Within reason, I’ve often felt it better to regret something I have done as opposed to something I haven’t done. Turns out, it’s a good philosophy:

The older we get, the more we regret choosing virtue over vice, new research shows.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some hobos to kill and your wife to sleep with.

I guess AC stands for Air Conditioning because that shit’s cold:

Remember, friends don’t let friends post farcical forwarded emails.

I’ve mentioned before that I love conspiracy theories because they’re entertaining. Seriously, Hollywood should make some of them into movies.

Well, via whoever is blogging at insty’s place, comes a whole slew of 9/11 conspiracy theories.

The AP:

A 19-year-old man [ed note: if a gun were involved, he would be a child] was arrested after authorities said he shined a laser pointer at a police helicopter.

The bright green laser beamed into the cockpit late Monday night, temporarily blinding the officers, said Melissa Klein, an NYPD spokeswoman.

Seems pretty annoying but now dastardly. But:

Police arrested Anthony Pepe a short time later, and charged him with reckless endangerment and criminal possession of a weapon, Klein said.

Was the laser attached to a gun? Or is a laser a weapon in New York?

In the NY Times, Jane Brody pleads with parents to use gun safes to make their guns inaccessible. After all, as she notes, guns make up “10 percent of all injury-related deaths among children ages 5 and 14”. Still, I’m not quite sure how locking up guns will help since

Even in homes where all the guns were locked away, the children were as likely to report having handled a gun in the home as were children in homes where guns were stored unlocked.

Interestingly, she cite statistics that suggest kids are really good at finding the things their parents hide. 60% of the kids who handled guns at home did so without the knowledge of their parents. In other words, you might think it’s safely stored, but your kids could tell you otherwise.

Brody ends the article with some good advice on what to tell your kids about guns:

[T]hey must be told never to touch a gun or bullets and to assume that any gun is loaded and can be fired. If they find a gun anywhere or encounter someone handling a gun, they must leave the area at once, go to a safe place and tell an adult what they saw as soon as possible.

I’m a big believer in being in control of your guns and your kids. If you’re not pretty damn certain about the location and control of one or both of them, you’re doing something wrong.

The Knoxville News Sentinel and WATE provide coverage of last nights school board workshop concerning the fate of the new Hardin Valley High School. The “new” plan is too built a school for 1,300 students and to built the cafeteria, gym, and auditorium for 2000 students. The second phase of the school, an edition for 700 students, would be built 3 to 5 years after the school is opened. Has there ever been a more disrespectful and contemptible power play in Knox County government?

There has not been a high school built in West Knox County for 25 years. This high school was needed ten years ago. Were there people on the school board that wanted to buy land and hold it for the future? I have heard there were but the matter never came to a vote because of the same old day in day out politics of Knox County.

There is money in the Knox County budget for this school to be built for 2000 students. The problem is Mayor Mike Ragsdale. He asks that others compromise but he reserves the right to never compromise. This entire problem started when Mayor Ragsdale arbitrarily picked a 40 million dollar number for the price of the new school. Anyone could have told the Mayor that it was impossible to build a 2000 student high school for 40 million dollars. The Mayor’s excuse is that the school was originally to hold 1700 students and he remains steadfast that the school could have been built using “special” construction techniques to come in on budget. Those “special” construction techniques could come from his brother in law who owns a prominent construction firm. There was a great deal of light shined on that and the normal pesky bidding process occurred instead.
Read the rest of this entry »

Tom is talking energy efficiency:

So this weekend, I was looking for information on how to replace the thermostat on my attic fan. My googling took me to this energy efficiency website, which says that attic fans actually do more harm than good. The site seemed quite credible, and I started looking around at other sections, and learning about all kinds of stuff I was doing wrong.

He has some good info. I commented:

My tips: Ceiling fan in the garage; insulate your garage (and garage door); It’s amazing how much heat from the garage comes in the house.

Vinyl windows.

The spray on insulation (like a foam) and not the pink kind.

Use 2X6s instead of 2X4s for exterior walls in the house. An extra 2 inches of insulation makes a big difference.

But then, I’m building so i make these choices as I go. kinda tough if you’re house already exists.

Yeah, I know. I change houses more than I change cars.

Also, on the super nifty scale, is I’m getting perpetual hot water. Basically, the piping is heated so when you turn hot water on anywhere it is instantly hot. No waiting on it to travel from the hot water heater to the kitchen.

It’s no longer a secret, silly.

In an update to the settlement of some pawn shops with NYC, Cam Edwards says:

I’ve gotta do some checking on what the current language is, but I wonder if this “historic settlement” doesn’t violate the law?

Meanwhile, Bitter says:

Now, given that these are just two random pawn shops in Georgia, I can understand why they don’t want to fight NYC. On the other hand, this comes after news about Bob Barr’s lawsuit against the city and revelations that it was the investigators who lied on federal forms and are being investigated by the ATF for those actions. Why didn’t these guys have their lawyers call Barr? Or, if they really didn’t want to be bothered by future anti-gun mayors, why didn’t they just get out of the firearms business? Now every anti-gun mayor is going to try a stunt like this and target those shops.

Nashville TeeVee reports:

The FBI and Metro police are warning their officers about some dangerous weapons after an unusually perilous year for knife attacks.

In this era of gun control, there is renewed concern about knives, especially concealed weapons that are disguised as normal items.

This FBI recently sent out a bulletin across the country that indicates even a blade less than three inches long can produce a fatal stab injury.

A brief interlude on knife fighting: you don’t stab, you cut. It’s easier for the recipient of said wound to fight back if they’re just plugging a hole than it is for them to fight back if they’re trying to hold their insides in.

More:

Authorities recently have found people carrying a knife that was described as a lipstick case, a gun hidden in a radio, a stun gun in a flashlight and even a gun concealed in a knife.

According to Metro statistics, there were 270 knife attacks in Nashville in 2005. So far this year, there have already been 293 knife attacks.

Wow, I guess knives are getting popular. And my favorite:

A weapon that is generating much of the concern is a tactical knife that is often described as the perfect pocketknife since it is perfectly legal and easily worn on the hip.

Yes, folks, assault knives!

The FBI is concerned because the blade easily flips out and can be used to attack an unsuspecting individual.

Residents who carry regular pocket knives do not need to be concerned by the new bulletin. Only knife blades that are longer than four inches are against the law to carry.

I happen to have a knife that flips out easily but the blade is only 3 or so inches long. It’s similar to this one but you can buy it at Wal-Mart for about $30. I didn’t know it was tactical. I guess tactical is a synonym for convenient.

Like Katie, Junior has recently started school. She started last week and is having a good time. She’s learning a few words (such as sleep instead of night night) and some neat things such as when you take your shoes and socks off, you can stuff your socks into the shoes.

The Brady Bunch issued a presser that congratulates Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the City of New York for the historic settlement announced today with two Georgia gun dealers. No details of the settlement. Seems odd. I wonder if the settlement is NYC pays the dealers money and they don’t sue NYC? The Bradies stick to the lie that gun dealers who were caught red-handed making illegal sales when the only law-breaking that has been confirmed is that NYC’s investigators broke the law by lying on Form 4473.

If anyone has the settlement details, let me know.

Update: Whoop, there it is:

Less than three months after announcing a groundbreaking lawsuit against 15 gun dealers in five states that sold guns illegally, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, joined by Corporation Counsel Michael A. Cardozo, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly and Criminal Justice Coordinator John Feinblatt, today announced that two of those gun dealers have agreed to a landmark settlement – providing for a Special Master selected by the City and appointed by the court to monitor their firearms sales activities. A-1 Jewelry and Pawn, Inc., of Augusta, Georgia and AAA Gun & Pawn Brokers of Hephzibah, Georgia have both agreed to submit to close monitoring of their records and inventory, which may include videotaping of their sales activities and continued undercover surveillance. The Special Master will ensure that each dealer is in full compliance with all laws regulating the sales and purchase of firearms. No other city or state has ever won such an agreement. A-1 Jewelry and Pawn and AAA Gun & Pawn were among the 15 gun dealers named in the New York City lawsuit filed on May 15 and currently pending in the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of New York.

So, the little dealers who don’t have Bob Barr representing them caved to avoid a court battle would be my guess. More:

“The City has obtained substantially stronger monitoring of sales and better dealer education, at no cost to the dealer. Both sides will benefit – the dealers will receive training in preventing gun trafficking, and the City will be protected from gun traffickers, with penalties on the dealers if they fail to comply with the agreement.”

As part of the agreement, a Special Master will be appointed and paid for by the City. The Special Master will have broad powers to monitor the gun dealers including unlimited review of firearms-related records, which include trace requests and multiple handgun sale reports, as well as the ability to conduct unrestricted inspections of all firearm inventories. Employees will receive enhanced training to ensure these dealers conduct legal firearm sales and more readily identify straw purchasers.

So, the city of New York is going to monitor (and pay for it) two small pawn shops in Georgia? Doesn’t sound like much to me other than a symbolic victory, which may be all they’re after.

More as I get it.

Update 2: Well, that seems to be it. Doesn’t seem very historic.

In other news, water is wet:

The law-enforcement source said Haq had a license to carry a concealed weapon, though not the weapon that was used in the shootings.

Clayton Cramer notes:

I wonder if the reporter actually was told this by a “law-enforcement source,” because a Washington State concealed pistol license (CPL) does not identify any particular pistol on it. I just renewed my Washington CPL on Friday. Neither the CPL that I was renewing, nor the form that I filled out, asked anything about what gun I would be carrying.

And this would be one of those rare occurrences of a person with a CPL license committing a crime. Expect the Brady bunch to point that out soon.

In the case of Anthony Diotaiuto, a kid who took 10 rounds of 9mm in his chest because he had a handgun carry permit and less than ounce of weed, Radley notes:

…the grand jury investigating the raid has been cancelled twice now, meaning that as we approach the one-year anniversary of the raid (August 6th), both the media and Diotaiuto’s family are still prohibited from accessing documents related to the investigation.

Apparently (and not surprisingly), an internal police investigation has cleared all officers involved.

(past coverage here)

Ayup:

What has happened? Democracy happened. Technology happened. Politics became a science and not an art. That’s what happened.

We are no longer a Republic of thinking people. We are a Democracy of ignorants. Myself included.

Phil Bredesen basically says he judges them by the color of their skin and not the content of their character.

Seen at publicola’s:

One bleeding-heart type asked me in a recent interview if I did not agree that ‘violence begets violence.’ I told him that it is my earnest endeavor to see that it does. I would like very much to ensure — and in some cases I have — that any man who offers violence to his fellow citizen begets a whole lot more in return than he can enjoy.

Read the whole thing.

In an editorial that mirrors the Senate race in Connecticut, the NY Times today endorsed Ned Lamont in a piece centered on Lieberman’s failings. They mentioned Lamont’s views and abilities only in passing.

Lieberman’s main crime, according to the Times, is cooperating a little too enthusiastically with the Bush administration. There is too much complicity in his type of loyal opposition. More to the point, Lieberman has bought the Bush line that 9/11 can justify any government action or policy.

At this moment, with a Republican president intent on drastically expanding his powers with the support of the Republican House and Senate, it is critical that the minority party serve as a responsible, but vigorous, watchdog. That does not require shrillness or absolutism. But this is no time for a man with Mr. Lieberman’s ability to command Republicans’ attention to become their enabler, and embrace a role as the president’s defender.

…

If Mr. Lieberman had once stood up and taken the lead in saying that there were some places a president had no right to take his country even during a time of war, neither he nor this page would be where we are today. But by suggesting that there is no principled space for that kind of opposition, he has forfeited his role as a conscience of his party, and has forfeited our support.

No, I kid about that and it’s an inside blog joke. But . . .

The Tennessean endorsed Bob Corker, stating that he is an honest, energetic man. Now, The Tennessean says:

One of Bob Corker’s television ads in his campaign for the U.S. Senate is seriously misleading.

That’s bad, but the Corker campaign turned what should have been a one-day story into a character issue by sticking with the flawed assertion even after it was exposed.

Corker’s original ad claimed that both of his GOP opponents, Van Hilleary and Ed Bryant, voted while in Congress to increase their pay.

That’s not true.

The bill in question was the massive appropriations bill in 2000; Bryant and Hilleary both voted for it. But there was no language in the bill that increased congressional pay.

Jack McElroy, whose paper also endorsed Corky, goes a step further and calls it a lie.

I wonder if these papers will retract their endorsement? Of course not. Instead of lying, shouldn’t you be telling us why you’re more against abortion than your opponents are? Or maybe telling us why you’re different?

A couple of folks wondered where my link to them went. Well, a bit back, I went from using bloglines to manage my blogroll to WP’s links function. I may have missed some folks. If that’s you, sorry. Let me know.

So, apologies to American Drumslinger, with a nice gun rack (boobie warning – not safe for work) and Fugger, who has some pics of guns and gardening.

That quote is attributed to Memphis Police Public Information Officer Sgt. Vince Higgins. He supposedly said that to the press after an armed individual used his firearm to detain a man who had been stabbing people in a supermarket. Trouble is, he didn’t really say it:

… Sgt. Higgins was quoted completely out of context and not even quoted correctly.

I spoke with the Sarge the day after our Alert came out. He returned my call and was friendly and gracious. He had 15 years as a street cop in a nasty section of town and we swapped some stories on how departments and politics can screw things up and how reporters do a good job of screwing them up all the time.

Here’s what the Sarge really said and did. When the reporters gathered the Sarge took them through the motions of what happened and what Mr. Cobb, a CHP holder did. He praised Mr. Cobb as a genuine hero from start to finish saying he acted in a totally professional manner through-out the entire ordeal. He then continued to say that concealed permit holders were top notch and he’d rather have some of them “…..backing me up than some police officers I know”.

Now, I know you’re wondering where in the heck that reporter got that other part from. Here it comes. The reporter asked the Sarge what he thought of citizens jumping in to help. The Sarge said that he had no problem with permit holders but if it were someone who had no training with firearms, did not know the law and had just grabbed up a gun it might not be a good idea. Guess what the reporter grabbed up and ran with. Yellow journalism at its worst. Or, just what you would expect.

What media bias against guns?

Lots of out of state get Utah carry permits because they’re fairly simple to get and have reciprocity with many states. But Utah is picking up the tab for it:

Utah has become the nation’s bargain basement for permits to carry concealed guns. But it’s no bargain for Utah taxpayers.

As The Tribune reported last Sunday, there has been a dramatic rise in the number of permits issued to out-of-state residents. About 58 percent of the 16,000 projected applicants in 2006 do not live in Utah.

There are two problems with this.

First, the concealed-carry permit program does not pay for itself. The Utah Department of Public Safety, which issues the permits through the Bureau of Criminal Identification, must subsidize the program through other parts of its budget.

The program is expected to raise about $500,000 this year, but it will cost about $610,000. That understates the subsidy because the revenues are deposited in the state’s general fund, and the Legislature only appropriates about $88,000 to run the program.

Program supporters claim that it would be self-supporting if all of its revenues were dedicated to paying expenses. But it appears to us there still would be a shortfall.

Expect an increase in fees or for the permit.

Update: Jeff, who already covered it and I missed it, emails:

Actually, I covered this in last week’s Weekly Report and Cam Edwards & I discussed this on the air. The problem isn’t with the cost of the permits, the state collects over a half-million dollars from them and THAT is the problem: The permit fees go into the general treasury of the state. Then, Utah gives only a fraction of that back to the BCI (Bureau of Criminal Investigations) that actually processes the applications. If the application fees actually went to the BCI in the first place, the fee would (or could) drop to about $25 dollars!

Ok, then.

That’s an awful long way to go to get to a dick joke.

A lawsuit over the killing of several dogs is going forward.

A lawsuit will proceed in U.S. District Court on November 6 over a May 8, 2003 incident where Pennsylvania Constables Richard Seeds, 41, Greg Balliet and Vincent Stahl fired eleven shots killing two dogs and five puppies while serving an arrest warrant for unpaid parking tickets in an Allentown home

What is worth taking note of is the words of the law right before the shootings.

Judge James Knoll Gardner allowed the prosecution to let the jury know that just before the incident, Seeds told his colleagues, “I have to get something to eat or I am going to shoot somebody.”

An admission:

Federal law prohibits ATF from establishing “any system of registration of firearms, firearms owners, or firearms transactions and dispositions.” Instead, ATF relies upon federal firearms licensee (FFL) records to trace firearms recovered in crimes through its National Tracing Center. Inaccurate or incomplete record keeping makes the tracing of firearms involved in violent crimes virtually impossible.

Isn’t that pretty much a system of registration of firearms, firearms owners, or firearms transactions and dispositions? Just asking.

Her statement on the recent prohibition of confiscating guns in an emergency:

While House leadership accuses the New Orleans police department of going door to door confiscating guns in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the superintendent of the department states that was not the case. Does anybody really believe that the New Orleans Police Department used its limited resources to harass gun-owners in the hours after the levees broke? Of course not. In the midst of looters and snipers taking aim at rescue workers, police arrested people who were breaking the law on the streets of New Orleans.

Crazy woman, I’ve seen the video. In fact, here it is:

Times Union:

One proven way to reduce urban crime is to choke off the supply of guns on the street.

Proven where? I’d like to see the source.

The carnival of cordite is up for your gun blogging fix.

Only the French would consider the presence of testosterone in a man’s system suspicious.

I mentioned it here that Gun Owners of America may have endorsed Ed Bryant. A little birdie emailed me the endorsement of Ed Bryant for US Senate by Gun Owners of America. So, consider it confirmed. Good.

If you use registration (like I do), you should turn it off. More here.