The United States Postal Service has instructions on how to ship a hippopotamus.

Letter to the editor:

I would also like to comment on the lack of mention on the breeds of dogs that fatally killed this gentleman. The dogs were an American bulldog, Johnson bulldog, Border collie, and a Neapolitan mastiff. I find it interesting that when a pit bull bites someone, the breed is the headline. When it’s other breeds, they aren’t mentioned. This story is a perfect example of why breed-specific legislation is flawed. It would not have covered these breeds. I feel for the family members of the gentleman who was killed by these dogs; house arrest is not enough.

The American Bulldog is what Politically Incorrect Dog is and they are often called pit bulls by those not in the know. He’s a standard American Bulldog. The Johnson is another type of American Bulldog. So, maybe the press did it right. And Border Collie? That surprises me.

Some 1911 gun porn for your viewing pleasure.

Wage:

the existence of the blogosphere at all is evidence of a serious market failure.

And More Harold Ford, Jr. on guns.

So, Harold Ford, Jr. was on the radio again this morning. And he was again asked about two issues that were important to me. The first was guns. You may recall that I reported he told a little fib about his gun position a bit back where he claimed he had a B rating from the NRA but the NRA reported he had a C. This time, he said he had a B rating from the NRA for the last two years, which is probably a true statement. I’m sure he may have misspoke the first time. Good for him as it was an honest answer. However, Mr. Ford was definitely anti-gun up until 2003, which I figure is when he decided he’d make a play for Senate. And in 1999-2000 he introduced the anti-gun Gun Industry Responsibility Act, which encouraged governments to sue gun makers in civil court for gun damages. He has since voted for the the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms act, which prohibits frivolous suits against gun makers. A near total turn around. He also said he had a good relationship with the NRA. So good, the NRA endorsed Corker.

Then a caller asked something else that is important to me. I’ve said before I will not support Ford because of his ties to nanny statists like Schumer, Clinton and Kennedy. The caller said, essentially, I will not vote for you due to your ties to your party. How would you address people like me who like your message but, basically, don’t believe you? Ford stated he was only beholden to the people of the state of Tennessee and that he has come under fire by his own party for not toeing the line. As an example, he said he supported and still supports Lieberman (who in my opinion is as much a nanny statist as the others mentioned – he’s just a pro-war nanny statist). Good answer, Mr. Ford, but given your opportunistic and inconsistent voting record, I don’t believe you.

Earlier in the week, Ford called Corker a wimp. He’s right. I said something similar and more vulgar early on.

On Bob Corker:

Dude, stop sending me your junk mail. Seriously, I get this crap three times a week. Also, I want your mom to stop calling my house and leaving pre-recorded messages on my answering machine. And I want your little campaign monkeys to stop calling my house twice a day, mispronouncing my name, and calling my wife the wrong name. If you want your message out, I stay informed. I read the news, listen to the radio, read Al Gore’s Internets. Put your message there. Quit being a wimp. Your negative campaign is not effective. I throw your junk mail away. I hang up on your campaign monkeys (the wife doesn’t but she’s a much nicer person than I am). I want to hear you throw down. Debate someone. Get on the radio. Otherwise, Ford is right. You’re a wimp. I’ll vote for you. More importantly, I’ll vote against Ford. But I’ll hold my nose when I do it.

Sometimes, you can’t be a nice guy to one person without being an asshole to another.

Pulled up to the stop light I always do on the way home. I, who am apparently one of the only 1% people on the Earth who as the ability to look more than one car ahead of myself in traffic, was the fourth car at the light waiting to turn left. I notice the first car at the light was having engine trouble and couldn’t move. They appeared to have fixing it taken care of. So, the two people in front of me were stuck. Being the nice guy I am, I backed up so the two cars between me and the first guy could get in the other lane. As I was backing up, one of you other 99% comes barreling down on me not noticing that the first car was stalled. So, the two cars in front of me were sort of stuck halfway in the right lane. And I was stuck blocking the exit from a parking lot as one of the guys I was nice to was in front and the 99%er was behind me. I couldn’t go forward or back. I was trying to be a nice guy. After all, I could have just gotten in the right lane and left these two other people stuck where they were.

And, right on cue, a person is trying to exit the parking lot. And I’m blocking them in. While trying to be nice to one group of people, I was inadvertently an asshole to another person. They were pretty pissed. Started honking at me and pulling up really close to the side of my truck as if to intimidate me and let me know I was an asshole. The were in a conversion van so they were literally only about 5 feet from me. I gave them the I’m-sorry-wave-and-shrug. They kept honking, cussing at me from the window, and inching up on my truck. I thought to myself: Self, you could try to explain to these people that you were just trying to help the two people in front of you. They kept honking, cussing at me from the window, and inching up on my truck. I could have told them the perfectly reasonable explanation I had for being in their way and costing them 2 minutes of their life. They kept honking, cussing at me from the window, and inching up on my truck. I could have explained that I was actually a nice guy and sorry to have inconvenienced them but if I didn’t do what I did, this traffic light would back up forever and they’d never get out. They kept honking, cussing at me from the window, and inching up on my truck. Instead, I told them to fuck off.

Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale talks with WATE’s Gene Patterson this Sunday on the political talk show “Tennessee This Week”. The program will air at 12:00 noon.

WATE broadcast a teaser last night and it is interesting to watch the Mayor’s body language. Watch this Sunday and see if you can spot the “tell”.

Ragsdale would have made a decent magician as he is skilled in the art of misdirection. His summary of the entire Tyler Harber saga can be distilled as he, “believes the stories were generated out of a personal vendetta by Betty Bean and Halls Shopper editor Sandra Clark.”

Betty calls the Mayor on that balderdash here. An invitation to the parking lot behind Eddie’s Auto Parts may be imminent.

The County Mayor has a very simple political philosophy, you are either with him or you are against him. By the way, he wants to be Governor.

Seen at David Hardy’s:

VCDL has set up a defense fund for the two Virginia FFLs sued by Bloomberg and who have refused to settle. The donation page is here.

After entering the amountand clicking ‘Continue,’ you need to enter “Gun Dealer Legal Defense Fund” at the bottom in the “Message to Seller (Optional)” field. (Alternate instructions for mailing check are in extended remarks below).

Mail a check made out to “VCDL” with “Gun Dealer Legal Defense Fund” written on the comment line.

Mail to:

Virginia Citizens Defense League
Attn: GDLDF
P.O. Box 513
Newington, VA 22122

Joe notes some for Barrett Rifles. I watched that show when it first started coming on. After that episode, I never watched it again due to the supposed weapons expert’s numerous errors, such as saying the AK fired a 308; his lack of gun safety; his lack of wearing eye protection; and other reasons.

The press has a bit on Bob Corker’s misleading claim that he reduced crime by 50%. Late for Dinner was on this already.

Chris asks*:

That every time a gun rights case gets beyomg the circuit; the defendant is some kind of scumebag; or the case itself is argued on peripheral elements?

Because we law-abiding folks, err, abide by the law. He points out:

Someone on the NOR brought up the Maadi-Griffin .50bmg handgun/rifle kits that Bob Stewart used to sell, before he got his corrupt, convicted felon ass hauled unjustly to prison for.

He ended up getting convited for having unlicensed machine guns, and the case was overturned on appeal under the grounds that the commerce clause which justified the law he was “violating” in the first place, did not extend to items that had ever been in interstate commerce.

Clearly Stewart was wrongly arrested, and wrongly convicted; and even the ninth circuit (who generally hate guns, and states rights) agreed; but the supremes decided not to hear the case; instead saying that US v. Raich was controlling and sending it back to the ninth (who have not yet reheard the case), when clearly Lopez and Morrison were the controlling decisions.

Why do I say he’s a scumbag? Well it could be the fact that he is a white supremacist who created the Maadi-Griffin for use in the racial holy wars he believed to be coming; or it could be the fact that he tried to have a fellow inmate murder a judge who ruled against him…

* scroll down, blogger is busted.

It’s also known as The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE) Modernization and Reform Act. A summary of the bill is here. The text is here. My SWOT analysis is it’s an incremental step in the right direction. Note to absolutists, if you drive a truck 20 miles in, you have to drive it 20 miles out.

That said, here’s the latest stuff:

Jeff says our old buddy Diane ’38 in her purse for me but not for thee’ Feinstein has used that Senate hold thing on the bill:

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein has frozen a bill that she says would gut federal agents’ ability to shut down or severely penalize reckless gun dealers.

Bloomberg is a step away from taking his toys and going home:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg unleashed a tirade on Congress yesterday for pushing gun legislation that, he said, leaves it easier to track the origins of tainted spinach than a cache of illegal firearms.

Speaking yesterday near the state Capitol in Harrisburg, Pa., where he called for tougher gun laws in that state, Bloomberg drew a direct link between gun-related violence and proposed legislation that makes it harder to track illegal guns and penalize rogue dealers.

McCarthy, as usual, channels Captain Coo Coo Banana:

“In my 10 years in Congress I’ve never seen a bill with a more misleading name than HR 5092, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives Modernization and Reform Act of 2006. Instead of modernizing or reforming the ATF, this bill simply undermines the Bureau’s ability to crack down on the most corrupt and negligent gun dealers and traffickers.

A man convicted of molesting and murdering a girl has had the words Katie’s Revenge tattooed on his forehead. I’m assuming it was against his will. Countertop has the skinny and pics.

All week long, the local news was aflutter with the news that two pit bulls attacked and seriously injured their owner. It was on the radio a lot. One expert said that pit bulls are similar to cats (yes, cats) in that they are hard to read and react quickly to stimuli. I don’t think the expert knows dick about pit bulls because while I agree they are quick to react, they’re quite easy to read, just like other dogs. Anyhoo, turns out the dogs were not pit bulls. Of course, pit bull isn’t actually a breed.

Update: WATE is sticking with the pit bull angle and notes that noise from a lawnmower may have set them off.

Never heard of it*:

Governor Schwarzenegger yesterday signed legislation by Senator Christine Kehoe (D-San Diego) that will provide additional protection for people seeking court protective orders under the Family Code…

Specifically, Senate Bill 585:

1. Adds additional provisions to the Family Code to allow law enforcement to consider seeking the immediate surrender of a firearm from a person served with a protective order.

Like the dude said: Fuck that place.

* scroll down, permalinks seem busted. Link fixed.

Les Jones:

If Oleg Volk’s Gun Photos are Gun Porn then Tam’s gunwriting is Penthouse Letters.

Junior has started wearing pull-ups. In fact, she went all day yesterday wearing just one. For those without kids, this means that she went all day and used the potty instead of her pants for her, err, business. It’s a big day.

Also, she’s started sleeping in her big girl bed frequently. This is also good stuff.

As for The Second, he’s sleeping through the night. Unfortunately, his night starts at about eight. So, he sleeps until about 4:30a.m., which is awful inconvenient for me and the Mrs.

He’s also become very reactive to his environment. He smiles, laughs, and reaches for things. When he smiles, his whole body smiles.

Good times. Well, except that getting up at 4:30 part.

Will you? The Gun Blogger Rendezvous is next week in Reno, NV. I’ll be getting in late Thursday. Looks like an all-star gun-blogging line up will be there.

There’s also prizes and range time planned. Trying to figure out the best way to transport some toys with me to Reno, as flying with Mr. Blasty and my UltiWASR may be tough. And ammo. And mags. And everything else.

I thought about mailing them. Any suggestions?

Seems the Philidelphia Inquirer actually presents both sides of the gun issue. Novel idea, eh? Such as this:

One-gun-a-month laws sound attractive to gun-control activists and draw broad public support in polls. But it’s not clear that such statutes have had much impact on gun violence.

A study published last year in the journal Injury Prevention found that the laws restricting purchases had had no measurable impact. The study was done by a team of doctors from the University of Washington, using data from 1979 to 1998.

Another study, done in 2001 by the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, found evidence of a slight decrease in gun violence associated with Maryland’s one-gun law.

With only California, Virginia and Maryland having such laws, there isn’t much evidence to be had. What is available raises questions about the effect of limiting individuals to one handgun purchase every 30 days.

Also, if they can limit it to one per month, why not one per year? Or one per lifetime? The goal, of course, is none ever. And Philly.com also writes:

The gun owners fired back yesterday.

About 300 of them from around Pennsylvania roamed the Capitol encouraging legislators to oppose any new laws limiting the right to own and bear arms.

They were steadfast: crime is Philadelphia’s problem, caused by Philadelphians, and any new laws to restrict the sale of guns won’t solve it.

The only solution, they said, is to crack down on criminals, enforce existing laws, and end what one gun supporter called “Philadelphia’s catch and release program.”

Ayup.

Don’t get me wrong, there is a need for SWAT teams and the like. My issue is that these teams are used too frequently and, many times, fatally. Sorry, but if a kid has an ounce of weed, the police should show up, knock on the door, and announce themselves. When there’s absolute proof of hostilities, that is a justification for such force. Regardless a look inside some of their training:

The dynamic entry was scheduled to start off with a bang. More accurately a flash bang grenade that will be lobbed in a broken-out window – a “breach and bang” – of the house on Polk Street. Along the sides of the front door of the house, five men in olive green uniforms, loaded down with equipment and faces hidden behind black balaclavas and military style helmets wait for the signal to go. The military-style CAR-15s and Glock 22 pistols in their hands are loaded and chambered for any trouble. They communicate with hand signals to avoid making noise.

BANG!

As the stun grenade goes off, the men in position yell, “Go, go, go!” The first man in the line slams a pry bar into the sturdy-looking front door to gain entry. From inside a voice yells, “Get away from my house.” The men are not swayed, almost ripping the door off its hinges within a few seconds. “Police, search warrant!!” is yelled. The occupant of the house, on the second floor, yells that he does not want to surrender, fearing he will be shot. The lead officer behind the mask talks to him and calms him down, eventually convincing the subject to surrender.

Sebastion attended the festivities of the “Committee of the Whole” session on gun violence and crime and took some pics.

WSJ reports that Republicans don’t really want to win in November. The Republicans are bleeding from the right because they’ve abandoned even the pretense of fiscal conservatism. They’re bleeding from the left as moderates peel off because of the Iraq debacle. And Libertarians have finally woken up to the fact that Bush has never opposed a single proposal to expand federal power.

Finally, even folks that like Republicans want to lose. They want some Democrats around so they have somebody to blame their failures on.

Other Republicans couch their desire for Republican losses in political terms, arguing that Democratic control of Congress for at least two years would increase the chances of Republicans retaining the presidency in 2008, by giving Republican candidates high-profile Democratic targets.

It’s nice to see the Republicans pay a political price for being a bunch of feckless weasels. It’s too bad the only real alternative is the Democrats.

Local talk radio guy Hallerin Hilton Hill‘s show this morning was kinda silly. Sure, he did what he always does which is to repeat himself over and over and over and over. But the topic was Harold Ford’s and Bob Corker’s commercials. HHH asked if these were effective. And he also asked if anyone out there had fact-checked any of the ads. Note to Mr. Hill: Maybe that sophisticated fact-checking should be done by, you know, guys with radio shows with the intent and purpose of talking about it on that show. Asking your listeners to do your job is lazy.

The highlight of the show was the caller who referred to a candidate (doesn’t matter which one) as Harold Corker. Truer words were never spoken.

NY wants to ban fatty foods:

Three years after the city banned smoking in restaurants, health officials are talking about prohibiting something they say is almost as bad: artificial trans fatty acids.

The city health department unveiled a proposal Tuesday that would bar cooks at any of the city’s 24,600 food service establishments from using ingredients that contain the artery-clogging substance, commonly listed on food labels as partially hydrogenated oil.

Artificial trans fats are found in some shortenings, margarine and frying oils and turn up in foods from pie crusts to french fries to doughnuts.

I guess they could get all California on them and sue Crisco?

Carolyn Davis:

The handgun limit is a reasonable step

Pennsylvanians closer to the center of the state seem more willing to try new ideas than their lawmakers in Harrisburg dare to believe.

Why? Because when it comes to a proposal as reasonable as a purchase limit of 13 handguns per person per year, many members of the General Assembly have their priorities and loyalties all wrong.

They would rather be on the leash of the absolutist gun rights lobby than lead Pennsylvanians to greater safety from gun violence. That’s as shameful as, well, as lawmakers who give themselves a pay raise in the middle of the night.

State representatives have a chance to get their priorities straight in a special session beginning today that is devoted to fighting crime and violence. They can use the nonbinding votes taken this week to signal support for House Bill 871, a statewide purchase limit of one handgun per person per month offered by State Rep. John Myers (D., Phila.). Myers understands the violence plaguing cities. His son, Shamari Taylor, 26, was abducted last month and is still missing. Taylor’s mother and sister were shot and wounded shortly after his kidnapping.

Myers’ bill exempts rifles and collectible antique guns. Add a provision allowing counties to opt out of even this mild limit, and you’ve got a compromise that most Pennsylvanians could live with. At least that’s the sense I got from people I spoke with at Cabela’s, a wilderness outfitter superstore in Hamburg.

In that case, I’d like to propose a bill that every newspaper can only write on editorial per month. After all, it’s a compromise we could all live with. It’s a reasonable step.

CJ (who I think is that CJ) notes that the ban on online gambling is rearing its ugly head again:

Over the past 24 hours, there have been a series of reports telling us that the dreaded internet gambling bill is both alive and dead. In recent weeks, we’ve reported that Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) had hoped to sneak the gambling bill into the massive Defense Department 2007 Appropriations Bill.

That bill has now passed through the conference committee, but it doesn’t seem to be headed for guaranteed passage, nor is it clear that the gambling bill will ever be attached. Currently, House Republican leaders are holding up the bill hoping to add unrelated bills on immigration and court security.

Pennsylvania is becoming the center of the gun control debate. Seems the antis are pushing their wares non-stop there:

Pennsylvania lawmakers held a special session on Tuesday to discuss 94 initiatives to tighten the state’s relatively loose gun controls in an effort to reduce gun crime.

The two-day meeting was attended by the mayors of New York and Trenton, New Jersey, who believe their cities’ crime rates are affected by the laxer rules in Pennsylvania. The state has one of the strongest pro-gun lobbies in the country.

“What happens in Pennsylvania or any other state doesn’t stay in Pennsylvania or any other state,” New York’s Michael Bloomberg told a news conference. “We can’t fight illegal guns from behind state lines.” He said 85 percent of the guns used by criminals in New York originated outside the city.

I think perhaps because of this battle in PA, we’re seeing the increase in anti-gun shilling, such as Saul Cornell’s book getting press. The Geek reports that none of the anti-gun bills have passed:

On the PA committee of the whole thing is that all gun control has been defeated, and that the planned multi thousand people demonstration against gun rights was sparsely attended. Well, “sparsely attended” being a generous description of “less than ten”.

Good! That combined with the vote by the house that passed on HR 5092 (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (BATFE) Modernization and Reform Act) makes for some interesting times for gunnies and frustrating times for anti-gunnies. You can see the bill info here. That bill passed the house 277-131 and is headed to the senate. The NRA backed the bill and is all giddy:

Chris W. Cox, NRA-ILA Chief Lobbyist stated, “Today marks a great victory for law-abiding gun owners and retailers across the country. H.R. 5092 makes necessary improvements – and establishes new guidelines – for BATFE investigations. It will curb abuses and provide a streamlined process for all necessary parties.”

H.R. 5092 was drafted in large part to address recent, blatant BATFE abuses at Richmond, Virginia gun shows highlighted in hearings before the U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security.

H.R. 5092, the “BATFE Modernization and Reform Act”, establishes a more efficient system of administrative penalties for licensed dealers, manufacturers and importers of firearms. Prior to this bill, for most violations BATFE could only either give a federal firearms license (FFL) holder a warning or completely revoke their license.

With this stuff going on, it’s no wonder the antis are breaking out the usual claptrap, like this:

House sycophants of the National Rifle Association are aiming this week to hobble the federal government’s power to revoke the licenses of rogue gun dealers who arm the underworld. A shameless proposal would replace existing law with wrist-slapping penalties and an impossible definition of “willful intent” that would hamstring efforts to close lawless marketeers.

The rhetoric of the approaching debate will undoubtedly invoke sportsmen’s rights, but the real issue is the rights of sociopaths and terrorists to make future purchases at their friendly local AK-47 dealer. The House proposal, in fact, would have stopped federal agents from ever revoking the license of Lou’s Loans, the Pennsylvania dealer that sold battlefield weapons to one of the co-conspirators in the 1993 assault on the World Trade Center.

So many lies, so little time. There are no friendly local AK-47 dealers because AK-47s are illegal. The house proposal, in fact, would not necessarily have stopped revocation of this man’s license depending on the circumstances. This one is good too:

“Oh, God. Oh, God. This is bad. This is really bad.”

With those words, 16-year-old Jeremy O’Sullivan died of a gunshot to the chest in an Albany backyard at about 3 a.m. on July 1, another victim of the Second Amendment.

Meanwhile, what about victims of other amendments? Like me, who had the misfortune to read this horseshit. And this one:

Five months after hosting the first Mayors’ Summit on Illegal Guns at Gracie Mansion and fulfilling a promise made in his January State of the City address, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today traveled to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to join Philadelphia Mayor John Street and other mayors from the state to call on the Pennsylvania General Assembly to toughen state gun laws and increase penalties for gun offenders. Mayor Bloomberg and Mayor Street were joined by Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski; Reading Mayor Thomas McMahon; Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan; York Mayor John Brenner; Scranton Mayor Christopher Doherty; Lancanster Mayor Rick Gray; Williamsport Mary B. Wolf; and Trenton, New Jersey Douglas Palmer. While in the Pennsylvania state capital, the Mayors met with both Senate Democratic and Senate Republican leadership to discuss the impact of illegal guns on their cities. The mayors in attendance today also had the opportunity to sign the Statement of Principles developed during the April Mayors’ Summit.

“The fight against illegal guns cannot be waged from behind state lines,” said Mayor Bloomberg.

Remember, kids, illegal guns in New York is probably any gun you have in your house right now. And I love when the Brady Bunch gets all crazy:

Congressmen Jim Gerlach and Mike Fitzpatrick must not have heard that many of their constituents were in the Pennsylvania state capitol of Harrisburg Tuesday, practically begging state lawmakers to do something to get illegal guns off the streets of Philadelphia.

Because they were in Washington D.C. voting with the extreme gun lobby and against the law enforcement community for a bill that will make it harder to fight illegal gun trafficking.

And even more crazy:

The United States House of Representatives today chose to pass special interest legislation that benefits the law-breaking gun pushers who make money by selling firearms that end up in the hands of killers, muggers and thieves. They ignored the concerns of our nation’s Mayors and law enforcement leaders who opposed this awful bill.

“One must ask the question: When does this end in our country? How many children and police officers must die before our elected members of Congress stop doing the bidding of the gun lobby?

The hyperbole would be amusing, were it not so pathetic.

Rich has a nifty tip for those of us with webpages.

Via Cam, comes this:

The man shot by a Janesville doctor in what authorities think was a burglary of the doctor’s home has sued the doctor for negligently using excessive force.

Kurt Prochaska, 39, Janesville, still is awaiting trial on charges of burglary and felony criminal damage because of events late on the night of Oct. 31, 2005, when, police reported, he crashed through the ceiling of Michael Rainiero’s home, 2520 Linden Ave., Janesville, in an attempt to burglarize the home.

Indiana:

Ordinary citizens will have to check their guns at the Statehouse’s entrances when metal detectors are installed in the building next year.

Lawmakers, however, will be allowed to take their guns with them inside.