You just can’t make this stuff up:

But police have found another [use for WD40] — keeping the public from snorting cocaine off toilet lids in bars.

Police in Bristol said on Wednesday they have been advising pub and nightclub owners to spray the colourless lubricant on toilet seats and other flat surfaces in the lavatory that customers often use to snort drugs.

Apparently, cocaine and spray lube don’t mix.

“A chemical reaction takes place with the cocaine that causes it to congeal and become a mess so it’s unusable,” a police spokesman said. “It’s one very small, very cheap way in which you can very seriously restrict the amount of drug use in your premises.”

So, when someone dies or becomes violently ill because they decide they’re going to somehow ingest the drugs anyway, who will be responsible?

The county wants to build a school and needs land. Via Bubba, comes the KNS round up:

The Knox County Board of Education will discuss Tuesday condemning three pieces of undeveloped land to use as the site for a much anticipated new high school out west, said board Chairman Dan Murphy.

“It’s my intent to discuss it, to debate it, to consider the process of condemnation and then in roughly 30 days call for a vote – unless, of course, we can negotiate a sale before then,” Murphy said.

After an “exhaustive search” for about 40 acres of flat land, Murphy said, school officials have found the three neighboring sites they want. Negotiations with the three owners – two individuals and one estate – have failed, he said.

However, one of the owners reports that no negotiations have occurred. The county seems to be jumping the gun on this. If I had to guess why, I’d say it’s because they want to rig exactly how much just compensation they have to pay. I have no issue with legally pursuing the land as it is for a school (which constitutes public use in my book). However, they should tender an offer for the property before getting all government on somebody.

Update: Here is more info.

I have long contended that you don’t teach a new shooter to shoot with a 22 or other small caliber. The reason for that is that if you shoot a small caliber, the recoil is almost non-existent and the subsequent upping of calibers can scare newbies. Conversely, after starting with a 45ACP, a 22 is quite pleasant to fire. Ask Rich, it seemed to work for him.

Benjamin points to another damn good reason not to start someone off with a plinker. I heartily concur.

Via Phelps, who doesn’t care about Armstrong Williams, comes some history of drug war payola:

Few Americans, however, know of a hidden government effort to shoehorn anti-drug messages into the most pervasive and powerful billboard of all — network television programming.

Two years ago, Congress inadvertently created an enormous financial incentive for TV programmers to push anti-drug messages in their plots — as much as $25 million in the past year and a half, with the promise of even more to come in the future. Under the sway of the office of President Clinton’s drug czar, Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, some of America’s most popular shows — including “ER,” “Beverly Hills 90210,” “Chicago Hope,” “The Drew Carey Show” and “7th Heaven” — have filled their episodes with anti-drug pitches to cash in on a complex government advertising subsidy.

This 20 questions game linked by SKB has an anti-gun bias. My object was AR15 (I was willing to concede to rifle). I won but here was its list of inconsistencies:

You were thinking of a rifle.
Is it pleasurable? You said Yes, I say No.
Is it comforting? You said Yes, I say No.
Can you switch it on and off? You said Yes, I say No.
Can you play with it? You said Yes, I say No.
Does it move air? You said Yes, I say No.

Heh.

Ravenwood on New York’s war on cigarettes:

Crime is skyrocketing in Bloomberg’s New York. While he’s out threatening to break people’s thumbs and citing people for owning ashtrays, black marketers are killing each other over territory. And all of this mess was created by a single man on a neo-temperance crusade to force everyone to quit smoking.

Bill tells us here will be a blog conference in Nashville from May 5-7, 2005. More information here.

The Geek highlights Dear Abby setting someone straight regarding gun safety:

Among the rules of responsible gun ownership are never to point the barrel at anyone and never to presume that the gun is empty. Ted is lucky his stupidity didn’t cost him his life.

Heh:

Another would-be juror said he’d had alcohol problems and was arrested for soliciting sex from an undercover officer.

“I should have known something was up,” he said. “She had all her teeth.”

The jury pool in Memphis.

A group is seeking repeal of the Dodge City pit bull ban:

The Dodge City Canine Corporation is planning to ask the commission today to think about repealing the ban, which is scheduled to take effect Feb. 1.

“We’re trying to get them to reconsider and do something that we feel is better for our community, like a vicious dog law act,” the organization’s vice president, Brenda Rose, said Monday. “We would be hitting up the irresponsible dog owners, the ones who are letting their dogs run. The first time would be a heavy fine, the second time would be a severe fine, and then the third time – depending on what everyone agreed on – it would be either doing something with the dog, either finding a different home for it, or possibly jail time or something like that.”

Punish the deed, not the breed. Also, today’s dog idiot is Annapolis Alderwoman Cynthia Carter:

“I’m against having them as pets. They aren’t pets! They were bred to kill and destroy,” said Mrs. Carter, whose former mother-in-law was injured by one of the animals. “They are dangerous animals. I’ve only known them to be destructive. If someone has a pit bull, it’s for no good.”

Yes, here’s my dog savaging a small child. Here’s another mauling by a pit bull. And here’s Politically Incorrect Dog taking on his natural enemy. Oh, the caninity.

While I practice WECSOG, I don’t practice do it myself electronics. But if I did, I’d build my own MP3 Player.

Actual headline:

Gun Trade-In Has Town’s Cops in Hot Seat

What really happened is the cop is selling used guns to equip his men with new ones. The result is that the Brady Campaign is crowing in Chicken Little fashion he’s putting guns on the street. So, annoying the Brady Campaign is the hot seat?

And Fox News is supposed to be a hotbed of conservative bias.

Jeff has the latest.

Well, now we know:

Attorney General nominee Alberto Gonzales told the Senate on Tuesday that he supports extending the expired federal assault weapons ban.

Actually, the possibility for extension came and went. Now, a new one would have to be passed. And the Bush administration gets the NRA endorsement?

The assault weapons ban has expired. 36 37 states have shall-issue concealed carry. Nine states have may-issue (i.e., corrupt systems of) carry. And five four states restrict carry completely. I think three of the no issue states could turn at some point in the future. Most of the asinine gun laws seem to be occurring in locations where the gun laws are already asinine anyway. By those measures, it seems that things are going fairly well for us pro-gun, pro-freedom types as long as we stay in one of our red states. However . . .

By all accounts, it looks like the US military will soon adopt the H&K XM8 assault rifle. This should be significant to all pro-gun folks for one reason: This will mark for the first time in the history of the United States that the standard issue military rifle will not be available to the civilian population at all. Think about it for a moment.

Sure, this has been effectively restricted since 1986 with the Hughes Amendment banning transfers of new machine guns to citizens. There are still some registered and transferable M16s. The M4 carbine has never really been available either but citizens, using already transferable receivers, could convert their legally owned M16s into an M4 configuration. The XM8 marks the first military rifle that there is no legal way for a US citizen who is not a dealer in weapons to own.

I find this terribly disconcerting.

update: My original source neglected Ohio, which recently passed shall issue. Hence, on the update to numbers above.

Former VP of the NRA Neal Knox, whose news items I often read to keep abreast of the gun issue, has passed away. His obituary is here.

Toothache turns out to be nail in man’s head.

Volunteer TV has a piece on gun lock legislation, which is pointless:

As Volunteer TV’s Lee Merrit reports, while some state legislators believe new law [requiring gun locks] could help prevent these tragedies, others say it’s not their decision to make.

“Certainly I’d vote for it,” says State Representative Joe Armstrong, (D) Knoxville.

“Laws like that are unenforceable,” says State Senator Tim Burchett, (R) Knoxville.

You can’t enforce it and it makes defensive guns useless.

Also, Shelby County, Alabama officers are getting spray firing from the hip bullet hoses. Actually, the article only mentions that they are getting semiautomatic AR15s. Odd how they’re just semiautomatics when the reporters report that police have them but when a regular Joe gets one, it’s an assault weapon.

A reader emails that the AP has picked up on the MD ballistic fingerprinting failure that I mentioned earlier:

A law requiring Maryland State Police to collect ballistics information from each handgun sold in the state has not aided a single criminal investigation and should be repealed, a state police report has concluded.

About $2.5 million has been spent on the program so far. Col. Thomas E. Hutchins, the state police superintendent, said he would prefer spending the money on proven crime-fighting techniques.

Maryland was the first state to adopt a ballistic fingerprinting law in April 2000. New York is the only other state to have such a database.

The Maryland law requires gun manufacturers to test-fire handguns and send a spent shell casing from each gun sold in the state to police. The casing’s unique markings are entered into a database for future gun tracing.

“The system really is not doing anything,” Hutchins said. “The guns that we find at crime scenes may not necessarily be the ones sold in Maryland, so there’s nothing to compare it to anyway.”

Robert Santiago writes:

Long-time Collier County land owner Jesse James Hardy has a showdown with a state judge early next month to determine whether the government can force him off his 160 acres of mosquito-infested property.

Last year, the state filed court papers for eminent domain to force Hardy to take a lump-sum buy out. Eminent domain allows states to take a person’s property for the public good, giving them fair market value.

Actually, it’s for public use not public good.

For the last three years the government has been trying to get Hardy to sell his land to make room for its $8 billion Everglades restoration project, which will flood land from Lake Okeechobee south to the ocean, artificially turning it into wetlands and, theoretically, restoring a pollution-free water flow.

Having failed, the state filed for eminent domain.

So, they want to take a man’s property and turn it into unusable land? I really don’t think environmentalism constitutes public use. As Hardy says:

”It’s my home and it’s where I run my business and where I raise my family,” said Hardy. “Why should I leave just so the government can conduct its billion-dollar science project?”

Elementary deduction.

Actual Headline: Teen not bitten by pit bull:

A teenager who was bitten by a dog Saturday was not attacked by a pit bull.

Galen Barrett, chief animal control officer for Council Bluffs, said Laura Rocha was bitten by a Laborador-mix (sic) dog at about 5:30 p.m. as she walked in the 100 block of South Ninth Street.

Rocha, 17, received a small laceration on her left buttock, Barrett said.

The dog may have some pit bull in it, but the city’s new pit bull ordinance doesn’t apply unless that is the animal’s primary breed, Barrett said. That means he can’t pursue the owners under the city’s new pit bull ordinance.

“This incident is being handled as a typical bite incident would be handled,” Barrett said.

All dog attacks should be handled the same way. It shouldn’t matter what specific breed did the biting. Aggressive and unrestrained dogs of almost any size are a nuisance if not dangerous. Breed specific legislation that recently passed in Council Bluffs is not only ineffective against pit bulls, it’s ineffective against dog bites.

Apparently, there is a poem entitled Say Uncle.

Via Adam, Sandra Clark confesses to, err, jumping the gun.

With all that’s been going on lately, it’s hard for me to keep up to date, especially with my blog posting. I’m stuck in a cubicle until our office furniture arrives sometime between now and the end of the month. When you’re in a cubicle and your monitor faces into both boss’ offices, you really don’t get to do a lot of blogging or blog reading or news reading or much of anything else. Heh…I actually have to work.

So today I get in and try to catch up on SayUncle’s writings and find that the corporate content blocker has blocked the site, apparently due to some posting on p – o – r – n down below. But I can still get to the editor page. Go figure.

Anyway, the missus and I, after watching Vegas Vacation last night, decided to spend some quality time catching up on the Golden Globes. That’s some quality boring stuff right there, man… But I found it interesting, for some reason, that two of the five men nominated for best actor in a comedy/musical were ex cast members of In Living Color.

Don’t get me wrong. I think this announcement is a good thing:

President George W. Bush will not actively seek to ban gay marriage in the United States during his second term in office — a stance certain to anger the social conservatives who helped re-elect him.

In an interview, The Washington Post daily asked Bush if he would aggressively lobby senators during his second term in office to pass an amendment outlawing marriage in all 50 states.

“I do believe it’s necessary,” Bush said. But he went on to imply that pursuing it in the US Senate, which must approve a constitutional amendment by 67 of its 100 votes, would be futile.

The bad part is that this is a case in which Bush caters to a base and then leaves them out to dry. Sure, he’s hiding behind the fact (and it is fact) that the Constitutional amendment would not pass but if he’s unwilling to act based on what his supporters expected, it’s not a good sign. After all, what other support did he get that he might betray?

Update: Nevermind, he didn’t mean it.

Via Ned:

“The moment an idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.” – John Adams, A Defense of the American Constitutions, 1787

I concur with Lobbygow:

The adoption rate of any new tehnological (sic) gadget, gewgaw or gizmo will be directly proportional to the extent to which it engages the thumb in an intuitive and enjoyable manner. When it comes to navigating content, this effect is even more pronounced.

Hey, I’m sexy. Err, no. Sexist. I get those confused.

Seriously, my post was in jest but you can’t please everybody. It’s not like such accusations haven’t occurred before with a variety of other supposedly women bloggers. When I first predicted her blog would be popular, I did so for a few reasons: she writes well; women tend to draw more traffic; and eventually someone would accuse her of being a dude. It’s happened before.

Conversely, I’ve been accused of being Libertarian Girl. Though apparently I’m not clever enough to pull it off. That is odd how someone would accuse you of it then call you not clever enough to do it.

And, of course, I agree with LG’s assessment that laws apply to everyone. I do, however, think that someone who holds themself out as Libertarian would address the licensing bit.

For the record, I am not Libertarian Girl. And I’m not clever.

My source confirms that the supposed auction of Knoxville Police Department confiscated firearms mentioned earlier was in fact a private collection and not confiscated arms from the KPD.