Lamer:

The schools that sent out [school uniform] surveys saw response rates ranging from 6 percent to 70 percent

This case:

A former cab driver has pleaded guilty to a weapons charge for fatally shooting a passenger who had slashed his throat with scissors during a robbery.

The case of John Lutters, 46, of Seymour, had reached the State Supreme Court after a judge ruled that the taxi driver did not need a gun permit while on the job.

The prosecution had acknowledged that Lutters acted in self-defense and called the killing justified, but continued to pursue the weapon charge.

In Tennessee, valid self-defense is a defense to carrying a gun illegally, if I recall correctly. So, it’s basically illegal to carry if you don’t need to but if you need to, you’re probably OK. I thought for a long time that law was rather dumb but now I’m not so sure.

Literally:

Scientists who compared frogs collected over the last 150 years have discovered a dramatic increase in hermaphrodites during the times when contamination from the pesticide DDT and other chlorinated compounds was widespread.

With apologies to Les Jones. Rich notes that Howard Dean, who is viewed by a lot of folks as a bit radical for the Democrat Party, may be an asset for them:

Just think back to 1992 when we really didn’t know much about Newt, who he was, or what he was. He was the Minority Whip, and had a reputation as an extremist, a rabble rouser, and the kind of guy you use to rally your base, but hide in the closet when the campaign goes national so as not to scare off the swing voters.

Sound familiar?

And all this supposedly scary man did was to take core conservative values, frame them in a way that made them acceptible to those very same swing voters, and used those values to create a platform that in 1994 wrested control of the House of Representatives from the Democrats for the first time in 4 decades. He did this in a time when his party had suffered an embarrassing defeat in a presidential election and was fragmenting into a loose coalition of special interests.

Police in Colorado Taser a man over a salad bar dispute. At a Chuck E. Cheese. In front of kids.

Ben has the latest update on Chai Vang.

If so, you need to watch this. Via MadOgre.

The Geek:

As a secular jesuslander, I have to say that some of us really, really need to get over our fear of dildos.

Heh!

Has pointing out one’s blogiversary jumped the shark? I hope not; this is my first chance to do it.

QandO on The South:

I digress, but the point is that there is a great deal of regional pride in the South – both general and specific. And after decades of being portrayed in the media, literature and broad culture as backward, sub-literate, yokels, there’s also a great deal of distrust directed at those (perceived as) dismissive of Southern culture.

Indeed, we Southerners like the south and we don’t care who knows it. We also don’t appreciate how we’re portrayed. More:

Case in Point: During the campaign season, Howard Dean said “I still want to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks”, which was followed by a week of genuflecting to the appropriate Scolds for mentioning the Confederate flag. Which was then followed by another week of debate over whether Democrats should even speak to Confederate flag owners. After awhile it was pretty well decided that the Confederate Flag wasn’t really all that different from a KKK decal, and the whole thing was forgotten.

Except, of course, by voters in the South.

You see, while [Confederate flag = racism] is common knowledge among many Democrats and non-Southerners, it comes as a surprise to many Southerners, who grew up around the flag, and yet somehow missed out on the whole “it means you hate black people” angle.

I’m one of those people. I grew up in Georgia, where the Confederate Flag adorned trucks, bumpers, shirts, and–yes, on rare occassions–even flagpoles. In the South, it’s simply a regional symbol. Owning a Confederate flag in the South is no more intrinsically racist than following a sports team — the Washington Redskins — whose name has racial connotations. And yet, Democrats manage to do that without ritualistic self-flagellation.

Actually, one of the reasons Southerners like their flags is because it annoys the Hell out of people who are, well, really easy to annoy. It pisses some folks off and that’s good enough.

A girl is pictured firing an AR-15 at a firing range. Senate Bill 927, a so-called “assault weapons” ban, targets guns such as the AR-15. If passed, possession of assault rifles will be punishable by 10 years in prison, a $250,000, or both.

Yes, she looks evil firing that bullet hose.

Source.

Via JR.

You’d think that a kid who writes a story about zombies invading a high school would be viewed as either someone with a creative streak or a geek. But you’d be wrong, they’re viewed as terrorists (via Manish who assures me he’ll resume blogging soon):

A George Rogers Clark High School junior arrested Tuesday for making terrorist threats told LEX 18 News Thursday that the “writings” that got him arrested are being taken out of context.

Winchester police say William Poole, 18, was taken into custody Tuesday morning. Investigators say they discovered materials at Poole’s home that outline possible acts of violence aimed at students, teachers, and police.

Poole told LEX 18 that the whole incident is a big misunderstanding. He claims that what his grandparents found in his journal and turned into police was a short story he wrote for English class.

“My story is based on fiction,” said Poole, who faces a second-degree felony terrorist threatening charge. “It’s a fake story. I made it up. I’ve been working on one of my short stories, (and) the short story they found was about zombies. Yes, it did say a high school. It was about a high school over ran by zombies.”

When I was a kid, I used to draw these images of spaceships invading the Earth. I didn’t really want spaceships to invade the Earth. I was just being creative, doodling and not paying attention to second grad mathematics. More:

Even so, police say the nature of the story makes it a felony. “Anytime you make any threat or possess matter involving a school or function it’s a felony in the state of Kentucky,” said Winchester Police detective Steven Caudill.

Mr. Caudill, I’ve found those space invasion pictures I doodled back in 1978. I crossed out the Earth and wrote in Clark High School. Come get me.

End the misuse of eminent domain

City’s Eminent Domain Stand Is ‘disgusting’

Eminent Domain Huge Threat To Homeowners

Preliminary side-note: I received a ton of email pointing me to this story. What was funny was that four of the emails had the subject line Like you and me, only better. Heh, I may have started a meme. Now, on to the story. Via The Geek, Matt, Justin, Gunner, Insty, Jay, The Cajun, and I’m sure more, a gun control advocate has been arrested on, get this, gun charges:

A Springfield (IL) woman who began lobbying against gun violence after her son was shot to death in 2002 was arrested last week when police allegedly found an illegal gun and drugs in her home.

It sounds worse than it is. Later, we learn:

Stevens said she believes the search warrant was obtained illegally. She said no drugs were found in her home. And as for the gun, she admits to having it in the house. But she said it belonged to her son. She didn’t find it until six or seven months after he died. Not knowing what to do with it, she wrapped it up, put it in a drawer and forgot about it.

Here’s the big, fat, mildly greased irony of it: I don’t think the gun crime in this case is that significant (sure, some of the other stuff mentioned may be). The action with the gun, in this case, is not that of criminal intent. However, she’s getting prosecuted for unintentionally violating some law she proposed. This seemingly unintentional violation will hopefully instill in her some understanding as to what these misguided laws actually do.

It’s good to see a Democrat oppose the assault weapons ban, which is what Max Burns states he is. Excellent. However, even those that oppose the ban aren’t sure what the ban does. I sent him the following email:

You ask:

“Who needs an AK-47 when you can kill something just as dead with a sturdy old Winchester? Who needs a cyclic rate of fire of 600 rounds a minute when one shot from a well-aimed hunting rifle will kill something just the same? This was the question I always posed to pro-gun advocates when I was standing up for the now defunct Assault Weapons Ban of 1994. It was a good question, one I’ve yet to meet a good answer to. “

An AK47 that can fire 600 RPM is a machine gun (i.e., fully automatic and not semi-automatic) and was not covered by the 1994 assault weapons ban. Machine guns fall under 2 federal statutes: 1 – the 1934 Nationa Firearms Act (which requires approval from law enforcement and a $200 tax); and 2 – the 1986 Hughes Amendment to the Firearms Owners Protection Act which prohibits the transfer of new machine guns to citizens.

A machine gun was not covered by the Assault Weapons Ban, which merely banned guns that look like assault weapons.

Regards,

He did manage to answer his own question, by the way. He responded pretty quickly with:

I was using the AK-47 as a figure of speech to show the general ignorance about the true facts of gun rights and the AWB. A lot of people didn’t realize this, and I apologize for not making it clearer.

At least he’s on the right side.

Looks like we’ll get to increase our armor class:

The idea of a cloak of invisibility that hides objects from view has long been confined to the more improbable reaches of science fiction. But electronic engineers have now come up with a way to make one.

Andrea Alù and Nader Engheta of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia say that a ‘plasmonic cover’ could render objects “nearly invisible to an observer”. Their idea remains just a proposal at this stage, but it doesn’t obviously violate any laws of physics.

I’m still holding out for elven mail and a bag of, uhm, holding.

Jed notes the latest in the conspiracy to keep you scared.

Senator Diane “I’ve got a 38 in my purse” Feinstein is pushing for the assault weapons ban again, which should be called a ban on guns that look like assault weapons. The odds of it happening are slim:

Gun control has been a signature issue for Feinstein since she arrived in the Senate in 1993. But the odds she faces to pass the weapons ban in the current Congress are probably steeper than they were in 1993, when the Senate narrowly approved the ban, or last March, when it passed 52-47 before dying in the body.

November’s election increased the 100-member Senate’s number of Republicans from 51 to 55, and there are at least four new solid votes against Feinstein’s proposal.

In the House, gun control advocates face an even tougher time because Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, have said they won’t let the renewal legislation come up for a vote.

Radley Balko notes that, while he’s never supported gun control, he’s just not passionate about gun rights. This seems to be a source of contention between libertarian-liberals and libertarian-conservatives. I was engaged once in a discussion with a contributor to the lefty-libertarian site UnknownNews in which they stated something to the effect of how they ought to be careful no to align themselves with gun-nuts due to perception issues (’cause we’re all racists and homophobes, you know). I wholeheartedly disagreed with that assertion.

Pro-gun and pro-freedom (they go hand in hand) folks should align with whoever they can. And we gun folks pretty much assume that if you don’t display support for gun rights, you must oppose them. We do. It’s true. Can’t help it. But there is hope.

If you asked me 10 years ago if I thought pro-gun folks would ally with the gay and lesbian community, I’d have probably laughed. But it has happened (ask these fine folks). Sure, there’s some opposition from some of the less tolerant factions of the gun community (but you have those issues anywhere) but it is taking hold. It’s not widespread but it’s happening. The gun community needs to draw as many into the fold as it can and alienating a group will do that. Same with those pro-freedom folks who aren’t passionate about guns. I’m not particularly passionate about gay marriage (probably because I’m not gay and no gay person I know wants to get married) but I support their cause and draw attention to it.

Some lefty libertarian sorts unintentionally alienate gun owners. Alienating gun owners is not good, ask Gore.

A judge has ruled that Padilla (of dirty bomb fame) cannot be held unless he’s charged with a crime:

In a stinging rebuke to the Bush administration, a federal judge ruled the case of “dirty bomb” suspect Jose Padilla is a matter for law enforcement — not the military — and ordered the government to charge him or let him go.

Sure, Padilla may be a terrorist. Sure, he may be guilty. But this is America, we should not keep people in prison who aren’t convicted of crimes. The government will appeal so Padilla will likely still remain imprisoned for a while.

WATE notes that when a child brings a toy gun to school, it doesn’t subject them to zero sense err tolerance policy:

A student from West Valley Middle School got in trouble for brining (sic) a toy gun to school but his punishment won’t come from the system’s zero tolerance policy. However, the gun’s manufacturer sends out warnings about possible dangers.

The toy is called an Airsoft gun. Many people use the plastic, air-powered guns, for sports such as paint ball. They come in many shapes and sizes.

And then:

Still, the district doesn’t consider Airsoft guns firearms. “A fire arm by definition is something that shoots a projectile from an explosive charge,” Oaks says.

Still? As though we expect the toy to be automatically classified as a firearm? Personally, I’m glad the school didn’t come down on the kid with ridiculousness that is zero tolerance. No, the kid shouldn’t have brought the toy to school but the incident should not be treated as though he brought an actual gun to school.

So, do you really think that Bin Laden would contact Al-Zarqawi through some sort of channel that the US could intercept and try to enlist his help? Someone does:

The Homeland Security Department issued a classified bulletin to officials over the weekend about the intelligence, which spokesman Brian Roehrkasse described Monday as “credible but not specific.”

The intelligence was obtained over the past several weeks, officials said.

The United States has no immediate plans to raise its national terror alert level [Of course not, no election this year – Ed.], Roehrkasse said. However, the intelligence “reiterates the desire by al-Qaida and its associates to target the homeland,” he said.

Bin Laden was in contact with al-Zarqawi within the past two months in an effort to enlist him in attacks, a U.S. official said on condition of anonymity. The move may reflect the al-Qaida leadership’s desire to involve al-Zarqawi in activities outside Iraq, the official said.

I have no doubt that attacks are in the works but I see a couple of possibilities. One is that the terrorist machine is trying to draw attention to itself to instill some fear. Second would be the terrorist machine is really powerless and is playing the bluffing game.

More women are participating in target sports. Excellent.

First up, is a piece rightfully calling Mark Wilson a hero:

“He saw evil in the city streets of Tyler and he acted instinctively and decisively to stop it with no regard for his own safety,” friend Russell Harris told a crowd of about 200 people who attended a memorial for Wilson, 52.

Another piece notes the shooting raises gun law questions:

When gunfire erupted in an East Texas town square, Mark Alan Wilson didn’t hesitate. He grabbed a Colt .45 handgun and charged downstairs to confront the assailant.

Actually, it was a Glock in 9mm:

Wilson’s actions in Thursday’s Tyler shootings drew hearty praise from gun advocates who say he probably saved several more lives as well. But gun control groups say his death is further proof that carrying a gun increases a person’s chances of getting killed.

Tyler police spokesman Don Martin warned gun owners to carefully weigh the risks before intervening.

“Certainly we don’t want citizens to go out there and get involved in situations if they don’t have to because they don’t have the training that the officers do,” Martin said.

Mr. Wilson saved at least one person. His intervention very likely saved many others as the gunman had to engage Mr. Wilson instead of shooting other people. Mr. Wilson knew the risks as does anyone who carries a gun and is willing to use it.

Kristen Rand, legislative director for the pro-gun control Violence Policy Center in Washington, D.C., said the Tyler shooting shows that criminals aren’t deterred by the knowledge that someone nearby could be carrying a concealed weapon.

I’d comment on this but Rep. Hupp already did:

But state Rep. Suzanna Hupp, a supporter of the state’s concealed carry law, said Wilson’s actions and his access to a gun improved the odds that Arroyo would be taken down before more people were killed.

Also, this reignited the debate over the ban on weapons that look like assault weapons. Or as Jerry Patterson said:

“What we’re focusing on is the alphanumerics: A-K-47,” Patterson said. “If he’d have used a Remington semiautomatic deer rifle, the same outcome would have resulted.”

RevGreg really takes down an article I linked to earlier. Not only did they get a bunch of stuff wrong, the press apparently doesn’t know how to copy and paste, nor do they know the difference between a C and a K.

Defense Review has the skinny on the new compact Glocks in the new 45GAP caliber.

Maybe spoilers ahead. Read at own risk.

I really like the new Battlestar Galactica series. Aside from a bit of silliness (like Starbuck figuring out how to hermetically seal and pilot a Cylon ship), it’s quite entertaining. I like the religious interplay as well. Turns out the humans are polytheists and the Cylons, despite what you would think, are not only religious but monotheists. My prediction (hit more for potential spoilers):

Read the rest of this entry »