Thanks, Joe!

Joe Allen saved me money and high blood-pressure last night, putting in a phone call to walk me through the process of fixing that audio bug after putting in a full day working for a client who, I can only assume, was probably actually paying him money. On New Year's Eve, that's pretty good service.

Thanks, Joe!

(I think it turned out in the end that I didn't have all of the old audio drivers gone--there was one I hadn't found, maybe from the old motherboard. Whatever it was, the drivers installed and the sound works, so I can listen to the Gun Nuts over on my sidebard again.)

Ninjas and Topless Models? Tune In and Find Out.

Set Your DVR to Awesome.

Apparently, I'm going to be on TV tonight. Check out the Outdoor Channel to see the footage Michael Bane and Downrange TV shot at Blackwater with the bloggers (and me.)

Were there really ninjas in the trees?
Spies doing awkward judo behind every closed door?
Topless gun-calendar models wandering around?
Shirtless, sweaty SEALs rappelling down from shoot towers to bring Tam magazines?

If you don't tune in, you'll always wonder. Personally, I don't have cable TV, so I won't be watching. Luckily, Para was nice enough to send a DVD with our footage. You can also see all the segments (well, I think it's all of them) at the Downrange.TV link. So, in conclusion, I'm not going to watch it, but you totally should, because that in no way implies any value judgment of the show. I'm just too lazy to call a TV company. I have three rabbit-ear, fuzzy channels, and if I'm being honest, there's a good possibility I'll have zero channels in February because I just keep putting off calling.
On the other hand, I have a LOT of books and a high-speed internet connection.

The New Motherboard Has Not Solved My Problem

UPDATE 2: Googling the error code actually may have helped. I found this post on the Wisetechie Blog where the author had exactly the same problem. He was trying to install the same drivers I am, and it kept aborting, and he got the same error message. It turned out that the driver install checked for later versions. When it sees XP Service Pack 3, it thinks there's a newer version of itself already installed and aborts without giving the user the choice of continuing to install the patch. The problem is that SP3 does not contain an updated patch, so you're stuck. I'm going to try his solution as soon as I can figure out how to do it--he changed some registry value so that the installation program wouldn't see SP3. I was thinking of doing a System Restore back to before SP3 was released, then going and getting SP3 again once the audio driver installation is done.

UPDATE: OK, so I checked the BIOS/CMOS settings, and I have the onboard audio enabled. I unplugged the front panel leads just in case (found a forum post where that helped someone for some reason.) I then went to the FoxConn website and downloaded their updated audio driver--it's old enough that I think it's probably the same as the one on disk, but it was worth a shot. Same as the one on the disk, it goes through most of the installation and then gives me this error message. I have no idea what this means. I'm going to go Google "installation error message 0xE000027" (I'm assuming that a "0" is a zero.)


The good news is that the new mobo has not caused me any serious problems so far, and it appears to be allowing me to use things I couldn't before. For instance, both memory slots are functioning, so I have 2GB of RAM instead of 1.

The bad news is that I missed the Gun Nuts Radio Show tonight . . . again . . . because I still have no sound. I don't understand it. I just checked the System tab on the control panel, and under "Sounds and Audio Devices" it just says "No Audio Device." What gives? The thing's got to have some kind of audio installed. It's killing me.

I've got something I'm going to try, and then I'm fresh out of ideas. Anybody else got any?

Burris-for-Senate Update

Well, I guess I haven't been paying attention. I'm hearing now that Roland Burris was "the only politician actively lobbying for the vacated seat even after Blagojevich was arrested." I suppose Blago is just giving him what he wants, huh? Still seems like it'll end up being a gift of rope as far as I can see. The Democrats in the Senate cannot seat this guy now no matter what happens, and they know it. They've already committed, in public, to keeping Burris out.

A friend of a friend was on the radio a little while ago. He's known Burris for a long time, apparently (I shouldn't be surprised; this guy seems to know everybody) and he was trying to explain what Burris might be thinking here . . . . but he was struggling. Burris was semi-retired from public politics for awhile, and he was what passes for highly respected in Illinois. I had no use for him, but then again he and I disagree on some basic political principles. For one thing, I think that if you're going to convince--or compel--people to give up their guns, you should give up your own first. Set an example and all that.

(Hat Tip to Codrea at the War On Guns)

Wow--Why Does Rod Blagojevich Hate Roland Burris?

Roland Burris, for those of you from other states, is a Blagojevich supporter and advisor who's been with Blago for awhile, but has been largely out of the public eye for years now. He was the Attorney General here for awhile. And now, according to the Chicago Tribune, he's about to be appointed to Lord Obama's senate seat.

I can't quite suss this out. Do they think that because Burris was "never seriously considered" for the seat before, that means there are no incriminating discussions about him on tape--and that somehow means he can still be seated as a Senator? Surely not? I've been wondering if Blagojevich would appoint someone as a final kick in the jewels on the way out the door, but I don't see that here. I haven't heard of any friction between Blago and Burris. I don't get it, but I think it's clear that anybody Blagojevich appoints is out of the running, period, whether there's a special election in our future or not. He'll have Blagojevich stink all over him.

In other news, Ed Genson, Blagojevich's lawyer, continues his campaign to piss off everyone in Springfield. I still maintain that this is part of a well-defined plan between Genson and Blagojevich. Genson handled the R. Kelly case and the Conrad Black trial, so he's not new to working with the press or managing public opinion. I'm of the opinion that he and Blago have agreed that there's nothing to be gained from trying to suck up the public at this point, and therefore it's time to make the public scream for Blago's head even louder in order to increase the value of the only card Blago still holds--the resignation-from-office ace in the hole. Blago sees his resignation and slinking away to be quiet as a bleepin' valuable thing, a thing you don't just give away for bleepin' nothing. He needs Illinois politicians to put pressure on Fitzgerald to offer him something in return for resigning, and in order to get that to happen, he needs a public clamor for his head.

Yesterday Genson told reporters that he doesn't like staying in the Executive Mansion--for free--because it's drafty, the bed's cheap, and the Lincoln Bedroom is too small anyway. He was "insulted" that he was offered such lousy--free--accommodations. But it's not just the Lincoln Bedroom or the Executive Mansion that don't measure up--he had to mention that he doesn't like Springfield, as well. If someone can tell me another good reason why this creepy vision of Michael Moore's future would talk this way to the press as he's supposedly trying to save Blagojevich's career--and why Blago would let him talk this way without firing him immediately--I'd be glad to hear it.

A Tout Le Monde . . . . A Tous Mes Amis . . . .

I have two DVD's and one CD of backup compiled, so tonight is the night I pull everything out of my desktop and replace the motherboard. I'm hoping this will let me use minor features like sound . . . and video cards . . . . and onboard ethernet . . . . you know, the little things. There is also, of course, the possibility that I'll just screw everything up. I won't be terribly surprised if I hook everything back up and the operating system rebels at finding itself dealing with a different motherboard, though the processor will be the same. Luckily, I haven't been using this desktop long, so I don't have a lot of data other than family photos and my emails.

It's Like I Don't Even Know You Anymore

Wait, what?

"And that's when I realized: I'm not here to convince him. It's okay for someone to be wrong on the internet."

Seriously, what happened to Tam?

Blagojevich III: Accidental Stupidity or Carefully Planned Stupidity?

Here's a thought that's worth exactly what you're paying for it:

A co-worker asked me today why Rod Blagojevich (D-Father-In-Law) would have had his defense attorney stay in the Governor's Mansion in Springfield, IL. It's a fair question, because at first glance, it looks like a pointless and stupid thing to do. Blago has long been the butt of jokes all over the state because he refused to move to Springfield when he was elected Governor. Springfield is the capital of Illinois, and the Governor's Mansion is a beautiful house on some beautiful land, but Rod was determined that his family would live in Chicago, not some backwater provincial capital where he could walk a couple of blocks and be in a neighborhood where poor people live in small houses. People here the Springfield area, of course, have a special hatred for him, and a lot of people keep a sort of mental tab running on the bill taxpayers are footing for him to fly to Springfield and back on a private state-owned airplane every time he wants to put in an appearance at the capitol.

The latest outrage came when people found out that although Blago is still not staying in the Governor's Mansion, Ed Genson has been staying there while he's in Springfield for Blagojevich's impeachment hearings. Giving the defense lawyer free room and board in the people's mansion has not been a popular move. The guy has more money than anybody in Springfield who isn't under indictment, and the best hotels in Springfield would be cheap to him. Besides, even if Blago is too stupid to know what the reaction would be, surely Genson had to know that people would be upset at this. So why do it?

Well, it's always possible that they just did something stupid and blind. That's how Blago got into this mess, and from the taped conversations we've all heard now, it does seem likely that we've overestimated his ability to think through the consequences of his actions. But what if we assume that there's some logical plan? What logical reason comes to mind? Here's the only thing I've come up with: Rod Blagojevich is looking for ways to piss people off.

Why do that? Because he has just about zero leverage. He can't do anything with his power as Governor, because the Legislature will undo it. He can't appoint the new Senator because he won't be seated. He's got no allies left; the power brokers never liked him that much before, and now it's poison to be seen not spitting on him. He has one card, and only one card, left to play: he can hang on, refuse to leave, and grind Illinois government to a complete halt. He made it clear today that he's planning to do exactly that; "I will fight. I will fight. I will fight until my dying breath," he said; it was poetry worthy of Whitesnake. Why hang on? Because the only thing he has left to trade for anything of value is his resignation. The only thing of value he can promise in return for what he wants (presumably leniency of some kind) is to go away without doing further damage. And the more upset and wild-eyed the public gets, the more value that card has, because there could eventually be political consequences for the people the public expects to remove Blagojevich if they can't get it done. If the public hates Blagojevich more and more, and if he can hang on and not get removed by impeachment in a timely manner, he can then offer his enemies his resignation in return for favors he wants. Under this wild-eyed conspiracy theory, it's hard to tell which insults are deliberately cultivated for the purpose of building this tension and which are the result of a thug with more hair than brains thrashing around without thinking much. But some things might make more sense. For instance:

• Why else put Genson up in the Governor's Mansion, the one place in Springfield guaranteed to infuriate the citizenry even more?
• Why else would Genson be making a special effort to mock belittle the legislators on the impeachment panel?

Now, again, I realize that these things may just be the byproducts of arrogance and stupidity. But I can't help but wonder whether there's a plan.

I Don't Think Your Car's Supposed to Sound Like That

Loyal readers will recall that I recently purchased a used 1994 Volvo 850 Turbo. Disloyal readers may rest assured that you will be ferreted out and exposed to the light of day . . . . but I digress. I consider my 850 sort of my homage to the greatest hot rod in the galaxy, the ultimate sleeper. I refer, of course, to the Millennium Falcon.The Turbo is like the Falcon in many ways:

• Silver in color, with some bare metal showing, and more than a few character marks from years of service.
• Boxy, almost ungainly appearance which nevertheless manages to convey a no-frills utilitarian handsomeness.
• Faster than she looks, boy.
• Tends not to attract a lot of attention; ideal for avoiding Imperial entanglements.
• Passengers ride in style . . . . worn, slightly scruffy style, but style nonetheless.
• The pilot is guaranteed a good time; everyone else should strap in.
• Something is probably breaking at any given moment, but that's OK.

On that last note, the timing belt is coming due soon, and I'm going to have to get it done. Gotta clean out the garage first; I got away with the driveway repairs today, but I think that was the last time until spring.

Today? Oh, yeah, today. Today I replaced the rear brake pads, rotors, and emergency brake shoes. Why? Because of this:
It looks a little like beautiful planetary rings in this picture, but it's just your average brake rotor. You can see the rusty hub on the left, and on the right, the rings where the brake pad made contact. If you're familiar with the way brakes work, you know that the pads are squeezed against the rotor by the calipers when you depress the brake pedal. The pads squeeze the rotor and slow down its rotation, and since it's locked on the wheel hub, that slows the wheel and stops the car. But normally these rings are sort of polished and glossy. This set seems to be rough and grooved, as if something had torn and gouged at the rotor. Do you think maybe that's why my car has sounded like it was coming apart at the seams for the last two weeks? Signs point to yes!
Here you can see the pads from the left rear rotor. The inside pad, on the left, still has a couple of millimeters of material left. The outside pad, on the right, is bare metal. Ouch.






The photo at the right shows the relative thickness a little better. I probably should have put one next to a new pad to show the difference, but what the heck. Back when this pad was just squealing a little, I thought I had a thin pad and an indicator spring was squealing. I was surprised to learn that Volvos don't usually have the indicators (thin pieces of metal bent so that their tips contact the rotor at a right angle. When the pads are at a useful thickness, they don't touch the rotor. When the pads wear down enough for them to touch the rotor, they emit a shriek you can hear for a block, which gets steadily worse as the pad gets thinner. Elegant little bits of engineering--which makes it weirder that Volvo doesn't use them.) Anyway, I was told that Volvos will almost always squeal with any aftermarket pads, even high-performance, high-dollar pieces. Since the Jurid pads Volvo uses are pretty cheap, I went ahead and got those. I did buy my rotors at NAPA, for two reasons. First, my local NAPA has never let me down. Second, when I ordered the various pads, shoes and spring parts, I was hoping to park the car and avoid damaging the rotor any further so it could be turned. That didn't work out, and I needed the rotors on short notice.

It also turns out that the Volvo 850 parking brake is a drum brake inside each of the rear brake rotors. I've never heard of an emergency brake designed that way, but I guess it works. The Haynes manual gave the procedure for checking the parking brake shoes, but noted "the shoes should rarely wear unless the e-brake has been used habitually to stop the car." Members at www.turbobricks.com knew better; "Get the e-brake parts, you'll need them" they said. I'm glad I did! Here's what the shoes looked like when I removed the disc hub, next to the new shoes for comparison:
I don't really use the e-brake very often, but this did not inspire confidence. I'm not sure whether it was even a wear issue, or whether the shoe rusted so badly that the material sloughed off somehow. If I had to guess, I'd say someone drove with the e-brake engaged by accident. Maybe more than a little.

So I had a merry time today; I set up in the driveway, since it would have taken longer to clean out the "open" side of the garage than to do the brake work anyway, and jacked 'er on up. There were, predictably, a few oddities. For one thing, the flare nuts on Volvo brake lines are apparently somewhere between 12mm and 10mm, and also somewhere between 7/16 and 3/8, because I bought wrenches in both metric and SAE and none of them worked. 7/16 and 11mm, which appear to be virtually the same, fit over the nut but are just a little too loose to turn it. Luckily, the manual was right, and as long as you support the brake caliper with some wire, you don't actually need to remove the brake line. That made me nervous, though, because I could picture myself kinking the steel brake line and screwing myself royally.

Also odd was the note in the manual that, once the caliper mounting bolts are removed, "new bolts will be required for re-assembly." I pulled the bolts, examined them closely, and found them to be perfectly ordinary automotive flange bolts with either 13mm or 1/2" heads. They're pretty beefy, and they didn't seem to be worn or damaged at all. They had a little red Loc-Tite on the threads, but I just saw no reason to try to find replacements . . . and besides, even FCP Groton doesn't list them, much less places like NAPA, so I'm guessing I have to go to a Volvo dealer and beg if I want them. I'll ask on the forums, but I just don't see what could make that necessary. I put 'em back in "farmer tight" and I'll check on 'em in a little while to see how they're doing; they're easy to reach.

By the end of the day, it was getting dark and beginning to mist rain, and I was not feeling too sparkly as I wrestled with the calipers. The manual says to compress the pistons with a pair of pliers but not pry against the rotor. Well, I tried the pliers, and a big set of blue-handled plumber's pliers got me most of the way home, but at some point the outside piston was bottomed out and simply didn't want to go any further. I fought it and fought it and, in the end, removed the shim from the pad on that side to get it to fit between the piston and the rotor. I used brake-quiet grease on the backs of the pads, and I have to admit, they are silent and the stopping power is great. But I worry about that outside piston in that left caliper. I don't think it's coincidence that the pad on that side wore down to nothing so fast, and then I couldn't get the stupid thing to compress far enough to fit the new pad in. I think in the near future I'm going to end up needing to get a caliper kit and redo the caliper, cleaning and fixing that piston in the process. That's something I've never done before, but how hard can it be, really?

No need to answer that.

Critical Acclaim, At Long Last!

Do you ever wonder whether I'm really as brilliant as I seem? Well, don't take my word for it, ladies; ask Larry Correia, Merchant of Death:

"That’s the best necrophilia related political analogy I’ve heard this week."

See, kids? Work hard and stay in school and you can achieve anything. I'm pretty sure this means I'm now officially a winner.
Or something.

Blagojevich II: No, Seriously, Timing Is Everything

If you're not from Illinois, you might not have noticed the last giant political scandal to hit before "Blago" became a household name in households that can't pronounce "Blagojevich."
(That's bluh-GO-yeh-vitch, folks.)

The last big furball came up when the state's last Governor, George Ryan, began a campaign to get a favor from George W. Bush before the President leaves office. They're both Republicans, so that might not seem so odd, except that the favor Ryan needs is to have his sentence commuted. See, Ryan, in the grand tradition of Illinois Governors, is currently sitting in a prison cell. It turns out that if you force your workers to raise campaign funds or lose their jobs, and let them know that accepting bribes is a good way to raise the cash, they'll let some things slide. Things like giving commercial drivers' licenses to people who don't speak English, much less know how to drive trucks. Accidents could happen, and nice families could die in sickening ways on Illinois highways. When that happens, people will get made enough not to care that you're a powerful politician anymore.

Anyhoo, George Ryan was sentenced to 6.5 years and it looks like he's going to serve it. His wife appealed for mercy, and Dick Durbin (yes, the guy on the leadership team for the Senate Democrats) sent a letter to George Bush on Ryan's behalf. This puzzled people who don't understand Illinois "combine" politics. But to a Combine politician, it makes perfect sense. Ryan was powerful. He still has powerful friends. His lawyer, Jim Thompson, was the Governor of Illinois for a long time himself (but Big Jim won't be going to jail, thank you very much.) Ain't it grand to be connected? And if you're connected in the Combine, it doesn't matter which party you belong to. You join whichever party offers the best chance to advance in your geographic area; thus, if you're from Chicago, you're a Democrat, but if you believe exactly the same things in some of the Chicago suburbs, you're a Republican. If you're a guy who needs connections to make his millions, like our old friend Bill Cellini, then you do business with both parties and that's all there is to it.

Today, George Ryan offered, through his former-Governor lawyer Thompson, a "public apology" for his crimes. Well, technically, he apologized for doing "less than his best." But that's kind of like apologizing for running a racket out of the Secretary of State's office and getting people killed, only not, so let's not dwell on it. No, what gets me is the timing of it all. It's only been three days since the Governor of Illinois was arrested for a much more audacious version of the same kind of corruption that landed George Ryan in Cell Block 23 in the first place. Can you think of a worse time to offer this fake apology? He might be better off on the inside. He's probably in there among a bunch of accountants and embezzlers, after all, and people out here are starting to lose their tempers.

Ryan doesn't have much choice, though. He has to try now or never, because once Bush is out of office, he knows Obama's not going to do him any favors. Obama is beyond Illinois now and needs no favors in return, even if Ryan still had the power to do any. Even Bush is a long shot, because he's going to have to take a reputation hit if he pardons Ryan. Personally, I thought Ryan was facing long odds before the Blagojevich arrest. Now I don't see how anyone can get away with commuting his sentence.

Blagojevich I: I'm Sorry, I Can't Pretend to Be Shocked

So Rod Blagojevich turned out to be an arrogant crook. Uh huh. I'm having a hard time working up the snark, to be honest. We've known this man was a Professional Son-In-Law for years, folks. The question was always how long it would take him to get caught, and now we don't even have that question to debate anymore. The only surprise for me was that Blagojevich surrendered a FOID card, which means he was a card-carrying Illinois gun owner. I'm not terribly surprised by that; the biggest gun-banners always seem to have their own gun collections, and Dick Mell, Blagojevich's Fairy-God-Father-In-Law, has a legendary collection in Chicago; he even had to bull through a change in Chicago's nightmare bramble of gun registration laws to make his collection legal. These are not people who play by the rules they set for the lower castes.

But I've been called out after a fashion, so here are the few thoughts I've mustered up:

First, let's talk about what this doesn't mean. No matter how breathless the national conservative commentators get, this doesn't tell us much about Barack Obama, at least not yet. We already knew that Obama made his name in Chicago, so we already knew that he swam with sharks. The question was whether he joined in all the reindeer games in Chicago, a city where every public possession or job is for sale, or whether he held himself aloof and stayed above the fray. The mainstream media was convinced early on that The Lightworker must have avoiding Getting Any On Himself, but his detractors have never been so certain. I would be VERY surprised to find out that Obama participated in any of Blagojevich's schemes to sell his old senate seat, if only because Blagojevich comes up with political corruption schemes that Ethel would give Lucy a good solid BOP! just for mentioning. I give the guy credit for having a plan, but let's face it, it was almost more stupid than it was criminal, and that's going a ways. I doubt Obama would have had anything to do with it; if he did, he's not as smart I think he is.

As a matter of fact, I've heard more than one commentator wonder why Patrick Fitzgerald came out publicly so quickly, when he could have let the scheme progress until the crime had actually been committed. It seems, they argue, that he accepted a weaker case when all he had to do was wait a few more weeks--after waiting years. How to explain that? Well, I can think of a few explanations off the top of my head. Maybe even one that hasn't already been proven untrue.

How about this? Fitzgerald has taps on the Governor's phones--he has actually had FBI agents break into the Governor's Office--and he's been talking to sources. How long will it be before the Governor finds out somehow? Eventually somebody will open his big mouth--especially since Fitzgerald has had to brief feds, the IL Attorney General's office, and others. In Chicago, the chances that no one who wants a big favor from Blagojevich will find out about this are not very good. I think it's entirely possible that Fitzgerald either found out or suspected that his investigation had been "made" and would soon be revealed to Blagojevich. That would make an early wrap-up make a lot more sense, no? But it's not the only possibility.

Moving on, conspiracy theorists both left and right aside, it's unlikely that Blagojevich has contracted OBS (Obama Bus Syndrome.) More likely, he is what he seems to be--a boyishly-handsome puppet of his father-in-law who got way too big for his britches and decided that no one could deny him anything. The really shocking thing about all this, after all, is not that Blagojevich was corrupt. It's that he tried to pull off what may have been his most audacious act of corruption after Tony Rezko went to jail (and was widely assumed to be telling the Federales where all the bodies were buried--so to speak); after taking credit for the passage of "anti-corruption" legislation he'd fought like the last Nazi platoon in Berlin; after Patrick Fitzgerald made it clear that he was back in Chicago with a vengeance and looking for fresh meat; and after he made every state employee take an offensive little annual quiz to show that they weren't doing dirty deals with the peoples' money, while he commuted by state-owned airplane and drove the state into the ground.

So . . . now that we've covered What This Doesn't Mean and How Don Was Wrong, what does it mean? For the next few weeks, Illinois is going to be a little on the random side. We have no Governor, period. Blagojevich is incapable of governing the state; no one will work with him, his own staff is resigning, and his political allies are all calling for him to resign. But what many outside the state may not realize is that Blagojevich has been despised by most of the state legislature and most state workers for years. His effectiveness as a Governor was already limited to things he could ram through with the help of Emil Jones, the President of the Illinois Senate, who announced his planned retirement this year. Blagojevich doesn't have to step down. The legislature can impeach him, but he can drag that out for a long time. It doesn't make much sense for him to do that, since the Feds have him dead to rights in his criminal trial and he should be spending all his time and energy on that, but he's a stubborn and unpredictable man and it's possible that he'd stay in office out of spite. He can even still appoint someone to Obama's Senate seat, if he wants to tilt at that particular windmill. It would make a negative amount of sense, of course. Even if it were possible for him to force the appointment through, who would he find who would want to be appointed by him now? Even if the appointee was too stupid to turn down the "honor," there are still Constitutional officers in Illinois who have the power to block the appointment--and if, by some miracle, they all develop suicidal tendencies and let the appointment go through, the leadership in the U.S. Senate can still refuse to seat the appointee. Bottom line? Never, ever, ever gonna happen. Not even a little. It would be completely pointless for Blagojevich to try.
So why can't I shake the nagging feeling that he might do it anyway just to see what shakes out? Maybe I've lived here too long.

Here's the bottom line: there are people all over the state who are literally getting drunk in celebration tonight because Blagojevich got arrested. I know of one guy who was actually saving a vacation day to be used for just that purpose, and he told a mutual acquaintance that he and his friends were going to be off work today to tie one on. But all the jubilation misses a sobering point: Rod Blagojevich is the Governor we deserved. We elected this guy. Twice. He wrecked us, he despised us, he choked our economy to death and humped the cold, lifeless corpse while he laughed at us, and we asked him to stay for another term.
Do we really have any right to be surprised that this crook thought nobody could stop him? All we had to do was vote against him, or, if we couldn't find the fortitude to do that, vote against him the second time. We failed. We sowed failure. Now we reap failure.

Peter Hamm Thinks You're a Dummy

That's the only conclusion I can draw. Technically, he also thinks I'm a dummy . . . . and really, I suppose you'd have to say he thinks gun owners in general are gullible fools, rather than insulting any one of us individually . . . . but I'm annoyed, so I'm going with it.

“What could really change the gun issue in America is that the Supreme Court made it clear that there is no secret conspiracy to take away guns,” Hamm said. “I think it’s great progress. Now we can talk about gun control that works.”

So, when the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 against a city which had denied the right to keep and bear arms for 20-some years . . . it proved that no one is out to take away guns? I don't think I followed that one, Peter. Because Washington, D.C. fought for years to protect an unconstitutional ban on an entire class of firearms, and appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, we should conclude that they didn't really mean it and no one wants to ban guns?
They DID ban them. They spent millions of dollars and are looking at millions more to defend their decision to ban them.

While we're at it, Peter, we might as well discuss your own group. You folks supported Washington's side in Heller v. D.C., remember? That means you came out in favor of banning those guns, too. It wasn't exactly a secret, I'll grant you, but it's pretty clear that banning guns is not only acceptable to your bunch, but a goal. Just like Barack Obama, Dick Durbin and a bunch of others, you can't hide that just by saying "Of course we support the 2nd Amendment, but . . . ."

(The link goes to SayUncle. I don't know where he got the quote, but that's where I got it.)