A corny tribute

A corn maze of the late Gerald Ford at Gull Meadow Farms.

Amazing (hee hee).

The Grotesque and Sublime

Art by Kris Kuski. More at kuski.com.

Early morning grumble

This afternoon I have to attend a three-hour dog attack seminar.

On the upside, it means I'll be doing less actual work today, and we are allegedly going to be paid overtime for the three hours.

On the downside, it will be a complete waste of time. Learning how to wear dog armor and get attacked by trained attack dogs who are trained to attack an armored extremity is not going to help with being unarmored and defending one's self against untrained, wildly vicious street dogs.

These seminars are all for appearances. Nothing else.

UPDATE: Well, at least it wasn't boring. I didn't learn anything that I didn't already know, as far as handling dog attacks out in the field. I did learn a couple of bits of dog trivia that were interesting, though not really what I could call useful. For example, the Rottweiler was originally a cattle dog. Also the chocolate Lab has a much higher pain tolerance than yellow Labs. While the yellows were bred for retrieving waterfowl (which I knew), the chocolate was bred for jumping into icy water and retrieving fish nets (which I didn't know). I also learned about a breed of dog I had never heard of before: the Presa Canario. They were almost unheard of in the U.S. until they became infamous in this incident. (Apparently this trial was big on CourtTV but I never watch that channel). The lady who taught the class was extremely critical of the media in this case, because she believed that it was wrong for them to publicize all the results of the dogs' autopsies. It seems that the male dog involved had consumed 4 1/2 pounds of the victim. When this got out, it immediately created a high demand for this breed. (It just goes to show what I've always said: people are slime).

I also got to see an Argentine Dogo in action. That is one scarily impressive dog. The one they had originally came in on a drug boat. She said such a boat was seized off Florida which contained two tons of cocaine and 40 Dogo puppies.

So it wasn't boring, but three hours for a couple of trivia items is still a waste of time. And it was a real drag having to hang around until 5:00 when on a normal day I would have been out of there at 1:45.

One other thing. The German Shepherd she had would have been dwarfed by the Shepherd that mauled me a couple of years ago. I think the one that got me must have been crossed with something else much bigger. That sucker was huge.

That's because you're an idiot

Full-scale, blithering, utterly irrational PSH in Albany, NY:

"I was surprised and disappointed that this was a prize that was given away," he said. "We shouldn't send mixed messages to kids that we give a replica of a firearm."

Especially sensitive--he says--because one 15-year-old murdered another 15-year-old. Well, golly gee, Jimmy, even a backwoods hick like me can see that this isn't a gun problem. This is a gang problem. That's what you call teenage thugs running loose in the street shooting at each other and usually taking out innocent bystanders in the process.

And it's all the fault of a vaguely gun-shaped water squirter.

On more thing. Since when does your position as city councilman grant you the authority to steal toys from children? Or does that fall under your purview as "lifesaver?"

Wednesday Vintage Gun...from 1956, anyway

Not an ad this time, but a letter to the editor in Outdoor Life that I thought was interesting. I also thought that I had already posted this, but it wasn't in my "uploaded" directory so I guess I haven't. Click for the big version that should be readable.

Memento Mori: The Bone Church

From Curious Expeditions:

It is easily the best manifestation of Memento Mori in the world. The meaning of Memento Mori, "Remember that you will die" is impossible to forget in a room centered with a chandelier composed of every bone in the human body, and then some. To look up at the swooping strands of jawbones and sections of spine is to be one with the feeling of Memento Mori.

The 40,000 skeletons within Sedlec Ossuary in the Czech Republic welcome you with, quite literally, open arms. D and I travelled to the Czech Republic and had the pleasure of seeing this truly unique sight in the flesh, or bone, as it were. Known to most as "The Bone Church", unlike your every day ossuary, the Bone Church is not merely a home for the deceased. Instead of resting eternally in neat piles, the bones of the dead have become the medium of some of the world's most macabre art. In addition to the splendid bone chandelier, the ossuary displays two large chalices, four baroque candelabras, six enormous pyramids, two monstrances (a vessel used to display the Eucharistic Host), a family crest, and is topped off with skull candleholders, statues of angels holding skulls, and festively looping chains of bone at every corner like crete paper at a birthday party.

So I've gone through a bunch of newsfeeds and blogs and can't find anything that I can add something new to or say something insightful about. Maybe I'm suffering burnout. So forgive me if I start wandering down some shadowy paths into other areas that I think are absolutely fascinating.

Follow the above link for more info and more pix. This amazing ossuary (how about that, the spell-checker doesn't know "ossuary") is not just a collection of bones, but a monument to the human skeleton as an artistic medium. And it was begun 800 years ago.

Bummer

Joe Zawinul died yesterday.

Zawinul was one of the founding members of Weather Report and a fantastic keyboardist who wasn't afraid to mix electronics and jazz. Some jazz purists didn't care much for Weather Report, but what do they know.

The M1. I think that's a Korg, isn't it?

I ain't afraid o' no bloody Pew!

My pirate name is:

Dirty Sam Flint

You're the pirate everyone else wants to throw in the ocean -- not to get rid of you, you understand; just to get rid of the smell. Like the rock flint, you're hard and sharp. But, also like flint, you're easily chipped, and sparky. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

Flint! Now that's a name for a pirate. 'Twas Flint who buried the treasure on that blasted isle, and left a trail of bones from those who dug the hole.

Seen at Parallax Adjustment.

My wife didn't buy me this outfit for nothing.

The ultimate nannyists

L. Neil Smith writes about a group of liberal fascists who call themselves the "National Initiative for Democracy" at NI4D: DANGEROUSLY STUPID OR STUPIDLY DANGEROUS?:

The gist of the thing is that they want to pass a law, add another amendment to the Constitution, giving "the people" power to end-run Congress and create new legislation -- new laws -- directly. I can see how this might seem like a good idea at first. Humorist P.J. O'Rourke once suggested that the first six-hundred people in the Manhattan phone book could do a better job running the country than Congress ever has. But wasn't it Robert Heinlein who observed that "Vox popula, vox dei" is best translated as "How did we get into this mess?"

Yes, I know what today is...

But I have nothing new to say about it.

Here's the link to what I think is my best post on the subject, from two years ago.

Can I get that on a t-shirt?

By Kevin Tuma.

Via Liberty for All.

Saxet gun shows

Just noticed that they're planning on having a gun show at the Freeman Coliseum next month.

I was wondering if they'd pick the old coliseum since the convention center was torn down. It's not nearly as long of a drive as the Alzafar place, either. I still might go there, though, just to get a gun show fix.

Schedule here.

Curious Convergences

I've been poring over my usual blogs and newsfeeds and can't come up with anything clever or provoking to write, myself.

But sometimes various bits of contemporary culture collide and the result becomes somehow quite interesting.

Loren Coleman writes: Is Bin Laden As Tall As Bigfoot?

The sixth anniversary of 9/11 is here. It seems like the right time to consider: Is bin Laden as tall as Bigfoot? For this is a serious consideration of a subject few would rather make fun of by just reading the headline and not the blog here: What happens with eyewitness reports of height? The parallel between the alleged stature of Osama bin Laden and Bigfoot, two topics that do not make me laugh, is remarkable.

I have a feeling Charles Fort would get a kick out of this short article. A brief examination of how perception can sometimes overshadow fact.

Parody State Quarters

Parody state quarters by Daniel Carr. New York might be the best one.

Via Snopes.

Roll d20 SAN loss just for looking at the picture

An especially bizarre artistic interpretation of Great Cthulhu. A 1600-pixel-wide version is here.

Via UVoD.

New Liberty Creation

I stumbled across an interesting blog today.

NewLibertyCreation.com is dedicated to spreading the good news of new creation in Jesus Christ. Part of this agenda is exploring how the ideas of liberty and freedom are integrally tied to this concept, and of tearing down faith that people have in the false gods of government.

Some especially interesting recent posts are Christianity has been hijacked by terrorists parts one and two, and Americanism, The National Religion of the United States.

PVC Target Holder

I've been planning on one of these, but in my own mind couldn't think of a way to secure the target to the stand. I don't know why I didn't think of strings. Just a mind-block, I guess.

Here are some plans for a simple, cheap and portable target stand made from PVC.

Sunday Vintage "Pipe" Ad, date unknown

No, this is not actually an ad for pipes or tobacco. It's an ad for what appears to be a hemorrhoid cream. I just think it's cool because it portrays a linkboy lighting a gaslight with his clay pipe. Or maybe he's taking advantage of a gaslight to light his pipe. Hard to say.

Snagged from eBay, as you can see.

Oh wow, I think I just experienced a negative reality inversion.

By now I'm sure everyone has heard about the woman who was kicked off an airplane because her attire was allegedly too skimpy.

The thing that amuses me is that Michele of Reformed Chicks Blabbing appears to be defending her, while Fits of Shooting the Messenger is castigating her.

I personally have no opinion on the subject, because 1) I am a married man, and am therefore no longer interested in women, and 2) skinny blonds don't do much for me. Sort of puts me in mind of an albino flamingo, actually.

UPDATE: On the other hand, buxom brunettes with long, straight black hair...uh...what was I talking about again?

I wanted to be a programme planner, but unfortunately I have a degree.

Interesting. From BBC News:

The BBC has scrapped plans for Planet Relief, a TV special on climate change.

The decision comes after executives said it was not the BBC's job to lead opinion on climate change.

Celebrities such as Ricky Gervais were said to be interested in presenting the show, which would have involved viewers in a mass "switch-off" to save energy.

The BBC says it cut the special because audiences prefer factual output on climate change. Environmentalists slammed the decision as "cowardice".

[...]

[Said an unnamed BBC spokeswoman:] Our audiences tell us they are most receptive to documentary or factual style programming as a means of learning about the issues surrounding this subject, and as part of this learning we have made the decision not to proceed with the Planet Relief event.

Instead we will focus our energies on a range of factual programmes on the important and complex subject of climate change. This decision was not made in light of the recent debate around impartiality.

I would be surprised and impressed if they did switch to "factual style programming." Not factual programming, mind you, but factual style programming. Still, that's a start.

Maybe they just realized something.

Or maybe they just realized that promoting a mass switch-off would be bad for ratings, if that mass switch-off included switching off the telly.

Heh

So I guess if you're a reloader, you could call it "Chamferin' Around".

Via Say Uncle.

Dan McKown in the news again

Since I haven't seen anyone else mention this. I'm sure everyone who reads this blog knows his name, but in case you don't, he was carrying a concealed pistol the day an evil maniac shot up a mall in Washington (state). He hesitated before shooting and was badly wounded because the shooter did not hesitate. He's still a hero in my book.

McKown recently testified in the Tacoma Mall shooting trial:

"I prayed a very unappropriate prayer – 'God let me shoot this guy before he shoots somebody else'. I thought I was dead," said McKown.

Not so inappropriate. Praying for strength to stop a force of evil is never inappropriate.

The shooter survived. Many of his victims did not. Dan McKown will likely be partially paralyzed for the rest of his life.

So much for "Leslie"

The headline says "Venezuela to ban stupid names." No. It should read: Venzuela to ban names that some socialist government bureaucrat thinks aren't socialist enough. But then it's from Metro UK so what should I expect?

Thinking of naming your baby Hersony, Nohemar - or even Superman?

Such odd names might be turned down by the civil registry if Venezuela approves a bill barring parents from giving their children 'names that expose them to ridicule, are extravagant or difficult to pronounce,' or that raise doubts about whether a child is a girl or a boy.

Nobody's business. Although I suppose if you name your kid Fire you can't take him into a crowded theater.

The new bill proposes to create a list of traditional names that could be offered to parents 'as a reference' to provide options when they are registering their child's birth. It says the list would have 'no fewer than 100 names' and would grow over time.

"Fidel" and "Ernesto" are at the top of the list, I'm sure.

What most people don't know is that this is directly related to a traumatic odd-naming experience in Hugo Chavez' own past.
UPDATE: As of September 13, they have apparently changed their minds. The Venezuelan government is concerned about "the right to liberty?" Now that is odd.

More Pratchett Wisdom

God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of his own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players, to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.

--Terry Pratchett

That's one expensive rubber stamp

The classification process cost us $8.2 billion last year:

Among the findings from the report:

Businesses enjoyed a no-bid process for 26 percent, or $107.5 billion, of the federal government's business last year.

President Bush has issued at least 151 signing statements challenging 1,149 provisions of laws passed by Congress. Before 2000, presidents had signed fewer than 600 statements over the nation's 211-year history.

The Defense Department has more than doubled in real terms the amount it spends on classified weapons acquisitions since 1995. While the number of classification decisions actually dropped by 10 percent to 231,995 last year, the number of documents related to each one of those decisions ballooned to 20.3 million, up by 43 percent.

And those figures do not include the untold number of documents that are locked away by federal agencies in categories known as "pseudo-classification." These are unclassified documents that government bureaucrats deem too sensitive for public consumption. There is no oversight of these categories to ensure that the documents should be removed from the public domain.

The report also found that the Bush administration has invoked a legal tool known as the "state secrets" privilege more than any other previous administration to get cases thrown out of civil court.

Between 1977 and 2000, administrations used the privilege 59 times. Over the past six years, the White House has invoked the privilege 38 times, more than double the rate of administrations during that time frame.

That emphasis is mine. Read it all, but take your Tums first.

Who says retirement causes boredom?

Blogging notes

I installed the old favicon. You might have to reload the site or delete your browser's cache or something before it shows up, but it's working with Firefox.

I'm going to be posting some of the more high traffic posts from the Eponym blog over here. I'm going to post them with their original dates, so they probably won't show up on the front page or the RSS feed, but if they do, I'm just posting them for the archives.

I don't think I'm going to be joining any of the big blogrolls this time. However, there are still a few things I need to add to the sidebars.

R.I.P. Global Warming

Interesting essay by Alan Caruba called The Year the Global Warming Hoax Died:

When did the global warming hoax die? Historians are likely to pinpoint 2007. It will take another decade to insure it cannot be revived, but the avalanche of scientific studies and the cumulative impact of scientists who have publicly joined those who debunked the lies on which it has been based will be noted as the tipping point.

It took some forty years to unmask the Piltdown Man hoax that began in 1912 alleging that the skull of an ancient ancestor of man had been found in England. Any number of British anthropologists unwittingly contributed to the hoax by confirming the authenticity of the skull until it was found that the jaw of an orangutan had been cunningly attached. The unmasking of “global warming” has taken less than half that time.

Maybe he's too optimistic. Once people dedicate themselves to a religion it takes a lot of work to dislodge them. And of course NPR will still be flogging the skeletal remains of something that may have once been that horse for decades to come.

A good read, anyway. Sort of a collection of "nails in the coffin."

Xrlq debunks Snopes

Snopes appears to be working for Hillary. Or at least doing their best to cover her ***.

Bias at Snopes is not something new. Insane Troll Logic noticed it more than two years ago.

Letter to the editor response

I finally got a response to the letter to the editor that I sent in regarding the August 28 ammo buy. As I feared, my letter was sent too late to appear in the paper for that week. They could have printed it the following week but by that time it would have been too late.

However, the editor did invite me to write a follow-up letter, so I guess I'll need to put something together about activities on that day. I think it would be best to focus on the "hordes" of protesters that didn't actually show up for the protests.

So now I'll have to start combing through everyone's recent archives to gather the information.

My local paper is a weekly that covers the county I live in. I don't count any San Antonio papers as "local" because I don't live there.

Unlike most big-city papers, our little paper is focused on small town and rural happenings and is quite conservative in nature.

Wednesday Vintage Gun Ad, 1940s: Western Super-X Ammo

Western Super-X in .22 Long Rifle hollow point: the solution to the Evil Woodchuck Menace.

Thanks, Blogger!

They fixed my blog so I don't have to word-verify my own posts anymore. I think Scribefire will work now. This is a test post.

Interesting visit today

Cthulhu Milhouse Ftaghn

At Far Out Shirts.

Interview with Michael DeBose in USCCA Magazine

If you're not a subscriber to Concealed Carry Magazine, beg or borrow a copy because there's an interview in it that should be read by everyone. Even better that it be read by those who think self-defense is wrong.

Mark Walters, who writes the regular "The Ordinary Guy" column for the magazine, interviewed Representative Michael DeBose of Ohio. DeBose had a solid record of being against individuals carrying a handgun for self defense, and voted against Ohio's concealed carry bill twice, before it became law.

He was recently the intended victim of an attempted mugging, and it changed his mind.

Well to be honest with you, I'm not promoting guns quite honestly. I voted against concealed carry twice but when this happened--someone points a gun at you and you feel hopeless and helpless and you want some way to defend yourself and your family--then your perspective changes. Any person who has a gun pulled on them has walked in my shoes. Quite frankly, I don't want to experience that again. I don't want them to either. It changed my views in that I'm only dealing with me. I can't tell other people what to do and I'm not encouraging other people to do something that I'm doing. I'm only dealing with myself. It's in my best interest to get a gun.

[...]

I would like people to understand one thing. Don't judge people by what they do or what they don't do. Until you've walked in that person's shoes, you don't understand what brought them to that decision. This decision has been a personal one. I'm not after anyone to be a copycat and I'm not going around starting trouble with a gun. I'm not going around asking people to get out of my way and like I'm some type of bully. The only thing I'm saying is that you have to have an equalizer on the street. These streets are dangerous. There are killers and they're equal opportnity murderers. These people are mean-spirited and they're evil. You have to have a way to get their attention to let them know that you're not playing with them. Bottom line is, personally I'm not taking it anymore. We have to take our streets back. We have to take our neighborhoods back. I'm not moving. I'm not going to leave the area. I'm not going to run and I'm not going to stop taking my walks because I need the exercise. So I'm going to continue to do what I was doing and nobody's going to stop me from doing it.

Also worth pointing out is that he says "I got hammered in the papers." But on a personal level, he has "got more support than negative publicity." That is, person to person he's had a lot of support on his decision, but the media was against him. His local paper wouldn't even print any letters to the editor that supported him--even though he knew such letters were being sent in.

There are also a couple of things worth mentioning in the epilogue to this interview. Jim Irvine of The Buckeye Firearms Association organized a concealed carry training class for DeBose which also included "a group of his associates, friends and neighbors."

Also, Cor-Bon donated "several thousand high quality rounds of various calibers used during the training class."

The final word:

Rep. DeBose and his wife have since applied for and received their Ohio CCW licenses.

Indeed

Via The Militant Libertarian.

Seafoam

Nothing to do with meerschaum this time, but this:

It was as if someone had poured tons of coffee and milk into the ocean, then switched on a giant blender.

Suddenly the shoreline north of Sydney were transformed into the Cappuccino Coast.

Foam swallowed an entire beach and half the nearby buildings, including the local lifeguards' centre, in a freak display of nature at Yamba in New South Wales.

One minute a group of teenage surfers were waiting to catch a wave, the next they were swallowed up in a giant bubble bath. The foam was so light that they could puff it out of their hands and watch it float away.

No, it was not due to human pollution of the ocean. It was something natural that just happens sometimes. Follow the link for all the details and some cool pix.

Via The Agitator.

Drive faster, Grace...

For David Codrea's Hitching a Ride with Grace photoshop suggestion. This is really the only photo I have of myself that's easily GIMPed. Taken when I was posing for one of those old-timey photos dressed as a Civil War-era soldier. Back then I wore glasses only for reading. And I don't have a photo of myself with a pipe.

I couldn't resist adding a little something extra.

Barbecue time again

I got volunteered to barbecue tomorrow. It seems even my dad was impressed by my barbecuing skills, so he wants me to smoke up a bunch of meat for him.

So I went to H.E.B. yesterday and got one of those combination scraper/brass brush thingies and just did a major clean-up on the old New Braunfels Smoker. I just now finished cleaning it up in time for it to start raining hard. Lately the rain has been sticking to the late afternoon, so I'm hoping I have some non-rain barbecue time tomorrow morning. If not, it's not like I haven't barbecued in the rain before. Shoot, I even barbecued in a freezing rain once. They're forecasting a 70% chance of rain tomorrow.

I also stocked up on some mesquite and hickory chunks. I have eaten meat barbecued with oak, and I'm sure I will again, but I won't be the one to smoke it. I much prefer mesquite. I smoke it on a mixture of about 2/3 mesquite and 1/3 hickory. I've also used pecan wood before, and it was nice. It has a much mellower flavor than mesquite. I think next time I do chicken I'll try it with pecan. I haven't tried any fruit-tree wood yet, but I've heard good things about apple wood.

UPDATE: On the menu for today: beef shoulder roast, pork roast, pork ribs, and a sausage made by the local meat market.

UPDATE 2: Success! Also on the menu were mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, zipper peas and pinto beans with butter cake (chocolate icing) for dessert. Whew. Also while tending the smoker, I did a thorough reaming and cleaning of my old Wellington pipe. It really needed it. Once put back into condition, it reminded me what an excellent old pipe it is.

No "back-ho" jokes, please

If you haven't already seen this collection of vintage album covers at Dark Roasted Blend, then by all means go check them out. There used to be a few used book & record stores that I would haunt in which I would go through the old albums just to look at the covers. Some of these shown at the link are funny, some are just odd, and some show how times have changed.

Alien Puerto Rican goat suckers in Texas

I suppose someone out there might be waiting for me to comment on the alleged chupacabra that was recently found near Cuero. It has something to do with Texas, and I've made no secret that I'm sort of a minor cryptozoology buff.

I don't for a minute believe this is anything but a canine with a horrific case of mange.

The person of interest says she thinks it's Chupy because her chickens weren't eaten, just killed, and "all the blood was drained from them."

Dogs will do that. I have witnessed dogs killing for fun--and put a stop to it, but not before several livestock were killed. And, well, when a chicken is mutilated by a dog it tends to bleed out, you know.

The picture accompanying this article isn't very good, only the head. I saw a full body picture somewhere else several days ago and immediately thought it was probably a fox.

Of course, I'm still looking forward to reading about the results of the DNA test they're planning on.

I'm thinking that the wildlife biologists should start studying why these kinds of cases of very bad mange are getting to be more common.

The unspeakable deeps

The feeling of wetness at meine kleine fabrik:

In 1928 the naturalist William Beebe described his experiences as a helmet diver in the book Beneath Tropic Seas. Beebe felt that our existing terrestrial vocabulary was an inexact and at times unimaginative instrument for gauging the world beneath the waves. For example, he wrote: "I know the exact shade of a certain feathery sea plume, but resent having to refer to it as zinc orange. Yet I am always pleased when I detect salmon, or pearl-grey or ultramarine." Beebe struggled to present an accurate and poetic account of the fantastic visions presented to him by the ocean realm, but he was not the first.

[...]

During the fall of 1957 an unusual find was made at Cornell University in upstate New York. Professor Thomas Eisner, a young faculty member who was working in Roberts Hall and had begun to explore its musty corridors, found a series of locked antique wooden cabinets. Through the dingy glass windows were visible hundreds of delicate and unusual sea creatures, all the more extraordinary because landlocked Ithaca is several hundred miles away from the closest tide pools. Eisner, now recognized as a founder of the field of chemical ecology, and his graduate student Roger Payne, who later discovered that Humpback whales sing songs [endnote 1], picked the locks with a paper clip and were absolutely mesmerized to find that the highly detailed ocean invertebrates, including octopus, squid, pelagic snail, and sea cucumber, were made of glass. Altogether, 570 creatures had been-well, how had they been?-fashioned by someone, for some purpose. But why? And when?

Another item that reminds me of Lovecraftian things.

The beauty and detail of this naturalistic artwork is also amazing. Check the link, there are more pictures and lots more information there.

Got my buckshot

The FedEx guy showed up around 9:00PM Thursday night. What a job, to be delivering ammo way out here in the boonies so late at night. He had his hazards flashing as he came down the driveway, which I thought was kind of strange. It's not like he was parking in the driveway at 5:00AM or anything.

Anyhow, the .410 buckshot is a sleek-looking load. Makes me want to get a motorcycle and a derringer so I can go bear hunting.

I need to do some patterning tests now. For the record the .410 is just a single-shot H&R. The 20 gauge is a Mossberg pump.

Why a 20 and not a 12? Because I bought it for dove hunting, and I can't hit a flying dove--well sometimes I can. The 20 is much cheaper on the wallet when I don't have much chance of hitting anything anyway and I can bang away all day without tenderizing my shoulder.

I was once told that I'd be able to hit more dove if I put in some practice, but I think it's because the doves around here can go between.

HELPS

The Firearms Coalition is going on the offensive:

The Firearms Coalition has drafted legislation which would restrict any federal funds from going to any college or university which prohibits employees and students who may lawfully possess and carry defensive weapons off campus from possessing and carrying those weapons on campus. We call it HELPS, the Higher Education Lawful Personal Security Act and we believe it could be passed in the 110^th Congress.

There is absolutely no way to keep armed and dangerous criminals and lunatics from bringing weapons onto a college campus. The forced disarmament of employees and adult students does nothing but reduce the likelihood that there might be someone with a gun in the right place at the right time to stop criminal violence and save lives. Disarming law-abiding adults, who happen to be employed by, or attend a college and who lawfully and safely carry defensive firearms when not on campus, is not just irrational - it’s downright criminal.

It’s past time for the gun rights movement to stop pussy-footing around and take a strong, public, and principled stand. We know what’s right and sensible and we need to act on that knowledge.We must stop playing political games, by the politician’s rules, at the cost of our children’s lives. The United States Congress has the power to stop federal funds – including research grants and student loans – from going to schools with disarmament policies – whether those policies come from the school itself or from state government. The people have the power to force Congress to take such actions.

I'm sure there will be plenty of nay-sayers who will declaim it as a waste of time. But if you get enough people hammering at a brick wall long enough, eventually something's gotta crack.

A Schott in the Dark

From The Gazette-Enterprise of nearby Seguin:

La Vernia Mayor Pro Tem Harold Schott retired from the San Antonio Police Department after a 33-year career.

One would be wise not to charge at him with a weapon, because he is a deadly-accurate shooter. Not one of his bullets hit outside the “bread basket” area on his target, and a couple of holes were on dead center in the bullseye.

But Schott was renewing his concealed handgun license by taking Cope’s class, and he explained the reason for it:

“If you go to buy a new shotgun, even if you’re in a policeman’s uniform, you have a five-day wait for an FBI background check. If you have a concealed handgun license, you could have the gun today. If you want to purchase a gun, a license makes it easier,” Schott said.

Wrong! Texas has no state waiting period. Period.

I would have assumed an ex-Only One would know that.

And yes, I noticed that his statement also reeks of elitism. But then I suppose that's par for the course.

Via Front Sight, Press.

Dustin' off the Diamond

For The Gone Rick Motel caption contest.

Guitarist gets his doctorate

In 1970 a British astrophysics student and aspiring rock star dropped out of the university to join a rock band. The band he helped form went on to become one of rock's most famous and legendary supergroups.

This week Brian May was awarded his astrophysics doctorate for his thesis "Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud."

Looks good

I think I can stop tweaking the blog for now and start catching up on other's blogs again.

Leaving Eponym is kind of sad, because I was headed for two notable milestones. By the end of the year, I would have probably hit my 3,000th post (which includes the 900+ that were originally imported from this blog in 2006) and I would most likely have attained 100,000 hits. If their servers are left online long enough, I have no fear that it will reach 100,000 anyway. There are several posts over there that regularly generate high traffic. At the current rate, I would have reached 100,000 in another 85 days, more or less.

I needed only 115 more posts to reach #3,000.

Coming back to Blogger isn't too bad, now that I'm better at hacking templates. If I can just get someone to turn off that stupid word verification for my own posts. Man, that's annoying. Especially because about 25% of the time I misread the letters.

September 1: Castle Doctrine Law

A Keyboard and a .45 has posted a reminder that Texas' new Castle Doctrine/Stand Your Ground Law becomes effective today.

Back from the dead

Just trying a test post with Blog This! since I can't get Scribefire to work.

Okay, everything seems to be working well enough to start with. I'm sure I'll be tweaking things for weeks to come, but it looks like the original blog is now back in business.

Gun Review: Walther P22

This is an archive post. Originally posted on my other blog on 18 March 2006.

The P22 is designed to be nearly identical to, although smaller than, Walther's P99 (a 9mm or .40 S&W gun). I decided to take my new one out today for some shooting. Please excuse some of the blurry pictures, I was in a hurry because it was about to start raining (unfortunately, the rain didn't last long).

Ammo being tried out today was Remington standard "High Velocity" .22 LR and Remington Subsonic .22 LR as pictured. Grouping and accuracy didn't seem to matter--both kinds of ammo shot the same. Recoil was more noticeable with the High Velocity ammo, but it's a .22, so who cares? Just above the trigger in the above picture is the trigger lock, if you ever care to use it.

As usual, I have to make some left-handed comments. Shooting in the isosceles position kept popping the Subsonic empties right back into my face, and one even went down my shirt (ouch). Adjusting to sort of a hybrid isosceles/Weaver stance took care of that (I just shifted my feet a little). The High Velocity empties ejected with more force, and flew clear of me without me even noticing them.

I'm trying in this picture to illustrate the ambidextrous magazine release located on the trigger guard. The mag release makes this gun very lefty-friendly. The safety is also ambidextrous.

The P22 has what they call a "loaded chamber indicator," but it's the kind that is simply a small gap through which to look and see if it's loaded. It's not the tactile kind. Personally I'd rather just press-check it.

It has a magazine disconnect so the hammer won't fall with the magazine removed. What may seem odd to some (it did to me), is that when the safety is on and the magazine installed you can pull the trigger and the hammer will fall. However, there is a hammer block that prevents it from transferring the impact to the cartridge. According to Walther, this is the decocker. Still, it seems odd to use the trigger for a decocker rather than have a separate decocking lever.

To disassemble, first ensure it is not loaded, then lock the slide back and remove the magazine. Slide the take-down lever down. This is not actually a lever, it is more of a sleeve. It must be pulled down with equal force on either side. If you try to walk it down one side at a time, it won't work.

Lift the back end of the slide up slightly and carefully allow it to go forward. As with some other semi-autos, if you aren't careful the spring could pop out.

The P22 has a fixed barrel. It comes with an accessory wrench to remove the barrel. Walther also produces an optional 5" barrel which can be installed by the owner--no gunsmithing required. The 5" barrel is called the "target barrel." I don't have one, yet. The gun also comes with three front sights of varying heights. The factory installed front sight can be removed with a screwdriver and a new one installed by the owner. The rear sight is micrometer adjustable for windage. There is also a second palm swell that can be owner-installed on the back of the grips to increase the size of the grips if desired. I plan on trying that out too, but I haven't yet. It also comes with two 10-round magazines, and it has a light rail.

The tricky part is putting the gun back together when you're finished cleaning it. In the little accessory bag which includes the wrench is a plastic rod. This rod is used to guide the guide rod back into its respective hole in the end of the slide.

Carefully--making sure everything stays lined up straight--pull the slide back into its locked open position. The plastic guide rod will pop out unless you have a third hand to catch it, so be sure it pops out where it won't get lost. On mine, there is one extra step which took me a while to figure out. After the slide is back in its locked open position, a light tap to the back of the slide with the heel of the hand is required to finally seat it into its correct position so that it can slide forward again. After sliding it forward, push the takedown lever back into its previous position, and lower the hammer. You're done.

How does it shoot? you ask. This gun shoots way better than I do, but that can be remedied with practice, which is the main reason I bought this gun.

This 8" Shoot-N-See target shows--although it's hard to count them all--40 bullet holes from a distance of 25 feet. I am almost certain the rightward drift of the group is due to me rather than the gun. I should mention that for the last two magazines, I was shooting about as fast as I could and still keep them all in the black. (The extra black circle that was stuck on there didn't cover any holes, that was just my son sticking a sticker there because he likes to do that sort of thing). Other bullet holes in the backing are from previous sessions.

This gun is sweet. It is so comfortable that I could easily just stand and shoot all day. I just need to teach the kids how to load the magazines so they can load while I shoot.

If Walther were to ask me for any suggestions, I would recommend an extended magazine. By the way, here's a factory picture of the gun with the 5" barrel and the accompanying barrel stabilizer installed.

Visit Walther's P22 page for technical details.

MSRP on this little guy is $295. I got mine brand new for $243 plus tax. An affordable gun that shoots affordable ammo.

UPDATE: Check the comments for another tip on how to reassemble the gun without using the plastic guide rod. I'll have to try that!

COMMENTS ARCHIVED FROM THE ORIGINAL POST BELOW:

by drstrangegun:

Instead of the little plastic rod, when I reassemble my P22 what I do is bunch the recoil spring up on the guide rod, insert the rod through the slide and hold the rod on the outside (keeping the spring compressed), I then put the slide back on the gun partially and release the rod, and wiggle it a little until the rod pops into the retaining hole in the frame. It's much faster and requires no extra parts to lose.

by Chris Byrne:

I do the exact same trick for reassembling mine.

Ok some important notes on the P22.

1. The safety will loosen up and come on by itself over time. DO NOT OVERTIGHTEN the screws that hold the safety levers onto the safety barrel. This will split them, AND reduce the tension on the barrel making the problem worse. Find the right tension and loctite the screws there, but check them every one in a while.

2. Cleaning... Get yourself some plastic safe but otherwise very strong solvent, a solvent safe container to submerge the gun completely, and a can of compressed airto blow the solvent out again.

Trust me, it's the only way to clean the crud out of the little spaces that you can't get to. You literally cannot diassemble this gun far enough to clean it completely.

Once youlve dunked and blown, reoil the gun VERY LIGHTLY, because too much oil jsut invites more crud.

3. DO NOT OVERTIGHTEN THE BARREL NUT. The barrel shroud will actually peen down the key in the aluminum barrel lug mounted in the frame. This is not a replaceable part.

Dont let these points scare you off, or suggest I don't love the gun; I do. It's a great little pistol, and everyone should own one. You jsut need to know those particular idiosyncracies.

by anonymous:

The NEWER P22's are labeled with an "L" prefix before the serial number. These seem to have less problems with misfires as the older (pre-2004) models did. Also, be sure to check the magazine for the letter "A". These are the newer mags that Walther replaced the old, "defective" ones with. Other than that this is the best little .22LR auto I've owned. 40-gr. CCI mini-mags are by far the best rounds for this gun. Enjoy.

by anonymous:

Due to the inertial firing pin, the P22 should not be "dry fired" extensively during aiming practice. Doing so not only risks deformation of the chamber face, but the repeated forward action of the firing pin into and beyond the space normally occupied by the rimfire casing will eventually distort the firing pin spring. If this happens, the firing pin will no longer return vigorously to its default at-rest position at the extreme of its possible rearward travel within the breach block. This could result in less or none of the firing pin's rear surface portruding beyond the rear of the breach block for impact by the hammer.

Other comments at the original post.

Another one for the Million Moon March

They accepted my most recent submission. Check it out here.

"Make me safe from armed violence"

I have been laughing about this ever since I thought of it last Thursday while at work. I just got a good guffaw out of finally finding it there now. I guess their goons aren't old enough to remember 1980.

Tags: gun control, global arms control, million moon march

The Dick Cheney Thing

Everyone has already read about Dick Cheney accidentally shooting a fellow hunter during a quail hunt recently. My only comment on this is that many hunters only use their gun(s) once or twice a year. They do not go to the trouble of handling a gun every day to train themselves to have safe handling skills. I say this as someone who used to be a gun owner just so I could hunt. Safe gun handling requires everyday routines that are drilled into one's head so that such safe handling comes to be automatic.

I have nothing against the folks who use their gun only to hunt. I just think if you're going to hunt, you should make sure to handle your gun more often than only when you actually do hunt. This would cut down on a lot of so-called hunting "errors."

We are sorry for the inconvenience

I have been working on setting up new digs at eponym.com. Once I get everything worked out I will probably stop using this blog, although it will remain here for archival purposes.

Eponym supplies its own comment and trackback system, so any commentors there will have to post anonymously unless you want to register as a reader of the site.

BTW, is anyone else annoyed at having to do word verification to post to one's own blog? I thought that was the whole point behind having a username and password. I guess they're trying to put a stop to spamblogs, but still, that's a pain.

Any posting I do this week will be cross-posted to both blogs. The new one is at blogonomicon.eponym.com.

Border agent busted for smuggling illegal aliens

I have to blame Mr. Codrea for starting my hobby of watching for stories like this:

He was supposed to protect the borders from illegal immigrants, instead a former U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officer will be sent to prison for letting them into this country for a price.

42-year old Fabian Solis was sentenced to 36 months in prison for conspiring to smuggle illegal immigrants into the Unites States for money.

Meanwhile, near San Diego:

An incomplete tunnel was found in the same area where investigators recently found one of the longest passages discovered beneath the U.S.-Mexico border, officials said.

The 3-foot-wide tunnel extended from just south of the border fence in Mexico to a point about 23 feet into the United States, ending at a concrete levee, Border Patrol spokesman Richard Kite said.

A patrol agent noticed a distortion in the road running along the border fence, and agents digging in the area found the tunnel Thursday, Kite said.

"It was only about 6 inches below the asphalt," he said.

Two air marshals busted for cocaine trafficking

From KRPC, Houston:

Two air marshals were arrested in connection with using their positions for drug trafficking, KPRC Local 2 reported Friday.

A tipster told FBI agents that the men, whose names were not released, were buying and selling drugs as they flew around the country as air marshals.

The federal government hired thousands of air marshals after Sept. 11, posting the undercover, armed agents on board random airplanes.

Because they carry guns, the marshals bypass metal detectors and X-ray machines. [How convenient that must be for them.--ed.]

The air marshals arrested Thursday were scheduled on an overnight flight, possibly to Las Vegas. They were arrested before making it to the airport.

Agents searched the northwest-side home of one of the men. The search warrant, which details what was found, is sealed.

Both men worked with other law enforcement agencies before becoming air marshals, sources told KPRC. One of them was a Drug Enforcement Administration agent until 2002, when he joined the air marshals.

Why were their names not released? Because air marshals often travel incognito and revealing their names could endanger their future careers?

tnx to Diane's Stuff

An unexpected gun encounter--the good kind

Today we celebrated my dad's 65th birthday, and at one point during the party, his wife (technically my step-mother, although since I never actually lived in the same house as her, it doesn't seem right to refer to her that way), anyway, she told me, "Hey, I have something I thought you'd like to see." She handed me a lightly-framed revolver which seemed to have excessive fluting on the cylinder. A couple of people got to witness my stream-of-consciousness observations (I lost my usual self-reserve and began thinking out loud).

A nine-shot .22 revolver. Is it a Harrington & Richardson? No, a High Standard. I didn't know High Standard made this kind of gun. It doesn't have a loading gate. Okay, I got it figured out (cylinder swings open). Double action. (Held gun to sunlight coming through window). Barrel's kind of dirty. A little rust on the cylinder & hammer. If I clean it up can I shoot it?

"Sure, you can shoot it anytime you want."

She went on the tell me that the gun was about 40 years old. Next weekend I plan on cleaning the old gun up and putting some rounds through it.

Another nice thing is that my dad has inadvertently built a very nice pistol range. Since the drought has completely dried up his small stock tank, he has dug it out and shored up the banks and the dam. It is now about 22 yards across a flat bottom with sloping sides almost all the way around about 8 feet high. So until it starts raining again I'll have a nice place to do some pistol plinking.

I've already done some cursory internet research on the gun and learned a little, like it has an aluminum frame. I'll see if I can dig up some better information before I talk about it again. In the meantime, here is a picture of this model revolver that I Googled up from the Kim Du Toit archives. The one I held today doesn't look as nice as this one. It has lost a lot of finish from the sides of the end of the barrel, apparently from being repeatedly drawn from its holster over the years. That's what the wear looks like to me, anyway.

Million Moon Update

The War on Guns has a Million Moon Update. Check it out for a list of all the latest members and their pictures in the Million Moon Brigade.

Tags: gun control, global arms control, million moon march

Death threats against Hudspeth County deputies

From San Antonio Express-News:

State and federal officials are investigating death threats against Hudspeth County sheriff's deputies and their families that local officials believed are tied to a recent standoff on the Texas-Mexico border.

Chief Deputy Mike Doyal said Wednesday that two deputies and the wife of third officer were warned that they should 'stay off the river' or they and their families would be killed.

Sheriff Arvin West said he believed the threats came from men connected to the Jan. 23 standoff between Texas lawmen west of El Paso and armed drug smugglers dressed in Mexican military-style uniforms. He declined to provide other details.

'All I can say for sure is that it was someone in Mexico,' West said.

Doyal said three unidentified men threatened the wife of one of the county's 12 deputies.

Andrea Simmons, an FBI spokeswoman in El Paso, said Wednesday the FBI is aware of the threats but does not have a role in the investigation.

West, who said area drug traffickers know just about everything about his deputies, was among a contingent of Texas lawmen who testified Tuesday at a congressional hearing about Mexican military incursions into the United States.

Perhaps because Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West announced on national radio that, "With or without federal assistance, we're going to put a stop to it." (Heard on NPR). He was referring to recent border invasions incursions.

In other border news, Governor Rick Perry (TX) has announced a new initiative called Operation Rio Grande. Part of this involves shifting Texas DPS officers "to provide more border security, but not necessarily hiring new officers." Not good enough. Hire more officers, for God's sake. Maybe then the Border Patrol can stop resorting to billboard advertisements to draw in applicants.

Other better news from this article is about some positive things that have happened since Operation Linebacker was announced back in December. I noticed especially that Kinney County, a very rural county of 1,363 square miles with about 20 miles of international border, only has 4 law enforcement officers for the entire county. This area is pretty much a free zone for drug smugglers and Operation Linebacker has apparently helped them significantly. Kinney County, with State Highways 90 and 131, provide easy access to both Del Rio and Eagle Pass/Piedras Negras.

Meanwhile, back in Nuevo Laredo, drug runners attacked the offices of the newspaper El Mañana:

The day after two hooded men burst into the lobby of their building, sprayed their newsroom with automatic weapons and tossed a grenade, reporters at El Mañana did their best to maintain a veneer of normalcy.

Monday night's attack injured one reporter, who remained hospitalized in stable condition.

By Tuesday, the pockmarked walls at the city's leading daily were filled and painted. Windows and doors were replaced, the shattered glass and debris swept away.

But the swiftness of the cleanup belied the nervousness reporters felt and the muzzling of a free press that some predict will affect other Nuevo Laredo news organizations.

"There's a psychosis of fear in the newsroom," said one reporter who witnessed the attack. "The goal for the day is to get in, write as quickly as possible and get out."

El Mañana, like other city papers, already had been censoring its own coverage to avoid provoking the drug cartels that are fighting for control of the area's smuggling routes.

"There is no point in investigating narcotrafficking," Ramon Cantu Deandar, the paper's editor, said Tuesday. "That's an international problem that not even the authorities have the will to fix."

It's common knowledge that most of the homicides in Nuevo Laredo — averaging almost one a day so far this year — are carried out on behalf of either the Gulf Cartel or the Sinaloa Cartel.

The newspaper covers the facts of a slaying, but never blames the cartels and never prints names. Cantu said it now would scale down its coverage even further, relegating the violence to its inside pages.

"We're going to cover the killings, but not highlight them on the front page," Cantu, the editor, said. "We're in the middle of a war here, and we need to be more careful."

What could have finally triggered (no pun intended) this attack?

The gunmen arrived less than two weeks after El Mañana hosted a seminar for the Inter-American Press Association on covering drug trafficking.

Cantu didn't blame the conference, but added: "Yes, it was seen as a provocation for the mafias, for the narcotraffickers."

Julio Muñoz, the IAPA executive director, said by phone from Miami that it's too soon to know a motive for the attack, but it could be payback for the seminar, in which journalists discussed how to stay safe while covering drug trafficking.

They discussed how to stay safe while covering drug trafficking. I guess the drug thugs showed them that there is no way to stay safe there, unless they just type up weather reports and stay away from the icky stuff like drug running, murders, and such.

Reporting from the safe side...

Tags: border security, Texas

Second Amendment Saturday at Free Constitution

It's Second Amendment Saturday at Free Constitution. Go read!

The Anti-PC League

I would just like to mention that I have joined The Anti-PC League.

Readers of this blog have probably learned by now that my sense of humor is often, well, somewhat offbeat, and sometimes bleak.

As the good Doctor once said, "I'm very serious about what I do, but I'm not always serious about how I do it."

There is a lot of humor to be found in poking holes in PC-ness, but the matter of "political correctness" is deadly serious. "Political correctness" is a form of thought control. It shapes how people speak, and by doing so, shapes how they think.

I will endeavor to remain as politically incorrect as possible.

Just a happy guy with a pipe

They accepted my latest submission. Here 'tis.

"No more arms for atrocities"

Check out all the comments at The War On Guns for more submissions.

(That sardonic chuckle you hear in the background? Yeah, that's me).

Tags: gun control, global arms control, million moon march

The Million Moon March Continues

Read Million Moon March: A New Tack for new information.

I have submitted a new picture in this vein and will update later on its status.

Mr. Completely's Rimfire Roundup #1

The first Rimfire Roundup is now up at Mr. Completely. Check it out.

Zim speaks up...

Eventually I must answer everything with absurdity. Well, almost everything.

Further reading: Million Moon March Gallery

Tags: gun control, global arms control

Heard on NPR today...

I listen to NPR a lot. But then I've said that before. (Sigh...)

Today the reporter was talking to some French guy, I guess he's supposed to be somebody important. The reporter drew a parallel between current embassy burnings due to Islamic facism and...

...brace yourself...

...Christians burning Beatles albums because John Lennon said they were "bigger than Jesus."

As far as I know, the albums had been purchased legally and the owners were therefore free to do with them as they pleased. Also as far as I know, they didn't use them as kindling to torch the British embassy.

Tags: NPR, Islamofacists

Concealed Carry in Wisconsin isn't going away

I meant to post this yesterday, but other things interfered.

This link is to an op-ed in the University of Wisconsin The Badger Herald. Written by a senior there and pro-CCW. Which is why I think that it won't just be going away in Wisconsin.

Tags: concealed handgun, Wisconsin

DBR

That is, Damaged Beyond Repair (a familiar term used often in a previous job of mine). Today my irony meter was rendered DBR. In reference to this post. A picture that condemns censorship and shows a woman who is empowered to protect herself from rape, and they reject it. Of course, I did expect it to be rejected, but still, I am numb with sardonicism.

Further reading: Gallery Updates at The War On Guns.

Tags: gun control, global arms control

Mr. Completely's Rimfire Roundup

Mr. Completely is planning a weekly Rimfire Roundup--a carnival of all things rimfire. Follow the link for details.

Just for the record...

I couldn't give a rat's sphincter for the Superbowl, or any other professional sports, for that matter. Except, perhaps, for women's gynmastics, which for some reason I find strangely compelling.

I will be watching episodes of Fullmetal Alchemist, Ghost in the Shell, and Cowboy Bebop which I taped last night, and catching a couple of Monk reruns that I missed when they were first shown.

I have already helped my daughter catch up on her weekend homework, so I'm all set.

Arrested for entering the wrong house

But of course, that's because he was a bounty hunter. Why aren't police who enter the wrong house given equal treatment?

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - The hired gun might have a tough time getting paid for this job. Robert Turner, a 37-year-old bounty hunter, was looking for a woman wanted for failure to appear in court.

But the address she gave was an old one, and the home he entered now belongs to a police officer.

Turner was arrested Wednesday on a charge of breaking and entering. His bond was set at $5,000.

Seems only fair.

THE PC MANIFESTO V3.0 - 2005 Update

The Anti-PC League has produced V3.0 of The PC Manifesto. Very funny. Unfortunately, it's also true.

The things I gotta do sometimes...

I have just spent the past 12 minutes locked in the bathroom--the door knob seemed to implode when I turned it, and nothing worked. Everyone else in the house is asleep. Fortunately, I had my trusty Swiss Army Knife in my pocket, and was able to dismantle the doorknob and work it open, eventually.

More Lefty-Friendly Handguns from H&K

I like to post about guns that are friendly to southpaws, partly for my own reference and partly because other lefties may be interested (how many lefties read this blog, I wonder). The vast majority of these I don't own and have never handled, so I can't comment on them. I just provide the information. Here's another pair that I just learned of: The H&K P2000 and P2000SK. At a cursory scan of their website, it looks like just about all of their handguns have an ambidextrous magazine release. However, these two models also have an ambidextrous slide release. The SK model is the more compact, and is available in 9mm, .40 S&W, and .357 Sig.

Concealed carry in South Dakota

It looks like CCW licenses in South Dakota will no longer be public knowledge:

The South Dakota House overwhelmingly passed a bill Wednesday that would afford confidentiality to people who apply for and receive concealed weapons permits.

Only police could have access to that information and share it with other law enforcement agencies. The data are kept by the secretary of state.

Rep. Margaret Gillespie, D-Hudson, said driver's license records are secret and concealed weapons records should be, too. She questioned why the public needs to know who carries hidden handguns.

But Rep. Bill Thompson, D-Sioux Falls, said the information can come in handy. Thompson said he always reads the names of applicants in the Argus Leader. The Sioux Falls-based newspaper routinely publishes a list of those people.

Thompson, a retired teacher, said he once saw the name of a student he considered mentally unstable and informed the school principal.

Gun records should not be public, argued Rep. Larry Rhoden, R-Union Center.

Rhoden, who is the House majority leader, said people without weapons permits can also be threats. The U.S. Constitution allows the right to bear arms, he said.

'To have a false sense of security, because somebody has not applied for a firearm, that they don't have a firearm is totally off the mark,' he said.

Exactly. Armed criminals aren't required to publish their names. Why should armed law-abiding citizens?

I can take this opportunity to mention an odd quirk in the Texas CHL law. An entire list of all those who hold a CHL is not publicly available. However, anyone can request such information on a specific individual, for which they will get a yes or no answer. If anyone other than a criminal justice agency requests this information, the CHL holder is notified and given the name of the person or agency who made the request. (ref. Texas Concealed Handgun Laws Frequently Asked Questions [pdf file]).

We have not had any problems with people being "outed" in Texas, as far as I know. But we are working on getting rid even of this measure of non-anonymity.

UPDATE: A version of the Stand Your Ground bill seems to be moving forward in SD, as well.

Tags: concealed carry, self defense

Finally! Kel-Tec gets some street cred

This article is about the recent accidental shooting by Virginia politician John Reid (no injuries, just an AD). Here is my favorite paragraph:

Police concluded it was an accident. The bullet escaped when Reid was trying to unload his handgun by releasing the magazine, and the slide slipped. A bulletproof vest hanging on Reid's office door stopped the bullet. No one was hurt, but the incident prompted a swift apology from Reid and words of concern from Gov. Tim Kaine about public safety at the Capitol.

Yes, it "escaped." I got a sudden mental image of Reid yelling to the cops, "It went thataway!" Boy, that paragraph is so full of mistakes. We should have a law requiring mandatory gun education for "journalists" so they know what the heck they're talking about, for a change. I think Mr. Reid needs a refresher course, as well.

But to the title of this post. Follow the link and see which eeevilll scary black pistol they used to illustrate the story. Just for once, it's not a Glock!

Tags: concealed carry, Glock, Kel-Tec

Statisticians more likely to come up with bogus results to prove their bias

UPDATE: John Lott has some comments, and links to some other commentors. He mentions details which were not stated in the news report I read. What immediately leaped out at me was this: "and whether they have had a gun in their car at least one time over the last year." Yes, at least one time in the past year. This is utterly meaningless. They may as well have asked if they'd had a passenger in their car at least one time in the past year, or if they had driven with their windows down at least one time in the past year. Mr. Lott also makes another interesting statement: "The paper also has some funny results. For example, Liberals are apparently much more likely to engage in road rage than conservatives and the difference is larger than the difference between those who did and did not have a gun at least one time in their car over the last year. This variable is apparently never investigated, but presumably they are also concerned about liberals being allowed to drive cars."

UPDATE 2: Nicki at The Liberty Zone has torn them a new one. (tnx to The War On Guns).

I'll just quote the whole thing:

PARIS, Feb 1, 2006 (AFP) - Americans who pack a gun in their car are likelier to get aggressive than unarmed drivers, according to a study reported in next Saturday's New Scientist.

A survey of 2,400 drivers carried out by the Harvard School of Public Health found that some 23 percent of drivers with a gun in their car admitted to making aggressive gestures to other road users, compared with 16 percent of those who did not have a weapon.

They were also likelier to tailgate the car in front, the study found.

'Riding with a firearm in the vehicle was a marker for aggressive and dangerous driver behaviour,' it said.

The researchers said the findings shed worrying light on an aspect of gun ownership in the United States. Over the past two decades, many US states have eased restrictions on carrying weapons and police no longer have the right to ban someone they consider unsuitable from owning a gun, they noted.

'Our findings indicate that the people driving around with guns in their cars are not among the most responsible and best-behaved people on the road,' researcher Mary Vriniotis told the British weekly.

'In the interests of injury and violence prevention, it probably makes more sense to tighten rather than relax restrictions on gun carrying in motor vehicles.'

The study is published in a specialist journal, Accident Analysis and Prevention.

Bullsh*t.

This survey proves that people who claim to carry a gun in their car also claim to make "gestures." (That is, some people just like to look tough).

If asked, I would have provided no useful information.

Global Gun-Grabbers Operation Feelgood

Because all it will do is make a lot of sheeple feel good.

But it can be turned against them. Go to The War on Guns: The Million Moon March to see what I'm talking about.

UPDATE: I knew Oleg Volk would have one that expressed my sentiments. Question: Why exactly do they want the name and address of anyone? That's rhetorical, of course. (I did not supply them even with a fake address, and submitted under the name "Jackie Hollowpointe"). Please visit the link above for more updates on others joining in. And add your own image!

Tags: gun control, global arms control

I have performed a service for humanity

Someone actually came to this blog after Googling "devo pop muzik." They found this link. I hope it set them straight.

On the other hand, someone also came here after Googling "pyrodex pellets in a Kentucky Rifle." For shame, sir, for shame. Just pour some black powder in there and leave the pellets for the infidels and their bastard guns.

WI Governor Jim Doyle to join the Ann Richards Ex-Governor's Club.

Click here for details.

Tags: concealed carry