The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …
I’m a good bit more socially liberal than Clayton Cramer, but San Francisco still scares the crap out of me. Those links are not safe for work, or anywhere else really. I warned you! San Francisco was originally founded by the Spanish in 1776, so all the weirdos in the world could live in one place.
UPDATE: Kevin Baker’s comment on the whole thing is just wrong, but quite hilarious.
So, is it good luck that both times you’ve been struck by lightning, you survived? Or is it bad luck that you’ve been struck by lightning two times? Maybe this guy’s diet is a bit too high in iron or something.
Much to Bitter’s dismay, I am a cat lover, rather than a dog lover. She’s trying to convince me of the merits of having a small dog. I actually have no real problem with dogs, I just prefer cats. A small dog would be fine, as long as it’s not a foo foo dog. If Bitter wants a foo foo dog, she has to walk it :) But despite my preference for felines, I’m not this crazy:
I recently paid $11,000 in veterinary bills for my cat, Fritz. I’ve been hesitant to tell friends about this expenditure, which I know seems extravagant. But after hearing a radio financial guru answer questions from two callers about tapping their 401(k) accounts for veterinary bills, I realized I am not alone.
Read the whole thing. If you’re my cat, and the vet estimates 11 grand, it was nice knowing ya cat! I can always get another one that looks just like it. But seriously, people understand why they have to suffer to get medical treatment. Animals don’t. That why we don’t put them through prolonged pain.
I could not help wondering how poor families with fixed budgets and work schedules cope with such matters. How do parents tell their children that they cannot afford to treat a beloved pet? And how do vets deal with clients who refuse to pay much of anything for a sick pet, perhaps requesting euthanasia for an otherwise healthy animal?
Having a pet die is part of growing up, and actually, I think a pretty important lesson for kids. I had more than a few pets growing up, all dead now, the small ones buried in the back yard after my mother vacuum sealed them, so dogs wouldn’t dig them up. Every once in a while, I would dig them up, and see what they looked like. I have to wonder if the new owners of the house have done any landscaping yet, and wondered why there are bags of goo buried in the yard.
Hat tip to Rand Simberg
Bitter was telling me she saw the Kissmobile today, and all I’m thinking of is a van or bus driven by these guys:
But it turns out it was just the Hershey Kissmobile. Seriously, take a look at the Kissmobile:
 
How fast do you think that thing can go? I’m wondering, because I think the funniest thing in the world would be for someone to steal the Kissmobile and take it on a high speed chase with the police. On a slow news day, you couldn’t really write better stuff.  It would be even more funny if the panels were to come off at high speed revealing chocolaty goodness underneath. Imagine a spectacular crash at the end, that spills Hershey’s kisses all over the highway, with the highway patrol having to shoe small children away from the scene.
We always say that criminals will just steal guns if you pass useless crap like one-gun-a-month and other such useless restrictions.  In Australia, a man proves that mantra with some very large guns, the kinds that are on tracks and move:
More than 20 police chased the tank but were powerless to stop it, retreating to a safe distance as the huge vehicle cut a path of destruction through six suburbs.
They could only watch as the driver, hanging out of the top at times, allegedly rammed the tank through fences and into six mobile phone towers, telecommunication relay sheds and an electrical substation.
No word yet on whether Rebecca Peters will be leading a new crusade for more stringent tank control laws in Australia.
I’m not Catholic, but isn’t crap like this what caused Martin Luther to tack up his 95 Theses to the door Catholic Church in Wittenburg in 1517? You’d think after sparking the reformation, the Church might have rethought this policy, but apparently not.
You could say a lot about this guy, but I don’t think you can question his dedication to science.
First the swordfish sword, now poisonous snakes.
… against the undead. From the Federal Vampire Zombie Agency:
Shotguns are somewhat less effective against zombies because of the zombie’s primitive mental capacity and enormous pain tolerance. As with any zombie weapon, you should use the shotgun only to buy enough time for escape.
Or if a rifle is more your style:
Vampires: FVZA sharpshooters used rifles with night vision scopes to pick off vampires as they emerged from their shelter for a night of hunting. But for home defense against bloodsuckers, the rifle is not very practical.
Zombies: When the zombies are coming, a rifle from a fortified, elevated position is just about the best weapon there is. There’s no danger of catching zombie fluids and viscera in the eyes, nose and mouth, and no danger of a zombie grabbing the barrel of the rifle. Picking off zombies from a safe spot can even be, dare I say, more than a little fun.
There are a few things that are surprising, like the fact that crossbows are not particularly effective against vampires, and that the flamethrower has a long and distinguished history in undead combat.
Apparently in Canada, someone is charged with six counts of murder using a gun with a certain sex toy on the end of it. Would that make it an AOW here? Not sure, but maybe not if it’s just attached on the end, because then it would still be designed to fire using a single hand.
It would be kind of amusing to submit a design for one to the ATF for evaluation on its classification.