Something interesting came up in Kim du Toit’s reader mail section today:

Re:  The Pink Pistols

Kim,
Am curious about any past, present, or current commentaries available regarding these “Gun Totin’ Ferrets” ??? (GTFs).
“Thirty-one states allow all qualified citizens to carry concealed weapons.  In those states, homosexuals should embark on organized efforts to become comfortable with guns, learn to use them safely and carry them.  They should set up Pink Pistols task forces, sponsor shooting courses and help homosexuals get licensed to carry.  And they should do it in a way that gets as much publicity as possible.”

Bob B.

[I’m not sure what answer you want from me on this.  I’ve never commented on the Pink Pistols before, because they’re just another group which supports the Second Amendment, and therefore I’m supportive of them.
Your use of the word “ferrets” gives me a clue, however, so you may not like what I’m going to say next.  Of all people in the United States, homosexuals should be armed, because not only do they run the standard risks of being assaulted and robbed like the rest of us, they run the additional risk of being beaten up by some mindless asshole (or group thereof) because he’s afraid that he’ll get “contaminated by a queer”.  Queer-bashing has been a feature of life in almost every town and city in the United States, forever—and I, for one, would be the first to applaud if some homophobic fuckhead got wasted by a faggot under these circumstances.  Regardless of your opinions on homosexuality, this bullshit has no place in our society, and if it takes a few Darwin episodes to prove it, so much the better.]

Indeed.  I support the rights of all people to defend themselves (which reminds me to add the Pink Pistols to my links section).  No one has the right to use force against another based on that person’s sexual orientation, and it’s people like Bob B. who are the Pink Pistols reason for being.  Further, the self-defense issue is a good way to win GLBT people over on gun rights (and away from the left-wing positions that many in the GLBT community think that they are required to have).  Personally, I would like to see a day when this isn’t an issue (the same goes for race).

This reminds me that I’ve added a few blogs to my links as well:

• Mrs. du Toit—essays and a wealth of info on various topics
• Alphecca—self-described gay gun nut in Vermont
• IMAO—good rants
• GOCinAtlanta—emphasis on grouchy (in a good way)

This is but one reason why I will not vote for Tony Sanchez for Texas governor.  Not that I like Rick Perry (I think he’s pretty sleazy as well).

I noticed that Tony Sanchez is trying to show himself as a believer in gun ownership but he couches it in terms of supporting the rights of “sportsmen.”

Sportsmen’s Rights
“Hunting and fishing is a way of life. It’s how to teach our children values. In Texas we have to protect our way of life. For me, a big part of that is protecting the rights of sportsmen. We don’t need more gun laws. Instead of going after law-abiding citizens, let’s vigorously enforce the laws on the books and go after the criminals. (More… )

Any time a politician uses sportsmen to show his support for gun ownership, it leaves me wrinkling my nose at the foul odor of “must support X to get elected regardless of what I feel” politics.  The right to keep and bear arms ain’t about duck hunting.  Anyway, he’s a Democrat.  I don’t trust them on this issue no matter how much they proclaim to support gun owners.  Their party leadership is so far to the left on guns that you can’t find them without a high-power spotting scope.

This Texas governor’s race is turning into a pretty nasty business.  The attack ads have been flying fast and furious the past week.  However, the only effect they’ve had has been to turn me off on both of the major party candidates.

I’ve been stewing about this Wellstone rally (I won’t call it a memorial, ‘cause it wasn’t) all day now and apparently I’m not the only one.  A lot of people had unkind things to say.  This is just a sample:

• Instapundit
• VodkaPundit
• Rachel Lucas
• Cold Fury
• a small victory

Well, this is the final straw.  It’s bad enough the Dems turned the memorial into a dammed political rally, but it turns out that we’re footing the bill for it.  Typical behavior for politicians.

Once again, I am reminded why Lileks is the master.  From today’s bleat:

Could Sheriff Moose please, please say the following:

“As far as we know, the sniper has never jammed the gun barrel against the roof of his mouth and used his toes to pull the trigger. That’s his pattern, and we’ve no reason to think he will deviate from it.”

Perhaps the sniper would sneer at the TV, think: I’ll show you! and be halfway to the great raisin dispensary in the sky before he realized his error.

Priceless.

An Earth First! tree-sitter fell out of a tree and died in the Ramsey Gulch area about 20-miles south of San Jose, CA on Tuesday night.

I don’t think I need to comment further on this.

Here’s a view of Boulder, CO and the mountains to the west.  The picture was taken from an overlook just east of the city, looking west.  If you look closely, the university and part of the city are visible in the center of the picture.

Ok, I know this may not be of interest to very many.  However, I live in North Texas, with an average elevation of around 500 feet, so I don’t get to see stuff like this very often.

I drove up to Boulder, CO today for a class I’ll be attending this week for work.  There’s some really beautiful country up here.  Now I’m wishing I had more time to look around.

Blog reading / commenting will be very light this week.

I’ve just migrated this site to Movable Type.  I’m still playing with the templates a bit, so there could be some strangeness in the links, etc.

Also, my hosting provider is moving the machine this site is hosted on to a new datacenter on Saturday, September 14, 2002 from 10:00pm until 3:00am PDT.

Found via Spleenville: Insult Generator.

I saw this and I thought that my head was going to explode.  Between this one and the other radio show that was encouraging its listeners to have sex in public places, I think some of these radio shows are going way too far.  In this case, the host called up a woman early in the morning (while she was sick) and pretended to be a doctor, giving her the news that a previous boyfriend had an STD and that she might have it.  He then proceeded to ask her questions about her sex life.  It was only after he started getting more and more personal with the questions that she caught on that he might not actually be a doctor.  To make matters worse, they used her real name on the air. 

I hadn’t encountered anything this hideous before, but I gave up on morning radio shows a while back.  It was one of the things that drove me to XM Radio.  I got tired of the mean-spirited pranks and the smarmy, snotty “personalities”. 

I’m always a bit wary of lawsuits, given their frequent abuse, but I will definitely assert that this was an evil and stupid thing to do.  I guess in this case if I were on the jury I’d definitely want to punish the show’s host and probably the station for allowing him to do this to an unsuspecting person.  But then that’s just an emotional reaction.  I’m not familiar with the law in this area, although I don’t think I buy the station’s assertion that they should get away with it because it’s protected speech.  They should remember that the First Amendment only goes so far.  Did they have a right to do this?  Probably.  Were they justified in doing it.  Hell, NO!  Just because you can say it, doesn’t mean that you should.  We have the right to say just about anything we like in this country, but that doesn’t shield us from the consequences (i.e. the responsibility that goes with the right).