Les has some good gun links, this will apparently become a weekly thing. Cool.

There is a bill in the House that seeks to establish national reciprocity for handgun carry permits. The gist is that if you have a carry permit in one state, you can carry in other states that have carry permit provisions.

So, in it’s first week, the Tennessee Lottery takes in $41,300,000 and pays out, by my calculation, $297,000 to big winners. I think once people realize that the big payouts are only 0.719%, interest and participation in the lottery will decrease. Of course, since I don’t have stats on the total dollar payout of small payouts, I could be wrong.

The Detroit News:

A confidential federal informant claims an FBI agent instructed him to break the law as part of the government’s terror investigations in Metro Detroit.

In a Jan. 21 letter, written at the airport as he left for an undisclosed foreign country, informant Marwan Farhat said he was asked by FBI Special Agent Robert Pertuso to steal mail from Arab Muslims whom the federal government had identified as terror suspects.

Heads should roll. So much for the Fourth Amendment.

Some residents demanded a pit bull ban following an attack but:

Broomfield isn’t likely to see the ban against pit bulls that some residents demanded following a dog attack earlier this month.

Instead, the City Council directed its staff Tuesday to investigate ways to strengthen current vicious dog laws.

“I do think the ordinance needs to be beefed up a little bit,” said Councilman Vince Buzek.

Possible amendments to the city code considered Tuesday included: sticking with Broomfield’s current laws; considering a ban of pit bulls; or enacting a broader law against any aggressive dog.

The City and County Attorney’s Office recommended the last option, which included stricter mandatory penalties against owners of aggressive dogs.

Of course, why is it we dub these laws as aggressive dog laws when they should be called irresponsible owner laws?

The Democratic Party, it seems, recently made an effort to steer voters towards a candidate who is electable in the General. Apparently, most Dems didn’t get that memo because Kerry keeps coming in first. Sorry folks, Lurch isn’t your guy. You need that pretty boy Edwards or the General to win to be formidable in November.

That or this is evidence the Republicans have infiltrated the Dem primaries and are sabotaging them.

Of course, these are my preliminary speculations. A whole lot can change in 10 months.

Pardon me while I don my accounting geek hat:

There is a movement to mandate that companies expense all stock options when they are offered to the employee (though not necessarily redeemed). That is, record an expense on the income statement for the value of the options (which may not have been redeemed). Current treatment of stock options is done by showing diluted earnings per share, which is basically what earnings per share would be if everyone took advantage of offered stock options (and a few other things). The Senate has a bill mandating expensing these options. Politicos apparently feel this measure would lead to better information to the investor.

Some people (Greenspan) think that current accounting for stock options is used to distort earnings.

One thing that is often lost in this debate is that, essentially, a company is usually issuing treasury stock or unissued stock to employees. In other words, the companies are giving pieces of paper to the employees. Yes, these slips of paper have value but does the current method of recording this transaction reflect the financial position of the company?

I am increasingly of the opinion that accounting is made up. That is beside the point. What is going to happen is companies will soon show substantially higher expenses all because they give slips of paper to reward or compensate their employees. Functionally and operationally, nothing about the company will have changed but financial performance as measured under the proposed standards will suffer. And stock values may plummet.

Given that the market is on the rise, this is kind of silly. As best as I can tell, it is being done entirely for the appearance of cracking down on big evil corporations in light of the recent accounting scandals.

The Financial Accounting Standards Board is also debating the issue.

Justfacts.com:

Medieval serfs paid an effective tax rate of 33.3% and were considered slaves.

I figure I spend 37.7% of my income on taxes.

First of all, Revenue Measures is typically government-speak for we spent too much and want the tax payers to pick up the tab. With that said, I have seen a few pundits and bloggers express a desire for revenue based taxation for corporations to raise revenues. Their logic is that corporations get a hefty amount of deductions (that coincidentally individuals don’t get) for things thereby reducing taxable income to non-existent levels. For example, a corporation can deduct health insurance costs for employees from income to arrive at taxable income. This same luxury is not afforded to folks who purchase their own insurance.

The problem with revenue based income taxes is that it if a company isn’t profitable to the extent that it’s revenue is taxed, that company cannot survive. Low margin companies (such as various manufacturing firms that make money by cranking out lots of small profit items) would cease to exist unless the revenue tax rate was considerably less than their margin.

I think the country needs some tax reform but don’t think this is the best route. What is? Beats me. Flat tax may be it. Or just mass simplification of the tax code.

Zogby poll asks about concealed carry laws (and other stuff):

Voters overwhelming favor these self-protection laws by a margin of 79% to 18%. Right-to-Carry drew better than 70% support in every demographic group, with even non-gun owners indicating their backing by 73% to 23%.

Voters were asked: “Do you agree or disagree that American firearm manufacturers who sell a legal product that is not defective should be allowed to be sued if a criminal uses their products in a crime?”

Voters in both Red and Blue states strongly oppose such lawsuits – 74% of the former and 72% of the latter. In fact, a majority in every demographic group opposed the lawsuits; the most strongly opposed, at 83%, were current members of the military and their families.

The survey also asked: “Which of the following two statements regarding gun control comes closer to your own opinion? Statement A: There needs to be new and tougher gun control legislation to help in the fight against gun crime; Statement B: There are enough laws on the books. What is needed is better enforcement of current laws regarding gun control.”

By a better than two-to-one margin – 66% to 31% – voters nationwide agreed with Statement B. Only self-identified liberals called for more laws, by a 53% to 44% margin. Moderates solidly favored better enforcement, 62% to 34%.

Voters were asked: “Do you agree the NRA is right to fight gun control on both the federal and state levels?” NRA`s support stood at 64%, with a party affiliation breakdown showing Democrats siding with NRA 54% to 42%, and Republicans 73% to 22%.

Brian alerts us that the God Resolution has been shelved (again). It’s kinda like herpes, it keeps coming back and is rather annoying.

Free Speech News has a newer, easier to follow layout. I like it.

Moron:

“Everybody always makes the mistake of looking South,” Kerry said, in response to a question about winning the region. “Al Gore proved he could have been president of the United States without winning one Southern state, including his own.”

Hey Kerry, Gore is not currently the president. In fact, I think Gore proved exactly the opposite. If Kerry wins the nomination and pursues this strategy, he is done.

And Guy Montag alerts us that Kerry may have been a member of The Village People.

The Y-12 plant recently simulated an attack. Apparently, they did quite well at repelling the simulated attack. The problem though is that they cheated:

Security guards who repelled four simulated terrorist attacks at a Tennessee nuclear weapons plant had been tipped in advance, undermining the encouraging results, the Energy Department’s watchdog office said Monday.

The surprising successes by guards at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant last summer in Oak Ridge, Tenn., spurred an internal investigation. It determined that at least two guards defending the mock attacks had been allowed to look at computer simulations one day before the attacks.

The Energy Department’s inspector general, Gregory H. Friedman, declared the exercises “tainted and unreliable.” He said each mock attack cost as much as $85,000 to stage, and he urged the department to consider his conclusions when awarding contracting fees for Wackenhut Corp., which employs guards at Oak Ridge. A spokesman for Wackenhut did not return telephone calls Monday to The Associated Press.

Thanks for wasting my money and making a mockery of security.

Some degenerates tried to kill an Iowa woman. Her attackers assaulted her three times, including two attempts to strangle her to death. She got free and grabbed a bedside gun. She killed an attacker and the other fled. Now, her attacker’s estate is suing her. Here’s her site. The NRA has given her $7,500 for legal defense. She may need more.

The NRA has launched a site to combat the assault weapons ban, which they call The Clinton Gun Ban. There is a quiz at the site that is interesting. I missed one. I was not aware the House voted to repeal the ban two years after its passage because they figured out it was based on a lie by a vote of 239-173.

Just caught his first show. Man, I miss the old Dennis Miller from back when he was funny. He seemed nervous and he didn’t appear to have control. Oh well, it’s his first run. However, this exchange (when Miller was arguing with the token liberal woman) caused me to spit out my drink:

Token Liberal: Did you read the papers today?
Dennis Miller: No.

The look she gave him was priceless, as if to say what kind of guy gets a show based on discussing the news and then doesn’t read the news.

And she says Hi!

Fixing to leave to find out if we’re having a little boy or little girl. No blog for you, until this afternoon.

A Clipdraw review (part 2), getting a handgun permit in Tennessee, a comparison of compact 9MM pistols, and magazine spring maintenance. This stuff and more over at the Shooters’ Carnival.

Jeff has the weekly check on the bias up.

Cities in Tennessee want the state to repeal a law that forbids the cities from banning smoking in restaurants. Sorry cities (and state), that decision is solely the right of the restaurant owner.

Kevin has lots of good stuff lately. Just go here and scroll away.

Of particular interest to me was a link to a John Stossel piece about myths in America.

Number 3 on the list was guns are bad (and I am impressed that a major news outlet had a positive piece on guns – so impressed I’m putting the text here in case it disappears):

America is notorious for its culture of gun violence. Guns sometimes do cause terrible harm, and many kids are killed every year in gun accidents. But public service announcements and news stories make it seem as if the accidents kill thousands of kids every year.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, however, fewer than 100 kids 15 and under are killed in gun accidents every year. Of course that’s horrible, and I understand why demonstrators say we need more gun control.

But guess what? The Centers for Disease Control recently completed a review of studies of various types of gun control: background checks, waiting periods, bans on certain guns and ammunition. It could not document that these rules have reduced violent crime.

The government wants to say things like the Brady Gun Control Law are making a difference, but they aren’t. Some maximum security felons I spoke to in New Jersey scoffed at measures like the Brady law. They said they’ll have no trouble getting guns if they want them.

A Justice Department study confirmed what the prisoners said. But get this: the felons say that the thing they fear the most is not the police, not time in prison, but, you, another American who might be armed.

It’s a reason many states are passing gun un-control. They’re allowing citizens to carry guns with them; it’s called concealed carry or right to carry. Some women say they’re comforted by these laws.

Many people are horrified at the idea of concealed carry laws, and predict mayhem if all states adopt these laws.

But surprise, 36 states already have concealed carry laws, and not one reported an upsurge in gun crime.

Publicola (a site any pro gun person should be reading) is a year old.

I echo Publicola’s own sentiment that he should post more often.

I have stated before that there is no scientific way to determine what breed a particular dog is. The only way is appearance. As such, here’s a fun little contest. What kind of dog is this:

Pretty damn mean looking isn’t it?

Hit More for the answer.
Read the rest of this entry »

The Toronto Sun:

U.S. security agents have a master list of five million people worldwide thought to be potential terrorists or criminals, officials say. “The U.S. lookout index contains some five million names of known terrorists and other persons representing a potential problem,” Brian Davis, a senior Canadian immigration official in Paris, said in a confidential document obtained by the Sun.

The concept of a list doesn’t frighten me in and of itself. The criteria for being on such a list does. Am I on the list because of my stance that the government shouldn’t be involved in every single a few issues? Who’s on this list? Americans? Foreigners? That nice couple across the street?

Via UnknownNews.

Spoons took issue with my statement to George Carpenter. See Spoons’ comment here.

Spoons’ comment is directed at doing what is safe when your family members are involved. In fact, it’s probably a good idea to take his advice and not mine. That being said: just because I imply I would do something, it doesn’t mean you should be doing it.

Foxnews:

The kid barged into a 7-Eleven in Dania Beach, Fla., Tuesday night and pointed a rifle at the counter clerk, reports the Miami Herald.

Then he paused a moment to try to load the .22-caliber gun — with .40-caliber ammunition.

“He’s trying to cram a .40-caliber bullet into a .22-caliber rifle,” Broward County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Jim Leljedal told the newspaper. “It’s like twice as big as the gun will fit. It won’t go.”

Despite his weapon’s lack of deadliness, the teen pointed the gun again at the cashier and said, “Give me the money — don’t make me do this.”

Three customers saw their chance and jumped on the gunman, tackling him, kicking him and finally standing on him until police showed up.

This reminds me of a story a police officer acquaintance relayed to me once. A guy tried to hold up two other guys with a revolver. The two intended victims were gun savvy sorts and noticed that the revolver wasn’t loaded (because you can see into the chambers of a revolver). They took the would-be robber’s gun and wallet from him.

TaxFoundation.org:

In 2002 individuals, businesses and non-profits will spend an estimated 5.8 billion hours complying with the federal income tax code (henceforth called “compliance costs”), with an estimated compliance cost of over $194 billion.

I caught (thanks to TiVo) and episode of Comedy Central’s Tough Crowd with Collin Quinn. The gist of the show is that Collin (who seems to be a libertarian-conservative mix) has guests from differing sides of the political spectrum and they debate social and political issues. Oh and his guests are comedians. It’s fairly funny.

In Collin’s opening monologue he talked about a group of black guys who beat up some white guy. The white guy later died. He then said something like Surely something that important would be in the paper, right. It’s not biased or anything. He then picked up popular papers from a stack and noted that it wasn’t covered.

Anyone know anything about this story?