March 2012 – Page 7 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Regulating Away Private Charity

Is it better to starve or eat something that might be a little salty or a bit heavier on calories than the government would prefer? Well, Bloomberg’s agencies in New York think it’s better for people to go hungry than to eat something they haven’t tested for nutritional value.

The Bloomberg administration is now taking the term â€œfood policeâ€ to new depths, blocking food donations to all government-run facilities that serve the cityâ€™s homeless.

In conjunction with a mayoral task force and the Health Department, the Department of Homeless Services recently started enforcing new nutritional rules for food served at city shelters. Since DHS canâ€™t assess the nutritional content of donated food, shelters have to turn away good Samaritans.

The story highlights good samaritans who have been donating food for decades, but who have been turned away and their food turned down because of these new restrictions.

This is the kind of regulation designed to frustrate people into stopping their acts of charity and community work because the government knows best. If the bureaucrats can keep them from getting involved, then the government will be the only source for solving this “problem.” Reliance on government means more government employees who are doing more “good.”

I don’t mean to present this as a tinfoil hat type of conspiracy that the Bloomberg administration is purposefully letting people go hungry in order to create more dependency on the government. But, it is a mindset of many people who think up these regulations. They are the government and they know best. They might acknowledge that the good samaritans mean well, but they don’t care about motivations or even outcomes since clearly a government structure to organize it all is better than people getting involved from the community in a way that they cannot control with perfect certainty. They don’t particularly care that their restrictions may end a tradition of civic engagement because bureaucrats are paid to be engaged, they don’t need volunteers to do that work for them. It’s oddly logical when you’re working within a system that is always growing.

I actually believe that acts of private charity and civic involvement are the best ways to fight the expansion of government. Everyone heard the stories about how private companies and organizations were the first ones into New Orleans when the government workers wouldn’t get around to going in there and getting the goods the city residents needed. Normal folks, when they hear these kinds of stories about NYC turning down private food donations for the homeless, have a gut reaction that the government is going too far. It’s actually by being engaged at this level where small government advocates can pick up the stories and examples of how we don’t need the government to handle it all.

Plea Deal for Meredith Graves

She took a plea to a misdemeanor and paid a $200 fine:

“This is not the kind of case that should prevent her from being a doctor,” attorneyÂ Daniel HorwitzÂ said. “Licensing boards have a lot of discretion.”

“It’s the type of disposition that will allow her to get on with her life and career,” he continued, explaining whyÂ Graves, whose husband accompanied her to New York for her court appearance, decided to plead guilty. “What she did is not a crime in Tennessee.”

Graves will have pay a $200 fine in the case.

It’s still a travesty, but we will fix this. We can’t have individual cities opting out of respecting the Bill of Rights.

F&F Was About Getting the Higher Ups

Which is why when ATF caught one trying to smuggle ammunition into Mexico, they let him go.

Romney Derangement Syndrome

Roger L. Simon thinks the phenomena is real. I do have to say, the idea that Romney is a marxist is rather farfetched, but I’ve also heard people claim it:

So why pick on Romney over this? In truth, we are in the era of Romney Derangement Syndrome. It has gone so far that in the PJ Media comments today, someone wrote there was no hope for the country because Obama and Romney wereÂ both Marxists.

Really? The co-founder of Bain Capital is a Marxist? Well, I suppose if Bain were wildly unsuccessful you could hypothesize some kind of Cloward-Piven covert sabotage of our economic system was being attempted. But it wasnâ€™t â€” and isnâ€™t.

My big problem with Mitt is that he’s uninspiring and blows with the wind (or just plain blows, as you will). But hey, if my alternative is Mr. War On Porn, I can get over it.

Microstamping Inserted into New York Budget

Sounds to me like if this passes, the Cerberus folks are going to regret relocating all their manufacturing to New York.

If microstamping were to become law, firearms manufacturers would be forced to employ a patented, sole-sourced concept that independent studies, including those from the National Academy of Sciences and the University of California at Davis, found to be flawed and easily defeated by criminals. Passage of this bill could result in layoffs of factory workers throughout New York as manufacturers, already being heavily lobbied by tax and gun friendly states, consider moving out of New York. Furthermore, firearms manufacturers could be forced to abandon the New York market altogether rather than spend the astronomical sums of money needed to completely reconfigure their manufacturing and assembly processes. This would directly impact law enforcement, firearms retailers and their law-abiding customers.

What we would call a bug, the supporters of this bill would call a feature. If you don’t think New York City politicians would sacrifice upstate jobs on the altar of their hatred for the Second Amendment, you’re kidding yourself.

Oral Argument in Peterson v. Gracia Today

John Richardson wants to know why the Brady Campaign want to keep gays defenseless. Peterson, a gay man, is suing the State of Colorado for not issuing licenses to carry to non-residents so that they may be able to carry while in Colorado. Colorado’s reciprocity statute is limited, and Colorado does not have reciprocity with Peterson’s home state. This is another small step in the lengthy struggle to get a carry case before the Supreme Court.

An Interesting Part of Florida Law

Our opponents have been busy all weekend tweeting to anyone who does or doesn’t want to listen to them that George Zimmerman is out on the street because of the dangerous NRA shoot first law, which legalizes murder, you know. Aside from the hyperbole, the section of Florida Law at issue here, which was part of the Castle Doctrine law passed not terribly long ago is as follows:

(2) A law enforcement agency may use standard proceduresÂ for investigating the use of force as described in subsectionÂ (1), but the agency may not arrest the person for using forceÂ unless it determines that there is probable cause that the forceÂ used was unlawful.

I am going to argue that this passage is relatively meaningless. Standard procedures would be to take the shooter into custody for questioning, which was done in this case. Zimmerman was then released because no probable caused existed to hold him. The standard for an arrest or to be charged with a crime has always been probable cause. So what does this change really? It seems to me all this does is codify what’s already generally law.

Canadian Gun Owners Go Underground

From the National Post:

She is a Toronto grandmother of two in her mid-sixties and she is sharing her love of guns in mid-winter on a underground range in Torontoâ€™s west end. (That range has since closed; Ellenâ€™s club now shoots at another range in the City of Toronto but will not disclose its location.)

Ellen also wonâ€™t share her real name. The request for anonymity reflects a reluctance to disclose personal information in a city in which even legal gun ownership comes with a stigma attached.

â€œYou have to be careful who you talk to,â€ she says. â€œItâ€™s like religion and politics.â€

As long as gun owners remain underground and won’t talk about what they do, the extinction of the culture that allows and tolerates gun ownership is inevitable. Also, to change anything for the better, you have to change the culture. From a Canadian Criminologist:

â€œI know some people like sport shooting, but it doesnâ€™t seem to me like much of a sport, personally. I think a lot of people would also think of it as quite peculiar as a sport, especially because where are those guns stored and how safely? A lot of people would share the view that you should get yourself a proper sport and go play hockey or something.â€

And the reason you need to be “out of the closet” so to speak, is because if you’re not, you can’t attack people like this above for being the sanctimonious pricks that they are. The key to changing the culture is to make the attitude displayed above unacceptable. You won’t see anti-gun folks here saying stuff like this, because we have succeeded in accomplishing that.

The CSGV Tragedy Flowchart

Courtesy of Miguel, originally by Brian Ritchie.

Quote of the Day: The Twinkie Test

From Caleb:

I guess thatâ€™s cool to know that I shouldnâ€™t stick a pastry in my magwell, except I already knew that because Iâ€™m not an idiot. Contrived tests like that donâ€™t show me anything about the durability or reliability of a weapons system; if that test proves anything it proves my already standing point that AKs were designed for the lowest common denominator of military forces.

That’s in response to this video here:

I have to say, that while I don’t really have a dog in the AK v. AR fight, that’s not even a fair comparison for a Twinkie test, since one was shoved in a mag well, and the other into a mag well while the bolt was locked back. But either way, I own both platforms, and each has their strengths and weaknesses. I don’t think it’s much disputed that AKs can be used and abused and still fire more reliably, but the ergonomics and accuracy suffer. ARs demand more care and attention, but I can more easily drop a magazine and replace it without dismounting the gun, and have a prayer of hitting a target at 300 meters.