So, that’s what they mean by collective right.

My LG is on it’s last legs. I’m eligible for a new phone with my provider (Verizon). Should I just go ahead and get me and the Mrs. iPhones?

Note: I swore I’d never have an iPhone but Chris changed my mind from Hell No to Hmmm, maybe.

How’s AT&T service in East TN?

Update: In a bit of irony, it seems AT&T’s webpage only supports Internet Exploder. Yes, AT&T sole provider of Apple’s iPhone will only let you use a Microsoft product to check service.

Breda told her mom about her blog.

Kinda interesting to me. See, I never really told anyone I knew in the real world about my website. I didn’t even tell my wife until after a year or so (and that’s only because she saw the domain hosting charge on the credit card). And, it wasn’t until about 2005 (when the blog was three) that I happened to mention it to a couple of friends. Then, one of those friends told another friend. He told my brother in law. And then, this year, my wife told my other brother in law. She even opined that she just thought everybody knew. And this year, my dad found out. He found out because I logged in at his house, did a quick post and didn’t clear history. He’s been reading ever since. In fact, he told me he went back one night and read the entire Notes to Junior Category. Other than that, I don’t really tell folks.

And in this post, some folks asked if I let the guy I mentioned know about the blog. I did not.

There’s a reason I don’t tell people. That reason is that if they read regularly, I’d eventually piss them off. It’s true. I have, for example, mentioned a few disagreements with folks on this blog. Now, imagine they hop on the internets and see me making fun of their position? And now that I know who knows, I can’t make fun of them anymore. It’s inhibiting.

I’ve mentioned the new Brady Blog before. They seem to spend the majority of their posts dancing in the blood of someone’s dead or injured child (note: links use tinyurl.com since the brady bunch is trying to increase it’s google-fu):

New Mexico Boy Accidentally Shoots, Kills Self

Father, Hunting In The Dark With Gun During Bow Season, Shoots And Kills Son

8-Year-Old Girl Shot And Killed After Finding Unlocked Gun At Home

North Carolina Teen Accidentally Shot In The Chest With AK-47

4-Year Old Girl Takes Gun Of Grandmother – Concealed Carry Permit-Holder – Shoots Self

Report: “3-Year-Old Survives Shooting Self In Stomach”

Nice guys!

Dammit, you’re too smart:

A Federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by a man who was barred from the New London police force because he scored too high on an intelligence test.

In a ruling made public on Tuesday, Judge Peter C. Dorsey of the United States District Court in New Haven agreed that the plaintiff, Robert Jordan, was denied an opportunity to interview for a police job because of his high test scores. But he said that that did not mean Mr. Jordan was a victim of discrimination.

Judge Dorsey ruled that Mr. Jordan was not denied equal protection because the city of New London applied the same standard to everyone: anyone who scored too high was rejected.

This one really left me speechless.

What a whiner. No one was outraged. We were just curious. Funny how whenever the little people correct a reporter, it’s because they’re outraged or some such. It’s never genuine concern or anything like that.

And she still has not definitively answered the question. Another trait I’ve noticed in media sorts.

Behold, your .gov at work!

Joe details his involvement with the group. And how to get good press.

It passed committee. But wouldn’t it be easier to list guns that the bill did not ban?

So, looks like Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership is going to go for the bans are OK if they don’t affect the right of self-defense in the home. Naturally, from their view, nothing affect the right of self-defense in the home.

These weapons are super dangerous! Of course, before yesterday, they thought handguns were super dangerous weapons. When you start losing, you can move some goalposts pretty quick.

Well, that certainly would end my current plan of voting for McCain’s vice president.

You’re soaking in it.

Where Great Britain used to be, they’re looking to ban hats because they make it harder to identify you on CCTV cameras.

Paul Helmke of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership:

“We’ve lost the battle on what the Second Amendment means,” campaign president Paul Helmke told ABC News. “Seventy-five percent of the public thinks it’s an individual right. Why are we arguing a theory anymore? We are concerned about what we can do practically.”

Well, looky there, people don’t buy your mythology!

Update: Oh yeah:

Gun Control Group Braces for Court Loss

The nation’s leading gun control group filed a “friend of the court” brief back in January defending the gun ban in Washington, D.C. But with the Supreme Court poised to hand down a potentially landmark decision in the case, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence fully expects to lose.

Well, I hope so.

One thing I learned as a result of this Kozinski business is that it is apparently pretty popular to paint naked women as cows and take pictures of them. Who knew?

Rule 34 is very (and oddly) real.

My sooper seekrit sources let me know that there’s likely some sort of announcement at the supreme court today at 10. Glue eyes here.

Note: don’t necessarily get your hopes (or fears) up. It’s just speculation.

Update: the 10 announcement was not Heller.

Wow:

It’s about time we get real about gun control in our cities. If we can have sobriety checkpoints and now motorcycle checkpoints, why don’t we have cops creating gun checkpoints? Have them create checkpoints in the city where the gun violence is running rampant.

Give the cops metal detectors and make people stop and get checked for guns. They are illegal and they are a lot worse than drunken drivers, and motorcyclists without the correct credentials. Let’s get real here and start doing something about all these guns on our streets.

An old misattributed quote: They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Blount County Sheriff’s Office Detective James Wilson won the friendly little shooting competition:

The Blount County Sheriff’s Office will have bragging rights for the next year after taking home the police shootout trophy on Tuesday.

After a challenge was sent out to all local officers, 22 men and women came out to show off their shooting skills on Monday at Gunny’s Indoor Shooting Range, 2208 E. Broadway Ave., Maryville. They were each scored on marksmanship, shooting while moving and speed shooting.

Blount County Sheriff’s Office Detective James Wilson was named “top shooter” and won first place in the competition with his overall score in all three categories. Wilson also took first place in speed shooting.

I wish I could have made it. BTW, the competition was held at Gunny’s.

May soon be a thing of the past:

Just got some charming mail in today. I quote” Beginning July 1, 2008 California Penal Code prohibits all FFL’s from shipping firearms to an FFL in California, unless prior to delivery, the FFL delivering obtains a verification approval number from the CA DOJ.”

Oh and by the way, you have to get a permit from CA before they will even deal with you.

People say to me Hey, Uncle, what’s your problem with Barack My Balogna Has A First Name It’s Obama?

Well, I’m gonna tell you. And it ain’t pretty. I could go on about how the man has no significant legislative accomplishments; or that he’s an anti-gun big government liberal; or that I’m not voting for him because I don’t want socialized health care; or that his foreign policy ideas sound bad. Or whatever. But that’s all minor and, frankly, par for the course for recent Democrat also-rans.

Or the transparent doofusness involved in the horse shit he’s peddling. I mean, here’s an article chosen at random from a news search. Barack Ron Paul Obama blasts McCain for doing too little to help Americans avoid crippling debts. Really, sparky? And your bill introduced in the Senate to address this issue is where? Oh, the dog ate it? I see. Now, generally, I like do-nothing politicians. They’re less dangerous. But I have a feeling maybe he’s saving it up.

But, no, none of that is why I take issue with the guy. I mean, hypocrisy, lies and rhetoric are what all politicians are made of. But that’s not what scares me about this guy. What does scare me? His worshipers. Seriously, these people scare the ever-living piss out of me. Have you heard some of these people? I mean, it has gone beyond Saturday Night Live parodies. I mean Ron Paul supporters got nothing on this guy. Here’s some scariness:

Are those anything like digital brownshirts:

A crack team of cybernauts will form a rapid response internet “war room” to track and respond aggressively to online rumours that Barack Obama is unpatriotic and a Muslim.”

Holy shit.

Deification:

Is Obama an enlightened being?

Spiritual wise ones say: This sure ain’t no ordinary politician.

Double holy shit.

Bruce sums up a Wizbang post (read the comments) about convincing him to vote for Obama.

Holy shit again.

The man blew his nose and got applause.

This one leaves me speechless:

If Obama were in any sense mediocre, he would be forgotten by now. He is, in fact, a remarkable human being, not perfect but humanly stunning, like King was and like Mandela is. He is the change America has been trying desperately and for centuries to hide, ignore, kill. The change it must have if we are to convince the rest of the world that we care about people other than our (white) selves.

How do you say ‘holy shit’ when speechless?

And more on the messiah:

How does a cult figure, in the eyes of some something akin to a messiah, make the transition to a political frontrunner – president even – where disappointment will soon crush what seemed to be a journey to a promised land?

Holy shit. Or rather:

These people scare me. Kinda like how some of the Ron Paul folks scared me.

Roberta on Leviathan: And it’s why I bother to blog.

Tommy Gun Diva.

ATF has criticized the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Ownership for lying about trace data:

But ATF and gun proponents found flaws in the Brady Center’s calculations.

ATF supervisor Todd Reichert in Washington noted that the agency’s data included some gun sales that were originally made as much as 10 years ago, which is much longer than the two-year “time to crime” ATF considers an indicator of a possible illegal gun sale.

Reichert also said not all law enforcement agencies report recovered crime guns for tracing. And, he said, spikes in the numbers come after ATF help police agencies clear backlogs as those departments begin reporting recovered crime guns to the federal agency.

Though this is a refreshing change, it doesn’t quite make up for the fact that their special agents (ahem Tom Mangan like to get TeeVee time parroting Brady Campaign fabrications.

You’ll recall ATF’s Always Think Forfeiture brouhaha. Well, thanks to their boneheaded ass-hattery, comes a bill by Congressman Bill Sali:

Sali said he will pursue legislation to prevent the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) from restarting the marketing program.

These guys continue their record of stellar performance!

Yesterday, Tom decided to poke some fun here linking to a rather not funny video on voting Republican. Some responses here and here.

Support for CCW. In Illinois.

David Hardy has thoughts on US guns going to Mexico. $20 goes a long way in Mexico.

Also, there’s currently a bill in the house (HR 6028) addressing the subject by (gasp!) throwing money at it:

H.R. 6028 would authorize assistance for Mexico and Central American countries to control drug trafficking and organized crime and direct the Department of Justice to expand its efforts to prevent trafficking of firearms across the U.S.-Mexico border. It would authorize the appropriation of $1.6 billion over the 2008-2010 period for those purposes.

Hey, you know what you could do with $1.6B? Secure part of the border.

Just like everyone with access to Al Gore’s Internets, Judge Kozinski had some dirty pics and jokes on his computer.

Google Street Views Knoxville.

Kinda weird but I plug in my office address and there’s my truck.

Hey, you know what’s fun? Shooting people randomly with a paintball gun. Well, until, fearing for their life, someone shoots back. You know, with a real gun. Fortunately for the youths, Darwin did not get his say as the guy who returned fire was hit in the eye and missed.