2008 – Page 24 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Music to My Ears

The Inquirer is lamenting the loss of Philadelphia political power:

Philadelphia is quickly losing clout in Harrisburg, and considering the city’s budget crisis, it couldn’t happen at a worse time.

First, after Democratic voting last week, Carbon County State Rep. Keith McCall is all but certain to assume the title of House speaker come January – a title held by Philadelphians for the last five years.

For gun owners, Keith McCall is an NRA A+ rated Democrat from Carbon County.Â Our previous speaker was actually Philadelphia Republican Dennis O’Brein, who was also an A rated guy on our issue, but it’s good that the seat doesn’t appear to be going to a big city Dem.

They also lament the loss of Vince Fumo’s top Democratic spot in the Senate Appropriations committee to an Allegeny County Dem.Â Fumo did not run for re-election because he is currently under a 139 count indictment by the feds for fraud and various other malfeasance.Â The Democrats did gain one house seat in Pennsylvania’s House, increasing their lead to a whopping two seats.Â But the departure of Fumo and the Philadelphia political machine from important positions is something to feel good about.

Undermining Heller

Says Judge Wilkinson of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals:

Writing for the Virginia Law Review, Judge Wilkinson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit says that Heller, like Roe, was disrespectful of legislative judgments, has hurled courts into a political thicket of fine-tuning policy in interminable litigation and traduced federalism. Furthermore, Heller exposed “originalism” — the doctrine that the Constitution’s text means precisely what those who wrote its words meant by them — as no barrier to “judicial subjectivity.”

Yes, except the Second Amendment is right there, staring at you in the face in the Bill of Rights.Â It’s not to be found emanating from any penumbras.

On Manners

The Belmont Club talks about recent bad mannered proposals to get Barack Obama into the White House sooner, rather than later:

Since Barack Obama himself has made no such demand and has the good sense not to make it, why should anyone care about the likes of Collins and Matthews? One reason is that they are engaged in a very public display of their bad manners and bad manners are contagious. Manners play an important part in civic life. Why do we stand in line at a buffet and not rush to the front if we can get away with it? Why do we observe rope barriers when it would be easy to duck under it or jump over them? Because it isnâ€™t the done thing. The Collins and Matthews proposal to install Obama in office right away if they could get away with it is in many ways like shouting that in a cafeteria queue that it would be better to clamber over the steam tables because youâ€™re in a hurry to eat. JJ McNab observed that most things happen through voluntary compliance.

Good manners are in short supply these days, and sadly that’s true of much of our side as well.

It’s a Bit Odd, Indeed

The Arizona Rifleman runs into his first reader that didn’t know who he was.Â It is an odd experience to be talking to someone you’ve introduced yourself to under your real name, and have them mention your blog.

A Litmus Test

Since the soon-to-be Obama Administration is so keen on thoroughly vetting their high-level candidate, I have a suggestion for something that should act as a litmus test.Â Once they complete the mandatory sensitivity training, I would recommend playing this.Â Anyone who stands up and puts their hand over their heart is automatically disqualified.

Sadly, I expect that would disqualify a hefty portion of his Administration.

Regulating Rainfall

Apparently it’s illegal to collect rain water in some western states without difficult to obtain water rights for doing so.Â There’s a saying from the west that I believe goes something like “Out west, whiskey is for drinkin’ and water is for fightin’.”Â Things like that don’t really change, though presumably we fight using lawyers these days rather than guns.

Heard in Our Gun Nutty Household …

Bitter: “Umm… there’s ammunition under the microwave.”

Sebastian: “What caliber?”

Bitter takes a pen and sweeps it out from under the microwave.Â Turns out it was a piece of expended ICC brass from Blackwater.Â Must have gotten away from me when I was using the kitchen sink to clean all the dirt out of the brass I picked up before tumbling it.

Now Begins Thanksgiving Vacation

I am taking this entire week off.Â Rather than have to deal with my project and task lists at work, I can concentrate on fun vacation activity:

Cleaning the leaves off the lawn.Â I have too many trees.
Avoid shaving as much as possible.
Finish scores for the Gun Blog Rifle League, and make the combined Fall/Winter match.
Work up a load for .223 using Varget powder, and get down to the club to crony it.
Reload some .44 Special so I can practice for my IHMSA match on the 6th of December.Â It’ll be our last one until March.
Get the Lee progressive press a reader was kind of enough to send to me up and functioning and start reloading 9mm and .45 ACP all quick like.Â I ordered all I need to reload .44 Spl/Mag too, in addition to the .223 stuff.Â We’ll see how it works out.
Clean the house for Thanksgiving guests.Â Sadly this is a big task.
Buy a new and larger gun safe, with fireproofing, and all that happy stuff.Â My current one is packed to the gills, and I’d like to get some more collector pieces before imports end up more restricted.
Think about buying a Glock 30 to replace the Glock 19 as primary carry piece.Â The reason I went with 9mm is because it’s common and cheap, but if I’m reloading, I can afford to shoot .45ACP pretty regularly.

That’s basically my holiday plans for my week off.Â I will be blogging, but possibly on a different schedule than normal.

To Kill a Turkey

I think MS-NBC wants me to frown on Sarah Palin for not having a problem with the backdrop for her interview, but I agree with Breda that it makes her just that much more awesome.

Outrageous

A British couple gets arrested for possession of a suppressor.Â Â The proper thing for the AUSA to do here is to exercise discretion and not bring charges.Â A grand jury should refuse to indict.Â These aren’t people who belong in jail.

I’d say they’d make a great Second Amendment case in order to chip off part of the National Firearms Act, but their not being American citizens would needlessly complicate things.

Does anyone from the Brady Campaign want to come on and defend this application of our “reasonable common sense gun laws?”