A former coworker scheduled a brake pad change with me this weekend. The vehicle? A newish Acura RSX-S. I figured it would be done in under an hour; I know Hondas. Hell, I can change all four pads on the Civic in probably 30 minutes. Unfortunately, with technology, goes simplicity (when we’re talking about cars). To do the rears, I had to unbolt both the emergency brake line AND the hydraulic brake line. Ridiculous!<br/><br/><div style=”text-align: center;”><img align=”none” alt=”rsx-s” border=”1″ src=”http://www.iammike.org/cutenews/data/upimages/05rsx_s_1-1.jpg”/><br/></div><br/>Anyway, the week was a good one. V-day went well, birthday went well, and our <a href=”http://www.daveandbusters.com/” target=”_blank”>Dave and Busters</a> trip went well. The ladies seemed to enjoy it! Quite surprising. I firmly believe the reason women hate video games at home is the controller. Give them a bubble and some joysticks, and they’re much, much happier.<br/><br/><div style=”text-align: center;”><img align=”none” alt=”birthday bubble” border=”1″ src=”http://www.iammike.org/cutenews/data/upimages/redbubble.jpg” style=”width: 374px; height: 280px;”/><br/></div><br/>I have an ever-growing list of things I need to write about. Hopefully I’ll kill a couple of the following this week: Butternut Squash Soup recipe, Beautiful Katamari review, Soylent Green review, Meet Joe Black review, Memoirs of a Geisha review, my Buffalo Wing recipe, Halo 3 review, a racing book review, French Onion Sliced Steak Crossiant recipe, Neverending Story review, Wildfire review, and blogs about homepages, alternate income, OpenTable, and two site ideas that I have.<br/><br/><span style=”font-weight: bold;”>Links</span><br/><ul type=”square”><li><a href=”http://www.thehollywoodnews.com/weht/barrettoliver.htm” target=”_blank”>About Barrett Oliver</a> – Interesting info on the star on Neverending Story</li><li><a href=”http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/ny-usrace175581375feb17,0,6498494.story” target=”_blank”>Bystanders Killed in Accokeek Drag Racing Incident</a> – Bizarro. 4AM, old people were there… WTF?<br/></li><li><a href=”http://www.google.com/goog411/” target=”_blank”>Goog411</a> – Google’s new 411 service</li><li><a href=”http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/02/15/university.shooting/index.html” target=”_blank”>Gun Dealer Sold to NIU and VT shooters</a> – Time for some legislation<br/></li><li><a href=”http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2209849/toshiba-admitting-defeat-hd-dvd” target=”_blank”>HD-DVD is Dead</a> – So glad I sold mine right before the price drop… especially now that it is dead</li><li><a href=”http://media.www.cw.ua.edu/media/storage/paper959/news/2008/02/18/Opinion/Niu-Shooting.Too.Familiar-3215370.shtml” target=”_blank”>NIU Shooting Kills 6</a> – It bothers me that this didn’t receive nearly as much press as previous incidents. Are we becoming numb to school shootings?<br/></li><li><a href=”http://bravenewfilms.org/blog/28810-obama-parody-video-targeting-mccain” target=”_blank”>Obama Parody Video Targeting McCain</a></li><li><a href=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEjykuEuZG8″ target=”_blank”>Partner Equilibristic</a> – some insane male ballet stuff</li><li><a href=”http://raptorsafari.com/” target=”_blank”>Raptor Safari</a> – a goofy web-based game that is surprisingly fun<br/></li></ul>
I Hate New Cars (Week of 02/17/08)
Comments
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You forgot the best link: http://levelgame.net/
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No, I didn’t.
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Mike, re: “# Gun Dealer Sold to NIU and VT shooters – Time for some legislation”. I’m sure both shooters ate at McDonalds also…time for some legislation? Nevermind that “thegunsource.com” is a major retailer of firearms accessories, what would you have happen? What legislation would you propose that doesn’t infringe on the constitution? You of all people ought to be able to familiarize yourself enough with an issue to not make such reactionary and shallow commentary.
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There is clearly some loophole being exploited. If there isn’t, nevermind. Are background checks required for online purchases? If they’re not, I’m going to call that a loophole… Sadly, same for gunshows.
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For online purchases, you must ship to an Federally Licensed Firearm dealer and go through the same background check as if you bought the gun in a brick and mortar store. So no loophole there.
And, the NIU shooter bolt a holster and a pair of magazines from thegunsource.com…hardly a need for any legislation. Hell, he could have bought them on ebay. (Well, not the magazines due to a VERY RECENT change in Ebay policy.)
And as far the “gun show loophole”…there isn’t one. Doesn’t exist. If you’re an FFL-holder selling at a gun show, you’re obligated to run a background check as if you were in a brick and mortar store. And if you’re not an FFL holder, but a private citizen, then there is no background check requirement. However, this is not something special for gun shows. I can take an ad in the valley trader and sell a gun to whomever I please, since it is my private property, just as I can sell a car or couch or computer in a newspaper’s classifieds. Me privately selling my books in a newspaper ad does not make me an “unlicensed book dealer” it makes me a dude with some books to sell.
But if you make private citizens do a NICS check on private sales, how are you going to enforce it? You going to expand this requirement to other dangerous objects? If I sell my car, should I have to make sure that the person I’m selling it to has insurance, and a driver’s license, and won’t drive it on the sidewalk trying to kill people? No. I shouldn’t.
The lesson to learn here is to ENFORCE current laws, make existing systems more robust and efficient, and also realize that crazy people sometimes do crazy shit. Don’t blame an inanimate object for someone using that object irresponsibly.
I’m not trying to start a fight, I swear, I just have alot of respect for you as a person who isn’t stupid, and there are too many people crying for more useless, wasteful legislation instead of talking about the real causes behind some of the senseless violence present in our culture.
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I don’t agree with the whole private sale thing aka “The Gun Show Loophole.” If you sell a gun to someone without doing proper reasearch in to that person, you ought to be responsible for whatever they may do with it. Obviously, that’s a bit crazy… soooo people should sell their guns to a dealer. Establish some sort of fair-value guide that must be followed.
I know you’re not trying to start anything… no worries.
The “real” problem is screwed up people. I think it’s a much smaller task to control how guns get places than it is to make sure all the crazies are off the streets.
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I actually wouldn’t really have a problem with forcing people to go to an FFL for gun transactions (and for the one and only gun I’ve ever sold, that’s what I did)…except it wouldn’t actually have prevented any of this most recent unpleasantness. Hell, it wouldn’t have even prevented Columbine, as those guns were purchased “legally”.
I guess that’s why I find all this hullabaloo about the “gun show loophole” so retarded. Criminals either buy guns legally or they steal them…they don’t go to gun shows because private dealers are few and far between there (people who think gun shows are chock full of “unlicensed dealers” have clearly never been to one) so calling it the “Gun Show Loophole” is ridiculous. It’s got nothing to do with gun shows, and everything to do with private property, but “Privately Owned Gun Loophole” isn’t nearly as good of a soundbite. But that’s an issue for another day.
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Thank you for the education. That\’s stuff I didn\’t know.
Disclaimer for the future: The comments on my weekly links are typically not researched, but instead whatever comes to my mind in 15 seconds or less [smiley]
FWIW, the only gun I\’ve ever bought was from a private party at a gun show.
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