Publicola alerts us to the continued plight of Irwinn Schiff:

An appellate court decided Wednesday to hear First Amendment issues raised by anti-tax author Irwin Schiff, a day before he was scheduled to be in court on contempt charges.

His attorney, Michael Stein, said the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stayed a District Court order that would have required Schiff to provide the government with the names of people who have bought Schiff’s books since 1999.

The court also will look at whether a federal judge can ban the sale of Schiff’s book, as U.S. District Judge Lloyd George did in June.

This is America. He should be able to publish his book and he should not have to turn over a customer list. The list would merely be added to the IRS’ list of people to needlessly harass err audit.

Sad days.

Per this:

The June shootings along I-40 in Cocke County will get national attention Friday, partly because a local attorney plans a lawsuit on behalf of victims and their families.

Dandridge attorney Richard Tally told 6 News he’ll file suit within 30 days against Sony and the people who put out the game “Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.”

Maybe you should sue the parents for allowing the kids access to guns without supervision and for not teaching them that they shouldn’t shoot people? Sony has deeper pockets.

Mrs. du Toit speaks about violence and more importantly its role in society as a deterrent to rude behavior.

Mark my words, one of these days I will either be killed, go to jail, or have hurt someone severely due to my actions. I am a fairly confrontational guy. If I see someone being an ass, I will confront them. I don’t feel bad about it. I have no intention of engaging in fighting when I do this, just the sense of satisfaction of righting a wrong or just drawing attention. I’ve actually even drawn applause from passersby a couple of times.

Now, I do not encourage my behavior because you never know who is armed, who is insane, or who just got out of jail and has a body in their trunk. My behavior is because I am not scared to take an ass-whipping. Heck, I’ll recover. Or so I used to think. Something about turning 31 has changed my feelings about that. I’ve had my ass kicked a lot. I have also kicked quite a few asses. When I was young, I got in to many fights. I’m not a particularly big guy (6 feet 1 inch, 175 pounds) and I don’t claim to be a bad ass. But I can take a punch.

I’ve calmed down some since marriage. I don’t tell people they can’t park there or flip as many people off in traffic anymore. And I haven’t been into a fistfight since 1996. Being a confrontational guy, I’ve noticed most people back down when confronted. It’s most folks’ nature to just avoid anything that could turn ugly. That’s about the only thing I have going for me.

One story I will share in an effort to make Mrs. du Toit proud is this: I was on the exit from the West Knoxville Wal-Mart getting on the interstate by the red light. Apparently, no one in the city of Knoxville can remember exactly which lane ends (heck, I can’t remember now). I witnessed through my rearview mirror some guy in one lane who apparently needed to be in the other. He whipped over a lane in his big truck with big stupid tires (no signal, of course) and almost ran some poor lady off the road. She honked the honk of fear to let him know that she was there since he obviously hadn’t seen her. Here I am, first car at the red light. Big Stupid Truck behind me and poor lady behind him. He gets out of the car and goes up to her window and is yelling expletives at her while pointing all because she honked her horn. Mind you, he cut her off and the whole honking thing could have been avoided if he had paid attention or waited to merge.

SayUncle to the rescue. I step from my car and say If you weren’t such an asshole, she wouldn’t have honked at you. The first part of my plan succeeded, he was now no longer yelling at her but yelling at me to mind my own business. It told him he needed to shut up and get back in his car (I hope, dear reader, you realize that I am leaving out the particular expletives I was using). He never made an effort to approach me. And (remember I’m no bad ass) I should mention this guy was about 6 inches shorter than me and weighed considerably less. I could have kicked his ass. So, I started walking towards him. He then got in his big stupid truck and I, satisfied, got into my car. A second or two later, the light changed and I sped off while he tried to follow. He was much more brave behind the wheel of his big stupid truck. I hoped he learned to think twice before threatening ladies.

From the AP:

Two gunmakers who challenged Congress’ authority to ban the manufacture, sale and possession of semiautomatic assault weapons lost a Supreme Court appeal Monday.

The court, without comment, rejected an appeal that said Congress exceeded its power to regulate interstate commerce when it outlawed such weapons in 1994.

The 1994 law, an amendment to the Gun Control Act of 1968, defines semiautomatic assault weapons to include a list of specified firearms and “copies or duplicates of the firearms in any caliber.”

Navegar Inc. and Penn Arms Inc. challenged the federal ban in 1995.

Florida-based Navegar, doing business as Intratec, manufactures two semiautomatic pistols, the TEC-DC9 and TEC-22, which are among the specifically banned weapons.

Pennsylvania-based Penn Arms makes the Strike 12, a 12-gauge revolving cylinder shotgun. All such shotguns are treated as semiautomatic assault weapons under the 1994 law.

A federal trial judge and the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia upheld the ban. In its ruling last year, the appeals court called the law a permissible “regulation of activities having a substantial effect on interstate commerce.”

The appeals court cited Congress’ “intent to control the flow through interstate commerce of semiautomatic assault weapons bought or manufactured in one state and subsequently transported into other states.”

In the appeal acted on Monday, the gunmakers argued that the appeals court ruling conflicts with recent Supreme Court decisions that pared congressional power by narrowing the definition of interstate commerce.

So, why was it being fought as an interstate commerce issue and not a second amendment issue?

I wonder if I should add a link or if he’ll disappear again? Anyway, we’re glad Mike is back.

I’m not a fan of handicapped parking spaces. Sure, I think that some people need special access and that is fine. I take issue with the abuse of handicapped stickers and the idiots who park in handicapped spaces without the little sticker. I mentioned before that I thought it was a bit odd that the World’s Largest Athletic Shoe Store had a ton of handicapped spaces. And don’t get me started on the Expectant Mother parking spaces.

A phenomenon I have noticed recently is that a great number of the people I see parking in handicapped spaces have no discernable handicap other than obesity. They’re not limping, they don’t have crutches or anything else that I can see. Not to be totally harsh or anything but these people could use a bit more exercise. Maybe we should force them to park on the far end and take the stairs when there’s an elevator, it’s for their own good.

In fact, I’d like to see parking lots further segregated. Let’s have the following categories:

Crazy Doped-Up Soccer Mom Who Hates Her Life With Four Kids Looking For An Excuse To Go Nuts Parking

Liberal Parking, To The Left Please

113 Pound Woman Driving Big Ass SUV That She Can’t Handle Parking (extra wide spaces)

I’m Just Running In To Pee Parking

Hey, It’s My Birthday Parking

What The Hell Are You Staring At? Parking

I’m On My Lunch Break So Hurry The Hell Up Parking

People Who Nick Car Doors With Their Car Door Parking

POS Parking

A well-qualified judicial nominee withdraws his name. He gives up.

The precedent is now set. Any other qualifed candidates will have to go through the same horse and pony show.

Welcome Infozo to the RTB. But clowns kinda creep me out.

Newsrack has the lastest VTP! Why he keeps calling me Barry is beyond me.

You wanna kill yourself? Why not go the range, rent a gun, and scare the shopwoners? That’s what a local woman did.

Bizarre.

Tennessee will not partner the lottery but will go it alone. Does this mean no PowerBall?

Glenn (not white Glenn) speaks about blogrolls:

Back in the good ol’ days (about a month ago) I used to only blogroll blogs that I read. I wasn’t snobby about it, but if I didn’t read your blog or find your blog interesting there was virtually no chance of you showing up on my blogroll. On August 8 I changed the blogroll policy. If you link to me, I will link to you.

The reason behind the change was this: There is no way you will get to the top without either A) having a hefty blogroll or B) pimping other blogs like a mother.

Well, he is honest. And he makes no bones about it: he wants to be a big blogging machine who is popular. So help him out with a gratuitious link or two. I blogroll his site because I read it.

Here at SayUncle, I blogroll what I read. If you’re on the roll, I read you daily. I read the RTB there at the left too. I add people to the blogroll and I announce it. They go off, I don’t announce it. Not personal but I’ve either lost interest or my initial wanderlust has faded. For example, used to roll Amish Tech Support and Oliver Willis. Both took a dive too far in their respective direction for me. I don’t read them now. Besides, how much Palestinians are sacks of shit and Bush, Rove, and anyone with an R after their name puts babies on spikes, respectively, can you take?

I realize my approach to this blogroll thing won’t make me popular or get me a ton of hits but (as it says there in the upper right or left if you’re reading a permalink) I do this to entertain me, not you.

If you link to my site just because I link to yours, piss off. Remove the link, I don’t want it. If you read my site, I appreciate your link and want to keep you as a reader. We may disagree, but feel free to comment. Hell, I’ve changed my mind in the past, you may change it again.

Speaking of, new to the blogroll is Rick Dement. He left a comment, I read his site. I liked it. I linked it. I don’t care if he links to me (doh! just checked, and he does) but I liked what he had to say. So, he gets linked.

Oh, and don’t link to this post, punk.

I have (and I am not making this up) and axe handle autographed by Buford Pusser (yes, the Buford Pusser). If I could do anything with that axe handle, it would be to use it to crack the skull of that little British chick that does the Orbit gum commercial.

Or maybe hit a goose. But they’re kinda fast. Little British people aren’t real fast.

The Assault Weapons Ban of 1994 (hereinafter AWB) is confusing.

People were led to believe that rifles like this one:

Would be banned. While rifles like this one:

Wouldn’t be. Of course, both rifles above fire 5.56MM ammo, accept magazines with a capacity of 30 (and even more) rounds. Oh, and both of the above rifles are actually not banned by the AWB. The latter rifle doesn’t look as mean. Continuing with the rifles that look evil theme, look at this one:

The above rifle is legal to own:

This one isn’t:

Alert readers will note that this is a picture of the same rifle mentioned above. What then is the difference? The first rifle was made on September 13, 1994. The second was made on September 14, 1994. Tricky, isn’t it?

The most important factor is that the AWB doesn’t ban Assault Weapons. It bans features. Okay, it doesn’t ban individual features. It bans combinations of features. From the text of the AWB:

(B) a semiautomatic rifle that has an ability to accept a detachable magazine and has at least 2 of-

(i) a folding or telescoping stock;
(ii)a pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon;
(iii)a bayonet mount;
(iv) a flash suppressor or threaded barrel designed to accommodate a flash suppressor; and
(v) a grenade launcher

First, grenade launchers have been regulated as destructive devices since the 1934 Gun Control Act. And drive-by bayoneting hasn’t been a problem for anyone. A rifle made on or after September 14, 1994 can have one of the above features but not two or more. Such as this one:

You wouldn’t know it to look at the picture, but the one above has a pin (which coincidentally is easy to remove) inserted into its stock that prevents it from collapsing. Mind you, you can purchase stocks that come in varieties of sizes ranging from the shortest position of a telescopic stock to longer than the telescopic stock. The AWB has just banned the ability for the same stock to change sizes. You can still purchase small stocks or large ones.

Also, that thing on the tip of the barrel isn’t a flash suppressor, it’s a muzzle break. A flash suppressor doesn’t actually suppress the flash. It causes the flash to disburse to the sides of the barrel instead of straight ahead. A gun with a flash suppressor is as easy to see fired at night as one without. What is the significance of a suppressor then? You can maintain a site picture without the flash getting in the way. Now the muzzle break is designed to keep the barrel from rising when fired. You’ll notice that you can’t tell the difference between a flash suppressor and muzzle break in this picture so I will tell you the difference. A flash suppressor has vents all the way around the circumference of it. A muzzle break only has vents on top. So, the AWB has essentially banned the placement of little holes on a small piece of metal, which doesn’t affect the fact that the gun is still a semi-automatic rifle based on a military design.

As for pistol grips, that seems to be the feature most people want. It doesn’t affect the function of the weapons it just makes it more comfortable to shoot.

People interpret the threaded barrel bit as a ban on threaded barrels when really it is a ban on threaded barrels that can accept flash suppressors. Of course, you could have a threaded barrel so long as there no suppressors available for it.

So to recap: A rifle made before September 14, 1994 can have any of the above features. A rifle made after can only have one. If you think you have it mastered, I suggest you take this little quiz. Good luck and tell me how you did. I missed one.

The House is set to begin hearings on the blackout. Here’s what their conclusion will be:

The lights went out for a few hours and it was terribly inconvenient for a little while.

The Energy Bill that was passed by the House:

. . . includes $18.7 billion in energy tax breaks; doubles the production of the gasoline-additive ethanol; and fulfills President Bush’s request for $1.7 billion to develop hydrogen-powered cars. As expected, the House bill also contains the controversial proposal to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The provision helped kill the energy bill last year, when the Senate rejected it. The ANWR provision sets off a storm of lobbying whenever it’s considered. The Teamsters support the drilling because it would create thousands of new jobs, but environmentalists say it could cause irreparable harm to Alaska’s coastal plain.

And the energy industry sector contributed roughly $56.5M to politicians in 2002.

So, do we really want the people who have been paid by the industry to investigate what happened? Checks and balances refer to bank accounts, apparently.

Two new reads definitely worth checking out: Stop the Bleating and Boone Country. They’re gun guys too.

Jeff has the weekly gun bias chart up!

Some ado being made about Bin Laden family being granted extraordinary White House privileges to fly out of U.S. airspace following the attacks of Sept. 11th, 2001.

I wonder why that is?

I heard on the radio this morning that 12,000 Knoxvillians have concealed carry permits. I thought it would be higher.

Good news: A federal appeals court threw out an estimated 100 death sentences in Arizona and two other states Tuesday because the inmates were sent to death row by judges instead of juries.

Periodically, these guys can make the right decision.

. . . is a Heckler and Koch XM-8 5.56mm assault rifle. Sweet! Did I mention badass? Even better if they get the 6 – 7 mm version!

Thanks for the heads up to OMG of Sports Parlor South!

Adam posts a picture of the work of some smart Libruls.

It’s kinda neat when your opposition proves your point for you.

Knoxville Restaurant Owners File Lawsuit over Road Construction:

For many Knoxville residents, the construction project on Papermill Road is just an inconvenience. But some restaurant owners on Papermill say it’s shrinking their income.

The owners of the Number One China Buffet said the Papermill construction has taken their parking lot and many of their customers.

Folks are blaming traffic for air quality problems here in Knoxvegas:

The cars and trucks choking Knoxville area roads caused health problems costing nearly $80 million in 2001, according to a study released last week by a transportation reform group.

And there are of course health problems associated with accidents. I say the bulk of these problems could be curbed a bit if you could actually get from one end of Knoxville to the other. The horrendous amounts of construction make that impossible. I wonder what portion of these contaminates are the result of cars sitting on the interstates for hours idling.

And, as Bubba has pointed out repeatedly, TVA does far more damage to our air quality than automobiles.

Update: Unsurprisingly, Bubba has more!

Half-Bakered has returned.

Isntapundit (the other guy who isn’t Glenn) has some good advice for what to do when confronted by someone with a gun. He goes into some good information on what people are capable of doing when shot. It’s sound advice. To wit:

Contrary to the movies, a pistol does not endow its bearer with godlike death-dealing powers. One who is shot with a pistol can generally do as he pleases afterwards, including pounding the piss out of whomever shot him. The only exception is when the bullet directly disrupts the central nervous system, which is very rare.

The short version, which comes from the Sepultura song Ambush, is much more to the point:

When you go down, motherfucker, you go down fighting.

Via Kevin.