2012 – Page 108 – Shall Not Be Questioned

This is My Shocked Face

A TV news outlet in California is shocked to find out that despite California’s stringent gun laws, there’s still a lot of illegal guns, and that at gun shows, people sell magazines in a manner that isn’t illegal. One guy at a gun show tried to sell his firearm privately, only to be warned by dealers that it was a felony. Seems like the guy wasn’t a criminal, but just that he didn’t know.

One reason I oppose many of the laws proposed by our opponents is because it has great potential to ensnare the unaware, but otherwise non-criminal. Even thought a civil penalty or low-level misdemeanor is enough to discourage the law abiding, our opponents insist on felony penalties for activities that are not commonly understood as being unlawful. Being a gun owner should not require a law degree in order to avoid getting in trouble, but in most cases, when it comes to gun, if you get into the hobby enough you will need to know a lot of gun laws in order not to get in trouble. Our opponents are fine with this, and deride our concern about honest people getting thrown in jail as paranoid ramblings, and then wonder why we oppose them ferociously, even over things that they believe are eminently reasonable.

Fighting Culture Wars

Tam amusingly notes that the Republican dog can always be counted on to chase the culture war stick. The fact is that there’s no better tactic for the Democrats to use this election than to get everyone all pissed off about culture war issues. The question is whether Mitt Romney will be stupid enough to chase the stick. Having been relatively socially liberal as a Governor of Massachusetts tells me he doesn’t have true SoCo instincts, but Romeny has never met an important constituency he didn’t want to pander to. Look for more of this as the election gets closer. Obama knows he can’t run on his record on fiscal issues, so culture wars it will be.

HSUS Children’s Book Fail

According to Heather in Alaska, HSUS decided to write a children’s book about a cute, cuddly Grizzly Bear, and wanting to base it on a real bear, contacted Glacier National Park for some assistance. Apparently the real Grizzly the HSUS children’s story was based on went on to hunt down and eat a park employee.

North Carolina Won’t Appeal

The challenge to North Carolina’s emergency powers provision that could essentially ban guns will not be appealed, meaning the ruling tossing it will stand. That seems to be the prudent move from North Carolina officials, given that appeal would just be a waste of taxpayer money.

House Passes DOJ Pay Cut

I like the idea, but I’m personally not a fan of collective punishment. I’d make sure that 1 million dollar cut came straight out of the DOJ top brass salaries, the ones who are responsible for not complying with the subpoena.

UPDATE: Looks like it does, indeed, only come out of those pockets. Bravo.

Boosting the Turnpike Speed Limits

Looks like they want to up the limit to 70mph, according to Capitol Ideas. The only problem here is that the main reason you can’t easily traverse Pennsylvania the long way in a short amount of time isn’t the 65mph speed limit (which no one pays attention to anyway), but the endless multi-mile long construction zones, where speed is reduced to 40mph and there is often no evidence of construction of any kind.

If the Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission wants to help people get from point A to point B faster in Pennsylvania, it would do better to more competently manage construction zones that it would to boost the speed limit. As a regular turnpike user, I’ll take the boosted speed limit, but I’d much prefer fewer and shorter construction zones.

So That’s Why My Gas Can Sucks

A few years ago I bought a gas can, who’s spout was a screaming ball of suck. Eventually it broke to a degree where it would not easily dispense gas. So I go to the WalMart looking for a new gas can, and every other gas can on the self also looks like a screaming ball of suck. When I was a kid, our gas can had a plain old spout, with a little cap on the end, and a vent, with another little cap on it. Undo both, and it just worked.

Apparently the reason gas cans suck is, like the same reason every other product that’s stopped working in a past few years sucks: light bulbs, toilets, dishwashing and laundry detergent, and washers and dryers… the list goes on:Â government bureaucrats.

What I want to know is how this stuff isn’t becoming major campaign issues. Is a guy like Mitt Romney so afraid of the environmentalists that he doesn’t want to stand up for the freedom to buy products that work? Do a majority of American want to buy shitty products based on questionable public good? So why no politicians using the fact that the government is ruining consumer products as a rallying cry to bring in Americans who are sick of it? Seems like a missed opportunity to me. I think a lot of Americans are hungry for a politician who will stand up for them against the bureaucrats, instead of standing up for the bureaucrats, and those who enable them, against the rest of us. I can get why someone might not want to embrace legalizing crack or heroin, where you’d likely only hear cheers from the Wookie contingent. But this seems like a no brainer.

Election 2012 Quote of the Day

Jennifer has a long post on how she feels about this election:

Romney is a long way from who I want in office. Â But heâ€™s not running for a single term. Â He doesnâ€™t want to piss the rest of us off before his re-election. I donâ€™t think heâ€™s stupid either. Â Heâ€™ll pander, but I think we can be the people he panders to. Â And the more crap the left throws at him, the less I dislike him.

My decision isnâ€™t set. I may find myself in agreement before November. Â But for now, I think the RINO isÂ preferable.

I do not have high expectations of Romney, but he only needs to do a few things. My anxieties about him are my overall anxieties about the things Republican tend to do when they are in power. Romney, being an excellent vessel for the same people that George W. Bush was a vessel for, did a lot of things that pissed me off, but putting Roberts and Alito on the Court were not among them.

I can understand where Jennifer is coming from. The mandate that begins in 2014, absent intervention from the Court, creeps ever closer. Most of us are not better off than we were financially four years ago, myself included. Hell, I was better off ten years ago than now. While most of that would have happened no matter who was President, this President decided to stomp his foot on the accelerator on the road that takes us off the cliff. I don’t have high expectations of Romney, but I think on fiscal issues, I wouldn’t be surprised if he does better than many would give him credit for now. If he doesn’t? We can always give him the Dick Lugar treatment in 4 years.

Looking at Gary Johnson

Jonathan Adler over at Volokh posts about assessing Gary Johnson. I think it’s a damned shame this guy disappeared from politics for so long, because when the GOP field first revealed itself, he was my guy. His candidacy didn’t last long, and to be honest, I didn’t expect it to. Dropping off the political scene entirely for ten years is essentially an end to a political career. Nonetheless, Johnson was a very successful and popular Governor of New Mexico, which is a tough state to be a Republican in.

This election he’ll be running on the Libertarian ticket now, which essentially means he doesn’t stand a chance of doing anything save winning Obama another eight years. I know when I say things like that, it pisses off a lot of Libertarian folks, but that is reality. I agree he’s the best Libertarian candidate I’ve seen in my lifetime, in terms of being a mainstream politician with actual executive experience at the state level. Presumably since he’s been a successful two term Governor, he also knows how to fund raise. But there are unfortunately, not enough libertarians in this country to carry a candidate to victory in a three way race. I could get excited about Johnson if the Democrats were fielding centrist candidates, but a surging Libertarian movement through the Libertarian party is going to mean the left get several more decades to drive the country closer to a European-style social democracy, which over the not-so-long run is going to mean the country goes bankrupt, and people will be burning money for warmth long before that.

The only way Libertarians can win elections in a winner-takes-all system is to coalition within one of the major parties. If we had a parliamentary system, that would happen as part of the government. In our system, it happens in extra-governmental political parties. Ron Paul was never going to accomplish that. Gary Johnson could have ten years ago, but not in 2012. I’m still waiting for our White Buffalo;Â someone who can carry libertarian principles and still hold on to social conservatives in the GOP, or someone who can forge a new movement for libertarian ideas in the Democratic party. That would take courage from a species of man who is normally uncourageous. It would take leadership from a type of people who are poor leaders. It will also take a willingness of libertarian-leaning people to understand there aren’t enough of them to carry majorities without forming coalitions with other interests. Can it happen? I think it could. But not this election.

Tab Clearing: Humpday Edition

Tabs are getting pretty crowded, so I thought I’d go through some of the articles I’ve been collection. Late start on posting today, since I was up until 5AM doing an after-hours migration that took a lot longer than I anticipated, and I had already burned the bridge to get back:

E-bay is now allowing limited sales of gun parts. Disappointed about the 10+ round magazine restriction, but that’s probably rooted in them not wanting to monitor every sale, and train their staff on every state’s gun laws. Though, there are only, IIRC, 5 or six states that have magazine restrictions.

Knife rights are advancing in Georgia, with a state law to preempt local knife ordinances. Hey, knives are arms too. I think you can look to the folks at Knife Rights pushing this kind of preemption in other states as well. If you’re not a member of Knife Rights, you should join. I’ve talked to the folks behind this organization, and they really are trying to make things happen. It’s not just a fundraising setup. But they need members and funds badly, nonetheless.

The FBI wants internet companies to force every website to have a mandatory back door for wiretapping purposes. The FBI can go fsck themselves, as far as I’m concerned. This is an idea that is so monumentally stupid, it defies belief. Joe Huffman, also a tech guy, agrees. This would seriously compromise our national security. Why? Because backdoors are only a good idea until someone else gets the key, which makes them a stupid idea. Apparently the organization, founded by that great, honorable scoundrel, J. Edgar, hasn’t changed a bit. They don’t like that wiretapping on the Internet is difficult if not impossible. That’s a feature, guys, no a bug. My only worry is this is the kind of really stupid ass stuff that Republican’s eat up. The FBI is just more big government. F**k the FBI.

Extrano’s Alley look at whether Japan still has a low crime rate.

Clayton Cramer looks at how doing the right thing as a police officer will only get you fired. At least in New Jersey.

UPDATE: Forgot about Thirdpower, who is skeptical of the rumors of a Big Sis takeover by DHS, noting that it would be rough fighting a revolution only with .40S&W. I think it’s also wise to recall that the US Coast Guard is part of DHS, and they would be expected to go through a lot of ammo, and they do deploy .40S&W pistols.