Barb got me another book on tape to listen to on my long commute (she does this frequently–I love it and she knows me well enough to seldom ‘miss’).  This time it was Hillary’s Choice.  I haven’t finished it yet but so far it is fabulous.  I never really understood what the big deal was with Hillary. Why were people so impressed with her and why did so many people hate her?  As I was telling Barb the other day Hillary was an absolutely driven person from a very young age.  She was a top scholar from her first contact with school.  She was interested in politics from a young age and was first politically involved with the Republican party.

All this was very interesting to me and I’m looking forward to hearing some more of the tape tomorrow on my drive home.  Then tonight I read an opinion piece by Peggy Noonon on why and how she thinks Clinton will run for president in 2008.  It fits so well with what I’ve been hearing on tape that it was like a key turning an expensive and well oiled lock.  It really clicked with what I had been hearing.  Here is a sample of what Ms Noonon has to say:

Three reasons. The first is that she knows another attack on American soil is inevitable and wants to position herself politically as The Wise One Who Warned Us.

Second, she knows that a woman perceived as a liberal has no chance at winning the presidency while a woman perceived as a tough, pragmatic moderate does. So she is tough where Mr. Compassionate Conservative is soft (immigration), or is vulnerable, after a coming attack, to charges that he was soft (homeland security). She can’t lose on this one. Security can always be better, and after America is attacked again anger and finger pointing will be widespread.

Third, Mrs. Clinton knows the Democratic Party as a whole is to the left of the electorate. She is used to this. It is the story of her life. The electorate in Arkansas were always more moderate than Gov. and Mrs. Clinton, and President and Mrs. Clinton for that matter. She knows how to operate in such conditions. She does not intend to go down in flames as a leftist when she runs for president. This will take guile. She has guile.

We live in interesting times.  Yes, I know–a Chinese curse and all that.

Belgium, the Netherlands, Massachusetts, and now Canada have approved it.  New Jersey, New York, California, and other states in the U.S. are working towards it via the courts and the legislature.  Even though several states had initiatives on the topic last election and the gays were just pulverized by the voters I think it won’t be long before there will be several states that have approved it and perhaps even other countries.  I’m quite thrilled by this for a number of reasons.

1. It’s the right thing to do.  I think marriage is a good thing.  It stabilizes relationships through a deeper commitment.  If a couple of any gender combination wants to make such a commitment then I see nothing but good coming from that.
2. It will give the politicians something to fight about other than things like gun rights, welfare, Social Security, national security, and taxes.  If they can expend their emotional rhetoric on gay marriage rather than on other things then maybe we get them to be more rational on the other topics.
3. It will inevitably bring up the full faith and credit issues on licenses–such as concealed carry licenses.
4. It will level the playing field on some of the special privileges given to same-sex couples.
5. It will demoralize the Islamic extremists.  They need to realize that we are not going to be adopt their religion as our law as demanded by Osama bin Laden.  They need to know that they are loosing ground on a daily basis.  This will either demoralize them or further motivate them and cause the sleeper cells to expose themselves.  Either way we win.

If I could dance I would do a “happy dance”.  As it I’ll just try to visit the Taj and blow something up in celebration soon.

I’ve mentioned this before and my friends have heard me tell stories of all the media bias about guns I have personally experienced but LGF has a post that shows the two sides of a recent story in very plain detail.  If you are going to form opinions from the news and act upon them be sure to do your research.  Check out Google News.  Put in a few keywords and do a search on the news for your topic.  Read what the papers in different countries say about the same event.  Even just different paper in this country have huge differences in perspective.  It can be very enlightening.

Over in Kim duToit’s forum there is a post about the people in the UK and their anti-weapon hysteria.  The comments to the post have been going on for sometime and drifted to airport security.  And about how “free speech” in a airport will get you thrown into jail.  I started to make a little comment there and it grew into a rant that is better placed here.

Chris Byrne commented (minor spelling error corrected):

FREE SPEECH? IN AIRPOTS?

Joking about bombs, terrorism, security, or weapons will get you thrown in jail in an airport. Including on a t-shirt.

No, I’m not kidding, joking, or exaggerating for effect.

Technically you are right.  Joking about bombs or weapons can get you in trouble.  But I wear my Boomershoot shirts through airports without problems.  They have images and words like this:

2005 (not yet airport tested)
2004
2003
2002
2001

And the next time I travel it will be with a Boomershoot coat (that’s Ry, not me).

And of course I almost (I was legal in Chicago when I spent a week there once) always travel with a firearm (legally) in checked baggage and books and papers on improvised explosives in my carry-on computer case (not to mention all the stuff on the computer itself).  As my “get out of jail free card” I carry my ATFE license type 20 (license to manufacture high explosives).  Sometimes I even deliberately salt my computer case with explosive components.  I’ve been ‘sniffed’ for explosives more times than I can count and once (March 20, 1998 in St. Louis) the blind security agent even ran her white swab over several of the books on explosives without noticing the titles of the books.  Not once have I tested positive for explosives.  Not once have I been questioned about explosives or my choice of shirts.  Ask me face-to-face about some of the other tests (some unintentional through just plain forgetfulness) of airport security I have been involved in.  In each and every test they have failed.  In one case even when they knew I had one of these in the case and they knew where it was in the case!  They couldn’t see it on the x-ray.

The only reason we are spending nearly $2 Billion dollars a year (and this doesn’t count the wasted time of the passengers) on screeners at the airport is to make some people feel good.  It does NOTHING to make us safer.  It’s all about “doing something”.  And what it does is erode the U.S. Constitution.

With all due respect to Michelle Malkin, she and others are calling for the resignation/impeachment of Norm Mineta, I think they are wrong.  They aren’t thinking big enough.  They should be calling for the abolishment of the entire TSA.  Show me again where the U.S. Constitution says the Federal government is authorized to stick their nose into this.  Show me again where Mineta Minions are exempt from the 4th Amendment.