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Fred On Malpractice |
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Greg, 6/21/07 9:53:49 pm |
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Federalism aside... He keeps making more and more sense.
Who does legislation like this hurt? Sharky Lawyers. Who does it help? Everybody else. I will generally oppose legislation on the principal that we have too much as it is. I don't like the government regulating any industry whatsoever. But this isn't a regulation, rather it is a cap on ridiculous lawsuits. I have always been a champion of tort reform, especially when you are talking about putting an end to insane litigation where it is mostly lawyers who profit. Usually, I'd suggest that there needs to be more clear constitutional limits on litigation, but in this case, it really is impossible to write a meaningful amendment that can remain current with the times. Hence, a new law is actually a good thing. |
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Complaining Muslims |
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Greg, 6/21/07 7:13:26 am |
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According to CAIR, things are pretty bad for Muslims in this country. Of course, I don't give two fleas off a rat's nipple for what CAIR says. To paraphrase Fred Thompson, CAIR is about useless. It has ties to Hamas, it isn't funded by Americans, and American Muslims don't support the group. Being a radical group, I really don't trust the numbers they give regarding so-called "hate crimes" and "civil rights complaints". They are calling for policy changes to address this issue, so of course they want to make it seem as bad as possible. This is all just an attempt to do in America what they've done in Europe, which is to get the government terrified of insulting anyone, so that the nuttiest whackjob can scream "discrimination" and everyone will cower before them. I won't deny that there are a lot of people in the US that, for no good reason (...), hate people of Arabic descent and Muslims. But the law still applies equally to everyone, so CAIR's demands for special treatment are bogus.
Sheikh-Khalil, 50, a Tampa car salesman who ... |
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American Faith in Government |
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Greg, 6/21/07 6:42:21 am |
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...is at an all-time low. Sure, you constantly hear "Bush's approval rating is only 24%" or whatever it is from the media NON-STOP. But what you don't hear nearly as often is that Americans give the Democratic Congress a 14%!!! My question is: why do we keep electing people we aren't happy with? Are Americans really that divided on the important issues?
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Fred Thompson NPAT |
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Greg, 6/20/07 11:59:31 am |
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1. If you are elected to Congress, what will be your two main legislative priorities?
a) Congressional reform including term limits, cutting Congressional sessions and pay, and reforming the Congressional pension system; Stop Congressional exemptions from certain laws. b) Cut taxes on working families.
2. If either of your two main legislative priorities require government spending, where will this money come from?
It will come from limiting the growth of the federal government to 2%, which will free up $542 billion.
Smart man. But how are you going to convince congress to cut its own pay, impose term limits and limit its growth? |
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Garlic or Not? |
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Greg, 6/20/07 11:07:31 am |
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Apparently some people don't like garlic! I know, I'm pretty stunned myself. They might as well stop using olive oil too.
Let's see...
What food would I want if I were shipwrecked on a deserted island? Garlic. What flavor goes with everything (arguably) other than ice cream? Garlic. How do you defend yourself against vampired? Garlic. What is something that is good for your health? Garlic. You can answer just about any question with one answer: Garlic! What is sexier than a pile of naked playboy bunnies? Well... maybe that one doesn't work.
Oh well, as soon as I save this post, I'll go back to munching on my roasted garlic cloves soaked in garlic-flavored olive oil, spread on garlic bread.
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read more | comment (2) |
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Bloomberg, Don't Bother |
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Greg, 6/20/07 9:32:21 am |
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Bloomberg leaves the GOP to become an Independent. Ok, we all know he was never, in any sense, a Republican. Maybe on paper, but that's about it. I see this as a possible step towards his supposed run for the presidency. Why can't this guy just shut up and be happy governing one of the most important cities in the world?
He doesn't have a chance of winning on merit, but he seems to hope that he can just buy the election. I have faith that Americans are smart enough to ignore this rich wannabe, and let him squander huge amounts of money (drops in a bucket to him of course) on a bid for the White House. I just hope in Bloomberg's case, he doesn't do what Ross Perot did, and screw over the conservatives.
You always hear me championing third-party/independent candidates solely on principal that I'm sick and tired of the two worthless parties we are currently stuck with. Heck, I'll even admit to voting Green Party once, just because it made me happy to see someone other than a republocrat/demublican ... |
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read more | comment (0) |
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Self Defense and Christianity |
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Greg, 6/20/07 8:30:47 am |
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First, let me state that I am not a Bible scholar. I try to know and understand as much as I can about the Bible, as well as Orthodox tradition, but I confess that I regularly find my knowledge lacking. I am an Orthodox Christian, and I feel strongly that answers to any life situation or problem can be found through prayer and learning.
Most of my posts here have been purely secular and political in nature. The point of this essay, however, is more for me to learn than to state my beliefs. Therefore I have no regret saying what I say today, with the knowledge that I might know better tomorrow. I encourage feedback on this topic, especially from those who may understand the subject more completely. The topic I will be discussing holds a significant importance to both my earthly and spiritual life. My first attempt at this will basically be a collection of disparate quotes from both the Old and New Testaments, along with my (likely inadequate) interpretation of them. As I come ... |
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read more | comment (0) |
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Greg on Politics(13): Legislating Morality |
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Greg, 6/19/07 8:18:38 pm |
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Oral sex was a criminal act in many places for a long time, and is still in certain locales. Clearly this type of legislation is based on "Relative" morality. "Relative" morality legislation A) has nothing to do with an actual victim and B) is often tied to some religious belief. Marijuana use, homosexuality and adultery, among other commonly attacked "immoral" actions, but they are private acts which should not be legislated. Problems arising from this kind of activity can generally be handled by a civil, rather than a criminal court. Legislation regarding topics like these reflect a religious or invented cultural bias, as opposed to the actual violation of another person's rights. The Constitution and Bill of Rights, in my humble yet correct opinion, were put in place to assure that the rights of the individual are always inviolate. This means that just because I disagree with your behavior, it does not mean I have legal recourse to stop it, unless it causes harm to me or my ... |
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Captcha |
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Greg, 6/19/07 11:21:15 am |
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Ok, I was only getting about 2 comment-spams per day, but I decided to implement a captcha anyway. Otherwise, I'd be spending 3 entire minutes of my day once a week deleting spam, and frankly, I have better things to do... ya know, like blog about how it takes 3 minuets to delete a weeks worth of spam.
I stole the idea from XKCD. I know it is just a comic, and in theory, it really won't help if a spambot is even remotely clever... but a lot of bloggers are moving away from the annoying distorted squiggly letters dealio, and towards something a lot more simple (like an easy question.) I guess the theory is that you'll catch most of automated comment spam, and the non-automated or targeted variety isn't a big problem for the typical blogger. If you have a problem with targeted or manual spam, then you have to use registration & moderation, which I doubt I'll ever have the readership to require.
The other thing I will probably be implementing is the nofollow tag for links. I don't ... |
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Unghhh. |
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Greg, 6/18/07 12:43:01 pm |
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I hate being sick.
I also hate airlines that book flights at the same time as an air show, causing me to have to sit in a plane on the tarmac for an hour. I also hate missing connecting flight and not getting correctly rerouted for 4 hours.
The Airforce Thunderbirds are pretty cool. Too bad I was stuck on a plane and could only hear them. |
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Greg on Politics(12): Animal Rights |
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Greg, 6/15/07 1:03:58 pm |
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First of all, animals taste good. Second, God intended us to eat animals, otherwise they wouldn't be so tasty. Third, we need animal protein to be healthy, and our body tells us that by causing animals to taste good. Fourth, animals taste good.
Given that, let me go a step further. Nothing is as tasty as a freshly killed critter. Mass-produced meat is less healthy, less tasty, and worse for the environment. When I pull a fish out of the water, fillet it, cook it and eat it, all within an hour of the initial harvest, that's some good eats. I prefer to know precisely what I am eating, so I try to stay away from anything too processed. If I can't tell what it is, or where it came from, I'm generally not going to be all that fond of it. I have a feeling me and Uncle Ted would get along just swell. Actually, I eat plenty of mass-produced meat, but I do jump on the chance to have it fresh.
To the left-est, tree-hugging-est, patchouli-wearing-est PETA fucktard hippies out there, this ... |
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read more | comment (1) |
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Greg on Politics(11): Energy Cost |
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Greg, 6/15/07 10:46:13 am |
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People love to blame the oil companies for the cost of gasoline. I don't. I blame the government which adds a ridiculous tax to every gallon you buy. The federal government takes 18 cents and most states take around 21 cents. That means every time you fill up (let's say 15 gallons), you are paying six of those dollars to the government. Given gas prices around $3/gallon, you are paying around 13% in taxes! Oil companies may indeed be guilty of artificial price inflation, price gouging even... but you have to understand that they are not just selling a product that comes to them at the wave of a magic fairy wand. They invest millions and millions of dollars every year into research and exploration (not to mention techniques to make it burn cleaner), without which we'd have a lot less oil, and a lot higher prices. Oh, and look at the gasoline price in Europe. Are you really complaining about $3/gallon? With the huge amount of money that the government rakes in for every drop of gas in your car, you'd think there would be a huge return in terms of reinvestment ... |
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Greg on Politics(10): Energy Policy |
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Greg, 6/15/07 10:04:30 am |
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We are stuck with oil for a while. Deal with it. Biodiesel, ethanol, etc. cannot replace oil on their own. Coal still runs this country, and it can't be replaced with solar and wind power. It simply isn't possible. We must keep researching other possibilities though, because there are better ways to generate energy. One place where tax dollars ought to be spent is on incentives for innovation as well as tax breaks for implementation of improvements. For a long time we've relied on oil as a sole means of running the country. There is no silver bullet solution,and I'll argue that there shouldn't be one. Diversity in energy sources as well as better efficiency should be our goal. Keep in mind, however, that I don't advocate giving up our luxuries in the name of efficiency. I'm an engineer, and as an engineer, I know that there are always more efficient ways to do things, but there must be incentives in place for those who want to build cleaner cars, or more energy efficient houses.
Here ... |
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Another thought on HR2640 |
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Greg, 6/15/07 6:41:29 am |
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Sebastian has some thoughts on the political aspects.
There seems to be a pretty broad consensus among the NRA and NRA members that this bill doesn't hurt gun owners at all. In theory, this bill really has nothing to do with gun owners, only those who want to buy a gun. The NRA's official stance is "this is not gun control". The GOA, on the other hand thinks it is. The Brady Campaign and Carolyn McCarthy think it is. The press is calling it a "gun law". Who is right?
Gun control advocates will claim it as a victory, which kinda bugs me, because every time you hear the Brady Campaign (et. al.) say they've done something good, they earn more credibility with the average uninformed American lefty. Oh, and it helps their egos when they can say "It strengthens Brady Background Checks". Hah.
I agree that, in theory, this is going to be helpful. In a previous post I mentioned that the "mental health" aspect of gun regulations bother me, because currently there is no way to restore your rights if you are healthy, but have had past problems. ... |
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read more | comment (1) |
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Living in a Red State is Fun! |
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Greg, 6/14/07 9:33:42 pm |
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Huge Tax Cut
Basically, this is only gonna really help Florida resident homeowners (who are currently being drained by high taxes, and raped by the insurance companies, including the state-run socialist Citizens nonsense... strange, it is a red state, right? I'm so confused... I thought we didn't like socialism down here. Arghh.)
I really don't remember the last time I heard "Tax Cut" in West Virginia. I mean, I'm sure it's happened before, but not that I can recall, and I've been paying income tax since I was in 6th grade. I was happy not to be paying income tax down here though, so this is just icing on the cake.
Now if Florida could just turn down the thermostat a few notches send the bugs somewhere else, and cancel hurricane season, it would be paradise 
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read more | comment (0) |
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YAY! Pictures! (Lake Atikwa) |
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Greg, 6/14/07 8:55:50 pm |
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 As promised, here are the pictures from my trip to Lake Atikwa, Ontario last week. I barely had time to flip/scale the pictures... so I didn't get a chance to go through and weed out the bad ones, fix the colors, put them all into my image gallery, add captions, etc. For now, you can deal with it... I might get around to it sometime.
I also haven't written up a trip report yet... but I'll sum it up now.
Super cool. Wonderful Time. Great Fishing. Lots of Northern Pike. Lots of Lake Trout. Yum! No Walleye. Lots of Ticks. Poker. Decent Food. Beautiful Scenery. Relaxing.
How's that for a summary? I'll try to actually write up something real when I get back from my weekend trip to Morgantown.
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read more | comment (0) |
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Minor Safety/Annoyance Issues |
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Greg, 6/14/07 2:01:32 pm |
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According to Site Advisor my site is pretty safe...
Although, under Online Affiliations, it states:When we visited this site, we found that most of its links are to sites which are safe or have only minor safety/annoyance issues.
I wonder what the minor ones are... |
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read more | comment (0) |
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In Referer News |
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Greg, 6/14/07 1:51:57 pm |
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A Google search for "West By God" puts me in my rightful #1 spot.
Strangely, so do the phrases: "girls who like camping", "mangrove photos of tampa bay" and "johnson super seahorse 50".
I'm #2 for "outside wedding pictures", "baby barracuda", "pictures of nasty teeth", and "sunset tampa bay pictures".
And I'm #3 for "assateague shark".
Unfortunately, I've slipped to #5 for "silly monkey pictures". I guess I need more pictures of monkeys.
So what interesting search terms puts you at the top of the Google Search Results?
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read more | comment (2) |
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Lock Picking |
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Greg, 6/14/07 7:52:27 am |
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Since my site already gets an inordinate number of hits for search terms related to lock picking (lord knows why) I thought this post from SayUncle would be appropriate for a lot of my unintentional readers...
First it shows a video of an 11-year-old popping off trigger locks with absolutely no effort using a screw driver. That doesn't bother me much, because I picked my first lock when I was 8 or 9 (my sister forgot the combo to her bike lock) and I have at least kept up on lockpicking news ever since. However, I do think they are neat mechanisms, and seeing as how I am an engineer and have a keen interest in both physical and network security, my interest in locks follows naturally. The second bit talks about other vulnerabilities that various gun locks have.
Picking or breaking locks is easy. You would be surprised how easy. There are very few well-designed, secure locks out there, and they are all too expensive. Anyone with a bump key can open the door to your house in 10 seconds. I've seen them ... |
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I Didn't Like Pizza Hut Anyway |
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Greg, 6/13/07 11:10:34 pm |
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This story about a recent event in Orlando really pisses me off. I'm not going to eat at Pizza Hut anymore (not that I really like that greasy sh*t anyway...) For an employer to tell an employee that they cannot defend themselves goes beyond insane. What's worse is, this guy gave up the money, probably per company policy, hoping they would leave. They didn't, and continued threatening him, so he drew is concealed gun and fired at them (hitting one.) To me, and the law, that is a clear cut case of justified use of force. This man, and the other employee would likely be dead if he hadn't been carrying his firearm... and Pizza Hut would prefer that.
What I'm wondering is... Florida's "stand your ground" law makes it impossible to sue someone who shoots you in self defense. So this guy is off the hook for sure. I'd figure that protection would extend to an employer. However, since this guy was acting against corporate policy, and was fired for his action, I wonder if the shot thug can sue ... |
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More on Fred Thompson |
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Greg, 6/13/07 1:39:20 pm |
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After reading, listening and watching everything I could find on Thompson's politics for a few days now, I've decided that he is probably going to end up at the top of my list. Don't get me wrong, I still prefer Ron Paul, but Thompson is so much more electable. Not only because he is well spoken, with a bit of southern charm. etc... but also because he is really more of a true Conservative than a Republican.
A lot of angry conservatives, who have all but forsaken the Republican party will see a fresh, almost Reagan-esque, hope in Thompson. Plus, the GOP still has to like him because he doesn't step off the party line very far or very often. The religious right can get behind him because he is a man of faith, and (as quoted below) has a more friendly view of the inescapable interactions between church and state. Libertarians should at least like him because he is a smaller-government, lower-tax, economic conservative. Many Democrats should like him because they tend to be helplessly ... |
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Regarding NICS changes |
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Greg, 6/13/07 9:31:10 am |
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I haven't read HR 2640 yet, so I'm not taking a definite stand one way or another. All this talk about it has me thinking about it though.
First, there must be an appeals process to expedite corrections of mistakes in the NICS system.
Second, if you are a marked as a
"prohibited person" there should be a process for requesting that your rights be restored, preferably via the court system. Of course, that would mean your right to own a gun would be in the hands of the court, but isn't that better than in the hands of the BATFE or FBI? You can supposedly do it now in some places, but nobody seems to know how, and I've never heard a case of someone doing it successfully.
The NICS system pools together all kinds of data regarding a person's criminal history, and all of that is fine with me. But when they start including non-criminal mental health issues, due process is lost. Therefore, the law must be written carefully to ensure that only court-ordered commitments make it into the ... |
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Fred Thompson's VP |
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Greg, 6/13/07 8:07:49 am |
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Ok, I haven't completed my research yet, but that is because there is so much out there that Fred has personally written. I did want to bring up, however, that this article at townhall mentions something that made my ears perk up a bit... Condoleeza Rice as Fred Thompson's VP nomination. Verrrrrrry Innnnnnnteresting. Think about that. I like ol' Condy pretty well... she's tough, smart as hell, and doesn't seem to put up with much nonsense (its a miracle she can deal with Dubya.) Oh, also back in '06, she picked the Steelers to win the Super Bowl... that's a checkmark in the "plus" column for her.
So, put her as Fred's VP candidate, and suddenly, all of the "Let's elect Hillary because she doesn't have a penis" folks and the "Let's elect Obama because he isn't white" folks suddenly have someone else they can champion who doesn't suck. I've always proposed that you need someone likable as president, and a bulldog as VP. I think a pair like this could achieve that dynamic, plus some.
I'm not saying ... |
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read more | comment (0) |
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What crime? |
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Greg, 6/13/07 6:56:36 am |
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According to this article, some guy in Sarasota just got detained (under the Baker Act... strange) for having a bunch of guns in his car. I'm sure the article is leaving out some important detail (maybe he was wearing underwear on his head and flinging poo or something) but given the details we are given, he didn't commit a crime.
Located in the truck was a Remington 7400 rifle, a Mossberg shotgun, a Smith & Wesson .38cal. revolver, a Ruger 357 handgun, a Bryco 380 Handgun, and a Springfield 1911 .45cal. revolver. All of the weapons were loaded. Also found in the truck was in excess of 500 rounds of ammunition.
So What? You are legally allowed to carry loaded weapons in your vehicle, in Florida, if they are securely encased (that includes a holster or your glove box.) 500 rounds of ammo.... big whoop. My ammo box is often that well stocked, and I usually lug the entire box to the range with me. I'm just sick of the media calling four or five guns, or a few hundred rounds of ammo a "cache".
Basically, ... |
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read more | comment (0) |
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iPhone in 2.5 Weeks... |
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Greg, 6/12/07 2:00:13 pm |
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Do I get one? Hmmmmmm. I dunno. Awfully expensive, but awfully pretty too.
Greg |
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read more | comment (1) |
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