Well, Karl, that there gay cooties banning didn’t work out. So, plan B:
Bush says immigrants must learn English
Man, these guys can pull non-issues from their hindquarters faster than Puff Daddy can ruin a bitchin’ song riff.
In a rare accomplishment, the US Senate managed to avoid embarrassing itself over the issue of marriage discrimination.
Of course, the 49 Senators who voted to support a Constitutional ban on equal marriage have their fingers in a crumbling dike. Future generations will look at their bigotry in much the same way we look at pre-Loving v. Virginia America. If their children aren’t already ashamed, their grandkids will be.
The haters are losing a battle against demographic destiny. Every poll shows that opposition to marriage equality correlates strongly with age. The future is clear, and nobody rationally doubts that America will eventually have marriage equality. The question is can we get there now or do we have to wait a couple decades for the bigots to die of old age. I’m guessing the latter, but as the slim majority becomes an overwhelming minority in state after state after state, momentum on this issue is going to shift pretty fast.
I wonder how those 49 Senators feel about being on the wrong side of history.
Via the Comedian, comes this awesome graphic of the relative size of planets in our solar system and the sun.
According to my sources, the ATF is sending dealers a computer CD titled Federal Firearms Licensee User Manual. According to those same sources, this CD crashes Windows. You’ve been warned.
Update from Bruce in comments:
Well, seeing as the ATF crashes doors of unsuspecting citizens, it’s only fitting that the ATF’s CD do the same to their Windows.
Heh.
The police chief of New orleans has retreated from his statement that firearms would be siezed if another situation like Katrina happens.
Within two hours of an announcement that the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) was calling for a Justice Department investigation of New Orleans Police Superintendent Warren Riley’s plan to confiscate guns again if a major storm hits the city this year, SAF learned that Riley has backed off.
The article does not give any quotes or other evidence of this retreat so I am waiting to declare this a smll win. The main problem is the police chief could easily change his mind the day of the storm.
In the poll I mentioned yesterday, I am surprised that National CCW is in the lead. In fact, it would be last on my list as that is successfully being handled on the state level except in places where it’s a lost cause. So, go vote.
Update: Now, it’s the Supreme Court.
I don’t approve of people writing on other people’s dirty cars. But, more importantly, I don’t approve of people writing the tired, old Wash Me on them. If you’re going to vandalize someone’s property, at least make it amusing. After all, scores of people will see it by the time they wash it off and, face it, they need a laugh. So, instead of wash me, try something like I wish my wife were this dirty. Last night, I was heading home and was behind a car with hatchback. It was dirty and someone decided to write something on it. They wrote the phrase Midget Porn. I guess because that’s dirty, too. I should carry a camera.
Bloomberg’s push to ban gun coloration kits is, well, stupid. But I didn’t really know what he meant. Dave the hyphenated American has some examples. He notes:
So now not only are black rifles like the AR-15 “evil” in the gun-grabbers’ eyes, but now guns of color are too. So far, no-one seems to have noticed that most SKS and AK-47 types come in wooden stocks. I guess it is only a matter of time that wood is “evil” too
The ATF is apparently working hard to define manufacturing as touching a tool to a gun. Gun Law News has the skinny on the continuing war on gunsmiths:
The BATFE is going after gunsmiths for work analagous to this via the Tax and Trade Bureau to fine, and in some cases, close down small, custom gun shops.
…
Nowhere does “Make a bad gun good” or “Make a good gun better” fall anywhere within the definition “manufacturing firearms”. That does not stop the BATFE from throwing common sense out the window.
Ultimately, the question for gunsmiths becomes, “Where does maintenance end and manufacturing begin?” The question is significant as the answer affects whether or not you pay Federal Excise Tax on your work. Get the answer wrong and you rate a visit from the BATFE and the Tax and Trade Bureau. Unfortunately for some smiths, the answer changes depending on which BATFE agent you talk to.
If you thought that was bad enough, be patient. Let’s say that you are a gun writer. As a part of your job, you have had gunsmiths tune guns to your liking so you could write about them, thereby making money on the improvements. According to some in the BATFE you have just made yourself a ‘manufacturer’ and the smith working for you is a subcontractor. You, as the writer, are responsible for having a manufacturing FFL and paying excise taxes.
Yeah, the ATF needs it’s collective pee-pee whacked.
I don’t think this is about keeping guns out of the hands of criminals at all. I think this is about ridiculing and shaming legal gun owners.
I think we do this for two reasons. 1. By and large, we don’t own guns. We want to believe that our way of looking at the world is correct and therefore, we want gun owners to give up their guns in order to validate our ways of life. This is stupid, but not malicious.
I disagree that it is not malicious. Waiting periods have killed women who went to buy a gun only to be told to wait. Even a day is a lot of time to wait and bad things happen:
In April of 1991, Bonnie’s relatives were grieving her untimely death. She had just inquired about getting a gun to protect herself from a husband who had repeatedly threatened to kill her. She was told there was a 48-hour waiting period to buy a handgun.
Unfortunately, Bonnie was never able to pick up the gun she needed for self-defense. She and her two sons were killed the very next day by an abusive husband of whom the police were well aware.
In the aftermath of the Kelo ruling, it looks like the city council has voted to evict:
City officials voted Monday night to evict residents who refused to leave their riverfront homes, signaling that the end is near in an eminent domain dispute that reached the U.S. Supreme Court.
The City Council approved the action 5-2. The city attorney will now go to court to seek removal of the remaining two families and obtain the properties in the Fort Trumbull neighborhood, a process that could take three months.
Another sad day for America and for property rights.
After Katrina, a few states passed laws making it a crime for the powers that be to confiscate firearms during emergencies. Now, there is a federal bill in the works that does the same:
The start of hurricane season has become a selling point for gun-rights legislation spurred by Hurricane Katrina.
During the during storm’s chaotic aftermath, government officials hoping to ensure public safety seized hundreds of legally owned guns from Louisiana residents, some seeking to protect themselves from pillagers and assailants. The seizures have triggered outrage among gun-rights activists, spawning a lawsuit and bills nationwide to ban future confiscations.
“These people were left to defend themselves from criminals,” said Chris Cox, chief lobbyist for the National Rifle Association (NRA). “It really became the proving ground for what American gun owners have always feared, and that’s the day that bureaucrats threw the Bill of Rights in the trash can.”
Cox and other lobbyists are pushing for a bill that would ban government officials from seizing firearms during emergencies, saying it would ensure protection for law-abiding citizens when they need it most. Opponents say it could hamper law enforcement’s ability to stabilize turbulent situations.
That’s funny, I thought we already had a 2nd Amendment
In response to my post on National Ask Day, where parents ask Is there a gun where my child plays?, reader Rich gives a possible answer:
Why, does your kid look for valuables in neighborhood houses?
Heh.
All the references to assault weapons involving the Indiana slayings seem to have stopped. No mention in this story, for example. I wonder why? Oh yeah. But I’ve seen no corrections.
Remember, I do this to entertain me, not you.
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