Lee.org

Two stupid gun bills recently passed in California. I urge you to call governor Schwarzenegger via  the automated voicemail system at the bottom of this post to suggest he veto this bill.

Read more about the  Ammo Ban (AB962) and the Gunshow Ban (SB585)

To find the full text of these two California bills, go to Legalinfo.ca.gov/billinfo.html and search for “ab 962” or “sb 585”. Yes, it’s written in boring legalese but you should read it!

I took the time to read the bills and yes, they really are bad legislation. I faxed the governor the letter below.

Governor Schwarzenegger
State Capitol Building
Sacramento, CA 95814
Fax: 916-558-3160
September 22, 2009

Governor Schwarzenegger,

Please do not allow AB962 or SB585 to pass.

First, SB585. Why the heck would a law be written specifically to deny lawful trade at a specific location? Criminals don’t buy firearms at the Cow Palace. Law abiding citizens buy and sell legal products, fully keeping with appropriate law. Do you remember Proposition H which tried to ban handguns in San Francisco? Even the San Francisco police took a strong stand against this proposition! It was a great bother and waste of resources to force the California Supreme Court to nullify that proposition.

AB962. Its goal is to make it more expensive and more of a pain in the ass for legitimate gun owners to buy and sell ammunition. Why? There is no problem in America with legal gun owners or their ammunition. Criminals don’t buy their guns at gun stores.

Guns are dangerous, it’s true. And they will always be “problematic” but these two laws do not help anyone. They might make law makers feel better, but they won’t protect anyone from gun violence.

Thank you for your time,
Lee Sonko

I urge YOU, yes you reading this right now to spend 5 minutes and call the governor right now.

(Call any time of the day or night. You’re calling a machine)

FOR AB962 (Ban on Internet Ammo Sales) passed 9/11/09:
Step 1: Call 916-445-2841 (Governor)
Step 2: Press 1 for English
Step 3: Press 2 to comment on a bill
Step 4: Press 2 for AB962
Step 5: Press 2 for Oppose (VETO)
Step 6: Make your voice heard- repeat as often as possible!!

FOR SB585 (Ban on Cow Palace Gun Show) passed 9/9/09:
Step 1: Call 916-445-2841 (Governor)
Step 2: Press 1 for English
Step 3: Press 2 to comment on a bill
Step 4: Press 3 for SB585
Step 5: Press 2 for Oppose (VETO)
Step 6: Make your voice heard- repeat as often as possible!!

Last night Charlotte took me out to get my birthday present, a BB Gun!

When I was a kid, my neighbor Anthony Bancala (spelling?) had a BB gun that he’d shoot occationally in his back yard. Actually, I can only remember seeing him shoot once. But that’s enough to implant it in my psyche.

And I remember shooting a pellet gun at a cub scout camp once. I really liked having to focus in. Apparently none of the other kids shot as well; my dad showed real astonishment at how accurately I shot.

Now I have a BB gun and nowhere to shoot it in the city. Who wants to go shooting?

————————————————–
Charlotte took me to dinner last night at Linguini’s in Alameda. It was a really terrific meal, partially because their Frutti De Mare was terrific and partially because she was there.

————————————————–
Before dinner and before the BB gun, we took the Alameda Oakland ferry from the Ferry Building. Wow, it’s like paying $5 to go on a floating dream that actually takes you someplace. I feel like I dozed in some Maxfield Parish painting for maybe an hour or possibly a year. Nice.

————————————————–
My niece called me today on my birthday.

Julia: Hi, where are you? (she always wants to play with me on the computer, I VNC to her computer)
Lee: More important than where am I is what today is…
Julia: Oh yeah, today is your birthday.
Lee: [excited] yeah!
Julia: Dont be too happy. You know Rhino, my hampster? He died… today… on your birthday.

I guess that puts things in perspective!

On Friday night I went to a Members Only night, celebrating the final day of the temporary exhibit “Reflections”. It was really really really fun! It is a giant spherical mirror, maybe 10′ tall, 15′ wide. It is mirrored on the front side while regular mirrors are mirrored on the back (which makes them sturdier with slightly poorer reflections).

It was great fun playing with others, moving into and out of the focal point, seeing myself reflected perfectly though upside down in 3-D. It was like seeing my inverted flying trapeeze doppelganger! In the image to the right, which is the real me? The lighting is a givaway here, it was harder to tell in person!

These images on the left were not done with Photoshop, that’s what it really looked like! Freaky!

I’m excited about going to Kinky Salon this upcoming Saturday, Sept 26th with Charlotte.

Here’s a terrific video from the last Kinky Salon, Alice in Wonderland

local version:

Kinky Salon HIGH
It’s time for some private tuition
September 12th and 26th

Get out those peachy folders, ‘Now & Laters’, little plaid skirts, letterman jackets,cigarettes and protractors…cuz its time to GO BACK TO SCHOOL!
That’s right- ORAL reports, spankings behind office doors, tongue depressors, tight skirts,’making-out’ under the bleachers, passing notes in the hallway, gossiping, Yeah, we wish high school was this much fun!

-School Election for Prom King and Queen!
-The KS HIGH School Talent Show!
-The NAUGHTY SPELLING BEE!
– SOCK-HOP! (… those school chaperones will be watching you!)

DRESSCODE: Naughty Schoolgirls, little plaid skirts and white bobby socks Principle/Dean, Head Nurse, preppies, Goths, drop-outs, teen mothers, greasers, surfers, surfer chicks, School Mistress, stoned bus drivers, science teachers, beatnik drama teachers, janitors, PTA parents, Gym teachers, Drama geeks, Jocks, ‘Goody Goodies’, Prom Queens, Heathers’, tough girls & bad boys, llies, Football Quarterbacks, band geeks, D&D Science nerds, Bus Drivers, Lunch ladies, cheerleaders… And as always- sexy costumes, lingerie, leather, latex, Fetish, uniforms and formal wear…NO STREET CLOTHES, PLEASE- no jeans, khaki, sportswear, etc will be admitted!

I’m going all out. I’m showing up as John Bender the criminal Molly Ringwald fell for in The Breakfast Club.

After much hunting, I’ve found Mr Bender’s shirt, undershirt, fingerless gloves and pin, boots, pants, foot scarf, and hair.

I decided against wearing his jean jacket, overcoat and scarf (though I found them!) because they’d be too warm to wear at the party. Hmm, maybe I need the jacket…. hmmm.

Oop! Looking at that image, I see I forgot his earing and ear cuff!

“It feels good to be bad, doesn’t it?”

I met up with Zimbabwe Smurf AKA Dave Sherman in Denver a few years ago, just a few months before he was to move to New Zealand and in his words:

arrive at the almost-empty airport at 7:00 in the morning, sitting in the lobby, hungry, cold, tired, with our backpacks and nothing else. We had nowhere to live, nothing to do, no one we knew, no car, no warm clothing. Remember this feeling. It is the meter-stick by which to measure our progress.

I follow Zim on his occasional blog. You can too.

I mailed this letter to Caltrans today. We’ll see what happens

Caltrans District 4
111 Grand Ave
P.O. Box 23660
Oakland, CA 94623-0660

Lee Sonko
[address redacted]
September 14, 2009

Folks at Caltrans:

I’ve noticed that many drivers in the Bay Area have tail lights that are burned out. Burnt out tail lights are an eyesore and illegal and it becomes a real safety concern when enough lights on a car are burnt out. At the same time, it’s very difficult for a driver to tell when a light is burnt out without periodically inspecting their vehicle. Whenever I come to a Stop sign next to someone with a burnt out tail light, they are always grateful for me rolling down my window and telling them, but there’s no way a good Samaritan can reach even a small fraction of the drivers out there.

I would like to suggest that Caltrans occasionally put notices on some of its electronic signs, the same signs that sometimes read “Click it or Ticket” etc. A good sign might be, “Today is a good day to check your tail lights.” or “Are your tail lights burned out?”

Thanks,
Lee Sonko

It was a joy getting scammed by Brian Brushwood on his internet show Scam School.

Watch the embedded show below or go to the Scam School site and watch episode 77, “Pokerface”.

PS. Don’t watch to the end, it’s embarrassing. Alexis can (please!) verify for my avid viewers that on the very last poker game I played just before being on the show I won with 4 aces and a joker, 5 of a kind, so I initially gravitated to the aces, oop! And of course, I was a bit tipsy soooooo.. :-)

(local 90mb .mp4 of the episode, “Punk your friend with Face Up Poker”)

I have an Exploratorium membership which means I can bring a guest for free. Let’s go sometime SOON! Ping me!

• Their normal hours are Tuesday-Sunday 10am-5pm.
• There is a special members-only event happening Friday Sept 18th 6-9pm called “Reflections”.
• And there is Exploratorium After Dark! First Thursday of every month. The Oct 1st event looks cool, “Hardly Strictly Science”.

Rumor has it that there may be some cell phone service at Burning Man. This is generally unpopular…

Rick: My normal phone has been turned off for the duration of the burn. Until then, if you need to contact me, give me a call on my uber secret non work phone. The number is …

Lee: Be warned that there is a scavenger hunt going on at Burning Man. “A person talking on a cell phone” is worth something like 1,000 points. If they catch you, they will put you and your phone in a burlap bag and drag you out to the trash fence.

Rick: I have no intention of using my phone at BM unless someone is bleeding. I also am tired of recruiters calling…

Lee: Awww. Come on, That’s 1,000 points! I’d clean up!

Rick: Well, start bleeding, then!

Lee: Touché!

Some friends have been commenting on a nature-vs-nurture paper concerning adoption. I haven’t read through the whole paper but I found a snippet that strongly implies the chart draws from incomplete data and is completely irrelevant.

Here is the paper for your perusal and comments.

Here is the graph

and here is the snippet from page 14 calling this graph into question.

The survey measure of family income is much higher for the non-adoptees than for the adoptees: $61,000 per year versus $42,000 per year. But this huge difference narrows to $1,600 when I control for age, education, and gender.

I don’t know the origin of the graph for sure but it appears to be from marginalrevolution.com.