The Carnival of Cordite is up.

Reader Bob sends a link to this Glock torture test. Sand, dirt, water, salt, they shot it with another gun, parked a car on it and dropped it 500 feet from a plane.

An earlier post of mine “Is there freedom of Religion in America?” has received a reply from a student in the same program.

A comment from ConcernedGrad is an interesting read and brings up some new questions. She defends her professor Dr. Frank G. Kauffman and suggests that Emily Brooker should be advised if she can, “not take the heat, she should have got out of the kitchen!”

ConcernedGrad’s comment expands the debate by suggesting that those who pursue social work must have a firewall between their personal faith and their professional work in social work. Her comment is listed below. ConcernedGrad, if you follow up and read this I have a question for you, are you suggesting that those who pursue social work as a career should be secularist?

My original question is what would have happened if Emily Brooker was a Muslim. I would think that if a Muslim were told they should not be in social work because of their religion there would be a great outcry and civil litigation. Would you’re advice be the same if Emily Brooker were a Muslim?

UPDATE:

You can find the legal complaint here. This looks to me to be a clear violation of Emily Brooker’s civil rights.

Read the rest of this entry »

Say what you want about UT’s defeat last night but any quarterback who throws his shoulder into a linebacker like that has some balls.

Usually, this stuff happens on Wednesday:

On the eve of one of the nation’s most contentious and intensely watched elections, investigators have opened a criminal probe into suspected early voting fraud in Shelby County.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is reviewing reports by the Shelby County Election Commission that two people voted twice during early voting in Memphis.

“Paid Political Advertisement”Dist. Atty. Gen. Bill Gibbons said Thursday he’s referred the cases to the TBI for investigation along with other matters he declined to discuss.

Will Americans ever have faith in elections again?

There have been two Polls on KnoxViews on whether Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale should be investigated. Each Poll had over 86 percent of respondents vote that the Mayor should be investigated. You can find them here and here.

Yesterday the Knoxville News Sentinel had an Editorial entitled, "Commission should put Harber issue to rest". On the KNS Poll 74 percent of respondents disagree with the Editorial. Some of the comments from the KNS Poll are very interesting. Some of them are listed below.

Last week Metro Pulse had a similar Editorial entitled, "County Commission should stick to its legislative role, leave law enforcement to the ‘laws’". How can both newspapers be so far out of touch with what the people want?

What most people do not know is what is happening behind the scenes. Todd Cook, the Director of Probation Pre-Trial Release, has asked Knox County Law Director John Owings to investigate Knox County Commission Chairman Scott Moore concerning Cook’s allegations that Moore threatened his job unless he hired Moore’s relatives for jobs in Probation Pre-Trial Release. Similar threats of payback have been quietly issued to Lumpy Lambert. So far nothing more than threats have ensued for Commissioner Lambert.

You have to wonder if Mayor Ragsdale just enjoys the thrill? After getting off Scot free his first course of action is to open the door up again with a payback move against County Commission Chairman Scott Moore. Most people know that Scott Moore is a friend of the Knox County Sheriff. The governor’s mansion looks very far away and is fading from sight for the ambitious Knox County Mayor.

UPDATE:

You can listen to the short exchange between Knox County Commission Chairman Scott Moore and Mike Arms the Chief of Staff for Mayor Mike Ragsdale at last weeks County Commission meeting. This battle has just begun.

Read the rest of this entry »

KC Steve breaks them down and tells you how to deal with them.

Radley:

Seattle Nannies ban 29 brands of alcohol prefered by poor people — you know, for their own good. Poor people switch to the the 30th and 31st cheapest brands.

That’s how long it’s been since I’ve smoked. Apparently, this is the magical point where the nicotine is supposed to be out of the system (or so they say).

I highly recommend Chantix. I don’t know what it does because whenever you click on info about medication, you have to read 300 pages of side-effects before the pamphlet tells you what it does. And by page 6 of side-effects, I’m bored or asleep. I’m not a doctor but my doctor says that it levels off the highs and lows of smoking. Apparently, you have nerves in your brain that are receptive to nicotine (they love the stuff!). Well, this makes them not receptive. So, after taking the pills, you get nothing from smoking except that cool refreshing flavor. By the way, once you take the pills for about a week, you realize that there is no cool refreshing flavor and that it’s just associated with the little high you get from smoking. You realize that the cigarettes kinda taste like ass, when they’re not giving you a little spike.

And I’ve made it this far before. The difference this time is that, unlike past attempts, I’m not thinking about smoking all the time because the last three days I smoked, I got nothing from it and they tasted like ass.

A few things, Chantix is pretty pricey (just over $100 for a month’s worth – but it’ll eventually cost less than those cigarettes). And insurance doesn’t cover it. When the directions say ‘Take after a meal and with a full glass of water’, they mean it. It’s pretty hard on your stomach.

It also says to take it for a week then try to quit and, in some cases, wait longer. I waited longer. I decided that (given my past), I’d wait two weeks. Well, about a week and a half and I was just smoking less without trying and when I did smoke (seemed I forced myself too), it just didn’t do anything for me.

I’m supposed to take it for another month, maybe two.

A while back, a few of us blogs decided to stick it to the McCain-Feingold Incumbent Protection Act. I said that:

Any organization* that wants to run a political ad criticizing any politician in that 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.

We had many blogs agree to do the same or similar. Said movement was publicized heavily on the blogs and even got a mention in some mainstream media outlets. Well, four days until election time and, to my knowledge, not a single group took anyone up on that offer. Not. A. Single. One.

Free speech, you can’t even give it away.

Bummer.

Via Terry Frank, comes the Crystal Ball for the 2006 elections. My prediction: the senate stays red.

Wayne LaPierre takes on some other mayors. No mention of Haslam this time.

Email here.

Make yourself a shooting bench.

An interesting look at the international arms trade. Mind you, it’s a look from the point of view of a hoplophobe but still interesting nonetheless.

I no longer have TiVo. It was a tough decision because I love the TiVo. And it is the greatest invention since Al Gore invented the Internets Tubes. See, we moved.

When you move, you’re suddenly a different person to everyone. They forget that you’re the same person and that all you really want is to continue the same arrangement you had before. That was when everyone was happy. Instead, the opt to piss you off and treat you like you’re just schmuck off the street. Your existing contract with your propane supplier? Done (see, it’s wintertime and rates are up now and you were smart and signed up in summer, and we just can’t have that).

DirecTv decided it didn’t want my money. See, they used to support TiVo but now they pimp their own DVR device. But they no longer support TiVo even if you’re an existing TiVo customer of DirectV. Their device doesn’t have some features we wanted, like the ability to communicate with other DVRs. Also, we’d have to pay them and pay TiVo for the same service. It would cost us another $30 or so a month for DirecTv and TiVo (as a separate service). And, like every other affluent person out there, I pay $30 per month to too many people already. Seriously, have you figured out how many people you pay between $20 – $50 per month? It’s probably a lot. For me, it’s cell phones, landline (we have a fax and burglar alarm or I’d lose the landline too), burglar alarm, Al Gore’s Internets, another cell phone, gas, water, and probably more I can’t think of. I get $30ed a month to the tune of at least $240. Sorry, I got sidetracked. Oh yeah, TiVo.

We now have Dishnetwork. It has it’s own DVR system as well but, unlike DirecTv’s, they can talk to eachother. So, here’s my review of the new DVR:

Pros:

Dish Networks beats DirecTv in terms of picture quality.

Programs automatically start being recording a few minutes early and are recorded a little long. If you ever watch Fox, you know this is a pain in the ass on TiVo which defaults to starting on time. I haven’t seen the intro to The Simpsons in a year because Fox always starts early.

One receiver feeds two TeeVees. The TeeVee in the living room and the master bedroom talk to each other. The TeeVee downstairs talks to Junior’s room.

Each DVR has 100 hours of recording time, compared to TiVos 40 or 80.

No suggestions (it’s a pro and a con): No more deleting assloads of shows I won’t watch.

Better DVR player controls. It’s like a tapedeck or CD player on the remote. There’s play, stop, pause, etc. Pretty neat.

It has what TiVo always needed: A skip forward button (I like TiVo’s skip back but thought it needed a skip forward).

More fast forward options (from 4x to 300x).

I can specify from one TeeVee that I’d like a program recorded on another (hence, I could watch live TeeVee and record on the same TeeVee while the other TeeVee does the work).

You can search for shows based on their info, not just title. That’s pretty cool.

Cons:

Not used to the interface.

Not all of our TeeVees talk. Two talk but the four don’t talk to each other. So, I cannot watch any program on any TeeVee.

No suggestions (it’s a pro and a con): I don’t get the occasional hidden jewel of a program I might like. For example, TiVo is how I discovered Robot Chicken.

When you hit the pause, the little timeline doesn’t show at the bottom to indicate how much longer the show is.

No groups. I liked TiVo because you could group the same TeeVee show together (for example, the screen will show Peep (4), indicating four episodes of Peep – if you don’t know what Peep is, you don’t have small children. So, all my Peeps are all over the place).

Overall, I like the new DVR and think it’s better in terms of features. But I’ll miss the old TiVo and it’s warm sounds.

Stossel, the media’s token libertarian, on the myth of gun control:

I’ve always been interested in Catherine MacKinnon’s work. She had a lot of interesting theories and novel approaches to social problems. Unfortunately, she based huge chuncks of her theories on conjecture and assumptions, and little of the evidence rang true to me (or anybody else I can find that wasn’t a victim of violent rape).

Regardless, I’ve read a lot of her work and thought a lot about her approach to law and women’s issues, so I read with great interest an article that actually manages to measure the correlation between rape and porn. MacKinnon said porn leads to rape. Her opponents said porn and rape are unrelated.

It turns out both camps were wrong. There is a correlation. Unfortunately for MacKinnon, the correlation is negative. As it turns out, exposure to porn makes you less likely to commit rape.

The methodology here is also interesting. Rape statistics can be broken down state-by-state, and so can internet access. And since internet access is the same thing as porn access, you can see how internet adoption correlates with rape stats. The best part is, you can see this correlation 50 times over, once for each state.

There’s a lot of potential gaps in the chain of logic here, but these 50 data points are the only real data points we have. Everything else is just anecdotes and fear.

Via NIT, News 2 videojournalist Jerry Barlar is asking for advice on a 5 year-old’s first gun:

While talking to my son, on the way to school this morning, I asked him what he would like for Christmas. To my suprise (sic), and delight, he asked for a real gun that he could carry and hunt with.

I suggested a Crickett if a 22 would work for what he was hunting. Or, if not, a Handi-Rifle in any number of calibers. Both are inexpensive and durable. You want kids to learn the fundamentals first (gun safety, sight alignment and trigger squeeze) so tricked out ARs aren’t the way to go (save those for later). So, I’d get a single-shot or bolt action. And remember: kids, like adults, love reactive targets.

Guess who (answer below the fold):

“Students who bring guns to school are hardly ever detected,” the researcher wrote. “This is shocking to most parents and even other students since it is just as easy to bring a loaded handgun to school as it is to bring a calculator.”

One problem was “junk guns,” the expert cautioned, citing “The fact that these guns are small and inexpensive implies that [they] can be found and purchased easily by students.”

The solution? “Some [shootings] can be prevented, some can not,” the writer admitted. Still, he asserted, “metal detectors and more police officers are a great start to the fight against guns in schools.”

Ultimately, “a school is no place for a gun,” he concluded.

Read the rest of this entry »

Heh.

James Webb realizes the second amendment isn’t about duck hunting:

I know first hand the importance of armed self-defense by law-abiding citizens as a deterrent to criminals, and in the long term, to would-be tyrants.

Mind you, the NRA is supporting his opponent. Says Webb:

Please help me clear up this deliberate distortion by an organization that I must regretfully conclude has more on its agenda than protecting the earned Second Amendment rights of our citizens.

Seems to be a pattern.

Update: In comments, bitter says:

No, it’s not a pattern. If you follow the comments thread over at Countertop’s, you’d see there’s more to the timing of this than Webb is admitting. He didn’t return the survey until later based on evidence available. Not to mention he’s only getting upset about this now after magazines were mailed more than a month ago. Most likely he’s been sitting on this and just now realized that there is a strong gun vote in Virginia that could throw just enough votes to Allen to help him hold onto his seats.

Still, his quote about tyrants is righteous.

On the poll about how I would vote, here are the results so far:

Gay marriage ban:

No 21%
Yes 19%
Hell no 60%

Seriously, do 19% of you even read this site? I will be voting No.

Special privileges for old people:

No 38%
Yes 25%
Hell No 36%

I will be voting No, though I don’t think I’ve discussed it here.

Senate:

Bob Corker 43%
Harold Ford, Jr. 41%
Bo Heyward 8%
Big Stupid Tommy 8%

Ford is simply out of the question. The choice becomes do I vote for Corker because I think Ford may win? Or do I express my displeasure with Republicans by voting for the real conservative. Or do I express my displeasure about the whole thing and write in Big Stupid Tommy? I still don’t know.

Governor:

Phil Bredesen 60%
Jim Bryson 40%

I should vote for Bredesen. I voted for him the first time (actually, I voted against Hilleary). He’s done a decent job. He’s solidly pro-gun. But I just dread the lame-duck governor and a push for income taxes. Won’t matter though as this race isn’t even going to be close. Heck, even I don’t know this one. As I said, Bredesen deserves my vote but I fear his lame-duckness.

I find it sad that, built into our campaign laws, is a millionaire clause. Late for Dinner spells it out:

By injecting $2 million of his personal money into his campaign, Bob Corker has triggered the “millionaire’s clause” which raises the personal contribution limits for his opponent Harold Ford Jr. from $2100 to $12,600 per person for the general election.

Local news anchor Gene Patterson says:

A check of the WATE sales department suggests that Ford may have been anticipating Corker’s move today. The sales folks say Ford made additional buys just today. Corker also has inventory on our air over the next several days as we wind down to November 7.

I imagine if you check with the other stations here in Knoxville and in the other media markets in the state, similar purchases by the Ford campaign were also made.

Competitive races like the Corker/Ford senate race mean big bucks for TV stations. We and all the other stations charge premium prices for airtime. That’s the good news for us.

Some reading on the Supreme Court’s handling of the second amendment. Via GLN.

Some things, the .gov does a fairly decent job at. And by decent, I mean they don’t screw it up too bad. One of those things is roads, though by looking at Knoxville you wouldn’t know that. Now, there’s talk of toll roads in Tennessee:

The chairman of Tennessee’s House Transportation Committee said Monday he is drafting legislation that would set up a panel to oversee toll roads and public-private road partnerships statewide.

“Right now, there is no toll road commission,” said state Rep.

Well, there shouldn’t be since there are no toll roads. More:

Phillip Pinion, D-Union City. “We have to look at toll roads and public private partnerships. We have to look at all alternative funding.”

The planned legislation comes as state transportation officials struggle with how to raise money to fund public transportation.

Just take it from the schools, that’s what you usually do. Say, hasn’t the state been running at a surplus for the past few years? What about that money?

So, the anti-gun American Hunters and Shooter Association has made it’s first endorsement. As GLN says:

Last summer, when the American Hunters and Shooters Association first made its existence known, I had one prediction. Gun grabbing politicians would use them as a supposed progun endorsement. Well here is their first endorsement. On the plus side, they don’t seem to push her gun rights record; there is not one. They push her conservation position.

I’m with Radley, this sounds made up to me:

A highway patrolman who crashed into a pickup last month, killing himself and two others, had not been drinking even though an autopsy showed alcohol in his system, officials said Tuesday.

An analysis conducted by the Federal Aviation Administration on trooper Joshua Risner found he did not drink any alcohol at least 16 hours before his death, the State Highway Patrol said in a statement.

The finding contradicts an earlier post-crash autopsy that found Risner’s blood-alcohol level was 0.08 percent, the level at which a person is considered drunk under Ohio law.

“This test tells us that alcohol got into his system post-mortem, after death,” patrol Col. Paul McClellan said…

Who watches the watchmen? Someone’s got to since they can’t seem to watch themselves.

Street prices are up after Bloomberg’s campaign:

Many handguns are selling for about $200 more than they were, averaging about $700 to $1,000 apiece, the source said. Rifles are selling for about $300 more, averaging between $1,200 and $1,500, the source said.

Wow. Those are pricey. Of course, in NYC you have to pay a few hundred bucks in permits/permission slips to legally buy a gun legally there so it’s probably a wash.

Bloomberg now thinks that all those handgun carry permits that New York City has issued as political favors to friends of mayors and actors should be cut back:

The city should slash the number of people who are allowed to carry concealed weapons, Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday.

“We’ve taken a look at it to see whether we couldn’t have fewer,” Bloomberg said. “I can tell you one thing: We will keep it to as a minimum as we possibly can.”

Bloomberg added that he has asked Police Commissioner Ray Kelly to tackle the issue.

“If you want a gun permit, you should have to really show that your life is in danger, and that having a gun will protect you, will improve the chances of you surviving,” the mayor said.

Poor Robert DeNiro. How will he defend himself? Still, it is amusing to me that Bloomberg thinks fewer carry permits will make NYC safer.