I always find these amusing - the terms people visiting the site used in search engines to find us. Over the last couple of weeks, the following search terms have appeared in the logs:

• iranian girlfriend
• 3d picture porn
• funny blog red*
• bait and switch ccw dodge city
• the tactics of public relations
• Rep. Tom Casperson shoot to kill
• Fire Tune
• Promote general welfare
• "how can I get a gun silencer in England UK"

And my favorite so far:

• define frivolous

 

Titled:    Relatives of land donor want gun club site used as public park

ELK RAPIDS TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — Grandchildren of a woman who died in 1948 and donated her land to the township for a public use want to evict a gun club that has been on the site for more than 50 years.

The grandchildren of Mina Wilcox want the land used by the Elk Rapids Sportsman's Club converted to a public park. But local officials are worried about who might pay for likely lead contamination at the Antrim County site.

Officials haven't yet done an environmental assessment, but it is practically inevitable that the property is laced with significant amounts of lead, township supervisor Bill White said.

Read the rest at mLive.com and support the club at www.ersc.org

Update: The Record-Eagle reports the township has paid over $71,000 in legal fees to protect the club.
 

Titled:   Kidnapped British reporter freed by chance in Iraq

Phil Sands seems to lead a charmed life. The British freelance journo was found by accident on New Year's Eve having been captured by Iraqi gunmen for five days who threatened to behead him in their usual inimitable way.

The story is reported by Al Jazeera Reuters and as usual fails to really do any homework at all and just spews out the usual anti-US bile. Use of a little-known internet tool named Google turned up that Phil Sands has been in trouble before - as a human shield in Iraq trying to prevent the same US that rescued him from doing its job.

Still, Mr. Sands is troubled by the conflicting goals and propaganda. "In all our rooms, there is a picture of the great man [Saddam Hussein] - we sleep under him," says Sands, whose cot is in spartan staff residence house No. 37, at the Doura Oil refinery on the southern outskirts of Baghdad. Painted on the front patio in large letters are the words: "We are here."

Of course no good deed goes unpunished and within two weeks he appears in Peace News being expelled from Iraq as a security risk.

In his most recent adventure, he was apparently abducted the day after Christmas, and nobody noticed.

In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Sands recalled thinking during his ordeal: "I'm dead. From this moment on, I'm dead."

Until the US troops found him blindfolded and handcuffed in a chance raid, whereupon he momentarily forgot which side he was on and convinced them he was a "friendly".

I'm yet to be convinced that he was taken against his will, as seems to have been the case so often with captured anti-US journos who are released later unharmed. Maybe its just that I have yet to see Mr. Sands utter one word of thanks for the US troops that rescued him in any of the news reports so far.

There is probably more to come. The Observer reports:

Sands, from Poole, Dorset, has been to Iraq 10 times since February 2003, sometimes for three-month spells...

...Sands's parents, David and Jackie, were in a state of blissful ignorance throughout, as were the authorities. They spoke to their son on Christmas Day, then went on holiday [to Morocco]. David said last night: 'We were fortunate that we didn't go through the nail-biting anxiety of knowing he was missing. I feel fairly philosophical about it, and so does my wife. He loves that place and I'm sure he'll be going back.'

 

Titled:   Fla. Eighth-Grader Shot by Deputies Dies

No, not the Pink Pistols, the homosexual concealed carry group (Armed Gays Don't Get Bashed). This story is about the passing of the Florida teen that committed suicide by cop this week. Much is being made across the MSM that the police should be able to distinguish between a pellet-gun and a regular pistol. Of course this usually happens in a split second - pointing anything at a stressed cop with a gun is never a good idea, even if it turns out to be a wallet, as in the case of Amadou Diallo.

"Toy" pistols are supposed to have an orange tip to mark them apart from their more dangerous counterparts. Many retailers carry a warning such as:

Removal of any warning stickers or any protective markings, such as the 10 mm blaze orange tip will violate federal law and store warranty. Furthermore, federal law states that the use of any look-alike, toy gun in a crime carries the full ramifications of a real firearm.

In the case of the Florida teen:

At a news conference following the shooting Friday at suburban Orlando's Milwee Middle School, authorities put the pellet gun side-by-side with a Beretta. It appeared to have black paint covering the red or pink markings on the muzzle that may have indicated to officers that it was a nonlethal weapon.

Newsgroups still carry advice on removing the colored tip. In a recent article I pointed to a piece on guns of peculiar colors.
I wonder if it is illegal to color the tip of a real weapon orange? After all, the politicians would have us believe that only black guns are dangerous. I would imagine enterprising bank robbers will soon be sporting orange-tipped weapons to give them a few seconds edge on the police and concealed license holders. If they're willing to rob a bank armed, what makes you think they won't apply some orange paint?

Another couple of lines stood out:

"As you can see, it doesn't take a professional to see how close this looks to the real thing. I would not be able to tell the difference,'' said Joyce Dawley, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement special agent in charge of the investigation.

Thus maybe proving she is not a professional, and at least mildly incompetent, despite being a Florida Department of Law Enforcement special agent.

And another:

Patrick Lafferty, a 15-year-old neighbor who has known Penley about six years, said he wasn't surprised by what happened. He said Penley was a loner who "told me he wanted to kill himself dozens of times.''

I would have thought that killing yourself once would be enough, but maybe his Mom told him to aim high.
 

Titled:    Stem cell experts seek rabbit-human embryo

British scientists are seeking permission to create hybrid embryos in the lab by fusing human cells with rabbit eggs. If granted consent, the team will use the embryos to produce stem cells that carry genetic defects, in the hope that studying them will help understand the complex mechanisms behind incurable human diseases.

They are having enough trouble with basic rights for humans and now they want to create rabbit-humans? What new rights will be demanded?  Equal opportunity at work?  The pursuit of life, liberty and carrots?

 

 

Titled:    Why gun bans don't work … and what to do

James A. Swann discusses why gun bans often have the opposite effect and what to do about it. A good read, but for me, the most interesting part comes at the end:

At the upcoming Safari Club convention in Reno, Nev., I'll be chairing a panel of folks from Hollywood who shoot and hunt and want to do something about the negative media spin on hunters and guns. They will have proposals for movies, TV series, contests, promotional ventures and more.

If you can't get to Reno, stay tuned, and in February I'll tell you what kind of media magic the pros want to conjure up to ban the bans.

Anything pro-gun from Hollywood would be welcome.

 

Titled:    Councilor: Make handguns with GPS tracking chip

Via Wizbang comes a story of a crazy gun-grabbing councilor, so bent on gun control that he wants gun manufacturers to include GPS tracking devices in every new firearm. Mentioning Boston’s adoption of GPS-enabled school buses and snowplows as an example, his call ignores the reality of criminally-held firearms. Apart from almost doubling the weight, I can't imagine an entirely tamper-proof GPS system surviving for more than a few minutes. Even leaving it sitting around for a few days until the batteries are flat would work around that one.

The original story from the Boston Herald quotes:

The city councilor picked Smith & Wesson because it’s a Massachusetts-based company. “I’m calling on them to step up to the plate,” he said. The company has yet to respond.

Sure, if they want to lose a large portion of their customers. The police add to the rosy picture:

As for the GPS idea, police said they “support any type of gun control.”

Wouldn't it be cheaper just to force manufacturers to paint each firearm pink, and have it play "Kumbaya" over and over?

 

Titled:   Have you a licence for that opinion, sir?

Samizdata brings us news of what happens in a society that places no value on free speech:

The clampdown on disrespect continues. Sir Iqbal Sacranie is under police investigation. The putative crime, a public order offence, disorderly conduct: behaviour likely to cause alarm, harrassment or distress contrary to the Public Order Act 1986.

So, has Sir Iqbal been staggering aggressively around a shopping centre waving his fist at passers-by? Has he been picketing a building yelling threats at workers? Has he been hanging around on a street corner with his legal director and PR man, holding open bottles of cheap cider and throwing traffic cones at one another?

No. Sir Iqbal is a genial, if quite intense, man. He's been doing the sort of thing he got knighted for.

The alleged offense took place in the course of a serious discussion of his religious beliefs on Radio 4. He reportedly said that homosexual behaviour is not acceptable on moral or health grounds, and that civil partnerships therefore were not acceptable either. Some people were offended by this "homophobia" and complained to the police.

Under these rules, you could probably arrest anyone you wanted. They seem to be speeding up the process too: another Muslim, Mr Abu Hamster Hamza, incited hate for nearly a decade before they decided to do anything about him.

 

Titled: Mouse Thrown Into Fire Sets Home Ablaze

 

This story caught my eye as it ran its way around the blogosphere. In case you didn't catch it, a mouse got instant revenge against a homeowner who tried to dispose of it in a pile of burning leaves. The blazing creature ran back to the man's house and burnt it down.

In all the versions I found so far, no-one seems to question the actions of the homeowner for disposing of a live mouse on a burning leaf-pile. Before you think I'm a member of People Eating Tasty Animals PETA, I have nothing against the destruction of pests in a reasonably humane manner and am an active advocate of hunting. Why he didn't just whap it with a shovel rather than set it on fire, I'll probably never know.

Methods aside, the little critter did a great job reducing the guy's home to ashes.
 

Titled:    From North of the Border

mAssBackwards brings us good news from the state of New Hampshire:

House Bill 1639-FN, prohibits the confiscation of lawfully owned and lawfully carried firearms during a state of emergency, making a felon of any law enforcement officer who attempts to seize such a firearm during a disaster.

After the Katrina debacle, someone with common sense has realized that having firearms in the hands of law-abiding citizens during an emergency can be a useful thing.

If only we can now get that introduced in every state.