aubreyturner.org

Just a friendly warning to any U.N. “observers” who might come to the U.S.:  Remember those “small arms” that you hate so much?  We’ve got ‘em by the millions over here and we don’t acknowledge your authority in our internal matters.  Nothing will be allowed to take precedence over our constitution. 

I would think that powder blue would make target acquisition easy…  (not that I’m advocating violence or anything )

Via little green footballs.

Since the Fourth of July is coming up, all of the local news stations feel the obligation to inform all of us idiots that we shouldn’t handle fireworks.  “Leave it to the experts,” they say as they’re showing footage of test dummies having their hands blown off by “fireworks” (it makes me think these tests are rigged for effect, given the pansy-ass little firecrackers they sell these days).  Our local ABC affiliate devoted nearly 5 minutes to this topic this morning, including an interview with a local ER doctor who told everyone what to do when injured by fireworks.

Of course this is typical of the addlepated “advice” that these on-airheads spew at us for “our own good.”  Quite frankly, I’m sick and tired of the sanctimonious condescending attitude of these bastards.  If we had listened to these safety ninnies in the past, this country would have never gotten off the ground.

Anyhow, I’ve been handling fireworks since I was a little kid and I’m not about to stop now.  I’m going to my mother’s place this weekend, where there’s room to shoot off fireworks.  I’m going to go buy one of those big artillery pieces and use it just to piss off the safety nazis.  Screm ‘em and the airbag-equipped horse they rode in on.

Now that I’m getting the hang of Expression Engine, it didn’t take me very long to convert my gun show listings to an EE weblog. It took a little hacking of the EE code itself, because it doesn’t display future entries by default. However, the support forums and knowledge weblog explained what to do.

Now, each show is a weblog entry whose entry date is the date of the show. The table of shows on the main page is generated from the weblog entries, displayed in ascending order. In addition to being automatically generated (in the past I had to hand edit the HTML every time the page changed), I now allow comments on each show (although they’re moderated to prevent any spam nonsense).

To prevent anyone who linked to my old page from being broken, I installed a custom 404 handler that uses PHP to look at the requested URL and determines where to send the user. Here’s what that code looks like, in case anyone is interested in doing something similar.

<?php

?>

I’ve been tinkering with using an Expression Engine weblog to manage my gun collection pages.  I’ve gotten it to the point where it’s now usable.  It can be accessed at “http://www.aubreyturner.org/armory” (at least for the time being).  I’ve got a few tweaks I want to make to the templates and I need to figure out how I’m going to handle the current links before I move the new page into the current location.

One feature that I’ve added to the new collection weblog is that comments are accepted.  From time to time I’d get a question via email about part of my collection.  If people have questions now they can ask them in the comments and I can respond there.  This will also capture the answer for any people who read the page later.  However, to prevent any shenanigans, I’ve turned on comment moderation.  I’ll receive the comment in email and can then approve or delete it from the control panel.

I think this guy (soul-sucking registration required) is a little too tightly wound to be a marshal.

Town Marshal Ron White was fired for pointing a gun at a man who had written a rude statement on a check and then refusing to attend a psychological evaluation, according to city records.

The records detail the May 28 incident, in which White, 42, drew and pointed his weapon at Michael Vincent Boland about 8:50 a.m. in the parking lot of the Westlake town campus.

White’s tenure as town marshal began April 1, 2002, and ended June 14, when he was fired by the town’s Board of Aldermen during a meeting he did not attend. He had been suspended with pay on June 4 by Town Manager Trent Petty.

It would appear that this wasn’t his first problem.

But White’s problems on the job began before May. Town records show that he was warned about controlling his temper in his 2002-03 performance review.

“If another loud and combatant verbal confrontation occurs between you and a co-worker, this will be grounds for immediate termination,” the review states.

In March, White failed his 2003-04 performance review and was put on probation for six weeks. He was given a “passing” rating May 14.

White claimed that when the man started his car that he was in fear that he would be hit with the car.  However, Keller police were called in to investigate the incident, and their report is particularly damning.

White “did not have a legal reason to detain the complainant,” Keller police Lt. Rex L. Phelps wrote to Chief Mark Hafner in a memo summarizing the investigation. “He clearly showed poor judgment and did not control his own emotions to the level expected of a professional law enforcement officer.”

I saw a short article about this in today’s paper (although I chased down this link which doesn’t require registration).  It’s another case of someone lucky to be alive after being insufficiently armed for the occasion.

A woman was attacked by a mountain lion while hiking in central California, but was rescued when her friends stabbed the animal with a knife and threw rocks at it, officials said.

Shannon Parker lost her right eye, was injured in her other eye and suffered deep lacerations to her right thigh during the attack Saturday, officials with the California Department of Fish and Game said.

…

Authorities said Parker was hiking with three male friends about 20 miles north of Kernville when the 70-pound female lion attacked her as she walked alone back to her car, Martarano said.

Parker’s boyfriend, Mathias Maciejewski, 28, stabbed the lion with a knife and Jason Quirino, 30, and Ben Aaron Marsh, 15, threw rocks at the animal until it ran off, Martarano said.

They were very, very lucky that they were able to substitute balls for ballistics.  But you have to wonder if this woman would still have her eye if someone there was carrying an appropriate weapon.

Since I work at home these days I have to spend a lot of time on conference calls.  That’s usually not a problem, but it doesn’t exactly inspire confidence when you’re wearing a headset which is connected to a landline and a big thunderstorm rolls in.  And since my dog is hiding under my desk, cowering on my feet, I suppose if I get hit we’ll both get it…

It seems that there isn’t a form of technology that people won’t corrupt for nefarious purposes.

Cell phones are chock-full of features like built-in cameras, personalized ring tones and text messaging. They also gave a real boost to Kenny Hall’s effort to cheat on his girlfriend.

Hall, a 20-year-old college student in Denver, decided in March to spend a weekend in nearby Boulder with another woman. He turned to his cell phone for help, sending out a text message to hundreds of other cell phone users in an “alibi and excuse club,” a network of 3,400 strangers who help each other skip work, get out of dates or give a loved one the slip.

Assistance came instantly. A club member, on receiving Hall’s message, agreed to call the girlfriend. He pretended to be the soccer coach from the University of Colorado at Boulder and said that Hall was needed in town for a tryout.

I’m guessing that Mr. Hall’s relationship with his girlfriend has ended, given his candor in this article.  Anyhow, one of the “advantages” they mentioned to this anonymous alibi club is that it keeps your friends out of it, thereby avoiding the potential that they’ll forget which lie to tell at an inopportune moment. 

Of course, when dealing with strangers there could be potential dangers.  However, Hall’s first concern seems a bit ironic, given his intended actions.

Another problem, which even alibi club members admit, is that other members may not be entirely trustworthy. Hall, the student in Denver, said that when he gave away his girlfriend’s phone number to a stranger, he worried that the stranger might do more than make an excuse.

”I didn’t want him hitting on her or telling her what I was up to,” Hall said. But now he is a believer in the power of the cell-phone-assisted alibi. “It worked out good, actually.”

Glenn Reynolds comments on the federal mandate that blackmailed the states into changing the drinking age to 21.  This was one of the first things that really drove home to me the arbitrary nature of government by majority, since it happened when I was about 16.  It left a really bad taste in my mouth, and I haven’t forgotten it.  I’d done everything right and followed all the rules and then they went and changed the damn rules on me.  I felt I was being punished for something I didn’t do.

It was also the beginning of the erosion of my respect for the authority of government, since I habitually ignored their silly law from the time I was 18 until I was 21.  Over time, little by little, law by law, the government itself is creating libertarians out of more and more people.

I saw this on a mailing list and thought I’d pass it along.  I don’t know anything about the organization, although they provide lists of items that our people may need.  Here’s the link: Adopt a Sniper.