Joe Huffman points to what is an English translation of the pending Iraqi constitution and notes it’s:

not a “Bill of Rights”. It’s a list of things the government must provide–such as health care. And it specifically says citizens may not own weapons except by permit.

I was perusing the draft and found that it excluded Israelis from lots of stuff, like these passages:

Any individual with another nationality (except for Israel) may obtain Iraqi nationality after a period of residency inside the borders of Iraq of not less than ten years for an Arab or twenty years for any other nationality, as long as he has good character and behavior, and has no criminal judgment against him from the Iraqi authorities during the time of his residency on the territory of the Iraqi republic.

And

An Iraqi may have more than one nationality as long as the nationality is not Israeli.

And the weapon section states:

Citizens may not own, bear, buy, or sell weapons, except by a permit issued in accordance with law.

This is not a Constitution, it’s a limit and wish-list for the people. As George Carlin supposedly said regarding the Iraqi constitution:

They keep talking about drafting a Constitution for Iraq. Why don’t we just give them ours? It was written by a lot of really smart guys, it’s worked for over 200 years and we’re not using it anymore.

Update: Der Commissar has a round up of blog reactions to the Iraqi Welfare Plan err Civilian Restrictions err Constitution.

Here’s some assurance that despite South Knox Bubba’s departure from the blogosphere that the RTB will live on. I don’t have everyone’s email address yet. Once I do, I’ll send out announcements once we finalize plans.

First, Barry reminds us that he maintains the RTB blogroll. And that he’s willing to help.

Next, Just John has established a Rocky Top Brigade website. And has agreed to be the technical arm.

I can assure you the three of us are working on getting it up and running. So don’t panic. A few things:

I don’t want membership to be political. Membership will entail the following characteristics:

1 You’re from Tennessee.

2 You have a blog.

3 You link to the RTB page.

Pretty simple, eh?

Also, Bubba has given me (anyone, really) permission to use what others thought was his copyrighted RTB material (like The Constitution, graphics, etc.).

We will try to establish a mailing list.

I envision the page to have links to RTB members and other Tennessee related program activities on the left and the main body of the page to have a sampling of posts from RTB members (similar to Bubba’s RTB Sampler).

Any suggestions/comments/volunteering are welcome in comments.

And go read Rich’s farewell to Bubba. Those two didn’t always get along but there’s respect there.

I’ve been getting some slack over my comments on John Roberts’ French fry ruling (in comments from Xrlq and from one of the Brutal Huggers). The latter notes:

The French Fry case is a really good example of a judge doing his job rather well. Roberts went out of his way to say the policy was bad. Sometimes your local government makes really stupid policies. Just because the policies are stupid doesn’t mean they violate the Constitution.

Zendo Deb on some criminal’s family who’s upset their criminal relative was shot to death:

Shooting to wound is not taught in any course I am aware of. Most classes teach shooting to “center of mass,” that is to center of the chest. Some law enforcement types are taught “2 to the chest, 1 to the head.”

First, warning shots are always illegal. Second, shooting to wound is usually illegal. After all, if you weren’t willing to kill, then the lawyers will argue you didn’t really feel as though your life was threatened.

In San Diego:

Friends say Steven McWilliams was tired. He was in pain. And he was scared of possible jail time.

The combination may be the reason the medical marijuana activist took his life Monday, they say.

He was 51.

“His health was deteriorating,” said longtime friend David Bronner. “And he was experiencing some lows. He was in pain, a lot of pain.”

Still, his death surprised Bonner and others who knew Mr. McWilliams. He was a fighter, they said, who was bold enough to smoke marijuana on the steps of San Diego City Hall to call attention to its medicinal benefits he so strongly believed in.

The fear of jail time or pain or death. Drugs are winning the war on drugs.

Ohioans for Concealed Carry note that Columbus’ recently passed ban on weapons that look like assault weapons will go to court.

Update: A lawsuit is challenging the ban:

Harmon told reporters Thursday that the injunction filed is based on the vagueness of wording of this ban and that it is unconstitutional.

Here’s a brief summary on state supreme court decisions on breed bans. I knew about the Alabama ruling but not the Ohio ruling:

The Alabama Supreme Court ruled in 2002 there is no genetic evidence that one breed of dog is more dangerous than another, based on breed alone.

The Ohio Supreme Court ruled in 2004 that the state’s pit bull ban was unconstitutional because it denies dog owners their right to due process.

Here’s an article on Denver residents’ efforts to save their dogs:

A few weeks ago, two police cars and two animal control vehicles pulled up at the home of Stef’ny Steffan looking for her beloved 4-year-old pit bull, Xena. Seven officers hauled the animal off to the city shelter, putting her on death row.

Xena became an outlaw after Denver won a court fight and reinstated one of the toughest pit-bull bans in the nation. Since May, more than 380 dogs have been impounded and at least 260 destroyed – an average of more than three a day.

Dog owners are in a panic. Some are using an underground railroad of sorts, sending their pets to live elsewhere or hiding them from authorities. City officials would not estimate how many people might be violating the ordinance.

It also has some interesting stats:

Critics of the ordinance say that a blanket ban on an entire breed is misguided that the law should instead target irresponsible owners and all dangerous dogs.

“If anyone says one dog is more likely to kill – unless there’s a study out there that I haven’t seen – that’s not based on scientific data,” said Julie Gilchrist, a doctor at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who researches dog bites.

The CDC, the American Veterinary Medical Association and the Humane Society of the United States examined 20 years of dog-bite data and concluded that pit bulls and Rottweilers caused the most deaths.

But the researchers also noted that fatal attacks represent a small proportion of dog-bite injuries and that the number of bites per breed simply seems to rise with their popularity.

James Doohan (aka Scotty) has died. He was 85.

This blanket statement has me a bit worried:

Roberts generally voted with the government in the cases he has handled on the bench.

Yay, another statist.

The Harold Ford Junior 2006 blog writes:

We want to make something 100% clear here–we are a Ford support blog. We are not going to give people who attack or oppose the Congressman a bully pulpit here. We are here as a service to the supporters of Congressman Ford, not his adversaries. Any negative comments about the Congressman or any other comments that we deem not appropriate for our blog will be deleted.

Translation: we don’t deal so well with criticism. Isn’t that what press releases are for?

Via Bjorn, this event probably marks the end of the world.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go smurf myself.

Update: Spell checker actually recognizes the term smurf, not the proper noun. Smurf it.

Jeff has the latest check on gun bias in the media.

Via Robert, ArmaLite is having a sale on M1A mags. If only I had an M1A.

Mike Hollihan has a thoughtful post on South Knox Bubba. Thomas has a round up of reaction.

Some folks have contacted me about taking the lead in matters related to the Rocky Top Brigade. My response has been to wait a while as I think (hope) South Knox Bubba will return. Even if he doesn’t return, I’ll wait a week or two out of respect for the dead blog. And Bubba, if you’re reading, hope that’s OK.

This is dumb:

Writing for a unanimous court, Judge Roberts rejected Fourth Amendment and Equal Protection Clause challenges to the arrest and detention of a twelve-year old girl for eating french fries on a Metro train.

Xrlq has a handy little chart on exactly what could change with Roberts on the court.

A Las Vegas judge ordered a company whose system allows the company to open a cellular connection to a vehicle and listen to conversations within the vehicle, a feature designed to help officials recover stolen cars to help the FBI eavesdrop on someone. The Ninth Circuit has ruled that the judge’s orders went too far in interfering with the service provided by the company.

The VPC, on 50 calibers, says . . . *yawn* do we really care what they say anymore? I love the anti-gunners plan of attack:

Plan 1: Ban all guns – problem is the sudden realization that won’t fly in America

Plan 2: Ban all hand guns – same problem as Plan 1

Plan 3: Ban cheap guns – problem is there’s always going to be a cheap gun.

Plan 4: Invent new kind of gun, give it a scary name (assault weapons) and lie about it. Try to ban it. – problem is the ban was symbolic, didn’t do anything and had a sunset provision. Also, these are expensive guns and you just tried to ban cheap ones. Everyone is on to you. Get new found motivation because you almost pulled it off. Mope about loss.

Plan 5: Every time a new gun comes out (FN FiveseveN, for example), get hysterical and try to ban it – problem is, no one cares.

Plan 5: Ban extremely powerful 50 caliber rifles by lying about their range and effectiveness; make every effort to tie them to terrorists – problem is no one can identify a crime that has been committed with one.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

In response to my question, TriggerFinger reported that Roberts voted in favor of the petition to rehear Seegars. That’s good, I think.

What’s this John G. Roberts guy’s position on guns? Just asking. It could be important.

Apparently, the big issue centering around the nomination of a Supreme Court justice is whether or not they have a vagina. Knowledge of constitutional law, work ethic, the issues be damned. Put us a chick on the court because they have vaginas. No more penises on the court!

Update: Tonight, Bush will announce the nominee. And they better not have a schlong.

Update 2: Dammit! Another tally-whacker on the court!

Update 3: Mangina it is.

Update 4: Sandra Day O’Connor thinks he’s cool but isn’t happy about his apparent lack of a vagina.

After 58 days since his last post, Governor Phil Bredesen has made another blog entry about the National Governor’s Association. No mention of shredding, TennCare or other stuff that Tennesseans might, you know, care about.

Via email (I asked since his site was down), South Knox Bubba states that he’s stopped blogging. I do hope he’s kidding or, at least, that it’s only temporary.

Update: What he said.

Update 2: Steve K. has set up the X-Blab for Bubba blab posters to regroup.

Udate 3: Another message board has been set up for Bubba Blabbers.

The Harold Ford Junior 2006 Blog seems to be making the case for Bryant by listing his voting record. This is Tennessee guys, you may want to rethink that strategery.

Update: JB notes:

Yesterday evening we received an anonymous comment with a link to the new Harold Ford Jr. for U.S. Senate 2006 blog and a post entitled “Ford Right On The Issues; Bryant No So Much.” I took a look at it last night and noticed several comments had been left calling into question the accuracy of some of what the author had written. This morning I checked back and the original post had been removed and re-posted at 7:36 a.m. with the comments option disabled. Nice.

That’s pretty lame.

Via Argghhh!, comes this interview with a former ACLU lawyer who points out:

… that being said, what they have done in the past is completely eviscerated by what they do in the present. The ACLU has become a fanatical anti-faith Taliban of American religious secularism.

Party foul on the T’Ban reference but point taken.

The Hill:

White House officials have assured select conservative leaders that they will not nominate Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to the Supreme Court to replace retiring Associate Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, according to a conservative familiar with the behind-the-scenes discussions.

Let’s hope.

Readers may remember my WASR-10. Here’s what it looked like when I first got it:

Well, I couldn’t go having a gun in post-ban configuration since there’s no longer a ban so I added an evil, black folding stock. More importantly, I added a fine rail mount from UltiMAK (thanks to Kim for the pointer). I got this model. It’s awesome. It fixes the two problems most AK mounts have because it mounts to the barrel and locks tightly. Most AK mounts mount to the receiver cover, which sucks because that thing is too loose. Or they mount to side of the receiver, which sucks because it puts the sight at an awkward location; the sight loses zero when removed; and it doesn’t maintain alignment with the barrel.

I also put a TacPoint scope on it (a detailed review of the TacPoint can be found here). I went with the TacPoint because it gets good reviews, is moderately priced (about $140 compared to an Aimpoint or EOTech which run about three bills) and is quite accurate. It holds a zero and is reportedly as accurate as other red dot optics, though not as durable nor is it as water resistant. And its battery life is significantly shorter.

Here it is after (all viced up since I’d just finished it – and, yes, I had to use the big hammer):

After I got it mounted, I grabbed the gun by the sight and shook the living hell out of it to test durability. It didn’t move or budge a bit (thank you, LocTite). I was damn impressed with the UltiMAK and heartily recommend them. I particularly like the forward position with the TacPoint because the long eye-relief allows you to keep both eyes open when taking aim. I currently have an EOTech mounted on the AR-15 (see image here) and it’s a bit further back. That’s good for the EOTech but a tubular sight that far back doesn’t feel right to me.

I need to get it to the range, sight it in and function test it. Once that’s done, it’s the new truck gun.

Gunner, in a must read post, figures he spends more time uncovering piles of dog shit than actually cleaning up the dog shit.

Does blogging lead to less activism?

TriggerFinger links to a study done by the Canadian government that concludes there is no evidence that rates of gun ownership have an influence on crime rates.

Because I get to shop here. I hear they sell gun parts too.

Update: Via Robert, more here.