They are challenging the ban on firearms possession by lawfully admitted aliens, and the ban on firearms and ammunition purchase by lawful resident aliens. There is very strong case law that will support getting the ban overturned for lawful resident aliens. If I understand the first aspect of the lawsuit correctly, this challenges the ban mere possession, meaning challenging the fact that it’s a crime to take you friend visiting from overseas to a shooting range. Given the Supreme Court has said plainly this is a fundamental right, that probably plays strongly that a blanket ban on possession is unconstitutional, though it may be constitutional to restrict lawful admitted aliens from purchasing a gun under the Heller dicta that permits some degree of qualification on commercial sales of firearms.
Year: 2011
Lucky The Blog is Still Running
Bitter and I have been noticing an odd odor in the house every time we run the dish washer. It was kind of a putrid, cat urine kind of smell. I had figured maybe a mouse had decided to make a home in the insulation and had died. I intended to yank the thing at some point. Wednesday night that odor was considerably stronger, enough for me to identify it as an electrical smell. Checked around the house and couldn’t find anything that was the culprit. I figured the dishwasher might be on its last leg, so told Bitter to stop using it. Came home last night and she said some lights weren’t working. Crap. Go check the breakers and they are all in the on position. So I start tripping them, until I hit one that just rocks back and fourth like there’s nothing in there:
Two, completely dead. Judging from how discolored and soft the blade on the bus bar is, my guess is that over the years, it’s become something less than pure aluminum, causing it to heat excessively. Some of the plastic cladding holding the bus bar in place melted down. The two breakers below it function, but their cases took some damage too. The whole panel needs replacement. That normally would be no problem, except when the doofuses who owned the house previously replaced the boiler, they completely blocked access. I can reach it enough to work on it, but it’ll be difficult and tiring. Bitter can’t reach the thing to even trip breakers back.
The other problem is PECO won’t pull the meter and reconnect without confirmation that I’ve met code, which means permits. This probably means a licensed electrician. Because of the boiler, one with exceptionally long arms. Or I have to pull the boiler out and reconfigure it so there’s room to work. I accept permitting for major work or renovation, but by this standard I’d need a permit to swap out a faulty main breaker. That’s not safety, that’s extortion. And how am I supposed to function while I wait, without any power, for the township’s code enforcement to show up to inspect the work?
Help a Fellow Out
Robb over at Sharp as a Marble is hitting the unemployment lines. If you’re in the Tampa area, and want to hire a .Net developer, I’m sure he’d be happy to send a resume. Speaking of resumes, there’s a chance I might be joining Robb in a week or so. I should get mine ready too. To some degree I’m relatively calm, because right now I’ve done all I can do to save the company. The decision as to whether to continue operating, and if so in what form, is out of my hands, and in a strange way that takes the pressure off. The past year has been a marathon to produce something of value we can partner with someone who can bring cash to the table. I am happy that we have achieved that goal. The question is whether we have something interesting enough, and with enough potential upside, to keep our tired investors at the table. We shall soon see.
Based on what I’ve seen, the market for tech people isn’t really that bad, and while my ten years of experience is primary in high-performance computing (HPC), cheminformatics and bioinformatics systems, there isn’t a whole lot that involves a computer that I haven’t done. If I have to go to the dark side and do software, I can do that. I could probably even go back to pure hardware engineering if I could convince someone I could un-rust those skills in a short amount of time. Database admin? I probably could swing it. General IT? Can do it in my sleep. Network engineer? Been a while for some aspects, but it’s not rocket science. The big thing on my mind right now is what to do next. But I’m hoping next will be continuing to do what I’m doing now, where I’m doing it now. I have my fingers crossed.
Tastykake Finds a Buyer
Possibly as revenge for burning Atlanta, the rebs now own Tastykake. Great work Philadelphia! It won’t be too long before the North will have no hope of winning if the South does indeed rise again, because everything will be made there, and nothing here. I will definitely join the side with Tastykakes. Add this to my affection for Chick-fil-a, and they’d really have me over a barrel if they tore up all the railroads heading north.
Tragedies That Don’t Get Exploited
Tam notes that a New York mother who drowned her kids when she drove her minivan into the Hudson won’t be attracting any activists looking to ban minivans, boat ramps or motherhood. This is a pretty serious question our opponents should ask themselves. Obviously this is a tragedy, but why isn’t anyone demanding the government do something, for the children. Because doing nothing isn’t an answer.
In this case, we universally accept the mother snapped, and nothing much else is to blame. At most people might murmur a bit about more funding for counseling and women’s service. We don’t blame access to cars, or boat ramps. Why? Because none of these objects carry the same spiritual power as the gun. To the extent the other side likes to suggest the gun is our god, if that is true, it is most certainly their devil. I stand by my assertion that the other side is acting in an elaborate passion play. Otherwise, why is the car not to blame? Or the boat ramp?
Assault Clips
We have some pretty good submissions. My favorite two are these:
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| Submitted by Robert | Submitted by ctdonath |
Hard to say which one I like better, but both are certainly better than my very bad joke about Dassault Clips from the other day.
UPDATE: Also check out Miguel’s submission. Plus, anyone who’s anybody these days has a Twitter account, and that’s true of Assault Clip too.
Quote of the Day
So Zimmerman’s fiance says ten rounds is enough. Has this woman ever confronted 5 or 6 dedicated people wantin’ to “beat up a fag?” I have.
Tough question that deserves an answer. You can bet he won’t get one.
Bullies and Victims
Don’t forget to check out some of the commentary at CSGV’s Facebook page. You have Andrew Goddard, who’s Colin’s dad saying “they will all come back as cockroaches – if they are lucky.” Andy Pelosi thanks Joan for the work she does in the “face of cowards.” Another person suggests “never give into a bully.” I think it’s time to cut out the niceties for the moment, and have a little frank discussion, so that both sides may better understand each other.
I am not unsympathetic to your grief. I’ve lost people close to me, some agonizingly over time and others suddenly. I can relate to the pain of loss, and learning how to cope and continue with life. I truly am sorry for what you have gone through, and may be still going through. If I had a time machine at my disposal, I’d go back and undo everything so it never happened. I have no wish to see you continuously hurting.
But you folks have a lot of nerve calling other people cowards and bullies. Let me explain to you why you elicit such “underhanded hate and misguided personal attacks” from some of the people on my side. It’s important for your side to understand. We want nothing more than to stay out of your business, leave you alone, let you heal and get on with your lives. By the same token, we expect the same courtesy in return. That is the fundamental violation you are committing in our eyes, and it’s a serious one.
There is nothing more personal, when it comes to ones own business, than his or her personal security measures. That is not a topic I take kindly to other people poking their noses into, or demanding politicians do the same. This is going to sound cold, but whatever happened in your lives is your tragedy, and not mine. I am not responsible for it. So when you stick your noses in our very personal business, then demand we tolerate that because of your special status as “victims,” don’t then then act surprised and indignant when some of us rhetorically punch you in it. We would all gladly leave you alone. But it seems that your happiness and sense of well being involves trying to take away ours. Are we just supposed to roll over quietly in that case?
Obama’s Gun Control Pow-Wow
At this point, I think Paul Helmke probably wishes it were a beer summit, because at least then he could have gotten a free beer out of it, and maybe met the President. We initially were quite skeptical of Brady claims of success from the summit. With this report in the Washington Post, that skepticism would seem to have been warranted:
But the official the advocates wanted to hear from most stayed mostly quiet.
The silence of Steve Croley, the White House’s point man on gun regulation policy, echoes the decision by Democrats to remain mute on guns as a national issue, even in the wake of the Tucson rampage.
They later go on to say:
One area in which Croley has shown less interest, according to several people who have spoken with him about the issue, is restricting the large-volume ammunition magazines that allowed the Tucson shooter to keep firing. When Paul Helmke, director of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, broached the subject during the March 15 gathering with Croley, officials promptly adjourned the meeting.
That adds more evidence that the “assault clip” effort is just the latest ridiculousness from the other side. Though I strongly believe they have given up on passing legislation at this point, and are focusing almost exclusively on testing issues based on their ability to attract media attention, followers, and most importantly donations. Read the whole Washington Post article. This makes me seriously question why Brady is even keeping around a 501(c)(4). They are in hearts and minds territory at this point, and that’s not anything you need a (c)(4) non-profit to accomplish.
I’m a Cancer Victim
CSGV is blasting some bloggers, including Joe Huffman, for, as best as I can summarize being mean to Joan Peterson. They particularly seemed incensed by Link P’s assertion:
“Peterson is no survivor of gun violence. Â Her sister was murdered by her criminal brother in law. She wasn’t even there.
This isn’t something I would have ever said to Joan, because I think her grief is genuine and real, and I wouldn’t want to appear to be diminishing it or trivializing it. But I’m also not sure why Link’s statement is fundamentally wrong as a matter of how we generally think about these things.
Those who have been reading for a while know my mother died of breast cancer when I was 20 years old. She was diagnosed in my early teens and spent about 8 years fighting a losing battle against the disease. So I not only know what it’s like to lose a loved one, I know what it’s like to watch them slowly die and deteriorate over a period of years.
But yet the title of this post would make you think I had cancer, had beat cancer, or had otherwise somehow been directly victimized by it. By the same token, if I had said I was a suicide victim, it might make you wonder if I had tried it, or was giving a new definition to the term “ghost writing.” Usually when we speak in the context of victimhood, we assume a direct association with the person who was victimized. If your sister was raped, you’d say your sister was a victim of rape. You wouldn’t say you were a victim of rape. People would naturally assume that meant you yourself were raped.
There’s a lot of religion in this issue, on both sides. I don’t mean literal religion, but figurative, in the sense that the same kind of devotions, faiths, heresies, dogmas and scriptures are at work at a very fundamental level. But our religion is the role firearms play within the American cultural and political framework. It is heresy to the other side, because their religion centers around victimhood. Victimhood, to us, is heresy. Or at least the type of victimhood their religion centers around is. In short, Link was questioning Joan’s religion, and while that’s never polite, I can’t be so quick to say it’s incorrect. If it is, then I’m a cancer victim.