Per this:

North Korea and Iran are planning to form an alliance to develop long-range ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads, the Sankei newspaper said, citing unidentified Japanese military officials familiar with situations on the Korean Peninsula.

Uhm, if true, this is really not smart.

In light of recent events, you wanna bet on whether or not someone tries to pass legislation in the future that changes the requirements for being eligible to run for president?

There is a new pet store in Maryville called Pet Land. The Mrs. went to check it out, hoping that it would be like PetsMart. It wasn’t. The sold all kinds of purebred dogs that likely come from puppy mills, purveyors of misery. We won’t be back.

I like PetsMart because they only have adoption services and don’t sell purebreds. They also let you take your dog (it’s a great place to go to socialize your dog with people and other dogs, cats don’t do so well).

As Bubba tells us, the other pet store in Maryville is not better.

Two new additions to the blogroll: First up is Dizzy Girl. I noticed some hits from her site, been reading ever since. Her site is an entertaining read.

Next up is Hi, I’m Black, who linked to me a while back. I’d link to him just for the Mr. T theme. Also very entertaining.

Deb has done an outstanding job with the VTP. Check it, yo.

Ahnold will run. Total Recall. I’ll be back and all the other things you can say about that.

There’s gonna be a gay pope or something.

Kobe’s in trouble. The one thing I don’t quite understand is that he cheats on his wife and she appears at a press conference holding his hand and being supportive. I guess an $8,000,000 ring will do that.

Kathy links to a story about the Islamic invasion of America.

Les answers the question: If I could have one handgun to last the rest of my life, what would it be?

My answer is the Sigarms P229 (which I have). Why? In my opinion, Sigs are superior to all other handguns. The reason is that they are durable, easy to operate, and hands down the most reliable gun I’ve ever owned. I’ve put thousands and thousands of rounds through the three Sigs I’ve owned. I have had one jam that was due to an after market (i.e., not a Sig) magazine failing to feed a round. Also, on Sigs, all three functions are easily reached with your thumb. The magazine release, slide release, and decocker are located near where you thumb lies, unlike the 1911 (a fine gun, but not conveniently designed) where people with small hands can’t engage the slide release without two hands and other folks can’t do it without sacrificing site picture. Also, 9MM is a standard military round and there will never be a short supply of it.

A close second was the 1911 (for the same reasons above) but it’s awkward ergonomics caused it to lose out.

If the question was: If I could have one gun (i.e., not just handgun) to last the rest of my life, what would it be?

A Springfield M1A Scout (one I don’t have). Small, accurate, reliable, and there are enough military surplus parts and ammo to keep you in business indefinitely. The AR15 (which I have) came in second but was beaten due to the fact .308 Winchester is superior to 5.56X45MM for hunting and almost anything. Sure, you can carry more 5.56 but with a .308, you don’t need that much.

I found Dog Watch, which is a good site for keeping up with pet related legislation.

Two items leapt out at me, the first being this:

The city council is considering a strict breeding ordinance that could severely impact your ability to breed and show dogs.

Key Points of the Proposed Law:
· Professional animal care permits and annual inspections for anyone involved in breeding animals. A city business license would be required in order to apply for the permit.
· Those who breed without first obtaining a permit will be required to pay a litter fee and furnish the receipt number to pet purchasers who request it.
· Mandatory spay/neuter for all dogs and cats unless owners obtain an annual unaltered animal permit.
· Prohibits owning more than any combination of four dogs and cats unless residents purchase a multiple animal site or kennel permit.
Fee schedules and penalties will be established by the city at a later date.

In typical nanny fashion, the response to pet overpopulation is to legislate fees, licenses and penalties on everyone.

The second article, which is more disturbing, is this one from Maryland:

Hagerstown residents who own pit bulls would have to register them with the Hagerstown Police Department within 60 days or risk losing them under an ordinance Police Chief Arthur Smith on Tuesday asked the Hagerstown City Council to adopt.

Under the proposal, there would be only one 60-day period during which pit bulls could be registered.

At the close of the registration period, pit bulls could not legally be moved into Hagerstown, and unregistered pit bulls already in the city would be illegal.

In both cases, the owners would be required to forfeit the animals to the city, Smith said.

This is also the same type of thing governments do when banning certain guns. Older guns are grand-fathered but must be registered or risk the threat of confiscation. More:

Smith said the registration should be required for pit bulls because the animals are bred to be more vicious than other dogs.

“When it bites, it attacks in a more dangerous way than any other breed. It does not just bite you – it bites you and holds on,” Smith said.

Neither statement is true. Pit bulls are no more dangerous than any other dog as long as the pit bull, and the other dog, are both appropriately socialized. And pit bulls, despite urban legend, do not have the magic power to lock their jaws.

Because pit bulls are fierce, they are the animal of choice for drug dealers, Smith said. The dogs have become one more thing for officers to worry about when they conduct searches, he said.

Smith said that since drug dealers tend not to stay in one place for long, he does not think most dealers would go through the process of registering their dogs.

Since they admit one target of the legislation won’t comply anyway, what’s the point? And even if there is a door-to-door confiscation of pit bulls, drug dealers will switch to another breed (just like dog fighters did in Detroit).

The ordinance would require pit bull owners either to keep the animal indoors or, when outdoors, confined in an enclosed, locked pen with either a top or with all sides at least 6 feet high or muzzled and kept on a leash.

Again, the similarity to gun bans is astonishing. Not a lockbox, but in a pen.

Under the law, a dog owner would have to show proof of current liability insurance in the minimum amount of $50,000 for bodily injury or death of any person.

Now, this is just silly. Any large dog can do damage to anyone. It’s about owner responsibilities not breeds.

I am also remiss in mentioning that I’ve reconsidered my stance on the AKC. I think that it’s up to responsible pet owners to address puppy mills and unethical breeders. In addition, I found this AKC resource that also follows canine legislation.

It seems the AKC is pretty successful at lobbying against Breed Specific Legislation and kudos to them for that. In addition, the AKC has successfully lobbied for many laws in many states that legislate that a dog’s breed can not be a determining factor in deciding if the dog is dangerous.

I now have something else that they will have to take from my cold, dead hands.

Update: Not the face of a killer

And congrats to me on my first photoshop attempt. Does it suck?

A brewer has been asked to create a beer for women. They did, it’s called wine coolers.

One of my late friends once said in high school: Wine coolers suck but they got girls to drink. Werd!

Man arrested for doing home improvements:

According to the report, Michael Dolceacqua, 41, of 67 Hill St. was charged with doing home improvements without a permit, failure to refund payment of home improvements, failure to furnish a proper contract, failure to provide notice of cancellation and failure to provide contract copies.
He was released on a PTA for court Aug. 12.

Via UnknownNews.

From Publicola and Rachel Lucas: William Gates opened fire on drug dealers engaged in a shootout in his front yard. He did some damage. The police came and confiscated all of Mr. Gates guns. All of them.

Now, if this were me, I’d have likely assumed that taking the initial gun that I engaged the drug dealers with was for evidence. I may have let that slide, under the pretense I’d get it back soon and it would aid the judicial system.

If the police announced their unwarranted, unreasonable intent to search and seize my guns based on this premise, I’d be in the news for two shootings.

The police stated that there was no crime committed by Mr. Gates, yet confiscated his guns. Appalling.

Bill told labor unions that Bush could be beaten by placing emphasis on the underperforming economy, unemployment, tax cuts that have benefited the wealthy, and questions on the war in Iraq and the credibility of the administration’s case for war.

Of course, the economy can’t be controlled nor can unemployment. The tax cuts benefit lower wage earners as a percentage of income. And people still support the war.

And this guy’s the big dog? He can’t even beat Bush with that spiel.

A Bourbon plant caught fire. Such a waste even if it is Jim Beam.

Update: The Knob Creek plant is apparently safe.

Deb will be hosting the Volunteer Tailgate Party. Get your submissions ready.

Some folks who never see a need for guns and are defacto anti-gun (not that I’m mentioning names or anything like that), may want to read this post.

After Davis’ death, the post runs this article on the Armed and Famous. There are plenty of armed famous people in New York. I’m glad the celebrities can defend themselves. It makes me feel safe.

They are just like us, only better.

LayLines is back from the left coast.

A man was cleared of child porn charges after it was discovered the images were placed on his computer by a trojan horse.

My buddy Kevin over at LeanLeft is experiencing technical difficulties and unable to post. Since he’s unable to blog for a couple of days, I will step in and pitch hit. Here’s what you’re missing:

Bush is evil.
Rove is eviler.
Ashcroft is the evilest.
Republicans are bad, uhhmkay.
The Iraq thing isn’t going so well.
The Bush administration is up to some nefarious plot.

You have been updated.

Now there are 10 losers. And by losers, I am predicting the Democrats have no chance of winning the presidency in 2004. I’d bet one cold beer on that.

You may not believe this but SayUncle is a Christian. Yup, I believe in God. Why? One reason is that it seems too coincidental that some random carbon-laced gob of goo was energized into life. What are the odds of that? I’m guessing about the same as the odds of a tornado tearing through a junkyard and assembling a mint condition 1965 Buick Wildcat. I am, however, not overly religious. I don’t preach the gospel or really ever bring my religious views up in conversation, unless asked.

My parents were never big into the church thing. They never went and never made me go. When I was a wee lad, I attended a church because I wanted to. My parents went once, to witness my baptism. I decided at this early age that some of the stuff in the Bible was made up. No one lives to be 900. I also found (in addition to stuff being made up) that those whose job it was to teach this stuff reacted poorly (often making up more stuff) when asked about things that were inconsistent with the Bible. I asked the good reverend one day (again, as a wee lad): What happened to the dinosaurs? Why aren’t they in the Bible? His response was that odds are they died in the flood. He didn’t address their lack of mention in the Bible. As a wee lad, I realized this guy was full of shit. Partly because of the dinosaur thing but also because he told us we were going to Hell for listening to Top 40 tunes. Actually, him telling us that didn’t bother me but the zeal with which the congregation tore into it did. It became a witch hunt. All others were fond of tattling that so-and-so listened to Maniac by Michael Sembello. It became a collection of groupthink that was no damn good for anyone. I realized then I wasn’t too keen on organized religion. It leads to people doing crazy things, like flying planes into buildings. I didn’t go to church after my realization. I now attend a church once a month because my wife has asked me to after a 20 year or so break. The difference is that this new church is not insane and is actually quite tolerant of a lot of things that churches aren’t known to be tolerant of.

Religion is like fire insurance to a lot of people too. People have fire insurance (or religion) in case their house catches fire (there is an afterlife) not because they believe it’s very likely their house will catch fire (or there is an afterlife) but being without insurance (religion) in the event there was a fire (or afterlife) would really suck.

And the beautiful thing about Christianity is that all is forgiven. You come into this world as a sinner (another thing I took issue with, by the way) and you go out as one. Doesn’t matter what you do or don’t do, you’ve sinned. But Jesus makes it convenient in that all you have to do is call on him, repent, believe he died for your sins, and quote John 3:16 and you’re A-Okay. Well, that’s not the intent of the gospel by any means but that is how it is portrayed to anyone seeking to convert.

Apparently, the Bible says that buttfucking and cocksucking are wrong (the Bible has been wrong before, see above). So, the Vatican is telling its political minions not to support gay marriage because it’s a sin. Of course, we’re all sinners anyway so what’s the point? We accept that we sin, repent, and move on. The Vatican didn’t come out quite so strongly during its recent scandal. They didn’t issue any mandates about not buggering little boys. They didn’t tell their political minions to prosecute their wayward child-buggering priests. In fact, they fought it quite extensively.

They’ll go to bat for pederasts but not for two (or more) consenting adults doing whatever they want in the privacy of their homes. The church will protect the disgusting antics of some members of its priesthood but not keep its nose out of the lives of others? Clean up your own mess before making one somewhere else. It’s disgusting.

Jeff, who headed up the party that nominated me for Secretary of the Interior, has a post where he is requesting names for the party. Didn’t take long for someone to suggest Anti-Idiotarians.

My suggestion: The Little L Party or the Hey, you! Get out of my government party.

I am remiss in not posting this sooner (it took me that long to get around to reading the whole thing) but AlphaPatriot tackles the psychological disorder known as being liberal.

Zoiks!

A drunken Croat flasher got more excitement than he bargained for when he pushed his penis through a woman’s fence and her dog bit it, local newspapers said on Friday.

The visibly drunk man was walking down the street and started swearing and shouting at the woman for no reason. He then shoved his penis through her fence, unaware her dog was on the other side, police said.

The bitten man himself reported the incident to the police.