Gunner has the latest round up of online contests where you can win guns and accessories.

My wife watches that terrible show The OC. I walk in the den to see two hot young women in their undies. I say to the wife Why don’t I watch this show? Then I remember it’s because they talk.

My first attempt at the subject read “Life of a co-booger,” which may have been more appropriate.

Just noticed that our host, Mr. Uncle, posted about not “feeling it” and hence wasn’t being very verbose here lately. He proceeded to wag his finger at us co-boogers for not filling up some space.

As some of you may remember, my company was bought recently. The bastard network people at the new place have web filters installed to keep us out of evil websites like Yahoo mail. Additionally, Mr. Uncle tends to post on such keen topics as “penis” and “porn” and other tidbits the filters don’t appreciate. Since I’m at work an average of 10-12 hours a day, that’s a lot of filtering. And since I’m at work an average of 10-12 hours a day, the wife gets pissed when I come home and get on the computer. And since I’m at work an average of 10-12 hours a day, I don’t watch the news much anymore anyway.

So, the topics I start to write about include what I know recently: work and home improvements, neither of which are of any interest to anybody else.

Like Mr. Uncle, I’m having a hard time feeling the urge to comment on things political lately. After that two-year election debacle, I think my mind just can’t cope with political thought and therefore it would rather spend quality time at home faux finishing the walls and teaching our new cat how to sleep all night. Neither of which I’m very good at.

As a co-booger, I do feel bad about not posting though, so I pop up every now and again with mindless chatter like this to help earn my keep. By the way, I noticed that Mr. Uncle hasn’t recently posted about enemas, so I took the liberty of making sure the site gets content blocked tomorrow at work.

Mike expressed disappointment that I don’t blog about family life so much anymore. He’s no doubt referring to my humorous escapades like the time I painted my house with porn starlets or did battle with the Light Nazi. The truth is that, though I have many whimsical observations about life and stuff swirling around in the noggin, I just ain’t feeling the funny. In fact (consider this an upcoming preview), I’m working on One Nation under David Alan Coe, which may involve drinking and karaoke, and SayUncle vs. Lunch. The last original humor piece I wrote of any substantial length or effort was in December. And not many prior to that for a while.

I guess the realization that the US is headed down a pretty rocky road right now in terms of both international and domestic issues, coupled with the arrival of my daughter have got me a bit worried. Also, things at the office are hectic and, as such, I spend more time at the office than I (or the Mrs.) would like.

Aside from such observations, you, dear reader, may have noticed that my blogging lately is more of the linking variety and not the thinking variety. Just haven’t felt it. I should comment on Social Security (but I don’t care), the SOTU (still don’t care), the war (I care but have little to offer), and [insert your pet issue here]. I’ve also brought on some co-bloggers to aid in the content. They haven’t been pulling their weight, though [finger wagging!].

Despite not having much to say, I feel obligated to keep blogging. And I do. I still like it but can’t devote as much time to it as I have before. I still feel the need to draw what little attention I can to certain things, hence the linking to random gun and property rights issues.

So, there’s your state of the blog address. Any questions?

A 20 year-old American woman goes to Mexico. Upon her return, border officials inform her she’s really 18 and not an American. No, really.

Kevin addresses an asinine column on the second amendment. Oy, that stings.

1 – I did not watch the SOTU. I thought the supposed debates were bad enough (they weren’t real debates, just two guys who memorized talking points) but watching just one guy read talking points would be quite dull. No SOTU blogging for you.

2 – Trackbacks are disabled. However, some guy thinks you, gentle reader, may want to play poker online.

Mr. Mike has the latest round up of Tennessee bloggers. Give it a read.

Norwood, a city trying to unconstitutionally use eminent domain to take land from one party to turn over to a developer, has had an interesting turn of events:

After the jury was selected Monday, the judge ordered jurors be given a tour of the property to give them a better sense of its worth. Once inside the building, though, the jurors, court workers and attorneys got a surprise.

The owners had festooned the interior with signs, banners and a mannequin dressed in clothes attacking the government’s use of eminent domain to seize private property.

That was done, Burke and Powell argued Tuesday, to convince the jury to award Motz a higher price.

“(Motz’s) outrageous conduct was calculated to serve no legitimate purpose, but rather to illegitimate(ly) injure the City of Norwood’s position in front of the jury,” Powell and Burke wrote in their request for a mistrial.

Inside one room of the building, the owner posted editorial cartoons attacking Norwood’s use of eminent domain and a photo of a group of protestors in the legal fight over the issue.

The building’s back door, which jurors passed to get to the basement, bore a sign reading, “Government Quit Selling Us Out to Developers.”

In the basement, jurors saw a banner proclaiming “Fight Eminent Domain Abuse in Norwood” next to a mannequin dressed in a T-shirt that sported an anti-eminent domain message. The dummy also was holding a sign that read “Being Forced to Sell is Just Not Right.”

This resulted in a mistrial.

Today’s Idiot is Robert Schiering, who writes that we gun nuts have no excuse:

At first glance, the term “gun nut” would appear to be nothing more than an ad hominem against the more enthusiastic weapon owners of this country. However, as one reads the literature espoused by gun nut organizations, the reasoning behind this term becomes startlingly clear. Gun nuts are called as such because they are incontrovertibly insane.

Actually, his entire article is one big ad hominem attack. I notice that his use of statistics doesn’t paint the whole picture. He points out the number of gun deaths but doesn’t note the numbers that are suicides (i.e., well over half) and thus doesn’t adequately compare the cost benefit. He also fails to mention gun uses that stop

He also states:

Owning an arsenal is not a “way of life,” it is a mental disorder. It is an unjustifiable paranoia that leads to thousands of unjustified deaths every year. Let’s put this in perspective. Annually, about 17,000 people die of illicit drug use (illegal), 0 people die of marijuana use (also illegal), 20,000 people die of sexual behaviors (not illegal, but frowned upon), while some 29,000 die in a firearm related incident, 1 percent of which result in a “bad guy” eating a lead sandwich.

This guy apparently just read all the anti-gun websites and repeated their propaganda. He’ll make a good journalist someday. My arsenal is a hobby. I like building things and shooting paper targets. I only own two guns that are for self defense and they are two handguns. The rest are hobby guns. What the boy genius here fails to note is the amount of crime that is prevented with guns that don’t involve someone eating a lead sandwich. What a moron. How’s that for ad hominem?

The ATFE has a history of lying and entrapment. JPFO points to a case that is pretty abysmal but, in the end, the man who never broke the law in the first place won out. Here’s the details of the case and here’s a Las Vegas Tribune editorial on the case:

They can break laws in order to induce you to do the same.

They can lie under oath and judges do nothing. They can video tape you for hours, then edit everything out of the tape which might exonerate you. Then they can present it in court as evidence against you.

The Knoxville City Council approved a law allowing traffic cameras at intersections:

The law allows the cameras, but it does not require them. Council members say they want a lot more information before they put a plan into action.

“I just have some serious reservations about it overall, and there’s some unanswered questions that I’m still looking into, and so I’m going to continue to find the answers,” said Knoxville City Council member Joe Bailey.

I wonder if anyone has told them these things tend to lead to an increase in accidents?

No problem. Just annex a business:

The company contends the following: The annexation is not necessary to further promote the welfare of city residents; the city only wants the property for revenue purposes, and the property owner does not require city services; and the city “has not followed the required statutory procedures” in pursuing the annexation.

The city has vowed to vigorously defend the annexation. I drive past Vulcan every day. There’s really nothing there. I think it’s pretty clear the motivation is for tax revenue.

Brent Greer:

Yesterday, January 27, saw an extraordinary event at the old Columbus Police Academy. Members of the city administration, led by City Council Member Michael Mentel spoon fed local media a “photo-op” firearms demonstration that was closed to the public. There, he had police representatives showing off firearms far less powerful than those used for hunting, as well as fully-automatic guns from the city’s SWAT arsenal — the latter of which is illegal to own in the U.S. — all for the purpose of saying how Columbus must rid the streets of so-called “assault weapons” in order to protect children and law enforcement. The hyperbole was extensive.

The actual article eats it up:

The dummy was dressed in a bulletproof vest that kept the bullets from going completely through, yet a bullet from a police service pistol caused a 1½-inch-deep impression, and a 12-gauge shotgun blast left a 4-inch crater.

“That would probably kill the officer,” Winship said.

Then came the rifles.

Because the guns are so powerful, the officers fired them outside to avoid damaging a steel wall at the back of the indoor range.

Fired from 45 yards away, bullets from the military-style rifles easily penetrated the vest on the dummy. The bullets even penetrated quarterinch-thick (sic) steel plates.

The rifles fired were an SKS, an AK-47 and an AR-15. Officer Floyd Wise said the AR-15 is included in the Columbus SWAT unit’s arsenal.

CNN got in trouble for this a while back and issued a retraction.

Taser will implement background checks on buyers of their products:

Taser International Inc. is hiring a company to conduct criminal background checks and verify the identity of private citizens trying to buy its stun guns.

Taser chose Atlanta-based ChoicePoint Asset Co. to provide online criminal background information and identity verification, said Rick Smith, Taser’s co-founder and chief executive.

He said the checks confirm Taser’s commitment to ensuring its devices, “designed for personal safety and citizen defense, are purchased for those very reasons.”

This potential eminent domain case seems pretty silly to me:

An agency backed by the city is preparing to take Day’s business by eminent domain to make way for something called a “Media Box.”

Day can take the offer of $67,500 for his property – less than the city says it’s worth – or continue with an already drawn-out court battle. Either way, he has little chance of keeping his shop on a triangle of land at Spring Avenue and Olive Street.

Critics say Day’s situation is a classic example of the abuse of eminent domain. A case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court could affect thousands of similar cases nationwide.

It’s part of a revitalization effort but no one was talking about what exactly a media box is. Someone finally came forward to clarify:

But last week, Michelle Cohen, a public relations executive recently hired by Grand Center, said the “Media Box” is a building that will hold a design studio and apartments or condominiums.

“The ‘Media Box’ is really the working title for the design studio piece of it,” Cohen said.

Another case of forced private party transfers.

I don’t have a problem. I can stop whenever I want. Below is the latest kit and sack of parts I got:

Got it together and wanted to snap a pic. Since the camera is out, the dog decides he wants to pose too:

The new addition meets his family:

Did I mention I bought some more mags? How many is enough?

Another extortion lawsuit has been filed in East Tennessee regarding the taking of assets and demanding contributions to the drug fund:

A Kingston couple have filed a $20 million lawsuit against the Loudon County Sheriff’s Department, claiming they were coerced to donate to a drug fund.

Kenneth Wayne Templeton and his former wife, Tina Miller, filed suit Friday in connection with a traffic stop a year ago on Highway 70.

Court documents show Templeton claims that deputies pressured him to contribute an unstated amount to the department’s drug fund to get his truck back.

The vehicle had been confiscated when Templeton was arrested on charges of DUI, driving on a revoked license and drug possession. A judge dismissed all of the charges.

When you have an incentive for taking property, people will take property even when they probably shouldn’t. Not the first time this has happened here.

If you’ve ever read Christopher Buckley’s Thank You For Smoking then you might recall the “Merchants of Death” or “MOD Squad.” These were lobbyists for the alcohol, tobacco, and firearms interests, who meet every day for lunch.

I was reminded of this today as I was perusing the latest issue of America’s 1st Freedom, the monthly NRA magazine. Toward the back is a section called the “NRA H.Q. Bulletin.” One picture caught my eye; it’s two guys holding one of those giant checks that you get for winning golf tournaments. The caption reads:

NRA Life member Todd A. Walker, representing UST Public Affairs, Inc., presents NRA-ILA Executive Director Chris W. Cox with a $5,000 check…Walker is vice president of federal government relations for UST, Inc., a holding company whose principal subsidiaries are U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company and International Wine & Spirits, Ltd.

I just…I don’t know; for some reason this cracks me up.

To Kathy for installing some fixes to the trackback problem. If you’re in the market for a person to handle the technical stuff on your blog, she gets my recommendation.

The War On Guns by David Codrea, who has written for various gun magazines. Welcome to blogging.

DrugWarRant notes some ads depicting our militarized police force. I concur that such ads will probably motivate drug dealers to go out and buy more firepower.

Bubba is all over Gov. Bredesen’s State of the State address. The full text can be found here.

KNS:

In a calculated campaign of domestic violence, a Knoxville man broke the neck of his stepdaughter’s puppy, suffocated it and then laughed as he presented the dead animal to the girl and her mother, a warrant alleges.

This also marks the first case in Knox County of charges for felony animal cruelty. Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy.

Countertop is asking for, well, I’ll just let him tell you:

If you know of – or even suspect – an instance of the federal government or one of its agency’s basing a regulation upon faulty data or publishing or disseminating faulty data – please post a comment here or email me about it. I’ve had some luck with Data Quality Petitions in the past, and think its about time to use the DQA to protect our Second Amendment rights.

Uhm, how about every lower court ruling that relied upon the work of one Michael Bellesiles?

Currently, this site is under a trackback spam attack. None of the spam has made it to the site and I can delete it all in two clicks. However, I have that little feature enabled to email me when I get comments. So far, 1047 spam trackbacks in a few hours. WordPress is awesome in that none of these trackbacks made it to the site. However, the attack bogged the site down earlier this morning.

Also, I mass deleted a ton of email due to this silliness. If you sent me something important, I may have deleted it. So, send it again tomorrow.

By the way, I’m generally non-violent. But if I ever meet someone and I ask them what they do for a living and their response is I spam people, I will beat them to death. No court would convict me.

Update: just so you know how bad it is: in the time it took me to write that, the number went from 1047 to 1378.

Update 2: trackbacks currently disabled.

Update 3: trackbacks are, uhm, back.

PBS is irate at newly sworn in Education Secretary Spellings’ views on funding programming that is questionable, particularly children’s programming. At issue is an episode wherein a character is introduced to a lesbian couple:

As Education Secretary Margaret Spellings is sworn in today in Washington, children’s TV programmers and public television advocates wonder whether her protests last week signal a tough new attitude on values in children’s programming.

“She may make it very difficult for programs to get funded,” says Peggy Charren, a pioneer in children’s TV and board member at WGBH. The Boston station produced Postcards From Buster, the show in the center of the firestorm. “You could be put out of business.”

The financial impact could be significant:

According to its Web site, PBS receives 16.4% of its funding from the federal government through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, grants and contracts, and 18.3% from state governments. (Members contribute 23.5%; businesses, 16.1%; state colleges and universities, 6.5%; foundations, 5.5%.)

I don’t think the government should be in the media business in general, other than to regulate false claims. That includes paying pundits to plug a program, paying for propaganda, and funding other media outlets, like PBS and NPR. I like knowing that my media is where it belongs, in the hands of large corporations.

Cowboy Blob has a damn fine round up of gun bloggers.

Shot Show coverage here. I picked the wrong week to be in Vegas.

Jeff has the latest.