Snowflakes in Hell

Instapundit is talking about compressed air cars.  The big problem with this technology is you’re essentially driving with a bomb under your car.  Gasoline contains a lot of energy, but it won’t explode under normal conditions.  You’ll get a hell of a blaze, but not an explosion.   Any compressed gas technology is going to have the fundamental problem of an explosion hazard, not because of the gas within being explosive, but because of the tremendous amount of energy being stored up in the tank.  See this summary of a dive shop explosion that occurred when the tank failed.

Also, the net greenhouse gas savings here would be negligible, since it will take copious amounts of electricity to operate the fill up stations and compressors.  This energy, if it comes from burning coal, will just shift the greenhouses gases to the power companies.   But still, this technology is more promising than the ones that involve reacting light metals with water to produce hydrogen.

… Catholic School will tell you, you don’t mess with nuns.

From an Association Press Article, it seems that there’s been a spate of violent crime in normally low crime (and gun free) Japan:

Japan, a country of 127 million people, had 1,391 homicides in 2005, compared with 16,692 in the United States. But overall crime in Japan jumped to 2.27 million cases that year, from 1.81 million in 1996, the National Police Agency said.

“Anxiety is mounting in Japan about the increase of high-profile crimes. Due to rapid globalization, the traditional rules and social order are changing dramatically,” said Jun Ayukawa, an expert on criminal psychology at Japan’s Kwansei Gakuin University.

The surge in high-profile violent crime has spurred debate over tougher gun-control rules, calls for strengthening the moral fiber of youth in schools and concerns about the state of parenting.

How do you get tougher gun-control rules than “You may not have them, except under very rare circumstances”? I suppose after the gun control advocates achieve their goal of banning guns entirely, the next step will be to double ban them. Because if the first ban didn’t work, clearly you need to ban them one more time, just to be sure.

UPDATE: I see David picked up on this earlier.

I joked with Bitter that every weekend she spends away from me, I will comfort myself by buying a gun. She’ll have to find out whether or not I’m actually joking. This weekend’s addition was a Ruger Mk.III Hunter 22/45. I got it at Cabela’s, which processes gun buyers with assembly line efficiency. I figured it was easier to get exactly what I was looking for there, rather than run around to 20 different gun stores to find it.

I was disappointed to see that Cabela’s is now requiring customers to check their firearms at the front desk. I’m happy that they at least provide a place to check, but do they have to state “For your safety, please be sure to check all firearms at the customer service desk”, or something very similar. It’s not for my safety. Maybe for the job safety of their lawyers or whoever insures Cabela’s, but certainly not for mine. Needless to say I paid the sign about as much attention as it deserved. Does anyone else’s local Cabela’s post signage? If you by a gun, they also escort you out with the purchase, and hand it to you after you exit the building. The whole experience certainly makes me more inclined to make my next purchases at the local gun stores, where not only do they allow customers to carry, but the people behind the counters are strapped as well.

Maybe Cabela’s should rethink their policy and ban their insurance company’s lawyers instead of guns. No insurance policy is worth pissing off your customers. Especially in a state like Pennsylvania where there are close to 700,000 people licensed to carry.

Bitter had pictures earlier in the week.   Here are some more pictures from the Virginia Citizens Defense League, Bloomberg Gun Giveaway. He got some of the protesters.

I might be blogging a bit more this weekend than normal.   Bitter is spending some quality time with Bitchy Mom, so we’re not together this weekend.   It marks the first weekend since Jan 21st that we haven’t spent together.

I think celebrating mother’s day a week late is probably a good idea.  You can actually go out to eat without having to deal with the masses.  Last weekend we just wanted some breakfast, and I ended up having to pay twenty dollars for a twelve dollar buffet.

The Brady Campaign are singing the praises of our Attorney General:

Paul Helmke, President of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, wrote to Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez yesterday praising a Justice Department legislative proposal that would help prevent suspected terrorists from purchasing firearms and urging passage of the related legislation by Congress.

Paul Helmke knows a political gift when he sees it, and Gonzalez handed it to him on a silver platter. Come out against the bill, and the meme is “The NRA and the gun nuts want terrorists to have guns!”, and the media will happily lap it up and repeat it. Helmke can count on no one criticizing the administration for, once again, trampling on constitutional liberties in the name of the “War on Terror”.

This is the administration that was supposed to be so good for our second amendment rights? Given the three stooges the Republicans are currently putting out there for 2008, I’m seriously wondering if I need to switch my registration to Democrat from Independent so I can vote for Bill Richardson in the primaries.

This isn’t about terrorists getting guns, it’s about due process, and this proposal makes a mockery of our constitution.

Removing “gun-free” zones on concealed weapons license holders, is, of course, such an obviously bad thing, that the media doesn’t even need to bother talking to supporters of the bill.  And of course, it won’t pass, because it’s such a bad idea after all.

Watch the video.   It’s been a while since I could stomach TV news.

Here’s more evidence that Fred Thompson is prepared to wage a true 21st century campaign.   Whether I end up supporting him or not, there’s a lot to like.