2010 – Page 46 – Shall Not Be Questioned

More Castle Doctrine Fights Today

According to some state representatives on Facebook, we’re back on to fight for our right to defend ourselves on/in our own property today. From Rep. Seth Grove:

Going to be an interesting a fun week in Harrisburg. Supposedly we might have some transportation funding votes, but we will be voting on “Castle Doctrine” and I will thoroughly enjoy voting NO on all the gun control amendments and enjoy voting YES on a clean HB 40!

FYI – I think he’s my new favorite legislator. This update comes from another co-sponsor, Rep. Bryan Cutler:

HB 40, or the Castle Doctrine bill, is expected to come up for a vote today. I know many of you have been asking about this legislation, which I am co-sponsoring. I’ll let you know how the vote turns out.

Interestingly (and wisely, IMHO), NRA-PVF has opted to withhold state legislative endorsements and grades until the vote on Castle Doctrine & the half dozen or so anti-gun amendments that will be introduced.

Mexican Mayors Against Criminals

Well, I have to give credit to the mayors of Mexico, they recognize that the real solution to solving crime is to get criminals off the streets. Unfortunately, their solution isn’t much better than the ideas out of the gun control groups – they don’t want us deporting them back to Mexico. Well, they would be open to the idea, but only if it’s not to their towns. I guess they know how to get their NIMBY on down there, too.

A coalition of Mexican mayors has asked the United States to stop deporting illegal immigrants who have been convicted of serious crimes in the U.S. to Mexican border cities, saying the deportations are contributing to Mexican border violence, FOXNews.com reported Wednesday.

Ciudad Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes blamed U.S. deportation policy for contributing to his cityâ€™s violence, saying that of the 80,000 people deported to Juarez in the past three years, 28,000 had U.S. criminal records â€” including 7,000 convicted rapists and 2,000 convicted murderers.

Amazing how every problem they have in Mexico can be so easily blamed on our domestic polices. We send people back when they are here illegally and we allow our citizens to protect their lives with arms, so clearly, we’re to blame for Mexican violence. What would happen if their government would look at who is really to blame? You know, those actually committing the violence with illegally obtained weapons. Via Wyatt.

Smoking Cornish Hens

Thanks to FatWhiteMan, we tried smoking cornish hens back in May. We’ve made them at least three more times since then. If you have a smoker and have not yet tried smoking cornish hens, do it.

We make our own rub with a ginger base, but the real prize of the meal is the glaze that we put on after they have reached temperature. We glaze them and then stick them on the grill for a few minutes to finish on the outside. The glaze is super simple and worth sharing: 1/4 cup orange juice concentrate, 2 tablespoons dijon mustard, and 2 tablespoons honey. Mix & coat.

Now, the wish bones are drying out on the dining room table. What should I wish for when I beat Sebastian at tearing them apart? I already lost out on an iPad for the kitchen when I didn’t take his bet that the homemade bread wouldn’t rise due to the quality of the yeast. (It rose beautifully. Damn kitchen iPad…)

Gun Control Out, Fireworks Control In…

I don’t really believe that gun control as “the” solution is on its way out the door anytime soon, but one MAIG mayor seems to have found a different inanimate object to blame on his city’s lower quality of life – fireworks.

In Pennsylvania, residents can’t buy the good fireworks. But non-residents are free to do so, which attracts quite a few people from New Jersey and New York. The businesses that set up are a great source of at least temporary employment (we have one that operates all year round here), and obviously a source of tax revenue.

Allentown has long banned residents from setting off fireworks, yet the city still issued permits allowing businesses to sell the pyrotechnics.

On Friday, City Council members joined with Mayor Ed Pawlowski to silence that mixed message with an ordinance that would end the permits and ban the sale of fireworks throughout the city. …

“If they can’t be used here, there is no reason to offer them here,” Pawlowski said. “We don’t need out-of-town fly-by-night operators setting up shops that reduce our quality of life in the city.”

Clearly, these devices which are not legal to use in the city are responsible for all of the problems in Allentown. Just by banning these damn stores, Allentown will increase their quality of life – except for those jobs and tax revenue, not that either one of those things is needed in the Great Recession.

It shouldn’t be surprising that a MAIG partner organization in Pennsylvania is pushing a similar ban on gun stores in their legislative questionnaire this year.

Master of Accents

This English kid is pretty good. It’s NSFW, or when kids are around, just to warn you.

Hat tip to Traction Control

Mexican Border Vehicle Searches Turn Up No Guns

The Bradys are telling us we’re spreading mythology, when we try to debunk the Mexican Gun Canard, because there’s this nifty new report out, you know. Except that this USA Today story tells about an effort by US customs to try to interdict some of these illegally trafficked firearms into Mexico:

Almost immediately after Homeland Security SecretaryÂ Janet Napolitano announced a stepped-up vehicle search program beginning in March 2009,Â U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials went five consecutive months â€” May through September â€” without recovering a single weapon inÂ El Paso, within sight of the bloodiest battleground in the Mexican drug war.

You’d think if this were such a huge problem, you’d be able to find at least one stash of firearms being smuggled, let alone being able to find a single gun.

Weapons seizures from vehicles moving through the Southwest border’s busiest crossings have increased to 310 so far in fiscal year 2010, up from 155 in fiscal year 2009, CBP records show. Besides guns, weapons include grenades and rockets.

Naturally those grenades and rockets are coming from American gun shows. There are a lot of excuses for why they aren’t finding guns. I’m also still wondering how many of those traced guns that source back to the US were sent by the truckload across the border because they were from sources in the US to the Mexican military and police. In Brady’s newfound “study” their source for the number of traced guns was the highly scientifically rigorous President of Mexico in his speech before Congress.

Good News for Pat Toomey

Jim Geraghty notes that, historically, if you’re six up thirty days out from the election, you’re quite statistically likely to be the winner. This is good news because I find Joe Sestak particularly loathsome.

Clayton’s Suit Dismissed

Looks like he agreed to settle with Righthaven. I can’t blame him, since it’s honestly the cheapest option, and not all of us have the cash for a big legal battle. Most of us don’t, in fact. It seems to me the damage Righthaven suffered is at most small claims material, yet they manage to get into federal court because of the fantastic copyright claim.

The real problem is copyright law, which in the age of the Internet we need less of, yet Congress has been going in the opposite direction.

Start of the New Season

Sorry for the light posting. Last night was the start to our club 2010/2011 Indoor Silhouette season. Last year I had to skip out way too much. This year I’m hoping to get there more. For not having pulled the trigger in well over a month, I did surprisingly well, 27 and 29. Normally a decent score for me would be 30-32 out of 40 for indoor smallbore pistol. Of course, my 27 may have been a 26, depending on whether this counts:

I couldn’t have made the animal do this if I tried, and I’m still not sure how it ended up this way. I think the bullet just barely brushed the base, based on the paint patterns, and the fact that it took a bit of time to tip all the way. Originally I didn’t count it, then someone told me that because it would have fallen off a pedestal, it counts. Then someone else said it didn’t, but I had already changed the score. Ultimately, I decided shooting better the third relay was the better option, so I didn’t end up beating someone with a questionable animal.

No More Bayonet Training

I suspect a lot of folks will disagree with the Army’s decision to end bayonet training in basic training.Â But it seems to be a matter of opportunity costs. In other words, what other things could you be teaching soldiers? One military historian had this to say:

Bayonet training is, in short, used to undo socialization â€“ to â€œbasically to try to mitigate or eradicate the reluctance of human beings to kill each other,â€ Mr. Kohn says. It is one of the challenges in US or Western society â€œwhere we have such reverence for the individual, where we socialize our people to believe in the rule of law, and all of that,â€ he adds. â€œWhat youâ€™re doing with young people is trying to get them used to the highly emotional and irrational and adrenaline-filled situations in which they are liable to find themselves whether they are within sight of the enemy or not â€“ and the reluctance to take a life.â€

It would seem that for soldiers who are likely to end up in hand-to-hand combat situations, some knife and bayonet skills would seem to still be warranted. But I can see the logic in replacing it in basic training with other skills that might be more useful. What do some folks who have served in combat think about this?

h/t Instapundit