Had a GREAT time hanging out with Angus Lincoln today (and since you’re the only comment-writer on this blog thus far, Angus, I’m essentially announcing this to you and I - redundant, but recorded for future generations).

Getting to try out such classics as an AK-47 and a Mosin was just too cool. I’m hooked. The first thing I said to Lady Liberty when I got home was, “Honey … I *need* an AK-47.”

Don’t ever let any liberal tell you you don’t need one. They’re only saying that because they never tried one on.

While the large steel can a hundred yards away eluded projectile death from Mr. Mosin, it was no match for me behind one of Angus’ most excellent .22 rifles with a scope.

Awesome! Now I just need to work on becoming a better shot!

I love it when people exhibit a stubbornness so strong that facts simply don’t matter.

Philadelphia is quite a case study of homicide and violent crime involving thugs, firearms, and more thugs. In short, it’s bad. Real bad.

I came across this bit on Philly.com by Jill Porter:

Will we abandon the racist smugness that dismisses the violence as a problem of black youth in poor neighborhoods?

Well, guns don’t run around all on their own shooting cops, you know. Someone has to pull the trigger. Maybe … just maybe … we should take a peek at who’s being shot, and where, for some clues …

Lucky for us, we have a nifty flash application to visit. Look at the farking map, lady.

Homicides involving firearms against blacks: 227
Homicides involving firearms against whites: 46

Homicides involving firearms against black “youths” (age 0-25): 106
Homicides involving firearms against white “youths” (age 0-25): 17

Largely in poorer neighborhoods, and - while the statistics aren’t available on this application - I’m willing to bet that it’s not a bunch of stark-white suburban kids running around with Mommy’s 9mm doing the deeds.

Take your head out of your moral high-horse’s posterior, Ms. Porter.

Denying that this is largely a problem in poorer neighborhoods is inane. Ignoring the fact that yes, black-on-black crime is more common and is a huge problem in large part to entitlement policies put in place by a corrupt Democratic city government is well beyond misrepresenting fact.

Jill ain’t done:

And will we demand a crackdown on the guns that have turned this city into a bloodied battlefield that threatens the men and women in uniform every day?

Got some news for you. Criminals aren’t supposed to have guns. They’re breaking the laws anyway. They’re not purchasing them legally at Dick’s Sporting Goods. You go ahead and implement all sorts of laws, anyway. I’ll bet they don’t listen. This argument would be funny if it wasn’t so tiresome:

But go ahead. Play the race card. Try to make me feel bad that I can see the statistics and interpret them properly. What are you, a “journalist” or something? Oh here we go again …

Are our legislators willing to - finally - pass sane legislation to stem the violence?

And no, I don’t mean with feel-good responses like the 20-year mandatory minimum sentence for anyone who shoots at a cop proposed last week by state House Speaker Dennis O’Brien and Gov. Rendell.

Put criminal in jail. Sounds like a pretty good start to me. What’s your problem with this O’Brien guy?

I mean real change, the kind that O’Brien has spent his career blocking, the kind that Rendell has been pushing without success so far in the Legislature.

Real change that O’Brien has been blocking? 20 years first offense for plinking a cop is more than a few other major cities. Seriously … what’s with this O’Brien? Is he handing out guns to thugs on the street corner?

Again I ask … why the O’Brien hate?

I mean the bill to end straw purchasing by limiting sales to one gun a month, and the bill to require the reporting of guns that are lost or stolen.

As longtime chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, O’Brien never let those bills see the light of day.

And even last week, with the city in crisis after Cassidy’s slaying, the Philadelphia Republican still refused to support them, endorsing the 20-year prison sentence instead.

Oh. Well. That explains it, then, doesn’t it?

Uhhh. Jill? Chuck Cassidy was gunned down by a “black youth” who stole his Mom’s 9mm service pistol and got all Pulp Fiction at a Dunkin’ Donuts. And he had a prior criminal record. And he was a drop-out in a poor neighborhood. Wait a second … do you hear that? It’s your argument crashing to the ground. Sounds kinda squishy.

DO YOU THINK HE WOULD’VE HAD TO WAIT A FRIGGIN MONTH TO STEAL HIS MOM’S PISTOL? What does one have to do with the other. You’re not very good at this, are you?

An FBI study of 52 police officers attacked in the line of duty showed that 77 percent of them were shot with a handgun.

Hmmm. Wonder how many of the remaining were gunned down by assault rifles and muzzle-loaders!? Oh, nevermind.

But there’s no reprieve, it seems, from the assault on our city’s cops.

And now there should be no reprieve on our demand that state legislators pass these bills.

In the name of the cops who serve us.

In the name of all of us.

All of who? Do you need to be reminded about how poorly gun bans work? Have a look at DC’s violent crime. Los Angeles. Boston.

Sorry to pull back the curtain on your little fantasy-land, Jill, but the facts are right there in front of you, and unlike you - race card in hand - they’re color-blind. Law-abiding gun owners don’t gun down cops in pastry shops. Making someone who abides by the law wait a month to buy a handgun is like putting out a fire with a pineapple. One has nothing to do with the other. But go ahead, push for it anyway, continue on with your own agenda, and continue to ignore what’s so obvious to reasonable people - criminals commit crimes because they’re criminals.

Or at least … he ate this one. Via Of Arms And The Law:

Eyewitnesses said they were shouting to the man to swim back to shore. When the man finally spotted the alligator, eyewitnesses said he screamed but then disappeared under the water.

… and subsequently saved the State of Florida oodles of tax money putting this felonious boy scout through the courts and re-releasing him anyway.

Florida Gators … doing the job Americans won’t do. Too bad they’ve got to kill it, the thing would make a kick-ass replacement for a police K9.

Via National Geographic:

Simultaneous warming on Earth and Mars suggests that our planet’s recent climate changes have a natural—and not a human-induced—cause, according to one scientist’s controversial theory.

Doesn’t sound all that controversial to me. I’ll bet you those little piss-ant Mars Rovers didn’t pass California emissions!

Have a look at this over at CO2 Science:

… there is no compelling reason to believe that earth’s current warmth is sustained to any degree by its extra 100 ppm of CO2. It’s the enhanced activity of the sun that is likely responsible for it.

Criminally irresponsible! This is TREASON!

And on Science Daily (via Daily Pundit), Arctic Ocean Circulation Does An About-Face:

A team of NASA and university scientists has detected an ongoing reversal in Arctic Ocean circulation triggered by atmospheric circulation changes that vary on decade-long time scales. The results suggest not all the large changes seen in Arctic climate in recent years are a result of long-term trends associated with global warming.

HERETICS! BURN them at the stake of Global Warming!

Over at Space.com, Pluto’s SUVs are baffling scientists:

They suspect the average surface temperature increased about 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit, or slightly less than 2 degrees Celsius.

Even Neptune’s Moon, Triton is getting in on the HOT ACTION:

“At least since 1989, Triton has been undergoing a period of global warming,” confirms astronomer James Elliot, professor of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “Percentage-wise, it’s a very large increase.”

#$&%@! Looks like we’ll have to purchase EXTRA carbon credits to cover all of those damn coal plants on Triton. But that’s okay, it’s not like Al Gore is going to profit!

Meanwhile, over at the NY Times:

Along with rising temperatures, global warming is very likely to cause a shift toward more extreme weather — stronger storms with more rainfall, and longer and more severe droughts. Those changes are likely to have large-scale, obvious effects on farmlands, grasslands and forests and on the creatures that inhabit them.

Riiiiiight. Like the 2006 Hurricane Season and the “very active 2007 hurricane season“? One word. Fizzle.

Now all of this isn’t to say that because other planets are warming, that it means the sun is warming everything and that’s that. Not at all. What all of these facts do indicate is this:

1) Warming occurs on planets other than our own and scientists remain “baffled” (their words, not mine).

2) There are no SUVs on these planets (Though Kucinich might say otherwise)
3) Al Gore’s carbon footprints are all over this kind of hysteria - because he profits from it.
4) We cannot predict weather one season ahead, yet it’s a fact that if we don’t act right now, the seas will swell up 20 feet, all the polar bears will die, and Bush will be to blame.
5) There’s oodles of scientific evidence showing that the Earth has gone through periods of warming and cooling - much more drastic than this one - and yet there was no industry. There were probably more cows though. DAMN FLATULENT COWS!

It’s a big load of crap. All of it. Does the climate change? Yes. That’s why it’s cool in the winter, and warm in the summer. Is it our fault as naughty humans?

Hardly.

It’s been happening since well before we were here, and it’ll continue to happen well after we’re all gone.

Philly.com … 30 cents short.

It found that just one in five blacks, or 20 percent, said things were better off for blacks compared with five years ago; that is the smallest percentage since 1983, when 20 percent also made that claim. In-between, the percentage of blacks who said things had gotten better had grown, only to drop back to 20 cent.

Note to Hope Yen. When writing race-based stories, do your best not to make unfortunately stupid mistakes regarding race-based colloquialisms.

Here’s the obligatory screenshot:

Malkin has the hilarious details.

Here’s a tribute … Buh-Weet Sings!

There is a right tool for the job, and a wrong tool for the job.

Feh.

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) - Former President Clinton said Monday his wife can handle the criticism from her presidential rivals even though “those boys have been getting tough on her lately.”

Translation: “We’re pandering to feminists.” She entered the race. There is no gender issue. This is a typical slick lawyer trick - saying something outrageous in a trial and knowing full well it’s going to be “stricken from the record” even though the whole jury has to listen to the tripe.

Clinton’s comment comes amid debate as to whether the Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign’s complaints about her rivals’ “piling on” suggest the criticism is directed at the lone woman in the presidential race or the Democratic front-runner.

Debate? What debate. She did get piled on. You get piled on because you’re swimming with the other sharks and they smell blood. Should Edwards and Obama say, “Excuse me Miss, that sounded like doublespeak. But it’s okay, you’re a woman. We’ll let it slide.”

Last week, Bill Clinton. in defense of his wife against political critics, cited the “swift boat” television ads of the 2004 presidential campaign that questioned John Kerry’s patriotism and the campaign commercials in 2002 that suggested Sen. Max Cleland of Georgia was soft on terrorism.

I love it. “… questioned Ghengis John Kerry’s patriotism.” No, they exposed him for the America-hating self-loathing leftist he is. No question about it.

Several Democratic candidates said they were surprised by the analogy.

Oh no! A discovery! Don’t worry, Bill Clinton has as much love for fellow democrats as the democrats do for the troops.

“It’s a great time to be a Democrat,” Bill Clinton told more than 800 students and supporters at Trident Technical College. “Even though those boys have been getting tough on her lately, she can handle it.”

It’s that whole “wink-wink, nudge-nudge - those DANG Boys!” Arkansas simpleton schtick of his. “Look at them mean men pointin’ at this Southun Belle every chance they git!”

Clinton said he loves campaigning for his wife and paying back for all those years she campaigned for him for governor of Arkansas and president.

Oh, yeah, and paying her back for the whole Oval Office thing. You know …

If she’s as tough as he claims her to be, he’s probably got a vice on HIS “Southern Boys” whenever he’s out of her sight.

“She says I have to work hard because free campaign help is hard to come by,” Clinton quipped.

“And because if ah don’t, she’s gonna put me in the French Maid suit and make me clean the house again!”

Clinton said that his wife’s positions on education, health care, the economy and international affairs make her the best qualified candidate to be president.

… of Cuba. As much disdain as I have for Bill …

The reason the nation can’t enforce tough trade regulations with the Chinese is because they are now America’s banker, Bill Clinton said.

… the man has a set of brass balls the size of watermelons to bring that up.