Ebay, which has always been a good place to buy gun accessories, has announced:

Effective June 8th, 2004, we will be making some guideline changes to the Hunting category (found under Sporting Goods). The following restrictions will limit what gun-related items can be sold on eBay:

The sale of any assault weapon-related parts or accessories will not be permitted. This will apply to all parts and accessories related to any firearm defined as an “assault weapon” by federal or California law.

The sale of any firearm receiver or firearm frame will not be permitted. This includes complete receivers and frames; components and parts of receivers and frames; or “cut”, “80%”, or “partially complete” receivers

Isn’t everything an assault weapon under California law?

Michael Badnarik, who I’ve mentioned before, has won the Libertarian presidential nod. He won’t win but is likely who I will vote for. Or I’m turning in a blank ballot. I don’t know.

Regardless, check out Badnarik on the issues.

Apparently, President Bush has Saddam’s personal handgun as a trophy. That’s all well and good, except that, you know, it’s illegal to have a handgun in DC.

I was typing in the URL for a Blogger-hosted blog, and I transposed a couple of letters. I got this site:

Aaron’s Bible

A mega-site of Bible, Christian and religious information & studies; including,
audio and written KJV Bible, Bible helps & tools, churches, Doctrine, links, news,
prayer, prophecy, sermons, spiritual warfare, statistics, and tracts. Features the
Chronological 4 Gospels, Prayer Book, Prophecy Bible, and a photo tour of Israel.

Well, that’s ONE way to get traffic.

CAGW Blog has a pretty funny story:

S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford brought live pigs into the House chamber to make a point about pork barrel spending. Sanford showed up at the state house doors with a piglet under each arm. The pigs are named “Pork” and “Barrel.”

The stunt sparked a bipartisan firestorm. “Insulting” and “childish,” said House Speaker David Wilkins (R). “This is beneath the dignity of the Governor’s Office, and I am embarrassed for him.”

Gov. Sanford had the courage to veto huge amounts of pork in the state’s budget, but the House breezed through 106 budget vetoes with little or no debate.

Adding insult to injury, one of the pigs promptly defecated on the marble floor of House.

Sweet.

Picking a pup can be one of the most exciting things you ever do. When you head to the breeder’s place (you do go to breeders don’t you? Never support pet stores), there will be a lot of activity. You’ll likely get to meet mom and maybe dad. And there will be cute little puppies running amok.

The basis of a dog’s temperament is set pretty early and you can see this in the pups based on a few things (most notably their interaction with litter mates). You should first decide what type dog you want because the type of dog you want may not be the type I want. For example, you may want an overly submissive dog. I don’t. It try to look for certain characteristics in a pup and, based on their behavior, can usually determine if the have those traits. Back when I trained police dogs, we picked up pups regularly. However, I’ve only picked out one now in the last decade.

Following are traits I look for and what I do to ascertain if the dog has those traits:

Inquisitive (and not fearful): does he run up to me or run from me? I’ll drop my car keys. The pups that run are ruled out. The ones that stop and look without retreating are curious. The ones that run up to the keys to check them out are the inquisitive ones. Stamp your feet on the ground and see who runs and who does a play bow.

Confidence: When you reach for the pup, does he turn away? How about his interaction with littermates? Does he rule the roost or is he quiet? Is he picked on by others without responding? When it’s time to nurse, does your pup get moved out of the way by littermates or is he the one diving right in there?

Intelligence: This one, you just have to watch for cues. There’s not really a test. However, avoid the one that keeps running head first into hard objects.

Play drive: Take a small ball or a wash rag. Try to initiate a game of fetch/catch with the pups with the ball. Does he take to it or run? Is he interested but cautious? Try to get him to play tug with the wash rag. Does the pup play hard or does he give up as soon as you tug back. Jiggle your keys and see who comes running or runs away.

Prey drive: Drag the wash rag along the ground. Does he chase it? Does he mouth things (yeah, all pups do)?

And remember, if you do all these tests and decide that Pup 1 is the dog for you, you may end up getting Pup 2 because your wife thinks the patch over his eye is cute.

It must be Sunday, because every where I look on the web, I am told The Day After Tomorrow is here. That’s just weird.

I generated an Rocky Top Brigade roll up (i.e., it’s a page that just shows the most recent posts from the RTB). Then, I made a feed roll for the RSS version, which is here.

And, where it gets nifty, is I used Feedroll to generate a roll of the most current posts. It looks like this:

If you want the code to put it on your site, hit the MORE button.
Read the rest of this entry »

I have addressed the messages (though, they are likely not intentional) in television cop dramas before. See the following:

Big Brother in a Box

Note to David Caruso

Judging Amy

Cop Dramas Revisited

Now, Matthew Hisrich addresses the subversive message in the TV show 24. A snippet:

In foreign policy, the problem is arguably worse than in domestic policy, because the government deals with political systems its supposed experts cannot understand, cultures that are unfamiliar, and unleashes forces and responses that it never expected. The result is always some “crisis,” which means nothing more than a dangerous development that had not been part of the plan.

“24’s” preoccupation with this theme seems indicative of an underlying message for viewers. Season after season, we are confronted with the reality that meddling in the affairs of other countries brings deadly consequences home to American soil.

This perspective has raised the claim that “24″ is subtly blaming the victim with the claim that somehow America is responsible for the terrorism unleashed against Americans. Writing in the Jewish World Review, Steven Zak puts it this way: 24 is merely “a dramatic expression of the idea that America is responsible for the attacks this country experienced or may yet suffer.”

This story has a new twist:

A Kerr County Sheriff’s deputy suffered a bullet wound to his hip and upper thigh area Tuesday after his gun discharged during a timed weapons proficiency exam.

[snip]

The bullet grazed the side of the holster, entering O’Keefe’s right hip area and then exiting his right thigh.

As is always the case, note the gun went off as if it were sentient. More:

O’Keefe’s holster has a safety feature — a hold and release mechanism — that requires him to hold down the safety button in order to remove the gun from the holster.

Sheriff’s department investigators reconstructed the incident, using O’Keefe’s holster in the re-enactment. What they found was a problem with the design of the holster itself that caused the discharge of the weapon. Holding the safety release button while pulling the weapon out of its holster forces the officer’s finger to be on the trigger while he is removing the gun.

Investigators determined that in the urgency of the timed exam, O’Keefe pulled the weapon out of the holster without realizing his finger was on the trigger and the gun discharged.

Sorry, that is not a design problem with the holster, that is not following basic gun safety.

Knox County tax payers got to foot the bill for $77K in legal fees to fight Sheriff Tim Hutchinson’s contempt charges. Shurff Tim was fined $300.

Steven Den Beste has a post about heroes that is completely unrelated to what I’m going to say here. However, in the very first paragraph he mentions that he bought some DVDs at his grocery store recently. This reminded of something I’ve been meaning to blog about for a while.

Last week or so the local Kroger had a bunch of DVDs for $5 each. They weren’t exactly huge titles, but I pawed through and found a some of the Frank Capra Why We Fight films. I’d heard they were pretty good, so I figured, hey, it’s only five bucks. I bought The Battle of Russia; Divide and Conquer plus The Battle of Britain on one disc, and The Battle of China plus War Comes to America on another disc.

Sadly, I’m way behind on everything, so I haven’t got a chance to watch them yet. Maybe I’ll win the lottery or something and I’ll be able to stay home and watch TV all day.

Per this Yahoo news item:

Unwanted bulk messages now account for roughly 83 percent of e-mail traffic, according to filtering company Postini Inc.

That’s a lot of spam.

The Governor of South Carolina signed a law that ends the one gun a month rule.

Weekly gun link goodness. I like the silenced browning. Wiping drool from keyboard now.

Yeah, I’ve blogged from the toilet too. Here’s an article in The NYT about blogging. Has some neat stats. I like the bit about how bloggers give up when they realize no one is reading them.

A three year old girl died from heart failure caused by obesity.

From Jacksonville, FL:

[Sheriff's Office] To Be Armed With Automatic Weapons, Tasers

That’s the headline. Interesting. I wonder what kind of automatic weapons.

[E]very officer will now have access to an automatic AR-15 and will be armed with a taser.

An automatic AR-15, huh?

Police said the new semi-automatic rifle was chosen for several reasons…

Wait. Automatic or semi-automatic?

Oh, what’s the difference? After all, this is an assault weapon we’re talking about. It’s designed to kill as many people as possible as quickly as possible. Nobody needs one of these.

Such weapons are generally found in the military, and not on the streets. But police site [sic] several recent crimes that have made them reconsider their own protection.

So, an assault weapon can be used for your “own protection?” Maybe, if you’re a policeman, I guess. So what crimes were these, anyway?

Police cite [sic...no wait, this time it's right] the chilling image of a gunman pointing an automatic weapon [automatic or semi-automatic?] at a woman during a recent bank robbery, and Clay County deputies say a mass murder suspect used a semi-automatic weapon [you sure? maybe it was a crew-served machine gun] to kill four people over the weekend.

But what good is an “automatic” “assault weapon” against these heavily armed thugs?

[I]t holds more rounds, is more accurate in long-distance shooting, and is less penetrating, so someone standing behind a suspect would be less likely to be injured

Compared to what? The “automatic weapons” the criminals have? I wonder if it’s “more accurate” when spray-fired from the hip. The police are going to spray-fire from the hip, aren’t they? I mean, that’s what the pistol grip is for, right?

Oh, the video clip is even better. It starts out with the newscaster lady in body-armor saying that the police told her “the bullets from the rifle we just showed you of the bank robbery suspect could actually go right through this bullet-proof vest I’m wearing…it is so powerful, it could actually go through the BODY OF A CAR!”

The video contains a brief picture the bank robber with his “automatic weapon,” but I couldn’t quite make out what it was. The police also demonstrate their taser on a journalist, which is definitely something I can support.

Remember, kids, the moral of the story is: in the hands of trained law enforcement, an “automatic” “assault weapon” is a tool for public safety. In the hands of Joe Citizen, it’s a dangerous bullet hose.

Stoney’s site has the latest edition of what TN bloggers are yakking about.

I am amazed that an article about the Assault Weapons Ban appeared in the Chicago Tribune that isn’t promoting the ban. It’s a good read, here’s a taste:

The 1994 law was a monument to President Bill Clinton’s distinctive political genius–which generally involved tiny symbolic changes that pleased particular constituencies without actually having much effect. It prohibited the manufacture, sale or import of 19 different firearms, along with magazines holding more than 10 rounds.

All the rhetoric behind the bill gave the impression we were outlawing military machine guns, an impression fed by references to the need to get AK-47s off the streets. But machine guns were effectively banned long ago, and the 1994 law didn’t affect them.

The guns used by the Red Army and assorted guerrillas around the world are indeed automatic weapons, firing up to 100 rounds a minute with a single squeeze of the trigger. But the so-called AK-47s allowed before the ban were semiautomatics, which fire only once each time the trigger is pulled. They are to authentic military weapons what a beer-league softball player is to Barry Bonds.

My favorite quote, which addresses the anti-gunners’ claims that those evil manufacturers are using loopholes to skirt the law, is:

Because “gunmakers have easily evaded the law by making slight, cosmetic changes to banned guns and continued their sale unimpeded.” But if you ban red cars and automakers increase their output of maroon ones, that’s not evading the law–that’s complying with the law.

Update: Oops. Added the link.

I understand that before a baby is due, it is common for the mother-to-be to begin nesting. The Mrs. hasn’t taken this up yet. However, I have begun building things. I guess the pending addition has brought out the builder in me. I’ve taken up carpentry of all things.

I’ve never had any training and the only power tools I have are a power drill, circular saw and a Dremel. The only other thing I’d ever built before was basically a board with some cross supports that had clothespins attached. It was so I could hang the spices that I grow on it to dry. In the last couple of weeks, I built a growth chart for the baby and a workbench with an 8 feet by 3 feet table surface that could survive a nuclear blast.

Now, I am planning on building a dog house. I’m not building it because I think my dogs will really use it, after all they hang out in the air conditioned house on their my leather couch. I’m building it as practice to some day build a play house for our daughter.

Any way, here’s a website with some dog houses people made. Pay special attention to the one that has a patio and an air conditioner. I’m not going that far with it but the lengths some folks go to for their pets is amazing.

I guess it is the male form of nesting.

Willie Nelson just won the Gene Weed Special Achievement Award. When they announced it, I said to my wife, “Hah! Willie Nelson just won the Weed Award!”

Of course, when he accepted it, he thought it was funny, too.

This story about the Idaho primaries has this quote at the bottom:

Bush claimed 93 percent of the vote but 7 percent of the Republican primary voters opted for “None of those listed” in what some saw as a protest vote.

Somehow, Spoons is responsible for this.

I didn’t think so. No traffic spike for me. I tend to not comment on these blog controversies (if you can call them that), but this one is a train wreck. I can’t look away. Kim’s site is where I read about the exploits of Wonkette and Washingtonienne. The latter apparently took it up the bum from some unnamed politicos for money and blogged about it. The former blogged about it and drew attention to it. Take that, add some fake lesbian mystique, a couple Instapundit plugs, and that’s a recipe for instant traffic success.

The controversy sounds made up to me. But the two of them should get a job with a marketing firm. Wonkette’s pulling Instapundit level traffic and selling ad space at $1,500 per month. And it’s not for the content, which is insightful in the same way that Cathy isn’t.

The Commissar (linked above) tells us why this is big for blogging. Yes, it’s big in terms of volume. However, it’s bad in terms of credibility, which was just (giggle) blown out the ass.

And yes, I’m jealous of the traffic.

Some time ago I posted about a bill before the Louisiana legislature to ban low-riding pants. It appears that the bill has been defeated. I must say I’m relieved; you just can’t never tell what that bunch is going to do down there in Baton Rouge. Fortunately, while some come off as clowns in the article, there appear to have been at least a few clear heads:

Lawmakers questioned how police would determine what was deemed the proper dress and what breaks the law. Rep. Jack Smith, D-Stephensville, said police would have to get new training “to now determine what fashion is legal and what fashion is illegal.”

Rep. Danny Martiny, R-Kenner, said the measure was well-intentioned but unenforceable. He said the bill would only hurt the Legislature if it was passed, making Louisiana “the laughingstock of the country.”

“At the end of the day, there’s only so much that we as a Legislature can do to deal with people’s conduct. This is an issue that ought to be addressed by parents primarily, by the preachers, by the coaches,” Martiny said.

Shepherd said the Legislature has the right to determine what was decent. He compared his proposal to curfew laws, truancy laws and a ban on gay marriage and called his bill “tough love” for young people.

“I’ve heard arguments before that it’s unenforceable, that it’s unconstitutional. Those same arguments were used when we enacted seat belt laws,” he said.

There’s those dang seat belt laws again!

My sister used to work for a state agency, and she often had to attend sessions of the legislature. As she put it, sometimes Louisiana seems like a Banana Republic.

Via Rodger, we have this:

The District of Columbia — a city famous for its hard-ball policing of parking violations — has apparently come across a new way to increase its ticket revenues: aggressive enforcement of pocket trash.

After 28-year-old Andy Chasin found a used FedEx address label in his pocket, he threw it into a corner trash can. But that was too much for the city waste inspector, who has fined Chasin $35 for — “Improper Use of Public Litter Receptacles,” insisting Chasin violated statute 24 DCMR, 1009.1, which states — “Public wastepaper boxes shall not be used for the disposal of refuse incidental to the conduct of a household.”

It’s probably for the best that people in DC aren’t armed.

Shurf Tim was found guilty of contempt of court:

A state appellate court ruled Tuesday that Knox County Sheriff Tim Hutchison was guilty of lying in response to a request for public records.

Knox County taxpayers should not foot the bill for Hutchison’s convictions for criminal contempt, the court ruled. Instead, the sheriff should pay the $300 fine for six criminal contempt convictions out of his own pocket, the court ruled.

Good news, four were arrested in connection with the murder of a local woman who was killed when someone tossed a large rock from an overpass.

The Knoxville Police Department has some new rides, Impalas.

School solution: cut programs. After all, that wheel tax has to cover important things, like an expensive new library that nobody will use.

Ravenwood reports that the Democrats are calling Lieberman a turncoat for telling other Democrats that they should support our troops.

Lieberman is one of those politicos I actually almost like. I disagree with him on most issues but he, rather like McCain, is at least honest on the surface. I disagree with McCain a lot too.

So, the AP says there is credible evidence of a terror attack this summer. But we’re not raising the lame terror alert level (AKA the Holy Shit-o-meter).

In reference to my post below about the regular capacity magazine ban being detrimental to our troops, the Comedian comments about sending our guys overseas some new springs:

Last September I sent a ten pack to a friend of mine who was in Iraq with the 101st.

Here’s a link to the Wolff page on M9 springs. (Civilian equivalent model is the Beretta 92.)

http://www.gunsprings.com/SemiAuto/BerettaNF.html#Beretta92Magazine

Be sure to get the +10% (10% higher spring force) springs.

I had to call Wolff directly to have the order shipped to an APO AE address since their web ordering process couldn’t handle the full military address.

(FWIW — My buddy came back in Feb/March and he reported that the springs worked well and solved the problem that he and several of his fellow officers were facing.)

Earlier Say Uncle posted about a bill to create a “Privacy Czar.” The idea is that in their zeal to implement “homeland security,” government agents might invade our privacy or otherwise violate civil liberties. I’m inclined to side with Say Uncle on the “Czar” issue*. If government agencies are causing a problem, might there not be a simpler solution than creating another government agency?

Anyway, the idea of a “Privacy Czar” reminded me of a proposal by Arnold Kling to solve the problem by creating two agencies:

What I propose is to use a Constitutional amendment to create two agencies with authority to use surveillance technology. The Security Agency would have the sole purpose of preventing acts of terrorism. The Audit Agency would have the sole purpose of ensuring that the Security Agency stays within its boundaries.

It is important to keep the two agencies separate. They must not report to the same boss. I would propose that the head of the Security Agency be appointed by the President, and that the head of the audit agency be appointed by the most senior Supreme Court justice who has not been appointed by the current President, with the Chief Justice treated as the most senior justice. Senate confirmation would be required for the head of each agency.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? It’s a problem that’s been with us for a while.

*I also agree that we need to dump the use of “Czar” in general (yes I know it’s not an official title) for any government agent. While we’re at it, can we also stop adding “-gate” on the end of scandals?

Via Pejman, an article that discusses some of the ways to save Star Wars Episode III. The biggest problem facing the franchise is, of course, George Lucas himself. One quote I noticed in particular:

While you’re at it, fire Lucas the writer, who has not come up with a single witty or memorable phrase in the four hours of prequel trilogy out so far. The first trilogy didn’t have this problem: For instance, “The Empire Strikes Back” had the help of the great noir writer Leigh Brackett.

So that got me thinking of some of the classic lines of the original trilogy. My favorite has GOT to be Obi-Wan’s description of Washington, D.C. — I mean, Mos Eisley spaceport:

“You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.”

Readers, how about your favorites?

UPDATE: Reader tgirsch informs me that this article is SOOOO last week. Links all around!

Via Instapundit, I ran across a blog by a young man named Fredrik Norman, the leader of the Norwegian Friends of America.

I haven’t read much of the blog yet, but it says he’s reading Ayn Rand and listening to Yes. Sounds like a guy after my own heart! One word of warning, Fredrik: some people get jealous. Can you believe my wife bought that for me?

The AP is reporting credible evidence of a potential terror attack this summer:

U.S. officials have obtained new intelligence deemed highly credible indicating al-Qaida or other terrorists are in the United States and preparing to launch a major attack this summer, The Associated Press has learned.

The intelligence does not include a time, place or method of attack but is among the most disturbing received by the government since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, according to a senior federal counterterrorism official who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity Tuesday.

Of most concern, the official said, is that terrorists may possess and use a chemical, biological or radiological weapon that could cause much more damage and casualties than a conventional bomb.

The General Accounting Office has concluded that the White House violated propaganda laws when the Department of Health and Human Services produced prefabbed news announcements:

The GAO said the adverts broke laws forbidding public money being used for propaganda purposes.

It added that viewers would “believe that the information came from a non-government source or neutral party”.

In a report, the body said the packages were “not strictly factual news stories” and contained “notable omissions and weaknesses”.

Guard donkeys.

To do:

Get milk, bread, and eggs

Pick up dry cleaning

Mow lawn

Rob bank

Bathe dog

No really:

A man who added “rob bank” to his to-do list pleaded guilty to robbing six banks in suburban Kansas City.

Mark tells us that the ban on regular capacity magazines signed into law as part of the misnamed Assault Weapons Ban is having a detrimental effect on troops. The article Mark links says:

Existing magazines being used by U.S. troops are also faulty.

“A police officer and friend, just deployed to Iraq, is serving there now as a Marine officer,” Jeff Chudwin, an associate of Farnam’s, wrote.

“He is in the thick of the fighting. He has only two Beretta M9 magazines, and both have weak springs. Pistol magazines are in short supply there. Ones that actually work are in even shorter supply,” Chudwin said.

In an attempt to get better magazines, the police officer/Marine attempted to procure some from his home department, but was unable to do so “due to the ban on purchasing high capacity (normal capacity) magazines,” said Chudwin.

He said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms [BATF] was asked to intervene, to approve the sale, but “they arrogantly told us, ‘The military must take care of their own.’”

The result, Chudwin told Farnam, is that “the Marine officer cannot obtain additional magazines through the military, and we cannot support him from our end unless we send him ‘Clinton clips’” – 10-round magazines (instead of the normal capacity 15-16 round magazines originally made for the M9) or magazines that were manufactured before the law banning them was signed by President Clinton.

Since the civilian market is bigger than the military/law enforcement market, that manufacturers just aren’t making them since they can’t sell them to the public. They aren’t interested.

Rhyme not intentional. News.com reports that the US spent $1.3M to buy back guns and ammo from Iraqis:

THE US military has paid out $US1.3 million ($1.87m) to residents of Baghdad’s Shiite Muslim district of Sadr City for turning in thousands of weapons and ammunition rounds.

Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt today said nearly 4000 Kalashnikov assault rifles and machineguns and about 9000 mortars and rockets had been turned in during the arms amnesty.

Grenades, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and artillery rounds were also collected.

The FBI is reporting that overall violent crime continues its decline. Yet, preliminary data for 2003 indicates that murder is up about 1.1%, even though murder is relatively flat since its rise in the early 90s (AKA, when crack became cool).

Publicola details his adventures at a machine gun shoot.

CBS discusses the third party threat to George W. Bush. Meanwhile, Mike tells us the real third party threat is to John Kerry. It’s good to see the Libertarian Party get some press that doesn’t involve the phrases tax evasion, shootout, or arrested.

I think both parties stand to lose votes. I’d say this year may be the biggest year for third parties in terms of numbers of votes for president. Kerry will lose votes because he’s not Howard Dean. Bush will lose votes from gun owners and libertarian types that tend to vote Republican.

I hope they find whoever did this and bash their skulls in with a rock:

A 69-year-old woman was killed early Monday when someone dropped a large rock from an Interstate 75 overpass onto the vehicle in which she was riding, authorities said.

That’s abysmal.

It looks like Knox County is soon to have a $30 wheel tax (per car, not per wheel). Apparently, the schools will get a big goose egg from the deal. Items to be funded include government raises and a new $45M library, which nobody will use. We have a library and it’s not in too bad shape. And a quick office poll here indicates that nobody knows where it is.

In the 1970s, my hometown of Jefferson County implemented a wheel tax to pay for the new high school. It was supposed to be a temporary (15 years, I think) measure that would expire once they collected enough to pay for the school. It’s 2004 and my family in Jefferson County still pays the tax.

The old sitemeter just ticked over to 200,000. From referrer logs, it looks like number 200k came over from Big Stupid Tommy’s place. Tommy, was that you? Sorry, no prize or anything like that.

One thing I have noticed lately is the increase in hits that Awstats shows to my index.xml and my index.rdf file. More people are using aggregators, like the excellent bloglines. Pity that’s not reflected in sitemeter traffic.

Bubba has a good round up of the various boondoggles that Knox County’s GOBs are up to.

Seen over at Millers place, answers to the 21 Questions:

1. Which political party do you typically agree with?

Libertarian

2. Which political party do you typically vote for?

Republican

3. List the last five presidents that you voted for?

I haven’t voted for 5 (not that old) but:

1992 – Perot
1996 – Dole
2000 – Bush

4. Which party do you think is smarter about the economy?

The two major parties are the same in that they are ineffectual at doing anything of significance to impact the economy. Sadly, most folks don’t realize that.

5. Which party do you think is smarter about domestic affairs?

Libertarian

6. Do you think we should keep our troops in Iraq or pull them out?

Finish the job.

7. Who, or what country, do you think is most responsible for 9/11?

UBL

8. Do you think we will find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?

We already have

9. Yes or no, should the U.S. legalize marijuana?

Yes

10. Do you think the republicans stole the last presidential election?

No. I know that the Democrats tried to steal it and were stopped.

11. Do you think bill Clinton should have been impeached because of what he did with Monica Lewinski?

No. However, he lied and that is troublesome.

12. Do you think Hillary Clinton would make a good president?

Compared to, say a turnip? Not no, but fuck no.

13. Name a current democrat who would make a great president:

None of them. However, if I had to pick one, it’d be Zell Miller.

14. Name a current republican who would make a great president:

Ron Paul

15. Do you think that women should have the right to have an abortion?

Yes

16. What religion are you?

Christian

17. Have you read the Bible all the way through?

No. I can’t make it through The Old Testament. There’s only so much So and so begat so and so and so and so begat so and so a sane person can take.

18. What’s your favorite book?

Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader (any edition). I just like interesting facts and any book that you can pick up and flip to a random page and start reading is good.

19. Who is your favorite band?

Faith No More

20. Who do you think you’ll vote for president in the next election?

I don’t know. I will either vote for the Libertarian candidate or turn in a blank ballot in protest.

21. What website did you see this on first?

Miller’s place.

Apparently, some Representatives are pushing to establish a privacy czar:

To protect the privacy and civil liberties of Americans, the federal government may get a privacy czar if two congressional representatives have their way.

Reps. Kendrick Meek (D-Florida) and Jim Turner (D-Texas), who are both members of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, introduced a bill Thursday that would establish a federal chief privacy officer position, as well as separate positions at every federal department and agency.

Additionally, the Strengthening Homeland Innovation by Emphasizing Liberty, Democracy, and Privacy Act — or Shield Privacy Act — would establish a 10-member commission, appointed by various government bodies, for overseeing privacy and civil-liberty freedoms related to homeland security initiatives.

First, I am troubled by the fact that any post in the US government is has the job title Czar. Second, maybe if abuses of privacy weren’t so rampant, we wouldn’t need a czar. Instead of appointing some useless position that will cost tax payers, how about introducing some legislation to rid us of the bad laws that threaten our privacy? Pretty simple, no? And it will cost less.

How many tracking systems are in place by the feds? Off the top of my head: Social Security, income taxes, vehicle registration, drivers license fees, property taxes, gun purchasing data, and I’m sure many more. How about real reform in those areas if you’re serious about privacy?

Jed tells us that Boston Rail Passengers will be subjected to unwarranted searches:

MBTA transit police confirmed yesterday they will begin stopping passengers for identification checks at various T locations, apparently as part of new national rail security measures following the deadly terrorist train bombings in Spain.

Keep and Bear Arms, a website that I read daily, needs a new server to maintain their daily newslinks, which is a source for gun related stories for many bloggers. Go donate if you can.

The American Pit Bull Rescue Association has stated it will file suit against Council Bluffs if it enacts a pit bull ban:

An Omaha-based pit bull association has threatened to take legal action against the city of Council Bluffs if it enacts a ban against pit bulls.

According to a letter faxed to The Daily Nonpareil, the American Pit Bull Rescue Association cites the 14th Amendment’s prohibition against the state deriving residents of property without equal protection and due process as the basis for why a ban would be unconstitutional.

In addition, the group said a ban is only treating the symptoms without getting to the source of the problem.

Update: Apparently, I need to get out west more. All the stories I read about this issue came from Omaha news sources. Therefore, I assumed Council Bluffs was a suburb of Omaha. It’s actually in Iowa. Go figure.

My wife watches that show Cold Case. Every time I see it, my only thought is Man, that chick needs to buy a hairbrush.

Last night we went to see a performance of the Great High Mountain Tour. This is a show that features music from the soundtracks of O Brother Where Art Thou? and Cold Mountain performed by bluegrass and “old-time music” greats such as Alison Krauss, The Whites, and Ralph Stanley.

I think the tour kicked off in Knoxville, and doesn’t appear to be headed back to Tennessee, so I’m afraid our RTB readers who missed it but want to see it are going to have to travel; there are dates in Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia coming.

But then, if you’re up in the hills of Tennessee, you probably don’t have to go very far to find some good ole timey music.

John Veit emails me a link to his site about point shooting. Interesting stuff on a strange shooting technique. As odd as it sounds, my dad said he was taught a variation of this in the military.

Via Gizmodo, I discovered Why Cry. It apparently can determine why your baby is crying. Pretty neat if it works. $100 price tag. Anyone heard of this thing?

Next hot trend for blogs and ads is to incorporate advertisements into RSS/XML feeds. Just a prediction, I don’t plan on doing it because I like the ad-free nature of using an aggregator.

Say, can I patent this idea now? I’m surprised it hasn’t happened yet.

A judge in New York has ordered the Justice Department to release data tracing sales of guns used in crime back to the dealers where the guns were purchased. This is the result of a lawsuit by the city that alleges:

. . . gun manufacturers use marketing and distribution practices that allow criminals to get firearms, creating a public nuisance.

Another frivolous lawsuit but, since it’s New York, they’ll probably win.

Who says those Reuters guys have sophisticated senses of humor:

U.S. Troops Fight Rebels in Holy Shi’ite City

Hehe, they said Holy Shi’ite.

Kevin has the story of a gun activist who was invited to appear on a television show to debate gun control. Problem was, it was a setup for a televised practical joke on Comedy Central.

Pretty lame.

Bill Hobbs, who by the way I tend to agree with on a lot of issues, linked to and discussed why gay marriage would make Christianity illegal. The claim is asinine, after all current laws regarding abortion, cruelty to animals, liquor licenses, drug laws and other laws regulating things religious groups may find offensive haven’t outlawed religions.

There’s a good, polite debate in the comments section too (a rarity in the blogosphere). Go read.

First up, the new seat belt law would allow police to pull you over if they see that you’re not buckled up. Under the old law, they’d ticket you for it only if they pulled you over for something else. Gov. Bredesen, who says he’ll sign the bill, said:

”I understand the issue of personal freedom versus safety, but I’ve been supportive of it,”

No, Phil, I don’t think you understand personal freedom if you’re willing to act against it by law. Personal freedom also includes the freedom to be stupid and not buckle up. And:

Those for the law say it will save lives — about 81 each year in Tennessee.

I’d put that number at closer to zero. Anyone inclined to not buckle up isn’t going to start now.

And here’s my favorite, the crack tax:

Put(s) a tax on illegal drugs and alcohol for people caught with the substances. Estimated to bring in $1 million to the state and $2 million to local governments.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that people who deal drugs won’t mind a little tax evasion. I’m no legal scholar, but it seems this might involve double jeopardy. These folks will go to jail and pay fines; then pay a tax. Seems silly to me.

Spoons discusses potential suicide attacks in the US. The question I have really is Why haven’t they occurred yet? Are they regrouping, in need of funds, or waiting on us to become complacent? Beats me.

No amount of confiscating toenail clippers will stop these attacks.

Update: I addressed why not yet a while back:

But Al Qaeda has not engaged in small attacks on US soil. It would not be difficult for a terrorist nut job to waltz into a Wal-Mart with an AK47 and a bomb strapped to his chest. Kill a few people and detonate the bomb when the cops arrive. If that occurred, people wouldn’t shop at Wal-Mart for months. It’d hurt us. I tend to think Al Qaeda will not engage in this type of thing since their MO seems to be doing something bigger than the last one.

That is specific to Al Qaeda. I wonder why the other, smaller terrorist groups haven’t tried small-scale stuff?

I’ve asserted many times, based on an article I read, that there is no scientific way to determine what breed of dog a particular dog is. It turns out that may or may not be the case. This article details a study on dog genes and is pretty interesting.

Apparently, dogs have roughly 99% of their genes that are common and a few distinct differences account for the different breeds. However, some supposedly different breeds have been found to be genetically identical. And some dogs are genetically closer to wolves than other dogs. A scientist stated:

“One of the most interesting questions still to understand … is why did the wolf keep locked in its genome everything that was necessary to make a Pekingese to a Great Dane,”

More interestingly (to me, having read before that it wasn’t possible to scientifically determine a dog’s breed) was this:

According to co-author Leonid Kruglyak of the Howard Hughes Medical Center, the study also found that while dogs have much in common, the 1 percent of their genes that determine different breeds are genetically quite distinct.

“These differences are so distinct that we could just feed a dog’s genetic pattern into the database, and the computer could match it to a breed,” said Kruglyak.

That was surprising because most of the breeds were genetically isolated only in the 19th Century, with the advent of breed clubs and breed standards, she said.

I guess that means I could let them test Politically Correct Dog to determine if I am correct in my assumption he’s some sort of Blue Tick Hound/German Short-Haired Pointer mix.

Yet:

Of 85 breeds tested, only four failed to show consistent sets of genes in common. They were the Perro de Presa Canario, German Shorthaired Pointer, Australian Shepherd and Chihuahua.

So I can still assert that Politically Incorrect Dog is a Chihuahua? Additionally, more dogs were labeled virtually identical.

For future reference, I have pasted the entire article in the extended entry section (hit MORE) since Yahoo! link longevity is measured in days.
Read the rest of this entry »

Right after I got home from work today, a telemarketer called trying to sell me a subscription to the New York Times. Poor guy.

Then, right after I got back from my job, a young lady rang the doorbell. When I opened the door, I noticed she was wearing a PIRG t-shirt.

I’m sure it’s just a coincidence.

I addressed the bad press campaign against Vulcan Arms yesterday. Now, JoinTogether has joined in. It seems that they are upset because Vulcan has the audacity to manufacture, market and sell a perfectly legal product to consumers.

Vulcan makes copycat versions of other popular weapons, such as the MP5 and AR15. Geez, am I going to have to buy a Vulcan now?

Campaigns against specific manufacturers will increase dramatically in the next four months.

Via the mullet (who is considering a dog), comes this article on finding the perfect dog. It’s a good read. But if there is one thing that you take from this article, it should be this:

2. How can I get a well-behaved dog?
You can’t. You can only create one. Dogs don’t come that way. It’s natural canine behavior to chew on all sorts of things, roll in other animals’ droppings, hump and fight other dogs, menace anything that invades the home. All these behaviors can be curbed, but that takes a lot of work. Trainers say it requires nearly 2,000 repetitions of a behavior for a dog to completely absorb it.

So, is Chris Muir getting his strip Day by Day syndicated? Could be. I hope so.

We can say we knew him when. Well, sort of. I don’t really know him but you see where I’m going with this.

A computer is grading English essay exams.

It’s been a good few weeks since East Tennessee has been in the news for something stupid. But, never fear, the local chapter of the KKK to the rescue with enough stupidity to go around:

A member of the Ku Klux Klan in East Tennessee claims the group will stage a protest outside the Dollywood theme park Saturday when gay and lesbian parkgoers gather for a “Gay Day” event.

About 20 protesters carrying banners will demonstrate against homosexuality outside the park, said Randy Gray, a Klansman who has organized rallies and protested at city council meetings in Newport. He said Klansmen will not wear hoods or robes during the protest.

No hoods and robes? Is this the kinder, gentler Klan? I guess they won’t be doing any lynching either.

Pathetic.

New budget: $2,400,000,000,000

Projected deficit: $367,000,000,000

Defense: $421,000,000,000

Increase in federal debt: $690,000,000,000

Abandoning the principles your party ran on: Priceless

Mike addresses how spring in Tennessee is short-lived. I agree. It’s the end of convertible season. I have two windows of time to enjoy my convertible, one in spring and one in fall. In the summer, it gets too hot, unless you drive in the evenings. Winter is just too cold. I probably only got to enjoy the top down this spring for about three weeks before the heat made it unpleasant.

And for the record, this is also the reason I haven’t been looking for bias on NPR. After all, it’s just not cool to drive down the road with the top down listening to All Things Considered but Israelis.

Council Bluffs is apparently considering a ban:

If the dogs were banned, pit bull owners could keep their animals, but could not raise another after the dog dies. Owners also would have to spay and neuter the dogs, and no new pit bulls would be allowed into the city.

The counter proposal is almost as bad:

Instead of a ban, Dierks said, the city could declare the breed dangerous. With that designation, the dog owners would have to carry $100,000 liability insurance policies and keep the animals in kennels while they are outdoors.

Only adults 18 and older could walk pit bulls, and the dog would have to wear a muzzle and be kept on a four-foot leash.

Banning breeds is pointless. Irresponsible owners will ignore the ban or move to another breed. Insuring pit bulls is almost as bad because it just increases the costs for owners and doesn’t do anything to prevent attacks. How about prosecuting owners whose dogs attack people?

Note to self: You should warn your friends that the new dog toy is made of hard plastic so they don’t kick it. Man, that looked painful.

Not quite as memorable as that episode of Diff’rent Strokes where Dudley got molested, but remember that episode of The Facts of Life (you’re welcome, that song will be stuck in your head for the rest of the day) where Natalie bought the candy dishes that turned out to be bongs?

Boy, Natalie and Mrs. Garrett would have sure been surprised had DEA agents burst through the door and thrown them in jail for paraphernalia err user specific products.

Dean has a rundown on this frightening trend.

Update: Suddenly, all those campy sitcoms in the 80s addressing complex social issues are coming back to me. Remember that episode of Too Close for Comfort where the guy contemplates buying a gun and then doesn’t because he almost beats his daughter with a golf club? Good times.

Oh, and speaking of Good Times, remember black Jesus?

What was your favorite complex social issue tackled by a sitcom?

Knoxpatch reports that Knoxville, Tennessee is the third best Knoxville. Heh!

Today, South(of)KnoxBubba’s blog turned two (which is like way old in blog years). Congrats to him.

Bubba is the reason I started blogging. We had a few discussions over at a local message board. I read his site and thought Heck, I can do that. So, I did.

A dog ban in Ohio:

Because the city law doesn’t allow SPCA wardens to ticket dog owners, the wardens must call a police officer each time. And officers can’t handle the calls themselves, because a SPCA warden must officially identify the dog as a pit bull.

There is no scientific way to determine what breed of dog a particular dog is. The criteria is appearance. In fact, take this little quiz.

They are also proposing more laws to give either the police or SPCA more power to regulate this asinine ban. More:

The ordinance says that only pit bulls registered before Nov. 1, 2003, can remain in the city. Anyone violating the law faces up to 90 days in jail and a $750 fine.

Twenty violations have been filed since November: 14 are pending, five other dogs were euthanized and one was returned to its owner.

The SPCA has billed the police more than $20,000 since December for boarding, care and euthanasia of pit bulls confiscated as part of city cases.

Of this meeting (yes, I can travel time. Why do you ask?):

Kerry: Please, please drop out.
Nader: No!
Kerry: Please, please drop out.
Nader: No!
Kerry: Please, please drop out.
Nader: No!

Ad infinitum.

I use Google news alerts to keep me up to date on the assault weapons ban and other things. Google news alerts allows you to enter words and phrases (like Assault Weapons and Pit Bull) and any story that contains those words will be emailed to you. Good concept. I’ve discussed the fact that Google treats anti-gun press releases (term used very loosely) from groups like the Violence Policy Center, Brady Campaign, MMM, and JoinTogether as news.

It does also email neutral articles and pro-gun articles (as long as the pro-gun article is from a major news source). However, it didn’t send me an alert about this:

Gun Ban Lobby Aims for Wrong Target; Brady Moms Should Push for Controlling Criminals, Not Law-Abiding Gun Owners

This is obviously a press release but it is a double standard.

It did, however, send a link to this today:

Re “NRA’s Eye Is Fixed on Bush,” editorial, May 16: Equating the expiration of the (entirely useless) assault weapons ban of 1994 with the easy availability of automatic weapons such as an AK-47 or Uzi is intellectually dishonest and sheds more heat than light on the subject of gun control. Fully automatic assault weapons have been tightly regulated and largely unavailable to the public since the enactment of the National Firearms Act of 1934. No matter what happens with the 1994 act, the status of these weapons will not change

So, I’ve decided it’s not anything intentional by Google. I’m not sure if these things require submission by those releasing the news or if it’s something Google tracks. So, I’d have to conclude an anti-gun bias in the media in general. Go figure.

And here’s some more guns in the media stuff:

Wichita Eagle:

Gun ban — In just four months, Americans will be able to walk out of a gun store with an AK-47 rifle, an Uzi or other weapon of mass murder under their arm.

That statement is absolutely false. First, if they are referring to machine gun versions of Uzis and AKs, those (machine guns) have been regulated since 1934 under the National Firearms Act. If they are referring to semi-automatic versions, those have been banned from import by an executive order since the 1980s (thank Bush 1). Again, the current ban is really quite useless.

Two newspapers in Ohio have published the names of citizens who obtained concealed weapons permits. Objective reporting, my ass.

I guess the words Uzi and AK47 conjure up the right amount of irrational fear. Here those words are used dishonestly again.

A growing trend: Anti-gunners targeting smaller gun manufacturers with bad press. You’ll see more of this soon.

Blake has the latest.

Caught parts of Lewis Black: Black on Broadway on HBO. One line stuck out and rang true (paraphrased):

The only thing worse than a Republican or a Democrat is what’s created when they work together.

The Comedian emails this story:

A mountain lion that had prowled the streets of residential Palo Alto for hours was shot and killed Monday after a dog chased it up a tree.

An 11-year-old black Labrador named Kelsy caught scent of the big cat and bolted for it, chasing it up a tree until police arrived, according to the dog’s owner, John Furrier.

“She had a ferocious growl that we’ve never heard before,” Furrier said of Kelsy. “I think she’s a hero. I think she could have saved some lives.”

Given that guns aren’t to be carried in California to defend yourself from nature, a good dog could be the way to go.

Politically Incorrect Dog saved me from a ferocious beast once. He became a ball of snarls, teeth and fur as he leapt at the horrendous monstrosity that was about to lay waste to me. I had him on a leash and pulled him back before he could sink his teeth into the vile creature. What was it? A seven pound catfish that a friend caught while we were camping. PID was none to pleased to see this thing on land.

Hats off to Kelsy!

Pat Gang has his new Strategy Page article up. A teaser:

The commanders and their clerical accomplices made some concessions to humanity. The teenagers were plied with promises of eternal reward for themselves and honor for their families. Dark suggestions were made as well, that if they did not submit to the will of the deity, quite opposite would occur. The people were under attack and these young people were told they were to be “spirit-warriors” in a holy cause, sacrificing themselves to stop the hated foe. All this was done to re-enforce years of schooling and training that made submission to such lunacy as natural as breathing.

[...]

The year was 1945.

XRLQ links to this post about the phenomenon of bloggers saying they like one thing and then linking to another.

There’s a lot of truth to that. From now on, I will try to link to other bloggers more. In fact, I may make it a weekly feature. There are a ton of bloggers that I read regularly yet don’t link to enough:

AlphaPatriot
Buddy Don
Bjorn Again
Elephant Rants
Barry
Knock/Snooze
Layline
Resonance
The Comedian
Drug War Rant
Mike Spenis
Indigo
The Geek

Egad, this could go on forever. But there are tons of folks I just seem to neglect to link to.

<sarcasm>It seems those rightwing shills over at FoxNews keep shoving this Sarin story down our throats. Those biased, Dubya-loving fundamentalist wingnuts will stop at nothing to advance the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy™.

Don’t they know there are important things like hurricanes that aren’t here yet, the Ghandi not being PM, and NYC was named a finalist to host the 2012 olympics!</sarcasm>

Ravenwood has some facts about 50 caliber weapons.

Via Spoons, we learn that Roderick Pritchett was acquitted. Spoons sums it up nice:

Pritchett said the gun was unloaded. Two cops said it was. An acquittal by a judge under those circumstances is unheard of. Bottom line, the judge thought the cops were lying.

If they had to choose one handgun, one rifle and one vehicle, then the average reader of Kim’s website would have:

I am remiss in mentioning that Rachel Lucas has returned. She kept it tame for a while then Michael Moore got some press time.

Welcome back, Rachel.

TN Gov. Bredesen signed into law a bill that prevents obese people from suing the fast food industry. This is ironic because of our tobacco suits. See, our legislature in its infinite wisdom began banking on the tobacco money. They funded programs and this and that, apparently unaware the cash inflow from the settlement was only temporary.

Suddenly, they had all these programs that they couldn’t pay for. So, they start yammering on about at income tax. And most folks said No to that. Instead, they raised the sales tax to 9.25%. Heaven forbid that they, say, not spend $600K on renovating a golf course or something like that. Losers.

Heard on the radio this morning that the University of Tennessee was going to raise tuition by 9%. So, why aren’t the lottery funds for education taking care of that? Plus, the state has a revenue surplus. Yet, tuition goes up. So much for priorities.

Tactical Innovations is offering a Model 62 22LR suppressor for $90. Add two bills for the NFA tax and you’re in a suppressor for $300. Anyone know anything about these suppressors?

Here we are about to enjoy our cupcake (which is liver flavored – no, I kid):

Here we are finishing it off:

Update: For the benefit of Big Stupid Tommy, who tells that dogs in hats are always funny, yes it is the same hat as last year. Guess we need some new dog hats.

Seems like just yesterday I brought that 10 pound little round-headed thing home. Now, at seventy four pounds, he’s still convinced he’s a lapdog. Since then, we’ve taken up swimming, walking, running, playing catch, getting in some air time with a flirt pole, tormenting geese, and other things together. If you learn one thing from a dog, it should be that every time you get up, you ought to have a good yawn and a stretch.

Today, Politically Incorrect Dog turns two.

Here’s a pic from last year’s birthday festivities:

It’s not every day that my old high school is in the news. It’s even more rare that news isn’t about sports. But today is that day:

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – That smell coming from Jefferson County High School’s football stadium this fall? Let’s just say it may not be the hot dogs. Those cheers from the crowd? Not for the team. In fact, the players won’t even be on the field. They’ll be on the sideline, rooting. For what? One lonely cow wandering a 100-yard field in search of a place to go to the bathroom.

Where the bovine ultimately decides to do her business will mean big bucks for the lucky person who bet on that portion of the field.

It’s all part of a local charity’s Oct. 16 “Cow Drop Raffle” to raise money for equipment to stock the football team’s weight lifting room.

The Dandridge event is one of many planned by charities across the state now that the General Assembly has permitted gambling fund-raisers by certain nonprofit organizations.

The legislature has been pondering charitable gambling for a while, since they passed a tax on hope err lottery.

My high school is no where near Nashville. It’s about three hours east of there. We East Tennesseans (with our history of trying to secede from the rest of the state) don’t much like being compared to those Central Tennesseans. And don’t even get me started on those West Tennesseans, or as we like to call them Arkansans.

Bloomberg is reporting that an artillery shell containing Sarin gas was found and detonated.

Though this a violation of UN orders, Sarin (which is quite deadly) is not that easy to disperse. So no, this isn’t the motherload.

XRLQ links to VH1s 50 most awesomely bad songs ever. I, just like you, actually dig some of the tunes on that list, like What’s Up and Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm. The list is missing every song ever by The Scorpions and Dave Matthews (ed: DMB the band actually kicks ass, it’s that singing voice that irritates the crap out of me). I’m sure the Toby Keith tune is on their for political reasons. The song isn’t that bad, for country, which is to say it’s the top turd on the pile.

From a while back, there were a few bloggers doing the best guitar riffs. Ricky, Michele and Jay chimed in with some good lists. My vote for number one is definitely Cult of Personality. Vernon Reid is the man. I know these types of lists wax nostalgic for the good old days but there are some riffs that are new that are influential, to wit:

Blind – Korn: After this tune, every metal band ever tried to imitate this sound.

Nookie – Limp Bizkit: Though XRLQ will poo poo it, the riff is actually good (even though it’s almost the same as the Chili Peppers Suck My Kiss).

Creep – Radiohead: Not so much a riff really as a sound. Mind you, that sound is the only saving grace for this boring, never changing song. And, by the way, Radiohead otherwise blows. How can a band release songs with no hook, no melody and no anything and sell them?

Man in the Box – Alice in Chains: Catchy riff and every bar band ever covers this song.

Outshined – Soundgarden: Dropped D tuning goes mainstream. Good lick too.

Kim DuToit has added open comments to his blog.

I like Kim’s stuff, but given the way he tends to be, um, controversial, I expect he’s eventually going to get tired of banning trolls and deleting flames. Then again, you never know.

I hope it works out.

Jeff has the latest check on the bias against guns.

The first gay couples to legally wed are turning out in Mass (pun intended).