in Washington D.C. The gathering is occuring at the Dubliner (which is near Union Station for you locals) from 6:00-8:00 PM.

I'm thinking about going (although I make no promises) and was wondering if any of you morons were planning on attending.

If so, put a mention in the comments, and maybe we can take over the place.

Also note: For you less careful readers, this is Jack M. putting up this post. Not Ace. I don't want you any more disappointed than necessary.

Because if I'm really lucky, I'll find a nice woman to disappoint this evening. I don't need the burden of your emo reactions wearing on me as well.

Posted by: Jack M. at 12:01 PM | Comments (13)
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I think the joke was awful, because it wasn't funny -- it was dumb, just as a joke -- and honestly, grave matters of war shouldn't be joked about. And no, I didn't think Reagan's joke about launching a full-scale nuclear strike on Russia was funny either. At least in his defense he thought his microphone was off. Correction: I'm told he was testing his mic. Either way, I don't think he expected the joke to be reported.

I don't think it suits American leaders to be talking as carelessly and recklessly as Iran's mullahs or North Korea's communist lunatics.

But the biggest problem with the joke, I thought, was that making it would force McCain in the opposite direction -- he'd have to start essentially ruling out a military strike on Iran to defuse criticism. Which I think is a lot worse than some loose joking about bombing these assholes (which, joking or not, is what we're probably going to have to do).

So McCain made the first mistake -- the joke -- but he hasn't committed the second -- giving Iran blanket assurances that they won't be bombed.

His response here is excellent.

Our very smart reporter corps, by the way, seemed to think the biggest problem with McCain's joke was that it was "insensitive." McCain deals with that with all the seriousness it requires.

Note the metanarrative is implicit in that absurd question -- bombing an enemy nation is pounded to fit into the omniversal media template of "insensitivity" to "minorities."

Posted by: Ace at 11:09 AM | Comments (18)
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Three updates from Slu.

Librescu's burial.

A round-up of V-Tech news, including a backlash against the media for so gleefully publicizing Cho.

An update on the Cthulhu cultists at Westboro and their planned "protests" of the V-Tech funerals. By the way -- they're not "protests," which one would think would consist of protesting the fact they were killed. In fact they're celebrations of murder, and shoud be called such.

The Westboro freaks are now spamming Slublog. What can be done about this?

By the way, thanks for all the Chotoshops. I'll put up one more post of them today. I had hoped that the Farkies would start doing this, since they have such reach, and the internet could be used against these pathetic losers' publicity-seeking. But it doesn't seem to have worked, so I'll just post the best of the later chotoshops out of hatred.

Posted by: Ace at 10:14 AM | Comments (43)
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Thompson writing in favor of concealed carry law and a greater arming of the citizenry.

Some people think that power should exist only at the top, and everybody else should rely on "the authorities" for protection.

Despite such attitudes, average Americans have always made up the front line against crime. Through programs like Neighborhood Watch and Amber Alert, we are stopping and catching criminals daily. Normal people tackled "shoe bomber" Richard Reid as he was trying to blow up an airliner. It was a truck driver who found the D.C. snipers. Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that civilians use firearms to prevent at least a half million crimes annually.

When people capable of performing acts of heroism are discouraged or denied the opportunity, our society is all the poorer. And from the selfless examples of the passengers on Flight 93 on 9/11 to Virginia Tech professor Liviu Librescu, a Holocaust survivor who sacrificed himself to save his students earlier this week, we know what extraordinary acts of heroism ordinary citizens are capable of.

Many other universities have been swayed by an anti-gun, anti-self defense ideology. I respect their right to hold those views, but I challenge their decision to deny Americans the right to protect themselves on their campuses — and then proudly advertise that fact to any and all.

Whenever I've seen one of those "Gun-free Zone" signs, especially outside of a school filled with our youngest and most vulnerable citizens, I've always wondered exactly who these signs are directed at. Obviously, they don't mean much to the sort of man who murdered 32 people just a few days ago.

Apart from cancer concerns, I don't see much stopping him from getting the nomination. I don't think any party is ever really looking to nominate a "maverick." A party wants someone that reflects its values, or can win, or, preferably, both.

Thanks to someone.

Posted by: Ace at 10:02 AM | Comments (89)
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Confederate Yankee notes NBC claiming the gunman carried 33-round extended capacity magazines, and CBS claiming, preposterously, that a high-stopping-power, low-penetration hollowpoint is precisely not the round one would need or want for home defense.

Apparently anything connected to this shooting is to be banned. Including hollowpoints. So that guns will only be loaded with overpenetrating full metal jacket rounds, blowing through the target (often without causing a "stop") and hitting the scenery -- or unintended victims -- beyond.

But let's get to that claim of NBC's -- that the killer used 33+ round magazines. I'm going to flat-out call bullshit.

Virginia State Police say they're nearly done with their on-scene investigation at Virginia Tech. But inside the classroom building, investigators say they found a surprising number of handgun magazines, or clips — 17. Some, officials say, were high-capacity magazines that hold 33 rounds. That means, investigators say, that Cho may have fired at least 200 times during his killing spree on Monday.

Why call bullshit? Because whether the gunman had these double-length magazines should not be some ambiguous area of mystery. Either he had them or he did not, and there's no reason to think the cops would withhold this information. (Police organizations tend to be pro-gun-patrol politically, by the way.) If he had them, we'd all know that, and we wouldn't have to rely on "some officials" to say so. It would be an established and publicized fact.

Furthermore, this guy released a "media package" showing his ammo all laid out and him brandishing the guns. Why would he not include the "kewl" extra-long magazines in these photos? Not even one photo?

The media simply doesn't understand guns and frequently blows terminology. Here's what I think happened: There are two arguments going on right now. One concerns what the media is dubbing "high-capacity magazines," which is a legal term created by the Assault Weapons ban, and simply means any magazine holding more than ten rounds.

The other argument is about extended capacity magazines, magazines that project well below the gun's handle. Basically, just a long, long magazine that's too big to fit flush inside the gun. These magazines hold 30 or more cartridges.

Note what NBC claims -- they claim "some officials" say the gunmen had "high-capacity magazines" -- which, legally, simply means more than ten rounds, i.e., the 15 the Glock holds -- but NBC then adds the definition "that hold 33 rounds."

Did the "33 round" remark come from the source, or from the reporter, trying to be "helpful" and guide us to the right position on fresh gun control laws? I think the latter.

I'm not buying it. Not because it's so difficult to get such magazines -- it's not. Not because a crazed gunman might not like the extra firepower in a clip -- he might. Not because a crazed psycho might not want to look all kewl with a funky clip intended to be used in a machine pistol -- he very well could.

No, because 1, if he had such a kewl magazine he'd have shown it off in a picture, and 2, if he had such magazines, the cops would simply say so, not whisper it only in NBC's ear, and 3, because the media is fundamentally sloppy, ignorant, and agenda-driven, and no, I don't trust these idiots to be able to understand what is meant when they're told the psycho carried high, as opposed to extended, capacity magazines.

The very fact the article calls what is in fact "extended" capacity merely "high" capacity speaks to an ignorance on the point.

What An Extended Mag Looks Like: Here's one for a .45.

It's really not difficult to tell if a gun has an extended mag, is it? So why is this a subject of mystery?

Answer: Because he didn't have a clip like this, but the media is really, really determined to say he did, and thus anything that can be seized upon to advance this idea is run with minimal checking.

By the way, that pic is of a miniature .45, not a real one. But that's what an extended mag looks like.

Again: This isn't some difficult determination requiring a convocation of experts to ascertain. Either he had them or he did not. Either he had mags more than twice the height of the actual gun or he did not.

He did not -- which is why we haven't been unambiguously told he had them.

But Carolyn Mahoney's re-introduced ban needs public support, and the MSM is going to do everything possible to get the Truth out, even if the Truth is at odds with the truth.

Posted by: Ace at 09:49 AM | Comments (41)
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They want to own all the means of production.

"...fundraisers are alienated by the Clinton campaign's aggressive method of dealing with prospective donors and pressure from the campaign to either raise money for Clinton or sit out the Democrats' nominating process, The Washington Times reported Friday."

Won't work for us? No? OK, but you can't work for anybody else either.
Nice.

Read the whole thing. Short but funny, in a 'La Cosa Nostra runs for President' kind of way.

Posted by: LauraW. at 07:59 AM | Comments (23)
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The medieval variety. She was arrested after attempting to assault a teacher.

"It's heavy, and it's metal, and it's sharp," Detective Sgt. Darlene Breitenstein said of the weapon. The girl, who is being held at the Lake County (Ind.) Juvenile Justice Center on battery charges, told police she brought the weapon to school because she was "tired of getting picked on."

If you outlaw outmoded medieval weapons, only outlaws and creepy 15-yr. old girls will have outmoded medieval weapons.

Posted by: LauraW. at 07:30 AM | Comments (73)
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No, really. And this isn't even Ananova or one of those sketchy Russian outfits.

BBC baby.

A Sudanese man has been forced to take a goat as his "wife", after he was caught having sex with the animal.

He asked me! He asked me!

The goat's owner, Mr Alifi, said he surprised the man with his goat and took him to a council of elders.

They ordered the man, Mr Tombe, to pay a dowry of 15,000 Sudanese dinars ($50) to Mr Alifi.

"We have given him the goat, and as far as we know they are still together," Mr Alifi said.

Mr Alifi, of Hai Malakal in Upper Nile State, told the Juba Post newspaper that he heard a loud noise around midnight on 13 February and immediately rushed outside to find Mr Tombe with his goat.

"When I asked him: 'What are you doing there?', he fell off the back of the goat, so I captured and tied him up."

Mr Alifi then called elders to decide how to deal with the case.

"They said I should not take him to the police, but rather let him pay a dowry for my goat because he used it as his wife," Mr Alifi told the newspaper.

Okay, so he didn't really marry it. They're just shacking up.

The important thing is that they're still together.

Thanks to tmi_3rd.

Posted by: Ace at 11:41 PM | Comments (59)
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Heart-breaking!

Slublog did this!

Posted by: Ace at 07:39 PM | Comments (29)
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I wasn't going to say anything about this, but then I started drinking and realized that it's been about four months since anyone's told me that my posts suck, so here you go.

One man's heroic attempt to best a custom-made Super Mario Brothers map.

I watched all twenty-three minutes of it, but the first five will probably be enough for most.

Found on the only place I ever link.

Posted by: AndrewR at 07:38 PM | Comments (13)
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