Sebastian – Page 1441 – Shall Not Be Questioned

They Can Have My AK-47 License Fees…

… when they pry it from my cold dead hands:

Russia says it suffers major losses from the counterfeit manufacture of Kalashnikov assault rifles in Bulgaria. The armies of 47 countries use the AK-47 assault rifle, known as the Kalashnikov after its designer, Mikhail Kalashnikov.

About 100 million AK-47s and modified versions are believed to circulate around the world, but many of them are produced illegally.

Bulgaria’s Arsenal, whose license to produce Kalashnikov rifles expired a long time ago, displayed a wide range of counterfeit rifles at the DSA 2006 arms show in Malaysia.

Ivanov said earlier that the annual sales of unlicensed small arms on the international market totaled about $2 billion, with counterfeit Kalashnikov assault rifles accounting for 80-90% of the volume.

They are demanding a halt to all “illegal” AK-47 manufacturing. I suspect this won’t have much impact. I think the Russians are just enjoying being uppity these days. The article concludes we haven’t signed any intellectual property agreements with Russia.

via Slashdot

Harsh Words From the Times

The New York Times’ article “The Next Big Thing in Law? The Harsh Jurisprudence of Justice Thomas.” is a fine example of why I tend to be conservative when it comes to law. This article evinces a longstanding problem I have with the left’s view of the courts; as a mechanism for implementing their sense of social justice, rather than deciding what is the law.

The article is also not even attempt to seriously look at and criticize Justice Thomas’ jurisprudence. Â It’s a juvenile screed of a quality I’d expect of a college newspaper, not the New York Times.

Another Reason to Like Fred

His taste in women. His wife is smoking hot for a woman in her 40s. From this WaPo article:

Actor and former senator Fred D. Thompson (R-Tenn.) escorts his wife, Jeri, at a GOP fundraiser in Richmond. Several hundred attended the event, scheduled before Thompson’s moves toward a presidential candidacy. (Photos By Steve Helber — Associated Press)

I’m Still in Shock

For the New York Times, this is a really fantastic article. It includes a quote from Michael Bane. Seriously, I’ve not seen an article this good from an outlet like the New York Times, quite possibly, as long as I can remember and have followed the issue. They get a few very minor things wrong, but overall, it’s very factual. I wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that it’s coming out of the business section.

German Police Funtime

I’ve never really felt a desire to be a German cop until now:

I had no current plans to go back and visit Germany any time soon, but if they added a tour where I could beat up rock throwing hippies, I’d be all for it. Notice the rock falling from his hands.

We don’t condone police brutality here at Snowflakes in Hell, but you have to admit, there just something about this crowd of freaks that makes you want to strap on riot gear and start swinging!

Photos from the BBC.Â Article here.

Hypocrite?

It kind of amazes me the number of people in the anti-gun movement that get charged with firearms crimes.Â You’d kind of expect it to happen to us more often, but I think most of us know the law and try to stay out of trouble.Â Â Dave Hardy links to the latest case of gun-control activists getting charged with gun crimes.

The founder of an anti-gang organization known as No Guns, once funded by the city of Los Angeles, was arrested Thursday and charged with selling firearms to federal undercover officers.

Hector “Big Weasel” Marroquin, 51, was arrested at his home in the 8000 block of 6th Street in Downey, said Susan Raichel, a spokeswoman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

He was charged with the sale of an assault rifle, a machine gun, two pistols and two silencers, Raichel said.

So you kind ofÂ wonder ifÂ this guy favors gun control just like any other business owner favors laws that help his business.Â If you’re an illegal arms dealer, you have to love the idea of the government sending more business your way.Â Â Getting 1.5 million from the City of Los Angeles to hand out to your relatives doesn’t hurt either.

I’m not prepared to shout hypocrite.Â It seems to be “Big Weasel” is just a very smart black marketeer. Â Certainly smarter than the idiots who apparently run Los Angeles.

Supreme Court Picks

John Lott links to an article by Jan Crawford Greenberg:

Leading Senate Democrats are already warning against solidly conservative nominees, and that could make confirmation difficult in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Still, some of Bush’s political advisers believe he would be better off tapping a strong conservative who would rally the base — especially a nominee with a compelling life story who would be difficult for moderate Senate Democrats to oppose.

In that camp are federal appeals court Judges Priscilla Owen and Janice Rogers Brown. Both were filibustered by Senate Democrats after Bush nominated them as appellate judges and were eventually confirmed after Senate leaders struck a compromise on judicial nominations.

It would agree the wise political move for Bush would be to nominate a solidly conservative candidate that the Democrats would have no real grounds to say no to, and make them say no to her. Â That’s great fodder for 2008, and will get the base rallied.Â It would be a welcome departure from Bush’s tone deaf actions as of late, especially on immigration. Â Hell, I’m generally pro-immigration, and even I think his immigration plan is a steaming pile of manure.

Beating your base up is a sure way to make Republicans stay home in 2008, and that will give us President Hillary or President Obama. Â Neither of those two choices are palatable to me.Â If Bush keeps acting like a bozo with no political sense, I’m going to register Democrat and vote for Bill Richardson, just so I can contribute to minimizing the damage.

Time to Renew

Hard to believe it’s been five years already, but I have to renew my PA License to Carry. It actually expires at the end of the month, which means I really need to do it last month, but, though I knew it was expiring, the idea of getting my ass to the Sheriff didn’t really occur to me.

No worries though, even if the PA license expires, I can still carry on Florida and New Hampshire. Since I’ve switched counties in last five years, I have to apply as a new applicant anyway.

UPDATE: Cool, there is a Lower Bucks County Service Center that will process the license for you, right down the street in Levittown. This negates the need for a drive all the way up to the county seat in Doylestown.

Kyoto II

My traffic has been pretty decent this week, but posting about Global Warming always seems to get a bit of a storm going on SayUncle, so I thought I’d give it a try. The EU is getting pissed at Bush over global warming. Although this is about as newsworthy as John Edwards in a hair salon, I was taken aback by this:

But the plans are starkly different from the proposal tabled by Germany for next weekâ€™s G8 summit, which would require leaders to agree to prevent global temperatures rising by more than 2 degrees Celsius and require stringent emissions cuts.

It seems to be this is something out of la la land. Even if we are almost certain global warming is happening, and even if we’re pretty sure that man is making a contribution to it. Do we know how much carbon we have to cut over what period of time to prevent a two degree temperature rise? Do we have that kind of fine control over global climate? Maybe in Star Trek, but not in real life.

I also kind of agree with bringing in China and India. No solution that doesn’t involve them is going to matter, as China is set to exceed the US as the largest emitter of greenhouse gases, and they run one of the most energy inefficient economies in the world.

The Europeans may want the symbolism of pushing for drastic emissions cuts, but that’s not possible, and probably is a cure worse than the disease. Personally, I’d like to start out by building more nuclear power plants, and encouraging people to make their homes more energy efficient. We had a drop in emissions this year because of milder weather. What could we accomplish if everyone pitched in to conserve? Here’s a modest proposal. Anyone who can cut their home energy usage by more than 10% can apply for a 5% reduction in their income tax rate?

Sure, that would mean the government has to scrimp too, from the lost revenue, but why shouldn’t the politicians have to sacrifice too?

So Far So Good

Fred Thompson has an article in National Review on the gun issue that is quite good, and something I’d expect to read from one of us, not a politician who is running for President. I’ll give Thompson this, he and his team know this medium well, and can speak to it. Here’s to hoping that 2008 is the election year where blogs are going to matter in a big way.

Thanks to Joe for the tipoff.

UPDATE: Ooops… didn’t notice this was several weeks old.Â Oh well, still good stuff.