Bubba has advice for those building their homes. I wonder if he followed any of my advice: Here and here.

Mike has been running the play by play.

A few months back, Politically Incorrect Dog had his birthday. Yup, he’s a killer.

Per this:

While I think the decision may violate states’ rights, every time a tax is repealed an angel gets its wings. However:

A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He reduced the altitude
and spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted. “Excuse
me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago,
but I don’t know where I am.”

The woman replied, “You are in a hot air balloon approximately 30 feet
above the ground. You are between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and
between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude.”

“You must be a Republican,” said the balloonist.
“I am,” said the woman. “How did you know?”

“Well,” answered the balloonist, “Everything you told me is technically
correct, but I have no idea what to make of your information, and the
fact is I am still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help so far.”

The woman below responded. “You must be a Democrat.”
“I am,” replied the balloonist, “but how did you know?”

“Well,” said the woman, “You don’t know where you are or where you are
going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot
air. You made a promise which you have no idea how to keep, and you
expect me to solve your problem. The fact is you are in exactly the same
position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it’s my fault.”

First things first:

Tax Evasion is illegal – If I fail to report income, I have evaded taxes. If I just don’t write a check payable to Da Man, I have evaded taxes.

Tax avoidance is not – If I (as I usually do) dump $4K at the end of the year into an IRA account to avoid paying taxes on $4K in income, I have avoided paying taxes using a legal means.

Via Publicola comes this media advisory about the IRS and nine states cracking down on abusive tax avoidance. The money shot:

Abusive transactions to avoid taxes, according to private estimates, deprive state and federal governments of billions of dollars annually.

First of all, if the money isn’t earned to begin with, then no one is depriving governments of anything. Secondly, if it is tax avoidance, it is in every way perfectly legal.

The webcast occurred today. I haven’t seen it yet (no speakers at the office). I’d like a transcript if one is available. Cracking down on abusive tax avoidance sounds to me like code for cracking down on the self-employed.

Update: tgirsch informs me i have my IRAs confused. I meant traditional. Bad CPA! Down boy! Corrected. Did I mention I don’t do taxes? I should.

They have kept Kobe Bryant’s accuser’s name off of court records (and I recall the media wasn’t releasing her name as well) but a slip up posted her name on the court’s website.

Why can we smear Kobe’s name all over the news and court records (after all, he is innocent until proven guilty) but not her’s? If she turns out to be wrong, will they publish it then?

Rich lambastes Clark’s run for the presidency. You had me at Michael “big fat, libelous liar” Moore supports him.

Stop the Bleating is unhappy with its ecosystem status and is asking for links.

So, go read this post on property rights and this one on cowards.

The site is bloggered so scroll to PROPERTY RIGHTS? WE DON’T NEED NO STINKING PROPERTY RIGHTS and STEYN ON A WORLD(?) OF COWARDS. Also, he’s unhappy with blogger, which he should be. Go with MT.

Publicola has the latest Roderick Pritchett update.

The powers that be moved his trial to a district where getting an all white, anti-gun jury would be easy.

Pritchett legally obtained a gun permit and was transporting it in compliance with the law. However, some police officers decided to make an example of him even though he complied with the law. Packing while black may as well have been his crime.

Alex Knapp points to testimony that Iraq’s WMDs were moved to Syria.

Jeff has his weekly gun bias chart up and for the first time ever there are more pro gun articles than anti gun articles. Neutral beats them both though.

The Tennessee Department of Transportation has unveiled its new logo. Who fucking cares? How about unveiling some roads without bottlenecks, construction, barrels, and congestion?

Per this:

Okanogan County sheriff’s deputies seeking a person on outstanding warrants broke down the door to the wrong home and then jolted a man with a Taser in front of his wife and child.

It seems to me that knocking first would have prevented this, hence my opposition to no-knock warrants.

The Comedian writes of magazine issues with government weapons and how he and others are furnishing our troops with magazine springs.

It occurs to me that I have mentioned weed on my blog quite a bit lately. I should point out that I don’t do illegal drugs and legalization is not an important issue to me. I oppose the war on drugs because of the violations to civil liberties it presents (confiscating property, no knock warrants, etc.) and the cost of it.

And drugs are currently winning the war.

I remain the number one google result for Spiked Bracelets (and buford pusser axe handle – thanks to Stevie for the tip). Therefore, I still receive the occasional comment for this post. Go read the comments, some are quite amusing.

The latest comment is this:

An hour ago I just had three spiked bracelets and 4 spiked collars
confiscated. They are worth $40 a piece (candian) There must be a way to
fight this. Its a war, a stupid war bent on nothng but wasting time
and talking away peoples identities.

I would suggest writing your representatives (or whatever they’re called in Canada) and voice your displeasure. And organizing a protest wouldn’t hurt to draw attention to the issue.

The most overturned (and arguably liberal) of the Circuit Courts has validated Bush v. Gore.

Some have predicted this will be quickly overturned but would that make the SCOTUS inconsistent? Some say no.

In Santa Monica, the city council is considering replacing the term owner with guardian with respect to pets. Proponents think the change would lead to kinder treatment of animals. The position of the AKC:

The American Kennel Club supports the use of the term “owner” rather than “guardian” when referring to the keeping of dogs. The AKC believes that the term guardian may in fact reduce the legal status and value of dogs as property and thereby restrict the rights of owners, veterinarians, and government agencies to protect and care for dogs. It may also subject them to frivolous and expensive litigation.

I agree with the AKC’s position that pets are property. It seems certain segments of our society feel bad admitting they own a pet and prefer other terms. Yet, when someone is bitten, the litigation is viewed as essentially a property issue, akin to someone falling down your steps.

Don’t you hate it when you fight to get weed legalized and you win and then your government provided weed is no good? The Canadians do.

Take one whole chicken (3-5 pounds), one can of beer, and your choice of spices (I like garlic, cumin, diced cayenne pepper, fresh rosemary, salt, and freshly ground pepper).

Step 1: Drink one quarter of the beer (important later).

Step 2: Use an old style can opener to poke holes in the top of the can.

Step 3: Put spices into can (if you did not drink the quarter of beer mentioned above, you will now have beer foaming all over your cooking area).

Step 4: Remove innards from chicken and insert beer can top up (i.e., open part towards where the chicken’s head used to be) into the opening of chicken.

Step 5: Place chicken on grill with the top of the can facing up. Use the the can and the chicken’s legs to make a little tripod for balance (I recommend you have the fire going on one side of the grill and your chicken on the other side so it cooks slow). If you do this correctly, it looks like the chicken is standing on the grill.

Step 6: Wait 2 hours and eat.

The beer and spices slowly boil over and season the chicken.

Tasty!

Via Publicola comes this:

“I’ve had enough. I’m going to fight!” Charlevoix County Businessman, Lyle Barkley, has been ordered to remove two manufactured homes from a 4-acre parcel in Bay Township by September 18. Barkley says he will not comply with the illegal and unconstitutional order of the court but will defend his property with arms if necessary. Barkley, 55, owns B&B Excavating in Boyne City. He is presently bulldozing fortifications around his property in preparation for the standoff he promises will come if officials attempt to remove the homes from his land.

His cause has drawn the attention of Rick Stanley, leader of an organization called Mutual Defense Pact 2d American Revolution Militia who offers to send more than 600 armed defenders to Barkley’s aid once the standoff has begun.

And more here:

Lyle Barkley is bulldozing four-foot berms around his three acres in Bay Township and requesting support from conservative militia groups to prepare for a possible armed confrontation with county law enforcement officers over a zoning dispute.

The 55-year-old excavator vows that neither he, his family nor the three manufactured housing units in dispute will be removed from his property without a shootout.

It seems we have the next Waco about to occur. In addition, a militia group is willing to send 600 people to help defend against a government intervention. If so, this will be ugly. The government is asserting its power with respect to property while a man claims such assertion is illegal. The question of Who is right? is most definitely debatable.

One item I have never seen addressed in any scholarly capacity is this: When is it justifiable to violently resist agents of the government?

I do not have the answer. Would Rodney King have been justified in shooting the officers who were beating him? Was Randy Weaver justified in shooting federal agents? Would the protestors from the 1960s have been justified to violently revolt when the water hoses and dogs were turned loose on them?

Bill Hobbs has been all over Tennessee’s surplus. Funny how a year or so ago, our budget was all doom and gloom. His posts are here, here, here and here. The last one actually talks about an article in a TN paper that mentions the otherwise unmentionable surplus. Is local media reading HobbsOnline? Yup.

Per Boston.com:

Illegal gun activity has soared in communities south of Boston over the past five years, according to court records, but slower than the rate statewide

The region’s police and court officials say they are puzzled by the numbers, and some believe the increase could be attributed to more stringent firearms possession laws, or increased violence tied to drug activity. The state did not make available a breakdown of specific firearm charges, but offenses can vary from assault with a deadly weapon to carrying a handgun without a valid license.

Emphasis added. Boston doesn’t have a crime problem, it has a law problem. The new, more stringent laws are causing crime to increase. We’ve seen this correlation before only it was much less sarcastic.

Per my handy counter for infinite justice above, I notice there is now less than a year left on the Assault Weapons Ban of 1994 (AKA, pointless legislation).

Marc recaps gun safety at the Shooters’ Carnival.

This morning on the radio, a caller tries to convince listeners and the host that Bill Clinton is the precursor to the anti-Christ.

Sure, I took issue with some of Clinton’s policies and contend he was (at best) an average president. But the anti-Christ?

Per this:

The second-ranking official in the Israeli government said Sunday that killing Yasser Arafat is an option, as thousands of Palestinians took to the streets across the West Bank and Gaza Strip promising to protect their leader.

Well, Arafat has never been particularly productive and he is pretty much a murderous lackey.

I said that to my English teacher once, I was right. I don’t even need to spellt so read this.

UN Sets Nuclear Deadline, Iran Walks Out in Protest

The U.N.’s nuclear watchdog on Friday set Iran an October 31 deadline to prove it had no secret atomic weapons program, prompting Tehran to threaten a “deep review” of its cooperation with the agency.

Following intense U.S. pressure for action against Iran, the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) passed a resolution setting the deadline. Iran’s delegation stormed out of the closed-door meeting, accusing Washington of having new invasion plans after Iraq.