Colorado's new gun legislation is so draconian, they have tied themselves up in knots. Apparently, a background check is required every time a gun changes possession without exception. So the Boulder sheriff's office had to cancel one of those silly gun "buyback" events when they realized they would have to conduct a background check on themselves for every gun turned in.

One of the strict new laws that Colorado recently enacted requires a background check for every transfer of a gun. This would include transfers made from private owners to the sheriffs department, even if the guns are going to be destroyed. Sheriff Pelle informed the community that the system simply isn't set up to be able to conduct so many checks, nor can it work in a remote location outside his offices.

You can't make this stuff up.

The real news here is that "A Flock of Seagulls" still exists. Who knew?

Here's an interesting essay on feminism and the hookup culture by Mona Charen.

Welcome to the feminist paradise, where the ideal is for women to model themselves not just on men, but on the worst men.

I followed the George Zimmerman case with mild interest, so I was aware there was some media distortion of fact. The 911 tapes were edited to make Zimmerman sound racist, photos of his injuries were ignored or glossed over, his ethnicity magically reduced to "white Hispanic." But I never heard this. Anywhere, until today:

The media fabricated the "iced tea" part of the "iced tea and Skittles" narrative. This is important because the drink he was actually carrying was "Arizona Watermelon Fruit Juice Cocktail." According to a popular recipe, that is the favored drink to combine with Skittles and prescription or Robitussin cough syrup to produce a potion for getting high; it is known as "lean" and "purple drank" (and known among some as "the poor man's PCP"). On his Facebook page, Trayvon Martin had discussed making "lean."

You can decide for yourself whether this matters a wit. But the media considered it important enough to hide or repress it so you couldn't actually decide for yourself.

Reason Magazine explains why it was right to reject the relatively modest Toomey-Manchin gun control law:

Understanding the rejection requires understanding gun owners' shared experiences. Compromise requires that both parties relinquish something. If your counterpart's position is "give me this now, and I'll take the rest later," there is no real compromise to be had. Over decades, that has been precisely the experience of American gun owners.

The gun control strategy of the left was laid out as far back as 1976:

We're going to have to take one step at a time, and the first step is necessarily - given the political realities - going to be very modest. Right now, though, we'd be satisfied not with half a loaf but with a slice. Our ultimate goal - total control of handguns in the United States - is going to take time. My estimate is from seven to ten years. The problem is to slow down the increasing number of handguns sold in this country. The second problem is to get them all registered. And the final problem is to make the possession of all handguns and all handgun ammunition - except for the military, policemen, licensed security guards, licensed sporting clubs, and licensed gun collectors - totally illegal.

The piece goes on to demonstrate how the gun grabbers switched to assault rifles to capitalize on public ignorance, and gives examples of the kinds of draconian and useless laws the left will pass given unfettered power to do so.

MSNBC's Melissa Harris-Perry. Classy and Smart

First the classy part. Melissa Harris-Perry's contribution to the abortion debate is to wear tampon earrings on the air. Something about "Tampons against Texas." Whatever.

Now the smart part. Melissa opined that Detroit, after following the progressive playbook for 50 years, is bankrupt because its government is too small.

Another bright light of the left, that one is.

Springsteen v NRBQ

Erik Kirschbaum, writing for Reuters, is all impressed that Bruce Springsteen, on his current tour, is challenging himself and his band to play a random song, unrehearsed, chosen at random from the audience:

Bruce Springsteen jumped off the stage and into a frenzied German crowd of 45,000 fans on Sunday in Leipzig to pluck a sign with a hand-written request scrawled on it - as he has been doing all summer on his popular tour across Europe.

But when Springsteen whirled around and held up the name of the song for his band to see, jaws dropped and a frightened look crossed their faces. The sign read "You never can tell" by Chuck Berry, a 1964 tune made popular in the 1994 film "Pulp Fiction."

"Every night we try to pull one out that we haven't played since we were, I dunno, 16," Springsteen said, savoring the challenge of figuring out how to play an unfamiliar song from another artist on the spot in front of a stadium audience.

Now, I hate to throw water on the party because I am a big Springsteen fan. But let it be known that another one of my favorite bands, NRBQ, played essentially the same game decades ago:

NRBQ soon became known as one of the wildest and most enjoyable live acts on the rock scene. Unpredictability became the group's trademark, as Village Voice critic Jon Páreles explained: "At some point in their live set, NRBQ generally reaches into 'the Magic Box,' which contains song titles tossed in earlier by audience members. Whatever comes out, the band plays: [English rock legends the Rolling Stones' early single] 'Under My Thumb,'[the standard] The Shadow of Your Smile,' anything. They may not play it straight, but they play it, and that's something."

This loyalty to the spontaneous, Páreles noted, "smacks of foolhardy bravado as well as craftsmanlike pride. We play popular music, they seem to be saying, and we play it all." As Terry Adams declared to Eckhoff, "I'm never happy unless something happens I didn't know was going to happen."

Everybody knows Bruce Springsteen, but if you are unfamiliar with vintage NRBQ it's worth listening to some of the music from their prime, the mid-70s through early 90s.