I plugged GunBroker.com a while back. I haven’t ordered anything from there. MadOgre posts an email about bad experiences with GunBroker and his own bad experience with them. Long and short is that dealers sell defective products and GunBroker does nothing about it.

You’ll have to follow the link and hit the Page Down button twice because MadOgre apparently refuses to use permalinks or blogging software.

Oh, That Liberal Media, a group blog that addresses the non-existent liberal bias in the Republican controlled media conglomerate.

Because I say so, pro-gun blogger.

I’ve been called Unca Monkey and am now I am on the MonkeyWatch.

Rocket Jones is in trouble at the office for saying something. Yes, and each time I use the phrase You can’t polish a turd in reference to a budget, our CEO is not impressed.

The Geek has a rundown of operating weapons other than AK47s.

Marc is back. Good, I thought we’d lost him.

Manish does a location-by-location rundown.

WATE:

Joanna Ediger, 35, is charged with lying to state finance officials when she said a company owned by a friend of then Gov. Don Sundquist was the only one qualified to win a state contract.

The contract was for $1.9M.

Both Kerry and Bush, unsurprisingly, support the Assault Weapons Ban, which neither addresses assault weapons nor is it a ban.

Hastert when asked if anticipates renewal of the ban:

The Senate was going to go through the bill first. It kind of fell away over in the Senate. I am not sure what is going to happen.

Another report indicates the GOP plans to let the ban die. Good.

I have, for a variety of reasons, been remiss in listening to NPR for bias lately. However, today I caught about 20 minutes of it. The reporter was talking about one of Bush’s various campaign stops. Bush was referring to his tax cuts when the reporter (Robert Smith, if I recall) chimed in that Bush’s message sounded like an infomercial. Nope no bias there.

NY Post:

The soon-to-expire ban has police chiefs from New York to California worried, fearful that crooks will once again have ready access to a range of foreign and U.S. machine guns – including the Galil Israeli assault rifle and Colt’s civilian version of the M-16.

The ban does not affect machine guns. Period.

After taking credit for the bombings in Spain, Al Qaeda claims that an attack on the US is 90 percent ready.

Yes, now go hide in your little caves.

Susan Lindauer is accused of being a spy. I find it curious that she collected only $10,000 for spying for the years 1999 through 2002. That’s $2,500 per year, which doesn’t seem to actually be spying for profit. Color me skeptical.

Tom Diaz, Violence Policy Center:

If the existing assault weapons ban expires, I personally do not believe it will make one whit of difference one way or another” in “reducing death and injury.

John of Argghhh! has a post about a robotic exoskeleton intended to help soldiers and firefighters carry heavy loads. Sci-fi fans will, of course, think of Heinlein’s Starship Troopers and other works featuring soldiers equipped with powered armor. This kind of technology also has lots of civilian applications, most obviously that of helping disabled people walk.

I did my doctoral work in robotics, so I’m professionally interested in this, you might say. What I really want to know is what kind of power source they’re using, and how long it lasts. One of the big problems in mobile robots is energy density. Most use batteries, which as we know are bulky, heavy, and don’t last very long. For outdoor robots, a gasoline engine might be an option, but I don’t think that would be welcome indoors.

The project’s website has a pdf file containing a little sidebar from Jane’s Defense Weekly which says that they are developing a power source that would run “for 24 hours on one tank of fuel…[that] would initially burn propane or gasoline….” I wonder what they have in mind?

I perused the Berkely lab’s website, but for the life of me, I couldn’t find any page where I could download their publications. Maybe I missed it, so if you alert readers find such a page, please let me know. This is something that used to drive me nuts when I was in grad school. Japanese robotics labs tended to be really bad about not posting their publications online. Come on people; the web was INVENTED to publish scientific research.

Kevin notes that the attacks don’t fit the pattern of Basque separatists but do fit the patterns of Al Qaeda.

If true, this does shoot a rather sizable hole the flypaper theory. Additionally, it may be indicative that more attacks on countries that appear to support the US could be forthcoming. Assuming it’s Al Qaeda, I suspect a lot more countries will start cracking down even more on terror.

Update: Al Qaeda has taken credit for the attacks.

Mike tells you non-gun types how to operate an AK47 (the preferred weapon of most of the world) in case you need to. I read somewhere that one in six guns on the planet is an AK47.

This does remind me of something. If I am ever in a position where I am required to ride a motorcycle to save my life, I will die. I’ve ridden one once. All I know is one down, three up. I don’t know which handle is the clutch or which is the break. Or how to start one. This is why I’m not in any action movies.

I have found it more common among owners of small dogs that their dogs are rude. What do I mean by rude? Jumping on people, jumping in laps, nipping at people, aggressiveness toward people, aggressiveness toward dogs, and barking at people. People are more willing to tolerate rude behavior from small dogs because of their size. A Jack Russell Terrier who jumps on you or nips at you will not do much or really any damage. Therefore, some folks view the rude behavior as cute and harmless. They even unintentionally encourage it by rewarding the behavior. If you have a Mastiff who displays these rude behaviors, you’re in for trouble. A 150 pound dog who jumps on you can knock you over.

Dogs in general have no concept of their size. My neighbors Pomeranian wrestles with Politically Incorrect Dog all the time. Occasionally, he’ll step on her and she’ll let out a yelp. Otherwise, she thinks she weighs seventy pounds too. And Politically Incorrect Dog struggles with the concept that he’s not lapdog sized. He sees the Pomeranian in a lap and wants to be in a lap too. He is corrected when he tries.

A recent example of bad behavior: last night the Mrs. and I were checking out some of our property. We had our dogs with us and were walking around. Being responsible pet owners, our dogs were on leashes. Another vehicle pulls up about 50 yards down the road and opens the door. Out jumps a Jack Russell Terrier and a Miniature Pinscher. The two dogs, who were not on leashes, immediately start barking with hackles raised and charge at us. We’re not scared because the little guys are, well, little. I give Politically Incorrect Dog a sit and stay command and the Mrs. does the same with Politically Correct Dog. They comply. They sit quietly with ears raised as the two rude dogs circle them and bark frantically. Politically Incorrect Dog wags his tail and does a play bow. The owner runs up to retrieve her dogs, calling them to come, at which point they run down the busy road away from her. If they don’t come on command, you have an accident waiting to happen. She chases her dogs for several hundred yards. All this could have been avoided with proper training and socialization. Even simpler, it could have been avoided by using a leash.

Politically Incorrect Dog is not dog aggressive. Politically Correct Dog is dog aggressive. Had Politically Correct Dog not been well-behaved and restrained, he could have easily done some major damage to these two rude dogs. Of course, I won’t allow him to.

I’m not a person who despises little dogs. I like little dogs fine, as long as they are well-behaved. I do find that little dogs are more likely to bite children. After all, if a child tugs the tail of a small dog, it will hurt and the dog will feel threatened. And the dog will defend itself by biting. A big dog will not feel as threatened and will likely just walk away, if properly socialized. Size is not an excuse to justify bad behavior.

How traffic laws work. Very insightful.

From John’s site:

Asked how he knew the man killed was a gunman, Gurganus said: “He had a gun, and he was shooting at Marines. That’s what I call a gunman.”

Some bombs went off in Spain. My sympathy to those who have lost their lives and loved ones.

Les has the weekly gun links type web product up.

Apparently, there’s this virus going around that inserts the F-Word into people’s websites. Or so the Kerry campaign would have us believe, since their site is riddled with them.

Count the lies:

One study found that just 1 percent of gun dealers sell almost 60 percent of the guns used in illegal crimes. Washington, DC’s Bulls Eye Shooting Supply – the dealer that supplied the weapon to the DC sniper – is one of the repeat offenders, having been connected to the sale of weapons traced to over 50 area crimes.

The ATF has called the study you list flawed. Bullseye is in Washington State. Bullseye did not supply the gun, it was stolen.

Email Seth and let him know.

How hard is it to get a Federal Firearm License? Apparently, more trouble than it should be. Read this woman’s account of asking governmental permission to conduct legitimate business:

On 2/24/04 at 9:10 am, arriving at the door, were 2 ATF inspectors, Casimir Mleczko and Nicholas Garlie. After showing me their identification, I seated them in an office that I had set up for my interview. Also present was the General Manager of our paint and drywall business. I had asked him earlier to be present during my interview. I was immediately informed by Mr. Mleczko that he will only conduct my interview if I was alone with him and Mr. Garlie. ( I later was informed by my attorney that this is not a requirement and is a violation of my rights.)

I questioned him as to why this was required and his response was that due to the privacy act, ATF was not allowed to discuss any information with anyone. (The privacy act is written for my privacy and not theirs) He stated that our manager could not be present due to the fact that during the course of my interview there may be “issues discussed about my husband’s business”. That statement revealed his intent to violate my husband’s privacy, which would have been in direct violation of the Privacy Act of 1974. I indicated that I preferred that our manager remain during the interview. I asked Mr. Mleczko what issues related to my husband’s business had anything to do with MY application. He did not answer this but responded that our manager could not be present as he (Mr. Mleczko) might discuss tax issues. Tax issues are not related to the application process, and since I obviously would not have tax issues yet, that statement revealed his intent to discuss my husband’s business, again intending to violate his rights under the Privacy Act.

As with most things involving bureaucrats, retain a lawyer. It is ponderous why the ATF agents want you alone. I guess they don’t want any pesky witnesses contradicting their reports.

No, he’s not. The Trainer tells us why with a rundown of Kerry’s record on guns.

If you haven’t seen Mythbusters yet, you should watch it. These two guys have the coolest job in the world. The show works like this: two special effects experts take an alleged myth and try to duplicate it to see if it works. Some things they have done:

They had a sprayer that misted gasoline and tried to use a cell phone to light the gas (You have seen the warning signs telling you not to chat on your phone while pumping gas, haven’t you?). It didn’t work.

Or the myth that gold fish have such small brains that they only have a memory of three seconds. Myth was busted as they taught the fish to swim through mazes.

And everyone has heard the myth about the great deal on a sports car because the owner died in it and it smells. Good price, but the smell can’t be removed. So, they loaded a 1987 Corvette with two dead pigs and let it simmer for two months. They decided you could clean it but it wasn’t cost effective to do so.

Neat stuff.

Oh, and so it’s not boring, they’ll usually blow something up any way.

Reuters:

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved legislation nicknamed the “cheeseburger bill” that would block lawsuits blaming the food industry for making people fat.

Approved on a 276-139 vote, the bill came up one day after health officials announced that obesity was on the verge of surpassing tobacco use as the leading preventable cause of death in the United States and urged people to exercise more and eat a balanced diet.

The bill has backing from the White House and much of the food industry but it faces hurdles in the Senate, which has often blocked House-passed measures that would cap legal damages or protect certain industries from lawsuits.

Kennedy is rumored to want to attach a hot dog banning bill in the senate.

DiFi is going to attach a bill that limits the number of fries sold to 10 per order and those burgers can only have one of the following features: pickles, onions, sesame seed bun, or lettuce.

Frist will attach a bill to study hot dogs.

Schumer is going to add a bill so that cheeseburgers can’t be sold at cheeseburger shows.

A friend of mine asked how the McCain-Feingold Incumbent Protection…I mean, “Campaign Finance Reform” affects MoveOn.org’s anti-Bush ads.

Frankly, I have no idea. It’s been a while since I looked at the details of that monstrosity, and I need a refresher. Anybody have an opinion on the matter?

UPDATE: Heh. It appears that it’s currently OK for 527s to run these ads:

Sen. John McCain threatened Wednesday to go to court to force the Federal Election Commission to crack down on mostly Democratic fund-raising groups called “527s,” which he said are circumventing campaign finance laws by using massive “soft money” contributions to run TV ads attacking President Bush.

Assuming, of course, that MSNBC has the facts straight.

On a side note, my spell checker wants to change “.org” to “orgy.”

About three weeks ago, the Mrs. started feeling our daughter (whoa! feels strange typing that phrase) move around inside of her (she’s pregnant, ya know). She thought this was the neatest thing in the world. The frustration for her was that no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t feel the movement. It frustrated me too. She’d get a bit annoyed because I’d lose interest.

Then about two weeks ago, I felt the first little flutter. It felt like little fingers on the other side gently tapping. Also, the little Unclette is very active now when the wife sleeps. The Mrs. goes to bed earlier than I do. I can come in at night while she sleeps and feel her moving around. Words can’t really describe how it feels.