And for the last time, I’m not that guy from McHale’s Navy. Look, this is makeup!

Can someone translate this into English for me so that I can bold my blog categories.

Also, cool thing about using Bloglines to manage your blogroll is you can have categories. I have some down on the right there. I’ve added a Blogs I’m Watching category for those I’m reading that are new.

And if you want to see how it works for me, go here.

Add Ricky to the list of people who can’t spell that popular honeymooning spot because of bulk email.

More here and here.

It gets the best of us.

The ban is dead currently but Maryland Citizens for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms have a section of gun control briefs that is useful.

Here’s some history on the little tussle between myself and Mr. Michael Zitz:

First Entry
His email to me and my response
His second email to me and my response

If someone accused me of either 1) inadequate research or 2) outright lying, then I would address either of those concerns. I would not change the subject and I wouldn’t refuse to respond to legitimate criticism of my writing. But that is apparently his style of debate. He sees me as the problem because I decide to point out factual inaccuracies in his, uhm, work. I, a simple non-media peasant who demands truth, am a fanatic, apparently. Though I do find it odd, even though I’m not the one publishing falsehoods, that I am the fanatic.

He has refused to respond to my last email

The point to this rant is that people like Michael Zitz should pay attention to articles like this Boston.com piece (via Instapundit):

At a time when public distrust of the news media appears to be at a dangerously high level, there is evidence of a deep and fundamental disagreement between those who produce news and those who consume it.

Although most journalists believe quality and values are vital elements of their work and see themselves as providing an important civic function, the reading and viewing public seems to think of journalism as a bottom-line-driven enterprise populated by the ethically challenged. Last month, the Washington-based Project for Excellence in Journalism released a wide-ranging study — “The State of the News Media 2004” — that concluded that a key factor in journalism’s sagging image is “a disconnection between the public and the news media over motive.”

“Journalists believe they are working in the public interest, and are trying to be fair and independent in that cause,” the survey found. “The public thinks these journalists are either lying or deluding themselves. The public believes that news organizations are operating largely to make money, and that the journalists who work for these organizations are primarily motivated by professional ambition and self-interest.”

Being the bully that I am, feel free to email this to him at mzitz@freelancestar.com.

Update: In related news, I am the number one google for Michael Zitz. Heh!

While everyone on Earth offers their opinion on last night’s Presidential speech (by the way, the left thought it sucked and the right thought it kicked ass), you will note that I didn’t.

I was attending a class on infant CPR. I also missed Condi’s testimony when we were moving. For a guy with a political blog, I’ve been missing a lot of politics.

I doubt, in either case, that I missed anything terribly important.

Chris Muir swings and hits. Ouch!

Former Knoxville Mayor Victor Ashe is going to be the ambassador to Poland. This would be a good opportunity for me to make a stereotypical joke. However, that joke would be stereotypical of Ashe and not Polish people.

Ashcroft has been accused of showing little interest in terrorism prior to 9/11. I suppose he was to buys preparing to wage the war on porn and continuing the war on drugs.

Students were taught that when the phrase Code Red was announced over the intercom that it meant intruder, such as a Columbine type shooting. They announce Code Red, lock down the school, and police storm the place.

They did all this to search for drugs. Drugs, by the way, that were never found.

If you’re a news person doing a story, please do some research. And spelling helps too:

The law is due to expire on September 13th and will outlaw weapons like AK-47’s and oozies.

I hope they mean Uzis.

I know linking to something that Instapundit has linked to is a “coals to Newcastle” exercise, but I thought this op ed on National ID Cards was interesting. The author claims that not only would a National ID Card NOT make us safer, it would makes us LESS safe.

Whether he’s right or not, I have to say I’ve always been kind of fuzzy on how a National ID Card would make us safer. It’s always been kind of an “Underpants Gnomes” argument:

Step 1: Issue National ID Card
Step 2:
Step 3: Security

Can anybody fill in Step 2 for me?

Got the new blogroll ironed out. How’s it look?

By the way, if you were on there and now you aren’t, it wasn’t intentional. Let me know.

And I have added:

Bill
Drug War Rant
Protein Wisdom

Update: If anyone can tell me how to bold my bloglines folder titles (to make them stick out), I’d appreciate it.

I feel the need to plug bloglines again.

I am in the process of switching ye old blogroll over to bloglines. As such, links will likely be disappearing and reappearing.

You may speed the process this process up for yours truly by creating a RSS feed. If you use blogger, then:

In Blogger it’s easy to do. You just access your account. Click on the “settings” tab, then select “site feed.” You select “yes” where it asked if you want to activate your Atom feed. Then you save your settings. For those *not* using Blog Spot, you have to enter a valid, existing folder and URL for the Atom feed, or Blogger won’t know how to FTP the page to your host.

If you can’t generate a feed with your package, try feedster.

It’s the War, Stupid!

KTK of Lean left quotes:

All I know about economic statistics is that when Clinton was president I had a job.

Well, all I know about economic statistics is that since Bush has been president, our household income has increased significantly.

Mind you, my increase in income has absolutely zero to do with any thing Bush has done.

I am starting to think our local media actively seeks any story that involves church or God then repeatedly does stories on it. Seriously.

It seems there will be no provision to fine people who let their pets ride in the back of pickups.

Even though Ephedra has been banned, it is still for sale in Knoxvegas. Go figure.

The National Fraternal Order of Police president has said that concealed carry laws save lives:

While speaking at the F.O.P.’s 56th Biennial National Conference last week, Canterbury called for passage of a national concealed carry bill, “which would allow the 750,000 or so police officers outside their jurisdictions to carry guns.

Apparently, he’s only illuminating carry by off-duty police. I think off-duty police should be able to carry any where they go. But so should I.

The mainstream press is picking up on the fact Dubya is in trouble with gun owners:

Four years later, some gun owners have grown so disenchanted with President Bush that they may cast a protest vote for a third-party candidate, stay away from the polls, or even back the likely Democratic nominee, gun-control advocate John F. Kerry.

It’s unclear how many gun owners could be counted as activists, but they are affiliated with a variety of organizations, from the NRA and Gun Owners of America to smaller state and regional organizations around the country. And they could play a pivotal role in the outcome of this year’s presidential race.

Surprisingly, the issues that have most alienated many gun groups from the Bush administration have little to do with firearms, but rather with the Patriot Act and other homeland security measures instituted after Sept. 11. Opposition to such laws has aligned gun-rights activists with unlikely partners, such as liberal Democrats and the ACLU.

And the little assault weapons ban thing.

The Ohio Coalition Against Gun Violence has filed suit to get sheriffs to stop issuing weapon permits:

The Ohio Coalition complaint listed numerous problems with the new CCW law including inadequate procedures, funds and resources to properly enforce safety provisions in the CCW law, all of which make the statute unconstitutional, according to the Coalition.

I love the fact anti-gunners are reduced to mere stall tactics. And because I like to type it:

We’re winning.

By popular request (well, one reader requested it), I’ll tell the story of how Asimov won me a trip to Hawai’i.

It all began back in high school. I was what you might call a geek (I know, shocking); I was skinny, wore glasses, read a lot of sci-fi. And if you read sci-fi, you’ve just GOT to read Asimov. Chances are you’ll read him regardless, because the man wrote over 300 books. I know this, because after every 100 books, he released an anthology called Opus x00, where x in {1,2,3}. I have a copy of Opus 300 over there on the shelf.

Anyway, Asimov wrote a lot, and he wrote on just about every subject imaginable—not just science fiction, and not just science non-fiction. Of course, he did write quite a bit about science and the history thereof, and he knew what he was talking about; he had a PhD in bio-chemistry, after all. But he wrote about other things, such as history and religion. For example, I also have on the shelf Asimov’s Guide to the Bible. You get the idea.

A few years ago, I was a contestant on a certain TV quiz show. I didn’t do so hot, although I managed to answer a lot of physics questions, which kept me in the hunt for second place (first place was hopeless; the leader had more than doubled my score). The category going into the final round was “At the Library.”

“Oh great,” I thought. The other contestant, with whom I was battling for second place, was a library science graduate student. “I guess I better learn to love Rice-a-Roni.”

But then, when the final clue was revealed, I started grinning:

This author and bio-chemist has published a book in each of the ten major Dewey Decimal categories.

Well, as you’ve no doubt figured out (or knew already), it was indeed Isaac Asimov. I squeaked into second place, and instead of a year’s supply of Lee Press-On Nails, I walked away with a 6-night stay on a live-aboard dive-boat off the the Kona coast of Hawai’i. Of course, neither the wife nor I knew how to SCUBA dive, but that’s another story.

Sportsmen For Kerry:

Besides the cursory newspaper articles about how John has hunted since a child (a la Clinton in 1992), John Kerry espouses the belief that there should be reasonable controls placed upon gun ownership and availability. The only issue gun owners may have with this is that every restriction that comes along is reasonable to him.

When I first moved from my parents’ house after college, it took one pick up truck. I had no furniture and minimal belongings. Moving was easy. I got furniture from someone who had bought new couches and bought everything else I needed over the course of several months.

The second time I moved required two pick up trucks and a couple of friends because I accumulated more stuff (namely, the aforementioned couches).

The third time I moved, I rented a small UHAUL as I got even more stuff.

The fourth time, I rented small UHAUL again as I apparently didn’t accumulate significant amounts of stuff.

The fifth time was rather interesting. I’d finished my Masters degree and got a decent-paying public accounting job. I decided that the couches and other furniture (you know, cinder blocks with boards laying across them) that had served me well had to go. It was time to buy nice stuff for my bitchin’ new bachelor pad that I bought. As such, moving required only two pickup trucks. I abandoned my furniture on the curb of the place I was leaving for trash pickup day. Ah, new beginnings.

The sixth was when the Mrs. moved in with me. We only moved her stuff. Another UHAUL (she had more stuff than me).

The seventh move was the first time I hired professional movers. Me and the Mrs. went from my formerly rockin’ bachelor condo to a house in suburbia. I hired them because me and the Mrs. purchased a 60 inch big screen and I wasn’t going to move it. I’m not insured. Me and the Mrs. used Two Men and a Truck and our stuff filled about 3/4th of that truck.

One and a half years later, we bought a bigger place and again hired Two Men and a Truck. This time, we required two trucks and four men. Actually, that’s what we required. What we got was two men and a truck making two trips. We more than doubled our stuff in 1.5 years. Unbelievable.

Lessons learned:

When you arrive at your new pad, assemble your bed first. When you decide you’re exhausted and want to sleep, it sucks to realize your bed hasn’t been put together.

You need to warn your pets. Politically Incorrect Dog is inconsolable. He is still moping about the house. He appears to be suffering some sort of anxiety or depression. It’s not his first move and we took him to the new house at least twice a week while it was being built. He must have left something in the yard that we forgot. He is really pathetic.

Hiring movers is money well spent.

If you buy a bigger residence, you will fill it up. Learn to throw stuff away.

The Geek alerts us that the assault weapons ban has had the undesirable effect of depriving our troops of better hardware.

The original magazine manufacturer has gone out of business and no domestic manufacturers want to make a new rifle. Well, supply and demand, I suppose.

Stop the bleating has moved to fancy new digs. Check it out.

Jeff has his weekly check on the bias up.

As a result of Chad Daniel Crawford place kicking someone’s pet, the TN legislature has proposed the Gizmo Bill to strengthen (i.e., make a felony) animal cruelty charges.

Existing laws are adequate, I would say. But the appearance that our legislators do something is more important than doing the right thing.

An air marshal left his gun in the airport restroom. Ouchie.

Another policeman’s gun goes off all by itself. Glocks don’t discharge all by themselves. Poor guy lost his pinkie. Ouchie.