*Did a quick check of the top selling AR makers, none refer to their semi auto rifles as assault weapons, Colt, Rock RIver, Remington, Bushmaster, S&W all refer to them as modern sporting rifles, tactical, or just rifles.*

@bubbat So your argument is that because the manufacturers don't refer to them as assault weapons they are therefore not referred to assault weapons. The term *has* been legally defined. Deal. All this wrangling over the terms trying to "undefine" them is just some sort of right-wing political correctness.

And all of you people making guns=cars references... I assume you're cool with government-issued licensing, testing and insurance requirements for gun owners? Gun registration? Annual inspections? Government mandated safety testing? Government mandated safety features?

Because if you ARE, then it's a metaphor that starts making sense!

Some aspect of it is still part of the One Lake proposal as far as I've been told. At least developing Town Creek is... I'm not sure how realistic or current the idea of an actual marina is.

Bubba: Nope... the jurors have specifically stated that they considered SYG in their deliberations.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/0…

*Putting yourself in someone's shoes is a literal hypothetical argument and is not BS as you so eloquently describe. Empathy and sympathy are merely constructs. I can be empathic all damned day and sympathetic to your plight - it doesn't change one damn thing.*

Except your attitude? Your willingness to help others? To work with others? Make the world a better place? Take a little responsibility for the people around you?

Reminds me of this piece:

http://www.salon.com/2013/06/23/chris_k…

> Who is John Galt?

> John Galt (as written in said novel) is a deeply flawed, sociopathic ideal of the perfect human. John Galt does not recognize the societal structure surrounding him that allows him to exist. John Galt, to be frank, is a turd.

> However, John Galt is also very close to greatness. The only thing he is missing, the only thing Ayn Rand forgot to take into account when writing “Atlas Shrugged,” is empathy.

> John Galt talks about intelligence and education without discussing who will pay for the schools, who will teach the teachers. John Galt has no thought for his children, or their children, or what kind of world they will have to occupy when the mines run out and the streams dry up. John Galt expects an army to protect him but has no concern about how it’s funded or staffed. John Galt spends his time in a valley where no disasters occur, no accidents happen, and no real life takes place.

>John Galt lives in a giant fantasy that’s no different from an idealistic communist paradise or an anarchist’s playground or a capitalist utopia. His world is flat and two-dimensional. His world is not real, and that is the huge, glaring flaw with objectivism.

>John Galt does not live in reality.

@js1976 Adding two things to other comments above... specifically about the Fischer case.

First, Ms. Fischer was not "clearly discriminated against"; she was always an interesting case for the Supreme Court to consider because her only claim was that people of color with *otherwise very similar qualifications* got into t.u. while she did not.

She was not an overwhelmingly outstanding student -- if so, she would have automatically qualified for t.u. by making the top 10% of her class.

Indeed, her case was argued in front of the Supreme Court is such a way that DID NOT emphasize her belief that she would have gotten into t.u. if they didn't have their race-aware policy.

"Fisher’s contention is not that she would have been admitted but for the race-conscious
policy, but rather that the Top Ten Percent Law itself generates a “critical mass” of minority students—thus precluding UT from using a race-conscious policy under Grutter v. Bollinger."

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?…

In other words, her side's argument was that because t.u. admits the Top Ten Percent of every high school class in Texas and she wasn't in the Top Ten Percent of her class, MAYBE she could have gotten in IF they didn't consider the race of the 12% of students who were admitted outside of the Top Ten Percent system because the Top Ten Percent system, in her estimation, was doing an OK job of getting minority students into t.u.

Second... are you sure there's nothing other than grades and test scores that should be considered for college acceptance? For instance, Fischer argued that, while her SAT wasn't on the high end of the spectrum, she was a member of the orchestra, participated in math contests and had volunteered for Habitat for Humanity. So this isn't the case for arguing pure "merit" in college admissions.

(Note: "t.u." is the Aggie-correct moniker for texas university... which, itself, is never to be capitalized. I apologize for any confusion.)

Ann: Both the Clarion-Ledger and the Jackson Free Press endorsed the outgoing mayor, Harvey Johnson, leading up to the primary. The C-L endorsed Lee in the runoff; we declined to endorse in the runoff. (Edit: Donna actually talks about some of that in her editorial this week: http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/20….)

Congrats to the Mississippi State Bulldogs.

Overall, MSU may not be the best school in the SEC, but they do have two things going for them:

(1.) their uniform colors are extremely similar to those of the best school in the SEC and
(2.) they've clearly got one helluva baseball team.

Go Dawgs!

Thanks Ann. Not everyone appreciates that we moderate but, quick frankly, the people who don't like it are... pretty much by definition... trolls. :)

Fixed. :)

*I suppose those same people would totally freak if they could somehow know how many concealed carry individuals were around them at any given moment.*

Actually, that's an argument FOR conceal carry over open carry.