Big news roundup, yeehaw!

• That's cool, a stretch of highway in California with grooves cut into it, which plays "The William Tell Overture" (The Lone Ranger theme) when you drive on it. Unfortunately people are complaining, so they're paving it over. Sheesh. I think it's a great idea. I'd like to try cutting "Flight of the Bumblebee" into the roadway. That would be a trick.
• Searching for a firearm you used to own, with a particular serial number, finding it for sale, and actually buying it - that's odds of about a bazillion to one. Certainly I would never be so lucky. I like my M1 Garand rifle, myself. It's heavy, but easy to shoot, and very effective. I just need to get a bayonet for it.
• When someone breaks into your house, you kill them. Don't agree to their demands, because they'll probably try to kill you anyway. But, oh, wait, make sure you have your own gun. Otherwise it takes a LOT longer to kill the intruder. This is Texas - it's practically required to own a firearm.
• All that whining from State Department diplomats who didn't want to be drafted to go to Iraq, and for nothing, because they've got enough volunteers (for now). Personally, I would force the whiners to go instead of the volunteers, just for spite. Do your damn job. You swore an oath to do it, so do it. Or don't sign up in the first place. But once you've signed up, you're committed. Or you can be committed to Leavenworth. Take your pick.
• At university, the lowest grade I got was a C, in "Politics of the United Nations." I did a term paper on UN corruption such as this. The Teaching Assistant was one of those annoying moonbats, and graded me down just because she didn't like my opinion, not because I wrote a bad paper (all my other papers in Political Science got As). So I graduated with cum laude instead of with summa. Boohoo. I should have dragged her in front of the dean to argue my case, but I didn't really care. A college degree, IMHO, is merely a piece of paper that says you're employable. I haven't used my degrees, and I don't really mind. The time and money they required are merely the cost of doing business.
• I laughed when they dragged the UC Berkeley tree-huggers down out of the trees that they'd sat in for a couple years to protest the university's plans to cut them down. Now the university is suing them for all the police and fire and other services that the tree-sitters tied up during their vigil. In a better world, the tree-sitters would have been given one warning to leave, then the trees would have been cut down with them still in the branches, and the surviving tree-sitters and their enablers would have been marched off to jail. The wheels of justice turn slowly, but they do turn, even in California.
• As if the National Basketball Association needed another kick in the teeth about its reputation (remember the Pistons/Pacers riot in 2004?), Dallas Maverick Josh Howard exhibits some disgraceful, racist behavior. I expect they'll keep the cameras away from him from now on.
• This week, I'm staying at a less-than-savory hotel since my usual habitat is all booked up. It's my own fault - I forgot to make a reservation until the last minute. But one of my co-workers helpfully pointed out that I am staying next door to a hotel where the front desk clerk was recently murdered. Luckily they caught the murderers. But when people ask me why I carry a gun... this is why. You never know when you'll need it. And if I never need it, well then, the people around me will remain blissfully unaware that I have it. But I will know.