Someone at Roane State has assigned a portion of the RTB as homework. Cool. What would you like me to teach you, boys and girls? Of course, the site has a disclaimer about potentially offensive material. I wonder who they could be talking about?

For Buy A Gun In Spite of Michael Moore Day, I got a 20 inch barreled AR15 kit this weekend and assembled it. Pix coming!

Heard on the news today that current senate bill allows free scholarships to anyone who has a 3.0 GPA and scores 19 on the ACT. The Tennessean has more.

Lenoir City has voted to allow sales of liquor by the drink.

Rich Heller is a special police officer in Washington, D.C., licensed by the city government to carry a handgun in the performance of his duties protecting the Thurgood Marshall Federal Judicial Center. While city officials want Heller to carry a gun to protect federal judges on government property, they have barred him from possessing a similar gun in his own home to protect himself and his family from criminals in his high-crime neighborhood.

So, Mr. Heller is suing based on the second amendment (maybe equal protection would work too!)

Also interesting from the article is that: Studies by the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics dating back to 1994 show that a crime victim is actually as much as 50 percent less likely to be injured if they use a firearm to resist a criminal than if they resist with any other weapon, resist with no weapon, offer no resistance or cooperation or even fully comply with the criminal’s demands.

Again, debunking the Brady Center’s claim that you should just comply with the robbery, rape, or your own murder; and you’ll be safe.

Mr. Martin’s apartment caught fire. The firefighters were there. He could see his dog in the window and the blaze approaching the dog. He waited 30 minutes for firefighters to get the dog. He finally (much like I would have done) went and got his dog on his own, despite warnings from firefighters to back away. He was then arrested for disorderly conduct and reckless endangerment. Sad day when you can’t save your dog without getting arrested for it.

The Humane Society wants to open an off-leash dog park in Knoxville. Of course, they want money for this. Go here if you’re interested.

Anyone who took took my advice and watched Wanda At Large would not have been disappointed last night. Those who missed it, one of the funnier scenes:

Coworker: You should have a child, it would mellow you out.
Wanda: So does weed. And it’s more fun to take to the zoo.

Yup, good stuff.

My pup is getting older and is testing limits everyday. He is slowly ensuring that he will never have freedom to run the house. At our house, we have a dog door that goes to a screened porch and a dog door from the porch to the yard. This arrangement should be ideal for a well-behaved dog (such as our elder dog). He can come and go as he pleases and no need for us to rush home because he has to pee.

Now the pup is a different story. After he was sufficiently potty trained, we let him have run of the house and yard while we were gone.

The problem: He dug six foot trenches in our backyard.

The solution: We close off access to the yard and let him free in the house (he was potty trained). Nope, then the game was (and I am not making this up) to move the couch into the center of the living room; or pull the Oriental rug out from under the coffee table; or dig up all the house plants.

Solution 2: Pupster is now crated during the day. No problems with this plan, except that sad look he gives us in the morning.

Latest problem: We have new neighbors who have two pre-teenage sons. And they have a boxer puppy. The sons were playing catch while their puppy was going potty. Then my pup hops over our fence for a little visit. My pup isn’t mean or violent, he just wanted to play with the boys and the pup. However, he is an intimidating looking dog so this is a problem. The boys had no problem with it and actually liked my dog.

Latest solution: We broke out the old shock collar. We gave up on the shock collar in the past because it didn’t phase him. We’d apply the zap! and he didn’t care. So, I broke out the instruction manual last night and discovered the collar had a level setting. Woohoo! We’re in business. The elder dog was easily trained on setting one. The pup started responding on setting six (it only goes to eight). Now, when he places his paws near the fence, he gets a little zzztt!

Now, if he’d just realize how much happier he (and I) would be if he would behave, we could get through this. I don’t ask much. Just don’t destroy stuff, don’t dig, and stay in the yard. Mind you the elder dog has figured all this out and can pretty much come and go at his leisure.

The Germans (go figure, have you seen their porn? Eek!) are planning on creating a penis-numbing condom. Sure, it may make sex last longer but there is the disadvantage that, well, you can’t feel it.

42% of Americans don’t use the Internet. How do they book flights? Oh, the telephone. It occurs to me, if I didn’t have an alarm at my house, I probably wouldn’t have a telephone. I have a cell phone and can get alternate access to the Internet. Someone needs to invent a home alarm system that transmits data via internet connection and not the phone. There’s the money making idea for the day. Too bad I don’t know how to do it.

Oh wait, I’m one of those. Rich talks about the war that is going on in your country. I suggest you read it. Excerpt:

Another war, one much more vital to the future of America than the one in Iraq is being fought right now, and it’s being fought here, in this country. It’s being fought to determine the future of America. Will we be a nation of free men, or nation of vassals to an overweening federal government, controlling what we do, what we say, and even what we think?

As I’ve said on this site before: Our rights are being whittled out from under us and all we do is argue over who is doing it.

Of course, Rich thinks we’ll lose that war. I’m more optimistic. I don’t think the revolution will occur in my lifetime but it’s coming and it won’t involve many guns.

Now that the war is over, some of those Republitarians need to focus on civil liberties again and not the state of the roads in Baghdad. The Leviathan is growing.

As I said before, the DNA database for the Feds is moving along quickly.

Oh, did I mention the Feds also datamine retail databases of purchases too. When is that Fourth Amendment gonna do its thing? I mean the lowered the threat level, so the Fourth Amendment is back, right?

Some new members to the RTB:

Missives Anonymous
JaNell
The Bully Pulpit
Lay Lines

Welcome to all!

Apparently, some cartoonist has drawn an image surprisingly similar to and image that Steve over at Little Tiny Lies created. Then the cartoonist’s wife gets uppity. Yup, journalists are ethically superior to bloggers as are cartoonists. I’m glad mainstream press has that code of ethics. Go here and scroll down. His page is full of correspondence with Mrs. Bish.

No not tax day. Buy a Gun in Spite of Michael Moore Day. My kit hasn’t arrived yet but it’s on its way.

Tennessee will get the tobacco money. Thanks to the legislature for spending these non-permanent funds and putting Tennessee in the financial shape that it’s in. Good job, guys! Of course, their solution is to use leftover lottery money to fund their pet projects, but that is unconstitutional. It’s still the spending, stupid.

This day should serve as a reminder to visit Citizens Against Government Waste. Find out where your cash is going. Another friendly reminder that you’re getting screwed can be found here.

Apparently, Dubya has decided to support the Assault Weapons ban.

Instapundit says: Sounds like a good way to be a one-termer, to me.

Even Clinton stated: And we smile about that, but there are some people who would be on this platform today who lost their seats in 1994 because they voted for the Brady Bill and they voted for the assault weapons ban, and they did it in areas where people could be frightened.

Of course, I’ve yakked about the ban for a while:

Irrelevant Aesthetics and Constitutionality
Activist Judges and the Second Amendment

The good part is that the ban will sunset unless it is reintroduced and passed again, which I don’t think will happen anyway.

Jay and Jane are hosting pictures and commentary on the pets of various bloggers. Go check it out! I have been ribbing Jane some over her affection for cats. See, SayUncle isn’t a cat person. Mind you, I like cats (other peoples’) and am not cruel to them or anything like that (hoses don’t count, right?). But I am definitely a dog person.

If you point at something, a dog will look where you’re pointing; a cat will sniff your finger. You can train dogs to do a variety of things, with cats the only trick they learn is where to crap. Dogs also alert you to intruders, while cats mess up furniture. Dogs are whores for affection and loveable, cats are in it for themselves.

And the big one: a dog does both onesies and twosies outside. Cat litter boxes are absolutely the most disgusting things ever. Maybe I’m weird for not wanting to keep a box of turds in my house.

C&S has turned one year old!

Would-be robber thumped severely!

The customer walked in through the front door of the pharmacy and distracted the gunman yesterday just long enough for the pharmacist to reach under the counter and grab an aluminum baseball bat.

I just picked up the bat and started hitting the guy over and over and over, probably 30 times.

The kicker:

Smith said that while things worked out, police don’t recommend this course of action.

Active resistance is usually the best course of action, particularly if you’re armed, I don’t care what the Brady Center and Oprah tell you.

Special interests + money = law

A state Senate committee accepted a $78,300 check from a special-interest group today and then approved a public school voucher program the group supports, saying the money was welcome given the state’s financial crisis.

“If everyone would show up with a check, that would make this job so much easier,” said state Sen. Ron Teck, a Republican from Grand Junction.

It’s all about the Benjamins!

Hat tip: Unknown News

The Mrs. and me survived the camping trip. Had a blast. Just finished getting that campfire smell out of everything (including two very confused as to why we’d want them to smell any different dogs). Note to self: Self, it’s cold at Frozen Head in April.

It’s rare to find good television these days. But there’s a new show that I found to be absolutely hysterical: Wanda at Large. It came on Wednesday night, which at the SayUncle household is known as minority night TV. We watch My Wife and Kids, George Lopez, Bernie Mac and now Wanda at Large.

Bernie Mac is always hysterical. Wanda at Large is about an in your face reporter in DC. Go watch it.

Of course, why is Wednesday the only night I really notice minorities on TV?

Wal-mart stopped selling guns in California and in NY, Wal-Mart stopped selling toy guns.

California: Sadly, this is the mentality we’re dealing with:

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer virtually described Wal-Mart stores in his state as weapons fronts for al-Qaida.

Of course, the errors in CA are mostly of a clerical nature:

Wal-Mart officials counter that store employees – who are not paid like your average CEO, to put it bluntly – mostly violated the state’s gun paperwork requirements. On a few occasions, guns were sold to inappropriate parties, but even Lockyer’s office has denied Wal-Mart showed criminal intent.

New York:

Wal-Mart on Thursday suspended all sales of toy guns in its New York stores days after the state’s attorney general sued, accusing the nation’s largest retailer of selling toy guns that lack required safety markings to distinguish them from real weapons

The toy guns have orange caps on their barrels, as required by federal law. But they don’t have the nonremoveable orange stripes down the barrel’s length that New York law requires

This is ludicrous. We now have federally mandated criteria for toy guns (that are similar to criteria for Assault Weapons, in that the criteria are merely aesthetic).

I wish Wal-Mart had some balls. Sam must be spinning.

Head on over to Barry’s to find out what Tennessee is thinking. Good stuff!

Clayton Cramer has a piece on Sean Penn packing a gun. He asks the question: Does anyone out there know if Penn has done any political work on behalf of gun control organizations? I haven’t found anything indicating he has.

Of course the issue I take with the fact that Penn has a carry permit is not that he has one. But that others in California don’t. According to packing.org (an online conceal carry data site), California is a may issue state. Meaning, the local law enforcement officials may (or may not) issue you a permit. In Tennessee, we are a shall issue state. In other words, if you apply and meet all requirements, you must be issued a permit. I imagine Joe California has a difficult time getting a permit in California but Sean Penn, being famous and all that, is entitled to special privileges due to his fame and his wealth. It is surprisingly similar to Diane Feinstein, who doesn’t want you to have a gun, but she admitted to carrying one.

In light of The Agonist’s plagiarism incident, some are mulling the creation of some sort of ethical guide to blogging. Obviously, the comparisons to journalism and its code of ethics (like you’d know they had one) will come about. I think there is most definitely a distinct difference between blogging and journalism. At my site for example, I don’t really report much in the way of news. I opine. This is an op-ed program, so to speak. I also seek to entertain (myself mostly, but some others too).

Now, this may come as a shock, I may not always be right. But if I state something that is a fact, I link to the source of the fact (if available). As such, I’ll retract some things that I state are facts. I doubt I’ll retract opinions unless I change my mind about an issue.

And I think Instapundit hits on the only real Code of Ethics bloggers would need:

Don’t lie, cheat or steal, or tolerate those who do.

Link to the source except in extraordinary cases.

I might add:

Keep debate civil and be nice to other folks.

But your mom should’ve taught you that.

Update: I touched on this in comments, but I have to admit to a certain level of frustration. I attempt to write stuff that is somewhat entertaining and (I think) of decent quality. Yet, I’m a very small fish in the astronomically huge blogpond. And there are thousands of bloggers out there who write quality stuff and no one has ever heard of them. Yet, a prominent blogger essentially masters the ability to cut and paste and his traffic jumps exponentially. Plus, the fallout of this scandal has likely lead to an increase in his traffic. The blogosphere is a harsh mistress on the little guys.

I’m done crying now, as you were.

We took Baghdad in less time than it took to get the funds appropriated for the war

-Some guy who called in on a local radio program this morning.