He linked you to a category. If you’re curious what I’m talking about, see here. Make your own pledge for free speech:
Any organization* that wants to run a political ad criticizing any politician in the McCain-Feingold 60-day window can do so here. Not only will I run the ad free, I’ll do a post on the ad on the front page.
Kenneth Walker, who was unarmed and laying on the ground, took two rounds from an H&K MP-5 submachine gun in the back of the head. The officer who shot him claims he tripped (if that’s the case, it’s a somber reminder to keep your booger hook off the bang switch). Chuck has past coverage of the incident here.
It’s being reported that the city of Columbus, Georgia is considering a settlement in the civil suit filed by Mr. Walker’s family. The settlement being considered is reportedly to be seven figures.
Could be something – could be nothing:
United Airlines flight 923 from London to Washington D.C. was diverted to land at Logan Airport due to a disturbance on the plane. A pilot declared a security emergency and three passengers had a confrontation with the flight crew.
And:
WRKO (680 AM) is reporting that a woman, hopefully one of those causing the disturbance, was found tied up in the back of the plane. It is also being reported that a screwdriver, matches, Vaseline, and a note mentioning Al Qaeda we recovered from the airplane.
I’m not up on terror tech but matches and vaseline?
update: More:
Federal officials are saying the diversion of flight 923 is not terrorism-related though there was concern about the flight’s security.
Well, it looks like we are gonna have a race in 2006 in Tennessee. The latest Rasmussen poll (courtesy of Chris Jackson) shows that Ford has cut his poll deficit by half against Bob Corker.
It’s now 48% to 42%. It was 49% to 37%. With two dropouts, Ford is sucking slightly less.
Bitter notes that Sandy Abrams has quietly resigned from the NRA’s Board of Directors.
crebralfix has the dope:
No matter what firearm you choose, a good belt, holster, and magazine holder are essential.
A good belt will not only support your firearm, it will help prevent back problems. It will reduce fatigue and extend the time you can wear the gun each day.
Past post on Jenny Price here.
Someone else wrote her a letter in Another reporter calls for the banning of weapons of those who didn’t do the shooting.
And here’s the keepandbeararms.com thread she referenced.
Radley notes a pretty messed up story:
Henry County police are investigating a home invasion in Stockbridge that involved two men posing as SWAT team officers.
Police say the men entered the home about 1 a-m yesterday pointing handguns and wearing shirts that read “S-W-A-T.”
Police spokesman Lieutenant Jason Bolton says a man and woman in the home heard the voices of the men. He says the suspects claimed to be members of the Henry County Police SWAT team.
Radley then asks: What do you do?
This is the part where my crazy-ass, libertarian side kicks in. If armed men enter my home uninvited, I’ll start shooting and let the legalities be worked out later. You say: But Uncle, you run the risk of getting into a shoot-out with the police. Yes, I do. But my home is my castle. I have a line in the sand and it’s my front door. I’m a law-abiding guy and the SWAT teams won’t be coming for me. If someone comes through the door, I assume they’re criminals. If it turns out it is the police, they’ve made a terrible mistake. And they should have knocked.
That said, these men were allowed in after identifying themselves, which makes it more troubling. The woman involved was smart and called the police. Probably the best thing you can do is dial 911. Reminds me of a few years back when there were some guys who had police lights on their car. They weren’t cops. They’d pull people over and rob them. I recall they also raped some girl. My wife asked what she should do if she sees blue lights. I said to call 911 on the cell phone and verify that it was a policeman behind you. And pull over some place with lights that is crowded.
Michael’s Universal Law of Dangerous People, to wit, any person who has to tell you he or she is dangerous isn’t. If that person tells you he or she is dangerous 3 or more times, Alf the Wonder Beagle can take ’em.
Via marc.
Tam:
If they “hate our freedom” so much, Georgie, then why are we doing everything we can to help them kill it?
Actually, there’s a lot more there. Consider the whole post a quote of the day.
Over at Volunteer Voters, they’re having a poll on Who is the most influential political blogger in the state of Tennessee?
I objected to the fact that plenty of as-influential-to-some-of-those-listed bloggers weren’t mentioned there, like Lean Left, Alphie, Sensing, Gene Patterson, Bob Krumm, Blake Wylie, Les, and I’m sure more that I can’t remember (here’s a list of Tennessee bloggers, btw)
In protest, I cast my vote for egalia, because nobody would fucking believe that.
Glenn Reynolds really throws the poll out of whack as he simply beats every other blog in the state. And the blogs aren’t remotely comparable in terms of what they deal with. Some blogs deal with local/state issues. Others international issues. Etc.
There simply is no good comparison.
It has reached the point of comedy, this racism thing.
In the beginning, some DC politico got into trouble for using the word niggardly. Turns out, some ignorant twits just needed to buy a damn dictionary as it’s merely a synonym for stingy. Then, there was the time where some school official used the term yard-apes, and everyone called her a racist. Yard-ape, they said, was a derogatory term for black people. Well, it’s also a derogatory term used for children, which was her intent. Then I recall the time when someone asked if the phrase That’s Mighty White of You is racist. turns out, one definition of white is Honourable; square-dealing.
Now, comes the latest. It seems that George Allen called some Indian fellow a Macaca. I didn’t know what that was either. Turns out it’s a species of monkey. Kevin tells us:
Macaca, in case you did not know, is an old and well worn racial slur
Trouble is, when you hit that link, it says:
Macaque
(Belgium & France) a Negro (originally) or a person of North-African origin (more recently); derived from macaque monkeys
So, it 1) is spelled differently; 2) is slang in other countries; and 3) doesn’t reference Indians. The cool part, though, comes from the WAPO article which says:
Asked what macaca means, Mukherjee said: “What it means, I don’t know. But it’s going to cause him some grief.”
Muhkerjee called the comments hurtful but doesn’t have any idea what it means. Ah, feigned ignorant outrage. My favorite. Idiot.
Meanwhile, the Allen camp says it was a reference to Mohawk because this guy apparently has a mullet or some such.
Keep it moving people, nothing more to see here. Well, except partisan political hackery.
Update: In comments, kevin says:
First, the original article has the phonetic spelling. The phonetic spelling that is a common mispronounciation among racists.
And the racist certinaly seme to now what the word means:Here
And Allen speaks French and his mom is a French colonial from tunisia, where tword is a racist slur along the lines of n*gger.Any more excuses?
You be the judge.
Update 2: AC has video.
A source of mine wants to know who the five most influential political bloggers in the state are. Put your responses in comments.
Kind of a tough one. After all, define influential? Do you mean influential in state politics? Influential in terms of readership? Influential in, err, any thing else?
When it comes to state politics, probably Bill Hobbs. He’s widely read by people that make decisions. Just ask him, he’ll tell you that.
In terms of getting some major coverage? Instapundit, hands down. He can bring you lots of coverage and expose you to many, many people. I’m convinced to this day that the reason the ATF decided to pay me a visit after my friend was arrested is due to Instapundit’s link, which drew a ton of attention to it.
Most influential Knox County politics blog? Knoxviews.
Most influential media blog is probably Nashville is Talking. Seriously, the folks at WKRN are doing some good stuff with blogs. Good place to go to see what Tennessee blogs are yammering on and on about.
Most influential blog for those with a penchant for guns, politically incorrect dogs, and general smarminess. Me! But that’s a very narrowly defined group which isn’t all that influential.
The various shill blogs are influential at getting supporters to step up and getting the panties of their opposition in a bunch.
There are a ton of good Tennessee blogs out there but most have little influence, including this one. We bloggers tend to influence, err, other bloggers.
Last week, Junior graduated to the toddler bed after trying to climb out of her crib. Now, at night, she’s not railed in. This worked well for about, oh, three days. Then she decided she’d sneak into our bed in the middle of the night and tell us we needed to wake up. And, there was the issue that we had to shut the dog door at night for fear she’d wonder out. Then, genius idea: I turned her door knob around so that it locks from the outside, which keeps her locked in her room.
Just thought I’d pass that on.
Update: Advice from Jay in comments
IMPORTANT SAFETY TIP: Leave one of the pin-key thingies somewhere in the room. Otherwise Junior WILL lock the door with you in her room at least once, and you’ll have to climb out the window and shinny down the farmer’s porch.
Seriously, these are the folks that make the poll? Giuliani, McCain and Romney can blow it out their ass. Frist has doomed himself. Allen is sort of OK. The best looking candidate is the Newtster? Egad.
A while back, the UK banned handguns. Handgun crime went up 40%, which isn’t supposed to happen. Now, the solution is banning swords:
Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson announced laws to ban swords unless sold for legitimate reasons.
Shops selling swords will need a licence, as will businesses dealing with non-domestic knives and other bladed weapons such as machetes.
The measures are the latest steps from the Scottish Executive to curb the problem of knife crime.
Didn’t work the first time so we have to do it more and harder.
Check out the Akins Accelerator. It is a stock/spring system for a Ruger 10/22 that offers a rate of fire of 650 RPM. It’s completely legal (except in Cali and Minnesota) as it is not a machine gun. Video here. A bit pricey at about $1,000 but much cheaper than than a pre-86 registered Ruger 10/22 that comes in at about $10K. Check it:
Update: youtube seems to have gone poof. Video may be up later or you can get it here.
At airport security checkpoints in Knoxville, Tenn. this summer, scores of departing passengers were chosen to step behind a curtain, sit in a metallic oval booth and don headphones.
With one hand inserted into a sensor that monitors physical responses, the travelers used the other hand to answer questions on a touch screen about their plans. A machine measured biometric responses — blood pressure, pulse and sweat levels — that then were analyzed by software. The idea was to ferret out U.S. officials who were carrying out carefully constructed but make-believe terrorist missions.
I think that gets a point or two on the The Libertarian Scale of Things to Panic About. Actually, a point or two on anyone’s scale of things to panic about.
I was curious about this issue concerning the proposed and unwanted Knox County 370-acre industrial park at Midway Road and Thorn Grove Pike. I did not understand what this was all about until I read Sandra Clark’s article in the Halls Shopper. Even WBIR and the Knoxville News Sentinel have coverage. The big question, why is this being run through the system so fast? Why is the price of this land $ 29,000 per acre? Riddled with sinkholes and having no sewer or water connections that is very expensive land for East Knox County.
Chamber CEO Mike Edwards on WBIR-TV, “Sometimes you have to do what’s best for the entire community.” Okay. I guess that explains it. Business as usual.
Sandra Clark writes, “We’ve had too many white elephants from The Development Corporation – the Farmers’ Market; the Rifle Range Road industrial park, now a bird sanctuary; the Coster Shop property.”
TDC really needs to be investigated. There needs to be some guidelines on the extent of TDC’s power. The idea to spend 30 plus million dollars on an undefined industrial park that has no customers is foolish in a time when the Knox County budget is bursting at the seams. Knox County had a 500 million dollar budget when Mayor Ragsdale took office. Today’s Knox County budget is 575 million dollars. What will next years budget be? We are watching the “Don Sunquist spend happy never worry about tomorrow type of politics”. Spending is out of control in this administration.
How many times must we go through the “If you build it they will come” scam?
The new Hardin Valley High School is being nickeled and dimed to death while Knox County has already spent 5 million dollars to create jobs in Blount County with the Knox County investment in the Blount County Business Park. Now in less than 8 weeks the Ragsdale administration instructs TDC to spend another 30 million dollars? When does this spending orgy end?
The idea that low paying jobs are more important than educating children shows how screwed up the priorities of Mayor Ragsdale’s administration are. This is all so the Mayor can claim credit for creating new jobs and run for Governor.
Can Knox County afford Mayor Ragsdale’s gubernatorial ambitions?
Better than a LULA.
After range day, comes time to learn our numbers. We count by nines. We also don’t stop at 10 like most toddlers. We go to 32. Junior on how to load a 9mm AR magazine:
Step 1: secure magazine and get your ammo ready:
Step 2: With mag firmly secured, grab a round from your Winchester White box:
Step 3: Insert round (use of feet to secure magazine optional):
Step 4: Repeat 31 more times.
Via David and Jeff, comes this bit about some anti-gun person named Jenny Price claiming she was targeted by gun nuts. Some background is that her brother and his fiance were killed by the fiance’s mother. Now, she advocates a total ban on handguns. Anyhoo, she writes:
Targeted by Gun Nuts
After she wrote a gun-control op-ed, the writer got threats and worse: a blogosphere hit job on her murdered brother.
…
I Googled my article. And so began my strange, weeklong trip through chat rooms on such pro-gun websites as keepandbeararms.com freerepublic.com, packing.org and rightnation.us.
I don’t think those are blogs. Those are message boards. Not sure what rightnation is. More:
I was not surprised by the insults directed at me. I’m familiar with the name-calling in gun control debates: “stupid,” “beyond stupid,” “liar,” “criminal-coddling leftist scumbag,” “Los Angeles coward.”
OK, here’s a clue, one of those insults is not like the other. Most are just insults. But liar sticks. And here’s why. In your piece, you wrote (and I addressed it here):
Of the 12,000 guns used to kill people every year, 160 are used in legitimate self-defense. Guns in the home are used seven times more often for murder than for self-defense.
The first sentence consists of weasel words as, what is obviously not included, are self-defense uses wherein no one is killed. The second sentence is a blatant fabrication. Her hysterical piece on banning handguns is just that. She’s close to a victim of gun violence and feels the need to do something, even if it is the wrong thing. Policies should not be based on the factually inaccurate and misguided rantings of those who have suffered a tragedy.
She then notes that some folks questioned whether her tale of tragedy was true:
But objections to my account of my brother’s murder left me speechless. There were two sorts of challenges.
First, many chat-room members declared that the killing had to have been justified and was most likely an act of self-defense.
One participant, “armymarinedad,” wrote: “I would submit it was a liberal mind-set.” Liberals, many others agreed, are mean to their parents — mean enough to warrant homicide. “One can’t help wondering,” went one response to armymarinedad, “what the mother had done in a previous life to deserve … a Liberal for a daughter.”
The second challenge was that I had made up the story of my brother’s murder. “Law-abiding gun owners simply do not commit crimes,” “Gunslinger” posted — logic hard to refute. But like David’s killer, thousands of law-abiding citizens annually become criminals when they pick up a firearm and shoot other people.
“Chances are very good,” wrote “Plutarch” on freerepublic.com, “that her brother, if she has one, is alive and well.”
Plutarch and his freerepublic fellows Googled my story about David — and were encouraged when they came up empty because they were certain that “this remarkable murder” would have received massive media attention.
“I love to catch them [liberals] lying!” declared “mad_as_he$$.”
Now, look. If you wish to challenge Ms. Price on the merits of her argument, please do. But this witch hunt to find some dirt on her or her family is uncalled for. Period. It is disgusting.
I did a search for her name and found little. Then I searched for “Jenny Price” handgun ban and found a bunch of blog entries by bloggers I know and read. I cannot find (after searching) the bits she refers too. I searched the KABA archives as well. I don’t venture over to freerepublic, so I don’t know.
Still, it’s another lie as none of the sites she lists are blogs. The blogosphere did not do a hit. Angry, hateful people on message boards did. Try perusing some anti-gun boards some time.
She closes with:
I can cite statistics, and I can tell you why the right to carry a 9-millimeter semiautomatic handgun with a 10-shot clip is not guaranteed by the 2nd Amendment. .
No, you can’t.
But the paranoia and bone-chilling hatred that spew from such sites as packing.org and freerepublic.com make for an equally — and unusually — effective argument for a ban on handguns
Pot to kettle. Come in. Over.
Now, Jenny Price, try addressing the reasoned responses to your tripe, if you have it in you.
First, we saw it here:
The proposed changes come at a time when the FBI is reporting a rise in violent crime, especially in mid-size cities. Police are beginning to tie newly legalized assault weapons with increased gang violence. (When Congress refused to renew the ban on assault rifles two years ago, who did it think would be the market for AK-47s, Uzis and Tec-9 pistols — the Rotary Club?)
It was a lie then. My sooper seekrit sources told me that she claims that some police told here that. Not exactly a legitimate tie to an increase in gang violence. And now:
Authorities said they have also noticed a spike in the number of high powered weapons on the street since the ban on assault weapons was lifted in 2004.
Another lie. A weapon that was banned under the AWB is no more powerful than anything else. The ban only affected the aesthetic features of the weapons. They are not high powered.
The American Dog Owners Association (ADOA) and two of its members, Natalie Wells and Mia Rodriguez, who reside in Englewood, New Jersey, were granted an interlocutory judgment against the City Of Englewood in New Jersey Superior Court this week in the challenge to overturn the city’s illegal breed specific ordinance, Docket No. BER-L-5285-06. Judge Jonathan Harris found that the city’s aggressive dog ordinance, which defined specific breeds of dogs as dangerous, was a clear and direct violation of state law, which explicitly prohibits breed discrimination. The American Dog Owners Association, the country’s largest independent dog owner’s organization, had asserted that the City of Englewood, New Jersey failed to provide its residents equal protection under the law by denying the residents’ applications to license their dogs and has subjected them to harassment.
“Breed discrimination is illegal in New Jersey, and now all good dog owners with good dogs in Englewood can breath a sigh of relief”, said Maureen Hill-Hauch, ADOA’s Executive Director. She noted that New Jersey’s Vicious and Potentially Dangerous Dog Act is one of the strongest dangerous dog laws in the country. “The City of Englewood has a duty to protect the public health and safety of all of its citizens, as well as protect the rights of responsible dog owners, regardless of breed. We’re so pleased that the court will require the City of Englewood to comply with state law”.
In a colossally stupid move, the NRA endorsed someone early just because they have an R after their name. Bitter says:
And if Smith wins, NRA is going to throw him under the bus for the Republican just because the guy has an R following his name. Way to go NRA. Show the moderate Dems that you’ll abandon them at the first opportunity and that you really are just a tool for the Republican party. That’s just the kind of message we want going into the next few years when Republicans will probably face some significant losses.
For you. In Memphis:
On July 29, Nicks graduated from skeet to hitting some of the same firing range targets that FBI agents use. Nicks was among 50 participants in the FBI Citizens’ Academy firearms training held in Memphis at the Shelby County Sheriff’s Range.
The academy is designed to teach business, civic and religious leaders some of the techniques and tools that FBI agents use to solve crimes. One of the goals of the program is to give residents a better understanding of how the FBI works.Over five weeks, participants attend meetings held at their local FBI office and learn about everything from the way the FBI sets up jurisdictions to the procedures involved in collecting and preserving evidence.
“I’ve always been interested in learning about the FBI and what they do,” Nicks said.
One of the most anticipated sessions of the academy is the firearms training, said My Harrison, special agent in charge of the Memphis Field Office of the FBI.
Remember, I do this to entertain me, not you.
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