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

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

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

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

Countertop has questions, so I've got answers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Writes CNET:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Heh.

(Via SU)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Xerox machine, invented in 1937:

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

Silly Putty, invented in the 1940s:

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

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

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

Michelle Malkin is skeptical:

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

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

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

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

Sucks to be them.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Hat tip to Say Uncle)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Can't get out of bed in the morning?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Via Newsmax:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(link via Kevin Baker)

Kim du Toit points out your tax dollars at work.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Hat tip: Say Uncle)

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

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

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

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

Either way, sleep well, Hugo!

Ouch!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What happens to the funds collected this way?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Maybe that Discover card is worth something afterall.

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

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

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

Well, the proof is in the results.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

If you aren't celebrating it today, I hope you are at least drinking some green beer this weekend. St. Patrick's Day is one of my favorite holidays, and not just because I like to booze it up. In the days of pleasure police and the PC nazis, having a drinking holiday around is a refreshing reminder of the finer things in life.

I encourage everyone to live by The General's motto.

Live the good life. Drink, smoke, gamble, feast, joke, fornicate and be tolerant of those who do. Take risks and thrive for the good challenge. Work hard and play hard without going over the edge. Live in the moment. Believe in moderation in all things, including moderation. Live it up!

Life is finite. You might as well enjoy it while you can. Drive an SUV, smoke if you want to, drink, fornicate. Do what you want, as long as you don't deprive anyone else in their pursuit of the same.

Live free or die, brother. Live free or die.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Note the lack of vacationing environmentalists.

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

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

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

Royalties are one thing, but 10% is rediculous.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yowza. Freedom is literally busting out all over.

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

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

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

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

Call it the curse of Barry Goldwater.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Talk about your drama queen.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Then there is this story from the UK Telegraph:

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

Rolf Ekeus, the Swede who led the UN's efforts to track down the weapons from 1991 to 1997, said that the offer came from Tariq Aziz, Saddam's foreign minister and deputy.

This prompts conservative pundit Rush Limbaugh to point out that the emperor has no clothes.

Why? If there weren't any, why? Why start bribing people about this? Two million just to the chief inspector? What was it he doing to some of the underlings? Why bribe anybody if there were no weapons of mass destruction?

Something tells me the media won't stop the presses to issue a retraction.

(Cross posted at the Command Post.)

D.C. school officials are under investigation for misappropriating cash on lavish retreats and unapproved travel. Thousands of dollars intended to assist poor D.C. school children has gone missing, reports the Washington Times.

Auditors discovered the travel disbursements when they looked into expenditures of money earmarked last year for after-school child care programs -- including federal Temporary Aid for Needy Families grants. The grants are meant to provide child care from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. to thousands of city students from low-income families.

Officials at the auditor's office said the travel and retreat expenses involved "thousands of dollars." They said the D.C. public school system fired at least one employee as a result of the audit findings, but would not identify the employee.

Of the 107 recommendations that auditors have made over the past few years, less than half have been implemented.

The Washington Post reports that the untamed fire of freedom lit by President Bush continues to burn on the Arab street:

"His talk about democracy is good," an Egyptian-born woman was telling companions at the Fatafeet (or "Crumbs") restaurant the other night, exuberant enough for her voice to carry to neighboring tables. "He keeps hitting this nail. That's good, by God, isn't it?" At another table, a Lebanese man was waxing enthusiastic over Bush's blunt and irreverent manner toward Arab autocrats. "It is good to light a fire under their feet," he said.

From Casablanca to Kuwait City, the writings of newspaper columnists and the chatter of pundits on Arabic language satellite television suggest a change in climate for advocates of human rights, constitutional reforms, business transparency, women's rights and limits on power. And while developments differ vastly from country to country, their common feature is a lifting--albeit a tentative one--of the fear that has for decades constricted the Arab mind.

Regardless of Bush's intentions--which many Arabs and Muslims still view with suspicion--the U.S. president and his neoconservative crowd are helping to spawn a spirit of reform and a new vigor to confront dynastic dictatorships and other assorted ills.

Hat tip to Taranto

National CCW reciprocity is in the works, although I'm not sure how good of a chance it has in passing. Opponents will argue that it is unfair to force states to accept the laws of another state. But this is already an accepted practice with things like marriage licences and driver's licenses. Imagine if you had conditions on your motor vehicle where you could only legally drive it in certain states. (And the states don't necessarily border each other.)

The contract clause of the Constitution requires states: "No State shall. . .pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts...". Proponents of gay marriage want to use it to recognize marriage contracts from other states. It's a long shot, but if they are successful it could pave the way for gun owners as well.

Calamity Jane returned to HBO's Deadwood this weekend, in all her drunken foul-mouthed splendor. (It kinda reminds me of mom*.) I think Deadwood is a terrific show and have been glued to it ever since it debuted. And one of the things I like about it is that the Wild West is not portrayed as this clean spiffy environment. I mean, compare Deadwood's Calamity Jane with that of the 1953 movie starring the comely Doris Day.

Calamity on HBO's Deadwood.

Calamity in the 1953 Doris Day musical.

Of course the writers of Deadwood are trying to pay close attention to historical accuracy. People drink and cuss and shoot. And of course there is *gasp* prostitution.

CNN, a division of Time Warner who also owns HBO also points out Deadwood's gruff demeanor:

The language of "Deadwood" is decidedly mixed. While some characters talk like rough-hewn prospectors, others reflect East Coast roots.

Hawkes likens it to "Shakespeare of the Old West" -- a pioneer-meets-patrician dialect that can be difficult to deliver. "I sometimes have to translate it first to understand exactly what I'm saying," Parker says, laughing.

About the series' profanity, Milch says: "This is the type of world you are in. Don't expect any law."

*I'm gonna pay for that one.

Last week's shooting of a judge in Atlanta is fueling the fight to allow judges and court officials to legally carry firearms. In Illinois of all places, lawmakers have drafted a bill that will let judges legally protect themselves with a firearm.

Sen. Larry Bomke (R-Springfield) said he decided to draft the bill after getting a call from Sangamon County Circuit Judge Patrick Kelley, a former prosecutor, who said judges are concerned about retribution from people who appear before them.

Now I usually cheer anytime someone chips away at draconian gun bans. But isn't this interesting? Whenever gun violence happens in the 'hood, gun grabbers usually scream for more gun control. But when the threat of gun violence takes aim at public officials, they suddenly become Second Amendment purists who push for the right to arm themselves for self defense.

As for the rest of Illinois, let them eat cake.

Two Florida lawmakers want to ban the use of Taser guns by police, until it can be determined that they are safe.

The brand Taser is the most popular such device used in law enforcement. The Taser gun shoots two cables with darts that penetrate a person's skin, delivering 50,000 volts of electricity. The shock usually renders someone momentarily senseless, but there have been cases where people have died. State Sens. Gary Siplin and Tony Hill said there are too many questions about the safety of the devices. They contend the manufacturer did not conduct enough testing before putting the equipment on the market. They've been used for decades. Proposed legislation would provide $1.5 million for a study. Another proposed law would ban the use of Tasers on schoolchildren.

While I frequently point out the shortcomings of Taser use, I don't think an outright ban is the best way to go. The problem is not so much the device itself as it is the training of how and when to use a Taser gun. Tasers were meant to be an alternative to lethal force. They incapacitate a subject so that the officer doesn't have to shoot them in the chest. But as the popularity has taken hold, Tasers were increasingly used as cattle prods. Not just suspects, but bystanders and even young school children were tased simply for stepping out of line. Or suspects were tased even after they were in custody, in a misguided effort to calm them down or to extract information. Rather than looking at the safety of the device itself, officials should study whether or not officers should be so cavalier about their use.

CNS News reports:

The Pro-life Alliance of Gays and Lesbians (PLAGAL) is applauding a Maine lawmaker for introducing a bill that would prohibit the abortion of unborn homosexual babies.

The ban is based on the belief that homosexuality is genetic rather than behavioral.

A maid service for college dormatories has some Harvard students lamenting the evils of American capitalism. You see, not everyone can afford to pay for maid service, so some students think the services shouldn't be offered at all.

a new student service is sweeping onto campus. Dormaid, founded by Michael E. Kopko '07, is a cleaning service that allows students to avoid the perennial problem of dingy, smutty, questionably-habitable rooms. But as appealing as the thought of a perpetually tidy room may be, (independent of family visits), Dormaid could potentially mess up as many rooms as it cleans. By creating yet another differential between the haves and have-nots on campus, Dormaid threatens our student unity.

There are already plenty of services at Harvard that sharpen the differences between socioeconomic classes. Harvard Student Agency Cleaners, for example, lets some students pick up clean and neatly-folded clothes in crackling plastic bags. The less well-off among us, however, make semi-weekly journeys to the basement with bulging mesh laundry bags and quarters in hand. These differences extend to the social sphere as well-to final clubs composed predominately of wealthy young men, or to basic activities, like eating out, that some students cannot afford to enjoy. But while class differences are a fact of life-yes, there are both rich and poor people at Harvard-there is no reason to exacerbate these differences further with a room-cleaning service.

Dorm life is one of the few common experiences left that all students, regardless of class or background, have to endure with a measure of equality. The egalitarian nature of dorm life helps to foster a sense of collegiate camaraderie, an unadulterated respect for peers; it generates a level playing field that encourages learning between people of all upbringings. A service like Dormaid can bring many levels of awkwardness into this picture. . .Hiring someone to clean dorm rooms is a convenience, but it is also an obvious display of wealth that would establish a perceived, if unspoken, barrier between students of different economic means.

It's hard to imagine students of an expensive Ivy League school concerned about an obvious display of wealth. Perhaps we should outlaw places like Harvard, that only serve to exacerbate the differences between the haves and the have-nots.

(Hat tip to John Hawkins)

Punative cigarette taxes do more than hurt the economy. They contribute to organized crime, as smuggling takes hold. And organized crime contributes to terrorism, so say federal law enforcement officers.

Democratic legislators from the Bay Area and Los Angeles, focused on quality of life in the state, are pushing three bills that would increase cigarette costs for litter cleanup or easing deficit pressures.

But federal terrorism investigators told the The Daily Review on Thursday that such seemingly innocent legislation, further increasing high cigarette costs in California, would fuel their already tough battle against terrorist groups' lucrative smuggling operations in the United States.

The disclosure by federal law enforcement officials comes as they are beginning to crack down on illegal cigarette smugglers, who are providing a growing and crucial part of funding to terrorist groups such as al-Qaida and Hezbollah.

Of course the pleasure police will point out that it is the smokers who buy bootleg cigarettes who are to blame. But you can only make the rules so unfair before people start ignoring them, and imposing 200-300% sin taxes is quite an enabler. It's hard to blame usually honest people, who resort to criminal activity to get around what they view as an unjust law that unfairly targets them.

San Francisco officials are pushing for a citywide handgun ban to cut down on crime. It comes up as a ballot initiative this fall. In the meantime, the San Francisco Mayor wants to post firemen on street corners in high crime areas, in hopes that criminals will be deterred.

No word yet on whether or not the firemen will be armed, but if I were a San Francisco fireman, I wouldn't carry a lot of cash to work.

(And with firemen busy fighting crime, mailmen will be enlisted to fight fires.)

A lawmaker from New Jersey (the toll-booth state) wants to tax poker shows on TV. Not the poker games themselves, the actual TV shows.

Now a New Jersey lawmaker wants cable networks that feature gambling to help gambling addicts by giving money to treatment agencies. Assemblywoman Joan Voss, a Democrat, on Tuesday called for a surcharge on state cable providers if the networks don't cooperate.

My guess is that she doesn't represent Atlantic City.

But why stop there. You could tax cooking shows for making people fat, and action adventure shows for making people violent, and of course any show that dared to feature somebody smoking a cigarette.

Meanwhile a Florida Senator wants to tax toilet paper. Talk about getting you coming and going. You can't even take a dump now without some Democrat popping up and wanting his two cents.

So you sign up for a $29.99 plan for your mobile phone and it ends up costing you $40 a month. Such is the nature of taxes. But the FCC wants to change all that. They are tired of being called out by wireless carriers.

The FCC said that it was misleading to suggest that any line item fees in addition to the base rate charged for cell phone service were due to taxes or government-mandated charges.

Such charges must be folded into the base rate so consumers have more accurate comparison of costs when shopping for cell phone service, said FCC chairman Michael Powell, who presided over his last commission meeting.

The government mandates number portability, E-911, and various other regulatory taxes and fees. Now they want to force wireless carriers to whitewash all of that by including taxes in their rate plans. They don't want any regulatory fees to even show up on the itemized statement; a proposal that they have the nerve to call it "truth-in-billing".

Personally, I wish every company in America did this. Imagine the outcry if people really knew how much all the government meddling and red-tape was costing them day to day.

Charles Hill points out that the NCAA is trying to prevent Indians from using Indian names and likenesses in the name of political correctness. Apparently the bigots at the NCAA don't like Native Americans and hope to purge them from school marquees across the nation. The Irish, Vikings, and Cowboys, are alright but apparently Braves, Seminoles, and the Tribe aren't good enough to be collegiate mascots.

The University of North Carolina at Pembroke has always been the home of the Braves, and students and administrators alike want it to remain that way, despite an NCAA effort to eliminate what the organization calls racially insensitive mascots.

The NCAA has compiled a list of about 30 schools with Native American logos, nicknames or mascots that it wants replaced with more politically correct options. But UNC-Pembroke officials said the Braves logo is part of their heritage.

"A large number of the employees here are Native American, and Native Americans attend many of the events on campus. So there's an interaction between the university and the tribe that I don't think other schools with Native American nicknames have," said Lawrence Locklear, of the school's tribal council.

The university, whose campus is in the center of the region the Lumbee tribe calls home, was founded exclusively for Native Americans in 1887 and didn't integrate until 1953. About 20 percent of current students are Native American.

School administrators, including members of the Lumbee tribe, have formed a committee to protect the Braves nickname and logo. They have until May 1 to file a response with the NCAA as to why the school should be removed from the list of those with insensitive names.

"The thing about it athletically was, when it was all American Indians, the leaders at the school and the student body referred to themselves as Braves," Athletic Director Dan Kenney said. "Nothing has changed. Our community wants that link back to our origins."

Orgish.com has video (2.8 Meg) of a cop shooting himself in the foot during a "don't play with guns" lecture to a crowded room. I'm not sure if it's authentic, but the man in the video wears a shirt marked "POLICE" on the front and "DEA" on the back. He is lecturing the room full of men, women, and children about "gun safety" and holds up his police-issue .40 caliber Glock-22 pistol. That the crowd is so diverse (with women and very young children) leads me to believe that it's more of an anti-gun "guns are evil, never touch them" type lecture than it is about actual gun safety.

The officer takes his gun out of the holster, and parades around with the action open. He inspects it, declares that it is unloaded, and appears to show it to someone else for confirmation. He then closes the action (which probably loaded a round from the magazine) and parades around the room with his finger squarely on the trigger. Just as he professes to be the "only one in the room professional enough. . .to carry this Glock .40", BANG he shoots himself in the pinky toe. Not to be dissuaded, he then proceeds to limp around the room and lecture everyone to not do what he did.

The crowd becomes visibly (and understandably) upset when he produces what appears to be an AR-15 or M-16 scary-evil-looking "assault weapon". As he tells the fleeing people to calm down and that he "swears it's unloaded" you can hear people yelling "put it down, put it down".

The poor guy appears to be alright although he's gonna limp for a while. Most notably, the officer broke several gun safety rules like having ammunition in the room, having a magazine in the pistol, having his finger on the trigger, and not keeping the gun pointed in a safe direction.

UPDATE: Minute of Angle has more, with a news blurb about it as well. (Apparently this happened last spring.)

The agent emptied the gun of ammunition as he pointed it toward the floor, but when he released the slide it fired into his thigh.

That is called slamfire, and I don't think that's what happened. Looking at the video, he released the slide long before he fired the round. There is no doubt in my mind that he had his finger on the trigger of this 'empty' gun.

UPDATE: Of course the whole reason for blaming the incident on slamfire is to shift blame from the officer to the gun. But even if it had been due to slamfire, if you keep the gun pointed in a safe direction and unload it properly for 'safety' demonstrations, it's not a problem.

Enviroweenies are in a tizzy over General Motor's planned phase out of electric cars. The leases are coming due, and the automaker doesn't want to sell them outright, because of the cost of maintenance. GM plans to destroy the cars.

Some 800 drivers once leased EV1s, mostly in California. After the last lease ran out in August, GM reclaimed every one of the cars, donating a few to universities and car museums but crushing many of the rest.

Enthusiasts discovered a stash of about 77 surviving EV1s behind a GM training center in Burbank and last month decided to take a stand. Mobilized through Internet sites and word of mouth, nearly 100 people pledged $24,000 each for a chance to buy the cars from GM. On Feb. 16 the group set up a homely street-side outpost of folding chairs that they have staffed ever since in rotating shifts, through long nights and torrential rains, trying to draw attention to their cause.

So why do envirowackos want the cars so badly? Probably because letting them go the way of the dodo would mean admitting that the cars were a failure in the marketplace.

Of course they aren't saying that. Instead they are claiming that electric cars are the next best thing to sliced bread.

What's at stake, they say, is no less than the future of automotive technology, a practical solution for driving fast and fun with no direct pollution whatsoever. GM agrees that the car in question, called the EV1, was a rousing feat of engineering that could go from zero to 60 miles per hour in under eight seconds with no harmful emissions. The market just wasn't big enough, the company says, for a car that traveled 140 miles or less on a charge before you had to plug it in like a toaster.

No wonder it didn't catch on. And in my humble opinion, even the environmental goodness is dubious. Electric cars may not pollute directly, but the indirect pollution may be far worse than gas burning vehicles. For starters, most of our electricity still comes from fossile fuels. So you may not see fumes coming out of the tail pipe (or even a tail pipe), but somewhere there is a oil, gas, or coal fired power plant belching out smoke to provide enough electricity for all these electric cars. And given California's electricity problems you would think they would have outlawed electric cars years ago.

Of course there is also the pollution caused by disposal of all those batteries. Power cells don't last forever, and when you dispose of them they are classified as hazardous waste. Yeah, California may be keeping their neighborhood clean, but only because they are shipping all their pollution and toxic waste out of state.

The TASER was meant to be an alternative to using lethal force. But with increasing regularity, officers are using them as cattle prods to make people toe the line. Now, a Florida officer has been suspended for using one as a torture device on a suspected drug dealer.

Antonio Wheeler, 18, was arrested Friday on a drug charge and taken to an emergency room after telling officers he had consumed cocaine, police said.

At Florida Hospital, Wheeler refused to provide a urine sample and was handcuffed and secured with leather straps to a bed, where hospital workers tried to catheterize him, a police affidavit said.

Officer Peter Linnenkamp reported he jumped onto the bed with his knees on Wheeler's chest to restrain him. When Wheeler still refused to be catheterized, Linnenkamp said he twice used his Taser, which sends 50,000 volts into a target.

I cannot think of any justification for using a gun on a suspect that is handcuffed and strapped to a bed. Patience is a virtue. If the officer really wanted a urine sample, all he had to do was wait. Or are we regressing to the good ol' days when cops closed the door and forcibly beat information out of suspects?

The city of Houston will start punishing restaurant owners who want to cater to smokers. Of course the non-smokers are either ambivalent to other people's property rights, or thrilled because they might some day want to go out to dinner at one of the restaurants that previously allowed smoking.

Personally, I haven't been to Houston since 1999, but I might want to go back one day. Here is a list of things I think they should ban, in case I decide to go back there:

Driving slow in the fast lane
Talking on a cell phone in elevators
Cheap Japanese imports with more bling than the car is worth.
French wine
Rap music
Homeowners associations
School buses
Spinning rims
School buses with spinning rims
Disney movies
Chewing gum
Astroturf
Tweed suits
Honda Civics

I don't have any real reasons for wanting this stuff banned. But since there is no real reason to violate people's rights by banning smoking in restaurants, I'm sure the city of Houston will be willing to accommodate me.

Don't you just hate those annoying coworkers who interrupt a good game of Freecell? Well, Slacker Manager has some simple mannerisms that will keep the time burglars at bay. In my opinion, they saved the best for last.

Scott Norvell reports:

Students at Middle Tennessee State University had a teach-in recently and came to the conclusion that use of the word "lady" to refer to female athletic teams was sexist and derogatory, reports the student paper there.

A panel of students and faculty suggested that the school no longer use the term "Lady Raiders" to refer to the women's basketball team. (The men's team is named the "Blue Raiders.")

"When we use the word 'lady,' today at least, we recognize it as sort of a sexist remark," said Ryan Husak, a member of Solidarity. "It is used to sort of suggest secondary status."

Because of the connotations of the word "lady," it is demeaning to athletes to refer to them in this manner, according to Husak.

On the subject of Social Security, anti-choice Democrats claim that investing in stocks or bonds is risky and dangerous. Mere peasants like you and me cannot afford to take the risk. But the always brilliant Walter Williams wants to know what could be more risky than trusting your money to the whim of a politician.

Here's what a 1936 government Social Security pamphlet said: "After the first 3 years -- that is to say, beginning in 1940 -- you will pay, and your employer will pay, 1.5 cents for each dollar you earn, up to $3,000 a year. ... Beginning in 1943, you will pay 2 cents, and so will your employer, for every dollar you earn for the next 3 years. ... And finally, beginning in 1949, twelve years from now, you and your employer will each pay 3 cents on each dollar you earn, up to $3,000 a year. ... That is the most you will ever pay."

Had Congress lived up to those promises, where $3,000 was the maximum earnings subject to Social Security tax, controlling for inflation, today's $50,000-a-year wage earner would pay about $700 in Social Security taxes, as opposed to the more than $3,000 that he pays today.

The next big lie is from the same Social Security pamphlet: "Beginning November 24, 1936, the United States government will set up a Social Security account for you. ... The checks will come to you as a right." First, there's no Social Security account containing your money, but more importantly, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled on two occasions that Americans have no legal right to Social Security payments.

The point is that you cannot trust Congress. They have lied before and they are lying now. What's more, most of the Senators and Representatives making promises today will be long gone 30 years from now.

Williams also wonders if Congress will stop with retirement. The slippery slope argument could easily be extended to any of the other necessities of life.

What moral principle, consistent with liberty, justifies forcing a person to set aside a certain portion of his weekly earnings for retirement and jailing him if he fails to comply? Retirement isn't the only important item for which we should budget. How about a congressional mandate that we set aside a certain portion of our weekly earnings for housing, food, entertainment or our children's education?

And if social security is such a great program, how come they use the threat of lethal force to make us stay in it?

The idea is nearly two years old, but Oregon is still planning on moving forward with replacing the gas tax. Apparently there is such a thing as too good of gas mileage.

A planned program in Oregon would tax drivers by the number of miles they travel instead of by the amount of gasoline they use to compensate for an expected loss of revenue caused by increasing use of more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Officials in California and Washington also are considering imposing a mileage tax as a way to drum up more money...

"Our concept is why don't we separate fuel consumption from road revenue and from the funding of roads, and then connect road use with funding of the roads," said James Whitty, manager of the Oregon Department of Transportation's Office of Innovative Partnerships and Alternative Funding.

A yearlong pilot program will begin later this year or early next year, Mr. Whitty said.

Of course this drives environmentalists nuts. They claim that it will destroy the incentive to drive fuel efficient cars. Personally, I would support the measure if it weren't for a few dubious problems.

Vehicles would be fitted with a Global Positioning System, or GPS, that can tell when a car is being driven in state and out of state, Mr. Whitty said.

Yikes! No way in hell would I let the government strap a tracking device to my car. And of course there is also the hidden threat. What's to keep Oregon from implementing the mileage tax and then reinstating the gas tax? The answer of course, is nothing. That they have ignored the cries of environmentalists (in Oregon of all places), tells me that Oregon may be planning just that.

No doubt you've heard about the Italian Journalist who is claiming that they were just driving along minding their own business, when American troops (and tanks) deliberately shot at her. (Somewhere Eason Jordan is smiling).

What I'm not hearing very much is that she works for an anti-American, anti-capitalist, communist news outlet (other than CNN). That doesn't make her a de facto liar, but when it comes to credibility I think I'll give the benefit of the doubt to American troops over a two-bit pinko reporter.

But maybe that's just me.

Apparently pre-historic man's switch from hunting and gathering to farming turned the tide of the ice age. If it weren't for them, we'd all be ice cubes by now.

Ancient man saved the world from a new Ice Age. That is the startling conclusion of climate researchers who say man-made global warming is not a modern phenomenon and has been going on for thousands of years.

Prehistoric farmers who slashed down trees and laid out the first rice paddies and wheatfields triggered major alterations to levels of greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, they say.

As a result, global temperatures - which were slowly falling around 8,000 years ago - began to rise. 'Current temperatures would be well on the way toward typical glacial temperatures, had it not been for the greenhouse gas contributions from early farming practices,' says Professor William Ruddiman of Virginia University.

Dammit there's that pesky ice age again. For some reason the Global Warming anti-capitalists never want to discuss the ice age. That's because glaciers and ice caps haven't just been melting for the last 100 years (which coincidentally corresponds with the industrial revolution), and instead have been receding over the last 20,000 years. Not to mention the fact that solar output (where all of our energy comes from to begin with) is higher now than it has been in the past 1100 years.

"Terror suspects legally buying guns, GAO finds / Being on watch list doesn't prohibit weapons purchases" -- Headline and subheadline, San Francisco Chronicle

Three comments:

• The NICS database and terrorist watchlists are obviously not cross-referenced. (Letting terrorists know they are being watched could compromise national security.)

• Terror suspects are still allowed to rent moving vans.

• Terrorist attacks on American soil using rental vans = 2, Guns = 0.

If the analysts are correct, Virginia Tech's NCAA Tourny hopes look dim.

The Hokies are 8-8 in the ACC, regarded as the nation's toughest league. Since 1992, only three teams that finished 8-8 in the ACC did not make the NCAA tournament. But Tech's RPI is 120. No team with an RPI worse than 74 -- New Mexico in 1999 -- has ever earned an at-large bid.

Both Jerry Palm of www.collegerpi.com and ESPN.com's Joe Lunardi, the nation's two most respected bracket analysts, predicted yesterday that Tech would be left out of the tournament. In fact, Palm has dismissed Tech since the middle of the season, when he said the Hokies don't even belong in the NCAA tournament discussion unless they win nine or 10 league games.

On the other hand, Palm and Lunardi predicted that Maryland and North Carolina State will make the tournament. It didn't matter that the Terrapins lost their final three games of the regular season, including Saturday's 86-76 loss in Blacksburg, Va., or that Virginia Tech finished one game better than N.C. State and Maryland in the conference standings.

Sure, they beat Duke, but they also lost to VMI, St. John's, and Florida State. At the very least, they fooled a lot of people that had predicted they would finish in the basement of the ACC.

Like I said yesterday, most people support price controls for wages. My best guess is that it represents an ignorance of economics and the drawbacks associated with such a regulation.

This CNN Poll currently has a whopping 79% of the more than 170,000 respondents answering 'yes' to the question: "Should the minimum wage be raised?". I wonder how many people would still feel that way if the question read, "Should the minimum wage be raised, if it resulted in higher prices and increased unemployment?" My guess is that it would be somewhat lower, (but probably still above 50%).

Think about it. If minimum wages really worked, why not just pay everyone $50 an hour?

For those of you who don't quite understand why many law-abiding gunowners will always oppose registration schemes, look to Australia where police are going door to door looking for violations.

A POLICE plan for door-to-door checks of every gun owner in the state has drawn flak from firearms groups.

The plan is being considered by the Chief Commissioner's office but gun groups believe police numbers are insufficient to cover the estimated 200,000 registered owners in Victoria.

Police said yesterday the focus would be on firearms storage.

Imagine this was for something else instead of guns. Would you support government agents knocking on your door to see if your home was properly baby-proofed? That drano under your sink could land you in jail.

This is the threat that Aussie gun owners face. One little misstep and they confiscate your firearms, take away your ownership privileges, and maybe even send you to jail.

"The chief of Ukraine's security service said Saturday that the country's former interior minister, Yuri F. Kravchenko, had shot himself twice in the head on Friday, refuting speculation that he had been killed by someone else." -- New York Times, March 6

Via Taranto

I've spent the better part of two weeks debating Global Warming and showcasing the neverending lineup of media harping, but apparently it's all for naught. Aside from bullheaded politicians, America has made up it's mind, so says Peter Goldmark.

...outside Washington, in state capitols, business boardrooms, in churches and universities, America is making up its mind. And what Americans are deciding is that global warming is a serious problem, it is here now, and it would be smart to deal with it carefully, in measured steps, in order to avoid drastic alternatives later.

The brainwashing is working. The only people who don't support the Global Warming theory are the extremists at the VRWC and of course, Big Oil.

It is a familiar crowd. The coal industry figures prominently among them. Many electric utilities are against it, although some of their leaders privately acknowledge that something has to be done. Many of the right-wing think tanks have inveighed against doing anything; some of this polemic has been quietly financed by Exxon/Mobil.

Speaking of which, my royalty check from Exxon is late this month. Maybe I'll have to start beating my drums for the highest bidder. Any socialist enviroweenies out there want to try to buy my support?

I just want to get this straight.

Democrats: Global Warming is an imminent threat that will likely destroy the planet over the next 50 years. Meanwhile Social Security is fine. No crisis. Nothing to see here.

Republicans: Social Security is an imminent threat that will likely destroy the economy over the next 50 years. Meanwhile, Global Warming is fine. No crisis. Nothing to see here.

I could be wrong, but for some reason I'm tempted to believe that we have much more control over Social Security taxation and the economy than we do over the weather. Maybe it's just me.

Both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate want to raise the minimum wage in exchange for votes. But since their plans are so vastly different, neither side is likely to get the needed 60 vote majority.

I am always amazed at how popular wage controls are. Proponents whine that nobody can earn a living on minimum wage. That may be true, but nor should they. I have long thought that bringing a child into the world when you are not capable to raise it is akin to child abuse. People that don't have the skills necessary to earn more than minimum wage shouldn't be living on their own to begin with, much less trying to raise a child. Minimum wage jobs are reserved for high school students and people with no job skills.

Speaking of job skills, lets take a look at just who it is that is earning minimum wage. Most of them are probably overpaid and underworked to begin with. I say that from a perspective of having NEVER earned just the bare minimum. I entered the work force at age 12 with a paper route. My base wage was probably below minimum, but I kept customers happy and earned quite a tidy little wage. I recognized early on that providing more value to the customer meant that they were willing to pay me more. Doing something so simple as not making them walk to the end of their driveway to get the morning paper sure kept me in an adequate supply of candy and baseball cards.

At 14, I worked the summer at an ice cream store. I used to pull double shifts from 7 to 11, before doing the bookkeeping for the night and dropping the deposit by the bank on my way home. I was capable of opening the store on my own, and closing it down by myself as well. On more than one occasion, I had to fill in at other stores because the employees there weren't capable of working unsupervised.

By the time I was 16, I was earning several dollars more than minimum wage working landscaping jobs. Since I had a driver's license much of the work included driving a company truck and pulling a trailer. Looking back on it now, I'm amazed at the responsibility I was given earned. Hell there's 40-year old adults to whom I wouldn't loan my truck today.

I guess my point is that it is up to the individual to give their employer value for his hour of work. Forcing employers to pay their people $7 per hour instead or $5 just means that employers are going to expect $7 of value. If this law passes and you're only capable of providing $5 of value, don't be surprised if you're out of work next year. If there are four of you making $5 an hour, the good news is that 3 of you are going to get raises. The bad news is that one of you is going to be fired, and the other three will be expected to pick up the slack. And even if you're willing to work for $5 an hour, tough luck. The government says that's illegal.

There has been a lot of whining about rising gas prices lately, but very little has been done to propose realistic solutions to the problem. What it comes down to is simple economics. That is, demand remains high, so there is no economic pressure to lower prices. If you are serious about wanting to pay less at the pump, there are several things that can be done to alleviate the price pressure. (Not that I expect the United States to actually do anything intelligent when it comes to oil.)

Please understand that this list is by no means comprehensive:

• Make ANWR and other areas currently off limits available for oil drilling. No matter what, something must be done to meet the demand for oil in the short term. The problem is that the enviroweenies don't care about looking for more oil. Even if we found an endless supply that could be gotten easily and cheaply (and without killing any caribou), the hippy types would still insist that we find a car that runs on free love and good karma. ANWR is made up of millions of acres of barren wasteland. Setting up a small drilling operation wouldn't hurt that much, and the heat generated by oil pipelines has actually shown to be good for the wildlife population.

• Eliminate regulations that make it too expensive to drill for oil domestically. Let's face it, our government doesn't exactly make drilling for oil a cheap process. I'm not saying that we should get rid of all regulation, but the law of diminishing returns means that at some point it is more expensive to keep drilling than it is to empty the well. A lot of oil is left in the ground simply because the cost of drilling it is too high. Lower the cost and you get more oil.

• Build more refineries. New refineries haven't been built in the United States in nearly 30 years. Even if we had the oil, we couldn't do anything with it without refineries.

• Settle on one or two blends of gasoline for the whole country. Federal and state regulators pass silly laws that require specialized blends of gasoline for different areas. Since some blends can only be used in some areas and not others storage and distribution becomes a lot more complex. That translates into seasonal shortages and spikes in price.

• Promote alternative fuel sources so that we are not as dependent on oil. This is about more than electric cars. Since electricity is still derived from fossil fuels, driving electric cars only moves the problem to someone else's neighborhood. Depending on amount of driving done, you might even be using more oil than less. But if we find alternative fuels not just for cars but for our homes, the demand for oil would wane enough to be seen at the pump. For instance, eliminating the de facto ban on nuclear power will reduce our burning of fossil fuels for electricity.

• Eliminate regional price controls. There is a reason why gas costs more downtown than it does in the suburbs. This is about more than clean air laws. Some cities actually set minimum prices to keep companies like Wal-Mart from coming in and giving local businesses too much competition.

Keep in mind that this doesn't even take into account that nearly every product on the market is in some way derived from petroleum (ie: anything polymer or plastic).

Something else that is interesting is that they keep wondering why people aren't opting for more fuel efficient cars in the light of higher gas prices. Considering that people are buying $40,000 SUVs, it comes as no surprise to me that they aren't worried about an extra $150 a year for gas. Over the life of their car, that's just pennies a day.

But when it comes to gas prices, unless something is done about American supply and demand, expect to continue paying more at the pump.

Global Warming is being blamed for causing unusually cold weather in the Philippines reports the Manila Times.

Global warming is causing the unusually cold nights that have gripped Metro Manila during the past days, the weather bureau said Sunday.

The temperature dipped to the low 20s in degrees Centigrade over the weekend, at a time when nights begin to get uncomfortably warm as summer sets in.

At 6 a.m. Saturday, the temperature monitored at the Science Garden in Diliman, Que�zon City, registered 22 degrees Centigrade. In summer the temperature could reach as high as 37 degrees Centigrade.

Dipping down to 22 degrees Centigrade (in real degrees, that's a bone-chilling 72) is likely to take quite a toll on the homeless population. My guess is they'll be flocking to shelters to escape the cold.

The taxpayer funded BBC is coming under fire for paying �4,500 to interview Brendon Fearon, the burglar and career criminal who was shot by homeowner Tony Martin. Martin also shot and killed Fearon's accomplice, and served time for using lethal force to defend himself.

Malcolm Starr, a friend of Mr Martin, said that Channel 4 had pulled out of making a similar documentary because the farmer [Tony Martin] refused to participate.

He said: "Tony Martin refused any money or to meet his tormentor in a face-to face confrontation. It is utterly disgraceful that the BBC is handing over our hard-earned money to someone who has been in and out of prison his whole life."

BBC Television said that it planned to go ahead with the documentary next month. A spokesman insisted that the Fearon interview met the strict criteria on payment to criminals. "It is extremely important that the public hears the fullest possible account of the event that led to the death of a 16-year-old boy and the imprisonment of Tony Martin," he said.

After Martin was jailed for defending himself, the U.K. government went so far as to pay the intruder �5,000 and provide him legal counsel to sue the homeowner for shooting him. Now the government is paying him even more to provide an interview and testimonial that will undoubtedly come down on the side of criminal's rights. It would appear that breaking into Mr. Martin's home was the best decision Fearon ever made.

Metro officials are concerned by a recent survey that shows only 9% of people use Metro rail.

According to a recent Washington Post poll, 9 percent of Washingtonians said they regularly use the subway to get to and from work. A third of those who don't take Metro said they could but choose not to, while nearly two-thirds said public transportation isn't an option for them.

Their reasons varied: Metro is too far from home or from work, or they simply prefer to drive. Long rides and a lack of parking don't help.

I wonder if taking out the seats will help.

Maryland will try once again to pass "shall issue" legislation of the concealed carry of handguns. Proponents are optimistic that legislation has a realistic chance of passing this year.

Soon Maryland may join the 37 other states that allow law-abiding citizens to carry concealed firearms for purposes of self-defense.

The pressure of Maryland Shall Issue encouraged congresspeople to draft this bill. MSI now boasts over 1800 members from both major political parties as well as third parties and has distributed over three thousand bumper stickers.

A national survey of Police Chiefs found that two out of three Chiefs of Police favor shall-issue for law abiding citizens. A national survey of voters by Zogby found 79% in favor of shall-issue. John R. Lott, among others, has demonstrated that crime decreases when citizens are allowed the means of self defense.

I don't know how much incentive this is for Maryland legislators, but as a Virginian who lives in close proximity, I would be much more likely to spend time and money in their state if I didn't have to leave my gun at the border.

Politicians in Falls Church (VA) have really got their panties in a wad. To listen to them wail, you'd think the end of the world was near.

"This is a tyranny of the illogical," charged Falls Church Mayor Dan Gardner in response to the news. "There is no excuse for it. I would not want to be responsible if there is any loss of life as a result of this."

Council member David Snyder. . .used even stronger language criticizing the legislature. "The relationship between the state government and the legitimate concerns of Northern Virginia has deteriorated to the point that it is not only dysfunctional but is harmful," Snyder said, reading a prepared statement.

He blamed "the narrow interest of extremist ideologies" in the legislature and "special interests" allayed against a "bi-partisan group of courageous legislators" representing Northern Virginia.

So just what is it that has Northern Virginia liberals so upset? What is it that's so "extremist" and "dysfunctional"? Well, the Virginia legislature successfully killed Red Light SCameras.

"This session had the usual fiscal unfairness, in which a huge subsidy is paid by Northern Virginia to the rest of the state," he went on. "This session was, however, the most offensive because the government in Richmond aggressively assaulted Northern Virginia's ability to provide for the welfare, safety and security of its own citizens" including "life-saving highway safety measures such as red light running enforcement technology that prevents some of the most lethal car crashes."

Back in 2002, it was reported that the American Automobile Association (AAA) pulled their support for red light cameras out of concern over increased rear end collisions. Data suggests that rear end collisions may actually create a more dangerous intersection, due to drivers slamming on their brakes at the sight of a yellow light.

It was also discovered that in San Diego, cameras were placed too close to intersections, and the length of the yellow light was actually shortened to maximize the profitability of the cameras.

If Falls Church is so concerned about safety, all they need to do is increase the length of the yellow light. Of course that doesn't bring in any money, which is what traffic cameras are really all about.

For years I have theorized that Washington D.C. is purposely trying to chase riders away from the Metrorail system. You may think that sounds crazy, until you read that Metro officials are toying with the idea of taking out the seats.

What could be worse than a 45 minute train ride after an 11 hour work day? How about having to stand up the whole way home.

I didn't do quite as well as Kevin, but then he probably hadn't been drinking when he took the test.

English Genius

You scored 100% Beginner, 100% Intermediate, 87% Advanced, and 83% Expert!

"Effective control of forest fires may prove crucial in the fight against global warming since blazes from Alaska to Indonesia spew out vast amounts of heat-trapping gases," reports Reuters.

"Forests are a wild card in the debate" about rising world temperatures, said Brian Stocks, a forest fire expert with the government-run Canadian Forest Service.

Annual fire damage in countries from Russia to Canada varies hugely, and many of the most destructive blazes are lit by lightning in remote regions.

What they don't mention is that a key component of forest management is logging. If forests are not properly thinned, devastating forest fires spew tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. And since environmentalists severely limit the farming of trees it can be said that they are directly culpable.

I say to loggers, the next time one of these wackos ties himself to a tree, keep on cutting. Remember, the whole planet is counting on you.

Urban blue-state metrosexual men are starting to carry purses, thus ensuring the extinction of the modern blue-state metrosexual movement.

Wallets, cell phones, keys, PDAs, laptop computers - even the deepest of pockets can't hold everything the average guy is hauling around these days. While no-frills nylon gym totes or ho-hum pleather business cases would suffice, men are increasingly open to carrying a bag with a bit of style ... something more refined.

Enter the murse - a masculine version of the purse.

Um. I beg to differ. Save for a gym bag, it's hard to look manly with anything that has a shoulder strap. And pardon me for saying so, but these guys don't sound very masculine. When's the last time you used the word 'sumptuous'?

"It's a matter of practicality and fashion," says Cargo magazine's style director Bruce Pask, who personally favors Lambertson Truex's collection of sumptuous leather and canvas bags. But since the market is brimming with offerings of sleek designer satchels from the likes of Gucci or Bottega Venetta and simple structured carryalls from Jack Spade and Manhattan Portage, men in the market for a murse or manbag can be choosy.

Or not.

Constantine Karonis, 25, who lives in Manhattan, estimates he owns about 15 bags. "I've been carrying one since high school," he says.

His favorite is a slim, checkerboard-print Louis Vuitton shoulder bag that retails for about $1,200.

I could get a collector grade M1 Garand for $1200. (And point it at his joker and force him to carry my shit around.)

And they make fun of us here guys in the South?

Hat tip to Spoons.

Via Say Uncle, a Colorado man is shot twice by police with a TASER gun, and arrested for abusing the salad bar priviledges at Chuck E. Cheese's. His children looked on in horror.

The TSA has added Zippo lighters to their list of banned items, meaning that just about every way of igniting a cigarette or cigar is banned on commercial aircraft. The Zippo people are worried that this will destroy the market among collectors, who apparently fly to Zippo swap meets and events.

Methinks the airlines need to go back to private security before the TSA drives all their business away.

Officials at the Federal Election Commission hope to rein in all this free speech going on over the internet. Bradley Smith, one of the six commissioners at the FEC says that "the freewheeling days of political blogging and online punditry are over." CNET has more:

In just a few months, he warns, bloggers and news organizations could risk the wrath of the federal government if they improperly link to a campaign's Web site. Even forwarding a political candidate's press release to a mailing list, depending on the details, could be punished by fines.

Good luck trying to enforce that. Think of all the email spam and anonymous posting going on out there now. Obviously these six bozos don't know much about the internet, computers, or how they work.

What worries the FEC is that people who run websites are basically giving free advertising to political candidates. If I take a position one way or another and endorse a specific candidate who supports my position, the FEC considers that to have monetary value. If the value exceeds the contribution limitation, I can be fined or put in jail. Ha!

Certainly a lot of bloggers are very much out front. Do we give bloggers the press exemption? If we don't give bloggers the press exemption, we have the question of, do we extend this to online-only journals like CNET?

Here we go down the slippery slope, with the government trying to decide who gets press exemptions and who doesn't. What you should be asking yourself is what the hell the government is doing trying to keep people from expressing their opinions (online or otherwise). On the subject of speech, the First Amendment clearly states "Congress shall make no law. . .abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press" Yet here we are with an arm of the Federal Government trying to decide how best to abridge freedom of speech and the press.

Of course the root of this goes back to the McCain-Feingold Incumbent Protection Act which repealed the First Amendment. Smith notes:

It's going to be a battle, and if nobody in Congress is willing to stand up and say, "Keep your hands off of this, and we'll change the statute to make it clear," then I think grassroots Internet activity is in danger. The impact would affect e-mail lists, especially if there's any sense that they're done in coordination with the campaign. If I forward something from the campaign to my personal list of several hundred people, which is a great grassroots activity, that's what we're talking about having to look at.

Senators McCain and Feingold have argued that we have to regulate the Internet, that we have to regulate e-mail. They sued us in court over this and they won.

McCain and Feingold can bite me. I cannot speak for other bloggers, but if told to shut up, I will not. If my site is shut down, I will use offshore hosting. If I'm fined, I will not pay it. If I'm jailed, I will not go. They can have my mouse when they pry it from my cold dead hands.

UPDATE: Geek is circling the wagons.

Scrappleface reports that the Bush Administration is flip-flopping on Social Security reform:

(2005-03-03) -- In a stunning reversal, President George Bush today announced that "no reform is needed to the Social Security system, and Congressional Republicans were right to drag their heels on my efforts to change it."

"I was wrong," Mr. Bush said, "In fact, things are going so well with Social Security that today I propose to put members of Congress on the same terrific plan enjoyed by the rest of our citizens. Since it ain't broke yet and there's no crisis yet, I know they'll embrace this equal opportunity proposal. Who could vote against it?"

The average retirement benefit for members of Congress under the Federal Employee Retirement System (FERS) is currently in the range of $45,000-to-$55,000 per year, not including their Thrift Savings Plan (an optional personal retirement account).

The White House proposal would eliminate several elements of the FERS and put a Senator's Social Security retirement income at the same level as the average American worker -- somewhere between $11,160 and $21,900 per year.

"As our elected officials look forward to hauling down that kind of retirement loot," Mr. Bush said, "I'm sure the next piece of legislation will be a resolution thanking God for Social Security."

Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan is calling for Congress to cut spending. He says that while the economy is growing, government spending continues to be a huge problem. Oh, and he also says that tax hikes are not the way to go.

The U.S. economy is growing at a "reasonably good pace," Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said on Wednesday, but he warned dangerous budget deficits must be fixed, preferably through spending cuts.

"When you begin to do the arithmetic of what the rising debt level implied by the deficits tells you, and add interest costs to that ever-rising debt at ever-higher interest rates, the system becomes fiscally destabilizing," Greenspan told the House of Representatives Budget Committee.

"Addressing the government's own imbalances will require scrutiny of both spending and taxes. However, tax increases of sufficient dimension to deal with our looming fiscal problems arguably pose significant risks to economic growth and the revenue base," he said.

While higher taxes boost government revenues, they also deplete consumer coffers, dampening economic growth and spending -- strains the economy can ill afford as the baby boom generation retires and the proportion of workers shrinks, he said.

Actual budget cuts just don't happen in this country. Even though Democrats are chiding Bush for proposing "deep cuts" in this year's budget, the fact of the matter remains that every single government program receives more funding than it did last year.

A cut, in newspeak, just means that they didn't get as big of an increase as they wanted. If Congress wants a 6% increase and they only get 3%, that's called a cut. And you wonder why the deficit is so big?

When birds migrate, it's no big deal. But when plankton relocates a little bit, scientists who have devoted their entire life to continuously recording plankton movements have a conniption fit.

Global warming is causing microscopic marine life in the seas around the UK to move north, in the biggest shift in the past 100 years and raising concerns that other marine species could follow, according to a Government report out today.

Scientists working on the Continuous Plankton Recorder survey have found that the warm water plankton in the North Sea are migrating northwards while cold water plankton are moving even further north as seawater temperature rises.

During my second freshman year of college I discovered the solution to global warming, but nobody would listen to me. Most people think that most of our oxygen comes from trees. But with two-thirds of the Earth's surface covered with water, it actually comes from oceans full of plant plankton, who dutifully convert CO₂ to oxygen through photosynthesis. The biggest harm to plant plankton is not global warming, since a spike in CO₂ would just mean that plant life thrives. Instead, plant plankton's biggest predator is whales. Whales scoop up plankton by the truckload. It would seem obvious then, that the solution is to protect plant plankton by slaughtering whales. With an absence of predators, plant plankton will overpopulate and drastically cut CO₂ levels.

Twenty-five year old Clint O'Shields has assumed room temperature after attempting to rob an Alabama man at gunpoint.

A Chelsea man told friends and family he was turning his life around just days before he was shot to death while robbing a couple in their home.

Since this happened down South, O'Shields getaway driver (his wife) is charged with "one count of felony murder [because her husband was killed] and two counts of first-degree robbery". The homeowner will not be charged.

UPDATE: Steve Scudder sends a link to a story with a few more details. In a nutshell:
- It was 2 AM.
- The husband was tied up, wife held at gunpoint.
- The intruder was presumed to be chock full o' drugs.
- The husband freed himself, and then liberated his wife by perferating Mr. O'Shields.
- Shelby County D.A. Robby Owens had this to say: "If you're in your house, your own home, you're going to have a lot of freedom to protect yourself, especially your wife, your family and property"

Another gun lie in the media, this time from the Collegiate Times, the student newspaper of Virginia Tech.

Virginia laws concerning gun shows will remain status quo. Anyone can purchase a firearm at a gun show without having a background check.

Nothing could be further from the truth. All gun dealers must continue to conduct background checks on gun buyers, regardless of where the purchase is made. Even at gun shows.

UPDATE: Okay, weeding through the rest of the article, you find this:

Robert Caverly, Arab and Islamic philosophy studies sophomore at Villanova University, also believes criminals selling their gun collections should undergo background checks, just like the vendors.

Huh?! Let's take this idiotic suggestion at face value. Making criminals undergo background checks for gun possession would be unConstitutional. It violates several Amendments, most notably the protection against unreasonable search and seizure and the protection against self-incrimination. You see, criminals cannot be forced to register their guns because doing so would be forcing them to confess to a crime. There are laws against that.

The idiot has more:

"I don't see how anyone could object to a federalized license system. It is not a closure of your second amendment rights, it's a protection of your first amendment rights," Caverly said.

What the?! Pray tell, how does violating Second Amendment rights protect the First Amendment? Is this the kind of thing they teach at Villanova or did this guy learn it on the streets?

I find it quite interesting that Democrat Senator Robert 'KKK' Byrd, a former white supremecist who filibustered the Civil Rights Act to keep it from passing, would accuse others of being Nazis.

Many times in our history we have taken up arms to protect a minority against the tyrannical majority in other lands. We, unlike Nazi Germany or Mussolini's Italy, have never stopped being a nation of laws, not of men.

The Supreme Court has ruled that people who commit capital murder before reaching the age of 18 can't face the dealth penalty under the "cruel and unusual punishment" clause of the Eight Amendment. Reports CNN, the Justices cited changing "national standards" in their 5-4 decision.

Not only do I fear this is a baby-steps approach to striking down the death penalty altogether, it's also quite shocking that the Justices would choose to base their reasoning on public opinion. Take a public opinion poll and any law in the nation could be struck down using the loose "national standards" definition.

In his dissent, Justice Scalia would seem to agree.

"We must disregard the new reality that -- to the extent our Eighth Amendment decisions constitute something more than a show of hands on the current Justices' personal views (on the death penalty) -- they purport to be nothing more than a snapshot of American public opinion at a particular point in time," he wrote.

Illustrating just how bad this decision is, it was praised by both Former President Jimmy Carter and the European Union.

UPDATE: The ruling is actually much more hideous than I first thought. Check out these passages from Justice Kennedy's opinion, where he explicitly relies on foreign laws and international opinion:

"the Court has referred to the laws of other countries and to international authorities as instructive for its interpretation of the Eighth Amendment's prohibition of "cruel and unusual punishments." "

"[w]e have previously recognized the relevance of the views of the international community in determining whether a punishment is cruel and unusual"

"I turn, finally, to the Court's discussion of foreign and international law. Without question, there has been a global trend in recent years towards abolishing capital punishment for under-18 offenders. Very few, if any, countries other than the United States now permit this practice in law or in fact. See ante, at 22-23. While acknowledging that the actions and views of other countries do not dictate the outcome of our Eighth Amendment inquiry, the Court asserts that "the overwhelming weight of international opinion against the juvenile death penalty ... does provide respected and significant confirmation for [its] own conclusions." "

The courts are supposed to uphold and apply the laws of the United States, not change them based on public opinion in other nations. Likewise, the power of our government flows from the American people (not foreigners) and is bound by the United States Constitution. Justices like Kennedy (and previously O'Connor) that continue to cite international standards and laws, and changing public opinion in their rulings should be removed from the bench.

Monday, I mentioned that the Million Mom March might as well be called Felons for Gun Control. I didn't think the MMM would try to prove my point so soon.

Geek points out that felonious activity among anti-gun activists is more common than you might think.

A Springfield [Ill.] woman who began lobbying against gun violence after her son was shot to death in 2002 was arrested last week when police allegedly found an illegal gun and drugs in her home.

Annette "Flirty" Stevens, however, said Monday she's innocent, and the arrest is an attempt by police to get her to give up information about unsolved crime in the city.

The handgun, which had a scratched-off serial number, and drugs allegedly were discovered Friday morning inside Stevens' home in the 2500 block of South 15th Street. Authorities said they obtained a search warrant for the residence as part of an ongoing investigation of a recent series of drive-by shootings...

She helped establish and is president of a Springfield chapter of the Million Mom March, an organization that aims to prevent gun violence [ownership].

Flirty also lacks the required FOID registration card that Illinois requires for all gun owners.

To the average person, guns may not seem to be all that complex, but for some reason reporters get all flustered and confused. Gregory Markle thrashes a reporter who can't even cut and paste correctly, much less get his facts straight.

Thomas Sowell makes a worthwhile (albeit futile) attempt to reason with the unreasonable. At issue is the University of Seattle, "where a student mob prevented a military recruiter from meeting with those students who wanted to meet with him." Writes Sowell:

At first, the university president said that the student rioters should apologize. But the storm this created forced the typical academic administrator's back-down under pressure.

One of the student rioters explained that she didn't want anyone to be sent overseas to be killed. Apparently it never occurred to her that what she wanted was not automatically to be imposed on other people, with or without mob violence.

Back in the days of the divine rights of kings, it might be understandable why a given monarch might think that what he wanted was all that mattered. But, in an age of democracy, how can millions of people live together if each one asserts a divine right to impose his or her will on others?

But how will we know what to do if we don't allow 19-year olds to push us around?

Berkeley (CA) area teachers are refusing to give out homework or work extra hours, and it's all Arnold Schwarzenegger's fault. The AP reports that the local teachers union has instructed teachers not to put in more hours than they are contractually obliged to work. Teachers claim they have worked more than two years without a raise.

"It's hard," said Judith Bodenhauser, a high school math teacher. "I have stacks of papers I haven't graded. Parents want to talk to me; I don't call them back."

Considering California has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, perhaps the Governator should just fire them all and hire new workers. If the economy is really so bad as they say, he should have no trouble finding suitable replacements.

Global Warming zealots are taking their show on the road. Britain has launched a roving international campaign that will target big cities across the world, where global warming is the most severe.

The ZeroCarbonCity campaign is based on cities being the biggest consumers of electricity and therefore the main generators of greenhouse gases that are warming the world towards what many see as looming Armageddon...

It will involve an exhibition that will travel to all 100 cities highlighting successes and failures from cutting traffic congestion and vehicle emissions to insulating buildings, backed by online discussion forums and city meetings.

Just what the global warming movement needs: a bunch of environmental wackos jet-setting the globe spewing propaganda.

Cities, as major concentrations of people, are a prime focus and have been identified as heat islands with temperatures several degrees higher than the surrounding countryside which in turn boosts energy usage from increased air conditioning use.

Scientists say using fossil fuels to generate electricity is the major driver of man-made global warming.

The Kyoto climate change treaty to curb carbon emissions finally came into force two weeks ago, but critics say it is too little too late with the United States refusing to sign up and developing nations having only to pay lip service.

Luckily when they cut the power to major cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago all that gun control will keep people safe.

Old Soviet bloc countries have had enough with socialism. Perhaps that's why they countries like Russia, Slovakia, Romania, Georgia, Estonia, Latvia, Serbia and Ukraine have adopted a fair tax code that taxes all income at a flat rate. And as Bruce Bartlett points out, they are doing better than if they had implemented a socialist progressive system like we have here in the United States.

Why so much interest in the flat tax? A key reason is that it is far more effective at raising revenue than progressive rates. With progressive rates, it looks as if extra revenue is being extracted from the wealthy. But it is also giving them a powerful incentive to arrange their affairs so as to minimize their tax liability or to evade taxes altogether.

With a flat tax, there is much less incentive to engage in tax avoidance or tax evasion. Also, the knowledge that everyone is being treated equally helps eliminate the culture of evasion that often becomes pervasive in high-tax countries, which often drives even the law-abiding into the underground economy.

Of course a flat tax also gets rid of the annual vote buying schemes that American politicians use to maintain their hold on the reins of government. That's probably why we won't see a fair tax structure implemented any time soon.

Neal wants to know how long it will take for the easily offended to be outraged over the new buffalo nickels. They appear to be somewhat um... anatomically correct.

Freedom continues to spread throughout the Middle East, as Egypt is taking a step closer to free elections for the first time since 1981.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak ordered the constitution changed to allow multi-candidate presidential elections in September, making a surprise reversal Saturday that could mean he will face a challenger for the first time since taking power in 1981.

It was the first significant move toward political reform in decades in Egypt, a powerhouse in the Arab world that has had one-party rule for more than half a century.

For those of you keeping score, that's: Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, and Lebanon. Next at bat is Egypt, and on deck is probably Iran or Saudi Arabia.

It's been a long hiatus, but I'm thrilled that Deadwood is finally returning.

I hope to God that I'm never this hard up.

A 63-year-old man is charged with sexual gratification with an animal for allegedly having sex with calves.

Harold G. Hart, of Neillsville, allegedly told police that he routinely stopped at a Greenwood farm, usually after bar closing or on trips to strip clubs near Marshfield or Neillsville.

This meme courtesy of Countertop.

THE 'WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?' BLOGGER QUIZ

1. Who the hell do you think you are?
- Ravenwood. It says it at the top of the page. Pay attention!

2. So, other than blogging, what's your job? Do you work at some fast food joint, dumbass?
- No, I'm a manager at a firm working on a Top Secret government contract. I could tell you more, but then I'd have to kill you.

3. Do you have like any experience in journalism, idiot?
- I used to write for my high school paper. Does that count?

4. Do you even read newspapers?
- I'd rather have carpal tunnel syndrome than inky hands so I stick to reading about a dozen newspapers on the web.

5. Do you watch any other news than FOX News propaganda, you ignorant fool?
- Actually, I rarely watch the news at all.

6. I bet you're some moron talk radio listener too, huh?
- One hour per day, during lunch.

7. So, do you get a fax from the GOP each day for what to say, you @#$% Republican parrot?
- Unfortunately the terms of the restraining order mean I'm no longer allowed to have contact with any political parties.

8. Why do you and your blogger friends want to silence and fire everyone who disagrees with you, fascist?
- My favorite hobby is pointing out stupidity, so I don't want to silence anyone. But they usually shut up after a good fisking.

9. Are you completely ignorant of other countries, or do you actually own a passport?
- Actually, I'm quite well traveled.

10. Have you even been to another country, you dumb hick?
- Well, I did live in Europe for 3 years.

11. If you're so keen on the war, why haven't you signed up, chickenhawk?
- I toyed with applying to the Naval Academy out of High School, but it didn't pan out. Also, I considered joining the Army out of college, but the recruiter talked me out of it. Yes, the Clinton years were that bad.

12. Do you have any idea of the horrors of war? Have you ever reached into a pile of goo that was your best friend's face?
- No, but I have held my best friend's head while he prayed to the porcelin goddess.

13. Have you ever reached into any pile of goo?
- No, I said I never worked in fast food.

14. Once again, who the hell do you think you are?!"
- I'm Ravenwood, your worst nightmare... and I'm here to help.

UPDATE: Best quiz answer goes to McGehee: 11. If you're so keen on the war, why haven't you signed up, chickenhawk? I was told we might need people to stay at home and beat up anti-war types, and I thought that sounded like more fun.

Samantha Sharac is worried about equal rights for women. She thinks that Harvard President Lawrence Summer's supposition that men and women are genetically different (especially when it comes to math and science) is the product of male chauvinism that dates back to the late 1700s. In the Daily Collegian, student newspaper for the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, she writes:

The Constitution was ratified with the nineteenth Amendment, yet the Declaration of Independence remains the same. Women now have the legal right to vote but they are not entitled to "certain unalienable rights ... among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." The Declaration of Independence provide these three rights to "all men," with no mention of women. Now, one may argue that women are legally given these rights as citizens of the United States.

If women were granted these three rights, I doubt that there would be a gender gap in wage earnings, violence against women, unsafe abortions and substantially more women than men in poverty; these ugly realities severely undercut women's right of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

You just have to know that the sexist male pig in me is screaming, "Geez, they don't know anything about history either". But I'll try to supress my feelings of superiority just long enough to give her a history lesson.

First of all, the Constitution was amended with the Nineteenth Amendment, which was in turn ratified in 1920. (Unless she is claiming that our nation is only 85 years old.)

Second, the Declaration of Independence is not really a legally binding document. It was basically a giant F-U letter sent to the King of England. It enumerated his many crimes against the colonists and declared that America was free and independent. It is the spirit behind the law, not the law itself.

Of course Ms. Sharac's fundamental flaw is her way of thinking. People are not "granted" rights by the government. That violates the definition of both "rights" and "unalienable". A right that is regulated by the government ceases to be a right and is instead a priviledge. The very definition of "unalienable" means that which cannot be taken away. The Declaration of Independence and Constitution protect our rights, they don't grant them. Perhaps had she quoted the whole passage she would have read that all men are "endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights". Of course by Creator they mean God, so it's no wonder she purposely left it out.

Her notion that using some white out on the Declaration of Independence would somehow magically close the "gender gap" is absurd. Starting wages are typically much higher for women. That men rise above women in the work place likely has everything to do with women putting their careers on hold to raise a family. Let's face it, taking a few years off from your job isn't the best career move. And "violence against women" and "unsafe abortions" are both problems common only to women. Most men I know have a 0% chance of suffering from violence against women and unsafe abortions. In fact, I don't know of a single case of a man getting an unsafe abortion. Then again, I don't realy follow it that closely.

But I doubt that there are a bunch of wife beaters are out there claiming that the Declaration of Independence made them do it.

Via Taranto

President Bush's call for the expansion of freedom claimed another victory, as freedom in the Middle East is spreading.

The Lebanese government abruptly resigned Monday during a stormy parliamentary debate, prompting a tremendous roar from tens of thousands of anti-government protesters in Beirut's Martyrs Square.

The demonstrators, awash in a sea of red, white and green Lebanese flags, had demanded the pro-Syrian government's resignation -- and the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon -- since the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri two weeks ago.

Syria has stated that it will comply with U.N. Resolution 1559, a 2004 decree that demands Syrian troops withdraw from Lebanon. Syria first agreed to pull out way back in 1989 with the Taif agreement. Better late than never.

Meanwhile, an awful lot of CNN readers think this is no big deal.