All Righty then, Tarazet is up and running. My first posts are there and of course I expect all pet owners to comment and all bloggers to blogroll my new endeavor (he said, on his knees, pleading...) Anyway, as I said a couple days ago, either it will work or it won't. Besides pet posts, I will do some "alternate universe posts" for some fun. I'm still trying to figure out the formatting, as to what HTML I can include, or should include, but at least it's readable. There's too many line-breaks around there but I'll get the hang of it shortly. Also photo-posting.

I sometimes think I like dogs and cats better than people. That's my dementia, if it is. If you feel the same way, go visit there and participate...

As usual, I take weekends off here at Alphecca but I'll be posting over at Tarazet to build some momentum. In the meantime, have a great weekend everyone. It was 65 degrees and mostly sunny today here in Vermont. In fact, it was the nicest day we've had since last August. I wish you the same! Thanks for stopping by.

Unlike England, we have a little something in our constitution (and in most state constitutions) that states (to the disappointment of gun grabbers) that we have the right to bear arms and defend ourselves. Actually, England used to have something like that in a minor document called The Magna Carta but the leftist socialists who now control Great Britain have decided that it no longer applies...

Some in America would toss aside our Second Amendment as well. Maryland is not a gun-owner friendly state yet there is some minor, encouraging news:

Maryland lawmakers on Wednesday discussed a bill that gives homeowners greater leeway when they defend themselves against intruders.

Under the measure people who use deadly force to defend themselves would not be held civilly liable.

Currently a homeowner can be sued for money damages by a burglar or their beneficiaries if the homeowner hurts or kills the intruder.

Supporters of the bill say that burglary is a risky business and homeowners shouldn't have to be concerned about being hauled into court when defending themselves, their family, or their property.

"This is purely simple self defense," said bill's sponsor Maryland Delegate Carmen Amedori. "That people who are put into that situation are not out seeking it, they're not committing a crime. They are the victims, and the criminals must stop winning in these situations."

This ought to be a "no-brainer" for lawmakers. You're supposedly safe and secure in your home. Maybe it's late at night and you're sleeping in your bedroom with your wife or husband. A crash from downstairs, or just a noise of a door being "jimmied" and you're up. You grab your Bill of Rights protected defensive firearm and from the top of the stairs you see some mutant in your living room or hallway. He's not supposed to be there. He has no right to be there. There is NO GOOD REASON he should be there. But no matter WHAT the reason, he (or I suppose, she) broke into your home -- a law broken right there -- and he is threatening you and your family -- another law broken right there -- and maybe he is going to rob you -- a violation of the law, etc... -- and maybe he has a weapon -- you get the idea... -- Point your gun at this possible threat to your life and shoot him dead.

Really now, do any of you actually have a problem with this scenerio? And your state's laws might say you are justified but the bastard trial lawyers want to sue you for what? "Violation of some criminal's rights" to intimidate or rob or murder you? That's what the trial lawyers would have juries believe.

This proposed Maryland law would finally exempt people who properly defend themselves from the preposterous civil lawsuits by mutant's families and their greedy lawyers. This would be, should be common sense legislation but I promise you that the leftist-liberal Democrats will fight it to the end. Write your state representatives and try to get it passed. It's good for you; like chicken soup for the soul of law abiding citizens facing the onslaught of mutant criminals.

I've just been really busy with real life. Tonight I'll get back to posting. But here are a few things of note:

The recent newlyweds Deb and Jay have now also wedded their substantial talents and moved in together at Accidental Verbosity. Set your dials accordingly.

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John R. Lott, Jr.
has a new op-ed at NRO about how the Violence Policy Center is conceding that the whole phony "assault weapons ban" is meaningless. Exactly!

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BUI?
Blogging while intoxicated? Heck, I do that all the time. Still, it's a shame that we lost the chance to solve all the problems of the world...

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Publicola is against newspapers publishing CCW holder's names (I agree) and then is taken to task. I'm with him on this one.

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About my almost about to start new blog Tarazet... Don't go there yet since I'm still dwelling on it. Say Uncle wrote me to say I should just move Alphecca there and take advantage of MT. I have thought of using MT for Alphecca in the past but I'm so used to hand-coding (and having the complete control that gives me over things here) that I haven't done it ...yet. I'll see how comfortable I am with MT over the next month or so before deciding whether to convert this blog to MT (I actually could do that now that Hosting Matters has explained things to me.)

In the meantime, I think Tarazet will really just be a nice place to visit for pet owners. Maybe I'll have some "alternate universe" posts in it but mostly it'll just be about the fun cats and dogs bring to our lives. Nothing heavy, I'll save all that for here at Alphecca. Even I need a quiet peaceful space to retreat to now and then. I'll let you all know (probably in a day or so) when I start posting there.

Some comments:

On the subject of guns,I'm sure you know that the state in which I worked,Maryland, is one of the most anti-gun states in the union.They have their little Assault Weapons bill pending in the legislature.Today I received my monthly Fraternal Order of Police(FOP) newsletter.I was very pleased to see my local lodge,which has about 3,000 members,was on record as opposing this legislation.The state FOP, the umbrella organization for all the local lodges,is also opposed.Their chief reason is that the proposed legislation penalizes the law abiding gun owner.One of the reasons proponents of these sorts of laws always give is protection of police officers.I'm sure some of the liberal legislators are appalled at the ingratitude.Of course they think we are dense anyway.

--B__ [to protect his anonymity]

I thought you might be interested in the status of Illinois House Bill 4075, the home-defense bill that started up after the Hale DeMar incident in Wilmette. It passed the House, and has been sent to the Senate. Hopefully it will pass there as well. I've got the link to the Bill status in the Illinois Legislature over on my blog. I'm pretty confident about this bill. Hopefully there will be enough of a majority in the Legislature to override any potential veto by Governor Blagojevich.

Take care, and have fun with your new blog. That should be a hoot and a half. I want to know how my cats would be able to get along with hundreds of years of canine-centric teaching in public schools.

--Jason at Song of the Suburbs

Oooo, I dunno, Jeff. This may be a devilish idea.

I used to have a cat named Sassafras (Sassy for short). When I left home, my folks wouldn't let me take her with me. She was the best cat in the whole darn world.

She never, ever, went to the bathroom where she wasn't supposed to, except just once. We were taking care of a friend's kitten for a couple weeks, while the friend was on vacation.

Sassy showed her displeasure by pooping smack dab in the middle of my father's favorite chair. There is no doubt that it was deliberate.

Much as the thought of pooping in Dianne Feinstein's (or Shumer, or Boxer, or too many to list) favorite chair pleases me, the reality is . . um . . . I don't think so.

Cheers~
Marie at Ordinary Galoot

Heh. Cats are very good at showing annoyance with a situation with a well placed poop...

Back tonight...

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Update 3/26 PM regarding Publicola's posts (mentioned above.):
Linda Seebach,
editorial writer, Rocky Mountain News sent me (and maybe others) this email:

We have a Colorado blogger named publicola who's a defender of gun rights (so am I) who put up a post crowing that bloggers had forced the Ft. Wayne, Ind. newspaper to back off from a plan to publish the names of concealed-carry permit holders by threatening to put up on the Web all the private information they could find about all the newspaper's staff members in retaliation. I put something in the comments, and he responded with a ringing defense of his right to cause harm to people who cause harm to him.

Threat was my word; he says no, it was an ultimatum.

With friends like that, I don't need enemies.

Anyway I told him I would try to drive some traffic his way, so take a look.

And then she lists the links I also had above. I will not speak for Publicola nor does he need me speaking for him. I don't think he threatened physical harm to anyone. What he did was to state that (and I agree with him) publishing the names of CCW permit holders is wrong, and it could subject them to community consequences from their neighbors and co-workers. And that can harm them (even if just emotionally) in many ways. Loss of business or friendships, etc.

And what I think he said was, okay, if you can publish legal, law-abiding permit holder's names and information-- people who have done absolutely nothing wrong other than to take advantage of their legal and constitutional right to self-defense, then you as a newspaper writer or publisher should be subject to the same exposure and scrutiny.

I don't do that here but I don't have a problem with that concept either. It is no different than a media source publishing the names of political party donators, for example. Would you, a newspaper editor, publish a list of people who just received their driver's licenses? Lawyers who just passed the "bar exams"? What is the purpose of publishing a list of people who are LEGALLY allowed to concealed-carry firearms then?

Publishing a list of permit holders implies (incorrectly, but the implication to the average newspaper reader is there) that the people on that list are somehow evil, or have done something wrong, as if it were a list from the "police blotter." Putting the names and information of principles of a newspaper that does this is simply showing YOU what it feels like to be mentioned in such fashion.

And so I say again, I have no problem with it. What's good for the goose is... You get the idea, by now, I hope.

I finally, actually installed a Movable Type blog at my un-used domain Tarazet and I've finally decided what I want to do with it. I'm still learning MT (Movable Type) and configuring it and you can witness those changes over the next few days. A week or so ago I asked for input on whether I should make it a blog about pets or out-of-control rants. To give you an example of my underwhelming popularity, no one wrote. I decided to combine my love of cats and dogs with politics. Huh?

Now, I might totally fall on my face with this idea, which is why it's a seperate blog that will in no way effect or change Alphecca. My conception of Tarazet is as follows:

On a planet named Tarazet, somewhere in the universe, cats and dogs (and for the sake of this fantasy world I'm creating, we'll assume they tend to get along and co-exist peacefully per se) have evolved to be the dominant life-forms and even have speech and writing. They face many (okay, all) of the problems humans do on Earth. How would Dogs and Cats handle it? Through a series of posts we will chronicle their (startlingly like our) problems. How they deal with it all from a cat and dog sense will be the purpose (and humor and satire) of the blog. Since it's Movable Type, comments from readers will be encouraged.

If I can figure out how (remember, I'm just learning MT) photos will be enabled so all you PhotoShop fans can run wild.

I suppose I could do this all on my own but I'd like the creative input of some of you too. So, I'm inviting you to join me in this very strange endeavor. I would love to have 4 or 5 others who put up posts detailing the trials of living on Tarazet. I've created several categories including Politics, Social Issues, Sex, Defense, etc. The ability to create a world like Tarazet to reflect and comment on our real human world might be fun. This is meant to be a satire, something fun and challenging as we translate our real-world problems to the animal world the way George Orwell did. But as a blog it would be a living-breathing and GROWING fantasy. I'm not looking for rants or curses, just our world viewed through the eyes of a society composed of cats and dogs.

Right now there's no posts there but I'll put up some initial -- starter, scene setting -- posts in the next few days. I'm still trying to learn how MT works and is configured... If you like my idea and would like to contribute, email me with your interest. Naturally, you probably should like cats and dogs. And politics. Over the next few days I'll change the look to some sci-fi thing with pictures and stuff to indicate that this is a fantasy blog about an alternate world. I think (or hope) that this can be fun, with satire and photos to make it go. If I can get a few active contributors to help out and make this new fantasy world a real thing, I think we can use a lot of allegory and innuendo to make our case without actual references to the real world. I'm not looking for ranters, just clever commentators. Give me a few days to put up the first posts, photos, etc. Then I will get back to you if you are asking to join the fun.

By the way, under "links" I've put everyone on my blogroll. (*hint* *hint*) and I think this new blog could become an outlet for all of our frustrations with the "real world." Care to join me in this silly exercise? Let me know. It might fail horribly but it might also catch-on and become a hit. Let's try... They can only kill us once! Viva la pets!

I've blabbed many times that (since Fairlee, VT doesn't have cable and I can't affort a dish) I survive TV-wise on two broadcast channels. I have a VCR (13 years old and still going strong) but I can (usually three years after everyone else does) spot a trend and about a month ago I bought a DVD player for $49 bucks. I figured, what the hell, even I can afford that and that's the trend in renting movies and stuff. And I've been enjoying it ever since. It works wonderfully and I like all the extra stuff included on DVDs that I rent.

Anyway, this month they have a promotion -- rent seven for 7 days for $7 bucks. Money is tight and I usually only rent (pay the usual three dollars) for something I really want to see. But this promotion lets me rent and view stuff I would love to see on the cheap. So I checked out the 2nd and 3rd seasons of The Sopranos. Recommended highly by my boss and others, I figured I had to see it.

Well worth it! But there is a caveat. The actors are great. The plots are interesting. I've -- in my long (I used to say "short") life have worked for two low-level members (I DJ'd for eight years in NYC and most of the clubs I worked in were mob-owned.) This series is mostly realistic (but not entirely) and so I connect with it.

So what the hell is the point of this post? I know a little-bit about the family and I know how they work and live and operate: I've worked for these people. That was a long time ago but things, they haven't changed.

One of the people who recommended that I watch this show almost glowed in his recommendation. Yes, it's a great show to follow. Great acting, plots, etc. But... But, but, but, but, folks, these Mafia dudes, organized crime types, whatever you want to call them, are terrible people. Yeah, you can feel for Tony but in the end, they are nothing but thugs. And that's the problem with TV and Hollywood: They love to glorify the miscreants of the world. And kids then think these thugs are cool.

I have watched two seasons of The Sopranos and I know from experience, from contact, that these people are more than dangerous, they are evil. And just like the liberal Hollywood, these leftist denizens of the ultra-liberal Democratic Party would elevate them (these thugs) to national stature just as they do the murderous palistinians who continually bomb the hapless Israelis.

The "mob" is nothing to admire and respect. Yeah, it's a TV show, but there is an existing counterpart that needs to be dealt with.

The Sopranos is a TV show about the trash that rules many business areas of this country. A good show. But I'd almost rather watch Elliot Ness.

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Update 3/26 comment:

I though I was pretty much alone in my dislike of the Sopranos,until I read your piece. Those people are evil and glorifying their lives and activities cheapens our culture.I am a retired cop,so I guess you could consider me biased on the subject of glamorizing criminals.
--B.

Alphecca is a strange blog. I usually write about bias in the media against firearms and the Second Amendment but sometimes, like this week, I yak about everything but... Sorry about that but as you can gather from my posts, there is a lot of other stuff on my mind.

Last Sunday, Art Bell interviewed (again) John Lear, the man he (Art) credits with getting him into broadcast of the fantastic. John Lear is the son of Bill Lear, designer of the Lear Jet.

John believes the following: Humans are an "experiment" by aliens. The Moon was "towed into orbit" around the Earth. There are many alien structures on the Moon that Apollo astronauts are forbidden to talk about. There is a six-mile high antenna on the Moon that broadcasts souls into newborn humans, and that receives those souls back when a person dies, unless that person dies underwater.

Now lest you think Lear is your average garden-variety nut, here's a quote from his bio:

John Lear is the son of the famous inventor of the Lear Jet. He is a Lockheed L-1011 Captain and is highly regarded in aviation circles. He has flown over 150 test aircraft and has won every award granted by the Federal Aviation Administration. John also holds 18 world speed records and has worked for 28 different Aircraft Corporations. During the late 1980s and early 1990s, John began coming forward with some startling revelations concerning the subject of aerial phenomena and Unidentified Flying Objects.

I listened for about two hours of the show and Lear is deadly serious. And Art -- of course the perfect host -- indulges him. I have to give Art credit because if I tried to conduct an interview with someone like Lear I'd be laughing in his face. Then again, I don't absolutely say never to anything or idea since I have on a couple of occasions experienced "psychic phenomena" so...

Most of the public has already lost interest in the Mars rovers Spirit and Opportunity. You know what I wish? That one of the rovers would take a picture of the ground revealing some sort of footprints. Boy would that get peoples' attention. Scientists would be agog. Religious leaders would go nuts. I wonder how humans would deal with such an event. Or instead of footprints, maybe debris of a craft not of Earth origin.

By the way, while I disparage Kerry, in fact I loath him, I (as any regular here knows) do not give Bush a free pass. I am glad that this administration is proactive (I hate that yuppie word) in fighting threats to our country but I did warn -- all the way back in January of last year -- that if we didn't have real proof of WMD:

Then for God's sake, prove it. Show the evidence. Because unless and until you do, any war launched by the U.S. will seem like a pre-ordained mission by a bully who was simply itching for a fight. Now look, I don't place a whole lot of stock in the U.N. to begin with, and Iraq is a country deserving of a beating. But we, America, cannot engage in pre-emptive wars. We just can't. And for the same reasons that I gave for police in this country not being able to arrest people for things they think someone might do. Scroll down a ways to see my post about that nonsense. We can stomp Iraq into powder anytime we want. But the rest of the civilized world wants us to show just-cause. Not some sort of catch-22 bullshit of "heads we win, tails you lose" type justification.

In addition, his idea of a constitutional ammendment to ban gay marriages, something better left to each individual state, is asinine. His support for extension of the phony "assault weapons ban" is disappointing too.

Don't even get me started on Kerry -- who stands for nothing except shredding the Second Amendment. He's bereft of ideas, conviction, and leadership.

I don't like my choices this coming November. I can understand why Bush will be nominated but for the life of me I can't figure out (other than perceived electability) why the Dems would get behind such a sorry-ass excuse as Kerry. Lieberman and Edwards were far better choices.

So from now until November I have to face a barrage of TV commercials and nightly news blather about these two. *Ugh.*

Warning: This is a curse-laden rant.

Let's see, Hamas is a collection of mutant terrorists who repeatedly (over 50 times in just the last three years) sends their idiot followers into Israel to slaughter innocent people, children, etc., with bombs. Just last week it was an eleven-year-old boy asked to carry the bomb-pack across the check-point. Sheikh Ahmed Yassin is the piece of crap "spiritual leader" of these fucking mutants. Israel rightly gets tired of these murderous creeps and takes out Yassin. The shit that comprises the European Union -- never having condemned these terrorists for their suicide bombers -- of course condemns Israel for correctly killing this garbage head terrorist Yassin.

I'm glad he's dead. I wish Arafat was dead. I'm sick and tired of hearing the leftists and liberals make excuses for killers and giving them a free pass. The trash countries that make up the EU such as France and Germany (and of course, now including the chicken-shit population of Spain) think you can "negotiate" with terrorists. So does piece-of-crap candidate John Kerry and failed ex-president Jimmy Carter. "Oh, let's make nice with them and maybe they'll leave us alone." What fools.

I can't believe anyone would be stupid enough to vote for garbage like Kerry. Sadly, he'll probably be our next president. (Yeah, small "p" for a shit like him, too.)

Here's a clue, you EU assholes. Just as you don't give in to paying ransom to a kidnapper, so too you don't give into or try to placate these total, uncivilized barbarians that make up the Muslem extremists (not that I've read or heard about any non-extremists in the Islamic world. Are there any?)

Israel let mutant Yassin live for years as that shit sent suicide bomber after suicide bomber into Israel. But after the two bombings last week, well, they did the right thing. Sometimes you just have to get out the "pooper-scooper" and cleanup the crap.

That's what President Bush is trying to do now over in the cesspool called the mid-east. And half of this country doesn't get it. Pathetic.

Naturally I had to work late today. I got home five minutes ago. This week's "report" just isn't destined to happen. I can skip a week now and then and we'll all be all right... There wasn't a whole lot going on anyway. And frankly, there is a bunch of stuff I'd rather comment on in politics and war. So I'll take a breather this week. Next week I'm actually off on Sunday (I usually prepare the report on Sunday evenings) and can concentrate on it -- assuming yesterday's ISP outage was a fluke. There's nothing on the ISP website to explain what happened.

My ISP has been down all last evening and night. It finally "answered" the dial-up this morning. So now I can go to work on the report but I don't know how much I'll get done before I have to leave for work in an hour so I'll continue this evening and it should be up sometime tonight. So there.