Well, sort of:

On March 1, 2006, WKRN-2 in Nashville, Tennessee ran a short news feature on the best ways to deduct charitable donations on your income tax report. The segment, which was introduced and read by afternoon anchors Bob Mueller and Anne Holt, featured numerous tax deduction tips and a lengthy soundbite from an accountant.

What viewers didn’t know is that the entire story was built from a video news release (VNR) from Jackson Hewitt, the second-largest tax preparation franchise in the United States. The imitation news story was created by Medialink Worldwide and reported in voiceover by publicist Kate Brookes. As a subtle promotion, the VNR featured over 30 seconds of soundbites from Jackson Hewitt CEO Mike Lister, and ended with a call for viewers to seek out a “qualified tax preparer.”

But:

Unfortunately for Jackson Hewitt, WKRN-2 trimmed over a minute of content from the original VNR, replacing Brookes’ narrative audio with the voice of Anne Holt and removing every mention of Jackson Hewitt. In addition to the loss of promotion, there was a full demotion for Mike Lister. Instead of being identified as the president of his own company, WKRN-2 merely billed him as an “accountant.”

Looks like they took the step of basically not running a commercial for them but they really report info compiled by corporations for the benefit of those corporations? I don’t take issue with that but I think it would lend to their credibility to disclose that sort of stuff.

I wonder if WKRN’s bloggers (linky and thinky) will chime in?

Update: Brittney responds in comments.

The NRA has a nice round up, including some letters given to those who were investigated (possibly illegally). You should read it all and contact your representatives. A taste:

The BATFE representative failed, however, to fully answer far more serious concerns about the bureau’s tactics, such as the strategies it used to target some gun buyers for “discouragement” at the show, or the legality of the traffic stops and gun seizures off the show premises. He also did not explain how it could be legal—given the extensive privacy limits on use of licensed firearm dealers’ records—to turn over those records to local police for “residency checks” of hundreds of gun buyers. In point of fact, one of the local police officials testified that BATFE had never answered his department’s legal concerns about that.

The good:

Angry conservatives are driving the approval ratings of President Bush and the GOP-led Congress to dismal new lows, according to an AP-Ipsos poll that underscores why Republicans fear an Election Day massacre. [...]

* Just 33 percent of the public approves of Bush’s job performance, the lowest of his presidency. [...] Forty-five percent of self-described conservatives now disapprove of the president.

*Just one-fourth of the public approves of the job Congress is doing, a new low in AP-Ipsos polling and down 5 percentage points since last month. A whopping 65 percent of conservatives disapprove of Congress.

The Bad:

A majority of Americans say they want Democrats rather than Republicans to control Congress (51 percent to 34 percent). That’s the largest gap recorded by AP-Ipsos since Bush took office. Even 31 percent of conservatives want Republicans out of power.

The Ugly: It took 5.5 years of big government Republicans to finally wake the conservatives in this country up.

Like you and me, only much, much better:

Baird wrote that Capitol Police Patrol Division units, who are trained in driving under the influence cases, were not allowed to perform basic field sobriety tests on the Congressman. Instead, two sergeants, who also responded to the accident, proceeded to confer with the Capitol Police watch commander on duty and then “ordered all of the Patrol Division Units to leave the scene and that they were taking over.”

Pretty lame:

Some West Virginia members of the National Rifle Association woke up Thursday to an orange postcard in their mailboxes, the same color the pro-gun organization sends out to announce candidates it has endorsed.

This card, however, was paid for by Republican U.S. Senate candidate Hiram Lewis’ campaign, telling voters of his past ‘A’ rating with the national group and work he has done for NRA candidates in the past.

The campaign mailing didn’t go over well with NRA leaders in suburban Virginia.

“It looks very similar to what we send,” said NRA spokeswoman Autumn Fogg. “It’s clearly an effort to mislead.”

Pattycakes says:

I am posting this from my back yard.

That’s nothing. Soon, you’ll be doing this.

Speaking of comments, several of you have told me that your comments are getting eaten by spam filters. Well, the reason is that Spam Karma has added blogspot blogs to its filter due to all the link farms/spam blogs set up on blogspot. So, I’ve recovered some and there are others that I can’t find. If you’re comment hasn’t shown up, I apologize. Fact is, it’s hard for me to go find your comment if it’s older than a few hours and that’s because I get over 500 spam attempts per day.

Update: I think I’ve recovered all comments in the last 24 hours. If your is still missing, let me know. I recommend you leave the URL field blank if you use a blogspot blog. It sucks.

Update 2: In comments, John recommends you use tinyurl.com.

I’m not judging nor am I saying one is right or one is wrong. But, why is it that larger urban population areas and big cities tend to be blue/liberal/Democrat (pick you label) and sparsely populated rural areas tend to be red/conservative/Republican? Seriously, I want to know

Oh, there you are:

Broadband providers and Internet phone companies will have to pick up the tab for the cost of building in mandatory wiretap access for police surveillance, federal regulators ruled Wednesday.

The Federal Communications Commission voted unanimously to levy what likely will amount to wiretapping taxes on companies, municipalities and universities, saying it would create an incentive for them to keep costs down and that it was necessary to fight the war on terror. Universities have estimated their cost to be about $7 billion.

The canaries are dead, ladies and gentlemen.

I’ve said before, I’m against it:

In theory, I support the death penalty. It is our society’s way of saying that some crimes are so heinous that they warrant killing the offender, both as a punishment and to deter others who may do the same thing.

In application, however, I oppose it. Studies have shown that the death penalty is not consistently applied among the races; nor is it equally applied among the wealthy, middle-class, and the poor. …

Also, the fact that people are on death row for 20 years is absolutely ridiculous.

That said, I find this case troubling:

Four of the nation’s top arson experts have concluded that the state of Texas executed a man in 2004 based on scientifically invalid evidence, and on Tuesday they called for an official reinvestigation of the case.

In their report, the experts, assembled by the Innocence Project, a non-profit organization responsible for scores of exonerations, concluded that the conviction and 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham for the arson-murders of his three daughters were based on interpretations by fire investigators that have been scientifically disproved.

Now, despite what Kevin said, this is not necessarily the case of the state killing an innocent person. Rather, it’s a case that some of the evidence presented was not absolute proof and that should give us all pause. After all, you can’t there is no Control+Z for the death penalty. If it’s done, it is done. That doesn’t mean that insufficient evidence is absolute proof of innocence. But that doesn’t matter so much because a person should be proven guilty beyond any reasonable doubt. And, as AC (who’s now blogging here) said once:

A society that uses capital punishment must be comfortable with one fact: You are going to kill innocent people. I don’t care how many appeals you exhaust or how much science you bring to it. Human error or human malice will result in the death of an innocent or two.

Ayup.

Given my experience with worthless headhunters, I was glad to see Recruting.com has a blog and they mentioned my post.

I used to lambast the Christian Science Monitor for being, well, stupid. I think I even said lying was Unchristian and Unscience. I eventyally just decided not to bother with them because they were just hacks. But Denise lets them have it.

I’ve long held that John McCain is certifiably fucking looney. I was right:

I would rather have a clean government than one where quote First Amendment rights are being respected, that has become corrupt. If I had my choice, I’d rather have the clean government.

At least he wants a clean government, I suppose. Other politicos damn all the amendments and prefer the government dirty.

Some crime figures from countries which recently enacted gun bans shows that, unsurprisingly, gun bans don’t reduce crime. I wouldn’t call it proof, per se, but it does indicate that guns aren’t the problem.

Fugger calls it quits. Bummer. Says he:

To the 50-60 people (not the 20 bots) who came by every single day and read every article I posted, I saw your IP’s every day, my software tracks them so I could see who had how many visits, and I could see everything about you, right down to where you lived, what page you clicked on next, etc etc, I just never heard a peep from you. So here is a suggestion – next time you enjoy a free website so much that you read it every day, or 2-3 times a week, leave the guy writing it a note of thanks, or a comment or two every once in awhile!

I concur that folks should comment more. But the facts are that most blog readers are other bloggers. They could spend time commenting or spend the time blogging. Since they’re bloggers, they usually do the latter. So, don’t take it too badly if you don’t get comments but do get multiple hits. It’s just how it is. I know for a fact that I have far more readers than commenters and, though I do wish those non-commenting lurker types would at least say hi or good job or tell me to fuck off just so I know what they what they think, that’s OK. Heck, I don’t comment much at other blogs I read but I seem to comment a lot at a few other blogs. Also, given that some folks have lost their jobs and received death threats over comments at blogs, I see why folks tend to not comment so much.

One of the cool things about blogs is that you can get out info on scams quickly, like Xrlqy Wrlqy did. I seem to recall South Knox Bubba (now R. Neal) saying something similar in the past but his archives are gone. Any chance you’ll bring those back?

With the second child due roughly next week, we need more vehicle. The Mrs. needs a SUV with third row seating. We were looking at the Lincoln Aviator because we like our friend’s Navigator but don’t like fact it is gigantic. But, the Aviator gets some crappy reviews from Consumer Reports (of course, the Navigator does too). Plus, I’m not real keen on spending $40K on a ride.

We want third row seating, leather interior, roomy and smooth ride. Optional features we want include V8 and 4WD. Anyone have a recommendation?

Update: Thanks for all the comments. But we’re simply not gettting a minivan nor a station wagon. I suggested a van but the Mrs. absolutely refuses and station wagons aren’t practical.

The Guardian:

A growing number of gay and lesbian Americans are being forced to leave the United States and resettle in Britain, where new immigration rules grant them the same rights as straight couples, according to the New York-based civil rights organisation Human Rights Watch

I don’t think they’re being forced. It’s more for immigration rules than for gay marriage:

When US citizens’ foreign partners are not permitted to live with them in their country, Americans are forced to uproot themselves and leave their families, their jobs, their communities and country. Often, they turn to one of the 19 countries with laws that let citizens sponsor their same-sex partners for immigration purposes

And, no, I have nothing real insightful to say. I just wanted to use that title, which is stolen from The Family Guy.

The Brady Campaign will soon have a new president. Paul Helmke, who was the Republican mayor of Fort Wayne, Indiany, will take over July 1. Jeff has more. So does Bitter.

SeattlePI sums it up in one paragraph:

While police wouldn’t say whether any of the weapons on display were actually used in crimes, they were effective props for the mayor’s lobbying effort.

Yup, that’s pretty much what happened.

Standard Mischief asks us not to link The Gun Guys unless we use nofollow. Ok, then how about this: The Gun Guys.

Eric notes that a CCW hero was buried in an anti-gun story. Seems a CCW holder was what captured a murder suspect.

WTVM:

It’s just another day at Carver Heights Child Development Center in Columbus. But this day will be different. These pre-kindergartners will come face to face with a handgun. We’ve placed an unloaded simulated gun into a hidden place in the classroom.

We put it in a chair. Two hidden cameras have also been placed in the classroom. The children have just come in from recess and the teacher is now giving them an assignment before she leaves the room.

“I t’s a gun, don’t touch it, I know what is all about, do not touch it, its dangerous,” screams little Natasha Fanning. She takes charge, telling her classmates repeatedly to stay away from the gun.

The children are excited. They try to get a teacher’s attention. B ut not one of them touches the gun.

Good. Teach kids to do the right thing when they see a gun:

To KPCL because this is the first time I’ve ever known a reporter to look at both sides with respect to pit bulls:

Despite how you may feel about the American pit bull terrier, you may be surprised to find out that the breed is given more than an 83 % passing rate by the American Temperament Test Society. That is a group that tests how aggressive certain kinds of dogs are. Pit bulls were found to be less aggressive than the popular border collie.

7 News found some warnings about pit bulls, even on a pro-pit bull web site. The warnings included such things as never trusting your pit bull not to fight with other animals, always supervise your dog with small children, and that it is important to start socializing pit bulls while they are still very young. 7 News also found that pit bulls are often used as narcotic and bomb sniffing dogs, as well as in search and rescue efforts.

Pit bull advocates all seem to agree that it is important to punish the “deed, not the breed.” Others feel pit bulls are such naturally powerful animals, they are just too risky to have in neighborhoods.

Sweet! Seriously, that’s impressive.

Via PGP, comes this from (of all places) The Daily Kos:

Do you own a fire extinguisher? Why? Are you expecting a fire? Or do you have some sort of left-over juvenile desire to play fireman, a private macho image of rushing into a burning building to save a child? Don’t you know that improperly used, a fire extinguisher can be dangerous to yourself and others? And there have been “studies” done that show people who own fire extinguishers are actually more careless with fire risks, thinking that they’ll always be able to resort to their fire extinguisher to solve the problem. Besides, firefighters are always right there when you need them, and can put out any fire for you, so there’s no point in having your own fire extinguisher.

Update: Forgot about this:

Thanks to Thib.

109.1% of the US population will travel this summer.

So, my days consist of getting up early and getting home late. Minimal blogging from the client site since I’m busy and, well, they actually pay by the hour (yeah, someone actually does that these days – I’m used to flat fees). S0, I check email and address a few comments from the job but that’s about it. Plus, I agreed to blog at Michael’s for a bit while he recovers (but not much actual blogging there yet). So, I come home late. Play with Junior and talk to the wife. Have a mint julep or 5 then sit behind the computer once the rest of the household has gone to bed to blog and realize I just don’t have it in me, even though these guys are giving me shit.

In fact, you’ll see this at 12:10 am on Thursday but I’m typing it at 9:44 pm on Wednesday. It’s true, I cheat. I blog at night and publish in the morning, except for some stuff. And that trend will continue because I can’t figure out a way to get paid to blog that pays more than a few hundred bucks every couple of months (No, I’m not begging for money and I have no intentions of trying to make a living doing this shit. Just pointing out that I have priorities.). So, again, sorry for all the linky no thinky type posts but thems the breaks.

Oh, and apparently my post on Zachypoo not getting the death penalty got a bit of play in the blogosphere but I have to express disappointment that not one person took offense to the sentence that read:

Though I’d have no problem taking him out (and my method would involve duct tape and a pork chop), I think it’s for the best not to make a martyr of him.

So, no uber-sensitive, Phil Donahue type got mad over my obvious religious sleight? I must be slacking in my ability to offend.

The AP:

A federal jury rejected the death penalty for al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui on Wednesday and decided he must spend life in prison for his role in the deadliest terrorist attack in U.S. history.

After seven days of deliberation, the nine men and three women rebuffed the government’s appeal for death for the only person charged in this country in the four suicide jetliner hijackings that killed nearly 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001.

I wonder why they did not give the death penalty. Deny martyrdom? Don’t like the death penalty? To avoid any future legal wrangling? Beats me.

Though I’d have no problem taking him out (and my method would involve duct tape and a pork chop), I think it’s for the best not to make a martyr of him.

Update: Rusty says it’s a travesty of justice.

Les has a chart broken out by blue and red states. Looks like we’re being invaded.

I’ve said three days in a row now but gun control is about to kick up. Just go here and read the headlines.

I think the anti-gunners are mad because two states went CCW this year.

Tom takes me to task for not demanding ways to cut spending for tax cuts I support, or something:

Nobody’s asking that you fall into the false dichotomy Uncle falsely attributes to us. That is to say, nobody says you must favor all taxes and spending, or that you must oppose all taxes and spending. What you must do, however, is at least make an effort to bring taxes and spending into balance, and you cannot put the cart before the horse in doing this.

Err, no. Actually, there is no requirement I do that. End of story. I can say something sucks and not offer an alternative. For example, abortion sucks but I have no better alternative. And neither do you. Period. Game over.

See, here’s the problem: the anti-tax crowd knows that it’s easy to get sympathy from people by railing against the “evils” of taxation and, at least in the general sense, of “excessive government.” The problem is, as soon as these folks start drilling down into the particulars (e.g., what specific programs would be cut in order to bring down spending and thus lower taxes), they lose. And they know this, so they expressly avoid drilling into the particulars. When pushed, they’ll gladly give a laundry list of those spending programs they oppose, and these programs generally fall into either of two categories: programs that are too small to make a noticeable difference (e.g., some half-million dollar local pork program), or programs that are wildly popular (e.g. Social Security and Medicare). But they never explain how they’re actually going to get the voting public to agree to such program cuts (because they can’t), much less how they’d actually implement them.

I was pretty particular when I said killing social security and almost any agency that starts with Department of. Tom apparently thinks I’m a politician. I am not and have no desire to become so. Therefore, there is no need for me to pander to any demographic to score votes. I’m not trying to convince the voting public. Just because something is popular, that doesn’t make it right or wrong.

When taxes and the programs they pay for are directly tied together, most people prefer to pay the tax and keep the program, rather than to lose the program and be spared the tax.

I think that depends on the program. The military budget would get more support than, say, international assistance.

Getting the types of tax cuts that they favor would require either cutting these large-but-popular programs, which simply isn’t going to happen

On that, I agree. But I’m not pandering to voters or popularity contests. Our politicians are and that is why the .gov is the leviathan it is today. They can take on person’s money and give it to someone else.

Bringing this back around to Uncle, this is why we find his position so frustrating and so irresponsible. It’s not that he supports reducing taxes but doesn’t support reducing spending. It’s that he (apparently, at least) supports reducing and eliminating various taxes even if spending isn’t cut to match, and even if doing so wrecks the budget and/or explodes the debt. In other words, it may be an overstatement to say that he doesn’t care at all whether or not the government is fiscally responsible, but it’s certainly fair to say that his aversion to taxation is more important to him than any sort of budget discipline or financial responsibility. If he can’t get the spending cuts he wants, he still advocates cutting taxes anyway. Maybe he’ll close his eyes, clap three times, and hope it all works out.

Well, that shit’s just made up. I support cutting all kinds of taxes and all kinds of spending. But to kill the leviathan, you have to cut off it’s food not it’s fingernails.

At the same time, the .gov does provide valuable services, such as roads and the fact I don’t currently speak Russian. Those items, I don’t mind paying for though some scrutiny is needed in those areas (particularly defense spending which is always very high). But telling me that taxes are all groovy and shit because they only waste a little bit when compared to the total they waste isn’t very convincing.

Ed note: This started out as a comment over there but since my blogging is light, I thought I’d put it here for you to read.

SM Says:

And hey, I enjoy reading his stuff even when he slips out of “rant mode” back into “aggregator mode”. In fact, his coverage is so good, it keeps me from having to cook up my own “guns and rights and stuff” news feeds.

Happy to help.

Gun Law News has some info on H.R.1384 – the Firearm Commerce Modernization Act and H.R.1415 – the NICS Improvement Act of 2005.

KTVA reports:

The Senate Monday passed a bill allowing the public sale of guns that were seized by police. Senator Fred Dyson (an Eagle River Republican) says most guns in the state’s possession are those that were evidence in criminal cases.

His bill would allow the state to sell or donate those guns that now can be sold just to licensed dealers or be destroyed under current law.

Michael Silence is home from surgery. Here’s hoping for a speedy recovery after some much needed rest.

In a move only describable as lame as hell, Knoxville Sheriff Tim Hutchison has not cooperated with America’s Most Wanted to find Johnia Berry’s killer. There’s a petition to get him to do so. Les has the skinny.

CCRKBA says:

“The proposals unveiled by Mayor Nickels,” said CCRKBA Executive Director Joe Waldron, “are nearly identical to the wish list detailed by CeaseFire President Ralph Fascitelli on the Op- Ed page of the Seattle Times on April 20. It appears that a special interest group is pulling the mayor’s strings because he is mouthing every one of their demands.

See what I mean.

Tam discusses the blogger shoot. Say, when’s Alston gonna send that picture of Kirk sporting a bindi?

We all have them. And they’re all pandered to. AC keeps it real:

It’s BS though. The term “special interest” means nothing. Everyone has some interests they are against and some interests they support. Just saying you are against “special” interests doesn’t say anything about you other than you are interested in gaining votes or maneuvering voters to support your interests — which, of course, are certainly not special.

Jeff has the latest on anti-gun bias in the media.

The state is giving out some rather large raises, to the right people.

How big will your raise be this year? If you’re lucky, it will be better than the one percent state workers will receive in July. But the I-Team has found that some top state officials have been getting big raises that the public does not hear about.

Those “big raises” are to state legislative staff members.

In 2003, Durham made around $115,000. Now, he makes more than $145,000 — a 26% increase from three years ago.
Russell Humphrey is Wilder’s chief of staff in the Senate. His salary increased from $104,000 to $134,000 — 28% in three years.

My mom and wife are state workers and to say they are not happy is truly an understatement.

These people must be doing a GREAT job. Right?

“Are these raises tied to performance?” asked Amons.

“No, not at all. We do not pay for performance in the legislature,” said Frederick.

A rare moment of honesty..

Today is Election Day and the undecided voters must make an important decision. Who should they vote for in the race for Knox County Mayor? I suggest you consider the important aspect of fiduciary responsibly. How well has our current County Mayor managed the County’s finances? Not very well at all.

Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale has made the newfound “harmony” between his office and the office of Knoxville City Mayor Bill Haslam a central point of his administration. It is one of the crowning achievements of his first administration.

Harmony sounds like a good thing; but in the history of the human race we have learned that harmony is not always what it appears to be. Neville Chamberlain thought there could be “peace in our time”, yet the harmony was only a bitter illusion.

Politicians through out history have told us of new and exciting ways that we can all get along. People want harmony. It is a natural human desire. So how has the new harmony business between the City of Knoxville and Knox County gone in this new era of understanding?

It has been a great deal for the City of Knoxville. Take for example the City’s plunder of the old Farmers Market. You see Knox County spent over 12 million dollars purchasing the land and creating the Farmers Market and an additional 7 million dollars over the next eight years operating it. It was Knox County’s “White Elephant”, our version of the Convention Center.

What happened with the old Farmers Market demonstrates that Mayor Ragsdale is not a good financial steward of the taxpayer’s money. The old Farmers Market was sold at a bargain price of 7.64 million dollars to Target for 30.56 acres of property and abandoned buildings that would have to be torn down. Then Target turned around and offered to sell 18.5 “excess” acres of land it did not need for 7.6 million dollars. Any red flags yet?

I know, it sounds awful. Could it possible get any worse? Is this Knox County? It can. The City of Knoxville decided to annex the Target so Knox County would lose the very important sales taxes.

What did Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale do? He encouraged the plan. Yes, you read that correctly. Up until this time of new harmony the previous Knox County Executives Dwight Kessel and Tommy Schumpert would wage war in the courtroom over such nonsense. But Neville, er, the County Mayor had different ideas.

It gets worse if you can believe it. The City then wanted to give Target a C-4 zoning that would harm the surrounding community and then Mayor Ragsdale had to come and fight with the community to wage a war over the proposed City zoning. It would have been better if the new harmony had not existed to begin with.

So how does this tie into the wheel tax and the new West Knox High School? Do the math. If Target could turn around and offer for sale 18.5 acres for the same price it paid for 30.56 acres what does that tell you about the sales price? That maybe it was 7.6 million dollars to low? How much sales tax would a Target generate for Knox County in ten years? I do not know, but lets agree it would be several million dollars. Say 3 million dollars.

So you take the 7.6 million lost on the sale of the property and the 3 million lost in sales tax and now you have the missing 10 million dollars needed for the new West Knox High School.

Does that sound like good financial management to you?

Go out today and vote for Steve Hall. I did and you should too.

Yesterday, I said:

Gun control is about to become a major issue again. It died off for a bit but it is coming back and sooner than you think.

Now, just today, there were two anti-gun pieces I mentioned on this blog. I usually comment on those about twice a week. Also, the NRA notes:

Lest we become complacent, the following stories and editorials should remind us that the efforts to take away our 2nd Amendment rights have not abated.

Shooting Down The Gunmakers – New York Daily News

Seven Years After Columbine – Senator Carl Levin

Campaign For Rational Gun Laws – Seattle Times

It`s Time To Infringe On The Second Amendment – Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Brady Campaign Pledges Support For Anti-Gun Mayors

I told you it was coming. Expect more. Now is the time to start calling your congressmonkeys and telling them what’s up. I mean it.

Ramesh Ponnuru:

The press has not shown any general reluctance to adopt politically contested phrases. When Congress banned “assault weapons,” the NRA bitterly protested that the phrase had been made up and referred to no distinct class of firearms. Yet the press adopted it without resorting to locutions such as “a class of guns called ‘assault weapons’ by advocates of gun control” or “Congress Bans Type of Gun.”

Interesting chart on gun murders in New York. In most cases, the murderer knew the victim. And murder occurs mostly in Brooklyn and The Bronx, which is odd because guns are essentially banned in all those places.

Alphie brings our attention to:

On April 7, U.S. Senator David Vitter (R-La.) introduced S. 2599-the Senate companion bill to H.R. 5013, the “Disaster Recovery Personal Protection Act of 2006″ introduced on March 28, by U.S. Representative Bobby Jindal (R-La.). This NRA-supported bill would amend federal emergency statute laws to prohibit local authorities from confiscating lawfully owned firearms during times of disaster.

Now, I realize that gun absolutists would have a problem with this given that whole second amendment thing. But, good idea or not?

I don’t care how much pot you sell, it doesn’t warrant the death penalty.

I don’t really care about Rush Limbaugh and don’t listen to him. But I found this odd:

The conservative commentator also must continue treatment for his addiction and cannot own a gun, according to details of the deal made public Monday. And the agreement says he “will refrain from any violation of any law.”

Ravenwood asks:

What does gun ownership have to do with it? For starters, Rush isn’t being convicted of anything. He is only agreeing to conditions to get them to drop the charges and discontinue their witch hunt. Why would gun ownership even be a condition of the agreement?

The NY Daily News:

Sharp shootin’ Jack Weinstein, judge of the Eastern District, has used a silver bullet to single-handedly keep alive Mayor Bloomberg’s battle to get illegal guns off the street. The judge rightly ruled that the city can use federal data it already has against gunmakers and distributors who carelessly deliver their wares to unscrupulous dealers who, in turn, sell to criminals. Weinstein is the man in the white hat against the firearms black market.

Again, in New York there is no difference between legitimate firearms manufacturers or distributors and the black market, even though every where else, one is lawful and the other is not.

The Detroit Free Press:

Opponents of gun control often pretend to represent the interests of law enforcement, while painting people who favor sensible firearms regulations as naive liberals who wouldn’t know a 9 mm from an AK47. They should take note that most of those on the front lines of gun violence support tougher gun control measures, including laws to require background checks on all people purchasing firearms.

A new study — Police Chiefs’ Perceptions of the Regulation of Firearms — found that law enforcement leaders back gun control proposals that are generally opposed by groups such as the National Rifle Association.

The study, conducted by researchers from Wayne State University, the University of Toledo and Kent State University, found that more than 80% of police chiefs favored mandatory background checks for all handgun, rifle and shotgun purchases; equipping new handguns with trigger locks; and requiring tamper-resistant serial numbers on firearms.

I do not know that the NRA ever opposed any such measure. The NRA pushed the instant check system; supported the 1968 Gun Control Act (which required serial numbers on firearms); and was largely indifferent on requiring trigger locks. So, that is a lie. And the next paragraph says:

The gun lobby has consistently opposed such sensible measures and others, including a modest ban on assault weapons, which have the support of most Americans. For the most part, politicians have rolled over.

They repeat the lie. Then they attempt to imply that police chiefs supported a particular bill.

Contempt for the Constitution.

Aunt B. asks:

Do People Have a Right to Be Stupid?

Or is it okay to impose your will on them if your will is that they remove their heads from their asses?

I say yes. She continues:

I start to suspect that this is the fundamental question of our time.

Indeed it is. Seat belt laws, helmet laws, anti-smoking laws, drug laws, the coming war on fast food, and a variety of other stuff is designed to keep you from hurting yourself. The .gov should only be concerned with protecting me from others. I’ll protect me from me.

R. Neal has the skinny on what is sure to be the most contested election Knoxville will ever have.

Apparently, a bunch of immigrants took the day off. Other than news accounts telling me so, I haven’t noticed.

Parenting will win, of course. That’s the point of this peice:

Really, it all comes down to education. Guns, the NRA and the Second Amendment are not the enemy. They don’t advocate murder or school shootings.

And, again, sorry for the light blogging and all the linky-no-thinky posts. Busy.

So many issues facing the state but our legislators want to card senior citizens for alcohol. Bob Krumm says:

If the Legislature is now busying itself debating laws with no practical effects, while avoiding debates where action is still necessary, then it’s time to save the taxpayers’ money, and send them home early.

The Carnival of Cordite is up.

Rich on group blogs:

But somebody else did think of it. They called it a newspaper.

Heh.

Publicola sums up his absolutism with respect to gun rights in a long post called Subdivisions. I discussed my acceptance of incremental absolutism. Read it and come back. It has a good time line on gun control.

Now, all that said, here’s the deal. Gun control is about to become a major issue again. It died off for a bit but it is coming back and sooner than you think. There have, lately, been several mentions of global arms control treaties for citizens, of which the US has largely ignored. The mayor of New York has a real hard on for gun control lately because guns that are legal nearly everywhere but New York keep showing up in New York. He even has a coalition of mayors supporting him. Couple those things with this being an election year and gun control will be an issue. So, whether you’re content to be an incrementalist like me or you’re a balls-out absolutist like Publicola, we’re on the same side. And this isn’t the time to be fucking around with petty disagreements among the ranks while those pushing gun control walk all over both of us.

Is it just me or does it seem like we’re getting our kids accustomed to a police state? For example:

According to the New York Post via mopocket, “the New York City Police confiscated 129 cellphones and 24 electronic devices yesterday from students at the first city high school subjected to a new random scanning initiative aimed at purging the school system of weapons.

Schools Chancellor Joel Klein called the initiative a success and said the ban on cellphones and other gadgets deemed disruptive would stay in place despite an outcry from parents and students.

Confiscated items, with the exception of drugs and weapons, are usually returned at the end of the day but principals can require the student to be accompanied by a parent to get their stuff back.

The scannings, conducted by police with mobile metal detectors, may take place unannounced each day at as many as 10 middle schools or high schools without permanent magnetometers.”

David Hardy has some info on the Firearms Commerce Modernization Act and the NICS Improvement Act.

Xrlq tells us the difference between the two. That’s only a difficult concept if you’re the LA Times.

Off to the hospital today with a new baby coming. Not much action here for the next few days but check out The Gun Blogs for your gunblogging fix.

Via Brittney, comes news that federal income tax deduction for the six states without an income tax is now gone. You’d think that would have made the news or something.