NRA to score votes on Sotomayor’s confirmation.

The kids dig watermelon. Trouble is, we can never eat a whole one before it goes bad. So, I started making watermelon popsicles. Fill your blender with watermelon and hit the juice setting. Then strain to get rid of pieces of seed. Place in a popsicle tray overnight and the kids love them.

Also, the latest creation is, and I am not making this up, cucumber popsicles. Our cucumber plants are out of control and, frankly, we can’t go through them all, even giving them to our neighbors. This is a bit more work but is delicious. Put a quarter cup of lime juice and a half cup of sugar in a pan and heat it up. While the sugar is dissolving, seed and peel 3 whole cucumbers. Put them in the blender and add your sugar and lime juice mix and hit the juice setting. Freeze in popsicle trays over night. No need to strain these.

I laughed: It took President Obama six months to pick a dog for the White House, but he wants Congress to pass a massive health care reform bill in two weeks!

I mentioned before the .gov’s plan could kill people by banning electronic cigarettes. Now, the FDA has stopped some shipments of them at the border. Jacob Sullum notes the weak testing standards of creation science:

It seems clear that the FDA already has decided to ban e-cigarettes and is now seeking evidence to back up that decision. This approach, which replaces science and consumer protection with puritanism and bureaucratic pigheadedness, sacrifices the interests—and possibly the lives—of smokers who could dramatically reduce their disease risks by switching to e-cigarettes.

An independent film made in East Tennessee. Via MKS.

And the effects of gun control.

Tennessee passed a law banning texting while driving. I called it stupid because endangerment already covers that and I said it would be unenforceable. Seems that most phones do other things. My phone is a word processor, data processor, camera, video camera, Mp3 player, web browser, GPS, data storage, email reader, RSS aggregator, other stuff I can’t remember and I think it’s even a phone too. So, if I am using a lawful application (like making a phone call since dialing is lawful, using my GPS, or hitting next on the MP3 player), how can officer friendly determine if I’m doing something lawful or texting? Well, he can’t.

I mentioned before their highly scientific method of scanning news reports to count incidents involving folks with handgun carry permits. Tom Humphrey notes what I mentioned then, that the study excludes three incidents in Tennessee. And it does. Of course, the study also includes some folks who did not actually have a carry permit and includes folks who were charged but were never convicted. Linoge notes:

they used the word “killed” and not the word “murdered”, and they specified “criminal charges”, but not “criminal convictions”. Both of those are remarkably significant rephrasings of the debate

And, of course, that’s out of over 3.5M permit holders nationwide.

Via Mike, we learn that the press is suddenly concerned about state sovereignty:

Concealed-weapons measure shoots holes in state sovereignty.

Go on.

It makes no sense to make cities such as Los Angeles and Boston, which have significant urban crime, to conform to the politics of rural places. Nor is there much sense in forcing urban police officers to make instant decisions on the legitimacy of pieces of paper handed to them by menacing looking people packing heat.

Yet, the same press is usually willing to support forcing rural areas to comply with urban policies.

Also, the article is called Our view on fighting crime, equating lawful handgun carry permit holders with criminals.

This seems kinda stupid:

You can order thousands of dollars of $1 coins on your credit card at face value, and the mint will ship them to you overnight free of charge. They are treated as a purchase, not a cash advance, so not only do you not pay finance charges, but you earn airline miles or cashback rewards just like a regular purchase. You can then immediately take the coins to the bank and deposit them to start earning interest, and you don’t have to pay for them until the due date on your next credit card bill.

And, hey, if you’re about to default on your credit cards, why not order a ton of money and have it shipped to your door!

I’ve never seen a need but the case for pepper spray.

A settlement:

A federal court jury awarded A.R.M.S. Inc., a designer of accessories and attachments for small arms weapons for 30 years, in excess of $1.8 million in damages in a lawsuit alleging theft of trade secrets and breach of fiduciary duty against Stephen P. Troy, Jr. and his company, Troy Industries, Inc., of Lee, MA.

The I-team discovers that, yes, public officials are above the law but I-team reporters are not.

What do Phil Bredesen and Sarah Palin have in common?

By fact-checking me on health care reform.

Plus what we can learn from the debacle that is TennCare.

Apparently, in yesterday’s reciprocity vote, a number of senators voted yes because they realized the bill would not pass and wanted to better their pro-gun record. Pathetic.

You can own John Browning’s house!

Laurel: My mom knows more about weed than I do.

In Colorado:

This single shooting death in 19 years led Forest Supervisor Bob Leaverton to close the range indefinitely on Tuesday. That will cause some recreational shooters to practice their sport in more dangerous locations.

According to a poll, the most trusted news anchor is Jon Stewart. I’m not surprised. Hell, I agree. At least I know where his biases lie.

Sebastian is blogging the vote on the Thune amendment.

Update: notable democrats voting for the bill.

Update: Final vote 58-39. Majority but it needed 60 to pass.

Update: Votes tallied.

Apparently, threatening telemarketers over the phone is an act of terrorism.

Mentioned before the FBI Agent arrested and charged with dealing firearms without a license. David Codrea has an update: Is FBI agent charged with illegal gun dealing just a collector?

13 year old girl arrested with machine gun. In England.

Apparently, Obama is going to get on the prime time TeeVee and tell us all about how he saved the economy:

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel told The New York Times Obama intends to use the news conference as a “six-month report card,” to talk about “how we rescued the economy from the worst recession”

Followed by why we need to pass energy, environment, and health care bills.

Meanwhile, those of us here in the real world who notice that our payroll is running about 50% what it was last year and margins and volume are down will have questions. And be told that You’re going to destroy my presidency.

Update: Michael in comments: Mission Accomplished!

Why NYC’s gun laws are there:

because the Irish and Jewish mobsters running Tammany Hall in the late 19th/early 20th century did not want to compete with new Italian mafiosi immigrants who were moving into NYC at the time. So “Big” Tim Sullivan created the current “may issue” system of discretionary pistol licensing to keep anyone Tammany Hall deemed undesirable (i.e. average citizens) from legally having handguns for self-defense against criminals, including the criminals running Tammany.

Seniors learning to use canes as weapons. In Maryland.

Google labeled as objectionable the ideas of sassy libertarian dykes.

Via another pondering getting off of google too.

In the UK: The number of knife deaths in areas targeted by an anti-knife crime scheme has risen, the Home Office has said.

A DKOS diarist on the American Hunters and Shooters Association:

So when I saw a pro-firearms group that was based on the Democratic side of the fence, I started jumping for joy. Finally, a group that supports the other issues alongside gun rights that I can get behind.

Oh happy day!

And then I started looking into the group. My enthusiasm waned.

Well, the group is a false flag operation designed only to elect Democrats.