A Dixie Carpetbagger

The decision may have come down by now.  I can only hope– and pray– that it’ll be favorable.

Massad Ayoob has links to a group of podcasts and interviews (including John Stossel’s show from this week) concerning the case.

Joe Huffman quotes justice Scalia from the Heller decision.  To paraphrase:

We are aware of the problem of handgun violence in this country, and we take seriously the concerns raised by the many amici who believe that prohibition of handgun ownership is a solution. The Constitution leaves [them] a variety of tools for combating that problem, including some measures regulating handguns… [...] But the enshrinement of constitutional rights necessarily takes certain policy choices off the table. These include the absolute prohibition of handguns held and used for self-defense in the home. [...] it is not the role of this Court to pronounce the Second Amendment extinct.

Maybe we can take one more step towards true freedom today.

The following is a timeline of the controversy over the nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court.

Read the rest of this entry »

Remember Ms. “But Arizona doesn’t have a border with Mexico!” I mentioned in the last post?  I found out via a commenter at Wyatt’s that Senator Kyl sent her a letter.  He included a map.  I can only imagine that said map looked like this:

A 28 year old woman is running for state rep in Tennessee.  She… she posed for racy pictures!  When she was 23!  TWENTY-THREE!  I hate to show you such… filth… but here’s one of the pictures she posed for.  Scandalous!

No, not really.  I have a few female friends who model, and that picture is tame.  As in, that went in the lobby.  One of my friends has a picture where she was modeling a black strapless dress and had a… wardrobe malfunction.  The picture was used (in a cropped form) in a few ad campaigns.  Heck, that picture’s tame compared to some of the pictures my friends take at the lake.

I find it more scandalous that she was pregnant at 15.  Since the picture’s a 0.5 on the Scandal-meter, the fact that she’s 28 with a 13 year old measures a whopping 1.0.  Seriously, Teddy Kennedy kills a chick, Bill Clinton gets hummers in the Oval Office, and Blago tried to sell a Senate seat… and this is supposed to be scandalous?  Pshaw!

All I wanna know is… if she wins, will she do a Maxim shoot?  (chuckle)

(H/T Uncle)

From the New York Times:

One day next month every student at Loyola Law School Los Angeles will awake to a higher grade point average. But it’s not because they are all working harder. The school is retroactively inflating its grades, tacking on 0.333 to every grade recorded in the last few years. The goal is to make its students look more attractive in a competitive job market.

From the Washington Post:

The Marine Corps has discharged 13 junior officers training at Quantico for cheating on a land navigation test [...] They were taking an intense, six-month training course for new officers and were trying to learn how to lead a platoon through rugged terrain. They were sent with a map and compass to a wooded area on the base and instructed to write down numbers painted on boxes left there. The accused wrote down numbers from the previous year’s test…

The defense for both events?  Everyone’s doing it! Which, of course, doesn’t make me feel a bit better.  That just means that there’s more “A+” students out there who are actually A- (or B+, or C-) students graded on a curve.

I also admire the Marine OCS cadets for their sheer chutzpah– they’re going to lead people in combat, and they don’t even have the common courtesy to learn basic skills?  What happens when they’re in a war zone and have to bring their squad back in through a minefield… at night… with no GPS gear?  How many letters to parents will they have to right before it dawns on them that this happened because of their mental laziness?

(NYT article via Jennifer, WaPo article via Laginappe’s Guy)

The Democrat disaster preparedness plan:

1. Don’t have a disaster.

2.  And if you do have a disaster…

3.  DIE QUICKLY.

“George Bush Barack Obama doesn’t care about black disabled people.”

I spent Hurricane Opal in a shelter with my disabled grandmother– so this upsets me a bit.  No plans… whatsoever?  Not even having the Social Security and Medicare offices fax the local Emergency Operation Centers a list of people who might need help?

(H/T Hope n’ Change)

Coffee shop run by girls in their underwear.  How did I not hear of this before?  Maybe I can convince them to open a branch in my area…

Ban Anything That’s Fun or Exciting

“Peasant, we’s heard you’s liked playing airsoft, so we’s gonna ban the crap outta that so’s ya’s can’t plays it no mo’.  Jus’ ‘member, we’s from the gub-mint, and we’s here to help ya’s.”

Just to re-cap, from the post where I first heard about this:

Basically, if the ATF claims these airsoft guns can be easily converted into real guns, they should just demonstrate the conversion, and put a couple of magazines through it.

So, did the ATF test the gun like this?  From the third page of the ATF’s letter:

To determine if the submitted sample (as modified) is capable of expelling a projectile … [t]he test fire was conducted a total of three times…

Wait, wait, wait… how was the gun modified?  Well, the lower was Dremeled into shape, an M16 hammer, hammer pin, hammer spring, buffer and buffer spring were put in, and then an AR-15 upper was put on and held in place with a drift punch in place of the front retention pin.  In other words, As long as you have access to a whole bunch of parts off M-16s, you can assemble an Ar-15.  With a crappy airsoft lower.  Or, to quote a commenter over at Uncle’s:

My water glass can be converted into a machine gun.

You take the glass and replace it with a machine gun, take the water and replace it with ammo.

Voila, machine gun.

There’s “massaging the evidence,” and then there’s “we took it to the massage parlor down on Riverside and got it a happy ending.”  This is the latter.  To recap: if you have access to parts from an M-16,  an AR-15 upper, drift punches and a Dremel tool, you can create a machine gun.  Kinda.  Sorta.  Maybe.

Oh, and they have re-defined transfers, too.  Now, your favorite gun writer will have to fill out a 4473 to get an evaluation gun.  It’s almost like they’re trying to clamp down on us gun owners, isn’t it?

A nationwide alert has been issued for 17 members of the Afghan military who have gone AWOL from a Texas Air Force base where foreign military officers who are training to become pilots are taught English [...] (they) have security badges that give them access to secure U.S. defense installations…

There’s no delicate way for me to say this, but…

YOU.  HAVE.  GOT.  TO.  BE.  F*CKING.  KIDDING.  ME.

These guys had better be at the local strip club getting their groove on, or somebody’s about to be assigned to Elmendorf… permanently.

(H/T Liberalguy)

… I can supply your need.  From Sarah in the comments over here at Kevin Baker’s, an informative video:

Now, Larry Grathwohl, the FBI agent who went under cover into the Weather Underground.  You know, the organization founded by Bill Ayers… Obama’s buddy.

Do not for a minute allow yourself to think that the people who stand in opposition to your rights are “safe” because “they think they are right.”  Useful idiots are as dangerous as their masters… and their masters are very damn dangerous.

(Sorry for the language, kinda emotional subject.  I have Korea and Vietnam vets in the family, and the fact that the mush-heads today think Che and Stalin are cool boils my blood.)