You Guys are Missing a Fight

I said yesterday I expected some controversy over this post.

I'm getting it.

As of this moment, there are 219 comments on Digg (you need to be a registered user).

And the comments over at the post itself are growing--you don't need to be registered there, so go on over and see what some of the observers are saying (particularly a defeatist who calls himself "Monsignor").

Y'know, this writing thing is maddening. As regulars here are reminded every day, I've been trying like all get-out to promote my GRE columns, and it took basically a reprint of a post I did 15 years ago to give me my biggest all-time day ever--and it's still growing.


But let me spend hours researching something I think is original, unique, important, and cue the crickets. Funny what takes.

Anyway, go on over to GRE (and Digg if you can) and enjoy (or dive into) the brouhaha.

Firing Blanks

A government scheme offering fast-tracked gun permits to men who agree to undergo a vasectomy is being criticised by the men who say officials are reneging on the deal. [More]

And that surprises anyone why...?

Talk about a story rich in metaphor.

[Via Long Island Mike]

We're the Only Ones Teary-Eyed Enough

Swanson was terminated Wednesday from the department, teary-eyed Ortega announced during the conference. [More]

Yes, I'm sure the chief would be all broken up--and the DA would still be considering charges--if a citizen had thought he was shot, and opened fire into a car full of "Only Ones".

[Via JR]

UPDATE: I've gone back in and reworked the link after several complaints--this appears to be one of those stupid newspapers who make it difficult to access their website without registration. I guess their print editions must be doing well enough to chase off web users. Anyway, if you can't get to the story by clicking on the title link, paste http://www.montereyherald.com/local/ci_11755371 into your browser and see if that works. If it doesn't and you still give a damn, I do link to BugMeNot over in the sidebar, but I'm done spending time on this.

Forget it, Jake...

...it's Chi-Town. [More]

[Via HZ]

Disturb a Rock, Lose Your Car

In the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, which passed the Senate (S. 22) in January and is up for a vote in the House as early as this Wednesday, a “forfeiture” provision would let the government confiscate “all vehicles and equipment of any person” who disturbs a rock or a bone from federal land that meets the bill’s broad definition of “paleontological resource.” The seizures could take place even before a person and even if the person didn’t know they were taking or digging up a “paleontological resource.” And the bill specifically allows the “transfer of seized resources” to “federal or non-federal” institutions, giving the government and some private actors great incentive to egg on the takings. [More]

Yep, there it is on pg. 487...

From the government established to secure the Blessings of Liberty...

The good thing is, the wider they cast the net, the more people they catch and anger.

The bad thing is, most of them just won't make the right connections.

I can at least think of one fictional way to give rocks back.

Gaming the Coming Civil War

Bill Clinton's election in 1992 gave rise to the American "militia movement": hordes of overwhelmingly white, middle-aged men from suburban and rural areas who convinced themselves they were defending the American way of life from the "liberals" and "leftists" running the country by dressing up in military costumes on weekends, wobbling around together with guns, and play-acting the role of patriot-warriors. Those theater groups -- the cultural precursor to George Bush's prancing 2003 performance dressed in a fighter pilot outfit on Mission Accomplished Day -- spawned the decade of the so-called "Angry White Male," the movement behind the 1994 takeover of the U.S. Congress by Newt Gingrich and his band of federal-government-cursing, pseudo-revolutionary, play-acting tough guys.[More]

See, sophisticated and urbane metrosexual Glenn Greenwald just can't fathom that the restoration has nothing at all to do with the neo con job. Or he can, but makes a living exploiting the charade.

He did get one thing right. We're not "very interested in bipartisanship and in transcending ideological divisions."

Been there, done that. Look what it got us.

[Via Daniel M]

What's a Little Conflict of Interest Between Friends?

Here's something a sharp-eyed reader pointed out that isn't mentioned:

* Kenneth Duncan (5th District):

Committee assignments:...Insurance... [More]

Huh.

I wonder if that's got anything at all to do with this?

[Via HZ]

Patience

Between going to bed last night and waking up this morning, I was greeted with FOUR PAGES of incoming emails.

Naturally, I will not be able to react/respond to all.

Thanks for understanding that.

Do You Believe They Were Outraged?

The...video opens with "It was a crime that outraged Minnesotans." Do you beleve Minnesotans where actually outraged over the vandalism? [More]

Not on your life.

I'm anticipating the day when this will seem mild.

Somehow, I doubt I'm the only one who is.

[Via Concerned American]

Queens Councilman Brandishes Gun in Church!

I guess I'd be happy too, if I had a councilman's privileges and could do so with impunity, especially since we know what happens to other New Yorkers who actually do "brandish" guns in the presence of police. Or even toy guns. [More]

What's in a word? The Daily News shows us.

Today's Gun Rights Examiner column shows us that if you don't have a clue about what to do when your policies contribute to violent crime, but you still want credit for doing something to fight it, you can always attach your name to a "gun buyback"!

Please help spread this link around.

Check out the latest from other Gun Rights Examiners:

Austin: Philadelphia cop killers: guns or politics?

Charlotte: Guns and the Constitution: The 'well regulated Militia'

Cleveland: Canadian media can also lie about guns

DC: Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley: Damn the high crimes rates, full speed ahead on gun control!

Denver: A thought experiment

Los Angeles: Gun control in churches, Part II: The Militia.

Milwaukee: Time to change our attitude about guns

Minneapolis: Open carry is the 2nd Amendment

St. Louis: 'Protecting' children . . . from the ability to defend themselves

This Day in History: February 23

Another Skirmish happened Yesterday between Genl. Maxwell and about 2,000 from Amboy, they came to forage; the Genl. writes me that he has secured 7 prisoners and spilt much blood. [More]