Blogs – Page 51 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Haven’t Forgotten

I still have some Sheriffs to contact in the state to see whether they would release license information.Â They only answer the phone during the day, and I have to work during the day.Â Â Believe it or not, it’s easier to get on to make the quick post or comment than it is to get on the phone and call someone.Â I wish all the Sheriffs had e-mail addresses, because I find that easy, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.Â Kudos to Chester County Sheriff for being the only Sheriff’s Office in the area who appear to be living in the 21st century with the rest of us.

For some reason I find having to make a phone call during the day to be a lot more distracting to my work than computer related communication.Â Anyone else feel that way too?

Not Quite As Susceptible

Somehow I think our particular branch of the blogosphere is probably less likely to encounter these types of problems than others.

Curious Observation

Clayton Cramer blogs about Penn and Teller’s “Bullshit”, but makes a rather curious observation:

This particular program is laced with vulgar language, but I suppose if you are trying to appeal to a vulgar audience–and one that is naturally prone to gun control, because they think Jon Stewart’s Daily Show qualifies as a news program, then this is probably quite effective.

Gun nuts, in my experience, tend to be more vulgar on average than your average college educated suburban liberal.Â I think the demographic that Penn & Teller appeal to is young libertarians, who do, as a whole, tend to be pretty vulgar, but wouldn’t be inclined to support gun control. Â I don’t know if I qualify as a young libertarian anymore, but while I can keep in clean when social decorum demands it, it’s certainly not a natural state.

Not Bad Press

I think Gun Law News just got us all some good press from Fox News:

“The amazing thing about Zumbo was, he posted it on Friday night and by Monday there was a mushroom cloud,” said Jeff, a gun-rights advocate who runs GunLawNews.org and did not want to be identified by his full name. “I think it teaches a lesson to those who are listening that the power of the Net should not be underestimated.”

He’s not happy about the segments used, but I think overall this isn’t bad press. I don’t, however, really appreciate how NRA vs. Bloggers was played up though:

While Cox said the NRA is able to “update our members in real time” on legislative alerts and other perceived threats to their cause, some bloggers say their online network has allowed them to report stories even faster.

“Blogs covering gun rights provide the same immediacy of coverage and action as others do that cover more general politics,” said Soyer. “Blogs are on the story as it happens.”

Miller suggests that blogs have evolved to the point that they can go around the NRA hierarchy to communicate with millions of people on their own.

“I think bloggers have diluted the power of the NRA,” said Miller. “If I find an atrocity done by my elected official in my state, I donâ€™t have to contact the NRA and tell them to get on it. It can be passed along where it does not have to go through the bottleneck, where the NRA puts its own spin on it.”

Cox said, however, that the NRA is at the heart of the grassroots effort. “Both our friends and enemies agree that when it comes to making a difference, when it comes to grassroots activism, no one does it better than the NRA.”

Bloggers are important, and we’re definitely not the NRA lapdogs the press and Brady Campaign would make us out to be (as my position on the workplace carry bills should convince anyone), but we’re all essentially on the same side, and we both need each other.

Sitemeter

I notice Jeff is saying so-long to sitemeter.Â I’m not sure about it myself.Â I’ve been using GoStats longer, and I only find sitemeter useful for a few things.

But if any of you want to eliminate this problem, just block cookies from Specificclick.Â Cookies aren’t really so much a security problem as a privacy problem, in that sites can use it to track your browsing habits. Â Personally, I don’t really care if they know what I browse, so I don’t generally block cookies, but for those of you who are concerned, turning off cookies, and only explicitly allowing them for sites where they do useful things, will solve the problem for you.

Another New Blog

In addition to encouraging children and guns, I also figure it would be nice to highlight an Armed Canadian.

A little bit of history here: The United States has invaded Canada twice.Â Both times we were forced to retreat.Â You never know when someday we might once again decide we have it in for the crown, and I hope the Canadians will still be able to put up a good fight.Â It’s no fun if it’s easy :)

It’s For the Children

In the interest of encouraging young people to get into blogging, particularly those related to shooting sports, I’m adding Geek vs. World to the blogroll. Joseph is 15, and, much to the surprise of anti-gun folks everywhere, enjoys shooting, and has not yet shot himself or anyone else accidentally with a firearm. Hopefully he will continue to show that children and guns, with proper education and instruction, can coexist peacefully, and be fun for the whole family.

Thanks For the Guest Blogging

I’m back at home in Pennsylvania now.Â Blogging might be light for a bit while I get caught up, but things will hopefully get back into the swing shortly.Â Thanks to my guest bloggers Brad, Ahab and Christina for filling in.Â I hope you will visit Ahab’s blog at What Would John Wayne Do? regularly.Â I owe you guys all a some beers next time I see you.Â Except Christina, who doesn’t drink beer.Â Â I’ll have to think of something else.

Intro from Ahab

Hmm…it seems that I have been beaten to the punch by Christina; but for what it’s worth here’s my introduction. I’m Ahab, the author of What Would John Wayne Do, but most of you know that because I don’t think I have any readers that don’t read over here.

I occasionally update my blogs on weekends, but since Sebastian is out of town, I was going to post tomorrow. Tomorrow is a Shooting Saturday, and I’m going to be trying out my new (to me, anyway) 1935 Beretta. I’ll be ~~forcing you to read~~ sharing my results with you guys.

Your Guest Bloggers

It’s just about time to start heading down to the Texas Fun Time Shootout with Bitter. Let me introduce you all to your guest bloggers, in the mean time. I’ve lined up a pretty diverse set of topics to blog about while gone:

Captain Ahab
Ahab runs the blog What Would John Wayne Do?, and will be filling in for me on the topic of guns, probably with a bit of The Duke mixed in.

ChristinaTheStripper
My friend Jym’s wife, who, yes, is a stripper by profession. She’ll be blogging on the topic of arming bouncers at adult entertainment establishments, and also, to my understanding, about some of the economic and social aspects of her line of work. I’ve read some of the stuff she’s put in her personal journal, and it tends to be pretty interesting.

Brad
Brad is a friend of mine from college. He’ll be taking over on the topic of Pennsylvania politics, and hopefully saying bad things about Ed Rendell and the politicians in Philadelphia. I haven’t been doing nearly enough of that lately.

Thanks so much to you guys for filling in for me while I’m busy destroying various things, including some old hard drives from work, with hot lead.Â Do notice theÂ Categories list beside where you post though, and try to select an appropriate one.Â I try to avoid having everything uncategorized.

So I’m off for the week folks. Â I will leave things to the guest bloggers. Â I may pop in from time to time and post something, but probably not.Â I’ll be pretty far out in the middle of nowhere, but we’ll see. Â I officially return Monday the 19th.