Blake writes us a letter on red light cameras:

A recent study found that accidents have gone up dramatically (83 percent) at the intersections where cameras had been installed. However, both accidents and tickets issued have gone down by half after the yellow light timing was increased by one second, and we know that a city hates doing that due to the loss in revenue. In fact, Ft. Collins delayed adding other cameras because of the drop in revenue (from $3000 to $1125).

It’s never been about accidents. It’s about cash. Blake recommends we buy PhotoBlocker.

Nathan Moore writes:

Well, I don’t blog anonymously. My ego demands otherwise. However, to compare anonymous bloggers to terrorists is without a basis. Public officials get little benefit of the defamation laws anyhow, so I’m not at all sure what Ms. Stout thinks she has to stand on by attacking anonymity.

Meanwhile, Michael Silence says:

I’m missing something in all this. When did personalities trump policies and ideas? (Did cable TV do that?) What is there to fear from anonymous blogging? One can read those blogs and weigh them on their content. I’ve read SayUncle for more than three years and find it to be one of the best in the area. I don’t need to know him, although I do, to know where he’s coming from. Agree or disagree, his arguments are clear and concise.

Thanks for the compliment. The reason people don’t like anonymous bloggers can be summed up by a comment left by Ravenwood:

It’s simple really. They hate your anonymity because it makes it that much harder to silence you.

Ayup.

A ban on politically incorrect dogs:

City supervisors passed a new set of laws requiring spaying and neutering of pit bulls five months after the fatal mauling of a 12-year-old boy by his family’s pit bulls.

Tuesday’s decision came in the face of a threat of a ballot initiative to overturn a tough new state dog law. It is the latest move in the contentious debate about how to regulate pit bulls after the death of Nicholas Faibish in June.

“This will serve as a model for other cities in how to responsibly craft laws and policies that deal with dog aggression,” said Supervisor Bevan Dufty, who wrote the ordinances. “We needed to do something.”

Yes, we must do something even if it won’t work or make a bit of difference. Breed specific legislation doesn’t work. People will just find another breed.

Dufty said that over the next two to three years, the rules will reduce the number of pit bulls in the hands of irresponsible owners.

They’ll just switch breeds.

The ordinances also require city permits to breed pit bulls and prohibit owners of pit bulls or pit bull mixes from retrieving impounded dogs unless the animals are sterilized.

Owners who refuse to spaying or neutering would face fines of up to $1,000. Breeders of show dogs recognized by a kennel club would be exempt. The ordinances are scheduled to go into effect on Jan. 1.

There are quite a few unethical show dog breeders, puppy mills come to mind.

That’s not a bulldog, this is a bulldog:

Update: Fine, here’s a bulldog in a sombrero. Actually, it’s a sun hat but don’t tell him. He gets defensive when we dress him like a girl:

See, I told you:

Vice President Dick Cheney was heckled by protesters Tuesday as he spoke at the groundbreaking for a public policy center honoring former Senate Majority Leader Howard Baker.

During Cheney’s brief remarks, about a half-dozen people protesting the war in Iraq yelled, “War, what is it good for?” and held up a large banner saying, “Peace Now.”

Cheney continued speaking and didn’t acknowledge the protesters, who were escorted from the ceremony inside the University of Tennessee’s basketball arena.

I’ve covered this plenty of times but here’s the latest at The Daily Times:

Citizens for and against a proposed civic arts center have one thing in common: they’re busy lobbying their county commissioners this week.

The Blount County Commission will decide Thursday whether to fund its $11.9 million portion of the $55 million facility. Because the rest of the funding already has been committed by Maryville College, the cities of Maryville and Alcoa, and the state and federal government, the future of a civic arts center hinges on the commission.

Citizens for a Civic Arts Center held its last rally Saturday, when about 120 people including U.S. Rep. John J. Duncan Jr. walked from the Blount County Public Library to the site of the proposed center on the Maryville College campus. Co-founder Carolyn Forster said Monday that the group is working this week “making phone calls, writing letters and doing what we can to voice our support.”

“We know this is a one-time shot, make it or break it,” Forster said. “We’ve been working on this for over two years, but it all boils down to one night.”

I generally like John Duncan but the man has never seen a bit of taxpayer funded pork he won’t support. Now, from the opposition:

Meanwhile, the anti-tax group Citizens for Blount County’s Future is holding a meeting tonight for all taxpayers against using taxpayer money to build a civic arts center, said spokeswoman Linda King.

She said the taxpayers she talks to — “And I do talk to a lot of them” — all feel the same: that a civic arts center should not come from taxpayer dollars. The meeting is an opportunity, she said, for those people to get together and brainstorm the best way to make their opposition known to commissioners.

The group successfully rallied against a wheel tax in July. Commissioners decided that night to send the wheel tax back to committee and ultimately voted to hold an August 2006 referendum on the issue instead of voting in a wheel tax themselves.

I would say this boondoggle is a done deal and when the day comes (and it will) that it’s largely unsuccessful, I can take comfort in the fact that I told them so.

Update: In comments:

We could have had a new school or two

Heh.

A little background on Kim Stout. It seems the purpose of her letter is to fish out a blogger in Franklin that is well respected for keeping an eye on the Franklin government. Apparently Kim Stout would like to do a “South Knox Bubba” on the anonymous blogger that runs the “Drinkin’ the Franklin Kool Aid “. Pesky anonymous bloggers are always asking questions. Reminds me of those pesky anonymous revolutionaries that founded this nation.

A local politico, fearless leader of the GOP of Knox County, Brian Hornback writes that anonymous bloggers are cowards and have NO credibility. Hornback is a former school board member who spends a lot of time attacking the school board. Ironically Brian Hornback will not allow comments on his blog. Go figure. Not very credible is it?

Hornback writes, “My point is this, bloggers that have enough intestinal fortitude to put it out there, knowing that their identity is on the line have far more credibility than those that want to remain anonymous. When I look at a blog and the person is a coward that refuses to reveal who they are. I ignore them and tell others to ignore them, they have NO credibility. If you are going to spend your time to affect public opinion and public policy then be man or woman enough to identify yourself.”

Of course allowing comments on said blog is optional. Hornback has nice little friends like Tyler Harber that will come play with you if they figure out who you are and where you work. It’s a lot of fun; ask Jamie (Hagood) Woodson or school board superintendent Dr. Charles Lindsey. Who was it that created caswalker.com? Many people think it was Tyler Harber, able lieutenant to GOP leader Brian Hornback. Pot, kettle, you get the idea.

Keep it up pesky anonymous bloggers. We are the new press. Somebody had to step up because the politicians took over the old press. Remember the lesson learned by South Knox Bubba, the politicos will lean on you if they can.

In an otherwise decent piece on the San Fran gun ban, Stephen Chapman writes:

It’s not easy to do, but gun control advocates in San Francisco have come up with an anti-firearms measure that embarrasses even some gun control advocates.

Really? Like who? The Brady Campaign is for it. The Violence Policy Center is for it. The Million Mom March campaigned for it.

Did I leave anyone out?

Update: Mr. Chapman informs me he was referring to Zimring, Feinstein and Newsom, who were referenced later in the piece. I take him at his word. However, when I think of anti-gun advocates, I tend to think of their lobby and not the politicians.

Nothing ever is. It’s the fault of society, my parents, somebody else or any various addictions I may have. At least, that’s the message we in America hear every day.

Whitney Houston honestly believes that she is a victim of drug addiction. No Whitney, you’re a crack head with too much money.

Hillary Clinton honestly believes she’s the victim of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy. No Hillary, you’ve done some questionable things in the past. And when you stepped into the limelight some of that stuff reared its ugly head. And your husband isn’t a saint.

Some old granny thought it was McDonald’s fault that she spilled coffee in her lap. No, you shouldn’t have spilled it on yourself.

And a burglar in New York City broke into a woman’s home and cut himself on the glass. And guess what! A jury said it was the woman’s fault. No, you shouldn’t have been breaking into people’s houses.

What has happened to our country? We’re too litigious, nobody is responsible for anything, and we actually sit idly by and absorb this crap. Who’s at fault? I have some ideas:

The media: They pipe this stuff into our homes and (quite often) take the side of the imbecile that thinks the bad things that they’ve done were the result of them ‘not being happy.’ Hey moron, none of us are happy all the time. Happiness comes in little tiny bursts, it’s not a perpetual state of bliss. Contentment, however, is attainable.

Lawyers: Well, someone’s gotta get rich off this lack of personal responsibility nonsense. Since lawyers and their clients make big bucks off this crap, it perpetuates.

The medical/psychiatric/therapy/self-help crowd: By far the biggest enabler of this trend. Psychology (from the Greek Psych meaning ‘to make’ and –ology meaning ‘stuff up’) has given us several new tools to avoid being responsible for ourselves. We get Chronic Fatigue Disorder to justify why we’re tired all the time, it has nothing to do with not sleeping, taking care of ourselves, or anything like that. We get Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder to explain why we can’t control our kids and must drug them into compliance (by the way, the US is the only country that actually recognizes this as a disease). We get Obsessive Compulsive Disorder to explain those little quirky things about ourselves that we don’t like. And we get Manic Depression to explain why we feel different ways at different times. And the catchall: Depression. If you’re not happy all the time, you must be depressed. None of us are happy all the time. Deal with it.

A story about me: Several years ago, there was about a two month period in which I lost (while not dieting) about 20 pounds. This is a big deal when you only weighed about 160 pounds at the time and are six feet one inch tall. So, concerned, I go to my doctor. They poke, prod, and take samples. All the tests come back and I am the pillar of good health apparently. So, my doc says he’s going to prescribe mood elevators for me. I get a nifty prescription to Zoloft. Which I took for exactly three days and threw away. It made me non-reactive to my surroundings, apathetic, and, of course, I had a problem with the erection that I had for three days straight (ordinarily, that wouldn’t be a problem but I wasn’t dating then). I called up the doctor and asked what Zoloft did. He told me it elevated my mood. I asked how. He couldn’t answer. I did some research and found out Zoloft slowed the production of serotonin, which is what makes your body regulate various processes. I stopped taking the stuff after reading the side effects and realized I was having some of them. I finally concluded I was stressed and just wasn’t eating right and all returned to normal shortly thereafter because I started eating a big breakfast. The moral: they had no idea what was wrong so they doped me up. And this behavior continues today.

Parents are willing to administer drugs to kids that are possibly addictive and could lead to kidney failure because they can’t control their kids. Since the can’t control them, the kids must have ADHD, so your local psychobabbleist will prescribe you anything you want. It has nothing to do with poor parenting skills. Doctors are willing to administer drugs to people and really don’t know what the drugs do.

Now, obviously, I’ve gone to the extreme on this. I do realize some people are legitimately depressed or legitimately have ADHD or these other ‘disorders.’ But these are definitely over-diagnosed and are used as excuses for bad behavior. Like when the woman killed her five kids because she was depressed. I really wish the medical/psychiatric/therapy/self-help crowd would take a bit more care in diagnosing this stuff. But not every single one of us who does something stupid has a psychological disorder.

I’m off to write my own self-help book. It will be entitled I’m Okay, You’re Fucked Up.

Ed Note: Not feeling it today, so this is a reprint.

James has some advice on how to draw your weapon.

Mephistophocles (which I don’t recommend you pronounce phonetically) takes on the anonymous bloggers are like terrorists silliness that I mentioned here:

This sort of thing can only be countered by maturity and culture, and I believe that the Tennesean (sic) (as a newspaper, which should, I think, be generally a furthering and promoting culture) should be ashamed of themselves for printing it. Yes, sure, everyone has the right to say what they think, but some opinions, like the people that utter them, really are assholes – and aren’t worth anyone’s time. The Tennesean, by printing this garbage, is implying that it has merit, and I believe this only serves to lower their credibility to an even more abysmal level (assuming that’s possible). I say that the rest of us take a lesson from this woman and her hatred – don’t be like her.

Read it all.

Dick Cheney will be in Knoxville today to give a speech. I wonder if any local bloggers are headed that way to cover the event or cover the protests of the event (which I’m sure will happen)?

I have to confess that I really enjoy conspiracy theories. It’s not that I believe them but I find them entertaining. And I don’t mean the Who Shot JFK variety but the explanation of the world type. You know, the New World Order, Illuminati, Masons Rule The World, Black Helicopter, and laundry gnomes. Pick any conspiracy theory like those and read about them. You won’t be disappointed. It is amazing the level of detail that true believers will get into. Seriously, they go into great detail to explain things and, sometimes, they almost make sense More importantly, they’re darn entertaining. I think there’s a market for taking any of them and making a movie or TV mini-series about them. The latest, which I’d read a while back at Knoxblab, is about a time traveler from the future who details the collapse of our society and civil war.

So, go read about John Titor, time traveler from the future with a message. Here’s a timeline of things.

Der Commissar is asking readers to nominate and vote for the greatest blog post ever. Head on over and cast your vote.

Kim Stout of Franklin, Tennessee penned a nasty little letter comparing anonymous bloggers to terrorists, that The Tennessean printed:

Regarding the political blog sites, I see no difference between cowardly terrorists hiding their faces beneath hoods and citizens spewing vile statements about public officials while not identifying themselves. If a blogger is confident in the truth of their slander, they should claim ownership of their thoughts.

Even this newspaper will not publish unsigned letters. Freedom of expression is one of the greatest things about our country, but in the name of common decency — cowards, identify yourselves. Civil discourse will always be more productive than Web sites that are channels of hate.

Kim Stout

Yup, I’m a terrorist. The Tennessean doesn’t publish unsigned letters but here’s a big list of their unsigned opinion pieces.

Kim Stout, you’re a vile, hateful and despicable sort of idiot. Stating that someone who expresses themselves anonymously is similar to a terrorist is disgusting and you should be ashamed of yourself. Sure, there are legitimate complaints one can level against an anonymous blogger but comparing them to terrorists isn’t one of them.

Update: Make that two idiots today:

Why do people read Say(s)Uncle? After his? their? little rant today against someone who thought anonymous bloggers were cowards, “he” pitched a little hissy fit and posted it for the world to see

As I said: There are legitimate complaints one can level against an anonymous blogger but comparing them to terrorists isn’t one of them.

Ricky asks:

Anyone seen these guys [Kerry and Edwards - Ed.] in black churches since November 2, 2004?

No time for that with all the hunting I’m sure they’re doing.

The latest local political scandal involves allegations that law enforcement officers who contributed to the governor were promoted, reports the Tennessean:

Two-thirds of Tennessee Highway Patrol officers tapped for promotion under Gov. Phil Bredesen gave money to his campaign or had family or political patrons who did, a Tennessean investigation has found.

Among those with such connections, more than half were promoted over troopers who scored better on impartial exams or rankings, according to an analysis by the newspaper of three years of the patrol’s promotions and proposed promotions.

Meanwhile, Stacey Campfield (who says he was beat to the punch) writes of one such promotion:

The trooper was just getting off of a suspension for wrighting (sic) tickets to dead people,had several sexual harassment claims against him as well as other questionable activity that was still being investigated. I will tell more as it becomes available and is verified.

The best law enforcement money can buy!

Ravenwood reports that some Columbus (OH) citizens became criminals last week:

Though 115 people registered, some registered more than one weapon. One person registered 45 weapons, Jones said. City officials said it’s hard to say if 115 was more or less than they expected, because no one has estimated how many assault weapons the city’s 730,000 residents own.

I’d say there are quite a few Columbus residents who have no idea they just became criminals.

With the various AR projects and AK builds I have going on, I don’t need The Judicator telling me how fun customizing a FAL is. I’d love a FAL but need to wrap up my other projects first. Though I may want to start before prices go up.

Folks in Toronto live in fear of gun violence. In the past, the politicos there blamed US guns claiming that over half of the guns used in crime came from here. Of course, that number was completely made up. Since that was made up, they now blame US guns (though they don’t give a number) and our gun culture:

Residents of Canada’s biggest city are living in fear of increasing gun violence and blame their neighbour, the United States, for exporting their gun culture and weapons north, officials told AFP.

Area police reported hundreds of shootings this year, including 46 homicides. Some 1,782 guns were seized, including a cache of illegal weapons confiscated from a local online retailer this week — Canada’s first such bust that included a bullet-proof baseball cap and a military gas mask.

A bullet proof baseball cap? I thought this registry was supposed to fix all this stuff.

The latest is up at The Strat-Sphere.

If you’re new to the AK Series, here’s part one, on general how to. And here’s part 2 on legal and compliance info. When we last left off, I was in the process of sanding and sawing off the forward pistol grip. I stripped the varnish, cut off the forward grip and sanded it down. I am sad to report the wood underneath all that varnish is hideously ugly. See:

So, what to do? Paint it of course. I went to Lowe’s and mulled my paint choices. I decided on flat black, since I love those evil black rifles that give Chuck Schumer and Diane Feinstein fits. Then, I saw it. From Rustoleum, the new American Accents Stone Collection. Cool, I can not only paint it flat black but I can texture the furniture. I gave it my best Mr. Burns Excellent and snatched some up. Here’s the first coat (more coats required):
Read the rest of this entry »

The Carnival of Cordite, Veterans Day Edition, is up.

A lot of discussion over there on getting people with FFLs in other states to adopt the guns that gun owners in San Francisco will be forced to give up. It’s no time to pull guns out, it’s time to put guns in.

Is it OK to spread misinformation about a crazy man? Seriously. The AP writes:

Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson warned residents of a rural Pennsylvania town Thursday that disaster may strike there because they “voted God out of your city” by ousting school board members who favored teaching intelligent design.

Emphasis added. However, the only quotes from Robertson I found were:

“I’d like to say to the good citizens of Dover: If there is a disaster in your area, don’t turn to God. You just rejected him from your city,” Robertson said on the Christian Broadcasting Network’s “700 Club.”

And

“God is tolerant and loving, but we can’t keep sticking our finger in his eye forever,” Robertson said. “If they have future problems in Dover, I recommend they call on Charles Darwin. Maybe he can help them.”

Typical crazy stuff from Robertson. Now, from the quotes, it doesn’t look like he said disaster may strike there. More like him saying if it does, you’re screwed.

I could be wrong, of course, as I merely searched Google news for Pat Robertson. If there’s a source that quotes him directly saying God will strike the city, let me know.

Update: And, no, this is not a defense of Robertson (who I think is insane and his comments are ludicrous) but a criticism of the AP. Some people get those things confused.

Yea, there’s a ton of tributes and flowery stuff in the blogosphere today about Veterans Day. None of that here, I’m just going to call my dad and say thanks. And he’ll probably tell me a dick joke.

Karl Malone went to Mississippi with his crew to help clean up. He had some problems:

“I wasn’t going to just write a check, and I didn’t want to go to New Orleans where all the celebrities were going (to grandstand). I wanted to go where no one was, and that’s why we went to Pascagoula.

“We took six million dollars of equipment and most of the guys from my company (Malone Properties). But when we got there, they (federal officials) told us that because we wanted to work for free, we had to go home. That we needed a government ID number or a contract to haul out debris.

“I said to them, ‘bullsh–’, we took 30 pieces of equipment and traveled nine hours and we’re going to clean up some lots before we leave. So I told them ‘I’m getting on my truck, now try to get me off.’ I had my security guys there and they tried to stop us but they couldn’t – and we cleared 115 houses.

Helluva basketball player too.

The HitMan has posted the full emails regarding allegations that a reporter in Nashville lied about a TennCare disenrollment story. I covered it here.

What a moron.

Update: I’m sorry you’re a moron.

There, I did. Happy?

And for those who don’t get get it, see Brittney’s round up.

Mr. Completely asks:

Over the last month I’ve noticed in Sitemeter a number of visits from school districts looking at my previous post about the Hi-Point 9mm. carbine. The URL’s usually look like k12.xx.us. The xx part varies, depending on what part of the country, and which school district they are in, and there have been several different ones.

Although I’d like to think that some of the teachers and school administrators out there are starting to consider the practical and economical features of the Hi-Point, including American manufacture and inexpensive ammunition. I suspect it just isn’t so.

Do any of you out there have any information on this?

The answer is that the little bastards at Columbine used one. I imagine teachers are getting training on shootings and it spurs them to look it up.

But, most importantly, looking at your referral logs it seems people are looking for pictures of one.

Lawbreaker and mayor Gavin Newsom on the SF gun ban:

Mayor Gavin Newsom has acknowledged the measure likely wouldn’t withstand legal scrutiny, but said it had symbolic value.

I think that was the theory when San Fran was handing out gay marriage licenses. I think it must be his campaign slogan.

Tam:

What do San Francisco, Philadelphia, Nashville, Anaheim, and Portland have in common? They all seem to believe in the importance of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Free WiFi Access.

“Free”, that is, in the sense of “a free education” or “free health care”. In other words, the taxpayers take it in the shorts, and this time you can’t even pass it off as a benefit to the poor, since the bag lady under the bridge is unlikely to be using the service to update the iTunes on her laptop.

Bruce reports:

Pointing to the rising number of shootings in Boston, Mayor Thomas M. Menino is calling for a “handgun summit” in New England and raised the possibility of random police searches of cars crossing into the state to intercept illegal weapons.

That is absolutely amazing. What about that pesky fourth amendment?

In my hometown, there is a moratorium on new residential land development. The reason for this is that the city doesn’t have enough schools and approving more subdivisions would strain those schools even more. So, why is the city (my the city) paying for the Civic Arts Center to the tune of over $9M? Seems like $9M would maybe be a good down payment on, I don’t know, say a new school?

BizzyBlog has a run down of recent events. Most recently:

After a campaign focusing on rising taxes and the eminent domain controversy, New London voters have sliced the Democrats’ City Council majority from three to one.

The upstart One New London Party won two council seats, losing a third seat by only 19 votes. The new seven-member council will consist of four Democrats, one Republican, and two aldermen from One New London.

I really dig The Colbert Report. Colbert, as usual, is hysterical. The premise of the show is that Colbert parodies conservative news hosts (specifically, he’s parodying Bill O’Reilly). The sad part is that he, who has professed to identifying with Democrats in the past, is a more convincing conservative than, well, a lot of real conservatives. Last night (well, OK, the night before – Damn you, TiVo), for example, on the establishment clause he said something to the effect of it was to keep the government out of churches and not churches out of government. Classic conservative stuff and he delivered it convincingly (and, no, this is not SayUncle endorsing this view).

But many people didn’t quite get the schtick. Namely some bloggers, I’d guess. So, that same episode, Colbert did a bit to inform his audience that we was ‘playing a character’ and not to confuse the character he plays with, well, him. He prefaced it by stating some bloggers intercepted a satellite feed. Stupid bloggers.

In Blount County, the powers that be want to build this fantastic boondoggle known as the Civic Arts Center. The scam was supported last week by the city (my the city) of Maryville who agreed to waste $9M of tax payer money on this fiasco. Now, the city (not my the city) of Alcoa has decided to pony up nearly $4M. All that’s left is convincing Blount County to foot part of the bill of $11M. It looks like that will happen:

“Three unanimous votes, the college, Maryville and Alcoa have all been totally unanimous. The (Blount County Commission) budget committee passed it unanimously, even without recommendation, to the full commission for a vote,” said Carolyn Forster of Citizens for a Civic Arts Center. “Now all the (county) commissioners will have the chance to vote on it.”

If you feel the need to contact the County Commission, their number is (865) 273-5830. Make sure you ask them:

Why is our government willing to fund a project to be turned over to the local college?

The Knoxville Convention Center is a failure and their calendar of events may as well be blank. Why do you think people would come to Maryville for an event?

Also, are there plans to build convenient hotels to the center? Right now, there’s nothing particularly convenient.

Do you really believe this thing is going to bring industry into the county? Other than the jobs of staffing the place, of course.

The people selling this thing are really convinced that this will bring high tech jobs here. Seriously:

City Manager Mark Johnson said the center would be more than a cultural jewel to the county, it would help bring industry.

“I think it’s an important asset to have on your balance sheet when you’re trying to offer the community as an attractive place for high-tech research and development firms.”

According to Johnson, high tech research and development industries are the focus for the future of Blount County.

Manufacturing jobs the United States has enjoyed over the past 100 years are going to other countries with cheaper labor.

“If we don’t get our act together and capitalize on our technical ability, we’re going to fall behind other countries in the world,” he said. “We’re going through a paradigm shift. We’ve got to emphasize education and look for that niche of being able to maintain our hold on technology.”

According to Johnson, the Oak Ridge National Lab is going to make this area a focal point for high tech industry. Blount County has to be ready to participate in that industry, he said.

Yes, come to Blount County, where we have a building.

Via Ben, Chai Vang has been sentenced to life in prison. More posts on Vang are here.

The Brady Campaign has come out in support of the San Francisco gun ban:

And in San Francisco, a referendum to outlaw handguns passed by a spectacular margin with pennies spent marketing it. The Brady Campaign took no position on the ban, but the broad margin of victory on the referendum (some 58 percent supported it) speaks volumes about the desire of urban residents to do something about the gun violence plaguing American cities.

In a nutshell, Election Day 2005 was a positive one for supporters of sensible gun laws.

So, the Bradies claim to be for sensible gun laws yet they are ecstatic over a law that will lead to the confiscation of handguns, forbid purchasing ammo, and forbid transfers (i.e., purchasing) firearms is a sensible gun law? Further:

The San Francisco referendum, Sarah Brady said this morning, “sends a very loud message from American urban voters. They are saying the gun violence problem is not going to go away if we don’t do something about it. The extreme gun lobby worked very hard to try to defeat the measure, and they got trounced.”

Uhm, who’s the extremist? You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means.

Blogger HitMan alleges Nashville’s Channel 4 reporter Nancy Amons intentionally misled the public:

Did Amons make a mistake? Did her subject sell her a bill of goods? Did Amons simply misunderstand the situation?

No, sir. Multiple sources inform me that Amons was told numerous times by officials from TennCare and Human Services that this man had not been disenrolled, and she chose to run her own version of events.

In other words, Nancy Amons intentionally misled the public.

To make matters worse, the state contacted Channel 4 and demanded that they correct their erroneous report. As of the last that I heard, the station had refused to run an on-air correction because “it would look bad”; however, it did add a tepid two-line “clarification” to the end of the on-line text version of the story.

Here’s the first post and here’s the second with what he says are emails from the parties involved.

It wouldn’t surprise me but it’d be more convincing if he posted the full email headers, but that’s just me.

Via Brittney.

A bill authorizing CCW has made it out of committee.

The AP:

Congress is moving to curb some of the police powers it gave the Bush administration after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, including imposing new restrictions on the FBI’s access to private phone and financial records.

A budding House-Senate deal on the expiring USA Patriot Act includes new limits on federal law enforcement powers and rejects the Bush administration’s request to grant the FBI authority to get administrative subpoenas for wiretaps and other covert devices without a judge’s approval.

Even with the changes, however, every part of the law set to expire Dec. 31 would be reauthorized and most of those provisions would become permanent.

Via Dr. Helen, comes this:

Adolescent ownership and use of firearms is a growing concern, and results from the Rochester study suggest the concern is well founded.

By the ninth and tenth grades, more boys own illegal guns (7 percent) than own legal guns (3 percent). Of the boys who own illegal guns, about half of the whites and African-Americans and nearly 90 percent of the Hispanics carry them on a regular basis.

Figure 13 shows a very strong relationship between owning illegal guns and delinquency and drug use. Seventy-four percent of the illegal gunowners commit street crimes, 24 percent commit gun crimes, and 41 percent use drugs. Boys who own legal firearms, however, have much lower rates of delinquency and drug use and are even slightly less delinquent than nonowners of guns.

But I thought it was the availability of guns that lead to . . .

I wonder how boys owning legal guns is defined. After all, you typically have to be 18 to buy a rifle and 21 to buy a handgun. I’m not sure how, legally, a boy can own a firearm other than a parent buys it and gives it to the kid while the parent retains control of it. Still, I find it interesting.

Here’s a link to the whole thing.

I’ve not seen the Wrenn case addressed by the NRA. Is it because it involves NFA weapons?

For that matter, I’ve not seen it covered by GOA either.

RegularReader at Subguns notes the latest in the trial of Ernie Wrenn:

The government has now conceded that it IS legal to build a post sample. My guess is that when you choose which of many lies to try to make stick, that one presented the most problems.

Now for the shocker: the ATF compliance inspector testified under oath that the NFRTR is “corrupt” and inaccurate. Thank you Eric Larson. Thank you for one honest agent.

And then came this little problem: the government, meaning the poor prosecutor in this case, just figured out (with Doug’s help) that they charged Ernie on 08 maxims, and kept referring to them as 1910. Although the jury was not present the Judge seemed a little PO’d. Well, that is what you get when you believe FTB “experts”. Thank you Professor Bubba. ( That is meant as a compliment.)

The NFRTR is the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record, which is the registry of NFA firearms. The Treasury Department Inspector General has ruled in the past that the data within the NFRTR was incomplete, inaccurate, and unreliable.

No, really:

‘Once I saw what happened in Hurricane Katrina, I said every American household should have a firearm. If there’s a tremendous earthquake in San Francisco and looting, you don’t want your family protected? You don’t want a firearm in your house? You’re living in the world of Oz

Kinda funny how maintaining the status quo is viewed as signaling trouble for Bush. I guess given how the 2002 and 2004 elections were quite the ass-whippin’ for folks with Ds after their names, some would view it as a good thing. But, as Dave says:

So let me see if I understand this correctly. New Jersey and Virginia remain as before. California shows itself to be just as liberal in 2005 as in 2004. Texas proves just how conservative it really is. And San Francisco is still the liberal enclave of the West Coast.

So we’re left with the status quo. And this is a cause for Democratic glee? Talk about lowering the bar.

Brittney rounds up reactions.

The NRA is already filing suit against the San Francisco handgun ban.

Knoxville City Council approved the Redflex red lights cameras by a 6-3 vote last night. Only Steve Hall, Joe Bailey, and Joe Hultquist voted against the red light cameras. The closet thing to a poll on this is at the Knoxville News Sentinel online edition. The overwhelming majority of respondents are against the red light cameras. Michael Silence’s blog on the KNS has featured many stories on the red light cameras. Even Glen Reynolds has commented or what a poor idea this is for Knoxville.

This morning on the Lloyd Daugherty radio program on AM 1180 caller after caller expressed their disappointment, anger, and frustration with City Council. One caller described the vote on the red light cameras as government malpractice. City Councilman Steve Hall was in the studio and was asked if the red light camera contract gave Redflex the right to control the yellow light duration. Hall said that City Engineering was still in control of the yellow light duration and that Redflex could not change the yellow light timing. Hall also said that the contract with Redflex will be reviewed in one year and there is no penalty clause if the City decides to cancel the contract.

A caller asked Hall if City Engineering would increase the yellow light duration to five seconds so the Redflex red light cameras would not be so dangerous to drivers. Hall responded that he had asked City Engineering to increase the yellow light duration but they said it was too expensive to do so. Hall further said that City Engineering feels the timing of the yellow lights is correct and that there is no need to change the timing.

Later in the program a caller gave out the phone numbers for City Engineering department of Traffic Engineering. Councilman Hall was asked by the caller to bring Section Chief Mark Geldmeier and Ernie Pierce of the Traffic Signal Group to City Council for a workshop to explain why the yellow light duration should not be changed to 5 seconds in light of the vote to install the red light cameras. Then Hall said something unexpected. He said that Mark Geldmeier was the person that suggested the red light cameras to the Knoxville Police Department. When asked if the red light cameras were Geldmeier’s idea Hall responded yes.

Is there a problem here? The individual who is the decision maker for the length of the yellow light duration is the same person who came up with the idea for the red light cameras? If you feel an explanation is required then contact your City Council representative and request a workshop in City Council to explain how and why yellow light durations are determined and set. Why should there be any reluctance to explain this to the community?

The question is simple, is this about revenue or is it about safety?

Chris Rock once did a bit where the theme was Whatever happened to crazy? There was a school shooting in a surrounding county yesterday where a 15 year-old opened fire on three school administrators with a 22 caliber pistol, killing one. Local talk radio yesterday and today was filled with the typical knee-jerk reaction of why this happened. Blame the parents. Blame video games. Blame music. Blame the breakdown of family structure. And one dude actually blamed the principal that got shot. Seriously. This is Tennessee so no one blamed guns.

My thoughts: Kid was crazy. Why do we (and by we, I mean not me) feel the need to find some root cause? Not enough love from home. The kid didn’t need to attend some hippie, tree-hugging re-birthing ceremony. He was just nuts. There were crazy people before rap music, the supposed familial breakdown, and video games. Some folks are just insane.

Update: Michael has a round up. And Frank has more.

Update 2: Turns out it’s a profound and pervasive lack of respect for the value of life. Sounds like crazy to me.

Heard on the news this morning the City Council voted to approve red light cameras.

This is one reason to use the words black or white:

… it’s been 11 days since two African- American teenagers were killed, electrocuted during a police chase, which prompted all of this.

No the French are not killing Americans.

The Gun Guy tells us gun folks to chill out with respect to the crazy talk:

But it’s time we gun owners grew up. When there’s reason to be paranoid, we should be. What I’m saying is that we don’t have to be paranoid anymore—just eternally watchful, and suspicious.

Jeff notes the SF handgun ban has passed. A similar measure was struck down in 1982.

I finally managed to get the new and improved WASR-10 out to the range. Here’s the post on some of the mods I made with before and after photos. But, for you folks too lazy to click, my AK set up is Romanian WASR-10, which you can learn everything about it by clicking here. Seriously, the guy’s page is full of general info and how-to info that proved invaluable to me when doing my modifications. The modifications I’ve made have been to add this folding stock by Tapco; the Ultimak scout rail and mount to allow co-witnessing the iron sights of the AK with the red dot scope (see previous posts here and here); and a Tacpoint red dot sight (everything you ever wanted to know about the Tacpoint – good and bad – is here).

Here’s the WASR in it’s afterglow.

The magazine feeding problems I had mentioned before were nonexistent. On the advice of Robert, I used a Dremel to shave off part of the rear of the magazine well and the mag release. No problems at all. This also fixed the jamming issues. Not a single malfunction in about 150 rounds. So, how’d it shoot:
Read the rest of this entry »

Packing.org reports:

The National Police Concealed Carry Law – H.R. 218 is being manipulated to make carrying a concealed firearm under that law a liability for the officer or retired officer that might be found exercising his right in NYC and some other states.

In NYC, “there’s a memo directing NYPD officers who encounter a fellow officer carrying a firearm in accordance with the cop carry law to seize the gun, detain the person, and call a supervisor onto the scene. From there, the supervisor is to keep the gun and person in custody until the persons off duty or retired credentials can be verified through the department and the persons home agency.”

Gun Law News has the results of its poll regarding what should be next on the agenda for gun right:

The question was ‘Where should we go for next?’. And the results were:

Nationwide CCW Reciprocity 43.5%
Repeal of NFA 34 28.4%
Repeal of ’sporting use’ 11.5%
Repeal of the Brady Bill 6.8%
Repeal of the Hughes Amdt 4.3%
Interstate sales of all firearms 4.0%
Other 1.6%
Interstate sales of rifles 0.1%

Jeff has the latest on gun bias in the media.

One for the too stupid to fisk category. David Kairys is either a disingenuous anti-gun hack or an idiot.

Speaking of burying the lede, saw this at Patterico on Alito:

Murphy said he and Alito agree that the 1973 landmark abortion-rights case Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided.

“He is much more an Anti-federalist where state and national authority clash, more libertarian on issues such as gun control, and much tighter on some matters as the rights of the criminally accused than I,” Murphy said in an earlier email message.

I’d consider that a good thing.

Update: Considering this, the Gun Owners of America endorsement and the fact that the Brady Campaign feels the need to lie about Alito, I’m moving away from being neutral on the Alito nomination and more toward supporting it. Not entirely convinced yet, but closer.

TNKen reports on the latest in the not really a machine gun trial of Ernie Wrenn:

As you may know, Ernie and his attorney were allowed to inspect and take the semi auto Maxims that were alleged to be machine guns to the range in an attempt to duplicate ATF’s allegation that they would fire fully auto. At the first test, ATF refused to allow Ernie and his attorney to video the test. The second time, they got a court order to allow the taping, only to have ATF force them to surrender the video following the test. ATF refused to participate in the testing, and the guns of course, only fired in semi if at all.

Late last week, ATF filed a motion to exclude the video. First, on the grounds that it had Ernie in it, and the government would not be able to cross-examine him if he did not take the witness stand. If Ernie did take the stand, ATF argued that the video would only be duplicative of the oral testimony, and thus not necessary for the defense. Obviously, the government does not like the facts portrayed in the video.

Abysmal. Lying about it being a machine gun then preventing him from proving it. More Wrenn past coverage here.

Getting older and having a kid, I started really looking at life. So, I asked my dad what advice he could give and he said (and I am not making this up):

There was a third one but I forgot it. It may have been the important one. As you were.

Update: Guess that explains this. Maybe I should ask mom.

Bill Hobbs asks if tax referendums are a threat. It seems Tennessee Tax Revolt is a pain in the butt to people who want to raise your taxes. Good for them.

The Freeholder:

30,000–that’s the population of a large town or a small city. It’s the number of seats in one of the smaller major league baseball fields. It’s the size of a US Army Corps.

Wired also reports that it’s also the number of “national security letters” issued by the FBI on a yearly basis. These letters allow access to your Internet use, telephone, email and financial records, all without judicial review. (Not that I trust the judicial system, but any sort of oversight would make me a little more comfortable.)

30,000 is 100 times the historical average of these letters, which first came into use with the passage of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act in 1986.

Good thing we have this right to privacy thing.

Joe may have had a hand in preventing the Australian terror attack. Even he says chances are slim but still.

Just Johnny just moved. New site here. He’s also providing free blogs for all of East Tennessee. If you’re interested, head on over and sign up.

Seen at Alphie’s:

How large does the Republican majority in the House and Senate need to be before Republicans act like the fiscal conservative I thought we were?

Ouchie.

By now, everyone has heard the story about the pirates that attacked a cruise ship off the east African coast:

Pirates armed with grenade launchers and machine guns tried to hijack a luxury cruise liner off the east African coast Saturday, but the ship outran them, officials said.

Two boats full of pirates approached the Seabourn Spirit about 100 miles off the Somali coast and opened fire while the heavily armed bandits tried to get onboard, said Bruce Good, spokesman for the Miami-based Seabourn Cruise Line, a subsidiary of Carnival Corp.

The ship escaped by shifting to high speed and changing course.

The cruise ship outran them and also fired some sort of sonic weapon at them. So, given that they had rocket propelled grenades and machine guns which they supposedly fired at the ship, here’s my question: Why are we so sure they’re pirates and not, I don’t know, say terrorists?

Sure, we don’t know because they didn’t catch the ship but I don’t think I’d rule out the possibility.

Side note: saw on Mail Call one night a special about the Coast Guard. They had a pretty cool gun set up. It was a Barrett 50 semi-auto fitted with an EOTech holographic scope. It’s purpose was to disable engines. Interesting application, I thought.

Apparently, they think when the judiciary doesn’t defer to congress on matters of the Constitution that that is Right-Wing Judicial Activism and a Threat to Federal Gun Laws.

The Confederate Yankee catches them lying as well. The Bradies claim a straw purchaser’s address was a local mission but:

But Van McQueen’s home address was not a local mission as Brady claims, at any point in the gun purchasing process.

They also claim McQueen came back three days later but:

Records will further show that Van McQueen did not come back three days later to attempt to purchase a firearm.

Three days after November 26 was November 29.

FBI NICS records and other documentation will show that Van McQueen did not purchase the shotgun until December 29 at 4:07:23 PM, 33 days later, or more than a month after the Brady Center’s claim.

They have to lie to win and that’s still not working out so well for them.

This is my letter sent to each member of City Council:

I am writing to ask you for your help. Over the years the yellow light
duration has gone from 5 seconds to 3 to 4 seconds. This has created a
safety hazard for intersections in Knoxville. I ask that you require
City Engineering to have a full five-second yellow light and a two
second hold on cross traffic.

I ask that you do this regardless of what decision you make on the red
light cameras. I hope you will change your previous approval and deny
the red light cameras. City after city has learned that these cameras
cause more accidents. Public safety is your most important
responsibility. If the City must have more revenue then raise the
property tax.

This is one of the most important decisions ever considered by City
Council. It is possible that a major lawsuit against the City could be
filed charging that the City was negligent in allowing the red light
cameras with a shortened yellow light duration. There is so much data
available today to show red light cameras with shortened yellow light
durations cause accidents. How could the City defend against such a
lawsuit?

The majority of the residents are against the red light cameras. Our
desire is public safety. When you placed revenue over public safety
you do so against our wishes.

If for any reason you have not seen the information I am referring to
I have listed some of it below. Please use your authority to require
City Engineering to have a full five-second yellow light and a two
second hold on cross traffic.

http://www.coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051030/NEWS01/510300317/1002

http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/02/288.asp

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/03/AR2005100301844.html

http://www.motorists.com/issues/enforce/georgiacenter.html

http://www.cityofknoxville.org/engineering/traffic/signals.asp

http://www.phantomplate.com/testimonial/weeklystandardPart2.htm

See part 1 here. All you folks are apparently too lazy to Google. Questions have arisen about compliance [18 USC 922(r)] parts for the AK. Here’s a list, taken from AR15.com:

The 16 countable parts of an AK rifle. No more than 10 of these parts may be imported.

(1) Receiver*
(2) Barrel
(3) Trunnion
(4) Muzzle attachments(flash hiders, brakes, barrel extensions, barrel nuts)*
(5) Bolt
(6) Bolt carrier
(7) Gas piston
(8) Trigger*
(9) Hammer*
(10) Disconnecter*
(11) Buttstock
(12) Pistol grip*
(13) Forearm handguards
(14) Magazine body
(15) Follower
(16) Floorplate

The [bold] parts are the most commonly available U.S. manufactured parts.

On a typical stamped receiver rifle you need to replace 5 parts with no muzzle attachment and 6 parts with a muzzle attachment.

On a typical milled recevier rifle you need to replace 4 parts with no muzzle attachment and 5 parts with a muzzle attachment, because there isn’t a barrel trunion, it is part of the receiver.

When building an AK pistol, these regulations do not apply. You can not have a stock or forward pistol grip on a pistol.

* represent non-imported parts I plan on using.

TriggerFinger advocates contacting members of the Judiciary Committee, noting Gun Owners of America supports Alito. Like me, Publicola also isn’t too sure about Alito’s stance on guns:

His dissent clearly expresses that if congressional findings were included, even from a referring committee then he’d view the case in a different light. He also felt that a jurisdictional element (usually a simple little phrase such as “being used or having been used in interstate commerce” inserted into the operative part of a law) would have made the law acceptable. But as it was he felt Lopez demanded a striking of the law as it exceeded the Interstate Commerce Clause powers conferred by the constitution as reasoned in Lopez.

He also went on to say that states are not prohibited from banning simple possession of machine guns. That would indicate that he does not think that the 2nd amendment can be applied to the states via the 14th amendment, but whether that’s his read of the constitution or merely his being bound by precedent is not clear.

Matt sort of disagrees, noting:

It’s true that Alito was silent on the 2nd Amendment question, and this does not necessarily bode well. However, it’s my considered opinion that the Supreme Court is going to need to be where 2nd Amendment cases start winning; there is so much established precedent against that most judges probably figure the Supreme Court would have corrected it if it was wrong.

I suppose being not-hostile to the second amendment is the best some of us can hope for.

Michael Silence has an article about us local troublemakers in the Knoxville News Sentinel.

The latest is up at Tinkerty Tonk.

Reader Shoot-N-Scoot and I set out a while back to build some Kalashnikov rifles. We ordered a some of these kits from Tapco. They look like this:

Note how it’s cut in two at the receiver.

The other piece involved is a receiver flat, which is a piece of stamped metal with holes drilled in it. Once you bend it, it then becomes the receiver. Essentially, you take the rifle kits and remove all the parts from the old receiver, which has been decommissioned by being cut in two. Bend the new receiver and put the rifle kit together on the new receiver. To comply with federal law, the kits come with a semi-auto fire control group (meaning it’s missing the parts that would make it a machine gun). You can also only use ten imported parts to comply with federal law so we will add some American made parts as well. The fire control group is not imported so this helps with your part count. This post will detail bending the flats and removing the old receiver.

We initially used flats bought from Tapco as well but the first attempt at bending one didn’t work. We obtained some laser cut flats, which are easier to bend but require welding to strengthen.

Here’s a pic of the flat:

More pics and commentary below:
Read the rest of this entry »

In the little town of Mayberry Sheriff Andy Taylor was starting on his second cup of coffee when Barney Fife came storming in, “Andy we have to have red light cameras, Mt. Pilot has them”. Andy looked puzzled and asked, “Well Barney that’s what the Mayor said when he told us we had to build the fancy meeting center that no one goes to. The Mayor said if Mt. Pilot had one then Mayberry has to have one. We will be paying for that thing for fifty years. And Clara Edwards says we have to have a fancy new library because Mt. Pilot built one. Barney, you ever figure maybe we should just be Mayberry and not worry about what Mt. Pilot does?”

Isn’t that the way everything happens in Knoxville? Some other city has something that we have done without forever but because of the inferiority complex this town seems to have we just have to play follow the leader. Here is a new idea; maybe Knoxville should just be Knoxville.

The latest copycat move is red light cameras. I cannot think of a worse idea. Study after study show that they are unsafe. There is the moral issue of raising money by artificially shortened yellow light durations. For a town that is so determined to attract tourists it is hard to understand how this idea is rolling out the red carpet. Some one might want to point out that the Knoxville Convention Center is not doing very well and if you want repeat business a speed trap might not be the way to go about it.

Many blogs here locally have hammered home what a bad idea this is but to save you a little time I have prepared a primer. Take a look and call or email your City Council representative. Let them know that it would be better to implement a five second yellow light all through Knox county with a two second hold time on cross traffic. Tell them we do not need red light cameras what we need is a five second yellow light. You can do it.

http://www.cityofknoxville.org/citycouncil/members/

http://www.coloradoan.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051030/NEWS01/510300317/1002

http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/02/288.asp

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/03/AR2005100301844.html

http://www.motorists.com/issues/enforce/georgiacenter.html

http://www.cityofknoxville.org/engineering/traffic/signals.asp

http://www.phantomplate.com/testimonial/weeklystandardPart2.htm

I have a feeling we’ll be seeing the phrase It takes a village… …idiot a lot in the future:

Folks, when I see someone in a position of authority get all proprietary like that towards their little minions, it makes me want to jet to Bed, Bath & Beyond for some goosedown pillows, and then duck into Home Despot for some roofing tar. How have people with opinions like that been allowed to walk the streets, much less been put into positions of responsibility? Why are little tin Napoleons with such Skinnerian ideas of social engineering even allowed access to pens and paper, let alone robes and gavels?

While I think we can appreciate the effort, when police pull over hybrid car drivers to give them gas cards, the .gov may have overstepped some boundaries:

The Alexandria Police Department is teaming up with the “Ford Hybrid Patrol” to pull over fuel-efficient drivers at random in a customized Mercury Mariner Hybrid patrol SUV (complete with flashers and bullhorn). Drivers will be rewarded free gas cards.

It’s part of Ford Motor Company’s Washington, DC effort to promote fuel efficiency and explain the myths and realities of hybrid technology.

Via David Kopel.

Hellbent tells us how to fix football. I don’t think Tennessee would make the Consolation Bowl.

The Carnival of Cordite is up! Lots and lots of gun stuff.

The once scruffy little town of Knoxville awaits with dreaded anticipation to learn if the reported news that the Halls Shopper-News has been assimilated by the Borg juggernaut of the Scripps Howard Media (E.W. Scripps Company) empire is true.

Sadly it is true.

The weekly newspaper (twice-weekly on the Internet) that is considered to be the source for unfiltered local news was purchased by the E.W. Scripps Company on November 1st. E.W. Scripps Company also owns the Knoxville News Sentinel, Knoxville’s only daily newspaper.

Improvements in art and graphics will be featured in the new paper and hopefully the news and editorial content will remain unchanged.

From the website of the Halls Shopper-News, “We will affiliate with the News Sentinel for printing and technology and with a related company for distribution. Our news, advertising and graphic arts staff will remain independent of the News Sentinel. In fact, we will continue to compete with the daily paper for advertising and breaking news.”

In an update to this, Len Savage says:

I brought this up to the U.S. Attorney, and the ATF agent pushing this case.

ATF agent Lee Baldwin told me this, an I assume he must have also told the Grand Jury that indicted Mr. Wrenn:

“A FFL 07/SOT can NOT manufacture a machinegun unless he has a valid government order for one”.

The U.S. Attorney, while a nice young lady (5 years out of law school), has no understanding of the NFA or GCA. She is relying on the ATF to guide her. [She actually stated in a hearing that Mr. Wrenn was in violation of 922(o)].

The ATF agenda here: Establish case law to BAN ALL post sample machineguns.

Oh dear.

Looks like the Illinois house did not override Blagojevich’s veto of some pro-gun laws. The senate did earlier. Bummer.

James clued us in that the XM-8 was on its way out. Now, he talks about the Tavor and tanks:

Israel has had to fight its own War on Terror a lot longer than we have been fighting ours, and they are undoubtedly the most experienced army in the world when it comes to this type of conflict. They seem to be happy with the 5.56mm round even though there are more powerful alternatives available.

My favorite Israeli military fact is that, in the past anyway, one member of each squad carried an integrally suppressed Ruger 10/22. This was used to shoot at the knees when less lethal force was required and had the added benefit that the shooter was difficult to find.

Egalia is usually a disingenuous, dishonest political hack. But even a broken clock is right twice a day (unless it’s a military clock). She was right once before, wrong a bunch, and now is right again on a Right To Privacy Amendment:

Because the right to privacy is the basis of the Griswold v. Connecticut (1965) ruling, which found that married women are too allowed to use birth control, and since said ruling was used as precedent in Roe v. Wade, conservatives are forced to forever argue that American citizens do not, and should not, have a right to privacy.

As Savage points out, in a full-fledged campaign for a Right to Privacy Amendment, conservatives would scare the public to death if they seriously argued against it. Yeah, I know, they already scare most of us.

I do think abortion should be legal but don’t think privacy has anything to do with abortion and that Roe v. Wade was a crap ruling. However, I do like the idea of a specifically enumerated right to privacy because there isn’t one specifically enumerated in the Constitution and this would put an end to that debate. And putting an end to that debate would keep some Republicans from looking silly. Well, unless they opposed it.

Conversely, it seems that support for this amendment may finally be an admission from the left that there is, in fact, no right to privacy specifically enumerated in the Constitution. Damned if you do . . .

Update: JJ asks:

Why do people believe that they must go to the government to request freedoms and rights we already possess? Have they never read the Constitution? Do they not understand how our government was founded? Are they even able to read?

Well, let me be the first to say that how it was founded and what it currently is are two very different things.

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, those right-wing extremists who happen to agree with Alito on machine guns, may be split in two:

Buried deep in the massive House spending-cut proposal is a provision to do what many conservatives have been wanting to do for years: split up the liberal 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and allow President Bush to appoint some new judges to it.

The underlying spending-cut proposal trims $53.9 billion from mandatory spending programs under eight House committees. It was approved yesterday by the budget panel, 21-17, with the court-splitting provision included — one of many issues about which Democrats complained.

Republicans said the change would be good for the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit, the largest and most backlogged of the circuits, spanning nine Western states, Guam and the Northern Marianas Islands. It repeatedly has made rulings at which conservatives bristle, including the 2002 decision that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools is unconstitutional because of the phrase “under God.”

The long and short is that Wrenn’s Maxims are semi-automatic (i.e., not machine guns). The ATF is trying to convince a judge and prosecution team that the upper receivers (which per past ATF rulings aren’t even firearms) are machine guns. Wrenn’s trial begins Monday. Eric Larson has a lot of detail on the case over at Subguns:

Some years back, after receiving a dozen or so of the aforementioned “ATF Letter Ruling” documents, and noticing their seriously contradictory statements, I decided to memoralize them by putting them into the permanent Hearing Records of the House Subcommittee on Treasury, Postal Service, and General Government Appropriations. I won’t fatigue any of you by repeating what they stated; you can see the whole obscene mess of them in the “Resources” section of www.nfaoa.org that lists my Congressional statements and testimonies.

It is less well known that after carefully studying these letters, written by 3 different people (all of them top ATF executives, including the then-ATF Director John W. Magaw), logic forced me to an inevitable conclusion. Namely, either the people who wrote those letters were professionally incompetent, or they were deliberately misrepresenting the law.

The ATF has changed the rules on a whim apparently and is prosecuting based on that. For more on what spawned this, see here and here.

Eric Concludes with:

Finally, I think all of you who have taken the time to read this far must be at least as amused, horrified, concerned and tired of “ATF Letter Ruling” documents being misused by ATF to express your concerns to your Congressional representatives.

I know, it sounds lame, “express your concerns to your Congressional representatives.” But I tell you what—think about the scattered posts on Subguns by the growing number of folks who HAVE taken the time to involve their Congressional delegation in a valid complaint about and against ATF, and the number of posts that have touted how quickly positive results were achieved.

ATF is not immune to political pressure. It is evident from the variety of activism about NFA and/or NFRTR issues that has emerged in 2005, as noted at the beginning of this post, that people are much less afraid of ATF than in the past; have realized that ATF cannot stop legitimate activism through established political channels of representation; and that, indeed, the Congress can be and does get aroused, and when aroused, can and will do something. YOU can make that something—er, those somethings, there’s lots on the plate(s) here, including stuff I’ve not mentioned—happen much quicker if you will only take the time to participate in the political process necessary to make it happen.

Contact your congress critter. It is seriously time to reign in the ATF.

By all accounts I had read, it looked like the US military was set to switch to the XM-8 assault rifle. James, however, says the military has canceled the program. The reason is that it fired the same round: new platform, same lethality issues. I was hoping personally that the US military would adopt the XM-8 in 6.8SPC. My real preference would have been for 6.5 Grendel, but the military probably would not have been interested. Any way, here’s hoping this motivated H&K to make a semi-automatic civilian version since the military ain’t buying.

Joe Public rounds up Tennessee’s candidates running in 2006, most of which you’ve probably never heard of. Meanwhile, Sharon Cobb asks:

To Any Tennessee Republican Who Would Happen To Know The Answer To This Question

WHEN are you going to announce a candidate for Governor of Tennessee?

Good question. I voted for Bredesen and actually like him but I’m sure there’s a better candidate somewhere. Over at NIT’s post on the subject, I said:

Interesting idea would be to ‘draft’ someone, like say a blogger. I’d vote for Krumm or Blake

TN Blog troublemaker Kleinhieder responded with:

Krumm’s already said his ultimate goal is to run for office. He’s very measured — he’d be a perfect politican (sic).

Blake, however, would need some “handlers.” You know some people around to stop him from, in the middle of a health care speech, brandishing a firearm and saying, “Yeah, yeah, Medical IRAs are a good thing. Blah. Blah. But seriously folks, check out this new Walther I just picked up. SWEET! Isn’t it a beautful (sic) thing?”

That’s not a bug, it’s a feature. But maybe we Tennessee bloggers (of which there are apparently millions) should push a candidate of our choosing? I’ll nominate Bob Krumm.

Don’t nominate me, I’m doomed since I blog about porn. Speaking of porn, Aunt B. on the subject:

Let’s talk bluntly. In most porn, the ideal girl is in her early twenties and beautiful and willing to fuck any man that comes along. Now, I don’t blame you for the “beautiful” and “willing to fuck any man that comes along;” it’s the “early twenties” part that just baffles me.

Back on the other subject before mentioning porn, this blog has doomed any chance I ever had of running for office (not that I planned on it – I’m not corrupt enough and can’t take the pay cut). The reasons are that I’ve blogged about porn, I like guns, I cuss a lot, I’ve been kind of a dick to some people, and a few other things. So, if I ran for office, somebody who knows me would out me and I’d bet it’d be this guy (no, I kid. He wouldn’t but someone would). But, regardless, I have a record and, to be honest, I probably scare the shit out of your average soccer mom (see, I warned you about the cussing). And in the next paragraph, I’ll advocate breaking the law.

And then I’d also have to disclose whatever due to the unconstitutional campaign finance reform (that, by the way, any good citizen should just ignore – see, told you about that breaking the law thing) and the fact that the Online Freedom of Speech Act was shot down. By the way, (from Blake) these local idiots voted against:

-Harold Ford, Jr. – 9th District
-Zach Wamp – 3rd District
-Jim Cooper – 5th District
-Bart Gordon – 6th District
-John Tanner – 8th District

Shame on you all.

And these folks voted for it:

-Marsha Blackburn – 7th District
-Lincoln Davis – 4th District
-John Duncan, Jr. – 2nd District
-William Jenkins – 1st District

Good for them.

Now, back to other subject from which I’ve been distracted twice. Bob Krumm is early enough in his blogging career to not make those mistakes. And he’s a reasonable, level-headed guy. So, Krumm for Governor!

And no, I’m not sure exactly when this became one of those stream of consciousness posts but deal with it. I think it’s the new coffee. And, while we’re on the subject o . . . ooh look, a monkey.

Glocks are not bullet proof:

A former Omaha police officer who was shot during an attempted robbery after his gun misfired has dropped his lawsuit against the weapon’s manufacturer.

Sounds bad, but:

Holland said his gun was disabled after it was hit by a bullet during the March 2000 incident at a branch of the Great Western Bank, where he was working security while off duty.

I don’t think I’d expect many guns to function after being shot. Via David.

David Hardy quotes a law prof who says don’t bet the farm on Alito’s Second Amendment cred:

Jodge (sic) Alito would give Congress the green light, under the commerce clause to regulate – BAN – firearms “if Congress as a whole or even one of the responsible congressional committees had made a finding that intrastate machine gun possession, by facilitating the commission of certain crimes, has a substantial effect on interstate commerce.”

Meet the 660 yard pistol!

The AP:

Charging that the Supreme Court undermined one of the pillars of American society, the House took up legislation Thursday to block court-sanctioned seizings of people’s homes for use by private developers.

The bill, headed toward easy passage with bipartisan support, would withhold federal funds from state and local governments that use powers of eminent domain to force homeowners to give up their property for commercial uses.

I wonder if that would include pork?

Last night (or night before, I’m not sure. Damn you, TiVo) The Daily Show pulled a funny. It had a few Senators with Ds after their name all stating that Alito was out of the mainstream. Then Jon Stewart said something to the effect of:

Out of the mainstream? As if they were a political party that was in the minority in Congress and didn’t have the presidency.

Heh. Even better, the audience kind of hissed and Stewart quipped: Not so funny when it’s your guy, eh?

Fellow blogger #9 has been covering the WATE/Steve Hall thing diligently (here and here). It’s important to point out that Michael Silence notes:

I’ve seen the press release. It came out a couple of weeks ago from Register of Deeds Steve Hall. It was short and simple and said RofD Hall was not running and was not to be confused with Councilman Hall. I’m home under the weather and don’t have a copy of it. But call the RofD office and they’ll fax or e-mail you a copy of it.

Update: And Betty Bean has much more.

Final Update: I have it on good authority that this entire incident was the result of an error. I do not think there was any nefariousness on the part of anyone. I can’t comment further.

The VPC:

Supreme Court Nominee Samuel Alito’s Views Could Imperil Most Federal Gun, Ammo, and Explosives Laws, New Violence Policy Center Backgrounder Shows

So, which is it? You guys are fond of saying firearms are unregulated. They conclude with:

If Judge Samuel Alito’s views on firearms and public safety, as expressed through his minority opinion in U.S. v. Rybar, became the law of the land, all Americans would be at greater risk from virtually uncontrollable firearms proliferation. The federal government would be almost powerless to keep firearms, ammunition, and other deadly commodities out of the hands of criminals and even terrorists. In a time of increased concern regarding homeland security, such views are not only counterintuitive, but exceedingly dangerous.

First of all, this case reflected his views on the commerce clause and not guns and public safety. His effort to address congress’ authority is refreshing. Second, I don’t know of a firearms law that has kept a gun out of the hands of a criminal.

At the San Francisco Chronicle of all places comes a reasoned discussion of Alito’s dissent in the machine gun case (the first reasonable discussion I’ve seen in the media, anyway):

In a lone dissenting opinion as a federal appeals court judge in 1996, Alito argued that the federal ban on possessing machine guns was unconstitutional — a stand described by both admirers and detractors Tuesday as one of the most revealing cases in the lengthy judicial record of President Bush’s nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“He understands the original design of the Constitution as being one of limited government,” said Roger Pilon, director of the Center for Constitutional Studies at the libertarian Cato Institute. In his opinion, Alito said the federal ban on possessing machine guns exceeded Congress’ power to regulate interstate commerce, but a majority of his court disagreed, and the Supreme Court denied review. He took no position on whether the Constitution protects an individual’s right to possess firearms.

Pilon said the case showed Alito’s recognition that Congress’ constitutional power to regulate interstate commerce is not a license “to regulate anything and everything.”

Reasonable until the Bradies get their turn:

But Dennis Henigan, legal director of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said the opinion is “perhaps the most powerful evidence that Judge Alito is very much a right-wing judicial activist” willing to disregard congressional judgment.

When asked if he’d ever heard of checks and balances, Mr. Henigan replied: Those are gun parts, right? You right-wing, militant whacko!

Congress has decided to continue to use the Bill of Rights as toilet paper by deciding that online political expression should not be exempt from campaign finance law. Says Alphie:

Soon I shall have to start reporting my posts to the FEC.

Not this guy. I will keep on keeping on. And, though I’ve never really done political endorsements in the past, I may start just to be a dick.

Seen at TriggerFinger:

We disagree with the District Court’s reasoning. There is no categorical “harassment exception” to the First Amendment’s free speech clause. Moreover , the SCASD Policy prohibits a substantial amount of speech that would not constitute actionable harassment under either federal or state law.

I’ve said before that with free speech should come the expectation to occasionally be offended. Alito seems to agree.

Blake is showing off his Romanian, wire folder SAR. So, what’s that on your hip? He says in comments he wants to do some upgrades. maybe something like this:
Read the rest of this entry »

Soldiers from the 278th National Guard Unit returned home early this morning. Welcome home.