There was a recent shooting in Tyler Texas, which Geek has covered pretty well.

David Hernandez Arroyo Sr., embroiled in bitter child support dispute dresses for war and opens fire on ex wife, son and bystanders.

He is engaged by police and at least one, possibly two CHL holders.

He kills 2 wounds many, is killed by police after car chase.

Now, there is no doubt that the intervention of Mark Allen Wilson saved the life of Mr. Arroyo's son. Wilson, who was lawfully carrying a concealed handgun, was able to draw fire from Arroyo long enough for Arroyo's son to escape. Mr. Wilson paid for his good deed with his life.

But the gun control lobby knows that acts of heroism and bravery with a firearm must never be recognized. Perhaps that is what prompts Marsha McCartney, the Dallas Chapter President of the Million Mom March, to dance on his grave.

"Concealed Handgun carriers sometimes commit crimes and sometimes are heroes. Unfortunately, the hero part doesn't happen very often and what if he had hit a bystander while he was firing?"

The Million Mom March is a tax-exempt gun ban group organized in part by felons convicted of violent crimes.

Now that demand for legal file sharing is on the rise, driven largely by the success of Apple's iPod devices, the music execs want to try hiking the prices. CNN reports that unnamed music executives are unhappy about the cheap price of music.

The Financial Times, quoting unnamed music executives, said wholesale music prices, thought to be around 65 cents a song, were originally set artificially low in a bid to stimulate demand. The executives noted the success of Apple's hugely popular iPod digital music players, the report said.

The executives noted that prices to download mobile phone ring tones are roughly 10 to 15 percent higher than song downloads, according to the newspaper.

Sure, ringtones cost between $2 and $3 a pop, but how many people download hundreds of ringtones to listen to over and over again? And aren't these the same people who recently settled a lawsuit for price-fixing?

When it comes to market economics, the RIAA still doesn't get it. This is something I have been saying for years now. Even as album sales start to rise, there are still problems with the industry. Take this as an example that they just don't get it:

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

It was predicted to start snowing heavily last night and in to today. But instead this was a morning of dry pavement and easy commutes. Every school in the area is shut down, and most governments are on liberal leave policy. But there is not a flake in sight.

Now scientists on Channel 5 are predicting a regional cooling event starting sometime in the late morning and continuing into the afternoon. Snow, rain, and more snow are on the menu, but not nearly in the doom and gloom depths that they were promising yesterday. The temperatures are still 20 degrees below average, but I blame global warming.

Here's a neat project for next weekend. A borelight made from a spent .357 round.

British school children will soon be indoctrinated with Global Warming propaganda from Albert Einstein in the animated Einstein's Pants TV series.

The aim is to raise awareness of energy and environmental issues - particularly global warming and destruction of the ozone layer - and to promote good citizenship.

The 50-minute performance uses a cast of three and a fun approach to engage the audience and encourage emotional involvement with the story.

Pupils are often 'switched off' by adults telling them what to do - but a secret message scribbled by legendary science genius Einstein onto his Y-fronts proves a different matter altogether.

With his theory of relativity, the adolescent Albert Einstein proved global warming is possible.

Peaceniks have been decrying the U.S. Army for using so-called torture techniques to extract information from the terrorists and combatants being held at Guantanimo Bay Cuba. The alleged torture was even a hot topic during Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' confirmation hearings.

But how bad could the torture have really been, considering British Channel 4 will be airing a reality gameshow featuring Gitmo torture techniques.

As part of its so-called "torture season," Channel 4 - the same channel that brought the reality TV hit "Big Brother" to the world - plans to broadcast "The Guantanamo Guidebook" on Monday.

The four-part series will recreate torture techniques apparently used by U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo Bay.

That's right people will actually be volunteering to experience the so-called inhumane treatment and humiliation subjected to Gitmo detainees.

I still think a better name for the show would have been The Happy Smile Super Challenge Family Wish Show.

The Oscars are tonight, and the usual suspects trot out their perennial anti-smoking campaign. The anti-smokers are using billboards to chide Hollywood for having the audacity to portray smokers in their films. They claim that kids that watch movies with smokers are much more likely to smoke than kids that don't. Whether or not that is true is up for debate. I mean heaven forbid that parents and children be held accountable for their own decisions.

But I find it very interesting that of all the gripes you could have about Hollywood smoking would top the list. I mean movies and television are rampant with drinking, drug abuse, sexual activity, homosexuality, murder, and a various sundry of other sins. While I personally enjoy watching all of those things, it still strikes me as odd that smoking would be considered the most wicked activity for pleasure police have to go after.

Try hanging a billboard that chides Hollywood for their portrayal of sex (or worse yet homosexual sex), and watch them brand you as a conservative nutcase.

Riverdog has the details on the memorial service for Sgt. Plumondore and his compatriots. The Nation of Riflemen are grateful for his service and sacrifice. Thanks to Kim for sending an arrangement.

After a House committee killed the bill reauthorizing their use, the Virginia Senate is trying a backdoor reauthorization of "photo red" cameras reports WAVY-TV news.

Four days after a House of Delegates committee killed local pilot programs that use cameras to catch red light runners, the Virginia Senate revived them as a floor amendment to related legislation.

After adopting the amendment, the Senate voted 29-9 to pass the bill. The measure now goes directly to the House floor, bypassing the committee that had refused to lift the July 1 expiration date for the programs.

We should have known better than to expect tax and spend politicians to let one of their cash cows die so easily. If the real goal were traffic safety, increasing the yellow light is the easiest and most effective method. Instead, some localities across the nation have been caught shortening the yellow to maximize revenue.

The American Automobile Association (AAA), which originally supported the cameras, has switched positions in recent years after research suggested that cameras actually cause more accidents due to people slamming on their brakes unnecessarily.

More and more companies are refusing to hire smokers, in the name of rising health insurance, reports Newsweek.

Now, citing rising health-insurance costs and concerns about employees' well-being, a growing number of companies are refusing to hire people who smoke, even if they do so on their own time and nowhere near their jobs. An estimated 6,000 employers no longer hire smokers, according to the National Workrights Institute, an affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union.

While I enjoy having the competitive advantage over my smoking brethren, I cannot in good conscience support such a policy. For one thing, I don't think it looks out for the best interests of the company. Health insurance costs are rising, but I wonder how much money can really be saved by firing all your smokers. And even if there is significant savings, will companies soon start refusing to hire people who are overweight, or have a history of cancer? I mean, where do you draw the line?

What's more, I think it drums up bad publicity and destroys employee morale. Who wants to work for a company that says you aren't allowed to enjoy a beer on the weekend, or go scuba diving? And of course it limits your talent pool significantly. If a company is so interested in pinching pennies they should just stop offering health care as a benefit altogether, which it appears that many companies are already doing:

There were at least 5 million fewer jobs providing health insurance in 2004 than in 2001, according to the survey, in part because of soaring costs. Premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance have been rising at about five times the rate of inflation and workers' earnings.

Of course from 2001 to 2004 there were a lot of people out there looking for work. Mass layoffs were daily stories in the newspaper. As the unemployment rate continues to drop, companies are going to have to start offering more perks to prospective employees to attract top talent. And lets face it, making people agree to not smoke or eat donuts (in the privacy of their own home, mind you) isn't the way to attract quality people. And I have no use for companies that don't even make an attempt to hire the best employees they can afford.

I'll repeat something I first said back in October 2002. Under the guise of decreasing insurance premiums, here are some other regulations they should impose:

No skydiving, water-skiing, motorcycling, hang gliding, or bungee jumping.
No reading or watching TV in the dark.
No going to loud rock concerts.
No running with scissors.
No burning candles after 9 PM.
Employee's homes must be properly equipped with bath mats.
No electrical outlets without a safety cover.
Employees must always use the handrail on the stairs.
Employees must wash hands, regardless of whether or not they are returning to work.
No frayed extension cords.
No answering the door without knowing who it is.
No talking to strangers

Anyone caught participating in the listed activities should be fired on the spot.

Related articles:
1984: Fired for being a smoker -- 01/26/2005
All your vices are belong to us -- 01/08/2004
The Unprotected Minority -- 08/19/2003
Pleasure Police, literally -- 10/22/2002

Last November, a Marine Corp soldier got into some hot water for shooting a mostly dead terrorist. The media was in an uproar, claiming that our Marines were not properly looking out for the well being of terrorists. Despite having been shot the day before by a mostly dead terrorist, he was not even given the benefit of any doubt by the mainstream media. Some on the left were accusing our boys of committing war crimes. The good news is that it looks like he will not face a courtmartial.

Oh his TV show last night, Bill O'Reilly wanted to know why Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, who stands accused of plotting to assassinate President Bush, is being given the benefit of the doubt, while our soldiers who put themselves in harm's way are not.

In the late 1960s, the United Nations predicted that the world's population would reach nearly 12 Billion people by the mid 21st century. They warned of starvation and a strain on natural resources. Fast forward 35 years and we are no where near 12 billion, and obesity is said to be reaching 'epidemic' proportions in the developed world. But that doesn't stop the chicken littles at the U.N. from sounding the alarm.

The world's population will increase by 40 percent to 9.1 billion in 2050 but virtually all the growth will be in the developing world, especially in the 50 poorest countries, the U.N. Population Division says.

The division's revision Thursday of earlier estimates said the population in less-developed countries is expected to swell from 5.3 billion today to 7.8 billion in 2050. By contrast, the population of richer developed countries will remain mostly unchanged, at 1.2 billion.

"It is going to be a strain on the world," Hania Zlotnik, the division's new director, told a news conference.

She said the expected growth has "important and serious implications" because it will be concentrated in countries that already have problems providing adequate shelter, health care and education.

If we enroll all these people in Social Security, maybe I'll get my 'guaranteed' benefits after all.

Even al-Jazeera is lashing out at the Great Satan for refusing to sign the Kyoto Protocol.

As the 141 countries attempt to 'cool up' the greater than ever global warming the two countries' rejection to the Protocol basically, stems from that, it aims at banning greenhouse gas emissions that fuel global warming as the U.S. and Australia are the main users of these unfriendly gases to global environment...

Before this earth becomes hell to live in at least after 1000 years from now we humans of these days must before it becomes too little too late take the necessary actions and measures to sustain lives on earth.

Do Middle Eastern countries really want us to stop using oil?

They claim there is no problem with Social Security, but steroid use is an imminent threat.

A senior House Democrat urged Thursday that Jose Canseco and others the former baseball slugger accused of abusing steroids, including Mark McGwire, be called before Congress to testify on use of performance-enhancing drugs.

Rep. Henry Waxman of California, the top Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee, said representatives from Major League Baseball and the players' association also should appear before the panel to explain how they plan to stop the use of dangerous drugs by baseball players.

A California lawmaker has introduced a bill aimed at the name change of the Anaheim Angels.

The proposed legislation by Umberg, D-Anaheim, would require professional sports teams to print disclaimers on their tickets, advertising and promotional materials if they do not play most of their home games in the geographic location used in their name.

Moreno changed the team's name last month from Anaheim Angels to Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim.

Of course the literal translation of Los Angeles - whose real city name is "el pueblo de nuestra senora la reina de los Angeles de Porciuncula" - is 'The Angels', making the team name altogether redundant.

On a side note, how long before atheist headline whore Michael Newdow sues Los Angeles for violating the mythical "seperation of church and state"?

Senator Jon Corzine and 147-year old Comrade Frank Lautenberg, both Democrats from New Jersey, hope to pass an assault bill banning the assault use of assault pistols. Specifically, they are targeting the Belgian Five-SeveN assault gun made by FN, and the assault bullets that it uses.

New Jersey's U.S. senators plan to introduce a bill that would make it illegal for anyone, except a police officer or military official, to purchase or use an assault pistol that fires bullets capable of penetrating a bulletproof vest.

The Five-SeveN gun made by FN Herstal of Belgium has already been denounced by three national police organizations and the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. The handgun is small and lightweight and easily concealed in a person's pocket, the groups said.

Last month, the Brady Campaign released a videotape of its staff test-firing one of the handguns it had purchased from a Virginia gun dealer. The bullets penetrated a police Kevlar vest.

Of course, the Federal Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (BATFags) did extensive tests on the guns and determined that they do not defeat body armor.

Because of the hysteria drummed up by the gun grabbers, last month the ATF issued a press release emphasizing that the FN 5.7 cannot penetrate bulletproof vests.

Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results. I think he may have had New York in mind.

All of the gun control in the state couldn't prevent some nut case from shooting up a shopping mall. So what do New York Democrats propose to do? Why, more gun control of course. This time they want to ban so-called assault ammunition.

"I realize you can't stop somebody from committing a crime, or committing a heinous act if they're really intent on doing it, but maybe you can slow it down," said Bill Reynolds, majority leader of the Kingston Common Council. "Obviously, real strict gun control doesn't make a lot of sense, but perhaps there is some wisdom in at least slowing people down from getting their hands on weapons of war and the ammunition for them."

Authorities say 25-year-old Robert Bonelli Jr. of Glasco purchased three boxes of 7.62-caliber ammunition for his Hesse Model 47 semiautomatic assault rifle at the Wal-Mart store next to Hudson Valley Mall in the town of Ulster an hour before he fire 50-60 shots inside the mall, wounding two people.

Authorities have said both the weapon, purchased at a local gun show, and the ammunition were obtained legally, but Reynolds and Ulster County Legislator Brian Shapiro of Woodstock said there should be tighter restrictions on the availability of the semiautomatic rounds used in the shooting.

Augh! Rounds of ammo are not semiautomatic. GUNS are semiautomatic. The rounds are the same for revolvers, semi-auto guns, and fully auto guns. It's a bit like saying we're having trouble with speeding so we're going to ban fast gasoline.

"These are assault weapons. They're meant for killing human beings, and ammunition for these types of weapons should not be available at Wal-Mart," Shapiro said.

What a crock. Guns are designed to expel a small projectile really really fast. Whether that means through a sheet of paper, a deer, or another human being is entire dependent on the person using it. And banning ammo is just another attempt at a backdoor gun ban. Especially considering the many different guns that use the same cartridge.

Apple is catering to Windows users with the latest version of their iPod music player and that has Apple purists upset. At issue is their support of the widely used USB 2.0 standard and scaling back of the Firewire technology which Apple pioneered. Apple users have responded with a whiny petition:

"We, as dedicated users and supporter of your hardware and software are completely dismayed at your recent decision to discontinue standard FireWire support for the iPod music player line," the petition states, going on to note that "It is very unfortunate that you have left your faithful out in the dark on this one."

In trying to cut costs, they will no longer be selling iPods with a firewire cable included, although the player will still support the technology. Apple users that want to use Firewire will need to purchase a cable seperately.

Oh the humanity.

Ann Coulter takes a look at the Jeff Gannon witch hunt. Just think, all of this was started because Gannon had the audacity to ask Bush an easy question.

To do their part to combat so-called Global Warming, the blue state of Maine - whose border with Canada is twice as long as the border with the U.S. - is adopting their own version of the Kyoto Protocol. The Portland Press Herald reports that potential changes include "the sale of more fuel-efficient cars and energy-efficient appliances, requirements for more energy-efficient construction and the use of more renewable power sources that don't pollute the air"

Maine's Legislature has already committed to reducing greenhouse-gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2010, and 10 percent below that by 2020...

Proposals include measures to fight sprawling development, a trend that leads to more automobile travel and pollution, and to promote forestry practices to maintain trees, which take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Most proposals would increase energy efficiency and, as a result, reduce carbon-dioxide pollution.

Meanwhile, scientists at the University of Manchester (UK) are studying ways to use sea salt to make England even more cloudy.

Professor Choularton, said: 'What our simulation shows is that if you artificially inject sea salt into clouds it not only increases the amount of heat which is reflected back into space, creating a cooling effect, but it also inhibits the formation of drizzle, which means the clouds last longer, more heat is reflected, and the cooling effect lasts longer.'

I wonder what we'll all drink when it's raining salt water.

You would think that Andre Agassi and Roger Federer would draw a bigger crowd. In case you are wondering, that is a converted helipad at the Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai. They are more than 700 feet up.

Is anyone else having a Tron flashback?

UPDATE: Fox Sports has a slideshow with pretty good photos.

Wendy McElroy takes on the wage gap between men and women. She quotes Warren Farrell's latest book, Why Men Earn More, and refutes the feminazi insistance that rampant male chauvinism is to blame. Instead, blame is largely based on women's free market choices.

...women commonly prefer jobs with shorter and more flexible hours to accommodate the demands of family. Compared to men, they generally favor jobs that involve little danger, no travel and good social skills. Such jobs generally pay less...

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, full-time men clock an average of 45 hours a week, while women put in 42 hours. Men are more than twice as likely as women to work at least 50 hours a week...

Men represent 92 percent of all occupational deaths. Why? Because if you look at a list of the most hazardous occupations -- fire fighting, truck driving, construction, and mining -- they have 96-98 percent male employees, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics...

They also show that starting salaries for women actually tend to be higher than for men. That statistic also supports the notion that women are far more likely to interrupt their career to raise a family. Women from the ages of 25 to 35 are much more likely to use maternity leave. And sometimes rather than come back to work when their leave is up, they simply quit their job and stay at home. Even those that choose to go back to work after their youngest children have started school are looking at a 5 year setback in their career.

Of course, none of these life choices are necessarily bad decisions. But they certainly have an impact on the statistics.

From Best of the Web:

[Rep. Maurice] Hinchey: They've had a very very direct, aggressive attack on the, on the media, and the way it's handled. Probably the most flagrant example of that is the way they set up Dan Rather. Now, I mean, I have my own beliefs about how that happened: It originated with Karl Rove, in my belief, in the White House. They set that up with those false papers.

Why did they do it? They knew that Bush was a draft dodger. They knew that he had run away from his responsibilities in the Air National Guard in Texas, gone out of the state intentionally for a long period of time. They knew that he had no defense for that period in his life. And so what they did was, expecting that that was going to come up, they accentuated it; they produced papers that made it look even worse. And they--and they distributed those out to elements of the media. And it was only--what, like was it CBS? Or whatever, whatever which one Rather works for.

They--the people there--they finally bought into it, and they, and they aired it. And when they did, they had 'em. They didn't care who did it! All they had to do is to get some element of the media to advance that issue. Based upon the false papers that they produced.

Audience member: Do you have any evidence for that?

Hinchey: Yes I do. Once they did that--

Audience: [murmuring]

Hinchey: --once they did that, then it undermined everything else about Bush's draft dodging. Once they were able to say, "This is false! These papers are not accurate, they're, they're, they're false, they've been falsified." That had the effect of taking the whole issue away.

Audience member: So you have evidence that the papers came from the Bush administration?

Hinchey: No. I--that's my belief.

Audience member: OK.

Hinchey: And I said that. In the very beginning. I said, "It's my belief that those papers, and that setup, originated with Karl Rove and the White House."

Audience member: Don't you think it's irresponsible to make charges like that?

Hinchey: No I don't. I think it's very important to make charges like that. I think it's very important to combat this kind of activity in every way that you can. And I'm willing--and most people are not--to step forward in situations like this and take risks.

Audience: [clapping and cheering]

Hinchey: I consider that to be part of my job, and I'm gonna continue to do it.

When President Bush was inaugurated, he spoke of the "untamed fire of freedom" reaching the darkest corners of the world. But in today's media, most of the talk is about spreading Democracy. In fact, Bush only mentioned Democracy once when he said, "The concerted effort of free nations to promote democracy is a prelude to our enemies' defeat." (The word 'free' or 'freedom' was mentioned 34 times.)

The words are not interchangeable, nor should they be. Democracy is a form of government, and one which is not necessarily free. People can be tyrannized by the majority just as easily as they can be by a ruthless dictator. That is why America was established as a Republic and not a Democracy. Our Founding Fathers even warned about the dangers of a Democracy, noting that the many could exploit the one.

But the word freedom means independence. Freedom is the right to pursue life, liberty, and happiness, and as long as you do it without harming your fellow man, without fear of persecution. That is why people that promote big government and nannyism, often exchange words like 'freedom' and 'independence' for 'democracy'. Freedom runs counter to their agenda, and they are hoping you won't notice the newspeak.

It would appear that some people are upset at black immigrants horning in on the racial preferences racket. Courtesy of the New York Times: (emphasis mine)

"African-born and Caribbean-born brothers and sisters have realized that the police don't discriminate on the basis of nationality--ask Amadou Diallo [an immigrant from Guinea who was accidentally shot by police in 1999]," said Professor Charles J. Ogletree Jr., who teaches at Harvard Law School and has warned colleges and universities that admitting mostly foreign-born blacks to meet the goals of affirmative action is insufficient.

"Whether you are from Brazil or from Cuba, you are still products of slavery," he continued. "But the threshold is that people of African descent who were born and raised and suffered in America have to be the first among equals."

Notes James Taranto, "In other words, in the name of "affirmative action," he is calling for discrimination against black people who were born outside the U.S.

The trouble with this is that the argument the Supreme Court has used to justify racial preferences in university admissions is "diversity." Favoring someone from the Bronx over an African-American from Burkina Faso is hardly a way to achieve that goal."

All of the usual suspects in the gun-blogging world have been closely following the CNN story, wherein in trying to illustrate how lax firearms laws are (in proposing their latest ban), the gun grabbers unwittingly committed several federal felonies. Kudos to GeekWithA.45 for also taking the time to debunk CNN's claim that the .50 BMG rifle can penetrate the exterior of a commercial aircraft door.

Oh, and by the way, since you're so good at shooting stationary targets 1000 yards away, what's the holdover and windage for an object mile away, traveling 500 mph at a 45 degree angle to your position at 2000 feet in a 10mph westerly wind? You're not going to hit shit in flight without that information, even assuming the solution exists within the performance envelope.

It's one thing to take careful aim at a stationary object. It's quite another when that object is moving several hundred miles an hour.

UPDATE: On the subject of CNN's alleged felonies, Countertop notes that the ATF's supposed sudden concern about "intent" is bullshit, and if they refuse to act would amount to selective prosecution.

It would appear that President Bush's call for the expansion of freedom didn't fall on deaf ears in Lebanon.

"Syria out. Syria out," they shouted as Arabic pop music blared, amid calls for a "peaceful intifada" or "uprising" against a government that was put into place and remains controlled by neighboring Syria.

"We are with the Muslims, the Druze, together for a free Lebanon," said one member of a Christian militia. "Tell America we are waiting for them to invade, all of us."

"It's early yet, but at this point we'd say the most likely next president of the United States is Hillary Clinton." -- James Taranto, Best of the Web, February 22, 2005.

Very scary indeed.

India is experiencing record cold temperatures, and scientists claim (with a straight face) that Global Warming is to blame.

The temperatures across the globe are changing with parts of the globe witnessing coldest or hottest temperatures in a 100 years.

Cliche alert: Use of time frame to tie GW to the industrial revolution

Global warming conversations have shifted from whether climate is changing to how we will deal with the inevitable consequences.

Cliche alert: Subtly trying to change the buzzwords from 'global warming' to 'climate change'.

And the price you pay will depend on where you live and how well you prepare, even as US and Australia refuse to sign the Kyoto Protocol.

Double Cliche Alert: Gratuitous Kyoto reference combined with blaming those damned Americans.

The main reason for Global Warming is cited as Greenhouse effect and United States is the main culprit accounting for one fourth of the total greenhouse emissions.

Cliche Alert: Blaming those damned Americans, again.

In the last few days, India was hit by the changing global climate as Kashmir witnessed a snow wave killing more than 100 people. The snow's fall out affected far flung areas 1500 km away in the city Mumbai,India's commercial hub, recorded the coldest February morning in 40 years.

Wow, the climate just swept in and dumped a "wave" of snow. In the United States this is called 'weather'. We have professionals that devote their entire lives to predicting it.

Temperatures dropped across north India and chilly winds swept the region - including the national capital - forcing residents to dig out their warm clothes from the closet.

Oh, the humanity!

According to 'Health India'Global warming may not just affect your immediate environment, but could also increase the number and scope of climate-related health crises, ranging from killer heat waves and famine, to floods and waves of infectious diseases, an expert has warned."

First snow waves, now heat waves and infectious disease waves. They are trying to say that they have more waves than the Tsunami.

Today's Global Warming SoD comes from the land down under. If one trade association of water professionals is to be believed, Australians are going to get awfully thirsty in the years to come, reports ABC News (Australia).

The International Water Association (IWA) estimates up to 20 per cent of Australia's water supply is lost from underground pipes.

Tim Waldron is a member of the IWA Water Loss Task Force and will be part of an international workshop on the Gold Coast in Queensland this week.

He says global warming is expected to impact heavily on water availability in the coming decades.

"One prediction is that by the year 2080 Australia will only have 50 per cent of the surface water that it has at the moment," he said.

"If that's anywhere near true, we are going to have to conserve water and manage the water systems in a far, far better way than we do at the moment."

I guess you have to provide your own gratuitous Kyoto reference. The article doesn't mention it, but Australia has also stubbornly refused to sign the Kyoto Treaty.

I can only speak for myself, but in Chris Rock's defense I think there is a lot of truth to what he says.

Chris Rock wants to clarify what he meant when he said straight men don't watch the Oscars.

"I did not say that. I said only gay people watch the Tonys," he joked Monday during an appearance on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno."

But later he stuck to his guns.

"I really don't know any straight men who aren't in show business that have ever watched the Oscars," he said.

I am both straight and don't watch the Oscars. In fact, I have never watched the Oscars, Emmys, Tonys, or any other self-aggrandizing award show.

While I have every intention of not watching them again this year, I think his off the cuff remarks can only help their sagging ratings. They probably won't hurt his career either.

Rock on.

There is a big kerfuffle over a security breach at Choice Point. It seems that identity thieves have gained access to thousands of records containing personal information like social security numbers, credit scores, and the like.

So just what is Choice Point, and why do they have all this personal information? Why do we, as a society, allow our personal information to be gathered and collected by companies like this? My gut reaction was that companies like Choice Point should be prevented from collecting personal information in the first place. I wouldn't make what they do illegal, but perhaps we should do more to make all those public records private. But then I started looking into just who this Choice Point company is.

Well, they are a data mining company that was spun off from Equifax. Basically, they drum up public data from public records and sources and build profiles of consumers. Choice Point "has grown from the nation's premier source of data to the insurance industry into the premier provider of decision-making intelligence to businesses and government."

Okay, so what does all that mean? Well, whenever you go to get insurance, they are the ones who provide background information to the underwriters. When you apply for that Macy's card to get 10% off, companies like Choice Point are the ones that provide the information used to grant you instant credit. When you apply for a job, they give your new employer a relative peace of mind that you aren't going to embezzle funds or sell secrets to China.

Basically, they are in the risk mitigation business. Without them, you wouldn't have 0% financing deals at car dealerships, and cell phones given out to every member of the family without a deposit. Without them, prospective employers might be much less likely to hire you. They are part of the backbone to the entire credit/background/pre-employment screening process.

It's easy to divine a "right to privacy" and to say that we should prohibit companies like Choice Point from collecting personal information. But keep in mind there is a price to be paid. When your kid goes off to college and you're unable to get them a cell phone so that they can call home; when it takes you just as long to close the deal on your car as it does your house; or when it takes prospective employers three weeks instead of two days to make you an offer; you might just reconsider.

One of the pillars of a free society is property rights, so you may want to pay attention to this eminent domain case coming before the Supreme Court. Abuses seem more rampant in recent years, with land being seized from private citizens to build a Wal-Mart or new shopping center. Their justification for seizing land is that the new owner will pay more taxes than you, thus creating a greater "public purpose".

In the New London case, city officials there argue that eminent domain also should apply to "economic development" even if done privately since it would increase tax revenue and improve the local economy.

Susette Kelo and six other homeowners have said the move is more about enriching well-connected developers.

"It's obvious they don't want us here, and they've done everything in their power to make us leave," Kelo said. "They are simply taking our property from us private owners and giving it to another private owner to develop."

Keep in mind that this is land that is seized at gun point. Land-owners are promised "fair" compensation, but it's still the guys with the guns who are setting the price. If you don't like it, tough luck.

If the SCOTUS doesn't put a stop to such seizures, it's only a matter of time before we have a WACO-like standoff between stubborn property owners and an oppressive government.

"You think the Republican National Committee could get this many people of color in a single room? Only if they had the hotel staff in here." -- Incoming DNC Chairman, Howard Dean.

UPDATE: Star Parker has more.

If your Social Security benefits are guaranteed, as many Democrats and some Republicans would have you believe, why then do they put a disclaimer on the Social Security statement?

Your estimated benefits are based on current law. Congress has made changes to the law in the past and can do so at any time. The law governing benefit amounts may change because, by 2042, the payroll taxes collected will be enough to pay only about 73% of the scheduled benefits.

Remember, without ownership of accounts, your Social Security benefits are subject to the whim of Congress.

I can only hope that none of my friends have secretly taped my conversations with them in hopes that I might some day become President.

Of course, the media is dwelling on the marijuana statement of the now infamous Bush tapes, probably because their guy was ridiculed for claiming he "didn't inhale". Contrast that to then Governor Bush who said, "I wouldn't answer the marijuana questions. You know why? Because I don't want some little kid doing what I tried." I would imagine that most Woodstock-generation parents would take a similar approach to try to set a good role model for their children. Bush also admitted that he wouldn't discriminate against gays.

As for his former friend, the delightfully named Mr. Wead claims that he didn't want the tapes to go public and stir up controversy for his soon to be released book. He apparently had no idea that the New York Times would air such an inflammatory story about President Bush.

Kevin Baker points out that in their zealotry to point out how easy it is to legally obtain firearms, CNN commited at least one, and possibly several, federal felonies.

UPDATE: Triggerfinger has a good rundown.

When it comes to Global Warming and the demonization of the Sport Utility Vehicle, I have to ask rhetorically: Why are SUVs demonized while Minivans get a pass?

The Naples Daily News reports that police are being put on the defensive as they come under fire for their increasing use of TASER guns. They report that "of 269 occasions on which deputies discharged their Taser guns last year shows the weapon also has been fired to stop prisoners from kicking at windows of a car, urinating on a deputy's laptop and yelling. Those shocked by Tasers ranged from teenagers to octogenarians." Some instances the perpetrators are shocked several times.

Part of the problem seems to stem from the classification of the potentially lethal device.

Law enforcement agencies break down their responses to the people they are arresting on a sliding scale of what is commonly known as a "continuum of force." In Lee County, it starts at level one, which is the officer's presence. Five is deadly force.

Use of the Taser falls under "level three," the same as pepper spray. That placement puts Lee County roughly on par with what recommendations on Taser use exist statewide and nationally.

In a position paper, the Police Training Institute at the University of Illinois agreed Taser use is appropriate at level three, or even at level two when resistance is passive, so long as a warning is issued by an officer, either verbally or by activating the Taser.

While pepper spray is pretty much an ineffective irritant, the TASER has a much greater potential to kill someone. They were sold as an alternative to shooting a suspect in the chest. Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott even admits, "The whole point of using the Taser is to avoid lethal force." That is, they were meant to be a level five device.

But in practice, officers are using them whenever people are disruptive or uncooperative. Sometimes the devices are used when subjects are already restrained or in custody.

Locally, two men died shortly after being shocked last year, one in the Lee County Jail and one by Collier County sheriff's deputies, though their deaths have not been conclusively tied to the Taser...

...a deputy shocked Joachim Schaible, 48, of Naples after the 6 foot, 5 inch, 225-pound man became "agitated" and refused to stay seated, according to a Sheriff's Office report. [...]

The most common reason leading to a Taser shock listed on arrest reports was resisting or fighting. Frequently, the reason the Taser was deployed was to stop someone from injuring themselves or county property, often from kicking at squad car windows or banging his or her head against parts of the vehicle...

...several 15-year-old people were shocked. The oldest was an 83-year-old man in an assisted-living facility who threatened deputies with a pen...

The Fort Myers man [Byron Black] was shocked by Lee County Sheriff's Office employees on two occasions: while being arrested on Nov. 23 and again in his jail cell on Nov. 27. He died not long after.

Now, I have little sympathy for people who fight with the police. But there is a line somewhere between a dope addict holding a knife and an 83-year old man armed with a ball point. I think that walking that line requires reclassification of the gun to level five, so that it is only used when potentially lethal force is warranted.

The headline reads Man shot dead in Wyandanch. If you read the fine print though, you'll find out that the "man" who was shot dead was climbing through someone's window at 2:30 in the morning.

And of course since it happened in the People's Republic of New York, the householder is being charged with criminal possession of a firearm.

Government agents who use them say they are perfectly safe. But politicians in California think they're deadly and have proposed a bill to ban them. A civilian caught carrying one could get a year in jail. Using one could get them three years. So, what are they?

They're TASER guns and naturally, they would still be legal and acceptable for police to use. Just not the regular California peons.

So on one hand we have the enforcement branch of the government telling us that TASER guns are perfectly safe to use as cattleprods. On the other hand, the legislators are saying they are so deadly that law abiding citizens cannot be trusted with them.

Liberal talk radio is catching on.

Today's GWSoD has "researchers" claiming that global warming trends will cause pollution to stagnate in America's cities, reports Reuters. This will obviously have the largest effect on minorities and the poor.

Global warming could stifle cleansing summer winds across parts of the northern United States over the next 50 years and worsen air pollution, U.S. researchers said on Saturday.

Further warming of the atmosphere, as is happening now, would block cold fronts bringing cooler, cleaner air from Canada and allow stagnant air and ozone pollution to build up over cities in the Northeast and Midwest, they predicted.

The gratuitous Kyoto reference notes that the "United States, which produces the most pollution of any country, has refused to sign" the treaty. Perhaps we are the World's biggest polluter because of states like Washington, whose biggest polluter is also a top attraction marketed by the state board of tourism.

Red Light Cameras will be going away in Virginia reports the Washington Post. The law authorizing their use is set to expire this Summer and has not been renewed.

A House committee on Friday rejected legislation that would have allowed Virginia communities to continue using surveillance cameras to ticket red-light runners, signaling the impending end of the state's 10-year experiment with the technology.

The House Militia, Police and Public Safety Committee defeated five Senate bills to extend permission to use the cameras beyond July 1. [...]

"We have a responsibility to balance public safety against liberty," said Del. William R. Janis (R-Goochland). "Our job is to figure out where the lines cross for reasonableness between the compelling need and the absolute requirement to defend individual liberty."

While there was some grumbling coming from the pro-camera crowd, missing was the "blood in the streets" inflammatory rhetoric. Of course if the goal were really safety, increasing the yellow light is the easiest and most effective method. Instead, some localities across the nation have been caught shortening the yellow to maximize revenue.

The good news for the rest of the nation is that the anti-camera trend is increasing, and the victory in Virginia should help nationwide efforts.

I just wanted to take a moment to try to put the Social Security tax into perspective. If you earn $90,000 a year or more, you are paying $930 a month in Social Security tax. It's a flat tax of 12.4% (excluding Medicare), so if you make $45,000 a year, your payment is still a hefty $465 a month.

If you weren't forced (at the point of a gun, mind you) to pour your money down the Social Security rat hole, you could buy a pretty nice ride. Dump that into any retirement or investment vehicle and you are likely to take care of all your retirement needs. Or you could send your kid to a pretty nice college. Personally, I'm already taking care of my retirement, so I like to think of all the neat guns I could buy with that money.

But the point is that we don't have a choice. We don't have the individual freedom to decide what to do with that money. The government is stealing 12.4% of your income because they think you are too stupid to spend it yourself.

Spoons teaches us about Jimmy Carter. Those that say he never met a dictator he didn't like are not exaggerating.

My condolences to the Plumondore family. Adam Plumondore of Kim du Toit's Walter-Adam Fund was killed by a Mosul car bomb last week.

Future support given to the fund will continue to go to the men of his unit.

For all of you naysayers out there, 'experts' are re-emphasizing that Global Warming is real.

Studies looking at the oceans and melting Arctic ice leave no room for doubt that it is getting warmer, people are to blame, and the weather is going to suffer, climate experts have said.

New computer models that look at ocean temperatures instead of the atmosphere show the clearest signal yet that global warming is well under way, Tim Barnett of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography said.

Speaking at an annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Barnett said climate models based on air temperatures are weak because most of the evidence for global warming is not even there.

"The real place to look is in the ocean," Barnett told a news conference.

And if you are thinking that global warming is a myth, you are just an irrational ignoramus.

"The debate over whether or not there is a global warming signal is now over, at least for rational people," he said.

And if you think that increasing global temperatures are a natural phenomenon, perhaps caused by the fact that solar output is higher now than in the past 1100 years, think again.

"Could a climate system simply do this on its own? The answer is clearly no," Barnett said.

The planet is simply incapable of warming on it's own. If it weren't for the invention of the SUV 20,000 years ago, we'd still be stuck in an ice age.

And if you have any doubt about the mission of the Scripps Institution, check out this statement from the Director.

I'm traveling this weekend, so enjoy your President's Day. Posting to resume to normal on Tuesday.

Prominent Democrats are calling for changes to the nation's voting laws. For starters, they want to give all federal employees the day off so that they are sure to vote, writes the AP:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a possible White House candidate in 2008, joined 2004 nominee John [Rodham] Kerry and other Democrats Thursday in urging that Election Day be made a federal holiday to encourage voting.

She also pushed for legislation that would allow all ex-felons to vote.

Just what is an ex-felon? If such a law were to pass, it would no doubt help the Democrat's chances. But do they really want to be known as the party of rapists, murderers, and child molesters? Oh and of course big labor unions.

VT 67, Duke 65.

UPDATE: Of course we still don't get any respect. SI thinks we're Virginia.

UPDATE 2: The Roanoke Times reports after sinking the winning goal and beating Duke, Tech's Zabian Dowdell pulled a Brandy Chastain.

Tech students rushed onto the court and surrounded the Hokies.

Dowdell emerged from the throng of students without his jersey.

"I was so happy I just threw the shirt in the air," said Dowdell, who had 11 points. "It'll probably be on eBay."

If he were still alive today, Sweaterman would be proud.

On his radio show yesterday, El Rushbo played a clip where Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld was butting heads with Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez over the number of trained Iraqis. This is a perfect illustration of why I love Rummy.

RUMSFELD: We're scheduled to have 200,000 in September or October of this year. When the elections take place with respect to the constitution, and the program takes it to 270,000 by June of '06.

SANCHEZ: The numbers that you bandy around about how many troops we really have out there that are Iraqi police, et cetera, et cetera.

RUMSFELD: You say we bandy around numbers. They're not my numbers. I don't invent them. They come from General Petreus. There's no bandying at all.

SANCHEZ: I have Petreus' numbers. They're different than your numbers, by the way.

RUMSFELD: Well, what is the date? They're not different if the date's the same. The date on my paper here is February 14th. What's yours?

SANCHEZ: December 20th.

RUMSFELD: Not surprising there's a difference.

Hehehe. Sanchez' figures were nearly 2 months old; Rummy's 2 days.

With a new budget coming down the pipe, there's going to be a lot of bitching and moaning about reckless and dangerous budget cuts proposed by the Bush Administration. But you should look a little closer when examining those cuts, says Larry Elder.

Cuts in Washington usually mean lowering the projected increases. Take, for example, NASA, the U.S. Space Agency. The president proposes $16.45 billion for NASA in 2006. That's a 2.4 percent increase over what the government is spending this year on the program. But it is $500 million less than what the space agency was expecting for 2006. So, NASA is listed as one of the 154 programs facing extinction or "drastic spending reductions." Only in Washington does a decrease in the proposed increase equal a spending cut.

This is how Washington works. They automatically plan on at least a 4-6% budget increase. When they only get 2-3%, they call it a "cut". The erstwhile Senate Majority Leader Tom "Puff" Daschle once griped that his 3.1% pay increase (which he gave himself) was actually a pay cut. In an interview with Greta van Susteren Daschle called it "not a raise".

I recommend you read the rest of Mr. Elder's column. He offers wonderful insight into the Constitution, and notes that we should learn from some of the former Eastern Bloc nations who know what it's like to live in a socialist welfare state.

Global Warming stories have kicked into high gear lately. The AP reports that an environmentalist wacko group is hoping to have polar bears put on the endangered species list, to protect them from global warming.

The Arctic sea ice habitat polar bears use for feeding, mating and maternity denning is breaking up earlier each spring and forming later in the autumn, said Kassie Siegel, lead author of the petition submitted Wednesday by the Center for Biological Diversity.

Siegel also says that if polar bears are to survive, future CO2 emissions in the United States must be cut to a "small fraction" of what they are now.

According to the mission statement on their website, the Center believes that "Beyond their extraordinary intrinsic value, animals and plants, in their distinctness and variety, offer irreplaceable emotional and physical benefits to our lives and play an integral part in culture. Their loss, which parallels the loss of diversity within and among human civilizations, impoverishes us beyond repair."

If it weren't already taken, the CBD should change their initials to CBS.

An 82-year old San Francisco woman has overstayed her hospital visit by a year. Sarah Nome admits "there is no reason she should be racking up unpaid medical bills - which have now topped $1 million - but says she has nowhere else to turn" reports the AP.

Now Kaiser Permanente's San Rafael Medical Center in California is suing her for the cost of her stay and trying to show her the door.

"The thing is, I have no medical problem. I've been here more than a year, never had any medication, never had any treatment, never had a fever, have a perfect heart, blood pressure is like a teenager," Nome said in a telephone interview from the hospital north of San Francisco. "It isn't that I'm not ready to go. I just have nowhere to go."

Exasperated hospital officials persuaded a judge to approve her eviction. But because Nome is bedridden and cannot walk, they have no intention of wheeling her onto the street. Instead, they hope the ruling encourages her to pack her bags. [...]

Nome's troubles began, her daughter Jane Sands says, in 2002 when she broke both her legs while living alone. After several operations, Nome could no longer care for herself and was admitted to the first of several nursing homes.

Here's an idea. Roll her out front and then call her daughter to come pick her up before the bums get her. If that doesn't work, call the police and have her arrested for trespassing.

Eco-terrorists from Greenpeace had hoped to paralyze oil trading at the exchange in London. But they were met with some not-so-passive resistance.

WHEN 35 Greenpeace protesters stormed the International Petroleum Exchange (IPE) yesterday they had planned the operation in great detail.

What they were not prepared for was the post-prandial aggression of oil traders who kicked and punched them back on to the pavement.

"We bit off more than we could chew. They were just Cockney barrow boy spivs. Total thugs," one protester said, rubbing his bruised skull. "I've never seen anyone less amenable to listening to our point of view."

Another said: "I took on a Texan Swat team at Esso last year and they were angels compared with this lot." Behind him, on the balcony of the pub opposite the IPE, a bleary-eyed trader, pint in hand, yelled: "Sod off, Swampy." [...]

Last night Greenpeace said two protesters were in hospital, one with a suspected broken jaw, the other with concussion.

Many more protestors spend the night in the pokey. James Taranto notes, "It's pretty clear who the thugs are here, and it's not the Cockney barrow boy spivs."

Reader Craig writes about a cigar problem. He bought them last summer and never put them into a humidor, so they have probably dried out. Craig will be purchasing a new humidor, but first he wants to know what steps he can take to restore the cigars to their proper state.

Craig,

I am happy to offer what advice I can. First of all, lets talk about humidors. When you prime your humidor and put solution into the humidification device, the humidor should stablize around 70%. That's because the solution contains an inert chemical (Propylene Glycol) that maintains a 70% relative humidity. The water will evaporate much faster than the chemical, but as long as you keep the humidification device charged with distilled water it should maintain 70% or close to it. By the way, you can buy a gallon of PG solution for about $10-$20 at any chemistry store to make your own solution. Just mix it (not all at once) with DISTILLED water, which costs about 50-cents a gallon at any grocery store. (It makes you wonder why Aquafina costs so much doesn't it?) You must use distilled water, because it is pure H20. Spring water or tap water has other chemicals and impurities in it that will clog the pores of your humidor and ruin it.

That said, the process of rehumidifying your cigars will depend on a few things. First of all, you need to plan on doing it over a period of a few weeks to a few months depending on how badly dried out the cigars are. It is a slow time consuming process. If you try to rush it or speed it up, you are likely to ruin the cigars.

You are correct that you don't want to just drop them into a hyper-humidified environment if they are completely dried out. The reason is because the different types of tobacco absorb moisture at a different rate. The filler tobacco (the stuff in the middle) will tend to absorb more than the wrapper. That can cause the wrapper to crack or split as the cigar slightly expands. You also don't want to overhumidify the cigar and risk mold.

Your best bet will probably be to ease the cigars back into a humidified environment over time. Try to find out what humidity the cigars are at now. I'm guessing they are probably probably 30-40% depending on conditions like where you live, and your home heating system. (I used to have a house with a gas furnace that would drop the humidity like a stone whenever it kicked in. The warm dry air used to keep the house at a paltry 10%. It was so low, I had to wrap a trash bag around my humidor during the winter to keep it from sucking humidity right through the wood. Unsightly, but effective.)

Now, if you don't have a digital hygrometer, buy one, because you need to keep an eye on the humidity. What you need to do is not prime the humidor right away. Place the cigars into the humidor at one end, and your humidification device at the other. Since the humidor is not primed, the wood pores should absorb a lot of the humidity from your humidifier. That means that instead of maintaining proper humdity, your humidor will be on the low side. If you started about 30-40%, you want to aim for about 50%. You can manage this by adding distilled water as needed. Remember to keep your cigars at one end and the humidifier at the other. If you can't get it high enough, try lightly sponging the side of the wood to help the humidor out. Not too much. You aren't trying to create your own wetlands in there.

Once the cigars get acclimated to the 50% environment, gradually take them up to 60% or so. Once again, let them get acclimated for a few weeks before taking them up to 70%. This is not an exact science so you need to do some guesswork. Keep an eye on the hygrometer and try to make an educated guess as to when it's okay to raise the humidity to the next level. Once again, patience is key here.

Once you are ready to maintain 70%, prime your humidor and add fresh solution to your humidifier. Also, keep an eye on your digital hygrometer to keep it from dipping too low in the winter. And never let the humidity get too high or you risk having a mold problem, which will outright ruin the cigars.

Best of luck restoring those cigars.

KdT expresses his rage over Sen. John McCain's plan to be the national program director. McCain, a Republican, is proposing legislation that will compel broadcasters to give more airtime to local politicians running for office.

The Senator thinks that local politics isn't covered enough so he's going to use the police power of the government to force broadcasters to toe the line.

Kim points out:

Lest we forget, McCain once sponsored a measure which would have coerced TV stations into donating ad time to election advertisements, on the basis that this would "only" affect about 1% of profits.

So, according to Senator Asswipe: Theft is okay, as long as it involves stealing just a little amount.

Reader Raina from Illuminaria's Voice emails this disturbing article from USA Today.

Next week marks the 15th anniversary of smoke-free domestic airline flights, but frequent fliers may still be getting a dangerous dose of secondhand tobacco smoke.

Most of the USA's large hub airports continue to allow smoking in some areas, says a recent report by private health experts and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention...

Ron Davis, co-author of the report, says the air inside most large hub airports is unhealthy, putting travelers and workers at elevated risk for cancer and death from secondhand smoke. Public health experts say the smoking lounges available at several airports - regardless of the type of ventilation system - don't contain all smoke.

They are literally claiming that you could die from merely walking by an airport smoking lounge. Now, I've been in my share of airports. (Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal, Quebec, Belfast, London, Munich, San Francisco, Oakland, New York, Newark, Chicago, Denver, Dallas, Houston, Las Vegas, Kansas City, Akron, Cleveland, Columbus, Detroit, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington DC, Baltimore, Atlanta, Norfolk, Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, Tampa, Orlando, and New Orleans to name a few). In those airports, I've probably seen only one (maybe two) smoking lounges per terminal. They are usually glass enclosed with a door. What little smoke that could possibly leak out is miniscule. It's akin to the amount of exhaust fumes you get from the car in front of you while sitting at a stop light. But wait, there's more:

Dean Burri, a cigar smoker in Clearwater, Fla., who owns a health insurance company, says smoking should be allowed "inside closed, ventilated rooms" at airports. "The non-smokers don't have to breathe the smoke, and the smokers have a place to smoke," he says.

That logic doesn't work with many non-smoking business travelers who believe secondhand smoke endangers their health. They're calling on airport authorities to ban smoking everywhere inside their facilities.

Bob Johnson, an Orlando-based software instructor for a home-building company, says he quit smoking 20 years ago, and it shouldn't be allowed in airports. "I have to hold my breath when walking through smoking areas," he says.

And I have to hold my ears when listening to people like Johnson whine about smoking. Just because he's dumb enough to believe he'll keel over and die from a whif of second hand smoke, is no reason to trample the rights of property owners to cater to the smoking public.

A lit cigarette emits 250 toxic compounds, including more than 60 carcinogens, says co-author Terry Pechacek, an associate director at CDC. Davis and Pechacek warn that even a single exposure to secondhand smoke can be harmful.

Uh oh. If you've been exposed to any environmental tobacco smoke at all, you could drop dead tomorrow. That sounds pretty damning. That is until you read about what's in our drinking water.

Over 2,100 contaminants have been found in drinking water. Of those 2,100, 190 are known to cause adverse health effects. In total, 97 carcinogens, 82 mutagens and suspected mutagens (cause cell mutations), 23 tumor promoters and 28 acute and chronic toxic contaminants have been detected in U.S. drinking water.

So according to the people that sell water filters, drinking water has 50% more carcinogens than secondhand smoke. They appear to have one up on the people who sell temperance.

What's really at issue is the total prohibition of smoking. Like I said before, it won't be long before cigarettes and tobacco are banned outright in some cities and states. A national ban won't be far behind, and soon tobacco will be treated as an illicit drug.

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

Bush may increase the Social Security tax for people who make more than $90,000, reports the AP:

Under the current system, payroll taxes are paid only on the first $90,000 in wages. Bush has repeatedly said that he opposes raising taxes, but his advisers have been intentionally vague about whether he would also rule out subjecting a greater share of pay to the existing tax.

Asked directly, Bush said that he would not rule out raising that cap, though he does not want to see the payroll tax rate go up. The rate is now 12.4 percent of pay, split between workers and employers.

"The one thing I'm not open-minded about is raising the payroll tax rate. And all the other issues go on the table," Bush told a roundtable of regional newspapers, according to an account Wednesday in the New Haven (Connecticut) Register.

Now, I'm sure there are plenty of people out there that would love to sock it to the evil, hated, rich. (If you could call $90k a year "rich".) But this does absolutely nothing to solve the Social Security problem.

You see, the benefits are tied to income, so raising the income level just means you have to pay more benefits. Sure you'll start taking in more money, but you also start paying out much more money. Unless they cap the benefits or tie them to inflation rather than income, the problem is only going to get worse.

Social Security is a ponzi scheme. It pays current beneficiaries with money seized from current taxpayers, and plans to pay future beneficiaries (the current taxpayers) with money seized from future taxpayers. There are several problems with this type of scheme. First of all, we are all living too long. In 1950, there were 16 taxpayers per retiree. Today there are 3, and soon there will only be 2. That means the system will soon be asked to pay out much more than it takes in.

Another problem is that the benefits are tied to income and not inflation. That means that as income has risen sharply, so have benefits. Since the number of people paying tax is decreasing while the number collecting benefits is increasing, the system is doomed to go bankrupt.

Ideally, all accounts would have ownership. If you put in $100, you get back $100 plus any interest. The interest rate would be tied to whatever investment vehicle you put it into. If you chose a stable value type fund, you'd get your 1.5% rate of inflation. If you chose something a little more risky, you might get 10-15% over time. Of course you could also lose money, but for a long term retirement vehicle that isn't likely. You may lose money in the short term, but overall you are better off taking on a little risk.

Now, you could just say that the middle class and up don't get any benefits. But then you do the communists proud by turning the program into a 12.4% wealth transfer tax.

I don't know why, but I have high hopes that something will be done about the Social Security boondoggle. Hopefully it won't be raising my taxes while cutting my benefits. I would prefer to just opt out of the system altogether, but absent that, I'd settle for private ownership of accounts. Anything else is just income redistribution and vote buying.

From James Taranto's Best of the Web on Wednesday:

"Islanders on tiny Tuvalu in the South Pacific last week saw the future of global warming and rising sea levels, as extreme high tides caused waves to crash over crumbling sea-walls and flood their homes," Reuters reports:

"Our island is sinking together with our hearts," wrote Silafaga Lalua in Tuvalu News. . . .

Tuvalu is a remote island nation consisting of a fringe of atolls covering just 10 sq miles, with the highest point no more than 17 ft above sea level, but most a mere 6.5 ft.

Global warming from greenhouse gas pollution is regarded as the main reason for higher sea levels, now rising about 2mm (0.08 in) a year, which could swamp low-lying nations such as Tuvalu and the Maldives in the Indian Ocean if temperatures keep rising.

For the sake of argument, let's assume this "global warming" stuff is true. If the sea continues rising at 0.08 inch a year, that means Tuvalu will be mostly submerged in 975 years, and will disappear entirely in 2,550 years. So in the year 4555 we can expect to read headlines like: "Tuvalu Disappears, Bush to Blame."

From James Taranto's Best of the Web on Tuesday:

"A Newark Airport security screener is being reassigned after officials said she failed to spot a 5-inch butcher knife in a passenger's pocketbook," the New York Post reports:

Katrina Bell, 27, of Greensboro, N.C., had cleared security and was waiting to board a flight with her sister on Saturday morning when she discovered she had forgotten to remove the knife from her bag. She had put it there--in preparation for a blind date Thursday night.

Something tells us Katrina Bell is going to have a hard time finding another date.

Do women really do this?

With Dan Rather stepping down and three CBS execs fired, you would think that the Memogate issue was closed? Well think again. Although asked to resign, they are not going without a fight writes Joe Hagan of the New York Observer.

Mr. Howard and two other ousted CBS staffers-his top deputy, Mary Murphy, and CBS News senior vice president Betsy West-haven't resigned. And sources close to Mr. Howard said that before any resignation comes, the 23-year CBS News veteran is demanding that the network retract Mr. Moonves' remarks, correct its official story line and ultimately clear his name.

Mr. Howard, those sources said, has hired a lawyer to develop a breach-of-contract suit against the network. Ms. Murphy and Ms. West have likewise hired litigators, according to associates of theirs, and all three remain CBS employees and collect weekly salaries from the company that asked them to tender their resignations. [...]

Legally, CBS and the ousted staffers are in an unusual stalemate: The network cannot be sued for breach of contract unless it actually fires them. Theoretically, the network could refuse to offer an apology or correct statements and simply drag its feet, continuing to write paychecks to the trio until their contracts expire. (Neither side would discuss how long the contracts are scheduled to last.)

This would make a good movie of the week.

A Norwegian study concluded that lobsters, along with many other crustaceans, don't have an advanced enough nervous system to feel pain. They say it's okay to go ahead and toss them into boiling water, which made PETA's Karin Robertson pretty upset.

"This is exactly like the tobacco industry claiming that smoking doesn't cause cancer," she said.

I think I'll have seafood for dinner tonight.

This didn't take long. The gun grabbers are already cheering the shooting at a shopping mall in New York. It gives them ammunition to call for more gun bans, a fight they have been losing badly in recent years.

United States Senator Charles E. Schumer yesterday called for the renewal of the assault weapons ban, which lapsed in September.

"My hope, my plea is that we will understand that assault weapons are not made for self-defense, they are not made for hunting," he said. "People who use these weapons want to kill a lot of random people quickly."

Just like sports cars are made for mowing down random pedestrians quickly. Schumer, along with Feinstein, is one of the most detestable advocates of gun control, so it comes as no surprise that he would be one of the first to jump at the chance. Nevermind that the gun used in the shooting is not a so-called "assault weapon", and lacks the evil nasty looking features defined by the now expired 1994 law. If it was considered an "assault weapon", it would have clearly been covered by the state ban which mirrors the federal ban.

What's more, had the citizens of New York not been severely restricted from carrying concealed firearms, one of them might have saved the state the time and expense of a criminal trial. (Of if Best Buy wasn't so anti-gun that they prevent managers and employees from carrying a gun or even keeping one in their car.)

Personally, I don't take chances and carry my sidearm every time I shop at the mall.

The U.N. is going to start going after alcohol as aggressively as they have gone after tobacco, writes Steve Milloy for Fox News. The U.N. claims that 4% of disease is caused by alcohol, while 4.1% is caused by tobacco, and 4.4% high blood pressure. They claim that alcohol can cause more than 60 different medical conditions and ought to be severly restricted. But the devil is in the details.

To debunk the statistical myth, Milloy lets a 2002 U.N. report speak for itself.

"Causes [of disease] can add to more than 100 percent. If the scenarios were equally common, 66.6 percent of throat cancer would be attributable to smoking, 33.3 percent to alcohol, 100 percent to genetic causes, and 100 percent to unknown environmental causes, making a total of 300 percent. Causes can, and ideally should, total more than 100 percent; this is an inevitable result of different causes working together to produce the disease, and reflects the extent of our knowledge of disease causation."

Did you catch that? By quitting drinking you might lower your chance of getting throat cancer from 300% to 267%. This is what happens when you use simple proportionality to conclude a causal relationship.

Of course all these statistics will be dutifully regurgitated by the usual suspects of pleasure police and nanny-state liberals who want to take away cigarettes, alcohol, fatty foods, and SUVs. Of course that's usually the whole reason these studies are conducted in the first place.

I'll give up my beer when you pry it from my cold drunken hands.

It's a sad day when you can't even park an ambulance in an emergency zone.

Ireland's major airport pledged Tuesday not to clamp any more ambulances -- after one was disabled while trying to ferry a seriously injured passenger to a Dublin hospital.

Saturday's clamping of the ambulance at Dublin International Airport made front-page news Tuesday and fanned public anger at clampers in Ireland's capital, where the practice was introduced in 1997. [...]

The police also refused to accept the ambulance company's credit card to pay the 63 euro ($82) fine. Instead, paramedics were required to withdraw their private cash from an automated teller machine.

Grammy viewership was down 25% over last year, and the 2nd-lowest ever.

Despite the recent investment in this website, I want to reiterate that Ravenwood's Universe will continue to be an ad-free zone. While I obviously reserve the right to change my mind in the future, there are currently no plans to host paid advertisements on this website. Although I have been contacted by a few advertisers who are keenly interested in cluttering up the Universe with their banners, I have humbly declined.

This site will continue to remain that ad-free until I am either unable to fund it, or I am tempted by the ever-increasing lure of easy money and a compulsive gun-buying habit.

Because some idiot shot up a New York mall with an - already banned - assault weapon / assault-type rifle / assault rifle, (or anything with the word 'assault' in it because police aren't saying what type of gun was really used), as many as seventeen percent of the dumbasses that read CNN think there should be mandatory security checks entering shopping malls.

Presumably this would be done with a large compliment of TSA-style federal screeners, because everyone knows you don't professionalize unless you federalize. Everyone should plan on arriving to the mall three hours early so that you'll still have plenty of time to get through security and get some shopping done before the mall closes.

Also anyone showing up to the mall with an assault whatever will be immediately arrested, because those are already banned in New York.

UPDATE: Say Uncle has more about the media doublespeak. The gun was bought right after the federal ban expired. But the state has a ban to pick up where the federal ban left off. But the gun isn't an assault weapon so it's not banned anyway. The gun was bought at a gun show. But a background check was done and no loophole was used. The guy didn't have a permit. But he wasn't required to have one any way.

So much for investigative journalism. Journalism 101: When in doubt about a gun, just say 'assault' whatever.

Scientists have studied the issue and done countless hours of research to come up with the radical conclusion that men and women are different.

It's a brave expert who'll chart a course through these controversial waters.

But that hasn't stopped Michael Gurian, psychologist and author of "What Could He Be Thinking?".

He believes there are about a hundred structural differences that have been identified between the male and female brain.

"Men, because we tend to compartmentalize our communication into a smaller part of the brain, we tend to be better at getting right to the issue," he said.

"The more female brain (will) gather a lot of material, gather a lot of information, feel a lot, hear a lot, sense a lot," he said.

Scientists say males have more activity in mechanical centers of the brain, whereas females show more activity in verbal and emotional centers.

Shocking! This is the biggest revelation since the Scopes Monkey Trial. This is the kind of stuff that would get a Harvard president in hot water. Get this man another grant.

"Keep in mind that the development and adoption of [TASERS] was intended to be an alternative to lethal force. Instead, they seem to be being used at cattle prods." -- Ravenwood, June 24, 2004.

Sometimes I hate it when I'm right.

With only two high school boys standing between him and the teachers, [Police Officer Michael] Branch pulled out his Taser, broke it down to stun gun mode and shocked the two boys with one-second bursts of electricity. [...]

"You just shocked me! Why did you do that?" was what Oyelowo said he yelled at Branch.

Branch replied: "You were in the way," according to Oyelowo.

TASERS are meant to be an alternative to lethal force. Apparently Officer Branch feels that his only other choice was to shoot this young man (who was in his way) with his sidearm.

Keep in mind that TASERS are potentially lethal and have killed dozens of people. Their use should be extremely limited.

More zero tolerance idiocy in California.

The 13-year-old boy was cited into Tulare County's Thunderbolt Program for juvenile offenders after police were notified Wednesday afternoon that he had the small knife on campus.

According to Porterville Police Sgt. Dan Haynes, police responded to Burton Middle School, located in the 1100 block of North Elderwood Street, after being alerted of the incident.

The boy "had a small Swiss Army knife that he was showing off to his friends," Haynes said. "The knife was never opened, there were no injuries, no threats; it was kind of just a show-and-tell" situation.

"He was not arrested, but cited into the Thunderbolt Program for a statute that states it is illegal to have a knife on a school campus, regardless of the circumstance."

My how times have changed. We used to carry small pocket knives to school all the time. When I was in the boy scouts, they even went so far as to teach us how to use them properly. Oddly enough, nobody was ever stabbed. On the other hand, I still have a scar on my hand from where Dana Cameron stabbed me with a pencil in the 3rd grade. Maybe they should ban those.

The U.K. is really making progress in restoring their right to defend themselves. The latest suggestion is that householders invest in a robotic beach ball that will supposedly chase burglars away. Are you willing to bet your life on this?

A large black ball, originally designed by Swedish scientists for use on Mars, could be the latest weapon in the war against burglars.

The device, developed at the University of Uppsala, acts as a high-tech security guard capable of detecting an intruder thanks to either radar or infra-red sensors. Once alerted, it can summon help, sound an alarm or pursue the intruders, taking pictures.

It is capable of travelling at 20mph, somewhat faster than a human being. Even worse for intruders, the robot ball can still give chase over mud, snow and water. [...]

The prototype, just under 2ft in diameter, weighs about 10lb. "It is extremely light, which is why it moves so fast," Mr Hulth said.

These things actually sound pretty neat. I bet thieves will fetch quite a price for them on the black market.

(Hat tip to Geek)

As if Europeans shaming men into peeing while sitting down wasn't bad enough, zoo officials in Northern Tailand are teaching elephants to use the toilet.

Some transplanted blue staters are awfully intolerant of the way we do things down here in red state country.

When Heather and Logan Ward's son entered public kindergarten this fall, they were shocked to discover that pupils were taken from class to a nearby church for weekly Bible lessons.

The Wards moved to Virginia's Shenandoah Valley from New York four years ago, and were unaware of the tradition that has remained in Staunton and other rural schools for more than 60 years.

So, naturally, they are demanding that the school discontinue the program, much to the chagrin of hundreds of local parents. About 80% of children attend the classes, and the Wards of course, are permitted to opt out. But they think that by choosing not to attend the classes, their children will be "stigmatized and have little to do while their classmates are in Bible classes".

A Maine woman wants to take away the rights of every citizen in the state because her son was mentally unstable.

Laurier J. Belanger Jr. waited 20 minutes to buy the shotgun that he used to kill himself a day and a half later.

His mother, Catherine Crowley, wishes her 18-year-old son had had a little more time to consider whether he wanted to live or die.

"If Larry had to wait to buy the shotgun, he would have had more time to think," Crowley said. "I just don't think he would have gone through with it if he had to wait longer before getting the gun."

Belanger is campaigning for a 10-day waiting period, under the mistaken assumption that he wouldn't have killed himself with a rope or sleeping pills. In fact, all statistical evidence shows that nations and states with extremely limited access to guns still suffer from suicide.

This young man's suicide is indeed a tragedy. But taking away the rights of others won't bring him back, nor will it prevent other suicides.

I finally got around to fixing the text selection for the site. Whenever you use absolute positioning in CSS, Internet Explorer pukes and won't let you select any text.

Apparently the problem can be fixed by adding a tiny bit of javascript to the very bottom of the page.

<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
<!--
document.body.style.height = document.documentElement.scrollHeight 'px';
-->
</script>

The solution was found here.

Via Taranto:

An Associated Press dispatch on Howard Dean, who is to be chosen tomorrow as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, claims that Dean "came close to winning the Democratic presidential nomination before collapsing in early 2004 in Iowa."

That's like saying a horse came close to winning a race before collapsing as he came out of the starting gate.

Whenever I hear someone talk about "guaranteed" benefits of social security, I feel like punching them in the nose. Without ownership of accounts, there are no guarantees, what so ever. You can pay taxes into the system for 20 or 30 years and not get a penny back. Congress could eliminate the system tomorrow, and there isn't a thing you could do about it. The only way to guarantee benefits is to tie account ownership with the individual taxpayer so that it actually becomes your account. If you die, that account goes to your estate. If Congress wants to call Social Security an investment instead of a tax, let it play by the same rules as any other investment.

This is my social security account. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My social security account is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life...

UPDATE: Jeff Jacoby has more on where you send 1/8th of your paycheck.

For some reason, this month has seen a flood of referrer spam. Although the referral logs are not published, they are increasingly clogged with spam links, making them all but useless to me.

I've pretty much fixed spamming in the comment and trackback logs. But the referrer logs are a new battleground for me. But I don't place 100% of the blame on the spammers. Also to blame are people who feel the need to publish their referrals. By doing so they provide the precious links that spammers crave. Then of course there are the idiots who buy their products or fall for their schemes. Let's face it, if it weren't profitable, they wouldn't do it.

My next steps are to figure out how to keep these bottom feeders from clogging my server logs. I'm looking into blacklists and using .htaccess, but so far there is no clear way to keep them at bay.

This time from the Washington Times. What's in a name?

Gun lobbyists to sue over ban at Capitol

Gun safety advocates. . .support the ban.

I'm tired of being labeled as a lobbyist just because I support gun rights and the Second Amendment. Especially since I would also fashion myself as a gun safety advocate. As someone who handles guns quite a bit, gun safety is pretty darned important. What the Times really means, is Gun Grabbers support the ban; anti-freedom advocates support the ban; gun control lobbyists support the ban.

Isac Aguero was a forklift operator for Miller Brewing Company. But one weekend he was caught drinking a Bud Light, and was summarily fired. Now, I once worked for Coca-Cola and the Coke/Pepsi wars are just as serious. But Miller should really lighten up. After all, it's not his fault Miller beers are so disgusting.

You know the Fiat is a crappy car, when you hear that GM paid $2 Billion not to buy the company.

Charging for autographs might be against the law in Rhode Island pretty soon.

[Sen. Roger] Badeau's bill would ban professional athletes, entertainers or promoters from charging a fee for an autograph to a child under age 16. They would be fined $100 for each violation.

A Democrat who represents the Northern Rhode Island communities of Cumberland and Woonsocket, Badeau said he was appalled after the Boston Red Sox won the World Series last year and several players participated in an autograph signing event in Providence.

He said it sickened him to see parents shelling out $125 so their children could get a baseball, photo or bat signed by a player.

"There's a buck with everything," he said.

Does this mean that pro athletes will no longer sign autographs in Rhode Island, or that they will start charging $225 to cover Rhode Island's cut?

You simply can't make this stuff up. Labor unions are demanding paid leave for women during their "time of the month".

Australian Manufacturing Workers Union (AMWU) national secretary Doug Cameron said production line jobs were tough on some women during their monthly cycle and their problems should be recognized with a day's menstrual leave every month.

No word yet on whether or not men will be authorized to work overtime to get away from their bitchy wives during the same, um, period.

"We are asking the mother to come in and talk with us. ... We'd like to have a thorough discussion with the mother and father." -- Broward County Sheriff Ken Jenne, after a newborn baby was thrown out the window of a moving car.

"Oh, and bring that evidence with ya, otherwise, I got no case and you'll go scot-free." -- Springfield Police Chief Clancy Wiggum, on the Simpsons.

Publicola tells the tale of a thief who is so good at his craft, no one seems to mind.

Did the man get caught? Nope; he freely admits it though. Was he prosecuted? Nope; in fact he's been lauded for it - even by the victim of his crime. Did the article condemn him for the thief he is? Nope; it treats his actions as being correct for the circumstances. Did the local cops do anything? Yep; they received stolen goods & conspired to destroy the evidence.

Had it happened to me (which is highly unlikely), I would have pressed charges.

Students in Sutter County elementary schools are forced to wear photo ID cards around their neck which contain an RFID chip. The radio transmitters track their movements around the school and log it in a database.

The badges contain a photo of pupils, their grade level and their name. On the back is a tube roughly the size of a roll of dimes.

Within it is a chip with an antenna attached. As the chip passes underneath a reader mounted above the classroom door, it transmits a 15-digit number, which then is translated into the student's name by software contained in a handheld device used by teachers to check attendance.

Some parents are obviously upset. The program is not only compulsory, but it was instituted without their input. Some students admitted to feeling like they had been bar-coded like a grocery item.

The slippery slope here is obvious. First of all, students and parents don't have a choice. Second, the current implementation of the program is inadequate. Students could simply carry their friends ID or remove the RFID tube on the back of their ID. To be truly successful, the chip would have to be non-portable. Implanting it under the skin should solve that. You can imagine where it leads from there.

That the government should institute such a program is unconscionable. School is compulsory. The tags are compulsory. There is something wrong with this equation.

Had it been me, I would have removed it immediately. If they gave me another one, I would have removed that. I would rather be expelled than be tagged like a wild animal.

Had it been my child, I would have removed the tag. If they suspended him, I'd be down there yelling at the principal every day of his suspension. A free man cannot and should not stand for such treatment. And if the outcry is as loud as the media claims, I probably wouldn't be alone in my fight.

Wendy McElroy wants to know how we got to the point where children are routinely handcuffed and charged with felonies over trivial matters like butter knives and crayon drawings.

Two boys, aged 9 and 10, were charged with second-degree felonies and taken away in handcuffs by the police because they drew stick figures depicting violence against a third student.

There was no act of violence, no weaponry. According to news reports, the arrested children had no prior history of threatening the student depicted in the drawing. The parents were not advised or consulted. The school's immediate response was to call the police and level charges "of making a written threat to kill or harm another person." [...]

Gabrielle was suspended from school due to a butter knife packed in her lunch. Because of braces, Gabrielle needed the knife- a legal item - to cut an apple. No violence nor threat occurred.

[Her father Derek Hoggett] explained, "She was given the harshest punishment for a first offense even though school officials admitted in a letter ... that she was a student with exemplary behavior and high academic standing."

Gabrielle's school district has reportedly investigated "2,149 criminal incidents, issued 779 citations and made 108 arrests" in the past several months.

Ms. McElroy notes that these are not aberrations and are happening with an increasing frequency. What's more, officials and police are defending their slapping the cuffs on 8 and 9 year old children.

The catalyst for much of this nonsense was the Columbine shootings in 1999, and as McElroy points out, their fear of a repeat shooting is reasonable. But their response to that fear is not. Stretching the definition of 'weapon' to inlude plastic knives and crayon drawings is not going to prevent another shooting.

Now this is funny.

Instant Replay is coming to College Football.

"The response to video replay nationally and in the Big Ten was overwhelmingly positive," said Chuck Broyles, the coach at Pittsburg State and chairman of the rules committee. "When we have the ability to correct a potentially game-changing error, and we have the technology to do so, we feel this improves the fairness of the game and directly improves the student-athlete experience."

Nobody wants to lose on a game changing play, but football purists (such as myself) will undoubtedly cringe at the thought. First of all, the NFL has had countless iterations of instant replay, none of which seemed to work very well. At least the current NFL system minimizes the delay of the game.

But another untold problem of instant replay is that it tends to degrade the quality of officiating. In the NFL, the number of challenges seems to be increasing. Although bad calls were sometimes a problem, it was nowhere near the 3 or 4 calls per game, which it seems like are challenged now-a-days.

I'm sure many will disagree, but then again I think the Designated Hitter should be outlawed, and the inventor Astroturf drawn and quartered.

Imagine operating a business for nearly 60 years, and then having carpetbaggers move into town and drive you out of business because they consider you a nuisance. It's happening, in California.

The City Council on Monday voted to close down a 58-year-old shooting range where 60 law enforcement agencies throughout the state train.

The San Gabriel Valley Gun Club, at the base of the Angeles National Forest, is used as a training site by Arcadia and Costa Mesa police departments and the Sutter County Sheriff's Dept., among others. It now has 18 months to relocate or shut down.

As part of sweeping changes in zoning and development codes, the council rezoned the property on Fish Canyon Road from community facilities and water conservation to open space, which forces the gun club off the site.

"This closes chapter one. It's up to the players the gun club and residents where they go from here,' said Mayor Cristina Madrid.

The gun club initially came under fire when neighbors complained about noise and lead contamination to the environment from bullets.

Other local businesses were targeted as unseemly and told to close as well.

Inventors are working on a $100 laptop computer that will be targeted at the poor. Now, I agree that a computer is a wonderful educational tool, and making them more affordable is a noble effort. But even if you don't consider a computer to be a luxury item, a laptop computer certainly would be. I mean, we already have $400 desktops, so getting to $100 isn't outside the realm. But a laptop? Is that so the poor can take the computer with them when they are traveling the globe? Or perhaps they are targeting homeless transients who are always on the go.

Far be it for me to stand in the way of someone trying to build a cheaper computer. But it occurs to me that the standard of "poor" has changed radically over the years. Especially when someone can still own a house, have cable TV, give their kids $200 sneakers, and now purchase a laptop, and still be called "poor".

The timing of the allegations against Bill Cosby seem dubious. Women are coming forward saying that they were sexually harassed 30 years ago. So why remain silent for 30 years? Why come forward now? Perhaps Cosby's recent speeches are ruffling some feathers.

It's nice to see how well the TSA is doing at keeping terrorists from hijacking our airplanes.

Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Thomas Saylor Junior faces possible legal action after a small Swiss Army type knife was found hidden in a shoe in his carry-on bag.

Imagine what terrible tragedy could have happened if this guy was allowed to proceed.

As you can see we have undergone radical changes here at Ravenwood's Universe. Thanks to Kathy at Moxie Design Studios for having the patience to work with me and come up with this awesome new design.

She is still finishing up construction on the new design, so please be patient. There may be some intermittant problems or changes but rest assured, they are being worked.

If you are afraid of change and want to revert back to the "Classic" look and feel, just use the skin selector on the left hand side.

As a gun rights advocate, it should come as no surprise that I find restraining orders to be a bit lacking. Anyone who would look to a paper decree from the state to ward off someone whom they fear is a genuine threat, must be living in some sort of fantasy world. Given that there is no real deterrent behind this sort of paper protection, I liken it to the old joke of yelling "Stop, or I'll say stop again."

But it has occurred to me that restraining orders could be useful, if they were given the proper muscle to back them up. Currently if you have someone under a restraining order, your only recourse is to call the police when it is violated. They will come over and baby-sit for 15 minutes and then leave you alone once again to fend for yourself. If this becomes too much of a habit, (in other words, after 15 times the guy hasn't killed you yet) they'll round up the perp and throw him in the pokey. Of course the great irony is that if all he is doing is making empty threats, he may not be the danger you thought he was.

But I digress. What I propose is that when a judge issues a restraining order, it should do more to protect the law-abiding citizen than it does to rein in the rights of the accused. Right now a restraining order says your ex-boyfriend is not allowed to come near you, not allowed to buy a gun, not allowed to approach you in any way. I propose to add to that, protections and privileges for what a law-abiding citizen may do without fear of reprisal.

Under this new Paper Protection Reform Act, a restraining order would restore the basic firearms rights of anyone it protects. Once the judge signs off on it, it would become a defacto gun license for both purchasing and carrying. Of course in states like Virginia it's not really necessary, but in gun control havens like Chicago, New York, or Washington D.C., it would prevent the government from preventing you from protecting yourself. When the judge grants the restraining order, you should be able to purchase and carry a gun (should you choose to do so) without fear of prosecution from the state.

Now obviously I feel you should always be able to purchase and carry a gun, but some localities would rather have disarmed victims. This would protect a person from not just their ex-boyfriend, but the city of Chicago, who might be so inclined as to prosecute you for trying to watch out for number one.

Ideally, it would also be universal. Even in right to carry states there are plenty of places that are deemed off limits. Places like schools, churches, and restaurants are sometimes considered 'gun-free zones' in a misguided attempt to keep people 'safe'. Under the Paper Protection Reform Act, a divorcee would no longer need to fear her ex-husband when she is picking up her daughter from school.

Now of course I don't expect everyone who gets a restraining order to run out and get a gun, and start carrying it around. But if enough people did, and if that possibility was always there (no matter where you live, work, or play), bad guys might start to think twice before they violate the order. And that would put real deterrence behind what is now just paper protection.

UPDATE: Changed proposal to Paper Protection Reform Act on 10/06/08 to eliminate confusion with Ravenwood's Law.

Last month I wrote about two men who were arrested for telling lawyer jokes outside of a court house. Justice has apparently prevailed, and the case has been dismissed.

Are we supposed to feel sorry for these sore losers that are fleeing to Canada? The only one I feel sorry for are the Canadians.

Slavery is alive and well in Montgomery County (MD) reports the Washington Post. Immigrant workers like Gloria Ramos are hired to work as live-in housekeepers or nannies. But often times they realize too late that the work is a lot harder than they thought. Aside from caring for 3 children for her $200 a week, Ramos was "forced to cook daily for seven members of the family. She found herself working as late as 3 a.m. to finish all her tasks. To make matters worse, her promised weekly paycheck often didn't materialize." Not surprisingly, Ramos quit.

If immigrant advocates have their way, laborers like Ramos won't have to worry about being put into situations like that any more. In fact, they might not ever have to worry about working in Montgomery County again.

The advocacy group is asking the council to protect such domestic workers with far-reaching legislation that would establish a living wage for such employees of at least $10.50 an hour, unless they also receive medical insurance. The proposal also would mandate paid holidays, vacation time, sick leave and family and medical leave time.

I can think of no better way to drive up unemployment than to mandate a so-called "living wage". Not to mention the laws are inherently racist and discourage the hiring of low-skilled workers. Dr. Walter Williams explains:

One effect of minimum wages is that of discrimination against the employment of less-preferred workers. A worker might be less-preferred in the eyes of a particular employer in a number of ways. He might be low-skilled, less intelligent, or a different nationality or race. Put yourself in the place of an employer, and ask: If the law requires me to pay, say, $9 an hour, no matter whom I hire, does it pay me to hire someone who has skills enabling him to produce only $5 worth of value per hour? Most people would view hiring such a worker as a losing economic proposition.

Are low-skilled workers made better or worse off as a result of the $9 minimum wage? It's almost a no-brainer to conclude that being hired at $5 an hour puts more food on the table than not being hired at $9. What's more, minimum wages reduce training opportunities. Most of us gain skills through on-the-job-training. Minimum wage laws deny that opportunity.

Plus there is also the overall effect on unemployment. If an employer has three workers making $5 an hour, and is suddenly forced to pay them more, he may lay one of them off and expect the other two to pull up the slack. While the two guys making more money are better off, it's little consolation to the guy that got laid off to pay for their raises.

Still yet, you could look at it this way. Lets say a guy is getting paid $8 an hour to sweep the floor. Here you come, fresh out of high school looking for a summer job, and offer to sweep that floor for $6 an hour. Why should the government be allowed to tell you that's illegal for you to work for that little bit of money? When you don't have very many skills and you're out there competing for work, sometimes your price point is the only competitive advantage you have.

Here is a perfect example of why I hate polls. CNN reports that a majority of Americans think that the evil, hated, rich shouldn't qualify for benefits, while at the same time should have their Social Security tax increased.

Americans think the wealthy should help bolster Social Security, a CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll released Tuesday suggests.

More than two-thirds of 1,010 adults contacted from Friday to Sunday said it would be a good idea to limit benefits for wealthier retirees and for higher income workers to pay Social Security taxes on all their wages.

Isn't it nice that more than two-thirds of Americans think that the government should increase taxes on a segment of society, while denying them the benefits that those taxes pay for. They would tell people that you are not only going to have to keep paying into Social Security, but we are going to increase your tax. Oh by the way, don't plan on coming to us for any benefits, because you won't get any.

That's pure income redistribution, and it highlights the dangers of majority rule. Majority rule, a/k/a mob rule, means that the majority is able to tyranize the minority simply because they have greater numbers. It's what kept slavery in existence for thousands of years.

If you lived next door to a nucular power plant, wouldn't you want to know right away if something went wrong? Well, not in Canada. They are complaining that the emergency sirens would be too loud.

The AP is surprisingly candid in pointing out just who is sounding the global warming alarm. (emphasis mine)

The warming will continue as long as "greenhouse gases," primarily carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels, accumulate in the atmosphere, say the U.N. panel and other authoritative scientific organizations.

For those of you in Rio Linda, that means dictatorial.

The owner of Copps and Pick 'n' Save stores in Milwaukee have decided to card everyone, when it comes to alcohol and tobacco.

It doesn't matter if you're 21 or 91 - you're going to get carded at Pick 'N Save.

Officials of the Roundy's supermarket chain have instituted a new ID policy at their Pick 'N Save and Copps stores in Wisconsin.

All buyers of cigarettes or alcohol are being carded. Company officials say they want to take the pressure off their cashiers, who have to make judgment calls on a customer's age.

Seventy-one-year-old Betty Ann Fischer says she thought the "sweet young man" at the store was kidding when she was asked to produce ID.

Other customers aren't too happy about the new policy. Nicky Clauer, a 45-year-old customer, says she thinks it's kind of a pain.

These store owners are free to card everyone if they want, but I can tell you that I would never shop at such a place. The city of Alpharetta Georgia has mandated this type of ignorance for years, and it drives business away. Granted it's much different when the government forces it down your throat, but the end result is ticked off customers.

On the surface, such a policy seems innocuous, and Betty Ann Fischer may think it's cute at first. But what will she think 6 months from now when they are still carding her? What will she say when they refuse to sell to her because she forgot her ID. Will it still be cute when her grandson starts working there and is forced to ask her for an ID? And then can't sell to her if she left it at home.

The root of the policy is zero tolerance and zero responsibility. Rather than train staff to make intelligent and reasoned decisions, they force everyone to live with the inconveniences of looking young. If you have your ID or aren't in too big of a hurry, it may not bother you much. But the first time you forget your ID, you might think otherwise.

The Cuban government has banned smoking, out of concern for public health.

Smoking will be banned in restaurants, except in designated smoking areas, and cigarette machines also will be removed. The law will also suspend sales of cigarettes to children under age 16 and at stores less than 100 yards from schools.

According to government statistics, four of every 10 Cubans smoke, and 30 percent of the 15,000 deaths from preventable cancers each year can be linked to smoking.

They have not yet said whether smoking will be banned in political prisons where dissidents await their fate.

All those lawsuits the RIAA is filing against file traders don't seem to be based on very hard evidence. After years of going after 12-year olds and grandmothers, the RIAA is suing a dead woman who hates computers.

Lawyers representing several record companies have filed suit against an 83 year-old woman who died in December, claiming that she made more than 700 songs available on the internet.

"I believe that if music companies are going to set examples they need to do it to appropriate people and not dead people," Robin Chianumba told AP. "I am pretty sure she is not going to leave Greenwood Memorial Park to attend the hearing."

Gertrude Walton, who lived in Beckley, West Virginia hated computers, too, her daughter adds. An RIAA spokesperson said that it would try and dismiss the case.

However the RIAA's embarrassment doesn't end there. Chianumba said that she had sent a copy of her mother's death certificate to record company lawyers in response to an initial warning letter, over a week before the suit was filed. In 2003 the RIAA sued a twelve year-old girl for copyright infringement. She'd harbored an MP3 file of her favorite TV show on her hard drive. Her working class parents in a housing project in New York were forced to pay two thousand dollars in a settlement.

Could it be that their standards for filing a lawsuit are just a tad bit too low?

James Taranto points out that the AP has stooped to reporting bad news before it even happens.

It's too early to say whether last weekend's vote has dealt a blow to the insurgency. But in Baghdad, where nearly a quarter of the Iraqi population lives, the absence of any catastrophic attacks in recent days has given people a cautious sense of security.

All that could change with a single deadly car bomb in the heart of the city or sustained mortar fire on the Green Zone.

Taranto notes it is within the realm of possibility that it will change for the better as well.

In yet more zero tolerance idiocy, a young boy in Florida was arrested for playing with a toy gun.

A fifth-grade student was arrested and released to the custody of his mother after he allegedly brought a plastic toy gun with a red tip to school.

Police say the boy was suspended from Driftwood Elementary School for ten days and charged with one misdemeanor count of disrupting school.

Students at the school yesterday told a school resource officer that another student had a gun. Officials found the student and discovered a toy .45-caliber pistol

How can a toy be .45 caliber is that better than a toy Uzi or to AK-47 with toy flash hider and toy bayonet lug?

A bill sponsored by Del. Algie Howell, D-Norfolk, that would fine people for not pulling up their pants high enough has made it out of committee and will go to the full House. HB 1981 reads "Any person who, while in a public place, intentionally wears and displays his below-waist undergarments, intended to cover a person's intimate parts, in a lewd or indecent manner, shall be subject to a civil penalty of no more than $50.". It is intended to target those nice young girls who wear low rise jeans and have thongs sticking up out of the back.

Obviously the sexist male pig in me wants to cry out: "Leave those nice young girls alone!" But even the non-sexist male pig in me thinks that it isn't the government's job to try to legislate pulling up your pants. And although this is targeted at nubile young temptresses, it could easily be applied to minority yutes who often wear baggy pants pushed mid-way down their boxers. Howell seems like a bit of a nut case, in that he has also proposed bills "dealing with drivers who lean way back and people who play their car stereos obnoxiously loud."

No doubt all of these young people look rediculous. But I think it is their right nay duty to look as foolish as possible, if for no other reason than to remind the rest of the world that they are not yet ready to handle responsibility. If their parents won't make them pull up their pants, who are we to do so?

Besides it was only a few decades ago that such a standard could have been applied to two piece swim suits.

As if you needed more proof that the media knows absolutely nothing about firearms, the Bristol Press (CT) notes that their police department upgraded their sidearms to something bigger. A lot bigger.

The police department recently upgraded the fire power of the guns its officers carry, from 9 mm to 40 mm.

According to training Lt. Eric Osanitsch, the department made the move to upgrade to what he called a better ballistic weapon when the Glock 40 mm was chosen as the new department-issued service piece.

Prior to this change, Osanitsch said officers had been issued a Glock 9 mm but the department has a ten year replacement policy. When the time came to look at replacements, other options for service pieces were explored and the 40 mm seemed like the correct choice.

Osanitsch said some of the advantages of the 40 mm weaponinclude a heavier, faster bullet, a more controllable and accurate gun and the officers seem more comfortable shooting it.

For a photo of the 40 mm, click here.

It may seem like I'm nitpicking when I point out mistakes like this. But I think it is important to illustrate that these people know very little about the guns they want to ban. The media gleefully toes the gun control line and spout statistics given to them from gun grabbers. They don't just lack the will, but the ability to do any investigative journalism or fact-checking when it comes to guns. That they would influence public policy, when they don't have the slightest clue about basic firearm's knowledge is especially damning.

In case you missed the most compelling Super Bowl commercial of the night...

UPDATE: Of course not everyone thinks Busch's tribute to the troops was all that grand. Ms. Malkin has the run down on the usual suspects.

You know, a few decades ago, you wouldn't think of having women in the military outside of nursing or some other specialty role. Just think of all the co-ed naked mud wrestling that the soldiers of yesteryear missed out on.

Of course there's no room for honesty in government, especially when it comes to taxation.

The city's tax superintendent has been suspended without pay for a week for trying to inject some humor in the city income tax filing instructions.

The attempt at humor by Linda Stubbs was called "misguided" by city Finance Director John Lyons.

The forms - with such lines as, "If we can tax it, we will," - were sent last week to all Middletown businesses and residents who pay city income tax.

City officials didn't laugh at lines like: "Free advice: if you don't have a profit in a five-year period, you might want to consider another line of work."

Lyons said revised forms were sent out immediately at a cost to taxpayers of about $5,500.

So ultimately the joke is on the citizens of Middletown, who are getting stuck twice.

As if you needed another reason not to trust CNN/Money - who once took financial advice from world famous financier Billy Joel - now they are using the Super Bowl as a market prediction.

According to the formula, a win by a team that played in the old National Football League would give a lift to stocks. A championship by a team like the Patriots that played in the American Football League before the merger of the two circuits would let the bears run.

But the indicator, which had about a 90 percent success rate predicting the market in its first XXXI years of existence, has had only one clean win in the past VII big games before Sunday. [...]

"It's been correct just under 80 percent of the time," he said recently. "I don't know of any other gaggle of gurus that has a record that good. Of course, I certainly wouldn't put real money into the market based on the game. But it's nice to know if it's on your side."

Stovall, now managing director and strategist at Wood Asset Management in Sarasota, Fla., is a University of Pennsylvania grad who was pulling for the Eagles -- an old NFL team -- even without the indicator making that the bullish call.

Of course I like to think of the Pat's win as the Great Satan Imperialists stepping all over nature and crushing the endangered Eagle. But that's just me.

Here's one for PETA.

Animal lover David Beart was shocked last Friday when he watched six men belly up to the bar at Booker's BBQ Grill & Crab Shack - and gulp down an equal number of live goldfish, each drowning in a shot glass full of booze.

"I was quite horrified by the whole ordeal," Beart, 36, told the Toronto Globe and Mail. "These are living beings."

Outraged, Beart put his account of the incident up on his Web site, ThePetProfessor.com, and informed the local humane society, the health inspector and city and provincial authorities.

While consuming live goldfish is not illegal in Alberta, the health inspector did jump all over the bar owner who has since agreed to stop serving the novelty drink.

The federal tobacco lawsuit has hit a snag. Six years after the states settled with "Big Tobacco" for $246 Billion, the Fed tried to get in on the action by bringing a $280 Billion RICO suit. They are alleging a coordinated and deliberate fraud to mislead the public about the dangers of smoking, and are seeking billions of dollars in civil penalties. But a judge has ruled that while the fed can sue, they cannot seek monetary damages under the civil RICO statute.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the civil RICO statute doesn't allow the government to recover money in the ongoing lower court case because RICO statutes required "forward-looking remedies," while seeking the money was "a remedy aimed at past violations."

This puts a pretty big damper on the federal lawsuit. They had been hoping to rein in "Big Tobacco" while reaping a financial windfall at the same time. But without monetary damages, all the fed can do is limit marketing or demand that they fund more of those lame anti-smoking advertisements (which I tend to think actually increases teen smoking).

Former Vermont Governor Howard Dean has all but locked up the DNC Chairman spot.

For a look at just how successful the Iraqi elections really were, Mostly Cajun points out an op-ed in the Arab News.

In spite of everything, the Iraqis voted. They did so with a passion and a seriousness that gives the lie to the cliche that Arabs are not ready for democracy. One myth down, a thousand to go.

Everyone says that this is the first free elections in Iraq for fifty years. That is another lie. There has never been one single free election in the long history of the Arabs ever. This is the first one.

It took the Americans to conduct it and force it down the throats of dictators, terrorists, exploding deranged humans, and odds as big as the distance between the USA and the Middle East.

Of course this this shouldn't be taken lightly. For all the talk of voter intimidation in the U.S. during the last two elections, Iraqis faced the very real possibility of being murdered for trying to vote. And that very thing almost happened, as Free Iraq blog points out.

Citizens of Al Mudhiryiah (a small town in the "death triangle") were subjected to an attack by several militants today who were trying to punish the residents of this small town for voting in the election last Sunday.

The citizens responded and managed to stop the attack, kill 5 of the attackers, wounded 8 and burned their cars.

3 citizens were injured during the fire exchange. The Shiekh of the tribe to whom the 3 wounded citizens belong demanded more efforts from the government to stop who he described as "Salafis".

It's refreshing to see these Iraqis using their inalienable right to keep and bear arms for the security of a free state.

mASS BACKWARDS reports that Massachusetts is denying a soldier his inalienable Second Amendment rights. Watch your blood pressure, because this story is sure to get you worked up.

I have long held the opinion that the neo-temperance movement will be both a success and a failure. That is, they will succeed in banning smoking, and they will fail at preventing it.

Already smoking has been banned in Ireland, Norway, and New Zealand. Currently the bans only impact "public places", but they include private property like bars and restaurants. Successive steps will include private homes and cars, especially where children or employees might be present. Do you have a maid? You might soon need to decide between firing her and continuing your habit.

Anti-smokers and pleasure police have been on the march for decades. They have taken the baby steps approach to pass increasingly restrictive bans on tobacco, with the ultimate goal of complete prohibition. One needs only to look at history to see how well this will work.

In the 1920s and 30s, alcohol, which is just as deadly as tobacco, was completely banned in the United States. A minority of citizens were able to inflict their moral values on the majority, but drinking didn't stop. Underground bars called speakeasies operated with impunity. The lack of government regulation meant that quality and distribution standards were left up to the whim of the bartender. If he wanted to serve a potentially lethal concoction of 'bathtub gin', so be it. If he wanted to sell to children, so be it. Through the simple act of over-regulation, alcohol became effectively unregulated.

Prohibition also carried with it a dramatic increase in crime. Organized crime bosses like Al Capone flourished. On the black market, there was plenty of profit to be made. Criminals were willing to commit murder over the manufacture and distribution of illegal alcohol. Despite the nation wide ban, if you had the money alcohol was more accessible than ever.

A similar war is happening on illicit drugs. Marijuana, crack, and methamphetamines are all banned. Most of the drugs are banned world wide, and as a consequence, some narcotics have a 17000% profit margin on the street. With money like that to be made, it's no wonder the stakes are so high. As much as 95% of the drugs could be confiscated by authorities, and drug lords would still turn a handsome profit.

In New York City, overtaxation has already created a deadly black market for cigarettes. The profit on illegal tax-free smokes is nearly 300%, and some dealers are already switching from hard drugs to cigarettes. The profits may be lower, but demand is high, and hawking cigarettes brings a lot less jail time than distributing crack cocaine.

The Neo-temperance movement is bound to get their wish. A complete prohibition of tobacco products seems inevitable. The smokers just don't have the numbers to withstand the tyranny of majority rule. But a ban on tobacco won't mean cessation. Just like the underground establishments of the 1920s, some defiant bar and restaurant owners will refuse to enforce the ban. Indeed in places where there is already a ban in place, some restaurant workers are looking the other way rather than take on the role of the pleasure police.

Cigarettes may not be as popular as alcohol, but they are certainly more popular than illicit drugs. Throw in cigars and smokeless tobacco, and there are plenty of people around to violate what they view as a silly and unjust law. When criminals organize to meet that demand, lets just hope that we don't get caught in the crossfire.

Geez, you can't even give a person cookies anymore, without being sued.

Taylor Ostergaard, 17, and Lindsey Jo Zellitti, 18, baked the chocolate chip and sugar cookies one night last July.

They made packages with a half-dozen cookies each and added large red or pink construction-paper hearts that carried the message, "Have a great night."

The notes were signed with their first initials: "Love, The T and L Club."

Then they set off to make their deliveries.

Wanita Renea Young, 49, said she was at her rural home south of Durango around 10:30 p.m. when she said saw "shadowy figures" outside the house banging repeatedly on her door.

She yelled, "Who's there?" but no one answered, and the figures ran away.

Frightened, she spent the night at her sister's home, then went to the hospital the next morning because she was still shaking and had an upset stomach.

The teenagers' families offered to pay Young's medical bills, but she declined and sued, saying their apologies were not sincere and were not offered in person.

At least the judge refused to order punitive damages, and the lady only got $900 for her medical bills. But she sure taught those girls a lesson they'll never forget.

Following the fatal shooting of an actress in New York City, the National Crime Prevention Council is offering advice on how to comply with muggers. Color me skeptical, but I fail to see how following their advice prevents crime.

The best way to deal with the confrontation is to comply by giving the robber want they want.

The key is to be observant. Take notes on the robber. Look at facial features or any distinguishing facial features, what is they are wearing, how they speak. Get a good description to tell the police.

Of course, the problem with this approach is that it assumes that the guy is just going to rob you, and not going to murder you. Those of us who aren't clairvoyant might feel more obliged to resist.

Now, I'm not saying I would get up in the guy's face and take him on, as police are speculating this woman did. But I would certainly be more apt to just run off than hand over my money. I would be willing to bet my life that he's not going to run after me. Actually, I should rephrase that. I would be more willing to bet my life that he's not going to run after me, than to bet my life that he's not going to shoot me. I am most certainly not going to whip out my pencil and paper so that I can take notes, or ask the mugger if he has any distinguishing birthmarks or scars. But maybe that's just me.

You can choose for yourself whichever method you want to take. But I think running away goes further toward crime prevention than does the Crime Prevention Council's method of making it a successful robbery.

Lefty whore Janeane Garofalo shows us what she really thinks.

"The inked fingers was disgusting," Air America radio talk show host Janeane Garofalo declared on MSNBC in denouncing Republican lawmakers who, before and after the State of the Union, showed off an inked finger meant to demonstrate solidarity with Iraqi voters who dipped a finger in ink when they voted. To mock the display, Garofalo soon held up her hand in a Nazi salute as she predicted: "The inked fingers and the position of them, which is gonna be a Daily Show photo already, of them signaling in this manner [Nazi salute], as if they have solidarity with the Iraqis who braved physical threats against their lives to vote as if somehow these inked-fingered Republicans have something to do with that."

Why do people insist on trivializing the holocaust to make their point? Garafalo's also never heard of Godwin's Law.

God bless the liberal media. They took some innocuous machismo comments and turned them on their head. CNN and others are claiming that a Marine General said "It's fun to shoot people". Indeed, the CNN Headline proclaims: Marine general: It's 'fun to shoot people'

The problem is, that isn't what he said. He said it's fun to shoot some people. And that 'some' makes all the difference.

"Actually it's quite fun to fight them, you know. It's a hell of a hoot," Mattis said, prompting laughter from some military members in the audience. "It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right up there with you. I like brawling.

"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil," Mattis said. "You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them."

Now, beating up women is a pet peeve of mine. It causes me to see that red curtain of blood that Kim is always talking about.

Now, I'm not saying I would go out and shoot wife-beaters like some psychotic vigilante. But I can certainly relate to where the General is coming from.

"Md. House Democrats Propose Tax Cut" -- Washington Post, February 3, 2005.

"D.C. Seeks Sales Ban On Violent Games" -- Washington Post, February 3, 2005.

Private property rights will be nullified if Virginia Senator William Mims, a Republican, has his way. He wants to ban smoking just about everywhere except private homes reports the Washington Post.

A Senate committee voted narrowly Thursday to ban indoor smoking in all public buildings in Virginia, including restaurants, in an effort to protect people from the effects of second-hand smoke. [...]

Smoking would be permitted only in private homes, bars that are sealed off from other areas, private functions and workplace areas that are not open to the public.

The problem here is that Virginia has very, very few bars. ABC laws are extraordinarily strict, and licensees must maintain a certain percentage of food sales, and continue to offer food up until they get ready to close for the night. This law would effectively ban smoking in most restaurants.

The problem here is not one of smoking and non-smoking. Instead it is one of property rights. Anti-smoking Nazi's don't think twice about stepping on the property rights of other people. The most common argument is that they want to protect their right to go out to a restaurant or bar without having to breath your smoke. This is the biggest fallacy in the entire anti-smoking campaign.

First off, lets be clear on just whose rights anti-smokers are stepping on. They are NOT stepping on the rights of smokers, rather than the rights of restaurant owners. Restaurants are in business to make money, and if there is a large enough segment of the population that WANTS smoke-free restaurants, you are going to have plenty of smoke-free restaurant options. Laws of economics dictate that someone will provide that benefit to the public if there is a real demand for it. If there are NO smoke-free restaurants, then you should open one, and make a fortune catering to the smoke-free crowd.

The same principle works in reverse. A place like California, where smoking in restaurants will land you a night in the pokey, has a HUGE demand for smoking restaurants, and absolutely no supply. If you could disobey the law, and open a smoking restaurant, you'd probably make money hand over fist from smokers looking for a safe haven.

Second, there is a big misconception that restaurants and businesses are public property. In fact, they are private property that happens to be open to the public. Aside from discriminating against protected classes, business owners should be free to do business with whom they please. Mandating that business owners not allow smoking in their businesses is a blatant violation of their rights. The economic law of supply and demand should dictate the benefits that business owners offer to consumers, not the state legislature.

James Taranto points out this bit of Chutzpah.

Iraq's leading Sunni Muslim political group said Wednesday that the country's new government will lack the legitimacy to draft a constitution because many Sunnis boycotted Sunday's elections.

Dante Culpepper is taking a lot of flack as an indian giver.

Daunte Culpepper showed off his scrambling ability Wednesday -- in a crowded convention center ballroom.

The Minnesota Vikings quarterback presented a paralyzed high school football player two diamond necklaces worth about $75,000 during an NFL awards ceremony, but then awkwardly asked for them back after it was finished.

Sounds damning. But the devil is in the details.

The confusion began at the FedEx ground and air player of the year honors, where finalists Culpepper, Peyton Manning, Shaun Alexander and Curtis Martin were on stage for the announcement.

When the master of ceremonies opened the floor for questions, Jerry Townsend spoke up from his wheelchair in the front row.

"Hey Daunte, can I get some of that ice?" he said in a low voice, referring to the two sparkling necklaces hanging around Culpepper's neck.

Culpepper jumped up, pulled them off and brought them over to Townsend, a senior defensive back at Jacksonville Episcopal High School who was paralyzed from the neck down while making a tackle in October.

You can't really blame Culpepper. Jerry Townsend put him in a losing situation. He could have flatly refused or played it off, but he would have looked stupid. Now he's stuck with looking stingy or foolish by asking for them back.

Dante probably could have handled it better, but I'm reacting to a blindsiding question like that while you're on-stage would be difficult for even the most honed public speakers. In his defense, Culpepper did take the guys address down and promise to send him something nice.

Now they are using Tasers on children.

A fight broke out in the stands of a girls high school basketball game, prompting police to fire Tasers to stop it and clear the gym, authorities said. Nine people face charges. [...]

Police hit some participants with Tasers, which can incapacitate a person with an electrical jolt, Wadsworth said.

All is not right in Sweden.

A man has been jailed for two years for shooting a trespasser on his property.

Monday's DN reported that a couple in Omberg in Ostergotland had an unexpected visit from two thieves just before Christmas last year. One 20-year old and one 59-year old man from Motala had decided to break in to the house owned by the couple, who are in their sixties.

When the man heard them he fetched a shotgun and then shot the 20-year old man. He was seriously injured and taken to Linkoping University Hospital for treatment. All four have been charged in court. The man using the shotgun will be jailed for two years and six months for attempted murder and breaking gun licensing laws.

The woman is conditionally charged with breaking gun licensing laws, while both the thieves have been jailed for unlawfully entering somebody's house.

A new year brings a new budget, and Charles Hill points out that the city of Cleveland has $6 Million or revenue penciled into their budget as coming from not yet installed red light cameras.

Mayor Jane Campbell hopes thousands of people running red lights will get Cleveland's budget out of the red.

The mayor wants to install cameras at some of the city's busiest intersections to photograph license plates of cars that run red lights. Tickets would then be sent to the car owners' homes. [...]

Running a red light typically results in a $150 fine. If the cameras are installed by spring, as Campbell hopes, the city would have to issue about 150 tickets a day to meet the mayor's $6 million goal by the end of 2005.

Last year, Cleveland collected $8.6 million in fines for all moving violations, including speeding, running red lights and driving through stop signs.

They hope to nearly double their annual revenue from fines and the cameras won't even be installed until the Spring. The word "safety" was never even mentioned.

Jack Cluth points out that the state of Iowa doesn't have any real problems, so they are spending their time trying to ban spinny wheels. Rep. Doug Struyk, a Republican, thinks they are a safety hazard, and that they make it hard to tell if a vehicle is moving or not.

Struyk said he was nearly involved in an accident in November near Bentley, Iowa. He was driving a truck pulling a 16-foot trailer loaded with a dozen ladders. He approached an intersection as a car with the spinning wheel covers approached from another direction. He said the spinners made it appear as if the car might still be moving through the intersection, so he braked hard and the trailer nearly jackknifed.

Struyk should take comfort in knowing that he is not alone in his struggle to master the secrets of the automobile. Late last year Fairfax County (VA) Board Chairman Gerry "Hit and Run" Connolly (a Democrat) had criminal charges thrown out because, according to the Judge, his "position and his duties have caused him to be oblivious to what is going on in his car."

Australian-based Exinda Networks is betting that employers will want to beat their employees off with a stick. They have developed a bandwidth monitoring system so that employers can charge their employees for personal internet use.

Exinda Networks claims to have developed a unique system that allows a company to monitor exactly which Web sites are visited by each individual employee and how much bandwidth has been used -- in terms of a cash loss to the employer.

Con Nikolouzakis, director of Exinda Networks, said the URL and bandwidth monitoring system was designed to ensure employees can be held responsible for the cost of misused bandwidth and time.

"If you use your office computer for internet banking and booking theatre tickets, you're fine. If you choose to use it to download illegal software, research personal interests or other non-business uses then you could be issued with a 'please explain' and a bill for the costs of the bandwidth and time you wasted," said Nikolouzakis.

Now, bandwidth is relatively cheap. There is a definite cost for cyber-slacking, but how much of a price would companies pay in employee morale when implementing a system like this. Not only is it alienating, it's likely to guarantee that most personal web use will be at sites like Monster and Hot Jobs.

Maurice Clarett seems to show an absolute lack of judgement. That he was a great running back for Ohio State University is undebateable. As a freshman he carried them to a National Championship. But he's been on rocky ground since he started his college career.

During the fall of 2002, while on the injury list, Clarett angered OSU fans by talking about leaving early for the NFL. Keep in mind that he was a freshman, with barely any playing time. Then the week prior to the National Championship game he denounced OSU officials for not letting him fly home for a friend's funeral. He later accused them of lying when they said he had failed to fill out the proper paperwork to take the flight. During the 2003 off-season, he filed a police report claiming that more than $10,000 worth of cash and merchandise was stolen from a car he was driving. That car, was on loan from a local dealership. This was a lot to swallow, considering NCAA athletes are not permitted to hold down a job or accept any kind of gifts or compensation from non-relatives.

Clarett was criminally charged with filing a false police report, and plead it down to a lesser charge and $100 fine. But the damage done to OSU could have been significant, and he was promptly suspended for the 2003 season. Clarett blew off the 2004 season and attempted to enter the NFL early. The problem is that the NFL requires athletes be out of high school for at least 3 years. Clarett sued the NFL and lost, and spent the 2004 season watching football from in front of his TV. Late last year, Clarett accused the OSU coaching staff and athletic director of arranging perks for him, including cars, cash, and passing grades.

Now, with Clarett looking forward to this year's NFL draft, he's decided to blow off opportunities to show off his football skills.

The elusive, reclusive former Ohio State running back had been scheduled to participate in the college football all-star challenge, an eight-player skills event taped Monday by Fox TV at Dolphins Stadium for broadcast Saturday.

But he recently hired a new agent, Steve Feldman, who told organizers late last week that Clarett was pulling out.

"It was completely my decision," Feldman said. "He wanted to be there, but from a safety standpoint, it doesn't seem logical to take a chance that he might tweak something or pull something or damage something that would prevent him from showing off his stuff at the combine."

This is a guy who hasn't touched a football in a game since January 3, 2003.

Organizers disputed Feldman's contention that Clarett would have risked injury by participating. The event measures agility, speed and strength, and Jones said model Marisa Miller -- who will appear on the show -- tested the course without incident.

"If a supermodel can run through the course in high heels and not get injured, I'm pretty sure Maurice Clarett can do it without getting injured," Jones said.

Clarett is gambling his entire career that he will impress scouts at the NFL combine. This is the same combine that he just last year showed up to overwieght, and refused to even work out.

This blogger was brave enough to post a blast from the past photo. Can you guess who it is? He's on the far left.

(click to supersize)

Yet another man has died from a so-called stun gun.

A county inmate died after being shocked nine times with a stun gun, authorities said Tuesday.

Jail officers used a Taser gun four times to subdue Jeffrey Turner, 41, after he banged repeatedly on a security window of a first floor cell Monday night, Lucas County jail administrator Rick Keller said.

He had been shocked five times while being arrested on charges of loitering, resisting arrest and obstructing official business, police said.

Keller said Turner was still responsive after he was shocked the final time. A few minutes later, however, a jail nurse was called. Turner was later pronounced dead at a hospital.

I am not against police officers using a justified physical response. But I definitely think that the threshold for using TASERs has been lowered, because of a misplaced perception that they are harmless. TASERs started out as a replacement for using lethal force. They've evolved into cattle prods, used whenever a perp doesn't toe the line.

Here's what I got out of Bush's State of the Union Address:

The economy is growing strong, and millions of jobs were added in 2004. Tax cuts should be made permanent. The tax code should be examined and reformed.

Spending will still increase but not by nearly as much as it did during the last four years. Congress will have to find another way to buy votes this year.

Education spending will increase dramatically, so how about using that.

By the way, the deficit won't be cut in half until 2009, when it's some other President's problem.

Junk lawsuits should be curbed, but not through tort reform or any way that would piss off the trial lawyers.

We must make health care "affordable", with tax give-aways and social programs for the poor.

"Clear skies legislation" will rely more on nucular power and renewable resources to cut foreign oil dependence. The U.S. should rely more on hyrdogen power, which will be manufactured using electricity generated by power plants way on the other side of town, polluting someone else's neighborhood.

Illegal immigration will be addressed with an amnesty program that's not called amnesty.

Social security is headed toward bankruptcy. Those 55 and older will still get their checks. Younger workers are screwed. In 2018, the system goes into the red. In 2027, the government will have to print money on toilet paper just to keep up. By 2042, if we haven't been killed off by global warming, benefits will be paid with Powerball tickets.

If gays are allowed to marry, the fabric of society will break down and it'll be "Planet of the Apes" from there on out. Practice it at home: "Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape."

Every judicial nominee deserves to have every vote counted and we should count every vote.

Laura Bush is going back to work to take on gang violence. Her secret service detail tendered their resignation.

The war on terror will continue so that future generations will be "protected by peace" and have "freedom from fear".

Freedom in Iraq and Afghanistan is working out pretty well. Syrians and Iranians might look good with those blue fingers too.

Some elements of the speech pleased me, but others raised genuine concern. Perhaps what concerned me the most is that several Senators and Congressmen actually booed when he was talking about letting people plan for their own retirement. Social Security reform is a big issue for me. I'm tired of throwing away 15% of my income.

Most of my criticisms about Bush concern his inability to control spending. Over the past 4 years, the door to the federal treasury has been wide open, with W. handing out wheelbarrows. Bush claimed that spending would be held to a level less than the rate of inflation. I'll believe that when I see it. Whats more, why not hold spending flat or (gasp) actually cut spending.

I also hope that his traditional marriage amendment was just political rhetoric. I will never be convinced that married people are somehow harmed by allowing gays to marry each other.

I watched a little bit of the Democrats response. Harry Reid starting talking about the National Debt as the "birth tax" and outsourcing as a some sort of boondoggle. He claimed that tax cuts were the wrong way to go and that the American economy could only be stimulated building infrastructure. That echos the American Jobs Plan that was floated months ago which wanted to put unemployed tech workers out there building roads. The economy really sucks, but Social Security is just fine and will be for years. No crisis. Nothing to see here.

The rest was just scare tactics and rhetoric. Senator Reid claimed that Bush would take away the "guaranteed benefit" of Social Security. Which is an outright lie considering there is no guarantee. He droned on and on about tax cuts for the wealthy, paying back corporate cronies, and killing babies for Halliburton.

Then Nancy Pelosi came on and somehow gave her rebuttal without blinking or moving her lips. After a few minutes, I got freaked out and changed the channel.

Without them, defeatists wouldn't have any hope at all. Responding to the recent vote in Iraq, the lefty kooks are circulating a story about a New York Times article from September 3rd or 4th, 1967. (Accounts vary.) The title was "U.S. Encouraged by Vietnam Vote Officials Cite 83% Turnout Despite Vietcong Terror", and it is supposed to further cement the Iraq=Vietnam kookery put on by the left.

Whether or not the article is real (and it appears to be) is beside the point. It may be a creepy coincidence, but the fact remains that Iraq is not Vietnam, and comparisons between the two are anecdotal at best. Vietnam was more a battle against French (and later U.S.) colonialism than anything. Furthermore, Vietnam never harbored internationally wanted criminals or terrorists like has Iraq. In fact, Iraq is more like Guadalcanal. It is but a battle in the global war on terror.

And even if the situations were similar, why is it these lefties are rooting for U.S. failure? As a former moderate Democrat turned Libertarian, I don't ever even consider going back to that party, nor do I understand how they can stay mired in such doom and gloom on a daily basis. Pessimism is for losers.

Andy Borowitz plays the Fox News Channel/Al Jazeera card. (How original!)

Under intense pressure from the Bush administration to sell its controversial Al-Jazeera network, the nation of Qatar stunned the television industry today by agreeing to sell the broadcast company to Rupert Murdoch's Fox News Channel.

Television insiders were taken aback that the network whose motto is "We Report. You Decide," would acquire a broadcast entity whose slogan is "Death to the Infidels."

But according to Murdoch, chairman and CEO of Fox parent News Corp., the merger was a natural because, in his words, "We took a look at their format and realized that it was almost identical to ours."

And that was the funny part.

But viewers can expect much bigger changes to come, as the channel plans to drop Al-Jazeera's most popular program, "This Week in Jihad," in favor of a new show, "Hannity and Hussein."

In the words of a Fox-Jazeera press release, "Hannity and Hussein" will be "a lively political discussion featuring Fox personality Sean Hannity, from the right, and deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, from his prison cell."

Is it me, because I just don't get it?

This is hilarious. This so-called hostage appears to be a children's toy.

You would think that a guy who is director of the Second Amendment Research Center at Ohio State University would at least know basic grammar before spouting off about the Second Amendment. In an article entitled "Taking a bite out of the 2nd" Saul Cornell claims:

Reads the Second Amendment: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." The department's revised Second Amendment contends the right of individuals to keep and carry guns shall not be infringed.

The Department of Justice has erased the preamble, which states the purpose of the amendment, to create a "well regulated Militia." The revision goes well beyond the idea of interpreting the Constitution as a living document that must respond to changing times. In effect, Justice believes it can expunge language that it finds inconvenient and substitute language more ideologically suitable in its place.

Although gun rights advocates have tried to claim that bearing arms did not have a military connotation at the time the Second Amendment was ratified in 1791, they have never been able to provide a body of evidence to support their claims. The only evidence they have produced is a single text written by the losing side in the original debate over the Constitution.

First of all, I would like to point out that the Second Amendment Research Center claims that their mission is to foster debate about the Second Amendment. But they are funded by the Joyce Foundation, whose mission is clearly anti-gun. They claim to support "efforts to bring the firearms industry under comprehensive consumer product health and safety oversight." That's hardly encouraging.

When it comes to interpretation, you would think that figuring out the Second Amendment would be pretty easy. While the Second Amendment does mention a "well regulated militia" as the basic reason for such a protection, it also states that "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." It takes a far stretch of the imagination to argue that by "people" the Founders actually meant military soldiers. Considering the context of the times, where colonists were being persecuted and harassed by military soldiers, it would be unconscionable for the Founding Fathers to protect the right of the state while infringing on those of the people. In fact the entire reason for having a Constitution is to limit the rights of government.

The term militia referred to all able bodied men who are prepared to fight for liberty and defense. It was a time of Minute Men, not standing armies. And when reading the Bill of Rights, it is clear that they protect individual freedoms. That the Second Amendment should be the single exception that protects government rights is ludicrous.

Cornell provides no evidence to back up his argument, and instead chooses to rely on Supreme Court precedence. I guess it has escaped Cornell that the Supreme Court is capable of being on the wrong side of human rights. The Dred Scott decision, for instance, affirmed the legality of slavery. PBS sums up the ruling: "In March of 1857, the United States Supreme Court, led by Chief Justice Roger B. Taney, declared that all blacks -- slaves as well as free -- were not and could never become citizens of the United States". Does Cornell think that the civil rights movement of the 1960s was just a bunch of blacks who were on the losing side of the original debate? I should hope not.

Cornell even goes so far as to claim that there is no evidence to the contrary, as if we are supposed to just accept him at his word. His students may be so blind, but I am not. To expand on the intent behind the Second, I turn to the Founding Fathers themselves. It was Thomas Jefferson who said:

What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.

Still not convinced? Jefferson also said, "No Free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." That sounds pretty clear cut.

But there's more. Patrick Henry claimed, "The great object is, that every man be armed ... Every one who is able may have a gun." George Washington said, "A free people ought not only to be armed and disciplined but they should have sufficient arms and ammunition to maintain a status of independence from any who might attempt to abuse them, which would include their own government." And George Mason knew that "...to disarm the people - that was the best and most effectual way to enslave them."

Those that drafted the Constitution had no trouble realizing that it is the right of all free men to keep and bear arms. Why then is it so hard for an Associate Professor of History to realize that?

Am I the only one who thinks we should lock up these kids for saying they don't care about the First Amendment.

...when told of the exact text of the First Amendment, more than one in three high school students said it goes "too far" in the rights it guarantees. Only half of the students said newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval of stories.

They shouldn't be allowed to say something like that. I think a few years in political prison might change their minds.

Record low temperatures are threatening the ozone layer over the North Pole, reports CNN.

Record low temperatures over the North Pole are thinning the protective ozone layer, a condition which could affect human health in northern countries and even central European nations, the European Union warned Monday.

"Large ozone losses are expected to occur if the cold conditions persist," said European Commissioner for Science and Research Janez Potocnik.

He said the first signs of ozone loss have been observed after an extremely harsh winter above the Arctic.

The ozone layer keeps out ultraviolet radiation, which is dangerous to humans and animals. Less protection could increase risks of skin cancer and affect biodiversity, scientists say.

Because of the record lows over the Arctic, scientists have been put on alert to monitor closely the condition of the ozone layer over the coming months.

"The meteorological conditions we are now witnessing resemble and even surpass the conditions of the 1999-2000 winter -- when the worst ozone loss to date was observed," said Dr. Neil Harris of the European Ozone Research Coordinating Unit in Britain.

He said temperatures at a 20 kilometer (12 mile) height had dropped to an average of minus 80 degrees Celsius (minus 112 degrees Fahrenheit), the lowest over the Arctic in half a century.

We'd better do something quick. Maybe if we released large amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere, we could create a sort of greenhouse effect to warm up the poles.

John Kerry confesses to treason. From Meet the Press:

MR. RUSSERT: And you have a hat that the CIA agent gave you?

SEN. KERRY: I still have the hat that he gave me, and I hope the guy would come out of the woodwork and say, "I'm the guy who went up with John Kerry. We delivered weapons to the Khmer Rouge on the coastline of Cambodia." We went out of Ha Tien, which is right in Vietnam. We went north up into the border. And I have some photographs of that, and that's what we did. So, you know, the two were jumbled together, but we were on the Cambodian border on Christmas Eve, absolutely.

(Link via Spoons)

UPDATE: Ravenwood's Universe has exclusively obtained Top Secret CIA Memorandums that prove that John Kerry is telling the truth. I have turned these over to CBS, so be sure to watch 60 Minutes tomorrow, as I'm sure Dan Rather will want to drop the bombshell during the top segment. This is rock hard evidence.

CNN (Reuters) reports that it's about to get much much warmer here on Earth. As much as 20 degrees warmer.

Greenhouse gas emissions could cause global temperatures to rise by up to 11 degrees Celsius (20 degrees Fahrenheit), according to first results from the world's largest climate modeling experiment.

The top end of the predictions, which range from 2-11 degrees, is double estimates produced so far and could make the world dramatically different in the future.

Why they chose to emphasize the upper extremity isn't clear. If I didn't know better I would almost think there was some sort of inherent media bias. The top end is between 2 and 20 degrees, yet they emphasize 20 degrees.

For those of you keeping score, scientists are predicting that the earth will warm by somewhere between 1 and 40 degrees over the next 20 to 100 years. And they note that if it doesn't get warmer, it'll probably get cooler or stay about the same.

Now, this is bizarre.

U.S. consumer spending advanced solidly in December as personal income shot up a record 3.7 percent on a big dividend payout by software giant Microsoft Corp., a government report showed Monday.

The Commerce Department said personal income rose 0.6 percent in December when the impact of Microsoft's dividend payment was stripped out.

Are they in a habit of adjusting figures to remove people who work at (or invest in) well paying companies? Why do an average at all if you are going to remove the ones at the top? I wouldn't count on them to adjust January's market performance figures to discount the negative impact of falling drug stocks. What with the scare surrounding Vioxx, Celebrex, and Aleve making a negative impact on the stock market, it wouldn't exactly be fair to continue to use that as an indicator would it?

On a personal note, my income rose 20% last year*. (Mainly because I switched jobs.) I guess some of you guys out there aren't pulling your weight.

*Don't feel too envious. My income has only gone up 16% since 2001, while my cost of living has gone up 300%. (Moving from BFE, Ohio to Washington, D.C.)

One of the next big smoking battles will involve smoking around children. A new study published in the British Medical Journal looks at the correlation between passive smoke and cancer rates. It doesn't appear to look at family history of cancer rates, however.

Smoking around your children increases the chances of them developing lung cancer as adults according to a new study published in the British Medical Journal. In fact, children exposed to passive smoke are more than 3 1/2 times as likely to get lung cancer later in life.

The amount of exposure to passive smoke had a direct relationship with the chances of getting cancer. Those that were regularly exposed to passive smoke a few times a week as children were nearly one-and-a-half times more likely to develop lung cancer while those who had daily exposure to passive tobacco smoke but only for a few hours were more than twice as likely to develop cancer.

The study examined the lives of just over 300,000 Europeans who were either nonsmokers or had stopped smoking at least 10 years ago. It then examined their exposure to passive smoke and tracked their progress for an average of seven years.

The study raises questions about what measures need to be taken to protect children from the dangers of passive smoke.

Professor Paolo Vineis, the lead author of the study added, 'Passive smoking clearly increases the risk of lung cancer. People should not smoke in the presence of their children.'

This is the same British Medical Journal who came under fire for publishing a report saying there was no correlation between passive smoke and lung cancer less than two years ago.

Of course, this movement is nothing new. Early last year Georgia pushed to ban smoking in private vehicles when children were present. It's all down hill from here, especially when the state starts telling you who you can and can't smoke around (even in the privacy of your own home).

As if our lives needed more government regulation, you may soon need a permit to buy Sudafed.

A dozen Republican and Democratic senators want to put nonprescription cold medicines that contain pseudoephedrine, the main ingredient used to make meth, behind the counter. Consumers would have to talk to a pharmacy worker and show photo ID before purchasing Sudafed, Tylenol flu medicine or other popular remedies.

I hate meth labs as much as the next guy, but punishing honest folks isn't the way to go. Cracking down on the sale of cold medicine certainly isn't going to make even the smallest of dents in the war on drugs.

The money would be better spent on enforcement. And it wouldn't hurt to ditch the current catch and release program. If meth is so evil, why not take the China approach and shoot these guys in the back of the head. (Or whatever the politically correct, non-human rights violating equivalent may be.)

"I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for." -- Candidate for DNC Chairman, Howard Dean.

By now, you've probably heard of the guy who peed his way out of an avalanche. If you are asking what this guy was doing with 60 pints of beer in his car, you've obviously never read my Drunk Stories of the Day.

Of course, it's probably global warming that got him into it in the first place:

Parts of Europe have this week been hit by the heaviest snowfalls since 1941, with some places registering more than ten feet of snow in 24 hours.