I expressed amazement that Wendy’s was using a Violent Femmes tune to peddle food. Well, Brian Ritchie (who I viewed as God-like just under 20 years ago) isn’t happy either. He left a comment about it at a Tennessee blogger’s joint. Gordon Gano sold out. Well, can’t blame the guy for wanting a buck or two.

Via NIT.

Stewart Brand, ardent environmentalist and founder of the Whole Earth Catalog, predicts changes in common environmental wisdom on four hot issues:

Over the next ten years, I predict, the mainstream of the environmental movement will reverse its opinion and activism in four major areas: population growth, urbani­zation, genetically engineered organisms, and nuclear power.

Predicting a shift in opinion in these areas is just a polite way of saying that the current thinking on them is wrong. And he’s right. The current mainstream enviromental stance has got it wrong on all four issues, especially the GMO food and nuclear power.

Interestingly, he doesn’t say why he thinks the consensus will shift on these issues. He just thinks the rational environmentalists will eventually convince the romantic environmentalists. In the long run, I think he’s right– people will eventually realize that we can achieve the great benefits of GMO food and nuclear power in (relative) safety. There’s just too much to gain. Predicting it will happen in the next 10 years, though, is probably overly ambitious.

HR1096 by Ron Paul. This bill gets rid of the sporting purpose nonsense, among other things.

I dig it but it won’t pass.

Via R. Neal, comes this bill by blogging rep Stacey Campfield called the Tennessee Firearms Freedom Act. It’s similar to a Montana bill I discussed here only it has teeth.

From the bill:

A personal firearm, a firearm accessory, or ammunition that is manufactured commercially or privately in Tennessee and that remains within the borders of Tennessee is not subject to federal law or federal regulation, including registration, under the authority of congress to regulate interstate commerce. It is declared by the legislature that those items have not traveled in interstate commerce. This section applies to a firearm, a firearm accessory, or ammunition that is manufactured in Tennessee from basic materials and that can be manufactured without the inclusion of any significant parts imported into this state. Generic and insignificant parts that have other manufacturing or consumer product applications are not firearms, firearms accessories, or ammunition, and their importation into Tennessee and incorporation into a firearm, a firearm accessory, or ammunition manufactured in Tennessee does not subject the firearm, firearm accessory, or ammunition to federal regulation. It is declared by the legislature that basic materials, such as unmachined steel and unshaped wood, are not firearms, firearms accessories, or ammunition and are not subject to congressional authority to regulate firearms, firearms accessories, and ammunition under interstate commerce as if they were actually firearms, firearms accessories, or ammunition. The authority of congress to regulate interstate commerce in basic materials does not include authority to regulate firearms, firearms accessories, and ammunition made in Tennessee from those materials. Firearms accessories that are imported into Tennessee from another state and that are subject to federal regulation as being in interstate commerce do not subject a firearm to federal regulation under interstate commerce because they are attached to or used in conjunction with a firearm in Tennessee.

It excludes machine guns and destructive devices. But this means that firearms, sound suppressors, short barreled rifles, short barreled shotguns, and any other weapons would not require National Firearms Act registration per state law if they were made in state and marked accordingly.

I find it odd since Tennessee law generally mimics federal law. And, of course, Tennessee law bans sound suppressors, short barreled rifles, short barreled shotguns, and any other weapons with registration of these items as NFA items being an affirmative defense to their possession.

I think, mainly, the bill’s intent is to nip the ATF’s crackdown on do it yourselfers in the bud. Because for NFA toys, it doesn’t do much.

Update: If it passes, seems to me that one could go in the firearm business without all the red tape currently required by the feds.

Les Jones has a video of Kel-Tec’s new RFB (Rifle Forward ejection Bullpup). It’s a 308, bullpup rifle that ejects brass out the front. This eliminates the problem of brass hitting left-handed shooters in the face that other bull pups have. As an added bonus, it takes FAL metric magazines. Sweet. Here’s Kel-Tec’s info on the gun (in PDF).

They go all the way up to her ass.

Remember, gun nuts, we’re the ones that are paranoid. Not them.

And Mike Faulk says Opposition Doesn’t Mean Annihilation:

Ironically, those attacking Zumbo the hardest give the anti-gun crowd plenty of cannon fodder. It’s a shame. Surely his lifetime of advocacy for that which most gun owners hold dear, the right to bear arms, should count for something. The big picture of Zumbo’s career promoting the Second Amendment should overwhelm a mistake of expressing an unpopular opinion in a less than artful way.

Yup. We are too quick to pull the trigger some times.

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership has a poll.

Via Joe.

Tam:

Poor Lefties; they’ve been playing on astroturf so long that they don’t know grassroots even when fed a mouthful of divot.

Lentil soup.

The rhetoric is kicking up on weapons that look like assault weapons.

Read David Hardy’s take on the incident I shall no longer mention. And then I’m done mentioning it. And I mean this time. Just like I meant it the last four times.

SayUncle: Let’s get the question everyone is wondering out of the way: are you retarded?

Senator Finney: Uh, no.

SayUncle: You sure? That looks like drool? *offers wetnap* I mean, I hit myself on the finger with a hammer and I haven’t been the same since. You sure you didn’t hit yourself in the head? Like, maybe a few times?

Senator Finney: No, can we get on with it please?

SayUncle: Sure. You want to use the legislative process to get an answer to the question of whether the universe was created by a “Supreme Being.” What’s up with that?

Senator Finney: My goal is to formally prod the Department of Education into a dialogue about the teaching of evolution in school science classes without also teaching the alternative of “creationism,” or “intelligent design.”

SayUncle: And you figure the best way to do this is to look like a dumb ass and make your constituents also look like dumb asses? We did elect you, after all.

Senator Finney: *blinks*

SayUncle: I mean, it seems to me that you’re trying to force the state to assume a position on religion via legislative fiat. That’s kinda dumb and, you know, maybe unconstitutional.

Senator Finney: Unconstitutional?

SayUncle: What’s next? Mandating that the egg came before the chicken?

Senator Finney: Uh, the chicken came first. But I would mandate that the chicken came first.

SayUncle: Uh, no. The egg came first. See, the chicken is only a few tens of thousands of years old. And before the chicken was around, there were these things called dinosaurs. And they laid eggs. So, egg wins.

Senator Finney: There were no dinosaurs.

SayUncle Really? I

Senator Finney: Yeah, God put those bones there to test our faith.

SayUncle: I thought they died because Noah didn’t have room on the arc.

Senator Finney: No. They are a test of faith.

SayUncle: But if you mandate a state position on faith, there’s not really any left to test now is there?

SayUncle: Don’t you have any thing better to do? You know, like fix the budget, Tenn-Care, reform corruption?

Senator Finney: The state has a vested interest in addressing complex social issues . . .

SayUncle: *interrupts* Like curing cancer?

Senator Finney: Err, yeah . . .

SayUncle: Have you thought about banning cancer?

Senator Finney: You can’t ban cancer.

SayUncle: No shit. You can’t legislate God into existence either.

Senator Finney: Will you untie me now?

SayUncle: Sure.

Looks like it was set up by a pro-gunner to make the Bradies look dumb. Of course, they do that on their own and don’t need help. Kevin predicted it.

Leave the lying to the Brady Campaign and anti-gunners. It’s what they do, not us.

Via KDT, The WaPo:

Zumbo’s fall highlights a fundamental concern of the NRA and many champions of military-style firearms, according to people who follow the organization closely. They do not want American gun owners to make a distinction between assault weapons and traditional hunting guns such as shotguns and rifles. If they did, a rift could emerge between hunters, who tend to have the most money for political contributions to gun rights causes, and assault-weapon owners, who tend to have lots of passion but less cash.

There are expensive and moderately priced version of each. Assault rifle owners don’t have less cash, they just have less tolerance for the NRA’s ass-dragging. I’m not a member of the NRA. But, once per year, I send them a check or don’t depending on how I feel they’ve handled the gun issue (hint: sporting purpose, guys).
Now, hunting weapons can be pricey and hunting gear can be too. But, in terms of guns, evil black rifles can get pricey. To wit, the running price tag of my 9mm AR-15 when all is said and done (this is from memory, so I could miss something – and I’m waiting for a tax stamp):

Lower Receiver 120
Mag Block 120
Magazines 75
EOTech Holographic Weapon Sight 350
YHM Railed Forearm 110
YHM Forearm Mounted Flip Up Front Sight 80
YHM Flip Up rear sight 80
Vltor mod stock 170
Tango Down VFG 25
Surefire G2 Nitrolon 32
Mount for Surefire 19
Upper receiver 425
9mm buffer 16
9mm hammer 12
Lower Parts Kit 50
NFA Tax (short barrel) 200
Gunsmithing (cut barrel and re-crown) 65
GG&G Single point sling adapter 15
Sling 6

Total 1,970

Not counting a suppressor and adapter (another $800ish) that I’ll get in the future. And I go through more ammo than a fudd. And I probably forgot something.

And, while reading Kim’s, I saw this:

The Zumbo Incident is as dead as last year’s politician’s promise, and beaten to death more than the JFK assassination. That will be all on that topic, I think: please drive through.

I concur. I’m done with it. The only reference to Zumbo in the future from me will be its proper use as an internet verb ranking up there with Fisk and Dowdify.

In Uganda, forced disarmament is going about as well as can be expected. Remember, it’s for their own good.

If your only exposure to the Zumbo incident was The Washington Post and the various lefty blogs, you would think that what happened was:

But you would be wrong. That’s not what happened. A summary of what really happened is here in handy-dandy time-line format.

What really happened is he referred to AR-15s as terrorist rifles and stated that hunters ought not lump themselves in with a group of people who terrorize the world. Well, some bloggers and the folks at AR15.com and FR didn’t care for that and threatened boycotts. Zumbo’s apology illustrated that he didn’t understand the complaint (and that he doesn’t know shit about guns) and made it worse. Then, sponsors pulled the plug.

The NRA didn’t show up to the party until it was over and then they only issued a presser stating they severed ties with Zumbo. The didn’t put a single baby on a spike.

It’s been introduced.

Lapeer County, MI Sheriff’s Department needs some money. So, they’re auctioning off an M-16. Not the fake kind that the pants-shitting anti-gunners are trying to ban. I mean, a real select-fire, machine gun. Sweet. Go bid.

Christian Probasco on the canaries in the mine. It’s a good read.

Drive blow-gunning?

A while back I said someone should start a pro-gun internet money transfer service since PayPal is run by ninnies. Well, someone did. Gearpay.com.

I have not signed up and can’t attest to the service yet.

Some asked so here’s a pic. Not for squeamish. Despite what some said, no alcohol was involved . . . well, until after.

Read the rest of this entry »

Not today. Was busy. Sorry.

Nobody should be surprised that a current poll shows lots of Americans think Bush screwed the pooch in Iraq. When I hear that two-thirds of Americans disapprove of how Bush is handling Iraq, my only real question is who are the 31 percent who think Bush is doing a good job, and how can we keep them away from sharp objects?

Dig a little deeper into the numbers and you’ll see that those 31% are almost all Republicans. Two-thirds of Republicans think Bush is doing a heck of a job over there while more than 90% of Democrats can see what a mess he’s made. The only people left who will support him are the party loyalists.

Full swing, glanced off of a spike. I’ll let you guess how that went. Let’s just say: You ever seen a hot dog come out of the microwave?

God damn, that hurts.

Update: Hard to type. I have pics but don’t want anyone to lose their lunch. Broke the tip of the bone clean off. Probably lose the nail.

No, not this one. But mine:

Click to embiggen.

Sexual behavior is responsible for 20,000 deaths per year.

Guess which third?

The gun-fearing and generally stupid left looks at Zumbo. See, the anti-gunners dismiss outright that one might lose credibility and favor by referring to owners of politically incorrect rifles as terrorists. It’s all about how poor Zumbo is just a victim of extremists and nutjobs. Nothing to do with his choice of words.

Update: In other news, Zumbo made the Washington Post?

And I love the reference to his apology. Or, rather, his non-apology that apparently no one at the WaPo read.

Update 2: The WaPo trots out anti-gunners disguised as gunnies:

“This shows the zealousness of gun owners to the point of actual foolishness,” said Pat Wray, a freelance outdoors writer in Corvallis, Ore., and author of “A Chukar Hunter’s Companion.”

Wray said that what happened to Zumbo is a case study in how the NRA has trained members to attack their perceived enemies without mercy.

Yeah, right. I expect disingenuous hacks to lie about the NRA’s involvement. I don’t expect the media to print it though. The NRA responded several days after this whole thing was done and over. This incident was the result of blogs and message boards (like FR and Arfcom). No NRA prompting or involvement. David is correct that:

So they trot out an apologist for AHSA and present him as the voice of responsible sportsmen. You’d better believe this is an attempt to divide and draw battle lines, and we owe it to ourselves to know who’s on our side and who is a fifth columnist working to serve us up.

And Wray is a shill for the anti-gun American Hunters and Shooters Association.

To his critics:

The story was unpopular with a lot of people, but nowhere in it did I endorse the ban, as some are claiming.

And:

When I wrote it, black guns were not nearly as important a part of shooting as they are now. We can’t afford to sacrifice them, just as we can’t afford to sacrifice .50-caliber rifles (which I wrote about positively a couple of issues ago in a story called “Way Out There”).

In case you’re wondering, I’ve been using black rifles since 1965, when I hunted woodchucks with one of the very first AR-15s sold commercially by Colt. I’ve worked over many a prairie dog town with one AR variant or another, and if Les Baer were to send me one of his rifles (a heavy barrel flattop in .223, please), I would not send it back. I currently own an M1A. I don’t know if that qualifies or not.

Most important, you shouldn’t construe any of this as an apology. It isn’t.

I gotta give it to the guy for his balls out honesty and being unapologetic. Unlike Zumbo, he’s believable.

Good enough for me. As I said, stand down.

Spoon.

Commerce clause.

Separation of powers.

In comments, NK asks:

BTW: How come this site doesn’t have any trolls?

I get the occasional troll. I generally ignore them, though. Well, unless they’re particularly retarded. I must not be blogging right.

It’s back:

A Utah congressman has reintroduced a bill allowing some veterans to register firearms that they collected as war souvenirs.

Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, has reintroduced the Veterans’ Heritage Firearms Act, a bill that would allow weapons brought into the U.S. by service members from 1934 to Oct. 1, 1968, to be registered and legally kept by the service member or immediate family members.

It would not apply to weapons brought back by service members since 1968, something generally prohibited by U.S. military policy.

I’m wasteful. It’s true. If a household product gets to the point where it’s a pain in the ass for me to get any more of it out of the container, I’m done with it. For example, if the toothpaste tube requires more than a gentle squeeze to get some toothpaste out, it’s not worth the time and I open a new one.

Not my wife. She will fight the household products in an epic battle to extract as much product as possible. To me, that’s just not worth it. I got better things to do than fight a bottle of lotion. Not her. She’ll take the cap off, turn it upside down and beat the bottle like it owes her money.

When I last saw her, she had a razor blade and was cutting the toothpaste open.

David Codrea notes some criticism of Jim Zumbo by Field and Stream’s David Petzal:

What Jim said was ill-considered. He’s entitled to his beliefs, but when a writer of his stature comes out against black guns, it sure as hell does not help our cause.

But, in 1994:

“Gun owners — all gun owners — pay a heavy price for having to defend the availability of these weapons,” writes Petzal. “The American public — and the gun-owning public; especially the gun-owning public — would be better off without the hardcore military arms, which puts the average sportsman in a real dilemma”

I’m guessing that since then, Mr. Petzal has changed his mind and that is one reason for his entry. A lot can change in 13 years. Also, the comments are interesting in that there is a little Fudd v. Gun Nut battle brewing. But listen up, gun nuts:

Don’t get your fucking panties in a bunch and get all boycott happy with Mr. Petzal. We need to educate and convince. Not go on witch hunts that hurt our cause. Or persimmon is right, we are hypersensitive bedwetters.

Stand down, men.

The Brady Campaign To Prevent Gun Ownership says that the Brady Myspace page is authored by an imposter. Here’s the page.

Update: Interesting stuff in comments:

You scooped me, although I was going at this from another angle. If you head over there now, however, you’ll find this embedded in the page (go to page, hit Ctrl-U)

Which means, that both the MySpace page is pulling content from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership’s main page, and the Brady Bunch is letting them (note the xshare/myspace/ subdirectory)

If you look carefully, you will also note that every mention of Zumbo has been taken off the page, and there are backdated posts added to the blog.

I can only assume that the MySpace Brady page was a fake, but now it is somehow associated with them.

Also, if anyone has a cached copy of the page, let me know.

I don’t really care much about NY and yogurt. But Uzi is a cool first name.

That’s the law in Kennesaw, GA that states that every head of household must own a firearm and have the appropriate ammunition. It turns 25 this year.

I’m as gun nut as gun nut can be but mandating gun ownership seems a bit over the line.

Update: In comments, from Standard Mischief:

Jones said the ACLU challenged the law in a federal court just after it was passed. In response, the city added a clause adding conscientious objectors to the list of those exempt.

Giuliani should stick to his guns … control. Not gonna happen. He’s already backpedaling with his talk about the second amendment. I’d expect Giuliani to get more gun friendly. He’s gotta get some red state love going on and that’s just hard to do with adultery hanging over you.

Late Wednesday on the Upfront Page, the blog of News Sentinel Editor Jack McElroy, is a response by Mr. McElroy to a post I put on KnoxViews and Say Uncle on Tuesday questioning whether the E.W. Scripps ethics code had been violated by Mr. McElroy’s lawsuit against Knox County Commission for a perceived Sunshine Law violation. I questioned the News Sentinel “preference to defend the County Mayor and attack his opposition”. The other issue that was disturbing was the fact that the News Sentinel sued each Knox County Commissioner personally as well as suing them as Commissioners. I felt and still feel that crosses the line. It seems to be a form of intimidation. Because of that I felt the question of an ethics violation should be considered.

Mr. McElroy has given his reasons for the lawsuit and in other news the County Law Director John Owings told the public during the County Commission Intergovernmental and Finance meetings on Tuesday that the News Sentinel has agreed to drop the individual lawsuits. I am glad to know that and it was the right thing to do but the question still exists why was this done is the first place.

Blogger “Old Hickory” has a lengthy post on the Upfront Page which is worth the time to read. Old Hickory explains, “the News-Sentinel is widely perceived as falling in line with the Ragsdale faction and chooses not to engage, analyze, investigate, and report on the sordid details of those political power plays gone badly awry, giving observers and writers the impression that the News-Sentinel is an additional projectile in Ragsdale’s pop gun aimed at bringing about a commission that is more receptive to his closed universe of local government and continuing the build a platform to hopefully garner attention, publicity, and consideration as a gubernatorial candidate for 2010.”

The News Sentinel has written Editorials suggesting that the Knox County Fee offices be audited and that Knox County Commission undertake Ethics reform. At this time maybe the best thing for the News Sentinel to do is to lead by example and review the Ethics of its Editorial Board and it’s closeness to County Mayor Mike Ragsdale.

YouTube Channel 9 coverage of the County Commission meeting on the McElroy lawsuit:

Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII

Foxnews:

Chimpanzees are capable of making spears to hunt other primates and have been seen using the weapons to apparently kill bushbabies for meat, scientists announced today.

By my estimation, we have about 10,000 years before they invade.

He has another apology on the Nuge’s board:

They say hindsight is golden. Looking back, I can’t believe I said the words “ban” and “terrorist” in the context that I did. I don’t know what I was thinking when I wrote that. I can explain this as sheer ignorance and an irresponsible use of words. What I’ve learned over the last few days has enlightened and amazed me. As a guy who hunts 200 days a year, does seminars on hunting, wrote for six hunting magazines, had a hunting TV show, and wrote 20 books on hunting, how could I have been so ignorant and out of touch with reality in the world of hunting and shooting?

Via Sam.

Thanks to F-Stop, seems the local blab is running with Jumbo. But this ain’t a post about that, it’s a post about this seen at that link:

Peace Activist Has To Admit Barrett .50 Caliber Sniper Rifle Is Pretty Cool

Heh.

What? You don’t think Slayer fans can be pro-war? Regardless, Slayer kicks butt.

Update: Oh yeah, metal repels hippies. I forgot. Thanks to Sebastian for the reminder.

Ice that burns. Cool.

Stealing from Les Jones, today’s word is trousering. It came to me in a spam mail and I thought it was a cool word. It’s one of those words that sounds dirty but isn’t:

any fabric used to make trousers

Other word that sound dirty but aren’t:

Morass
Assize
Cock-paddle
Analgesic
Assuage
Cock-master
Cumin
Titmouse
Penal
Back-hoe
Kumquat
Exacerbate
Assonance
Paradiddle

Looks like Wal-Mart is cutting back on the number of stores that sell firearms. Wal-Mart has always been a good place to get various rifles, shotguns and ammo at a decent price. Well, if you want hunting stuff. Despite the fact that hunting is on the decline, gun sales have shown a marked increase recently. More people are buying guns for other activities. Maybe Wal-Mart should start selling handguns and evil black rifles? Of course, the PR issues after would get Wal-Mart out of the gun business completely.

Forever to be known as an internet verb. Kevin has the transcript of and some commentary on a Zumbo interview after the recent storm surrounding him calling my weapon of choice a terrorist rifle.

Update: link fixed. stupid copy and paste.

You wouldn’t know it from the headlines, though.

Terry Frank says Saddam had 1 million pounds of uranium.

To Counter. It’s a boy.

People are packing where it’s legal to do so!

Added a column. Thoughts?

Eh, who we kiddin’? I don’t care what you think.

Nah, I’m foolin’ with ya. Let me know if you have any issues with it.

YouTube Channel Nine is up. The major fireworks are in Part V. Lumpy Lambert takes it to Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale and Mayor Ragsdale brings it back. People will remember the “4 year old in Candy land” and “I’ve never called you out…until now” remarks for many years to come.

This is coverage of the Knox County Commission meeting held on Tuesday to consider Mayor Ragsdale’s request for a special election. The primary players are former Tennessee State Senator Bud Gilbert, Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale, and the members of the Knox County Commission.

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Part V

Part VI

Part VII

Looking for a new wordpress theme. They all suck. I’d like to keep this one only I want to add a column on the left. And I’d like to kill all the dead space on the left and right. Anybody know how to do that?

Done.

DSA is now importing semi-auto versions (i.e., civilian legal) of the B&T TP9. Sweet.

Michael Bane, noting that the Zumbo incident was a tipping point for gun rights, asks where we’re headed with respect to gun rights. I tend to think the recent sunset of the assault weapons ban and Katrina are why evil black rifles have gained in popularity.

The recent decision by the DC Court of Appeals says on page 19:

Germany filed habeas corpus petitions. Although the German prisoners alleged they were civilian agents of the German government, a military commission convicted them of war crimes arising from military activity against the United States in China after Germany’s surrender. They claimed their convictions and imprisonment violated various constitutional provisions and the Geneva Conventions. The Supreme Court rejected the proposition “that the Fifth Amendment confers rights upon all persons, whatever their nationality, wherever they are located and whatever their offenses,” 339 U.S. at 783. The Court continued: “If the Fifth Amendment confers its rights on all the world . . . [it] would mean that during military occupation irreconcilable enemy elements, guerrilla fighters, and ‘werewolves’ could require the American Judiciary to assure them freedoms of speech, press, and assembly as in the First Amendment, right to bear arms as in the Second, security against ‘unreasonable’ searches and seizures as in the Fourth, as well as rights to jury trial as in the Fifth and Sixth Amendments.” Id. at 784. (Shortly before Germany’s surrender, the Nazis began training covert forces called “werewolves” to conduct terrorist activities during the Allied occupation.

A while back, the FAA took the collective rights interpretation of the second amendment with respect to space flight. Well, the FAA has reconsidered and now supports the individual rights model (i.e., the correct model).

Open letter to Glock

Happiness is a warm gun.

That’s what the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership tells us about assault weapons. So, why do the police want them?

Free Republic has the text. Some notes:

This bill is particularly ugly, folks.

Update: Seems the ban on transfer provision is there to prevent people like my from going out and stocking up on evil black rifles. This happened quite extensively prior to passage of the 1994 ban. Manufacturers cranked out weapons that look like assault weapons and regular capacity magazines in droves. People bought them up and some turned a profit. I personally sold an Oly Arms AR for $1,300 after spending $700 on it two months before.

Update 2: Make sure you write or call your Congressmonkies and tell them oppose this bill.

Well, someone has to do it.

heh

Nobody pays attention to audible car alarms. At best they garner a lazy “Shut that shit off!” At worst, they’ll get you a rock through the windshield. Now, though, there is a car protection device that really emphasizes deterrence. It’s called the Eye of Sauron Antitheft Device and it has captured the attention of my inner ricer.

What the Hell are you starin’ at?

Update: I guess in the upgrade process, Wordpress has forgotten how to count comments.

Update 2: Comment count fixed thanks to Standard Mischief.

Might try to upgrade. Could get scary in here.

Update: All done. Now, let’s see how many problems we have.

Err, not digging the new look of new wordpress. I’ll live.

Knoxville News Sentinel Editor Jack McElroy has instructed his attorney Rick Hollow to offer a settlement to Knox County Commissioners to drop its Sunshine Law lawsuit if the County Commissioners have a do-over of the January 31 appointment meeting which brought eight replacement Commissioners into office.

At what point should the citizens of Knox County question Mr. McElroy’s judgment and conduct? E.W. Scripps Company has a very specific Ethics Code. In this code are very specific guidelines regulating participation in political and governmental affairs. Today’s settlement offer is troubling and disturbing.

There is no provision in either the Knox County Charter or the Tennessee State Constitution for a do-over for the January 31st appointment process. Time and time again Mr. McElroy has shown a preference to defend the County Mayor and attack his opposition. There is not much that can be done in areas of Editorial judgment. However, this is a different matter. I hope County Commission chooses to fight Mr. McElroy in court and that they draw a line in the sand. This kind of heavy handed interference in the administration of local government cannot be condoned. It is outrageous and Mr. McElroy should be sanctioned by the E.W. Scripps Company corporation.

Is this a matter of principle, or is it a matter of intimidation? The section of the E.W. Scripps Company Ethics Code is listed below.

Read the rest of this entry »

Some numbers on mass murders. Interesting.

Apparently, mass murdering psychopaths hate Mondays too.

Update: I misread the chart. See comments for explanation by Heartless Libertarian.

NIT has new digs. Terry Frank will have new radio digs.

Nashville is Talking is sporting some new wordpress digs.

Romney, trying to get his pro-gun credibility, recently joined the NRA. Big fucking deal. So did Michael Moore.

He’s still for a ban on weapons that look like assault weapons. Sorry, I have no use for a Massachusetts liberal, even if they have an R after their name.

There was a rather unflattering entry at Wikipedia about Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam being a member of Bloomberg’s anti-gun Mayors Against Guns group. Seems someone from Knoxville (i.e., perhaps some of the mayor’s people) keeps trying to scrub it. But, never fear, Countertop restored it.

Spam, gizmos, cookies and various doodads annoy the average web-surfer. SM tells you how to deal with web annoyances, notably Snap.

I linked to this yesterday, but in a different context. To illustrate what we’re up against, here’s a reminder of what The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership is about:

I certainly agree with your sentiments. There is no pressing need for optics that allow shooters to make sniper shots from over one hundred meters.

Not only are they anti-gun, they’re anti-scope.

Wendy’s is using a Violent Femmes song about getting high and masturbating to pimp their food. I saw that commercial last night and also thought: man, even the alternative songs from when I was a kid aren’t safe from commercialization these days.

WBIR:

A woman home alone with her two children in Morgan County’s Coalfield community fired a gun three times Friday morning to protect herself and her family.

Shortly after Suzanne Carson’s husband left for work, Carson said she went back to bed with her 3-year old daughter.

When she heard a noise, she got up to check on her 4-year old son, who was sleeping down the hallway.

…

Carson said she saw the face of a young man trying to open her back door.

She fired three times. The thug ran off, apparently uninjured. Now, I’m glad she ended the attempted break in but let’s imagine how the news would look if her round connected:

Stu Pidasshole, career criminal and thug, died today when his head was aerated by a 9mm. Diligent homeowner shot Mr. Pidasshole as he attempted to unlawfully enter her home, no doubt with nefarious intent. He was pronounced dead at the local hospital. Cause of death: brains seeing light of day.

See, isn’t that a much happier ending?

It’s now an internet verb right up there with Fisk and Dowdify. Discuss.

In a strange irony the end of the world now has better odds than you winning the PowerBall Lottery this Wednesday. An asteroid may come uncomfortably close to Earth in 2036.

Astronomers are monitoring an asteroid named Apophis, which has a 1 in 45,000 chance of striking Earth on April 13, 2036.

It will only be the end of the world for a City or small region but it is interesting that this is a fraction of the odds of winning this weeks PowerBall which has odds of 1 in 146,107,962.

Rest easy, the United Nations is on the case.

Insty calls them fur children. I’ve always used Practice Kids.

Remington has issued a presser.

I’m with Tam. I’ll be buying some Remington stuff. They get preferred status. And they can have some free ads if they want.

Update: Outdoor Life drops Zumbo’s blog. It’s gone. Look, we were rightfully hard on Zumbo. But I think his apology was a sincere effort. Like Adam said:

…in the comments he’s still being shit on. People are saying he’s just doing it to keep his job, he’s just doing it for financial reasons, et cetera. What, so only people with nothing to lose are allowed to apologize? That’s ludicrous. He said he was wrong. He didn’t blame us for misinterpreting what he said, he didn’t do what the Dixie Chicks did and make it worse. He flat up too responsibility for his mistake, said he was wrong.

That takes guts.

So stop being so goddamn cynical. He said he was wrong.

I concur. While I applaud Remington for their unequivocal response, I think Zumbo was sincere in his retraction. Sure, he used his free phone call to the Nuge and all that. But it’s quite likely he was, in fact, ignorant and now realizes that.

Countertop points out that Outdoor Life has been giving some coverage to the American Hunters and Shooters Association, which is an anti-gun group disguised as a pro-gun group.

He advocates that you call Outdoor Life:

Anyway, I would suggest ALL Outdoor Life subscribers call customer service today.

1 800 365 1580

Press 0 and speak with an operator.

Lets flood them with telephone calls too.

While you have them on the line:

* Complain about this gun banning bigot and demand that OL addresses the issue in their (much more widely read) print edition.
* Complain that the magazine over the last few months has also been too willing to run press releaseses (sic) from ASHA (American Hunters and Shooters Association – Ed).
* Demand that along with publiclly(sic) distancing itself from Zumbo in print, that they need to come out and definitivly (sic) state
1. OLs position on the 2nd Amendment and
2. Publicly expose ASHA as the frauds they are with a focus on the legacy of bigotry and lies its leaders have espoused (in a major cover story would be ideal).

In an update to the Zumbo mess, Remington has a statement at their website:

NOTICE: Remington is in the process of severing our sponsorships with Mr. Zumbo. Remington in no way shares or advocates any of the comments made by Mr. Zumbo on his blog site. A formal announcement will be released by noon today.

Via NK, comes this poem on the M16. It is entitled Blaming of Parts.

Update: link fixed.

Via MKS, the local dead-tree newspaper is running a What bloggers are saying feature. Cool.

To those of you using that annoying Snap thing that pops up when I mouseover a link, can you get rid of that? It’s really fucking annoying.

So, this weekend we had a bit of a controversy over hunter and outdoorsman Jim Zumbo equivocating us folks who own black rifles with terrorists. He later said he was wrong. There was quite a bit of pressure and his two posts received thousands of comments. Some thoughts:

I think Zumbo was just ignorant. As a hunter, he likely doesn’t know shit about guns other than to the extent they help him hunt.

I’m inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt.

We gunnies are too quick to eat our own. Boycotts of the products that sponsored Zumbo were immediately called for without giving the companies who sells those products time to respond. People, for example, immediately wanted to boycott Remington. Well, they were wrong. Reminton’s president left a comment at the thread stating that Zumbo does not speak for them. David Codrea has confirmed that comment was from him and that Remington has severed their relationship with Zumbo over this. That said, I hope all of you who were calling for a boycott are on your way to the gun shop right now to buy a Remington. Remington, who to my knowledge doesn’t even make black rifles, went to bat for us. If you’re willing to crucify them before they respond, you ought to be willing to pony up some cash for their products when they come through.

ETA: And to you guys at Remington, if you’re reading, you can get all the free ads here you want.

Statements like Zumbo’s give anti-gunners ammunition. It’s true. They see one ‘defector’ and pounce. See? In other news, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership has a myspace page.

Seen at bitter’s:

I believe this is also a time that we handgunners and EBR nuts need to look inside and wonder what we’ve done to drop the ball that someone as high up as Jim Zumbo didn’t get the message on the importance of these issues and how they are connected to hunting

So, to all you evil black rifle and handgunner nuts out there: Take a Fudd shooting.

More on this at The Ninth Stage, SIH, KDT, and Kevin.

Via SM, looks like the NRA is getting their You Tube on.

Via Kopel and Hardy comes an FBI study of of shootings of police officers. In what is a shock to no one who pays attention:

Predominately handguns were used in the assaults on officers and all but one were obtained illegally, usually in street transactions or in thefts. In contrast to media myth, none of the firearms in the study was obtained from gun shows. What was available ‘was the overriding factor in weapon choice,’ the report says. Only 1 offender hand-picked a particular gun ‘because he felt it would do the most damage to a human being.’

Researcher Davis, in a presentation and discussion for the International Assn. of Chiefs of Police, noted that none of the attackers interviewed was ‘hindered by any law–federal, state or local–that has ever been established to prevent gun ownership. They just laughed at gun laws.

Really? No gun shows used and no preference for assault weapons? Why that goes against everything the anti-gun crowd and the media have been telling us.

What is surprising, to me anyway, is that the killers were proficient with their weapons, reported practicing a lot, and had been in gun fights before. I say surprising because when I think of cop killers, I assume gang-banger (thank you, Ice-T). And gang-bangers typically just can’t shoot.

It means they’ve already got my evil black rifle.

I was gonna write something extensive about this moron but Tam and Kevin already did. Some dumbass who I’ve never hard of but who writes for Outdoor Life says:

I must be living in a vacuum. The guides on our hunt tell me that the use of AR and AK rifles have a rapidly growing following among hunters, especially prairie dog hunters. I had no clue. Only once in my life have I ever seen anyone using one of these firearms.

I call them “assault” rifles, which may upset some people. Excuse me, maybe I’m a traditionalist, but I see no place for these weapons among our hunting fraternity. I’ll go so far as to call them “terrorist” rifles. They tell me that some companies are producing assault rifles that are “tackdrivers.”

You’re not a traditionalist. You’re a scaremongering turd who is more a threat to gun rights than Carolyn McCarthy because you masquerade as one of us. An assault rifle is a select-fire, medium powered rifle capable of automatic fire. These rifles are being used by our troops, who are not terrorists. Assault weapon was an arbitrary legal construct.

Not only are you a threat to gun rights, you don’t know shit about guns.

If you have or get Outdoor Life in any form, call and complain. Many have canceled their subscriptions.

His commenters are letting him have it too. Good.

Update: He says he was wrong. Good.

Insert your own surrender joke.

Kinda nipply.

Hillary Clinton so far is dominating the early polls for the Democratic Presidential nomination. Looking across the political landscape it seems this race resembles the Bill Clinton Bob Dole match up of 1996. If the theory that the South still has crucial sway over the Presidential election, pundit Dick Morris may be right that no one can stop Senator Clinton in her quest for the White House in 2008.

Unless of course she stops herself. Howard Dean’s quest for the Presidency was cut short by a noise canceling microphone. Unknown to Dean at the time the microphone filtered out the crowd noise so his speech sounded manic to Television viewers. Some question whether he was setup by CNN or others.

One of the great movies of the late 1950’s was “A Face in the Crowd”, the story of the fictional Larry “Lonesome” Rhodes, played by Andy Griffith. Rhodes by luck and talent is propelled from radio to Television and becomes a star. Along the way he betrays the people who believe in him and helped him to the top.

In a Howard Dean moment Rhodes is betrayed by Marcia Jeffries, played by Knoxville’s own Patricia Neal. At the end of a “Lonesome” Rhodes Television broadcast while the announcer does a voice over, Rhodes is bragging to the control room how he controls the viewers and mocks them as “idiots,” “morons,” “guinea pigs.” Rhodes does not know that Marcia Jeffries has turned on his microphone and the viewing audience can hear his mockery of them. His career is finished.

Is it possible that the only person in America that can keep Hillary Clinton from the White House is either herself or her most trusted friends?

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership embarasses itself:

Which is what happened last month when the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence released a report, “Shady Dealings: Illegal Gun Trafficking from Licensed Gun Dealers.” Tanner’s store was featured as one of the scurrilous.

What the Brady Center didn’t know is that the sale had been a sting, arranged in cooperation with the local office of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Oops.

Tam on the 10/22 rifle:

It has ascended to that plateau of firearms ubiquity (shared only by the M1911, AR-15, and Remington 700) where you can build a complete example of the gun, from the ground up, without using a single part from the original manufacturer.

A few years ago, at the dawn of the Tivo era, Jamie Kellner, CEO of Turner Broadcasting said:

[Skipping commercials is] theft. Your contract with the network when you get the show is you’re going to watch the spots. Otherwise you couldn’t get the show on an ad-supported basis. Any time you skip a commercial . . . you’re actually stealing the programming.

He was afraid that 10 years from now, when everybody who has a TV also has a tivo-like device, nobody would ever watch a commercial again. And he wasn’t alone. Lots of broadcasters were bemoaning the death of their business model, as they do whenever a new technology emerges. As it turns out, though, they were all wrong.

[A] lot of people with digital video recorders are not fast-forwarding and time-shifting as much as advertisers feared. According to new data released yesterday by the Nielsen Company, people who own digital video recorders, or DVRs, still watch, on average, two-thirds of the ads.

Is there a need for more than a few? I mean really.

or not.

Via NIT, comes this interesting bit on a DARE video that teaches kids what to do in the event of a school shooting. Well, interesting once you get past the anti-gun hysteria. Says Mack:

Yesterday I picked up the kids, and usually we recap their day. My 11 yr old announced that they had DARE again at the school, and I assumed it was the usual “war on drugs” propaganda. (Which, I should say, I’m thankful for, except when they encourage children to report their parents for marijuana possession, though I haven’t heard about that happening locally.) To my surprise and shock, yesterday’s lesson was “what to do in the event of a school shooting.” Apparently, they covered a wide variety of possible scenarios, and the lesson included a video that made my 11 yr old quite uneasy. They were told what to do if caught in the hallway, a classroom, or even a restroom. (bathroom self defense tactics included the advice to spread liquid soap on the floor by the entrance, so the shooter would slip, giving you time to escape. ) They were taught the difference between “cover” and “concealment.” I mean it was pretty thorough. Later in the day, I overheard her explaining to her 9 yr old brother that a car is good cover, but you should hide behind the front tire. He asked “why the front?”, and she replied that the engine added additional protection from stray or intended bullets.

I would be curious to see the video. If anyone has any info on it, let me know. Many times, school programs are stupid when it comes to some issues. And I hope that this one teaches the right things. I am glad that they’re teaching concealment v. cover. Concealment is only useful to the extent it buys you time to get out. Of course, my thoughts on what to do are simple and straightforward and based on the following assumptions:

That said, here’s what I’ll teach my kids:

If you have any advice, post it in comments.

Remember that horrible blogger bill in Tennessee? No, well, it said if a blogger was accused of libel, they had to remove the post. Anyhoo, there was some controversy as to how the bill got started but all roads lead to Jamie Woodson. Mrs. Woodson is full of pathetic excuses as to why it was filed. Here’s the latest.