Here at the office, we prepare this thing every week. For sake of argument, we’ll call this thing the WENIS. People send me info and I compile the info then send the WENIS to a very important person, who we’ll call The Big Cheese. One particular person (who we’ll call Regularly Incompetent Person) always gets their WENIS wrong. Actual conversation about the WENIS:
Regularly Incompetent Person: I need you to reject the info I sent for the WENIS.
Me: I already did.
Regularly Incompetent Person: [baffled] You did?
Me: Yes.
Regularly Incompetent Person: Why?
Me: Because it’s always wrong and you always call to tell me you need to resubmit it. Rejecting it the first time saves me the time I would ordinarily spend 1) deleting your mistake and 2) re-submitting the correction.
Regularly Incompetent Person: Oh, uhm, well … err… it’s wrong and I need to resubmit it.
Me: I told you.
Regularly Incompetent Person: Smart ass.
So, I plan my day around others’ incompetence. It’s a good skill, saves you time.
In an update to this post on about neo-Nazi stuff at the Knob Creek shoot, the machinegunners respond over at subguns.com:
Alot of the black and camo BDU and certainly Nazi paraphernalia would be better left at home, or better yet in the trash.
Indeed. I do hate going to the gun show and seeing the obligatory Nazi section. I steer clear and shake my head as I walk by. I’d advise other gunnies to do the same.
“Sonny Landham, the 1980s action movie star ….white supremacist?” Somebody better check their facts, he`s a American Indian. He`s the American Indian in Predator.
The “so called neo-nazi crap” was U-Boat memorabilia dealer. By the same logic any dealer selling Russian/USSR relics must be a “communist”
Aren’t you afraid an underprivileged urban-outdoorsman might break in and steal the rifle?
No, we have the rifle and camera setup in a secured office building with an alarm system. Besides, if criminals actually stole the weapons they later used in crimes, gun control laws wouldn’t make much sense.
Dennis Smith and his wife, Kristie Dawn Smith, had just put their five-year-old son to bed in July 2002 when three men burst into their mobile home near Tazewell, demanding to know where the drugs were.
The demand was specific — 116 pounds of marijuana, methamphetamine and the Smith’s meth cookers.
They didn’t have any of it, as a search of their trailer showed.
The lawmen were at the wrong home, having taken the word of an informant and not verifying even who owned the cars in the driveway, according to court documents.
The proposed settlement will cost Claiborne County taxpayers $10,000.
You should have had a few more zeros added to the settlement.
My wife frequently calls me lazy. It’s not because I won’t do stuff but because of how I do stuff. For example, when charged with sweeping, I’ll use the large pushbroom instead of the small one. It covers more surface area and is more efficient. Or, if it’s outside, I use the leaf blower. If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing with power tools. Not sure why she says it’s lazy as it takes more effort to get the blower out and all that. And the blower does a better job.
Seems some conservatives no longer think the war was good idea. Der Commissar:
Presuming that overthrowing Saddam was “a good thing” even absent WMDs, we did not commit enough troops to secure and rebuild the country, although plenty of Rumsfeld’s generals said they would be needed. As one of the above authors noted, we didn’t occupy Iraq, we staged a coup. Then having overthrown Saddam, we presided over chaos, disbanded the Iraqi Army, and outlawed the Baathists. To a very large extent, the insurgency is of our own making.
Simply put, the reason I have come to this conclusion now is that the enemies of Iraqi democracy have established a clear upper hand in the country and it is uncertain at best whether the situation can be retrieved at this point.
I’ve personally been disappointed with the handling of this whole thing, though I did support it and still do. I am, however, unwilling to throw everything under the bus now for a variety of reasons.
They’re at it again. Gun-control advocates and their friends in state government are once again trying to nibble away at your right to own firearms. But you’ve got to hand it to them, as they’re quite crafty.
This latest proposal, which is merely a retread of Gov. Ed Rendell’s 2002 campaign proposal to restrict firearm ownership, would limit handgun purchases to one per month.
It all sounds relatively mild. After all, who would want to purchase more than one handgun per month?
Certainly, the anti-gun crowd would lead us to believe, only criminals would.
Well, if they can limit purchases to one a month, why not one a year or once in a lifetime?
I recall when the whole drugs fund terror commercials came out and everyone said, basically, it was bullshit. At the time, I knew those saying it was bullshit were wrong. Drugs make money quickly and easily, if you don’t get killed or arrested. It was only natural to assume terrorists figured that out too.
Any way, now it seems that anti-drug war crowd has realized it wasn’t bullshit too. And they’ve started using the idea to gain support for a serious look at the war on civil liberties err drugs:
On Saturday, Aug. 19, 2006, The Washington Post reported that there is dispute within the drug policy reform community over the veracity of a Drug Enforcement Administration traveling road show that connects the $ 322 annual world wide retail black market for illicit drugs and terrorism. The proliferation of stateless terrorist armies around the world, that are able to thrive and grow independent of national sponsorship in the past twenty years, should alone serve to confirm the connection. There is no other supply of untraceable capital in the world economy able to do this as efficiently as does the U.S. and U.N. imposed prohibition black market economy of the drug war. Drug-Terror Connection Disputed Washington Post.
Not only does the prohibition economy of the drug war fund terrorist armies including, I believe, alQaeda, but it provides underground logistical and tactical resources as well. International smuggling routes. Money laundering. Weapons. Heroin itself is reported to be an asymmetric weapon of bin Laden’s. Heroin that bin Laden has been flooding the west with since the mid 1990’s in order to destabilize what he perceives are decadent western societies.
First, (as mentioned before), the assault weapons ban canard is popping up. While pointing out that in 2005 murder is up, casually mention the assault weapons ban expired. It doesn’t seem to matter that murder is up in places that have a ban or that there is no evidence that murders committed with formerly banned are on the rise or that the preferred and most common weapon used in murder is a handgun. Gunbloggers need to stay on this one.
Second, in South Africa, comes something you’ll never see in the American press:
While the gun control lobby called for the act to be strengthened, the pro-gun groupings argued that the laws were in conflict with the constitutional protection of property and the right to compensation if firearms were forfeited as a result of the act.
Did you catch it? Here in the states, the press never calls an anti-gun group a lobby. They are activists or advocates. Meanwhile, the NRA is always a lobby and never an activist or advocacy group.
As Don Kates has pointed out with regard to another article, “Among the highly misleading things in this article is that the ordinary reader will probably never realize that the retreat rule has always been the minority rule in the U.S. So instead of a horrible earthshaking change taking place, all that is happening is that the legislatures of at most 15 states have adopted what was already the rule in most states.”
The assault on castle doctrine is heating up as well.
The article also presents the other staple of the media anti-gun bias playbook: the unrebutted quote from a Bradyite mouthpiece which distorts a key fact
The “promising idea” identified by Blumenthal involved filing massive product liability and negligence lawsuits against major handgun makers, “the opening salvo in a campaign against the gun industry by an alliance of anti-tobacco attorneys and local governments,” wrote The Los Angeles Times. According to one of the lawyers involved in the lawsuits: “We are going to do to [the gun industry] what we did to tobacco. It’s going to be a very large war.”
Judicial watch has more on Clinton’s war on guns, including some of the documents. Hell, I may have to vote Republican this time around since Bill still has pull and I hear is wife may be running for prez.
The police watchdog group that revealed how difficult it is to obtain a police complaint form in various South Florida jurisdictions conducted the same investigation in Independence, Missouri.
This time, their investigator was arrested. Rather violently.
A New Orleans Police Department employee and a felon have been indicted for illegally obtaining an AK-47 assault rifle, federal prosecutors said Friday.
U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said Nisheka M. Webb, 21, went to a local gun show July 29 with Wayne C. Jones, 28, to buy a gun for him. Jones, a convicted felon, is prohibited from ever owning or possessing a firearm, Letten said.
The indictment charged both with conspiracy to acquire a firearm by providing a false statement to a federally-licensed firearm dealer.
Yet no one has arrested Bloomberg’s investigators. Via David, who says:
what’s this “federally-licensed firearm dealer” business? Everyone knows gun shows provide loopholes for supplying felons and terrorists with firearms–no questions asked.
The Knob Creek machine gun shoot in Kentucky attracts thousands of neo-Nazis and other extremists. But the orgy of firepower helps everyone get along just fine.
Gene Patterson has a post on his blog reporting that Betty Bean will have a three part series in the Halls Shopper News about the life and times of Tyler Harber.
Patterson writes that Tyler Harber “never worked a single case while employed by Knox County’s Office of Probation and Pre-Trial Release. He worked exclusively for Ragsdale. He called himself “Ragsdale’s body man.”"
Is this a case for the Knox County District Attorney? Should Mayor Mike Ragsdale have to pay back Knox County for Tyler Harber’s salary? How much did Harber make in his Knox County job?
More on this story on Gene Patterson’s Sunday talk show “Tennessee This Week” on WATE television and on Lloyd Daughtery’s radio program “The Voice” on AM 1180 on Monday morning. Betty Bean and Frank Cagle will be on the air with Lloyd Daughtery Monday discussing the interesting life of Tyler Harber and the politicians he worked for.
The problems with The Development Corporation and the Midway Industrial Park
Tomorrow a local community is asking for help. The people of the Midway Thorngrove community are having an open house and breakfast so people all over Knox County can learn of the pressure and tactics the Knox Community Development Corporation (aka “The Development Corporation”) is using to railroad and steamroll and industrial park into a rural community.
The breakfast is from 7:00 – 10:00 am at the Thorngrove Odd Fellows Lodge Hall for only $5.00 for adults and $3.00 for children under 12. All kinds of activities are planned at the Thorngrove Ball Field starting at 10:00 am including a Country Market, Cake Walk, Live Entertainment, Horse Drawn Wagon Rides, Auction at 2:30 pm, Drawing for Cash Giveaway, Homemade Ice Cream and more.
The following issues concern me about the benefit to Knox County and the way this has been handled.
First there is no definition of what kind of industrial park this will be. It has been said it would not be heavy manufacturing but there is still much wiggle room. It is most likely a distribution center. The reason Hackney was fought by the community was that it was too close to a school and the traffic from tractor trailers would endanger the school. This project is too close to a school and has the same traffic safety issues.
There are no customers. Stop the “Field of Dreams” madness. If you built it they MAY NOT COME.
The real costs of bringing utilities to this park have not been defined.
The real costs of improving corridor roads leading to the site have not been defined.
The cost of a local sewer plant have not been defined.
This process has been run through the system in record time. There is a fairness issue to the community that has been ignored. A request has been made to Knox County Commission for a thirty day continuance so a traffic study can be done.
Third party intermediaries have been found. There are Realtors, developers, and speculators being used as middlemen between TDC and the land owners. The average cost to TDC is $29,800 per acre but the landowners are getting only $15,000 an acre. That is an outrageous fee just to flip the land. It appears there is serious insider trading occurring with the blessing of TDC. These land owners are not being paid the full value of their property.
Unfair sales pressure is being put on the land owners as they are being told if they don’t sell their land the project will still go through and their land will be worth less so they better sell out now.
MetroPulse writer Rikki Hall is correct that the process is inverted. His comprehensive article is this weeks MetroPulse highlights many of the problems and challenges faced by the local community.
There are specialists that locate distribution centers. Have any experts been contacted about this location? This is a very illogical place for a distribution center. A more successful place would be in Loudon County at the 40-75 split.
The ROI is horrible. Once all costs have been accounted for this project could easily cost over 50 million dollars. So to create 2000 minimum wage jobs that equals $25,000 per job.
What is wrong with MPC and Knox County Commission? Are there any business people that understand ROI?
All of this at a time when six Knox County Schools are critically underfunded. Where is the leadership?
The Iraq invasion was a bad idea poorly executed by incompetents, but at least it comes in handy once in a while. We used our influence in Iraq to deny an Iranian plane permission to fly through Iraqi airspace. We then leaned on Turkey to make sure the plane couldn’t go around Iraq. The plane, which was loaded with missiles destined for Hezbollah in Damascus, was forced to turn around.
July 15: Three days after the war began, a source tipped off U.S. intelligence about an imminent shipment of missiles from Iran to Hezbollah.
July 19: A spy satellite photographed Iranian crews loading three missile launchers and eight crates, each normally used to carry a Chinese-designed C-802 Noor missile, aboard a transport plane at Mehrabad air base near Tehran. Israel says Hezbollah fired a C-802, a precision-guided anti-ship cruise missile, at an Israeli warship off Lebanon’s coast on July 14.
July 20: The Ilyushin Il-76 transport plane left for Damascus, but Iraqi air-traffic controllers denied it permission to enter Iraq’s airspace. The Iranian flight crew then requested permission to fly over Turkey. Turkish controllers granted permission — but only if the plane would land for an inspection. The plane returned to Tehran, where the military cargo was unloaded.
July 22: The plane flew humanitarian aid to Damascus after stopping for inspection in Turkey.
Stuff like that represents the upside of the invasion– using Iraq to the strategic advantage of America and its allies. Unfortunately, those benefits are dwarfed by the pain and cost Iraq has given us so far.
Federal prosecutors in Maine can continue to use gun laws to combat domestic violence, the U.S. Court of Appeals has ruled.
U.S. Circuit Judge Sandra Lynch, sitting in Boston, ruled that John Frechette of Lewiston can be charged with the federal crime of gun possession by a person convicted of a crime of domestic violence, even though his 1996 misdemeanor assault conviction came after he pleaded no contest in a “mass arraignment” in Lewiston District Court.
In 2005, U.S. District Court Judge D. Brock Hornby in Portland had dismissed the indictment against Frechette, saying that his no-contest plea to a misdemeanor domestic violence charge did not qualify as a “knowing and intelligent” waiver of his rights under Maine law. Hornby found that as a result, the 1996 conviction could not be used as the basis of a federal gun-possession case against Frechette.
You see Mike I don’t care if you own a gun, I really don’t when society falls apart I intend to loot from people like you since you will not be able to defend you or your family
If true, Troy Gentry, half of the country group Montgomery Gentry, is a disgusting person:
The indictment alleges that in October 2004 [country star Troy] Gentry paid Greenly $4,650 for Cubby, a tame, trophy-caliber, captive-reared black bear that was the largest bear used by Greenly in his wildlife photography business. After the purchase, the indictment says, Gentry killed Cubby with a bow and arrow while the bear was contained in a pen on Greenly’s property. The indictment does not specify how large the pen was.
Why would he do that? To show off:
The bear’s demise was videotaped, but court documents said the tape was edited later to show that Cubby had been killed in a “fair chase” hunting situation.
So, Gentry buys a domesticated bear that is essentially a pet and has been trained to be comfortable around people. Then kills it and makes it look like it was done in the wild. I suppose to make him look like a sportsman or some such. The newspaper account notes:
On Tuesday, Gentry pleaded not guilty to a charge that he violated the federal Lacey Act by falsely tagging the bear.
…
“Apparently it was perfectly legal to kill that bear since he was the owner,” Meshbesher said. “The government claims that once it was killed, there was mislabeled tagging because apparently the (property) owner indicated that it wasn’t killed on his game farm. It is a highly technical charge. The whole point is, they have to prove that Troy knew it was wrong and willfully went ahead and did it anyhow, and that relates to the tagging, not the killing.”
As a sort-of libertarian, here’s the deal: What Gentry did was cruel, evil and stupid. But I doubt it was illegal. My understanding is that for the Lacey Act to apply, said animal must be transported across state lines. So, they are obviously going after him on a highly technical charge to prove a point. The prosecution is stupid as well. But at least it’s stupid for good as opposed to Gentry being stupid for evil.
Gentry denies the claim:
“Troy is an avid environmentalist and hunter who supports and follows all game laws,” Meshbesher said. “Before he killed the bear, he was told by the bear guide that it was proper and legal to kill the bear, which was not a tamed bear and was never in a pen or cage.”
It’s possible he was lied to but then how does he explain buying the bear?
“Regulating Guns in America” demonstrates conclusively that gaps in federal policy contribute significantly to the country’s gun violence epidemic. With 100,000 Americans killed or injured by firearms each year, the report puts to rest any notion that federal regulation is adequate.
“In the absence of federal regulation, states and local governments can enact creative laws to address the problem of gun violence in their communities and regions,” noted Nina Vinik, LCAV’s Legal Director. “The gaps in federal policy are an opportunity,” Vinik added.
In addition to identifying the limits of federal law, “Regulating Guns in America” describes state and local laws in each policy area, highlighting innovative measures already in place at the state and local levels.
My first thought: one more Joyce Foundation clone, a supposed “grassroots” organization in fact created by Joyce’s millions, and with a membership at best in the dozens. But perhaps I’m too cynical.
Nope. Hop over to Joyce Foundation’s webpage and we find among its grants:
“Legal Community Against Violence
San Francisco, CA $380,000
For general support. (2 yrs.)”
Hot stud, your blog is so big. I want your blog in me right now.
Fun with blogs stats!
This comes up every once in a while in the Tennessee Blogosphere. The latest is from Adam (who I didn’t realize was still blogging at his old site), and he offers objective analysis of dick measuring err blog comparison of the folks listed in AC’s poll by listing sitemeter and technorati stats.
Every time these guys get into the cock appraisal, err, blog comparisons, they always leave off these Tennessee blogs (I put the sitemeter – technorati stats beside their name):
Donald Sensing 2,084 – 4493
Les Jones – 1,889 – 19323
Me – 1,351 – 4723 (mine are a bit inflated due to an instalanche but usually run about 1,100 – 1200)
Yeah, we’re still small compared to Reynolds but bigger than the other blogs listed in terms of pecker assessment, err, objective analysis. And I realize Adam was listing the blogs on AC’s poll. But it begs the question:
Why no love for the second, third and fourth place bloggers in this here state whenever there are man-muscles to be gauged, err, stats to be objectively analyzed?
Don’t get me wrong, we three are still third/fourth tier blogs but, err, we beat the others in terms of traffic and two of us beat the technorati spread. But no love even though our blogs can beat up your blogs?
They tried border collies in Virginia. They tried a stuffed coyote in New Jersey. In fact, officials nationwide have tried just about everything to get rid of large flocks of Canada geese that move in, eat the grass and leave lots of unwanted poop.
Until now, geese foes have had to obtain permits from the government to kill the geese or destroy their nests and eggs, and that hasn’t been easy. But the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has issued a new rule making it easier for farmers, airports, landowners and public health officials to kill the geese without permits.
The new rule went into effect last week.
Good. Vile, filthy creatures that turn your land into a shit pile. And, if you have water on it that they take a liking to, you just lost your property rights. More:
Animal rights activists say there’s got to be a better way to deal with the birds.
On the surface, it doesn’t look like gun owners have much to gain by having a 2A case come before the Supremes. Unless you think about what might happen if enough people got riled up about number two…
The other night, the second child slept through the night. Woohoo.
The other thing is that, now that we have a boy, I realize the Mrs. has no idea how a penis works. For example, she says, while pointing to a spot on the kid’s penis:
I think something is wrong with his penis.
Me, I look at the spot and say: Honey, that’s the frenulum, it attaches the skin to the shaft.
Animal control officials said 149 illegal pit bulls have been turned in or confiscated in the two weeks since the city increased its enforcement of a ban on the breed.
Mayor Joe Reardon announced July 28 that the city would temporarily waive penalties against people who turned over their pit bulls, which are illegal within city limits. The day before, a pit bull attacked 71-year-old Jimmie Mae McConnell, who later died.
The amnesty period ends today. More than two-thirds of the dogs were turned over in the first week, and animal control officials said the pace has slowed to what it was before the amnesty period.
And you can rat out your neighbor:
While those who voluntarily turned in their dogs didn’t get cited for violating the ban, owners who were identified through a telephone hot line were cited if officials could determine they owned a pit bull.
Breed bans are ineffective for a variety of reasons. And this is the result. Aunt B. also says:
I think it’s to punish their owners for being “scary” and “out of control” and “violent.” If some of us who own the dogs don’t happen to be poor young men, tough shit for us. This is about making sure that the “bad” elements of society know who’s in charge.
I would bet, dollars to donuts, that if you looked at the cities that have enacted “pit bull” bans, you would find that there’s a lot of tension in those cities about race. I know you could say that about every city in America, but I mean, I think you’d find “pit bull” bans enacted in cities where the demographics are changing rapidly. Look at the ban on “pit bulls” at the Nashville dog parks.
So, it’s doggie racism and people racism? Or classism. So many isms to worry about. The world needs less isms and more asms.
Every couple months, some paper makes the news for printing altered photos. Whether they’re composites of several other pictures or just plain fakes, each time this happens, people are reminded of just how untrustworthy even respectable news outlets can be.
If you’ve ever wanted to keep score, Dartmouth has a page covering the history of photoshopped pictures in the media. This stuff’s been going on for a long time.
My favorite is the one of Oprah’s face on Ann-Margret’s body.
DETROIT – A federal judge has ruled that the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program violates the Constitution.
More:
U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit became the first judge to strike down the National Security Agency’s program, which she says violates the rights to free speech and privacy.
Dammit! Just when we started to get to the bottom of the “real story” behind the airplane hijacking ring of last week, those wily Bushies pull another fast one on us, conveniently “finding” the killer of Jon Benet Ramsey just in time to dominate the front pages with another “distraction”.
The state of Wyoming passed a law in 2004 that allowed for expungement of misdemeanor domestic violence convictions restoring the firearms rights disabled by the Lautenberg Amendment. The expungement would allow a previously prohibited person to acquire a state ccw. Existing law allowed ccw holders to acquire firearms with going through the federal NICS check.
In August of 2004 the BATFE began a series of letters to Wyoming. The letters said that the state definition of ‘expungement’ conflicted with the federal definition, which controlled the definition of prohibited persons. Because the state could issue a ccw to a prohibited person, the Wyoming ccw was no longer sufficient to bypass the NICS check.
I think it depends on the particular Democrat. Harold Ford, Jr., for example, is running a campaign as a conservative. Remember folks, party over ideals. Unless you’re a neo-liberatarian.
The mayor misused gun trace data to launch so-called “sting” operations against firearms dealers without the knowledge of either ATF or his own police department. In the process, his private investigators interfered with as many as 18 ongoing criminal investigations, imperiling the lives of law enforcement personnel — like undercover NYPD cops who played a key role in busting up a Virginia gunrunning ring. This is precisely why law enforcement groups like the Fraternal Order of Police, the nation’s largest police organization, support legislation that would keep gun trace data out of the hands of the public yet make it available to law enforcement for investigatory purposes.
As a former state police trooper, I can state emphatically, that I oppose the move away from local policing to a heavily armed “national” quasi-military police force policy. You need look no further than New Orleans after Katrina. You could watch California Highway Patrol officers and many out of state police agencies going door to door, disarming innocent civilians. Police officers were on a mission to confiscate firearms from people trying to protect themselves. Observing this, was to incite a first class riot in my home.
Ayup. More:
We have become accustomed to standing quietly on the sidelines while our local police Chiefs and Sheriffs have accepted huge amounts of federal dollars and military equipment for their special response units. They are all under a variety of mission specific names and classified standing orders.
Update: No, that is not an endorsement of this guy’s new world order, UN rant.
A federal lawsuit accusing the city of illegally confiscating firearms during the chaos that followed Hurricane Katrina was kept alive by a federal judge Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier denied a motion by the city of New Orleans to dismiss a suit by the National Rifle Association and the Second Amendment Foundation. The gun-rights groups sued Mayor Ray Nagin and New Orleans Police Chief Warren Riley over the confiscation of guns following Hurricane Katrina.
The city asked the judge to dismiss the suit for lack of jurisdiction, saying “the states, and by extension their political subdivisions, are free to proscribe the possession of firearms.”
The court rejected the motion, ruling the city did nothing to back up “the brazen assertion” that the second amendment did not apply.
“I’m delighted to see that the second amendment still applies in Louisiana,” said Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the NRA.
Well, the fifth circuit is the strongest circuit court on the second amendment. Excellent. More:
In April, police made about 700 weapons available to owners. Those seeking a weapon must bring either a bill of sale or an affidavit with the weapon’s serial number, which LaPierre called an “impossible requirement.”
It is an impossible requirement. More folks should have turned theirs in ammo first.
This could be the case that gets to the supreme court. The fifth circuit has stated the second amendment means what it says. Other circuits have not. Cold get interesting.
A former schoolteacher was arrested Wednesday in Thailand in the slaying of 6-year-old beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey — a surprise breakthrough in a lurid, decade-old murder mystery that had cast a cloud of suspicion over her parents.
Three Palestinian-American men who were found with nearly 1,000 cell phones were charged Wednesday with federal fraud conspiracy and money laundering after a county prosecutor backed off from terrorism charges filed earlier.
Sixty people crowded into a small room at the Bayonne police firing range to witness smart gun technology. Donald H. Sebastian, PhD, senior vice president of research and development at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), stood near an oversized screen displaying a real-time video of an NJIT policeman shooting an experimental handgun in an adjacent indoor range. Although there was no applause as shots rang out, the action demonstrated that smart gun knew friend from foe.
Sixteen electronic computerized sensors embedded in the gun’s grip distinguished known from unknown users. “We’ve only just begun and we’re pleased to say that we’re getting 90 percent reliability when scanning users,” said Sebastian.
If people are expected to depend their life on it, 90% isn’t good enough. For those not in the know, NJ has mandated that smart guns are the only ones to be sold. Well, once they’re invented that is.
He linked you to a category. If you’re curious what I’m talking about, see here. Make your own pledge for free speech:
Any organization* that wants to run a political ad criticizing any politician in the McCain-Feingold 60-day window can do so here. Not only will I run the ad free, I’ll do a post on the ad on the front page.
Kenneth Walker, who was unarmed and laying on the ground, took two rounds from an H&K MP-5 submachine gun in the back of the head. The officer who shot him claims he tripped (if that’s the case, it’s a somber reminder to keep your booger hook off the bang switch). Chuck has past coverage of the incident here.
It’s being reported that the city of Columbus, Georgia is considering a settlement in the civil suit filed by Mr. Walker’s family. The settlement being considered is reportedly to be seven figures.
United Airlines flight 923 from London to Washington D.C. was diverted to land at Logan Airport due to a disturbance on the plane. A pilot declared a security emergency and three passengers had a confrontation with the flight crew.
And:
WRKO (680 AM) is reporting that a woman, hopefully one of those causing the disturbance, was found tied up in the back of the plane. It is also being reported that a screwdriver, matches, Vaseline, and a note mentioning Al Qaeda we recovered from the airplane.
I’m not up on terror tech but matches and vaseline?
Well, it looks like we are gonna have a race in 2006 in Tennessee. The latest Rasmussen poll (courtesy of Chris Jackson) shows that Ford has cut his poll deficit by half against Bob Corker.
It’s now 48% to 42%. It was 49% to 37%. With two dropouts, Ford is sucking slightly less.
No matter what firearm you choose, a good belt, holster, and magazine holder are essential.
A good belt will not only support your firearm, it will help prevent back problems. It will reduce fatigue and extend the time you can wear the gun each day.
Henry County police are investigating a home invasion in Stockbridge that involved two men posing as SWAT team officers.
Police say the men entered the home about 1 a-m yesterday pointing handguns and wearing shirts that read “S-W-A-T.”
Police spokesman Lieutenant Jason Bolton says a man and woman in the home heard the voices of the men. He says the suspects claimed to be members of the Henry County Police SWAT team.
Radley then asks: What do you do?
This is the part where my crazy-ass, libertarian side kicks in. If armed men enter my home uninvited, I’ll start shooting and let the legalities be worked out later. You say: But Uncle, you run the risk of getting into a shoot-out with the police. Yes, I do. But my home is my castle. I have a line in the sand and it’s my front door. I’m a law-abiding guy and the SWAT teams won’t be coming for me. If someone comes through the door, I assume they’re criminals. If it turns out it is the police, they’ve made a terrible mistake. And they should have knocked.
That said, these men were allowed in after identifying themselves, which makes it more troubling. The woman involved was smart and called the police. Probably the best thing you can do is dial 911. Reminds me of a few years back when there were some guys who had police lights on their car. They weren’t cops. They’d pull people over and rob them. I recall they also raped some girl. My wife asked what she should do if she sees blue lights. I said to call 911 on the cell phone and verify that it was a policeman behind you. And pull over some place with lights that is crowded.
Michael’s Universal Law of Dangerous People, to wit, any person who has to tell you he or she is dangerous isn’t. If that person tells you he or she is dangerous 3 or more times, Alf the Wonder Beagle can take ‘em.
I objected to the fact that plenty of as-influential-to-some-of-those-listed bloggers weren’t mentioned there, like Lean Left, Alphie, Sensing, Gene Patterson, Bob Krumm, Blake Wylie, Les, and I’m sure more that I can’t remember (here’s a list of Tennessee bloggers, btw)
In protest, I cast my vote for egalia, because nobody would fucking believe that.
Glenn Reynolds really throws the poll out of whack as he simply beats every other blog in the state. And the blogs aren’t remotely comparable in terms of what they deal with. Some blogs deal with local/state issues. Others international issues. Etc.
It has reached the point of comedy, this racism thing.
In the beginning, some DC politico got into trouble for using the word niggardly. Turns out, some ignorant twits just needed to buy a damn dictionary as it’s merely a synonym for stingy. Then, there was the time where some school official used the term yard-apes, and everyone called her a racist. Yard-ape, they said, was a derogatory term for black people. Well, it’s also a derogatory term used for children, which was her intent. Then I recall the time when someone asked if the phrase That’s Mighty White of You is racist. turns out, one definition of white is Honourable; square-dealing.
Now, comes the latest. It seems that George Allen called some Indian fellow a Macaca. I didn’t know what that was either. Turns out it’s a species of monkey. Kevin tells us:
(Belgium & France) a Negro (originally) or a person of North-African origin (more recently); derived from macaque monkeys
So, it 1) is spelled differently; 2) is slang in other countries; and 3) doesn’t reference Indians. The cool part, though, comes from the WAPO article which says:
Asked what macaca means, Mukherjee said: “What it means, I don’t know. But it’s going to cause him some grief.”
Muhkerjee called the comments hurtful but doesn’t have any idea what it means. Ah, feigned ignorant outrage. My favorite. Idiot.
Meanwhile, the Allen camp says it was a reference to Mohawk because this guy apparently has a mullet or some such.
Keep it moving people, nothing more to see here. Well, except partisan political hackery.
Update: In comments, kevin says:
First, the original article has the phonetic spelling. The phonetic spelling that is a common mispronounciation among racists.
And the racist certinaly seme to now what the word means:Here
And Allen speaks French and his mom is a French colonial from tunisia, where tword is a racist slur along the lines of n*gger.
A source of mine wants to know who the five most influential political bloggers in the state are. Put your responses in comments.
Kind of a tough one. After all, define influential? Do you mean influential in state politics? Influential in terms of readership? Influential in, err, any thing else?
When it comes to state politics, probably Bill Hobbs. He’s widely read by people that make decisions. Just ask him, he’ll tell you that.
In terms of getting some major coverage? Instapundit, hands down. He can bring you lots of coverage and expose you to many, many people. I’m convinced to this day that the reason the ATF decided to pay me a visit after my friend was arrested is due to Instapundit’s link, which drew a ton of attention to it.
Most influential Knox County politics blog? Knoxviews.
Most influential media blog is probably Nashville is Talking. Seriously, the folks at WKRN are doing some good stuff with blogs. Good place to go to see what Tennessee blogs are yammering on and on about.
Most influential blog for those with a penchant for guns, politically incorrect dogs, and general smarminess. Me! But that’s a very narrowly defined group which isn’t all that influential.
The various shill blogs are influential at getting supporters to step up and getting the panties of their opposition in a bunch.
There are a ton of good Tennessee blogs out there but most have little influence, including this one. We bloggers tend to influence, err, other bloggers.
Last week, Junior graduated to the toddler bed after trying to climb out of her crib. Now, at night, she’s not railed in. This worked well for about, oh, three days. Then she decided she’d sneak into our bed in the middle of the night and tell us we needed to wake up. And, there was the issue that we had to shut the dog door at night for fear she’d wonder out. Then, genius idea: I turned her door knob around so that it locks from the outside, which keeps her locked in her room.
IMPORTANT SAFETY TIP: Leave one of the pin-key thingies somewhere in the room. Otherwise Junior WILL lock the door with you in her room at least once, and you’ll have to climb out the window and shinny down the farmer’s porch.
Seriously, these are the folks that make the poll? Giuliani, McCain and Romney can blow it out their ass. Frist has doomed himself. Allen is sort of OK. The best looking candidate is the Newtster? Egad.
Check out the Akins Accelerator. It is a stock/spring system for a Ruger 10/22 that offers a rate of fire of 650 RPM. It’s completely legal (except in Cali and Minnesota) as it is not a machine gun. Video here. A bit pricey at about $1,000 but much cheaper than than a pre-86 registered Ruger 10/22 that comes in at about $10K. Check it:
Update: youtube seems to have gone poof. Video may be up later or you can get it here.
At airport security checkpoints in Knoxville, Tenn. this summer, scores of departing passengers were chosen to step behind a curtain, sit in a metallic oval booth and don headphones.
With one hand inserted into a sensor that monitors physical responses, the travelers used the other hand to answer questions on a touch screen about their plans. A machine measured biometric responses — blood pressure, pulse and sweat levels — that then were analyzed by software. The idea was to ferret out U.S. officials who were carrying out carefully constructed but make-believe terrorist missions.
I was curious about this issue concerning the proposed and unwanted Knox County 370-acre industrial park at Midway Road and Thorn Grove Pike. I did not understand what this was all about until I read Sandra Clark’s article in the Halls Shopper. Even WBIR and the Knoxville News Sentinel have coverage. The big question, why is this being run through the system so fast? Why is the price of this land $ 29,000 per acre? Riddled with sinkholes and having no sewer or water connections that is very expensive land for East Knox County.
Chamber CEO Mike Edwards on WBIR-TV, “Sometimes you have to do what’s best for the entire community.” Okay. I guess that explains it. Business as usual.
Sandra Clark writes, “We’ve had too many white elephants from The Development Corporation – the Farmers’ Market; the Rifle Range Road industrial park, now a bird sanctuary; the Coster Shop property.”
TDC really needs to be investigated. There needs to be some guidelines on the extent of TDC’s power. The idea to spend 30 plus million dollars on an undefined industrial park that has no customers is foolish in a time when the Knox County budget is bursting at the seams. Knox County had a 500 million dollar budget when Mayor Ragsdale took office. Today’s Knox County budget is 575 million dollars. What will next years budget be? We are watching the “Don Sunquist spend happy never worry about tomorrow type of politics”. Spending is out of control in this administration.
How many times must we go through the “If you build it they will come” scam?
The new Hardin Valley High School is being nickeled and dimed to death while Knox County has already spent 5 million dollars to create jobs in Blount County with the Knox County investment in the Blount County Business Park. Now in less than 8 weeks the Ragsdale administration instructs TDC to spend another 30 million dollars? When does this spending orgy end?
The idea that low paying jobs are more important than educating children shows how screwed up the priorities of Mayor Ragsdale’s administration are. This is all so the Mayor can claim credit for creating new jobs and run for Governor.
Can Knox County afford Mayor Ragsdale’s gubernatorial ambitions?
After range day, comes time to learn our numbers. We count by nines. We also don’t stop at 10 like most toddlers. We go to 32. Junior on how to load a 9mm AR magazine:
Step 1: secure magazine and get your ammo ready:
Step 2: With mag firmly secured, grab a round from your Winchester White box:
Step 3: Insert round (use of feet to secure magazine optional):
Via David and Jeff, comes this bit about some anti-gun person named Jenny Price claiming she was targeted by gun nuts. Some background is that her brother and his fiance were killed by the fiance’s mother. Now, she advocates a total ban on handguns. Anyhoo, she writes:
Targeted by Gun Nuts
After she wrote a gun-control op-ed, the writer got threats and worse: a blogosphere hit job on her murdered brother.
…
I Googled my article. And so began my strange, weeklong trip through chat rooms on such pro-gun websites as keepandbeararms.com freerepublic.com, packing.org and rightnation.us.
I don’t think those are blogs. Those are message boards. Not sure what rightnation is. More:
I was not surprised by the insults directed at me. I’m familiar with the name-calling in gun control debates: “stupid,” “beyond stupid,” “liar,” “criminal-coddling leftist scumbag,” “Los Angeles coward.”
OK, here’s a clue, one of those insults is not like the other. Most are just insults. But liar sticks. And here’s why. In your piece, you wrote (and I addressed it here):
Of the 12,000 guns used to kill people every year, 160 are used in legitimate self-defense. Guns in the home are used seven times more often for murder than for self-defense.
The first sentence consists of weasel words as, what is obviously not included, are self-defense uses wherein no one is killed. The second sentence is a blatant fabrication. Her hysterical piece on banning handguns is just that. She’s close to a victim of gun violence and feels the need to do something, even if it is the wrong thing. Policies should not be based on the factually inaccurate and misguided rantings of those who have suffered a tragedy.
She then notes that some folks questioned whether her tale of tragedy was true:
But objections to my account of my brother’s murder left me speechless. There were two sorts of challenges.
First, many chat-room members declared that the killing had to have been justified and was most likely an act of self-defense.
One participant, “armymarinedad,” wrote: “I would submit it was a liberal mind-set.” Liberals, many others agreed, are mean to their parents — mean enough to warrant homicide. “One can’t help wondering,” went one response to armymarinedad, “what the mother had done in a previous life to deserve … a Liberal for a daughter.”
The second challenge was that I had made up the story of my brother’s murder. “Law-abiding gun owners simply do not commit crimes,” “Gunslinger” posted — logic hard to refute. But like David’s killer, thousands of law-abiding citizens annually become criminals when they pick up a firearm and shoot other people.
“Chances are very good,” wrote “Plutarch” on freerepublic.com, “that her brother, if she has one, is alive and well.”
Plutarch and his freerepublic fellows Googled my story about David — and were encouraged when they came up empty because they were certain that “this remarkable murder” would have received massive media attention.
“I love to catch them [liberals] lying!” declared “mad_as_he$$.”
Now, look. If you wish to challenge Ms. Price on the merits of her argument, please do. But this witch hunt to find some dirt on her or her family is uncalled for. Period. It is disgusting.
I did a search for her name and found little. Then I searched for “Jenny Price” handgun ban and found a bunch of blog entries by bloggers I know and read. I cannot find (after searching) the bits she refers too. I searched the KABA archives as well. I don’t venture over to freerepublic, so I don’t know.
Still, it’s another lie as none of the sites she lists are blogs. The blogosphere did not do a hit. Angry, hateful people on message boards did. Try perusing some anti-gun boards some time.
She closes with:
I can cite statistics, and I can tell you why the right to carry a 9-millimeter semiautomatic handgun with a 10-shot clip is not guaranteed by the 2nd Amendment. .
No, you can’t.
But the paranoia and bone-chilling hatred that spew from such sites as packing.org and freerepublic.com make for an equally — and unusually — effective argument for a ban on handguns
Pot to kettle. Come in. Over.
Now, Jenny Price, try addressing the reasoned responses to your tripe, if you have it in you.
The proposed changes come at a time when the FBI is reporting a rise in violent crime, especially in mid-size cities. Police are beginning to tie newly legalized assault weapons with increased gang violence. (When Congress refused to renew the ban on assault rifles two years ago, who did it think would be the market for AK-47s, Uzis and Tec-9 pistols — the Rotary Club?)
It was a lie then. My sooper seekrit sources told me that she claims that some police told here that. Not exactly a legitimate tie to an increase in gang violence. And now:
Authorities said they have also noticed a spike in the number of high powered weapons on the street since the ban on assault weapons was lifted in 2004.
Another lie. A weapon that was banned under the AWB is no more powerful than anything else. The ban only affected the aesthetic features of the weapons. They are not high powered.
The American Dog Owners Association (ADOA) and two of its members, Natalie Wells and Mia Rodriguez, who reside in Englewood, New Jersey, were granted an interlocutory judgment against the City Of Englewood in New Jersey Superior Court this week in the challenge to overturn the city’s illegal breed specific ordinance, Docket No. BER-L-5285-06. Judge Jonathan Harris found that the city’s aggressive dog ordinance, which defined specific breeds of dogs as dangerous, was a clear and direct violation of state law, which explicitly prohibits breed discrimination. The American Dog Owners Association, the country’s largest independent dog owner’s organization, had asserted that the City of Englewood, New Jersey failed to provide its residents equal protection under the law by denying the residents’ applications to license their dogs and has subjected them to harassment.
“Breed discrimination is illegal in New Jersey, and now all good dog owners with good dogs in Englewood can breath a sigh of relief”, said Maureen Hill-Hauch, ADOA’s Executive Director. She noted that New Jersey’s Vicious and Potentially Dangerous Dog Act is one of the strongest dangerous dog laws in the country. “The City of Englewood has a duty to protect the public health and safety of all of its citizens, as well as protect the rights of responsible dog owners, regardless of breed. We’re so pleased that the court will require the City of Englewood to comply with state law”.
In a colossally stupid move, the NRA endorsed someone early just because they have an R after their name. Bitter says:
And if Smith wins, NRA is going to throw him under the bus for the Republican just because the guy has an R following his name. Way to go NRA. Show the moderate Dems that you’ll abandon them at the first opportunity and that you really are just a tool for the Republican party. That’s just the kind of message we want going into the next few years when Republicans will probably face some significant losses.
On July 29, Nicks graduated from skeet to hitting some of the same firing range targets that FBI agents use. Nicks was among 50 participants in the FBI Citizens’ Academy firearms training held in Memphis at the Shelby County Sheriff’s Range.
The academy is designed to teach business, civic and religious leaders some of the techniques and tools that FBI agents use to solve crimes. One of the goals of the program is to give residents a better understanding of how the FBI works.
Over five weeks, participants attend meetings held at their local FBI office and learn about everything from the way the FBI sets up jurisdictions to the procedures involved in collecting and preserving evidence.
“I’ve always been interested in learning about the FBI and what they do,” Nicks said.
One of the most anticipated sessions of the academy is the firearms training, said My Harrison, special agent in charge of the Memphis Field Office of the FBI.
Proposals to limit handgun purchases to one per month may finally see some legislative debate in the state House of Representatives.
Whether support for the idea will gather any momentum is another question, considering that hunters and other gun owners have a vast number of allies in the Legislature.
The House will attempt to gauge support for a variety of crime-fighting measures – including new handgun regulations – by meeting as a “committee of the whole” on Sept. 26 and taking informal votes. Those votes will determine which bills merit further consideration in regular session.
Limiting handgun purchases to one a month is not a crime-fighting measure. Such a measure has no impact on crime and only affects the law-abiding.
Gov. Bredesen repeated his request to the Judicial Selection Commission to select a new panel of three candidates to fill a vacancy on the state Supreme Court.
Bredesen rejected a panel of finalists in July, saying it was unacceptable to have to choose between two white candidates following the withdrawal of the only black finalist.
So, where’s the Asian, Indian, Hispanic, and Jew? To bad no one nominated a Hispanic, Hindu, French-speaking, physically-handicapped, communist, gay black woman*.
A judge ruled Friday that Gov. Ernie Fletcher, under fire for a hiring scandal, is protected by executive immunity and cannot be prosecuted while in office.
Special Judge David E. Melcher essentially stayed the case until Fletcher’s term expires, or unless he is removed through impeachment by the legislature.
Fletcher, Kentucky’s first Republican governor in three decades, was indicted in May on charges alleging his administration rewarded political supporters with protected state jobs. He has accused the Democratic attorney general of conducting a politically motivated investigation in the case.
Screw that. Elected officials should be held to high standards. This is the kind of stuff that should cause people to grab their torches and pitchforks to storm the castle.
While I’m impressed by the police work of the Brits and the rapid response of our own Transportation Security Administration, there is one troubling impact on fliers this morning:
Planes full of cranky people with no deodorant and no toothpaste.
See background on Sandy Abrams loss of his FFL here. Via PGP, comes this bit by John Lott in the other biased Washington Paper:
The Washington Post’s front page on Sunday illustrated the problems with both the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives abuses as well as the media’s out-of-control attacks. The article examined the supposed abuses by Sandy Abrams’ gun shop in Baltimore, a shop he took over from his father in 1996. The second paragraph points out that “there were 422 firearms missing — more than a quarter of his inventory.” The count listed guns as missing if there were simple paperwork mistakes (e.g., two digits in a number transposed).
Taking all these mistakes since Sandy Abrams took over the store in 1996 and comparing them to his current inventory, not the 25,000 guns that he has sold over the last decade, borders on journalistic malpractice. It surely doesn’t provide readers with an accurate understanding of what is happening.
So, what is the right number of missing guns? Mr. Abrams claims it is 19. Nineteen out of 25,000 isn’t perfect, but .076 percent is a lot less scary than 25 percent — a difference of 329 fold. More importantly, the government has apparently never connected any of those guns to crimes committed. As Mr. Abrams notes, “we have had the paperwork and successfully traced every gun whenever [the government] asked.”
Is this the type of gun dealer who should lose his license? The BATFE thinks he is a prime candidate. Nine hundred rules violations over 10 years certainly sounds impressive — that is until you realize that violations include writing “Balt.” instead of “Baltimore” or that his government-approved ledger was apparently missing a column. Of course, the information the column was supposed to record was redundant anyway.
He has some other background info on how tough it is to be a dealer:
It is tough operating a gun shop with harassment from the federal government and unjustified media attacks. But the harassment could get a little better with legislation by Reps. Howard Coble and Bobby Scott which may fix some of the problems.
Since 1992, when Bill Clinton was elected president, the number of federally licensed firearms dealers in the United States has plummeted by 80 percent. Kmart no longer sells guns, Wal-Mart just recently stopped selling guns at one-third of its stores and tens of thousands of other gun shops have gone out of business. With all the talk of recent legislative success by the National Rifle Association, it is winning some battles but may be losing the war. The gun-control movement may ultimately be winning where it really counts.
Part of the drop in licensees was simply due to fees imposed by the federal government. Many licensees used the licenses only for their own personal purchases or only for selling a small number of guns, and the fees made that unprofitable.
The constant breakdowns of “instant” background-check systems during the Clinton administration halted gun sales for hours or even days at a time, costing stores untold sales and causing them to raise their costs. Even by the end of the Clinton administration, from September 1999 to December 2000, the system was down about one hour for every 16.7 hours of operation. The breakdowns often came in big blocks of time, the worst during a period covering 60 hours during two weeks in the middle of May 2000. Try running a business where neither customers nor sellers are ever informed of how long outages are expected to last.
It’s tough to be a dealer. It’s tough to design guns and stuff too. I, for example, have an idea for a rimfire suppressor that I honestly figure I can make for about $20. And sell it for $50. That means a buyer could add the $200 tax stamp and transfer fees and get in a suppressor for less than three bills. But for me to do that, I have to:
waive my fourth amendment rights
spend $500 for a special occupational tax
spend $150 for federal firearms license
I’d have to actually rent a location to have my ’store’ because FFLs aren’t given unless you comply with zoning requirements
Notify the local police
When, honestly, this is something I could do in my garage. But, gotta stay legal or risk 10 years in federal pound me in the ass prison.
The First Amendment means what it says, and if the Federal Gummint wishes to sue us for exercising our rights, then go right ahead. The Second Amendment means what it says too, in case you’ve forgotten.
The McCain Feingold campaign finance law is unconstitutional, and another step on the road to tyranny. It is, in present form, just able to be born; If the congress should attempt to extend it’s powers even further, it is our duty as free men to disobey.
The McCain-Feingold Incumbent Protection Act, aka Campaign Finance Reform which suspends those First Amendment rights. If you’ve been under a rock for a while, the bill effectively puts a ban on ads that mention federal candidates’ names in the window 60 days before the general election. In other words, the Holier-Than Thou’s have made a law that abridges the freedom of speech and press.
Any organization* that wants to run a political ad criticizing any politician in that window can do so here. Not only will I run the ad free, I’ll do a post on the ad on the front page.
… believes the U.S. should consider dividing Iraq into three separate states by its sectarian divisions: the Kurdish population to the north, and splitting Shiite and Sunni Muslims to the south.
Those who are readers of this site know that I’m a bit ahead of the curve on this issue, as I have archived every candidate questionnaire, all financial information, and many other records. I believe that the voters have the right to know my positions on the issues that I would most likely face on their behalf in the Tennessee Senate.
