Per the AKC, members of Congress are preparing the Puppy Protection Act by Rick Santorum, of all people. Tough on gays but likes dogs.

The AKC opposes the legislation for the following reasons:

While the PPA is advocated as legislation to regulate “puppy mills”, its real purpose is to restrict the breeding of purebred dogs. The HSUS has historically opposed the breeding of purebred dogs. Several years ago the HSUS conducted a nationwide campaign to persuade municipalities to completely ban purposeful breeding of dogs. The campaign was spectacularly unsuccessful.

The Animal Welfare Act currently does not regulate breeding practices of any species of animals. The PPA will, for the first time, thrust the federal government into a whole new arena of animal regulation. The federal government should not be in the business of specifying and regulating breeding practices of dog breeders. Furthermore, and very importantly, there is no scientific basis for the specific breeding restrictions included in the PPA.

The USDA’s Animal Care regulations already require commercial dog breeders to follow a program of veterinary care developed and supervised by a licensed veterinarian to protect the health of all animals in commercial breeding facilities, including the breeding stock. Breeding decisions should be made by breeders and their veterinarians. The PPA would co-opt the judgment and discretion of breeders and veterinarians.

As a practical matter, it will be impossible for the USDA, which enforces the Animal Welfare Act, to police breeding practices without imposing overwhelmingly intrusive burdens on persons who breed dogs.

The “three-strikes-and-you’re-out” approach to enforcement of the animal care regulations will undermine rather than enhance compliance with USDA’s regulations. Rather than providing incentives to admit and promptly correct violations, it will create incentives to contest alleged violations, and bog down the USDA’s enforcement process in litigation.

Compliance with the Animal Welfare Act has improved substantially in recent years. Congress has increased appropriations for USDA enforcement by more than 50 percent over the past several budget cycles, and the number of USDA inspectors has nearly doubled. Industry groups such as the AKC also conduct educational programs and kennel inspections. The AKC alone conducted more than 4000 kennel inspections in 2003, about half as many kennel inspections annually as the USDA.

Current USDA Animal Care regulations, including the veterinary care standards, strike an appropriate balance in protecting both the welfare of dogs in commercial breeding establishments and the public who purchase those dogs, without being overly intrusive or injecting the federal government into decisions which should properly be the province of individual dog breeders and owners. The PPA would upset this balance, and impose excessive burdens on small business owners without improving the welfare of animals.

Again, the gist of the argument of the AKC is to enforce existing laws and don’t create new ones. I do find it odd that the Humane Society opposes purebred dogs. I agree with the AKC to an extent but I also place some of the puppy mill blame on them. They don’t do enough to stop it. While I admire the AKC’s legislative history for pet freedom, their lack of effective incentive for higher breeder standards (and breed standards based on something other than just appearance) is abysmal.

There are many bad breeders. I think a better plan of attack would be an ad campaign that informs the American people about bad breeders, what to look for in good breeders, and an independent body (not affiliated with the government) that provides certifications to breeders who comply with their standards (like the Better Breeder Bureau, catchy name eh?). The AKC does something similar to this but they do a terrible job. They did 4,000 kennel inspections this year but out of how many breeders? It is easy to register any dog with the AKC and it is easy to get papers on a puppy mill dog. I think the AKC should step up it’s kennel inspections and not grant papers until an inspection is done. A standard would be better than legislation. They could even charge for it. A good, ethical breeder who cares would be proud to have such a certification.

The big thing here is education. These puppy mills are atrocious but this legislation will needlessly infringe on many reputable breeders’ rights and will affect the numbers of people who can breed quality dogs in humane conditions.

And does anyone think for a moment that the government can successfully legislate effective socialization standards?

This legislation is unnecessary and puppy mills are and will continue to be a problem. Don’t buy from pet stores either.

Almost forgot to wish you folks a happy halloween. Here goes:

Boo!

Scary ain’t it.

Reuters:

A man described by authorities as a known sexual predator has been chased through the streets of Philadelphia, America, by an angry crowd of Catholic high school girls, who kicked and punched him.

Rudy Susanto, 25, who had exposed himself to teen-age girls on as many as seven occasions outside St. Maria Goretti School, struck again on Thursday just as students were being dismissed, police said on Friday.

But this time, a group of girls in school uniforms angrily confronted Susanto with help from some neighbors, police said. When Susanto tried to run, more than 20 girls chased him down the block. Two men from the neighborhood caught him and the girls took their revenge.

“The girls came and started kicking him and punching him, so I wasn’t going to stop them,” neighbor Robert Lemons told The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Susanto was later treated for injuries at a local hospital. Police said he would be charged with 14 criminal counts including harassment, disorderly conduct, open lewdness and corrupting the morals of a minor.

Update: I apparently guessed wrong, A PACK NOT A HERD it is.

Another article on Judge Sandy’s comments. My conclusion: she says that there is room for some influence and does not endorse using other countries’ laws. Good. Seems the WashTimes fudged it.

LeanLeft has more. As does Clayton Cramer.

I peruse my traffic stats regularly but don’t really understand something: What are the differences between visits, pages and hits?

Via the Comedian, the million err four mom march maintains its own blacklist:

Lowe’s Hardware

John Ashcroft

Eddie Eagle

Michigan Governor John Engler

John Lott

LEAA

Elizabeth Dole

Senator Zell Miller (D-GA)

Rep. Bob Barr (GA)

Wayne LaPierre

John Ashcroft

First of all, where’s the media outrage? Secondly, how do I get on that list?

And I’ll be buying my home improvement stuff from Lowe’s, oh wait, I already do that.

One more thing, the LEAA is on the list. The LEAA being the Law Enforcement Alliance of America. The LEAA is the nation’s largest non-profit, non-partisan coalition of law enforcement professionals, crime victims, and concerned citizens united for justice. That is odd, because one of the lies err things that the Brady Bunch and the million err four mom march tell us is that cops are for all this gun control. A bit odd.

Michael Totten on the self destructing left.

Ipse Dixit has more. Does Bredesen have a future in national politics? I hope so.

WND:

A Colorado mother is appealing a child custody decision in which a court barred her from teaching homosexuality is wrong.

Cheryl Clark, who says she is a Christian, has been ordered by Denver County Circuit Judge John W. Coughlin to “make sure that there is nothing in the religious upbringing or teaching that the minor child is exposed to that can be considered homophobic.”

If true, this is abysmal. Sure, she could be teaching her child to be homophobic but you can’t discount religious beliefs.

No comment:

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – A young man could have his probation revoked and go to prison for failing to plant 10 mums as ordered by a judge.

David Alan Waters, 20, of Bartlett pleaded guilty in September to vandalizing the home of a 99-year-old woman on Jan 9.

As a condition of Waters’ probation, Criminal Court Judge Carolyn Wade Blackett ordered him to plant the mums at the home of the victim, Minnie Becton.

The KNS writes:

A strong economy and vastly improved race relations are luring record numbers of black Americans to the South, a region that many deserted early in the 20th century.

More than 680,000 blacks 5 and older moved to the South from another region between 1995 and 2000, outnumbering the 333,000 who moved away by a better than 2-to-1 margin, according to a Census Bureau report released Thursday.

I should point out that I haven’t seen an increase but welcome folks.

I am the number one Google for Spiked Bracelets because of this post. I still get about 150 hits per month to that entry.

I used to delete the comments to it because it was a bunch of punk kids telling da man to fuck off. But now, they’re just funny. Really, go read some of the work these geniuses write. It’s very funny but also sad.

Sarcasm is apparently lost on today’s kids.

Via Buck comes this:

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor predicts that the U.S. Supreme Court will increasingly base its decisions on international law rather than the U.S. Constitution, according to an article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

By doing so, the court will make a good impression among people from other countries, she said.

“The impressions we create in this world are important and they can leave their mark,” Justice O’Connor said.

That is one of the most frightening things I have ever read.

Update: The washington times fudged the story. Clayton Cramer has more.

No not this but this:

Whitney is the worst kind of weasel imaginable. It’s very likely he has more skeletons in his closet. That’s where you come in. The blogosphere is great at fact-checking. If you have access to any legal, criminal, or government databases, you could very well dig up more information about Whitney that would be useful at trial. If you’ve had dealings with Whitney or his company, that could be useful, too, especially if you have notes from his company’s seminars.

Via Spoons comes this WaPo Washington Times article:

The Army has filed a criminal assault charge against an American officer who coerced an Iraqi into providing information that foiled a planned attack on U.S. soldiers.

Lt. Col. Allen B. West says he did not physically abuse the detainee, but used psychological pressure by twice firing his service weapon away from the Iraqi. After the shots were fired, the detainee, an Iraqi police officer, gave up the information on a planned attack around the northern Iraqi town of Saba al Boor.

He did this to foil an assassination plot. It’s a war people, not a game of flag football.

Bush set those fires in California and caused the solar flares!

Seriously:

Michael Hanscom began keeping an online journal, commonly known as a weblog, several years ago. He started his job as a contract worker in Microsoft’s print shop last year. Last week, he mixed the two.

This week, he’s looking for a new job, after becoming an unwilling case study in the fine line walked by corporate employees who write about work in their personal weblogs.

It all started when Hanscom noticed something interesting on the loading dock on his way into work a week ago — three pallets of shiny new Apple Power Mac G5 computers, clearly destined for somewhere on the company’s Redmond campus.

My advice for bloggers:

Blog anonymously (or at least with a psuedonym). You never know when a coworker will find your site and take offense to it. Or you may run for office someday and have said something stupid on your site a while back. Or you may get get put on someone’s blacklist.

Don’t blog work or personal things without changing names.

Don’t say stupid stuff. Do as I say, not as I do.

I really like Buddy Don’s site. The trouble is that it takes forever to read (if you don’t know why, you’ve not clicked that link). Any way to get it translated?

I posted about the NRA blacklist website below. A lot of people have opined on it, including Jeff. I will say one thing, if this whole blacklist thing makes gun control popular again (which it has to a small extent, illustrated by the site mentioned below), it will clearly be the fault of the NRA.

Chris Muir’s Day by Day is getting some attention.

Peggy (who really does have a dog named Homo) is hosting the Volunteer Tailgate Party. Give it a read.

And she did a fine job.

A burglar breaks into an apartment (why do they call them apart-ments when they’re all together?) and finds nude pictures of children. The burglar turns himself and the photos in and the guy who lives in the apartment gets arrested:

A 20-year-old man burglarizing an apartment pried open a tackle box and found nude photos of young girls, including his little sister.

The man turned himself and the pictures into police, who later arrested the apartment’s tenant, a registered sex offender now facing a possible life sentence after being charged with rape of a child under the age of 13 and illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material.

One thing I learned working in prison (oh yeah, never mentioned it before but I used to work at a prison) was the degree of hatred criminals have for those who commit crimes against children, particularly sex crimes.

USA Today:

A senior member of Saddam Hussein’s ousted government is believed to be helping coordinate attacks on American forces with members of an al-Qaeda-linked terrorist group, a senior defense official said Wednesday.

Two captured members of Ansar al-Islam have said Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri is helping to coordinate their attacks, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

And all those other coincidences don’t indicate a link either.

Yahoo News:

The economy grew at a scorching 7.2 percent annual rate in the third quarter in the strongest pace in nearly two decades. Consumers spent with abandon and businesses ramped up investment, compelling new evidence of an economic resurgence.

Fastest pace since 1984.

From the WaPo:

Democratic presidential candidate Al Sharpton (Hahaha – yeah, right) launched a blistering attack on Howard Dean yesterday, accusing his rival of promoting an “anti-black agenda.”

- Snarky comment added

“Howard Dean’s opposition to affirmative action, his current support for the death penalty and historic support of the NRA’s [National Rifle Association's] agenda amounts to an anti-black agenda that will not sell in communities of color in this country,” Sharpton said in a statement.

He said his comments were in response to a news report yesterday that Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) plans to endorse Dean, the former Vermont governor and presumed front-runner for the 2004 Democratic nomination. Sharpton has had a long-standing rivalry with the congressman’s father, Jesse L. Jackson, who twice ran for president.

The NRA is anti-black? And the death penalty is only a black issue?

While Mr. Sharpton uses this opportunity to snag some free press err deal with important black issues, SayUncle estimates that in America today: 21 black people will commit murder; 22 black people will be murdered; 506 black people will be arrested for drug trafficking crimes; 1,000,000 black people are in prison; and 26,500,000 black people live in poverty.

Go here. See how many lies you can spot on the page.

Both seem plausible to me.

Insty says:

I caught the tail end of a segment on this on my local talk-radio show. Most of the callers were extremely negative on the subject, though the host was engaged in a Socratic dialogue with one who thought that America was evil because it was tolerating homosexuality, and that tolerance would inspire God to come down in his wrath upon us all.

Yeah: No-show for the Holocaust, or Rwanda, or what’s going on in North Korea, but he’s going to come down from the clouds and hurl lightning bolts if two guys get married.

The Comedian, who had some of his stuff used as props by Congress, is getting press coverage for some more stuff.

Apparently, someone engaged in a shoot out with the police with an evil assault weapon.

I should point out that the weapon in question, an SKS, does not accept a detachable magazine and is therefore not an assault weapon as defined under the assault weapons ban of 1994.

From FoxNews:

A new left-wing think tank — the Center for American Progress — unveiled itself Tuesday as the Democratic vaccine to what center supporters say is a plague of conservatism now dominating America.

“We think the debate has been unbalanced in the country,” center president John Podesta, a former chief of staff to President Clinton, told Fox News.

Debate maybe unbalanced because Democrats don’t really have a platform these days, other than Bush is wrong.

Based on his studies, Placyk has said the odds of a big primate like a skunk ape wandering Campbell County aren’t very good.

They think it’s not a monkey but don’t know what it is. I am referring to the cryptozoologist, not the critter.

Sometime soon, some one is going to say that this is insensitive:

An organisation in Israel has gained rabbinical approval to train pigs to guard Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Until now, Jewish settlements have been guarded by men with guns and also by guard dogs.

Apparently, I don’t know what negative reinforcement is. Tom tells us. It’s been a while since I’ve had a psychology class.

Junior,

Don’t fight naked. If you do, you will look stupid – even if you’re winning. And it’s just embarrassing, more so if you’re losing.

This rule will be pretty easy to follow for the first part of your life. Unfortunately, when you’re about 22 years old and older, the only things you could potentially get in a fight over will likely involve you (or someone else but most likely you) being naked.

If it does come to fisticuffs, explain to your opponent that you’d like to put clothes on. Odds are he doesn’t want to fight someone naked as much as you don’t want to fight while naked. It really is win-win.

Via Buck, who labels it the fourth branch of government, comes this article on the media’s double standard. Well worth reading:

. . . the real message that we receive is that (1) journalists are above the laws that they demand the rest of us obey, and (2) government needs to grow even larger and more oppressive. Although I doubt that Peter Jennings and his crew would openly admit to my charges, I will demonstrate that despite their protestations, ABC—and mainstream journalists in general—have been partly responsible for the Leviathan State that has proven to be much more effective at oppressing people at home than it has in preventing outsiders from attacking the rest of us.

Another one. A pit bull attacks its owner and the neighbor uses his gun to scare the dog off. If your dog will attack you, you have done some poor socialization. And here’s another media misconception about pit bulls:

The dog ignored Ayala’s shouts, locking its jaws on Oswald, and chewing at the right side of his owner’s face and arm.

Pit bulls do not have the magical ability to lock their jaws. They just have strong jaws.

Tom emails this story:

A man walking his puppy Monday in a local neighborhood was attacked by what appeared to be two pit bulls.

The pit bulls injured the man and killed his puppy, a 6-week-old American bulldog, as they walked in the 1500 block of Republic Street in Over-the-Rhine, WLWT Eyewitness News 5’s Raegan Butler reported.

It’s awful that this happened and the owner of the dogs who attacked the man needs to be held accountable but a few observations:

The opening sentence says they appeared to be two pit bulls. And they even interviewed the owner. Did they not ask the question? Granted, pit bull is not technically a breed but is common terminology for the American Pit Bull Terrier. Was it or wasn’t it?

There is a poll on the page that asks if pit bulls should be illegal to own. As of now, the results are 65% say yes. Abysmal.

One good thing, the article identified the puppy as an American Bulldog. Why is this good? Usually, the media calls them pit bulls too.

Howard Margolius, whose efforts to save his pit bull Cyan from confiscatory Breed Specific Legislation I blogged here, has organized a protest:

We will be protesting outside the Denver City Courthouse on
October 31st, Friday at 12:00 noon! Please join us and support the repeal!

A self-proclaimed ain’t one of them no-gun nuts wrote this article. Some selected excerpts follow to illustrate media ignorance of gun laws and guns:

Every good American needs a rifle to bring home deer and rabbit and squirrel to cook up for supper.

We all need to defend our homes and families from them tourists–um, I mean terrorists.

Ok, useless rhetoric. Whatever.

My question is this:

Why do we, in the general public, need flash suppressors to go after Bambi or fend off some teenage kid trying to swipe our Sony Trinitron?

It’s called the Bill of Rights not the Bill of Needs.

Flash suppressors are used in combat so the enemy can’t pinpoint a night shooter’s location by the flame from the muzzle. Technically, flash suppressors are illegal, but the public can buy “flash hiders” that do just about the same thing.

Uhm, wrong. Flash suppressors are used to disburse the flash to the sides of the rifle instead of straight ahead so that you can maintain site picture without being temporarily blinded by the muzzle flash. A flash suppressor/hider does not actually hide nor suppress a flash. Flash suppressors are not illegal. They are only illegal if on a semiautomatic rifle, made after 1994, that accepts a detachable magazine, and has one of the following characteristics:

Bayonet lug, pistol grip, or telescopic/folding stock.

And why do we general public types need 50-caliber sniper rifles that can kill a man at a range of up to a mile with a round that would blow a hole in a tank at long range?

The most experienced shooter cannot hit a stationary target at a range of one mile. Bear in mind that 22 caliber rifles state clearly on the box that the small 22 long rifle bullet can travel one mile. And at 35 meters, the 50 claiber rifle will penetrate one inch of steel, which is significantly less than long range and the penetration is much less than the five or so inches of armor tanks have. And lets not forget in colonial times the good old Kentucky rifle was popular in calibers of 65 to 70.

Anyway, I mean, is Bambi on steroids now? Was she exposed to gamma radiation, like the Incredible Hulk?

Gun rights are not about hunting but don’t take my word for it:

“The fundamental force behind the Second Amendment is to empower the people and give them the greatest measure of authority over the tyranny of runaway government.” – U.S. Rep. Bob Schaffer, 2002

“By calling attention to ‘a well regulated militia’, the ’security’ of the nation, and the right of each citizen ‘to keep and bear arms’, our founding fathers recognized the essentially civilian nature of our economy. Although it is extremely unlikely that the fears of governmental tyranny which gave rise to the Second Amendment will ever be a major danger to our nation, the Amendment still remains an important declaration of our basic civilian-military relationships, in which every citizen must be ready to participate in the defense of his country. For that reason, I believe the Second Amendment will always be important.” – John F. Kennedy, April 1960

“That rifle on the wall of the labourer’s cottage or working class flat is the symbol of democracy. It our job to see that it stays there.” – George Orwell

“The Second Amendment is not about duck hunting, and I know I’m not going to make very many friends saying this, but it’s about our right, all of our right to be able to protect ourselves from all of you guys up there.” – Dr. Suzanna Gratia Hupp, appearing before Representative Charles Schumer’s committee hearings on the assault weapons ban

“Americans have the right and advantage of being armed- unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms.” – James Madison

“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!” – Ben Franklin

“The said Constitution be never construed …to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms.” – Samuel Adams

“I ask, sir, what is the militia? It is the whole people. To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.” – George Mason, during Virginia’s Convention to Ratify the Constitution (1788)

“Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom in Europe.” – Noah Webster, Principles of the Federal Constitution, Philadelphia, 1787

“The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.” – Thomas Jefferson

You can reach the author (MICHAEL ZITZ) of the article at mikez@freelancestar.com or at 540/374-5408

Justin tackles the media bias against sentient SUVs.

No really, they apparently have free will.

Jeff has the weekly report on gun bias up and notes the following:

So astoundingly, for only the second time in the past year, we see that while most of the stories linked to by Yahoo are neutral, the remaining articles feature more pro-gun (not more gun control) items than anti-gun (etc.)

The WaPo:

Democratic presidential candidates are distancing themselves from tough gun control, reversing a decade of rhetoric and advocacy by the Democratic Party in favor of federal regulation of firearms.

Most Democratic White House hopefuls rarely highlight gun control in their campaigns, and none of the candidates who routinely poll near the top is calling for the licensing of new handgun owners, a central theme of then-Vice President Al Gore’s winning primary campaign in 2000.

Another thing you’ll see soon if you’re not already is the rhetoric of only enforcing the laws on the books, we don’t need more laws. Actually, we need less. In fact, to make me happy, you can fix gun control by doing the following:

Getting rid of the Assault Weapons Ban of 1994. If you don’t know why, do a search of this site and you’ll see why.

Getting rid of the Hughes Amendment in the 1986 Gun Control Act. The Hughes amendment says that machine guns made after 1986 can’t be purchased as part of the 1934 NFA procedures. This is stupid because it’s merely a matter of cost. At Gun Craft this weekend, I learned that I can purchase a 1986 H&K MP5 for about $10,000. However, brand new H&K MP5s sell to dealers and police for $1,200. If I want one as a citizen, I have to spend $10K or become a dealer. Again, this is the recurring theme of disarming the poor.

Getting rid of the 1934 NFA $200 tax on SBRs, suppressors, and machine guns; and the $5 AOW tax. Taxing a right is illegal.

Note to the NRA, why don’t you guys do something useful and get right on that.

At the bottom of this NY Post article lies this quote:

The London Sun reported today that half of the rockets used in the attack were French weapons produced after the arms embargo against Iraq following the Gulf War.

That could be pretty damning.

So, a bunch of Democratic Presidential candidates get together and . . . stop me if you’ve heard this one . . . spend all their time bashing Bush. At least that’s the way the news portrays it. Do the Democrats (any of them) actually have a plan, other than raising taxes?

It’s easy to criticize the war, or economic policies, or tax cuts but the Dems have no plans that I know of (except Dean wants to raise taxes).

Per this:

Bill Clinton failed, Tony Blair drew a blank and Kofi Annan made little progress. But now a team of Hollywood film stars is about to visit the Middle East on a private peace mission, in the belief that their charms will work magic on the Israeli-Arab conflict.

Brad Pitt, his wife, Jennifer Aniston, and Danny DeVito are among the stars who aim to succeed where world statesmen have stumbled.

Sean Penn didn’t have much of an effect and I doubt these folks will.

I used to get between 6 – 10 spam comments a day. Then I got MT Blacklist and the spam has stopped. Checked the activity log and today four spam comments were stopped.

Met with Les yesterday to try out the new Glock. I loved it. Accurate, never jammed and fun to shoot. But this post is about something better: the lady we met at the range. We met a woman who was (max) four feet, ten inches tall. She was there shooting her Glock 9mm. She had just received her Carry Permit. I love to see women packing.

Via Tom comes this story:

Garner told police that he had to rush the 3-year-old pit bull and her 9 week old puppy to an animal hospital because his father had stabbed them with a sword.

First, this guy is an evil bastard. Second, the article is interesting because (as I’ve mentioned before) the media always points out when dogs are pit bulls (which technically isn’t a breed but is commonly used to refer to the American Pit Bull Terrier) and rarely does it identify other breeds. And the media has misidentified dog breeds as well.

When it comes to dogs, negative reinforcement (i.e., punishing bad behavior) is usually not effective. You should train your dog to respond to a firm No command and when he stops the bad behavior, praise him. However, with some dogs, negative reinforcement is all they will respond to in some situations. If you have a stubborn dog and you have to punish him physically (which you shouldn’t do until you’ve exhausted all other forms of correction), lightly hit him with an open hand on his ribs. Don’t hit him hard, just enough to make a startling noise. That’s really all it takes to get their attention. Honest.

A good letter to the editor in the KNS about the Episcopalian split:

The current schism in the Episcopal and mother Anglican churches is not tenable on the premise that homosexuality is condemned by the Scriptures.

Much of what is practiced in the Christian church is not scriptural but has arisen from a complex interplay of church decree, convention and divine inspiration of historical church leaders.

In the fourth century, the Catholic Church was fragmented. Different bishops emphasized different doctrines. The gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke used terms to refer to Jesus that were secular terms also used to refer to men of different stature.

Only the book of John, the past apostolic gospel written, used the term “Lord,” which in the original Greek was reserved only for divinity. The gospels of Thomas and Mary Magdalene described God as being within each of us. The Secret Book of John emphasized the divine interpretation of scripture by men.

In June of 325, Constantine held a summit of bishops at Nicaea to resolve these issues. There was strong impetus to adopt the divinity of Jesus, not just because it was the belief of the emperor but because it would bring the individual churches under the blanket of state financing and eligibility for reparations from various groups that had earlier persecuted Christians.

The New Testament, as we know it, was constructed with the book of John being the seminal Gospel.

The argument could be made that the fundamental tenant of Christianity is, in fact, nonscriptural.

If the church wants to exclude openly gay clergy, that is its prerogative, but then it should not think of itself as a purveyor of truth and defenders of the Holy Scriptures. It should think of itself as a club with bylaws.

WILLIAM H. CULBERT JR.

Emphasis added. I loved it.

StraightWhiteGuy has moved. Make a note of it.

It occurs to me that I haven’t done an original humor piece since September 12 of this year. Guess I’m not feeling it. Bummer. Know any good jokes?

Alex Knapp posts his 20 favorite movies. These are mine. There are probably more but these were the first 20 to pop into my mind (in no order):

1. Unbreakable – Brilliant concept and its minimization of violence was awesome.
2. Unforgiven – Deserve’s got nothing to do with it.
3. Pulp Fiction – I shot Marvin in the face.
4. The Usual Suspects – Kaiser Soze is one scary sumbitch.
5. Raising Arizona – Son, you got a panty on your head.
6. Braveheart – The lord tells me he can get me out of this mess but he’s pretty sure you’re fucked.
7. Big Trouble in Little China – Now this really pisses me off to no end. And I am the only person who thinks this movie is great.
8. The Princess Bride – You seem a decent fellow, I hate to kill you.
9. Memento – Eventually, the huh? goes away.
10. Heathers – I love my dead, gay son.
11. Lethal Weapon – Ushered in the new genre of action movies.
12. Taxi Driver – You talkin’ to me?
13. Forest Gump – merely because you can tune in at any time when it’s on cable and it’ll be entertaining.
14. Full Metal Jacket – Two movies in one.
15. Goodfellas – Gangsta, gangsta at the top of the list.
16. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead – Good witty stuff
17. Rob Roy – No matter how cool it looked, never grab a sword.
18. A Fish Called Wanda – It’s K-K-K-K-Ken coming to K-K-K-K-K-Kill me.
19. Fargo – Just funny looking in general
20. The Ref – Hysterical.

Buck links to an ad by the four million mom march and the VPC that states:

You know and every law enforcement officer in America knows: the 1994 assault weapons ban saved lives.

Apparently, the CDC doesn’t know that; the FBI doesn’t know that because you’re eleven times more likely to be beaten to death; metro police departments know that assault weapons are used in less than 0.25% of violent crime; the FBI also notes that officers are twice as likely to be killed by their own handgun than by an assault weapon; and my personal favorite:

“Since police started keeping statistics, we now know that assault weapons are/were used in an underwhelming 0.026 of 1% of crimes in New Jersey. This means that my officers are more likely to confront an escaped tiger from the local zoo than to confront an assault rifle in the hands of a drug-crazed killer on the streets.”

–Deputy Chief of Police Joseph Constance, Trenton NJ, testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee in Aug 1993

Source for most of that.

The VPC is one of many groups of people that has to lie to prove their point.

Publicola suffers from half-bakered disease. He goes a while without blogging then posts a bunch of good stuff back to back.

Publicola notes:

On a thread at G&A’s Second Amendment Issues Forum someone asked why some people such as myself are always bad mouthing the NRA.

This will be an attempt to define the issues we have with them.

Read his reasons. I would also add that the NRA concedes defeat from the onset of any legislation and works to catch up. They could be lobbying for legislation to get rid of the assault weapons ban; getting rid of the Hughes Amendment; or lobbying to lower the NFA tax, taxing a right is illegal.

He also notes that:

California has filed a brief in oppossition to Silveira being heard by the Supreme Court.

In short the brief states that the second amendment applies only to the states & it only restrains congress. No individual Right. It brings up other issues, such as the court shouldn’t hear the case because it doesn’t have to (The Court had said that it should refrain from tackling complex constitutional questions until there is a direct & immediate need to do so) & the plantiffs lack standing since they are only contemplating the purchase of ‘assault weapons’ & aren’t specific about possessing any currently.

It seems some prominent law enforcement politicians officials have announced support for renewal of the assault weapons ban. Assuming that you are the type of person who is familiar with guns (police are) and you would oppose assault weapons (which I and most police actually don’t), then you would also know that the current assault weapons ban doesn’t ban assault weapons.

A local vet says that skunk apes don’t eat cats. And that they’re not that big. They are also New World Apes, which means that they are part of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.

This vehicle carries only $20 worth of ammunition.

You come across a conspiracy theory and it’s somewhat believable.

Then you blog about it.

Then you read snopes.

Bubba writes:

There you have it. Being the outstanding attorney that he is, Charles E. Young makes a compelling argument. It’s time to up the ante. Time to go All In. Never mind the previous complicated schedule of payments. SKB will match Chuck’s pledge of $500 for the Second Harvest Food Bank if Jim Bob Cooter takes a snap during the Alabama game.

Pledge something for Second Harvest and more importantly for UT football.

CJ has the latest on the monkey that’s killing (and presumably eating) peoples’ cats in Campbell County.

Yahoo news:

Crystal Foster’s father advised her to spend the $500,000 income tax refund she got two years ago. When the government came looking for its money, the Fosters said it was their rightful reparations, since their ancestors were slaves.

Though there is no federal reparations program, Foster had spent the money in eight days, buying a $40,000 Mercedes Benz, paying off her student loans and helping her brother pay for his first year at Virginia Tech.

Foster’s father, Robert Lee Foster, prepared her tax forms and was convicted along with his daughter of trying to defraud the government. He maintains he did the right thing.

“Black people are not treated as humans, but as things by the U.S. government,” he said in an interview at the Northern Neck Regional Jail. “We were used as resources to enrich this country and we get no inheritance from the wealth we brought.”

According to the Internal Revenue Service, more than 80,000 tax returns were filed in 2001 seeking nonexistent slavery tax credits, totaling $2.7 billion. More than $30 million was mistakenly paid out in slave reparations in 2000 and part of 2001.

First, I’m all for slavery reparations, provided they go to people who were actually slaves. Defrauding the government is secondary to the issue that the IRS still paid out an actual $30M! Don’t they have like accountants or something to check this stuff?

While people are defrauding the government (an ordinarily noble purpose) and debating issues like free money because relatives may have been slaves, SayUncle estimates that in the US today approximately 20 black people will be murdered, 506 black people will be arrested for drug trafficking, and 22 black people will commit a murder. Glad our priorities are straight.

Not-So-Great-Britain has set a record for gun crime. But they don’t have guns. Funny how that is.

Bill Hobbs adds a personal touch to the late term abortion debate.

Kevin writes: Europe Gets Iran to Allow Inspectors.

I retort: You don’t suppose it has anything to do with that little firefight going on next door, do ya?

The Daily Times:

A resolution recognizing “God as the foundation of our national heritage” has been approved by several Tennessee county governments and is being considered by others.

The Blount County mayor’s office received the resolution last week and forwarded it to the Intergovernmental Committee for consideration at its November meeting.

Trousdale County Executive Jerry Clift expects his county commission to pass the legislation overwhelmingly Monday.

“It’s basic. We’re in the Bible Belt. We go to church and believe in God,” he said Wednesday. “We want to let the people of the state know our beliefs.”

The idea originated in Greene County, where Mayor Roger Jones sent copies of legislation unanimously approved by the commission last month to Tennessee’s other 94 county government leaders.

So, our local government officials are spending their time trying to pass a resolution recognizing God as the foundation of our heritage? So much for that first amendment.

Oh and bring on the ACLU:

Several Tennessee county governments recently passed resolutions approving the posting of the Ten Commandments in government buildings. Hamilton County was ordered to remove its plaque, but such displays remain in others as court battles continue.

Per this:

Senate Democrats plan to urge Congress to reauthorize a law banning plastic guns that could be used by terrorists to slip past airport metal detectors.

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., said Tuesday he plans to introduce legislation to reauthorize the Terrorist Firearm Detection Act of 1988, which bans the creation or possession plastic firearms. Exemptions for the military and intelligence agencies are provided in the law.

Officials worry terrorists would be able to get their hands on plastic weapons that would have no metal parts to set off metal detectors at airports and other security checkpoints.

The bill was last reauthorized in 1998 and expires in December

That is genius! I mean we all know terrorists obey laws, particularly gun and explosives laws. This will surely prevent people from accessing plastic guns. Bravo!

The idiot lawsuit I mentioned here is getting national press coverage:

A $246 million lawsuit was filed against the designer, marketer and a retailer of the video game series “Grand Theft Auto” by the families of two people shot by teenagers apparently inspired by the game.

The suit claims marketer Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc., designers Take-Two Interactive Software and Rockstar Games, and Wal-Mart, are liable for $46 million in compensatory damages and $200 million in punitive damages.

Aaron Hamel, 45, a registered nurse, was killed and Kimberly Bede, 19, of Moneta, Va., was seriously wounded when their cars were hit June 25 by .22-caliber bullets as they passed through the Great Smoky Mountains.

I tried to email this story on George Washington’s whiskey to Andrew but his mailbox is full.

I almost made it through the day without blogging guns. Some folks don’t like Glocks apparently.

First, my general opinion on guns is based on function not appearance. I own only three guns: an AR15, a Sigarms P229 in 9mm, and a Glock 30. Despite talking about gun rights all the time, my collection is limited. I buy guns for function and fun. I don’t hunt and only shoot at the range. I have an AR15 because they are fun and cheap to shoot. I have the two handguns for concealed carry. I have two for those instances in which I leave the house and the Mrs. stays home. That way, I have mine and she has one at the house.

Since I don’t collect, I want something that is functional, reliable, and comfortable. All three guns fit that description. I don’t like guns with wooden stocks (easy to scratch and heavy), that are chrome colored (the shine interferes with site picture), or that I can’t just toss into the back of a car. I like plastic, aluminum and blued steel. I don’t care what they look like. They feel good and I’m not concerned if I scratch one. If I forked out the bling bling for a Kimber, I’d be afraid to shoot it.

Why a Sig? The most reliable and functional handgun ever. Can take abuse and is the finest feeling handgun I have ever held.

Why an AR15? Reliable, feel good, and parts are cheap & plentiful.

Why a Glock? Simple, reliable, functional and I don’t care if I scratch it. And they are tough as nails.

In fact, my advice to anyone who has never purchased a gun and wants to is that they should buy a Glock. Here’s why:

Cheaper than Sigs

Simple design (they only have 34 parts)

They are tough. Glock has frozen them in ice; dipped them in sea water, mud and sand; driven trucks over them; dropped them from helicopters; chemically degreased them; not cleaned them for 10,000 round tests; and the list goes on. And the Glocks have always functioned.

They have a firing pin block, safe action, and trigger safety. Like the Sig, there is no manual, user operated safety. If you don’t want it to fire, don’t pull the trigger.

The trigger pull is manageable for almost anyone (5 pounds I believe) and the wife can operate it.

There are millions of accessories for Glocks, such as lasers, rails, lights, holsters, and mag extensions.

Replacement parts are cheap.

The Glock comes with two magazines, a magazine loader, a cleaning brush, a cleaning rod, child safety lock and other niftiness. When you buy a Glock, the only other purchase you need to make is ammunition, eye and ear protection, and gun oil. Nothing else. It’s included. Some guns only come with one magazine, hence I won’t buy one. This is why I did not buy the Taurus PT145.

They are simple to operate: insert magazine, rack slide, pull trigger. That’s it. No decockers, thumb safety, or other gizmos to learn. Great for a beginner.

People who don’t like Glocks typically don’t like them because they feel awkward. They are boxy. Or because they are partially plastic. Or they don’t like not having manual safeties. Proper firearms safety eliminates the need for a manual safety.

I dig ‘em.

In response to this post, CJ took issue in comments:

The only person in the entire story to even suggest terrorism is the park ranger himself.

If you read the story, CJ is correct. Brian states that he was fairly certain the anchor mentioned terrorism on TeeVee.

Still, I think it is a case of making mountains out of mole hills.

Still no response from NZ Bear regarding this issue. Currently in the ecosystem, I am listed as a large mammal with 252 incoming links. I should be a marsupial with 98 links. I figure if I link the TLB site enough I may get his attention.

I’d love to be a mammal but I haven’t earned it.

James posts about a terrible dog owner. Read it and learn what not to do. I concur, this dog will bite someone someday.

but we have to remind you that we’re still at war against terrorism.

Knoxville residents are going to see what a terrible emergency looks like Wednesday. A full scale chemical attack will be faked as a drill to test homeland security.

Police cars, fire trucks, ambulances, and Haz-Mat crews will all take place in the drill.

Organizers say the massive drill will look frightening. The center of the action will be somewhere in downtown Knoxville, but the details are being kept secret.

Darrell Debusk with KPD said, “There’s a few people that actually know the scenario, where it will take place, When it will take place and that’s to give you a real life indication of how you’re going to respond.”

The action will take place between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Hundreds of volunteers will pretend to e victims to make everything more believable.

After the drill, emergency workers will look at what can be improved to make Knoxville more safe in case of a real chemical attack.

I cannot find a link but apparently an orangutan has escaped and is tormenting local residents by killing their cats.

Update: Loyal reader Drake provides a link to the story.

With the advent of Viagra, people can’t spell Niagara.

Update: All better now. I wonder if Matt Drudge read that.

Yesterday, I bought one of these. A compact, 11 shot 45 ACP.

First, the administration has never said that there was an imminent threat from Iraq. If anyone can prove otherwise, please do. The fact is, Dubya said specifically that there wasn’t. Second, this whole they implied it nonsense is a bit silly.

However an Iraqi paper has published that Hussein provided training for Al Qaeda. In fact, there are many links connecting Iraq to terrorists. Go here and scroll away. So, it seems they may have been an imminent threat, albeit indirectly.

Update: Oops. I misspoke (mistyped?) above. I said link with al Qaeda and meant imminent threat. I was reading a bunch of different things and used the wrong terms. Apologies.

Here in East Tennessee, nothing really ever happens. When it does though, it is huge. So, a lot of our reporter types tend to exaggerate what’s going on or make mountains out of molehills. They got to earn their money somehow. But this is just stupid:

Al Qaeda in Monroe County?

Not only is it stupid but it’s funny.

Two local idiots with idiot parents fired their 22 rifles into traffic on the interstate and killed a guy a while back. Now, the parents of the victim are suing the makers of Grand Theft Auto for $246M:

The controversial “Grand Theft Auto” video game series is central to a $246 million lawsuit against the game’s makers and the family of two teenage boys who went on a fatal shooting spree in June.

In Monday’s lawsuit filed in Cocke County Circuit Court, the parents of Aaron Hamel argue that the game’s manufacturers allegedly concealed from users that it “inspires and trains copycat violence” and that children are particularly vulnerable to the game’s alleged effects.

This is just about the dumbest thing I’ve ever . . . no it isn’t. This crap happens all the time. Abysmal.

I posted a bit back that I would no longer support the Presbyterian church because of their stance on the Assault Weapons ban. I was mistaken. It was only the Washington office.

My church isn’t affiliated with them. However, I think churches should stay out of the government business in general.

The End of Blogging continues to take some victims.

I’ve been missing Rachel for a while. She stopped updating frequently so I only check in periodically. And now Kim? Blech.

Bummer.

In reference to my post about giving Bush the heave ho, I’ve gotten some comments telling me that I shouldn’t do it. AlphaPatriot opines:

Yeah, the conservatives of the country got pissed off at Bush the Elder and sent a clear message to the Republican Party in 1992 by voting for Ross Perot. As a consequence we suffered the indignity of eight years of Clinton.

How did that “clear signal” work out for y’all?

Well, Bush 2 talked the right talk, which is a sign they got the message. He did, however, fail to walk the walk, which is another sign that the Republicans don’t care about the personal freedom loving, small government, responsibility taking wing of the Republican (libertarian) fringe. But, the loyalists argue, it’s reasonable since we suffered through 9/11. That is crap.

Kevin opines in comments:

I’d like to remind you that the elephant is the Republican party symbol – it does not mean that politicians who call themselves Republicans have much of a memory. Please bear in mind that when many, many of us voted ‘in protest’ for Ross Perot it didn’t get us four years of Bubba, but eight – and it very, very nearly got us four more years of Gore.

And THAT didn’t get Republican ‘back on track,’ now did it?

Go ahead, vote Libertarian or don’t vote at all, but don’t think it’s going to change the behavior of the Republican Party. They’re too disconnected from reality for it to affect them.

Yes, it got us Clinton but the message was sent to Republicans, who apparently lack comprehension. It temporarily got them back on track they just failed to follow through. They continue to do so.

Both AlphaPatriot and Kevin admit to the failure of the Republican party but insist on voting against Democrats. That is more important to some folks but not me. I would rather run screaming at the pending governmental failure than ease into it. Get it over with, instead of prolonging it. If you charge it, it has to respond. If you allow it to happen gradually, you can’t stop it.

It is truly a sad state of affairs when people like Kevin and AlphaPatriot have to vote against someone and not for them.

Rocket Jones has a Q&A about model rocketry. Give it a read.

Jeff has the weekly report on the gun bias up. Lots of good stuff.

Well lookie ya’ll, Rich is back.

I am remiss in mentioning that on June 4, Gov. Bredesen signed into law a bill that reads:

The sheriff or chief of police of the city of residence of a person purchasing any firearm, defined by the National Firearms Act, 26 U.S.C. 5845 et seq., shall execute within fifteen (15) business days of any request all documents required to be submitted by the purchaser if the purchaser is not prohibited from possessing firearms pursuant to § 39-17-1316.

In English, this means that if a Tennessee resident applies for a Class 3 weapons permit (to purchase machine guns, suppressors, short barreled rifles, etc.), that the chief law enforcement officer must sign off in 15 days if the person isn’t prohibited from owning them. This is good because a local official can no longer just sit on these requests. It took a friend of mine six months to get his signed off.

Some local officials never sign these things.

Update: I like Guy’s term of Shall Issue Class 3.

Yahoo news:

Sexual identity is wired into the genes, which discounts the concept that homosexuality and transgender sexuality are a choice, California researchers reported on Monday.

“Our findings may help answer an important question — why do we feel male or female?” Dr. Eric Vilain, a genetics professor at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine, said in a statement. “Sexual identity is rooted in every person’s biology before birth and springs from a variation in our individual genome.”

His team has identified 54 genes in mice that may explain why male and female brains look and function differently.

I dunno what the social significance of this will be but it is interesting.

There are a great many conservatives who have stated that they will not support the Republicans in 2004 because of the recent big government Republican strategy. Also, quite a few little L libertarians who have historically voted for Republicans as the lesser of evils have said they won’t support Republicans either (like me).

Via Spoons (one of those conservatives) comes Mrs. du Toit’s defense of supporting Bush, as a conservative. She is right that the responsibility lies with the people to fix the quagmire that is politics.

However, she changes some of the arguments:

Simply put, the President is not responsible for the economy, job creation, health and welfare, or anything else we might term the Domestic Agenda.

I don’t know of many conservatives who have faulted Bush in this area.

The second issue is that Bush did not get a clear mandate.

I don’t know that that is an issue people like me have either.

Neither of these issues has a lot to do with why people otherwise inclined to vote Republican aren’t going to vote for him. It boils down to specifics and not sweeping generalizations. Here goes a list:

Bush stated he will sign the renewal of the Assault Weapons Ban. It could just be that he’s saying that to garner votes from gun controllers and relying on congress not to get the bill to him. After all, who else are gun owners going to vote for? This is a slap in the face to a key Republican demographic. Can’t pin that on Congress.

The Ashcroft Justice Department. ‘Nuff said. Can’t pin that on Congress.

Those pesky Saudis. The administration kowtowing to those thugs is abysmal and no one should tolerate it. Can’t pin that on Congress.

The highest deficit ever coupled with the biggest federal government ever. This is definitely anathema to conservatism. This one can be pinned on Congress but it was signed into law by Bush

I could go on, but I want to get to my point. The Republicans are failing you. They are becoming what they said they weren’t. It is funny how the party of big government is the one that’s in power, isn’t it? It’s a power grab and blatant partisanship is not going to help.

Mrs. du Toit ends with:

For heaven’s sakes, a split in the Conservative vote will be our undoing and then, truly then, all our hopes are dashed.

I disagree. I think if voters send a clear message to this administration that this is not the Republican party that we will tolerate and it costs them the highest office in the land, they will get the message. I would give four years to Howard Dean to get the Republicans back on track. Continuing to support them only encourages their big government ways.

I’m voting Dean in the primary and the Libertarian candidate in the general.

Kevin notes that the new movie Runaway Jury has changed from the book version. In the book version, the lawsuit was against a tobacco company. In the movie, it’s about a manufacturer of assault weapons. I don’t think these companies have nearly as much cash as big tobacco, not even a fraction.

Also, from Useful Fools comes this dialogue from Threat Matrix:

One of them asks “Can we do this?” and another answers “Under the Patriot Act, we can get anything.”

John tells us that is a total lie.

I’m glad to hear Andrew is Ok. And I’m glad my experience helped him a bit.

It is kind of funny how white-man-with-chest-pains is sped up in the whole ER process. Glad you’re Ok, Andrew!

You’re awakened at 5:30 in the morning by your wife who seems either scared or aflutter. She shows you an oblong item and a book. Being the way you are, you’re not real perceptive having been awakened that early. You’re thoughts are:

Did the dog chew up a book?

Should I be prepared to investigate a noise?

What the Hell is going on?

It takes a few minutes and you look at the oblong object. You realize that it’s a home pregnancy test and the book is about being an expectant father (definitely a misleading name). The home pregnancy test has a rather identifiable bright blue plus sign right there in the middle. You look at your wife and realize that she is aflutter and not scared. The proper way to address this races through your mind. You contemplate what the next words out of your mouth will be. Your ideas include:

My boys can swim!

Gooooooaaaal!

Cool! Oral sex is no longer completely ruled out!

My pistol isn’t loaded with blanks!

Jumpin’ Jesus on a pogo stick!

So, you peed on this and now I’m holding it?

Instead, you do the right thing and hug your wife. She remains aflutter informing you that we need a name, have to call the ObGyn, prepare a nursery, decide who should we tell first, should we wait, and it goes on and on.

Words can’t describe how you feel.

We weren’t bloggered. We were Hosting Mattered.

A couple of Democrats are trying to woo us gun-toting (and God-fearing) types:

Two moderate Democrat senators are leading an effort to improve the Democratic Party’s image among churchgoers and gun owners with the hopes of recapturing Congress and the White House next year.

Sens. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) and Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) said Democrats have adopted the wrong political strategy when it comes to countering Republicans on cultural issues like religion, gun rights and family values.

“If we appear to be hostile to individuals of faith, hostile to those who own guns, indifferent to the concerns of traditional families and weak on national security issues,” Bayh said, “that is not a winning prescription for the Democratic Party.”

Somebody gets it. I’d like to see more pro-gun Democrats. Hell, I’d like to see any prominent politician come out against the Assault Weapons Ban.

For the record, I plan on voting for Howard Dean in the primary and protest vote to the Libertarian candidate in the general election. Why would I do that? I’m hoping people like me will cost the Republicans the election so that they will learn their lesson and get back to being the party of small government. And Dean is the Democrat most in tune with my views. I still predict Bush will win and it won’t even be close.

From WATE:

Tennessee ranks seventh in the nation in the frequency of bomb incidents.

A new FBI report based on 1999 figures shows bombings, attempted bombings and accidental detonations were reported 58 times in the state that year. One person was hurt.

Of the 58, 22 were attempted bombings.

Nationally, 23 people were hurt and nine died that year.

Two years after the study, most local bomb squad units across the state and the country were strengthened because of the terrorist attacks.

I don’t recall these bombings being covered by, you know, the news.

From the WaPo:

Defying weeks of intense White House lobbying, a narrowly divided Senate voted last night to convert half of President Bush’s $20.3 billion Iraq rebuilding plan into a loan that would be forgiven if other donor nations write off the debt incurred by the ousted government of Saddam Hussein.

I’d bet $20.3B that the loan will never be paid back.

Not that they have far to go but they insist on polluting the comments section of my old posts (not even particularly popular posts) with their uselessness.

Via Unknown News comes this:

A Nashua man has been sentenced to 6.5 years in prison after city workers found crumbs of marijuana in his trash and called police.

Steven Montbleau, 32, pleaded guilty to possession of marijuana with the intention of selling it.

Police found 161 pounds of marijuana in Montbleau’s basement and $182,000 in his bedroom closet after being tipped off by two public works employees in August 2002.

The trash haulers said several garbage bags that Montbleau threw onto their truck smelled, so they stopped to check them out. They said they found bits of what appeared to be marijuana, so they called police. Officers got a search warrant and found the other drugs.

Big Brother is going through trash. Wouldn’t a city worker going through your garbage be an unwarranted search and seizure?

Guy is telling people how to find the world’s most infamous left fielder. If I were that guy, I’d buy a gun and run like hell (to a place like sunny Florida).

Update: I forgot, I don’t blog baseball as some say. I blog the reaction of people to baseball.

Any blog that features gun porn warrants a blogroll addition. Welcome Argghhh!

You decide but neither lends to their credibility. Moore has, unsurprisingly, made factual errors. So has Dowd.

Via Insty.