Free Republic

That is one ugly couple. Did she get the turkey baster drunk first?

“Everyone’s ox gets gored a little bit in this,” he said in an interview here.

Hospitals, doctors, insurers, small businesses..hmm...who we missing here?

Oh yes, the agressive malpractice plaintiffs' attorneys that have made PA one of most expensive states in the country to obtain malpractice insurance. Tort reform? Caps on punitive damage awards? Don't see that in Fa(s)t Eddie's proposal anwhere...

This reeks of the AMA trying to create a new 'disease' which would require 'experts' to treat it and insurance to cover said treatment. Also, I note that every press account of video-game addiction includes some anecdote about a teen boy whose life has gone in the crapper because he's allowed to sit in front of a computer for 12 hours a day. Where are the parents of these kids? Sadly, I suspect they're dealing with their own issues of immaturity and addiction.

It seems to me that games are not the underlying cause of the issues that lead one to addiction. Take away the games and an addict will move on to something else. But it seems the AMA, like any political entity, would rather search for simple fixes to complex problems (i.e., 'common sense' solutions) than look behind the facade.

Looks like the Big Reno Show will be getting even bigger...

This will never get out of committee. But it’s always good to know what the enemy is up to..

I just finished reading the opinion. It is a comprehensive, almost disdainful demolition of the 'collective rights' misinterpretation of the 2nd Amendment. I'll give it a more thorough reading this evening/weekend, but it seems like the opinion those of us who read this stuff have been waiting for.

Some other points about standing and whether DC qualifies as a 'state' are also covered, with a rather tortured dissent that perfunctorily accepts the collective rights argument and spends 12 pages arguing that DC is not a state. The dissenter is a Poppa Bush appointee, by the way.

There is now a clear and growing split regarding the 2nd Amendment among federal appellate courts. Should be interesting to see whether the DC Circuit agrees to an en banc review of the case. The bottom line? Stay tuned, this could get much more interesting going into the 2008 elections...

The irony here is that after management and the union representing the newsroom staff agreed on the number to be cut, the union got to pick who was to get canned. The union's prevailing concern was protecting the seniority system and older employees. Thus, the majority of these cuts are younger employees who have been hired during the era of 'diversity' hiring and are disproportionately black. So it's basically the deadwood screwing the quota kids.

I'm sure NABR will be taking the union to task for this! < /sarcasm>

I live in the PA 156th district and it's not looking good for Royer as per my contacts in the local republican party. With 11 of 26 precincts counted, Royer has a lead of about 100 votes but is down 9 from the previous count in these precincts - and the precincts where Smith ran the strongest have yet to be counted.

Today's soft paternalism is tomorrow's hard paternalism. Your 'voluntary' agreement will be soon be mandated through oppressive surcharges, insurance premiums, sin taxes and other forms of state coercion. And of course, a large bureaucracy will be needed to keep an eye on all this...

We can directly thank the NY Times for handing Weldon's seat to the Dems. Weldon had a sizable lead over Sestak in October when the NY Times compromised the FBI investigation. Once it became a referendum on Weldon, no one paid attention to Sestak - or his close connections with the Clinton regime and endorsements by every far-left group out there.

This will be a tough seat for Sestak to hold in 2008 since Delco is still majority Republican - and not so much "Rendell Republican" like the Main Line or lower Bucks County.

Fitzpatrick I know less about, but it seems that demographics are trending against Republicans in Bucks. Seems like a lot of NJ trash is crossing the Delaware and bringing their politics with them.

Not happening. It's equal parts leverage for getting choice committee assignments and sticking it to Dem leadership for supporting Lamont.

No one should mistake Lieberman for a moderate because of his position on Iraq and his calculated criticism of Lewinskygate. He's a dyed-in-the-wool socialist.

Clinton appointee to the Middle District of PA federal bench, 1998. No surprises here.

Baby control now - for the the children!

Police said the death of a four-month-old baby marked the 300th murder of a potential Democratic voter in the city of Philadelphia.

Not to make light of the tragic death of a child, but sadly this is true. Philadelphia has more people registered to vote than persons eligible to vote in the city. Any guesses as to which way they vote?

The deceased are quite civic-minded too, voter turnout in Philly is always 20%+ more than the rest of the state. The "Get Out the Dead" campaigns in Philly arguably provided the winning margins for Gore in 2000, Rendell in '02 and Kerry in '04.

Why is Philadelphia such a dangerous place? What is the reason for the huge murder toll?

Here's a partial explanation:

• A century of one-party (i.e. Democrat) political machine rule, with the attendant blight and corruption;
  
• Confiscatory taxes (wage tax, business 'privilege' tax, property taxes) that drive businesses and productive members of society out of the city;
• Political hacks in high-level positions in the police department and elsewhere who are more interested in preventing racial profiling than stopping crime.

Philadelphia is essentially the Third World at this point and the downward spiral is accelerating. I live 20 miles away, and I rarely go there for any reason besides the 2 or so times a month my job requires it.

I've known many a gun grabber living here in the state of MD, and no one, not one person ever, has been "comfortable and genuinely pleased with a bit of bloodshed". It's the typical hyperbole of a fund raiser.

My own experience with hoplophobes has been much much different. Here's one I've had the misfortune of meeting:

Andres Soto

Note the line in the article where he mentions going to a bar to celebrate when Reagan was shot. Rest assured that despite the fawning portrayal in the UC Berkeley student newspaper he hasn't changed a bit.

Funny thing is that PA just had a special session on September 26th to try and pass legislation concerning guns ie one hand gun purchase a month and assault weapons ban. Rendell really pushed it. Nothing was passed last week but now you have this happen

One of the gun-grabbing state reps from the welfare state slums of NE Philly had a soundbite last week about people getting 'capped anywhere' to try and push this anti-gun agenda, which promptly crash and burned.

Lancaster County is the most staunchly Republican area in the state. It may be just a tragic coincidence but the timing and location are interesting to say the least. I expect the Philly news media and the Dem corruption machine to be all over this like buzzards on roadkill.

Fundamentally, this is about reining in overzealous prosecutors and tort reform. At present, shooting someone in self-defense means you have to live in fear of charges being filed against you by an overzealous prosecutor for failing to 'retreat'. In some felon-hugging jurisdictions like California, this may even apply to self-defense situations in the home thanks to state judges making up the law as they see fit.

Also, you can expect a wrongful death civil suit to be filed against you by the unscrupulous scumbag relatives of the perp even if the local DA who's running for higher office fails to portray you as a trigger-happy psychopath. The filing of such lawsuits should rightfully be proscribed.

The bottom line is those who exercise the most basic and essential of all rights, self-defense, should not be treated like criminals. Everyone should read In the Gravest Extreme and Stressfire: The Truth About Self Protection by Mas Ayoob for a better understanding of this issue.

Vacaville called. They're missing an idiot.

In the liberal universe, it's not results that count - it's good intentions that count.