2012 – Page 52 – Shall Not Be Questioned

Is The Tea Party Libertarian?

Ilya Somin links to a Cato Paper that says that the Tea Party movement is “functionally libertarian”Â Professor Somin notes:

How much of a libertarian impact the Tea Party will ultimately have remains to be seen. As I noted in my 2011 article, itâ€™s possible the movement will peter out, get coopted by the socially conservative GOP establishment, or simply fail to gain enough political traction to influence policy any more than it already has. But Kirby and Ekins do make a strong case that the Tea Party has a strong libertarian element, and that it has pushed the GOP in a more libertarian direction over the last two years.

I’ve been reluctant to apply any labels to the Tea Party movement, because I think what they stand for varies quite a lot from group to group, and region to region. I went to a few rallies when this phenomena started, to see what it was about, and the best label I could apply to it is grassroots anger. We attended a forum hosted by one of the local groups, after it got a bit more organized, which previewed various contenders for the seat now held by Mike Fitzpatrick. The “Tea Party” candidate, who was younger than me by a few years, was pro-choice and favored drug legalization, which is probably why the county GOP did everything they could to ensure the Tea Party groups had no place at the table. I’ve never been quite sure what to make of the Tea Party movement, and haven’t been active in any groups, but I will admit they piss off and scare the right people, at least around here.

I want to thank reader Harold for pointing me to this article, outlining a scenario for why the Democratic Party is finished, and why the GOP will then move closer to the center and split, with the Tea Party folks forming a party that will eventually replace the Democrats. I like analysis like this, but I think it’s a lot of wishful thinking. People who follow politics closely often overestimate how much people really think about it. Party identification can be strong, and can take a long time to change. People who think of themselves as Democrats aren’t going to transform into Republicans, even if the Republicans move left. It would be like a Red Sox fan having to suddenly become a Yankee’s fan. Without some kind of calamity and major realignment, which I’ll give could happen, parties just don’t fail and get replaced — they adapt. So I would say rumors of either the death of the GOP or the Democrats is greatly exaggerated.

MAIG Realizes a Weakness

It would appear that MAIG has come to realize that having a membership with a higher rate of criminal activity than concealed carry holders is an argument that actually sticks. When they speak, they become the spokesmen for criminals calling for disarming the law-abiding.

When gun bloggers first started pointing out how many criminal mayors they had – mostly around the time one was under a high profile arrest for gun crimes – MAIG kept their names on their website with pride. I guess they felt they needed every supporter they could find, even if the supporter was headed to prison.

Today’s arrest of Trenton’s mayor had MAIG scrubbing their website of their member within a couple of hours. In fact, I saw the post on Days of Our Trailers, but initially couldn’t figure out if Thirdpower was simply assuming that because the guy was a big-city mayor in NJ that he was a member since the MAIG site had him gone. However, a simple search of the mayor’s name and MAIG turned up the evidence.

The only reason that MAIG would want to act quickly on these matters is because they have found that it does actually undermine their credibility to have Bloomberg allying himself with criminals in calling for gun control. I guess MAIG is hoping that by erasing evidence of any relationship within the group, they can minimize the impact.

It’s Called Stealing

Last month we looked at a retailer who listed their policy as being one of confiscating any weapons found on customers. Seems a night club up in Scranton actually tried it, and is now being investigated by police.

Oral Arguments in Kachalsky

These are the oral argumentsÂ (mp3), before the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. Alan Gura is attorney for the appellant. The judges kept a lighthearted and friendly demeanor the whole time, and I get the impression they are taking the arguments seriously. For this case, I’m going to be cautiously optimistic. I think the arguments went well. This happened a few weeks ago, but I just got a link to the audio recently.

Another Mass Shooting

This time in France. Looks like four dead. From the sounds of this, it looks to me like it could have been a hit, and an unlucky biker happening by the scene got it. Fifteen shots fired, and as best as I can tell, French police don’t have the killer.

Gun Sales: Up in Australia Too

More and more people seem to be buying guns in Australia too, particularly handguns. Of course, their pant wetters, who have a lot more political power than ours, think this is a crisis for which something must clearly be done:

“The public can expect the further weakening of gun laws and it looks like the increase in gun numbers within Australia will continue to rise.”

He says that like it’s a bad thing. That’s a feature, not a bug.

The concern, he said, was not just that legal handguns were being poorly locked up, stolen and put on to the black market, but the majority of gun massacres in Australia’s history were carried out by legal gun owners.

Yes, the old you can’t have something dangerous because you’ll probably go ape shit and commit mass murder. That argument got Britain a handgun ban, and of course there hasn’t been any mass killings since.

An Interview With CeaseFire PA’s Max Nacheman

In the Philadelphia Daily News:

He can relate to people who collect guns, he says, because he collects bikes. He has six in his living room: a mountain bike, a road bike, the cyclocross, his “commuting bike,” a tandem (“the only way to get my girlfriend to go with me”) and a bike “on display” that he doesn’t ride.

No, you can’t. You don’t collect bikes in the same way people collect guns. You have multiple bikes that each meet the needs of different applications. You’re the bike equivalent of a guy who own a bolt-action in .243 Winchester for deer, keeps a pistol for home defense, has a shotgun for bird hunting, and keeps a 10/22 for fun and plinking. Now, if Max had half a dozen Penny-Farthings in his living room, one of which he was particularly proud of because it once belonged to a nephew of Queen Victoria, he’d have some idea what collecting guns is all about.

Post Convention Bounce

I think Barry owes Bill a beer, because there’s one thing I will definitely say it’s that the President didn’t build that. Here’s something interesting Jim Geraghty noted this morning’sÂ Morning Jolt:

Either way, one of the fascinating facets of the polling during Obama’s presidency has been the fact that the monthly unemployment report has little if any discernible effect on Obama’s approval rating or head-to-head numbers against Romney in the tracking polls. This may meant that nearly half of Americans don’t blame ObamaÂ at allÂ for the high level of unemployment for the past four years.

Are the American People suddenly getting educated on matters of economics, and realizing the President can’t do a whole hell of a lot about the economy? That’s quite encouraging if that’s actually the case. Maybe they believed Bill? Probably the most effective part of Clinton’s speech was that historically, we don’t just bounce right back from financial crises, which is true. What Barry rightly deserves condemnation for was ramming through a major new entitlement at a time of declined government revenues, and major deficits. He deserves condemnation for wasting our tax dollars pushing through a failed stimulus package. He definitely deserves condemnation for letting the regulatory agencies all run roughshod over the American economy. But I think even if you removed all that, the economy would still be rather anemic. Whoever won in 2008 was going to get to oversee a weak economy, pretty much no matter what.

Quote of the Day: Thomas Jefferson

Jefferson could often be a bit of a contradiction, I think depending on whether he was speaking of high philosophy, or was engaging in politics. I think Jefferson tended to be more pragmatic in his political endeavors. We all know this famous quote from the 1787 letter to William Stephens Smith. Jefferson, writing from Paris:

God forbid we should ever be 20 years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, & always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions it is a lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. We have had 13. states independent 11. years. There has been one rebellion. That comes to one rebellion in a century & a half for each state. What country before ever existed a century & half without a rebellion? & what country can preserve itâ€™s liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon & pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. It is itâ€™s natural manure.

But that quote can be contrasted with Jefferson’s appealÂ to Edmund Pendleton, in 1799, regarding opposition to the Alien and Sedition Acts that were passed under the Administration of John Adams:

Â Even the German counties of York and Lancaster, hitherto the most devoted, have come about, and by petitions with four thousand signers remonstrate against the alien and sedition laws, standing armies, and discretionary powers in the President.Â New York and Jersey are also getting into great agitation.Â In this State, we fear that the ill-designing may produce insurrection.Â Nothing could be so fatal.Â Anything like force would check the progress of the public opinion and rally them round the government.Â This is not the kind of opposition the American people will permit.Â But keep away all show of force, and they will bear down the evil propensities of the government, by the constitutional means of election and petition.

Jefferson may have had sympathy for appeals to the sword, but generally was committed to changing things electorally if the means were in place to affect the desired change.

Recoil Magazine Summons the Drama Llama

I can’t quite agree with Miguel or Lawdog that this is Super Zumbo. The big problem with Zumbo, and why we were so enthusiastic in his Zumboing, was that he was a very widely known and respected outdoor writer, and suggested that those of us who liked to own and use black riflesÂ were terrorists. His statement was an absolute gift to the other side, and coming only a few years after the assault weapons ban had expired, was directly relevant to an ongoing political struggle.

In this instance, Recoil Magazine certainly stepped in it, but until now I’ve never heard of them, and looking around the web not many other people had either. So I am less concerned with the fact a small potatoes gun rag suggests none of us should own an MP7, which none of us can own. It certainly doesn’t help, to have them say something like this, and I certainly would never subscribe to their magazine after reading about this, but Zumbo was a big fish, and these guys are bait fish. In looking for what Recoil’s circulation numbers were, the best I could find was 15,000, which isn’t too bad. Except then I realized that Recoil Magazine was a satire publication, and is not a gun rag. The gun based Recoil Magazine have 26,000 fans on Facebook. Best I could find, which means none of the outfits that track circulation numbers give a crap enough to report on them. Outdoor Life, the magazine Zumbo was hunting editor for before The Incident, has over 700,000 subscribers.

So I’ll help spread the word, but I just don’t think these guys are a big deal. I’m also not sure this article is going to have much of an effect on their counterstrike kiddie subscriber base. Maybe if they said you shouldn’t own an Airsoft MP7 either, it would be enough to get their subscriber based really worked up.