Archive for June, 2006

June 28, 2006

Blame His Brother

Some people think the question of whether homosexuality is biologically determined has some bearing on whether it’s ok to discriminate against gays. Legally, there might be something there, but morally and socially, it’s all the same to me. Bigotry is never cool, even if you can twist up some limp rationalization for your hate.

The people that say gay people choose to be gay never identify the mechanism of that choice. They make it sound like there are guys who wake up one day and decide to fall in love with men. They make it seem like lesbians should just learn to love men. It’s a strange viewpoint, and those that hold it describe people so unrealistic that you wonder what kind of person thinks anybody else is wired that way.

Here’s another bit of evidence that homosexuality is all about the nature, not the nurture.

Meanwhile across the pond…

Do you every wonder just how goofy the people over in England can be? I do. Ever wonder about where some of the goofy ideas the UN comes up with?

Maybe they come from places like the The Euston Manifesto.

Here are a few snippets:

A. Preamble

We are democrats and progressives. We propose here a fresh political alignment. Many of us belong to the Left, but the principles that we set out are not exclusive. We reach out, rather, beyond the socialist Left towards egalitarian liberals and others of unambiguous democratic commitment. Indeed, the reconfiguration of progressive opinion that we aim for involves drawing a line between the forces of the Left that remain true to its authentic values, and currents that have lately shown themselves rather too flexible about these values. It involves making common cause with genuine democrats, whether socialist or not.

3) Human rights for all.

We hold the fundamental human rights codified in the Universal Declaration to be precisely universal, and binding on all states and political movements, indeed on everyone. Violations of these rights are equally to be condemned whoever is responsible for them and regardless of cultural context.

It is worth a read and there is some good stuff in it. There are still Utopian dreamers. Do you think we will see some of this “manifesto” in future UN proposals?

Didn’t the human race already figure out that socialism doesn’t work?

Sweet

Cam Edwards:

A remarkable thing happened at the United Nations yesterday. We, the United States, told the world “no”. The messenger was Robert Joseph, the Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. Speaking before the dozens of nations that have gathered for the review conference on Small Arms and Light Weapons, Joseph told the world in no uncertain terms where the United States stood.

“The U.S. Constitution guarantees the rights of our citizens to keep and bear arms, and there will be no infringement of those rights,” he proclaimed to the dignitaries and functionaries. “The United States will not agree to any provisions restricting civilian possession, use or legal trade of firearms inconsistent with our laws and practices.”

Now, if this sounds familiar, it should be. It was five years ago that UN Ambassador John Bolton said something similar during the first conference on small arms. Then, as now, many countries wanted the conference to discuss and implement controls on the civilian possession of firearms.

One quibble regarding the quote The U.S. Constitution guarantees the rights of our citizens to keep and bear arms, and there will be no infringement of those rights. Well, no infringement unless it comes from our own government, of course.

Comforting

It’s not real comforting to know that the US Senate is only one vote from abject stupidity.

The UN Round Up

GLN rounds up coverage of the UN anti-gun summit.

Shutting down churches

Ned Ferguson, who I thought was MIA, notes that the .gov can shut down churches using eminent domain:

Churches are tax exempt, hence virtually any “use” except a church generates greater tax revenue for the government and therefore makes the property subject to seizure. See how easy that is?

He even has a sample.

Smoking Update

Since some readers (including one who is going through the same thing) have asked:

No smoking since Monday morning at roughly 6:30a.m. Kind of jittery, chewing lots of gum and eating the shit out of candy and, well, anything else I can get my hands on. If I start turning into a fat ass, maybe smoking isn’t so bad. Kind of a toss up in terms of what’s worse for you, I suppose.

Also, I’ve made it this far and not killed anyone. It’s a good thing.

New (to me) Sig

I dig the looks of the Sig X-Five 226.

CNN Poll on the UN

Take the poll: Do you believe the U.N. is trying to outlaw gun ownership in the U.S.?

Via Josh

Disappointment

I’ve covered the plight of Sunshyne Video (link is not work safe) before. Sunshyne is a local adults only store and, according to local politicos, a den of debauchery and iniquity. They’ve had a heckuva time battling the local Adult Entertainment Board, which is a sham of a political body (see my posts here, here and here). I even interviewed the owner, David Anderson, here. Heck, I even link to their blog (link is not work safe) some times.

Well, yesterday I happened to be in that direction (I never knew where the place was) and decided to stop in. I went in and expected to see naked, dancing women and live sex shows because that’s what the local press and politicos keep telling me was there. They had none of that and I was disappointed. All I saw were three-dimensional devices designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs, dirty movies, and a variety of novelty items. Oh, and a sign that said No Public Restroom, which is a good thing to have if you sell porn.

I introduced myself to David and told him who I was. We had a good laugh and he told me they’re still fighting in court due to not having a license to be an adult business because the sham adult business board won’t give them one. He also told me that each employee has to be approved by the local adult business board, which obviously is intended to make it hard on (heh) such businesses to get help. He was trying to get someone approved now.

By the time we got done talking, I had no time for browsing.

Good luck in the fight, Dave, and tell us how it goes.

More on the UN and Gun Control

Blogcritics takes a look.

CAGW on the drug war

Pete notes Citizen Against Government Waste isn’t a fan of the drug czar:

As the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), established in 1988 by the Anti-Drug Abuse Act, approaches its eighteenth year of existence, it continues to demonstrate its inability to either achieve its core objectives or function efficiently.

The government also exhibits its obsession with containing marijuana use by continuing to throw unnecessary funding and unavailable resources towards tracking down and persecuting patients using medicinal marijuana in states that have legalized the substance for medical use only. Not only does this undermine federalism, it also proves that the government is incapable of exercising any kind of fiscal restraint.

Ayup.

And he means it this time

Head is really calling it quits. Bummer. Your blog will be missed.

Influential people read SayUncle

Including Dick Cheney.

Ouchie

Michael abandons his ordinarily calm demeanor and yells at the left.

Weekly Check

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

Free stuff

You Tube has a business plan?

June 27, 2006

Password protected AMMO

The next step past New Jersey’s demand for smart guns is “smart ammo“.

Well someone has come forward and patented it.

Meyerle is patenting a design for a modified cartridge that would be fired by a burst of high-frequency radio energy. But the energy would only ignite the charge if a solid-state switch within the cartridge had been activated. This would only happen if a password entered into the gun using a tiny keypad matched one stored in the cartridge.

When they are sold, cartridges could be programmed with a password that matches the purchaser’s gun. An owner could set the gun to request the password when it is reloaded, or to perform a biometric check before firing. The gun could also automatically lock itself after a pre-set period of time has passed since the password was entered.

The system would undoubtedly cost more than a conventional gun, but many firearm enthusiasts would surely pay a premium for such added security.

We likely would pay a premium, because some danmed politician will force us to.

Quote of the Day

From the UN Gun Summit:

We believe that no armed group outside of the State should be allowed to bear weapons. We also believe that regulating civilian possession of Small Arms/Light Weapons will enhance our efforts to prevent its misuse. In our view, the issue of ammunition should also be addressed in the context of the Program of Action because in the absence of ammunition, small arms and light weapons pose no danger.

So you know what we’re up against.

Unbelievable

Police tasered a 61 year-old, disabled vet at a protest.

A Date is not a date

Guy Montag went on a date set up via a conservative dating service. Turns out, it was a reporter who wrote an article on such a service. Go read and he has sooper seekrit links to the article to bypass registration.

More AR Porn

Tam gave hers a paint job!

UN Gun Conference

GLN has some info and links to coverage of the event.

Excessive Force Complaints

The Bureau of Justice Statistics:

Large state and local law enforcement agencies with 59 percent of the nation’s sworn officers received 26,556 citizen complaints about the police use of force during 2002, the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) announced today. The rate was 6.6 complaints per 100 full-time sworn officers. Eighty-four percent were made against large municipal departments, BJS said.

About eight percent of the complaints were officially sustained, that is, there was sufficient evidence to justify disciplinary action against the officer or officers; 34 percent were not sustained; 25 percent were unfounded, meaning the complaint was not supported by facts or the alleged incident did not occur; 23 percent ended in exonerations because the police actions were lawful and proper and nine percent ended in other dispositions, such as complaint withdrawal, etc.

Seems bigger cities have more complaints.

No shall-issue CCW in Delaware

At least not this session:

Legislation to make it easier to get a permit to carry a concealed handgun is dead for this legislative session, the bill’s chief sponsor said Friday.

Rep. Deborah Hudson, R-Fairthorne, said she wanted more time for the Attorney General’s Office, the Delaware Police Chiefs Council and the National Rifle Association to produce a compromise bill.

More liberals and guns

Glen McAdoo:

It has taken me about 30 years, and what’s happened lately, to come to the conclusion that it is not liberals, but conservatives that ultimately may become the real threat to the Second Amendment and the Constitution in general. That’s argumentative, I’ll admit.

I don’t disagree. Seems a great deal of gun control lately is passed into law by supposed conservatives. Mr. McAdoo also says:

I can remember a time, not so long ago, when I adamantly supported a ban on assault weapons. But given the fact that many rapid fire automatic weapons can be converted into, or considered assault weapons, such a ban is not effective and only inflames those who believe that gun laws are being adopted that only serve to restrict the rights of law abiding citizens, diminish Second Amendment protections, and do nothing to protect the public. So, I’ve changed my mind.

I like his sentiment and am glad to see a liberal oppose the ban on weapons that look like assault weapons. However, I have no idea what the bolded part is supposed to mean.

More on Global Gun Control

Marc Folco:

The global gun control talks get underway in New York City tomorrow when the United Nations opens a two-week conference where world leaders intend to curb the international arms trade through a binding arms trade treaty. On the surface, it appears to be a treaty among nations to reduce the illegal trafficking of small military arms and light weapons in order to curb civil strife in some countries by establishing general guidelines for the manufacture and import and export and possession of those firearms.

But to Americans, who are too smart to swallow this façade, it’s no doubt a worldwide assault on the private ownership of firearms by peaceful, law-abiding U.S. citizens by super ceding our national and state laws and our Constitution, and those of other nations. Recommendations being reviewed at the conference will reduce the availability of guns to civilians in all societies, including banning the advertisement and promotion of small arms to civilians.

More Trace Data Stuff

Josh Sugarmann:

Before the ban, the publicly available tracing data was used by city officials and law enforcement agencies to determine the sources of illegally trafficked firearms and identify the top guns traced to crime. When the info ban was first put in place for fiscal year 2004, it even banned the release of the number of guns manufactured in America. This was quickly reversed–because the gun industry wanted the information. The bill now goes to the House floor and then on to the Senate.

The non-disclosure language prohibits ATF from releasing information related to crime gun traces performed by the agency except in connection with a bona fide criminal investigation.

Actually, the data was mostly used to launch the bogus anti-gun maker lawsuits.

Dumbass quote of the day

Bloomberg on government efforts to influence what we eat and how much exercise we get:

some people may call that too intrusive

You think?

June 26, 2006

Sleep

Out of town on travel and at a hotel. This means tonight will be the first full night’s sleep I’ve had in over 6 weeks.

Zzzzzz.

Remember, I do this to entertain me, not you.

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