RULES TO LIVE BY: KNOW YOUR TARGET; KNOW YOUR BACKSTOP

In June, a 16-year-old boy accidentally fatally shot himself in the head while fleeing a sheriff's deputy who had tried to question him; according to the deputy, the boy had clumsily attempted to shoot back by firing over his shoulder on the run. And in August, during a workplace scuffle in Irvine, Calif., one man grabbed another in a headlock, pulled his gun, and shot him in the face, but the bullet passed through the target's cheek and into the shooter's own chest, killing him.

ALSO FROM NEWS OF THE WEIRD, THIS NOTE ON POLITICS:

An August Wall Street Journal dispatch from Nuoro, Sardinia (Italy), described locals' love for "casu marzu" ("rotten cheese"), brown lumps of sheep dairy, crawling with maggots, a "viscous, pungent goo that burns the tongue" and whose "wiggling worms (often) jump straight toward the eyes with ballistic precision." Though the cheese is banned by the government, a black market has pushed the price to double that for ordinary cheese. Some locals believe the maggots provide authentication, in that it is only when the maggots die that the cheese is inedible.

AND AGAIN FROM NOTW:

To encourage hunting, Canada's Ministry of Environment introduced regulations in August to allow children as young as 12 to learn to shoot ducks and geese. The country has 60 percent fewer hunters than 10 years ago, said the Canadian Wildlife Service, which has led to animal overpopulations. Participating kids must have had a safety class and must be accompanied by a licensed hunter at least 18 years old, but gun-control and children's advocates were nonetheless enraged.

[Hey, I'm enraged also! They need regulations to "allow" a 12-year-old to learn to hunt? Why? And why so late? -- ed.]

THANKS TO CURT HOWLAND FOR THIS ONE:

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fl20001006ja.htm

"Exodus" starts in the year 2001. A Japanese youth appears on CNN with a rifle in Pakistan and says, "There's nothing in Japan. That's a dead country."

Inspired by his example, middle-school students throughout Japan stop going to school en masse and organize through the Internet. Under the leadership of the youth, Pon-chan, they form a news agency, Asunaro, sending images worldwide, and start various other moneymaking ventures.

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LibBits

THE

LIBERTARIAN

ENTERPRISE

LibBits

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