Rep. Smith has evidently decided that it is preferable that the country view him as a liar than stand by his earlier statements, which not only had much more of the ring of truth about them do than his current cowardly backscrabblings. Backscrabblings which, in any case, do little to remove the criminal impression he earlier gave of the House Republican Leadership.
*Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
Three Pit bulls had mauled someone. Pits were still running loose. They attack someone else. Neighbor calls the cops. Cops take 1 hour and 10 minutes to respond. Victim dies. The dogs attack someone else later, who shoots them.
The owner of the dogs needs to be criminally prosecuted as do the police.
Good question. Obviously, a bunch of whackos are to blame but trial lawyers are having a go at blaming the airlines. But this piece argues, that using that logic, the government is actually to blame:
The first thing to remember is that airline traffic in the USA is heavily regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration, which governs all procedures, including construction of the planes themselves. (Airlines have some say about routes and fares, which is about the extent of the vaunted industry “deregulation.”) That means the placement of every wire, every piece of steel, and every doorway on the Boeing planes used as weapons of mass destruction that fateful day was approved and overseen by the FAA.
While it makes for good press for attorneys and judges, the idea that Boeing on its own could have ordered “secure” cockpit doors is a laugher. Any unilateral attempt by any aircraft maker to act without FAA direction is always met with swift action against the manufacturer; to put it another way, it would have been illegal for Boeing to make planes with impenetrable (if that is even possible) cockpit doors before 9/11, something that Schiavo and her fellow attorneys (and Judge Hellerstein) already know. Furthermore, as John Lott has pointed out, there are many questions of whether or not FAA-approved (now) secure doors are even secure.
James Bovard writes:
According to supporters of the Patriot Act, the FBI was fatally prevented by excessive concerns about civil liberties from securing a search warrant for Moussaoui’s belongings — thereby thwarting the feds from gaining key data on a possible hijacking conspiracy.
In reality, as two bipartisan congressional reports concluded, Moussaoui’s computer was not searched prior to September 11 because of the FBI’s gross incompetence.
Instructors at the Pan Am International Flying Academy in Eagan, Minn., became suspicious of Moussaoui because, according to later press reports, he wanted to learn how to fly a 747 jet in mid-air but had no interest in learning how to land or take off. Moussaoui had no pilot’s license or aviation background. But he showed up with $6,800 in cash and a passion to learn a few flying skills as quickly as possible.
After phoning the local FBI office four times, a flight instructor finally reached the right FBI agent, relayed the suspicions on Moussaoui and bluntly warned, “Do you realize that a 747 loaded with fuel can be used as a bomb?”
The next day, Aug. 16, 2001, FBI agents came and, after ascertaining that Moussaoui’s visa was expired, arrested him. The INS agreed to hold Moussaoui for seven to 10 days — exploiting the flexibility in its regulations to protect the public from a potentially dangerous alien.
Minnesota-based FBI agents notified the CIA and the FBI liaison in Paris, seeking further information; French intelligence sources reported that Moussaoui was “a known terrorist who had been on their watch list for three years.” The CIA alerted its overseas stations that Moussaoui was a “suspect airline suicide hijacker” who might be “involved in a larger plot to target airlines traveling from Europe to the United States.”
On Aug. 18, Minneapolis FBI agents sent a 26-page memo to headquarters warning that Moussaoui was acting “with others yet unknown” in a hijack conspiracy. Three days later, Minneapolis agents notified headquarters: “If [Moussaoui] seizes an aircraft flying from Heathrow to New York City, it will have the fuel on board to reach D.C.”
But when Minneapolis agents sought FBI headquarters’ permission to request a search warrant to check out Moussaoui’s belongings, an agent at the FBI’s Radical Fundamentalist Unit refused permission. Instead, FBI headquarters insisted that Minneapolis agents file a search warrant request under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), a 1978 law that created the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to authorize searches of agents of foreign governments and foreign organizations. FISA sets a much lower, easier, standard for securing search warrants than is required by other federal courts.
Another interesting side note:
Third, once the hijackers made their actions known aboard the planes, everyone on board obeyed the law by following the hijackers’ orders. Ironically, the passengers on the UAL’s doomed Flight 93 broke the law by attacking their assailants. Yes, it is doubtful that the passengers would have been criminally charged had the flight somehow landed safely, but nonetheless, prosecution of Todd Beamer and others who charged the cockpit would have been a legal (but not politically feasible) option for U.S. authorities. To put it another way, in the eyes of U.S. law, Todd Beamer was not a hero; he was a felon.
He concludes with:
Yes, in hindsight, by following U.S. Government policies from beginning to end, United and American airlines inadvertently aided those individuals who snuffed out nearly 3,000 lives through their vicious actions. Yet, in hindsight, we also know that to have thwarted those attacks would have turned some employees of United and American into felons.
While I think it is a stretch to blame the government for these failings (with the exception of the incompetence of the FBI ), it is totally asinine to blame airlines who were obeying the law.
The Publicola gang is all over this story:
In Florida, Mr. Spaulding, a 71 year old concealed carry permit holder, was witnessing a 63 year old friend being kicked on the ground by three thugs. Mr. Spaulding shot and stopped the attack. The police show up and arrest the thugs but later release them. Mr. Spaulding is arrested for attempted murder. That is outrage number one.
Number two: The police state that Mr. Spaulding should have called 911 instead of intervening. Of course, in the time the police took to show up, the man may have been killed.
Number 3: Mr. Spaulding had to agree not to possess weapons to be released. No charges have yet been filed against him but his rights are being infringed upon.
Go read Publicola and Nicki’s for the details: here, here, and here.
Apparently, Limbaugh’s lawyers are saying that politics are playing a role in his probe. Sure, that’s probably true. But the fact is he was using drugs illegally. And I’m sure that politics had nothing to do with Rush’s treatement of the various Clinton scandals.
You should read this long reflection about the SCOTUS rejection to hear the Silviera case. It’s quite long.
Heh! After Manish informed me that Sitemeter was likely a better way to monitor traffic, I set up a an account.
How to game the system: Set up counter late on Tuesday, get instalanched on Thursday, then watch your average daily hits jump into the top 100.
Still no word from NZ Bear on that Carnival Issue.
A PA radio station refused to air an ad from the million err four mom march.
And the Brady Campaign got slapped with a fine for failing to disclose political spendings.
A nice, brief entry on how your dog is training you. After all, they’ve got nothing better to do.
Federal authorities this year mounted one of the most extensive investigations of domestic terrorism since the Oklahoma City bombing, CBS 11 has learned.
Three people linked to white supremacist and anti-government groups are in custody. At least one weapon of mass destruction – a sodium cyanide bomb capable of delivering a deadly gas cloud – has been seized in the Tyler area.
Investigators have seized at least 100 other bombs, bomb components, machine guns, 500,000 rounds of ammunition and chemical agents. But the government also found some chilling personal documents indicating that unknown co-conspirators may still be free to carry out what appeared to be an advanced plot. And, authorities familiar with the case say more potentially deadly cyanide bombs may be in circulation.
Kathy asks the question: Where’s the coverage?
Brian has some more news about the crime Nick Smith witnessed yet hasn’t reported. And a good sleight against Ashcroft. This story should be bigger news than it is.
There’s a ton of good stuff over at Half-Bakered. Just go read and start scrolling.
Plenty. And it’s amusing. Some samples:
This year I learned that Barbara Streisand is a genius who spells as bad or worse than me and Arnold Schwarzenegger is an idiot because he has an accent.
During the 2000 election I learned that flunking out of the Vanderbilt Divinity School and Georgetown Law School makes you a genius
Every time my wife urges me to look into getting OnStar, the digital, computerized communications device installed in many newer-model General Motors vehicles, I have resisted.
Yes, I know; I’ve heard the tear-jerk ads on the radio with the plaintive voices of supposedly real wives, mothers, and metro-sexual-sounding men fearing for their lives because they’ve locked themselves out of their cars and have called OnStar so someone can get them out of the jam into which they’ve put themselves. Still, I’ve not been convinced the loss of privacy is worth the remote possibility that I would find myself in a life-threatening situation from which the only possible salvation would be my ability to reach out and touch an OnStar employee.
Now, even my wife agrees that OnStar — or similar tracking devices installed in non-GM vehicles — would be a really bad idea. What changed her mind? In addition to the irrefutable eloquence of my arguments, it was a recent story, tucked away in an Internet news service, describing a recent federal court decision that confirms what my own conspiratorial-oriented mind always suspected was true. The FBI and other police agencies have been using these factory-installed tracking systems as a way to eavesdrop on passengers in vehicles, without the folks in the car even knowing the government was listening to their conversations! Unbelievable, you scoff? Nope, it’s as real as the genetically engineered smells automobile manufacturers are now putting into their cars.
Mark Lancaster, who I blogged about here, has withdrawn his guilty plea:
A former Mt. Juliet music minister who pleaded guilty to illegal possession of unregistered machine guns wants to take it back, because a federal appellate court has held that the U.S. ban does not apply to homemade versions of the automatic weapons.
Mark Lancaster does not deny that he made his own guns, using parts kits that he bought from out-of-state dealers.
But his attorney argues in motions filed late last week that a decision from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco, addresses a set of facts that are almost identical to Lancaster’s case.
One other tidbit:
Because the U.S. District Court of Middle Tennessee is part of the 6th, not the 9th, Circuit, the recent appellate ruling does not directly affect the case here. In fact, different circuits often conflict with one another on applying the law to a similar set of facts
So, we can have one federal law interpreted and applied differently around the nation? That seems a bit, uhm, retarded.
Actually, we get a few. But this one I thought was worth posting:
As I opened my front door to take my five year old daughter to school, a random Pit Bull (I don’t owe them the respect of using their proper name) charged through our door, approached my daughter, and as I immediatley picked her up and yelled at the dog, he was distracted by my Bichon Frise puppy. He made a beeline for him, and without hesitation, grabbed him by the neck and fatally shook him. He proceeded to run back out the door with him–all this as my daughter and her schoolmate and her mother watched and screamed and kicked at the evil animal. My dog was no threat, but that dogwas unmerciful. I just praise the Lord that my little puppy was there. God chose not to stop the dog, but He did choose to protect my daughter. I am petitioning for a local ordinance banning Pit Bulls–if humans can’t raise them right, then get rid of them. I have seen too many of these incidences And, yes, I am fairly cognizant on this subject . . . I’m a vet.
Erica
Washington
First, I don’t buy for a second that she’s a vet but that’s a separate issue. My reply was:
Erica,
You need to petition for enforcement of existing leash and restraint laws. Odds are, the dog was illegally running loose and was poorly socialized. Being a vet, then surely you of all people would understand that the owner of that particular dog is at fault.
And, being a vet, you would also understand that dogs are animals. There is no mercy. There is no evil. There is a pack and an order; and there is hunter and prey. People forget that when it comes to dogs because they are accustomed to their own dog that they have likely spent a lifetime properly socializing.
Dogs are naturally animals. Dogs are naturally hunters. Dogs are naturally pack animals. Dogs are naturally killers. Even Bichon Frise. It’s up to people to socialize them and train them to not be that way.
It is sad that the pit bull breed (and other breeds like Rottweilers, Shepherds, and Dobermans) attracts some poor owners who shouldn’t be owning dogs of any breed. These same people spend their time turning their specific dog into a dangerous threat because of their ignorance and a desire for a mean protection dog. They fail to realize that a dog can be protective and not be mean.
My sympathies over the loss of your pet as it is a hard thing to deal with, particularly given the trauma of your particular situation. I wish you’d devote your efforts to promoting responsible pet ownership rather than banning a breed. As breed specific legislation has proven many times, once you ban a breed of dog, irresponsible owners just pick another breed.
Thanks for the email.
I have updated this post about the Second Amendment to include Rick’s very insightful commentary. Give an opinion.
In using one blogroll to manage RTB links, some folks have been left off. Such as William Burton and Guy Montag, both of which you should go read. I’ve sent Barry (who you should also be reading) email about them but if you notice others, please let me or Barry know.
And Bubba has a new RTB logo. Check it out.
Two Rwandan journalists were jailed for life and a third was sentenced to 35 years on Wednesday for fanning the flames of a 1994 genocide that killed an estimated 800,000 people, a U.N. tribunal spokesman said.
The verdict ends a landmark three-year trial that heard how the media played a major role in inciting extremists from the Hutu majority to carry out the 100-day slaughter of ethnic Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus.
“All three defendants were found guilty of genocide, incitement to commit genocide and crimes against humanity,” International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda spokesman Bocar Sy told Reuters from the northern Tanzanian city of Arusha.
Ferdinand Nahimana, 53, a founding member of Radio Television Libres des Mille Collines (RTLM), was sentenced to life in prison along with Hassan Ngeze, 42, owner and editor of the Hutu extremist newspaper Kangura.
Life in prison is the most severe penalty the tribunal can hand down.
…
“The conviction…is a very important development because it shows that the responsibility for the genocide is not limited to those who did the actual killing,” he said. “Those who spread the message through the media and told the ordinary people to kill are far worse than people who followed their orders.”
Speech kills too.
Unknown News, a wonderful site for monitoring abuses of civil liberties but with whom I disagree about Iraq, has an estimate of total people killed in Afghanistan and Iraq:
ESTIMATED TOTAL KILLED: 40,183
ESTIMATED TOTAL SERIOUSLY INJURED: 92,766
I imagine if we deduct from those numbers the bodies in mass graves in Iraq allocated over time and the number of women not being shot in the heads in soccer stadiums with AK47s in Afghanistan, the results would be negative.
Of course, the Iraqometer isn’t running in reverse either.
The founding fathers of this country signed the Declaration of Independence and motivated a great number of people to collectively stand up and repel tyranny. They did this without loudspeakers, fax machines, the internet, or mass communications.
Currently, there are a growing number of Republicans who are disenchanted with what Republicans are doing in congress. There are also some Democrats who are becoming disenchanted with where their party is headed. There has been mention in the news and the blogosphere of the supposed libertarian (little L) revolution or Southpark Republicans who essentially have political views that take the perceived best of positions of the two parties. Granted, these groups of people are extremely over represented in the blogosphere.
The vast majority of voters will still vote party line ticket. Why is that? We live in an age where publishing to the people is free. You can reach a large audience with a webpage and a few gratuitous links from other webpages. Yet this supposed libertarian revolution is just not happening. Period. And I doubt it ever will. Despite overcoming the logistical nightmare the founding fathers had, no one can get the message out that Democrats and Republicans suck.
One reason I think is that Americans love the status quo. It’s always been Republicans vs. Democrats and Coke vs. Pepsi. And Americans are perfectly willing to let the two parties run amok despite the parties (particularly the Republicans) saying one thing and doing another. Republicans say they’re the party of smaller government. Now that they’re in control, they most definitely are not. Why do they put up with this? Den Beste wrote:
If you learn nothing else about America, learn this and imprint it on your brain in glowing colors: we will never surrender.
Sadly, that’s only true when the aggressor comes from outside our borders. When it’s inside the country, we let it go every time. We’re too busy watching The Simple Life and news about Michael Jackson allegedly diddling little boys while our government continues with some ridiculous stuff.
Why haven’t Americans put their foot down and voted these people out? And they won’t in 2004 either. It makes me want to give up.
But I don’t know where. I wanted to be real clear regarding my position on the Second Amendment. It is not about duck hunting. There is matter of factly an individual right to arms. Anyone who chooses to believe otherwise is either:
1) intellectually dishonest and has developed a conclusion first, then worked back from that conclusion to get the results they want. There is no collective right literature prior to the 1940s that anyone has found (that I know of). If someone were to state that there is a right to arms they just don’t think it’s a good idea, I could respect that. At least it’s honest; idiotic, but honest.
or
2) an idiot.
Now, one point of contention that always pops up is the tired old argument that if you believe that, then you would advocate private ownership of nuclear bombs. Anyone who thinks people should own nukes is an idiot. They are a consistent idiot, but still an idiot. It is worth noting that the first naval forces in the US before Adams commissioned a navy were privately owned ships fitted with privately owned canons. The question remains:
Where do we draw the line at what arms citizens can keep and bear?
I think that honestly this is the biggest point of contention currently. Even though the Assault Weapons Ban does not ban rifles but features, some folks choose assault weapons as the level in which we should ban guns. Look at all the presidential candidates. This doesn’t stand up to legal scrutiny since in the SCOTUS case of US v. Miller, the court opined:
In the absence of any evidence tending to show that possession or use of a “shotgun having a barrel of less than eighteen inches in length” at this time has some reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well regulated militia, we cannot say that the Second Amendment guarantees the right to keep and bear such an instrument. Certainly it is not within judicial notice that this weapon is any part of the ordinary military equipment or that its use could contribute to the common defense.
So, in my humble non-expert opinion, the guidance we have in the law is a weapon that is any part of the ordinary military equipment or that its use could contribute to the common defense.
Therefore, any standard military weapon issued to an infantryman is likely protected. A nuke is not standard issue nor is a rocket launcher. An automatic rifle with a barrel length of 11.5 to 20 inches, a bayonet lug, a collapsible stock, flash hider and a 30 round magazine is. As such, the Assault Weapons Ban is specifically unconstitutional as is the 1934 NFA tax on automatic weapons (taxing a right is illegal). I don’t oppose registration and therefore do not oppose registering NFA weapons with the BATF. People will opine that evil automatic weapons are being used in deadly crime but it is worth noting that only one Class 3 weapon has been used in a deadly crime. That crime was committed by an off duty policeman.
So, there you have it. Prove me wrong.
Update: One other thing, there are some people who argue that since the second amendment is assumed to be in place to repel invasions and resist tyranny in government, that it is irrelevant in the current context. After all, a ragtag band of hillbilly insurgents may be able to repel an invasion but that same band is likely incapable of stopping the US military. I can respect this position as well because it is honest and logical. I do, however, disagree with it.
Just because a right may not have the desired effect, it is not rendered irrelevant. For example, there were massive protests against the Iraqi invasion. These protests had almost no effect on the chain of events that lead to the invasion and did not stop it. Therefore, that right was irrelevant in that context. Still, these people have a right to protest to their hearts’ content and I applaud them for it.
Another Update: Rick offers the following in comments:
Let me state first of all that I agree with you regarding the limits of the second. I think that is a totally reasonable line to draw. I also have one other test that goes something like this. The power to conduct foreign policy rest solely with the federal branch of the government and some weapons are interments of foreign policy buy virtue of that fact that if used against another nation that nation could reasonably assume that the attack was by the government of the nation of origin.
Example, a nuke, a fully armed battleship, a jet fighter. If a private citizen were to get there hands on one of these and attack the military personell in another country, our excuse that this person was private citizens acting of their own accord would not hold a lot of water and wouold thus effect said FP. Therefor any weapon that has the ability to affect foreign policy could be restricted. Now this is just a personal idea that I have hashed around but it makes the same point.
Interesting stuff, I think. It seems to me that people largely agree that a line must be drawn legally and are developing how to draw that line, though it is, as Rick opines, extra constitutional.
Thoughts?
So, a teacher implied to a class of six-year-olds that there is no Santa.
D.J.’s teacher, Geneta Codner, was reading a story about the Tooth Fairy on Monday and the class started discussing what was real and what was not, said district spokesman Joe Donzelli. The subject of Santa then came up, and the teacher started questioning parts of his story — How could a fat jolly man fit down a chimney? How could reindeer fly around the world in one night? — and told the children that wasn’t possible.
“It’s all been blown out of proportion,” Codner said Tuesday. “I’m sorry [parents] think I meant it that way. We were just having a discussion. I don’t know where all this hurt came from.” She said none of the children acted upset or sad during class. But Jolly and others beg to differ.
Dickhead.
While I am disappointed that the Supreme Court refused to hear Silviera v. Lockyer, but pontentially gun owners may have dodged a bullet. Clayton Cramer details why.
Also, here’s a decent article on the subject.
The AP reports an irresponsible pet owner. Actually, they don’t. They do a story on Killer Dogs because that sells news:
Authorities began weighing charges Monday against the owners of three dogs that killed a woman over the weekend in a gruesome rampage that left two other people wounded.
Neighbors said the dogs had been a roaming menace for months in the rolling ranchland near Kiowa, southeast of Denver. A local fire official said residents had even adopted informal warning system when the pit bulls were loose.
Elbert County Undersheriff Jim Underwood said the animals, which were gunned down by a teenager and sheriff’s deputies, had been involved in previous attacks, but declined to elaborate.
The owners, one of whom was identified as Jacqueline Mccuen, could face charges ranging from a misdemeanor to negligent homicide, a felony, said Mike Knight, spokesman for the district attorney.
Mccuen already faces a misdemeanor charge filed after the dogs threatened another area resident, Knight said. A telephone number listed for Mccuen has been disconnected and she could not be reached for comment.
She was cited for alleged animal violations in 2002 when she lived in the Denver suburb of Aurora, Denver television stations reported. The citations included having unlicensed dogs, having too many dogs and letting dogs run loose.
The dogs were roaming for months? And no one called animal control?
The latest attacks began about dawn Sunday when the dogs killed 40-year-old Jennifer Brooke after she went to her horse barn. Ranch partner Bjorn Osmunsen, 24, was wounded by the animals after he went looking for her.
Neighbor Lynn Baker was the next victim. The dogs attacked as he stepped out of his home, jumping on him and going for his throat.
Baker thought he was going to die.
“They were monsters. And they don’t run away. They come at you. Even when you are shooting at them,” he said in a telephone interview.
His screams for help brought son Cody outside with a shotgun. The teenager fired bird shot at the animals, wounding two and distracting the other dog enough so his father could get inside his pickup truck.
“He knocked two of them down. He’s the hero,” Baker said.
But guns don’t save lives.
“The people in the area had their own sort of emergency phone network to warn each other if the dogs were loose before they would go out,” Goetz said. They dubbed the system the “frequent flyers rescue rig.”
Did the system include calling animal control?
Mind you, the owner of these dogs should not have allowed them to run lose. And, I’d bet $100 the dogs were never properly socialized. She should go to jail. However, as a neighbor, if there are dogs running through my neighborhood, I will contact the owner (if I know who they are) or animal control (if I don’t know the owners). Use common sense with your dogs and with other peoples’. You can’t rely on other people to use common sense.
Remember my reminder!
But yeah, I guess I don’t oppose selling your own organs. Keep your laws off my body, and all that.
Via Bubba (who also informed me what TCB means) come new additions to the RTB:
The Dagley Dagley Daily: Who lives in Hell err New Jersey (which is bad). She doesn’t like Ashcroft (which is good).
Voluntarily in China: Who is an an American from the sticks of Middle Tennessee who has been living in China for nearly three years. One set of sticks to some more, I reckon.
Smijer: A Dean supporter but don’t hold it against him.
Welcome to all.
Via Marc comes this wonderful article about a nationwide firearm audit with a view to establishing the number of weapons held by the public in Zimbabwe.
The Zimbabwe Republic Police on November 21 began a nationwide firearm audit with a view to establishing the number of weapons held by the public.
Under the exercise, which is expected to end tomorrow, although an extension of the period cannot be ruled out, holders of firearms were encouraged to visit their nearest police station and show the weapons and their licences.
The exercise, which in our view is laudable, comes in the wake of a number of violent and often fatal crimes involving the use of firearms.
Such crimes have lately become disquietingly common not just in Zimbabwe but throughout the world.
Hardly a month goes by without some newspaper somewhere in the world carrying a story of some lunatics gunning down several people and then turning the weapons on themselves.
In Zimbabwe, people holding firearms illegally or legally have become so many that working as a policeman has become a dangerous undertaking as police officers now live in fear of being shot at in the course of duty.
We feel that Zimbabwe can draw useful lessons from the American experience where unrestricted access to firearms has been blamed for the horrendous mortality of a significant percentage of the population from gunshot wounds.
Owning a gun is not a constitutional right in Zimbabwe.
Significant portion? Not according to the CDC. It’s about 28K per year. With 300M Americans, that’s about 0.0093%.
The rest is mostly emotional screed:
Guns give people courage to do things that they would not even dream of without the weapons.
Craven cowards, once armed, will readily go into a confrontation. Use of a gun – because it is fired from and kills at a distance – depersonalises murder and prompts gun holders to commit crime.
Well, in the US gun permits have correlated with a decrease in crime. Thought you were drawing on the American model?
We doubt if people who shoot others to death would have the courage to kill without the guns.
We believe that the number of guns stashed away in people’s homes is too high for comfort and hereby propose a re-vetting of people who were given gun licences.
We have more guns per person here in the US but we don’t have mass violence, except in places where there are fewer guns.
The need to train people on proper use of firearms and to familiarise them with safety precautions or responsible gun handling and storage is crucial.
A disturbing number of people who have licenced firearms are not trained in the use of weapons. They are therefore a hazard to themselves and others.
In our view, the condition of gun ownership should be a required demonstration by written and practical testing, of safe use.
Sound familiar?
I heard this on South Park once (paraphrased):
Dude, last week I saw two guys kissing in the park. Up until now, that was the gayest thing I have ever seen.
The word gay is interesting today. Webster’s definition aside, it can mean happy; it can mean homosexual; and, more recently, it’s slang for uncool. I had a former coworker (did I mention I work in a terribly politically correct field?) who expressed to a group of us concern that her teenaged son used the word gay to mean stupid or unhip. If he didn’t like something, he’d say it was gay.
I inform my coworker that I do the same thing. Everyone was shocked. I’m not known about the office for being particularly politically correct, as you may have gathered.
Why am I babbling incoherently about the word gay? Because of this:
A 7-year-old boy was scolded and forced to write “I will never use the word `gay’ in school again” after he told a classmate about his lesbian mother, the American Civil Liberties Union alleged Monday.
Even though he’s using the word in the non-slang fashion (his mother is matter of factly gay), he was subject to discipline by the overzealous thought-police.
A teacher who heard the remark scolded Marcus, telling him “gay” was a “bad word” and sending him to the principal’s office. The following week, Marcus had to come to school early and repeatedly write: “I will never use the word `gay’ in school again.”
What exactly is the “good word” to describe the kid’s mother?
Remember, I do this to entertain me, not you.
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