From Matthew Hurtt who got it from Colby Sledge.

5:32 p.m. FINAL UPDATE: The House passes HB0962, the guns-in-restaurants bill that would allow handgun carry permit holders to carry their weapons into restaurants that serve alcohol. The bill, as amended, would ban those weapons from restaurants from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m.

The bill now moves to the Senate, where it currently sits in committee. The House vote, 70-26, would be enough to override a potential veto by Gov. Phil Bredesen, who has said he’ll make his decision when/if a bill comes to his desk.

I have to say, I am very pleased that our representatives stood up for our second amendment rights this afternoon. The Senate gets the next crack at it followed by Governor Bredesen. The Senate has had enough support the last few years, the House has been the problem. Hopefully they pass it soon and Bredesen can sign it into law. If passed, it is supposed to go into effect July 1st.

There are a few other bills concerning parks coming up soon that will interest those with their carry permit as well.

11. *HB0716 - Handgun Permits - As introduced, allows any resident who has a valid handgun carry permit to possess a handgun while within the boundaries of any state park. - Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 17, Part 13 and Title 70.

12. *HB0960 - Firearms and Ammunition - As introduced, authorizes person with handgun carry permit to possess firearm in local, state, or federal parks. - Amends TCA Title 39, Chapter 17, Part 13 and Title 70.

If you have the time, contact your representatives and let them know how you feel about these bills.

Cigarette smoking is a disgusting habit; It smells bad, stains your teeth, damages your body, etc - But that doesn’t make increasing the tax on the habit a good idea. If we stop and look at the effects of increasing the tax on cigarettes we are left with only two possible outcomes; Neither of them are good and at least one of them is immoral. Of course, that didn’t stop our legislators.

Read more…

I really can’t seem to wrap my head around the way some people think. There have been some incredibly despicable acts of violence in the last few days. There was a terrible shooting in New York and also one in Pennsylvania. My thoughts and prayers are with the friends and families of the victims. What I am not doing is looking for someone or something to blame.

Michelle Malkin pointed out what some people are blaming this on, and it is really pathetic.

IBM and corporate greed.

The Second Amendment.

The NRA.

Fox News.

Me. FreeRepublic.com RedState.com

Lou Dobbs.

“Your 2nd Amendment rights at work. The NRA is answerable for this.”

Michele Bachmann.

Conservative talk radio.

All right-wingers.

Ok people, can we think these things through for a minute. The gun isn’t the problem here. Talk radio hosts are not the problem. The second amendment and the NRA are not the problem. THE FREAKING CRAZY GUY IS THE PROBLEM! This is really not that difficult to figure out.

The thing that I hate about this is that politicians will use these shootings as reasons for tougher gun control. Somehow, they think that making guns illegal will stop criminals from committing murder. Guess what, that guy who doesn’t care about your laws against murder, really doesn’t care about your laws against guns. He is going to have a gun. His life will be much easier though without having to worry about any law abiding citizens having a gun.

Stop making excuses for the guy. Stop trying to pin the blame on inanimate objects or people you just don’t like. Stop using crazy people as a reason to take away guns. The crazy guy is the reason we need guns. I want to have the opportunity to protect myself and my loved ones if I am ever unfortunate enough to be in that type of situation.

Stop looking for someone to blame or for a way to gain something politically when a tragedy like this happens. No amount of gun control would have stopped this, and the blame is really easy, it falls on the crazy guy.

Want to know why universal health insurance won’t work? It is because people will abuse it. They will abuse it all the time.

Yahoo had an article today with some mind boggling stats from emergency rooms around Austin Texas.

Just nine people accounted for nearly 2,700 of the emergency room visits in the Austin area during the past six years at a cost of $3 million to taxpayers and others, according to a report. The patients went to hospital emergency rooms 2,678 times from 2003 through 2008, said the report from the nonprofit Integrated Care Collaboration, a group of health care providers who care for low-income and uninsured patients.
…
The average emergency room visit costs $1,000. Hospitals and taxpayers paid the bill through government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, Kitchen said.
…
Eight of the nine patients have drug abuse problems, seven were diagnosed with mental health issues and three were homeless.

Ok, let’s do some math. 2678 visits / 9 people = 297.5 visits each. 6 years X 365 days = 2190 days. 2190 days / 297.5 visits = 7.36 days between visits. These people went to the ER an average of once a week for six straight years. You and I paid 3 million dollars in taxes so that 9 hypochondriac drug addicts could waste the time of hospital employees who could have been treating people who actually needed it.

Everybody think about this for a minute and then tell me how well you think universal health care is going to work.

Is that really the best you can do President Obama. An Ipod. For the Queen? I’d really like to know who is in charge of gifts for foreign leaders, because they really suck. Dvd’s for the Prime Minister, now an Ipod for the Queen.

President Obama has given the Queen an Ipod during their private meeting at Buckingham Palace. It contains footage of her state visit to the US in May 2007. The Queen has given the president a silver framed photograph of herself and her husband. The official picture is what she gives all visiting dignitaries.

I’m really pretty astounded at this. You have the resources at your disposal to get the Queen nearly anything in the world, and you choose an Ipod? I’m all for saving money, but maybe if we start trimming the 3.6 trillion dollar budget we can find some room to spend more than $200 on the Queen. Or at least find something that is one of a kind. Heck, it doesn’t even have to one of a kind, just not a mp3 player that is one of a billion.

A friend said this regarding Mr. Obama the other day:

It’s like watching bad reality TV . . . like, Who Wants to Be the President?

And every week I wonder, when is this guy going to get voted off?

from now.