This is pretty funny, I don’t care who you are. For the uninitiated, it’s a parody of this post and comment thread over at TTAG, which has spawned much discussion both at Uncle’s and Caleb’s.
Author: Sebastian
Polishing the Turd
Looks like Media Matters is doing their best to try to make the latest polling results not seem so bad for them (or perhaps I should say their anti-gun paymasters) as they really are.
HR822 Truths
John Richardson has some links and a video that speak to exactly what HR822 does and does not do.
Latest Polling
Record low support, at 26%, for a handgun ban, since Gallup first started asking in 1959. Has to feel awful for our opponents to be on the wrong side of history and public opinion. Of course, ask them now they don’t support handgun bans, they never supported handgun bans, and who are you to suggest that was ever so?
Of course, that’s not even the worst news for our opponents. Here’ the worst news:
For the first time, Gallup finds greater opposition to than support for a ban on semiautomatic guns or assault rifles, 53% to 43%. In the initial asking of this question in 1996, the numbers were nearly reversed, with 57% for and 42% against an assault rifle ban.
We are getting our message out there folks. Now we just need federal judges to get the message.
The Next Step in Canada?
So a stake has been driven through the heart of the Canadian Long Gun Registry by Steven Harper’s Tory Government. This is a momentous achievement for Canadian Gun owners. But what comes next? This article offers a key insight:
But it will be shortly ending. The Conservatives have signalled they will introduce legislation to abolish the registry, fulfilling a campaign promise – a promise its predecessor party first made in 1997.
They are finding, however, that breaking up is hard to do because over the years the registry has been a stalwart friend, a gift that kept on giving. They have used the “Liberal†registry to raise funds and create division in opposition parties.
Canadian gun owners should understand that politicians do nothing out of the kindness of their hearts, or because it’s the right thing to do on general principle. There might be a few individual true friends here and there, but as a lot they are motivated by self-interest. That self-interest, for the most part, revolves around winning elections.
So Canadian gun owners need another issue that can be that “gift the keeps on giving” for the Tories. The key is to never be satisfied. Now that Canadian gun owners have their victory, now is definitely not the time to go back to sleep. Now is the time to wake up. The National Post might offer some guidance in this area, namely attacking licensing.
But gun owners in Canada need some organization. While the Canadian Shooting Sports Association has a decent online presence, The Canadian Institute for Legislative Action needs some serious help. This is an area some volunteers would be helpful, so if any Canadian citizens are reading, and have some free time, go offer to help out Tony Bernardo. Right now their online presence screams one man operation. That has to change if you want to move forward.
UPDATE: More ideas here. I wish our media would help us strategize!
About to Get Some New Hardware Around Here
I have acquired a rather large UPS. Used of course, but wasn’t of much use to its previous owner. I also have come across a quad-Xeon workstation, with 16GB of RAM, which I think would make a splendid server for the blog. I’ve had the Xeon for a while, actually, but what’s kept me using the older box is that it’s pretty miserly with electricity, giving it a nice run time on UPS power. Well, now I have a big honkin’ UPS, so that’s less of a concern.
But the quad-Xeon is much faster, and has twice the RAM. The only issue is, I’m using dmraid (FakeRaid) in the current box to do mirroring, because I was short sighted, and didn’t think through the consequences. Ordinarily, I’d just move the mirrored pair over, and things should be fine. But I have to break the dmraid pair, and convert to to Linux software RAID. This is doable, but a bit of a PITA. So I need to do this after hours. I think I can make the transition without incurring any serious downtime.
My plan so far is to remove one drive from the current mirror, and let it run degraded. Set up a degraded software mirror on the new system with the drive I took out, and then copy data from the current box over, while live. Once the new box is running as a copy, albeit an outdated one, briefly shut down the current box and update the files that have changed. After that I should be able to come up on the new server, add the other drive, rebuild the mirrored pair, and we’re good to go.
House Judiciary Passes HR822
HR 822 has passed out of the house Judiciary Committee by a vote of 19-11. This looks like a party line vote.
The yes votes were Lamar Smith, James Sensenbrenner, Howard Coble, Robert Goodlatte, Steve Chabot, Darrell Issa, Randy Forbes, Steve King, Trent Franks, Jim Jordan, Ted Poe, Jason Chaffetz, Tim Griffin, Tom Marino, Trey Gowdy, Dennis Ross, Sandy Adams, Ben Quayle, and Mark Amodei.
No Votes were Dan Lungren, John Conyers, Howard Berman, Jerrold Nadler, Robert Scott, Maxine Waters, Steve Cohen, Hank Johnson, Pedro Pierluisi, Mike Quigley, and Judy Chu
Republicans that were not present were Elton Gallegly, Mike Pence, and Louie Gohmert.
We’re asking all readers who have an account on Twitter to please tweet some thank kudos to the yes voters on HR822. This is something Congress Critters notice, and it shows them we’re paying attention to what they are doing. We’re pleased to report the number of yes votes is too large to fit into one 140 character Tweet, so we had to break them up.
- Click here to thank @LamarSmithTX21, @RpSensenbrenner, @HowardCoble, @RepGoodlatte.
- Click here to thank @SteveChabot, @DarrellIssa, @Randy_Forbes, @SteveKingIA, @RepTrentFranks.
- Click here to thank @Jim_Jordan,  @JudgeTedPoe, @jasoninthehouse, @griffincongress.
- Click here to thank @RepTomMarino,  @TGowdySC, @RepDennisRoss, @SandyAdams4FL24.
- Click here to thank @benquayle, @RepMarkAmodei.
More Proliferation of Felonies
Apparently it’s already a misdemeanor to put corn syrup or cane sugar in a bottle and call it maple syrup. Apparently that’s not enough for the Congressional Delegation from Vermont. Because we need more federal felonies or something.
Zombies Jumped the Shark?
Uncle thinks it’s happening. I agree. I’m noticing local teenagers putting “Zombie Response Team” on their cars. When your phenomena becomes popular among the high school geek population, who’ve probably never seen a gun that wasn’t in a video game, I’d say it’s over the shark pretty soon, if not already.
Rebranding
Looks like it’s all the rage today. At least I’m in good company, but I completely understand feeling stuck with a name that you just don’t think works for you. As Glenn Reynolds notes,
“Pajamas TV sounded a little too Hefneresque (not that there’s anything wrong with that!), so it quickly became PJTV, and now Pajamas Media is being “rebranded†as PJ Media.”
It’s funny because I had considered changing the blog name to SIH for a bit, but was talked out of it. Ultimately I just decided to jettison the old name entirely. So far, I don’t think it’s worked out too badly, despite the fact we had a few little issues here and there. Hopefully PJ Media will have a successful transition as well.