With the Redskins home loss prior to the Presidential election, contender John Kerry has stopped campaigning. History proves that a Redskins loss means that the incumbent is sure to lose. Kerry says that he will save the campaign cash to pay lawyers to prevent Bush from trying to steal the election like in 2000. He will also concentrate on picking cabinet members. Republican John McCain, who was Kerry's first choice for VP is likely to be nominated for Secretary of State. Kerry says that not only is McCain a good man, but it will help build bipartisan support, and get one more stinking Republican out of the Senate.

When asked if he thought the Bush might reverse the curse this year Senator Kerry, who earlier had said that he would rather win the Presidency than see the Red Sox win the World Series, responded, "This thing has been going for like 70 or 80 years. It's a sure thing."

Green Bay safety Darren Sharper, a Kerry supporter, was confident: "Oh, yeah, he's going to win. It's guaranteed. I don't have to vote now. Don't even have to go to the polls. Saved me a trip on Tuesday."

Wow, I've really made the big time in liberal circles. My post on requiring movie theaters to install closed captioning really struck a nerve with the people over at Daily Kos, who do more than a little name calling:

all kinds of idiot right-wingers are up at arms of the fact that deaf people are people too.

Myself and two of my colleagues have been making sport out of torturing one wingnut blogger who does not understand the law. If you know ADA law, or just feel like making a douchebag's head explode, please take a moment to visit this link, and explain to the deaf-hater there how wrong he is.

Also, sorry about the timeliness of this post. I didn't even notice the Daily Kos had linked to me until today. Let's just say they were several million hits shy of an Instalanche. (To date, 66 hits and counting)

Oh, and aren't they called the "hearing impaired"?

This election pretty much has worn me out. If there is a lot of post election hoopla, with lawyers and the lawsuits they file, I don't know what I'm going to do. Locking myself in my room sounds like a good plan.

I cannot believe how polarizing this election has been. At first, when I read articles about families and friendships being torn apart over politics I didn't believe them. But lately I've experienced a very chilling effect from the people I know. Most of my friends seem to be traveling down the dark path to supporting Kerry. They will vote for a man who plans to raise my taxes, take away my guns, and subvert my safety, security, and Constitutional freedom to a highly corrupt anti-American organization. They are poised to support a man who, with little doubt, will attempt to adopt the anti-capitalist Kyoto protocol, and subject U.S. citizens to the power of the international criminal court.

While I used to be a democrat, I've always believed in the principles of personal responsibility. I have never supported laws that restrict freedom, and as the democrats shifted further toward the left under Clinton, I broke my allegiance with them. Democrats have very quickly become the party of political correctness. They are the party that wants to nanny people to death either through restrictive and oppressive laws, or expensive litigation. Meanwhile the Republicans have shifted from the party of smaller government to big deficit tax-cut and spend conservative liberalism. If that sounds like an oxymoron, that's because it is. And who wants to vote for an oxymoron?

As a practicing libertarian, I used to find myself on the outside looking in. But with the realization that the war on terror is exactly the kind of problem that necessitates government involvement, I have had to align myself with Republicans. I can find my own job. I can take care of my own health care. If I ever have children, I can even work hard to ensure they get a good education. But I cannot fight my own war on terror. If there is one thing for which the federal government was created, it is to pool resources for the safety and security of the nation. If they don't do anything else, the one thing the federal government should do is protect us from foreign hostility.

And how people can push that aside for the promise social programs and government handouts really has me stymied. Especially when I look around and see so many familiar faces ready to do just that. When I look at my group of friends and realize that they have bought into the lie that the economy is in the tank, that we are facing a health care crisis, and that liberating 50 million people was a bad thing, I cannot help but feel alone in this world. In the face of two new terror threats this week, they are ready to vote for "free" health care and tax hikes for the evil, hated, rich.

My mother is almost certainly voting for Kerry, while my father feels that there is no good choice. Almost every single one of my friends has gone on record as supporting Kerry. They are even going so far as to throw a Kerry Party on Tuesday night; a party which they have gone so far as to tell me that I am unwelcome to attend (not that I would go any way).

While a Kerry victory on Tuesday scares the hell out of me, I cannot wait for this whole thing to be over. I realize that neither a Kerry victory nor Bush victory will end the polarization. But I still just want to get back to living a normal life, where I'm not ostracized by those I care most about, for my 'wacky' political beliefs.

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Can a cat do this?

Faith, a 4-year-old Rottweiler, phoned 911 when [Leana] Beasley fell out of her wheelchair and barked urgently into the receiver until a dispatcher sent help. Then the service dog unlocked the front door for the police officer.

A Milwaukee woman owes her life and the life of her children to her willingness to defend herself. She didn't listen to those who say women shouldn't own guns. She didn't believe that putting your life in the hands of the failed 9-1-1 system should be your only option.

The complete story is below:

A Southside mother of two says she is lucky to be alive. This after an intruder she says attacked her back in July of this year returned to her home and tried to kill her. The woman heard someone downstairs and decided to get her gun and go downstairs to investigate. This is where the intruder attacked her with a broken piece of glass and threatened to kill her and her children. The woman says the man also used racial slurs. After a struggle the woman got the gun that had been knocked out of her hands and shot at the intruder who managed to escape.

Thankfully, Ohio State and Michigan have both said no way to selling off the naming rights to their annual football classic.

The price of oil has been plummeting, yet nobody is giving Bush credit. I find that strange, considering they were so quick to blame him when the price was going up. CNN/Money, who likes to take financial advice from rock stars, credits the Chinese:

Oil prices tumbled for a second straight day Thursday as traders bet on lower demand from economic powerhouse China on the heels of an unexpectedly large rise in U.S. crude inventories.

There is a big todo being made over the Redskin's game this Sunday. As the legend has it, if the Redskins win the final home game before an election, the incumbent president will win. If the Redskins lose, the incumbent will be voted out the following Tuesday.

Since the Redskins became the Redskins in 1933, the result of the team's final home game before the presidential election has correctly predicted the White House winner.

I guess it depends on what the definition of "home game" is. The Buffalo loss was in Buffalo, and is thus discounted. Personally, I've never been very superstitious to begin with. So when I tell you that I'm rooting for the Redskins this weekend, it's because I grew up a Redskins fan; not because I think that the safety and security of the free world depend on it.

"Tell everybody to vote. And vote Bush next week." -- Boston Red Sox Pitcher Curt Schilling to a stunned Charlie Gibson on ABC's Good Morning America.

UPDATE: Schilling is actively campaigning for Bush.

Given the ailment of Chief Justice William Renquist, it seems likely that whomever wins next week's election will be tasked with nominating someone to the Supreme Court. Presidential hopeful John Kerry seized on the opportunity to promise that if elected, he would nominate a Supreme Court justice who would overturn the controversial Bush v. Gore decision of 2000. In 2000, the court decided 7-2 that Al Gore was trying to steal the Presidential election in Florida using unConstitutional selective recounts, but it was a much closer decision of 5-4 that actually put a stop to the attempted theft. Anybody-but-Bush supporters have used the decision to galvanize support for full time war hero and part-time Senator John F. Kerry.

Kerry claimed that overturning Bush v. Gore would "right a grave injustice in the American judicial system", and that a vote for him is like two votes for Gore.

Maryland is making it easy for corrupt campaign workers to know which ballots to make disappear. They put everyone's party affiliation on the outside of the absentee ballot envelope.

Canada's socialized health care is pretty bad. How bad is it? Well:

Of practising family doctors, 60 per cent reported they are not taking new patients or are limiting the number of new patients they take. [...]

Thirty per cent of specialists surveyed said they could not fit an urgent referral into their schedule within a week. One-third of specialists said they couldn't see a non-urgent referral in less than three months.

But don't blame the doctors; the blame rests solely on the government. By not allowing doctors to make any money, doctors have no incentive to practice medicine.

Here's another example of good intentions paving the road to hell. Just last night I saw a local politician on TV promising to "reduce the profit" that lenders were allowed to make on student loans. Of course, that just means fewer student loans. Don't worry though. When your kid gets turned down for their student loan, you can just blame Bush.

Mike Adams received a letter from another professor at a liberal university. Apparently the professor received a memo from the university stating that two of the bathrooms would be reconfigured to accomodate people who are neither "Men" nor "Women". That way the gender challenged (I guess they mark the door with a "?") wouldn't be stigmatized by having to shoehorn themselves into one of the conventional gender categories. Those that have no gender, have a gender identity crisis, or are between genders would enjoy equal access to gender-neutral facilities (at the expense of everyone else.)

Professor Adams writes back with terrific advice. He recommends giving them a dose of their own absurdity:

I feel your pain, man. These people are merely pampered perverts who need to put a lid on it, so to speak. But, since they have called for a meeting to help people flush out their differences, maybe you should refrain from using the p-word. Be especially careful in the bathroom. You never know who (or what) might be listening.

I think that you should attend the "informational meeting" since this has apparently become a serious (even international) issue. Plus, it would just be so much fun. By the way, I once had to go behind enemy lines, so I think that I have some advice that might be helpful.

The occasion was a protest of the Iraq war, staged here at UNC-Wilmington. I decided to attend the rally dressed as an Iraqi woman (wearing only a burqua and sandals). When they tried to arrest me, I was fully prepared to claim gender identity confusion. When the university police lieutenant saw who I was, he called off my brief detention. Maybe it was because he wanted to avoid bad press. Or maybe it was because of the unwritten rule that cross-dressers can do whatever they want, whenever they want at a public university. By the way, I'm not a cross-dresser anymore, Dan. It was only for a day.

So, I recommend that you go to the "informational meeting" dressed as a woman. That way, when you enter the GLBT Resource Center, you will have already become a member of a special, protected class. That will enable you to ask all of the tough questions like "Don't you people have anything better to do?", "Do you really think that it is safer to let a grown man use the stall next to a teenage girl?", and "Are these really the biggest problems you face in your struggle for civil rights?"

Now even the hurricanes are Bush's fault.

Sorry for the lack of posting today. I spent the night out drinking and socializing with a few friends. Yes, I do have a life, no matter how pathetic.

This was yesterday:

John F. Kerry derided President Bush's ''incredible incompetence'' in the Iraq war yesterday after revelations that a massive stockpile of explosives went missing under coalition watch and probably ended up in terrorists' hands. [...]

Losing the explosives was ''one of the great blunders of Iraq, one of the great blunders of this administration,'' the Bay State senator said. ''Terrorists could use this material to kill our troops, our people, blow up our airplanes and level buildings.''

The mystery surrounding the disappearance of 380 tons of powerful explosives from a storage depot in Iraq has taken a new twist, after a network embedded with the U.S. military during the invasion of Iraq reported that the material had already vanished by the time American troops arrived.

Then again, I thought Iraq didn't have any dangerous weapons and thus, wasn't a threat.

I've always known that the Great Pumpkin was old, but 1966? Those of you that want a trip down memory lane, it's on ABC tonight.

BTW, IMDb gives us this factoid: After this special originally aired, children all over the country sent candy to Charlie Brown out of sympathy.

Spoons thinks there's something troubling about this headline: Guns take 5 lives over weekend -- 2 police cars are smashed in 1 incident

Pardon me for being unimpressed by the winners of the blog reader's choice awards at the Washington Post.

Rosie O'Donnell once said of the Second Amendment: "I don't care if you think it's your right. I say, 'Sorry. It is 1999, we have had enough as a nation. You are not allowed to own a gun and if you do own a gun, I think you should go to prison.' " At the time, she at least had the decency to admit that she was "not an expert on the amendments".

Apparently, she's not an expert on much of anything. Check out her latest incoherant ramblings:

Every single thing this White House has done goes against the foundation of what our country was built on. For us to tell the United Nations we would ignore their doctrine and their resolutions, for us to say that we will not adhere to the Geneva Convention during this war.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

Neal points out this little piece of voter fraud from Ohio.

here is the ballot from Cayahoga County, Ohio. Go ahead! Try to vote for Bush. If you follow the arrow you will punch Number 14. But if you read the ballot, you're supposed to punch Number 4.

(click to supersize)

Okay, so this has been making the rounds already for the past two days... I've been busy.

After adding digital cameras to cell phone technology, where do you go from there? How about technology that let's you see through women's clothes.

Ed. Note: In theory, the technology should also let you see through men's clothes. But that has never been tested.

Will there be rioting and looting after this year's election? Well, not if Kedwards wins. Caught on tape, John Edwards wife Elizabeth was caught in a candid moment:

Supporter: Kerry's going to take PA.

Liz Edwards: I know that.

Supporter: I'm just worried there's going to be riots afterwards.

Liz Edwards: Uh.....well...not if we win.

Virginia Tech's Highty Tighties want to march in the 2005 Inauguration Parade. They were not allowed to march in 2001, so I've already sent letters to Governor Warner and both of my Senators to make sure they don't get passed over again this time.

If you want to help out the VT Corp of Cadets, especially if you live in Virginia, please email the powers that be.

(Hat tip to reader, Michael)

UPDATE: They made it.

Washington DC's Ward 4 has banned the sale of "tall boys" and "40s". Merchants have until November 14 to sell through their stock of the large single serving beer cans and bottles.

Hope and other poor residents in the area say the law discriminates against them, adding to the gentrification that is steadily pushing them out of the city. But homeowners and shopkeepers say keeping beer out of the hands of such people will reduce public drunkenness and loitering, and clean up sidewalks.

Ernie Jarvis, 42, a commercial real estate broker who has lived in Ward 4 all his life, said 40s are "poison to this community."

I am not the least bit surprised that a liberal rag like the Washington Post would endorse John Kerry for president. Hell, I'd really like to see a study of national newspapers and their endorsements. It would offer some valuable insight into just how liberal the mainstream media really is.

But what bugs me about the Post is not that they endorse Kerry, but that they still refuse to be honest about the reason why. The Washington Post claims:

As readers of this page know, we find much to criticize in Mr. Bush's term but also more than a few things to admire. We find much to admire in Mr. Kerry's life of service, knowledge of the world and positions on a range of issues -- but also some things that give us pause.

But to back up this statement, the Post proceeds to spend well over more than half of their Kerry endorsement maligning Bush. For an article supposedly about John Kerry, the Post drones on about Bush for 11 straight paragraphs (both about his strengths and his weaknesses). Just look at the first sentence or phrase of each paragraph:

The balancing process begins, as reelection campaigns must, with the incumbent...

But Mr. Bush...

The campaign that Mr. Bush led...

In Iraq, we do not fault Mr. Bush...

We do, however, fault Mr. Bush ...

These failings have a common source in Mr. Bush's cocksureness ...

ON THE DOMESTIC side, Mr. Bush ...

Which brings us to his reckless fiscal policy. Mr. Bush ...

But Mr. Bush aggravated ...

In 2000, Mr. Bush ...

SO MR. BUSH HAS not earned a second term...

While the issues are debatable, the Washington Post makes it pretty clear that Kerry's last name could be Hitler and they would still support him simply because he's not Bush.

You don't see 6 to 4 in football very often.

Freshman Xavier Adibi may be back this week.

Virginia Tech LB Xavier Adibi, feared lost after the Hokies' first game against USC with a torn biceps tendon, has been cleared to return.

SECOND-HALF SURPRISE TEAM
King: Virginia Tech. While Virginia and Miami are worrying about each other, the Hokies (5-2) could easily sneak up on either team. This is a dangerous squad with the speed to match up against the ACC's best.

Schecter: Virginia Tech. The Hokies came oh-so-close against USC and lost to N.C. State by a point. Don't be surprised if Tech upsets Miami on Dec. 4.

Hooters is coming to China:

America's Hooters restaurant chain plans to open its first China outlet in Shanghai on Friday, bringing its racy combination of cold beer, chicken wings and skimpily dressed waitresses to one of the world's fastest growing economies.

The outlet in the foreigner-friendly Hongqiao district adds to the more than 375 stores now operated by the chain famed for its busty waitresses clad in clingy low-cut tank tops and high-cut shorts _ an image the company describes as "delightfully tacky, yet unrefined."

A VIP party is scheduled for Friday evening with the store opening to the general public on Sunday.

Proving once again that Kerry will say anything to get elected, now he is blasting Dick Cheney over getting a flu shot.

"Once again, the Bush administration proves that it is the 'do as we say, not as we do' White House," the campaign said in a statement issued in Pittsburgh where Kerry was campaigning.

"The very week that (health) secretary (Tommy) Thompson is telling Americans to keep calm, Dick Cheney, John Snow and Bill Frist are getting flu shots."

"It is unfortunate that the Bush administration failed to do the work necessary to ensure that all Americans, including those most at risk, had been able to get shots as well."

Cheney would fit into the government's definition of those most vulnerable to a looming influenza epidemic as he has a long history of heart disease.

Bush last week suggested in the final presidential debate that the young and healthy forgo the annual shot amid a shortage of vaccine that Kerry has blamed on the president's management of the health system.

by Scott Ott

(2004-10-20) -- If George Bush is reelected to a second term, he will not only reinstitute the military draft, but newly-released internet rumors indicate he'll make it illegal for women and Blacks to vote, ban hip-hop and rap music and reinstitute Prohibition.

And that's his agenda for just the first 100 days of his second term, according to variety of reliable sources including MTV, billionaire Democrat activist George Soros, Oscar-winning documentarist Michael Moore, The Daily Show's Jon Stewart and former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean.

Democrat presidential candidate John Forbes Kerry said he couldn't confirm the rumors, but agreed that "such things are being said by people I respect."

"This raises some serious questions that Mr. Bush needs to answer," said Mr. Kerry, "At the very least, the news media has an obligation to keep these stories alive until they can be conclusively proved or for the next 13 days, which ever comes first."

The hideous Americans with Disabilities Act is no longer a noble effort to grant access to the handicapped. Instead it has become a legal avenue for persons with disabilities to demand that they be accommodated, no matter what it costs someone else. Just how absurd has the act become? Well, closed captioning may be coming to a theater near you.

They are supposed to make "resonable accomodations", but the activist judges don't care how much the technology costs, or whether or not there is any demand for it. They just know that some deaf guy has a God given right to see Baby Geniuses 2 the day it comes out, and not be "forced" to wait for it to come to DVD.

The Washington Times reports that voter expectations might be Kerry's downfall.

American voters, while split over who should be the next president, overwhelmingly predict that President Bush will vanquish Sen. John Kerry, an expectation that could affect the outcome of a close election.

While the various national polls show that voters prefer the president over Mr. Kerry by an average of four points, those same surveys place Mr. Bush some 20 points ahead on the question of which candidate is expected to win.

I have really come to hate Tier 1 tech support. As I stated previously, there are a few websites that I cannot seem to get to. I sent an email to my internet provider, and within 24 hours they called me to troubleshoot it. The call went something like this:

Tech Support: Sir, I understand you are having trouble with some websites.
Ravenwood: Yes.
TS: And you put IP addresses of the websites in your email. Where did you get those.
R: From your nameservers.
TS: Oh. From an nslookup?
R: Yes. I cannot browse to those sites, nor can I ping them.
TS: It sounds like your browser.
R: But I cannot ping them either.
TS: Well we shut down ping. You can't ping any websites.
R: I just pinged Yahoo.
TS: Well, we might not have gotten to all websites. We are still in the process of shutting down ping so there may be a few you can get to.
R: I just pinged Google.
TS: Okay sir. I think you probably have a problem with your browser. You may be able to ping some sites. Like I said we are still shutting down customers ability to use the ping command.
R: You are doing it site by site? Won't that take a while?
TS: Sir, do you have another browser you can try?
R: No. But I don't think it....
TS: Sir, you need to download another browser. I recommend you try to download and install netscape and see if you can reach the sites that way. You may also need to reinstall or update Internet Explorer.

That strange Hungarian-born Billionaire George Soros has made it no secret that he will spend any amount of money to ensure a Kerry victory. Apparently that might also include voter fraud.

Billionaire currency trader George Soros, in his quest to unseat President Bush, has given millions of dollars to a coalition of anti-Bush organizations whose nationwide voter-registration drive has been targeted by state and federal authorities for possible widespread fraud.

Working under an umbrella organization known as America Votes, the coalition's registration drive - described by election officials as the largest in U.S. history - focused on potential voters in 14 so-called battleground states. [...]

Hundreds of questionable voter-registration applications, such as duplicates, and accusations of workers shredding registrations in favor of one party are under review by local, state and federal law-enforcement and election authorities in Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Missouri, Michigan, Minnesota, West Virginia, Oregon, Ohio, Arizona, Pennsylvania and Florida.

James Taranto linked to this Kerry ad, which shows the true absurdity of Campaign Finance Reform.

The Washington Post reports on draft rumors surrounding President Bush. Kerry has been claiming that Bush wants to bring back the draft, and apparently his supporters are naive enough to believe the crap that he is shoveling.

Two-thirds of all Kerry voters say a draft is at least fairly likely if Bush wins next month, while just 13 percent of the president's supporters agree. But those partisan differences largely vanish when voters were asked about Kerry: Roughly equal shares of the Democratic nominee's voters (26 percent) and Bush supporters (30 percent) believe a draft is possible if Kerry is elected.

Virginia Tech's Hokie Bird is currently losing the Mascot Challenge to some teddy bear from Montana.

Tech fans and non-Tech fans alike, vote early, vote often. Go Hokiebird!

The ACC has announced their divisional realignment:

The Atlantic Coast Conference has announced the names of its two football divisions and issued a new seal to better represent recent additions to the league.

The ACC will start using the Atlantic and the Coastal divisions next season. There are no divisions for basketball. Members of the Atlantic division are Maryland, Clemson, North Carolina State, Wake Forest, Boston College and Florida State. The Coastal division consists of Virginia, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Duke, Virginia Tech and Miami.

The good news for me is that the Virginia Tech-UVA rivalry will remain.

Believe it or not, Jimmy Carter thinks that our Revolutionary War with Britain was unnecessary. Via Spoons:

JIMMY CARTER, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you Chris, good to be with you and your folks.

MATTHEWS: Let me ask you the question about -- this is going to cause some trouble with people -- but as an historian now and studying the Revolutionary War as it was fought out in the South in those last years of the War, insurgency against a powerful British force, do you see any parallels between the fighting that we did on our side and the fighting that is going on in Iraq today?

CARTER: Well, one parallel is that the Revolutionary War, more than any other war up until recently, has been the most bloody war we've fought. I think another parallel is that in some ways the Revolutionary War could have been avoided. It was an unnecessary war.

Had the British Parliament been a little more sensitive to the colonial's really legitimate complaints and requests the war could have been avoided completely, and of course now we would have been a free country now as is Canada and India and Australia, having gotten our independence in a nonviolent way.

I think in many ways the British were very misled in going to war against America and in trying to enforce their will on people who were quite different from them at the time.

Although I didn't submit an entry, someone drafted me into Episode 109 of Carnival of the Vanities.

Whoever submitted on my behalf (or maybe Jack just gratuitously threw me in there), picked a good article. Hopefully they'll do that every week. I like being nominated without the hassle of having to remember where it's being hosted and when to submit.

Read the Carnival. It looks like Jack did a good job of hosting it this week. While we are on the subject, it looks like your's truly will be hosting the Christmas edition again this year.

Sometimes I just feel like walking into the Washington Post headquarters and saying "Boo!" to see if they actually piss their pants. This week the gun fearing wussies at the Post are crying because people are allowed to have guns in public outside Virginia's airports.

THE WILD WEST mentality that has turned Virginia into Holster Heaven -- where people openly packing guns can sashay almost anywhere . . .

Though Ronald Reagan National Airport and Dulles International Airport don't -- and still won't -- allow weapons inside the terminals, on the airfields or in buildings adjacent to the airfields without prior arrangements, people will be free, as of Dec. 1, to transport their arsenals right onto the grounds and leave them stashed in their cars at the parking lots.

As for carrying firearms in the airport parking lot, here is a list of other Virginia parking lots in which you are also permitted to carry guns: movie theater, grocery store, dry cleaner, shopping mall, bank, and restaurant. Soon the airport parking lots will be turned into the types of killing fields we currently see when shopping at Wal-Mart.

UPDATE: For what it's worth, the Post says that other airports do allow guns into the airport terminal. That is not true, since the passage of SB660.

George Will says that the Bush v. Gore precident could come back to wreak havoc on our electoral system.

World Net Daily reports that one of the foreign leaders that supports Kerry is none other than terrorist supporter Yassir Arafat. A top aide to Arafat said that, "The president [Arafat] is frustrated with Bush's policies. The president [Arafat] thinks Kerry will be much better for the Palestinian cause and for the establishment of a Palestinian state."

Mike Adams continues to pile it on Dr. Clifton Snider of Cal State Long Beach. Dr. Snider only makes things worse by adding a haughty disclaimer to his lesson plan.

Notice to my students: someone has published illegally in what purports to be an "article" material from my web site, that is, portions of my assignments. The article, among many misrepresentations, implies I require that you write about certain topics. As you know, you have always had a wide choice of topics to write about in your papers. The same is true for the Argument Paper. I believe in and practice academic freedom.*

*According to university policy, passed by the Academic Senate on 28 February 2000, the "primary responsibility [of professors] to their subject is to seek and to state the truth as they see it." As far as academic freedom goes, "the special nature of universities protects professors from being question[ed] about their lectures" (CSULB web site).

You are not limited in any way to the topics below. The reason the material from my web site in the "article" is illegal is that the author never obtained, didn't even ask for, my permission to publish copyrighted material. The length of his quoted material in proportion to the web page it comes from takes it out of the category of "fair use." The "article" uses vindictive, rude language, language that is entirely unprofessional and inappropriate in a scholarly article. Furthermore, in a second "article" this person has quoted in full a private e-mail from me to him without my permission. This clearly violates the U.S. Copyright Law. This person's site is an excellent example of an unauthorized web site that has no place in logical discourse.

Apparently wanna-be Veep, John Edwards, is quite the girly man. Comedian Harry Shearer has a video clip of the Senator emeritus from North Carolina primping his hair before an appearance.

"For a guy who's been known derisively to the Bush crowd as the Breck girl," observes Shearer, vice presidential candidate John Edwards seems "way too interested in his hair." He tries to straighten it with his fingers. A makeup technician approaches with a comb, but the senator likes it just so and does the combing himself. He signals he's ready for hair spray by closing his eyes expectantly, like a child. Then Edwards and the technician straighten a little more with their fingers. Please don't tell me that thing in his hand is a compact. Oh, dear. It is.

If you didn't support mandating that people show ID to vote, perhaps you will now.

Ohio authorities say a man was charged Monday with filling out more than 100 fictitious voter registration forms, some in names such as Disney character Mary Poppins and pop singer Michael Jackson.

Chad Staton, 22, of Defiance County in northwestern Ohio, was to receive money for each registration form he could persuade potential voters to fill out, said Sheriff David Westrick.

Instead, Staton, himself, filled out the forms and returned them to the Toledo woman who hired him. Sheriff's deputies allege he was paid in crack cocaine instead of money. [...]

Westrick said the Toledo woman, Georgianne Pitts, 41, told officers she was recruited by Thaddeus Jackson II of Cleveland to obtain voter registrations. He said a business card provided by Pitts indicated that Jackson is the assistant Ohio director of the NAACP National Voter Fund.

According to its Web site, the National Voter Fund advances the cause of civil rights through advocacy, educating voters on candidates' stands on civil rights and increasing voter turnout in the African-American community.

The sheriff added that deputies and Toledo police had obtained a search warrant for the house where Pitts lives. He said officers confiscated drug paraphernalia and voter registration forms from the home.

Westrick said Pitts admitted paying Staton crack cocaine for the registrations in lieu of money.

If gun grabbers wouldn't keep repeating the same old lies, I wouldn't have to keep rebutting them. Frankly, I am more than tired of the same old crap being shoveled over and over again by the ignorant news media.

One more time:

1. The so-called "Assault Weapons Ban" has nothing to do with automatic firearms.

2. The so-called "Assault Weapons Ban" has nothing to do with silencers. Suppressors (as they are accurately called) are heavily regulated by the National Firearms Act of 1934.

3. All gun dealers must perform a NICS background check regardless of where they sell the firearm. (Gun shows included.)

4. If so-called "Assault Weapons" are "solely used for the purpose of attacking other human beings" why do the police have them?

5. The Second Amendment has nothing to do with hunting and everything to do with preventing government oppression. (As do the other 9 Amendments in the Bill of Rights.)

6. So called "Assault Weapons" are no more lethal than regular firearms that fire the same ammunition. A 7.62 x 39 round is just as lethal coming out of an un-banned SKS rifle as it is coming out of a banned AK-47.

7. Just how does one "spread" bullets? Presuming the author meant "spray", just how does one "spray" bullets when only one round is fired for each trigger pull?

8. Just how does a silencer (which isn't even regulated by the 1994 Clinton Gun Ban) or a flash suppressor make a rifle more lethal?

UPDATE: By the way, I sent this to them as "feedback". We'll wait and see how long it takes them to post it. (if ever)

UPDATE2: Reader Steve Scudder notes: (11/29) Comments are finally posted on this website. I would probably have known of it earlier had the email stating as such been properly addressed. As expected, the majority of the comments point out the glaring faults in the basic arguments presented against guns (portayed as "assault weapons" as usual) and, surprise, seem to be unedited. It is too bad that the comments took so long to be posted. Hopefully, they will serve as more than a footnote to those persons this publication is intended to inform.

William Shatner has a new album coming out. It couldn't possibly be worse than this, could it?

For an additional laugh, there's Rocketman, and of course Spock's video, The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins.

There's a new study out that shows women and minorities are hardest hit by the wealth gap. Apparently there is only so much wealth to go around and of course, it's all white people's fault for selfishly hording all the goodies to themselves.

"Wealth is a measure of cumulative advantage or disadvantage," said Roderick Harrison, a researcher at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a Washington think tank that focuses on black issues. "The fact that black and Hispanic wealth is a fraction of white wealth also reflects a history of discrimination." [...]

Roberto Suro, director of the Pew Hispanic Center, said the accumulation of wealth allows low-income families to rise into the middle class and "have some kind of assets beyond next week's paychecks."

"Having more assets enabled whites to ride out the jobless recovery better," he said.

Steve works in IT. He builds computers and works with hardware and software. James works as a carpenter and builds furniture. Now, Steve could build his own table, but it would probably take 6 months of trial and error. Also, Steve's table would be wobbly and probably not last a year before it fell apart. James doesn't know much about computers, but he could probably learn to build a computer. It would take him months of studying and the computer would probably not run very well. But through specialization, Steve and James can take advantage of each others labor. Steve could build a computer for James in as little as a week. Likewise it would cost only have as much and run twice as well than if James had tried to do the work himself. On the other hand, James could build Steve's table in a week. It also would cost half as much and would stand the test of time.

By exchanging goods, Steve gets his table and James gets his computer. They also save more than 5 months of labor and untold hundreds of dollars. The spare time and money gives both Steve and James a tremendous economic benefit. In short, by engaging in an economic transaction, they have created wealth for each other. They both have more free time and more money available, and their economic output is greater than it would have been had they not used specialization. Since time is money, both Steve and James can now spend the benefit as the please; including building more tables and more computers to sell for other goods and services.

Albeit oversimplified, this is how economies create wealth. In a sense, the big pot of money gets even bigger. Those getting the largest shares are those who provide the most desirable economic benefit to their fellow man. It has everything to do with hard work and education and nothing to do with race. Evidence of this is the fact that a large share of entrepreneurs and small business owners in America are immigrants. Victimization is not the answer.

Of a burger commercial any way.

They made it official; the New York Times endorses Kerry. The influential "news" organization proceeds to tell you why they support Kerry, by trashing Bush:

The race, the Times said, "is mainly about Mr. Bush's disastrous tenure."

"Nearly four years ago, after the Supreme Court awarded him the presidency, Mr. Bush came into office amid popular expectation that he would acknowledge his lack of a mandate by sticking close to the center. Instead, he turned the government over to the radical right," the paper wrote.

"The president who lost the popular vote got a real mandate on Sept. 11, 2001. With the grieving country united behind him, Mr. Bush had an unparalleled opportunity to ask for almost any shared sacrifice. The only limit was his imagination. He asked for another tax cut and the war against Iraq."

Accusing Bush of a "Nixonian obsession with secrecy, disrespect for civil liberties and inept management," the Times accused Bush of failures in the war on terrorism. "The Justice Department cannot claim one major successful terrorism prosecution," it said.

"Like the tax cuts, Mr. Bush's obsession with Saddam Hussein seemed closer to zealotry than mere policy," the editorial board said of the Iraq war. "The international outrage over the American invasion is now joined by a sense of disdain for the incompetence of the effort."

"We have specific fears about what would happen in a second Bush term," the paper added.

The paper also said that if Bush is re-elected, "domestic and foreign financial markets will know the fiscal recklessness will continue. Along with record trade imbalances, that increases the chances of a financial crisis, like an uncontrolled decline of the dollar, and higher long-term interest rates."

"The Bush White House has always given us the worst aspects of the American right without any of the advantages," it added. "We get the radical goals but not the efficient management."

Falls Church City Manager Dan McKeever is no friend to his own police force. Recently he has directed the police to waste their time tracking down and investigating every person seen carrying a firearm openly. As if they didn't have enough to do already, now they must waste their valuable time harassing law abiding citizens exercising their Second Amendment freedoms.

But if that wasn't enough, now McKeever wants to demote officers who don't write enough tickets.

Recently, members of the Falls Church police union went public with their complaint that every patrol officer is required to write an average of three traffic tickets or make three arrests every 12-hour shift. Failure to make the quotas -- accumulating a minimum of 400 per year -- results in an automatic 90-day probation period with no pay raise during that period. The officers face possible demotion or dismissal if numbers aren't promptly brought up to, er, speed.

The high ticket number discourages officers from handling more time-consuming arrests, such as drunken driving, when an improper registration ticket counts as much as a felony drug arrest, the union said. Officers who take time off, whether for vacation, injury or military leave, must still reach that same flat number without consideration for their missed time, the union said.

Of all the places you'd expect to read an op-ed in favor of blocking college students from registering to vote locally, a college newspaper doesn't top the list. But Virginia Tech's Collegiate Times does just that. The paper says that student's transient nature means that they don't have any vested interest in local politics. Furthermore, they suggest some sort of litmus test for registering voters to "protect" local affairs.

Certainly, when a student makes an effort to become domiciled in a college town - when he or she is independent of parents or guardians, acquires a permanent local address, registers a vehicle, pays local taxes, works a year round local job, invests a long term and intimate relationship in the town and generally creates a local life - he or she deserves a vote. But a college kid living intermittently in a dorm has no right to expect a say in local affairs.

Second, no matter how long a person resides in a town, he has a vested interest in local political decisions. When you live in a town whether it be for one year or four, you are subject to local laws, local taxation, and of course local politics. The Blacksburg mayor and town council pass laws which the students of Virginia Tech are required to obey. Since they are directly impacted, albeit temporarily, by the decisions of local politicians they should have a voice in the political process if they so choose.

The Collegiate Times arrogantly writes that casting absentee ballots should be the only voting privilege that college students enjoy: "There is little inconvenience, and you cast your vote where it belongs - at home."

When I was in college 10 to 12 months out of the year, Blacksburg was my home.

The mother of all role playing games turned 30 years old this month.

Recently I've noticed that Ebay's website kept crashing my DSL router. After browsing their site for a few minutes, my DSL connection would grind to a halt and rebooting my router was the only solution. Apparently I was not going crazy and I am not alone. Ebay's spyware tracking system used by some vendors try to do a long DNS lookup, which is incompatible with some routers. The DNS lookup is what was making things go haywire. If you've noticed the problem too, Tec Channel has a solution.

Priceless.

We should have a zero tolerance policy for school officials. Any school official who suspends an 8-year old for using a butter knife to prepare his lunch should be removed from their position.
[full article quoted below]

A King William County woman is questioning the county school district's zero-tolerance policy on weapons. Joyce Heath says her eight-year-old son returned to school yesterday after being suspended for seven days, because he carried a butter knife to school with his lunch.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Nicholas, a third-grader, had been suspended for ten days and faced the possibility of being placed in disciplinary classes for a year. But Heath met with School Superintendent Brenda Cowlbeck on Tuesday, and the suspension was lifted.

Cowlbeck said she could not comment on the matter because of privacy laws. But she said Tuesday's meeting was her first chance to discuss the matter with the boy's mother.

Heath said she packed a butter knife in her son's lunch along with a package of peanut butter and jelly on October first. She says Nicholas did not do anything threatening with the knife.

Just a few weeks before the election, the mainstream media is gleefully reporting that the Bush economy is running a record budget defecit of $413 Billion. The only problem is that it isn't.

[Those idiotic Republicans] say the more important measure is that the 2004 shortfall was an estimated 3.6 percent the size of the economy, well below the worst-ever 6 percent figure set in 1983 under President Reagan.

Boortz put it into perspective back in July 2003:

Look at it this way. Let's say that your family spends $5,000 more than it makes in 2003. Is that bad? If you only make $25,000 year, it's bad. To eliminate your deficit you have to cut your spending by 20%. But what if your total income is $500,000? Then you only have to cut your spending by 1%. No big deal.

Here's a shocker: Apparently the Transportation Security Agency is just a colossal waste of money. According to the Inspector General's report, they are blowing money on lavish parties and employee perks, like they were a pre-1999 dot.com.

From the "New Coke" marketing team, McDonalds is ditching the golden arches. Well, at least in England, and at least temporarily.

McDonald's is dropping the iconic "Golden Arches" logo from its advertising in Britain for the first time, the company has announced.

The famous symbol will be replaced with a gold question mark in a poster campaign due to begin this week.

The new adverts are part of attempts by McDonald's to ditch its unhealthy "junk food" image and promote alternative products.

The folks that operate the D.C. Metrorail system screwed up again:

It was bad enough to watch the Redskins lose at FedEx Field earlier this week. But Isabel Bobrow's disappointment was dwarfed by the real ordeal of the night: her ride home to Silver Spring on the Metro.

A subway trip that should take about 60 minutes lasted more than two hours, including an interlude when Bobrow, her daughter and thousands of other football fans sat on trains in L'Enfant Plaza Station that Metro managers decided to idle for as long as an hour.

The delays weren't caused by train breakdowns or mechanical failures. Transit officials just opted to reduce service to one train an hour as Sunday's game ended and at least 5,000 football fans entered the subway.

Related articles:
Metro police arrest rider for candy bar - 08/02/2004
Metro continues to chase riders away - 07/23/2004
Come on ride the train - 04/23/2004

Germany will send troops to Bush's wrong war, wrong place, wrong time, only if John Kerry is elected.

Germany might deploy troops in Iraq if conditions there change, Peter Struck, the German defence minister, indicated on Tuesday in a gesture that appears to provide backing for John Kerry, the US Democratic presidential challenger.

Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Wednesday ruled out sending German troops to Iraq after his defense minister said a deployment could be possible in the future.

One of the fundamental rules of economics is that there are no free lunches. But economics be damned, T.C. Williams High School is putting a "free" laptop in every locker. And what better way is there to illustrate the liberal definition of "free".

The laptop computers were free -- and theirs to keep until June. Each was labeled with a student's name and two security stickers. [...]

T.C. Williams, the only high school in the Alexandria district, reserved $1.4 million of its annual budget to lease, insure and administer the computers, which would have cost about $1,600 each if students had bought them individually.

The Washington Times is reporting that Kerry's tax plan will likely affect more than just those that make more than $200,000 a year. For one thing the top brackets that Kerry wants to increase don't start at $200,000. The top brackets include "single people who earn at least $143,500 and married couples filing jointly who have a combined income of $174,700."

But even if Kerry does raise taxes only on the super rich (those making $200,000 a year or more), he's mainly socking it to his base constituency says Scott Hodge, head of the nonpartisan Tax Foundation.

He pointed out that "the concentration of people who earn more than $200,000 a year are in high-cost states such as New York, Massachusetts, California and Washington state" - where Mr. Kerry's support is strong.

"Kerry is taxing his own base and George Bush is defending them. Go figure," Mr. Hodge said.

The biggest problem with France, is that it's full of French people. At least that's what a French study has determined.

The French are arrogant, rude and surly to foreign visitors, said a leading French politician behind a scathing report on how the Gallic welcome leaves much to be desired.

Bernard Plasait, a member of France's upper house of parliament, has concluded what millions of visitors have known for years. [...]

The French government particularly was alarmed by the 21 percent, or $6 billion, drop in spending by visitors from the United States.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is whining that state's like Alaska are getting too much terror funding.

Alaska gets $92 per resident in security cash while New York gets about a third of that per resident.

Perhaps Bloomberg could raise the cigarette tax a few more dollars to make up his shortfall.

Political news is starting to really turn me off. I haven't yet decided whether or not to watch this evening's Presidential Debate. Quite frankly, I'm a bit burned out. Just take a look at a few of the idiotic things happening out there:

John Edwards claims that federally funded stem cell research would raise Christopher Reeve from the dead: "If we do the work that we can do in this country, the work that we will do when John Kerry is president, people like Christopher Reeve will get up out of that wheelchair and walk again."

Voter registration drives in Colorado are ripe with fraud, as petitioners are paid per application: One woman admitted to forging three people's names on about 40 voter registration applications... Gerald Obi says workers pressured him to keep registering to vote so they too could earn extra cash. When asked how many times he had registered this year, Obi said, "about 35 times."

In Texas, a Democrat congressional candidate is exposing 30 year old naked photos of his Republican opponent.

"Study. That's all. It's not tough. You're not picking cotton. You're not picking up the trash. You're not washing windows. You sit down. You read. You develop your brain." -- Comedian Bill Cosby.

Back in April, Kerry lashed out at President Bush for trying to lower gasoline prices in the U.S.:

Today, Senator John Kerry quickly seized on Mr. Woodward's assertion on Sunday that the Saudi ambassador to the United States had agreed that his country would make sure that oil prices did not get too out of hand and would lower them to boost the American economy prior to the election -- a decision that would presumably help Mr. Bush politically.

"That is outrageous and unacceptable to the American people," Mr. Kerry, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, declared during a campaign stop in Florida, where the price of gas is a serious issue given the state's reliance on the automobile and fuel costs' effect on tourism.

"Facts, as President Ronald Reagan reminded us, are stubborn things, Mr. President," Kerry said. Flinging back a new mantra Bush uses to criticize Kerry, the senator said, "To borrow a saying, when it comes to George Bush's record on gas prices, he can run but he can't hide."

While the high price of gas could kill off the SUV, so far the market pressures haven't done so. And the price of gas has mostly to do with the high demand and limited supply. As long as demand remains high, until we start drilling for more oil or build some more refineries, gas prices will remain high as well.

And who do we have to thank for limiting the supply of oil? Well none other than John Kerry himself, who just last year claimed, "[Bush] proposed to let the oil industry friends of his drill in the Alaska wildlife refuge. I led the fight to stop him, and we won that fight."

The Democrats want to use the McCain-Feingold bill to censor political speech.

Sinclair's decision to order its 62 stations to carry a movie attacking Kerry's Vietnam record is drawing political fire -- not least from the Democratic National Committee, which plans to file a federal complaint today accusing the company of election-law violations. "Sinclair's owners aren't interested in news, they're interested in pro-Bush propaganda," said DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe, whose complaint will accuse the firm of making an in-kind contribution to the Bush campaign.

The biggest lie behind the so-called "Assault Weapons Ban" (a/k/a the 1994 Clinton Gun Ban) is the definition of an "assault weapon" itself. In citing their statistics and evidence about the success of the ban, gun grabbers frequently and deliberately included guns that were not defined as "assault weapons" under the ban. Whenever they needed to drum up support, the usual suspects would cite staticists that included the un-banned SKS rifle or show graphic demonstrations of full auto guns, rather than the semi-auto guns that were actually banned.

To whit, this story about a 1928 'Tommy Gun' that was donated to a New Orleans museum.

[Lafayette city police officer, Sgt. Ron Lott] said he couldn't find out where the old gun came from, but the .45-caliber submachine gun is "definitely an assault weapon," but with something of a romantic appeal.

Even if it were the semi-auto version, it still would not fall under the 1994 Clinton Gun Ban because it lacks the "assault weapon" features like a flash hider, folding stock, or bayonet lugs. While the automatic sub-machine gun shoots a lot of rounds at once, the semi-auto version shoots one round at a time just like any other .45 ACP pistol. It merely looks scary.

But blurring the line between already heavily regulated machine guns and their semi-automatic replicas was the whole point of the ban in the first place. Sgt. Lott helps to further the gun control cause through his ignorance or blatant misrepresentation.

This is weird and probably illegal, considering they have to actually write on or stamp the money with their website. But hey, what do I care.

I'm thinking I picked this bill up at a bar in Blacksburg (right next to Radford) when I was down there for the West Virginia football game. I gave it to the Pizza delivery man last night. It will be interesting to see where it turns up next.

The enviro-weenies are using shock and awe tactics to scare Maryland property owners into denying access to bear hunters.

A Rockville animal-rights activist has sent out a mass mailing to property owners in Garrett County, Md., stating they should not allow bear hunters on their properties because 40 percent of them are drug addicts, drunks or mentally unstable.

Earle D. Hightower, chairman of the Institute for Public Safety, a 27-member group mainly concerned with such issues as traffic and smog, acknowledges the statistic printed on 600 cards is phony, but says it's all for the cause.

Am I out of touch for not having a clue as to what the O.C. is, or are they self-absorbed for thinking I should?

The California Legislature is so inefficient, Californians have taken to numerous ballot measures and initiatives.

The November ballot will challenge that confidence voters have in themselves. It contains 16 measures, including 12 put there by initiative. Several of them are competing and contradictory; one seeks to undo something the Legislature did last year; and a couple would force the taxpayers to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars to finance the pet projects of their sponsors.

There are even two measures already abandoned by their initial supporters.

Proposition 65 originally was pushed by local government officials to protect their coffers from state raids. But after qualifying that measure for the ballot, the local honchos gave up on it and settled with the governor on a similar alternative, which is now Proposition 1A.

Proposition 68, which would expand casino-style gambling to card rooms and race tracks, was doing so poorly in the polls that its proponents quit campaigning after spending millions to promote it. A rival measure, Proposition 70, which would expand gambling on Indian reservations, is still active, although Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is fighting hard to defeat it.

Five different measures deal in one way or another with health care.

The biggest is Proposition 72, a referendum on legislation passed last year to require businesses employing more than 50 workers to provide health insurance to their employees. A "yes" vote means you want health insurance mandated and controlled by the government. A "no" vote rejects that approach.

Proposition 63 would slap a surtax on million-dollar earners to pay for a dramatic expansion of mental health care in California. Proposition 67 taxes telephone calls to fatten emergency room budgets.

Proposition 61 would borrow $750 million (costing about $50 million a year to repay) to build more children's hospitals. Proposition 71 would borrow $3 billion (annual cost: $200 million) to make California the international center of stem-cell research.

There are two criminal-justice measures. Proposition 66 would scale back the state's "three strikes" sentencing law, passed by the voters in 1994, so that repeat felons would face life in prison only if their third strike was a violent crime.

Proposition 69 would allow the state to take DNA samples from everyone arrested for a felony.

Proposition 64 would limit lawsuits alleging corporate wrongdoing, while Proposition 59 would give the public greater access to government records.

Proposition 62 would eliminate partisan primaries in state elections and replace them with a system that lets the top two finishers in each primary election, regardless of party, move on to a run-off. Legislators opposed to Proposition 62 placed Proposition 60 on the ballot to try to preserve the status quo. And Proposition 60A, originally part of Proposition 60 as an unrelated sweetener, was turned into its own measure by a court that ruled the Legislature had violated the constitutional provision against combining separate subjects in one ballot measure. It would require that revenue from the sale of surplus property be used to repay debt.

by Scott Ott via ScrappleFace:

(2004-10-11) -- Democrat presidential candidate John Forbes Kerry today announced the details of his plan to completely eliminate the nuisance of terrorism.

"I have a plan," said Mr. Kerry, "to create a do-not-terrorize list that Americans could sign up for on the internet. And if any terrorist would flout the law and attack someone whose name is on the list, he and his terror cell would be slammed with a $1,000 fine for each person killed and $500 for each injured survivor."

Mr. Kerry, who is also a U.S. senator, announced the plan after receiving international acclaim for telling The New York Times, "We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they're a nuisance.''

The Democrat said his plan "hits Al Qaeda in the pocketbook where it hurts the most."

He said he's also considering a suggestion by running-mate John Edwards to double the fines for nuisance terror strikes during the dinner hour.

This guy lives in a tropical paradise, has a hotty cheerleader wife, and his biggest beef is that he can't get the Titan's games on TV. So, he's vowing to eat only pudding until the NFL allows games to be shown in the Virgin Islands.

NFL blackout rules are a bitch, but it's the NFL's right to control their broadcast. I guess this guy has never heard of satellite TV.

I haven't been able to get to CNSNews for a week now. Apparently I'm not the only one.

UPDATE: Oddly enough, I haven't been able to reach the Media Research Center either.

Coalition and Iraqi forces have declared a cease fire on the Iraqi terrorist Muqtada al-Sadr. In return, Sadr's forces are handing over weapons.

Not only is this yet another cease fire, but Sadr may be getting more than his life in return.

In return for the weapons handover, the interim government said, there would be amnesty arrangements for people who "have not been involved in criminality."

Also, al-Sadr himself and his allies would be permitted to get involved in the country's nascent political culture.

Sean Penn is none too happy about being ripped in "Team America", reports Matt Drudge. He is so upset that he sent a rambling, incoherent memo to creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

"We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they're a nuisance." -- Presidential candidate and part-time Senator John Kerry in an interview with the New York Times Magazine.

The USS Cole bombing, Khobar Towers, WTC boming I . . . That was all just a nuisance.

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer thinks that it won't at all be inconvenient to stamp every bullet with a unique serial number, and then register them to the buyer. Some Democrats, however, think this is a terrific idea, and will solve all of their crime problems.

"It's a good tool to fight gangs and other criminal activity," Lockyer said. [...]

"We think this is a very valid idea that could solve crimes quickly," said Hallye Jordan, a spokeswoman for Lockyer, one of the state's leading Democrats.

"It's something that the cops going to a crime scene involving shooting victims, once they recover the spent cartridge or bullets they can look at it right there," she said. "We have a database where they can put the number right in and then drive to the person's house whose bullets they were."

I'm not the only one who disagrees on the magical ability of a huge government database of Walmart shoppers to solve crimes. Benjamin thinks it smells a lot like Maryland's failed "ballistic fingerprinting".

Now this is on par with gun-fingerprinting. Maryland has fingerprinted 17,000 handguns since 2001 and hasn't solved a single crime utilizing their database. They have also spent a crapload of money on this mind-bendingly stupid idea.

Estimated costs to manufacturers would run a penny or less for each bullet, according to [the Justice Department's Randy] Rossi and Paul Curry, a representative of Ravensforge, a Seattle, Wash.-based company that has developed bullet etching technology.

But what impact will this have on crime? Are police at a crime scene really supposed to be able to read a serial number off of a heavily fragmented or deformed bullet; and then hope that it was purchased and registered through legal channels?

I'm sorry, but I don't see how this system could possibly work, especially when it could be defeated through simple shoplifting.

For someone who so often whines about corporate greed, Michael Moore sure does seem to be cashing in on the war and this election.

Here is an interesting way to sell your football tickets.

(May not be safe for work, but probably is)

I added permalinks to the VRWC page. The list is getting long, and this should help some people that want to link directly to their card.

Let me know if you experience problems with it.

Don't bother voting, apparently the election was held yesterday and Bush won. At least, that is what the AP reported:

Twenty-six days before the general election, the story on WBAY's site, under the motto "Coverage you can count on," read:

At this hour, President Bush has won re-election as president by a 47 percent to 43 percent margin in the popular vote nationwide. Ralph Nader has 1 percent of the vote nationwide. That's with 51 percent of the precincts reporting.

Bush has won 324 electoral votes in 33 states. He is leading in 4 states for a total of 43 more electoral votes.

Kerry has won 105 electoral votes in 8 states and the District of Columbia. He is leading in 5 states for a total of 48 more electoral votes.

Nader has not won any state and is not currently leading in any state. . .

Later, WBAY-TV issued a correction, stating: "President Bush Did Not Win Election on October 7."

There has been a lot of buzz about a recent flare up of violence against Republicans lately. I can't quote everyone, so I'll pick on Geek, who has harvested some links from various sources:

Protestors Ransack Bush/Cheney Headquarters In Orlando

Shots fired at Bush Tenn. headquarters

FLASHBACK: Shot fired at GOP Headquarters in Huntington...

Swastika Burned Into Grass On Bush-Cheney Supporter's Lawn

For some reason, I think that is very telling.

Media outlets like the Washington Post are sounding the alarm about "weapons restrictions" being eased at area airports. But there is something they aren't telling you.

People soon will be able to carry guns and other dangerous weapons onto the grounds and parking lots of Reagan National and Dulles International airports, after officials yesterday eased what they said were overly restrictive rules.

Without debate, the board of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority unanimously agreed to permit passengers and other airport visitors to carry guns, knives and other weapons as long as they keep them out of terminals and other buildings that access airfields. Passengers who are taking guns with them on flights still will be allowed to carry them into the terminal but are supposed to make arrangements with airlines in advance, officials said.

And this is more than a simple argument about guns in airports. The MWAA claims authority to several major highways in Northern Virginia.

Before yesterday's action, the authority barred anyone from carrying what it defined as dangerous weapons -- including firearms, knives with blades longer than four inches, bows and arrows and even sandbags -- from all airport property. That covered parking garages, access roads and several highways near Dulles, including parts of the Dulles Toll Road, Route 28 and the Dulles Greenway.

Motorists with weapons in their cars could be arrested if they drove on those roads, even if they had no intention of going to the airport.

In fact, the whole reason the MWAA is even addressing the issue is that they have already lost in court. This summer they charged Gary Alves for having a utility knife in the airport parking lot. Mr. Alves case was thrown out of court after the judge ruled that the MWAA's rules were totally pre-empted by state law, which as of July 1 says that the only sanitary areas of the airport are the main terminal building and the areas beyond the security checkpoints.

Even with the changes, MWAA rules (which do not go into affect until December 1st), still violate state law.

This is truly a scary prospect:

A little-known federal agency is planning a new monitoring program by which the government would track every car on the road by using onboard transceivers.

The agency, the Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office, is part of the Department of Transportation. According to an extensive report in the Charlotte, N.C., Creative Loafing, the agency doesn't respond to public inquiries about its activity.

According to the report, cutting-edge tracking technology will be used by government transportation management centers to monitor every aspect of transportation. Under the plan, not only will movement be monitored but it also will be archived in massive databases for future use.

"A man on trial for taking a kindergartner hostage leaped up in court Wednesday and slashed his public defender with a razor blade," reports CNN. Despite his injuries, his lawyer still proclaims that this proves his client is not fit to stand trial.

Barbette Williams, 48, of New Orleans was booked with attempted second-degree murder for injuring lawyer Bert Garraway.

Williams wrapped his arms around Garraway and cut him above the eye and on the neck just as the defense lawyer was about to rest his case.

Garraway walked out of the courtroom, his shirt red with blood, to go to a hospital for treatment.

"I've contended all along that this guy is nuts, and to be honest, this pretty much confirms it," Garraway said late Wednesday. "... what kind of rational person would attack his own lawyer?"

"Winter Outlook: Colder Weather, Higher Heating Bills" -- Associated Press, October 6, 2004.

Of course, environmentalists still try to have it both ways. Warm weather is blamed on 'Global Warming', while cold weather is blamed on 'Climate Change'. And naturally, throw all that together with high gas prices, and blame President Bush.

When I was too young to know any better, I had a joke T-shirt that said: "Gynecologist in training, Patients needed."

In Dallas, a man has been arrested for taking the joke a bit too far.

A man arrested for allegedly posing as a doctor offered free gynecological services and set up an office in a self-storage complex, authorities said.

The room looked like a real medical office, with numerous pieces of medical equipment, said Bridget Eyler, an assistant district attorney for Dallas County. Three women who reported their visits to the man's office were reluctant to discuss details, the prosecutor's office said.

Thomas Patrick Remo, 50, remained in custody Wednesday in lieu of $7,500 bond on three counts of practicing medicine without a license. He used the names Dr. Jim Patrick and Dr. Brian Jones and his office was in Cedar Hill, Eyler said.

I don't really follow NASCAR, but I did happen to catch Dale Jr. on the news yesterday. Dale uttered the s-word during his post race interview, which got him slapped with a $10,000 fine and a 25-point reduction in the points race. The point deduction, reports the Washington Post, moves Earnhardt from 1st place to 2nd place with just 7 races left.

While I am not personally offended, I can understand the monetary fine. With the FCC fining TV stations, and Major League athletes routinely being fined for their behavior on the ball field, $10,000 sounds reasonable. But you would never see officials taking points off the scoreboard. This could end up changing the outcome of the points race.

Reacting to the fine, Earnhardt took a more realistic view of America: "If anybody was offended by the four-letter word I said . . . I can't imagine why they would have tuned into the race in the first place."

Kudos to Geek for pointing out that the lunatics are running the asylum up in New Jersey, and making a strong case for homeschooling:

This is Crossroads South Middle School in Monmouth Junction, New Jersey. On Thursday, there was a back-to-school night for parents of students. Veteran English teacher Shiba Pillai-Diaz says she was shocked when three parents confronted her. The three, insisting the teacher either add John Kerry's photo to the montage of presidents or remove the Bush photo. When Pillai-Diaz refused, she says the school's vice-principal threatened her job which is an act that has parents here fuming.

Paula Sjolund, Parent: "She didn't do anything wrong, and I think that it should have stayed up there."

Pillai-Diaz ultimately removed the entire bulletin board and says School Principal Jim Warfel told her she disrupted the school with her "inflammatory politics". She says he then ordered her out of the building. While she says she is a Bush supporter in her personal life, Pillai-Diaz says she keeps politics out of the classroom.

Shiba Pillai-Diaz, Teacher: "There was no political intent, nor was there any political content in that photograph nor on the bulletin board."

School officials would not talk on camera but insist nobody here has been fired. To that, Ms. Pillai-Diaz asks what does it mean then when your boss asks you to hand over the keys and kicks you out of the building? She also says she is not sure if she'll be returning to school tomorrow.

Had the teacher included Kerry, she should also have included Sharpton and Dean.

The AP and ABC News are pointing out that Cheney and Senator Edwards had in fact met before, contradicting what Cheney told the audience during last night's debate.

Cheney said that as President of the Senate, he spends most Tuesday's in the Senate chambers, and that he doesn't recall ever meeting John Edwards. But apparently Cheney was lying. While he indeed didn't see the Senator wandering around the Senate chamber, he did meet Edwards three different times: behind the scenes at a taping of "Meet the Press"; at Senator Elizabeth Dole's swearing in ceremony; and at breakfast 3 1/2 years ago.

Is this the best they can do?

"Personally, I'd be delighted to live in a country where happily married gay couples had closets full of assault weapons." -- Glenn Reynolds.

(Kudos to Kevin Baker for still reading Instapundit.)

The House voted to 402-2 to defeat a bill introduced by Democrat Charles Rangel to reinstate the draft.

The two Congressmen who voted in favor of the draft were Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., and Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif.

Even Rangel, the bill's sponsor, voted against it. The Hill reports:

Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) did something a little unusual yesterday. First he protested when Republican leadership scheduled his own bill for a vote.

Then he sent out a letter encouraging his Democratic colleagues to vote against it.

"If you live in the United States of America and you vote for George Bush, you've lost your mind." -- Vice Presidential wanna-be and part-time Senator John Edwards, as reported by Newsmax.

Comedian George Carlin once said that when organ donors get into a car accident, the doctors aren't looking to fix them, they're looking for spare parts. CNN reports:

A western Colorado coroner said Monday that two hospitals allowed vital organs to be removed from a man before they had proven he was brain dead, and he declared the death a homicide.

The cause of William Rardin's death was "removal of his internal organs by an organ recovery team," Montrose County Coroner Mark Young said.

I have never been a fan of spending public money on such frivolity as artwork, especially when said artwork is so freakin' ugly that you accidently auction it off as $20 hunks of scrap metal.

Cuellar bid on and won four pieces of James Rosati's 1981 sculpture "Upright Form V" that had mistakenly ended up on the auction block with other items the city kept in storage. Now city officials are trying to get it back.

Cuellar showed up at the sale Saturday - held every three years - and casually perused the offerings. He spotted a shiny, 17-inch-long stainless steel piece set atop a stove.

He found two other similar pieces, one inscribed with Rosati's name. A call to a friend was placed, the significance of the find was confirmed and a bid was placed.

And for a mere $20, it was his.

Two other pieces of the sculpture went up for sale later and Cuellar won them for $230. But when Cuellar went to pay for the two others, auction workers realized they were dealing with more than scrap metal. They wouldn't take his money and refused to turn over the remaining pieces of the sculpture.

I'll be out of pocket until Wednesday, so probably no more blogging at least until then.

"Anytime a person has a weapon, everyone's in danger." -- White Settlement police spokesman John Clapp.

(Hat tip to reader, Pasty)

Living where I live, it pains me to have a scumbag like Jim 'Blame the Jooos' Moran for a Congressman. I must be a conservative surrounded by a sea of liberals, for Moran to continue to be re-elected. After all, this is the man who even Marc Fisher of the Washington Post says should be a breeze to defeat:

Challenging Moran should be the easiest job in America. After all, this is the congressman who -- you'll need a deep breath to make it to the end of this sentence -- grabbed an 8-year-old boy in a parking lot because Moran thought the kid had threatened him; borrowed $25,000 from a drug company lobbyist five days before agreeing to co-sponsor a bill that would help that lobbyist's client; took a $447,000 loan from a credit company four days before signing on to legislation that the company was pushing; got into a shoving match on the House floor with one colleague; threatened to punch another congressman in the nose; and just last year told an audience that there'd be no war against Iraq without the support of the Jewish community. Whew.

But if you still need more proof, Moran dubiously claims that letting the Clinton Gun Ban expire is tantamount to "allowing drug dealers, gang members and common criminals to have access to weapons whose only purpose is to cause mayhem and destruction." Oh really. Drug dealers and gang members are permitted to have guns now? That's news to me. I'll be sure to keep my eyes open for stories of criminals using rifles with bayonet lugs and a flash hider to cause mayhem.

On .50 caliber target rifles, Moran claims:

These weapons -- accurate up to 2000 yards (the size of twenty football fields) -- are weapons of war developed to destroy armored personnel carriers and military aircraft. Amazingly, these weapons of war are sold to the public. It is advertised as being able to destroy commercial aircraft with a single hit. It can also be used to pierce petroleum tanks and rail cars.

You've heard of the ABB (Anybody But Bush) crowd. Well, I'm a member of the Anybody But Moran crowd.

I've heard of dead people somehow finding a way to vote on election day, but now they are even campaigning for their favorite candidate.

CNN reports that Kerry won the debate, but apparently winning isn't everything:

Gallup has asked the question about who did a better job in the debate in five previous elections, and in four of them the candidate who "won" the first debate did not win the election in November.

CBS continues to flush their journalistic reputation down the toilet. This time they are using forged emails to drum up concern that the Bush Administration will re-institute the draft. (Despite the fact that Democrats have introduced not one, but two bills to do just that.)

In an exclusive interview with reporter Richard Schlesinger, CBS spokesman Sandra Genelius, and producer Linda Karas, INDC Journal wants to know why the so-called "journalists" at CBS are using internet chain letters as journalistic evidence.

INDC: "Probably the main concern with the story is that the e-mails that are shown in the piece are false; they've been debunked on various internet sites long ago ..."

Schlesinger: "The fact is, they were going around. I know several people that got them, and it's gotten people all riled up. Whether or not there's any reality to there being a draft, is almost besides the point. Do I think there's going to be a draft? No. But it's an issue that people are talking about."

INDC: "Ok, the e-mails in the story have been criticized because they've been debunked online for some time, why did you use them?"

Karas: "The truth of the e-mails were absolutely irrelevant to the piece, because all the story said was that people were worried. It's a story about human beings that are afraid of the draft. We did not say that this (e-mail) was true, it's just circulating. We are not verifying the e-mail."

They also presented facts like the Selective Service is capable of reinstituting the draft without mentioning that they have already stated there are no plans to. In addition, they presented testimony from an anti-draft political activist (without mentioning she was an activist). The poor distraught housewife cried about how she loses sleep at night over the thought that President Bush will draft her baby and send him off to Iraq to be killed. Immediately thereafter, CBS mentioned that there were two bills introduced to reinstate the draft. What they conveniently failed to mention is that the bills were introduced by Democrats.

I cannot help but think Bush could nip this all in the bud by threatening to veto the Democrats proposal, should it pass.

Spoons liveblogged the debate. Excellent job.

Overall, I don't think Bush won the debate, but I do think Kerry lost it. Kerry had a few crucial points that stuck in my head:
1. "We didn't need that tax cut"
2. Kerry claims to have been consistent, when most of the world realizes that he hasn't.
3. Kerry says we should give nuclear fuel to Iran, and then rely on the U.N. to keep them in line.
4. Kerry says we sent troops into Iraq without proper body armor and that's wrong. Nevermind that Kerry voted against providing them body armor.
5. Bush wants China to help us go after North Korea, Kerry wants us to go it alone.

This year, a federal law was passed that lets off-duty and retired police officers carry concealed firearms nationwide (assuming they are willing to jump through the necessary hoops). The priviledge supercedes local and state laws (like those in D.C. or Chicago) that would normally prevent them from carrying. Of course, Chicago's rabidly anti-gun Mayor, Richard 'the turd' Daley, doesn't trust off-duty police officers; not even his own. He's hoping to change federal law to create a total victim disarmament zone.

...The mayor is proposing some changes to the federal law, and that is his right. However, he included in his opposition to the new concealed-carry law our Chicago Police Department's off-duty officers, and that is a huge mistake.

Most, if not all, Chicago police officers of all ranks carry weapons off duty. At any time it's possible for them to come in contact with people they have investigated, arrested or stopped for traffic and other violations. In addition, they are never really off duty, in a moral sense. Hundreds of times a year, off-duty cops witness criminal actions and intervene. The mayor would prefer they all be unarmed?

But in areas like Chicago, however, that leave the average Joe Citizen to the mercy of street thugs, maybe it's high time that off duty cops get a sense of just what it's like to walk the streets in fear.

I hate to sound insensitive, but this reparations reconciliation march appears to be a huge waste of time.

Whites wore T-shirts that said "So Sorry" and armbands labeled "Penitent." Blacks displayed bands that said "Forgiver." They converged yesterday on what is now the Annapolis City Dock, a spot where slaves were once bought and sold.

About 400 people joined what organizers described as a "reconciliation march" through downtown Annapolis, ending at the Maryland State House, where descendants of the slave Kunta Kinte and of auctioneer John Ridout, the man who sold him into bondage in 1767, embraced.

Likewise, I do not know anyone still alive today that was a slave. We are all free individuals, and dwelling on something that happened nearly 150 years ago doesn't seem too constructive.

Even if I had slave owning ancestry, I am not about to feel sorry for something I didn't do. The idea that people should be penitent for something their ancestors may have done hundreds of years ago is rediculous; whether it be robbery, murder, or slavery. I wasn't there, had no say in any of it, and being "penitent" would (or should) ring on deaf ears. Even if I was sorry, who would I apologize to? Any victims would be long since dead.

Could you imagine if such a thing were common place? Modern day railroad companies and banks would be going after the relatives of Jessie James; demanding an apology or compensation for banks robbed in the 1860s.

Had I known about the Annapolis march, I might have been so bold as to wear arm bands that said "Not Sorry" and "I didn't do shit!" Besides, when it comes to white guilt, I've already been granted amnesty.

How could the Top 25 Jock Jams not include We Will Rock You by Queen?

These songs all seem pretty weak, in my opinion. Color me biased, but I'm partial to the stadium songs played at Virginia Tech games. I love it when they play Darth Vader's theme. (100k)

Russia has flip-flopped and plans to ratify the Kyoto treaty afterall. Russia had previously spurned the treaty, most likely because they weren't getting their way. Now that they have decided to toe the environmentalist line, one can only assume that concessions were made to bring them on board. Without Russia, the whole treaty would have failed.

Russia's support of the protocol means it would be put into effect worldwide. It must be ratified by no fewer than 55 countries that accounted for at least 55 percent of global emissions in 1990, and Russia's participation would tip the scale.

But the brutal truth is that with Russia on board, pollution is likely to increase rather than decrease. As I reported early last year, Russia's adoption of the Kyoto Protocol is actually bad for the environment. You see, the Kyoto Treaty demands that nations cut emissions to pre-1990 levels. Well, during the late 1980s, the sun was setting on the cold war and Russia was at her peak of industrialization. Today's emissions are already back at 1980s levels, which means Russia has pollution to spare. By pushing for those credits to be transferrable, Russia is in the position to actually sell pollution credits to nations who cannot meet the cut-off. That means if you are overpolluting, rather than face sanctions under Kyoto, you just purchase a license to pollute on Russia's behalf. Russia profits from the deal by selling to the highest bidder, while pollution coming from the bidder is actually much higher than would have been allowed, if Russia had not been on board.