An update to this from a while back, is in the Tennessean today:

A proposal in the legislature to require that all dogs riding in the back of pickup trucks either be caged or tethered was amended yesterday in an attempt to make it more palatable to opponents.

State Rep. Bill Dunn, R-Knoxville, the sponsor, agreed to apply the law only to trucks on state highways. The first offense would get a violator a warning instead of a fine.

Does it apply to convertibles? Me and the dogs have been out riding around with the top down. Guess we’ll avoid state highways to be safe.

CNS News:

“I am not trying to be petty here,” said one of the two judges who refused to immediately halt the same-sex “marriages” taking place in San Francisco. But, the judge said, “That semicolon is a big deal.” San Francisco Superior Court Judge James Warren told the Proposition 22 Legal Defense and Education Fund that their request for the city to “cease and desist issuing marriage licenses to and/or solemnizing marriages of same-sex couples; to show cause before this court” was incorrectly written, and therefore he could not issue an order immediately halting the controversial marriages. “The way you’ve written this, it has a semicolon where it should have the word ‘or,'” the judge told the plaintiffs. “I don’t have the authority to issue [a temporary restraining order] under these circumstances,” the judge said. The second judge, Ronald Quidachay, said he wouldn’t rule until Friday at the earliest.

Apparently, students who go through our educational system are completely unaware of their civil rights:

Despite crackdowns on underage drinking that have pitted police against students, some students say they still don’t know their rights.

Christopher Carpenter, a media arts freshman, said he wouldn’t know what to do if he was confronted by police, or if his rights were violated.

“I’m not sure the average person would know what to do if an authoritative person violated their rights. They wouldn’t know who to turn to,” he said.

Well, here’s my advice if stopped by police:

1 – Keep your mouth shut. Don’t say anything other than Am I under arrest? or Am I being detained? If the answer to those questions is no, then you’re pretty much free to go.

2 – Be polite and do not act belligerent. In fact, add sir to the sentences above.

3 – Keep your mouth shut. Don’t say anything other than Am I under arrest, sir? or Am I being detained, sir? Notice a trend?

4 – If arrested, keep your mouth shut. The only thing you should say is Sir, I’d like to contact my attorney. You do have an attorney, don’t you? If not, get one.

By the time the cops read you your Miranda rights, they already have enough evidence to book you. This is why you keep your mouth shut.

For the record, I have never been arrested or otherwise detained. And I am not a lawyer.

I find it odd that our educational system doesn’t teach students what their rights are and how to react in situations. Public schools mostly teach children to be sheep, which is unfortunate.

NRAWol again:

The National Rifle Association wants no part of a Rapid-City-based pro-gun group that charged Gov. Mike Rounds with supporting the confiscation of private firearms and drew an angry rebuke from state legislators for its aggressive lobbying tactics.

David Conway of Black Hawk, legislative affairs director for the NRA-affiliated South Dakota Shooting Sports Association, said Monday that the NRA had no connection to the group South Dakota Gun Owners and doesn’t approve of its lobbying style.

“Their methods at the Capitol are not our methods,” Conway said. “We choose to have a working relationship with state officials, whereas they choose to attack.”

No, actually your method is to wait around until some gun bill scares gun owners, act like it scares you, and then support it at the last minute when you realized you’ve lost. How about getting pro-active and attempting to introduce bills that repeal gun laws? Here’s a start: $200 NFA tax, Assault Weapons Ban, and the Hugh’s Amendment. That ought to keep you busy for a while.

It seems I can no longer refer to them as the million err four mom march. Instead, I have to refer to them as the million err 24 mom march. Oh, well.

Papers, please:

One balmy May evening back in 2000, Dudley was standing around minding his own business when all of a sudden, a policeman pulled-up and demanded that Dudley produce his ID. Dudley, having done nothing wrong, declined. He was arrested and charged with “failure to cooperate” for refusing to show ID on demand. And it’s all on video.

On the 22nd of March 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether Dudley and the rest of us live in a free society, or in a country where we must show “the papers” whenever a cop demands them.

Now, they’re going for a state-wide resolution:

A subcommittee of the state House on Tuesday passed a resolution acknowledging God and the exercise of religious freedom as “the foundation of our national and state heritage.”

The resolution passed the House State Government subcommittee on a voice vote with no discussion and was forwarded to the State and Local Government Committee.

Sponsor Rep. Eddie Yokely, D-Greeneville, said the resolution acknowledges “that God has been in our historical foundation and our heritage” throughout history.

The resolution, like many passed by the Legislature, has no practical effect other than to make a statement.

So, if there is no practical effect, why are we wasting our time and money with it? And wasting more money when it gets challenged in court (and it will). Lame.

Edwards did well in Wisconsin. He still didn’t win. Pundits seem happy because this allows them to keep their jobs, so long as they play it up. Edwards should be the nominee if the Dems expect a shot at winning.

It clearly wasn’t me. Do you have a towel?

No matter how many pairs of jeans, hats, hunting boots and guns John Kerry borrows and poses with for photo ops (mind you, the irony of his critiques of Bush’s various photo-ops is likely beyond him), he is no friend to gun owners. Bitter tells us why.

Politburo Diktat. First, for including me in his bestiary. Second for making me laugh outloud at least twice today.

Jeff points out that I will soon be a father and maybe should abandon the name Uncle. Jeff will soon be an uncle, too. So, congrats to soon-to-be Uncle Jeff, who seems to be a rather avuncular sort.

Perusing Yahoo news, I thought I saw this headline:

Condi Rice sales looming in the US.

A quick double take and I saw that it really read:

Condo prices, sales booming in U.S.

Miniluv alerts us that Two Iraqis were arrested Thursday for carrying a barrel of material suspected to be uranium, a high-ranking police officer told AFP Sunday.

Let’s see how this pans out before we jump the gun on this one.

There have been many movie lists, song lists, and album lists that have rocketed across the blogosphere. I’ve decided I’d try to start one. Here goes my submission.

Top five (err, OK 6) songs that suck but you know you like them anyway:

Herbie Hancock – Rockit. I blame Herbie and this song for the creation of that pox on music known as techno. But this song ruled.

Biz Markee – Just a Friend: Who messed up and told him he could sing? Still, you can dance to it and if you sing it in a group of people, they are guaranteed to chime in.

Green Jelloy – Three Little Pigs: Pretty bad tune but it made everyone laugh. Also, that last drum fill before the last chorus rocks.

Alanis Morissette – You oughta know: Decades of pent-up frustration from a former You Can’t Do That on Television star. Angered women; made men scared. Bonus: Flea played bass on the demo version.

Young MC – Bust a move: Speaking of Flea, he played bass on this one too. And everyone has played the drinking game where you do a swig of beer for each oh and yeah.

Lee Greenwood – God Bless the USA: Hokey, campy, just plain not good. But folks get misty-eyed when they hear it. Despite public perception, this is actually not the national anthem.

Update: Ok, 7ish: anything by AC<lightningbolt>DC.

I recall the religious right being up in arms over the movie The Last Temptation of Christ, which I did see and thought was a decent movie. Now, the left is up in arms over antisemitism and appeasing to the religious right.

I guess pissing the religious right off is OK but doing a movie about something they may agree with isn’t?

They’re just movies. Robin Williams said it best when he said: Hey Sparky, no movie’s real.

Mike, who really should update more often, has the details of more boobie exposure on television. Honestly, how advanced is our society if exposed breasts are that big a deal? It does, I guess, prove we’re a nation run by uptight men.

The AP writes:

Dean Insists Run Won’t End in Wisconsin

Here’s a newsflash, Sparky: The run has ended. It’s all over but the please make me veep err piss and vinegar, rile the troops concession speech.

Though the news of a dog attack is never good, I am glad to see the city of Auburn back away from Breed Specific Legislation:

The state’s “dangerous dog” law — under which Roberts was charged yesterday — does not single out any particular breed of dog.

And the city of Auburn, which last month discussed labeling pit bulls as dangerous dogs, has backed away from that breed-specific law, according to the American Canine Foundation, which recently met with council members.

The Bay Area has an unwanted pit bull epidemic:

There is a hidden crisis at animal control shelters around the Bay Area, and dogs are dying because of it.

One day recently, at least ten cages at Oakland’s animal control were holding pit bulls. Some were so aggressive that they were a threat to other dogs, even behind bars.

The fact people would get a dog, encourage it to be aggressive (or at least not socialize it properly, which is essentially the same thing), then get rid of the dog is further proof that some people shouldn’t own dogs no matter the breed.

Ron says that Kerry doesn’t get it, after all he’s making an issue of Bush’s Nascar appearance.

You see, Ron, appealing to Nascar dads is Democrat codespeak for appealing to racism. Heck, if the Republicans supposedly have a Southern Strategy, it makes since that the Democrats do to.

Heh! See how dumb that sounds.

Buddy Don has started a new feature, blog reviews. An excellent idea! I may be saying that because he reviews my site. But I take this as a high compliment:

i half to add mitt, whenever i furst red mr. uncles site, i figgerd twuz one of the one-noters a la sick
of bush or hobbsonline,
them that ye kin almos perdick usin parody on a counta they dont never sprize ye with a new pinion, tho they kin git purty inventive with thar splainayshuns of
thar own orthodocks point of view. taint that thars nuthin wurth readin thar,
but the content tiz kep within sum limitin blinders.

This reminds me. Tom sent an email stating that people at the recent Memphis blogger’s bash discussed my politics. Tom didn’t say, but I’m sure the term wingnut popped up a few times. Tom concluded that I:

1) really like guns

2) really hate taxes

I do like guns but I like gun rights more. I only have three guns. I don’t collect, per se. I have owned many guns but I tend to buy/sell/trade when I get bored of my current guns.

I don’t really hate taxes. I realize that they are necessary and provide valuable services. What I take issue with is the fact that everyone pays too much. The poor get screwed by sales, payroll, and use taxes; and the rich get shafted by income taxes.

One final thing, I am apt to (and quite often do) change my mind about issues. If more info comes to light or I am exposed to a new way of thinking about things, I may change my mind on the issue. Seriously. Some people think that maybe this is inconsistent or disingenuous but I don’t care. It’s my prerogative. I forgot who said it, but a commenter here said something like:

Consistency is a fine trait in house paints. In thinking entities, it is rather useless.

So, there you have it.

Les has his weekly gun links up.

Wow, 2,000 posts! Not counting the 50 or so over at the Carnival.

I’m very disappointed. During this primary season, the Democrats had a chance to revamp their little imploding party. The way I see it, they could have gone one of three directions. With the all but guaranteed victory of Kerry, they chose the worse of those three directions.

If the nominee was Howard Dean, that would have indicated a shift leftward. I would have likely not agreed with Democrats on many policy issues but that would have been respectable for a party in need of change.

If the nominee was Lieberman, the shift would have been a little more to the right. They would be more moderate. Let’s face it, Lieberman is the face of moderate Democrats. That’s why some Democrats don’t like him.

Instead, they opted for politics as usual and look to be going with Kerry. Politics as usual, keep it moving, nothing to see here.

WATE writes:

State homeland security officers say they’re confident Tennesseans are safe from a terrorist attack. But they can’t let their guard down and say you shouldn’t either.

Even with all the increased security and frequent changes to the color-coded national terror alert system, many East Tennesseans have no idea what to do if terrorists actually strike. “My first reaction is panic,” Yvette McDaniel said. “I mean, I think that’s anyone’s reaction.”

The Department of Homeland Security is trying to combat panic with information on developing a plan.

Start by setting up an emergency, out-of-state contact who has all your family phone numbers. If a local terrorist strike happens, it could be impossible to make a local call.

Also, turn on your TV and radio. You’ll need news updates and information in emergency bulletins.

Sure, I think the media and politicians like to play up this fear thing, but it probably is a good idea to prepare for the worst. After all, people do develop plans for a house fire. May as well have a terror plan.

Noticeably absent was a mention of grabbing a gun. It is East Tennessee so that is probably not an issue.

So, the million err four mom march is planning a rally to demand gun violence solutions. They’re calling it the Halt the Assault Weekend. Nice way to tie it into the Assault Weapons Ban. I guess that is a gun violence solution to a gun violence problem that doesn’t exist. By that I mean there is no violent epidemic from assault weapons. They are used in less than 1% of violent crimes.

Why not support the ban?

Hey, it sounds reasonable doesn’t it? Well, I guess it would until you look at the details.

Right off the top, they ban the Avtomat Kalashnikov models made by Poly Technologies, Norinco, and Mitchell. This may sound reasonable unless you understand that the gun spelled out here has never been made by any of the companies listed. They did make a rifle which looked the same but did not have a number of the key military functions (full automatic fire, burst fire, etc) of the Soviet weapon named. But this part of the text in this ban can not be stretched to cover the rifles they made.

Basically this ban’s effect would be like a “Sports Car Ban” which bans the Ford Camaro. Ford did make the Mustang and many people consider the Camaro to have been an attempt by GM to compete with it. But there is no reaonable purpose to ban either a sports car by a make and model combination that does not exist, or a rifle by a name and company combination that does not exist (sic).

The assault weapons ban also proscribes a number of other military rifles which were never allowed in this country in the first place. One might claim this argument to be mere semantics but when it comes to legal issues semantics is all you have.

Then this law bans assault weapons based on some cosmetic features like bayonet lugs (to prevent gangland bayonet charges?), grenade launchers (already banned, along with their ammunition, by volumes of other federal and state laws), and flash suppressors (which generally have little effect with commercial ammunition).

Me and Mrs. are about to embark on another move. Staked it out today and break ground tomorrow. Check out the new pad we designed:

The woman Kerry is alleged to have had an affair with is denying the allegations. The AP reports:

A woman who has been the subject of rumors linking her to Sen. John Kerry denied Monday that she ever had an affair with the Democratic presidential candidate.

Breaking her silence four days after the allegations surfaced on the Internet, Alexandra Polier issued a statement to The Associated Press, saying, “I have never had a relationship with Senator Kerry, and the rumors in the press are completely false.”

Of having children. Thanks, B.

To protest affirmative action, someone created a scholarship for whites only. The United Honkey College Fund could not be reached for comment.