Wisconsin’s governor has vetoed the concealed carry law. I recall that at first he said he would, then it was speculated he wouldn’t. Guess we know now.

Via Unknown News, the terror futures market has been revived by a private firm.

These futures markets have provided valuable info in the past. It’s a shame we’re too politically correct to think. Even the new version is watered down:

CNN/Money incorrectly reported Monday that the market would be much like the one that was backed by the Defense Department, which would have allowed traders to create contracts for, say, whether Yasser Arafat would be assassinated.

But subsequent e-mail correspondence with Charles Polk, president of San Diego-based Net Exchange, the company trying to relaunch the market, made it clear that traders won’t be able to create contracts for such events. The possibility of such a contract under the first plan ignited a political firestorm that forced the Pentagon to drop its support for the market.

Apparently, the Presidential candidates don’t know what the Assault Weapons ban does. I’ve been saying that for a while now. Sadly, neither do most citizens.

The Daily Times:

Wilbur Smith Associates senior transportation engineer John Sexton likens Alcoa Highway to a swollen, dangerous river.

“It’s a river of cars with very few gaps to cross,” Sexton told a gathering of Alcoa Highway business representatives Tuesday.

“There are too many cars going too fast for the number of driveways we have,” Sexton said.

To improve the chances of surviving the games of “chicken” played out daily on the highway, Wilbur Smith Associates has been contracted by the city of Alcoa to conduct an engineering analysis of the heavily traveled roadway, with an emphasis on identifying and improving problem intersections and median gaps.

The plan currently is a bypass. I’d say most problems on Alcoa Highway could be solved with about 3 or 4 traffic lights. But what do I know? I’m no traffic engineer.

KNS:

Those who defraud senior citizens deserve harsher punishment, and Knox County needs to continue pushing senior needs as the population ages, Mayor Mike Ragsdale said Tuesday.

This reminds of those signs on Tennessee gas pumps that have the picture of that caveman looking state trooper. The sign says something like In Tennessee, if you pump and don’t pay you could lose your license.

Special people and businesses deserve special penalties on their behalf? Kinda lame. If I still $100 from Pilot Oil, a 90 year-old, or just some guy then the penalty should be the same.

How many of these guys will actually go to jail? I’d gander that the answer is not enough:

Federal law enforcement officers began arresting several dozen people suspected of foreign currency trading crimes in a crackdown on a largely unregulated facet of business finance, sources said Tuesday.

Speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, two government sources confirmed that raids were aimed at arresting those named in court papers filed under seal in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

One source said the crimes were committed as investors were cheated by individuals who claimed to be making foreign exchange trades when they were not. The trades were worth millions of dollars, the sources said.

The alleged crimes could be carried out virtually anywhere because the foreign exchange market is a largely unregulated one, one of the sources said.

The ruling by the 9th circuit about machine guns and the ruling by the MA Supreme Court that gays have a right to marry have something in common. They both are the right ruling for the wrong reasons.

In the former, it should be a second amendment issue and not a commerce clause issue. However, the commerce clause issue has the added effect of being applicable to other things, like growing you own pot, homemade porn, and making your own pesticides or whatever you can make at home.

In the latter, the SC changed a law and said write a new one. Huh? Judges can’t do that. Rule that a law is constitutional or not. Don’t write laws. Jebus!

God chimes in. No, really.

This morning, bright and early, I had a routine dental appointment, cleaning and stuff. This was my first appointment with my new dentist (we had to switch due to insurance). The dentist makes new patients fill out a questionnaire. This questionnaire is designed to save your life, or at least let the dentist know who to call in the event he fails to save your life. Those pesky dental emergencies.

The questions consist of do you have this disease? And things like that. One question was Do you use tobacco? I checked Yup. Another was Do you use alcohol or other drugs? I checked Yup.

I get to the hygienist and she asks Do you dip or smoke? I say I smoke, it’s so delicious and satisfying. I then decide to volunteer some information and say Oh, and I do crack not alcohol, in case you’re gonna ask. She laughed.

She asks me about dental problems and if I have issues she needs to know about. I tell her that I hate the scraping feeling when they take the metal pick and grind my teeth. She asks me if I want the gas to relax.

Score!

I haven’t had the gas since I was about 12. I remember then the dentist saying Count back from 100 and after it was over I’d only remember saying 98. Now, with my increased tolerance to drugs due to my crack use (the hygienist’s joke, not mine), I remained aware. The gas is a gas. At first, I was almost completely asleep. Then, I woke up and was wide awake. Then asleep. Etc. When I was wide awake, I asked if she turned it off. She hadn’t. Later, she turns it off and the oxygen on and in 2 minutes I’m back to normal and ready to drive.

Good times.

No really, you must read this!

Via Rocket Jones comes this site, where Texas logs the last meals of death row inmates.

From Kim:

“Bother!” thought Pooh, as he chambered another round…

Nice.

From Rodger:

Here are the statistics from the National Safety Council: In the year 2000, firearms killed 600 Americans accidentally. That’s 600 out of nearly 280 million. Here are the other numbers of accidental fatalities for that year: autos, 43,000; falls, 16,200; poisons, 11,700; drowning, 3,900; ingestion of food or other object, 3,400. The only number of fatalities lower than accidental firearms deaths is that from poison gases – 400.

CNS:

When two students retrieved guns they had kept in their cars to stop a public “rampage” shooting at the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Va., in January of 2003, only six of 218 unique news reports on the incident mentioned that the students who stopped the shooter were armed. When a Pearl, Miss., assistant high school principal got a gun from his truck, which was parked off campus, to single-handedly stop a mass shooting there in 1997, of 687 unique news stories, only 19 mentioned the assistant principal, only 13 mentioned that he had something to do with stopping the shooting and only ten disclosed that he used his gun to stop the killer.

Also:

In the crime blotter from Dec. 26, 2000, Louis “Sandy” Javelle’s name appeared alongside those of six other victims who had been shot to death by a disgruntled co-worker at Edgewater Technologies, Inc., in Wakefield, Mass.

Javelle distinguished himself that day by trying to delay and disarm the gunman, 42-year-old Michael McDermott, before being killed. But Javelle might have saved his own life and at least four others if the concealed handgun permit he held in New Hampshire had allowed him to carry a weapon on his job in neighboring Massachusetts, according to one of Javelle’s friends and numerous firearms policy experts.

“Sandy held both a federal firearms license and a permit to carry a handgun in New Hampshire,” according to his friend, David Bergquist. “Ironically, the gun laws in Massachusetts prevented him from carrying a concealed handgun. But these same laws did not prevent Michael McDermott from obtaining illegal firearms.”

This speaks for itself:

“The Patriot Act was not meant to be just for terrorism,” Department of Justice spokesman Mark Corallo told a reporter.

Abysmal.

The resolution acknowledging God as the foundation in government passed in Anderson County.

In Blount County:

The attorney for Blount County, Norm Newton, recommended county commissioners strike part of a resolution regarding the Ten Commandments.

The resolution, which originated in Greene County, asks governments at local, state and federal levels to proclaim “God as the Foundation of Our National Heritage.”

The resolution is on Thursday’s Blount County Commission meeting agenda.

In a Nov. 14 letter to commissioners, Newton determined that the fourth paragraph of the resolution “plainly endorses” the Ten Commandments.

It is problematic because it violates the establishment clause of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the counterpart establishment clause of the Tennessee Constitution, he wrote.

Newton found no other constitutional ground on which the resolution could be successfully challenged in court.

It’s going to get a vote.

Tom writes about the the Padilla case and quotes this article:

But Judge Barrington D. Parker Jr. said he believed the power to designate a U.S. citizen as an enemy combatant rested with Congress, rather than the president.

Giving such power to the executive branch with only limited review by the courts, he said, would be “a sea change in the constitutional life of this country and … unprecedented in civilized society.”

Two points of contention:

Congress doesn’t have the power either. Everyone should have the right to a trial. Period. This detention is an abysmal afront to our civil liberties. If the administration has a case, it needs to make it. Otherwise, it could be me or you in South Carolina.

Tom states:

This administration has absolutely the worst civil rights record since the days of Japanese internment.

I disagree. The Clinton adminstration was very likely the worst. My reasoning is detailed in this post by Jay Caruso. There is a minor level of understanding afforded to Bush because the nation was attacked. This understanding does not lead to justification by any means. It’s one thing to do something in the name of security and another to do it just to expand government. Both are inexcusable but the reasoning behind them is worth consideration.

Matthew Stinson wrote:

No American president . . . has done so much damage to constitutional liberties as Bill Clinton.”

There is much truth to that. Or, as I am fond of saying, at least Bush hasn’t set anyone on fire.

My criticism of Clinton is not meant to excuse the behavior of the Bush administration. They are wrong and everyone (conservatives included) should be very wary of this issue.

And this is why we need liberals, to monitor these abuses. Now, if they could just get taxes, big government, nannyism, and gun control right.

Barry quotes:

From the WVLT VOLUNTEER TV Newsroom:

The Knox County Commission has voted 10-9 to withdraw the so-called “God Resolution.” The resolution recognizes God as the foundation of American heritage and government. It has already been adopted in several other East Tennessee counties.

Good. Of course, I haven’t heard a word about the one in Blount County.

Via James comes this story about the military testing a new 6.8MM round for the AR15. Where do I get one?

And here’s some pics.

William Burton is back after a ten month hiatus.

Jeff has his weekly report on Gun Bias.

Andrew has a use for the Blogosphere. Sounds good to me.

I hope this post finds you in good fortune . . . now send me some cash.

Mark links to some good news indeed.

Apparently, Clinton’s DOJ thought there was a link too.

Head on over to Big Stupid Tommy’s and read.

First, Bush comes out to support the assault weapons ban. Though some have opined it’s lip service to make him appear moderate and that he knows congress won’t get the law to him. Still, gun owners should be outraged. I am.

Now, Democrats are modifying their position on the Second Amendment. Though some have opined that Gun Safety is just the new buzzword for gun control. Sadly for the Dems, they are just paying lip service to the issue because it cost them big in 1994 and likely cost Gore in 2000.

Neither party has it right.

Via Unknown News:

A controversial ordinance giving Miami police more authority during protests was unanimously approved by City Commissioners Thursday, despite pleas by anti-globalization activists who said it would violate their constitutional rights of free speech.

A week before the Free Trade Area of the Americas summit expected to draw thousands of protesters, commissioners gave final approval to an ordinance pushed by Miami Police Chief John Timoney, who has said the law is needed to ensure the safety of his officers and the general public.

Read H&HH’s summary of the actual effects of the law.

Another embarassing Democrat memo that addressess judicial nominations:

They also identified Miguel Estrada (D.C. Circuit) as especially dangerous, because he has a minimal paper trail, he is Latino, and the White House seems to be grooming him for a Supreme Court appointment.

So, is this quote racist? Or is it that the Dems would rather be the party to nominate a latino? I’d guess the latter was the intent but it has racist over tones.

There is an investigation underway regarding the storming of a school with weapons drawn. And they’re calling for a much different approach in the future. I should hope so.

First it was movies, now bloggers are doing albums of the 1990s. I’m gonna include some late 80s stuff too since that whole era of music was intertwined with the end of glam; rise and fall of grunge; and the new metal sound. My top 20 in no particular order:

1. Korn – Korn: Two words: Kick fucking ass. That bass sound was amazing. Every heavy metal band since Korn sounds like Korn. This album was the last metal concert I went to (I’m too old now and look silly). And the show was just before these guys became huge. It rocked.

2. Alice in Chains – Dirt: Melodic, heavy. Definitely one of the more influential albums.

3. Sepultura – Roots: What happens when a heavy metal band goes and lives with a bunch of South American Indians? This album.

4. Pantera – Vulgar Display of Power: This album, to me, marked the end of glam metal (which is a good thing).

5. Pearl Jam – 10: The beginning and end of grunge.

6. Faith No More – The Real Thing: The album that proved you don’t have to be metal to be heavy. Borden is a bad ass.

7. Metallica – And Justice For All: An awesome album! Unfortunately, it would be the last good Metallica album.

8. Primus – Sailing the Seas of Cheese: Les Claypool is the best bass player ever. Well, at least he’s the most creative.

9. Nirvana – Nevermind: Changed the music scene forever.

10. Ice Cube – Predator: The best rap album ever.

11. The Cure – Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me: The last good album from 80s power bands.

12. Rage Against The Machine: Unfortunately, they were a one trick pony. This album ruled but they had nothing ever after it. And Audioslave sucks too.

13. Sound Garden – Super Unknown: See 12.

14. Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream: Great album but one day you stop smoking weed.

15. Tool – Undertow: This album kicked ass, as did their first one. But after this, all their albums sound the same. That, or you’ve stopped smoking weed.

16. Living Color – Vivid: Who knew black folks could do metal? Vernon Ried is a bad ass. This album absolutely rocked but the band was short lived. Bonus: the singer was in Platoon.

17. Megadeth – Countdown to Extinction: Dave Mustaine is the epitome of heavy metal. This album was their mainstream effort that put thrash on the scene. And it did.

18. System of a Down – System of a Down: Heavy metal meets, uhm, polka? I don’t know what their sound is called but it is different and it is great. Sugar.

19. Jane’s Addiction – Nothing’s Shocking: It had it all. Melody, heavy riffs and creative lyrics.

20. Limp Bizkit – Three Dollar Bill Ya’ll: Before they were huge but no doubt lead to them being huge. Once you get passed the egoism, they rock.