I used to know the answer to that question but I am no longer sure. Have we lost our collective minds regarding local government and development in Knox County?

The reason that development can be good is that is provides income to the local government. A case can be made for TIF’s (Tax Increment Financing), IF there is a return on the investment of the TIF. If the project fails then the local government does not receive the full extent of the projected property taxes and the local government pays the balloon note on the infrastructure. All projects have risks. There are no slam dunk real estate projects. There are no sure things.

We need to have a debate about what is the role of government. It has morphed from what we learned in high school to something very different today. We cannot fund schools or police retirement because we are using too much tax money to make speculative risky investments with private enterprise on the “hope” the end result will be increased property taxes. That is not the role of government. The government is not meant to be a lending partner to local real estate speculators. That is what banks are for. The government is supposed to build schools and pay its policemen.

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David notes that the 4th Amendment Suspension Bill Passes House:

[T]he House of Representatives has approved a tough new anti-drug and anti-weapon law that would require local districts to develop search policies – including strip searches – with immunity against prosecution for teachers and staff

Mohave Daily News:

Some 400 new state laws created during the most recent legislative session took effect Thursday and 20 of them involve guns.

So, in one session, a state enacted 400 new laws. 400 laws. Egad.

Odd case:

Fadi Mohammad didn’t think there was anything wrong with storing a gun in the center console of his car.

He found out differently when he was charged with illegally carrying the weapon during an arrest for drunken driving in Louisville.

When his case went to court, a judge dismissed the charges, saying the center console fell under a provision in Kentucky law allowing guns to be carried in a glove compartment.

Sounds reasonable to, oh, everyone. Except the supreme court of Kentucky:

But the Kentucky Supreme Court reinstated both charges yesterday in a split decision issued in Frankfort, saying a center console is not a glove compartment.

“A glove compartment is a small storage cabinet in the dashboard of an automobile,” Justice Donald C. Wintersheimer wrote in the opinion.

In Kentucky, it makes a difference if you put it in the console or the glove compartment.

Gives me the warm fuzzies:

About a dozen residents of a Dallas neighborhood beat a man after reports that he had been showing pornographic pictures to children on a playground, police said.

Brandon Scott Burke, 20, showed up Wednesday at an Oak Cliff apartment complex and was alleged to have shown a magazine with pictures of naked women to some of the children playing there, police said.

When one of the mothers saw him and asked Burke what he was doing, he tried to run and the woman started screaming, said Elizabeth Williams, the mother of another child. According to a police report, Burke said about 15 men “jumped him and hit him repeatedly on the face with their fists.” He suffered minor injuries, police said.

The Fifty Caliber Institute reports:

The LA County Gun Task Force has served another search warrant on the home of another member of the fifty caliber community. On Monday September 18th, eighteen police cars swarmed the neighborhood where the FCSA member lives and served a search warrant signed by Judge Steven Kleifield of the LA County Superior Court. The officers were at the residence for several hours and confiscated all semi-automatic firearms belonging to the victim.

The probable cause for issuing the search warrant was not available in the body of the affidavit so the reason for the search is unknown at this time. It should be noted the LA Gun Task Force used “High Risk” entry tactics by sending a SWAT Entry team to make the initial entry into the victim’s residence. Gun owners in LA County need to be prepared to expect these kinds of entry tactics and respond to commands from any officers if you are contacted.

FCI wants everyone to be aware that the LA County Gun Task Force is lead by agents from BATFE; LAPD and LASO. They appear to have focused their attention on members of the fifty caliber community and are aggressively trying to arrest law abiding citizens for just being “Gun Owners”.

In the situation that occurred this past Monday the victim had his entire firearms collection seized and he was told charges are going to be filed because he had in his possession linked ammunition in quantities of more than 10 rounds of ammunition at a time. This has been interpreted as a violation of the “High Capacity Magazine” portion of the Assault Weapons Act in CA. The victim owns a Semi-auto M2; a semi-auto M3 and a 30 caliber semi-auto 1919

Everyone living in California needs to pay attention to what is happening in Los Angeles. This can happen to you simply because someone who knows about your firearms calls the LA Gun Task Force and gives them information they interpret as a violation of the Draconian Gun Laws they have been passing for the last five years.

So, linked ammo is a magazine? Doesn’t look to me like any of the weapons listed will even take linked ammo.

Via Kevin, who says:

As the New Jersey court said, “When dealing with guns, the citizen acts at his peril.”

They keep this up, some of that peril is going to shift.

Spank that Donkey has the Best of Carnival of Cordite, with lots of gun porn goodness.

Strategy Page (again) confirms what Uncle readers already know. The 45 SOCOM project is done:

Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Defense began a search for a new .45 caliber combat pistol. Now that search has been mysteriously called off. The Department of Defense has announced, without any explanation, that is no longer looking for a new combat pistol.

Bummer.

The Hawaii Reporter notes that Eddie Compass may have been fired as a result of the gun confiscations in New Orleans:

McGraw, according to the transcript, then asked Nagin, “He (Compass) said that you were concerned about image and that you criticized him for showing emotion including on my show. You know, when I asked you about it and we talked before, I said, ‘Was he fired?’ and you said, ‘No, he wasn’t fired.’ And I said, ‘If he hadn’t wanted to quit, he would still be here?’ and you said, ‘Yes, he would have.’”

Responding, Nagin said this: “And I still stand by that. But he had to agree to step down because we were starting to get lawsuits.”

McGraw asked, “What kind of comments were bringing lawsuits?”

And Nagin replied, “Well, he made a comment about something with guns and the NRA fired up. And it was just a comment that kind of got us in trouble.…”

The “comment” at the center of this firestorm was Compass’ announcement that nobody other than law enforcement would be allowed to have guns. He was quoted by various news organizations declaring, “No one is allowed to be armed. We’re going to take all the guns.”

Bullshit. A disassembled AR-15 cannot possibly fire.

Brittney did an on-air piece on what bloggers were talking about, which was apparently spinach.

Sporting goods store Gander Mountain has opened in Knoxville on Parkside Drive in Farragut. I’ve not been, but JHill at arfcom has. He writes:

Shoes, boots, etc–good selection of both hunting and hiking (limited makes) and casual stuff.

Flyfishing: a very good selection of materials for making flies, selection of rods and ect. seemed okay

Fishing: they have a ‘quick’ entrance for just buying bait–kinda cool. Not Basspro selection, but pretty good

Boating: misc stuff–no interest in this area–would probably say, “Go to Basspro”

Some ATV stuff

Archery: Nice selection, didn’t puruse the bows, but they had both conventional and crossbows, lots of arrows, heads, impressive quiver selection, seemed like a great practise range (well light, easy access).

Duck/goose, predator, trapping selection: Seems good for waterfowl, was impressed/suprised to see pelts (artic fox, raccoon, coyote, skunk) traps, snares,etc.
–they also have 2 Foxpro 416? model callers $399

Flashlights: VERY NICE section! Selection includes: Surefire, Cyclops, lots of headlamps, Inova,

Great knife sharpening selection and good selection of knives–several Benchmades

Gps: whole locked case

GUNS, GUNS, GUNS–I have never seen so many shotguns!, Both used and new rifles and pistols, AR’s (Bushys, High Stnd?) 2 M1a’a, VERY large muzzleloading area

AMMO/cleaning: Great selection of ammo–they do have Adco 5.56 and Blackhills (52grn HP), lots of .22’s, .308 (~15 selections), lots of shotshells, cleaning supplies

Reloading: reloaders (not dillon), equipment, bullets, shot, primers, wads, etc Powders?

gun cases: big selection

Airsoft/paintball–decent on airsoft, crappy paintball

Major Letdown: Camping–terrible selection of packs and bags. Good selection of foods Mtn house, backpackers pantry. Overall–like if Walmart expanded their camping area…

nick-nacks–ho hum

Hunting clothing–good. would probably work well as a ‘reference/resource store’, then look elsewhere

Carnaby gets their newsletters so I don’t have to:

That tripe could not convince a thinking human being. It’s pretty clear they’ve gone to a quantity over quality approach. Lets look at what they’ve got

I’d feel dirty getting that tripe.

Congrats to Brittney:

Starting tomorrow, I will be on the air weekly for a segment about what we discussed this week at Nashville Is Talking. Every Friday at 4:30 p.m.

Les wants to know if you’ve tried them. Look pretty nifty in terms of having a gun that is secured from kids and readily accessible. I recall a gun magazine recommending them a while back but, since those are funded by ads, they tend to recommend everything they review.

For those who can afford it, fill out forms in triplicate, and send them certified mail to some bureaucrat, who might open it in the next couple of weeks:

The new Loudon County Mayor decided that citizens asking for public records were just too damned pesky so he decided to assess a fee of $25 and required all records requests to be in writing. BOTH of these policies are illegal. Attorney Phil Harber has filed suit on behalf of Loudon County residents to STOP this raw arrogance by someone who is supposed to be a public servant, not a public tyrant.

In the comments to my Flood Insurance post, Straightarrow pointed to the hole in the ozone layer as an example of how climate scientists perpetrated a fraud on the world. After all, he says, this was a big deal and now we never even hear about it. It’s a good question. Fortunately, there’s a good answer.

The reason we don’t hear about ozone anymore is because it’s a solved problem. There’s no need for further action, so you no longer hear the calls to action. The hole is still there, but it’s size peaked in 2000. Scientists believe it will heal itself in the next 50 years or so.

The reason the hole is closing is becuase international agreements brought down CFC usage enough to make a real difference. The 1985 Vienna Convention and the 1989 Montreal Protocol are really good examples of how international cooperation can work. Even if we don’t meet the 2010 target of eliminating CFC production, we’ll be ok.

Contrary to the ozone hole being an example of chicken little hysteria (or scientists conspiring to lie in return for grant money), it’s actually a success story. You can see an ozone timeline if you scroll down this page. Read what the NOAA says about ozone. It’s one of the few times science saw a threat, raised a cry, and the world (eventually) responded.

David has been keeping up with quite a few gun stories:

Cops raid the wrong house (again)

He even calls our side out when they’re not accurate:

“Let me give you a concrete example of what I mean: the anti-gun Joyce Foundation has donated $650-million to the Freedom States Alliance (parent organization of the GunGuys’ Web site), who, in turn, funded the .50 Caliber Terrorism and License To Murder web sites, as well as others.

That number can’t possibly be right. It’s either misspeaking or a misquote.

Here we go: It’s $650 THOUSAND, and that was in 2005. You can also see a yearly breakdown of other subversive cells being funded with Joyce grants.

Wow. Joyce gave money to this retard?

Actual Headline: BSO deputy shoots, kills 170-pound dog

Uncle’s Headline: Cops can enter property, kill dog without warrant, probable cause.

No one does snark better than Xrlqy Wrlqy. Heh.

I hate when one set of fundamental rights takes precedent over another fundamental set of rights:

An Ellis County man has been ordered by a judge to keep the noise down on his property during deer season after he was found guilty of a misdemeanor charge of disrupting hunters.

An Ellis County jury found Galen Morris, 38, guilty on Tuesday of violating one count of the state Sportsman’s Rights Act. He was found not guilty of a second, similar charge.

The judge in the case ordered Morris to make sure his children don’t disturb hunters on a neighboring property by playing loud music or driving four-wheelers before noon or after 4 p.m. during deer season, which starts in November. Morris was also issued a $250 fine and a year of probation.

I’m as pro-gun as they get but a man’s property is a man’s property and he’s free to enjoy it in a manner he sees fit, so long as it does not interfere with another’s enjoyment of their property. Hunt somewhere else.

I was planning on (again) voting for Phil Bredesen. What’s not to like? He’s pro-gun and a pretty sharp guy. But Roger puts it in perspective:

Brysonites, you do realize, don’t you, that there is really only one reason to vote for Jim Bryson, and that is that every time a lame duck governor sits in office a push for a state income tax is the result. That’s it. That’s the only reason.

Of course, Roger is endorsing Bredesen in that post.

Harold News:

“For all those who think that if we give the anti-gunners just a little, they would be satisfied and go away,” Pearson said, they should consider a frightening development. “Maryland Cease Fire now says there is no difference between a so-called ‘assault weapon’ and any other firearm. They are now pushing for a ban on all long guns.”

Baby steps will go a long way.

YouTube worth $1.5 to $2B? How?

I don’t know why anyone does business in Cali:

The state attorney general’s office has ordered Jimenez Arms, the maker of inexpensive semiautomatic handguns, to stop making guns after several models repeatedly failed safety tests.

The cease and desist order was the latest setback for the company previously known as Bryco Arms, which was bankrupted by a $24 million court judgment after a teen was paralyzed by an accidental shooting.

Cool:

Crave Entertainment, a leading publisher of console videogames for the casual gamer, today announced that NRA Gun Club, a target shooter for the PlayStation(R)2 computer entertainment system, has shipped to retail stores throughout North America. Officially endorsed by the National Rifle Association, NRA Gun Club allows gamers to enter the shooting range, steady their nerves, and take aim at the bulls- eye and score in a wide variety of competitive environments.

I guess that’s one way to get America’s youth into the shooting sports.

Guaranteed to suck:

Horrible, wonderfully horrible news. Bjork and the Sugarcubes reunion concert planned.

I thought they were already united. Or it could have been the sound of two cats fucking. Not sure.

Got up this morning, showered, put on a polo shirt. Looked at the thermometer and realized outside it was 44 degrees. Put on a long sleeved shirt. You know what this means? No, not time for sweaters. Time to put up the Kel-Tec and break out the Glock.

Good time of year.

First, tobacco. Then gun makers. Now, automakers:

California is suing the auto industry over tailpipe emissions, marking the first time a state has sought monetary damages for the impact of global warming by vehicles.

Attorney General Bill Lockyer on Wednesday sued the six largest U.S. and Japanese automakers, claiming they have causing millions of dollars in damage by creating greenhouse gases.

Lockyer is suing on the theory that greenhouse gases are a “public nuisance” under both California and federal law, an argument similar to one being pursued in a case before the 2nd U.S. District Court of Appeals in New York.

It’s like the two biggest nanny states are at war with business or something.

Update: The National Association of Manufacturers calls it Grandstanding, Litigiousness.

Blogs and the local news were all aflutter over our little airport getting a new airline: Allegiant Air. I thought cool, maybe prices will drop a bit or we’ll get a direct flight to Vegas. Well, Allegiant Air does one flight per day to Tampa. And you can’t even book them yet. Not impressed.