January 2008 – Page 15 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Why I Am Not a Libertarian

Libertarianism was something I flirted with in college and in my early post college life.Â I decided it wasn’t a political movement, so much as a religion, and it’s why walked away from it.Â I’m not interested in being pure, I’m interested in being an advocate for causes that I think enhance personal freedom and limited government meddling in private affairs, and advancing those causes politically.Â Â Libertarians, in my experience, are not interested in seriously advancing their ideas politically, because to do so, you have to build a “tent” that’s big enough and comfortable enough for enough people to get under to win.Â Libertarians, in my experience, tend to spend more time about arguing over whether someone belongs in the tent than they do trying to grow it.

I would consider Megan McArdle a fellow traveler, and someone who belongs in our tent of people interested in promoting liberty.Â But Megan McArdle has spent a lot of time lately criticizing Ron Paul, and recently suggested that Ron Paul’s demise is good for libertarianism.Â Read the comments.Â If you want to know why I can’t abide by “movement” libertarians anymore, read her comments. Â I’ll pick out some choice ones:

Don’t think that we will forget this treasoness behaviour. What you do now will be with you for ever more. ‘When the time comes Megan,… when the time comes’.

And yes, that is a thinly veiled threat.

As the ‘Revolution’ grows, You have no idea.

I guess it doesn’t matter how many dissidents they have to put down in the name of liberty.

I am an anarchist and to me a statist, even a minarchist, is much worse than a racist.

Because a rule by the strong over the weak is guaranteed to have positive outcome for individual freedoms!

I don’t think we did lose big in NH. If you look at the towns that just didn’t count Paul’s votes and consider the lop-sided contridictions of the electronic vote versus the hand re-count … Obama probably beat Hillary and Paul probably took 3rd or 4th.

It’s a conspiracy!Â I point this out not to poke fun at anyone but as a warning, because we have folks in the gun rights movement who also think this way, and who would place our movement far outside the mainstream.Â Gun rights must be a large tent as well, and we also have folks who are interested in driving the insufficiently pure out of the movement.Â Once we become that, it’s over.Â The last thing we want the gun rights movement to look like is the Libertarian Party.

Must Have Been Quite a Buldge …

… in this guy’s pants.Â If you’re going to carry illegally, you might want to reconsider carrying so many spare mags, even the TSA drones know you’re strapped.

Gotta Get That Magazine Capacity Down to Four

I’m glad to see Dustin take this idiot to task.Â It’s amazing how quickly journalists, who have probably never fired a gun or shot competitively in their lives, suddenly become experts in how many rounds I do or don’t need when it suits their prejudices.

Parking Lot Bill in Georgia Fast Tracked

NRA has apparently gotten the Parking Lot bill fast tracked in the Georgia Legislature, but Governor Perdue is apparently chickening out and siding with the Chamber of Commerce on this one.

UPDATE: Yeah, yeah, I had to make the chicken joke.

Holmesburg Update

It looks like Holmesburg Fish and Game Protective Association, which has been under threat of being expelled from the land it leases from the city for it’s club grounds, is still working on securing a lease:

Yes, weâ€™re still here. Yes, weâ€™re still in business. No, itâ€™s not yet a done deal. HF&GPA has four main priorities right now. They are to lobby the Fairmount Park Commission (FPC) for a lease, to get member dues for â€™08 in, to recruit new members and to complete the work on club ground that was postponed because of the threatened closing.

The club officers and negotiating committee will take care of approaching the FPC about securing a lease, but if you have any contacts with the FPC weâ€™d be most interested in hearing about them and would be very appreciative for your help. This effort will be ramping up now that the holiday recess is over.

The way most members can help is by sending in your $100 dues for â€™08 as soon as you can. An FAQ I can address here is- if the club should have to close (Arrrrg! Not if we have anything to do with it!) your dues would be pro-rated and the unused portion reimbursed. An alternative for you would be to pay $50 towards your â€™08 dues now and the other $50 in May, but the club would prefer you send the full dues if possible.

Weâ€™re now more optimistic about HF&GPA being around for years to come than at anytime since August 1^st 2007 â€“ a date that will live in infamy. But, all of the bad press and political maneuvering has taken its toll. We have lost members and need to replace them if weâ€™re to maintain a fiscally sound and vital association. Do what you can to help bring in new members and youâ€™ll also be helping to insure the longevity of the HF&GPA.

That’s good news. I’m glad things are looking up for them. I know our club has taken in some Holmesburg people, but I hope they will stay members and continue the fight.

Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, please donâ€™t forget to thank Philadelphia City Council (and especially Joan Krajewski and her office) for supporting our bid to stay where we are. Iâ€™m sure I donâ€™t have to remind you that Council unanimously supported us in several votes. They also represented us in our negotiations with the other agencies. Without Councilâ€™s help and guidance, weâ€™d be selling club assets out of cardboard boxes by now. Please make a point of expressing your gratitude and urging that the FPC afford us a lease. Thank you all for supporting your club leadership through these trying times. Brighter days are ahead if we stay the course if we continue in our roles as responsible and hospitable sportsmen and women.

I’m glad the city is burying their normal gun hating political rhetoric and doing the right thing here. There was nothing to be gained from the city kicking honest sportsmen and women off their facilities.

Workplace Violence Prevention

Everyone should go through this site, of the National Institute For The Prevention Of Workplace Violence.Â If you want to understand why it’s hazardous to speak about our participation in the shooting sports, our collecting or various other shooting related activities in the workplace, these set of Human Resources worms are a big part of it.Â Look at early warning signs.Â Also the section on gun violence.

Apologizes to Human Resources professionals who might be among my readers who are not corporate stooges, but I’ve met precious few HR folks who have a philosophy of HR that is truly beneficial to the employee, rather than focused entirely on preventing the company from being sued.

If I operated this blog under my real name, it would be a virtual guarantee I’d have a very difficult time finding employment.Â What about people who show up on background checks, an activity companies are doing increasingly for new hires, as having a concealed weapons license?Â It’s not just the politicians we have to stand up to, it’s the corporate weasels who promote this kind of stereotyping that must be stood up to as well.

How to Lose Young Voters

Young people have been really big on Obama, despite the fact that he’s peddling the same old crap the Democrats have been peddling for decades.Â The GOP need to learn how to court the young vote, unless they want to look at Democratic majorities for decades to come.Â What are some ways to lose young voters?Â Â Well, you can start by advocating a ban on video games.Â Especially when it’s pretty obvious the advocates are repeating crap they have been hearing and have not actually played the game.

Yep… banning video games.Â That’s sure to energize young voters.

Nifty

VCDL has a legislative tracker for state matters that looks pretty good!Â Â They are going to need a useful tool like this in Virginia, because 2008 is going to be a rough year for gun owners there.

“There is no reason for law-abiding gun owners to oppose a background check,” Kaine (D) said. “Now more than ever in the aftermath of April 16th, Virginians understand that this is a public safety issue.”

Yeah, except for the fact that we already banned private sales of handguns in Pennsylvania, and it’s been so effective at fighting crime, that Philadelphia is screaming for one-gun-a-month.Â Wait a minute…

One-gun-a-month has been oh so effective in Virginia that now we need to agree to end private sales.
The ban on private sales has been oh so effective in Pennsylvania that now we must agree to one-gun-a-month restrictions.

Just making sure I get that straight.

Cracking Down on the Hard Core Criminals

I’m glad the San Mateo County Sheriff in California has so thoroughly solved actual, real crimes, that they take time out to bust small time poker games.

Police in San Mateo County, California apparently first spent months investigating the small-stakes poker game. From this firsthand account, it looks like a couple of the officers were playing regularly for several weeks before sending in the SWAT team, guns drawn, last week. If California is like most states (and I believe it is), a poker game is only illegal if the house is taking a rake off the top. In this case, it looks like that “rake” was the $5 the extra the hosts asked from each buy-in to pay for pizza and beer.

Police also took a 13-year-old girl out of the home, away from her parents, and turned her over to child protective services. In addition to the charge of running an illegal gambling operation, the hosts are also charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Good thing the poor girl was saved before slouching toward an inevitable life of crime.

You know, I don’t even care if the folks involved here were taking money off the top.Â Can someone explain to me why this is a crime?Â Is illegal gambling worth the trauma of a 13 year old girl getting a gun stuck in her face by a SWAT team and then taken away from her parents?

This is a disgrace.

But I Still Love Him!

I noticed that we have not heard any statements distancing the Administration from certain statements in the brief of Bush’s solicitor general.Â Therefore I must conclude that Bush supports these statements, which basically outright state that we can’t have a second amendment that puts any federal gun laws in jeopardy, nor can we have any interpretation of the second amendment which might jeopardize certain other laws should they be reauthorized, nor can we think about jeapoarding possible future bans on certain firearms.

NRA’s weak statement on this matter can be easily explained with this metaphor:

Gun owners are the abused spouses of the Republican Coalition.Â Yeah, he beats us, but where are we going to go? Â And don’t we still love him?

Republicans should know this: it’s not like Americans love you guys.Â Far from it.Â Gun owners were a key part of starting the Republican Revolution in 1994, and were credited with defeating both Gore and Kerry in 2000 and 2004 respectively.Â Even the Democrats in 2006 relying on pro-gun blue dogs to seize power.

Learn this Republicans: We stay home, or start taking a closer look at those blue dogs, and you lose.Â Keep us happy, or we will decide we’re sick of this abusive relationship and will stop pretending and stay home, or go find another lover to court us.