Plainclothes Cop Pulls Gun At Snowball Fight

It was a well-publicized snowball fight, but apparently not well enough publicized for one plainclothes police officer. Sort of a snowball version of a flash mob, when they hit his Hummer with snowballs, he eventually pulled his gun, though he pointed it as no one.

It happened during Washington D.C.'s record-breaking snowstorm on Saturday. A massive snowball fight was announced and was taking place at the corner of 14th and U streets.

Detective Haylor (sp?) pulled out his gun after both his car and car and he were pummeled with snowballs, several witnesses confirmed. Eventually, uniformed police were called about a man with a gun at the snowball fight, but when they arrived they discovered that the man was an undercover cop.

Authorities indicate the matter is under investigation. Watch a video of the "aftermath" in which the detective admits to pulling a gun, because he was "hit by snowballs."

Ensign: Exclude Gunshot Wounds from Lifespan Stats; We Love Our Guns

It's been tried before: those against the public option for Universal Health Care like to say that we should exclude deaths from guns from statistical evidence that the U.S. lags behind other nations. Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) made not just that statement, but also that deaths from auto accidents should be excluded as well, as both are "cultural factors." Here's an exchange between him and Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND).

ENSIGN: The first one you said on preventative deaths — Are you aware on that if you take out gun accidents and auto accidents, the United States actually is better than those other countries?

CONRAD: You can rack and stack –

ENSIGN: Auto accidents don’t have anything to do with health care. I mean, we’re just a much more mobile society. On the preventative deaths, if you take out auto accidents — because we drive our cars a lot more, they do public transportation — and so you have to compare health care system with health care system.

If you compare cancer rates, survival rates after five years, cardiovascular disease after five years, the United States does better than Europe.

CONRAD: We do very well.

ENSIGN: We do better than any of the countries that you pointed out.

CONRAD: Well, I can tell you this: I’d go back to the statistics that have been generated by lots of organizations on quality outcomes, and other countries that do have universal care and do a much better job of controlling costs than we do, on metric after metric, finish ahead of us. And I’d just direct you to the T.R. Reid book which is loaded with analysis from objective observers as to quality outcomes. And those countries, much lower costs than we do as a share of GDP, high quality outcomes — whether we’re first in a category or someone else is first — nonetheless, high quality outcomes in those countries, at much lower costs.

The problem with jobbing statistics as Ensign wants to do, is that we can't ignore those losses. It's not like you can say, OK, no auto accidents and no gunshot wounds in this hospital. I guess we need to stop having those whiny police officers complaining about gunshot wounds.

In reality, the United States currently ranks 50th out of 224 nations in life expectancy, with an average life span of 78.1 years, according to 2009 estimates from the CIA World Factbook.

We're the only industrialized nation without some sort of universal health care. A recent Harvard study said as many as 45,000 people die annually due to lack of insurance. How sad is that?

Update: the Senate Finance Committee has defeated the public option for health care.

Watch the video:

Man Shoots Himself in Leg in Road Rage Incident

A man who was a real bad shot in Lancaster, NY ended up shooting himself in the leg after a road rage incident late Wednesday.

Police said the incident started at about 10:30 PM, when one driver cut off the other. A chase began, with two individuals on motorcycles and one in another vehicle.

Eventually, the motorcyclists and the motorist confronted each other, and the motorist pulled out a gun. Capt. Timothy R. Murphy said:

"The one male points the gun at the second male. The second male punches him in the face. As the first male is falling backwards, he discharges the gun and shoots himself in the left leg."

What a shame (insert sarcasm here). No charges have been filed, and police have not identified either of the combatants, both of whom are in their 20s. However, detectives are considering possible charges, including weapons possession, against the man with the gun.

Bill Filed to Remove Dueling References from KY State Oath of Office

In another one of those common-sense moves, KY State Rep. Darryl Owens (D-Louisville), prefiled a bill on Tuesday that would delete references to a ban on dueling from the state oath of office. As one might imagine, when the oath is taken, those who aren't expecting such references often chuckle. The oath says:

"... I, being a citizen of this state, have not fought a duel with deadly weapons within this State nor out of it, nor have I sent or accepted a challenge to fight a duel with deadly weapons, nor have I acted as second in carrying a challenge, nor aided or assisted any person thus offending, so help me God."

Obviously just a tad bit out of date, the references to dueling in the oath, according to Owens, make the ceremonies, shall we say, just a little bit undignified.

"Every member of the General Assembly, all officeholders and every member of the bar must take this oath. I think that it is time we jump into the 21st century and delete this archaic language so the oath of office can be administered in a serious and respectful manner."

The reason for the dueling ban, according to Owens, is that there were a significant number of duels between Kentuckians, prompting the Kentucky legislature to enact laws against formal duels, which imposed fines as well as a long period of disqualification from public office.

Then, in 1849, delegates to a constitutional convention added a provision that required all state officers to take an oath that they had never fought, seconded or issued a challenge in a duel. While the bill will be considered in the 2010 Kentucky General Assembly, which begins in January, it would require an amendment to the constitution (a public vote) to enact the measure.