Gun laws won’t protect you from someone bent on violence, by W. Clark Aposhian
These “victim disarmament zones” are actually worse than doing nothing as they take the attention off the real problems. They further a sense of complacency with respect to security. Ignorantly we assume a sign stating “No Guns Allowed” will protect us.

In Salt Lake apparently people realize that a strong commitment to non-violence and a “Liberal and Gun-Free” bumper sticker won’t protect you from violence. I wish people on the East coast thought so clearly.

Our process for selecting federal judges has unfortunately become increasingly controversial and divisive in recent years. That is largely because courts are departing further and further from our laws and traditions, and injecting themselves further and further into our nation’s most sensitive social and political issues — where courts simply don’t belong. But whatever one’s personal views may be with respect to the various controversial rulings that have been issued in recent years, surely all Americans can at least agree that U.S. courts must decide U.S. cases on the basis of U.S. law and U.S. precedent — not the positions of foreign governments and foreign courts. Yet that is precisely what is occurring, according to legal scholars, observers, and the justices themselves.
Domestic, Not Foreign

Couldn’t have said it better myself. I’ve been noticing in the last few major Supreme Court decisions that the rulings were based, in part, on International Law. Nothing wrong with International Law, but this is the Supreme Court of the USA. Their job is to interpret the Laws and Constitution of the United States. International Law should not be used as a resource, because it isn’t and shouldn’t be a factor in their decisions. The ancestors of most of us left other nations because of those countries’ laws impinged upon our freedoms. Why did my family flee Europe before settling here, if Europe’s restrictive laws could still affect them here. We are a sovereign nation, and our laws should be sovereign as well.

A Neanderthal like myself is probably not supposed to have these kind of thoughts, but I’ve been thinking about a glaring lack of diversity lately. Some people would say I’m against diversity, but I have nothing against diversity as a concept. Genetic diversity is good. Cultural diversity is interesting to observe. I only disagree with the idea that diversity means that I have to like opera, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, and think Seinfeld was funny. No, I’m thinking about computer diversity. I hear no hue and cry about the lack of computer diversity. According to most IT people, all computers should be alike, just like Microsoft tells them.

A lot of people have bought into this too. How many people do you know with a Macintosh? How about Linux? When’s the last time you saw somebody using an office suite other than Microsoft Office (I refuse to link to Microsoft). Most people I deal with don’t even know there is anything other than MS Office. There are a variety of Office Suites. My current favorite is OpenOffice. And how about e-mail, used anything other than Outlook or Eudora lately? How about living on the wild side and using Thunderbird by Mozilla? My biggest pet peeve though, is internet browsers. Most designers I talk to don’t even bother to test web pages in anything other than Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. Where’s the diversity there? There are a lot of browsers out there. My current favorite is Firefox also by Mozilla. But there are others, the Opera browser is good for instance. Hey, I like opera after all. Must be my diversity showing.

Spending what little free time I have redesigning this site and fixing little problems with various past postings. Typical of a graphic designer to want it to look good at the expense of content. Content is usually someone else’s department. In this case content is important, but I could only live with the original design for so long. It wasn’t so much bad as boring, maybe a little predictable. The finished product won’t necessarily be better, but it will be different. It will be mine.

Sometimes the best you can do with something is to take control. That way when you take responsability for the problems, they are at least your fault.

I’m looking forward to the finished product though. I have a couple of ideas that should be good. Not da Vinci good, but eye catching. Worth coming back to check on.

Bloggers Are Taking the Free Speech Pledge – patterico.com

If the FEC makes rules that limit my First Amendment right to express my opinion on core political issues, I will not obey those rules. HD Wanderer, March 18, 2005

I thought a lot about this. Not because I was in doubt, but because I wasn’t. Why did I feel so strongly about it? The conclusion I came to is that I’m doing this because I can. So many people in this world can’t speak up for themselves, so we must. We have to stand up for the rights we have. We must fight for the rights the Founding Father’s gave us, that God gave us, or we’re no better off than people without any rights at all.

3/17/2005: Ironic Ward Churchill Moment of the Day from Little Green Footballs

Sidenote: check out the page title on the LGF weblog homepage. I’ve never noticed it before, but today it’s “lfg: there is no hell, there is only France.”

Blackfive has his eye on West Seattle High.
They Hate America I can’t believe the level of disrespect of soldiers, or invited guests for that matter, it would take for a teacher to approve something like this. Despite denials all around, you know there was faculty involved in at least a supervisory capacity. Taking a cue from Blackfive…

Since this is a PG-13 blog, I’ll refrain from further commenting on West Seattle High

SEATTLE STUDENTS HOST ANTI-WAR SPECTACLE Fortunately Michelle Malkin is much more eloquent, and can speak clearly on the subject without resorting to the colorful language ex-soldiers (blackfive) and a broken down cowboy (myself) can use.

The Crosby-Ironton teacher’s strike in Minnesota has had my attention for a while, but I haven’t known what to write. I still don’t, but I thought I would try to sum up the arguments.
Teachers have been on strike for five weeks after two years of working without contracts.
The state teacher’s union has filed suit against the school district for it’s handling of this strike. The story in part says:

The union’s lawsuit accused the school district of hiring”unqualified, unlicensed workers as replacement teachers.”

The lawsuit also claimed the district violated the Minnesota Data Practices Act by failing to divulge the names of those replacement teachers to the union. Minnesota in Brief – Associated Press

Hard feelings seem to be on both sides.

The lingering strike has angered many local residents. On Friday, a rural Crosby farmer expressed his frustration by driving 10 miles into town with a load of manure Talks break down in Crosby-Ironton teachers strike

I have it from a retired teacher who lives in the area that the farmer is related to one of the teachers. While I haven’t verified that, it sounds like both sides have pretty hard feelings.

Despite the news reports, it seems the teacher’s are being more than reasonable. They don’t want to pay more for their benefits, without any raise in pay. The school district, which doesn’t seem to be making much of an effort here, thinks the teachers should suck it up and go back to work. Noble sentiment, but doesn’t fly well from the point of a negotiating stance. The teachers have tried for two years to avoid this, but the school wouldn’t talk. Now they are going to have to listen, or this is only going to get worse.

Mr. Post seems as clear on the subject as anyone. Talks reach impasse in teachers strike; teachers union sues over replacements by Tim Post, Minnesota Public Radio

When warnings make us less safe By John Stossel
I knew I wasn’t the only one who thought this, but it’s nice to here someone else talking about it.

Roman tragedy by Debra J. Saunders
A nicely written piece about a reporter who found herself at the funeral of Nicola Calipari.

Cox and Forkum‘s Coming Home is perfect!

I love their work. I wish I had that kind of talent.

Giuliana Sgrena as Pinocchio by Ethel C. Fenig
Well written summary of the latest trials and tribulations of Giuliana Sgrena. I particularly liked:

And the more she talks, the more she inadvertently reveals the truth, proving she not only lied about her time in Iraq, but how her selfishness and self-centeredness endangered so many others. And like her paisan, Pinocchio, those who finally catch on to her are becoming publicly disgusted.

The Jawa Report isn’t so sure it was a real kidnapping at all.

While I am still somewhat undecided on this, I’m leaning strongly in the direction of The Jawa Report. This went too well for Giuliana Sgrena, from her kidnapping while on the phone to another reporter, to her dramatic release. The tragedy of the loss of life in an absurd attempt to run an American checkpoint only enforces my opinion on the matter. Someone was pulling strings to make this story.

Confederate Yankee has a similar take on this story, and has since the beginning. His Reality Bites post pointed out how Giuliana Sgrena seemed to be directing her own hostage video.

As I said, I am still somewhat undecided on this story, but it looks like the best case that could be said for Giuliana Sgrena is that she is using this tragedy to push an agenda. The alternate choice would of course be that she helped engineer this story for that same agenda. As the story unfolds, I’m finding it harder and harder to give her the benefit of the doubt.

I watched Jeremiah Johnson (1972) yesterday. Great movie, staring Robert Redford. I’ve always liked the movie, but it made me think this time. It’s been quite a while since I saw it last, several years and a lot of miles. Jeremiah seems so at peace at times when he’s alone. He has found his place in the world. While I’ve never quite found that, I’ve lately become more aware of the search for it. I’ve never been much of a fan of “finding yourself” pop psychology, but there is a certain need in everyone to know yourself.

My recent revelations have been about solitude. I need a certain amount of solitude in my life. Apartments and confined living drive me nuts. I’ve spent a fair bit of my life living with neighbors within talking distance, and I need more space than that. I’ve come to a place in my life where I can afford that space. As well as the increased distance to neighbors, I’ve been spending more time alone. My wife has been extremely busy lately, and often has been falling asleep early. I’ve been spending an hour or so each night after she’s gone to sleep reading or working on some project alone. No distractions, no dogs, no kids, nothing but the task at hand. It’s amazing how relaxing that can be. Makes the time I do spend with her better.

In my youth, my wanderings were mostly in the high desert areas of Washington State. Just my horse and I. I’d be curious to know how many hours I spent in those mountains alone. I thought I chose the name of this blog on a whim, but now I’m not so sure. I think High Desert Wanderer suits me a lot better than I originally thought.

There are people who thrive in the big city, and I’ve always known I wasn’t one of those people. I’m coming to realize I’m a lot farther from that than I thought. I moved a lot in recent years, each time a little further from what most people call civilization. While I work in a technological field, I’m seeing how getting away from technology, the noise, and the people, is what really keeps me going. So while I haven’t found true peace, I’ve seen the path to it. I may not have perfect peace, but I have a beautiful wife and family, a couple of good dogs, a couple of great horses, and a little solitude. I can’t see how it could be much better than that. I am truly blessed.

I’ve been keeping track of things I should post about, but haven’t had the change until now.
BlogfromonHigh has a great post this morning. Living in The Twilight Zone.

The Wall Street Journal’s opinionjournal.com of all places has a story on felons voting rights. My Felon Americans. “Why Hillary Clinton and John Kerry want to let criminals vote.”

Same Subject different newspaper. THE FELON VOTE By JOHN R. LOTT JR. & JAMES K. GLASSMAN.

Anti-gun activist arrested after firearm found at home. By Jason Piscia Staff Writer for the State Register. Seems that not all anti-gun activists are that anti-gun after all. Apparently she only wants to control your gun.

That’s my list, I’ll try to keep caught up, but no promises.

Since I started this blog last fall, I’ve been of the opinion that I’m the only one who ever sees it. While this would be fine, I write to clarify my thoughts as much as anything, it seems someone else has seen it. No less than MadOgre himself put a link in his post today. Kind of knocked my train of thought off its tracks when I saw that. I was speechless for a few minutes, and that doesn’t happen often.

The last tragedy in Iraq was so preventable it’s sickening. A team of hostage negotiators went into Baghdad and rescued a reporter. (By rescue I mean caved into the kidnappers and gave them an obscene amount of money.) Then, at the moment of their success, the negotiators made a highspeed run at an American checkpoint. This of course was the tragedy. Both of the negotiators were shot, one of them killed while shielding the woman he had just saved.

The tragedy of it all is that if the Americans knew what was going on, it wouldn’t have happened. Or the men could have chosen to run to the embassy rather than the Airport. They had options, but made a reckless run to the airport, directly at one of the most dangerous checkpoints in Iraq. They knew the checkpoint was there, and yet even the rescued hostage says they were driving so fast that they nearly lost control of the car before the shots were fired.

The Italian government was playing a very dangerous game, and they left the Americans in the dark. I may be wrong, but I would guess the Italian officials left the two negotiators in the dark as well. An investigation is starting, and time will tell. My prediction is that nobody who knew the danger, nobody who knew what was going on, exposed themselves by going to Baghdad. I think the investigation will show that everybody who knew anything stayed home in Italy.

Very good writing on the subject at three of my favorite blogs.
MadOgre.com
Captain’s Quarters
and BLACKFIVE

Notable Quotes

HOLLYWOOD (Reuters) – They really said it — notable quotes from the news:
“Maybe there are different ways I would define myself. But I can tell you that my biggest weakness is my sensitivity. I am too sensitive a person.”
– former boxing star MIKE TYSON.

This is one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard. Mike Tyson, the professional boxer, with two felony convictions for rape and assault. Mike Tyson, accused repeatedly of domestic abuse. That Mike Tyson? Sensitive isn’t my first thought when I think of him, or even the twenty first.

Terror and the English Language by Deroy Murdock

Mr. Murdock says some things that really need saying. Language is important. Words have very specific meanings, and it is very important that they are used correctly. I often hear people talking about important topics in language so diluted as to be almost meaningless. If your going to say something, say it like you mean it.