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.