After a few days of fitful tinkering, I finally have Haloscan fully implemented across the site, and the Blogger commenting system fully suppressed. For a while I was running parallel commenting systems, with Haloscan working off my main URL and Blogger taking comments for any other pages, including archived pages and direct links.


So What.

Well, that means any comments you may have made on the Blogger system are history. Sorry.

But at least we're all on the same page, now that I've beat my templates into submission.

Carry on.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 11:40 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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With his usual amount of honesty, Daily Kos blames President Bush for a terrorist attack, with his headline, Bush destroys another 22 families.

As deaths continue to pile up from the flu, I'm sure Kos will be sure to credit Hillary with the headline, Hillary destroys another 11 families.

Somehow, I don't think he'll get around to writing that one, no matter how many toddlers die as a result of HillaryCare.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:53 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Florida state senator Gwen Margolis is proposing Senate Bill 500, a ban on assault weapons and high capacity magazines that would not only to attempt to resurrect the flawed and failed 1994 Crime Bill on a statewide level, but would also seek to make the ban retroactive. She advocates nothing less than the confiscation of the very arms our Founding Fathers would most protect, and it is all based upon a series of lies.

Let us go through the fallacies perpetuated by Margolis, shall we?

Her bill states, starting on line 29 of the first page, "WHEREAS, the United States Congress passed, and the President of the United States signed into law, the Federal Assault Weapons Act on September 13, 1994, which prohibited the use and possession of assault weapons, and-"

And let's start right there.

The last I checked, there has never been a "Federal Assault Weapons Act." There was, however, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. Perhaps if Senator Margolis is going to try and reinstate and expound upon a law, she should at least see if that law has ever existed.

But her lack of knowledge of the law neither starts nor ends with the name of the law, but extends into the most basic content of the law as well.

"-which prohibited the use and possession of assault weapons, and-"

And which did no such thing. Margolis is either ignorant of the law, or is exaggerating it to the point of outright fabrication.

The possession and use of assault weapons was never prohibited in the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (which from now on, we will simply call the "1994 Crime Bill" as it is commonly referred).

The fact sheet of the 1994 Crime Bill specifically states the fact that the law "bans the manufacture of 19 military-style assault weapons, assault weapons with specific combat features, 'copy-cat' models, and certain high-capacity ammunition magazines of more than ten rounds.'"

The 1994 Crime Bill did not, in letter or in practicality, ban the use or possession of assault weapons, or of their semi-automatic clones. As a matter of fact, it specifically protected existing lawfully-owned assault weapons, and allowed the manufacture of assault weapons throughout the entire period of the failed ban with only slight cosmetic and zero functional change to the basic design of the firearms whatsoever.

Shall we continue?

Margolis continues on line 6 of the second page of the proposed bill "WHEREAS, as a result of the expiration of the ban, UZI's, AK-47's, and other semiautomatic weapons are now available for purchase and possession in this state, -"

I have a news flash for Senator Margolis: semi-automatic weapons were available for legal purchase and possession every single minute of every single day that the 1994 Crime bill was in effect, not only in Florida, but in every state in the Union.

In fact, hundreds of new models and variants of semi-automatic rifles came to the public market in the past ten years, including, but hardly limited to, models from manufacturers such as Armalite, Benelli, Beretta, Browning, Bushmaster, etc.

Her contention that these firearms were not for sale during this time period is simply a fallacy. The only question that matters is this; does Senator Margolis spreads fallacies out of ignorance, or out of malice?

In either event, I saw no reason to continue reading a proposed law based upon shoddy research and blatant falsehoods, though there appeared to be far more of this proposed bill that would not stand up to closer scrutiny.

This flawed document should be regarded more as a work of fiction than a serious attempt at legislation.

Perhaps Senator Margolis should try to learn something about her subject matter before she tries to legislate it.

Update: text of email sent to Senator Margolis on 12/21/2004:

Dear Senator Margolis,

It is readily apparent that you lack even fundamental knowledge of a subject on which you are trying to legislate. Perhaps you should at least try to get your basic facts correct before basing legislation on incorrect or misleading information, as you have done with your proposed bill.

A few of your many fact errors have been noted in an article at the web link below.

(link to this article)

Have a Nice Day.

Sincerely,

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 01:07 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Afterglow grandstanding.

I think 41 is standing up for his victorious President, not for his embattled son, when he finally comes down on Michael Moore. I think that is a distinction worth making, as he didn't publicly say anything about Moore until well after the election was over.

Politically, 41 was soft, and it is clear than the spine 43 was bequeathed came from maternal DNA. Dad's rant was little more than a little boy shouting at a vanquished foe, granted this particular foe isn't intelligent enough to know he's been soundly beaten.

While I agree with his assessment of Moore being a new pariah on the Left, as is his due for his disingenuous propaganda, I must wonder if Bush 41 would have been as vocal if Moore's "Fiberal" party had won the election. Somehow I think not.

Bush 41 should be proud of his son, but attacking Moore now, when it doesn't matter, is simply beating a corpulent, dead horse.

Update: An apology to Bush 41 may be in order. Bill at INDC Journal thinks I'm coming down too hard on him, and believes he has spoken out against Michael Moore before. I haven't heard of such comments, but if they do exist, I'll apologize for that particular criticism.

Update 2: Basil found two pre-election comments made by Bush 41 hammering Moore. I stand corrected.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 02:57 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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According to the Monday morning edition of Paul Harvey News, an organization called the American Institute for Intelligence Testing has released a study claiming that NASCAR fans are ten-percent smarter than the average person.

Duh.

All it takes is listening to one disingenuous anti-American Noam Chomsky rant to figure out that his fans aren't as bright as they like to think they are. Hell, they voted for Kerry, cry for dead terrorists, and still think the media doesn't have liberal bias.

Luckily, it looks like the intelligence is spreading northward. There may be hope of turning New York into a Red state after all, once DEI, Richard Childress, Robert Yates, Roush Racing, etc help educate the unwashed blue masses.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 10:17 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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My better half, God bless her, is an angel with the most charitable and caring of souls, and she found an organization over the weekend that I'd like to share with you.

Any Soldier, Inc is a charitable organization with a simple, vital goal: delivering care packages and letters of support to our troops. If you are looking to contribute to a noble cause, you couldn't do much better.

While it is a little late for Christmas, you could help an American serviceman overseas get 2005 started off right with support from home. Any letters or notes you send let them know you appreciate what they are doing, and for those of you able to send Care packages, this page lets you know what soldiers need and provides links to where you can find items online.

Please check out Any Soldier, and pass along their Web address to those you know who might be interested in supporting our troops.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 06:27 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Fiberals.

Let's call them what they are. They don't support the troops, and they never will respect the military, even though they say the opposite. They don't respect minorities, and move quickly to quash any who fail to toe the party line. They don't respect the Constitution, and they don't respect the law of the land.

They don't have to. They're better than us.

The ACLU claims to fight for civil liberties, but was founded by socialists and communists with the express goal of undermining the Constitution. Planned Parenthood claims to be about choice, but was founded by a eugenicist and practices genocide. Fiberals shrilly attack conservatives and moderates of both parties as being "right wing," and then openly embrace a radical religion that admired Adolph Hitler.

Welcome to the Fiberals.

As Fiberals, they have the right to claim that the most inclusive President in history is a racist, when in fact their party founded the Ku Klux Klan and stood in the way of civil rights for over one hundred years. They can confidently call minorities that step out of line "Aunt Jemima" or "Uncle Tom" without reprisals, and certainly no complaints from the NAACP.

They have the right to claim Faux News and the Moonie Times are unbalanced in their news coverage because Maureen Dowd and Lawrence O'Donnell told them so, and Rather and Mapes were just telling the truth by other means, and Halprin was just trying to provide the right perspective.

They have the right to claim the War on Terror has nothing to do with Iraq, even though the World Trade Center bomb-builder came from and returned to Iraq in 1993, and Iraq was home to one, two, three, four terrorist organizations, and Saddam provided money to the families of terrorist bombers.

Fiberals claim the right to say that we acted illegally and without United Nations support in our invasion of Iraq as the corrupt organization of despots quietly pocketed hundreds of millions from Saddam as he continued to murder, rape and kill thousands of his captive people each year.

As Fiberals, they have the right to claim American soldiers are terrorists for killing men who purposefully shoot women and children and build bombs on holy ground, and question the moral fiber of those who fight against criminals who rape, behead, and torture in the name of a God Fiberals claim doesn't even exist.

As Fiberals, they get to register Mary Poppins for crack cocaine and claim voter fraud when the terrorist-meeting war protestor they support is beaten by a dunce from Jesusland.

As Fiberals, they get to believe our 51% of the country is so stupid that we cause mental disorders and flight to more tolerant climes.

As Fiberals they get to be a lot of things...

Just not in charge.

Note: Don't like Fiberals, and want everyone to know it? Visit the Luck Fiberals Store and view "Luck Fiberals" t-shirts, stickers, mousepads, and more.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 01:06 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Sure, Glen Reynolds has his tireblogging, but does it come with Kleenex?

A nurse who should know better sent her SARS-infested twins to school yesterday, and now my curtain-climber is going to be home today with a nasty cough, hacking up green things that crawl away on their own. Poor kid.

Parents who send their Ebola-babies to school knowing (this one is a nurse!) that they will infect other kids deserve a nice beating with a ClueBat. Thanks to this momtard, an entire kindergarten class was exposed, and more than her kids will spend the weekend before Christmas sick.

Ho. Ho. Ho.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 08:22 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Love is stronger than hate, freedom is stronger than tyranny.

Read this, and try to convince me we're losing in Iraq.

(Hat tip: LGF)

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 11:16 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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It looks like Illinois is going to be the first state to try to institute some sort of governmental control over the sale and distribution of violent or other adult-themed video games to minors.

It's about time.

I don't want to hear anyone who lives with their parents whining about "freedom of speech," either. Various levels of obscenity law have been upheld by courts for a very long time, and that is what these proposed laws are, and nothing less.

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) is promoting two bills to make selling or renting violent or sexually graphic materials to minors a crime, treating video games with the same kind of oversight governments have traditionally used to regulate cigarettes and alcohol distribution.

The Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) and Video Software Dealers Association (VSDA) are both unhappy with these proposed laws, claming that they have their own ratings system, and feel they should be self-regulating.

I'm sure Larry Flynt felt the same way about marketing and selling Hustler.

But the fact of the matter is that the industries do not adequately self-regulate unless forced. I've never seen a store refuse to sell a violent videogame to a teenager, but these same kids know not even to try buying a copy of Penthouse or a six-pack of Coors.

The fact of the matter is that the software gaming industry has been under-regulated from it's inception, and enforcing a state-mandated minimum level of morality at the cash register or at the rental counter is precisely the kind of involvement that I do feel is necessary by state governments.

Whether the content is delivered via pixels or picas shouldn't matter.

We don't let our kids buy "adult" products in other forms until they meet minimum level of maturity, and we should not allow video games to be excepted from those rules.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 01:15 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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There may be some minor hiccups today as I try to update the blog template.

Sorry!

Update: Haloscan seems to be implemented correctly in my blog template, but a limited number of posts seems to stil be trying to use Blogger's old "comments" template. I was trying to troubleshoot this last night and again this morning, but decided that I don't care that much about a minor problem concerning old posts.

If you end up not seeing a comment that you posted, let me know and I'll see if I can hunt it down and put it where it belongs.

Normal blogging to resume later today.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 10:43 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Seems like the liberal-run education system has failed us again.

A new generation of oxygen-starved liberals have now decided to color Santa blue instead of red, proving their mothers (the ones who chose to carry them to term, that is) ingested far too much THC during their pregnancies.

A group calling themselves "Buy Blue" has a web site up encouraging lefties to buy products from left-leaning businesses that directed the majority of their campaign contributions to Socialist Democratic candidates.

An offshoot of this moonbattery is their Blue Christmas campaign, alluded to above.

Yes, we're all shocked that a party allied with the Anti-Christian Liberties Union (PDF) would even mention the word "Christmas" without an overwhelming urge to sue themselves, but they obviously felt they corrupted the spirit of the season enough to suit their Godless existence.

That said, a wonderful benefit of the Blue Christmas campaign is this page, which not only tells you which "blue" companies donated heavily against freedom in Iraq and Afghanistan, against the rights of children to be born, and against the very mention of the name of the man who's birth we are celebrating with this holiday, but also includes a list of "red" companies that still support the principles this country was founded upon.

Please download the printer-friendly PDF version of their page (before they wise up and take it down), and be sure to send it to everyone you know, so that when they buy consumer goods, they are buying from the "red" companies that still support traditional American values.

These liberals want to take Christ out of Christmas and make Santa blue.

Thanks to your convenient list, liberals, I'll be confidently shopping "red" for 364 days, and I'll still be dreaming of a white Christmas.

Update: I visited Little Green Footballs after I posted this thread and noticed that Charles found another group of Shop Blue morons. Check it out.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 10:19 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The following was culled from a series of emails sent back and forth between "R" at a small Southern software company and "J", one of their ornery Northern clients, after a software upgrade.

J,

I've taken care of item the issues please send in the latest executables. In regards to item b) there isn't a way for me to have this carry over. With the old transfer routine that was causing problems the Duplicate Value Entry Error the Customer PO Transfer was a part of the problem; thus it had to be done away with.

--R.

###

R,

What does this mean to me?

--J.

###

J,

It probably doesn't mean much to you, except that you'll have to hear D. bitch, moan, whine and complain about the Customer's PO Number in Other Order Entry not Defaulting to the Purchase Order Number for the Purchase Order when you transfer the items to it.

But as we all know, some things must be sacrificed in the name of progress; and I truly feel sorry that your sanity is part of what is being sacrificed.

If you want I could send up some ear plugs so you won't have to hear D. bitch, moan, whine and complain.

And just in case you're wondering yes I'm in a fabulous mood.

It's just another fabulous day in paradise down here.

--R.

###

R,

Is this what they call Southern Hospitality?

--J.

###

J,

I think it would be closer to southern hostility caused by the war of northern aggression; you guys call it the civil war. Maybe I'll coin a new psychological disorder SHPWNAS (Southern Hostility due to Post War of Northern Aggression Syndrome). You know if the damn liberals can claim Post Election Selection Syndrome and the ACLU / NAACP can claim that people of color my age have been directly affected by slavery, maybe the War of Northern Aggression is the cause of my mental instability.

R.

###

R,

It has come to my attention that you have lost your friggin mind and have started some new hostile grass roots organizations of hostility towards the northern (and smarter) section of this fine country we live in. You lost the damn war - it's over - now stop whining like hillbilly and get back to work.

J.

Of course, J. is supposed to think that the war is over. We're just in an extended phase of lulling you Yankees into a false sense of security.

Sleep tight.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 01:04 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I heard another yippee media figure on a talking head show last night (O'Reilly's) denigrating bloggers as needing some sort of "oversight."

It is just one rant of many in the media, and has been covered in enough blogs in enough detail that I don't need to discuss it here, other than to make one comment: bloggers are limited by the same legal checks and balances that affect the professional media. Indeed, it can be argued that since individual bloggers do not have the support of corporate conglomerations and their significant legal resources, that the professional media can get away with pushing the envelope further than bloggers.

But that envelope only stretches so far. As this case suggests, all media are subject to the limitations of libel and slander law, and if recent history is to be observed, the blogosphere, it can be argued, does the better job of staying within the ethical and legal constraints that big journalism claims to follow.

As I sit here marveling at how the print media forged their circulation numbers as well as their stories, and wait for results of the CBS Rathergate investigation, I think that perhaps Mr. O'Reilly, recently in his own bit of legal hot water for the alleged suggestive sexual abuse of a falafel, and also playing a role in the libel case cited above, should keep his mouth shut on media ethics until his own house is in order.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 11:24 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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According to the New York Daily News, former NYPD commissioner Bernie Kerik didn't step down from his nomination as Homeland Security Director because of "Nannygate" issues, but rather, because of a slew of other allegations, including:

• two simultaneous extramarital affairs
• involvement with mafia-run businesses
• accepting expensive gifts without proper disclosure
• discriminatory retaliation against the co-workers of one alleged mistress

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 11:50 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I hope everyone takes the time to celebrate Armed Jews Week. We're dead center in the middle of it, so read this fascinating piece over at PuppyBlender.com written by a moonlighting Dave Kopel, who knows a thing or two about the subject.

Update: While you're celebrating, why not buy a Bren from the JPFO? Proceeds go to raise funds for the pro-gun documentary Innocents Betrayed.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 05:36 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I know politics makes for strange bedfellows, but I don't know that this approach will work in New York.

From Page Six of the NY Post:

STAFFERS at the engineering firm owned by Bernard Spitzer - the father of state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer - are accused of driving the office's lesbian receptionist positively batty.

Evelyn Quinones was fired from her job answering phones at Spitzer's Fifth Avenue firm last January. She has since filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging that four female staffers at Spitzer Engineering harassed her so badly, she suffered panic attacks and had to check into a psychiatric ward.

Now her girlfriend, legal aide Lisa Padilla, charges in a letter to PAGE SIX that Eliot Spitzer is unfit for office because his "campaigns and lifestyle have been financed by his father . . . Since the younger Mr. Spitzer is attempting to build support in the gay and lesbian community for his gubernatorial run, it is akin to an abolitonist[sic] running for office financed by slavers."

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 02:30 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Michelle Malkin is talking about a bureaucrat who is very likely to get people killed in this country due to his paper-pushing incompetence. (Hat tip: Powerline)

Get the bumper sticker.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 01:21 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Did you know that when you combine four days of insomnia with a heavy workload, the mind can start to play tricks on you?

Either that, or I need to get a chupacabra trap.

The next thing you know, Terry McAuliffe will start to sound intelligent...

Nah.

Update: It turns out that I didn't see a chupacabra, but something else with similar physical characteristics.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 10:49 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Last Tuesday (11/30) I noted that as Kweisi Mfume was stepping down as president of the increasingly irrelevant NAACP, that Chairman Julian Bond needed to go next.

At the time I wrote that, I said Mfume had to go "for allowing the organization's credibility to be damaged severely, to the point where many feel it is no longer a civil rights organization, but instead a mouthpiece of the Democratic Party."

Well, it looks like I might owe Mr. Mfume an apology, based upon this article.

It now seems that Mr. Mfume was trying to right a sinking ship, one that the rest of the crew of the U.S.S. NAACP apparently wants to scuttle.

According to the Human Events Online story, Mr. Mfume had been reaching out across the aisle, trying to build a working relationship with Republicans. Mfume nominated Condoleezza Rice for an NAACP Image Award in 2003, and had realized that by voting lockstep Democrat in every election, black voters had given away their political bartering power.

After the election last month Mfume sent a letter to President Bush mapping out ways they could work together to help the community, which was against the wishes of a rabid Julian Bond.

Bond then had Mfume forced out, for this apparent sin of trying to bring political diversity to a once-meaningful civil rights organization.

Thank you Mr. Mfume, for trying to reach out and make the NAACP relevant again.

I'm sorry it didn't work out.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 12:06 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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