The right of the citizens to bear arms in defense of themselves and the State …
It is good to see that Arlen Specter has come to his senses and stopped wobbling on the bill to end secret ballots for union votes. Americans for Tax Reform reports that his office has confirmed he will vote against it.
Now, about that last bailout package, Senator….
What was intended to be a fall project, then a “before the first snow” project, and is now a spring project has finally started.
The first delays were due to contractor issues. We couldn’t find one last fall. For all the construction and home improvement slowdown reports, we had contractors who wouldn’t show up for quote appointments, contractors who were quoting 3x what the eventual job will cost, and contractors who came out before deciding they didn’t want the job and didn’t return our phone calls. Fun.
In early fall, a neighbor and I started chatting and he gave me the name of someone he used for construction projects at his job. (He said he would use him for home projects, but he didn’t want to be perceived at work as possibly getting kickbacks.) We called him out, he was willing to do the job, and even better, at the lowest price. Talk about lucky for us.
But then, we had to wait for the weather to break to get the tree out since it required a very heavy crane and the ground was simply too soft. That happened in December. But, we still couldn’t get started. Turns out that licensing and permits from the town go on a calendar year cycle. So if we started in December and hit a delay, we would have to start the paperwork over again and pay another round of government fees.
January arrives and we make contact with our contractor again. He jumped through all the hoops for the town. By the time we get all of the paperwork in hand, signed, and notarized – along with all of the construction drawings and documents – it’s late-February. He drew up a contract, we paid it, and we waited. And waited. And, finally, on Friday, we got permission.
They started work at 8am. And, oddly enough, both neighbors also had either a contractor or landscaper out to do work as well. I think we gave the trash and recycling truck drivers a hard time with all of the trucks in the road. I’ll update with more photos as the project progresses. I wouldn’t be shocked if it’s done by the end of the week.
How many hard drives does it take to stop a round of .50 BMG? Find out…
Add three more groups, in addition to the Brady Campaign, to those on the left calling for more gun control in the name of saving Mexico from its own drug cartels even though ATF says we don’t need it and Democrats in the House have made it clear that no gun control will come out of Congress. Here are quotes from various left-wing groups on the upcoming trips to Mexico by several Cabinet officials and the President:
“They are putting a lot of the cabinet on this, including the president himself,” Andrew Selee, director of the Mexico Institute at the Woodrow Wilson Center, told AFP. …
“They see this as an actual shared responsibility, that we have to actually do something about consumption, the money and the guns on our side of the border,” Selee said.
“I think that is a change in focus, actually.”
Vanda Felbab-Brown, a counter-narcotics expert at the Brookings Institution, said it could take years before the administration reaps benefits from its new approach to blunt consumer demand, which she calls the “crux of the problem.”
In the meantime, she expects Clinton and others to cooperate more on choking off the flow of weapons from thousands of weapons stores on the US side of the border, even if she doubts how effective it can be.
“There are many other sources apart from the US, from which the cartels or the trafficking organizations could acquire weapons,” Felbab-Brown told AFP.
“But I think diplomatically it’s very important that the US makes an effort to show to the Mexican authorities as well as to the Mexican public that we share responsibility,” she said.
“Just like we share responsibility for demand, we are aware that we are the source of weapons and we take efforts against them,” she added. …
Christopher Sabatini, a top analyst at the Americas Society and Council of the America, urged the administration to challenge the National Rifle Association gun lobby over the weapons supply stores.
They should “go to the mat on it with the NRA,” he said.
Just because the math seems to be in our favor for the moment, it is clear that anti-gun groups – regardless of their primary mission – are trying to put extreme pressure on Obama to burn up his political capital on gun control, with their favorite being another semi-auto rifle ban. In 2010, we have to make sure that Congress is even more pro-gun so that Obama knows he cannot afford to pick that fight no matter how many how many groups in his base are begging for it.
According to today’s Outdoor Wire:
Following a conversation with the top official there, I can report the rumors of the impending demise of the Springfield Armory collection appear to have been greatly exaggerated.
During my extended discussion with Michael Quijano-West, the Superintendent of the Springfield Armory National Historic Site yesterday, Quijano-West made it extremely clear changes were being made, but they were designed to make the armory collection and the accompanying historical archives more accessible, not to lock them away.
“We’re not closing anything,” he said, “in fact, we’ve expanded our operating hours to 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., seven days a week. That certainly wasn’t the case before, hours were inconvenient for visitors. Today, there are only three days on our calendar when we won’t be open: Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Day.”
Good to hear! There’s more if you follow the link and scroll down a little more than half way.
From the Sherrif’s Office in Placer County, California:
Lt. Mark Reed, who reviews concealed weapons applications in Placer County, said local law enforcement often recommend alternatives to carrying a gun. For example, he said, many people apply because they carry around lots of money as part of their job. “If they could use a courier service, that’d be safer. … If I can offer a safer alternative, it negates the ‘good cause.’ “
This is exactly why you can’t have government officials deciding who does and who doesn’t get to exercise constitutional rights. Can’t issue that battered wife a concealed carry permit, since a safer alternative is to sell her house and move out of state and away from her ex-husband. Why give one to the gay couple? It’s safer just to stay home, and maybe not look so gay. But can we change this? Hell no. O.J. might get a pistol license.
Do California officials really believe there are more potential OJs out there than Deanna Skykes?
Clayton Cramer has a pretty good example of how it’s working.
Tam’s example here would probably make one think that the Brady Campaign might have a point about mandatory training for possessing firearms, until the first time you’re on a range and get muzzled by a cop. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. Doesn’t matter who you are.
The Governor is still barreling down the PA Turnpike like a bat out of hell:
It found one instance on a Sunday morning when his car averaged an estimated 99 mph traveling between the New Stanton and Warrendale interchanges of the Pennsylvania Turnpike.
His trip speeds between the Harrisburg East and Valley Forge exits, the stretch of the toll road he uses most often, have estimated speeds ranging between 48 and 93 mph.
This has been an issue before. Glad to see the problem has been corrected. I hope he at least wears his seatbelt.