'e's just resting'

This blog isn't dead. It's just pinin' for the fjords.

The Death of Blogs

The article makes an observation:

...What tired bloggers are increasingly discovering...is that it's not necessarily the quality of their blog posts that matter. It's matching their quality with frequency...

Which is true. No one wants to read pointless babbling, and trust me, I don't want to write any. (Not that I'm not good at inane babble; but, there's a time and a place for such things. Cheese threads on FreeRepublic are a fine example!) Sometimes, though, there's just not much that catches my fancy to write about. Believe me, I try to ferret out stuff to blog. Mostly, I do so for our NRA Members' Council website. I've found that fresh bloggery attracts new visitors better than anything else. The entire site suffers when I don't update the blog page for a day or two.

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I've got The Waitresses playing in my head

Will Fred Thompson finally stop teasing and end the Dance of the Seven Veils?

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"Vaporware"

Seen on LGF...

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One eBayer's reaction to the eBan...

Hurry up and place your bid on a gen-you-wine, full-auto, assault rock.

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eBay Extends The eMiddle Digit to Gun Owners

Perhaps it's caused by something they put in Pez candies...

The NRA-ILA is reporting that eBay has banned all gun and ammo related listings. The online auction site long ago banned the sale of firearms on their site, but now they are extending that ban to “any firearm part that is required for the firing of a gun.” Their list of newly banned items reads like it was written by a typical "Ewwww... Guns are icky!" liberal. We're still trying to figure out what a "bullet tip" is. Here is the full text of the NRA-ILA release...

Friday, August 03, 2007

Years ago, eBay banned the sale of all complete firearms on its online auction and shopping website. However, they did continue to allow the sale of parts and many accessories. This week, a spokesman for eBay announced that the company would ban the sale of all gun-and-ammunition-related parts and components. The ban is set to begin in mid-August, when eBay will prohibit the listing of “any firearm part that is required for the firing of a gun.” This prohibition will include, according to eBay, “bullet tips, brass casings and shells, barrels, slides, cylinders, magazines, firing pins, trigger assemblies, etc.” In explaining the decision to restrict these items, Matt Halprin, eBay’s Vice President, Trust & Safety, said, “After much consideration, the Trust & Safety policy team – along with our executive leaders at eBay Inc.– have made the decision to further restrict more of these items than federal and state regulations require.” [emphasis added] With this action, eBay sends the message that they don’t want, or appreciate, law-abiding gun owners’ business. By banning these legal products, eBay is adopting the anti-gun movement’s opposition to all legal gun ownership. Fortunately, gun owners and sportsmen have alternatives. The following companies operate websites designed for the buying and selling of firearms and related products: www.GunsAmerica.com; www.AuctionArms.com; and www.GunBroker.com.

First, let's all be clear that eBay belongs to its owners and not me. I'm in no position to dictate to a business how they must operate. If they want to sell sex toys and hash pipes but not guns, that's their call. However, that doesn't mean that we must patronize their business. If you were planning on "eBaying" a few extra gun parts or accessories, or anything outdoors related for that matter, please consider paying your listing fees to one of the fine sites listed above instead. If you were planning on bidding on such items, please check these sites first. First off, you may find a better selection. Secondly, and more importantly, you'll find sites operated by those who show more respect for your 2nd Amendment rights.

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I hate it when that happens

Yeah... I'm always finding other people's stuff in my pockets.

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I suppose that I should be paying attention to the YouTube debate...

...but I'm already fighting off a migraine. I can tolerate only so much idiocy on a good day. I did, though, catch Osbama's "Sure, I'll talk to thugs and murderers" answer. Hillary gave the young pup a good bitchslapping with her answer.

I never thought that I'd ever say anything nice about her.

...My head's getting worse now.

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Bloviating Buffoon

"The Swimmer" reacts to a "Mitchslapping" he and the Dems received the other day...

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The economics of prohibition

Over at The Corner, Jonah Goldberg shares this letter from a reader regarding the Dems' plan to jack up the tax on cigars from 5¢ to $10 stick...

The supposed reason for the tax is to raise money. But naturally when the tax goes from $.05 to $10.00 per cigar, they won't even get the $.05 because people like me will quit. I support my family of six on not alot of money in rural Oklahoma and I smoke usually one a week. Sometimes more, sometimes less. It's one of life's simple pleasures and I resent that I will have to give it up. I'm an Anglican priest and the only way I would quit would be if the doctor told me to or if I became a Baptist pastor. :) Or of course if my $37 bundle of 25 cigars goes up to $287 a bundle, I will also quit. I know it's such a minor thing compared to the ills of the world, but it truly bothers me.

The minister certainly represents one possible reaction to such a tax. Unfortunately, his reaction will not be the rule. It may not even be typical. This tax, should it become law, will encourage people to get the product they want by whatever means necessary. This would include, our history shows, buying on the black market.

The purpose of the tax, as the minister hints, is not to raise money; it's to stop people from smoking cigars. As such, it is a type of prohibition, just like this nation's flirtation with the prohibition of alcohol. All that was accomplished by alcohol prohibition was the rise of organized crime. This new prohibition will repeat that history. Those who choose to continue smoking, will be willing to pay less than $10 a cigar for their pleasure. All a bootlegger needs to do to sell his product is undercut the tax. He could sell that $2 cigar for $5 and call it "half priced". The old 5¢ tax goes uncollected, as does the new $10 tax, and the extra $3 goes into a smuggler's pocket.

Your tax dollars at work?

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Apropos of nothing...

I just love the "Preparing to background save" BS from MS Word. Background save... Kinda sounds like it's going to do that in the background, huh? Like it means that the program won't come to a screeching halt during the process? Like it won't sit there for a few moments like a 15-year old geek with taped glasses staring at a girl in a bikini? Like it will let you continue to work while this task happens in the background?

I wonder if it's done yet.

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More on that nifty little add-on

ScribeFire is a blogging add-on for Firefox. This makes blogging very convenient. The account wizard makes adding multiple accounts easy. If you blog under more than one account, this could save you the trouble of logging on and off of accounts. See the little "Powered by..." link below for more details.

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A test post

...using a nifty little blogging extension for Firefox.

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CYA in the WOD

Capt. Ed has a pretty good summary of yet another drug raid gone bad.This time, our gallant Drug Warriors gunned down a 92 year old woman in Atlanta. Kathryn Johnson was the unfortunate homeowner who got to see her tax dollars at work. Police kicked in the woman's door after dark last night. She, however, didn't go without a fight. Apparently, Mrs. Johnson believed that she was being robbed. She cleared leather first and hit three officers before they killed her. Now the Atlanta PD sounds like Jon Lovitz as they search for a believable story. And as of yet, no drugs have been found in the house.

The story keeps changing on where and how the officers were hit. One story has them approaching the house, while another has them inside after their "dynamic entry". (That's what they call it when they kick you door in looking for drugs that you don't have.) Capt. Ed points out that blood spatter evidence should tell us which story is correct. (Betcha those Atlanta PD boys are hating the CSI franchise right about now!)

This incident is a little different than the usual War On Drugs nightmare. This time, the cops didn't stumble into the wrong house after misreading the warrant. They had the right address; but they were a bit too trusting of their informant.

So what does this have to do with you? Have you got anyone who's mad at you; nursing a grudge? Imagine the fun that would be had by giving your name to the local Drug Warriors! If all they need to get the ball rolling is an anonymous tip, then what's to stop someone from having a little fun at your expense?

...Especially when that "fun" might end in gunfire.

Vacation's over and the poke's run out

Well... I'm back on the mainland. It was fun while it lasted, but it didn't last long enough. We miss the poke already. The Big Save in Koloa has a great selection of different styles of poke. They were all ~$5.50 per pound. You can't get the ahi alone for that around here! I saw ahi for $16.00 per pound the other day. And we usually get sticker shock going the other way around; people complain about Hawaiian prices.

More on Kaua'i

Most people think of this island as having three sides: North, South, and East. But what happened to West?! The West side of the island is mostly the Na Pali. Na Pali means "the cliffs" in Hawaiian. This is a vast roadless area dominated by cliffs that drop into the sea. This is a park now, but at one time hundreds, if not thousands, of Kauaiians lived in the area's hanging valleys. These were accessible only by sea and made for good hidey-holes in times of trouble. And since the vertical surfaces of the cliffs continue underwater, the fishing's probably pretty good. (Fish like vertical surfaces.)

We're staying on the South side of the island at Po'ipu. Princeville, on the North side, has a more hoitytoity selection of resorts, and it's much closer to the popular Hanalei Valley; but, we prefer the Po'ipu area as it's more centrally located. It's close to Lihue and pretty much equidistant from Waimea canyon and Hanalei. Also, the State beach in Po'ipu is one of the best snorkeling spots on the island, if not the best. Another attraction here later is in the year is return of the Humpback Whales to these waters. We saw quite a few last year, and a few scouts have already been spotted this week.

Hey Red! Didn't you describe the island as having three sides? What about inside and out; or inland and along the shore, to be more precise. Technically speaking, this would be another way to view the island, but the interior of the island is dominated by Mt. Wai'ale'ale. The mountain is the wettest spot on earth, receiving over 600 inches of rain each year. The interior is solid, roadless rain forest, so most people live along the shoreline.

More to follow later. Now we're off to find the black sand beach near the mouth of Waimea Canyon.

Aloha, baby!

Coming at you from Hawai'i this week! (I'm brashly assuming that "you" are actually reading this and that I'm not just talking to myself.) The Redcloak family is on the "Garden Isle" of Kaua'i. This is our third trip to this island in the last three years. More to come later; we're off to a lu'au.

Shower on!

And for all these years, I thought that this gem had been deleted. I'm wiping away the tears as I write this!

Shouts to da Mods for bringing this one back from the dead!!

More Pelosi fallout

The Varmint over at Attack Cartoons.com faces an interesting problem: How does one caricature a caricature?

"A banner of no pale pastels, but bold colors..."

Ronald Reagan's 1975 speech to CPAC:As valid today as ever.

Fun with Firefox

I'm trying out a new extension for blogging. I was using Blog This!, but there isn't a version for Firefox 2.0 just yet. This was posted using Deepest Sender. Thus far, it looks like it has all of the features I like to see.

We'll see what happens when I hit the "Post" button!

...OK, that wasn't so smooth, but it's not the developer's fault. The nice people at Blogger are doing their part to fight spam blogs. No one wants spam blogs, so this is okey-dokey by me!