Mayors keep dropping out of Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Guns. But yesterday, they picked up the mayor of Cincinnati.

For the fact that Junior said nappy headed hos last night. Remind me to turn off the TeeVee. Conversely, now that I’ve seen it written a lot, I think the consensus is that it is spelled hos and not hoes.

Imus Fired

The World is safe now. Or is it?

Will Al Sharpton now turn his attention to the gangster rap music world?

Needless to say, yesterday’s blog controversy started a bit of a storm. Some notes:

Sean notes that JL has a long rap sheet at the BBB.

Bob Krumm reminds us that Google is forever.

R. Neal says:

What I found interesting is that they charge the job seeker (in this case a lot of money), and if I understand it correctly they don’t guarantee a placement.

I’ve been extremely fortunate to not have to look for a job in quite some time, so this was a surprise to me. From experience on the hiring end, I thought the employer always pays the placement fee. The Mrs. said that charging the applicant a fee is a common practice that has been around for a long time. That was news to me.

That’s news to me too. I’ve personally used headhunters a lot, both as prospective employee and as an employer looking to take someone on. In an employer capacity, I have paid anywhere from 15% – 30% of the hire’s salary to the headhunter. I have never, as a prospective employee, paid someone to find me a job. I think only entertainers do that.

From a potential employee standpoint, I’ve found that networking is usually the best route. Because, trust me, that 15% – 30% they pay a headhunter can be applied to salary.

I’ve had issues with some headhunters before.

Jonathan asks:

What is the must-have baby gear? What should I not bother with? Any advice?

We’ve seriously considered getting a second dishwasher. But we don’t know where she’d sleep*.

Start buying diapers now. Seriously, pick up one box whenever you’re at the store.

* Kidding, the dishes are my job.

Update: Not relevant now, but don’t bother with child proof locks on your cabinets. By the time you need them, they can figure them out. And they’re a pain.

I’ve made fun of me over the lack of content here lately. And so have others. I’ve written longer posts that are more thinky than linky. Lately, it’s more linky than thinky. But I’ve been doing this a while. Frankly, I’m out of shit to say. Want to talk about issues? I have. Pick one. Abortion, death penalty, jury nullification, and host of others. I’ve said what I thought. Some, I’ve even almost completely stopped talking about, like eminent domain (too depressing) and dog bans (because they seem to have stopped becoming popular). So, that’s why we have these mostly shorter posts, one-liners, links and dick jokes. Conversely, since this started (probably about late last year), traffic has gone up. Go figure. I guess blog readers have short attention spans too.

I also like to promote other blogs that I think are good and that have less traffic than I do. If I write some long post about their post, you’re not gonna go visit. You’ll read my post. But if I link to it and say gun porn or heh, you’ll go visit. I’d like to think I’m at least partially responsible for the increased readership of one of my favorite blogs. I remember when I first started out at this thing and some established blog would throw me a link. They’d send 200 people my way and I thought that was cool, since I was getting 35 hits per day and 25 of those were me. And the smaller blogs are appreciative of that.

And, one other thing, people take this blogging business way too seriously. And that includes me. This whole Knoxviews thing has me kinda bummed (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, see here and here. Or here for the Cliff Notes version). It’s like losing an old friend. Or, you know, having a falling out with an old friend. You know, the kind where they tell you you’re not welcome in their house anymore because you got all hammered, made an ass of yourself and maybe pissed on their grass after commenting on their wife’s tits? Oh, never happened to you? Oops.

As part of that, there’s been some criticism of yours truly and I shall address it, and some other general notes on the blog, now.

I make shit up. It’s true. Just above, I did. The casual reader thinks Wow, uncle, did you really get all hammered, make an ass of yourself and piss on your friends grass after commenting on their wife’s tits? No. It’s creative license. And, honestly, I’ve found that made up stories are more effective when they’re crude. I guess people relate. I dunno. So, not everything you read here is real or really happened.

Comments: Your comments stand. Period. If you leave a comment here, it will stay unless it is 1) spam or 2) discloses someone’s personal information. I have, in the past, also modified comments that attempt to play google bomb games. But I don’t even do that anymore since comments now use the nofollow feature. (ETA: And I think I’ve deleted/edited comments from two commenters because they were just insult-laden crap). Update: See.

I don’t really care for blog-dick-size-measuring. I don’t care if you get more or less hits than I do and I don’t think any more or less if you do or don’t. Traffic could get cut down to nothing tomorrow and the only impact it would have on me is that the inconsequential amount of money I make from ads would drop.

Anyone can post at The Gun Blogs provided their posts are 1) not spam and 2) gun related. Anti-gunners are welcome to post there but anti-gunners simply don’t come out in droves on the internet. See The Brady Campaign’s Blog for evidence, where 90+% of their comments come from pro-gun people.

I still love little baby ducks.

Some say: But uncle doesn’t write much original content. They’re right, I don’t these days. This post and many others acknowledge that. I just ain’t feeling it. I think there are stages of blogging:

Stage 1: You start the blog because you got shit to say.

Stage 2: You say your shit, no one cares.

Stage 3: Having said your shit, you start criticizing or praising other people’s shit.

Stage 4: People notice you criticizing or praising their shit. People start to care.

Stage 5: You realize you get more input and affirmation when criticizing or praising other people’s shit. And it’s easier. (I think SayUncle is about here)

Stage 6: You just link shit and occasionally talk about shit you got to say.

Stage 7: You’re weary of talking shit. Same shit, different day.

Stage 8: You no longer have shit to say.

And that’s that.

So, the bottom line is: Remember, I do this to entertain me, not you. If it no longer entertains me, I’ll stop.

Clear as mud?

Update: Anon in comments recommends Stage 9: you give up blogging, then occasionally post something insightful on other peoples blogs.

And and the SSDD reference in Stage 7.

Never heard of that.

Henry lever 22.

Rich is organizing another local blogger get together.

Dave Kopel has an article on presidential hopefuls and their position on the second amendment.

Blogger Kat Coble was served papers by attorneys representing JL Kirk & Associates for a post she did about some rather, err, curious behavior that would have sent my scam detector off too. Here’s the original post and here’s a follow up. They have demanded she remove all posts and comments or she’ll be sued.

Here’s the letter transcribed.

* I mean, I don’t intend to injure the character or diminish the reputation of a business. I just think they’re a bunch of asshats.

Update: Brittney is running the play-by-play.

In other news, someone should post this at Knoxviews.com. *giggle*

Update 2: Kinda funny. But this story just took off on the blogs and scored an instalanche. Now, anyone researching JL Kirk on the web will find out about it. They’ve probably done more damage with this than her original post did. In other news, don’t send bloggers stuff that makes you look like an asshat. They tend to blog about it.

Behold the awesome power of Al Gore’s Internets.

Seems that Global Warming is responsible for violence in Philly. Last week, it was guns.

A summary of 122,031,244 poker hands ranked by expected value of the hand.

And Ed Miller has 6 Must-Have and Mostly Free Poker Tools You May Not Know About.

Who cares? And Jay adds one more to the list.

Short version: I never heard of it until I wanted to run for president. And for QOTD:

But the right to keep and bear arms has no meaning if politicians are free to impose any kind of gun control they think “works.” In the D.C. gun ban decision that Giuliani says he supports, a federal court overruled the judgment of local officials because it was inconsistent with the Second Amendment.

Update: Ironic that his ad keeps popping up here.

Stacey Campfield on some legislation in the TN house:

Well. Something passed.

They passed a tobacco bill but I don’t think anyone knows for sure what passed.

Really? I’m glad such care, attention to detail, and understanding is put into the bills considered by the legislature that affect the lives of Tennesseans.

In other news, I’d like to propose the following bill:

No Senator nor Representative in The State can vote for or against a bill unless said legislator can pass, with at least 85% proficiency, a multiple choice exam about the bill in question.

So many laws get passed and so few seem to know a thing about them. Yet, they vote for them anyway.

Here’s a presser on why gun nuts aren’t important because there are so few of us. It says:

Contrary to public claims by the gun industry and the gun lobby, firearms ownership has declined dramatically over the past 35 years according to new survey data from the General Social Survey (GSS) released today by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) at the University of Chicago.

Well, the problem with their statement is that, err, no one in the gun lobby is saying that. At least that I know of. What we (and by we, remember that to the VPC I am the gun lobby too) have been saying is that there was a decline for decades in gun ownership but recently (specifically after 9/11, Katrina and liberal CCW laws) gun ownership has increased quite a bit. Specifically, handgun sales have increased. And this increase was the first increase in probably decades. And there’s also the fact that gun makers are still making guns. Where do those go? See past posts on gun sales here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Bitter has more and notes:

More than a third of American homes have guns. I bet that’s more than have the hottest selling gaming device.

Well, I’ve never seen a Swedish Mauser that looks like that.

Via AC, comes this post on the online gambling ban:

Look, this has nothing to do with protecting the morality and sanctity of America. This is about greed and corporate power. Call it what it is. And, any conservative Congressman who supported this should examine his or her own ideology.

I think that I am most bothered by this issue because of its implications. For years now, the U.S. Government has been trying to get its greedy little paws all over Internet commerce. And, moves like this just evidence the government’s intent, even further.

Yes, it could be the opening salvo in the .gov getting its mitts on internet commerce. But, more importantly, it is a merely a protectionist racket likely paid for by brick and mortar casinos to protect their interests. Except horse-race betting, which is still legal because it’s gambling for the wealthy.

That and more from the Top 100 April Fool’s Day Hoaxes. Via Tom.

Oh Nos! You can exercise a constitutional right. In less than ten minutes.

Today a sad change has been made on KnoxViews.

A decision has been made by Randy Neal and the KnoxViews team to change the site rules so only “Trusted Users” can post to the KnoxViews site. The short hand for “Trusted Users” means liberal democrats.

This occurred after complaints from fellow KnoxViews bloggers that their posts had been removed from the front page. Mr. Neal patiently explained it was his blog and he and his team decide what is worthy of being on the front page. Mr. Neal made it clear he is the decider. On several separate occasions Mr. Neal changed the User Agreement to answer the questions from dissatisfied KnoxViews bloggers.

Each time the User Agreement was changed it became more doctrinaire, restrictive, and left leaning. The term “Progressive” was changed to mean “liberal democrat” because people questioned what progressive meant. Today it has been changed again to read, “KnoxViews is a progressive (i.e. “liberal”, although responsible opposing conservative viewpoints are welcome) community space for citizens of Knoxville and the surrounding community to meet, organize, and discuss news, politics, events, and issues affecting the community.”

The question now becomes who are the “responsible opposing conservative viewpoints”? Are there any?

The question of what the word “open” meant was also challenged. Tempers flared yesterday when Mr. Neal described fellow KnoxViews blogger, the former GOP Chairman of Knox County Chad Tindell, as one of the “token Republicans” of KnoxViews. Slowly but surely an open neutral blog drifted left until today it took a hard “left turn“.

Is KnoxViews representative of Knoxville? Or is it only representative of a small portion of Knoxville?

KnoxViews owner Randy Neal explained, “It was an interesting experiment while it lasted. Sadly it has come to an end, mainly because of the time involved in dealing with the complaints and policing the site.”

Did KnoxViews lose its openness today? Only the readers can make that decision. Without a level playing ground will KnoxViews become an echo chamber of only far left thinking? If so, will it have any relevance in East Tennessee?

Update: SayUncle Adds:

I do appreciate everyone’s lesson on capitalism and Mr. Neal’s property rights. No one is disputing that.

My issue is that when he first started it, he asked me to participate. So, I did. Now, my kind ain’t wanted there no more.

Update: Randy Neal Counter Point

Background here. David has an interview with the owner.

Quiz: The men in charge of other men who patrol the streets with guns should be promoted based on . . .

1) performance and testing.

2) because they’re a certain color.

If you picked 2), The Tennessean agrees.

Policing is serious and dangerous business that can result in people getting killed or put away for a long time. I’m sorry, but I want the most qualified person based on their performance being in charge. And I don’t care what color they are.

April 15 is Buy Again to Annoy [pick arbitrary anti-gun person here] Day. Traction Control, an FFL and blogger, is offering deals to bloggers. He has his inventory posted too: Handguns and Long guns.

J Floyds Golf and Guns. Via MKS.

I mentioned my first text message here. Last night at the local poker tourney, I got my second (and third through eighth). It was from someone named [redacted]. She wanted to know if we could meet later. She said we met at the ambp (I dunno if that’s text messaging shorthand for something). I tried to be nice and tell her that we’d never met and she had the wrong number. She kept telling me I was wrong and asked what my problem was. I finally just had to stop replying. I may have just ruined some young couple’s relationship.

The funny part is that I’m keeping everyone at the poker table abreast of the situation for laughs. And, finally, one player (a charming older lady) says: I’d stop responding. It’s probably Stone Phillips from To Catch A Predator.

I covered them here. They’re Idaho’s oldest gun shop and the ATF is bringing them a world of hurt over an immaterial amount of clerical errors. Today, they are in the press:

A gun shop here is going national with its fight against the federal government.

Ryan Horsley’s family-run gun store, Red’s Trading Post, is possibly the oldest gun shop in Idaho. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives stripped Red’s of its license March 5. A federal judge upheld ATF’s decision last week.

Horsley has gone onto the airwaves, protesting a perceived “attack” against the Second Amendment, which he says underlies the ATF’s motivation for revoking licenses.

Horsley’s media debut came April 8 with a local TV commercial. Last Tuesday, he interviewed on Jack Blood’s Deadline Live, a Texas-based nationally syndicated radio talk show.

The facts Horsley refers to are a nonprofit group’s report that shows an 80 percent decline in gun shops since 1994 and a Shooting Sports Retailer Magazine report that found ATF license revocations increased 600 percent in five years.

Since 1993, the number of federally licensed gun shops in Idaho has dropped 54 percent, from 2,627 to 1,189. Some dealers attribute the decline to tougher licensing rules and increased competition from large retailers like Wal-Mart and the Sportsman’s Warehouse.

Here’s their website and here’s some info on the case, and here’s a link to a petition.

I really don’t have much to say lately. Hence all the linky and the absence of thinky.

Colt LE 1020 with pics and narrative and stuff.

Matt G. on, err, me:

If your attention span is short, you’ll love this guy. Prolific numbers of 6-line posts in a day are the norm. 9 April 2007 had, IIRC, nine postings.

His favorite reference book as a kid appears to have been The Comprehensive Guide to North American… Hey! Let’s Go Ride Our Bikes!

Heh. Ayup. That is, in fact, how I introduced myself at the Gun Blogger Rendezvous. I said I was a short attention span blogger. And that the reason I do this is to . . . look a monkey.