One of the Volokh’s:

Texas is one of only three states (Colorado and Kansas) are the others that actually has the word “dildo” occurring in its state statutes (Penal Code sec. 43.21, part of the definition of vibrator).

<beavis voice>Hehe! They legislated dildo.</beavis voice>

The N Word and more at a Dean rally.

This is pretty awful, coming from the party of racial harmony.

Update: I’ve stated I’d vote for Dean in the primary election. Consider that statement rescinded.

There are over 400 breeds that are not recognized by the AKC, these are called rare breeds, which is a misleading term some of the time. Many rare breed owners have opposed such takeovers but a few breed fanciers give in and the AKC gets its access to some registries.

The AKC has a new tactic for such takeovers. Apparently, there is a movement to get the AKC to recognize American Bulldogs, a breed near and dear to me. As usual, bulldoggers are split on this issue. Some advocate it and some oppose it.

I’m not sure how I feel about the issue. AKC registration can be good for promoting a breed. However, the fact that the AKC doesn’t recognize some breeds leaves the breeds to the purists who like the breed regardless of its popularity. Both can be good things. I’m reserving judgment for now.

Here’s my take on the AKC from a while back:

So, why do I blame the AKC? For developing the standard. All AKC registration means is that the dog’s parents were registered or that the owner filled out some paperwork. It’s no guarantee as to the dog’s health, temperament, or brain power. So this standard of color has led to the killing of puppies. And the AKC will register any dog regardless of the breeder. So, puppy mills crank out pooches. Backyard breeders are in it for the cash. Etc.

While the AKC can do good for a breed, a breed’s popularity can be bad for the breed’s health and temperament.

Two blogs that are new to me and worth reading: Michael Williams and Ravenwood’s Universe.

QOTD:

As for manpower, how much time and effort does it take to google a sentence or two?

They seem to have the manpower to suck up to the Haslams and Victor, though.

Thanks to the 39 people that voted for me in the Wizbang Poll.

And congrats to Busy Mom for winning the best flappy bird!

Heh!

William Burton tells us that Dean could be here to stay. At this point, the only thing that will undo Dean is Dean.

Is it just me, or has he said a lot of dumb stuff in the last couple of weeks?

Some congressman is claiming that the capture of Hussein was timed for political gain.

How exactly does one accidentally pull the trigger? One of the cardinal rules of gun safety is to keep your finger off the trigger until you’re ready to pull it.

Seems to me the problem is policemen not practicing firearm safety.

From the AP:

The Supreme Court issued a traffic warning Monday: Beware of whom you ride with. If drugs are found in a vehicle, all occupants can be arrested, the justices said in a unanimous decision.

It was a victory for Maryland and 20 other states that argued police frequently find drugs in traffic stops but no one in the vehicle claims them. The court gave officers the go-ahead to arrest everyone.

In a small space like a car, an officer could reasonably infer “a common enterprise” among a driver and passengers, the justices ruled.

The case stemmed from an incident in 1999, when police in the Baltimore suburbs pulled over a speeding car. A search revealed a roll of cash in the glove compartment and cocaine in an armrest in the back seat.

The driver and the two passengers denied having anything to do with the contraband, so all three men were arrested.

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, writing for the court, said police had probable cause to suspect that the drugs belonged to any of the three, or all of them.

Chuck lists the WOD’s latest casualty. At last count, drugs are still winning.

You will be missed.

Jeff has recovered from his illness and has the weekly report up.

The AP writes that an official has stated Saddam may face the death penalty. I say just turn him loose in the middle of Baghdad.

And it seems that there are reports that Saddam is being uncooperative with interrogators. I recommend they bring in LTC West to have a chat with him.

From Paul Harvey, Saddam’s first words when captured: I am Saddam Hussein, president of the Republic of Iraq. I am ready to negotiate.

Soldier: President Bush sends his regards.

So, Ohio’s CCW law will be vetoed because the Governor wants the list of permit holders to be public information. So, let’s give crooks a list of people who have guns so they can break into their homes?

Actually, I doubt that would happen but what motivation is there for having this information public?

Via James, comes this story of Michael Williams being denied a carry permit in California. Sorry, that state is beyond help. Move.

It is a pity that Mr. Williams can’t get a permit, but a person known to be prone to violence, like Sean Penn, can get a carry permit in California. May issue is far more contemptible than no issue.

Something else interesting was Barry’s comment:

If I were to take a live, armed weapon and carry it on my person, in public, it would eat away at my sanity just as if it were emitting lethal radiation. To know that I carried an instrument of sure and certain death on my person, available and ready to be pulled out and used at a moment’s notice to possibly kill…a child. A homeless person. An innocent.

Fortunately, some of us are capable of overcoming our own shortcomings. Barry doesn’t trust himself and that is a pity. It’s one thing to not carry because you don’t want to but it’s another to think that carrying a gun makes you insane. All us crazy people might take offense to it.

Donald Sensing:

I predict that the Bush administration will be seen by freedom-wishing Americans a generation or two hence as the hinge on the cell door locking up our freedom. When my children are my age, they will not be free in any recognizably traditional American meaning of the word. I’d tell them to emigrate, but there’s nowhere left to go. I am left with nauseating near-conviction that I am a member of the last generation in the history of the world that is minimally truly free.

The economy is horrible!

He hasn’t captured Hussein!

He hasn’t captured Bin Laden!

AP:

Without firing a shot, American forces captured a bearded and haggard-looking Saddam Hussein in an underground hide-out on a farm near his hometown of Tikrit, ending one of the most intensive manhunts in history. The arrest was a huge victory for U.S. forces battling an insurgency by the ousted dictator’s followers.

“Ladies and gentlemen, we got him,” U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer told a news conference Sunday, eight months after American troops swept into Baghdad and toppled Saddam’s regime.

“The tyrant is a prisoner.”

Good news.

So, apparently there’s this Boortz guy, who I had never heard of (I get my news and commentary from the web). He has this radio show and apparently has libertarian leanings. I caught about ten minutes of it this morning and, unfortunately, there was some CourtTV person guest hosting. And by guest hosting, she was name-dropping, taking calls from people she shouldn’t take calls from (some guy advocating the 10 commandments as law), and talking about Michael Jackson. I wasn’t impressed. She made one good point about justice for the wealthy, here’s a clue: there is none.

RTB’s own smijer has created an anti-boortz blog (which I hope is not some sort of Bozeman in the making). Apparently, smijer listed me as an example of “libertarian logic.”

It should be noted that I am not a Libertarian but I do like some aspects of Libertarianism. However, Libertarianism can’t work. Clayton Cramer opined that he watched the TV show Cops just to remind him of why Libertarianism cannot work. You will always have the lowest common denominator ruining it for everyone. Face it, not everyone is nice guy like me.

Libertarianism needs to drop the opposition to all social programs (it’s not practical to oppose public education outright); Libertarians need to stop nominating people who get into shootouts with the police (strangely, they’re not on Cops) or nominating people who die themselves blue from taking magic potions designed to keep the orbital mind control lasers from penetrating their brains; and Libertarians need to adopt a moderate libertarian approach first to get their foot in the door on the political scene. As of now, the weirdos have done the Libertarians in.

This is why I refer to myself as a libertarian with a small L. Libertarianism has some good ideals:

Small government
Personal responsibility
Valuing liberty among all else

All good stuff!

But other things that need work:

Opposing all welfare
Opposing public education
Wanting to ban all taxes
Aligning themselves with some of the whacko militia groups

You have to work on this stuff guys to be taken seriously. Yes, welfare, education, taxes and other things need some major work. But we can’t do without them.

LTC West will not face a court martial:

U.S. Army officer who graduated from UT no longer faces prison time for the way he treated an Iraqi prisoner.

Now the army has decided on a punishment much less harsh for Lieutenant Colonel Allen West.

Colonel West fired a gun near an Iraqi to get information on planned attacks on U.S. soldiers.

His actions are said to have saved lives, but went against military rules.

The Army has decided Colonel West will not face court-martial. Instead he faces a letter of reprimand and may have to forfeit some of his pay.

Seems we want to focus more on how the memos were leaked than, ya know, actual content of the memos.

Apparently, Tennessee tops the list of states for bioterrorism preparedness. Makes sense, since we have Oak Ridge. I was surprised that Texas and New Mexico didn’t top the list for similar reasons.

They were allowed to divorce:

Iowa law doesn’t recognize homosexual marriages, but a Woodbury County district judge has approved a divorce for two lesbians who were united in a civil union last year in Vermont.

Judge Jeffrey Neary said he routinely signs divorces without checking the participants’ gender. When he discovered what had happened, he said to Dennis Ringgenberg, attorney for Kimberly Brown: “Dennis, these are two females.”

“He said ‘yes’ and proceeded to explain the situation,” Neary said. “I said this is probably going to be a controversial matter at some point in time, and he smiled and said, ‘You’re right.’

Oops.

I can play that game too. Unelectable.

I just saw on CBS news in a story about the couple that killed the three kids, Some interesting stats (sorry, no link on CBS News website that I can find):

1 in 30 murders are kids getting killed by parents.
1 in 3 child murders are committed by the mother.
450 children are murdered per year.

Sort of shocking to me, actually.

This one is pretty bad. You’ve been warned.

CAGW released their three part critique of H.R. 2673. Here, here, and here.

The lists include:

-$50,000,000 added in conference for an indoor rain forrest in Coralville, Iowa;

-$1,000,000 added by the Senate for the Alaska SeaLife Center;

-$653,000 added by the Senate to study rainbow trout at the University of Idaho’s Hagerman Fish Culture Experiment Station in Aberdeen;

-$500,000 added in conference for the Hawaii Community Foundation for the Samoan/Asian Pacific Job Training Program;

-$500,000 added in conference for the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay to establish a paper science technology transfer center;

-$300,000 added by the House to assist in creating a database of North Carolina’s agricultural industry to enable a rapid response to acts of terrorism;

-$270,000 added by the House for cotton quality in Clemson, S.C.;

-$200,000 added by the House to the Town of Guadalupe, Ariz. for construction and renovation of the Mercado shopping center;

-$200,000 added in conference for the University of Hawaii, West Oahu Campus, to produce the “Primal Quest” film documentary;

-$150,000 added in conference for the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival in Alaska; and

-$75,000 added by the House for the East Valley YMCA in North Hollywood, Calif. for facilities renovation.

-$18,500,000 added by the House for the International Fund for Ireland;

-$1,000,000 added by the House for the Alabama Supercomputer Education Outreach Program;

-$725,000 added in conference for the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia, Pa.;

-$400,000 added in conference for the New York Botanical Garden’s Virtual Herbarium project in the Bronx;

-$387,000 added in conference for the Whittier Public Library Children’s Area and History Room in the City of Whittier, Calif.;

-$250,000 added in conference for the Cleveland Health Museum in Ohio for exhibits;

-$200,000 added in conference for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland for the Rockin’ the Schools education program;

-$200,000 added in conference for the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh for exhibit and curriculum development for the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum at the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center;

-$50,000 added in conference for the Alaska Moving Image Preservation Association in Anchorage to digitize files/photos/videos of Alaskan history; and

-$50,000 added in conference for the Imaginarium Science Center in Anchorage to develop science exhibits and distance discovery modules.

-$2,000,000 added by the Senate for The First Tee Program in St. Augustine, Fla. to provide affordable access to golf for everyone, especially kids;

-$1,800,000 added by the Senate for the Appalachian fruit laboratory in Kearneysville, W.Va.;

-$1,000,000 added by the Senate for the Alaska SeaLife Center;

-$500,000 added by the Senate for Salt Lake City, Utah for the Pete Suazo Business Center to purchase building space;

-$447,000 added by the Senate for halibut data collection in Alaska;

-$270,000 added by the Senate for potato storage in Madison, Wisc.;

-$250,000 added by the Senate for the Walter Clore Wine and Culinary Center in Prosser, Wash. for costs associated with construction;

-$200,000 added by the House to the Town of Guadalupe, Ariz. for construction and renovation of the Mercado shopping center;

-$150,000 added in conference for the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival in Alaska; and

-$75,000 added by the House for the East Valley YMCA in North Hollywood, Calif. for facilities renovation.

Grand Total: $82,302,000. Hey, here’s where campaign finance should start. Stop vote buying now!

No, not that Fitty Cent won an entertainer of the year (though that is close) award. But this. Sign of the times.

Does this little Supreme Court ruling on campaign finance apply to the Internet? In October 2004, can I no longer blog things that are critical of politicians?

Nope. No bias here. Keep it moving.

Update: More here, here, here, here, and here.

Big Stupid Tommy is hosting the Volunteer Tailgate Party. And, as usual for Tommy, it’s hysterical.

KNS:

Gov. Phil Bredesen has said he will not let TennCare “be an albatross around my neck,” and that if necessary he would “just shoot the thing” and start from scratch.

Today, Bredesen will get a $2.6 million report expected to be either a blueprint for reform or a bullet with TennCare’s name on it. The privately funded study has been conducted over the last three months by New York-based consulting firm McKensie & Co.

Good. Glad someone is willing to do something about TennCare, other than throw money at it and hope it fixes itself.

There is increasing evidence that global warming, much like economics, is entirely made up.

Update: To make the meaning more clear, here it is worded more accurately to reflect my point:

There is increasing that evidence that the speculative causes of global warming, much like speculative causes of economic trends, are entirely made up.

The AP:

Brad Hackenberger insists he didn’t want to shoot his neighbor’s yellow Labrador retriever when it came onto his farm 3 1/2 years ago, but the dog’s aggressive actions toward him and his own cocker spaniel Luke gave him little choice.

But because Hackenberger used a “deadly weapon” _ in his case, a .22 rifle kept around the Juniata County grain farm to shoot groundhogs and squirrels _ Hackenberger received a sentence of six months to two years for cruelty to animals, an offense that did not normally involve jail time.

The judge imposed the deadly weapons enhancement, which calls for increased penalties, despite Hackenberger’s lawyer’s insistence it should only apply to cases with human victims. Hackenberger appealed the ruling to the state Supreme Court, which on Nov. 19 upheld the sentence in a 5-2 decision.

So, he shot a dog on his property and it is a crime? Good God, New Jersey sucks. I am amazed that they mentioned the breed in this article. It’s usually rare, unless it’s a pit bull.

But Juniata County District Attorney Andrew L. Winder disputes Hackenberger’s self-defense claim.

“The jury didn’t buy it,” Winder said.

Attorney David Barron, who handled Hackenberger’s appeal, said the decision sets a precedent that could be applied to a number of other crimes where guns or even knives are involved.

First, I don’t think there was a crime here. Second, if the dog he shot happened to be a pit bull, I bet the jury would have been convinced pretty quickly.

Bill O’Reilly claims to be big on facts but he apparently buys the assault weapons ban lie:

I watched Bill O’Reilly on “The O’Reilly Factor” lie to his viewers last night over what the Clinton “Assault Weapons Ban” (AWB) says. Mr. O’Reilly claimed that the public supports the AWB because it “keeps your neighbors from owning bazookas and machineguns in their homes”. But those type weapons have been illegal for almost 3/4 of a century. And the AWB has nothing to do that that. The Clinton AWB only makes guns that “LOOK” like military assault weapons illegal and has had no impact on preventing or reducing crime in the ten years of its existence.

Hell, even supposed conservatives don’t get gun control any more.

Regarding the Supreme Court’s ruling on campaign finance reform, referred to as the incumbent protection act by AlphaPatriot, the gist is that:

Parties can’t have unfettered access to some money.

Special interest groups have to limit their political ads depending on how far away the election is.

Some special interest groups can do whatever they want as long as they oppose something (like MoveOn.org). But some special interest can’t do anything because they oppose something (like the NRA).

And the court sees no problem with this? I realize that the desired effect is to have the appearance that congress is doing something about campaign finance reform (note: I didn’t say that the desired effect was to actually do something about campaign finance reform. Trust me, the money will find its way to them no matter what laws they pass) but this means that during election times, it’s all about press coverage.

As one who believes that all politicians are bought and paid for by someone, I am all for limiting money contributions. But the rest seems entirely inconsistent, entirely unconstitutional, and generally stupid.

Spoons has a quick guide to the Bill of Rights. I think Jeff’s summary from a while back had it right, too.

Via CJ comes the SelectSmart.com 2004 Presidential Candidate Selector:

TheState.com:

Seventeen Stratford High School students are suing the city of Goose Creek and the Berkeley County school district in federal court, alleging police and school officials terrorized them in a drug raid last month.

Individuals named as defendants in the suit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Charleston, include: Stratford High School principal George McCrackin; Berkeley County school superintendent Chester Floyd; Goose Creek police Chief Harvey Becker; and Goose Creek police Lt. Dave Aarons.

The suit also names the city of Goose Creek, its police department and the Berkeley County School District as defendants.

School officials declined to comment on the details of the lawsuit but expressed regret about the incident.

The Nov. 5 raid by police and school officials has created a national firestorm, in part because it was caught on videotape by the school and made available to a local television reporter.

Good!

Update: I failed to make a goose step reference. So there it is.

Unless it’s convenient. I wonder if the Bush Recession will be renamed?

The U.S. economy shrank in the third quarter of 2000, the government said on Wednesday in revisions to official figures that showed America was on the brink of recession months earlier than previously thought.

The sweeping changes by the Commerce Department also downgraded the expansion that followed the 2001 slump, albeit only slightly.

However, the revisions were not applied to third-quarter 2003 data — leaving the most recent measure of growth unchanged at a swift annual clip of 8.2 percent. The next reading of third-quarter growth is scheduled for later in December.

Until now, statisticians at Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis believed the economy did not start shrinking until early 2001. But extensive revisions dating back to 1929, incorporating both improved statistics and changes to definitions, revealed a contraction in gross domestic product, or GDP, in the July-to-September quarter of 2000.

I doubt it. It’s no more Bush’s fault than it is Clinton’s. The government has very, very limited economic controls and they don’t impact the economy as much as people like to think.

I know this because the local radio station is playing Shirley Liquor’s Twelve Days of Kwanza. A couple years back, this radio station (who coincidentally has the ugliest website on the planet) came under fire for playing it. They did the right thing and still play it.

Sure, it’s offensive to someone but it’s funny.

Catherine at DogReader has a follow up to the story of Steve Wells, whose insurance company dropped him after seeing he had what may have been a pit bull.

“Steve says that the Virginia State Corporation Commission has written a letter to that insurance company about the situation. The company has written to Steve saying that if his veterinarian will sign a letter stating that the dog is not a Pit Bull or mixed with certain other breeds, they will not cancel his insurance.

A somewhat happy ending. The company still uses breed as a factor and just wants a letter stating the dog is not a pit bull. As readers of this site know, there is no scientific way to determine what breed a particular dog is. For example, here’s a picture of my Chihuahua:

Apparently, the NRA wants to buy some media outlet (ala liberals) to get its message out. Bill Hobbs offers the NRA some decent advice, which is to get a blog. The NRA won’t do this because of their history of stifling other pro gun folks. The NRA only went along with Silviera v. Lockyer after they got bad press for not supporting it.

The NRA has been kowtowing for too long. About the only thing that they have done in a while that I’ve cared for is opposition to the Assault Weapons Ban, and they lost that fight.

The NRA has been a spineless, compromising entity for a while now. The real gun lobby needs to step in.

The Rant has a point and counterpoint regarding the Ohio shootings, DC snipers, the West Virginia sniper and the potential link.

Yahoo News:

A father and son angered by a state plan to seize some of their land for a highway killed two officers who went to their home, setting off a 13-hour standoff and a “horrendous gunfight,” authorities and neighbors said.

The Bixby family had decided that they would defend their land to the death, authorities say.

“This was planned,” State Law Enforcement Division Chief Robert Stewart said.

The gunfight was so fierce that police at one point had to bring in extra ammunition, Stewart said. Agents found suicide notes, anti-American material and items that may relate to militias, Stewart said.

Arthur Bixby and his son, Steven Bixby, 36, were charged with murder in the deaths of the two officers, authorities said Tuesday. Steven Bixby was to be arraigned Tuesday; Arthur Bixby, was still being treated for gunshot wounds.

Arthur Bixby’s wife, Rita, was charged with being an accessory to murder, and all three also are charged with conspiracy, officials said.

Neighbors said the Bixbys were angry over the road widening project, even though it would take only a portion of their land.

It does occur to me, that if people actually had an effective means of petitioning the government for redress of grievances this sort of thing wouldn’t happen. It also doesn’t lend to the credibility of the case against the Bixby’s that the authorities are just throwing a bunch of charges at the Bixby’s hoping that as many as possible will stick.

This is why I, even though I think the proposed bill protecting gun manufacturers is stupid, I don’t oppose it. This is clearly the parent’s fault.

Gun manufacturer’s need special protection because they are under special attack.

The Democrat beat the Green in San Francisco. 53% to 47%. Good to see a third party doing something, even if it is the Greens.

So, recently I began listening to NPR on my drive home (after Bjorn convinced me not to boycott it). Yesterday, while covering the $373B omnibus spending bill, NPR actually listed some pork projects, like federal money for building a city pool and some other big projects. Strangely, NPR didn’t list federal grants to NPR. Odd.

Bush signed a bill into law that extends for ten years the ban on plastic guns. Does anyone even make plastic guns?

I think the press is gearing up for All Assault Weapons, All The Time. Newsday:

In the decade since the Long Island Rail Road shooting and the nine years since Congress enacted a law to ban assault-style semiautomatic weapons, the world has changed, according to Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-Mineola). And not for the better.

That’s why she and other gun-law advocates are pressing to extend the assault weapons ban enacted in 1994, a year after the LIRR shootings that killed six and wounded 19. The ban will expire in September unless Congress and the president act.

McCarthy, whose husband, Dennis, was killed and son, Kevin, gravely wounded in the shootings, and other backers of the law are facing an uphill battle.

House Republican leaders say they won’t bring it up this year. House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) does not have it “on the radar screen right now,” said spokesman John Feehery. “We’ll re-evaluate priorities for next session, but it’s not on his priority list now.”

President George W. Bush, who pledged in his campaign he would sign an extension of the weapons ban if it reached his desk, seems unenthusiastic about pressuring Congress to get it there. The president has “made it clear he supports the extension of the assault weapons ban,” said White House spokeswoman Claire Buchan. But she listed Medicare and fighting the war on terror as the president’s “highest priorities” and wouldn’t say where the assault weapons ban ranked on that priority list.

To McCarthy, extending the assault weapons ban fits nicely into the war on terror. She cited both the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and last year’s Washington-area sniper shootings as two reasons the ban needs to remain in effect.

Now, we see the attempt to label the ban as a terrorist measure. One case where the press gets it wrong again:

John Muhammad has been convicted in one of the sniper shootings and his alleged accomplice, 18-year-old Lee Malvo, is currently on trial in another. The gun used in those attacks was a copycat of an AR-15 assault rifle banned under the 1994 law.

The last sentence is confusing to me. Are they saying the weapon used was banned? They may be implying it. However, the gun used was not banned by the Assault Weapons ban. Regardless, the assault weapons ban is useless at banning guns and serves merely to keep the proverbial foot in the door.

Eric opines about Instapundit’s consternation over using the phraseI feel vs. I think. A friend of mine (who briefly wrote for this blog) opined once that:

When someone expresses their view and begins the sentence with I feel, they are likely liberal. And if they begin with I think, they are likely conservative.

Obviously, his observation was anecdotal. There are liberals that think and there are conservatives that feel, much to the chagrin of each other. I realize this is stereotypical but there is a bit of truth to some of it.

This article details the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the Brady bill, you know the one that was struck down. But there was this little nugget:

The ban on assault weapons is set to expire in September 2004, and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, has said that he will not call for a vote on the renewal of it. Sarah Brady said she hopes President Bush will put pressure on Republican leaders to bring the assault weapons ban up for a vote.

Cool.

The new Battlestar Galactica was all too convenient. I can see where it’s going and so can anyone smarter than a grapefruit (wow, they have an antiquated computer system as a plot point).

Starbuck is a girl?
Boomer is a girl?
I wasn’t aware from the first series that humans created cylons.
Apollo can’t act.
The new cylon ships looked cool except for the red light moving across the cockpit, which is lame.
The new cylons look cool (not the chick, but the guards at the start . . . actually, the chick looked good too).
Lots of sex in it too.
The ships graphics are neat.

I’ll probably watch it for a while. I expect it to get better but they have to lay down the story and character bios now.

My Christmas gift to me was seasons 1 and 2 of The Family Guy. My favorite joke on the DVD so far:

Peter comes home riding an elephant and says: Look, the two symbols of the Republican Party. An elephant and a fat white guy who is resistant to change.

Why fight one ass-hatted thing by doing the same thing?

Looks like Bush gets to sign an anti-spam bill. The law won’t do much other than give prosecutors another law to prosecute offenders under. Remember, in Congress a bad bill is better than no bill.

In the San Francisco mayoral race, Clinton and Gore are campaigning for the Democrat. The Democrat, Gavin Newsom, is getting some serious competition from the Green Party candidate.

Good to see a third party in the running somewhere.

FoxNews:

It may surprise some people to learn that today’s American teenagers have more conservative views than older generations on prayer in schools and abortion.

A brand new Gallup Organization (search) study and another out of the University of California at Berkeley (search) found that teens are more likely to be in favor of government restrictions on abortion and prayer during official school activities.

The findings mark a departure from the perception of teens as more progressive and liberal than adults, especially during protest-filled decades like the 1960s and ’70s.

The Berkeley study suggests that while 59 percent of adults 27 to 59 want public schools to permit prayer at commencements and other official activities, 69 percent of teens support prayer during official school events.

And while 34 percent of respondents older than 26 supported government restrictions on abortion, 44 percent of those aged 15 to 22 and 32 percent of those 23 to 26 said they supported limitations.

Hey, look at me. I’m all moderate and stuff.

At least, I think that’s the look Dean is going for (though it doesn’t quite fit):

Former Vice President Al Gore endorsed Howard Dean for the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday, adding momentum and political prestige to Dean’s front-running campaign.

Gore said Dean “really is the only candidate who has been able to inspire at the grassroots level all over the country.” He said the former Vermont governor also was the only Democratic candidate who made the correct judgment about the Iraq war.

As the weather gets cold, my thoughts turn to soup. One of my favorite winter soups is New England Clam Chowder. This is quick and easy (for soup):

4 strips of bacon, chopped into tiny bits
1 large onion, chopped
5 6oz cans of minced clams (or 3 10oz cans of whole baby claims; or 10oz fresh clams if you can get them)
2 cups chopped celery
2 cups diced potatoes
Quart of milk
4 tablespoons of flour
Salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot, fry the bacon until it is not quite wiggly. Add all the vegetables and sauté until moderately tender. Add the flour. Be sure to stir the flour into the bacon grease until smooth. Add the cans of clams (including juice) and the milk. Cook until veggies are tender (20 – 30 minutes), stirring occasionally.

Enjoy.

P.S. Substitute another couple of cups of potatoes instead of the clams and it makes excellent potato soup.

P.P.S. Despite the last two recipe posts, not every thing I cook has bacon grease in it.

It’s hard to blog about guns and gun control because so many others already do it. Instead Mays offers some quotes for perusal. One that I hadn’t seen before:

“We did indeed know much about your preparedness. We knew that probably every second home in your country contained firearms. We knew that your country actually had state championships for private citizens shooting military rifles. We were not fools to set foot in such quicksand.” – A Japanese Admiral 15 years after VJ day on why Japan didn’t invade the US mainland after Pearl Harbor.

Good stuff. I should point out to Mays that it’s not just liberals attacking gun rights (his quote by Giuliani should evidence that) as all major party presidential candidates support the assault weapons ban.

Eric tells us how to make mulled wine.

Does a true American hero (and arguably the most important person in the civil rights movement) really want to tarnish her good name?

The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way on Monday for civil rights icon Rosa Parks to proceed with her lawsuit against OutKast and others over the rap music duo’s hit song with her name as its title.

The justices let stand a U.S. appeals court ruling that reinstated Parks’ false advertising and publicity claims against OutKast and three Bertelsmann AG units — LaFace Records, the record producer, and Arista Records and BMG Entertainment, the distributors.

It’d be a pity if this was the last thing she was in the news for.

One problem: I can’t get these nicotine patches to roll up tight enough to light. Any suggestions?

Update: Mike writes:

I thought you put ‘em on your tongue and waited for them to dissolve?

I leth oo noow how it turnths outh.

The mayor of Cincinnati has recommended police carry stun guns. This reminded my of an issue: I do not advocate citizens carrying pepper spray, stun guns, and other non lethals. It’s their right to do so, but I think it’s a bad idea. For the police, it’s likely a good idea that they carry them. As for why I take issue with citizens carrying non lethals, it’s a matter of carelessness.

I carry a gun. I know that because of that I will avoid getting into fights and other physical altercations. I don’t want to explain to the police that, in the end, I killed a man because he insulted my wife, called me a name, or some other stupid reason (even if I just stepped in and he became belligerent).

With non lethals, the finality is not there. I think that people (even me) would be more likely to just mace someone or Taser them because it will teach them a lesson and it won’t kill them. I think people are more likely to start zapping people when they view the tools as a painful inconvenience and not deadly serious.

The other thing is that, in the case of these things, there are some people who have a surprising resistance to them. Ask any beat cop and they’ll have a story about some guy who was pepper-sprayed/maced/Tasered and kept on fighting. They are not a sure thing. No one I know is resistant to 45 ACP.

Side note: I sprayed myself with pepper spray once and it was unpleasant. But I could still function. It was a dare among friends. Alcohol may have been involved.

Tonight at 9 p.m. EST on the SciFi channel, Battlestar Galactica premieres. It has potential since our last best hope for good science fiction television has run its course.

Mike is making presidential election predictions. I think it’s too early to predict percentages but I see Bush winning by a significant margin, unless something big happens in the next 11 months.

Of course, it is too early for these sorts of things.

The RTB got some more local press time. Props to Bubba, Adam, Hobbsonline, Instapundit, Beyond the Whispers, Long Pauses, and the Golden Calf for their mention.

but he doesn’t. He’s crafted his own southern strategy:

Dean said the time has come for political leaders to move beyond divisive issues and toward harmony on issues of “common interest” such as education and jobs. “It’s time we had a new politics in America — a politics that refuses to pander to our lowest prejudices,” he said.

Dean — who only weeks ago infuriated some African Americans by saying he wanted to be the candidate of whites with Confederate flags — is increasingly going after President Bush on race issues as part of his own “southern strategy” to win support in the region.

First of all, there is no getting beyond divisive issues. They exist because they’re divisive. And they always will. There are huge numbers of single issue voters (abortion folks, gun folks, etc.). You will not get their votes if you don’t agree with their view. Nice theory, Howie, but you’re fooling yourself.

UT comes in sixth in the AP poll but get a crappy bowl game. I am a CPA, with a Masters in Informations Systems and I can’t figure out how the BCS works.

I honestly think UT should refuse to play in the bowl.

Until recently, the only thing I heard come out of Kerry’s mouth was when I was in Vietnam . . . Now, he’s dropped the F-Bomb. Now, I at least respect him. Proves he’s a regular joe.

I did find it funny when Dubya called the reporter a bad word too.

The liberal and conservative co-bloggers have moved to Classless Warfare.

If you want to draw traffic to your site (no this is not a paris hilton sex tape plug but nice how I snuck that in there), list the phrases

Old Navy shizzle’s gone fazizzle

or

Old Navy that look is off the hook

Sad, sad state of the world.

In the event that anti war folks need reminding why I think they’re either evil, blinded ideologues, or stupid, there is this:

The killers kept bankers’ hours. They showed up for work at the barley field at 9 a.m., trailed by backhoes and three buses filled with blindfolded men, women and children as young as 1.

Every day, witnesses say, the routine was the same: The backhoes dug a trench. Fifty people were led to the edge of the hole and shot, one by one, in the head. The backhoes covered them with dirt, then dug another hole for the next group.

At 5 p.m., the killers – officials of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party – went home to rest up for another day of slaughter.

In this wind-swept field in the central town of Mahaweel, witnesses say, this went on without a break for 35 days in March and April of 1991, during a crackdown on a Shiite Muslim uprising that followed the first Gulf War.

It is a noble cause to stop genocide, mass murder, oppression, and human rights violations.

Blood for oil, my ass.

When I first started this blog, I stated I’d post recipes semi-regularly. I have been remiss in doing that. But no more. I love to cook. I went back and categorized some (ahem, three) older posts into the new Recipes category. I like all kinds of food and cook everything from southern dishes to Korean (I make my own kimchee too). So, we’ll start off with a good old southern staple, cornbread:

8 inch Iron skillet
2 cups cornmeal
1 piece of bacon
6 tablespoons of sugar
1.5 cups of milk
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 430 degrees. In iron skillet, cook up the bacon and give it to the dogs (my dogs love cornbread night) or eat it yourself. In a bowl combine all the other ingredients and mix until smooth. Stir a tablespoon or two of the bacon grease into the mixture. While your skillet is still hot from cooking the bacon swirl the remaining grease around in the skillet to coat the bottom and sides for good flavor and it keeps the cornbread from sticking. Pour mixture into the skillet, which should still be hot (this will crisp the bottom of the cornbread). Cook in oven on 430 for 20 to 35 minutes. Outside should be brown and crispy and a knife inserted into the center should come out dry.

Good with soups, pinto beans, and almost everything.

Enjoy.

Thanks to whoever voted for me as the best large mammal in the wizbang poll.

It’s an honor to be nominated. Wait I’m probably just on the list for being a large mammal. Bummer. I’ll get one more vote. I can vote for myself, right? Too many good choices there. Alphecca, C&S, and me. Decisions, decisions.

Plenty of other RTBers have been nominated for various awards, so give them a vote.

Too many good blogs to decide who to vote for yet.

I am glad that I haven’t seen a Dell intern commercial in about two weeks. Those kids should use the money they make from these commercials for acting lessons.

Every Taco Bell commercial ever has sucked. Even the one with the dog.

I don’t know if anyone has seen the Build a Bear commercial but isn’t that girl a bit old to be building a teddy bear. And who the Hell was responsible for hiring her? Jeez, do they think she can sing? Must be the CEO’s daughter or something.

What is with these Old Navy commercials? Shizzle’s gone fazizzle? Who the Hell writes these things? That look is off the hook? I used to like Fran Dresher (sp?) What the . . .

I’m sorry, guys. There is no good way to do a soup commercial. Just show the soup and say it tastes good. The bending spoons is terrible but it is slightly less annoying than the couple whose son just moved out. Time for an adult soup? Why the Hell did you by Campbell’s any way?

And a note to Apple, correct grammar would mean think differently.

And a note to Microsoft, it should be see farther not further.

While I’m being a grammar/spelling Nazi:

Seperate is not a word.

Wreckless is not a word.

Insure refers to insurance that you buy. Ensure refers to offering assurance about something.

Hell, I don’t even have editors.

Bubba lists an unintended consequence of the recognizing God in government resolution that our local politicos were so gung-ho about. What you reap, and all that.

Bigwig:

Rep. Smith has evidently decided that it is preferable that the country view him as a liar than stand by his earlier statements, which not only had much more of the ring of truth about them do than his current cowardly backscrabblings. Backscrabblings which, in any case, do little to remove the criminal impression he earlier gave of the House Republican Leadership.

*Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.

Irresponsible pet owners, guns, incompetent police, lack of enforcing existing laws, vicious dog laws, dog restraint laws, etc.

Three Pit bulls had mauled someone. Pits were still running loose. They attack someone else. Neighbor calls the cops. Cops take 1 hour and 10 minutes to respond. Victim dies. The dogs attack someone else later, who shoots them.

The owner of the dogs needs to be criminally prosecuted as do the police.

Good question. Obviously, a bunch of whackos are to blame but trial lawyers are having a go at blaming the airlines. But this piece argues, that using that logic, the government is actually to blame:

The first thing to remember is that airline traffic in the USA is heavily regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration, which governs all procedures, including construction of the planes themselves. (Airlines have some say about routes and fares, which is about the extent of the vaunted industry “deregulation.”) That means the placement of every wire, every piece of steel, and every doorway on the Boeing planes used as weapons of mass destruction that fateful day was approved and overseen by the FAA.

While it makes for good press for attorneys and judges, the idea that Boeing on its own could have ordered “secure” cockpit doors is a laugher. Any unilateral attempt by any aircraft maker to act without FAA direction is always met with swift action against the manufacturer; to put it another way, it would have been illegal for Boeing to make planes with impenetrable (if that is even possible) cockpit doors before 9/11, something that Schiavo and her fellow attorneys (and Judge Hellerstein) already know. Furthermore, as John Lott has pointed out, there are many questions of whether or not FAA-approved (now) secure doors are even secure.

James Bovard writes:

According to supporters of the Patriot Act, the FBI was fatally prevented by excessive concerns about civil liberties from securing a search warrant for Moussaoui’s belongings — thereby thwarting the feds from gaining key data on a possible hijacking conspiracy.

In reality, as two bipartisan congressional reports concluded, Moussaoui’s computer was not searched prior to September 11 because of the FBI’s gross incompetence.

Instructors at the Pan Am International Flying Academy in Eagan, Minn., became suspicious of Moussaoui because, according to later press reports, he wanted to learn how to fly a 747 jet in mid-air but had no interest in learning how to land or take off. Moussaoui had no pilot’s license or aviation background. But he showed up with $6,800 in cash and a passion to learn a few flying skills as quickly as possible.

After phoning the local FBI office four times, a flight instructor finally reached the right FBI agent, relayed the suspicions on Moussaoui and bluntly warned, “Do you realize that a 747 loaded with fuel can be used as a bomb?”

The next day, Aug. 16, 2001, FBI agents came and, after ascertaining that Moussaoui’s visa was expired, arrested him. The INS agreed to hold Moussaoui for seven to 10 days — exploiting the flexibility in its regulations to protect the public from a potentially dangerous alien.

Minnesota-based FBI agents notified the CIA and the FBI liaison in Paris, seeking further information; French intelligence sources reported that Moussaoui was “a known terrorist who had been on their watch list for three years.” The CIA alerted its overseas stations that Moussaoui was a “suspect airline suicide hijacker” who might be “involved in a larger plot to target airlines traveling from Europe to the United States.”

On Aug. 18, Minneapolis FBI agents sent a 26-page memo to headquarters warning that Moussaoui was acting “with others yet unknown” in a hijack conspiracy. Three days later, Minneapolis agents notified headquarters: “If [Moussaoui] seizes an aircraft flying from Heathrow to New York City, it will have the fuel on board to reach D.C.”

But when Minneapolis agents sought FBI headquarters’ permission to request a search warrant to check out Moussaoui’s belongings, an agent at the FBI’s Radical Fundamentalist Unit refused permission. Instead, FBI headquarters insisted that Minneapolis agents file a search warrant request under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a 1978 law that created the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to authorize searches of agents of foreign governments and foreign organizations. FISA sets a much lower, easier, standard for securing search warrants than is required by other federal courts.

Another interesting side note:

Third, once the hijackers made their actions known aboard the planes, everyone on board obeyed the law by following the hijackers’ orders. Ironically, the passengers on the UAL’s doomed Flight 93 broke the law by attacking their assailants. Yes, it is doubtful that the passengers would have been criminally charged had the flight somehow landed safely, but nonetheless, prosecution of Todd Beamer and others who charged the cockpit would have been a legal (but not politically feasible) option for U.S. authorities. To put it another way, in the eyes of U.S. law, Todd Beamer was not a hero; he was a felon.

He concludes with:

Yes, in hindsight, by following U.S. Government policies from beginning to end, United and American airlines inadvertently aided those individuals who snuffed out nearly 3,000 lives through their vicious actions. Yet, in hindsight, we also know that to have thwarted those attacks would have turned some employees of United and American into felons.

While I think it is a stretch to blame the government for these failings (with the exception of the incompetence of the FBI ), it is totally asinine to blame airlines who were obeying the law.

From Citizens Against Government Waste.

The Publicola gang is all over this story:

In Florida, Mr. Spaulding, a 71 year old concealed carry permit holder, was witnessing a 63 year old friend being kicked on the ground by three thugs. Mr. Spaulding shot and stopped the attack. The police show up and arrest the thugs but later release them. Mr. Spaulding is arrested for attempted murder. That is outrage number one.

Number two: The police state that Mr. Spaulding should have called 911 instead of intervening. Of course, in the time the police took to show up, the man may have been killed.

Number 3: Mr. Spaulding had to agree not to possess weapons to be released. No charges have yet been filed against him but his rights are being infringed upon.

Go read Publicola and Nicki’s for the details: here, here, and here.

Apparently, Limbaugh’s lawyers are saying that politics are playing a role in his probe. Sure, that’s probably true. But the fact is he was using drugs illegally. And I’m sure that politics had nothing to do with Rush’s treatement of the various Clinton scandals.

You should read this long reflection about the SCOTUS rejection to hear the Silviera case. It’s quite long.

Heh! After Manish informed me that Sitemeter was likely a better way to monitor traffic, I set up a an account.

How to game the system: Set up counter late on Tuesday, get instalanched on Thursday, then watch your average daily hits jump into the top 100.

Still no word from NZ Bear on that Carnival Issue.

A PA radio station refused to air an ad from the million err four mom march.

And the Brady Campaign got slapped with a fine for failing to disclose political spendings.

A nice, brief entry on how your dog is training you. After all, they’ve got nothing better to do.

Kathy links to the following:

Federal authorities this year mounted one of the most extensive investigations of domestic terrorism since the Oklahoma City bombing, CBS 11 has learned.

Three people linked to white supremacist and anti-government groups are in custody. At least one weapon of mass destruction – a sodium cyanide bomb capable of delivering a deadly gas cloud – has been seized in the Tyler area.

Investigators have seized at least 100 other bombs, bomb components, machine guns, 500,000 rounds of ammunition and chemical agents. But the government also found some chilling personal documents indicating that unknown co-conspirators may still be free to carry out what appeared to be an advanced plot. And, authorities familiar with the case say more potentially deadly cyanide bombs may be in circulation.

Kathy asks the question: Where’s the coverage?

Brian has some more news about the crime Nick Smith witnessed yet hasn’t reported. And a good sleight against Ashcroft. This story should be bigger news than it is.

There’s a ton of good stuff over at Half-Bakered. Just go read and start scrolling.

Plenty. And it’s amusing. Some samples:

This year I learned that Barbara Streisand is a genius who spells as bad or worse than me and Arnold Schwarzenegger is an idiot because he has an accent.

During the 2000 election I learned that flunking out of the Vanderbilt Divinity School and Georgetown Law School makes you a genius

Oh my goodness:

Every time my wife urges me to look into getting OnStar, the digital, computerized communications device installed in many newer-model General Motors vehicles, I have resisted.

Yes, I know; I’ve heard the tear-jerk ads on the radio with the plaintive voices of supposedly real wives, mothers, and metro-sexual-sounding men fearing for their lives because they’ve locked themselves out of their cars and have called OnStar so someone can get them out of the jam into which they’ve put themselves. Still, I’ve not been convinced the loss of privacy is worth the remote possibility that I would find myself in a life-threatening situation from which the only possible salvation would be my ability to reach out and touch an OnStar employee.

Now, even my wife agrees that OnStar — or similar tracking devices installed in non-GM vehicles — would be a really bad idea. What changed her mind? In addition to the irrefutable eloquence of my arguments, it was a recent story, tucked away in an Internet news service, describing a recent federal court decision that confirms what my own conspiratorial-oriented mind always suspected was true. The FBI and other police agencies have been using these factory-installed tracking systems as a way to eavesdrop on passengers in vehicles, without the folks in the car even knowing the government was listening to their conversations! Unbelievable, you scoff? Nope, it’s as real as the genetically engineered smells automobile manufacturers are now putting into their cars.

Mark Lancaster, who I blogged about here, has withdrawn his guilty plea:

A former Mt. Juliet music minister who pleaded guilty to illegal possession of unregistered machine guns wants to take it back, because a federal appellate court has held that the U.S. ban does not apply to homemade versions of the automatic weapons.

Mark Lancaster does not deny that he made his own guns, using parts kits that he bought from out-of-state dealers.

But his attorney argues in motions filed late last week that a decision from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco, addresses a set of facts that are almost identical to Lancaster’s case.

One other tidbit:

Because the U.S. District Court of Middle Tennessee is part of the 6th, not the 9th, Circuit, the recent appellate ruling does not directly affect the case here. In fact, different circuits often conflict with one another on applying the law to a similar set of facts

So, we can have one federal law interpreted and applied differently around the nation? That seems a bit, uhm, retarded.

Actually, we get a few. But this one I thought was worth posting:

As I opened my front door to take my five year old daughter to school, a random Pit Bull (I don’t owe them the respect of using their proper name) charged through our door, approached my daughter, and as I immediatley picked her up and yelled at the dog, he was distracted by my Bichon Frise puppy. He made a beeline for him, and without hesitation, grabbed him by the neck and fatally shook him. He proceeded to run back out the door with him–all this as my daughter and her schoolmate and her mother watched and screamed and kicked at the evil animal. My dog was no threat, but that dogwas unmerciful. I just praise the Lord that my little puppy was there. God chose not to stop the dog, but He did choose to protect my daughter. I am petitioning for a local ordinance banning Pit Bulls–if humans can’t raise them right, then get rid of them. I have seen too many of these incidences And, yes, I am fairly cognizant on this subject . . . I’m a vet.

Erica
Washington

First, I don’t buy for a second that she’s a vet but that’s a separate issue. My reply was:

Erica,

You need to petition for enforcement of existing leash and restraint laws. Odds are, the dog was illegally running loose and was poorly socialized. Being a vet, then surely you of all people would understand that the owner of that particular dog is at fault.

And, being a vet, you would also understand that dogs are animals. There is no mercy. There is no evil. There is a pack and an order; and there is hunter and prey. People forget that when it comes to dogs because they are accustomed to their own dog that they have likely spent a lifetime properly socializing.

Dogs are naturally animals. Dogs are naturally hunters. Dogs are naturally pack animals. Dogs are naturally killers. Even Bichon Frise. It’s up to people to socialize them and train them to not be that way.

It is sad that the pit bull breed (and other breeds like Rottweilers, Shepherds, and Dobermans) attracts some poor owners who shouldn’t be owning dogs of any breed. These same people spend their time turning their specific dog into a dangerous threat because of their ignorance and a desire for a mean protection dog. They fail to realize that a dog can be protective and not be mean.

My sympathies over the loss of your pet as it is a hard thing to deal with, particularly given the trauma of your particular situation. I wish you’d devote your efforts to promoting responsible pet ownership rather than banning a breed. As breed specific legislation has proven many times, once you ban a breed of dog, irresponsible owners just pick another breed.

Thanks for the email.

I have updated this post about the Second Amendment to include Rick’s very insightful commentary. Give an opinion.

In using one blogroll to manage RTB links, some folks have been left off. Such as William Burton and Guy Montag, both of which you should go read. I’ve sent Barry (who you should also be reading) email about them but if you notice others, please let me or Barry know.

And Bubba has a new RTB logo. Check it out.

Reuters:

Two Rwandan journalists were jailed for life and a third was sentenced to 35 years on Wednesday for fanning the flames of a 1994 genocide that killed an estimated 800,000 people, a U.N. tribunal spokesman said.

The verdict ends a landmark three-year trial that heard how the media played a major role in inciting extremists from the Hutu majority to carry out the 100-day slaughter of ethnic Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus.

“All three defendants were found guilty of genocide, incitement to commit genocide and crimes against humanity,” International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda spokesman Bocar Sy told Reuters from the northern Tanzanian city of Arusha.

Ferdinand Nahimana, 53, a founding member of Radio Television Libres des Mille Collines (RTLM), was sentenced to life in prison along with Hassan Ngeze, 42, owner and editor of the Hutu extremist newspaper Kangura.

Life in prison is the most severe penalty the tribunal can hand down.

…

“The conviction…is a very important development because it shows that the responsibility for the genocide is not limited to those who did the actual killing,” he said. “Those who spread the message through the media and told the ordinary people to kill are far worse than people who followed their orders.”

Speech kills too.