Welcome Back My Friends to the Show that Never Ends,

We're so glad you could attend. Come inside, come inside!

Welcome to the 99th Edition of the Carnival of the Vanities. (What did I get myself into?) I've decided to go with a carnival theme this week (there's an original idea!). So let's get to it, shall we? Here they are in the order they were received:

First up, the ticket booth!

Elliot Fladen of The Fladen Experience gives us his take on why Voting Third Party Is Not Throwing Your Vote Away. You tell 'em, Elliot!


For the entertainment of the kiddies, there's an inflatable boxing ring!

And from the blog The Watcher of Weasles, the Watcher sends us He Fought for His Country... Before He Fought Against It. Guess who it's about?


Remember the Shoot the Star game? Where you use an air-powered BB machine gun to shoot out the red star from the center of your target to win a prize?

Ravenwood sends us his first Carnival entry for a while, this one entitled Police Confiscate 500-1000 Guns. It seems that a gun registered to a Thad Shank, a 63 year-old New York man was recovered as stolen property. When the police went to visit Mr. Shank...

Well, let Ravenwood take it from there.


I know this is a Carnival, but there's some 4H farm animals here too. Here are the prize sheep:

Which brings us to Pieter Dorsman's entry. Pieter is proprietor of the blog Peaktalk, and this week's entry is described by Pieter as "about the inability of political elites to drive a society forward with fresh ideas." It's entitled Progress by Ideas.


And there's clowns! Little kid clowns!

Because Norman of Espresso Sarcasm sends us his entry, The Top Ten Signs it's Time for Your Spawn Kids to Go Back to School. And it's a good list.


Food? Of COURSE there's food!

Hungry? 'Cause Autie Goob of Goobage sends us her entry, "Linking statins, low-carb diets, diets in general and Teflon." Entitled, More on Statins (and then low carb). Yuuuum, yum!


What is this, a Circus? Well, here's a juggler!

For John Ray has given us not one, not two, not three, but FOUR entries this week from FOUR DIFFERENT BLOGS! (I barely have time to manage ONE.)

From Gun Watch, he has a post that "points out that a liking for guns is perfectly normal among the hunters that human beings evolved as."

From Dissecting Leftism, a post that "points out that the Vietnamese "Communist" regime that the Left so loved in the 1960s was in fact a Fascist regime"

From Greenie Watch, a post that "reports that acid rain has once again been found to be beneficial rather than harmful"

And, finally, from Political Correctness Watch, a post sure to stir up some reaction, entitled "Blatant Anti-White Racism Thwarted in UK"

Try to keep all those balls in the air, John, would you?


Next up! So you WON the Shoot-the-Star game? And all they gave you was a Dilbert doll?

How appropriate! Because Bussorah of Wicked Thoughts sent us Office Nuttiness - a Top 10 list of quotes from the office sure to appear soon in a Dilbert strip. (My favorite is #2.)


But you say you "accidentally" shot your little brother in the ear with the BB gun? Well then, its off to the First Aid tent!

Because Beck of the blog INCITE writes there on The Case Against Socialized Health Care

It's only a flesh wound. Give him a band-aid and a purple heart!


Hey, everybody! It's time for the next Wild West Show!

And La Shawn Barber gives us her entry, I Am a Native American. Me too, La Shawn. Me too.


Whew! That was fun! Hey kids, how about a sack race?

Brian J. Noggle muses on the news that President of the United Nations General Assembly, Julian R. Hunte appealed to all States to demonstrate their commitment to peace by observing the traditional truce during the Summer Games. He's got an interesting observation in his post Bistandardathon


Wanna play tag in some BUMPERBOATS?

John Moore of Useful Fools writes about The Mystery of Kerry's Crew in this week's Carnival entry.


Shield the kids! It's the Ambiguously Gay Duo!

Alan K. Henderson gives us The Unasked Question for this week's entry. Is it, or isn't it?


Want another Dilbert doll? Step right up and try the Football Toss!

Northstar from The People's Republic of Seabrook tells us that the Dolphins may be looking to get some of their money back from Ricky Williams. The only people who win here are the lawyers.


Hey! Look in this tent! A magician's gonna cut off a guy's head!

Eric of Classical Values writes Defending the Indefensible?, about the guy who did the video faking his own beheading.


MAN those Carnival barkers are annoying! They won't shut up, and they won't take "NO!" for an answer.

Erik Erickson of Confessions of a Political Junkie gives us Alan Keys - The Right Disaster - another guy who "won't change his mind, and won't change the subject."


You've got a blister on your heel? Well, there's the Paramedic's ambulance. Go ask for a plaster.

But don't ask for any OxyContin! RoguePundit writes this week about doctors and pharmacists living with the accusation of over-prescribing six years after the the allegations came out. People who have still been found guilty of nothing, but are paying the price in Ruining Lives with Allegations


I'm tired. Let's go in here and listen to the Storyteller for a few minutes.

Donald Crankshaw of Back of the Envelope gives us a taste of his original piece Hunter of Shades and a little background on it.


Say "Hello!" to the nice security guard!

The King of Fools writes this week about "how federal agencies eventually reach a point where their rules and internal culture preclude them from accomplishing their original purpose," in this case, Federal Air Marshals, in Secret Agent Man.


MAN that Oompah band is loud!

I had no IDEA you could do "Stairway to Heaven" on a tuba! Caleb Walker gives us a short trip down Memory Lane - the "Classic Rock" Memory Lane - in rockin'.


Let's ride the rockets!

Graham Lester of point2point writes on Kim Jong (mentally)-Il's missles in Enemies Within? A Synopsis of the North Korean Missle Scandal.


Next, the FuNHouSE!

Les Jones discusses when (and when not) to capitalize in Upstyle and Downstyle in Blog Headlines - a tutorial for us bloggers.


I'm HUNGRY again. Let's stop at this trailer and see if they've got some fried chicken!

Last One Speaks gives us another interesting story in the idiotic War on Some Drugs™. In Marijuana Raiders get Chicken we find that the Santa Clara County Sherrif's Dept. managed to snag themselves dozens of fighting roosters after a week-long stakeout at a suspected marijuana farm. Can gamecocks fight stoned?


Wow! Look at all the flags from all the different countries!

Pietro The Smarter Cop reminds us that our foreign "allies" don't show any enthusiasm for joining us in Iraq, no matter how much John Kerry tells us that he'll get "international cooperation" if he's elected, in Where are All Those Unnamed Foreign Allies Now?


Ooh! Pizza! Gotta have a slice!

While munching on a piece of pepperoni himself, Doug of Considerettes found that Boston Herald piece on the benefits of Acid Rain, and a link to the original BBC piece on it, too, in Global Warming Update.


Damn, that juggler does get around!!

This time, though it's JFelik with multiple blogs - and a baby girl! From his blog Man Meets Baby comes More lessons from my baby girl. (And you thought the juggler was a bad metaphor!) Then from his other blog Quibbles-n-Bits comes a warped fairy-tale - Tale of a Pretty Princess - a birthday gift to Dana of Eat the Lettuce


Let's not see the sideshow freaks.

Idler Yet also thinks it's a bad idea to run Alan Keys against Barack Obama in the Illinois race, as he makes it perfectly clear in Exactly Wrong.


It's all about the kids, you know...

As Da Goddess reminds us in What Really Matters


Man, why don't these people learn English? I couldn't understand a word that ticket-taker said!

And Interested Participant has a post up about just that subject in The English Language.


At least now we can get into the House of Horrors!

Though Francis W. Porretto's piece on the Conservative reaction to Dennis Hastert's idea of eliminating the income tax is frightening enough. Read Counsels of Despair.


Hey! They've got a Hall of Presidents just like Disneyland's!

And Triggerfinger.org give us a four-part essay on Governing by Consent.


Salad?!? Who eats a salad at a Carnival? What you want is COTTON CANDY!

The Fusilier Pundit of WeckUptoThees! give us his post, My Salad Days about when he got crosswise with the ACLU over their position on the Second Amendment. (I've got a post up on that topic as well over there on the left sidebar - "The ACLU Hasn't Changed It's Tune")


And after a long, full day at the Carnival, we head out for the emptying parking lot

with one last submission. Jeremy of Parableman gives us an energetic sendoff with White Liberal Racism.


That's thirty-three (33!) entries this week. Whew! I'm beat! Another slice of pizza? Well, if you twist my arm...

The Carnival of the Vanities continues...

August 18th - Fringe
August 25th - Ego
September 1st - Blogo Slovo
September 8th - Food Basics
September 15th Silflay Hraka - The Two Year Anniversary
September 22nd - The Eleven Day Empire
September 29th - Last One Speaks
October 6th - Incite
October 13th - Conservative Dialysis
October 20th - The People's Republic of Seabrook
October 27th - The Twins Tell the Truth

Carnival Reminder!

Don't forget: The Carnival of the Vanities will be posted here sometime tonight! Get your entries in by 8:00 PM PST so I can include them. I'll be gone tomorrow, so no late entries! Send your entry to gunrights-at-comcast-dot-net (replace -at- and -dot- with the appropriate symbols). I need:

Your name or nom de plume

The name of your blog and its URL

The name of your post (if applicable) and its permalink

A short blurb on the subject of your post.

Here's hoping I do your stuff justice!

The Four Ways You Can Spend Money

Ravenwood discusses a child's first exposure to "government" in the classroom in his post Back to School Government Indoctrination Centers. He quotes Neal Boortz from his article Back to Government School:

As fast as you can say the Pledge of Allegiance without the “under God” part, the indoctrination begins. The government teacher steps in front of her virtual hostages and promptly delivers the first raw lesson in the power of government. The students are instructed to bring all of their precious school supplies – their property -- to the front of the classroom and put them into a huge box. These supplies no longer belong to them. They are now community property … they belong to all of the class. The teacher, representing the government, will from that point on assume the responsibility of distributing the supplies to the students as they are needed.

“Whoaa! Hold on a minute here! These are MY supplies. My daddy bought them for me. You can’t have them! They’re mine!”

Not any more kid. Those pencils and erasers were yours. They have now been seized by the government to be used and distributed for the common good.

To which, Ravenwood adds:

This year he left out the part where parents who are in the know deliberately buy the cheapest school supplies they can. After all, why buy premium when you know that the government teachers are just goint to take them away. That's socialism for you.

Which reminded me of my favorite lesson in economic theory: The Four Ways You Can Spend Money.

1. You can spend your money on yourself: When you do that, you work hard to get the most for your dollar, searching for the best deal on what you really want, or compromising when you just can't afford (or bring yourself to bear the expense of) what you really want. Which explains why I drive a Ford Ranger pickup, and not a Ford GT.

2. You can spend your money on other people: This is what you do when you buy gifts - or in the example above, when you're buying school supplies that will be "shared" by the whole class. The more important those people are, the more you will pay attention to your expenditures. If you don't know or care about them, fuck 'em, they'll get only what you can spare. (But then, I'm an evil Republican. If I were a Democrat I'd say "I'm a little short this week - can you go first?"

3. You can spend other people's money on other people: This is what the government does for its citizens. Normally it just takes your money, and then, well, fuck 'em - they'll get what you can spare. Unless you really need to give a gift to someone important. Like a voting bloc. I mean, it's just money, right?

4. You can spend other people's money on yourself: This is what politicians do. And a lot of bureacrats. And leaders of "charity organizations." And evangelists. (See Option 3 above, re: voting blocs.) Pay raises. Limousines. Office furniture. Travel vouchers. And...

Hell, when its other people's money, the sky's the limit! Why else are "government handouts" so popular?

I'm handicapped by a severe Ford GT-deficiency! Where's my ADA grant money? And Midnight Blue, or I'll sue!

I Just HAVE to Know...

Driving back from a jobsite this afternoon, I listened to Hugh Hewitt's radio show. Hugh read from an AP story where Kerry said that he personally used his Swift Boat to insert CIA agents (plural) into Cambodia - this was after the "Christmas in Cambodia" stories as related in Senate testimony and his letter to the Boston Globe Herald. The claim was repeated by the Globe in June of last year. (Nod to No Oil for Pacifists for multiple links to the story, via - who else? - Instapundit. Go read Carl's post. Very, very thorough.)

Well, we know Kerry wasn't in Cambodia on Christmas Eve 1968.

So I have to ask:





Was one of the CIA agents Valerie Plame?

The ProtestWarriors Strike Again!

I LOVE IT!

Read the details of Operation Halliburton Defense Force.

The protesters then asked us to move across the street - an offer I respectfully declined. Hadi then asked if he moved his group across the street would we follow? I gave him my most sincere promise that we would stay in front of Halliburton where we belonged. At that point he concluded his proposition was an act of concession and gave up on the idea.

So what to do? Now that the "neo cons" have showed up, your people have embarrassed themselves by attacking one of them, their signs are bigger and nicer than yours, and your entire group is agitated and demoralized? Call the cops and have the bastards with differing opinions removed, of course!

Much more, with photos! Go read!

OMFG!

Allahpundit is... unbelievable.

I literally laughed out loud at this one.

After the recent brouhaha over Glenn Reynolds' endorsement of the "Celebrate Diversity" T-shirt, Allah has found a way for Glenn to "prove his decency" to the Left.

Don't drink or eat anything before opening the link.

I would say "Touché," but this was not a touch to the chest with an épée, it's a goddammed axeblow to the skull!

All bow to Allah! We are not worthy!

"Recovered," My Ass

I was going to write a piece on the State of New York confiscating 63 year-old Thad Shank's gun collection, but Ravenwood had done the definitive job of it. I can't add anything.

I will NEVER register my guns, nor live where it's required. Period. It's an invitation to the State to find you in minor violation of the rules, and take everything you've got.

Fuck 'em.

Standard Bearer for the Unbearable

There's a nice turn of phrase, from the New York Daily News's Zev Chafets:

Why Bush is going to win

In 1972, The New Yorker's movie critic, Pauline Kael, won herself a place in political lore by expressing astonishment at the Republicans' 49-state landslide victory. "How could that be?" she demanded. "I don't know a single person who voted for Nixon."

I don't live in such a rarified world, but most of my friends are voting for John Kerry. And I imagine that a good many will be shocked when President Bush wins in November.

It is possible that no Democrat could beat Bush this year. The President has Ralph Nader on his side, and demography. Since the 2000 election, shifts in population have added seven electoral votes to the Red Bush states and subtracted seven from Goreland.

This alone might be enough to put Bush over the top in a tight race. But despite the polls, I don't think this election will be close, and this time the Democratic establishment won't be able to blame the Supreme Court. If they're fair, they'll blame themselves. Since this is politics, they'll blame the candidate.

John Kerry is not a bad man. He probably wouldn't make a bad President. But he is a bad candidate in a terrible situation. He represents the wing of the Democratic Party that is imbued with a sense of its own moral, intellectual, cultural and social superiority. In short, he is the standard bearer for the unbearable.

Amen.

These people don't comprise a majority of the electorate or even Democratic voters (how could they and remain an elite?), but they have convinced themselves that they and their candidate - if packaged properly - will prove irresistibly attractive to lesser Americans.

Precisely. They believe they can fool the average gullible idiot into voting for them. After all, it's how the Repubicans win!

It's a common theme if you read the DemocraticUnderground.com forums and other Lefty sites.

Boston, with its flag-waving and saluting and balloon-blowing was supposed to be a commercial for this new and superior brand of politics. But Americans are expert TV watchers. A lot of them voted with their remotes. Those who did watch weren't impressed. The Democrats' much anticipated post-convention bump turned into a thud. George McGovern got one of those in 1972.

Kerry now has 90 days to convince voters that a Bush victory in November would be, as his wife put it in Milwaukee on Monday, "four more years of hell."

The problem is, most Americans don't regard their lives as "hell" or Bush as Satan. The economy, after all, is not really in a Great Depression. In fact, it's doing pretty well. Iraq isn't Vietnam, and won't be unless there's a draft. The Islamic jihad against America isn't Bush's fault, either. A candidate who insists otherwise is bound to strike voters as detached from reality.

Kerry ought to know this, and he may. But his party is dominated, as it was in 1972, by people who talk only to one another and who are convinced that everybody despises Bush. They will judge Kerry by how hard he goes after the Crawford Beelzebub.

Right now the polls look even. But that's an optical illusion. The President has a Republican convention coming up and the power of incumbency to shape events between now and November. In other words, he's way ahead.

Kerry is a weak campaigner. Barring some kind of national disaster, his best shot is the debates. Democratic true believers think he'll kill Bush, one on one. That's what they thought about Al Gore, too.

Calling a presidential race in August is risky, especially a race that's supposedly close. But no guts, no glory. Bush will beat Kerry in a walk. If I'm right, you read it here first. If not, well, even Pauline Kael got it wrong once in a while.

As several people have noted, Kerry does better the less you see (and hear) of him. But now he has to be out in public - doing things like faking lunch at Wendy's for a photo-op, getting dissed by some Marines there, and then having a gourmet box-lunch of Shrimp Vindaloo delivered from the local Yacht Club. Apparently Teresa has never had Chili before.

Yes, we "little people" will certainly recognize Sen. Kerry's obvious superiority and vote him in as the man best qualified to tell us how best to live our miserable little lives.

"Standard bearer for the unbearable," indeed.

I've Noticed This Myself...

Frank J. has generated a list of "fun facts" about Democrats that lives up to (or down to) his well-deserved reputation.

But this one is my favorite:

Democrats are big into class warfare. They also are for gun control which has caused the deadliest firearms to be too expensive except for the rich to buy. So, if class warfare ever goes to blows, it won't last long.

Ayup. The rest are almost as good.

Oooh! Here's a BIG One!

In relation to the "Rotten Log" post below concerning the "Celebrate Diversity" shirt, another moonbat-with-a-blog wrote another "I'm OFFENDED!" post on it. At least Steve Gillard doesn't use an alias, but he gives links for his moonbat readers to send objection letters to - I suppose - get Reynolds in hot water. Quote:

Reynolds has said any number of biased, unfair and truly repellent things on his site. Which is his right. But this crosses a rather broad line. I mean, where does he keep this shirt, next to his Wehrmacht World Tour and Hitler: No More Mister Nice Guy shirts.
I think it's time we start asking people, like his boss, how his views and public statements coincide with the education provided by the University of Tennessee.

Hell, I have that question about any number of professors, starting with Noam Chomsky and MIT. Note the invocation of Godwin's Law.

Steve continues with a list of contacts for the perennially outraged to write to, including:

University of Tennessee Law School Dean Tom Galligan

Sen. Randy McNally - head of the Tennessee Senate's Education Committee

House Member Les Whittington - in charge of the House Education committee

The Memphis Commercial Appeal and the Nashville Tennessean newspapers.

Steve says:

Just ask them if they agree that a professor at the state's public university should be advertising a shirt which opposes diversity.

My. Mouth. Hangs. Agape.

How...?

Now, when the Right does this, it's called "censorship" by the Left. It's "violation of their First Amendment Right of Free Speech." But when they do it...

And, once again, the comments are priceless! (Hat tip, Spoons.)

No running commentary this time. It's too tiring. Just go read. Here's a taste:

I worry less about that than the minority kid in his class. If that is his opinion, can a minority kid be treated fairly by him. Diversity isn't an opinion, but state policy. Does the university agree he should be opposing state policy on a commercial website?
--
Since Glenn Reynolds is a patriotic guy opposed to "Islamofacism" and since several of our financial trophy buildings are now at risk of an Al Qaeda attack, I now invite Mr. Reynolds to come down to Newark, New Jersey (in the shirt) to help guard the Prudential Building against being attacked.
There are a number of local crips and bloods who (in spite of New Jersey's draconian gun control laws) appreciate the gun culture as much as he does. I'm *quite sure* they'll have an interesting take on the shirt.

*sigh*

The Left leaves me... tired.

John Lott Must Read Me

Awhile back I noticed that John Lott had me listed in his blogroll.

Not anymore!

I feel so special!

The Microsoft™ SmartGun

Via Clayton Cramer comes this hilarious cartoon. Go read.

Point by Freakin' Point

Mike at Cold Fury has written the transcript of the press conference I'd PAY to see. A taste:

“Christ almighty, what is it with you people? You’ve spent a couple of years asking why we didn’t prevent 9/11, calling for an investigation, asking ‘how much did Bush know and when did he know it?’ You blamed us for something we failed to prevent after eight months in office, and yet to this day you give the Clinton admin a free pass, even though he had eight years—eight fucking years, people—to do something about al Qaeda and didn’t do one goddamned thing.

“You finally get your investigation, the results of which confirm most of what we’d been saying all along, but you don’t want to hear that any more than you wanted to hear about the fact that one of the Democrat commissioners, Jamie Gorelick, was responsible for the so-called “wall of separation” prohibiting information-sharing between the FBI and CIA, which nearly everyone now acknowledges was one of the biggest problems preventing any effective defense against terrorist networks. You do deign to acknowledge that problem, but the part you originally claimed to be most interested in—who was responsible—is suddenly not so interesting anymore the moment you realized you couldn’t reasonably blame us for it.

“You insist that Condi and Bush must testify publicly to the commission (even though Condi had already testified once), but it doesn’t seem to bother you when Clinton gets to testify behind closed doors. You laud Richard Clarke’s and Joe Wilson’s credibility, but when it’s clearly shown that they’re liars you don’t seem to want to bring it up anymore. You hint at all sorts of sinister skullduggery on our part, but when Sandy Berger openly admits to stealing classified documents for God only knows what reason, you couldn’t care less.

And it just gets better. No kidding! With links, too!

(Hat Tip, my favorite African-American.)

They Can't Have Mine

Heartless Libertarian reports that the U.S. military is apparently short about a million "standard capacity" magazines for its M16/M4 weapons. I've got seven myself for my custom-built AR-15, purchased after the so-called "ban" that made manufacturing new ones for civilian consumption illegal, but did absolutely nothing to affect the existing supply except drive up the prices. And I'm a piker. I know there are people who have over a hundred.

Unintended consequences...

I Wonder If These Guys Get to Run Their Ad Shortly Before the Election?

But hopefully everyone will have seen this by then. Several times.

You should.

Hey! The Carnival is Coming!

Yeesh! It's only a week away!

The next Carnival of the Vanities will be hosted by your humble servant right here at The Smallest Minority on Wednesday, August 11. Please submit your entries by no later than Tuesday, August 10 at 8:00PM PDT so that I can throw them in a pile arrange them in some artful manner for your perusal.

To submit, email me at gunrights -AT- comcast -DOT- net (please substitute the proper symbols) with your name or nom-de-plume, the name and URL of your blog, the title (if applicable) and URL of your post of interest, and a short blurb describing the topic.

Edited to add: Put "CotV" or "Carnival" in the email title, would you? That way I won't dump it as spam without ever opening it.

Another edit: Please, no late entries! I won't be anywhere near a computer with internet access on Wednesday, so what goes up Tuesday night will be IT.

(Like I need something ELSE to do!)

See What Crawls Out When You Roll Over the Rotten Log?

The barking moonbat wing of the Left has gone bugshit over Rachel Lucas's favorite T-Shirt. Well, Glenn Reynolds owns one, (I own one, too) so Atrios thought it must be racist, and wrote a post about it. Here's his take:

Now, Glenn's a gun fan and I imagine he's just celebrating the joys of guns, or whatever, but this shirt is no joke. There's a serious subtext here which is totally obvious to me that I think should be pointed out. Now, I don't think everyone who has purchased a shirt like this has purchased it with the subtext in mind, but nonetheless the message is clear.
The caption is "celebrate diversity." The colors of the caption are commonly used pan-African colors: red, yellow, and green. While, for many, the "joke" (though, I'm not sure why it's funny) is that here diversity is a diversity of guns. Ha ha. But, look, the clear message here is that the way to celebrate diversity, particularly that pan-African diversity, is to buy a bunch of fucking guns. In other words, celebrate diversity by arming yourself.

And your problem with that is....? But no, it means "celebrate diversity" by buying a bunch of different guns. (The "fucking guns" is a dead giveaway that Atrios is not a "gun fan." Please pardon my stating the obvious.)
You'll note that the shirt doesn't say "Hey white folk! Celebrate diversity!" Nope, it's an equal opportunity shirt! Everybody join in! All colors of the rainbow, you too can join the nation of responsible citizens who own guns! It's not just for white crackers anymore!

But the commenters ran with it. Here's a sample of the bile from the more loving, more caring, colorblind, fuzzy-bunny Left.

I read a much darker subtext into that.
--
(A)nd, I presume, shoot as many pan-Africans as possible, maybe even a few queers, since the colors are also reminiscent of the gay flag.
Welcome to more and more fascism.

Nope, they get to buy guns, too!

I thought it was more sinister than even your interpretation. I read it as "Celebrate Diversity -- kill a black person."

You get secret messages passed to you in your alphabet soup, too, don't you?

Maybe Instapoodle can be encouraged to play Russian Roulette more often.

Nothing like the Compassionate Left, is there?

...it says to me "kill the black, brown, yellow, red, ...". Sometimes I wonder if women and non-whites just get it, because they have encountered it so much.

--

The subtext is much darker and the "kill a nigger because he stole your job because of affirmative action" is even there. (Now it's morphed into "because he stole your JOB." It's a T-SHIRT, you oversensitive idiot.)

I think you put as charitable a spin on it as possible, Atrios, but the fact that it took you several hours to decide how to frame your thoughts on it I think is a resonable indicator of how deeply disturbing you find it.

The fact that you saw it, reacted in such a way as to say to yourself, "No, that can't be right. They can't mean THAT", and then give them the benefit of the doubt to the extent you reasonably could, well, I think that speaks volumes in and of itself. Your thought processes - if you want to actually characterize them as such - certainly speak volumes about you.

Right wingers equate guns with power.
Mao: Power grows out of the barrel of a gun.

This, the right wing endorses greatly. This is why they are always sore losers in elections. And now MAO is a right-winger? How far left is THIS guy? As for "sore losers," who is it that hasn't gotten over the 2000 election?

The message I see is"Here's what you can do with your goddamned diversity!" There is a subtext of hate in that t-shirt. Only what you put there.

The fact that the shirt is (I would presume) purposefully vague enough to lend itself to these ugly interpretations, would make me uncomfortable to wear it -- regardless of my stance on gun rights.

That's called "freedom of choice" where it comes to freedom of speech. At least this guy's not a complete whack job.

How about a t-shirt with "Republican Diversity" as the text--and show a bunch of grave markers?
--
The t-shirt celebrates guns and hints how they could be used. If it was worn in public in Toronto it would cause problems because it is a very aggressive shirt.Only because Canada doesn't have a right to free speech, and I could insert a Canadian joke here, but I choose not to.

I read it as an anti-minority statement.

HOW? Minorities have the same right to buy guns as anybody.

One could draw the 'kill Africans' inference, but that's a stretch. These guys are racists and all that, but the point of the T-Shirt is pro-gun rights, and anti-diversity-type legislation, nothing else.

No, it's just pro-gun rights. For everybody.

Of course this is the same guy who wrote:

We need guns, and when the technology permits, we're gonna need automatic guns, or automatic tasers, or whatever. If Bushco wants to become the next Hitler, he's gonna have to answer Mr. Colt - which I don't own *yet*, but I may soon. I'm tired of being scared of some black van screaching up to my front door, with me being defenseless. F that. Come and get me aholes, but first, say hello to my leetle friend!

Well, hell! Celebrate diversity and get a Smith & Wesson too, while you're at it!

The only person who would wear this shirt is, quite literally, a racist piece of shit.

Smile when you say that.

There is no doubt that this shirt has a wink-and-nudge racist message behind it, and I think any right-winger would get it.

Nope. Only you overly sensitive Lefties.

Don't call him racist. He'll pull out the old line "My sister in law is African" routine, which of course is a show stopper.

It is, isn't it? Just like the fact that Bush has a black National Security Advisor and Secretary of State. But they can't really be "black" because they're just "house niggers" workin' for da man.

More of that Leftist compassion and caring.

But wait! There's more!

Sorry, but the message of that hideous shirt is pretty clear to me. If it had been beer, I would have thought, ha! Cute! Be diverse in your choice of getting drunk. This is guns, though. And not just guns, hand guns. Be diverse in your choice of killing.
And don't think these miserable, twisted wingnuts don't know EXACTLY what it means.

We sure do, but the "twisted wingnuts" seem to be on YOUR side, my friend.

I thought Glenn was urging us to buy an assortment of guns, go to Africa and shoot as many blacks as possible. The subtext was crystal clear to me and I'm outraged. How do they get away with this!?

Because most people don't think like barking moonbats with their panties wingnuts in a twist?

The t-shirt, and the entire website, are indicative of mental illness.

Funny, I was thinking precisely the same thing about Atrios's site and these comments!

I actually saw someone wearing that shirt last night in West Oakland. Someone who happened to African-American. I must say that, in that context, I thought the shirt was fucking phat.

There, see? Apparently that t-shirt owner got the idea. But also apparently it's up to the moonbat Left to inform him of just how misguided he must be to wear something so offensive.

You're right. It is phat!

So of course, that poster must have been a right-wing plant. No black African-American could possibly misinterpret the meaning of that shirt, right?

I invite Instapundit or anyone else who finds the shirt amusing to don it proudly on the streets of East LA, the Tenderloin, Gary, IN, Detroit or DC (away from the Capitol, of course), especially around 2am.

I invite all supporters of gun control to do precisely the same thing! Go to those areas at that time completely unarmed! And tell us just how safe you are!

Anyway, there's more, but that's enough and more than enough, don't you think?

I did leave a comment of my own, though:

First, I own the shirt. It's humorous to me. Second, I do not, did not and cannot interpret it the way (many of) you have. If you want to accuse me of being "a racist piece of shit," I suggest you do it to my face. And third, if you hate that T-shirt, you're gonna loathe this one.

The link is to the "72 Virgins Dating Service" T-shirt.

THAT drew some traffic!

Sweet Jeebus's Bleeding Hemorrhoids...

Hear about this one? The 42 year-old Australian security guard who was brutally assaulted by a thief wearing brass knuckles who was after the pub receipts she was carrying? She picked herself up, drew her concealed weapon, approached, and then shot the sumbitch. She's been charged with murder! Here's one version of the story:

Guard set for murder charge

A SYDNEY security guard tonight became a fugitive after refusing to submit herself to police for questioning over the shooting death of a thief during a bungled robbery.

Bungled my ass. She properly intervened.

If Karen Brown cannot be found she will be charged in her absence tomorrow morning.

Police had given Ms Brown until 6pm (AEST) today to present herself at Liverpool police station in south-west Sydney for an interview over her shooting of William Aquilina last Monday.

The 42-year-old Rooty Hill woman did not show and it was unclear whether she had been aware of the ultimatum.

Liverpool police Superintendent Terry Jacobsen said police tried to contact Ms Brown through her lawyers with phone calls and text messages throughout the day.

Her lawyers could not be reached by AAP.

Ms Brown allegedly shot and killed Aquilina moments after he attacked her with a knuckleduster and stole a bag of cash she was carrying out of the Moorebank Hotel.

She was originally scheduled to speak with officers on Tuesday, saying she was too unwell to talk before then.

But she raised the ire of police when it emerged she had given two media interviews, one of which was understood to have netted her a six figure payment.

"We have given her that opportunity but she has elected to go to the media, and that's not appropriate," Supt Jacobsen said.

He said Ms Brown's non-attendance meant police would charge her with murder either tonight or tomorrow morning.

"We have sufficient evidence in my view of a prima facie case of murder," he said.

Commencing criminal proceedings could make the airing of Ms Brown's exclusive interview on tomorrow evening's edition of Today Tonight in contempt of court.

"It will be sub judice and Today Tonight will publish any material at their peril," Supt Jacobsen warned.

The officer condemned Ms Brown's decision to tell the media her story instead of police."

Channel Seven spokesman Simon Francis said the network still planned to air the program.
"Regardless of what happens we will be telling her story tomorrow night," he said.

Mr Francis refused to confirm Seven had paid Ms Brown $100,000 for the interview but said the amount was substantially less than an offer by rival Channel Nine.

Mr Aquilina's grandfather Frank Rasmussen accused Ms Brown of profiteering from his grandson's death.

"She's getting blood money, that's all I can say," he told Channel Nine.

Ms Brown said in an interview with today's Sunday Telegraph that she was sorry for Mr Aquilina's family.

"I really feel sorry for his family, it must be awful," she said.

She said she feared for her life but after the attack had no recollection of events.

"I was so scared," she said.

"I did not know where I was or exactly what had happened to me. All I knew was that blood was pouring into my eyes and my head was throbbing."

Sounds bad, right? However:

TV payout will go towards legal defence

A SYDNEY security guard who shot and killed a robber last week was not trying to profit from the tragedy, her mother said today.Karen Brown shot William Aquilina, 25, after he assaulted her and robbed her of a bag of money outside the Moorebank Hotel in Sydney's south-west last Monday.

Her mother, Beverley Brown, said she believed her daughter would be paid $100,000 by Channel 7's Today Tonight program for an interview to be broadcast tonight.
"To my knowledge it is that amount of money ($100,000). I haven't actually seen a cheque or anything like that."

Beverley Brown said the money would be used to fund her daughter's defence.

Damned good idea, IMHO.

And then there's this version:

Bashed guard has skull fractured in attack

By Evelyn Yamine
July 30, 2004

THE security guard who shot and killed a man during a bungled armed robbery could not be interviewed by police yesterday because her injuries had worsened.

Karen Brown was kept in hospital after tests revealed that her skull and nose were fractured and she had trouble seeing out of one eye.

Ms Brown was supposed to give a statement to police about Monday's armed robbery outside the Moorebank Hotel, Monday, where Ms Brown shot William Aquilina in the head.

Ms Brown was hit in the head with a knuckle-duster during the attack.

She was seen by an orthopedic and eye specialist yesterday and underwent a brain scan.

"She's got a fractured skull and a fractured nose and there have been some other medical issues," Mr Busuttil said.

There are suspicions she may have some fractured bones in her body."

She may now need to remain in hospital for further tests.

Detective Chief Inspector Nick Bingham said Ms Brown's statement was imperative to the investigation.

"We would like to speak to her sooner rather than later but we're mindful of the fact she did receive fairly serious injuries," he said.

Ms Brown is expected to meet with police some time next week.

A post mortem examination conducted on Wednesday showed Aquilina died from blood loss due to a bullet in the face. The bullet was found still lodged in his head.

Police are waiting on toxicology reports. "It may be a factor in relation to his actions but that's probably still six weeks away," Insp Bingham said.

Aquilina's parents, Anne and Michael, last night apologised to Ms Brown for the assault. They told A Current Affair their son was not one to hold a grudge and have decided to be the same.
"I've got no hard feelings," Mr Aquilina said. "Maybe there could have been another way of doing it but I don't know.

"If I knew what he was doing I would have stopped him."

Mrs Aquilina added: "I'm sorry for what he did, I am really, really sorry, that's all I want to say. He would not be cranky, he was so forgiving."

Aquilina's grandfather, ex-policeman Frank Rasmussen, said Ms Brown had been in no danger and should be charged with manslaughter or murder.

"She's done the wrong thing ... we've all done the wrong thing, but she's done worse, she took a person's life," he said.

Mr. Rasmussen can go suck dead dog farts for all I care. Here's another story on it:

Why I killed the robber

THE security guard who shot and killed a robber who bashed her has spoken about her ordeal for the first time.

Shaking and crying, a traumatised Karen Brown, 42, said yesterday she had feared for her life as she was punched in the head several times by William Aquilina, who was armed with a knuckle duster.

"I was so scared," she said of the ambush and shooting outside a hotel in Sydney's southwest last Monday morning.

Ms Brown suffered a fractured skull, a fractured eye socket, a fractured nose, a fractured left hand and possible brain damage when the 25-year-old grabbed her hair, king-hit her and then battered her to the ground.

The convicted criminal then dragged her across the bitumen towards a stolen getaway car before she could release a bag containing between $30,000 and $50,000 in hotel takings. Moments later, a bleeding Ms Brown, who was dressed in casual clothes and whose gun had been concealed, shot Aquilina as he sat in the car.

Surrounded by her family, Ms Brown tried to recall the incident that left her covered in blood in the hotel car park.

"I looked up through a bloody haze," Ms Brown said. "I did not know where I was or exactly what had happened to me. All I knew was that blood was pouring into my eyes and my head was throbbing."

Despite her injuries, which also include severe concussion and a floating bone fragment behind her eyeball, Ms Brown said she felt sympathy for Aquilina's family and expressed remorse for what had occurred.

"I really feel sorry for his family," said Ms Brown, who has been a security guard for four years.

"It must be awful. I just wish this had never happened. It's been a terrible week."

Ms Brown had been collecting and banking the pub's takings for the past five months.
"Nothing like this has ever happened before and nothing prepares you for this," she said.
Ms Brown's sister, Katrina, said the incident had been devastating.

"It has completely wrecked her life," she said at the Sydney home Ms Brown shares with her de facto, George Muratore. "She's a complete mental and physical wreck. This is the worst thing that's ever happened in her life. She has never hurt anybody or anything before and it's completely crushed her."

Mr Muratore's father, Vic, 73, said he believed Ms Brown should not be punished.

"She should not be charged -- I would have done the same thing," he said. "If you pay me to protect, I have to protect. Everybody reckons she's a champion.

"We have known her for seven years and she is a very decent person -- she is a good person.

"I say sorry for the other people, but you deserve what you get when you do something like that."

But Aquilina's grandfather, retired policeman Frank Rasmussen, has said Ms Brown should be charged.

Right. Only the police should have the power to shoot criminals?

"He was murdered," Mr Rasmussen said. "That woman should have torn into that hotel as soon as she alleges she was hit and she should have asked for help. Instead, she advanced on my grandson and shot him in cold blood.

No, she was severely injured - by your grandson - and probably disoriented, and still did her job, which was to prevent his escaping with the loot, you prick.

"She's just a bitch. Sorry."

No, you're an asshole. And I'm NOT sorry.

Mr Rasmussen said he was upset by how his grandson -- who has convictions for drugs and robbery -- had been portrayed.

"They're saying he's a rotten dangerous criminal and he's not. He's lovable," he said. "We still don't believe he's done this on his own -- he's too good a person.

Yes, I'm sure he was just a lovable fuzzball as he punched Ms. Brown in the head multiple times. Don't make me puke. He was a perfect fucking ANGEL I bet. But now he's DEAD.

"He's never been involved in anything like this in almost 26 years that we've known him. It's not in his nature."

Guess the brass knuckles weren't his, either?

One thing's for damned sure. He won't be "involved in anything like this" again.

Ms Brown underwent further medical tests on Thursday. Detectives are not expecting to speak to her until tomorrow.

For a nation founded by cast-off convicts from Mother England, they sure seem to be sucking from the same teat of nanny-state enforced pacifism. For example, try this (unrelated) story:

Good Samaritans set upon by gang

A NIGHT out in inner-city Brisbane ended in violence for a family of good Samaritans who tried to intervene in a vicious gang attack.

The Jackson siblings of Sunnybank found themselves fighting for their lives after standing up to a bunch of "cowardly" youths who brutally kicked a man while he was on the ground at the corner of Edward and Charlotte streets.

Dr Peter Jackson, 28, was king-hit and knocked unconscious after running to help the man - who himself ran off and left the Jacksons to face the gang.

Brother John, 24, jumped into the fray to help his older sibling, but was overwhelmed by a swarm of angry youths aged 16 to 19 as he desperately tried to reach his stricken brother.

Enter sisters Elizabeth, 21, and Bridgette, 19. Trying to avoid blows from the gang of youths, the sisters pulled the attackers off Peter, who was unconscious for more than five minutes.

John later expressed disgust that a gathering crowd did not raise a finger to help.

"It was really un-Australian to see, but then again that has become the Australian way," he said. "The gutless people watching them in the background couldn't even help two girls."

The family had been out to farewell John, who is off to Europe tomorrow, when they saw the gang attack a man by himself.

"(Peter) said, 'Get away, get away.' They just started walking away and then one of them took a step towards him and that just launched the rest of them on to Pete," Elizabeth said.

"A guy came up and punched him in the back of the head and I think that was when he was knocked out. He went to ground and the guys didn't leave him alone."

John said his brother had half the attackers on him and "I had the other half".

"Four or five of them cornered me and this massive hit came from somewhere," he said. "I was just getting swamped."

Elizabeth said there were "so many people around" who would not help.

"So Bridgette and I just went in and literally started grabbing these guys by their hoods and their jumpers," she said.

"We were trying to pull them off one by one. One of them took a swing at Bridgette but it missed.

"(Afterwards) some bouncers came over after Pete had been on the ground for five minutes.
"They just said, 'Oh, he's all right, call the cops,' and just walked across the road."

The Jackson clan had no regrets yesterday, and appealed for public assistance to identify the attackers.

"I would do it again, definitely," Peter said. "Some of the horrendous brain injuries you are unfortunate enough to see (in medicine) - you just don't wish that on your worst enemy. They are vegetables (and) one or two more kicks and that guy could have been in massive trouble."

Police sources told The Courier-Mail the force was 49 staff short in Brisbane City, but due to get 20 first-year constables soon.

They said it was a busy night on Saturday.

No word on how long it took for the police to show up, assuming they did.

Good thing none of the attackers had a weapon, isn't it? Like, say, brass knuckles? Or a knife? Or even *gasp!* a gun?

Anybody Looking for a Good Deal?

Jim from Smoke on the Water is looking to sell part of his collection to finance a trip. If you're a resident of Tejas, you can use the ELGS™ to purchase "off-paper," or, if you're a resident of another state, he'll ship to your FFL dealer. Jim's looking to sell a Ruger Security-Six, a blued 4" barreled .357 Magnum revolver. Rugers are known for their reliability and ruggedness - if six rounds of hollowpoint don't do it, you can bludgeon the perp to death with it. It is blued with adjustable sights.

Jim advises:

Now, only one very minute flaw exists in the Ruger I'm selling. A tiny, tiny point of pitting had started on the edge of the trigger-guard before the gun came into my possession. It has been treated, leaving behind a point of lightness in the blueing, which is no larger than the diameter of a fine pencil-lead. Frankly, it's damn near imperceptable, but I'd be less than perfectly honest if I failed mention it.

My reserve is $325, plus the $30 for insured shipping to the FFL dealer of your choice.

--

Just for the record, this gun truly is surplus to my needs. My S&W Model 28 is all the .357 I'll ever need, and I'll be just as happy (happier, given the circumstances) with the cash. In short, I'm not parting with a sentimental icon which ought to stay in the family.

It's just a gun, but a damned nice one. And it's for sale.

I'd give him an offer myself, but I just blew my accumulated gun-money on a Ruger Single-Six (that cost, retail, almost as much as Jim's opening reserve - so it's a good deal. Go make a bid to SOTW_Jim -AT - hotmail -DOT- com. Replace the -AT- and -DOT- with the appropriate symbols. (DIE, SPAMBOTS, DIE!)

Hive Minds

Francis Porretto has another illuminating essay up on the (and I use the term loosely) thought processes of the collectivist Left vis-à-vis Western individualism vs. Islam, in Hive Minds.

It's worth your time. (But then, Francis always is.)