Me and the Mrs. took Politically Incorrect Dog (PID) and Politically Correct Dog (PCD) for a walk around the Maryville Greenway a couple of weekends ago. The dogs enjoy the walk and it’s good to socialize them with people and dogs.

As we rounded a corner (me and PID were ahead of the Mrs. and PCD), another couple was walking their Golden Retriever and headed in our direction. I looked at the guy walking the dog, he looked at me and we smiled and nodded to affirm that we’d let our dogs meet. PID saw the Retriever and bowed his head (i.e., quickly outstretched his paws and lowered his head while keeping his rear in the air, which is dogspeak for you wanna play?). The Retriever began snarling, growling and had his hackles raised (which is dogspeak for I’m gonna kick your ass). Upon seeing this, I pulled PID towards me and gave a heel command.

At this point, you would (assuming that the owner of the Retriever knew anything about dogs) think that he would command his dog back to sit or heel. He did not. Instead, he sort of smiled and kept allowing his dog to come forward with this look on his face that seemed to say Look at my dog, he’s gonna teach this bigger dog a lesson.

Me and PID behaved. PID never once growled, snarled, or bucked up to the dog. He stayed at my side, obeying my command, and wagging his tail. PID has never acted aggressively to any other dog (except for PCD, when they have spats over toys and food). He has been socialized and is dog-friendly. Surprisingly, PCD is not real dog-friendly. Both are extraordinarily people friendly (maybe even too friendly, you have no idea how many times we’ve had to get two 70 plus pound dogs out of visitors’ laps).

The point of this rant is that the owner of the Retriever above should have corrected his dog. At the very least, you would expect him to refrain from encouraging the behavior. He did neither. He essentially encouraged his dog to threateningly approach PID (who is perfectly capable of grabbing the Retriever by his throat and shaking him until he dies). It defies common sense. I can understand wanting a protective dog (who doesn’t?) but your dog should be under your control at all times, otherwise the dog is a danger. Even if you are the type of ignorant dog owner who encourages your dog to fight, you don’t want them picking fights they can’t win.

Had I not had control of PID and the Retriever attacked, PID would have won the skirmish. The police would likely have been called and PID would most likely have been taken by animal control, despite the fact he was not the aggressor.

Control your dogs and learn to spot and correct aggressive behavior.

The ATF is publishing cartoons to explain gun transactions. Publicola has more.

Yup, Al Qaeda done it:

Al Qaida’s Abu Hafs Brigades has claimed responsibility for the blackout last week in the Northeast and Midwest United States. A communiqué by the Abu Hafs Brigades made reference to Operation Quick Lightning in the Land of the Tyrant of this Generation.”

Kevin links to The Warren’s series on what kind of guns should a person starting a collection acquire. Kevin also offers his suggestions. I have compiled my suggestions below but bare in mind I haven’t completed my own collection.

A while back (circa 1997) SayUncle had a firearm collection of around 20 guns. I moved from my hometown to Knoxville into a rental house that was not in the safest of neighborhoods. Much to the disdain of anti-gun folks, I sold off my collection (without doing background checks), except for two handguns, out of fear they’d get stolen at my new residence. I had no place to store them. I kept the two handguns (I sold one a while back) until finishing graduate school and now that I am a suburbanite, I am replenishing my collection. Also, I am a very functional sort of guy. I don’t collect antiques or fancy thingamabobs. It’s about function, utility, and toughness. At a minimum, my collection will look like this (and it would be my recommendation to a novice collector starting out – even in order of importance):

Combat Handgun: The absolute first purchase. This gun should be in a respectable caliber (preferably 45) and reliable. Many fine options available for this:

SigArms P220: Sig makes the finest handguns and are my personal preference.
H&K USP: Also, excellent handguns that come in a variety of configurations.
Glock: Some folks love them and some hate them. I think they feel clunky and are ugly. But these guns are reliable and are very easy for beginners to operate. And they’re darn near indestructible.
1911: The old reliable. Combat proven for decades and easy to operate.

SHTF: This is the gun you should have for when the shit hits the fan. I am, of course, reminded of the LA riots and seeing the Korean shop owners with their SKS and AK47 variants on the rooftops of their shops keeping looters at bay (total side note: funny how the LAPD was captured on video running from the riots. But after it was over, the LAPD got brave and went back to arrest these shop owners). This gun should be reliable, easy to use, and be in a military caliber. Good choices are:

Any AK variant: Cheap, reliable, easy to get. ‘Nuff said.
FNFAL: Expensive but worth it.
AR15: Scalable (models range in price from $500 – $5,000) and military standard.

Shotgun: A shotgun can substitute for a SHTF gun pretty well. I recommend pump action because the distinctive Ka-sheenk sound made when pumped is one of the scariest sounds in the world. A shotgun is also good for hunting doves, rabbits, and squirrels. As for a brand, there are so many variants depending on price range. Remington makes many models at varying price ranges.

Compact Handgun: This is the gun you will carry. Each of the combat handguns mentioned above comes in a compact version and all are excellent. In fact, the compact handguns mentioned can substitute for your combat handgun. That is unless you’re going for a pocket gun, which is not a substitute for a combat handgun. A SigArms P229 (which I have), and many others can pinch-hit as both.

Hunting Rifle: A rifle for bagging game. Savage model 10 series are great as are many fine Remington products.

Plinker (Rifle): A small caliber rifle, such as a 22. I prefer semi-autos such as the Ruger 10/22. My current plinker is actually a Crosman 1077 semi-automatic pellet rifle (I wanted something I could shoot in the backyard). Any .22, .17, or pellet rifle would work. This rifle is good for practicing as the ammo is cheap. It’s also good for getting critters off your property.

And if I had to choose only one gun? I’ve addressed that already.

WeckUpToThees! Good stuff but I don’t know what the name means.

The RTB welcomes the following into its fold:

Long Pauses, nominated just in time to take a break.

Chris, who has been lurking over here and at Rich’s.

Stoney and the Mrs.

And half of Cox and Forkum lives in Nashvegas.

Welcome all!

In Maryville, nothing happened.

When life imitates Cox and Forkum:

Hillary Clinton: I happen to think that making sure we have a reliable, affordable system of energy is a national priority. And I don’t think that this administration sees it that way. They have continued to try to push deregulation and privatization, and to try to undo a lot of the systems in changes that many of us thought were important and necessary that we tried to work on during the Clinton administration under Secretary Richardson’s leadership. And frankly to throw in a lot of roadblocks in the way of Governor Davis, when he tried to clean up some of the problems that he had with the manipulation of the energy markets by Enron and others. So, no, I don’t think the federal administration under this president is really focused on making sure we don’t have these problems in the future.

Wasn’t Richardson pushing deregulation too?

Update: Yeah, Richardson was pushing deregulation in 1998:

We are on the vanguard of deregulating the electricity industry–a remarkable development that will save American businesses and consumers 20 billion dollars annually. Technological innovations and competition from deregulation will cause power plants to become more efficient in the future.

Hat Tip on the update: Jay

The Powers That Be to SayUncle: That’ll teach you to be a smartass!

tgirsch writes:

There is no other way to describe this than hypocritical and disgusting. This President, his Administration, and his party have vilified anyone who questions the motives for war as “not supporting the troops” has the gall to not only cut Veterans’ benefits, as Kevin reported earlier, but also to try to cut hazardous duty pay. This isn’t some oversight, this was deliberate: the only reason the idea is being shelved is because of the negative attention it receives.

A review of the article reveals that Bush has not cut any benefits (after all that is a function of Congress, for those paying attention). It seems Bush, his Administration and his party have neither advocated nor promoted any such thing.

Any excuse to hate Bush more, I suppose. It’s not as though there aren’t plenty of other real reasons to dislike him (Ashcroft, The Patriot Act, snubbing the assault weapons ban) but pick one that really exists.

Update: Jay has more.

Apparently, electricity stayed on in most of the nation.

Shumaker, during his tenure as UT President, actually spent $0.39 to Super Size his fries at McDonald’s. His appalling spending habits have scandalized the university and this is one example of his flare for the finer things in life.

I work hard for my money and I never have the luxury of Super Sizing my fast food meals! said Knoxville resident Penny Less, This type of extravagance absolutely discredits the office of the president and has tarnished the university for years to come she continued.

Local residents were also shocked to learn that Shumaker expected to get paid actual money for his work. Other news outlets have also reported the following moral and ethical lapses Shumaker has had:

Shumaker has actually had sex.
Shumaker may have masturbated as a teen.
Shumaker may have cussed at some point in his life.
Shumaker’s poop actually stinks.
Shumaker’s marriage wasn’t happy.
Shumaker once returned a cordless drill because it didn’t work.
Shumaker upgraded the memory on his computer from 256K to 512K.

Let this be a lesson to those who would use government money to Super Size their value meals, said Governor Bredesen the press will needlessly pry into your life and crucify you. But you deserve it because you’re a bastard.

Marc has a rundown on Huffington’s hypocrisy.

AlphaPatriot has a good piece on corporate corruption and its ties to tax codes. I tend to agree. A great many problems in this country could be solved by simplifying the tax code.

County executives now called county mayors. I guess now we know why:

County executives are required under a new state law to use the title ”county mayor,” according to the state attorney general, but there is no penalty if they do not.

The opinion by state Attorney General Paul Summers does not appear to settle the uproar over the legislature’s decision to change the name.

”Since 1978 we’ve been county executives, and it’s taken until now to get the word out about what our responsibility and roles are, and now suddenly we’re changing in midstream,” said Billy Ray Patton, the Rhea County executive who does not want to be called mayor.

Glad they have time to work out such pressing problems as these.

Grill with Minor Scratches Turned down by Shumaker

Good! Prodigy doesn’t have to pay sales taxes on services it provides in Tennessee.

He as blocked email addresses of the people commenting over at Rich’s and refused to address their legitimate arguments:

His only response was an email saying my email was now blocked. Mmm, seems he is running away from a fight. Maybe because I nailed him to the wall too successfully?

He blocked others as well.

We can now add coward to the list.

Two new blogs I’m reading, The Spoons Experience who also has this fine entry dispelling anti-gun lies.

And the USS Clueless, which apparently needs no introduction but strangely I’d never seen it before yesterday.

A group of Libertarians wants to take over a state government. They figure if 20,000 of them move into one of 10 sparsely populated states, they can do it:

The Free State Project (FSP), a small group of libertarian activists, is trying to make a big difference in state politics by recruiting 20,000 like-minded people to move en masse to a small state and flex enough political muscle to shrink the government.

“The government has gotten too big, and [project members] want to return to a lifestyle pre-PATRIOT Act and pre-Roosevelt…New Deal kind of nanny statism,” FSP Vice President Elizabeth McKinstry explained.

Specifically, the loose-knit group of activists wants to do away with many taxes, as well as laws regulating home schooling, marriage, controlled substances, small businesses and the Second Amendment.

According to McKinstry, the group now boasts 5,000 members who are this month voting via mailed-in paper ballots to select a state, using an “instant runoff” voting method called Conder sets. The winning choice is scheduled for an Oct. 1 unveiling.

Alaska, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, Maine, Delaware, Vermont and New Hampshire are the 10 states on the short list. Low population is the top consideration. “The numbers indicate that any state under about 1.5 million population could be significantly affected by a group of 20,000 political activists,” said McKinstry.

In an Aug. 9 release, the FSP boasted N.H. Gov. Craig Benson (R) as having “signed on as a supporter,” something the governor’s office politely suggests is overstating the situation.

Does Jeff know they may come to his state?

State Troopers in East Tennessee are riding and following school buses in an effort to catch motorists violating the law:

The program to stop drivers who violate state law by driving past buses that are stopped to load or unload schoolchildren will begin today in Roane County, said Lt. Jessie Brooks, safety education officer with the Knoxville office of the THP.

“We’re giving warning that we’re going to be doing this,” Brooks said. “We don’t want to be sneaky; we want to keep the children safe.”

Guess they don’t have much else to do.

Apparently this best selling author either can’t copy and paste or has again proven himself to be a liar:

Original Post: By your numbers, SARS had an overall mortality rate of approximately 9%. Since other respiratory ailments generally run at less than 1%, even in the elderly, that one factor alone warrants considerable concern

Fumento’s site: By your numbers, SARS had an overall mortality rate of approxinmately (sic) 9%. Since other respiratory ailments generally run at less than 1% (sic), even in the elderly, that one factor alone warrants considerable concern – Emphasis Added

So, in addition to being a sub-par writer who is poor at research and a jerk, we can now conclude that he is also a liar.

Rich has more.

Remember, he’s a best selling author and syndicated columnist and I’m just like some guy, you know.

It seems Rich’s post about the rude, arrogant, and not particularly talented Fumento’s email has received quite the following:

DailyPundit
Spoons
USS Clueless
MySelf

You can access Mr. Fumento’s site here. You can send him an email at fumento@pobox.com.

Update: Here’s a review of one of Fumento’s scholarly endeavors. Some choice quotes:

After a sycophantic foreword by JoAnn Manson, an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical who should know better, you’ll find a nasty, simplistic book devoid of significant substance written by an average-sized man who lost 25 pounds and considers that weight loss one of his life’s biggest accomplishments.

It becomes apparent after reading the first few pages that Fumento desperately tries to be funny. His idol seems to be Dave Barry, but he isn’t in Barry’s league. Example: “I found a stack of papers so high that a pair of bald eagles built a nest on top.”

Fumento (ab)uses all those footnotes to make wild statements that are often neither explained nor substantiated. Instead, there are footnotes and more footnotes, sometimes four or five within just a couple of paragraphs, giving the author carte blanche to make just about any statement he wants. Who’s going to go to the library to check what’s really behind a reference like “Lawrence Garfinkel, “Overweight and Mortality,” Cancer 58 (8 [15 October 1986]: 1826-29″?

And all those footnotes notwithstanding, Fumento often struggles with fact. For example, he calls executive director Sally Smith “president” of NAAFA. For an author who frequently cites the NAAFA Newsletter and Workbook, that seems a glaring error, especially for a medical journalist who must be especially careful with titles and credentials. Is the rest of his research equally shoddy? He also claims that NAAFA had polled its members and decreed that to qualify as fat a woman had to be 289 pounds, a weight which, Fumento offers, “is grotesquely, horribly, obscenely fat.” In fact, NAAFA never did such a survey. He gleefully calls model Anna Nicole Smith “the first obese playmate” though at the time she was featured in Playboy, she wasn’t statistically overweight. He says he lost 25 pounds at one point in the book, then later brags that he lost 20% of his body weight, which would indicate that he started at an unlikely 125 pounds. Is the rest of his math off, too?

Yup, he’s better than bloggers.

Update2: Seems Fumento has what is basically a blog and he mentions his encounter with Rich by being insulting.

Bill has some info on a Fairer Tax, a National Sales Tax. Why didn’t I think of that? Oh, I did.

It’s getting a bit silly, what with these Dubya action figures.

Self,

Never, ever chase cherry-flavored NyQuil with Five Alive again! That has to be the worst taste recorded in human history.

Good stuff, go read.

Briefs filed for Silveira v. Lockyer.

Regarding this, AlphaPatriot has an excellent summary of the horrors of the diamond slave trade.

A company in Florida can now make diamonds.

I hope this means we can be rid of the third world horrors that people in diamond mines have to go through. And supposedly diamond sales support terrorism, according to Bill Maher.

Of course, the money making thing to do would not be to sell the manufactured diamonds as manufactured diamonds but merely manufacture some to sell at inflated prices, while you keep your invention a secret. Ahh, I love the smell of capitalism in the morning.

Bigwig has more.