It was raining and thunder ripped through the sky. Margie curled up on her couch to half-heartedly watch the evening news before it bored her to sleep. The top story was the same as it had been every night this week, the only difference was the number of victims. Tonight, it was number eight. Eight women had now been brutally tortured to death. No leads, no suspects. Only mystery and death but nothing new. Her eyes were half-closed.

Then she heard it.

A click at the door. Followed by another. Margie cautiously approached the door. She’d never heard such a sound. Click. This time the click sounded impatient and the following click came sooner than the previous. Then she saw it. The door knob began to move.

She was afraid. The door opened. There he was, tall, muscular and masked. She drew her Glock 30 and put two rounds of .45ACP in his chest. He hit the floor. She called the cops.

The End.

My horror movie wouldn’t sell. Too short. The premise of horror movies seems to always be a group of teen-something attractive people, who happen to be clueless, fall prey to some guy with a knife. And all those clueless people are pussies. M. Night Shyamalan thinks you’re a pussy too. He needs you to be or his movies would be shorter (I’m of the opinion that they do need to be shorter). I’ve seen a couple of his films and just think What the Hell? In Signs, the farmer takes his family into the basement to wait out the alien invasion. A farmer doesn’t have a gun? Or a stick? A big rock? Or any sort of weapon on his farm? The best he’s got is a baseball bat and water? He doesn’t even take the bat with him into the basement. Stupid.

Or The Village, which I couldn’t even finish because it was so damn slow, was the same way. The big red things come for you and you hide? No musket? Unbreakable and Sixth Sense were good, though.

Or the teen slasher films. Honestly, nobody has a gun and holes up to make a stand? Or grabs their gun to make way to their car to leave? I guess if they do, it becomes an action movie.

Mark is taking entries for the second RINO Sightings. Raging RINOs show your work!

Nashville to enforce existing gun laws. I’ve been covering Project Safe Neighborhoods in Knoxville for a while. I generally approve of the program but wonder why such enforcement requires a special grant.

US gun sales are up! Why do I have to read about that at a foreign news source? No American outlets want to point that out?

The Anarchangel sets would-be authors straight on guns.

In light of my post about my treatment at a range, Denise details her own bad experience at their local range.

Attention gun owners: We’re all in this together. Knock that shit off.

OK, they’re actually nothing like you and me but:

State records show the Attorney General’s Office hasn’t collected more than a quarter-million dollars in campaign finance fines in nearly four years.

The unpaid fines, many of them $10,000 each, were levied by the Registry of Election Finance. The Registry forwards to the Attorney General all uncollected fines after 30 days.

Attorney General spokeswoman Sharon Curtis-Flair says the office sends notices to violators and sometimes offers payment plans. If the fine is unresolved, Curtis-Flair says it goes to Chancery Court.

Noticeably missing from the story is the people who owe the fines. What gives? Which campaigns violated the rules and were fined? Why are the offenders not being arrested? Inquiring minds want to know.

Heading into the office this morning, I saw a news crew on the side of the road and glanced. They were interviewing an elderly black fellow who was carrying a large Confederate Flag (which means he’s racist).

I think it was that local black Confederate guy.

Update: Bubba grabbed a picture. And links to background info.

Speier’s repeal of doggie protections passed committee:

SACRAMENTO State Senator’s Jackie Speier’s dog law bill passed the Assembly Local Government Committee today on a four-to-two vote.

Current state law prohibits breed specific legislation. But Speier’s bill — S-B 861 — would allow local governments to place restrictions on breeders of certain types of dogs and allow local governments to enact spaying and neutering programs.

The one thing that made me think California wasn’t wholly evil is probably going away.

Rob Huddleston, who I met this past weekend, is a good guy. He’s thoughtful and quite articulate. Sure, we disagree on a few things but people can’t agree on everything. Rob, in reference to me (note to Rob: if you call me out on something, at least link to me), says:

. . . SayUncle, whose ultra-libertarianism I simply cannot understand, as I don’t see the good in threatening to burn the American flag if it is outlawed, not voting, refusing to recognize that one can be a “conservative” and still not be a “Republican,” and pushing special homosexual rights, but that’s just me.

If you think I’m an ultra-libertarian, you’ve not been paying attention. I want government to be small, the market to be as free as is feasibly possible, and constructionist constitutional law. None of that penumbra crap for me. Say, doesn’t that make me, like, a conservative?

I see nothing conservative about expanding government’s power to regulate desecrating a flag. Such an amendment is an affront to free speech. Sure, it’s the speech of morons, usually, but there is a right to be a moron. We can’t legislate brains.

I have never advocated not voting and I pretty much vote in every election. In 2004, I wasted my vote on the ultra-libertarian Badnarik in protest to the policies of the Republicans. I pretty much voted Republican until 2002. They need to win me back. I have advocated not voting for certain Republicans and not voting for certain Democrats. But never not voting.

I have no idea where he got the idea that I refused to recognize that one can be a “conservative” and still not be a “Republican,”. And I’m not sure what that means. I consider myself fairly conservative on most issues but socially liberal. I did comment when we met that Republicans these days are not necessarily conservative.

And I have never pushed special homosexual rights.

So, I have no idea where Rob is getting these ideas about me (except the flag thing) and need some clarification.

The Lost Liberty Hotel is taking reservations. Many people making such a pledge would definitely contribute to the local economy and promote economic development.

Could be.

Radley rounds up cities pouncing on the Kelo decision and snatching up the primo property. Of note:

Memphis, Tenn. — The Riverfront Development Corp. is planning a massive, 5-mile development effort, including the use of eminent domain to claim a four-block section from the current owners for a mixed-use development. “[Kelo] definitely gives the city more tools in its tool box for dealing with the legal issues surrounding that piece of property,” RDC president Benny Lendermon told the Commercial Appeal.

Memphis? That might explain something.

My excellent hosting service, Hosting Matters, is moving me to a new server today. This may affect somethings and I know at least one comment has been eaten so far. Apologies in advance for delays and lost comments.

Junior is now at the age where she no longer requires the little seat in the bathtub. We just let her hang out in there (supervised, of course) and she can crawl through the water, splash and carry on. She really enjoys bath time. But the first time dad (or, as he’s also known: dadadadadadadadada) let her do this, he got a little surprise.

After I took her out of the seat, she was busy splashing and playing. Suddenly, she stands up in the tub, looks me in the eye, lets out a very audible grunt, and then I heard that distinct sound: ploop! She made a brownie. I’ve changed countless diapers but in the tub, it was different. In the controlled setting known as the changing table, I have infinite resources at my disposal to handle this situation: a work area with removable covers, wipes, diapers, and a variety of other tools for poop-related program activities. This was something much more. It involved evoking the all-powerful. Calling forth the all-knowing, all-seeing mom (or, as she’s also known: mamamamamama). Honey, I yelled, got a minute?

She had a minute. She came in and I was holding Junior away from the offending poopie, which floated with a surprisingly delicate grace. I explained that there was a shot bunny in the tub and pointed. She says Get it out before she steps on it. I said I would but asked her to hold Junior with the thought that, while she held her, I’d go get a towel, rubber glove, tissue or aquarium net to fish out the offending dookie. Without a word or hesitation, the Mrs. reaches in (with her bare, uncovered hands) and grabs the floater and puts it in the toilet.

Now, I’m new to this dad thing and, despite loving my daughter, am unwilling to grab floating excrement with my bare hands. The Mrs. has no problem with it. I’m not sure who the weird one here is. No matter how much I love someone, I’m not cool with handling their turds.

Via Phelps, we learn that James Wolcott is a dumb ass. Note: I don’t really thing Mr. Wolcott is a dumbass but since he spent a good portion of the piece insulting Glenn Reynolds in particularly childish ways, I figured I’d show him a faster way to insult people without boring readers. I guess it might be fun to refer to him as James Doodiehead or James Stupidface so that I maintain the level of childish discourse he’s comfortable with. Says Wolcott:

Because according to a CDC study from 1998, there were 19 gun deaths in Japan, 54 in England and Wales, 151 in Canada.

As compared to 11,789 in the good old US of A.

That is the metric he places in Reynolds’ mouth. Reynolds, of course, merely quotes Heinlein: An armed society is a polite society. When you take someone else’s rather subjective point (i.e., what polite society means) and ascribe your own measure to it, it’s easy to use whatever stats at your disposal to discredit it. To wit:

Note also in 1998 per Wolcott’s own source, gun deaths were actually over 30,000. He excluded suicide and accidents. However, he fails to mention robbery, rape, assault and other violent crimes that may be affected by gun ownership. When you look at overall violent crime, England and Wales, Canada and Australia have higher rates than the US. Their rates are actually rising while the US violent crime rates are dropping. England even has higher gun crime rates. So, by making up a criteria to define polite society, it’s easy to show that we’re far more polite.

Another asinine statement he makes is:

“An armed society is a polite society.” Think about that. Think about societies where the adult men routinely pack and tote arms.

Afghanistan. Yemen. The badlands of northern Pakistan (Bin Laden Country). The Sunni Triangle. Beautiful downtown Mogadishu.

Do these regions and cultures leap out at you as polite societies? Places where you could safely stroll for a nightly constitutional and enjoy vigorous differences of opinion that wouldn’t break out in a misunderstanding between AK-47s?

Why not mention Switzerland? Where they have compulsory gun ownership and a lower murder rate? In fact, citizens are issued military rifles by their government. Or Finland where there is a much higher rate of machine gun ownership? In the US, it’s almost impossible to own an AK-47. Those activities are highly regulated here. They also have a lower murder rate. Are those countries polite? Beats me, never been there. The reason he doesn’t mention them is because, like all good journalists/editors, he merely found the most convenient anti-gun group and quoted them. Parrots repeat.

And, of course, what about the 46 states that allow citizens to carry handguns? The number that will soon be 48 when Nebraska and Kansas come around – and they will. Are they polite? The prevalence of gun ownership doesn’t tie directly to violent crime or murder. And it damn sure doesn’t tie to politeness.

Why are Americans a murderous lot? I don’t know. But many of the violent crimes in the states are inner-city, black on black violence (here and here). I guess poverty is a factor.

He concludes with:

No, I think I’ll stick with my illusions about too many guns equating to too many stupid, needless, tragic, preventable violent deaths and maimings.

Admitting it’s an illusion is the first step. After all, not even your wrongly quoted CDC thinks gun laws affect crime.

The DC Examiner would like you to believe that the law to repeal DC’s 30 year old gun ban would allow people to have machine guns:

Congress received an earful from District officials Tuesday in a committee hearing on two bills that would repeal the nearly 30-year-old ban on handguns and automatic weapons in the nation’s capital.

Automatic weapons have been regulated federally since 1934. And since 1986

Update: In comments, Publicola notes and CounterTop concurs, that DC code is the liar:

If I recall D.C.’s laws call certain firearms (such as one capable of firing more than twelve times without manually reloading) machineguns. So if I’m remembering the deifnitions they use in their assinine law correctly, then making Marlin model 60’s available again would in fact be putting “machineguns” in circulation.

You need to read this.

Jeff has the latest on media coverage of guns.

Heh.

Weare, New Hampshire (PRWEB) Could a hotel be built on the land owned by Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter? A new ruling by the Supreme Court which was supported by Justice Souter himself itself might allow it. A private developer is seeking to use this very law to build a hotel on Souter’s land.

Justice Souter’s vote in the “Kelo vs. City of New London” decision allows city governments to take land from one private owner and give it to another if the government will generate greater tax revenue or other economic benefits when the land is developed by the new owner.

This weekend, Les, Rich, a friend, and I went to the Volunteer Rifle and Pistol Club’s John Sevier Range. I’ve gone there for a few years and was a member (let it go once Junior was born since I don’t go as much now) and never had a problem. Then, this weekend, it was as if the elderly range officers were trying to run us off. I guess us young punks with our assault weapons, 90 round AR-15 magazines, and homemade guns are not to be trusted. At one point, we had three benches and three guns going (an AR, an SKS, and a 1911) and, quite coincidentally, we all let off a volley of rounds at the same time. One of the guys at the range (who was not the range officer but was chummy with the officers) made a comment about how it sounded like a war zone. Of course it did, it’s a firing range.

And that guy and the range officers kept coming by and criticizing, offering advice, and generally making us feel unwelcome. At one point, one of the range officers went to Les and told him that he had to put the bayonet on his SKS away. Of course, the bayonet on the SKS is basically permanently attached so he folded it down. The range officer then said, and I am not making this up, that it was illegal to have a bayonet on a gun. I informed it wasn’t and that just about every SKS on the market comes stock with one. He then made the equally ludicrous comment that it had to be under a certain number of inches to be legal. Les just stepped away, shaking his head. I didn’t say another word. It was clear the guy had no idea what he was talking about. Les later looked at me and said he just didn’t think it was worth it to argue. He was right. Supposedly, like the Mosin-Nagant, you’re better off sighting an SKS in with the bayonet unfolded because it helps with weight distribution.

The also have this new rule that all guns must be shot from the bench. That includes handguns. That didn’t make the day as fun as it could have been as the 90 rounder is a bit unwieldy from the bench and you don’t get range time in the standing position. And it pretty much sucks for shooting handguns.

After a while though, the range guys started warming up to us. Particularly since we gave them a couple hundred rounds of 5.56X45 and .45ACP brass. And, you know, we were there for a while and didn’t kill anyone.

Note to you older gunnies: When the younger folks show up with their evil black assault weapons and want to shoot, welcome them. Make them feel wanted and at home. Otherwise, you’re not encouraging anyone to take up shooting, particularly at your range.

I’ve not decided if I’ll be back to the John Sevier Range yet.

I would never burn a flag unless it was illegal to do so.

SayUncle’s resident troublemaker Hellbent links to this article which notes that the legal structure used in the past to address piracy can be adapted to the terror war:

INTERNATIONAL LAW LACKS A DEFINITION FOR TERRORISM as a crime. According to Secretary General Kofi Annan, this lack has hampered “the moral authority of the United Nations and its strength in condemning” the scourge.

But attempts to provide a definition have failed because of terrorists’ strangely hybrid status in the law. They are neither ordinary criminals nor recognized state actors, so there is almost no international or domestic law dealing with them. This gives an out to countries that harbor terrorists and declare them “freedom fighters.” It also lets the United States flout its own constitutional safeguards by holding suspects captive indefinitely at Guantánamo Bay. The overall situation is, in a word, anarchic.

Interesting read.

I was a bit surprised by some of this:

Gun Control: With regard to private citizens owning firearms for sport or self-defense, 93.6 percent of the respondents supported civilian gun-ownership rights. Ninety-six percent of the police chiefs and sheriffs believe criminals obtain firearms from illegal sources and 92.2 percent revealed they hadn’t arrested anyone for violation of the so-called “waiting period” laws. When asked if citizens concealed-weapons permits would reduce violent crime, 63.1 percent said yes.

War on Drugs: Forty-one percent of police commanders surveyed said they believe marijuana should be available for medicinal purposes and 68.9 percent said they’ve seen an increase in the abuse of prescription drugs such as Oxycontin and other Schedule II drugs. Only 22 percent of police commanders believe the war on drugs has been successful, while 28 percent said they favored decriminalization of “soft drugs” such as marijuana.

Well, surprised by the drug thing. I’ve long known police support gun rights.

I had hoped that, if nothing else, Kelo would serve as a wake up call to everyone regarding just how too-big-for-their-britches the .gov had become. It seems some are getting the message. However, some are pouncing:

Ravenwood reports that Freeport is already drawing up papers and going shopping and that DC is too.

Radley has a round up of other governments pouncing on other people’s property.

Quite depressing.

And I think this is the right idea.

However, the ray of sunshine is that politicians are waking up and realizing that this issue is important to people. Donald Sensing thinks a draft state constitutional amendment is a good start. I feel obligated to point out that the fifth amendment did not stop the Supreme Court.

First, compliments to Bill Hobbs for getting responses from local politicos. Here’s some:

State Senate Candidate Ed Bryant, in a blog interview at Bill Hobbs blog, responds to Kelo:

The U.S. Supreme Court decision Kelo v. New London takes a radical turn on the important issue of private property rights. The ruling is a blow to our Constitution’s 5th Amendment, and I believe it is devastating to private property rights. The court got it wrong!

Excellent. Also, Hobbs posted Hilleary’s response and he is against it as well. Kurita is also against. Good. SayUncle applauds these three.

Ford, however, has just ended his political career:

“I’ve always believed individual rights are a big thing….. but, I find value in the court’s decision. As long as people are compensated fairly, I can appreciate the decision. Certain areas in our state are crying for development, if this decision helps – it’s a positive.”

I don’t think you believe individual rights are a big thing at all. On the national level, Eugene Volokh notes that Senator Cornyn has a bill that would limit takings, though that limit would be rather modest in that it affects Eminent Domain exercised using federal funds.

Update: Politicos in Alaska are moving to limit Eminent Domain there.

I’ve discussed Tennessee’s asinine illegal drug tax many times before. It’s only use seems to be taking people’s property without due process of law and there are reports that the tax stamps aren’t actually being sold. Tennessee Rep Stacey Campfield alerts us that:

Tennessee Center for Policy Research has a new study out today which claims that the “Drug Tax” is fiscally wasteful and legally flawed.

It’s also, of course, an infringement on constitutional rights. Here’s a link to the release, which states:

A report released today by the Tennessee Center for Policy Research (TCPR) finds that from January 1-June 21, 2005, Tennessee’s Unauthorized Substances Tax (UST) cost taxpayers nearly $1.5 million more than it generated in revenue.

The UST also has troubling Constitutional implications for Tennesseans, infringing upon two separate Fifth Amendment protections.

The tax, which was created to generate revenue for the state general fund and state and local law enforcement agencies, requires that individuals in possession of illegal drugs or alcohol pay a tax by purchasing a drug stamp or face severe fines if arrested. Purchasing a drug stamp does not provide immunity from criminal drug possession or trafficking charges.

If an individual arrested on drug charges cannot pay the fines resulting from failure to pay the UST immediately, the state can seize his or her property without the burden of establishing guilt in a court of law.

This year, the Department of Revenue has assessed $14.9 million in tax penalties for drugs on which taxes were not paid. However, the state has collected only $480,007 of that amount through property seized and fines levied as a result of drug busts. Since three quarters of the fines collected as a result of the UST are returned to the local law enforcement agencies that make the drug arrest, the tax has generated only $120,002 in new revenue for the state.

The cost of implementing the tax and operating the bureaucracy necessary to administer the tax over the same period reached $1.58 million.

Here’s the full report.

The Supreme Court ruled police cannot be sued for how they enforce restraining orders, ending a lawsuit by a Colorado woman who claimed police did not do enough to prevent her estranged husband from killing her three young daughters.

It’s not really surprising as other courts have ruled that the police have no legal obligation to protect you and, of course, they can’t be everywhere. Paper protection doesn’t work and isn’t worth the paper its written on, unless that paper is ATF Form 4473.

The withdrawing of gun licenses I mentioned yesterday is arousing suspicion:

The government has withdrawn firearm licences with immediate effect, raising suspicion that it is already working on countering an armed revolt.

Police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena on Sunday urged people with automatic weapons at their homes to surrender them at the nearest police stations.

These weapons include all types of rifles and an assortment of pistols. Tension has been high in Zimbabwe since the start of operation Murambatsvina, which has seen over a million people being made homeless by a senseless exercise orchestrated by Zanu (PF).

While I’m honored to have been selected link worthy by AOL News BlogZone, they link to a post that is old and doesn’t say what they say it says.

The newer, angrier Rich:

The threat is no longer external; we know the terrorists cannot beat us. They can hurt us; they can make us angry; but they can’t beat us. The enemy that can beat us is among us, and no, I’m not talking about liberals. Yes they are a big part of the problem, but the Republicans have quite a bit to answer for themselves. The divide is no longer one of left and right, but authoritarianism and libertarianism, and friends and neighbors, the authoritarians have damn near won the war before we woke up enough to fight the first battle.

Genocide made easy: If I lived in Zimbabwe, the last thing I would do would be to turn in my guns:

Zimbabwean police have outlawed the possession of automatic weapons and ordered people to surrender them to police stations before the end of the month, the Herald newspaper reported Saturday. Police gave no reason for the immediate withdrawal of licenses for self-loading rifles, machine guns and pistols, according to report.

“We would like to urge the people to fully co-operate with the police and those who will remain with these weapons would be contravening the law,” police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena told the paper.

Looks like they’re paving the way for mass murder and confiscating guns will make that so much easier.

The Daily Probe:

Meaning of Life Revealed

JERUSALEM (DPI) – After considerable nagging by humanity, God revealed the meaning of life today during a special news conference. As many freshman philosophy majors had guessed, the meaning of life was revealed to be searching for the meaning of life. Unfortunately, this revelation now nullifies the purpose of existence and life has become meaningless. This is a disheartening turn of events for everyone except sophomore philosophy majors, who had taken a liking to nihilism.

Unbeleivable. I re-enabled trackbacks and in 10 minutes, I get bombarded with spam. Sorry, but I think the trackback is dead.

Site speed is way, way down. I thought it might be the various scripts I have on the site so, one by one, I took each off to see if that would speed it up. No dice. Anyone have an idea why this site is so damn slow to load?

Myself and Les will, at some point, take the KNS Managing Editor shooting. It’s a good thing for a couple of reasons. One is that it’s always good to introduce someone to the shooting sports. Two, it will be even better knowing that there is a newspaper somewhere that has an editor who actually knows something about guns. I’m still waiting to get a 40MM pistol.

Behold, the Raging Rinos, created by The Commissar for secular and moderate conservatives who don’t drink the party Kool-Aid on issues such as whether it’s legal for dudes to diddle dudes and all that God business. Republican, without all the crazy.

J.D. has kicked around many logos for the group, following some issues with the first one. I guess no one liked the one I used

So, while the Republican Party is busy with important things like keeping gay marriage outlawed, banning desecration of the flag, and putting up monuments to the 10 Commandments, what are the RINOs wasting time talking about:

John Cole wants a policy of intelligence gathering to aid in the war on terror, not degradation and dehumanization of our prisoners of war. Further, he ascribes sensibility in . . . . Look . . . Dudes kissing!

Sure, being secular righties is fun but that doesn’t mean there’s no time to bash the left when it’s, you know, stupid. Politechincal takes on Durbin’s statement and alleged-apology. He notes . . . crap! The Commandments are in trouble! RightThoughts tackles religious stupidity but not the kind you think.

In a Durbin v. Rove death match, Larry picks a winner but notes they’re both losers. Rusty, surprisingly, accepts Durbin’s apology at face value. Additionally, some radical-right-wing nuts think Rove should apologize. And the Hitler Zombie battles for your soul.

One thing we conservatives tend to hate is socialism. Power and Control has thoughts on, and I’m not making this up, Republican Socialism. I think it’s very real and socialism is a good description where these no longer fiscally responsible statists are taking this country.

Environmental Republican (no, I’m not making that one up either) smacks the Philly Inquirer for minimizing the story . . . This just in, there’s this new theory that humans were not actually put here 5,000 years ago by God. Those people are crazy, this is what really happened. Speaking of God, here’s something on the other American Taliban. And RINOs and the ACLU living in sin? Who’d have thunk it?

Here’s some more from another environmentally conscious Republican, who doesn’t do math.

AJ takes a good look at the credibility of those involved with the Downing Street Memo.

Eric addresses how political stereotyping prevents ordinary people from addressing serious problems in the educational system. And gay cooties.

Even Raging RINOs draw the line somewhere. That line appears to be John McCain. Nick has more on TSOBJM, which I predict will soon be blog meme.

RINOs on weed: The Drug War has created a paramilitary group trained by the US in Mexico. They have switched sides and now run drug operations. Scary stuff. It didn’t take long after Raich for the feds to start raiding medical marijuana facilities. The line between states rights and federal power took a . . . Newsflash: kids may react negatively to that crazy rock music!

That rather disturbing Schiavo business seemed to conclude leaving everyone feeling, well, confused and saddened. Yet, Jeb Bush wants to resurrect the issue with even less taste.

It’s like 1984 for capitalists, Dan translates Salesgoodspeakian to English.

Bill Quick notes that of the three members of the Axis of Evil, we took out one and it was the least threatening. He notes the US may give up on the two remaining members.

On the war-front, Dan rightfully tells us that amazing things are happening in the Middle East, like Constitutions and stuff. But those Constitutions never last, enter Kelo:

Bloodspite on Kelo: who lost? We did. You and I.

Countertop notes the end of something we should hold dear. I always thought the third amendment is still in effect but I may have been wrong.

Ken Wheaton on Kelo’s liberal conundrum.

Sorry, sir. This developer needs your land.

Update: Oh yeah, what’s a SayUncle post without a link to gun porn. Here’s some. Mmmmm, SCAR.

Update 2: Sorry folks, spam assault. Trackbacks are disabled again. Took a total of 15 minutes from the time I enabled to getting assaulted. Anyway, if you wish to trackback desperately, just leave a link in comments.

This concludes The First Very Special Episode of RINO Sightings. Now, on to administrative matters:

The tentative schedule for future episodes of your friendly, neighborhood RINO Sightings is as follows:

July 4 – Mark Coffey, Decision 08
July 11 – Larry Bernard
July 18 – Andy at WWR
July 25 – Counter Top
Aug 1 – open
Aug 8 – open

Let Der Commissar know if you’d like to host one. Also, to add the RINO Roll to your site, here’s the script:

Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s an article on how guns are getting funneled into Africa. It should mention that those arms are going to the wrong people.

Apparently, the police are licensed therapists and can decide to take your guns if you’re suicidal, even though you’ve done nothing illegal. And they destroyed his property because they didn’t have a place to store it.

Will the Patriot Act allow the authorities to essentially maintain a registry of guns? GOA thinks so.

The Democrats are again figuring out that they need to be pro-gun if they expect to win elections. Good.

The Last Gun Shop update: David reports that the owner has lost another zoning battle. Doesn’t matter, though. Since Kelo, all the city has to do is say it wants to put a Wal-Mart there.

CounterTop appears to have traded down. Dude, like with women, you only trade up. I have the perfect woman but have yet to find the perfect gun.

For a second there, I thought it was the Oliver Willis instruction manual.

Gavin Newsom has, for once, conceded that he is not above the law:

This week, state Sen. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, introduced a bill that would change state law to allow local governments to enact animal-control laws directed at specific breeds. Speier’s bill doesn’t mention pit bulls explicitly, but given the recent attacks in the Bay Area involving the breed, most people see it as aimed at the squat, square-faced animals.

[snip]

The biggest support for Speier’s proposal comes from San Francisco, where Mayor Gavin Newsom asked the senator to craft legislation to make the streets safer from aggressive dogs, and Concord, where in March an 11-year-old boy was seriously injured by a pit bull. On Thursday, San Jose Councilwoman Linda LeZotte said she will ask the full council to support Speier’s legislation.

If these had been gay pit bulls, he would have likely went ahead and passed this legislation regardless of applicable state laws. He seems to be learning his lesson with respect to the law but this time his proposed actions are just stupid (note: I supported his gay marriage decision, despite it breaking the law. I can’t support reactionary stupidity). A child, who was left without parental supervision and who had barricaded in a basement, was killed by the family’s pit bull. The mother has been indicted on felony child abuse. This woman’s irresponsible actions seem to be getting a pass from everyone, while a breed of dog is unjustly taking the heat.

I think, instead of sending lawyers, guns and money; someone needs to head to New London with a truckload of spotted owls, snail darters, and bald eagles . Once you turn them loose, all construction there would stop immediately. Thoughts?

Michael Silence:

Don’t fret, folks. In several decades Congress will apologize for governments taking citizens’ land.

Update: that quote is gone now. I promise, it was there. Never mind.

On Kelo, a reader emails:

this is not the time to be whining about armed insurrection, but a time to use the constitutional, moral tools at our disposal – the political process, and our ability to influence our fellow citizens.

[snip]

The good news is that almost everybody is pissed off about this – even DailyKos is on our side. I think we can see to it that the court’s ruling was a wake-up call rather than a defeat.

Update: Apparently, Kosmonauts are, again, not on the side of freedom.

If you read one thing today, it should be this. My sympathies, James.

Remember Raging RINOs that the deadline for submission to RINO Sightings is today.

Email your submissions to me at saysuncle at yahoo dot com.

Some reflections, reactions and fall out.

I went home last night, finished off a bottle of Scotch and had a few beers. I sat in my backyard on my comfortable 0.6 acres in the country, looked at my fence (which is only symbolic at this point), looked at Junior’s play-set, looked at the 12 neighbors’ houses I could see from the backyard, and watched my little girl play in her kiddie pool. And it occurred to me that all mine is only all mine until some bureaucrat decides he wants it for any reason whatsoever. Same for those neighbors. I’ve long held that we don’t actually own property any way, we just have an indefinite lease from the state in the form of property taxes. Now, even that lease agreement is null and void.

Also, taxes used to fund things for public use. Now public use is going to fund taxes. There are many municipalities who were waiting on this ruling. They just got the go ahead from the highest level to take whatever they want for whatever reason they want. (You can peruse many of these cases here).

Now, to address some comments made around the blogs and that I got by email on my emotional state as, just to use one example, impassioned if not analytical:

I’ve been covering Kelo for almost a year. I’ve dedicated a lot pixels and some money to the cause. I’ve also been covering eminent domain for quite a while. I had a lot invested in this subject emotionally and am not some Johnnie come lately on the issue. And I’m angry but mostly sad. It takes a real man to weep for his nation.

Also, to my gunblogger buddies who are stating it’s time to hoist the black flag, quoting Jefferson, and calling for revolution: Put up or shut up. Unless you’re on your way to Connecticut right now, the rhetoric will do more harm than good. Actually, being on your way to Connecticut will probably do more harm than good. That’s not to say I don’t appreciate or understand the sentiment, but the fact is that it’s not going to happen and if it did happen, it wouldn’t work. People will shake their heads, nay-say, and bitch but nothing will be done when the bulldozers level Suzette Kelo’s home. People won’t even defend their dogs when the state comes to take them by force. Sure, I made a half-hearted comment about sending guns to Connecticut but its pointless because I can’t send them balls.

Folks can entertain these fantasies of a group of freedom fighters engaging the bureaucratic machine but you will lose. You will die or be imprisoned. Period. The cause needs you to be alive and free not in jail. The fight isn’t over, it just got local. We need to press local and state officials to pass laws that restrict eminent domain. That’s the way you win this one. And it will be a long haul that will probably take decades. Some bills have already received support of legislators, like this one. Note to The Rep: It’s public use not public good.

This notion kicked around that we need another Constitutional amendment to limit governments’ abilities to seize property is kind of a waste. We had that in the fifth amendment. Fat lot of good it did.

Unfucking the Supreme Court needs to be everyone’s priority. And, since everyone else is politicizing this decision, it’s my turn. The more conservative justices voted correctly on this case (as they did on Raich). Hats off to them. The liberal and supposed moderates shredded the constitution. Consider this my official withdrawal from the Coalition of the Chillin’. No, the world didn’t end on May 23, 2005 but exactly one month later property rights did. The US needs judges who follow the Constitution, not judges who act like it’s a minor inconvenience. We have a lot to do to fix this and this isn’t the time to be fucking around.

Update: On further reflection, it appears to be generally a bad policy to challenge any law with which we libertarianish folks disagree, even though we are right. We keep getting shot down when we take it all the way to the highest court in the land. Act locally.

Update 2: Dear Lord, do we really need to fear challenging the law of the land. Quite depressing.

The Carnival of Cordite is up over at The Revolutionary War Veterans Association Weblog.

I’m so angry about Kelo I can hardly see straight. I’ll try to write something more coherent down the road. But I’m looking out on my backyard — a good .15 acres of weeds (since my house is pretty far up on the .31 acre lot) — and I can’t help but thinking:

What’s to stop a city from deciding that my 1949 house, built on 1/3 acre lots, wouldn’t be better turned into townhomes at 9-to-an-acre? If public use is served simply by raising tax revenue, what’s better for society? One $575K house with a backyard which is mostly weeds right now? Or three $500K townhouses, making sure it gets put to “public” use in the form of cranking out property taxes?

What’s to stop these bastards?

The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.

Oh. That’s right. Nothing.

Bastards. Complete Fucking Bastards.

Update: Today, I am ashamed of my country, my government, and the legal system (we don’t have a justice system). This is some scary stuff, folks. Freedom died a bit more. I honestly went to the parking lot, sat in the car and wiped tears from my eyes. Anger turned to sadness.

Property rights (like states’ rights) are officially dead in this country. SCOTUS blog:

Splitting 5-4, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that a local government may seize private property for purposes of profit-making private re-development, declaring that this constitutes a “public use” under the Constitution.

While the opinion by Justice John Paul Stevens said that a local government could not take homeowners’ property “simply to confer a private benefit on a particular private party,” the New London. Conn., project involved in this case was “a carefully considered development plan.” While the resulting project would not be open for use by the general public, the Court said, there is no literal requirement of that outcome.

Well, my copy of the fifth amendment says:

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

How a private development could possibly be justified as public use is beyond me. Worth noting that the conservative judges came down on the right side of things.

Fuckers.

Update: I am seriously pissed off about this. Apologies in advance for the obscenities you’ll see out of me for the next few days.

Fuckers.

Update 2: The AP story is here:

As a result, cities now have wide power to bulldoze residences for projects such as shopping malls and hotel complexes in order to generate tax revenue.

Update 3: Blake has some reactions. It is a national tragedy.

Update: Another quote:

Scott Bullock, an attorney for the Institute for Justice representing the families, added: ”A narrow majority of the court simply got the law wrong today and our Constitution and country will suffer as a result.”

Simply got it wrong is a bit of an understatement. How about willfully disregarded?

Fuckers.

Here’s the opinion, which I have not read yet due to the threat of having a conniption.

Update: Kevin:

Bill Von Winkle now has three choices: Submit, go to jail, or die. His legal options are finished.

And still this isn’t the straw that will break the camel’s back.

But it ought to be.

The impact of killing states’ rights:

Federal drug agents launched a wide-ranging crackdown on medical marijuana providers in northern California, raiding pot clubs, homes and businesses in San Francisco and arresting a husband and wife in Sacramento.

First up was RINOs and now it could be DINOs. Still, RINOs won’t generally vote for Democrats because they’re, well, icky and give us the creeps.

So, what happens if the Constitution becomes unconstitutional:

A constitutional amendment to outlaw flag burning cleared the House Wednesday but faced an uphill battle in the Senate. An informal survey by The Associated Press suggested the measure doesn’t have enough Senate votes to pass.

The 286-130 outcome was never in doubt in the House, which had passed the measure or one like it five times in recent years. The amendment’s supporters expressed optimism that a Republican gain of four seats in last November’s election could produce the two-thirds approval needed in the Senate as well after four failed attempts since 1989.

So, if an amendment actually restricts the free speech protected by the first amendment, which one takes precedent? And this is another one of those reasons why the Republicans are having some dissent in their ranks.

Update: Bruce has a round up.

With protesters, TennCare and budgets to worry about, it’s good to see our Governor sign a meaningless, symbolic gesture into law:

The bill requires school boards to develop policies to stop bullying or harassment on school grounds.

Bredesen also noted he was bullied as a kid. I’m pretty sure that similar policies are already in place at schools, they just don’t call them bullying rules.

I guess not all of them are. Lots of folks are commenting about this guy’s threat to out an anonymous Volokh contributer (apparently, that’s the cool thing to do these days). He as now changed his mind. But Leiter also says:

Putting that aside, Mr. Non-Volokh is now reduced to quoting the pathetically dumb Clayton Cramer (how dumb? almost anything on his blog will do, but start here).

Now, while I don’t agree with Cramer’s assessment in that post, he does actually, you know, make a case whereas Leiter just says your dumb. Cramer responded to this fairly childish criticism here. Cramer, for this sort of child, the correct response would merely be am not.

Well, that’s one innovative use for a blog.

Civis Proeliator on the FAL:

As a MBR (Main Battle Rifle) we see the FAL (utilizing the 7.62×51 round) as the best of all worlds even though the rifle weighs in at over 9.5 lbs unloaded and runs approx. 42 in. long. We see the 5.56mm (.223) fired by the M16A2/M4 and others as being too small a round to be effective against many targets and much shorter in effective distance. Even the 7.62×39 fired by the AK and it’s variants or the SKS, though they’re .30 caliber, is hard pressed to match the all around effectiveness due to it’s smaller powder load. While we agree the latter could be sufficient in a close quarter, urban type environment we still believe the larger round to be best for a rifleman due to it’s longer effective range and hitting power.

I have decided that I need want a 308 rifle and have been mulling my options. I personally like the M1A, but have not ruled out the FAL, HK-91, or an AR chambered in 308. Thoughts?

In the event you have not tried the new Peanut Butter Creme Double Stuff Oreos, you need to stop what you’re doing right now and head to the store to get some. And pick up some milk while you’re there. I’m not kidding. They’re that good.

Update: Even if that means taking the day off from work. Seriously, go now.

I’m not making this up:

Married men earn more than bachelors so long as their wives stay at home doing the housework, according to a report Wednesday from Britain’s Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER).

Academics Elena Bardasi and Mark Taylor found that a married man whose wife does not go out to work but is primarily responsible for the cooking and cleaning earns about 3 percent more than comparably employed single men.

But that wage premium disappears if wives go out to work themselves or don’t do most of the housework.

“It has been fairly well documented that married men earn more than single men,” Taylor, a labor economist, told Reuters.

Cause and effect seems to be confused here. I’d dare say that married men are older than most bachelors and, given their experience in their fields, would obviously make more. Also, I’d say it’s more appropriate to state that Wives tend to stay home if the husband tends to make more money as opposed to intimating that stay at home wives cause husbands to make more money.

Stupid social science.

Now that we’re in the information age, it’s getting harder and harder to insulate ourselves from 24/7 coverage of shameless publicity hounds. Look at what intruded on my evening commute:
Read the rest of this entry »

Another push for concealed carry in the state after its rather dramatic first attempt:

In late 2003, a measure allowing concealed weapons passed both houses of the Legislature, but Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle vetoed it. In early 2004, the Senate voted to override the governor, but the Assembly fell one vote short of doing so, allowing Doyle’s veto to stand.

On the new bill:

The new bill would give the responsibility of issuing permits to another group, such as the state Department of Justice; the union that represents state troopers; the Fraternal Order of Police; the Law Enforcement Alliance of America; or private security firms, Zien said.

Zien said one of those groups might get those duties explicitly in the legislation, or a process might be set up to select the group through competitive bidding.

Permits under the new bill would cost $75, compared with the $113 in the last bill, said Michael Bruhn, chief of staff to Rep. Scott Gunderson (R-Waterford), a sponsor of the bill.

Relax, people. I have it on good authority that those are not gay RINOs.

Frustrated with the future of his party, The Commissar established The Raging Rinos a while back. Rino stands for Republicans / Independents Not Overdosed (on the Party Kool-Aid) and exists to show that there are secular conservatives who have better things to worry about than dudes kissing, reconciling dinosaurs with that Noah’s ark business, and making their political decisions based upon what some invisible man in the sky tells them to think. After all, there’s a war on, we have a republic to save, and the government (for anyone not paying attention) is growing in size at a ridiculous pace.

The Rinos are now a 52 member strong community over at TTLB. It is open to secular conservatives, neo-libertarians and little ‘l’ libertarians. It’s sort of the Vast Moderate Right Wing Conspiracy. It’s Republican, without all the crazy.

I mentioned to the Commissar that the Raging RINOs should probably have a little Carnival on occasion to show support for our secular brethren. He concurred and we agreed on the name RINO Sightings to denote that such are rare and endangered. My comical suggestions for the Carnival were probably a bit too, uhm, crude for most folks and included things like: Carnival of Godless, homo-loving heathens and The Carnival of pulling your head out of your ass. To that end, I shall host the first episode of RINO Sightings. All members are invited to shoot me one or two links (or, you know, I’ll pick them) to round up what we non-radical, right-wing nutjobs are thinking.

You can email me submissions at saysuncle at yahoo dot com. Send all submissions by Friday (6/24) and Sightings will be posted on Monday (6/27).

Stupid joke that I could not work into this post: What do you get when you cross an elephant with a Rino? Eliphino.

I finally have completed adding everyone who requested to the TTLB Gun Blog Community. Give it a couple of hours and, if you see that you’re not on the list and want to be, let me know. I’d be happy to add you. A note:

This is designed to be for gun bloggers (i.e., people who regularly blog about guns) not a community for people who just also happen to be pro-gun and usually talk about other stuff.

Yesterday was National Ask Day where nannies encourage you to ask other parents if there are guns in their home presumably so you can shame them into admitting they’re bad people for having guns. David has his response. As does Bill Quick (via Kathy). They also ask doctors to ask the same question. My responses vary when asked the question. So, the top 5 SayUncle responses to Do you have any guns in your home when asked by a hysterical nanny:

5 Do you have a warrant?
4 Yes. Don’t you have the best tool to defend my child when she’s at your home too?
3 No, but the kid has, like, fifteen.
2 Yes, a couple of super soakers, which I hear are good for getting the sand out of your vagina.
1 Yeah, what do you need?

A bunch of folks protesting pending cuts in TennCare decided to protest by doing a sit-in at the Governor’s office. Sharon and Egalia are shocked that the police won’t allow the protesters food or water (and supposedly medication). It’s cruel, they say. It’s also effective protester control. You don’t very well want a protest lasting forever so you don’t let them call up the local pizza delivery joint.

Anyway, you’d think these protesters would have had enough foresight to pack a lunch (or at least their meds). Protesters in this country have a history of not being particularly, uhm, sharp. And Sharon is upset that the employee’s in the office can eat there. Of course they can, just like almost any other office with a break room in the country.

The protesters and others seem disappointed that this hasn’t ended in arrests, which would draw more publicity. Of course, it hasn’t. The governor doesn’t want to be known as that guy who has sick people arrested. However, he’s not going to give them coffee and donuts so they can stay indefinitely.

Kim provides another reason not to have your name associated with your blog.

Update: Another reason: If you do come clean, you make the local paper.

Robert has some new AK stuff.

In an update to this post in which I said some California cops are upset to learn that the law applies to them too, I must take it back. I have correspondence from Mr. Duffy in which he states that he is in fact on the pro-gun side of things.

44 A bunch and counting! I am happy to report that the Gun Blogger Community over at TTLB now has several members. We even have a snazzy logo. Members are listed below. Any gun blogger wishing to join, drop me a note in comments or email me at the link in the top right corner of this page. Open to any pro-gun blogger.

Update: Growing quickly and I think I’ll stop counting until the smoke settles. Also, the tentative list is below the fold for now until it settles.

Read the rest of this entry »

There’s a blog that deals with Eminent Domain in Ardmore, PA. Give it a read. I do find it odd that the blog generally opposes eminent domain but is all for historic preservation. In my mind, property rights are property rights and they include the power to keep or dispose of. After all, if we wait long enough, all property will be historic.

David reports some California cops are upset to learn that the law applies to them too.

Who knew Cowboy Blob was a movie star?

Rich (who also knows my secret identity – say, is there anyone who doesn’t?) on anonymity:

When you create an internet identity, it becomes a character you play. Put enough work into it and it takes on a life of it’s own. You may find yourself saying and doing things you’d never imagine saying or doing in the real world. The freedom is exhilirating (sic), but like everything, there is a downside as well. Anonymity brings not only the freedom to say virtually anything, but also removes accountability, or at least pushes it step or two away.

And this can be a bad thing.

As I said before, I say nothing here I wouldn’t say to someone’s face. As for accountability, I am accountable to my readers. I don’t find this ‘yeah, but you’re anonymous’ schtick particularly convincing.

Apparently, it’s catchy. I’ll get one eventually, after I build all those ARs, a couple of AKs and an M1A. I’m not immune, I just have black rifle disease instead.

Another case of abusing eminent domain to take property from one private party to transfer to another:

A developer wants to buy a downtown Hollywood building that he says is critical to his multimillion Young Circle project, but the owner doesn’t want to sell.

Now, Hollywood leaders are considering using their legal muscle to take the property on behalf of Southern Facilities Development, which has a deal with the city to build retail space and about 200 condos above the historic Great Southern Hotel.

I am pleased to announce the Gun Bloggers Community over at the Truth Laid Bear. I have added everyone under the guns section of my blogroll and a few RTB members who do some gun posts to the list.

Entry into this community forum is open to all. Feel free to submit yourself by emailing me (click link in the top right corner) or leave a comment to this post. In the event you are not added immediately, don’t panic as it takes a while for the change to take effect. Also, if your site doesn’t have a RSS or XML feed, I don’t think it will work for you.

Thanks to TLB for setting this up.

Update: Oh, and I do ask that, if you’re a member, you link prominently the the Gunblogger Community.

The Commissar, who now is going by Stephen, rounds up the RINOs.

the RINO community page is here.

In light of Bubba’s outing and a few emails from folks on the subject, I feel the need to address this anonymity business. If you think this is the post in which I come clean, divulge a lot of stuff and reveal my alter ego, forget about it. Fat chance that will ever happen prominently on my blog for a few reasons:

1 – I don’t want my name associated with this site merely due to the big pain in the ass it could be. I don’t want people Googling me up and finding this place. I don’t want to meet people about town and have this ‘oh, you’re that guy’ conversation. I don’t want to turn away potential clients or other business people with whom I may disagree.

2 – I have a lot of guns. I don’t want someone figuring that they could track me down, break into my home, and score some stolen weaponry.

3 – I also, in the event I annoy the Hell out of someone, don’t want my family to feel the heat for this stuff.

People with this conception that I must be some anonymous shit-slinger out there hurling insults with no possibility of retribution who has something to hide are wrong. I try to keep it civil and clean and only occasionally call people idiots. I say nothing on this blog that I am ashamed of and I say nothing that I wouldn’t say to the faces of the people I criticize. Ask people who know me, I am pretty much an asshole in real life too. That said, there are plenty of people who know who I am (Bubba for one), including a local TeeVee guy. In the event I did something particularly stupid or grotesque, they could out me. I’m not completely anonymous but more pseudonymous.

Les (who also knows me) makes a very good point:

Anyone thinking of blogging anonymously should think about this situation and how they’d handle it. If you’re not prepared to do what Bubba did and reveal your identity when it’s being used as leverage against you, then you shouldn’t blog anonymously.

Indeed. But it wouldn’t be in a manner prominently displayed here. People who get criticized often (as in Bubba’s target in this instance) display a superiority complex over the fact that the person doing the criticizing is anonymous, as though that anonymity denotes a lack of credibility or something. Why? If someone is making legitimate points, address those points and not the fact you think some anonymous shit-slinger is hiding behind the keyboard flinging feces at you.

I noticed this in my pre-blog days when I commented over at the Metropulse’s blab. People would get snooty when I argued with them and fall back on the ‘oh yeah, well people know who I am.’ I don’t care who you are, I care about the point you’re making.

Or as Michael said:

I didn’t know until today who he is. But I know him through the quality of his blog. I could have found out. I know people who know him. I never asked who he is. I saw no compelling reason to out him. The question was even posed from time to time at the KNS whether we should try and out him, and the answer always came back to, “why?”

Also, let me alleviate this romanticized notion that I could potentially be someone important: I’m not. I’m just some regular Joe with a house in a subdivision. I’m nobody you’ve ever heard of. SayUncle is obviously not my real name. But SayUncle is very real and not going anywhere. I’m no coward and, in the event I get under your skin, drop me a line and we’ll talk. I got nothing to hide.

A must read letter over at Radley’s.

Guess 20,000 aren’t enough:

“Some gun laws have been repealed, the assault-weapon law expired, and many new gun laws have been enacted by Congress,” Korwin notes. “All told, we have 40 more statutes, for a total of 271 federal gun laws, a 17% increase in the past decade.” That is the true measure, Korwin says.

Alan Korwin is from Gunlaws.com.

Alphie has a good post on the supposed housing/real-estate bubble and its pending burst. I tend to disagree that there’s only normal growth in Tennessee. The supposed bubble has been very good to me personally. Like all good things, however, it will not last forever. The trick is to be prepared and, then, you could potentially benefit from it. A few things on the burst:

If you’re not in the game now, I’d say don’t bother. It has probably already peaked. It’s capital intensive to get into and directly tied to interest rates. Those rates are rising (though slowly) and short term loans can get you as they tend to be variable. Long term rates may not be worth it if they come with substantial closing costs. Also, material costs are rising (particularly concrete) and that combined with high rates aren’t good for anyone.

Be prepared for the burst. The smart money is in building up your capital, waiting for the burst, and buying up stuff on the cheap. Then moving into the renter game (see below).

Part of me is also inclined to believe the press is making this call way too early. My personal experience indicates that the trend will continue for a while longer, at least in East Tennessee. Cheap starter housing is becoming a thing of the past and houses that were formerly considered second to third homes are now considered starter homes. People don’t buy 1,100 square feet houses these days. The rental market for cheaper living is still around and a burst of the bubble would add fuel to this market. If people stop buying, they still need a place to crash.

This financial advice is worth what you paid for it.

Despite giving DiFi early air time in the piece, this is not a bad piece on the assault weapons ban (at least by California newspaper standards):

Feinstein said that the expiration of the ban she fought hard to get in 1994 “will have deadly consequences on the streets of America.”

But has it really made much of a difference? Are the streets less safe?

There is no hard evidence one way or another.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has no statistics that would show whether there’s been an uptick in sales of assault-style weapons, and the Department of Justice has no statistics that would show whether there’s been an increase in their use in crimes

Err, wouldn’t that last paragraph there be the evidence you were looking for in the second to last paragraph? More:

Gun manufacturers say their shops are busy, but only because the 10-year ban created pent-up demand for weapons with features that weren’t available.

“It’s changed our market a bit,” said Mark Westrom, president of Armalite, an Illinois company that produces the military-style weapons.

But Westrom said the company is not selling anywhere near the volume that many gun-control advocates had forecast.

“It’s a non-story,” he said.

Ayup.

Billll in comments:

Has anybody noticed that, based on news reports from around the world, that the terrorists weapon of choice is the automobile?

Or something. The Geek reports that the NRA busted the Brady campaign in a bald-faced lie. That isn’t unusual as I catch them lying all the time. However, this is lie in front of Congress:

On March 15, 2004, the “Brady Campaign” testified before the House Judiciary Committee in opposition to H.R. 800–”The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act”–federal legislation that would protect law-abiding firearm manufacturers from reckless, predatory, and potentially bankrupting lawsuits.

During testimony, the group attempted to bolster its argument by introducing a letter that listed five Nevada law enforcement officials who purportedly lent their names to the Brady’s effort to thwart the bill.

The Bradys and another anti-gun organization–the “Million Mom March”–even posted the opposition letter on their websites as a way to garner key support for their gun-banning efforts.

But, as it turns out (and not surprisingly), the Brady Campaign apparently added the sheriffs’ names to the letter without their knowledge or approval!

But, just like when CNN broke the law to peddle 50 caliber hysteria, nothing is likely to happen to them.

Not quite but look for more lines blurred between squatting and legitimate domain registration.

I’ve shown before my homemade magpulls in which I cut pieces of bicycle inner-tube and stretch them across the base of my AR mags. Well, here’s a new twist (heh!) on making them yourself.

Via Gunner.

A wannabe journalist at the local not-so-alt-weekly Metropulse named Brian Conley was threatening to out Bubba’s secret identity. Bubba beat him to the punch and published the info at his blog to indicate he wouldn’t be threatened by some little piss ant.

Anyway, the action was uncalled for and The Metropulse will no longer serve as packing material here at the Uncle house. And I will not support businesses that advertise there.

The Carnival of Cordite is up, rounding up the gun blogs. Guess they didn’t get my email.

Guess what I am currently the number one Canadian Google for?

Lining up to spend our money:

Gov. Phil Bredesen on Thursday traveled the state to formally sign a law allowing $25 million in lottery funds to fund a voluntary pre-kindergarten program in Tennessee that he hopes will one day be a national model.

This first installment is expected to be about 300 classrooms for some 6,000 poor or at-risk 4-year-olds. That would triple the number of children already served by a state pilot program, but still represents only a fraction of the estimated 37,000 disadvantaged pre-kindergartners in the state.

“We are going to continue growing this program to the point where every child in our state — every 4-year-old whose parents want to them to be in a program like this — has access to it. That is my goal,” the governor vowed.

We can’t get TennCare squared away, the scholarship money from the lottery is projected to fall short, and there will soon be calls (again) for an income tax. And what do we do? Spend more money on an unnecessary program. In a few years, we’ll be trying to find the money to save this failing program.

A ban proposed by James Moran to prohibit the export of 50 caliber rifles out of the country was killed. Speaking of Morans, the author of the piece (Andrew Taylor of the Ass. Press) writes:

The National Rifle Association and its allies in the House beat back an effort Thursday to restrict gun manufacturers’ exports of high-powered, .50-caliber rifles that can bring down jet airliners from a mile away.

So, Andrew Taylor you Moran, what do you press guys do? Just go to some anti-gun site and take their word for any ridiculous claim they make? Its almost impossible to hit a target that is a mile away, particularly when it is traveling over 400 MPH.

I concur:

“Perpetuity”. What a horrible word to be used by our government.

This Gitmo thing really disturbs me. I tend to think that if you’re going to hold someone that they should be accused of a crime or, since it’s a war, a war crime. Frankly, the Republican party leadership in this regard frightens me.

Via Michael Silence, the Humor Satire Community has some good stuff:

Michael Jackson To Celebrate At Chuck E. Cheese

U.S. Senate Apologizes to Dead People for Not Making Murder Illegal Enough

Speaking of communities, I think NZB needs to set up a Gun Blogging Community.

Michael Silence has an update and roundup to the gay camp story.

Xrlq, looking at the rules of the program, says:

Probably the most disgusting of these rules is Rule #9, which not only requires participants victims not only to put up with the abuse they’re subjected to day in and day out, they’re expected to like it and to thank their tormentors for the favor

Also, Egalia has much more.

Like most things on Al Gore’s internets there’s probably a little embellishment, but I still found it amusing:

I turn around every time I see them. I just do a 3-point turn on the road. It’s a free country, right?

Provides me with hours of entertainment. I get the watch them get all excited, running and diving into their cars, they burn rubber, fishtailing, lights flashing…

Then they pull me over and I don’t let them search, either. They get really annoyed at me when they ask why I turned around and I say, “oh, I forgot something at home, so I turned around to go get it.”

Sure, it wastes a lot of my time, but it lets a lot of other people go on with their day because usually it breaks up the roadblock because all the coppers have to chase me down — and I get entertainment because I refuse to allow them to do anything or intimidate me.

I’ve even had them threaten to arrest me, but when asked under what charges, they always hesitate and come back with something like “obstruction of justice.” I just laugh and they get more annoyed.

This was over at The Gun-Toting Liberal [yes, we do have those - ed.], a new addition to the blogroll.

The Christian Science Monitor, which is usually full of crap, has a fairly well-balanced piece on Denver’s pit bull ban:

Even supporters of the ban, such as Councilwoman Boigon, say that the problem does not include all pit bulls. But they note that generations of breeding the animals to be fighters have imbued the dogs with unpredictable violent tendencies.

“This is a strategy we have for managing a breed that is being encouraged to be aggressive,” she says.

The Humane Society of the United States opposes breed-specific bans such as Denver’s because the organization says many factors, including how the dogs are treated, determines violence.

“Breed is one part of what can go into whether a dog will bite,” says spokeswoman Stephanie Shain, “but pulling out that one piece of five or six things just does not make sense.”

Statements by some city officials that indicate pit bulls are favored by drug dealers and gang members have also stirred debate that the ban unfairly targets minority pet owners.

“We hear that a lot,” Kelley said of the racism charge. “We get pit bulls from all over the city. Nobody is targeted. The majority of pit bulls we pick up are a result of people calling us.”

They also note that more than 150 dogs have been put down. These dogs were, in some cases, taken by force from their owners. And Denver also has a Doggie Underground Railroad to get dogs out of the city:

They have passed out flyers and made phone calls to inform dogowners of the rescue network and potential safe houses until dogs can be relocated. If an animal control officer comes to the door before that, owners are urged to ask for a search warrant.

Volunteers estimate they have driven or referred about 20 pit bulls to the Mariah’s Promise Animal Sanctuary, including Zena and Dias’s own pet, Gryffindor.

It’s not uncommon for the powers that be to forget the public use portion of the fifth amendment but when they claim that the benefit is considered just compensation, they’re really reaching:

Kruses didn’t take $5,000 offered; now city says project benefits will be only payment

The city took the property to install a sewer:

Even though [city officials] offered the Kruses $5,000 for the property late last year hoping to avoid an expensive condemnation process – an offer the Kruses rejected – Water Resources Program Manager Ted Nitza said a cash payment now would be “inappropriate because we feel the benefits of the project (to the Kruses) exceeds the value of what was taken.”

It seems my hosting provider didn’t renew my domain name on time, so we were down for a bit. But we’re back.

Caught that show Hit Me Baby One More Time where they get some one (or two) hit wonders and have them do their hit and then later they do a new song. Let me tell ya that Wang Chung doing a Nelly tune absolutely rocked. Of course, being white, the guys from Wang Chung sped it up but that’s what white people do with music.

The Commissar is looking for RINOs but not the kind you’re thinking of. He writes:

For the past few weeks, I’ve been looking around for more secular conservative, or moderate blogs. RINO’s, if you will. Are RINO’s an endangered species? How can Conservative bloggers who might not want to drink the Party Kool-Aid on every single issue (ESCR, Schiavo, small government, fiscal responsibility, senatorial compromises, free markets/trade, just to name a few) find each other? Maybe you’re just concerned about rhetorical excesses by “our side.” Neo-libertarians and ‘little l’ libertarians welcome too.

He has created the RINO community at TTLB, which has a lot of new blog related features you should check out.

The new group of Raging RINOs advise that you not drink the party Kool Aid. Of course, I think the name Vast Moderate Right Wing Conspiracy has a better ring to it.

Walther P22 listed as an assault weapon.

For the last two years, the Walther P22 has been legally sold under California state law, recognized by the state’s DOJ Automated Firearm System. Now, they contend that the weapon meets the ambiguous restrictions identifying assault weapons, and as a result have issued an ultimatum to owners of the weapon located in the state that if they do not send the firearm back to the manufacturer for modification they will face criminal prosecution.

In August of 2006, Tennessee will have a sales tax holiday. This will be that special time of year where, for an entire weekend, the powers that be acknowledge that sales taxes in Tennessee are ridiculously high and people need a break. If you buy a car during the holiday, you could save a few thousand bucks.

I, of course, advocate buying some guns. But they won’t be exempt because, as with most tax benefit schemes, those without children in school will probably get screwed:

Tax-free items will include clothes and school supplies costing $100 or less, and computers costing $1500 or less. The sales tax holiday does not include software, fashion accessories or sports equipment.

Guess that means no cars, too.