To Jay who has pics of his new toy. Welcome to the club. Wait, they allow those in Mass?

Good luck finding another magazine for it. It took me like 5 months of constantly nagging Tam to get two more.

Lyle of Ultimak (and if you have an AK you should be buying stuff there) in comments:

I’d be interested to know how many arsonists are allowed to buy matches and gasoline, and why the HELL no one’s required to get fingerprints, photos, a retinal scan, DNA sample and a criminal background check from every buyer of matches, lighters, and gasoline. SHit, you’d think the government just wants crime to happen.

Don’t get me started on knives and baseball bats (to say nothing of rocks– those goddamned things are just laying around everywhere, and no one is doing CRAP about it).

Heh.

Law.com:

Despite increased security at courthouses following shootings in Chicago and Atlanta about one year ago, many judges are bringing their own guns into their courtrooms for protection.

Earlier this month, a Florida judge was ordered to accept mentoring after warning a defense attorney that he was “locked and loaded.” In May, a judicial ethics committee of the New York State Unified Court System found that it was ethical for a judge to carry a pistol into his courtroom.

In Nevada, Oklahoma and Texas, incidences of violence in the past year have prompted new laws or solidified rules allowing judges to bring guns into courtrooms.

And:

In May, New York’s Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics issued an opinion that found it ethical for a judge to carry a pistol while on the bench.

Via reader Chris, who notes: Kind of funny that the NY Bar had to give careful consideration as to whether a judge can exercise his constitutional right in a courtroom, where rights should presumably be sacrosanct. Well, and I’m sure the Bar in NY isn’t a friend of the second amendment for non-judges.

Insty says:

THE CAR SURVIVAL KIT DISCUSSION from a few days ago led me to consider emulating SayUncle and keep something to cut seatbelts in the car. I could have just gotten a big honking knife, but I didn’t want anything that an unsympathetic cop might consider a dangerous weapon, just in case.

Yeah, I think TN has a knife law that specifies carried knives can’t have blades longer than four inches (or some arbitrary number of inches). That being the case, there’s also these items that are made specifically for cutting belts and look nothing like weapons. They also have the added bonus of a ceramic spike for breaking out safety glass.

Pocket Queens: Screw them. I’m going all in pre-flop with them from now on. When the flop comes, they’re generally as useless as a cock-flavored lollipop.

Dramatic movies with retards: Rain Man, I am Sam, those types. I’m done with them. Some of them star people who are actual retards in real life. As much as you try to tug at my heartstrings, I can’t get over the fact that what is considered acting is also considered bad taste when I do it at a party. Plus, any movie with a retard in it is automatically overrated by every critic. Let’s stick to the cameo appearance in comedies please.

Bruce: who will remind me that I use the phrase useless as a cock-flavored lollipop too much.

Iraq: Sorry but I’m doing some serious introspection on that one. As an initial supporter of the war, I’m torn between 1) the US needs to either go balls out or, err, 2) balls in. That is, get our asses in there and take control of the motherfucker. Or bring everyone home and take our ass-whippin’ and loss of respect in the worldwide community like a man. The latter is clearly the worst option. So, it’s either time for a vulgar display of power or a powerful display of vulgarity. They’re both ugly and no one wants to do either but it’s time to cowboy the fuck up and do something right, whether it’s winning or saying oops, sorry about your infrastructure. And the first person who says I’m advocating cutting and running needs to have their pee-pee whacked.

Me: The fact that by stating the above, I actually agree with John McCain about something. That sucks.

Sensitivity: I’m not an overly sensitive person but I find it to be in poor taste the fact that people care more about congressional control than the fact some dude just had his head split open and the organ that determines the fiber of his being operated on following a stroke. At least have the decency to offer sympathy first before becoming a partisan hack. Anyone checked DU to see for conspiracy theories? I mean, I’m kind of a dick but I’d at least offer condolences to the family before saying OMG, we’re doomed!

My hands: They’re faster than my brain. Been re-reading a bunch of old posts and realize they are riddled with typos.

Google: I’ve had it happen a lot lately where I am Googling up a bit of research and the source is, err, me. Well, quoting me doesn’t do much for backing up assertions made by me.

The people of DC: Look, I hear what you’re saying. Taxation without representation is bad ju ju and people have started wars over that kind of stuff. And having no say in the constitution sucks too. But you’d get a lot more sympathy if your local .gov wasn’t trying to piss on the constitution by banning gun ownership.

Apparently, some kids at the Macomb Intermediate School District are banned from myspace.com. So, they’re having their chat discussions here in comments. So, I’m telling their teachers on them. Pay attention in school or you’ll grow up to be a loser.

So, robby, ses, and tretfd, take it somewhere else. Or, you know, buy your own server space and such. Boring tech stuff below the fold

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In Jersey:

Bullets slip through hole in gun laws

Criminal offenders bought handgun ammunition from nine stores in Monmouth and Ocean counties, according to testimony heard Tuesday by a state panel investigating the link between bullet sales and street violence.

Seven of those stores were in Ocean County, which ranked first among the 19 counties probed by the State Commission of Investigation, an independent watchdog of state government.

The commission used those figures to expose the lack of state laws regulating ammunition sales and how some of those purchases end up in the guns of gang members who use violence to control some of New Jersey’s most dangerous neighborhoods.

Most sales to criminal offenders in the Shore area and elsewhere were legal, as vendors are only required to write details about the sale into a log book and to make sure that buyers of handgun bullets are at least 21 years old.

“You can be a convicted criminal and buy as much as you want,” said Lt. Col. Frank E. Rodgers, deputy superintendent of investigations for the State Police.

I guess the fact that possession of ammunition by a felon being a crime isn’t enough?

On the kid who was shot for stealing a Playstation 3, David:

The student was shot thru the door as they were breaking it down. The officer who fired says that he mistook the sound of the battering ram hitting the door for gunshots, and began firing through the door.

Quick, call a Waahmbulance.

Google blog alerts tells me to read lefty blogs.

It’s rather amusing to me the misconceptions held about gun laws and the NRA by (generally speaking) the left. And more specifically, the widely-read, coo-coo-banana left. Digby says:

In the late 70’s it was a matter faith among liberals that handguns would be outlawed and other guns would be strictly regulated. It was just a matter of time. Within 20 years the NRA had killed the issue. Gun control is no longer even on the menu outside the biggest cities and even then it’s dicey.

And that’s a good thing. The NRA did not kill the issue. It was merely not popular. People support the right to arms by a large margin and, specifically, handguns for self-defense. In the 1980s until this year, many states have passed concealed carry laws (48 of 50 have provisions and 40 of those 48 have right to carry provisions). And, here’s a newsflash, a movement that big doesn’t just happen because of the big bad NRA snapping its fingers. Those legislators have to cater to voters to keep their jobs and they did.

The NRA said that Americans had a right to bear arms. Period. They didn’t bargain or negotiate. And they were successful because when your raison d’etre is protecting a fundamental right, you have to be absolutist or you lose the moral authority of your argument.

This is another misconception regarding arms and the NRA. That they don’t bargain or negotiate. And that’s just crap. There is not a single federal gun control law in this country that has passed without the NRA’s OK. And the NRA has taken some flak for that. In fact, here’s a little dialogue between the NRA and a group that does not negotiate. Read it. It’s the purists at JPFO v. the NRA. Because JPFO does not bargain or negotiate, they are, essentially, powerless in politics. They have no influence. The NRA is the 800 pound gorilla of gun rights but to intimate that they are absolutists who do not negotiate is either done out of ignorance; or misunderstanding; or the fact that the claim is made by someone who is anti-gun.

After quoting an utter misrepresentation of a shooting and castle doctrine laws, Jane Hamsher writes:

I think there is a fundamental incentive problem here — the NRA is financed by gun manufacturers who aren’t going to keep writing the fat checks in order to lose.

The NRA is funded by its members and donations primarily. The NRA’s $80 million yearly budget is largely from its membership dues ($25 per year) from over 3 million members. The NRA is forbidden by law from using these funds to lobby the government. And gun manufacturers are not particularly large companies but they do have their own trade organization, that Nationals Shooting Sports Foundation.

The NRA also supports some gun laws, such as Project Exile; background checks; the NFA, the NRA wrote the law that bans armor-piercing handgun ammunition; the NRA supports laws restricting access to firearms by minors and felons; and was the advocate behind the National Instant Check System (which unfortunately had the assault weapons ban attached to it). Those simply are not extremist positions and that does not indicate opposition to all gun controls.

But it is an article of faith among anti-gunners and some of those on the left that the Big Bad NRA is made of evil gun-maker money and it is an extremist bully that tell congress what to do. They have to believe that because it’s easier to swallow than the fact that most people don’t share their views on guns.

Update: I’m informed that digby is not the coo-coo-banana left. I read more of the blog and concur. Sorry about that.

Minimum evacuation distances for bombs by size.

Remember, that’s why I won’t vote for Barrack Obama. Not because he’s anti-freedom or anything important like that.

Colt CCO is back to blogging. One post every three months might be a record. And I saw him back in Knoxville last week.

Tom, regarding misuse police power and the recent spate of shootings, says:

it has almost exclusively been the modern conservative movement that has moved us toward this sort of authoritarian government and sought to massively expand police powers, while seriously diminishing oversight.

Then why does this map of botched police raids (filter for deaths) show that more botched raids occur in larger population centers, which tend to be more liberal?

The reason is big cities have swat teams and they gotta do something when they’re not saving hostages.

Don’t misunderstand: This is not a liberal v. conservative issue. It should be an issue we can all get behind. It’s more a those in power wanting to look tough on crime v. every one else issue.

Over at No Silence Here, I posted about the second amendment case heading to the court. Some one going by the name Jack Weaver wrote:

The argument of Washington, D.C., on the meaning of the Constitution’s Second Amendment makes sense. That amendment addresses the right of the people to be secure as a political society. It’s the Fourth Amendment that states the right of the people to be secure as individual persons.

If Madison and the First Congress had thought that personal gun use needed protection from interference by the new federal government, they would have explicitly worded an amendment to provide that protection. They could easily have done that by adding words to the Fourth Amendment.

By incorporating the word “arms” the framers could have written the Fourth Amendment to begin, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, arms, houses, papers, and effects…” And at the same time they could have added words to the Fourth along the lines of those in an amendment proposed by New Hampshire’s ratification convention:

“Congress shall never disarm any citizen, unless such as are or have been in actual rebellion.”

The U.S. Supreme Court was no doubt correct when it said in U.S. v. Miller (1939) that the “obvious purpose” of the Second Amendment was the continuation and effectiveness of state militia forces. That statement of purpose, it should be noted, says nothing about the individual use of guns for personal purposes.

It’s a rather ridiculous assertion for a variety of reasons but this ain’t a post about that. It’s a post about Jack then coming to here and making a similar comment under a different name. He’s probably leaving the same comment at other blogs. I don’t care that you leave comments but use the same handle. It’s the polite thing to do.

You may recall there was a little dustup over the World’s Fair Park project a couple years ago. The idea was to save the Sunsphere, the Candy Factory, and the Tennessee Amphitheater.

In the News Sentinel today we learn it may cost $3.4 million for full renovation or $655,000 for complete demolition. Money that was supposed to come from the developer of the World’s Fair Project and not the city.

Looking back on the Candy Factory deal Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam pushed through it is difficult to see how any money was saved. The only assets, the Candy Factory and Victorian Homes, were purchased at rock bottom prices and the Sunsphere and Tennessee Amphitheater were pulled from the project. Looking back at the downtown Cinema project it is now three times over budget. Looking at the Five Points shopping center deal another expensive failure. Don’t even ask about Renee Kesler.

So how is this Mayoral administration doing? This is an administration of futures. Future promises that don’t come true. Not on budget, not on time, and not what was promised. This is what happens when you are more interested in the next political office instead of running the office you currently hold.

There is an election for the office of Knoxville Mayor next November. What kind of report card would you give Mayor Haslam today?

I’m trying to understand why a guy with two masters degrees (one in engineering and a MBA in finance) has spent the last hour and a half trying to figure out how to ship something via UPS.com. Actually, I’m trying to figure out why he keeps updating me on the status of trying to figure out UPS.com because I can 1) do it in about 15 seconds and 2) give a fuck less. And I only have one masters degree.

Sometimes when someone tries to do something good they get confused and screw up something else. This is often referred to as the law of unintended consequences. Case in point would be Senator John McCain’s new bill to crack down on child pornography on the Internet. No one wants child pornography on the Internet but the problem is that this bill is so broadly written it could be used to shut down a website with an innocent picture like this.

It is an important cause and something must be done but this bill is so poorly written it could be used to harm people that have nothing to do with child pornography. If this sounds a little like the War on Drugs or the War on Terror there may be a reason. Could it be Congress Critters? Senator McCain is not alone in not understanding the Internet.

From CNET News:

Millions of commercial Web sites and personal blogs would be required to report illegal images or videos posted by their users or pay fines of up to $300,000, if a new proposal in the U.S. Senate came into law.

The legislation, drafted by Sen. John McCain and obtained by CNET News.com, would also require Web sites that offer user profiles to delete pages posted by sex offenders.

After child pornography or some forms of “obscenity” are found and reported, the Web site must retain any “information relating to the facts or circumstances” of the incident for at least six months. Webmasters would be immune from civil and criminal liability if they followed the specified procedures exactly.

McCain’s proposal, called the “Stop the Online Exploitation of Our Children Act” (click for PDF), requires that reports be submitted to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which in turn will forward them to the relevant police agency. (The organization received $32.6 million in tax dollars in 2005, according to its financial disclosure documents.)

Internet service providers already must follow those reporting requirements. But McCain’s proposal is liable to be controversial because it levies the same regulatory scheme–and even stiffer penalties–on even individual bloggers who offer discussion areas on their Web sites.

More after the jump…

Import Update see comments

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I somehow managed to miss the fact that the Gun Toting Liberal is back.

The house and senate have overridden the governor’s veto of the Ohio preemption bill. This, effectively, gets rid of some 80 or so local gun ordinances in the state, notably the ban on weapons that look like assault weapons in some cities – said bans were just this week upheld by the Ohio supreme court who noted:

In the absence of any limiting provision or declaration to the contrary, we conclude that the General Assembly intended to allow municipalities to regulate the possession of lower capacity semiautomatic firearms in accordance with local conditions.

Oops. Kopel has a lot more detail and notes:

In practical effect, the Ohio bill is the most significant roll-back of gun control that has ever been enacted by a state.

He’s also come up with a term for weapons that look like assault weapons that I like: cosmetically-incorrect self-loading firearms.

Joe goes into great detail about why the second amendment means what it says.

In Philly:

Police also plan to ask home owners at times for consent to search their homes without a probable-cause warrant, District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham said Monday.

“If we go to a house, we’re going to ask the owner of the house if they will consent to a search for illegal weapons,” Abraham said at a news conference. “Any gun that we can find that way is one more gun we can get off the street.”

I expect a rise in the number of consensual searches that get to court and the home-owner swears up and down they did not consent. And exactly how does a police officer determine if a weapon is illegal by looking at it?

Wow, there is Wolf Ammo out there.

Now in 45ACP.

Update: Sorry Farkers, my host doesn’t like you. Beyond my control. And for you folks criticizing the statistical methods, no one is saying Brady Causes Violence. Just that their gun control pipe dreams aren’t showing an decrease in violence. And, for shit’s sake, it’s not a study.

Now back to your original post:

==================

It’s that time of year where The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership issues its grades. I like to call it a Freedom Index, only its grading system is backwards. Nemerov spanks their grading system pretty hard:

Brady comes out each year with their report card, which analyzes a set of gun-law criteria and arrives at a grade from “A” through “F.” As noted in a previous paper, there is a strong correlation between lower grades and right-to-carry (RTC) status, with shall-issue states regularly assigned “D” and “F” grades.2 Brady graded South Carolina “D+” in 2005, because guns are too freely available, as per Helmke’s statement above.

Since 2001, RTC states, where more people carry guns in public, consistently average a “D”. Brady continues to be unhappy with the country’s direction regarding gun control: between 2001 and 2005, RTC states increased from 32 to 38 and Brady downgrade the U.S. average from “C-” to a “D+.” Their response is curious, since the national violent crime rate fell 7.0% during this time frame.

Even worse for Brady, violent crime trends are not spread equally across all states. RTC states (average Brady grade “D”) saw an aggregate 7.8% drop in violent crime, while non-RTC states (average Brady grade “B”) saw a 5.2% decrease. Even when Brady grades synchronize with violent crime trends, it fails to give an accurate picture: Brady dropped the national average grade from “C-” to “D+” in 2005, the same year that the violent crime rate increased 1.3%. This would seem to make sense, as a lower grade is supposed to reflect less safety for citizens. Unfortunately for Brady, most of that increase occurred in non-RTC states, which saw an aggregate increase of 2.8%, while RTC states increased 0.6%. Using Brady’s criteria of grading each state as an equivalent entity, non-RTC states averaged a 5.6% increase in violent crime, while RTC states averaged a 0.6% increase. Since 2001, the violent crime differential between RTC and non-RTC states increased from 26.0% to 27.5%, meaning that RTC states are becoming relatively more law-abiding compared to non-RTC states.3

There’s also the fact that two of Brady’s A students (Mass. and Illinois) recently experienced mass shootings. Since Brady cannot offer solutions, they offer condolences. You guys gave them an A.

I like Texas:

A Texas real estate agent looking to add more bang to her business is offering clients in law enforcement a free Glock pistol if they buy a home from her.

Why just law enforcement? Via Tom.

No one is an extremist, just ask them. I’ve said it before and it bears repeating:

A common misconception we all have (other than that we’re good drivers) is that we’re moderate. We all think we are. After all, we usually associate ourselves with similar minded folks and since those folks are all around us, we must be middle of the road.

Well, I don’t but I’m reminded of this by Rich, who quotes Orson Scott Card’s book that I haven’t read:

A good working definition of fanaticism is that you are so convinced of your own views and policies that you are sure anyone who opposes them must either be stupid and deceived or have some ulterior motive. We are today a nation where almost everyone in the public eye displays fanaticism with every utterance.

It’s kinda relevant because some extremist, fanatic recently said:

Anyone who believes in the collective rights (or as it should be called the ‘no rights’) model of the second amendment is either clueless or a disingenuous hack.

But it’s OK. I’m comfortable with my own extremism. I fully realize that my views on guns and gun control; the role of government; the drug war; and a variety of other things are in not even close to a moderate view. It’s how I am. I’m a freedom extremist. And I am right. Just like everyone else is. They are right, just ask them.

Rivrdog in comments at Aunt B.’s:

You either have to admit that the government’s persecution of any militia which tries to get organized (and “well-regulated”) seems to suggest (very strongly) that the Government itself supports the individual rights model of the Second.

Couple days ago, I met a third generation Mexican immigrant (legal). He didn’t speak Spanish. Ok, he said he didn’t.

How do you know when a blogger is out of shit to write? He does a meme. Bolded is shit I’ve done (via GLN):

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Should have bought one then.

So says their site:

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT
ATF DECIDES THE AKINS ACCELERATOR™ TO BE A MACHINEGUN

Akins Group Inc. regrets to announce that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has reversed its position and has decided the Akins Accelerator™ to be a machinegun conversion kit, thereby subjecting it to strict regulation under the Gun Control Act (GCA) and National Firearms Act (NFA).

ATF rescinded its previous determination that the Akins Accelerator™ was not subject to the GCA or NFA (see http://www.firefaster.com/documentation.html). Attorneys for the Akins Group Inc. are seeking reconsideration by ATF of its new position. In the interim, any sale, transfer, or return of the Akins Accelerator™ must be suspended. Akins Group Inc. will advise further after meeting with ATF.

Akins Group Inc. has received no instruction as to the disposition of units in customer hands. Please refrain from public speculation and emotional responses and allow our Attorneys to advocate for everyone’s best interests.

Let the lawsuits begin.

Update: More here.

Update 2: The ATF approved the device a bit back and has now changed it’s mind (assuming it has one). Also, there is speculation that the new 10 round Saiga-12 mags are next. The ATF has a history of arbitrarily changing the rules. Some speculation that the NFA community was behind it as the Akins Device resulted in a drop in Pre-86 prices.

Update 3: Oops, guess you can’t remember everything I write. 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.

Ok, actually it is.

Foreign Policy has good high-level capsule summaries of the various different Iraq options: Go Big, Go Long, Go Sunni, Go Shiite, Go Home, Go Regional, and Divide Iraq. Personally, I’m down with the long division.

And just in case you think the choice between these options is going to be made by dedicated, informed people, take a look at what happens when you ask politicians about some basic Middle East facts.

When Google purchased YouTube many people said it was one of the dumber business acquisitions in recent history. Mark Cuban laughingly wrote they would be sued out of business. Google prepared a 500 million dollar fund for legal battles.

And there lawsuits. But not as many as expected. Then CBS did an about turn and uploaded 300 clips of their programming. The results have been impressive. The shows CBS pushed on YouTube became bigger hits on Television. It is kind of like windows shopping for new Television shows to watch. David Lettermen and Craig Ferguson of the Late Late Show have received big benefits. Letterman has gained an extra 200,000 viewers and Ferguson’s show is up seven percent. Ferguson’s stand up bits have become classics on YouTube.

The biggest benefit of YouTube for Television Networks may be focus groups. No longer will the studio have to do focus groups the old fashion way. Now they can instantly reach millions of people all across the country and see if the latest sitcom idea will fly.

YouTube may also be the next discovery vehicle for new stars. No more trolling through malls to find the next new face. The next Lana Turner may be discovered not in a soda shop but on YouTube. Lisa Nova hopes it will be her.

Technology pundits have long talked about the convergence of Television and the Internet. All that was needed was an application. YouTube is the killer app for convergence.

I’ve been complaining about my children being sick lately. They’ve had a variety of ear infections, coughs, sniffles and every other assorted contagious thing that kids bring home from daycare. Last night, a friend told me that in the next few months he’d have to get his four-year-old little girl a wheelchair. And that she was not expected to make it past the age of nine. I can’t imagine how horrible that would be to know. Made my complaints seem utterly insignificant.

It’s stats day, I suppose. Here’s a comparision of ways to die.

Tam addresses the recent trouble the police are having:

We need to seriously re-evaluate what it is we want police to do, because the current setup is not working. If you want cops to sniff out every meth lab, bust every drunk driver, arrest every teenage marijuana seller, round up every prostitute, and ticket everyone not wearing a seatbelt, you’re going to wind up with, not a police force, but an army of occupation.

StateMaster has stats comparing the states. Here’s some gun stats pages:

Permits by state
Prohibited firearms by state
Prohibited persons by state

Via Ben.

TriggerFinger has more analysis on the Parker case.

Barack Hussein Obama says so:

Are there some voters who would not vote for an African America candidate because of race? I’m sure there are. Those are the same voters who probably wouldn’t vote for me because of my politics.

That’s as lame as me pointing out that his middle name is Hussein when it’s unnecessary. See, I don’t vote for big government, nanny-statists regardless of skin color. Rich says: I think I’ve learned all I need to know about Mr. Obama.

Either all the drivers on I140 read my post yesterday or today is some sort of retard holiday because I140 was not backed up this morning for the first time in weeks.

How do all these shootings keep happening in gun control utopias? In a couple days, two Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership A rated states have experienced mass shootings. Another:

Three people were killed, and several others, including two police officers, were wounded at an early morning shooting at a New Bedford, Mass., strip club, police said.

A gunman wearing body armor entered the Foxy Lady at about 2:30 a.m. and opened fire — killing two patrons — before shooting himself, police told WSAR radio. One officer was shot in the face and the other in the arm when the gunman briefly emerged, FOX affiliate WFXT-TV reports.

The shooting may have been part of a domestic dispute, WFXT-TV reported.

The gunman was described as being armed with an M-16 rifle and full body armor, and was wearing a mask over his face, FOXNews.com has learned. The wounded were taken to St. Luke’s Hospital in New Bedford.

I expect a crackdown on body armor soon. Seems to be a lot of nut jobs armoring up before, well, doing what nut jobs do. And I really doubt the guy had an M16. Perhaps he had an AR-15, which is odd too because they’re banned in Mass.

Newswatch50 on a home invasion:

Meanwhile, Mrs. Papin, age 74, retrieved a shotgun from the bedroom area and confronted the two intruders, demanding that they leave, which they did.

On my blog I posted about some ammo my brother was given. This is the followup post on the subject.

——

I went to {edited to protect the dumb} in {edited to protect the dumb} Tn, and using calipers and such, they identified it as .308

Now a small gun rant.

When the smith told me it was a .308 he also said it was steel cased and that could be damaging to a firearm. I had read that before, but never have come across the situation, so had not gave it much thought. We talked about the brass wash/gilding then he said it.

I said “I thought at first it was a 7.62 × 51 mm. I got pretty close.”

Then he said “Well they’re the same thing”.

The problem is that they are not.

One of the better writeups on the issue can be found at Say Uncle’s Shooting Carnival, and even The Gun Zone has a good post on the subject.

While the 7.62mm NATO cartridge has a maximum chamber pressure of approximately 50,000 pounds per square inch (psi), in the SAAMI book the .308 Winchester has a MAP (maximum average product) pressure of approximately 62,000 psi* (each by conformal transducer measurements, and therefore comparable). This is not to say that all .308 Winchester loads will develop such pressures, merely that they would be within manufacturing tolerances if they did so. Firing .308 Winchester ammunition in a firearm specifically chambered for the 7.62mm NATO risks damage to the firearm and injury to the shooter.

When even gun smiths are giving out bad information how can newbies to the shooting field figure it all out? I’ve never shot a .308 or a 7.62X51mm, yet I know the basics of the issue on size and preasure.

Take a moment and verify all information you get over the counter. You get second opinions with doctors, why not gunsmiths?

Anyone who believes in the collective rights (or as it should be called the ‘no rights’) model of the second amendment is either clueless or a disingenuous hack. I think it was insty who referred to the ‘no rights’ model once as creation science, wherein the goal is developed first and worked back from there to obtain that result. He’s right. For those of you wishing to have that argument again, go to Aunt B.’s place.

To Nintendo: Seriously, guys, make more Wiis. I want one but I’m not standing in a line or calling Wal-Mart every day to get one. I got money. Get me a Wii.

To Illness: Go away. I swear, ’tis the season for sick kids with winter and daycare. Can we get at least a week’s break? I’d like to sleep for more than two hours at a stretch.

Sweaters: They’re scratchy and fit too snuggly for me. I hate them. But, every year, the wife buys me one. Stop.

The dude up the street: get on the Scott’s lawn-care program or something. Your lawn looks like a cross between a desert and the jungle. Some parts of it are solid dirt and other parts are bushier that Madonna’s pits from her 1980s Playboy spread.

To hypersensitive, politically-correct twits: Don’t you have better shit to do?

To Sanford: Do you just not make erasers for my 0.9MM mechanical pencil anymore?

To Windows Rescue & Recovery: You’re useless. Backing up my hard drive on, err, my hard drive is real fucking smart.

To proprietors of link farms and sites that just re-post feeds: I don’t care that you copy entire posts from me but please stop sending trackbacks and pingbacks. You’re just noise on Al Gore’s Internets and I have no use for you. Buy an ad if you want a link back.

Glenn Reynolds: Dude, every time I post over at No Silence Here, you link to it. It’s clear you like reading what I say so just go ahead and add SayUncle to your reading list and send a few more links my way. I could use the increase in ad revenue.

To random bloggers: Somehow, your feeds update every hour or so. And all it shows me is the same post over and over. Either your blogging software automatically re-sends your feed every hour, or you’re updating spelling/grammar throughout the day. Well, stop. I only want to read a post once unless it’s updated.

To Sean Braisted: Dunno what you’re doing, but every time you post a new entry, your feed updates the last 20 posts. So, I think you’ve written a few essays. But, instead, there’s one new post and 19 old ones.

Coming up with shit to write every day is hard. Hence, more linky than thinky lately.

In addition to Terms of Use and an Email Policy, I need to come up with both a linking policy (long and short: I link to who I read) and a privacy policy (I won’t give out any info unless it’s on request of a lawful court order).

I still don’t care about your cat.

It’s frightening that using the phrase small dicks in a blog post will lead to a significant increase in traffic.

To Verizon: don’t advertise that your phone/mp3 player holds 2 gig of music. You should advertise that it takes MicroSD chips that can hold 2 gig of music.

To anyone who has ever developed a program that requires passwords: I realize it’s not good security for me to use the same password over and over. Or even for me to use the same two or three passwords over and over. But for fuck’s sake, I can only come up with so many nonsense words that I can remember. I think I’m up to about 12 now and I still can’t fucking keep up.

To MS Outlook: Why do you even have a default font setting for email when you’re just going to create everything in 10 Arial any fucking way?

To MS Excel: Seriously, make that review toolbar go away. I don’t like it. I don’t use it. Every time I get rid of it, it comes back. I even installed a fucking macro to get rid of it and it still comes back.

To Paypal: I told you to leave me alone. Our relationship is through. Stop sending me email; stop contacting me; and cancel my account. You’re like a clingy old girlfriend who can’t take the hint. I know, your monkeys with keyboards tell me they can’t cancel the account and must keep it open for 7 years but I don’t care. You’ve wasted enough of my time and I will not devote any more time to resolving the issue. In fact, I’m tempted to ask my readers to paypal me $0.01 with the phrase Semi-Automatic Assault Weapon in the subject line. Though it’d be funny, you’d make money from it.

Whoever designed and timed the red-light structure from about Northshore Drive west needs to be taken out and shot.

To all the drivers on I140, you’re dumb asses. Every morning, at about the Westland Avenue exit, traffic comes to a complete stop. Once I travel the additional couple of miles to my exit, I see there’s no problem. There’s no wreck, no stall, no anything. You just stop at random. It’s like there’s a collective cloud of dumbass that covers the area and you breath it deeply. And it looks like all you retards in the left lane need to be in the right lane. Here’s a clue: Get in the right lane sooner.

To the .gov: Despite the fact that studies concluded that red light cameras either increased accidents or had no effect on accidents, you voted to install them any way. I guess the pocketbook is more important than the lives of your constituents, who hopefully vote your sorry asses out soon. I think I’ll open a store that just sells Photoblocker.

To all executives or producer or whoever the Hell decides formatting:

I appreciate the fact that you guys want to get your logo and stuff out there but here’s the deal: I own a plasma TeeVee. So, whenever you leave your gay little logo on the bottom right of the screen, I risk it permanently burning into my TeeVee screen. I had to run the screen restore stuff this weekend because a ghost image of the Noggin logo kept showing up.

You guys should fire everyone who writes for you now and go hire some random chump off the street. TeeVee people are completely devoid of original thought these days. There’s always my idea, if you’re desperate. And you are.

I’m starting Festivus early this year and will be airing grievances for the rest of the day. So, politics:

To the Republicans: You’re all fucking retarded. I’m not sure what happened or exactly where you guys lost your way, but everything about the last six years (except one tax break) has been a colossal disappointment. You didn’t make the government smaller (in fact, you made it the biggest it has ever been); you didn’t bring accountability to the government; you didn’t do, well, anything you promised.

To the Democrats: Let’s be honest, I don’t like you and you don’t like me. But congrats on your recent win. It took you a while. In 2004, I honestly figured a retarded monkey could have beaten anyone with an R after their name. Yet, you guys couldn’t. You finally figured out that if you kept your mouths shut for a little bit, tried not to do anything stupid, and kept McKinney out from in front of a camera, that the Republicans would lose. Good job, for a retarded monkey.

Rich says: One article with little information vs a dozen or more detailed articles. That’s the blogosphere.

The drug war in the US:

A member of the Durham Police Department Selective Enforcement Team escorts a child to use the bathroom after serving a search warrant at a suspected drug house. Working closely with the police department’s Gang Units, SET is responsible for making high-risk entries into dwellings to serve search warrants. Gang Unit Two made two controlled buys, or drug purchases, from the home with the help of an informant, giving them probable cause for a search warrant.

Yes, a ninjafied officer is watching a little boy go tinkle.

Drugs are winning the war on drugs.

Via Pete.

The AP:

A woman staying at a northeast Georgia motel this week shot herself while trying to light a cigarette with a pistol she mistook for a cigarette lighter, police said.

All this time we thought it was humans that caused Global Warming. It turns out it is mostly humans that eat cattle. I feel so superior now.

Actually I don’t eat much tofu, but it makes a good title. My smugness will probably be diminished after the UN calculates all the fish and chicken farts. And I eat a lot of black beans. That can’t be good.

Thank heaven for the UN.

How did that happen? Handguns are banned in Chicago.

Very annotated transcript by K-Romulus who made it to the appellate argument.

Via David.

I wrote about Orson Scott Card’s new novel “Empire” and commented on how this book has confounded the far left. The premise of the book is a second American Civil War between the Blue States and the Red States.

Is there an issue that could spark a shooting Civil War between Blue State America and Red State America?

I see only one issue that could ignite the country and that would be a mandatory federal government issued disarmament of the American citizen. This has happened in some degree in England and to a lesser degree in Australia.

Astute readers will note that in both England and Australia it is not total disarmament. Rifles, shotguns, and “antique handguns” are allowed to some degree in England and to a greater degree in Australia. The great concern is the “slippery slope” argument.

Should the Supreme Court strike down the Second Amendment as antiquated via the logic that “well regulated militias” are no longer a viable legal construct and that the militia component of the Second Amendment is the primary clause, then local communities could enact legislation to prohibit handguns and certain types of long arms if not all firearms. This could serve as a catalyst to dramatically polarize Blue State and Red State America.

Would Blue State America cheer such a Supreme Court ruling striking down the Second Amendment? A ruling is one thing, the day the law comes to the door of Red State America to confiscate certain if not all firearms is another matter.

Would Red State America turn in their firearms ammo first and create a shooting Civil War? The right to self defense is considered in almost all societies as sacrosanct. How could any court rule in a way that would put citizens at the mercy of criminals that have no regard for the rule of law?

I’ve been emailing with some friends about the 2nd Amendment. I just got done explaining the incorporation doctrine and how there are a couple post civil-war cases that say the doctrine does not apply to the 2nd Amendment. This lead to a question I couldn’t answer off the top of my head. Being lazy and all, I thought I’d ask you folks:

Has the Supreme Court ever applied any 2nd Amendment protection to a state law? I’m aware they never reversed the decision not to incorporate, but have they slid around it at all?

Joe says to be careful what we wish for:

If they prevail and if the Supreme Court agrees, it’s all over. Who would have thought the Supreme Court would trash the 1st Amendment — _seriously_ trash it — by criminalizing “political” speech? But, they did. If they can trivialize the 1st, imagine how unimportant they think the 2nd is.

Read it all and come back. I think Joe is right. Being the establishment, they are not inclined to change decades old laws no matter how unconstitutional they are. And that is bad. I would love to see the case go our way and pull a win for civil rights. But that’s unlikely. Also unlikely is that they take the case and find that the second amendment doesn’t mean what it says. If they did, there’d probably be a lot of angry gun nuts out there who will, honestly, start shooting politicians. The court will simply not hear the case and bypass all of that. And for that, they are cowards.

I hope Joe and I are wrong but I don’t expect that we are. So, assuming we’re right, what next?

Update: Related is, Stephen Halbrook on the second amendment and the Supreme Court. Via GLN.

Update 2: Insty weighs in.

Our house has been invaded by monsters. And bumblebees. At about 2 to 3 in the morning, Junior starts screaming because either monsters or bumblebees are in her room. Me or the wife then has to go and tell her there are no monsters or bumblebees. And that monsters aren’t real but bumblebees are, only there still aren’t bumblebees in your room. Because it’s cold outside. This is confusing to a two-year-old. And it’s a difficult conversation to have in the middle of the night when you’re not at your best. I’m personally of the opinion it’s a trap by Junior to get in our bed and the Mrs. falls for it every time.

I’m not sure where she picked up monsters. And I sure don’t know where the bumblebee thing is coming from. So, last night I asked. I asked Junior if it was one of the kids at school and she said No. Instead, she blames her teacher. I’m sure the teacher isn’t trying to scare her with monsters or bumblebees but there’s probably been a story or two told about them in class.

She doesn’t believe me when I say there’s no such thing as a monster. So, now we tell her that some combination of the dog, her teddy bears, and the pastel-colored butterflies painted on her walls repels the monsters. Somehow, the fact there are no monsters isn’t believable but that they are repelled by paint, fabric and an uninterested dog is. Well, when you’re two.

Braisted reports that a bunch of governors are not running for president, including Tennessee’s. I think it’s unfortunate. I like Bredesen and would likely vote for him, particularly if the Republicans are looking to run a McCain, Bloomberg, or Giuliani. Those three come with all the bad of the Republican party and absolutely none of the good.

Joe makes an appearance in the press as a bomb-making expert.

And this is why I said before that I generally do not entertain inquiries from the press.

Aunt B. wants to start one. I don’t think any dog should be treated any differently just because it’s a pit bull. All dogs should be treated like, well, dogs.

Seen at Radley’s:

It was Fabian Sheats’ third felony drug arrest in four months. But on the afternoon of Nov. 21, according to a police report, he was looking to curry favor, so he told officers they could find a kilogram of cocaine in a house at 933 Neal Street N.W.

That encounter led police to the home of Kathryn Johnston, an elderly woman who lived alone behind burglar bars and kept a rusty revolver. When officers burst into the house just three hours after talking to Sheats, a shootout ensued that left the woman dead and three officers wounded. No cocaine was found.

Sheats’ arrest report, made public Thursday, sheds new light on why officers targeted Johnston’s home.

Police say they used Sheats’ tip to direct a confidential informant to the Neal Street house, where he made a drug buy, leading them to conduct the raid. A man named Alexis White later came forward to say he is a longtime informant and police asked him to lie after the shootings and say he bought drugs at the address. Police will not say who the informant was.

The fecal matter has hit the oscillating cooling device.

Went to the dentist this morning. Told you before how I get the gas ’cause my girly teeth are all sensitive. Anyhoo, had the MP3 player and it was kind of cool to listen to Five Minutes Alone and The Color of Money with a huge gas buzz.

Oh, and the title of this post is a combination of the title of Pantera’s album and the brand of light I stared at for 30 minutes.

The point: I dig the MP3 player.

NYC.gov:

MAYOR BLOOMBERG ANNOUNCES THE FILING OF SECOND FEDERAL LAWSUIT AGAINST IRRESPONSIBLE GUN DEALERS

12 Gun Dealers in Five States Are Named in Second Federal Lawsuit Following Sting Operation

Six of the 15 Gun Dealers Named in the First Lawsuit Have Reached Settlements with the City; Court Appointed Special Master is Named for Three of the Six Gun Dealers

City Launches Subway Ads Warning of New Mandatory Minimum Sentencing for Illegal Possession of a Loaded Handgun Passed Earlier This Year

I wonder if Bloomberg’s investigators broke the law again this time by lying on federal paperwork? More:

Earlier this year, investigators from the James Mintz Group, a private investigative firm employed by the City, traveled to five states to establish whether these gun dealers were violating federal laws governing firearms sales. The investigators, in teams of two, entered gun stores and followed a scenario commonly known as “straw purchasing” – where one individual makes all of the inquiries into purchasing the gun, and then the other individual, completely uninvolved in the sale process, fills out the required federal forms to pass the background check. Federal law prohibits licensed dealers from selling firearms to individuals when they have a reasonable belief that the firearm being sold is not for the person who purports to be the purchaser.

All 12 dealers named in the suit sold a gun to a team of undercover investigators, who wore hidden cameras during their sting operations. Even in the face of obvious “red lights” that should have immediately ended the discussion between dealer and customer, including that the straw purchaser did not participate in the transaction until the time came to fill out the federal forms and did not pay for the gun.

Actually, the form 4473 that you fill out when purchasing a firearm asks if you’re the purchaser. The law-breaking done here was by the investigators.

Update: Jeff asks:

When is the Mayor and his undercover team going to be arrested and thrown in jail by the BATF?

Uh, never. It’s OK to break the law if you’re rich and in politics. Will not happen.

Interesting read on a reporter going through a Tennessee handgun carry permit course.

This time, in Seattle:

Seattle Police Department Chief Gil Kerlikowske has made closing the state’s gun-show loophole and passing an assault-weapons ban (as many states have already done since the federal ban expired in 2004) two of Seattle’s top legislative items for the upcoming session in Olympia. Unfortunately, Democratic house leadership, which is nervous about alienating moderates and Republicans, told the city that pushing gun control isn’t going to fly.

Police chiefs pass laws? And by many states, name one. Illinois tried and failed. Maryland tried and failed. All other state bans that I know of were in effect either before or during the federal ban. Could be wrong, of course.

In Ohio, the house has overridden Taft’s veto of the preemption law. On to the senate.

Regarding the recent trigger-happiness of the NYPD, the Village Voice ran this cover:

What media bias? Discuss.

The WaPo:

In a case that could shape firearms laws nationwide, attorneys for the District of Columbia argued Thursday that the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms applies only to militias, not individuals.

The city defended as constitutional its long-standing ban on handguns, a law that some gun opponents have advocated elsewhere. Civil liberties groups and pro-gun organizations say the ban in unconstitutional.

Kudos to the WaPo for not referring to the good guys as the powerful gun lobby. More:

At issue in the case before a federal appeals court is whether the 2nd Amendment right to “keep and bear arms” applies to all people or only to “a well regulated militia.” The Bush administration has endorsed individual gun-ownership rights but the Supreme Court has never settled the issue.

If the dispute makes it to the high court, it would be the first case in nearly 70 years to address the amendment’s scope. The court disappointed gun owner groups in 2003 when it refused to take up a challenge to California’s ban on high-powered weapons.

In the Washington, D.C. case, a lower-court judge told six city residents in 2004 that they did not have a constitutional right to own handguns. The plaintiffs include residents of high-crime neighborhoods who want guns for protection.

There’s more. I have to day, and I don’t do this often, it’s a fairly balanced piece from the other liberal Washington paper. Balanced or not, this should scare you:

Silberman and Judge Thomas B. Griffith seemed to wrestle, however, with the meaning of the amendment’s language about militias. If a well-regulated militia is no longer needed, they asked, is the right to bear arms still necessary?

“That’s quite a task for any court to decide that a right is no longer necessary,” Alan Gura, an attorney for the plaintiffs, replied. “If we decide that it’s no longer necessary, can we erase any part of the Constitution?”

This will be an interesting case to watch.

MacGyver has nothing on the inventiveness of American troops dealing with the problem of invisible trip wires on hidden bombs. As inventive is one Mom in New Jersey who is sending “Silly String” to troops in Iraq.

Now, 1,000 cans of the neon-colored plastic goop are packed into Shriver’s one-car garage in this town outside Philadelphia, ready to be shipped to the Middle East thanks to two churches and a pilot who heard about the drive.

“If I turn on the TV and see a soldier with a can of this on his vest, that would make this all worth it,” said Shriver, 57, an office manager.

The maker of the Silly String brand, Just for Kicks Inc. of Watertown, N.Y., has contacted the Shrivers about donating some. Other manufacturers make the stuff, too, and call their products “party string” or “crazy string.”

Via David, comes US v. Some Guns (I’m not making that up). Looks to me like the issues are that:

Per Celata (the owner of KTO), his firearm frames are legal because they are not substantially complete. The ATF contends that they are substantially complete and, therefore, firearms.

The ATF alleges that Celata told customers that he had a letter stating the frames were not firearms and therefore did not require serial numbers or paperwork. The ATF said they never issued him a letter.

To my knowledge, no charges have yet been filed against Mr. Celata, which is odd.

Overall points: Looks like there’s evidence that Celata was misleading his customers. The determination of what is a firearm v. what is a firearm frame is random and arbitrary any way (I mean, really, what is 80% complete?). So, it may be a court fight to determine what is and is not a firearm and that may make the guns of a bunch of folks who build their own guns illegal, if they purchased the receiver.

It’s the opening salvo in the crackdown on do it yourself gunsmiths.

The whole survival/emergency kick hits the blogosphere (usually the gun blogs) about once every few months. This time, there’s a new twist in that it’s from Knoxviews and it’s about a vehicle emergency kit. Well, I’m prepared for stuff generally so here’s what I keep in the ride:

2 flashlights (I could just carry extra batteries but if it’s an emergency, I don’t want to bother changing them)
jumper cables
gloves
toboggan
Firearm
3 to 4 magazines for the firearm, depending on which one it is
Thermal blanket (the kind that wraps up in a small pack)
A Gerber multi-tool
Jacket/coat
An easily accessible knife that has serrated edges (it’s only purpose is to cut seat-belts in the event I am stuck)
Bungee chords
Flares
First aid kit
A towel
Tire gauge
Tape
Scraper
Pen and paper

I don’t keep any food in there but it’s probably not a bad idea. Well, other than the no less than 400 Cheerios, Goldfish, and other assorted snacks Junior has dropped on the seats. Could probably live off that for a day or two.

Also, read this at Edmund’s. It gave me some ideas, such as Fix-a-flat, a bag to put this stuff in since it’s all in my console/glove box, water, food, help sign, and I need to update my first aid kit.

Update: And my new phone has a GPS in it.

Update 2: And make sure you read the comments over at Knoxviews.

The cops found drugs in Kathryn Johnston’s home. You remember her? The 92 (or 88 depending on the source) year-old lady who the cops shot in self-defense as they were minding their own business and raiding her home for drugs based on on the (likely paid for) testimony of a drug-dealing informant who later said the cops asked him to lie. Yeah, her. She had 1.93 grams of weed. In case you can’t wrap your head around how little that is, Pete has a pic.

Looks like the state of Tennessee used its ill-gotten gains in an ill-conceived manner:

The report says that since 2002 Tennessee, as have Michigan and Missouri, has never spent any of its $1.3 billion tobacco-settlement payout on stop-smoking programs.

Poof.

Looks like gun rights blogger Triggerfinger is back with some Wordpress digs. I wondered where he went.

The UN has non-agreed to non-ban assault rifles, machine guns and other small arms. Jeff calls it a first step towards universal gun control.

Ben received one to review and has pics. It’s made by Ko-tonics. It will be mine soon! Well, for a little while.

Here’s some links to security camera pics thanks to Google. Via Ben.

Regarding the mystery gun, Dr. Strangegun bet his job he knows the answer:

I got the “new” BMP and blew it up. That is 100% for certain I’ll stake my job at the gun shop on it a Tokarev TT variant. (/stake) The barrel’s not big enough to be a .45 so it’s either a 54 or a 213, likely just a type 54…

It’s pixellated, but you can see the trigger guard shape, a bare hint of the shape of the grip frame by where his fingers are pushed out to, the shape of the back of the slide, somewhat distinctive undercut at the nose of the slide, no guide rod, round hammer profile, relationship of the rear sight location on the slide and it’s distinctive narrowness and height, the vertical serrations and location on the slide, and finally the barest hint of the retaining clip or the extended end of the slide lock/link pin sticking out of the slide… that’s a TT. I’m 100% sure.

I think I have one of these:

GAMO USA Corp., of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said Wednesday it is recalling about 14,000 air rifles.

The scope mount on the rifles can be installed incorrectly, causing the rifle to unexpectedly fire. This poses a serious injury hazard to consumers.

GAMO has received one report of an air rifle firing unexpectedly. No injuries have been reported.

The recalled air rifles are the following GAMO models: Hunter Pro, Hunter Sport, Shadow Sport, and F1200. These models bear the serial numbers 04-IC-415577-06 through 04-IC-579918-06. The model and serial numbers can be found on the left side of the barrel just above the front left side of the stock. Models Shadow Sport and F1200 look identical.

Bleg: I just got my first MP3 player. Ok, actually, I got a phone (this one) that happens to play MP3s. I converted a few CDs to MP3 a while back. Now, when I convert them in Windows Media Player (which is what works with my phone), they’re WMAs. So, what are those? And what do I need to know about this MP3 player business?

Speaking of blog issues and comments and whatnot, if you trackback the site, try a link. In fact, it annoyed me so much it’s now a setting. If you ping, it will look for a link. No linky, no trackbacky.

Also, anyone notice that the big dick/erectile dysfunction spam that floods our inboxes now comes with a religious theme and bible quotes?

Rikki has a good post on racism on KnoxViews. Gene Patterson just posted a different look at racism on his blog. Between reading the two different posts I found myself asking a question.

Is there an industry that uses racism as a product? Are there race merchants? I am not talking about anything as obvious as Jesse Jackson, is there a hidden industry of race merchants disguised under the cloak of academia or human resources management?

In Gene Patterson’s post he quotes a column in the Knoxville News Sentinel by Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine, who points to a Harvard test as proof that we all have latent racist attitudes. Gene took one of the tests and he writes, “I took the test and it showed that I – on a scale of slight, moderate and strong – have a slight preference for European Americans. That, according to the test, makes me a racist.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Ninth Stage says the MP9 will soon come in a civilian flavor.

Looks like NY is an even bigger brother. I guess folks in NY have solved all the city’s other problems if they can devote time to this crap.

Nannyism, what governments do instead of something.

Alphie looks at advertising in a DVR world:

This is how the free market operates, adjusting to changes in technology. While Hollywood works with our legislators to stifle technology (like forbidding fast-forwarding through commercials), creative minds are working to come up with ways to deal with the new reality.

There are coupons hidden in the frames that folks with DVRs and TiVos can find. Interesting. I haven’t watched commercials in about three years. The only downside, as far as I can tell, is I never know what movies are playing and I had no idea what a Nintendo Wii was until I saw my friends.

BTW, I must get a Nintendo Wii. For the kids, of course.

A bit back I asked for help identifying a gun. Well, Terry has posted a non-answer:

The answer is that the gun is a working replica of a Chinese .45 automatic — or at least that’s what I was told via my translator.

This is what happens when you give guns to non-gun-nuts. I still don’t know what it is. But, and I’m guessing here, it’s probably one of the Norinco 1911 clones that were real popular until Bush 1 said we can’t import semi-autos anymore.

I don’t recommend doing it. But I’ll gladly watch video of someone else doing it:

Via Standard Mischief who opines on the relative safety of it.

Heh.

Via Kevin, seems the state department has an essay on every amendment to the bill of rights. Except one. Can you guess which one? It’s apparently because one of the Volokh’s beat up on it a while back for adopting the collective rights mythology.

I’m calling my congress monkeys.

Another town asking everyone to arm themselves. No one is being forced to (which I’d oppose) but it’s being recommended.

A piece on why it needs to go:

The divine right of kings carried with it the notion that whatever the king did was OK, because the king was the law. Another way of saying the same thing is the king was considered to be above the law.

Today we have renamed this very mistaken view as the doctrine of sovereign immunity. The sovereign is immune from suffering any consequences of his acts. Sometimes the sovereign (government) graciously allows himself to be sued in specific, limited cases. But for the most part, there is no accountability for government officials who lie, cheat and steal – even on occasion who commit murder (think Ruby Ridge where an FBI sniper shot in cold blood a woman holding a baby).

Bob Arwady runs the Ammo Dump, a gun store in Houston, Texas. His first exposure to the abuses of sovereign immunity came from a knock on the door from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. After operating his new shooting range for police and public shooters for four months, the Commission shut him down with the threat of fining shooters $5,000 for each bullet they put in the dirt berms used as bullet traps. They claimed that they had a water sample that proved that those bullets were leaching lead in dangerous quantities into the stream behind his range and polluting water downstream.

It turns out that the signed affidavit by the Environmental Quality officer stating that he had taken the water sample was a lie. Arwady never got to use his expert toxicology witness that metallic bullet never, ever leaches. It is not soluble. Only lead salts (such as found in lead paints) are dangerous.

I don’t think it needs to go. But it definitely needs to be reformed. I think it is still applicable when an agent of the state is acting in a manner that a reasonable person could conclude is in the best interest of society. Otherwise, every time someone was arrested, they’d sue. That said, any negligience, dishonesty, incompetence, or criminal behavior on the part of any agent of the state should lead to forfeiture of said immunity. Now, said agents can lie, cheat, or half-ass their way into making someone’s life hard with impunity. And they’re motivated to do that because performance is often measured by arrests, fines, community contacts, quotas, or other euphimism for increasing number of arrests/meddling to prove they’re actually doing something.

Short of reform of Sovereign Immunity, the only thing that will bring attention to this type of stuff is when people start shooting the bastards, unfortunately.

Update: In comments, beerslurpy says regarding the best interest rule:

No need for such a rule. A jury would decide cases that way whenever appropriate. Juries would be loath the support a verdict against a police officer that was being harassed by a criminal. Adding such a rule only allows judges (who were usually prosecutors before they became judges) to dispose of cases of abuse before they even get to juries.

Good point.

At some point, I figure the British government is going to mandate that all of its subjects (they are still subjects, right? I mean, they’re treated as such) be relegated to rubber rooms with all sharp items and heavy blunt objects either put away or wrapped in foam. See:

In the hands of Shane Warne, a cricket ball is an offensive weapon. A total of 650 fallen wickets prove it.

Police on a London Underground station thought it was an equally dangerous item in the hands of Chris Hurd, a 28-year-old City accountant who occasionally bowls leg spin for his local team in Belsize Park, North London.

This is a country that has effectively banned gun ownership and self defense. Now, the latest targets are airguns and knives. You even see the phrase knife culture repeatedly in the press there. It’s sad that a country once known as Great Britain doesn’t even trust its subjects with pointy things. Or hard things.

They say it like it’s a bad thing:

80 local gun laws imperiled by bill

Laws that hold adults responsible when children get guns.

Assault-weapon bans in Columbus and six other cities.

Prohibitions on “Saturday night specials.”

A Cincinnati measure barring firearms sales within 1,000 feet of schools.

All those and dozens of other ordinances would be swept away by a proposed state law that Gov. Bob Taft has pledged to veto.

Sound like good things to get rid of to me.

If you use blogspot.com and leave a blogspot url in comments, Wordpress thinks you’re a spammer. So, leave it blank or use tinyurl.com. SK2 is on autopilot and even though I remove the entry from the spam file, it gets put back shortly thereafter because of the 100,000 idiots who use blogspot to set up spam sites and link farms. Sorry about that but it’s beyond my control.

Sweet. A Tromix Saiga 12 short-barreled shotgun. I have no use for one nor a desire to have one but they’re pretty damn neat.

What’s your Starbuck’s name? I don’t have one because I don’t get coffee at Starbucks because, well, only a crazy person pays $3 for a cup of coffee. And their coffee isn’t that good. Or as cafkia says:

Oddly enough, I like coffee so I have never been in a starbucks.

But it’s a funny read.