Thursday, July 13, 2006

Considering the Source

Every once in a while I like to browse around the Internet to see whether or not all this effort is at least getting dispersed, and every once in a while I learn something about that dispersal I didn't know.

I was aware that many of my GUNS Magazine articles are for sale at Amazon.com, even though it looks like no one is buying them--that's no surprise as I link to past columns at the magazine's site each month here for free.

Anyway, I just had a first. My name and work turned up in a place I had no idea they had wandered into: Larry Elder cited me in Showdown: Confronting Bias, Lies, and the Special Interests that Divide America. More specifically, he cited my KABA expose on actor Mark Wahlberg (be sure to visit the Pokey Poke Picture Gallery at the end).

"Yawn," you might say, but I've never been cited as a book source before, so to get endnoted by a nationally syndicated radio host, columnist and New York Times bestselling author is a big deal for me. Naturally, I had to run right out and buy a copy. (Writing isn't supposed to work this way. It's not supposed to cost me money.)

Still, I haven't felt this famous since some musically retarded college buddies and I appeared on Houlihan and Big Chuck's "New Talent Time" a lifetime ago...

We're the Only Ones' LA Trifecta

[Use BugMeNot to avoid site registration.]
The 3-year-old son of a Los Angeles police officer got hold of his father's service handgun Tuesday and shot him as they sat in the family's pickup at a traffic light near their home in Anaheim, police said...

...Chavez is the third Los Angeles area police officer to be shot by a relative with his or her service weapon in recent weeks.

On Monday, Pasadena police said Officer Karen White, contrary to initial reports, did not attempt suicide in Compton last month when she was shot in the face but was wounded when she tried to wrestle her gun from her suicidal 18-year-old son...

On July 2, LAPD Officer Ronald Cade was shot and wounded off duty with his service weapon by Yolanda Cade, his wife of two weeks.
And these are the people who will arrest you and me for bearing arms. That's 'cause they're "The Only Ones."

[Incidentally, the Chavez incident is what I was referring to here when I said I did not blog on a story.]

Philly "Gun Violence" Escalates

The shooting Wednesday continues to mark a dramatic increase in gun violence in Philadelphia, and the number of shooting victims is up more than 15 percent compared to a year ago.
But...but...but...

When Clowns Attack

For several nights last month, a group of thugs with black hooded sweat shirts pulled tight over their heads, including at least one in "angry" clown makeup, terrorized visitors to Pierce County's Fort Steilacoom Park, police say...

"The violence was gratuitous," said Lakewood police Lt. Dave Guttu. "They [victims] had already given up their stuff and were assaulted anyway."
Rely on the state for protection and this insanity is allowed to go on unchecked. So much for the safest course being to not resist and give the attackers what they want.

In a rational world, the turf would have been taken back by the good people that very night.

[Via Jason M]