:: walterindenver ::

:: Friday, January 10, 2003 ::

Two in Three Years

I'm sure a thousand blogs will link to this, but it warms my heart to report:

In a virtual repeat of a scenario played out less than three years ago, Adams shot and killed an armed man Thursday night who allegedly tried to hold up the store Adams has owned for a quarter century...
The Korean War veteran grabbed his 12-gauge shotgun with one hand. Using his other to guide his walker, he walked to the front of the store and fired a single shot.

War veteran, walker in one hand, shotgun in the other. A single shot that hits two bad guys. Truth stranger than fiction, yada, yada, yada. God is good.

:: Walter 9:40 PM [+] ::
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Peking Duck

Apparently, this site may no longer be viewed in China. There goes my readership.

Can anyone take the Chinese government seriously when they're afraid of any open discourse whatsoever?

:: Walter 9:22 PM [+] ::
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Matthew Edgar

...has one of the best blogs you've never read. He says he's going to post more often in the new year. Go offer him some encouragement.

:: Walter 8:02 PM [+] ::
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Charity Begins at Home

Diane Carman's Sunday column explains how Denver area voters are better than others in Colorado because we steal more from our neighbors.

Sunday, January 05, 2003 - This past week, Colorado achieved yet another dubious distinction as the worst state in America for public support of the arts. We spend 26 cents a year per capita on the arts. And that's before the legislature meets to hack another $80 million from the overall budget.
We also rank near the bottom in support for higher education, elementary and secondary education, libraries, indigent health care, mental health programs and a whole range of public institutions.
As a state, we aim low. Then we start cutting.
But not all of Colorado has been so miserly. For 15 years, voters in the Denver area have consistently supported public investment to enhance our quality of life, improve the state's economy and attract private investment.
Without us, Colorado would be a much different place. Picture Alabama with snow.

Heh, nice dig at Alabama.

Of course, Colorado residents support the arts financially at a rate much higher than 26 cents a head. Either that or I paid for 120 years worth last time I went to the symphony. In Carman's world, private money doesn't count. Denver's public arts funding supports a very expensive Center for Performing Arts that serves as a playground for the well heeled in the metro area. A subsidy for the entertainment of the wealthy, if you please. Colorado state government is in a budget crunch, and cuts have to be made somewhere. This seems a good place to start.

:: Walter 8:41 AM [+] ::
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Durn Lib'ruls

On said blog:

Well I finally went and done it. I added a link to Instapundit. Even though the Professor of Knox Vegas is an unrepentant right-winger,...

That's not all. There's also a new link to this blog. These two, mine and Instapundit, make up a catagory by themselves according to Durn Lib'ruls. I hope that doesn't mean they think I'm a right winger. Egads.

UPDATE: Lib'ruls has a created a new link category for libertarians titled 'Paul Revere.' Walter in Denver makes the cut. Cool.

:: Walter 11:28 AM [+] ::
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Guns and Golf

Occasionally I write about a subject I actually know something about. Readers may speculate how this would set me apart from the rest of the blogosphere, but I won't join them in that speculation. So, when David Kopel mentions golf in his bi-weekly Rocky Mountain News column that would be my cue.

A short item on the front page of the Dec. 24 News sports section announced that handgun manufacturer Smith & Wesson is introducing logo-branded golf clubs. The News claimed that "Marketing analysts said the move may carry risks," and supported this claim with a quote from a single marketing consultant who compared the program to "Philip Morris putting its brand on cheese."

That was indeed a silly piece of commentary on the part of the News writer. Golfers tend to be a rather conservative lot. (No kidding?) I doubt many of them will be put off by seeing a gun maker's logo on golf clubs. What the writer probably wouldn't know is that Browning was in the clubmaking business in the 1980's. They produced an innovative and popular line of clubs which sold well, but they got out of the business after a few years.(Golf club manufacturers have notoriously small profit margins.) It seems natural that a gun manufacturer could make golf clubs. They would have the necessary metallurgical knowledge in-house and access to the foundries needed for actual production.
My first set of new clubs were Browning 500's, bought in 1985. Good luck to Smith & Wesson.

:: Walter 9:57 AM [+] ::
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