John G. Tarsikes, Jr.:

Bernard Kerik, President Bush’s first choice to lead the Homeland Security Department, exercised stock options of $6.2 million he received from Taser International, which sold stun guns to the department – and seeks more business with it. It’s all about the money.
Maybe the rush to get the newest technology on the streets is outpacing the ability of public officials to put in place the safeguards necessary to protect the public. Maybe it’s all about the money.

The public, who is paying for these items, is being told that TASERs will be used as a safe, non-lethal alternative to guns. But in reality, they are being used in situations where police would never use lethal force.

Sounds like he’s been reading me. Some interesting stats:

In fact, according to Amnesty International, the data shows that TASERs are used on unarmed suspects in 80% of the cases, including verbal non-compliance (36%), and only 3% of the time in cases involving potential “deadly assault”. Their report details 74 TASER-related deaths that have occurred in the United States and Canada since June 2001. Amnesty International USA will also release information documenting more than 80 TASER-related deaths since 1999.

Some various AK versions worth looking at. I dig the Krebs but no one should pay that kinda bling for an AK.

In Britain, they passed a law for national ID cards. Perry de Havilland says he’s out of there. Good for him. However, though there is a push for national ID cards here and officially we don’t have them, try doing any of the following without a social security card or drivers license:

Get a loan for a house
Take public transportation
Buy a gun at a gun store
Get a job
Vote

Well, it’s a long list.

This month, referral log spam is absolutely out of control. And I’m the only one who sees those logs. Do they really think that by pinging my site 15,000 times that I’m going to click on their link to buy big dick pills (their words, not mine), fake Rolex watches or porn? Who is the marketing genius that figured out that if they hit a site thousands of times per day that they might get one hit out of the deal?

The AP has decided to pull out of the BCS formula. The BCS has become an utter joke.

Santa Claus accused of using steroids. Good for a laugh anyway.

About 2.5 years ago, I got a crazy idea. The wife loves dogs, so why not try to make her happy and get some dogs? Hell, why not get TWO dogs so they can keep themselves company? How bad can dogs really be? So we researched and I found a breed that seemed very un-doglike, and was oftimes described as “catlike,” which is right up my alley. They don’t bark, are gentle, etc.

So we got some puppies. Everything was fine for the first year and a half, then I began to realize that the puppy-ness wasn’t diminishing. So we got them neutered. Still, no calming down. Actually, their destructive behavior began to increase. One even began to routinely mark his territory inside AFTER being neutered. Despite following all the training manuals, providing them ample toys, etc., they were keen to destroy. Not shoes or magazines, no…but electronics. We went on vacation and let her aunt come house sit. While we were away, they ate $300 of electronics.

The dogs were almost 3 years old and could not be left alone for even a minute. They were constantly under foot, constantly needing attention, constantly getting into something, and basically driving me insane. In the meantime, other friends had purchased various mutt-puppies, some even had 3 dogs. Nobody was having our problems, and they didn’t even try to train theirs. I’ve never encountered dogs that required this much maintenance and attention, and so tried to blame it on genetics. We couldn’t leave them outside because they hate hot or cold, they dug constantly, ate their crap, destroyed bushes, uprooted grass for toys (ignoring their stash of provided toys), or tried to get out of the fence. All within the first 20 minutes of being outside.

The dogs were great as long as you were sitting or laying and they were on you. Otherwise, it was a constant battle. Taking them out on a leash was very difficult because they would run circles around you, or pulled until they puked. Being skinny, they could come out of any harness or collar.

And of course, my wife was attached to them.

So I began rereading all the materials I had read beforehand, but this time I had a “hindsight filter” that allowed me to read between the lines.

Breed X needs company and likes being with their people all the time and if given the chance, will want to share your bed as well as the couch. They’re sometimes referred to as “Velcro dogs.” You may have more company than you want in the bathroom, and if you go out to the mailbox, you’ll be greeted just as enthusiastically upon your return as you would be after a two-week absence.

A-ha! Now I know what that REALLY means…

They are mischievous! Clever and cute (but annoying) behavior such as leaping to the kitchen counter and surfing for food or tearing up a sofa cushion to make it softer is common, especially in puppies and young adults.

I think I must have missed that part while doing initial research.

They are not psychologically or physically suited to being kept in a yard and they are not usually happy as kennel dogs. They overheat rather easily and they suffer terribly from the cold.

This didn’t seem important.

While generally not stubborn, they’re independent and not the easiest breed to train. Don’t let that discourage you: They are very intelligent and all can learn house manners easily, like sit, down, and stay. Some do well with more advanced obedience…

Well, they DID learn sit and lay, but were hopeless beyond that. I’ve never considered that learning other commands would be “advanced obedience,” but apparently it is…

They are usually calm in the house but most have spells of running and leaping about in play a few times a day.

Just a FEW times a day??? Tell that to all the potted plants, furniture, flooring, and our legs.

Many dogs will stay around your home nearly all the time if you let them out, but not your Breed X. Something (a cat, a squirrel, a child …) will catch his eye and he’ll be gone, at up to 35 miles-per-hour. Other breeds that run off will usually come back in no more than a few hours if they don’t get hit by a car. Probably not your Breed X: he has a relatively poor sense of direction and once he’s off your property, he’ll soon be lost. Most dogs can be taught to COME when called but very few Breed X dogs ever get 100% reliable.

So, they can never be out of contact with you, can never be left alone, will not come when called, and can’t be trained.

Basically, they’re the perfect dogs for retired people or people who don’t work. Which doesn’t describe us at all. Our daily routine was based on 8-10 hour increments, because we’d have to go home and let them out. No weekend trips, hardly any vacations (added $40/night for boarding), no trips to the mountains, because we had to come home and let them out of their crate. We couldn’t leave them outside due to weather variations and destructive outdoor behavior. We couldn’t leave them alone INSIDE because they’d destroy the house. Did I mention the breed as a whole tends to be carsick? Ours were no exception. They’d puke AND shit in the car, after drooling all over it.

The whole 2.5 years really has given me a much lower opinion of dogs than I ever had before. I am a bit jaded now, but I have learned that I absolutely do not understand the unnatural connection some people make with animals. Like, considering them, no matter how much trouble they cause, to be indispensible family members. You go to someone’s house and their five dogs are jumping all over you, biting you, barking at you, and the house smells so bad you can hardly stand it, but the owners don’t seem to notice, or care if they did.

Being the asshole that I am, I finally had enough after the move to the new house. The dogs were even more uncontrollable than before because the house was larger. Scratches were starting to appear on the big, expensive front door and all over the hardwood floors and steps. I called a rescue and had them picked up. My wife may be mad at me for awhile, but she finally understands I think, that these dogs were causing us more grief than they were worth. The rescuer understood immediately when I said they were a bit more “needy” than we could handle. She also expressed that their breeding was fantastic, thus invalidating my “genetics” theory.

But they’ll be much better off in the long run, I think, and so will we. And hopefully now we’ll be able to get back to our life and get off the damn couch. 🙂 And I know there are a lot of dog lovers out there, including Mr. Uncle, that will try to formulate what we did wrong. But the problem is that we did everything right except we just picked the wrong breed.

And this really reinforced how much I like cats: completely independent and take care of themselves, only showing up to be rubbed once in awhile. Or better yet, fish.

Ebonics fact or and fiction

Update: Word.

I’m sure the ACLU will take the case.

I didn’t realize until today that Rodger has two sites now. SFW and NSFW. BTW, Rodge, you need to add a feed to the SFW site.

Take Steve’s advice: Don’t argue with cops:

You do not find out the law by reading statutes. Never. It’s a trap. The law is not what the statutes say. The law is what judges say the statutes say.

Read the whole thing. Oh, and keep your mouth shut.

Miami police use a taser on a man in a wheelchair.

In February, the Supreme Court will hear the case of Kelo v. New London. This is an important property rights case that will hopefully restore the public use clause of the fifth amendment. That clause has been bastardized and public use has somehow been interpreted as the public good, which means a government can take your land and give it to someone else to increase tax revenue. Clint Bolick writes that the Bush administration is seriously considering filing a brief opposing property rights:

Ordinarily, an administration weighs in on other people’s cases only where a direct federal government interest is presented. Here, no such interest exists, because the federal government typically uses eminent domain only for public use.

So what is it that is impelling the administration to betray its principles?

Is it succumbing to pressure from federal bureaucrats born of solidarity with state and local power? Is it seeking to shelter big business interests that are beneficiaries of eminent domain abuse?

We can’t know because no one in the administration is saying. Even worse is the brazen disdain with which the administration has dismissed pleas from some of its staunchest allies to stay out of the case.

It is a bit questionable that no information is known as to why the administration would support such a thing but, given the big government Republican government we have, I wouldn’t find it surprising.

Here we go. The basic story here is that some woman was causing a rucus at one Walmart where she had a prescription for anti-psychotic medication, she leaves there, goes to another Walmart and buys a shotgun. Then she shoots herself. So, the mother’s suing Walmart for not knowing about their customers. Basically, it’s all about firearm sales background checks. Once again, another liability lawsuit because the company is supposed to know everything that gun may eventually be used for even though the sale itself is lawful.

Now, I remember the last time I bought a gun, the little form I filled out asked me about mental health. Being the moderately sane individual I am (about the best anyone can expect these days), I haven’t seen any ‘professional’ (we’ll get into that later) help, and so my purchase wasn’t even delayed. Now, this woman had a history of mental health issues and was apparently cleared to purchase the firearm by that background check. Legally, that should clear Walmart automatically, but the woman’s mother is suing because Walmart should have checked their own pharmacy prescription records in her opinion (regardless of the fact that they’re confidential under federal law).

Of course, we get into another issue here, because Texas law doesn’t require the mental health ‘professional’ to inform the government that this person is a potential threat and should not be cleared to purchase a firearm. But, wait, if that’s the case… then why bother asking on the bloody form to begin with? Is it just to make honest people answer honestly? We all know criminals don’t follow laws, so why would a lie on a form be an issue?

Somehow, I think the wrong people are getting sued here… she should be suing the State of Texas if she really wants to change anything. But then, the State of Texas won’t settle out of court either, so she likely just wants money.

Opinions?

Oh looky: numbers. If you’re in Tennessee, roughly one in 25 of us is packing.

Chapelle’s third season delayed.

The GAO has concluded that the Federal government’s accounting and record-keeping is grossly inadequate. It is so inadequate that the GAO can not assert that they comply with generally accepted accounting principles. In English, this means they can not assert that the financial statements are free from material misstatements. The potential for grossly under funded (or unfunded) liabilities exists:

“Proper accounting and financial reporting practices are essential in the public sector,” Comptroller General David M. Walker wrote in a Dec. 14 cover letter to his agency’s audit report on consolidated financial statements for fiscal 2003 and 2004. “The U.S. government is the largest, most diverse, most complex, and arguably the most important entity on earth today. . . . Sound decisions on the current results and future direction of vital federal programs and policies are made more difficult without timely, reliable and useful financial and performance information.”

And then there’s this:

“We believe . . . that we owe the taxpayers no less than a private company would to its investors in being able to account for their money,” Springer said in an interview Friday. “We believe that’s a sign that we’re managing their money properly, if we can account for it and do that in a timely way.”

Governmental accountability would be great. However, the GAO is a governmental entity and, even if it could opine on valid financial data, may not act independently. As for some of the detail:

In their review, GAO auditors found that incomplete documentation and “weaknesses” in financial systems, record-keeping and financial reporting hurt the government’s ability to provide reliable information on assets, liabilities and costs. The greatest challenges are continuing “serious financial management problems” at the Defense Department, auditors reported. The government could not show that property and equipment inventory reports at Defense were correct, nor could it fully account for transactions between agencies.

[snip]

Springer also said financial statements have been completed in a more timely fashion. The 2004 consolidated report was released on Dec. 15, less than three months after the close of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. The 2003 report, in contrast, did not come out until the following February, and the 2002 report was not released until March.

Yawn. Some publicly traded companies, who have independent auditors staffed almost year round, release their report the day their fiscal year ends. In other words, the government’s financial statements are largely useless information that are not presented in a timely manner.

Bubba notes We don’t need no stinkin’ 4th or 5th Amendment. Apparently, the only one we need is the 3rd because, to my knowledge, it hasn’t been bastardized yet. Bubba then details how local law enforcement can’t even be bothered to obey the already unconstitutional state law. Give it a read.

This morning on the local talk radio show, they were having a contest. The folks at Patriotic Historical Documents were giving away posters of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence to anyone who could name where those documents were kept and how they were stored. I almost called in and said As toilet paper at the Capitol Building but I didn’t. It reminded me of this:

But I digress. I knew they were kept at the National Archives. I didn’t know that those documents are stored in a hermetically sealed, bullet proof container that contains helium gas to preserve the paper. Every night, the container is placed underground behind five ton steel and concrete doors. This structure can supposedly withstand a direct nuclear blast.

I found it ironic that so much effort, time and money would be spent to protect what basically is just paper. I found it even more ironic that, while the .gov goes through all this expense and effort to protect that document that restricts the power of the government, that it expends more expense and effort trying to usurp those limitations.

Turns out there’s a term for it:

Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray’s case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the “wet streets cause rain” stories. Paper’s full of them.

In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.

That is the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect.

I doubt it would ever happen but it looks like the push is on. Jeff has the scoop. The bill is here.

In an update to the arrest of Jason, a reader who has been in contact with the Spokane County Sheriff’s department informs me that the department has no idea what he’s talking about.

That’s the title of this piece by Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX). A taste:

We are not yet living in a total police state, but it is fast approaching. The seeds of future tyranny have been sown, and many of our basic protections against government have been undermined. The atmosphere since 2001 has permitted Congress to create whole new departments and agencies that purport to make us safer – always at the expense of our liberty.

Read the whole thing.

Mother Jones, which ordinarily isn’t worth the paper it’s not printed on, has an informative piece on Eminent Domain.

And another cash-strapped city (Daytona) is planning to rob citizens and give their property to developers.

Brian Magnarini:

Take, for example, gun control. People should be outraged that the ban on automatic assault weapons was allowed to expire.

Actually, people should be glad that a bogus ban that outlawed guns that merely look like automatic assault weapons was allowed to expire.

Eeek! For our Christmas present, we found out our company was sold yesterday. And I was just hoping for a gift certificate… So far so good though, looks like we all keep our jobs, just have to move across the parking lot to another building. Ho ho ho!

A Roanoke Times editorial writes:

To put it in terms appropriate to the issue, Americans have been shooting blindly in the gun control/gun rights debate.

Stop with the cutesy puns and get to the point.

And their own government, which blocks collection or access to crucial data on firearms at the behest of gun-rights advocates, tied the blindfold in place. The National Research Council, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, revealed the nation’s uncertain marksmanship in a study last week. Washington declines to collect gun ownership statistics and bars researchers’ access to Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms data on guns traced to crimes. Other information sources are inadequate.

Well, given that when trace data is available, some people misrepresent what it means, I don’t know that that is a bad idea. And there are valid reasons for not wanting gun trace data publicly available.

Without the necessary database, the study said, it’s impossible to accurately judge the effects of policies ranging from liberal concealed carry rights to tight gun controls.

As an academic observer put it, the study’s fundamental thrust was that “we don’t know anything about anything, and more research is needed.”

Actually, the CDC and NIJ concluded that there is no correlation between gun controls and crime. This report concluded the same thing but put a spin on it so that it could be turned into an issue. Or, as I said before: [anti gun folks] need more information so that they can get the result that they want.

That research won’t be possible until the government lifts its information roadblock.

The privacy concerns of the gun-rights lobby and its allies have always been dubious grounds for suppressing firearms data. Far more sensitive medical and financial information passes through the hands of government officials and researchers every day without repercussion. The denial of data appears instead to be an effort to keep unwelcome realities out of this deeply divisive issue.

Amazing to me how privacy rights are dubious. And just because the government is wrong in handing out other private data that it should also be wrong and pass out this data as well.

Jeff has the latest.

Looks like they’re finally about to make a plasma TV in a size I can be comfortable with. I may have to wait awhile for production to ramp up, but what the heck? I can buy stuff like food in the meantime (since I’d probably not be able to afford any afterward, or much of anything else for that matter).

The panels are capable of a high-definition resolution of 1920 pixels x 1080 pixels, a brightness of 1000 candelas per square meter and a contrast ratio of 2000:1, Sohn says.

Not to mention that 102″ diagonal…I’d better hurry and put it on my Christmas ’05 list.

First Cooper said it, and now, according to Virginia Postrel, David Hackett Fischer is saying it:

Fischer turns to etymology, establishing a contrast between liberty, whose Latin roots suggest release from bondage, and freedom, which shares Northern European origins with friend. ”The original meanings of freedom and liberty,” he writes, ”were not merely different but opposed. Liberty meant separation. Freedom implied connection.” He makes much of this distinction throughout the book, favoring ”freedom” and often disparaging ”liberty” (associating it, for instance, with Southern racism). Yet he also declares that the creative tension between the two concepts has given English-speaking people ”a distinctive dynamism in their thought about liberty and freedom.”

Not that I’m trying to stir up a controversy or anything.