Rocky Top Brigadier South(of)KnoxBubba’s questions about voting in churches resulted in a front page Knoxville News Sentinel article. Soon the RTB will be shaping policy and stuff. Congrats to Bubba.

Everyone is blogging about this no-warrant search business. Brutal Hugs attempts to defend the search but I must disagree because if the guy was threatening to kill judges, that seems to be a sound basis for obtaining a warrant. I don’t think the sky is falling, I just think this is shitty case law. And this case law will be used to further diminish fourth amendment protections.

Kevin, gunner and John also have more.

Bill Hobbs rips the Tennessean a well-deserved new one over it’s opinion err coverage of the taxpayer bill of rights.

Mike of Half-Bakered is back and seems to be sticking with it. Go give him a read, you won’t be sorry.

From this:

“The Senators and Representatives shall … in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.” – U.S. Constitution, Article 1, Section 6, Clause 1.

So, our elected officials can lie while doing the job they were hired to do and not be held liable. And read that article for more debunking of the myth of assault weapons.

A Veterinarian claims he has never seen a pit bull or a pit bull mix come into his adoption center:

Veterinarian Dr. Bill Suro, medical director at the MaxFund Animal Adoption Center, has never seen a mixed-breed pit bull arrive at his shelter, let alone a full-blooded pit bull terrier.

Of course, he’s seen lots of “boxer mixes” and “American bulldog mixes,” which bear an astonishing resemblance to pit bulls. But a pit bull? No, he’s never seen one. And as long as Denver has a ban on the breed, and as long as city animal-control officials euthanize all dogs they suspect are pit bulls or pit bull mixes, Suro isn’t likely to see one.

MaxFund Animal Adoption Center medical director Dr. Bill Suro says that if MaxFund resident Malcolm had ended up at the pound, he would have been euthanized for his resemblance to a pit bull.

Veterinarian Dr. Bill Suro, medical director at the MaxFund Animal Adoption Center, has never seen a mixed-breed pit bull arrive at his shelter, let alone a full-blooded pit bull terrier.

Of course, he’s seen lots of “boxer mixes” and “American bulldog mixes,” which bear an astonishing resemblance to pit bulls. But a pit bull? No, he’s never seen one. And as long as Denver has a ban on the breed, and as long as city animal-control officials euthanize all dogs they suspect are pit bulls or pit bull mixes, Suro isn’t likely to see one.

“Yes, I’d say we do have some dogs here who’d be put to sleep if they got to the pound,” Suro says. “Their ancestry is in question. But it’s silly to say if someone looks Italian, they must be Italian. . . . They have no way of proving they’re pit bulls except to say they look like pit bulls.”

Good. Down with doggie racism. As regular readers know, there is no scientific way to determine what breed of dog a particular dog is. If you live in an area with Breed Specific Legislation, take advice from this guy and call your dog a boxer.

In a follow up to my post on BSL in Adrian, I am glad to report that the mayor is no longer pushing a breed ban but is looking at ways to make pet owners more responsible. Of course, just making people responsible in general would be a good idea. Too bad it’s just not that common these days. It is good that they are not trying to pass the ban.

Sometimes I think some people believe this is how it works.
Read the rest of this entry »

Some pretty funny pix over at Phelps’ place.

The Fifth Circuit ruled that police officers don’t need warrants to conduct brief searches of homes and businesses. Two dissenting judges called it the road to hell.

What is wrong with these people?

Update: John has more.

Mark Lancaster, who I wrote about here and here, had his sentencing hearing today. Blake has the scoop.

Thanks to an email from a reader, I have the answer to the question I posed about whether or not grenade launchers are Destructive Devices. Turns out, the receiver is transferable as a long gun through a Form 1 (i.e., it’s a NFA transferable weapon subject to the $200 tax and is considered a firearm, like a machine gun). However, if you have the 40MM barrel, then it’s a destructive device, which still is subjected to the same regulation (i.e., LEO sign off, $200, filling out forms, etc.) but has a different name.

Seems I was right but for the wrong reasons. And the receivers cost about $2,300, in addition to taxes. And the barrels about $2,600, plus taxes. And this doesn’t include grenades, which are destructive devices.

Boring stuff but I have been paying attention to my stats a lot lately. If you’re averse to horn-tooting, read no further.

Per Sitemeter, the average length per visit (which excludes page views) is two minutes and nine seconds. And I average 577 visits per day. So, 577 visits multiplied by 129 seconds is 74,433 seconds (or roughly 1,241 minutes or 20.68 hours). So, this site is read by people for approximately 20 hours and 41 minutes per day.

Ravenwood sums up an atrocious story:

That’s right, police raid a man’s home, involuntarily commit him to a mental institution, and then refuse to give him his guns back because he has a history of being involuntarily committed to a mental institution.

Tom has created a nifty little spreadsheet where you can enter your AGI and figure out what the Bush tax cuts saved you err if Kerry will raise your taxes. It’s neat. It does assume that Kerry will stick to his campaign promise of only raising taxes on the top income bracket.

Via UnknownNews, the Georgia House voted 160-0 (with no debate) to ban female genital piercing. Is this really something the Georgia House should be worried about? Losers.

Seems there’s a bill for the president to sign called the fetus protection act, which would make it a separate crime to harm a fetus during an assault on a pregnant woman. But if you read further:

The measure is limited in scope, applying only to harm to a fetus while a federal crime is being committed against the pregnant mother, such as terrorist attacks, drug-related shootings or attacks on federal lands or military bases. But proponents on both sides of the fetal rights and abortion issue saw far-reaching consequences.

Both sides of the abortion debate view this as a possible step toward outlawing abortion under the precedent that it essentially acknowledges a fetus as a person. I, personally, don’t see how congress has any authority to pass such a law but that’s never stopped them before. Nor do I see how this is a federal matter to begin with. However, the fallout will be interesting to watch.

Today, I got an email from girl who is a senior in high school. She wanted me to give her some resources on gun crime statistics overall and gun crime statistics based on race. I was happy to oblige. This is the second time that I have been used as a resource for homework, that I know of. Cool.

Via Jed, Talkleft tells us that the tenth circuit has held there is no individual right to arms.

Both Jed and Talkleft provide some criticism of the ruling. And people wonder why I have almost zero faith in our courts.

Francis Warin, who I blogged about here and here, has been sentenced to 33 months.

I love bourbon. Unfortunately, it can ruin your plans. See, prior to going to my neighbors house and slamming down approximately 5 bourbons, I had a thought for a post. This post was the end-all-be-all of posts. Blogging and conflict would have ceased to exist. It would have solved all problems in the world. We would have all gotten along. Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, libertarians, independents, all would have worshiped me for my clarity of thought and euphonious insights into the general nature of life, the universe, and everything. EVERYTHING! I’m pretty sure the post involved guns, furry slippers and ruthless efficiency but now we’ll never know. I would have likely won a Nobel prize, gotten a bitchin’ cabinet position or some shit.

But no. Bourbon is a harsh mistress. And to think, I planned on applying some wood stain to some furniture and was going to take apart my Ruger 10/22. Did I mention that when I get a new gun, the first thing I do is take it apart to see how it works? Probably not. This, coincidentally, makes the wife nervous despite my assurances that I don’t even have ammo for the gun within 10 feet of it. Actually, it makes her nervous that I put it back together and then take it shooting. Go figure. Bourbon ruined those plans too.

I realize I am babbling incoherently now but that’s what bourbon does. Did I mention that I love bourbon? I have now violated the don’t drink and blog rule so I’ll stop.

Back when I was in public accounting, the term employee empowerment was a big buzzword. Like the mindless sheeple we supervising staffers were, we got sucked into one of the most colossal failures of human resources buffoonery ever. One year, the managing partners decided they’d implement reverse evaluations as part of the yearly employee evaluation process. The way these reverse evaluations would work was that we staffers would get an opportunity to evaluate our managers and partners using the same forms they used to evaluate us. We’d rate them on a one to five scale on various attributes like productivity and punctuality; and offer comments to aid them in their work.

To borrow a cliché, most public accounting managers and partners were what we called seagulls. They’d come in, make a lot of noise, shit all over everything, and leave the place in a worse mess than it was before they arrived. In public accounting, being a good accountant doesn’t determine your success. What determines your success is your ability to sell. Hence, there were many seagulls who lacked certain ability.

Needless to say, these reverse evaluations provided valuable insight into what the seagulls did. Apparently, this valuable insight was absolutely not wanted. After the evaluations were done, we never heard a peep about them again until many months later. We got some memo stating that the policy of reverse evaluations didn’t provide valuable information and would be discontinued. I’m guessing the seagulls weren’t real happy hearing about how they were doing.

I later heard from a manager who was leaving the firm that seagulls were not at all happy about how staffers viewed them. Instead of addressing the issues, they decided they just never wanted to hear about the issues again.

Jeff at Alphecca has a post about the Sopranos and the real Mafia.

folks, these Mafia dudes, organized crime types, whatever you want to call them, are terrible people. Yeah, you can feel for Tony but in the end, they are nothing but thugs. And that’s the problem with TV and Hollywood: They love to glorify the miscreants of the world. And kids then think these thugs are cool.

I couldn’t agree more. Just take that Casino movie, for example. At the end of the movie, De Niro’s character is lamenting how the Evil Corporations are ruining Vegas. Hey, De Niro: you and your goons just spent the whole movie beating and killing people! You’re telling me the corporations are the bad guys?

Rubbish.

In Tennessee, we have this government funded ad campaign called Click It or Ticket, which means that if you don’t wear your seatbelt then you’ll be issued a ticket. A local congressmonkey has pointed out that the ads are actually misleading:

But one state senator says the ad is untruthful and misleading because motorists in Tennessee cannot be pulled over and ticketed for not wearing a seat belt.

In Tennessee, adults can be ticketed for not being buckled up only if they are stopped for another violation, such as speeding.

Also, in Tennessee, passengers of motor vehicles can drink. The driver can’t. But they’re trying to change that:

Currently, Tennessee only outlaws drivers from boozing it up while on the road. But that has led to a loophole — drivers passing their beer cans to a passenger when the blue lights start flashing behind them. Legislation to end that cleared a Senate panel unanimously yesterday.

Similar legislation passed the Senate two years ago but stalled in the House, with some thinking it would cut down on the fun during road trips to University of Tennessee football games.

Now, as someone who drinks a lot as a passenger on his way to UT football games, I can say that waiting until I get to the tailgate party location to start slamming beers would be a major inconvenience.

Update: Justin details some more Tennessee driving law buffoonery. Up next: blood tests.

From the latest Commentaries:

We emphasize again that freedom and liberty are not interchangeable ideas. Freedom basically denotes the elimination of restraint – the breaking of shackles. It was used as a conspicuously successful morale builder for galley slaves, among others. It was promised to the slaves on the Christian side at the critical battle of Lapanto, 1574. They were told they would be freed if their side won. Since the existence of a galley slave is about the closest approximation of hell that humanity can devise, freedom from it was an unequaled objective. Liberty, on the other hand, is a political idea denoting the right of an individual to do whatever does not interfere with the activities of his neighbor. Men also fight very well for liberty, but that objective is less well understood and may not even be prized by persons lacking the spirit for it. Most of today’s governments are socialist in which liberty is mostly lacking, and the people in those states do not seem to mind. Thus it is somewhat annoying to hear exhortations which do not differentiate between those two words.

Another guy defended himself in NY and was subsequently charged with violating NY’s meaningless gun laws. Make no mistake, NY’s gun laws are designed to keep law abiding people from purchasing guns, not merely criminals.

Brian correlates red v. blue states in terms of gas prices. Red states have lower gas prices, apparently.

The trainer’s quote of the day has this snippet:

The murder rate in Gore counties, 13.2 per 100,000 residents, contrasted with 2.1 in the Bush counties.

Looks like gun and environmental controls are working as expected.

Update: Via Phelps, the murder rate quote is fabricated: The quote has been shown to be a lie. The actual ratio is about 6.5 to 4.1.

Les has his weekly gun links up.

I just want a record of this from CNN:

They also tend to be armed with AK-47s rather than more accurate rifles, giving soldiers time to return fire or get out of harm’s way.

It’s about Iraq, of course. Yet when AK-47s in the US are covered, they’re extremely deadly.

This time in New York. A Newsday article on .50 caliber rifles is accurate about the rifles:

The rifles shoot a large bullet and are accurate to within four inches at 1,000 yards at supersonic velocity, then carry more than two miles with declining accuracy. The forerunner is the .50-caliber machine gun that has been used in the military worldwide since World War I, but today’s rifles available on the legal market are often single shot, bolt-action firearms.

The Internet is also full of semiautomatic models that resemble the military assault weapon that have been mounted on tanks and jeeps for decades.

Today, the rifles cost between $2,000 and $11,000, can weigh 50 pounds and are most often used by target shooters in competitions nationwide. Occasionally they are used in big-game hunting in Africa, Alaska and some western states.

Of course, they quote Tom Diaz of the Violence Policy Center as well:

These are the tools of the trade of terrorists

Odd how the only violent crime committed with a .50 was by a policeman and not a terrorist. KABA has it right: Tom Diaz is nothing but a professional liar. In fact, here’s a list of VPC lies.

Tennessee legislators are trying to push a bill to allow gambling at charity events:

Charities that hold gambling events to raise money would have to keep at least 25 percent of the gross profits under a provision adopted Wednesday by the Tennessee House.

The House also voted to allow criminal background checks for board members of charities applying to hold a game.

Legislators further amended the bill to limit charitable gambling events in one location to two per month; as it came out of the Senate, the bill said two per week at any given site.

You’re kidding! All of those regulations seem to me to be completely arbitrary. I guess it makes them feel important to be involved.