Free In Idaho!

Why is my wife in the other room watching the Olympics on MSNBC  NBC?  I mean, it’s not like that outfit is the most honest, or reliable on the tube.  After all, the little bug on the screen says “LIVE” and the girls just started playing beach volleyball.  Reuters website however, says that the U.S. girls won 21-12 and 21-14… more than half an hour ago.

Hmmm.  I wonder if their news coverage has a little “Hope” or “Change” bug in the corner?  Know what I mean?

I guess I oughta hold my tongue and let my Sweetie enjoy the match.  She had a tough day, and me telling her how this ends, and bitching about MSNBC might not be my best move.

Watching these three bozos on Fox and Friends this morning talking about the teachers in that Texas school that will be allowed to carry guns in the classroom… barely contained psh! 

“That gun’d better be locked up!” 

Fear and stupidity.  Who needs a “fairness doctrine” when even the so-called right wing cable channel sounds more like a group of libs around the table at Starbucks?

I think the oil companies are missing the boat on this price of gas thing.  They could be taking advantage of a key fact about the free American market, and the American  consumer.

All it would take is a little initiative, and a good ad campaign, and hordes of Americans would wait in line to pay $8 a gallon for gasoline.  Now.  Seriously.

Think about it.  Starbucks made a huge amount of money selling foofy coffee for ridiculous prices, by making it trendy.  Women pay through the nose for some of the ugliest, foot crippling shoes on the planet.  We won’t mention handbags and purses.  With the right snob appeal, men acquire automobiles for prices that would buy a nice home.  When was the last time you heard anyone bitch about the price of coffee, or purses, or BMWs?  They don’t.  They make sure you know they have them, and they make sure you know what they cost.  Human nature, American culture.

So I figure, instead of asking the American taxpayer to cough it up, or raping the oil companies with a new “windfall profits tax”, one of these oil companies needs to figure out how to market a brand of gasoline for the truly with it/made it segments of our society.  And charge $8 or $10 a gallon for it.  Now.  They just need to put that little hint of “status” to it.  People will wait in line.  Limit the number of stations, and make sure they’re in the trendy parts of town.  After all, Starbucks proves the inadvisability of the “one on every block” model.  By definition, you can’t keep the cachet if it gets too common.

What would this do?  Well for one, they’d have more to spend on research and new wells and refineries, which, face it, we’re going to need sooner rather than later.  It’s much better for the companies themselves to figure out how to do that than to wait for the nanny-staters to take over and do it.  And for another thing, when was the last time you really saw the nannies shake down one of their pet industries?  It doesn’t happen.  So by making designer/status gasoline brands, the industry assures itself of a little more , er, breathing room than they enjoy now (if you know what I mean).

I mean, ideas like the smart car are cute, and hybrids are pretty trendy, but they aren’t accessable to the common man.  But $8 a gallon designer gas, guaranteed to bring you status, coolness, love, happiness, respect… they’d line up for miles.  Just like they do now for snooty burnt coffee at $4 a cup, designer sunglasses at $300 a pop, and handbags for $youpaidWHAT?!

And, since I’m not into money and status, you can steal this idea.  Live long and prosper.  Hope.  Change. But quit yer whinin’ about gas prices.  What are you going to do, take the bus?  That’s cool. 

Good thing they didn’t live in San Francisco or LA.

Idledale, Colorado - A mountain lion crept through an open door into a house outside Denver, snatched a Labrador retriever from a bedroom where two people were sleeping and left the dog’s dead body outside, wildlife managers said Tuesday.

How many of you sleep with your doors open?  And you motorcycle fans… when was the last time you brought it up on the freeway, on an overpass 50 feet over the road below? 

A motorcycle rider crashed on the Connector Tuesday evening but fell off the bike before it fell over the side of the highway to the skateboard park below, said Boise police Lt. Ron Winegar.

A witness said the rider was doing a wheelie and lost control, Winegar said. The motorcycle continued on its path off the Connector, falling just 10 feet from one witness.

The rider stayed on the highway above, sliding across the lanes of traffic.  No motorists were able to hit him as he tumbled to a stop.  Minor injuries.  No wiser, me thinks.

Speaking of wiser, voters in Nebraska oughta be wondering about that before they go to the polls again

A Nebraska state senator is moving forward with his controversial lawsuit against his maker, requesting “a permanent injunction ordering [God] to cease certain harmful activities and the making of terroristic threats.”

State Sen. Ernie Chambers, I-Omaha, appeared before Douglas County District Judge Marlon Polk in a scheduling hearing against God on July 28.

Chambers, an atheist, requested that the court acknowledge the presence of God in the courtroom so he wouldn’t be required to “serve notice” of the trial, according to the Omaha World-Herald.

The court had previously told Chambers the lawsuit would be thrown out if he was unable to serve notice to his Creator.

Speaking of courts, let’s go back to Colorado and check in on an important First Amendment rights case happening right now.

“Our intent for this bill is not about suppressing or chilling First Amendment rights,” he said.

Which bill is that, you ask?

The ordinance makes it illegal to carry certain items, such as chains, padlocks, carabiners and other locking devices. It also prohibits the possession of noxious substances. Two of the most frequently used examples of a noxious substance are a bucket of urine and a “feces bomb.”

There you have an example of grown up, respectful political discourse and dissent.  Right.

Representatives from some of the groups planning large-scale protests during the DNC this month said the ordinance was unnecessary and accused city officials of fear mongering.

“The intent of this ordinance is to try to smear protesters and make them look as if they are somehow criminal or somehow going to engage in some kind of gross conduct,” said Glenn Spagnuolo, an organizer with the Re- create 68 Alliance.

“Smear protesters”?  Sounds like a fine idea to me.  I’ve bought my popcorn for this one already…the idea of uber-lefties protesting and running amuck at the leftie DNC picnic coronation this summer ought to be good theatre.  Much more interesting than the RNC tapdancing festival in Minnesota, don’t you agree?  When Larry Craig announced he wasn’t going, that was about the best laugh that little shindig is going to produce.

Oh yeah, then there’s the new Paris video where she shows Barack how to really go after cranky senior citizens.  Who’d a thought Paris had more substance than Barry? No link.  I dare ya to Google “Paris video”.

I ‘n’ I been jammin dis weeken’.

Some of these’ll be Christmas presents.  The blackberry is especially wonderful on hot toast (I know, we tried some already).

Another great Democrat election year fear meme flushed down the toilet.  “Worst economy ever” and “we’re already in a recession”, the whole story is nothing more than Democrats trying to scare the rubes into voting for the Barack The Savior Obama.  This, from Yahoo Finance

The Commerce Department reported Thursday that gross domestic product, or GDP, increased at an annual rate of 1.9 percent in the April-to-June period.

Bummer. Guess that means the Obamameister will have to fall back on his other tried and true scare tactic, “John McCain will try to scare the rubes by saying “I don’t look like the guys on our money”… yeah, that one scares me.  Alot. Who the hell is this guy, if he thinks that is an issue for Americans?  Like I want my next president to look like Ben Franklin?  Or George Washington?  Hmmm… this must be a race thing.  I thought Barack Transcends Race Obama was the man who elevated politics in America above race issues.  Oh yeah, that was before the whole Rev Wright thing, wasn’t it?  Sorry.  I’m having a hard time catching up to the whole race issue.  I’m still stuck on the inexperienced, arrogant, pompous, flip-flopping, bigger government, higher taxes, socialist thing.  But maybe that’s just me.

Next thing you know he’ll be trying to apologize for slavery, asking for reparations for African-Americans and Native Americans, and wacky stuff like that.  What?  He did that already?  Oh.  Never mind.  I guess that means I’d better vote for him then. 

Whoa, who’d have thought of this?  From Britain, the distressing news

A report by the Ministry of Justice shows that 87,200 women and girls were arrested for violence last year, compared with 42,200 in 2003. This is equivalent to 240 violent attacks by women every day. It comes amid concerns that binge-drinking is fuelling a rise in assaults by women.

240 violent attacks by women!  Every day!  Wow.  That sounds serious.  I’ve read that the epidemic of knife crimes is sometimes estimated at 60,000 per year.  Clearly, drunken women are more dangerous than knives.

Now, with a serious problem like this, the first thing that comes to mind is “Thank God they don’t have GUNS!”

The second thing that comes to mind is, this being Britain and all, what are they going to do about it?  They’ve gotta ban something.  It won’t be the booze.  Goodness knows, that might just be enough to wake the Englishmen up and start another revolution, on their own soil this time.  No.  The way I see it, there aren’t enough real men left over there to ban booze… they’ll ban women.  Oh yeah, they’ll do the little dance of “controlling” them, but that never works.

Expect them to start with registration first. First the really big ones.  And the really loud ones too.  And gents, don’t try to sneak her out of the house under your coat, unless you want her taken away.  The rest of them, well, make sure they’re locked up where they can’t hurt anyone, alright?

Do yourself a favor.  Get the little woman down to the Home Office and sign her up now.  Avoid the rush.

Liberal and conservative worldviews often collide for this reason: Disciplined conservatives put God first, family and country second and themselves third, while liberals tend to put themselves first, their country last, and serve gods made in their image. This is the most defining philosophical distinction between these two groups.

     - Mark Alexander, Patriot Perspective, Patriot Post

Boise’s alternative weekly, the Boise Weekly, has an editorial today decrying the lack of gun controls in the state, especially as it applies to the mentally ill, public space, private transfers… well, in short, just about all aspects of current Idaho gun laws.  Try this out for a taste

A few months after Jason Hamilton killed his wife and then took two military rifles from his ample collection and opened fire on the Latah County Courthouse, killing a cop, a church caretaker and then himself, Moscow Mayor Nancy Chaney floated the idea of a gun ban.

It would have only applied to city property and it was not a direct reaction to the shooting, Chaney said. The city never actually passed anything, after the Idaho attorney general suggested that cities and counties were not authorized to regulate guns.

Chaney’s idea was pilloried by Idaho’s ubiquitous and bombastic gun set.

The case he’s talking about happened in May of last year.  Joe Huffman posted about it at the time, and you can Google for more stories if you like.  Note the “not a direct reaction to the shooting”… you might sell that line to the average Weekly reader, but for the rest of us, does the term “that dog don’t hunt” mean anything to you or the Mayor?  The idea should rightly be pilloried because it was an emotional and unconstitutional reaction to something that was already a crime!  For the Weekly, this case is the jumpoff point for an editorial that tries to paint Idaho as some sort of crazy wild west, brands gun owners as “bombastic”, and suggests that the politicians and gun dealers and police in the state have some sort of under the table, wink-wink deal going whereby any old run of the mill nutbag can get a gun in Idaho and the aforementioned watchdogs promise to smile and look the other way, {shrug} “what else can we do?…”

But state police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms found that all of Hamilton’s gun purchases were legal.

“There was not an illegal purchase with any of the guns in his possession,” said Idaho State Police Lt. Charlie Spencer.

That means that no gun dealer did anything wrong in selling Hamilton his guns. But police have no idea where he got some of the guns and no record of sales on others. It is legal in Idaho to buy a gun with cash from, say, the back of a pickup truck at a construction site in Nampa.

Careful there Mr Hoffman, the BATFE doesn’t take kindly to people questioning their competence.  Just sayin’, you know? And really, there is no reason for it to be illegal to buy a gun for cash from a private party regardless of where the pickup truck is parked. (You mentioned Nampa… what are you implying there, eh? Do you have some kind of problem with the folks who live in Nampa?)

But throughout the whole editorial, the major point that seems to be lost is that another law on the books WON’T SOLVE ANYTHING!  Seriously.  It was already against the law for the Moscow shooter to take a gun into the courthouse and shoot people.  It was already against the law for the Virginia Tech shooter to take a weapon into the school and shoot people.  It was already illegal for the Boise shooter to shoot the three students from Lineman College, and it was already illegal for the 18 year old kid to shoot up the house and car in Canyon County this morning.  Does anyone really believe that another law on the books would stop any of this?

A group that includes the State Police, the Department of Health and Welfare, the courts and the Attorney General’s office has met a few times to devise a method for forwarding mental-health cases to the background check database. But Health and Welfare said it was up to the courts, and the courts said it was up to the police. No one at ISP was available to speak about it.

Wink-wink.  But no, I really don’t think the writer of the editorial, or the Weekly, is quite as naive as all that.  After all, they’re intelligent, educated adults.  So they understand that writing more laws, which will only infringe the rights of law abiding citizens (the key concept here is “law abiding“), will be meaningless to the hundreds of criminals, gang members, and the mentally disturbed, and more laws will ultimately be as ineffectual at stopping incidents of the sort we are all so disturbed by as the laws that we already have.  Really Mr Hoffman, do you honestly think gun owners WANT to see these kinds of incidents?

Gun-rights advocates want their privacy, their freedom of expression and their borne arms..
..The Jason Hamilton shooting raises another question: What kind of culture truly believes that the answer to epidemic and deranged gun violence is more guns?

Let me ask YOU something as well.  What kind of culture truly believes that more laws on the books is the answer to epidemic criminal activity of ANY kind?  It hasn’t worked in Washington D.C. or Chicago or New York City, all of which boast, not less violent crime than all of Idaho, but rather more, including gun crimes committed by criminals with illegal guns!  What’s your answer to that?  Take away all the guns?  Well, good luck with that.  And even if you could, before you suggest doing that, because it sounds like you’re headed that direction, ask the Japanese or the Brits how that’s working for them… and then try Googling “knife crime”.

America does not have a gun problem, we have a criminal problem.  Laws against things don’t work, and laws against criminals don’t either if you lack the conviction as a culture to actually deal with the criminals.

 Many times, I’ve been asked why I carry a gun.  Why do I go to the range so often, or out to the desert, and what’s the big deal about doing ePostals and stuff like that?  Or I’ll stumble upon a blog post at a site paTROLLed by more, ah, “progressive” souls than usually frequent my blog (Huckleberries Online  is a good example).  The last gun comment thread I joined over there, one of the regulars was deriding gun owners with the old ‘fragile manhood’ baloney, and mocking anyone who dared suggest we live in a world that isn’t completely safe, and peopled by enlightened beings like himself.  

Head over to Zavier’s and read his post for today, about “Evil Among Us“.  Like Zavier said, that is why I carry, and that is why I train.  And I always pray that I’ll never be tested in that place.   And if you don’t think it can happen in sleepy little Boise, think again, because it already has.