Scott Norvell reports that Homecoming Kings and Queens are being replaced by more gender neutral "Homecoming Royalty" titles. Apparently the conventional stereotypes were excluding gay men who wanted to offically be called queens.

MSNBC takes a look at the Top 10 most overrated celebrities.

Financial advisors who compile a price index from the real cost of the gifts listed in the Twelve Days of Christmas. But they take themselves way too seriously when they concluded that: "The modest [1.6%] increase pales in comparison to last year's 19 percent increase, which may be due to lower consumer confidence this season, according to Jeff Kleintop, chief investment strategist for PNC Advisors, which published the report." Is it really fair to measure consumer confidence on the price of turtledoves and French hens?

So, you think there isn't much of a reason to carry a gun while you're shopping this holiday season? Think again:

VIRGINIA

Employee arrested: An employee at a Michaels crafts store in the Fairfax area has been arrested after ordering a customer into a back room and holding her at knifepoint, Fairfax County police said yesterday.

The incident allegedly occurred about 6:50 p.m. Sunday at the Michaels in the Pan Am Shopping Center on Nutley Street. Police said a 23-year-old woman was grabbed and escorted to the back of the store. Once there, the employee pulled a knife and ordered the woman to take off her clothes, police said. The woman was able to reason with the employee and escaped unharmed.

Police obtained a charge of abduction with intent to defile against Michael A. Thomas, 19, of the 3100 block of Babashaw Court in the Fairfax area. Police said he was being held yesterday in the Fairfax jail.

Carrying a gun for protection isn't for everyone. But I would much rather have a gun and not need it, then need a gun and not have it.

With smoking on the way out, pleasure police are looking for another "Big Tobacco". With the popularity of poker on the rise and televised Texas Hold'em poker tourneys gracing our TV screens, the pleasure-nazis are taking aim at gambling.

CNN reports that poker's popularity is rising with teens.

But Dan Romer, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, worries about kids who take gambling too far.

"At a minimum, it should be monitored," says Romer, director of research at the Adolescent Risk Communications Institute at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center.

He oversaw the 2003 Annenberg National Risk Survey of Youth, which found that about 8 percent of the young people surveyed showed signs of having a gambling problem.

Those results led him to conclude that schools should teach about the dangers of gambling, the same way they teach that alcohol and drugs can be addictive. He also says that government officials who oversee public gambling -- casinos and lotteries -- have a special responsibility to closely watch young people, who are allowed to gamble legally in many states as young as age 18.

Apparently, kids aren't supposed to have any fun at all.

The "separation of Church and State" crowd has reached self-parody. Patricia Vidmar, principal of the Stevens Creek School in Californiastan faces a lawsuit for ordering teachers not to teach kids about the Declaration of Independence (because it mentions God), reports World Net Daily.

For those of you that don't know much about History, the Declaration of Independence was the 'F--- You' document that our Founding Fathers sent to the King of England in 1776. What they did was tantamount to treason against the crown. They laid their lives on the line so that America could be free from British tyranny. This is the document that we are supposed to celebrate every year on July 4th. (That people are so quick to forget about the Declaration of Independence is the very reason that I have switched from calling the holiday the politically correct 'Fourth of July' to the more factually correct 'Independence Day'.)

James Taranto points out that since there would be no Constitution without the Declaration of Independence, and it would be absolutely pardoxical to find it unConstitutional. But he fails to mention that the recent attacks on the Pledge of Allegience and the Declaration of Independence will probably prove to be the "Separation" movement's undoing. I think that normal people understand that the mere mention of God is not an establishment of a national religion. Most people are probably apathetic, but nobody is going to rush to the defense of Ms. Vidmar for her attempt to expunge the Declaration of Independence from the History books.

That a California school principal would come down on the side of the PC-nazis is not at all surprising. But her rejection of anything with the word 'God' in it is as hilarious as it is sad. Would she be so quick to reject all those tax dollars which are clearly marked "In God We Trust"?

Vidmar's actions illustrate just how slippery the "seperation of Church and State" slope has become. But sometimes you just have to let things play out. These people are pretty much hanging themselves, and who are we to take away their rope.

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving weekend. Although I am exhausted from the 1100 miles of driving, I had a wonderful time. I took my father to the VT-UVA game, and our seats were literally on the 50 yard line, in the fourth row back from the UVA bench. The seats were terrible, I say, just terrible. ;) We were so close to the action that everyone around us was heckling the UVA players as they came back to the bench. And we were dangerously close to getting drenched with sweat coming off the players. Not to mention that we could see and hear every hit. I also forgot my binoculars, so it was hard to see where my brother-in-law and sister were seated up in the nose-bleed section. Okay, okay enough bragging.

It has been a long and glorious season for the Hokies. They've earned a share of the ACC Conference championship and can win it outright with a victory over Miami next weekend. That is no small task, but considering they were picked to finish anywhere from 6th to 8th in the ACC during preseason they have still accomplished quite a bit. And it's nice to see that for all the grief we got from being in the 'Big Least', the unofficial ACC championship game will be a Big East reunion between Miami and VT. This is the game the Big East had been trying to set up for years. If anyone in the ACC is having buyer's remorse, it has to be Florida State who is used to dominating the conference.

Speaking of College Football, Stewart Mandel notes that the number of bowl eligible teams is dangerously low. There are 56 available slots, with only 57 eligible teams. That number could drop to an even 56, if Hawaii loses to Michigan State.

All of which means that if your team finished with a winning record, it's all but guaranteed to wind up somewhere this bowl season. Therefore the Mid-American Conference, which has never before garnered more than two invites in the same year -- and which a year ago saw a 10-win Northern Illinois team get left at home -- could have as many as six this year (Miami of Ohio, Toledo, Bowling Green, Northern Illinois, Marshall and Akron), while Connecticut and Troy (formerly Troy State), both just a few years removed from I-AA, likely will be making their first-ever bowl trips.

Mandel notes that this is the same bowl system which is so sanctimonious that it cannot possibly be given up for a college football playoff.

When I was a young lad, my father was a Navy chief. Since he was away for six months out of the year, my mother never bothered to celebrate Thanksgiving. In fact, it wasn't until my sister first attended grade school that we had even heard of Thanksgiving. Apparently she came home one day and asked my mom what this "Thanksgiving" thing was that she'd been hearing about.

Ever since then, we've been celebrating Thanksgiving together. This year we will celebrate with four generations. My sister will be flying in from the left coast with my little nephew who was born just over 6 months ago. My grandfather will be driving up from the deep South to join us as well. I'll be traveling today to join them all.

Ravenwood's Universe will be shutting down over the holiday. No new content will be posted until at least Monday morning, which is a good thing. Rather than reading websites, you should be spending time with your family and being thankful for everything that is good in your life.

Personally, 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.

Here's to you and yours.

The state of Maryland is upset that so many people are driving into Virginia to buy cheap cigarettes. Fox 5 News reports that taking more than two packs of cigarettes into Maryland is a felony, and that you aren't even allowed to pass through the state with more than one carton. At issue is the profit margins. A carton of cigarettes in Virginia costs just $22. In Maryland it goes for $40. Drive a little further up the road to New York City, and that carton is worth $75. The profit on a carload of cigarettes going to New York City runs into the thousands of dollars.

In fact, the profit is so high that drug dealers are giving up their trade to smuggle cigarettes. And rather than going to state taxes, much of that money funds organized crime and even terrorism.

But they shouldn't blame Virginia. States like Maryland who charge $1 a pack, and cities like New York who charge $3 a pack should have seen this coming. NYC Mayor Bloomberg, a Republican, balanced his budget with cigarette taxes and had planned on bringing in a financial windfall. Instead, smuggling and buttlegging are on the rise, and people are even dying in gangland turf wars.

Another irony is that illegal buttlegging takes government completely out of the loop. Gang-bangers selling illegal cigarettes on the street won't be checking IDs to make sure that they aren't selling to children. Smoking bans and sin taxes are making cigarettes more accessible to young people than before.

"We're absolutely reviled around the world, as we should be. Our only friends are war criminals" -- Chris Hedges of the New York Times, saying that America sucks and that our only friends are war criminals like Ariel Sharon and Vladimir Putin.

Taking a break from their typical 'dog bites man' shark attack stories, the AP is reporting that a school of dolphins kept a group of swimmers from becoming lunch. (full story below)

A New Zealand lifeguard says it was a group of dolphins that did the life-saving when he and some other swimmers were threatened by a shark.

Rob Howes says he was swimming with his 15-year-old daughter and two friends when a group of dolphins started circling the swimmers and herding them into a tight group.

He didn't know why they were doing it -- until he spotted a great white shark cruising toward them.

Howes told a newspaper that the dolphins "pushed all four of us together by doing tight circles around us." When he tried to drift away from the group, two of the bigger dolphins herded him back.

He says seven dolphins stayed with them for 40 minutes, swimming in circles and slapping the water with their tails.

Do you suppose the shark goes back and tells his shark-buddies about the ones that got away?

Now that the British people have ceded their right to self defense, and to keep and bear arms, the government is inching toward totalitarianism. Kim notes that with their latest piece of legislation gives the government nearly unlimited power.

It looks as though the Brits have finally nailed the coffin closed on freedom, with the passage of the Civil Contingencies Act (CCA). I'll spare you the reading of it -- I already did the heavy lifting -- and point out that it basically says the following:

1. government can do pretty much anything it wants in the event of an emergency;

2. government will decide what constitutes an emergency; and

3. there's no way the citizenry can gainsay any of it.

The only thing left that stands between civil freedom and a police state is the benevolence of the government.

Keeping with the theme that everything is Bush's fault, detractors are now blaming President Bush and his war in Iraq for the NBA fight in which Indiana Pacer Ron Artest entered the stands and started punching people.

This is just a reflection of today's violent society, said University of Massachusetts at Boston sociologist Simak Movahedi.

In the hippie '60s, people took their cues from the peace and love that were in the air; now the war in Iraq and other factors make fans and players more prone to violence, Movahedi said.

Ahh, if we could only turn back the clock to the 60s. Bill Russell, Wilt the Stilt, and the Boston Celtics.

They'd have to wear those tight shorts though.

Okay, so some printer manufacturers have been caught encoding fingerprints and other unique identifiers into their products. And yes, those printed pages could ultimately be tracked back to you.

Still, I'm not going to get too upset over this. After all, it only affects a small percentage of printers. Most printer owners don't have have color laser printers, and they aren't used for regular printing anyway. Sure, the First Amendment allows for printing and whatnot, but the Founding Fathers never could have envisioned technology like this. These hi-capacity printers are capable of indiscriminately spraying out sheets at more than 10 pages per minute. And they are so simple to use with just one click of the mouse.

With all the fears about counterfeiting and identity theft, I think that only agents of the government can be trusted with such dangerous technology. At a bare minimum, we should have some common sense printer control, including some sort of registration scheme.

I honestly think - and I am not an expert on the amendments - I think the only people in this nation who should be allowed to own these high quality laser printers are government agencies like the IRS. I don't care if you want to print in color, I don't care if you think it's your right. I say, 'Sorry. It is 2004, we have had enough as a nation. You are not allowed to own a color laser printer and if you do own one, I think you should go to prison.'

Does anyone else think it's strange that the Expos, soon to be renamed Nationals, picked a red, white, and blue 'W' logo for their team?

What does Bush know, and when did he know it?

In related news, I heard on the radio today that Ron Artest and his supporters are blaming the NBA fight on the culture of violence created by the war in Iraq. Is there ANYTHING for which they won't blame President Bush? (I'll post a link when/if I find one.)

Not to mention that Kurt Busch (a distant cousin perhaps?) won the Winston Cup this year in NASCAR. Clearly the President and his administration are controlling major league sports.

If you are traveling by air this holiday season, you might get a little extra thrill:

In late September, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) began allowing security checkpoint screeners to manually pat down women's breasts and the genital and derriere regions of both sexes during searches. The point is to find hidden explosives while machines that might perform the job are still being tested. "I know it's not pleasant," says Rep. John Mica, chairman of the House aviation subcommittee, "but until we get the technology, what are the options?"

Something tells me that the good looking young females are more likely to require extra screening.

The CATO institute has a Social Security Privatization Calculator. They illustrate just how much better people will fare if they are permitted to put their contribution to Social Security into a private retirement account instead.

A person aged 35 and making $50,000 would get back $22,870 when they retire at age 67. If they put their half of the contribution (6.2% of their income) into a private account, they could expect to get back $46,044 a year. (All dollars are in 2004 dollars.) For a person aged 25, your benefits would be $25,066 vs. $71,881 respectively.

Keep in mind that your employer would still be paying 6.2% of your income into Social Security on your behalf. And of course for blacks and minorities who are much less likely to live to age 67, your payout under social security is zilch.

CNN reports that 'hate crimes' are on the rise in the United States. 'Hate crimes' are just like regular crimes, except that the bad guy really really didn't like his victim.

The overall total of 7,489 hate crime incidents reported in 2003 was slightly above the number reported in 2002.

And here's another one:

Police in Atlanta were called to a dormitory at Emory University and spent an hour investigating and taking photographs of dry erase boards on which someone had scribbled the word "gay," reports the Emory Wheel.

Of course most telling is that only about 16% of the law enforcement agencies reporting statistics to the FBI reported any so-called 'hate crimes'. So as more and more agencies start to report them, they can cry wolf that 'hate crimes' are increasing even more.

Last week a U.S. Marine was removed from the front lines for shooting a "mostly dead" terrorist. You couldn't miss it because it was splashed all over the front page of every newspaper in America. But here's something you might have missed.

The US military says Marines in Fallujah have shot and killed an insurgent who engaged them as he was faking being dead, a week after footage of a marine killing an apparently unarmed and wounded Iraqi caused a stir in the region.

"Marines from the 1st Marine Division shot and killed an insurgent who while faking dead opened fire on the marines who were conducting a security and clearing patrol through the streets," a military statement said.

For some reason this doesn't seem to have made the U.S. papers.

Tragically, five Wisconsin hunters were killed this weekend, and the Violence Policy Center couldn't be happier. It gives them perfect ammunition to advance their extremist anti-gun agenda.

And they didn't waste any time issuing their press release calling for re-activation of the 1994 Clinton Gun Ban (which didn't even include this type of rifle). Their headline trumpets "Armed Hunters No Match For SKS Assault Rifle". They also updated their SKS fact sheet in record time, to include this tragedy.

Aside from extremely bad taste, the VPC continues to spread the usual lies and misinformation about firearms.

• The SKS is not an assault rifle. It is a venerable and inexpensive semi-automatic rifle that is over 60 years old.

• They have claimed for years that SKS rifles are no good for hunting, yet here is a guy hunting with one.

• The hunter's rifles were most likely much more powerful than the weak (for a .30 caliber) 7.62x39mm SKS.

• The hunter's rifles were most likely unloaded. Hunters don't usually lock and load until they are in place and ready to wait for game to wander by.

• The hunters were probably caught completely by surprise, considering they were out there hunting and not likely thinking about self-defense.

Of course, I would expect nothing less from the gun fearing wussies who never met a ban they didn't like. Rather than pushing for enforcement of existing laws (like the one against murder) they continue to call for sweeping gun bans.

(Hat tip to reader: Steve Scudder)

International's CXT pickup truck is big. How big? Well...

Based on a platform that the International Truck and Engine Corporation uses for building dump trucks and snowplows, the CXT stands 9 feet tall, 8 feet wide and 21.5 feet long. The top of the bed sits more than 6 feet high. CXT's closest siblings are 20-ton haulers used by construction companies, governments and waste industries.

Take a look at how it towers over the people standing next to it.

(Click to enlarge)

That's camouflage paint (not mud), by the way.

(Click to enlarge)

The CXT weighs 14,500 lbs, but still gets up to 10 miles per gallon and 540 ft-lbs of torque from it's 7.6 liter diesel powerplant.

There's a bit of a dogfight going on over the first pooch. Apparently newspaper outlets like the Washington Post are upset because the Christmas video made by Barney, the Presidential First Dog, will be made available to broadcast networks but not media websites.

"The justifications we have been given are that (1) the White House wants to drive 'eyeballs' to the White House site and (2) the White House is concerned that the video might appear 'all over' if it gave it to WashingtonPost.com and other online news sites," [Washington Post's Doug Feaver] wrote last December. "I think you will agree that neither of these attempted justifications is substantial and neither justifies the White House's discrimination against online news sites."

The plot for this year's Barney movie has not yet been set.

Ever wonder how much a 10-kiloton nuke would impact your neighborhood? Now you can create your own blastmap.

Personally, my close proximity to Washington D.C. convinced me to put together a go bag, complete with first aid kit, survival kit, MREs, bottled water, and a various assortment of other survival gear. It won't do me much good if I take a direct hit, but should there be some sort of governmental chaos in the future, you can rest assured that I am well prepared. Then again, given my reputation for firearms I have already had several people tell me they are headed over to my place if the shit hits the fan. Maybe I should pack for a few more mouths to feed.

I cannot help but grin when I read about the Chilean's misunderestimation of President Bush. If you've been under a rock for the past few days and haven't heard, apparently the Secret Service got into a bit of a tussle with Chilean security guards. Geek commends the Secret Service for handling themselves professionally.

It looks like the Chileans were taking some sort of a macho bullshit stand, which W solved quite gracefully.

It turns out there was some contention regarding security arrangements, and they all saw this confrontation coming, which fills in the blanks and explains to me why it didn't escalate to a gunfight in short order, as my standing presumption would be that any attempt to cut off the president from his guard was a prelude to an assassination attempt.

I gotta applaud the secret service for striking the appropriate balance and pace of escalation here, their recognition that their role is at least partly diplomatic as well as tactical has shone through.

Meanwhile James Taranto has this hilarious account:

The [Washington Post] quotes Marcelo Romero, a Chilean reporter: "All of us journalists agree that President Bush looked like a cowboy. It was total breach of protocol. I've seen a lot of John Wayne movies, and President Bush was definitely acting like a cowboy." Apparently some journalists think that's a bad thing.

Neal says we should contrast this with how Senator John Kerry treated his Secret Service detail:

Remember when one of his Secret Service agents bumped into him while he was snowboarding and John Kerry called him an S.O.B? Compare that little episode with Bush's actions here. It's obvious that the president appreciates those that risk their lives to protect him.

And, in case you missed it, The Daily Recycler has the video.

Just when you think you've heard everything, San Francisco is considering charging for grocery bags. (Of course, this is a regressive tax that would impact the poor the most.)

City officials are considering charging grocery stores 17 cents for each grocery bag to discourage the use of plastic bags.

More than 90 percent of consumers choose plastic bags, which are blamed for everything from clogging recycling machines to killing marine life and suffocating infants. But the fee would also apply to paper bags to help reduce overall waste.

Promoting a healthy environment "means we need to help change people's patterns, and that even means their shopping patterns," said incoming city official Ross Mirkarimi (Green Party), who will join the Board of Supervisors in January. "This is a sensible user fee."

Just what we need; city officials who want to change people's behavior. How about we pass a law that says that any lawmaker supporting a tax increase be subjected to public tarring and feathering. We could march them out to the city square, strip them down, and liberally apply hot tar and feathers. I mean, we need to help change lawmaker's patterns, and that even means their taxing patterns.

Congress was gracious enough to extend the moratorium on internet access taxes. That means that your high speed internet or dialup bill will remain free of excise taxes and fees; for the time being.

But some lawmakers are crying foul over their inability to seize more of your hard earned dollars.

...some lawmakers said it would require states to raise taxes in other areas to make up for the millions of dollars they would lose as telephone and other services migrate to the Internet.

Such is the typical government response. If you shift your spending from a high tax area to a low tax area, the government is losing money.

Anti-tax lawmakers wanted the tax ban to be permanent, but they were unable to get support and had to settle for a three-year moratorium.

North Carolina Democratic Rep. Mel Watt said he would help Sensenbrenner make the ban permanent in the next session if the Republican would allow states to tax online sales.

Geez, Democrats like Watt never met a tax they didn't like. I bet he'd gladly give up the monthly access fee in exchange for being able to extend their tax arm across state lines to start taxing interstate commerce.

I haven't been to the public library in years. While I love to read, I prefer to just buy the book and add it to my own personal collection. I'm the same way with DVDs, and I think that at the heart of the matter is the inconvenience of returning the item.

Of course, what is now just an inconvenience may soon become a crime if some librarians get their way.

Keeping library books too long could soon land some readers in jail.

Frustrated librarians want the worst offenders to face criminal charges and up to 90 days behind bars.

"We want to go after some of the people who owe us a lot of money," said Frederick J. Paffhausen, the library's system director. "We want to set an example."

Undoubtedly, the ACLU will fight this as aggressively as they have for the right to surf kiddie porn.

End of the year spending bills usually contain so much crap, that the lawmakers who are voting on them don't even know what's in them. This year's lame duck spending bill contains language that would allow committee chairmen the right to view anyone's tax return. (Even Theresa Heinz-Kerry's)

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Sunday that "accountability will be carried out" against whoever slipped a provision into an omnibus spending bill that would have allowed two committee chairmen to view the tax returns of any American.

The language was caught and removed in the Senate on Saturday, but the House will have to approve the fix before the spending bill can be sent to the White House for President Bush's signature.

"I have no earthly idea how it got in there," Frist said on CBS's "Face The Nation." "Nobody is going to defend this."

I'm more than a little skeptical. I'm not saying that Frist is one of them, but there are plenty of big government politicians that would love such powers.

Senator John McCain asks, "How many other provisions didn't we find in that 1,000-page bill?"

There's a reason I would never, EVER, live in California. It appears to be full of ignorant intolerant bigots who want to run their neighbor's lives.

Something as simple as a the grand opening of a single gun store in the town of Pacifica, has brought the bigots out of the woodwork; claiming that they don't want those people in their town. Here is some of the reaction:

Some argued that the mere presence of a gun store in Pacifica was of great moral concern...

"The store is one door down from her business," said Nahass. "It is a concern to her. I know the gun store is there, but can you regulate store hours? It's not easy what we have to do, but we have to do what's best for our neighborhoods." [...]

...he didn't think a gun store should be in a neighborhood shopping center...

Nancy Hall said she had eight letters from other merchants at Eureka Square who were unhappy about the gun store...

Some merchants at Eureka Square have apparently told residents that they are already experiencing a drop off in business because of the gun store, which has not yet even opened....

Speakers voiced their philosophical opposition to guns and their genuine surprise that a gun store had been licensed and accepted without any public discourse....

"I choose not to have guns in my community," said Pete Shoemaker. "That's the kind of community I want to live in." ....

Matthew Hamilton said he would have had second thoughts about moving to Pacifica had there been a gun store in town. "I was very surprised that Pacifica did not have any regulations," he said....

Gunowners are not animals. We are human beings and we have a right to exist.

People who ask me why I carry a gun need to look no further than my own local shopping mall.

Officers fired on: Two men running from Springfield Mall security officers drew weapons, and one fired two shots at the officers Thursday afternoon, but no one was struck and the men escaped, Fairfax County police said yesterday.

The two security officers had confronted the men about 4:30 p.m. in the shopping center because they were yelling at others and creating a disturbance. The men ran from the mall and the officers gave chase, police said. Once outside, one man pulled a handgun from his waistband, and the other man drew a long knife. After firing the shots, the men fled behind Franconia Road.

Carrying a gun is a bit like wearing a seat belt. I hope I'll never need it, and in all likelihood never will. Still, better safe than sorry.

Here's one that James Taranto would appreciate.

A lawyer for Roman Polanski said the filmmaker was being denied justice because he isn't allowed to sue a magazine for defamation in a British court while remaining in France.

The Polish-born director, who has lived in France since fleeing child-sex charges in the United States in 1978, is seeking to sue Vanity Fair over a 2002 article that accused him of seducing a woman while on the way to the funeral of his wife Sharon Tate, who was brutally murdered by Charles Manson's followers in Los Angeles in 1969.

Polanski wants to testify via teleconference because he knows that if he travels to England he will face extradition to the United States. A British Appeals Court has balked at his request, so Polanski thinks he is the one being denied justice.

"The depiction of Dr. Condoleezza Rice by Jeff Danziger, Pat Oliphant and Garry Trudeau as an ebonics speaking, big-lipped, black mammy who just loves her 'massa' is a disturbing trend in editorial cartoons. These cartoons take the racism of the liberals who profess respect and adoration for black Americans to a new level. It is revolting." -- Michelle D. Bernard, Senior VP of the Independent Women's Forum.

Kim du Toit thinks the PETA crowd must be wetting their pants over this photograph.

Apparently Boston bouncers are getting into the habit of beating up their customers.

"I've been waiting to get in a fight all night," police say a brazen Jose McIntyre's manager exclaimed Aug. 29 before punching 34-year-old Christopher Alley of Salem in one of five alleged bouncer beatdowns at the Faneuil Hall pub this year.

Alley, who is planning to sue the bar, was pummeled "by the bar staff," one of whom kicked him in the face and repeatedly "stomped'' on his head, according to a police report.

Alan Eisner, spokesman for The Glynn Group, which owns the bar, called staff's action against Alley "totally justified" because Alley "verbally accosted" employees.

This is not an isolated incident, and the Boston Herald has a whole laundry list of similar incidents at several different bars. Incidents like this undoubtedly happen at bars and clubs all across America.

But Boston seems to be a little slow to react. There have been "37 reports of violence against customers this year", but only 11 have yielded license suspensions. Of those, all but four were for just one day.

I'm sure the victims of these violent attacks probably brought some of it on themselves. But it's hard to justify kicking someone's face in just because you were "verbally accosted".

News Max reports that John Kerry might sue the Swift Vets' leader John O'Neill for libel. The Kerry campaign had tried to silence the Vets during the campaign, which ended up backfiring and giving them more publicity than ever.

But proving a libel suit against a public figure is no easy task. Kerry would have to not only prove the charges were false, but he would need to prove that they were made willfully with malice and negligence.

I think delving into whether or not there is any truth to the charges could be a risky strategy.

Here is an interesting tidbit I learned watching the Maryland-Virginia Tech game last night. Virginia Tech and Texas A&M have both produced 7 Congressional Medal of Honor winners. That is more than any other school except for the military acadamies.

Britain's pleasure police scored a big victory, forcing the ban of fox hunting with hounds. The centuries old sport has been outlawed because it is considered cruel to the fox, although it is still legal to shoot the little bastards as much as you want.

The divisive fox and hound debate has raged on for years in Britain. Hunting is considered a "popular country sport that is despised by many urbanites." So here you have a classic case of urban dwellers who want to force their way of life onto rural Britannia. They don't like hunting and they don't want anyone else to do it either. Typical of the pleasure police, you have an oppressive majority rule that consists of people that despise hunting, combined with those that don't hunt and are thus apathetic to the freedoms of those that do.

I'm reminded of the much revered and dearly departed comedian Jerry Clower, who used to have an axiom about coon hunting (the redneck equivalent of fox hunting). Mr. Clower used to say that hunting with dogs at least gave the prey a fighting chance that he wouldn't ordinarily have. A treed coon could either stay up there and get shot, or climb down, whip all those dogs, and walk away.

I think the fox would agree.

It's nice to see that I'm not the only one that thinks the whole ABC-MNF thing is overblown. I understand that kids watch the game and that it airs starting at 6:00 in the West. But the innuendo didn't seem any more harsh than anything else you see on TV.

This dovetails with last week's Saving Private Ryan kerfuffle. People get upset over language and nudity, but don't say much at all about the murders and killings that are so prominently displayed on TV night after night. How many cities have their own CSI show now?

We have shows about wife swapping, marrying millionaires, and divorce court on prime time TV. We also have Jerry Springer, gangsta rap, and the annual SI Swimsuit issue. But flash one boob* during a football game and all hell breaks loose.

*And no, I'm not referring to the periennial boob, Terrell Owens.

Why bother to reduce spending when you can just borrow more? That seems to be the mantra of the federal goverment which just voted to increase their borrowing limit to over $8 Trillion. Tax-cut and spend Republicans in the Senate overwhelmingly approved the measure, while Democrats seemed to come out on the side of fiscal responsibility.

A divided Senate approved an $800 billion increase in the federal debt limit Wednesday, a major boost in borrowing that Sen. John Kerry and other Democrats blamed on the fiscal policies of President Bush.

The mostly party line, 52-44 vote was expected to be followed by House passage Thursday. Enactment would raise the government's borrowing limit to $8.18 trillion - $2.23 trillion higher than when Bush became president in 2001, and more than eight times the debt President Reagan faced when he took office in 1981.

In his first remarks on the Senate floor since his presidential bid ended in defeat two weeks ago, Kerry, D-Mass., said his former opponent had presided over "the worst fiscal turnaround in our nation's entire history."

He was referring to the change from the $5.6 trillion in surpluses that were projected for the next 10 years when Bush took office in 2001, to the $2.3 trillion in deficits now estimated for the coming decade. Kerry and other Democrats complained that those bills will have to be paid by future generations.

"This can be called a birth tax, a birth tax that is dumped on the back of every American child unwillingly," said Kerry, who voted against the borrowing increase.

Hearing that, you would almost think that the Democrats are wary about the ever increasing size of the federal government. Almost.

Democrats may not want Republicans borrowing any more money, but they don't want them to cut spending either.

Democrats complained that the bill - which will let non-defense, non-domestic security programs grow by about 2 percent next year - was too stingy. They said that clean water grants, the National Science Foundation and federal subsidies for hiring local police officers were all being cut from last year and that funds for education, biomedical research and veterans health care were inadequate.

By cut they mean not increasing as much as they would like. (Remember, top Democrat and soon to be ex-Senator Tom Daschle actually said that his 3.1% increase in pay was actually a pay cut.)

So on one side we have Republicans who, while letting Americans keep more of the money they earn through lower taxes, continue spending like there's no tomorrow. On the other side we have the Democrats who want to use the threat of lethal force to seize more of our money, while at the same time spending like there's no tomorrow.

I get the feeling that if we don't elect more small government conservatives, there might actually be no tomorrow.

This lady's lucky not to be in contention for a Darwin Award.

A Pennsylvania woman who was struck by a train has sued the rail company - for failing to warn her that trains travel on railroad tracks.

Patricia M. Frankhouser filed suit on Nov. 4 seeking damages in excess of $30,000 from Norfolk Southern Corp., according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Last January, Frankhouser was hit by a train as she walked along railroad tracks in her hometown of Jeannette, Pa., a southeastern suburb of Pittsburgh.

Amazingly, she came away from the encounter with only a broken finger, some cuts and, according to the lawsuit, "pain."

Apparently, however, the incident was traumatic enough for her to hire a lawyer.

"Defendant's failure to warn plaintiff of the potential dangers negligently provided plaintiff with the belief she was safe in walking near the train tracks," Frankhouser's suit asserts.

It goes on to state that Norfolk Southern, based in Norfolk, Va., should have posted signs warning passersby "of the dangers of walking near train tracks and that the tracks were actively in use."

While Norfolk and Southern will undoubtedly settle out of court, the evidence for a loser pays legal system continues to mount.

One of the worst uses of taxpayer dollars ever.

Berkeley tolerates its homeless people, and takes good care of their stuff when they abandon it in shopping carts.

Not only does the city pack carts and other belongings into a huge container in case folks want it back -- it also deep-freezes them for as long as 90 days.

About a year ago, Berkeley bought a 40-foot-long, 8-foot-wide refrigerated container for $8,200 after public works officials complained about vermin infesting carts stored at the city's outdoor corporation yard.

The city signed a five-year, $61,500 lease with Caltrans for land under the University Avenue overpass at Interstate 80 to put the container on, and ran power to the unit.

The answer is: The Holy Flame Pentecostal Church quoted this carpetbagging politician as saying, "of course, I always take time to worship God in as evangelical a way as is feasible, given time and location constraints. As you know, I consider myself an evangelical Christian, really a Christian conservative, if you want to know the truth, so it's nice to be 'home' again in the South..."

Who is Hillary Clinton?

Hillary went on to say that the South is "my quote-unquote home even though I live in New York most of the time. Well, Washington, D.C., most of the time, actually, but if I'm not there I'm in New York, of course, but always thinking about being here, in the South, my spiritual home, where I shared so many wonderful evangelical . . . moments and . . . events. Can you read that back to me?"

(Credit Pat Oliphant in the Washington Post)

Hat tip to the Godfather.

UPDATE:

He did it again:

WATCH, a consumer group that usually informs parents about choking and suffocation hazards in toys, included a toy gun in this year's list. But rather than come up with any real dangers posed by such a toy, they simply spew antigun bigotry:

"In today's world, there is no excuse for outfitting children with realistic toy weapons designed to produce dangerous and unnecessary thrills."

(Click for screenshot of the full page)

UPDATE: Bruce has more. A lot more. Apparently the WATCH guy is a big time personal injury trial lawyer and (of course) a John Edward's supporter. Since Bruce has his address, I recommend we buy a bunch of those toy guns and pass them out to kiddies in his neighborhood. I'm in for $50. That's 9 kids right there.

Neal Boortz points out that WMD has been found in falluja. Some 40 vials of Sarin, enough to kill thousands of people were found in a briefcase. Oh yeah, and the markings are in German and Russian.

The media is barely reporting this. (see slide two) If you don't have flash, here is a screencap.

FYI, this isn't the first time WMD has been found in Iraq, nor is it the first time it's largely been ignored.

The United Kingdom is preparing to ban fags from all bars and restaurants. One government official was magnanimous:

"This is a sensible solution, I believe, which balances the protection of the majority with the personal freedom of the minority in England," Reid said, outlining the legislation he envisions. The proposal must be approved by Parliament.

Here's hoping they defeat the ban.

I'm shocked at how the media is mishandling the flap over a Marine who shot an Iraqi terrorist in Falluja. This statement from CNS News is pretty much representative of the way most media outlets are reporting the story:

The U.S. military is investigating whether a wounded, unarmed Iraqi insurgent was shot in the head at close range by a U.S. Marine on Saturday.

There is no doubt the Iraqi terrorist was shot in the head. It was on video. What is in doubt is whether or not the terrorist was even alive. If he was still alive, how wounded was he, and what were his motives. These questions may never be answered.

But one thing we know for sure is that this terrorist won't be killing any more American troops.

Following up on something I asked yesterday, unbeknownst to me at the time, Chris Matthews had already levied the 'war crimes' charge against our Marines. Also note how Chris characterizes the terrorists in Falluja.

Well, let me ask you about this. If this were the other side, and we were watching an enemy soldier, a rival--I mean, they're not bad guys, especially--just people that disagree with it. They're in fact the insurgents fighting us in their country.

If we saw one of them do what we saw our guy do to that guy, would we consider that worthy of a war crimes charge?

One man's Saudi/Jordanian/Syrian/Iraqi terrorist beheading civilians and shooting women in the head is another man's freedom fighter. (If fire fighters fight fire, and crime fighters fight crime, what do freedom fighters fight?)

UPDATE: They have since changed their original headline, but the story still reads: "She is considered more of a hard-liner than Secretary of State Colin Powell, who was out of step with more hawkish members of Bush's national security team." Are they trying to subtly call Dr. Rice a Stepin Fetchit?

And apparently so do the poor: Record high number of millionaires.

I hope to get there some day myself, but right now I'm still about a million dollars shy.

The Motion Picture Ass. of America together with the Recording Industry Ass. of America wants to criminalize file sharing. They are pressing the lame duck Congress to pass a bill that will mete out jail time to people making songs or movies available on the internet. That means those MP3s on your hard drive could get you up to 5 years at Club Fed, as well as civil damages.

The law would also mean that prosecutors do not have to prove willfull intention to distribute content, and could be a death blow for fair use rights.

At the center of it all is money, with the RIAA and MPAA acting as if they're being robbed. But the numbers just don't add up:

The recording industry has seen its sales and profits plummet as the popularity of peer-to-peer file swapping has risen. Compact disc sales fell from a high of $13.2 billion in 2000 to $11.2 billion in 2003, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, which put much of the blame on an exponential increase in file sharing. CD sales bounced back in early 2004, but have not reached their previous high levels, the RIAA said.

Plummet? Really? $13.2 Billion to $11.2 Billion is a drop of about 15% over three years. Considering we went through a recession starting in 2000, that hardly seems like much of a "plummet". Combine that with the dearth of creativity and it actually seems rosy.

This is the same recording industry that relies heavily on bubble-gum pop artists who no longer even sing at their own concerts. This is the same movie industry that relies heavily on remakes, never ending sequels, TV and cartoon spinoffs, and flash and trash.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out why their sales figures are down.

UPDATE: I said it before, I'll say it again: Take this as an example that they just don't get it:

The Big Easy Movie on DVD -- $5.99
The Big Easy Soundtrack on CD -- $15.99

Virginia's governor and former governors are whining about term limits. It's not exactly surprising, considering politician's usual aversion to anyone placing limits on their power. Virginia Governors are not allowed to run for re-election, although they can sit out 4 years and run again.

Refusing to allow a governor to run for a second consecutive term, he said, is "a great distortion of the politics of the state" and should be fixed now.

"What we want is the opportunity for the governor to go back to the people and make their case," [former Governor James] Gilmore said. "The people are very largely disenfranchised."

That's idiotic. The voters are still allowed to vote. They are no more disenfranchised than they are because Bill Clinton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, or anyone under age 35 cannot be elected President. Disenfranchisement used to mean that you were being denied your legal rights or priviledges. Since November of 2000 it has morphed into a buzzword that usually means politicians aren't getting their way. It is very quickly becoming Godwin's Second Law.

But former Governor Gilmore is not alone in his criticism. Sitting Governor Mark Warner also would very much like to serve a second term.

Two years ago, Warner failed in a bid to persuade lawmakers to remove the restriction.

Warner's chief of staff, William Leighty, told the panel that the governor still is hopeful that the succession limitation can be removed.

Any change in term limits should come with the stipulation that it cannot benefit sitting politicians. To illustrate just how desperate politicians are when it comes to political power, you need to look no further than the American Northwest, were lawmakers have their own private Idaho:

In 1994, Idaho voters instituted term limits through a voter referendum. The measure passed with 59% of the vote.

Stunned, lawmakers put the measure on the ballot again in 1998. Despite a brutal campaign of political rhetoric and lies, the Idaho voters reaffirmed the measure with 54% of the vote, in favor of term limits.

Not to be dissuaded, lawmakers sued to overturn the term limits in 1999, on the grounds that term limits unconsitutionally denied voters the right to suffrage. The Legislature won their lawsuit, and term limits were struck down.

The decision was appealed to the Idaho Supreme Court, which ruled that the term limits law was indeed constitutional, and term limits were upheld.

Just days after the Idaho Supreme Court affirmed the term limits referendum, the Legislature drafted a bill to override the term limits. Naturally it passed, and term limits were repealed.

Enter the Governor. The Governor sided with the will of the people, and vetoed the legislation. Term limits were upheld.

Within 36 hours, the Legislature overrode the Governor's veto. Term limits were repealed.

Down but not out, the citizens of Idaho have put a referendum on the 2002 ballot to restore term limits AGAIN.

Unfortunately for Idaho, the confusing ballot referendum (yes meant no, no meant yes) combined with the legislators nearly unlimited use of tax dollars for the campaign, resulted in term limits being defeated. In my mind, it was one of the greatest examples of just how far American politicians will go to hold onto power.

Fortunately for Virginia, the part-time legislature is in favor of Gubernatorial term limits. They view it as a checks and balances system on the Executive Branch and aren't likely to give in.

Generally speaking, career politicians are a scourge on society, and on some days rounding them all up for a good tar and feathering doesn't sound like a bad idea.

All hell is breaking loose in the media over this Marine that shot a fallen terrorist in Iraq. Some in the media are saying the terrorist was "wounded"; the extent of which we may never know.

The way I have it figured, this is a war. Our boys had been playing nice in the past, but the terrorists don't play by any rules of engagement. They have been routinely feigning injury or death, waiting for our soldiers to get close, and then attacking them. If this guy was dead, who cares if he was shot one more time? If this guy was feining death in hopes of attacking our guys up close, he deserved to be sent straight to hell. If he was truly injured and had given up fighting, he has only his fellow terrorists to blame for giving our Marines itchy trigger fingers.

Our boys shouldn't take any chances, and if it comes down to a choice between a dead Iraqi terrorist or a dead Marine, I say no quarters. The only way to make the terrorists think twice about their dirty tactics is to make them ineffective. They pulled this Marine off the line, I hope it was to give him a medal.

By the way, how long before someone starts calling this a war crime?

If I were an alumnus of Benedict College, I would be furious. Their adaptation of a "Success Equals Effort" grading policy, where students are graded on showing up to class rather than actual test scores, could ruin the reputation of their degrees.

It's possible for freshmen at Benedict College to pass their classes, even if they fail every written exam.

That's because 60 percent of their final grade is just showing up and participating in class. The other 40 percent of their grade is earned through traditional test-taking and academic performance during their freshman year.

When I first started college, teachers were not permitted to grade on attendence at all. When I took Calculus, I showed up to a grand total of four classes (the exams) and ended up with the second highest grade in the class. I knew the material inside and out, and had I not wanted the easy A, I probably would have just taken the final exam for credit. Under Benedict's policy, I probably would have received one of the worst scores in the class.

Contrast this with my Ancient and Medieval Philosophy class. I showed up every day, held a solid C average on the quizzes, and bombed the midterm paper with a whopping 14%. My professor said that I approached it wrong. Since it counted 1/3 of my grade, it was highly improbable that I would pass the class. I would have to ace everything from then on, just to get a D-. In all seriousness he called me into his office and recommended that I devote my time to other classes. It was a harsh reality, but sometimes that's how reality is.

The problem these kids are going to run in to is that the real world doesn't reward you just for showing up. Your boss isn't going to give you a good evaluation just because you're never late to work. They are going to want to see what you accomplished and reward you accordingly.

Teach kids that it's okay to fail, and a failure you will make.

The pleasure police are going after big tobacco again, but this time it's over secondhand smoke. The civil suit accuses tobacco companies of racketeering, and claims that they are marketing a deadly product while insisting that secondhand smoke doesn't cause cancer. Apparently the whole of the case will hinge on the government's claim that secondhand smoke does cause cancer, something scientists have been unable to prove.

The CDC, where everything from smoking to gun rights is considered a disease, the premise isn't even open to discussion. Terry Pechacek, the associate director for science at the Centers for Disease Control's Office of Smoking and Health says: "The simple fact is that this is no longer an issue of debate within the scientific community."

Of course, not everyone agrees. The World Health Organization study tried and failed to show a link between secondhand smoke and cancer. Initially the WHO tried to bury the results. But after being pressed, the WHO came out with a childish press release that basically said that secondhand smoke does so cause cancer they just couldn't prove it because of small sample size. Just last year, the British Medical Journal said that the numbers just aren't there to link passive smoke and cancer deaths.

Keep in mind that these studies were out to prove that secondhand smoke causes cancer. They started with a forgone conclusion and then set out to prove it to be true. So, when the numbers didn't add up they just ignored them.

Back to the government's case, which hinges on the "fact" that secondhand smoke causes cancer. Even the plaintiff (the government) is estimating that secondhand smoke only causes 3,000 lung cancer deaths annually in nonsmokers. Considering the sheer number of non-smokers, this is incredibly small. Compare this to the nearly 700,000 annual deaths due to heart disease, or the nearly 20,000 deaths* because of excessive consumption of alcohol. (* Alcohol-induced causes exclude accidents, homicides, and other causes indirectly related to alcohol use.)

But the point of all this is to drive us toward complete prohibition of tobacco. These are the same people who brought us the Miracle of Helena. Smoking was banned in Helena for 6 months back in 2002. Proponents of the ban claimed that hospital admissions during that period showed a sharp decline in heart attacks.

Like I said before:

It won't be long before cigarettes and tobacco are banned outright, in some cities and states. A national ban won't be far behind, and soon tobacco will be treated as an illicit drug.

When that happens, everyone will just stop smoking, right? Wrong. Cigarettes and tobacco products will go underground. As enforcement increases, prices will skyrocket and trafficking will be a lucrative business. It will also lead to more serious crimes, like murder, and money laundering. In general, crime will increase, and rather than profiting with tax revenue, governments will be spending millions to try to keep our streets tobacco free. Ironically, instead of being less accessible, cigarettes and tobacco will be more accessible than ever; especially to young children.

Andrew McCarthy offers a comprehensive look at the late Egyption murderer and terrorist, Muhammad Abdel Rahman Abdel Rauf al-Qudwa al-Husseini; more commonly known as Yasser Arafat.

Here is a pretty good video (4.8 MB) of our grunts in action in Falluja.

Red Light SCameras in Virginia may be in question. The 10-year law authorizing their use is due to expire in 2005, and the Washington Post reports that it may not be renewed. The Post mentions (several times) that more than 70% of Virginians polled support the automated revenue generators. They also point out that red light running has declined at both intersections with the cameras and those without.

Personally, I have always thought that the cameras were more about revenue than anything. The safest and cheapest way to reduce red light running is to increase the length of the yellow light, and in some locations, officials actually conspired to maximize revenue.

Even the American Automobile Association agrees, and suggests that studies be done to see if there is an increase in rear end collisions because people are unnecessarily slamming on their brakes.

Robert Novak reports that the U.N. Oil for Food scandal is turning out to be even more damning than first thought. Senator Norm Coleman's (R-Minn.) findings are starting to spell big trouble for Kofi Annan and the U.N..

Howard Kurtz has the post-election media rundown. Looking for someone to blame, the Boston Globe apparently blames Kerry's bad hearing for galvanizing his perception as a "flip-flopper".

The Boston Globe begins its big what-went-wrong extravaganza this way:

"On the afternoon of Aug. 9, John F. Kerry stood on the lip of the Grand Canyon, about to make one of the biggest mistakes of his three-year quest for the presidency. A stiff wind was blowing across the canyon, and Kerry, whose hearing was damaged by gun blasts in Vietnam, had trouble understanding some of the questions being thrown his way. But he pressed on, coughing from the pollen blowing on the breeze.

"Would Kerry have voted to authorize the use of force in Iraq, one reporter asked, even if he knew then that Iraq didn't have weapons of mass destruction? 'Yes, I would have voted for the authority; I believe it's the right authority for a president to have,' Kerry replied, as aides stood by, dumbfounded. . . .

If Kerry didn't understand the question, why did he repeat it as part of his answer? But even if you accept the premise that Kerry misspoke, isn't it interesting that when Kerry doesn't understand something it must be a byproduct of his heroic service in Vietnam. But let Bush trip over his tongue, and it must be because he's stupid.

And not to nitpick, but is the pollen count really that high in Arizona in August?

With George Bush winning the election, the global warming stories seem to be just pouring out. This week, enviroweenies are whining that melting glaciers are threatening the Alps and a local scientist. They don't really say how melting ice would destroy the mountains, but they do make wild claims about glaciers retreating faster than ever before. (Mostly during the Bush Administration.)

"Summer 2003 was the death blow for many small glaciers," [Scientist Frank] Paul said.

"When glaciers are in the retreating phase they normally lose about 30 centimeters of snow and ice a year. In the 1990s they lost about 70 centimeters a year; in 2003, they lost 3 meters," Paul said.

I said it before and I'll say it again:

In environmental terms, you cannot look at one day, one year, or even one hundred years. The climate of the earth has peaks and valleys. Have you ever heard of the Ice Age? The peak of the glacial advance was some 20,000 years ago. For those of you that go to public school, thats about 19,900 years before the dawn of the industrial revolution.

Considering climates shift over such long periods, I'm not about to worry about the so-called "damage" that my SUV does to the environment. I'm much more worried about the damage to our economy and way of life caused by wacked out eco-terrorists whose main agenda is to wreck Western civilization.

For anyone who's interested, the AP puts a name to the face. Lance Cpl. James Blake Miller says he doesn't know what all the fuss is about, "I was just smokin' a cigarette and someone takes my picture and it all blows up."

The photograph, taken by a Los Angeles Times photographer and transmitted by The Associated Press, has been printed in more than 100 newspapers and shown on network television.

Miller, 20, is shown with smudged camouflage paint and a bloody scratch on his nose, a cigarette drooping from the side of his mouth. He was exhausted and grimy after more than 12 hours of nonstop fighting.

It's hard to put my finger on exactly why I like the photo so much. Aside from the obvious pride I feel for our fighting men and women, I think it's a nice diversion from all the bad news the media usually goes out of their way to report.

Last month Miami police used a TASER gun on a 6 year old boy who was allegedly trying to hurt himself with a piece of glass. Rather than let the boy continue to cut himself, police shot him with the TASER and took him down.

I didn't think much of it at the time because it seemed justified. But now police have done it again, this time shooting a 12 year old girl with 50,000 volts because she was fleeing a truancy rap.

According to the incident report, officer William Nelson responded to a complaint that children were swimming in a pool, drinking alcohol and smoking cigars on the morning of Nov. 5.

Nelson said he noticed the girl was intoxicated and was walking her to his car to take her back to school when she ran away through a parking lot.

Nelson, 38, said he chased her and yelled several times for her to stop before firing the Taser when she began to run into traffic. The electric probes hit the girl in the neck and lower back, immobilizing her.

Nelson said he fired "for my safety along with (the girl's) safety..."

It has long been my contention that while TASERS were originally deployed as a less than lethal alternative to shooting a suspect, they are being increasingly used out of sheer laziness and intolerance. The threshold used to be that an officer's life was in danger. Now it seems as though they zap anyone who gets the least bit uppity or doesn't toe the line.

Once again, people build houses next to gun ranges and then bitch about the noise.

Denise [Rice] and her neighbors have been firing back. They've sued the range and conducted several noise tests of their own to prove the gun blasts are well over the legal limit of 65 decibels

Denise Rice: "At my location it was like 90 decibels."

Now, a judge's order may soon end the controversy by demanding the noise stop all together, which would essentially force the closure of the range.

Denise Rice: "That was never our intention to put them out of business. We just wanted peace in our neighborhood. That's why we moved here, it's scenic and so quiet."

The range has reportedly been there for decades.

UPDATE: They're throwing the bullshit flag over at Westerblog. Something about fuzzy math.

I should have known the pleasure police would go ape-shit over this photo of one of our hardened Marines enjoying a smoke after a hard day of killing terrorists. James Taranto reports that emails were pouring in to the New York Post and Houston Chronicle for blatantly marketing evil cigarettes to directly to children. (Apparently they are extremely popular in the children's demographic.)

I was shocked to see the large photograph on Nov. 10. A tired, dirty and brave Marine rests after a battle--but with a cigarette dangling from his mouth! Lots of children, particularly boys, play "army" and like to imitate this young man. The clear message of the photo is that the way to relax after a battle is with a cigarette.

The truth is very different from that message. Most of our troops don't smoke. And most importantly, this young man is far more likely to die a horrible death from his tobacco addiction than from his tour of duty in Iraq.

DR. DANIEL MALONEY
The Woodlands

I opened the Chronicle this morning and got slapped in the face by a huge picture of a "battle weary" Marine with a fine looking cigarette hanging out of his mouth.

I respect everyone's rights, but do we really need to encourage our young people to think that this is part of required military gear?

MAYNARD HOVLAND
League City
[...]

How much did Phillip Morris pay for the front cover advertisement? Thank you for continuing to encourage the development of cancer.

Mark Leininger
Manhattan

The Post's cover was horrible and crude. How could you compare our soldiers to the Marlboro Man? We are not "kicking butt" in Iraq. We are in an unjustified war with a people who will never allow democracy to come to their country.

Janna Passuntino
Manhattan

I was shocked to see the front page of your newspaper. Showing a GI smoking and portraying it as being cool is disgusting, to say the least.

First of all, you are promoting smoking, even though it is a health hazard. Secondly, our brave men and women are fighting a tough war in Iraq, and to show them as you did does not do them justice.

Maybe showing a Marine in a tank, helping another GI or drinking water would have had a more positive impact on your readers. Smoking should be outlawed, not endorsed.

Ali Mahdi
North Brunswick, N.J.

I'm reminded of my own blissful childhood. We had both realistic looking toy guns to play with, and candy cigarettes; both of which have since been killed by the pleasure police. I still have the toy guns, which I hope to some day pass on to my own children. I don't have any candy cigarettes, so I guess I'll have to give them the real thing.

Scott Norvell reports that a school fundraiser had to be canceled due to the school's zero tolerance weapons policy.

A high school in Wisconsin was forced to call off a fundraiser when school officials realized that the fishing kits donated to the effort contained filet knives and would not be allowed on campus because of the school's zero-tolerance policy,