But it illustrates gun control proponent stupidity:

The Firearms Safety and Consumer Protection Act, introduced by Sen. Jon S. Corzine (D-N.J.) and Rep. Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.), would give the Department of Justice authority to regulate the design, manufacture and distribution of guns.

Sort of. And he writes it himself, unlike other candidates with blogs. I’m referring to Michael Badnarik, Libertarian (with a non-lower case L) Candidate. Here he tackles property.

I’ve often thought about this whole voting Libertarian (Big L) thing, since I am a libertarian (little L). The likelihood that I’ll be throwing my vote away has always bothered me. Essentially, to think that I voted for someone who has no chance of winning (and Badnarik, like Dean, doesn’t) and that my vote may have been used merely to keep a worse candidate from winning is a frightening concept. Then again, it is equally morally appalling to me that I don’t vote for who I believe in (which is Badnarik).

I always dread elections. Should I vote how I feel? I never do. I vote against most Democrats. Period. Not because I think Republicans are swell guys but because they’re less bad than Democrats.

Now, it seems the Republican Administration is turning into the Democrats I used to abhor. The administration is creating big government (which they were against), they’ve increased spending (which they were against), they’ve supported the assault weapons ban (which they were against), and the reckless trampling of civil liberties under the guise of safety from terrorism and the war on drugs.

So, read Badnarik’s article and check out his positions on the issues. I did. I’m not saying I’ll vote for him yet but he is the candidate with views most similar to mine (there are some differences).

New Campaign Slogan: Vote Libertarian, Nobody will Notice.

A Texas man who won $5.5 million in the state lottery has been ordered to give it up because he bought the winning ticket with money made selling cocaine, federal officials said Friday.

Needless to say, determining exactly which dollars he purchased the tickets with would require omniscience. The war on personal property err civil liberties err drugs is a tad out of hand.

Les takes on Kalifornia stupidity. Favorite quote:

Brrring. Brrring. Hello?

“I’m a mile away pointing a gun at you. Give me your wallet.”

And 22s have a range of a mile by the way. Read the whole thing.

The Illinois House on Wednesday passed its first gun-control measure of the session, requiring nonlicensed dealers of firearms at Illinois gun shows to conduct criminal background checks on buyers.

By nonlicensed dealer they mean private citizens engaging in lawful commerce with other private citizens. Some more feel good legislation that does nothing but cost people money and infringe on their right to do business. The bill is on its way to the senate.

New York had a cash for your gun event aimed at getting illegal weapons off the street. Maybe I should go there and stand outside and offer people who have something I want a higher price than $100?

Tennessee Attorney General Paul Summers says the largest antitrust settlement in state history will be distributed to agencies dealing with residents’ health. The money is going to non-profits. Last time a suit was settled like this (tobacco money), our legislators spent it and then acted surprised when it dried up. That’s about the time the income tax debate started.

Apparently, coyotes are a problem in West Knoxville. And by a problem, they mean there have been two coyote attacks on pets (see, local news is always slow).

No one is interviewing Bill Clinton on what he thinks about Hillary’s book. Can we say duck?

Ok, I’m moving to MT soon. Been looking into domain names and of course wanted www.sayuncle.com. Well, that URL is taken and is for sale for between $688 and may be over $10K. Yeah, right.

Welcome to Secret City Sister and Thomas. And Andrew is making the move to moveable type. Good for him, I shall follow at some point. 53 and counting.

The UN (giggle) is hosting (hehe) a gun control conference (it gets better) in New York! New York has more gun laws than most cities and more gun grime than most cities. And we should ask hundreds of thousands of Rwandans, Ugandans, and people from Zimbabwe what they think of the UN’s gun control ideology.

But Publicola links to this petition in which asks our governor and legislature to nullify federal gun laws within Tennessee’s border. What would that mean?

I haven’t read it (and won’t) but I suspect the major theme is this: Let’s get all that Monica, Whitewater, Disappearing Files, Senate Travel Paid for as Official Business of the First Lady, Vince Foster, Etc., stuff out of the way now so that when she runs for president it’s already been dealt with. Beautiful PR move and I’d bet one cold beverage that she didn’t write hardly any of it.

Update: Nevermind, she says she ain’t running. Unless she’s saying that just to see how many people call her up and say please run!.

US faces critical gas shortage over summer. But they’re talking about natural gas.

as my Dad is fond of saying “You can wish in one hand and crap in the other, and we will just see which one fills up first.”

From Andrew via SKB.

This is wrong on so many levels. But my God is it funny.

Some yammering lately regarding the question: Is blogging journalism? And the short answer, some times. There are a variety of styles of blogs, from cat blogging and personal diaries to political commentary and original research. Obviously, I’m referring to the latter types of blogs. In light of the recent events involving The Guardian, some bloggers of note are taking notice of the potential impact blogs had on uncovering the truth. This has happened before and will happen again. And other blogs point out that if you hold big media to standards then you should hold blogs to those same standards.

Some blogs actively claim that they are fact checking your ass, and they do a good job. A while back, the BBC released a story that claimed the US did not budget any aid for post-war Afghanistan. The story was false and the reason was that the BBC has a failure to grasp what is meant by a fiscal year. Alex Knapp and Jay Caruso were all over it, with an assist by yours truly. I don’t know that the BBC ever retracted the story but they were either being misleading or ignorant. I think the latter is more likely given the gross inaccuracies we see in the media involving firearms.

So, what is journalism?

1 The collecting, writing, editing, and presenting of news or news articles in newspapers and magazines and in radio and television broadcasts.
2 Material written for publication in a newspaper or magazine or for broadcast.
3 The style of writing characteristic of material in newspapers and magazines, consisting of direct presentation of facts or occurrences with little attempt at analysis or interpretation.
4Newspapers and magazines.
5 An academic course training students in journalism.
6 Written material of current interest or wide popular appeal.

The definition is dated because it doesn’t consider the Internet as notably newspapers, magazines, radio, and TV have a presence on the web. Blogging does consist of direct presentation of facts or occurrences but often does a lot more analysis and opining. Blogging also consists of Written material of current interest or wide popular appeal. And there is also fair amount of original news that comes from blogs by way of bloggers witnessing events, personal experience, and doing research.

Blogs, though lacking the code of ethics that big media has (until recently), are held to higher standards. If you blog something that is refutable, someone will refute it. Media had the luxury of being immune from that for a while. Through blogs, the media aren’t that lucky anymore. In addition, blogs often link to facts with direct links (heck, our local paper hasn’t even figured out hyperlinks yet). Media often quote the ominous anonymous source, which apparently is where Mr. Blair got some of his disinformation. Anonymous sources by nature aren’t verifiable (yes, I’m fully aware of the irony that this is coming from your friendly neighborhood anonymous blogger).

Don’t be too quick to dismiss blogs as not providing anything relevant and not competition for the media. At the same time, realize that blogging likely isn’t going to be the next best thing since toilet paper (pun intended).

So, is blogging journalism? Some times.

Is blogging better than journalism? Some times.

Are bloggers more accountable for their material? Definitely.

OW gets past catering to lefty lunacy and says something insightful.

Suddenly, I am a Flappy Bird.

Anyone know how this Ecosytem works? I sure don’t. But it seems that incoming links is not the true measure of success, but hits are. Plus, it doesn’t include all links I’ve gotten from other bloggers.

A NZ man is building a cruise missile in his backyard to prove that terrorists could do it too. Costs about $5K. That’s kind of strange as we all know that terrorists purchase their other weaponry at gun shows.

Knoxville police have started dressing as construction workers to catch speeding motorists.

Rich has the Volunteer Tailgate Party up and running. Give it a read to find out what the RTB is thinking.

I know Martha Stewart was indicted, I just don’t care. Now, TV is all Martha all the time.

I know about the scandal at the times, but I thought the NY Times was discredited enough a long time ago.

PBS releases propaganda err a teaching lesson for high school instructors to teach students about second amendment issues. It is, of course, totally unbiased. And by unbiased I mean in that same way that Ann Coulter isn’t biased.

Yeah, give me my tax money back.

Brehd is back, but he moved in with Bjorn. Good to see his return.

Well, I’ve pretty much decided that I will be moving to a moveable type format some time in the future. I figure I need 1) a domain name, 2) a hosting service, and 3) MT installed. I know how to do the first two and three doesn’t seem real hard. If anyone has any advice, drop me a line in comments.

I know that blogger data will transfer (I’m guessing through some combination of XML/RSS, but I don’t really know how those work) but what about comments? Are they just lost?

Any suggestions for a hosting service would be great too. I know lots of folks use hosting matters. But what sort of bandwidth would I want? And what should I expect to pay?

As an aside: I’ve decided that group blogs are definitely the future. They offer a wide range of opinions and tend to draw traffic. I’d be willing to share the new site with people wanting to get off of blogger and would expect them to share the costs. Plus, it is an opportunity for us smaller bloggers to band together and get more people to read our stuff. Thoughts, opinions?

Any other blogspotters out there who are interested, shoot me an email or leave a note in comments. Or anyone who has thought about blogging can shoot me an email as well. Of course, do so knowing that I will be the one with administrative rights to the page.

I figure this will come about sometime in July.

Sacramento banned the 50 caliber. Thanks to Andrew for the link. Now, I need to invent a 51 caliber to market in Kalifornia.

Tennessee got a $29M Grant for homeland security. The money is to train and equip emergency workers. Wonder if Sherf Tim will buy some more boats and helicopters.

Over at Silflay Hraka, bigwig posts about styles of BBQ. I made the claim that my barbeque sauces would take the Pepsi challenge with anyone (check the comments). Doggerel Pundit posted this excellent sounding salmon recipe. I’ve posted some recipes here before, which are:

Red Beans & Rice
The Perfect Bloody Mary
Rosemary Primerib

Bloggers of the world, I command you: Post your recipes! Or email them to me or just leave them in comments.

And Chuck, I expect a recipe that explains how to skin or clean whatever it is I will have to cook!