This is bound to make the Brady Bunch scream! For a so-called "assault weapon" it doesn't look very scary any more.

If I'm ever shot in California, I'm glad to know that the cops can carve the bullet out of my body and use it's microprinted serial number to track down my killer. Assuming, of course, that they can still read the serial number on the mishapen and fragmented bullet. And assuming that the killer is using legally registered ammo. I mean, a guy that would shoot me in the face wouldn't use illegal ammo too, right?

Massad Ayoob: "When most women have guns, most rapists will masturbate alone in the dark."

(Via Spoons)

Ravenwood's latest pickup line: "Come on baby, you wouldn't want me to get cancer, would you?".

It will make you go blind. It will make your palms grow hairy. Such myths about masturbation are largely a thing of the past. But the latest research has even better news for young men: frequent self-pleasuring could protect against the most common kind of cancer.

A team in Australia led by Graham Giles of The Cancer Council Victoria in Melbourne asked 1079 men with prostate cancer to fill in a questionnaire detailing their sexual habits, and compared their responses with those of 1259 healthy men of the same age. The team concludes that the more men ejaculate between the ages of 20 and 50, the less likely they are to develop prostate cancer.

Mimicking the lobby to legalize medical marijuana, we could push legislators to leave this in (*cough*) professional hands.

Hat tip to Countertop.

Uncle throws the bullshit flag on this one:

A passenger in a car traveling in Osceola County, Fla., was killed and another woman was seriously injured when a gun in the vehicle accidentally discharged twice, according to Local 6 News.

Police said four people were traveling in a car on Nova Road near Holopaw when a gun accidentally discharged, injuring a woman in the vehicle, Local 6 News reported.

The driver then pulled the car over on the side of the road.

Police said when the three were trying to exit the car, the gun accidentally fired again, killing a man.

Local 6 News reported that the man's body was left at the scene while the other three passengers went to get help.

Modern firearms do not 'accidentally discharge', unless the trigger is 'accidentally' pulled. It's a bit like saying you accidentally ran over someone. Twice.

The AP claims: iPod blamed for spike in subway crime

The iPod craze has spawned a crime wave in city subways.

Police told the city transportation board on Wednesday that 50 iPods have been reported stolen on the subways so far this year, compared to none during the same period last year.

Apparently cell phones are to blame too.

Cell phone thefts have more than doubled to 165 from 82 last year.

The thefts fueled a 20 percent spike in robberies last month on the subway, officials said.

Hat tip to reader Mike Alexander.

I am so glad that President Bush kept Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Pissing off the peaceniks at Moveon.org is just a fringe benefit compared to exchanges like this:

Sen. Daniel Inouye, the Democrat from Hawaii, said, "For the first time in many years the Army and Marine Corps are not meeting their recruiting targets. There are some who are already discussing the draft."

Rumsfeld leaned closer to the microphone and said, "I think the only people who could conceivably be talking about a draft are people who are speaking from pinnacles of near-perfect ignorance."

Dick Morris thinks the GOP is taking the wrong approach on filibusters:

Frist just needs to end the "virtual" filibuster and make the Democrats stage a real one, replete with quorum calls, 24/7 sessions and truly endless debate covered word for word by C-SPAN for all the nation to see - and ridicule.

Now where have I heard that before?

I still insist, and will continue to insist that making Democrats hold an actual filibuster is the answer. A filibuster used to mean that the filibustering party needed to hold the Senate floor. They would stand up there and talk and talk and talk, refusing to yield the floor to anyone else. All Senate business stopped until the filibuster was resolved or broken.

If the Dems want to filibuster judicial nominees, that's fine. But the GOP should make them put their money where their mouth is. If they're going to be obstructionists, let them stand up there and show America what's really going on. -- Ravenwood, December 21, 2004.

They. . .should go back to the old rules of filibustering. A filibuster is supposed to be maintained by the filibustering party. The Dems should be required to take the floor and hold it until the filibuster is over. They should also not proceed with any other Senate business until the filibusters are resolved. Perhaps then the American people get the full picture of just how much the Democrats are obstructing. -- Ravenwood, May 6, 2003.

Dick Morris has a much louder voice. Hopefully the GOP will take heed.

I see I'm not the only one that noticed the network cut off President Bush's prime time news conference.

CBS, NBC and FOX cut President Bush's primetime press conference before it ended-- to air May Sweeps Reality TV episodes...

The White House learned a painful media lesson Thursday: Do not launch a press conference on the first night of May Sweeps!

And check out CNN's most useless poll ever. It asks: "Did President Bush's news conference change your mind on Social Security reform?" I guess they already know how we felt before his speech.

So much content, so little time.

ABC is doing a hit piece on Fox's American Idol. I knew the Big Three Networks hated losing their audience to Fox, but attacking their shows seems a little rediculous.

Speaking of Fox, at 350 episodes, Matt Groening says the 17-year old Simpsons has "almost reached its halfway point".

After nearly 30 years of occupation, the Syrian withdrawal from Lebanon is pretty much complete.

Idiots across New England flooded the 9-1-1 emergency system in a panic over a meteor shower.

A town in Italy has made it illegal to walk your dog less than three times a day.

Have you ever wondered why real estate agents seem to be immune to competitive pricing? The Feds think the reason they continue to make 6% year after year is because of illegal price fixing.

More hate crime fraud.

I cannot help but wonder if these stories are related. First up is Byron York, who notes that Air America has been struggling in the ratings lately.

Between the hours of 10 A.M. and 3 P.M., the period that includes Al Franken's program, Air America drew a 1.4-percent share of the New York audience aged 25 to 54 in Winter 2005. That number is the latest in a nearly year-long decline. In Spring of 2004, Air America's first quarter on the air, it drew a 2.2-percent share of the audience. That rose to 2.3 percent in the Summer of 2004, then fell to 1.6 percent in the Fall of 2004, and is now 1.4 percent - Air America's lowest-ever quarterly rating in that time and demographic slot.

The ratings also show WABC radio, which airs Rush Limbaugh, consistently beating Air America in New York City even though Franken had at one time claimed to be beating the conservative host there.

Then there's this Drudge Report, which tells of an apparent Air America publicity stunt.

Government officials are reviewing a skit which aired on the network Monday evening -- a skit featuring an apparent gunshot warning to the president!

The announcer: "A spoiled child is telling us our Social Security isn't safe anymore, so he is going to fix it for us. Well, here's your answer, you ungrateful whelp: [audio sound of 4 gunshots being fired.] Just try it, you little bastard. [audio of gun being cocked]."

The audio production at the center of the controversy aired during opening minutes of The Randi Rhodes Show.

"What is with all the killing?" Rhodes said, laughing, after the clip aired.

So much for tolerance.

Caller ID services that allow callers to display a fake number are on the rise. The BBC reports that internet phone services are making it much easier to spoof the phone number, which lends credibility to conmen (and cops).

...some US net-based firms are now offering a spoofing service that lets people choose the number they are calling from.

At least seven firms have set up shop on the net offering these spoofing services. Four are aimed at consumers and another three restrict themselves to helping law enforcement agencies and private investigators.

Of course this also gives predatory junk marketers a way around the 'No Call List'. How long before nuisance calls are as common as email spam?

Steven Speilberg thinks that if an alien species ever visits Earth, they will be friendly, and come bearing gifts. The AP reports:

"I have to certainly believe what my heart tells me. That the first time there is a meeting of the minds between extraterrestrials and human beings, it's going to be friendly," Spielberg told The Associated Press in an interview looking ahead to his "War of the Worlds" saga, starring Tom Cruise. [...]

"I can't believe anybody would travel such vast distances bent on destruction. I believe anybody who would travel such vast distances are curious explorers, not conquerors," Spielberg said. "Carrying weapons a hundred-thousand light-years is quite a schlepp. I believe it's easier to travel 100,000 light-years with their versions of the Bible."

Hey, it's not like human history is filled with stories of advanced civilizations conquering lesser civilizations and stealing their booty. And global explorers routinely traveled to strange and exotic places completely unarmed and defenseless. Right?

(Via Taranto)

Technically this guy was right. He could hack any IP address and gain access to the hard drive.

• Hacker picks fight with chat moderator, demands his IP address.

• Moderator send hacker an IP address.

• Hacker gains access to hard drive and starts deleting files.

• Hacker realizes too late that 127.0.0.1 is his own IP address.

The money quote:

Finally the hacker declared success."I can see your E: drive disappearing, he gloated, "D: is down 45 percent!" he cried, before disappearing into the ether

Actually, the original translation is much much funnier than the article. The guy first tries turning off the machine remotely a few times and then bitches that his own computer keeps restarting. Next he tries deleting files, and then gloats as each drive is erased. G: gone.. then F:, then E:, then D:. About halfway through deleting his own C-drive, the connection drops.

"We performed the wrong operation on you, we didn't look at your folder." -- The excuse allegedly used by a South African doctor who is accused of accidentally removing a man's testicles instead of his prostate gland.

Republicans are set to reverse House Ethics Committee rules in response to Democrat's whining and refusal to meet. The change is being billed in the media as a GOP defeat retreat.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, leading a Republican retreat, said Wednesday he stands ready to scrap controversial new ethics rules, possibly by day's end...

Democrats charge that rules changes pushed through the House by Republicans earlier this year were designed to shelter Majority Leader Tom DeLay, and have stopped the ethics committee from conducting business in retaliation. The powerful Texan was admonished by the panel three times last year and faces scrutiny this year over overseas travel. He has denied any wrongdoing.

In reality, all the change did was place the burden of proof on the prosecution, as it is in American courts. Before the rule's change, a 5-5 tie in the evenly split 10 member committee meant that they moved forward with an investigation of charges. The rules change said you had to have a 6 vote majority, which the Democrats and their willing accomplices in the press are billing as 'you have to have the support of a member of the opposite party'. Their goal was to make it sound protectionist toward Republican Leader Tom DeLay.

But the rule actually hurt DeLay more than it helped him. By not allowing him to be investigated, the Democrats are able to continually smear him in the press without a serious investigation of the charges. Changing the rules back mitigates the Democrat's objection. If DeLay can trigger an investigation, he *should* be exhonerated because he's done nothing illegal or outside the realm of what every other member of Congress does.

However the rules change could spell disaster for 'Baghdad' Jim McDermott and Nancy Pelosi, both of whom face very real ethics charges: McDermott for his being found guilty of releasing an illegally taped cell phone conversation; and Pelosi for her campaign finance lapses.

Buffalo.

A local teacher has been arrested for leaving his handgun in his car while he was on school grounds.

A Fairfax County teacher is in trouble after police say he brought a gun onto school property. 31 year-old Timothy Fudd turned himself into police.

Investigators say an anonymous tip led school officials to search Fudd's vehicle at Westfield High in Chantilly where they say a loaded handgun was found. Fudd was released today and is now charged with possession of a weapon on school property.

Police say he has a consent to carry a concealed weapon but that does not apply on school grounds.

I'm not sure I buy this 'anonymous tip' crap, and I wonder if it was an illegal search and seizure. But I will point out that this year, the law has been relaxed so that someone with a concealed handgun permit is allowed to have a handgun secured in their vehicle on school property. While they still can't carry it around with them, simply pulling into the parking lot doesn't make you an instant felon. Sadly, for this gentleman, the change doesn't go into effect until July 1.

Earlier this month, my windshield fell victim to gun violence. It was replaced a week ago Friday, and within a week the new one is ruined. I am contemplating suing the Commonwealth of Virginia for their failure to maintain their portion of the Capitol Beltway. The construction zone that I have to drive through every day is filled with road hazard o' plenty. Usually the debris is large and it is easy to swerve and miss it. But the tiny rocks and pebbles that are left behind are murder on windshields.

This goes beyond rock chip. I have a full blown crack that stretches to two sides of the windshield. I spoke to the guy that put it in and was basically told 'tough luck'. I could sense his deep admiration for the Commonwealth for providing him with such good business.

So, he's going to try his best to "work me a deal", but it looks like I'm on the hook for another complete windshield replacement. My insurance deductable is nearly half the cost of the replacement, so last time I didn't feel it was necessary to file a claim. But this windshield a week bullshit cannot go on.

Words cannot express my irritation.

Big Music is being accused of racketeering. CNET reports:

Two independent music promoters have sued Universal Music Group for $100 million, claiming the record company forced them to submit false invoices so Universal could recoup promotional costs from artists such as rapper Nelly.

The suit raises "pay-for-play" issues similar to those being probed by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer in a wide-ranging investigation into whether record companies have broken U.S. law by paying radio stations to play their songs.

The two promoters, National Music Marketing Inc. of Los Angeles and Majestic Promotions Inc. of Atlanta, Georgia, claim they were forced to doctor invoices that then allowed Universal to bill promotional costs to artists whom the promoters never represented.

The next version of Windows will contain a virtual flight data recorder or "black box" that records everything a user does. The intent is that if programs or the computer crashes, IT professionals will be able to see what the user was doing at the time of the error.

Personally I wouldn't want the text of my emails being sent to Microsoft every time the computer goes haywire, so I will definitely be turning that feature off. But disabling the spy feature on a work PC may not be that straightforward.

With businesses, however, IT managers typically set the policy. If they wanted total information, they could configure systems so that they'd know not only that a user was running Internet Explorer, for example, but also that he or she was watching a video from ESPN.com. Or, they might find out not only that a worker was running Instant Messenger but also that he or she was talking to a co-worker about getting a new job.

This functionality is already available to companies through third party programs. But not everyone goes through the hassle and expense to log everything. Now Microsoft is taking that step for them. Pretty soon the only thing keeping your boss from reading your emails and IMs will be the sheer volume of them. (And a simple 'search' feature solves that problem.)

"Personal accounts don't solve that problem. You still have the insolvency of the Social Security trust fund." -- Senate Finance Committee chairman Sen. Charles Grassley, a Republican.

It is my firm belief that any politician who lies about the mythical "Social Security Trust Fund" should get a swift kick in the nuts. There is no trust fund. No lock box. It doesn't exist. There is nothing there except empty promises.

How about this: Any person who shows that they donate 15% of their income (up to the federal maximum) into their 401k account is exempted from paying (and receiving) social security.

Today's leftovers are all about guns.

Students at Niagara Falls High School created a memorial for sophomore Anthony Sheard. Sheard, who police say has been linked to gang activity, is taking the eternal dirt nap after he tried to rob a pizza delivery man and was shot to death. Students sent letters and flowers, and the school district has lowered the flag to half-staff - something they didn't even do for local soldiers killed in Iraq.

An elderly woman was arrested in New Jersey for showing up to the Courthouse metal detector with a gun in her purse. She is 87-years old and bought the gun for protection. It was still in the original box, but never the less she has been charged with illegal gun possession.

People are finally starting to realize that the Clinton Gun Ban was meaningless. Since the ban expired last year, not much has changed, reports the New York Times (of all places).

Speaking of the gun ban, police in St. Petersburg Florida are using the expired ban as an excuse to purchase semi-auto AR-15 rifles. They say that now that the ban has expired, they are concerned about being outgunned on the streets. They cite an instance where an officer was shot at with an SKS rifle (which was not even covered by the ban). The AR-15 purchase enflamed Tom Diaz of the VPC, who said that "assault rifles" (which it is not) are not needed outside of Iraq. The police bit back saying that calling it an "assault rifle" was inflammatory. Now they know how we feel.

By a margin of 75%, Americans overwhelmingly rejected the idea that gun control would prevent terrorism. Maybe that's because the terrorist attacks on American soil were committed with airplanes and Ryder trucks, not guns.

Two journalists sent to watch a college game of 'beer pong' were fired for drinking. They were supposed to be there reporting on the evils of drinking, and got busted partaking in some of the fun.

But talking about beer pong takes me down memory lane. I used to go to UVA to visit with friends and celebrate Midwinter's every year. Beer pong was a staple drinking game and one of my favorites. Cups are lined up at each end of the ping pong table, and you have to toss your ping pong balls into your opponent's cups. When you get one in, they have to guzzle the beer. I didn't get to throw many ping pong balls because my aim sucks. But UVA guys are notoriously sloppy drinkers, so they left it up to the Hokie (me) to guzzle the beers. The other team usually didn't stand a chance. If I remember any more of the story, maybe I'll write another DSoD

The PC police are trying to change our calendar. They think that using the age old system of B.C. (Before Christ) and A.D. (anno Domini) is offensive to non Christians. They are attempting to change the terms to B.C.E. (Before Common Era) and C.E. (Common Era). I guess that for now the life of Christ would still divide the eras. Personally, I would call B.C.E. 'Before Christian Era' and C.E. 'Christian Era', just to piss off the PC nazis. Besides 2000 years ago isn't exactly what I would call 'common era'.

In trying to justify the change, either the scholors or the Washington Times seem to have fallen for the 'After Death' misconception when talking about A.D..

Although most calendars are based on an epoch or person, B.C. and A.D. have always presented a particular problem for historians: There is no year zero; there's a 33-year gap, reflecting the life of Christ, dividing the epochs. Critics say that's additional reason to replace the Christian-based terms.

Didn't these guys ever go to Sunday school? It is true that there is no year zero, but there is certainly no 33-year gap. 1 B.C. is the year before Christ was born. A.D. 1 is the year after Christ was born. The 33 years of his life are A.D. 1 to A.D. 33. The only gap is a leap in the numbering, and every year of time is technically accounted for. And switching the labels around doesn't solve anything. To fix the timeline, we'd all have to relive a year. (This year would be another 2004, and George W. Bush would have to re-run for re-election.)

Of course if any of this were really a problem for historians, they must really hate daylight savings time and leap year.

Tom Busey was the head of the NFA division at ATF. They are charged with keeping records for legally owned and registered machine guns. Some years ago he gave a speech where he rather cavalierly admitted that the NFA will tell the court what they want to hear. Here is an excerpt (transcribed by me) from the video (2.2 MB):

"Let me say that when we testify in court, we testify that the database is 100% accurate. That's what we testify to, and we'll always testify to that. As you probably well know, that may not be 100% true. If it was.. if our database was absolutely error free, we could simply run the name of the individual and his first name and it didn't come up, we could guarantee everyone that that individual doesn't have a title II weapon registered to him...

We know that you're basing your warrants on it, your basing your entries [entries = raids, like in Waco] on it and you certainly don't want a form 4 waved in your face when you go in there... I've heard that's happened."

What he's saying here is that he doesn't want to put the ATF into a position where they raid someones property expecting to find illegal firearms, only to find out that they are legally owned. He later admits that the error rate in the database was as high as 50%, but has fallen to 8%. But remember, they'll always testify in court that it's 100% accurate.

Personally I'm not at all surprised. I've had people tell me that the ATF has contacted them for a copy of their form 4 because the Bureau inadvertently lost their copy.

(Via David Hardy, Via Say Uncle)

First up is the AP, who can't figure out why crime is down despite less inmates being released from prison:

While the crime rate has fallen over the past decade, the number of people in prison and jail is outpacing the number of inmates released, said the report's co-author, Paige Harrison. For example, the number of admissions to federal prisons in 2004 exceeded releases by more than 8,000, the study found.

Next is the Washington Post, who notices the opposite effect in Baltimore:

IN BALTIMORE, murders are up and convictions are down. You read that correctly: Even as the city has gained the dubious distinction of having the nation's highest big-city murder rate, prosecutors say that conviction rates in homicide cases are falling. The main cause is that, increasingly, witnesses will not cooperate or testify, often because they are afraid. And no wonder: Since last September seven witnesses have been shot or murdered -- a rate of about one a month.

So nationwide crime is down when more criminals are in jail? And murders are increasing in Baltimore because prosecutors have been unable to get murder convictions? Gee, can't figure that one out.

Meanwhile, in Virginia (where crime is falling) one of the so-called Beltway Snipers had is death sentence re-affirmed.

The Virginia Supreme Court affirmed yesterday the capital murder convictions and death penalty for sniper mastermind John Allen Muhammad.

"If society's ultimate penalty should be reserved for the most heinous offenses, accompanied by proof of vileness or future dangerousness, then surely this case qualifies," Justice Donald Lemons wrote.

Maryland has only executed 4 (count them again, 4) prisoners since the death penalty was reinstated in 1977. Malvo and Muhammad never should have crossed the Potomac.

While researching Maryland's death penalty figures for this article, I came across this delightful Univ. of Maryland study that claims that the death penalty is racist because it disproportionately affects blacks. Naturally, the usual suspects jumped on the percentages to further their weak-kneed cause to abolish capital punishment.

Maryland's death row is one of the most racially biased in the nation. 69% of the men on death row are African American.

100% of the murder victims of the men on death row are White. This is true even though African Americans persistently constitue over %80 of the victims of homicide in the state of Maryland.

That sounds damning, until you actually look at the numbers and realize that there have been only 4 executions since 1977, and there are currently only 9 people on death row. Using a sample size that small would normally get you laughed out of statistics class.

Reading the study itself, you find out that the University of Maryland researchers did indeed focus on the 13 people who received death sentences in the last 28 years. They note that the authors of the study "identified 415 homicides that were deemed to be "death eligible" (they presented facts which legally qualified them for the death penalty), 90 of which resulted in a penalty phase hearing."

So, in order for the conclusion to be true - that Maryland's death penalty is racist - 402 of the murders must have either been committed by whites, or involved black on black crime. Only 13 (or 3%) were actually given the death penalty. It should also be noted that of the 4 people executed since 1977, two of them (50%) are white.

But like I said, when you are talking about 13 people, statistics don't matter much.

Despite what the anti-capitalists are saying, Global Warming is not a new phenomenon. Scientists now claim that a global warming period that occured 3 million years ago was due to increased carbon dioxide.

This will undoubtedly be blamed on prehistoric sport utility vehicles.

"It wasn't until we really had the opportunity to listen to so many different people talk about so many different aspects of the code that it really sunk in about how much and how often the code is being used these days to either create incentives or disincentives for either investment or behavior." -- Former Florida Senator Connie Mack, Chairman of President Bush's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform.

Well, it has been just about a month since the gallbladder attack that put me into the hospital. I haven't had any more attacks mainly because I've been eating a low fat diet and avoiding guilty pleasures like cheeseburgers, beer, and pizza. For the past several weeks I've felt absolutely fine; like there is nothing wrong with me. But I'm definitely craving a cheeseburger (and a few beers). Maybe if I scarfed them down real quick and head straight to the emergency room, I'll get in to see the doctor about the time the attack starts.

Seriously though, eating low-fat isn't all that bad so long as you like chicken and lean lunch meats. And aside from McDonalds, most restaurants and fast food places have some sort of low-fat alternative. Still, for those nights when I come home from work and don't feel like preparing anything, it'd be nice to be able to order a pizza.

The doctors are running their tests, but my followup appointment isn't until the end of May. Even then, they may not be able to pinpoint the cause.

Montgomery County residents are fed up with property tax increases reports the Washington Post. Residents are writing their representatives in droves complaining about the increasing cost of living. They are so fed up, they are even threatening to vote (GASP!) Republican.

Requesting a list of council members who have voted to increase property tax revenue beyond limits set in the county charter, [Colleen Carrigan] wrote: "Please inform these members that I will actively and adamantly lobby to ensure their defeat in upcoming elections. I will cross party lines and vote Republican in order to keep from being financially exploited as a homeowner, as will many of the neighbors to whom I have spoken."

The cries seem to be falling on deaf ears, however; at least in the case of the council President.

Potomac resident Stuart Carroll, a business owner who has two sons in public school, has sent two e-mails to the council. In response to his first, council President Tom Perez (D-Silver Spring) wrote to say that regardless of the percentage increase in his assessment, his property tax increase would be capped at 10 percent.

Only a politician would think that a 10% annual tax increase is reasonable.

Stewart Mandel says Louisville enters the Big East favored to win the conference and snap up it's BCS bid. With BCS affiliation now, the Cardinals are talking National Championship.

"We want to win a national championship here," said Louisville AD Tom Jurich. "Seven years ago, it sounded ridiculous, but now I think it's a legitimate goal."

The Big East is tougher than the Conference USA that they are coming from, but considering they finished last season at 11-1 and ranked number 6, running the table is not out of the question.

The government funded British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is coming under fire for equipping hecklers with microphones and sending them to disrupt a campaign meetings being held by Conservative leader Michael Howard. The Tory party responded by accusing the BBC of "serious misconduct", but the BBC claims their actions were justified.

Last night, the BBC claimed that the exercise was part of a "completely legitimate programme about the history and art of political heckling" and said that other parties' meetings were being "observed". However, The Telegraph has established that none of Tony Blair's meetings was infiltrated or disrupted in similar fashion.

Who knew that women played professional tackle football?

Spring started more than a month ago, but parts of the midwest are still getting buried by snow. The Twins/Tigers game in Detroit was snowed out on Saturday, and snow continued to fall in Ohio and Michigan on Sunday.

Combine this with record snow depths in Alaska, and perhaps all of this is all part of that Global Cooling they've been warning us about.

"If present trends continue, the world will be about four degrees colder for the global mean temperature in 1990, but eleven degrees colder by the year 2000...This is about twice what it would take to put us in an ice age." -- Kenneth E.F. Watt on air pollution and global cooling, Earth Day (1970)

Anything worth shooting, is worth shooting twice. Ammo is cheap. Life is expensive.

Andy Shaw claims that Republicans went after Clinton, as payback for Democrats going after Nixon. Shaw writes:

Congressman Henry Hyde made some surprising comments Thursday on the impeachment hearings of President Bill Clinton. He now says Republicans may have gone after Clinton to retaliate for the impeachment of Richard Nixon.

Actually, Hyde never said any such thing, despite the glaring headline that says he did. Shaw's own article shows that he's putting words into his mouth.

Andy Shaw asked Hyde if the Clinton proceedings were payback for Nixon's impeachment.

"I can't say it wasn't..." said Hyde.

That does not mean the same thing as: "Clinton impeachment was retaliation for Nixon, says retiring congressman". And as Neal points out, Nixon was never impeached.

"If I could only have one gun it would be aimed at the guy who said I can only have one gun." -- From the Kim du Toit forums.

A 110-pound 47-year old Florida woman was arrested on Easter Sunday and Tasered 9 times.

Larry Caskey, director of the Okaloosa County Department of Corrections, said officers were forced to use the Taser because Skelly tried to wriggle out of handcuffs, escape from a patrol car and bite her own hand.

"It doesn't look good, but when you take it step by step, I feel like they acted appropriately," he said.

Tasers were originally intended to be a replacement for the use of lethal force. Now, despite numerous deaths caused by the devices, they are still being used against people who are already handcuffed and in custody.

One night when I was a young boy, I was doing my chores and helping with the dishes after supper. I went to place a sharp knife into the dishwasher, and it slipped from my hand. Instead of jumping back, I made the mistake of trying to catch it. I did, and ended up stabbing myself in the index finger. I still have the scar from the stitches.

This off duty police officer could have learned from my mistake.

A police spokesman says an off-duty officer was at a San Antonio auto auction house Wednesday when nature called.

Officer Craig Clancy strolled to the appropriate facility and was lowering his trousers when his pistol fell from his waistband. When Clancy fumbled for the falling firearm, it went off - twice.

One of the bullets nicked a bit of floor tile into the leg of a man who was washing his hands nearby.

Modern day guns don't just 'go off'. Had Officer Clancy simply let it fall instead of grabbing for it and hitting the trigger, he would have been better off.

Thank God, scientists have finally solved the problem of unpopped popcorn kernels.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair is running for re-election. Part of his campaign platform is to cut crime by 15%. The Labour Party claims overall crime is down 15% since 1997, and that they can cut it another 15% if they are given another term.

Of course their claims would carry a lot more weight if it didn't run side by side with these headlines:

(click for full version)

Desperate to dig up dirt, the New York Times complains that "DeLay Charity for Children Financed by [Evil] Corporations".

The 19-year-old charity, the DeLay Foundation for Kids, has consistently declined to identify its donors, citing their desire for privacy. But a review of corporate and charitable records shows that recent donors have included AT&T, the Corrections Corporation of America, Exxon Mobil, Limited Brands and the Southern Company, as well as Bill and Melinda Gates, the Microsoft founder and his wife, and Michael Dell of Dell computers.

The Gates and Dell family foundations have donated at least $350,000 to Mr. DeLay's charity since 2001. Among the largest corporate gifts was a $100,000 check given to Mr. DeLay last year by the Corrections Corporation of Nashville, which manages federal prisons. AT&T and Exxon Mobil say they have each donated $50,000.

Charities never identify donors. If they did, every two-bit charity in the world would be calling up donors and heckling them for money. So far it sounds like much ado about nothing, but the Times is determined to make something out of it.

...whatever its charitable purpose, the DeLay Foundation is also an important fund-raising operation for Mr. DeLay and allows corporate lobbyists and executives to curry favor with him in a way that skirts campaign finance laws.

Remember Campaign Finance Reform? That's the unConstitutional law that says you can't say anything bad about a politician 60-days before he runs for re-election. It raised the hard money limit on donations (money given directly to candidates), and eliminated the unlimited soft money contributions (money given to the major political parties). Designed to remove money from politics, it is the reason that hundreds of millions of dollars have been diverted to so-called 527 groups who run attack ads.

How giving money to a charitable organization skirts these rules, the Times doesn't explain. But it should be common knowledge that Bill and Melinda Gates have given billions (with a B) to charity.

As reported previously in WinInfo, Gates plans on doling out the majority of his wealth during his lifetime, focusing on gifts that will solve global health and education problems. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation receives the majority of these gifts.

"Bill and Melinda have made a gift of about $5 billion every quarter," says Foundation chairperson Patty Stonesifer.

That's $5,000,000,000 every three months (at least in 1999 before the crash). Still, their $350,000 gift (combined with Michael Dell) to DeLay's foundation seems paltry by comparison.

(Hat tip to Coop)

"Although Kennedy was appointed to the Supreme Court by President Reagan, a conservative icon, he has aroused conservatives' ire by sometimes agreeing with the court's more liberal members. Nevertheless, it is unusual for a congressional leader to single out a Supreme Court justice for criticism." -- AP, April 20, 2005, criticizing Tom DeLay for criticizing Supreme Court Justice Kennedy.

"I think that [Justice Clarence Thomas] has been an embarrassment to the Supreme Court. I think that his opinions are poorly written. I just don't think that he's done a good job as a Supreme Court justice." -- Senate Minority Leader, Harry Reid D-NV, December 05, 2004.

(Hat tip to Taranto)

Dems reject offer to investigate DeLay -- CNN Headline, April 20, 2005.

Some parents are unhappy with rules at a New Hampshire shopping mall. Unaccompanied minors will not be allowed, nor will people who wear "long chains that fall below the knee or studded dog or wrist collars, all of which can be used as weapons."

Now the shopping mall, being a private business, has the right to refuse service to those who don't obey their rules. In a free society, those are the breaks. But not everyone agrees.

"They sell that stuff," said [Leann Newcomb]. "How are they going to tell the kids after they buy that stuff not to wear it? Isn't that a violation of your constitutional rights?"

Now, I've read the Constitution several times, and nowhere does it say that property owners have to play host to bratty kids with studded dog collars. That may have been in the Declaration of Independence, but that's not really binding. Perhaps Newcomb should propose a Constitutional Amendment.

Anyone know who Michael Smith is? Michael Smith did an awful thing. Just awful. Smith is the Vietnam Vet who was recently arrested for spitting...

...on that that sweet and lovable Hanoi Jane Fonda during one of her book-signings. Jane Fonda, if you remember, is a famous communist sympathizer, who gave aid and comfort to the North Vietnamese, while our soldiers were fighting and dying. Due to her celebrity status, she was never prosecuted for treason, (a crime punishable by death.)

At about 9 p.m., police said 54-year-old Michael A. Smith, who had been waiting in line for about 90 minutes, passed a book to Fonda and then spit a large amount of tobacco juice into her face.

They said Smith then ran away and was taken into custody by off-duty officers, who were providing security for the event.

That's right, Smith stood in line for 90 minutes, waiting patiently, for the opportunity to spit right in her face. He didn't charge at her with a pie like a raving kamikazee. He didn't wing a key-lime at her, only to miss and be beaten up by spectators and dragged off by security. No, he waited patiently.

Still, this type of behavior is bad, bad, bad. No one should resort to such petty assaults. I think Smith deserves jail time. (If I were prosecuting this, I'd ask for 15 minutes in jail and a one dollar fine... and no more spitting for three months.)

Although he was arrested for disorderly conduct, Fonda will not press charges.

Say Uncle tells his own story about TSA harrassment, which reminds me of my own.

It started in Kansas City, during the Friday afternoon rush hour. It's roughly 5 o'clock, and I and the other air-commuters are just trying to get home for the weekend. I walk up to the security gate, remove all my metal objects, my belt, and my shoes (as instructed) and walk through the detector. Everything is fine so far.

I get my belt and belongings back, but the TSA inspector wants to 'swab' my laptop bag and shoes. They swab on the laptop bag is clean, but they get a hit on the shoes. The guy says something to the effect of 'uh oh', and whips out this huge three ring binder. At this point, I know there's going to be trouble.

The TSA officer flips through the binder until he finds the page that tells him what residue my shoes are supposedly laced with. It's nitro-glycerin, a common heart medication as well as exposive. A supervisor is called to try to determine what needs to be done. As I stand there in my stocking feet, I tell him that it's probably a false positive, and he should test the shoes again.

The supervisor tries to give me an 'out'. "Sir, do you take any heart medication?"

"No."

"Do you live with anyone who takes heart medication?"

"No. I live alone."

"Were you staying with anyone who takes heart medication?"

"No. I was in a hotel."

"Do you know anyone who takes heart medication?"

Sigh. "No."

This went on and on for about 45 minutes. The TSA staff didn't suspect me of being a terrorist, but they didn't just want to let me walk on the plane either. So, they kept giving me excuses for how nitro-glycerin might have gotten onto my shoes. At one point they float the idea of letting me board the plane, without my shoes.

Finally, I plead with him to just test the shoes again. "I'm sure it was just a false positive," I tell the supervisor.

Suddenly, as if it were his idea, he tells the subordinate to test the shoes again. "It's probably just a false positive," he said.

They test my shoes again, and it comes up negative. By now, I'm the last person to board the plane before they close the doors, and my seat was nearly given away to someone waiting standby. Naturally all the overhead space is taken.

Now, I told you that story, to tell you this one. Contrast the TSA incompetence in Kansas City with the TSA incompetence in Washington, D.C.

I live near the Metrorail line, so I fly out of Reagan National Airport. Now, if you've never flown out of Reagan, you might not know that everyone gets extra scrutiny. Even passengers flying into Reagan go through an extra layer of security, and you can't even so much as stand up 30 minutes after takeoff or before landing. So if you take off from Reagan, and some numbnuts stands up 10 minutes into the flight, they claim they will divert the flight to the nearest airport and remove the passenger from the plane.

So, given that tense attitude toward security, I fully expected to get the anal probe before getting to my gate. I'm flying out around noon time, and there isn't much of a rush yet. I'm dressed in khakis with my black DEA polo shirt. By DEA, I mean I bought it from the gift shop at the headquarters of the Drug Enforcement Administration back when I had done some work for them. (I know, who knew they had a gift shop.) The shirt has their Special Agent shield emblazoned on the breast, and DEA in big bold letters underneath. It cost my $30 and is quite a nice shirt. (Although I wouldn't wear it out to the club.. unless I was trying to see how long it would take me to get stabbed.)

So the three people in front of me are going through the metal detector. Each one is individually instructed to remove their shoes and belt. The girl in front of me even cries, "But they're flip-flops."

"I don't care lady, put them through the machine," demands the screener.

So, I step up there and before the guy can even say anything, start to unlace my shoes. What do I get?

"No, you're okay. Go ahead and come on through."

No extra screening, no removing the shoes, no second glance, no nothing. My $30 purchase greased the skids at one of the tightest airports in the country; an airport that remained closed for months after September 11th, due to security concerns.

Doesn't that make you feel safe?

UPDATE: Here is a photo of the shirt:

(click to supersize)

Apparently being fat isn't all that bad after all. They even noted that people who carry a few extra pounds actually live longer.

Being overweight is nowhere near as big a killer as the government thought, ranking No. 7 instead of No. 2 among the nation's leading preventable causes of death, according to a startling new calculation from the CDC.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated today that packing on too many pounds accounts for 25,814 deaths a year in the United States. As recently as January, the CDC came up with an estimate 14 times higher: 365,000 deaths.

Overstating the problem by 1400%, is just a tad more than the usual plus or minus 3% margin of error. It makes me wonder how wrong they've been on other things, like smoking.

If you're going to be homeless, Los Angeles sounds like the place to be. Not only is the weather nice, but the homeless enjoy amenities that some middle class families can't afford.

Opening Monday and trumpeted proudly by city officials is the Midnight Mission - and one of the nation's plushest homeless shelters. The $17 million state-of-the-art facility boasts a full-sized gymnasium, library, playroom, hair salon, education center, and professional kitchen. The shelter is the city's latest effort to address one of its most visible and resistant social problems: the more than 6,000 people who live on the streets.

Of course this only treats the symptoms, not the disease. Homelessness in L.A. is on the rise, and the lack of affordable housing is largely to blame.

"I think it's dead. Sorry. The monster anchors are through." -- Sam Donaldson, former ABC News anchor saying that network news is pretty much dead.

The 'bi-partisan' Commission on Federal Election Reform has been hearing evidence of all that went wrong with the 2004 Presidential Election. Aside from the usual gripes of long lines, confusing ballots, and inadequate staffing, the evidence included statements like this:

"In the 2004 presidential election, the United States came much closer to electoral meltdown, violence in the streets and constitutional crisis than most people realize," professor Richard Hasen of Loyola Law School said in his written comments. "Less than a 2 percent swing among Ohio voters -- about 100,000 voters -- toward Democratic candidate for president John Kerry and away from incumbent Republican President Bush would have placed the Ohio -- and national -- election for president well within the 'margin of litigation,' and it would have gotten ugly very quickly."

Disappointed Kerry supporters continue to play 'what if'. I will once again defer this one to Nathan Gonzales, who way back in January aptly pointed out:

If 5,000 voters had switched in New Hampshire, Bush would have carried the state. If 6,000 voters had switched in Wisconsin, Bush would have carried that state. And if 34,000 voters had switched in Oregon, Bush would have carried it also. So, in this backward hypothetical world, Bush wins reelection with a considerable 307 electoral votes.

Gonzales' scenario requires only 45,000 voters going the other way, from three different states. Hasen's requires nearly 60,000 voters changing their mind, all in the state of Ohio.

An eco-terrorist convicted of arson and vandalism was sentenced to 8 years in "federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison", reports CNN.

An aspiring physicist was sentenced Monday to more than eight years in prison and ordered to pay $3.5 million for his role in a spree of arson and vandalism that targeted gas-guzzling Hummers and other sports utility vehicles.

Rejecting pleas for clemency from William Cottrell, a 24-year-old doctoral candidate in physics at the California Institute of Technology, U.S. District Judge Gary Klausner added more time to the sentence after finding that Cottrell was trying to sway consumers with his anti-SUV message.

The slogans Cottrell spray-painted onto vehicles included "Fat Lazy Americans," "No Respect for Earth" and "SUV Terrorism."

Cottrell's pleas for mercy fell on deaf ears.

Cottrell, who admitted only spray-painting and testified he did not know that two friends were bringing Molotov cocktails, promised he would never break the law again.

The two friends have fled the country to avoid prosecution, authorities said.

"I want nothing more than to be a physicist," Cottrell said. "I would do anything to earn any leniency the court could show in this matter."

Given that Cottrell was convicted on seven counts of arson and one count of conspiracy, I think he got off easy. Arson is a serious crime, which can get people killed. (Just ask any fireman how he feels about arson.)

Maybe spending 8 years with rapists, murderers, and common street thugs will give Cottrell the kind of enlightenment he really deserves.

Say Uncle notes that Lincoln (NE) has shot themselves in the foot with a smoking ban. Smoking is a vice that goes hand in hand with gambling. And gambling receipts are down since they nullified property rights, forcing smokers out onto the streets to light up.

Keno is big business for 30 licensed locations in Lincoln, many of them bars and nightclubs. Keno players are a dedicated lot and do not like to have their games and concentration broken because they have to step outside for a smoke. Under contractual license agreement the city of Lincoln recieves (sic) fourteen cents of every Keno dollar played. Figures for January, the first month of the ban indicate that the gross revenue is down nearly five hundred thousand dollars over the previous January. At fourteen cents on every dollar that represents a one month loss of about a seventy thousand dollars in income the city has come to depend on for Librairies (sic) and Park projects.

Perhaps Lincoln should rethink allowing people to smoke on their own property. After all, it's for the children.

States are chomping at the bit to collect internet taxes, reports CNET. They claim to be losing hundreds of millions of dollars in sales taxes because of online shopping. California claims to lose Billions.

With all that money to be had (or at least perceived to be had), an internet sales tax can't be far away.

When it comes to raising taxes, some politicians don't let anything stand in their way. That includes the will of the people, reports the Seattle Times.

House Democrats yesterday cleared the way for tax increases by passing a bill that would let lawmakers raise taxes with a majority vote instead of the two-thirds vote now required.

Senate Bill 6078 would suspend part of Initiative 601, the spending-limit measure Washington voters approved in 1993, and make it possible for Democratic majorities in the state House and Senate to raise taxes without Republicans going along. It passed 50-43, with four Democrats siding with Republicans and voting against it.

Why even let the people vote at all.

(Via Taranto)

IBM has won a deal to install automobile tracking technology for the government, reports CNET.

The four-year deal, expected to be announced on Friday, calls for IBM to equip cars and trucks with a telematics device and GPS (Global Positioning System) that will provide information on a vehicle's location and speed to government agencies. It will link tens of thousands of vehicles in a nationwide wireless network. IBM asserts this will be the largest application of telematics--or the marriage of mobile communications and computing--as of yet.

Before you begin to panic, this technology will be deployed in the United Arab Emirates, and not the United States. But given the way our civil liberties have been eroded over time, limited implementation of this technology in America doesn't seem too far off.

This guy has a running tally of the number of times the F-word is used in HBO's Deadwood.

When it comes to retirement, there is a whole segment of society that wants to just stick their head in the sand and not worry about it until about 5 years before they plan to retire. Unfortunately, by then it's too late. Personally, I've been planning for my retirement since I was 26. But then that is definitely not typical, as the Washington Post points out.

Brenda Ellis's day begins at 6:30 a.m., when she rousts her 11-year-old son, Imani, from bed, hustles him into the kitchen for breakfast and to the school bus by 7. Tianna, 13, and Dikia, 17, quickly follow. Then she's off, some days to a substitute-teaching job in Prince George's County, others to tax clinics for the working poor, where she is earning credit for a hoped-for career in accounting.

If it's a school night for her, Ellis, 41, rushes home to her Landover apartment to quickly fix dinner before bolting out at 5:45 p.m. for the half-hour drive to Strayer University and an accounting class that ends at 9...

Somewhere in this busy life stews roughly $13,000 in retirement savings from her 14 years at the U.S. Postal Service, in accounts that she doesn't really understand or monitor.

Um... didn't they just say she wants to be an accountant? Perhaps she should try to understand those accounts and monitor them more closely. What's really tragic is that she's halfway through a civil service career, and only has a paltry $13k stashed away for retirement.

"I don't know what's going on with it," she said one night at a tax clinic in Southeast D.C. "I just know I have these three accounts, so I just say, 'Let's hope and pray. Let's hope and pray it's not going into Enron. Let's hope and pray it's not going into Tyco.' It's just hard to absorb all I'm supposed to absorb."

Hello! And she wants to be an accountant! Worse yet, the Post says that when it comes to the idea of private accounts for Social Security, people like Ellis "say they would just as soon not have another thing to worry about." Does this sound like someone you would hire as your accountant?

While I don't understand how people could not care about their financial situation, I don't really have a problem with people who don't want to plan for their retirement. What I do have a problem with is people who don't plan for their retirement (or insurance, or home ownership, etc) and then expect taxpayers to pick up the tab for them. If you don't want to save for retirement fine, but don't come crying to me when you're living on the street or working until the day you die.

Another thing I noticed is that they mentioned her having a 17, 13, and 11-year old. What I didn't hear mentioned was a father.

Earlier this month, the Washington Post noted that more people are living in RVs because of the rising cost of home ownership. Rather than buy a $400,000 townhouse with skyrocketing property taxes, people were instead buying RVs and renting a space at local trailer parks and camp grounds.

Well, if camping isn't your thing, how about boating. Now the Post reports that many people are choosing to live on the water.

After years of watching home prices skyrocket out of his reach, Hank Clay has finally found affordable housing. The one-bedroom home costs him just $200 a month. It comes free of any property taxes.

And it floats.

Christian Yingling, a computer trainer for the Department of Justice in Chantilly, pays about $600 a month in dock fees and $300 toward his boat mortgage to live on "Sea Monkey" at the Gangplank Marina in Southwest, where he has a view of the Washington Monument.

For the past eight months, Clay, 55, has lived aboard a creaky, 27-foot sailboat on Chesapeake Bay that he shares with a parrot named Jorge. Although the vessel is cramped and frigid in the winter, docking it at Beacon Marina in Southern Maryland is a lot cheaper than his old $800-a-month rent for a tiny studio in Alexandria.

That they don't pay any property tax is a bit of a half-truth. They don't pay direct property taxes, the same way that renters don't pay them. But its still factored into your rent. The taxes are merely spread over a group of people, and included in the price of a slip.

They actually risk paying double taxes, because politicians are starting to take notice of this so-called tax avoidance. How long before communities start taxing people who choose to live on the water?

St. Mary's County prohibits floating homes. Calvert County limits marinas to one liveaboard for every 100 slips, although the rule is not strictly enforced.

"There was some concern that liveaboards don't pay property taxes and that they pollute the bay," said Greg Bowen, the county's director of planning and zoning.

They've already banned pretty much everything else, so it figures that Maryland localities would try to prohibit people from living on water.

Personally, living on a nice houseboat doesn't seem like a bad idea. (As long as there is room for a decent shower, a fridge, kegerator, TV, and gun safe.) But in this area that would require living in D.C. or Maryland, both of which are bastions of tyranny and therefore ruled out.

Hunger strikes are all the rage on college campuses this year. It was just last month that students at Georgetown University were starving themselves so that contract workers (Janitors, etc) would be paid a "living wage". Now students at Washington University (in St. Louis) are following suit.

"It's absolutely part of a national movement that students are becoming more aware of their dependence on the exploitation of workers," said Washington University sophomore Joe Thomas, 19, spokesman for the Student Worker Alliance, which coordinated the protests at the college.

Absolutely dude! Like the bourgeoisie are totally like taking advantage of the proletariat.

"To show you how radical I am, I want carjackers dead. I want rapists dead. I want burglars dead. I want child molesters dead. I want the bad guys dead. No court case. No parole. No early release. I want 'em dead. Get a gun and when they attack you, shoot 'em." -- Rocker Ted Nugent.

This doesn't seem as radical as people who defend murderers and rapists, claiming they are a victim of society.

I had to throw the bullshit flag on this one found over at Dustbury.

With more than 30 million registered text users sending more than 30 billion text messages each month...

By the U.S. definition of Billion (a thousand million), 30 Million people sending 30 Billion messages a month works out to 1,000 messages EACH, per month, on average. That means the average SMS user would send more than 30 messages per day.

I don't think I send that many emails per day.

Hollywood celebrities are used to getting things for free. But some celebs live their daily lives completely on the tabs of others, reports the New York Post.

WE all know celebrities get free stuff - swag - just for being famous. But did you know that there are some stars who eat, fly, sleep, party, do virtually everything in their day-to-day life for free? All they do is demand it, take it, or simply walk out on the tab. The Hollywood "gimme!" syndrome has run amuck.

They go on to detail how stars like Britney Spears, Sharon Stone, Andy Dick and others try to con people out of free stuff or just walk out without paying. Many companies give up the stuff willingly in exchange for publicity, while others are forced to chase them down for payment or return.

[Rachel] Hunter, says one event publicist, never met a gift bag she didn't like. In fact, she likes them so much she often takes four or five at a time.

She's so determined that, a few years ago, at a Maxim Magazine party in Los Angeles, she left the party but came back to collect a few more bags.

Unluckily for her, the police had shut down the event due to overcrowding and were attempting to clear the area. Hunter gamely ignored them, until finally a policeman was forced to yell over a megaphone: "Ma'am! Step away from the goodie bags!"

Entertainment Weekly has more. They say that the cost of perks is about 5% of a studio's film budget. So for a $100 Million movie, about $5 Million of that is just for perks.

Every time you accede to a star's demands, you need to take money from somewhere else. One action star, for example, requires a basketball court wherever he's shooting, even if it means spending $35,000 to build one. Such extravagance, says one production executive, inevitably comes out of someone else's paycheck: "People who work below the line get squeezed: the director of photography, the editor."

Ultimately, of course, anything that drives up the cost of any entertainment product eventually trickles down to the audience. "The consumer ends up paying for it," one studio chief says flatly. If the 5 percent estimate is roughly accurate across the entertainment industry, when you fork over $10 for a movie ticket or $18 for a CD, bear in mind that anywhere from 50 cents to a dollar of your hard-earned cash may be going to pay for a star's dog to fly first-class. Fido thanks you.

All of this self-aggrandizement certainly explains why some celebrities flock to entitlement politics.

But studios are fighting back. Following the dot-com bust of 2000, bottom lines are a lot leaner. With shrinking profitability, many studios are now balking at celebrities outlandish demands, and enduring the resulting temper tantrum.

As if soliciting pre-teen prostitutes, calling Americans stingy, being unable to agree that anti-Semitism is a bad thing, protesting Israel on the behalf of terrorists, accusing the U.S. of human rights violations, biting the hand that feeds it, appeasing Saddam Hussein while failing to help the Iraqi people, making Libya chairman of the Human Rights Commission, failure in the Balkans, failure in Central Africa, giving notorious human rights violators a vote, letting China sit on the Security Council, and failing to enforce their own resolutions weren't enough of a reason to give the United Nations the boot, Secretary General Kofi Annan gives us yet another reason to bulldoze the United Nation's headquarters into the East River:

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who earlier angered the United States and Britain by calling the Iraq war 'illegal,' has upset both nations again -- this time accusing them of allowing Saddam Hussein to enrich himself selling oil outside the U.N.-run oil-for-food program.

Mr. Annan set off the latest dispute on Thursday by asserting that Saddam made more money smuggling oil to Jordan and Turkey -- under the noses of the United States and Britain -- than he skimmed from the 1996-2003 U.N.-run oil-for-food program.

Maybe the United States and Britain should have unilaterally enforced the U.N. oil embargo.

It's not even safe to wash your hands or brush your teeth any more. Here is more proof that everything causes cancer.

Dozens of toothpastes sold at supermarkets are at the centre of a cancer alert today.

Anti-bacterial cleaning products, including dishwashing liquid and handwash, are also affected.

Researchers have discovered that triclosan, a chemical in the products, can react with water to produce chloroform gas. If inhaled in large enough quantities, chloroform can cause depression, liver problems and, in some cases, cancer.

I checked my roll of toothpaste, and the anti-gingivitis ingredient, Triclosan, is listed as an active ingredient at 0.3%. It's hard to imagine that 0.3% of that little dab of toothpaste would react with the trace amounts of cholorine in tap water and create any significant amount of chloroform gas. Besides, it was already said that chlorinated tap water causes cancer years ago.

But if you are truly worried about it, just brush your teeth with bottled water. Or don't use water at all, except to rinse.

UPDATE: Here is the best part (added for Brian J.): "Marks& Spencer confirmed today it was removing products containing triclosan from all its stores and has been working with Greenpeace to develop alternative products."

For those of you who are saying that having an FOID card will not lead to gun confiscation, I remind you that Chicago already used the list to confiscate the guns of people whose card had expired.

I'm neither rich nor poor, but every year I have the joy of paying about 35% of my income to taxes. That doesn't even include all of the sales taxes, car taxes, property taxes, and taxes levied on telephone service, electricity, gasoline, etc, etc, etc. But this is tax time, so I'll just concentrate on the 35% that I pay in federal, state, and social security taxes.

What do I get for my 35%? Well for starters, I get a social security system that I'll never use. Every year they send me statements that say that if I keep working my ass off, and live another 37 years I'll get a whopping $1100 a month. That's assuming they aren't broke, and there are still enough suckers paying into the system to give me my fair share. I'd be much better off sticking that money into a private account every month than paying into the government mandated ponzi scheme.

My 35% also gets me a road system so filled with potholes that I have to get my car re-aligned every year. And I get endless miles of concrete barriers and orange cones that have been highway fixtures for the past 10 years. I've become convinced that the federal highway money is not much more than a jobs program used to pay for votes in upcoming elections. Of course I also get the obligatory road debris kicked up into my windshield. Since moving to D.C. where I get a twice daily commute on the federal highway jobs superprogram, I've got three rock chips in my windshield, one of which should blossom into a nice long crack this summer.

I also get a school system that I do not use. I have no children, but any realtor that buys or rents homes will still try to sell you on the added value of the local public school system. But this system, which supposedly adds so much property value to our homes, routinely graduates kids that cannot read, can't do math, and do not know who their vice president is; much less who George S. Patton was. First we pay to send them to school, and then we pay to send them to college where they usually protest against our very way of life. Worse yet, these skulls full of mush will one day be running things; a prospect which I find to be frightening.

I also get a police force that can only respond adequately enough to stop a crime 5% of the time. The other 95% of crimes an officer has to spend time investigating what happened after the fact and trying to bring the criminal thugs to "justice". Ironically, once they are brought to justice, even more of my taxpayer money is spent trying to defend the guy. His defense is usually on the grounds that it was my fault for being so rich and successful, and for providing him with the temptation to rob me in the first place. If convicted (and that's a big IF these days) I get to spend even more money paying for his state provided room and board, the numerous appeals with state provided attorneys, and the limitless lawsuits he'll inevitably file from prison.

I also get countless government agencies which issue unfunded mandates with no regard for the cost to the public. I get mandates for airbags, expensive gasoline formulas, dolphin safe tuna, cigarette warning labels, airport security, drinking water quality, and just about every other consumer product on the market. Some of them have real world benefits, but all of them have costs and none of them are voluntary.

I would like to think that for all it's worth, I at least get a government that protects my individual freedoms. But I don't. Instead I get a national, state, and local government that works to limit my speech, take away my guns, and search my house for no good reason. I also get a strong central government that constantly oversteps it's Constitutional authority and tries to run 280 million private lives from Washington. Each year government gets larger and more intrusive, and it seizes more of my money in exchange for votes from large blocks of sheep citizens. We're spending more and more money on failing programs, when we should be asking for our money back.

(originally posted, April 05, 2004)

Today is Buy a Gun Day. In honor of this day, I purchased an especially nasty looking Bushmaster AR-15 shorty. It looks something like this one:

Note the pistol grip, collapsable stock, and flash hider that make it especially evil looking. It will have an SBR registered lower, with a 11.5 inch Pre Ban Heavy Machinegun Upper Receiver. The entire gun is made by Bushmaster, the evil scary company that made the gun used by the 'Beltway Sniper'.

Next I'll probably pick up this 9mm suppressed upper.

On Monday, Intel posted a $10,000 bounty on a copy of the magazine in which Moore's Law was first introduced. CNET notes that "The April 19, 1965, issue of [Electronics Magazine] contained an article by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore that described how the number of components on integrated circuits was doubling every year. The article became the foundation for Moore's famed dictum and has been a cornerstone of the entire IT industry for decades."

They also note that since issuing the bounty, Librarians are complaining that the magazines are being stolen off of library shelves.

There was a glaring space on the shelf where the bound volume containing the April 19, 1965, edition of Electronics Magazine sat for years, said Mary Schlembach, assistant engineering librarian at the Grainger Engineering Library at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Another librarian heard a student talking on a cell phone about the volume the same day, Schlembach said. Ordinarily, the magazine is not a popular item.

"We don't know when it walked, but it walked," she said. "A lot of copies will go missing."

Librarians at Stanford University, the University of Washington and other universities say they are angry at Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel for posting on eBay a $10,000 bounty for a copy of the magazine. The bounty went up on April 11. Since then, others have posted bounties too.

Buy paying the bounty, Intel could find themselves guilty of receiving stolen property. And given the $10,000 value of the item, felony grand larceny charges could be filed against the thief.

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-TX, has come under a lot of fire from Democrats lately for, well, for acting like a politician. Sure, he's taken some trips, he's employed some relatives. None of that is outside the normal realm of what Congressmen do.

But perhaps the most sticky charges I've seen came from the Washington Times. In an interview with the Times, the first question asked had to do with what the hell Republicans are doing up there on the Hill.

Since taking power in 1994, the size of the Imperial Federal Government has doubled. People who used to be identified as fiscal conservatives, have had their hands in the cookie jar for 10 years now and been spending money like there's no tomorrow. What in the hell happened to the "contract with America" and the premise of limited government?

After a bunch of hemming and hawing, DeLay had this to say:

When Bush came here, the Senate was still the lowest common denominator. And we had to deal with them. Now that sounds like an excuse, and I guess it is. But if you look at the real record, sans the effort to fight a war - and we'll spend whatever it takes to win the war on terror - but if you look at the other spending, it's actually been going down.

Bullshit. First of all, Bush didn't come into the picture until 2001 so you can't pin it solely on him. Second, spending bills originate in the House, so you cannot point the finger at the Senate. Third, even if you throw out the War on Terror and Military spending, the federal budget has still increased by leaps and bounds every year. It has not, I say again, it has not been decreasing.

What DeLay is trying to do is use the politician's standard definition of a budget cut. When they want spending to increase by 8%, and they only get a 4% increase, they call that a budget cut. But the truth is that the size of the federal government increases every year, and is twice as big now as it was in 1994. And it didn't all happen after September 11th.

If DeLay and other politicians are thrown out of office for anything, it ought to be for overstepping their Constitutional authority. Article 1 Section 8 clearly outlines what Congress is authorized to do, and Amendment 10 states that "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."

Furthermore, Article 6 states that "The Senators and Representatives. . .shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution."

Thus, by passing social programs that are not specifically enumerated in the Constitution, every politician (save one*) in Washington is violating their oath of office. If they cannot learn to abide by the Constitution, and stick to doing only those things that the government is supposed to be doing, perhaps they should be thrown out.

* Rep. Ron 'Dr. No' Paul, R-TX, has a habit of only voting yes to bills that are specifically authorized by the Constitution.

If you missed Tiger's golf shot at the Masters (like I did), Jaffejuice has it online.

Gradual Students at Columbia and Yale University have decided to go on strike and stop teaching classes. This is in spite of the fact that they are not recognized as having the right to organize.

The strike will be the first by Ivy League graduate students since the National Labor Relations Board ruled last year that graduate students at private colleges are students, not workers, and cannot form unions.

"By asserting this as one voice, we're identifying what we have in common: that we should be recognized as legal workers and be respected and given bargaining rights," said Dehlia Hannah, a philosophy graduate student at Columbia.

I would imagine that graduate teaching job at an Ivy League school would be hard to come by. If the University were so inclined, they could fire everyone and hire replacements almost immediately.

What is most interesting about this however, is that people with Ivy League degrees that actually do enter the work force, usually work in non-unionized white collar jobs. I mean, why go through the trouble of attending a top tier elite school, only to be lumped in with the rest of your co-workers in a system that rewards people based not on merit, but solely on who got there first. Under those rules, a guy that went to a state school and didn't bother staying for his gradual degree would have seniority over the Ivy Leaguer.

Boing Boing thinks that President Bush is a music pirate. At issue was this line from an International Herald Tribune article, about Bush's iPod.

The president also has an eclectic mix of songs downloaded into his iPod from Mark McKinnon...

Boing Boing says that is proof that Bush has violated U.S. Copyright laws. I'm no lawyer, but I think prosecutors might need more evidence than that.

We should nominate a special prosecutor. (Where is Ken Starr when you need him?) Bush should release all of his music records to the public. What did he listen to, and when did he listen to it? Remember it's not about the evidence, it's about the seriousness of the charge.

President Charles Steger
Virginia Tech
210 Burruss Hall (0131)
Blacksburg, VA 24061

Dear President Steger,

As an alumnus of Virginia Tech who provides annual financial support, I cannot tell you how distressing it is for me to read that Virginia Tech bans the lawful carry and possession of firearms. Someone who has put in the effort to train and apply for a Virginia Concealed Handgun Permit is not a threat to students, faculty, or the learning environment at Virginia Tech. In fact CHP holders are a lot less likely to commit crimes than the general population.

Likewise, by banning firearms you are setting up victim disarmament zones, whereby students are forced to choose between attending Virginia Tech and their personal safety. And by disarming law abiding citizens, you also make Virginia Tech responsible for student's safety. If a student who was prevented from protecting herself because of your reckless firearm ban were to become the victim of rape or violence, Virginia Tech could risk legal and financial liability. The policy also appears to violate Virginia preemption laws, which forbid local governments (and state and local entities) from passing more restrictive laws than the Commonwealth.

I urge you to rethink the position, and remove the ban.

Sincerely,

[Ravenwood] '95

UPDATE: Apparently I'm not the only Hokie that feels this way.

UPDATE2: WAVY-TV 10 reports that the student was arrested. That is incorrect. The student who carried a concealed handgun to class is facing disciplinary action from the school, but he was never arrested.

The House voted yesterday to repeal the death tax. That means when a family member dies, the government won't come calling for their 50%. Rep. Kenny Hulshof, R-MO, who authored the bill said, "The death of a family member should not be a taxable event, period." But the Democrats were in hysterics. Leading the pack was Nancy Pelosi, who seems to think that not taking money from dead people somehow steals from the middle class.

"This is reverse Robin Hood," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). "We're taking money from middle-class and giving it to the super rich."

As if stealing from the rich to give to the middle-class is a noble thing to do.

The push to allow convicted felons to vote hit a setback this week. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Florida's ban on felon voting. They also rejected felon's rights supporters playing the race card, reports the AP.

Allen argued the law is a violation of the U.S. Voting Rights Act, is antidemocratic, and disproportionally disenfranchises blacks.

A total of 600,000 people in Florida are banned; 167,000 are blacks, she said.

The court noted Florida first adopted its ban on felon voting in 1845, basing it on a "nonracial rationale." Blacks were not allowed to vote at the time.

For those of you who are mathmatically challenged, 167 out of 600 means that 72% of felons are non-black.

Arlington (VA) hopes to build a 39-story office building in Rosslyn, right across the Potomac from Georgetown. The building would be nearly as tall as the 555-foot Washington Monument on the D.C. Mall. Naturally, the artsy fartsy types in D.C. are in a panic, reports the Washington Post.

On the other side are federal planning officials and architects devoted to the vision of Pierre L'Enfant and the preservation of the 555-foot-tall Washington Monument as the area's focal point. Tall buildings in Rosslyn, they say, would further encroach on L'Enfant's historic plan for a city of low structures dominated by tree-lined promenades and the Capitol dome.

Any increase in building height is likely to be vigorously opposed by the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission, which together guard the capital's cityscape.

Of course none of these committees can do anything about it. Even the FAA, who is worried about the flight path to Ronald Reagan National Airport couldn't stop the building's construction. And that has detractors lamenting Washington D.C.'s 160 year old decision to return Arlington to the Commonwealth of Virginia.

L'Enfant and the founders "would be distressed at the sight of Rosslyn today . . . rising like the Tower of Babel on the far side of the Potomac," said Steven W. Hurtt, a former dean of the University of Maryland's school of architecture.

Returning that part of the capital city to Virginia in 1846 was "clearly a mistake," Hurtt said. "Were it still part of D.C., maybe we wouldn't have this problem."

Nope. Instead we'd have rampant crime and parking problems.

Partisan hacks were lining up to blame Bush for the Valerie Plame kerfuffle. They claimed that someone in the Bush Administration outed Plame as a CIA Agent, and demanded that heads roll. Grand Jury testimony was heard. But the same people who were trying to make something out of nothing have been completely silent since John Kerry outed a CIA Operative on Monday.

They were discussing one of the officials involved in a dispute over what Democrats said was Bolton's inappropriate treatment of an intelligence analyst who disagreed with him.

"We referred to this other analyst at the CIA, whom I'll try and call Mr. Smith here," Bolton said at one point.

But the committee chairman, Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), and Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) mentioned a name that had not previously come up in public accounts of the intelligence flap.

In questioning Bolton, Kerry read from a transcript of closed-door interviews that committee staffers conducted with State Department officials before yesterday's hearing.

"Did Otto Reich share his belief that [the person in question] should be removed from his position? The answer is yes," Kerry said, characterizing one interview. "Did John Bolton share that view?" Kerry asked. Again, he said the answer was yes.

"As I said, I had lost confidence in Mr. Smith, and I conveyed that," Bolton replied. "I thought that was the honest thing to do."

UPDATE: World Net Daily contradicts the AP report and says that the agent's name had already been mentioned several times.

Jackson (TN) Police Chief Rick Staples says that women are too stupid to learn to use guns. Instead of trying to protect themselves, they should travel in groups or rely on rape whistles to scare bad guys away. Oh he doesn't say that explicitly. Instead he portrays guns as complex technical devices that women are just too simple minded to learn how to use. He claims that protecting women is a (police) man's job.

"There are many ways for people to learn how to defend themselves, and you don't want to see anyone live in fear," he said. "We all have a right to protect ourselves ... but our jails are full of women who've killed a spouse, and they were unable to prove it was self-defense."

I had thought the burden of proof was on the prosecution. If I were on the jury, a history of domestic violence would be more than enough reasonable doubt.

Staples said that "deadly force, in any situation, should always be the absolute last resort."

To women who are living in an abusive relationship, or a relationship where they constantly fear the potential for abuse, Staples offers this advice: "The first thing they should do is flee ... separate from the other party, and use those instruments the justice system (orders of protection and restraining orders) and support organizations that have been set up ... use those organizations, such as WRAP, that are there to help you, advise you and shelter you. There's no shame in seeking that kind of help."

Ahh, paper protection. The cemetaries are full of women who had restraining orders "protecting" them from an abusive spouse. I hate to sound callous, but men who beat women are a pet peeve of mine. Any cowardly man who beats up a woman deserves to be shot.

[Madison County Sheriff David Woolfork] said it's the same as walking by yourself in public.

"You exercise good judgment," he said. "If the potential for violence is there, even if it's a minor encounter, make sure you report it to law enforcement and let them handle the matter."

Huh? I thought they only arrested people for actual or attempted crimes, not "potential" ones.

That said, "if a person has a history of being victimized by an abusive spouse or significant other, and who's taken the steps of separating themselves from that relationship, yet still lives in fear based on direct or indirect threats, then I can see how they would want to learn how to defend themselves."

So you should only arm yourself if your husband beats you repeatedly and then violates his restraining order.

The State Department of Safety requires an eight-hour course (four hours in the classroom, four hours on the firing range) to qualify for a handgun permit. But Woolfork said that, after that class, you can't put the training in the drawer with the gun and be able to draw it out at a moment's notice.

"All our officers have to go through training once a year - and our tactical officers train monthly," he said.

Staples adds, "you must also know and understand your equipment and treat it with respect. A high percentage of police officers have been killed (accidentally) by their own weapons, and these are individuals who are highly trained."

I don't want to tell the Chief of Police how to do his job, but if I had a high percentage of my officers kill themselves with their own firearms, I might consider having them train more than once a year.

Of course the problem with this kind of attitude is that it gets women killed. The police are only able to prevent crime about 5% of the time. The rest of the time they are investigating after the fact. This article by the Independent Women's Forum should be required reading off all women.

One of the reasons gun rights advocates hate registration schemes is because it ultimately leads to gun confiscation. If HB2414 passes in Illinois, many semi-automatic rifles and shotguns will be declared illegal and will have to be turned over to the police, without compensation.

The Illinois State Rifle Association notes that the bill would affect nearly 750,000 residents of Illinois, forcing them to either destroy guns worth thousands of dollars or risk a felony conviction.

If passed, HB 2414 would ban the possession of a wide variety of semiautomatic sporting firearms owned by hundreds of thousands of law-abiding Illinois citizens. Under HB 2414, gun owners would have 90 days to surrender their firearms to the police, or face felony prosecution and stiff jail sentences. Any such firearms they surrender would be forfeited without compensation...

"HB 2414 is a clear attempt by some members of the General Assembly to punish law-abiding gun owners," said [ISRA Executive Director Richard Pearson]. "There is no connection between the provisions within HB 2414 and the common street thug.

Criminals are not going to surrender their guns in 90 days, and murderers, robbers and rapists are hardly deterred by HB 2414's threats of Class 3 felony prosecution."

"The state's law-abiding gun owners sent their representatives to Springfield to solve the crime problem -- not make it worse," continued Pearson. "The state's gun owners certainly don't expect their representatives to devise ways to criminalize their sporting activities, and to forcibly strip away their lawfully-acquired private property. The vote on HB 2414 will make it clear to the state's gun owners just who are their friends, and who are not."

Given that Illinois already registers firearms owners through their FOID program, finding legally owned guns that are impacted by the bill should be relatively easy.

CNN/Money reports that rising interest rates will burst the housing bubble and plunge our economy into despair.

Mortgage debt now stands at record levels, having risen $1 trillion last year alone, and dwarfing other types of consumer debt, like credit cards. Homeowners have turned the equity they have in their homes into a virtual ATM, supplementing their household cash flow through additional mortgage borrowing. [...]

Rising interest rates will not only raise monthly payments on millions of loans. It could close that ATM for many households unwilling to refinance again at higher rates. And without that ready source of cash, there will be less money to spend on everything from clothing to appliances. [...]

Rising rates should start to hit consumer spending in a big way by this summer, according to economists.

"We definitely have to figure that once tax filing season is done and tax refunds are cashed, we do expect consumer spending will slow down in the second half of this year," said John Silvia, chief economist for Wachovia Securities. "I don't see any way to fudge that (higher financing costs). You're not getting the employment gains or wage and income gains to offset that."

At least CNN/Money is listening to real economists now, and not Billy Joel.

UPDATE: Oh wait, CNN/Money reports the economy is already in the dumps after all.

I've never hunted anything in my life, but for some reason shooting cats sounds like a lot of fun.

The congress, which acts as an advisory group to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, asked residents in 72 counties whether free-roaming cats - including any domestic cat that isn't under the owner's direct control or any cat without a collar - should be listed as an unprotected species.

If listed as so, the cats could be hunted.

Sufferin' succotash. It sounds crazy, but the measure actually has quite a bit of support.

Residents in La Crosse and Marathon counties voted for the proposal by a vote of 146 to 75 and 174 to 49, respectively. In Monroe County, the vote was 134 in favor, 39 against. But in Vernon County, 47 voted against it and 36 in favor. Other counties' tallies were unavailable Monday evening.

If it passes, small game hunters could shoot wild felines which proponents say prey on small mammals and birds.

UPDATE: The Governor says it will never become law.

Because we are too stupid to govern ourselves, the academic elite at Yale Law School are re-writing the United States Constitution. Billionaire Hungarian financier George Soros is funding the effort, which promises social and economic equality and an entitlement to "free" healthcare, education, child care, and anything else you can think of.

Power Line has a rundown of their notes, which not only outline what should be in the new document, but what is wrong with our existing Constitution.

Robin West
--does Equal Protection clause have relevance to progressive cause? Born out of struggle of enslaved laborers
--inconsistent with state that does little or nothing about social and economic inequalities
--implies the existence of positive welfare rights-education, police protection, healthcare, childcare, etc
--14th Amendment delegitimates social and economic inequality
--only legislative constitution can be read as implying equality supportive of progressive goals...
--legislator acts to change the status quo-ought to realize he needs to work toward the protection of all citizens (unlike the judge...legislators have more power than judges in this realm)
--such a legislator might be persuaded that evils that warrant protection include unbridled capitalism...
--progressive hope of more equal, less treacherous world...

Richard Ford
--two concerns of the panel: social equality (civil rights) and economic equality (redistribution of resources)
--problems of black urban underclass
--isolated from mainstream society-ghettoized minorities suffer
--have trouble favorably impressing employers-leads to employment discrimination...

There is plenty more. The notes reek not just of socialism, but outright communism. The group hopes to ratify the new Constitution by the year 2020.

BAG Day III is almost here.

Interesting.

Personally, I don't shop at Best Buy because of their consistently horrible customer service. But they're risking a big fat lawsuit when they had a customer arrested for paying his tab with $2 bills. Perhaps Best Buy should train their adolescent employees on how to recognize legal tender.

(Hat tip to Countertop)

I blame Global Warming:

Hundreds of travelers were stranded at the Denver airport and along highways Sunday as a blizzard blew across eastern Colorado with wet, heavy snow.

Almost a foot of snow fell in Denver and two feet in Greenland, about 20 miles north of Colorado Springs, the National Weather Service said. Heavy snow was still coming down Sunday evening but was expected to fade overnight.

Or maybe Global Cooling. Either way, you can bet it's man's fault.

If you live in Maryland and work for Wal-Mart, your job may be in jeopardy thanks to state lawmakers. The state of Maryland is demanding that Wal-Mart increase their health benefit spending to 8% of payroll, or pay a penalty to the state. The bill applies to companies in the state with more than 10,000 employees, and only affects Wal-Mart.

Maryland's Republican Governor Mark Erlich is likely to veto the bill, but Maryland Democrats have the numbers to override his veto.

If the bill becomes law, the law of unintended consequences may rear it's ugly head. Wal-Mart could always avoid the payment by simply moving stores out of Maryland, or by firing enough workers to come in under the cap.

Businesses that are approaching the 10,000 employee mark will certainly have a lot to think about before they hire that 10,000th Marylander.

When it comes to political correctness, nothing is sacred:

First PBS announced that "Sesame Street" would kick off its 35th season this week with a multiyear story arc about healthy habits. No problem there; childhood obesity rates are soaring. Then I learned of changes that turned my "Sesame Street" world upside-down.

My beloved blue, furry monster -- who sang "C is for cookie, that's good enough for me" -- is now advocating eating healthy. There's even a new song -- "A Cookie Is a Sometimes Food," where Cookie Monster learns there are "anytime" foods and "sometimes" foods.

For some reason I expect to see Cookie Monster beaten and tied up, like in a hostage video, saying that cookies are bad for you and that he hates them now. At least most people (who read CNN.com) seem to think that it was a bad idea.

Now he's violating truth in labeling laws:

Rapper C-Murder, in jail after a murder conviction in the 2002 killing of a teenager, has changed his stage name because he thinks he's been misunderstood. "I am not a murderer," the rapper, whose real name is Corey Miller, said in a statement released Tuesday.

When you have a chance, check out The Liberty Papers.

If you are interested, the photos from this weekend's machine gun shoot at the Knob Creek Range have been posted. Of course going to a machine gun shoot is not without it's risks. As I was packing up the car to leave, a stray bullet (or fragment/shrapnel) struck my windshield. Luckily it held, because I was sitting right behind it at the time.

This will be the last update until Tuesday (4-12-05). My doctor's appointment today went pretty well. He is going to run some tests and see me again in 4 weeks. He told me to stick to the low-fat diet (sigh) and take some meds every day. Other than that, he wants to poke and prod to figure out what is wrong before they carve out an internal organ.

So, since my life has slowly gotten back to normal I have decided to take my vacation after all. I had cancelled it, thinking myself not well enough to travel. But life must go on, and so must my vacation.

That said, this is the last post until next Tuesday. I'm travelling to Ohio to see this guy (whose site has fallen into disrepair), and then I'm off to Knob Creek, Kentucky this weekend for the semi-annual machine gun shoot. I'm packing up about five guns from the arsenal and thousands of rounds of ammo. The fun won't stop until we run out of ammo, money, or the barrel melts down.

I'm taking my camera, and assuming it doesn't get lost, stolen or damaged, I may have some photos to share when I get back.

Following the Pope's death, flags all across the globe were lowered to half staff. But in Godless France, naturally the pagans are whining.

"Let the Christians pay tribute to the head of their church, it's a private matter," [Senior Green Party Member Yves Contassot] told France Inter radio.

"Today, we have a government and a head of state who, clearly, for political reasons, are trying to take advantage of an issue that is a private matter," he said.

Lowering of flags on all state buildings was "totally out of place and at the limit of legality."

Nationwide crime is down. Murder and robberies have been in constant decline for more than a decade. But that doesn't hold true for Washington D.C., where under-21 homicides have increased dramatically. Every day, parents are increasingly worried that their teenagers won't come home tonight.

In 1993, Smith's oldest son and daughter, then teenagers, were shot to death in a case of mistaken identity as they drove to a church Christmas party in Southeast Washington. Now Smith's surviving children, Charles, 15, and Marquis, 13, are at a vulnerable age, and she broods over them with a mixture of gloom and hope.

"When my big kids were killed," she said, "I looked at my little kids and I thought, 'One day, they'll be teenagers, too,' and that is today. I have them again, and I have to protect the ones I have left."

Of course protecting your kids in D.C. is nearly impossible. Guns were effectively banned in Washington D.C. in 1976, so unless you can hire private security, you're pretty much screwed.

With the election happening nearly 5 months ago, Washington's governor's race is still being contested. For those of you who may have forgotten, Republican Dino Rossi won the first two ballot counts, only to have it stolen by Democrat Christine Gregoire who insisted on recounting until she was declared the winner. Rossi's counts were done by machine - which are likely to be much more accurate especially considering they were machine ballots - in accordance with Washington election law. Gregoire's "victory" was given to her by an illegal hand recount, with huge inroads being made in heavily democratic King County where ballots continued to be "discovered" after the fact.

In fact, just this week another batch of ballots was "found" in King County, reports the Seattle Times.

Over the past week, election workers have found 87 valid absentee ballots that had been left in their envelopes and not counted through three tallies of the closest statewide race in Washington history. The ballots were in archival boxes and were found when election workers were looking for something else.

The first of the ballots were found March 24, but officials did not publicly acknowledge the problem until a reporter asked them about it yesterday. After the initial discovery, Election Director Dean Logan ordered a search through more than a half-million absentee envelopes to look for other ballots that might not have been counted. [...]

The ballots were still sealed inside their original envelopes. Porter said he had told officials not to open the envelopes or count the ballots unless ordered to do so by a court.

The ballots were found when officials were looking into allegations that more than 900 felons were illegally allowed to vote. Gregoire "defeated" Republican Dino Rossi by 129 votes.

Countertop helps carry the water on why the Washington Metrorail sucks. He chronicles his own experience from riding it this weekend, and you'll never guess what happened.

"That ability, people talk about him being a very modern pope in some ways, in that he took advantage of the Internet, he understood the power of the media, and yet in most of his views, you'd have to say are extremely conservative. Do you see a contradiction there?" -- NBC pretty boy Matt Lauer, marveling at the Pope's mastery of the internet despite being a dumb religious conservative.

CVS and Kmart have both been fined for illegally selling guns. At least that's what New York City officials are claiming.

CVS was found to have more than 400 of the guns in stock in city stores; Kmart had nearly 50.

I know what you're thinking. CVS is a pharmacy. Why are they selling guns? Well, they aren't really. New York just says they are.

Guns found at CVS, which included a toy labeled "Official Military Play Equipment," manufactured by Manley Toy Quest, were described as dark green, brown and black camouflage. The city agency found the camouflage green "Fun Zone Delta Force Military Action Set" at Kmart. [...]

Over the past 2 1/2 years, the city has collected more than $600,000 in fines relating to sales of toy guns from such retailers as the Sports Authority, Party City and Walgreens.

"Fake guns are extremely dangerous and have created fatal situations for both the police and the public," Commissioner Gretchen Dykstra said in a statement Friday.

Of course toy guns are inherently non-lethal. So by fatal situations, they really mean instances where cops blow kids away because they can't the difference between a real handgun and "Official Military Play Equipment". Indeed, New York cops have a history of it.

Although there is no standard reporting of crimes involving toy guns, state Attorney General Eliot L. Spitzer's office found 12 incidents, between 1998 and 2003, of city police shooting at someone with a toy gun that was mistaken for an actual firearm.

Of course anything can be "mistaken" for an actual firearm. If someone points a toy gun at a cop, they probably deserve what they get.

For some reason, I don't think these will be big sellers among teenagers.

For the life of me, I don't know why you'd pay more than 3 cents to sit through a mind-numbing awards show, but stargazers are apparently shelling out as much as $30,000 for scalped Oscar tickets. But Hollywood doesn't want to party with regular Joes like you and me, so they are suing resellers to stop the practice, and plan on vigorously matching names to the guest list in order to stop gate crashers.

To bar people who have bought the nontransferable tickets from resellers, Quinto's staff is stationed outside the Oscar show to clear up issues if guest identification does not match a ticket. Security officers usher out illegitimate holders.

"When you show up, you better have an I.D., or you're escorted off the red carpet," [David Quinto, a partner at the academy's law firm] said, adding that every year there are a "couple of dozen" disputed tickets.

If you squandered $30k, remember to thank the Academy as they are roughing you up while dragging you off the red carpet.

Alaska's Governor looks at the facts surrounding Alaskan oil drilling. It's not just good for Alaska.

Say Uncle notes that police are now tasering deer.

Senator Clinton is gearing up for her re-election campaign. Despite the fact that nobody is yet running against her, she is already whining about the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy that is out to get her. Apparently pending attacks can only be thwarted with cold hard cash.

With 19 months to go before the elections and no opponent in sight, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign is nonetheless warning her political supporters that she is the prime target of "the right-wing attack machine."

In a fund-raising e-mail message sent out on Thursday, Mrs. Clinton's campaign also said her critics were preparing an advertising campaign against her similar to the one orchestrated by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group that attacked Senator John Kerry's Vietnam service during the presidential election.

"The right wing is already getting ready, naming Hillary as their 'No. 1 target' and boasting about their 'Swift Boat' style ads," said the e-mail message, which was sent by Ann F. Lewis, the director of communications for Mrs. Clinton's campaign committee, Friends of Hillary. "Help us show the right wing that we will be ready and able to fight back."

Meanwhile, Conservatives who aren't even running for office are being openly attacked by the liberals who want to silence them.

If the Swimsuit Edition of Sports Illustrated comes out in February, why is CNN still pandering it in April? And what's more, why is it consistently one of the top two "sports" headlines on the CNN main page?

I enjoy ogling the female body as much as the next guy, but it's hardly the second most important sporting news story of the day.

Heh.

(hat tip to reader Steve Scudder)

Say Uncle thinks that New York's idea of a ready kit leaves a little bit to be desired. I wonder how much money was spent putting this idea together.

Your Emergency Evacuation Kit contains the following:

1. (one) Slide Lock Bag


2. (one) Particle Mask


3. (one) Water Pouch, 4oz


4. (one) Emergency Whistle


5. (one) Glow Stick, 12 hours


6. (two) Official Government Instruction Sheets

These were distributed to people working in tall buildings that might have terrorists attempting to smash aircraft into them. The people receiving these kits were instructed to keep the kit in their desk at all times, so that in case of terrorism, they would have official government instructions to follow while dying.

There's more...

Concealed carry legislation has been proposed in Illinois. By a Democrat.

Countertop begs the question:

Is it me, or is there something just a bit disjointed about Terry Schiavo's government mandated "mercy killing" on the same day a military court convicts Roger Maynulet for committing the time honored practice of battlefield mercy killing?

Frank J is finally making an honest woman of Sarah K.

Men may be better at math and science, but women are certainly better at multitasking. Not just for biological reasons, I doubt any man could do this:

Debbie Coleman, whose 3- and 4-year-old daughters were asleep in the back seat, pulled over at a gas station just after midnight Tuesday.

"I asked if she needed help, and she just leaned back in the seat, hollered a little, and I looked down and there was the baby's head," said station co-owner Lloyd Goff, who was alerted to the emergency at pump No. 7 by a customer.

Goff said Coleman "threw her leg over the steering wheel, groaned once, and the rest of the baby came out.

"She caught that baby, put it to her chest, gave me a look, like, 'I gotta go,' closed the door, put the van in gear and away she went." [...]

As officers went looking for her, Coleman headed for the hospital, naked below the waist and with the baby boy in her arm. His umbilical cord was still attached.

"I kept pulling over, making sure (the baby) was all right, breathing," she said.

Meanwhile, police had straightened out the license plate issue. But another caller mistakenly reported someone trying to throw a baby from a van.

Coleman said she noticed several cruisers following her before one cut her off. With guns drawn, officers ordered her out of the van with her hands up.

Please, no jokes about women drivers.