Sharp as a Marble

Forget going green. Think YELLOW!

Robb Allen — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 16:06:01 GMT

Converting urine into hydrogen!

You drink beer. You pee it into a tank. You have gas to go get more beer.

Really, I can't see a downside, can you?

Quote of the day

Robb Allen — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:36:07 GMT

From Greg's niece, after her first day at the range

This is BETTER than Sea World!

We gather here today to mourn the passing

Robb Allen — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:27:59 GMT

Of yet another gun control myth. Sarah Brady Paradise, where the formerly Great Britain used to be, has much lower gun ownership, yet an astonishingly higher violent crime rate.

It's almost like the anti-gunners telling us that gun control will reduce crime is a lie or something.

Yeah, I broke it. So what?

Robb Allen — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:54:01 GMT

Odd. Tested something. Worked on the local box. Pushed it into production and Ansible takes a dirt nap. Turns out, you can't cast a NULL into a boolean. Even if it works for some odd reason on your local box.

Just updated the blogroll. Better sorting, and I can indicate who I've actually met.

Now it's lunch time.

Do we really need Lloyd Garver?

Robb Allen — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:28:58 GMT

I've dealt with Lloyd before. He has the standard talking points for a Flat Earther and wonders if we need guns in churches. He should ask Jeanne Assam if she needed hers, I guess.

Now, Lloyd writes in a bit of tongue in cheek style (the dude wrote scripts for Frasier!!!!), so much of what he writes should be filtered through that lens. I know I write sarcastically, so that doesn't automatically rate dismissal.

Lloyd's logical flaw, however, is that gun = violence. Automatically. There is no difference in protecting your children vs. murdering someone for their credit cards. A gun is just that, an automatic instance of violence, even if it remains holstered and unloaded.

So, assuming that bringing a firearm into church (something I do all the time) is the same as causing violence one could be lead to believe that guns have no place in a sanctuary. Someone should have told that to the gunman that killed Reverend Fred Winters. He didn't respect the sanctuary's magical force field that keeps violence out.

Interestingly, many of the parishioners committed acts of violence against the gunman in order to subdue him. If Lloyd's logic was thorough, he'd be claiming that those in the pews should have just sat there and allowed the gunman to continue his rampage until everyone was dead or the killer was petered out and took a nap.

Had someone belted the gunman over the head with a communion tray, would Lloyd be asking if metallic dishes had no place in a place of worship? Probably not. I'd bet though that that would be because people like Lloyd buy into the whole myth that intent is transferrable. Hence why his argument is weak.

Headline of the day

Robb Allen — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 08:20:37 GMT

Female gang may have killed midget wrestlers

With a headline like that, the rest of the story is pretty much irrelevant.

Hat Tip Traction Control

Holding my own against the big guns

Robb Allen — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 08:19:10 GMT

Gun blog rankings. Good to see my name pop up from time to time!

Of course, out of all those blogs, how many of their authors actually wrote their own blog software? Hmmm?

That should count for something.

Yet again

Robb Allen — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:55:45 GMT

Another apparent suicide at a gun range

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- For the fourth time in four months, there has been a shooting inside a Central Florida gun range.

A man was killed Wednesday night at Rieg's Gun Range on Orange Blossom Trail.

But since people are used to hearing gunshots no one noticed right away until they found him lying on the ground.

I've thought about that at the range many times. A gunshot isn't out of the ordinary so you pay it no mind. In a stall, you're generally not going to be looking at other people since you should be focusing down range.

As Tam says, if you run a gun range long enough, someone is going to eventually commit suicide in there. And if you rent guns, it will be with one of those.

"He did rent a gun, from the business, he was shooting at targets inside," said Spike Hopkins with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office.

Tam's a genius.

They say it is a bizarre situation, since the owners of the business say he had used the shooting range before.

"This person was a repeat customer. So did they think something bad was going to happen? Probably not, because of his other visits, said Hopkins."

So, here's a guy they've done business with before. He's rented before, shot targets, and had no problems. How can you possibly detect a suicidal person who appears normal? You can't. As sad as it is, this is simply going to happen. People who have given up on life will end it even if there aren't any gun ranges. In fact, even with 4 gun range suicides in as many months, I'm willing to bet there have been more suicides in Central Florida that weren't at ranges in the same time frame.

Just because there's nothing you can do to prevent this doesn't mean the anti-gunners won't latch on and try to do something.

Hat Tip Gunnison Tourist

They said it couldn't be done. They were wrong

Robb Allen — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:35:36 GMT

Apparently, I do have a limit to what I'm willing to put on the internet. You see, when you get an anonymous packaged in the mail containing a small, bright pink, baby-t shirt that says this

You try the damned thing on. Notice the neck and how stretched it is? I looked in the mirror and realized that if a picture of me wearing that ever got loose on the Interweb Tubes, I would risk losing my job, my wife, my house, my kids, etc. etc.

I have finally found my 'shame' threshold.

However, to the person who sent me the small, bright pink, baby-t shirt, I've not laughed like that in a looong time. Thank you.

Open carry church event? Yup. Just a PR stunt

Robb Allen — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:27:22 GMT

When asked about why he required unloaded weapons he responded insurance reasons. Oh, and people can't be trusted

Not everyone who owns a firearm is necessarily always responsible or safe with them.

…

Just because a person owns a firearm, doesn’t means they’re safe and responsible anymore than a person who owns a vehicle means they’re a safe and responsible driver.

Both true statements, but if he believes that there's an increased danger from gun owners, then why did he invite the to service? Not everyone is a safe driver, but I still put myself on the road practically every single day of my life. I don't go having "driving" get-togethers then ask everyone turn off their engines and put their vehicles in park.

Usually you make a bold statement knowing it's going to piss off half of the people. This guy went and tinkled on everyone's cornflakes.