Also Via Jay Solo...

Comes this OpinionJournal piece on the American migration from the "blue" states into the "red" ones. Money quote (literally and from my perspective):

Monstermoving.com lets you discover relative buying power if you lived somewhere else. Let's type in L.A. and Tucson, just next door: "A salary of $30,000 in Los Angeles has the same buying power that a salary of $13,448 has in Tucson." For Las Vegas the figure is $13,241. If on top of this they elect a Gray Davis governor, why stay?

Please! Move to Nevada! They don't have State income tax! DON'T move here and bring the same damned politics that got California into the mess it's in now!

You've GOT to Read THIS

Via Jay Solo's Verbosity comes this link to "There's going to be a war", a piece of science...fact? Written by Tom Paine of Silent Running. Go, go, go.

Here it is, Two in the Morning...

And I can't sleep. So what do I find? This excellent post on Isn'taPundit's site having to do with the Chigago murders. It begins:

Jimmy Hoffa used to say, "always run from a knife and jump a gun". It apparently didn't work for him, but that just means whoever took him was a pro. It's actually damn good advice.

Go read.

20,000!

The visitor from IP address 216.106.67.# was my 20,000th, logging in at 11:05PM.

Thanks!

Not bad for a blog started on May 14th.

Carnival of the Vanities Visitors! The link was broken. Go here. Thanks!

In an Associated Piece...

The morons concerned citizens of Ceasefire Maryland (where gun control has proven so effective) give us this little gem via JoinTogether:

CeaseFire Maryland Calls for Asking the Right Question in Gun Deaths

CeaseFire Maryland, the state's leading gun violence prevention group, is saddened by yet another massacre of innocent people at work - this time by gunman, Salvadore Tapia, in Chicago yesterday.

The frequency and regularity of workplace killings in America has become numbingly familiar. Commenting on yesterday's murders, Chicago Police Superintendent Cline said, `The problem here is easy access to a firearm. I mean here's someone who never should have had a gun, that had a gun, and its tragic results from it.'

Yeah? Well said gun transitioned - illegally - through the hands of two of your cops. Does that make the Department liable?

Didn't think so.

Leah Barrett, Executive Director of CeaseFire Maryland, commented: "This leads to a simple question that should be asked after every such tragedy: How did someone with a past criminal record such as Mr. Tapia's get his gun? Mr. Tapia had been arrested many times in the past 14 years on various charges that included illegal possession of a weapon and domestic battery and assault."

Um, Leah, he probably bought it on the street. You know, the black market? The same way British criminals get theirs even though HANDGUNS ARE COMPLETELY BANNED THERE.

This autumn, attention will be focused on the trial of the Washington area snipers who, lest we forget, killed 10 people and wounded 3 last October. Because the three-week shooting binge riveted the nation's attention, questions were asked about how the two snipers obtained their weapon, a Bushmaster assault rifle. And the trail led straight to Bull's Eye Shooter Supply, the Tacoma, Washington gun store from which the rifle used in the shootings `mysteriously disappeared', along with 238 other guns.

Although Malvo has admittted that he stole it, it's somehow still a mystery. And I think you need to be pointing an accusing finger at the BATFE for not shutting Bull's Eye down. It's their job to regulate - that's what they're paid to do - not stomp kittens.

But here's my FAVORITE part:

It's not a pretty story, but one that must be told if we are to address the root cause of much of the gun violence in America - cutting off the supply of illegal guns to criminals.

That's so wrong it can't be a simple error. The root cause of gun violence in America is violent criminals. If they didn't have guns, they'd still be violent criminals. Trying to address the problem through gun elimination is the most hopeless thing imaginable, and we've got England's sterling example to prove it.

Repeating the same behavior while expecting a different result is the definition of insanity.

And I don't think the people behind the disarmament effort really are insane.

Barrett continued: "There are countless other instances where this question should be asked and answered in full. Yet the US Senate doesn't seem to think this question is important. Last spring, Senator Larry Craig (R-ID) introduced S. 659, an ill-conceived and reckless attempt to provide special legal protection for the gun industry at the expense of innocent Americans who have been harmed by the dangerous and irresponsible actions of firearms makers and sellers." S. 659 has so far collected 54 co-sponsors and could be brought for a vote at any moment. Its companion bill, H.R. 1036, easily passed the House of Representatives on April 9th.

And I'm glad they did. Let's see, now they're going to sue Walther, who made the gun in 1966, the distributor that sold it to the gun shop, the gun shop that sold it to Beuck, Beuck, the family of the first officer who bought it from Beuck, the family of the second officer who bought it from the first officer, the ammunition manufacturer, and anybody else with suspected deep pockets.

It was Tapia who acquired (bought or stole) the gun, Tapia who loaded the gun, and Tapia who killed with the gun. But it's somehow the gun industry's fault, and those bastards should be made to PAY!.

Robert Ricker, who served as Executive Director of a major gun industry trade association and was also a former Assistant General Counsel for the National Rifle Association, maintains that leaders in the gun industry have long known that greater industry action to prevent illegal transactions is possible but have resisted taking constructive voluntary action and have `sought to silence others within the industry.' S. 659 would appear to be just what the gun industry ordered.

A UN survey on small arms released in July reveals that the US has by far the largest number of publicly owned guns in the world, approaching the point where there will be one gun for every American. Given this volume of lethal weapons, one would think that strenuous efforts would be made to keep guns out of the hands of people like Mr. Tapia. Yet we are seeing just the opposite with S. 659, a bill that would undermine the legal rights of individuals harmed by gun violence and provide unwarranted special immunity for the gun industry.

Given "this volume of lethal weapons" you'd believe that people capable of rubbing two brain cells together would recognize the impossibility of keeping guns out of the hands of the criminally inclined.

Cops Don't Follow the Law and They Expect Mere CITIZENS To?

From the Chigago Tribune comes this story (registration required) about the handgun used in the Chigago auto parts warehouse mass murder.

Gun in massacre linked to 2 cops

Both had owned weapon illegally before killer got it

A day after the family of three men slain this week by a former co-worker decried the lax control of handguns, Chicago police acknowledged that the two last known owners of the gun Salvador Tapia used in his rampage were Chicago police officers, neither of whom had legally registered the weapon.

One of the officers was Richard Schott, who died of a heart attack in 1997 after struggling with a prisoner in the Deering District lockup, sources said. Schott sold the gun to another officer, with whom he had worked closely between 1994 and his death, the sources added.

The Police Department declined to identify the second officer, who died in 2002. Interviews with their families and the gun's previous owner, who has been jailed in the case, have created a trail of possession that ends somewhere between 1994 and 2002, police spokesman David Bayless said.

Police do not yet know how or when Tapia, 36, acquired the gun. Under a court order of protection since August 2001, Tapia could not legally possess a firearm. But he walked into the Windy City Core Supply warehouse at 3912 S. Wallace St. Wednesday morning armed with the Walther PP .380-caliber semiautomatic handgun and an extra clip of ammunition.

Really? A Walther PP? That would be this gun:

A pocket pistol with an eight round capacity. Not a "pocket rocket," (small pistol chambered in 9x19 Parabellum or higher caliber) not an "assault pistol," not a "high-capacity" gun.

Over the next several minutes he shot to death six men, including three members of the Weiner family from the North Shore. In a statement Thursday, family members said Alan Weiner, his brother Howard Weiner and Howard's son Daniel Weiner were killed because of "lax control over handguns in our community."

No, they were killed because the state can't protect them and it refuses to allow them protect themselves. They had reason to believe they were in danger, but Chicago doesn't allow mere citizens to have firearms for self-protection. And it is patently obvious to anyone willing to look that "gun control" up to and including bans does not keep firearms out of the hands of people willing to use them criminally.

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives traced the weapon to the Blue Island Gun Shop, which received the gun from the manufacturer in 1966 and sold it to Milton R. Beuck. The last official record of the gun was 1983, when Beuck registered it legally in Chicago.

Beuck told police he had sold it to a Chicago police officer, identified by sources as Schott, at a bar in 1994, Bayless said. The police officer sold the gun to a second officer sometime between 1994 and 1997, according to a friend of the first officer. The second officer died in 2002 and it is unclear what became of the gun, Bayless said.

"It was not registered and it should have been," he said.

On Thursday, police charged Beuck, who is 58 and homeless, with a misdemeanor for failing to keep records of the gun, authorities said. In Bond Court Friday, Cook County Judge Marvin Luckman ordered him held on $100,000 bond and assigned him to the Cermak Hospital division of Cook County Jail.

Two thoughts: "Holy sweet freaking jebus, if they implement registration there is no WAY I'm EVER going to comply," and "At least the guy's going to get a bed and some hot meals." A third: charging him is asinine.

The high bond was ordered because of the seriousness of the eventual crime in which the gun was used

Which he is NOT responsible for

and because there was an outstanding drunken driving warrant for Beuck, said Jerry Lawrence, a spokesman for the Cook County state's attorney's office.

There is an 18-month statute of limitations on the misdemeanor charge, Lawrence said, but because the law requires a gun owner to maintain records for 10 years, Beuck was currently violating the law by not maintaining a record of the 1994 sale through next year.

Um, there's something wrong with this picture. Let me see if I can identify what it is...

THE GUY IS HOMELESS!

YOU ARE CHARGING HIM FOR NOT HAVING A PIECE OF PAPER!

YOU ARE ALL INSANE FUCKING ASSHATS!

Ahem. Back to the story:

Beuck allegedly sold the gun to the first police officer, identified by sources as Schott, in a South Side bar where they met, Bayless said. An employee of the bar, who was friends with the officer, told police the officer later sold the gun to the second officer, Bayless said. Efforts to reach employees of the bar were unsuccessful.

Though civilians have been barred from registering newly acquired handguns in Chicago since 1983, peace officers, military personnel and other exempt people still are required to register their guns with the Police Department, said Jennifer Hoyle, spokeswoman for the city's Law Department.

Bayless acknowledged it was distressing that two police officers had violated the city's gun law and contributed to the weapon's illegitimacy. But, he said, Tapia's past behavior made it clear that he would have found a gun somewhere if the Walther was not available.

"Salvador Tapia would have gotten a gun somewhere," he said.

DING, DING, DING! We Have A WINNER!

The disclosure of the officers' role "also demonstrates we're going to do a thorough investigation documenting the path of this gun every step of the way before it got into his hands."

Alan Weiner's daughter Jamie, 20, said Friday she was troubled to hear that the gun used to kill her father, uncle and cousin was owned illegally by two police officers.

"I want to put an end to the guns ...," she said Friday. "The wrong people have guns."

No, my dear. It's impossible to keep them out of the wrong hands. The problem is the right people don't have them.

Bizarre is Right

Via Fox News comes this... disturbing story of a pizza delivery man who goes out on a delivery, robs a bank with a bomb strapped to his chest, is arrested after the robbery, and the bomb explodes while he's sitting in the squad car asking for help to get it off. He claimed to the police that he was forced to rob the bank.

Very, very weird.

This Has Been Interesting

I'm currently engaged in a - I hesitate to call it a "debate", in the comment section of a post over at Media Whores Online Watch^^4. I went there as a result of the Democratic Underground controversy that started at Misha's (detailed below).

I've spent more time responding over there recently than in posting over here.

Fun, though.

Truer Words Were Never Spoken

The British Telegraph reports on the betrayal of Uday and Qusay (or "Dead and Deader") with the best quote I've seen anywhere:

(O)n April 6, Uday sent for Ala'a Makki, the former director of his television station. He asked Makki what the Iraqi people were thinking. "He was depressed," says Makki. "Since he was disabled in the gun attack on him in 1996 he had become increasingly erratic and inhumane.

"His final words to me were: 'This time I think the Americans are serious. Bush is not like Clinton. I think this is the end'."

Gee, Ya THINK?

OUTSTANDING!

Woman wins national rifle championship

Shooting her M-16A2, Spc. Liana Bombardier, a U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit service rifle shooter, won the Service Rifle National Long Range Rifle Championship at Camp Perry, Ohio. Bombardier garnered the Billy C. Atkins Trophy as the highest scoring service rifle shooter in the National Highpower Rifle Long Range Championships Aug. 15 - 18.

The 21-year-old soldier is the first woman in the 100-year history of the matches to win the trophy awarded to the service rifle (now a M-1, M-14 or M-16) shooter with the highest aggregate score over the entire championships.

"The Atkins Trophy is a hard trophy to win and I was thrilled to find out I had won it," Bombardier said. "I was behind by 5 points going into the last day of competition. I shot well that last day and came up ahead. I never thought I was going to win it."

Bombardier also fired her M-16A2 in matches at 600, 800, 900 and 1,000 yards, and won the Service Rifle Category in the Palma Individual Trophy Match and the High Master Category in the Porter Trophy Match. She also won the Annie Oakley Trophy for being the best female shooter in this year's Interservice Championships at Quantico, Va.

That is one tough competition. Hat's off to her. Read the whole story.

I Sometimes Wish I Stayed Up Later

Ravenwood has a collection of one-liners about the upcoming recall election in California that have been the meat of late-nite monologs. My favorite:

There was also talk of bringing Al Gore to California to help out, but there was concern that Gray Davis and Al Gore in the same state would cause some kind of rolling personality blackout. -- Jay Leno

Oh Yeah, THESE Guys Have a Grip On Reality

This Austrailian report on the Bali bombers contains this wonderful quotation:

Ironically, from a terrorist accused not only of the Bali bombing but of church bombings and the bombing of an ambassador's residence in Jakarta, Sawad claimed he had a message of peace for the world.

"For all human beings to stop now in this world, destroy all of the destructive weapons . . . if there were no weapons then peace can be created," he said.

Right. Let's just roll everything back to when human beings were all peaceful agrarians who never had any conflicts.

Except that "reality" never was.

Then people were ruled by large men with swords. And the guy who has the most sword-wielders wins. Before that, it was large men with clubs. Check your history. It has never been peaceful. And the further back you go the less power the individual had. They were the fodder and the victims of nearly endless conflict through being directly overrun by battle, starved and diseased by the effects of war, or taxed into oblivion to support war.

Thank you very much, but I'll take the present - with "all of the destructive weapons" and everything that goes with them. As weapons technology has advanced, the power of the lowly individual has too. As the French learned to their discomfort at Agincourt, British peons with bows were superior to armored noblemen on horseback. It doesn't take a lifetime of training to be useful with a rifle, and as the Samurai discovered during the Meiji Restoration, peasants with rifles are superior to noblemen with swords and bows. And as the Battle of Athens proved, arms in the hands of citizens can defeat corrupt government even in modern times.

When only government holds the sword, the people can either submit, or perish - and government will never put down its sword.

Chris Muir Hits the Nail on the Head - Again

Day by Day

"Ugly Americans" Superceded by Brits and Germans

According to this BBC report Germans are the most obnoxious tourists, followed by the British. Americans and the French are tied for third place, just squeeking out the Italians.

Dammit, we're falling behind again.

D'you think the Beeb "sexed up" the report?

The Al Qaeda Employee Handbook - a Short Film

This is hilarious.

Dept. of Our Collapsing Schools

Larry Wright of the Detroit News weighs in:

Of course, this doesn't help either:

by Jeff Stahler of the Cincinnati Post.

Apparently Bruce Plante of the Chattanooga Times Free Press has met my sister:

Dick Wright of the Columbus Dispatch seems to have his finger on the pulse of the problem:

Though there are worse alternatives:

Brian Gable, Toronto Globe & Mail.

Oooooh! A CHALLENGE!

Over on Emperor Misha's blog an apparent über-moonbat is defending the righteousness (lefteousness?) of the Democratic Underground in a comment thread. "Barney Grumble" of the redundantly named "Media Whores Online Watch Watch Watch Watch" (I think I have the right number of "watch"es there) wrote:

DU is not a shouting board.

While I'm not certain exactly what he meant, I responded:

Barney:

I was kicked off DU (Sep-03-02) after a little over 1800 posts and several months - for something I wrote on another site. Not only that, I was booted by Skinner himself - and this is what he said:

"This is a message board for liberals. We don't expect people to vote straight-ticket Democratic, but we do expect our members to be generally supportive of liberal priorities. If that guy is a liberal, I will eat my firstborn."

This was less than a week (Aug-27-02) after a moderator wrote to me in a post:

"Don't shut up. I wildly disagree with most of your positions on this subject, but you are a damn fine advocate. And you make me think. And that is important."

It would appear that making people think is an ejectable offense on Democratic Underground.

I cannot help but wonder why that is.

To which he responded:

Kevin: I don't believe you.

When I offered to e-mail him the archived threads in question, he responded:

Kevin: It will be adequate to post it to your blog, liar.

He seems defensive, doesn't he? Well, I tried posting the HTML code from the archived files here on Blogspot but it makes the system puke. Instead, I've got screenshots, but they won't post here in full size, and reduced they're illegible. You can view them here:

The image entitled "dear pita" is the one where moderator "Cappurr" encourages me to keep posting. Note the date. The image entitled "skinner 1" is where I am "outed" by the SysAdmin, and the image entitled "skinner 2" is where he explains his reasoning - and is the one I quoted. You have to register to see them. Sorry about that.

Interesting. After 1819 posts (none of which were objectionable enough to get me banned) he had to find something off-site to justify booting me - because I was making his poor little liberals think. And I was booted by the SysAdmin himself! I think I should be honored. Or I should have taken a shower immediately afterward.

Offer's still open "Barney." I'd be more than happy to send you the entire threads, and all the others I archived. They might make you think.

Our Collapsing Schools Dept. - Humor Bureau

From The Braden Files comes this list that I e-mailed to my schoolteacher sister:

You might be a teacher if...

You believe "shallow gene pool" should have its own box on the report card.

You want to slap the next person who says, "Must be nice to work 8 to 3:20 and have summers free."

You can tell if it's a full moon without ever looking outside.

You believe the playground should be equipped with a Ritalin salt lick.

You believe that unspeakable evils will befall you if anyone says, "Boy, the kids sure are mellow today."

When out in public you feel the urge to snap your fingers at children you do not know and correct their behavior.

You have no social life between September and June.

Marking all A's on report cards would make your life SO much easier.

You think people should be required to get a government permit before being allowed to reproduce.

You wonder how some parents ever MANAGED to reproduce.

You laugh uncontrollably when people refer to the staff room as the "lounge".

You encourage an obnoxious parent to check into charter schools or home schooling.

You can't have children because there's no name you could give a child that wouldn't bring on high blood pressure the moment you heard it uttered.

You think caffeine should be available in intravenous form.

You know you are in for a major project when a parent says, "I have a great idea I'd like to discuss. I think it would be such fun."

Meeting a child's parent instantly answers the question, "Why is this kid like this?"

Can I get an "AMEN!"?

"This is so wrong that it cannot be an honest mistake."

Via Ravenwood comes this NY Times article (registration required) on the New York City Coucil's at least six new gun control measures formulated in response to the death of Coucilperson James E. Davis who was shot in the council chambers last month. Here's what they're considering:

The proposals include holding gun makers, dealers and importers liable for damages if their weapons are used to kill or injure people in the city, as well as prohibiting gun dealers from selling more than one firearm to the same person within 90 days. Another proposal would require gun owners in the city to obtain liability insurance.

So the first thing they want to do is place the blame on everybody but the guy behind the trigger (in direct opposition to the bills in Congress that would prohibit such liability.) The second is, unsurprisingly an extension of the "one gun a month" idea to "one gun every THREE months." Shortly to be followed by "one gun every TWELVE months," to "Gun? You don't NEED a gun."

More quotes:

There was no urgency prior to the shooting," said Peter Vallone Jr., chairman of the Public Safety Committee, which is holding next month's hearing.

"But now there is a sense that we all want to move as quickly as possible on these bills in his memory."

Why? Not one of the ideas presented would have prevented his death. Again, they're just useless, knee-jerk reactions.

The city's renewed focus on gun control is also expected to open the door for broader state legislation, in much the same way that the city's ban on smoking in restaurants and other public places did.

Right, after New Yorkers were told that the increasing legislation against smoking would never result in a ban on it. Just like we're told that the increasing legislation against gun ownership will never result in a ban on it. Go ahead, pull my other leg.

"I think it would be a good thing if the city did it, and showed the state the way," said the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, who represents the Lower East Side.

That's because you're a useful idiot, Mr. Silver.

This reminds me of a favorite quote:

"The ruling class doesn't care about public safety. Having made it very difficult for States and localities to police themselves, having left ordinary citizens with no choice but to protect themselves as best they can, they now try to take our guns away. In fact they blame us and our guns for crime. This is so wrong that it cannot be an honest mistake." - former U.S. Sen. Malcolm Wallop (R-Wy.)

It also reminds me of Riss v. New York which I covered in "Is the Government Responsible for Your Protection?"

How about the City Council consider a law that would make the City of New York liable for not protecting its citizens? I'd like to see the liability insurance bill for that.

Is it worth $985 to live free of Hoplophobia?

Ran across this over at AR15.com. Very cute. The Phobia Clinic Go look. Here's a sample:

HOPLOPHOBIA: (Hoplophobia, Fear of Firearms, and Fear of Guns)
1: hoplophobia: a persistent, abnormal, and irrational fear of firearms that compels avoidance, despite the understanding by the phobic individual and reassurance by others that there is no danger. 2: hoplophobia: a strong fear of, dislike of, or aversion to firearms.

Our board certified team specializes in helping individuals overcome fears, phobias & anxiety of all kinds, and is particularly focused on problems such as hoplophobia. With a success rate close to 100% we can offer to refund our fee to clients if they are not successful in overcoming the fear.

Hell, I can probably cure you for a lot less. Say $650?