back. And there was much rejoicing.

Kevin has an outstanding essay on a variety of gun related topics. Read the whole thing!™

My favorite gay gun-nut from Vermont has the new weekly gun bias chart up and it’s dedicated to little ol’ me.

This is another alarmist example of how breed specific legislation gets started:

A Murfreesboro woman wants to know why a police officer freed a pit bull terrier from a chicken coop Sunday, allowing it and another dog to kill her family’s cat.

The dogs were running loose and got in a chicken coop and killed the chicken. One dog got trapped in the coop. The policeman showed up and freed the dog. Then the two dogs killed the same lady’s cat.

The owner (regardless of how loveable his dogs are) should have his dogs in a fenced in yard and not running loose. Dogs are hunters and they naturally are inclined to kill things.

Had this been a Golden Retriever instead of a pit bull, it likely wouldn’t have made the news.

From WATE:

Directors across East Tennessee say they’re taking in 30 to 80 animals a day. This June, an alarming 1,400 pets were dropped off at the Knoxville center alone. “It’s up from the previous year by about 300,” Williams says.

Mostly this is due to irresponsible pet owners but the article goes on to say that people falling on hard economic times (moving to small apartments) has lead to the increase in abandoned pets.

Of the 1,400 animals that came into the Knoxville/Knox County Animal Shelter in June, nearly 1,100 had to be put down.

It seems as though that revolt I called for earlier may not be necessary. The always excellent AlphaPatriot has the scoop.

My wife is an intelligent and well-qualified woman. She has a graduate degree and is, in my opinion, overqualified for her job. My wife works at Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center (FSRMC). FSRMC recently announced its intent to close its in-house daycare center used by employees, on or before October 1. At a meeting, some executive announced (rather callously) that the rumors were true and that the daycare was closing. This same executive also stated that the daycare represented prime real estate and that the daycare was operating at a break even point. However, the hospital is in need of revenue and the daycare would be closing so that two new doctors could occupy the roughly 2,400 square foot area currently used by the daycare and bring in some revenue. I’m uncertain why two doctors need a space that is larger than my house. My wife states that there is plenty of space at the hospital that is not being utilized.

The daycare serves 42 families and employs 13 staff. In addition, the daycare provided quality service at a very competitive price to employees. The daycare was touted to potential employees as a benefit. It is also convenient and physically located at the hospital. It provided many benefits, such as allowing employees to visit their children while on breaks. A mother could drop in and breast feed, if needed. Since the daycare was located in the same building, it eliminated the drive that most people have to go through during their morning and evening commutes.

FSRMC is a non-profit company. Unfortunately for many employees of non-profit companies, they are not in it for the money. This leads to problems for them because their job is important because they are helping people; not because the make big money. Their pay and their benefits come second fiddle to helping out those in need. Their employers know that. Their employers take advantage of that. The employees are often the first to suffer in the name of the bottom line. This is the same company that wouldn’t give its own employee a bone marrow transplant due to insurance problems until the media got wind of the story.

The division of the hospital that my wife works for has a terrible morale problem. In fact, my home telephone rings constantly because my wife’s coworkers are calling to complain to the wife about whatever is currently happening. It’s distressing. In my wife’s division, every department head has been fired in the last one year. Every one! Now, if one or two managers get fired, that is easy to attribute to incompetence or poor job performance. Firing every department manager alludes to problems with upper management. If you don’t believe me, you haven’t worked in the corporate world. Also, many of those fired managers were later re-hired at lower paying positions.

So, why hasn’t my wife quit? One reason: the daycare. My wife has had opportunities for employment elsewhere. Some of these opportunities pay more and offer just as much opportunity to help people out. Me and the Mrs. are planning to have children. It would be convenient if our daycare was located where my wife worked and it was competitively priced, and it was. That benefit is worth money to us. The wife could work somewhere else for more money, but pay more for a less convenient daycare. So, she toughed out rounds and rounds of lay-offs; many firings of supervisors and managers; horrendous morale issues; more and more responsibility; and pathetic cost of living pay raises for a soon-to-be-non-existent daycare. The daycare was a benefit used to attract potential employees and therefore considered as part of the whole employment package. Of course, there are no plans to compensate employees for this lost benefit.

The closing was announced last week and the closing date is on or before October first. Anyone who has a child in daycare knows that three months is not ample time to find a new daycare. Most folks at FSRMC are going to be struggling to find a quality daycare in time.

What’s the Mrs. going to do? She’s not certain. But I tend to think she’ll think twice the next time an opportunity presents itself. She also asked what I thought she could do. I told her to contact the local media and that, hopefully, the media would run a heartrending story about the poor oppressed hospital workers. I contacted the News Sentinel (and there was a little blurb) and I contacted WATE, who did about a three minute news story on it. That news story mentioned that employees were afraid to speak on camera for fear of being fired and how many people the daycare served. My wife mentioned that the FSRMC Human Resources department sent out a request for a list of people who spoke up at the announcement meeting as soon as they learned that camera crews were on the premises. So, yeah, people were scared of losing their jobs. The WATE story wasn’t hard enough on the hospital, in my opinion (the link to the story appears to have disappeared).

I told her their next course of action could be to stage a protest or a walkout. Of course, I warned her, a walkout couldn’t include essential life-saving emergency employees. I doubt the employees will organize such activities as most of them genuinely fear for their jobs. I tend to think the daycare is a lost cause at this point.

Update: Link to the WATE article.

Update2: A reader offers the following fact checks:

1) The Enrichment Center is not in the same building as the hospital, but catty-cornered across the street in the Newland Professional Building. FSRMC, the professional buildings, Thompson Cancer Center, Laurel Plaza and Children’s Hospital are all connected by tunnels, however.

Apologies for the error. My info came from talking to people and I got the impression it was attached. Of course, it is still conveniently close.

2) To my knowledge doctors cannot have personal practice office space inside the hospital itself.

I suppose this implies that the daycare space will merely be rented out.

3) The lady never received a bone marrow transplant, to my knowledge, and in fact died recently.

Truly unfortunate. I wonder if her passing could have been prevented with the transplant.

4) The daycare isn’t technically an employee benefit – the hospital pays about half in subsidies and the parents pay about half in tuition. It’s not on the same line as 401(k)’s or insurance or PTO.

It’s a benefit in that employees can use it. The employees do have to pay for it. I wonder if the subsidies will continue when the daycare goes, which is not unheard of in non-profit companies.

Massachusetts classified spiked bracelets as dangerous weapons. Now the police are cracking down on them:

District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett has ordered police in Essex County to crack down on spiked bracelets, which fall under the state’s definition of a dangerous weapon.

In Danvers, the bracelets have accounted for more than 75 percent of the weapons violations last year.

By classifying something that isn’t a weapon as a weapon, crime has increased. Good job, bureaucrats.

Bjorn Again has called it quits.

Pour a 40 for our fallen homies, yo.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan made his strongest pitch yet to President Bush for American peacekeeping troops in Liberia, but Bush is deferring his decision until he gathers more information.

Where was this pitch during the Iraq buildup? Actually, the UN delays of Iraqi action probably allowed WMDs to be hidden (they had six months). I’m for sending troops to Liberia. So is Annan, Dean, and some others that weren’t for Iraqi Freedom. What gives?

Given my troubles with geese and my dislike for the little bastards, I’m not sad that New Jersey Hell has started gassing them.

Jane is right, geese must be liberals. Of course, instead of gas, Hell should use dogs.

This is funny. A polling group found that most Palestinians do not want to return to their homes in Israel but rather want to move to homes in a permanent Palestinian state.

So, a group of Palestinians raided the polling group’s offices and rioted. Nice.

Kathy links to this story that tells us:

THE US has discovered what it believes is decisive proof of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction programs and taken the material to the US for testing.

If nothing else, the military has learned not to call something anthrax until it knows that it’s anthrax.

A common conception throughout the world stipulates progressive taxation. The concept being rooted in From each according to his ability. In other words, poor folks pay less and wealthy folks pay more. At least it should work that way in theory. It doesn’t. The rich have cash at their disposal that can be used to avoid taxes. The poor do not. If you have $4,000 laying around, dump it in a Roth IRA and avoid (defer) paying taxes on it. Form an S-Corp and salary yourself. Buy an SUV. People with cash do these things and avoid taxes. And I don’t blame them one bit and I do it when I can. And people pay accountants $150 – $300 per hour to tell them how to avoid paying taxes.

Enter the flat tax. Under this method, all people pay a certain percentage. Progressive tax folks say it’s not fair because it places an undue burden on the poor (15% of $10,000 in income has a greater impact on the quality of life than 15% of $1,000,000). I thought there was some truth to that until now.

In parts of what was the Soviet Union, there has been a flat tax of 13% implemented by Putin. Some of the results:

One senior government tax official estimates that before the flat tax took effect at the beginning of 2001, Russians on average declared as little as 25% of their income. Since it was introduced, there has been a marked increase in both payment rates and revenue. Official statistics show that income tax revenue rose 28% between 2000 and 2001, and a further 21% by last year, after adjustment for inflation. Total government revenue from personal income taxes shot up from an unadjusted $6.2 billion in 2000 to almost $12 billion last year.

The government made more money while reducing the tax burden of a large number of citizens.

In the US, things are different due to our progressive tax structure:

Total tax collections in the U.S. are expected to be $2,667,000,000,000 in 1998. This represents 35.4% of the country’s total income.

In 1997, the median tax rate of a single income family was 35.9%. A dual income family paid 37.6%.

In addition, accounting fees for tax preparation and compliance fees cost Americans about $593 billion per year. And low income earners lost $1B in 2002 in loan charges and fees for rapid refund tax loans. And if you exclude the lowest incomes from paying any taxes at all, you can avoid the rapid tax refund rape that they currently go through (and, of course, they’re not taxed).

Why have a progressive tax system that doesn’t work?” asks Vladimir Redkin, an economist at Russia’s Bureau of Economic Analysis.

Yup.

Robert Prather comments on the Enumerated Powers act. I find this to be a grand idea:

Requires each Act of Congress to contain a concise and definite statement of the constitutional authority relied upon for the enactment of each portion of that Act. Declares that failure to comply with this requirement shall give rise to a point of order in either House of Congress.

It has absolutely no chance of passing whatsoever, in my opinion. Why? Because it limits the power of our congress critters and they’re not keen on that idea.

Jeff does a better job of thrashing the UN than I did.

People have asked me, given my position on the second amendment, what would warrant a civilian uprising? Well, this definitely would. It seems the Nevada Supreme Court just decided to override the law of the land.

Update: Clayton Cramer says Nevada is just taking a lesson from the Supreme Court and applying it:

Once “ends justify the means” becomes an adequate reason for judges to make decisions, all that’s left is raw power and its abuse.

Indeed™

Update2: On second thought, maybe they should try the Supreme Court before getting all testy.

After joining the RTB, Free Speech News was hacked. Free Speech News suspects, from its logs, that the hackers originated from the US military.

Quite frightening if true.

Update: Free Speech News apologizes to the military and states they know who did it.

Kevin has the latest on what Tennesseans are yakking about.

The RTB welcomes Free Speech News and Team Rock.

Justin links to this story in which the UN claims America has nearly one gun for every American. And the problem is? Money shot:

“This is enough guns to perpetuate fighting in many countries and raise the danger of criminal violence in many others, but it is not enough to render the situation totally beyond hope,” the survey said.

And

“Contrary to the common assumption that Europeans are virtually unarmed, the 15 countries of the European Union have an estimated 84 million firearms. Of that 67 million (80 percent) are in civilian hands,” the survey said. With a total population of 375 million people, this amounts to 17.4 guns for every 100 people.

Also, Justin tells that the PFC Lynch story is problematic because he’s unaware of any military issued revolvers.

Turns out the Bush Lied, People Died folks need a new slogan. The story about the President lying about Nigerian uranium was, well, a lie.

Update: I have the slogan: A source lied, and liberals cried.

Update2: The original story says the Whitehouse acknowledged and doesn’t state who at the whitehouse. Further reading states that the supposed CIA source used was this liar. And the story at sfgate was pretty much identical to the original capitol blue story.

The sole relevant source for the entire story has been discredited.

Moron.

Knoxville’s downtown has sucked for a long time. One reason was there was no free parking. That’s changing:

Starting Thursday, the 2,300 parking spaces in the Civic Coliseum garage will be free. Motorists can a free shuttle from the coliseum to most areas of downtown. The wait should be no longer than 10 minutes. It’s part of the city’s “Unparalleled Parking” program, lasting through the end of September.

Now, if they could make the parking convenient, they might be on to something.

President George W Bush disappointed millions of Zimbabweans yesterday when he said America would defer to South Africa’s quiet diplomacy on changing the behaviour of President Robert Mugabe’s regime.

Brady Campaign Release:

To: National Desk

Contact: Peter Hamm of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence United with the Million Mom March, 202-898-0792

WASHINGTON, July 8 /U.S. Newswire/ — Mike Barnes, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence United with the Million Mom March, released the following statement today:

“This morning, a tragic shooting occurred at a Lockheed Martin plant near Meridian, Mississippi. As of now, six are dead including the gunman, and at least eight others are injured. Our thoughts go out to the families of those lost, as well as the injured people and their families.

“We need to do everything in our power to support law enforcement as they sort out the terrible details of his horrible crime. In the wake of yet another horrible mass shooting, Congress and President Bush need no more reminders of why they should work to reauthorize and strengthen the federal ban on assault weapons. While we don’t yet know what weapon was used in this tragedy, we do know that rapid-fire assault weapons are designed for this type of terrible assault.”

Emphasis added for you people that need to be told that. Of course, it’s semi-automatics that they’re referring to and not assault weapons. But these anti-gun zealots are not known for being truthful.

Call Mr. Hamm at 202-898-0792 and inform him that his use of rhetoric is both misleading and intellectually dishonest. Also, inform him that the AW Ban did not deter this incident (it is still in effect, you know) and that the AW Ban has had zero effect on crime.

An update to this case in Maryland where a guy was building guns (which isn’t illegal in Maryland):

Wheeler is charged with several misdemeanors that are all related to the gunpowder police found in the home. Miller reported that police will not disclose the other locations they’ve searched and call their investigation “very active.”

. . . all of the search warrants in this case remain sealed

So, having gunpowder is apparently illegal in Maryland? And the warrants remained sealed? Sealed search warrants scare the crap out of me. This info should be made available.

Don’t get me wrong, this alleged white supremacist likely should be locked up but people need to know why. Several misdemeanors, which aren’t disclosed, doesn’t seem to warrant (no pun intended) $2M dollars in bail and closed search warrants.

Tobacco Road Fogey. He rolled me and I started reading. Great site, give it a read!

One note on the blogroll, if it’s in my blogroll then I read it daily. I don’t like to do that link trading stuff. Of course, if you roll me then I’ll see that and read your site. Odds are, if you’re linking to me that you fit a certain political mentality comparable to mine; or you’re just screwed up. So, I’ll likely wind up linking to you anyway.

A Washington County judge has put a couple in jail after authorities found the bodies of more than two dozen cats in their freezer.

Stonehenge is apparently porn.

They’ve apparently found a South American piranha in Alcoa, Tennessee.

Bjorn has a good piece on fundraising:

A new study by the Center for Responsive Politics found that in the last election cycle, people who gave less than $200 to politicians or parties gave 64 percent of their money to Republicans. Just 35 percent went to Democrats. On the other hand, the Center found that people who gave $1 million or more gave 92 percent to Democrats — and a whopping eight percent to Republicans.

I thought Republicans catered to the wealthy? Why are the wealthy then contributing to Democrats? Tis ponderous.

Bill has asked folks to link to Econopundit to help win the Blog Showcase. I blogrolled Econopundit a while back and it is definitely a good read.

Go check out this post and link to it to cast a vote for this fine blog.

The anti-war crowd is all over the story about Bush incorrectly stating that Iraq sought uranium. The anti-war crowd also holds falsely to a belief that the war was entirely about weapons of mass destruction (or oil, depending on the day of the week).

The war was actually the result of several things:

Weapons of mass destruction and/or intent to make them
Violation of UN resolutions
Gross human rights violations
Fighting terrorism
Hussein is(was) generally an evil bastard

OK, I just put that last one in there. Bush was wrong to lie about uranium, if he lied. However, it is entirely possible that at the time it was believed to be true by the intelligence that the administration was privy to.

The anti-war crowd seems to conveniently forget the other reasons for the war. Their response is always to enquire about the weapons. Where are they? This is a very short-sighted measure of the war. Some people just oppose all war, and that is at least a somewhat morally respectable position. However, the rest fall into the category of believing that Bush can never be right about anything, ever.

I think the human rights violations alone warranted the action. This is based on the assumption that liberating the people will do more good than harm. For example, it would be impossible to liberate China without massive casualties. Therefore, the risk involved may not be worth the cost of millions of Chinese lives or a nuke lobbed at the West Coast. In addition, the anti-war crowd seems to think the word unilateral means without liberal approval. There was more than one country involved in the operation.

Does this mean I’d support efforts to remove the Mullah’s in Iran? Or to liberate Zimbabwe? Yes, assuming said liberation would be worth the cost in human lives.

I realize that quantifying the cost is fairly subjective and, arguably, cruel. Per Iraqometer, there have been roughly 6,000 civilian casualties. Is this a price that warrants action? Some say no. However, the former Iraqi regime likely would kill and torture many more than that over time. I would conclude that the cost is worth it. I (as one of those people not killed nor at risk of being killed) can easily sit back and say that. Also, the anti-war crowd just as easily can sit while people continue to suffer under Hussein because the suffering doesn’t affect them.

Ultimately, I’d like to have seen the people themselves revolt but that couldn’t happen due to the military stranglehold and overwhelming fear in the country. Intervention was needed.

I think the situation in Iran could lead to mass murder. If the people do revolt and the Mullahs are scared, people are going to die. Is it worth it? That’s up to the people to decide. If US intervention increases their chances and minimizes the risk, then I’m all for it as well.

Bubba has some advice for hippies doing business or trying to do business, while alienating a large demographic.

Losers.

Buck tells us about the good kind of government spying.

A TVA nuclear plant has lost a gun.

The government seems to be losing a lot of guns lately.

By my count, the government has reported putting 802 guns on the street in five days. I thought all the big ol’ evil guns came from gun shows?

I thought Republicans were the party of smaller government? But the Federal Register is now the longest ever.

I guess whichever party isn’t in power is the party of smaller government. Funny how that works.