Pokey the Penguin

Pokey the Penguin is not for everyone.

Like a fine wine, Pokey operates on a level far displaced from most comics.

Pokey must be wafted. Slowly.

Let it roll across your comedic pallet.

Absorb the subtleties.





Now that your mind is prepared, we're going to start slow, with a single panel.











Ok, let me compose myself...

Ok...

Lets see if we can go through this.







As the diagram shows, this single panel is made almost entirely of win and awesome.

DANGER: Entire comics are made of collections of panels like the above, and may contain dangerous amounts of these elements. Use caution.

As this graph indicates, Pokey the Penguin is some serious stuff. Please, do not underestimate Pokey.

Also, do not read Pokey prior to operating heavy machinery or if you are or may become pregnant.



If you feel you're ready, try a whole comic.

Photo of the kids

click for larger size

My G22 is purely a fun gun. Every few mags it gets a failure to feed or a failure to eject, but I've been using the cheapest ammo I could buy for it so I can't really blame the rifle just yet. With the scope on it, it's fun to pop off to the indoor range a few miles from my place and spend an hour (or two) drawing dots all over one paper target and trying to get my groups as small as possible. The trigger is still bad, but I've learned tricks to shooting it well, plus it gives me plenty of practice on my trigger pull. I've seriously considered selling it and picking up a CZ 542 many times, but I feel more compelled to learn to love the gun I already have. It feeds shorts (one in a mag at a time) and the 20" barrel keeps the report to nearly nil on CCI CBs, so I'm happy for now. It does turn a lot of heads, especially at a pistol range.

My AR type is a Stag lower with a Stag 2HL (lefty) upper on it. The mag is pinned, and requires a tool to remove (thank you California), but beggars can't be choosers. (I'm just happy to be able to own one in Ca! Take that Diane Frankenstein) Top loading it is not too hard, but keeps me from any sustained shooting (which I don't really do anyways), stripper clips would speed things up, but I really don't care. It was a bit of journey learning to shoot the AR. Looking up info on how to feed, bathe, and oil was just as important as finding out the proper way to shoot an AR. Shooting it at 3 liter bottles of soda from the 99 cent store is awesome. I less than three my AR.

My Nova tactical is an odd design. The receiver and stock are polymer and are reinforced in areas by metal, giving it a one-piece, sleek design. I think it's sexy, but I also think it's kind of weird for some reason. It has ghost ring sights for firing slugs, and has a button to keep from from feeding from the magazine on the pump in case you want to load a different shot through the ejection port. Holds 7+1 and field strips without tools. My go-to gun for home defense, loaded with 8 shells of 00 buck, cocked and locked. I got a great deal on it used from a semi-local shop, couldn't find a lick of wear on it, and it came with the mag extension (which Benelli apparently stopped shipping to the US for some reason). The polymer receiver and stock throw the balance off, making it a bit front heavy, but I prefer the light weight it give the gun. Barrel swaps out without tools. According to Josh, it cycles faster than other shotguns, but this is the only shotgun I've owned. (but he knows his poop so you can probably take his word on it. :) )

My bunny rabbit, Ava is probably around 3 years old, and was rescued from the Irvine animal shelter. From the day we brought her home and she immediately left her care to smell us, and wander around, we knew she was different. I did a lot of research on what to expect from a house rabbit, and Ava didn't much care for those expectations. She's extremely comfortable around people, doesn't seem to mind the furniture being moved around, and is more interested in getting into trouble when we're around than when we're away. Since we got her, she's gone from bunny to rabbit, and is bigger than most cats. She's more skittish about odd sounds and will grunt and thump to "warn" us that there's something odd nearby. It took her some time to get used to sneezing and people walking by outside our apartment, but once she got used to most of the sounds she doesn't even flinch. When we moved, I was afraid she'd be scared of the new place with new smells, sounds, and layout, but she acts as though nothing happened. She's rather independent, and will rarely approach us for more than a few seconds, but is more likely to find a place near us and lay down. She's always up to inspect things new to her area and is not shy about biting, licking, or pushing them over (or carrying them away, if they're small enough), so she's checking out the nova.

*dramatic pause*

... wait for it... it'll be good...


probably...

My SKS

Picked up an SKS from the local gun shop. Chinese with a threaded barrel, only problem was it was on consignment (put up just a few days prior), so I have to wait till the 18th till I can start the 10 day wait... MAN I love California.

My girlfriend thought it would be ok since I'd probably forget and be pleasantly surprised that I get a gun!

The wood was pretty beat up (nothing a little TLC won't fix), but everything looked very clean. Almost too clean. The gun had those little fuzzies all over it (including in the barrel) that you see when you stand a gun up in the closet. The bore was immaculate. I'm hoping I got a gun someone picked up cheap years ago, stuck in a closet, and forgot about.

The first rifle I ever fired was an SKS and I liked it. I started researching them and in doing my research I came to all the unsettling realizations about the police, 911, and generally the reasons for gun ownership. I decided a handgun would make a better first gun purchase and went from there. After seeing the prices I should expect to pay for SKSs I found it hard to pay a bit of a premium on what most consider to be a junky rifle, so I waited until I found one of those great deals.

For a long time I wanted to just to to Turners and pick up an unissued Yugo with a pipe welded to the end for $200, but I held out and it seems to have paid off. $150* for a Chinese SKS with little metal wear and a great bore. I can't wait to shoot it.

* don't forget to factor in California tax, in which you add 15% to retail just because.

The Use of Force

The armed Canadian isn't mincing words on the use of force.

For anyone who thinks guns are evil, let me tell you what will happen if someone breaks into my house in the dead of night and I wake up and see them coming towards me or my own.

I am going to kill them. With vigor.

Break into my house with malice in your heart and you are going to die. It is not a threat. It is a promise.

I am not interested in understanding what drove this criminal to break into my house. I don't care about your tough childhood and your crack habit. Or the fact that you liked by car in the driveway and figured my house was an easy mark. If you smash my door in or break a window, you've essentially announced your morals and intentions to me and you just gambled in a game that I guarantee you are going to lose.

I'd rather be alive and dealing with the financial and legal troubles that follow than dead and pure for not having a gun and using it when it counted. I hope I never do but I am prepared to do so.

Ask yourself which you prefer.

I echo his sentiment. Please give him a read. Keep your head in the game, and remember the big picture.

I don't do much blog reading outside the ones in the list on the right, but I think I need to head over there and see what he's all about.

"Please don't hurt me"

At the bottom of the slippery slope.

[tinfoil hat on] No wait, this is already happening.

Myspace gives up "sex offender data".

With the filing of the required subpoenas, MySpace has agreed to supply the names, email addresses and IP addresses of all convicted sex offenders who have set up a profile on the site. While MySpace has deleted all accounts established by people confirmed to have been convicted of such crimes, it has retained all the vital information so it can comply with the subpoenas.

Win/win right? No one likes child molesters, and they shouldn't be allowed on myspace because there are *cough*unsupervised*cough* children on myspace! It only makes sense, and it's for the children!(tm)

I wrote a post a bit ago, Protect the child molesters! because I wanted people to be aware that we should judge our justice system by how it treats our most hated individuals. When we can convict someone of a crime, send them to jail, release them after having served that time, then take steps to make it nearly impossible for that person to get a job or live anywhere while forcing them into second-class (third? forth?) citizenship, and tracking their every move for life, we REALLY need to take a step back and seriously consider the gravity of what we're doing here.

But wait...

While a step in the right direction, Monday's accord only goes so far. The information won't concern sex offenders who aren't registered or are using aliases on the site. Only honest offenders are likely to get caught in the net, it would seem. Offenders who have fibbed while registering their profile can easily slip by, at least for now.

If you're a convicted sex offender, who must register every month or whatever, with your name in every database imaginable, and you plan to lure children to you through myspace, you're probably not going to use your real name. So this action won't even do what it's supposed to do... Except set prescident.

I'm not even going to get into the idea of government stopping you from using a free privately owned service because you might use it in the comission of a crime. What's next? Banning sex offenders from parks, malls, libraries? Where does the list end?

But hey, myspace is just a place for people to hang out and be idiots right? It's not like anyone's getting arrested for things they've posted on myspace.

Matthew Corwin.
Here's a quick news video on what's happened to him.

The student body president at East Los Angeles College, was arrested after students and faculty members contacted authorities in response to his MySpace page showing Corwin in fatigues and holding weapons.

In fatigues??? He's a military vetern, and part-time MP in the US Army Reserve. I'd say the fatigues could be expected.
Holding weapons??? He founded Students for the Second Amendment, a gun enthusiast and advocacy club on campus. Hmmm... One might assume that someone who founded such a club owned... guns?

It's not like he's being railroaded! If he makes bail, he'll be allowed to continue with his life right? Nope. He's been barred from coming within 100 yards of his school, and has been assigned an inordinately high bail.

So they raided him, and charged him with five counts of unlawful assault-weapon sales, four counts of unlawful possession of assault weapons, two counts of possession of a deadly weapon and one count of receiving stolen property. Clearly there was some other evidence than just some pictures on myspace... (right?) Surely, pictures aren't enough for the ATF to set up and execute a raid against someone right? Wrong.

If they raided him, he must have been doing something wrong. Surely there wasn't a rush-to-judgement... Whoops.

"After further investigation by the (federal officials) they determined that the Browning machine .30-caliber was lawful. So we dismissed six counts today. The remaining six counts will be prosecuted," district attorney's office spokeswoman Jane Robison said.

So they dropped 50% of the charges they were going to persue.

So where is this leading? The big T word.

While sex offenders are (somehow) more villified than terrorists, we know who the sex offenders are. They've been tried, convicted, served their time, and live as second (or third) class citizens after being "rehabilitated" in the criminal justice system. Terrorists, however, are anyone and everyone. Which means that we must give the government unchecked powers to weed out the terrorists hiding in our closets and under our beds. Suddenly there exists a "terrorist watch list" which is held in the strictest secrecy by an agency that was just recently created who will speak nothing to how names get on the list or how to get them off the list.

But only terrorists will turn up on a terrorist watch list right? Wrong. Ted Kennedy was perturbed to find himself on the terrorist watch list, and used his connections to get his name removed from the list. After several weeks. If it took someone with as much political clout as Ted Kennedy several weeks to remove his name from this secret list, do you even think it'll be possible for you or me to do so? Do you think they even had a process for doing such a thing? I doubt it.

Barring any mistaken identity or general cock-up, you've got to be planning to blow something up to be labled a terrorist, right? Wrong. According to the Phoenix FBI training manual, possible terrorists may be characterized by the following:

Defenders of the U.S. Constitution against federal government and the UN
Groups of individuals engaging in para-military training
Those who make numerous references to the U.S. Constitution
Those who attempt to police the police
Lone individuals
Rebels

Looks like this was worth of the attention of the NRA, who says here;

Do you believe gun control is a way to remove our ability to protect ourselves? Do you believe the Bill of Rights protects God-given rights, as opposed to granting rights from the government? Do you believe U.S. sovereignty is threatened by the actions and actors at the United Nations?

Congratulations. You might be a domestic terrorist.

Whoops. You've just been wiretapped, had your electronic communications and credit card purchases flagged, and are subject to an overzealous search when attempting to board a plane. Not to mention any other bit of nastyness we the people aren't even aware of.

Can you imagine being on this list if you were someone the government didn't like? Say, an opponent of a particular party, group, or agency?

But it's not like you're going to just get shipped off without any explanation.
Whoops. Bush has suspended writ of habeus corpus.



So what am I trying to say here?

I'm not trying to say anything. It's already been said, and done.

You can be forced to live your life as a second class citizen.
You can be rejected from living in certain neighborhoods.
You can be refused free, private services.
You can be tagged like an animal and have your location tracked for life.
You can be investigated and raided based on things you put on the internet.
You can be investigated and raided based on a picture of you in the newspaper.
You can be labeled a terrorist by defending the US constitution.
You can be put on a watch list that will allow your 4th amendment rights to be suspended.
You can be put on a terrorist watch list on accident.
You can be wiretapped without a warrant.
You can be jailed out-of-country where rights may be suspended.
You can be jailed without due process or ability to defend yourself, do not pass go, do not collect $200.

This is not tin-foil hat time. This is now.

Good fucking luck to all of us. We're going to need it.

UPDATE:
Follow up post on this topic;
Unpopular people have no rights.

lol internet

From xkcd

NABE-HAME-HAAAAAAAAAAAA!

NABESHIN DEMANDS-- ... SOMETHING!

Flash 9 FINALLY out for Loonix

Yes, Flash 9 has finally been released for Linux.

At the risk of sounding like an ingrate; 'bout freakin' time.

This one got me...

I'm sure you're all familiar with the Jack Bauer quotes, but this one caught me off guard.

Nostradamus once predicted in his journal: "In the century 21st, the one known as Jacques will be the savior of the world... five seasons in a row." Moments later, Jack Bauer knocked down the door, shot Nostradamus in the kneecaps, and yelled "WHO ARE YOU WORKING FOR?!"

HA!

click for full size (so you can actually read it)

From Userfriendly

The drums of death

The WraithMaker

A 19+1 12 guage drum for Saiga semi-auto shotguns.

For when you absolutely, positively, have to become the angel of death.

I wanted to add a clever comment, but all I can still think of is, "That's a lot of fucking shells!!!"

Wait, what?

Free light?

Is the sun getting too expensive?

Face on

Sometimes I wish I could have one of those Mission Impossible latex face masks of my own face. That way I can do something out of character, and when people wonder why I did it, I'll loudly proclaim that they've discovered my horrible secret, remove my mask and reveal that I am, in fact; me.

Building the BOB

Well I'm finally setting up my BOB. I had most of the elements already, but they weren't assembled into one bag.

As I review more and more BOB resources, I'm writing down the things I think will be required. After the initial obvious stuff, I find myself at the second or third teir items that I may or may not need. Most of which I've opted not to add to the bag due to space constraints.

Only problem is, in the past three weeks, I've found myself in need of those very items! Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about pliers or paracord, I'm talking about obscure stuff like prybars. Needless to say most of the items are now crammed into the BOB or on order.

Funny how that works. I guess the universe is trying to tell me something...

The BOB itself has proven to be quite the resource. Now that I've got all these things available to me, I'm finding uses for them. Suddenly I need a lighter? Bam. Beanie? Bam. Flashlight? Bam. Felt tip marker? Bam. Tea? DOUBLE BAM!

I don't know why I held off on putting it all together, but the piece of mind it offers is really quite satisfying.

lol cn U tch me 2 hax intrnets?

The bane of a hacker's existence. Noobs asking (or demanding) for you to "teach" them how to become hackers. The question is so common it's nearly universally ignored. I, however, usually tell them I'd be happy to teach them how to "hax0r teh intarnets" if they're willing to do the work to learn. Everyone always says yes to this. I then explain to them that becoming a true hacker requires a deep understanding of software models, networking, programming languages, and how software interacts with other software. Most will agree they're willing to learn this. I then tell them to learn a programming language if they don't already know one. Only a few have known any languages before my request, and even fewer return after having learned a new language. Next I ask them to write a simple trojan horse that will run on one box and accept commands from another location. This simple task has only been completed by one person. I then asked that person to read about and understand a few attack vectors and write a sample exploit tool for one of the exploits. He did it. I asked him to learn SQL and proper management techniques in order to better understand how to run exploits against SQL servers and backends. He did.

Truly impressed, I asked him if he still wanted to become a hacker. He said he did, but he now he wasn't sure what being a black hat hacker (proper term) was about. I told him, and told him why I don't do what I used to do anymore. He said he didn't want to be a hacker anymore. I then told him that I never had any intention to teach him to become a malicious hacker, but used his drive to push him to learn skills he probably wouldn't have learned on his own. I then told him that without realizing it, he'd developed a series of marketable skills that are in demand in the IT industry. I told him that with his drive and skills he should have little problem finding work that pays better and doesn't bear the threat of federal prison (or now, being labeled as an enemy combatant and being thrown in gitmo sans habius corpus). Then I didn't hear from him.

I hope he's doing well.

After most hackers learn the skills required to become elite they realize that they've got big fat paychecks waiting for them all over the tech industry. Nothing takes the angry teenager fighting against the government's systems of perpetual poverty and tyranny out of you like the promise of good pay and the hopes of making said pay while avoiding federal pound-me-in-the-ass prison.

Why even ask my opinion?

Boss: Hey, the new customer wants to know if we can do this.
Me: Well... I guess. It's possible, but you should warn them that we've never done it like that before, and while I know of no reason why it wouldn't work, I can imagine that once we actually start doing it we might find problems. Make sure they understand that they might not get 100% compliance the first time.
Boss: yeahyeahoknoproblemdontworryokbye

Two weeks later

Boss: Yeah... What's up with that thing? Why isn't it done yet?
Me: I dunno, there's something weird with the software. The vendor is looking at it right now. Good thing we didn't promise them what we couldn't deliver!
Boss: Yeah... We need to deliver that promise in any way possible.
Me: Ok, I'll ignore the fact that I said you shouldn't promise anything, we can do it manually but it will be a hassle and time consuming. It's not a scalable solution so we can't just do that every time. We don't even know if the vendor will be able to deliver what they need.
Boss: Yeah... Can you get on that?
Me: ...
Boss: Yeah...
Me: ...
Boss: ...
Me: ...
Boss: Yeah...
Me: *sigh* Okay... But I promise nothing.
Boss: Yeah...

The difference

There is a difference between people who look at some old sewing supplies and see sewing opportunities, and those who look at some old sewing supplies and see the following.



It's always hard to define that difference because that difference perpetually eludes and escapes definition.

Via MAKE

Name one example.

There was just a caller into the Larry Elder show who was arguing that republicans were more racist than democrats. This is one of many common misconceptions that everyone believes because everyone else believes it. Larry challenged the caller the way he normally does, he asked him to name ONE example. Personally, I'd ask for two or three, because over the course of time, I'm sure you could find an instance to prove pretty much anything, however, whenever Larry challenges callers in this way the caller always comes up with nothing but insists it to be the truth because that's just the way it is. This time was no different. But this time when the caller failed the challenge, he countered that republicans would probably try harder to NOT be racist because of the perception.

He wasn't pointing out that Republicans are not racist, he was just saying that they'd hide it better by NOT being racist.

He was arguing that they'd be more racist by NOT being racist.

So now we've got an argument that has no support being held by someone who argues that evidence to the contrary is simply put there to hide the truth which bears no evidence other than "it's just common knowledge".

My question to you is as follows,

can these people hear themselves talk?

When do you hang up the phone and think to yourself, "Gee, what if republicans really WEREN'T racist? All the evidence in the world wouldn't convince me of it because I've refused to accept it due to a convenient excuse that all facts and evidence regarding this topic are lies. What have I become?!"

A pawn.

Think for yourself.

Research for yourself.

Figure it out yourself.

Make a decision all by yourself.

I know it's hard, but you can do it.

Awesome.

Here I seeded for some cool info. Now, I blog from my Fedora laptop with broadband internet care of my cell phone. Now wherever I'm on sprint's network, I need only plug in my laptop, start up the broadband modem in my phone, and plug in.

Cable and internet are coming Tuesday, but this shit is just on a different level. An awesome level.

Life am good.

Marko's rifle.

I don't usually visit Marko's site (which is probably a mistake) but he's got a great post about his rifle. It's an excellent read (as he usually is) and would likely illicit envy from even the most stoic man and/or shooter. I'm not that stoic, but I sure am envious of what he has found with his rifle.

I hope one day to find my rifle.

Seeding

Move along, nothing to see here.



PPC-6700 modem internet access ppp virtual modem USB modem linux fedora interface

Connecting your linux box to the internet though your PPC-6700 internet access by setting up a usb-enabled ppp modem connection riiiiiiiiight HERE

No home internet access till Tuesday so I decided to finally research this possibility. I had a hard time finding it, I hope this helps someone else have an easy time!

Moving sucks. Concerts ROCK!

Yesterday was the big move day.

We had almost everything in boxes so it's likely the move was as easy as it could have been without simply hiring movers. Dad showed up to help (poor guy) and we rented the truck and filled it to the brim. I was afraid we'd be making two trips, but once flipped the couch vertically (!?) we had plenty of room.

It was a pain, but it was necessary pain, and it was only for one day.

We got our first look at the place that day. 100 more square feet than the last, with a fireplace and a balcony that finds itself protected by trees from the lightly-used street nearby. The balcony is kind of in the middle of a "C" shaped building, so it only has one view out to the street area which is obscured by the trees. At first I thought this was an odd feature, but thinking about it has turned it into my favorite feature. Not too much sun, not too many people, and with a plug to do some computing in the fresh air. Do want. There is only one shared wall (bedroom and bathroom side) so our many loud parties with hundreds of people will be a bit easier on the neighbors, and it's on the second floor, which I seem to prefer for some reason. Additionally, we have our own staircase to an oversized front porch which overlooks a greenery-sided walkway through the complex. A place to sit in the breezy shade, and no worries about people stomping past door.

The main move completed at about 7:30 and by that time we were all dead or dying. My brother-in-law got off work and came to help for the last hour, and quickly reminded us how slowly we were actually moving. I thanked him for his help and told him it probably would have taken us twice the time to do what he helped us with, and meant it. Now, we only had some odds and ends (and our rabbit) at the old place. We returned the truck, and loaded Ava and her cage up in my car and rushed back home to drop her off and leave.

Leave to where? I'm glad you asked.

Leave to go see Ima Robot at the Detroit Bar in Costa Mesa. Oh yeah. It was quite an experience. We were more tired than we'd been in years, and we were ready to go shake ourselves violently to one of our favorite bands.

When we got in, Ima Robot seemed to be getting warmed up, but I couldn't identify the lead singer (who has a very distinct voice) (to say the least). They quit the stage and the cover band set up. They looked a little corny getting ready, but for a while I forgot everything that had happened that day because Thinking Aloud rocked my face off. Did NOT expect that. Extremely high energy, extremely high volume, extremely high rock-to-awesome ratio. And it wasn't just heavy rocking, their songs had the great progression that's usually lacking from most solid rock. When they finished up, I recovered my face and after a bit of setup, Ima Robot retook the stage with their lead. I thought there was a lot of energy in the room with Thinking Aloud, but I was not prepared for the unmitigated awesome that filled the room when they started playing the favorites. It was the first concert I'd been to that I actually wanted to go to, and it was, in my mind, epic. It was quite a thing to experience.

They finished up and we left at 1, with the firm intention to head home, unload the car, head to the old place, load up the last bit, head back home, NOT unpack the car, and hit the hay for a week. Sadly the last part read more like, "hit the hay for 3 hours"

By the time we got home, I felt like three guys worked me over with crowbars. Three hours later nothing changed.

I resisted the temptation to call in sick to stay home and recover (and on a Friday, no less!) So here I am in my chair, still reeling from the dangerous levels of awesome I experienced last night and my day-long crowbar beating, trying to keep the world spinning for our customers, while taking care of the projects thrown at me, returning the e-mails fired at me, pondering my next big move, enjoying the anticipation of shooting with my dad in the desert this Saturday, both loving and hating the ringing in my ears, and (of course) carving out a bit of time to update you folks. Thanks for reading guys.

ps, I picked up a Thinking Aloud CD at the bar, and (of course) the CD is no where near the same as live. But I find comfort knowing that I get more out of the tracks than someone else would, having seen it preformed live. I can hit play, close my eyes, and see that lead singer screaming into the mic. I must then, quickly open my eyes because I'm driving. Spec-tacular.

Gun ownership down, FU up

Kevin over at the smallest minority does a quick exploration of the recent "decline" in gun ownership.

Excellent read. Go nao!

Quote of the AWESOME

From Tam

But if watching a live action Punch & Judy show featuring some stringy-haired 23-year old Che tee-shirt-wearing college student getting a hickory shampoo vigorous enough to dislodge his iPod ear buttons doesn't bring a smile to your face, I don't know what will.

Oh god, I just now stopped laughing!

A NEW CHALLENGAR APPEARS!!!

Just in time for dear old Jack's demise, the hacker community finds a new villain! Say hello to the new guy ready to prevent you from posting things on the internet: Michael Ayers.

Some reading if you want more of the story.

AACS LA: Internet "revolt" be damned, this fight is not over
HD DVD "The Code" Shirt
Breaking: Digg Riot in Full Effect Over Pulled HD-DVD Key Story

Basically, the HD-DVD encryption can be broken by a certain 32 character hex key. Cue the content controller trying to stop people from printing or reproducing the code. Problem is, the code is essentially data. It's almost like saying your car uses the color blue, so anything that's blue is unauthorized reproduction of "trade secrets". Certainly this series of hex characters is a bit more esoteric than the color blue, but all software is made of 1's and 0's, and when displayed in the hex format, this series likely exists in countless places. It's also like patenting the "curve". Things already exist in the world that use curves in countless ways, you can't just say it's illegal to use it because YOU use it!

It's amazing how many parallels you can draw from this and the DeCSS idiocy. Since "data" is not protected speech (due to technically inept law-makers), the code is being reproduced as art, shirts, and in song. It seems the AACS LA can't fire off cease and decists fast enough.

I really enjoyed how Think-Geek approached the problem of fighting these idiotic threats while keeping themselves from legal action. They've made a shirt which reads the following:

09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-bd
09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-be
09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-bf
[redacted]
09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c1
09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c2
09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c3

People knowledgeable in such things know what key is missing without it having to be printed! Genius.

On a completely unrelated note, I've written a random number generator, but it doesn't seem to be working... Every time I run it, it just returns the same hex characters over and over again! Here's some sample output...
09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0
09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0
09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0
09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0
09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0
09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63-56-88-c0
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Anyone know how to fix this?

Choose the impliment of your destruction

So, you'd like to argue with me about guns. Fair enough. Though I ask that you not take offense to my assumption that you are quite *ahem* outgunned. I hope, however, that you will accept my offer of selecting the argument you wish me to use to unhinge yours, that you may choose ground with which you are familiar. This way, you will harbor no ill-will when you are trounced.

Sir, choose my weapon!

Constitutional wording
Somehow references to "the people" in the first amendment refer to the people. But references to "the people" in the second refer to the states? Yeah. No. And you might want to look up older definitions of the word "regulated." Seems it can also mean armed and ready, or properly managed. The constitution was meant to be read, not interpreted. Hand the amendment to a 5 year old and ask him what it means.

Constitutional intent
Those who penned the 2nd amendment did not just toss it in there for the hell of it. Many of our founding framers spoke very specifically to the necessity and reason behind the second amendment, some felt it to be the most important amendment. They had just finished fighting an oppressive government with guns they refused to give up when the British came to confiscate them. They knew that the evolution of any government ends in oppression, and knew that guns in the hands of citizens would be a constant reminder that oppression would be met with force.

Anachronisms
So, you think the 2nd amendment only refers to mussel loaders which only allow a few shots a minute? We find the intent of the 2nd amendment to allow the people to remain as armed as their government. When the military picks up muskets, the people will too.

Militia
How exactly does the 2nd Amendment, ratified in 1787, refers to the National Guard, which
was created 130 years later, in 1917. If the militia is manned by citizens, and a tool of the state, why do they operate on federal land with federally owned weapons, vehicles, and buildings and punish trespassers under federal law? There must be a separation of powers that simply doesn't exist in the national guard.

Crime
Ever wonder why gun control advocates point to "gun crime" specifically to show the success of their legislation? Because regular crime goes up when gun control goes up. It's a dirty little secret that is well kept. Even the slightest effort in research brings up countless instances of increased availability of guns decreasing crime.

Police
The police are not legally required to protect you or come when you call. The only time you'll get an immediate response is when you are in immediate danger, and then you still have to wait for their 5-10 minute "quick" response time. You wouldn't want to spend 30 seconds in the same room as a violent intruder with a knife, why would you choose to spend 5-10 minutes? A gun in the hand is worth 100 armed, trained police officers three blocks away. As for the police controlling some hidden mastery of guns, countless (and I do mean countless) instances prove the fallibility of the police. They are not perfect, and are not the perfect solution.

History
In the world there are countless instances of disarmed populations being oppressed, subjugated, and genocided. We even find flickers of armed resistances causing serious trouble to better armed and better trained oppressors. I have no shortages of arguments here, and always wrap up with the old favorite: "Those who don't learn from history..."

Ease of use
Guns make it easy to kill which is good if you're an underpowered or outnumbered woman on a dark street at night. Should the old and frail not be allowed to protect themselves when they are clearly vulnerable to attacks? Guns equalize. They have the power to equalize a regular citizen with a hardened criminal. I don't suppose you'd be against putting a 90 pound woman on equal footing with a 200 pound rapist?

Sporting Purposes
Strangely the constitution speaks nothing of the recreational shooting of living creatures. Must you make sport of shooting attackers if your life is threatened, or refuse to use the gun in an "unsporting" fashion?

And finally, my least favorite, though likely most effective argument;
Fear
There are about 1.5 million active and reserve duty members of the armed forces (I rounded up). There are 85 million gun owners in America, with 250 million guns. If a conservative estimate of JUST 1% of gun owners are the "cold dead hands" types, they will outnumber the military over 5 to 1. That's before considering that not all members of the military are combat trained, and that only a small percentage of those are suited for urban fighting. One more thing; those "cold dead hands" types are very likely more skilled and more prepared than all but the best shooters in the military. Even if they just stand and fight instead of resorting to guerrilla tactics, their kill ratio will NOT be 1:1. They will likely be in the tens, and may approach the hundreds if they take up an insurgency-style guerrilla role. Most of these types will likely be very smart, very skilled, very well-armed, and very willing to do what they know to be their patriotic duty in taking up arms against a tyrannical government, or die trying.

It ain't pretty, and I don't like talking about it because it scares people, but it's the truth.
Confiscation, logistically, can't work.

So... Choose your fighting ground...

MS: Stealing is Okay

oooookaaaayyy......

*PIRATE*

"Stealing is Okay: Samples and Starter Kits"

Here's a screencap for when they change the article...

speechless

"Hay guys, have you seen my AR anywhere? I can't find it..."

Oh my...

THANK YOU!!!!

From xkcd