Philadelphia, The City of Brotherly Irony

ELEVEN students from Julia R. Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration School were filming an antiviolence video when they were attacked after school Monday by other youths, school district officials said yesterday.

"Hey, I have an idea! Let's get rid of violence by making a video! THAT's what has been missing in this city!"

In a city where certain elements have been encouraged to avoid learning the lessons of the jungle this irony hits the sidewalk faster than pigeon poop falling from the statue of Willie Penn.

"We normally don't have trouble at [Masterman]," said Police Capt. Dennis Wilson. "A group that was looking for trouble ran into them and wanted to fight."

Gee, Captain. What did you think would be the result of revolving door courts that keep dumping troublemakers back into the community would be?

At one time in this nation we locked up kids who beat up other kids. The result was that our kids got an education. Now we don't lock up kids who beat up other kids and our kids are not getting educated. I wonder how we should fix this?

Make a video about it?

Ironically, school officials said, the students from Masterman, 17th and Spring Garden streets, were filming a video about rampant violence in Philadelphia. The video included a skit in which one student shoots another because the shooter mistakenly believes that the other stole his sneakers.

The 11 Masterman students, members of the school's African-American Cultural Committee, were in front of the Community College of Philadelphia, across the street at 17th and Spring Garden, about 4:30 when a larger group from nearby schools approached, Assistant Principal Mary Ann Tancredi said.

The Masterman students reported that their assailants had been looking for someone specific, asking, " 'Is that him? Is that him?' " according to schools spokesman Fernando Gallard.

Although the youths did not find their apparent target, Gallard said, they began attacking several Masterman students, some of whom ran back into the school to escape.

And how many of these "youths" will be jailed?

Arrested were Malique Sherril, 18, a Benjamin Franklin High School student, and two 13-year-old boys who attend Laura Wheeling Waring School. Police said all three would be charged with aggravated assault, simple assault and related charges. All three will be suspended.

SUSPENDED! Oh, the HORROR! Kids who are probably disruptive to class and apparently only go to school in order to cause trouble are going to be SUSPENDED!

How about slapping all of them into a jail until such time that they are ready for prison? What were their prior records? Why do I have a feeling that they could probably find their baby daddy in there?

Malcolm Carrington, 13, of West Oak Lane, said he and his classmates had been taunted by students from other schools while walking to and from the nearby Broad Street Subway.

"They think we're not streetwise," he said. "Sometimes I worry about becoming a victim. That's why we walk in groups."

Great job, Philly mayor and cops. You can burn down a city block to get at a few loud-mouths and eventually will stop a serial killer when the stench of rotting flesh coming from his house gets to be too much for his neighbors but when you are watching the next generation of trouble makers at work you just turn away. Let the few good kids who are at least TRYING to learn (despite being handicapped by liberal falsehoods) are being harassed. And the Philly mayor will sit there with his thumb up his butt and let crime get worse.

A Very Important Read

I don't claim to have fully given this post the full attention it deserves. I've skimmed it but need to take a more careful read of it and apply critical thinking to it.

Yes, I do that even to articles that tell me what I want to hear. It's actually more important for those articles than for ones I disregard.

It's at War On Guns and is worth the time and effort.

Touchy-Feely

I am not a huge "touchy-feely" guy. I do a lot of touchy-feely with my wife but outside of that I'm not a big fan of casual intimacy. I don't believe in hugging everyone.

I have a MAJOR problem with casual kissing.

Now, we see Jesse Jackson "greeting" Chelsea Clinton.

He looks like he's giving his least favorite maiden auntie a peck on the cheek. She looks like she's bracing for a smooch from a too amorous uncle. Maybe her dad has a brother?

Why are you two adults putting on this show when you are both so obviously uncomfortable?

To show that you are both able to kiss someone with cooties?

Is it a sin to say "I really don't go around kissing people outside of my marriage"?

Is it a sin to decline kisses from people you aren't married to?

Yes, I know Chelsea is not married but Jackson is. I'm reasonably certain he is not married to Chelsea Clinton. Why is a married man kissing an unmarried woman?

Haven't they heard of handshakes?

Packin'

Okay, if you are stalking me then you already know I am packing.

Not boxes. Not at this moment, anyway.

My CHL, referred to in the write up of my class, came through.

I haven't completed even 30 days of carrying on a daily basis and already not being armed feels "wrong".

I have 4 situations when I don't have a gun immediately upon my body. One of them is in the shower.

I wouldn't count on being able to tell when I'm in the shower if you really are stalking me.

Over a year ago I decided what I WOULD carry when I was licensed. I have kept to that decision, choosing to train with the Glock firearm system. I own other firearms but what I have on me is normally a Glock. What I have near me is normally a Glock.

What I carry is normally a Glock.

If you haven't stalked me I won't make it easy to figure out the carry methods. I keep experimenting with them, anyway. What is true last week may be different next week.

I even carry at home. I'm not one to lock up my gun just because I'm in my house. Since I read that most armed citizen encounters occur in the walls of one's own home I have committed to making sure I'm armed there.

Yes, I could have been doing that all along without the plastic. If had read that tidbit before now I probably would have carried at home before now.

I follow the letter and spirit of the laws that I am licensed under. I will, however, continue to lobby to increase the legal recognition of my real rights.

Gun Grabbin' Ray Horsing around with an M4

What's wrong with this image?

The thing most wrong with it is that Ray Nagin can play with hardware YOU can't buy.

That's right. Mr. Contempt of Court is able to play with toys YOU can't buy since only cops can have full autos and select fires made/imported after 1986.

You couldn't legally buy that toy he's holding from your gun dealer, however if you were a criminal it probably would only run a couple of thousand dollars, if that much. I don't know for a fact since I don't hang out with criminals but you can bet your bippy that they won't spend money for guns when there is bling to buy.

Now for the real question. Why aren't the New Orleans and Louisiana press crucifying Gun Grabbin' Ray for stealing property from law-abiding citizens? For the man to get close to pointing his finger and saying "bang" the press should be scalding him like a chicken for plucking.

Or maybe the press in Louisiana likes the mayor for stealing property from tax-paying, law-abiding citizens?

Is THAT why they will act like Ray Nagin is some sort of priceless art piece?

Which is worse? The lying scum-sucking bottom feeder living on the government payroll after stealing from honest citizens or the press that won't stand up for the people?

Nagin has that laughing jackass holding the other M4 to go out with that assault poodle shooter and take tax money away from honest citizens. The press seems to think they can TELL people what to think and not suffer for it.

Yet they still wonder why there is a decline in circulation?

Their investors should be asking about that little problem.

The Brits March Into Oblivion, again

England's commissioner for children and a civil liberties group joined in on a campaign Tuesday to ban high-frequency devices intended to drive misbehaving children away from shops and other areas.

The so-called "Mosquito" device emits high-frequency noise which is audible — and annoying — to young ears, but generally not heard by people over 20.

"This device is a quick fix that does not tackle the root cause of the problem and it is indiscriminate," English Children's Commissioner Al Aynsley-Green said.

You are right, Al. It does not tackle the root cause of the problem.

The root cause of the problem is you stopped spanking kids and you stopped locking up kids who were into stealing, breaking things and being a pain in the ass. You even stopped making those trouble makers go into the military.

So, with undisciplined, spoiled kids being handed welfare from the cradle and unemployment as soon as they can stumble out of school you wind up with generations of white trash.

You really should have left that up to your cousins on this side of the pond. We can create white trash who turn into millionaires. You just turn your millionaires into white trash.

Aynsley-Green said in an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. radio that the devices do not tackle the real problem, which is that children have no place to gather other than on the streets.

"I think it is a powerful symptom of what I call the malaise at the heart of our society," he said.

"I'm very concerned about what I see to be an emerging gap between the young and the old, the fears, the intolerance, even the hatred, of the older generation toward the young."

It is the JOB of the older generation to be intolerant of the young. If the young had any sense they wouldn't tolerate themselves.

There is no amount of shoving safety pins though your lip or chartreuse dyed Mohawks that will make up for getting an education and working your ass off every day.

I realize that my name doesn't have a hyphen in it but I would have sworn that morons like Al could grasp these subtleties.

Shami Chakrabarti, director of the civil rights group Liberty, supported the campaign.

"Imagine the outcry if a device was introduced that caused blanket discomfort to people of one race or gender, rather than to our kids," Chakrabarti said. "The 'Mosquito' has no place in a country that values its children and seeks to instill them with dignity and respect."

Dignity? Respect?

Respect is EARNED. It's not a handout from the nanny state! Dignity is when you fall on your face in a pile of dung and get up and brush yourself off and keep doing your job. Any of the punks in this story doing that? Or are they whining about how they aren't able to shoplift enough for a new iPod?

Well, Shami? Which is it?

"People talk about infringing human rights but what about the human rights of the shopkeeper who is seeing his business collapse because groups of unruly teenagers are driving away his customers?"

What about their rights, indeed.

Another Must Read

For me to refer folks to HWT is somewhat silly but if I steer just one person who hasn't found the place by way of my sidebar or some other path then I have done something good.

This post on the topic of gun control is well reasoned.

If you keep digging down to the root of their dislike of firearms you will generally find that what is really motivating them is a hatred not of the firearm itself, which is an inanimate object after all, but rather a deep hatred of the kind of person who chooses to own and carry a firearm for self protection.

The person who chooses to carry a firearm is above all stating that he or she is willing to take responsibility for their own life and safety. This is why gun control is a fixture of the political left because the idea of individuals taking responsibility for themselves is anathema to the left. The left's ideal of the perfect world is a population mired in helpless dependency upon the state (which will be ruled by the enlightened masters of the Left) for every necessity of life from protection from crime to their housing and health care to their next meal.

Go and read the rest and be enlightened.

Old school.

A Must Read

I seldom do this. I'm posting a recommendation to one and all to go and read another blog.

I feel that the points this blogger brings up present honest truth and honest recommendations for action.

So, without further ado, go and read LawDog.

And now for something completely different

Women turn on ‘traitor’ Oprah Winfrey for backing Barack Obama

Hey, it's not my headline. It's from the TimesOnline in the UK.

You know you are in trouble when your own media won't tell you the truth about the behind the scenes of the Democrat hack & slash. If the Brits can smell blood in the water it's got to be knee deep at DNC headquarters.

AMERICA’S favourite television presenter is paying a painful price for her intervention in the US presidential campaign last month. Oprah Winfrey has been dubbed a “traitor” by some of her female fans for supporting Barack Obama instead of Hillary Clinton.

Winfrey’s website, Oprah.com, has been flooded with a barrage of abuse since the queen of daytime chat shows joined Obama on a tour of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina in mid-December.

Her intervention was widely credited with broadening Obama’s national appeal - especially among women - and with helping him to an upset victory over Clinton in the first vote of the election year in Iowa.

So there we have it. Women are turning on their over-paid piper. When she broke ranks to support a pseudo-black man based SOLELY upon the color of his skin over siding with a (biological) woman based SOLELY upon her gender the legions of Hillary's Harridans decided to swarm in defense of their Queen Bee.

They are making the PaulBots look like champions of reasoned discourse.

What's a media mogul to do? Her empire seems ready to desert!

Why, she can duck & cover and wait to emerge in whichever camp manages to float to the top of this toilet bowl.

Yet a backlash by Clinton supporters appears to have prompted a rethink by Winfrey, the African-American media titan who is routinely described as the most influential woman on television.

She did not reappear in the final days before the New Hampshire primary - which Obama lost to Clinton - and has been absent from the most recent campaigning in South Carolina, which votes next weekend.

Obama aides believe that Winfrey will return to the campaign. Her own staff noted last week that in addition to her daily broadcasts on television and satellite radio, she has also been busy negotiating a multi-million-dollar deal with the Discovery cable network to create her own television channel, the Oprah Winfrey Network.

Yet Obama’s rivals suspect that Winfrey has been startled by the virulent reaction to her previous campaign appearance.

It started with a message on her website entitled “Oprah is a traitor” and rapidly expanded to include several discussions that attracted hundreds of comments.

Well, gosh, Oprah, what did you expect?

Did you really think your advertisers were buying access to a BLACK audience? THINK AGAIN, BABY!

They wanted the purses of those white women who felt guilty enough to follow your commands slavishly. And I do mean slavishly.

Then you went and told them that they had to abandon Billy Jeff's wife to follow Dumbobama of the Big Ears and No Plan. Suddenly there's a revolt in the cabins surrounding the big house at the Winfrey plantation.

Your fellow's young. He will still have jug handles big enough to make Tony Blair look cute in 2012 or 2016. 2008 is really the Shrillary Shrew's last hurrah. By 2012 she's going to be less appealing than the Dr. Ruth Blow Up Sex Therapist.

Now it may be unfair of those women. After all, Hillary is biologically a woman and women are the truest majority in our nation. They have both the highest numbers and the highest number of eligible voters. She should be able to walk up and take the office. If only all those women would agree that Hill-D-Beast is actually someone they can trust.

Obama does represent a minority. White guys with black fathers. I don't know why Oprah would be attracted to him. I thought she went in for black guys, but hey, whatever floats her boat. Maybe if Dumbobama doesn't work out she could see what Whoopi saw in Tedd Danson.

Back again? So soon?

One of the luxuries of an infrequent blogger is going weeks without blogging a single word.

It seems, though, that I've picked up one something that might turn into a full-time blogging event.

Where in the World is the BATF?

Yes, here we are for another installment in CZ the Day's look at those boys and girls in jackboots. Or, we WOULD be looking at them, if they were doing something about crime. Instead they are usually found trying to shut down a law-abiding license holder over abbreviating "street" as "st." as 99.99999914% of the nation does, including EVERY government agency.

This time around there's more gangbangers and guns. The irony is that one of those gangbangers was also the founder of ... you are gonna LOVE this!...

AN ANTI-GUN GROUP!

As Fits says, you can't make this stuff up! And if you did they networks would never use it as plot lines for TV cop shows. Not because it's unbelievable. They would avoid doing it because it would point out the utter stupidity, hypocrisy and general suck present in ALL the anti-gun movement.

Founder of Anti-Gun Group Pleads No Contest to Weapons Charges

Hector "Big Weasel" Marroquin, 51, and co-defendant Sylvia Arrellano, 25, entered pleas Thursday for three counts of manufacture, distribution and transport for sale of an unlawful assault weapon.

Arrellano also pleaded no contest to machine gun conversion and possessing a silencer and acknowledged that the crime was committed for the benefit of a criminal street gang.

She was given until Tuesday to surrender for sentencing and would likely be sentenced to four years in prison, prosecutors said.

Hold the PHONE, Mabel! 'Likely be sentenced to four years'? For manufacture, DISTRIBUTION and transport of an unlawful assault weapon? Not just owning, mind you. DISTRIBUTION, as in SELLING or PASSING ON TO OTHER GANG MEMBERS.

Y'all recall a guy who the Feds decided to charge for the mere POSSESSION of a fully automatic weapon that he basically built himself? He never passed it to anyone. His sentence was 6 1/2 years. His name is Wayne Fincher.

Now, can anyone tell me why this gangbanger bimbo is getting a lighter sentence? Especially since I'd put ten bucks on her having prior arrests and convictions for felonies?

So, what about her co-defendant. "Big Weasel"?

Marroquin founded No Guns in 1996, ostensibly to reduce gang and gun violence. The group received $1.5 million from the city as a subcontractor on anti-gang efforts but its contract was canceled last year after authorities learned that Marroquin had hired relatives, including his son, Hector "Little Weasel" Marroquin.

The son is an acknowledged 18th Street gang member who pleaded no contest in June 2007 to home-invasion robbery and was sentenced to nine years in state prison.

Yes, you read right, people. California tax payers gave "Big Weasel" 1.5 MILLION to go out and build fully automatic firearms and silencers.

Anyone want to open up a Cafe Pres store with t-shirts saying "My State Government Gave A Gangbanger 1.5 Million Dollars To Build Assault Weapons And All I Got Was This Lousy T-shirt!"

But let's not forget, this post ties back to our new blog segment.

Where in the World is the BATF?

While the BATF goes out and gets Wayne Fincher put in prison for 6.5 years why aren't they coming down with both jackboots on Big Weasel, Little Weasel and Sylvia Suxaweasel? Why aren't they getting extensive prison time for these folks for having a silencer without paying the tax? For possessing an unregistered fully automatic weapon AND transferring it without federal approval!

You do that and you'll be looking at 25 to life for "conspiracy". The Weasels are gonna be back to breaking into homes before they need to shave.

Where in the World is the BATF?

Why the unequal enforcement? What happened to "equal protection"? Why are the OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of the BATFs assaults on liberty aimed at white people? Why is it that as soon as someone's name has a rolling R the BATF evaporates faster than ether on a hot manifold?

It's clearly discrimination. It's clearly racism. It's clearly unconstitutional on 3-7 amendments.

Introducing a new segment

There are criminals using guns. There are guns being used by criminals.

Those weapons are almost never purchased legally. Billy B. Badboy doesn't call up his local gun dealer and order his GangBanger2008 off the shelf.

For one thing criminals don't pay retail or sales tax. Why should they? It's cheaper to buy a gun grabbed by burglars swapped for crack or meth to a dealer.

What's very, very, very curious about this is that when these sorts of transactions occur the myriad of gun laws affecting interstate commerce, weapons transfer, barrel length or stock length is never used. You have to ask why the BATF is spending all of their time trying to bust law-abiding gun dealers making human errors. If they went after real criminals they might actually prevent a real crime or two. Someday.

For that reason I'm introducing a new segment to this blog.

Where in the World is the BATF?

Our inaugural entry comes to us through ABC news.

YouTube Taunt Results in Weapons Arrest

"Alleged Gang Members Arrested After Taunting Cops in Online Video"

Sounds good so far, doesn't it? These gangbangers make a video taunting cops. The BATF sees the video and sweeps in and makes arrests. Right?

Well...

"ICE agents made the arrests as part of their involvement in a Miami Dade gang task force. Both men are being held in Miami-Dade County jail."

ICE? ICE? What? None of those heroes who shot at little girls in Waco? None of those heroes who burned little girls to death in Waco from that other lettered agency. The one that lied to Congress. The FBI.

Both of these agencies who were so in love with using violence to keep Randy Weaver's child from living and the Branch Davidians from freedom of religion weren't involved in this case? How strange.

Now, I'll admit, that's not the only strange omission from the news coverage. Such as the reason why ICE was involved at all. Aren't they only involved in control of immigrants, usually those who shouldn't be here in the first place? ABC conveniently dodges any question of the legal status of one Rudy Villanueva or why this multiple time loser felon is still inside U.S. borders.

But more importantly for this new blog segment...

Where in the World is the BATF?

Why didn't those brave jackboots who spend so much of their time trying to shut down law-abiding firearms dealers rush right out to confront these two people who shouldn't have guns?

Why isn't the BATF looking for the intermediaries who supplied these gang bangers with weapons? Why aren't they filing conspiracy charges against THEM as they so often have against legitimate, law-abiding citizens who pay taxes?

Speaking of which why aren't drug dealers ever sentenced to additional time for not paying sales tax to the government? Someone handling several thousand dollars a day in merchandise should be owing their local city, county and state a BUTTLOAD of money every week.

"Hey, you did your ten years for trafficking in crack. Now you are gonna spend fifty years for tax evasion."

THAT would put a real crimp in the drug trade. Then you can get OSHA involved with filing against the holdings of pimps for the working conditions of their employees.

We have an entire panoply of federal agencies which can and do harass the law-abiding. Why is it when it comes to street crime these laws are never enforced? They would substantially add to the time being served among the criminals.

The thing I never want to hear is "There's nothing we can do" when referring to gangs.

Tell the truth. "There's nothing we WANT to do."

That's why the BATF wasn't there with ICE or there before them.

They don't WANT to take down real criminals. They ONLY want to harass the law-abiding. That is their only real reason to exist.

Who are you?

The question isn't for my readers. The question is for Obama.

Barak Obama was born to a white woman. He has lived a life of luxury that I will NEVER know. I'm white as his momma and I will NEVER know that level of luxury. I will NEVER know what is it is like to never work.

Barak Obama has known this. It is his REAL LIFE.

He doesn't need to work to live. NOT like you or me. NOT like any black person I have ever known. Native born or immigrant we should all be made to work. He NEVER lived that life.

Oprah is an IDIOT for not recognizing that OBAMA DOESN'T WORK. Not like her. Not like me. Not like anyone real.

Obama doesn't work to live. He lives to spend money he NEVER EARNED.

He's NOT REAL. He's a Trust Fund baby. He will live in comfort forever and ever. His children will live in comfort forever and ever. HE IS NOT REAL.

Admit it. He's not black. He is LESS real than Dan Quayle. There is NOTHING in Barack Obama that will ever make him real. Not in Chicago, not in America. He is WHITER than me. Forever. WHITER than Oprah. Forever. WHITER than Bob Dole. Forever.

THAT IS THE FACT.

ADMIT IT.

To vote for this man of NO PLAN is to vote based SOLELY upon skin color. ADMIT IT!

THERE IS ONLY ONE REASON TO VOTE OBAMA.

Guilt.

White guilt for white liberals. I'm immune. I've worked my whole life. No black who worked this hard has to worry about black or white in my field.

Black (successful) guilt. I'm immune. I have worked my whole life. No black who has worked this hard has to worry about black or white in my field.

OBAMA IS WHITE WHERE IT COUNTS. AT THE BANK.

Get it through your heads, America. Don't be fooled. He's JUST an empy suit with no plans. He's TRASH. He is WHITE TRASH and was never Black. He NEVER faced the struggle to transcend. he was ALWAYS privileged in ways even poor white never were.

Get over what he looks like. He's whiter than me.

He's trash.

Rich White Trash.

What more proof do we need?

There is a war on. It is between good and evil.

I'm not talking of metaphor. I'm talking of reality.

A headline today makes this war as evident as anyone could ask.

Saudi king pardons rape victim

I don't care what church you go to or avoid going to. Even a far left liberal should see the evil inherent in this action. A culture so evil that it requires a royal pardon for the VICTIM of the crime.

How many women have suffered without pardon for being the victims of rape in Islamic nations?

This isn't a matter of "different cultures". This is EVIL in action. There is no moral equivalence here. This is EVIL in action.

There is no way to compromise with this evil. There can only be destruction of that evil or of us who see it as evil.

There is no alternative to that choice.

Thanks, Mitt

Thank you, Mitt. You finally showed your true colors. YELLOW is the color I thought you wore and now you prove it.

GOV. ROMNEY: I supported the assault weapon ban...

I would have supported the original assault weapon ban. I signed an assault weapon ban in Massachusetts governor...

And if there is determined to be, from time to time, a weapon of such lethality that it poses a grave risk to our law enforcement personnel, that’s something I would consider signing.

We also should keep weapons of unusual lethality from being on the street.

Thanks for playing, Mitt. I smelled your cowardly stink as soon as I found out you were governor of Massacheusetts. You were NOT conservative and will NEVER be conservative. You are a Republican Lite. You are a RINO. You are NOT my candidate.

It's never been about being Mormon, Mitt. I don't care who you pray to. I care if you are faithful to the Constitution and YOU ARE NOT!

You are outta here!

The Bard

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your Glock.

Which work of Shakespeare was the original quote from?

Get your own quotes:

The devil can cite Scripture for his Glock.

Which work of Shakespeare was the original quote from?

Get your own quotes:

Uneasy lies the head that wears a Glock.

Which work of Shakespeare was the original quote from?

Get your own quotes:

O! for a Glock of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention!

Which work of Shakespeare was the original quote from?

Get your own quotes:

Hat tip to

A Keyboard and a .45

It begins

The envelope to DPS went into the metered mail bin at the UPS store a little over 45 minutes ago.
Let's see how soon before I can post an update to this thread.

Tired, but happy

I took the minimum required courses for a CCW in Colorado, then decided to move to Texas so I never applied for the paperwork.

Texas has much more stringent requirements, including an actual test that questions an applicant's knowledge of the law (after instruction) and shooting proficiency.


Readers of this blog will not be surprised that I aced the shooting portion. It was less demanding than the "qualifier" I shot in the spring. I hadn't fired a shot since the last time I shot IDPA and still managed to score 250 out of 250. I'm not Mr. Accuracy. I'm just Mr. Persistent. As Franklin observed, he believed in luck, but noted that the harder he worked the luckier he became.

Written test I didn't ace. I plead guilty. Yes, I had been awake more then 24 hours, had put in 12+ hours of work and fought to stay awake during the class. I still flubbed two out of fifty questions. I passed. I should have made this one be 100%, too.

It was NOT my instructor's fault. I admit that I didn't know what to expect from my Texas CHL instructor but Larry Arnold was as sincere, as dedicated to train and as effective as if I had sat in a class of 10. Perhaps more since I couldn't hide in back in a class of 1.

Texas is not just interested in making sure a CHL holder doesn't shoot his own foot. In this they surpass the Colorado requirements. They want to make sure you understand the responsibility of packing that gat. Larry Arnold wasn't running a scare show. He was trying his level best to prepare someone for assuming grave responsibility.

I hope to finish up the paper work and submit this week.

Now THIS is one way it should happen

A suspected purse snatcher didn't know what he was in for when he picked a woman in a Home Depot parking lot for a victim. As soon as he grabbed her purse, the woman's husband grabbed a shotgun and opened fire.

It happened at the Home Depot on the Eastex Freeway near Little York. With as much activity during business hours there, you never know who may be waiting in the wings, night or day, ready to strike.

"I was just standing here and the guy just came up and pushed me real hard with a force, like it was a car that hit me. And he was just yanking my purse and my arm got twisted up in my purse and he just was just yanking it," said victim Sandra Hulsey.

Sandra may have looked like an easy target standing there as her husband, Norman, loaded wood into the couple's pickup truck. It turned out the suspect who shoved Sandra and tried to steal her purse didn't know who he was messing with.

"I had a board in my hand right here and I thought he was going to beg for money...is what I thought," said Norman. "He grabbed her and I already had that door open so I just grabbed my shotgun."

He fired a shot.

"The sound of the shotgun and that dude burning off -- it was funny," said eyewitness Freddy Butler.

Butler chased after the accused purse snatcher. who took off running and ended up asking a police officer for help.

"He displays a weapon and it scares the suspect," said a deputy on the scene. "The suspect runs up the police car and saying, 'Let me in. They are shooting at me'."

Police took the suspect into custody.

"The guy just didn't have any business doing what he was doing," said Sandra. "It's shaken me up but I'm OK."

The suspect was not injured. The Houston Police Department turned over the suspect to the Harris County Sheriff's Office. Deputies say they patrol this area pretty heavily and despite what happened out there Thursday, they have not had many problems in the area.

Now ain't that cute? The purse snatcher running to the cops for protection.

Now if he would just write out and sign a complete confession, plead guilty to the highest charge and demand to be given the fullest sentence possible all will be well.

If not, well, there are more shotguns.

This better count, dammit

750 rounds of .45 ACP better count for National Ammo Day.

It's maybe enough to get me feeling comfortable with hurling .45 ACP down range for gun games.

Okay, okay. I'll go buy more on Nov. 19th. Maybe not .45 ACP, but I'll buy.

I need more .44 ammo.

To The Pundits

This one is pointed at the pundits. You self-anointed phonies.

In the Republican primary race you have one and all rejected Fred Thompson in favor of the jerk you placed your bet on early in the race. Whether that jerk is McCain, Romney or Giuliani you are one and all rejecting Fred Thompson as the Republican Candidate.

I know why. You decided to sign on with a candidate early in hopes of favor down the road.

Do any of your recall how it is that Fred decided to run? It was because of the actual VOTERS (You do remember us, don't you?) sending him money and begging him to get involved. We saw the same crop of jerks you guys did and we rejected each of them. The only genuine conservatives were considered also-rans from the start.

We didn't want your front runners. We wanted someone who we felt had the guts and the good sense that Fred Thompson displays. Not your polished, projected, fake candidates.

Now that REAL people have chosen why must we listen to YOU, the self-righteous prats, in being told that our choice isn't valid?

In the Preamble to the Constitution does it read "We the pundits" or We the people"?

It's OUR nation, not yours. Fred is OUR choice and you should listen to what WE want.