At least one victim is filing counterclaims. Righthaven will no doubt argue there is no merit to this claim legally, but what can I say, karma is a bitch.
Author: Sebastian
Wyoming Proceeding Toward Permitless Carry
The Wyoming House, on a preliminary vote of 48-8, passed Constitutional Carry. It seems it still has to go through two more reading, and I’m guessing a final vote, before going on to the Governor. From what it sounds like, the Governor might be a bit weak kneed. But if he signs, this will be the fourth state.
UPDATE: Just waiting for a signature.
Compromise
Apparently it means you can have single shot weapons. That’s what all intelligent people would agree on, after all. Personally, I’d be happy to compromise on it being completely proper and constitutional to have restrictions on carrying pistols for the purpose of dueling. That’s a compromise I can live with.
Duty to Defend A Law
There have been some very interesting posts over a Volokh on whether or not Obama is right to sandbag on defending the Defense of Marriage Act in Court. The Administration has suggested that the law is unconstitutional. Orin Kerr referred to it as an executive power grab. David Bernstein takes the administration to ask for saying they won’t defend it, but will keep enforcing it. Also, Ilya Somin looks at it from both a theoretical and practical point of view.
Speaking strictly as a matter of theory , I’ve never agreed with the notion that the Supreme Court is the only body that can have an opinion on a law’s constitutionality. While I would agree they certainly have the final say in the matter, I have no issue with a sitting President refusing to enforce or defend laws that President has a good faith belief are unconstitutional. In fact, I expect Presidents to stand by their oath and refuse to enforce or defend unconstitutional laws.
That said, I’m not sure I agree with the President that DOMA is unconstitutional, even if politically I agree with the end result of not defending it. Sandbagging the defense of DOMA could also, potentially, be smart politics for the Democrats. Homosexuality is a divisive issue for Republicans, since acceptance of it alienates social conservatives, while rallying against it tends to scare off younger voters, some independents, and libertarian Republicans.
As long as Republicans are busy making themselves seen as trying to cut deficits and spending, the Democrats are going to be on the losing side of the middle in that debate. If Obama can goad the Republicans into fighting on better ground for the Democrats, namely contentious social issues, it probably helps their party over the long term, as the generation gap on the gay issue gets larger. I don’t think this tactic is going to help them as long as the economy is sour, so the short term effect won’t accomplish anything more than keeping the Democrat base from totally falling apart heading into the 2012 elections. But longer term, the Democrats are on the right side of this issue politically.
Debate on Gun Control
Between Dave Kopel and Professor Adam Winkler here.
More On Long Gun OC
More on PGC Public Range Regulations
Bitter got the Pennsylvania Game Commission on the phone and asked them some questions about the new permit requirement for public shooting ranges in Pennsylvania. I think a lot of people will object to the fact that only $200,000 of $11,000,000 in Pittman-Robertson funds goes to range maintenance. This is especially true when you consider handguns make up more than half of PR funds, and very few handguns are used for hunting.
In effect, the whole of the shooting community is subsidizing hunting. This will no doubt be a controversial statement, but I think that shooters should accept this state of affairs. Until this past year, hunting numbers had been in decline, while hunting license fees have been relatively stable, and not kept up with inflation. This means in real terms, state wildlife management budgets have shrunk. Increasing budgets for shooting ranges would mean decreasing budgets to support hunting programs, or raising hunting license fees, which will only serve to drive more people out of the sport.
A lot of people are going to argue that the baby is sick, probably isn’t going to make it to shore, and we’d be far better off just throwing it off the life boat preemptively, so that we can use the supplies for the rest of us. The problem is, hunting is a critical part of this fight, and we’re going to be far weaker politically if we toss that baby over. We have hunting numbers on the upswing. Perhaps that will continue. Time will tell.
I’m Surprised
Not that Joe Huffman provided a thoughtful answer, but that MikeB actually asked a thoughtful question. Has MikeB decided to give up on life under the bridge?
My Kind of Change
The Republican lawmaker who beat David Levdansky has an op-ed in the Patriot News supporting Castle Doctrine. For those interested in Levdansky’s history in Pennsylvania, you can go here.
Biotech Industry Talk
Megan McArdle comments on this article that appeared in the economy [link removed, here’s why] speaking about how Big Pharma is destroying Biotech by pushing all the risk onto venture funded companies and then stiffing them when it comes to the reward side for all that risk.
I work for a Biotech, so I will get my bias out there, but this is absolutely true. As long as Venture Capitalists were willing to keep sheltering the risk, there was no reason for the Big Pharma to do anything other than let them. But the party is over, and with Big Pharma shedding R&D capability quite readily, and Biotechs running out of venture funding, who is going to be left to find new treatments?
I have personally witnessed every one of these tactics highlighted in the article. I think part of the problem is the “one product biotech” model is fundamentally flawed and unworkable, because the odds of any single program succeeding through to an approved drug, and then being a market success, are very small. Big Pharma would be far better partnering with many different biotechs with novel approaches to different parts of the drug discovery problem, and then figuring out what works and what doesn’t. They should be looking for innovation, and not necessarily programs. You can decide what innovation is worthwhile by what programs can be developed out of them.
Big Pharma is mostly good at regulatory compliance and marketing, and not so good at innovation. Biotechs are better at innovation, but don’t have the capital to do regulatory compliance or marketing. In order for this model to work, Big Pharma has to be willing to share risk and reward with investors. Until they figure that out, the industry is going to continue its downward spiral, and sadly, that’s going to mean fewer new treatments hitting the marketplace over the next decade.
P.S. – If any of my readers are venture capitalists with some money to spend on a Biotech with an innovative approach to drug discovery, let me know in the comments :)