Believe it or not, I know a little bit about dogs. It’s true. I used to train police dogs when I was a teenager. But the Mrs. needs a second opinion, apparently. Lately, Politically Incorrect Dog has gotten older, we’re experiencing the changing of the guard wherein PID is asserting his dominance over Politically Correct Dog. Out with the old and all that.

There have been a few tussles between the two and, given the types of dogs I have, the result is predictable. A couple of weeks ago we had to take PCD to the vet because PID had torn the muscle in PCD’s leg. These fights have a few common characteristics, the primary one being that they don’t occur when I’m around. See, I am the alpha dog. All is calm and kosher because I rule the roost. However, the Mrs. often mistakes certain dominance displays as affection, such as when PCD comes and parks his ass on her without permission or when he hops up on the couch without permission. And staring at her which she interprets as looking lovingly into her eyes. And nudging her when he wants affection. Another factor is food. PCD is a chow hound. He’ll do just about anything for a treat. PCD, who has realized mostly that he’s no longer the dominant dog, tends to assert himself when food is in play.

My solution, no more treats unless they’re separated. Not allowed on furniture. Immediate corrections for nudging or sitting in laps without permission. Because, and this gets back to PCD’s growing up getting affection that way, this is interpreted by PID as a dominance display. As such, once PCD displays these behaviors, PID begins staring at PCD. Any flinch, and it’s on.

Now, don’t misunderstand me to be saying this is PCD’s fault. It’s got more to do with PID and his dominant nature. He has a tendency to be direct to both animals and people who do not (or in the case of some dogs can not) assert dominance. In other words, he (being a dog) is stating If you don’t assert your dominance, I’ll assert mine. He does this in generally non-aggressive ways, such as he follows them around, attempts to get them to play, takes food and treats, etc.

As a result of this, we pondered getting rid of one of the dogs out of fear that PID would seriously hurt PCD. We opted not to because I can’t be without PID and the Mrs. can’t part with PCD. It’s true, we each have our own dog and even the dogs seem to realize it. So, today, we’re going to a Dog Psychologist. Seriously. Actually, this person is a vet neurologist and behaviorist. I have a feeling this person will basically offer as a solution what I already know. I hope, at least, she convinced the Mrs.

In the UK where semi-automatics are pretty much regulated out of existence, gun manufacturers are getting creative. Behold, the lever action AR-15. No, really. Oh, and it’s in 30 Carbine.

The Rep has learned how to hyperlink!

You can polish a turd.

Despite my desires for the authorities to force Saddam to attend his own trial, it didn’t happen. The trial resumed without him. I suppose the authorities in Iraq don’t want to give Saddam his Abu Ghraib moment that may garner more sympathy or support?

The VPC has a scare piece on 50 caliber danger. The problem is that the image they use on the front cover is used without permission from Ponderosa Sports. The image at their site can be seen here with the note:

If you are the bottom feeder named Tom Diaz from the VPC (Violence Prevention Center), you are not authorized to use our web site photographs. Your document, http://www.vpc.org/studies/50danger.pdf is in violation of US code.

Via Subguns.

Positive Liberty’s Timothy Sandefur notes that the backlash of Kelo hasn’t accomplished much so far:

In the months after the Kelo decision was announced there was much talk of a “backlash” in the states. Since state law can provide greater protections to people than federal law does, people hoped to change state law to protect themselves from eminent domain abuse. But, as I argue in a forthcoming paper (which will be posted on SSRN shortly), the backlash so far has accomplished little.

He has a lot more.

GunLawNews has a bit on The Embarrassing Second Amendment.

Guest blogging over at No Silence Here, Glenn Reynolds notes:

THE PHOTO ON THE RIGHT shows my daughter’s homework for the night. The backpack is full, and weighs 19 pounds. I haven’t weighed the stack of books, but it’s likely that she’s carrying one-third her bodyweight there.

She also has back problems from carrying all this, and the physical therapist said that no kid should be carrying that many books. The folks at the school, however, don’t seem to care; I’ve raised it with them but they’ve been utterly dismissive.

Given that they seem to find time during the school day to have kids write D.A.R.E. essays in which they promise that alcohol will never touch their lips, I wonder why they can’t find enough class time to get all this work done during the school day?

Knox County Schools seem to be able to find time for everything except, you know, teaching. I can’t say I’m surprised that they’re losing so many people to private schools and homeschooling, but I am surprised that the folks from Knox County don’t seem to care.

Anyone else seem to notice this trend? I’m kind of scared about when Junior starts school. Not because I think she’ll have problems but because I think that I will whenever her teachers do something stupid.

The Wisconsin Senate voted 23-10 for concealed carry. On to the assembly and then the Governor. Good.

Dear Editor:

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says,
“If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?
Virginia O’Hanlon

After watching the local TeeVee news tonight I got to thinking of a modern update of this Christmas story. What would happen if Virginia asked about politics in Knoxville?

It might go something like this:

Dear Editor:

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is political machine in Knoxville. Papa says, “If you see it in The Sentinel, it’s so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a political machine in Knoxville?
Virginia O’Hanlon

Don’t hold your breath for the local paper to answer that question. Fortunately we have Internet Bloggers that will.

Tuesday Mayor Ragsdale announced his candidacy for Knox County Mayor in a meet and greet at the Foundry. Some 300 connected friends were there along with Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam. Is it just me, or was life around here better when the two Mayors did not get along? Sometimes you need to look at life through the eyes of an eight year old.

What did Mayor Ragsdale’s say his platform is? Developing downtown, bringing jobs, and protecting neighborhoods. Hold the phone Virginia; did Mayor Ragsdale say developing downtown Knoxville was a key priority? Yes he did. But isn’t there a Knoxville City Mayor to do exactly that. Yes there is. But apparently developing downtown Knoxville will work better if you add in Knox County property and tax money. Hold on, isn’t that new school in West Knox County 8 to 10 million dollars short on funding. Yes Virginia, it is. But you see in the world of politics people don’t always do what you might expect.

You see Mayor Ragsdale has never faced an opponent for the office of Mayor. It is a new way of running for office. You raise more campaign money that anyone else and you win. No election necessary. You see Virginia, Mayor Ragsdale wants to run for Governor. He has to demonstrate that he is all things to all people. Perception is everything so the politician must focus more on perception than on actually doing what they were hired to do. Mayor’s can’t take much credit for schools, that credit or blame goes to the Knox County School Board. A group the Mayor is not on great terms with.

Why doesn’t the Mayor just sell the State Street property to the City or some developer and use that money for the school? Shouldn’t the new school be more important than another “if you build it they will come” project downtown? Oh Virginia, unfortunately that is not the way politics works. You see you cannot claim credit unless you build something like Universe Knoxville, the Knoxville Convention Center, or the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. There has to be the illusion of jobs and new places for people to go and spend money. If it is downtown you score special bonus points. In order to be Governor you must build a giant downtown library or a stadium and it must be in downtown Knoxville. Since there are no sports teams left it must be a library or some other wondrous downtown project. It doesn’t really matter if people come because by then you have a new job in Nashville running the entire State of Tennessee.

But isn’t the new school more important than politics? No Virginia. Sadly it is not. In Knoxville there is nothing more important than politics.

Memphis model accused of hiring hit man to kill for cheese she mistook for cocaine

Ok, actually, it doesn’t.

. . . can I get it in Samuel L. Jackson?

The significance of the Saddam trial is that it should enforce the idea that a credible justice system is in effect in Iraq. Or at least that such a system is being founded. That is to say, not a system that is merely a puppet of the US government. That said, Saddam is really showing his ass:

Saddam Hussein shouted Tuesday that he will not return “to an unjust court” when it convenes for a fifth session the following day. As the end of the session, when the judges decided to resume the trial Wednesday, Saddam suddenly shouted: “I will not return. I will not come to an unjust court! Go to hell!”

Saddam also complained that he had no fresh clothes and had been deprived of shower and exercise facilities. “This is terrorism,” he said.

He should, of course, be forced to attend the trial. If he refuses, he should be bound and made to appear at the trial. Right now, posturing is all he has to energize any supporters he may have left. And that posturing should be taken from him, by force if need be.

Buck:

As I have already said, I have made peace with this. I do not like it but I have no real choice but to tolerate it. Privacy and the right to privacy is an illusion.

We all might as well get used to it.

Joe is having a T-Shirt slogan contest for Boomershoot. My suggestion:

Sight alignment, trigger squeeze, holy shit!

I’m also blogging at Michael Silence’s place. And I ask an important question about hyperlink grammar.

Les has a lot more on the murder of Johnia Berry, including new evidence.

Rob Zaleski is shocked that a retailer would sell a Crosman Stinger R34 (seen here) to kids:

This particular gun was called the Crosman Stinger R34 and, according to a promotional ad I found on the Internet, it’s modeled after the “legendary AR-15” assault rifle. Which, it so happens, is one of the many assault weapons that were illegal in this country until last year, when the Republican-controlled Congress allowed a 10-year ban to expire.

So why would a store carry such a gun – especially in Madison, which is having all sorts of headaches with kids bringing BB guns to school?

Actually, the AR-15 never happened to be illegal in this country even when the ban was in effect. I’m guessing kids want that for the same reason they want other realistic toys. He claims not to be an anti-gun guy but I have a feeling he is and just doesn’t know it.

The Karaoke edition!

In the ongoing saga that is Michael Fumento’s ego, comes the latest in which he supposedly addresses Tim Lambert’s claims that:

IP’s of those scrubbing Fumento’s Wikipedia entry match the IP of comments left at Tim Lambert’s blog. That IP can be seen at Wikipedia here and it is 69.143.188.141.

Tim claims further that IP address matches the comments at his blog of Tracy Spenser.

I did another post on this subject here where someone claiming to be Michael Fumento left a comment. The person who left that comment’s IP was also 69.143.188.141, which matched both the IP address that Tim Lambert posted and the IP address of the person editing Michael Fumento’s Wikipedia entry.

Fumento responds thusly:

So instead he merely claims I have posted on his website, using a false name. In blogging terminology, that’s using a “sockpuppet.” He claims he’s compared my IP address to that of the alleged sockpuppet’s and they’re the same. Problem is, the only proof is is his word and this is the word of not just anybody but of Tim Lambert. Conversely, when John Lott used his “Mary Roush” sockpuppet, numerous people were able to confirm that Roush’s and Lott’s IP address were the same. [I wrote this in error: Turns out when Lott’s IP address was correlated with Roush’s, he immediately admitted he and Roush were the same. This puts him far above Lambert, who caught red-handed admit to nothing.]

At the same time, Lambert has accused me of rewriting my own Wikipedia entry. Actually he rewrote it; I attempted to strike it. (I couldn’t, for the wonderful reason that Lambert was there first.) Why did I try to strike it? I don’t feel encyclopedia entries are the places for vendettas. It’s not appropriate in the Encyclopedia Brittanica nor is it in Wikipedia.

I’ll repeat, that IP address matches the comments left at my blog.

He then goes on a tirade accusing Lambert of using sock puppets and prior to that made reference to Tim’s Jihdadists friends. Nice. That’s the Fumento I remember. Regardless, Fumento did not mention that I confirmed the IP address left in the comments here. That means one of three things likely are happening:

1 – Tim’s accusations are correct.
2 – That someone, who also happens to live in the same town he does and happens to like defending Fumento, is impersonating Fumento. Or that someone is masking their IP.
3 – Tim is lying

Which is more believable?

Since Fumento left a comment here and never acknowledged that on his blog, the leads me to believe that either his impostor posted here or he chose not to mention it because he knew it wouldn’t lend to his story. So, Mr. Fumento, is someone who happens to live in your town (or who masks their IP to make it appear that way) impersonating you? Did you or did you not leave a comment on my blog? I think you did since you admitted that was you changing the Wikipedia entry. Now, all I need to believe you’re using sockpuppets is access to Tim Lambert’s logs showing that IP matches the Wikipedia entry.

And I should say upfront that I have never taken issue with Fumento’s work necessarily. I have taken issue with the fact he’s a prick.

Xrlq thinks Fumento is right.

Update: Tim gave me access to his WordPress account here’s a screen shot of a search for Tracy:

Note the IP. Pretty convincing to me. It is possible that someone masked their IP and did that but I find it unlikely.

Update 2: Apparently, in WP (not in WP but in MySQL) you can fiddle with the database and edit an IP address. So, no this is not absolute 100% proof that Fumento is engaging in sockpuppetry. So, it is possible that Tim and others are engaged in some sort of conspiracy to discredit Fumento.

In light of the AP lying to Barrett and repeating anti-gun falsehoods, I’d like to encourage readers to contact the AP and voice their concerns. Here’s their contact page.

This past Sunday the continuing story of the censorship of the Oak Ridge High School student newspaper the Oak Leaf played out on two local Knoxville television stations and in an editorial in the Knoxville News Sentinel. While this story has garnered nation coverage and attention this was the day where the local community finally had a chance to hear both sides of the story.

First up was WBIR Channel 10’s “Inside Tennessee” with host Robin Wilhoit, panelists Don Bosch, Dennis Francis, Susan Williams, and guests Oak Ridge High School newspaper editor Brittany Thomas, UT Journalism Professor Dr. Dwight Teeter, and Oak Ridge School Superintendent Tom Bailey.

School Superintendent Tom Bailey started off by complimenting Brittany Thomas the school’s newspaper editor. First impressions are that Bailey is educated, articulate, and genteel.

Tom Bailey starts off with, “we could have been sued” over the tattoo article. No mention of the birth control article. Bailey says the school could have been criminally liable over the tattoo article.

Dr. Dwight Teeter from UT School of Journalism says he felt the tattoo issue has no merit and would not have resulted in a court case.

Don Bosch talks about the tattoo article and expressed his opinion that there was no basis for a lawsuit and that it is a misdemeanor to put a tattoo on a minor. He implied the tattoo excuse was a red herring.

Susan Williams asked about the editorial process. Bailey jumps on this as another excuse to justify his actions. He tried to say that the process had not been followed but later we learn that is no clearly defined process. Bailey looks and sounds weak at this point.

Brittany Thomas explains that several articles have been written about birth control in the past in the school newspaper and that one of her articles on birth control had won an award. Again Bailey chimes in and compliments Thomas as he says, “I said she was a good writer”. The program has been on air for 12 minutes and this is the first mention of the article on birth control.

Dr. Teeter then scored a home run when he asked if there was a set of written guidelines or standards at the school newspaper. Bailey rumbled and rambled but finally said there was no defined policy in place. We look at “practice to understand the process”. Bailey’s fallback was “we look to the past” to see how other principles had censored, er, made decisions about the paper.

Don Bosch questions the process and says the advisor approved the articles and then 1800 copies were printed which were later confiscated.

Thomas said in her history of 4 years at the paper that articles were never submitted to the principle for approval. She said the masthead of the paper clearly states the paper is a “public forum” and the opinions contained in the paper may not be the opinions of the staff. Bailey looks very uncomfortable at this point.

Bailey states the paper is “clearly not a public forum” it is the school newspaper and also said the paper had been censored by the prior school principle Mr. Green. Bailey read from a prepared statement and gave several reasons that appeared to come from an attorney. This “public forum” definition may be played out in court. Bailey was very sensitive to this and overreacted to this phrase. This is not a man that should play “Texas Hold Em”.

Dennis Francis asked Dr. Tweeter about how the Hazelwood ruling will be affected if this Oak Ridge case goes to court. Wow. Can it be that this will be the case to confront the Supreme Court ruling Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier?

Brittany Thomas closed with saying that the newspapers lawyers will meet with the School Boards lawyers to discuss a policy that is more lenient.

Next up on WATE Channel 6’s “Tennessee This Week” with host Gene Patterson is guest panelist George Korda and the writer of the article on birth control Oak Ridge High School student Krystal Meyers.

George Korda defended Tom Bailey saying that this was an editorial judgment and that the Superintendent is the publisher of the paper and had the right to decide which articles could be printed. Korda said that the article could disturb parents of a 14-year-old child.

Gene Patterson then said to Korda, “you cannot bury your head in the sand” and that according to the statistics in the article it was clear that some 14-year-old children were having sex. Patterson said Korda was creating a paper straw man. Fortunately the host did tell Korda that their guest Krystal Meyers was the one they needed to listen to and she had a chance to speak. She said that she agreed to change the wording about the pregnancy test but refused to remove the quotes from Dr. Darling because that was the focus of the article. TTW only had ten minutes in the program and not much time was allowed for Krystal to address what had happened.

Finally Knoxville News Sentinel editor Jack McElroy shares his views with an editorial titled, “Time to fold a newspaper”. Everyone needs to read this editorial. Not because it is well written or that it offers some critical insight. You need to read it to understand this quote in context, “The safe way to run a newspaper is to write fluff, avoid controversy, support the status quo and let special interests, government and sacred cows go unchallenged. Of course, then nobody wants to read you.”

Pot, kettle, you know the story.

McElroy closes with, “Personal aside to Brittany Thomas, Oak Leaf editor in chief:

Call me. I may have some work for you.”

So to wrap up the Sunday coverage of this important issue we learn that this may be headed to court and could possibly be a challenge to the Hazelwood Supreme Court ruling. We also learn that Knoxville News Sentinel editor Jack McElroy either has a keen sense of irony or is completely clueless to the current status of his own newspaper. If there is any poetic justice someday we will see writer Krystal Meyers and editor Brittany Thomas at a local newspaper in Tennessee. I think we should all be very proud of these two young people.

According to Sitemeter, SayUncle just clicked over 1,000,000 page views. Sadly, visits are running 170K behind.

Thanks for reading.

Al Sharpton wants to star in his own sitcom. I think the last few years Al has done a fine job entertaining me.

Via Jeff, comes this:

Tracing and gathering data on stolen guns — like the handgun used in the shooting of NYPD Officer Dillon Stewart — should be easier and more public, Sen. Charles Schumer said Sunday.

Schumer also said the rest of the country should have a law, as New York does, requiring stolen guns to be reported to authorities and be available on a national database.

I don’t know that I have a problem with creating a database of stolen guns, seems like it would be a good means of getting folks their property back. However, once a database is in place, it’d probably be only a matter of time before all guns are required to be entered into the registry. More:

He [Schumer] said police can only “trace certain guns after a crime is committed” and called for traces on all reported stolen guns.

Why would they want to trace a gun before the crime is committed?

In the mornings, I listen to Hallerin Hilton Hill’s morning show mostly for traffic and news. Unfortunately, the rest of the show sucks. This morning, for example, I listened from roughly 7:25 to 7:50. During that 25 minutes, I heard the news twice, traffic twice, sports once, HHH repeat that he wanted to hear customer service horror stories about 17 times, and 4,326 commercials. Repeating himself over and over and over and over is the one consistent thing about the show. That and the commercials. Can’t fault him for the commercials though since they have to pay the bills. If you’re going to take calls, do that. Don’t repeat yourself over and over and over and over. When you repeat yourself over and over and over and over, you have no time to take calls because you’re busy repeating yourself over and over and over and over.

See how annoying repeating yourself over and over and over and over can be? Good. Now, I’m off to repeat myself over and over and over and over.

A rather dumb couple of laws:

Law enforcement officials from across Tennessee plan to push lawmakers to create tougher penalties for people who assault officers and to require pawn shop customers to be fingerprinted, Chattanooga Police Chief Steve Parks said.

Why tougher laws for assaulting an officer as opposed to just assault? And obviously all pawn shop customers are criminals, right?

Fingerprinting pawn shop customers “would be a method to better identify a person if they are trafficking stolen property,” Chief Parks said.

Rep. Chris Clem, R-Lookout Mountain, said he has reservations about both measures.

On thumbprinting pawn shop customers, he said, “I would have to be convinced that half or more customers are criminals.”

Good for Clem. I was actually in a pawn shop Saturday. I usually swing by USA Super Pawn about once a month to see if they have any good deals on guns (note: they haven’t yet). Of course, if I bought a gun I’d be fingerprinted anyway.

Due to my doubts, reader has been forwarding me various accounts of allegations that the authorities went to people’s homes who had 223 rifles to harass them err ask permission to do ballistic fingerprinting:

A CNS article where the press is there when the authorities show up.

Here’s a TFL account of it and another and another.

And here’s an article by David Kopel on the subject.

I initially doubted it had happened but, as I read more, I’m convinced it did.

Mr. Completely looks at the C-More sight, the good and bad.