One must learn to dress around one's pipe.

A totally clueless anti-Second Amendment screed at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has now received a swarm of two-by-fours upside the head comments providing some necessary clues.

I am not one of the commenters there--just pointing it out.

Santa Clarita, CA:

A newspaper promotion for Tom Cruise's upcoming "Mission: Impossible III" got off to an explosive start when a county arson squad blew up a news rack, thinking it contained a bomb.

The confusion: the Los Angeles Times rack was fitted with a digital musical device designed to play the "Mission: Impossible" theme song when the door was opened. But in some cases, the red plastic boxes with protruding wires were jarred loose and dropped onto the stack of newspapers inside, alarming customers.

Sheriff's officials said they rendered the news rack in this suburb 35 miles north of downtown Los Angeles "safe" after being called to the scene Friday by a concerned individual who thought he'd seen a bomb.

Times officials said the devices were placed in 4,500 randomly selected news boxes in Los Angeles and Ventura counties in a venture with Paramount Pictures designed to turn the "everyday news rack experience" into an "extraordinary mission."

Ben Wade Chesham loaded with Cornell & Diehl's Bayou Night.  And I just had another match-related mishap with these dang inferior Diamond brand matches.  I just can't find Ohio Blue Tips anywhere anymore.  At least I didn't actually burn myself this time.

Today was spent mostly recovering from the past week--sleeping and doing nothing so the hamstring in my right leg could recover from a bad pull I did on Monday while trying to scale a fence.  I sleep quite well to Star Trek marathons on G4.

I have to say that G4's new Star Trek 2.0 gimmick is at least a little interesting.  A question posed today was:  Who catches your eye, Ensign Rand or Uhura?  I would have to say both.  I am one of those semi-deviants who is still steamed that the green-skinned Orion s*x slaves never turned up on TNG.  I bet one of them could have given that snot-nosed Wesley Crusher a new outlook on life, I tell you what.

The kids and I went to a local used book store this morning and I discovered that someone recently got rid of a lot of Terry Pratchett books.  I picked up two today and will go back Monday for the rest.  They will fill out my Discworld collection quite nicely.  I was also looking for Tony Hillerman, but they didn't seem to have any of his.  They did have quite a few books of Ed McBain.  The kids also got a couple of books.

Anyway, I spent a great deal of my awake time today researching and writing up a new article for the blog.  I guess real gun writers who actually get paid to do this kind of thing have plenty of time since they make their living from it, but it took me most of today and some of last night to complete it.  I think it will probably be my best article for the month of May, as far as traffic goes.  I like to try and come up with something good once per month, and I'm already wondering what I'm going to do for June.  I'll probably post it mid-week, so I can submit it to the Carnival of Cordite.

Seattle:

A highly improbable shot left an officer's bullet in the cylinder of a gunman's revolver, and police say it's a pretty clear sign that the officers who shot the man faced a deadly threat.

"Physically, it is impossible to conclude anything other than the fact the suspect was pointing directly at the officers," Deputy Chief Clark Kimerer said Wednesday, adding, "I've not seen anything quite like that in my 24 years."

Check out the photo of the revolver.

Ride Fast & Shoot Straight has an interesting Mantel Gun Meme going, worth checking out.  Alas, I have no entry for such a meme.

Did you know that there is a Texas XD Practical Shooters Association?

I just discovered it, myself.

So, maybe it was Anna Magdalena herself who was the pipe smoker.

tnx to All Things Conservative

I use a local ISP called Blazeisp.com.  They provide local numbers so people outside of the big city don't have to dial long distance or pay for a metro line just to use the internet.

The "local" numbers they provide aren't truly local, they just serve as such.  Someone with a more technical knowledge of how the phone system works in this country could probably provide a much better explanation.

I use Statcounter to check my stats sometimes.  Mostly I just use it to following "visitor paths" through the site.  Statcounter doesn't always know for sure where someone really is.  For example, the old number that I had on Blaze up until a few days ago would sometimes show me as being in either Houston or San Antonio, and a couple of times in Temple, although I am in none of those places.

Now check this out:



So as you can see, the IP address shows Houston, TX, but look where Statcounter thinks it is.  Those are my own visits to this blog while looking up the permalinks for two articles that I just referenced in the previous post.  That just cracks me up.

More on Orange County.

Martin said an article in the O.C. Weekly and accompanying photos show Carona smiling while the arm of Rick Rizzolo, a man the FBI has called a mob associate, is draped over Carona's shoulder. Carona is in uniform.

The article also contains photos of Carona with Freddie Glusman, owner of the Ritz restaurant in Newport Beach and Piero's in Las Vegas, and Gary Primm, owner of a Nevada casino.

Both Glusman and Primm, according to the Weekly, are Carona contributors and were sworn in as departmental reserve deputies before they were cleared through background checks.

Michael Schroeder, campaign advisor for Carona, could not be reached for immediate comment.

Martin said he saw the pictures Wednesday for the first time. "Rick Rizzolo is a known Mafia associate," Martin said. "He owns a strip club up in Vegas and he has a criminal background."

The picture, he said, was taken at the Ritz restaurant in Newport Beach, "during some ceremony. We know the sheriff is in uniform, and (it is) obviously a social gathering. They look to be pretty close here."

Pointing to another photo, Martin said Carona is "in the middle giving deputy reserve sheriff's badges to Glusman, who likes to associate with the Mafia especially at his (Newport Beach) restaurant and another one in Vegas."

Martin said Glusman likes to host a clientele that is known to law enforcement officers.

"His places are hangouts for known mobsters," Martin said. Martin said he does not know of any criminal background for Primm. "I don't know if he has one," Martin said.

[...]

Carona drew criticism for appointing political allies to reserve deputy positions in 1999 over the objections of the department's own background investigators.

According to published reports, Carona appointed 86 allies, friends and relatives to the reserve program, before background checks were completed and days before the state stiffened training requirements.

They were later removed from the state's peace officer database after it was determined the checks were incomplete, but the Sheriff's Department allowed the reservists to keep their badges and in some cases, department-issued guns.

I'm sure all the folks in Orange County feel safe and secure since only the local Sheriff can say who will and will not legally carry a gun.

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