Kevin rips JoinTogether a new one over their claim that people under 40 are children. Well, not exactly but they do imply it.

Ford Offers Armored Lincoln Town Car:

Ford Motor Co. is marketing an armored Lincoln Town Car that can withstand rounds of fire from assault rifles, handguns and submachine guns, according to a Local 6 News report.

Of course, it’s no protection against the Evil Armor Piercing .30-30 Sniper Rifle. And if your enemy has a .50 BMG…fuggedaboudit.

Seriously, though, it’s interesting what they’ve listed. Don’t submachine-guns in general fire handgun ammunition? And of course, doesn’t the real definition of assault rifle include something about firing a cartridge of “intermediate” power (i.e., more powerful than a handgun, but less powerful than a traditional rifle)?

I blame the marketing weenies.

A pit bull was apparently shot while defending its owner from a home invasion. The story is also just odd:

The owner of a pit bull who was shot to death by armed intruders said the dog died a hero.

“The dog saved my mom’s life,” the victim’s daughter said Wednesday from her home on Pacific Place in North Kelso.

She declined to speak further, saying the family was shaken by the events of late Tuesday night, when two or three men masked with bandannas and armed with a shotgun tried to push past her mother and enter their home.

[snip]

Kelso police Capt. Vern Thompson said that after the intruders fled, officers arrived and found a large homemade bomb under the front wheel of a car parked in front of the house.

Alex Knapp writes that the recent discovery of Iraq’s WMD related program activities turning up in Europe is a result of the Bush administration’s misunderestimating strategery:

I’ve been saying for almost a year now that the biggest Bush scandal of all is the fact that nuclear facilities and suspected WMD sites were allowed to be looted and destroyed even while under the watch of American troops. Who knows what material fell into what hands? Well, now it looks like some of that has been discovered on the black market.

It begs the question: what don’t we know about? What was smuggled from Iraq and sold to enemies of the United States? When will we find out? When nuclear, biological, radiological or chemical weapons are used against Americans by terrorists? Will someone finally give a shit then?

He also includes links to items from the past about the looting of their weapons programs. This is big.

I was supposed to buy a gun yesterday!

Well, I wasn’t actually planning to buy one, but I was planning to pick up some ammo. Curse that two-hour Apprentice finale!

According to Drug War Rant, the war on drugs costs $11B a year.

Thomas has the latest VTP up with a cool mapped image.

Looks like despite earlier warnings, Air America is coming back on the air in Chicago and LA.

So, Jesse Ventura is considering a 2008 presidential run. Hell, I’ll vote for any candidate that is not a Republican or Democrat that stands a chance at winning. I don’t think the body really has a shot as an independent but I can dream can’t I?

Totally unrelated but did anyone catch Chapelle’s President Black Bush the other night? Hysterical.

Black Bush 2004: Mars, bitches!

Actually, they knew that Islamic extremists were likely to attack U.S. aviation, Washington landmarks or Wall Street and by 1997 had identified Usama bin Laden as an emerging threat on U.S. soil, a senior intelligence official said Thursday. This is a far cry from stating that they knew a specific attack was coming, which is what the headlines would have you believe.

For example, right now I know that eventually there will be another attack by Islamic extremists on Americans at some point in the future. But I can’t stop it because I don’t know any thing concrete. This whole notion that because Clinton/Bush/CIA/Bureaucracy knew something was afoot does not mean that any of them could have prevented it.

Our state legislature is looking to pass baby steps toward cracking down excessive fees and other predatory lending practices.

Most of these issues could be avoided if people actually learned to read contracts and understand them. However, most people don’t. I think it’s a good step toward some serious reform even if it is a token gesture. What’s next? Hopefully credit card vendors on college campuses. I’m sure a lot of graduates get out of school with thousands in credit card debt, at 24% effective interest, and make only minimum payments.

Apparently, some one is upset that the NRA’s Eddie Eagle is in Pittsburgh-area schools this week to teach children about gun safety. Even anti-gun nuts should realize that teaching children firearm safety is a good thing.

Some guy stole two different vehicles and (apparently) ran over pedestrians deliberately.

A string of hit-and-run accidents ended with one person dead and several injured.
…
Officers say Abdullah El-Amin Shareef, 25, stole a City of Fayetteville van and a pick-up truck Wednesday morning and hit at least five people. Police say the slain man was found pinned under the stolen van. They’ve identified him as Lonel Bearl Bass, 56.
…
“He tried to back over me, missed and then went forward to try to hit me again and then got out and started beating me,” [said hit-and-run victim David] McCaskill.
…
The Highway Patrol says the suspect has a history of driving violations, including citations for driving without a license and driving while impaired.

Unbelievable. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of Mr. Bass and the other victims.

The WAPO:

Large amounts of nuclear-related equipment, some of it contaminated, and a small number of missile engines have been smuggled out of Iraq for recycling in European scrap yards, according to the head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog and other U.N. diplomats.

Mohammed ElBaradei, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, warned the U.N. Security Council in a letter that U.N. satellite photos have detected “the extensive removal of equipment and, in some instances, removal of entire buildings” from sites that had been subject to U.N. monitoring before the U.S.-led war against Iraq.

ElBaradei said an IAEA investigation “indicates that large quantities of scrap, some of it contaminated, have been transferred out of Iraq, from sites monitored by the IAEA.” He said that he has informed the United States about the discovery and is awaiting “clarification.”

First, the good news: It is also Buy a Gun day. So, go buy a gun or two.

Some bad news: Phelps writes:

. . . a communist long-term goal has been achieved. (Second Plank of the Communist Manifesto.) Half of the population effectively pays no income tax, making this a tax progressive enough that a majority has absolutely no personal financial impact in reducing this tax. (They have a giant indirect impact, but that is hard to explain to people with government educations.)

Of course, that half of the population gets shafted by other taxes (sales, payroll, use, etc.). But it’s tax day, we’re all getting shafted.

Here’s a presentation that tells us we don’t have to actually pay taxes on most income. You better get over there quick before some judge shuts them down.

And your Happy Fun Tax Fact for today:

Bribes and kickbacks to governmental officials are deductible unless the individual has been convicted of making the bribe or has entered a plea of not guilty or nolo contendre.

-IRS official taxpayers’ guide

Here’s some Happy Fun Tax Facts from the past:

In 1999, taxpayers contacted the IRS for assistance approximately 117 million times.

The Internal Revenue Code consists of approximately 1,395,000 words.

There are 693 sections of the Internal Revenue Code that are applicable to individual taxpayers, 1,501 sections applicable to businesses, and 445 sections applicable to tax-exempt organizations, employee plans, and governments.

As of June 2000, the Treasury Department had issued almost 20,000 pages of regulations containing over 8 million words.

In 2000, there were 129,373,500 returns filed. Of which, 96,817,603 were taxable and 32,555,897 were not.

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

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

It is estimated that total income tax receipts in 2003 will be $1,211,843,000,000.

The instructions for filing the Easy Tax Form are 32 pages

It is now four days after tax freedom day and I’m not feeling so free.

Update: Gets better and better. Blake points to this article on how taxes violate civil liberties.

See, I told you so.

Update: Smijer alerts us the crash is not as bad as it sounds. And I’m apparently a right-wing profit err prophet (though I think I’d rather be a profit).

Les has the weekly gun links thing up.

Supposedly, Bin Laden has released a tape offering a truce to European nations. I’ve assumed for a while that he was likely just sticky goo on a cave wall somewhere. Otherwise, we’d be seeing video.

But if he is alive, this tape probably indicates he’s running out of options.

Angel Shamaya was interviewed by the AP. His point (again) is that Bush is losing his pull with gun owners.

Not to worry though as Cheney will address the NRA in an effort to soothe us gun owner types.

Tom is having some trouble training his dog. I suggest he check out dogreader, which isn’t currently updating but has excellent archives on training issues. I also suggest he read an old post of mine.

Here goes:

Bite inhibition: I cover that in the link above, but here’s the relevant portion:

Biting, chewing and mouthing! That cute pup has big, gnarly fangs. Ok, they’re actually small, sharp teeth and they hurt. One school of thought is to discourage all pups’ attempts to touch their mouths to human flesh. It’s generally safer since you don’t want to encourage your dog to bite people. However, I realize that dogs experience so much of their lives with their mouths and it’s how they play. So, I teach my dogs bite control. They know they can nibble on me gently when playing. They learn the commands ‘Easy’ and ‘No bite.’ Teach them ‘Easy’ by giving them a treat while covering most of the treat in your hand so that they have to put their mouth on your hand to get it. If he bites hard, tell him ‘Easy’ and withdraw the treat. Try again. He’ll figure out that when he gently tries to take the treat that he gets the treat. Only do this with puppies. It’s dangerous to try to teach this to a full grown dog who has no bite control. Also, whenever pupster bites too hard, yell ‘ouch’ sharply enough to scare him and immediately stop playing with him. He learns that hard biting means no play time.

Jumping up: This one is easy. Pup jumps, raise your knee into his chest enough to knock him back but, obviously, not enough to do damage. In addition to you and the wife doing that when he jumps, get a friend that the dog is accustomed to seeing (and often excited to see) to come over periodically. Tell this friend when the dog jumps on him to knee him as mentioned above.

Heel: First, buy a choke collar or pinch collar. It is important in the case of choke collars that they are on correctly. When looking at pupster’s face from the front, the loop should look like the letter P. If the loop looks like a backward letter Q, you can damage pupster’s throat. And use it correctly. Don’t tug or pull on it. Merely snap it. The noise is mostly what gets their attention but it should be used to lead some times. By snap it, I mean raise the leash up quickly then drop the leash quickly (kind of like a whip). With a pincher, a quick tug is all you need.

Start with a sit command (it also helps to put some treats in your pocket). With the dog on your left, give a sit command (praise him for complying or give a treat). Give the heel command, snap the leash once, and start walking. Decide your comfort zone for heel (mine is about 3 feet). If he strays from that zone, give the heel command and snap his leash toward you. Repeat as needed. If pupster gets it right, continue to saying heel periodically and praise him.

Come when called: Another easy one. Buy a 30 feet long (or so) rope, nylon canvas ties will do. It doesn’t have to be too strong. Tie the rope to his collar. Put on his choke collar. Start with a sit and stay. If he doesn’t, correct him with a snap and tell him to sit and stay again. Take the end of the rope not attached to pupster and walk away from him, making sure he sits and stays. Turn around and give the come command. If he doesn’t come, snap the rope. As he gets closer to you, actually start walking briskly backward away from him. This will actually make him speed up to get to you. When he gets to you, reward him (praise or a treat). Repeat for about 10 minutes per day until he gets it.

Down: He may hate it but he needs to know who’s boss. My dog hates stay and down, but he does it. He whines the entire time but does it. Essentially, if he doesn’t comply physically put him down. You can do this by lifting his feet. The other method is to do it with his collar on and snap his collar down toward the ground. He may still hate it but he’ll do it. He needs to be taught who’s boss. Here’s some dominance advice from my previously mentioned post that may help in showing him who is boss:

Show the pup who is boss! Your dog thinks that your home is a pack. Every dog pack has a leader who is dominant. Your pup will eventually (unless you take steps) get to a point where he will try to assert his dominance over you. He’ll do this by humping your leg, nipping harder than usual to get you to say ‘ouch’, or just pouncing on you. There are two schools of thought on this, both of which (in my opinion) work. One is to display regular dominance over your dog by rolling him on his back, placing your hand on his chest, and staring him in the eyes until he looks away. Once he looks away, let him up and praise him silly. This seems cruel, but that’s what dogs do when they fight for dominance. One dog holds the other down and it submits. Also note, don’t do this violently. If you do this too harshly, your dog will let you know by pissing on you. Squirting urine during confrontations is a sign of submission, just like looking away. The other method (much more fun for you and your dog) is to start rubbing your pup’s belly. He’ll eventually roll over and willingly submit to you. The former method typically works better for older dogs who are unwilling to accept that they aren’t dominant. The latter works better with pups since you’re teaching them who is the boss from the start. Fixing your dog also curtails lots of these problems.

Eliminating hand signals: This will require re-training. The dog has already learned to associate the hand signals with the behavior. Hand signals are good because if the dog can’t hear (loud noises) it can still obey. Now, you just need to train him to sit, stay, etc. without using the hand signals. It’s good that he knows both.

Hope that helps.

And for the last time, I’m not that guy from McHale’s Navy. Look, this is makeup!

Can someone translate this into English for me so that I can bold my blog categories.

Also, cool thing about using Bloglines to manage your blogroll is you can have categories. I have some down on the right there. I’ve added a Blogs I’m Watching category for those I’m reading that are new.

And if you want to see how it works for me, go here.

Add Ricky to the list of people who can’t spell that popular honeymooning spot because of bulk email.

More here and here.

It gets the best of us.

The ban is dead currently but Maryland Citizens for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms have a section of gun control briefs that is useful.

Here’s some history on the little tussle between myself and Mr. Michael Zitz:

First Entry
His email to me and my response
His second email to me and my response

If someone accused me of either 1) inadequate research or 2) outright lying, then I would address either of those concerns. I would not change the subject and I wouldn’t refuse to respond to legitimate criticism of my writing. But that is apparently his style of debate. He sees me as the problem because I decide to point out factual inaccuracies in his, uhm, work. I, a simple non-media peasant who demands truth, am a fanatic, apparently. Though I do find it odd, even though I’m not the one publishing falsehoods, that I am the fanatic.

He has refused to respond to my last email

The point to this rant is that people like Michael Zitz should pay attention to articles like this Boston.com piece (via Instapundit):

At a time when public distrust of the news media appears to be at a dangerously high level, there is evidence of a deep and fundamental disagreement between those who produce news and those who consume it.

Although most journalists believe quality and values are vital elements of their work and see themselves as providing an important civic function, the reading and viewing public seems to think of journalism as a bottom-line-driven enterprise populated by the ethically challenged. Last month, the Washington-based Project for Excellence in Journalism released a wide-ranging study — “The State of the News Media 2004″ — that concluded that a key factor in journalism’s sagging image is “a disconnection between the public and the news media over motive.”

“Journalists believe they are working in the public interest, and are trying to be fair and independent in that cause,” the survey found. “The public thinks these journalists are either lying or deluding themselves. The public believes that news organizations are operating largely to make money, and that the journalists who work for these organizations are primarily motivated by professional ambition and self-interest.”

Being the bully that I am, feel free to email this to him at mzitz@freelancestar.com.

Update: In related news, I am the number one google for Michael Zitz. Heh!

While everyone on Earth offers their opinion on last night’s Presidential speech (by the way, the left thought it sucked and the right thought it kicked ass), you will note that I didn’t.

I was attending a class on infant CPR. I also missed Condi’s testimony when we were moving. For a guy with a political blog, I’ve been missing a lot of politics.

I doubt, in either case, that I missed anything terribly important.

Chris Muir swings and hits. Ouch!

Former Knoxville Mayor Victor Ashe is going to be the ambassador to Poland. This would be a good opportunity for me to make a stereotypical joke. However, that joke would be stereotypical of Ashe and not Polish people.

Ashcroft has been accused of showing little interest in terrorism prior to 9/11. I suppose he was to buys preparing to wage the war on porn and continuing the war on drugs.

Students were taught that when the phrase Code Red was announced over the intercom that it meant intruder, such as a Columbine type shooting. They announce Code Red, lock down the school, and police storm the place.

They did all this to search for drugs. Drugs, by the way, that were never found.

If you’re a news person doing a story, please do some research. And spelling helps too:

The law is due to expire on September 13th and will outlaw weapons like AK-47’s and oozies.

I hope they mean Uzis.

I know linking to something that Instapundit has linked to is a “coals to Newcastle” exercise, but I thought this op ed on National ID Cards was interesting. The author claims that not only would a National ID Card NOT make us safer, it would makes us LESS safe.

Whether he’s right or not, I have to say I’ve always been kind of fuzzy on how a National ID Card would make us safer. It’s always been kind of an “Underpants Gnomes” argument:

Step 1: Issue National ID Card
Step 2:
Step 3: Security

Can anybody fill in Step 2 for me?

Got the new blogroll ironed out. How’s it look?

By the way, if you were on there and now you aren’t, it wasn’t intentional. Let me know.

And I have added:

Bill
Drug War Rant
Protein Wisdom

Update: If anyone can tell me how to bold my bloglines folder titles (to make them stick out), I’d appreciate it.

I feel the need to plug bloglines again.

I am in the process of switching ye old blogroll over to bloglines. As such, links will likely be disappearing and reappearing.

You may speed the process this process up for yours truly by creating a RSS feed. If you use blogger, then:

In Blogger it’s easy to do. You just access your account. Click on the “settings” tab, then select “site feed.” You select “yes” where it asked if you want to activate your Atom feed. Then you save your settings. For those *not* using Blog Spot, you have to enter a valid, existing folder and URL for the Atom feed, or Blogger won’t know how to FTP the page to your host.

If you can’t generate a feed with your package, try feedster.

It’s the War, Stupid!

KTK of Lean left quotes:

All I know about economic statistics is that when Clinton was president I had a job.

Well, all I know about economic statistics is that since Bush has been president, our household income has increased significantly.

Mind you, my increase in income has absolutely zero to do with any thing Bush has done.

I am starting to think our local media actively seeks any story that involves church or God then repeatedly does stories on it. Seriously.

It seems there will be no provision to fine people who let their pets ride in the back of pickups.

Even though Ephedra has been banned, it is still for sale in Knoxvegas. Go figure.

The National Fraternal Order of Police president has said that concealed carry laws save lives:

While speaking at the F.O.P.’s 56th Biennial National Conference last week, Canterbury called for passage of a national concealed carry bill, “which would allow the 750,000 or so police officers outside their jurisdictions to carry guns.

Apparently, he’s only illuminating carry by off-duty police. I think off-duty police should be able to carry any where they go. But so should I.

The mainstream press is picking up on the fact Dubya is in trouble with gun owners:

Four years later, some gun owners have grown so disenchanted with President Bush that they may cast a protest vote for a third-party candidate, stay away from the polls, or even back the likely Democratic nominee, gun-control advocate John F. Kerry.

It’s unclear how many gun owners could be counted as activists, but they are affiliated with a variety of organizations, from the NRA and Gun Owners of America to smaller state and regional organizations around the country. And they could play a pivotal role in the outcome of this year’s presidential race.

Surprisingly, the issues that have most alienated many gun groups from the Bush administration have little to do with firearms, but rather with the Patriot Act and other homeland security measures instituted after Sept. 11. Opposition to such laws has aligned gun-rights activists with unlikely partners, such as liberal Democrats and the ACLU.

And the little assault weapons ban thing.

The Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence has filed suit to get sheriffs to stop issuing weapon permits:

The Ohio Coalition complaint listed numerous problems with the new CCW law including inadequate procedures, funds and resources to properly enforce safety provisions in the CCW law, all of which make the statute unconstitutional, according to the Coalition.

I love the fact anti-gunners are reduced to mere stall tactics. And because I like to type it:

We’re winning.

By popular request (well, one reader requested it), I’ll tell the story of how Asimov won me a trip to Hawai’i.

It all began back in high school. I was what you might call a geek (I know, shocking); I was skinny, wore glasses, read a lot of sci-fi. And if you read sci-fi, you’ve just GOT to read Asimov. Chances are you’ll read him regardless, because the man wrote over 300 books. I know this, because after every 100 books, he released an anthology called Opus x00, where x in {1,2,3}. I have a copy of Opus 300 over there on the shelf.

Anyway, Asimov wrote a lot, and he wrote on just about every subject imaginable—not just science fiction, and not just science non-fiction. Of course, he did write quite a bit about science and the history thereof, and he knew what he was talking about; he had a PhD in bio-chemistry, after all. But he wrote about other things, such as history and religion. For example, I also have on the shelf Asimov’s Guide to the Bible. You get the idea.

A few years ago, I was a contestant on a certain TV quiz show. I didn’t do so hot, although I managed to answer a lot of physics questions, which kept me in the hunt for second place (first place was hopeless; the leader had more than doubled my score). The category going into the final round was “At the Library.”

“Oh great,” I thought. The other contestant, with whom I was battling for second place, was a library science graduate student. “I guess I better learn to love Rice-a-Roni.”

But then, when the final clue was revealed, I started grinning:

This author and bio-chemist has published a book in each of the ten major Dewey Decimal categories.

Well, as you’ve no doubt figured out (or knew already), it was indeed Isaac Asimov. I squeaked into second place, and instead of a year’s supply of Lee Press-On Nails, I walked away with a 6-night stay on a live-aboard dive-boat off the the Kona coast of Hawai’i. Of course, neither the wife nor I knew how to SCUBA dive, but that’s another story.

Sportsmen For Kerry:

Besides the cursory newspaper articles about how John has hunted since a child (a la Clinton in 1992), John Kerry espouses the belief that there should be reasonable controls placed upon gun ownership and availability. The only issue gun owners may have with this is that every restriction that comes along is reasonable to him.

When I first moved from my parents’ house after college, it took one pick up truck. I had no furniture and minimal belongings. Moving was easy. I got furniture from someone who had bought new couches and bought everything else I needed over the course of several months.

The second time I moved required two pick up trucks and a couple of friends because I accumulated more stuff (namely, the aforementioned couches).

The third time I moved, I rented a small UHAUL as I got even more stuff.

The fourth time, I rented small UHAUL again as I apparently didn’t accumulate significant amounts of stuff.

The fifth time was rather interesting. I’d finished my Masters degree and got a decent-paying public accounting job. I decided that the couches and other furniture (you know, cinder blocks with boards laying across them) that had served me well had to go. It was time to buy nice stuff for my bitchin’ new bachelor pad that I bought. As such, moving required only two pickup trucks. I abandoned my furniture on the curb of the place I was leaving for trash pickup day. Ah, new beginnings.

The sixth was when the Mrs. moved in with me. We only moved her stuff. Another UHAUL (she had more stuff than me).

The seventh move was the first time I hired professional movers. Me and the Mrs. went from my formerly rockin’ bachelor condo to a house in suburbia. I hired them because me and the Mrs. purchased a 60 inch big screen and I wasn’t going to move it. I’m not insured. Me and the Mrs. used Two Men and a Truck and our stuff filled about 3/4th of that truck.

One and a half years later, we bought a bigger place and again hired Two Men and a Truck. This time, we required two trucks and four men. Actually, that’s what we required. What we got was two men and a truck making two trips. We more than doubled our stuff in 1.5 years. Unbelievable.

Lessons learned:

When you arrive at your new pad, assemble your bed first. When you decide you’re exhausted and want to sleep, it sucks to realize your bed hasn’t been put together.

You need to warn your pets. Politically Incorrect Dog is inconsolable. He is still moping about the house. He appears to be suffering some sort of anxiety or depression. It’s not his first move and we took him to the new house at least twice a week while it was being built. He must have left something in the yard that we forgot. He is really pathetic.

Hiring movers is money well spent.

If you buy a bigger residence, you will fill it up. Learn to throw stuff away.

The Geek alerts us that the assault weapons ban has had the undesirable effect of depriving our troops of better hardware.

The original magazine manufacturer has gone out of business and no domestic manufacturers want to make a new rifle. Well, supply and demand, I suppose.

Stop the bleating has moved to fancy new digs. Check it out.

Jeff has his weekly check on the bias up.

As a result of Chad Daniel Crawford place kicking someone’s pet, the TN legislature has proposed the Gizmo Bill to strengthen (i.e., make a felony) animal cruelty charges.

Existing laws are adequate, I would say. But the appearance that our legislators do something is more important than doing the right thing.

An air marshal left his gun in the airport restroom. Ouchie.

Another policeman’s gun goes off all by itself. Glocks don’t discharge all by themselves. Poor guy lost his pinkie. Ouchie.

Ohio recently passed concealed carry. As yet, there has been no blood in the streets.

Yes, it is pretty much a scam.

A few weeks back, I went to the weekly flea market at the fairgrounds. I love books, so I pawed through every book collection there. We’re running out of shelf space, so I bought a few choice ones. This particular trip, I picked up Isaac Asimov’s New Intelligent Man’s Guide to SCIENCE: Vol II, The Biological Sciences.

Now, I’m a sucker for Asimov’s non-fiction. In fact, Asimov’s prolificness and my readitude of it won me a trip to Hawaii (but that’s another story). Anyway, just judging by the title, I knew this book was bound to be good: to hell with you Old Intelligent Men, you Non-Intelligent Men, and ALLLLLL you Women!

So I’m cruising through the first couple of chapters, right up to the part about photosynthesis. Now there’s something I haven’t thought about since high school biology. As we all know, photosynthesis is how plants take light, plus water, plus carbon dioxide, and turn it into oxygen and carbs (those evil, evil carbs!). In particular, the chlorophyll in the plant uses the light energy to break up water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.

That’s when the light went off. As you know, there’s a meme floating around the zeitgeist that we need to stop burning fossil fuels as energy sources, and use hydrogen instead. Using pure hydrogen as a fuel has a great upside, because it’s clean burning (producing just water as a by-product) There’s just one problem: There ain’t no pure hydrogen on earth.

Oh, there’s some, but the problem with hydrogen is it tends to buddy up with other elements and form compounds. That’s why I haven’t really paid much attention to the talk about burning hydrogen as an “energy source,” because it’s NOT an energy source; you have to expend energy breaking the hydrogen loose from whatever compound it’s in. Hydrogen could be used as an energy storage and conversion medium, but producing hydrogen by, say, electrolysis of water, is still a losing proposition if you’re getting the electricity from a coal-fired power plant. OK, you could probably take advantage of some economy of scale, but the dirty coal is still being burned. Sure, we could use solar cells, but then you have to put energy into creating the cells.

But what if you could grow your hydrogen-producing system? Bio-engineer what would literally be a “power plant?” This idea struck me just now when reading Asimov’s book. And whenever I have moments like this, I think, “Either this idea is so incredibly stupid that only Dilbert’s boss could come up with it, or else somebody is already working on it.”

Well, actually, both could be true, but at any rate, somebody is already working on it.

For several decades, we have known that green algae can produce hydrogen directly from water….Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have found that sulfur deprivation of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, a green algae, turns off the normal photosynthesis pathways, causing cells to stop emitting oxygen and stop producing carbohydrate, protein, and fat energy reserves. Hydrogenase is induced and activated by the low oxygen tension, and the stored energy reserves are then used to produce hydrogen. Once the stores are depleted, sulfur must again be added to return the system to normal photosynthesis. By cycling between sulfur and non-sulfur metabolism, hydrogen can be cyclically produced in a two-stage process.

There’s actually quite a bit of interest in the idea of biological hydrogen production. If you, loyal readers, have any expertise in this, please leave a comment. Also, feel free to point out any pointy-haired boss (PHB) moments I might have had in this post.

I’m back. A few notes:

Yes, I got your email. No, I haven’t read it yet.

Busy unpacking.

My dog is suffering depression as a result of the move. He has moped for the last 24 hours with his tail down and ears back. He’s quite pathetic, really. No amount of pork rinds seems to help.

Your regularly scheduled programming will resume Monday.

Quite odd but I have not followed anything in the news for about 3 days and I don’t miss it. Odd, indeed.

In the interest of expanding my horizons, I’ve started to take violin lessons. I’ve only had one so far, so I’m really really bad. In fact, it’s probably safe to say I have very little musical talent. However, that hasn’t stopped me from pursuing a short career as a part-time rock-n-roller.

It all started long ago, when I was a junior in high school. I got a bass guitar for Christmas. It was second-hand, of course. In fact, it used to belong to our school’s principal, Mr. P., Harley-Davidson owner and lead guitarist for Lambert and the Leaping Lizards.

I wanted the bass because my best friend J. had an electric six-string. After I got my bass, we would sit around weekends and try to play songs by our favorite bands: Kiss, Iron Maiden, Creedence Clearwater Revival. Before long, we hooked up with another guitar player and a drummer, and our first garage band was born.

That band didn’t go very far. We played only one show, as an opening act for a real band, at a party for a motorcycle gang. I remember avoiding the row of parked Harleys, fearing a domino-style disaster should I come too close.

By my sophomore year of college, I had hit the big time. I was gigging steadily with a band called Ultraviolet. Besides myself and J., who played lead guitar and sang, there was B., a handyman and church organist in his 30’s, on drums, and another guitarist/singer, T., an aging southpaw who played a right-handed guitar upside-down.

Our song list was loaded with classic rock favorites, from bands like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and the Jimi Hendrix Experience, with a dash of current hard rock numbers from Guns ‘n’ Roses and the Black Crowes. We weren’t above throwing in a long 12-bar blues improv number, either.

Of course, since we were out in the boondocks of Louisiana, we had a limited choice of venues. Most of them were seedy honky-tonks with names like the Coon Ridge Saloon or the Wolf’s Den—smoke filled shacks with barely enough room for the pool table and the juke box, much less our amplifiers.

In these kinds of places, with $3 cover charges, we never made much money. I remember one slow night, the other band members wound up owing money, after the owner deducted their bar tabs from their pay—just like in The Blues Brothers. Another time, a waitress helped herself to half the door money and ducked out before the last set. All told, considering equipment costs and gas money, I doubt I ever broke even.

Now here I am, many years later, and I hardly ever even pick up my bass. I haven’t practiced in ages; all my “chops” are gone. But maybe someday I can go back to my true calling. I still have time to re-grow that mullet.

What’s the first thing you think when you hear that somebody is performing jury duty? Chances are, it’s “How come he couldn’t get out of it?”

On the one hand, you’d think that as popular as courtroom dramas are on TV, people would be lining up to serve on a jury. Of course, that’s fantasy, and thankfully most people can tell the difference. In reality, being has some serious downsides. For one thing, if you happen to be a juror in a high-profile murder trial, you run the risk of being sequestered for a year.

Furthermore, jury duty pays peanuts. In most states, jurors are given less than $50/day by the government. While it’s true that most (perhaps all?) states forbid employers to fire employees who miss work because of jury duty, not all states require employers to pay the employees their usual wages during that time. And if you’re self-employed, I guess you’re just out of luck.

So here’s some things I’d like to discuss: have any of you loyal readers ever been a juror? Was it a good or bad experience? What are some things that could be changed in order to make the juror experience better? Is it a bad thing (or is it even true?) that people, in general, don’t want to be jurors?

I have a wacky idea or two, but I’d like to hear from you guys. Discuss!

From here:

A school board trustee is demanding an apology from a parents’ group that used a fake photo from a satirical newspaper on its pamphlets opposing the expansion of a safe schools policy.
…
The photo shows a teacher at the front of a class with explicit sexual images and terms drawn on the board and is supposed to represent one of the “countless” classrooms where homosexuality is promoted.

The picture was copied from the Onion, a satirical newspaper from the United States. The headline of the 1998 story says, ” ‘98 homosexual drive nearing goal.”

Good grief.

This guy does not care for Instapundit:

Put simply, Reynolds is the leading purveyor of modern McCarthyism on the Internet. He is a daily source of cheap shots, pot-kettle criticisms, and two-cent sanctimony.

OK then. Call me crazy, but when I see somebody drag out “McCarthyism,” it sets off my Godwin Alarm. It has been flung about so much that, as Orwell said about the word “fascism,” that it “has now no meaning except insofar as it signifies ’something not desirable.’”

Tonight I’m headed over to a buddy’s house for some poker—probably Texas Hold ‘Em. Anybody got any pointers? I mean, besides “double-down on 11.” I already know that one.

Les has the weekly scoop. Good stuff, as always.

Heh. Pud’s packing.

I did manage to make it to the range this past weekend. It had been way too long since my last trip. My marksmanship, never much to brag about, was atrocious.

I did have fun though, and used up a few boxes of ammo. I’m going to have to re-stock, and I can’t wait until November for the next Ammo Day. Maybe I’ll wait until next week and buy ammo, instead of a gun, for Mikey Moore.

In the interest of picking up slack, I thought I’d just jot down some of the random stuff that has happened lately.

1. A few weeks ago I saw a vehicle with a vanity plate reading “BDSM.” The young lady driving was rather comely, but did not seem to be wearing any leather accoutrements.

2. More recently I was walking around my neighborhood. One portion of the walk was along a busy 5-lane street. As I was walking, I noticed that about a fifth of a mile or so ahead was one of those Bobcat loaders heading toward me down the sidewalk—fast! I started thinking about getting way out of the way, when it ran over a sign and swerved back into the street where it smacked up against a truck. At that point I noticed it was actually on a trailer, and I realized the truck had been towing it and was trying to catch it. Luckily, there wasn’t any traffic right at that moment, so they managed to nudge it to the side of the road and stop it.

3. Yesterday I conducted a mental survey of the people who were driving like idiots during my commute to work (excluding myself, of course). I noticed they all had something in common (no, it was a John Kerry bumper sticker; that was only on half of the cars). They were all talking on cell phones. At least they weren’t reading the newspaper—yes, I’ve seen that happen several times on the interstate at 70+ mph. At that, I still think the average level of driving ability is better here than in Nashville. Heh.

Now how’s that for some high-quality blogging?

People say never to blog that you won’t be blogging because it hurts traffic, I figure my readers deserve better.

Blogging will be light. I’m moving. See you guys some time after Saturday.

Thibodeaux will have to pick up the slack.

The Colorado bill I blogged about here has been changed to allow cities with populations over 400,000 (i.e., Denver) exemption to the law that bans breed specific legislation.

Other than the fact I’m opposed to BSL, I have other issues with the legislation. Why exempt only cities with certain populations? Doesn’t seem to provide equal protection if you ask me.

Now, this Ogre guy doesn’t like AR15s! The outrage! Gonna have to let him have it again.

No, I jest. Some folks don’t like them but I do.

Via No Quarters, I learned that there are 600,426,974,379,824,381,952 ways to spell Viagra.

The NAACP is upset because a school paper, The Gateway, conducted an April Fool’s gag by naming the paper The Ghettoway. April does bring out the fools. Who’s the racist here?

While black leaders address this critical issue in race relations, SayUncle estimates that in America today: 21 black people will commit murder; 22 black people will be murdered; 506 black people will be arrested for drug trafficking crimes; 1,000,000 black people are in prison; and 26,500,000 black people live in poverty.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has warned that a Rwandan style genocide may be in the making in the Sudan (yes, that Kofi Annan):

The U.N. chief issued his warning in a speech in Geneva on the 10th anniversary of the Rwanda genocide in which about 800,000 died. He left no doubt he feared something similar might be under way in west Sudan, where U.N. officials say “ethnic cleansing” is carried out.

“The international community cannot stand idle,” declared Annan, who has himself acknowledged more should have been done to halt the orgy of killing in Rwanda in 1994.

“The risk of genocide remains frighteningly real.”

Annan said humanitarian workers and human rights experts needed to be given full access to Darfur, a western region in Africa’s biggest country, to administer aid to hundreds of thousands of people driven from their homes, many into neighboring Chad.

The Comedian reports that Tax Freedom Day will be the earliest it has been since 1967. April 11, 2004.

What is Tax Freedom Day:

Tax Freedom Day is the day when Americans will finally have earned enough money to pay off their total tax bill for the year. Every dollar that’s officially called income by the government is counted, and every payment to the government that is officially considered a tax is counted. Taxes at all levels of government are included, whether levied by Uncle Sam or state and local governments.

They blame the Bush tax cuts and that artificially inflated economic boom a few years ago.

. . . and all I got was this fruit basket.

No-knock warrants are out of control. As far as I am concerned, they should be illegal.

Via Brutal Hugs.

This is Chad Daniel Crawford. This lunatic allegedly ‘place kicked’ a two pound Yorkshire terrier and killed it while its owners watched.

What a sick bastard.

The only 9/11 suspect ever convicted is now free:

The only Sept. 11 suspect convicted was freed by a court Wednesday, pending the outcome of his retrial on charges of aiding the Hamburg al-Qaida cell that included three of the suicide pilots.

[snip]

El Motassadeq, 30, has acknowledged training at an al-Qaida camp in Afghanistan (news – web sites) and being friends with Hamburg-based hijackers Mohamed Atta, Marwan al-Shehhi and Ziad Jarrah, but denies any knowledge of the Sept. 11 plot.

He has been serving a maximum 15-year prison term in a Hamburg prison since a court in the city convicted him in February 2003 of giving logistical help to the al-Qaida cell. He was expected to be released later Wednesday.

The decision was a fresh setback for prosecutions of Sept. 11 suspects after the same Hamburg court acquitted el Motassadeq’s friend and fellow Moroccan Abdelghani Mzoudi of identical charges in February.

An appeals court last month threw out el Motassadeq’s conviction and ordered a retrial starting June 16, saying he was denied a fair trial because the U.S. government refused access to a key witness in its custody.

If terrorism is going to be a criminal matter, it needs better prosecutors.

My home county is pushing for a sales tax increase:

Blount County budget officials have called for an increase in the county’s sales tax. So how much would residents have to pay? And why?

The county budget committee has called for voters to decide on a sales tax increase of half of a percent. It’s a move designed to address the nearly $8 million in additional money requested by Blount County schools for the 2004-2005 school year.

The motion for a referendum passed the budget committee Monday night.

It would raise the sales tax to the state maximum of 9.75 percent. That means if you buy $100 worth of sales taxable items, you’ll pay $9.75 in taxes.

The increase would generate an estimated $2.3 million for Blount County. All of it would go directly to the schools.

The referendum goes before the full Blount County Commission on April 15. It could appear on the ballot as early as August.

Needless to say, I’ll be voting in the Hell No column. And I encourage my fellow Blount Countians to do the same.

Yet, WATE writes:

Gov. Phil Bredesen has a slab of ribs riding on Tuesday night’s national championship between the Lady Vols and the University of Connecticut.

Bredesen and Connecticut Gov. John Rowland struck a bet Tuesday.

If UT loses the game, Bredesen will send Rowland barbecue ribs from the Rendezvous in Memphis.

If Connecticut loses, Bredesen will get a clambake dinner.

The whacky ninth circuit does something, well, whacky. Of course, one judge seems to be daring the SCOTUS to take the case:

One 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judge even seemed to invite U.S. Supreme Court review by noting another circuit has recognized an individual’s right to keep and bear arms while the 9th Circuit hasn’t.

“If the Second Amendment were truly an outdated relic, the Constitution provides a method for repeal,” Circuit Judge Andrew Kleinfeld wrote. “The Constitution does not furnish the federal courts with an eraser.”

Clayton Cramer discusses the dissents to the ruling.

Eugene Volokh thinks these dissents are good news in that they’re exposing more people to the actual intent of the amendment.

Well, I hate to follow a serious post with something kind of trivial, but I just have to say:

Eat it, UT! Bwahahahaha!

Congratulations to UConn’s men’s AND women’s basketball teams.

Kevin, who thinks that we are on the downward spiral to a total loss of freedom, asks:

Believing what we believe, is it moral for us to let it happen without standing up and pledging our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor to fight it? I have grandchildren. What do I owe them?

Despite my efforts at:

Putting up a sign in my yard that says the court system is a joke;

Making machine guns;

Refusal to give authorities ID;

Buying up property that may some day benefit the public good;

Starting my own un-licensed business;

Setting my water heater to 130 degrees;

Writing a book that tells people not to pay taxes;

Importing lobster tails of less than 5.5 inches;

Growing orchids;

Buying, with a personal check, significant quantities of indoor gardening lights to care for my begonias;

Carrying large amounts of cash;

Missing the occasional tax payment;

Using unusually high amounts of electricity (for the begonias);

Building model rockets;

Doing home improvements without getting government permission;

Being a smart ass to TSA employees and wearing a Hi, I’m a terrorist button on planes;

Taking pictures of my nephews bathing to get developed;

I have yet to encounter any targets of opportunity. They must be raiding the wrong houses. All kidding aside, I don’t do most of those things but those very actions have been cause for our government to trample liberties. And no one (but me and a few bloggers, apparently) gets angry about it.

I think our apathetic public is just unwilling to rise up about injustice. Not many people take to the streets in protest of our lost civil liberties. Not many practice civil disobedience.

Nevermind, Janet Jackson just showed her other boob.

MadOgre, a blog I read regularly due to his excellent gun articles, stated:

I hate Pit Bulls. I really do. Pit Bulls are nasty creatures. Might as well have a pet fucking alligator. These things should not be pets. I don’t care what people say about them being nice. That’s what they all say after the dog snaps and eats someone. A stray Pit Bull around my house will become a dead Pit Bull collar or no.

I sent him the following email and invited him to peruse my Pet Archives:

You and I agree on many issues but your comment about pit bulls is quite disheartening. I trained police dogs for attack, obedience and drug work for years. Bully type dogs have a high drive and are eager to please.

Most dog attacks are the result of improper treatment, restraint, and socialization. Even more sad is that people who shouldn’t own any dog are often the ones that own pit bulls and then train them to be mean. I can take any dog as a pup and make it a dangerous or a sociable animal.

Also, there is no scientific way to determine what breed any particular dog is. Dogs of molosser stock (which includes pits, american bulldogs, mastiffs, boxers, and dozens of other breeds) all look and behave similarly.

Pit Bulls were also the most popular breed in the US up through the 1950s. Pit Bulls served valiantly in WW1 and WW2. Also, Pits served as Search and Rescue Dogs at the WTC rubble.

Pet ownership is about responsibility and not about breeds of dog. Your comment about how they shouldn’t be pets is similar to the nannyism (particularly with respect to guns) that you rant about. I’m disappointed, after all you’re advocating banning “assault dogs”.

I suppose you can tell I am rather passionate about this topic, you can read more at:

http://saysuncle.com/archives/cat_pets_responsibility.html

Regards,

Mr. Ogre is swayed by the bad press the breed gets. Sadly, most other people who support breed bans are as well. This is a growing problem for pet owners as breed licensing is on the rise. Punish the deed, not the breed.

Update: Ogre responds with:

Bull dogs are one thing… Police dogs one thing… Rotts are one thing…

Rotts and German Sheppards and Dobbermans rarely snap and attack kids.

But Pit Bulls are another thing all together. I despise them.

I don’t dislike any other dog… but Pit Bulls. They can snap and attack in a blink.

Assault Dog? Come on now. An Assault Rifle doesn’t suddenly turn around and shoot the owner or his kids.

If you can handle them – bully for you. Not many people can. Not many people can handle a timber wolf either, but Ranger is doing fine. So I guess maybe I’m a Pot calling out a Kettle

I responded with:

People “despise” guns too.

Fatal dog attack stats: http://www.fataldogattacks.com/statistics.html

Pit Bull and Pit-bull-type dogs (21%), Mixed breed dogs (16%),
Rottweilers (13%), German Shepherd Dogs (9%), Wolf Dogs (5%),
Siberian Huskies (5%), Malamutes (4%), Great Danes (3%),
St. Bernards (3%), Chow Chows (3%), Doberman Pinschers (3%),
other breeds & non-specified breeds (15%).

Given that American Bulldogs, Staffordshires and other dogs are routinely lumped in the pit bull category (because they’re all “Bull” dogs), I’d say the numbers are fairly comparable. And your wolf makes the list too. The primary factor seems to be reproductive status of the animal:

“Of the 28 single dogs responsible for a fatal attack between 2000-2001;
26 were males and 2 were females. Of the 26 males, 21 were found to be intact (the reproductive status of the remaining 5 males dogs could not be determined”

You’ll notice also that the overall fatal attacks are very low. 28 out of how many dogs in this country? Surely, you can start to see the parallel between politically incorrect dogs and guns.

I’d even say, to continue your assault rifle analogy, that less proportional number of dogs “suddenly turn” on someone as people accidentally shoot themselves due to negligence or a gun defect. A dog turning on someone or attacking someone is the result of improper training and socialization. Dogs are what people make them to be.

I tend to think I am not changing anyone’s mind. It does occur to me that 5% of fatal attacks are by Wolf Dogs, which I assume means some sort of domesticated wolf. 21% are pit bulls, which likely means any bully breed. But I wonder how many people own domesticated wolves vs. people that own pit bulls. It would stand to reason considerably less. So, statistically speaking, it is possible that domesticated wolves are more likely to kill someone. However, I can’t find stats on wolf ownership, so it’s just a guess.

JoinTogether’s News Item here criticizes John A. Giannetti, Jr. for casting the vote to kill the Maryland Assault Weapons Ban. Kudos to Mr. Giannetti. Regardless, JoinTogether admits:

What I find particularly puzzling is that Senator Giannetti could not even bring himself to support a straight reauthorization of the weak 1994 federal ban, which is the law of the land until September 13, 2004. We don’t expect Congress to act to renew the ban so Marylanders will be able to buy AK-47s and other assault weapons on September 14.

So, in addition to admitting again that the 1994 ban is weak, they don’t expect that ban to renew. Additionally, they just flat out lie about AK-47s. AK-47s are not available currently (to be honest, I don’t know that they ever have been); and the 1994 ban doesn’t ban them; they are regulated under the 1934 National Firearms Act.

And not really ironic in that stupid little Alanis Morissette way (other than it involves her), but really ironic:

“I am overjoyed to be back in my homeland, the true North … strong and censor-free.”

– pop singer ALANIS MORISSETTE, wearing a naked body suit with nipples and pubic hair, at Canada’s Juno music awards.

Yet:

A high school teacher in British Columbia, punished for writing publicly against homosexuality, is not protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the province’s Supreme Court has ruled.

The pork laden highway spending bill has been passed by the house. Bush has threatened to veto it. I tend to doubt he will, after all it involves spending money and Bush is rather fond of big spending.

Someone who can’t legally get a gun somehow managed to get a gun. What were the odds of that?

Teddy Kennedy is comparing Bush to Nixon and Iraq to Vietnam. Bush retorted by comparing Ted Kennedy to Ted Kennedy.

That seemed funny, until I typed it. Win some, lose some.

Clinton’s policy papers don’t mention Al Qaeda. They do, however, mention OBL. Critics claim this undercuts Clarke’s credibility. It also is rather supportive of my prediction here.

Jeff, sporting fancy new movable type digs, has his weekly thing on gun bias up. Perhaps Michael Zitz should give him a read too.

Myself and Mr. Zitz are still engaged in our little go-round that I mentioned here.

He responded to my email with:

Thr truth is that nothing I could ever write would do as much damage to your cause as the day to day performance of your own work

Your obsession with this topic pushes the media in exactly the opposite direction from what you want.

No media person getting email as a result of what you’re doing takes it seriously. It’s easy to identify. And it’s viewed as a cheap pressure tactic in which a small group of fanatics with too much time on their hands try to create the illusion of a spontaneous groundswell.

The result of such transparent attempts at bullying and intimidation is at first amusing, then merely hardens opposition to your cause. I’m sure you think that writers getting this email will hesitate to oppose you again, In reality, it stiffens their resolve not to be pushed around by knuckleheads like you and your friends.

But I guess it’s therapeutic for you. So have at it.

To which, I responded:

I am not trying to bully or intimidate anyone into anything. I just don’t appreciate misinformation being spread about a topic I happen to be passionate about (particularly when it is easy to get that information). And I will bring attention to it. If you have an opinion on the gun issue, write about it. But do so honestly and factually or someone will call you on it. If not me, someone else. I’m not going to change many peoples’ minds but I have changed a few.

I have an audience (a moderately sizable one at that) for which I write about gun inaccuracies in the media regularly. Peruse the site a bit, and you will find that you’re not the first person to go a few rounds with me. You’ll also notice that my site and sites like mine have managed to get a few retractions from news sources regarding the gun issue.

As for your comments about the media not taking me seriously, I have no doubt. But let’s remember that the people are taking the media less seriously too and have less trust in it. In fact, if I recall correctly, a recent USA Today poll that said that the majority of us don’t trust the media. Maybe there’s a correlation there?

You accuse me of bullying and intimidating you when I have done no such thing. I pointed out factually inaccurate items in your article. I notice you have yet to address these inaccuracies. Instead of dealing with those things, you attack me personally by stating I have your sympathy, I need to get a life, and that I conduct cheap pressure tactics. I suppose if you’re unwilling to address the issues, prove me wrong, or admit you’re wrong, ad hominem attacks are the route to go. You now have my sympathy.

Regards,

Given that I engage in bullying and cheap pressure tactics, send him an email: mzitz@freelancestar.com

Make sure to bully him around a bit.

A while back, I posted about an article by Michael Zitz and, basically, said he had no idea what he was talking about. I suppose Mr. Zitz decided to google up his name or something because he left a comment there (actually, he left the same comment three times):

This is really sad.
Do you think you’re really accomplishing anything with this?
You guys not only lack a sense of humor, you have no lives.
You have my sympathy.
Michael Zitz

Mike is a small minded man who would rather attack people than ideas. Not that I am above that, of course, but I would attempt to address the issue first. So, I responded to Mike via email thusly:

Mike,

Thanks for the comment.

You have my sympathy for the fact you can’t take the time to do a modicum of research before writing about a topic. Moreover, your employer does. And, presumably, you write professionally. I do it for fun. I also tend to back up my assertions with facts, such as the fact that flash suppressors are perfectly legal and don’t render muzzle flashes invisible.

I don’t need your sympathy, I need you to research topics before writing about them. Your sloppy work leads to misconceptions about firearms.

Regards,

I wonder if I’ll hear back?

Another thing, I went to his archives page over at the FreeLanceStar and noticed that was the last article he wrote listed.

So Mike, if you’re watching, I’d appreciate you addressing the issue instead of name-calling me and my readers.

As for if I think I’m accomplishing anything. Yes, I do.

The NRA is endorsing Bush:

In touting its selection of the Steel City for its 133rd annual convention, the National Rifle Association talks up the region’s strong membership and Pennsylvania’s rich hunting traditions.

But it also is rallying support to keep President George Bush in office.

Told you so.

Reader Drake emails this article:

The Legislature is considering new taxes and some fee increases, but it’s unlikely most people would pay them.

One new tax would apply to drug dealers.

Sen. Randy McNally, a Republican from Oak Ridge, proposes to tax marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine and other illegal drugs. Those who step forward to pay the tax voluntarily would be granted confidentiality by the Department of Revenue.

However, those found in possession of drugs without a tax stamp could be required to pay the tax.

Additionally, the legislature anticipates $3.6M in revenue from the measure (they also anticipate monkeys flying out of their own butts, but that is a different story). There are also proposals to up fees for electrical inspections and liquor licensing.

If I am the type of person inclined to disregard the law with respect to dealing drugs, I very likely am also the type of person who would disregard paying taxes.

A group of sportsmen in Illinois are opposing the state proposed assault weapons ban because it would put an end to high-powered rifle competitions. And, you know, freedom.

The Brady Campaign is gearing up its email list to flood the zone with its lies.

Up next: Race bating and the assault weapons ban:

The Reverend Jesse Jackson gathered with families of victims of gun violence outside the governor’s office at the Thompson Center on Sunday. With a decade-old ban on assault weapons set to expire in September, Reverend Jackson used the anniversary of the murder of Dr. Martin Luther king, Jr. to drive the point home.

It was 36 years ago Sunday, that Dr. King was relaxing on the balcony of a Memphis motel when gunfire ended his life. The Reverend Jesse Jackson was there and remembers the days leading up to the assassination.

A Maryland Senate Committee rejected the assault weapons ban.

John quotes a study that interviews state prison inmates about where they get their guns:

According to the 1997 Survey of State Prison Inmates, among those possessing a gun, the source of the gun was from -

-a flea market or gun show for fewer than 2%
-a retail store or pawnshop for about 12%
-family, friends, a street buy, or an illegal source for 80%

And

During the offense that brought them to prison, 15% of State inmates and 13% of Federal inmates carried a handgun, and about 2%, a military-style semiautomatic gun.

This post by the comedian really is scary.

Marc is back from his secure, undisclosed location.

Apparently, we need to be protected from porn that might be played on DVD players in automobiles. So, in a long line of famous firsts:

Tennessee would become the first state in the country to ban the viewing of obscene movies in cars if the House passes the bill, which was approved by the Senate last year.

Who the Hell is responsible for naming military operations? Operation Vigilant Resolve?

Operation We’re Not Going Anywhere Anytime Soon So You’d Better Get Used To It sounds considerably less gay.

On Thursday, concealed carry goes live in Ohio.

Blue was put to death in Denver for being a dog of a prohibited breed.

So were Sasha and Summer and Oreo, although they had attacked nobody.

Butch and Peaches survived. Their owner sent them to Aurora, which allows pit bull terriers, before their trip to the Denver dog pound reached a date with a fatal needle.

In Denver, one of the largest U.S. cities to ban pit bulls, the list of dogs on death row keeps growing. Last year alone, the city put to death 410 pit bulls; 240 others were returned to owners promising to get their dogs out of town immediately.

Killing all these dogs because they are politically incorrect animals. Abysmal.

So last night, I was thinking about the VPC and the way they keep pushing this “1 out of 5 cops are killed by Assault Weapons!” line. The smart-aleck in me retorted, “Well, 5 out 5 cops are killed by killers!”

Then I thought, “Hey…I wonder how many of these people who killed policemen with ‘assault weapons’ already had criminal records?” So I grabbed the VPC’s “Officer Down” report and started on the list of “select incidents.” Well, I hadn’t even finished the first one on the list when I found out that somebody already had the same idea.

Assuming the information in the table is accurate, and assuming I counted correctly (that’s a big if; please check my numbers), there were 41 perps. At least 22 of these were disqualified from gun possession because of priors or mental illness.

Thank God we have that Brady Law and NICS system to keep Guns Out Of The Hands Of Criminals.

There’s a heated discussion going on here about the whether the Clinton administration did or did not do more to fight terrorism. Long-time poster tgirsch made an important point:

Bush is so concerned with getting bin Laden that he has a whopping 9,000 troops in Afghanistan, with the vast majority of them in Kabul and Kandahar, where bin Laden certainly isn’t.

Meanwhile, Clinton had permanently stationed a sub in the region so that if bin Laden’s whereabouts became known, immediate action could be taken. But hey, that’s “doing nothing,” right?

We report, you decide.

Ricky can be so harsh without being vulgar. He makes me smile in that ha ha, got you, you dumb bastard kind of way.

Note to self: Self, don’t say something stupid where Ricky can hear.

Update: I’ve been calling lots of people bastards lately. What has gotten into me? Before that, it was idiots. Before that, it was liars. Before that, it was asshats. I apologize for the vulgarity but some folks deserve no better.