The Cleveland Plain Dealer doesn't like the idea of not being able to get their hands on the records of those licensed to carry a concealed firearm. They claim, rather rediculously, that the public has a right to know.

Now lawmakers are seeking to close off public access completely.

The permit information belongs to the public, which pays for its collection and storage, as well as the salaries of those who do the work. That lawmakers would show such flagrant disregard for the public's rights is reprehensible.

So the public has a right to know because they paid for the collection and storage of the information. (Nevermind the permit fee charged to the licensee.)

I guess the Plain Dealer would support opening up financial records, drivers license records, and the like. Maybe we should request the Plain Dealer turn over their employees tax returns. After all, they are collected and stored using taxpayer dollars.

By the way, as I said before the Editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer is Douglas Clifton. Here is his address and telephone number:

Douglas Clifton
19 Shoreby Dr
Cleveland, OH 44108-1161
Tel.: (216) 761-6577

Here is his bio. For a map to his home, click here. The public has a right to know.

(Via Say Uncle)

Former Education Secretary William Bennett allegedly said something stupid, reports CNN.

Bennett, who held prominent posts in the administrations of former presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush [41], told a caller to his syndicated radio talk show Wednesday: "If you wanted to reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole purpose -- you could abort every black baby in this country and your crime rate would go down.

"That would be an impossibly ridiculous and morally reprehensible thing to do, but your crime rate would go down," he said.

Naturally, and perhaps justifiably, the Democrats are in a tizzy. But what I don't understand, are the calls on the current Bush Administration to denounce Bennett's comments, as if Bennett works for (or ever worked for) George W. Bush [43]. Never one to turn away from a microphone, the homecoming queen enters the fracas:

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, called on President Bush to condemn the comments by Bennett, who was anti-drug chief in Bush's father's administration.

What would be really funny is if Bush came out and said something like, "Uh.. okay. I think Bennett's comments on abortion were reprehensible. This Administration, as well as the former Administrations of Reagan and Bush [41] have always stood against abortion."

Okay, maybe making light of the situation is a little crass. But if Bennett wants to make prejudicial remarks on the air, that's between him and his employer. Had this been the sloganmaster Jesse Jackson or Louis Farrakhan making prejudicial remarks about whites, and Bush "condemned" their comments, you'd hear charges of censorship and violated First Amendment rights. Democrats would be needling Bush for having a chilling effect on free speech.

Sometimes when someone makes an ass of themselves, the best thing for you to do is just walk away shaking your head.

UPDATE: Neal reports that Bennett's comments were in the context of an ongoing discussion where it was supposed that the decreased crime rate is due to the an increased abortion rate. [I wonder if shooting a 20 year old mugger is considered a 63rd trimester abortion.] Bennett's best come back line: "I'll not take instruction from Teddy Kennedy. A young woman likely drowned because of his negligence."

Three months ago, leftists were calling for Karl Rove's head on a silver platter. They just knew that he was at the center of the Valerie Plame kerfuffle. While the media was crucifying Rove, New York Times reporter Judy Miller sat quietly in jail, protecting her source. Clearly her source wasn't Rove, because Rove was already outed.

Now Miller has been released from jail after agreeing to testify before the Grand Jury. And the New York Times is reporting that indeed Rove was not Miller's source.

The Times, which supported her contention that her source should be protected, reported late Thursday that her source was Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

I still find it hard to believe that the Times would go to such a great length to protect Libby; especially during an election year when it could have hurt Cheney and/or Bush. I wonder if more embarassing details were surface in Miller's testimony today.

Mark Beech, sportswriter for CNNSI asks a question and wants help from the public to find the answer. I'm no sports guru, but half-way through the question, I already knew who he was talking about.

An interesting factoid from the Official NCAA Football Records Book: The last time a conventional (straight-ahead) place-kick was attempted in Division I-A was in 1994. There was only one straight-ahead specialist practicing his art that year, and he made 17 of 21 field goal attempts. After several lackluster tries, I've been unable to identify the brave iconoclast. Anybody out there remember?

I knew right away who this kicker was, because we went to the same school. It's none other than Virginia Tech kicker Ryan Williams. He kicked straight-on because he only had half a foot. He also was mentored by the last great straight-on kicker in the NFL, former-Redskin Mark Mosely.

Scientists ominously warn that "We will have to live with the outcome" of Global Warming, reports anti-American propaganda outlet, Reuters. The Arctic summers will be completely devoid of ice by the year 2100, if the global warming trend continues.

Most scientists believe greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide that is released mainly from cars and utility smokestacks, cause global warming by trapping solar heat in the atmosphere. Many believe global warming can lead to catastrophic consequences, including raising sea levels and strengthening weather events such as hurricanes.

That's right, the Top 5 carbon dioxide producers in the world are Hummers, Ford Excursions, the city of Newark, and tied for fifth: Mt. Saint Helens and Barbra Streisand.

Inuit hunters threatened by the melting of Arctic ice plan to file a petition in December [just in time for winter] accusing the United States of violating their human rights by fueling global warming. The Bush administration has opted out of the Kyoto Treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Yep, it's all Bush's fault. On June 25, 1997, Bush as Governor of Texas, duped the Senate into voting 95-0 to recommend that President Clinton reject the Kyoto protocol because it would harm the U.S. economy. No doubt, Karl Rove and Halliburton also played a part in duping the Democrat majority.

Hey, it worked for the Chicoms.

A Boulder City woman who pleaded no contest to possession of six marijuana plants could lose her house over the case.

Officials in the small town, which prides itself on being the only community in the state that doesn't allow gambling, said their move to seize Cynthia Warren's home is intended to send a message that drugs won't be tolerated in Boulder City.

The defendent is pleading no contest to a misdemeanor, but the city wants to seize her home, which is estimated to have $300,000 worth of equity. That's quite a way to make an example out of someone.

Say Uncle brings up the topic of anticipatory search warrants. Those would be warrants issued not because you've done something, but because they think you might do something.

["anticipatory" search warrants] anticipate the defendant doing something in the future . . . and essentially find that, while there is no probable cause right now, upon the defendant's doing the anticipated action, there will be probable cause in the future, so let the warrant issue now, to be executed only after the anticipated act. The minor problem is that the Fourth Amendment clearly says "no warrant shall issue but upon probable cause."

Uncle also beats me to the punch line with, "So, where's the division of future crime? I want my minority report."

Heh. I notices yesterday that I'm slowly slipping down to the bottom of the Truth Laid Bear ecosystem. I used to be in the upper region of the Large Mammals, just a few spots behind this guy. Now he's up there at 419, and I've slid all the way down into the 1500s. That's quite a decline.

One thing I've noticed though, is that the links logged by the ecosystem seem to be a little inconsistent. One week I'll have a few hundred inbound links, a few days later they've all disappeared.

Another thing I've noticed is that it seems to handicap blogs that don't subscribe to everybody's favorite stats program, Sitemeter. I don't really like third party scripts, and blogrolling is the only one I use. And I've thought a few times about dumping that, because it's always going down. Third party scripts basically suck, especially when they are programmed to load before the page's content. There's nothing worse than waiting for a script to time out before a stinkin' web site will load.

Of course I'm not really in this for the traffic. It's nice to climb your way up, but I do a few persnickity things that basically forestall traffic growth. One big limitation is that I don't link hundreds of other sites willy nilly. I'm ultra stingy with the blogroll, much to the chagrin of those sending in requests to be added. By declining those requests, I'm less likely to be linked in return.

The other limiting factor is that I don't comment a lot on other sites any more. I still read quite a few, but I rarely comment, mostly because I don't have time to keep track of the thread.

If you want to drive a lot of traffic to your own site, link a lot of other blogs, and comment a lot on other sites. It's a quick and dirty way to get exposure. If that doesn't work, just post a lot of nudie pics.

CNN/Money, who sometimes takes financial advice from famed economist Billy Joel, reports that the price of gas is being "blamed for past due credit-cards". We have high gas prices. We have past due credit cards. One must have caused the other.

There was a record number of delinquent credit-card accounts reported in the second quarter, according to data released Wednesday from the American Bankers Association...

The ABA also noted an increase in delinquent payments on personal loans, auto loans, home equity loans and lines of credit.

A key reason for the increase in delinquencies, the ABA said, was the strain of higher gas prices, noting that since December 2004, the average cost of filling up the gas tank of a mid-size car has risen just over $17, from $30.63 at the end of last year to $47.78. In June, the cost averaged $38.33.

"The last two quarters have not been pretty. Gas prices are taking huge chunks out of wallets, leaving some individuals with little left to meet their financial obligations," said ABA chief economist James Chessen in a statement.

So people are taking out home mortgage loans to pay for gas. That's bound to lead to financial ruin, and it'll naturally be all Bush's fault. I would have more respect for CNN/Money if they noted that the high price of oil was having overall inflationary measures. Everything we buy or use is brought to market using oil. Everything made of plastic is derived from some sort of petroleum. Oil prices inflate the price of everything, which would explain increasing credit card balances. But to say that the price of gas alone is to blame, is simplisme at best.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with stressing credit card smarts. But check out the advertiser links that CNN/Money offers on that very same page:

(click for full screenshot)

I've started an arms race.

Air America is doing so well in the ratings war, that they're having to resort to begging for money. While I really did hope that the fledgling radio network would survive, the PBS-style pledge drives aren't a good sign.

On its website, Air America lists the benefits of membership, stating, "In return for your help, we'll send you a monthly Associates insider e-mail with the backstage news from our shows and our headquarters. When we take Air America Radio on the road, we'll invite you to meet our hosts and progressive leaders in your community. And for gifts of $50 and up, we've got free stuff to send you."

Among the "free stuff," Air America is giving contributors three bumper stickers to help spread word about the programming. Gifts of $100 or more entitle listeners to "a stylin' yet functional tote bag," and for those donating at least $250, "our hosts and staff will personally thank you at this level of giving on AirAmericaRadio.com and on the air."

For $500, they won't mention your name. Heh.

For evidence that we're winning the War on Terror, you have to look to news reports overseas.

The US military believes it is one step closer to tracking down al-Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The prediction comes after al-Zarqawi's deputy was killed in a gun battle in Baghdad.

Abu Azzam played a key role in organizing the campaign of deadly suicide bombings in Iraq...

Abu Azzam always enjoyed a spot near the very top of America's most-wanted list in Iraq. The US military says he co-ordinated al Qaeda's operations in Baghdad, ranging from deadly suicide bombings to individual assassinations.

Azzam was also seen as the terror group's moneyman, helping finance the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq to join the insurgency.

Tam is looking for hits. Not sure how many I can provide though.

I didn't watch ABC's "Commander in Chief" tonight; the show about a female president named Hil. . .er Mackenzie. I have better things to do with my time than watch a West Wing Wanna-be. But I did read some of the reviews, which seemed mixed, and was astonished by the write-up in the Boston Herald

"Commander in Chief" isn't the TV breakthrough ABC might have you believe.

Another TV female president has been shepherding humanity through its darkest hours. Like "Commander's" Allen, President Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell) assumed the reins in tragic circumstances - the 40 or so officials ahead of this Secretary of Education were massacred by the Cylons in the 2003 miniseries that launched Sci Fi's successful "Battlestar Galactica."

Roslin has battled political intrigue, quarreled with the military's leader (Edward James Olmos) and struggled with breast cancer as she tries to keep 48,000 survivors alive.

I love Battlestar Galactica and can hardly wait until it returns in January, but I never considered their President to be anything extraordinary. I mean, it is SciFi, and it's a whole different genre and civilization. I guess you just take it for granted when you see women in power on scifi. I quit relating it to the real world when the ultra-PC Star Trek Voyager debuted, with the highest ranking white male officer being a Lieutenant.

I guess what I'm saying is that with SciFi a female president is no big deal, because you already have suspended disbelief for all that techno-bullshit. With "Commander in Chief", like any other drama, it's up to the producers to make you believe that it's real, which with Geena Davis is pretty difficult.

"As a discussion about guns grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Dodge City or the Wild West approaches one." -- Ravenwood's Law.

This guy broke it from the very start:

Welcome back, Wyatt Earp

Have our legislators been watching too many John Wayne westerns lately? Under a measure introduced in the state House recently, Michigan residents, without facing prosecution, would be allowed to shoot and kill someone who breaks into their home or vehicle.

Did I step into a time machine and reappear in 1880s Tombstone, Ariz.? Paranoia and personal property overtook common sense and self-restraint in drafting this measure.

Michigan's concealed weapons law is menacing enough without giving would-be Dirty Harrys the green light to start blasting away when somebody breaks a window in their home. That may be taking the idea to an extreme, but that's society today, one extreme or the other, with very little middle ground.

What happens if someone simply takes a shortcut and trespasses across your lawn? Is a warning shot required or can you shoot to disable?

Even Tombstone in the 1880s had laws on where guns could be used. Personal protection was always the most important consideration. [Ed. Note: Actually, guns were banned in Tombstone.]

However, the Michigan Legislature is almost making it mandatory to be packing heat when you go out. You never know who may be armed and ready to get John Wesley Hardin on you. [Hardin was a "western gunslinger" who murdered more than thirty people, and was rumored to have shot a man just for snoring.] [...]

Apparently lawmakers want to see life imitate art, judging by the shoot-outs seen regularly on television and in movies. Noting that the 2001 law made it easier to obtain a concealed weapons permit in Michigan, a spokesperson for the Michigan Partnership to Prevent Gun Violence pointed out the obvious failing of this new effort.

"This is basically saying guns are going to be the first resort. It's more likely you're going to end up shooting your son coming home late from a date...than you are an intruder," said Carolynne Jarvis.

How long before Michigan has a must-carry weapons law? Don't hand me the garbage about "An armed society is a polite society," either. An armed society is an angry society. It is also a paranoid one that doesn't trust anybody. [Remember, guns emit evil mind control rays.]

Thou shalt not steal and thou shalt not kill are two of the Ten Commandments. Does the Legislature mean to make one commandment more important than another?

Our society has already made life one of the cheapest commodities going these days. But, I was taught that life - even that of a crackhead-junkie-thief - is worth more than a television set.

Have we forgotten that, or is the value of life now measured by degree?

Heh. I could spend all day fisking such blather, but why bother.

MSNBC headline: "Firms with Bush ties snag Katrina deals". Details include the media's favorite boogeyman Dick Cheney and *gasp* Halliburton.

At least two major corporate clients of lobbyist Joe Allbaugh, President George W. Bush's former campaign manager and a former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, have already been tapped to start recovery work along the battered Gulf Coast.

One is Shaw Group Inc. and the other is Halliburton Co. subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root. Vice President Dick Cheney is a former head of Halliburton...

Halliburton alone has earned more than $9 billion. Pentagon audits released by Democrats in June showed $1.03 billion in "questioned" costs and $422 million in "unsupported" costs for Halliburton's work in Iraq.

But the web of Bush administration connections is attracting renewed attention from watchdog groups in the post-Katrina reconstruction rush...

Halliburton continues to be a source of income for Cheney, who served as its chief executive officer from 1995 until 2000 when he joined the Republican ticket for the White House. According to tax filings released in April, Cheney's income included $194,852 in deferred pay from the company, which has also won billion-dollar government contracts in Iraq.

Halliburton... Cheney... Halliburton... Cheney... It's the same format the media used with rebuilding efforts in Iraq. But what aren't they telling us?

Well, they also report that the Shaw Group was awarded two no-bid contracts worth $100 Million each. What you aren't told is that the Chairman and CEO of Shaw Group is J. M. Bernhard, Jr. That is the same Jim Bernhard who is the Chairman of the Democrat Party in Louisiana. The same Jim Bernhard who has close ties to Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco.

J. M. Bernhard, Jr. is the Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of The Shaw Group Inc., a Fortune 500 company offering a broad range of services to the power, process, environmental, infrastructure and emergency response markets... Under Mr. Bernhard's leadership, The Shaw Group has grown dramatically and through a series of strategic acquisitions to over $3 billion in revenues since its inception in 1987. Shaw is one of the youngest companies to be named to the Fortune 500 and recently debuted on the magazine’s list of "America's Most Admired Companies"...

An active participant in many civic and philanthropic endeavors, Mr. Bernhard was recently selected as Chairman of the Louisiana Democratic Party. He co-chaired the transition team for the governor of Louisiana, Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco.

I'm not saying that Shaw Group is a bad company, or that Bernhard's and Gov. Blanco's political connections had anything to do with Shaw's award of $200 Million in no-bid contracts.

But if Cheney's link to Halliburton is newsworthy, why isn't Bernhard and Blanco's link to Shaw Group also worth mentioning?

Virginia Democrats are said to be wooing character actor and political mastermind, Ben Affleck, for Senator.

Why, who should happen to be pondering a move to Thomas Jefferson country but a certain square-jawed media magnet with a taste for liberal politics and millions to spend on it . . . Ben Affleck! Star of "Gigli" and the J.Lo tab romance, now happily settled with "Alias" star Jennifer Garner.

The couple, expecting their first child, have been shopping for real estate around Charlottesville. British tabloids claim it's a done deal; we will only go so far as to report that they checked out at least one country estate a few weeks ago.

It was about that time that party officials started batting Affleck's name around. "It's spread pretty widely, at least in the political underground," University of Virginia professor Larry Sabato, Virginia's premier pundit, told Michael Shear, The Post's Richmond correspondent.

Let's see, Afleck was born in Berkeley California and raised in Cambridge Massachusetts. He dropped out of college, has a few petty arrests, and even more petty romances, engagements, etc that are constantly in the news. He is also well known for starring in the froo froo film, Gigli. I seriously doubt that he'll be able to unseat Virginia native, college football hero, son of a pro football hall of fame coach, and former Virginia Governor George Allen.

If the Dems really want a viable celebrity candidate - someone who Virginians might actually vote for - they should enlist Boo Radley. Actor Robert Duvall is also from California, but he at least owns land in Virginia. He has owned a ranch in Charlottesville for years, and is a direct descendent of another Virginia native and field general, Robert E. Lee. Duvall can also trace his roots back to another great Virginian, President George Washington. He's served in the Army (briefly), is the son of an Admiral, and quite frankly, could kick Ben Affleck's ass even at the ripe old age of 74.

I still doubt he could beat George Allen, but at least he'd stand a chance.

Jack Kelly has a realistic idea of what really slowed down the evacuation of New Orleans.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin reportedly was reluctant to order a mandatory evacuation for fear of lawsuits. God knows why Gov. Kathleen Blanco dragged her feet -- dithering seems to be her modus operandi -- but I suspect lawyers had a lot to do with it.

My friend Ralph Peters told me his sources in the Pentagon told him lawyers for FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security spent the weekend before Katrina struck arguing about what they could or couldn't do -- the emphasis was on couldn't -- absent certain permissions from Blanco.

Robert Garrard sends in this tale of abuse of power. (entire article quoted below)

When a Canadian journalist dared to write a column criticizing the photo radar program used in Edmonton, Alberta, the local cops apparently decided to get even.

Staff Sgt. Bill Newton looked up the name of journalist Kerry Diotte in an ostensibly official-use-only police database, found Diotte's license plate and home address, and asked his colleagues to look out for Diotte's BMW convertible, according to a report Wednesday in the Edmonton Sun. (Diotte is a columnist for the newspaper.)

The cops tracked down Diotte in a bar and planned to nab him on drunk driving charges. But he took a cab home instead. Now Sgt. Newton is -- appropriately, it seems -- facing a disciplinary hearing.

Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue, a Republican, didn't make any friends this week when he canceled school for two days because of feared gas shortages. The fuel shortages never appeared in Georgia (or Gegorgia as the Washington Post calls it) and parents were fuming mad over having to find last minute baby sitters and day care. Some parents even staged a teach in at the state capitol in Atlanta.

Supporters pointed out that Perdue made a tough decision. The easy thing to do would have been to have the kids go to school and then blame Hurricane Rita for any disruptions.

The "snow days" saved hundreds of thousands of gallons of diesel fuel. With everyone bitching about prices and the environmental impact of gas guzzlers, it makes me think that they should cancel school every day. Home schooled children not only perform better, they're saving the environment.

R&B singer, D'Angelo, was critically injured when his SUV ran amok, reports the AP.

D'Angelo, 31, born Michael Eugene Archer, was in a 2003 Hummer sport utility vehicle on September 19 when it crossed the roadway and struck a fence, ejecting the singer, State Police Sgt. Kevin Barrick said Monday. Archer wasn't wearing a seat restraint, Barrick said.

Police are still investigating the cause of the crash.

After stealing a car from a gas station attendant, two alleged car thieves were nabbed after they returned to the station an hour later to fill up with gas.

Employee Pam Pease, 49, was sweeping the parking area when she noticed a familiar car pull up to pump No. 7.

It was her blue 1994 Ford Escort with a missing hubcap. She had reported it stolen less than an hour earlier.

"It just blew my mind, but there they were," Pease said. "I'm glad it was low on gas."

Artemio Castillo, 49, and Ernesto Garcia, 41, were arrested Tuesday night.

"Menopause years especially tough for female executives" -- Associated Press, September 23, 2005.

Union City California has had to throw out thousands of red light camera tickets after city officials admitted that the duration of the yellow light was too short.

The AP reports:

Officials discovered last week that the yellow-light duration on all five of the city's camera-enforced intersections was too short, in some cases by more than a second.

Since Union City began using the cameras over the summer, about 3,000 photographs have caught people driving through red lights. Each ticket carries a $351 fine.

Officials learned of the problem after they received complaints from residents, who claimed they were unfairly ticketed. The state Department of Transportation sets the minimum amount of time that a traffic signal must remain yellow before turning red, based on the road's speed limit.

This is not the first time a Californian city has been busted for red-light shenanigans.

And I thought it was Bush who had the weather machine.

An Idaho weatherman says Japan's Yakuza mafia used a Russian-made electromagnetic generator to cause Hurricane Katrina in a bid to avenge itself for the Hiroshima atom bomb attack — and that this technology will soon be wielded again to hit another U.S. city.
Meteorologist Scott Stevens, a nine-year veteran of KPVI-TV in Pocatello, said he was struggling to forecast weather patterns starting in 1998 when he discovered the theory on the Internet. It's now detailed on Stevens' website, www.weatherwars.info, the Idaho Falls Post Register reported.

Stevens, who is among several people to offer alternative and generally discounted theories for the storm that flooded New Orleans, says a little-known oversight in physical laws makes it possible to create and control storms — especially if you're armed with the Cold War-era weapon said to have been made by the Russians in 1976. Stevens became convinced of the existence of the Russian device when he observed an unusual Montana cold front in 2004.

"I just got sick to my stomach because these clouds were unnatural and that meant they had (the machine) on all the time," Stevens said. "I was left trying to forecast the intent of some organization rather than the weather of this planet."

Stevens has received so many letters, he's resigned from the local news.

I knew they were the second smartest species on Earth, but I never thought I'd read about armed dolphins swimming around the Gulf of Mexico.

Experts who have studied the U.S. Navy's cetacean training exercises fear that as many as 36 escaped mammals could be carrying 'toxic dart' guns. Dolphins, considered one of the species with intelligence second only to man's, now threaten divers and surfers. The U.S. Navy admits it has been training dolphins for military purposes, but has refused to confirm that any are missing.

Accident investigator Leo Sheridan, 72, said he had received intelligence from sources close to the U.S. government's marine fisheries service confirming dolphins had escaped.

"My concern is that they have learnt to shoot at divers in wetsuits who have simulated terrorists in exercises. If divers or windsurfers are mistaken for a spy or suicide bomber and if equipped with special harnesses carrying toxic darts, they could fire," Sheridan said.

The Navy started the Cetacean Intelligence Mission in 1989, outfitting dolphins with harness and electrodes, and teaching them to protect Trident subs in harbor. Dolphins have been used to detect mines near an Iraqi port. It is apparent the government has been working on using dolphins as weapons.

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Possession of firearms on VCU campus in Richmond is illegal. Even those that have a permit to carry concealed handguns are barred from carrying guns on VCU campus by state statute. But VCU Police have admitted to seizing firearms from people who dare to even get near the college.

Style Weekly reports that the police are concerned that guns *might* be carried onto campus and have stretched their domain out into town.

After a series of random shootings near the campus, Virginia Commonwealth University Police have become proactive and aggressive in seizing weapons. "We've really targeted the guns," VCU Police Sgt. Chris Preuss says. And on nights when they scour city streets for them, he says, police pick up "generally one to two every night." Most of the guns have been confiscated on the periphery of campus, in the 800 and 900 blocks of Broad, Grace and Harrison streets, says VCU Police Chief Willie Fuller. The initiative started earlier this year, Fuller says, when officers scouring the area at night noticed more and more guns in vehicles, that apparently belonged to local club patrons. None of those arrested have been VCU students.

"We didn't want this stuff spilling over to campus," Fuller says.

...VCU Police have seized 30 guns of various makes and models over six months, ranging from Ruger 40-calibers to Glock 357s to AK-47s, says Sgt. Preuss. He carries a folder with pictures of confiscated weapons that he'll give to federal officials in the U.S. Attorney’s office.

They don't say if the seizures were the result of criminal investigations, or if officers were just breaking into cars and stealing them. The truth is probably somewhere in between, but I think if they have valid reasons for seizing them (other than getting to close to VCU's "gun-free" zone), it would have been trumpeted.

UPDATE: VCDL reports that the guns were seized in accordance with the law.

I talked to a sergeant (Prues) with the VCU police and he said the guns were taken during traffic stops from people (he used the term "hip-hop crowd") who either had them illegally concealed or weren't allowed to have them by law. He said they were not bothering those who legally carried guns either openly or concealed.

CNS News is reporting that a judge has issued a restraining order against firearms seizures in New Orleans. In a time when the government was powerless to help people, officials began seizing lawfully owned firearms from law-abiding citizens, leaving them defenseless against predators.

As well as asking how this was allowed to happen, we should also be asking why it took this long to put a stop to it.

"Anti-war protestors in D.C. are met today by a stronger force of Bush supporters. We'll have that story and all the day's news, coming up after the movie." -- Jennifer Ryan, WUSA TV-9 (CBS) in Washington D.C. reporting during half-time of the Steelers-Patriots game.

After this weekend's 51-7 rout of Georgia Tech, Beamerball looks to be back this season. Virginia Tech's defense and special teams came up big.

Speaking of the D, ESPN took a look at just how good the Virginia Tech Defense has been playing:

- Allowed just 23 points in 1st 4 games.

- 13 straight quarters without allowing a TD until 3rd quarter vs. Georgia Tech.

- Virginia Tech's defense has scored more touchdowns overall than their opponent's offense this season (3-2).

In related news, the Walter Camp National Defensive Player of the Week has been awarded to, the Virginia Tech Defense. It's the first time an entire defensive unit has earned the award.

But for those of you that are superstitious, the Hokies have risen to #3 in the AP poll. Next week they play West Virginia on the road. As I mentioned two weeks ago, there was another time Virginia Tech was #3 and travelling to Morgantown. Let's hope history does not repeat itself.

Personally, I'm a little worried about the offense. I know, they've outscoring opponents 161 to 23, but I think that's a little misleading. Some of that is defensive and special teams scoring, both of which have also set the offense up with relatively short yardage. The O-line is my biggest concern. They don't seem to be protecting the quarterback enough, forcing Marcus Vick to have to get his plays off quickly before they break down. To put things in perspective, the offense has allowed nearly as many sacks as the defense has gotten against their opponents. Tech's "award winning" defense has put up 12 sacks this season for 70 yards, where as the offense has allowed 11 for 69 yards.

On the other hand, if Tech improves their offensive blocking, I think they're unstoppable.

Alphecca reports on the gun grabbers latest scare tactics, ala the Miami Herald.

Enter Florida at your own risk. That's the message supporters of gun control are sending in an ad campaign designed to warn visitors about Florida's new law allowing victims to shoot first in self-defense without fear of prosecution.

The law, passed by the Florida Legislature in the spring and signed by Gov. Jeb Bush, takes effect Oct. 1. That's the day the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence will start its newspaper ad campaign in London, Chicago, Boston and Detroit and hand out fliers to arriving passengers at Miami International Airport.

The new law ''may lead to the reckless use of guns on the streets of Florida cities,'' the one-page flier reads. The ads will warn that after Oct. 1, visitors ''face a greater risk of bodily harm in Florida,'' said Peter Hamm, spokesman for the Washington-based advocacy group.

The fliers urge tourists to take precautions, such as: ''Do not argue unnecessarily with local people,'' and ''keep your hands in plain sight'' if you are involved in a traffic accident or a near-miss.

[...]

The governor's office blasted the campaign as a gimmick to inflame public opinion with false information.

''We think this is ridiculous,'' said Alia Faraj, the governor's spokeswoman. "Florida's crime rate has reached a 34-year low and the 80 million visitors who came to our state can attest to that. It's tragic that they would use gimmicks like that to scare people.''

The measure expanded Florida's ''castle doctrine'' law -- named after the philosophy that ''a man's home is his castle'' -- which holds that a person has a right to shoot first in self-defense in his home.

So Florida reinforces your right to shoot someone who breaks into your home and intends you harm, so the gun grabbers claim they'll be gunning 'em down on the streets. When it comes down to robbers and victims, why are these guys always on the side of the robbers?

Greyhound employees who sell bus tickets to illegal aliens will face termination reports the Associated Press.

The policy warns that failure to comply could result in the employee's firing and possibly arrest.

Kimberly Plaskett, a Greyhound spokeswoman, said she didn't know how many customers have been denied tickets under the policy but called it a "pretty rare" occurrence. The Dallas-based company adopted the policy in 2002 in response to the criminal indictment of a now-defunct, California bus company that pleaded guilty to immigrant smuggling, she said.

The policy was largely unknown outside the company until La Opinion, a Spanish-language newspaper in Los Angeles, reported on it earlier this month.

Of course illegal immigrant's rights activists are outraged. They say the policy specifically targets hispanics and invites *gasp* racial profiling. But since hardly any activists ride Greyhound, what can they really do?

Larry Elder says that instead of blaming whites for causing hurricanes and floods, people should be taking a closer look at some of our laws that were specifically written to target blacks.

The War on Drugs. By making drugs illegal, lawmakers intended to target minorities -- specifically blacks, Mexicans and Chinese. Former President Theodore Roosevelt's drug adviser warned, "Cocaine is often a direct incentive to the crime of rape by the Negroes." In "The American Disease," David Musto notes that prohibitions early in the 20th century, at least in part, targeted foreigners or minorities, including the allegedly opium-using Chinese. In 1937, the Marihuana Tax Act targeted Mexican immigrants. In 1936, a Colorado newspaper editor wrote to federal officials, "I wish I could show you what a small marijuana cigarette can do to one of our degenerate Spanish-speaking residents."

Race-Based Preferences. Lowering admission standards to achieve "diversity" hurts black graduation rates. The Detroit News looked at the graduation rates at seven Michigan colleges and universities. Blacks graduated within six years at a rate of 40 percent, compared to 61 percent for whites and 74 percent for Asians. Many mismatched students simply drop out when they would have been successful at a less competitive university. One study says that the failure of minority students to graduate at the same rate as white students causes a loss in the "black economy" of $5.3 billion a year in income.

Gun Control. Gun control laws, in the beginning, sought to disarm blacks. Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney, in the infamous Dred Scott case which defined blacks as property, said that if blacks were "entitled to the privileges and communities of citizens, . . . [i]t would give persons of the negro race . . . the right . . . to keep and carry arms wherever they went . . . inevitably producing discontent and insubordination among them, and endangering the peace and safety of the state. . . ." In "Condi: The Condoleezza Rice Story," author Antonia Felix describes the secretary of state's early years in the Jim Crow South. Rice watched her father and neighbors guard black neighborhoods with shotguns against armed, white vigilantes. Felix writes, "The memory of her father out on patrol lies behind Rice's opposition to gun control today. Had those guns been registered, she argues, Bull Connor would have had a legal right to take them away, thereby removing one of the black community's only means of defense."

The Davis-Bacon Act. Introduced in 1927, this Act sought to shut out black workers from competing for construction jobs when whites complained that Southern blacks were hired to build a Long Island Veteran's Bureau hospital. In a labor market dominated by exclusionary unions demanding above-market wages, blacks at one time competed by working for less money than the unionists. Davis-Bacon stopped this by requiring federal contractors to pay prevailing union wages, causing massive black unemployment.

Social Security. Although Congress did not intend for Social Security to disproportionately hurt blacks, it does. Blacks have a shorter life expectancy, and therefore get less out of the system. According to the CATO Institute, "A 1996 study by . . . the RAND Corporation found . . . a net lifetime transfer of wealth from blacks to whites averaging nearly $10,000 per person. . . . A 1998 study by the Heritage Foundation . . . found that an average single black man will pay $13,377 more in payroll taxes over his lifetime than he will receive in benefits, a return of just 88 cents on every dollar paid in taxes."

Minimum Wage. In "Free to Choose," Nobel laureate economist Milton Friedman writes that before the imposition of minimum wage laws, black teens were more likely to be employed than white teens. After the imposition of minimum wage laws, an employment gap emerged between white and black teens, with black teens becoming increasingly less employed. Friedman finds " . . . the minimum wage law to be one of the most, if not the most anti-black law on the statute books."

Gotta get me one of these.

The pessimists are predicting $5 a gallon gasoline.

"We could be looking at gasoline lines and $4 gas, maybe even $5 gas, if this thing does the worst it could do," said energy analyst Peter Beutel of Cameron Hanover. "This storm is in the wrong place. And it's absolutely at the wrong time," said Beutel.

What is an absolute certainty will be the accusations of price gouging and "big oil" profiteering.

CNN reports that most Americans polled think that the United States will lose the Iraq War.

Only 21 percent said the United States definitely would win the war in Iraq, which began when a U.S.-led coalition invaded in 2003 to topple Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Another 22 percent said they thought the United States probably would win.

Twenty percent of respondents said the United States was capable of winning in Iraq -- but probably would not. And 34 percent said they considered the war unwinnable.

Maybe I just don't get it, but I thought we had already won the Iraq War. We toppled Saddam Hussein, found some of his weapons of mass destruction, and helped the Iraqis set up a form of representative government. Maybe I'm just too much of an optimist.

We are facing a lot of terrorism in Iraq, which is proving to be hard to eradicate. I think that part of the secret to winning against the terrorists is to help Iraq secure her borders and prevent foreign nationals from importing and breeding terror.

UPDATE: Here's a better poll: Poll: Most Americans Not In Iraq

This color test is harder than you'd think.

Try a round of golf on me.

Jeff Mankoff is a sixth year PhD student in Yale's History Department. Yesterday Mankoff exercised his Constitutionally protected First Amendment freedoms to espouse his opinion on the worthlessness of the Constitution.

Be warned. Remove all heavy objects from within arm's reach. What you're about to read could be very disturbing.

[Constitution Day] is another ridiculous example of the "sanctimonious reverence," as Thomas Jefferson termed it, in which many Americans hold the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Both documents no doubt played important roles in the American colonies' struggle to free themselves from British rule and establish a new nation. Recognizing them as crucial pieces of American history is one thing, but worshiping them like sacred texts goes too far.

The Constitution in particular needs to be stripped of much of the mystic awe surrounding it, since it continues to shape American political life, yet suffers from serious flaws. Many of these flaws could be corrected by wise legislation, if only legislators, and the public, were not so deeply attached to the Constitution that they cringe before any attempt to substantively alter it.

Just then men in black jackets from three letter government agencies showed up and whisked Mr. Mankoff off for political re-education. Oh, wait... they didn't really do that. I wonder what prevented that?

Here's more:

The Constitution, while laying the foundation for the creation of a great American nation, was also very much a product of its time. Though it has mostly aged well, the Constitution has also given us a rigid 18th-century political system not always well suited to the modern world. Even with its amendments, the document is fraught with problems too rarely acknowledged by politicians or the public.

As Yale political scientist Robert Dahl has pointed out, the Constitution is grossly undemocratic.

That's on purpose. I guess Yale doesn't teach kids what the tyranny of majority rule is.

Since Wyoming, with fewer than 500,000 inhabitants, has the same clout in the Senate as California, with almost 34 million, each Wyomingite counts 68 times as much as each Californian.

Um.. no. I guess they've also never heard of the HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES! The Constitution set up the House to represent the people, and the Senate to represent the states. That all went out the window with the dreaded Seventeenth Amendment.

The Constitution is also responsible for burdening us with the Electoral College, a body designed to purposely undermine popular sovereignty. The 2000 election, when Al Gore outpolled George Bush but was denied the presidency by the Electoral College (with an assist by the Supreme Court), is the most recent example of 18th-century oligarchy trampling 21st-century democracy.

This guy is a doctoral candidate in History! The Electoral College didn't prevent anything. They elected a President, just like they've been tasked with electing a President for more than 200 years. Al Gore lost the presidency because he didn't garner enough electoral votes, and those are the votes that count. A baseball team can win the World Series 4 games to 3 and still have less overall runs than their competitor. Only a sore loser would argue that their team should have won because they scored more runs while losing more games.

Something tells me that Mankoff would not have supported Bush, had Kerry won Ohio and ended up with more electoral votes.

Besides being undemocratic, the Constitution is also, in places, just poorly written. Take the Second Amendment, which mentions the need for a well-regulated militia and conferring (sic) the right to bear arms. Because of the Framers' unclear wording, no one has been able to establish definitively whether this right belongs only to the militia or to individuals.

The Second Amendment is quite clear. It "mentions the need for a well-regulated militia and conferring (sic) the right to bear arms". That is, it is because of the need for a well-regulated militia, that the people have the right to keep and bear arms. Mankoff doesn't understand that because he ain't got no good grammars.

The easiest and fairest solution would be to just rewrite the Second Amendment, but because the Constitution has taken on the aura of sanctity in our political culture, there is little likelihood of that happening.

Yeah, that's much easier than teaching English and educating students as to what the word "militia" means.

Adhering to the Framers' "original intent," as many conservatives would have us do, is a recipe for oligarchy (which was, after all, what the Framers wanted). Creating the Electoral College and denying the vote to women, blacks and poor people were both part of the Framers' desire to keep power in the hands of people like themselves (and I have a sneaking suspicion many "strict constructionalists" would prefer things that way).

And there it is, the veiled reference to racism. What, no nazi reference?

The main alternative -- seeing the Constitution as a "living document" subject to constant reinterpretation -- is also anti-democratic, since it allows the judiciary to usurp power from the elected legislative branch. The Constitution needs changing, but it should not be up to the courts to change it.

No shit sherlock. It's illegal for the courts to change it.

Some of the Constitution's worst features have, it is true, been corrected by amendment -- though in the case of ending slavery and giving blacks the vote, the price was civil war. The Framers deliberately made changing the Constitution difficult, but at the price of a rigidity that has made the U.S. political system ossified and anachronistic.

No, it's what has given America the most stable form of government in the world.

Jefferson argued that each generation should modify the Constitution to fit its own times, since "each generation has the same right of self-government [as] the past one." Jefferson's modest regard of the Constitution as an edifice in need of constant repair is a much better way of think of our nation's most important document than the sanctimony that has given us "Constitution Day."

And that's what the Constitution does is set up a system of self-government. The Constitution doesn't give people anything, it limits the power of government. What Almost-a-Dr. Mankoff is suggesting is giving more power to the government to rule over her subjects. Jefferson would not be pleased.

What's more, the Constitution has served to level the playing field for all individuals. Without it, people would be subject to social whims du jour. Would Mankoff like it if we all took a vote and decided what he ate for dinner, who he married, or where he attends school? After all, as long as majority rules it must be okay.

Thomas Wease was told by his doctor that he could grow medical marijuana reports the AP. But after he grew about a ton of the controlled substance, he decided to call the cops and find out if it was legal. Apparently, it wasn't.

Wease says he called the sheriff's office to find out just how much pot he could grow. Wease says he would have taken a machete and chopped down the excess weed himself, had somebody told him to do so.

Wease says he has a doctor's marijuana recommendation for his bad back. He adds he was also growing the weed for more than 20 other medical marijuana users. Wease was busted on suspicion of illegal cultivation and possession for sale.

Hey, whaddayaknow, a new gun blogger.

Nolan Finley from the Detroit News says that the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina may end up being good for the Second Amendment.

Gun dealers across the country are reporting increased sales. People who saw on television what happens when government can't deliver on the promise of protecting its citizens are buying firearms as an insurance policy against anarchy.

That assurance of government-provided security has convinced individual Americans to gradually trade in their unrestrained constitutional right to bear arms.

But for days, there was no law in New Orleans and no government to speak of. All rules were off.

While the politically correct version of what happened is that desperate people looted stores for food and water, that's only part of the story. Bands of armed hoodlums roamed the city, smashing their way into businesses and homes, carting off jewelry, liquor, televisions and other goods that had nothing to do with survival.

People were murdered, raped, stripped of their meager provisions.

Those with the best chance of surviving were the ones who had shotguns, rifles and pistols stashed away in closets and drawers.

Nothing is ever good enough for Harry Reid.

"It's nice to have the Bush administration recognize the importance of a federal response to Rita, but why weren't they proactively mobilizing and organizing like this for Katrina?" said Rebecca Kirszner, a spokeswoman for Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada.

"These are the questions that need to be asked by an independent commission," Kirszner said.

"You are stuck on stupid. I'm not going to answer that question." -- Lt. Gen. Russel Honore to a gaggle of reporters who insisted on asking the same stupid question over and over.

We all know that global warming is man made, so I want to know who's been driving their SUVs on Mars?

Mars is still nothing like Earth, but earthquakes and global warming may be changing the face of the Red Planet, new NASA photos taken from orbit suggest...

The latest findings, made by comparing photos taken by a camera aboard NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, were announced yesterday.

"What the Mars orbital camera has revealed from this long and detailed study of the Red Planet is a dynamic Mars, a planet that can change – not on the mind-boggling millions and billions of years, but on the order of years and decades," said Michael Meyer, chief scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program...

Placing photographs side by side, researchers at the company discovered mysterious gullies appearing on the walls of sand dunes in less than three years, tracks from boulders that had tumbled down the steep wall of a crater between November 2003 and December 2004, dramatic melting of ice at the south pole over three consecutive martian summers, and even a meteorite crater that hadn't existed 20 years ago...

At Mars' south pole, an escarpment of frozen carbon dioxide has retreated nearly 10 feet a year over the past three summers.

"It's evaporating now at a prodigious rate," said Malin.

The significance of this is Mars is experiencing climate change, or has experienced climate change."

Why Mars may be warming is a mystery, he said.

Oh really? Maybe it has something to do with increased solar output. The output of the sun is higher now than at any time in the last 1000 years. Considering the sun is where we get ALL of our energy, maybe.. just maybe, that has something to do with it.

Of course if you admitted that, you might also have to admit that it's also what's caused global warming here on Earth.

I've written about this before, and sometimes it stirs up quite a few people. But with all the class warfare being stirred up over spending, taxation, and Hurricane Katrina, I think it's time to take another look at the Pillars of Communism, and see how far (if at all) we've treaded down that road.

1. Abolition of private property and the application of all rent to public purpose. - Drive drunk and they can take your car. Get caught with drugs and they can take your house. With the Kelo decision, they can now take your land and give it to someone else just to get more property tax revenue.


2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax. - We have progressive income tax brackets and progressive estate taxes to soak the rich. On the other end, we have ever-increasing progressive income tax credits that give breaks to "the poor". Currently about 50% of American workers have been systematically removed from the tax rolls, and the top 50% of wage earners pay 96% of all taxes.
3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance. - People who face estate taxes currently face seizure of nearly 50% of their inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels. - Stop paying your taxes or befoul the law, and watch the government wade in and seize your property. Guns can be seized from anyone who has been involuntarily committed, faces a restraining order, or has been convicted of any crime where the punishment could have been more than one year in jail (regardless of the actual punishment). There have been cases where the government involuntarily committed people, then when they were released, seized their property because they were involuntarily committed.



5. Centralization of credit in the hands of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly. - The Fed prints all the money and controls all the interest rates. What's more currency is no longer backed by tangible assets like gold and silver. The Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, is constantly tinkering with the nation's interest rate to control economic growth and inflation.
6. Centralization of the means of communication and transportation in the hands of the State. - The FCC heavily regulates communication. They regulate telephone service, internet service, and even what you watch on TV. Then there's the FEC, who regulates what you can say about politicians leading up to a national election. Throw the postal system in there too. The Federal Highway System, cars, and gasoline are all heavily regulated at the federal level. When the Fed needs the states to pass regulation (ie: DUI, seatbelts, etc), they simply resort to extortion by threatening to withhold highway funding to get their way.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State, the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan. - Corporations are heavily regulated and coerced into doing things they would not ordinarily do under a free-market. The Department of the Interior, Department of Commerce, and IRS are all complicit.
8. Equal liablity of all to labor. Establishment of Industrial armies, especially for agriculture. - We are headed down this road via Social Security, labor unions, minimum wages, and affirmative action quotas.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the population over the country. - This is called zoning and planned communities. People who already own their own homes and live in certain communities willfully create a barrier of entry for others to drive up their own housing prices.
10. Free education for all children in government schools. Abolition of children's factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production. - This is called the Public School System.

A certain pair of bloggers recently yanked their site without explanation, and have caused a bit of an uproar in the blogosphere. It's as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.

Rumors abound and official explanations from those in the know are deliberately vague, but it looks like the people in question had a sudden interest in disappearing from the internet. That is, they had put themselves out there, traded on their real name, and now all of a sudden needed anonymity.

The problem is that the internet doesn't work like that. Putting stuff on the internet is easy, but removing it can literally take years. That is why many people choose to blog anonymously, or maintain an alias. They may not have a reason for anonymity now, but one could develop rather quickly.

Then there was the outrage over their sudden departure. A presence that was always there was suddenly removed, and a lot of people were upset. Some people who had donated money, given gifts, and purchased merchandise felt downright betrayed. This is why Ravenwood's Universe is an advertising/donation/wish-list free zone. I don't even accept paid advertising or free hosting (both of which have been offered) because I don't want the obligation. If I ever have to disappear like that (ie: they .gov comes for my porn stash), or I just want to hang it up, I don't owe anyone anything.

Of course I don't see that happening anytime soon.

I always thought that if federal agents ever beat down my door they'd be coming for my guns. But it looks like they may be after something else that's stashed away in the closet.

Early last month, the [FBI] Washington Field Office began recruiting for a new anti-obscenity squad. Attached to the job posting was a July 29 Electronic Communication from FBI headquarters to all 56 field offices, describing the initiative as "one of the top priorities" of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and, by extension, of "the Director." That would be FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III.

Mischievous commentary began propagating around the water coolers at 601 Fourth St. NW and its satellites, where the FBI's second-largest field office concentrates on national security, high-technology crimes and public corruption.

The new squad will divert eight agents, a supervisor and assorted support staff to gather evidence against "manufacturers and purveyors" of pornography -- not the kind exploiting children, but the kind that depicts, and is marketed to, consenting adults.

"I guess this means we've won the war on terror," said one exasperated FBI agent, speaking on the condition of anonymity because poking fun at headquarters is not regarded as career-enhancing. "We must not need any more resources for espionage."

Such is the sad state of affairs in prudish America. You can get your fill of murder, arson, and mayhem on the nightly news. If you photograph a prisoner getting shot in the head, you might even win the Pulitzer Prize. But don't dare show the naked body, or the most natural of acts taking place between consenting adults. That's criminal.

In the immortal words of the lovable Principal Carter: "I sat through every disgusting frame of this film. Twice."

(Via Countertop)

Hooray for 1900! 1900 U.S. servicemen have been killed in Iraq cheers the Ass. Press! We're rapidly approaching 2000, and the press is giddy with anticipation. And how many terrorists and henchmen of Saddam have been killed? You don't know? I didn't think so.

With most of the New Orleans evacuees being people of color, the race pimps are concerned that too many of the Red Cross volunteers are people of pallor.

The Red Cross Shelter in Franklin opened its doors to storm victims last week. It's only one of two shelters in Middle Tennessee. The other is in Nashville.

Both shelters are in suburban areas, and the volunteers are predominately white, while the evacuees are almost all black.

Some members of the African-American community say that's not good enough.

"When you're different and you're the lone person, you do feel different. When you're in crisis you like to have some familiarity there," says Joyce Searcy with the Bethlehem Centers of Nashville.

James Taranto points out Josh Marshall's blatantly hypocritical hiring practices. For the past several days, Marshall has been worried that the Gulf Coast rebuilding effort in the wake of Hurricane Katrina will use cheap, non-union labor. In what he calls wage-gouging, Marshall laments contractors being allowed to hire people for wages dictated by the market (rather than by labor unions). But then there's this bit of hypocrisy.

TPM is looking for a new web intern who'll be responsible for various aspects of on-going site design, site maintenance, assistance administering the TPM community site, TPMCafe, and work on our various projects like . . . our new tracking of which members of Congress are supporting President Bush's Gulf Coast Wage Cut. . . .

This is an unpaid internship.

Taranto opines: "When your money is at stake, Marshall is willing to let unions dictate wages. When it comes to his own money, he not only refuses to pay prevailing wages, he won't even pay the minimum wage--or indeed any wage at all!"

Georgia will sacrifice more than $20 million in federal highway funds because they have not yet forced farmers to buckle-up in their pickup trucks. AAA notes that using the threat of lethal force to make pickup truck riders buckle their seat-belt, would save 22 lives a year. Georgia, along with Indiana, are the only two states that don't comply.

South Carolina used to buck the system, but now they toe the line.

People in pickup trucks [in South Carolina] had to wear seat belts, but if the unbelted were adults, police couldn't pull them over for that alone. But come this December, seat belts can be the "primary" reason for a traffic stop.

"We're going to hopefully gain $11 million," said a jubilant Max Young, South Carolina's director of highway safety. "I love it. I love it for two reasons. We got a primary seat belt law that's going to go a long way in saving people's lives. And second, good gracious, if we qualified for additional money, we can use the money."

As Dr. Williams brought up earlier this year, this brings up the question of who owns you? In the eyes of the government, clearly it's not you. Insurance companies have a vested financial interest in forcing people to wear seatbelts, and have successfully lobbied the imperial government to do just that. Since the .gov cannot legally force states to pass seatbelt laws (without further expansion of the ever-widening commerce clause), they instead resort to extortion by threatening to withhold highway funding.

Personally I always wear my seatbelt, and make others do so when they ride with me. But if some idiot wants to splatter his brains all over the windshield, who am I to stop him. On principle, it's an infringement of our civil liberties; the same as if they were telling us what to eat, or that we can't smoke (oh wait, too late). Unfortunately, since most of us already wear seatbelts we go along with it in lock-step.

I don't like Toad in the Hole either, but this is just embarassing.

HUNDREDS of tons of British food aid shipped to America for starving Hurricane Katrina survivors is to be burned.

US red tape is stopping it from reaching hungry evacuees.

Instead tons of the badly needed Nato ration packs, the same as those eaten by British troops in Iraq, has been condemned as unfit for human consumption.

And unless the bureaucratic mess is cleared up soon it could be sent for incineration.

One British aid worker last night called the move "sickening senselessness" and said furious colleagues were "spitting blood".

The food, which cost British taxpayers millions, is sitting idle in a huge warehouse after the Food and Drug Agency recalled it when it had already left to be distributed.

Granted this is from the Mirror, but such is life under the FDA; where an unelected bureaucracy tells people they're better off starving than eating uninspected food, or better off dying than taking experimental medication.

Bottled water is being blamed for cavities, and it's not what's in the water, but rather what's missing. Dentists claim that the lack of fluoridation of water is partly to blame for an increase in cavities. As more people are shunning tap water - which is heavily fluoridated - their teeth are paying the price.

The problem is that people are turning away from tap water - which for over two-thirds of Americans contains all of the fluoride that they need to prevent tooth decay - and most bottled waters don't have enough fluoride.

"If bottled water is your main source of drinking water, you could be missing the decay-preventive benefits of fluoride," the ADA says...

Part of the rise in bottled water is lack of trust in municipal water. In Canada, for instance, a mismanaged town water system in Walkerton, Ontario, was blamed for killing seven people and making 2,000 others ill in 2000.

So it's a choice between having your teeth fall out or ingesting life threatening waterborne bacteria. Would you like to be shot in the arm or the leg?

This op-ed is full of so many lies, half-truths, and distortions that it's hard to take seriously.

Seven thousand dollars may not be a huge sum of money, but it is still a significant chunk of change... The list [of what you could buy] is almost endless, but there is one item in particular that really struck me as surprising when I learned that my gift money could purchase it. It is the Barrett M82A1 sniper rifle, and for the fairly modest amount of seven grand, you could take one home today...

Seven thousand dollars. Is that all? I'll take three.

Just looking at the weapon, totally ignorant of its capabilities, I could tell that this was no peashooter. It looks like a modern-day cannon, but with a comfortable pistol grip slapped on the bottom.

Looks scary, and has a pistol grip to boot. But what's wrong with a pistol grip? It's not like you're going to hold it like a pistol and "spray fire from the hip" as the gun grabbers claim you can do with so-called "assault weapons".

Thanks to war movies and an uncle who's a card carrying NRA member, I have seen and fired my fair share of weaponry...

Such qualifications. "I'm not a real gun enthusiast, but I've seen war movies on TV."

...but never had I even seen a firearm as intimidating as this one.

Back to scary looking. (As if staring down the barrel of a .22 in a dark alley isn't intimidating.)

Reading the gun's specs proved to be more than intimidating; it was downright scary.

I bet he had to put them in the freezer next to his copy of The Shining.

According to the product's website, the M82A1 "easily fires the largest commercially available cartridge in the world, the .50 caliber." The weapon doesn't just fire .50 caliber cartridges like a few other weapons, but does so with ease. What sets it apart from other .50 caliber rifles is the fact that it is not bolt action, but semiautomatic with a ten round clip.

GASP!

Instead of having to manually discharge the empty cartridge then load the next, you can snap off ten shots as fast as you can pull the trigger.

[Waiting for laughs and guffaws to die down] If you don't mind ripping your arm off. The .50 BMG hits hard. Really hard.

Ten rounds at a buck from any .50 caliber rifle will leave hunters with very little to mount.

Why fire ten rounds? I thought the thing was super accurate and could down airplanes with a single shot, now we're shooting ten rounds at a single deer.

I also learned that the gun has an effective range of over 2,000 yards. Hunters generally shoot at targets 150-200 yards away, so accuracy over ten times that distance is understandable, right? No, it really isn't, especially with a weapon so powerful. Unless the gun was designed for hunters planning on shooting game from over a mile away and then walking 15 minutes to go retrieve it, this weapon could not have been made for hunting.

Two thousand yards is approaching world record territory. Shooting that distance would be as easy as say.. running a 4-minute mile, or scoring 100 points in a single basketball game. Both are possible, but really really unlikely. Calling it an "effective" range is tenuous at best. Implying that you can hit a target 2,000 yards away, from a semi-auto, spewing rounds as fast as you can pull the trigger is an outright lie. Might as well try running that 4-minute mile in a business suit, while talking on your cell phone.

Sure enough, the M82A1 was not created for civilian gamesmen. It was designed for use in the military and in law enforcement, both of which herald the M107 as the premier big bore rifle (the M82A1 is the civilian version).

And just why would law enforcement need such a rifle? What's more, why would anyone approve of law enforcement owning a gun that is supposedly too dangerous for normal people to possess; one that supposedly only has military applications?

What makes the gun so loved by armies across the globe? Not only does it boast incredible range and extremely destructive ammunition (standard rounds can go through brick walls); it has minimal recoil and is extremely easy to fire. With the recoil of a 12-gauge shotgun if fired from the shoulder and considerably less when fired from the stock bipod, it is very easy for a soldier with little practice or training to become very proficient with the weapon.

Energy does still equal mass times acceleration, right?

Due to their gratuitous power, these guns are used to attack stationary or landing aircraft, tanks, armored personnel carriers and concrete bunkers. They are very rarely used on single enemy combatants, just as I rarely swat flies with a baseball bat. Like a rocket launcher with a tighter shot pattern, t