The latest is up at The Strat-Sphere.

If you’re new to the AK Series, here’s part one, on general how to. And here’s part 2 on legal and compliance info. When we last left off, I was in the process of sanding and sawing off the forward pistol grip. I stripped the varnish, cut off the forward grip and sanded it down. I am sad to report the wood underneath all that varnish is hideously ugly. See:

So, what to do? Paint it of course. I went to Lowe’s and mulled my paint choices. I decided on flat black, since I love those evil black rifles that give Chuck Schumer and Diane Feinstein fits. Then, I saw it. From Rustoleum, the new American Accents Stone Collection. Cool, I can not only paint it flat black but I can texture the furniture. I gave it my best Mr. Burns Excellent and snatched some up. Here’s the first coat (more coats required):
Read the rest of this entry »

The Carnival of Cordite, Veterans Day Edition, is up.

A lot of discussion over there on getting people with FFLs in other states to adopt the guns that gun owners in San Francisco will be forced to give up. It’s no time to pull guns out, it’s time to put guns in.

Is it OK to spread misinformation about a crazy man? Seriously. The AP writes:

Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson warned residents of a rural Pennsylvania town Thursday that disaster may strike there because they “voted God out of your city” by ousting school board members who favored teaching intelligent design.

Emphasis added. However, the only quotes from Robertson I found were:

“I’d like to say to the good citizens of Dover: If there is a disaster in your area, don’t turn to God. You just rejected him from your city,” Robertson said on the Christian Broadcasting Network’s “700 Club.”

And

“God is tolerant and loving, but we can’t keep sticking our finger in his eye forever,” Robertson said. “If they have future problems in Dover, I recommend they call on Charles Darwin. Maybe he can help them.”

Typical crazy stuff from Robertson. Now, from the quotes, it doesn’t look like he said disaster may strike there. More like him saying if it does, you’re screwed.

I could be wrong, of course, as I merely searched Google news for Pat Robertson. If there’s a source that quotes him directly saying God will strike the city, let me know.

Update: And, no, this is not a defense of Robertson (who I think is insane and his comments are ludicrous) but a criticism of the AP. Some people get those things confused.

Yea, there’s a ton of tributes and flowery stuff in the blogosphere today about Veterans Day. None of that here, I’m just going to call my dad and say thanks. And he’ll probably tell me a dick joke.

Karl Malone went to Mississippi with his crew to help clean up. He had some problems:

“I wasn’t going to just write a check, and I didn’t want to go to New Orleans where all the celebrities were going (to grandstand). I wanted to go where no one was, and that’s why we went to Pascagoula.

“We took six million dollars of equipment and most of the guys from my company (Malone Properties). But when we got there, they (federal officials) told us that because we wanted to work for free, we had to go home. That we needed a government ID number or a contract to haul out debris.

“I said to them, ‘bullsh–‘, we took 30 pieces of equipment and traveled nine hours and we’re going to clean up some lots before we leave. So I told them ‘I’m getting on my truck, now try to get me off.’ I had my security guys there and they tried to stop us but they couldn’t – and we cleared 115 houses.

Helluva basketball player too.

The HitMan has posted the full emails regarding allegations that a reporter in Nashville lied about a TennCare disenrollment story. I covered it here.

What a moron.

Update: I’m sorry you’re a moron.

There, I did. Happy?

And for those who don’t get get it, see Brittney’s round up.

Mr. Completely asks:

Over the last month I’ve noticed in Sitemeter a number of visits from school districts looking at my previous post about the Hi-Point 9mm. carbine. The URL’s usually look like k12.xx.us. The xx part varies, depending on what part of the country, and which school district they are in, and there have been several different ones.

Although I’d like to think that some of the teachers and school administrators out there are starting to consider the practical and economical features of the Hi-Point, including American manufacture and inexpensive ammunition. I suspect it just isn’t so.

Do any of you out there have any information on this?

The answer is that the little bastards at Columbine used one. I imagine teachers are getting training on shootings and it spurs them to look it up.

But, most importantly, looking at your referral logs it seems people are looking for pictures of one.

Lawbreaker and mayor Gavin Newsom on the SF gun ban:

Mayor Gavin Newsom has acknowledged the measure likely wouldn’t withstand legal scrutiny, but said it had symbolic value.

I think that was the theory when San Fran was handing out gay marriage licenses. I think it must be his campaign slogan.

Tam:

What do San Francisco, Philadelphia, Nashville, Anaheim, and Portland have in common? They all seem to believe in the importance of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Free WiFi Access.

“Free”, that is, in the sense of “a free education” or “free health care”. In other words, the taxpayers take it in the shorts, and this time you can’t even pass it off as a benefit to the poor, since the bag lady under the bridge is unlikely to be using the service to update the iTunes on her laptop.

Bruce reports:

Pointing to the rising number of shootings in Boston, Mayor Thomas M. Menino is calling for a “handgun summit” in New England and raised the possibility of random police searches of cars crossing into the state to intercept illegal weapons.

That is absolutely amazing. What about that pesky fourth amendment?

In my hometown, there is a moratorium on new residential land development. The reason for this is that the city doesn’t have enough schools and approving more subdivisions would strain those schools even more. So, why is the city (my the city) paying for the Civic Arts Center to the tune of over $9M? Seems like $9M would maybe be a good down payment on, I don’t know, say a new school?

BizzyBlog has a run down of recent events. Most recently:

After a campaign focusing on rising taxes and the eminent domain controversy, New London voters have sliced the Democrats’ City Council majority from three to one.

The upstart One New London Party won two council seats, losing a third seat by only 19 votes. The new seven-member council will consist of four Democrats, one Republican, and two aldermen from One New London.

I really dig The Colbert Report. Colbert, as usual, is hysterical. The premise of the show is that Colbert parodies conservative news hosts (specifically, he’s parodying Bill O’Reilly). The sad part is that he, who has professed to identifying with Democrats in the past, is a more convincing conservative than, well, a lot of real conservatives. Last night (well, OK, the night before – Damn you, TiVo), for example, on the establishment clause he said something to the effect of it was to keep the government out of churches and not churches out of government. Classic conservative stuff and he delivered it convincingly (and, no, this is not SayUncle endorsing this view).

But many people didn’t quite get the schtick. Namely some bloggers, I’d guess. So, that same episode, Colbert did a bit to inform his audience that we was ‘playing a character’ and not to confuse the character he plays with, well, him. He prefaced it by stating some bloggers intercepted a satellite feed. Stupid bloggers.

In Blount County, the powers that be want to build this fantastic boondoggle known as the Civic Arts Center. The scam was supported last week by the city (my the city) of Maryville who agreed to waste $9M of tax payer money on this fiasco. Now, the city (not my the city) of Alcoa has decided to pony up nearly $4M. All that’s left is convincing Blount County to foot part of the bill of $11M. It looks like that will happen:

“Three unanimous votes, the college, Maryville and Alcoa have all been totally unanimous. The (Blount County Commission) budget committee passed it unanimously, even without recommendation, to the full commission for a vote,” said Carolyn Forster of Citizens for a Civic Arts Center. “Now all the (county) commissioners will have the chance to vote on it.”

If you feel the need to contact the County Commission, their number is (865) 273-5830. Make sure you ask them:

Why is our government willing to fund a project to be turned over to the local college?

The Knoxville Convention Center is a failure and their calendar of events may as well be blank. Why do you think people would come to Maryville for an event?

Also, are there plans to build convenient hotels to the center? Right now, there’s nothing particularly convenient.

Do you really believe this thing is going to bring industry into the county? Other than the jobs of staffing the place, of course.

The people selling this thing are really convinced that this will bring high tech jobs here. Seriously:

City Manager Mark Johnson said the center would be more than a cultural jewel to the county, it would help bring industry.

“I think it’s an important asset to have on your balance sheet when you’re trying to offer the community as an attractive place for high-tech research and development firms.”

According to Johnson, high tech research and development industries are the focus for the future of Blount County.

Manufacturing jobs the United States has enjoyed over the past 100 years are going to other countries with cheaper labor.

“If we don’t get our act together and capitalize on our technical ability, we’re going to fall behind other countries in the world,” he said. “We’re going through a paradigm shift. We’ve got to emphasize education and look for that niche of being able to maintain our hold on technology.”

According to Johnson, the Oak Ridge National Lab is going to make this area a focal point for high tech industry. Blount County has to be ready to participate in that industry, he said.

Yes, come to Blount County, where we have a building.

Via Ben, Chai Vang has been sentenced to life in prison. More posts on Vang are here.

The Brady Campaign has come out in support of the San Francisco gun ban:

And in San Francisco, a referendum to outlaw handguns passed by a spectacular margin with pennies spent marketing it. The Brady Campaign took no position on the ban, but the broad margin of victory on the referendum (some 58 percent supported it) speaks volumes about the desire of urban residents to do something about the gun violence plaguing American cities.

In a nutshell, Election Day 2005 was a positive one for supporters of sensible gun laws.

So, the Bradies claim to be for sensible gun laws yet they are ecstatic over a law that will lead to the confiscation of handguns, forbid purchasing ammo, and forbid transfers (i.e., purchasing) firearms is a sensible gun law? Further:

The San Francisco referendum, Sarah Brady said this morning, “sends a very loud message from American urban voters. They are saying the gun violence problem is not going to go away if we don’t do something about it. The extreme gun lobby worked very hard to try to defeat the measure, and they got trounced.”

Uhm, who’s the extremist? You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means.

Blogger HitMan alleges Nashville’s Channel 4 reporter Nancy Amons intentionally misled the public:

Did Amons make a mistake? Did her subject sell her a bill of goods? Did Amons simply misunderstand the situation?

No, sir. Multiple sources inform me that Amons was told numerous times by officials from TennCare and Human Services that this man had not been disenrolled, and she chose to run her own version of events.

In other words, Nancy Amons intentionally misled the public.

To make matters worse, the state contacted Channel 4 and demanded that they correct their erroneous report. As of the last that I heard, the station had refused to run an on-air correction because “it would look bad”; however, it did add a tepid two-line “clarification” to the end of the on-line text version of the story.

Here’s the first post and here’s the second with what he says are emails from the parties involved.

It wouldn’t surprise me but it’d be more convincing if he posted the full email headers, but that’s just me.

Via Brittney.

A bill authorizing CCW has made it out of committee.

The AP:

Congress is moving to curb some of the police powers it gave the Bush administration after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, including imposing new restrictions on the FBI’s access to private phone and financial records.

A budding House-Senate deal on the expiring USA Patriot Act includes new limits on federal law enforcement powers and rejects the Bush administration’s request to grant the FBI authority to get administrative subpoenas for wiretaps and other covert devices without a judge’s approval.

Even with the changes, however, every part of the law set to expire Dec. 31 would be reauthorized and most of those provisions would become permanent.

Via Dr. Helen, comes this:

Adolescent ownership and use of firearms is a growing concern, and results from the Rochester study suggest the concern is well founded.

By the ninth and tenth grades, more boys own illegal guns (7 percent) than own legal guns (3 percent). Of the boys who own illegal guns, about half of the whites and African-Americans and nearly 90 percent of the Hispanics carry them on a regular basis.

Figure 13 shows a very strong relationship between owning illegal guns and delinquency and drug use. Seventy-four percent of the illegal gunowners commit street crimes, 24 percent commit gun crimes, and 41 percent use drugs. Boys who own legal firearms, however, have much lower rates of delinquency and drug use and are even slightly less delinquent than nonowners of guns.

But I thought it was the availability of guns that lead to . . .

I wonder how boys owning legal guns is defined. After all, you typically have to be 18 to buy a rifle and 21 to buy a handgun. I’m not sure how, legally, a boy can own a firearm other than a parent buys it and gives it to the kid while the parent retains control of it. Still, I find it interesting.

Here’s a link to the whole thing.

I’ve not seen the Wrenn case addressed by the NRA. Is it because it involves NFA weapons?

For that matter, I’ve not seen it covered by GOA either.

RegularReader at Subguns notes the latest in the trial of Ernie Wrenn:

The government has now conceded that it IS legal to build a post sample. My guess is that when you choose which of many lies to try to make stick, that one presented the most problems.

Now for the shocker: the ATF compliance inspector testified under oath that the NFRTR is “corrupt” and inaccurate. Thank you Eric Larson. Thank you for one honest agent.

And then came this little problem: the government, meaning the poor prosecutor in this case, just figured out (with Doug’s help) that they charged Ernie on 08 maxims, and kept referring to them as 1910. Although the jury was not present the Judge seemed a little PO’d. Well, that is what you get when you believe FTB “experts”. Thank you Professor Bubba. ( That is meant as a compliment.)

The NFRTR is the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record, which is the registry of NFA firearms. The Treasury Department Inspector General has ruled in the past that the data within the NFRTR was incomplete, inaccurate, and unreliable.

No, really:

‘Once I saw what happened in Hurricane Katrina, I said every American household should have a firearm. If there’s a tremendous earthquake in San Francisco and looting, you don’t want your family protected? You don’t want a firearm in your house? You’re living in the world of Oz

Kinda funny how maintaining the status quo is viewed as signaling trouble for Bush. I guess given how the 2002 and 2004 elections were quite the ass-whippin’ for folks with Ds after their names, some would view it as a good thing. But, as Dave says:

So let me see if I understand this correctly. New Jersey and Virginia remain as before. California shows itself to be just as liberal in 2005 as in 2004. Texas proves just how conservative it really is. And San Francisco is still the liberal enclave of the West Coast.

So we’re left with the status quo. And this is a cause for Democratic glee? Talk about lowering the bar.

Brittney rounds up reactions.

The NRA is already filing suit against the San Francisco handgun ban.

Knoxville City Council approved the Redflex red lights cameras by a 6-3 vote last night. Only Steve Hall, Joe Bailey, and Joe Hultquist voted against the red light cameras. The closet thing to a poll on this is at the Knoxville News Sentinel online edition. The overwhelming majority of respondents are against the red light cameras. Michael Silence’s blog on the KNS has featured many stories on the red light cameras. Even Glen Reynolds has commented or what a poor idea this is for Knoxville.

This morning on the Lloyd Daugherty radio program on AM 1180 caller after caller expressed their disappointment, anger, and frustration with City Council. One caller described the vote on the red light cameras as government malpractice. City Councilman Steve Hall was in the studio and was asked if the red light camera contract gave Redflex the right to control the yellow light duration. Hall said that City Engineering was still in control of the yellow light duration and that Redflex could not change the yellow light timing. Hall also said that the contract with Redflex will be reviewed in one year and there is no penalty clause if the City decides to cancel the contract.

A caller asked Hall if City Engineering would increase the yellow light duration to five seconds so the Redflex red light cameras would not be so dangerous to drivers. Hall responded that he had asked City Engineering to increase the yellow light duration but they said it was too expensive to do so. Hall further said that City Engineering feels the timing of the yellow lights is correct and that there is no need to change the timing.

Later in the program a caller gave out the phone numbers for City Engineering department of Traffic Engineering. Councilman Hall was asked by the caller to bring Section Chief Mark Geldmeier and Ernie Pierce of the Traffic Signal Group to City Council for a workshop to explain why the yellow light duration should not be changed to 5 seconds in light of the vote to install the red light cameras. Then Hall said something unexpected. He said that Mark Geldmeier was the person that suggested the red light cameras to the Knoxville Police Department. When asked if the red light cameras were Geldmeier’s idea Hall responded yes.

Is there a problem here? The individual who is the decision maker for the length of the yellow light duration is the same person who came up with the idea for the red light cameras? If you feel an explanation is required then contact your City Council representative and request a workshop in City Council to explain how and why yellow light durations are determined and set. Why should there be any reluctance to explain this to the community?

The question is simple, is this about revenue or is it about safety?

Chris Rock once did a bit where the theme was Whatever happened to crazy? There was a school shooting in a surrounding county yesterday where a 15 year-old opened fire on three school administrators with a 22 caliber pistol, killing one. Local talk radio yesterday and today was filled with the typical knee-jerk reaction of why this happened. Blame the parents. Blame video games. Blame music. Blame the breakdown of family structure. And one dude actually blamed the principal that got shot. Seriously. This is Tennessee so no one blamed guns.

My thoughts: Kid was crazy. Why do we (and by we, I mean not me) feel the need to find some root cause? Not enough love from home. The kid didn’t need to attend some hippie, tree-hugging re-birthing ceremony. He was just nuts. There were crazy people before rap music, the supposed familial breakdown, and video games. Some folks are just insane.

Update: Michael has a round up. And Frank has more.

Update 2: Turns out it’s a profound and pervasive lack of respect for the value of life. Sounds like crazy to me.

Heard on the news this morning the City Council voted to approve red light cameras.