D.C. Officials Weigh Keeping Semiautomatic Pistols Illegal After Blanket Handgun Ban is Struck Down

The court ruled that a blanket ban on handguns is unconstitutional, but D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty and other Washington officials want to keep in place a prohibition on semiautomatic handguns — those in which a bullet clip is inserted into the gun’s grip.

What part of handgun are they not understanding? They seem to be confused by the fact that they have redefined a semiautomatic as an “machine gun”.

Current city law defines a “machine gun” to mean “any firearm which shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily converted or restored to shoot: a) Automatically, more than one shot by a single function of the trigger; b) Semiautomatically, more than 12 shots without manual reloading.”

Makes me curious what I could redefine… How about money as “any pretty rock I find in my yard”? How many rocks would it take to buy myself a new “machine gun”?

h/t Instapundit.com - Make sure to follow his link to “Because, you know, revolvers don’t shoot quickly.”

OK, I’m a child at heart, but this is very cool.

The Lego Secret Vault: Lego Secret Vault Contains All Sets In History

The ruling is in! In a 5-4 ruling, the DC gun ban has been struck down. Justice Scalia, writing for the majority, had several interesting things to say.

“The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home.”

“…the requirement that any lawful firearm in the home be disassembled or bound by a trigger lock makes it impossible for citizens to use arms for the core lawful purpose of self-defense and is hence unconstitutional.”

I was happy to see that the historically traditional definition of “militia” was reiterated quite early in syllabus of the document. Both Majority and Minority opinions seem to be using this same definition as far as I can tell.

“…comprised all males physically capable of acting in concert for the common defense.”

It’s nice to see that clarified. It seemed quite obvious to me that the writers of the Bill of Rights would have used that definition of militia, but you often see it confused with a more modern interpretation in modern political discourse.

Th legal language is, at times, difficult to follow, but impressive none the less. The legal history and documentation presented on both sides of the argument are fascinating to read. I’m looking forward to finishing it.

SCOTUSblog has the opinion in it’s entirety.

From The Frontlines, Ustream.TV.

Melanie Morgan and Michelle Malkin are hosting a fund raising effort to send care packages to troops in Iraq. If they live up to their own hype, it should be quite spectacular.

We’ve got a star-studded line-up of troops, military charities, celebs, and talk radio stars — from Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin to Dr. Laura and Laura Ingraham to musician John Ondrasik and “Lone Survivor” author and Navy SEAL hero Marcus Luttrell — who’ll be joining us in our eight-hour marathon fund-raising drive to help send the largest number of care packages in history to our men and women in uniform serving overseas. - Michelle Malkin

Go check it out.

Senate to honor last living U.S. vet of WWI, at 107 - CNN.com

Buckles is the last survivor of the more than 2 million U.S. military men sent overseas to fight in what was called the Great War.

Buckles, who turned 107 in February, lied about his age to join the U.S. Army at the age of 16.

BMW GINA - Design Feature - Baekdal.com

BMW has created a new concept car, and it is unlike anything you have ever seen before. It is a shape-shifter, has a textile skin, and it challenges our perception of what a car should look like.

I’m going to classify this car under art, because it really is a work of art. An innovative way of thinking about car design.

This isn’t a show that I normally would watch, but this guy can really dance… or something. I’m not really sure what I’d call it. What ever it is, he’s really talented.

“Speed has never killed anyone, suddenly becoming stationary… That’s what gets you.” - Jeremy Clarkson

Because… it’s all about me. OK, it’s not actually about me at all, but they do link to me. The First Rule of Blogging is the first of what appears to be a series about blogging advice.

I’ve always been fascinated by the contradictions in life. You must do this, you must not do this. For every rule there is someone who made it big by breaking that rule. It’s a good post, I look forward to reading the rest of the series.

Caution, severe immaturity warning! If you’re more mature than the average teen age male, don’t bother following this link. Fortunately that doesn’t apply to most of my regulars.

The Disintegrator - A 24-Barrel Rubber Band Minigun.

Why might you ask, would anyone want a 24-Barrel Rubber Band Minigun? Why not?

Amazing video. Lucky pilot. I realize they’re not actually supposed to fly quite that low, but it’s an amazing piece of flying anyway. Listen to the music in the earlier parts of the flight.

This is posted on military.com as a real video, and it looks like it to me, but you might notice the word simulated blink occasionally. Does anyone know what that is? Is it one of the warning systems, or has the video been edited in some way?

A Trunk Monkey. Chaperon version of course.

Just for the record, while I like swimming, and waterfalls, I don’t seeing combining the two as a good idea. I will not be jumping into the Devil’s Swimming Pool at Victoria Falls. That’s just nuts.

Jessica Claire has a new site design. I always love to see a blog merged seamlessly with the rest of a site. Honestly, I just love to see a complete site working seamlessly together, but it’s often the blog that gets left out of the design loop. They’re an afterthought, left on some default theme. Or worse, linking to an entirely different site on Blogger. Nothing wrong with Blogger, but if you’re going to the trouble of writing and maintaining a blog, shouldn’t the improved stats benefit your own URL? There are ways to use Blogger and WordPress.com and still use your own URL.

Back to Jessica Claire’s new site. Seamless is the key word. Red Door and infinet design did a beautiful job putting all the pieces together. I’m a sucker for classic design elements like they’re using in the background and elsewhere. The colors work well for me too.Nicely done. Good luck with it Ms. Claire.

I’m fascinated by this. The elephant has a a better eye for perspective than a lot of people I’ve seen paint. Of course the flower is huge, but look at the portrait’s legs. Beautifully done.

h/t Elephant paints self portrait | creativebits

Somebody has a sick sense of humor. I love it. The Web Page from Hell.

If I’d known how much traffic not posting would bring, I’d have stopped trying long ago.  Kidding actually, but it is kind of humorous. Somebody Stumbled my Iraq category last week, and I got quite a bit of traffic. That got me looking at my stats. It seems that while I quit posting for several months, my stats didn’t really change. So much of my traffic comes from search engines anyway, not writing new stuff really didn’t change anything. Apparently real people don’t come back, but search engines love me! I’m glad I come here to blow off steam rather than live on the proceeds of this site.

D.C.’s Gun Ban Gets Day in Court

The nine justices, none of whom has ever ruled directly on the amendment’s meaning, will consider a part of the Bill of Rights that has existed without a definitive interpretation for more than 200 years.

I’ve always been fascinated by people’s various views on the second amendment, and in particular people’s views on the DC gun ban.

Art. II . A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Maybe my viewpoint was defined because as a child, and an avid reader of history, I understood the concept of militia before I learned of the Second Amendment. I have always understood the word militia to mean essentially every able-bodied person. So I’ve always understood it to be an individual right. It seems to me to be counter intuitive to read it otherwise.

Militia - Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

2. the whole body of able-bodied male citizens declared by law as being subject to call to military service

I’ve heard the “it’s a group right” take on the subject a couple of times, but I’ve never understood that interpretation. The First and Fourth Amendments apply to individuals, so why wouldn’t the Second?

There’s also the “it’s a military right” viewpoint, but that one’s always sounded a little weak to me too. Why would the government define a “right” for itself to give it’s soldiers weapons? Governments don’t have rights, people have rights. The purpose of the Bill of Rights in all other contexts was essentially to define what rights “people” had. This protected people, individual people, from the government. Why would the Second Amendment be different?

The case is complicated by the District’s secondary argument that the Second Amendment is not implicated by legislation that applies only to the District of Columbia. - washingtonpost.com

This is one of my favorite arguments, just for plain audacity. They essentially admit an individual right, but state that it doesn’t apply to the District of Columbia… City of New York, Chicago, whoever. So the “people” have a fundamental right, but the District, State, City, or County can take it away? How’s that work? If the Second Amendment doesn’t apply to the citizens of DC, does the First Amendment? It’s my understanding that the US Constitution, and the Bill or Rights, applies to all citizens. I look forward to seeing these issues debated in the news, and in the courts.

First Sioux receives Medal of Honor - CNN.com

Nearly 26 years after his death, Army Master Sgt. Woodrow “Woody” Keeble was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor Monday for his efforts during the Korean War.

About damn time. Delayed for decades due to “A series of paperwork errors and missed deadlines” @#$% idiots.

Update: As a commenter pointed out, the citation’s description is much better than CNN’s.

Leading the support platoon, Master Sergeant Keeble saw that the attacking elements had become pinned down on the slope by heavy enemy fire from three well-fortified and strategically placed enemy positions. With complete disregard for his personal safety, Master Sergeant Keeble dashed forward and joined the pinned-down platoon. Then, hugging the ground, Master Sergeant Keeble crawled forward alone until he was in close proximity to one of the hostile machine-gun emplacements. Ignoring the heavy fire that the crew trained on him, Master Sergeant Keeble activated a grenade and threw it with great accuracy, successfully destroying the position.

Go read the rest of the citation, it’s worth the time. Keep in mind while reading it that this was the 20th. This is significant because as mentioned elsewhere, Master Sergeant Keeble was wounded first on October 15, then again on October 17, 18, 19, and the 20th.

Official records confirm Keeble was initially wounded on October 15, and then again on October 17, 18 and 20 - for which he received only one Purple Heart. For his bravery on the 18th he was awarded a Silver Star. His heroism on the 20th made Keeble a legend and won him a recommendation for the Medal of Honor. - Wikipedia

Keeble had thus far suffered two rifle wounds to his left arm, a grenade to his face that almost removed his nose and a badly twisted knee; on the 19th, doctors reportedly removed 83 pieces of festering shrapnel Keeble sustained from a concussion grenade the previous day. - Wikipedia