When I think of morons that fall for Nigerian 419 e-mail scams, Harvard professors don't really come to mind. That is, until now.

I guess all kinds of people can answer the siren call of easy money. But the Nigerian scams are nothing new. Sheriff Andy Taylor even had to deal with a similar type of scam, when a con man traveling through Mayberry was convincing people to give him money in exchange for the promise of riches. I guess Harvard professors probably don't watch too much of the Andy Griffith Show.

There are those in this country that would subvert our sovereignty to the United Nations. I firmly believe John Kerry is just such a person. If those forces prevail, our Constitution would be meaningless, and rulings like this would become the norm.

The International Court of Justice on in The Hague has ruled that the United States violated the rights of 51 Mexicans on death row and ordered their cases be reviewed.

The United Nations' highest judiciary, also known as the world court, was considering a suit filed by Mexico claiming 52 convicted murderers were not given their right to assistance from their government.

Of course our sovereignty hasn't been subverted to the U.N., and they can't order us to do shit. I've long been a proponent of kicking the U.N. out of New York City, if for no other reason than their unwillingness to abide by our firearms laws. But asinine rulings like this prove that we should never, under any circumstances, let the U.N. undermine our nation's policies.

What's the diplomatic way of saying to the U.N.: BITE ME! ? This illustrates just how much respect the U.S. currently has for the World Court:

In 2001, a similar case came before the court filed by Germany to stop the execution of two German brothers who also had not been informed of their right to consular assistance. One brother was executed before the court could act. The judges ordered a stay of execution for the second brother, Walter LaGrand, until it could deliberate, but he was executed anyway by the state authorities of Arizona.

We're not about to let some Euro-weenies in Holland tell us what to do.

UPDATE: Something CNN deletes from the AP article is this little tidbit of U.N. arrogance.

Under the court's statute, its judgments are "binding, final and without appeal."

Hahahaha!!

23 dead in Uzbek 'terrorist' clash -- CNN Headline, March 30, 2004.

Apparently Reuters hasn't cornered the market on scare quotes and calling them "islamic militants".

David Larry Nelson, who in 1978 shot and killed James Cash while robbing him and murdered Wilson Thompson to obtain a getaway vehicle, was scheduled to be executed by lethal injecton back in October. The Supreme Court stayed his execution because Nelson's intravenus drug use meant the state of Alabama would have to cut into his arm to find a good vein, reports the Washington Post. Lawyers for the condemned are arguing that the "cut down" procedure is cruel and unusual punishment.

Though he has forfeited his life, [Attorney Bryan] Stevenson replied, Nelson has not forfeited his rights. "He is still entitled to some consideration," he said.

That's more consideration than Nelson gave to Cash and Thompson back on New Years in 1978.

As an aside, it's worth noting that most of Nelson's supporters on the Prison Talk web site appear to be women.

I think I found my write in candidate for November. I like the sound of his "Conservative Radicalism".

Since politicians like to have campaign slogans, instead of "Bring it On!" my slogan might be "Get rid of it!" to describe all the laws, policies, and government agencies that I would abolish. [...]

Cabinet-level departments, for example, would be reduced to just two -- the Defense Department and the State Department, with the latter purged of the weak-kneed internationalist crowd who have dominated it for so long. Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Labor, etc., would all be abolished as just money-wasting bureaucracies serving outside special interests, instead of the people whose taxes support them.

Congressman Jim "Blame the J-E-W-S" Moran (D-VA) is on the way out. He's been abandoned by the Democrat party, who will likely support Democrat challenger Andy Rosenberg, reports Fox (search) News.

As one of Moran's constituents, I can't thank the Democrats enough. While I tend to vote conservative, I would support anyone (save for anyone named Clinton or Kennedy) over Moran. Of course that is probably what the Dems are counting on. Better to get a more "electable" candidate in there than to risk losing the seat to Republicans. Had they thrown their full support behind Moran, I probably would have entered the Congressional race myself to try to get his sorry ass out of there.

Trial lawyers are still trying to push for reparations for slavery. The fact that American slavery was abolished more than 140 years ago doesn't stop them from finding plenty of plaintiffs. Now they are claiming to have actual proof that certain corporations actually contributed to the enslavement of specific individuals. (Well their great great great grandparents any way.)

Meanwhile, the usual suspects are carted out to cry for the news cameras.

To plaintiff Antoinette Harrell-Miller, the pain from slavery has not subsided.

"I'm talking about the personal injuries on myself," she said.

"I never stopped wondering about my homeland, where did I come from, who are my people. So just because something happened a long time ago, (it) does not mean that the injury stopped affecting the people that was injured," Harrell-Miller said.

A second plaintiff, Queen Mother Delois Blakely, said "words can not express what we have experienced as a people."

She demanded "reparations, reparations, reparations!"

Plaintiff Deadria Farmer-Paellman added that the US government was also responsible: "The companies, along with the US government, have destroyed our identity."

Judges should consider socking these blood suckers with the defendant's legal fees for filing such frivolous lawsuits. They have the power, but they refuse to use it. I wonder if the fact that many judges are former trial lawyers has anything to do with it.

You know, law schools are turning out so many new lawyers each year that by the year 2025, there will actually be more lawyers than people.

(Hat tip to Mays)

Okay, okay. I've put off doing this meme long enough. Basically, I don't read crap like this, and I never figured you'd want to either. But then again, someone must be reading it because I see it being passed around a lot. I figure that while I post a lot and let people in on certain aspects of my life, I generally don't talk about my personal life as much as other folks. So, in an effort to open up and be more {augh} personable, here goes:

* Full Name: Ravenwood
* Birth date: November 28th. (Leaving the year off. Don't want you guys opening a credit card in my name.)
* Birthplace: Virginia
* Current Location: My bedroom
* Eye Color: Brown
* Hair Color: Brown with increasing grey "highlights"
* Height: 6'3"
* Righty or Lefty: right
* Zodiac Sign: If you're into this 70s crap you can figure it out from by birthdate, genius.

LAYER TWO:
* The shoes you wore today: Rockports
* Your weakness: Guns and cigars.
* Your fears: None. I'm fearless.
* Your perfect pizza: Pepperoni and banana peppers.
* Goal you'd like to achieve: Earn my pilot's certificate.

LAYER THREE:
* Your most overused phrase on AIM: LOL
* Your first waking thoughts: Time to make the donuts.
* Your best physical feature: Broad shoulders and a strong back
* Your most missed memory: College daze.

LAYER FOUR:
* Pepsi or Coke: Coke - I'm from the South.
* McDonald's or Burger King: Wendy's
* Single or group dates: Single
* Adidas or Nike: Rockport
* Lipton Ice Tea or Nestea: Anything fresh brewed.
* Chocolate or Vanilla: Vanilla.
* Cappuccino or coffee: Coke.

LAYER FIVE:
* Smoke: Cigars.
* Cuss: My father was a sailor and my mother, a sailor's wife. What do you think?
* Sing: Only in the car.
* Take a shower everyday: Yes. I'm not French.
* Do you think you've been in love: Yes.
* Want to go to college: Been there, done that.
* Liked high school: Yes, but that was before zero tolerance, political correctness, and metal detectors.
* Want to get married: Probably not. Other people are too hard to live with.
* Believe in yourself: What good Libertarian wouldn't?
* Get motion sickness: No way.
* Think you're attractive: It doesn't matter what I think.
* Think you're a health freak: No. I'm always looking for new ways to pollute my body.
* Get along with your parent(s): Yes. But it takes lots of alcohol sometimes.
* Like thunderstorms: Absolutely.
* Play an instrument: Yes, several.

LAYER SIX:
In the past month:
* Drank alcohol: Who me?
* Smoked: A cigar, yes.
* Done a drug: No.
* Made Out: Yes.
* Gone on a date: Yes.
* Gone to the mall: Yes.
* Eaten an entire box of Oreos: No.
* Eaten sushi: Yes.
* Been on stage: No.
* Been dumped: No.
* Gone skating: No.
* Made homemade cookies: No.
* Gone skinny-dipping: No. It's winter.
* Dyed your hair: No. I'm a man.
* Stolen anything: No.
* You sound boring: At least I'm not the one still reading this crap.

LAYER SEVEN:
Ever:
* Played a game that required removal of clothing: Yes.
* If so, was it mixed company: Of course, I'm not into playing "strip poker" with a bunch of other guys if that's what you mean.
* Been trashed or extremely intoxicated: Yes, but never trashed enough to play "strip poker" with a bunch of other guys.
* Been caught doing something: Yes, but never caught playing "strip poker" with a bunch of other guys.
* Been called a tease: No. Guys don't tease.
* Gotten beaten up: Well, there was that time I suggested playing.. I mean NO! I've never been beaten up.
* Shoplifted: Once when I was 12. Got caught. Scared me straight.
* Changed who you were to fit in: In college I once walked into a stranger's apartment during her birthday party to get free beer.

LAYER EIGHT:
* Age you hope to be married: I'll die first.
* Numbers and Names of Children: I don't know any children, nor do I have their number. Try someone else, freak.
* Describe your Dream Wedding: Is this meme for chicks? Guys don't dream about weddings. (They're called nightmares.)
* How do you want to die: With my boots on. Also, I never want to be attached to a piece of luggage.
* Where you want to go to college: If I ever go back to get my MBA, it'll probably be Virginia Tech.
* What do you want to be when you grow up: I yam grown up, and I yam what I yam.
* What country would you most like to visit: The United States (The way it used to be, around the 1870s)

LAYER NINE:
* Number of drugs taken illegally: None.
* Number of people I could trust with my life: I'm paranoid, and trust no one.
* Number of CDs that I own: Several hundred, but I haven't bought any since the RIAA started harassing people.
* Number of piercings: None.
* Number of tattoos: None, because they won't do it while I'm drunk.
* Number of times my name has appeared in the newspaper: Probably three or four.
* Number of scars on my body: Too many to count.
* Number of things in my past that I regret: Well, there was that time I asked my buddies to play... oh nevermind.

LAYER TEN:
What's your favorite:
* Person: I like some people better than others, but I don't have any favorites.
* Song: Again, I don't play favorites.
* Color: None.
* Place: Anyplace with beer.
* Thing(s) to do: Drink, smoke, hang out with friends.
* Position: I'm not picky. I'm pretty much just happy to be there.
* Feature: I look for a woman with a terrific personality. (See how stupid that sounds, ladies.)

LAYER ELEVEN:
* Describe your perfect life partner: I'm looking for a woman who will love me for who I am, and who won't try to change me into what they want me to be. She'll also know when to shut the hell up. So far, I haven't found her.
* Describe your perfect date: The perfect date would be a sexy, intelligent, brunette with ample boobs and a good figure. She wouldn't be too skinny, and would let me pamper her as I see fit. She wouldn't be threatened by a man who opens her door, orders her meal, or picks up the check. A little sex at the end of the night would be nice too, but it's not necessary.

One good thing about cleaning all my crap out of storage is that I get to look through all the old memorabilia that I've collected throughout the ages. While going through some old video tapes and throwing them out, I ran across a tape of some home movies from high school. Not being one to turn down a good reason to put my spring cleaning on hold for a while, I popped the tape in the VCR. There were a few marching band competitions (yes, I was in band) and a skit we did for senior English class. There was also a tape of my high school graduation.

Looking back on it, I don't think of high school graduation as some big event. Actually, looking back on it now it all seems trivial. But at the time it was a big deal. I had forgotten about all the family members that had shown up. This guy was there, as was his mom and brother. That's no small feat considering they lived 600 miles away. His high school chum John was also there. My grandfather and late grandmother were also there with bells on. Another of my Aunts was there with her husband who is since deceased. And of course my older sister and parents were there. My sister was a mere 20 years young, and my father had some strange 1980's style tuft of hair on his upper lip.

I don't even want to talk about the clothes. Everyone pictured looked utterly rediculous, including me. Sure my suit was concealed under my cap and gown but unfortunately our high school colors were powder blue and white (and the gown wasn't white). Thankfully my mom had forced me to get a hair cut. Junior and senior year my hair wasn't exactly long, but it had that typical 1980s thickness to it that came down over the ears. I couldn't imagine letting it get that long today.

What struck me as being most notable about the graduation video wasn't the people, but rather what happened at the end. After all the caps were thrown and after all the speeches were given, someone took to the microphone and offered a prayer. And here, at this government sponsored school function, people of all faiths bowed their head and prayed to God. Does that still happen in this day and age?

Overall the trip down memory lane was enjoyable, and I'm thankful that we had actually captured some of those events on video. It really makes me realize how much time is fleeting. In the immortal words of Ferris Bueller, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it."

In case you've been under a rock for the past few days, a Federal Court in New Orleans repealed the Fourth Amendment.

The Fourth Amendment used to read, "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated..." The Court apparently thinks that police entering your home for no reason at all is reasonable.

D.C. Thornton takes John Kerry to task for his political ploy of preaching from the pulpit this weekend.

If politicians want to vie for my vote, they have six days in the week to do so.

I wish black churches would quit being pawns to such campaign publicity and put their feet down to politicians who only come to church when they want to get elected.

In 1996, San Francisco's city budget was $3.1 Billion. This year, it's more than 50% higher at $4.8 Billion. The next fiscal year promises a budget shortfall of $352 Million, and San Francisco liberals are trying to decide just who should pay more. Direct tax increases to citizens are inevitable, but it appears that most of the tax hikes will be born by area businesses.

But John Kosinski, an organizer for SEIU Local 250, representing 15,000 city health care workers, said downtown businesses should pay more. "All (municipal) labor unions gave back last year to help save some of these city programs," Kosinski said, referring to a budget-balancing agreement under which workers, for the first time in years, resumed making contributions to their retirement fund. The city "can't balance the budget on the backs of the workers," he said.

Such is life in liberal la-la-land. Do these people honestly think that workers won't end up paying the price for increased taxation on businesses, or are they trying to deceive the public?

Once again, BUSINESSES DON'T PAY TAXES, THEY COLLECT THEM. Taxes collected by businesses are transferred to customers in the form of higher prices, employees in the form of lower wages and benefits (or less jobs), or shareholders in the form of decreased shareholder equity. Most of the time all three suffer. Kosinski's union constituents may be protected by contracted wages and benefits, which means they'll likely suffer with less jobs (or not as many new jobs). For him to try to claim otherwise means he's either lying or he's stupid.

Demonstrators swarmed the house of political advisor Karl Rove this weekend, demanding citizenship rights for illegal aliens who have willingly violated federal immigration laws.

Several hundred people stormed the small yard of President Bush's chief political strategist, Karl Rove, yesterday afternoon, pounding on his windows, shoving signs at others and challenging Rove to talk to them about a bill that deals with educational opportunities for immigrants.

Eleven year old Christina Haynes from Cleveland promises to vote for Rove if he bestows citizenship priviledges on illegal aliens. Someone should tell Christina that not only is she not old enough to vote, but Karl Rove isn't running for office.

D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams has never made it a secret that he intends to use District traffic cameras to generate revenue. And after speeding cameras have proven to be even more profitable than the existing red light cameras, Washington D.C. is rolling out even more of them.

Motorists' fines and fees are projected to raise $21 million as part of an overall plan to boost city revenue by nearly $47 million in fiscal 2005. [...]

The Department of Public Works is expected to increase rush-hour towing to bring in an additional $464,000 and improve booting enforcement to raise $1.78 million.

The city will net more than $7.2 million by doubling its fleet of cars equipped with photo-radar cameras from six to 12. However, the projected gross of $13.7 million might be a conservative estimate. The current fleet of six automated radar cameras generated $19.8 million in the 12 months ending February. Since its inception in July 2001, the speed cameras have generated more than $45 million.

Along with the additional speed cameras, the city plans to raise $624,000 by installing 10 more cameras to catch red-light runners, bringing the total of such cameras in the city to 49. Those cameras, first used in August 1999, have raised $25 million.

I rarely travel into the district as it is, and the increase in traffic cameras doesn't make crossing the river sound any more appealing.

After failing to convince the federal government to permit them to institute a commuter tax on Virginia and Maryland residents, Washington D.C. is using targeted traffic enforcement as a back door tax on commuters. Such a move is not very surprising, and the District finding innovative ways to pay for social programs is nothing new. But you still have to wonder if using criminal fines is the best way to go about it. After all, you would think that the government would want to reduce crime. By tying the annual budget to fines from criminal enforcement, Washington D.C. actually has a vested interest in increasing crime.

OFCC reports that some Ohio Sheriffs are resorting to delay tactics with the new concealed carry law. Chad Baus writes:

In recent days, there have been more and more reports of Ohio sheriffs who claim to be having problems meeting the April 8 start-date for Ohio's new concealed handgun licensure law.

• In Cuyahoga Co., the sheriff's office is telling citizens they won't take applications until their new office space is prepared, perhaps around the end of May.

• In Darke, Stark and Tuscawaras counties, sheriffs are attempting to accept applications "by appointment only".

• In Shelby Co., the sheriff is attempting to add an additional hour-long class (taught by himself) to the requirements for getting a license.

Ohioans For Concealed Carry and the Buckeye State Sheriff's Association wish to remind Ohioans that the law gives sheriffs NO discretion in terms of when they may begin accepting applications, nor for adding additional requirements, nor for delaying the acceptance of license applications via mandatory appointments.

Buckeye State Sheriff's Association Executive Director Bob Cornwell stresses that sheriffs have a "duty under the law" to accept applications on April 8 to "everyone who shows up and files one", and to issue licenses to qualified applicants, within 45 days. Sheriffs must also be prepared to issue temporary emergency licenses to those meeting the requirements, on April 8.

"If the existing assault weapons ban expires, I personally do not believe it will make one [bit] of difference one way or another in terms of our objective which is reducing death and injury and getting particularly lethal class of firearms off the street, so if it doesn't pass, it doesn't pass." -- Tom Diaz, spokesman for the Violence Policy Center.

Of course gun owners knew that already. Only a moron would expect a ban on guns with bayonet lugs and folding stocks to make the bullets less lethal.

"Alcohol related crime" is on the rise in Australia, so one Aussie town has decided to ban it for everyone. Well, it's not a total ban, Aussies will still have an 8-hour window in which to purchase liquor for off premises consumption.

From today, licensees in Derby will be bound by restrictions on the quantities and types of takeaway alcohol they can sell and when they can sell it.

The new rules, handed down by the director of Liquor Licensing, will be trailed for a year and assessed in six months.

They include limiting the sale of full-strength liquor to between noon and 8:00pm and limits to the quantities of wine that can be purchased.

Anyone willing to bet that when they "assess" the progress in six months they haven't made a dent in "alcohol related crimes"? Then they will have to decide whether or not to continue down this road of temperance. If history is any indication, they'll continue to limit the quantities, put a licensing scheme in place for private citizens, and eventually pass step by step bans on all hard alcohol.

Lawmakers are planning on expanding the Virginia portion of I-81 to include a four lane trucks-only road. Personally, I think the money is better spent on upgrading the rail system and encouraging more long haul freight to travel by rail. But then again, I don't have to answer to the Teamster's Union.

Senate Democrats have vowed to block all judicial nominations, because they are upset that the President used his recess appointment powers. In an incredible episode of chutzpa, Tom Daschle claims he is defending the Constitution rather than defying it.

"This White House is insisting on a departure from historic and constitutional practices," Daschle said. "At no point has a president ever used a recess appointment to install a rejected nominee onto the federal bench, and there are intonations there will be even more recess appointments in the coming months.

"We will continue to cooperate in the confirmation of federal judges, but only if the White House gives us the assurance that they will no longer abuse the process, but it will once again respect our Constitution's essential system of checks and balances," Daschle said.

Shortly before his pants burst into flames, Senate Judiciary Stooge Chuckie Schumer parroted Daschle's lies:

"The president's use of recess appointments to circumvent the advise and consent process puts a finger in the eye of the Constitution ... Our caucus is strong, united, and firm in the belief that we are upholding the Constitution and preventing the president from packing the federal bench unilaterally with ideologues. We hope the president has learned that we will not yield; this is an issue of principle, not politics," Schumer said.

Of course, this is nothing more than political posturing. The Senate was given the Constitutional power of "advice and consent" on judicial nominations. The Daschle democrats disobeyed the Consitution by refusing to let the Senate vote on judicial nominations, most notably in the case of Miguel Estrada who dems claimed was "especially dangerous", because "he is Latino".

Daschle's claim that Bush is violating the system of checks and balances is a lie. The filibuster is a Senate procedure not a Constitutional power. The constitutionally mandated votes on the judicial nominations were blocked using this procedure. With the Democrats unwilling to let the Senate carry out their Consitutional job, Bush made recess appointments. This action is also supported by the Consitution, which states: The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.

So what we have is a President who is performing a task that is clearly laid out in the U.S. Constitution, and a Senator who is using Senate procedures to prevent that from happening. The only justification he can muster for his actions is that he is defending the constitution by not letting "rejected nominees" get to the federal bench. Once more, the nominees haven't been rejected because they haven't even been voted upon.

I have to wonder if Tom Daschle has even read the Consitution; the document which he is sworn to uphold.

Aside from going to a gun show yesterday, this weekend has been all work and no play. At the end of February, Storage USA sent me a letter informing me that they were raising the rates on my storage locker. I had just moved my stuff in a month earlier, so I sent them a nasty-gram expressing my dismay at their slimy business practices. I could understand a periodic increase in rent if I had been using the locker for a year or so, but I had just moved my stuff in and gotten settled. I'm not too happy with the storage locker any way. They don't even have any trash facilities, and the one sole dumpster is surounded by a 10 foot stockade fence, concertina wire, and a mine field. They make it quite clear that tenants are not permitted to use their dumpster.

Since the rent hike started in April, and the slimeballs would not restore my rent to the previous level, I wanted to be out by the end of this month. Of course this was complicated by the fucktards at U-Haul who refused to rent me a trailer. Since U-Haul thinks that we Ford Explorer owners are such awful drivers (their employees mock us on their web site), I had to make repeated trips back and forth between the storage unit and my home. I burned up a full tank of gas and drove an extra 200 miles because U-Haul won't do business with me.

The large furniture went to the Salvation Army a few weeks ago, and I sold off my washer and dryer today. I also set the remaining pieces of furniture out by the dumpster here at my apartment complex. I felt a bit guilty about just setting the furniture out there, but most of it has already been picked up by scavengers. My old desk is gone, as are a nightstand and large microwave that I set out there. I also put an office chair out there that was snatched up while I was still standing there. All the furniture and the microwave were in decent shape and in working order. I just didn't have any room for them. I'm too lazy to have a rummage sale, and don't have the time or energy to stash them until the Salvation Army could make another run.

So, I'm pretty beat right now. I did empty my storage locker but there are tons of boxes sitting around my house. I've still got to take the time to go through all the boxes and throw out any junk. Right now my apartment is a total mess, but I've already put the $200 per month savings from my storage locker to good use. I purchased an .30 M1 carbine at the gun show yesterday.

From the Baltimore Sun:

Kerry starts hunt for dollars to fight GOP's attack ads

"America deserves better than a debate that is simply full of attacks and distortions," Kerry said at the fund-raiser, which campaign officials estimated would rake in $11 million, a Democratic record for direct donations at a single event...

At the same time, Kerry has seen his standing in the polls slip, in a signal that Bush's well-funded attack ads are having an effect with voters...

"Bush's attacks penetrated," said Jim Gerstein, executive director of Democracy Corps. "But Bush's own positives did not go up during this period."

From Bloomberg:

Bush Attack on Kerry Defense Record Fails to Win Lead

With Kerry taking a break in Idaho, his campaign officials have been left to respond to attacks without their candidate...

"Dick Cheney has emerged from his bunker to engage in partisan attacks,'' said Jeanne Shaheen, former governor of New Hampshire and chairwoman of Kerry for President, in one of the statements. "While the leadership of the Bush administration seems focused on destroying John Kerry with false and distorted attacks, we see their foreign policy continuing to fail around the world.'' [...]

The Bush campaign this week is turning to criticism of Kerry's spending proposals, as part of a plan to attack the Democrat as a politician who would raise taxes, weaken the fight against terrorism and constrain economic growth...

Kerry will spend tomorrow in Washington and campaign in Michigan and Missouri Friday and Saturday. He should focus on the loss of jobs under Bush if he wants to overcome attacks before the Nov. 2 election...

From CNN:

Kerry airs response to Bush attack ad

The 30-second message is a response to the first negative ads from the Bush campaign, which attacked the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee...

One of the ads -- named "100 Days" -- is his first TV commercial directly attacking Kerry...

The Kerry team also launched a Web site called "D-bunker" designed to "beat back misleading Bush attacks."

Kerry advisers say part of his strategy is to show he is a candidate who won't back down. They point to an incident this week in which he was caught, in what appeared to be an unguarded moment, calling those who are attacking him "the most crooked, you know, lying group of people I've ever seen."

The Bush campaign called for an apology, but Kerry refused, saying he stands by his comments about a Republican "attack machine."

Front and center on his Web site Friday were the words "No apologies for Republican attack squad."

"I think his message, and the message of our campaign to the Bush campaign, is simply this: we're not going to take it. You can send all these people out, attack Kerry, his patriotism, his service to the country -- we're simply not going to take it, we're going to push back" Devine said.

This is pretty disturbing and smacks of tyranny. Government police raid a man's home and seize 57 firearms. What happened next is pretty incredible.

The man was committed to a psychiatric hospital after the raid. He has since been released and is seeking to have his weapons returned, Berger said. However, under state and federal law, police can confiscate the weapons of those committed for mental health problems.

That's right, police raid a man's home, involuntarily commit him to a mental institution, and then refuse to give him his guns back because he has a history of being involuntarily committed to a mental institution. What's to stop any anti-gun government (like Illinois, California, New York, New Jersey, etc. etc.) from doing this?

I'm not a very devout person, but I certainly wouldn't show up to church in a skiing outfit.

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry made a stop at a Catholic church during his Idaho vacation Sunday to attend Mass, loudly arriving 11 minutes late and wearing a ski suit.

According to a report in the American Spectator, a senior staff member in the Kerry Campaign said, "It was just a media-op. We set it up with some reporters that we knew were going to be there."

Santa Fe is considering a requirement for doggie seat belts. How long before animal rights wackos all over the world pick this one up and run with it?

There's lots of good economic news going around out there. Jobless claims hit a three year low, hiring is on the rise, home sales rose 2%, and the economy grew at 4.1% last quarter. All this, and it is expected to get better.

Now lets watch how the Democrats put a negative spin on this. The useful idiots at Democratic Underground are already calling it a Bush conspiracy. cmorea claims: "Just like all the scientists and security analysts who come up with their best work and are told 'WRONG ANSWER!' Then, they come back with the figures that bush wants and they get to keep their job." The Miami Herald seems to agree.

America's buoyant economic recovery could largely be a statistical illusion, according to research released this weekend.

Last year's growth may be half the official figure, which would explain the lack of job creation which is damaging President Bush's re-election chances.

My guess is that they'll continue to harp on the high 5.6% unemployment rate.

Reader Tom Scott thinks there must be something in the water up there in Alaska. A man who used lethal force to fend off a moose that was attacking him is taking a lot of heat from the local yokels. Mike Vogel was out skiing around when the moose attacked him. Having been attacked by a moose in the past, Vogel came prepared this time. He unilaterally used his .44 caliber pistol to initiate regime change on the offending creature, but his neighbors think that he should have tried 12 years of appeasement and UN-style sanctions first.

First up is Steve Ryan, who thinks that simply detouring around the moose would be sufficient. He claims to be able to ride circles around slow dimwitted mooses, and figures a guy on skis could easily do the same.

Next we have Theresa Philbrick, who thinks that Mr. Vogel should lose his concealed carry permit. I think Mr. Vogel would probably go along with that considering that since they switched to "Vermont-style" concealed carry, Alaska doesn't require a permit anymore.

Last but certainly not least, we have David Harnell. Harnell says that it's Vogel's own fault for putting himself in that situation in the first place. By taking a few modest precautionary steps, he could have easily avoided confrontation with the moose. Harnell suggests that skiers travel in large groups of friends, never take their dog out of the house, and carry an air horn and pepper spray instead of one of those evil, mind-affecting guns. Either that or, according to Harnell, he should simply move to moose-free Michigan.

Those are all good suggestions, but it seems to me that sitting down and talking with the moose would be the best option. Once you understand Bulwinkle, perhaps you can figure out why he hates us.

I went to lunch with some of my employees today and one of them pointed out James Carville. When he wasn't rudely chatting away on his cell phone, he was dining with his family a few rows over. He seems a bit shorter in person than on TV, but he still pretty much looks like a giant penis. I resisted the urge to go up and kick him in the nuts.

Normally anti-gun articles get my panties in a bind, but this one had me laughing my ass off part way through. The hit piece is so filled with spelling and gramatical errors that I thought it might be some sort of parody. And this guy is the editor.

(Hat tip to Say Uncle)

"I was born a Democrat and I expect I'll be a Democrat until the day I leave this earth. But I have grown mighty frustrated with the direction my party has taken over the last few years. National Democratic leaders today are moving further and further away from the principles that made our party great." -- Georgia Democrat Senator Zell Miller, on why he supports Bush over Kerry.

The Virginia legislature passed an anti-price gouging bill that will prevent people from profiting from natural disasters like last year's Hurricane Isabel. The great Walter E. Williams gives us an economics lesson on why this won't work, and what Virginians should expect the next time around.

In Isabel's wake, private contractors from nearby states brought their heavy equipment to Virginia to clear fallen trees from people's houses. Producers and shippers of generators, plywood and other vital supplies worked overtime to increase the flow of these goods to Virginians. What was it that got these people and millions of others to help their fellow man in time of need? Was it admonitions from George Bush? Was it conscience or love for one's fellow man?

I'll tell you what it was. It was rising prices and the opportunity for people to cash in on windfall profits.

There's that evil word: profit. But anyone with an IQ over 85 should realize that business owners in other states aren't going to bend over backwards to help us if they aren't allowed to profit from it. Profit is what makes the capitalist world go 'round, and eliminating that incentive will prolong the cleanup of the next hurricane.

Lately I've stopped giving free publicity to the terrorist group, PETA. Many of their stunts are mostly about whoring for publicity. Especially those where they try to get some town to rename themselves from Cowkillerville to Cuteandfuzzybunnytown. But I have to say that this latest stunt sounds pretty cool, and that I really want one of these buckets of blood.

Of course it won't make me eat chicken any less. Ironically, it will actually make me eat at KFC more just to try to get one of the free novelties. I don't know what I'd do with it, but a bucket of fake blood and chicken entrails might actually make a cool Halloween prop. It could also be used to further my fledgling Americans for Chicken Safety campaign.

A bunch of French Canuckers booed the Stars and Stripes at a school "parade of flags" assembly, and jeered an eighth grade U.S. born girl causing her to cry. For those of you that don't know much about Canada, Quebecers are known (even amongst normal Canadians) for their rudeness. They put the French in French Canadian.

I tend to be thick skinned about these sorts of things. Having once worked for a Canadian company, I've known many of them and come to like our neighbors to the North. I know that many of them are misguided on the war in Iraq, gun control, and their various socialist programs. But overall, I still have a positive impression of their people.

I'm even thick skinned when it comes to the French. Sure, I hate France like every good American should. I've also only ever met one French person I would call a friend (she knows who she is) and aside from that one exception, I generally detest French people. Still, no matter how much the French run us down or burn our flag, I don't go around renaming french fries, or refusing to eat french dressing, french bread, and French's mustard. That's because I know that no matter how bad they say we are, I know that at least we aren't French.

"I don't like the idea of government sanctioned marriage to begin with." -- Ravenwood, February 5, 2004.

"Oregon county bans all marriage" -- Reuters Headline, March 23, 2004.

Letting the government regulate marriage turned it from a right into a privilege. Now Benton County, Oregon has taken away that privilege. This kind of thing happens to gun owners all the time.

The carnage in Madrid - and the public hearings this week on the 9/11 attacks - ought to remind us of the need to limit our own vulnerabilities. Yet on the site of America's greatest terrorist tragedy, where no reminder should be necessary, such thinking is virtually nonexistent. -- Daniel Benjamin of the New York Times who seems to think that rebuilding the World Trade Center is reckless and will only make the terrorists hate us more.

It's no secret that California liberals like to stifle business and competition, and then bitch about the lack of jobs and poor economy. Now San Francisco (80% to keep Gray Davis) plans to take socialism one step further by banning chain stores.

The amendments to the city's planning code would ban all chain stores in a four-block area of Hayes Valley, require additional permit reviews in Cole Valley, and require chains to notify neighbors if they intend to raise golden arches in one of the city's three-dozen commercial retail neighborhoods, including North Beach, Clement Street, the Castro and the Inner Sunset. [...]

Chains, say opponents, don't keep money in the neighborhood. Chain outlets are less likely to patronize local lawyers, accountants and suppliers, relying instead on help from the corporate office out of town, foes maintain.

These morons actually think that by limiting competition and keeping prices artificially high, they're helping the economy.

And you thought Americans were litigious.

BERLIN - Violinists at a German orchestra are suing for a pay raise on the grounds that they play many more notes per concert than their colleagues do.

They also claim that giving bonuses to soloists is unfair.

Europe's pro-appeasement approach is not exactly surprising. What is surprising is their inability to learn from the past. Thomas Sowell takes a look at what appeasement has led to in the past.

Throwing others to the wolves is a strategy that has been tried before. France threw Czechoslovakia to the wolves in 1938 to try to buy off Hitler. Less than two years later, Hitler's armies invaded France -- using, among other things, tanks made in Czechoslovakia.

Those who are impressed with French airs of sophistication and condescension toward the United States should check out the hard facts about French foreign policy over the past century -- which has been one short-sighted disaster after another. They have been consistently too clever by half -- at Versailles in 1919, at Munich in 1938, and in Algiers and Vietnam in the 1950s.

The only thing I would have added is that when England and France signed the Munich agreement giving large parts of Czechoslovakia to Hitler, Czech leaders weren't even invited to the meeting. You might even say that France was acting unilaterally.

According to a CNN poll, more people are worried about gas prices than terrorism.

There has been a big kerfuffle lately surrounding some former Reagan/Bush/Clinton stooge that coincidentally has a book to sell. Former White House staffer turned author and Bush critic, Dick Clarke, was given a lot of prime time coverage on CBS' 60 Minutes this Sunday. Viacom, CBS' parent company, as it turns out had a huge financial interest in the "news" story. Drudge points out that the very book that Clarke was hawking on 60 Minutes is being published by Viacom. As media outlets are turning into huge multi-media conglomerates, product placement like this is becoming more common.

The real losers are the viewers. They think they're watching a legitimate news program, but are instead being sold a bag of goods

Ohio has stepped up their efforts to combat drinking and driving, by tagging convicted offenders with a scarlet letter. Fox (search) News reports that "a new state law in Ohio requires judges to brand convicted drunk drivers with special 'scarlet letter' license plates -- with red numbers on a yellow background so other motorists will know exactly what they've done."

People generally think this is okay because drunk driving is so unpopular, and the law only impacts a minority of people. However, as lawmakers lower the allowed blood alcohol content and make it much easier to be considered a drunk driver, more of these plates will be issued. The other slippery slope argument is that this could easily expand into other areas. If the program becomes popular enough, how long before activists start demanding their own 'scarlet letter' license plates? Today it's drunk drivers, but tomorrow it could be deadbeat dads, tax delinquents, or even those evil, horrible smokers.

Owen Courreges is taking Virginia Governor Mark Warner to task for breaking his promise not to raise taxes. As Owen points out, not only did Warner break his promise, but now he's claiming that he never made the promise in the first place. See how he lies when asked about it:

Q. During your campaign in 2001, you vowed not to raise taxes...

A. What I said in 2001 was that my intent was not to raise taxes.

Actual quote from Warner in 2001, cited in the Richmond-Times Dispatch:

''I will not raise taxes! I will not raise taxes! I will not raise taxes!"

You can see how Virginians may have mistakenly concluded that Warner wouldn't raise taxes.

Aside from denying that he ever said he wouldn't raise taxes, now Warner will do anything to prevent voters from deciding the issue of tax increases. He even went so far as to say that letting the voters decide would be extremely irresponsible. Considering they were stupid enough to put his sleazy ass in office, perhaps he's right.

I laughed my ass off the whole way through Dawn of the Dead. But apparently previews for the horror flick are scaring the bejeezus out of British pantywaists.

"It is absolutely horrendous and really disturbing," said Angela Kelly, of Cherry Willingham, Lincolnshire. "Children will be really scared by it. It is such a frightening image, the girl has piercing eyes. We try to avoid driving past it now."

Of course, Kelly hasn't seen the movie yet. It doesn't open up there until Friday.

NewsMax reports that NBC newswoman Andrea Mitchell is gushing over a Hillary veep nomination. On Chris Matthew's show, Mitchell claimed that Hillary is a long shot for the veep nod. "According to Republicans and Democrats on the Hill in the cloakrooms, she is interested in running," Mitchell said.

Would Kerry really be so stupid as to nominate Hillary? I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to be the one standing there just one bullet away from a Hillary Clinton Presidency. Perhaps Kerry should ask, "What would Vince Foster do?"

Al-Qaeda is claiming that they have nukes that will fit into a briefcase. Meanwhile Spain is moving toward appeasement, and the Democrats have nominated a candidate who thinks terrorism is a police matter.

So, does al-Qaeda really have brief case nukes, or are they just boasting? Well, peaceniks claim that Saddam Hussein didn't really have weapons of mass distruction and because of that, the War in Iraq was unjustified. I guess that means that the war against al-Qaeda is also unjustified if they don't really have nukes?

Anti-smokers in California weren't happy with usurping the property rights of bar and restaurant owners, so now they are taking aim at public beaches. Several coastal beaches have already passed smoking bans, and Los Angeles is well on the way. While the puritans have always made false claims that second hand smoke causes cancer, now they are claiming that it is important to protect people from trash.

"This is really a very basic issue, which is that the community is standing up to protect its youth and citizens from tobacco smoke and litter," says Judy Strang, executive director of Youth Tobacco Prevention Corps.

Smoke nazis already air TV ads that claim smokers are stupid, so painting them as litter bugs is just another form of demonization. But you'd have to be a crackpot to believe that a cigarette butt lying on the ground is somehow harmful.

As for the amount of litter, the anti-smokers are indeed making some dubious claims.

After a routine beach cleanup produced 6,300 butts in one hour at the 1.5-mile-long Solana Beach, the group took a tub of cigarette refuse to city hall.

6300 cigarette butts in an hour is 105 per minute, or 1.75 per second. If there were 100 volunteers cleaning up the beach, that would mean each volunteer found one cigarette butt about every minute. That isn't exactly a hard feat to accomplish, but it still makes me wonder, if they found a cigarette butt every minute what were they picking up the rest of the time? If they found 6300 butts, how many used condoms did they find? What about medical waste, and fast food debris? And just who was counting all these butts? It just seems to me like they were out there purposely looking for cigarette butts, and passing over other forms of litter. My theory is bolstered by this little gem:

Months later, a more formal Solana Beach cleanup event still garnered 230 pounds of refuse, 60 percent of which consisted of wet cigarette butts.

(More formal cleanup? I can just picture them out there in tuxedos.) So 60% of the 230 pounds of litter collected was wet cigarette butts. (How did they get wet?) That works out to 138 pounds of cigarette butts. If you still don't think they were purposely targeting cigarette butts, check out this claim.

Cigarette butts do not biodegrade, and they contain 200 known poisons, 63 of which are shown to cause cancer.

That's right, according to the pleasure police, the cotton and paper in a cigarette butt don't degrade, and they are packed with cancer causing poisons. Just how a cigarette butt causes cancer isn't stated. I'm not sure if people are eating the cigarette butts, rubbing them on themselves, or if simply getting to close to them will cause the cancer demons to jump into your body. If that's true, the surgeon general should start putting warning labels on ashtrays, gutters, and other places that cigarette butts have been known to congregate. I'd hate to get to close to one of those nasty things and get some of that cancer poison on me.

I finally got around to testing out the AR-15 yesterday. The good news is that even though I built the gun itself, it didn't blow up in my face. I put 60 rounds through it, and they all fed flawlessly. Unfortunately, we had gale force winds gusting up to 50 miles per hour yesterday. Since I was at an outdoor range, I wasn't really able to test the accuracy of the rifle.

I set up the target stand with my paper target securely stapled to the cardboard. Unfortunately, by the time I got done testing my BLR .308 (which was deadly accurate in spite of the wind) the paper target had blown away. As I was putting the BLR away and loading up the AR-15, my paper target caught a gust of wind. I never really even saw it go, I just noticed I was aiming at the used target that was left underneath. Since the range was still hot, I figured I'd make the best of it and shoot at the used target, even though it was already full of holes.

During the next mag change, that one blew away revealing what was left of a third target underneath. The range safety officer still wasn't calling cease fire, so I spent another mag full at the this one. I was better off than the guy next to me, that lost his whole stand half way through. The wind was really bad, but I was determined to test out the AR and make sure it was functioning properly.

About when I finished, the range officer called cease fire. I was ready to call it a day any way, so I headed down range to collect the target stand. As I neared the stand, I noticed that about 4 of my 60 rounds had dropped severely and impacted the target stand directly. I say 'noticed' in that I was shooting steel core ammo that I had picked up at a gun show, and there were four very noticeable holes in the 1/4" steel frame of the target stand. They don't have a rule against using steel core ammo, and ordinarily it isn't a problem. But I still felt really bad about damaging the target stand.

Angel Shamaya from Keep and Bear Arms enumerates the reasons not to vote for George W. Bush. (paraphrased)

Even after he'd won the election, President Bush voiced support for the Clinton/Feinstein "assault weapon" ban.

President Bush's Administration opposed U.S. Supreme Court review of a valid Second Amendment case (U.S. v. Emerson).

President Bush's Administration also played insulting roles in three other Second Amendment cases:
A) Direct Opposition to U.S. v. Thomas Lamar Bean
B) Silence and Indifference Throughout Silveira v. Lockyer
C) Anti-Second Amendment Nonsense in Seegars v. Ashcroft

President Bush's Administration snubbed tens of thousands of gun owners when they submitted a Petition for the Enforcement of the Second Amendment.

President Bush praises and defends the insultingly-named "USA PATRIOT" Act, which includes numerous provisions that pave the way for widespread violations of Americans' basic rights.

With Mr. Bush's enthusiastic support, the BATF -- an entire anti-Second Amendment federal agency -- was moved under the Justice Department.

Under Mr. Bush's Administration, the right of the people to keep and bear arms (and many other fundamental rights) is even absent from the new Constitution of a nation our troops are allegedly "liberating."

Bush supporters argue that he is better than the alternative. I hate to burst your bubble, but electing the lesser of two evils doesn't exactly motivate me to go to the polls in favor of Bush, and it certainly doesn't motivate me to send him any money.

Will I vote for Bush? Probably. Can he count on my support? Not likely. If the election is at all close, he's going to be in a lot of trouble.

"I wonder if it would be innapropriate to suggest that the Secret Service guys pass on taking a bullet for Kerry's worthless hide? Good SS agents are hard to come by, and worthless politicians are a dime a dozen." -- Musings of The GeekWithA.45.

Liberal Utopia is a fairly new site, but I'm liking it already.

I went to see Dawn of the Dead last night with a group of friends. It was a surprisingly fun movie, but not very scary. Oh, there were parts where things would jump out at you and startle you, but there was none of the suspense and tension you see with a movie like the Shining or Alien. Overall, I would recommend it. It was pretty gory and some of the women (and one of the men) kept covering their eyes. But in the end it was just a really fun movie to sit through and laugh at. I don't want to give anything away, but if you do go see it, see if you can count all the horror movie cliches that they pull out. (Figuring out who was going to live and who was going to die was pretty easy.)

Kerry Dunn, a California psychology professor, was preparing to give a lecture about racism when her car was vandalized. The words "shut up" were scrawled on it, and it was covered with racist and anti-semitic slurs. But as Scott Norvell points out, it wasn't really the 'hate crime' that she made it out to be.

Police say a California professor's claim that her car was vandalized in a racially motivated hate crime have turned out to be a hoax, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Kerri Dunn, a psychology professor at Claremont McKenna College, was preparing to give a lecture about racism on campus when she claimed someone scrawled the words "shut up" along with racist and anti-semitic slurs. She said she was targeted for her outspokenness about injustice on campus.

Now, police say she vandalized that car herself.

Campus leaders last week had condemned the vandalism as a hate crime, shut down the Claremont consortium of colleges for a day of anti-hate rallies and called in FBI investigators.

Police will likely charge her for filing a false police report, and she could face felony charges of lying to federal investigators. There was no mention of it, but if she also tried to collect insurance damages, she could face fraud charges as well.

Dunn's supporters claim that even if she did lie about the situation, she still raised awareness about hate crimes. They think the end justified the means. If only we could convince gun grabbers like Sarah Brady to help out their cause by staging their own shooting deaths.

"I think Kerry would be much more willing to listen to the voices of people and of the rest of the world... But in the U.S., the Jewish lobby is very strong, and any American who wants to become president cannot change the policy toward Palestine radically." -- Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad endorsing John Kerry for President. Mahathir is such a scumbag that even Kerry called him "an avowed anti-Semite whose views are totally deplorable".

Several House lawmakers are planning to introduce a bill that would allow them to overrule the Supreme Court of the United States. With Justices like Sandra Day O'Connor, who ruled that racial discrimination is okay for another 25 years, and once claimed that future rulings should be based on international law rather than the U.S. Constitution (which she is sworn to uphold), this may not be such a bad idea. But even though I don't like the idea of idealogues like O'Connor having little accountability, I don't think that giving a power hungry Congress even more power is the way to go. Besides, the SCOTUS would undoubtedly rule that such a law is unconstitutional.

This is nothing more than a Legislative power grab, and a step closer toward totalitarianism. If they were really worried about rogue justices not upholding their oath of office, they would take steps to remove them. Supreme Court justices are not immune from impeachment, so if legislators are really concerned perhaps they should learn to use their impeachment powers.

FOOTNOTE: To show you how behind the times I am, Say Uncle had this two days ago. He theorizes that it may be Constitutional. The only problem with that is that it is the SCOTUS that says what is Constitutional and what isn't.

D.C. area radio station WMAL appears to be the first media outlet to acknowledge how abusive the MWAA's power really is.

If you're packin' heat on the Dulles Toll Road, then you're cruisin' for a bruisin'.

Most people probably don't know it, but it turns out it's illegal to have a weapon on the highway because it's on land owned by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority. And it's not just guns -- knives and other weapons are off-limits, just like they are inside the airport terminal. [...]

Along with the Toll Road, that also includes a stretch of Route-28, from approximately US 50 to Route-606.

Keep in mind that concealed guns aren't the only thing for which you can get into trouble. MWAA can subject you to airport regulations, just like you were trying to walk through the metal detectors to board a flight. That means a sharp nail file or pen knife can get you arrested during your afternoon commute. They claim they won't abuse their power, but why give them that chance?

"How any parent or caring human being looking at the carnage on the streets of this country and not want to outlaw guns I can't quite understand." -- New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, expressing his desire to outlaw all firearms. Last year Bloomberg effectively outlawed cigarettes.

New York City, Chicago, and Washington D.C. continue to be plagued with gun violence, despite the fact that handguns are already effectively banned. How this moron can think that doing more of the same will somehow have a different result, I can't quite understand.

VCDL President Phillip Van Cleave reports on what's happening to our neighbors to the North. They are debating both a state wide version of the Clinton Gun Ban, and concealed carry (which has an obvious impact on Virginians who spend time in Maryland). Van Cleave notes that all the gun bills were being heard at once, and that both pro-gun and anti-gun activists were present to tell their side. How he could sit in the same room as Sarah 'gimme your gun' Brady is beyond me, but check out the typical treatment the anti-gunners got from the press.

As Sarah Brady spoke the TV cameras were rolling. As soon as she and the anti's gave their side, the news cameras packed up and left. The opponents (pro-gun) then spoke to the committee.

Apparently John Lott was there and got to speak, but Phillip doesn't think it will do any good. The Maryland AWB and the 'shall issue' bills seem to be tied together. Van Cleave thinks that they might both go bust in a sort of 'mutually assured destruction'.

The U.S. House of Representatives proposed a bill that "commends the members of the U.S. Armed Forces and Coalition forces for liberating Iraq and expresses its gratitude for their valiant service." The bill was a symbolic measure recognizing that our troops did a wonderful job dispatching Saddam Hussein, and thanked them for putting their lives on the line for our nation.

The measure passed, 228-195. Every Democrat except Rodney Alexander D-LA and Lincoln Davis D-TN voted against it.

UPDATE: Taranto points out that on the final vote only 93 congressmen (90 Dems, 2 Reps, and 1 Ind.) voted 'No' on the bill. I guess the others were voting against it before they voted for it.

"I actually did vote for the $87 billion before I voted against it." -- John 'Flip-flop' Kerry, pointing out that he didn't really vote to de-fund U.S. troops in Iraq. It just appeared that way.

If you aren't celebrating it today, I hope you are at least drinking some green beer this weekend. St. Patrick's Day is one of my favorite holidays, and not just because I like to booze it up. In the days of pleasure police and the PC nazis, having a drinking holiday around is a refreshing reminder of the finer things in life.

I encourage everyone to live by The General's motto.

Live the good life. Drink, smoke, gamble, feast, joke, fornicate and be tolerant of those who do. Take risks and thrive for the good challenge. Work hard and play hard without going over the edge. Live in the moment. Believe in moderation in all things, including moderation. Live it up!

Life is finite. You might as well enjoy it while you can. Drive an SUV, smoke if you want to, drink, fornicate. Do what you want, as long as you don't deprive anyone else in their pursuit of the same.

Live free or die, brother. Live free or die.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

(link via Mays.)

John Kerry hasn't been doing the job he was elected to do, having missed 292 (or a whopping 64%) of the votes in 2003. In 2004, he has already missed 22 Senate votes. Despite doing very little work over the past 14 months, Kerry has collected all of his paychecks, and that has some conservative groups ticked off.

A U.S. senator is permitted to be absent from his duties when there is a serious illness by the elected official or an immediate family member.

The law clearly states that if a senator fails to meet this requirement and is not present in the Senate chambers while it is in session, then a portion of his pay must be taken away from him.

Despite this, the Senate secretary has not been deducting any of Kerry's pay while he has been absent from his duties in the Senate.

When approached by the American Conservative Union about enforcing the law, the Senate Secretary claimed that previous secretaries had not upheld the law, and that she wasn't about to start. The ACU plans to sue to force the Secretary to do her job and dock Kerry's pay.

Now this may be nitpicking a bit. After all, the only ones who really have a valid complaint are the residents of Taxachusetts that aren't being provided proper representation. Personally, there are about 20 other Senators I'd like to see not showing up for work. But I will admit that if they are not going to enforce the law, then the Senate should at least remove it from the books.

While I will admit that flipping a cop or his SUV the bird while you've got outstanding arrest warrants isn't the smartest thing to do, I didn't realize it gave cops the right to give people the business.

I seriously doubt this plain clothes sheriff was just innocently driving along when he was given the offending gesture. They provide no evidence, but most likely he was being somewhat of a jerk or a road warrior when an Indiana woman gave him the bird. But what happened next sounds a lot like harrassment. (emphasis mine)

Officers pulled her over and ran a routine check on her license plate. The check turned up outstanding warrants for the woman and her husband.

To top it off, officials say they found marijuana and drug paraphernalia in the car.

A routine check? Is it routine to pull people over and run their information, or is that treatment reserved for those who dare to express their dissatisfaction with another driver who, in this case, turned out to be a police officer?

I am truly conflicted. On the one hand I have little sympathy for someone with outstanding arrest warrants, while on the other hand I cannot help but think this woman was being unfairly singled out.

Kerry has been racking up endorsements from the French, reports James Taranto. With his attitude of terrorist appeasement, the French seem to view him as one of their own.

"He is very much admired in France," said a municipal office worker, Patrick Forestier, as he strolled with his lunch through the Latin Quarter. "It seems like he will be more sympathetic to Europe. . . . And of course anyone who is opposed to Bush will be popular with us."

A shop worker on Boulevard St-Germain, Dominique Van Oudenhove, said Mr. Kerry seems the perfect antidote to four years of Mr. Bush.

"It is so important to have a president who knows Europe, whose spirit is open to its people and culture. Bush is so closed to the world. With Kerry there is a hope that we can start getting along with the United States again," she said.

Mrs. Borde said the French see in Mr. Kerry the kind of leader they are more accustomed to.

"He is the closest thing that you will have to a French politician, with a certain diplomacy, a certain elegance," she said."He is more like a leader would be in Europe," Mr. Parmentier said. Asked in what way, he laughed and replied: "Well, he doesn't look Texan."

For those of you that may have forgotten, here is what years of European appeasment have led to in the past:

Didn't we used to shoot these assholes? Apparently a bunch of Taxachusetts peace mongers cheered him on as he turned himself in to military police. I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that the pro-appeasement, pro-Saddam, anti-military, anti-war socialists that are defending deserters like this are the very same useful idiots that claim George Bush was AWOL from his guard duty in Alabama and should be censured.

The deserter, 28 year old Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia, had this to say for himself:

"I am saying no to war. I have chosen peace," Mejia said earlier at a news conference at Sherborn arranged by anti-war activists. "I went to Iraq and was an instrument of violence, and now I have decided to become an instrument of peace."

His time for choosing peace was before he volunteered for military service. He should have chosen peace before we invested thousands of dollars and years of training in him. Just what did he think that rifle and marksmanship training were for?

I come from a military family and grew up in a military town, so perhaps I'm a little more harsh on these guys than most people would be. But to me, a soldier who refuses to go into combat is like a fireman who refuses to put out a fire; or a policeman who refuses to stop a crime. During war time desertion should be treated like... well... desertion. I say give him the firing squad. That should let people know that when you sign up for military service, you'd better be damned sure you are up for it.

I have a question for all you anti-war nuts out there. If Iraq had nothing to do with terrorism, why did the terrorists bomb Spain in response to their support of the Iraq War?

Now every state is different, but most places I've lived (and there have been quite a few) have exhorborant taxes on telephone services. Here in Northern Virginia, my local telephone plan costs $29.99. After taxes and fees, my monthly bill topped $50. That is over 40% in taxes and fees alone. It's no wonder then, that consumers are turning to cell phones and internet devices for local phone service.

Naturally, consumer freedom has state and local governments worried about losing all that cash. U.S. Congressmen, who had largely supported an internet tax ban throughout the 90s and early 00s, are locked in heated debates over whether or not the ban on internet taxation should be extended.

The debate helps illustrate precisely what is wrong with tax and spend government, and their willing accomplices in the media.

States facing soaring budget shortfalls say that they could lose as much as $9 billion in the next three years if they cannot collect taxes on Internet access and telephone calls, an increasingly popular alternative to traditional phone services.

It's attitudes like this that really piss me off. When consumers chose one product that has less taxes than another product, government bureaucrats whine that they are the ones losing money. (As if it were their money to begin with.) Government law-makers then try to level the playing field by passing punitive taxes on competing service providers.

The same attitude permiates attitudes about taxation of businesses. When businesses choose states with lower tax rates, or heaven forbid nations with lower tax rates, they are said to be shirking their civic duty to pay higher taxes at home. I don't know about you, but I don't have a duty to pay any higher tax rate than is required by law. If I can find a set of goods and services that minimize the taxes I pay, I'm going to use them.

The hollow skulls at the Washington Post are trying to make the case that higher taxes means lower unemployment. They spout endless numbers to make it sound as if taxes are actually good for the economy. Unemployment was higher under Reagan than Clinton, and spiked again when George W. Bush took office. See! See! Taxes are good for unemployment numbers.

But I think that the most telling example is this one:

Total taxation in Sweden, including local taxes, is equal to 59.2 percent of that country's economy, the highest level in the 27-member Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In contrast, the U.S. total tax burden is 30.6 percent, lowest among the OECD members. Yet unemployment for the past two years in Sweden has been considerably lower than U.S. levels.

So how can that be?

Well, first of all, the Washington Post is talking about unemployment rates, not jobs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, unemployed is defined as someone "who had no employment during the reference week, were available for work... and had made specific efforts to find employment sometime during the 4-week period ending with the reference week." In plain English, that means that people who aren't actively looking for work, aren't considered unemployed. Now, if you lived in socialist Europe where almost 60% of your income was seized by the government, would you be looking for work? I know I wouldn't, and that would mean that although I'm not working, I'm not considered unemployed either.

Kevin Baker sheds the light on more UK lunacy. Apparently if you are wrongfully convicted of a crime, they make you pony up for freeloading while you were in prison.

Paddy Hill was one of the Birmingham Six. He spent 16 years behind bars for the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings by the IRA. Hill now lives on a farm with his wife and children near Beith in Scotland. He has been charged �50,000 for living expenses by the Home Office. [...]

O'Brien spent 10 years in jail wrongly convicted of killing a Cardiff newsagent. His baby daughter died while he was in prison and he was charged �37,500 by the Home Office for his time behind bars. [...]

Vincent Hickey, one of the Bridgewater Four who was wrongly convicted for killing a paperboy, was charged �60,000 for the 17 years he spent in jail. He said: "If I had known this I would have stayed on hunger-strike longer, that way I would have had a smaller bill." [...]

ROBERT Brown was just a 19-year-old from Glasgow when he was jailed for life for murdering a woman called Annie Walsh in Manchester in 1977. He served 25 years before he was finally freed in 2002, when the courts ruled him innocent of the crime.
He is now facing a bill of around �80,000 for the living expenses he cost the state.

I've heard a few rumors about the kerfuffle surrounding Hokie football players Marcus Vick, Mike Imoh, and Brenden Hill. The word on the street (and this is just rumor) is that Imoh and Hill are done. While Virginia Tech could make an exception for Vick, it's doubtful. Marcus will probably try to salvage his football career by transferring to a good I-AA program like Florida A&M or McNeese State. (Transferring to the lower division would allow him to play right away and not have to sit out a year.)

Of course if the rumors prove to be true, it means they are probably guilty; which it looks like they are.

As a honky white man of European descent, I find this to be particularly interesting:

A new book says up to a million Europeans were abducted and enslaved by North African raiders in the 16th and 17th centuries -- a number that is far higher than previously known, reports the Guardian.

In a new book, Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500-1800, historian Robert Davis says hundreds of thousands of people were snatched from coastal towns throughout the Mediterranean and as far north as England.

The white Christians were seized every year to work as galley slaves, labourers and concubines for Muslims in what is today Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria and Libya, the book claims.

Concealed carry in Missouri is still in its infancy, but citizens are already using firearms to defend themselves.

Robbers pointed a gun at Bryan Rutherford and demanded that he hand over valuables from his pickup Tuesday evening in Lemay.

Rutherford didn't pull out cash or jewelry. He pulled out a .22-caliber pistol hidden in his vehicle and opened fire in what authorities believe is the first instance of self-defense with a concealed firearm since the Missouri Legislature loosened the state's gun laws.

The man holding what turned out to be a BB gun on Rutherford was hit several times in the torso before he and two accomplices fled. Three suspects were later captured and charged.

Whether Rutherford had obtained a concealed carry permit for his gun isn't known, but prosecutors have already said that he won't be charged. Three hits and the goon still ran away. Rutherford should consider upgrading to a larger caliber.

The terrorist attacks in Madrid, which are probably the work of al-Qaeda, have turned the tide of their national elections reports the Washington Post. The Popular Party, which supports the war on terror and was ahead in the polls, has been ousted in favor of the Socialist Party.

"I was going to vote for one side, and now I ended up voting for the other because of the attacks," said one voter, Manuel Yunta. "The thought that it could be al Qaeda behind the attacks changed my vote, because I blame the government for the massacre."

Another voter, Jose Antonio Alvarez, said, "I voted for the Socialists, but I wasn't happy with the protests I saw last night in front of the PP headquarters. It's not the time even though I don't think the government has been completely open with all the information" it has about the attacks.

That the anti-war socialists in Europe would vote in favor of appeasement directly following a major terrorist attack is not altogether surprising. While Americans tend toward emotions of vengence and retaliation (lets go get those bastards), it has been no secret that Europe has largely embraced an attitude of appeasement (why do they hate us).

What is bothersome is that terrorists were able to sway a national election through senseless violence. With our own election coming up in November, al-Qaeda will undoubtedly be planning an October surprise for us?

(cross posted at The Command Post)

UPDATE: Apparently I'm not the only one that thinks this way. Check out the comments of Neal Boortz, which closely echo mine.

Do these Islamic terrorists think that the same tactic would work in the United States? Would a deadly terrorist attack in this country help them as it did in Spain? Would voters quickly turn against George Bush and put a man more friendly to them in office? Now I'm not saying that this is the way Americans would react. What I am saying is that this might be the way the Islamic terrorists think you would react. If they do, then the danger of another deadly terrorist attack on America has just become more serious.

Tired of paying $50 a month for basic telephone service, I decided to take the plunge and switch to AT&T local service. The plan was a bit cheaper, but I could tell that with the high taxes and fees that Virginia and the Fed added in, I would probably end up paying just as much. Still, I figured that I would at least try their service and see if it was any better (or cheaper). Well, I haven't got my bill yet, but so far I'm getting what I've paid for.

I initiated the switch back on March 4th. After hitting submit on their website, they informed me that they would switch my service over in a few days. Perhaps most importantly, they told me "You will not experience any disruption in your current service during your switch to AT&T". Well, I've been without phone service ever since.

I first noticed the apparent lack of dial tone several days ago. I arrived home from work already engaged in a long distance conversation with a friend from Atlanta. We had been talking for a while, and my cell phone was already starting to beep "low battery" at me. I hung up my mobile phone with every intention of calling the person back, but the telephone gods had conspired against me. With it's battery dead and the phone overheating, my cell phone was nothing more than an expensive paperweight. My home phone was unusually uncooperative, as I was getting no tones from the keypad, and could hear no ringy dingies on the other end of the receiver.

I still had internet service, so I contacted AT&T about the lack of dial tone on March 11th, at which time they very quickly responded "Your message has been received and an answer will be sent to you within 48 hours". I didn't want so much of an answer, as I did dial tone. But so far it has been 3 days (72 hours) since I contacted them, and I still don't have any telephone service.

Will I have telephone service tomorrow? The next day? Who knows. But I haven't paid them any money yet, so I guess I'm getting no more than what I've paid for. If the silence continues, I may just go without. Who needs them any way?

UPDATE: (3/15) Beware the Ides of March. AT&T finally got back to me. In delightful irony, a service rep emailed me a phone number to call for assistance.

The bold AP headline reads Accused Spy Is Cousin of Bush Staffer. But when you read the details, you find some other tidbits buried in the story:

Lindauer started her congressional career in 1993 when she took a job with Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore. The next year she went to work for a second Oregon Democrat in the House -- Ron Wyden. Two years later she joined the staff of Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, D-Ill.

After a brief stint at Fox News, she worked for Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., for a few months in 2002.

That's right, the alleged Iraqi spy worked for FOUR Congressional Democrats, yet it is her distant relation to White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card that makes the headlines.

Hat tip to Neal.

A Russian inventor wants to turn satellites in space into a giant lite-brite, with advertisements blinking from one end of the continent to the other.

Senate Democrats duped the usual GOP suspects, Lincoln Chafee, John McCain, Olympia Snow (and her colleague Susan Collins), into requiring a super majority to pass any more tax cuts, or make the current tax rates permanent. Apparently seizing less of your money is such an important decision, it cannot be trusted to a mere 50 senators.

Given that the Democrats are in the minority (and not likely to retake the Senate this year) the measure is a boon to Senate Democrats who want to advance their high tax agenda. If they do nothing, the tax rates will revert back to the Clinton rates, which is exactly what most Democrats want. That means that beginning next year, we could all be paying more in taxes. Combine that with the huge tax increases that most states have been pushing through, and America could end up much worse off than they were before the Bush tax cuts.

The GOP has worked hard to gain a majority in the Senate, yet if the this amendment sticks it is all for naught. Given that it only impacts tax cuts and not spending increases or new entitlement programs, the amendment pretty much only impacts Republicans. That is, unless Democrats were trying to push a tax cut through that Republicans wanted to block. But this ain't Bizarro World.

After banning guns didn't work, Australian governments are setting their sites on banning swords.

Swords will become prohibited weapons from July 1, carrying penalties of up to $12,000 or six months in prison for illegal use or possession, the Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Andre Haermeyer said today.

Mr Haermeyer announced new sword regulations today, saying they would assist Victoria Police to crack down on incidents involving swords.

"The Bracks Government is implementing these new regulations to help Victoria Police overcome this culture of young people arming themselves with swords," Mr Haermeyer said.

"From July 1, swords will be made prohibited weapons, making it illegal to use, possess or carry a sword."

What's next; pencils and finger nail clippers? I don't know about you, but if you hear that Ravenwood's guns have been taken, you'll know Ravenwood is dead.

A Scottish bureaucrat is getting heat over some comments he made about guns. The mere suggestion that teaching children about guns might improve safety has resulted in gun freedom grabbers calling for his resignation, reports Scotsman.com. Adding a double whammy, he went on to say that keeping guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens is having no effect on criminals.

ANTI-GUN campaigners called for a senior Conservative MP to be sacked last night after he claimed that children should be taught how to handle firearms.

Patrick Mercer, the Tory home security spokesman, prompted widespread controversy during a fringe speech to party members last weekend when he also claimed the ban on handguns, introduced after the Dunblane massacre, had "no effect" on spiralling gun crime.

Admitting that gun control has had no effect on crime, something that even our own liberal CDC has admitted, is considered "fringe speech" in the liberal European press.

Personally, I would also disagree with Mercer. Gun control has had an effect on crime. Look at England, where crime is increasing so much that law enforcement officers no longer enforce trivial crime like burglary and assault. England's skyrocketing crime rate in the face of draconian gun laws shows that John Lott was right. More guns does equal less crime.

Blogger Blast O' Rama... coming March 20th.

"We're going to keep pounding, let me tell you -- we're just beginning to fight here. These guys are the most crooked, you know, lying group of people I've ever seen." -- John 'Flip-flop' Kerry, voicing his contempt for Republicans.

Reuters reports that U.S. stocks plummeted after a record trade deficit was announced. But neither report really explains just why a trade deficit is bad. They simply state that there is one, people think it's bad, and Democrats are elated at having more ammunition to use against President Bush.

Of course in an economic sense, there really isn't any problem with a trade deficit. When you buy goods, you give them dollars in exchange for hard assets or services. For instance, when you buy a Toyota you might have a $30,000 trade deficit with the Toyota dealership. But does that really mean you are any worse off? After all, you received a hard asset worth $30,000.

Politicians try to scare people into thinking that sending your money overseas is inherently bad. If that is true, why don't we just outlaw foreign trade? I mean, if we have a periennial deficit, and deficits are really really bad, why don't we just wipe it out by outlawing all foreign goods. That would reduce our deficit to zero. But would we really be better off?

Walter Williams takes a look at what really happens when you buy foreign goods. Dr. Williams rightly points out that the money ends up coming back to us, just in a different form.

A trade balance sheet has two accounts: the current account, consisting of goods and services exchanged, and the capital account, consisting of stocks, bonds and investments. Let's look at it.

Scenario 1: Japan sells us $100 million worth of Hondas. If it bought $100 million worth of rice from us, we'd all agree there would be no trade deficit; the current trade account would be balanced.

Scenario 2: Suppose Japan sold us $100 million worth of Hondas, and instead of buying rice, the $100 million was used to build a factory in Kentucky. We'd have a $100 million deficit on current account offset by a $100 million surplus (buying something) on the capital account - a balance. Instead of creating American jobs by buying rice, jobs would be created by the factory in Kentucky.

Scenario 3: The Japanese sell us $100 million worth of Hondas but neither buy rice nor build a factory but instead deposit $100 million in a U.S. bank. Again, we have $100 million deficit on current account and a $100 million surplus (buying something, in this case a bank account) on the capital account. In this case, the Japanese create jobs by making money available for loans for Americans to buy homes or American firms to build plants or invest in new equipment.

Scenario 4: The Japanese sell us $100 million worth of Hondas (current account deficit). They neither buy rice, nor build a factory, not deposit it in a U.S. bank but buy something already existing like the Rockefeller Center and MGM Studios (capital account surplus). The American who got the $100 million may use it to build a new factory in Kentucky or lend it to people to invest, thereby creating jobs.

Next to the last scenario: Honda sells us $100 million worth of cars (current account deficit) but takes the dollars back to Japan. Dollars cannot be spent in Japan, so what might happen? A British firm may sell the Japanese wool. Instead of being paid in yen, they'd be paid with the $100 million from the Honda sale. The British firm might use those dollars to purchase U.S. Treasury notes (capital account surplus).

Last scenario: This is the one politicians believe, and one I'd actually like. Honda sells us $100 million worth of cars. They buy nothing, and just for the love of dollars, the Japanese keep them stashed in a national cookie jar. Japanese manufacturers work their fannies off just so Americans can be supplied with all sorts of goodies in exchange for slips of paper manufactured by the U.S. mint. That would be wonderful. We Americans could relax and bask in the sun while the Japanese slave to supply cars, cameras and all sorts of high-tech goods in exchange for slips of paper sporting pictures of famous U.S. presidents. Sorry, I'm afraid the Japanese are not that stupid.

What Dr. Williams is saying is that the money always comes back to us. It's our money, so it has to. If it didn't, nobody would accept it. Sure, you can spend American dollars overseas. England will gladly accept American dollars from Japan, but only because it represents an interest in the United States. If the $100 million couldn't be traded for $100 million worth of U.S. goods or services, what would be the point in accepting it?

When it comes to the economy, it seems to me that the only ones that really should be worried or the dolts in the economic forecasting industry.

John 'Flop-flop' Kerry is already protesting the Florida 2004 election.

Are U.S. senators the real inside traders? Their stock portfolios seem to have unnaturally high performance.

California Democrats want to lower the voting age to 14. Yeah, like 14 year olds would have voted for Gray Davis over the Terminator.

Kerry accused President Bush of not providing American troops with enough body armor. Guess who voted against a 2003 bill to give American troops more body armor.

John Kerry calls CEO's who outsource labor "Benedict Arnold CEOs" after the infamous Revolutionary War traitor. As it turns out, 57 of the 79 Heinz factories owned by Kerry's wife are overseas. (The Heinz 57?)

Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., thinks that future tax cuts should require 60 Senate votes in a sort of automatic filibuster. His justification for requiring a super majority to cut taxes is to do it for the old people. That is, he claims that it would help preserve social security.

I've got a better idea. How about we require that any line item in the federal budget that isn't explicitly authorized by the U.S. Constitution require a two thirds majority of both houses of Congress, and ratification by three fourths of the States. I'd be willing to bet that we could not only kill the deficit next year, but that we could pay off the $6 Trillion debt in three or four years.

Now they even want to ban fictional smoking. And just what is a "smoking film"?

The FBI has caught a serial arsonist who allegedly set fire to 125 Sport Utility Vehicles and a California auto dealership, reports the AP.

William Cottrell, 23, of Pasadena was arrested for investigation of arson and vandalism. He was scheduled to be arraigned in federal court later in the day. If convicted, he faces a maximum of 20 years in federal prison for each act.

If guilty, I'd like to see the bozo get 125 consecutive 20 year sentences. But then again, this is California. Will the L.A. liberals even convict him at all?

Arson is often overlooked as a serious crime. I even had one demented soul email me her diatribe about how ELF arsonists take care not to harm anyone. She actually went so far as to claim that if someone did get hurt, it would not have been an official ELF arson. (Whatever the hell that means.)

If you don't think arson is a serious and dangerous crime, ask a firefighter what he thinks. But cover your boys, because he's likely to roshambo you for every one of his fallen camrades.

I think Spoons may be mistaken on this one.

VCDL reports that two of my favorite pro gun bills are being sent to the Governor's desk, having passed both houses by a huge margin.

HB404, Delegate Janis' one-gun-a-month exemption for permit holders has passed both the House and Senate and is heading to the Governor's desk! It passed with a veto proof margin!

HB1144, Delegate McDonnell's bill to allow out-of-state purchases of long guns has passed both Houses and is on its way to the Governor's desk - it is veto proof, too!

I'm keeping my finger's crossed that our slimy big-government pinko governor will see the handwriting on the walls and sign the bills into law.

When I attended college, I registered and voted in my college town of Blacksburg, Virginia. There was a point in time when the town tried to deny students the right to vote locally. The local government felt that 25,000 college kids wouldn't accurately represent the needs of a town of about 5,000 locals, so they prohibited them from registering to vote. The courts ruled against the town, saying that they could deny students the right to vote based on how they might vote. Now, Williamsburg seems to be doing just that.

William and Mary students lost their bid to register to vote in the college town of Williamsburg, because the town considers them transients and doesn't think they'll represent their best interests.

Robert McFarland, an attorney for the Williamsburg registrar, argued Tuesday that the registrar followed guidelines by the State Board of Elections in making decisions about voter registration based on factors such as where students register their cars and how long they plan to live in Williamsburg.

Is how long you plan to live some place actually a question on the registration? I think that since Williamsburg won't let them vote, they should also be exempt from local income and property taxes.

Ban the Ban reports that the Restaurant Association of Metro. Washington is suing the District of Columbia for a ballot referendum on smoking. After losing in the city council, anti-smokers hoping that they can use mob rule to wage their attack on property rights. Unfortunately, they stand a very good chance of winning. Public smoking bans that make it to a popular vote often pass because smokers are a minority and there are simply too few non-smokers that care about the rights of smokers and private property owners.

Despite being a non-smoker, I could never, in good conscious, vote to extend a smoking ban to someone elses private property; something that anti-smokers and selfish non-smokers don't think twice about.

Late last year, the Washington Times noted that a survey conducted by anti-smokers showed that 60% of voters would support a smoking ban. That number seems surprisingly low, considering a similar measure to repeal property rights passed in Florida with more than 70% of the vote. Considering the Florida ban covers some private residences and any place where one or more persons engages in work, calling it a repeal of property rights is not an exaggeration at all.

Of course smoking really is about property rights. Anti-smokers and non-smokers think that they should have the right to impose their rules on your property. They think that they have a right to visit your business and not be bothered by smoke. I consider anti-smokers to be evil, temperence-minded people, and non-smokers to be their all too willing accomplices. Even our local Fox affiliate has proven to be a useful idiot when they made the bogus claim that "statistics show" that 65,000 people die of second hand smoke every year.

Just remember, that this year it is smoking. Next year it will be something else; fast food, guns, alcohol, Sport Utility Vehicles, you name it.

UPDATE: Remember that as obesity rates grow, fatty foods are next on the list.

I've written about the MWAA several times, but in case you missed those posts, I'll recap. The MWAA is the governing body of Reagan National Airport and Dulles Internation Airport in Virginia. They also manage the Dulles access road and parts of Route 28. They have taken an anti-gun stance prohibiting firearms in the non-sterile areas of the airport, the parking lots, rental car facilities, and certain public roads around the airports, including heavily traveled commuter routes. There are no signs, so it would be quite easy for an innocent gun owner to get themselves into trouble under MWAA law. However, since Virginia law dictates the MWAA, their anti-gun regulations were recently invalidated when Virginia passed a pre-emption bill making state gun laws uniform for concealed carry permit holders.

The VCDL has been fighting the good fight to try to get MWAA to recognize and abide by Virginia law, while the MWAA has claimed they are above the law. The NRA has stood by and done nothing. During this year's legislative session, the MWAA has been pushing for Virginia to reaffirm it's anti-gun stance. With the NRA taking a "neutral" position and essentially giving the legislature their blessing to pass more gun control, both Republicans and Democrats have been working to outlaw guns at all of the state's airports, including Ronald Reagan and Dulles airports. VCDL, more than a little shocked by the NRA's complacency, challenged them on their non-position. The NRA has answered the challenge, by coming down on the side of increased gun control. Here is part of their reply to VCDL:

Since 1994, MWAA regulations have prohibited the possession of firearms by non-ticketed passengers on all airport property, including the terminal, parking lots, rental car areas, and in the case of Washington Dulles, certain areas of Route 28. This little known regulation had gone unenforced until the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL) began harassing the airport authority about MWAA's policy. Given VCDL's questions, MWAA determined that if it did not enforce the regulations it might lose its authority to implement and enforce other regulations.

The NRA has no position on SB 660, and NRA does not support a prohibition on concealed carry. NRA is, however, in favor of
protecting law-abiding gun owners from a patchwork of local laws and regulations. NRA believes that uniform laws for all airports in the Commonwealth of Virginia will prevent gun owners from violating the law by committing an act which is legal at other airports in the Commonwealth.

So the NRA viewed the law as "unenforced" (wink, wink) and blames the VCDL for unnecessarily stirring the pot. On top of that, the Phantom Menace is praising expanding gun control state-wide because Virginian's could benefit from uniform anti-gun laws. Any second thoughts I had about having quit the NRA last year have since vanished.

Scott Norvell notes that a small Italian town has banned lobster.

City officials in a town in Northern Italy have passed animal rights legislation that essentially bans the boiling of live lobsters as "useless torture," reports the Daily Telegraph.

The new law, passed in the town of Reggio Emilia near Bologna, also requires "sociable" birds to be kept in pairs, regulates the size of bird cages, makes it illegal to keep a goldfish in a round glass bowl and requires owners to ensure that each pet sharing a meal gets an equal portion.

The law also mandates non-slip surfaces in bird cages so that birds don't accidentally fall down. It passed 22 to 1.

These days there are lots of toys out there on which to spend your money; exotic cars, airplanes, boats. A wise man once said to buy land because God isn't making any more of it. If you plan on heeding that advice, you could be the first guy on your block to buy his own private island. Islands seem to run anywhere from $50,000 to $20,000,000 depending on the size and location, and I'm not entirely sure these folks aren't also selling deeds to the Brooklyn Bridge. But it looks legit, and I must admit that the idea of owning my own private paradise does sound intriguing.

Canada has quite a few islands for less than USD $50,000, one that even has it's own little cabin and a motor boat to ferry you back and forth to the mainland. But then again it is Canada, and living under Canadian tyranny doesn't sound too appealing. I think I'd rather have some place where I had sovereignty and could mount some shoreline gun batteries to defend against invaders and pirates. As long as the island has plenty of fresh water and a strong breeze to generate electricity, it might not be so bad.

Excellent plan. But it will never happen.

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship." -- Professor Alexander Tytler.

The Washington Times catalogs the revenge many cities and states are taking against the Boy Scouts for not admitting gays and atheists. The SCOTUS already ruled (in the Dale case) that as a private organization the Boy Scouts is free to set their membership requirements any way they see fit. But in an act of revenge, state and local governments (and even some judges) are getting back at the scouts for not admitting homosexuals. In a lawsuit in Connecticut, Second Circuit Court Judge Guido Calabresi, even went so far as to tell "the Boy Scouts in a footnote to his ruling the state was free to make the BSA 'pay a price' for its stand on God and homosexuals."

Elsewhere in the country:

o In Portland, Ore., the United Way will cut off at least $150,000 per year starting in July for about 53,000 inner-city youths served by the Boy Scouts. Activities included soccer for Hispanic youths in Clackamas County and camp-outs, community service and a Soap Box Derby in mainly black northeast Portland. After homosexual rights activists pressured the United Way to dump the group, an Oregonian columnist criticized the agency for forsaking poor, minority young people.

"Boy Scouts may not accept gays," wrote S. Renee Mitchell last April, "but it does a better job than many United Way agencies at reaching out to everybody else."

o The California Supreme Court in June ordered that any state judges volunteering with the BSA as Scout leaders remove themselves from cases involving homosexuals.

o In Berkeley, Calif., an affiliate known as the Sea Scouts has been denied free berthing rights at the local dock since 1998 because of the BSA's position. Even though the Sea Scouts insisted it does not discriminate, but could not renounce BSA policy if it wished to keep its charter, Berkeley city officials said they were within their rights to cease treating the BSA like other tax-exempt organizations. An appeal is being processed with the California Supreme Court.

o In San Bernadino County, east of Los Angeles, the ACLU in January 2003 sued the BSA's Old Baldy Council because the Scouts, it said, falsely claimed they would comply with state antidiscrimination laws in order to get a $15,000 federal grant. The case is still in District Court.

o In 2000, in response to the Dale decision, the delegates to the National Education Association's annual meeting adopted a resolution calling on school boards "to establish policies requiring that all private organizations using school facilities have nondiscriminatory membership policies."

The good news is that the Boy Scouts are making some headway. The AP reports that even the Department of Justice has come out on the side of the scouts.

Maryland and Virginia are cracking down on D.C. area HOV violators. Not deterred by the high fines, motorists will now incur points against their driver's licences. Now, I hate HOV violators as much as the next guy, but I must agree with Eric Peters when he says it makes a mockery of the driving record points system.

But how, exactly, is not having two or more people in your car a matter of pubic safety?

The logic behind the points system is that it provides an objective means of ranking drivers according to their propensity to drive safely -- or not. Various moving violations that enhance the risk of an accident -- for example, running a red light -- cause a certain number of demerit points to be assigned that driver's record. Accumulate too many points within a given period of time -- the limit is usually 12-15 or so within a calendar year -- and the DMV can suspend or revoke the offender's license. Insurance companies use the number of points on a driver's DMV record to adjust insurance rates -- up or down. The more points, the more you pay. Drivers with 12 points or more are often stuck in the so-called "SR-22" high-risk group that typically has to pay $2,000 or more annually for coverage. [...]

Handing out points just because you haven't got the mandatory number of bodies in your vehicle turns that concept on its head. The person may be a scofflaw. But it's got absolutely nothing to do with his driving. And yet, a multiple carpool lane violator could rack up a pile of points on his driver's record -- which to any insurance agent or DMV clerk would look much the same as the record of a habitual red light runner or DWI offender.

Drudge reports that a Palm Beach county judge was removed from the bench in 2002 for being addicted to Oxycontin. Despite being in the same jurisdiction and under very similar circumstances, Palm Beach prosecutors have yet to conduct a doctor shopping investigation like they are with conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh. As Drudge points out, this certainly lends credenct to Limbaugh's assertion that he is being unfairly targeted.

In other railroading news, Martha Stewart was convicted "of covering up crimes the government couldn't prove she committed." That one juror emerged from the court room and said sticking it to Martha was a victory for "the average guy" speaks volumes. Envy is a very powerful emotion.

From Say Uncle, the Contra Costa Times weighs in on the Clinton Gun Ban:

That provision [the assault weapons ban] had the support of most police departments, the people who have to confront anyone who abuses the use of these automatic, rapid-fire weaons. The amendment was attached to the Republican bill and it looked as if Democrats had the votes to pass the amended version. [sic]

The so-called "assault weapons ban" has NOTHING to do with automatic firearms.

Our VRWC minions have successfully flown airplanes into the skyscraper of Ted Rall's career. The New York Times resident shock jock cartoonist, has been fired. Naturally Rall, who once even made 'fun' of terror widows, is crying censorship.

As Michele points, out, Teddy's cry sounds somewhat like this:

WHAAAA!!!

Hat tip to Charles Hill.

UPDATE: I've always known Ted Rall was an idiot, but his cryfest over being dumped by the New York Times is classically funny. Rall is begging everyone to demand that the NYT put his cartoon back, but then goes on to say that he doesn't really care whether they do or not.

Kowtowing to a special interest group [Times readers] sets a dangerous precedent. The only way they'll reverse course is if you let them know. Please keep the pressure on by emailing [them]

A reminder: I don't stand to earn a penny if the Times runs my cartoons again. They weren't paying me for them anyway. And I have never complained about being dropped before. This is solely about freedom of expression, and the Times' unique intersection of cowardice and laziness. The Times cartoon section has been censored, Soviet-style: even my archives, the last five years of cartoons that they specifically approved of, have been excised by the Stalinists at Times Digital.

This is just like the time the KGB ordered the Moscow Times to stop carrying Alexi Krapitov's cartoons, and Krapitov called them a bunch of Stalinist goons and thugs, and people who smell and wear combat boots. Oh wait, it didn't happen like that.. Krapitov simply disappeared and was never seen or heard from again.

Yeah right.

Aside from a concerned parent buying a car for their precious baby, who the hell would buy one of these.

Toyota unveiled a controversial concept car that would very closely monitor, and in some cases restrict, the actions of its driver -- including refusing to turn on.

To drive the sleek Toyota Sportivo, a driver would have to enter a memory card into its console to turn on the engine. Based on the driver's experience and driving record, the car adjusts its engine performance, cutting back for motorists with less experience or spotty driving records.

In a free market, this device is doomed to fail. But for repressive governments who want to have more control over their citizens, it's an incredible boon.

There is a big to-do being made about some Republicans that leaked some Democrat memos. The content of the memos, which expressed Democrat concerns about certain judges being nominated and suggested that Miguel Estrada in particular be blocked because he is Latino, has pretty much been lost. Also lost is the fact that Democrats are also guilty of leaking memos. In fact the very person bitching about having their memo leaked is guilty of the same.

In the United States, if someone enters your home or property illegally, they take a very real chance of being shot. Except for a few select communities like Chicago, New York, and Washington D.C. where most of the time defending yourself with a firearm is illegal, you are taking your life into your own hands when you trespass on someone's property late at night. So, it comes as not real shock that an Argentine mayor would advise farmers in rural areas to protect themselves as is necessary. After all, police response out in BFE some times takes hours. But this concept is lost on the ultra liberal 'news' organization, Reuters, who leads their story off with:

An Argentine mayor is so fed up with crimes on his patch he has told farmers to go ahead and gun thieves down in cold blood.

To suggest that someone trying to defend their family against an unknown intruder in the dead of night, is someone who is acting without emotion, shows just how removed from reality Reuters can be. Fear for your life is a very real emotion, and Reuters suggestion that someone who is being stalked or attacked should just lay down and die is reckless and appalling.

Democrats are whining about a Bush 'attack' ad that uses images of the 9/11 attack to remind people which Presidential candidate is tough on terrorists, and which one considers it a law enforcement problem. Aren't these the same people that were mum when their willing accomplices in the NAACP used the dragging death of James Byrd to campaign against George Bush?

Neal Boortz links to the test that Georgia assistant basketball coach Jim Harrick Jr. gave for his Coaching Principles and Strategies of Basketball class. Harrick gave only one exam, and it featured questions like 'How many points in a three-point shot?'.

UPDATE: Fixed the "test" link above. Take the test for yourself and see how you do.

UPDATE 2: The AJC actually lets you take the test.

With the Kerry nomination sealed up, the campaign is upon us. Let the abridging of free speech begin.

A woman charged in a fatal car crash is citing the blow job oral sex defense. Her unorthodox alibi actually has the prosecution speculating about other reasons why the victim might have had his pants down.

I consider myself an advocate for individual freedom against a repressive government. But to the New York Times, the repressors are the "advocates" and those that love freedom are part of the "lobby". (emphasis mine)

Congress snarled itself into a frenzy of election-year politicking and bare-knuckle pressure from a gun lobby aided by President Bush [...]

Lawmakers whose votes against the bill were dictated by the National Rifle Association's display of raw power deserve no praise.

Democratic gun control advocates drew enough support from moderate Republicans to add those riders to the immunity bill despite Republicans' dominance of the chamber and the president's urging "no" votes. But once this level of compromise was achieved, the gun lobby flinched, putting out the word to kill the bill.

Gun grabbers are spending millions of dollars to seize freedom from Americans, but we're the ones who are considered a lobby.

This is almost too incredible to believe. An East St. Louis man, Fletcher Parker, was standing by his truck watching the local police arrest a man when he decided to take a few snap shots. What happened next you have to read to believe.

After taking several snapshots and without talking to the police, Parker said he left. After driving three blocks, he realized he was being followed by six squad cars.

Six cars; they must have been really busy with the arrest.

"I thought they were all just trying to pass me, so I pulled over. They come running out of their cars at me," he said.

Parker said the officers asked him if he was a reporter and when he said no, asked why he was taking photos. They then seized the disc from the digital camera, he said.

So only reporters are allowed to have cameras.

After accusing him of obstructing an investigation and warning him he was lucky not to be given a traffic ticket for failing to keep his auto insurance card in the vehicle, they let him go.

I guess the investigation was hampered by the loss of the six patrol cars it took to pull over a single rogue photographer.

An angry Parker said he went an hour later to the police department and spoke with Police Chief Ron Matthews, and asked for the return of his camera disc. He said Matthews refused.

"The chief told me if they (the officers) had been doing their job they would have arrested me at the scene and then we wouldn't be having this problem," Parker said.

What problem? The problem of Parker complaining about his property being unlawfully seized by the government? That problem?

But when he was contacted by telephone about five minutes after Parker left his office, Matthews said, "We are looking into his complaint now. We're going to find out what officers were out there."

Laimutis Nargelenas, a former superintendent of the Illinois State Police and a spokesman for the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police, said ordinary citizens generally have a legal right to photograph police in action, as do news cameramen.

But if a police officer orders someone to stop taking pictures, they must cease even if the officer has no legal basis for such an order, Nargelenas said.

Ever hear of the word Gestapo?

"Generally, we tell our police to keep in mind that the citizens have cameras, like in the Rodney King situation, and to always do the right thing because they are a lot of cameras and video cameras out there," he said.

Parker said he contacted the Illinois State Police Public Integrity Unit to lodge a complaint, but was told by Master Sgt. Tyrone Jordan that it was illegal to take photographs.

Contacted by a reporter, Jordan said Parker did have a right to take photographs as long as he did not interfere with police, "although I would advise against it."

Translation: You have every right to take photos, but if you know what's good for you, you won't.

Things are heating up in the Virginia Legislature. After the Senate Republicans through their support behind a nearly $4 Billion tax increase, House Republicans started lobbying for a voter referendum rather than a deadlock between the House and Senate. House Speaker William J. Howell says, "Starting today, the choice in the budget debate becomes very clear: impasse or referendum." Virginia Governor Mark Warner, who ran on a "no new taxes" campaign, clearly does not want the voters to decide.

"This action is extremely irresponsible and is an abdication of leadership."

That's right, Governor Warner thinks that letting the voters decide on whether or not they should have to pay for huge tax increases is "extremely irresponsible". Maybe that's why he campaigned on the promise to not to raise taxes in the first place.

This month, the new nickels will debut. The coins will still feature the former Governor of Virginia and Third U.S. President Thomas Jefferson on the front. But the other side will feature the Jefferson Peace Medal.

This was a ceremonial medallion presented to Native American chiefs during treaty signings and other big pow-wows. It displays clasped hands and a peace pipe overlapping a hatchet.

That's right, the backs of U.S. nickels will feature (gasp) a weapon, and smoking. How long before the pleasure police get their panties in a bind over the new coins?

Drunken nuns driving tractors; Poland has everything.

Wendy McElroy asks "Do Gun Control Activists Pad Gun Death Statistics?" I would have simply said, "Hell yeah", but she actually writes a few hundred words to make the case.

Governor Arnold wants to once again reward law breakers by providing driver's licenses to illegal aliens.

If you plan on buying one of the new Pontiac GTOs, you may want to know that the 4-speed automatic version is subject to the federal gas guzzler tax.

How DUMB are you?.

Quiz via Mays.

When I attended college, I never really thought much about politics. I was a bit more concerned about trying to earn enough beer money to get me through the weekend. But at UNC Greensboro, the College Republicans are facing widespread bigotry and intolerance from university officials. Mike Adams gives us the scoop:

While talking to the officers, I learned that UNCG is presenting its annual Gay Pride Week in March. Among the many highlights of this special week are a "drag queen day" and a "gay prom." The university directly funds some of these events. Others are funded by private sources after employees paid by the university have initiated them using various university resources. None are completely free from taxpayer expense.

In response, the CRs recently tried to organize a Morals Week to coincide with Gay Pride Week. When they tried to get equal funding and support, the university turned them down saying that they wouldn't fund anything having to do with "morals."

We had our share of liberals, but I don't remember too many of these events funded by VPI. Maybe we were out shooting that weekend.

Not only would the university not fund any conservative events, but the mistreatment of the CRs gets worse.

To add insult to injury, the CRs were removed from a room that they had reserved for my speech only minutes before the speech began. We were all ushered into a smaller room cluttered with tables that made it difficult for the audience to listen to my speech. This was the fourth consecutive week that the CRs were bumped out of a room they had specifically reserved.

That's right. UNCG not only refuses to fund the CR events, but when the students find the funding themselves, the college does everything they can to shut them down any way.

Traffic more than TRIPLED in February, because of the Kerry-Intern kerfuffle.

Month	Unique visitors	Number of visits	Pages	Hits	Bandwidth
Jan 2004	15984	26115	55065	446704	2.51 GB
Feb 2004	46434	61172	150236	718818	4.83 GB

The spike in traffic was nice, but since it came over a period of about 2 days, it is statistically insignificant. I'd trade it for steady growth. I'm glad things are back to normal.

I cannot help but think these two stories are related.

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean -- who dropped out of the race two weeks ago -- won his home state, CNN projected based on the exit polls. -- CNN, March 2, 2004.

Voting with a thunderous "aye," residents endorsed a plan Tuesday for this ski resort town to secede from Vermont and become a part of New Hampshire instead. -- CNN, March 2, 2004.

So reports Geek with a .45.

UPDATE: Fox News reports it, so it must be true. Although they do their best to spread the misinformation:

Under current law, unlicensed gun dealers at private shows are not required to ask for government background checks before selling weapons.

This is what gun banners call the "gun show loophole". But the thing is that in the legal sense, there is no such thing as an "unlicensed gun dealer". Someone dealing guns without a license is a criminal and should be charged as such by the ATF. A private individual who sells a gun is a seller, not a dealer. It may sound like semantics, but it would be like the government requiring you to get a business license before you can sell your used car. Selling a car or two doesn't make you a car dealer, because you aren't making your living in the car business. The same should hold true for guns.

No matter how you slice it, requiring private individuals to get permission from the government before they can sell a legal product to a legal purchaser is a form of tyranny. Fox News ought to be ashamed for furthering the misconceptions.

There have been lots of firearms bills making their way through the Virginia legislature, and most of the bad ones were killed off early. But there is one gun control bill that seems to be making a lot of headway. Currently, non sterile areas of the airport are not subject to airport gun bans. You can carry your firearm in your vehicle, or on your person when traversing non-sterile areas of the terminal, the parking lot, or the access roads leading up to Virginia's airports. But it would appear that all of that is about to change.

Virginia Senate Bill SB660 will make it illegal to carry a gun, knife, or "other dangerous weapon" in the "air carrier airport terminal". Since "other dangerous weapon" is not well defined and subject to change, as is "air carrier airport terminal", this law is subject ot widespread bureaucratic abuse. Under SB660, any agency with an agenda against guns, like the People's Republic of MWAA, could ban guns, knives, cuticle scissors, and fingernail clippers within a 10 mile radius of the airport.

So why has such a horrible bill been making so much headway? Well, as VCDL President Phillip Van Cleave reports, there has been a Phantom Menace working behind the scenes to give the bill traction. That menace is none other than the NRA. Van Cleave reports in his email alert that NRA representative Dawson Hobbs admitted to the committee that the NRA had a hand in drafting the bill. That's right, one of the worst bills Virginia has seen in years was delivered to the legislature on a silver NRA engraved platter.

To those of you that are short sighted, this bill doesn't appear to be that bad. If you don't fly very often, it would probably never even effect you. But sometimes those are the worst bills, and the ones that are so easy to pass. If I hadn't witnessed the gentle erosion of rights over the past few decades, I too might be tempted to write this bill off as unimportant. But like Van Cleave, I see how much room for abuse there is here.

So what are the NEW restrictions that we will have if SB660 becomes law?

* No carry in terminal non-sterile areas, not even with a permit
* No ammunition in checked luggage or anywhere on or about your person
* No other weapons - no hunting knives or any other weapon in checked luggage or on your person
* Airports non-sterile areas where you can carry now will be off-limits with this state-wide ban
* "Air carrier airport terminal" is not defined and could be stretched to be almost anything
* A single bullet in your pocket when you enter the terminal to great (sic) a guest could get you jail time - I don't mean cartridge - I mean a bullet. Of course a cartridge would also get you in trouble. So could a ball-bearing capable of being shot by a slingshot.

I see how this new gun control could easily get out of control. The MWAA already tries to regulate all the land within 20 miles of Dulles airport. If it becomes law, how long before gun grabbers try to amend it to include: banks; schools; churches; government buildings; bars; private homes especially where children are present?

Freedom grabbers typically use baby steps to erode away your freedom to smoke a cigarette, drink a beer, gamble, eat fatty foods, and of course, carry a gun. This is yet another one of those steps down the slippery slope of gun control. And keep in mind that we have the phantom menace of the NRA to thank for it.

Is 5.6% unemployment high or low? Well, as Tim Blair points out, it depends on who is President. CNN seemed to think that 5.6% is pretty low when Clinton was in office. Now that Bush has the White House, CNN thinks that 5.6% could spell disaster for his re-election.

Gun fearing wussies are going to try to take away more of your rights today. The Senate is scheduled to hear amendments today on the reauthorization of the Clinton Gun Ban, and on requiring private citizens to get permission from the government prior to selling a firearm at a gun show. These gun control amendments do nothing to deter crime. Banning a gun based on whether or not it has bayonet lugs or a flash hider is ludicrous.

I will not vote for any politician who votes to expand or reauthorize gun control. That includes Senator Warner, and if Dick Cheney is called upon to cast a Senate tie-breaking vote, that may include the Republican Presidential ticket of 2004. I will not support gun banners. Not now, not ever. I'm firm on this.

UPDATE: Fox News reports that the Senate has passed both of these amendments, giving a major victory to the gun grabbers. Combined with the mandatory gun locks, this bill to prevent frivolous lawsuits has been loaded up with lots of poison pills. Will the NRA continue to endorse the bill? In my opinion, it contains more bad than good, and it should be killed.

UPDATE2: Geek with a .45, who is watching CSPAN and blogging this live reports that the AWB is dead!

Some of the most popular television shows routinely feature murder and violence. CSI and Law and Order currently comprise 5 of the top 20. Yet a single booby shown during the half time show of the Super Bowl is still raising quite a stir. Now the much respected Democrat Senator Zell Miller is suggesting a 'pay per viewer' formula for indecency fines. Under his proposal, CBS would have been fined $22.5 Million for the Super Bowl incident.

Now, I understand where some people would be upset at the sight of an unexpected booby on their Sunday evening television set. But let's be honest, it's not the end of the world.

Leave it to self aggrandizing opportunist and race warlord Jesse Jackson to interject himself into the rebellion in Haiti. Keep in mind that this is the same person who claimed that the Taliban wanted him to interject in the scuffle in Afghanistan. When the Taliban rebuked his claim, most Americans believed the Taliban. Do we really need a mediator who has less credibility than our enemy?

Virginia's tax and spend socialist governor, Mark Warner, is pushing for a big tax increase in this year's budget. Thus far he has convinced both houses of the Republican Virginia legislature to comply with his wishes. But the prospect of raising taxes almost $4 Billion doesn't sit well with some Virginians, including two former governors. That former Virginia Governor and Republican Senator George Allen has denounced the plan to hike taxes is not surprising. But former Governor L. Douglas Wilder, a Democrat and the first elected Black Governor in the United States, is also displeased with Warner.

Wilder, who endorsed Warner in his 2001 campaign for governor, said he would not have done so if he believed the Democrat would support raising billions of dollars in higher taxes for state government.

"Had I had any idea that he would be embarking on raising taxes on Virginians," Wilder said, "I would not have been there with him."

Not many people in conservative Virginia would have supported Warner, had he not promised 'no new taxes'. Of course huge tax increases on Virginians wouldn't have stopped the Washington Post from supporting Warner. On the front page of Sunday's metro section, the Post ran a bleeding heart do it for the children hit piece about a Virginia family that has been waiting more than 2 years for a government handout. Of course, unless a large tax increase is passed they'll just have to wait another 2 years.

There are two big poker players at the table, and the stakes are nothing less than the entire internet. If you aren't paying attention to this war yet, perhaps you should be.

Rogue SUVs are on the rampage again, and this one has struck very close to home. The AP reports, "A sport utility vehicle hit a man on an interstate highway Sunday and dragged his body -- apparently lodged in the suspension -- 8 1/2 miles to the driver's home, police said." Well, at least they are admitting that this one had a driver, so perhaps the big, mean, and evil SUV wasn't acting completely on it's own volition.

Hell hasn't frozen over, but there is a cold front moving through. Keeping with their tradition of changing the rules every year to try to right past wrongs, the BCS has decided to add a fifth BCS game to the mix. The yet to be named bowl will give us two more at-large bids to open up their so-called "national championship" to so-called "minor conferences". The proof will be in the pudding. I have no doubt that this will provide yet another lucrative bowl game to the BCS, but whether or not teams from 'lesser conferences' will really be invited remains to be seen.

A pair of cops in Porterdale, Georgia were caught having a contest to see who could write the most tickets. They were caught only because a judge apparently overheard the winner bragging about his conquest. While both of the rookie cops were asked to resign, I have to wonder how often this sort of behavior goes on.

Mel Gibson's 'The Passion of the Christ' is doing quite well at the box office. I can only grin at the thought of all those Hollywood suits who must be kicking themselves for passing on the film.

If the economic turnaround isn't as robust as you'd like, don't blame President Bush. On top of some states passing record high tax increases, local governments are seizing more money in the form of steep property tax increases.

The booming real estate market and skyrocketing home assessments in the Washington area have created a fountain of tax revenue for local governments in Northern Virginia, many of which are spending the money as fast as it pours in.

In budget proposals unveiled in the past few weeks, local leaders are continuing to push big increases in spending. Loudoun County's budget has nearly doubled in four years. In Fairfax County, real estate taxes for the average homeowner could go up by 11 percent. Under a Prince William County proposal, taxes would rise an average of 9.4 percent. And these increases follow several years of steep rises in taxes.

When people lose their job or have less money coming in, they have to make tough choices and cut back on spending. Government simply goes out and seizes more of your money.

Missouri gun owners won in the State Supreme Court, but are still losing at home. The Missouri Supreme Court correctly ruled that the state constitution did not explicitly deny citizens the right to carry concealed firearms, it merely didn't automatically provide for it.

The court wrote: "There is no constitutional prohibition against the wearing of concealed weapons; there is only a prohibition against invoking the right to keep and bear arms to justify the wearing of concealed weapons." A contrary decision would have made it illegal for even police officers to carry concealed guns.

That's right, gun grabbers were even trying to take guns away from police officers, something that I noted last year. But now that gun owners in Missouri have won in the supreme court, they'll get to carry guns, right? Well, not everyone.

The court apparently left the funding issue a little ambiguous. Gun grabbers consider the concealed carry permit process to be an unfunded mandate that cannot be paid with fees collected locally. In their mind, law abiding Missourians shouldn't simply be able to pay the processing fees and pick up a permit like in other states. It would be a hoot if the legislature responded by passing a "Vermont-style" unregulated carry bill, but that seems unrealistic. Especially given the attitudes of the local officials and gun banners in the state.

Gun grabber and St. Louis attorney, Burton Newman is threatening legal action against anyone who even thinks of trying to get a permit. "Any county in the state of Missouri that attempts to implement the conceal and carry law will be challenged in the Missouri courts," said Newman. Presumably that means he'll sue St. Francois County Sheriff Dan Bullock.

Meanwhile local law enforcement aren't exactly jumping to issue permits. "Some law enforcement officials are saying that even if permits are issued, they will arrest anyone possessing a concealed weapon within their jurisdiction," Sheriff Gary Toelke siad.

"The sheriff's department will be on hold as it relates to issuing the permits until the pending options and opinions have been discussed thoroughly. We will do our best to keep Franklin County residents informed on the status of the case." Toelke said. "Those citizens who purchased the permits would lose the $100 fee for the permit."

Missouri is almost there, but the fight seems far from over.

I doubt that anyone expects the Department of Transportation to allow the United Autoworkers Union to set national policy. I've also never met anyone that would expect the RIAA to be permitted to write national copyright laws. However, when it comes to education, people suddenly start listing to the teacher's union, a/k/a the National Education Association. (They would be more rightly described as the National Educators Association, or better yet the National Ass. of Educators.)

Now, I wouldn't go so far as to say that Educators don't know anything about educating children, I'm just saying that their labor union is more likely to do what's best for union members than what's best for children. That the NEA would denounce a law that holds it's union members to a minimum federal standard is evidence of that, and not entirely surprising.

There is a lot of talk about states' rights and unfundeded federal mandates. Given how much federal education dollars schools receive, the claim doesn't seem to hold up. I'm all for states' rights, so perhaps they should have a choice. You either abide by the federal standards, or you lose all federal funding.

UPDATE: Armstrong Williams bolsters the case that likening the NEA to a terrorist organization is not that far out of whack.