I've been working on a new "toon strip" blogheader and tonight finally patched one together.  Not that anyone cares, but it's something I enjoy.  Characters from left to right.

Hellboy.
Byron Orpheus, The Venture Brothers.
Ichigo Kurosaki, Bleach.
A little pipe-smoking alien in a spaceship from the BOBCO7 font that I jazzed up with Gimp.
Riza Hawkeye, Fullmetal Alchemist.
Alucard, Hellsing.
A Deep One from the cover of an old Scholastic Book Club collection of Lovecraft stories.
Abel Nightroad, Trinity Blood.
Invader Zim.

Nothing significant, just another collection of pictures conveying emotions, states of mind, and hobbies.

I still have a couple of other "strip" blogheaders in the works, one using various images from vintage ads and another with an Old West theme.

The one of Hawkeye is, I think, the best picture I've seen of her so far.  Here's a bigger version:


I don't know what's up with the trigger guard, but note the trigger finger.

I've been planning to go to "the next gun show" in May, but I forgot that "the next gun show" is still this month--this coming weekend.  I think I'll use this time to just do a reconnoiter of the tables and see what's available.

I don't much automobile blogging because to me a vehicle is just a way to get somewhere, not something I've ever been emotionally attached to.

Last week the idiot light came on in my 2003 Ford Ranger and it started idling very rough.  One time it died while I was sitting at a stop light, so I've been circumventing that by shutting off the a/c unless I'm moving.

Today I took a day off work to accompany my son's kindergarten class on their field trip to the zoo, so we dropped the truck off at our local shop.  They hooked it up to the computer and eventually found a small hose with a tiny crack in it.

But apparently this small hose is some kind of sooper-seekrit dealer part.  Can't get it at NAPA or anywhere else.

So he calls up a dealer.  Calls another.  Both tell him that part doesn't go in a 2003 Ford Ranger.  Yet he is holding the very part in his hand, which he took out of a 2003 Ford Ranger only minutes before.  Maybe I should have just wrapped it in duct tape and kept going.

So they're sending him some hoses that are supposed to go in a Taurus because they think one of them will fit.  He should have been able to take of this in a couple of hours this morning, but now my truck is in the shop for an overnight stay while he waits for these top-secret parts to arrive.

In a related story, two weeks ago the idiot light came on in my wife's Dodge Durango.  Another hose problem.  Why was the hose torn apart with ragged edges on the ends?  Squirrels.  Squirrels chewed the hose apart.

Which I guess we could call the "just trust me" bill.  H.B. 992 is nasty.

C.S.H.B. 992 amends Chapter 52, Labor Code by adding Subchapter G, which prohibits, except as otherwise provided in Section 52.061, a public or private employer from penalizing, discharging, or disciplining in any manner an employee that transports or stores a handgun in a locked vehicle, owned or leased by the employee, in a parking lot, parking garage, or other parking area provided by the employer for the employees, so long as the handgun is hidden from plain view in the vehicle's glove compartment, console, within a locked gun case, or other locked container within the vehicle, the employee is licensed to carry a concealed handgun under the Government Code, and the employee has filed a copy of their concealed carry license and a written statement, signed by the employee, with the employee's immediate supervisor stating that the employee is licensed to carry a concealed handgun under the Government Code; that they intend to store a concealed handgun in their locked vehicle while parked in the provided parking  lot, parking garage, or other parking area; and that they may not remove the handgun from their vehicle for anything other than self defense within the immediate parking area.  The employee does not have to submit a written statement that they are licensed to carry a concealed handgun under the Government Code if the employee transports or stores a handgun in a motor vehicle the employee is actively using in the course and scope of the employee's employment, which does not include travel between the employee's home and place of employment.

So I'm supposed to trust my employer not to discriminate against me or, especially, not to break into my truck and steal my gun.  Trust him not to blab about it to some ne'er-do-well cronies.

This is what happens when you have to get a "permit" to exercise a constitutionally protected right.  This law goes too far.  I've never notified an employer before, and I'm not about to start.

Does Rose have a dual personality disorder, or what?

JR notified me about this in comments.

Full text of bill at HB 991 - House Committee Report version - Bill Analysis.  Under current law, anyone can discover if anyone else has a CHL by submitting that person's name and paying the required fee.  They get a simple yes/no answer.  Full lists of all CHL holders in Texas are not available to anyone, including allegedly "authorized journalists," so publishing a list of all CHL holders isn't legally possible, although I suppose some real scumbag could leak it if they really wanted to.

H.B. 991 removes the requirement that DPS (Department of Public Safety) disclose to any person, other than state and local law enforcement agencies, whether an individual holds a concealed handgun license.

I'm trying to think of what the Brady Goon Squad is going to call this in their next lie campaign, but I can't come up with anything.  I guess I just don't have that mind-set.

Bill lets you vote if you bring your what to the polls?

And how come some of these ID cards are judged to be twice as valuable as others? You can vote by showing your handgun permit. But if you show your fishing license, you have to show additional proof, like your sex change dossier.

Answer:  Let me know how many backgrounds checks were performed on you and how many sets of fingerprints you had to turn in to get a license to do something that isn't a constitutionally protected right in the first place.

What I don't get is how a photo ID badge from an employer is considered a valid ID.  If the employer is hiring illegal aliens and issuing them with photo badges, then suddenly they can vote.  That's beyond stupid.

Texas State Rifle Association Executive Director James Dark fisks Marsha McCartney's testimony against passage of the recent "Stand Your Ground" bill.  Here's a small sample:

Near the conclusion of her testimony, Ms. McCartney mentioned that she participates in gun-buyback programs. I hope that she is considering how she might look in an orange jumpsuit if the authorities ever take a good look at what’s going on with these gun buybacks. In the same committee meeting, a state representative and another witness (for the antis) admitted that they knew that most of those guns purchased in buybacks were stolen. Texas law forbids the purchase of “property [that] is stolen and the actor appropriates the property knowing it was stolen by another.”

Am I the only one that wonders why these gun buybacks are allowed to proceed and why they are not looked into by the authorities? Do you not wonder why there is no attempt to link up the stolen property with the rightful owners, rather than buy the guns simply to feed them into a grinder?

McCartney is President of the North Texas Chapter of the Brady Campaign.  Most (just about all of it, actually) of her testimony involved simply reeling off one lie after another.

Thanks to A Keyboard and a .45.