This is disturbing. Think about it: 9 guns for every 10 people. How do you spin that? Even if our guns were perfectly distributed across the population – and Lord knows they’re not – that would still mean that 1 in 10 Americans own no guns. Of course that doesn’t mean they never get the benefit of guns, only that they wait until disaster strikes, call 911 to bring in others with guns at a moment’s notice, and end up costing us taxpayers a hell of a lot more than it would to do what any civilized country would do, and buy guns for them in the first place.

It pains me to say this, but maybe, just maybe, Two-Americas Edwards was right after all. Even where constitutional rights are involved, we really are a nation divided between haves and have-nots.

I’m not sure what it is, but something about Larry Craig’s vehement denial just doesn’t ring true.

For eight months leading up to June 11th my family and I had been relentlessly and viciously harassed by the Idaho Statesman. If you saw the article today, you know why. Let me be clear: I am not gay. I never have been gay. Neither have any of the blokes I done in public bathrooms, either, not a one. That pervert cop who busted me, now that’s another story. That guy is definitely gay. I know he’s gay ‘cuz his dick tastes like shit. But none of the other guys I met in bathroom stalls are gay, so why don’t you drop this non-story and leave me and what’s left of my political career… um, I mean, my family, yeah, that’s the ticket … alone? Dammit.

More here, here, here, here, here, here and too many other places to track.

Dean Esmay has as good an explanation as any I’ve seen as to why Fred? still won’t commit to running or not-running. In retrospect, I have to wonder if a similar dynamic accounted for Arnold Schwarzenegger’s eleventh-hour entry into the recall election in 2003.

UPDATE: Dale Franks has a somewhat less charitable take on Fred?’s inability to commit. Anwyn isn’t too impressed, either.

Last week I told y’all that Obama isn’t really running for President, just going through the motions and saying goofy crap to make his party’s real presidential candidate look more presidential. Not all of y’all believed me, so believe this. Whining about something as harmless as the Obama girl? Give me a friggin’ break. Hillary has one of those, too – a faux lesbian, to boot – and I don’t hear hear complaining about the unwanted attention. What are we going to see next, Ron Paul complaining about the fact that no one made a crush video for him?

As it looks like I may be having to move again, possibly to the Triad where land is reasonably priced, I’d kinda like my next place to be rural enough that I can “go to the range” by walking out of the house and into my own backyard. As a rule of thumb, how much land do you need for that to be realistic, safe, not a nuisance, etc.? 5 acres? 10? 100?

Israeli scientist Amos Ori claims to have figured out how to make a time machine. Here’s the twist: once complete, the machine will only allow you to travel back to the time it was built. My theory is that no time machine will ever be built that can go back further in time than that. If such a machine could ever be invented in the future, we’d have heard about it by now.

Apparently, not everyone thinks this movie has a happy ending. I guess it doesn’t matter if you’re watching baseball, the war in Iraq, a horror movie, or anything else; someone will always root for the other side. Not that one should expect any better from a guy who picks a domain name like ihateyourfreedommorethanilovemydaughter.blogsplat.com, or who doesn’t even pretend to support discourse, reasoned or otherwise? More on this blogtard here and here.

Barack Obama has no serious aspirations of being President. His role in the primary is to make the real candidate look good, or at least so-so.

Discuss.

Enjoy.

H/t: NK.

As of last week, I have a temp job in North Carolina which, with a little luck, may turn into a permanent position. Moving again would suck, but if I have to move anywhere, I’d rather move within the South than out of it. Speaking of the South, Chris Lawrence is officially full of crap for describing a move to Carolina as “leaving the South.” This state is soooo south of Virginia it isn’t even funny. After about six months as a born-again Virginian, I barely noticed the accent anymore. Now I can barely communicate. Over the past week, I’ve encountered the following:

1. Earlier this week around lunch time, a co-worker asked me if I’d got lynched yet.
2. Last week, the same co-worker asked me if I whuckum downan eacho knees.
3. The same day, a hostess at a local restaurant (complete with a nose ring, a gazillion tattoos, and all the other garb that screamed out “I belong in Frisco, not here!”) asked me if I was donanin.
4. Around the same time, I called Duke Power to get the power switched to my name in my apartment. I did not understand a friggin’ word Boomhauer said, not even enough syllables to transcribe here. Next month I should find out whether I just ordered power, bought a new set of Ginsu knives, joined the Fruit of the Month Club, or Lord knows what else.
5. I recently learned that the Carolina School of Languages is within walking distance of where I work. I showed up there today asking to enroll in an evening class where I can learn to speak Carolina. Judging by the strange look I got, I was relieved to see that for once, someone else got to be the one having no clue what I was talking about.

UPDATE: If you’ve ever wondered whether “Unpartisan” actually has a human reading all the blog entries it links, or if a bot scours the net for anything that matches a few keywords, Wonder no more.

UPDATE x2: Chris clarifies in comments that his “leaving the south” post referred only to the Triangle, not to the state as a whole.

UPDATE x3: D’oh! Actually, the original post made that pretty clear to begin with. That’s what I get for attacking old posts by memory – particularly a memory distorted by my own lack of exposure to the region at the time it was formed – rather than waiting until I can get the original to load properly.