…in more ways than one. I have today off from work because I worked on Monday, but I am off my feed this morning because I am out of medications.
Oh, don’t worry, the prescription is ready to be picked up down the street (which is where I’m going in a few minutes), but I’ve missed two days of medications and I think just the fact of no meds is impacting my outlook.
I hope I will be feeling better soon, I am planning on seeing The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy which premieres today. I’ll give you a rundown on that later.

Well, the anti-gunners seem to have hit on a rather big idea. They want to serialize ammunition. Gun Industry Rejects ‘Bullet Etching’ Bill.
The anti’s are smart on this one. If they can manage to get this passed, then they will effectively shut down the legal importation and manufacture of ammunition in the state of California.
Last I heard, over 4,000,000,000 (that’s 4 BILLION) rounds of ammunition was commercially produced nationwide per year, with half of that being .22 rimfire. That doesn’t include all of those people who handload their own ammunition like I used to do.
The logistical nightmare of tracking millions of bullets individually as they pass from manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer to consumer would bring ammunition production to its knees nationwide as the manufacturers don’t know which bullets are heading towards CA, so they must serialize them all, or stop selling to California.
And I can think of about 5 different ways of frustrating the “advantages” of serializing ammunition.
Of course the cops will be exempt form this, otherwise they wouldn’t have any ammunition either, nor will all of the personal security guards for all of the Hollywood elites.
And, of course, if people can sneak drugs and illegals over the boarder, why not ammunition?
This is a smart move for the anti-gunners, and they must be stopped. If you live in California, let your legislator know how you feel about this subject.

That’s exactly what the “satire” of Air America did. From Drudge:

AIR AMERICA RADIO INVESTIGATED AFTER BUSH ‘GUNSHOTS’
**Exclusive**
The red-hot rhetoric over Social Security on liberal talkradio network AIR AMERICA has caught the attention of the Secret Service, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.
Government officials are reviewing a skit which aired on the network Monday evening — a skit featuring an apparent gunshot warning to the president!
The announcer: “A spoiled child is telling us our Social Security isn’t safe anymore, so he is going to fix it for us. Well, here’s your answer, you ungrateful whelp: [audio sound of 4 gunshots being fired.] Just try it, you little bastard. [audio of gun being cocked].”
The audio production at the center of the controversy aired during opening minutes of The Randi Rhodes Show.
“What is with all the killing?” Rhodes said, laughing, after the clip aired.
“Even joking about shooting the president is a crime, let alone doing it on national radio… we are taking this very seriously,” a government source explained.

You don’t hear things like this from Rush, Sean, et. al., they don’t have to resort to violence. But apparently the left does. The Left can’t even come up with a solution to Social Security. Instead, they must trash the President’s plan, without presenting one of their own, beyond shoving their fingers in their ears and humming real loud.
The Left is morally and ethically bankrupt. They have flung so much mud they have nothing left to stand on. They don’t dare tell the truth, even to themselves, because it shows just how silly and stupid their positions are.
Sad, sad, sad.

I like this article by Neil Cavuto: Fear and Lying?
In it he relates a story about a summer job of his. New owners were coming in and were going to make changes. The workers, fearing the worst, were opposed to any changes, without hearing what those changes might be.
And so it is with President Bush’s Social Security plan. No particulars have been released as yet, beyond 4% of your SS taxes going into a private account. No one hears that Bush wants to expand the Federal employees retirement account to include everybody. A series of funds that are stable and proven to grow in value.
But the AARP, so enamored of the Ponzi scheme that Social Security is, refuses to let go of a dying system. Without taxing younger workers into oblivion, SS cannot survive.
So what does AARP do? Like other Liberal organizations, it lies. It lies like a rug. It tells outrageous lies that are visible lies at first glance to anybody who looks at it. And they keep lying, hoping enough people believe it to “make it the truth.”

I wish I had some more news to comment on, but I’m offline and have very little tools at my disposal. I’m not used to getting up so early in the morning! I normally roll out of bed at 8am, and that is usually because my Conures wake me up and demand my attention. I have a full day ahead of me. After 8 hours of meetings, I still have to face a 4 hour drive back to Memphis, followed by dropping off the clients I picked up. I will be very tired come about 11.00pm Tuesday night. I’ll see you guys Wednesday when I post all of these and resume the normal daily routine.

I saw a news article last night about growing organs in animals for transplant into humans. This is a super bad idea. This would allow animal diseases to ‘jump’ to humans. This means a whole wave of diseases that we have no immunity against. It sounds like a good idea on the face, but when you get into the science of it, the idea breaks down. BSE (Mad Cow Disease) came from pigs. Cows got it because farmers would feed pork grindings to cows as filler to their feed. Then we got it when humans would consume the extra grindings of the brain and spinal cord of the affected cow.
Like Jeff Goldblum said in Jurassic Park, “Just because we can do something doesn’t mean we have to do it.”
We have no idea as to what we would unleash upon ourselves if we try this. Bad, bad, idea.

Well, that was a fun time. I got to meet a lot of people and do a lot of networking.
I have it in my planner to wipe this laptop, reinstall Windows, and install the software I need to use it in any situation. Here are some of the things I need:

• Microsoft Office

• Street Atlas USA (I have a GPS receiver to go with it)
• Earthlink so I can connect with my cell phone
• Other Internet related software so I can use the Internet connection
• Some No-CD required games to keep me entertained
• A couple of ripped movies (that I the DVD of) so I have something to watch without having to drag the actual DVD along.
• Other software that I haven’t thought of yet.

I’ll have to take my laptop out on a few dry runs to make sure I have everything for the next time I need to do something like this.

Here I sit all broken hearted, came to… well, blog. I am stuck in this cheesy motel, the only one in the area that DOESN’T have high speed Internet access in the rooms. So here I sit, writing posts off line and I will have to post them with the appropriate back timed time stamp so there will be posts made with the proper timing. I do have a cable to use my cell phone as a modem (the modem in this laptop does not work) but I don’t have the software to connect to my ISP or to use the cable/phone setup.
Well, we made it to Murfreesboro right on time to make it to the meetings scheduled for today. As you see from the time stamps below I started very early this morning. Not too much to report from the meetings, all of the heavy stuff is meant for tomorrow. I’m off in a little while to a social for the night so we can network.

Well, good readers, my schedule has been disrupted again. I’m off to Murfreesboro for two days of meetings about Mental Health care and transportation. I’ll be blogging from the road tonight and tomorrow morning. I’ll see you then.

Do you read Day by Day? You should! Sam and Zed are out on a date when they meet a mugger, who accosts them with a knife. What do you think their response is? First Zed, then Sam pull guns. The proper response to such a situation in my book. I’m not really surprised that Sam did it, but Zed (if you excuse the pun) blew me away with his response.
I guess I’ll have to copy Alpha Patriot’s Day by Day cartoon code and let you see it every day.

From Cox and Forkum:

Today is the unofficial holiday of environmentalists the world over: Earth Day. This is the 35th anniversary. So what is Earth Day all about?
It used to stand for things like clean air, clean water and a litter-free environment. Yet from the start, and even more so today, Earth Day and the modern environmental movement have become a haven for socialists, communists and other anti-American types.
This is reflected in the environmentalists’ most pressing issue these days: global warming. Despite the fact that scientists disagree on the issue and that there is no definite proof that global warming has in any way been caused by the actions of man, that doesn’t matter. All that matters is that environmentalists are using it to drive their anti-capitalist, anti-American agenda.
It seems like every day there’s a new headline….there’s a hole in the ozone layer…the polar ice caps are melting…the climate is changing….Armageddon is surely at hand! Because of this, the left and their enviro-cronies expect the United States to sign the Kyoto agreement…which would bind us to a set of unattainable rules that would destroy our economy and wouldn’t improve the environment.
Which is their real agenda anyway. It’s no longer about the environment…it hasn’t been for a long time. It’s all about a political movement being used to advocate the end of American capitalism. Take, for example the problem of high gas prices.
If you want to know why gas is well over $2 a gallon, look no further than your friendly neighborhood environmentalist who won’t allow more refineries to be built, who requires the oil companies to produce some 55 different gasoline blends in the summer and who won’t allow oil exploration in many places in the United States which would reduce our dependence on foreign sources of oil.

With their rabid views, they actually cause more harm than good. And being good Liberals, they drive around in SUVs “because we need them” but don’t want you to have one “because it harms the environment.” Go figure.

We do not fight a religion of peace. We fight a religion that does not accept or tolerate other religions. We fight animals who do this, from Boortz:

If there were ever a single incident to illustrate the merciless death culture of Islamic terrorism, this is it. Those of you who don’t know who the enemy is in the war on terror, pay attention to this one.
Yesterday in Baghdad, Islamic terrorists (or “insurgents,” as the media likes to call them) shot down a helicopter, killing 6 Americans, three Bulgarians and two people from Fiji. A video was released by “The Islamic Army of Iraq” showing the carnage and taking responsibility. But what is also shown on the videotape should tell you everything you need to know about who we’re dealing with.
On the video, one of the Islamic goons finds a survivor lying in a ditch. The cameraman gives the order to shoot, and with that, the bloodthirsty bastard guns down the innocent survivor of the crash in cold blood. But that’s not all…before he was executed, the man told the terrorists that his leg was broken. At that point, the merciless followers of Allah forced him to stand on it, spending his last moments in excruciating pain.
How many Muslim groups will we hear publicly condemning this atrocity, committed in the name of Islam? President Bush visited a mosque after 9/11 where he famously declared that “Islam is peace.”
Death seems to be more like it.
These people will kill again .. and they will kill Americans … and they will kill Americans in the thousands. The question is not if. The question is when.

Yep.

Thanks to Bill Hobbs and Mike for pointing me to the South Park Studio.
Here is my portrait if I was a South Park character:

Here is an amusing look at why Air America will never succeed. I listen to it from time to time, and it is nothing but hate-filled diatribes with hosts that only believe the facts in their heads. What I heard was spewing invectiveness, utterly worthless in my opinion. No wonder these guys aren’t getting anywhere.
And this comes from that bastion of the Left Coast, the LA Times: Why the Liberals Can’t Keep Air America From Spiraling In

The liberal Air America Radio, just past its first birthday, has probably enjoyed more free publicity than any enterprise in recent history. But don’t believe the hype: Air America’s left-wing answer to conservative talk radio is failing, just as previous efforts to find liberal Rush Limbaughs have failed.
Wait a second, you say, didn’t I read that Air America has expanded to more than 50 markets? That’s true, but let’s put things in perspective: Conservative pundit and former Reagan official William J. Bennett’s morning talk show, launched at the same time as Air America, reaches nearly 124 markets, including 18 of the top 20, joining the growing ranks of successful right-of-center talk programs (Limbaugh is still the ratings leader, drawing more than 15 million listeners a week).

The reason their ratings are so low is they only appeal to one small demographic, that of the militant left-wing hatemongers. Anybody else has since grown up and moved on to either NPR or Conservative talk-radio.
But as long as there are rich Liberals, there will be venture capital to keep Air America alive, because right now it’s on life support and it should have “DO NOT REVIVE” tattooed on it.

Hat tip to Right Wing News
I found this very pertinent to what is going on today:

Football & Judges
by John Hawkins
Any diehard footballs fans out there who love nothing better than sitting around on Sunday with a few friends and watching a game? Well, if that describes you, let me ask you a question: how much attention do you pay to referees? If you’re like the average fan, you may complain about a bad call here or there, but that’s about the extent of it. Certainly most fans don’t know the names of the refs or get concerned about who the league appoints to work a certain game.
But, let’s consider a different scenario: Let’s say you’re an Oakland Raiders fan and they’re playing the Carolina Panthers. The Raiders are up by 3 with thirty-five seconds to go in the 4th quarter and they’ve got the Panthers pinned on their own 15 yard line. The Panthers hike the ball and the quarterback uncorks a bomb to a receiver who somehow has gotten 1 on 1 deep down the field. But then, the Raiders get a lucky break! The Panthers’ receiver trips and falls & the Raider cornerback intercepts the ball and runs it all the way back for a touchdown which gives the Raiders a 10 point lead! You think the game is as good as over…but then something funny happens. One of the refs calls “No Tripsies” and says that if the Panther receiver wouldn’t have fallen down, he would have caught the ball and ran it in for a touchdown. The ref then waves off the Raider touchdown and awards 7 points to the Panthers! That leads to the Raiders losing the game.
What would your reaction be? You’d be outraged and who could blame you? After all, there’s not a rule called “No Tripsies,” so how can a referee call that on the field and cost your team the game? So all week, you, your buddies, & the local sports shows complain about the rotten call. But, there’s always next week, right?
So, in next week’s game, the score’s tied 3-3 going into the second half. Then, right before the third quarter starts, the ref pulls both coaches over and tells them that the score is lower than it should be in his opinion. Therefore, in order to make sure more points are scored in the 2nd half, both teams are required to pass on every down. Both coaches complain, but the ref says that if either team runs the ball even once, he’ll declare the game a forfeit. So, the Raiders pass on every down, throw four interceptions, and lose the game 31-10.
Again, you’re steamed and with good cause. Since when do the refs tell the coaches what type of plays to call? The whole thing is just ridiculous! Who do these refs think they are?
Now, we’re up to Week Three and at the start of the game, the ref pulls the Raider coach aside and tells him that the starting QB stunk it up last week, so the coach has to bench him and put the 2nd stringer in the line-up. The result? Raiders lose 24-7 as the back-up QB fumbles twice, throws three interceptions, and only completes 40% of his passes.
At this point, the Raiders management goes ballistic, but they’re told that these referees are appointed for life and that if the refs simply decide to change or ignore the rules of the game, there’s nothing that the league can do.
If this was what the NFL was like, refs would become an enormous issue.
The reason all of this is important is that the situation that was described above is what is happening with our judiciary.
Federal judges are in essence referees. Their job is not to write legislation or to find new “rights” in the Constitution that have somehow passed unnoticed for over 200 years, it’s to interpret and enforce the rules laid down in the Constitution and by legislators. If federal judges actually did this, there would be as little controversy over them today as there is over referees in the NFL.
The problem we have is that there are a lot of liberals who want judges to throw out the rulebook. Why, you ask? Well, look to the 2nd example given above. If your team has a phenomenal passing game, but a terrible run defense and a third rate running back, a ref who says you have to pass all the time helps you.
In the case of liberals, their ideas are too radical and too out-of-step with America to get passed in Washington. So for them, judges are a way of getting around the system and implementing the policies that they want without having to get the approval of the American people.
Conservatives don’t agree with that philosophy. We think judges should “call it right down the middle” and stop making decisions that should be made on Capitol Hill or in State Legislatures. That’s why we believe in appointing judges who believe it’s wrong to legislate from the bench.
Soon, you’re going to see Republicans implement something called “the nuclear option.” The nuclear option is a change in the rules of the Senate that will keep the Democrats from unconstitutionally filibustering judges, which prevents judges from getting a vote on the floor of the Senate.
That’s a tactic that the Democrats first started regularly using in 2003 (To be fair, in 1968, the nomination of Abe Fortas to the Supreme Court was withdrawn after what most people consider to have been a filibuster, although he may not have had the 50 votes he needed on the Senate floor to be confirmed. That is the only “filibuster” on record prior to 2003). After the Senate Democrats are prevented from unconstitutionally blocking judges who want to “play by the rules,” it’s expected that they’re going to “go nuclear” and refuse to allow the Senate to continue to work on the people’s business.
When that day comes, everyone should be aware of exactly what’s going on and why it’s happening. The Democrats want judges who are going to make up the rules as they go along and they’re going to throw a public fit if the Constitution isn’t ignored so they can have their way. We Americans wouldn’t ever tolerate that sort of attitude in professional football and we should not tolerate it in Congress. If the Democrats throw a temper tantrum in the Senate because they have to go by the rules, the American people should punish them for it at the ballot box in 2006.