Genocide made easy: If I lived in Zimbabwe, the last thing I would do would be to turn in my guns:

Zimbabwean police have outlawed the possession of automatic weapons and ordered people to surrender them to police stations before the end of the month, the Herald newspaper reported Saturday. Police gave no reason for the immediate withdrawal of licenses for self-loading rifles, machine guns and pistols, according to report.

“We would like to urge the people to fully co-operate with the police and those who will remain with these weapons would be contravening the law,” police spokesman Wayne Bvudzijena told the paper.

Looks like they’re paving the way for mass murder and confiscating guns will make that so much easier.

The Daily Probe:

Meaning of Life Revealed

JERUSALEM (DPI) – After considerable nagging by humanity, God revealed the meaning of life today during a special news conference. As many freshman philosophy majors had guessed, the meaning of life was revealed to be searching for the meaning of life. Unfortunately, this revelation now nullifies the purpose of existence and life has become meaningless. This is a disheartening turn of events for everyone except sophomore philosophy majors, who had taken a liking to nihilism.

Unbeleivable. I re-enabled trackbacks and in 10 minutes, I get bombarded with spam. Sorry, but I think the trackback is dead.

Site speed is way, way down. I thought it might be the various scripts I have on the site so, one by one, I took each off to see if that would speed it up. No dice. Anyone have an idea why this site is so damn slow to load?

Myself and Les will, at some point, take the KNS Managing Editor shooting. It’s a good thing for a couple of reasons. One is that it’s always good to introduce someone to the shooting sports. Two, it will be even better knowing that there is a newspaper somewhere that has an editor who actually knows something about guns. I’m still waiting to get a 40MM pistol.

Behold, the Raging Rinos, created by The Commissar for secular and moderate conservatives who don’t drink the party Kool-Aid on issues such as whether it’s legal for dudes to diddle dudes and all that God business. Republican, without all the crazy.

J.D. has kicked around many logos for the group, following some issues with the first one. I guess no one liked the one I used

So, while the Republican Party is busy with important things like keeping gay marriage outlawed, banning desecration of the flag, and putting up monuments to the 10 Commandments, what are the RINOs wasting time talking about:

John Cole wants a policy of intelligence gathering to aid in the war on terror, not degradation and dehumanization of our prisoners of war. Further, he ascribes sensibility in . . . . Look . . . Dudes kissing!

Sure, being secular righties is fun but that doesn’t mean there’s no time to bash the left when it’s, you know, stupid. Politechincal takes on Durbin’s statement and alleged-apology. He notes . . . crap! The Commandments are in trouble! RightThoughts tackles religious stupidity but not the kind you think.

In a Durbin v. Rove death match, Larry picks a winner but notes they’re both losers. Rusty, surprisingly, accepts Durbin’s apology at face value. Additionally, some radical-right-wing nuts think Rove should apologize. And the Hitler Zombie battles for your soul.

One thing we conservatives tend to hate is socialism. Power and Control has thoughts on, and I’m not making this up, Republican Socialism. I think it’s very real and socialism is a good description where these no longer fiscally responsible statists are taking this country.

Environmental Republican (no, I’m not making that one up either) smacks the Philly Inquirer for minimizing the story . . . This just in, there’s this new theory that humans were not actually put here 5,000 years ago by God. Those people are crazy, this is what really happened. Speaking of God, here’s something on the other American Taliban. And RINOs and the ACLU living in sin? Who’d have thunk it?

Here’s some more from another environmentally conscious Republican, who doesn’t do math.

AJ takes a good look at the credibility of those involved with the Downing Street Memo.

Eric addresses how political stereotyping prevents ordinary people from addressing serious problems in the educational system. And gay cooties.

Even Raging RINOs draw the line somewhere. That line appears to be John McCain. Nick has more on TSOBJM, which I predict will soon be blog meme.

RINOs on weed: The Drug War has created a paramilitary group trained by the US in Mexico. They have switched sides and now run drug operations. Scary stuff. It didn’t take long after Raich for the feds to start raiding medical marijuana facilities. The line between states rights and federal power took a . . . Newsflash: kids may react negatively to that crazy rock music!

That rather disturbing Schiavo business seemed to conclude leaving everyone feeling, well, confused and saddened. Yet, Jeb Bush wants to resurrect the issue with even less taste.

It’s like 1984 for capitalists, Dan translates Salesgoodspeakian to English.

Bill Quick notes that of the three members of the Axis of Evil, we took out one and it was the least threatening. He notes the US may give up on the two remaining members.

On the war-front, Dan rightfully tells us that amazing things are happening in the Middle East, like Constitutions and stuff. But those Constitutions never last, enter Kelo:

Bloodspite on Kelo: who lost? We did. You and I.

Countertop notes the end of something we should hold dear. I always thought the third amendment is still in effect but I may have been wrong.

Ken Wheaton on Kelo’s liberal conundrum.

Sorry, sir. This developer needs your land.

Update: Oh yeah, what’s a SayUncle post without a link to gun porn. Here’s some. Mmmmm, SCAR.

Update 2: Sorry folks, spam assault. Trackbacks are disabled again. Took a total of 15 minutes from the time I enabled to getting assaulted. Anyway, if you wish to trackback desperately, just leave a link in comments.

This concludes The First Very Special Episode of RINO Sightings. Now, on to administrative matters:

The tentative schedule for future episodes of your friendly, neighborhood RINO Sightings is as follows:

July 4 – Mark Coffey, Decision 08
July 11 – Larry Bernard
July 18 – Andy at WWR
July 25 – Counter Top
Aug 1 – open
Aug 8 – open

Let Der Commissar know if you’d like to host one. Also, to add the RINO Roll to your site, here’s the script:

Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s an article on how guns are getting funneled into Africa. It should mention that those arms are going to the wrong people.

Apparently, the police are licensed therapists and can decide to take your guns if you’re suicidal, even though you’ve done nothing illegal. And they destroyed his property because they didn’t have a place to store it.

Will the Patriot Act allow the authorities to essentially maintain a registry of guns? GOA thinks so.

The Democrats are again figuring out that they need to be pro-gun if they expect to win elections. Good.

The Last Gun Shop update: David reports that the owner has lost another zoning battle. Doesn’t matter, though. Since Kelo, all the city has to do is say it wants to put a Wal-Mart there.

CounterTop appears to have traded down. Dude, like with women, you only trade up. I have the perfect woman but have yet to find the perfect gun.

For a second there, I thought it was the Oliver Willis instruction manual.

Gavin Newsom has, for once, conceded that he is not above the law:

This week, state Sen. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, introduced a bill that would change state law to allow local governments to enact animal-control laws directed at specific breeds. Speier’s bill doesn’t mention pit bulls explicitly, but given the recent attacks in the Bay Area involving the breed, most people see it as aimed at the squat, square-faced animals.

[snip]

The biggest support for Speier’s proposal comes from San Francisco, where Mayor Gavin Newsom asked the senator to craft legislation to make the streets safer from aggressive dogs, and Concord, where in March an 11-year-old boy was seriously injured by a pit bull. On Thursday, San Jose Councilwoman Linda LeZotte said she will ask the full council to support Speier’s legislation.

If these had been gay pit bulls, he would have likely went ahead and passed this legislation regardless of applicable state laws. He seems to be learning his lesson with respect to the law but this time his proposed actions are just stupid (note: I supported his gay marriage decision, despite it breaking the law. I can’t support reactionary stupidity). A child, who was left without parental supervision and who had barricaded in a basement, was killed by the family’s pit bull. The mother has been indicted on felony child abuse. This woman’s irresponsible actions seem to be getting a pass from everyone, while a breed of dog is unjustly taking the heat.

I think, instead of sending lawyers, guns and money; someone needs to head to New London with a truckload of spotted owls, snail darters, and bald eagles . Once you turn them loose, all construction there would stop immediately. Thoughts?

Michael Silence:

Don’t fret, folks. In several decades Congress will apologize for governments taking citizens’ land.

Update: that quote is gone now. I promise, it was there. Never mind.

On Kelo, a reader emails:

this is not the time to be whining about armed insurrection, but a time to use the constitutional, moral tools at our disposal – the political process, and our ability to influence our fellow citizens.

[snip]

The good news is that almost everybody is pissed off about this – even DailyKos is on our side. I think we can see to it that the court’s ruling was a wake-up call rather than a defeat.

Update: Apparently, Kosmonauts are, again, not on the side of freedom.

If you read one thing today, it should be this. My sympathies, James.

Remember Raging RINOs that the deadline for submission to RINO Sightings is today.

Email your submissions to me at saysuncle at yahoo dot com.

Some reflections, reactions and fall out.

I went home last night, finished off a bottle of Scotch and had a few beers. I sat in my backyard on my comfortable 0.6 acres in the country, looked at my fence (which is only symbolic at this point), looked at Junior’s play-set, looked at the 12 neighbors’ houses I could see from the backyard, and watched my little girl play in her kiddie pool. And it occurred to me that all mine is only all mine until some bureaucrat decides he wants it for any reason whatsoever. Same for those neighbors. I’ve long held that we don’t actually own property any way, we just have an indefinite lease from the state in the form of property taxes. Now, even that lease agreement is null and void.

Also, taxes used to fund things for public use. Now public use is going to fund taxes. There are many municipalities who were waiting on this ruling. They just got the go ahead from the highest level to take whatever they want for whatever reason they want. (You can peruse many of these cases here).

Now, to address some comments made around the blogs and that I got by email on my emotional state as, just to use one example, impassioned if not analytical:

I’ve been covering Kelo for almost a year. I’ve dedicated a lot pixels and some money to the cause. I’ve also been covering eminent domain for quite a while. I had a lot invested in this subject emotionally and am not some Johnnie come lately on the issue. And I’m angry but mostly sad. It takes a real man to weep for his nation.

Also, to my gunblogger buddies who are stating it’s time to hoist the black flag, quoting Jefferson, and calling for revolution: Put up or shut up. Unless you’re on your way to Connecticut right now, the rhetoric will do more harm than good. Actually, being on your way to Connecticut will probably do more harm than good. That’s not to say I don’t appreciate or understand the sentiment, but the fact is that it’s not going to happen and if it did happen, it wouldn’t work. People will shake their heads, nay-say, and bitch but nothing will be done when the bulldozers level Suzette Kelo’s home. People won’t even defend their dogs when the state comes to take them by force. Sure, I made a half-hearted comment about sending guns to Connecticut but its pointless because I can’t send them balls.

Folks can entertain these fantasies of a group of freedom fighters engaging the bureaucratic machine but you will lose. You will die or be imprisoned. Period. The cause needs you to be alive and free not in jail. The fight isn’t over, it just got local. We need to press local and state officials to pass laws that restrict eminent domain. That’s the way you win this one. And it will be a long haul that will probably take decades. Some bills have already received support of legislators, like this one. Note to The Rep: It’s public use not public good.

This notion kicked around that we need another Constitutional amendment to limit governments’ abilities to seize property is kind of a waste. We had that in the fifth amendment. Fat lot of good it did.

Unfucking the Supreme Court needs to be everyone’s priority. And, since everyone else is politicizing this decision, it’s my turn. The more conservative justices voted correctly on this case (as they did on Raich). Hats off to them. The liberal and supposed moderates shredded the constitution. Consider this my official withdrawal from the Coalition of the Chillin’. No, the world didn’t end on May 23, 2005 but exactly one month later property rights did. The US needs judges who follow the Constitution, not judges who act like it’s a minor inconvenience. We have a lot to do to fix this and this isn’t the time to be fucking around.

Update: On further reflection, it appears to be generally a bad policy to challenge any law with which we libertarianish folks disagree, even though we are right. We keep getting shot down when we take it all the way to the highest court in the land. Act locally.

Update 2: Dear Lord, do we really need to fear challenging the law of the land. Quite depressing.

The Carnival of Cordite is up over at The Revolutionary War Veterans Association Weblog.

I’m so angry about Kelo I can hardly see straight. I’ll try to write something more coherent down the road. But I’m looking out on my backyard — a good .15 acres of weeds (since my house is pretty far up on the .31 acre lot) — and I can’t help but thinking:

What’s to stop a city from deciding that my 1949 house, built on 1/3 acre lots, wouldn’t be better turned into townhomes at 9-to-an-acre? If public use is served simply by raising tax revenue, what’s better for society? One $575K house with a backyard which is mostly weeds right now? Or three $500K townhouses, making sure it gets put to “public” use in the form of cranking out property taxes?

What’s to stop these bastards?

The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America.

Oh. That’s right. Nothing.

Bastards. Complete Fucking Bastards.

Update: Today, I am ashamed of my country, my government, and the legal system (we don’t have a justice system). This is some scary stuff, folks. Freedom died a bit more. I honestly went to the parking lot, sat in the car and wiped tears from my eyes. Anger turned to sadness.

Property rights (like states’ rights) are officially dead in this country. SCOTUS blog:

Splitting 5-4, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that a local government may seize private property for purposes of profit-making private re-development, declaring that this constitutes a “public use” under the Constitution.

While the opinion by Justice John Paul Stevens said that a local government could not take homeowners’ property “simply to confer a private benefit on a particular private party,” the New London. Conn., project involved in this case was “a carefully considered development plan.” While the resulting project would not be open for use by the general public, the Court said, there is no literal requirement of that outcome.

Well, my copy of the fifth amendment says:

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

How a private development could possibly be justified as public use is beyond me. Worth noting that the conservative judges came down on the right side of things.

Fuckers.

Update: I am seriously pissed off about this. Apologies in advance for the obscenities you’ll see out of me for the next few days.

Fuckers.

Update 2: The AP story is here:

As a result, cities now have wide power to bulldoze residences for projects such as shopping malls and hotel complexes in order to generate tax revenue.

Update 3: Blake has some reactions. It is a national tragedy.

Update: Another quote:

Scott Bullock, an attorney for the Institute for Justice representing the families, added: ”A narrow majority of the court simply got the law wrong today and our Constitution and country will suffer as a result.”

Simply got it wrong is a bit of an understatement. How about willfully disregarded?

Fuckers.

Here’s the opinion, which I have not read yet due to the threat of having a conniption.

Update: Kevin:

Bill Von Winkle now has three choices: Submit, go to jail, or die. His legal options are finished.

And still this isn’t the straw that will break the camel’s back.

But it ought to be.

The impact of killing states’ rights:

Federal drug agents launched a wide-ranging crackdown on medical marijuana providers in northern California, raiding pot clubs, homes and businesses in San Francisco and arresting a husband and wife in Sacramento.

First up was RINOs and now it could be DINOs. Still, RINOs won’t generally vote for Democrats because they’re, well, icky and give us the creeps.

So, what happens if the Constitution becomes unconstitutional:

A constitutional amendment to outlaw flag burning cleared the House Wednesday but faced an uphill battle in the Senate. An informal survey by The Associated Press suggested the measure doesn’t have enough Senate votes to pass.

The 286-130 outcome was never in doubt in the House, which had passed the measure or one like it five times in recent years. The amendment’s supporters expressed optimism that a Republican gain of four seats in last November’s election could produce the two-thirds approval needed in the Senate as well after four failed attempts since 1989.

So, if an amendment actually restricts the free speech protected by the first amendment, which one takes precedent? And this is another one of those reasons why the Republicans are having some dissent in their ranks.

Update: Bruce has a round up.

With protesters, TennCare and budgets to worry about, it’s good to see our Governor sign a meaningless, symbolic gesture into law:

The bill requires school boards to develop policies to stop bullying or harassment on school grounds.

Bredesen also noted he was bullied as a kid. I’m pretty sure that similar policies are already in place at schools, they just don’t call them bullying rules.

I guess not all of them are. Lots of folks are commenting about this guy’s threat to out an anonymous Volokh contributer (apparently, that’s the cool thing to do these days). He as now changed his mind. But Leiter also says:

Putting that aside, Mr. Non-Volokh is now reduced to quoting the pathetically dumb Clayton Cramer (how dumb? almost anything on his blog will do, but start here).

Now, while I don’t agree with Cramer’s assessment in that post, he does actually, you know, make a case whereas Leiter just says your dumb. Cramer responded to this fairly childish criticism here. Cramer, for this sort of child, the correct response would merely be am not.

Well, that’s one innovative use for a blog.

Civis Proeliator on the FAL:

As a MBR (Main Battle Rifle) we see the FAL (utilizing the 7.62×51 round) as the best of all worlds even though the rifle weighs in at over 9.5 lbs unloaded and runs approx. 42 in. long. We see the 5.56mm (.223) fired by the M16A2/M4 and others as being too small a round to be effective against many targets and much shorter in effective distance. Even the 7.62×39 fired by the AK and it’s variants or the SKS, though they’re .30 caliber, is hard pressed to match the all around effectiveness due to it’s smaller powder load. While we agree the latter could be sufficient in a close quarter, urban type environment we still believe the larger round to be best for a rifleman due to it’s longer effective range and hitting power.

I have decided that I need want a 308 rifle and have been mulling my options. I personally like the M1A, but have not ruled out the FAL, HK-91, or an AR chambered in 308. Thoughts?

In the event you have not tried the new Peanut Butter Creme Double Stuff Oreos, you need to stop what you’re doing right now and head to the store to get some. And pick up some milk while you’re there. I’m not kidding. They’re that good.

Update: Even if that means taking the day off from work. Seriously, go now.

I’m not making this up:

Married men earn more than bachelors so long as their wives stay at home doing the housework, according to a report Wednesday from Britain’s Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER).

Academics Elena Bardasi and Mark Taylor found that a married man whose wife does not go out to work but is primarily responsible for the cooking and cleaning earns about 3 percent more than comparably employed single men.

But that wage premium disappears if wives go out to work themselves or don’t do most of the housework.

“It has been fairly well documented that married men earn more than single men,” Taylor, a labor economist, told Reuters.

Cause and effect seems to be confused here. I’d dare say that married men are older than most bachelors and, given their experience in their fields, would obviously make more. Also, I’d say it’s more appropriate to state that Wives tend to stay home if the husband tends to make more money as opposed to intimating that stay at home wives cause husbands to make more money.

Stupid social science.

Now that we’re in the information age, it’s getting harder and harder to insulate ourselves from 24/7 coverage of shameless publicity hounds. Look at what intruded on my evening commute:
Read the rest of this entry »

Another push for concealed carry in the state after its rather dramatic first attempt:

In late 2003, a measure allowing concealed weapons passed both houses of the Legislature, but Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle vetoed it. In early 2004, the Senate voted to override the governor, but the Assembly fell one vote short of doing so, allowing Doyle’s veto to stand.

On the new bill:

The new bill would give the responsibility of issuing permits to another group, such as the state Department of Justice; the union that represents state troopers; the Fraternal Order of Police; the Law Enforcement Alliance of America; or private security firms, Zien said.

Zien said one of those groups might get those duties explicitly in the legislation, or a process might be set up to select the group through competitive bidding.

Permits under the new bill would cost $75, compared with the $113 in the last bill, said Michael Bruhn, chief of staff to Rep. Scott Gunderson (R-Waterford), a sponsor of the bill.

Relax, people. I have it on good authority that those are not gay RINOs.

Frustrated with the future of his party, The Commissar established The Raging Rinos a while back. Rino stands for Republicans / Independents Not Overdosed (on the Party Kool-Aid) and exists to show that there are secular conservatives who have better things to worry about than dudes kissing, reconciling dinosaurs with that Noah’s ark business, and making their political decisions based upon what some invisible man in the sky tells them to think. After all, there’s a war on, we have a republic to save, and the government (for anyone not paying attention) is growing in size at a ridiculous pace.

The Rinos are now a 52 member strong community over at TTLB. It is open to secular conservatives, neo-libertarians and little ‘l’ libertarians. It’s sort of the Vast Moderate Right Wing Conspiracy. It’s Republican, without all the crazy.

I mentioned to the Commissar that the Raging RINOs should probably have a little Carnival on occasion to show support for our secular brethren. He concurred and we agreed on the name RINO Sightings to denote that such are rare and endangered. My comical suggestions for the Carnival were probably a bit too, uhm, crude for most folks and included things like: Carnival of Godless, homo-loving heathens and The Carnival of pulling your head out of your ass. To that end, I shall host the first episode of RINO Sightings. All members are invited to shoot me one or two links (or, you know, I’ll pick them) to round up what we non-radical, right-wing nutjobs are thinking.

You can email me submissions at saysuncle at yahoo dot com. Send all submissions by Friday (6/24) and Sightings will be posted on Monday (6/27).

Stupid joke that I could not work into this post: What do you get when you cross an elephant with a Rino? Eliphino.