Corn field carry

The NRA decided to spend some money in Iowa this year. It's promoting shall-issue and CCW reciprocity. Rep. Clel Baudler has routinely, for years, introduced shall-issue bills. They have been invisible, but the NRA push is generating enough attention to create some small hope.

Reciprocity is probably going no where, we Iowans being very wary of big-city types from Indianapolis and like that coming in with gats in their pants. Our basic sense of fairness breaks down on the point that many other states honor our carry permits while we recognize nothing unless its home-grown, corn fed, and gives a large rat's butt about who won the Orange Bowl.

Shall-issue stands only a slightly better chance. Its primary enemies are Iowa sheriffs who carry substantial clout with the legislature. They are all but unanimous in opposing it for the obvious small-bore reason. Turf.

Aside from satisfying the natural power lust of all politicians, may-issue is an incumbent sheriff's dream. It generates votes and money from those favored with permits or hoping to get one. This isn't to say you can necessarily buy a permit; it's plenty for the poor citizen to think he can.

The practical result of leaving the decision on your right to self-defense up to 99 county sheriffs is, as you would expect, chaotic. Some counties (including mine) are for all practical purposes "shall-issue." Other are screw-you-jack. Still others are shall-issue only if the sheriff is in a good mood, fresh fed and recently laid. Otherwise SYJ.

And since a CCW issued in any county is valid statewide, we have the silliness of carrying Joe from Davenport being legal in Iowa City while the Iowa City resident is forbidden to carry.

If you happen to be among TMR's Iowa readers. please accept this invitation to collar your state representative and senator. It's an election year. Incumbent lawmakers are jittery about November, so these critters may be slightly more prone listen to what citizens have to say.

Warmering

Scrabbling around the net for a suitable peg on which to hang another gill of wiseass irony on global warming as seen by a contemporary Upper Plains citizen, I ran across this pleasantly lucid Forbes piece.

There's no one snark-star in column, and maybe that's good. We keep teasing the warmist dimwits, forgetting that a sense of humor is the second thing they lose, right after good sense.

Instead you get things like:

"According to satellite data, global warming stopped about 10 years ago and there's no way to know whether it's happening now," says Roy Spencer, former NASA senior scientist for climate studies."

His point is that since there is no reliable data on the very existence of AGW, there is no way of knowing if the radical Gorist assaults on economy and liberty are working or not. (Think about a warmist as a shyster mechanic turned loose at $80 bucks an hour on an intermittent electrical problem in your government-built Chevy. )

Michael Fumenta goes on largely in that vein, offering data and their interpretation by real scientists to remind us that Gore apostles, lead by President Obama, are hard at work on a new citizen-control program called "geoengineering."

The term, assuming it has an exegetic meaning at all, means anything you want to buy, build, or eat requires written approval from that portion of the United Nations membership which boasts an extremely high AIDS/soap ratio.

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And now, the daily post lamely out of the way, I return to the out of doors where I shall continue reinforcing what I can to reduce the snow-load danger. I shall start the vehicles just to make sure they're ready if an emergency requires them. I shall spread some old bread for the furry and the feathered, Most important, I shall shovel a path out to the road, secure in the knowledge that FEMA and the President are en route to present me with my trailer, my pallet of Vichy water, and a $2,000 debit card.

Horse. Door. Barn.

This stuff gets reported with a straight face:

"Homeland Security officials say they had flagged Abdulmutallab as someone who should go through additional security screening upon landing."

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This is a good time to remind you, for your own safety, to leave your personal protection devices locked up at home and depend on our trained professionals. They're the only ones ...

Mass. follies

I try not to write too much here about routine politics, especially meaningless endorsements, but once in a while something makes me grin or grimace enough to pass it along.

The scene: Peoples Republic of Massachusetts, today.

The live players: Two rich statist and antigun lawyers: Martha Coakley and Vicki Kennedy. The former is running for the spectre's senate seat. See below.

The spectre: Former free diver Ted Kennedy, former husband of Vicki.

The line: Vicki emotes that Martha Coakley will go to Washington to help pass more national health care because: "Health care is the moral issue of our times."

The response: No, dammit, Vicki. Health care is the control issue of our times.

MSNBC played this like a breaking news story of monumental import. WTF did MSNBC think Vicki would back? WTF at that network thinks anyone who didn't already know could give a sweet rat's behind?