So my web-hosting service has been moving our (my) server to someplace else. Apparently they forgot a few files... Now they moved one of the important ones and my regular "comments@alphecca.com" email is working again. But they forgot to move one photo file and so pictures of me (can my inflated ego ever recover from this?) and my cats' photos (no... no recovery there...) weren't moved. I had to do it myself and nobody told me those pictures on my sidepages weren't coming up. Anyway, my website is slowly returning to normal and I think most of the files have been moved. But if you come across a missing photo or something please do email me to let me know and I'll restore the file. I'm not pleased with the way Hosting Matters has handled this crisis but their price is right so I don't complain. There are quite a few "well known" bloggers using this hosting service and in the coming month all the servers will be moved. Mine just happened to be the first. I hope everyone else (my blogfather for instance) fares better. But they should be forwarned just in case...

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Anyway, I guess this wraps up another week... They go by so fast. As always, I take Saturday off so I'll see you all back here Sunday night. Thanks for stopping by! I really do appreciate it. And write an email to me, comment to me, say something to me... or just scroll down the left sidebar and feed the kitties. I need that too. Anyway, have a great weekend!

I'm sure that most of you know you can "allow" your computer to hook up to a network to aid in the search for intelligent life in the universe. It's called project SETI.

But have you heard of project YETI?

Funny stuff. I love the download requirements...

In Minnesota, a bill is also working it's way through the legislature there that would make the state's concealed-carry law a "shall issue" law. That is, unless the applicant has a criminal past, they must be issued a permit to carry. As with the previous post about Missouri, this bill is now in it's third or fourth attempt. I don't know what the prospects for it are but in a reasonable op-ed from Twin Cities.com, D.J. Tice makes the case that for all the claims by Brady Bunch like organizations, there is no data from anywhere that shows a bloodbath on the streets would ensue if citizens were allowed to carry firearms. Here's a quote:

Yet the notion that law-abiding citizens have a right to arm themselves for self-defense if they choose has justice in it ‹ unless there is real evidence that a relaxed permitting law would have broadly harmful effects.

I haven't been able to find solid evidence of guns leaping from handbags. The new Brookings Institution study noted above apparently won't provide it.

It seems legal scholars from Stanford and Yale have compared crime rates in states with and without liberalized concealed-carry laws. Their calculations contradict the much discussed work of researcher John Lott, who has claimed for years that concealed carry laws lead to a drop in crime.

The new study says Lott was wrong. But one report notes that Stanford professor John Donahue "credits Lott Š for demonstrating that concealed carry laws 'have not led to [a] massive bloodbath...'"

The editorial is not for-or-against the bill. It simply points out that no one has been able to show that allowing concealed carry increases crime. Interesting, and you might want to read the whole thing. And for you readers in Minnesota, time to call, email, and write your representatives to pressure them to support the "shall-issue" bill. Defend your rights!

Once again a law permitting concealed-carry is working its way through the legislature where it is expected to pass. Unfortunately, Missouri Gov. Bob Holden has threatened to veto it. And the liberal Kansas City Star chimes in:

Proponents have crafted a number of safeguards into House Bill 349, including mandatory training and prohibitions on concealed-carry permits for felons or persons likely to harm themselves or others.

But putting more guns on the streets is still a dangerous idea. Let's hope the concealed-carry bill does not make it to the governor's desk. If it does, House Bill 349 deserves Holden's veto.

*Sigh* The only people who should fear a law allowing law-abiding folks to carry firearms are the mutant criminals of this world. It makes their evil jobs harder to do. Can one of my Missouri visitors explain how your state became so liberal? Or is it that the city folk outnumber the country folk and control the voting in elections?

Has it been a week already? So here's my usual Wednesday table on the bias displayed by Yahoo by which stories and editorials they choose to link to on their Yahoo Gun Control Debate Page.

Yahoo Gun Control Debate Page Articles
Sample Date	For More Gun Control Or Is Anti-Gun	Not More Gun Control Or Is Pro 2nd Amendment	Neutral Articles	Concurrent Events Notes
03/05/03	11	2	7
02/26/03	10	2	8	Colorado laws
02/19/03	11	1	8	S&W .50 revolver
02/12/03	12	2	6
02/5/03	11	2	7	Ashcroft/ATF prosecutions
Jan. Avg.	15	2.5	3	Ashcroft, sniper victim lawsuits, England gang murders/ban on toy guns
Dec. Avg.	14	4	3	Canadian Registry fiasco & NJ "smart-gun" law
Nov. Avg.	17	3	2	D.C. snipers

Once again there was only a trickle of new articles and editorials. The only one to get my attention was an unsigned editorial in the SF Gate knocking Ashcroft because he has the audacity to treat the Second Amendment as if it were a right. Here's a quote from the start of it:

WHY IS U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft acting like an armed criminal's best friend? Because his views on gun ownership are undercutting law enforcement here in California.

It's a strange position for the nation's top cop. To most Americans, he wields an avenging sword when it comes to hunting down law-breakers. If anything, Ashcroft is rapped for his eagerness to bend civil liberties in the hunt for terrorists post Sept. 11.

But gun ownership is another matter for him. Ashcroft espouses a personal belief that the Constitution guarantees gun ownership, a view at odds with 60 years of federal and court policy that firearms are not a fundamental right and can be regulated.

It's a major distinction because the Ashcroft view has infected his department. New marching orders have gone out: Gun control is the enemy, not gun-carrying criminals.

Folks, if you've followed the link you know how sorry this editorial is. But let's just concentrate on the first few paragraphs I've quoted above. The writer infers that the Second Amendment is not a fundamental right according to 60 years of court decisions. I assume they (as most gun control advocates do) are referring to the UNITED STATES v. MILLER, 307 U.S. 174 (1939) case. As usual, all of them are wrong. Here's a quote from the written decision:

In the absence of any evidence tending to show that possession or use of a 'shotgun having a barrel of less than eighteen inches in length' at this time has some reasonable relationship to the preservation or efficiency of a well regulated militia, we cannot say that the Second Amendment guarantees the right to keep and bear such an instrument. Certainly it is not within judicial notice that this weapon is any part of the ordinary military equipment or that its use could contribute to the common defense. Aymette v. State of Tennessee, 2 Humph., Tenn., 154, 158.

The Constitution as originally adopted granted to the Congress power- 'To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions; To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress.' U.S.C.A.Const. art. 1, 8. With obvious purpose to assure the continuation and render possible the effectiveness of such forces the declaration and guarantee of the Second Amendment were made. It must be interpreted and applied with that end in view.

The Militia which the States were expected to maintain and train is set in contrast with Troops which they [307 U.S. 174, 179]   were forbidden to keep without the consent of Congress. The sentiment of the time strongly disfavored standing armies; the common view was that adequate defense of country and laws could be secured through the Militia- civilians primarily, soldiers on occasion.

The signification attributed to the term Militia appears from the debates in the Convention, the history and legislation of Colonies and States, and the writings of approved commentators. These show plainly enough that the Militia comprised all males physically capable of acting in concert for the common defense. 'A body of citizens enrolled for military discipline.' And further, that ordinarily when called for service these men were expected to appear bearing arms supplied by themselves and of the kind in common use at the time.

The case involved one specific gun with a sawed-off barrel. It had nothing to do with, and as the fourth paragraph I quote indicates, curtailing the rights of the individual citizen to own/possess a firearm. Look at that fourth paragraph again; citizens were expected to supply their own weapons! This U.S. Supreme Court decision re-affirmed that. I really think that the Brady Bunch (as do most advocacy groups) rely on their lies being accepted as fact because most ordinary folks won't take the trouble to fact-check their claims.

Then, the editorial claims that John Ashcroft doesn't consider gun-carrying criminals a priority. As regular readers here know, the truth is that he does. And prosecution for gun-crimes is way up under Ashcroft. Even crimes as simple as the attempt by felons to purchase guns are being prosecuted at the highest rates ever.

This editorial is full of lies and innuendo and the word needs to get out that the SF Gate is full-of-crap. They wouldn't know the truth if it fell on them. But no-doubt the San Francisco types don't actually want the true facts. They just want their newspapers to mouth their own left-wing views. The SF Gate is good at that.

Meanwhile, Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. is finally showing some backbone and keeping his promise to reject unnecessary gun control measures. From the Washington Post, here's the story:

Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) yesterday came out against a proposal that would expand the state's ballistic-fingerprinting program to rifles and other long guns, citing concerns about the cost and effectiveness of the gun-tracking program.

Returning to an issue from last fall's campaign, Ehrlich spokesman Henry Fawell said the governor has "yet to be convinced" that the handgun database actually works and is considering whether it should be eliminated. After consultation with Ehrlich, Maryland State Police officials testified at a General Assembly hearing that the state should evaluate the system before spending more money to expand the program.

Good for him. As I've blathered on about in last week's posting, I said:

...Look folks, most mutant criminals (not all, but most) don't carry rifles; they're too large to conceal and too unwieldly for day-to-day crime sprees. They use hand-guns.

Maryland doesn't need a ballistic-fingerprinting program for long-guns. It would be an entire waste of money. Governor Ehrlich is right to reject this proposal. Maryland has almost made it impossible for the ordinary person to own a firearm to protect themselves and their families. Hopefully, Ehrlich will make it a bit easier. We shall see...

I've discussed a couple of the other articles earlier this week (scroll down to Sunday) so I'll end this week's wrap-up here. Regulars know I'm still adapting to OS X and I haven't yet re-installed MicroSoft Office so I can't put up the cool chart that accompanies the table. Maybe next week. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this weekly feature and in any case, I thank you for stopping by... See you soon.

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By the way, Hosting Matters email mapping is still not working so again, if you want to email me, use this link:

Hey Jeff!

I appreciate your comments.

...that my postings have been light this week. Sorry about that. There is a reason and it's called, oddly enough, Reason by Propellerhead Software. A program I've acquired that, combined with my Edirol PCR-30 MIDI keyboard controller has unleashed all the musical/creative forces I've kept bottled up for the last 18 years since I left the music business. (FYI: Aside from having been a disco DJ in NY clubs for years, I went to the Institute of Audio Research for audio engineering, and also played guitar and keyboards and... But I digress...)

Reason 2.0.1 is simply the most fascinating, challenging, creative, and most enjoyable software I have ever purchased and it has consumed every spare moment of my days since I received it last week. And with my love of "Euro-dance" music, this is my perfect partner to start creating it. And be forwarned: Soon I will make my tunes available here (for free of course) so think of this as portending Alphecca: The Musical...

Anyway, that's what has been distracting me for the past few days.

I've been informed by email that my (Alphecca's) web hosting service is having a tough time with their current hosts. My web host is Hosting Matters, the same service InstaPundit and many others use. My particular server has been having trouble and they have migrated my account to a different company. They (my servers) are supposed to be duplicating each other but I find I have to FTP my files to both locations. I'm sorry if this causes any problems for anyone.

One thing it has done is to shut off my email-mapping. That is, you send a comment to "comments" (or) "jeff" @ alphecca.com and it is instantly forwarded to my local ISP email account. Currently, that isn't happening. If you have emailed anything to me in the past 5 days I haven't gotten it. It was sent somewhere into outer-space. Until this is sorted out, please email me at this address:

Hey Jeff!

which hasn't been troubled by all this. If you sent me an email in the past five days, please send it again to the above email link. Hopefully this will all be sorted out shortly.

Anyway, I'll see you all back here Wednesday morning for the gun-story bias check. As always, I thank you very much for stopping by.

From the AP comes this story:

NEW YORK - A framed sketch by renowned artist Salvador Dali has been swiped from a locked display case in the men's jail at Riker's Island and replaced with a copy, authorities said Sunday.

And:

Antenen said the copy would be removed from the display case as evidence. He said the department was investigating the theft and trying to determine who would have had access.

"You can't rule anything out at this point," he said.

Let's see now... A jailhouse filled with criminals... Who could have done this?

What can I say? It's a slow news day and I can't find anything better to talk about. Maybe I'll do more tonight or tomorrow (I'm off from work for Town Meeting Day.) Anyway, thanks for stopping by!

Anyway, I was Googling myself (now stop that!) and discovered another blog that blogrolls me, Publicola. I don't know a thing about the person who runs it but he likes guns. And anyone who is kind enough to blogroll me shows impeccable taste...

I wish I could, but my store never does and so I have to be at work in a couple hours. Judith Shulevitz writes today in the New York Times that maybe we've all become slaves to work, or more rightly, overworking and have forgotten how much we need a day off each week to gather our sanity and just do nothing. Here's a quote:

It was only much later, after I joined the synagogue and changed my life in a million other unforeseen ways, that I developed a theory about my condition. If Ferenczi's patients had suffered from the Sabbath, I was suffering from the lack thereof. In the Darwinian world of the New York 20-something, everything -- even socializing, reading or exercising -- felt like work or the pursuit of work by other means. Had I been able to consult Ferenczi, I believe he would have told me that I was experiencing the painful inklings of sanity. For in the 84 years since Ferenczi identified his syndrome, which bears a striking resemblance to what is now called workaholism, it has become the norm, and the Sabbath, the one day in seven dedicated to rest by divine command, has become the holiday Americans are most likely never to take.

And:

''The Lonely Days Were Sundays'' is the title of a book about growing up Jewish in the churchgoing South. The lonely Sunday has been replaced by the overscheduled Sunday -- soccer Sunday, Little League Sunday, yoga-class Sunday, catch-up-around-the-house Sunday. Americans still go to church, of course, but only in between chores, sporting events and shopping expeditions. (You can now find A.T.M. machines inside megachurches; congregants don't have to waste a minute between services and the mall.)

The eclipse of the Sabbath is just one small part of the larger erosion of social time, with its former generally agreed-upon rhythms of labor and repose. ''After hours'' has become a strictly personal concept, since the 24-hour convenience store, gas station, pharmacy, supermarket, movie theater, diner, factory and bar all allow us to work, shop, dine and be entertained at any time of day or night. We greet each shift of an activity from weekday to evening or weekend as proof of American cultural superiority; we knock over the barriers between us and the perpetual motion machine that is the marketplace with the glee you might expect of insomniacs who had been chained for too long to their beds.

The one thing I admired most about living in Bergen County New Jersey years ago was that they still retained some "blue-laws" where most stores had to close. It gave the good folks of the area (and especially Paramus) a day of rest from the endless traffic on the highways.

I wish these laws were in effect everywhere. We need a day to slow down. To skip the trip to Walmart. And to give the Walmart sales clerks a day off as well. Stay home, spend time with your family. Leave the car in the garage and grab a good book or a board-game. Chill-out! One reason I love Northern New England is that the sidewalks roll-up at night. It gets quiet.

We all put in long hours at work, at school, at home-maintenance... We've forgotten how to relax. Even when we do something we think is relaxing we do it with such aggression and impatience that it really isn't fun. And when we finish, we mistaken exhaustion for relaxation. How many of us have come back from a vacation and said, "I need another vacation?"

Will our economy really fall apart if we all took Sunday off? So we have to squeeze the shopping into the other days of the week and the sales clerks and restaurant employees will shift their hours to other days of the week to handle the extra business.

Here at Alphecca, I originally posted seven days a week. But a few months ago I made a conscious decision to take Saturdays (and usually Tuesdays and Thursdays) off. This blog should be fun. I don't want it to become, "gosh, I've got to get up something today..." Four days a week for a hobby like this is plenty. It still averages about 14 hours of "work" but I've freed up time to read a good mystery, play with the cats, visit with friends, etc.

So why don't you all set aside a day such as Sunday, and stay home. Cook at home. Let your mind wander. Read a book. Enjoy spending time with your children before they grow up and move out. You know, relax. Your brain and body will thank you.

Anything that makes the Brady Bunch miserable is good news to me. From AP writer Gina Holland:

The Supreme Court said Wednesday that it would not decide after all if the government can withhold information on some gun purchases and crimes because a new law may affect the case.

The city of Chicago, which is suing the gun industry, had wanted the court to force the ATF to release information under the Freedom of Information Act. Chicago is trying to recover money spent to respond to gun violence, including expenses by police, medical units and other municipal agencies.

Justices vacated an appeals court decision in Chicago's favor, and sent the case back to the appeals court to consider Congress' actions.

What this decision does is throw another road-block in the way of Chicago attempting to sue gun-makers. Good business! Now maybe they, and victims' trial-lawyers will have to go back to blaming the criminal thugs who actually commit the crimes. They are the ones who should pay. Of course most of them don't have deep-pockets so trial-lawyers lose out.

So far, most (not all) of these suits filed by various cities have petered out, been thrown out, or otherwise have not generated the huge sums of cash the trial-lawyers have hoped for. Thank God for that. We cannot allow litigation to make the laws we live under. The Second Amendment is just as important as the First and any court decisions that help protect it also help to protect America and the freedoms we enjoy here. The Amendments are rights, not privileges and must be secured at all costs. Otherwise the U.S. just becomes another piss-in-pot country. It is the Bill of Rights (and our Constitution) that are unique in this world and by extension have made America unique.

I've said it many times before: Freedom is expensive but tyranny and loss of freedom is far more costly.

From the AP:

GARDEN CITY, N.Y. - Amy Fisher, who set off a frenzy of tabloid headlines a decade ago when she shot her lover's wife, celebrated the end of her parole by announcing her intention to work for causes aimed at keeping handguns away from minors.

"I committed a terrible crime when I was only 16 years old," Fisher writes in the Long Island Press, a free weekly where she has worked as a columnist since last summer. "Today I am 28, a mother and almost a stranger to that teenage girl who became known around the world as the `Long Island Lolita.'"

Fisher was released from prison in 1999 after serving seven years for shooting Mary Jo Buttafuoco in the head during a confrontation outside Buttafuoco's home. Fisher was having an affair with Buttafuoco's auto mechanic husband at the time.

Would someone just go slap her. This little slut got mixed up with a big slut (Joey Buttafuoco -- who idiots such as Howard Stern suck up to) and committed a terrible crime. Now she wants to imply -- by her current actions -- that somehow it was all the fault of her being able to get hold of a gun. Hey honey? You pulled the trigger. You are the brain-defective mutant. Why not dedicate your life to finding ways to apologize to Mary Jo? Or better yet, just shut-up and disappear.

I call it the "ex-smoker syndrome."

I see that both Momma Bear and Arthur Silber are gunning for PETA; one of the truely most irrelevant organizations as far as I'm concerned.

See, here's the problem with PETA, and other shrill activist groups and individuals (most gay-lesbian groups come to mind, as does Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, the Brady Bunch, and so on...) Anyway, the problem is that you can have a simple --and possibly worthy-- mission or goal but if you cloak it in lies, false alliances, histrionics, and silly side-issues, well, your message simply gets lost in all the noise. Those on both the far-left and the far-right are guilty of this.

So a group like PETA might have an original core issue that I agree with but these days when I hear of them I immediately tune-out. Any valid point they were hoping to get across to me never gets heard.

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Still cruising... Leigh Hanlon gives his list of subtle (or not so subtle) first instances of things sexual in the movies and on TV. I had forgotten about many of these...

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And Boy Bitch (yes, there is one over there...) goes after femi-nazis. Quite the rant. I wonder what parts (*ahem*) Spooky cut out...

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Just a reminder that if you have me on your blogroll, please let me know and I will quickly add you to mine. This seems the best compromise -- to mostly just list fellow blogrollers -- to keep the sidebar from becoming just one long giant list where nobody stands out. And it keeps you on my radar.

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Lastly but definitely not leastly, one of my loyal readers made a generous donation today: Thank you! As I said in my email to him, I don't use these contributions for new guns or homes on Cape Cod, I use them to pay my bills. No extras -- just essentials. I don't mention contributor names here because not everyone wants to be publicly seen donating to a "gay gun-nut" but I do appreciate it very much. If you would like to help me get my messages out, or you just like what I do, why just scroll on down to the picture of the starving kitties on the left sidebar... Thanks!

I'm still replacing and loading programs into the iMac but at least I'm adapting to the new OS. I've been assured that these days, upgrading Windows causes the same problems with having to re-enter passwords, com. info, registration numbers, etc. But enough about me! Oh! This is my blog so I guess it is all about me...