Tree Rat: 1, City of Fort Worth: 0

Sometime this morning, there was a power loss in Southwest Fort Worth. This affected my home; when I woke up my alarm clock was blinking.

According to "authorities", it was due to a squirrel chewing through a power line. I hope the tree-rat fried, slowly.

In addition to my home, and 25,000-30,000 other households, this particular tree rat also caused a power failure at two water pumping stations in Southwest Fort Worth. As a result, over 400 businesses were closed, and 25-30 THOUSAND households are being told to boil water prior to consumption until at least Saturday afternoon. Friday morning to Saturday afternoon, our water supply is not considered "safe".

Folks, this isn't the result of a terrorist attack, or a huge storm, or an outbreak of some weird disease... this is a result of a SQUIRREL CHEWING ON A POWER LINE.

Whether or not a treerat should be able to take out this much infrastructure is a topic for another post. What I'm talking about here is that YOU SHOULD BE PREPARED!

Lisa and I won't be boiling our water; I've hauled one of our 7-gallon Aqua-tainers out of the bathroom closet and we have safe water on the kitchen cabinet ready to go.

I have a friend who makes fun of me; he gives me grief about being a "survivalist" for storing water, food, and ammo, and having a generator and storing gasoline for it.

But I have water I know is safe, and I don't have to boil it.

My biggest headache is that I have to re-wash some of Alex's bottles, because I washed them this morning before I checked the answering machine and got the reverse-911 call or turned on the radio.

Store enough water and food to last a week. Have a generator and enough fuel to run it for a week.

Be prepared for when something stupid (like a treerat) or something terrible (like a terrorist attack) interrupts the services you normally take for granted.

For the record: Terrorists have never interrupted our services here. But a squirrel has, for what looks like about a day and a half.

Microserialization

Or, Micro-stamping.

Rivrdog's sounding the alarm on this one. To sum it up, several state legislatures (Cogito Ergo Geek is saying twelve) have pending legislation with awfully similar language to give ammunition serial numbers, and basically register ammunition at the point of sale.

I'm not sure what the outcome is going to be. The bill introduced in Mississippi has already been killed in committee, but this is the most organized attack on gun owners via state legislatures that I've ever seen.

One of the questions is, "Who's behind it?" Most of the bills are worded almost identically. To me, this indicates that an anti-gun group drafted the language and provided it to various legislators to introduce in their respective states.

Just in case you're wondering why this is bad, there are two reasons: One, most of the bills call for an additional tax PER ROUND on ammunition to pay for the required state database tracking ammo sales. Two, this is a backdoor gun-registration scheme. If there are database entries detailing ALL of your ammunition purchases, anybody with access to the db can make a pretty good guess at what guns you own. And as the saying goes, there can't be confiscation without registration.

I've done a little more research into the bills (that I've been able to find online) in the interest of helping to move this discussion forward. Here is a list of bills, and most of their sponsors:

Arizona HB2833
Introduced by Representatives Garcia M, Lopez: Alvarez, Bradley, Campbell CL

California SB 997
Introduced by Senator Ridley-Thomas

Hawaii House Bill 2392
Hawaii Senate Bill 2020
Hawaii Senate Bill 2076
Hawaii House Resolution 82-07 (Carried Over from 2007)
Hawaii Concurrent Resolution 104-06 (Carried Over from 2007)
All Introduced by


Illinois House Bill 4258
Illinois House Bill 4259
Introduced by William Davis
Illinois House Bill 4269
Introduced by Monique D. Davis
Illinois House Bill 4349
Introduced by Naomi D. Jakobsson - Harry Osterman
Illinois Senate Bill 1095 (Carried Over from 2007)
Introduced by Sen. A. J. Wilhelmi - Emil Jones, Jr.

Indiana House Bill 1260
Introduced by

Maryland House Bill 517
Sponsored by Delegates Burns, Robinson, Anderson, Branch, Carter, Glenn, Harrison, Oaks, Stukes, Tarrant, and Walker

Mississippi Senate Bill 2286
Principal Author: Jordan
Additional Authors: Jackson (11th), Dawkins, Powell
*NOTE* Bill is currently (19 Feb 2008) dead in committee.

New York House Bill 6920 (Carried Over from 2007)
Introduced by M. of A. R. DIAZ
New York House Bill 7300 (Carried Over from 2007)
Introduced by M. of A. ORTIZ, R. DIAZ, JEFFRIES, LAFAYETTE, KOON, BENEDETTO, BROOK-KRASNY, BENJAMIN, DINOWITZ, CAMARA, SCHROEDER, CLARK,
FIELDS, BOYLAND -- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A. GOTTFRIED, MAISEL,
MARKEY, McENENY, MILLMAN, O'DONNELL, PHEFFER, TOWNS, WEISENBERG
New York Senate Bill 1177 (Carried Over from 2007)
Introduced by Sen. KRUGER
New York Senate Bill 3731 (Carried Over from 2007)
Introduced by Sen. ADAMS

Pennsylvania House Bill
Unavailable

Tennessee House Bill 3245
By Miller L
Tennessee Senate Bill 3395
By Tate

Washington House Bill 3359
By Representatives O'Brien, Williams, Flannigan, and Pedersen

These are all listed at ammunitionaccountability.org (h/t: Cognito Ergo Geek) . They seem to be a driving force behind all this legislation, but it's not obvious to me yet who's behind THEM.

At this point, I think it becomes a "follow the money" game - see if there are any anti-gun groups funding the above list of legislators' campaigns; try to see where ammunitionaccountability.org gets its funding. I'm not sure where to look for those pieces of data.

Of course, if you live in any of the states where this garbage has been introduced, contact your state legislators and let them know you oppose it. If they're in favor of it, also let them know that information regarding the funding BEHIND it is being dug up, and will be provided to their opponents in the next primaries and elections.

And if you live in a state that favors restrictive gun control, stock up on ammo NOW (like that's ever a bad idea)... anywhere these bills pass, ammo's going to get even more expensive than it already is.

No. Just No.

Folks, we have to remember - a president's policies can do good or harm, but only for a few years.

THIS IDEA IS JUST BAD.

Every Single Candidate still in the race for the White House stinks from stinksville, in my conservative point of view. I don't want any of these rats in the Oval Office for a day, much less for four years.

But one of them is going to make it.

Each and every one of them is very likely to hurt this country. So now, the question is, who's going to hurt it the least?

That question is not answered by who has the least-idiotic policies. As I said, a bad president's bad policies can usually only hurt the country for a few years.

The thing to look at is judicial appointments, specifically to the Supreme Court.

Looking at the ages of SC justices, the next administration (especially if it goes 8 years) may well replace half YES HALF of the United States Supreme Court... and if the Justices appointed are in their 40s, this could easily affect the Supreme Court for the next 40 years... well after this next President is dead and (rightfully) forgotten.

THAT is the deciding factor for me in this election - all of the candidates suck based on their records; we will NOT have a good President in the next term. What matters is what kind of Justices are going to be appointed by the next scum-sucker to occupy the Oval Office; this next President is going to suck, but my son won't remember him. My son will, however, be affected by Supreme Court rulings by Justices appointed this term until he's more than halfway to retiring.

Now, all that said... any conservative saying they hate McCain so much they'd vote for Billary, all I have to say is: No. Just No.

Congratulations to the New York Giants

Congrats to the underdog win... I would have liked to have seen the perfect season, but you guys did great. Congrats, from somebody who didn't have a dog in this race.