McCain Suspends Campaigning

McCain is apparently taking time off the campaign trail to focus on the financial crisis:

We must meet as Americans, not as Democrats or Republicans, and we must meet until this crisis is resolved.I am directing my campaign to work with the Obama campaign and the commission on presidential debates to delay Friday night’s debate until we have taken action to address this crisis.

It’s actually a pretty bold manuver.  If Obama stays in the field, he looks like someone who is unserious and more concerned about winning his election than he is about doing his job as a Senator in a major economic crisis.  If he goes back to Washington with McCain, he has to take time off fundraising.  McCain’s campaign is on welfare for politicians public financing right now, so he’s not able to legally raise funds currently.  If Obama comes in from the field it hurts his campaign financially.  Either way, Obama comes out the loser on this.

Guilty Plea For Gun Buying Mom

A mother who bought her kid a 9mm carbine has plead guilty:

The mother who bought an assault rifle for her teenage son who was plotting a Columbine-style attack at his high school pleaded guilty yesterday to endangering the welfare of children.

I’m going to guess they didn’t pursue weapons charges, since it’s not actually illegal to buy a rifle for your kid as long as it remains in your possession and control.  It would be tough to prove that the firearm was actually transferred to the juvenile.  Of course, it seems to be this woman wasn’t buying her kid a gun to teach him responsibile gun use, and his dad seems to have been charged with weapons violations himself, and was a prohibited person.  No good was going to come from this situation.

Latest Rapsheet

In my continuing series of exposing the criminal records of infamous Philadelphia criminals, I present you with the criminal record of Philadelphia’s latest cop killer, Daniel Giddings.  Daniel Giddings was responsible for the murder of Philadelphia Police Officer Patrick McDonald this past Tuesday.  Giddings was killed when police returned fire.

Giddings record compared with those of other cop killers in Philadelphia is not as extensive, and only includes one arrest for aggravated assault and weapons charges that was Nolle Prossed (which means charges weren’t pursued).  Six months after that, he’s picked up on similar charges.  While awaiting trial, it would appear he was picked up on aggravated assault once again, and charges were withdrawn.  In 2000, he’s finally confined to prison for a six to twelve year sentence.  I would appear that he served eight, rather than the maximum he pretty clearly deserved.

But Daniel Giddings will be commiting no more crimes thanks to the Philadelphia Police.  But it’s a tragedy we had to lose an officer in the process.

End of Handgun Sports in Finland?

Looks like Finland, one of the few countries left in Europe with a healthy shooting and sportsmen’s culture, is considering banning handguns in response to the latest mass shooting there.  Finlands laws for handguns are already rather strict, and would be a dream for gun control advocates here.  My understanding is that licenses for them are on a may-issue basis, and police will only generally issue permits for .22LR pistols.  Any other pistols not suitable for “sporting purposes”, with the police getting to define what that means, are denied.

Notice you don’t see the Brady Campaign dancing in the blood of these victims?  Curious isn’t it?  Maybe because Finland already has the restrictions the Bradys dream of, and it goes to prove that when gun owners agree to them, it’s only a matter of time before politicians, faced with a tragedy like this, say “That’s it folks, time to turn them in.”  It also doesn’t fit their narrative that this is a strictly American phenomena, because of our lax gun laws.

And they keep telling us we’re paranoid.

California Hunters Coping With Lead Ban

Looks like California hunters are attempting to cope with the lead ammo ban, but it’s costing them.  No doubt it will drive a lot of people out of hunting due to the higher prices for ammunition:

Another development, which Baker found “a little disturbing,” is hunters who don’t sight their rifles for copper bullets, which have different properties than lead.

“Any time you change ammo, you should always go out and sight it, even different brands (of ammo),” said Jeff Bettencourt of Ceres, who has been a hunter for 35 years.

That’s true, and it will drive the cost of hunting up even more.  Copper based ammunition is twice as expensive as lead based ammunition, so this is really going to hurt sportsmen in that state.  Do sportsmen in other states like Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio trust that Obama will put their concerns over these people?  I don’t.

PETA Ice Cream

PETA is telling Ben and Jerry’s ice cream they need to start making their product out of human milk.

“PETA’s request comes in the wake of news reports that a Swiss restaurant owner will begin purchasing breast milk from nursing mothers and substituting breast milk for 75 percent of the cow’s milk in the food he serves,” the statement says.

PETA officials say a move to human breast milk would lessen the suffering of dairy cows and their babies on factory farms and benefit human health.

Eeew.

Astroturfing HopeChange

The Jawa Report has an excellent bit of Amature Journalism that outlines how the Obama campaign is likely behind an astroturf campaign to promote sleazy and blatantly false claims about Sarah Palin.

Looks like Chicago politics to me.  Why would we want to elect a president from there again?