We now have people that want to do away with the Knox County Charter because they think that less government is better government and it is such a pain and a difficult duty to have private acts passed in the Tennessee Legislature that dumb ideas like the “Jobs Now Program” or the 5 million dollars to a Blount County industrial park would be impossible to do with private acts. According to this line of thought doing away with the Charter is a good thing.

That is muddled thinking. Home Rule is a great advantage and we need to keep it. Keeping government local is what Home Rule and the Charter is all about. We have the right to control the laws of our County. That is why we need the Charter.

The charter is not the problem. The Weaver ruling is the problem.

This whole issue could have been fixed in a single day. Weaver could have suggested that Knox County hold a Charter commission meeting. Add one phrase, Constitutional Offices are defined in the State Constitution. Send the amended Charter to the Secretary of State. We are done.

But nooooo, that’s not the way we do business around these parts. Let’s put every Knox County taxpayer at risk, risk the bond rating, have hundreds of lawsuits, drive everybody crazy, and at the end of the fools errand declare victory and stop to admire and reflect upon the imaginary leadership of the County Mayor and County Commission.

An excellent analysis of why Weaver’s ruling is flawed can be found here.

Why should Weaver’s ruling be overturned? There are many reasons. One of the most important is that of severability which means you do not throw out the baby with the bath water. The legal definition of severability is, “A clause in a Charter that allows that any portion of the Charter deemed to be unenforceable does not affect the validity of the rest of the Charter.”

The Jarvis decision to have this Charter fast tracked to the Tennessee Supreme Court is the right decision. Weaver’s ruling must be appealed as soon as possible and overturned. It must be overturned because it is a bad ruling. What ever popularity the Weaver ruling had it has lost any appeal when people now understand how the Charter actually benefited them. Whether you like or dislike Adult Book Stores or Strip Clubs most people in Knox County do not want one next to their home. The same could be said for a Methadone Clinic or a Homeless Shelter. Do you think people now understand the value of the Charter? The Charter allows a more local input into local ordinances.

When you vote this August exercise manual term limits. Say to these incumbents who ignore the law and sue to invalidate the Charter, “I got your term limits right here” and vote for their opponent. They do not deserve to serve.

I mentioned it here. David has more on them, including:

AHSA’s president, John Rosenthal, founded “Stop Handgun Violence,” and is as big a gungrabber as you will find. Their Board of Directors include honchos from Crime Guns Solutions, ex-BATF careerists who worked to give ammo to the gun maker lawsuits. CGS exec Gerald Nunziato had this to say:

““If it wasn’’t for criminals, there wouldn’’t be a gun industry in this country. The only people [NRA and other gun-rights groups are] protecting are criminals.”

WKM in comments:

How sad society has become that the well mannered kids are the ones that stand out now.

Ayup.

Heh:

Miami Heat wins NBA finals, Carolina something-or-others win NHL finals.

Took The Second Child to the doctor this week. He’s healthy, which is great. He’s also in the 75th percentile on height (compared to junior who is 25% – together, they’re average). He’ll be tall and she’ll be small. Also, his head was in the 100th percentile, meaning his head is bigger than just about all other kids’ heads. That explains the longer labor this time.

The phony Fudds are at it again. Saving Hunters From the NRA:

On the negative side, some OWAA members criticized the new group as being “in favor of gun control.”

Ricker disputed that, of course, saying AHSA only wanted to get guns out of the hands of criminals and that hunters didn’t need machine guns to hunt.

Ricker also noted that America has 80 million gun owners, but the NRA only has 4 million members. He interprets this as a failure by NRA to represent gun owners and hunters because the vast majority has not joined.

NRA has been frequently criticized for its ultra-narrow focus on protecting Second Amendment rights even if it meant supporting the election of conservative, mostly republican, politicians who work hard to destroy the last wild habitat available to hunters. NRA does not support Wilderness designation and even supports more roads in roadless areas so hunters can have more access with jeeps and ATVs.

Thalif Deen:

The National Rifle Association (NRA), the most powerful pro-gun lobby in the United States, is leading a campaign to literally flood the Sri Lanka Mission to the United Nations with letters and postcards protesting an upcoming conference on small arms.

Ambassador Prasad Kariyawasam of Sri Lanka, president-designate of the two-week long conference beginning Monday, told IPS that the NRA campaign is totally misguided because the meeting is “not aimed at banning small arms or controlling weapons that are legally manufactured, purchased or traded in conformity with national laws”.

At last count, his Mission had received over 100,000 letters, post cards and email messages — most of them arriving at the staggering rate of about 4,000 per day — all of them with an identical anti-U.N. message in what appears to be a rigidly coordinated letter-writing and hate-mail campaign for which the NRA is notorious in this country.

Hate mail? Really? Or, you know, concerned folks voicing their opinions.

Other people’s children, that is.

Me and the Mrs. took Junior to Splash Country yesterday. For you non-local folks, it’s a water park operated by Dollywood. We had a good time. Now, not all kids can be perfect like mine so let’s talk about your kids and how I hate them. Well, OK, not you specifically but you in the general sense. And not your kids that I hate, really, but your parenting or lack thereof. And not hate so much as generally annoyed by them.

First thing I noticed about your kids is they can’t read. We were at the water park and they have this special section for small kids (think toddlers) that is about 1.5 feet deep max. There are also a various water guns set up to squirt other folks and little fountains that shoot out of the water. This is not the place you should take a kid who is starting to grow whiskers. He should be wearing his big-boy pants and riding the big boy rides. There are signs with the height requirements and some of the features say anyone above a certain height must be accompanied by a kid. But pimply faced, hairy kids with cracking voices were every where. As my dad would say You’re big enough to whip a bear with a flyswatter. You don’t need to be in the kiddie pool.

Second thing I noticed about your kids is that, well, they’re fat. Not sure why it is but there were a lot of morbidly obese kids at the water park. I don’t mean obese as in baby fat and kinda cute. I mean I saw an eight year old with stretchmarks. I saw two sisters who were maybe nine years old and both were rather rotund. Seriously, I think if about four specific kids had simultaneously gotten out of pool area, the shift in water volume would have created a small scale tidal wave.

The third thing I noticed about your kids is that they’re inconsiderate shits. There’s a water slide at the kiddie pool and Junior and I would ascend the ladder, wait our turn, and go down the slide together (remember, I had to be accompanied by her). Now, quite a few of the other kids (who were all unsupervised) would just run to the front, cut in, and hop on the slide. The lifeguard lady tried to stop this at the start but eventually just gave up. Learned helplessness I suppose. On our last trip up, there was another father there with his little girl. He mentioned to me that one particular inconsiderate shit had gone down the slide three times while he waited. He pointed her out. Then, she came for the fourth cut in. This particular father had a jarhead haircut and a USMC tattoo and he’d had enough. He gently grabbed the kid’s arm and told her she needed to wait her turn like everyone else. She did and other parents applauded. Now, Junior was starting to catch on to the line-cutting thing and kept trying to run up to the slide. I’d pull her back and say Let’s wait our turn, honey. I’m trying to teach her a lesson and it is don’t be an asshole.

The fourth thing is your kids are kinda dumb. There were rocks and things on the edges that were slick and they kept climbing up there. The lifeguard would shoo them away. And they’d do it again. One kid fell. Also, there are various water cannons stationed at various spots. You can grab one and shoot away at other folks. This is fine if you want to shoot me, after all I came to get a bit wet. However, shooting at a mother carrying a baby that is just a few months old or shooting at a toddler who can barely walk is just fucking stupid.

So, generally speaking, I don’t like your kids much.

There’s some Father’s Day gifts at the Gun Blogs.

CBC:

Some gun and hunting groups are boycotting Air Canada after the airline imposed a $50 surcharge on passengers who check their firearms as baggage.

The one-way handling fee went into effect on June 5 for tickets purchased on or after April 14, adding $100 to the cost of a return trip.

Air Canada says the surcharge will cover the cost of making sure firearms are declared, unloaded and secured in a case that cannot be easily broken into during transport.

BTW, I’ve not flown with a weapon since pre 9-11. Looks like I may start traveling some again. Anything new I need to be aware of in this post 9-11, freedom isn’t free era?

Today’s must read is How to make your wife hate guns.

Triggerfinger has a ton of updates on the Parker case, a gun rights case in DC.