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Today in Las Vegas, a 5-year-old found a gun in his dad’s car’s glove compartment, pulled it out, and accidentally shot himself in the head. His dad was sitting in the car right next to him.

Oh and by the way, it’s the gun’s fault.

I didn’t even want to watch the “news coverage” on this one, but I’m almost sure that was the diagnosis.

In other news, I started to look up gun laws in Virginia. I found some gems of information.

For example, you are only permitted to buy one handgun per month (unless you’re a cop, or), unless given a Multiple Handgun Purchase Certificate, obtainable by filling out a Multiple Handgun Purchase Application. Naturally, you must justify needing to buy multiple hand guns, and there are no guidelines as to what constitutes justifiable.

Not that I’ll be buying multiple handguns anytime soon — we’re too poor. But it really makes me wonder what sort of illogical mind games people (ahem, politicians) must play with themselves for that to make any sense. What purpose does that serve?

Virginia has an “informal” agreement with the state of Utah to accept its CCWs (I have a Utah and Nevada CCW, so I’m ok, right?)… I wouldn’t count on being ok, though. Really, what is an informal agreement? What does that even mean? So, I’ll probably be getting a Virginia CCW as well. Wee!

On the plus side, I found out I can at least take my gun onto GMU campus… so long as I leave it in my car in the parking lot. It’s not that I’m worried about a crazy person shooting up a school in Virginia or anything, I just like to have my gun close to me at all times, if possible.

For those of you who have read Atlas Shrugged, tell me this doesn’t sound like something straight from the book…

“We received threats against our employees by people who are in the American public. There is a tremendous amount of stress involved in the job that we do,” said Social Security Administration (SSA) Regional Commissioner for San Francisco Peter Spencer.

Claiming they needed to learn how to reduce stress because of a growing number of death threats being made against them, nearly 700 executives from the SSA gathered for a lavish three-day conference in Phoenix, AZ last week, costing taxpayers about $700,000.

Read the rest of the story on ABC News.

My sister Jori sent me this post from someone else’s blog. The premise: a Mormon economist critiques LDS ward activities (aka the regularly occurring non-religious, social gatherings of congregation members). Not only does he hit Mormon culture dead on with a listing of common activities, but he then goes on to explain why they almost invariably are of substandard quality. Very good stuff.

Read it here.

I heard today that President Obama is proposing to create (or already created?) a Consumer Financial Protection Agency. Ha. What a joke.

Why not just past Directive 10-289? It reads:

In the name of the general welfare to protect the people’s security, to achieve full equality and total stability, it is decreed for the duration of the national emergency that-

Point One: All workers, wage earners, and employees of any kind whatsoever shall henceforth be attached to their jobs and shall not leave nor be dismissed nor change employment, under penalty of a term in jail. The penalty shall be determined by the Unification Board, such board to be appointed by the Bureau Of Economic Planning and National Resources. All person reaching the age of twenty-one shall report to the Unification Board, which shall assign them to where, in its opinion, their services will best serve the interests of the nation.

Point Two: All industrial, commercial, manufacturing, and business establishments of any nature whatsoever shall henceforth remain in operation, and the owners of such establishments shall not quit, nor leave, nor retire, nor close, sell or transfer their business, under penalty of the nationalization of their establishment and of any or all their property.

Point Three: All patents and copyrights, pertaining to any devices, inventions, formulas, processes, and works of any nature whatsoever, shall be turned over to the nation as a patriotic emergency gift by means of Gift Certificates to be signed voluntarily by the owners of all such patents and copyrights. The Unification Board shall then license the use of such patents and copyrights to all applicants, equally and without discrimination, for the purpose of elimination monopolistic practices, discarding obsolete products and making the best available to the whole nation. No trademarks, brand names, or copyrighted titles shall be used. Every formerly patented product shall be known by a new name and sold by all manufacturers under the same name, such name to be selected by the Unification Board. All private trademarks and brand names are hereby abolished.

Point Four: No new devices, inventions, products, or goods of any nature whatsoever, not now on the market, shall be produced, invented, manufactured or sold after the date of this directive, The Office of patents and Copyrights is hereby suspended. (Added later in chapter: All “research departments, experimental laboratories, scientific foundations” will be closed except for government-operated facilities.)

Point Five: Every establishment, concern, corporation or person engaged in production of any nature whatsoever shall henceforth produce the same amount of goods per year as is, they or he produced during the Basic Year, no more or no less. The year is to known as the Basic or Yardstick Year is to be the year ending on the date of this directive. Over or under production shall be fined, such fines to be determined by the Unification board.

Point Six: Every person of any age, sex, class or income, shall henceforth spend the same amount of money on the purchase of goods per year as he or she spent during the Basic Year, no more and no less. Over or under purchasing shall be fined, such fines to be determined by the Unification Board.

Point Seven: All wages, prices, salaries, dividends, profits, interest rates and forms of income of any nature whatsoever, shall be frozen at their present figures, as of the date of this directive. (But taxes will be allowed to increase as needed for the public good)

Point Eight: All cases arising from and rules not specifically provided for in this directive, shall be settled and determined by the Unification Board, whose decisions shall be final.

But I guess there is a market for everything.

Afrika is a safari and photography simulation game released last summer in Japan. I hadn’t heard of it until I stumbled onto its music. The soundtrack is really impressive. A segment of the score, along with the beautiful PS3-rendered graphics, can be experienced in the video below:

Crap.

I don’t like being associated with “rightwing”-ism, but apparently that seems to be how the government wishes to pigeonhole me, according to a recently-released report by the Department of Homeland Security on Rightwing Extremism:

Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration. [emphasis added by me]

I’ve suspected for years that I’m on “the lists” — but I really probably am!

On top of that, I have a Ron Paul bumper sticker on my car, so I better never travel in Missouri.

This is taken from Upton Sinclair’s Oil! …of all places…

[He realized] that the “English” was cruelly dull, and that the young man who taught it was bored to tears by what he was doing; that the “Spanish” had a French accent, and that the professor was secretly patronizing bootleggers to console himself for having to live in what he considered a land of barbarians; that the “Sociology” was an elaborate structure of classifications, wholly artificial, devised by learned gentlemen in search of something to be learned about; and that the Modern History was taught from text-books which had undergone the scrutiny of thousands of sharp eyes, in order to spare the sensibilities of [rich donors], and avoid giving to any student the slightest hint concerning the forces which control the modern world.

An interesting study has recently been published which ranks US states in five major personality characteristics: Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness. A simple-to-read version has been made available on The Map Scroll blog. Here’s a sample; this one for Openness:

(HT: Tyler Cowen)

Read about how it’s helping out everyday people like you and me here.

For those of you who remember, Coheed and Cambria’s song “Welcome Home” is on my ten rockingest songs list. Four street musicians just made it even more rockingest by playing it on some cellos and hand-drums. I got chills at the solo (just past 4 minutes). Wow.

(HT: Brian)