I doubt that any of the few readers I do have, have ever heard of Tom Dunn. Mr. Dunn is the creator, editor, and publisher of an occasional quarterly called The Pipe Smoker's Ephemeris. He has had to stop his much-appreciated and irreplaceable work due to a return of the cancer he thought he had licked. This publication has no web presence--this was strictly a paper and mail project. So here, four months early, is the last ever Santa-with-a-pipe Christmas postcard Mr. Dunn will send.

Our thoughts and prayers are with you, Tom.

For some reason, the media waited until the law was actually passed before they jumped on it. Here's an example of what we are seeing, this from KWTX TV:

Texans have long been allowed to carry handguns in their vehicles when they're traveling, but starting Thursday anyone over 21 who's not a gang member may carry a concealed weapon in a vehicle whether traveling or not.

Wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

As in, incorrect.

Journalists, please bother to actually read the law before you spout off on it. I'm going to keep posting this until it either gets through or I lose control and smash the screen with my forehead.

The law actually states:
(i) For purposes of Subsection (b)(3), a person is presumed to be traveling if the person is:
(1) in a private motor vehicle;
(2) not otherwise engaged in criminal activity, other than a Class C misdemeanor that is a violation of a law or ordinance regulating traffic;
(3) not otherwise prohibited by law from possessing a firearm;
(4) not a member of a criminal street gang, as defined by Section 71.01; and
(5) not carrying a handgun in plain view.

This law has now defined traveling. It does not permit Texans to carry a concealed weapon in their motor vehicle "whether they are traveling or not." It states that they are now permitted to carry a concealed weapon in their motor vehicle when they are traveling, and goes on to clearly define traveling.

Journalists, reporters, whatever you want to be called--get it right, or shut up.

Previous referece: Some HB823 Details

NRA-ILA has this press release from Representative Terry Keel (Austin):

HB 823 represents the first time a presumption has been crafted in favor of a defendant in the modern penal code of Texas. The presumption applies unless the prosecution proves beyond a reasonable doubt that the facts giving rise to the presumption do not exist. If the state fails to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the facts giving rise to the presumption do not exist, the jury must find that the presumed fact exists. By enacting this evidentiary standard in conjunction with the presumption, the legislation is intended to have the practical effect of preventing in the first place the arrest of citizens who meet the newly specified prerequisites of being a presumed traveler.

It should be noted that the very real problem of citizens having to prove their innocence after arrest by the assertion of their right to carry a firearm while traveling was the reason for a 1997 legislative change which replaced the "defense" of traveling with a classification of the statute of UCW as instead entirely "inapplicable" to a traveler. This change was well-intentioned but did not have the intended effect of protecting honest citizens from potential arrest because the term "traveling" was still left to individual police or judicial officials to define on a case-by-case basis. As a consequence, law-abiding citizens who availed themselves of their right to have a handgun while traveling continued to face arrest and often later prevailed only in a court of law after proving that they were indeed traveling.

In enacting HB 823, the 79th legislature, like all previous legislatures, declined to define traveling as a narrow set of particular circumstances. For example, to require someone to have an overnight stay in a journey in order to be classified as a traveler would be unfair to persons traveling great distances in one day. Likewise, a requirement that a citizen be "crossing county lines" may make no sense, such as in areas of Texas where travelers drive hundreds of miles without leaving a single county. Moreover, the ability of police to elicit such evidence and consistently apply its subjective terms on the street in a traffic stop has not proven practical, at all. The new statute instead focuses on a defined set of relevant, objective facts that are capable of being determined on the spot by law officers.

A while back some of the hits I was seeing in my web stats spooked me. So I tried to cover my tracks by hiding my actual identity as well as I could. I think I was only being paranoid. I don't like trying to hide behind a pseudonym, even a cool one like "Nightgaunt."

I have been wanting to create another blog using Blogger's "book" template to put some of my stuff back on the Internet. I think that doing so will help add a little more motivation to my writing something new. And, I want anyone who reads it to know that it and this blog are by the same guy.

The link to the hymns will also be added back in.

In that tongue-in-cheek post yesterday, I wasn't kidding about not believing in balance. This is a battle between good and evil and it won't be finished until the end of time.

The American Princess has been angered by the actions of some certain liberals, and lets everyone know about it:

I got hate mail for helping yesterday. I got hate mail from some pathetic leftists who accused me of being a Bush supporter. I got hate mail from people who asked why I wasn't taking in survivors since I was such a rich Republican, instead of begging for money.

Well, guess what? I'm no rich Republican. I'm not perfect, but you know what? I care. I can't handle it when people want to punish you for helping. I just can't handle it. There is a faction in this country that is so bankrupt that it can't do anything but stand by and critique those who dare to help, who dare to do anything for their fellow man, because they are so selfish, so self-cetnered, so concerned with forwarding their own pathetic political agenda whil people suffer and die from something that maybe we couldn't prevent, but we can definitely help out now.

Screw you. That help didn't have to come. It didn't have to go forward. I didn't have to care and neither did the countless other people who stood by my side. And now, I am so angry that I can't see straight.

Fine, blame everyone on this planet for the problems that are happening in New Orleans. Blame Bush. Fine. But you know what? The time will come when there is no one left to blame. The time will come when pulling the race card, when acting like a lunatic, when wearing your smug Michael Moore grin and spewing useless rhetoric will be the death of a group of people in this country. There is no discussion left in polite society. There is no discourse. Just a bunch of people with their fingers in their ears and blinders on who don't give a crap what their mentality and their attiudes do to this country. Give the partisan crap a rest for a few days. Quit trying to capitalize on the pain of hundreds of thousands of people and quit turning your ire on those who have nothing but good intentions.

You think this is easy for George Bush? You think he's having fun? You think that he even sleeps at night any more? You think he's heartless, but what does this do to him. He is one man, who has faced the most horrible events in Americn history in his single Presidency, and yet you can't even give him the benefit of the mere idea that he sheds tears like all of us at the pain of his countrymen. You want to believe that he is some unfeeling creature, no better than you. We are all better than you. Every single one of us. And I'm not just talking conservatives. I'm talking all people of intelligence in this country. All people who don't buy the line, who think about what they believe, and don't automatically turn to blind hatred in a time of need.

As usual, read the whole thing.