A Dixie Carpetbagger

Via the Scalawag, Judge Napolitano, the Cato Institute and Dr. Lott on the MacDonald case. 

Via Robb, a great Gura quote: “Justice Sotomayor, States may have grown accustomed to violating the rights of American citizens, but that does not bootstrap those violations into something that is constitutional”

Jay, Weer’d, Linoge and Miguel respond to Sebastian.  Miguel makes the point that: “McDonald is not just a “case” or an argument or a amicus curiae. Mr. McDonald is a human being which was denied the tools for defensing himself in a violent neighborhood.”

This is correct.  However, there are two quotes that lay out how I feel about this– “… as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise” (Luke 6:31– the “Golden Rule”) and “[y]our enemy is never a villain in his own eyes. Keep this in mind; it may offer a way to make him your friend. If not, you can [eliminate] him without hate — and quickly.”  (Bob Heinlein)

Put simply, the Bradys think that they’re right.  The pro-rights groups (and the majority of Americans) disagree.  We’ll win eventually, and people like this woman will become discredited and objects of scorn.

To lighten the mood, and play you out with music, Laurel’s take on the McDonald case.  Please secure your beverage…

QUARANTINE AREA – CONTAGIOUS DISEASE

No one shall enter or leave this blog without the written permission of the Internet Health Authority.

So, it’s my spring break, and it’s finally sunny here.  Too bad I’m sick.  The 1-2-3 punch of ear infection – sinus infection – allergies has left me a coughing, hacking derelict. If it wasn’t for the decongestant cough syrup, I’d be in bed.  Heck, I think I’ll go back to bed anyway.  As soon as I catch up on my blog reading.

Assuming one gun each.  Also assuming each NICS check passed , each check was for only one gun, and discounting all private transfers in states that allow their residents to be adults (or as I call them, Free America).  I would assume that 99+% of these checks resulted in a gun sale, due to the fact that most people with felony records don’t go to gun stores to buy guns.

The article also states that if each NICS check resulted in one sale, and each owner purchased 1,000 rounds of ammo, that would mean 14 billion rounds of ammo sold in 2009.  That’s discounting existing gun owners who didn’t buy new guns in 2009.  Kinda puts the ammo shortage into perspective, doesn’t it?

Now, for some fun with the numbers.  Assume that each NICS check resulted in one gun sale, each new gun owner bought 1,000 rounds of ammo, and that the average overall length of the cartridges used was 1 1/2″.  This means that if you were to place the ammo bullet to primer, the length would be… (works calculator) that can’t be right… (does calculations again) sweet mother of pearl…

331, 439.39 miles.  That’s equivalent to the distance to Luna at perigee and halfway back.  No wonder I can’t find .380 ammo…

(H/T Cocked and Loaded)

For fun, and so I can editorialize.  (Hey, I blog, it’s what I do…)

“25 wssm upper”  You’ve given me three words, I’ll give you three:  ABANDON ALL HOPE.  An upper in .25 WSSM costs almost as much (or more) as one in .450 Bushmaster.  Also, hope you like Olympic Arms… because I don’t think anybody else makes uppers in this caliber.

“is charlie crist a carpetbagger”  No.  While he is from the North, the carpetbaggers came to the South for good reasons.

“damnation alley shower scene”  Err… shower scene?  Not that I know of, and isn’t the cast almost all gu… oh.

“6.8 spc for hunting black bear”  Not unless you like going mano-a-ursa with an angry black bear.

“sellier & bellot lcp”  S&B ammo works very well in a LCP.  So far, besides Winchester and Speer , S&B is all my LCP has gone through.

“insomnia is fun”  For the first 24 hours.  The nest 24?  Not so much.

“p-64 for self defence”  Rates right around the same place as a LCP– 9×18 fits between .380 ACP and 9×19 in power.  In short, a little more power than a .380 ACP, buts still more concealable than most 9mm pistols.

Okay, I finally am catching up on everything.

The (not so) long version is that my PC got a very nasty infection.  Multiple Trojans, multiple viruses… core Windows components (task manager and the login manager to name a few) became unstable, and I had to do some serious work on the machine.  New hard drive,  new video card,  stepped up to Windows 7, and threw in some more memory.

The upside?  Machine acts almost new again.  The downside?  Not only am I having to play catch-up, I’m having to learn how to use a new operating system… and Windows 7 is more like Mac OS X than Windows XP.  (Want proof? Here’s a screenshot.) I halfway expect my DVD drive to eject if I drag its icon into the trash.  Everything is there… it’s just… different.  Even Paint and Solitaire are different.

So, expect the writing to pick up.  However, I did lose my bookmarks file during the whole crash-a-rama on the old machine, so I lost 6 months of bookmarks.  Note to self: backup more often.

I’m still alive.  Just encountered a bit of a virus problem.  Ended up just upgrading– it was time, and I want to slag the hard drive that the infection was on.  Literally.

Observations:

Windows 7 is awesome.  Installed in less than 30 minutes, very user friendly, and secure.  But it does cost an arm and a leg.  Also, 64 bit OSes (in spite of all their flaws) are here to stay.

Onboard sound has become viable.  The sound on my Gigabyte motherboard is better than the Audigy 2 that I just yanked.  7.1 vs. 5.1, better clarity, and it’s pushing a stronger signal.

Creative can go take a run at a galloping goose.  In the past 4 1/2 years, I’ve worked on my PC over a dozen times, and every single time, the Audigy has worked its way loose, and refused to seat without hard pressure.  Which I why I now am using the onboard sound.

While the Radeon HD 5770 is shorter than the old 7800 GTX, it’s wider.  Wide enough that it’s in the second PCI-E x16 slot… the memory slots are in the way of the first PCI-E slot.  Awesome performance, but the fans at speed are… well, it reminds me of a jet engine.

It’s now snowing.  In the Florida Panhandle.  I have food and water, spare propane, and I have chosen which of my housemates I will eat if the canned ham doesn’t hold out until spring next week.  Our Sheriff even called an let us know that we needed to make our peace, because most of us won’t make it.  If this place goes silent, you know that even cannibalism wasn’t enough.

Our only hope now is that Al Gore repents– otherwise, we’re doomed.

(Yes, this is entirely sarcastic.  Except for the phone call, he actually did call and say that nobody needed to be on the roads.  And that we needed to stock up on food.  Which would require us to drive to the store.)

I’m still around.  I’ve just been stuck in my house, with tons of classwork to do… mostly SQL work.

On the plus side, I now understand this comic.

I’ve always been cluttered and unorganized.  I’ve attempted to correct this by writing myself notes on Post-it pads (my monitor eventually ended up looking like a mangy sunflower), notes (I have a 6″ pile on my desk now, waiting to be sorted), pocket calendars (found one the other day from 2007, neatly labeled with to-do lists and appointments… all forgotten), and normal calendaring software (Mozilla Sunbird is great, until you try to use it to keep track of ongoing projects).

In desperation, I hit wikipedia, looking for calendaring software that could handle my needs.  None of the newer packages suited my needs.  Then I saw a simple, unassuming package named Chandler on the list.  Looking into the program, I found out it’s a derivative of the old Lotus Agenda scheduler.  Seeing as the integrated engineering program I used in my old job used a form of Agenda for its scheduler, I knew I had a match.

The program is a small download, easy to use, has a great array of tools, and it is flexible.  Need to make yourself a note?  Just type one into the menu bar, it’ll be on the top of your to-do list.  Need to share a list of tasks with your team?  Simply make a calendar of all the tasks, assign it to its own group, export that group to the Chandler Hub, then email your team a link to subscribe to that group… all within Chandler itself.

Worried about losing your calendar?  Try this program.  I set up my hub account, and now, every few minutes (and at every shutdown), the program backs up everything except my trash.  Need to keep track of work, school, personal, and family calendars?  No sweat, you can share any, all, or no calendars with anybody.

The only downside is that the program takes forever to start, due to the fact that it syncs all calendars at startup, and the backup at shutdown can be a long wait… but that may be because I have 2500 notes and counting.  Also, this is an open source program, and the main programmer has left the project.  So, no support, few updates, and little documentation.  But it’s free, and useful.

Watch the Youtube video linked above, and the 4 part series that details use and features.  It takes about 2 minutes for the narrator to set up and distribute plans for a cookout, from “hey, honey, you wanna grill this weekend” to “hey, here’s how you get to my place.”  All in one program.

(FTC note: I was not paid to do this testimonial.  I just really like the program.  Plus, it’s a FOSS project, I doubt they pay their programmers.)

Look, Senator LePew LeMieux… I’ve unsubscribed from your newsletter four times already. I don’t want any news from you except to hear that you’re no longer my Senator. I’m not kidding, being coy, or playing hard to get– I don’t want to get email from you. PERIOD.

I’m not buying your conversion to fiscal conservatism… remember, you’re “a Charlie Crist Republican,” and he’s not exactly a small spender. You’re Charlie’s handpicked seat warmer, and in January of next year, you’ll be gone. Might want to see if Marco Rubio wants any customizations made to the chair you’re sitting in… it’ll be his chair come 2011.

The one thing you could do to merit a smile on my face is to publicly announce you’re resigning, and that you’ve appointed Chuck Baldwin to your seat. Shy of that, stop sending me emails.