Charlton Heston on Global Warming

You can listen to him here. The discussion is from Michael Crichton's book, "State of Fear."

New Op-ed up at Fox News: Obama and Guns: Two Different Views

The new Fox News piece starts with this:

Something happens to Democrats on the gun issue when they run for president. For John Kerry during 2004, it was awkwardly posing in brand new hunting gear at a seemingly endless series of hunting photo-ops.

But in what will probably be the most improbable change, the Politico reported on Saturday that Barack Obama was making a big play for gun votes in Pennsylvania. It is not particularly surprising that this change is occurring with the crucial Pennsylvania primary soon approaching.

With about one million of the country’s 12.5 million hunters, Pennsylvania is number one in the nation in the amount of time its citizens spend hunting. With about 600,000 people with permits to carry concealed handguns, Pennsylvania also has more permit holders than any other state.

Others, such as Jim Kessler, vice president for policy with Third Way, a progressive think tank, view Obama as starting to position himself for the general election.

Yet, it should be a hard sell. . . .

Political Bias at Starbucks

The WSJ has the op-ed by David Boaz here:

Laissez-faire. It's a policy that made Starbucks vastly successful. But don't try to put that phrase on a customized Starbucks Card.

The cards are supposed be personalized to reflect customers' tastes and uniqueness. They are available in a range of colors, often given as gifts and used by regular customers who prefer to prepay for their java.

But when my friend Roger Ream, president of the Fund for American Studies, received a Starbucks gift card for Christmas, he found there was a limit to how personalized a card could be. His card required him to customize it on the company's Web site. So he went to the site and requested that the phrase "Laissez Faire" be printed on his card. A few days later he was informed that the company couldn't issue such a card because the wording violated company policy.

Starbucks's company policy is this: "We review each Card before printing it to make sure it meets our personalization policy. We accept most personalization requests, but we can't honor every one. Some requests may contain trademarks that we don't have the right to use. Others may contain material that we consider inappropriate (such as threatening remarks, derogatory terms, or overtly political commentary) or wouldn't want to see on Starbucks-branded products."

Is the phrase "laissez-faire" threatening? Only to officious bureaucracy, I would think. So, it must be that the phrase is considered to be "inappropriate" by corporate Starbucks. . . .

And so, at my suggestion, my friend went back to the Web site and asked that his card be issued with the phrase "People Not Profits." Bingo! Starbucks had no problem with that phrase, and the card arrived in a few days. . . .

Ohio Supreme Court to hear Home-rule Gun Law Case

The Toledo Blade has the story here:

COLUMBUS — In 2005, Bruce Beatty openly defied Toledo’s ordinance prohibiting guns in city parks, throwing a well-publicized “birthday party” to mark the anniversary of passage of Ohio’s concealed-carry law.

He carried a 45-caliber handgun into West Toledo’s Ottawa Park, and was arrested, tried, and convicted. He was ordered to fork over $129 in fines and court costs that he steadfastly refuses to pay. And despite his protests, Toledo’s law remains on the books.

Three years later, the Ohio Supreme Court will wade into a thorny issue that has the National Rifle Association, Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann, and Ohioans for Concealed Carry aligned against cities. The court must decide whether the state can tell local governments whether they can regulate guns on their own property, the latest battle in the wider war over local home-rule authority.

No matter what the court decides, Mr. Beatty’s misdemeanor conviction will stand. The high court refused more than a year ago to hear his appeal of a lower-court ruling upholding Toledo’s law and his conviction.

But Mr. Beatty will watch from a distance Wednesday as the all-Republican court considers a challenge brought by Ohioans for Concealed Carry against a very similar ordinance in the Sandusky County city of Clyde.

“I’m claiming victory,” Mr. Beatty said. “Clyde is going to lose this.” . . .

Rush Limbaugh Predicts that 80 percent chance that the Dems will have 60 seats in Senate this November

Rush just mentioned this on his show. I have heard others make a similar claim. Even if it is a few seats less than this, Republicans will not be able to block anything in the Senate.

There's an 80% chance the Democrats are going to have 60 seats in the Senate following the November elections, eighty percent chance. But, folks, even if they don't get 60 seats, there are enough liberal Republicans that if they only get 56, 57 seats, there are enough liberal Republicans to give them 60 votes on any issue, which means that let's say Senator McCain does win, doesn't matter what judges he appoints. Not going to matter what he does on tax cuts. Not in the Senate. They're going to have 60 votes and be able to defeat any legislative initiative he wants unless it's something they want. . . .

John Fund on Charlton Heston

John Fund at the WSJ's Political Diary:

Charlton Heston, who died over the weekend at age 84, once had impeccable credentials for acceptance in Hollywood circles. In addition to his acting talent, Mr. Heston served as a six-term president of the Screen Actors Guild and chairman of the American Film Institute. He backed John F. Kennedy for president in 1960 and three years later accompanied Martin Luther King on his famous March on Washington.

But Mr. Heston began to feel that liberalism lost its moorings in the turbulent '60s and in 1972 he broke with his fellow actors and attended his first Republican convention, explaining to reporters he wanted to be at a place where they "didn't spell America with a 'k.'" He later became a staunch supporter of Ronald Reagan and told Britain's Daily Telegraph in 1989: "Today, I am about as right-wing as a man can be." But he spurned appeals to enter politics, saying: "I'd rather play a senator than be one."

In Hollywood his political conversion did not go unnoticed. He was shunned in many circles when he became president of the National Rifle Association, a job he said was consistent with his "record of supporting civil rights." Blogger Ed Morrissey notes the irony of how "Hollywood turned its back on one of its biggest icons for the sin of supporting gun rights" at the same time the industry was churning "out more and more films dedicated to mass shootings and indiscriminate violence."

John Fund on the real reason Mark Penn left the Clinton Campaign

John Fund at the WSJ's Political Diary:

In reality, Mr. Penn had to go because the Clinton campaign needs a new strategy. The latest polls show Barack Obama's massive saturation ad buys in Pennsylvania are working. He is now tied with Mrs. Clinton in that state's April 22 primary. Hillary has perhaps one more Hail Mary pass in her and Mr. Penn wasn't the man to execute it.

That job will now go to Geoff Garin, a respected pollster and a man with a reputation for digging candidates out of holes they've put themselves in. In 2001, he helped craft the message that enabled Mark Warner to be elected governor of Virginia, a state that hadn't voted Democratic for president in a quarter century. Many of the leading Democrats in the Senate, from Dick Durbin to Chuck Schumer, have relied on Mr. Garin's advice. . . .

Some More Environmental Hypocrisy

This information was sent to me by Dan Gifford (including pictures) and he referred to this website that claimed to confirm what he wrote here.


House #1 A 20 room mansion ( not including 8 bathrooms ) heated by
natural gas. Add on a pool ( and a pool house) and a separate guest house, all heated by gas. In one month this residence consumes more energy than the average American household does in a year. The average bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2400. per month. In natural gas alone, this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This house is not situated in a Northern or Midwestern 'snow belt' area. It's in the South.


House #2
Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university. This house incorporates every 'green' feature current home construction can provide. The house is 4,000 square feet ( 4 bedrooms ) and is nestled on a high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat-pumps drawing ground water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground.

The water (usually 67 degrees F.) heats the house in the winter and cools it in the summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas and it consumes one-quarter electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Surrounding flowers and shrubs native to the area enable the property to blend into the surrounding rural landscape.�

~~~~~
HOUSE #1 is outside of Nashville, Tennessee; it is the abode of
the 'environmentalist ' Al Gore.

HOUSE #2 is on a ranch near Crawford, Texas

It is the residence the of the President of the United States
George W. Bush.

Personally, I don't care how much energy either house uses nor how large the houses are, but it is interesting given how much Gore talks about this issue. Note also that this is only one of Gore's houses. He apparently owns several other houses.

Shirley Jones on Charlton Heston

Shirley Jones remembers Charlton Heston here.

Interview this morning with BBC Radio

Weekend Breakfast, BBC Radio 5 Live, Sunday, April 6, 2008, 2:05 AM EDT. The interview was on Heston passing and guns. I don't normally say this, but, to put it mildly, the hosts of the British show were jerks. For at least a few days, the interview can be heard here.

Charlton Heston has died

Heston was always very nice to me when I talked to him. He always impressed me as a really decent person.

Some of Heston's movie clips.

The Ten Commandments - Moses Parts the Red Sea

Original I Am Legend Trailer Omega Man

Take your stinking paws off me you damn dirty ape

Ben Hur

"Convenience Store Clerk Kills Robber"

Channel 2 in Houston has this story from April 4th:

HOUSTON -- Cash scattered inside and out of a southeast Houston convenience store was a clear sign that a robber may have gotten the money, but he didn't get far, KPRC Local 2 reported.
Houston police said Peter Quang Dan, owner of the Colony Express Market in the 2500 block of Broadway Street near the South Loop, pulled the trigger during the robbery at about 11:50 p.m. Thursday.
"Two suspects walked in the store and attempted to rob, or did rob the convenience store," Sgt. J. Rubio said. "The store clerk discharged a firearm and hit one of the suspects, and one suspect fled the scene."
Police said Dan was pistol-whipped and forced to put his hands on the floor and lie down. Dan opened fire on the men as they left the store, investigators said.
The man who was shot died out in front of the convenience store, officials said. His name was not released.
Police said they found a stack of cash and a handgun near the body. . . .

Thanks to Scott Davis for sending me this link.

Obama Finally Corrects Supporter Who called McCain a "Warmonger"

I don't think that the title on this Fox News piece gets across the real story: "OBAMA CAMP CHIDES HOST WHO CALLED MCCAIN A ‘WARMONGER’." You would never know that the McCain campaign had to pressure Obama to do the right thing here (emphasis added):

Barack Obama’s campaign distanced itself Saturday from a liberal talk show host who called John McCain a “warmonger” while introducing the Illinois senator at a North Dakota campaign stop the night before, after the McCain campaign called on Obama to denounce the comment.

Local talk show host Ed Schultz used the term to describe the Arizona senator while warming up the crowd in Grand Forks, N.D., before Obama’s arrival at the state’s Democratic convention.

“John McCain is not a warmonger and should not be described as such,” Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Saturday. She added, “He’s a supporter of a war that Senator Obama believes should have never been authorized and never been waged.”

The campaign stressed that Obama was not present when the “warmonger” comment was made and that Schultz is not a campaign surrogate.

That wasn’t enough for the McCain campaign, which pressed Obama to personally repudiate Schultz

“Barack Obama promises a new brand of politics, but today refused to directly denounce Ed Schultz and his vicious smear attack on John McCain. John McCain is committed to a civil debate worthy of the American people and has a record of standing by that commitment,” said McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds. “Senator Obama must personally and publicly repudiate his campaign supporter’s attacks — rather than give tacit approval to this blatant smear — or his rhetoric of change will be exposed as nothing but words.”. . . .

Unbelievable: "Obama aims for pro-gun vote"

Politico has the most amazing article:

Barack Obama did not hunt or fish as a child. He lives in a big city. And as an Illinois state legislator and a U.S. senator, he consistently backed gun control legislation.

But he is nevertheless making a play for pro-gun voters in rural Pennsylvania.

By highlighting his background in constitutional law and downplaying his voting record, Obama is engaging in a quiet but targeted drive to win over an important constituency that on the surface might seem hostile to his views.

The need to craft a strategy aimed at pro-gun voters underscores the potency of the issue in Pennsylvania, which claims one of the nation’s highest per capita membership rates in the National Rifle Association. . . .

This is the same guy who told me back in the mid-1990s that he didn't think that anybody should be able to own a gun.

Appearance on Fox & Friends from this past Thursday

Here is a discussion that I had on how well the economy is doing.

Another beneficial use of guns: getting rid of pests

Some Florida retirees apparently had enough with some troublesome ducks:

It's a debate waged in apartment complexes and residential communities across the country: Feed the neighborhood critters or shoo them a way?

A Florida retirement community did a little more than shoo, choosing instead to shoot at the Muscovy ducks that had fouled the pool and become a general nuisance for residents, according to a report by MyFOXTampaBay.com.

The Clearwater retirement community's homeowners association voted to obtain a firearm permit and entrust one of their own, Bruce Streeter, with eliminating the ducks.

"Because he's the youngest in here, and he can still see well to have a good aim," fellow resident Debbie Clayton told MyFOXTampaBay.com.

Streeter said he only hit two or three, but that was enough for animal cruelty charges to be filed. Streeter pleaded no contest and had to pay about $300 in court costs, which were covered by donations from his neighbors, according to the TV station. . . .

"Scientists downplay global warming's effect on hurricanes"

The Miami Herald writes on a scientific conference that took place in Florida:

ORLANDO -- We're in a busy period of hurricane activity that will inflict unimaginable damage, but global warming is not the cause, leading researchers told the nation's foremost forecasters and other experts Friday. . . .

"Banning smoking increases drunken driving"

A new study just published in the Journal of Public Economics shows:

MADISON — Enacting city smoking bans appears to increase drunken driving, according to a new national study of arrests by Wisconsin researchers.

Fatal accidents involving alcohol increased after communities banned public smoking, the study to be released by the Journal of Public Economics found. The authors attributed the increase to people driving farther to drink, either to a place with an outdoor smoking area or a city without a ban.

“The increased miles driven by drivers who wish to smoke and drink offsets any reduction in driving from smokers choosing to stay home after a ban, resulting in increased alcohol-related accidents,” the study says.

The researchers, Scott Adams, of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Chad Cotti, now at the University of South Carolina, said they were surprised by the results.

“We thought we would see a reduction,” Adams said. “Our first thought was, ‘Throw it away, it must be wrong.’”

But it wasn’t, he said.

The study looks at highway fatalities from 2001 to 2005 involving at least one driver with blood alcohol content over 0.08. It compares those in cities and counties with bans to crashes in surrounding areas without bans. It found an increase in accidents after smoking bans were enacted, both in ban areas and near boundary lines. . . .

Thanks to STEVE PRESTEGARD for sending me this link.

George Mason University Students Stage Teach in On Gun Free Zones

Here is a short news clip on some coverage of the event. The TV crew were there for my talk, but they didn't interview me.

Roger Lott (my son) v. Barack Obama

Barack Obama recently gave a talk at my son Roger's high school. Here is the clip of that discussion. You might note that Roger obviously has quite a reputation there at the school. There is quite the ruckus as soon as it is clear that he is the one who is about to ask the next question.



Another view of his question can be seen here:


The Delaware County Times wrote a little bit about Roger's question to Obama:

It was when Obama pointed to a red-headed kid in a white T-shirt up in the corner of the gym that things got interesting. A titter went through the student section. Apparently, from where Obama was standing, he couldn’t see the kid was wearing a “Ron Paul for President” T-shirt.
The kid didn’t identify himself, but said he was concerned about any government-run health-care system modeled on anything like the Europeans use. He said his own grandmother died in Sweden because she couldn’t easily get the kind of treatment readily available in this country.
Obama was handling the kid’s question with aplomb until he closed with this: “I’m not advocating a government-run system, right now.”
Not right now? And that means, what? Not until after the election? Or sometime into his second term? Some clever Republican ad guy could have a field day with that clip.
But the best stuff came after Obama signed off. . . .
Turned out the kid with the red hair is named Roger Lott. His dad is John Lott, the conservative economist who wrote “More Guns, Less Crime.”
His mom has her Ph.D. in economics, too. I asked Roger what his dad makes of his Ron Paul thing. He said his pop has “some concerns”” about candidate Paul. What a relief! . . .

Personally, I didn't think that Obama did a very good job answering Roger's question. 1) The fact of rationing by governments when they pay for health care is well known. When you give something away for free people will want to use a lot more of it than you have. Having very few MRIs or long waits for surgery is very common. 2) The notion that the government can provide these services more efficiently wasn't credible. Whether it is education or mail delivery, is there a case that one can point to where given the same services and regulatory burden that the public sector provides the service at a lower cost? 3) The life expectancy comparisons between the US and Sweden were particularly poorly done. Life expectancy and childhood mortality rates depends on many things such as the behavior of the patients. If people use drugs or engage in other dangerous behavior while pregnant, you will have more problems of different types. Comparing infant mortality rates or life expectancy of whites in the US and whites in Sweden shows that the US does quite well.

UPDATE: I have gotten some emails asking about Roger's grandmother, his mom's mom, who died in Sweden. His grandmother was complaining of abdominal pain and got an appointment with a GP. The GP set up an appointment with a specialist, but she had to wait about three months before the first opening was available. The week before her appointment with the specialist she had to be rushed to a hospital for emergency surgery because the tumor that was producing her pain was blocking her small intestines. After the surgery, it took 8 months before she was able to get an MRI (to speed things up we offered to pay for an MRI in the US, but Swedish doctors would not approve her travel because they said she was too ill). After her MRI, it took another 7 months before her chemo started. By that time though there was apparently little that they could do to help her.

IPCC Reductions in Carbon optimistic at best and unachievable at worst

This discussion doesn't even involved any cost-benefit calculations, just whether these scientists in Nature think that the reductions in Carbon emissions are technically feasible.

Here we show that two-thirds or more of all the energy efficiency improvements and decarbonization of energy supply required to stabilize greenhouse gases is already built into the IPCC reference scenarios. This is because the scenarios assume a certain amount of spontaneous technological change and related decarbonization. Thus, the IPCC implicitly assumes that the bulk of the challenge of reducing future emissions will occur in the absence of climate policies. We believe that these assumptions are optimistic at best and unachievable at worst, potentially seriously underestimating the scale of the technological challenge associated with stabilizing greenhouse-gas concentrations. . . .

The lack of notions of costs and benefits or incentives is troubling, but within their own model I suppose that this is still useful.

Smoking ban and workers

Question from reader of Freedomnomics:

What you write about customers voting with their feet on whether a bar should allow smoking makes sense. In this state, though, the pro-ban forces made the argument about the health of bar employees, whose choice about smoking is limited to choosing whether or not to work at a particular bar. (Usually customers have more voice than employees, of course.) What's your response to the concept that smoking bans should occur because of the bad effects of second-hand smoke on those bars' employees?

My answer is that the argument for workers is exactly the same as it is for customers. If employees are asked to work in less desirable place, you will have to pay them more to get them to do it. Firms compete for workers on the basis of salary and other dimensions, such as work place quality. Firms have to see how much they have to pay these workers to work in a smoke filled room and how much smoking customers are willing to pay for that service. If the cost of the workers is less than what the customers are willing to pay, some restaurants will offer smoking.

Gun Control Groups like Obama

Here is an article from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

Clinton and Obama favor some kind of ban on assault weapons, something McCain opposes.

"I ... think we should reinstate the assault weapons ban (that expired in 2004) in order to give our police officers a fighting chance against the criminals on the street with these military-style assault weapons," Clinton said Tuesday.

All three candidates oppose creating a national handgun registry.

Rather than create a national registry, "I do think we have to do a better job sharing information between local and federal officials," Obama said yesterday. He differs with McCain and Clinton about whether people should be allowed to carry concealed guns. Clinton and McCain oppose outlawing it.

"I am not in favor of concealed weapons," Obama said. "I think that creates a potential atmosphere where more innocent people could (get shot during) altercations."

Obama and Clinton agree on most issues, NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandom said.

McCain, however, "was good on our issues for a very long time. ... For a brief period of time, from 1999 to 2003-04, he wasn't as good. But since 2004, he has voted with us 100 percent of the time." . . .

Why aren't the health benefits of coffee advertised more?

I was talking yesterday to one of the great PR people in DC, Janet Fallon, about the health benefits of coffee,

"Coffee a top source of healthy antioxidants"

"Researchers have found strong evidence that coffee reduces the risk of several serious ailments, including diabetes, heart disease and cirrhosis of the liver."

"Drinking coffee protects against an eyelid spasm that can lead to blindness"

"Prevents gout"

Her question was one that I was disappointed that I hadn't already asked myself: If so, why don't the coffee companies advertise this? The only answer that I have to her question is that if they raise health benefits, they might also have to get into issues such as this:

"U.S. scientists say they`ve determined a single cup of coffee might cause a heart attack in some people within an hour of drinking it."

Coffee companies could face liability if someone had a heart attack and they started drinking coffee for the health benefits.

UPDATE: As Janet correctly points out to me, these concerns haven't stopped red wine makers from advertising the benefits from drinking their wine.

Second thoughts on DC police searches of people's homes

D.C. apparently has had second thoughts about this program:

D.C. police have decided to substantially alter a program designed to rid homes of guns after concerns from the council and civil libertarians.

The Safe Homes Initiative was scheduled to launch March 24. Police planned to go door to door in crime-plagued neighborhoods, asking residents for permission to search their homes for guns and drugs.

In return for cooperation, and getting contraband off the streets, D.C. police promised homeowners and renters limited amnesty for anything seized by police.

Police now say the program will be entirely volunteer -- officers will only search homes by appointment at the request of the resident. The scaled-back program is slated to begin in mid-June.

The program is aimed at removing guns and drugs kept by children and young adults in their parents' homes. The homeowners will be asked to sign a form, consenting to the search. . . .

Houston Homeowner Defends Property with Shotgun

Channel 2 in Houston has this story:

HOUSTON -- A southeast Houston homeowner shot a burglary suspect Thursday afternoon after he was victimized twice in a week, officials told KPRC Local 2.
Thomas Williamson lives in the 6000 block of Bois D'arc. He said he stayed home from work on Thursday after a burglar hit his home twice in a few days.
Williamson said he looked out his window at about 1 p.m. and saw a man walk across his back yard. The man went into Williamson's garage and tried to steal an air compressor, worth about $400, he said.
When the burglary suspect walked out of the garage with bolt cutters, Williamson said he grabbed his shotgun.
"He came to the door and I went, 'Get on the ground. Get on the ground.' He got on the ground and I told him, 'Do not move,'" he said. "I was shaking. I had him on the ground with my shotgun and I told him, 'Do not move.' I was even yelling. I fired one shot in the ground just to show him I meant business."

List of claimed "lies" by Obama (Unchecked by me)

The list of 68 claimed lies can be seen here.

As pointed out in the comments section, the detailed discussion here is more useful.

The Trial of Obama's Close Friend Starts Yielding Some Explosive Results

Under the headline "Gov was told of threat to 'take them down'," Chicago Sun-Times reports:

Despite Gov. Blagojevich's repeated denials that he knew anything about alleged pay-to-play schemes, "the big guy" was told about one plan to squeeze campaign contributions from a firm seeking state business, according to bombshell testimony Wednesday at Tony Rezko's corruption trial.

"Mr. Rezko indicated to me that he had made the governor aware of the situation" involving threats from a Chicago businessman-turned-Hollywood producer to expose a shakedown for campaign cash in 2004, star prosecution witness Stuart Levine told jurors. "And the governor agreed with the way Mr. Rezko wanted to handle it." . . . .

Here is my question: how could have Obama been so deeply involved in Chicago politics without any notion of this level of corruption. Possibly it is the same lack of knowledge that Obama had regarding Rev. Wright. Obama once major memory loss was bad enough, but another huge one might prove more troublesome.

Ed Morrissey has a similar take here and NRO here.

"Senior Citizen Holds Burglar at Gunpoint"

Except for the bad advice offered by the police, this is yet another example of people protecting themselves from criminals:

PASADENA, Md. (WJZ) ― A senior citizen in Pasadena caught a burglar in his home and held him at gunpoint until police arrived. Tom Walker told Suzanne Collins he just didn't want the young man to get away with it.

Erick Bjorntwedt, 22, headed to the courthouse on four counts of burglary and destruction of property. Police say he went on a crime spree in Pasadena until he was stopped by a 74-year-old homeowner dressed in long johns.

"He came in, I put the pistol up toward his head. I said, `Get down on the floor.' I said, `No, get down with your face on the floor,'" Tom Walker said.

Walker said he left out the expletives he used when confronting the burglar in his home at 4 a.m.

It started with a planter base used to smash a side window. Security bars prevented entry. Then the rear sliding door was smashed. Walker ran into the burglar in the garage, going through his wife's car.

"I'm no hero. I'm just trying to protect my house and my wife. At our age, we don't want to be bothered with people stealing stuff like that," he said.

The suspect ran into the house where Pat Walker faced him in the kitchen. She also stood up against the suspect. He tried to get out of her kitchen door, so she put her foot up to prevent him from getting out until her husband came back with the gun.

Police say it worked out this time, but confronting a burglar isn't the best idea because they could be armed. . . . .

"Our tax system is a voluntary tax system." - Senator Harry Reid (D, NV)

I warn you that no matter how dumb you think Senator Harry Reid is he will fall below your expectations in this interview. By this reasoning I guess that the Jim Crow laws were voluntary.

Appearing on Fox & Friends tomorrow morning

I will be on Fox & Friends at 6:20 AM EDT to discuss my recent Fox News op-ed on the media coverage and the economy.

Ted Cruz on the Supreme Court Rejecting Authority of World Court

Ted Cruz has a nice piece here:

Over the past few years many Americans have become deeply concerned that judges have begun relying more and more on foreign law to decide questions of U.S. constitutional law. One doesn’t have to be a constitutional scholar to object to foreign laws and foreign courts -- laws that are not enacted by our democratic government and judges who are not selected as our Constitution provides -- ruling on Americans’ rights and the powers of American government. These concerns are largely well founded, and reflect the increasing degree to which modern constitutional adjudication has become altogether unmoored from the text and original understanding of the Framers.

Yet an even bigger issue was before the Supreme Court this Term. In Medellan v. Texas, the issue was not simply whether U.S. judges should consult foreign law to guide their decision-making; instead, the central question before the U.S. Supreme Court was whether the United Nations’ World Court has the legal authority to bind the courts of the United States. In other words, the issue was whether decisions of the World Court are superior to those of the Supreme Court, and whether Americans will be governed by the decisions of foreign judges in The Hague.

Thankfully, by a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court got this one right. . . .

Liberal Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice defeated by voters

John Fund writes this at the WSJ's Political Diary (emphasis added):

Justice Butler, in particular, had become the fulcrum for a new majority that seemed to embrace "junk" science in the courtroom. In one of its rulings, the court held that a lead paint manufacturer could be held liable for an injury even if the injured person had not been exposed to its products. In another case, it eliminated caps on noneconomic damages in medical malpractice lawsuits. . . .

As Fund notes:

The court now flips from a 4-to-3 liberal majority on most legal issues to a majority likely to be conservative at least for the next three years -- and perhaps much longer. . . .

Oklahoma State Senate Kills Bill Letting Some Carry Concealed Handguns on College Campuses

The Oklahoman writes:

A procedural move Monday killed a bill that would have allowed military veterans and others with firearms training to carry concealed weapons on campus.

The Senate Appropriations Committee was scheduled to hear House Bill 2513 on Wednesday, but the measure, which received nearly two-thirds support earlier this month in the House of Representatives, was not listed Monday on the agenda. Thursday is the deadline for bills to be passed out of Senate committees.

"The bottom line is it's dead,” said Sen. Johnnie Crutchfield, D-Ardmore, co-chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

"Both of us decided we didn't want to hear it,” said Sen. Mike Johnson, R-Kingfisher, the other committee co-chairman.

President Pro Tempore Mike Morgan said legislators want to be sensitive of Oklahomans' Second Amendment rights, but "we've got to be practical.” . . . .

The bill was largely killed by former Senator and current president of the University of Oklahoma David Boren.

Fourteen presidents, several students and representatives of some campus police departments met Monday at the state Capitol to voice concerns about HB 2513, which they said would make campuses more dangerous.
"Please, please, please put the safety of our students first,” said University of Oklahoma President David Boren.

He said in his 41 years of public service, he's never seen legislation "that would bring with it more unintended consequences that can lead to tragedy.”

Dennis Miller Show

I will be on the Dennis Miller show at 10:34 AM EDT.

A copy of the interview can be heard here.

Talk at GMU on Wednesday Night

WTOP reports:

FAIRFAX, Va. - Since the tragedy at Virginia Tech in April of 2007, the debate about whether students, teachers and faculty members should be allowed to carry guns on campus has received a lot of attention.

This week, that debate comes to George Mason University.

The College Republicans and Students for Concealed Carry will hold a symposium about gun ownership, personal safety and the rules for guns on campus. Monica Block, a junior and chairman of the organization, has been pushing for a policy change.

"If only the bad guys have guns, how are you going to protect yourself?"

GMU has a strict ban on guns and School Spokesman Dan Walsch says that is not likely to change. He says anyone not affiliated with the university who carries a gun on campus -- even with a permit -- will be asked to leave.

"There was a little ambiguity in our policy prior to Virginia Tech, and this hopefully helped erase any doubts as to where we are coming from."

There will be two gun advocates speaking on campus this week. Professor John Lott, author of "More Gun, Less Crime," will speak at 7 p.m. Wednesday. . . .

Brit Hume mentions my work on his show last night

Brit's discussion can be seen here:

University of Maryland senior research scientist John Lott Jr. says news coverage of the economy is slanted. Lott writes, "Over 78 percent more negative news stories discussed a recession when the economy — under a Republican president was soaring than occurred under a Democrat when the economy was shrinking."

Lott — who researched 12,500 newspaper and wire service articles from 1985 through 2004 — also found that Democratic presidents got positive headlines 15 percent more of the time than Republican presidents for the same economic news.

Of his findings Lott writes, "The media's focus on the negative side of everything surely helps explain people's pessimism... Indeed, research has indicated that media bias is real."

The Wilkow Majority today at 1:20 PM EDT (Sirius Satellite Radio)

I will be on The Wilkow Majority today at 1:20 PM EDT (Sirius Satellite Radio) to discuss this week's op-ed at Fox News.

Carrying guns in Ohio

The Columbus Dispatch reported this on Sunday:

Everyone but felons Openly carrying gun not a crime
By Bill Bush
bbush@dispatch.com
Reporter
The Columbus Dispatch
March 30, 2008

"In the political tussle over Ohio's concealed-carry gun law, one fact seems to have been overlooked by many: You never needed a permit to carry a gun in public, and you still don't ... As long as you haven't been convicted of a felony --- you just can't conceal it ... But if you do, don't be surprised if you get some unwanted attention from police officers."