I was driving down the road today with the Mrs. in the car. We come to a stoplight and are in the left lane so I can turn left. A guy in the right lane apparently decides he wants to merge, despite having warning well in advance that if you want to turn left here you should have merged a while back. The fact that I am occupying the space that he wants to merge into doesn’t dissuade him from attempting. He came close to hitting me and I honked. Our rearview mirrors came within inches of each other. And then he honks at me. I honked the honk of the guy letting you know you’re about to hit him. He honked the honk of a pissy little cry baby. It’s not like I cut him off or anything, he just pulled over into us.

At this point, the guy (who’s driving a minivan with some friends of his in it) is window to window with the Mrs. The Mrs. is pregnant and rather, uhm, hormonal. Suddenly and without warning, she flips him off. A good long bird, it was. Right there within about two feet of his face. I laugh because I’m shocked. This is not something a non-pregnant Mrs. Uncle would do. She’s not like that. It is, however, exactly something I would do. But she almost had her SUV seriously scraped by some idiot. The combination of me laughing and her having just flipped him off really got him in a tizzy.

He then flips my wife off, mouths some words, and pulls in behind me. Once behind me, he continues flipping us off and honking his horn. I, being the smartass that I am (one capable of annoying the shit out of anyone I set out to), calmly turn around and blow the man a kiss. Men in these parts don’t like to be blown kisses by other men. He then does the typical stupid guy thing and makes a motion like he’s going to get out of his minivan and actually opens the door a bit. And I’m thinking Idiot! What are you going to do? Are you going to kick my ass? Pull me from my car? Whatever.

He didn’t get out of his car, which is about the only smart thing he did during this encounter.

Moral of the story: Some people in traffic lose control. It doesn’t help to annoy them but it does provide some entertainment.

Domestic terrorists? Yeah, I knew that already.

Via Drudge, even partisan hacks are slamming Bush’s spending now.

When you’re pissing off loudmouths who have historically worshipped every word from your mouth, you’ve done something. At this point though, only Bush can beat Bush.

Welcome Bitch Girls. Good stuff.

On NPR yesterday they were reading reader email. Most of the emails stated that they didn’t like NPR’s coverage of the Democratic Primaries because it was akin to covering a horse race. So-and-so is in the lead, such-and-such is gaining, blah-blah-blah. I agreed with the sentiment. They weren’t covering the issues.

So, this morning they’re covering the Primaries. The only issue that came up: Who can beat Bush? These are not the issues you’re looking for. Way to be responsive, guys.

So, I took this AOL Presidential Match Guide and here are my results:

Bush 100%
Lieberman 93%
Edwards 87%
Sharpton 84%
Kucinich and Dean 82%
Kerry and Clark 80%

Of course, this quiz is total crap. Don’t they read my blog? This quiz does reaffirm my belief that there really is no significant difference between any of them.

So, some folks were getting oil contracts with Saddam. Here’s a list.

Update: Via Elephant Rants, ABC has more.

CNS writes of taxpayer dollars being used to fund a politically motivated protest using children as pawns:

The Chicago Police Department and the Chicago Board of Education are sponsoring a “youth protest” outside a suburban gun shop, much to the dismay of some gun owners and Second Amendment supporters.

The Illinois State Rifle Association says the youth protest is nothing more than “state sponsored terrorism against the 2[nd] Amendment.”

The February 21st protest will take place at 10:00 a.m. in front of Chuck’s Gun Shop in Riverdale, Ill., the Illinois State Rifle Association noted in a press release.

“Chuck’s has been a favorite target of Chicago Mayor Daley’s anti-gun wrath over the years,” ISRA said. In fact, the city has filed a $433-million lawsuit against the family-owned store.

“It’s galling to know that taxpayer dollars are being used to fund this politically-motivated publicity stunt,” said ISRA Executive Director Richard Pearson.

“We expect our police departments to be neutral third parties interested only in upholding the law. But it appears once again that the Chicago Police Department is being diverted from enforcing the law in favor of enforcing Daley’s political agenda.”

Pearson defends the owners of Chuck’s Gun Shop as “upstanding” business people. He accuses Mayor Daley of using the store as a “whipping boy” to deflect attention from his “woeful inability to control crime in Chicago.”

This is really abysmal.

Bush will veto any scaleback of the Patriot Act. If they want the bill to pass, just slap a big, fat spending bill (something for the arts would be nice) to it and I’d bet he would be drawn to sign the bill like a puppy is drawn to the smell of bacon.

Yahoo News quotes Eastwood:

“I like the libertarian view, which is to leave everyone alone. Even as a kid, I was annoyed by people who wanted to tell everyone how to live.”

I think that’s one of the things that annoys liberals and conservatives about libertarians. Libertarians want to be left alone. Liberals and conservatives are unwilling to leave anyone alone.

Monroe County courthouse is getting sued over a, you guessed it, ten commandments display.

Monroe County is digging in its heels and will fight a lawsuit challenging its posting of the Ten Commandments inside the county courthouse.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee filed a lawsuit this week in U.S. District Court in Knoxville asking a federal judge to order the removal of the religious display.

Monroe County Mayor J. Allan Watson said Thursday “we are going to oppose that,” and that the county “denies that it violates anyone’s constitutional rights.”

Your tax dollars at work, ladies and gentlemen.

Four year old girl tests positive for cocaine.

This screed details that gun controllers have their work cut out for them. It has the usual crap about the Assault Weapons Ban sunset is the end of the world:

The case for renewing the assault-weapons ban is even more compelling. There is no good reason to allow 19 automatic, military-style weapons banned since 1994 to be sold once again in the United States.

Emphasis added. Automatic weapons have been regulated since 1934. The Assault Weapons Ban does nothing with respect to automatic weapons. Idiot, get your damn facts straight.

But the NY governor has proposed to make gun permits even more expensive.

Seattle PI:

Just a few days later, the City Council decided to look at laws making it difficult for Auburn residents to own certain dogs. They’re calling it “Fritz’s Law.”

But advocates for pit bulls said the breed has developed a bad reputation because of a number of publicized attacks, its intersection with gang and drug culture and because of its history as a fighting dog. They say pit bulls are smart, outgoing dogs that are people-oriented.

Andersen and her partner, who live in Auburn, now have two American pit bull terriers of their own and are fostering a third until a good home can be found for it.

“This is the breed for us,” Andersen said.

“These dogs are highly intelligent. They will do whatever you want — they want to please humans.”

She said her dogs do well with children, and are working to become therapy dogs, such as those that visit hospitals and retirement homes.

“I can’t imagine that my dogs could ever be considered dangerous,” she said.

Breed-specific laws simply don’t work, says Anne Holte, who runs the rescue organization Pit Bull Project out of a pet supply store in Seward Park.

“Why do you open the front door and let the dog run out?” she asked, referring to the incident with Raja. “That’s irresponsibility.”

She said that when you see a badly behaving dog — of any breed — an irresponsible owner is almost certainly holding its leash.

“You need to be aware of your own dog’s personality,” Holte said.

Crockett, to whom Fritz was like family, agrees with Holte.

“I don’t blame the dog. I blame the owner,” he said.

I am happy to see the PI expose the other side of the BSL debate. I did find this rather telling:

The city of Buckley goes further. It bans “any dog of the breed American pit bull terrier, Staffordshire bull terrier, or American Staffordshire terrier or any mixed breed of dog which contains as an element of its breeding” one of those types of dogs. But only three dogs in recent memory have been the targets of that city’s dangerous-dog ordinance, said Deputy City Clerk Cheryl Proffitt. And those dogs have all been black Labradors.

It’s not the breed, it’s the owner.

KNS reporter Michael Silence covers some voting problems:

Due to a poll worker’s error, as many as 155 people may have wrongly voted in some school board races at the South Knoxville early-voting location, Knox County Administrator of Elections Greg Mackay said Tuesday.

But there’s more:

Knox County election commissioners decided Wednesday they would allow 10 voters to recast ballots in their precinct’s respective school board race to correct a poll worker’s mistake.

But whether the votes are ultimately counted will depend on how closely any of the races in question are decided.

Bubba runs down some interesting things about the 9-11 hijackers. Abysmal.

William Burton tells us this hysterical way to predict presidential election winners. Heh!

Bush seeks increased funding for the National Endowment for the Arts.

A family finds a policeman’s assault rifle on the side of the road. An FBI agent has his gun, credentials, and vehicle stolen.

Update: Another one.

The Chicago Dog Trainer Tribune:

Arguing that a Wilmette man had a right to shoot an intruder in his home — regardless of a local ban on handguns — a state representative is proposing legislation that would override such bans when the guns are used in self-defense.

“It’s important to afford people of the state of Illinois to defend their person and their property, and this affirmative defense would allow them to do that,” said Rep. John Bradley, D-Marion, who filed the legislation this week.

Bradley said authorities are wrong in prosecuting Hale DeMar for violating Wilmette’s handgun ban and for failing to renew an Illinois Firearm Owner’s Identification card. The Constitution guarantees the right to bear arms, he said.

Good for him.

Francis Warin, who I originally blogged about here, is now on a hunger strike:

Friends insist Warin isn’t mentally ill or dangerous. They say he’s just passionate – and persistent.

Back in the 1970s, he had to practically beg to be indicted.

And the latest indictment took four years of taunting: threatening to bring a bomb to the FBI, boasting of illegal silencers he had made, and even taking out a newspaper ad to question why he hadn’t been indicted.

He’s fighting a good fight. He’s just fighting it very stupidly.

Me and the Mrs. saw a new Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial, where they refer to it as Kitchen Fresh Chicken. Note the subtlety with which I relay the initials KFC. I suggested to the Mrs. that the slogan for chicken should be:

Our chicken is as fresh as any dead animal can be.

Of course, I did also come up with Nestea is the best tea, surprised they haven’t used that.

Oh, and my slogan for Honda:

The $20,000 $10,000 car.

And for the Beef Council:

Beef, it’s not chicken.

Oh and one more for fresh chicken:

So fresh, you’ll swear you killed the little bastard yourself.

Seriously, this is funny. Mike nails it: do you really want to put him in charge of the national budget?

This afternoon, I’m putting down Alcoa Highway and pass a big SWAT team looking van with ATF, Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco And Firearms symbols plastered all over it. Obviously, it was an ATF police type vehicle. Looked like they were headed somewhere in Blount County. I’ll be watching the news tonight.

Be right back, someone is knocking on my door . . .

Last night, me and the Mrs. conducted a practice run. We babysat our niece and nephews. Prior the picking them up, we purchased some Super Dough, which is like Play Doh except that if you leave it out, it hardens and can be sanded and painted. We were going to let them each make something and allow it to harden. Then, the next time they came over, we’d paint them.

The kids (age 3ish) quickly realized that if we allowed it to harden then there would be no Play Doh to play with in the future. Instead, they demanded that after they were done playing, we place it back in the container so we could all play with it at future date. They didn’t understand that we could go back to the store and buy some more.

We complied buy should have just bought the cheaper Play Doh instead.

I occupy some quotes over at UnknownNews. I am honored.

As of 1998, 32% of individual federal income taxes are needed in order to pay the interest on the national debt.

Kevin finally got around to writing something for the Shooters’ Carnival. Go read it.

Tennessee Ruck writes that he was a teenage Republican. When I was a teen, I was a Democrat, mostly to annoy the parents. In college, I was a Republican, mostly to annoy the smelly hippies I had classes with. Now, I am neither, mostly to annoy my readers.

Les has some good gun links, this will apparently become a weekly thing. Cool.

There is a bill in the House that seeks to establish national reciprocity for handgun carry permits. The gist is that if you have a carry permit in one state, you can carry in other states that have carry permit provisions.

So, in it’s first week, the Tennessee Lottery takes in $41,300,000 and pays out, by my calculation, $297,000 to big winners. I think once people realize that the big payouts are only 0.719%, interest and participation in the lottery will decrease. Of course, since I don’t have stats on the total dollar payout of small payouts, I could be wrong.

The Detroit News:

A confidential federal informant claims an FBI agent instructed him to break the law as part of the government’s terror investigations in Metro Detroit.

In a Jan. 21 letter, written at the airport as he left for an undisclosed foreign country, informant Marwan Farhat said he was asked by FBI Special Agent Robert Pertuso to steal mail from Arab Muslims whom the federal government had identified as terror suspects.

Heads should roll. So much for the Fourth Amendment.

Some residents demanded a pit bull ban following an attack but:

Broomfield isn’t likely to see the ban against pit bulls that some residents demanded following a dog attack earlier this month.

Instead, the City Council directed its staff Tuesday to investigate ways to strengthen current vicious dog laws.

“I do think the ordinance needs to be beefed up a little bit,” said Councilman Vince Buzek.

Possible amendments to the city code considered Tuesday included: sticking with Broomfield’s current laws; considering a ban of pit bulls; or enacting a broader law against any aggressive dog.

The City and County Attorney’s Office recommended the last option, which included stricter mandatory penalties against owners of aggressive dogs.

Of course, why is it we dub these laws as aggressive dog laws when they should be called irresponsible owner laws?

The Democratic Party, it seems, recently made an effort to steer voters towards a candidate who is electable in the General. Apparently, most Dems didn’t get that memo because Kerry keeps coming in first. Sorry folks, Lurch isn’t your guy. You need that pretty boy Edwards or the General to win to be formidable in November.

That or this is evidence the Republicans have infiltrated the Dem primaries and are sabotaging them.

Of course, these are my preliminary speculations. A whole lot can change in 10 months.

Pardon me while I don my accounting geek hat:

There is a movement to mandate that companies expense all stock options when they are offered to the employee (though not necessarily redeemed). That is, record an expense on the income statement for the value of the options (which may not have been redeemed). Current treatment of stock options is done by showing diluted earnings per share, which is basically what earnings per share would be if everyone took advantage of offered stock options (and a few other things). The Senate has a bill mandating expensing these options. Politicos apparently feel this measure would lead to better information to the investor.

Some people (Greenspan) think that current accounting for stock options is used to distort earnings.

One thing that is often lost in this debate is that, essentially, a company is usually issuing treasury stock or unissued stock to employees. In other words, the companies are giving pieces of paper to the employees. Yes, these slips of paper have value but does the current method of recording this transaction reflect the financial position of the company?

I am increasingly of the opinion that accounting is made up. That is beside the point. What is going to happen is companies will soon show substantially higher expenses all because they give slips of paper to reward or compensate their employees. Functionally and operationally, nothing about the company will have changed but financial performance as measured under the proposed standards will suffer. And stock values may plummet.

Given that the market is on the rise, this is kind of silly. As best as I can tell, it is being done entirely for the appearance of cracking down on big evil corporations in light of the recent accounting scandals.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board is also debating the issue.

Justfacts.com:

Medieval serfs paid an effective tax rate of 33.3% and were considered slaves.

I figure I spend 37.7% of my income on taxes.

First of all, Revenue Measures is typically government-speak for we spent too much and want the tax payers to pick up the tab. With that said, I have seen a few pundits and bloggers express a desire for revenue based taxation for corporations to raise revenues. Their logic is that corporations get a hefty amount of deductions (that coincidentally individuals don’t get) for things thereby reducing taxable income to non-existent levels. For example, a corporation can deduct health insurance costs for employees from income to arrive at taxable income. This same luxury is not afforded to folks who purchase their own insurance.

The problem with revenue based income taxes is that it if a company isn’t profitable to the extent that it’s revenue is taxed, that company cannot survive. Low margin companies (such as various manufacturing firms that make money by cranking out lots of small profit items) would cease to exist unless the revenue tax rate was considerably less than their margin.

I think the country needs some tax reform but don’t think this is the best route. What is? Beats me. Flat tax may be it. Or just mass simplification of the tax code.

Zogby poll asks about concealed carry laws (and other stuff):

Voters overwhelming favor these self-protection laws by a margin of 79% to 18%. Right-to-Carry drew better than 70% support in every demographic group, with even non-gun owners indicating their backing by 73% to 23%.

Voters were asked: “Do you agree or disagree that American firearm manufacturers who sell a legal product that is not defective should be allowed to be sued if a criminal uses their products in a crime?”

Voters in both Red and Blue states strongly oppose such lawsuits – 74% of the former and 72% of the latter. In fact, a majority in every demographic group opposed the lawsuits; the most strongly opposed, at 83%, were current members of the military and their families.

The survey also asked: “Which of the following two statements regarding gun control comes closer to your own opinion? Statement A: There needs to be new and tougher gun control legislation to help in the fight against gun crime; Statement B: There are enough laws on the books. What is needed is better enforcement of current laws regarding gun control.”

By a better than two-to-one margin – 66% to 31% – voters nationwide agreed with Statement B. Only self-identified liberals called for more laws, by a 53% to 44% margin. Moderates solidly favored better enforcement, 62% to 34%.

Voters were asked: “Do you agree the NRA is right to fight gun control on both the federal and state levels?” NRA`s support stood at 64%, with a party affiliation breakdown showing Democrats siding with NRA 54% to 42%, and Republicans 73% to 22%.

Brian alerts us that the God Resolution has been shelved (again). It’s kinda like herpes, it keeps coming back and is rather annoying.

Free Speech News has a newer, easier to follow layout. I like it.

Moron:

“Everybody always makes the mistake of looking South,” Kerry said, in response to a question about winning the region. “Al Gore proved he could have been president of the United States without winning one Southern state, including his own.”

Hey Kerry, Gore is not currently the president. In fact, I think Gore proved exactly the opposite. If Kerry wins the nomination and pursues this strategy, he is done.

And Guy Montag alerts us that Kerry may have been a member of The Village People.

The Y-12 plant recently simulated an attack. Apparently, they did quite well at repelling the simulated attack. The problem though is that they cheated:

Security guards who repelled four simulated terrorist attacks at a Tennessee nuclear weapons plant had been tipped in advance, undermining the encouraging results, the Energy Department’s watchdog office said Monday.

The surprising successes by guards at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant last summer in Oak Ridge, Tenn., spurred an internal investigation. It determined that at least two guards defending the mock attacks had been allowed to look at computer simulations one day before the attacks.

The Energy Department’s inspector general, Gregory H. Friedman, declared the exercises “tainted and unreliable.” He said each mock attack cost as much as $85,000 to stage, and he urged the department to consider his conclusions when awarding contracting fees for Wackenhut Corp., which employs guards at Oak Ridge. A spokesman for Wackenhut did not return telephone calls Monday to The Associated Press.

Thanks for wasting my money and making a mockery of security.

Some degenerates tried to kill an Iowa woman. Her attackers assaulted her three times, including two attempts to strangle her to death. She got free and grabbed a bedside gun. She killed an attacker and the other fled. Now, her attacker’s estate is suing her. Here’s her site. The NRA has given her $7,500 for legal defense. She may need more.

The NRA has launched a site to combat the assault weapons ban, which they call The Clinton Gun Ban. There is a quiz at the site that is interesting. I missed one. I was not aware the House voted to repeal the ban two years after its passage because they figured out it was based on a lie by a vote of 239-173.

Just caught his first show. Man, I miss the old Dennis Miller from back when he was funny. He seemed nervous and he didn’t appear to have control. Oh well, it’s his first run. However, this exchange (when Miller was arguing with the token liberal woman) caused me to spit out my drink:

Token Liberal: Did you read the papers today?
Dennis Miller: No.

The look she gave him was priceless, as if to say what kind of guy gets a show based on discussing the news and then doesn’t read the news.

And she says Hi!

Fixing to leave to find out if we’re having a little boy or little girl. No blog for you, until this afternoon.

A Clipdraw review (part 2), getting a handgun permit in Tennessee, a comparison of compact 9MM pistols, and magazine spring maintenance. This stuff and more over at the Shooters’ Carnival.

Jeff has the weekly check on the bias up.

Cities in Tennessee want the state to repeal a law that forbids the cities from banning smoking in restaurants. Sorry cities (and state), that decision is solely the right of the restaurant owner.

Kevin has lots of good stuff lately. Just go here and scroll away.

Of particular interest to me was a link to a John Stossel piece about myths in America.

Number 3 on the list was guns are bad (and I am impressed that a major news outlet had a positive piece on guns – so impressed I’m putting the text here in case it disappears):

America is notorious for its culture of gun violence. Guns sometimes do cause terrible harm, and many kids are killed every year in gun accidents. But public service announcements and news stories make it seem as if the accidents kill thousands of kids every year.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, however, fewer than 100 kids 15 and under are killed in gun accidents every year. Of course that’s horrible, and I understand why demonstrators say we need more gun control.

But guess what? The Centers for Disease Control recently completed a review of studies of various types of gun control: background checks, waiting periods, bans on certain guns and ammunition. It could not document that these rules have reduced violent crime.

The government wants to say things like the Brady Gun Control Law are making a difference, but they aren’t. Some maximum security felons I spoke to in New Jersey scoffed at measures like the Brady law. They said they’ll have no trouble getting guns if they want them.

A Justice Department study confirmed what the prisoners said. But get this: the felons say that the thing they fear the most is not the police, not time in prison, but, you, another American who might be armed.

It’s a reason many states are passing gun un-control. They’re allowing citizens to carry guns with them; it’s called concealed carry or right to carry. Some women say they’re comforted by these laws.

Many people are horrified at the idea of concealed carry laws, and predict mayhem if all states adopt these laws.

But surprise, 36 states already have concealed carry laws, and not one reported an upsurge in gun crime.

Publicola (a site any pro gun person should be reading) is a year old.

I echo Publicola’s own sentiment that he should post more often.

I have stated before that there is no scientific way to determine what breed a particular dog is. The only way is appearance. As such, here’s a fun little contest. What kind of dog is this:

Pretty damn mean looking isn’t it?

Hit More for the answer.
Read the rest of this entry »

The Toronto Sun:

U.S. security agents have a master list of five million people worldwide thought to be potential terrorists or criminals, officials say. “The U.S. lookout index contains some five million names of known terrorists and other persons representing a potential problem,” Brian Davis, a senior Canadian immigration official in Paris, said in a confidential document obtained by the Sun.

The concept of a list doesn’t frighten me in and of itself. The criteria for being on such a list does. Am I on the list because of my stance that the government shouldn’t be involved in every single a few issues? Who’s on this list? Americans? Foreigners? That nice couple across the street?

Via UnknownNews.

Spoons took issue with my statement to George Carpenter. See Spoons’ comment here.

Spoons’ comment is directed at doing what is safe when your family members are involved. In fact, it’s probably a good idea to take his advice and not mine. That being said: just because I imply I would do something, it doesn’t mean you should be doing it.

Foxnews:

The kid barged into a 7-Eleven in Dania Beach, Fla., Tuesday night and pointed a rifle at the counter clerk, reports the Miami Herald.

Then he paused a moment to try to load the .22-caliber gun — with .40-caliber ammunition.

“He’s trying to cram a .40-caliber bullet into a .22-caliber rifle,” Broward County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Jim Leljedal told the newspaper. “It’s like twice as big as the gun will fit. It won’t go.”

Despite his weapon’s lack of deadliness, the teen pointed the gun again at the cashier and said, “Give me the money — don’t make me do this.”

Three customers saw their chance and jumped on the gunman, tackling him, kicking him and finally standing on him until police showed up.

This reminds me of a story a police officer acquaintance relayed to me once. A guy tried to hold up two other guys with a revolver. The two intended victims were gun savvy sorts and noticed that the revolver wasn’t loaded (because you can see into the chambers of a revolver). They took the would-be robber’s gun and wallet from him.

TaxFoundation.org:

In 2002 individuals, businesses and non-profits will spend an estimated 5.8 billion hours complying with the federal income tax code (henceforth called “compliance costs”), with an estimated compliance cost of over $194 billion.

I caught (thanks to TiVo) and episode of Comedy Central’s Tough Crowd with Collin Quinn. The gist of the show is that Collin (who seems to be a libertarian-conservative mix) has guests from differing sides of the political spectrum and they debate social and political issues. Oh and his guests are comedians. It’s fairly funny.

In Collin’s opening monologue he talked about a group of black guys who beat up some white guy. The white guy later died. He then said something like Surely something that important would be in the paper, right. It’s not biased or anything. He then picked up popular papers from a stack and noted that it wasn’t covered.

Anyone know anything about this story?

CAGW Blog:

HA-ha! It seems NASA has lost contact with its latest boondoggle, the Mars rover. What was it that you nerds wanted again? It’s coming back to me…Now I remember! A trillion dollars for human colonies on Mars and the moon. You jokers can’t even send a tinker toy to Earth’s nearest neighber without screwing up. Thanks for wasting $410 million of our money.

Losers

Delta Democrat (of course anything with Democrat in the title . . .) Times:

We applaud the legislative action taken by the Washington County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday in putting a muzzle on vagrant animals — especially pit bull dogs — who roam our communities.

It is a problem that only came to light two weeks ago, when Washington County resident Claudette Skelton told of the horrible story of her white collie-mix dog being mauled to death, reportedly by two pit bulls on her property.

“I would like these dogs barred from the face of the Earth,” Skelton said during the Jan. 5 meeting of the Board of Supervisors.

On Tuesday, Skelton remained just as adamant: “We just need something done immediately.”

We do not believe properly registered and collared animals, and the public at large for that matter, should be placed at peril, in running the risk of attack by these vicious mongrels.

On the proposed law:

We believe the new legislation sends a strong message to pet owners that their animals must be collared, leashed and licensed, and failure to comply could subject them to a misdemeanor violation and a $25 fine. Pit bull dogs also must be confined in a secured area with a roof or high enclosure of at least six feet, and cannot be allowed to roam free. And pit bull dog owners must register the animals with the Washington County Sheriff’s Department and a designated Humane Society.

I would dare say that the owner of the two pit bulls running loose that killed the collie weren’t obeying existing law when they let their dogs run loose. You really think irresponsible pet owners are going to obey this new law? Some people just shouldn’t own dogs, regardless of the breed.

The AP:

The Senate overcame Democratic delaying tactics Thursday and sent President Bush an overdue $373 billion bill financing a vast swath of government and bearing a bushel of victories for the White House.

Owen was real time blogging the vote to override the veto of a concealed carry law in Wisconsin. He’s happy to report the veto has been overridden! Kick ass.

How many states is that now?

Update: I jumped the gun. Clark in comments says that the assembly needs to vote too.

20% of cops killed:

A study done by the Violence Policy Center found that one in every five law enforcement officers was killed in the line of duty between Jan. 1, 1998, and Dec. 31, 2001.

Might be missing a sentence there. I could be wrong, but I don’t think 20% of cops are killed in the line of duty.

But even supporters of the Assault Weapons Ban are admitting it’s a crap law that doesn’t serve its purpose:

“To say there’s a ban is a hoax,” Johnson said.

People apparently don’t know what loopholes are. Whenever legislation doesn’t have the desired effect or someone thinks that something ought to be required by law and it’s not, then it’s a loophole. The latest is this quote about the Assault Weapons Ban:

An additional question cited the Bushmaster rifle used in the D.C. sniper attacks last year as an example of a gun legal only through “loopholes.”

It’s not a loophole, it’s a poorly constructed law.

Kevin rightfully rants about the government’s attempt to get their man (or family) by any means necessary. Even if they have to charge people with bogus crimes.

After a five month investigation by the feds, the only charge is possession of tracer rounds?

Chuck has a round up of the Kenneth Walker shooting. If you don’t know who that is, click the link.

It’s up. Janet has done an outstanding job!

Me, Andrew and now Bjorn. Will the breeding end?

BET released a list of the most segregated cities in America:

10. Philadelphia
9. Chicago
8. New York City
7. Buffalo-Niagra Falls, N.Y. (sic)
6. Cincinnati
5. Newark, N.J.
4. St. Louis
3. Cleveland-Lorain-Elyria, Ohio
2. Detroit
1. Milwaukee-Waukesha, Wis.

Not a lot of southern cities on that list. Seems to support my conclusion here.

Via A Little More to the Right.

I, not cops, got bad guy

This was said by Hale DeMar. The Wilmette man who shot an intruder and is being charged with bogus gun crimes. After idiot George Carpenter (the police chief) told everyone they’re safer locking themselves in a room and dialing 911.

Note to Carpenter: Fuck you. I don’t hide in my own house.

I remain the number one google for idiot george carpenter.

With Kerry in the lead in NH, I’m sure Dean is relieved. Now, the candidates will stop picking on Howie.

On its first day, the Tennessee lottery took in $10.8M, which is nearly $2 per state resident.

This is nice:

The state Department of Economic and Community Development under former Gov. Don Sundquist repeatedly violated state laws and policies regarding expenditures and contracts, an audit released Wednesday by the state comptroller’s office shows.

The department also “concealed questionable transactions” including the purchase of $17,523 worth of sport shirts and $2,300 worth of luggage; awarded two no-bid contracts for the same service at the same time; circumvented state law in the way it awarded $2.8 million worth of infrastructure-improvement contracts to the city of Smyrna for an expansion of the Nissan plant; and awarded job-skills grants without receiving proper applications.

Someone should go to jail.

A gun, on its own volition, went on a rampage:

A police officer arriving at an elementary school to teach a Drug Awareness and Resistance Education class was accidentally shot in the left leg by his own gun as he was getting out of his patrol car Tuesday, officials said.

snip

Under police department rules, no guns are worn in the elementary school, and Fontenot had taken the weapon from his holster and put it on the car seat when it went off, the superintendent said.

Finger off the trigger, partner. And insert obligatory rant about how dumb it is to think only police should have guns.

It’s getting to be election time. This is a rare occasion because it represents the only time the rest of the country gives a fuck about the South. The rest of the year, our region is made fun of on sitcoms, reality TV, and in various op ed pieces. We’re ridiculed by snooty intellectuals and hated. We’re belittled a bit because our region consists mostly of troublemakers. At least we’re viewed as troublemakers. After all, we did secede.

At election time, we’re no longer inbred, toothless hillbillies. We suddenly become this mysterious voting bloc of gun-toting, God-fearing conservatives who like free stuff from the government (aka, southern Democrats – by the way, are there any of those left nationally?). It’s true. Most southerners like their guns and their God. We also have liberals and conservatives here in the south, though our definition of liberal typically includes people fond of guns and God but place free stuff higher on the list than other folks.

Democrats tend to write the south off nationally, which is a mistake. After they write us off in terms of votes, they often write us off in terms of policy (that gets back to the vote thing). Al Gore wrote us off in terms of policy and it cost him votes. There’s a reason his concession speech mentioned something about mending fences at home.

And here in Tennessee on the local level, we’ve elected quite a few Democrats lately. The Democrats shouldn’t write the south off completely. But what wins Democrat votes in the rest of the country doesn’t fly here in the south.

With elections, the fun begins. We suddenly get the people who used to try to appeal to snooty intellectuals interested in appealing to us. They try to pass their gun control legislation off as common sense stuff by stating things like We don’t mean your shotgun, Ethyl. We’re talkin’ ‘bout them there assault weapons. Or they attempt to dumb down their agenda. And every politician before visiting the southeast finds Jesus; eats pinto beans at a Ma & Pa diner; and goes hunting.

We southern folks really like it if you’d slow down a bit when talking to us. It’s not because we’re slow to understand, it’s because fast talk makes you seem rude. That should illustrate why you snooty intellectuals don’t understand us. But it only illustrates that to other southerners. The snooty intellectuals don’t get it. We do things differently in these parts and that’s why people love the south or hate it.

We call a woman Ma’am and we do it to be polite. We don’t do it because she’s old. When I address the 16 year-old girl who works at Target, I say Yes, ma’am.

Most of us know how to kill, skin, and prepare various animals for food. Well, I do. My family was really country. This does not make us a freak show to be talked about. I was on a job once in Maryland. We got on the subject of hunting (which most people on the job hadn’t done) and I mentioned I have killed and eaten various animals. Suddenly, everyone began asking me about it like I was this wild mountain man. Hell, I was just an accountant. By the way, SayUncle is opposed to killing in general and hasn’t hunted since his teens. I don’t even kill spiders; I escort them outside. This annoys the wife, who thinks all things with more than four legs should be eradicated from the planet.

We drink our tea sweet. And we can make a meal out of nothing but pinto beans, corn bread, and an onion. You can say things here like He needs killin’ and people will sympathize.

But make no mistake; we’re not a bunch of dumb, uneducated simpletons. If you treat us like we are, that’s your mistake. There’s a reason most presidents come from the South and it’d be wise to remember that.

Thanks to the Comedian (a blog you should be reading) and his phat photoshop skillz (which your humble host sorely lacks), we now have the updated SayUncle logo at the top there. Thanks!

And Mike is back with lots of stuff! He needs to stop disappearing.

King County Journal:

The city has reacted quickly to the death of Fritz, a poodle-terrier, by writing a law aimed at cracking down on pit bulls and other dangerous dogs.

The proposed ordinance is being referred to as “Fritz’s Law.”

Fritz was killed Jan. 10 by a pit bull that had once before attacked Fritz and his 86-year-old owner, Charles Crockett.

City officials and residents are not satisfied with King County Animal Control’s lenient treatment of the pit bull’s owner and the pit bull, which had attacked other dogs and menaced other Auburn residents.

“We are reacting to that situation,” Councilman Gene Cerino said.

A proposed ordinance would give police more authority in dealing with vicious dogs and their owners, and label all pit bulls as “dangerous dogs,” regardless of whether they’ve been violent in the past.

As dangerous dogs, pit bulls would have to be muzzled any time they are outside a kennel — even if they’re on a leash.

Basically, if someone decides your dog is a pit bull and you haven’t muzzled it, they can call the police on you. Never mind that responsible pit bull owners will be subject to this nonsense.

Another dog fighting ring has been busted.

This one is a bit silly:

An encounter with an angry pit bull in Washington Heights leaves two police officers hospitalized.

They were responding to a burglary report last night when they say a pit bull suddenly charged them.

The officers fired six rounds.

The bullets richocheted hitting the cops in the legs (sic).

The dog was also hit, but not killed.

The ASPCA is now caring for the dog.

So, were they in the pit bull’s house? It seems he may have been doing his job. And in an apartment with sheet rock walls, what did these bullets ricochet off of? I doubt we’re getting the whole story.

And I can’t quite figure this one out. But it seems to me that a pit bull and a llama shared a home. The dog was eating when the llama came to check it out. The dog jumps on the llama and kills it (which is a testament to the power of these dogs and why most people shouldn’t own them). It’s not a good idea typically to feed two dogs at the same time. I’d have never thought the dog would have become aggressive over food with a llama. Of course, I wouldn’t have fed my dogs near a llama.

I like to point these incidents out because the media often labels dogs involved in bites as pit bulls (even when they aren’t). Golden retrievers who are more likely to bite don’t tend to make the news. One reason is that the other breeds don’t do as much damage. The other reason is sensationalism.

Protection for me but not for thee.

Michael continues to detail his experience in failing to get a gun carry permit. Of the three issued (two to councilmen and one to the mayor), one was given to a man who had a restraining order against him. Pretty abysmal.

Les has a round up of various gun related things. I particularly like the looks of the Sigarms 1911. I expect Glock to make one soon.

Mark discusses social service agencies taking kids. There are times when it is necessary when there is abuse but the criteria for removing children from their parents should be more stringent. The tip of a neighbor should warrant an investigation. Not entering your home and breaking up a family almost immediately.

Yeah, I’ve been slamming Dubya pretty hard about his spending. But the Democrat candidates’ plans unsurprisingly would increase the deficit too. By more. AlphaPatriot has the scoop.

KNS tells us that the lottery kicked off like gangbusters. On the way home last night, I stopped to get some beer and bought some tickets. For $20, I won two more tickets and $2. Go me!

Actually, when I stopped at the Pilot in Maryville, the place was packed out the doors. Everyone was buying lottery tickets, even people who looked like they shouldn’t be. It was a rather disturbing experience.

The Pioneer Press:

As thousands of gun-touting hunters roam Wisconsin in search of deer, Democratic presidential hopeful Wesley Clark said Tuesday he opposes concealed weapons laws like the one recently passed by the Wisconsin Legislature.

The retired four-star general from Little Rock, Ark., said he doesn’t think people need concealed weapons for protection.

“If we need protection, we need other means of protection than concealed weapons,” said Clark, explaining he owned 20 guns and has been shooting since boyhood. “I shot a lot of big guns and a lot of little guns. If you like big guns come into the Army.”

To be honest, General, we gun owners tire of that Army line.

So, the Brady Bunch issued its state by state report card a while back. Tennessee got a D+, if you must know. Maybe we can get an F next year. Regardless, here’s something on the issue I found amusing:

First, the group gives Vermont a grade of D- because, supposedly, the “state’s weak laws make it too easy for criminals, the mentally ill and juveniles to get guns.”

But this statement is laughable, for crime in Vermont is virtually non-existent. Just last year (2003), Vermont earned the Safest State in the nation award from the Morgan Quitno Press — a group of statisticians who rank each state according to its safety record.

snip

FBI statistics showed last year that the states which enjoyed the lowest murder rates earned grades of D or D- from the Brady Campaign. New Hampshire, North Dakota and Maine have murder rates that any state or country could only dream about.

snip

Finally, the Brady Bunch awarded Maryland one of the highest grades in the nation (an A-), even though they had the second HIGHEST murder rate in the nation.

How can the Brady Campaign give that state an A- with a straight face? The state is not keeping its citizens safe from gun violence — or any other violence for that matter. But hey, Maryland gets an A-, simply because they have strict gun control laws — regardless of whether those laws are keeping people safe.

Oh, that whacky Brady Campaign.

Watching it now. When Bush said the Patriot Act was set to expire next year, kudos to all those guys that stood up and applauded its expiration. Too bad they’re likely the same bastards that voted for it.

So, stories like this make me wonder if Tennessee municipalities are pondering taxing the winnings from the recently established (today) lottery.

Dog fighting is a horribly brutal sport. Dogs have their tails and ears cropped short so that they can’t be grabbed. The dogs are taught to be dog aggressive, which makes rescue adoption difficult if the potential adopter has another pet. Some dogs who don’t perform well are used as baiting dogs. This means that the poor dog who happens to not be a good fighter is muzzled so he can’t fight back, while another dog learns to fight by mauling the poor defenseless dog. This builds the attackers confidence, they say. The animals are abused typically to make them meaner.

Unfortunately, dog fighting is big money and still popular (though illegal):

Police raided a rural house and found a blood-soaked dog fight arena where fans had gathered for a night of gambling with a winner-take-all pot of $50,000.

Officers arrested 123 people late Saturday on felony charges of cruelty to animals, dog fighting and commercial gambling.

Newton County sheriff’s deputies found one dead dog lying at the side of a makeshift ring, and another dog so badly mauled that it was later euthanized. Blood covered the walls and soaked through an old carpet.

“It’s hard to understand any crime, but to see animals used or I should say misused for someone’s entertainment like this is just pitiful,” Sheriff Joe Nichols said. “It just tears at your heart.”

Deputies seized about a dozen guns, several kilograms of marijuana and cocaine and more than a quarter of a million dollars, Sheriff’s Sgt. Mark Mitchell said. Deputies also found four trophies already engraved with the date of the fight.

Congrats to Andrew on his pending army! One week from today, me and the Mrs. find out if Junior is actually going to be a junior or a young ms.

Dean really should consider a career in professional wrestling if this whole presidency thing doesn’t work out for him.

Beat the anti-gun crowd at their own language game:

Don’t call them assault weapons, call them “sport-utility rifles.”

With Democrats expected to introduce legislation extending a ban on assault weapons this session, gun-rights activists are gearing up for a fight.

Sen. Alex X. Mooney, R-Washington/Frederick, has been referring to the weapons as sport-utility rifles, which sounds so much less intimidating, doesn’t it?

Assault Weapons Ban criminalizes gun owners because it’s a victimless crime law. Well, duh!

Illinois trying for an all out ban on semi-automatics.

And Maine shoots down a state level assault weapons ban. Good for them.

I read somewhere that Sigarms has released a P229 with a spurless hammer. I wonder if I can just buy the hammer and install it on an existing P229?

Justin is dishing out some insurance advice.

Someone is trying to resurrect it:

A resolution recognizing ”God as the foundation of our national heritage” could be back before the Knox County Commission next month.

Commissioner Ivan Harmon says he will strike a controversial phrase in the original nonbinding resolution in hopes some commissioners who voted against it in November will now support it. Three counties have OK’d it since then, so he plans to present it to the commission in February.

John “By the way, did I mention I was in Vietnam” Kerry won Iowa; And Edwards second? Dean third? It happened in Iowa. I find it rather shocking.

The good news, Gephardt may be done:

Dick Gephardt is conceding the Democratic presidential nomination to one of his rivals, acknowledging after a disappointing fourth-place finish in Iowa that “this didn’t come out the way we wanted.”

Aides said Gephardt was returning home to St. Louis and would formally withdraw at midday Tuesday.

Maybe if he’d bother to go to work at his day job, he’d have done better.

Now where was I? . . . Oh yeah . . . I imagine the Southern Baptists are rather surprised. We’ve had a lottery for over ten hours and God hasn’t hurled any lightning bolts at us . . . yet.

Pretty Funny!

Blogging today will be lighter than usual.

Leave a comment about which template you like better, this one or the older one.

Wow! The four way tie surprised the crap out of me. Guess we’ll know tomorrow.