I had my Concealed Carry Deadly Weapons (CCDW) course yesterday. Awesome class. In addition to getting to fire a kick-ass S&W .357 Magnum the highlight for me was learning Kentucky law on the use of deadly force.

Whenever I read a story about someone who employed a firearm in self-defense there is always that uneasy moment where I’m waiting for one question to be answered: Is the shooter being charged? The law is about as clear as it can be but at points it still calls for subjective judgment as to the shooter’s mindset.

My favorite part of the law:

A person does not have a a duty to retreat if the person is in a place where he or she has a right to be.

This is where I’m at right now, and this isn’t just about guns.

I’m just tired of giving ideological ground. However this election turns out, it will be a massive loss of ground for America. It is disheartening to have to wait with baited breath to see if the highest court in the land still thinks that the Constitution still applies.

You have to know what you believe and you have to stand by that.

First, I rejoice in the Supreme Court’s Heller decision. I hope the NRA will quickly be able to parlay this victory in rolling back similar 2nd Ammendment infringements around the country. That said, here in the aftermath of the decision there is still plenty to be concerned about.

That this is big news is one problem right off. Really this should be a simple case of the Supreme Court fulfilling its role in striking down Unconstitutional Laws. It really should be “ho hum” stuff.

Instead we are somehow left feeling fortunate that the highest court in the land decided to let us keep our Constitutional rights for a little while longer. Who knows but what we were one Justice Kennedy sleepless night or poorly-digested supper away from an avalanche of stifling gun control legislation based on the DC model which, for all intents and purposes, was a handgun ban.

We are left realizing that, with what could easily be a Democratic landslide election looming, this victory may be short-lived. If you want a scare go read some of the commentary by the dissenting Justices and others who disagree with the court’s decision. There are far too many people who feel that when your case is compelling enough it’s OK to simply set aside the freedoms guaranteed to us by the Constitution.

I’ve been reading up the original debate of ratification of the Constitution and realizing that for our 230+ year history as a nation we still haven’t solved one foundational debate. The Federalists wanted a united nation and more prominent central government for the advantages the arrangement would bring, particularly in dealing with external threats. Meanwhile the Anti-Federalists possessed a healthy skepticism toward concentrated power and were reluctant to yield too much authority to a central government.

Now, more than two centuries later we can safely say that both sides were right. We would not be half the country that we are today had we remained a loose collection of ambivalent colonies. But we can also look to Washington and see all of the problems and corruption inherent in big government on full display. When we look back we probably owe the greatest debt to neither the staunch Federalists or Anti-Federalists. For the liberty that we have, our greatest thanks should go to those men who refused to ratify the Constitution until a promise of 10 Amendments guaranteeing personal freedom was secured.

First of all a warning: this is, quite literally, potty humor, but probably the best ever.

For a guaranteed laugh check out today’s Passive-Agressive Note. As PAN’s go, this one is average. But! If comment #21 doesn’t have you laughing to the point of tears, nothing will.

So, read the note just to hone in the subject at hand. And it would probably be best to peruse the other comments en route. You can’t miss #21. It’s the long one.

Ran across a story from right here in Louisville about two men who were shot while breaking into a home. It seems like a pretty clear case of someone up to no good getting what was coming to them. Yet there seems to be an effort in the piece to re-paint one of the punks.

First they quote the enabling relative:

” … he once had dreams of NBA stardom,”

Alas, that was just sympathy-seeking background. Now for the money shot. You’ve always got to have one of these when someone is caught in a criminal act:

“It’s just something that he wouldn’t do and it’s been eating at me all night long. It’s like, no, that’s not Daz,” she said. “I don’t know if he was forced into doing it, but that is not my nephew.”

And then the writer saw fit to lend a hand:

“Family members said Turner was once a star point guard for Valley High School who was working toward getting his GED while preparing to be a first-time father this summer.” (emphasis added)

That is the best spin ever!!

But I have a question: If the due date is this summer, weren’t the “preparations” pretty much complete?

I haven’t found any follow-up but I think we can all assume he was probably forced into getting the girl pregnant … seeing as he’s the next “Magic” Johnson and all.

Anyway, it sure is a good thing they added some detail. Here I was thinking that this was a 19-yr-old punk who hadn’t finished school, but had finished knocking up his girlfriend and was running amuck breaking into people’s homes.

Turns out it was just some innocent kid with wholesome dreams of being a sports star who, by all rights, probably had no choice but to turn to crime in order to buy diapers and formula. It’s enough to make a guy weep I tell you.

A great read over at the Atlantic …

Why is crime rising in so many American cities? The answer implicates one of the most celebrated antipoverty programs of recent decades.

Before you start, settle in because it’s a long piece. Take your blood pressure meds, too. You’ll become increasingly pissed off with each passing paragraph. Or maybe that’s just me. I can’t take a detached, “Hmmm, that’s fascinating” approach when liberals screw up people’s lives with their experiments because they are intellectually incapable of considering long-term consequences.

In 2003, the Brookings Institution published a list of the 15 cities where the number of high-poverty neighborhoods had declined the most. In recent years, most of those cities have also shown up as among the most violent in the U.S., according to FBI data.

Crime and thugs coming to a neighborhood near you thanks to some pinhead with a theory and no risk of ever having to endure the consequences of his failed social experiment.

(thanks to Power Line for the pointer)

I landed on IMAO the other day when I was looking to soothe my political angst in the middle of an election season that promises one guy who isn’t nearly as bad as the other guy, but where the other guy is soooo bad that it still leaves room for the first guy to be horrible. It is quickly becoming my favorite site.

Today’s Obama lampoon is one of the best yet, which is saying something. This is, after all, fertile ground and IMAO has been hard at it. I tried to pick out a best line, but this one is loaded with golden nuggets: “Hope will pay your tuition,” “…voting for me to prove you’re not racist,” and, “Same way I’ll pay for everything … by stealing money from someone who has more of it than you but less than me,” are all good ones. But what caught my eye was the perfect photo caption: “There, there, photogenic white girl.”

This one is well worth the look.

Thanks to Jonathan at Chicago Boyz for pointing this one out. We could use some folks who are this clear and vigorous in the face of the agenda-driven media.

Like anyone else, I’m not a big fan of the high gas prices. But, I’m not getting all bent out of shape about it. That’s life. Things like that happen and I believe it is not the individual’s place to cry about it, but instead to adapt and overcome.

What does piss me off are those who would use the situation to make political hay while simultaneously cutting off some of the most obvious solutions. For example, we’ll consider tapping into the strategic reserve, but heaven forbid we should consider lifting some of the restrictions on drilling.

And now this: Here in Louisville, TARC (city bus system) is raising fares and … CUTTING ROUTES!

I have no problem with the new fare. $1.00 up to $1.25 … it’s still a good deal and they are liberal with the transfers, so no big deal.

But cutting routes? I fail to see how that is going to help anyone. Certainly not the passengers who live on the routes being cut. But I don’t even see it helping TARC. The system is a joke to begin with so I’m not surprised that they’ve identified routes that are less used. But some of the areas that are about to lose service are densely populate with folks who will increasingly be looking for alternatives to driving their car.

Actually I’m a good case in point. I live straight down a highway from where I work and would have no qualms about taking the bus to and from work at least part of the time. To do this however, I’d have to ride a bit. Get off. Walk a mile up the road and pick up another bus. And again, this is just to go straight down a major highway.

Raising prices and cutting service are two unimaginative solutions which must have required five minutes of thinking between them.

If you want to get creative and turn your lemons into lemonade, here are some ideas:

• Analyze the whole system and come up with routes that better serve different areas of the county.
• A little Marketing is probably in order. TARC has something people want right now, but they need to create some awareness and do a little image repair. Better routes, by the way, would definitely be a grabber for the audience.
• In addition to raising rates, how about putting a little pressure on local government for some breaks seeing as you provide an important service at this point in time. Let’s take our leaders at their word when they pay lip service to wanting to do something about the gas crisis.

This is awesome, and perhaps a reason to give anonymously.

Zoom in and find out way too much about your neighbors’ political donations. Name, address, occupation, employer, how much and to whom. It’s all there.

So, another event where Phil Mickelson is ready to challenge Tiger has come and gone.  With the two in the same threesome on Thursday and Friday, Mickelson was able to get to his usual choke job early.

– B –

As drama goes, can it possibly get any better than this in a sport as leisurely paced as golf?  You’ve got one of the game’s most loveable senior citizens matched against the possibly wounded giant in overtime!  And Tiger’s putt on 18 yesterday ranks right up there with Eli Manning squeezing the game-winning TD pass to his receiver in the Super Bowl.  That putt would have been thrilling had he simply drilled it.  But to watch Tiger’s ball heading for the right lip, not appearing to have enough cup, and then just and then suddenly fall at the last possible moment … my neighbors heard me on that one.

– B –

Why is the PGA on Twitter?  Why are they bothering?  By my count the organization has three Twitter accounts; @pgagolf, @pgatour, and @pgaofamerica.  Two of them haven’t updated since the 13th.  All seem to mainly update overnight when they do, and use the tool to drive traffic to posts on their website.  What a waste.  Golf has to be the Twitter-friendliest sport there is.  When you break it down, each round is a series of brief, easily described in limited words events, and these events are separated by long lulls during which someone could be, oh, I don’t know, banging out a quick text.  They’ve already got staff all over the place and my guess is that they all have cell phones.  Teach them to text and you’re done.