Thursday, June 26, 2008

Obama "Uninterprits" His Stance On The DC Gun Ban

He now says his earlier statements saying the DC ban was constitutional was "inartful".

Obama Camp Disavows Last Year's 'Inartful' Statement on D.C. Gun Law
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Share June 26, 2008 7:35 AM

ABC News' Teddy Davis and Alexa Ainsworth Report: With the Supreme Court poised to rule on Washington, D.C.'s, gun ban, the Obama campaign is disavowing what it calls an "inartful" statement to the Chicago Tribune last year in which an unnamed aide characterized Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., as believing that the DC ban was constitutional.

"That statement was obviously an inartful attempt to explain the Senator's consistent position," Obama spokesman Bill Burton tells ABC News.

"Inartful"??? When you have to make up words to "clarify" your position...
Comment On The Heller Decision

One quick comment based on a quote from a CNN article
Elilta "Lily" Habtu, however, told the high court that she supports the handgun ban, and tighter gun control in general. Habtu was in a Virginia Tech classroom in April 2007 when fellow student Seung-Hui Cho burst in and began shooting. She survived bullets to the head and arm.

"There has to be tighter gun control; we can't let another Virginia Tech to happen," she told the court. "And we're just not doing it; we're sitting around; we're doing nothing. We let the opportunity arise for more massacres."

Virginia Tech had a total ban on guns. It was a gun free zone as are the overwhelming majority of places that experience tragedies such as this. Let me say that again, the overwhelming majorities of mass murders caused by guns happen in "gun free zones". It is not a coincidence. It is because gun control laws take guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens, thus making them unable to defend themselves in a V.T. type of situation. The criminals know nobody will be able to shoot back and therefore gun free zones are nothing more than consequence free firing ranges for those intent on killing large numbers of people.

So what law exactly does M. Habtu think would have stopped the V.T. massacre?

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Is Global Warming About To Bring On A Little Ice Age?

Scientists are referring to the sun as "dead" due to the lack of sunspots.
The sun has been laying low for the past couple of years, producing no sunspots and giving a break to satellites. That’s good news for people who scramble when space weather interferes with their technology, but it became a point of discussion for the scientists who attended an international solar conference at Montana State University. Approximately 100 scientists from Europe, Asia, Latin America, Africa and North America gathered June 1-6 to talk about “Solar Variability, Earth’s Climate and the Space Environment.”

...
Tsuneta said solar physicists aren’t like weather forecasters; They can’t predict the future. They do have the ability to observe, however, and they have observed a longer-than-normal period of solar inactivity. In the past, they observed that the sun once went 50 years without producing sunspots. That period, from approximately 1650 to 1700, occurred during the middle of a little ice age on Earth that lasted from as early as the mid-15th century to as late as the mid-19th century.

Maybe someone should look into a possible connection between the earth's temperature and sunspots. You would have thought that would have been done hundreds of years ago.
How The Old Farmer's Almanac Predicts The Weather
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We derive out weather forecasts from a secret formula that was devised by the founder of this Almanac, Robert B. Thomas, in 1792. Thomas believed that weather on Earth was influenced by sunspots, which are magnetic storms on the surface of the Sun.

Over the years, we have refined and enhanced that formula with state-of-the-art technology and modern scientific calculations. We employ three scientific disciplines to make our long-range predictions: solar science, the study of sunspots and other solar activity; climatology, the study of prevailing weather patterns; and meteorology, the study of the atmosphere. We predict weather trends and events by comparing solar patterns and historical weather conditions with current solar activity.
City of Seattle Property, Now Gun Violence Free

It is official, the Mayor has made the 2nd amendment null and void while on city of Seattle property. Kind of… at least in his mind.
After a shooting at the Northwest Folklife festival injured three people, Mayor Greg Nickels will prohibit guns at Seattle Center, parks, community centers and city-run buildings.

On Monday, Nickels announced he had signed an executive order, which does not require City Council approval, directing employees to draft a plan in 30 days to create a "gun-free policy" on city property. He has not set a date for the prohibition to take effect.

"Our parks, our community centers and our public events are safer without guns," Nickels said at a news conference with Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske. "At many properties, including City Hall, you can bring a gun if you have a concealed-weapons permit. Under this order, people with concealed weapons will be asked to give up their weapon or leave."

The city does not have the authority to arrest or fine people for bringing a gun onto city property. Only the state can enact laws governing firearms, and the mayor acknowledged the city could face a legal challenge.

First some background, at the recent Folklife festival, where people who do not regularly bathe, gather to air out and do what they normally do the other 364 days of the year, nothing productive, there was a shooting which injured 3 people. Nobody died, 3 people were injured. Over the course of the 37 year history of Folklife, the number of shootings at the festival now total… I may need some time here to calculate the total… fire up the spare server with the dual processor… including this 1 shooting… that would be 1. 1 shooting, 37 years. Millions of people have gone to this festival and there has been 1 shooting, no deaths, in 37 years.

So Mayor Greg Nichols has taken it on himself to make us all safer from this epidemic of violence from this one shooting, in 37 years, by deciding unilaterally that the constitution, the part that say the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, should not apply on city owned property.

Now I understand the need to get this epidemic of gun violence of 1 shooting in 37 years at Folklife down to a rate that would make other gun free zones such as post offices or schools envious, oops, bad examples. But wouldn’t a better idea be to limit other constitutional rights that have no doubt been the source of more violence? If the Mayor imposed restriction on speech, such as outlawing the phrase “Dude, are you sure this is not oregano?, at Hempfest or any speech starting with the phrase "Yo Momma" at the hip hop festival, surely that would result in a greater reduction of violence and we are just limiting a right, not doing away with it. Doesn’t this make more sense? Who could possibly have a problem with this idea?

Saturday, June 07, 2008

Seattle, Where The Constitution Does Not Always Apply

Seattle Mayor Greg Nichols has decided the 2nd amendment to the constitution does not apply in Seattle.
Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels plans to ban concealed weapons at festivals after a shooting at Northwest Folklife injured three people.

Joshua Penaluna, her boyfriend, who was shot in the arm, called a ban a good idea. "At a public area like that, the only people that should have weapons should be cops and security."

And criminals Joshua, you forgot criminals. Because the reality is only "law abiding" citizens follow laws.

On May 25, the two Renton residents were hit by stray gunfire after a fight erupted between two men. A bullet shattered Penaluna's wrist and then entered Thorsnes' thigh. A third man, Henry Morris, who was struggling with the gunman, suffered powder burns on the upper lip and nose when the gun discharged close to his face.

Does anyone believe that someone willing to violate attempted murder laws by pulling a gun out and starting to shoot is going to be deterred from bringing a gun by a law against possession?

It was the first shooting in the festival's 37-year history.

So the reality is no doubt thousands and thousands of people have probably had concealed guns at the festival in the past and this was the first shooting. So because of this one shooting, part of the United States Constitution is now null and void at festivals in the city of Seattle.

Let me make an analogy. Let's say tomorrow, someone goes to Safeway and buys a 6 pack of beer and starts drinking it on the drive home and gets in a bad accident that injures some people, not kills, just injures. Should we now ban driving with alcohol in the car? I am not saying ban the consumption of alcohol while driving, that is and should be illegal. I am saying should we ban the transportation of alcohol in a vehicle. If a 6 pack is sitting in a grocery bag in the back seat of a car, should that be banned? The simple act of having a concealed weapon at a festival does not cause harm. Using that weapon, that can, and I stress, can cause harm. It is the same with the alcohol in the car. Having alcohol in the car does not cause harm. Using the alcohol can cause harm. But here is the difference... using the weapon at the festival can cause good. It could stop a serious crime. Using the alcohol in the car will not cause anything positive to happen. One more difference... we do not have a constitutional right to keep and use alcohol.

And where exactly is the ACLU on this issue? Their silence is deafening.

Friday, June 06, 2008

Seattle Alone Will Stop Global Warming

Seattle has decided to take the one drastic step needed to stop global warming, ban beach bonfires.
The park board will hear the recommendation Thursday, and the city plans to run public-service announcements and hand out brochures later this month about the effects of bonfires on global warming.

According to a memo to the park board from the staff released Thursday, "The overall policy question for the Board is whether it is good policy for Seattle Parks to continue public beach fires when the carbon ... emissions produced by thousands of beach fires per year contributes to global warming."

Because that is all it should take:
But at Alki, Nguyen said he'd be OK with banning bonfires.

"By all means, I'd rather not have bonfires than have global warming," he said.


In unrelated news, the Seattle Times has a list of fun things to do while we continue to have unseasonably cold and wet weather:
Puget Sound under cover: Fun places, out of the cold and wet
Here's a list of Puget Sound-area attractions and fun places to go — under a roof.


Of course you could always go to the mountains and play in the new snow:
Snow forecast for mountains, rain for lowlands
By Seattle Times staff and The Associated Press

Snow is in the forecast for the higher elevations of the Olympics and North Cascades, and rain will continue to fall in the lowlands through the rest of today.

The National Weather Service says up to two feet of new snow are possible by tonight above 5,400 feet, creating avalanche danger and hazardous conditions for climbers or hikers in the backcountry.

The Weather Service says the strong low pressure system over the Northwest will bring cool, cloudy weather with a chance of showers through the weekend across Washington. That means rain is likely off and on through the weekend, with temperatures in the mid-50s to lower 60s.

Thursday, June 05, 2008

It's Official, Hillary! Is Out, Obama Is The Nominee

Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Obama Fundraising Buddy Guilty On "Some" Counts

Of course no mention on which Presidential party nominee he might have raised these so called funds for.
Political fundraiser Antoin 'Tony' Rezko has been found guilty on some counts of corruption charges related to a kickback scheme for companies that do business with the state.

Guilty on 16 of 24 counts... or as those of us with degrees in math would say... "most" counts.
Obama Clinches, Race Hustlers Hardest Hit

With the "historic" nomination of Barack Obama, race hustlers such as Al "Tawana Brawley" Sharpton, Jeremiah "God Damn America" Wright and Jesse "Hymietown" Jackson may want to take another angle in order to shake down corporations and the tax paying public for cash.

Either Barack Obama is the next President of the United States of America, proving that race does not matter or Barack Obama loses proving what I have long believed that it is the left that has a problem with race.