Judge says that it is unconstitutional to search fans attending football games

How can these searches at NFL games be unconstitutional? Is anyone being forced to go to the games? Is there any weight given to keeping fans safe from terrorism?

Comment on Floyd Landis testing positive for testosterone

Does anyone else find it at least slightly amusing that it is the French who find elevated levels of testosterone suspicious?

Tony Blair does a good job explaining the case for the war on terrorism

Statements by Bush and Blair can be found here.

Hezbollah Terrorists Using UN Troops as Cover

Brit Hume's Special Report explains why Israel had fired on the UN position in Lebanon. According to a Canadian general who spoke with the Canadian member of the UN crew that was killed, Hezbollah was apparently "all over his position and the IDF were targeting them." "Terrorists groups often use the UN troops as shields knowing that they can't be punished." It appears as if the UN is not just sitting there, but actually helping out the terrorists, at least indirectly.

No relation between "power of hurricanes, global warming"?

I guess that I am a little surprised, but apparently there has not been a statisitically significant relationship.

Studies that link global warming to an increase in hurricane ferocity might be full of hot air, according to a research paper that will be published Friday in a major scientific journal.

The paper, co-written by Chris Landsea of the National Hurricane Center in West Miami-Dade, challenges earlier findings that hurricanes have grown more powerful in the last 30 years.

It says those studies failed to account for technological improvements that now produce more accurate -- and often higher -- estimates of a storm's power than were available in the past. . . .

Store owner defends herself with gun

Savannah/Hilton Head, South Carolina (Wednesday, July 26, 2006) -- “They knew I meant business,” Florence Tolar said, as she remembered the Friday morning encounter.

Her size and sweet demeanor don’t keep her from standing her ground.

“I kept my position just in case those boys came out. I had every opportunity to shoot them,” she said.

She chose to fire her gun at the floor as she was confronted by four young men who were fleeing from police Friday. It’s a choice she says could have easily turned fatal.

"I had to make the decision,” she said. “And I'll tell you- if those boys would have been a little bit taller, a little bit bigger, I would have shot them. And I would have killed them."

“My wife really surprised me, “ Herb Tolar said. “I’m really proud of her that she did what she did.” . . .

"House OKs ban on taking guns during disaster"

WASHINGTON -- The House voted 402-23 on Tuesday for legislation to bar federal officials or local law enforcement agents that get federal money from confiscating legally owned firearms during a natural disaster.

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Bobby Jindal, R-Kenner, said he wants to avoid a repeat of occurrences during Hurricane Katrina when he said he heard dozens of reports about guns being taken from law-abiding citizens. . . .

The Senate will either have to pass the Jindal bill, or the House and Senate would have to add identical language to another bill, such as the homeland security bill, for the measure to be sent to President Bush for his signature. . . .

Hunting game "popular with urbanites in liberal areas"

Possibly it has to do with all the deer that are killing people in car accidents? Glad to see that the desire to make money is overcoming political correctness in this case.

Called Big Buck Hunter Pro, the coin-operated machine has evolved into the hottest-selling, biggest-moneymaking video game in bars and arcades across the country thanks to youthful urbanites like Broseus.

And the game has become surprisingly popular in liberal bastions like New York City that have strict gun laws and where the idea of real hunting repulses many residents. . . .

A minor complication: getting rid of the electoral college and primaries

I have posted multiple times on the push to end the electoral college. One thing for proponents to at least explain is that if they succeed, what will happen to the primaries? Parties use state primaries as a way of guaging the strength of different candidates, but if there is no electoral college, surely both parties will want to move to a selection process that gets the candidate best suited tp winning the new way of determining the winner in November.

Gun Store Owners: A thankless job

I have a new op-ed up at National Review Online:

It is tough operating a gun shop under harassment from the federal government and unjustified media attacks. But the harassment might soon get a little better, as today the House Judiciary Committee starts marking up a bill by Representatives Howard Coble and Bobby Scott to ease the burden on gun merchants.

According to Justice Department numbers, since Bill Clinton was elected president in 1992, the number of federally licensed firearms dealers in the United States has plummeted by 80 percent. Kmart no longer sells guns, Wal-Mart just recently stopped selling guns at a third of its stores, and tens of thousands of other gun shops have gone out of business. With all the talk of the recent legislative success by gun owners, they have been winning some battles but possibly losing the war. Gun-control advocates may be the ones winning where it really counts. . . .

"Seven Nation International Gun Control Effort"

Australia's Courier Mail reports, "SEVEN nations, spanning five continents, formally launched an initiative today aimed at stifling the supply of weapons that fuel conflicts and terrorism. In a letter to fellow UN members, Argentina, Australia, Britain, Costa Rica, Finland, Japan and Kenya said they wanted to draw up a global treaty to regulate the international arms trade.

"The treaty would help to "prevent, combat and eradicate" the supply of arms "which would be likely to increase crime, conflict and terrorism and displacement of people", according to a draft resolution proposed by the seven.

"Our governments consider that the idea of an arms trade treaty is one whose time has come," wrote the UN representatives of the group." . . .

Snakes and human evolution

A twist on the Garden of Eden?

An evolutionary arms race between early snakes and mammals triggered the development of improved vision and large brains in primates, a radical new theory suggests. . . .

To avoid becoming snake food, early mammals had to develop ways to detect and avoid the reptiles before they could strike. Some animals evolved better snake sniffers, while others developed immunities to serpent venom when it evolved.

Early primates developed a better eye for color, detail and movement and the ability to see in three dimensions — traits that are important for detecting threats at close range.

Humans are descended from those same primates. . . .

Levitt's argument for dismissal

Levitt's response to my lawyer's response to their motion to dismiss can be found here.

I haven't really had much of a chance to look at their response so far. A past post on this can be found here.

Woman uses shotgun to stop wolf attack

Woman kills neighbor’s wolves in self-defense
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Randy Ludlow
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
As an animal lover, Kathy Bryan hated to put them down.

But when the three wolves began trying to encircle her, she felt she didn’t have a choice.

She killed two of them with shotgun blasts. A deputy sheriff later tracked down and shot the third. All had escaped from a pen at a neighbor’s house.

The unusual scene played out Sunday morning at the Bryans’ home on Rock Haven Road near Hanover in Licking County.

She went to investigate when her three dogs began baying. Bryan saw a wolf with its mouth around the neck of Roo the beagle. The wolf was tugging on Roo as if he was trying to yank him off his chain.

After grabbing a shotgun, she fired a warning shot into the air. The wolf let go of Roo, but things became more ominous when all three wolves began to circle her. . . . .

Gun Ownership in Mexico (or the lack of legal gun ownership)

From a Sunday, January 15, 2006 piece in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Texas)

"Mexico has one of the most restrictive gun control laws in the hemisphere, permitting ownership of a few types of guns, mostly small caliber. The nation of103 million has fewer than 2,500 registered gun owners, according to a recent report in the Los Angeles Times, and the wait for a license can often be more than a year."

I guess that this might help partially explain why the murder rate in Mexico is so much higher than the U.S.'s.

So which side is more heroic?

Thanks to Steve Finefrock for this cartoon.

Polling Data

Which of the following statements comes closer to your view of what Israel should do?


Israel should continue taking military action until
Hezbollah can no longer launch attacks against Israel 39%

Israel should agree to a ceasefire as soon as possible 43%

No opinion 17%

Do you think Israel’s military reaction to the situation in the Middle East has gone too far, not gone far enough, or been about right?


Too far 31%

Not far enough 14%

About right 35%

No opinion 20%

Source: Opinion Research Corporation / CNN
Methodology: Telephone interviews with 633 American adults, conducted on Jul. 19, 2006. Margin of error is 4 per cent.

Some one with a higher pay grade is going to have to explain these poll results for me. How can 49 % of Americans think that the Israeli military response is either about right or not far enough and yet more people say that Israel should agree to a ceasefire instead of "continu[ing] taking military action until Hezbollah can no longer launch attacks against Israel," which is what Israel is doing? I am tired and may be missing something simple, but an explanation would be useful.