Ka-Boom

Tunguska!

The 100th anniversary was today. Despite NASA's high-minded nattering, nobody really knows what happened over Siberia back then.

Fuck the ACLU

Apparently, the CL in ACLU only stands for civil liberties they like. The ACLU has always been disinterested about the 2nd Amendment, but their press release on Heller demonstrates to me they're openly hostile at the national level. I can think of no other court decision protecting an individual right the ACLU would describe as creating a "constitutional straitjacket". So, screw 'em. They go in the bucket with the Joyce Foundation and all the other hoplophobes until repeated and demonstrated action indicates they're sincere in their understanding and commitment to the right to keep and bear arms.

The Candidates Weigh In

The presidential candidate of choice around these parts has weighed in with his opinion on today's ruling. Of course, since he wrote the LP amicus brief for the case, I think we can guess which side he was on.

Everybody's favorite reading comprehension impaired candidate issued a statement hilarious for the lack of self awareness it displays. Two gems:

Unlike the elitist view that believes Americans cling to guns out of bitterness, today's ruling recognizes that gun ownership is a fundamental right- sacred, just as the right to free speech and assembly.

So, we can expect a bipartisan assault on gun rights cosponsored by Sen. McCain when, exactly?

This ruling does not mark the end of our struggle against those who seek to limit the rights of law-abiding citizens.

True enough. You're still a Senator, so there's work yet to be done on that front.

The asshat who locked up the donk nomination has yet to release a statement. It'll be hard for him to reconcile his statement that the DC law was constitutional with the fact the Supreme Court said it ain't. Some constitutional scholar he is.

We Won!

So, for once and for all, I'd kindly like everybody to have a nice cup of STFU about the meaning of the Second Amendment.

1. The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a
firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for
traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home.
Pp. 2–53.
(a) The Amendment’s prefatory clause announces a purpose, but
does not limit or expand the scope of the second part, the operative
clause. The operative clause’s text and history demonstrate that it
connotes an individual right to keep and bear arms. Pp. 2–22.

For the clueless here, the prefatory clause is the part about "well-regulated militia" and "security of a free state". The operative clause is "the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed." Anybody who ever said the militia clause meant restrictions on the right of the individual to keep and bear arms can now eat a bowl of dicks. SCOTUS says you're wrong.

Now, can we get those people to admit the 4th means something?

Not Yet Time

Everyone expects the Heller decision to be released today, so y'all will pardon me if I sit around clicking refresh every couple of minutes instead of doing something useful.

Garry Fucking Owen

On this date in 1876, one each George Armstrong Custer managed to firmly cement his place and the place of the 7th Cavalry in the history books. Unfortunately for him and his men, he did this by getting his command slaughtered by the Lakota and the Cheyenne.

I bet at some point you wished you took them Gatlings, huh, George? Raise a toast for the poor troopers who paid the price for their commander's fuckup. Such is the way of the world.

Public Service Announcement

Well it must be all "about the junk" day over here at YPS, because I was learning from that trusty information source, You Tube, that apparently, in some circles, a woman is willing to sniff a man's junk to see whether or not he's been cheating.

That led me to this bit, which is such valuable information, that I would be an irresponsible citizen if I failed to pass it to our dear readers, as well as anyone else who will listen to these sage words of advice.



Listen to this woman, she knows of what she speaks.

Put Your Junk In A Cup

Truly, once you open the internet connection on your PC and fire up the web browser there’s no telling what kind of mysteries you’re going to find down the rabbit hole. Alice thought the stuff she saw was strange? Bitch got nothin’ on the Web.

J sent me a link to a fascinating document about an experiment conducted by some freak. I don’t mean to denigrate the contributions to scientific research the man has attempted to make… OK, I’m lying. I do mean to denigrate his contributions. And if you keep reading, you'll understand why he's a freak.

He wanted to measure the “force required for intromission with and without the benefit of the foreskin”. So of course, he felt the best way to do this would be to get someone (himself? The text is unclear) to stick their dick into a hole cut into the bottom of a styrofoam cup attached to a diet scale. I am saddened the illustration of the testing apparatus is not reproduced on the web. As funny as the description is, a picture would have been priceless comedy gold.

I can just imagine taking the lab tour:

Researcher: “And over here we have the cup we stick our junk into. Note the scales to check the force.”

Visitor: “Why is there a box of tissues and a tube of KY next to it?”

I’d also like to note the phrase “make an otherwise uncomfortable intromission comfortable.” So, you made sticking your wang into a styrofoam cup comfy? Truly, you have expanded the frontiers of human knowledge!

Upon reflection, I have to assume the researcher conducted the experiments with himself as the test subject. Otherwise, a whole host of factors would come into the picture. I can just imagine kicking the proposal up to the review committee. You want people to do what to what? Why? Uh-huh. Yeah, maybe it’s time for a sabbatical. Of course, the informed consent paperwork would be worth posting to the internet by itself. How exactly do you explain the risks of this procedure to the potential subject? Hell, what are the risks? Styrofoam lacerating your wedding tackle? A unit that stinks of long-chain polymers? And how would you go about finding research subjects? I can just picture some guy in a white lab coat standing on corner at a college campus.

Researcher: “Hey, buddy! Got a foreskin?”

Unsuspecting Student: “Umm… yeah?”

Researcher: “Great! How’d you like to poke your pecker into a Styrofoam cup so we can measure the force? It’s for science!”

Unsuspecting Student: hurries off.

My final cringe-inducing thought on the subject: the test subject needed an erection to do this correctly. Stick your hard-on into a cup for science! That’s a recruiting slogan to address the shortage of scientists and engineers in this country, isn’t it?

The FCC Can Suck It

Shit.
Piss.
Fuck.
Cunt.
Cocksucker.
Motherfucker.

Tits.

Good night, funnyman.

Lightning + Network = Bad

So, the final tally on the electronics damaged and/or destroyed by the lightning strike stands at:

DSL Modem
2 Computers
2 Televisions
Laptop Docking Station
Squeezebox
X-Box
24-Port Switch
Router
2 NAS Drives
Wireless Access Point
Pool Pump

Fun stuff. Basically, if the device was connected to the network it's toast. I am so thrilled. Oh, yeah, all the network cabling in the house is fried. It just occurred to me I haven't checked the printer. Fuck.

Whacked-out Gadgety Goodness

This is the most fabulous pocket knife ever. While I'm not a fan of the Swiss Army, being more of a Leatherman guy myself, a little tiny fold-up crossbow would be freakin' sweet. Actually, the traditional Leatherman form factor would work exceptionally well for a crossbow. Probably not for a flamethrower, though.

Keep this in mind should you ever need to send a gift my way.

Lightning Strikes Just Once Not Twice

So, I arrived home last afternoon and let the dog out. I noticed some brick flakes, for lack of a better term, by the pool. Hmm, I thinks to myself, that's odd. Where would brick flakes come from? Anyhow, I filed it away as something to check on and went in the house. Inside the house, the GFCI in the kitchen had tripped and the phone wasn't working. More oddities. While I was contemplating these strangenesses, I had to cook dinner and do some other stuff.

After dinner, I walked back into the other side of the back yard to see if I could determine the origin of the brick flakes. Instead of brick flakes, I found actual bricks. I looked up at the chimney and saw more bricks on the roof, plus chunks missing from the chimney.

Holy sheepshit, Batman. Destroyed chimney + electrical anomalies = LIGHTNING STRIKE! Stately YPS Manor has been attacked by the gods themselves! I guess my continuing blasphemy has aroused the ire of the celestial after all.

Oh, joy. I guess this explains why the phones don't work, either. After checking, the phone ground is not hooked up to a ground. It's just flopping in the breeze. Whether this predates the lightning strike, I don't know. So AT&T has a service call in to come fix my phone and DSL.

I have called the insurance company. The current damage estimate stands at a wireless access point, a 16-port switch, one desktop, one laptop docking station, the Squeezebox, an X-Box, and a television. Oh, yeah, plus a chimney with missing chunks. An appraiser is supposed to call me and we'll go from there.

Post title reference here, if you look for it.

Soon Enough

The Supreme Court is busily handing out opinions for the cases heard in the 2007 session. 4 came out yesterday, and 22 remain. In the remaining cases one is of particular interest around here. I refer, of course, to District of Columbia v. Heller, which centers on the 2^nd Amendment. While the court cogitates, here’s an interview with the lead attorney for the case.

I am, like the rest of the hardcore RKBA community, awaiting the decision impatiently. I don’t think we’ll get everything we’d like, but I don’t think we’ll get fucked over either. A sort of unhappy medium will be reached, despite Obamarama’s contention that DC’s gun laws are constitutional. They’re not, and a guy who is supposedly a “constitutional scholar” should know what the actual document says. Of course, running against him is a guy who has spent his entire adult life sworn to uphold and defend a document he has apparently never read.

On that note, have you considered an alternative to either one of the donkelphant nominees this fall?

One More Ecoweenie Lie

Check out this very informative article regarding the environmental benefits of offshore drilling. Yes, you read that right, the environment BENEFITS from offshore drilling. Just go take a look.

If Republicans Were More Like Mitch McConnell...

...I wouldn't be supporting Bob Barr for President...

Mitch McConnell has big brass balls. In case you haven't been keeping up with Senate proceedings lately, Red State is reporting that Mitch McConnell has called out Harry Reid's lying bullshit and has effectively shut down the Senate:

Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats pledged to hold a confirmation vote on three of President Bush's Circuit Court nominees prior to Memorial Day, then broke their word and allowed only one to be considered on the floor, thinking that their continued obstructionism in the face of a Republican minority and lame-duck President would go unchallenged and without consequence.

Today, Senate Republicans, led by Mitch McConnell (R-KY), began to pay back the Democrats for their obstructionist, bullying tactics.

Mitch McConnell shut down the floor today by forcing the clerk to read all 500 or so pages of Barbara Boxer’s climate change bill, making it essentially impossible for anything to happen in the Senate all day (or, technically, until the reading is complete).

In addition to stopping all progress on the legislation currently on the floor, this action will have the effect of throwing off Reid’s entire legislative calendar (yes, the same one he somehow "forgot" to add those promised pre-Memorial Day confirmation votes to).

There are few things the minority can do in the Senate more disruptive to the Majority than removing their ability to manage the floor. Reid and Boxer (D-CA) have been seen very agitatedly conversing on the floor during the reading (clearly, Boxer neither wants to hear, nor wants anybody else to hear, her bill read in so public a location as the Senate chamber).

McConnell's action is designed to send a very specific message to Reid, Boxer, Leahy, and the rest of the Senate Democrats that Republicans will not stand by while they hedge, obstruct, and otherwise refuse to move on the nominations of qualified judges to the bench.

The effects of the move by Senator McConnell are discussed at length in the article. It has been a small bright spot in an otherwise bleak political season.

Hurrah Mitch McConnell!

Heavy Benzene

So I was shopping online for benzene today. I found heavy benzene, where all the hydrogen atoms are deuterium. It's 10 times as expensive as regular benzene, which I can understand given the relative scarcity of deuterium.

What I can't understand is why you would want this particular substance. Is there some advantage to having deuterium in your benzene?

Graduation

N graduates from high school tomorrow. While an accomplishment given she graduated 3rd in her class, it's only the beginning. As we pointed out the other day, she has two more to go to get where she wants to be and this was the easy one. We are both rather proud of the kid, despite the fact we provided only ancillary support for most of the high school career. Well done, N!

Quick Reaction

One of the problems with the Ron Paul (RON PAUL!) campaign was the manner in which it was run. A lot of people have questioned where the money went and why he didn't run a more visible (read: better) campaign with the funds. The answer is in his campaign staff. Ron Paul kept, for the most part, the same campaign staff he had for his congressional campaigns. So you had a national Presidential campaign being run by the staff of a third-tier congressman from Nowhere, Texas. Strangely enough they didn't run the best campaign imaginable for a national office. I imagine this comes as a shock to some people, although I'm not sure why.

I've heard the suggestion that he could have hired a more knowledgeable campaign staff. The number of people who have run campaigns at the national level is vanishingly small, and none of them were going to go work for Ron Paul. The winners are all establishment players, and the losers want to be. Neither group is going to offend people they may need jobs from later by working for a campaign trying to upset the established power structure. It's not a smart career move unless you can win. I'm sure they parsed the chances of Ron winning about like I did. (See also: snowball, hell, chances in)

Having said all that, Bob Barr's people are reacting quicker and being more politically astute than Ron's people. This is a good sign and bodes well for the remainder of the season.

Tongue Bites Hurt

Ted Kennedy (D-runk) is undergoing surgery for a brain tumor today. I’d like to be big enough to wish him well, but I’m not. So on that note, I’ll shut the hell up.