Regarding the looting, some folks have the right idea:

Employees at A.J.’s Produce Co. on Chartres Street in the Bywater neighborhood of New Orleans, spray-painted bright-red stern warnings for would-be thieves right on the sides of the building.

“You loot, we shoot!” they read. “Looters will be shot!” And “loot and die!”

“We had a few come around, but the boogie man scared them away,” said 59-year-old John Allen, who sat in a lawn chair guarding the building about 10 a.m. Tuesday. “The signs did the job.”

Via Joe.

Update: Oh dear. Katie notes that in the press coverage, black folks are looting while white folks are finding things. (update to the update: as Xrlq points out in comments, Yahoo! News used two different news agencies. Nothing to see here, keep moving.) Update to the update to the update: Xrlq blogs about it:

the stories were written by two different news agencies, with different reporting policies, and those big racist meanies at Yahoo! had the gall to carry both companies’ feeds.

To which Allah points out (in Xrlq’s comments) this. Something to it after all, I guess.

Update 2: Et tu, officer friendly.

Update 3: While authorities shift resources to search and rescue (which they should do!), the looting continues. Looters are taking guns:

New Orleans’ homeland security chief, Terry Ebbert, said looters were breaking into stores all over town and stealing guns. He said there are gangs of armed men moving around the city. At one point, officers stranded on the roof of a hotel were fired at by criminals on the street.

The Times-Picayune newspaper reported that the gun section at a new Wal-Mart had been cleaned out by looters.

So, for all you anti-gunnies out there: what do you do when the system breaks down, there is neither law nor order, and your protection is up to you?

Looks like looting started in New Orleans yesterday. Abysmal state of human nature, I suppose. While Insty advocates ownership of crank powered radios, I’ll advocate ownership of any one of these:

Read the rest of this entry »

I mentioned KPMG’s indictment earlier. I found it odd that no news story I read was clear regarding what exactly KPMG did. The media used weasel words like tax shelter because, let’s face it, this accounting and tax law stuff is hard to grasp. As a general rule, tax evasion is illegal while tax avoidance is not. So, I did some searching and found:

The tax shelters that KPMG sold have still not been definitively ruled illegal by courts. But the government says KPMG intentionally failed to register the shelters as required, with one internal memo saying the profits from selling the shelters were enough to offset the potential civil penalties for failing to register them.

Holy shades of Martha Stewart, Batman! It seems there’s no ruling that what they did was illegal. There’s only the fact they didn’t register the shelters. However, the internal memo sort of indicates KPMG’s arrogance in dealing with the .gov. But, I’m still not exactly sure what KPMG did. More:

Major auditing firms have what amounts to a public franchise, since the law requires publicly traded companies to get independent audits.

The price of that franchise, in part, is to not come across as too hostile to the government, whether in its efforts to administer the tax law or to prevent accounting fraud. KPMG ignored that reality, to its eventual cost.

KPMG’s determination was not unique in the auditing industry. Arthur Andersen, which also questioned the SEC’s authority over accountants, bitterly resisted an SEC enforcement action that included civil fraud allegations over its audit of Waste Management, although it eventually settled.

But in the year after that settlement, Andersen did not appear to be changing the practices that had offended the commission, a fact that left it in a bad position when Enron, an Andersen audit client, collapsed. Andersen might have failed even if criminal charges had not been filed, but those charges sealed its fate.

Had KPMG been less certain that only it knew what was right, the cost of its actions would have been far lower. It is fortunate for KPMG, however, that Andersen failed first, leaving regulators fearful of what would happen if the demise of KPMG left only a Big Three in accounting. Were it not for that worry, KPMG itself might now be under indictment.

Ouch. If I was one of four companies that essentially have a guaranteed market due to governmental regulation, I would not be as hostile towards the governmental regulatory bodies. After all, that which is given by law can be taken by law.

The latest is up at Gullyborg’s.

Defense Review reports that Sigarms and H&K scored some major contracts with the Department of Homeland Security. They’re fine choices. Odd though that they got pistols in 9mm, 40S&W and 357SIG. Figured they’d standardize calibers across the agency.

Blake asked what do you do when the law breaks the law? Just in time, comes Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal who says motorists who are arrested for carrying pistols in their cars without a concealed handgun license will continue to be prosecuted in Houston, despite a new law that purports to give them a legal defense.

Alphie notes another indictment in The Tennessee Waltz:

The rumors that there was still an outstanding warrent (sic) to be served in the Tennessee Waltz sting run by the FBI have turned out to be true.

According to breaking news on Memphis CBS affiliate WREG, a warrant has been issued for the arrest of long-time Shelby-county Democrat politician Michael Hooks in connection with the sting.

He also notes Hooks has a prior record for possession of drug paraphernalia. Eight arrests in total now for the Tennessee Waltz. Additionally, rumors are that more people are going down.

After Illinois passed a law to close the non-existent gun show loophole by requiring background checks be done on private, person-to-person sales at gun shows, guess what happened?

They recently enacted legislation requiring gun owners to get government permission before selling guns at gun shows. Gun rights advocates claimed that the law was intended to get rid of gun shows. The gun control lobby claims they were just closing a loophole in the law. Any doubt you might have had about the law’s intention was erased last weekend when local authorities failed to show up to facilitate the background checks. Law abiding citizens were effectively prevented from exercising their rights, because the government bureaucracy broke down.

People at the gun show were unable to sell guns, which seems to have been the whole idea.

Michael notes:

Compared to the nation, the South has more blacks serving in state legislatures and, despite old stereotypes, the South has a lower rate of violent crime.

But more Southerners are classified as underserved by primary care physicians when compared to the nation as a whole, and the region narrowly lags behind the rest of the country in the percentage of adults over 25 with a high school diploma.

Bubba (you’ll always be Bubba to me) notes:

Regionally, income declined only in the Midwest, down 2.8 percent to $44,657. The South was the poorest region and the Northeast and the West had the highest median incomes.

Don’t tell Egalia, but the bill that doesn’t give women guns in North Carolina has been signed into law. Now, the governor wants to reverse it:

Gov. Mike Easley has signed a bill that would encourage victims of domestic violence to seek emergency concealed gun permits — but he now wants lawmakers to reverse it.

Easley had “concerns,” according to a spokeswoman, about the measure’s central provision: a requirement that court clerks tell victims who obtain protective orders how to apply for an emergency carry permit.

The governor signed the bill late Saturday only after receiving assurances from House Speaker Jim Black that the requirement would be lifted in separate legislation, perhaps this week, Easley spokeswoman Cari Boyce said. Black spokeswoman Julie Robinson confirmed that account.

Lamenting Duncan in 2008, Clark Stooksbury writes:

…I think Duncan is correct to predict that he would get “slaughtered.” The loudest voices on the Republican Right want nothing to do with a conservative.

Heh.

Michael Silence, noting that Tennessee Waltzer Chris Newton pled guilty, informs us:

After his plea, Newton said that he became “caught up in business as usual in Nashville.”

“It is time for us to acknowledge candidly that the legislative process has become saturated with money and special interests,” Newton said reading from a prepared statement.

Mr. Newton, if you have an ounce of self-respect and decency left (which at this point is questionable), name names.

As I’ve said before, if it took two agencies over two years to catch such a rather small amount of illegal political money, imagine what isn’t being caught. That was a lot of effort for such meager returns.

Update: Here’s Newton’s statement, which says in part:

After much prayer [Dear Lord, I broke the law? - Ed] and deliberation [Dear lawyer, I broke the law? - Ed], I have decided to enter a plea of guilty in the case against me arising out of the “Operation Tennessee Waltz” investigation. This has been an especially difficult decision for me. For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to be of service to the citizens of this State [And for yourself - Ed]. Being elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives at the age of 23 was, in many ways, a dream come true.

During my time in Nashville, I was able to help accomplish a lot of good [for yourself, apparently - Ed], both for my constituents and for the people of this State generally. However, I also became caught up in business as usual in Nashville. It is time for us to acknowledge candidly that the legislative process has become saturated with money and special interests. While many in our legislature have the best interests of the people at heart, the people deserve representatives who are entirely free from the corruptive influence of money in politics. [If only such a place existed - Ed]

WATE:

Chicago native Colin Scott came to Knoxville five years ago to attend Knoxville College. But prosecutors say he and Knoxville resident Dwight George Williams began buying guns to be sold or traded in Chicago.

Court records show Scott and Williams bought 49 guns in less than a year, then took them to Gangster Disciple member “Snake.”

Prosecutors claim it was a scheme to arm a street gang, but Scott’s lawyers say their client was trading the arms for marijuana, which he smoked daily.

How about instead saying you sold the guns to fund building an orphanage? Sure, it’s probably a lie but it’s more noble than funding your weed habit.

Today, this blog is three years old. I’ve enjoyed it. Hope you have. It’s also that time where I look at some interesting stats. Here’s some:

I linked before to the story about the Richmond police, ATF and VA State Police conducting illegal residency checks, in which they allegedly told family members and neighbors that folks were buying guns. I was skeptical until CNSNews picked up on it. Now, Ravenwood links to the smoking gun. Someone got some info through a Freedom of Information Act request and that details that these residency checks have been going on since at least July 2004. Since the agents copied the names, home addresses and telephone numbers of the applicants, they broke the law.

Additionally, the Richmond police lied about their participation:

Richmond Police spokeswoman Kirsten Nelson e-mailed her response to questions about the apparent sting operation.

“I have done some checking and as I said on the phone, the gun show was not in our jurisdiction,” Nelson wrote, “so I have no record of our officers’ participation.”

But don’t worry, the media will cover this violation of law, right? Oh, that’s right, it involves guns and gun nuts. No time for truth when guns are involved. Heads should roll.

Bob Stepno:

Newspapers used to be the only news source where we could find run-on sentences to put on the screen in front of a classroom and discuss as bad examples. Thanks to the Web, now television websites can be just as good a source of misplaced modifiers, awkward phrasing, missing parts of speech or misleading leads.

He then rounds some up. It’s also fun to search Google News for commonly misspelled/misused words or phrases:

Wreckless, seperate, mute point, intensive purposes, etc.

I shouldn’t throw stones from my glass house since I’m prone to spelling errors. But, hey, I don’t have an editor.

Gunner notes:

A federal-state program designed to get illegal firearms off Jackson streets could be operational by year’s end, law enforcement officials say.

U.S. Attorney Dunn Lampton wants to start a gun interdiction unit through the Jackson Police Department. Officers would use vans equipped to test-fire guns taken at the scene of vehicle stops and crime scenes.

Laboratory technicians would analyze cartridge casings and projectiles to determine whether those weapons had been reported stolen and used in crimes. The test results would be entered into a database linked to a national gun database.

The Geek addresses Defensive Loads For Short Barreled .45 ACP Handguns

In an update to the accidental school shooting in Dandridge, Tennessee, comes this:

Jefferson County Sheriff David Davenport told parents at a Maury Middle School PTO meeting the three students involved in Thursday’s accidental school shooting may have been planning an attack on a teacher at the school.

Basically, had they not shot their friend, they may have killed a teacher. No one yet is asking or answering the question I want to know: Where did they get the guns? My secret source tells me the answer but, without confirmation, I won’t print it. It’s not good.

Rosalind Kurita, who is running for Senate, had a lunch with local political bloggers from both sides of the political spectrum [There's only two sides? - Ed.]. The following bloggers discuss the lunch: Bill, Blake, Bob, Sharon, Mark, and Adam.

KPMG has agreed to pay $456M in fines and eight former executives have been indicted for selling fraudulent tax shelters. Last time a big firm took a hit, it went under. Later, a unanimous supreme court threw out Arthur Andersen’s conviction. It didn’t matter because they were done. I think they have a shell of an office in Chicago.

I was also surprised there are so many accounting blogs. I’m an accountant and I don’t even read them.

Update: Chris points out that it’s the largest tax evasion scheme in U.S. history.

Looks like it. Welcome back, sir, even if it is temporary. You’ve been missed.

Via Michael.

There are some politicians who are guided not by the polls, but by their consciences and unalterable principles. They are called “third-party candidates.”
Joseph Sobran

Canadian dog owners plan to defy Ontario’s politically incorrect dog ban:

Pit bull owners remain defiant as a pit bull ban comes into effect across Ontario today — the first such province-wide ban in Canada.

Pit bull owners now have 60 days to get their animals spayed or neutered, and must muzzle and leash them in public.

People will not be able to own, breed, import, transfer or purchase pit bulls, although they can still adopt them for a limited time.

Those violating the rules can end up with their pets seized and euthanized, while they could face finds of up to $10,000 or even jail time.

However animal advocates fear hundreds of adult and puppy pit bulls may now be euthanized and candlelight vigils were held across Canada Sunday night to protest Ontario’s new law.

Jessica Peacock, of the American Staffordshire Terrier Club of Canada, said many of the problems associated with pit bulls were the fault of their owners.

“Banning an entire breed is not going to solve the problem of responsible dog ownership,” she told CTV’s Canada AM.

There is a challenge to the law because it is too vague.

The latest RINO sightings, a round up of secular/moderate/libertarian leaning conservatives, is up at Big Cat Chronicles.

Boing Boing reports that:

Last month a federal judge awarded $35,000 in compensatory and $6000 in punitive damages to a man state troopers arrested for video taping them.

This should please Phelps.

Anyone else find it ironic that the Second Amendment Foundation’s Gun Rights Policy Conference is in Los Angeles? Good way to ensure folks like me don’t go.

Apparently, as a blogger, I’m under some sort of obligation to tell people who are in the general vicinity of hurricane Katrina to get the Hell out of there. Because, you know, those people are reading this blog instead of watching or listening to the guys on the news who are stupid enough to be standing out in the storm. When it’s dangerous.

Note to those guys that are standing in the storm: We believe you. Get your ass inside and have a cup of coffee. Or better yet, get the Hell out of there.

Thanks to Brutal Hugs, I now have a mini blog over there on the right (just below the evil capitalism err blogads) to put random links up. Just toying with the concept. We’ll see how I like it.

Story one: deranged psychopath starts randomly shooting people in Wal-Mart parking lot. Kills two.

Story two: deranged psychopath at a Wal-Mart was seen stabbing a woman. Local CCW holder puts a few caps in psychopath, killing him.

Now, which story have you seen make the top headlines? I follow gun stories and hadn’t heard a peep about the second one until Kevin mentioned it.

Snarky little editorial:

When we first read the headline in last Thursday’s Sun – “Feds taking aim at gun violence” – we thought that there must have been some mistake.

Gun violence? What gun violence? We have a very expensive national gun registry that was put into place to ensure that every firearm in Canada can be tracked. We have cumbersome regulations in place that make it more difficult for Canadians to buy guns. We have armies of bureaucrats shuffling paper to and fro to make sure that everything related to guns in this country is all very above-board and law-abiding.

So there can’t possibly be any gun violence in Canada!

OK, we made our point. There is still lots of gun violence in Canada, and the gun registry hasn’t done a single thing to stop it.

Regarding the account of ATF and local authorities breaking the law and harassing gun show attendees, Eric notes the silence in the press. And points out it is eerily reminiscent of their complacence in other less than stellar moments of the ATF.

Apparently, the King of Swaziland is preparing to pick his 13th bride, but according to CNN, a few folks think King Mswati III has perverted the process:

Thousands of bare-breasted virgins will dance for Africa’s last absolute monarch in Monday’s Reed Dance ceremony, which King Mswati III has used to choose new brides.

Critics say the ancient ceremony, meant to celebrate womanhood and virginity, has become little more than a shop window for the 37-year-old king to choose young brides.

Has become? What the blazes do these “critics” think these ancient ceremonies were for in the first place? An Oberlin College work-study program?

Not just a kick ass metal band but can disprove Evolution, according to Der Commissar:

Evolution is falsifiable. My friend Michael the Thumper has wearied of my ritual invocation of Precambrian rabbits, as a test that would falsify evolution. Here are six more:

true chimera (centaurs, mermaids), combinations from different lineages. An Intelligent Designer could put a human torso on a horse. Why not? Sure would have been awesome cavalry in the old days. But the process of evolution doesn’t permit a “mix-and-match” approach. Maybe a centaur seems silly, but there are billions of non-silly combinations that MIGHT have occurred. None have. Find one and you have falsified evolution. (Any commenter stupid enough to suggest that convergent evolution is the same thing, “bats are mammals with wings,” wins today’s booby prize.)

He lists more. I think he should remove this one from his list. Enter the platypus: One of only four mammals that lays eggs. It has a bill and webbed feet that are similar to those on ducks. Poisonous ankle spurs (in males). Adults are toothless (mammals have teeth). Its ears are in its jaws. Extra bones in the shoulder. And the males testicles are internal.

Seems to be a bit of mixing and matching to me. However, it seems possible that mixing and matching could be brought on by evolving. But I’m no scientist.

I’ve seen this countless times, and it never gets old. Here are the rules for a gun fight. My favorites:

4. If your shooting stance is good, you’re probably not moving fast enough nor using cover correctly.

10. Someday someone may kill you with your own gun, but they should have to beat you to death with it because it is empty.

Apparently, they will track you down and somehow find your personal cell phone number.

The Carnival of Cordite is up.

Fred Phelps’ followers are going to protest at the funerals of two fallen US soldiers in Tennessee tomorrow. Michael Silence has been on the story. I ask the press, with all sincerity, not to show up. Do not go to the funeral. Do not give these whackjobs a platform to spread their delusional message of hate.

If you do go (and some of you will), ignore these hate-mongering psychopaths. Cover the funeral only. Please. Do not give them air time. Do not talk to them. Look away. Leave the family to its grief and ignore these zealots.

It’s the decent thing to do.

Pete says:

It appears that this story is one that is not going to go away quietly (and I’m going to do what I can to make sure we continue to talk about it).

Indeed. As will I. This article gives a run down:

Andrew Diotaiuto has returned repeatedly to his grave at North Haven’s All Saints Cemetery.

He sometimes makes two or three trips a day from his home in East Haven.

Burying a child is always painful, but the last moments of his son’s life are especially troubling.

On Aug. 5, Anthony Diotaiuto was shot to death by a SWAT team from the Sunrise, Fla., Police Department during a dawn narcotics raid in the home he shared and helped buy with his mother, Marlene Whittier.

According to police, he was found with about 2 ounces of marijuana, plastic bags and a weight scale.

The police are sticking to their story:

Sunrise police Lt. Robert Voss said the homicide department was still investigating the case, which will be presented to a grand jury for review, as is standard in all fatal police shootings in Florida.

“We’re asking for people to keep an open mind and wait for the facts to come in … before coming to a conclusion about what happened in the house.” Voss said.

Voss said police had a court-authorized search warrant based on surveillance and a controlled narcotics purchase from the house.

Officers entered the residence and confronted Diotaiuto in the living room. He was shot after fleeing to a bedroom and arming himself with a loaded semiautomatic handgun, Voss said.

Diotaiuto had a concealed weapons permit.

“It was his choice not to follow orders and to retrieve a weapon,” Voss said.

Neighbors dispute whether or not the police announced themselves.

It also mentions the effect of blogs:

Television and print media in Florida have closely followed the story. It also has taken on a life in Internet blogs, where some see it as another call to change the nation’s drug laws.

Good. Keep the story alive.

No, really. It seems his office sent a letter asking the parole board to take into consideration the positive steps Mr. Britt has taken. Britt is a convicted murderer. The letter was sent in error. A few blogs picked up on it and the Ford campaign responds with:

The following quote is Harold Ford Jr.’s response to the right wing blog community attack:

Ford is hostile toward the blogs for giving the story legs. Not the paper that ran the story or the incompetence of his own staff.

Lame.

Drug War Rant tells us that the New Jersey police and the DEA swat teams raided the wrong house. For the second time. In four months:

A State Police SWAT team and a swarm of federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents stormed a four-family home in Newark on Tuesday, kicking down doors, waving guns and ransacking two upstairs apartments.

The officers tore through an armoire looking for guns and shouted curses at frightened adults as they clutched their young children.

Then the officers apologized for being in the wrong house.

Oops. Sorry about the house, would you like a stick of gum?

In the county of my birth, there was a school shooting yesterday. A kid took a round to the leg. Here’s the KNS write up. Three kids were involved and two guns. One kid supposedly brought both guns and one was unloaded. At first the kids say they dropped the gun and it went off, which is virtually impossible unless it is an older style gun or one of the cheaper guns on the market. The police say the kids were playing with them. Local officials are looking at charging the kids and the parents who allowed access to the weapons.

Gun Law News, who need to get some blog software so I can link directly to items – scroll down, has a plan:

Over the past several decades, a gun control victory was defined by our side lessening the impact of new gun control proposals. Over time our rights were whittled away, however slowly. FOPA 86 was a step in the right direction but was burdened by the heavy load of the Hughes Amendment.

It is now a new world. The 1994 Assault Weapon Ban has expired. S.397, the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, has passed the Senate and is expected to make it through the House.

From now on, let the gun grabbers learn how we have been living. Instead of compromising our position, we should start pushing for the repeal of laws that only serve to undermine our Second Amendment rights.

They advocate repeal of the Hughes Amendment and the various sporting purpose clauses. Uncle concurs.

In one of my undergrad classes (The Physiology of Behavior or some such), we discussed this theory that the brain essentially functioned like a hard drive and stored information in certain sections. This got me to thinking about whether or not your brain could get, well, full. If it got full and you learn/remember something new, does it overwrite old information? I’m not well-versed in the operation of the brain so this may all be made up.

Anyhoo, the concept that a brain could get full made me wonder how much brain space I’ve wasted on movie lines or song lyrics or the intricacies of the law with regard to the now non-existent assault weapons ban. I’d hate to think I could no longer recall something that could be beneficial (such as what to do in the event I’m on fire – stop, drop and roll or duck and cover, not quite sure) but can gladly recite:

We went to a shopping mall
And laughed at all the shoppers
And security guards trailed us
To a record shop
We asked for Mojo Nixon
They said “He don’t work here”
We said “If you don’t got Mojo Nixon
Then your store could use some fixin’”

Any way, err . . . what was I talking about? Oh yeah, the brain.

I have this distinct memory from childhood that tractor trailer trucks were being driven by robots. It’s true. On a cross country trip when I was about six years old, I saw several 18 wheelers being driven by robots. I saw it, or at least think I did. Now, as an adult, I know that never happened. Was it my imagination? Did I dream it?

The wife works with head trauma/stroke patients. She’s told me tales (that are apparently common) wherein someone gets a head injury and can’t answer the questions What is your name? or Where do you live?. However, they can tell you all about what they were doing one warm sunny day, 20 years ago in vivid detail.

That brain, memory, and cognition. Tricky stuff.

Heh:

Did you know that today, over 7 million Americans are writing their own blogs — and nearly 1.2 million Americans are actually reading them?

A rough week or so for the New York Times. Unsurprising to anyone, Maureen Dowd does what she does and quotes someone out of context. At least there’s no ellipsis. If you’re a columnist and your name has been turned into a verb, it’s not good.

The Times also takes good news about body armor in Iraq and turns it into bad news. Someone else decided to contact the Times’ source and their source was a bit miffed.

Krugman tells a whopper about the 2000 election. Commissar is right, Krugman must believe. Patterico has more.

And the Times totally blows it by mischaracterizing why a scientist on a panel preparing a report for the Bush administration resigned.

Update: Krugman continues to fib. Surely, Media Matters will be all over this.

A couple weeks ago, I wrote:

My daddy always said you could knock a helicopter out of the sky with a well-placed rock.

Via reader Nate, he was right.

It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood. JAMES MADISON

Jamie Satterfield of the KNS:

For three months now, Neal has been sitting behind bars in a West Tennessee prison even though a Knox County judge has deemed him innocent of double murder charges.

That’s because the state Board of Probation and Parole had accused Neal of violating his parole by possessing for a matter of minutes a gun he wrested from two intruders who broke into his East Knoxville home.

That is the dumbest thing I’ve heard. More details:

Terry Dodson, 32, and Benjamin Pollard, 24, were linked to a Memphis gang and had a history of violence. On May 17, the pair stormed into Neal’s apartment, threatened to shoot him and began looting his home, testimony has shown.

Neal didn’t know either man. He tried to run but wound up in a struggle with the men. He disarmed one of the intruders, shot him and tried to flee again when the second intruder began to attack him. Neal shot him, dropped the gun and ran.

The first person he called was his parole officer, phoning her within hours to explain what happened. He then contacted Whalen to arrange his surrender to police.

His parole officer filed a warrant against him. Whalen said Neal had expected as much. After all, he was by then charged with two counts of murder.

But when Knox County General Sessions Court Judge Bob R. McGee ruled at a hearing in July that Neal had acted in self-defense and dropped both charges, Whalen said he expected Neal to go free.

He didn’t.

His parole officer refused to dismiss the parole violation charge, which was based entirely on the double shooting of which Neal had been acquitted, Whalen said.

The article doesn’t tell us who the parole officer is but it should. That person’s phone line should be ringing off the hook.

If you wish to contact the Tennessee Board of Probation and Parole, you can reach them at:

Tennessee Board of Probation and Parole
404 James Robertson Parkway, Suite 1300
Nashville, Tennessee 37243

Phone: (615) 741-4543
Fax: (615) 532-8098
Email: bopp.webmail@state.tn.us

The good news is he’s at least scheduled to be released because this idiot parole officer’s supervisors intervened:

The officer responded that supervisors in Nashville had decided to free Neal, who was on parole for a cocaine possession charge, Whalen said. Neal still isn’t free, though. First, he must be returned to the West Tennessee prison where he has been housed and then processed for release.

“They’ve promised to expedite his release,” Whalen said with a cynical chuckle.

The entire affair has Whalen wondering just how wisely his tax dollars are being spent.

“It would be of real interest to find out how much money was spent on this whole case,” Whalen said. “It’s ridiculous.”

Mr. Neal, I recommend you lawyer up.

Joe has covered the drug bust in Utah, where cops used dogs, helicopters, assault rifles, and ninja outfits to arrest a bunch of kids who were at a rave for drugs. Malkin says that people are overreacting.

Phelps has video and notes:

Listen to the last bit of audio on the video that was being taken. “Put the camera down. You’re under arrest.” What was his crime? As near as I can tell, it was the audacity of videotaping the police.

Sorry Michelle, but criticizing that is far from hysterical.

Pete rounds up the local media accounts of the incident:

To be sure, there were a number of drug- and alcohol-related arrests and citations arising from the rave. These are fair game by any measure. Once a crime is committed, a permit may be considered null and void. But of the 43 citations reported by the Utah County Sheriff’s Office, about half appear directly related to the raid itself — disorderly conduct, failure to disperse and related acts. Most of the others could have been dealt with on a case-by-case basis, without shutting down a concert at which the majority were not breaking the law.

A massive police assault on virtually any public gathering (a BYU football game, for example) would uncover similar illegalities, from drugs to weapons to expired driver’s licenses. But if a crime is committed during a BYU football game, the game is not stopped. Offenders are trundled off individually. A general suspicion that something illegal might happen at a public gathering, even a rave, may not be the best basis from which to launch a major law enforcement action.

B4B reports that Governor Phil admits his blog sucks:

When Bredesen was asked last week about his mostly idle blog, he conceded that he had not posted enough times but would “give it a little more serious try.”

“Maybe I’ll do an all nighter and put in a lot of blog entries,” Bredesen said. “That’ll keep all of the staff busy for weeks probably sorting all of that out.”

“If I get to the end of this year and it’s still four, five or six entries, I’ll just shut it all down but I hate to not be successful at something so we’ll try to make this successful,” Bredesen said.

Admitting you have a problem is the first step.

Forbes is counting down The 20 Most Important Tools. Coming in at number seven is the rifle.

In Columbus, a city council candidate is challenging the city’s recently passed assault weapons ban:

A City Council candidate sued to challenge the city’s recently approved ban on assault weapons that led the National Rifle Association to move its 2007 convention out of Columbus.

Republican Phil Harmon, a lawyer who represented bar owners in their failed quest to overturn the city’s smoking ban, wants a court to prevent the assault-weapons ban from taking effect. He filed the lawsuit Wednesday in Franklin County Probate Court.

The ban that Democrat-controlled City Council adopted July 11 prohibits the sale or possession of semiautomatic rifles with pistol grips and detachable magazines. It is scheduled to go into effect Aug. 11.

Harmon said Thursday the assault-weapons ban is flawed because it has no provision allowing people to sell or transfer weapons to relatives if they die or need a guardian.

“So an executor of an estate who comes into possession of an assault weapon could be exposed to criminal prosecution,” Harmon said. He filed the lawsuit in probate court because it has jurisdiction over the settlements of estates.

Federal lawsuits successfully overturned two previous attempts by Columbus to ban assault weapons, which tried to outlaw specific models. Cleveland, Dayton and Toledo are among the Ohio cities with some kind of weapons ban.

Third time’s the charm, I guess.

Update: Just realized that was the 2,000th post on guns for this blog. Maybe I need a new hobby?

Signature file seen at AR15.com:

1f y0u c4n r34d th1s you r3411y n33d t0 g3t l41d

Heh.

Heartless Libertarian points to more police abuses at a gun show:

Shortly, the state Supreme Court will decide whether police in the state of Washington can make up their own gun control laws — laws not approved by any federal, state, or local legislative body.

The case at hand (Pacific Northwest Shooting Park Association v. City of Sequim) specifically involves a police chief who sauntered through a local gun show on the day of the show. Whereupon he announced his arbitrary and unpublished decision that, notwithstanding state law, only federal license holders would be allowed to sell firearms on the premises.

His actions virtually shut down the entire show.

Certainly, at stake in this case may well be the viability of gun shows in the state of Washington for years to come. But that’s not all.

If the police can make up their own firearms laws at local gun shows, then they can do the same at gun shops, at firing ranges, or even in your own home!

What The Rocky Top Brigade is talking about:

Took the newly acquired Walther P22 to the range. If I had my way, I’d make the following changes to the gun:

It’s like this thing was made for California or something.

I got to the range, loaded up a couple of mags and took aim. The trigger pull is fairly stiff, even in single action. First shot was in the center of the target. The gun was very accurate. The third shot made a hideous sound and sent powder into my face. It also failed to eject. I ejected the magazine, cleared the chamber, and checked the barrel. I was afraid it was a squib. It was not. I couldn’t find the casing as it ejected in front of the firing line. Content it was a fluke, I resumed. A few more rounds and it did it again.

I grabbed one of the guys at the range to look at it. This time, I managed not to eject the shell casing beyond the firing line. The casing was split, which is very dangerous and in some guns (particularly higher calibers) it could destroy the barrel or, worse, injure the shooter. He called the gunsmith. He checked it out and said the gun looked fine. I switched to Federal ammunition. Turns out, it was old ammo that was doing that. Not sure the brand but it was old and I think I got it from a relative who was tossing it out. I immediately tossed that stuff. No more incidents after that. I should be clear that this was not the gun’s fault but the ammo’s. In hindsight, I have to say I was impressed with the Walther as a lesser gun may have Kaboomed or at least suffered barrel damage. Powder spraying in your face will get your attention. I went through about 100 rounds of Federal and 120 rounds of CCI Mini-Mags with no more feeding or exploding problems.

After the first magazine, another issue came up. After every fourth or so round, the magazine would eject into my hand, seemingly on its own. This was quite annoying since the magazine safety also prevented me from shooting the next round. I talked to the gunsmith about it and he said to send it back to Smith and Wesson (who, by the way, are the importers of the Walther line) and they would fix it. Still, I came to shoot and commenced doing so. It kept ejecting the magazine fairly regularly.

Finally, I decided that maybe it was me with the issue. I had someone else shoot it and they had no problems. Turns out that my long fingers were tripping the magazine release on recoil. They instructed me that maybe I should use a thumbs up shooting grip, in which both thumbs are high on the left side. Takes a few seconds to get used to but seems to offer more stability. I adjusted and sure enough had no problems from that point on. I’m accustomed to shooting handguns with magazine releases on the pistol’s grip so this has never been a problem before. The Walther’s mag release is in an inconvenient place.

My impressions of the gun are that it is reliable, can stand up to abuse (particularly some rather nasty ammo), and is quite accurate for a gun with a 3.4 inch barrel. All this for under $300, not bad at all. I was impressed with the accuracy. The occasional straggler aside, it was easily getting 1.5 inch groups at 10 yards with Federal and 2.5 inch groups with the CCI.

The Walther comes with a lot of extras, such as interchangeable back straps for people with long fingers (like me), additional front sight posts, and a threaded barrel (along with a barrel wrench to change out barrels if you need to). There are also a ton of aftermarket accessories for it.

Next accessory will be a suppressor for it. It was like it was made for one. Not sure which one but I am mulling the AAC Pilot, The Gemtech Outback and the TAC 65. Thoughts?

Joe reports California has shelved their novel, if by novel they mean won’t work, idea of stamping serial numbers on ammunition. I guess some ideas are even too stupid for California.

Tennessee ranks fifth among the states in the percentage of residents who are obese. The top 10 contains seven south eastern states. This isn’t surprising since we deep fry and batter everything. Seriously, we deep fry chicken, fish, steak, tomatoes, bananas, and even pickles. Heck, when we’re out of stuff to deep fry, we just deep fry batter to make hush puppies or deep fry milk to make gravy.

What shocked me about the article is the handy little chart at the bottom detailing the top ten obese states. They decided they would label states as not Southeastern state, for those of us that suck at Geography.

Chris Wage needs your help. If that doesn’t work out, Chris, and you want to come to the Knoxville area, range time, guns and ammo are on me. I do owe for the upgrade.

James notes that, due the slow development of the XM-8, US Special Forces have paid to have their own rifle (the FN SCAR) and are deploying it to the field for testing.

Joe Huffman notes The world’s first global gun treaty enters into force.

Jeff has the latest on gun bias in the media.

From David: Freedom bags, my ass.

I read about this first from Ravenwood. At first, I found it hard to believe but the story seems to be popping up all over. CNS news picked up on it:

The federal agency that regulates U.S. gun dealers stands accused, along with at least three Virginia law enforcement agencies, of trying to shut down legal gun shows through alleged intimidation of gun buyers and sellers. The law enforcement organizations also allegedly broke the law by sharing gun buyers’ information with members of the public.

The details:

“They did something else, which is highly illegal,” Gelles charged. “They did something called a residency check.”

Gelles explained that, when gun dealers took the paperwork to the Virginia State Police on-site office to complete the background checks on prospective buyers, ATF agents copied the names, home addresses and telephone numbers of the applicants.

Philip Van Cleave, president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, told Cybercast News Service that he has received numerous complaints alleging that as handgun buyers were waiting for their National Instant Check System (NICS) background investigations to be completed, ATF was secretly conducting the so-called “residency checks.”

According to the complaints he received, Van Cleave said officers were dispatched to the homes of the prospective gun buyers to speak with family members, asking for example: “Gee, did you know your husband was going to a gun show today? Do you have his cell phone number? Did you know he was buying a gun?

Other accounts say they were also asking people’s neighbors. If there’s truth to this story, someone needs to be tarred and feathered err fired.

Number eight is up, rounding up the Life, Liberty and Property community.

Anthony Diotaiuto’s family has lawyered up. Anthony took ten rounds when the police raided his home. He had less than two ounces of marijuana. Police state they announced they were police before entering. The accounts of the neighbors refute that claim.

Jeff Moder is running for Senate in Tennessee. Unlike other senatorial candidates in the state with blogs who are not run by the campaign, he has his own blog.

I’ve often said that dogs are the product of their owners. Irresponsible owners are usually the cause of dog attacks. Case in point:

“These are not normal dogs,” says Tyler Eison, gazing reverently at a litter of seven-week-old pit bull puppies. “I like having very vicious, angry dogs. I’m going to teach them not to like other dogs. I’m going to agitate them, make them aggressive. That way when it’s about business, they are going to be serious.”

As a real estate investor and auto dealer, Eison, 41, values aggression in his dogs for protecting both himself and his property. “My dogs are my pistols,” he says, cracking a gold-tooth smile. “I have my dogs on my property, and I have faith in them. If they’re coming at you, you have to shoot them to kill them.”

Tough people want tough dogs, but if you want a truly vicious dog you have to create it yourself. With his latest litter of three girls and a boy, Eison is trying to re-create a bloodline of fighting dogs he owned 20 years ago (though he insists his fighting days are long over). He’s making a stud dog out of his prized companion Rock, an eerily silent pit bull with a golden brown coat and pink nose. Rock’s first litter was born in early May, and Eison watched its progress daily to see which of the puppies would develop more of their father’s traits.

[snip]

Hoping to turn Rock’s offspring into deadly weapons, Eison started antagonizing them when they were around nine weeks old. One afternoon he held an all-brown puppy by its midsection and for several minutes forced it to lie across the neck of one its sisters, who Eison believes might be the pick of the litter. Eison didn’t think the brown pup was willing enough to play rough, so he decided to force it into a scrum. After a minute or so, its sister became angry and began to growl and bite the brown one’s ears. After the incident the brown puppy cowered under a metallic-blue racing motorcycle Eison keeps in the backyard and peed.

An accident (or worse) waiting to happen. Some people shouldn’t own dogs and this guy is one of them.

WBIR notes:

A Blount County man is being held without bond in northern Ohio, accused of traveling there to have sex with a 14-year-old girl.

Prosecutors say 47-year-old Douglas Hawxhurst of Friendsville was expecting to find a woman named Lorie and her daughter named Laci and planned to have sex with both of them.

But the females didn’t exist. Hawxhurst had been Internet chatting with a police officer, masquerading as a mother willing to involve her child in sex.

I am not defending the guy at all but here’s what I find odd:

After his August third arrest, he was held on state charges, but those have been replaced by a federal charge of traveling across state lines with the intent of having sex with a child.

You mean that the intent to have sex with a child isn’t an appropriate enough crime so we have to add the traveling across state lines bit? I guess the purpose of that is to make it a federal crime?

Whoever invented the Smart Spin Storage System should get a Nobel Prize. We now have a ton of extra cabinet space and all the lids fit all the bowls. None of that digging for a lid stuff.

The steady climb of gas prices hadn’t been a shock to me until recently. Used to take $30 to fill up the truck. It crept up to $40 and I wasn’t surprised when it hit right at the $50 mark. Gradually into the pool, and you don’t notice the chilly water so much (actually, I’m more inclined to dive into the pool). However, my true realization that gas prices were up came when I went to the store to fill up the gas can I use for my lawn mower. It cost $5.76.

Don’t tell Egalia. Do you think this woman would have objected to the North Carolina ordinance that gives information on concealed carry permits?

Form 4473: the only paper protection worth a damn.

I get a lot of news alerts related to gun issues. Lately, there have been fewer and fewer alerts received, which makes me nervous. When the enemies of gun freedom are loud (and lying), I know they have nothing. When they’re quiet, I wonder what they’re up to.

David Hardy has some good stuff, such as international comparisons regarding gun crime that tend to show that guns don’t cause crime.

He also notes that the Joyce Foundation is bankrolling other supposed grassroots groups operated by the same people, to the tune of several hundred thousand more. It appears that these “grassroots” groups have, at best, a tiny handful of members, but they generate press coverage as if they were bona-fide local organizations.

They have to cheat to win.

The Feds want to make 401(k) contributions mandatory:

The Labor Department says the proposed regulation should give employers who automatically enroll workers in a 401(k) plan some protection from lawsuits if the investment options chosen are “reasonable.” Some companies are reluctant to use automatic enrollment for fear that employees whose investments lost money would sue.

Don’t we already have a compulsory retirement system?

Update: Yeah, the slavery bit in the title was bit much. Uncle sort of pulls a Godwin. Consider it rescinded. However, I think this could be a precursor to requirements for mandating retirement.

In response to this post, a couple of people have added a few more bits of good news. For example, one commentator says Alabama passed legislation that specifically prohibited the new and expanded “public purposes” they created in Kelo.

And Knox County Law Director Mike Moyers writes (say, Knox County government types are reading? – spooky):

Just thought you would like to know that in Knox County, Tennessee we have passed an ordinance that would require a supermajority (2/3) of the County Commission to approve the use of eminent domain where the intent and effect is to deprive any private person, corporation or entity of real property and transfer that property to any other private person, corporation or entity.

That may not sound like much, but the Commission recently (but before the Kelo controversy) was unable to agree to condemn a small strip of land from a cattle stockyard to serve as an access for a local county-owned refuse and recycling center. Requiring a two-thirds majority for a Kelo-style condemnation effectively removes such a condemnation from the realm of possibility, unless the need and public desire for such is absolutely overwhelming.

It doesn’t go far enough in that such takings should be outright banned but it is a start. So, hats off to Knox County.

Update: Mr. Moyers emailed me a copy of the ordinance, which states:

SECTION 1: No exercise of the power of eminent domain by Knox County which has the intent and effect of transferring ownership of any interest in real property from any private individual, entity or corporation to any other private individual, entity or corporation shall be undertaken unless such exercise of the eminent domain power is first approved by a minimum two thirds majority vote of the membership of the Knox County Commission.

SECTION 2: Exercise of the eminent domain power for acquisition of property which does not meet the conditions set forth in Section 1 of this Ordinance may be authorized by vote of a simple majority of the membership of the County Commission, provided that if any property so acquired is proposed to be sold to any private individual, entity or corporation other than the original owner within three years of said property’s acquisition, authorization of such sale shall require approval by a two-thirds majority of the County Commission.

SECTION 3: Exercise of the eminent domain power of Knox County solely for the purpose of building, expanding or improving Knox County public roads shall be deemed to have been approved and authorized by the Knox County Commission when the Commission appropriates such funds as are necessary for such road construction, expansion or improvement or takes such other action as evidences the Commission’s approval of such road construction, expansion or improvement.

SECTION 4: Use of the county’s eminent domain powers for the purpose of development of industrial parks pursuant to the Tennessee Industrial Park Act, TCA §13-16-201, et seq., shall require the approval of a simple majority of the membership of the Knox County Commission

For what it’s worth, these Eddie Bauer diaper bags make excellent range bags.

Bainbridge:

We control the White House, the Senate, the House of Representatives, and (more-or-less) the judiciary for one of the few times in my nearly 5 decades, but what have we really accomplished? Is government smaller? Have we hacked away at the nanny state? Are the unborn any more protected? Have we really set the stage for a durable conservative majority?

Via Der Commissar.

A while back, the Mrs. went out and bought a bunch of those toilet locks to keep Junior from playing or having an accident in our restrooms. One night, she says to me: Why don’t you go childproof the toilets? I say OK. I get up and go to each of our three bathrooms and close all the doors. I come back and proudly announce that I am done.

She didn’t like this and gave me a bit of grief over it. She insisted that I install the toilet locks. Groan. I did it and it was a pain in the butt.

After a couple of days, I hated them. When they’re on, the seat won’t stay up. As a guy, your choices are to either awkwardly lean forward to hold the seat up while taking a leak (no easy task) or peeing like a girl.

Also, these toilet locks, and I am not making this up, are held in place by double-sided tape. What this really means is that they are not held in place at all. Thankfully, they didn’t last more than a few days.

We now just shut the bathroom doors.

The latest is up, with what secular conservatives have to say.

Ain’t it pretty:

That’s the DPMS 16” AP4 Carbine (scroll down). This weapon is chambered 7.62X51 Nato (or .308 Winchester for you non-metric types). It specs out like most DPMS 308 rifles. I like it. A lot. Did I mention it was a .308?

I signed this petition. Via TriggerFinger, we learn that the .gov has decided to destroy their stock of M14 rifles. This petition is to get them to instead sell them. It will cost the .gov about half a million bucks to destroy them when they could easily make money selling them. It be no problem to convert them to semi-automatic and sell them to the public. In fact, I’d take two. TriggerFinger seems to think that if they were left full-auto, they would be transferable.

Update: In comments, Publicola says it’s not legit:

That’s not legit.The petition is so old it was floating around before Al Gore did his thing with cables & PC’s. I recall seeing it in the late 80’s/early 90’s (it was a fuzzy time back then).

Orest Michaels of the CMP has repeatedly said that the petition is nothing more than wishful thinking for several reasons & to simply ignore it as it’s a waste of energy.

The M14’s aren’t in danger of being destroyed as they’re still being used by the military. Even our .gov isn’t that stupid. Least not today.

Oh well, wishful thinking.

I have to say that I am increasingly impressed with Bob Krumm’s blog. Seriously, he’s good. His coverage of politics (Tennessee and national) is excellent. Keep an eye on this one, it will be huge soon.

Gas stations can be sued for selling gas to drunk drivers.

Selling gas to a drunk could make store owners legally responsible for injuries suffered if the intoxicated motorist causes a crash, the state Supreme Court has ruled.

The groundbreaking ruling comes in a Knoxville lawsuit that sought to extend the state’s negligence laws, long applied to those who hawk alcohol to drunks, to those who provide them gas.

Of course, anyone can be sued for anything. The details:

Attorneys Gregory F. Coleman and Michael A. Myers later filed a lawsuit in Knox County Circuit Court, alleging that Tarver’s car never would have made it to its tragic collision with West and Richardson but for the $3 worth of gas he bought at an Exxon station on Rutledge Pike just before the crash.

More importantly, the attorneys alleged, employees at the Exxon, owned by East Tennessee Pioneer Oil Co., knew Tarver was drunk – so drunk that a cashier refused to sell him beer.

That actually sounds sort of reasonable in this particular case. However, as a hard and fast rule, it seems silly since we have a lot of self serve, pay at the pump establishments.

It seems to me that the two sides of the political spectrum interpret the Constitution thus:

The left side sees some things in it that aren’t there (right to abortion, right to education) and doesn’t see things in it that are there (second and tenth amendments).

The right side pays attention to what is there but figures that anything the government isn’t forbidden to do by the Constitution is OK (such as ban sexual things they’re not fond of).

Discuss.

Like every other time concealed carry laws went into effect, Michigan didn’t experience blood in the streets when it went to shall issue either.

Scored a Walther P22 today. Sweet. I took it apart (because that’s what I always do) and, when I removed the slide, the guide rod and spring shot out at lightning speed. Couldn’t get the damn thing back together. Tried for like 20 minutes. So, I called Rich, who has one too. Turns out, unlike every other gun I own, the guide rod goes in first and then the spring. I didn’t see them in their original configuration since they shot out when I disassembled the thing. All’s better. Now, I just need to shoot it.

The Beeb:

The government has been urged to relax gun laws which make it illegal for Britain’s top pistol shooters to train in England, Scotland and Wales.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke has given special permission for pistol events to be staged at the London 2012 Olympics.

But British team members face having to do all their 2012 preparations abroad.

The British are so spooked by guns, their Olympic team can’t practice there. Lame.

Pretty cool, check it out. Via Michael.

Blogging for Bryant notes that Ford, Jr. has raised more money for his campaign outside the state of Tennessee than in. Who’s buying? Odd.

I am having a good laugh right now at the sad quality of the CBS News. Everytime I read about gun related deaths while on the job they seem to be going up and up.

CBS is the latest to throw some numbers out that have little to do with reality.

Listen to the evening news and you’re likely to hear a grizzly story about a disaffected worker or estranged spouse or dissatisfied customer arriving at a workplace and going ballistic. It’s all too common.

About 17 employees are murdered every week in American workplaces by someone with a gun, making gun-related killings the third-biggest safety hazard facing American workers — right after vehicles and machines. In fact, gun-related homicide is the leading cause of death at the workplace for women. “about 17″ per week he said.

Lets see if it is correct. Now to err on the side of caution I will use only the number 16.5 to get these numbers. Don’t want to be accused of inflating these would I?

16.5 dead
x52 weeks a year
equals 858

Damn. That’s a lot of dead people. Only problem is it is made up. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics only gives the number of 487. Slightly smaller then the 858 number. The problem is that 487 is even a slightly misleading number when the data is examined.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution tried to use the 487 number in one of their anti-gun screeds but one of my commenters shot it down very fast.

But its accuracy is irrelevant. Notice the editorial’s wording, “487 people were shot to death at work.” That total apparently includes every police officer, cab driver, bank teller, pawnbroker and quicky-mart employee shot and killed “at work,” whether the shooter was a fleeing criminal, disgruntled customer, armed robber — or someone in a more relevant category like “angry employee” or “fed-up manager.”

So the number CBS is giving out is bunko.

But I will say now that I am not surprised at all. Robert B. Reich, the editorial author, is best described as biased. I was surprised when I found what position he held.

As the nation’s 22nd Secretary of Labor, Reich presided over the implementation of the Family and Medical Leave Act; led a national fight against sweatshops in the U.S. and illegal child labor around the world; headed the administration’s successful effort to raise the minimum wage; secured worker’s pensions, and launched job-training programs, one-stop career centers, and school-to-work initiatives. Under his leadership, the Department of Labor earned more than 30 awards for innovation and government reinvention. A 1996 poll of cabinet experts conducted by the Hearst newspapers rated him the most effective cabinet secretary during the Clinton administration.

I would think that a person who was in charge of the department of labor would have better numbers, or at least tell the truth.

The 27th Carnival of Cordite is up.

Egalia is shocked that North Carolina State legislators have apparently concluded that the best way to deal with domestic violence is to give women guns. The only problem, of course, is that statement is made up. What the proposed law actually does is require that women who seek orders of protection be given information on how to apply for a concealed weapon carry permit. It doesn’t give women guns.

Given that:

The Supreme Court recently ruled that domestic restraining orders do not trigger a constitutional right to government protection against harm from private individuals; and

A 2002 Washington state study found that 80 percent of women who requested a restraining order in domestic violence cases reported no repeated partner violence to law officers in the year after the order was issued. (Update: i.e., what happens to the 20%?); and

When a woman was armed with a gun or knife, only 3% of rape attacks are completed, compared to 32% when unarmed.; and

The probability of serious injury from an attack is 2.5 times greater for women offering no resistance than for women resisting with a gun;

It sounds reasonable to me. No one is forcing guns upon the women. She continues:

Does this mean that women will also get a get-out-of-jail-free card just in case there are suddenly a lot of dead and wounded boyfriends and husbands?

If someone is killed as a result of valid use of self-defense, the shooter won’t need a get out of jail free card. She also writes:

So women are to take the law into their own hands because law enforcement agencies are failures, or because this society just can’t figure out how to stop reproducing violent and misogynist men.

Who else should do it since the cops aren’t required to? Also, seems like shooting violent misogynist men engaged in acts of violence is a pretty effective way of dealing with them. And defending yourself is not taking the law into your own hands. It’s what you should do. My protection is my responsibility.

I’ll end with this quote from Women Against Gun Control:

Gun Control: The theory that a woman found dead in an alley, raped and strangled with her panty hose, is somehow morally superior to a woman explaining to police how her attacker got that fatal bullet wound.

Apparently for egalia, that’s the case.

Oddball thought experiment:

By some bizarre set of circumstances, you are the president as of now. Name the first 5 things you’d do. Level of difficulty: it must actually be stuff the president is constitutionally allowed to do. My list:

1 – Issue an executive order rescinding all other executive orders noting that: no such authority is in the constitution; the making of law rests with the legislative branch; and the interpretation of law is up to the judicial branch. Then note the irony of using said means to address said end.

2 – Fire Gonzales

3 – Un-nominate John Roberts and nominate Alex Kozinski

4 – Veto every thing for the foreseeable future.

5 – Call Jacques Chirac on the direct line and ask for Michael Hunt, who goes by Mike. Hang up. Go down list of other people who I have direct line to. Repeat until bored.

Israeli Wives Forcibly Remove Husbands From Gaza Strip Clubs

Alphie asked about feeds showing full text and not excerpts. The solution is to pick a different feed. Here they are:

Feed with just excerpts
Full text feed
RSS 2
Atom
Comments.

Lame:

One of Central Florida’s largest pest control companies has been recruited by police to help fight crime, according to Local 6 News.

Technicians from Truly Nolen Pest Control of America are being trained by local law enforcement to spot anything unusual as they visit customer’s homes.

Via Gunner.

It took 8 tries, but the Blount Commission finally got a wheel tax referendum on the ballot. In August 2006, county residents get to decide if they want to get taxed more:

The referendum resolution, which came from the commission’s Financial Management Committee, passed 12-5, with one commissioner passing.

If the measure is approved, the county would begin collecting the tax in January 2007.

I’ll be voting a hardy Hell no and advise my fellow Blount Countians to do the same. The Daily Times rounds up the votes:

With little discussion, Commissioner Bob Kidd’s motion to approve the referendum passed 12-5 with one commissioner passing and three absent.

Voting for the referendum were Commissioners Bob Arwood, Keith Brock, Dennis Cardin, Joe Everett, David Graham, John Keeble, Kidd, Jeff McCall, Kenneth Melton, Chairman Robert Ramsey, Otto Slater and Mike Walker.

Voting against the referendum were Commissioners Gary Farmer, Steve Hargis, Robby Kirkland, Dan Neubert Sr. and Shirley Townsend.

Commissioner Ernie Tallent passed on the vote, and Commissioners Donna Dowdy, Bob Evans and Steve Gray were absent.

Shame on Tallent for not making a decision. And shame on the absent folks for not showing up to do the job people elected them to do. Also, there was some disagreement from the citizens:

Linda King of Citizens for Blount County’s Future spoke against the wheel tax earlier in the meeting, but said after the vote that she was “glad” the issue was at least going to be in the hands of the voters.

“We hope to get the word out to people that a wheel tax wouldn’t be necessary if commissioners would cut waste from the county,” she said. “If they would be conservative with taxpayers’ money, we would already have money for highways.”

One citizen, however, spoke in favor of the wheel tax.

Robert Sliker told commissioners he had spoken with Highway Superintendent Bill Dunlap about how he could use the $1 million generated by a wheel tax to get an additional $4 million in federal grants.

“I’d rather pay 20 percent than the total cost,” he said, comparing the deal to buying one tire and getting the other three free. “I think it’s a very good use of our taxpayers’ money.”

When you develop Smart Guns that identify the user before allowing the gun to be fired, you may want to eliminate the false positives. The Geek tells us why smart guns are a dumb idea. For me, personally, it’s that the idea is just dumb. Also, as the Geek tells us, they’re not reliable.