Stoney:

If you can read this, thank a teacher. But since you are reading it in English, you’d better thank a Vet.

Chicago SunTimes:

A U.S. nuclear weapons laboratory must replace up to 100,000 locks at a cost of more than $1.6 million, after staff lost several sets of master keys to the complex, then failed to notify superiors, it emerged Friday.

The extraordinary series of security blunders at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is outlined in a scathing report by the U.S. Energy Department’s inspector general.

According to the report, officials at the laboratory have lost nine master keys and three magnetic key cards to the top-secret research facility. In some cases, officials still do not know when or how the keys went missing.

but the Supreme Court will hear the Guantanamo Appeals. I am glad the court will hear the appeals but I doubt that they’ll do the right thing, which is to tell the government to knock that crap off.

Michael Silence writes in the KNS:

Knox County’s symbolic resolution recognizing God as the foundation of American heritage and government appears headed for approval next week.

On Monday in two different committee meetings, 10 commissioners collectively voted in favor of the resolution. That means that if those votes hold, a majority exists on the 19-member body.

It looks as though it will pass. Knox should remember Claiborne County’s ordeal:

In Claiborne County, officials have delayed it based on legal advice from the county’s attorney. Attorney James E. Stepp III advised County Mayor Virgil Herrill to hold off because of a lawsuit the county lost 15 years ago. That was the then-famous “Bible ladies” case where women were going into schools during school hours and teaching the Bible. It is estimated that losing that case in federal court in Knoxville cost the county about $80,000.

I hope the commisioners consider the possible cost of defending this issue because they most assuredly will have to defend it.

More new stuff at the Shooters’ Carnival. Give it a read.

Unfortunately, it seems to be back to normal.

Les tackles the inconsistencies in TN law:

§ 1. Clergy; eligibility to serve in legislature
Whereas Ministers of the Gospel are by their profession, dedicated to God and the care of souls, and ought not to be diverted from the great duties of their functions; therefore, no Minister of the Gospel, or priest of any denomination whatever, shall be eligible to a seat in either House of the Legislature.

§ 2. Atheists holding office
No person who denies the being of God, or a future state of rewards and punishments, shall hold any office in the civil department of this State.

Can’t be an atheist or a preacher and hold public office. Interesting.

The source is Mike, who is currently MIA.

Jay has a good post that pretty much defangs Gore’s assertion that Bush is big brother.

Whichever party is in power assumes the role of big brother.

Handful of states canceling their presidential primaries:

Several states have moved to drop their presidential primaries next year, worried about costs in still-tight financial times and wondering if the political exercise would serve any purpose.

Some say they can’t afford the millions of dollars it costs to put on an election. Others say the decisions reflect the lopsided nature of modern primaries: The front-runner gets anointed by the media and campaign donors after the first few state primaries and the rest of the primaries are formalities.

The decisions add fuel to the argument that the primary system is in dire need of repairs. In most states forgoing a primary, party-run caucuses will be used instead to choose delegates to the national conventions.

The current primary system does need a lot of work. Of course, so does our entire political system. The current system bars any competitive entry of a third party. But majority rule could result in some getting elected by such narrow margins as to be questionable. No easy answer, I’m afraid.

Bjorn had some kind of problem with various TLAs that are too technical for me. But he’s back.

Dave is a dad!

Now his newborn son has a blog.

Two abysmal offerings today, first is this:

An 89-year-old woman could be evicted from her home of more than 50 years for missing one tax payment of $572 on her South Hanover Twp. property.

Helene Shue’s red farmhouse and 41 acres of land along Route 39 — about two miles from Hersheypark — were appraised at $800,000, said her nephew, Jeff Arndt. The property was sold in September at a sheriff’s sale for $15,000.

Arndt said he and his aunt were not aware that the county was seeking to recoup a portion of the 2001 taxes until an anonymous caller tipped him off Monday night.

“He told us the property had already been sold,” Arndt said. “The Lord laid it on his heart to tell me about it.”

Arndt has hired an attorney, and filed a legal challenge of the sale yesterday. The petition states that the taxes were paid in full every other year, including this year.

Dauphin County’s tax bureau made repeated attempts to collect the 2001 payment before selling the property, said Jennifer Kocher, a county spokeswoman. Several notices were sent seeking payment, and two notices were posted on the front door of her house, Kocher said.

“There’s a very strict procedure we must follow that includes 12 notifications,” Kocher said. “We followed the letter of the law to a T.”

The $572 owed in back taxes represents part of what is owed for 2001, Kocher said. County records confirm that Shue paid all her subsequent tax bills in full, she said.

Arndt said Shue did attempt to pay the $572 in question. But he said the check was returned with a form letter from the tax bureau explaining that the payment should be made by certified check or money order.

The government fails to accept partial payment and this warrants confiscation and forfeiture of property? This is abysmal.

This one is slightly more disturbing:

A drug sweep Wednesday morning at a South Carolina school has some parents and students questioning police tactics.

Surveillance video from Stratford High School in Goose Creek shows 14 officers, some with guns drawn, ordering students to lie the ground as police searched for marijuana. Students who didn’t comply with the orders quickly enough were reportedly handcuffed.

Police didn’t find any criminals in the armed sweep, but they say search dogs smelled drugs on a dozen backpacks.

The school’s principal defended the dramatic sweep.

So, essentially storm troopers assault many innocent kids because someone might have some weed? One final thought:

“I was just upset knowing they had guns put to their head and a canine was barking at them and about to bite somebody,” said Latonia Simmons, the parent of one student. “It was awful.”

Awful is not the word. Abysmal, criminal, asinine, Nazi, Gestapo and other words come to mind.

Buck calls it quits. Bummer.

I’d guess he won’t stay gone long. Maybe just not update that often.

Imagine my surprise to discover that coffee cake tastes almost exactly unlike coffee.

Kathy links to this piece on an effort to ban toy guns. Asinine excerpt:

The spirit behind the Towns bill is outrage that toy guns exist at all. “It seems that the only thing toy guns accomplish,” Towns wrote in a letter to congressional colleagues, “is to make it easier to commit a crime or whet kids’ appetite for a real gun when they get older. They serve no purpose in society and should be banned.”

My child hasn’t been born yet and s/he already has his/er first real gun.

This makes me wonder if Justin’s girlfriend reads his blog.

Yahoo:

The U.S. economy added more than twice the number of jobs expected in October, the third straight monthly gain, and the jobless rate fell, the government said on Friday in a report pointing to a labor market recovery.

The Labor Department also made substantial upward revisions to payrolls for August and September, a sign sizzling economic growth in the third quarter translated into more jobs.

The number of workers on U.S. payrolls outside the farm sector in October soared 126,000, the largest rise since January, after climbing 125,000 in the previous month. The number far outstripped analyst expectations for a 58,000 gain.

Knox and Blount counties are seriously considering this God is the foundation of our heritage stuff.

The first amendment may take another hit.

WATE:

Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union Thursday filed a lawsuit over a state specialty license plate that benefits abortion opponents.

The groups say the tag discriminates against people with opposing views.

The Legislature authorized the “Choose Life” plate in the last session, but the Senate tabled an amendment proposal that would have created a “Pro Choice” plate.

The lawsuit was filed against Gov. Bredesen and Safety Commissioner Fred Phillips in their official capacities.

In other news, the state plans to release a Liberals Suck and a Nuke the Gay Whales for Jesus license plates.

Here’s a real good summary of the effects of the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban:

But we do know with certainty that commercial behavior changed part of the gun market. Many manufacturers designed new firearms that stayed within the 10-round limit imposed by law. In the interest of giving a handgun buyer better stopping power within a small, concealable frame, new handguns were designed that incorporated larger-caliber, potentially more deadly bullets, such as the .45 ACP, .40 S&W or 10 mm. rounds. One author sarcastically referred to these new handguns as “Clinton compact pistols.” A 1996 article in Guns and Ammo magazine pictured a new, smaller Glock pistol with the screaming headline “Pocket Rockets!”

Read the whole thing.

The shooters carnival has a couple of new articles, one I have already linked to regarding concealed carry; and a review of the Buckmark Camper and the Ruger 22/45.

Go read. Valuable stuff for you folks pondering your gun purchases.

I took this political quiz. Tom suggested this other one, which I scored:

Your Personal Self-Government Score is 100%.
Your Economic Self-Government Score is 100%.

I tend to agree that they are extremely biased. Manish claims he’s more libertarian than I but that is ludicrous. The reason is the first quiz has four answers (strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree) but the second has yes or no. In the first one, while I may disagree with stuff, I do see exceptions. Hence, I rarely picked strongly. Most answers I gave were agree or disagree and not strongly agree or strongly disagree. I imagine the latter would be weighed more heavily.

For example (though I can’t remember specific questions from the first one and will now make one up), if the question was do you oppose eminent domain, I’d say I agree. I wouldn’t say that I strongly agree because there are legitimately times when it is necessary for the common good. If it said do you oppose eminent domain as it is applied in the country today then I would strongly agree. Also, if it was only two choices (agree or disagree) I’d pick agree.

And I just broke rule #3 about blogging, which is don’t blog drunk. Hope there weren’t any gross spelling errors.

CNS news:

After nearly 12 hours of debate on some 70 amendments, the Wisconsin State Assembly early Thursday passed the bill that would repeal the state’s longstanding ban on concealed weapons.

Under the legislation, people 21 and older who complete gun safety training and pay $113 for a five-year permit would be allowed to carry concealed weapons.

The Republican-controlled Assembly voted 64-35 in favor of Senate Bill 214, which also passed the Republican-controlled Senate on a 24-8 vote on Oct. 24.

Via Brian, I decided to take the political compass:

Economic Left/Right: 2.38
Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.26

In February, my score was:

Economic Left/Right: 5.12
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -2.21

Getting further left and further libertarian in my old age.

James has some advice and a product round up of how to carry your concealed weapon. Give it a read.

Yahoo news:

The number of Americans filing first-time claims for jobless benefits took an unexpectedly sharp plunge last week, reaching a level not seen since before the economy tumbled into recession in 2001, a government report showed on Thursday.

A separate report showed U.S. business productivity soared in the third quarter, suggesting little risk inflation will flare despite signs the economic recovery is on firmer ground.

Initial claims for state unemployment aid fell 43,000 to 348,000 in the week to Nov. 1 from a revised 391,000 the prior week, the Labor Department said. It was the lowest level since late January 2001, two months before the recession began.

But wait, there’s more:

Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan delivered an upbeat assessment of economic prospects, saying Thursday the odds “increasingly favor” a revival in job growth.

Sounds like good news to me.

Whitney Kemper wrote this article in the Nashville City Paper. His conclusion is that the second amendment doesn’t support an individual right to arms. I sent Whitney Kemper the following email:

Regarding your article at http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/index.cfm?section_id=40&screen=news&news_id=28055

You may wish to actually do some research before you take on a controversial subject like this. For example, if Miller supported the states’ right view the SCOTUS would have asked: Is Miller a state? They didn’t.

And for future reference:

US Code: Title 10
US Code as of: 01/26/98

Sec. 311. Militia: composition and classes

(a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and,
except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a
declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United
States who are members of the National Guard.

(b) The classes of the militia are –
(1) the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard
and the Naval Militia; and
(2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia.

Additionally, the case moving through the system now, Silveira v. Lockyer (http://keepandbeararms.com/Silveira/default.asp), is addressing specifically the individual rights view.

More facts regarding the Supreme Court addressing the second amendment from http://www.sierratimes.com/03/08/10/ar_gun_laws.htm

– The Court has not been quiet on this subject as previously thought, using some form of the word “gun” in its decisions 2,910 times (gun, rifle, pistol, shotgun, firearm, etc., even Winchester five times) in 92 cases. Three dozen of the cases quote or mention the Second Amendment directly.

– Armed self defense with personally owned firearms is recognized and supported in more than a dozen cases, is a distinct right of American citizens, and an ancient “duty to retreat” is not obligatory.

– The often-cited Miller case from 1939 is inconclusive, which is why gun-rights and gun-control advocates both claim it supports their position. The record shows that the Court actually remanded this case back to the lower court for retrial and a hearing on the evidence, since there was no evidence presented. Because Miller had been murdered by that time and his co-defendant had taken a plea agreement, no retrial or evidentiary hearing was ever held.

– All 92 cases are reproduced to show what the Court has actually said. More than 1,000 interesting quotations are highlighted, and each case includes a plain-English description. A special “descriptive index” reduces each case to the firearms-related question(s) it answers.

Send Mr. Kemper an email. In fact, just copy mine and send it.

I just like how this is reported:

Somewhere between a Food Lion and home, Temesha Greene noticed a van following her.

When she got to her driveway that August night, a man pulled out a gun.

Greene pulled out her own gun.

The man fired at her.

She fired back.

He missed.

She didn’t.

And the good news: No charges were filed against Greene. Mind you, she’d be in jail if this was New York or California.

Tom links to an interesting entry on the partial birth abortion ban:

And yet, the Republicans write a ban that does not limit itself to one procedure, and does not contain any health exception. They’ve written a ban, in other words, that’s specifically designed to be rejected by the Supreme Court. What’s up with that?

Follow the links for the reason. This ban reminds me of other pointless legislation, such as the assault weapons ban. Neither really accomplishes anything. The AWB doesn’t ban assault weapons and this ban will not stop partial birth abortion.

Remember, it’s not important that the laws congress passes actually do anything good. It’s important that congress appear to be doing something good.