Ahhh... A rare weekend off. The weather is supposed to be perfect, sunny, low 70's and I have nothing on the plate to attend to. So I'm going to wander the flea-market that sets up each weekend across the street from me. Then, I plan to go shooting at the range. And then tonight -- as you can see in the picture -- the latest issues of my "pulps" lined up and ready to read along with a cool glass of vodka and a pack of cigarettes. I will not be going to the computer... Tomorrow, more of the same. I'm in a good mood and don't feel like posting anything serious today. Tomorrow night I'll update Alphecca.

I've mentioned this before but it bears repeating. Magazines such as Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock in the mystery field, and F&SF, Asimov's, and Analog in the sci-fi field represent the only remaining outlets for aspiring writers in these genres. They all print excellent short fiction and are a great deal for the money. All of them are struggling. In their hayday some of them had circulations of over 100,000 but now most of them are lucky to sell 50 thousand copies a month. Where else can you find a book-sized collection of first-rate fiction for only about $4.00 an issue, less if you subscribe, arriving in your mailbox 11 times a year?

All of them welcome submissions (no agent needed!) and all have other features as well. I invite you to visit their websites:

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction

Asimov's Science Fiction

Analog Science Fiction & Fact

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine

Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine

DNA Publications
(Publishes several "semi-pro" SF and related magazines.

Personally, I like the feel and pace of leisurely reading a book or especially a magazine. I urge you to pick one of these up at the local magazine shop (if they carry them) or at major chains such as Barnes & Noble which do distribute them. Support genre writers!

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One other thing... Some (especially ex-smokers) might blanch at the cigarette pack in the picture. T.F.B. I smoke. I like to smoke. I will not apologize for smoking. Indeed, after eating a big, delicious, steaming chunk of lasagna, there's nothing like kicking-back with a cigarette. The only other blogger besides myself that is crazy sophisticated enough to smoke (or at least admit to it) is Acidman.

You know, I hate marching lock-step with all the goody-two-shoes of the world. I like to go my own libertarian way. And just as Kim du Toit sponsors National Ammo Day, I was thinking I'd do something for the radical smokers among us. If there can be a National Smoke-out Day then why not a National Smoke-in Day? Maybe I'll do that on my birthday this October (24th) and encourage folks to buy 'em and smoke 'em...

As for my taste in vodka, give me Smirnoff or give me death... And no sissy mixers please, just on the rocks with a slice of lemon.

Anyway, I guess this wraps up this week here in the tranquil land known as Alphecca. See you Sunday night or Monday morning. Thanks for stopping by!

You'd think from this L.A. Times headline that the Brady Bunch had won a major victory. Here's a quote from the story:

This is the first time that members of the gun industry have settled a lawsuit by agreeing to changes in their business practices, according to Dennis Henigan, director of the Legal Action Project at the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

Actually, it's all chicken-shit involving two minor gun distributors and a few dealers. The actual settlement:

Among the concessions are agreements by defendants not to sell firearms at gun shows and to annually train employees to block sales to "straw purchasers," who buy weapons for those restricted from doing so. They also agreed to improve their ability to track inventory to ensure that authorities are immediately notified of lost and stolen guns. The defendants will also pay a total of $70,000 to the plaintiffs.

I have no idea why I woke up so early on a day off from work but this article wasn't the cause. Oh, I'm sure the gun-grabbers will try to blow this up into a major story of victory against the evil gun industry but frankly it's pretty small beer...

Kevin at The Smallest Minority has a major post about crime, homicide, blacks, and racism. Go there now.

Update 8/23 Kevin writes in:

A reader pointed out an overwhelming error in the Scottish homicide statistics. The Interpol numbers are WAY wrong on Scotland and apparently on Sweden as well. While this is not good, it does not negate the point of the article, however. I would appreciate it if you would update the post to reflect this new information.
--Kevin from The Smallest Minority

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My Blogson has a post entitled Do "coding errors" miss the target? About guns, John R. Lott, and more. Go there too.

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Greg at The Hobbesian Conservative discusses growing up with toy guns and soldiers. I think you turned out just fine, Greg.

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More tonight...

See this post for background. Anyway, how's it going over in Washington DC, where they refuse to allow the common folks the means to defend themselves from skyrocketing crime? From the Washington Post:

D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey invoked a seldom-used clause of the police officers' collective bargaining agreement yesterday that suspends their scheduling and sick leave rules, effectively creating a workforce that is on call 24 hours a day and prompting protests from union leaders.

Because:

Ramsey said increases like the 58 percent jump in homicides in areas such as the 7th District are an emergency. The last time a chief suspended scheduling rules was in 1989, when Maurice T. Turner Jr. declared an emergency because of a similar outbreak of violence.

Yup! I guess the New York Times didn't need those smelling salts when they praised the level of gun control in the District. Seems to be working just fine, eh?

You know, even with the economy in a long-term slump, even with uncertainty over our foreign policy, even with ALL the questions arising about Bush's policies, the Democratics seem determined to hand him the next election. From the Washington Post:

At a time when many voters complain of little distinction between the two political parties, Gephardt is calling for a bigger and more activist federal government, one markedly different from the one envisioned by President Bush and by the other contenders for the Democratic nomination.

A Gephardt administration would impose higher taxes on individuals, restrict foreign trade and pick up a huge chunk of the nation's soaring health care tab. At a time of near-record deficits, Gephardt would lobby Congress to increase spending for several education programs, including a universal preschool program, and create a new energy program.

So far, he has proposed upwards of $3 trillion or more in new programs, including doubling the budget for homeland security and tripling the budget for the National Institutes of Health, according to a review of his campaign promises by The Washington Post. (It is impossible to calculate a precise dollar figure, because his campaign has not detailed the cost of many of his proposals.)

Is this really what the average American is clamoring for? More big government? Hasn't Bush already grown (*groan*) the federal government more than it should be?

First of all, when a politician says he will "repeal the tax cuts" what he really means is he will increase taxes from where they are NOW. So Gephardt is promising to raise taxes.

He wants to increase the budget of the Department of Education -- which I think should be eliminated entirely -- by funding a universal preschool program. The fact that most states or at least most cities already have such a program seems lost on him. And if a particular state or township doesn't have it, well that's their decision to make.

Then, with the huge loss of jobs that America has experienced, he now wants to restrict free-trade, just to put the nail-in-the-coffin...

It would be hard to imagine a more "activist" government than we already have, what with the morass of laws, rules, regulations, and general micro-managing already taking place at the federal level.

Now, I am certain that the big labor unions will no-doubt fall for this clap-trap because they haven't quite sucked all the profits out of running a business yet.

Gephardt is so completely out of touch with the common folk you wonder why he doesn't just come out and say he wants the U.S. to join the European Union and forfeit all of the individualism and spirit that made us the great country we are.

Just based on what he's saying right now, if he was the only person on the ballot running against a dead horse, I would vote for the dead horse everytime.

Lots of comments have come in and since most folks don't scroll back to past posts, I'll put them up here...

In response to my Weekly Thing from yesterday:

We've had numerous houses. All had guns in them, but only one had one swimming pool. Funny, but I never worried about my guns, or that my daughter would get to them and misuse them. I did worry about the pool, however -- not only because of my daughter, who was 3-4 at the time, but also because of the other kids in the neighborhood. One pool was enough. I've never had even the slightest reason to think the same about guns. As for background, my father taught me about guns around the same time he and my mother taught me to swim. The main early lessons were that guns and water could both kill you, and you had to obey the rules about both.

Cheers,

--Pat B. (South Carolina)

That's really the thing, isn't it? Parents who care and actually DO THEIR JOBS. You're one of the lucky ones. They taught you the ropes of life. They took the time. That's an art sadly lost in our rush-rush world.

Was the rabid bat mutant as well? Or, did you write "mutant bat" because you like the way it looks/sounds. (I do.)

--Andy F.

I hate bats and so to me they're all mutant. That this one was rabid just makes it more evil. I don't care how many insects they eat, I don't like 3-D things -- insects and animals who can attack you from all dimensions... And yeah -- I like to use "mutant" and a rabid bat who attacks someone falls under that category... *Ugh.*

I must confess, I don't see your 'blog very often; usually I link off InstaPundit to look at your media bias charts. But today, I read all of the way down, and noticed your post of 17 August suggesting class-action lawsuits against law enforcement and governments that will not permit exercise of Second Amendment rights. I don't know how those would fly, given as how it has been ruled that law enforcement is not responsible for any individual's personal safety (and rightly so, as the police can't be everywhere). On the other hand, in jurisdictions where concealed carry is legal, and an establishment forbids weapons on site, a good case could probably be made that, by forbidding your ability to defend yourself from criminal attack, that the establishment and its associated operators have thereby assumed responsibility for your personal safety, and could, and should, be sued if you become a victim of criminal attack while on the premises.

It's worth thinking about....

--John C.

John makes a good point and I'd like more comment on all of this. Speak up, folks! But... While the police can't be everywhere, in many jurisdictions, they have the final say on who can and who can't have a carry-permit. And if they refuse someone (say in Massachusetts where that's common) then if something happens to someone who HAD applied for a permit, I think a lawsuit (in this litigious society of ours) is perfectly reasonable. Again, comments welcome...

And from Bitter, there's this post about pepper-spray in the anti-constitutional state of Illinois. Read it and weep!

From Hawken's Blog (which doesn't blogroll me but if they did I would gladly return the favor) comes this mention of my weekly post which resulted in this comment:

What percentage of kids who go near a pool each year die vs. percentage of kids who go near guns? The "over 1000" isn't just pools, it is also lakes, rivers, etc, which are basically far more dangerous and naturally occurring versions of pools. I think its a pretty safe guess that pools are actually, when compared to other bodies of water readily available for swimming purposes, quite safe. Guns, on the other hand, when compared to other household items available for recreation and safety purposes, are pretty damn dangerous. Also, what if we compared the number of children who receive large amounts of safe, fun, pleasure from swimming pools compared to the number of kids of recieve safe, fun, pleasure from guns. I understand that numbers can be messed around with to prove just about every point, but trying to discredit gun deaths by comparing them in absolute terms to drownings is a waste of time. That comparison shows absolutely nothing. Guns kills things. They don't do anything else. That's all they are meant to do. Swimming pools are meant to give us a safe place to enjoy a nice swim. Why try to compare the two?

Since four times as many kids die while in water (of what ever source) as from guns, I'd say the bodies of water are far more dangerous -- especially considering that far more homes have firearms then have pools or take their kids to streams and lakes. The CDC doesn't break it down but the results are the same. Kids have a lot more accidental drownings than they have accidental gun-deaths.

As for this writer's comment that guns only "kill things and don't do anything else," I think most folks (at minimal estimates about a quarter-million a year) who have used firearms to defend themselves and loved-ones would testify, guns have A LOT more purposes to them than just "killing things." Never mind the target-shooting, which is the second most popular sport (behind NASCAR racing) in this nation. I would think a whole lot of folks derive pleasure from that. Not a jerk liberal like this writer, of course...

Finally, the writer says, "Swimming pools are meant to give us a safe place to enjoy a swim..." But four times as many children die accidentally in water as do from accidental firearms handling. I'd hardly call that safe. He (the writer) side-steps that completely. That's the bitch about statistics -- you can twist them around but in the end, they just won't support the liberal view in regards to gun ownership.

In the end of course, the point was about the editorial which said that since some kids die from accidental gun deaths, parents should all rid their homes of guns. MY POINT was that if we're going to rid our homes of risks, then swimming pools, cars, and playgrounds have to go as well. This sorry writer said nothing to refute that. It must be a liberal thing...

I received another comment, this one from John Moore of Useful Fools:

You didn't mention that most of the "children" in the child gun statistics are really teenagers, and many of them are criminals. Furthermore, many of the "accidents" are probably suicides not reported as such.

I was confused by the implication (because I'm getting old and senile) and he wrote back:

I meant that most "kids" killed by guns are actually teenagers who are screwing around with guns. Many in the criminial culture. Also, it is not uncommon to cover up suicides... I am sure many teenage suicides are actually reported as gun accidents!

Anyway, the main thing is that the "child deaths" statistics give people the idea that these are 5 year olds or something, when most are teenagers.

Specifically, only 76 children aged 5-14 were killed in 1999 by accident, and only 15 under 5!

Tragic as it is, this is a microscopic number, and well under 200.

He is absolutely correct.

A bunch of comments came in overnight. I've no time to post anything but will get to it all tomorrow morning. Thanks!

First of all, I'm not some "big-wig" from Easter Island surveying all and I'm certainly not a big-time blogger. My one claim to fame is my Wednesday Weekly Report on bias in the media regarding guns. I spend all Tuesday evening preparing this and I just wanted to say thank you to all the other bloggers who give this a mention each week. I do constantly thank my dear visitors (every few posts) who are kind enough to click over to me and read my prattle and they really do make this all worth the effort, but I also wanted to acknowledge all the kind bloggers who link to my Weekly Report. THANKS!

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You know, I have no use for an ultra-right-wing jerk like John Ashcroft. He should fall into a ditch. This jerk is trying to defend his anti-constitutional Patriot Act by appearing before various scripted police forces around the country. ONE (of many) problems with this sick legislation is that it can be used for ordinary, day-to-day law enforcement agencies to violate the rights of decent American citizens. Jeff Trigg from A Random Act of Kindness has more on the possible abuse of this twisted bill in regards to hapless drug users. Incidentally, Jeff is the boss of the Illinois Libertarian Party and his blog should be a regular stop for residents there as well as folks everywhere who believe that "Father (as in our government) doesn't always know what's best..."

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Mike Silverman has more on Dr. Laura deciding that she's not an orthodox Jew after all... Of course not! This mutant who holds herself up as the beacon of morality -- after her previous divorce -- has followed several religions. Whatever is convenient, eh?

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My buddy at Say Uncle has exposed a traffic crime by another blogger. *Whew!* It wasn't me...

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You know, I tackle media bias every week here but it's restricted to stuff about guns. Fortunately, my friend MammaBear at On The Third Hand is keeping track of the rest of it.

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For those who are much more cerebral than me, Jay Manifold at A Voyage To Arcturus continues to show why he is the new "Isaac Asimov" of the science-writing set. Why he isn't doing this for real money in one of the science journals is beyond me but I thank him. I don't always understand it (oh, okay, rarely actually) but I appreciate the different drum-beat he blogs to.

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Click over to G'Day Mate and wish the OzGuru a speedy recovery. He doesn't say exactly what it is but if he has kids -- and you know how I hate kids -- then he has little-cess-pools of disease walking around infecting everything. Yeah, I'm so sweet... Get well dude.

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Lastly but certainly not leastly, Kevin Holtsberry starts to fisk a jerk who is blaming the "blackout of 2003" on GW Bush. Continue it, Kevin, go on!

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So, there's a bunch of great reads for you all to check out. Actually, you should check out everyone on my blogroll because they're all much better at blogging than me.

Anyway, I will be absent tomorrow but I will return on Friday. As always, I thank you for stopping by! Really!!

Thanks to Matt at Bad State of Gruntledness for steering me towards this post from Cold Fury about why concealed carry is so important. Check it out.

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And here's a fellow Vermonter's blog I just discovered linking to me called House of Wodinn. So check that out too...

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See you all soon...

This is my weekly wrap-up of the articles linked to by Yahoo on their Yahoo Gun Control Debate Page. Woe is I. I'll explain in a minute. The model for this week's chart comes from my buddy Marc at Lay Lines, who writes:

I shoot in USPSA http://www.uspsa.org competition (well I did until I started a business in CA). I shoot "limited" class mostly so I've attached an image of a limited gun virtually identical to mine. The pistol is an STI http://www.stiguns.com "Executive" but just call mine my limited guns. My limited guns are in .40 S&W holding 19 rounds (18+1) in their pre-ban double-stack magazines.

They are a 1911 type pistol modified by having a plastic grip frame attached to a metal frame piece where the slide attaches and the hammer/grip-safety/slide-stop pins pass through.
One main difference my pistol displays is that the plastic grip frame on my limited pistols are green, sorta ugly but it gets attention on the range (the plastic grip frames come in many colors but green seems to be the least popular).

The reason for more than one pistol is that we always have at least one backup pistol to our main gun in case something breaks in a match so we can continue to shoot. The pistol is durable but for competition we've gunsmithed them to a 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 pound trigger and shooting thousands and thousands of major loads seems to mess up the hammer and sear and eventually rattle other parts loose (major means Bullet Weight in grains X Velocity in feet per second = 175,000 or greater).

So here's the chart:

There's no change from last week because everyone at Yahoo is on vacation or dead. Only one new editorial was listed and I'm sorry it was...

I say that because this silly editorial from the Chicago Tribune replaced another anti-gun piece. The editorial starts off with a story about how one young girl found a gun under her mother's mattress and fired it, nicking the ear of her brother. Not fatal but certainly scary enough. But... Here's a quote:

Just how tragically familiar do shooting incidents such as the one in Chicago on Monday have to become before parents wise up and rid their homes of guns?

And a few paragraphs down:

Fortunately, the shooting wasn't fatal.

Too often, though, it is. Each year nearly 800 people die from unintentional firearm deaths, and a quarter of the victims are children, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

So that's about 200 children. And I'm not a cold-hearted bastard and I wish it were none but life does have risks and we have to balance those risks against the pluses... But let's follow the logic of the writer of this editorial. If parents should get rid of everything that could cause harm to children then consider this from the National Children's Center:

In the United States from 1993 to 1996, drowning was the second leading cause of unintentional injury-related death to children under age 15. During this time, 4,063 drowning deaths occurred to children under age 15.2

It is estimated that for each childhood drowning death approximately four children are hospitalized for near-drowning.

Annually, drowning and near-drowning injuries among children under age 15 in the United States result in an estimated cost of $6.2 billion. The estimated cost per near-drowning is $84,000 while the estimated cost per fatal drowning is $3.6 million.

That's more than a thousand children dead each year. Four times the number who die from firearm accidents. When are parents going to wise up and rid their homes of swimming-pools? And look at the cost to society!

Well? Oh I know, the crunchy-granola liberals will say that no one needs a gun because the cops will protect us. A nice fantasy but let's go back to swimming pools. No one needs them -- but wait! Limousine Liberals like them and they're status symbols so what's a few deaths among a population of 250 million people? But -- you don't need them. Put your kids under a cold shower if they need to cool off. After all, one drowning death is one too many, right? "It's for the kids." Fill-in your swimming pools and save the children.

Why do we need cars, anyway? Oh, I know, so you can get somewhere. You want to live someplace nice but work somewhere else. The American dream. But what of the children? Don't you care about them? One child's death is one too many, RIGHT? Here are the auto-accident statistics from the Centers For Disease Control:

In 1999, more than 3 million Americans were injured and more than 42,000 were killed in motor vehicle crashes.

* Of those who died, 5,586 were teens and 2,055 were children; nearly 8,000 were 65 and older.

Folks, that's more than 7000 kids a year. That's 35 times the the number of kids who die from firearm accidents. Remember, these are government statistics and they have nothing to do with suicide or teen-gang-bangers. Just auto-accidents vs firearms accidents. And remember -- we license drivers and register cars and yet, look at all these deaths! If we're going to get rid of guns then we should certainly get rid of cars, right? The advantages certainly don't outweigh the benefits, right? You can't say "yes" to one and "no" to the other -- that would be total hypocrisy. Either you're for saving children's lives or you aren't.

From now on, you have to live within walking or biking distance (or "mass-transit" distance) from where you work and shop.

Or are you saying that your right to live where you want to and the right to use a car is worth more than a few kid's deaths?

I don't mean to beat-up on this editorial writer who no-doubt has the best of intentions but if you're going to throw statistics around then you better know ALL of them before making an argument about curtailing the peoples' rights.

How many children have been saved by the presence of a swimming pool? I suppose a few in some heatwave... By cars? Probably a good number rushed to a hospital by their parents but how to measure that... How many lives, how many assaults, rapes, murders have been prevented by gun ownership? Statistics vary wildly but even the lowest estimates put it at about a quarter-million per year.

Everything we do and all the things that we own possess risks and to be honest, that is part of life. In fact, it's part of evolution. Yes, we could all live in apartments over our place of work and never go anywhere and never swim and get rid of bathtubs (200 drownings a year!) and rid our lives of kitchen and silverware knives (thousands of injuries each year!) and folks -- no more playgrounds! Again, from the CDC:

Each year in the United States, more than 200,000 children 14 years of age and younger are treated in emergency departments for playground-related injuries.

Don't let your kids play! Keep them in air-tight, padded rooms. Sure, they won't get any stimulation or exercise but "it's for the kids" and one death is one to many, right? Maybe that argument is starting to sound silly if you've been reading this far...

Life is risky and you cannot legislate or eliminate those risks. If you do, we will all spend our lives strapped onto hospital beds while our limbs waste away and our minds atrophy.

Remember the Star Trek episode The Gamesters of Triscillian? A bunch of alien brains kept like pheasant-under-glass who had to live vicariously and for stimulation by watching Kirk and company battle it out on a giant game-board. Is that what we should become to prevent any single death?

Hopefully I've made my point.

Since that was the only new link on Yahoo, I figure I'll check out some of the other newspaper stories about guns NOT being linked because -- why they might provide some balance to things... Many of these are gathered by the Keep And Bear Arms website and I should mention that Alphecca is a member of their RKBA web ring.

From the Florida Times-Union:

Just last month in Pompano Beach, the son of a jewelry store owner was ready when four robbers burst into the store. He grabbed a handgun from under a counter, shot one man dead and scared away the others.

Recently, 74-year-old J.C. Adams was confronted by armed robbers in his Atlanta convenience store. As he did last year in another robbery, the Korean War veteran grabbed his 12-gauge shotgun and -- using one hand to steady himself on his walker -- fired, again with fatal results. This is what Adams had to say to other criminals: "Go to work and make your own money. Quit trying to take mine."

And after a quote from John R. Lott, they continue the editorial:

Yet, in practically every state that has passed a concealed-carry law, including Florida, opponents have argued such rights would result in bloodier streets and Wild West-style shootouts.

That hasn't happened.

What has happened is that more people are able to safeguard themselves against unscrupulous people who often have no regard for human life or the laws designed to protect innocent people.

Crime declined in Florida while prisons were being filled and victims were being armed.

It would be wonderful if society didn't need concealed weapons laws, but we live in the real world, not the idealized dream world some envision.

See? There are some pro-gun editorials out there but Yahoo doesn't want to link to them. Wouldn't you love it if your local paper wrote something like that? I'd fall over...

I liked this from the Opinion Journal last week:

When a bat attacked eight-year-old Kenneth Burns in his yard on Sunday, swooping down from a treehouse near the Burnses' home in Bowie County, Ark., and scratching Kenneth's neck, his friends knew what to do, reports the Texarkana Gazette. They picked up a BB gun and shot the offending divebomber. "It turned out to be a good thing," Kenneth's stepfather told the paper, "because that's the reason we were able to send the bat off for testing." The bat, tests revealed, had rabies; and the boy is undergoing treatment.

Pretty good shot for an eight-year-old! And that mutant bat will never attack anyone else.

Here's some stuff from other excellent pro-2A blogs you should be checking out:

Via Publicola comes this post about the BATF and their silly cartoon designed to educate firearms dealers. Oh, just go there and and laugh... We're all six-years-old again.

My friend (and co-campaign manager) Kevin at The Smallest Minority has the story of a man who came to the aid of a woman being robbed at an ATM. Link isn't working so just scroll down (oh, just read it all, actually) to "Next Time, Stick It In His Ear."

James at Hell in a Handbasket continues with if you could only carry one gun everywhere in the world, what would it be? I would still go with my Taurus PT111 9mm or my Smith & Wesson airweight .38.

And Craig at Boone Country has a series of posts on carbines and what handgun ammo does in them (only good, of course.)

So, like last week, my weekly report is becoming something of a magazine of it's own. To that end, this weekend when I re-design (or should I say "un-design") Alphecca back to it's original appearance I will create a permanent link for the weekly report -- two bloggers have requested it so they can add it specifically to their blogrolls. The report will still be here but will also be on it's own page for easy linkage. You know how I feel about things like that. And if you didn't read last week's report -- well, I thought it was a pretty good one.

So that's a wrap. Thanks for stopping by!

I've received about 16 emails concerning the new look of Alphecca and while they all like the larger typeface, none of them like the brighter graphics. Indeed, two bloggers have posted -- in a kind way -- that they prefer the "darker look." I hear and obey. Next week (i.e. Sunday) I will return to the old masthead and colors. The people have spoken!

I'm now starting work on the Weekly Report which I hope to have up around midnight...

Not too Brite:

(Oslo) - A Norwegian accidentally shot and wounded six of his friends at a surprise party to celebrate his 40th birthday, police said on Sunday.

The man found out about the party in a forest cabin in south Norway beforehand and hid behind trees nearby with a shotgun as about 30 guests turned up on Saturday night, hoping to turn the surprise on his friends,

He blasted off one round in the air, meaning it as a joke to shock the partygoers. But when he came out from his hiding place, he tripped and the gun went off again, badly hurting one woman in the legs and slightly injuring five others.

"Seven people were taken to hospital in Fredrikstad including the man who shot. He wasn't physically hurt but in deep shock," a police spokesman said.

The party was canceled.

Oddly Enough!

From the New York Times:

Wearing nothing but a floppy olive-green hat, brown hiking boots and navy blue socks, and carrying a 60-or-so-pound rucksack on his back, Mr. Gough, a 44-year-old truck driver, is walking the length of Britain, from Land's End at the southern tip of England to John o'Groats at the northern end of Scotland.

He is on an 847-mile mission, for all to see, as he crosses cow pastures, bridges, farms and towns: to convince Britons that nudity is natural.

6000 flies and mosquitos have endorsed his trek. And let me tell you something -- if you think a mosquito bite on your arm is annoying...

Let's say that there is a mayoral race in a large american city and there are five candidates. Three are white and two (including the incumbant) are black. And let's say that a regular forum for the candidates is held at a Jewish synagogue and only the three whites were invited -- "the forum is only for white candidates" says the Rabbi. How fast do you think the liberals and leftists would react? Faster than instantaneously?

From today's Washington Times:

Two groups of predominantly black ministers in Baltimore have excluded white mayoral candidates - including incumbent Martin O'Malley - from the groups' Democratic primary forums, The Washington Times has learned.

The Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, the city's largest faith-based activist organization, and the Baptist Ministers' Conference did not invite Mr. O'Malley and longtime social activist A. Robert Kaufman to participate in two separate forums last month.

The Rev. Russell Johnson, president of the Baptist Ministers' Conference and pastor of Browns Memorial Baptist Church, said his group's July 14 forum "was only for black candidates." "No one else asked even to be heard by the conference anyway," Mr. Johnson said.

This is an outrage and as usual the left is absolutely silent when they should be condemning such a blatently racist action. But of course -- to them -- it's the acceptable kind of racism... Just another reason why I have no fucking use for liberals and liberal Democrats anymore.

A few weeks ago I started a feature here on Monday Nights where I seek out new, or obscure (at least to me) or unusual blogs. These days I'm a "large mammal" and it behooves me to help others out. And I hope at least one reader got that pun...

I had originally stated that I would seek out the applicants and I have done so again this week but I am open to suggestions from little-known bloggers or their friends who want more attention.

First up is Electrix Paradigm Shift which is a new blog by Omar (no bio yet) exploring the mind and it's relationship to time and being. Literally one week old, he is covering subjects I am very interested in and he's doing plenty of posting these first few days. I highly recommend it. Good luck to you, Omar.

Liberals-R-Us is a reformed liberal finally making sense of the world. Donna is a "Politikal Gal gone bad." Much like my own strange trip, she has seen the light. I can relate because I've taken the same route. Stop by and encourage her because she writes and thinks very well.

The Serfdom Times is NOT new (except to me) and is a collection of very good writers putting up some great posts. I don't agree with it all but I made it clear when I started this a few weeks ago that that was absolutely not a requirement and in fact was a plus. Fans of Ayn Rand and her philosophy, there is a lot of good reading here.

The last mention tonight is I Will Make You My Bitch. Folks -- with a title like that... Another start-up, I don't read the language it's in so I don't know what they are saying, but the pictures are tastefully erotic (and not especially safe for work... well, depending on where you work...)

I really enjoy this new feature because it forces me to seek out new blogs -- that's fun. And I hope that in some small way I can encourage them to continue. That's really fun. Good luck to all of them and I encourage all of you to visit them.

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I have a bunch of posts within me but I'm out of time tonight. Maybe tomorrow night between working on my Wednesday Weekly Chart. By the way, I need more feedback from you about the new look of Alphecca -- is the type too big? Too gaudy? Tell me what you think, please...

I'll be back soon! Thanks for your mentions and such and to all of you dear readers, thanks for stopping by!

From the Times-Argus (VT):

A man was cited into court on charges he fired a revolver to get the attention of paving workers who were making too much noise Saturday.

Vermont State Police said Marvin Martin, 39, of Orange was upset that workers from Pike Industries were paving Route 302 in front of his home at about 6:30 a.m. He asked the workers to stop until a more reasonable hour, police said.

But the Pike workers were within their specified working hours and continued with the project, police said. Martin then fired several rounds from his revolver to "get their attention and make a point," police said.

None of the workers were injured, police said, nor were they ever threatened with the gun.

However, Martin was cited into Orange District Court on a charge of disorderly conduct, police said.

Idiot! Now, if he'd had a target-range set up in his front yard... I betting he didn't get much sleep the rest of the morning. Which reminds me of what a Fish & Game warden used to say: If you're caught in the woods with a rifle during the off-season, you'd better have a supply of paper targets with you...

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Anyway, I'll be back tomorrow with more. Hope you find the new look easier to read. Thanks for stopping by!

Like little whiny babies, our politicians are beating each other over the head with bladders trying to assign blame for the big power blackout from the other day. Now that it's been shown that it wasn't Canada's fault, each party is attacking the other (Dems and Reps) and promising time and money wasting commissions to go into it. Ugh. This is the typical over-reaction and partisanship that turns so many ordinary folks off of politics. It would be nice if there were just a few mature individuals in Congress but I guess that isn't a desirable qualification for the job.

So there will be all sorts of finger-pointing and rash legislation and while certainly, as with any infrastructure, there needs to be investment in maintaining and upgrading, I'm sure we'll see billions and more billions hastily thrown at the problem. And we the consumers and tax-payers will see our already high electric bills zoom up.

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Update 8/18 comment:

It is quite possible that there are a few mature individuals in Congress. The only problem is, those that act mature do not get the media attention because they are not sensational enough.

--Kent S.

That's for sure. Thanks Kent.

From the Metro West Daily News:

Area police departments are boosting patrols around condo and apartment complexes after the third woman since last week was attacked in her Hopkinton home Thursday night.

All three victims lived in apartments or condos, and police say the attacker, who has raped two of the women, seems to be targeting similar housing complexes.

Some departments are talking with residents, warning them to keep their doors locked and report all suspicious activity. Hopkinton police say there were no signs of forced entry after Thursday night's nighttime attack on Doyle Lane.

"We're stopping by the complexes we do have, which appears to be what this person is targeting," said Upton Police Chief Thomas Stockwell."People are a little more uneasy now, and they welcome the information we're giving them," he said.

Stockwell is one of these jerks from MA who think that "boosting patrols around condo and apartment complexes" will somehow prevent these horrible rapes. Hey schmuck! The attacks are happening inside the apartments. In a liberal-contaminated state like Massachusetts where you need a permit to buy pepper-spray, I wouldn't be surprised if Stockwell is one of those anti-American cops who routinely refuse applications for licenses for guns.

Folks, in Vermont, the average response time for cops to arrive after a call is 22 minutes. In Hopinkton and Upton (MA) it's about 12 minutes. A mutant breaks or pushes his way into your home. You don't even have time to think about anything other than protecting your life much less would the mutant just sit there with a cup of tea while you try to dial 911. But even if you can, what do you think will happen to you during those 12 minutes? Assault, battery, rape, murder? Not to mention what the thug does to your children.

Now -- if the woman possessed the means to defend herself with, oh I don't know, say a gun -- she might prevent becoming a victim. She might be able to fend off the mutant and prevent the rape or her own murder.

Here's the real fact of the matter: Every liberal in Massachusetts, every liberal anti-Bill of Rights politician, every cop who thinks that only they should be able to carry a gun -- because they have really tiny dicks -- all of them are partly responsible for and have caused these terrible crimes to happen because they prevented ordinary law-abiding folks from exercising their Second Amendment Rights. Fuck them. Into the ditch with them.

One more thought... Every piss-in-pot in this country constantly sues because they were denied their civil rights. Every gun control group sues to deny us OUR rights.

What if we started filing suits? What if a class-action lawsuit was filed by crime victims -- in cities and states where gun permits aren't allowed or are impossible to get -- because they weren't allowed to exercise their 2nd Amendment rights? What if the family of a woman who was murdered sued because the local cops wouldn't issue her a gun license? What if we sued cities for not protecting our loved ones? What if we all filed a class-action suit against the Brady Bunch for trying to deny us our Contitutional rights or trying to prevent us from enjoying the Bill of Rights? Sue the cops. The politicians. The gun control groups. Everyone. Use their own weapon against them. What if?

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Update 8/17 10:30pm:

Bitter Bitch writes in:

Here's the latest on the rapist in Mass. He's gone after a 4th woman:

HERE

Oh yeah, and I might also throw in there that the fee for the pepper spray license is $100.

Seeing as I'll be a young single female alone in an apartment around this time next month, I'm not happy about being defenseless in my home until a police chief decides I'm worthy of being able to defend my life. Well, if he decided that I'm worthy even though I have a spotless background and have had a concealed carry permit in VA for about 18 months.

Can you imagine what our founding fathers (all of whom believed in the right to bear arms) would think if they visited Massachusetts today? The idea that the state would not allow the simple, God given right for a person to protect himself or herself from a criminal attack? How pathetic some states in this country have become. *Sigh.*

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Update 8/18 I asked Bitter about knives in MA and she replied:

Depends on the knife. And no, I'm not kidding! I don't have all the specific facts on regulations on knives, but I do know that some are illegal in MA. Spooky is into knives more than I am. She spotted one that she loved at a gun show we went to one weekend, but she noticed it was illegal and asked the guy about it. He "forgot" and removed it from the display. It's been so long now that I forgot what made it illegal. Anyway, certain knives are allowed.

Maybe I can get a straw and some poison darts to make a blow gun?

So how do they feel about subjects wielding feather-dusters?

Please welcome Greg at The Hobbesian Conservative who has added me to his blogroll and naturally that means I gladly include him in my "good friends" blogroll as well. His take on the latest news in the W.V. sniper case correctly points out that the Brady Bunch is chomping at the bit...

Just a reminder that if you are kind enough to add me to your permanent (visible) blogroll, please let me know because I would love to add you to mine.

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Jay Solo has a post about memory and that of his parents. I've already discussed this from a different angle but his worries about his mother remind me of when my grandmother was near the end of her long life. She was -- I don't think it was Alzheimer's per se but the loss of short-term memory was alarming. I visited her several times and remember sitting with her while, for two hours, she asked the same three questions over and over again. I know that researchers are frantically seeking a preventive for this and I hope to hell they find it quickly. I try everything -- every bogus remedy -- I read about because my own memory has been failing at an alarming rate.

This brings to mind just how brave and loyal and loving Nancy Reagan has been in caring for Ronald Reagan in his final days. I think there is a "sigh of relief" when someone afflicted with something as terrible as Alzheimer's Disease finally passes on. God bless her. I hope that one day I meet someone who loves me as much as she does him. That is the one big thing missing in my life.

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Ann at A Frustrated Artist has completed her latest painting and I love it and wish it were hanging right next to my dining table. If there's anyone really, incredibly wealthy out there who would like to buy it for me -- it's currently out for bid... Just dreaming...

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Not everyone has fond memories. My buddy Leigh at HanlonVision has a brutally honest post about his feelings towards his father. Blogging is many different things to people but as I've pointed out before, the best kind of blogging is the personal type.

I don't open up well about myself except in sarcastic ways, and I rarely reveal anything about my life, family, or job. Leigh has done so here and while I'm sure he was in pain as he remembered and wrote this post, it does provide the most honest, insightful post for those of us who observe the blogosphere.

Not that you probably care, but I thought I'd bore you with details about the new look around here. I got bored with the old one. I wanted a lighter, friendlier look. Consider it an experiment. If most-everybody hates it I'll go back to the dark, stormy appearance.

I've also made Alphecca a little wider because while I set my monitors to 800w because I don't like wearing my reading glasses while blogging, I realize that most folks are now viewing this at higher resolutions. To that end, I've also made the text of the main blog area (the posts themselves) a bit larger for easier reading. The goal though is still to have the full width of Alphecca in view at an 800w resolution.

One other thing -- in re-doing my top photo/masthead, I found that even with all of Photoshop's abilities, a fairly-high resolution is necessary so that "crinkling" doesn't appear around the red text layer when I flatten and save it. I want to keep the "3-D effect." (Stare at the masthead from about two feet away.) So naturally that slows loading of the page down a bit at modem speeds. Sorry about that but if you visit regularly and have your "cache" set to a decent size, it won't need to re-load itself each time...

Over the next few weeks I might try a few different layouts and color schemes, so let me know what you think...

Update: The page displays correctly in IE and best in Netscape. Safari shows it okay except that the TT text (what I use for quotes) is too large...