Schools = Sitting Ducks from the mind of Unknown.

In my home town, there was a school shooting. This hometown being right in the middle of rural America, this seems to be a bit of a shock to many. They wonder what we can do to 'keep this from happening again'.... they wonder 'why' a 14 year old boy brings a hand gun to school and shoots another student. Luckily, in this incident, no one died. It was close, but the victim survived.

I firmly believe that one reason why students bring firearms (illegally) to school is because they realize that no one else (except for other illegal firearm carrying students) has a firearm at school. Bringing that one piece to school automatically elevates their power above the rest of the bodies at the school. It is instant power, and that power can be used in an attempt to instantly solve problems.

We can debate until the end of time how we should go about reducing the probability of a student wanting to bring a gun to school or what steps could be taken to scan and search students on a daily basis in order to check the students for banned firearms. There is an easy solution...

Remove the power created by bringing a firearm to school. How? Encourage school faculty to train on how to use and carry firearms in a concealed fashion. Let students know that it is legal, and in fact encouraged for faculty to carry a concealed weapon, but do not let them know who carries. Let school rumors enforce the fact that bringing a firearm to school will not automatically create a power over other people at school.

It's an idea... I think it is one that ought to be looked at. The more we restrict firearm ownership and restrict locations where they may be carried, the more we expand the power created by breaking these rules.

How much do you want to bet that violent crime in San Francisco, with it's new 'gun ban' increases? Criminals will now know that the chances of attacking a 'law abiding citizen' with a gun are nil. It's really a shame.

Rioting Islamists, Cheney, and the White House Press Corps from the mind of Cowgirl Up.

Only one of those three subjects listed above is not like the others. You'll have to read columnist Mark Steyn's latest to find out who!

Fortunately, the Washington Post had that wise old bird David Ignatius to put it in the proper historical context: "This incident," he mused, "reminds me a bit of Sen. Edward Kennedy's delay in informing Massachusetts authorities about his role in the fatal automobile accident at Chappaquiddick in 1969."

Hmm. Let's see. On the one hand, the guy leaves the gal at the bottom of the river struggling for breath pressed up against the window in some small air pocket while he pulls himself out of the briny, staggers home, sleeps it off and saunters in to inform the cops the following day that, oh yeah, there was some broad down there. And, on the other hand, the guy calls 911, has the other fellow taken to the hospital, lets the sheriff know promptly but neglects to fax David Gregory's make-up girl!

One can only hope others agree with Ignatius' insightful analogy, and that the reprehensible Cheney will be hounded from public life the way Kennedy was all those years ago. One would hate to think folks would just let it slide and three decades from now this Cheney guy will be sitting on some committee picking Supreme Court justices and whatnot.

Add Mark Steyn to your regular reading list. You will thank me for it.

Hornet's Nest from the mind of Cowgirl Up.

Just to throw in my two cents on this whole Cartoon jihad...

I've been following this mainly through the unparalleled work found in blogs by Michelle Malkin and Little Green Footballs. A number of the protests seem to have been manufactured by Danish imams who traveled from Denmark & Europe to the middle east, armed with poor reproductions of the Danish Jyllands-Posten cartoons, as well as a few images that had nothing to do with Mohammed but were sold that way to the eager anti-West masses. Call it the Prophet Propaganda Blasphemy Tour. In any case, whatever lit this fuse, Jihadistan has been hopping for weeks now, resulting in numerous deaths as a result of the riots.

Haven't seen what all the hoopla's about? Holy fatwa, Batman - turn off the TV news already and surf: the Danish cartoons - neatly bundled within a nice lesson on the art history of the Prophet Mohammed - are available for your surfing pleasure out at this site.

Clearly, there is simply no shortage worldwide of psychotic islamo-nazis.

Well, well. What have we here?
Iran says it's time to stop the rioting:

Iran backed calls from other Muslim and world leaders Monday for an end to violent protests over the Prophet Muhammad cartoons, urging calm after weeks of demonstrations that have left at least 45 people dead in the Muslim world.

In other words, get back to concentrating on wiping Israel off the map, like the good little useful idiots-er, islamists you are...

Not like this is President Ahmadinejad speaking out here. Nope. He prefers lecturing those who will listen on the finer points of antisemitism and Holocaust denial when dabbling in public speaking. Instead, the let's-make-nice talk is coming from Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki while on a trip to EU HQ. (He must be there to stock up on the chocolate.)

But wait. Do I detect an ulterior motive here on the part of the Iranian government?

"We are facing ... angry Muslims all around the world. We have to try our best to avoid any violence," he said. "This is what we are trying to do in Iran. ... So many of our policemen were attacked by angry people on the streets."

Iranians attacking the Iranian police? Well. As every good totalitarian regime knows, we can't have that now, can we?

And now, for the inevitable humorous backlash...

Take that, you humorless jihad-mongers. Ha!

globaloney from the mind of Cowgirl Up.

Global warming strikes again!

*cough*

Speaking of global warming hysterics. If you haven't yet read this book, you should. I highly recommend it.

According to a report in the New York Times, even President Bush seems to have enjoyed it. Heh.

Nothing must bring on the wrath of the environmentalists more. Imagine an intelligent, in-depth analysis of current research by someone who, given his vita, should really be in their camp: Hollywood-blockbuster-writing, creative powerhouse Michael Crichton must really chap their collective hides whenever he speaks out.

Crichton's maintained a healthy skepticism of current popular global warming theory/politics for years. It shouldn't surprise detractors that his research finally made it into a best-selling fiction novel. If Crichton's observations are so easy to discount, then why are the environmentalists so worried?