Flying white rats

I don't care how far they migrate, or how cute they look eating bread crumbs thrown into the air. The truth is that Sea Gulls are flying white rats.

The rats are also protected by the force of law.

When two unshaven men wearing camouflage pants and plaid shirts walked into Cappy's Chowder House in Camden on Thursday afternoon, owner Johanna Tutone thought she was about to feed a pair of hungry duck hunters.
After the men presented badges identifying themselves as federal fish-and-wildlife agents and said they had come for her 150-year-old stuffed gull, Tutone concluded it had to be a prank.
"I thought they were joking," she said. "I thought any minute someone would come up the stairs and say, 'Gotcha!'"
But the men were serious. Based on a complaint they had received from a customer, they told her they had come to confiscate the stuffed Greater Black Backed Gull that has been perched upstairs in her restaurant for more than 20 years, mounted under glass and surrounded by an ornate frame.

after some negotiations they have almost reached a compromise...if you want to call it that.

She spent Friday brokering a deal, with the help of her state representative and the office of U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, to place the bird in a museum. Though it's not yet final, she said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife agents have agreed to the idea and she plans to offer the gull to the Penobscot Marine Museum.

She can't have it, but a museum can.

I guess if they have time to follow up on petty items like this then all important things have been solved. No?

The foreign threat of linking

In Greece a man was arrested and his hard drives seized. All because he LINKED to a satirical article about a politician.

Antonis Tsipropoulos (Αντώνης Τσιπρόπουλος), the administrator of the Greek blog aggregating service blogme.gr, has been sued, arrested and jailed, because one of the linked RSS feeds on his site had satirical content. Although the service was unrelated in any way other than linking to the allegedly offending blog, the blogme.gr server was shut down and its hard drives were confiscated.

Mr Tsipropoulos posted an explanation for the service's downtime, describing his arrest but naming neither the satirical blog nor the plaintiff. Tsipropoulos later removed the explanation at his lawyers' advice because it might appear to be contemptive to the authorities, because it stated that an aggregating service has nothing to do with the various feeds' content. Although Tsipropoulos gave no clues to the identity of the plaintiff, the only satirical blog known to appear in blogme.gr lampooned televangelist and national mysticist Dimosthenis Liakopoulos. It is suspected that Liakopoulos is the plaintiff. More will be known in the upcoming trial.

Now as horrible as this sounds, it could be worse.

All he did was link to the blog.

How could it get worse. Ask George Bush's administration about the Convention on Cybercrime.

According to the EFF, "The treaty requires that the U.S. government help enforce other countries' 'cybercrime' laws even if the act being prosecuted is not illegal in the United States. That means that countries that have laws limiting free speech on the Net could oblige the F.B.I. to uncover the identities of anonymous U.S. critics, or monitor their communications on behalf of foreign governments. American ISPs would be obliged to obey other jurisdictions' requests to log their users' behavior without due process, or compensation."
Those are legitimate issues to worry about, but among some conservative commentators, the fear goes far beyond thorny questions of international relations. Distrust of "leftists," "internationalists," and "Eurocrats" is palpable. "Even worse, the Cybercrime Treaty is open to all nations to ratify," writes one commentator. "That means a future leftist President could even allow Communist China to sign on to the treaty and direct U.S. law enforcement to investigate Chinese dissidents, even Americans, based in the United States."

How nice. Now the article about the convention says it is not all bad. Just a little.

I cry bull. They said the same think about the Patriot rape act. Look how safe that made our freedoms.

Beware who you link to. You never know who is watching.

Πηγαίνετε απορροφά το πέος μου εσείς λυπημένοι μικροί τύραννοι

Going down that dark path has become so easy

From this article and other people's takes on it, our government is not our friend. Hell. The government is not even an honorable enemy.

In a stealth maneuver, President Bush has signed into law a provision which, according to Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), will actually encourage the President to declare federal martial law (1). It does so by revising the Insurrection Act, a set of laws that limits the President's ability to deploy troops within the United States. The Insurrection Act (10 U.S.C.331 -335) has historically, along with the Posse Comitatus Act (18 U.S.C.1385), helped to enforce strict prohibitions on military involvement in domestic law enforcement. With one cloaked swipe of his pen, Bush is seeking to undo those prohibitions.

Public Law 109-364, or the "John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007" (H.R.5122) (2), which was signed by the commander in chief on October 17th, 2006, in a private Oval Office ceremony, allows the President to declare a "public emergency" and station troops anywhere in America and take control of state-based National Guard units without the consent of the governor or local authorities, in order to "suppress public disorder."

President Bush seized this unprecedented power on the very same day that he signed the equally odious Military Commissions Act of 2006. In a sense, the two laws complement one another. One allows for torture and detention abroad, while the other seeks to enforce acquiescence at home, preparing to order the military onto the streets of America. Remember, the term for putting an area under military law enforcement control is precise; the term is "martial law."

That flushing noise is our freedoms disappearing.

Quote

"Democracy: The system by which 51% of the people may vote to KILL AND EAT the other 40%"
- L. Neil Smith

I'm living history

When I was younger I moved the families old stereo into my room. With it I came two records of classical music, and the three record Woodstock collection.

I never studied the counter revolution that occurred. Not a subject of deep interest. The anti-war movement was also not a big thing to me. I did read some on the SLA, but that's about it.

I look around and see it in a totally different light. I see the modern anti-war movement and see the same mocking attitude towards them.

I'm reliving a time in history. I also see that the old saying is so true. "Those who do not study history, are cursed to repeat it".

Why can't the gov admit that Iraq is a screwed up situation created for political gain? Why can't they admit that there is no good way to withdraw?

I'm understanding the dread that many felt when the war dragged out much longer then it should have in Vietnam, A system out of touch with reality, the disdain shown towards the protectors on the street corner.

I'm living history and I don't like it.

Who would have guessed?

Maybe most of the gun activists in the entire world.

What they guessed, prophesized, and foretold, was that the gun ban/buyback in Australia would fail. It did.

A recent study entitled “Gun Laws and Sudden Death: Did the Australian Firearms Legislation of 1996 Make a Difference?” published in the British Journal of Criminology examines the history of gun control laws enacted in Australia. These laws include a complete ban on pump action shotguns, semi-automatic shotguns, and semi-automatic rifles. Australia also implemented a massive government sponsored Gun Buyback Program. That program has spent $500 million collecting 640,000 arbitrarily banned firearms.

The authors cited data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) to reach their conclusions that the gun law reforms have had no effect whatsoever on murder or suicide rates when a firearm is used. It is true that those rates have declined, but there was an established historical decline occurring before these laws were passed. They did nothing to increase the rate of that decline and have been expensively ineffective.

Of course there are those who feel failure is just fine if it gets firearms off the streets.

Wow!

I simply do not beleive they said it. Openly at that.

"Strong forces" want police to carry guns if the Taser stun gun trial proves unsuccessful, New Zealand's top police officer says.
Police Commissioner Howard Broad conceded last night there was pressure for officers to be armed if the trial, being carried out in Wellington and Auckland, proved the 50,000-volt weapons were unsuitable for use.
...........
"We are the coercive arm of the state that must be able to impose the will of the state on those who would thumb their noses at the laws, and we must have the power and ability to do that."

Obey us OR ELSE.

My take on Tennessee politics

Adult content warning. Adult content warning. Adult content warning

The campaign for the senate seat here in Tennessee is getting pretty hot and close to the wire. Polls have Corker up just a few points, but with normal error rates of 3-5% or more this one is still up for grabs.

Normally I would not blog on the subject of Tennessee politics. It's not a subject of this blog for the most part, and I'm simply not interested in this race.

That changed with this ad from Ford.



Politicians who use the church for gain I normally have one word for. Bastards. In my view it is just short of holding a bunny up and saying his opponent would kill "fluffy" if elected. It pretty much makes me work for their opponent.

Now his opponent has put out some pretty impressive ads, that are full of crap also.



50% reduction in crime. WOW!. Awesome! Also wrong and easily provable by anyone with a computer. Did Bob Corker just lie to his own mom. SHAME!

With every seat in the Senate important to the party in control this campaign is important. So important that the RNC put out their own ad. Not a pro-Corker ad, but a Anti-Ford ad.

It's a hum-dinger.



In the middle of this sarcastic ad is a figure that I will call oral AnnieHot Lips.



This little blonde chicky has created a small firestorm down here in Tennessee. At one point Ford went to a playboy party. That's it. A party. Not an orgy or a swingers party. Just a party.

The first issue is what some are calling subtle racism. Yes. The hearkening cry of "racism" fills the airwaves. Some say all of us white guys will now NOT vote for Ford because we are all angry he might have breed with one of our pure white women folk. That's the subtle racism I guess. If they had used a black chicky(I would have called her "chocolate delight") us white boys might still have voted for him.

The second issue for me is that I don't care if he went to a playboy party. Notice there has never been a charge that he "Had"(in the biblical sense) a playboy bunny. Just that he went to the party. As my mom says "Whipty'fucking'do". I don't care if he had a three way between a Puerto Rican midget, a white playboy bunny and himself. What he does in his private life is his own business.

I would be disappointed in him if he did go to a playboy party and did not enjoy a nice set of natural 36 DD's in his face.

There are many reasons not to vote for the guy. The man is a democrat who plays the role of a conservative, and fails at both.

Dear Tennessee. Get over the damn party and dislike the guy for what he is. A bad politician who will not serve freedom or you.

Blogspot

Blogspot sucks. Enough said.

Side project

Just a small announcement. This blog is not going on hiatus, as much as slowing way down. I'm starting a small side project that will keep me occupied for the short term. Blogging will fall to a post every day or so.

Wish me luck on the side project.

Quote

As civil rulers, not having their duty to the people before them, may attempt to tyrannize, and as the military forces which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow citizens, the people are confirmed by the article in their right to keep and bear their private arms. — Tench Coxe in `Remarks on the First Part of the Amendments to the Federal Constitution' under the Pseudonym "A Pennsylvanian" in the Philadelphia Federal Gazette, June 18, 1789 at 2 col. 1.

A divided society

There really is no greater symbol to show the divide between the people of a society and the government then this.

A 67-year-old Brazilian grandmother who shot and wounded a bag-snatcher in Rio de Janeiro will get a medal from the crime-ridden city's legislators even though she faces trial for illegal gun possession.

A spokeswoman for the municipal legislative chamber said on Wednesday deputies had voted unanimously to award pensioner Maria Dora dos Santos Arbex with the Pedro Ernesto Merit medal, for exceptional service to the city of Rio de Janeiro.

The council, made up of people, are tired of the crime. The legal side of the government reacts as if she is on the same level as any criminal.

People do not understand why gun enthusiasts do not trust the courts and administration here in our own country. Maybe this is an example to help you.

The system blindly goes forward even when the reality shows it is wrong.

He just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich

But if you do it in the USA it may now be a crime.

THE US has banned Vegemite, even to the point of searching Australians for jars of the spread when they enter the country.

The bizarre crackdown was prompted because Vegemite has been deemed illegal under US food laws.

The great Aussie icon - faithfully carried around the world by travellers from downunder - contains folate, which under a technicality, America allows to be added only to breads and cereals.

Why you may ask.

Kraft spokeswoman Joanna Scott said: "The (US) Food and Drug Administration doesn't allow the import of Vegemite simply because the recipe does have the addition of folic acid.''

The same folic acid that breads and cereals crow about adding.

This is the dark side of regulations. Blindly following the rules and putting a check in every box on a government form.

Any of my readers willing to ship me some contraband vegemite from Australia? I feel like being a criminal today.

Ooops! Our bad.

Our government and the Canadian government got him tortured. The problem is that he was innocent. How do they deal with him now. Ban him.

Syrian torturers could find nothing to implicate Canadian Maher Arar in al-Qaida or any other terrorist ties. An official Canadian government report agreed with that finding and recommended that Arar be compensated for his 10 months in a Syrian prison.

Still, Arar remains on the U.S. government terror watch list. And the United States has not admitted fault for holding him incommunicado for a week, and then, five days after his first telephone call, putting him on a private jet and flying him to the Syrian prison.

Arar and his American lawyer, Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, were invited to Washington on Wednesday to receive human rights awards from the Institute for Policy Studies. Ratner came from his New York headquarters to accept for the center, a longtime campaigner against torture and other abuses.

Because the watch list will not let Arar enter the United States, he had to stay in Canada and participate by telephone in a discussion of his case and of the U.S. law signed Tuesday by President Bush on treatment and prosecution of detainees. At the awards presentation, he delivered a videotaped message of thanks in which he described his ordeal, which began on Sept. 26, 2002, at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and ended with his arrival in Canada in early October 2003.

Keeping our dirty laundry out is job one for the US gov.

infantocracy

In Nevada they are going to be vote on a ballot initiative to allow small mount of marijuana. The Las Vegas Review-Journal has just recently came out in support of the issue. It is how they endorsed it that impressed me.

"Examining the ballot questions" (10/19/06)
"Question 7 would allow adults to legally possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana. It would also increase penalties for driving under the influence of drugs and impose taxes and licensing regulations on marijuana retailers and wholesalers. Money raised by the taxes would fund state drug and alcohol rehabilitation programs. Opponents argue passionately that the initiative sends the wrong message to children. But arguing that in order to protect kids we must limit the rights of adults to make their own personal choices is to advocate the creation of an infantocracy and a return to alcohol Prohibition. In fact, many of this nation's drug policies have long been expensive failures. Let's try something new and allow law enforcement to redirect resources to more pressing priorities. Vote yes on Question 7."

The word for today is Infantocracy.

Being PC may kill you.

I ignore the PC crowd for the simple fact that I ignore idiots, for the most part. I just find being PC hard to ignore when it could lead to your death, or being hurt.

Seems that Omaha Nebraska has banned smoking in many places. The police chief has created a life threatening situation in the name of being correct. He feels that if you see someone smoking, you should call 911. I repeat for effect. If you see someone smoking, call 911.

The local emergency coordinator and Omaha police don't agree over how residents should report illegal smoking after the city's smoking ban goes into effect next week.

Douglas County Emergency director Mark Conrey said people should not call 911 every time they see someone light up in a restricted area. He said the very idea threatens Douglas County's emergency system.

But on Wednesday, Omaha police said residents should dial 911 to report smokers. Police said that when the city's new smoking ban kicks in, 911 dispatchers will be ready to deal with the calls.

When calls from accident and crime victims goes unanswered, people die. An overloaded system brings death by smoking.

The police chief should be fired at the minimum, and ran out of the city at the most. Some people should not be trusted to work security at a mall.

[via overlawyered]

Quote

"We must always remember that, as Americans, we all have a common enemy -- an enemy that is dangerous, powerful, and relentless. I refer, of course, to the federal government."
Dave Barry

It costs $2.25 to be a good citizen

I just spent the last little bit being a "good" member of my community.

I started by going to the city hall and requesting a copy of a draft ordinance that likely will go to the city council soon. I say likely because I also voted to day. The ordinance was sort of on the ballot.

To get the draft I had to fill out an "open records" request. A state level "freedom of information" act. Of course the $.25 per page isn't much, but I got bothered. This draft is not online, nor are most of the ordinances. With the internet as big and easy to use as it is, I have trouble seeing why my city doesn't put things like this online. Why they need my address and signature to get a copy is beyond me, but I got it.

The city of Smyrna has had a ban on package drinks for a long time. Single drinks, and single serving drinks are ok, just not package. Full cases of beer walk out of stores all over the city, but not packages. Don't ask. I get befuddled thinking about it.

The vote to allow this in the city looks like it will pass, and if it does the ordinance draft goes to the council.

To put it bluntly. I DON"T LIKE IT.

I'm glad the ban is being dropped, but there are still limits on it. You HAVE to reside in the city to own one of the businesses. No reason why, just a form of governmental protectionism.

It is a different limit I don't like. One store per 10,000 people. It makes no sense to me. Why not one store per 8,399, or one store per 12,399, two dogs, and a gerbil? This arbitrary number is bothersome. If placed in here because of a social desire to control the week and drunk, it has failed. Hell. It failed before the ban was dropped. Just south of here is the "City limit liquors". Just a few feet outside of the city. Why? Because the market place demanded it, and they can make a profit. Even if the ban stays in place, the flow of package drinks will still be there, just 3-4 minutes closer.

That is all this ban will effect. 3-4 minutes in a persons life. I have seen the signs all over the city asking you to vote "NO". Yep! Vote "no" and their will be no liquor in this city, crime will go down, and all of our children will get A's on their tests.

3-4 minutes is all it will change.

The market place should be the one to decide how many store a city can support. If we only like one, then the rest will close, and if we all end up booze hounds, then a store on every corner should be allowed. To keep stored from opening "just because" is a damn bad reason.

We, the people, vote with our feet and our money. We are the ones with the final say on how many stores there will be in our city. It is voted on one receipt at a time. Not an arbitrary number in a book.

I plan on addressing the city council next month. We get a whole 3 minutes. I figure I have a better chance at draining the ocean, then getting the council to change, but I have to try.

Gun go BOOM!

Between a KB(Ka-Boom) and a ND(negligent discharge) resides a bad place. A negligent ka-boom.

...remember to take the laser bore-sighter OUT OF THE BARREL before pulling the trigger!

Ouch!

[via Mad Ogre]

Quote

The said Constitution be never construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms. — Samuel Adams, during Massachusetts's Convention to Ratify the Constitution (1788).

SPAM

Looks like my humble blog has entered the big times. Comment SPAM. One of the main reasons I went with Haloscan was that their system of JavaScript kept bot SPAM out. I'm not sure if this is bot SPAM, or the efforts of a lone spammer.

If it does grow to be a problem I may go to BLOGSPOT comments. They have word verification. Something that Haloscan does not have, strangely enough.

Power is..

Power is the knowledge that your brother just went through 100 rounds of 7.62X39 in his new rifle, and needs more badly.

Power is him knowing I have 500 rounds of Wolf in a box at my home just begging to be sent down range.

Power is thinking of making him grovel before selling some to him cheaper then any local gun store.

That's power.

I thought it was a joke at first

With satirical news sites growing, and the nature of the web for "fake" news stories to take on a life of their own, I didn't believe this story to start with. Congress must have solved all of the worlds troubles because now they are studying the nature of virtual economies, and looking into the idea of taxing them.

Booming virtual economies in online worlds such as Second Life and World of Warcraft have drawn the attention of a U.S. congressional committee, which is investigating how virtual assets and incomes should be taxed.

"Right now we're at the preliminary stages of looking at the issue and what kind of public policy questions virtual economies raise - taxes, barter exchanges, property and wealth," said Dan Miller, senior economist for the Joint Economic Committee. "You could argue that to a certain degree the law has fallen (behind) because you can have a virtual asset and virtual capital gains, but there's no mechanism by which you're taxed on this stuff," he said.

The increasing size and public profile of virtual economies, the largest of which have millions of users and gross domestic products that rival those of small countries, have made them increasingly difficult for lawmakers and regulators to ignore.

The nature of all governments is to control. This enters into a whole new realm of control.

Today has been rather disquieting

I have spent the entire day thinking, on and off, that it was Friday. To the point that two times I started talking about what my wife and I will do when she is off work tomorrow..because it will be Saturday.

Quote

Besides the advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation, the existence of subordinate governments, to which the people are attached, and by which the militia officers are appointed, forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any which a simple government of any form can admit of. Notwithstanding the military establishments in the several kingdoms of Europe, which are carried as far as the public resources will bear, the governments are afraid to trust the people with arms. — James Madison, The Federalist Papers, No. 46

Words of truth in an attack

Politics today have fallen to a level that nothing is right, good, or worthy of praise. If a politicians does anything, good or bad, the representatives of the opposing side goes into attack mode. This has left us, as a people, open to such great attacks on our rights, that I fear it is to late to go back.

Like a pearl among swine, one attack did briefly grasp the nature of freedom at a base level.

"If an adult in this country, with his or her own money, wants to engage in an activity that harms no one, how dare we prohibit it because it doesn't add to the GDP or it has no macroeconomic benefit. Are we all to take home calculators and, until we have satisfied the gentleman from Iowa that we are being socially useful, we abstain from recreational activities that we choose?... People have said, What is the value of gambling ? Here is the value. Some human beings enjoy doing it. Shouldn't that be our principle? If individuals like doing something and they harm no one, we will allow them to do it, even if other people disapprove of what they do."

Regretfully this foil will be used by one boot party to attack the current boot party, and not to fight for freedoms.

[via Reason]

Quote

"You seem ... to consider the judges as the ultimate arbiters of all contitutional questions; a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy... The Contitution has erected no such single tribunal." --Thomas Jefferson, 1820

Gun Show.

Going to a Gun show is fun. Going to a gun show and using someone else's money is real fun. Giving those items to the person who gave you the money sucks.

My brother and I went AK shopping at the last Nashville Gun show. He fell in love with my MAK90 the second he finished off his first 30 round magazine. With love in his eyes, he asked me to help get him one.

The first AK we came across was a unknown Rumanian rebuild. Unknown because I don't think anyone would want to claim it. Ever! It looked like it had been rebuild while drugged(dragged?) behind a semi driven by a drunken Rumanian through the streets of Europe. The action worked(mostly), but the paint that looked like it has been applied by a roller brush did not hide problems. $399 was nice, but everything that would be needed would screw that price.

"Just back away slowly" I said and we kept walking.

The next AK we saw was "SEXY!". No other word works. A Yugo AK in the correct calibre. Folding stock, clean, bayonet, and an action that just said "Let's go hunting liberals" when I worked it. It even had a nice after market paint job in a slightly metallic grey. No camo paint pattern, just a clean look. The problem was the $800 price tag. My brother was looking for a "starter" AK, not a loaded floor model. His budget for the day was $750.

So we sadly walked away from the Yugo beauty queen. That hurt people.

We had hoped to run across a SAR 1, but no luck. I noticed that we were about to run out of booths when I saw a whole pile of AK's at the last both on our route through the show. Yes! All folding stocks, all clean, and if rebuilt parts were used, they did good work hiding it. Attempting badly to control the drool factor I went and checked them out. Giving them a brief once over I felt they would work. Only problem is that they were asking $650 for them. That was likely a good price, but near the top of my brothers and I comfort scale.

It was at this point that I declared the gun show a bust. I knew the Bob Pope gun show would be here in town in December and we could get a good one then. My brother was disappointed, but level headed enough to know that hasty purchases normally screwed you.

I then headed back to one table for some ammo. I picked up 40 12 gauge 00 shotgun shells, and 60 rounds of 6.5 Swede for personal usage. All Sellier and Bellot. My wife scurried off and bought me a small bag to carry stuff around in. A bag that she is damned and determined to call a "Man purse".

On the way out I saw a man looking at an AK that I had missed the first time through. There, like an upperclassman debutante laying among the gutter trash, was an AK. This booth had only older bolt action rifles, and some shotguns, yet had one AK set in the center.

I scooted myself over there and gave it a once over. A standard AK from Egypt(mostly). A MAADI. Clean, neat, and seemingly not a rebuild, as the parts looked unused. The price was good at $450. After a bit of talking with my brother he decided that it was "THE ONE", and laid his money down.

Then it gets better in a "screw the government" way. The seller said that he was not a dealer, so no paper work would be required. Just money, and a handshake. Paper work gives me the damn hives.

The rifle included one 30 round magazine, so more was needed. We were heading back to the AK parts table, when I noticed on another "unrelated to AK" table, an item of interest. Two 30 round AK magazines hooked together with a metallic "connecter" device. I had seen them elsewhere at the show, but passed them by. No need for them right now. The thing is this seller wanted $35 for the whole thing. 2X30 round magazines and the connector, individually would have cost $45 or so. With that in hand, and a hundred rounds of JHP wolf ammo from another table, we left.

My brother is now an enemy of the Brady's, and I've never been more proud. Now if I can infect my baby brother with the gun bug, then my work here is done.

Simply mean, yet delightful

An Italian TV show has done to politicians, what we all would like to have occur. They were treated just like us.

No strangers to scandal, or backlash, the nation's honorable members of parliament are front-page news again. This time, over drug use and abuse.

The TV show "Le Iene" - The Hyenas - is famous for its ploys of playful entrapment.

This sting stunt pretended to interview 50 politicians about next year's budget.

What the politicians didn't know was that the "makeup artist," from a nonexistent satellite channel, had collected body cells during the preinterview brow wipe.

The cells were secretly used to test the politicians for drugs.

The results indicated that of the 50 tested, close to a third had indulged within the previous 36 hours - four tested positive for cocaine, 12 for marijuana.

They were given drug tests against their will, and knowledge, just like we have to do to hold most jobs.

Of course the Show was removed from the air before it could be shown. You NEVER screw with the system.

Quote

The whole of the Bill of Rights is a declaration of the right of the people at large or considered as individuals. It establishes some rights of the individual as unalienable and which consequently, no majority has a right to deprive them of. — Albert Gallatin of the New York Historical Society, October 7, 1789.

"Certain Shot"

Came across a rather interesting Brazilian magazine online. Tiro Certo, or "Certain shot" in Portuguese. A firearm based magazine similar to Guns and Ammo.

With articles titled "Em defesa das liberdades individuais", no translation needed, it looks like it is heading in the right direction. This second edition also includes a write up of Guilherme Paraense, the 1920 Olympic gold medalist in Rapid-fire pistol, and bronze in Military revolvers teams 50m.

The magazine came to my attention with this writeup(bad google translation) about it.

The new revita of Weapon and the Ammunition "Certain Shot", publishes in its second edition a news article, with call of layer, on the Alive Movement Brazil. We ask for that all not only write to the magazine being thankful for the given space as well as congratulating them for the courage to launch a magazine on firearms in Brazil. In colloquy with the publishers, they had informed that the "Certain Shot" will be a valuable tool against the attempts to disarm the Brazilian citizens.

I particularly like the last line. Rights. The gun grabbing community simply does not understand the issue of "rights", but the Brazilian people do.

Invisible articles

I've come across lately a problem viewing articles from one site. The International Herald Tribune has some good articles. When I can read them. They use some funky system where the article is in a window, and about half of the time I cannot read it.

Here is an example.

Has anyone else had this problem? When I open other articles on this site I can read most of them.

Damn odd.

Two views of the ATF

The ex ATF head is in trouble.

Now the liberal Boston Globe implies it was not really bad.

Key federal official found to skirt rules

The reality is much different.

Former ATF boss broke rules, inquiry finds


The man who recently departed as director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ordered his staff to help with his nephew's high-school homework, wasting the agency's time and violating ethics rules, an inquiry found Wednesday.
...............
The report found that only the high-school project demonstrated mismanagement by Truscott, whose employees accused him of wasting federal funds, taking costly trips and creating a hostile work environment. Still, investigators described themselves as troubled by Truscott's leadership, hiring practices and financial decisions, including his plan to spend $100,000 on gym equipment for the ATF's new headquarters.

"skirting" sound so soft and innocent. The reality is he ran the place like a fiefdom.

I was the only one there

This regularly planned meeting of Rutherford county libertarians was supposed to occur tonight. I say SUPPOSED to.

The reality is much different. I get there 5 minutes till 7pm and asked the young lady at the front desk where I should go. Her puzzled look instantly forshadowed bad news for me. After explaining who I was there to see, she informed me that there was a Post Office group in the back and that was it. She then scooted off to get the manager.

I was all alone.

At this time I enjoyed a blogger moment. The manager is the husband of Bad Ivy, a local blogger I know, and I sat next to him at the luncheon just last Friday. He told me he had not seen the Libertarians or the Young Republicans for many months. We talked a little but I excused myself to dash to the Smyrna city council meeting. A meeting I had skipped to go to the Libertarian get together.

It looks like either the information and email contact is bad, or there is a different second Tuesday in this month.

Oh well.

I may be the only one there

I consider myself a libertarian. Not a full (Big-L)Libertarian, but a (small-l)libertarian.

Of late I have been going to the town meetings and have gotten interested in politics. Enough so that I figured I should reach out and get in touch with the libertarian party in my county.

The Tennessee Libertarian party's website lead me to the page with county contact and meeting information. For my county the information simply said this.

Rutherford County

Chair: Mark McDaniel
7:00 PM on the second Tuesday of the month at Logan's Roadhouse on Broad Street

I emailed Mark McDaniel about two to three weeks ago and still have not gotten a reply.

I know the Libertarian party is small. The yahoo discussion group has only 257 members for this state.

I may end up the only person there. If so I will be irked. The second Tuesday of each month is also the regular town council meeting for my humble village.

Old people rebelling

Seems even volunteers draw a firm line on government demands.

Levy County's public libraries are struggling to get books checked out or reshelved because retirees who usually handle many of those chores have balked at a requirement that they "pee in a cup" as part of a mandatory drug test for all county volunteers.

"It's not like we are a high-risk group for coming in drunk or high or stoned or whatever," said one volunteer. "This is just a common-sense issue - why are we spending tax money to test 75-year-old grandmothers for marijuana? We should be using that money to buy more books and computers."

The situation has gotten to the point where the pool of 55 volunteers has dwindled to two and the number of hours worked by volunteers in the county's five libraries plunged from 330 in September 2005 to 11 this September, according to county library records. None of the former volunteers contacted by The Sun wanted to be publicly identified in a story about drug-testing.

Fight the power.

The truth coming from them is shocking

A well known gun grabbing politician says the truth for once.

The state governor said gun controls would not have stopped Amish school shooter Charles Roberts from acquiring the 9mm pistol, shotgun, rifle, stun gun, and 600 rounds of ammunition found on his body, because he had no police record or diagnosis of psychological illness.

Laws disarm the people who follow the law, not bad people. There is a difference.
[via Gun Law News]

Cannot resist

The story is simple. Let cops have special rights....because they are so trained.

Who understands firearms better than an ex-cop? Police officers spend their entire careers dealing with guns. They are fully trained to handle all types of firearms, from pistols to shotguns. They know the characteristics of guns, their idiosyncracies and, above all, their potential dangers.

Legislation is now being considered in the state Senate (S-206) and Assembly (A-2158) to amend current laws governing firearms possession by retired law-enforcement officers. Former officers who meet required training and qualification standards will be able to carry a firearm until age 75 without establishing a "justifiable need." Only New Jersey now prevents retired police officers from carrying firearms based on age. Qualified officers from other U.S. jurisdictions will also be allowed to carry in New Jersey. Both laws seek to implement the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act signed by President Bush in 2004.

One line gives why I do not like this idea.

"I'm the only one in this room professional enough to use this Glock."

BOOM!

Quote

The congress of the United States possesses no power to regulate, or interfere with the domestic concerns, or police of any state: it belongs not to them to establish any rules respecting the rights of property; nor will the constitution permit any prohibition of arms to the people; or of peaceable assemblies by them, for any purposes whatsoever, and in any number, whenever they may see occasion. —ST. GEORGE TUCKER'S BLACKSTONE

Don't tell your parents?

This is the tip off that something is really screwed up with this story.

Fly me to the moon? No thanks, said a 13-year-old girl who refused, because of her faith, to write an assignment for her health and physical education class about being the only heterosexual in a lunar colony with 10 homosexuals.

The class at Windaroo Valley State High School, made up of 13- and 14-year-old girls, was given the scenario and told to answer 10 questions, including how it felt to be a "minority" and what they would do to cope with their situation. They were also told to discuss where ideas about homosexuality came from.

While many of the students were uncomfortable with the assignment or said they didn't understand the questions, one girl instantly refused because of her religious faith.

"It is against my beliefs and I am not going there," she told the teacher.

I'm a firm believer in opt out and alternatives to certain things.

It's when I got to this point that I became rather shocked.

According to the Brisbane Sunday Mail of Australia, students were told that details of the assignment were to remain in class and they weren't to discuss it with their parents.

This is f'd up big time. Keeping a secret from your parents is one thing kids are taught not to do, except if it is the state it seems.

The schools reaction to this is even better

The mother was told it would be better if she withdrew her daughter from the public school system and enrolled her in private school.

Homeschooling looks like a better option everyday.

Back from the Luncheon.

Well for me the luncheon is over and I'm here to report back on the drunken reveries.

We ate we talked we laughed. The recipe for a good blog get together.

After we were done eating, they all went and did the family thing by going to a pumpkin farm. I went on home, so I can claim first blogger post on the luncheon.

In attendance was Ivy, Kathy T., Chip, M. McManus, Mark, Todd, Jim and a whole herd of kids.

Good food, great service, and a lot of good talk all around.

I will admit that I was very disappointed. I was hoping for a lot of SAHM(stay at home moms) so I could enjoy a desperate housewives situation. To many guys and husbands to make a move on any.

Good version of this piece

Blogger weekday luncheon

Some local bloggers are getting together for lunch today here in Smyrna. I know most of them, but a husband may be tagging along. As of right now there are 15 conformed people. A pretty big luncheon.

Two sides to this story

One side is the ticket and what is percieved to be stupidity on the part of the police.

17-year-old Boulder High senior faces a $250 fine — stiffer than a ticket for speeding through a school zone — for playing Hacky Sac.

His offense: "releasing projectiles" on the Pearl Street Mall.

"I had no idea Hacky Sac is a crime," Kallen Ford said.

He knows now.

First instinct is to curse the system and polcie.

But first note this.

Stephens, who couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday, escorted Ford to the Pearl Street police annex and issued him a $250 ticket for "releasing projectiles on the mall," according to Ford. He explained that the footbag is a projectile because it flies through the air.

Signs posted along the mall warn, "Do not throw Frisbees or other projectiles."

So the real story is a kid who does not follow posted rules and claims ignorance of them. Not feeling sorry for him today.

Quote

After having thus successively taken each member of the community in its powerful grasp and fashioned him at will, the supreme power then extends its arm over the whole community. It covers the surface of society with a network of small, complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate, to rise above the crowd. The will of man is not shattered, but softened, bent, and guided; men seldom forced by it to act, but they are constantly restrained from acting. Such a power does not destroy, but it prevents existence; it does not tyrannize, but it compresses, enervates, extinguishes, and stupefies a people, till each nation is reduced to nothing better than a flock of timid and industrious animals, of which the government is the shepherd. — Alexis de Tocqueville

Stolen goods from Canada

I'm stuck between a feel good idea, and small theft on one issue. That is of drugs from Canada.

The feel good idea is that we should have the right to try to get a product at a good deal, no matter what our government says. Being frugile is an admirable trait. Getting the government off our back is even better.

One item that people try to get good deals on is drugs. How? The simple act of crossing a border Why spend 2-3 times the money, when a quick trip or mailing to Canada can get the same medicines. Same brand, producer, and language. This little act of wise money usage is in the press a lot of late. The press have a habit of dragging out old sick people who depend on certain medicines to function as icing on this issue.

One problem. It's theft in my view.

Drug company develops drug A. They sell it for a dollar a pill. Canada is a socialist country, with the resulting socialized medicine. They feel the drug company is making to much money, or that the people should have the drugs at a low cost. whatever moralizing they use, the end result is the same. So damn the company and full socialized medicine ahead. They use the force of law and make the company sell it for 50 cents in Canada.

It's for the people so it has to be good..Right?

In my view. When you get goods from a company that is forced to sell them by legal threat under fair market value, then it is theft, or at least enjoying the fruits of theft.

There have been times in my life that I needed a good cheap car and fast. My need for that car does not allow me to go up to someone and buy theirs for half price or less. My needs do not trump his rights. If I force him to sell me a thousand dollar car at half that, it's called theft. Even if I did pay him the $500.

Then why is it good for a state to do it? Why is it good for it to be celebrated when we enjoy the fruits of theft?

I just read an article that said the government is not going to stop the flow of drugs coming from Canada.

Since November 2005, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents have seized prescription drugs that 40,000 Americans had ordered from Canada, Sen. Bill Nelson noted on Tuesday. The new policy, which takes effect Oct. 9, was announced in an e-mail from the Department of Homeland Security to congressional staff Monday, Nelson said.

Customs spokeswoman Lynn Hollinger confirmed the policy change Tuesday, saying the agency would no longer intercept the drugs or issue letters to postal carriers indicating it is illegal to import prescription medications. She said the policy change was due to political pressure from lawmakers and people who complained they were no longer receiving their medicine.

My first instinct was that this was good. Get the damn government out of our way. Then I realized that these goods, although legally purchased, are still stolen merchandise.

It's easy for the belief that stealing from a bug company is good. They're big because they did bad things to become big. Success is not a good reason to victimize a company.

Stuck between a sick person, and theft.

the vote is in

The saying "progress will be hurt" argument is not as strong as the belief in basic property rights.

Louisiana voters tonight approved a change to the state Constitution that will limit government's power to take private land in an effort to spur economic development.

In all, voters approved eleven of 13 proposed constitutional changes on the ballot.

Way to go.

Killing is good, but smoking is bad?

At least they did not disarm the poor guy.

Still, he didn’t always get his way. For example, the producers banned Bond from smoking in the movie in order not to send a bad message to young fans. “But here’s the reality,” says Craig. “I can blow off someone’s head at close range and splatter blood, but I can’t light a good Cuban.”

It's all for the children.

3 years is fast??

The good news is the case will go forward.

A federal judge in Detroit has rejected the government's request to dismiss an ACLU lawsuit challenging the constitutionally of the controversial USA Patriot Act, an anti-terrorism measure Congress enacted after the 9/11 attacks.

U.S. District Judge Denise Hood issued the decision without fanfare on Friday, nearly three years after promising a speedy decision in the case. Congress has amended the law at least once since the government's request was argued before Hood in December 2003.

This end of this suit will usher in the year 2100 the way this is being fast tracked.

Pacifist amish

Those who hammer their guns into plows will plow for those who do not

They can also die. Schools are not disarmed, they are target ranges for evil.

Quote

Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God. — JOHN BRADSHAW

This made me think

Why is our activists good, while theirs are bad?

And another question: Why will the basically conservative people who think Tom Selleck is a great choice say that it's terrific for the popular nonentity to stump for unbridled license to guns, but that liberal actors should shut their pie holes?
Every time a Barbra Streisand or Dixie Chick takes a stand, the right screams and hollers and says that actors should act, singers should sing, and that entertainers should firmly place their opinions where the sun don't shine.
But Tom Selleck, well, that's another story. Obviously his well-groomed mustache and masterly performance in "Three Men and a Baby" make him just the dude to cross the nation delivering his opinions on this most political of issues.
Gimme a break..

No answer to this question.

let's see if the Senate will follow

Good news for the most part.

The National Rifle Association (NRA) and law-abiding gun owners scored a significant victory yesterday when the United States Congress acted to prohibit the confiscation of legal firearms from law-abiding citizens during states of emergency, barring practices conducted by officials in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. This action was included in the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations bill that passed both chambers of Congress. This bill now heads to President Bush for his expected signature.
...............
H.R. 5013, the “Disaster Recovery Personal Protection Act,” was introduced in the House by Congressman Bobby Jindal (LA - 1) passed the House on July 25, 2006 with a broad bi-partisan margin of 322-99. Senator David Vitter (R-La) introduced the Senate version of the bill, which passed the United States Senate by 84-16, the largest margin of victory for a NRA-backed measure.

Glad this was passed, but why the New Orleans authorities were never busted still bother me to this day.

Quote

Gentlemen may cry, 'peace, peace'—but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! Is life so precious, or peace so dear, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death! — Patrick Henry to the Virginia Convention on March 23, 1775.

He really said this?

I cannot believe a police officer said this.

A fugitive gunman accused of killing a Florida sheriff’s deputy was shot 68 times by SWAT team officers who found him hiding in the woods, according to autopsy results.

Police fired 110 shots at Angilo Freeland, 27, the target of a massive manhunt in central Florida following the shooting death of Polk County Sheriff’s Deputy Matt Williams Thursday.

“That’s all the bullets we had, or we would have shot him more,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd told the Orlando Sentinel newspaper.

Protect and serve?

Todays post is brought to you by the number "9mm" and the letter "E". Can you say "execute". Good. I knew you could.

How nice of her

Really really nice.

The federal judge who struck down President Bush's warrantless surveillance program allowed the government on Thursday to continue the program another week while it seeks a further postponement from an appeals court.

< sarcasm alert >The same judge allowed the stalker to keep harassing the wife for another week until he was able to appeal the restraining order < sarcasm off >

U.S. Judge Anna Diggs Taylor ruled on Aug. 17 that the program, which targets communications between people in the United States and people overseas when a link to terrorism is suspected, violates the rights to free speech and privacy, as well as the separation of powers enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.

So just keep violating those rights because I'm a nice judge.

What part of "violating rights" is she not comprehending?

What a mindset

A politician has opened his mouth, inserted his foot, and brought forth an old idea into the new light of day.

Charleston City Councilman Larry Shirley says the robbery of a downtown video store - allegedly by a band of kids, including one too young to be charged - is a sure sign society has gone awry, and it's time to start a "dialogue."

And one of the things he says needs to be talked about is whether bad parents should be sterilized.

"What we've got is a failure in society, whether it's in Mount Pleasant with yuppie parents or whether it's on the East Side with poor crackhead parents," Shirley said Friday. "We pick up stray animals and spay them. These mothers need to be spayed if they can't take care of theirs. ... Once they have a child and it's running the streets, to let them continue to have children is totally unacceptable." Deadbeat dads might ought to be sterilized as well, he said.

I understand the politicians point of view. The problem is it has been tried before and history has vilified that fact.

Eugenics is a social theory advocating the improvement of human hereditary traits through various forms of intervention.[1] The purported goals have variously been to create healthier, more intelligent people, save society's resources, and lessen human suffering. Earlier proposed means of achieving these goals focused on selective breeding, while modern ones focus on prenatal testing and screening, genetic counseling, birth control, in vitro fertilization, and genetic engineering. Opponents argue that eugenics is immoral and is based on, or is itself, pseudoscience. Historically, eugenics has been used as a justification for coercive state-sponsored discrimination and human rights violations, such as forced sterilization of persons with genetic defects, the killing of the institutionalized and, in some cases, genocide on races perceived as inferior

The politician is not proposing Eugenics. Eugenics was a form of "cleaning" the gene pool. If his quotes are correct, then he wants it to be a form of punishment for being a shitty parent.

I'm a free market type of person. Why not let groups like CRACK deal with these problems? Neighborhoods raise money for gyms, parks, and other "happy happy" things. Why not raise money for CRACK?