The day is shaping up to be pretty nice. Me, Junior, and her Radio Flyer Wagon are heading to the zoo. Later, you crazy kids.

Publicola asks for help:

Which to buy; an SKS or an AK-47. & of the victor, which make & model with which features would be the best bang for the buck?

My response is that the SKS is more accurate but the AK is more everything else. That’s just my opinion, though. However, I would snatch up an SKS-D in a heartbeat.

Reader beerslurpy comments:

Oh my god I cant beleive how this crap has spread everywhere. THIS BILL DOES NOT DO WHAT YOU SAY IT DOES. You have all been deceived.

If you analyze the text of the bill (which I did on thehighroad.org legal and politics section) you will see that this is basically a bill exempting federal security contractors (blackwater etc) from most of the NFA regulations including the 86 ban. Everything else is just recodification of things that are already law. This will CHANGE NOTHING AT ALL FOR US. Every single one of the “reforms” was already implemented earlier in appropriations bills. The huge change which no one mentions is the fact that the government can now equip and use mercenaries inside the US without obeying federal or state gun control laws. This is huge.

HR5005 IS A VERY BAD BILL. Please stop promoting it. Ask for real reform or nothing.

I concur on real reform being needed but don’t really see why this bill is bad, per se. Anyone?

It’s true. You see, according to Kevin, when it comes to things that are all sciency ‘n’ shit, the scientists hold a vote and whoever gets the most votes wins the game at determining what things are scientific fact vs. what is scientific theory. As Stormy said in comments:

Contrary to common belief, science is not the process of gathering a hundred experts in a room and having them vote on what they think the truth is.

See, after they have that vote, a point is no longer debatable. And if you, being the guy who vaguely remembers something about the scientific method from the eighth grade, point out that consensus does not equal fact, then you are no better than a person who believes that the Earth is flat nor are you better than a person who denies the holocaust happened. Hell, while I’m at it, I also believe that my truck is powered by two hamsters and a rubber band; that gnomes are stealing my odd socks; and that Chimpy McHitlerburton’s daddy planted an Uncle Tom Supreme Court Justice in 1991 as part of an elaborate plot to steal the election in 2000 that they knew was coming nine years in advance!

You see, yours truly touched upon the sacred cow of Bushitler hating: Global warming. While I acknowledged that global warming is real (the Earth’s temperature has gone up between 0.4 and 0.8 degrees Celsius in the last 100 or so years), I take issue with the extent to which human activity has attributed to that. And I point out that there is no scientific fact established that human influence has affected global warming significantly. And, in a bit of dramatic irony so hot that it will surely raise the temperature of the earth another 0.01 degree centigrade or two, we’re debating it which makes it debatable.

Yes, I know, those coal-fired steam plants at TVA do more damage to the Earth than every SUV in the state; that mother nature can just decide that there will be an ice age on, say, Thursday; and that the Earth’s temperature has only really stabilized in the last few tens of thousands of years, which is insignificant when compared to the age of the planet; but I’m clearly a Flat Earther. And despite that last comment, I also think that Scientologists have been watching our planet since it’s creation, which was 6,000 years ago, by God.

But it’s not that I think humans have no effect on the Earth’s temperature. Rather, it’s the fact that there are so many other factors that play a part in the equation. The Earth is complex, as is weather. Whether or not humans are some sort of primary cause is entirely debatable as there are many natural things that affect the Earth. We do have ice ages, you know, but (thankfully) the industrial revolution happened shortly after our last one and warmed the earth up.

And, yes, I’m fully aware of the general asininity of this post of equating various ridiculous things with other things but that’s what my AmeriKKKan Rethuglican overlords tell me to do. That was rather the point, actually. And, yes, there is validity to scientific theory but it is not the same sense of absoluteness associated with verifiable scientific fact. When you proclaim that something is not debatable, you’ve basically admitted that there’s no convincing you otherwise. Then, if you’re Kevin, you point out that same shortcoming (whether it exists or not) in others because you’re not capable of admitting that something may be debatable after all.

Update: And Jesus and Santa Claus teamed up once to do battle with Dinosaurs and, subsequently, saved humanity.

The myspace kid who posed with guns (mentioned here) has been convicted even though he has committed no crime:

An Evergreen high school student who posted Internet photos of himself posing with guns was convicted Tuesday on a charge of possession of a handgun by a juvenile.

The conviction came despite his parents’ testimony that they gave him permission to handle guns in their home without their supervision.

Colorado law prohibits possession of a handgun by a juvenile, but permits parents to give them permission to possess guns in their homes, even without supervision.

You got that? No crime but scary images means you’re guilty in Colorado. All it took was calling forth images of Columbine:

“This is a very difficult case,” defense attorney Barrett Weisz said in his closing argument after a trial that began Friday.

“We have pictures that raise images of the Columbine massacre. But if we set the specter of Columbine aside,” he argued, the boy should be acquitted and sent home.

This case is not difficult. The kid broke no law and this case is black and fucking white. I don’t know how the juvenile system works in Colorado but here in TN, it’s pretty much the judge’s call when it comes to convictions. It seems it’s similar in Colorado:

But Jefferson County District Judge Brian Boatright said that permission had limits.

“That doesn’t mean juveniles could run around the house and do whatever he wanted with the gun,” Boatright said, noting that the father testified that the boys were not allowed to load or fire the weapons unless he was present.

Sorry, Boatright, but you need get treated for rectal-cranial inversion.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’ve seen the pics and the kid is pretty screwed up. So, send him to counseling instead of convicting him of a non-crime.

Careful what you pick up:

Part of a teacher’s hand was blown off when a 40 mm round the instructor used as a paperweight on his desk exploded in his classroom.

Robert Colla struck the round with an object Monday afternoon while teaching 20 to 25 students at the Ventura Adult Education Center on Valentine Road.

[snip]

Colla found the 40 mm round while hunting years ago, Huston said. He used it as a paperweight and “obviously he didn’t think the round was live,” Huston said.

Generally, it’s a good idea to leave munitions where you find them.

Update: Head says he should be arrested for illegal possession of a destructive device at a school.

Looks like some good came from the ATF hearings:

Subcommittee Chairman Howard Coble (R-NC) and ranking member Bobby Scott (D-VA) agreed on the need to focus BATFE’s efforts on enforcing current laws against serious criminals, while not pursuing petty violations or undermining civil liberties. To that end, the “Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives Modernization and Reform Act of 2006” will soon be introduced. This bipartisan bill will update the legal standards for disciplining violations by FFLs. It also calls for a review of BATFE’s enforcement practices, and clarifies BATFE’s responsibilities to keep the Bureau focused on its core mission.

Good!

Gun activism by the numbers:

Contributions to Political Campaigns from Anti-Gunners, 1990-2006 (source):
$1,692,246

Contributions to Political Campaigns from Pro-Gunners, 1990-2006 (source)
$18,036,026

This is a post to gauge (heh!) interest in a local blogger/reader/whoever else shoot. I’ve been trying to coordinate the event with Tam (and by coordinate, I mean I mentioned it to her once and she said she’d check on prices) where a group of us get access to Coal Creek Armory’s indoor range after hours for some blasting. If you’re local or within driving distance, leave a comment if you’re interested. I’d like to get a decent count of potential participants before booking a space. It will probably be a Sunday evening.

Newbies, old-pros, gun-fearing-wussies, ATF agents, reporters, hoplophobes, gun nuts, and people of all stripes are welcome too. You might learn something.

We’ve had these in the past (a few times) and they are great fun.

I’m also trying to coordinate one at an outdoor range to give folks a chance to shoot some evil black rifles, though there will be an evil black rifle in 9mm at the indoor range. If anyone has a suggestion on a place that is unsupervised (sorry, nothing turns a newbie off like a range Nazi), let me know.

I mentioned a deal on them from Harbor Freight on Electronic Hearing Protection. Mine arrived yesterday. No opportunity to take them to the range yet but I wore them around the house a bit yesterday. They amplify soft sounds. For example, I can hear mouse clicks and keyboard strokes on my quiet keyboard and if there are no other sounds, I can hear Junior sawing toothpicks in the background. And they block out loud sounds, the only one I tried was loud hand-clapping. And it blocked that out completely. The Mrs. liked them too.

Only problem was my set didn’t come with instructions so I had to Google up a set to figure out how to put batteries in them. You need to insert a nickel into the slots on the bottom and twist.

My initial impression is they are well worth the $20. I’ll have another report after I get them to the range.

I mentioned our inter-dog aggression problems in the past (here and here). What I haven’t told you is we got rid of Politically Correct Dog (PCD). We still have Politically Incorrect Dog (PID). It’s not as bad as it sounds. A while back, the in-laws’ lost their dog due to health problems. They asked if they could borrow PCD for a week or so to help scare off squirrels in their bird feeder and because they’ve always liked PCD. Also, they’d been looking for another dog and hadn’t had much luck. Basically, he went there and never really came back. No big deal, really. He was just 3 miles up the street and we knew he was taken care of.

Last week, the in-laws went out of town and asked that we watch PCD while they were gone. So, Junior is swinging on the play set and I’m pushing her. The dogs are behind me and playing a bit of tug and chase. I wasn’t watching them like I should have been but was focused on swinging my little girl. Then, I hear the sound of them fighting. I go and break it up by grabbing each dog’s collar and pulling them apart. When I get it broken up, PID looks like he’s been beaten half to death. He’s got blood all over him and is limping. I check him out and he otherwise looks fine. Then, I find the problem. I look at PCD and his lip is swollen. I take a closer look and realize his front left canine tooth is sticking directly to the side. He had bled all over PID. Well, crap. Call up the vet and head that way.

Get to the vet, she tells me they’ll have to put him under and extract the tooth. She seems mostly unconcerned about it. I tell her to go ahead and ask if, while he’s under, they could trim his nails while they’re at it. A couple hours’ later, they call. They tell me his other canine tooth is gone as well. I, finding it odd that he’d lose two teeth, ask if he’s having gum or tooth troubles that would have lead to that. She says both were done today and the dogs probably bit each other’s mouths at the same time.

Now, of course, the in-laws are upset with PID because, well, he looks a certain way. Our dog aggression troubles pre-date PID’s existence. PCD has a long history of dog aggression with random dogs he’s been in contact with. Unfortunately for him, PID don’t play like that. PID fights back and, frankly, at eight years old, PCD isn’t exactly a spring chicken in his doggie dominance prime. It’s a hard lesson and maybe he learned it this time while he’s eating his soft canned dog food until his mouth heals.

If you’re not reading Kleinheider’s new blog, Volunteer Voters, you should be. Kleinheider on DeLay stepping down:

Republicans are getting closer and closer to the flipside of that national wave that brought them to power in 1994.

A disasterous (sic) war, deficits, and the rank corruption of dirtycons like Delay could spark a backlash bringing Democrats more seats than they could’ve dreamed in ’06.

Kleinheider on modern Republican conservatism:

The President is indeed the face of Modern Republicanism and Conservatism. The Republican Party will be paying the price for this for many years to come. A failed, elective, preemptive war, unchecked immigration and exploding deficits. This is now the face of conservatism. Almost nothing Bush stands for has been historically called conservatism. It is now though. That is the perception.

Via David Hardy, here’s a comprehensive summary of supreme court gun cases.

Anyone in the gun community knows that Bloomberg has an anti-gun bug up his ass lately. But watch this bit of spin from the NYT:

In His War on Illegal Guns, Bloomberg Is Facing Uphill

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s war against the gun industry went into overdrive last week, with an appearance on Capitol Hill on Tuesday and a speech two days later, at a fund-raising dinner for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, in which he assailed illegal guns as “scourges to our society.” And his campaign will only intensify in the next few months, as Mr. Bloomberg intends to announce the city’s first lawsuits against rogue gun dealers and to press Albany to toughen the penalties for criminal gun possession.

Wait a moment. We start off with a war on illegal guns and that becomes a war against the gun industry. See, because in the NYT and Bloomberg’s little fantasy world, those are the same things even tough every where else, they are not.

The latest is up at Right Thoughts.

I was unaware that the folks at ar15.com tracked ammo prices so you don’t have to. Check it out. Arfcom, is there anything it can’t do?

It looks as though one of the functions of science is to keep people from enjoying themselves. The latest:

A compound formed when meat is charred at high temperatures — as in barbecue — encourages the growth of prostate cancer in rats, researchers reported on Sunday.

Their study, presented at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, may help explain the link between eating meat and a higher risk of prostate cancer.

It also fits in with other studies suggesting that cooking meat until it chars might cause cancer.

Seen at Pete’s, seems the Arizona meth law that required pharmacies to get ID and log purchasers got a hit. The police noticed one name that kept showing up and they went to bust this meth operation. But:

Instead, they found a big family that had been racked by the flu.

The members of this family weren’t stocking up on pseudoephedrine. They were buying cold medicine.

“The way the log reads, the amount purchased can be deceiving,” Sherrard says. “All we see is that the mother’s name appeared four or five times — what it doesn’t tell you is that she’s buying Children’s Tylenol.”

(And if mom had wanted to make meth, five boxes of Children’s Tylenol was hardly going to do the trick.)

Needless to say, Sherrard says dryly, “we closed that case.”

The case should have never been opened.

Michael Bane has more from the NRA on the ATF’s treatment of gunsmiths. Seems the ATF is not consistently applying the term manufacturing.

Due to the daylight savings change, Tam got a late start. I one time had an employee who called and said they were running late because of daylight savings time. I guess they thought I was dumb or they were just dumb. See, this particular incident happened just after Fall Back. I told them that if that was the case, they’d actually have come in early.

Took El Nino to the range again last week and put another 300 rounds through it. No problems at all. Ran perfectly and accurately. Excellent. Money well-spent on an indoor range gun. Finally had some time to take it down for a cleaning. I’m not sure if it’s the 9mm blowback design or the Wal-Mart special Winchester White Box Ammo but I have never seen a gun with innards so dirty. There were these little clumps of a gritty powder all over the fire control group, bolt and inside of the lower receiver. Took like 30 Q-Tips to clean it up. Anyone have an idea why it’s so dirty?

David Kopel provides a comprehensive summary of concealed carry laws and where such laws are heading in this country. He also says Hurray for Jim and Sarah Brady. Of course, I think they’re just lying.

Seen at Bitter’s:

As of Thursday, 76,926 bills have been introduced in 2006. 11,048 have been enacted.

11K laws in three months?

Joel is blogging at Xrlq’s and Xrlq is blogging at Patterico’s.

Via Carl S., comes this:

The Army said on Friday U.S. soldiers in Iraq and elsewhere can use only body armor provided by the Pentagon even though some have bought their own because they felt what the military provided was insufficient.

Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Sorenson, the Army’s deputy chief for acquisition, acknowledged during a Pentagon briefing there were shortfalls in body armor earlier in the 3-year-old Iraq war, but said U.S. soldiers currently deployed have all the military-issued armor they need.

The Army, which provides most of the U.S. ground troops fighting in Iraq, released a directive dated March 17 prohibiting the use of commercial body armor. It specifically mentioned a type called “Dragon Skin,” made by Pinnacle Armor, based in Fresno, California.

The document contained a warning that “death or serious injury to soldiers … will occur” if the prohibition is not followed.

Sorenson said soldiers who continue to use body armor not issued to them by the Army face possible disciplinary action.

If there are concerns over a specific type of armor and its safety, I have no problem with that. However, banning all use of personally obtained body armor seems dangerous and clearly doesn’t have the best interests of our troops in mind.

Looks like AC‘s new gig is up and running with a test post.

Come back when the weather sucks. Today’s agenda is good food (Uncle’s BBQ Ribs, grilled sweet taters, and corn on the cob), some bourbon, some good friends, and a few yard apes playing in the back yard. You’re dismissed.

That rifle on the wall of the labourer’s cottage or working class flat is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays there. — GEORGE ORWELL