Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
Wow! Got cable internet service...
and I installed a wireless router for our laptop. High speed broadband without wires! Cheap too! Under $90 with the rebate from Costco.
Got your email Gams...
and you have mail.
Welcome mat is out, just let me know!
Matey
Juddage..
Had a cold one for ya!
Matey
Which right or freedom is most crucial to America's democratic way of life?
Freedom of religion 8% 2251 votes
Freedom of speech 23% 6483 votes
Right to bear arms 62% 17174 votes
Right to due process 4% 1177 votes
Right to trial by jury 2% 670 votes
Total: Total Votes: 27,755
Here's the link ---
http://www.historychannel.com/index.html#poll
Which right or freedom is most crucial to America's democratic way of life?
Freedom of religion 8% 2251 votes
Freedom of speech 23% 6483 votes
Right to bear arms 62% 17174 votes
Right to due process 4% 1177 votes
Right to trial by jury 2% 670 votes
Total: Total Votes: 27,755
Here's the link ---
http://www.historychannel.com/index.html#poll
Didja see O'Reilly last night?
Hi, I'm Bill O'Reilly. Thanks for watching us tonight. We'd like to welcome our new viewers in Groton, Connecticut, watching on Comcast Cable. We hope you like The Factor .
Chaos in California, that is the subject of this evening's Talking Points Memo .
All over the country, politicians are screaming they don't have enough money and will have to raise state taxes. That, of course, would offset any Bush tax cut and leave Americans with less money to spend, thereby hurting the struggling economy.
Nowhere is the situation worse than in California, where Governor Gray Davis has run that state right into the ground. While campaigning for reelection, Davis told us that the projected state deficit was around $20 billion, an astronomical sum. Now that he is safely back in office, the real truth has emerged. California is running a yearly debt of -- ready? -- $35 billion, more than all of the other states combined.
Now if you live in the Golden State, you know you pay some of the highest housing costs in the world, and your state tax burden is already as much as 9 percent. That is going to go up, way up, because your governor has sold out to special interests and bankrupted the state treasury in order to buy votes.
Item, medical fraud in California, according to a report in The L.A. Times, is costing taxpayers $1 billion every year. Item, a Los Angeles grand jury looking into welfare fraud estimates it is costing taxpayers $500 million every year. Item, a report in The Los Angeles Daily News says that workers' compensation insurance costs in Los Angeles alone hit an all-time high of $242 million in the year 2001. And under Davis, comp claims have risen 65 percent.
Item, Davis has negotiated new contracts with some state unions which make it nearly impossible to track sick leave and overtime costs, and, of course, that costs California tens of millions of dollars every year.
I give you plenty of other examples, but the point is clear. In order to get votes, Governor Gray Davis has greatly increased spending and is simply incapable of stopping the rampant fraud that exists in the Golden State.
This same scenario is being played out all over the country. So the next time you hear politicians demanding more of your money, you should demand that they watch where the money goes. Of course, that will never happen, because strict monetary supervision alienates some unions, school boards, police agencies, and universities.
It's hard to watch the money. It's easy to raise taxes. California's the most powerful state in the union and the most out of control. Permissive judges have gutted the criminal justice system there. Environmental fanatics have made energy development impossible.
Irresponsible mayors like San Francisco's Willie Brown have allowed drug addicts and criminals to run wild in the streets and even pay them for their irresponsibility. The homeless in San Francisco, for example, get a check every month for $320, taxpayer money. And they can spend it on heroin or anything else they want.
And I love California. It has everything. I've been to every county in the state. But foolish thinking and incompetent politicians have ruined paradise, and there is no relief in sight. Hang on to your wallets out there. You're going to get smacked.
And that is The Memo .
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,75064,00.html
NYC, I used to live closer!
But now I live IN mountainous country. Was 70 yesterday but snowed Christmas eve. Hey, we can't all like the same stuff, eh?
Those are some great pictures!
Matey
Happy New Year Swampers!
2003 is going to be a great year!
Matey
Good you guys are getting the snow pack...
..gotta bust this South Western United States drought!
Public Land ... STAY OUT!
The California Desert Protection Act, sponsored by Senator Dianne Feinstein(D-CA), was signed into law on October 31,1994, after being blocked in committees for seven years. This landmark legislation designates two new national parks -- Death Valley and Joshua Tree -- and one national preserve -- the Mojave.
http://www.senate.gov/~feinstein/desert_protection_act.html
Having just been to Death Valley over the Thanksgiving holiday, let me explain what the Desert Protection Act did to .. I mean citizens.
It took 1.3 million acres of grabbed land and added it to the 1.8 million acres of Death Valley National Monument and declared the entire 3.1 million acres a National Park, largest in the lower 48. It then proceeded to declare 95% of that acreage "Wilderness", meaning that no vehicle traffic, including bicycles could travel on any areas called "wilderness". The long standing promise of maintaining "existing roads" in National Parks and in wilderness areas has steadily been broken as this year, like last, I found more and more mining and town site roads closed forever.
Not only is this a travesty of blocking access to public lands, but it restricts ANY visitation of these lands to only the hardy hiker and in my opinion, violates the Americans with Disability Act discriminating against those unable to hike much if any of the 2.945 million acres of public lands, OUR LANDS, no designated off limits! This is happening all over America, not just in California.
Wilderness, Land of NO use!
NYC,
I'm not validating anything. I'm mourning the death of one of the most beautiful states in the union. I posted the serious facts of what the liberals have done to the state and the danger they are creating for folks like you.
You seem to forget that I lived there for 34 years. I bought a house and 26 years later sold it for 5+ times what I paid for it. Yes, that was all wonderful, but I also grew tired of seeing the razor wire around the freeway signs to keep the taggers from destroying them. I got sick and tired of seeing gang tagging on every flat wall, truck trailer, etched into windows of stores and restaurants, on the mirrors in their restrooms and even on the toilet seats. I got tired of gang punks trying to intimidate you at every mall, on the streets at stop lights, virtually anywhere. It certainly isn't isolated to the Inland Empire, either. The last time I walked Newport's and Balboa's Piers I wanted to vomit. I know what they used to be like and how they are now. It's paradise lost and I'm truly sorry for that.
Let California be a lesson to the other 49 what happens when liberal politicians take over and use the state budget to by their constituency. You can be angry with me but you know it's true and guys like you are going to be asked to pay the freight for an entitlement constituency, the same one committing the drive-bys and shooting little innocent kids instead of the intended punk target.
Take care.
Matey
Hey for at least a day..
..lets try to learn a thing or two from the life of that carpenter who lived so long ago. Seems he was persecuted, hated and finally murdered because he didn't think, talk and walk like the elitists wanted him to.
Merry Christmas all.
Matey
Way to go Grayout Davis!
I guess LA can expect 1200+ murders next year and what good will a "gang task force" be when the state will just cut them loose? NYC keep your ammo dry and close at hand.
California considers releasing prisoners to cut budgets
Associated Press
California governor Gray Davis is fine-tuning a new budget proposal that could raise taxes for some and slash some public service programs for others.
SACRAMENTO (AP) - Proposals to release some nonviolent and elderly prisoners early have emerged in California and other states confronting massive budget shortfalls.
Kentucky Gov. Paul Patton enraged prosecutors by recently allowing hundreds of low-level felons to leave jails and prisons early as part of a plan to fill a corrections shortfall. And proposals to release some inmates early, pare down parole periods or reject the return of criminals nabbed in other states have emerged in Washington, Connecticut, Oregon, Nevada and Oklahoma.
California is facing a nearly $35 billion budget deficit, and leading Democratic lawmakers are suggesting chopping some sentences to shave state costs.
Gov. Gray Davis announced last week that the state is facing a $34.8 billion budget deficit over the next 18 months. The Democratic governor will submit his plan to deal with the deficit in January, and despite his longtime tough-on-crime stances and hesitancy to parole prisoners, aides said he has not ruled out any proposals to cut costs.
Davis has long been friendly to law enforcement, including the influential prison guards union that donated lavishly to his re-election campaign, and a preliminary list of cuts he proposed largely spared prisons from the chopping block.
The proposals are stirring up a long-running debate in California over incarceration of low-level criminals and the controversial Three Strikes Law. During the boom times of the 1990s, California passed several anti-crime laws, and the state's prison population has since swelled to more than 160,000.
Of those prisoners, 61 percent are considered nonviolent offenders, said Margot Bach, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections. Some 670 prisoners are between 65 and 69 years old while about 500 are older than 70, she said.
Prisoner advocates said the state already is locking up too many people rather than spending money on rehabilitation, education and job programs that prevent crime.
``We blame the state's overuse of incarceration for the state's budget problems to begin with. Basically it has been a waste of money,'' said Millard Murphy, a law professor who runs the prisons clinic at University of California, Davis, law school.
But Lawrence Brown, executive director of the California District Attorneys Association, said the state ``should not seek to remedy budgetary woes by endangering the safety of our communities.''
``Courts have sentenced these inmates to state prison, and it would be highly improper for these inmates to receive a Christmas gift by way of early release,'' Brown said.
Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill, the top financial adviser to the Legislature, has suggested shortening the prison stays of some elderly and nonviolent prisoners -- excluding drug offenders and those with ``Three Strikes'' -- among potential solutions to the state's budget woes.
Hill estimates her proposals would save the state hundreds of millions of dollars.
The top state senator and the assembly's public safety chairman each have endorsed studying such proposals. Senate President Pro Tem John Burton has suggested sending prisoners over age 70 home with electronic monitoring bracelets or releasing some inmates 10 to 30 days early.
``We're not talking about letting Charlie Manson walk the streets,'' Burton said.
Republican Assemblyman John Campbell, of Irvine, called such proposals ``the least attractive spending reductions that I can imagine.''
``It basically interferes with the process that took place when they were tried, and that's not something that we would do lightly at all,'' said Campbell, the Assembly GOP's pointman on the budget.
But he didn't flatly rule out supporting such a measure, saying ``as someone who believes that we should not be raising taxes, there is no spending reduction that we won't entertain.''
------
http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/4802703.htm
Yeah Judd...
that Manson thingy made the visit to the ranch really creepy. Seeing the Corvair, Jeep and VB bodies Charlie stipped off the chassis to make his desert buggies at the junk canyon near the ranch, you couldn't help but wonder if anyone died when those vehicles were stolen. You also wondered if you were walking on graves around the area.
Creepy.
KS,
Yeah, the Barker Ranch was creepy, even today. Was there in 96 and a bunch of people were there. Not sure some weren't 'alumni' and didn't even take a picture. You can feel those people's presence there.
Sadly, California with the finest real estate in the country, possibly the world, has been handed, by the left-wing, to the third world to deface and defile at will. They build the very communities they fled in the hearts of California's cities rather than becoming Americans. NYC is still in a "protected" zone but as we saw during the Rodney King riots, he's but a short drive away.
You cannot dump 30,000,000 people in two relatively small population centers and not have extreme violence and pollution. Southern California is on the verge of becoming a city in itself, stretching from Santa Barbarbra to San Diego and east to Banning. It will be ungovernable in a few short years.
Matey
Oh yeah, and one more thing....
..at mile 9 in Arizona, just about 20 miles from Needles CA where gas was about a buck eighty, I paid a dollar twenty-one a gallon. Just a preview of coming attractions for the "Golden State".
Must be all those refineries and oil tanker off-load ports in AZ that keeps the price down.
Sorry NYC but...
..with 600+ murders committed by gang punks just 40 miles from your house, a 23 BILLION dollar debt run up by Grayout Davis and company, the left-wing 5th column running the state government stealing your future money, your rights and indoctrinating your children that the 'village' will raise them, it is a sewer in my book.
When I came down over the pass, the yellow muck blanketed the entire area to the sea. I was in Santa Ana and Newport (Birch and MacArthur) to our financial advisor and the air smelled the same. You will soon be in a thin isolated strip of well to do folks along the ocean and the patients will be running the asylum. Protect yourself and your family.
Last time I was at the piers in Newport and Balboa,(this year) they were filthy third world held ghosts of what they used to be. You cannot imagine what the 60's in Southern California were like I guess.
Matey
Swampers! Back from CA..
Death Valley, Santa Barbarbra and Ojai all nice as usual. SoCal a sewer as usual.
New pics on MF and more to post but gotta run for now.
Matey
Gee NYC...
..they're growin' like weeds! Hang onto every moment as they'll be grown up before you know it.
Matey
Good on ya NYC!
You oppressed living under the Caliban regime need to take your rights back from them if you can't vote them out. I still work through the NRA's Member's Council of the Inland Empire as best I can. Can't afford to lose occupied California.
Good luck!
Yo pre...
..seems like I don't have time to do all the things I want. I guess it's because I'm "retired".
In July our grandson flew out and we took a trip to Utah. During that trip I thought I had pushed my bum knee to the surgery point. It had popped real loud and swelled up. I hobbled around the rest of the trip in pain and figured I'd have to make arrangements after my grandson flew home. Well, I had been taking glucosamine with chondroitin, stuff that's used in many over the counter joint and arthritis treatments, and you know that my knee got better without seeing the doctor. I was taking it hoping it would help with the sciatica and didn't think about the knee. It's still loose but not swelled or painful at all. Talked to other 'gray hairs' I know and quite a few say that this stuff does help with joint problems. Still have the sciatica but the joints are much better, even my 'trigger' finger knuckle that was getting about twice the size of the other one and sore much of the time, looks and feels normal.
Don't know if you suffer any joint abuse from your youth and if you've ever heard of glucosamine but I thought I'd pass my experience along in case you did. It works for me just as long as it doesn't cause me to grow a third arm out the middle of my back!
God am I getting old or what? Instead of trading ballistics stats, we're sharing medication info!
Later guy,
Matey
NYC, don't know what you mean about...
.."talking poop" on the RELIG board. I don't go to the RELIG board. If someone doesn't believe, he has that right but I'm not going to submit myself to anyone's insults because of my religous beliefs. I tolerate them but they don't tolerate me.
Very sililar to the liberal political philosophy IMO. I can argue politics and put them in a hole.
NYC, yeah we won...
..but winning is only temporary. Never forget that.
Boy, old Hab has dropped off the deep end on GOV and 1st Amendment. He won't ever post where his 'mystery' facts come from and has turned everything into a personal attack.
I don't let message boards bother me and I am weening myself from them slowly. Too many good things to do. Sticking a fork in paniced libs is sport.
Do you ever get out to DV anymore? Take those kids out there and get some sand and salt in their veins! Have a good one.
Matey
Back from Floriduh...
..now headed to occupied Kalifornistan for 3 weeks. NYC, it's our Death Valley Thanksgiving. Will be at the Stovepipe Wells Campground as base camp.
Hey, how about that election! Was in NC and WVA during the election and results.
Couldn't log on to IHub from my Daughter's 'puters in Fl.
Hope everyone is doing well.
Ol Matey, having more fun than a person should be allowed!
Judd,
"Depends".
Kidding, of course!
VirilMate
ENGLAND'S CIVILIAN DISARMAMENT LAW
LEADS TO 100 YEAR HIGH MURDER RATE
Failure of British Gun Ban Illustrates Folly of
California Gun Control Efforts
Newly released statistics reported October 13th show that since the British
government passed one of the most stringent gun bans in the world in 1997,
Britain's murder rate has risen to its highest level since crime records
began being kept 100 years ago.
The number of murders in the first eight months of this year has risen by as
much as 22% in some of Britain's biggest cities, which account for the
majority of homicides. This builds on a 4% rise in the murder rate in the
year to March, and is 20% higher than the total for 1997, the first year of
Tony Blair's government and the year that strict new gun bans were imposed.
Police say random killings are rising. Official figures show the proportion
of murders in which the victim is not known to the killer has nearly doubled
in the past decade to 31%. The British Home Office reports that handgun crime
is at its highest since 1993, while overall gun crimes have never been
higher. Since the draconian 1997 gun ban was passed, criminal misuse of
handguns has jumped by 40 percent. As in California, much of the gun violence
is related to urban youth gang warfare and the illicit drug trade. But petty
criminals in Britain are now using guns during common street crime. London
has surpassed the crime rate of New York City. Robberies in which criminals
use or threaten violence have gone up by 35 percent in the past year. In
fact, Chris Fox, vice-president of the British Association of Chief Police
Officers, said the rising murder rate put Britain out of line with America,
where it has fallen 12%, and France and Germany, where it has dropped 29% and
27% respectively since 1995.
Under the 1997 gun law, law abiding British citizens were forced to give up
their handguns. Pistols that had been in families for generations, including
priceless antiques and Olympic pistols, were confiscated by the government
for a fraction of their value, all in the name of public safety. Yet on
October 13th, the London Sunday Times reported that Commander Andy Baker, who
is in charge of more than 900 detectives investigating all murders in London,
blames drugs and a greater availability of guns for the increased violence.
And according to the London Sunday Times of March 10, 2002, it's easy to buy
an illegal gun on the streets of London. According to Associated Press: "Dave
Rodgers, vice chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said the ban
made little difference to the number of guns in the hands of criminals." He
acknowledged, "The underground supply of guns does not seem to have dried up
at all." Since the ban didn't work, Tony Blair's government is now calling
for a ban on replica firearms, gun shaped cigarette lighters, and air
pistols.
In California, similar past and present efforts to expand gun control laws
have been equally ineffective. For many years Los Angeles, Oakland, and San
Francisco have passed every ill-conceived gun control scheme that was
suggested by the gun ban lobby. Despite promises from the promoters of these
ordinances, these tried-and-failed schemes have not slowed the rising violent
crime and murder rate in those cities.
The gun ban lobby â€" in England and California â€" won't acknowledge that
banning guns doesn't stop criminals from misusing guns. But as England
vividly illustrates, gun control laws typically increase violent crime by
shifting the balance of power to the criminals, who ignore the laws.
Firearms in the hands of law-abiding citizens deter crimes and save lives. #
# #
Failure of British Gun Ban Illustrates Folly of
California Gun Control Efforts
Newly released statistics reported October 13th show that since the British
government passed one of the most stringent gun bans in the world in 1997,
Britain's murder rate has risen to its highest level since crime records
began being kept 100 years ago.
The number of murders in the first eight months of this year has risen by as
much as 22% in some of Britain's biggest cities, which account for the
majority of homicides. This builds on a 4% rise in the murder rate in the
year to March, and is 20% higher than the total for 1997, the first year of
Tony Blair's government and the year that strict new gun bans were imposed.
Police say random killings are rising. Official figures show the proportion
of murders in which the victim is not known to the killer has nearly doubled
in the past decade to 31%. The British Home Office reports that handgun crime
is at its highest since 1993, while overall gun crimes have never been
higher. Since the draconian 1997 gun ban was passed, criminal misuse of
handguns has jumped by 40 percent. As in California, much of the gun violence
is related to urban youth gang warfare and the illicit drug trade. But petty
criminals in Britain are now using guns during common street crime. London
has surpassed the crime rate of New York City. Robberies in which criminals
use or threaten violence have gone up by 35 percent in the past year. In
fact, Chris Fox, vice-president of the British Association of Chief Police
Officers, said the rising murder rate put Britain out of line with America,
where it has fallen 12%, and France and Germany, where it has dropped 29% and
27% respectively since 1995.
Under the 1997 gun law, law abiding British citizens were forced to give up
their handguns. Pistols that had been in families for generations, including
priceless antiques and Olympic pistols, were confiscated by the government
for a fraction of their value, all in the name of public safety. Yet on
October 13th, the London Sunday Times reported that Commander Andy Baker, who
is in charge of more than 900 detectives investigating all murders in London,
blames drugs and a greater availability of guns for the increased violence.
And according to the London Sunday Times of March 10, 2002, it's easy to buy
an illegal gun on the streets of London. According to Associated Press: "Dave
Rodgers, vice chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said the ban
made little difference to the number of guns in the hands of criminals." He
acknowledged, "The underground supply of guns does not seem to have dried up
at all." Since the ban didn't work, Tony Blair's government is now calling
for a ban on replica firearms, gun shaped cigarette lighters, and air
pistols.
In California, similar past and present efforts to expand gun control laws
have been equally ineffective. For many years Los Angeles, Oakland, and San
Francisco have passed every ill-conceived gun control scheme that was
suggested by the gun ban lobby. Despite promises from the promoters of these
ordinances, these tried-and-failed schemes have not slowed the rising violent
crime and murder rate in those cities.
The gun ban lobby in England and California won't acknowledge that
banning guns doesn't stop criminals from misusing guns. But as England
vividly illustrates, gun control laws typically increase violent crime by
shifting the balance of power to the criminals, who ignore the laws.
Firearms in the hands of law-abiding citizens deter crimes and save lives. #
# #
Matey
KS, I have to admit...
..I've been there a few times. Been out in the Everglades and as far down as Key West. Even visited Hemingway's house. It was about 500 degrees, 100% humidity and NOT raining! Maybe going in November, it won't be so hot and muggy.
A few years back we took the "Hurricane" Cruise on the Disney Line. Nice ship, great food and really rough seas. Hurricane Floyd had just passed through Nassau and a lot of buildings were torn up. Some other hurricane was causing storm surge and heavy seas. Tried to go snorkeling but the visibility was zero and the pounding surf not only tried to drown me but put seashells where one should never have seashells put!
Daughter has an indoor pool and a lake in the back yard with at least two alligators in them. Pool sounds OK.
Matey
Yeah but trkyhntr...
..my daughter moved there. Can't avoid visiting them and don't want to. Just got pictures from her of their place. Really nice!
Matey
Pre and all..
Plan on having a good trip. Haven't flown since the September 11th attacks but have been to the airport and through security numerous times. Think I'll wear swiming trunks and flip-flops.
Swampers...
Ol Matey is headin' to No'th Carolina the end of the month for an anniversary party and then down to Floriduh where my daughter moved. She moved out of the DC Beltway area and I'm kinda glad she did but I'd rather stick needles in my eyes than go to Floriduh, home of old people and their parents, "hanging chad, where humidity was invented, where 'sweat' is the fragrance of the day! Heck, I can't even 'take the high ground'. There ain't any!
SweatyMate
Juddage,
NYC let me know about your resent demise.
Bummer, and from a guy who took great pride in being a butthead!
Matey
Hey, I ain't dead!
Well aware of the anti's dancing on the graves of the dead and dipping their anti-rights banner in their blood.
You can NEVER let your guard down.
The best way to fight the anti-gun faction is coming up next month. Vote out every Democrat. This is my personal observation. They may talk pro-gun for campaign purposes but the party platform is made from the stocks of confiscated rifles.
Believe it!
Firearms Injuries Decrease Dramatically
Strong Downward Trend Shown In Statistical Analysis
Analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data from the Firearms Injury Surveillance Study for 1993-1997 shows a dramatic decrease in non-fatal firearms-related injuries for all age categories for children and adolescents.
This decrease coincides with similar drops in accidental firearm fatalities, which reached an all time low in 2000. (The 2001 figures are incomplete and have not been published as of yet.)
The study shows a 37% decrease in the total number of non-fatal firearm related injuries in the 5 year period. The drop is from 28,963 in 1993 to 18,009 in 1997 for children and adolescents ages 0-19. The greatest rates of decrease occurred among the youngest age groups with non-fatal firearms related injuries for children ages 0-4 down 50% and non-fatal firearms related injuries for children ages 5-9 down 76%. The total number of non-fatal firearm injuries for children under 10 dropped 64% from 1308 in 1993 to 465 in 1997. These firearm-related injury numbers would even be lower but the study includes such broadly defined non-penetrating gunshot injuries as those from powder burns, recoil and even pistol-whipping (the use of a firearm as a blunt object in an assault).
In 2000, the number of accidental firearm fatalities in the U.S. fell to an all-time low, according to the National Safety Council's Injury Facts report. The preliminary total of 600 firearm fatalities in 2000 is 25% fewer than in 1999, reflects a 58% drop since 1990 and is the lowest number of fatalities reported since records were first kept in 1903. In the same year accidental firearm fatalities were reduced to 600, the National Safety Council reports accidental drowning deaths in the U.S. numbered 3,900. There were 3,600.deaths from fires and burns and poisonings of all types to 12,100 lives.
NYC, very happy for you...
..you are a good Dad and the little girl is very lucky!
Best to Mrs. Nycnpbbkr.
Matey
I feel your concern Pre..
the Rodeo/Chedeski fire here alone, was 400,000 acres. Those forest will not be the same in our lifetime. Though the above fire was arson, we get many lightening strike fires in AZ. When we lived in California, most of the fires there were arson. California, especially Southern California gets very little lightening for some reason.
Good luck.
Matey
Good news from occupied California:
Bill proposing ammo tax is shelved
By Gary Voet -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 a.m. PDT Wednesday, August 7, 2002
The "good thought, bad implementation" bill, Senate Constitutional Amendment 12, is no longer a source of discussion among sportsmen. At least not this year.
SCA 12 was a proposed constitutional amendment that would have taxed law-abiding sportsmen to compensate for the medical expenses of victims of illegal firearm use. The amendment would have levied a five-cent tax on each round of ammunition sold in California after Jan. 1, 2003.
But Tuesday, one day before it was to be heard by the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee, the bill was pulled by its author, Sen. Don Perata, D-Alameda. It had already cleared one Senate subcommittee, and if it had passed today, it had one more subcommittee to go to before it went to the Senate floor.
Then, assuming it passed on the Senate side, it would have had to go through all the hoops on the Assembly side, meaning more subcommittees and more time.
With the state's budget the center of debate in the Legislature right now, other bills putting SCA 12 in low priority and the Legislature shutting down at the end of this month, time is in short supply. And that probably played into Perata's decision to pull the bill.
"We have been fighting this and were going to fight it (today), but time was on our side," said Bill Gaines, director of governmental affairs for the California Waterfowl Association. "It will probably rear its ugly head up again next year, but we will be better prepared for it then."
The tax from the amendment also would have financed a trauma center fund, which did not bother opponents of the bill. The objection was it would tax sportsmen and sport shooters who obey gun regulations and promote safe handling of firearms.
Making law-abiding sportsmen pay for suffering caused by urban criminals is "unfair and intolerable," claimed the opposition.
"While increasing funding for trauma centers is an admirable goal, requiring hunters and other law-abiding sportsmen and women to shoulder such costs belies the 'user pays' principle," said Gaines. "There is simply no nexus, documented or otherwise, between sporting activities and gun violence.
"Rather, it is the illegal use of firearms by criminals that causes the vast majority of firearms injuries and fatalities.
"Ironically, the sporting community has long sought to reduce firearm-related accidents through hunter safety programs and various other self-imposed measures. Through such efforts, concerned hunters have significantly reduced the number of firearms injuries in the field over the last 30 years, making hunting one of the safest outdoor recreational pursuits available in California today."
Dove hunt
The Department of Fish and Game will be offering a special dove hunt Sept. 1-2 at Cosumnes River Preserve.
The free public hunt will be limited to 50 hunters each day, and the deadline to apply is Aug. 14. Hunts are open to anyone holding a current California hunting license.
Send or drop off a 4-by-6 postcard to DFG, 1701 Nimbus Road, Suite A, Rancho Cordova, 95670. Up to four hunters may apply as a party. Applicants who wish to hunt together should apply on one postcard. Names and hunting license numbers, hunt dates in order of preference and one contact address and phone number must be on each postcard.
Computers will select hunters by random, and successful applicants will be mailed a permit, map and specific information six to eight days before the hunt.
Only one postcard may be submitted per party. Submitting more than one application for this hunt will result in a disqualification of the applicant.
For more information, call (916) 358-2877.
http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/story/3884195p-4909954c.html
Am I supposed to guess these too?
1. Any one of about a million places in Northern AZ and Utah.
2. Your driveway? Back Bay NPB for sure, dude!
3. Guessing somewhere around Lake Powell or Mead?
4. Looks like the place my son and I drove near Lake Powell that had a sign that said "In case of rain, abandond vehicle and climb to high ground!"
5. Montezuma's Castle, AZ.
6. Little Colorado East of Grand Canyon?
7. Mono Lake where there ain't no lake?
8. Not sure. Southern Arizona, maybe?
Thanks Pre...
I have a couple hundred more but I don't think MF would appreciate them.
Matey
NYC,
Close huh?
Matey