Gibson Guitar Plant In Nashville Raided By Federal Wood Police

One Man’s Thoughts Has Moved To

http://www.patriotthoughts.com

You can read this article at:

http://www.patriotthoughts.com/2009/11/23/gibson-guitar-plant-in-nashville-raided-by-federal-wood-police/

Thank You, Vytautas

Where Were You When Wood Became A Felony?

One Man’s Thoughts Has Moved To

http://www.patriotthoughts.com

You can read this article at:

http://www.patriotthoughts.com/2009/11/23/where-were-you-when-wood-became-a-felony/

Thank You, Vytautas

Buy a Truck, Get a Gun

Check out Mountain Home Auto Ranch in Boise, Ontario, Pocatello, Idaho Falls, Nampa, Jerome, and Twin Falls. http://www.mhautoranch.com/index.htm

South Carolina Offering Shoppers Tax-Free Weekend On Guns

One Man’s Thoughts Has Moved To

http://www.patriotthoughts.com

You can read this article at:

http://www.patriotthoughts.com/2009/11/22/south-carolina-offering-shoppers-tax-free-weekend-on-guns/

Thank You, Vytautas

Firearms Freedom Act Introduced in Ohio

One Man’s Thoughts Has Moved To

http://www.patriotthoughts.com

You can read this article at:

http://www.patriotthoughts.com/2009/11/22/firearms-freedom-act-introduced-in-ohio/

Thank You, Vytautas

Gun Sales Shoot Up Amid Fear Of Rising Crime And Terrorism

Smith & Wesson expects to nearly double its annual sales in the next three to five years as demand for its firearms soars in the recession. It is not alone.

All over America demand for firearms and ammunition is rising amid concerns that rising unemployment, which passed 10 per cent this month, will lead inexorably to higher rates of crime. Fears of terrorism have also helped to lift demand, as have concerns among gun owners that the Obama Administration may introduce restrictions on gun ownership and impose additional taxes.

Smith & Wesson is expecting sales to rise by 30 per cent to $102 million in the first quarter of the next financial year, after growing by more than 13 per cent this year to $335 million.

At Sturm Ruger, sales for the third quarter hit $71.2 million, up 70 per cent from the same period last year.

At Glock, the leader in law enforcement markets, pistol sales rose by 71 per cent in the first quarter of the financial year for 2010, in comparison with the same period last year.

According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the FBI carried out more than a million background checks on behalf of gun dealers in September (a check is required with every sale), an increase of 12.4 per cent on the same period in the previous year.

Mike Golden, chief executive at Smith and Wesson, is skeptical about the so-called Obama effect on gun sales, believing that his company’s booming revenues have “nothing to do with the administration” and everything to do with the economy.

“People are worried about personal protection with unemployment and crime on the rise,” he said, adding that 30 per cent of customers who had bought the company’s guns in the first half of this year were “first-time gun owners”, up from 9 per cent nine a year earlier.

Randy Williams, industry editor at Hoover, the research firm, agreed. “As an example of the personal safety and terrorism aspect, Smith & Wesson’s hunting rifle sales in 2009 dropped about 33 per cent at a time when the company’s other gun sales — revolvers, pistols, Walther imports, and tactical rifles — grew 33 per cent,” he said.

At the Freedom Group, whose brands include Remington, Marlin, Bushmaster and Harrington & Richardson, managers are encouraged by the “meaningful percentage of current firearm sales . . . made to first-time gun purchasers, particularly women”.

No Child Left Behind. Because They ALL Need to Be Watching Television at School.

This article is from Michelle Mitchell’s blog Scribbit. Check it out. It has a lot of interesting items.

My daughter came home from high school on Friday.

“How was your day?” I asked.

“Fine. We had another substitute so we didn’t do anything.”

“What do you mean?”

“Whenever we have a substitute we usually don’t do anything, we just watch movies. This time the sub spent the whole time online giving us internet quizzes.”

“Quizzes about the subject matter?”

“No, personality quizzes, that kind of thing.”

“You’re kidding.”

“No, once we had a guy who spent the whole time going through his text messages and last year in P.E. the teacher–not the sub–would make us lay down on the gym floor and take naps sometimes. He’d force us to close our eyes and if he thought we weren’t actually sleeping he’d say he was going to dock our grade.”

“So, let me get this straight–you were being graded for sleeping in Physical Education class? Not for running or exercising or playing a sport but sleeping?

“Yea, and in English class today the teacher said we’d been working hard this week so we were going to take a break so we finished up Enchanted.”

“You watched Enchanted?”

“Yea, we’ve been watching it for a couple weeks now, we’ll see a bit and then watch other video clips.”

“Why are you watching Enchanted? What does that have to do with English?”

“They speak English in the movie? I don’t know. Because we watch a lot of movies in German class: Ratatouille, The Incredibles, Ice Age, Finding Nemo–plus a bunch of German movies.”

“Because they’re speaking German?”

“I guess. We don’t really pay much attention to the German part.”

“How many movies do you watch a week?”

She thought a bit, counting up on her fingers and trying to remember. “Oh–I don’t know–five or six, maybe more. We watch T.V. pretty much every day in at least one class and any time we have a sub they put in movies or something. We watch stuff like Mythbusters a lot and call it chemistry.”

She paused a moment then said, “At least it’s not like my history teacher who flirts with girls in the class then shows us pictures of himself without his shirt on and talks about his tattoos.”

“He showed you pictures of himself without his shirt?“

“Yea, he was trying to show us how big his muscles were and was pointing out his tattoo and saying that we could tell the picture hadn’t been fixed because you could still see his tattoo.”

“Apparently working six hours a day with three months off in the summer and another month off throughout the school year isn’t enough, those teachers must be exhausted. And these are your honors classes?”

“Yea, I’ve talked to people in the AP classes and they say it’s not much different there. Sometimes the stuff we do that’s supposed to be real work doesn’t make any sense either. Like last year in English we were supposed to be studying the Renaissance so we read The Crystal Caves by Mary Stewart.”

“Sure, because why read anything like Marlowe, Spenser, Jonson or Shakespeare when you’ve got cheap 1970s fantasy fiction at your fingertips? It’s not even set in the Renaissance.”

“I know. The projects we did had nothing to do with the Renaissance either–we do a lot of projects, especially group projects. I think it’s because the teacher doesn’t have to do anything to grade it like they would have to do if we actually wrote a paper or took a test. Some kid built a throne out of hockey pucks and hockey sticks and got an A.”

“A hockey stick throne? How does that relate to the Renaissance?”

“It doesn’t But it was cool.”

“And this is public education. Run by the government. If that’s not the biggest strike against a government-run health care system I don’t know what is.”

http://scribbit.blogspot.com/2009/11/no-child-left-behind-because-they-all.html

Airport Rules Changed After Ron Paul’s Aide Is Detained

An angry aide to Rep. Ron Paul, an iPhone and $4,700 in cash have forced the Transportation Security Administration to quietly issue two new rules telling its airport screeners they can only conduct searches related to airplane safety.

In response, the American Civil Liberties Union is dropping its lawsuit on behalf of Steve Bierfeldt, the man who was detained in March and who recorded the confrontation on his iPhone as TSA and local police officers spent half an hour demanding answers as to why he was carrying the money through Lambert-St. Louis International Airport.

The new rules, issued in September and October, tell officers “screening may not be conducted to detect evidence of crimes unrelated to transportation security” and that large amounts of cash don’t qualify as suspicious for purposes of safety.

“We had been hearing of so many reports of TSA screeners engaging in wide-ranging fishing expeditions for illegal activities,” said Ben Wizner, a staff lawyer for the ACLU, pointing to reports of officers scanning pill-bottle labels to see whether the passenger was the person who obtained the prescription as one example.

He said screeners get a narrow exception to the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches, strictly to keep weapons and explosives off planes, not to help police enforce other laws.

TSA has repeatedly bumped heads against civil libertarians, who argue officers overstep their authority.

The directive tells screeners that “traveling with large amounts of currency is not illegal,” and that to the extent bulk quantities of cash warrant searching, it is only to further security objectives, the ACLU said.

The ACLU sued in June on behalf of Mr. Bierfeldt, who was detained after he sent a metal box with $4,700 in cash and checks through an X-ray machine at the airport.

He had the cash as part of his duties as director of development for the Campaign for Liberty, the offshoot group that Mr. Paul, Texas Republican, created from his presidential bid.

Mr. Bierfeldt recorded audio of the confrontation on his iPhone, including threats, insults and repeated questions about where he obtained the money.

“Are you from this planet?” one officer told him, while another accused him of acting like a child for asking what part of the law forced him to answer their questions about the money.

Some civil liberties activists speculate that TSA wants passengers to be uncertain about its procedures because it gives more power to the authorities in an encounter.

Driggs Boy Shoots Bear On Family’s Porch

An 11-year-old boy killed a bear at point-blank range last Wednesday night after it wouldn’t leave his family’s porch.

The boy was at his home near Driggs with his younger sisters and after seeing the bear on the front porch and not being able to get it to leave, the boy retrieved a gun and killed the animal.

The family declined to comment and wished to remain anonymous.

Fish and Game Conservation Officer Doug Petersen said the black bear had been a problem in the area near the county transfer station, and he and Fish and Game Officer Lauren Wednt had set up a trap earlier in the week.

“The bear had been hanging around and we got multiple complaint calls,” said Wendt. The bear had been getting into garbage cans and bird feeders in the area.

Petersen said officials may have had to put it down anyway. He said that in situations where the bear has been a problem around humans or threatens human safety, they usually don’t issue citations.

“Human safety is a higher priority,” said Petersen. “We’re concerned with how bears are managed and we want to live in harmony with them.”

The boy and his family are not in any trouble, and Petersen said he issued them a permit to keep the bear. Usually when a bear is put down by Fish and Game they sell the hide at a state auction, Petersen said. Petersen said the family reported the bear Thursday morning. Fish and Game trapped and euthanized another problem black bear about two weeks ago, after the bear reportedly let himself into a home. Petersen said it’s normal for the animals to move from higher elevations this time of year.

“We don’t like to see them down this low,” said Petersen. “But it’s not uncommon.”

Rachael Horne, Teton Valley News

http://www.rexburgstandardjournal.com/articles/2009/11/14/news/38.txt

The FDIC Closed A Chicago Bank Just Hours After It Received An Award From Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner

Park National Bank of Chicago received $50 million in tax credits to encourage investment in poor communities at an October 30, 2009 ceremony attended by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner.

Hours later, though, it was seized along with eight other banks around the country that formed part of a holding company called FBOP Corp. and sold to U.S. Bancorp.