In what is likely to become a regular act of social resistance another Supreme Court Judge is going to lose some land, if the Libertarian party gets it’s way.

PLAINFIELD, N.H. (AP) – Libertarians upset about a Supreme Court ruling on eminent domain have proposed seizing Justice Stephen G. Breyer’s vacation home and turning it into a park, echoing efforts aimed at another justice who lives in the state.
The state’s Libertarian Party is trying to collect enough signatures to go before the town next spring to ask to use Breyer’s 167-acre property for a “Constitution Park” with stone monuments to commemorate the U.S. and New Hampshire constitutions.

Makes a man almost feel sorry for the modern plight of the soon to be homeless.

Via Eric, comes this:

Walgreen Co. has agreed to pay $1.3 million to settle claims it broke state and federal laws by failing to monitor sales of over-the-counter cold medicine that can be used to make methamphetamine, authorities said Thursday.

The company also agreed to spend $1 million to monitor purchases of this medicine. It did not admit to any wrongdoing.

This was because a few stores were out of compliance. Tennessee just passed such a law recently. How long before they go after stores who make a few oversights? Maybe that’s why Target doesn’t carry baby medicine?

TriggerFinger:

Illinois has decided to close a loophole that doesn’t exist. The governor has signed a law requiring “unlicensed [gun] dealers” to conduct background checks on potential purchasers. The problem is, there’s no such thing as an unlicensed dealer — either you are a dealer (in which case, you should be federally licensed) or you are a private seller (in which case, you need not be). There’s some question as to where the dividing line between those two categories should be, but if the BATFE thinks you’re a dealer and you aren’t licensed, they will try to put you in jail.

The term unlicensed dealer doesn’t have a hard and fast definition and is subject to wiggle room (and abuse, in some cases) by the ATF.

Gun Laws of America is a book that has all the gun laws in the country and translates lawyer into English.

The Carnival of Cordite is up!

James has pics of what is the result of a pit bull vs. porcupine match (pics are not for the squeamish). Somewhere, there is a naked porcupine. James wonders if it’s real. I thought it was possible as bully type dogs aren’t exactly known for giving up.

Jay emails that Snopes says it is real. But it’s a bull terrier.

Junior has the sniffles. The Mrs. called the pediatrician to ask what to do about it and he stated to give her the orange Triaminic. No problem since she was going to Target anyway to pick up other stuff. While there The Mrs. discovers that, because Triaminic is now regulated like Sudafed since someone might use it to make Meth instead of for baby sniffles, Target has stopped carrying it. Too big a hassle.

Is it just me, or is it getting awful stupid in here?

I’m all for it. There are so many stupid laws that need to be struck down. The fact remains that juries are often mislead, lied to, and bullied by the powers that be. Radley Balko addresses jury nullification in this FoxNews piece:

The doctrine of jury nullification (search) rests on two truths about the American criminal justice system: (1) Jurors can never be punished for the verdict they return, and (2) Defendants cannot be retried once a jury has found them not guilty, regardless of the jury’s reasoning. So the juries in both the Rosenthal and Paey cases could have returned a “not guilty” verdict, even though Paey and Rosenthal were undoubtedly guilty of the charges against them.

This may sound radical, perhaps even subversive, but jury nullification serves as an important safeguard against unjust laws, as well as against the unfair application of well-intended laws. It’s also steeped in American and British legal tradition.

Patterico dissents from Balko’s endorsement of jury nullification, noting:

In a competent judge’s courtroom, all jurors are asked if they are willing to follow the law, regardless of whether they agree with it. They must answer this question in the affirmative or they cannot sit as jurors. And they must answer this question under oath.

Rendering a verdict is following the law, though I’m certain he means a juror states they are willing to convict based on the law. I disagree with his conclusion because, at some point, someone has to stand up and state that something is unjust, unfair, or just fucking stupid. And, given that jurors are often kept in the dark regarding lots of things, it’s not like jury nullification is really an issue. Though I do wish it was. I also wish we had Congressional nullification.

Update: Good debate going on in the comments at Patterico’s, if you’re into that sort of thing. Apparently, California lawyers don’t like it.

Gunner reports the story of a single, elderly woman who didn’t think that a policeman at her door acted like a policeman because he was unprofessional and, apparently, stupid. She closed the door on him and called 911. She was charged with misdemeanor obstructing and delaying.

Rob notes the NRA anticipates other amendments to be added to the gun immunity bill, that include banning .50 caliber rifles, certain types of ammunition, gun shows, and semi-automatics. If these amendments are added, the bill should be killed. Depending on how badly the NRA wants the immunity bill, it may not ask to kill the bill. After all, the NRA sold gun owners out in 1994 because it cared more for the NICS than it did for gun rights.

Rob also says:

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has lived up to his word . . .

I thought Frist’s word was an up or down vote on the single bill.

Heh.

More anti-gun wish lists are hitting the immunity bill:

Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., agreed late Thursday to allow debate on amendments to the measure Friday. One, sponsored by Sen. Jon Corzine, D-N.J., would make police officers exceptions to the bill’s restrictions, allowing them to sue. Another, sponsored by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., would do the same for children.

Yes, because frivolous lawsuits should be allowed for the children and police. Simple fact is, the dealers either act within the law or do not.

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., introduced an amendment that would ban hollow-tipped, “cop killer” bullets. Another, sponsored by Sen. Jack Reed , D-R.I., would allow individuals, but not municipalities, to file such lawsuits.

Uhm, what are hollow-tipped, “cop killer” bullets. I thought the lie about cop-killer bullets was that they penetrate body armor, which hollow points do not. A ban on hollow points would end hunting as most states prohibit full metal jacketed rounds for hunting large game. Coincidentally, handgun ammo designed to pierce vests is already banned. And allowing individuals to file suit is the same as not passing the law.

The RTB page is up and running with many new features. The latest is the old three column aggregator. Check it out.

Also, if you consider yourself a member, please link to the main page or we’ll be forced to give you a ticket.

Cool interview with the author of Bully: It’s the Pits, which is a celebration of everything Pit Bull. Oddly, it ends with:

It got hold of one of his tapes and went crazy. Later that day, his mom went to walk the dog and ended up having to pull 90 minutes of tape out of the dog’s ass.

Knoxville’s local satire site, Knoxpatch, has a lot of funny stuff. Go read. Here’s a taste:

Knoxville school board agrees supplemental pay to coaches more important than education

Sort of neat as I got a media inquiry about Gunbloggers and The Rocky Top Brigade. Having a blog is neat because you don’t really have to come up with anything new as your response can be to shamelessly quote yourself. Well, that’s what I did.

WBIR:

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is creating an Internet registry of people convicted of making the powerful illegal stimulant methamphetamine.

Beginning in September county officials statewide will begin sending the TBI the names and addresses of anyone convicted of making meth. The registry would join the existing online listing of sex offenders.

Judge takes a swipe at Bush:

U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour said the successful prosecution of Ahmed Ressam should serve not only as a warning to terrorists, but as a statement to the Bush administration about its terrorism-fighting tactics.

“We did not need to use a secret military tribunal, detain the defendant indefinitely as an enemy combatant or deny the defendant the right to counsel,” he said Wednesday. “The message to the world from today’s sentencing is that our courts have not abandoned our commitment to the ideals that set our nation apart.”

Les has some history on the town I call home. Interesting reading.

Being a libertarian in spirit I have read many times the comeback that without the laws there would be anarchy and chaos.

But would there be chaos?

Kiev, Ukraine – Ever wonder what would happen if traffic cops were done away with and you could drive any way you wanted?

In Ukraine, less than a month ago, that’s what happened and things are pretty much just fine.
………………
From his subordinates Yushchenko demanded – and received – a plan to dissolve the DAI and by the beginning of July the deed was done, the executive order signed.

Ukraine’s once-feared traffic police ceased to exist.
………………
“If we received $300 or 400 a month we would do our jobs perfectly,” he said, “but now, with no police out there, our roads will become slaughterhouses.”

But that’s not the way it turned out. Drivers in the Ukrainian provincial cities of Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk and Lviv reported traffic was moving quite normally and most drivers were obeying regulations, even though there were few, if any, traffic cops around to enforce them.

“Just like people have been driving before, breaking the rules when they can, they’re driving now,” said Arnold Shapyro, an Odessa taxi driver.

“The difference is that now the traffic cops aren’t hassling us.”

Give us more money and we would do our job right. The chant heard from police and other public service employees across this country. I never bought it and never will.

Maybe, just maybe, we can rule ourselves. Original idea there people!

A reader emails this link. Note the caption to the pic.

Update: Once you click the link, they do note that it is at the Knob Creek Machine Gun shoot. So maybe they are automatics.

Update 2: The reader, who said it was ignorance and not bias, writes:

DAMMIT, I THOUGHT I HAD SOMETHING THERE! Hahah … Well what’s that one over on the right? [looks like an M1 carbine to me - ed.]

But wait a second, if those really ARE automatics, then it’s not ignorance, it IS bias—because what the hell does a picture of some guys with automatic rifles have to do with a story about requiring safety locks on HANDGUNS, if not to confuse the issue and make people think of “really scary things?”

So whether they are are auto, or semi-auto, it’s bias or ignorance

The AP:

Mulling legislation to shield the gun industry from some lawsuits, the Senate on Thursday approved a provision requiring a separate child safety lock with each handgun purchase.

They all pretty much come with locks anyway but:

Added to the bill 70-30, the language proposed by Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., is the first that majority Republicans have allowed to come to the floor. Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said he might allow others.

I suggest you start calling your Senators now and telling them not to add any gun control riders.

A candidate for sheriff in Memphis, John Harvey, has a blog. His first entry is Why is Memphis the 2nd most dangerous Metro area in the US?

Been a while since I had a science class but what I recall of my elementary school days about magnets is that they have a positive and negative side. A positive will stick to a negative but two same-charged sides won’t stick together. Meaning positive won’t stick to positive and negative won’t stick to negative. At least, that’s how I recall.

Junior has one of those Magna Doodles that has three pieces with one side of a magnet exposed (square, triangle, circle) for imprinting shapes onto the Magna Doodle. I take two magnets each of which only has one side exposed and the other side is covered by plastic (we’ll say circle and square) and they stick together. I conclude that one exposed side must be positive and one exposed side must be negative. However, I touch both exposed sides to the triangle separately, and they both stick to it. This had me understandably puzzled.

Is there some new kind of gay magnet or something?

Update: Edited for clarity. Stupid grammar.

Have you noticed that gas prices are up? I thought we went to war for cheap oil. We’re getting screwed.

Joe has some updates regarding him being fired from PNNL for his pro-gun political views.

Kudos to Tennessee Reps John Tanner, Harold Ford Jr., and John J. Duncan Jr. for voting against the PATRIOT Act. Says Duncan:

“I believe federal prosecutors and law enforcement personnel have more than enough power already. They are spending far too much money with far too little to show for it.”

Ayup.

Via Michael, comes Flex Your Rights, which is a guide for dealing with police searches. Definitely, a must read.

It’s a question we gunnies are often asked. Often, anti-gunnies ask why we need AR-15s, .50 Calibers, regular capacity magazines, etc. My response is usually: What’s need got to do with it? However, Head brings up a very good point. Why do the police need a belt-fed squad automatic weapon? I don’t think they train police to lay down covering fire since they’re trained to minimize the risk of damage to passers-by.

Looks like the schools of my hometown are one step closer to banning the Confederate flag at the school and its sporting events.

When your gun laws aren’t quite working out the way you plan, the best course of action is to blame other people. Eric, who is all over the lies about the gun immunity bill perpetuated by the media, also notes that the South must be to blame for gun crime problems in the north.

Additionally, Ravenwood notes that the recent eruption of gun violence in Toronto is also the fault of America. He also asks: So where are the other half coming from? Greenland?

To RTB’s own Mark for a mention in the WaPo.

The senate is set to pass the gun immunity bill and without attaching riders:

Gun control advocates in the U.S. Senate, unable to halt a bill that would shield the firearms industry from some lawsuits, tried unsuccessfully on Wednesday to put some gun safety measures in the measure.

Those would not have been gun safety measures but would have been gun control measures.

With a clear majority of the Senate backing it, the “Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act” appears set to pass the Senate within the next few days. It is a top priority of the National Rifle Association, the influential gun lobby, and the White House has strongly endorsed it.

We’re winning.

May be the dumbest thing I’ve seen in a while:

An 11-year-old girl who threw a stone at a group of boys pelting her with water balloons is being prosecuted on serious assault charges in California.

Maribel Cuevas was arrested in April in a police operation which involved three police cars and a helicopter.

She has since spent five days in detention, in which she was granted one 30 minute visit by her parents, and has spent a month under house arrest.

Cars, helicopters, arrest and detainment. I’m glad the authorities have taken care of this violent criminal. Seriously, they got nothing better to do?

And it’s a pretty bad one too:

“The president and his right-wing Supreme Court think it is ‘okay’ to have the government take your house if they feel like putting a hotel where your house is,” Dean said, not mentioning that until he nominated John Roberts to the Supreme Court this week, Bush had not appointed anyone to the high court.

Dean’s reference to the “right-wing” court was also erroneous. The four justices who dissented in the Kelo vs. New London case included the three most conservative members of the court – Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Associate Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was the fourth dissenter.

The court’s liberal coalition of Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer combined with Justice Anthony Kennedy to form the majority opinion, allowing the city of New London, Conn., to use eminent domain to seize private properties for commercial development.

The Minutemen have rejected the idea of working under the direction of the .gov and vow to remain independent of government supervision.

No time to go to high power matches? No problem:

The second title in the NRA Shooting Sports Game Series, NRA High Power Competition, was released today by Interactive Sports Entertainment and Marketing, Inc. “ISE”(formerly Speedco Shooting Sports, Inc.). NRA High Power Competition brings all of the fun and competition of one of the most popular forms of military style competitive shooting to the home computer.

A true-to-life simulation of high power rifle shooting, NRA High Power Competition provides valuable resources which teach the rules, procedures and safety of the sport. Grant Ubl, top-ranked, competitive shooter and owner of two major long range shooting websites, long-range.com and nationalmatch.us, states, “Imagine training juniors with this game before they ever fire a live round… Think of how much this will shorten their learning curve!”

Players can shoot highly detailed civilian versions of three military service rifles (M-16, M-14, M-1 Garand) as well as three sophisticated match rifles. The game includes advanced ballistics modeling and true-to-life reloading (hand loading) systems using products from many of the industry’s top manufacturers, a few of which include Springfield Armory and Bushmaster Firearms, as well as leading powder, bullet and accessory companies.

Players can use the career system to track their progress towards becoming High Master in local competitions, state championships and national championships. NRA High Power Competition can also be played against the comprehensive artificial intelligence mode which will pit the player’s individual skills against some of the most competitive shooters in the world, or can be played online for the ultimate challenge. Collect gear and tune your ammunition to your rifle for the ultimate accuracy.

David Codrea on a recent KABA poll that denotes overwhelming support for Judge Roberts:

Can KABA point to any meaningful indicators on Judge Roberts’ sentiments on the Second Amendment? Unless something new has been disclosed that I’m out of the loop on, even NRA, with all its Washington connections and insider information has been mum on the subject of Roberts and guns.

Here’s what we do know:

Hillary is reported to be ready to confirm him. Feinstein is “impressed” with him. Schumer’s only 2A-related concern is whether or not he agrees with a prior high court decision to overturn the “Gun Free School Zones Act.”

I’ve given Jon Stewart grief before for going easy on Kerry, Gillespie, and others. And for lying about guns. Last night, I watched it on the Tivo and Jon Stewart was a total pussy with respect to his interview with Santorum. It was almost painful to watch. You could tell Stewart wanted to lean into him but apparently he lacked the balls to do so.

It’s not often that the local newspaper writes something that gets the SayUncle seal of approval. But this time, the editorial board gets one right:

Seizure laws out of control

It’s probably fitting that extortion charges against two Loudon County deputies were dropped.
After all, they weren’t the extortionists – we were.

The deputies seized $9,649 from a motorist they suspected of being a drug dealer. Forget the fact that no drugs were collected.

Our seizure laws don’t trifle with such details as evidence. They operate on the great American proposition that a citizen is guilty until proven innocent – if the cops say so.

They can take your car, house and money without due process of law and without a jury trial. Glad to see a media outlet point that out.

John Cole notes the Democrat’s new strategery of moving to the center will be bloody:

The Democratic Leadership Council, an organization of influential party moderates, named Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton today to direct a new initiative to define a party agenda for the 2006 and 2008 elections.

The appointment solidified the identification of Clinton, once considered a champion of the party’s left, with the centrist movement that helped propel her husband to the White House in 1992. It also continued her effort, which has accelerated in recent months, to present herself as a moderate on issues such as national security, immigration and abortion.

I don’t know that this does much for the perception that Democrats flip-flop. And the lefties don’t like it. Bill Quick points out that those further left are eating their own:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s call for an ideological cease-fire in the Democratic Party drew an angry reaction yesterday from liberal bloggers and others on the left, who accused her of siding with the centrist Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) in a long-running dispute over the future of the party.

There are a growing number of people that historically vote Republican (ahem, me) who are dissatisfied enough with the Republicans that the Democrats could maybe capitalize on. They failed to do that in 2002 and 2004. I’m not certain that this image change will convince us unless they’re serious about really reconsidering their position on issues like guns, property rights, taxes and the war.

First, they should tell Dean to shut the hell up. Secondly, stop inviting Michael Moore to their little get togethers. And, third, pick someone more charismatic than John Kerry and Hillary Clinton to be their moderate voice.

Jeff has the weekly check on bias against gun.

The Metropulse penned a crap editorial about the Kelo decision. Rich rips Conley a new one for it.

Prehistoric porn kinda sucks.

Are you scared yet? Read the whole thing.

Regarding the bid to take Justice Souter’s home in order to put a hotel there, Kira Zalan reports:

A day after the Kelo decision was delivered, Freestar Media LLC submitted a proposal in the town of Weare, New Hampshire where majority opinion writer, Justice Souter, owns a farm house. They requested that the town board condemn the land and give it to them, as private developers, who promise to construct the Lost Liberty Hotel in its place. Their tax revenue would no doubt be higher than the reported $2,500 that Justice Souter paid in property taxes last year. It would create employment and attract tourism. The town has a website, and an economic development committee, which has identified its two main goals: 1) Encourage the formation of new businesses, and 2) Promote tourism. However, contrary to its stated goals and the legally sanctioned purpose of economic development, the town’s board turned down the proposal.

Governments rarely take homes from rich dudes with political pull.

Update: I will predict her blog will be popular soon. Hopefully, it won’t end with the same result last time I made such a prediction.

Joe Huffman was fired from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) for exercising his first and second amendment rights. You can read Joe’s story here. You can help Joe by going here.

I was privy to an advanced copy of his story and it’s pretty damning in its claims.

Seriously, read this unsigned editorial. There’s an email address at the bottom but to save you time it’s voicers@edit.nydailynews.com.

Apparently, Democrats are supporting the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.

In my hometown, there has been much discussion about the local high school banning the Confederate Flag at events. Actually, they’ve banned all flags and symbols. The Confederate flag has been a tradition for a while since they’re known as the Rebels. I’ve heard they got the name Rebels because there was a time when football wasn’t allowed and they kept the team anyway.

Tonight at the school board meeting, they’ll discuss the ban. Apparently a large group of folks plan on being there to tell the school board exactly how stupid this is.

Harold Ford, Jr. kinda, sorta almost gets it right:

I support periodic review of any restrictions on the freedoms and rights of Tennesseans and Americans alike. It is unnecessarily intrusive to ask Americans to forfeit rights and freedoms indefinitely. I took the conservative approach and voted against this indefinite and liberal overreach by the federal government into our private lives.

Actually, it is unconstitutional to suspend our rights in general, forget intrusive. He notes he did not support permanently expanding the PATRIOT Act.

Update: Too bad he gets one completely wrong:

The community-rights-trump-individual-rights crowd cheered the [Kelo] decision. “We have a lot of properties in my city [Memphis],” said Rep. Harold Ford, D-Tenn., ” . . . that are crying out for development. . . . I’ve always been one to believe that individual rights is a big thing [but] there is some real value to this

When it comes to AK refinishing, my thoughts have always been Why bother? It’s an AK. Head tells us how to refinish them and give them that new gun smell.

Cowboy Blob has the skinny on stuff to take to the range.

I’ve been tagged by a blog meme. The meme asks what is on my nightstand. Pretty simple stuff, actually. Here goes:

A picture of my daughter eating Oreos.
A poem my wife wrote to me the day before our wedding.
A ceramic pig holding up a heart with XX OO written on it.
A couple of books I’ll apparently never finish.
A lamp.
Cell phone.
Telephone (land line).
A Surefire G2 Nitrolon flash light. It’s a good light. It will light up your life and temporarily blind someone.
A Glock 30 and extra magazine.
Kershaw pocket knife.
A glass of water.
Keys, wallet, watch, and wedding band.

I think that’s it.

I’m also supposed to tag five other bloggers and get them to reveal what’s on their nightstand, so here they are:

Ravenwood
Phelps
Head
Marc
The Geek

DPMS made lower receiver parts kits for the AR-15: $48.

The text of the bill to ban regular capacity magazines is over at Gun Law News.

With the fact that those evil libertarian minded people are trying to seize Judge Souter’s home you would feel that the good folks in the town he lives in would rally behind him and try to protect his homestead.

Nope.

Town Clerk Evelyn Connor has had to return checks from people wishing to donate to a hotel construction fund. A rival proposal from townspeople would turn Souter’s land into a park commemorating the U.S. Constitution.

You have to know you messed up when your own neighbors turn against you.

John Cahill:

I like to remind my Republican friends that the roots of the Brady Campaign are Republican to the core. I do it just to get them backpedaling after some dig about Democrats hating guns. I may also remind them that the original 1993 Assault Weapon Ban amendment could not have passed without Republican votes because eight Democrats voted NO and two of the eight were Nevada Senators Reid and Bryan.

He also caught the Brady Bunch lying through their collective teeth:

The Brady Campaign testified on March 15, 2006 [Update: I'm sure they mean 2005 - Ed.], at the House Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law, against H.R. 800. This testimony included opposition to companion Senate legislation S. 397. Part of that testimony was a letter purported to be from several national Law Enforcement organizations opposing Gun Liability reform. The letter was published on the web along with Brady’s record of testimony. The letter carried a list of 66 individually named Sheriffs and Police Chiefs of major cities. Six of the names listed were Nevada Chiefs or Sheriffs. My Sheriff was included.

I made contact with my Sheriff through a ranking officer in the Department. He remembered getting a briefing from the Brady organization at a State meeting but didn’t remember that our Sheriff had signed any letter. Later my Sheriff responded directly and personally to an email saying he was checking facts on the whole matter.

About that time the National Rifle Association’s NRA-ILA issued an alert to email subscribers in Nevada and urged those citizens to contact the Law Enforcement Officers who signed the letter and ask them to reconsider their opposition. Nevada Sheriffs are elected and Chiefs are appointed by elected officials. That’s a good thing.

Following the NRA Alert, all of the feedback I was able to track indicated that not one of the Nevada Law Enforcement Officers listed had signed the letter or authorized the use of his name. My info now is that every one of the six has demanded his name be removed and two penned letters of support for S.397.

The new site for the Rocky Top Brigade is up. Head on over and check it out. We have a lot of features, like a main page feed that lists recent entries made on RTB blogs, which I think is most excellent.

Rich has been gracious enough to create an RTB message board.

Some brigadiers have not updated their email info and such. If you still consider yourself a member, you may want to give me updated info. Here’s a link to the help/how-to section.

And to join the RTB, go here.

I’d like to thank Johnny for doing all this. And Barry for contributing a great many ideas.

Turns out the guy that the London police shot wasn’t a terrorist. Just some Brazilian guy. On the assumption that the police correctly identified themselves, the guy should not have ran. However, if the coppers failed to adequately identify themselves, there will (and should be) Hell to pay.

Marc has more.

Congrats to Ravenwood, who is now contributing to the Dumb Criminals website.

Michael Silence on The Big Chill:

A Cleveland editor was holding back on some big stories due to fear of federal prosecution.

There’s more. He concludes with:

In sum, that ain’t daylight at the end of the tunnel.

Ayup.

He also notes a Federal Agency (guess which one) violated privacy protections.

CounterTop has the latest on what we secular conservative sorts are yammering on about.

As far as I can tell, here are the facts. Meleia Willis-Starbuck was hanging out with friends. Some guys decided to hit on them and it didn’t go well. The guys called them bitches. Meleia Willis-Starbuck then, allegedly, calls some friends to do a drive-by shooting on the dudes who called her and her friends bad words. Meleia Willis-Starbuck is shot during this drive-by. And here’s the press coverage, in which it’s called a tragedy:

“No one blames anyone in this,” said Perkins, who spoke at the memorial service and was prepared to speak on Wilson’s behalf in the courtroom. “We are all caught in this matrix created by too many handguns.”

Actually, I do. I blame whoever decided that doing a drive-by because someone’s language offended them. More:

Those who attended the memorial were asked to wear purple wristbands symbolizing the effort to end domestic violence, one of Willis-Starbuck’s causes.

Uhm, how about not doing drive-by shootings?

Update: Meanwhile, Phelps keeps it real.

BB guns are not toys. They should be treated like any other gun.

Been a big month for Junior. She’s off the bottle and up to the sippy cup. She’s also walking, which me and the Mrs. figure makes her a toddler now and no longer a baby. Neat stuff. More importantly: We were watching Headbanger’s Ball yesterday and that tune Color of Money by Bury Your Dead (who happen to kick ass, by the way) came on. I started giving it the white-boy-head-bop. Junior chimed in with her own head-bop. My girl can head bang! Excellent.

Number five is up. Give it a read.

Kirk has made a SayUncle link button! Pretty sharp looking:

The Carnival of Cordite is up.

In part one I linked to a press release that mentioned a study I have never heard of before. One that showed resisting crime was normally to the good of the victim. After a call to Minnesota and a few more to Florida I finally got my hands on the report.

Resisting Crime: The effects of victim action on the outcome of crimes
Jonhgeon Tark
Gary Kleck
Florida State University

When I talked to Mr. Kleck I asked him if he was surprised at the results he found especially when the police and press have always said that resisting leads to more violence.
His reply of “No, Not at all” surprised me. He went on that he had done other studies and research projects and findings elsewhere have shown that resisting normally lead to less injury to the victim.

The report starts by showing how data was recorded and interpreted. Then the results are shown. The results are shown in chart form and good explanations throughout.

But it is words in the conclusion that raised my eyebrows.

It is in this light that we offer tentative advice to victims. While there are exceptional situations, victims resistance is usually either successful or inconsequential, and on the rare occasion that it is harmful, it is rarely seriously so. There fore unless there are circumstances that clearly indicate resistance will lead to significant harm, the evidence reported in this paper indicates that some form of resistance should be the path generally taken.

Now this goes in the face of all the police and media have always said. The chanting from them that resisting will only lead to more violence does not stand up to the light of a university study.

He also says something that every second amendment activist should read.

Various kinds of forceful victim protective behavior, such as threatening the offender with a gun or other weapon, show the strongest negative coefficients, though none are significant. A conservative interpretation would be that armed and other forceful resistance does not appear to increase the victim’s risk of injury.

Again against everything told by the police and media.

He ends the report with this

Future research might bring better evidence that contradicts these conclusions. At present, however, the best available evidence indictaes that victim resistance is generally wise.

The report is a good read, even though some of the breakdown material did confuse me a bit. I have it on a PDF file(7.9mb) and will send it to anyone who wants a copy. Drop me a line at “noquartersblog ***at*** yahoo ***dot*** com” and I will send a copy your way.

Justin Buist has kindly hosted it on his server for those who want a copy. Here it is for your reading pleasure
.
Note: I have gotten back a MAILER-DAEMON failure notice on one email I sent out. If you requested a copy and have not received it yet please email me.

Barry’s gonna be on TeeVee tomorrow.

In an update to this post on the Iraqi constitution, it looks like the draft Iraqi constitution has taken some of that anti-Israeli language out, though not all.

The Anti-Large Capacity Ammunition Feeding Device Act of 2005 is in process.

Refuse to be a victim of suicide bombers.

Via Analog Kid.

Gunner is watching the PATRIOT Act and notes that, while protecting our northern border, that:

The thing is there is no like section that mentions the southern border. It took me only a few seconds to realize something. There is no giant Canadian voting block, while there is a Hispanic voting block.

He also points to attempts to ban .50 Calibers and to an effort to prohibit people on watch lists from buying guns.

Additionally, a provision has been added to expand contraband cigarettes to include smokeless tobacco.

Lastly, he notes his rep, Bart Gordon, has misled about his support for the Patriot act.

In this post, I wrote:

First, warning shots are always illegal. Second, shooting to wound is usually illegal.

Pawpaw has taken me to task and notes:

… train yourself that you will only shoot someone to compel him to stop doing a certain action. In short, you want to Shoot to Stop. We don’t shoot to kill, nor shoot to wound, but shoot to stop.

I concur. I should have clarified that I meant intentionally shooting to wound to the extent that it is not shooting to stop or kill. Meaning that if you intentionally shoot some one in the leg, your story to the cops shouldn’t be that you didn’t want to kill that person so you shot him in the leg. It should be you shot to stop.

Looks like Blount County is taking another stab at passing a wheel tax:

Homemade signs, honking horns and a standing-room-only crowd at the Blount County Commission meeting Thursday could not kill the wheel tax.

Commissioners voted 11-9 to refer it to the Financial Management Committee, “where it should have gone to begin with,” said Commissioner Donna Dowdy.

A wheel tax, which failed in December and again in February, was back on the commission’s agenda this month, though there was no corresponding resolution setting an amount or a designation for revenues.

Despite the ambiguity — or perhaps because of it — the wheel tax sparked a rally from the anti-tax group Citizens for Blount County’s Future. About 20 tax foes staked out points around the courthouse for an hour prior to the commission meeting, encouraging other tax opponents to honk horns in protest of a wheel tax. One wore a bumper sticker proclaiming Blount County “the most crooked little county in the South.”

Patterico notes that congress is looking to expand daylight savings time by four weeks. I’m with Patterico, make it year round.

Side note: That really requires and act of Congress? By what authority does congress regulate time? I guess because commerce must occur in time or some such other silliness.

And some stock in gun companies. Investment advice from The Street.

Cowboy Blob’s friend reviews the Kel-Tec Sub2000 9mm Carbine.

Cowboy Blob tells us that the MechTech sucks.

Mr. Completely reviews the Hi Point 9MM carbine.

And when you’re done, have some pickled cole slaw.

John Cole notes some conservatives who aren’t happy with Roberts:

President Bush promised us a Scalia or Thomas. Instead, he has nominated a man who helped big government trample the rights of property owners. Forcing businesses to advertise competing products is wrong. Telling land owners you have not stolen their land because they can still pay taxes on it is wrong.

And Keep and Bear Arms notes that Roberts has made political contributions to anti-gun candidates.

In Oregon, you may soon need a doctor’s prescription for Sudafed:

Oregon would be the first state in the nation to fight the spread of methamphetamine by requiring prescriptions for some cold medications under legislation that passed the House on Wednesday.

The 55-4 vote sent House Bill 2485 to the Senate, which unanimously approved a companion bill with stiffer penalties against makers of meth, an illegal stimulant, if children or seniors are present at houses used as labs.

Both chambers also approved $7.1 million in spending for added investigations and prosecutions of drug-makers and treatment of addicts.

In Tennessee, pharmacies are required to keep it behind the counter and ask for ID. Readers have reported to me that they even write down your driver license number. This is pretty stupid.

Now, that Sudafed commercial will get ridiculous. Instead of people coming in and the guy saying Aisle five, he’ll have to start asking for blood samples.

Via Radley comes news that congress is looking to tax porn websites at 25%. And more:

Portions of the draft point to age-verification requirements on “regulated pornographic” websites. The requirements include using Federal Trade Commission-approved age-verification software packages that check the age of visitors before they are shown adult content.

I’d link to the source but it’s not safe for work.

Chuck notes a bill in the Alabama assembly that expands circumstances that justify deadly force. Here’s the bill.

London police shot a man who was wearing heavy coat. According to the radio, witnesses report they chased the man and he fell. Police then held him down and then someone shot him. Could be bad. If he was actually a bomber, good. However, if he was just some smart-ass in a heavy coat, this could be some bad joo-joo.

Regarding yesterday’s bombs, I think Mike may have the most accurate take on it:

Details are still a bit fuzzy, but it’s clear now that four would-be suicide bombers attacked three trains and a bus in London today. None of their devices worked as planned; apparently they detonated but each produced only a small blast, just large enough to tear apart the backpacks they were hidden in and to break a few windows on the bus. Only a handful people were injured.

I’ll go out on a limb here and assume that is was the detonators which exploded, but that the main charges failed to go off.

I am very distressed that so many people have been quick to dismiss this as the work of amateurs or copycats. To be blunt, that’s just nonsense. These guys are arguably more capable and even better organized than the 7/7 bombers just two weeks ago. And all of them are reportedly still at large.

Read the whole thing.

Heh:

Profanity is the inevitable linguistic crutch of the inarticulate motherfucker.

From the comments at Chris’ place.

Fox News says so:

Three London Underground stations were evacuated at midday Thursday, and the London police commissioner confirmed that four explosions occurred in the subway and on a bus. The Fire Brigade was investigating a report of smoke at one station.

State Senator Tim Burchett says something stupid:

During WATE’s TennCare town hall meeting Tuesday night, state Sen. Tim Burchett (R-Knoxville) said Wal-Mart shares some of the blame for the TennCare crisis.

“A large percentage of their employees are on TennCare and I’d like to see them use some of their profits to support some of their people, and things like that,” Burchett said.

Support it by paying payroll and income taxes? Support it by collecting sales taxes? They already do that. A Wal-Mart rep responds:

6 News talked with a company spokesman several times Wednesday. He issued a statement: saying, “The company does not encourage associates to apply for public assistance, nor does Wal-Mart design plans to be subsidized by it.”

Sympathetically, the reporter chimes in with:

But what about Scotty? Remember, he was already on TennCare. Does Wal-Mart encourage its employees to stay on public assistance, as opposed to enrolling in the company’s plan?

What actual experts say about .50 calibers:

The M107 is the Army’s first semi-automatic .50 Cal sniper weapon system. Soldiers will be able to effectively engage multiple material targets, such as parked aircraft, light armored vehicles, and computers at distances of up to 2000 meters.

I would think if a selling point was shooting planes out of the sky, the article would mention that. And congrats to Barrett Rifles on the military deal.

Robert reports some good news from the ATF:

ATF was recently advised by the Department of State that its Bureau of Political Military Affairs will now, on a case-by-case basis, permit the retransfer of U.S. manufactured military firearms that were sold or granted by the United States Government that are classified by ATF as Curio or relic firearms to U.S. private entities…

That could mean buying surplus 1911s, Garands, and a whole host of other goodies.

Update: M1As would be nice!

Joe Huffman points to what is an English translation of the pending Iraqi constitution and notes it’s:

not a “Bill of Rights”. It’s a list of things the government must provide–such as health care. And it specifically says citizens may not own weapons except by permit.

I was perusing the draft and found that it excluded Israelis from lots of stuff, like these passages:

Any individual with another nationality (except for Israel) may obtain Iraqi nationality after a period of residency inside the borders of Iraq of not less than ten years for an Arab or twenty years for any other nationality, as long as he has good character and behavior, and has no criminal judgment against him from the Iraqi authorities during the time of his residency on the territory of the Iraqi republic.

And

An Iraqi may have more than one nationality as long as the nationality is not Israeli.

And the weapon section states:

Citizens may not own, bear, buy, or sell weapons, except by a permit issued in accordance with law.

This is not a Constitution, it’s a limit and wish-list for the people. As George Carlin supposedly said regarding the Iraqi constitution:

They keep talking about drafting a Constitution for Iraq. Why don’t we just give them ours? It was written by a lot of really smart guys, it’s worked for over 200 years and we’re not using it anymore.

Update: Der Commissar has a round up of blog reactions to the Iraqi Welfare Plan err Civilian Restrictions err Constitution.

Here’s some assurance that despite South Knox Bubba’s departure from the blogosphere that the RTB will live on. I don’t have everyone’s email address yet. Once I do, I’ll send out announcements once we finalize plans.

First, Barry reminds us that he maintains the RTB blogroll. And that he’s willing to help.

Next, Just John has established a Rocky Top Brigade website. And has agreed to be the technical arm.

I can assure you the three of us are working on getting it up and running. So don’t panic. A few things:

I don’t want membership to be political. Membership will entail the following characteristics:

1 You’re from Tennessee.

2 You have a blog.

3 You link to the RTB page.

Pretty simple, eh?

Also, Bubba has given me (anyone, really) permission to use what others thought was his copyrighted RTB material (like The Constitution, graphics, etc.).

We will try to establish a mailing list.

I envision the page to have links to RTB members and other Tennessee related program activities on the left and the main body of the page to have a sampling of posts from RTB members (similar to Bubba’s RTB Sampler).

Any suggestions/comments/volunteering are welcome in comments.

And go read Rich’s farewell to Bubba. Those two didn’t always get along but there’s respect there.

I’ve been getting some slack over my comments on John Roberts’ French fry ruling (in comments from Xrlq and from one of the Brutal Huggers). The latter notes:

The French Fry case is a really good example of a judge doing his job rather well. Roberts went out of his way to say the policy was bad. Sometimes your local government makes really stupid policies. Just because the policies are stupid doesn’t mean they violate the Constitution.

Zendo Deb on some criminal’s family who’s upset their criminal relative was shot to death:

Shooting to wound is not taught in any course I am aware of. Most classes teach shooting to “center of mass,” that is to center of the chest. Some law enforcement types are taught “2 to the chest, 1 to the head.”

First, warning shots are always illegal. Second, shooting to wound is usually illegal. After all, if you weren’t willing to kill, then the lawyers will argue you didn’t really feel as though your life was threatened.

In San Diego:

Friends say Steven McWilliams was tired. He was in pain. And he was scared of possible jail time.

The combination may be the reason the medical marijuana activist took his life Monday, they say.

He was 51.

“His health was deteriorating,” said longtime friend David Bronner. “And he was experiencing some lows. He was in pain, a lot of pain.”

Still, his death surprised Bonner and others who knew Mr. McWilliams. He was a fighter, they said, who was bold enough to smoke marijuana on the steps of San Diego City Hall to call attention to its medicinal benefits he so strongly believed in.

The fear of jail time or pain or death. Drugs are winning the war on drugs.

Ohioans for Concealed Carry note that Columbus’ recently passed ban on weapons that look like assault weapons will go to court.

Update: A lawsuit is challenging the ban:

Harmon told reporters Thursday that the injunction filed is based on the vagueness of wording of this ban and that it is unconstitutional.

Here’s a brief summary on state supreme court decisions on breed bans. I knew about the Alabama ruling but not the Ohio ruling:

The Alabama Supreme Court ruled in 2002 there is no genetic evidence that one breed of dog is more dangerous than another, based on breed alone.

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled in 2004 that the state’s pit bull ban was unconstitutional because it denies dog owners their right to due process.

Here’s an article on Denver residents’ efforts to save their dogs:

A few weeks ago, two police cars and two animal control vehicles pulled up at the home of Stef’ny Steffan looking for her beloved 4-year-old pit bull, Xena. Seven officers hauled the animal off to the city shelter, putting her on death row.

Xena became an outlaw after Denver won a court fight and reinstated one of the toughest pit-bull bans in the nation. Since May, more than 380 dogs have been impounded and at least 260 destroyed – an average of more than three a day.

Dog owners are in a panic. Some are using an underground railroad of sorts, sending their pets to live elsewhere or hiding them from authorities. City officials would not estimate how many people might be violating the ordinance.

It also has some interesting stats:

Critics of the ordinance say that a blanket ban on an entire breed is misguided that the law should instead target irresponsible owners and all dangerous dogs.

“If anyone says one dog is more likely to kill – unless there’s a study out there that I haven’t seen – that’s not based on scientific data,” said Julie Gilchrist, a doctor at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who researches dog bites.

The CDC, the American Veterinary Medical Association and the Humane Society of the United States examined 20 years of dog-bite data and concluded that pit bulls and Rottweilers caused the most deaths.

But the researchers also noted that fatal attacks represent a small proportion of dog-bite injuries and that the number of bites per breed simply seems to rise with their popularity.

James Doohan (aka Scotty) has died. He was 85.

This blanket statement has me a bit worried:

Roberts generally voted with the government in the cases he has handled on the bench.

Yay, another statist.

The Harold Ford Junior 2006 blog writes:

We want to make something 100% clear here–we are a Ford support blog. We are not going to give people who attack or oppose the Congressman a bully pulpit here. We are here as a service to the supporters of Congressman Ford, not his adversaries. Any negative comments about the Congressman or any other comments that we deem not appropriate for our blog will be deleted.

Translation: we don’t deal so well with criticism. Isn’t that what press releases are for?