Kerry/Edwards 2004? Get over it.

As I was driving to the office today I got out onto the highway and found myself directly behind a brand new Honda Pilot. It had a temp tag on it. It was quite obviously new judging from the car’s finish and the still-shiny paint on the undercarriage. It wasn’t even dirty. This sucker had just rolled off the lot in the last 2 weeks, it’s plain as day. And there, plastered up midway on the tailgate, on the driver’s side, was a Kerry/Edwards 2004 campaign sticker, proudly displayed as though that contest hadn’t been conclusively decided almost a year ago.

Get. Over. It.

In the few weeks immediately following the election, there were still Kerry stickers all over the place, but that was understandable. Sad, really, but understandable. Many of our fellow Americans had backed the losing horse in the race and that realization wasn’t easy for some of them. It was fine to cut them a break for a bit.

But then came the other stickers. “Don’t blame me, I voted for Kerry!” “Bush Re-elected. Four more wars!” “He’s not MY President!” There were lots of little whitty sayings and such but that last one really made me wonder just what some of these people were ingesting. Check the Constitution, folks. He was duly elected, and by a true majority, I might add. He is, in fact, the President of the United States of America and that makes him the President for all Americans, whether you voted for him or not. That some people, allegedly adults, would fold their arms, turn up their noses, stamp their feet and effectively say, “Is not!” only shows them to be the sulky, immature brats they are. Those of us who had approached the election and the consequences of that decision more seriously could be forgiven for thinking that a few weeks or a couple of months later we would see the end of this kind of behavior and have our fellow citizens join in with the real work and decision making processes.

Wrong.

So, fine, I’m throwing my hands up at these people. To go to the trouble of mounting a clearly new Kerry sticker on a clearly new car with just a couple of weeks to go before a full year after the election was done is more than sad. It’s pathetic. And the loser who did it is every bit as pathetic. Kerry lost. It’s a fact and it’s history. These people should have done their little grieving bit and groused about it for a few weeks. Then, like adults, they should have accepted that the majority of the democracy they live in and derive all manner of benefit from membership with has decided this issue. Unlike a law prohibiting alcohol, the election of the President isn’t open to debate after its done, barring illegal actions on the part of the man elected. The fact that a citizen doesn’t agree with the results of the election is immaterial to the results and that man elected is free to move ahead to lead as he promised he would. The Kerry sticker crowd doesn’t get that. They don’t get it because they don’t want to get it and that’s the action of a child, not an adult. Whatever – I’m through doing anything but calling this immaturity what it is. I get it. I’ve gotten it for almost a year. They don’t like that the majority of their fellow citizens looked at their perspective on things and found it wanting.

Tough shit. Get over it.

FoxNews.com new look?

Into every system admin’s life a little “oops” must fall. When trying to pull up the news today, I get this:

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return true;
}
window.onerror = qas_errHandler;

function qas_appendParam(n,v) {
var w = window;
if (v && !(v === ‘undefined’)) w.srcUrl += (‘&’ + n + ‘=’ + v);
}

function qas_appendAttr(n,v) {
var w = window;
if (v && !(v === ‘undefined’)) w.wFrmStr += (‘ ‘ + n + ‘=”‘ + v + ‘”‘);
}

function qas_writeAdIFrame() {
var w = window;
var jspServ = w.adsonar_jv;
w.srcUrl = ‘http://’ + jspServ +’/adserving/getAds.jsp?’;
w.wFrmStr = ”;
var wrand = Math.round(Math.random() * 1000000);
qas_appendAttr(‘name’,(‘adsonar_serve’ + wrand));
qas_appendAttr(‘id’,(‘adsonar_serve’ + wrand));
qas_appendAttr(‘scrolling’,'no’);
qas_appendAttr(‘frameborder’,’0′);
…

::::::::

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…and so on. Looks like someone blew a site update. Hope they get it fixed soon!

Brazilians say “no” to gun ban

Faced with intense pressure from gun control groups and a host of international organizations, Brazilians went to the polls to vote on a referendum asking whether or not private citizens should be allowed to own firearms. The measure was solidly rejected with 64% of voters there voting “no.”

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Brazilians soundly rejected a proposal to ban the sale of guns in a national referendum Sunday, striking down the bid to stem one of the world’s highest firearm murder rates following a campaign that drew parallels to the U.S. gun control debate. Brazil (search) has 100 million fewer citizens than the United States (search), but a staggering 25 percent more gun deaths at nearly 40,000 a year. While supporters argued that gun control was the best way to staunch the violence, opponents played on Brazilians’ fears that the police can’t protect them. “I don’t like people walking around armed on the street. But since all the bandits have guns, you need to have a gun at home,” said taxi driver Mohammed Osei, who voted against the ban. With more than 92 percent of the votes counted, 64 percent of Brazilians were opposed to the ban, while 36 percent backed it, said election officials, giving the ‘no’ position an insurmountable lead.

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And, again, you see the AP’s biases showing. “[O]pponents played on Brazilians’ fears that the police can’t protect them.” That’s like saying south Florida officials played on resident’s fears of being killed in a hurricane in order to get them to leave before Wilma showed up. One doesn’t “play on” another’s fears when those fears are well justified. Brazilian police are clearly unable to protect law abiding citizens from those who will use guns to kill them in the commission of a crime. All the UN programs to outlaw private gun ownership in the world won’t negate that truth to the people who live there.