• From the “Baksheesh” Department – A new study reports that the decade long war in Iraq was expensive and wasteful.  Apparently $60 billion in payments for reconstruction and reform in Iraq might as well have been set on fire for all we got out of it.  The causes range from overpayments and graft on the part of military and contractor personnel to the bribes it takes to get just about anyone in Iraq to lift a finger.  I have to say, I’m not surprised.  You cannot create an ethical, law-abiding, democratic government in a country that has never had that and, to be brutally honest, isn’t interested in it.  Iraq is a quasi-democracy, and I hope it gets better, but like most of the world, corruption is going to be a real drag to its progress.  I eagerly await the cost for our efforts in Afghanistan/Pakistan, a region that drank the coffers of the Russian and British empires pretty much dry a century ago.
• From the “Some Pigs Are More Equal” Department – It appears that the worker’s paradise of the People’s Republic of China has a rather well-heeled elite class of its own.  A lot of them seem to have attended elite American universities, which just so happen to also have been where the elite of this country get their degrees.  Wow, what a coincidence.  Anyway, it appears that the possibility of a peasant child rising to the highest offices of Red China, while still feasible, is becoming more and more mythical.  This is the third generation of leadership since the 1947 revolution, and a similar phenomenon happened in Russia,  so my guess is that within 20 years the Communists in China will have either morphed into something closer to the old pre-revolution order, or will be going the way of their Soviet brethren.  Of course, we weren’t in hock up to our eyeballs to the Soviet Union, nor did we import a huge percentage of our manufactured goods from them, so this might not be as beneficial to us as 1991 was.
• From the “Make It Illegaler” Department – The brother of a taxi driver in Las Vegas is calling for more stringent gun control in the United States after his brother and a passenger were killed during a gun fight between two thugs.  I’m sad for this man and angry that innocent lives were lost because two bluntskulls had to turn their normal prick waving into a running gun battle.  The man is calling for laws that keep guns out of the hands of those with a criminal record, which I must point out is how the laws are written right now.  At the same time, the Nevada legislature is changing the definition of what weapons can be carried by a concealed carry license holder.  Currently, a licensee can carry “a loaded or unloaded pistol, revolver or other firearm”, while the new law would restrict them to carrying a ‘handgun’.  The new law is supposed to keep people from cutting down shotguns and rifles and concealing them about their person.  I must point out that someone who is going to go through the trouble of getting a concealed carry license is not going to be the kind of person to cut down their Joe Biden Memorial Edition coach gun so that they can wear it under their sweatshirt, and it’s already illegal to make a short-barreled shotgun or rifle without having the proper federal firearms license.  So, in both cases, all that is wanted is to make something more illegal than it already is, which we all know is the most effective way to stop people who break the law as a matter of their daily business straighten up and fly right.
• From the “Immortality” Department – A new study out of Germany seems to show that those of us who view the world and our future through a dark lens may tend to live longer.  If this holds out, I am doomed to live to be over 100.  Seriously, if the pessimists are going to inherit the world, I will be king.  I look forward to working with my fellow doom-and-gloomers in making the world a grayer place.
• From the “Naughty Nanny” Department – Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York City and noted busybody, has launched his latest campaign to perfect the paragon of human society that is New York:  He is going to start a campaign to stop young people from listening to loud music on their headphones.  I cannot imagine the utopia that Manhattan must be if the mayor of New York has the time and funds necessary to continue his crusade to get people to stop doing things he doesn’t like.  The streets must be clean and shiny.  The walls must all be coated in a fresh coat of paint in festive colors.  The schools have to be the envy of the world.  Mayor Bloomberg is truly ushering in a new renaissance with his work to perfect the human beings who have entrusted him with the power to tell them what to drink, what to smoke, what to eat, and now, how to listen to your music in your ears using devices you paid for.  Forward!

A group of enterprising visionaries is looking for volunteers to be the first people to orbit the planet Mars.   They are considering having a small team of people spend over 500 days locked into a space roughly the size of a living room during the trip, and reports are that they consider a middle-aged married couple to be a one of the more optimal team configurations.

Let me be the first to say this:  Aw hell no!

Y’all, I love my wife.  I would gladly give my own life or take someone else’s in order to protect her.   She is the best thing that has ever happened to me, and there isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t thank my maker that she lowered her standards far enough to consider me  for the job of life-mate.  But I’m not going to spend almost two years locked into a tin can with her. 

And if I love her that much, and want to spend the rest of my life with her, you can imagine what I think about spending all that time cooped up with someone else, in whatever combination they come up with.  Heck, I have a hard time some days working an office with other people, and I can at least step outside and have a breath of fresh air.

Seriously, you eventually run out of stuff to do and just need to get away.  Those of you who’ve been in the military, please think back to some field problem or deployment.  After a few weeks, you get tired of saying and hearing the same stories.  You get to the point where you can tell who has the queen in hearts and who cheats at poker.  The books all get passed around at least once, and the movies get watched often enough that you’re reciting lines back to the screen.

Now imagine the longest field problem you’ve ever imagined, without even the option of “Hey, I think I’ll go for a jog around the latrine for an hour or so.” 

I guess the closest thing we have to this is the Antarctic stations, or maybe missile subs that spend weeks at a time under the ocean.  But in these situations, you have a job other than to be cargo.  A couple of people on a space craft like this would be there to fix things that break, react to emergencies, and be props in the publicity stunt that the mission really is.  At best, you’d be a lab animal so that they could figure out what the radiation and lack of gravity are doing to your body and mind.   Boredom would be even worse when you realize that you have nothing meaningful to do that day, or tomorrow, or the day after that. 

So, I’m regretfully going to have to pass on this one, and I can’t imagine how strong a marriage or friendship you would have to have in order to do it and not have something horrible happen amongst the crew during the trip.  I’ll just stay here, safely able to step out of the house when Irish Woman and I aren’t getting along, and wish whomever they get to do this the best of luck.

What say you all?  Could you spend two years locked up in a small space with your spouse or a few of your best friends?

• From the “Slippery Slope” Department – A man in Indiana is in jail because his on-line postings were used as an excuse to charge him under a law meant to keep people from intimidating jurists.  Apparently in Indiana, it’s illegal to post irate rants about people who you feel have wronged you.  Now, I’m not saying that what the guy did was appropriate, or that what he said was all accurate, or that he didn’t upset the judge in his divorce case.  But being an ass shouldn’t be against the law, and unless he made threats against the judge, then I don’t see a problem with what he did.  The express purpose of the freedom of speech is to call out, lampoon, and question the authorities.  
• From the “Interesting” Department – Ford may be returning a small-ish truck to the market in the form of the F-100.  The F-100 went off the market in the 1980’s when Ford brought out their Ranger light truck, and now that the Ranger has gone away, maybe it’s time to bring out something that’s a little bigger, but not as big as the F-150.  Plus, rumors are that it will be a diesel, which I would like.   Honestly, if I can’t get a Toyota Hilux, then this might fit my wish to own a truck that’s not big enough to require a marshaller, gets relatively decent gas mileage, and isn’t filled to the brim with doo-dads and luxuries.
• From the “Damn Allergies” Department – A Korean War veteran, who is suffering with terminal heart failure, was given an opportunity to walk the decks of the ship he served on one final time.  The gentleman was able to show his family the areas he lived and worked in during his service to the nation.  You know, I can’t think of a better thing for an old warrior to do.  When my time comes, maybe I’ll get my family to take me on a hike up the canyons at Fort Huachuca, or to walk around the antenna at Gablingen.
• From the “Changes” Department – Hugo Chavez, brutal dictator of Venezuela, has died from a respiratory infection.  I won’t celebrate his death, because he was a human being, but I will express hope that this allows his country to heal and pull itself out of the hole he dug.  Of course, even before he breathed his last, conspiracy theories were running rampant in his government.  Apparently, the CIA has a weapon that gives its victim cancer, and lets them die a long, slow death that gives plenty of time to find the cause.  I find this hard to believe.  If it had such a weapon, I’m sure the Obama administration would be running riot with it.
• From the “Finally” Department – U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has replied to Senator Rand Paul’s request for a definition of whether or not the Obama administration believes that it would be constitutional for the government to execute American citizens on our soil using unmanned aircraft.  Recall that drone strikes have been used in the past year or so to kill American citizens overseas who were believed to be supporting terrorist organizations.  AG Holder stated that it would have to be some kind of a national emergency for the military to use drones to kill Americans, but that it could happen.  I may be splitting hairs here, but he specifically says that it would have to be a national emergency for the administration to utilize the military to do this, but doesn’t say whether it would have to be a national emergency for federal law enforcement to do it.  Of course, it’s my belief that the government shouldn’t be using drones to kill Americans in the United States at all, much less without at least a trial-like hearing where the interests of the suggested target are represented by counsel.  I’m also going to split hairs with Reason in saying that the government doesn’t have “rights”, as in the “right to kill citizens”, it only has powers.  Only the people of the United States have rights.
• From the “Training Aids” Department – The American Cancer Society has unveiled their latest gimmick to educate people about cancer, specifically colorectal cancer.  They have acquired a 20 foot long inflatable model of the human colon that is tall enough for an adult to walk through.  Representations of the different maladies that can impact that area of the body are part of the walls, and the society hopes that the novelty of the exhibit will induce people to learn about cancer.  The state fair had one of these last year, and yes, I walked through it.  My only comment was that it was hard to read the exhibits with all the giggling from the young girls who were going through it.
• From the “Not Surprising” Department – A U.S. diplomat is criticizing his colleagues at the U.N. for tipping back a few too many when they should have been trying to find a way to cut the international bodies budget.  Apparently getting members of his organization to show up at all for meetings, or to show up sober when they actually got to work, was a challenge.  I, for one, am not shocked by this revelation.  The U.N. has always spent money like a drunken sailor.  Of course, once a drunken sailor runs out of money, he doesn’t go whining to people who still have money to demand they pay up or he’ll hold his breath until he turns blue.
• From the “TaDa!” Department – A boy in Colorado used up one of his nine lives the other day when he fell through a window on his 3rd story apartment, landed on his feet, and had only minor injuries.  As a follow-up, the young man will be tightroping across Sesame Street later this month, and hopes to market a new show called “Toddler Terror” to the Learning Channel.

• From the “Welcome Home” Department – The remains of an American soldier that went missing in Korea in 1950 were returned to his family today, and he will be laid to rest in California on Friday.  His remains were among the up to 400 sets that were returned by North Korea in the early 1990’s, and he was identified through dental records and DNA.  The amount of energy we spend trying to make sure every family gets their loved ones back, no matter how long it has been since they were lost, tells me we’re not as bad off as a nation as I sometimes fear we are.
• From the “Posse Comitatus” Department – A retired Army lieutenant-general has suggested that in order for Chicago to get its act together when it comes to crime and violence, it may be necessary for federal agencies and the National Guard to get involved in Chicago’s law enforcement efforts.  Because the way to improve the crime rate in a community is to put men with no legitimate arrest authority on every street corner.  Here’s an idea:  How about the police ‘arrest’ people who break the law, the courts ‘convict’ those who prove have broken the law, and the prisons ‘incarcerate’ those who have been convicted, and the miscreants never see Chicago again?
• From the “Dumbass” Department – A woman in Florida was hurt the other day when a bullet her friend was storing in the oven went off.  Luckily, her injuries weren’t too bad.  Hopefully her friend learns that the oven is no place to store ammunition.  That’s what the toilet tank is for.
• From the “Hmmmm” Department – The state of Colorado is working to remove ‘morals’ laws from their books.  They plan on getting rid of laws against adultery and ‘immoral conduct’, which could be the act of renting a hotel room to a couple that isn’t married.  At the same time, the Colorado legislature is fiercely debating draconian gun control laws.  Apparently it’s OK to get the government out of our bedrooms, but not out of our gun safes.  Maybe Hedonism will open a resort on the grounds of the MagPul facility if they leave the state.
•  From the “Rule 4” Department – A hunter in Oregon has been acquitted in charges that arose after he mistakenly shot a hiker, thinking that the man was a bear.  His excuse is that in the moment he had to take the shot, he didn’t see that instead of a half ton furry carnivore, his target was actually a 20-year-old Marine reservist from California.  Here’s a hint:  If you don’t have a good enough view of your game animal, don’t shoot at it.  Better to let the bear of a lifetime walk away to make more little bears than to live with the consequences of shooting someone.  Yes, I’m being judgmental about this, but somewhere in the mountains above Ogden, Utah, is a pine tree with a bullet in it that would have parted my hair if it had been aimed four or five inches lower, so I’m a little sensitive to this kind of thing.  You don’t shoot at sound, you don’t shoot at a shape, and you certainly don’t shoot unless you’re absolutely positive that your target isn’t human.
• From the “Going to Hell on a Scholarship” Department – Two men are in custody after allegedly stealing a trailer full of tools from a church in Kentucky.  The church uses the tools to help people who have been hit with disasters such as tornadoes and hurricanes.  My guess is that these two guys, if convicted, are going to have a long time to think about how bad it is to steal from a church in such a way that it stops the congregation from helping those in need.
• From the “Your Tax Dollars at Work” – The state of Colorado has ordered a bankrupt solar energy company, which took millions of federal dollars in loan guarantees before being ridden into the ground, to clean up the toxic waste they left behind.  My guess is that if we want to know who will pay for all this, we should all go and look in the mirror for an answer. There’s a sucker born every minute, and apparently a lot of them have been voting for the past few years.
• From the “WTF?” Department – A schoolgirl in Texas is suing her school system because she was punished for refusing to recite a loyalty pledge to Mexico while holding her right arm out in a salute.  The girl offered to say the American Pledge of Allegiance in Spanish, but was rebuffed.  At the same time, the school has a policy that allows students to refuse to recite our Pledge or the Declaration of Independence.  I’d like to have a witty comment about this one, but to be honest, I’m just standing in awe of the stupidity.
• From the “Setting the Mood” Department – A zoo in Scotland has begun playing music to try to encourage its pandas to mate.  I’m not sure what their playlist is like, but they are reported to be playing Marvin Gaye, which is a good start.  I also suggest some Barry White.  Then again, “Yakkety Sax” might work too.   Those crazy pandas might just need something with a good, fast beat to get things moving.
• From the “Alcohol Abuse” Department – A truckload of chardonnay overturned on a highway in New York recently, spilling wine and broken glass all over the roadway.  Authorities described the accident as fruity, with notes of pine, dried leaves, and road tar.  Emergency crews are said to have responded with half a ton of brie and some crusty french bread.

• From the “Taxdollars at Work” Department – The state of Washington obviously hasn’t cut its budgets quite far enough, because they’re spending taxpayer dollars to comb through their laws to find examples where gender-specific words, like ‘fireman’, are still on the books.  Talk about your bottomless pit of government money.  Once all the things that might be valid are taken care of, I can see this dragging out for years while they look to remove those phallic semicolons and sexist curly braces.
  
• From the “Butterfingers” Department – Police in Georgia are seeking a woman who dropped a bag of methamphetamine while checking out at Wal-Mart.  My only surprise in reading the story was that she didn’t try to pay for her purchase with it.  Citizens are advised to be on the lookout for a 100 pound woman who is walking around twitching and mumbling “I just had it.  It was right here”.
• From the “On the Stump Again” Department – President Obama, the campaigner in chief, has decided to take his gun control show on the road for a multi-city tour.  Opening for him will be that new boy band “PSH”, singing their new hit single “Girl, I Just Messed My Jeans”.  President Obama is trying to convince middle America to believe slanted polls that supposedly show a consensus among gun owners that we’ve been wrong all these years and really ought to just surrender and do what the President says is right.  Remember, the President pinky swears there won’t be any unexpected consequences from this law, and that gun control zealots will never, ever, ask for anything else ever again.
• From the “WTF?” Department – A cleric in Saudi Arabia has decreed that baby girls should be covered in head to toe clothing in order to prevent sexual abuse.  Apparently the sick bastards who abuse little girls in Saudi Arabia will be deterred by placing the wee babes in a flour sack.  Obviously alternative methods of deterring pedophiles, like the death penalty or amputation of the offending dangly bits, won’t work.

• From the “Par for the Course” Department – A former FBI official in Minneapolis has written to members of the U.S. Senate to complain about President Obama’s nominee to run the BATFE.  He asserts that she is capricious, inconsistent, inexperienced, and incompetent.  In other words, she’s a perfect fit for the administration.
• From the “Whoopsie” Department – Congress seems to be awakening to issues at the BATFE after a botched sting operation in Milwaukee ended up with a ton of cost and a missing automatic rifle.  Agents set up a fake convenience store and used it as a place to buy guns and drugs.  Few arrests have been made, and the agency is probably on the hook for bills and the cost to the property owner of cleaning up after them.  In addition, when the operation was shut down, the site wasn’t sanitized properly, and information about the operation and the people who were involved in it was left behind.  Man, that’s a whole lot of messing up in one small package there.  If I wrote a story where the government set up a convenience store in a bad neighborhood, ran a bumbling sting operation, lost a bunch of money by paying too much for drugs and guns and not paying the bills, lost a machine gun, and then left behind everyone’s real identity when the shop was closed down, y’all would laugh me off the Internet.
• From the “Cruel and Unusual” Department – The Louisville corrections department has gotten itself a new gadget – a powerful all-body scanner.  It appears to be similar to the ones that are being pulled out of airports by the TSA, but much more powerful.  Apparently, it can see into body cavities, where the ones in airports stopped at the surface of the body.  I guess this is one more reason to not be a repeat customer at the gray bar hotel.  I wonder if they’ll be informing inmates of the radiation exposure because it’s their right to know.
• From the “Beachcomber” Department – A man in Great Britain is being offered 50,000 euros for a piece of whale vomit he found on the beach.  Ambergris, a substance coughed up by whales, is valuable for use in perfumes.  I expect to see a “Spew Hunters” reality show on the Discovery Channel anytime now.  I can see it now – guys being followed by camera crews as they walk along the beach, picking up rocks and sniffing them.  The big payoff will come when one of them actually finds a piece of ambergrys, but then he has to get it to market without being robbed or being overcome by the smell.

• From the “Hand in the Cookie Jar” Department – The FBI is refusing to comment on whether or not it is investigating a United States Senator for going overseas to frequent underage prostitutes.  The senator is reported to be shocked that someone would have the temerity to investigate him, and is appalled that someone would dare to question his judgement and good character.  Personally, I was impressed with the good senator’s response to the charges.  It’s not every man who quotes the Roman emperor Tiberius in a news conference.
• From the “Sad Panda” Department – A federal court has decreed that President Obama’s “recess appointment” of members of the National Labor Relations Board while the Senate was still in session is unconstitutional.   I’m shocked that a federal judge would say that the Constitution means what it says.  Usually their interpretation is so skewed one way or the other that you’d have thought the Founding Fathers wrote the darn thing in LISP.  President Obama is said to be so upset with the decision that he missed three putts and missed par on four holes today.
• From the “Rotary Oscillator” Department – A group in Florida is trying to raise money and awareness of the utility of excrement, in all of its various forms, using a calendar featuring bikini models and piles of feces.  Wow.  Scantily clad women being covered in waste.  Yeah, I got nothing.  Anyone else want to take a whack at this one?
• From the “Fondue For Two” Department – Officials in Norway are cleaning up after a truckload of cheese burned for several days after an accident in a tunnel.  Luckily, no-one was hurt in the fire, although there are reports of some indigestion after a few firefighters overindulged on pieces of bread on skewers that were dipped into the fiery glop.  Cleanup is predicted to take several weeks, and will require the deployment of federal aid in acquiring enough tortilla chips, brocoli florets, and chardonnay.  Oh yeah, and lefse.  Lots and lots of lefse.

• From the “Speed Hump” Department – A man in Utah was cited by the authorities after he used a camel as a prop in a stunt to promote his film.  Apparently it’s illegal to obstruct traffic while riding a camel in Park City, which is a pretty obscure law to keep on the books if you ask me.  Look for his remake of “Ishtar” to hit theaters next summer.
• From the “Sometimes They Write Themselves” Department – The British government has discovered the cause of a noxious odor that has swept the country.  It is France.  A chemical plant on the French coast had a  leak of chemicals the other night, and the plume of vapor it created has made its way across the Channel.  The odor is reported to resemble garlic, sweat, and rotten eggs, or as anyone who’s been to France can tell you, it smells like Paris in July.
• From the “Kick the Can” Department – Leadership in the House of Representatives is planning on holding a vote on Wednesday that would suspend enforcement of the current cap on government debt for several months, ostensibly to give lawmakers more time to negotiate a deal on spending and revenue.  You know, like the last time we bumped up against the debt ceiling, and the time before that, and the time before that, and the time before that.  Honestly, it must be nice to pass a law that is supposed to force you to get your act together, then pass another law that says you can just ignore the other law.  Hey, last one out of the economy, please shut off the lights.
• From the “Red Herring” Department – A teenager in New Mexico is being held without bond after killing his parents and younger siblings.  Apparently, he had been angry and suicidal for quite some time, and was heavily into violent video games.  You know, I grew up playing video games, Dungeons and Dragons, and war games in the woods with my friends.  Not once did I ever consider executing my family or killing a bunch of strangers.   Now, I’ve played a few of these more modern, more graphically violent video games, and I can see how they might desensitize someone to bloodshed, but I’m not sure they’re the root cause of all this.  I hate to use parenting as a crutch, because I tend to keep coming back to it, but if your teenage boy is having emotional problems, wouldn’t you take away the video games?  It’s really not that difficult.  You tell Precious J. Snowflake “No”, you make it stick, and if they try to go around you, you drop the hammer on them.  At the same time, you get them help, be a supportive but firm parent, and find them something constructive to do.  Is that so hard?
• From the “Simple Solution” Department – McDonald’s restaurants in Michigan are paying $700,000 to settle a lawsuit over halal meat.  Apparently, the restaurants had advertised that their chicken products were halal, but sold non-halal meat when the good stuff ran out.  Now, I’m no Islamic scholar, but I’m pretty sure that it doesn’t matter how the animal was killed and processed if it was prepared in a kitchen that is also used to cook bacon.  Trust me, there isn’t a molecule of food that comes out of your average McDonald’s that hasn’t come in contact with bacon or bacon grease.  Here’s my solution to the problem:  If you have dietary restrictions that should preclude you from eating off the standard menu at a restaurant, any restaurant, then STOP EATING THERE!  If there are a significant number of people with your need or preference, then someone will catch the hint and provide fare that meets your standards. SuperHugeMegaFoodCorporation probably won’t care about it, but I’m sure that a small business would be more than happy to find a way to accomodate you.   Of course, McDonald’s shouldn’t be falsely advertising, but that’s more of a ‘ridicule in public’ thing than a ‘litigate in court’ thing to me.  If Soylent  McNuggets aren’t halal, tell the imam, publish it in the newsletter, and get on with your life.

• From the “Brilliant!” Department – The Army has decided that soldiers at Fort Bragg will no longer be using wounded goats as a training aid for in medical education.  Instead, special operations medics will train on a souped up version of Rescuscitator Annie.  In other words, the first time an 18D treats a mammal that has a wound that isn’t immediately deadly will be in combat, with medevac several days and many miles away.  Someone needs to remind the Pentagon that their job is to break things and kill people, not make PETA sleep better at night.
• From the “Elections Have Consequences” Department – A hospital in Pennsylvania has announced that they will no longer be delivering babies.  They are doing this, at least in part, because of expected lower payments for such services due to ObamaCare.  I personally know of four or five doctors who are considering closing their practices because the amount of paperwork required, lower payments, and just higher levels of BS.  But remember folks, everyone’s going to have great access to affordable health care!  I’m sure the ladies in labor will be able to hold it in for the drive to the OB ward that’s 10 miles further down the road.
• From the “History is Rhyming” Department – The British armed forces are making plans for sending forces to the Falkland Islands in advance of a plebiscite over whether or not the islands should stay under British rule.  Apparently they’re worried that Argentina might pull something reminiscent of their escapades in the 1980’s.  I just hope they don’t plan on the U.S. supporting them this time around.  Something tells me President Obama won’t be as close with Prime Minister Cameron as Reagan was with Thatcher.
• From the “Aristocratic Architecture” Department – Apparently the Secretary of the Interior requires a $220,000 restroom to do the job properly.  That’s how much was spent on a private, spacious powder room in 2007.  Seriously, if you’re spending almost double what my house cost, then there better something really special about this particular water closet.  I wonder, was it decorated with the skins of rare animals that Interior was trying to save?  Or was it trimmed in exotic hardwoods, harvested from sensitive rain forests, and imported to be used for guitar parts?
• From the “Big Shiny Rock” Department – A prospector in Australia has just hit the big one.  He is reported to have found a gold nugget weighing in at 177 ounces.  For those of you playing along at home, that’s about $300,000 of money in its natural state.  Someone’s going to have a wonderful vacation this year.  My guess?  He’ll spend it walking along the beach with his metal detector.  Hey, lightning sometimes strikes twice.
• From the “Hand That Feeds You” – The NRA has decried the decision by Reed Exhibitions to not allow modern sporting rifles, such as the AR-15, to be exhibited and sold at an upcoming gun show in Pennsylvania.  Ironically, Reed Exhibitions put on the SHOT Show, which is one of the larger outdoor sports and firearms trade shows on the planet.  So basically, when the outdoor sports and firearms industry is paying you to show modern sporting rifles, you’ll take the money and smile while doing it.  But let a peon rent a table and sell AR’s to the public at one of your shows?  Aw heck no!  Guess who isn’t going to be making money off of me attending one of their events in the future?  I’d love to be the fly on the wall when NSSF gets wind of this!