Well, I'm still here. The doctors are running more tests trying to figure out what is wrong with me. Apparently carving out my gall bladder isn't something they want to rush into. That means my days are spent grinning and bearing the pain, while I save my limited supply of legal narcotics for night time when I need to put the pain to bed, literally.

So my days are quite miserable. While I wasn't awake at all on Monday, Tuesday's pain was exacerbated by daytime TV fare. I don't know how people watch this tripe. So I've gone back to work, much to the surprise of my coworkers, on a much limited basis. Yesterday, rather than stay home and watch the numerous court shows and the neverending parade of commercials for personal injury attorneys, I decided to go back to work.

I went in late in the morning and left early, working for about 4 hours. Today, I hope to push that to at least 5, still a far cry from the 11 hour days I am used to putting in. I meet with the surgeon on Tuesday, and hopefully he'll have some answers for me about when my life will return to normal.

That said, light blogging will resume, but may be interrupted for obvious reasons.

Countertop has questions, so I've got answers.

• Though you now live in Northern Virginia, I take it you are originally from the Virginia Beach/Newport Beach Area. How restrictive did it feel to grow up in the belly of Marion "Pat" RObertson's Christian Right empire and considering how conservative that area should be, why does it still remain as anti gun (if not more opposed to concealed carry) as the worst areas of Northern Virginia?

Well, I remember rolling my eyes when they ran Hooters out of town. And our Brew Threw never really had much of a chance, with the powers that be mandating that people had to get out of their car to buy beer. (Because the process of putting the vehicle in park and then walking into the store virtually eliminates drunken driving.)

Other than that, growing up in Virginia Beach was pretty normal, although the Robertsons have lightened up. My sister had her rehearsal dinner at Robertson's Founder's Inn, which didn't serve alcohol, much to the chagrin of me and my father. But times have changed. Apparently the lack of convention business has really taken it's toll, because Robertson now allows booze. I guess Godliness only goes so far.

As for their anti-gun stance, I'm not really sure. Why would a gaggle of Beach policemen shoot a suspect 42 times in "self defense"? A question for the ages, I guess.

• We know you like Mustangs. Which gun in your impressive arsenal would you classify as the most "Mustang Like" and which would you call the most "Yugo like"? Do you have any biases against precision European sports cars that might also apply to precision European weapons? If so, what guns in particular are you thinking of?

I never really thought of guns in terms of sports cars. When I think of Mustangs I think of classic Americana. In that case, I'd say the 1894 Winchester fits the bill. It's a sporty carbine with plenty of power. It's not the most powerful gun on the street, but the power is there when you need it.

Most Yugo-like, I would say would be a 9x18 Makarov. Okay, so I don't really own one. But just like a Yugo is technically a car (4 wheels and an engine), the Makarov is technically a gun (it shoots bullets).

The only bias I have against European cars and guns is when they substitute technology for raw power. Being an American, I'm predisposed to thinking bigger is usually better.

• MAC or PC or Linux? Why? You can also elaborate on why Bill Gates ought to be kissing Steve Jobs ass too, if your so inclined.

Definitely PC. Whether Macs or Linux is better is definitely arguable. But who wants to be limited to a single aisle in CompUSA. I mean, Betamax was a great product too.

By far the best thing Jobs ever did for Microsoft and Intel was keeping Apple proprietary.

• You do a fair bit of jnuk science exposing on your site. What do you believe to be the biggest liberal hoax of the last few years, and what do you predict will replace it once that gig is up?

It has to be the ever evolving Global Warming/Climate Change agenda. These people have the best of both worlds. When it gets too hot, blame Americans, when it gets to cold, blame Americans. It's really just a huge anti-capitalist agenda hijacked by the former communists. Communism failed, so they flocked to environmentalism. When environmentalism fails, they'll find something else to flock to. Probably health care. It's hard to picture right now, but health care is a for-profit business that is slowing being converted into a "human right". Once you allow people to claim the fruits of someone else's labor as a basic human right, the slipperly slope comes up pretty fast. Why not food? Or shelter? How long before we have public housing? Oh wait...

• Just how drunk where you for the Steelers game? Have you ever achieved that level of intoxication since? Ever do anything else to tick your mom off as much as that?

Actually, it wasn't so much the game as it was the entire 6 day weekend. Most of the weekend is a complete blur.

I have definitely been that intoxicated since. A buddy of mine and I flew up from Atlanta one time to do some work in D.C. (before I lived here). We each had a $45 a day meal allowance and the hotel provided free breakfast and dinner. So our last night in town, we had about $500 worth of meal money to blow. We hit Georgetown and Adam's Morgan pretty hard. Before long we were buying so many drinks that we had a posse of about 8 people following us from bar to bar. All told, we exceeded our meal allowance by about $400, and I don't remember much of anything after about 10:30. As for pissing off mom, the Pittsburgh trip pretty much takes the cake. Except for maybe when I talk about her on my weblog.

New York courts have ruled that the state of New York can collect income taxes from people who don't actually work in New York.

The Court of Appeals ruled 4 to 3 that a computer programmer for a group of trade unions in Queens who works mostly out of his home in Nashville must pay New York State tax on all his income, not just on part.

The programmer, Thomas L. Huckaby, had argued that since he worked only a quarter of the time in Queens, he should pay New York tax on only a quarter of his income. But the court ruled that because the source of Huckaby's income was in New York--and because he was in Tennessee as a matter of personal convenience, and not because his employer needed him to work there--he must pay tax on his full income.

The decision, by Judge Susan Phillips Read, stated that he "is the one who chose to accept employment from a New York employer (with the advantages of a New York salary and fringe benefits) while maintaining his residence in Tennessee, some 900 miles and a two-hour plane trip distant from his New York employer's office."

Now keep in mind that this guy lives in Tennessee, which has no state income tax. Therefore the state of Tennessee doesn't have any vested interest in Huckaby's suit.

Where it will really get interesting is when they go after telecommuters in states that do have state income taxes. Will Connecticut let New York take away thousands of dollars in income taxes, because a telecommuter travels to the New York home office every other month?

When states try reaching across the border to make a money grab, it could get really ugly. (Civil war kind of ugly.)

State regulators all across the country are taking aim at Ebay. If you've ever sold an item on ebay for someone else, you may have been breaking one or more state laws, depending on where you live.

Writes CNET:

In San Diego County, deputies from the sheriff's office have been visiting Internet consignment sellers to verify that they have the "secondhand good" licenses that pawn shops are required to obtain.

"There have been complaints by secondhand dealers," said Sgt. Mark Stevens of the San Diego Sheriff's Office. "They feel that the stores should be licensed."

Under California law, secondhand dealers are defined as anyone who accepts items "for sale on consignment" or "for auctioning." Dealers must file daily reports with the police that include names, fingerprints and home addresses of each person trying to sell an item, along with that person's driver's license or passport number. [...]

State rules vary widely. Massachusetts requires even part-time auctioneers to obtain a government license, pass a written exam, pay annual fees and post a $10,000 bond.

Auctioneers in Texas must complete 80 hours of classroom instruction at one of eight approved schools, have no recent felony convictions and be at least 18 years old. In Texas, as in many states, auctioning items without a license is a criminal offense.

While nobody wants to be the victim of internet fraud, there are already laws on the books to protect against that. Requiring internet sellers to jump through hoops is just more of the same protectionism that brick and mortar store owners have been asking about for years.

Heh.

(Via SU)

The good news on the war front is that Canada won't harbor cowards that flee from their military duties.

The ruling, written by Immigration and Refugee Board member Brian Goodman, said [U.S. Army paratrooper Jeremy] Hinzman had not made a convincing argument that he would face persecution or cruel and unusual punishment if sent back to the United States.

Goodman said that while Hinzman may face some employment and social discrimination, "The treatment does not amount to a violation of a fundamental human right, and the harm is not serious."

Hinzman's attorney, Jeffry House, said his client would appeal the ruling and still believed that he would be granted refugee status in Canada.

Hinzman, 26, fled from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in January 2004, weeks before his 82nd Airborne Division was due to be deployed to Iraq. He had served three years in the Army, but had applied for conscientious objector status before his unit was sent to Afghanistan in 2002.

Hinzman screwed up by saying that he would still support the military, just not in a combat role. That pretty much says that he doesn't object to the war itself, just to his having to fight on the front lines. Of course if I didn't want to be the first boots on the ground, I probably wouldn't volunteer for paratrooper duty.

The new Hawkins' Rankings are out again, and yours truly finished in the Top 10 once again.

It's an honor just to be mentioned, but Top 10 is something to brag about. Take that, East St. Louis.

Sorry for the lack of updates. I was deathly ill AGAIN this weekend. I saw my doctor last week, and she seems to think the problem can be solved by carving out an internal organ, namely my gall bladder. I have some tests this week to confirm her theory. I do hope that the solution is that simple, as the pain seems to be happening more and more frequently.

I read something today that says fatty foods seem to aggravate the condition because the body needs bile (which is dispensed by your gall bladder) to break down the fat so that your pancreas can do it's work. This is advice I could have used before the attacks this weekend.

Something else I read said that Percocet increases the enzymes that are dispensed by your pancreas. Lucky me, I just happened to have some lying around. I really hate to take medication but at this point the pain is excruciating and I just want it to pass.

UPDATE: So after spending the night in the hospital for extreme abdominal pain, it turns out that I do not have gallstones. As much fun as drinking a quart of olive oil sounds, it's not going to help cleanse anything.

Apparently I have gallbladder disease, which is when your gallbladder becomes inflamed. They definitely want to carve it out, but they want to see if I can stablize so that they can do outpatient surgery instead of emergency surgery. The outpatient route would have me going under the knife NEXT Wednesday because my damned surgeon is on holiday. So since I have no intention of keeping myself drugged up on Percocet until then, I might go back to the emergency room and tell them to just get it over with if the pain continues until tomorrow.

Either surgery would be lacroscopic (or whatever it's called) so they would go in with probes rather than slicing me clear open.

UPDATE II: My doctors don't want to do surgery just yet. Apparently I haven't suffered enough. I have an appointment with a surgeon early next week who wants to do exploratory surgery. That is, he wants to poke around in there and see what's wrong before making the decision to carve out the organ. So for right now, it's more hurry up and wait.

If I wanted to get a lot of red-blooded American males pissed of at me, I might say something like this:

"It (steroid use) started, really, in Pittsburgh," Haslett told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "They got an advantage on a lot of football teams. They were so much stronger (in the) '70s, late '70s, early '80s. They're the ones who kind of started it."

New Orleans Saints coach Jim Haslett has since apologized. Having coached in New Orleans, and played for Buffalo, he apparently had no idea that telling the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that all those great Pittsburgh players were only great because they used steroids, would be so upsetting to so many.

For an encore, next week Haslett plans to tell the newspapers in London that Winston Churchill wore women's underwear.

CNN/Money says we should follow the French way of doing things and have both a Value Added Tax (VAT) and an income tax. Of course to pass such a measure, we'd still have to exempt large segments of the population from paying income tax, making sure that only the evil, hated, rich people pay taxes on their income.

Thanks but no thanks. And for people who purport to know so much about money, why do they want to model the United States after the French; one of the biggest failures in Europe?

Actually, even if the economics did add up, the fundamental flaw that remains is that you have to trust politicians. The only thing keeping us from ending up with a huge progressive tax system and a fat national sales tax is the promise of a few hundred government employees. These are the same people who have yet to reduce the budget from one year to the next by a single dollar.

Late last month there was a shooting in Tyler, Texas. A private citizen armed with a handgun drew fire from the shooter long enough to save at least one life. While some people rightly recognized his heroism, the usual detractors decried his defensive use of a firearm. Gun grabbers said "his death is further proof that carrying a gun increases a person's chances of getting killed", while a Tyler police spokesman "warned gun owners to carefully weigh the risks before intervening."

Contrast this to coverage of the unarmed security guard slain in the recent Minnesota shootings. CNN reports that the guard is being "praised for confronting [the] Minnesota school shooter", and rightly so. I have no doubt that the guard performed heroically. But had he been properly trained and authorized to carry a firearm, many of the tragic deaths (including his own) might never have happened in the first place.

In 1984, Hollywood sued Sony for creating a device that could make near perfect copies of their copyrighted intellectual property. They lost, on the basis that the technology had other non-infringing uses, and the age of the VCR was born. Since then, the Betamax test has protected all new technologies. But if Hollywood gets their way, all of that will soon change reports the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Hollywood and the recording industry are asking for the power to sue out of existence any technology that appears to be a threat, even if it passes the Betamax test. That puts at risk any copying technology that Betamax currently protects as well as any new technologies Hollywood doesn't like.

To raise awareness about what's at stake in the Grokster case, EFF is profiling one Betamax-protected gadget every weekday until the oral arguments before the Supreme Court on March 29.

The EFF lists several technological advancements that might be endangered if Hollywood gets their way.

The Xerox machine, invented in 1937:

This machine makes perfect replicas of printed pages. It can expand or contract the images on those pages, change their colors, and collate batches of pages into various configurations. It is ideal for copying pages from books, creating posters, and duplicating pictures.

Silly Putty, invented in the 1940s:

Silly Putty has long been marketed for its ability to transfer prints from newspapers or cartoons. No copyright holder has authorized this copying or the subsequent stretching and distortion users perform on the puttified image, yet Silly Putty's ad campaigns directly encourage these potential infringements (see this 1960's advertisement). Further, Silly Putty can be molded into replicas of copyrighted images, providing nearly limitless infringing fun.

Other items on the list include the VCR, email, and TCP/IP. Sure, these technologies all have legitimate non-infringing uses, but each and every one of them can also be used for evil.

ABC has obtained an unauthenticated GOP talking points memo that they claim is being circulated by Republicans. Naturally, ABC cannot divulge it's super secret sources, so you'll just have to take their word for it. But Powerline reports that they are already backing off their claim that it is a GOP Memo, and are instead saying that they are correctly reporting that it is in fact a memo, and that some Republicans may have happened to read it. Although they reported it as a GOP Talking Points Memo, it may not have actually been authored by the Republican Party. (Mary Mapes, please call your office.)

Michelle Malkin is skeptical:

Reading between the lines, Hinderaker says ABC News "admits that it knows nothing about who authored and distributed the memo."

Don't you just love how any Tom, Dick, or Harry with a typewriter and fax machine can craft a so-called memo and the networks fall all over themselves to report it if it will cast Republicans in a bad light.

In the spirit of Blame America First, now environmentalists are saying that the United States exports pollution beyond its borders, while Europe's pollution stays put.

The United States exports nitrogen pollution beyond its borders and some of this nitrogen may end up in Western Europe, according to a recent data analysis by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University of New Hampshire. Most of the nitrogen pollution produced in Western Europe is deposited within its own boundaries, the authors found.

Sucks to be them.

Herman Cain looks at how dishonest and sneaky Congress can get when it comes to getting their hands on your money. He details what he calls sneak-a-taxes; those taxes that are passed using broken promises (or perhaps outright lies).

Consider the withholding of income taxes. Congress enacted automatic withholding in 1943 as a way to fill the U.S. Treasury coffers each month and mask the true cost of federal spending. Congress explained to the public that, since the United States was busy fighting World War II, automatic withholding was necessary to fund the war effort in a timely fashion.

Congress also promised that withholding would end as soon as the war was over. That war ended 60 years ago. [...]

The alternative minimum tax is another sneak-a-tax that should have been repealed years ago. The AMT laws were enacted in 1969 by a Democratic-controlled Congress to sock it to the so-called rich.

The AMT is a calculation that assigns an alternate tax amount due if your regular income tax liability is not as high as Congress would like it to be. It is simply an unfair way of forcing people to pay more taxes, even if they follow all the rules and mandates in the convoluted tax code. . .All because you and your spouse worked hard enough to earn at least $75,000, which in 1969 was considered rich. [...]

More sneak-a-taxes include corporate income taxes, which lead to higher consumer prices, the double taxation on dividends and corporate earnings, taxes paid on Social Security benefits, raising the maximum income subject to payroll taxes, lowering the maximum limit for certain taxable deductions, limiting the equipment expensing amount for small businesses, and the many taxes, fees, and surcharges hidden in your monthly phone bill.

In fact, one of the most ridiculous sneak-a-taxes is the Federal Excise Tax. The Federal Excise Tax, which is figured at 3 percent of your phone bill, was enacted in 1898 to help pay for the Spanish-American War. That war ended 107 years ago.

Keep this in mind when you pay your income taxes this year, or the next time you hear a politician talk about the mythical "social security trust fund" or "guaranteed benefits".

McCain Backs Iraq War Despite WMD Findings -- Associated Press Headline, March 22, 2005.

This is the tiring before and after paradox. If you knew before you did something what you knew after you did it, would you still do it knowing then what you know now? If it were me I'd say something like, "If you knew before you asked that question that I was going to punch you in the nose and have sex with your wife, would you still ask me that question?"

Which is why I'll probably never have a career in politics.

Say Uncle points to this pro-gun story in the New York Times. And please note that these are the real fully automatic AK-47s, not the look-alike semi-autos that are available in America.

Ordinary Iraqis rarely strike back at the insurgents who terrorize their country. But just before noon today, a carpenter named Dhia saw a troop of masked gunmen with grenades coming towards his shop and decided he had had enough.

As the gunmen emerged from their cars, Dhia and his young relatives shouldered their own AK-47's and opened fire, police and witnesses said. In the fierce gun battle that followed, three of the insurgents were killed, and the rest fled just after the police arrived. Two of Dhia's young nephews and a bystander were injured, the police said.

"We attacked them before they attacked us," Dhia, 35, his face still contorted with rage and excitement, said in a brief exchange at his shop a few hours after the battle. He did not give his last name. "We killed three of those who call themselves the mujahedeen. I am waiting for the rest of them to come and we will show them."

A group of men armed with machine guns and grenades tries to attack a local shopkeeper, and the Times still insists on calling them insurgents. Regardless of what label you pin on these inhuman thugs, the fact remains that guns save lives.

In Minnesota, a young teen murdered his grandparents, stole his grandfather's police issued vehicle and firearms, and then proceeded to shoot up his school. Not surprisingly, the gun grabbers are exploiting the tragedy, in hopes that no one will notice that the Minnesota shootings had nothing to do with so-called "assault weapons", "cop-killer guns", or "gun show loopholes".

...lawmakers have allowed the Federal assault weapons ban to expire, limited law enforcement investigations of gun sellers, mandated the immediate destruction of records of gun sales, and stand poised to make it impossible for victims of gun violence to seek justice against reckless gun sellers in the courts.

"We need to do more to make sure our communities -- and especially our young people -- are safe from gun violence," said Kate Havelin, President of the Twin Cities, Minnesota Million Mom March chapter. "Today I hope all of us think of those who died, those who were injured, and all of those whose lives have been changed because of gun violence."

"When will our leaders have enough?" asked Sarah Brady, Chair of the Brady Campaign. "When will the government do something to help stop the bloodshed? Red Lake sends all of America's mothers and fathers a message about how vulnerable all of our children are."

In actuality, it was gun control (a disarmed security guard) that allowed this young man to wreak so much unanswered havoc.

(Hat tip to Say Uncle)

Drudge is reporting that the Air America story is going to be on HBO. His description of the special is that it is going to be quite unflattering to the liberal talk radio network. Then again, HBO is owned by Time Warner, so I wouldn't be surprised if it turned into a love fest.

Either way, I'll probably watch it when it debuts at the end of this month.

When it comes to judicial nominations, some Democrats are ready to throw the Constitution out the window. Enter Senator Barbara "gun in her purse" Boxer (D-CA), the lone Senator who earlier this year tried to invalidate the vote of every citizen in Ohio. She thinks that the standard of 51 votes is too easy to achieve.

Why would we give lifetime appointments to people who earn up to $200,000 a year, with absolutely a great retirement system, and all the things all Americans wish for, with absolutely no check and balance except that one confirmation vote. So we're saying we think you ought to get nine votes over the 51 required. That isn't too much to ask for such a super important position. There ought to be a super vote. Don't you think so? It's the only check and balance on these people. They're in for life. They don't stand for election like we do, which is scary.

Whether you think the vote threshhold should be 51, or 61, or 101 is a matter of opinion, and Ms. Boxer is certainly entitled to hers. But the actual requirement is 51 votes, and if Ms. Boxer wants to change that I suggest she push for a Constitutional Amendment to change it. Until then, she's violating the very document that she has sworn an oath to uphold.

I've long believed that Senators should be elected by the state legislatures, the way it was done when this nation was founded. But there is that inconvenience of the U.S. Constitution. Using Barbara Boxer's premise that the Constitution doesn't matter, politicians in Sacramento could simply boot her out of office and choose their own representative to replace her.

While I would still rather have a classic blue Shelby Cobra with those outrageous pipes down the side, the new Ford Shelby Mustang Cobra GT500 (what a mouthful) still makes me drool.

A 450-horsepower, supercharged 5.4 liter V-8 should push you to 60 miles per hour in the neighborhood of 4 seconds. And with a 6-speed manual tranny, you shouldn't have any trouble hitting 155 on the open road, er.. test track.

Of course the look of the car is enough to turn some heads, and sure to attract the attention of every policeman in your neighborhood.

Yeah, the only thing begging to be pulled over more than a red sports car is a red sports car with racing stripes. Stencil the word "Shelby" across the back and Barney Fife will have fantasies about pulling over Carol Shelby himself.

Throw in modern amenities like power everything, leather seats, and a 6 disk CD changer, and I'm ready to forget about the classic muscle cars and run out and buy one.

But then I've always had a soft spot for Mustangs.

I had to laugh at Taranto's story about the Powerball lottery.

"The agency running the Powerball lottery might decrease the odds of winning the multimillion-dollar jackpot to stem a record-setting run of winners that is keeping jackpots small and, the agency says, causing ticket sales to plunge," reports the Chicago Sun-Times.

So let's see if we have this straight: Because too many people are winning the lottery, not enough people are buying tickets, so lottery officials are responding by making the odds even worse. They aren't kidding when they say a lottery is a tax on people who are bad at math.

There is a reason why most lottery winners are broke again within 10 years.

A woman has been charged with trying to carry a gun into a courthouse in gun-free Chicago.

Julia Shephard, 53, of Chicago, told investigators that she forgot the gun was in her purse, which she placed on an X-ray machine where a deputy spotted it, sheriff's spokeswoman Penny Mateck said.

Shephard, who was arrested without incident, was charged with one felony count of unlawful use of a weapon, Mateck said. No reason was given why the woman was carrying the gun.

Of course in places like Virginia, you don't need to give a reason to carry a gun. You just strap a holster to your hip and, with few exceptions, wear it proudly just about anywhere you want. While guns are banned in courthouses, I would hope that they let you check it, or put it in your car.

When it comes to mass murder, I've always thought that sometimes people are just crazy. But those that go looking for motives or reasons, are almost always guaranteed to find some:

Relatives told the St. Paul Pioneer Press that Weise was a loner who was often teased by others. They said his father committed suicide four years ago and his mother was living in a Minneapolis nursing home because she suffered brain injuries in a car accident.

Police are still putting together the details, but Weise apparently murdered his grandparents, stole his grandfather's police issued firearms, and went on a shooting rampage at his school. He ultimately committed suicide.

UPDATE: CNN's poll asks "What do you think contributes most to school violence?" 'Bullying' currently comes in at 44%, with 'Family Problems' a close second at 39%.

Of course, I always thought that bullying was school violence.

This is pretty ingenious, but seems impractical. (full article quoted below)

Can't get out of bed in the morning?

Scientists at MIT's Media Lab in the United States have invented an alarm clock called Clocky to make even the doziest sleepers, who repeatedly hit the snooze button, leap out of bed.

After the snooze button is pressed, the clock, which is equipped with a set of wheels, rolls off the table to another part of the room.

"When the alarm sounds again, simply finding Clocky ought to be strenuous enough to prevent even the doziest owner from going back to sleep," New Scientist magazine said on Tuesday.

France is finally abandoning the mandated 35-hour work week. For those of you who didn't know, France limited the number of hours a person could work to 35 hours per week. It was enforced strictly, and a person could be fined if officials noticed their car in the office parking lot for too many hours or until late into the night.

Their thinking was that if people were working less, employers would hire more workers and thus lower the unemployment rate. Of course it instead had a depressing effect on the economy, and double digit unemployment became normal.

Now cooler heads have prevailed, and French lawmakers are relaxing the mandate. But the slackers aren't going without a fight.

A nationwide strike to protest the change and seek higher pay disrupted transport, schools, and postal service on March 10.

Of course! Longer hours aren't needed for more pay. Just print more money! Why didn't they think of that before?

Of course, this being France, the fix is still only half-assed. Public sector jobs will still be subject to 35 hours a week, and private sector jobs are capped at 48 hours a week. Meanwhile, the BBC notes an opinion poll that leads me to believe that the problem is as much cultural as anything.

A poll earlier this year showed that the majority of French workers did not want to work longer hours, with only 18% saying they did.

Public sector trade unions mobilised against the reforms, bringing hundreds of thousands of protesters on to the streets in a series of protests across the country.

It's like something from the files of George Costanza. They work harder at avoiding work, than if they went to work in the first place.

Here is more proof that Hillary Clinton is hoping to run for President in 2008. In addition to allowing convicted felons to vote, the "Count Every Vote Act of 2005", proposed by Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, "would enable anyone to register to vote on election day and cast a ballot without a photo ID, proof of citizenship or other personal identification", reports World Net Daily.

In a column in The Hill newspaper, Byron York called the measure "the most wide-ranging assault ever on the idea that there should be minimum enforceable standards for voters."

In a statement, Clinton said, "Voting is the most precious right of every citizen, and we have a moral obligation to ensure the integrity of our voting process. The smooth functioning of our democracy depends on voters having faith in the fairness and accuracy of our voting system, and the Count Every Vote Act is an important step toward restoring this covenant. We must be able to easily and accurately count every vote so that every vote counts."

I guess it depends on what the meaning of "accuracy" is.

Via Newsmax:

A letter from the Moncton Hospital to a New Brunswick heart patient in need of an electrocardiogram said the appointment would be in three months. It added: "If the person named on this computer-generated letter is deceased, please accept our sincere apologies."

Contrast this with the United States. I was sick pretty bad this weekend, so yesterday I called the doctor to make an appointment. Despite my regular doctor being on vacation, they are seeing me this afternoon.

UPDATE: You have to love private medicine. Appointment at 3:45, out by 4:15. I grew up using Navy witch doctors, who once kept me waiting 6 hours for a simple physical, so I'm still not quite used to such efficiency.

"Record-high gas prices seen rising further" -- MSNBC Headline, March 21, 2005.

"But adjusted for inflation, nowhere near highest ever" -- Subheadline, same article.

When I buy a gun in Virginia, the process goes kind of like this: I pick out the gun, pay for it, the dealer calls it in for government approval, 10 minutes later I take it home. There are sometimes some snags, but overall the whole process is speedy and relatively painless. (ie: If you have a really common name like 'Bundy' or 'Manson' it might take them a while to weed you out from all of the axe murderers.)

But in Washington D.C., where it is still technically possible to buy certain long guns, the process is deliberately inconvenient and painful.

(link via Kevin Baker)

Kim du Toit points out your tax dollars at work.

While most believe this highway will be good for the state's economy, religious conservatives believe "I-69" sounds too risque and want to change the interstate's number. [Republican Rep. John] Hostettler, a proponent of the interstate extension, agrees. "Every time I have been out in the public with an 'I-69' button on my lapel, teenagers point and snicker at it."

Just so they don't change it to I-68. That's just like 69, except I owe you one.

The Washington Post reports that U.N. officials are being investigated for pandering to the world's oldest profession, sometimes with pre-teen girls.

Yvette and her friends are also called kidogo usharatis, Swahili for small prostitutes. They loiter outside the camps of U.N. peacekeepers, hoping to sell their bodies for a mug of milk, a cold soda or -- best of all -- a single dollar. [...]

The United Nations is investigating 150 instances in which 50 peacekeeping troops or civilians in the Congo mission are suspected of having sexually abused or exploited women and girls, some as young as 12.

Hopefully this isn't what John Kerry meant when he said that he would use the U.N. to "reach out to other nations in a very different way from this administration."

Georgetown University students are staging a hunger strike that has already sent one student to the hospital. Another student is entering her second week of the strike, living only on "a meager diet of water and orange juice".

The students are upset, writes the Washington Post, that janitorial staff are willing to work for a measly $11 an hour.

[Custodial, food service and security workers] receive on average $11.33 an hour, which includes wages and health benefits, a Georgetown spokeswoman said.

The activists said that is not enough. They want the university to put in place a plan that will pay workers "a living wage" of $13.95 to $14.93 an hour by July.

Of course price controls only increase unemployment. Would these students be satisfied if the University just fired everyone making less than $14 an hour? Even more to the point, why should these whiny students care if a person chooses to work at Georgetown for less than that?

As usual, they try to bolster their point with red herrings and non sequiturs.

Student activists said money should not be an issue. The university, they noted, raised $15 million for a new boathouse on the Potomac and is seeking $120 million for a business school.

The boathouse and business school are capital investments, not expenses. Not only do they have and hold value, but they can actualy appreciate and, when it comes to recruitment and revenue, actually make money. How many of the students who flock to the top business schools in the country also look at stats like how well the floors and bathrooms are cleaned?

Sure, they do a necessary job. But lets face it, there isn't much skill involved, and there are plenty of people willing and able to work for $12 an hour. Georgetown students shouldn't stand in their way.

Last week Congressman Carolyn McCarthy, a Democrat from New York, submitted a bill to ban semi-automatic firearms. It came as no surprise, considering McCarthy has been a rabid gun banner since her husband was killed over 10 years ago. Mrs. McCarthy calls this a "reauthorization" of the original 1994 Clinton Gun Ban, but looking at the text of the bill, you'll see that it goes many steps forward to abridging your freedom.

For starters, while the original bill keyed off of guns having two or more scary looking features, this bill lowers the threshhold to just one. That means any gun with a detachable magazine and just one of the following would be banned: pistol grip, heat shield, folding stock, threaded barrel, forward grip. This is virtually all semi-automatics.

The bill also seeks to ban guns by name, including many that are almost 80 years old. The M1 Carbine, the Thompson, SKS, and any variant of the AK-47 or AR-15 are named explicitly. Geez, the Thompson dates back to the 1920s and shoots .45 caliber handgun loads.

Even worse, the bill seeks to ban any firearm that "is not particularly suitable for sporting purposes, as determined by the Attorney General". So the legality of your right to keep and bear arms could be subject to the whim of an appointed government official, the same official, mind you, that is charged with prosecuting the laws of the United States. How's that for conflict of interest?

So far there are no co-signers to this bill, and let's hope that it doesn't even have a chance in the House.

(Hat tip: Say Uncle)

I'm inclined to agree with Say Uncle that creating a black hole here on Earth seems pretty dangerous. (And they're worried about my SUV?)

Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan dictator pokes fun at Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, saying that she dreams about him. To which the esteemed John Hawkins quips:

You know, Hugo, I heard Condi has dreams about you, too. Unfortunately they all end with the trigger being pulled on a sniper rifle.

Ha, ha, ha! Now that's funny! Aw, c'mon Hugo, I'm just kidding! Just because you're an anti-American socialist sitting on a large supply of oil doesn't mean you have anything to worry about...or maybe it does, who can say in these sort of situations?

Either way, sleep well, Hugo!

Ouch!

Why rehash the article, when Spoons does it so eloquently.

1. Police agencies buy Ford Crown Victorias by the zillions;
2. Police agencies then join class action suit against Ford, claiming the vehicle is a deathtrap;
3. Those same police agencies -- while the lawsuit is pending -- attempt to buy more Ford Crown Victorias;
4. Ford refuses to sell the Crown Vics to said agencies;
5. While some police scramble to drop out of the lawsuit, others say Ford is just being mean.

Sorry for the lack of updates this morning. I was deathly ill this weekend, and didn't have a chance to do much of anything.

CNN's headline reads "Gas prices soar 13 cents to record high". But then when you read the article, you find out it didn't.

The average price of a gallon of self-serve, regular gasoline shot up nearly 13 cents over the past two weeks, to a record $2.10, a national survey said Sunday. [...]

Adjusted for inflation, the current gas price is not a record. That occurred in March 1981, when the Iranian revolution set off skyrocketing prices on the spot-oil market.

So if CNN admits that gas prices are not at record highs, how come they mention it several times? And I'm not talking about "a national survey says" that gas prices are at record highs. CNN makes a point of correcting what the national survey says, yet both of their headlines explicitly make the same claim.

Meanwhile, Fox News picks up the Reuters wire report which doesn't even bother to mention inflation.

A Belgian man accused of having sex with dogs claims he is innocent because the dog was askin' for it.

There are some interesting goings on with Tennessee's marijuana tax. Say Uncle points out that it appears to be just another excuse for the state to seize property without the due process of law.

When the Dept. of Revenue taxes a drug possessor, that person has an opportunity to pay the tax, and then if it is not paid, agents may seize and auction off anything of value the person owns.

The taxing of the illegal substance does not have to await criminal conviction of the owner. Just the possession of the substance triggers the tax levy.

This certainly escalates the war on drugs in Tennessee. Methinks it might backfire. The government is sure giving themselves a vested interest in seizing property.

"This tax is for people who are found in possession of these illegal substances, and it is not connected to any criminal prosecution," Slatton said. "We notify them that they owe the tax, and if they do not pay, we can proceed with collecting it by seizing cars, land, or other possessions."

What happens to the funds collected this way?

"Seventy five percent goes back to the law enforcement agency handling the case, and 25 percent goes to the state's general fund," Slatton said.

Is your department's budget a little lean this year? No problem, just go out and round up some drug users. Keep in mind that this all happens independent of any criminal prosecution. It's like payola that goes directly to law enforcement and government officials.

Communist dictator Fidel Castro is ticked off at Forbes Magazine for listing him as one of the richest people in the world with a net worth of more than $550 Million. He is so upset that he is considering suing the magazine over the listing.

"Once again, they have committed the infamy of speaking about Castro's fortune, placing me almost above the queen of England," Castro said in a speech to top officials of Cuba's ruling Communist Party, military and police.

"Do they think I am (former Zairian President) Mobutu (Sese Seko) or one of the many millionaires, those thieves and plunderers, that the empire has suckled and protected?" he said in reference to his capitalist archenemy, the United States.

The credit card companies have caved to pressure from tax and spend states like New York, California, and Oregon, and have agreed to no longer allow their cards to be used to purchase tobacco over the internet. The high tax states pressured them into an agreement because they were losing millions of dollars to the low tax states through internet purchases.

On the surface, this is just another victory for the pleasure police. But I wonder what will happen when states do the same thing with internet sales taxes, commuter income taxes, and other business conducted outside their borders.

Maybe that Discover card is worth something afterall.

The story of Galveston Texas is old, but not well known. Given all the hubub about Social Security, it is one that should be required reading.

Basically, the crux of the story is that Galveston County was allowed to opt out of Social Security way back in 1981. They were concerned about the solvency then, and opted for ownership of private accounts. You contributed money to an individual account that you owned. If you died, it would be passed on to your next of kin.

At the time, the usual suspects were predictably crying doom and gloom if people were allowed to pull out of the Social Security ponzi scheme. After all, how could private citizens possibly be more well off managing their own money than the government could?

Well, the proof is in the results.

Our plan, put together by financial experts, was a "banking model" rather than an "investment model." To eliminate the risks of the up-and-down stock market, workers' contributions were put into conservative fixed-rate guaranteed annuities, rather than fluctuating stocks, bonds or mutual funds. Our results have been impressive: We've averaged about 6.5% annual rate of return over 24 years. And we've provided substantially better benefits in all three Social Security categories: retirement, survivorship, disability.

Upon retirement after 30 years, and assuming a more conservative 5% rate of return, all workers would do better for the same contribution as Social Security:

oWorkers making $17,000 a year are expected to receive about 50% more per month on our alternative plan than on Social Security - $1,036 instead of $683.

oWorkers making $26,000 a year will make almost double Social Security, $1,500 instead of $853.

oWorkers making $51,000 a year will get $3,103 instead of $1,368.

oWorkers making $75,000 or more will nearly triple Social Security, $4,540 instead of $1,645.

oOur survivorship benefits pay four times a worker's annual salary - a minimum of $75,000 to a maximum $215,000 - rather than Social Security's customary onetime $255 survivorship to a spouse (with no minor children). If the worker dies before retirement, the survivors receive not only the full survivorship but get generous accidental death benefits, too.

oOur disability benefit pays 60% of an individual's salary, better than Social Security's.

In 1983, Congress passed a law authorizing the use of lethal force against anyone trying to opt out of the Social Security system.

Taegan Goddard's Political Wire has that lying no-good fucktard Virginia Governor Mark Warner as his quote of the day:

"When I got elected, Virginia was not only a red state, it was a state in the red."

-- Virginia Gov. Mark Warner (D), "one of his party's early prospects for the 2008 presidential nomination," quoted by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, addressing the Georgia Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner.

Actually, Virginia wasn't in the red when Gov. Warner pushed through the LARGEST TAX INCREASE IN VIRGINIA'S 400 YEAR HISTORY. A month after the tax hike was inked into law, it was conveniently discovered that Virginia was actually running a budget surplus.

As for Warner quotes, here's an oldie but goodie.

"I will not raise taxes, I will not raise taxes, I will not raise taxes." -- Mark Warner, during his campaign for Virginia's Governorship.

We should have known he was lying, because his lips were moving.

Anyone who talks about the price of anything being at an all time high without adjusting the numbers for inflation is a complete moron. Speaking of morons, enter Reuters, who gleefully declares that oil prices are at an all time high. I wonder why there are no gas lines like we saw in the 1970s? I wonder why there is no big push by consumers to buy more fuel efficient cars?

Maybe that's because when you adjust prices for inflation, gas prices are NO WHERE NEAR ALL TIME HIGHS!

By this logic, movie prices are at all time highs. The cost of newspapers are at all time highs. The cost of Big Macs are at all time highs.

Speaking of Big Macs, there is what economists call the Big Mac Index. That is the theory the value of a currency can be judged by the price of a Big Mac. The premise is that the value of the Big Mac remains relatively constant throughout history. It is made in more than 100 countries and represents a commodity with relatively constant value consumers, regardless of the actual price and the nation that you are in. So when Big Macs are cheaper, the value of a currency must be stronger, whereas when Big Macs are more expensive, the value of a currencey is likely to be weaker.

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

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Officials and pundits are surprised that more and more women are taking up arms.

That reminds me, it's been a while so here is my obligatory link to an article by the Independent Women's Forum on disarming women. This should be required reading for all women.

Like I said years ago, the article makes several key points:

• Less than 5% of 911 calls dispatched to police are early enough to actually prevent a crime.
  
• Police and government organizations have no legal obligation to protect you as an individual.
  
• Firearms proficiency can take only a few hours of practice.
  
• While martial arts training may "equalize" the disparity between a woman and an attacker, multiple attackers have an advantage.
  
• Firearms proficiency can make ANY woman strong enough to fend off attackers, regardless of their size or strength.
  
• In more than 92% of "defensive gun uses" simply brandishing a firearm, or firing a warning shot is enough.

Draconian gun control laws and mandatory waiting periods only serve to put law abiding citizens at risk. Forcing or encouraging women to rely on restraining orders and the 9-1-1 system as means of protection is not only foolhardy, it's dangerous. A lot of good a court order does when she's dead. Maybe they can paste it on her tombstone.

Besides, wearing a pistol makes you look thinner. Ladies, just ask any man, "Does this gun make me look fat?"

James Taranto reports that South Florida Democrats are trying to resurrect the 30 year old Equal Rights Amendment. For those of you that don't remember, it was a 1970s movement to add text to the Constitution that would say that women were just as good as men. The Amendment failed, but somehow women were still able to overcome the bigotry of the late 1970s. Well, almost.

In enlightened Canada, lawmakers are gravely concerned over cruel human rights violations that women face on a daily basis.

Lorenzo Berardinetti wants to brand so-called gender-based pricing a human rights violation and he has introduced a bill in the Ontario legislature to make the practice illegal.

Berardinetti said on Tuesday he was shocked when he and his wife took clothes to a dry cleaners and she ended up paying more for similar items.

Women also pay more for haircuts, clothes, and car repairs. But if this legislation gets legs, it will be interesting to see what the law of unintended consequences digs up.

When Title IX was passed in the United States, schools and colleges were supposed to increase athletics funding for women to match that of men. Instead, they cut men's programs to give them parity with women. Sports like wrestling became instant endangered species, because it was easier to cut out the men's program then start a women's. Expect the free market to have even more disastrous results.

Prices for men will certainly rise. They cannot rise too much because of the elasticity of demand, but Canada would probably reach a point where men are subsidizing women's haircuts by paying a few extra dollars. Expect to see the same normalization with dry cleaning and clothing prices. So, with slimmer profit margins on women's goods and services, what impact will that really have?

Well for starters, price cuts in women's services will make them much less profitable. That means the quality of service will get much worse. Haircuts are priced differently for obvious reasons. First and foremost, women care more about their hair. They also require a lot more time at the beauty parlor than men do at the barber shop. Canadian women should get used to receiving the men's treatment which is a bit like sheering sheep. Don't come crying to me when you sit down in the chair and they reach for the sheers instead of the scissors.

Is this the most serious problem facing Western women today? In the Middle East, women are fighting for the right to vote. In Africa they suffer from brutal mutilation of their genatalia. In some parts of the world they can be stoned to death for being seen with another man. But in Canada, the most serious problem they face is having to pay more for professional dry cleaning.

"We want to show that Democrats are unified against raiding the (Social Security) trust fund to create private accounts and also to see where Republicans are on private accounts" -- Jennifer Crider, a spokesman for the House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi.

Letting Americans keep more of their own money would interfere with politician's raiding of the mythical Social Security trust fund.

- Social Security tax, 12.4%.
- Balance of the Social Security trust fund, $0.
- Scaring the bejesus out of old people to maintain your grip on political power, priceless.

sBush's Energy Policy got a win this week when the Senate voted to open the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. The vote was 51-49 largely along party lines, with the GOP supporting the cleanup and removal of billions of barrels of oil. Democrats, naturally, want to leave all of that nasty black pollution where it is. Of course this is just a line item in the budget, so it still needs to be reconciled with the House.

On another note, as usual the AP drags out their cute and fluffy bunny photos when talking about ANWR.

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In reality, the ANWR Coastal Plain looks a bit more like this.

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Note the lack of vacationing environmentalists.

If you have ever wondered why Apple continues to play second fiddle to competitors even when they have a superior product, here is part of the reason why.

As part of a "Made for iPod" logo program, Apple Computer has been angling for a slice of the revenue from the growing array of third-party add-ons that connect to the iPod, sources said.

For the right to display the logo, Apple was at one point looking to get 10 percent of an add-on's retail selling price. More recently, the company has been seeking 10 percent of wholesale pricing, according to people familiar with the situation.

Royalties are one thing, but 10% is rediculous.

When Brian Nichols allegedly shot up a courthouse, murdered four people, and was running loose around Atlanta a reward of $60,000 was offered. Ashley Smith did her part by turning him in, but the agencies who offered the reward have been slow in "deciding" who should be paid.

Following the slayings, the state offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to Nichols' arrest, the FBI $20,000, the U.S. Marshals Service $25,000 and the Georgia Sheriff's Association $5,000.

The FBI and the sheriffs association said they had not yet decided who would get the reward money. The marshals service did not return calls.

I have little doubt that Ms. Smith will be paid the reward. But the way it is written, they make it sound as though the benefactor may be in doubt.

Spoons sheds some light on Philadelphia's idiotic plan to cut down on violence. There have been 21 murders in 8 days, and it's all the government's fault for being too lenient. Apparently murderers are lining up to get gun permits before they commit their heinous deeds, and up until now officials have been issuing them permits.

[Mayor] Street has declared the violence throughout the city a crisis and as a result has ordered the full review of police department policies and has suggested a full moratorium on the issuing of gun permits.

I think the Mayor should also consider revoking the gun permits of the murderers who committed these heinous acts against their fellow man. With their gun permits gone, they'll be unable to commit murder. Hell, you probably won't even have to throw them in jail.

After winning the ACC in Football, Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer was named ACC coach of the year. Tech was picked to finish 8th.

In Basketball, Virginia Tech was picked to finish 10th in an 11-team league. They scratched and clawed their way to fourth place, behind Duke, UNC, and Wake Forest (who are seeded 1st, 1st, and 2nd in the NCAA Tourney) That earned Head Basketball Coach Seth Greenberg the title of ACC Coach of the Year.

Tech also earned an invite to the NIT tournament, which CNN/SI apparently doesn't think is important enough to cover.

If the Republicans restore the Constitutional principle of allowing the Senate to vote for judicial nominations, Senator Harry Reid is threatening to shut down the Senate. Reid is threatening to halt all Senate activity except for bills on terrorism and national defense.

Diane "Gun in her purse" Feinstein is back to her gun grabbing ways.

The sad thing is that Senator John Warner, R-VA, has once again decided to stand by her.

In case anyone has forgotten, here is DiFi's view on guns:

If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an outright ban, picking up every one of them -- Mr. and Mrs. America, turn them all in -- I would have done it.

If Conservatives really want to pass fair tax reform, they need more headlines like these:

"Imagine -- No IRS." -- CNN/Money, March 15, 2005.

Since lawmakers are so keen on the idea of regulating every facet of our lives, how about a federal law that makes it illegal to clean the restroom an hour after lunch. It seems like no matter what building I'm in, some housekeeping staff invariably waits until that biggie coke hits my bladder before they close off the men's room for cleaning.

There is a lot of talk going around about Buy a Gun Day. The spirit of the event is that you are supposed to buy a gun on April 15, in order to stick it to the gun grabbers. Now let me tell you why I don't participate (strictly speaking).

First of all, timing a gun purchase to a specific day just seems silly. Especially when you buy as many guns as I do. If you buy a gun in March and then again in May, does April really matter?

Second, the day is timed with tax day. I presume that many of you actually get tax refund checks, but I haven't received one in several years. In fact, April 15th is usually the day I mail off my additional tax liability to the government. This year is no different, and I'm already on the hook for several hundred dollars.

April 15th also happens to be my dad's birthday. As if paying taxes wasn't enough, I also have to shop and buy my father something. I don't know about your dad, but mine will never tell you what he wants. That is, until April 16th, when he all of a sudden unblocks his mind and remembers everything he ever wanted that you didn't get him.

Now, about my gun purchase. This week I submitted my order and paid for an evil looking gun that is sure to strike fear into the hearts of gun grabbers everywhere. Of course ordering it and paying for it are only half the battle. There is some manufacturing and paperwork involved, and I probably won't actually see the gun until this summer.

Now, I might end up buying another gun closer to April 15th, but for now, this one is going to have to be considered my BAG day purchase. Therefore, I will not reveal the nature of the purchase until April 15th.

Yowza. Freedom is literally busting out all over.

(Should be safe for work.. just don't get caught drooling.)

The GOP is finally starting to make inroads with black voters. But the core of the problem is perhaps one of the biggest shams in American politics.

"Republicans . . . are a group who opposed the civil rights movement and who African-Americans trust least," says David Bositis, political analyst at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies

Actually, it was Republicans who pushed through the civil rights act. It was the party of Lincoln who supposedly "freed the slaves". Yet in today's society, most people seem to think that it was Democrats. Democrats are the party that filibustered the Civil Rights Act of 1964. They are the party of Robert 'KKK' Byrd, and George Wallace standing in the school house door. In fact, the Daschle/Reid Democrats continue to stand in the school house door by blocking the nominations of prominent minority judges like Janice Rogers-Brown and Miguel Estrada.

Call it the curse of Barry Goldwater.

Five years and 2.5 Million dollars later, the Maryland ballistic fingerprint experiment has yet to solve a single crime. Even then, the gun grabbers are saying that the database needs more time and of course, more money.

Del. Neil F. Quinter, D-Howard, said the program needs to be given more time to fully develop.

It is still too early to see if the system that began operating in 2000 is effective, Quinter said, because there is a lag between a gun's purchase and when it is used in a crime -- 3 to 6.1 years. [...]

The state's ballistic database system has 43,729 casings and has had only 208 queries to date. Just six successful identifications have been made -- a reason opponents cite for dropping the program.

Supporters of the ballistic money pit also point to the state's DNA database, which took a few years to pay dividends. But then bullets are nothing like DNA. The markings change over time, or can be deliberately altered with a file. And of course there is the inconvenient fact that criminals rarely obtain their firearms through legal means. Even if the bullet can be traced back to the gun, and even if the gun can be traced back to the purchaser, you quickly reach a dead end when it turns out the gun was stolen or resold.

The money would be better spent on proven law enforcement methods.

Talk about your drama queen.

The Arizona House of Representatives passed a bill that would let people carry weapons -- guns, grenades, sawed-off shotguns, rockets, even land mines -- into schools, polling places and nuclear plants.

According to the Arizona Daily Star newspaper, essentially any weapon not banned by federal law could be carried anywhere, as long as the person claimed he was trying to protect himself.

Well, let's see 4 out of the 5 items mentioned are banned by federal law. And land mines are banned by international treaty to boot.

Clearly the author thinks that wild exaggerations will bring more people over to his side of the argument. It escapes him that all gun control laws are, by definition, completely unnecessary. Murder is already illegal. And if murderers are going to break one law, passing another one isn't going to stop them.

So what's wrong with this story by the New York Times?

In the weeks after Baghdad fell in April 2003, looters systematically dismantled and removed tons of machinery from Saddam Hussein's most important weapons installations, including some with high-precision equipment capable of making parts for nuclear arms, a senior Iraqi official said this week in the government's first extensive comments on the looting. [...]

Dr. Araji said equipment capable of making parts for missiles as well as chemical, biological and nuclear arms was missing from 8 or 10 sites that were the heart of Iraq's dormant program on unconventional weapons.

Well for starters, the New York Times and the anti-war left have spent the last several years repeatedly claiming that Bush LIED!!! Time and time again they've claimed that there was no WMD, and that Bush lied so that he could take revenge on Saddam Hussein for trying to kill his father. So the New York Times own story would seem to contradict their years old anti-war, anti-Bush position.

Then there is this story from the UK Telegraph:

Saddam Hussein's regime offered a $2 million (£1.4 million) bribe to the United Nations' chief weapons inspector to doctor his reports on the search for weapons of mass destruction.

Rolf Ekeus