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September 03, 2003 12:55 PM - FATAL SHOOTING AT GUN RANGE: Knox County deputies confirm that a person has been shot to death at Guncraft Sports on Dutchtown Road in west Knox County. Crime scene investigators and detectives were called to the scene around 10:30. There's no word yet on whether the shooting was accidental or deliberately self-inflicted.

A woman rented a handgun Wednesday at a West Knox County firing range and apparently fatally shot herself in the head, authorities said.

Knox County Sheriff's Office Capt. Larry Hunter said authorities were alerted at 10:48 a.m. that a woman was shot at Guncraft Sports Inc., 10737 Dutchtown Road.

Hunter said the woman, who had been in the gun store in the past, rented a pistol and proceeded to the indoor firing range. As at least two other people shot weapons on the range, the woman apparently shot herself in the head.

Hunter said detectives intended to review a videotape of the range shooters to ascertain if the woman shot herself. The Sheriff's Office did not release the woman's identity, but the Toyota Tercel she drove to the firing range bore a Knox County license plate.

Bob Wiest, co-owner of Guncraft Sports, said he had never had a customer commit suicide in the 56 years the business has operated.

I have lived in Knoxville for 24 years and just moved to Lexington, KY and I want to say a few things about this article. Sorry about my unprofessionalism but I am going to get straight down to business. So Toddy's is not worth a description? I mean, how many bars are built upstairs from a liquor store? How many bars let drunk people throw horseshoes? That is my complaint.

Update on Cotton-Eyed Joes: go there on family night. That is when (and I know this sounds strange on a family night thing) the ladies come out. AND THE LADIES DO COME OUT IN FORCE!

And while I'm at it, Michael's... Meat market? Couldn't have said it better my self. Young guy meets recent divorcee and sex ensues. That is Michael's. Anyway, I like your articles. Thanks.

Les and Melissa are off to New York now, and they're surely having fun. Rather
than problems from the blackout, they'll likely not encounter anything more
troubling than some anecdotes. Well, I say that in light of news reports which
seem almost dejected about the lack of mayhem. Headline: New Yorkers Pull Together
During Massive Power Loss -- Tagline: Citizens Take Advantage of Rare Opportunity
to Drink Beer and Smoke in Public.

I do hope they're careful about parking however. Seventy-year-old average Joes
directing traffic in the streets while the Brown Shirts issued parking citations,
seems to be the main controversy. Funny to a degree yes, but given the nature
of bureaucracy it was neither ironic or surprising. For Les' part one can take
it as read he used the occasion as an opportunity to negotiate better rates
from the travel agency. Oh, here's a GeoSat picture of the blackout.

A total lack of light pollution probably made the outage mildly enjoyable for
amateur astronomers. Mars is the focus of attention for them right now, ringing
in at an apparent 27+ arc seconds. Yes, it's the closest Mars has come to us
in a bujillion years, but let's keep this in perspective. Every so often Mars
gets close to us and just a few years ago in 1998 it was an apparent 25+ arc
seconds across. That's not enough to resolve the polar ice caps any better in
your Sears Celestron telescope. It is big enough to make it worth the trouble
though. And it's the first thing other than the Moon I've been able to resolve
in my own tiny Celestron. I'm a better shot with a camera - and those projectile
throwers of which Les is so recently fond. But I just don't grok telescopes
for some reason. Sad really, because I love star gazing.

Before my first missive here comes to a close, I want to say a couple words
about Les and Melissa. You ought to know what sort of folk it is behind this
blog. You ought also to know that BloggerPro's spell checker doesn't recognize the word blog. But I digress. I've known Les for several years, since our days at U.S. Internet. And
I've known Melissa since they started dating. That seems forever now because
as practical people they had an extended courtship. Melissa is an extremely
outgoing person, who brings humor and happiness wherever she goes. She's a nice
yin to Les' yang - with him being quieter - heh - and at times a bit mysterious.
But that's only part of the tale. The wedding was great evidence of the rightness
of their match. Melissa carried herself as an elegant bride. She managed to
sweep one of those romantic and impossibly long trains behind her without falling
once. Hey, I've been to a lot of weddings; not falling down is no mean feat.
Her dress swept dramatically as she descended from the horse-drawn carriage,
and moved towards the gazebo, wherein were spoken the magic words. "Do
you Les Jones, agree before these witnesses assembled, to become the chattel
property of Melissa from now unto perpetuity?"

Something like that. I can't remember it exactly.

It all went off without a hitch. Les and Melissa put on quite an event. There
was more than enough drink and prandial delights to keep everybody happy. And
this is really saying something because since they're in their 30s (actually
Melissa is something like 14 but that's legal in Tennessee) they had to pay
for it all themselves. The usually frugal Les obviously went all out, spared
no expense. And he made sure that by 1:00AM we were all getting gloriously glassy
on the very same Jonesborough porch that Andy Johnson drank on a century and
a half ago. "Hey honey..." I said to my own wife Melissa "We're
gettin' drunk on the porch of the Three Sisters hotel just like the Pie-Yo-Neerz!".......Near
to this point she decided it was time to ferry me home.

Les and Melissa are good friends to me, and to many people I know. I am proud
to count myself as their friend - honored I should say - because they are two
of the most decent people you will ever meet. Decent, dependable and patient;
They'll make great parents. And that of course is the next chapter in the story.

What's the difference between a musician and a government bond?
Government bonds eventually mature and earn money.

What did the drummer get on his IQ test?
Drool.

What's the difference between a conductor and a sack of fertilizer?
The sack.

What's the difference between a symphony conductor and Dr Scholl's footpads?
Dr Scholl's footpads buck up the feet.

What's the difference between a bull and an orchestra?
The bull has the horns in the front and the asshole in the back.

How do you get two viola players to play in tune?
Shoot one of them.

What do you get when you drop a piano down a mineshaft?
A flat minor.

What do you get when you drop a piano on an army base?
A flat major.

What's the least-used sentence in the English language?
"Isn't that the banjo player's Porsche?"

What do you say to a banjo player in a three-piece suit?
"Will the defendant please rise?"

Actually with Mars being so close it will give people in big cities a very rare chance to see this site without all the light polution by which they are normally surrounded.

A quiz

Modern industrial civilization, as presently organized, is colliding violently with our planet's ecological system. The ferocity of its assault on the earth is breathtaking, and the horrific consequences are occurring so quickly as to defy our capacity to recognize them, comprehend their global implications, and organize an appropriate and timely response. Isolated pockets of resistance fighters who have experienced this juggernaut at first hand have begun to fight back in inspiring but, in the final analysis, woefully inadequate ways.

	Glock 23	SIG P229
Capacity	10, 13, 15	10, 12
Weight empty	21.2 oz.	28.1 oz
Barrel	4.0"	3.9"
Sight Radius	6.0"	5.7"
Length	6.9"	7.1"
Height	5.0"	5.4"
Width	1.2"	1.5"
Origin	Austria	Switzerland

A boy tells his mother, "When I grow up I want to be a musician."
His mother tells him, "Now, honey, you can't do both."

What's the difference between a musician and a large pizza?
A large pizza can feed a family of four.

What's the difference between a banjo and an onion?
Nobody cries when you cut up a banjo.

What do you call someone who follows musicians around?
A drummer.

How does a bluegrass band know when the stage is level?
Drool comes out of both corners of the banjo player's mouth.

Kuhn's success is also an instance of the enduring appeal of theomachy, a mode of explanation which worked so brilliantly for Marx and Freud, and, long before, for Homer. What was previously thought to be a continuous and uninteresting succession of random events is discovered to be a conflict of a finite number of hidden gods (classes, complexes, paradigms, as the case may be), who manipulate the flux of appearances to their own advantage, but whose machinations may be uncovered by the elect to whom the key has been revealed.

Only three weeks before the church revealed its Fatima secret, a pair of geneticists announced that they had resolved the mystery of the Lost Dauphin. In 1795, the 10-year-old son of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette died in prison. Or did he? As soon as the boy was reported dead, stories arose that the real dauphin had been rescued and a substitute left in his cell. People have been arguing about little Louis XVII for 200 years. Hundreds of books address the mystery, including Huckleberry Finn, and a long line of claimants has intrigued their contemporaries. Indeed, one claimant is buried in the Netherlands under a headstone that identifies him as the heir to the French throne.

But scientists have now compared DNA from locks of Marie Antoinette's hair with DNA extracted from the heart of the boy who died in the French prison. They match. The Lost Dauphin has been found, and disappointed romantics will have to take what succor they can from the unlikely fact that a succession of people harbored the little prince's desiccated heart as a curio for so long.

Do not count on the police to maintain domestic tranquility in the final analysis. Their role is certainly important in enforcement, but they are reactive. They do not generally stop criminals; they apprehend them. But no criminal actually believes he will be caught, else he would not commit the crime.

Furthermore, there is no moral difference between the homeowner who protects his life or property with a gun and one who does not but summons a police officer. If the police arrive on time (problematic), they use violence or its threat to protect the law-abiding. The unarmed homeowner has merely "contracted out" his wielding of deadly force or the threat of it. (In my view, for an able-bodied man or woman to do that is morally cowardly.)

I expected other people to protect me. I expected my husband to do it when he was home and I expected a cop to be there to rescue me if something happened to my husband. Yet I was perfectly happy for a criminal to be shot, by someone else, if he threatened me or my kids. Shame on me.

It was the realization of that hypocrisy that finally pushed me over the edge. I should not expect others to do for me what I am not willing to do for myself. I was the one whose morals were all screwed-up. How dare I think that someone else should risk his or her life for me (be it my husband or a police officer) if I wasn't willing to lift a finger for anyone else or even myself?

It was after this realization that the real meaning of the Second Amendment became crystal clear. Not only did I have the right to defend my country and myself, I had the RESPONSIBILITY to do so.

But Sharpton said simply granting civil unions is a form of discrimination against gays, "like saying we'll give blacks or whites or Latinos the rights to shack up, but not marry."

Pykrete is a super-ice, strengthened tremendously by mixing in wood pulp as it freezes. By freezing a slurry of 14 percent wood pulp, the mechanical strength of ice rockets up to a fairly consistent 70 kg/sq cm. A 7.69 mm
rifle bullet, when fired into pure ice, will penetrate to a depth of about 36 cm. Fired into pykrete, it will penetrate less than half as far - about the same distance as a bullet fired into brickwork. Yet you can mold pykrete into blocks from the simplest materials and then plane it, just like wood. And it has tremendous crush resistance: a one-inch column of the stuff will support an automobile. Moreover, it takes much longer to melt than pure ice. But as strong and eco-friendly as it is, pykrete remains forgotten today save among glaciologists, who express bafflement over why no one has made use of it. "I don't really know why it has languished in obscurity," admits Professor Erland Schulson, director of the Ice Research Laboratory at Dartmouth College.

NewsChannel5 reported that a scheduling conflict could cause the district to reassign the black teacher who has taught the course for seven years.

Using a white teacher at Oberlin High School would send the wrong message to black students, said A.G. Miller, an associate professor of American and African religious history at Oberlin College.

High-achieving African American students also complain about being ridiculed by fellow black students who tease them if they expend a lot of effort to earn good grades.

Prodded by her parents, Aida Harris always worked hard in school, earning top grades and taking the toughest classes. But by the time she got to middle school, she found that her gung-ho attitude alienated her from many of her black friends.

"People constantly told me that I'm acting white, that I'm an Oreo," she said. "I was constantly shunned by my black classmates."

The harassment grew so intense that her grades dropped from A's and B's to C's and D's. She said that she became preoccupied with her racial identity and let her grades slip in hopes of getting back in the good graces of her friends.

At one point, she told her parents that she wanted to leave public school altogether. "It was traumatic, absolutely traumatic," said her father, Reuben Harris Jr., an insurance agent and a founding member of a parents' group focused on raising black student achievement. "She was feeling ostracized and separated from her own people."

Les & Melissa,

Thanks for the kind words. I had a great time working at The River. It
ended too soon. Today I'm starting my search for a new on-air job. I would
love to find a job in East Tennessee. My family and I are happy here and
want to stay.

I truly appreciate your support. Thanks for listening.

Sincerely,
Frank Murphy

As of 2000, Florida ranked No. 4 in population but ranked No. 21 in suicides. Since the right-to-carry law was enacted in Florida the following changes occurred:

The homicide rate dropped 36 percent, firearm homicides dropped 37 percent and handgun homicides dropped 41 percent.

In the 10 states that adopted right-to-carry laws, the results were no change in the suicide rate, a 0.5 percent rise in accidental firearm deaths, a 5 percent decline in rapes, a 7 percent decline in aggravated assaults and an 8 percent decline in murder.

On July 1, 2003, Tennessee joined Kentucky, Indiana, and Montana, as states that honor all other state permits or licenses to carry "defensive weapons". Two other states Alaska and Vermont, do not require any permit or license to carry weapons if the individuals carrying are law abiding citizens [I.e. not a felon or someone using the weapon unlawfully]. With more states allowing other state residents to carry weapons within their boarders, legally armed organizations and police organizations are working together to eliminate problem areas.

"By its actions, the Bush administration threatens to give a bad name to a just war," the Connecticut Democrat told a Capitol Hill news conference. "But by their words, some in my party threaten to send a message that they don't know a just war when they see it, and more broadly that they're not prepared to use our military strength to protect our security and the cause of freedom."

I will always remember the words of my mentor at Western Washington University, Leonard Helfgott, regarding my plans to go to Iraq with Voices: "Have you read Hanna Batatu's book on Iraq?[7] You must read it before you go. If you finish it, you will know more about Iraq than anyone in Washington State!" I confess that I left without finishing Batatu's 1,000-page-plus tome, and I paid for my inattention by being led astray by my friends in Voices. The most glaring example I saw of gross unfamiliarity with Iraq was a Voices group member who was wholly unaware that the Iran-Iraq war had ever taken place.[8] This latter episode revealed that the larger context of the violence in Iraq - a context that long predated the sanctions - mattered very little to Voices.

But then we - like the Iraqi regime - were always antagonistic towards the Oil-for-Food program (known sometimes as UNSC Resolution 986). One Voices founder, Bob Bossie, in a group meeting to evaluate the program, determined: "The biggest problem [Voices] face[s], as I see it, is Resolution 986."[13] The reason was explained by founding member Chuck Quilty in an interview conducted for this article: "The problem [Voices] saw right away was that 986 would be used by the United States to say that humanitarian problems in Iraq were taken care of and allay any of those who might be concerned that sanctions were killing innocent people."[14] They abhorred the program because it improved the lot of ordinary Iraqis, and therefore, diminished U.S. culpability.

I can remember the exact instant when I decided to leave the utopian fantasy world of Voices. I was on a train from Bellingham, Washington, where I lived at the time, to Portland, Oregon, to visit a friend. It was the spring of 2000, and I was reading a new article on sanctions by Amatzia Baram. Baram proceeded to shatter the myth that 1.5 million Iraqis had died of sanctions-related disease. He did it by checking Iraqi claims against recent Iraqi census data. Since 1991, Iraq's population, even by Iraqi figures, had grown way too fast for there to be anything near the number of sanctions-related deaths claimed by Iraq.

Jeb Stuart Magruder -- then a "callow" campaign aide, now a retired Presbyterian minister in Ohio -- says in a new documentary for PBS that he heard Nixon's voice on a telephone as the president instructed then-Attorney General John N. Mitchell to go ahead with the break-in.

Historian Richard Reeves took a different tack. It's entirely believable that Nixon ordered the break-in, Reeves said. "But I'm not sure I believe the story, or the source," he said. "Magruder has had so many cuts at the ball. It's astounding to me that each time up to now, he lied about it."

Card, biometrics, passwords... when it comes down to it, they're all just numbers on a wire. And no one of them is any more secure than any other.

Conservatives, including myself, regularly complain about liberal bias in the media, Hollywood, academia, etc. The silver lining to this annoying reality is that conservatives cannot avoid the world views and arguments of their political opponents. In other words, it is much easier for a liberal to escape confronting conservative views than it is for conservatives to escape confronting liberal views. The consequence is that conservatives are not allowed, particularly by the media, to "make things up". In a strange way, the liberal media forces conservatives to strive to be more careful and honest because conservatives know they will be challenged. As an example, I would point to the issue of gun control (where the media almost always favors greater regulation) and how gun control groups, the NRA, and researchers such as Kellerman, and Bellesiles behave. Even by the standards of political rhetoric, pro-gun control groups would have to be considered among the most irresponsible advocates with regard to factual distortion. In contrast, the NRA, while sometimes rhetorically over-the-top, take great care to be factually accurate. I don't think this is the case because gun control advocate are more prone to lie than NRA members, though NRA members may be more likely to believe in quaint notions like objective reality. Gun control groups know they can fax a press release to a journalist and, very likely, get it printed almost verbatim with little or no question about factual veracity. The NRA, on the other hand, knows it's claims will be viewed with deep suspicion and subject to a great deal of scrutiny. Therefore, I believe, the NRA devotes more effort to factual accuracy and do not have the luxury of pretending all respectable people agree with them.

In addition, I think the typical liberal not-for-profit worker or college professor can, if they choose, live and recreate in something of a politically correct cocoon. When I used to be more liberal in my early 20s in Washington, DC, my liberal/left friends would talk in shocked tones if a conservative showed up at a party or social function. No one ever long had friends who deviated too radically from accepted socio-political norms. My more conservative acquaintances, by contrast, were more consumed with practical concerns, and though some were very intersted in politics, they made little effort to have ideological concerns define their professional or social lives. That was even the case with the Republican staffers that I knew on the Hill. And, of course, a stock broker, dentist, or businessperson does not choose their customers, secretaries, or their place of residence on the basis of politics or ideology and, as a consequence I believe, live and work in more ideologically diverse surroundings. This part of the equation would need more in-depth study of demographic data, etc. as we have less info available than we have with regard to liberal media bias.

Wedding Location

Phone Numbers and Help With Directions

Parking

Lodging

Wedding Schedule

Gifts and Wedding Registry

Driving Directions

I checked with my scheduler (ie my wife, who's back from Michigan now) and we unfortunately can't make it to your wedding. However, we would like to get you something, since it's not every day one of Knoxville's most eligible bachelors gets lass-oed. Are you guys registered any place?

It's hard to believe the uproar that the first test-tube baby caused. Pundits, religious leaders, politicians, and even some scientists warned that this was "playing God" and would lead to a moral breakdown of society.

Scientific American quoted Leon Kass, a biologist at the University of Chicago, who warned in 1978 that "the idea of humanness and of our human life and the meaning of our embodiment and our relation to ancestors and descendants" were at risk because of the first test-tube baby.

Fast forward to 2003. Test-tube babies are commonplace and the world hasn't self-destructed. But now people are pointing quaking fingers at the idea of cloning human beings.

"Cloning threatens the dignity of human procreation, giving one generation unprecedented genetic control over the next. It is the first step toward a eugenic world in which children become objects of manipulation and products of will." Who said that? The self-same Leon Kass.

The point is that every new capability in biology - particularly a new capability that deals with the creation of children - has been proclaimed to be wrong, evil or immoral by people who fear change. Yet today we live longer, healthier lives than any preceding generation of human beings.

Even the test-tube babies are getting along quite well, thank you.

Clearly, the House of Saud has come to an arrangement with al-Qa'eda, and this arrangement involves, among other things, money. More interesting is why the administration insists on pretending otherwise. On 20 September, George W. Bush said, 'You're either with us or you're with the terrorists.' A couple of weeks later, a small number of us began pointing out the obvious: the Saudis are with the terrorists.

New to the Quotes File

Barbie is the most popular doll in Iran, much to the chagrin of religious zealots there. Barbie likes nice clothes and goes on dates with Ken (who is also popular); she certainly doesn't cover her face. She's a career girl, a model, sexy and beautiful and glad of it. She lives alone. She wears short skirts and bikinis. She's a woman and she likes being a woman. And she's the star of the show; Ken is a supporting actor. She dates Ken because she wants to, not because her parents set her up with him. Barbie is free.

New to the Quotes File

In thinking about that riddle, I was reminded yet again of how upside-down I find much of millennial, Western child rearing to be. I think we have it backwards in our culture: we don't allow babies much of a babyhood, but we treat our older children and teenagers like babies for far too long.

I was kinda curious if the "Rug Doctor" is recognized as having earned a doctorate by any accreditted university. I have found through research that a number of so called "Doctors" are not, in fact, "Doctors". Its not a big deal or anything, I just like to know this kinda stuff. I recently used your product, actually this weekend, after my wife inadvertently fed our jack russell terrier "Gerald" some chili. Believe me, there was no confusing with what made "Gerald" sick.

Anyway, does the "Rug Doctor" fall into the same catagory as Dr. J and Dr. Chapstick? If this is true, I am cool with it. I still like your product. I just don't want to be in some conversation with a person I am trying to impress and make the mistake on commenting on the validity as to whether or not the "Rug Doctor" is actually a real "Doctor".

Not to be outdone by Ford and Chrysler's recent success in re-releasing models previously retired, Chevy is going to bring back the 1977 classic cargo van. Details are still emerging, but early word has it that it will either be called the Chevy P3rv3rt or the Kidnap Cargo Van. Dealers will be required to conduct a full background investigation on all potential buyers.

You're a political consultant. However, you're going to be consulting for your ideological opposite. You're a Democrat at heart but you're trying to get your Republican candidate elected and vice versa. We'll make this easier by putting it on a national scale and pretend we're trying to win the Presidency. What strategy would you employ to get your candidate in office?

Why Consumers Aren't Getting the Full Benefit of E-commerce

After some thought I have concluded that for pacifist tactics to succeed, at the minimum, the following conditions must pertain. One, the pacifist's opponents must be rational (capable of understanding the logic of the pacifist's position). Two, the opponents must have moral values and ideals that are not inimical to the pacifist's. Three, the opponents must respect basic human rights. And four, the pacifist's opponents must not necessarily equate non-violence with weakness.

Of course, the politically correct hand-wringers want nothing to do with this. Sadly, being helpless themselves, sheep tend to instinctively fear anything with canine teeth. Many of them cannot distinguish between the wolf and the sheepdog, and thus fear them both equally.

The psychology of weakness is easy enough to understand. A man armed only with a knife may decide that a bear prowling the forest is a tolerable danger, inasmuch as the alternative - hunting the bear armed only with a knife - is actually riskier than lying low and hoping the bear never attacks. The same man armed with a rifle, however, will likely make a different calculation of what constitutes a tolerable risk. Why should he risk being mauled to death if he doesn't need to?

The rifle itself has no moral stature, since it has no will of its own. Naturally, it may be used by evil men for evil purposes, but there are more good men than evil, and while the latter cannot be persuaded to the path of righteousness by propaganda, they can certainly be corrected by good men with rifles.

One bleeding-heart type asked me in a recent interview if I did not agree that 'violence begets violence.' I told him that it is my earnest endeavor to see that it does. I would like very much to ensure - and in some cases I have - that any man who offers violence to his fellow citizen begets a whole lot more in return than he can enjoy.

An unarmed man can only flee from evil, and evil is not overcome by fleeing from it.

The only conclusion one can draw is that for liberal Democrats, America's strategic interests are not just an irrelevance, but a deterrent to intervention. This is a perversity born of moral vanity. For liberals, foreign policy is social work. National interest - i.e., national selfishness - is a taint. The only justified interventions, therefore, are those which are morally pristine, namely, those which are uncorrupted by any suggestion of national interest.

Hence the central axiom of left-liberal foreign policy: The use of American force is always wrong, unless deployed in a region of no strategic significance to the United States.

David at Free Speech News is a long time Knoxville resident transplanted from Chicago. To catch up and get an idea about the flavor of FSN, you might start with the topics page. Be sure to check out his pre-blog archives, too.

Team Rock is a great new group blog covering the local rock scene it Tri-Cities and beyond. Bonus: there's a report on Goose Creek Symphony. I had no idea they were still around. Cool!

Starting Thursday, the 2,300 parking spaces in the Civic Coliseum garage will be free. Motorists can a free shuttle from the coliseum to most areas of downtown. The wait should be no longer than 10 minutes. It's part of the city's "Unparalleled Parking" program, lasting through the end of September.

Beginning October 1st, parking at the Civic Coliseum garage will cost $15 a month. It will be open weekdays from 6:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m.

There's a new report out from the Federal Trade Commission that says laws like the one Tennessee has banning the sale of wine on the Internet are anti-competitive and drive up prices for consumers. Well... yeah. The FTC says lifting such laws could help consumers save about 20 percent on their wine purchases. The report on online wine sales is part of a broad FTC review of state regulations and whether they are reducing online competition. The FTC: "By allowing interstate direct shipping, states would give consumers the opportunity to save money on their wine purchases, and would let consumers choose from a much greater variety of wines." Twenty-six states ban interstate wine sales online. Tennessee is one of them - in Tennessee it is a felony for a winery to ship wine directly to the consumer. The story notes a previous study indicated that calculated that state restrictions on online wine sales cost consumers more than $15 billion a year.

• Saber saw (nee Skil saw)
• Sawhorses
• Hammer and screwdriver to take door off hinges
• Electric drill (optional)

Instructions

Movie: Milo's First Trip Through the New Cat Flap

Fine Points of Having a Cat Door

The duck pond is, in fact, all that remains of the three-story Fountain Head Hotel, an extravagantly luxurious, alcohol-free resort which was widely known and very nearly gave temperance a good name. Fountain City was "where the morals are as pure as the bracing atmosphere and life-giving water," and to emphasize that sentiment, in 1891 they built a large pond in front of the hotel. Tradition has it that it's roughly heart-shaped because Fountain City had a reputation among Knoxvillians as a place for the young and sober to fall in love.

Well, the hotel was nice while it lasted, with running water in all the rooms from clear First Creek, but in the more practical 20th century it became a sanitarium, and then burned to the ground. The duck pond, and the name Hotel Avenue, are all that remain.

What an assemblage of facilities for enjoyment. I have up here in the mountains, -- kinsfolk, men friends, women friends, books, music, wine, hunting, fishing, billiards, tenpins, chess, eating, mosquitoless sleeping, mountain scenery, and a month of idleness.

SALON: Another topic that's come up lately is pay-for-play in the radio business -- the way artists and labels actually get songs on the radio by paying indie middlemen. I was just wondering if you had any thoughts about that process.

JCM: You might be surprised about how I feel about that: That's the way it's supposed to be.

SALON: In what sense?

JCM: That's the way the music business has always been. And to take that away from a business that has never really operated aboveboard? [Laughs.] Listen, there is no way that you can devise it so that people are not going to figure out how to get around it.

SALON: When it comes to getting songs on the radio?

JCM: Sure. There is no way it can be done. Look, in the '80s when people were paying openly to get songs on the radio, here's the way it worked. "We want you to play this record and we're going to give you a spiff [kickback] of $100 to get it on the radio." OK, the guy plays it for a week and says, "I've been playing the song for a week and nobody likes it." "Well, here's $200 to play it next week." They've been playing the song for two weeks and nobody likes it. Guess what, they're done paying. It's over at that point. You cannot pay your way into having a hit. It won't happen. The only thing you can pay your way into is having the opportunity to have a hit. If you don't pay, you don't even have the opportunity. That's the way it should be done.

SALON: What about the folks who can't afford to have an opportunity?

JCM: I hate to be cruel about it, but that's the way it's always been.

They were talking to Glick today on the radio, and he seemed like a reasonable enough fellow. I was impressed that he didn't seem to feel intimidated or flustered whatsoever by O'Reilly's yelling. He had another little interesting "off camera" story. After O'Reilly threatened to tear him to fucking pieces, he pointed out to O'Reilly that he's essentially "Joe Millionaire in reverse" - claiming to stand-up for the working-class hero, when in fact he's a white-elitist multi-millionaire.

According to the Birmingham Business Journal, Knoxville is soon to have a new entry in its long-beleaguered apparel industry. A company called Nippits, Inc., manufactures special adhesive tape that helps fashionable ladies in thin dresses conceal their nipples from unwanted detection. The Nippit has reportedly already been worn by some of the most fabulously breasted women of Hollywood, including Julia Roberts, Jennifer Lopez, and Angelina Jolie, and by Carrie-Anne Moss in the new sequels to The Matrix. Developer Sheila Johnson, a Birmingham entrepreneur and former model, and her physician husband Kraig Johnson have reportedly bought "manufacturing capacity at a factory in Knoxville, Tenn." They have sold more than 300,000 of the accessories at $5-10 per five-pair pack.

Stay on the lookout for new licensed products including Idleaire Pull-Ups. They're absorbant, disposable pull-up underwear for bigger kids suffering from enuresis and nighttime incontinence. Plus they have the added benefit of in-pants air conditioning, Internet access and electrification.

After having the worst headache in my life all day Saturday - you know the one the medical home reference books tell you may be a tumor and to seek help immediately - after having one of those until 3AM - I fell asleep and woke up at 10AM - rushed off to church, groggy, un-coffied, and generally a lot grumpier than Jesus would have wanted me whilst I was engaged in the meal of transubstantiation. But I digress..

The real joy of the day came when we went to the [Knoxville] zoo. The billboards for the new Meerkat exhibits read something like:

"MEERKAT MADNESS - Come see the new Meerkat exhibit - It's EXTREMELY NOT BORING"

Well you know that can only mean one thing - Meerkats are the most boring animal on the face of the earth.

We in Oak Ridge have a Dead Mall. The only two flourishing businesses down in that shopping center very wisely decided not to be physically attached to the mall proper. Thus, the rot that killed the mall has not spread to their healthy limbs. The movie theater---well, that was so it could get parking on more sides of it, I think. But the Super Wal-Mart---that was more of Sam's savvy, I suspect.

The suit alleges that group members were blindfolded and handcuffed with Velcro, ``dragged out'' to the parking lot and told to climb in the back of a truck. According to the suit, Janie Doe fought back and pleaded to be let go but was laughed and yelled at by one of her alleged captors.

The suit claims she managed to escape but was grabbed again, blindfolded and handcuffed with metal cuffs which caused her to cry out in pain. She was allegedly lifted and put in the truck, then driven to another location where she was led by her arm down a hill and lined up with the other youth group members.

The suit alleges the group was told there would be ``one chance to deny Christ, or you will be killed.'' When Janie Doe refused to deny Christ, the suit says there was the sound of a gunshot and she was soaked with water, then she began ``screaming and crying'' before being told to go inside the residence of another church member.

You can always tell a foreigner by how they say "Oak Ridge." Any native will say "oak RIDGE." Foreigners say "OAK ridge." Now some foreigners say it right, but you can bet that anyone who says it wrong is Not From Around Here.

Funny Stuff

Candidate Bush Supports Environmental Legislation
Bush Won't Touch Social Security Surplus "Under Any Condition"
Bipartisan Bush Presidency To Change Tone In Washington
Rumsfeld Assures: No Plans To Invade Iraq
Rumsfeld: U.S. Has "Bulletproof Evidence" Of Iraq-Al Qaeda Connection
Ashcroft Domestic Security Enhancement Act To Further Protect American Freedoms
Bush Economic Stimulus To Benefit Everyone, Not Just The Wealthy
George W. Bush Elected

Like the proverbial dog chasing a car, the Induhviduals [Al-Qaeda] haven't considered what would happen if they caught one. For example, let's say they (the Induhviduals, not the dogs) accomplish their stated goal of destroying the economies of the Western world. Is that really a good plan for people who live in a desert and import most of their food?

Just for the record, if I'm down to my last potato, I'm not sharing it with a guy who wants to kill me so he can get a better supply of virgins in paradise. That lesson is a little thing I call Economics 101, infidel style.

So, what do the Dixie Chicks do when angry right-wing morons get them kicked off the radio, burn their CDs, and organize boycotts against them?

Why, they sing louder and prouder, they get their nekkid pictures on the cover of a magazine, they wear controversial t-shirts, and enjoy a boost in sales and popularity.

So, what does a racist, homophobic, misogynistic right-wing radio talk show lunatic do when angry listeners organize a boycott that results in the loss of a couple of ad accounts?

Why, he sues the hell out of everybody in sight! That's the deep-pocket Republican thing to do, you know, stomp the little guy and take his wallet. Freedom from speech! Freedom from association! Freedom from truth!

New to the Quotes File

When I commit a crime, I like to use ten thousand dollar rifles and four dollar bullets. Fortunately, California has put a stop to me.

Oh, one last thing [says Dutoit]: if you want to be mischievous, you can substitute a MuzzleLite stock for either of the the above rifles, and make your harmless lil' ol' .22 rifle look like something from Sarah Brady's worst nightmares:

The best part, of course, is that the rifle is no different from its original function, it just looks more scary.

THE PERILS OF DIVERSITY: Also from the Jim Lehrer show:

ALEX JONES: And I think these two firings - not two firings, these two resignations, these two... this dramatic gesture that has been made by Howell Raines and Gerald Jordan...
TERENCE SMITH: Gerald Boyd...
ALEX JONES: ...I mean, Gerald Boyd.. is something that has a great symbolic power, and I'm hoping that that is going to say that this is a, you know, a ship that is too important to not do the painful thing when it's required.

Gerald Boyd. Michael Jordan. Michael Boyd. Gerald Jordan. Hard to keep all those black guys straight sometimes, isn't it?

Some of your email responses to my post about Jonah Goldberg's baby is worth responding to in a post. My point, broadly, is that heterosexuals do not usually realize that they disclose their sexual orientation all the time. Whenever they mention a wife or husband or child or all the other quotidian aspects of being straight, they don't think of it as a declaration of heterosexuality. They just think they're talking about life. And they are. But with gay people, any such references to our partners or homes or joint travels is regarded as somehow bringing up sex. Here's en email that expresses the point well:

I hope the Jonah tiff is tongue-in-cheek. The equating of the birth of a child or a father's pride with your lust for the boyfriend is stunningly stupid.

Note that this reader can only conceive of my relationship in terms of lust. Not love or companionship or respect or shared interests or reading the paper together or taking turns to walk the dog or watching Jimmy Kimmel each night. All my relationship will ever be to this reader is sex. Here's another email making the point more graphically:

I'm not sure you'll get your wish. Heterosexuality is normal and it's about life. Homosexuality is about sex. It's normal and reasonable for heterosexuals to be repelled by implications of homosexual sex.

But homosexuality is no more about sex than heterosexuality. It's a sexual and emotional orientation with exactly the same contours, dramas, blessings and bugbears as heterosexuality. 99 percent of a gay relationship is about life when sex isn't happening. It's about waking up together, getting to know each others' friends and family, getting into a fight on vacation, or complaining about the weak coffee your boyfriend just made. That's what I think of when I mention the boyfriend. I wouldn't dream of talking about our sex life, which is as private as any heterosexual's. And part of the trap gay people are in is that we don't even have a vocabulary to describe our lives. Imagine trying to describe your relationship with your wife or husband without being able to ue the terms 'wife' or 'husband.' Would 'girlfriend' do? Or 'partner'? Or some other either infantilizing or euphemized term? Without the right to marry and the vocabulary of marriage, gay people will be permanently, rhetorically and culturally marginalized, shunted to the side of families into which they are born, uniquely unable to participate in the rituals that bind families together and keep them intact. That's why marriage is so important an issue. And that's why the fight for equal marriage rights does not come from a place that wants to hurt the traditional family. For most of us, it comes from a desire to finally be enfranchised in the traditional family into which we were born. It's a unifying, conservative impulse. And it has almost nothing to do with sex as such at all.

Pennsylvania is poised to join the growing number of states that are abandoning helmet laws for adult motorcyclists.

The trend toward letting adult motorcyclists decide whether they should wear helmets can be traced back to Congress's 1995 repeal of a federal law that linked highway funds to such restrictions. Currently, only 20 states still require riders to wear helmets; three states have no helmet law; and 27 allow adults to ride without helmets, though some require additional insurance.

• Downhill skiing (see Michael Kennedy and Sonny Bono)
  
• Hanggliding
  
• Kayaking
  
• Motorcycle riding. Period. Why don't we make them drive cars like normal people? Think of the insurance money we'll save!
  
• Driving small, fuel-efficient cars. Let's make people who buy tiny cars criminals. After all, they're risking greater injury and driving up insurance rates compared to people who drive Volvos and Cadillac Escalades.
  
• Living within 20 miles of an earthquake fault line, active volcano, floodplain, hurricane center, or tornado alley.
  
• Mountain climbing
  
• Scuba diving
  
• Solo backpacking
  
• Taking a bath or shower. Lots of accidents occur in the tub. Let's make people sponge themselves clean.
  
• Walking down the stairs without wearing a football helmet and safety tether.
  
• X-Treme Sports in all their glory
  

Political participation is much more prevalent among people who are educated and wealthy enough to concern themselves with more than mere economic subsistence. Although the opportunity cost of voting is higher for someone with high education and high earnings than for the unemployed, the more affluent are more likely to vote. Similarly, although the impoverished have a low opportunity cost in terms of time, they are less likely to become engaged in terrorist organizations because they are less involved politically in general, and less committed to the objectives of the terrorist organizations.

Instead of viewing terrorism as a response -- either direct or indirect -- to poverty or ignorance, we suggest that it is more accurately viewed as a response to political conditions and longstanding feelings of indignity and frustration that have little to do with economic circumstances. We suspect that is why international terrorist acts are more likely to be committed by people who grew up under repressive political regimes.

There are many good reasons to improve education and reduce poverty in poor countries. Alas, reducing terrorism is probably not one of them.

Jerusalem Israel is not a sympathy case. Conventional wisdom in international politics is "Nations do not have friends. They have interests." Nonetheless the U.S. occasionally tries to help suffering people in foreign countries where it serves no apparent U.S. interest. Could Israel be one of these places? Compared to the average person on Planet Earth, Israeli citizens, including the 1.2 million Arabs (2000 census), live in a paradise of economic prosperity and equality with representative government with a functioning and powerful legal system. Looking just within the region we could find many folks more deserving of sympathy, starting with the slaves held in Sudan, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (www.iabolish.com). Or we could decide that charity begins at home; one can certainly find a lot more folks begging in the streets of Seattle and San Francisco than in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem.

If Muslims hate the U.S. more than average it is probably simply because they have a longer than average list of things that are making them unhappy. Most Muslims are poor, getting poorer, and living under dictatorships in which they are essentially the personal property of the rulers. Most Muslims are exposed, at least via television, to a world in which women are permitted to show their heads in public, drive cars, and defy orders from their fathers and husbands. Most Muslims live in societies that lack the technological wherewithal to manufacture lightbulbs, much less the advanced weapons that will be necessary to overpower the infidels. And it can all be blamed on the United States.

"U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer became an instant hero to medical marijuana users in California, advocates of liberalizing the nation's drug laws, and opponents of the federal government's at-times obsessive pursuit of special causes to serve a political agenda," MAYORBOB writes. "The defendant was Ed Rosenthal, who had been found guilty on three counts, which included his having grown and possessed more than 100 marijuana plants. Rosenthal, who claimed innocence on all charges because he was growing the weed as an authorized medical marijuana grower, was staring at the possibility of spending the next six decades behind bars. Following his trial, a number of the jurors registered their anger with the court over not having been able to hear the extenuating circumstances of Rosenthal's activities being legal under California law.

"Breyer, who was the trial court judge who was criticized by the jury members, ordered that Rosenthal serve one day in jail on each of the three counts he was charged with, and with the charges to run concurrently. Rosenthal walked out of court, essentially a free man because he had already spent more than a day in jail awaiting his original arraignment. The crowd in the courtroom, which was heavily populated with Rosenthal supporters erupted into applause and cheers at the news.

Here's a simple question for those of you still concerned the war in Iraq was unjustified because no WMD's have been found yet.

If a hypothetical researcher had been given a research grant to find a treatment for SARS, and in the course of the research instead found the cure for all kinds of cancer...would you be upset that all that money had been wasted on SARS research?

Just in time for Our Nation's Birthday

Perfect for gifts or to keep as collectibles, our patriotic miniature copper engravings are sure to satisfy. Each toroidal engraving is a mere 1.92 centimeters in diameter! The frontispiece of this tiny artwork is adorned with a high quality engraving of the Great Emancipator -- but that's not enough -- we've also ensured that the obverse was decorated, with an architecturally correct rendering of the 16th President's memorial!

These tiny patriotic engravings are a great tribute to our nation and the ingenuity of it's craftsmen. One can be yours today for only $20!

Checks payable to:

Chris Range
PO Box 70227
Knoxville TN 37938

(*Sorry - due to the subjective value of art, no returns can be accepted. +fronti nulla fides)

The drive took us through Highway 129, including the infamous stretch known as the Dragon's Run, which I mentioned in the Townsend traveller's guide. In 11 miles the road convulses through 318 sick turns that attract driving enthusiasts, and especially sport bikes. We got to see some great motorcycle riding, and a stream of Honda SR2000s that were touring the mountains. If you're prone to carsickness, take Dramamine. One of our intrepid travellers puked at around turn number 210.

Do you use EarthLink to access the Internet in Tennessee, Texas, New Mexico, Ohio, North Dakota, South Dakota, or Wisconsin? If so, you will soon be paying taxes on it. Those states are not subject to the Internet Tax Freedom Act, which bans taxes on Internet access, because they had such taxes in place before the law was passed. EarthLink has announced it will start passing along those taxes to its customers in those seven states. Previously, it had just absorbed those costs.

The Legislature approved a new special license plate bearing the slogan "Choose Life" by lopsided margins despite criticism from a few lawmakers. As with other special license plates, it will cost an extra $25 to purchase and production will not begin until 1,000 persons have signed up to buy one.

The license plate bill, sponsored by Franklin Republicans Sen. Jim Bryson and Rep. Glenn Casada, was pushed by Tennessee Right To Life, an antiabortion organization. Under the bill, 50 percent of proceeds from sale of the plates will go to New Life Resources - which has close ties to Tennessee Right To Life - for distribution to 49 specified agencies across the state that provide pregnancy counseling and adoption services.

Republicans Suck
Democrats Suck Slightly More
Eat Meat Because It’s Normal
Vote Libertarian, Nobody Will Notice
Nuke The Gay Whales For Jesus
Fags Are Okay
No Income Tax Was Used To Pay For This License Plate
Buy A Gun, You Pansy
Destroying Civil Liberties Is Like Letting The Terrorists Win

New to the Quotes File

"You'll think I'm off my trolley when I say this, but the Bush administration is the most radical - in a positive sense - in its approach to Africa since Kennedy," Geldof told the Guardian.

The neo-conservatives and religious rightwingers who surrounded President George Bush were proving unexpectedly receptive to appeals for help, he said. "You can get the weirdest politicians on your side."

Former president Bill Clinton had not helped Africa much, despite his high-profile visits and apparent empathy with the downtrodden, the organiser of Live Aid, claimed. "Clinton was a good guy, but he did fuck all."

A new consensus developed in Portland a few decades ago after our progressive governor Tom McCall had the courage to kvetch in public about the "unspeakable ugliness" being built and strewn all over the place. The urban design code was scrapped. We started over, promising to sin no more.

An Urban Growth Boundary was established to separate city from countryside. Urban sprawl screeched to a halt, and it hasn't moved since. Not for thirty years has Portland expanded outward even an inch. Instead of sprawling outward, developers had to fill in the unused or underused land inside the city. (Want to encourage slum-renovation without having to pay for it? There's your answer. Three decades after the establishment of the Urban Growth Boundary, Portland has revitalized 100 percent of its slums for the straightforward reason that inner-city land cannot be neglected any longer in favor of sprawl.)

All building have to be built to the sidewalk (just like in the Victorian era!), which effectively bans strip malls and "Big Boxes" (like Walmart) which surround themselves with parking lagoons. Buildings must have windows at street level so that pedestrians are no longer subjected to sinister blank walls along sidewalks. Buildings must be mixed-use, with retail shops on the ground floor and apartments above. This way, people can go downstairs to get their groceries or their lattes instead of getting in their car and driving three miles to a parking lot.

New to the Quotes File

Al-Jazeera and Mr Ali have been accused by western media of collaborating with the former regime in Baghdad, which the ex-director general visited before the US-led war, interviewing the president for an hour.

Ahmed Chalabi, leader of the American-backed Iraqi National Congress, has accused several Al-Jazeera journalists of working for Iraqi agencies based on documents allegedly found in state archives in Baghdad.

Al-Jazeera enjoyed a special status in pre-war Iraq, being allowed to work independently of the information ministry which strictly controlled foreign media.

Late last year the NAS [National Academy of Sciences] published its findings. It determined that the polygraph was not a worthless tool -- indeed, that it was much worse than worthless. The report said that "available evidence indicates that polygraph testing as currently used has extremely serious limitations . . . if the intent is both to identify security risks and protect valued employees." The NAS panel, made up of internationally respected psychologists and statisticians, further determined that the test was so nonspecific that even if the polygraphers managed to finally uncover their first spy, at least 100 innocent laboratory employees would have their clearances yanked because of the "false positives" inherent in the test. The NAS concluded: "Polygraph testing yields an unacceptable choice . . . between too many loyal employees falsely judged deceptive and too many major security threats left undetected. Its accuracy . . . is insufficient to justify reliance on its use in employee security screening in federal agencies." It doesn't get much clearer than that.

• E-commerce
  
  • Why Consumers Aren't Getting the Full Benefit of E-commerce
    
  • E-commerce Companies in the Knoxville, Tennessee Metro Area
  
  
• Guns
  
  • .410 Handguns and Some Excellent Gun Links
  • Assault Weapons
    
  • Gun-Fearing Wussies in California
    
  • Melissa Learns to Shoot, and a Pair of .22 Target Pistols
    
  • Review: North American Arms Black Widow
    
  • Thoughts on Power and Weakness
    
  
  
• It's funny. Laugh.
  
  • Elvis is the Watermelon
    
  • GOUT!
  
  
• Knoxville
  
  • Daytrips near Knoxville
    • Chattanooga
      
    • Crossville
      
    • Jonesborough
      
    • Townsend
    
    
  • Knoxville Night Life
  
  
• Misc.
  • Do You Think I'm Addicted to Coffee?
    
  • Transient Ischemic Attacks (TIA)
  
  
• Politics
  
  • Homosexuality
    
  • Tennessee Income Tax
  
  
• Wedding
  
  • Bridesmaids Dresses
    
  • Lighter Side of the Ball and Chain
    
  • Modern Bride
    
  • Wedding Plan Version 2.0
    
  • Wedding Registry, Etc.
    
  
  

PHILIPPINES: US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld prepares to tear away the rubber mask hiding his true face, a glowing red skull, moments before incinerating a crowd of onlookers with his heat vision.

INNSMOUTH, MASS.: US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld reveals the first stages of his transformation into a Deep One, the hybrid fishmen now scheduled to take control of the Federal Government no later than Q4 2003.

• 4 1-inch pork chops
  
• 3 tbsp flour
  
• 2 tbsp butter
  
• half cup water
  
• 2 tsp prepared mustard
  
• 2 tbsp capers
  
• half cup beef stock
  
• half cup sour cream
  

I genuinely feel that I ran for this office and was elected on the premise that I was not going to propose an income tax during my term as governor and I have no intention of doing it. I guess if I were convinced that was far and away the best way to do something, I would want to give people a referendum chance and by making it clear that I intended to explore that alternative in a second term in governor and making it clear during the campaign.

It is settled law in Tennessee at this time that an income tax on any income other than incomes from stocks and bonds is unconstitutional. Since there is no plan to change this by constitutional amendment, this rule cannot be changed by the Legislature or an opinion of the Attorney General. It can be changed only by a Supreme Court decision overruling all three prior decisions of the Supreme Court on this point.

The arguments in favor of repealing the dividend tax have to do with removing distortions from the capital markets and from the incentives faced by corporations, and with improving transparency in corporate accounting. Removing distortions from the capital markets is a good thing for long-term growth. This tax cut is not a short-term stimulus, still less a short-term stimulus to the stock market. The desirable effects that it is supposed to have would all be defeated by a three-year sunset clause; corporations aren't going to restructure their debt practices, their dividends vs. stock buyback practices, for such a short-term provision. If one wants to go the Keynesian route, then the taxes to cut aren't those that have to do with capital allocation and corporate governance. I think it would be better to have a coherent supply-side tax cut (say, a small permanent reduction in the capital gains tax) or a coherent Keynesian cut (a three-year increase in personal exemptions) or a combination of the two or... well, anything that at least might be intelligible. Instead, Senators are voting for something that no one's theory or argument predicts will do anything useful.

Administration officials say that the $310 million suddenly added to my wallet would stimulate the economy because I would invest it and thereby create jobs. But they conveniently forget that if Berkshire kept the money, it would invest that same amount, creating jobs as well.

The Senate's plan invites corporations -- indeed, virtually commands them -- to contort their behavior in a major way. Were the plan to be enacted, shareholders would logically respond by asking the corporations they own to pay no more dividends in 2003, when they would be partially taxed, but instead to pay the skipped amounts in 2004, when they'd be tax-free. Similarly, in 2006, the last year of the plan, companies should pay double their normal dividend and then avoid dividends altogether in 2007.

Overall, it's hard to conceive of anything sillier than the schedule the Senate has laid out. Indeed, the first President Bush had a name for such activities: "voodoo economics." The manipulation of enactment and sunset dates of tax changes is Enron-style accounting, and a Congress that has recently demanded honest corporate numbers should now look hard at its own practices.

Instead, give reductions to those who both need and will spend the money gained. Enact a Social Security tax "holiday" or give a flat-sum rebate to people with low incomes. Putting $1,000 in the pockets of 310,000 families with urgent needs is going to provide far more stimulus to the economy than putting the same $310 million in my pockets.

When you listen to tax-cut rhetoric, remember that giving one class of taxpayer a "break" requires -- now or down the line -- that an equivalent burden be imposed on other parties. In other words, if I get a break, someone else pays. Government can't deliver a free lunch to the country as a whole. It can, however, determine who pays for lunch. And last week the Senate handed the bill to the wrong party.

I try very, very hard to take seriously the homosexuals that write to me and insist that they aren't like the sickos that dominate the public image of homosexuals in the San Francisco Bay Area, where I used to live. I am prepared to believe them. I know a number of homosexuals who are looking to live in peace, who don't think that public masturbation is an appropriate expression of Gay Pride, who think that the North American Man-Boy Love Association is a bunch of monsters who need to arrested and sent to prison. This crowd has stable, normal, lifestyles (other than the sex of their sexual partner).

This subset of homosexuals (at least, I would like to believe it is a subset) is a very dangerous population, not just because AIDS burdens both the public and private health systems in the U.S., but because there are so many social pathologies that are part of this very warped crowd: coprophilia (hence, the high rates of hepatitis among gay men); sadomasochism (favorite disturbing quote from the San Francisco Police Department while recruiting police officers in an S&M club in the early 1990s: "We don't have teach use of restraint devices to this crowd!"); either active support or tacit approval of groups like NAMBLA; the weird and insulting stereotypes of the histronic, effeminate male homosexual; the self-mutilation fetishism. Once you define homosexuality as "an alternative lifestyle," with all the protections of our civil rights laws, where does this take our society? Somewhere it shouldn't go. I am not interested in defending a society that makes excuses for child molestation.

Which One Should I Buy?

• AR-15.com - History and mods for the AR-15/M-16/H4.
  
• Bushmaster - AR-15 rifles and accessories
  
• Israeli Military Industries - Uzi Submachine Gun
  

How to Make a Southern Hurricane

As if I didn't know that,
As if I didn't know my own bed,
As if I'd never noticed,
The way she brushed her hair and farted

As if I never noticed,
The way she brushed her hair from far away

As if I never noticed,
The way she brushed her hair from her forehead

Well, the sun gets bloody and the sun goes down
Elvis is the watermelon

Well, the sun gets bloody and the sun goes down
Ever since the watermelon

East end

West end, from near to far

Knoxville Night Life Links

• Knox Dining - Restaurant reviews


• Metro Pulse - Everything good in Knoxville: restaurant reviews, events, movies, and a definitive Entertainment Calendar with music listings.

Car Buying Resources

• Car and Driver - White Snow and the 11 Dwarves - excellent test of 11 small SUVs and AWD wagons.


• Carfax automotive history - Using the VIN (vehicle identification number) posted in the car's windshield, Carfax will check for odometer rollback, wreck history, insurance claims, title history and more. A one month subscription with unlimited searches is just $19.00. That's a bargain compared to the expense of fixing a lemon, or finding out that your "creampuff" has a junk salvage title or flood history.


• Carfax Used Car Search - The unsung jewel of the Carfax site. Their used car search service is the most comprehensive I've found. Even better, all of the cars listed have a free Carfax report attached.


• Cartalk web site from Click and Clack.


• Consumer Reports Auto Section - Comprehensive tests and reliability surveys. Consumer Reports accepts no advertising, so their reviews and advice are unbiased. Because there's no advertising, they require a subscription to access most information.

Subaru Resources

• Outback FAQ


• Replacing the factory stereo in a Subaru Legacy Outback


• Subaru Shrine


• Unofficial Subaru Legacy Outback Home Page

Townsend and Walland Links

• About Townsend - Good site for tourist information.


• Camp Wesley Woods - Summer camp for kids.

Crossville Links

• Crossville Chronicle - The local paper of record.


• Crossville Online - Local web site. Recommended!


• Cumberland County Playhouse - Well-known playhouse with a full schedule of productions.


• Homestead Bed and Breakfast - A B&B in the homesteads and park area.


• Ozone Falls - A beautiful waterfall located just five milles off of I-40. You can be lazy and see the falls from a perch above, or you can reach the base of the falls with a short hike.

Chattanooga

Chattanooga Links

• Chattanooga and the Civil War - North Georgia Historical Society page.


• Chattanooga Times Free Press - The daily newspaper. Funny story: the Chattanooga News and the Chattanooga Free Press merged to form the Chattanooga News Free Press. (If you didn't laugh, read that name again.) Why didn't they call it the Free News Press? Beats me. After a lot of ribbing they changed it to the Times Free Press.


• Harrison Bay State Park - State park just minutes from Chattanooga. Camping, hiking, swimming and a Jack Nicklaus Bear Trace golf course.


• Lake Winnie amusement park - Terri Smith writes "I just want to add, in case you guys go back, the fact that you missed the most exciting thing to me "near" Chattanooga (to me this is in Chattanooga but I'm not sure where the Chattanooga suburbs start and stop). Anyway, this was my favorite place when I was young and still cool if you like to ride theme-park rides."

• Transient Ischmeic Attacks (TIA)
  
• NINDS TIA Information Page
  
• TIA - Health Risk Factors
  
• Know the warning signs of stroke
  

KNOXVILLE, TN—Amanda Gentry, 25, has misinterpreted longtime boyfriend Wilson Crandall's recent breakup hints - including erratic behavior and strange, cryptic remarks about their future - as marriage-proposal hints.

"I can tell Wilson is getting ready to pop the question," Gentry said. "The last few weeks, he's been acting so weird. He keeps saying he needs to 'take stock of his life' and 'face some important decisions he's been putting off.' I hear wedding bells!"

Gentry has also misinterpreted Crandall's recent frugality as an effort to save up money for the future.

"It's so cute how he's trying to cut back on expenses," Gentry said. "We never go out to dinner anymore, or the movies, or even the bars. He must be working on one doozy of a rock."

"MARRIED BY AMERICA" (tentative title) is a groundbreaking reality-based show that invites the viewing audience to be your personal matchmaker.

With the help of relationship experts, potential mates will be hand picked, especially for you.

Then, your closest friends and family will have the chance to meet these singles, and winnow them down to two.

All the while the home audience will be getting to know you and what you're looking for in love, so they can weigh in and make the final decision - which of these partners is right for you.

• Open an HTML editor
  
• Write
  
• Download the old files
  
• Move them into an archive template
  
• Upload the old files to the web server with FTP
  
• Code links to the archive files on the front page and archive page
  
• Upload the new files
  

• Open Blogger's web page from any computer in the world
  
• Type into a web page
  
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Zan really, really loves this site...he woke up last night around 3 am, poked me on the shoulder, and whispered "Daddy, I want to see the picture of the car stuck in the hole. They need to call a tow truck and get that car out".

Everything was crazy on Friday, so I wanted to send Patty a note to verify she actually changed the dates. That would be awful if she forgot to change it in the book!!! If something else major happens, we are going to Hawaii with my dress and getting married on the beach!

Isn't it amazing how much organizing goes into something that only takes a few minutes?

Let's see, honeymoon in August. Depends on if you're on a tight budget and short schedule. Iceland. Montreal is suppose to be neat. The Pacific NW and Vancover is cool also. Of course where we went was also cool - Wales and England. Where is the off season in August? New Orleans I know is discounted in August because it is 100% humidity and 100 degrees. Take a cruise on a small ship up the Rhine or somewhere. Those are available in several countries. As usual, I'm off dreaming of places to go. Go to Newfoundland and to I think it is Prince Edwards Island where many Acadians live (associated with Cajuns - French folks)

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