Shall-issue of handgun carry permits is now law in Minnesota:
Gov. Tim Pawlenty on Tuesday signed a bill that allows easier statewide access to handgun permits. The law, which restores an identical 2003 measure that was struck down by the courts, takes effect immediately.
The concealed-carry law allows law-abiding people older than 21 to get a gun permit as long as they have a clean record, no mental illness and proper safety training
In a post slightly related to the previous one, the WSJOnline has a nice profile of Jeff ‘Skunk’ Baxter, Doobie Brother and well-paid Counterterrorism Expert.
Heck, I like Arnold Schwarzenegger. I voted for the recall, and for him in the contingent election, and he’s done about a good a job as I could have hoped. That is, a tolerable one.
But these made-for-television off-broadway productions are a bit much. A road crew in San Jose dug up some potholes, just so the Governor could come fill them up.
Egalia reports:
A family member just had all his money and cars seized for the marijuana tax; they put a lien on his house. He was busted over the weekend here in Nashville for a few baby-sized plants and a small amount of commercial weed. For this, they say he owes almost as much as his house is worth.
Drugs continue to win the war on drugs. I’ve covered the drug tax many times.
I’ve got couple of guest bloggers lined up for the coming week as I will be on vacation. I’m outta here. That, and my guest posting over at Michael Silence’s place make things a bit hard to follow here. Apologies for that. But please welcome the former Pathetic Earthling (who already started) and Mr. Mike for your reading pleasure for the next week. I’m sure they’ll give you plenty of good stuff. And hopefully Thibby and Fox will pick up some of the slack too.
I may blog from vacation but that depends on access to Al Gore’s Internets and willingness to actually pick up a ‘puter.
Update: Oh, and gunner will be blogging here too.
The city council of Knoxville has passed laws basically trying to make it impossible for any adult business to stay in business. I even heard the girls at the one on Clinton Highway are wearing bathing suits. Some owners of these businesses have vowed to fight it.
I think these establishments should get together and hold a strip in to raise money. But the need to wait until I return from my vacation.
Pete reports some pretty disheartening news. The US spent money and resources to train Mexican drug warriors as commandos to stop (i.e., kill) drug dealers. The problem with this is that drugs are lucrative so the commandos switched sides and are headed to the border:
a group of rogue Mexican military commandos may be headed this way. They’re thought to be setting up new drug smuggling routes and it could bring new violence to the border area.
Actress Linda Blair has taken up the cause of protesting Denver’s stupid ban on politically incorrect dogs.
I was invited to join The Coalition of the Chillin’ (which is not what Jesse Jackson calls young people). The Coalition represents conservative leaning folks who don’t think the filibuster deal is the end of the world. Say, aren’t some folks threatening to filibuster Bolton? Some deal. Heh.
California has some pretty strict restrictions on guns. But if you’re politically connected, you can bypass those laws:
Shortly after he took office, Orange County Sheriff Michael S. Carona and one of his top assistants deputized 86 friends, relatives, political contributors and others, giving them badges, powers of arrest and in some cases guns — despite the fact that none had background investigations and some had not been fully trained.
Corruption at its finest.
John Lott notes that Texas will let judges and lawyers to pack heat in court.
Post updated a lot. Scroll down for the latest.
Donald Sensing notes:
Local news radio stations are reporting that agents of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations, acting on federally-provided information, are arresting members of the Tennessee state legislature even as I write. The arrests are taking place at the state capitol itself. At least three legislators have been seen being led away in handcuffs. The arrests are reportedly being made on corruption charges.
Update: Campfield has more.
Update 2: WBIR listed the legislators:
Those arrested include: Sen. Ward Crutchfield, (D) Chattanooga; Sen. John Ford, (D) Memphis; Sen. Kathryn Bowers, (D) Memphis; Rep. Chris Newton, R Cleveland.
Update 3: JB has more.
Update 4: KNS blog scoops the KNS. Heh.
More: Mike is on it too
And Alphie is too.
The Tennessean has coverage.
As does Bill Hobbs.
More still: Frank in comments:
Former Memphis senator Roscoe Dixon, who now works for the mayor’s office in Shelby County was also arrested along with Barry Meyers and Charles Love. Love *is* a Hamilton County School Board member.
He also notes there are now seven arrested.
Even more: Mike says:
BRIBERY AND EXTORTION An “undercover comapany” allegedly made payments on the “resale of surplus computer equipment” bill mentioned below. Ford allegedly received $55,000! Cruthfield and Love allegedly received $12,000. Myers and Bowers allegedly received $11,500. Love(?) and Newton allegedly received $4000. Dixon and Myers allegedly received $9500. Ford charged with 3 counts of witness intimidation.
And
John Ford threatened, according to the indictment, to shoot and kill anyone who squealed!! Now, NOW, will someone take this guy’s raving lunacy seriously, instead of treating it indulgently?
Nice!
Major update: Alphie:
The FBI just held a press conference. It was a two-year sting operation that netted the four above as well as two others for ethical violations as they took money to help a phony FBI corporation do business in Tennessee. Naifeh and Herrenton have escaped. So much for rumors.
I’m also guest blogging over at Michael Silence’s place, which explains fewer posts here. Plenty of stuff over there by me, Bubba and Les.
Gunner notes that someone planted endangered flowers at a building site to stop development. When you have asinine laws like that, people will abuse them.
It is a bit funny, though.
The Rep tells us that the guns in bars bill is back. He has the details of the vote:
It came to a vote. 66 votes were needed to bring it to the house floor, but only 54 voted yes. 36 members voted no, and 8 didn’t vote. Curious is that there were 63 sponsors and co-sponsors of this bill. It now appears obvious that some members signed on as co-sponsors banking on the standard operating procedure that it would be killed in committee and never come to a vote.
It looks like those “sponsors” were put to the test. When the rubber actually meets the pavement, how did they vote?
Legislators doing one thing and meaning another? Unheard of.
A Washington librarian had a run in with the FBI:
On June 8, 2004, an FBI agent stopped at the Deming branch of the Whatcom County Library System in northwest Washington and requested a list of the people who had borrowed a biography of Osama bin Laden. We said no.
We did not take this step lightly. First, our attorney called the local FBI office and asked why the information was important. She was told that one of our patrons had sent the FBI the book after discovering these words written in the margin: “If the things I’m doing is considered a crime, then let history be a witness that I am a criminal. Hostility toward America is a religious duty and we hope to be rewarded by God.”
We told the FBI that it would have to follow legal channels before our board of trustees would address releasing the names of the borrowers. We also informed the FBI that, through a Google search, our attorney had discovered that the words in the margin were almost identical to a statement by bin Laden in a 1998 interview.
Undeterred, the FBI served a subpoena on the library a week later demanding a list of everyone who had borrowed the book since November 2001.
The idiot who cut off his trigger finger to protest gun laws and decided to auction off the guillotine he used to do it may be disappointed. No bids. 42 comments though. One hour left.
If guillotines are outlawed, only outlaws will have guillotines.
Update: He got nothing. But he has re-listed it for $5K.
The ban on weapons that look like assault weapons failed by one vote in the Illinois house. Good. Meanwhile, a bill to require private transactions involving firearms to include a background check is on its way to the governor. The Sun Times incorrectly notes:
It would require people buying weapons at gun shows to go through the same background checks as in stores, a change long sought by gun control supporters. But it also would require law enforcement to destroy records of firearm purchases 90 days after the sale, which critics fear will hamper police efforts to track down criminals.
Actually, at gun shows, the requirements are the same if you buy from a dealer. I wonder how they plan on enforcing it?
Meanwhile, a ban on weapons that look like assault weapons is advancing in New York.
By the way, if the anti-gunners can’t pass a ban in Illinois, we’re winning.
SayUncle has generously asked me to guest blog while he’s out of pocket.
I used to blog over at Pathetic Earthlings, and I may yet again, and I post occasionally at pop-culture blog A List of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago.
I’m a little rusty on blogging — and I’ll try to do a bit of whisky blogging — but I look forward to the next few days.
How else should I react to this?
A medical conference in the Scottish city of Glasgow has heard that whisky can protect the drinker against cancer.
“There has been much in the news about the health benefits of antioxidants in red wine. By contrast, very little has been said about malt whisky distillery science,” Jim Swan, a doctor who works as a consultant to the drinks industry, told the recent EuroMedLab 2005 conference.
“Research has shown that there are even greater health benefits to people who drink single malt whiskies,” he added, saying that single malts – the more exclusive and expensive whiskies – “have more ellagic acid than red wine”.
Slainte Mhath.
The Commissar, noting that the mainstream blogs (wow, who’d have ever thought that would be a blog meme?) have failed, on the filibuster coverage:
The Main Stream Bloggers have wholly failed us on the filibuster deal. They are a disgrace. Malkin, Kos, Krempasky, Josh Marshall, Captain Ed, Atrios, Hewitt, Kevin Drum, Powerline, and the rest have reduced themselves to narrow, knee-jerk partisan rantings. They predictably parrot a party line precisely skewed one standard deviation to the left or right on every single issue.
They are incapable of original thought. They are unsuccessful 21st Century Turing machines, imitating human imagination, but not quite achieving it.
Ouch! Politics ruining blogging’s long praised objectivity was just a matter of time.
Of course, post election, the Commissar has been taking shots at various conservatives (notably, in his evolution debates which are here). Not many bloggers break from the line they supposedly toe and it’s good to see someone willing to do that.
He also notes that bloggers are riding the anger train:
For the Main Stream Bloggers to rant on and on about sell-outs, disappointments, cowards, Party traitors, etc. etc. is shameful. And why do they indulge in such divisive nonsense? Because, in a Pavlovian-like reaction, they have learned over time that harshness and vitriol sells, or at least draws traffic. Thus, in the guise of thoughtful political commentary, they regularly churn out manufactured controversy. Even in a simple, easy-to-evalute case like the filibuster deal, they can’t stop themselves from pumping their Sitemeters. It’s beneath contempt.
Maybe I should start blogging angry to draw some traffic? Les and I had this discussion the other night. I noted that my traffic has leveled off and is no longer on the upward trend and asked Les (who is an internet guru) what to do. I told him I thought blogging angry would do it. I guess selling out to a party would too.
There’s an ad to your right for an in car gun safe. Anybody have any experience with those? Looks like a good idea and I’m contemplating one for when I grab a bite and have to leave the old Glock in the car.
WATE:
Law enforcement officers who retired in good standing after at least 10 years of service would be exempt from renewal fees for handgun permits under legislation that’s moving through the General Assembly.
So, political status gives them a free ride? Feh.
The start of Federal gun control in this country was a direct result of the big failure known as prohibition. In 1934, the National Firearms Act was passed as result of increased violence from organized crime controlling the market for alcohol.
Lew Rockwell thinks compares that to the current drug war.
Remember, I do this to entertain me, not you.
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